Bad Intentions

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Speaker 4 Tonight on Dateline.

Speaker 8 How many TV interviews have you done?

Speaker 9 None.

Speaker 10 You're my first.

Speaker 11 Startling new allegations from the woman swept up in a dark mystery that began in broad daylight.

Speaker 12 We've got a gentleman that just got shot. Oh my god, it's Mark Hassan.
He's the Assistant District Attorney.

Speaker 14 He looked at me and then he stopped breathing.

Speaker 15 The door just it eeeded open like in slow motion.

Speaker 16 There are two shellcasings.

Speaker 17 He said it's murder. They were both murdered.

Speaker 18 It scared me to death.

Speaker 17 I had no idea what we were dealing with.

Speaker 19 My thoughts were someone we know.

Speaker 17 We get a tip. I said, this is it.

Speaker 20 Was he living a double life?

Speaker 17 I think he was. He looked so normal.

Speaker 21 It was just, wow.

Speaker 22 Case closed?

Speaker 9 It's time to tell my side of the story.

Speaker 22 Why one woman says there's more to it than anybody knew.

Speaker 23 This is wrong.

Speaker 19 Y'all were told wrong.

Speaker 24 Y'all believe wrong on this.

Speaker 11 Be there as a dramatic new chapter unfolds in the triple tragedy that terrorized an entire state. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

Speaker 11 Here's Andrea Canning with bad intentions.

Speaker 24 The courthouse,

Speaker 25 The moral center of every American city and town.

Speaker 8 The place we usually go to settle differences and resolve disputes.

Speaker 23 But not this time.

Speaker 26 Oh my god, someone just shot someone. They're laying on the ground.

Speaker 2 It was just bam, bam, bam.

Speaker 23 This time, it's where the story begins.

Speaker 19 Somebody was trying to send a message. It was just so bold.

Speaker 23 A story that quickly got too big for this Texas town

Speaker 23 and like a prairie fire spread across the nation.

Speaker 20 We have some new information this morning on the manhunt for a killer who gunned down a district attorney.

Speaker 23 In this tale, the hunters became the hunted.

Speaker 19 That's what was so scary was that it's not just me anymore. I have young kids.

Speaker 19 My husband, my family.

Speaker 6 My wife had two guns out, and I said, unless you know it's me coming through the door, be ready to use them.

Speaker 8 It was January 31st, 2013, just before 9 a.m. in rural Kaufman, Texas.

Speaker 13 I heard what I thought to be gunshots.

Speaker 23 Police officer Jason Stasney was a few blocks from the courthouse. He and his partner were investigating a burglary when something big caught his attention.

Speaker 13 And it was just

Speaker 13 a slow and methodical, five shots. It was a little pause, I guess you'd say.
And then three more shots after that.

Speaker 8 Prosecutor Shannon Aber was inside the courthouse when she heard the sound of sirens.

Speaker 19 That's not unusual because there's a police station just a block away. There's a hospital a few blocks down the street.

Speaker 23 That siren was Jason Stasney's squad car.

Speaker 13 You know, I hollered at my partner. I said, hey, you know, those are gunshots.
We need to go. We need to go.
So we packed up real quick, hopped in the car.

Speaker 23 The car camera was rolling as he and his partner drove toward the gunshots.

Speaker 13 About halfway over, the dispatcher came across the radio and told us that a man had been shot and gave us the location.

Speaker 12 Copper County 901. Yes, sir.
We've got a gentleman on Grove Street and a Madison that just got shot.

Speaker 23 That's just a block from the courthouse.

Speaker 28 904. Can you check a plate?

Speaker 23 Officer Stasney was one of the first on the scene.

Speaker 13 When I pulled up, I saw a man. He was laying here in the street.
And there was a woman that was over him. looked like she was doing CPR.

Speaker 8 That woman had witnessed the shooting from her car, saw the shooter flee, then tried to help the man. Now Stasney was taking over, going on instinct and adrenaline.

Speaker 13 Yeah, this was one of those scenes when you pull up, it's nothing you could prepare for.

Speaker 23 He knew right away it was bad.

Speaker 30 He got a shot in his face.

Speaker 13 He looked at me, and then he stopped breathing.

Speaker 13 That's when I started CPR.

Speaker 13 Here you go. Here you go,

Speaker 13 At that time, I didn't know who it was.

Speaker 23 As he continued CPR, he heard his sergeant identify the victim.

Speaker 13 He said that it was Mark Hassey, that he was a DA prosecutor.

Speaker 8 Mark Hassey, a seasoned and well-respected prosecutor, gunned down on his way to work.

Speaker 13 I got him to take seven breaths. I do remember that.

Speaker 23 As his car cam kept rolling, Stasney's body mic picked up his pleas for Mark to hold on just a little longer.

Speaker 2 Get your notebook, Mark. Come on.

Speaker 2 EMS is almost here. The ambulance is coming.
You hear the sound of it?

Speaker 13 You know, I tried my best to, you know, to tell him, you know, you're doing good. You're doing good.
You know, keep breathing. The ambulance is coming.

Speaker 23 Officer Stasney had been at this scene for five agonizing minutes when the ambulance rolled up.

Speaker 2 Anybody know anything about it? He's one of the DA prosecutors.

Speaker 8 Back at the office, Shannon noticed that her secretary was looking out the window at some commotion on the street.

Speaker 19 My secretary turned around and she was crying. Initially, I just wanted to comfort her.
I couldn't even imagine what she was crying about.

Speaker 19 And when she turned from the window, all she said was, it's Mark. My natural instinct was, did he get hit by a car? And she was like, no, Shannon, he was shot.

Speaker 8 Mark was not only her colleague, but also her friend. Shannon, too afraid to go anywhere, stayed inside, praying for him.
And then she learned the severity of his injuries.

Speaker 19 He had been shot in the head. And at that moment is when I think it hit me like he might not survive.
We are now just waiting to hear if he's going to live.

Speaker 23 But bad news traveled fast.

Speaker 19 It didn't take very long for his trial partner to walk into the courtroom shaking her head and crying. And I think at that point we knew he was gone.

Speaker 20 I can only imagine how horrible a moment like that is.

Speaker 19 It's horrible.

Speaker 19 It will be in my brain forever. Like I will never ever forget that.

Speaker 13 There's not a day that goes by that I don't go by here and think back to that day and exactly what happened and exactly what I saw.

Speaker 8 It seemed the assistant DA had been targeted in broad daylight.

Speaker 20 When did it start to sink in for you that this could have been me? You walk into work with Mark.

Speaker 23 Your office is right there.

Speaker 19 I think that was immediate fear. It could have been any of us.

Speaker 8 The courthouse was locked down in the morning, then closed for the day. Prosecutors and office staff were given extra security.
The shooter was on the loose.

Speaker 19 All of us were scared. We didn't know if there was, you know, a bunch of people waiting to try to shoot us.

Speaker 8 Kaufman County Assistant DA Mark Hassey was dead at 57. gunned down on his way to work a block from the courthouse.

Speaker 19 I just never in a million years would have expected one of our prosecutors,

Speaker 19 much less somebody I knew personally, to be laying on the ground dead.

Speaker 23 With one of their own down, Lieutenant Jolie Stewart from the County Sheriff's Department quickly joined the swarm of law enforcement jumping on the case.

Speaker 19 I just remember thinking that this, none of it made sense to me.

Speaker 8 Lieutenant Stewart had worked with Mark on a number of cases.

Speaker 19 He was great to go to for advice if I had questions about a case. You know,

Speaker 19 he was good to go to.

Speaker 8 Mark was an experienced prosecutor, a guy who lived his job. Fellow prosecutors like Shannon A.
Baer looked up to him.

Speaker 20 Did you learn anything?

Speaker 32 Oh, God.

Speaker 19 Yes, of course. We would go to Mark for almost everything.

Speaker 8 That's because over the course of his career, Mark had prosecuted some of the worst criminals in Texas.

Speaker 34 He was tenacious, he was an intellectual, and he was very quick on his feet.

Speaker 8 Marcus Bush is now an assistant U.S. attorney.
Back in the 80s, he and Mark Hassey were young guns working in the organized crime section of the Dallas DA's office.

Speaker 34 Mark was not afraid of taking on a fight. Some of the defendants on some of the cases were very bad people.
And Mark had the personality to stand in the breach and prosecute the worst of the worst.

Speaker 20 Why did Mark move out of Dallas?

Speaker 10 He wanted a place where he had some room, so he bought a house on about eight acres, built a barn out there.

Speaker 23 he just loved being around animals and he loved the space besides animals and wide open spaces mark had another passion flying back in 1995 it almost killed him a high-flying commemoration of world war ii's end 50 years ago this month mark was part of this aerial armada of vintage planes when something went terribly wrong He believed the engine had failed and he made a forced landing, ran off the end of the runway.

Speaker 34 He survived, but he had a very severe brain injury.

Speaker 20 Did he decide to fly again at any point?

Speaker 27 He did.

Speaker 35 Why do you think he wanted to fly again?

Speaker 20 He almost died.

Speaker 34 It's like being thrown from a horse. He wanted to be the person that he was before.

Speaker 36 But he did it.

Speaker 34 He did. He did.
But it took a long, long time.

Speaker 8 It took years, but Mark did recover from his injuries. His colleagues in the DA's office admired his strength to fight through adversity.

Speaker 8 But they also got a kick out of his weakness, his love for sugary snacks.

Speaker 19 He had a sweet tooth, and he would mostly eat everyone's stuff.

Speaker 19 So like we would have weekly prosecutor meetings every Monday and we would get donuts for them and he would always get there first and steal my blueberry donut. We both loved that.

Speaker 23 In 2011, Mark and Shannon got a new boss who seemed to fit right in with their office family.

Speaker 23 The newly elected district attorney, Mike McClelland.

Speaker 16 My name is Mike McClelland.

Speaker 38 I'm the criminal district attorney for Cauffram County.

Speaker 23 Mike's stepdaughter, Christina Foreman, says he loved the job.

Speaker 19 I think he really did embrace the role as a leader and he enjoyed the people he worked with.

Speaker 19 And he would talk about, you know, oh, this person did this and I was really proud of them and this person did this and I was really proud of them. Everything was new to him.

Speaker 19 He came in and just took it over.

Speaker 20 Was he tough?

Speaker 19 I wouldn't say he was tough on us at all. The greatest thing about him was that he let us do what we do best.

Speaker 23 And Mike quickly formed a bond with Mark Hassey, the experienced prosecutor.

Speaker 19 Mark was his best friend in the office. They were very close.

Speaker 8 Mike's wife, Cynthia, fit right in around the office, too. She was almost like a den mother.
She worked as a nurse, but found time to bake cakes and cookies for the staff.

Speaker 8 But the once happy and humming office in a quiet small town was now shattered.

Speaker 19 It was overwhelming to have lost someone that works just a few doors down from us that we talk to every single day that is so happy. It was just so overwhelming.

Speaker 19 We didn't have time to grieve about it. We didn't have time to talk about our feelings.
It was time to go to work.

Speaker 23 Lieutenant Stewart and and others canvassed the area, but solid information was hard to come by. Witnesses said the shooter hopped into the passenger side of the getaway car as it sped away.

Speaker 23 So there had to be at least two people involved. They also said the car was silver, or was it gray or tan? A four-door, maybe a four-taurus, but with no license plate.

Speaker 13 The rest of that day, we were just going around looking for, you know, the car.

Speaker 19 I don't think I've ever noticed how many silver or light-colored four-door sedans there are.

Speaker 23 And even though the killer had brazenly attacked during the morning rush, witnesses said he covered up.

Speaker 19 One of the witnesses described him as wearing a hoodie that was black and covered their face. And then another person who saw him from a distance said, you know, all black, you know, dark clothing.

Speaker 23 But there was something more. A witness in a garage right across the street heard the victim's last words.

Speaker 19 Mark said, no, no, I'm sorry. And that was after a little bit of kind of a shoving match.

Speaker 20 Did that tell you that these two knew each other?

Speaker 19 That seemed very personal to me.

Speaker 23 No weapon was found at the scene and no shell casings either.

Speaker 20 Did that tell you anything that there were no shell casings?

Speaker 19 Yes, but it told us there was going to have to be a revolver.

Speaker 23 That's because revolvers keep bullet casings inside the gun after firing.

Speaker 20 I can only imagine how terrified Mark must have been in those final moments.

Speaker 19 Mark was doing what he did every day, just going to work.

Speaker 23 Now, his fellow prosecutors feared he died for that work.

Speaker 38 We lost a really, really good man.

Speaker 23 District Attorney Mike McClelland stood tall when he addressed the media about the killing of his good friend.

Speaker 38 I hope that the people that did this are watching

Speaker 38 because

Speaker 38 we're very confident that we're going to find you,

Speaker 38 we're going to pull you out of whatever hole you're in, and we're going to bring you back and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

Speaker 8 But bringing this killer or killers to justice would take a lot more than tough talk.

Speaker 8 The case looked like it was about to get a lot bigger with more brazen attacks.

Speaker 19 I mean, we really did love him.

Speaker 19 It was devastating when he was gone.

Speaker 23 Monday morning, four days after the murder of Mark Hassey, fellow prosecutor Shannon Aber returned to work with a heavy heart.

Speaker 19 Of course, it was a hard Monday at our weekly meeting without Mark. Our whole office was devastated.
I mean, his door was closed.

Speaker 8 Security remained tight in and around the courthouse, and everyone was still on guard as they paid respects to their co-worker.

Speaker 4 Emotional afternoon in Kaufman County, where hundreds of people attended a memorial service for slain prosecutor Mark Hassey.

Speaker 43 He was constantly begging for more of my wife's cookies.

Speaker 23 DA Mike McClellan.

Speaker 43 She makes cookies for the office about once once a month and he would run out in about 12 minutes.

Speaker 23 Mark's longtime friend, Marcus Bush, also memorialized him.

Speaker 11 This world is a better place because of Mark and so are we.

Speaker 34 The world lost a good man, somebody who was resolute, always knew the difference between right and wrong, and would fight for that.

Speaker 23 The murder brought an all-star army of law enforcement to the case.

Speaker 25 The sheriff's training center was turned into a command post.

Speaker 23 It was soon buzzing with local police, Texas Rangers, and federal agents from the ATF and FBI.

Speaker 6 That was what's amazing about this case is you had federal, state, law enforcement all working together in a team.

Speaker 23 Advising this team, Toby Schook and Bill Worski, veteran, high-profile attorneys from Dallas, who were quickly named special prosecutors.

Speaker 17 Once you get over the initial shock and disbelief that a prosecutor and someone that you know has been murdered, kind of your professional training kicks in.

Speaker 17 And that's where Toby and I stepped up and volunteered to help them in that role.

Speaker 23 The crime seemed to be what every prosecutor fears. A revenge hit for putting away a bad guy.
That struck a chord that reverberated from Kauffman to Dallas throughout Texas and beyond.

Speaker 6 And I think every judge, every defense attorney, every prosecutor has that in the back of their mind.

Speaker 8 The initial theories were as numerous as the hundreds of cases Mark Hassey had prosecuted.

Speaker 8 The first place to look was right in Kaufman County, where Mark was a felony prosecutor for two and a half years.

Speaker 19 The big questions that we had is who has he prosecuted recently.

Speaker 23 Sheriff's investigator Jolie Stewart was involved from day one.

Speaker 19 Is there something recent that he's prosecuted that's got somebody upset? So we started delving off into his caseload.

Speaker 23 Investigators looked into every local case Mark had prosecuted. There were robberies, drug prosecutions, and even a theft that involved an elected official who stole office equipment.

Speaker 23 They didn't immediately find anything that led them to a suspect.

Speaker 38 Any assistance that anyone can give us in finding the people that did this will be greatly appreciated.

Speaker 23 Even though investigators were convinced he was murdered because of his job as a prosecutor, they didn't stop there.

Speaker 17 You still have to interview friends, family members, associates.

Speaker 23 Mark was a teetotaler. He wasn't married and he didn't have any children.
Those extensive checks into his background came up empty.

Speaker 17 But there just wasn't anything there. He loved his mother, who lived in Dallas, and spent a lot of time taking care of her and taking her to dinner.

Speaker 8 All the initial checks into Mark's personal and professional life were not panning out.

Speaker 8 Then, four weeks into the investigation, a tip came into the County Crime Stopper's anonymous tip line that looked like a big break.

Speaker 18 The tipster said that they'd been in a bar in a small town in Kaufman and had overheard two white males talking about the Hasse killing and taking responsibility for it.

Speaker 23 The tip lacked the kind of detail that investigators needed to follow up. And using the Crime Stopper system, the tipster remained anonymous.

Speaker 23 If this was going to be the game changer, investigators would need lots more information or a little more luck.

Speaker 17 You're still hoping for the big break and maybe a lucky traffic stop or somebody that knows about this murder is going to pick up the phone and call in and that'll be the magic phone call

Speaker 23 meanwhile the task force widened the scope of the investigation beyond Kaufman we don't have a lot of violent crimes in Kaufman I mean especially murders so we just kind of naturally assumed it was someone from Dallas Dallas the big city less than 30 miles but seemingly a lifestyle away Remember, back in the 1980s, Mark and fellow prosecutor Marcus Bush locked up some pretty tough customers there.

Speaker 34 I immediately started thinking about the organized crime cases and the murder cases that we'd all prosecuted. Many of those people received life sentences and were starting to parole out.

Speaker 8 The way Mark had been murdered also suggested to investigators a possible link to organized crime. The killer had been lying in wait and Mark was shot at point-blank range, execution style.

Speaker 44 Rumors are sweeping the town. Talk of Mexican drug cartels and prison gangs.
We're open to every avenue right now.

Speaker 23 And investigators also suspected another group, less publicly known, but very dangerous, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a prison gang of white supremacists.

Speaker 20 Why was the Aryan Brotherhood a potential group that may have done this?

Speaker 17 There had been some threats that had come out about that time that the Aryan Brotherhood had said they might want to get even with people in law enforcement.

Speaker 23 Get even because less than three months before Hasse's murder, federal officials announced that 34 alleged Aryan Brotherhood gang members had been indicted for racketeering.

Speaker 23 The feds thanked, among others, the Kauffman County DA's office for its role in the investigation.

Speaker 17 So a lot of people were trying to put two and two together with the Aryan Brotherhood.

Speaker 20 It's one thing if it's one individual who went after Mark. It's another thing if it is the Aryan Brotherhood.

Speaker 6 Oh, yeah. Prosecutors, not just in Kaufman, but across the state, were terrified that, hey, if this is the Aryan Brotherhood, we're all targets.

Speaker 23 And then, seven weeks after Hasse's murder, another assault on law enforcement. It looked like it was open season on the criminal justice system.

Speaker 33 The Colorado head of the Department of Corrections was shot here at his front door on Tuesday night.

Speaker 23 The man's name was Tom Clements, the highly regarded head of Colorado's prison system, and, like Mark Hassey, a public servant. Evidence pointed to a former inmate named Evan Ebel.

Speaker 23 He was a member of a white supremacist gang in Colorado, similar to the Aryan Brotherhood. Now, he was on the run from Colorado authorities, armed and dangerous.

Speaker 23 Two days after the murder, a sheriff's deputy in Texas would find out just how dangerous. A violent attack caught on a dashboard camera.

Speaker 8 The deputy pulled over this car during a routine traffic stop.

Speaker 23 He had no idea the driver was Evan Ebel. As you're about to see, Ebel had no hesitation about using his gun again.

Speaker 23 The unsuspecting deputy, shot in the face, would survive. Ebel was quickly chased down by law enforcement

Speaker 23 and died in an explosive shootout in Wise County, Texas. What grabbed the attention of investigators in the Mark Hassey murder is this.
Wise County is just 100 miles from Kaufman.

Speaker 23 Could Evan Ebel have killed another public servant in Texas seven weeks earlier?

Speaker 45 The FBI is now investigating this case. They want to see if Ebel is connected to Mark Hassey's murder.

Speaker 25 Two public officials gunned down in two states.

Speaker 8 Someone seemed to be targeting law enforcement, and it was about to become even more alarming. No one could reach DA Mike McClelland or his wife.

Speaker 19 When nobody had called me back, that's when I started getting very worried, very worried that something was very wrong.

Speaker 46 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

Speaker 46 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 46 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 46 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 23 The shooting of Colorado's prison chief at his home, allegedly by a white supremacist, had given Texas investigators a fresh angle in the murder of prosecutor Mark Hassey.

Speaker 30 It's another strange attack on law enforcement in a small town.

Speaker 8 Ken Kaltoff covered the Hassie case for NBC's Channel 5 in Dallas. He says the suspected murderer ending up in Texas was especially intriguing to investigators.

Speaker 30 It made people wonder if perhaps there could be some connection with the Hassie murder.

Speaker 23 They did tests on suspect Evan Ebel's weapon.

Speaker 25 His bullets were identical to those that killed the prison chief back in Colorado.

Speaker 23 But then the Texas task force found out Ebel's gun was not the weapon that killed Mark Hassie.

Speaker 30 And what's more, Ebel was deemed not to have been in Kaufman at the time that Hassie was killed.

Speaker 23 So eight weeks in, the Hasse case was going nowhere.

Speaker 17 Fewer and fewer leads are coming into the investigation.

Speaker 23 The command post was shut down, leaving just a small group to work full-time on the case.

Speaker 19 Slowly, you know, we kind of trickled back to our daily duties.

Speaker 25 The passage of time was allowing Shannon Aber to finally get her equilibrium back.

Speaker 19 I just wasn't wasn't checking out my windows constantly or worried about when I pull out of my garage if someone would be waiting there.

Speaker 19 So, you know, I think you just start letting your guard down again and life just kind of took over.

Speaker 23 Same thing for hard-nosed DA Mike McClelland, according to his stepdaughter, Christina.

Speaker 20 Did things just naturally kind of start getting back to normal?

Speaker 19 Yeah, I think more of a sense of normal. It was still kind of at the forefront of, oh God, we haven't found anything and oh god, we haven't solved this yet.
But, you know,

Speaker 19 life moves on.

Speaker 23 At the end of March, Easter weekend, the McClellans were looking forward to a big Sunday dinner Cynthia was making for friends.

Speaker 23 The perfect time to relax and not dwell on the tragedy of Mark Hassey's murder, at least for a little while.

Speaker 20 Was there any fear that we need to be on high alert?

Speaker 19 At that point, I don't think so.

Speaker 23 Christina spoke to her mom and stepdad on that Friday night.

Speaker 19 It was a normal conversation. It was utterly normal.
You know, mom was making the Easter guys kids.

Speaker 23 The next morning, Saturday, the sun rose over the McClelland house. It was Cynthia's day to prep.

Speaker 50 She had sent me a text about the menu that we were going to have for Easter.

Speaker 23 Leah Phillips and her husband, close friends of the McClellands, were excited about joining them for dinner.

Speaker 50 She was making our family all Easter baskets, and then she would make clues and hide the Easter baskets.

Speaker 20 Wow, that's elaborate.

Speaker 32 It was very elaborate.

Speaker 23 Leah, who was supposed to drop off some vegetables for Cynthia, texted her.

Speaker 50 And she never answered me back.

Speaker 20 Did you think that was odd that she didn't answer you back?

Speaker 41 The only thing I could think of was maybe she did go into work where she couldn't either answer the phone or text me back.

Speaker 23 Leah called Mike's phone and the house phone. No response.
And she wasn't the only one. Christina was also trying to call her mom and stepdad.

Speaker 19 And I tried mom and she didn't answer, so I tried Mike and he didn't answer.

Speaker 8 By now, it was late afternoon and Leah was starting to worry.

Speaker 23 So I said, Okay, I'll go on over there.

Speaker 8 She thought something was odd when she pulled into the driveway.

Speaker 41 The newspaper was still in the yard, and Cynthia's car was there.

Speaker 20 So very subtle clues.

Speaker 25 Just subtle, but I'm still thinking maybe they went to the movie with someone.

Speaker 23 Leah called her son, CJ Tomlinson, and told him what she'd seen.

Speaker 16 And I said, You just stay where you're at. Don't go inside that house.

Speaker 23 It was CJ's cop sense kicking in. He's a Dallas police officer.

Speaker 16 The feeling was

Speaker 16 something's not right. It's just not right.

Speaker 23 A few minutes later, CJ drove up along with his dad.

Speaker 41 We went to the door and CJ knocked on the door and yelled for Mike three or four times and there was no answer.

Speaker 16 They were messing with the key and They were all standing behind me and I just reached down to see if the door was open.

Speaker 16 And yeah, it was unlocked and I'll never forget how that door opened up.

Speaker 15 The door just, it eeged open, just like in slow motion.

Speaker 8 What they found when they walked inside would change their lives and the course of the investigation.

Speaker 16 She points and she says there's showcasings underneath your feet. At that point, something's really wrong now.

Speaker 16 Something's bad happened.

Speaker 8 When Leah Phillips and her family showed up at Mike and Cynthia McClellan's house, they had no idea the nightmare they were about to walk into.

Speaker 25 Leah's son, CJ, led the way.

Speaker 16 I took a couple steps in, and then that's when mom hit the ground and started crying.

Speaker 41 And I screamed, CJ stopped their shell casings, and then I just, my knees buckled and I hit the ground and just started crying because there's not supposed to be shell casings inside somebody's doorway.

Speaker 16 I looked down and sure enough, there are two shell casings right inside that front door.

Speaker 16 At that point, something's really wrong now.

Speaker 16 Something's bad happening.

Speaker 16 So I'd take a couple more steps inside and I'd see Cynthia laying there.

Speaker 23 Cynthia McClelland was dead. Her body was lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor.
CJ turned his mom away from the scene and took her back to the car.

Speaker 23 Meanwhile, CJ's dad had gone farther into the house and found the bullet-riddled body of Mike McClelland.

Speaker 50 When your husband and son come back out of the house, there's no blood left in their face.

Speaker 24 They're white.

Speaker 23 Kaufman District Attorney Mike McClelland and his wife Cynthia had been shot to death.

Speaker 16 You never expect to have to

Speaker 16 somebody like that that you knew, that you loved, that was so close.

Speaker 16 And I think that was the most, and it still is, obviously. It

Speaker 16 is so difficult.

Speaker 23 Because she hadn't been able to reach her parents, Christina decided to drive to the house as well. Her mom's friend Leah met her with the news she was dreading.

Speaker 19 I just had the feeling that they were dead. And I said, both of them.
And she said yes. And then it occurred to me that, oh my God, this is going to hit the news.

Speaker 19 And my grandmother watches the news every day. And somebody needs to stop her before she turns on the TV.

Speaker 20 Mike is high profile.

Speaker 19 He was. And I

Speaker 19 didn't want somebody else to tell her that this had happened.

Speaker 8 Christina couldn't fathom who would want to harm her mom and stepdad. The two were married for nearly 20 years and loved nothing more than spending time with family.

Speaker 8 It's something Mike enjoyed since marrying Cynthia when Christina was just a kid.

Speaker 19 He would give great big bear hugs and, you know, even when I was older, would wrap me and pick me up. And, you know, I'm like, oh my god, I'm 22.

Speaker 20 Did you feel lucky that you got Mike as a stepdad?

Speaker 19 I do. Our personalities are just quite similar.

Speaker 8 You're both straight shooters?

Speaker 19 Yes, we're both very, our filters are quite, quite off sometimes.

Speaker 23 Mike relied on the support of his wife Cynthia, who was always doing what she loved. Quilting, entertaining, and cooking.

Speaker 19 You know, she's the old school cook who didn't use packages. She bakes everything from scratch.

Speaker 40 Was he happy that she was this

Speaker 32 baker slash?

Speaker 19 Clearly by his physique, he enjoyed the food very much.

Speaker 40 What made them a good match?

Speaker 19 You know, it's really funny. She supported him greatly in what he was doing, but he's the, you know, the conservative and she's very liberal.
So I think it was just a lot of balance.

Speaker 19 I think they balanced each other really nicely.

Speaker 8 Cynthia also also wanted her daughter to find the kind of love she had and wasn't shy about playing matchmaker with a guy she thought was a good fit.

Speaker 19 She looked at him and said, do you believe in arranged marriages? Which I had to later apologize for because, you know, that's a weird thing to say.

Speaker 24 It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to say

Speaker 23 that's very weird.

Speaker 8 Maybe weird, but from a place of caring. Now Cynthia was gone.
And Christina was suddenly dealt a new reality without her mom or stepdad.

Speaker 20 You must have had a million questions, though.

Speaker 19 Yes, there's a lot of things that run through your head at about a million miles an hour.

Speaker 23 Looking at the scene, C.J. Tomlinson's police training told him the killer or killers were long gone.
He knew what he had to do.

Speaker 16 There was no reason to go back in that house.

Speaker 14 We closed the door.

Speaker 16 We didn't call 911.

Speaker 16 There was no need for paramedics to go in there.

Speaker 23 They called the Kauffman County Sheriff.

Speaker 16 The things that were in that house were very important and they needed needed to be preserved until the right people show up. And they did.

Speaker 14 They showed up.

Speaker 6 I was at my house and we just finished an Easter egg hunt with about 30 kids in the backyard.

Speaker 23 About 8 p.m., prosecutor Toby Shook got a call from his partner, Bill Worski.

Speaker 6 He said, hey, the McCullens were found murdered.

Speaker 6 And sheriff wants us out there.

Speaker 18 And it scared me to death.

Speaker 6 When I left the house, Bill came and picked me up and

Speaker 6 my wife had two guns out. And I said, unless you know it's me coming through the door, be ready to use them.

Speaker 23 The prosecutors raced to the scene.

Speaker 6 It was surreal. I mean, the front yard's lit up and it's got the yellow crime scene tape and there's lots of sheriff's officers and Texas Rangers and FBI there.

Speaker 8 Shook saw then Sheriff David Burns standing on the lawn.

Speaker 6 Sheriff Burns, pretty legendary guy, former Texas Ranger captain. He was visibly shaken up.
And if Sheriff Burns gets shaken shaken up, that scared the hell out of me.

Speaker 6 And all law enforcement out there was quiet. It was eerily quiet amongst them because they were dealing with something I don't think any of them have ever seen before.

Speaker 20 Aside from the obvious, two people are dead, what was shaking them up so badly?

Speaker 17 I think the big question is who's next?

Speaker 17 Because everybody's assumption that was standing outside that yellow crime scene tape was it could have been one of us.

Speaker 23 It sure seemed like the Hassey and McClellan murders were connected, and everyone was terrified. The killings might not be over.

Speaker 20 Did you start to think that there was a list?

Speaker 17 Oh, sure.

Speaker 6 There was going to be another victim if this person wasn't found.

Speaker 23 Saturday night, Shannon Aber was shopping for Easter dinner when she was surprised by a phone call from her office.

Speaker 19 And I thought, my goodness, who's up there on Saturday, Easter weekend? I'm just, I'm not going to answer right now.

Speaker 23 But her phone kept ringing. It was another prosecutor from her office.

Speaker 19 And I knew then at that point, something's going on. And I answered and she proceeded to tell me that the McClellans were found in their house shot.

Speaker 20 Must have been the biggest bombshell of your life.

Speaker 19 Biggest. It's just so hard to imagine anyone you know.

Speaker 19 being killed. I mean, I was frantic.
It was terrifying.

Speaker 49 Her colleague told her to to watch her back.

Speaker 19 We don't know who's next. We don't know if there's more attacks tonight.
Just get home and be safe, Shannon.

Speaker 20 You know, watch out. Are you all feeling now that we're all targets now?

Speaker 19 We all felt that.

Speaker 23 Including the people she loved most in the world.

Speaker 19 I think that's what was so scary was that it's not just me anymore. I have young kids.

Speaker 19 My husband.

Speaker 19 My family.

Speaker 9 And...

Speaker 52 I mean,

Speaker 19 I can't keep putting them at risk. And with Mike and Cynthia, we were all in danger.

Speaker 23 As local deputies began a round-the-clock watch over Shannon's house, something kept nagging at her about the McClelland murders.

Speaker 19 There's no way Cynthia opened that door to just anyone. I mean, my thoughts were it's someone we know or someone dressed like a police officer.

Speaker 19 You know, I was just very concerned of even police officers.

Speaker 20 That someone could be dressed in a fake police uniform.

Speaker 8 Right.

Speaker 23 Investigators also wondered how the killer could have gotten inside the McClelland's front door. Mike, like his entire staff, was still vigilant ever since his chief prosecutor was gunned down.

Speaker 23 The wary DA kept his own guns on a table near the front door, but never got the chance to use them.

Speaker 20 Is it just like all bets are off when you hear that now they're going after family members?

Speaker 17 Even though you don't condone it, you almost understand someone going after a prosecutor for what they do for a living, but to go after a prosecutor's family was just a line that we didn't think we'd ever see crossed.

Speaker 23 Both the Hasse and McClellan killings, two months apart, were bold. One in a public square in broad daylight.
This one in a private home before dawn.

Speaker 23 Investigators hoped this latest crime scene would provide more leads than the Hasse killing did. They already knew they had shell casings.

Speaker 23 Would there be other clues inside the house to help catch the killer?

Speaker 6 It was just straight up who done it.

Speaker 21 We didn't know.

Speaker 23 Texas Ranger Eric Casper was part of the team that entered the home.

Speaker 21 The The front door was not kicked in. The door was unlocked.

Speaker 6 There are shell casings approximately four feet in.

Speaker 21 Shell casings are.223 caliber.

Speaker 23 That told them the killer used an AR-15 or M-4 type semi-automatic weapon like this one.

Speaker 21 This started exactly when the door opened. Ms.
McClellan and Mr. McClullen were retreating and trying to get away from the gunfire.

Speaker 23 Cynthia's body was in the middle of the living room and she clearly wasn't expecting anyone.

Speaker 21 She's not dressed for company. She's trying to get dressed Mr.
McClone, same way. He's in jogging pants with no shirt on.

Speaker 23 There were shell casings next to Mike's body, indicating the killer had finished him off at close range.

Speaker 31 The suspect was standing up right on top of him, over him, shooting him.

Speaker 23 To investigators like Lieutenant Jolie Stewart of the Sheriff's Department, it looked like a carefully planned operation, an ambush, just like the Hasse murder.

Speaker 20 Did the scene speak to you at all?

Speaker 19 I felt like whoever went in there

Speaker 19 had

Speaker 19 a mission and they did it quickly and they did it efficiently

Speaker 19 and they were out.

Speaker 8 Later, records from the alarm company would confirm Stewart's observation.

Speaker 23 The killer entered the house at 6.40 a.m. and was gone just two minutes later.
20 shots fired in 120 seconds.

Speaker 19 That was a pretty brutal

Speaker 19 way to go.

Speaker 23 Lieutenant Stewart couldn't help but be affected by the sight of Cynthia shot in the head at close range.

Speaker 19 Just looking at her there on the scene,

Speaker 33 she was targeted.

Speaker 19 You know,

Speaker 19 that I mean, she didn't have a dog in this fight.

Speaker 23 Investigators talked to neighbors. Surely someone had heard the shots.
Assault rifles aren't quiet.

Speaker 21 The weapon used in this murder, you should have been able to hear it outside.

Speaker 42 No problem.

Speaker 23 No one heard or saw anything. By the end of Easter weekend, Special Prosecutor Bill Worski said they had nothing.

Speaker 17 We're just trying to figure out what to do next, and we're hoping against hope there's going to be a magic clue in that crime scene or in that house that will answer this riddle for us.

Speaker 23 They were looking for that clue, and all of a sudden, it drove by.

Speaker 23 What should have been a slow Easter News Day in Dallas now had a lead story that didn't involve chocolate bunnies or egg hunts.

Speaker 4 We're following some breaking news right now in Kaufman County, where County District Attorney Mike McClellan and his wife Cynthia have been found shot to death.

Speaker 23 The news touched off a firestorm of public concern. Tips started flooding into the reopened Kauffman County Sheriff's Command post.
Some tips still cited the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

Speaker 25 Special Prosecutor Bill Worski.

Speaker 17 With added media attention after the McClellans were murdered,

Speaker 17 we got hundreds of tips a day.

Speaker 19 It was like drinking out of a fire hose during this whole thing.

Speaker 23 Lieutenant Jolie Stewart of the Sheriff's Department was right in the middle of it. Hundreds of investigators from multiple agencies had swooped in.

Speaker 20 This was all hands-on deck.

Speaker 53 This became the number one case in the Bureau at that time.

Speaker 8 FBI special agents Michael Hillman and Lori Gibbs, who have since retired, were coordinating teams from the task force, each team looking into different aspects of the case.

Speaker 27 You have to look at everything.

Speaker 20 So you decided to just divvy it up. Everyone could focus on their individual tasks.

Speaker 53 Right. And some of these teams had 25, 30 people on them.
And there was a team that looked at all of the victims and what they may have in common.

Speaker 8 They believed the killing of DA Mike McClelland was linked with the shooting of prosecutor Mark Hassey back in January. But it was all one big collective hunch until they got a certain tip.

Speaker 17 Through the Crime Stoppers web-based tip line, we get a tip that claims credit for the Mark Hassey murders.

Speaker 8 The computer message came in on Easter, Sunday night, the day after the McClellans were murdered. It began, do we have your full attention now?

Speaker 20 We suggests more than one person.

Speaker 23 Did you think maybe it's a group?

Speaker 17 In my thought, I thought, how big is this group? What is this group? Is this some sort of anti-government militia group? Is this white supremacist? I had no idea what we were dealing with.

Speaker 23 Law enforcement wrote back, you have our attention.

Speaker 53 We wanted him to tell us what he wanted.

Speaker 23 While they waited anxiously for an answer, computer experts tried to trace the tip back to the source. No luck.
That's because the system is set up to protect the anonymity of all tipsters.

Speaker 23 When a message comes in, the sender is identified only by a unique number. After 12 hours of nail biting, there was finally a response that told investigators this person was the real deal.

Speaker 23 Mark Hassey was killed with.38 caliber ammunition, fired from a.357 five-shot revolver.

Speaker 20 Would anyone other than the killer have known that? No.

Speaker 19 This person knew way more than

Speaker 19 anybody would have.

Speaker 23 The killer also wrote, Your act of good faith will result in no other attacks this week. In return for that pledge, the killer made a demand.

Speaker 17 They wanted one of the judges in Kauffman County to step down by the end of the week or the killings would resume.

Speaker 17 The fact that this tip came in and named these specific judges in Kaufman told us it was somebody local.

Speaker 8 That all but ruled out the Aryan Brotherhood, drug cartels, and those old cases from Dallas.

Speaker 8 And the language in the tip, referring to attacks plural, convinced prosecutors that the killer or killers were responsible for both the Hasse and McClelland murders.

Speaker 8 The tipster's message ended this way. We are not unreasonable, but we will not be stopped.

Speaker 20 It's almost sounding like a game now.

Speaker 17 I think in his mind, it was a big chess game, and I think it was just for fun to see if he could really exert complete and total control over the criminal justice system in Kauffman County.

Speaker 23 On Monday morning, when Shannon Aber came to her office, she had an armed escort.

Speaker 20 There's no leader at your office anymore.

Speaker 19 No one.

Speaker 25 When you come into work, how do you go forward?

Speaker 19 We had to move forward. We couldn't let them win.
We couldn't. And we had to fight for the honor of Mike and Mark.

Speaker 23 Everyone in the office was on edge.

Speaker 54 My husband, I mean, he stayed up all night with the gun in his hand.

Speaker 15 I know that I started carrying a gun.

Speaker 15 Sleep with a gun under my pillow.

Speaker 23 Even Shannon, who wouldn't carry a gun before, now slept with protection nearby.

Speaker 19 We had big old shotguns sitting on our dresser, just ready to go in case.

Speaker 23 The killer's threat to unleash more violence in Kauffman County kept the task force working around the clock.

Speaker 23 A special team scoured the surveillance video collected near the McClelland crime scene, hoping for a new lead.

Speaker 17 So many people now have surveillance cameras on their house, so we're trained to go in and collect that sort of evidence.

Speaker 23 And finally, the video team's painstaking search seemed to pay off. They found images of a car that didn't belong.

Speaker 23 A white Ford Crown Victoria cruising near the McClelland home about the time of the murders. No one in the neighborhood owned a car like that.

Speaker 23 But the Crown Vic model is popular with law enforcement, so the FBI jumped on that angle.

Speaker 20 Was there ever a thought that maybe this is one of our own? Maybe this is a police officer doing this?

Speaker 53 That was not out of the realm of possibility.

Speaker 8 In fact, an old case was about to resurface, one that would send this case rolling in a dark new direction.

Speaker 14 Has anyone connected with this investigation suggested to you that you are a person of interest in the investigation?

Speaker 8 Four days after the murders of Mike and Cynthia McClelland, hundreds of mourners packed this church for their memorial.

Speaker 23 The flag-draped casket contained Mike's body and Cynthia's ashes, together for eternity. Their extended family, united in grief, bid them an emotional farewell.

Speaker 19 They carry a lot of things from them with me. They taught me very well.

Speaker 20 They helped a lot of people before they left this world.

Speaker 19 They really did. They made a large impact on a lot of people.

Speaker 23 A beefed up multi-agency task force vowed to catch whoever killed the McClellans and Mark Hassey.

Speaker 23 Investigators had seen that Ford Crown Victoria on video roaming near the McClelland home and thought it might be a police car.

Speaker 23 The terrible possibility it might be one of their own had to be ruled in or out immediately.

Speaker 53 We checked with every law enforcement agency in the area and identified where every police car was in the area. And none of them were even close to where this image was captured.

Speaker 23 Next, they looked for anyone who for any reason reason had issues or disputes involving both prosecutors.

Speaker 53 There didn't seem to be anybody in that group of people that were

Speaker 53 upset enough that they would want to commit homicide.

Speaker 23 But there was one defendant involved in a felony they couldn't ignore.

Speaker 53 There was only one common denominator for those two prosecutors. Which was? That was Eric Williams.

Speaker 23 Eric Williams? Who was Eric Williams? He was a former deputy sheriff and longtime attorney with an office right across the street from the courthouse.

Speaker 23 In 2010, he was elected by the people of Kauffman to be Justice of the Peace. Shannon Aber worked with him and said he had a sharp legal mind.

Speaker 23 In fact, he was a member of Mensa, the organization for people with super high IQs.

Speaker 19 He was a great judge. I liked having him in there.
I thought he was very fair.

Speaker 23 Williams, married for 15 years with no kids of his own, was a strong advocate for children children and specialized in child abuse cases. Lieutenant Jolie Stewart often worked with him on those cases.

Speaker 20 How do you think he was perceived amongst his fellow colleagues, other attorneys?

Speaker 19 I think that he had a lot of respect with his peers. He was kind of the go-to guy for family law.

Speaker 46 I know he had a love for children.

Speaker 23 Tara Williams Belmare knows that better than anyone. She's Eric's sister.

Speaker 36 He was a good uncle to my kids. Never missed their birthdays.
I never had to remind him.

Speaker 23 She says, growing up, her big brother was her inspiration. He made Eagle Scout, went to college, law school, and became a successful attorney.
He also served as a captain in the Texas State Guard.

Speaker 36 He was driven. He was ambitious.
He wanted to make us feel proud of him.

Speaker 8 So Tara and the legal community were stunned in 2011 when her brother, the newly elected Justice of the Peace, got into trouble with the law.

Speaker 8 Williams was accused of stealing three computer monitors for his personal use from the county IT department. Here's surveillance video showing him carrying boxes of computer equipment.

Speaker 20 It just seems odd that someone like that would bother to steal a few computer monitors.

Speaker 19 Exactly. It was just kind of shocking that someone would go and do that.

Speaker 23 Williams found himself on the wrong side of this police interrogation.

Speaker 55 Okay, just before we get started,

Speaker 42 I'm going to read the Moran warning.

Speaker 21 I mean, you're an attorney, you're a judge, so you know this. What does that do?

Speaker 28 I don't know you gotta read.

Speaker 25 Williams tried to explain.

Speaker 23 He took the monitors because he claimed he needed new equipment for his office, but never got it.

Speaker 42 It's been an ongoing kind of thing where I tell the IT people, look, I need to keep improving things.

Speaker 21 I understand, but you hadn't put any kind of written request, nothing like that.

Speaker 16 It's been a documented document. Nothing like that.

Speaker 23 Mark Hassey and Mike McClelland knew Eric Williams as a colleague in Kaufman's small legal community. As boss of the DA's office, Mike rarely tried cases.

Speaker 23 But because Williams was an elected public official, he made an exception and teamed up with Mark to prosecute the case.

Speaker 25 Christina says her stepdad believed Williams had violated the public trust.

Speaker 19 I think it did offend Mike on a basic level. These people elected you, you're supposed to be doing good things for the community, community, not stealing from it.

Speaker 25 A jury found Williams guilty of theft.

Speaker 23 He got probation, but lost his job and license to practice law. And now, a year later, both men who prosecuted him were dead, and Williams was under suspicion.

Speaker 14 Did you bear either of those men any kind of right?

Speaker 56 No, absolutely not.

Speaker 23 The media got wind of the interest in Williams, and just days after the McClellan murders, he was interviewed by NBC affiliate KPRC. He strangely swept in on his segue.

Speaker 14 Has anyone connected with this investigation suggested to you that you are a person of interest in the investigation?

Speaker 23 No. After the denial, his sympathies.

Speaker 56 My heartfelt condolences go out to both the McClellan family and the Hassey family because

Speaker 56 they were in public office doing the right thing

Speaker 56 and for some reason that we're not aware of have paid the ultimate price for that.

Speaker 23 Williams was known to be a bit of an odd duck, but a murder suspect?

Speaker 20 It seems so far-fetched that a Justice of the Peace, a man who had served his county not only as an attorney, a judge, but also

Speaker 20 as a deputy sheriff, would then suddenly turn into this serial killer.

Speaker 6 Yeah, no one wants to think a lawyer would do that. A person who was a public servant would do that.

Speaker 23 In fact, he was among the many people investigators had already looked at after the Hasse murder.

Speaker 20 What was his alibi at the time?

Speaker 17 He said he had been at home either caring for his wife or his in-laws down the street.

Speaker 6 He also had his arm in a sling when law enforcement came to talk to him. And his excuse was he had a frozen shoulder and wasn't able to use his right arm.

Speaker 8 After the McClelland murders, investigators checked whether he owned a Ford Crown Victoria, the car captured on video lurking near the McClelland murder scene. Records showed he did not.

Speaker 8 The case was still stalled, but soon the task force would get one of those lucky breaks they'd been hoping for.

Speaker 27 In a filing cabinet in the garage, there was a manual for a Ford Crown Vic, and there was also a title to a Crown Vic.

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Speaker 56 I've cooperated with law enforcement. I certainly wish them the best in bringing justice for this

Speaker 56 just incredibly egregious act.

Speaker 23 Eric Williams was making the TV interview rounds, but he hadn't sat down for a formal interview with investigators.

Speaker 25 Because of his connection to both Mark Hassey and Mike McClelland, investigators had to take a serious look at him.

Speaker 17 On the surface, it may seem implausible because he's a lawyer and a judge and successful. The more we learned about him, the more viable in our minds he became as a suspect.

Speaker 23 Just the year before, Williams had been prosecuted for theft by Hassey and McClelland.

Speaker 20 You must be chomping at the bit to talk to Eric Williams.

Speaker 17 Obviously, we wanted to talk to him. The problem with that was he was still represented by lawyers.

Speaker 23 Lawyers who kept Williams from talking. But then, two weeks after the McClellans were killed in their home, the special prosecutors got a big opening they hadn't seen coming.

Speaker 17 We get an email back from the lawyers basically saying we do no longer represent Eric Williams.

Speaker 23 They figured this was their one window to talk to him, and they knew they had to get get it right the first time before he lawyered up again. So FBI profilers came up with a strategy.

Speaker 23 Send over a top-level Texas Ranger so Williams would be more likely to let him in.

Speaker 20 Was the idea that that would fit with his ego?

Speaker 6 Yeah, he would view a major with the Texas Ranger as someone equal on his intellect that perhaps he would talk to. If you sent someone of lower rank, then he would just dismiss them.

Speaker 8 The Ranger and a local officer familiar to Williams went to his house carrying a hidden tape recorder

Speaker 25 Did it work?

Speaker 6 It worked great.

Speaker 23 Williams let them in without a search warrant. The subject quickly got around to guns.
Williams said he'd been forced to sell his weapons to raise money since he could no longer practice law.

Speaker 57 I've been in your house.

Speaker 17 I know you got lots of guns.

Speaker 57 Deal. Okay.

Speaker 57 How do you think I've been living?

Speaker 57 Seven guns? Yeah, for two years.

Speaker 43 You don't have any more?

Speaker 42 I got rid of all of them.

Speaker 57 I've got one gun I'm trying to sell and it's just hard as hell to sell.

Speaker 6 He said, I don't have any guns except one gun. And so he let them look around and they began finding gun parts.

Speaker 23 Gun parts. Some very specific gun parts that appeared to match the type of automatic weapon used in the McClellan killings.

Speaker 23 And at the same time, the FBI discovered Williams had done computer searches on Hassey and McClelland before the murders.

Speaker 17 He specifically told them that he had not ever searched the two victims before the murders.

Speaker 20 Now you've got him lying.

Speaker 28 Yeah.

Speaker 23 That lie and those gun parts were enough to get a warrant for a more thorough search of his house. Investigators, including a crack FBI evidence team, were back the next day.

Speaker 23 They went room to room, then to the garage, and bingo.

Speaker 27 In a filing cabinet in the garage, there was a manual for a Ford Crown Vic, and there was also a title to a Crown Vic.

Speaker 23 The task force, of course, had been looking for a Crown Victoria. This one was registered under a false name.

Speaker 20 That must have been a real big moment finding that registration.

Speaker 25 That was huge.

Speaker 23 Outside, Special Prosecutor Worski was on hand to give legal advice.

Speaker 17 One of the FBI computer techs came out and said, Mr. Worski, I don't mean to alarm you, but Eric Williams has been searching you and Mr.
Shook on his computer.

Speaker 20 What's the first thing you did when you heard that he had been searching you?

Speaker 17 I get on the phone with my wife and tell her to make sure she knew where the kids were and to get inside and keep the doors locked and don't answer the door for anyone, up to and including a police officer.

Speaker 20 What did she say?

Speaker 17 I could hear the fear in her voice and I knew right then we had to put him in jail for something. It became very personal and a matter of life and death for us.

Speaker 23 Back inside, searchers found something interesting. A scrap of paper with two handwritten numbers.

Speaker 27 So they collected it because it was near the computer and they thought, you know, it might be important.

Speaker 8 And it was. A sheriff's deputy recognized the user ID for the County Crime Stopper's anonymous tip line.

Speaker 8 One of the numbers corresponded to a tip from early in the Hasse case where the tipster claimed to have overheard two men in a bar saying they'd killed Mark Hassey.

Speaker 8 The other number on that scrap paper was even more important because it matched back to that computer message that gave details about the Hasse murder weapon and also threatened more killings.

Speaker 17 So we knew right then that that tip that had come into the command post was sent by Eric Williams and we knew right then we were going to be able to put Eric Williams in jail.

Speaker 23 He was arrested not for murder but for making a terrorist threat about killing a judge.

Speaker 6 We just didn't know if we had enough evidence to convict him.

Speaker 23 They just had to figure out where the evidence might be.

Speaker 20 Did you think that Eric Williams had a hiding place?

Speaker 17 We begin to suspect pretty early on if it's Eric Williams and we know what cars were used, there may be a storage unit or some secret storage place that he may have access to that we haven't found.

Speaker 23 At least now, 10 weeks after Hasse's murder, the investigation was finally on a roll.

Speaker 17 We go home that night to get a good night's sleep, and I actually wanted for the first time in weeks to see my son play a little league game.

Speaker 23 But the next morning, his parenting plans were dashed by work again. His phone rang.
It was a friend of Eric Williams who'd heard about his arrest.

Speaker 17 And said, Mr. Worski, I have something to tell you about Eric Williams.
I think I may have rented him a storage unit. I could tell when I listened to his voice, this is it.
This is the real thing.

Speaker 20 So, Little League was out?

Speaker 17 Unfortunately, it was. Little League was out.

Speaker 17 My son went three for three.

Speaker 20 But you were headed to a storage unit.

Speaker 17 This is too important. So I got on the phone with the Texas Rangers and I said, This is it.
I think we found it.

Speaker 23 The hotspot in the investigation was now a run-of-the-mill storage unit, number 18 to be precise, in Segoville, Texas, just 14 miles from the McClelland house.

Speaker 23 Eric Casper of the Texas Rangers was part of the task force caravan racing to Unit 18.

Speaker 6 Everybody is running and gunning, you know, everybody wants to be there.

Speaker 17 So we're all just filled with expectations. We're making bets.
Okay, the white crown Vic's going to be there. No, it's not.
We're going to find the murder weapon.

Speaker 23 Ranger Casper did the honors, lifting the heavy steel door.

Speaker 21 This is one of those moments that I'll never forget because it was just, wow.

Speaker 36 What'd you see?

Speaker 17 We saw the white Crown Vic, the car that we had been looking for all those days and all those man hours, and there it was. And we knew finally we had Eric Williams.

Speaker 23 But there was so much more. Police uniforms and bulletproof vests, more than a half dozen police badges, thousands of rounds of ammo, and enough guns to supply a small army.

Speaker 17 He's got six or seven weapons of the right caliber that could have been the McClellan murder weapon. We have five or six weapons of the right caliber that could have been the Hasse murder weapon.

Speaker 20 Did you think that one of those guns had to be the murder weapon?

Speaker 19 I felt like our chances were pretty good because there were just so many in there.

Speaker 23 The guns and ammo were sent off to the lab for testing. Inside this treasure trove of bad intentions, there were also pickle jars filled with liquid, later identified as homemade napalm.

Speaker 19 Unbelievable.

Speaker 28 It was like a tactical operator's closet.

Speaker 8 But they'd soon be dealt a serious blow. The lab results came back on all those weapons.
None of the forensics matched. The murder weapons were still missing.

Speaker 20 That's got to be extremely frustrating when you feel like, well, one of these guns, I'm sure, has got to be

Speaker 28 the murder weapon.

Speaker 6 We were positive one of those guns was going to be the murder weapon.

Speaker 8 Even without the guns, the prosecutor believed there was enough evidence to finally go forward.

Speaker 8 On April 18th, 2013, 11 weeks after Mark Hassey was gunned down and three weeks since the McClellans were killed, Eric Williams was charged with three counts of capital murder.

Speaker 8 Prosecutors said the motive was revenge.

Speaker 17 One thing I found out about Eric Williams, the first big thing that went wrong in his life, this is how he was going to react with rage and homicidal violence.

Speaker 23 It all seemed so senseless to the McClellan's daughter, Christina.

Speaker 20 This all started over three computer monitors, and now we're talking about three murders.

Speaker 31 Yeah.

Speaker 19 You know, normal people don't do that.

Speaker 35 God bless the United States and the great state of Texas.

Speaker 23 Eric Williams went on trial for murder in December of 2014.

Speaker 22 State of Texas versus Eric Williams.

Speaker 23 Williams wasn't on trial for the murder of Mark Hassey or Mike McClelland. Not guilty, bro.
In a surprise tactic, this trial was only for the murder of Cynthia McClelland.

Speaker 20 Why not just try the murders at the same time?

Speaker 17 What if something went wrong in the first trial? We wanted to have the ability to be able to try him twice and make sure he got justice.

Speaker 23 Christina sat in court and had to relive the deaths of her parents.

Speaker 20 What gave you the strength to go to court every day?

Speaker 19 I showed up every day for the three people who gave their lives for something good. They stood up and they did what they were supposed to do and they died for it.

Speaker 55 This is my chance to tell you the story of the murders of Mike and Cynthia McClellan.

Speaker 23 Prosecutor Bill Worski thought if he could prove Eric Williams had killed Cynthia, that would obviously show he killed Mike.

Speaker 17 Take a seat in the witness stand.

Speaker 23 One of the first witnesses called, C.J. Tomlinson.
Dallas police officer and friend of the McClellans.

Speaker 23 C.J. told the jury how he and his parents found the McClellans.

Speaker 16 I took a couple more steps inside the residence.

Speaker 16 I was hollering for Mike, Mike, Mike.

Speaker 17 And then a bullet defect.

Speaker 23 For three days, prosecutors brought a blizzard of witnesses.

Speaker 23 They told the jury Williams had been linked to that tip that came in after the McClellan murders.

Speaker 55 He sent an email to the law enforcement claiming credit for the murders, thinking law enforcement would never figure it out. But he was wrong.

Speaker 23 Investigators didn't have the murder weapon, but they had something else. A bullet they found inside a bag taken from Williams' storage unit.

Speaker 14 You know, this is what you and your team recovered?

Speaker 40 Yes.

Speaker 23 A ballistics examiner compared that single, unfired bullet to the shell casings found at the murder scene and came up with a match.

Speaker 17 That live round was ejected from the same weapon that killed the McClellans. So that was a big moment for us.

Speaker 23 And prosecutors thought this security video outside the storage unit nailed the case down. They said it traced the movements of Eric Williams and the Crown Vic on the morning of the murders.

Speaker 14 Approximately 6 a.m. real time.

Speaker 23 That's when Williams in his black SUV pulled up to the entrance of the storage unit, according to the prosecution.

Speaker 23 At 6.12 a.m., the white Crown Victoria pulled out.

Speaker 23 By 6.42, investigators knew the McClellans were dead or dying on the floor based on the motion detectors in the home security system.

Speaker 23 At 7 o'clock, here's that white crowned Vic coming back through the entrance.

Speaker 23 And 17 minutes later, that black SUV pulled out.

Speaker 52 He committed this crime.

Speaker 35 His acts alone and his acts alone condemn him to be found guilty of capital murder.

Speaker 23 The prosecutors said they had a lot of circumstantial evidence, including the crown vic and that matching bullet.

Speaker 55 Ladies Ladies and gentlemen, the jury.

Speaker 23 But the defense was about to tell the jury what the prosecution didn't have.

Speaker 59 Eric Williams did not commit these murders.

Speaker 23 Defense lawyer Matthew Seymour laid into one of the state's star witnesses, that ballistics expert.

Speaker 23 He reminded the jury investigators never found the murder weapon.

Speaker 52 You didn't actually have access to that firearm.

Speaker 15 Correct.

Speaker 23 He tried to poke holes in the prosecution's matching bullet theory.

Speaker 52 Someone of different experience could come along and say they're not a match.

Speaker 17 Is that true?

Speaker 14 Yes, potentially that is true.

Speaker 23 The defense didn't see the need to call any witnesses.

Speaker 39 Our position was the state had not fulfilled their obligation to prove the elements of the indictment. It was just that simple.

Speaker 59 There is no known murder weapon in this case.

Speaker 52 There's no one.

Speaker 55 who can place Eric Williams in that scene at the McClellan home.

Speaker 59 No one.

Speaker 23 Finally, this case that had rocked the justice system was about to be decided by the jurors. They needed only 90 minutes to reach a verdict.

Speaker 42 We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant Eric Lyle Williams guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment.

Speaker 23 Guilty of capital murder in the death of Cynthia McClelland.

Speaker 20 You heard the word guilty.

Speaker 19 That was a gift. It was a gift for us, probably a gift for everybody else because I don't believe that this would have stopped at the end of these killings.

Speaker 23 There's a sad postscript to this case that raises a painful question. Could Williams have been stopped after the Hassie murder and before the McClellans? Did they have to die?

Speaker 38 We're going to find you.

Speaker 23 In a haunting irony, Mike McClelland always thought Williams was likely the killer.

Speaker 17 He certainly suspected it was Eric Williams after Mark Hassey was shot, and he made no secret what his opinion was. And I had numerous conversations where he said, Bill, it's Eric Williams.

Speaker 8 Yes, Your Honor. Williams was one of a handful of possible suspects early on in the Hasse case, but there was no evidence linking him to the murder.

Speaker 8 And even with his conviction for theft, he'd had a good reputation.

Speaker 19 We had several discussions about it. Of course, Eric's name came up in the discussions, but it doesn't matter what you think if you can't prove it.

Speaker 23 And now, this former Justice of the Peace was a convicted murderer.

Speaker 24 How?

Speaker 23 Why?

Speaker 20 Was he living a double life?

Speaker 17 I think he was. Most people were fooled by his exterior.
He looked so normal. He looked so average.
He had the trappings of success being a lawyer and a judge.

Speaker 17 But behind that mask was a homicidal psychopath.

Speaker 8 But this case was far from over. Prosecutors had won, but they were saving their best witness for last.

Speaker 8 Investigators always suspected Eric Williams did not act alone. And he didn't.
You are about to hear from his accomplice, someone with a first-hand account of the murders.

Speaker 42 We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, Eric Lyle Williams, guilty of cabinet.

Speaker 23 They'd won a guilty verdict against Eric Williams, but prosecutors didn't have time to celebrate. The jury would now decide whether he should get the death penalty.

Speaker 23 In a rare legal move, prosecutors had saved some blockbuster evidence and a star witness for just this moment. As investigators figured all along, Williams hadn't acted alone.
He had an accomplice.

Speaker 23 It was this woman.

Speaker 23 His wife, Kim.

Speaker 23 They'd been married for 15 years, but now she was about to testify against her husband.

Speaker 60 It was a cold day

Speaker 60 and

Speaker 60 there was excitement in the air.

Speaker 8 Soon after Eric was arrested, Kim Williams was brought in for questioning.

Speaker 17 Investigators spent hours talking to her.

Speaker 49 At first, she defended Eric, but finally she broke.

Speaker 8 And what she told them was startling. She said not only did she know something about the murders, she helped her husband carry them out.

Speaker 8 Now, during the penalty phase, prosecutors planned to use her testimony to make sure the jury would give him a death sentence.

Speaker 17 She led us to a lot of evidence and I think it was important for the jury to see and have all their questions answered.

Speaker 60 He came up with a plan to dress like law enforcement.

Speaker 23 They were a husband and wife murder team.

Speaker 23 And they went through a dress rehearsal the night before the McClelland murders.

Speaker 60 He was modeling it for me.

Speaker 58 Describe it to the members of the jury what he was modeling for you the night before.

Speaker 60 I want to say he looked like he was in the Army or SWAT.

Speaker 20 He had a bulletproof vest that had sheriff on the front.

Speaker 60 That more than likely, Mrs. McClelland was going to answer the door, and he was going to introduce himself as a policeman.

Speaker 8 But if these had been revenge killings of Mike McClelland and Mark Hassey, why did Cynthia McClelland have to die?

Speaker 60 Because she would be there as a witness and he described it as collateral damage.

Speaker 8 And prosecutors wanted the jury to know how Eric and Kim Williams spent the day after killing two people in cold blood.

Speaker 60 We had steaks on the grill and Eric cooked those.

Speaker 23 At your parents' house?

Speaker 60 At my parents' house.

Speaker 55 Are y'all celebrating the steaks?

Speaker 60 That's correct.

Speaker 8 The prosecutors didn't tell jurors about the Hassie case during the Cynthia McClellan trial, but now they were ready to use Mark's murder to cement their argument for the death penalty.

Speaker 6 We had an airtight, circumstantial evidence case on the Hassie murder.

Speaker 8 Witnesses to the murder, you remember, said the shooter jumped into the passenger side of the getaway car. As it turns out, Kim was the getaway driver.

Speaker 58 As you're driving away from the scene of the Hassan murder, what is his mood like?

Speaker 54 Happy.

Speaker 53 What is your mood like?

Speaker 54 Happy.

Speaker 60 I so believed in Eric and everything that he told me. His anger was my anger.

Speaker 17 Who was he mad at?

Speaker 60 He was mad at Mark Hassie. He was mad at...

Speaker 19 Mr. McClellan.

Speaker 60 He was angry because he thought that they were trying to set him up.

Speaker 20 What did that tell you about this incredibly bizarre relationship that these two were in cahoots with each other?

Speaker 17 I think it proved beyond any doubt that Eric Williams was a psychopath and this was a horribly toxic, screwed-up marriage.

Speaker 17 I think it lets you know what type of darkness was going on inside that house and inside their hearts.

Speaker 23 Kim Williams also said she helped her husband dispose of key evidence in the case. She recalled driving to this bridge one night and watching Eric toss a black bag into the lake.

Speaker 58 Do you know what was in the bag?

Speaker 8 I knew that it was guns.

Speaker 8 It took seven months of searching the lake before divers found the bag. FBI agent Laurie Gibbs was there.

Speaker 27 Open this up, and

Speaker 27 there's two guns.

Speaker 23 This is it. Inside the bag were two revolvers.
Forensics would show one of those guns killed Mark Hassey.

Speaker 23 And one more thing, that bag those guns were in, it wasn't a bag at all. It was really a terrifying Halloween mask.

Speaker 17 Grim Reaper type Halloween mask? Exactly.

Speaker 25 Kim Williams said her husband wore it to conceal himself when he shot Mark.

Speaker 18 And you can imagine the terror that was going through Mark Hassett when he recognized and heard the voice.

Speaker 8 She also told jurors that Eric had a hit list with more intended victims.

Speaker 60 Judge Ashworth.

Speaker 8 Including a judge whom Eric wanted to kill in a special way. With a special weapon.

Speaker 55 With a crossbow.

Speaker 19 That's correct.

Speaker 23 Kim Williams said he also brewed up a concoction just for the judge. You may remember there was homemade napalm in pickle jars inside the storage unit.

Speaker 55 What was the napalm for?

Speaker 60 I guess to drive in an extra kind of FU.

Speaker 60 He's going to bore a hole in his stomach and pour it in.

Speaker 20 It's one thing to say, well, Eric Williams did this, fine. But that his wife was along for the ride.

Speaker 6 You just can't make this stuff up. You would think this was a Hollywood movie, but these people are living every day together and talking about murdering people.

Speaker 8 The defense countered by calling dozens of character witnesses, from William Scoutmaster,

Speaker 6 very smart young man.

Speaker 8 To his high school friends.

Speaker 55 She was very respectful.

Speaker 20 Never said a mean word, never

Speaker 60 frustrated, never expressed anger.

Speaker 8 And former colleagues.

Speaker 50 Very friendly, I mean, approachable. Got along with all of us.

Speaker 8 But the jurors weren't swayed.

Speaker 42 He was ordered by this court to carry out the sentence of death.

Speaker 8 He was sentenced to die by lethal injection. He's appealing his conviction.
Given the death penalty decision, prosecutors decided not to try him for the murders of Mark Hassey or Mike McClelland.

Speaker 8 Williams pleaded not guilty to both.

Speaker 19 My name is Christina Foreman.

Speaker 23 Now, Christina, in her victim impact statement, would finally get her chance to vent her feelings

Speaker 23 as she turned to her parents' killer.

Speaker 19 Pretty much the only thing I have to say is, f you, Eric Williams.

Speaker 19 That was pretty much the only thing I could think of to say to him.

Speaker 8 Mark Hassie's longtime friend, Marcus Bush, believes Williams could still be dangerous, even on death row.

Speaker 34 Eric Williams is

Speaker 34 a master manipulator. He is a very intelligent human being, and he's a very deadly, proficient killer.

Speaker 34 I think he's going to be a threat to the prison guards, and I I think he's going to be a threat to anybody else in prison.

Speaker 20 You're making him sound like Hannibal Lecter.

Speaker 34 This is a man who killed three people in cold blood simply because they prosecuted him for stealing computer monitors.

Speaker 8 Kim Williams pleaded guilty to the murder of Mark Hassey. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison, avoiding the death penalty.
What is it that you...

Speaker 23 But now, Kim is telling a whole new story.

Speaker 46 Did he threaten you?

Speaker 9 Yes, he did. What did he say?

Speaker 9 He said that if I did anything or tried to move away or say anything to anybody, he would kill me and he would kill my family.

Speaker 8 Eight years into Kim Williams' 40-year sentence, we traveled to Texas and met with her in prison for her first ever TV interview.

Speaker 23 Why?

Speaker 25 Why sit down now?

Speaker 9 Because I think it's probably time to go ahead and tell my side of the story.

Speaker 8 Kim is now divorced from Eric. And though she confessed and testified about her involvement in the murders,

Speaker 8 she now says she was forced to participate out of fear. She blames health issues for her dependence on Eric.

Speaker 9 I was broken. I had no confidence.

Speaker 9 I felt like I needed to stay with him.

Speaker 33 to take care of me.

Speaker 9 And a lot of that was his mind manipulation. You know, you're sick.
You're You're always going to be on this medication. You need me.

Speaker 8 Kim says she was on strong narcotics to help with an autoimmune disease and it affected her judgment.

Speaker 20 What has that done for you being off of all those drugs?

Speaker 9 It's made me more clear-headed. My mind was very cloudy back then and I couldn't think straight and I was pretty much a zombie.

Speaker 8 Some people felt that your testimony, even after the drugs had worn off, that your testimony was cold, that you showed little remorse for what had happened.

Speaker 9 The prosecution, the attorneys told me not to cry, but I did cry. I did cry.

Speaker 8 The prosecutors told us they said no such thing, and Kim was not seen crying on the witness stand.

Speaker 8 When Eric first started talking about killing Mark Hassey and Mike McClelland, did you think he was serious?

Speaker 24 No, I didn't.

Speaker 9 To me, it was just talking blowing off steam, you know. I didn't take it seriously.

Speaker 8 Why would I? So when did it start to go from, okay, he's just blowing off steam steam to this is real?

Speaker 9 When he started purchasing cars, when he started

Speaker 9 pulling out weapons.

Speaker 8 Did you not feel like maybe you should go talk to someone and say, I'm really scared here that my husband...

Speaker 25 I was really scared and

Speaker 9 I wanted to talk to someone, but I was afraid. And he was following me everywhere.
Every time I would leave the house, he would follow me or go with me.

Speaker 46 Did he threaten you?

Speaker 9 Yes, he did. What did he say? He said that if I did anything or tried to move away or say anything to anybody, he would kill me and he would kill my family.

Speaker 8 According to prosecutors, Kim never told law enforcement that she participated out of fear.

Speaker 60 Yes.

Speaker 8 And what about all those damning things Kim said on the stand under oath? Like what she and Eric did following the McClelland murders.

Speaker 55 Are we all celebrating the stakes?

Speaker 60 That's correct.

Speaker 9 That was something taken out of context. My family and I always grill steaks on Easter weekend.
That was planned weeks ahead before this.

Speaker 8 So you're saying the steaks were not part of a celebrity?

Speaker 23 No, they were not.

Speaker 51 Of the murders.

Speaker 8 How could you even celebrate Easter after that weekend?

Speaker 9 I was so sick, but he did. And my family had not, you know, they had no idea what was going on.

Speaker 8 You said you were a willing participant in these murders. You helped scout out the murder locations.
You rode in the getaway car.

Speaker 28 Yeah.

Speaker 9 I went with him because I was afraid that if I didn't, he would hurt me or my family.

Speaker 8 But at the same time, you said you were both excited, happy after these murders took place.

Speaker 9 Well, I wasn't, but he was.

Speaker 23 But you said that.

Speaker 24 You testified to that.

Speaker 9 And that was a mistake. And that's not true because I live with it every day.

Speaker 8 Would you say, though, now, maybe, that this is sort of revisionist history, that you're now that your head is clear and

Speaker 8 you're sort of changing what happened back then?

Speaker 9 No, I'm not changing anything. I'm not changing anything.
Back then, the adrenaline and the excitement was more him and it wasn't me, but I was afraid.

Speaker 8 What do you say to anyone who says, she is evil, she participated in this, she could have told someone, she could have saved these people's lives?

Speaker 9 What can you say? I can't change people's opinions like that. I'm not a fighter.
And, you know, people are going to see me that way because I was with him.

Speaker 9 And that's what I'm trying to change.

Speaker 8 We wanted to ask Eric about his ex-wife's claims, but he denied our request for an interview. In 2019, he talked to NBC's Stephanie Gosk for the Oxygen series Killer Motive.

Speaker 8 And at that time, he maintained he had nothing to do with the three murders and seemed to suggest Kim was the killer.

Speaker 31 Let's talk about the hit list.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 37 You know who had a hit list?

Speaker 31 Who?

Speaker 2 Kim.

Speaker 31 She testified about it.

Speaker 28 I never had one.

Speaker 8 So, how would she be in a position to be aware of, for instance,

Speaker 26 where the murder weapon was and where that mask was?

Speaker 16 Oh, I have no idea.

Speaker 21 That's something you'll have to ask her.

Speaker 26 It sounds like you're telling me, Eric, that your wife, now ex-wife, murdered Mark Cassie and Mike and Cynthia McClure.

Speaker 16 I wasn't there.

Speaker 28 I don't know that.

Speaker 26 But you suspect that that's the case.

Speaker 21 I know she had a lot more to do with it than she has told anyone.

Speaker 8 Kim acknowledges that she had what she called Kim's kick-ass list, but says it wasn't a hit hit list.

Speaker 8 She says it was a list of names from an online Facebook game. As for the other claims Eric made in his interview.

Speaker 8 I mean, given the evidence that we have, it does seem pretty far-fetched.

Speaker 20 But it's his story.

Speaker 8 His story is that you did this.

Speaker 28 Yeah, well,

Speaker 9 he's delusional because I didn't work with these people. I didn't have the feud with them.
I'm not a shooter. I'm not even a good shot.

Speaker 9 He's trying to get off of death row, you know, so he's going to say anything. He just needs to take the responsibility of what he did.

Speaker 8 What would you say to the Hasse and McClellan families?

Speaker 9 I'm so sorry that I didn't fight it. I am so sorry that I didn't fight him to stop him.

Speaker 9 I am so sorry.

Speaker 8 Cynthia McClellan's daughter, Christina, has little sympathy for Kim.

Speaker 19 She didn't pull the trigger, but if you help your husband pick out outfits to wear to murder people and to drive the cars, that's

Speaker 19 pretty egregious in itself, the fact that you are being complicit in this kind of

Speaker 19 role.

Speaker 19 I'll never forget Mike and Cynthia or Mark.

Speaker 23 Will you ever be over this?

Speaker 19 No, I'm not over it. I never, I know I never will be.
I don't think any of us will be

Speaker 19 ever.

Speaker 8 But as tragic as this all was, believe it or not, something good came out of it. During the long ordeal, Christina and that officer from Dallas, C.J.

Speaker 2 Tomlinson, fell in love.

Speaker 8 Their families had have been great friends for a long time. Cynthia McClelland had always tried to play matchmaker.

Speaker 16 Cynthia pretty much told me that that was going to happen, and she was right.

Speaker 31 She got me.

Speaker 20 I can only imagine how happy your mom would be if she's looking down that you two are together.

Speaker 19 I can't even imagine she would be just doing some sort of weird dance that I told you so. And I'm sure she's thrilled.

Speaker 19 And you know, we got married on her birthday so that would have made her ecstatic.

Speaker 8 Christina and CJ are now parents to two daughters who sadly will never get a chance to meet their grandparents.

Speaker 8 But the loving memories of Cynthia and Mike McClelland are still very much alive in their family.

Speaker 19 I hope to pass on what I have taken from them to my children.

Speaker 11 That's all for this edition of Date Live.

Speaker 11 I hope you'll join me and my colleagues Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotby as we shine a light on some of the people who inspire us most on our Inspiring America special tomorrow at 8-7 Central.

Speaker 11 I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.

Speaker 61 Hey, everybody.

Speaker 1 It's Rob Lowe here.

Speaker 2 If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's called Literally with Rob Lowe.

Speaker 61 And basically, basically, it's conversations 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 1 Fox.

Speaker 61 There are new episodes out every Thursday. So subscribe, please, and listen wherever you get your podcasts.