Denice Smith

Speaker 1 The next time you fly, upgrade your comfort to Emirates Premium Economy. Sink into soft leather seats with raised legrests and adjustable headrests.

Speaker 1 Elevate your dinner plans with delicious regional dining, all served with complimentary premium drinks.

Speaker 1 Enjoy endless entertainment with up to 6,500 channels, including live sports. There's no other premium economy like it.
Fly, Emirates, fly better.

Speaker 2 Bravo's most iconic boss is back where it all began.

Speaker 6 Without a vibrant star, it wouldn't be Sir.

Speaker 2 Now it's time for a shift. When people come to Sur, they expect an energy.
It is chaos. Everybody wants to be models, actors, singers.

Speaker 2 So raise your glasses high. I'm a 10, and you have to treat me like that.
To a new class of servers. This is a situation we got going on.

Speaker 2 Vanderpunk rules. New shift begins December 2nd on Bravo and Peacock.

Speaker 2 A beloved father and pastor is gunned down in broad daylight.

Speaker 10 The father walked up there and discovered his son shot to death.

Speaker 13 It appeared he had surprised the people that were burglarizing the house and tried to flee.

Speaker 2 As the investigation takes shape, it reveals a life in turmoil. The post office had been tipped off, that there was drugs coming in,

Speaker 2 and a secret affair pushes this family to the brink.

Speaker 6 The affair was finally destroyed at Broken Camp's back, and he filed for divorce.

Speaker 13 His wife had left the state with his children, and nowhere they were.

Speaker 2 Then, a brave young voice comes forward.

Speaker 16 We got a 10-year-old laying there in her bed, pretending to be asleep, listening to them.

Speaker 13 That little girl is scarred for life.

Speaker 2 And a killer willing to cash in on family bonds is unveiled.

Speaker 10 In that family, it's common knowledge that you owe him dead.

Speaker 13 You got to drop on him, to handcuff him, and start shooting him.

Speaker 18 It's like a dream, like a horror movie, or a nightmare.

Speaker 2 1997, Cosby, Tennessee. Quaint and quiet, the Camp Rite Acres Campground sits nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Speaker 13 Campground is located in a very rural area.

Speaker 23 The campsites had full services.

Speaker 24 They had electricity, water, that kind of thing.

Speaker 6 My family managed the campground and ran the campground. There were a lot of campers up there.

Speaker 25 That campground was such a close-knit family, if you will. They loved the family atmosphere.

Speaker 2 However, at 6:05 p.m. on July 23rd, the serene campground turns chaotic when a shocking call comes in to 911.

Speaker 28 I got a notification from the Sheriff's Department that they had received a 911 call that there had been a body found at Camp Ride Acres off the Cosby Highway that appeared to be Dunshurst.

Speaker 2 The caller is Harry Smith. He owns the campground and says that he's just found his son, Aaron, and thinks he's been shot.

Speaker 2 Minutes later, Cock County Sheriff's deputies arrive. They followed directions Harry gave the dispatcher to a cabin at the back of the property.

Speaker 24 The house was a one-story frame house that was the owner's home.

Speaker 27 The body was about 13, 14 feet from the front door.

Speaker 10 The father walked up there discovered him he's very visibly upset he just found his son shot to death

Speaker 2 harry smith directs law enforcement up a walkway toward the cabin he's lying face down in a pool of his own blood he was shot in the ear

Speaker 16 which is not life-threatening The second shot was a shot to the back. The fatal wound was a shot to the back of the head.

Speaker 2 The deputies call for backup. Minutes later, Cock County homicide detectives arrive, along with agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Speaker 18 Poor Aaron's death, it was a terrible, terrible parting.

Speaker 4 Everybody was actually naturally drawn to him just because of his personality.

Speaker 20 Everybody that knew him, they were traumatized so much because this was wrong.

Speaker 3 This wasn't supposed to happen.

Speaker 2 In 1960, Jonathan Aaron Smith was born to parents Harry and Cleta. They raised Aaron and his brother in the small town of Cleveland, Tennessee.

Speaker 30 Aaron's relationship with his mom and dad, I mean, was just like the loving all-American family. They were always cutting up together.

Speaker 6 My dad and his brother grew up in church. I don't know of a time when they they weren't, you know, going to church on Sundays.
That was always a priority.

Speaker 6 He was very fun-loving and very adventurous, and he was the class clown. And he just had that happy, bubbly personality.
He never met a stranger.

Speaker 2 In 1981, 20-year-old Aaron was at a local blockbuster video store when he struck up a conversation with the clerk, 20-year-old Denise Graham.

Speaker 6 He came in one night to rent a movie and he flirted a little bit with her and she smiled back at him. But yeah, he went into Blockbuster to rent a movie and came out with a girlfriend apparently.

Speaker 2 Denise was born in 1961 to Don and Linda Graham. But Denise didn't come into this world alone.

Speaker 6 Don and Linda were expecting. They didn't know it was twins until the girls were born.

Speaker 2 The surprised but happy new parents dedicated themselves to raising Denise and her sister, Debbie.

Speaker 6 They had a good upbringing. The girls never wanted for anything.

Speaker 2 By the mid-1970s, Dawn landed a new job and the Graham family relocated to Cleveland, Tennessee.

Speaker 6 Denise was a very good student in high school. She played the flute and the band.
She was very involved and she had a lot of friends in high school.

Speaker 6 But Debbie got in with the wrong crowd pretty early on. A lot of drug use, a lot of drinking.
She didn't really show up for school. They were polar opposites.

Speaker 6 Debbie got brought home by the police more than once, and Don would run to her rescue. Don was closer to Debbie for some reason.
That really made a lot of resentment between Denise and Debbie.

Speaker 6 The girls would get in fist fights in high school, and they would have to be broken up by teachers. They absolutely hated each other.

Speaker 2 Shortly after graduating high school, Denise started a job at a local blockbuster and found her Prince Charming, Aaron Smith.

Speaker 6 They dated for, I think it was about a year or so, before they decided to get married.

Speaker 2 Following the wedding, tragedy struck when Denise's mother suddenly passed away.

Speaker 6 Linda suddenly died of a massive heart attack. Linda was the pillar that held that Graham family together.

Speaker 2 With their mother gone, Denise and Debbie grew even further apart. Debbie drifted.
She had a lot of problems. She ended up living in New York, and she and Denise rarely spoke or even saw each other.

Speaker 2 Denise threw herself into starting a family of her own.

Speaker 6 A couple years later, my parents had me. I was early, but I made it through.

Speaker 6 And a couple years later, they had my brother who has Down syndrome. My dad couldn't have loved him anymore.
He was just happy to have a son. When we were kids, we liked to always be outside.

Speaker 6 We would go hiking and we would stop and pick blackberries. And my dad would make a blackberry cobbler or a blackberry pie.

Speaker 2 In 1991, Aaron's parents announced they'd found an investment opportunity while on vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Speaker 6 They came across this campground for sale and they really liked it. My grandparents thought it would be a good addition to their retirement, so they just decided to buy that campground.

Speaker 2 There was a caretaker's home on the property that Aaron and Denise moved into, and Aaron helped his dad build another home for him and Aaron's mom. The rest of the 38 acres was rented out to campers.

Speaker 2 As Aaron and Denise settled into their new home, Aaron saw the opportunity to make a lifelong dream come true.

Speaker 2 Aaron became an ordained minister and started a small church right there at the campground. Denise found work as a dental assistant 30 minutes away in Sevierville.

Speaker 6 She just wanted to meet people and have some friends, so he was all for her, being happy.

Speaker 2 But in 1995, after 13 years of marriage, Aaron and Denise hit a rough patch.

Speaker 25 In the very beginning, it was all good, but as time passed,

Speaker 25 They began to venture farther apart, which was when she had the affair.

Speaker 6 My dad found out about the affair. At that point, he realized that it was finally over.

Speaker 6 I think he saw it coming for a long time, but he was trying so hard to make things work to keep it together for me and my brother. So at that point is when he filed for divorce.

Speaker 6 And he went up the hill to live with his parents. That was a hard time for him.
We were his pride and joy, and he would have done anything at any time for us, no matter what it was.

Speaker 2 Until July 23rd, 1997, when the Smith family is left devastated after Harry Smith discovers his son shot dead in front of his home.

Speaker 9 We figure this happened sometime between four and five o'clock because it was found at six o'clock by his father.

Speaker 2 Based on the position of the body, investigators believe that Aaron's confrontation with his killer began inside the home.

Speaker 12 It would appear that he had exited the house in an effort to get away from the house.

Speaker 16 He was trying to run for his life, and this he made him back.

Speaker 10 We went and checked in the house, and it looked like it had been ransacked. Items had been taken.

Speaker 27 The house was in disarray, drawers open and emptied, furniture knocked over.

Speaker 24 It appeared that Aaron Smith had come home and surprised the people that were burgling and tried to flee.

Speaker 2 Investigators asked Aaron's father to verify if any valuables are missing.

Speaker 13 Aaron Smith's father confirmed that there were pistols missing, a gold watch that was his and jewelry that belonged to his wife.

Speaker 2 But it's what the perpetrators left behind that's truly puzzling.

Speaker 24 There were a pair of silver handcuffs that were found on the chair.

Speaker 28 His father said that they did not belong in the house.

Speaker 13 He'd never seen them before.

Speaker 24 Were they planning on handcuffing him and torturing him before they killed him?

Speaker 23 There's all kinds of things about the handcuffs that make this intrigue.

Speaker 2 After processing the crime scene, investigators do a quick sweep of the campground.

Speaker 2 we canvassed the area there were several campers people were at the campground because summertime so we talked to them witnesses report seeing a white sedan driving through the campground around 5 p.m

Speaker 10 we learned that there were two strangers that came in the campground that had sit in the commons area or a picnic area and were driving they give us a description of the vehicle and said that was the only strange people they'd seen campground that day.

Speaker 2 After finishing their canvas, investigators sit down with Aaron's parents.

Speaker 24 They were traumatized.

Speaker 29 This was wrong.

Speaker 27 It's like a dream, like a horror movie or a nightmare.

Speaker 2 They tell investigators that not just anyone can gain access to the campground.

Speaker 25 That car only entered that gate because the person in the car knew the code.

Speaker 2 Coming up, investigators learn of big trouble brewing in a marriage on the brink.

Speaker 2 There's a warrant out for her arrest, but they still have no idea where the kids are.

Speaker 6 Thought I was going on a trip, but they never thought in a million years that she was gonna run

Speaker 6 and kidnap us.

Speaker 2 Tennessee investigators are at the Camprite Acres Campground, where minister and father of two Aaron Smith has just been found shot dead.

Speaker 16 The investigators found a witness who had seen a white car at the house, the campground prior to the murder, and also heard one or two gunshots.

Speaker 2 There's only one way in and one way out of campground, and that road is blocked by a gate. You have to know the code to open the gate.

Speaker 2 Detectives realize it's possible Aaron knew his killer, and they ask his parents to shed some light on his background.

Speaker 10 We learned from Harry that they just went through a divorce and a custody battle over the two children.

Speaker 2 Harry says the marital trouble between Aaron and Denise started shortly after they moved to the campground six years earlier.

Speaker 6 She did not enjoy the campground life,

Speaker 6 and that may be where like the first tinge of something's not right

Speaker 6 really started.

Speaker 2 According to Harry, Denise's job at the dental office put even more distance between her and Aaron.

Speaker 6 That job in Sevierville was not a good thing for her. There were several women that worked there that that were having affairs with patients,

Speaker 6 and Denise

Speaker 6 was right there with them.

Speaker 6 One day she had some kind of a little rat. My dad had to come pick her up.
She was on her way to meet her boyfriend, and he found out about the affair. He was very religious.

Speaker 6 He tried very hard to make that marriage work for a very long time. And I think the affair was finally the straw that broke the camel's back.

Speaker 9 The feelings that he had to go through knowing that his wife was cheating on him, knowing that he was going to have to go to court and get divorced, and this was extra rough because of the situation with the custody of the kids.

Speaker 2 According to Aaron's parents, it was after he filed for divorce that the real drama started.

Speaker 2 Denise counter-sued, taking everyone by surprise when she came forward with allegations of abuse.

Speaker 24 She had made that allegation that Aaron Smith was abusive and that it struck her and also struck the children.

Speaker 6 That was the first mention of any level of abuse ever toward her, toward us, period. They were still living in the house together, and things were relatively cordial up until that point.

Speaker 6 But as soon as she counter-sued, she had the police come escort him out of the house.

Speaker 2 The divorce battle was ugly.

Speaker 25 Denise wanted to do anything and everything she could to hurt him and take whatever she could get.

Speaker 2 She tried to portray Aaron as a monster, a monster in which he was not.

Speaker 2 Denise remained in the family home with their 10 and 8-year-old children.

Speaker 2 while Aaron moved in with his parents on the other side of the campground.

Speaker 6 When they separated, he was supposed to get visitation every other weekend with us,

Speaker 6 and she would make it a point to not turn us over.

Speaker 2 Harry says that Denise presented the court with so-called proof that Aaron was abusive.

Speaker 6 There were some drawings that were presented at the divorce trial that Denise said I drew them.

Speaker 6 It allegedly depicted abuse.

Speaker 6 Frankly, that was the only way she felt she had any chance of getting full custody of us.

Speaker 10 There were specific drawings of mad people

Speaker 27 with fierce-looking eyes.

Speaker 24 It was way too sophisticated for the child that it was attributed to.

Speaker 6 The judge determined those were drawn by Denise, not by me.

Speaker 10 It appears that the judge didn't believe anything that Denise had said about her husband.

Speaker 2 Harry says just a week before the murder, Aaron was awarded full custody.

Speaker 2 But when Aaron went to retrieve his children later that day, he spotted them leaving in a car with Denise.

Speaker 6 I was 10, I thought I was going on a trip. Dad and Mama actually saw us leave.
the campground. Now, I don't think they could tell the vehicles were loaded as much as they were.

Speaker 6 He He'd never thought in a million years that she was going to run and kidnap us.

Speaker 2 With no word from Denise for several days, Aaron reported the kidnapping.

Speaker 27 His wife had left the state with his children, didn't know where they were. It was suggested that they take out an arrest warrant for custodial interference.

Speaker 2 There's a warrant out for her arrest. They still have no idea where the kids are, so this was a big cause for concern.

Speaker 2 It's now been six days since Denise vanished with the kids.

Speaker 2 As investigators absorb this new insight into Erin's situation, Harry's phone suddenly rings.

Speaker 26 I'm sitting over talking to Mr.

Speaker 18 Smith, and Denise calls to me.

Speaker 6 My papa, he just hands the phone to one of the investigators.

Speaker 10 I got the talk to her and I told her she needed to get herself back to Tennessee so we could talk to her about her husband's death.

Speaker 6 When the investigator told her that he was dead, he said he got no response out of her. She just listened.

Speaker 27 He started questioning her about where she was and where the children were.

Speaker 11 She said she was in Florida and said that she would come back

Speaker 2 ten days after Denise disappeared with the children and four days after Aaron's murder, investigators finally get word that Denise is back in Tennessee alone.

Speaker 2 And she decides to turn herself in.

Speaker 27 She traveled to Tennessee.

Speaker 20 She did not bring the children.

Speaker 24 She was taken into custody on the custodial interference board. I wouldn't say she was cooperating.
She wouldn't advise where the children were.

Speaker 16 She wouldn't talk about Erin's death.

Speaker 15 But we had our suspicion that she was involved because of the divorce and the custody and battle and how rancorous it had been.

Speaker 9 She said she didn't know what had happened to her.

Speaker 26 She took the kids to Florida and that was her alibi.

Speaker 6 She held out for a couple of days, but they wouldn't let her postpone until she turned us in. She called her aunt and uncle where we were staying and told them to bring us back.

Speaker 28 The children were returned.

Speaker 27 They came and went to live with Aaron's parents.

Speaker 2 With no concrete evidence against her, investigators release Denise on Bonn and focus on Aaron's movements in the days before his murder.

Speaker 2 It doesn't take long to find something suspicious.

Speaker 27 We had received a tip that the Postal Service was looking into Mr. Aaron Smith.

Speaker 8 And on July 15th, 1997, I received a call from the Gatlinburg, Tennessee Post Office that an express mail envelope had come into that office concurrently with a phone call that said that that particular package contained illegal drugs.

Speaker 8 But there were several unusual things about this particular package.

Speaker 2 Coming up, detectives look into a nefarious claim.

Speaker 8 There was a written statement said to Aaron Smith next time the price goes up.

Speaker 2 And a surprising witness turns the case upside down.

Speaker 6 They walked over to the little table and said, well, it's done. We hurt him.
Pretty bad.

Speaker 2 Do I have time for men? Yes, I do. Let's pray.

Speaker 2 I'm a baddie. The real housewives of Potomac are back.
I know she ain't bring TJ Round.

Speaker 2 Get back with her men. Oh, my God.

Speaker 32 You've lied for eight years, Stacey.

Speaker 2 Are we still talking about your situation?

Speaker 6 Don't let this accent fool you.

Speaker 32 I never touched around my house, Dacey. You don't know one.

Speaker 2 I'm so confused. All new The Real Housewives of Potomac.
Mondays. Watch Bravo on Peacock.
The doctors will see you now. Bravo's Married to Medicine is back.

Speaker 32 What's up, players? What's up, players and players?

Speaker 2 I'm here for all of it.

Speaker 31 All of it.

Speaker 2 Friendships are the best medicine. We're that ride or die group.
That's my sister. We're going to have a good time.

Speaker 2 But they've got drama down to a science.

Speaker 32 We all should be able to

Speaker 32 ready for the drag right now if you're interested. You dogs, our home family.
Me, my kids.

Speaker 2 Watch the premiere of Married to Medicine November 30th on Bravo and streaming on Peacock. Doctor's orders.

Speaker 2 Tennessee investigators have just learned that eight days prior to Aaron Smith's death, the U.S. Postal Service received a tip that Aaron was expecting a package containing illegal substances.

Speaker 8 The address on the package was to him, return address was a fictitious address in Atlanta. But the package was actually mailed from Miami.

Speaker 2 When the inspector intercepted the package, his suspicions grew.

Speaker 8 I realized by the weight of the envelope, there could only be a very minute amount of controlled substances in the envelope.

Speaker 2 Inspectors devised a plan, and on July 15th, they put it into motion.

Speaker 8 I was going to pose as a postal carrier, deliver the package, and then if the package was accepted by the intended recipient, we'd see what this whole situation was about.

Speaker 2 Aaron signed for the package and was immediately confronted by law enforcement. Erin having no idea

Speaker 25 that there's drugs in the box, willingly open this box in front of the officials.

Speaker 8 It was a minute quantity of drugs. It was what was determined to be cocaine-based.

Speaker 8 There was a written statement said to Aaron Smith, next time the price goes up,

Speaker 8 Aaron Smith immediately said, I've been set up, which seemed a little bit reasonable at that point. He was very cooperative.
He did not have any drug record.

Speaker 27 This didn't look right.

Speaker 24 You don't send cocaine to somebody and tip somebody off about it unless there's some other motive.

Speaker 8 So we sent the express mail piece to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Crime Laboratory in Memphis to see if we could get any fingerprints.

Speaker 2 Investigators question if Aaron's killer may have been behind the drug setup.

Speaker 8 We had to put the investigation into who sent the package into high gear because we knew it could be critical.

Speaker 2 Before they get answers about the envelope, investigators receive their biggest break yet from an unexpected source.

Speaker 13 Brittany Smith, the daughter of Denise Aaron Smith, started to divulge things to her grandparents.

Speaker 17 And they're the ones that alerted law enforcement.

Speaker 2 Investigators arranged to meet with the 10-year-old at her grandparents' house.

Speaker 6 They weren't asking me anything. They were just letting me talk.
I don't think I understood the depth of all of it.

Speaker 2 Brittany tells investigators that two days after her father was awarded custody, her mother Denise and her grandfather Don said they were going on a trip.

Speaker 6 We got on the interstate and they drove all night. We get to Miami and I was like, hey, this is just a vacation.
We were out playing on the beach.

Speaker 2 Brittany reports they met up at a motel with Denise's twin sister, Debbie, who had flown in to meet them from New York, as well as Debbie's boyfriend, Alex.

Speaker 11 Brittany was able to tell us her mother had rented a car and that Deborah and Alex had left Miami.

Speaker 9 and took off in the car.

Speaker 6 The next day, Debbie and Alex got back. We were in the hotel.
It was late at night. Alex actually stepped on me and woke me up.
He didn't know I was away.

Speaker 6 So I heard their conversation. Alex looks like he had been sort of in a fight.

Speaker 6 They all walked over to the little table that Don and Denise were sitting at. And Debbie said, Well, it's done.
We hurt him pretty bad. And Alex said, no, we killed him.

Speaker 6 And Denise said, was it easy? And Alex just kind of chuckled.

Speaker 9 They thought that Brittany and the brother was asleep.

Speaker 31 And Brittany played it cool.

Speaker 13 That little girl is scarred for life.

Speaker 16 It's just devastating for her.

Speaker 2 Investigators ask Brittany if there's any other details she can recall.

Speaker 2 She says that before Debbie and Alex left, she saw something in Alex's pocket that caught her attention.

Speaker 13 She had seen him with a pair of handcuffs.

Speaker 6 When Debbie and Alex got back, he did not have the pair of handcuffs in his pocket that he had when he left.

Speaker 2 However, they did not come back empty-handed.

Speaker 6 I noticed Alex had on a watch that I recognized as my papa's gold nugget watch. And Debbie had on a ring that I recognized as my grandmother's pink ice ring.

Speaker 6 And they definitely didn't have them when they left.

Speaker 11 it's amazing to me that a 10 year old girl

Speaker 8 one would have to go through this but number two could have a very good recollection

Speaker 2 investigators focus on finding evidence to corroborate brittany's testimony against her family We did a background on Denise.

Speaker 10 We checked on her bank records.

Speaker 2 And when detectives look at her credit card purchases, they learn that on July 21st, 1997, only two days before the murder, Denise rented a white Bwick in Miami.

Speaker 2 Not only does this discovery of the rental car records back up what Courtney said, it's the same color and makeup car that people in the campground reported seeing shortly around the time of the murder.

Speaker 2 When investigators run the plates on the the rental car, they get another lead.

Speaker 10 He got a speeding ticket south of where the murder happened outside of Gattinberg. Speeding team with them in the vicinity of the murder.

Speaker 2 From the speeding ticket, investigators learn Alex's full name, Alejandro Rivera, as well as his current address.

Speaker 8 Alejandro Rivera was living in Miami, very close to the Miami post office that the parcel had originated from.

Speaker 2 With Brittany's help, investigators are closing in.

Speaker 16 A lot of times, you know, you get information that you believe is good, but unable to corroborate it. But this, get this information from a 10-year-old girl and corroborate every bit of it.

Speaker 16 I'm just glad it turned out that way.

Speaker 2 But their work isn't finished just yet. Investigators still need to prove Denise's connection to the murder.
She paid for the rental car. She knew what happened.

Speaker 2 Did she put Alex and her sister up to it?

Speaker 2 Coming up, investigators zero in on Denise.

Speaker 13 She had prayed that he was not going to get that joke. She'd seen that.

Speaker 2 And an important piece of evidence is recovered.

Speaker 8 There were five fingerprints on the outside label of the envelope.

Speaker 2 investigators looking into the murder of aaron smith believe his ex-wife denise worked with her sister debbie their father don and debbbie's boyfriend alex to carry out the deadly plan

Speaker 2 They know Denise was involved, but they need more.

Speaker 2 As investigators talk to Denise's friends it's clear that Denise didn't hide her intentions when it came to her ex-husband

Speaker 10 we interviewed some people that she worked with etc and they said that she had asked they knew anybody that would would kill her husband

Speaker 11 because of the divorce and because of the custody battle with the children

Speaker 27 She had bragged at a beauty shop to several people that he was not going to get those children.

Speaker 18 It should say that.

Speaker 2 As investigators continue to gather more background on Denise, they get an update from the Postal Inspection Crime Laboratory. The results from the envelope of cocaine are in.

Speaker 8 Our latent fingerprint examiner had come back with a report. and said that there were five fingerprints on the outside label of the express mail envelope.

Speaker 8 Important thing is you have to have the fingerprints of any suspects for comparison purposes. We had the fingerprints of Denise and Debbie in the system.

Speaker 8 The fingerprints were from Deborah Graham.

Speaker 2 Investigators believe that the drugs were Denise's first attempt to take Aaron down.

Speaker 8 The package was delivered to him on July 15th, the child custody hearings on the 17th. They might have thought that they would get him arrested prior to the child custody decision.

Speaker 8 And then, of course, the 18th, the decision was made.

Speaker 8 And then the 23rd, he was killed. So, in a very short time period, all these things happen.

Speaker 14 They were after him to discredit him in the community and before that judge.

Speaker 2 When that didn't work, authorities believe Denise went back to her family to devise a more sinister strategy.

Speaker 10 She contacted the sister, the sister contacted Alex and her boyfriend.

Speaker 11 They devised a plan, making it look like a robbery, murder gone bad, and they shot and killed him at the behest of Denise Smith.

Speaker 2 By August 1997, investigators have enough evidence to obtain arrest warrants for Denise, Debbie, and Alex.

Speaker 2 Authorities locate Denise Smith in Cosby and place her under arrest.

Speaker 10 She denied any involvement. Her story was that she took the kids to Florida, and that's where she was when that happened, and she didn't know what happened to them.

Speaker 19 Then she logged up.

Speaker 13 We were told Debbie, we lived with a fillin who was her new boyfriend up in New York, who was a bouncer at a strip club in New York City and sold hired outside

Speaker 2 on August 22nd 1997 Tennessee investigators with the help of NYPD head to the address

Speaker 17 they sent a plainclothes detective in there the entry team went through the front of the apartment and apprehended her

Speaker 2 after taking Debbie Debbie into custody, investigators search her belongings.

Speaker 27 A lot of our information came from her new boyfriend who was living with her in that apartment in Queens.

Speaker 24 He told us that she had discussed the burglary and that

Speaker 27 Aaron had died.

Speaker 28 She showed him jewelry that had come from

Speaker 24 the break-in.

Speaker 2 In New York, investigators confront Debbie with the evidence against her.

Speaker 24 First, she said, you don't want me, you want my sister. I've got a twin sister.
You've made a mistake.

Speaker 27 She's the one you want.

Speaker 13 I said, we want both of them.

Speaker 2 Debbie admits to making the trip with Alex.

Speaker 10 Deborah admitted to being there, but she didn't admit to being involved in the robbery and the killing.

Speaker 10 It was more or less, yes, I went with Alex, but he took me back to the motel, and I don't know what happened.

Speaker 2 With Debbie and Denise in custody, authorities turned their attention to finding Alex.

Speaker 10 One of the investigators checked some flight records and determined that Alex had flown from Miami to New York.

Speaker 28 Alex was moving around a lot, changed his location.

Speaker 24 He was different addresses in the city. And agents in New York finally located him about a year later.

Speaker 20 New York authorities arrested him.

Speaker 2 Authorities attempt to interview Alex, but like Denise and Debbie, he doesn't want to talk.

Speaker 17 Alex didn't give any kind of statement for or against anyone other than to say he wasn't he didn't know what we were talking about he wasn't involved in anything like that.

Speaker 27 When confronted with the ticket,

Speaker 13 he had to admit that he had been in Tennessee.

Speaker 24 And when confronted with the information about the white car that had been seen there at the time that the gunshots were heard, he said, oh yeah, I was there, but I only meant to scare him.

Speaker 13 He was alive when they left. That just does apply.

Speaker 10 It's obvious that he went there with the intention to kill.

Speaker 2 Investigators say Debbie and Alex ambushed Aaron inside his parents' house.

Speaker 18 They went in, got the drop on him.

Speaker 10 They handcuffed him. He got out of the handcuffs.

Speaker 26 And Alex started shooting at him and shot at him at least three times.

Speaker 2 After the arrests, investigators speak with Denise's father, Don.

Speaker 2 The investigators believe Don was there in the motel with them in Miami.

Speaker 10 It was obvious he wasn't going to cooperate, though.

Speaker 9 He's not not going to tell if he's involved.

Speaker 2 With Denise, Debbie, and Alex behind bars, investigators hand the case over to prosecutors.

Speaker 2 But without a confession, the case hinges on one thing, the testimony of a 10-year-old girl.

Speaker 2 Coming up, a daughter faces her mother in the courtroom.

Speaker 8 It's amazing to me that a 10-year-old girl would have to go through this, especially considering that her father had been killed. Very courageous little girl.

Speaker 2 Prosecutors attempt to explain a desperate bond.

Speaker 6 Debbie wanted Denise's approval so bad that she would do or say just about anything.

Speaker 2 By the summer of 1999, Denise Smith, her twin sister Debbie, and Alex Rivera are all awaiting trial for the murder of Denise's ex-husband, Aaron Smith.

Speaker 2 Prosecutors make the decision to try Denise and Debbie together.

Speaker 24 We were concerned that if we tried them separately, that Debbie would try to put it on to Denise, and then we tried Denise, and Denise would say, No, it was Debbie, and that we would not be able to to convict them both.

Speaker 2 The trial begins in June. The prosecution calls their star witness to the stand, Denise and Aaron's daughter, Brittany.

Speaker 6 I was 12 when Denise and Debbie's trial took place. It's hard to sit there on the witness stand and to tell them

Speaker 6 these terrible, miserable, horrible things about your mother and she's sitting there staring at you like she could absolutely run through me. And Debbie's sitting on the other side of the table.

Speaker 6 That was really hard.

Speaker 27 We could not have prosecuted the case without Brittany's testimony. We had, like I say, we had circumstantial evidence, but the direct proof basically came from Brittany's statement.

Speaker 2 Prosecutors argue that Denise was motivated by rage and driven by a desire for control.

Speaker 10 When she didn't get custody, she was was going to make sure she had custody.

Speaker 19 And the one way to do that was to kill Aaron or have it done.

Speaker 31 She wanted to be the one in control, make the decisions. It was our belief that there was no limit to what she needed to do to gain control and keep control.

Speaker 2 Debbie's motive, on the other hand, is more complicated.

Speaker 6 Debbie wanted Denise's approval so bad that she would do or say just about anything to get Denise to pay her attention in a positive way.

Speaker 6 And Denise knew that, and she would manipulate and use that to her advantage any chance that she got.

Speaker 6 So I think Debbie agreed to do it because Denise was giving her the time of day as long as she was going along with it.

Speaker 2 Despite the evidence against them, Denise and Debbie don't waiver.

Speaker 24 Both Denise and Debbie maintained their innocence throughout the trial.

Speaker 16 Neither one testified.

Speaker 2 In June of 1999, the trial concludes and the jury returns a verdict. Denise and Debbie are both found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Speaker 6 They both got life with parole, meaning they have to serve 51 years before their parole eligible.

Speaker 2 Two years later, Alex Rivera goes to trial for first-degree murder.

Speaker 24 Brittany also testified about Alex, pointed him out, said it was him that was in the motel room in Florida, that left with her aunt Debbie and came back and talked about harming Aaron Smith or killing him.

Speaker 2 Alex is also sentenced to life in prison.

Speaker 2 Don Graham, father to Debbie and Denise, escapes charges related to the murder.

Speaker 24 We kept investigating, trying to develop some evidence that he was a part of the murder.

Speaker 24 He was charged with being an accessory to the custodial interference and was convicted of that, but really received no punishment other than probation.

Speaker 2 Since her conviction, Denise has made several unsuccessful requests for early release.

Speaker 6 Denise has tried twice now to get out on clemency or to get her sentence commuted on commutation. I think she deserves to be in there because she killed my dad.

Speaker 6 And I am very fearful of what any one of the three of them would do if they got out.

Speaker 6 Alex said that he would come after me if he ever got out.

Speaker 29 If he could walk through that door right now, I have no doubt in my mind that he would walk through that door,

Speaker 24 come up, put his arm around me, and say, would you pray with me now?

Speaker 6 I grieve for the childhood I didn't get to have. I think I still grieve for the things that I know that he missed out on.

Speaker 6 You know, prom, high school graduation, major life events that he would have loved to be a part of.

Speaker 2 Aaron's parents, Harry and Kalita, were granted full custody of Brittany and her brother. Denise Smith and Debbie Graham remain in prison.
They will be eligible for parole in 2048 at the age of 86.

Speaker 2 Alex Rivera will be eligible for parole in 2049 at the age of 86.

Speaker 21 When life happens and you need care fast, you can Teledoc that. Need help navigating big changes? You can Teledoc that too.

Speaker 21 From checkups to check-ins and everything in between, for your physical health or for your mental health, you can teledoc all that.

Speaker 21 We've got doctors, therapists, specialists, and coaches all available by web or app. Get started today at teledochealth.com.
That's t-e-l-ad-o-chhealth.com.