[narrator] a 911 call upends a small indiana town.
[tom] he was laying in the middle of the bed
With his feet hanging off the bottom.
Blood spatter all over the headboard, the walls.
[narrator] investigators work to unravel
A web of rumor and hearsay.
There had been a fight at the party the night before.
By the end of the day, we had several suspects,
But we had far more questions than we had answers to.
[narrator] a dangerous dynamic points to a potential motive...
It was clear there was a love triangle.
[narrator] but there is more to this love triangle
Than meets the eye.
[sarah] between the two of 'em,
They gave me everything that I wanted.
There was quite a bit of drug use going on.
[beth] nobody was thinking clearly.
I think it probably just got outta hand.
[theme music]
[narrator] July 19th, 2017.
It's a quiet summer day
In the rural midwestern community
Of birdseye, indiana.
It's a little one-horse town, you'd call it.
It has a post office.
We got a family dollar, and it's got a gas station.
It's also the home of the dairy barn.
It won some kind of a prize for the best ice cream.
There's not much in birdseye.
[narrator] the lazy afternoon is interrupted at around 2 p.M.
When 40-year-old sarah andry makes a panicked 911 call.
She asks dispatchers to send someone to the home of
Her boyfriend, darin atkins.
[narrator] sarah explains she and her mom
Are parked at an intersection called bretzville junction,
About 11 miles away from darin's home.
[tom] several other deputies, including myself,
Went to where the deceased male was.
It's a trailer that sits on a little lot.
There was just a very short hallway
That opened up into the master bedroom.
There you saw the body.
It was very clear that there was
Some type of a blunt-force object used,
Because his whole side of his face was bashed in
And the amount of blood spatter
All over the headboard, the walls.
He was laying in the middle of the bed
With his feet hanging off the bottom.
They confirmed he was deceased.
They immediately made sure there was nobody else in there,
And waited to have crime scene come.
[narrator] as the crime scene investigation gets underway,
A dubois county deputy meets sarah and her mother
At bretzville junction.
So, sarah's demeanor at the bretzville junction
Was kinda all over the place.
She was, she was crying. She was visibly upset.
I never seen a dead person before,
And I was just freaked out.
[narrator] the deputy asks sarah
Why she didn't call 911 from darin's house.
Sarah had active warrants,
And that's why sarah didn't wanna call the police.
She had two outstanding warrants for failure to appears.
[sarah] I should've called 911 right there.
But I wasn't thinking.
I was cryin',
And we stopped on the side of the road and called 911.
[narrator] sarah recounts to the deputy
What she saw inside darin's trailer.
[sarah] I tried to go in the door,
The door was locked.
We always had windows we get in, you know,
'cause sometimes I would get locked out
Or he would get locked out.
So, I had to go through the kitchen window.
I went in the house, and I seen him layin' in the bed.
I shook him, and he wouldn't wake up.
I should've called 911 right there
Whenever I was down there,
But I'd never seen a dead body before.
Nonetheless one that I loved, so I wasn't thinking.
I can't believe it. And I was in shock.
[narrator] born on September 21st, 1967,
Darin atkins grew up on the outskirts of birdseye.
[cheri] darin was real close with his family.
[indistinct] and jack were good parents,
And his brother, david, you know, they were all close.
[narrator] soon after high school,
Darin met cheri cravens.
I was workin' at sunoco in birdseye,
And he used to come in all the time and flirt.
[narrator] the flirtation quickly led to more.
[cheri] me and darin, we were just sittin' there talkin',
And he just leaned over and he said, "I love you."
I said, "I love you too."
"will you do me the honors of bein' my wife?"
And I said yes.
[narrator] they married on April 16th, 1988.
Darin's dad gave us a acre of land,
That was our wedding present.
And that's where we put our first home,
In the good old days.
September 1st, 1988, tiffany leona atkins came along;
Mine and darin's oldest daughter.
[tammy] they were very happy.
She was a little firecracker.
And then, a year later, brittany came in February.
His lifelong dream was to be a truck driver.
He went to truck driving school.
He got a cdl, and he was very happy.
[narrator] the local hauling fit darin's family lifestyle.
He was home every night.
He didn't like the idea of bein' away from home,
Which was good.
[narrator] after nearly two decades together,
The couple amicably divorced in 2003.
[cheri] me and darin had a good relationship.
But there was three people on our marriage bed.
There was me, there was darin, and there was his mother.
His mom always meddled.
Just got tired of it. She won, and I moved on.
It was sad, because me and darin did have a good relationship.
We did.
[narrator] but the divorce wouldn't be
The biggest challenge cheri and darin would face...
Me and darin ended up losin' both of our daughters.
June 19th, 2006. Car wreck.
They was out cruisin', you know, tiffany's boyfriend.
And he was drivin' at a high rate of speed.
We didn't know they were gone until we got to the hospital.
It was very hard on our family. It was just horrible.
[narrator] darin was devastated.
After, you know, he got with just a bad crowd,
And I know he started probably doin' drugs.
He just changed, you know?
He wasn't the same darin anymore.
[narrator] in 2014, darin met sarah andry,
Who was a salve for his hurting heart.
She's a bubbly, kinda shy, but bubbly and, and energetic.
Kinda all-in-one big bundle.
But she was always really nice to people.
[narrator] born in 1976,
Sarah and her three siblings
Were raised by her mom and stepfather
In the tiny town of akron, indiana.
My mom worked at a dairy farm, and my dad sold insurance.
Me and mom's always been really close.
I mean, she's my best friend, I love her.
[narrator] she enjoyed a carefree small-town childhood
Until she got pregnant as a high school freshman.
[sarah] he took me and moved to florida.
I married the first man I ever kissed.
I was really excited when my oldest daughter was born.
My boys were born in '93.
The last daughter was born in '95.
At that time, I was introduced to weed and cocaine and meth,
And when my kids were 8, 11, and 12,
I lost my kids.
I, they got put into foster care,
And then they got adopted.
It was a horrible marriage.
He filed for divorce, finally,
And I signed the papers and that was the end of that.
[narrator] looking for a fresh start,
Sarah headed back to indiana.
I was really happy to move back around my family.
I moved in with my mom.
I started working at
The little dairy farm where my mom worked,
Milked cows.
[narrator] but 37-year-old sarah was lonely
When she met 46-year-old darin in 2014.
I met darin on facebook, was up late.
He came and picked me up,
And I went down there that night and talked to him.
He said that he'd a hard time and had a hard life;
His two, two daughters got killed in a bad car accident.
And I was there for a couple of days,
And I just never left.
He was a good guy.
I don't know, I just liked everything about him.
[narrator] sarah moved in,
And the couple looked to bury their pain in a good time.
The place they was at was just a big party house.
I mean, it was drugs and havin' fun.
[narrator] but after three years,
They were ready for a change.
Me and darin just broke down to each other,
And we said, you know, we couldn't do this anymore.
We was living the wrong kinda life
With all the drugs and everything else.
[narrator] on July 19th, 2017,
Their dream of a sober future ends in bloodshed.
A dubois county deputy continue to speak with sarah
After she discovered darin's battered body.
Sarah, at that point, was taken to the,
The sheriff's department.
[narrator] at darin's trailer,
Homicide investigators continue searching for clues.
[tom] we found the wallet;
It was partially opened, laying on top of a trash bag.
There was no money in the wallet.
Somebody either stealing his money,
Or there was something out of his wallet that they wanted.
Maybe they made it look like it's a robbery gone wrong.
When a homicide takes place, it's kind of a big deal.
Especially a small community like dubois.
We just don't have a lot of violent crime.
[narrator] coming up.
Investigators turn to sarah for answers...
There had been a fight at the party the night before.
[narrator] and undercover a grudge.
Darin had burned his trailer. That was motive.
[music]
[narrator] July 19th, 2017.
Investigators in birdseye, indiana
Continue processing the home of 49-year-old darin atkins,
Who was found beaten to death in his bedroom.
No murder weapon was located.
We just knew that it was a blunt-force object.
[rick] you had a pool of blood in one location on the mattress.
You had mr. Atkins' body in a different location.
[beth] there was also a bloody blanket on the floor
And a bloody pillow on the floor.
It almost appeared as if somebody had attempted to
Take the body out of there.
But I think they realized that it was way too difficult.
[narrator] though the attacker did not remove darin's body,
They did take the contents of his wallet.
Investigators consider whether robbery was the motive...
Or an afterthought.
A robbery gone wrong wasn't necessarily ruled out,
But different pieces of, of that particular puzzle
Just didn't add up.
[tom] the tv was there,
And then I don't believe there was a lot in the residence
That someone would've broke in and stole.
[narrator] investigators head back to the sheriff's office
To speak with darin's girlfriend,
Sarah andry.
She says she and darin were trying to get clean
And build a future together.
He asked me to marry him, I said yes.
But...
It just, the drugs and the life we was livin',
It just wasn't happening.
It was determined that there was a so-called party there
The night before,
With maybe eight individuals that were at that party.
[sarah] people kept showin' up.
I mean, there was people in and out.
[tom] sarah said the people at the party,
They all were gone by midnight.
The only one there past that was sarah.
[narrator] sarah says she stayed the night at darin's
And left around 8 a.M.
To go to her friend jason atkins's house.
Though darin and jason share the same last name,
They are not related.
Darin lived about a mile or so away from
Where jason atkins' residence was.
Darin and jason knew each other for a very long time.
They both grew up in that community.
Sarah took her laundry basket and all of her laundry
To jason's to do laundry.
And then, when she returned,
That's when she noticed that darin was deceased.
[beth] she said that there had been a fight at the party
The night before.
Somethin' about jason bledsoe usin' darin's car
And not bringing the car back.
And there was bad blood between the two of them.
[narrator] before investigators track down jason bledsoe,
They inform sarah that she will have to remain at
The dubois county jail.
She had some minor theft charges.
At the time, she had an outstanding warrant
When we arrested her for this.
[narrator] investigators are eager to
Speak with jason bledsoe,
As well as the other partygoer.
[rick] by the end of the day, on July 19th,
We had several suspects.
People that was at the trailer that you normally want to
Include in your suspect pool.
But also, at the end of the day, on July 19th,
We had far more questions than we had answers to.
[narrator] the following day,
Investigators receive darin's autopsy.
He died from
A blunt force trauma to the head.
[rick] darin atkins had a lot of trauma
To the left side of his face.
It also noted several small cuts.
In all likelihood that was
The barbwire bat that was used to kill darin.
They were able to determine that when he was discovered at noon,
He'd been dead for quite a period of time before that.
[tom] our pathologist who came in and performed the autopsy
Stated that it was probably, presumably,
Sometime between four and eight o'clock in the morning.
[beth] sarah originally said that
She had been at darin's all night,
And that she left around 8 o'clock that morning
To go to jason atkins' to do some laundry.
So, we had to try to nail down when he was alive.
[narrator] with new insight into the crime's timeline,
Investigators next locate
The man sarah named in her statement, jason bledsoe.
[tom] I met with him in a parking lot
Of an antique store.
He corroborated some of what sarah said about the car.
[beth] darin was mad that jason wasn't bringing his car back,
But I don't think it rose to the level of violence.
I think it was just, "hey, I want my car back,"
And jason's not bringing the car back.
[narrator] jason bledsoe admits to being at the party,
But says he left sometime before midnight
And never returned.
He was at his girlfriend's residence.
There was numerous people there.
So, there were other individuals that saw them there
And confirmed that they had been there since around dark
On the night before.
[narrator] investigators begin moving through
The list of partygoers,
Tracking them down one by one.
[beth] according to everyone that knew darin,
Darin atkins was a really nice guy,
And they said that he would help anybody,
He would do anything for anybody.
[narrator] they also learn that darin kept a unique weapon
Inside the trailer for protection.
There were several different people that had told us
That darin atkins had had a bat at one time
That he had wrapped in barbwire.
Darin had a baseball bat that he always had at that house
That was never located, that was never recovered.
[narrator] as authorities talk to the partygoers,
They learn of a conflict betwee darin and a man at the party
Named stephen clapp.
Stephen clapp's trailer in birdseye
Had burned at one point in time.
Property that belonged to stephen prior to the arson
Ended up in the possession of darin atkins.
Stephen clapp believed that darin had burned his trailer.
[tom] but there was some time that had passed,
So stephen clapp was also in that group
That went to darin's, to frequent darin's.
[narrator] according to several guests,
Stephen left the party in a huf and walked home.
The partygoers allege stephen had assaulted
Another man previously
With a weapon that raises investigators' interest.
[tom] we started looking into it and found out
Stephen did hit this gentleman with a baseball bat.
So, we thought it could've been stephen clapp.
He had motive to do this.
[narrator] coming up.
Investigators learn more about stephen's night...
Stephen was mad at his girlfriend,
And he started walking home.
[narrator] and a twist reveals a romantic rivalry.
[music]
[narrator] investigators in birdseye, indiana
Are chasing down leads
In the brutal beating death of darin atkins.
[rick] stephen clapp was a suspect.
There was an arson that took place at his trailer,
And he had suspected darin atkins of it.
[narrator] stephen is brought into
The police station for questioning.
He admits he did storm out of the party,
But not because he was angry with darin.
Stephen was mad at his girlfriend,
And he left darin's trailer,
And he started walking home.
And then she'd picked him up.
But they went back to
Stephen clapp's mother's trailer,
And they had been there all night.
[narrator] stephen claims that the following morning,
He got up early and went to work.
Darin died early morning hours on the 19th,
And according to stephen,
He had went to work early morning hours of the 19th.
[narrator] when stephen's interview is over,
The first priority is verifying his alibi.
[tom] we went to his work,
And we got information on when he punched in.
It wasn't until later on that morning,
More like towards the 10 o'clock that he went to work.
So, he was lying to us about that.
[narrator] investigators track down stephen's girlfriend.
She confirms stephen's story,
Saying she spent the night in question with him.
But there is something else
She is eager to share with detectives.
We found out through her that
Sarah andry was dating jason atkins.
[narrator] stephen's girlfriend says that
For the last couple of years,
Sarah switched back and forth between the two men on a whim.
She lived with jason for a period of time,
And then she would move down to darin's.
And darin and jason knew.
People that knew darin and people that knew jason
Thought sarah was manipulative.
So, whoever was nice to her or whoever had the, the drugs,
That's where she kinda gravitated towards.
[narrator] investigators attempt to sort fact from fiction
By collecting the cell phones of everyone in the friend circl
Who could be involved.
[beth] all their cell phones were taken.
Got search warrants on all those phones,
And then we extracted all the information off the phones.
[narrator] the love triangle quickly takes center stage.
[rick] going through social media records
From jason atkins and sarah andry,
We found that he had made comments that,
"as long as darin's around, I'm never gonna have you."
[jerry] when you read those facebook messages,
It's very clear to me that jason wanted sarah
And he didn't wanna lose sarah,
And he was jealous of the love
That she evidently at that time had for darin.
Jason would have motive to kill darin.
Because if darin's out of the picture,
Then he can have sarah, which is what he wanted.
[narrator] as jason atkins moves to the top of the suspect list,
Stephen clapp falls off.
[tom] the locations data that we were able to get
From cell phones
Was proof that stephen clapp was not at darin's location
At the time of the homicide.
[narrator] but darin's phone reveals more than just that.
[beth] there was a text sent from his phone at 4:12 a.M.,
Using a derogatory name for sarah,
Saying that she was still at brain's.
And brain was a nickname for jason atkins.
So, darin was clearly mad at that point
That sarah was still at jason's.
So, we knew then that sarah wasn't at darin's
Like she said she was.
Sarah says that she left about eight o'clock that morning
To go do laundry.
Clearly, she was lying.
[narrator] after realizing sarah wasn't being entirely honest,
Detectives meet with her on July 28th
At the dubois county jail,
Where she remains in custody on the outstanding warrants.
Sarah admits to the love triangle.
I started seein' both of 'em.
Like, if I wasn't with one of 'em,
I was with the other one of 'em.
They knew it.
Ended up choosin' darin.
I had finally told jason, and he wasn't happy.
[narrator] they confront her
About the text found on darin's phone.
I thought the were more after jason,
Or tryin' to say jason did it than me.
[sarah] I didn't understand.
I thought they were tryin' to say jason did it, then me.
[narrator] after getting nowhere with sarah,
Investigators bring jason atkin into the station
To try their luck with him.
Jason atkins's account of where he was at that night
Is he's at his house.
He doesn't leave anywhere.
[narrator] with sarah and jason sticking by their stories,
Investigators get creative...
[tom] birdseye is not that big.
The birdseye library sits right there on state road 145,
Has a great view.
They do have a camera that we seen.
[narrator] to travel from jason's house to darin's
Would require driving past the library
And the camera.
We were able to get all of the footage from the library,
And a camera that was basically
One way in and one way out of town.
[narrator] investigators focus on the footage from
The early morning hours of July 19th.
[rick] we see jason atkins's car at about 4:13,
Going northbound past the library.
His interviews, he had said he was staying home all night
And that nobody had taken his car.
Why is his car going past the library
If it didn't leave his house all night?
[narrator] that's not all the footage has to offer...
[tom] we're able to see that there's two people in the car.
But we can't see who they are.
[narrator] if jason is the killer,
It appears he had an accomplice
[tom] so, we're gonna try to talk to him
And then give an opportunity one more time to tell the truth
That someone else was involved in the homicide.
[narrator] coming up.
Investigators confront jason.
[music]
[narrator] months after the murder of darin atkins,
Sarah andry has been released from jail
Where she'd been held on unrelated outstanding warrants.
She was released,
And she was back into the birdseye community.
[narrator] with a potential murder suspect in the community
Investigators waste no time,
And on may 24th, 2018, they speak with jason again.
This time, in the pike county jail,
Where he is being held on unrelated charges.
Jason atkins was in jail for narcotics charges
In a different county.
[beth] we had what we called the murder box.
It was this giant box of everything that we'd collected.
And they just confronted him
With different pieces of evidence.
But at that time, I wanted him to also know we believed
There was another player that helped him out.
[narrator] jason says
That in the early morning hours of July 19th,
After the party at darin's place,
Sarah showed up at his house.
[tom] he said that sarah was telling him
That darin beats her.
And so, they made a pact that they were gonna go down
And confront him about the abuse.
[jerry] according to jason, they left,
He and sarah, in jason's car.
They arrive at the mobile home and jason remains outside
While sarah allegedly walks in without jason.
Jason waits a few minutes and then enters.
He told me that after he hit him that he was unconscious,
But he was still alive.
They get into the car,
Sarah's driving the car, and they leave.
The facebook records and the phone records,
They all indicated a lot of manipulation on her part,
And she was playing them against each other.
Sarah would make accusations against darin to jason,
And she would make accusations against jason to darin.
She would get them to feel sorry for her,
And she would just use that to her advantage.
[narrator] what doesn't match
Is what jason says happened inside the home.
[bill] there was certainly multiple blows.
That was clear.
There was nothing about the crime scene evidence
That was consistent with the story
That jason atkins had given.
[narrator] investigators know they don't have the whole story
Five days later, jason reaches out.
This time, he says he is ready to tell them everything.
He said that, in his words, "I hit him in the head.
I know that it knocked him out.
He was out, but I know that he was still alive
When sarah picked up the bat."
At that point, jason was arrested for the murder,
And we opted to go and file for
A warrant for the arrest of sarah.
[narrator] investigators learn
That after sarah's release from jail
Earlier in the year,
She quickly married an old high school friend,
Eddie andry.
But sarah's attempt at domestic life
Comes to an end on June 11th, 2018,
When deputies arrive at her hoe with an arrest warrant.
[eddie] we was asleep.
The next thing I know, I've got three or four officers
Standin' around my couch,
Screamin' with guns drawed, tellin' us to get up,
"let me see your hands."
They just come in and said, "you're under arrest."
They handcuffed me and put me in the car.
Said they was arrestin' me for murder.
[brock] there was no upset, there was no "I didn't do it."
All she did was just stand up, put her arms behind her back,
And said okay.
And never said another word to us.
I just got caught up in the drug life,
And this is where it got me.
[narrator] coming up.
Prosecutors zero in on sarah...
[beth] we think she acted on impulse,
And all these emotions were fueled by drugs.
[narrator] but sarah sees freedom within reach.
It was a big roadblock to us
That we never found the murder weapon.
[music]
[narrator] dubois county authorities
Have arrested sarah andry and jason atkins
For the beating death of darin atkins.
As prosecutors prepare for trial,
It becomes apparent that drugs fueled
This love triangle turned deadly.
I would tend to say that sarah didn't go there
With the intentions that darin was gonna die.
All these emotions were fueled by drugs,
And nobody was thinking clearly.
I think it probably just got outta hand.
[brock] it's hard to tell whether
The first hit when jason swung the bat killed him,
Or if when sarah steps up, grabs the baseball bat,
And knocks him two more times over the head,
If that's what killed him.
[narrator] with one of sarah's lovers dead,
The other turns against her.
Jason atkins didn't go to trial.
Jason atkins pled guilty and took a reduced sentence
In exchange for him testifying against sarah.
I never believed that he could even do it
'til I actually heard it come out of his mouth.
[narrator] in September 2020,
Sarah sees her day in court.
The prosecution's case hinges on a star witness.
Jason testifies that sarah urge him to confront darin...
Sarah told jason that she was gettin' beat by darin,
And he was gonna go down there and confront him about it.
[narrator] allegations prosecutors argue are unfounded
As far as darin atkins committing
Any type of assault on, on sarah andry,
There was never any police reports.
Going through the different social medias,
There was never anything that we found
Where she was telling people that darin was beating on her.
[narrator] prosecutors believe sarah's true motive
May never be entirely clear.
[beth] other than jason saying sarah was there,
I think the biggest piece of evidence
That we had against sarah
Was all these wildly inconsistent stories.
We got thousands of pages of facebook records
And phone records.
It was just a consistent pattern of, over several years' time,
Her manipulating both of them to get whatever she wanted
Or needed at the time,
Whether that was food or drugs or a place to live.
It was just the totality of everything.
It wasn't any one particular piece of evidence.
Everything pointed in the direction that sarah was guilty.
[narrator] sarah's defense points out
That one crucial piece of evidence is missing.
It was a big roadblock to us
That we never found the murder weapon.
[narrator] the defense argues that jason acted alone
To eliminate a romantic rival,
Pointing out that his statement
Is all that places sarah at the scene.
[jerry] the police clearly made a big deal out of
The surveillance video.
Without question, jason is observed in the video,
But at no time during July 19, 2017,
Was sarah andry observed in the surveillance video.
[narrator] they also note a problem
With one important piece of jason's statement.
He basically said that darin was coming at him
With a baseball bat
In his bedroom.
That he took the baseball bat away from darin.
That was not consistent with the bloodstain pattern analysis.
[bill] the blanket that was pulled down to the floor,
You could also see these impact stains which suggest that
Darin was under the covers when the beating occurred.
And so, how do you reconcile that with jason's statement
That he's standing up and he disarms him?
They just don't add up.
And so, it begs the question, if, if he's lying about that,
Is he being truthful about sarah being the person
That inflicted these fatal blows?
[narrator] it's a purely circumstantial case,
But the judge believes it's enough.
They found me guilty of murder,
And they sentenced me to 55 years.
They had jason's word against mine.
I never thought in a million years
I'd be sittin' in prison for a murder charge.
Never. But...
It's what drugs did for me.
Jason atkins received 20 years in prison
Followed by five years on home detention,
And then 20 years on probation after that.
[narrator] sarah continues to stand by her innocence.
[sarah] I want the truth to come out, too, for real.
I want darin's mom to know that I didn't do it.
I ain't proud of it, but that's just...
I was on drugs, and I wanted everything.
Between the two of 'em,
They gave me everything that I wanted.
[narrator] but there is no denying the pain
Darin's family continues to suffer
Over the loss of a man they love.
Darin was a good guy. He didn't do nothin' wrong.
I just don't understand why. I really don't.
He didn't deserve that.
Nobody deserves, not that. Nobody.
[music]