- FEMALE NARRATOR: The shooting of a young, father-to-be
- NARRATOR: November 11th, 2015.
Detectives with the Pinellas County sheriff's office
are standing over the body of 24-year-old Chris Rotenberger,
the victim of a close-range gunshot wound.
- STEVEN: There was no shell casings
that was immediately located.
There was no firearm, there was no tire track.
They really didn't come up with anything.
- I saw nothing from my trained experience that led
me to believe that there was a struggle or any kind of fight.
- NARRATOR: But when investigators recover
a small baggie of marijuana in Chris' pocket,
a potential motive surfaces.
- RICHARD: It gets some people to maybe speculate that there
was some kind of narcotics-related explanation
for what happened.
- NARRATOR: Investigators are anxious to question
all four of Chris' roommates.
- We started bringing all the roommates to the station
so they could be interviewed individually.
Christian Krieter, his son, Aaron Thompson,
was a roommate of Christopher's.
Aaron's sister, Ali, was also a roommate
with her boyfriend, Jordyn.
They all lived in the home.
- NARRATOR: Before questioning begins, authorities run
the roommates' names in the system and find
one of the four more suspicious than the others.
- Christian Krieter was the father of Aaron and Ali,
who both lived with Chris.
He had moved into the house and was sharing a room with Aaron
at the time of the murder.
- RICHARD: He had a criminal record.
He had some firearms charges involved in it, um, you know,
there was you some attention towards him.
- JONATHAN: He was a convicted felon,
and he was somebody we needed to take a closer look at.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Christian about what happened
the night before the murder.
- JONATHAN: He claimed he had not heard anything, which I
thought was strange how somebody could be shot in your front yard
and you don't hear the gunshot.
- NARRATOR: Detectives also sit down
with Christian's daughter, Ali.
She says Chris came home from work around 3 AM.
- ALI: Chris worked at the restaurant on the night shift,
so when he got home late, my kid's father, Jordyn, went to go
talk to him and they talked for about maybe ten minutes
and Chris went back outside.
- NARRATOR: Ali tells detectives Chris had adhered
to his nightly post-shift routine.
- NARRATOR: Ali says that while Chris was outside, the house
grew quiet and she went to sleep...albeit briefly.
- ALI: The dogs had already tried to jump through it,
and it was cracked and covered with a cardboard box cutout.
I did not check, and we went back to bed.
- She went back to sleep and was asleep until her father
woke her up the next morning saying that Christopher
was in the front yard.
- NARRATOR: According to Ali, Christopher didn't have enemies.
In fact, he was on the brink of a new chapter in life:
fatherhood.
- ALI: I said although Stephanie had just moved out,
she had found out she was pregnant,
so they were gonna try to work on things for the baby.
- NARRATOR: In separate interview rooms, investigators
press the other two roommates, Aaron Thompson and Jordyn Beck,
for information.
- NARRATOR: With no reason to hold them,
investigators wrap up the interviews with the roommates,
but make a request before sending them on their way.
- The police asked all of us to take a gunshot residue test.
The police asked all of us for all of our phones,
and the police also asked all of us
to take a lie detector test.
- We conducted voice stress analysis tests on them
to determine if they were being truthful.
- NARRATOR: With the tests underway, detectives receive
word that a dramatic scene is unfolding back at Chris's house.
- A young woman showed up on scene in a panic.
She was very upset, frantic, and we learned
that it was Christopher's girlfriend, Stephanie.
- She was notified by one of Chris' roommates.
- Stephanie arrives, and when she sees the body
in the yard, she becomes extremely distressed.
- JONATHAN: Stephanie was pregnant.
She was in a panic and was ultimately transported
to the hospital by paramedics to ensure her safety.
- NARRATOR: Detectives aren't able to talk with Stephanie,
but find her mother, Cathy, at the scene,
and Cathy is eager to point detectives in the direction
of a potential suspect.
- Stephanie's mother, Cathy, told me on scene
that Stephanie had developed a friendship with a female manager
at the McDonald's where she worked,
and the manager had become possessive of Stephanie.
- Stephanie's mother had mentioned the name
of Dawn Houck as the manager of where Stephanie worked.
- NARRATOR: Though Dawn and Stephanie's friendship
began at work in the summer of 2015,
it soon expanded beyond their time on the clock.
- She and Dawn were spending a lot of time together.
They would talk and text several times a day.
- STEVEN: Stephanie had confided in Dawn.
Dawn was also 14 years her senior
and experienced more relationships at that point.
- MATTHEW: Dawn has unfortunately had terrible luck
when it came to romance and being in love.
Um, she is a very sweet woman.
A lot of the women she dated would claim
that she was getting a little clingy.
- MICHELLE: Me and Dawn dated for five years
before we decided to get married.
About 2010, I just drifted away.
I found somebody that would give me what I'm looking--
was looking for at the time.
- NARRATOR: Though Dawn's loyalty to her partners
was sometimes perceived as overbearing,
she offered the same dedication to her friends.
- She's the kind of person that would give her shirt
off her back if you needed it.
- MICHELLE: She was a good person.
Someone who was there for you when you needed her.
- MELISSA: I looked up to Dawn.
She treated my mom good, she treated me good, she was
an excellent person, like, if you were having a bad day
and you just needed a good laugh.
- MATTHEW: Dawn was very protective of anyone
that she was close with.
She was the kind of person that would put herself in front
of harm to prevent harm from happening to other people.
- NARRATOR: As detectives interview Stephanie's mother
at the crime scene, they learn that Dawn had recently become
more than just a good friend to her daughter.
- Dawn and Stephanie, they began as friends
and then it became more than friends.
They became intimate.
- We determined that the manager was somebody
we needed to speak with.
- NARRATOR: As investigators add Dawn's name to their list
of leads, they receive word that the test results are back
on Christopher's roommates.
- We used the gunshot residue to rule in and rule out,
uh, potential suspects.
None of the roommates had gunshot residue
located on their persons.
- NARRATOR: The voice stress test results
are a different story.
- We all did comply with police with the lie detector test
and the gunshot residue tests.
But from what I believe, they found my father, Christian,
deceitful from the lie detector test.
- [siren wails]
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Detectives put their first lead to the test.
- We spoke with a lot of his associates.
We tried to determine if anybody had seen him with a firearm
in recent months.
- NARRATOR: And mysterious threats paint an ominous picture
for investigators.
- â™ª
- NARRATOR: In the hours after 24-year-old father-to-be,
Chris Rotenberger, is found murdered, detectives have been
grilling his roommates for information.
When one roommate, Christian Kreiter,
fails a voice stress test,
investigators immediately put deputies on the lead.
- JONATHAN: We spoke with a lot of his associates.
We tried to determine if anybody had seen him with a firearm
in recent months.
Some of his friends who he had hunted with in the past said
when they would go hunting, uh, Christian would stay back at
camp because he was not legally allowed to own a firearm.
- ELISSHA: I told them, I said, "You guys are looking
in the wrong direction."
I mean, my ex-husband might be a lot of things,
but that's one thing he is not.
He's not a murderer or a killer,
especially when it came to Chris.
He was another son to us.
- ALI: My father was compliant with the police.
And even though the lie detector test
thought he was deceitful,
he came out as to be cleared of a suspect.
- Ultimately, we located no evidence that tied
Christian to the crime, other than just being a roommate.
- NARRATOR: With Christian fading from focus, detectives
turn to Chris' girlfriend, 23-year-old Stephanie Dalrymple,
who has now been cleared by doctors for questioning.
- She was very distraught about Christopher's death.
She was very upset and seemed genuinely concerned
about what had occurred.
- STEVEN: She described her actions that night, you know,
in picking Chris up from work, going to a party, uh, verified
that she went through the--the drive-through restaurant
at McDonald's and dropped Chris off.
She then went home to her mom's house,
so her alibi seemed pretty tight.
- NARRATOR: Though Stephanie isn't aware of any enemies
Chris might have, she does tell detectives about a saboteur
targeting their relationship.
- JONATHAN: The text messages indicated that
Christopher Rotenberger had had a relationship
with another woman.
- NARRATOR: Investigators ask Stephanie about the fling
she had with her manager, Dawn Houck,
before she got back together with Chris.
- She kind of felt like the manager got a little
too close and was a little too, uh, into her
and had kind of broken off the relationship.
- NARRATOR: Before leaving the sheriff's department,
Stephanie consents to a phone dump,
and detectives double down on their efforts
to bring 37-year-old Dawn Houck in for questioning.
- She downplayed her relationship with Stephanie
and said that Stephanie was just a friend, um, and that she knew
that Stephanie would ultimately wind up back with Christopher,
so she didn't get too attached to her.
- RICHARD: Stephanie had been describing the almost
obsessional interest that Dawn had in her, she was, you know,
saying it really wasn't that big of a thing.
- NARRATOR: Dawn breaks down her alibi for the previous night
into a play-by-play for detectives.
- Earlier, the day of the murder,
she had been watching movies.
She later said that after watching the movies,
she went out and drove around by herself the opposite direction
of the victim's house and went home.
- NARRATOR: Dawn comes across as having little to hide.
She allows investigators access to her cell phone.
- Dawn did give her phone over to the authorities
to basically download, dump, analyze,
and look at that information.
- NARRATOR: While Dawn's phone is being processed,
investigators return to the only other clue found at the crime
scene: a small bag of marijuana recovered from Chris' pocket.
- STEVEN: Any time you have an individual that is involved
in some kind of drugs, you also want to look at,
you know, was it his?
Was he supposed to sell it?
Uh, did he not pay his dealer?
You know, those were all avenues, again,
that the investigators have to look at.
- NARRATOR: Detectives explore the drug angle at the restaurant
where Chris worked.
- Christopher's friends knew about his drug use,
knew that he was a regular marijuana smoker.
- RICHARD: There was some evidence of some drug use,
but it didn't look like the cartel was, uh, you know,
running some kind of drug operation from that house.
- JONATHAN: We spoke to co-workers of Christopher's,
one of which had been with him shortly before his murder.
Uh, he advised he'd given Christopher
marijuana that night.
The marijuana provided to Christopher by this coworker
was located in his pocket following his murder.
- NARRATOR: Chris' coworkers tell investigators that during
a break in his relationship with Stephanie,
Chris had a run-in with another coworker's boyfriend.
- STEVEN: Chris made a pass at this person's girlfriend
and her boyfriend sent, uh, Chris a text basically,
uh, that he had found out about it.
- JONATHAN: Her boyfriend had sent Christopher a text message
later saying that he was coming for him.
We learned that the coworker's boyfriend
lived in South Carolina.
At that time, I contacted authorities in South Carolina
and asked them to speak with the coworker's boyfriend.
- NARRATOR: While investigators wait to hear back
from law enforcement in South Carolina,
they follow another potential lead.
- JONATHAN: The anonymous number that was texting
Stephanie could be a potential suspect.
The sender of the messages is trying to break up Stephanie and
Christopher and apparently wanted Christopher out of
Stephanie's life, so that was something we had to look into.
- AIMEE: It's the type of phone that law enforcement described
as a burner phone.
A phone that you don't have a contract with.
- JONATHAN: People buy and use burner phones to keep
authorities from tracking it back to them, to keep the phone
from being tied to them and it gives them, uh, a way to be
anonymous and not be located.
- NARRATOR: As that lead dries up, so does the lead involving
Christopher's coworker.
- Through the help of authorities in South Carolina,
we were able to alibi the coworker's boyfriend and, uh,
he had been in the Carolinas at the time of the murder.
- NARRATOR: With nothing else to go on, investigators begin
the painstaking process of going through the phone dumps
from Stephanie and Dawn.
- RICHARD: There was a tremendous amount
of text activity from Dawn
directed to Stephanie--like over a thousand.
On September 10th, Dawn texted uh, Stephanie that,
"My feelings for you are pretty overwhelming sometimes.
"There are times I really can't get you off my mind.
I just don't ever want to lose you."
- It appeared that Stephanie was trying to just be more of
a friend and not so much a romantic interest of Dawn's.
It showed that Dawn seemed to be obsessed with Stephanie.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Dawn's phone provides even more damning evidence.
- JONATHAN: When I saw all the gun searches,
it began to dawn on me that she had been untruthful.
- NARRATOR: And later, a turning point crystallizes.
- â™ª
- NARRATOR: After meticulously combing through thousands
of texts between Dawn Houck and Stephanie Dalrymple,
investigators uncover telling evidence.
- RICHARD: There was direct, demonstrable evidence
that there was an almost obsessional, uh,
interest of Dawn into Stephanie.
- On, uh, August 19th, 2015, she had taken
a screenshot of a cruise itinerary and sent it to
Stephanie, uh, indicating that she had
purchased a cruise for Stephanie.
- STEVEN: She had planned for her and Stephanie to share
a cabin, and this cruise was scheduled
for somewhere in the area of November 8th.
- NARRATOR: But just over a week before they were supposed
to leave, Stephanie broke life-changing news.
- On October 29th, Stephanie texted Dawn,
and it said, "So, I have to tell you something, but I know
"you're gonna hate me after I tell you,
but I have to tell you."
Dawn says, "What's up?"
Stephanie says, "I'm pregnant."
And Dawn says, "That hurts a lot."
- Stephanie tells Dawn that she can no longer
go on the cruise due to the pregnancy.
- NARRATOR: Dawn's heartbreak doesn't make her a killer,
but what detectives find next might.
- JONATHAN: When conducting this review of Dawn's phone,
I found that she had searched internet ads, uh,
for approximately 10 hours on November 6th, 2015, uh,
for firearms purchases.
She'd also searched, "How to buy a gun without
a background check," and "cheap guns for sale."
When I saw all the gun searches on Dawn's phone,
it began to dawn on me that she had been untruthful.
- STEVEN: Everything started pointing toward Dawn
as a possible suspect in this homicide.
- JONATHAN: About a month into the investigation,
December 11th, we brought Dawn back into the station.
Uh, she conducted a voice stress analysis,
uh, which was inconclusive.
- NARRATOR: Dawn continues to insist her relationship
with Stephanie was casual
and offers an explanation for the gun search.
- NARRATOR: Investigators find the story fishy
but are unable to prove she is lying.
- There's nothing at that point to provide
probable cause for an arrest, uh, to point to anything
more than her being a person of interest.
- NARRATOR: Detectives send Dawn home
but continue to investigate her.
- JONATHAN: At that point we begin to, uh, dig into her
financials to see if there was anything in those records
to indicate that she had purchased a firearm
to carry out this crime.
- NARRATOR: In February 2016, 3 months after
Chris' murder, investigators finally get a break.
- JONATHAN: We subpoenaed Dawn's bank records.
When we received the records, we learned that
on November 9th, 2015,
2 days before the murder, Dawn had rented a car,
she had purchased binoculars, and she had purchased
vinyl gloves and a black hoodie from a local retail store.
It's suspicious.
- She had no reason, to get a rental car, considering
how there was nothing wrong, ah, you know, with her vehicle.
She bought all things that she could use to stalk him.
- NARRATOR: While the purchases are suspicious,
investigators still need more for an arrest warrant.
- RICHARD: As the investigation went on and subpoenas and court
orders, we got in various, uh, phone records, uh, credit card
records, debit card records, uh, they found out that Dawn had
bought what we call a burner phone from a local Walmart.
They were able to find the receipt and trace that number
back to those derogatory texts.
- STEVEN: Dawn finds out that Stephanie is pregnant,
uh, with Chris's child.
And the next day, uh, this burner phones purchased by Dawn
and these text messages start going out.
Dawn pretended to be Chris's other woman, uh,
stating that, uh, "Chris really doesn't love you."
- JONATHAN: The burner phone is Dawn's first attempt,
in my opinion, to get Christopher and Stephanie
broke up and allow her to insert herself
back into Stephanie's life.
- NARRATOR: Investigators suspect that when Stephanie
didn't take the texts seriously, Dawn started looking
for another way to get Chris out of the picture.
- STEVEN: Dawn started doing this search of how to buy a gun
without a background check.
This is where she definitely decided that this may be
the road that she's going to go down and the only way
that she's going to get Stephanie as her own.
- JONATHAN: During the months following the murder,
I was working on the theory that Dawn had committed the murder
and that she had purchased a firearm off the street
somewhere or via an internet ad.
- NARRATOR: Despite having strong circumstantial evidence,
investigators need to prove that Dawn purchased a gun
in order to make an arrest.
- We worked feverishly to try to figure out
if that had occurred.
We subpoenaed gun records, um,
just that all kind of came to a dead end.
We were unable to put a firearm in her hand.
- NARRATOR: Investigators begin scouring all contacts in Dawn's
phone data, focusing on the days leading up to the crime.
In February 2017, they zero in on some vague texts exchanged
between Dawn and a coworker, La'teik Samuels,
two days before the murder.
- The conversation with La'teik that we were able to recover
showed that Dawn was gonna make a stop
on the way to pick him up.
Um, however, the contents of what she was stopping for
was undetermined at that point.
- NARRATOR: When investigators compare Dawn's phone records
to her ATM transactions, they see that Dawn made a withdrawal
just after sending the text.
- She had communicated with La'teik on November 9th,
shortly before she made a $200 cash withdrawal
from the ATM machine.
- NARRATOR: On March 1st, 2017, investigators
bring La'teik in for an interview.
- La'teik tells detectives at that time
that Dawn had approached him about buying a firearm.
- NARRATOR: Although initially reluctant,
a couple of weeks later, on November 9th,
La'teik managed to come through for his friend.
- He eventually relayed to, uh, the police
that he had obtained a revolver on the street.
- He said that he ultimately obtained a firearm
and sold it to her for $200 in cash.
- STEVEN: The $200 that Dawn withdrew from the ATM
was used to purchase the gun.
He described it as crisp $20 bills;
something you'd potentially get out of an ATM machine.
- NARRATOR: Knowing that La'teik might be the key
to a conviction, investigators ask for his help
in solidifying the case against Dawn.
- La'teik was outfitted with a listening device
and was sent to the home to make contact
with Dawn under our supervision.
- STEVEN: He had an interaction and a discussion with Dawn.
And Dawn kind of admitted in that conversation, you know,
purchasing the gun from La'teik.
- She said that she had gotten rid of the gun
and not to worry about his DNA being on it.
In my mind, that proves that she used the gun given to her
by La'teik to commit the murder.
In no other context does it make sense.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
The case against Dawn proves anything but airtight.
- They had no DNA, they had no hair, they had no fiber,
they had no eyewitnesses.
- AIMEE: It's physically impossible for her
to walk up to him,
hold the gun up to his head and fire it at a downward angle.
- â™ª
- [siren wails]
- NARRATOR: Almost a year and a half after the murder of
24-year-old Chris Rotenberger, investigators are finally
equipped with sufficient evidence to press charges
against his suspected killer.
On March 2nd, 2017, they place 38-year-old Dawn Houck
under arrest.
- JONATHAN: I arrested Dawn on the front porch of her home.
She was under the assumption that I was coming back
to bring her phone back to her,
and she was placed under arrest at that time.
- NARRATOR: When Dawn's trial begins in December 2018,
the State presents its case.
- It was the purchase of the gloves,
it was the purchase of the hoodie,
it was the rental of the vehicle.
You know, the purchase of the gun, it was the burner phone.
These all come together as what we call circumstantial evidence.
- RICHARD: With the amount of circumstantial evidence we had,
it only pointed to Dawn Houck.
It didn't point to anybody else.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors also argue that no one
except Dawn Houck had a motive to kill Chris.
- STEVEN: Everything's kind of unraveling for Dawn.
Stephanie's pregnant with Chris's baby.
That was the turning point.
I think that was the point where she determined,
"I may lose her."
I think she lost her mind.
- NARRATOR: Around 3:30 AM on November 11th, 2015, prosecutors
allege Dawn drove a rental car to Chris's home
with the sole purpose of murdering her romantic rival.
- The best information we have was
that he was sitting out on a chair,
and she came alongside of him and shot him.
- NARRATOR: Dawn's attorneys seize on
the circumstantial nature of the prosecution's case.
- STEVEN: They didn't find the murder weapon.
They had no DNA, they had no hair, they had no fiber,
they had no audio, they had no video,
they had no tire tracks, they had no eyewitnesses.
That was the crux of Dawn's defense.
- AIMEE: During their investigation, law enforcement
found out that Dawn had purchased, with her debit card,
binoculars, like a box of plastic gloves, and a hoodie.
There's no evidence that the individual who committed
this crime wore a hoodie, needed binoculars,
or wore gloves.
- NARRATOR: They also argue that if Christopher
was standing, not sitting, at the time of the murder,
it would have been difficult for Dawn to commit the crime.
- AIMEE: Dawn was much shorter than Christopher,
so it's physically impossible for her to walk up to him,
hold the gun up to his head,
and fire it at a downward angle
as indicated by the medical examiner.
- NARRATOR: Two weeks into the trial, on December 14th,
both sides rest.
Hours later, the jury announces their decision.
- The jury deliberated and, you know, convicted her of
first-degree premeditated murder as charged,
and she was sentenced to life in prison.
- â™ª
- ALI: When Dawn's verdict came back guilty, and she was
sentenced with first degree murder,
I was filled with relief and happiness
that she's finally getting what she deserves.
- RICHARD: Dawn Houck murdered Chris Rotenberger
for the oldest motive in the world.
Uh, it was unrequited love.
- RONALD: Murdering Chris was nothing but senseless.
She thought she was losing her world.
And in reality, she was just losing a person,
and she could really move on.
- MICHELLE: This just blows me away that she could plot
something like this and do it.
She could've walked away.
She had options.
This wasn't one of the options she had.
- NARRATOR: The crime left Christopher's loved ones
with a lifetime of heartache, especially his daughter
born eight months after his murder.
- ELISSHA: She looks just like him.
She does.
She acts like him too.
So, and when you look in her eyes, you see Christopher