[line ringing]
Operator: 911 emergency.
Woman:
Woman: ♪ there were days I don't know why ♪
♪ you got me capsized ♪
♪ it's only in hindsight ♪
♪ I read between the lines ♪
I like being back in your state, tonya.
It feels good to be home.
- Home. - It's a quaint little town.
We're in tonya's home state of ohio
To assist the springfield police department
To help them investigate the 2015 murder
Of a young mother named candance prunty.
She was only 26.
She was raising three little boys by herself,
Talking about moving to another state.
Had a good job.
Rider: She was fun-loving. Everybody seemed to love her.
She would light up a room when she'd walk in.
Siegler: Candance prunty is described by her friends
As full of life, making everybody laugh.
The most fun person you could ever wanna be around
And a great friend. But to her,
The most important thing in her life were her three young boys.
You can tell that she was all about her children
Which makes that even more heartbreaking.
Siegler: On October 21, 2015,
When candance did not pick up her boys from school,
Her mom became concerned,
So she went to check on candance at home,
And that's when she walked in on the horrifying discovery
Of candance lying on the kitchen floor,
Shot six times.
At the time that this happened, she's being vandalized,
And her car is being damaged,
And it's like, this is no random person that's doing that to you.
Siegler: I know.
Rider: Three months before her murder,
Candance's house was vandalized multiple times.
So clearly someone was angry and targeting her.
Her mom all these years
Have been trying to just figure out a way
To get something to happen on it.
Can you imagine being so desperate
That you put up a damn billboard?
Rider: Pleading for help from the public
To solve your daughter's murder,
I just can't fathom that.
It's the worst thing in life
Because you're supposed to bury your parents,
And you're not supposed to ever bury your baby.
- No. - Ever. Ever.
♪ my lover don't believe me ♪
♪ when I say I'm not in love with you ♪
It has been 16 years and still no answers...
Police consider her killing a cult killing...
Years later, the case is still unsolved...
Siegler: I've chosen cold cases from across the country
And teamed up with the best detectives to solve them.
We're more determined than ever
To bring justice to these victims.
- Good morning. - Look how dressed up y'all are.
- How you doing? - Hi.
- Welcome to springfield. - Nice to meet you.
Detective ron jordan. Good to meet you, tonya.
- Nice to meet you. - Detective dan dewine.
- Nice to meet you. - We appreciate you being here
And offering your assistance.
You got us a good place to work?
- Yeah. Welcome in. - Thanks.
Jordan: I was there from day one, almost six years ago.
I responded to the scene.
Nice and bright.
I immediately felt a sense of sadness
For her and her family.
Just lying there, a young lady
Whose life was unfortunately taken
By the hands of someone.
It's touched me ever since then.
Over the past several years with this case,
It's been close to me, to be honest with you.
Yeah. You can tell.
To, um,
Have a young lady with young kids
And to lose that, it just isn't fair.
It's not fair to her. It's not fair to her boys.
It's not fair to her friends. It's not fair to her mom.
I know. Do you have daughters?
I do.
- Do you? - Yes. Yes. Two.
And I have two. And it's your nightmare, right?
- It is. - At that time,
What was going on in candance's life?
She was 26 years old. She's a young mother
Of three young boys.
A happy young lady with a big, beautiful smile
And just a lot of fun to be around.
Everyone enjoyed her company.
Siegler: Where are her boys living now?
Jordan: They are with their fathers.
Rider: At the time of her murder,
Candance was living in her sister's house.
She was a single working mom finishing up a business degree.
She loved her children and being independent.
Okay, you wanna start with running the case down to us?
On October 21st of 2015,
Our dispatch center received a call from family members
Of our victim, candance prunty.
Her mother, sister, and aunt entered the home
And found candance there,
Lying in a puddle of her own blood
In the kitchen near the cabinets.
She had been shot six times with a .38 special or a .357.
We searched through the residence,
And her cellphone was missing.
We began talking to friends and family,
And they're just tossing out names
Of people that she knew that were in her inner circle.
'cause they have no idea who could've done it.
- No idea. - While still at the scene,
Police contacted isahia elliott,
Father of two of candance's sons.
He was confirmed to be in georgia at the time.
Police also learned of a man that candance dated
Earlier that year--thomas albert from columbus, ohio.
We learned that mr. Albert was actually on parole
For some prior cases-- rape and abduction charge.
So at that point, we thought he may be a person of interest
That we would wanna talk to.
So probably around midnight that night,
On the 21st, end of the 22nd,
Columbus swat surrounded the residence,
And he tried to take off out the back door of the residence
And was detained. He advised
That he would need an attorney and refused to talk to me.
- And what happened next? - We obtained a search warrant
To search the residence of thomas albert.
It just so happened in the basement behind the furnace
Sat a cellphone belonging to mr. Albert,
A ski mask, and a small box 20-round .38 special.
From this 20-round box, six rounds were missing.
Damn.
Although the police department
Found bullets in thomas's home that were the same caliber
As the ones used to shoot candance,
They were not able to find either the gun
Or her cellphone.
Because of that, they didn't feel
Like they had enough to move forward with the case.
All that being said, thomas albert
Is still to this day the primary suspect.
He meets candance in may of 2015.
They met at a club here in town,
And the relationship kind of blossomed.
The relationship seemed to progress fast.
Yeah.
Probably beginning to mid-July, candance decided
That she didn't wanna be in this relationship anymore.
She and isahia started to talk again.
And at that point,
Her goal was for isahia to get established in atlanta,
And she was gonna move down there with the boys.
Rider: It appears that candance
Was moving on from thomas albert,
But did he feel the same way?
Because if he didn't, that sure sounds like a possible motive.
Trying to figure out his psyche, his mentality, the way he ticks.
Are there any other stories or victims that help us know that?
The most recent one--
In 2017, he's arrested for multiple charges
Stemming from an attempted murder case
With another female in columbus, ohio.
She was cut and stabbed eight to nine different times.
And he gets sentenced to what?
He got sentenced to a total of 28 years.
Siegler: Thomas albert is not eligible for release until 2045.
If he is charged,
Thomas albert would be very likely to go to trial.
So we need to explore anything
That might give a defense attorney
The right to explore reasonable doubt in this case.
So the whole idea--could it have been a random intruder? Right?
Yes. In July of 2015,
There had been several incidents of vandalism
To her vehicle and her home.
Rider: Three months before her murder,
Candance's house was vandalized four different times
Over the course of a week.
For two of them, isahia was there spending the night.
Rocks were thrown through the windows.
Her car was spray-painted.
Her and isahia's tires were flattened.
The final incident was a molotov cocktail
Being thrown through the window, setting fire to her kitchen.
Somebody's obviously upset. It's not a random attack.
Okay, and it's not just her car. It's also whose car?
Isahia's car.
Possibly someone was upset with him.
She decided then to get away from that house
And move in with her sister.
Candance reported these incidences to the police,
But she never did name a suspect.
Could it have been thomas?
Could it have seen someone else that candance dated?
Could it have been one of isahia's exes?
Whoever it was, we need to know
If they were mad enough to kill candance.
I feel good about this one.
We're gonna make ohio proud this time.
Woman: ♪ your love cuts so deep got a hold of me ♪
♪ it's got a hold of me ♪
♪ and I can't seem to fight no more ♪
Siegler: You're taking us
To meet candance's mom, patricia.
Yeah. Over the years, we've talked so much.
She always calls me "brother."
Whenever she calls me and leaves me a message,
She says that I'm forever a part of their family.
I made a connection with this family,
And I told candance's mother, "please don't give up.
We will go through this together.
I'm not going anywhere until I see this through."
I don't wanna let her down, let their family down.
And it's been a driving factor
For me to give this family some closure.
- Hey there. - Hello, ladies.
Y'all know this man, huh?
- Yes. - We love that man.
- Yes, we do. - I think he loves y'all, too,
- From what I've been hearing. - Good to see you.
Ooh. I don't know. Under these circumstances.
- I know. - This is kind of rough.
I know.
And speaking about her in the past tense,
That's still difficult.
Speaking about candance in the past tense.
How'd you come up with that name?
Her dad actually did that.
- Yeah? - Yes.
People used to always say "can-dance."
How many kids do you have, ms. Patricia?
I birthed three.
Which one was candance?
- My baby. - Your baby.
Yep.
♪♪♪
[sniffles]
[quietly] o lord, help me.
You wanna talk about her?
Patricia: She was a happy, happy child.
She always had a smile on her face.
That's what she was known for. Just a beautiful smile.
I remember when she was little when I would walk her to school,
She would be picking flowers the whole time we're walking.
And I watch her go through the door,
And she would turn around and give me the flowers
And say, "give these to my dad."
I thought she was picking them for me.
Candance was a special child.
She was silly.
Just oogles and boogles of friends.
And I love her past the moon.
And if I could have her back...
Mm.
It's hard for the both of us.
And then the fact that we found her.
Right.
I bent over her, and I looked at her.
Her skin was kind of grayish. And I told her--
- I reached out. - And she was cold.
- And I touched her foot. - And she was cold.
[sniffles]
And I seen a little hole...
In her stomach.
But it's almost been six years,
And I'm trusting detective jordan...
To do all he can
To try to get to the bottom of this.
Y'all keep praying.
Finally something will happen. Okay?
Yes.
Our real crime scene is latosha's house,
But she doesn't live there anymore.
I understand they found us a place.
They're gonna try and build it out
With the right dimensions.
Nice. I wanna see where the back door is
In proximity where we know the struggle happened.
Siegler: When candance prunty was shot in 2015,
She was living in her sister's house
Because of a series of vandalism incidences
That caused her to live in fear of staying at her own house.
- Good morning. - Good morning. How you doing?
Y'all look pretty.
- Good morning. - Good morning.
We set up a mock crime scene
In the hopes of recreating the shooting
To see if we can determine
Whether or not candance's ex-boyfriend, thomas albert,
Or an unknown person is responsible.
So this here would be the front porch.
Here's the kitchen sink. Cabinets on the wall.
And then the lower cabinets here.
This opening leads you into the mudroom,
And then here would be the back door
With a storm door and entry door.
She ends up, like, right here. Right?
So the space we're talking about where the whole thing happened
- Is just feet. - Yeah.
You went down into the basement.
What did you see from that angle?
Lots of blood through the floor joist.
There's an area of blood,
Probably as close and as big as this table.
That would have taken some time
For that to leak all the way down through there
And puddle in the basement.
Rider: Based on her routine,
Police believed that candance dropped her kids off at school,
Ran some errands.
She returned home that morning
And was killed shortly after that.
Since the front door was still locked,
It's believed her killer entered and exited
Out the back door.
I'm gonna be her coming to the front door. Right?
Mm-hmm.
You be the shooter at the back door.
- Okay. - She comes in.
She's locking the front door.
She sets her purse down.
[knocking]
She's just gonna go through here to answer the knock at the door.
- She opens it up. - And he's there.
And there he is. Yeah. There he is.
Even if he just showed her the gun,
That's the power play there.
Because I really feel that she's backing up.
And this is as far as she ever gets.
She never gets any further once the gun is pulled out.
- Right. - Okay.
This is the shot that goes here.
[gunshot]
And then what happens? When's the next one?
- [gunshot] - a little closer.
- [gunshot] - down here?
And we think by now she's falling her down.
For sure.
Now this would be the fourth shot.
[gunshot]
Through and through to the arm,
And it goes down and it hits the cabinet.
Causes the cabinet to splinter into her hair.
It's at this point, I believe, he walked past her
Into the living room, grabs her phone.
As he's walking back, she's lying there.
She's moaning. She's in bad shape.
He then...
[gunshot]
And that's how we get the downward angle,
And they recovered it at the bottom base of her neck.
The other round, it's essentially recovered
From the top of her brain. - Okay.
It seems the perpetrator's intent was solely to kill.
So it's odd they took the time
To rifle through candance's purse
To take her cellphone. What was on that phone
That the killer didn't want police to see?
We've asked our digital forensic expert
To analyze data from her phone as well as thomas albert's,
Which was recovered from his home.
All right. Thank you very much for hooking us up.
I think that worked out very well.
- Good job, guys, on the setup. - Thank you.
Siegler: When you look at crimes that thomas committed,
He didn't use a gun.
So if he did kill candance,
This just shows how much more obsessed he was with candance,
How much madder he was. But it could also mean
That thomas wasn't the one who killed her.
Kelly, this is chanele childs. Over here, please.
She was a good friend of candance.
Siegler: Candance's friends were involved
Since the very night they found her.
And they were instrumental
In right away helping identify thomas albert
As being possibly the person who killed her.
She's just friendly. Like, she never met a stranger.
She was very loud.
Her laugh. Her general conversation.
Everybody loved her.
We're hoping that they know very intimate details
About candance's relationship with thomas.
So there came a time when she met tommy.
He was a gentleman. He was very chivalrous.
So it was so shocking that he turned
Into this completely different crazy person.
It was never a relationship. It was literally just sex.
Just to put it plainly.
- How do you know that? - I know that
Because she was planning on moving to georgia
To be with the father of her children.
Candance was very honest.
She was probably too honest with him.
Because she told him how she felt.
She was getting back with isahia.
How did he take that?
Originally, he played the nice role.
He started showing up to, you know--
Want to take her out, her declining it,
Coming with gifts, her making him take them back.
He wasn't letting go.
He invested entirely to this person,
And he was--
She was not gonna be with him.
But he was pissed.
He would start to get kind of nasty towards her.
Popping up at her house.
He was, like, really controlling.
He used to, like, sent her, like, text messages--
"if I can't have you, nobody can."
She was getting to the point,
Like, "damn, I cannot get this [bleep] to stop calling me.
He's harassing me. He won't stop calling my phone. I'm at work."
Siegler: Why didn't she wanna just be ruder about it?
I don't know--'cause candance wasn't a rude girl.
That just wasn't her personality.
I think she was scared of him.
How do you know she was scared?
Oh, we defi-- we talked about it.
I don't know her to be scared of anyone.
So for her to have a fear for this man,
Like, it really bothered me
Because she's scared, so something not right.
She definitely seemed worry.
Like, "I don't know what he's gonna do next."
It seems that candance was having a hard time
Breaking up with thomas
Because she was trying to balance placating him
With not angering him,
All during the course of trying to get away.
And the one thing that I've learned after all these years
Is there ain't no good way to break up with a bad man.
On October 21st when you heard how it happened...
I don't know. Just shocked.
Like, I just couldn't believe it.
I just remember it so vividly and so clearly,
But it seem like it's been forever.
Yes.
And some of the homes and everything
Still around columbus are beautiful.
I just--I love columbus.
We learned that our suspect, thomas albert,
Was upset about his breakup with candance
Which could be a motive for murder.
So we wanna learn more about his history of violence.
In 2017, thomas albert attempted to murder nicole pellerin.
He's currently incarcerated for that attack.
- Nicole? - Yeah.
Detective dewine.
Rider: Thankfully, she's willing to speak to us
About the incident,
Because there may be some parallels
Between that attack and candance's murder.
I know you had an incident with thomas.
How often did you guys see each other then?
A couple of times a week.
He was very controlling and very, like, weird.
Like, he would text me and I wouldn't answer.
I mean, he would just pop up out of nowhere
On the side of the building. Like, "you're coming with me."
I'm like, "no, I'm not." it was just really crazy.
He was just really possessive.
He'd texted me, like, "yo, you gotta come to my house."
I'm like, "no. Bye."
And the next night, he'd texted me from a different number,
Pretending to be somebody else. So I was like, "I'll meet you."
As soon as I got almost to livingston,
He came out from behind the telephone pole
And stripped me out of my clothes,
Dragged me up these stairs
And just started slicing me in my face.
And I held my hand.
He cut me there, there, there, there, there.
I was just covered in blood,
And blood was squirting out everywhere.
I was just drenched in blood.
And, luckily, there's a woman that heard me outside screaming,
"somebody call 911. I'm gonna die.
Please, somebody help me. Somebody help me. Call 911."
And, luckily, she called 911,
'cause if she didn't, I would've bled to death up there.
Was he saying anything to you during that--
No. He was just slicing me.
He took my phone, took the money,
And took my driver's license and left me for dead.
Not only did thomas aggressively pursue and ambush nicole,
He also stole her phone after the attack.
Just like candance's killer did.
If thomas did kill candance, this could be his m.O.
- Well, I appreciate it. - You're welcome.
- Okay. Thank you. - Nice to meet you.
Rider: Maybe he takes his victim's phone
So they can't call for help.
Maybe he's stealing them for profit,
Or maybe he's taking them as a trophy.
Whatever the reason,
It's a nice piece of circumstantial evidence,
Potentially tying him to candance's murder.
We're gonna reach out to kindra johnson.
She was someone that candance knew.
Rider: Sounds good.
Thomas albert is clearly violent and capable of killing candance.
But was he her only enemy?
We need to learn more about the extreme vandalism
That was committed at her home
To try to identify who was responsible
And if it was connected to her murder.
Hey, kindra. This is detective jordan. How you doing?
Rider: Candance did not name a suspect to police,
But hopefully she told those close to her
Who she thought was responsible.
First of all, what was your relationship with candance?
How did you know her?
Did you guys talk quite a bit with one another?
At some point, some things start happening.
What did she tell you?
Especially with you guys being as close as you are.
Do you recall her having any enemies?
The vandalism seems like the actions of a scorned ex.
According to kindra,
Candance wasn't the only one with angry exes.
No, heck no.
You guys spent quite a bit of time together, right?
Yeah, we did. We just grew up together. And we was close.
Rider: Zynayshe curtis, candance's cousin,
Has a close relationship with her.
We're hoping that she has further insight
As to who was responsible for the vandalism.
Did she share with you why this was happening
Or who might have been doing it?
She said she thought it's someone
That isahia was messing with at the time.
She never thought it was a man. That's all she kept saying.
"it's one of these bitches." excuse my mouth.
- You're fine. - "it's one of these bitches."
The spray-painting, that's a female act.
- Sure. - That's stuff females do.
- Right. - Rider: It seems candance
Thought one of isahia's exes, not thomas,
Was responsible for vandalizing her home.
If these acts are related to her murder,
We might have another suspect on our hands.
When she moved out her house,
I don't know if she knew who it was,
But she knew whoever it was, it was getting real.
Like, they wasn't playing.
All right. So now we're gonna go see isahia.
Two of the extraneous vandalisms were with him in the house.
- Right. - We're considering
That the acts of vandalism at candance's home
And her murder were committed by the same person.
Hey, isahia. This is kelly siegler.
- How are you? - Hi.
She's assisting me with this case.
Isahia was there for two of the four vandalism nights.
Maybe he has some idea who's involved.
So how did you meet candance?
- We met like in 2010. - Okay.
And ever since that day, we've been stuck.
It was like the bomb.
Like, I knew I wanted to be with her.
It was just beautiful. That was the love of my life.
All right, so the vandalism happens
On the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th.
So on July the 13th, go through that night with us.
- What happened? - We were upstairs asleep.
Next thing you know, we just hear...Pssh!
Like, hopped up. Like, she ran to the kids,
And I ran downstairs.
And it was this big ol' boulder through the front window.
- How big was that thing? - It was huge.
I run back upstairs and tell her.
Then she looking out the window. She like, "look at the car."
Spray paint on the side of her truck.
I see "you [bleep] her still."
My tires was cut. Hers was cut.
Siegler: Not just flat, cut.
- Isahia: No, the tube. - Jordan: The valve stem?
Yeah. Those was cut.
Siegler: Do you go looking around
Trying to see if you can catch somebody running away?
- Yeah. - And?
- Nothing. - Saw nobody.
No. They thought it was the girl
Who I was messing with, whatever.
- Siegler: Okay. - But it wasn't.
The guy who did my tires,
He was like, "I don't expect a female to do that.
That's a guy."
You right away knew it wasn't any girl.
- Right. I knew right away. - Okay.
Isahia did not see the perpetrator that night,
But he feels pretty sure
That it was a man who committed this crime.
But right now we can't rule anything out.
And then the molotov cocktail night happened.
And what happened? What did y'all do?
I moved her to her sister's house.
I was like, "we just need to leave."
Like, just start over.
Brand-new. Like, new city.
So the plan was I go first. Go to georgia. I get the spot.
In October. She wanted to come see me.
She was just coming down for a visit.
Coming down for a visit. And she told him.
I was like, "why would you tell him that?"
Siegler: How close is that
To when she ends up murdered on October 21st?
Real close.
Her birthday's the 4th.
It had to be between that.
The 4th and the 21st. A little over two weeks.
Yeah.
In the weeks before the murder,
Candance told thomas about her plans to go to georgia.
When you consider how upset he already was
With the fact that she was trying to break up with him,
It makes you wonder
If this would have angered him even more.
So at that time, the boys were how old?
4 and 1. Rashad doesn't remember.
Shaun, in the beginning, that was the hardest.
Uh--sorry.
- That's okay. - You're fine.
That was the hardest 'cause he was, um...
[voice cracking] uh...
No, he asks for his mom.
And when you're both missing that person,
Y'all crying together.
Sh--, I didn't even know how I was gonna make it.
Siegler: What did you say?
"your mama's in heaven.
She's proud of you. She's so proud of you.
She loves you."
We'll go through that doorway right here.
Candance moved in with her sister, latosha, in July
Following those acts of vandalism
And was living there in the months leading up to the murder.
Talk about your sister.
She was my baby.
A very straight-to-the-point person.
No filter. That's what I loved about her.
If there were any incidences involving thomas albert
Closer to her murder,
We're hoping that her sister, latosha,
Knows something about it.
What's the discussion y'all have
About why she's needing to move in with you?
When the cocktail got through the window,
I went over there,
And I told her, "y'all coming with me."
I think she was scared,
But I think she was trying to hold it all together.
I don't think she was really realizing,
Like, this is really happening.
So she never had a truer appreciation
Of how much of a creepy stalker he was.
Right. He had some flowers for her.
I believe it was roses.
And I called her, and I told her.
She was like, "I told him I don't wanna see him no more."
Basically "I'm trying to get away from him."
I remember when he came over my house
That Sunday before.
Get a knock on the door.
And it's tommy. I'm like, "what you doing here?"
Go out on the porch.
He's just like, "I just wanna give this to your sister."
He had a coat.
A black, fashionable coat.
And I'm like, "she don't want that.
We don't want that. We don't need you.
Don't ever come back. Get off my porch."
So he tried to step.
- Like he got puffed up. - Yeah. Like--yeah.
I'm like, "yeah, no. You don't wanna do that."
So he leaves. You know, he walks away.
Three days before the murder,
Thomas albert showed up at latosha's house,
Desperate to win candance back.
He was refused. He was rejected.
As we've learned, he does not take well to rejection.
Sometimes I think, you know,
I shouldn't have puffed up at him.
You know, he took it out on my sister.
Sometimes I feel guilty.
Siegler: I don't think anything you could've said
Or did any differently would've changed anything.
It's like a train coming down the tracks.
He was not gonna leave her alone.
Yeah, I believe that.
You're not gonna have dna or a confession here
With this kind of a suspect.
But this is just, like, huge, right?
Yes, ma'am.
When candance was killed,
Her cellphone was mysteriously taken from her house.
So we don't have her cellphone,
But we do have all the cellphone data from that phone.
We also have all the cellphone data
From thomas albert's phone
That was recovered from his house.
- Morning. How are y'all? - Good to see you.
- Eric devlin. Nice to meet you. - Good to meet you.
Our digital forensics expert, eric devlin,
Has analyzed all the cellphone data
With the very latest cellphone technology.
It's time for us to see what he's discovered.
Let's start with the cellphone forensics.
There are a bunch of text messages
Between her and the suspect. 9/28.
Less than a month before she gets murdered.
Correct. This is the suspect saying...
She makes a reply...
He replies, "I miss you, boo. Just don't know what to do."
And then here's his reply. I love this one.
"are we still gonna [bleep]?"
Oh, my god.
- So very clear. - It's crystal clear.
Rider: For weeks, candance responded to thomas's texts,
Trying to get him out of her life.
And time after time, thomas wouldn't respect her boundaries
And kept pushing for more.
Last message that he actually sends her...
Siegler: Which is Monday. Is this Monday?
Yeah, that would be Monday.
Two days before the murder. "do you hate me?"
And she didn't reply. However, he does call her.
10/20. 7:52 a.M. And 8:02 a.M.
And there's no indication she answers.
Texting is done. He tries to call her. She doesn't answer.
- Correct. - Tuesday.
- So then Wednesday it happens. - Correct.
It's one thing to hear
About candance and thomas's relationship
From all of candance's friends and family.
It was never a relationship. It was literally just sex.
She told him how she felt.
She was like, "I'm trying to get away from him."
Siegler: But this is clear evidence
In their own words.
There's no better way to tell the story
Of their relationship than what we're looking at right now.
Moving on.
We're gonna talk a little about the cell tower stuff,
Which y'all wanted me to look at.
These records disappeared, so you did a good job
Going and preserving them and grabbing them when you did.
You gave me a couple of dates to focus on the vandalism.
Then you gave me a few significant locations.
You have his residence.
And then here's candance's house.
This gives you some reference as to how far apart they are.
Somewhere around 48 miles.
So July 13th, the day of the vandalism,
Spray-painting the cars,
Somewhere around 2:50, 3:25 in the morning.
This would be thomas's phone.
He hits at 12:49, 1:04, 1:19,
In columbus, as if he's heading out.
That appears to be the normal roadway
Going from columbus to springfield.
- Is that correct? - Yes.
Then the next time I pick him back up,
Hits up right about the same tower.
3:24 in the morning.
So there's a pretty big gap in there.
The phone in this point in time, in my opinion, is off.
His cellphone's turned off at the time of the occurrence.
- Yeah. - So moving to July 14th,
This is one of the rocks through the windows.
The incident occurs between 11:00 and 11:04.
And so 11:01, and there's 11:16.
He's hitting off of the tower
Within approximately a mile of her house.
So he didn't turn his phone off that time.
He did not. So July 15th is one of the rock incidences.
Incident occurs between 3:15 and 4:00 a.M.
3:38 he's sitting over there, same particular cell tower.
He's still there at 3:51. He's still there at 3:53.
Here's your July 19th.
This is what appears to be an arson.
10:00 p.M. He's hitting off that tower about 8:11,
An hour and 50 minutes before.
The important part-- if he's at home,
He's not gonna be hitting off of her towers.
It's so far apart.
It also shows that he had to sustain
Whatever anger, jealousy for 48 miles, give or take,
- To drive. - Most people would cool off.
- I'd be like, "just forget it. - Yeah. Right.
The south tower data confirms what we suspected.
Thomas albert committed those acts of vandalism.
But the real question is,
What was he doing on the morning of October 21st?
You wanna turn to the homicide date?
10/21/2015, 8:07 in the morning.
He is hitting here off a tower
Right near where he lives, in columbus. 8:22, 8:37.
It appears to be he's driving.
- Heading down highway 70. - Heading west to springfield.
9:07 in the morning,
He is hitting off the tower that covers the murder location.
9:52, still hitting off that same tower.
30 minutes later.
He just waited for her nearby her house.
He just waited for her to come home.
10:07, he's leaving. He's on 70
As if he's heading back to his house.
Thomas's cellphone is hitting off a tower
Right near candance's house
At the time we believe she was killed.
That's huge.
Next step we wanna talk about her missing phone.
Candance's phone. This is the lg phone
That's not found in her home when she's killed.
9:00, 10:00 a.M., she is hitting off the tower near her house.
There's a break in communication.
Then, all of a sudden, at 11:32 in the morning,
I have an incoming call
That appears to be answered and hung up.
So this whole call lasts three seconds.
Her phone is connecting to the tower
Right near where he lives.
You don't need a confession.
The cellphone information establishes
Who committed the vandalisms.
You had the text message of the evolving stories
Of the breakup. You can see the mindset
Of tommy through those text messages.
And then you have candance's phone
Close to thomas albert's home
An hour after she's killed.
It's just a beautiful portrait of the whole case
Right there with cellphone technology.
- Good afternoon, mr. Driscoll. - Hey, detective jordan.
- How you doing? - Good. Thanks for coming over.
Thanks for having me.
Siegler: This case has been near and dear
To detective ron jordan's heart for six years.
So who better in the whole wide world
To run these facts down to the prosecutor than ron?
The good thing today is that we get to sit in and listen to him
Do his presentation.
We're all so excited.
In the spring of 2015,
Candance would meet thomas albert
In a nightclub here in springfield.
He had a love for her,
But she didn't share that same love.
She tries to separate herself from him
And move on with her life.
July, the incidences of vandalism
Into a molotov cocktail
Being thrown through her kitchen window,
Setting the kitchen on fire,
We learned that this is tommy that's doing this.
If he's at home, he's not gonna be hitting off of her towers.
Candance's girlfriends tell us she didn't know what to do
And it scared her.
He was starting to get kind of nasty towards her.
"if I can't have you, nobody can."
She definitely seemed worried,
Like, "I don't know what he's gonna do next."
Just three days prior to her death, tommy shows up.
Candance's sister, latosha, comes out
And says, "she doesn't want to see you."
"we don't need you. Don't ever come back. Get off my porch."
On October 21st of 2015...
Is this the same day as the murder?
- Yes. Later that night. - Right.
We executed a search warrant at his home.
We found a box of .38 special ammunition
Missing six rounds.
And she had been shot six times.
- Same type of ammunition? - Yes.
But that icing on the cake, so to speak,
Was this cellphone technology.
He is hitting off the tower that covers the murder location.
Her phone that's not found in her home
Is connecting to the tower right near where he lives.
There are a lot of things that I've learned
During the course of this investigation
That gives me no doubt that mr. Albert is the one
That took her life.
It took some time.
And I kept reassuring her mother
That someday I thought we would get there.
Well, today--guess what-- we are there.
I wanted to present these facts to you
Because this is new information that we've uncovered,
And with your blessing, sir,
I would like to inform them that we will be filing indictments
For the murder of candance prunty.
I know that this has been one of those
That you've been working on for years,
And I think we're there.
So you send it over to us,
And we'll get an indictment for you.
- Yes, sir. Thank you. - Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Nice. Nice. How's that feel?
Feels good. It really does.
It's a huge weight off my shoulders
That I've carried for the past several years.
Thomas albert will be held accountable
For killing candance--
What he did to her and her family.
And that is a overwhelming feeling of happiness,
To be honest with you.
He needs to die in prison.
Yeah. Without question.
Woman: ♪ in the lonely ♪
♪ I will see ♪
♪ all the love and all the hope ♪
♪ waiting here for me ♪
- Aren't you excited? - I'm very excited.
You know what? I'm excited,
'cause I get to watch you tell 'em.
I can't wait to see what they say.
This is a good day.
As heartbreaking as it was to meet candance's mother,
To be able to deliver to her this news,
I don't even know how to describe it.
Well, hello there.
- Hi! - How you doing?
Siegler: These are the times that we live for.
This is what it's all about.
And we can't wait to bring her this news.
Like I told you several years ago,
We'll never give up,
And we'll fight this fight until we get the results
That your family and candance's boys deserve.
I spoke to our prosecuting attorney, dan driscoll,
And he has agreed to let this case move forward,
And we are going to present this to a clark county grand jury,
And we will be indicting thomas albert
For the murder of your daughter, candance prunty.
Ooh-wee.
- Wow. - It's wonderful news.
It's been a long journey.
Jordan: It has.
I'm just grateful.
Just grateful.
It's like our prayers have been answered.
Yep.
I was so confident
That at some point we would get here.
Well, now that day has come, and I am happy as hell.
Me, too.
Come on, ma. See, let's just ride the wave.
Patricia: For a long time,
I didn't think that we were gonna get to this point.
The news that he was able to give us today
Is like a little piece of heaven.
Even though it doesn't bring her back,
It just makes the rest of the day
Seem easy to get through,
And I appreciate that.
Siegler: How are you thinking about all of this today?
It's so overwhelming.
I knew there was something.
I knew he was working behind the scenes,
And I just had to believe,
And I knew he's too deep in it emotionally
Not to be doing something, 'cause he showed us that.
He proved hisself to be everything he said he was
For this case.
- And justice for your baby. - Yes.
We are forever connected because of this.
- I wanna hug you. - Absolutely.
- Oh, my god. - Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you for believing in me
And trusting me with one of the most important things
In your life.
♪ it hurts the most ♪
♪ in the dark see the spark I hold in my hands ♪
I wouldn't have wanted nobody else on this case but you.
- Thank you. - Yes.
That means the world to me. I appreciate it.
- You mean the world to us. - Yes, you do.
♪ in the dark see the spark I hold in my hands ♪
♪ I won't let go ♪
♪ ohhhh ♪
♪ oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ hold on ♪
♪ to hope ♪
Siegler: On August the 30th, thomas albert was indicted
For the murder of candance prunty
Along with eight other related charges.