♪ whoa, who-oh-oh ♪
♪ whoa-oh-oh ♪
♪ rise up from the ashes ♪
♪ whoa-oh-oh ♪
♪ whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ rise up from the ashes ♪
How many arson cases have you worked, steve?
You know, arsons are an interesting crime.
They're hard to work. The fire department
Destroys half of the evidence, and then to try to go back
Into these places and walk around...
Thank god her wounds are obvious enough
To where arson isn't the cause of death.
Steve and I are here in south carolina
To investigate the shocking murder
Of debra chisolm.
Late one night back in 2007,
Deborah was attacked in her home,
Bludgeoned and stabbed to death seven times
Before her killer poured gasoline on her body
And burned her home practically to the ground.
We know debra was 44 when this happened.
She took in her niece and nephew to live with her.
She had a lot of friends. Normal social life, right?
Did you consider her a high-risk victim?
-Absolutely not. -Thirteen years
Before the murder happened, debra's sister passed away,
So as a result of that, debra took in to raise
Along with her own daughter taineisha,
Her nephew dwayne and her niece sakeena.
At the time of the murder, they were both grown
And had just recently moved out.
But when the smoke cleared, the investigators
Started hearing rumors that debra's death
May have been the result of an old family grudge.
Debra's friends, girlfriends and coworkers,
She shared a lot about her relationship with her niece
And nephew and daughter. Did they love each other?
Did they hate each other? What was the issue?
What was the problem, right?
[steve] I got decades of experience with arson cases,
And they're always a challenge.
If we're going to solve debra's, we can't focus on
On the evidence that was lost.
We have to focus on the evidence that we still have--
The neighbors, cell phone records,
The witnesses, and the actual suspects themselves.
-I think it's a great case. -[man] why?
There's still a lot of questions here about this arson.
♪ whoa-oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ rise up from the ashes ♪
It has been 16 years and still no answers...
Police consider her killing a cult killing...
Years later, the case is still unsolved...
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. -Hi.
I'm interim chief george miller.
-Nice to meet you, sir. -Nice to meet you.
-Robert thacker. -I'm kelly.
Steve spignola, nice to meet you, sir.
-How are you? -Shawn smith.
Look at that bow tie!
That's a south carolina thing, huh?
Yes. [laughs]
When did y'all first get acquainted with this case?
I started working the case back in 2012.
That was one of the first things I did
Took over as interim chief was to try
And get this case solved.
We feel like that it is solvable.
Do y'all not hire little guys here or something?
-Is that a rule? -[men laugh]
-It's the south. -I like that!
Let's go. Come on.
Debra was a very outgoing person,
Always willing to help somebody.
No one deserved to lose their life the way she did.
It's something that you get motivated
To close this case and bring some closure to the family,
At least give them some kind of comfort.
Let's put debra's pictures up on the board.
She was only 44 when it happened, right?
-Yes, ma'am. -Pretty dang young.
What was her story?
Debra was a single mother.
Her sister passed away earlier on,
And she ended up taking care of the niece and nephew.
She put her daughter through college, taineisha.
-And taineisha now lives where? -In north carolina.
She's actually a doctor.
Debra worked for the city of greenville
And she had a lot of friends.
Yeah, she seemed pretty social, right?
-Yes, ma'am. -When the sister passed away,
Debra just took on the role of being their parent.
From what I've gathered from family and friends
And everybody, she took care of them
Just like they were her own kids.
My mom actually was divorced and a single mother,
Black female, just like debra was.
That's what motivates me to find this person
And put them in jail.
Start with the front of the story.
December 12, 2007.
The fire department responded to a fire.
After the fire was extinguished,
That's when the fire department stumbled on
A body that was charred.
The next day an autopsy was performed,
And the cause and manner of death was ruled a homicide.
There was evident stab wounds and blunt force trauma
To her skull.
Did anybody know that was coming?
-No. -Didn't know there would
Be a body and didn't know it wasn't gonna be
-Just from the fire. -No, ma'am.
-Damn. -Yeah.
Forensic testing determined that the killer used gasoline
To set debra's house on fire after the murder
In a likely attempt to cover up the crime.
But luckily, the fire department was able
To extinguish the fire quickly.
The killer wasn't as slick as they thought they were.
Okay, so let's start with our suspect board.
-Y'all want to do dwayne first? -Yes.
Dwayne taylor. So he's gonna be debra's--
-The nephew. -Nephew.
And when this happened, we say he was 22?
-Twenty-two. -What do we know
About the relationship between dwayne and debra?
We know they were having some-- some issues.
-Over what? -Money.
What debra was receiving for dwayne and sakeena
As they were growing up, ssi checks.
And we don't know how much money, do we?
We don't know how much money.
Dwayne was debra's nephew,
Who had an understandably troubled childhood.
But investigators discovered that the real trouble started
When dwayne got a little bit older
And he became convinced that debra was withholding
The social security benefits
That he and sakeena were receiving
Because of his mom's death.
There's no evidence that she was,
But if dwayne believed that, that could be our motive.
Now prior to that, she had some issues with dwayne
-Getting arrested... -Okay.
...And stuff like that.
She had to actually kick him out the house.
When did she kick him out?
It was two months prior to her death.
What was his initial story as to where he was
Around the time you think the fire started?
He wrote a statement that said
Prior to going to work that day,
He was at his cousin's house.
Spoke to the cousins, the cousins said,
"dwayne wasn't here."
And then later on we found out
That he was late for his job.
He worked from 11:00 p.M. To 7:00 a.M.
On that particular day,
He did not arrive at work until 12:45.
Okay. We don't know
What time debra was killed
Or what time the fire started.
But based on the size of the blaze
When the fire department arrived,
It's believed that the fire was started
Around 10:30 or 11:00 p.M.
If so, then dwayne's alibi and actions that night
Certainly seem suspcious.
Sakeena taylor.
She's gonna be our victim's niece.
What else we know about the relationship
Between sakeena and debra?
-It was strained, apparently. -They had a falling out,
-'cause she moved out. -She moved out in February?
-Mm-hmm. -Sakeena gets into it
With debra and I think your police department
Responds one time, too, over money.
And that was, you know, earlier that year, I thought.
And they're fighting outside when the neighbors call.
She feels like she misappropriated her funds.
Like her brother dwayne, witnesses said that
Sakeena believed that debra was keeping money from her.
Statistically, about 90% of murders
Are committed by men, and debra's murder
Was particularly violent.
But I've worked enough murder cases to realize
That you can't rule anything out.
Could she have killed her own aunt?
Could she have helped?
Could she have helped to cover it up?
The other suspect that I think we need to address
Is the main man she was messing around with at the time.
-All right. -Dwayne ishaaq.
His relationship to debra is dating.
Do we know for how long?
Everybody said two years, and I think that was
To not let his actual wife know
How long he's been dealing with her.
Dwayne ishaaq had been dating debra
Behind his wife's back for a couple of years.
And even though debra's body was badly burned,
The first responders were able to determine
That debra was nude at the time of her death,
Which sounds a lot like she and her killer
May have been in an intimate relationship.
Did they have any abuse issues?
-Volatile, jealousy, temper? -No.
It was like fringe benefits.
He knew about her relationships,
And she knew he was married.
And is dwayne still with his wife today?
Yes. She was at home,
Had some teeth extracted that day.
He was out getting her medication.
-He's on video... -At the gas station.
...At this gas station, yeah.
Dwayne ishaaq seemed like a likely suspect
But he has a pretty solid alibi.
He and his wife say that he was at home all night,
Other than when he stopped at a gas station briefly,
Where he was caught on camera.
But based on debra's phone records,
We know that he talked to her
A little less than two hours before her murder.
Is it possible that he could've pulled it off?
And if so, why?
All right, boys, that's a pretty good board.
♪♪♪
♪ take the long road ♪
♪ always see it through ♪
♪ there's a purpose ♪
♪ to be certain... ♪
How long had taineisha been married when this happened?
I think she got married the same year?
A few months before.
The first thing we want to do
Is meet with debra's daughter taineisha.
It feels like it's pretty much split up the family, too.
Yeah, it has, yeah.
For three kids that grew up together,
They have nothing to do with each other now.
-♪ money changes you ♪ -I can't imagine
Growing up with my cousins
And watching my mom raise them
And then considering the possibility
That they could be involved and implicated
In my mother's murder.
So I know it's been a long time.
-Yes. -But hopefully this time
We can bring some closure to you.
What was your sister like growing up?
She loved to sing around the house.
She loved to dance.
She loved to have fun.
Oh, she was the life of the party.
-Yeah. -Always, huh?
-Always. -Always.
A lot of--of her raising me was to, like,
Always just encouraging whatever.
Anybody she would talk to about me, she'd be like,
"that's my daughter. She's gonna be a doctor."
Like, she had probably more faith and confidence in me
Than I had in myself. She's like "oh, you can do it.
You'll be fine." but if I had wanted to be, uh,
A garbage person, she would've been just as excited.
My mom was my best friend.
Um, we hung out
We talked--we talked every day.
I talked to her the day-- the morning that she died.
She was my biggest cheerleader.
She was loving, caring,
Happy, sweet.
My life hasn't been the same.
Let's go back a little bit. So, at some point,
Your cousins, dwayne and sakeena...
-Mm-hmm. -...Their mom passed away.
-Right. -When they first moved in
With you, was everybody happy about that?
Uh, I think there were moments of tension,
Because I still had my mom.
Me and sakeena were like this when we were young-young.
'cause we were the same age, our moms were close.
Like, all of our moms had us all together.
After that, we just...
Um, became distant.
At that time, dwayne--
-Oh, he was--had troubles. -Yeah.
Like, he was already aggressive and angry.
Like, he had several runs of charges.
So by the time I graduated, he was intermittently
In and out of the house. Like, he would do something
And she would kick him out.
And during the time y'all were growing up,
They each get a check for-- the ssi
-'cause their mom passes away. -Right.
And how much are you aware of any kind of stress or tension
That that caused in the minds of sakeena and dwayne?
I think it--there--
I remember there being moments, like, "this is my money."
Sure. And who would be the one that said
"this is my money"? Dwayne or sakeena or both?
I feel like it was both of them.
Yeah.
When this happened, right,
I asked keena at that point, I was like,
"you think your brother had something to do with it?"
-She got very defensive. -Okay.
Thinking about how it happened, why--like, why...
It wasn't random. The intention was to do harm.
-Yeah. -So most of us
Think dwayne did it.
-[sniffles] -you can really feel
The pain and the suffering that to this day
Still torments taineisha and gloria.
We're gonna try our hardest.
We feel optimistic, but we can't promise you anything.
We're not trying to break your heart for nothing, okay?
We all hope that we can bring justice
And help ease their heartache
Over what happened to debra after all these years.
♪♪♪
Everybody still at the ways' house.
That's the house right across the street.
Hopefully they can give us some information.
Debra chisolm was brutally murdered 14 years ago
And her house set on fire.
And while the house no longer stands,
We're fortunate to have the neighbors
Still living across the street.
-Ms. Francine way? -Yes.
We're hoping they can still remember
If they saw anything out of the ordinary that night.
We're looking into the debra chisolm case.
-You remember that night? -Yeah.
It happened around 12:00 that night.
-Mm-hmm. -And a white lady
Came through the neighborhood.
She was knocking on people's doors
To let us know there was a fire over there.
That evening, before that happened--
-Let me back it up. -Yes, ma'am.
Me and my husband were sitting on the porch right here.
-Okay. -And...
I noticed the black truck,
You know, come down the street.
It was parked in front of the house.
Okay. Mr. Way available to talk to us for a minute?
Well, let me get him.
Mrs. Way places a suspicious black truck
At debra's house on the night of the murder.
That's not debra's vehicle, and as far as we know
It doesn't match the suspects' vehicles, either.
Maybe her husband can help us identify
The driver of the truck.
Alls I really remember is, um,
I thought it was strange-- it was a black truck
Parked right by the drainage thing there.
-Yes, sir. -It sounded like
-A sprinkler system. -Like a sprinkler system.
-Yes. [imitates sprinkler] -okay. Okay. Okay.
Right.
Yes. Okay.
Mr. Way didn't see the driver of the black truck.
However, the engine made a strange, sprinkler-type noise,
And that is a solid lead.
Okay. [laughs] yeah, right. Yes, sir.
♪♪♪
-Good morning. -Hi, guys.
Y'all brought some visitors, huh?
This is captain brown from the fire department.
-Captain brown. -Nice to meet you.
I'm kent dill with the coroner's office.
-What's the setup out here? -Right, we got a model up
For the residence, since it's all destroyed.
So we're gonna go in and see if we can reenact
That night of December 12, 2007.
Y'all remember it pretty well?
We remember it.
All right, well, come tell us everything you remember.
Let's talk it over.
With debra's house completely destroyed,
The mauldin police department
Has built us up a model today
To help us better visualize and try to examine
The actions of debra's killer.
So this would probably be the back of the residence.
And where's the bedroom?
The bedroom's gonna be on this side.
Debra's home had two doors.
The front door was locked.
The back door was broken and it was secured with a bookcase
To keep people from coming in.
So the first thing we have to figure out in this case
Is how did our killer get inside debra's house?
So I'm parked here, and as I exit,
I'm walking around the back side of the house.
So I come first to the screened-in porch door
Which I enter from there.
And as I get in, maybe or maybe not,
I check this back door.
So this is our barricaded back door.
Right. If this is the door,
This bookshelf went across the door.
You're first officer on the scene.
If he had to push open the door,
Then that tells y'all what as to how
Our suspect got inside the house?
The window. That's the only way he could've gotten in,
'cause he didn't go through the front door.
-And there's no other door? -There's no other door?
-And the garage door was down? -Right.
-So it's gotta be this window. -Gotta be that window.
Debra's body was nude when she was discovered,
And we figure that was because of one of two reasons--
She was either with her boyfriend shortly before this,
Or she was in the shower and was ambushed when she got out,
Which may help explain why she didn't hear the killer
Getting into the house that night.
All right, so, go back, enter the house,
I'm gonna be debra getting out of the shower.
So if you're in the kitchen, now you've gotten
Into the house through the window.
I might even hear the shower running, I don't know.
But I'm walking this way toward the bedroom,
And here's the bedroom door.
She's gonna come out of we think the shower
'cause she's got no clothes on, and her family says
She did not sleep nude.
She's walking maybe to get her clothes to get dressed,
'cause she's found where, chief?
-Her body. -She's found basically
In this area.
The head is near the door.
She is on her back,
And then she has the stab wounds.
-How many were there? -Seven.
Okay, so, if I'm coming out of my shower,
And I'm trying to get my clothes on or whatever,
And you come through the door, what you gonna do?
One of the ways that I might be able to control you best
Is to get around you, and then that...
-Would give you an opportunity. -One through four.
And then you've got one on this side up high...
And then you've got one down here.
If I'm struggling you might not be able to aim as well.
And then that way you would fall this way,
With your head closer to the door.
-Sure. -Okay.
So he gets back in here with the gas.
How much does it take to set that fire? A lot?
-Five gallons? -Several.
It just didn't happen just in that bedroom.
So they splashed gas more than just
-On her part of the bedroom? -I would say.
-I would say so. -I didn't know that.
So with debra's killer actually sneaking into the house
And then using gasoline to cover up the crime,
It's clear this just wasn't some type of a heated argument.
This was a cold and calculated premeditated murder.
And gas can goes with him. He doesn't leave it behind.
-No, no. -No knife is left behind.
All that goes with the killer.
And we also know that he's in a hurry to leave.
He's definitely in a hurry to leave.
So he's not--he's not dawdling.
Damaged tree is where?
Kinda like right here.
Had damage consistent with something hitting it,
Backing out, leaving in a hurry.
Killers typically flee crime scenes quickly,
Especially if they just set it on fire.
As it turns out, outside debra's home,
Investigators found scrape marks on the side of a tree
Suggesting that the killer scraped their vehicle
During the escape.
Wow, that was so helpful. Thank you all.
It sounds more and more like the key piece of evidence
In this case is a black truck with damage to its side
That has an engine that sounds like a sprinkler system.
And the question is, who was driving that truck
The night debra was killed?
♪♪♪
Okay, yolanda golden.
She's a friend. She ought to be excited.
-Yeah. -We've still got
Three suspects in the murder of debra chisolm--
Her niece and nephew who she helped raise,
And her boyfriend.
None of them owned the black truck that we believe
Her killer might have been driving that night.
So it's time for us to start talking to witnesses
To try and narrow down any potential motives.
What kind of person was debra?
Outgoing, fun, funny.
Is there anybody that she had any problems with in her life?
-Like... -The only person
That it keeps resonating with me is her nephew.
Dwayne? He was living there with her.
-Okay. -Um, he was not respecting
Any rules of her household,
Coming in at, you know, different times of night.
Had people in her house. He was using drugs,
And she had to kick him out, but she had told me that
He had broken into the house a few times.
-He had broken into the house? -Yeah, she said
When she got into the house,
She could see him running across the field.
At the back of the house, right?
-In the back of the house. -Okay.
According to her friend yolanda,
Debra had recurring issues with her nephew dwayne,
And had recently kicked him out.
More importantly, she caught him breaking back in
A couple of times.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you so much.
-I appreciate y'all. -Thank you. We appreciate it.
It makes you wonder if dwayne was the one
Who broke debra's back door
And forced her to have to barricade that back door
With the bookcase.
Or if maybe he was entering through the window
Like we think her killer did.
Nice.
♪♪♪
This is mr. Sullivan, right?
Yes, darryl sullivan, ex-boyfriend.
Debra dated a man named darryl sullivan
In the early 2000s, and they remained friends
Up until the time of her murder.
Mr. Sullivan? How you doing, sir?
Do you mind if we step outside?
-No. -You wanna talk out here?
He may be able to tell us more about
Her relationship with dwayne and sakeena.
You know why we're here, huh?
-Yes. -Yeah.
-And we're hoping
That she did some confiding
In her friends and girlfriends about her personal life
And her situation at home.
Did she ever talk about any of that with you?
-Yes. -Okay, what did she--
What did she tell you about them?
Okay.
...Or drugs.
She put him out a few times? Over arguments?
Was sakeena a problem for her like dwayne was?
Okay.
If we're trying to figure out whether or not sakeena
Could be involved in this murder,
Is there anything you know of or think about
That tells you one way or the other?
So she was upset?
Okay.
Darryl seemed pretty confident
That debra had bigger problems with dwayne
Than she did with sakeena and that sakeena may know more
Than she's ever told the police before.
Did she ever tell you
About needing to barricade her back door?
-You could get in it. -How come?
Did she ever mention if she was afraid of dwayne?
And when you say, "shortly before that,"
You mean weeks? -Shortly before that...
Couple days?
Okay.
You think she probably told this to you when? Within that week?
Now was that the last time you talked to her
Prior to her death? -Wow.
Not only was dwayne the reason
Why debra was barricading her back door,
He threatened her days before the murder,
And he had plans to come by her house.
You told us some wonderful new stuff today.
-Right. -That's a lot.
Thank you so much.
Darryl sullivan was a great witness.
Every single thing that came out of his mouth
Was a beautiful piece of circumstantial evidence.
-Oh, man. -Whoo-hoo!
Wonderful.
I thought he was gonna be a waste of time.
No! Yep.
I didn't think he was gonna know all that.
♪♪♪
-So we going to mr. Boyd next? -Let's go to mr. Boyd next.
-Nobody's ever talked to him? -Mnh-mnh.
She might have vented to him a little bit.
We're headed to speak to another of debra's exes--
A man named patrick boyd.
Well, we heard you knew her from the church.
Yeah.
We were together, I guess, about four or five years.
-Okay. -I know the kids very well.
-Okay. -She ever talk to you
About any problems she had with her niece and nephew?
I know dwayne would give her a little,
You know, when he was-- he was growing up.
Did she ever tell you about any times when she felt like
She was afraid that he was going to do something to her?
She never said it, but I kinda felt it
'cause he was starting to get into the drug scene.
-Okay. -If dwayne was involved,
What would be his reason for wanting to hurt debra?
Money. It was always about money with him.
But they was always taken care of.
The kids came first before she did.
Did she ever say that she had any kind of issues like that
With her niece, sakeena?
Not to me.
Again, we're hearing about dwayne's anger
Over the money that he thought debra owed him.
Between this boyfriend's account about the money
And the last boyfriend, it feels like
Dwayne's potential motive over all this money
Had been building for years.
I try to make things happen every once in a while.
-I like him, too! -Yeah.
♪♪♪
So we're on our way to see dwayne ishaaq,
Ex-boyfriend of debra.
He had actually called her the night that she was murdered,
Talked to her for a little bit. -Right.
And he's got a pretty solid alibi, looks like.
Yeah.
Debra chisholm and dwayne ishaaq
Were actually dating at the time of her murder.
They talked on the phone the night she was killed.
Dwayne has always had a strong alibi
Corroborated by his wife and security cameras.
However, we still need to talk to him to determine
His movements throughout the day and night debra that was killed.
[knock on door]
-[dog barking in distance] -uh-oh.
[continues knocking]
With a vehicle parked in the driveway
And noises coming from within the house,
We think that our suspect dwayne might be in the house,
However no one appears interested
In talking to us at this time.
I heard the dogs in there at one time.
-Yeah, yeah. -And then I--you know,
I thought I heard somebody moving.
We'll just have to try again later.
♪♪♪
Sergeant, so we brought eric devlin with us.
He used to be a prosecutor,
And now he's our forensics expert,
And he loves doing all this kind of stuff.
You're gonna like him 'cause he's a geek.
-[laughs] -okay, let's--let me get him
And find out what he can tell us.
We know that one of debra's last phone calls
Was with her boyfriend, dwayne ishaaq,
And we know that she was killed sometime between 10:30 and 11.
-Morning or afternoon. -This is eric.
-How are y'all? -All right, sir.
Hopefully, our digital forensics expert
Can give us some insight
Into what the other suspects were doing
Based on their cellphone records and maybe even tell us
Where they were at that time.
First number I looked at belonged to sakeena taylor.
So I don't have location data. It's a toll record.
These are the records during that particular time period.
2200 hours up to 1100 hours.
I believe the murder time
Is somewhere right around here, so...
So the last activity on sakeena's phone
On the day of our murder is at 5:35 p.M. Eastern time?
Correct.
She didn't call anybody else that whole night?
There's nothing, no calls until 9:49 the next morning.
Damn.
Dwayne's not calling her, and she's not calling him?
I went looking for cellphone calls between them.
The only one I could find is around December 1st.
-Wow. -They're not calling
Each other's cellphones. -On a regular basis.
Okay.
Sakeena did not use her cellphone
Around the time of the murder,
And she had not even spoken to her brother in over a week.
It doesn't mean that she didn't play a role in debra's murder,
But her cellphone records themselves
Are not at all incriminating.
-Okay, what you got next? -Moving on to dwayne taylor.
These are some actual call detail records,
So I can give you some location data on these.
So you gave me one particular important location,
Which my understanding is where the homicide occurred.
Yes.
Give me the times that he's on his phone
Closest to our murder window,
Which is around 10:30, 11:00 at night.
Uh...8:24 p.M., he is hitting off this particular tower,
Which could put him anywhere in this particular area.
That catches the murder house.
Does not catch the murder house.
Okay.
At 11:16 p.M., he is hitting off
The same cell tower
He's hitting off of at 8:24,
But during this entire break
Between 8:24 and 11:16, there is no communication.
There is no tracking where he is.
He could be anywhere. He could be committing murder.
He could be sitting at home doing nothing.
Okay.
Dwayne's cellphone records
Are a bit more telling than sakeena's, but not much.
Like his sister, there's a black hole of non-usage
During the murder window
With no calls or activity to show us where he was.
So from 8:30 at night until 11:15 at night,
About three hours, we got a window there, right?
-Correct. -And the rest of the day,
He's on his phone all day long. -Correct.
-There's not another 3-hour gap. -No.
So what's he doing for three solid hours
When the whole rest of the day,
He hasn't left that phone alone for three hours?
-Yeah. -Right, exactly.
Siegler: Then again, maybe dwayne's cellphone inactivity
Is evidence.
He made around 20 calls that day,
And around the time of the murder
Is his only 3-hour gap of inactivity.
-All right, man, thank you. -You bet.
♪♪♪
So hopefully sakeena will talk to us.
Yeah.
It's time now that we talk to our suspect, sakeena taylor.
Although her problems don't seem to be as severe with debra
Or as volatile as her brother dwayne's,
We know that they fought over money,
And that she was allegedly acting very strange
At debra's funeral.
[knocking on door]
If she isn't involved, this is a good chance
For her to set the record straight.
♪♪♪
Hi. Is sakeena taylor here?
Could I speak with her, please?
You sakeena? Hey, sakeena. I'm robert thacker.
I'm with the city of mauldin police department.
You got a minute to talk to us for a minute?
You--you working?
Oh. Um, will you have time to talk to us today sometime?
Um, we're investigating, um, your aunt's case.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. It is. I understand.
Well, you know...
You don't got a few minutes now, have you? No?
I mean, I can--we can reach you after 7. That's no problem.
Okay. Okay.
-Thanks a lot. -Thank you.
All right, yes.
Sakeena is a tough read.
She came to the door and appeared to be polite.
However, she definitely gave us the brush-off.
We don't have an arrest warrant.
So she doesn't have to talk to us,
But you have to ask yourself, why, if this was your aunt,
Who you loved and raised you,
Wouldn't you help law enforcement
Find the person who did this?
I think she may know,
And she may be afraid of the truth itself.
Very guarded. Got those women's instincts up
That she knows we ain't there
For a quick cup of coffee or something.
-She didn't seem negative. -No.
-I think she might call. -Yeah, she--
For some reason, I think she might call.
♪♪♪
Well, hopefully sakeena will open the door for us.
We'll see. She's not exactly a picture of cooperation.
Yeah.
We hoped our suspect, sakeena taylor,
Would get back to us after our visit yesterday,
But she hasn't.
So we're gonna drop by again today
And see if we can get her to talk to us this time.
All right, let's go talk to ms. Sakeena.
She told us she works from 10 to 7,
So we're here bright and early today.
Ms. Taylor, police department.
[continues knocking]
Ms. Taylor, police department.
I don't hear any movement this time. We did yesterday.
[continues knocking]
Ms. Taylor, police department.
She ain't answering the door for us today.
Yeah, darn it, we tried.
Got a number for her. We can call her.
[line rings]
Hello?
This ms. Taylor?
Hey, I came--I was looking for you to call me yesterday,
And I came back out in the morning to talk to you.
I'm sorry...
You don't want to-- you don't wanna--
You don't wanna find out who killed your aunt?
You don't wanna--you don't wanna find out who killed your aunt?
Well, we're trying to find out who killed your aunt.
You don't have any information for us?
But you know, and the person that did it is still out there.
You're not concerned about--
You not--
You're not concerned--you're not concerned about her?
You're not concerned about her?
[line disconnects]
[sighs]
You know, this thing is just so frustrating.
This is why these cases go cold.
You know, nobody cares.
Nobody wants to talk to the police.
♪♪♪
Hello? Mr. Neely.
Are you--are you at home right now, sir?
Okay, um, I'll be out here waiting on you.
I wanted to talk to you about dwayne taylor, remember?
All right, thank you, sir.
After talking to debra's neighbors
And reviewing the scene,
We believe debra's killer drove a black truck
And damaged it by fleeing.
None of our suspects own that type of vehicle.
But the mauldin p.D. Recognized that earlier in the day
Of debra's murder,
Dwayne had brought his car to a mechanic for repairs.
We're wondering if there's a connection
Between dwayne's car trouble
And the mystery truck in this case.
How you doing, sir? All right. This is steve.
Hello. How you doing, sir? Nice to meet you.
We've tracked down sam neely,
The owner of the garage that serviced dwayne's car.
Can you tell us about dwayne taylor?
Right. Yes.
Right.
So the damage wasn't on the truck
When you gave it to dwayne.
Okay.
Right.
Not only did dwayne borrow sam's pickup truck
On the day debra was killed,
When he returned, it had damage on its side,
And the gas can in the bed of the truck was missing the lid.
And we know that the killer used gasoline
To set debra on fire and her home after the murder.
What it sound like?
They say it used to tick like a sprinkler system.
It sound like a sprinkler system.
Sound like a sprinkler system.
-Yeah. -Okay.
[laughs]
With sam neely confirming that his vehicle
Was actually the one making that odd sound,
I'd say we got a truckload of circumstantial evidence
Against dwayne at this point.
-Thanks a lot, sir. -Yeah.
-God bless you. -All right.
Thank you.
♪♪♪
So what's the plan with dwayne right now?
We're gonna call the jail and have him transported
And see if he wants to talk to us.
Now that we can place dwayne at the scene of his aunt's house
On the night of the murder,
It's time to confront him with the evidence.
Lucky for us, he's gonna be easy to find
'cause he's currently in custody here in the county jail
On an unrelated domestic violence charge.
And as long as he sits in there and doesn't lawyer up,
You know, just keep going at him.
Yeah, we gonna chat.
♪♪♪
All right, so ready?
-Yeah. -Hello?
So he refused to come out at all?
We were so eager to confront dwayne taylor
About his aunt's murder.
All right, man. Appreciate it. Thank you.
-All right. -But when the investigators
Went to try and approach him, he refused to talk.
So they didn't even tell him what it was for,
But he knew it was the mauldin police department?
He knows. He knew exactly what it was for.
-Okay. -He knew exactly what it's for.
We also got ahold of dwayne ishaaq,
But he didn't wanna talk either.
Fortunately, we still feel like we've uncovered a lot
Over the course of this investigation.
Let's look up here at our board.
We have dwayne ishaaq.
You went to that gas station and got video footage of him...
-Right. -...At the time he told you.
Yes. Now, the witness--
Nobody's putting him at the house.
-He's got no issue with her. -Right, no.
With all that being said and done,
What's your feeling about dwayne ishaaq today?
-Take him off. -Take him off.
I definitely say take him off.
Boyfriends and husbands are usually
Always the first suspects in a murder case,
And it would have been nice
If we could've talked to dwayne ishaaq yet again.
The truth is, he has had a solid alibi.
We never uncovered any possible motive,
And from talking to debra's exes,
It's pretty clear that she was always able
To continue positive relationships
With her boyfriends even after she broke up with them.
Okay. Let's talk about sakeena.
Sakeena and dwayne did not talk by telephone
The night of the murder. -Right.
She didn't call anybody else that whole night?
There's no calls until 9:49 the next morning.
Damn.
Was sakeena a problem for her like dwayne was?
How do y'all feel about sakeena being on the suspect board?
-Shawn, what do you think? -I think she's just distraught
Because she has her brother, and she has to protect him.
-Right. -Take her off.
-So sakeena comes off. -Yes, ma'am.
It feels like sakeena either knows or she suspects
That her brother's involved in her aunt's murder.
And though clearly, she had issues with debra,
Like with dwayne ishaaq, there's no evidence to suggest
That she was involved or tried to cover it up at all.
Okay, what all do we have against dwayne taylor
That you wanna talk to your prosecutor about?
Lay the foundation with motive.
We're talking about a lady that raised him.
Mm-hmm.
And all he could think about was, "where's my ssi money?"
It was always about money.
And then get into she was always having to kick him out.
You know, she would kick him out and she'd let him back.
He was living there with her, but she had to kick him out,
Was not respecting any rules of her household.
And then we have mr. Sullivan. What does he say, shawn?
They got into an argument over money,
And she kicked him out.
He knew she was--he was supposed to be coming over there
To pick up clothing.
-For good. -For good, you know?
-Yeah. -And leave.
She probably told this to you when? Within that week?
And who in the whole wide world is gonna come
All the way back to debra's bedroom
And catch her when she's getting out of the shower
With a knife already in his hand?
Somebody that used to live there
And knows the layout of the house.
We heard that dwayne had a history
Of breaking into debra's home,
Which is why she barricaded her back door in the first place.
Then you get to the night of the fire.
Witnesses the ways--first ones that heard that pickup truck.
It sound like a sprinkler system.
-Sound like a sprinkler system. -Yes.
-Okay. -[imitates sprinkler whooshing]
Okay.
We know the owner of the truck, who was mr. Neely,
Confirmed that dwayne did borrow his truck.
When mr. Neely got the truck back,
He noticed there was damage to the truck.
Yeah.
And what are the odds that the same black truck
Borrowed by dwayne taylor, has damage on it,
Equal to the tree sitting right beside the house?
-What are the odds? -Yeah.
His own statement to law enforcement originally...
He said he had to be at work at 11:00.
-He doesn't show up till 12:45. -Yeah, right.
I've always thought that the best murder cases
Are a combination of circumstantial and physical,
And you got it here. This is great.
You just lead from one to the other.
-It's a good case. -It is. This is now or never.
It's been 14 years.
We're excited to present this case against dwayne taylor
To the 13th judicial district's solicitor's office
In the hopes that they'll move ahead
In charging him with the murder of his aunt, debra chisholm.
-You can sell it? -Oh, yeah.
-"oh, yeah." I like that. -[laughs]
♪♪♪
♪ remember the kindness ♪
♪ remember the life ♪
Been waiting long to tell 'em, right?
Almost 14 years.
You should be proud.
♪ smile ♪
After speaking with the d.A.,
The first thing that came to my mind
Was that taineisha, gloria, and the rest of the family
Would finally get closure--
Something they've been waiting for for a long time.
♪ I'm alive ♪
-Hello, ladies. -Hello.
-Hi. -Hi.
I'm hoping it gives them some kind of sense of mind
To move forward.
-You all doing okay today? -Yeah.
Hanging in there. How about yourself?
Doing fine. Wonderful. Wonderful.
-We got good news. -That's good.
-Good. -Real good news.
We talked to the prosecutor.
-Okay. -And we got the green light
To go forward and be signing warrants on dwayne.
To arrest and charge dwayne with murder and arson, right?
Arson, yes.
So overwhelmingly, the evidence suggests that he did it?
Yes, ma'am.
I mean, it's even more unconscionable
For it to be my cousin, but it's...Confirmation.
-Right, right. Something--yeah. -Okay.
I'm feeling a mixture of relief, disbelief,
A lot of simmering anger,
But in reflecting on this past 14 years,
I'm pretty strong, and I get that from, you know,
In hindsight, I get that from her.
♪♪♪
-We also... -[clears throat]
...Looked into whether or not sakeena was involved or knew.
-We did all that, too. -Mm-hmm.
And I think that we can pretty much tell you she--
She's absolutely not involved.
She wouldn't really talk. You tried to talk to her.
-We went to talk to her twice. -She wouldn't...
-Yeah. -She wouldn't talk to me.
We figured that. I guess it's a loyalty to your brother,
But still, that was your aunt who raised you.
-Right. -You know what I'm saying?
You still have a hard road ahead of you,
But it's been wonderful meeting you all,
And your mom's friends were wonderful.
-Thank you. -Yes, ma'am.
-It's nice meeting you. -Definitely good news.
-Thank you so much. -Here, let me hug you.
She's coming up.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
-Yes, ma'am. -You're quite welcome.
It's bittersweet to bring this news to taineisha and gloria
Because someone that they love
Killed someone else that they loved.
I love you.
But hopefully, knowing that justice is finally being served,
Maybe this will also bring them a little peace.
♪ let's keep hope alive ♪
♪♪♪
-Custody, right? -You know I am, sir.
You're gonna stand right here. I got two copies,
Got two warrants to read to you, okay?
On the 12th of December, 2007,
The defendant, dwayne caseem taylor,
Did commit the offense of murder with malice aforethought
Against the victim, debra chisholm.
Siegler: On September 17, 2021, dwayne taylor was charged
With first degree arson
And the murder of debra chisholm.
...Brookbend road, mauldin, south carolina.