Woman: ♪ I remember when my hands were bound ♪
♪ I was told to leave this place behind ♪
You know how I started in law enforcement?
Right out of high school on a police explorer program.
- Really? - It's a great program.
And I just can't imagine. You know, you're 17.
You wanna be a police officer, and you wind up murdered,
And the case isn't solved for--
Now we're going on 14 years to the day almost.
Yeah.
Steve and I are here in mississippi
To investigate the tragic 2007 murder
Of 17-year old salina mccoy.
She was a fun, feisty teenager
And was so excited about her brand-new first car.
She was also a member of the police explorers program
With the hopes of maybe one day becoming a cop.
This is really a dark case.
I mean, you got a 17-year-old girl.
Wants to be a police officer, which resonates with me,
And she goes missing?
So her dad goes out looking for her.
I can imagine that as a father,
You're gonna go out and try to search all of her haunts.
- Pounding on doors. - Start with the friends,
And when she's not there, what do you do?
Late one night in August, salina disappeared.
Her father's search led him to a local motel
Where her boyfriend and some of his friends were having a party,
Acting strangely, and claim they hadn't seen her.
Two weeks later, her body was found decomposed
Near the railroad tracks.
She had been strangled.
Was it a party that went crazy?
Were they mad at her? Was she mad at all of them?
It just feels like getting her from where she's murdered
To where her body is found
Is gonna involve probably more than one person.
This is a tough case
Because there is still so much we just don't know
About the last night of salina's life,
And there could be multiple suspects involved.
They might be unwilling to talk,
And they might cover for each other.
Our hope right now lies
In all those other witnesses from the motel room that night,
Because they might be the key
To getting answers and justice for her dad.
Spingola: Somebody here knows what happened.
Oh, a lot of 'em know because you know they talk.
- Absolutely. - Maybe they can tell us
A whole bunch of more information today.
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.
- Hello. - Hello. How are you?
Fred shelton, chief of police, columbus, mississippi.
- Nice to meet you. - I'm keith gaskin.
- The newly elected mayor. - Whoa. Newly elected.
- And you must be rick. - Yes. Captain rick jones.
Sergeant eric lewis. Nice to meet you.
We're excited that you're here. I told the mayor about it.
He thought it was awesome idea.
14 years old, this case.
And so we really wanna find closure
For the family and the citizens of columbus.
This case is near and dear to us
Because this young lady was a police explorer.
So it's like she was a part of our family.
Salina just threw herself into the program.
She was always here, always participating.
She was very smart. She had dreams. She had goals.
She'd say, "sergeant rick, I'm gonna go to college.
I'm gonna make something of myself."
- Show us our room. - Let's get started.
When I found out about salina's death,
I was sick about it. Her death had a huge impact
On the columbus police department,
And I would really like to see some justice for salina.
So, when you talked to salina's dad, david,
How does he describe his baby?
That is his heart and soul.
Very emotional about her.
She was spunky.
She was fun to be around the weekend.
She had a whole future ahead of her.
I know. I know.
All right. What's the beginning of the story, captain?
She was living with her mother, unfortunately, kind of loosely,
But she was staying with her boyfriend, j.R.
Salina and j.R. Had a very volatile relationship.
We had people that had saw them arguing on August 2, 2007,
And then nobody saw her again.
Okay.
The mother contacts salina's father.
He immediately starts getting out looking.
There was a rumor that she went to a hotel room,
And he went and checked that out.
She wasn't there.
They filed a police report on a missing person.
And everybody just thought she just kinda ran away.
The details of salina's last day are scarce,
And initially some people thought that she just left town.
But as the days went on and nobody heard from her,
Suspicions grew that something terrible had happened.
On August 14, 2007, a young man let his dogs loose
In the area of the railroad tracks.
They wouldn't come back, so he went and looked for 'em,
And that's when he found salina's body.
The body was in really bad condition.
It had been exposed to the elements.
It had been exposed to animal activities.
She had a rope and a scarf around her neck.
So that was the indication that she was strangled.
It's a brutal way to die.
Salina's body was so badly decomposed,
It was impossible to figure out
If there were any signs of sexual assault
Which may have helped narrow down
The possible pool of suspects.
But we sent the ligatures found on her neck off to the lab
For dna testing, and we're hoping for a break.
The investigators started running down leads,
Talking to a lot of people that was close to her,
And everybody said that something happened
At the gilmer hotel.
There was supposed to have been a party that was going on,
And there was supposed to have been
Some activity that happened.
She was possibly strangled,
And they transported her from the hotel
To the railroad tracks.
Some of that's hearsay and gossip
And some of it's accurate.
- We don't know yet, right? - Right.
But do you all feel like
There's gonna be at least a lot of people
That know something 'cause they're all involved
With what happened that night?
Yes. They're either a part of it
Or they were after the fact helping dispose of the body.
Did salina's boyfriend kill her after their argument that night?
Did she even make it to the hotel?
Did someone at the party kill her,
Help move her body and then cover it up?
How many people are really involved?
And why would they do it?
There are a lot of suspects in this case.
Let's start out with j.R.
- And his real name is... - Anthony seals.
He was 17. He had a violent temper.
He would hit her, slap her around.
I've seen them arguing in the street.
- Really? - When I was on patrol.
I had to chase him off.
Spingola: He's got an aggravated assault,
Simple assault, domestic violence.
- Wow. - At one point,
J.R. Tells josh,
"you tell 'em I wasn't in the hotel."
'cause he's trying to create that alibi--not being there.
According to j.R.'s friend, josh,
J.R. Asked josh to provide a false alibi,
Claiming he was out of town.
Which makes me wonder if j.R. Had something to hide.
And according to j.R.'s friend, deangelo,
Jr. Was acting suspiciously
On the night that salina disappeared.
Later on when it was dark,
J.R. Left and went to salina's house.
J.R. Was gone for about one or two hours.
When he came back, he was very shook up.
- Peep gives our window. - Yeah.
All right, so that's-- that's our start with j.R.
While many rumors point to j.R. As the main suspect,
We have to keep in mind that a lot of our information
Comes from his close friends
Who were reportedly also attracted to salina.
May have been at the motel that night
And rumored to have been involved themselves.
Okay. So let's put up deangelo fisher next.
They include deangelo fisher.
Spingola: At one point, deangelo,
He's with j.R. In jail.
Jones: And deangelo told j.R. To be quiet.
Yeah. "if you say anything, I'll kill you."
And that could be deangelo telling him to be quiet
'cause deangelo's involved
Or just telling home to be quiet because, "dumb-ass, shut up.
You're gonna get yourself in trouble."
Right.
Josh clark.
Spingola: He's a friend of j.R.
Well, he's a friend of both of them, right?
Spingola: Yeah. He likes salina.
There's the story that he gets rid of his car
About a month or two later
That may have been used to transport salina
To the dump site.
We have a man named solomon kelly
Who goes by the nickname smooth.
He was walking down the street, half-naked, looking to the sky,
Saying he was sorry about salina's death.
And, lastly, michael sparks.
Michael sparks is j.R.'s best friend.
He also lies for j.R.,
And he puts j.R. In brooksville,
I think to lie for him that he was not here.
"lies for j.R."
We have a lot of little pieces
That all by themselves don't seem like a lot.
Hopefully, with the right witnesses
From the motel party that night, along with a little bit of luck,
We can put them all together and create a clear picture
Of what happened that night to salina.
Woman: ♪ baby, I need some time alone ♪
♪ to be by myself ♪
When you heard that her body was found
And you realized it was the girl that you knew,
What'd you think?
It made me sick, knowing that her life was cut short
And she didn't have an opportunity to grow up.
How any parent deals with this is just beyond me.
Salina's daddy tragically lost his teen daughter,
And on top of that, he's had to suffer for 14 years
Not knowing what happened to her the last night of her life.
I think it just makes a parent so good to know
That you're trying.
You're always trying. You never quit trying.
- She's not forgotten. - Right.
Sadly, the ongoing strain from the loss of her daughter
Has been too much for salina's mom, donna, to bear.
So she's not gonna be joining us today.
- Hello there. - How you doing?
I'm kelly. Very nice to meet you.
But we're eager to sit down with her dad, david,
To talk to him about salina
And our plan to try and get him some answers.
I just wanna start off
With you just kind of sharing what kind of person salina was.
Well, she's a very respectful young lady.
She was all good and outgoing.
She was friends with everyone.
Willing to help anybody.
She loved to do hair.
She was an "a" student in school.
She always talked about being a police officer.
She just wanted to grow up and be someone to help her family.
I keep her urn right on the shelf
With her picture on it.
I made promises to her that I'm not gonna stop.
Not gonna give up, you know, until we get this case solved.
She was a sweet child. Sweet child.
Break my heart, you know,
For that to happen to her at a young age.
She didn't live her life.
But I know I gotta keep strong for her
Because that was my baby.
When I got the phone call that she was missing,
You know, I said, "well, maybe she over a friend's house."
Y'all started calling all of her friends?
Yes. Yes.
It was a Friday night, and no one had seen her.
So at that time, I went to the gilmer hotel,
And I heard a lot of noise in one room.
When they open the door, I seen j.R. In there.
Siegler: Okay. Who else did you see in there?
It was several more peoples in there.
Look like they were having a party.
I say, "j.R., you seen salina?"
He really didn't look me dead in my face.
He said, "nah, I ain't seen her."
Do you think that he was telling you the truth?
No. I didn't believe him. I didn't believe him.
- You didn't believe him. - I know he know something.
Siegler: It's clear that salina's father believes
That j.R. May have played a part in salina's murder.
But something's not making sense.
Okay, so I'm confused.
We're thinking that everything happened on August the 2nd.
Which I think was a Thursday.
So you got the call when?
Friday.
- The next day. - The next day.
So I had it wrong.
This is a whole 24 hours
After we think she's-- something's happened.
We believe that salina was killed on Thursday night,
And her dad is talking about Friday night.
And I think that that might mean the motel room
And what happened inside is pretty much irrelevant.
We just lost a whole world of witnesses.
Okay, so I'm confused. You got the call when?
- Friday. - The next day.
- Okay.
We just learned that salina's dad
Wasn't even aware of the fact that she disappeared
Until 24 hours later.
And that's when his search led him to that motel party.
So whoever's in the motel room at this point,
It's not as crucial as I was thinking.
'cause I was thinking he went knocking on the door
The very night it happened, but it's 24 hours later.
Based on a lot of rumors, we really wanted to think
That the witnesses in the motel room knew what happened.
But now it feels like they had nothing to do with our murder.
Everything we can think of to do, we're gonna try, okay?
I really, really appreciate it.
This case might be even harder to solve than we thought.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
But we're just getting started, and we're not gonna give up.
Thank you.
Siegler: Come on, lady. You're doing all right today?
Yeah, I'm doing great.
These guys are all excited to meet you.
- Hi. - Hey. I'm captain rick jones.
Nice to meet you.
Siegler: Salina was strangled to death with two ligatures--
Her own scarf and a little piece of rope.
So we've asked forensic pathologist dr. Kathy pinneri
To come in and share her insight about her cause of death.
I'll just give you some insight on what I saw.
So salina was found in a field on August 14th
About 12 days after she was last known to be alive.
She has advanced changes of decomposition.
And then there's evidence of animal predation.
That can be a very tricky thing
Because some of them have very sharp claws or teeth,
And they can look like incised or cut wounds.
Like, down on her hip area, there's a straight line.
Pinneri: This was an injury that happened before she died.
It would undergo decomposition faster than an intact area.
If this were my case and I was presented
With determining the cause and manner of death
For this female found out in the field
With the ligatures around her neck,
I would classify the cause of death
As ligature strangulation.
With the double ligatures,
Would you consider this to be an overkill?
Because one of 'em could've done it.
One of them's very thin and one of them's very broad.
So they're going to have different levels of compression.
But the broader the ligature,
The more spread out the pressure's going to be.
Maybe you're not getting enough compression
With the larger ligatures.
And maybe you wanna use the smaller ligature
To actually compress the blood flow better.
And so, I wouldn't say overkill, but it does kind of suggest
That maybe there was a problem with the first mechanism.
Maybe you're not getting full compression of both sides
Of the carotid arteries.
The fact that they went and got a second one
Goes to show deliberateness and cold-bloodedness,
And sure as hell it shows intent.
Now, on the broad scar, okay, this is not working.
So is she gonna be so incapacitated
That she's just gonna lay there and wait for you to come back,
Not try to get away, or is there somebody else?
- You have a helper. - Well, that's a possibility.
Siegler: We've sent salina's ligatures off
For touch dna analysis
With the hope of identifying
Which of our five suspects may have touched the ligatures.
It's a long shot, but it could be the big break
That this case has needed for 14 years.
If you're gonna find something somewhere,
That's gonna be where it is.
This is greg merchant, our coroner.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
We have ruled out the idea and rumor
That salina was killed in that motel room
And then transporting to the railroad tracks.
But it's still a mystery as to how her body ended up here.
It looks a lot different than I thought it would.
I'm feeling like it's way more isolated than y'all said.
Hopefully, with the local law, along with the coroner,
And our fresh set of eyes,
We can come up with a better idea and appreciation
Of how she ended up here.
Which way is it to where salina lived with her mom, donna?
About four blocks away, through those trees.
Back then, could you walk right through the trees?
Yes.
You got a path that crosses the tracks
To an area over there, and it's heavily traveled,
And the tracks itself are heavily traveled.
Siegler: This area by the railroad tracks
Was a popular shortcut for salina and our suspects.
It was the perfect place to dispose of her body
Because it was hidden and isolated
But still easy to get to.
She was over in this tall grass
About midway of that grove of trees there.
You think that's, what, 20 yards from us right now?
- Yeah. - Okay.
You're thinking that whoever brought her there
Carried her directly from where out here?
Easiest way was access it from warren street.
They could have driven to right here.
But, you know, I don't know that it's a proven fact
Where she was killed.
Right.
It could easily have happened right here.
The button from her jeans was found here,
Away from the body.
Like there was a struggle that took place here.
Also her flip-flops are found up here close to the tracks.
Right. I think if she would've ran,
Those flip-flops would've came off
If she's being chased out here.
You think everything happens here.
And they could've just been meandering through here.
She's thinking there's nothing unusual taking the path.
So the whole worrying about carrying a heavy body
Or putting her in the trunk of a car,
We might not even need to worry about.
Walk up out here in the dark and do what you're going to do
And then continue walking.
But you gotta have a rope with you.
Well, this was a small-length rope,
Something that could very easily been put in a pocket.
We considered the fact
That salina was murdered someplace else
And then transported to where her body was found.
But the evidence suggests a much simpler story--
That salina was killed while walking in that area.
If that's the case, maybe the fact that her friend josh
Got rid of his car soon after the murder,
It isn't as suspicious as we thought.
Siegler: Thank you very much for coming out here.
Thank y'all.
- Hello. - Hello.
- I'm kelly. - I'm jessica.
- You're jessica. - Tiffany.
Miss tiffany. Nice to meet y'all.
You know me. I'm with the police department.
- This is steve. - How you doing?
We wanted to pass some questions on that salina mccoy case.
This is sergeant lewis again.
Can I ask you a couple of questions on salina mccoy?
Many of the rumors about salina's murder
Involved her being killed at a motel party,
But we now know that the motel room
Actually happened 24 hours after we believed that she was killed.
We're just now getting the opportunity
To re-look at some of the facts.
Siegler: What we need are witnesses
Who saw or heard something about the night before
To piece together what happened
And give us evidence to try and confront the suspects with.
The car you're thinking of that got crushed,
It belonged to smooth.
I thought it belonged to josh.
Deangelo fisher.
Spingola: Who do you think killed salina?
Who did you hear that from?
Yeah, somebody.
Siegler: It's our first day of talking to real witnesses.
Nobody's got any good, hard,
Solid information that's not a rumor.
Nobody's ever asked any questions
Directly of anybody that everybody thinks is involved.
The hope was that they might not have firsthand information,
But there would be a working theory
That was kind of consistent on what happened to salina,
And we don't even have that.
Knowing how guilty people feel, knowing how guilty people are,
You're gonna say something eventually,
And you're gonna have to confide in somebody.
Even if it's because the next time
Your next girlfriend pisses you off,
You say, "bitch, I'll do you like I did salina."
Right.
Columbus police department
Investigator katelyn hicks and I
Are headed to talk to one of our suspects, josh clark.
He was friends with salina and her boyfriend, j.R.
Though some people say he also had a crush on salina.
All righty.
We no longer believe that a car was used
To transport salina's body.
So the rumor that josh got rid of his car
Shortly after her murder may not be as relevant.
Siegler: I hope this time it's different.
But we do have a lot of questions
Including why j.R. Asked him to lie
About where he was that weekend.
We're pretty sure salina gets murdered
On Thursday August 2, 2007,
And so our hope was that sometime after she went missing,
Before she's found,
In those 12 days you were hanging out with j.R.
And he might have told you something.
Why not?
Maybe there's some piece in here that jogs your memory, okay?
Look right here. You're saying,
"j.R. Was talking to me..."
What'd she see in him?
Okay.
'cause he was abusive.
So you never witnessed any kind of abuse between the two?
Right. Right.
Josh seems really forthcoming,
And he seems to have genuinely cared for salina,
But he can't say anything for sure
About j.R.'s possible involvement.
Well, how about the name michael sparks?
Really?
Some people say he was j.R.'s best friend.
Okay.
So if there's anybody that might know something...
Some people say
That you got your car crushed right after this happened,
And you hurried up and sold your car.
Though josh doesn't have much in the way of concrete evidence,
He does have a solid reason for disposing of his car.
Josh was very cooperative.
He spoke with us for over an hour,
And he demonstrates no reason for wanting to hurt salina.
He didn't hold back.
And when someone demonstrates genuine effort
To wanna help you, you can tell.
There's so many rumors in this case. That's the problem.
Josh clark answered every question we had.
He wishes he knew more. He doesn't know more.
Josh clark is rumored to have been involved
In salina mccoy's murder.
He knew her and the other suspects
And allegedly got rid of his car shortly afterwards.
But in talking to him, it's very clear
That he was a true, good friend to salina
And only became guilty by association.
Everything that we've been running across
Has been rumors and innuendos,
And we've been kinda knocking them down left and right.
I have no problems eliminating josh at all.
I'm in concurrence with that.
Me, too. Let's take him off.
It is satisfying to once and for all
Eliminate josh as a suspect.
Kind of feel bad that he was even up here.
Lewis: I think it's this house with the big palm tree.
This one here?
We've eliminated one suspect,
But we still have four on our board.
How you doing? Would you mind sitting in the truck
And answering some questions?
You can sit in the front. I'll sit in the back here.
We tracked down one of salina's best friends, gerrika.
Hopefully, she knows something more than just the town rumors.
How would you describe salina?
Do you remember the day she went missing?
Did you know that her boyfriend--
What was that over? Do you know?
- She was afraid of him? - Mm-hmm.
We've read reports of j.R.'s abuse towards salina.
But gerrika's account of him threatening and choking her
And salina wanting to leave him
Paints him as more of a suspect than we initially thought
And adds a potential motive--
That he didn't want salina to leave him.
Somebody on the front porch already.
We haven't found any "night of" witnesses,
But often in cold cases,
The best evidence comes from right out of a suspect's mouth
After the murder.
How you doing? What's up?
We're hoping that j.R.'s ex-girlfriends
Can tell us more about his allegedly abusive behavior
And what he may have told them
About the night his girlfriend, salina, was killed.
Tell me about your relationship with j.R.
Did he ever put his hands on you or around your throat?
He ever threaten to kill you?
Siegler: What did he do to you?
Okay, you're talking about, like, smothering you?
Spingola: The case with salina mccoy,
What do you know about the case?
Siegler: Even though he's your baby's daddy,
You would tell us the truth?
He ever tell you about salina, what he did to her, beat her up?
Mm-mmm.
Siegler: These ex-girlfriends of j.R.
Paint a pretty horrific picture of his pattern of violence
And domestic abuse before and after salina's murder.
Unfortunately, they don't know anything
About what happened to salina from talking to j.R.
That's a neat-looking house, too.
J.R.'s exes might not know anything about salina,
But we know one person who does--
His former best friend and running mate,
Suspect michael sparks.
Yeah.
How'd you figure that? Somebody tell you?
Michael initially told us that j.R. Was out of town
With another girlfriend named vinadella, known as walla,
On the weekend salina was murdered,
Which we know is not true.
The real question is, what's he gonna tell us today?
We're trying to get down and figure what happened.
So, did you go to the party at gilmer inn?
J.R. Was there, right?
Well, here's the deal.
Mom reports salina missing around August 2nd.
We know by August 3rd for sure she's missing.
But vinadella says that j.R. Doesn't show up to the 6th.
Michael's story doesn't match what we've heard.
He's claiming that j.R. And salina were broken up
And that he was never actually at the hotel that night.
But, remember, salina's dad actually saw j.R. At that hotel.
J.R. Ever ask you to lie for him?
Would you lie for him?
How violent were those fights?
Did you ever just ask j.R. What happened to salina?
Did you hang around with deangelo fisher?
You think he might have had a thing for salina?
If this is solved and there's other people involved,
Everybody can get charged, you understand this?
Michael claims not to know much.
I'm not surprised
Based on the fact that he was a friend of j.R.,
But I was certainly hoping for more.
We'd like to solve this. You know what I'm saying?
The only thing that I'm certain of right now
Is that if michael knows more, he's not gonna tell us today.
He was extremely relaxed, calm, cool.
Yep. I don't know what to believe anymore.
Take the second exit on main street.
We're on our way to talk to one of the suspects in this case,
Deangelo fisher, who's currently incarcerated in a county jail.
Deangelo allegedly had a crush on salina,
But he also implicated salina's boyfriend, j.R.,
In her murder,
Claiming that j.R. Left for a few hours initially
And then returned looking extremely upset.
We're running out of potential leads,
And we definitely need some luck right now.
First of all, the relationship between j.R. And salina,
Was it violent?
Did you ever see him hit her?
- Did you have sex with her? - Hell, nah.
- Just asking. - No.
- Nothing? - No.
We don't--no.
If you were us, who would you look at as a suspect?
You?
Have you ever asked j.R. If he killed her?
- Nah. - No?
Like everyone else we've spoken to,
Deangelo never confronted j.R. About salina's murder.
Is that based on the fact that he knows j.R. Is involved
In the death of salina?
The fact that he doesn't wanna know?
Or the fact that he's afraid of j.R.?
At this point, I just don't know.
You gave a statement around that time
J.R. Left for a little while and he comes back
And he looks all shook up
And you gotta smoke some dope with him to calm him down.
You don't think that it had any relation
When he left to go kill her and came back to you guys?
Lewis: He's so shook up you guys smoke.
So, what you think on that? I mean, just--I mean, come on.
I know that's your boy. You know what I'm saying?
I know y'all was close, but, I mean--
I mean...
We need to call and get our dna results if y'all want to.
- Sure. - And we need it, man.
We need some dna here.
We have a case filled with rumors and hearsay,
And no one can give us a firsthand account
Of what happened that night with admissible evidence.
[line ringing]
If we're gonna make something happen,
We really need good news from the lab.
It's heartbreaking that neither one of our murder weapons
Gave us any dna results.
Okay, miss emily, thank you very much.
Thank you.
What was already a tough case just got a heck of a lot harder.
I was hoping for a miracle.
So was I. We needed a miracle.
Jones: Y'all wanna go down to the police station
Where it's cooler?
Put him up here. Let's get this going.
We finally tracked down our main suspect in this case--j.R.
And while I would have loved to have interviewed him
In an interrogation room to observe his body language,
I can't give up this chance right now
To interview him in this truck.
Jones: We're looking at salina's case.
Whose name keeps popping up?
Everything we've heard about j.R.
Points to him being an abusive, violent boyfriend.
But we need j.R.'s account
Of what happened the night we believed salina disappeared.
Mm-hmm.
Did you go looking for her at all?
Were you in love with her?
Did you go to the funeral?
For a girl you loved.
When you used to physically fight with salina,
Did you ever punch her?
What'd you do?
What if I told you we talked to a couple of women
Who told us that salina told 'em that you choked her out
Till she passed out one time? Would that be a lie?
Did you ever threaten to kill her? Never.
What about the fact that joshua clark told us
That you asked him to lie for you,
And say that you were at walla's house
The night that this incident happened
That she went missing? Would that be a lie?
Well, how come walla told us you never showed up
Until August 6th?
And she went missing on August 7th.
Is walla lying, too?
It sure doesn't add up. We got some problems with it.
J.R. Isn't shy about admitting that he initially chokes salina
To the point that she almost passed out.
Still, without any hard evidence to bring him in,
Our best bet is getting him to make a confession
About this case right now.
So, you know, if I had a young girl,
She's out there telling people that you don't have a job,
You're a loser, bad clothes, she embarrasses you,
One day you're just gonna get fed up
With that [bleep] from this bitch.
True or false.
And one day you're gonna hit her. True or false.
And one day you're gonna grab a rope
And put it around her throat
And just twist it until she shuts up.
And then sometimes that goes too far. True or false.
Oh, false. Okay.
Jones: Can you understand how sensitive the neck is, right?
Accidents happen.
Spingola: If you made a mistake,
Now's the time to sit down and say it.
Life in prison versus an accident.
So, deangelo says j.R. Never made any admissions to him.
- Right. - Did deangelo say
He ever asked j.R.?
- Did not ask. - Nobody asked.
Salina's case is tough
With multiple suspects who happen to be friends,
Who haven't given us any new information.
Now we need to figure out where this case stands today.
Based on the interview you did with deangelo fisher yesterday,
Do you believe that deangelo fisher
Is involved in the murder of salina?
With his demeanor and the way he talked about her,
I don't think he had anything to do with it.
We asked him, "did you kill salina?"
"hell, nah." he said, "I had a girlfriend," and all that.
He said, you know, salina wasn't kicking it with anybody else.
It was just j.R.
- You wanna take him off? - I do.
Jones: I don't think he had a direct knowledge of this murder.
Deangelo fisher was quite a bit older
Than this gang of friends and had his own life at the time.
And while we believe that he was in the neighborhood
When salina was killed,
We did not find any evidence that showed that he was involved
Or in any way participated in a cover-up.
Michael sparks, j.R.'s best friend.
Don't discount that sparks was good friends with salina.
It isn't like his only loyalty is to j.R.
We know that michael sparks lied for j.R.
About his alibi that weekend.
But like deangelo, we did not find any evidence
That suggests that he was involved in salina's murder.
I got no problems with taking him off.
- Captain? - I'm not gonna have no problem.
- Sarge? - Yeah, I'm good with it.
All right. Michael sparks.
Unfortunately, we were not able to talk to smooth this week,
But we were able to talk to his mom
Who confirmed for us that he is currently
In a mental health institution out of state.
Because of all the still unanswered rumors
And speculation about smooth all over this town,
He has to stay on the suspect board.
All right. Talking about j.R.
If we're gonna build our case against j.R.,
What's your first thing you're gonna throw in the mix?
The history of domestic violence.
He even demonstrates in the car,
With the captain, how he choked her.
Then you got this one-to-two-hour window.
If you kill somebody, you ain't coming back
And gonna have the same demeanor.
He's all shook up.
So we got the window.
You have a witness,
But the witness is deangelo fisher,
Sitting behind bars locked up right now.
It's unfortunate when a witness in a case
Also happens to be behind bars,
Because their word just doesn't carry the same credibility
As other witnesses might.
Do we think that there's enough probable cause
To ask a d.A. To file a murder case against j.R.
For the murder of salina?
Not where we at now. We don't meet that threshold.
We gotta have somebody in the circle...
- I know. - ...To push it over the edge.
If a brand-new person comes in and says
"he told me he did it"
That's credible, that's not an ex-con,
Then maybe you can get somewhere.
We worked so hard to try and find somebody
In salina's world
Who knew something factual and concrete
About the night she was killed,
And we found very little.
Unfortunately, we are still missing
Critical pieces of evidence
That might have pushed this case forward.
What do you think you're gonna tell salina's dad?
We've done our best.
And columbus police department, we're not through with this.
You know, it hurts me to this day
That I can't give a proper conclusion.
- Justice. - Right.
It's devastating that we're not able to bring good news
To salina's daddy.
But the columbus police department
Is gonna keep hope alive for him
That maybe one day they can solve salina's case.
The only way I'm gonna be able to tell you about it
Is gonna be truthful and straightforward.
We have put in a lot of time. We've talked to a lot of people.
But at this point, we still don't have enough probable cause
To carry this over to a district attorney
To get an indictment.
Whew!
The last person seen with salina is j.R.
- Have y'all questioned him? - Jones: Oh, yeah.
- Hard. - Very hard.
Every single name in the file.
And every time those people gave us another name,
- We talked to them. - Mm-mm-mm.
I'm sorry, mr. Hudgins.
Lord, I promised my baby that we'd solve the case.
I think you need to tell your baby
You're gonna keep trying.
- Yeah, I'm gonna keep trying. - And the good thing is
He's gonna keep trying.
Maybe 'cause all this is stirred up,
One of those women now are going, "you know what?
That baby deserves justice,
And I'm gonna come knock on his door and tell what I know."
Hopefully, somebody'll come forward.
That's right.
David: I know she's here now.
She knows what's going on.
But, you know, I'm gonna tell her we're not gonna give up.
We're gonna keep on. We just want some answers.
I want justice for salina.
I wish we could've given you better news.
I appreciate everything y'all done.
- I know you do. - I appreciate everything.
I'm pretty sure right now he's thinking
Just like we would all be thinking--
That he can't believe we didn't get there.
How come his baby's case isn't solved?
Where is his justice?
And, uh, I think we all understand that.
He's not gonna give up.
Oh, we're not gonna give up. We're not gonna give up.
- That's right. - Thank you.
Maybe all this, restarting it again,
Will bring a brand-new witness forward.
You never know. We can only hope.
And that's all he got left to do is just hope.
♪ I know it won't always be this hard ♪
I'm not gonna give up.
♪ I know ♪
♪ it won't always break your heart ♪