[pleasant instrumental music]
Christina was an absolutely wonderful mom.
[boy speaking]
One word to describe her is charismatic. Goofy.
[Carol Free] Kevin was very charming.
When he was sober, he was the funniest, happiest guy.
[ominous instrumental music]
But that other side of the coin, that was either very good or very bad.
Behind closed doors, he was a different person.
For most kids, their monsters were imaginary.
Mine just lived in the other room.
[opening theme music playing]
-[pleasant instrumental music] -[baby crying]
[narrator] It's June 2nd, 2000.
28-year-old Christy Lott, and her partner, 31-year-old Kevin Blankenship,
welcomed their baby daughter, Brianna, into the world.
[Christina speaking]
[Eric Sheridan] Seeing Brianna and holding her in the hospital,
it sticks out to me all the time. It's crazy.
[Christina speaking]
It's me, Kevin, and Aaron...
standing right next to my mom.
She was exhausted, but she's always trying to poke a smile out, you know?
That was always her.
[Carol] Christina was an absolutely wonderful mom.
There isn't nothing that she wouldn't do for her children.
Kevin was very charming.
He did the flowers, the take-you-out-for-dinner.
He could make her feel like she was the best thing on the planet,
and would build her up.
[Christina speaking]
There were many occasions where Kevin and my mom and us kids were out,
and we would have a ball.
I thought it was all good and dandy, like she was happy.
[pleasant instrumental music]
[narrator] Christina Lott is born October 18th, 1971, in Florence, Oregon.
I came to Christy's birth, and we were all excited.
She's the first niece or nephew to be born.
I was 15 years old.
We did everything together, and we were like sisters.
[narrator] Life growing up is not easy for Christy.
[Carol] Christy's father was an alcoholic.
There was a lot of drinking going on,
and a lot of fighting.
And they struggled.
[narrator] Age 17, Christy drops out of high school
when she discovers she's pregnant.
Mmm-mmm-mmm.
[Carol] Christina meets Glen.
He knows she's pregnant, but falls in love with her,
and they end up being a couple.
[narrator] Christy gives birth to Aaron,
and two years later, she and Glen have Eric.
[man speaking]
I think this is my first Christmas.
And, now, my dad's holding me.
[man speaking]
It's kind of a typical Christmas, from what I remember.
My mom always made a big deal about family coming together.
My mom was a very outgoing person.
Very much the life of the party.
Really went out of her way to make everybody else smile,
even if she was having a bad day.
[pleasant instrumental music]
[narrator] Christy and Glen take the boys on a trip to Lookout Point Lake.
[Eric] We spent a lot of time camping,
and those were some of, probably, the best times I ever had growing up.
[Christina speaking]
[Eric] It was a lot of fun.
Two brothers causing havoc.
We really gave my mom a run for her money, I would say. [laughs]
[Christina speaking]
They were the happiest times, with her and Glen.
She went to beauty school
and got her beautician license.
She had her two boys, a husband, a home,
and everything was going perfect.
[narrator] Christy and Glen have six happy years together.
But, by 1996, their marriage is failing,
and they decide to divorce.
[Carol] When Christina and Glen divorced,
I think it took just a huge hole out of her heart.
I think she struggled for a while, just getting back on her feet.
But she did it.
[narrator] Two years later,
Christy reconnects with her high school crush, Kevin Blankenship,
and they begin dating.
He was very charismatic.
He was charming. He could dance.
[man speaking]
He loved singing country music with her.
They did karaoke with the kids.
And he was good-looking.
He was a good-looking man.
And they hit it off.
[Christina speaking]
[narrator] One year later, baby Brianna is born.
And soon after, baby Skylar joins the growing family, too.
[woman speaking]
If I were to to describe my mom's personality, I would just say "goofy."
From what I remember, she was just very goofy. [laughs]
Just the best. The best mom. So funny and so caring.
And the stereotypical girl mom, you know?
Makeup and nail polish and all those kinds of things.
And I just I loved it. She was the best.
[Christina speaking and laughing]
If somebody met my dad, they would probably think he was a,
you know, good guy, fun person.
But behind closed doors, he was a different person.
[Carol] When he was sober, he was the funniest, happiest guy.
Very engaging.
Brought you in.
But that other side of the coin,
that was either very good or very bad.
I'd pick her up for lunch, and we'd look out,
and he'd be going by the restaurant, slow.
And, then, he'd park.
He'd come in and look in the window.
Or come in, sit on the other side of the restaurant.
Because Kevin's whole goal of every minute of the day is to have her in his vision.
It was just mind-boggling.
It made no sense to me.
[ominous instrumental music]
By the time Brianna was three weeks old,
Kevin started showing physical beatings on Christy.
[Christina speaking]
Every time I ever met the guy, he was drunk.
That, to me, is a personality flaw.
[Skylar] I feel like I was just scared of him a lot of the time, honestly.
Just, mood-wise,
you never knew what you were gonna get that day.
I think, even at a young age,
I realized that all the fighting was not normal.
[narrator] The children noticed Christy and Kevin's relationship
becoming increasingly turbulent,
particularly Christy's 13-year-old son, Eric.
[Eric] He was aggressive.
I remember this one night, I was about, I would say, 12 or 13.
It was like every normal day,
just ate dinner and was just kind of hanging out.
And, then, Kevin started getting drunk...
and starting to push my mom around a little bit.
And I got in between him and pushed him back.
I threatened him to not touch my mom again,
and that's when he started to get really aggressive towards me.
My mom called my dad and said, "You need to come get Eric.
He's gonna get himself hurt."
[narrator] Eric goes to stay with his father, Glen, Christy's ex-husband,
for two weeks.
[Carol] She thought that, maybe, she could just continue to hope
that he would not drink and not hurt her anymore.
She always had that hope.
She didn't want to feel like the marriage was a failure again.
I remember Christy called and she said,
"Will you come and get me and take me to Mom's?"
So, I went and got Christina,
and she divulged that he'd been beating her.
She went and got in the shower and came out,
and her whole back side was black and blue, and her ribs.
And I said, "We're not lettin' you go back. You're done.
I'm gonna call the police, and we're gonna make a police report,
and we're gonna take pictures of these bruises."
The next morning, Kevin showed up.
We weren't gonna let him in the house.
Christy said, "Let me talk to him."
And he said, "It's all gonna be okay. I'm never drinking again."
Christy said, "Things are gonna be better."
And the next thing you know, she goes back with him.
I'm just heartbroken.
It was like a tornado in there.
You could not pull her out of it.
And it was, "What is it going to take to get you out of this?"
[ominous instrumental music]
[pleasant instrumental music]
[Kevin speaking]
-[baby babbling] -[laughing]
[Kevin speaking]
[narrator] Kevin promises Christy
that his drinking and abusive behavior will stop.
[Kevin speaking]
[narrator] Christy takes his word and agrees to marry him.
[Eric] I believe my mom was very optimistic.
I know that I have personally heard
Kevin say he was sorry
and it won't happen again.
I think she just held onto that little bit of hope
that something would change someday.
[woman speaking]
Being a hairdresser, my mom worked really hard, and a lot,
to support the family.
[Carol] We were so proud of her.
I mean, she was our family hairdresser.
[woman speaking]
[Carol] She was very successful.
[laughing]
She worked seven days a week. She had to, because she had so many clients.
She was an amazing hairdresser.
[woman speaking]
She was the pretty constant breadwinner for our family, and she worked hard.
[narrator] While Christy works to provide for the family,
Kevin's contributions fall short.
[Brianna] Most of my memories of my dad are of him not working.
I think he was pretty content with letting my mom do a lot of the hard work.
[somber instrumental music]
She earned money to pay rent, bills, her car.
Well, one day, Christy came home,
and went to buy groceries.
And all the money was gone out of the drawer.
And she came over and cried and cried, "Aunty, he's took all the money."
And he would just go on these trips.
He'd come back and spent all her money.
[narrator] Christy and Kevin failed to keep up with rent payments
and, in 2001, they receive an eviction notice.
[Brianna] For the early years of my life,
we were moving around constantly.
Just a lot of back and forth.
[Carol] I was working for child welfare,
and one of my jobs was to help people get housing.
Well, I knew of a four-bedroom that was gonna be empty.
I went and got Christy, and I said,
"I can move you into this four-bedroom with no money."
She was so excited. We decorated it.
We all went in and just helped get her stuff ready.
I did anything I could to try to help her.
[indistinct commotion]
These are happy times. Really happy times.
Christina loved country music, and she would lip sync,
and they'd all line up and she'd get all the kids,
line 'em all up, and they'd all dance.
Line dance and sing to country music.
I loved watching them. They were hilarious.
She was always goofy, and singing and dancing, and that was just who she was.
It's nice to see that she's just, you know, having a good time.
She's adorable. [laughs]
[ominous instrumental music]
[narrator] Kevin breaks his promise and starts to drink again.
She calls me up. He's drunk and rampaging.
-[dramatic instrumental music] -[shattering]
And I was just up the street, so I walked over.
He had put a chair through the window, a lawn chair.
And he had busted up the futon in the living room.
A lamp was all broke.
And the manager showed up.
They came in the housing and had to take pictures of the house.
And they lost their housing.
He just sabotaged every single thing that we put in place
for her and those kids to have a better life.
[narrator] In 2005,
Christy inherits her mother's house in Baker City,
giving the family some security.
[Eric] After my mom moved to Baker,
I continued living with my dad in Eugene.
I just wasn't comfortable at my mom's house a lot.
I would try and pop over just for a weekend,
but I didn't really see my mom a lot.
[woman speaking]
[narrator] The family visit Christy's aunt.
Brianna and Skylar play with their cousin.
Whenever they would argue, I would be more so worried for my mom at the time.
I think as I got a little bit older,
I would be a little more scared
that he would do something to us, too.
I remember, we were at our apartment,
and my dad was trying to get me to say the word "Hell."
And I wouldn't, 'cause I was little.
I'm like, "That's a bad word. I'm not gonna say it."
Well, he held me down and put a knife to my arm.
Like, if I wouldn't say it, then he was gonna do something to me.
And I think, at that point, that's what I do,
that I was definitely more scared for my sister and I.
And I couldn't say anything 'cause he's gonna do something.
[ominous instrumental music]
[Brianna] There was a time when, I think it had to be my 10th birthday,
I didn't ask for anything for my birthday, like materialistic-wise.
I didn't ask for toys or...
I literally just begged my dad to stay sober all day,
like, on my birthday. [sobs]
And that didn't happen, and it broke my heart.
He got extremely intoxicated.
I see eight and nine-year-old kids now,
and I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, they're, like, little babies."
And I just can't believe I had the wherewithal, and I had to grow up so fast.
So, it's just devastating.
[Skylar] My mom was a very strong person.
But, at the same time, yeah, you look back
and you wonder how she could have stayed with him for so long
with all the stuff that he was doing.
And, yeah, I'll never understand that, either.
[Eric] I wanted him gone, and I spoke that to my mom a lot.
And that's where me and my mom,
if we ever butted heads, It was about that.
I argued with her. I guess I pleaded with her.
I just don't know if she thought she could actually get away from him.
[tense instrumental music]
I was afraid for Christina every day of her life with him.
One of the times he beat her bad,
I went over to get Christina and take her to a place called MayDay.
It's where you go for domestic violence.
I said, "We're gonna go file a restraining order today!"
As we drove away,
he got in a vehicle and followed us.
And I drove around the corner and I said, "Get us in quick. I think he's following us.
She's been beaten really bad. She needs pictures taken.
And we might need law enforcement here."
He walked up to the building and looked through like this, looking in.
He was pursuing her.
She was not gonna get away from him.
It was horrible to love my dad so much, but, like, want him away.
Like, I wanted my mom to be safe.
[911 operator talking indistinctly]
[Carol] Kevin was arrested and charged with assault.
And, then, he had to enroll in domestic violence classes.
[narrator] Kevin pleads guilty to assaulting Christy.
In May, 2010, he is given a 180-day suspended sentence
and 18-month probation.
He is ordered to have no contact with Christy.
I went over there and he showed back up again.
He did not care there was restraining order.
He did not care about the rules.
He drank anyway, and he showed up anyway.
None of it made a difference.
That was about the end of it. She had had it.
The love was gone and she was wanting out.
But she told me, "If I divorce him, he will find me.
He will kill me."
[dramatic instrumental music]
[Christina laughing]
[Christina speaking]
[narrator] It's three months since Kevin is convicted of assaulting Christy.
He shows up at Christy's house,
breaking the terms of his probation.
[Carol] He was supposed to stay away from her,
but he showed back up again.
[man speaking]
And Christy was trying so hard that day to try to keep it together.
You know, she wanted her baby to have this beautiful birthday.
[man speaking]
Everything was, you know, going swell,
having, you know, a nine-year-old birthday party. [laughs]
[man speaking]
-[Brianna speaking] -[man speaking]
[all laughing]
We look happy, for the most part, it seems like. [laughs]
[woman speaking]
It is nice to see my birthday like that.
I just wish that's how I can remember it.
[tense instrumental music]
[shattering]
At the end of the night,
yeah, I'm not sure what they even started fighting about.
But it got aggressive real quick.
I know that he started putting his hands on her.
So, my sister and I, we went into my room like we usually did.
[Carol] That house they lived in
was an old, old trailer, very thin walls.
And they could hear their mom be beat.
And scream. And holler.
[Brianna] I think we just tried to ignore the fact that it was always happening,
and we just tried to, you know, stay out of it.
[Carol] Those incidences were getting worse and worse and worse and worse,
where he didn't care how bad he hurt her,
and how physically he hurt her.
There was nobody gonna stop him.
Period.
[dramatic instrumental music]
[Skylar] I remember going to school one day.
[somber instrumental music]
We were in class,
and our assignment was to write what we're scared of.
And, you know, I wrote down spiders as one thing.
And, then, I wrote down my dad.
And I remember the teachers, like, coming to talk to me.
And I was freaked out 'cause I'm like, "No, don't say anything,"
'cause it freaked me out that he was gonna find out.
I think, for most kids, their monsters were imaginary.
And, at least for me,
yeah, mine just lived in the other room,
and we couldn't escape it.
[woman speaking]
[Eric] My mom had plenty of people to tell her,
you know, "I think you should leave. You have support."
But my mom's reasoning behind staying with Kevin
does stem from my sisters and in trying to have
some kind of stability in their life with both of their parents.
But I think a lot of it stems back to her parents,
my mom's parents, to my grandparents.
There was abuse in my mum's household when she was a kid.
So, I know that she, unfortunately, had to grow up seeing that.
My grandparents were together until my grandfather passed away.
And, so, I think that kind of stuck in my mom's head that,
almost like, it was okay to stay in a situation like that.
[pleasant instrumental music]
[Carol] We went camping on August 20th on my birthday.
We got all our tents together and we headed to the camp.
And I had already went up and paid for all our campsites.
And it's hotter than the dickens out, but we didn't care.
And we had an absolute blast.
We'd been fishing all day, cooking, hiking.
And, of course, there was always drinking.
And Kevin got into it, got too drunk.
[ominous instrumental music]
Kids yelled, "Dad's choking mom to death in the outhouse."
So, I went over.
I had to drag him out of the outhouse, out of the bathroom,
get Christy.
Big marks across her neck.
And she says, "I can't do it no more. I'm getting out."
The divorce needed to start.
You know, we're gonna go through this, and we're gonna get it done.
I said, "You know what? Uncle and I will help you financially.
We'll get you somewhere to go to hide."
That week, we started the ball rolling.
[judge speaking]
[narrator] Christy starts the paperwork to divorce Kevin,
but she isn't going to tell him until after her son's wedding.
[judge speaking]
I remember the day, like, almost perfectly.
My mom looked so cute. She had her permed, curly hair and her big bangs.
And, like, she's all dressed up.
[Christina speaking]
[laughing]
Mom's, like, videoing on her camcorder and she's, like, beaming.
I was, like, "This feels like it's gonna be a good day."
[judge speaking]
[cheering]
She was so happy for him at the wedding. He was so in love with Codi.
[Christina speaking]
[Carol] In the background, you could see Kevin had showed up.
And I saw Christina, in a running fashion,
going towards the restroom, and Kevin chasing her.
[ominous instrumental music]
And he goes, "It's until death do us part.
If I can't have her, no one will.
And I'm gonna end up killing her."
She started crying, went into the restroom area.
I went in with her, washed her face off.
I, then, took my baby home 'cause it was a hot day...
[voice breaking] and told her goodbye.
[phone line connecting]
[911 operator speaking]
[Darren Blankenship speaking]
[911 operator speaking]
[Darren speaking]
[ominous instrumental music]
[911 operator speaking]
[Darren speaking]
[911 operator speaking]
[Darren speaking]
After dispatch received the initial call from Darren Blankenship,
they radioed in to the two city officers that were on duty that night.
[officer speaking]
[911 operator speaking]
[dramatic instrumental music]
-[tense instrumental music] -[indistinct radio chatter]
[Lohner] They arrived,
took up defensive positions, and waited.
[Sharon Bass] As the officers were trying to make a plan to get Kevin to come outside,
Kevin actually walked out on the front porch.
And, then, we were able to take him into custody without any incident.
The officers asked where his wife was.
Kevin said that Christy was in the house.
When the officers entered the house,
they found Christy deceased.
[tense instrumental music]
[somber instrumental music]
[Carol] I got that phone call.
And it's my son on the phone,
and he goes, "Mom, the police are here and you need to come now."
I don't even remember getting dressed.
We got in the car, went around the corner. It's a half a block.
I could see police as far as I could see in lights.
And they had already had ribbon up.
[crying] And I said, "She's dead in that house."
And they said, "Yeah."
I said, "Please let me come and be by her."
They said, "You can't come in. It's a crime scene."
I mean, it was horrific.
None of us knew what to do,
or what to say.
[somber instrumental music]
I got a very loud knock on my front door
from my cousin.
And he said, "Hey, man, I need you to call your brother."
So, I went out and called Aaron and...
He just said, "Mom's dead. Kevin killed her."
I don't know, the next 30 minutes to an hour, I kind of blacked out.
Yeah, it was...
[breath trembling]
real surreal.
As soon as I collected myself enough, I called my dad.
He didn't let me out of his sight for, like, three days.
I wish I would have drove over to be here for my sisters and my brother.
At the time, I couldn't come over here.
I mean, the last time I talked to my mom,
I had got in an argument with her
about leaving Kevin, and...
[inhales] and she got mad. She got frustrated with me.
And I remember her telling me that I needed to be bigger than that.
I think that was the... [voice breaking]
That was the first time I got off the phone
and didn't tell my mom I loved her. [sobbing]
-[Lohner speaking] -[Kevin speaking]
[Lohner speaking]
[narrator] Detective Lohner arrives at Baker City Police station
to interview Kevin.
[Lohner speaking]
You start off with an interview
where you try to make a connection with the person.
You don't immediately confront them via interrogation.
[Lohner speaking]
Kevin appeared to be very open to me,
and it allows me to elicit information better
than being in a straight, confrontational role.
[Lohner speaking]
[Lohner laughing]
Kevin appeared fairly jovial.
There was no tears.
He didn't seem very nervous at all, which was surprising.
It's not normal behavior.
I'm not a psychologist, but you can tell
that there is something wrong with a person
that they show no emotion about their wife's death.
[Kevin speaking]
[Lohner speaking]
[Kevin speaking]
[Lohner speaking]
After speaking with Kevin for maybe half an hour,
I knew he wasn't telling me the truth.
For one, nobody cleans a rifle at ten o'clock at night.
And, then, if an accident does happen,
they do not take the cleaning rod apart, put it away.
A normal reaction would be to immediately call 911 and get help.
Nothing made sense, but he stuck with his story.
I was running out of options.
I did not have any more information that I could use against him.
We had to uncover the truth.
[dramatic instrumental music]
[tense instrumental music]
[Lohner speaking]
Detective Bass and I went to the property
to serve a search warrant at approximately 8:30 in the morning.
[camera clicking]
I stood at the front door, and he went in and checked the scene,
photographed the scene.
[Lohner] As soon as I walked in the door,
I knew even more so that Kevin was lying to me
because of the position of Christy's body.
Kevin told me that he and Christy were sitting on a futon bed.
The gun accidentally went off, she slumped forward.
However, she was turned completely away from him.
[ominous instrumental music]
After examining Christy's body,
it looked like a cold-blooded execution.
During the forensic laboratory's examination of the residence,
they found a gun-cleaning kit underneath the bed.
Further examination showed that it had not been used.
[Bass speaking]
[narrator] The detectives begin a search of Kevin's vehicle.
[Lohner] I could see a rifle that was in there.
There was several different changes of clothing packed in there.
Made it very apparent to me that he was gonna hide it,
or use it to commit suicide.
There was absolutely no reason, if it was an accident,
for him to take that particular firearm and put it in the vehicle.
We found notes that Kevin had wrote to Christina
stating that he was sorry and he would make it up to her.
We found divorce papers in the burning barrel outside of the house.
So, it kind of proved that they were, you know, having issues.
[narrator] It's eight hours since Kevin's initial interview.
He's kept in police custody for further questioning.
[Lohner speaking]
[Lohner] After clearing the initial search of the residence,
seeing Christy's body gave me a lot of information to go back to Kevin,
and resume the interview in a slightly different tone.
I knew that his story was completely bogus.
I just flat said,
"Kevin, what you told me does not make sense."
I asked him if there was any issues with their marriage.
He kept saying that, "No, she was my best friend. We loved each other."
[Lohner speaking]
At that point,
I was beyond reasonable doubt that he murdered her.
[tense instrumental music]
I believe, after Kevin and Christina went home,
there was some type of confrontation
because she was gonna divorce him.
At one point, he positioned her parallel to the futon,
placed the gun between 18 and 36 inches away from her head...
[gunshot]
...pulled the trigger and killed her.
[judicial assistant speaking]
[judge speaking]
[attorney speaking]
[Carol] They brought him in in shackles,
and I thought, "What a hollow human being this is."
He chose not to say anything,
other than he was guilty.
[attorney speaking]
The man's a cold-hearted monster.
He is an absolute monster.
And I hope they never let him out of prison, ever.
[tense instrumental music]
[narrator] At sentencing, Carol reads a victim impact statement.
[Carol speaking]
My mom was just the light in everybody's day,
and I think she touched a lot of people's hearts in that way.
I absolutely miss my mom to pieces, and...
I think my mom would be very proud of how we all grew up.
I do believe I definitely got my strength from her.
She did what she could to keep us safe the best that she could.
But even trying to leave it backfired on her. But...
yes, she will be one of the strongest people I know.
[somber instrumental music]
♪♪
Matt is a good soul.
He loved Freida but...
He was a puppet under her control.
[shot shots]
She really knew how to work a gun.
♪♪