[indistinct conversations]
[LaTonya] Oh, wow. Yeah, Jeremy. [chuckles]
There's Jeremy seeing his cousins.
I was filming at our family reunion,
at my parents' home, and capturing moments like these.
[Marktontio] I have nothing but good memories of my family,
a reminder of just how much they loved each other.
[dispatcher speaking]
[LaTonya speaking]
I had no idea of how bad things could get.
Hard to even fathom that their lives would end the way it did.
[LaTonya] It really crushes my heart.
We are living with this every single day for the rest of our lives.
[dispatcher speaking]
[theme music playing]
[all laughing]
[narrator] It's January 12th, 2002, in Wendell, North Carolina.
Nineteen-year-old LaTonya Taylor films a special family gathering.
[LaTonya speaking]
[LaTonya laughs]
Yay!
[LaTonya] This event is a birthday celebration
for my aunt, Kelly, and my brother, T.
They shared the same birthday.
[conversing indistinctly]
[narrator] That's LaTonya's brother,
23-year-old birthday boy Sylvester,
known to his family as T.
[narrator] And there's the birthday girl, LaTonya's Aunt Kelly.
- [LaTonya speaking] - [Kelly vocalizing]
- [LaTonya speaking] - [Kelly vocalizing shrilly]
[LaTonya chuckles]
On that day, my brother was in town, home from the military,
and we were just so glad to see him.
And my aunt, she was in nursing school at the time.
So it was just like such a fun occasion for us to all get together
[Sylvester] A Taylor double birthday is exciting.
You're gonna laugh, you're gonna cry.
We're gonna, you know, really, really just have a fun time.
[LaTonya speaking]
[narrator] LaTonya's 45-year-old mom Anglia hosts the celebration.
[LaTonya] She was the one to get everybody together.
[indistinct conversation]
And she loved to just love on people, and she was just so sweet.
[indistinct conversation]
[narrator] LaTonya's 54-year-old dad, Sylvester Sr.
Is in charge of the food.
My dad, he would go around
and just keep everybody laughing and [chuckles] he was very funny.
[narrator] Twenty-nine-year-old Marktontio
is Sylvester Sr.'s son from a previous relationship.
[Marktontio] My brother, T, he's my father Sylvester's namesake.
He always has this saying that he got the name,
but I got the looks. Thank God, 'cause he always said...
You know, everybody says I look just like our dad.
[narrator] That's LaTonya, sitting next to her brother, T.
[Marktontio] Tonya and T have always been two clowns.
[Marktontio laughs]
They've always been very tight, very close.
[LaTonya singing]
[Marktontio] They could imitate my dad and Angie to the tee,
and it was comical to watch.
It's never a dull moment around any of them.
They're imitating Angie at church. [laughs]
They used to have a lot of fun at church. Oh, my goodness. [laughs]
[Kelly] All right now!
Angie had that look like, "Oh, my goodness, here they go again."
[laughs]
[Anglia speaking]
[LaTonya] She was the pastor of Zion Hill Holiness Church
in Wake Forest, North Carolina,
and she had been pastoring over, I think, 11 years.
That was her joy. That was her passion.
And she loved the Lord with all her heart and she loved people.
[Sylvester] So my mom focused more on the public side,
and my dad, he was one of the pillars in the church,
typically off to the side, in the background.
He found joy in just being there with her
and finding ways to serve her,
even as she served the church and the ministry.
So that's Dad...
Deacon Taylor.
[Anglia speaking indistinctly]
[Sylvester] I would describe the Taylor family as a family
that's known for our love, faith and service.
My parents really tried to instill values such as respect, compassion, love.
[kids talking indistinctly]
[narrator] And that love extends to the youngest member of the family,
LaTonya's two-year-old son, Jeremy.
[LaTonya speaking]
[Marktontio] LaTonya was 15 when she found out she was pregnant.
I know her world was turned upside down emotionally
and everything when that occurred.
But Sylvester and Angie were a great support system,
and I think we all just wrapped our arms around her
and loved on her and made sure
she knew that, "Hey, everything's going to be all right."
[LaTonya speaking]
[LaTonya] I was devastated. I was scared to death.
It was a lot of pressure because my mom was the pastor.
A lot of people looked up to the pastors' kids.
And so when I got pregnant, I felt like I just...
I felt like I hurt my mom.
[narrator] Jeremy's father is 17-year-old Nathan Holden.
[LaTonya] We were really young when I met him.
In the community, his family knew my family.
He was a sweet kid and always laughing and having a good time,
but kind of reserved.
I knew his friends and we began to talk,
and we ended up becoming like best friends.
[narrator] Nathan takes LaTonya to her high school prom in March, 1998.
In the summer, she discovers that she is pregnant.
[LaTonya] My mom sat me down and told me to my face.
She said, "You're going to get through this.
You're going to get through this and we're going to help you."
When I told Nate that I was pregnant, he didn't believe me,
like, he didn't believe that it was his child.
So we weren't together or even talking
during the time of the pregnancy.
[narrator] LaTonya gives birth to Jeremy on April 5th, 1999.
Nathan meets him for the first time three months later.
[LaTonya] He held Jeremy, and he knew. He was like, "Wow, he looks just like me."
I know he felt bad about not being there
for Jeremy or even being there for me
and supporting me during the pregnancy.
But I didn't hold it against him, you know, even though it hurt,
I really wanted Nathan to be a part of Jeremy's life.
My mom told me, "I will raise Jeremy so that you can go to school.
This does not stop anything."
And she told me, she said, "You will finish school and you will go to college."
[narrator] LaTonya graduates in June, 2000 with Jeremy and Nathan by her side.
[Marktontio] You know, I thank God that she had great parents
like that to support her so that she can continue to mature
and to accomplish her goals and dreams.
[Jeremy shouting indistinctly]
[LaTonya] When Jeremy was little, Nathan was a great dad.
I mean, they were like two little kids.
[laughs]
They would do a lot of things together.
[Jeremy] I really looked up to him when I was young.
He always had the flashy clothes.
My father, he was always smelling good.
He knew how to cook.
Yeah, he was just a really cool dude to me.
[indistinct conversation]
[LaTonya] And it was a scary time for me, like he was young,
he hadn't finished school and to have a baby, you know,
it was a big responsibility for him.
He had to grow up really fast.
Nate, he was working and continuing school,
so he actually worked a job and then he cut hair on the side.
So he was a great dad.
He really was.
[LaTonya] December 7, 2002, Nathan and I got married at my mother's church.
It's my dad walking me down the aisle.
My dad was so proud, I was so happy.
My dad playing a very important role during the marriage
and us getting married.
He was so proud that Nate was taking this step
and committed to the relationship
and committed to being a good dad to Jeremy.
It was so special that moment to have my dad give me away.
[Anglia speaking]
[Marktontio] I think he was real happy
and, you know, and to be walking down there with Jeremy
in his arms, too, you know.
[Anglia speaking indistinctly]
[LaTonya] Everybody was happy and we just enjoyed the moment.
[LaTonya] At the altar my mom administering the vows,
it was just a so real moment because she was nervous,
I was nervous, but it was just
so many different emotions at that moment.
And she was so proud of me. She told me, "You just looked so beautiful up there."
[crowd cheering]
[crowd applauding]
Having Nate as a brother-in-law was a proud moment for me.
You know, I've always looked at him as a little brother.
And now to have it official as, "This is my brother-in-law,"
I took a lot of pride in that.
[Anglia speaking]
[LaTonya] I think Nathan was just lost for words,
like, I think he just did not know what to say, but he was happy, he was.
I'm used to kind of getting up and saying things and speaking
and, you know, expressing how I feel in the moment.
[LaTonya speaking]
[Anglia speaking]
I was getting emotional because I didn't think...
it would turn out the way it did.
Like, we planned this in two months,
and for everything to come together,
and everybody to come together, it was just, it was beautiful.
It was beautiful.
My dad was so proud, I was so happy.
[all laughing]
[Sylvester Sr. speaking]
I think, my dad's speech at the wedding...
He saw the growth and the change in Nathan
because he wasn't around while I was pregnant.
[Sylvester Sr. speaking]
And so that was big for my dad to say that,
that he could see the change and he appreciated what Nathan was doing.
[indistinct conversation]
[Sylvester] I think my father, when he looked at Nate, I really...
what I sensed was he saw a little bit of himself in Nate.
My mom, Angie, and father, Sylvester, actually met on a college campus
and started dating, and shortly after that, she became pregnant with me.
And then, of course, having a newborn at a young age
presented its challenges in itself.
I think she had some dreams that she wanted to do
as far as focusing on her education and of course, in ministry.
Dad was recovering and dealing with some PTSD
from Vietnam during the war,
which caused him to kind of have some emotional challenges.
So they had their ups and downs,
but they were able to pull through it and make the most out of it.
[people shouting indistinctly]
[crowd cheering]
[LaTonya] With my parents' help,
I was able to complete college.
December of 2004, I graduated
from North Carolina Central University
in Durham, North Carolina, with a bachelor's in business administration.
About a year later, we eventually moved
into my aunt Laura Jean's home.
It was a vacant home, so she allowed us to live there for free
if we agreed to do all the repairs.
Nathan completed barber school and Nathan was working in the barbershop, finally,
and, you know, his career was taking off.
So this was a great start for Nathan and I.
[indistinct conversation]
[LaTonya] This event is a family reunion [chuckles]
At my mom's house.
I love that we can have those memories forever
and hold on to those special moments.
I want to remember them like this.
[woman] ...run at him.
[LaTonya] My mom, she just... when she saw Nate come in there,
she just gave him the biggest hug, like, she loved him.
[indistinct conversations]
[LaTonya] 2005 was a great year because I got pregnant again.
My first daughter was born, Nautica,
and everything was just going great.
I was so excited to have a girl. [chuckles]
Right after Nautica, I had Amber in 2006.
I had my babies and we were just so happy during that time.
We were growing so fast.
So those were really good times, when the kids were younger.
[Sylvester] Seeing Tonya, Nate and the kids, JT, Nautica and Amber together,
laughing and sharing moments,
as a young family, was beautiful.
It was beautiful.
[LaTonya] But I think things began to change in the marriage.
After having my last child, Amber.
I was a stay-at-home mom for five years.
And so living off of one income, which,
Nathan sometimes had to work two jobs
and the stress and the things that came with it,
I started to feel the distance
between him and I growing apart.
[Marktontio] There were quite a few times where I heard through the grapevine
that Nate was doing some things
on the wrong side of the law at times. And that was concerning.
[LaTonya] When we moved to the Jonesville area,
it was looking like we were happy on the outside,
people would look at us and you wouldn't, have never known.
It was pretty tough because he was back with those same old friends
that he used to hang out when he was younger, and it wasn't a good crowd.
Then he was doing things, you know, the alcohol and things like that.
He started picking up those habits and hanging out late,
and I was left at home raising the kids, and I felt, you know, neglected.
At that time, I was dealing with postpartum depression,
so I was going through my own thing.
With all of the pressure, of being a mom, a new mom
and not having that support from him.
Even though I was smiling and going about my life
like nothing was going on, but late at night
and when I'm at home by myself, you know, I'm just constantly crying
and just depressed.
Things really just started...
Going downhill from there.
Nate started cutting hair in the home,
and that was one thing that I didn't approve of,
because of all of the traffic and the people in and out of our home.
And a lot of times, it wasn't good traffic,
it wasn't good, you know...
It wasn't an environment to raise young children.
All I remember was three or four dudes came into the house
and they was asking, "Where the money at?"
And I was in a room under my covers.
As I recall, I think they pistol-whipped him.
And then my father, he told them that he didn't have no money and they left.
And then he came back, he had... his face was messed up.
And he gave me a hug.
Seeing my dad, you know, the guy that I looked up to,
you know, get beat up like that,
that was a very scary encounter for me.
[LaTonya] So Nate called the police that night and told them
those guys came there to beat him up and was there to rob him.
You know, he said he knew the guys or what have you,
but I felt like this was something that he brought to our home.
It was a bad neighborhood, a lot of bad influence.
I thought it was a good idea to move away from there
'cause I didn't want another break-in to happen.
[LaTonya] After that robbery attempt, we moved in with my parents.
And that was the same night. I never went back to Jonesville.
I think the attempted robbery really shook him up.
It was just an eye-opener for Nathan,
you know, for him to say, "Hey, you need to get yourself together."
[all] ♪ He's a mighty God He's a mighty God ♪
♪ Oh, Jesus ♪
[Sylvester] Nate and Tonya actually really got more involved in church.
Tonya would actually, you know,
served as a musician on the drums and singing
and kind of coaching and teaching the younger kids in the church.
And Nate actually would help around ushering and also filming.
[narrator] Nathan captures this footage from Father's Day 2009.
This service was in honor of my dad, Deacon Taylor.
This was just us celebrating him
and the things that he does for the church and everybody.
[Sylvester] Nate really helped us out a lot.
Nate really was very supportive to my mom,
you know, as the pastor there at the church.
[LaTonya] Leading up to Christmas,
Nate was really trying to turn his life around during that time.
The kids were always excited, you know, about Christmas and the gifts
and things that they were gonna get.
But, you know, for me, it was just mostly about family
and spending time with them.
[speaking indistinctly]
[narrator] LaTonya films the children on Christmas morning.
Jeremy is now ten years old.
[LaTonya] Jeremy.
[Jeremy speaking]
[LaTonya speaking]
[narrator] LaTonya's brother, T, and his family join in the festivities.
[Nautica] Cheese!
[giggling]
There was lots of presents and like, you know, there was, I think, presents from Jesus,
Santa Claus, my wife, Tonya, the grandparents,
so there was presents everywhere.
[kids screaming happily]
[Nathan speaking]
[LaTonya] It looked like we were happy on the outside,
but we were really dealing with some deep issues.
[LaTonya speaking indistinctly]
[LaTonya] Like there was just always an argument about
why the house is not clean.
You know, we're having a party and he's walking behind us cleaning up,
or "I need to get this paper," you know, things like that.
And it was just very irritating.
He wanted to be in control of everything. It's all about him.
It was selfish.
A lot of times, he wouldn't come home at night,
he would come home in the morning.
There were rumors of infidelity,
and that was just something I heard throughout the years.
And of course, he denied it.
He had an attitude as, "I can do what I want to do."
But we couldn't do the things that we wanted to do.
And if you say anything to him or confront him about it, he would get very defensive.
April 2011, from what I was told, Nathan was at a bar
where they shoot pool at. And he told me, you know, "The police that night,
they were just watching me and I looked suspicious," and things like that.
But they found drugs in his car, in his possession.
So Nathan was charged with possession of cocaine.
[narrator] Nathan receives a 12-month suspended sentence.
And he told me, basically, that it wasn't his drugs.
So that was the story that he gave me.
And once again, this was another eye-opener for me.
To say, "Okay, this is crazy, his behavior is really getting out of hand."
That he wasn't changing.
No one knew what we were going through in our marriage.
It was just spiraling out of control.
One of my cousins, he thought he was better than me at basketball,
so he just kept talking down. [chuckles]
So I had to show him that I'm better.
So I told him we can go down the street, play basketball one-on-one.
And I beat him.
I came back to the house and my dad was there.
So he came into my room, he was, like, "Where you been at?"
And I said, "I went down to play basketball."
My dad's number-one rule was to come home from school, go straight home.
So then he came back in the room and beat me with a broom.
And it broke into pieces.
I would expect a belt or like a thump on the head,
he would do that sometimes.
But, yeah, beat me with a broom into pieces that...
That really showed me that, you know,
he really changed and something was wrong.
It really changed how I saw him as a father figure.
It really hurt me, man. It really hurt me.
And physically and emotionally, it hurt me.
I always looked up to my dad and, you know, I felt like it was my fault.
I was just like, "I can't, I can't do this."
'Cause I'd never known him to beat Jeremy like that,
the way he did and so much anger that he had towards Jeremy.
[inaudible]
[LaTonya] And so that's when I decided to leave.
I explained to him I just wanted to move on with my life
and that we could raise the kids together,
but I did not want to be with him.
I think he felt like...
I was just all talk and wasn't gonna follow through.
And I did, I moved out and we moved in with my parents.
December 2013.
It started out as harassment, he would call my mom, my dad and tell them,
"I'm coming over there to get my kids.
I'll do what I have to do to get my kids.
Y'all not going to stop me." He was threatening them.
He was threatening me. I was scared.
I didn't know what to do, I never dealt with anything like this.
He's never acted out in a way like this before, so this was different.
The police just told us, "You need to just file a restraining order."
And when I filed a restraining order and we went to court,
that's when he really started to threaten me.
And you could see more of the anger that he had towards me escalate.
[line ringing]
[dispatcher speaking]
[LaTonya speaking]
[dispatcher speaking]
[line ringing]
April 9th of 2014, a 911 call
came in to the Wake County Sheriff's Office at about 9:48.
It appeared to be a woman in distress
and the Sheriff's Office was able to locate the call
and dispatch deputies to the scene.
After the first 911 call, there was a second 911 call
from the residence from what sounded like a young man.
He was screaming that his grandfather had been shot.
[Jeremy speaking]
[dispatcher speaking]
[Jeremy speaking]
I'm talking to the people on 911, I didn't know what to say.
It was just like emotions going everywhere.
[Jason] When officers first arrived at the scene,
you can literally hear the children screaming in the house.
[deputy 1 speaking]
[Jeremy speaking]
[deputy 1 speaking]
[Jeremy speaking]
They're going to have to get those kids out of the house
and quickly as possible.
[deputy 1 speaking]
[kids speaking indistinctly]
[deputy 1 speaking]
Investigators were trying to determine who had done this,
who the shooter was.
[deputy 1 speaking]
[child speaking]
- [deputy 1 speaking] - [deputy 2 speaking]
[Jason] Officers secured the perimeter of the home,
checked for any suspects outside the home, and then when they went inside,
that was obviously when they saw the tragedy.
As they looked to a bedroom that was right off the entryway,
they found a lady that had been shot.
Anglia Taylor was victim number one.
She had a gunshot wound to her chest and it was apparent
she had passed away due to the injuries that she sustained
to that gunshot wound.
They entered another bedroom, and when they entered that bedroom,
they found a second female, LaTonya Allen...
Appeared to be severely beaten, appeared to have multiple gunshots.
She had received a gunshot wound to the chest as well as to the face.
Her injuries were life-threatening, critical.
[narrator] EMTs rush LaTonya to WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.
She was still alive at that point.
She was saying, "I can't breathe,"
but it was clear that she had suffered very severe injuries.
[narrator] A trail of blood leads deputies into the backyard
and to the body of a 66-year-old man.
[Jason] They came to a shed and beside that shed was a third victim.
Clearly, Sylvester had been shot multiple times, multiple parts of his body.
[cell phone ringing]
[Sylvester] That evening, I got a phone call from my aunt,
and she says, "T, T, Nate just shot Angie and Sylvester,
and we're not sure if Tonya's going to make it."
So that was the phone call that changed my life.
And so I... I was... Oh, man!
I lost it for a second, you know.
And I calmed down and, you know, it was just,
it was just nothing that we could do at the time,
but pray and try to keep it together. [sniffs]
[Jason] The focus of the attention turned to locating Nate.
Jeremy gave a description of his father,
gave them a description of a pickup truck that he was driving,
as well as the clothing that he was wearing.
You don't know if this person is going to harm other people, going to harm himself.
They wanted to locate Nate Holden as quickly as possible
to ensure the safety of others and himself as well.
[Jason] Nate's family had a property nearby,
so the Sheriff's Office turned their attention to locating Nate's family's property.
Law enforcement fans out across the field, this wooded area.
At this point, it's the middle of the night, so it's dark.
One of the deputies that was out searching the field saw a flash.
- [gunshot] - [Jason] And heard gunfire.
They were fired upon.
They returned fire to try to subdue the suspect.
[gunshots]
And then they closed in on that area.
I mean, when they got close to the wood line,
they found Nathan Holden lying in the field there with the gun beside him.
He had not been shot in any way, wasn't injured.
He was just kind of lying there, like, completely still.
At this point, I believe Nathan Holden knew it was over.
He knew what he had done.
He knew that he had just fired upon law enforcement officers.
I think there was an aspect of him giving up at this point.
He was placed in handcuffs and placed in custody and arrested.
Nathan Holden was charged with two counts of first-degree murder
and one count of attempted murder.
[narrator] Investigators pieced together the events
that led to the shooting at the Taylors' home.
[Jason] One of the witnesses to the crime was LaTonya's son, Jeremy.
And investigators began to ask him if he knew what had happened.
Nathan Holden picked up his son, Jeremy, from school.
They went around to a couple of different places in the neighborhood,
got something to eat.
Nathan was very upset that his wife,
separated wife, LaTonya, wasn't answering any phone calls from him.
Their relationship was unraveling.
[Jeremy] We on the highway speeding.
He got Tupac going loud and I'm looking at him like,
"Are you okay?"
You know, and he had a different look in his eyes.
I was, like, you know, that's not my dad, that's somebody else.
Went up to my grandmother's house and he told me to go inside first.
I went to the door, and my grandfather came to the door and he said,
"Boy, why are your pants sagging so low?"
I didn't say nothing to him.
I ran to my mom in the back room, I gave her a big old hug.
Couple of seconds later, I hear gunshots.
[gunshots]
Nate walks in the door, shoots Anglia Taylor in her bedroom.
[gunshot]
Nate shot Sylvester Taylor outside the home
beside a shed there on their property.
[Jeremy] And my mom rushed us to the closet in my sister's room.
I remember her calling 911 and saying "My husband is shooting."
The whole time I'm holding my sisters.
I'm scared for my life. I'm scared for their life. I didn't know what to do.
I hear my dad coming in, you know,
saying the B-word, "ho" and all these other names, calling my mom.
[LaTonya] And he just came right in and started punching me in my face
and pistol-whipping me with the gun and punching me and just kept saying,
"You gonna talk to me today, you gonna talk to me.
Somebody gonna talk to me today."
[Jeremy] I hear my mom saying, "Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't hurt me."
Then I heard my mom say, "Jesus!" real loud.
And I heard another gunshot.
[gunshot]
Then it was a dead silence for a little, couple of seconds,
then my dad knocked on the door.
My dad, he tried to give my sister a hug,
but my sisters came behind me,
all scared and crying. He gave me a hug.
After he gave me a hug, he called 911, put his wallet on the table,
and he said he loved us.
I saw my mom.
She was on the floor, blood everywhere.
And he just literally made a big old step over her.
And... I still...
I still have dreams about that to this day, you know.
[voice breaking] Which really hurts me and that shows me that he never...
He don't care, he don't really, he don't.
He don't really care, you know.
[narrator] LaTonya wakes from a medically-induced coma
seven days after Nathan's arrest.
[LaTonya] When I'm asking for my mom, "Where's my mom?"
And they said she didn't make it, like, it just...
[sighs deeply] It was just so hard.
I just couldn't wrap my brain... That he killed them.
[Jason] Nathan Holden's trial was set for February of 2017.
After two weeks of trial, a jury found Nathan Holden
guilty of two counts of first-degree murder
and guilty of attempted murder.
Nathan Holden was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
I believe Nathan Holden killed his in-laws and tried to kill LaTonya
because he couldn't grasp the reality that his family was moving on.
And came down to the point where he said, "Well, if I can't have her,
no one can have her."
You know, "If I can't be with my kids, then so be it."
He's just simply evil, just evil.
That's why.
And even if he gave me an answer
and even if I knew why, it still doesn't matter
because it doesn't bring my parents back.
[LaTonya speaking]
[Sylvester] I would want them to know that, you know,
that we're gonna be okay, that we're gonna be all right.
And that we're gonna continue to laugh, we're gonna continue to love
and we're gonna continue to lift up the name of Christ in all that we do as a family.
[LaTonya] They are truly missed every single day.
They're always constantly on my mind, in my heart.
Everything reminds me of them. And I just love them so much.
[inaudible]