- I'm craig melvin,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- The police officer said, "this is now a crime scene,
"nobody touch anything."
It was just, like, ooh, wow.
He did it and he took off
And we didn't know where he was.
- Call it a mother's intuition.
- She had a sign, I don't know, something was wrong.
- Her daughter away at college wasn't answering her phone.
- She was scared.
She didn't know where alex was.
- Then, terrible news.
A student had been murdered, a young woman.
But apparently, it wasn't alex.
- The girl lying on the floor had very dark,
Almost black colored hair.
She had much lighter hair.
- So, who was it? And where was alex?
- At that point, it was one dead and perhaps another missing.
- The killer could be roaming a campus full of students.
- We were really scared. - A mysterious tweet.
- What do you think it meant?
- I don't exactly know. - A terrifying phone call.
And a terrible truth.
- I didn't know how, I didn't know who,
I didn't know anything.
I just know she was gone.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Alex kogut was a typical college freshmen.
She hit the books, made new friends,
And tried to keep her long-distance relationship alive.
But alex had been holding on to a dark secret,
One she did not share with her closest friends and family.
Police were about to make a terrifying discovery
In her dorm room, leading many to wonder
If her silence had dire consequences.
Here's andrea canning with "after midnight."
♪♪
- Every year, as summer fades into fall,
And lazy days at the beach come to an end,
Students flood back to college.
It's the same scene year after year
At campus after campus.
And every year, there's that new bunch,
The freshmen.
- I was nervous for classes the first day,
'cause, you know, I'm that scared little freshmen.
- All those worries, all those questions.
- Do I really have to go to these classes?
And what's this teacher like?
And all that kind of stuff.
- They're not quite adults, they're not quite teens,
But now suddenly they're on their own.
- I mean, leaving home for the first time can be scary.
- Scary for the kids, for their parents too.
- Every mom has that... [sighing]
My baby is going to college.
- Hard! - Yes.
- Most of the time,
Kids sail through the experience.
They make new friends, date new people,
And move on.
But there are others who are not so lucky,
They are the victims of a troubling trend
That's caught the nation's attention--
Dating violence.
- It could happen to anyone's daughter.
- Anyone! This could happen to anyone.
- It was late September, 2012.
The college at brockport,
A state school in western new york,
Was well into the new school year.
18-year-old alexandra kogut was having the time of her life.
- As soon as I met her, I knew we were
The perfect match for each other.
- Alex kogut and samantha turner
Met within days of arriving on campus,
Besties from the beginning.
- You really clicked with alex.
- I did.
- Why did you like her so much right away?
- I liked her because I could act so funny in front of her
And I could act myself.
If I had a problem, she was always there for me.
- By late September,
Alex and samantha were inseparable,
Swapping clothes and confidences.
But on Friday, September 28th,
They were going off in different directions.
Samantha was heading home to see her family,
Alex was staying on campus,
Counting the hours until her long-time boyfriend arrived
For a weekend visit.
That afternoon, alex went down the hall
To samantha's dorm room to say goodbye.
- It was around 3:00, maybe?
And I was about to go home and she was like,
"can I pick out some clothes in your closet?"
And I was like, sure!
And so, she took three of my shirts
And a pair of my shoes.
And she was all excited, she was like,
"clayton will be here in half an hour!"
- 21-year-old clayton whittemore was alex's boyfriend,
And he was coming to spend the weekend.
But first, alex had a swim team meeting.
She'd been swimming since high school
Where paige whitney was the captain.
You were the captain of the swim team,
But you call alex more the heart of the swim team?
- Yeah, definitely.
Um, in high school, she definitely wasn't
The fastest on our team,
But she was one of the most important people on our team
Because she had the most heart.
Um, she would be behind you
At every single one of your races cheering you on,
Um, wishing you luck.
- Now, paige and alex were teammates again.
She must have loved knowing that she had you to lean on.
- I feel like there was definitely
That sense of security.
- That Friday, the team meeting ran late.
Alex's boyfriend got to town before it ended.
Alex texted to apologize
That she wasn't there to greet him.
"please don't kill me," she wrote.
"no worries," he answered.
Soon, the two got together with a busy night ahead of them.
Mid-way through the evening, samantha texted alex.
- And I told her, I was like,
"can't wait to see you tomorrow,
"love you, goodnight."
You know, and then she said the same.
- But later, in the early hours of Saturday morning,
Samantha was awakened by a call.
Alex's mother was on the line.
What in the world was up?
- She was scared, she didn't know where alex was,
What she was doing.
She had a sign, I don't know how.
Something was wrong, so her mother--
- So, her mother just thought something was wrong?
- Yes. - And called you?
- Yes, freaking out. And I was like,
"I'm home. I don't know."
- A fearful mother on the phone in the middle of the night
Searching for her daughter.
What had happened to set her off?
Why was she so distraught?
Sandra whitney is a good friend of alex's parents,
Becky and mark kogut. She's paige's mom.
- They had gone off for a weekend, uh, vacation.
And they had been texting that evening,
And becky was sending her pictures of their hotel room.
You know, you get to a hotel, "hey, look!"
And, um, alex didn't respond.
And she tried over and over again.
And, um, she didn't respond.
And that's not how their relationship worked.
You text, you call, and you always responded.
- Is that unusual, though?
That she wouldn't respond in-in college.
It's a weekend, her boyfriend's coming for the weekend?
- I imagine the first couple times,
Maybe she wasn't concerned.
But when it was several,
That's what raised, um, flags for becky.
- Was it a little bit of mother's intuition,
Do you think? - I imagine it was.
- Alex's mom worked the phone frantically,
Trying anyone who might know where her daughter was.
Finally, at 2:42 am, she called the campus police
To ask them to go to her daughter's dorm room
To check on her.
Officer michael johnson.
- You took that call. - I did.
- And you headed over to the dorm.
- Yes. - And then what happened?
- Well, we get there, I knocked on the door,
Uh, I knocked twice.
And since it was a welfare check,
I said, "well, let me-- let me see if this door is unlocked."
- It was, and officer michael johnson
Will never forget what was inside that room.
- It just seemed like something really bad
Happened there that night.
- What had happened in room 108?
Police were about to confront a frightening
And confusing scene.
- What did you think when you-- when you saw what you saw?
- I couldn't believe it.
I guess you never come to work
Thinking you're gonna see something like that.
A young victim, but who is it?
- They're just telling everybody, you know,
Keep your door shut, don't come in the hall.
We didn't really know what was going on.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Officer michael johnson,
A cop at the college at brockport,
Was on a routine welfare check
At a dorm room early one Saturday in September, 2012,
When he got the shock of his life.
- You don't see that level of violence that often.
- Room 108 was wrecked.
There was blood everywhere,
On the bed, on the door, on a pillow on the floor.
And in the center of the room was a young woman
Lying on the floor, face down.
Her bloody hair falling over her face.
- It seemed very unnatural, the way she fell.
Uh, the blood splatter that was in the room,
Even the bloody footprints that were around her
All indicated that something violent had happened
In that room.
- What feeling do you have when you--
When you see something like that?
- Well, the adrenaline kicks in, and luckily, you know,
You need that adrenaline at that moment,
And it was just time to go to work.
And, uh, if she was alive, I had to do all I could for her.
- Officer johnson knew he needed help fast.
- I heard this guy yelling
And I thought it was a drunk college kid.
- Hailey plymale lived across the hall from alex's room.
The commotion woke her up.
- And I noticed a man was, like, yelling for help and stuff.
So, I woke up,
And I started looking through my peep hole,
And, uh, it was a police officer yelling.
- Lieutenant daniel vasile works with officer johnson
On the campus force.
- He radioed me for the aed, so--
- What's the aed?
- That's the, uh, defibrillator. - Okay.
- So, I arrived, I grabbed it,
I went running to his location, so--
- What did you think when you--
When you saw what you saw?
- I couldn't believe it.
I guess, you know, you never come to work thinking
You're gonna see something like that.
- Hailey plymale was now glued to her peep hole.
She saw residence officials everywhere.
- They were just telling everybody, you know,
Keep your doors shut, don't come in the hall,
And we didn't know really know what was going on.
- The news was spreading, hailey was fielding
A storm of texts from worried students.
- Everyone was just so confused.
It was all just, like, "I don't know.
"you know, I think somebody's hurt,
"um, but I don't know what's happened.
- By now, the cops realize
The young woman on the floor was dead.
Hailey soon learned that, too.
- What happened was the ambulance showed up,
And the police officers said to the paramedic,
"we only need one of you to go in,
"and to pronounce her."
And the paramedic went in,
And came out, pronounced her jane doe,
And it was just like, ooh, wow.
I knew that that meant that they couldn't identify who it was,
And they left.
And I woke my roommate up as--
And I said, you know, somebody's died.
And she didn't believe me at first,
And I told her, you know-- like, they left.
The stretcher had nobody on it.
- The students on their phones tried to stay calm,
But it wasn't easy.
After all, a college residence is supposed to be safe.
But now, there might be a killer on the loose.
- We are really afraid.
And the police officers were like, "you're okay,"
Like, "we're here, you're safe."
But we were-- we were really scared!
- Hailey went over and over the events of that night
In her mind, and she remembered something.
About 1:15 am, as she was trying to go to sleep,
An unusual sound. But was it related?
- It was, like, little, like, "thud, thud"
And then it was, like, maybe, like, a pause?
And then it was, like, more.
And then, like, kind of another break.
And some of them were louder than others.
- Now, as the activity in the hallway intensified,
Hailey heard a line straight out of a cop show.
- The police officer said, "this is now a crime scene,
"nobody touch anything."
- So, at that time I knew that we had to just do our jobs,
And we had to preserve everything,
You know for the safety of the rest of the campus.
- The officers had a million questions.
Number one, who was the girl lying
With her face to the floor?
Alex kogut, the girl they had been asked to check on,
Had blonde hair.
There were pictures of her in the room.
The girl on the floor was a brunette.
Was she alex's roommate? It was hard to know.
Her face was bloody, unrecognizable.
So then, you must be wondering, "well, where is alex?"
- Right. - Yes.
- The cops learned that alex had entered the dorm
With her boyfriend after midnight.
And then, they made a startling discovery.
When they looked closer at the photos in the room,
They saw a young man they recognized.
In fact, they'd issued him a ticket that very night.
- So, we knew who we wanted to look for at that time.
- It was clayton whittemore, alex's boyfriend.
They needed to find him, and fast.
He might lead them to alex.
- If we have someone that did this violent act
Here in this specific room, you know,
What is he capable of doing when he leaves here?
- A missing boyfriend, an anxious best friend.
- I rushed here.
- 4:00 in the morning? - 4:00 in the morning.
- And a mystifying murder.
- What's your gut telling you happened?
- I couldn't put together what happened,
Because it was so violent,
And there were so many things that didn't make sense
In the room, that it was very hard to just say
"okay, this is what happened. Case closed."
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- The campus cops investigating the murder in mclean hall
Weren't sure who the victim was.
But they'd recognized a young man in photos
In the dorm room.
They'd seen that same young man
When they were patrolling the campus earlier that night.
- I observed a couple coming down the street here,
On utica street.
We could see that he had an open container in his hand.
Um, as he kept coming, we intercepted him right here
On the sidewalk.
Uh, I requested his id.
I could see that it was an open beer can,
And I explained to him that we have a, uh,
Local ordinance here that says that you cannot
Have an open container.
- Did he seem angry? Was he agitated?
- No, he was actually very cooperative.
So I gave him the ticket and they started to walk away
Right down the sidewalk, right here.
- The young man who got the ticket
Was clayton whittemore,
Returning home from a party with his girlfriend,
Alex kogut.
- And when they left, did they seem fine?
- They seemed normal to me.
- In fact, I was even doing small talk
With the female that he was with,
And was able to make her laugh a little bit.
So, if anything was bothering her,
She didn't let us know.
- So just a normal couple out on a Friday night,
And wasn't quite the last of him.
- No, as they both started walking away,
I observed him drop the beer can,
And he just dropped it right onto the ground.
And I made a comment to him
That that could be another $100 fine,
And he did comply,
He went back and he picked it up
And after doing that, that's when I saw him
Cross the street here, and the same time,
The female stayed on this side of the street.
And then they both continued to walk on separate sides
Of the street.
- Alex and clayton had been dating for
A year and a half by then.
They were both from the town of new hartford
In central new york.
They got together when alex was in high school.
Clayton had already graduated.
Now they were trying to make a go
Of a long-distance relationship.
- They really wanted to make it work and stuff,
And I think it was working.
I think she really did love him.
- What kind of things did she say to you about clay?
Describing him or the time they spent together.
- It was kind of just little things here and there,
Like "oh, I can't wait to see him,"
Like, "I miss him."
You could just see it in her eyes
That she really did want to be with him.
[crowd cheering]
- Clayton, number 21,
Had been a standout hockey player in high school.
After he graduated in the spring of 2010,
He spent a season playing for a college prep team
In florida, living with a host family there.
- He was, like, the star player.
He was the guy that scored the goals.
- Hunter fernandez, one of clayton's teammates,
Lived with the same host family.
Paint a picture of clayton for us.
- Uh, he was hard-working, he was a really nice guy,
He was funny.
We always had a good time.
- Did you guys ever get into a little bit of trouble?
- No, we never really done trouble,
We were just-- we were always busy.
- What about girls?
Did you hang out with girls, or was there time?
- Nope. - Partying?
- Never. - Drinking?
- He drank once.
- This sounds like the tamest bunch of hockey players
I think I've ever heard of. - Yep.
- It was hardly surprising that alex was drawn
To another athlete, and clayton was a catch.
Paige whitney, alex's swim team pal, knew that.
She'd gone through high school with clayton,
Sat beside him in senior year math class.
- She felt like he deserved a lot more
And that she was very, very lucky.
- Really? - Yeah.
- So she considered herself lucky that he had chosen her.
- Absolutely.
- Watching them together,
Did it seem that he really cared about her?
That he really liked her? - Absolutely.
- He's happy to be in that relationship.
- Yeah, you know, you see them laughing together,
You see them, you know, getting along so well.
- Her family liked him, too.
They'd given him a care package for her,
And her mom had contributed $20 towards gas for the trip.
Once alex's swim team meeting ended that day,
The couple met up, had some alone time in her dorm room,
Then went to dinner.
Alex and samantha were texting, of course.
- I asked, you know, like, how she was doing,
What she was doing, and she's like,
"oh, well, we're out to dinner right now."
And then they went out to a friend's house
And then they came back to the dorm.
- On the way back, clayton got that ticket,
And the cops saw the two walk away, separately.
Then, at 12:13 am, alex posted a cryptic tweet.
"should've known," it read.
"should've known."
What do you think it meant?
- It probably does have something to do with clayton,
But I don't exactly know.
- Minutes later, alex swiped her card
To enter her dorm with clayton.
It was 12:17 on Saturday morning.
So now, investigators were desperate to find out
Where clayton whittemore was,
And whether alex was with him.
- Luckily, we had all his information
From the ticket that lieutenant vasile issued him.
- But clayton had been a model of cooperation then.
What could he tell them, if anything,
About what had happened in the dorm room that night?
What's your gut telling you happened?
- I couldn't put together what happened
Because it was so violent.
There were so many things that, uh, didn't make sense
In the room that it was very hard to just say,
"okay, this is what happened,"
You know, you know, "case closed."
- What were the scenarios that you were thinking of?
- Maybe there was an altercation between roommates.
Maybe, possibly, um, alex and clayton were on the run,
And this was the roommate that was on the ground.
Maybe alex was abducted by clayton.
Maybe clayton had hurt the roommate.
- Lot of things are running through your mind.
- Yes.
- Lots of things on other people's minds, too.
At her parents' house, samantha turner,
Alex kogut's best buddy, was phoning all her friends.
When she got through to her roommate,
A college official got on the line
And told her there was a situation.
- And then I broke down, and I grabbed my sister,
And I was like, "we need to go back right now,"
And then I rushed here.
- 4:00 in the morning. - 4:00 in the morning?
And got here, saw the police cars.
- You didn't know at this point what had happened still?
- I didn't know exactly who it was.
- Hundreds of miles away, a frantic mother waited,
Desperate for answers, but when those answers came,
They would be unbearable,
And they were coming soon from the killer himself.
Two frantic phone calls from a mother...
And a son.
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
Alex kogut had tweeted two mysterious words
Moments before brutal murder in her dorm room.
"should've known."
Investigators did not know what she meant,
And were on a desperate hunt for alex and her boyfriend,
Clayton, to find out.
Now, an unexpected phone call was about to hand them
A much-needed lead.
Once again, here's andrea canning
With "after midnight."
- Early that Saturday morning, steven peglow,
Then a veteran homicide investigator
With the monroe county sheriff's office,
Was called to the brockport campus.
The police there had a murder on their hands,
A body they couldn't identify, and a killer on the loose.
- Everyone thought they knew what was going on,
But nobody really did, and until you got there
And started to put the pieces together,
You didn't know.
- As he drove to the campus, investigator peglow
Reviewed the facts as he knew them.
One young woman was dead, another was missing.
- What we've been reported that there was a young lady
Still alive and that needed help.
Right then, that was-- that was my priority
In my mind on the way out there.
- Were you thinking that clayton had taken alex
And had hurt her but she was still alive?
Or that someone else may be involved in the whole thing?
- At that point, I was thinking that
She was just with clayton, and he had hurt her.
- So you're thinking, "we have to find her immediately."
- Yes.
- But five counties away, a drama was unfolding
That would break open this case.
About 3:00 am, an operator at
The oneida county emergency center
Got a call from a profoundly troubled dad.
It was a stunning statement, even for a 911 dispatcher
In the early hours of a Saturday morning.
But the dad didn't know much.
The father reported that his son was in a bad way.
The divorced dad admitted that he was out of the loop
About family matters.
Now he was doing his best to stave off a tragedy.
The dispatcher asked scott to call his son back
To find out more.
Minutes later, the father was back on the line.
The 911 dispatcher
Got clayton whittemore's mother on the line.
The dispatcher got the name "alex kogurt"
From the stressed-out mom.
Slightly wrong, but it was enough.
Seconds later, he was on the phone
To the campus cops in brockport, and now, finally,
The pieces of the story began fitting together.
That's the theory the campus cops were acting on,
That the roommate was dead,
And alex was with clayton somewhere.
But then, new information from clayton's mom.
Clayton had just called his sister
And told her a frightening story about alex.
Clayton's mother was beside herself.
And then, once more that morning,
The call line lit up at the 911 center
In oneida county.
This time, it was the call everyone was waiting for.
Clayton whittemore was on the line.
It was 3:44 am.
The horror of what had happened in room 108
Would soon be revealed. - Coming up.
- The girl lying on the floor had very dark,
Almost black-colored hair, and when you saw the photos
That alex had put up in her dorm room
With her and clayton, she had much lighter hair.
- Who had clayton whittemore killed?
- I didn't know how, I didn't know who,
I didn't know anything, I just know she was gone.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Clayton whittemore was at a rest stop
On the new york state throughway when he called 911,
With a stunning admission.
It was almost 4:00 am.
A frantic hunt that had pulled in
Multiple police agencies, emergency dispatchers,
College officials, and two sets
Of anguished parents was almost over.
- There were two officers, two new york state troopers who,
You know, were patrolling the throughway that night.
- Sandra dorley is the district attorney
Of monroe county in western new york.
- They were called to respond
Right to that dewitt road service area,
Not knowing what to expect.
At that point, it was one dead
On the brockport college campus, and perhaps another missing.
- And clayton was there, waiting?
- He was.
He walked over and said "I'm turning myself in."
They noticed, you know, bloody sneakers,
And they noticed blood on his hands.
- Within seconds, 21-year-old clayton whittemore
Was cuffed and in custody.
Now for his car. What could it tell them?
- They wanted to check the trunk.
They didn't know if there was a body in the trunk.
Because at that point, they still hadn't determined,
You know, who it was, actually,
On the dorm room floor of room 108.
- That was about to change.
The cops back in brockport, who initially thought
The victim might be alex kogut's roommate,
Had learned the roommate
Was staying elsewhere that night.
But where? They started an urgent search.
Until they spoke to her,
They couldn't be certain of the victim's identity
Because of the hair color.
Investigator steven peglow.
- The girl lying on the floor had very dark,
Almost black-colored hair,
And when you saw the photos that alex had put up
In her dorm room of her and clayton,
She had much lighter hair.
The roommate had darker hair.
- Investigators knocked on students' doors,
Questioning them.
Then, a nugget buried in a conversation.
They learned that alex had recently dyed her hair brown.
They had what they needed to id their victim.
Now, they wanted to hear from just one more person:
Alex's roommate.
When she did call in, finally, they learned she'd been
Staying in another dorm room.
- We had her come to us so that we could speak with her.
Then we were positive.
Positive that the girl on the dorm room floor
Was alex kogut.
Bubbly, happy, lovely alex. Only 18 years old.
Best buddy samantha turner, who had rushed back to college
Early that morning was devastated.
- I just-- I broke down, and-and I knew at that point,
My life was changed.
- And you-you just knew what had happened
Without anyone even telling you? - Mm-hmm.
I didn't know how, I didn't know who,
I didn't know anything.
I just know she was gone, and I could never see her again.
- Sandra whitney and her daughter, paige,
Are family friends of the koguts.
Paige, remember, was a student at brockport, too.
Her roommate woke her up around 7:00 that morning.
- And she said "we have to go, we're all meeting together.
"something happened."
- Paige called me, and she said, "something happened to alex."
I said, "oh, alex? Um, what?"
She said, "oh, it was a terrible accident,
And she said--
I said, "well, is she okay?" and she said, "no."
I said, "is she in the hospital?"
And she said, "no, mom. She's not."
And I said, "has she died?"
And-and she said, "yes."
So, I was shocked, and all I could think was
What could've happened to alex in her dorm room?
- The new york state police were asking clayton whittemore
That very same question that very morning.
- Clayton put the pieces together for the police
About what happened that night, and it began with the fact that
His relationship with alex wasn't so good after all.
The couple had dinner, then the party.
Clayton said he and alex drank moderately,
But at the party, he got annoyed with her,
Said he felt "disrespected."
- As they walked back from the party,
Clayton got that open container ticket.
- Clayton, remember, walked to the other side
Of the street to cool off,
And then alex posted that final cryptic tweet:
"should've known."
- We'll never really know what that meant, but sh--
- What do you think it meant?
- "should've known that, you know,
Maybe we weren't meant to be together,
Maybe we should break up."
- At 12:17 am, alex swiped into her dorm.
She and clayton entered her room.
Clayton said they were fighting about cheating.
"old stuff," he called it.
- Then he told the cops she got physical.
- But the investigator pointed out
Clayton was a strong guy. Alex was tiny.
- He told the cops he asked her to stop,
But he said she wouldn't, and when he offered to leave,
He said she told him to stay, and then, this.
- The attack that followed was savage.
Unthinkable.
In a tiny dorm room, surrounded by sleeping students,
Clayton whittemore beat his girlfriend to death.
Investigator peglow has seen plenty of homicide scenes,
But never one like this.
- It was a few of us in the room,
And people were like, "okay, well,
"I have blood on this, okay, I have blood on this,"
And gave you an idea of the rage that had gone on
In that room.
- Peglow, who has studied the interview video,
Says there's one thing he can't forget:
Clayton told police that near the end,
He realized alex's breathing had become labored,
That the girl he said he loved was dying.
- Didn't get help, didn't call an ambulance.
Didn't occur to him.
Instead, he hit her until she died.
To put her out of her misery, he said.
It must've seemed almost impossible.
How could she be murdered? - Exactly.
Disbelief, shock. It's not real.
It's not real, that doesn't happen.
You don't go away to college and, um, suffer that,
You just don't.
- Clayton whittemore was charged with
Second-degree murder.
He pleaded "not guilty,"
Because clayton whittemore had an explanation,
And his attorneys would reveal it at trial.
- Coming up...
Could anything explain such violence?
- The verdict, when "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
Clayton whittemore had just revealed to police
The gruesome details of what he did
Behind the closed door of dorm room 108.
But why he did it was a secret
He had been holding inside for years,
And it was about to become the backbone of his defense.
He's andrea canning
With the conclusion of "after midnight."
- It wasn't until the spring of 2014,
Almost two years after alex kogut died,
That clayton whittemore went on trial.
Although the told the cops
He'd beaten his girlfriend to death,
He entered a plea of "not guilty"
To second-degree murder.
Prosecutors had a powerful case against him,
And they knew it.
The gruesome images in room 108,
The mountain of incriminating evidence,
Even his words.
"he was a ticking time bomb," prosecutors argued.
"a killer years in the making."
How does this young man go from star athlete,
Popular, college student
To what some would call a monster?
- You know, our theory that night was that
His anger was just building, building,
And perhaps fueled by alcohol.
- Prosecutors tried to show that clayton whittemore
Had already established a pattern of violence.
They called ex-girlfriend, melinda graniela
To testify about one scary episode.
- When we were fighting in a parking lot,
He had choked me,
And he kinda held on for a few seconds.
I thought that he might not stop,
But eventually, he did,
And I locked him out of his car to cool down,
And he did, and I kinda blew over it.
- But that one was serious. - Yeah, it was scary.
- Hunter fernandez was also called to the stand.
Hunter had played hockey on that college prep team
In florida with clayton.
Hunter, too, had a scary experience.
It happened after clayton drank a half dozen beers,
The one time, hunter says, that he saw his teammate drink.
- He walks in the kitchen and he grabs a knife
And he raises it above his head,
And he looks like he was possessed.
He just took a step towards us,
And our house mom sees what's happening,
And she's like, "clayton, put the knife down."
- Defense attorneys didn't dispute that
Clayton whittemore killed alex kogut,
Didn't even try, and they didn't dispute that
His anger was years in the making.
But, they argued, this wasn't a case of murder.
Their client was guilty of
The lesser charge of manslaughter.
Why?
They said he was under the influence
Of extreme emotional disturbance when he killed alex kogut,
Because clayton whittemore was a victim, himself.
That's clayton talking to the 911 dispatcher,
Hours after the murder.
He's talking about his dad, telling the dispatcher
His father had abused him and his family for years.
- The cops in the interview room
Asked him how he felt about his dad now.
- In the minutes before he was arrested,
Clayton wrote a bizarre apology to alex and the koguts:
In court, clayton's sister took the stand
And supported her brother's story.
Their father, scott whittemore,
Did not respond to dateline's calls.
There's no record of complaints against him,
But a defense expert, a psychiatrist, testified.
Scott admitted that as a former marine,
He may have been rough.
Because of that abuse, the expert concluded that
Clayton was suffering
That extreme emotional disturbance,
And snapped in the dorm room.
The prosecution begged to differ.
- It's just sad and tragic. And you know what?
We never discounted or denied his past.
But that doesn't excuse what he did.
- Three weeks after the trial began,
The case went to the jury.
The verdict was swift: Guilty of second-degree murder.
- I just felt this overwhelming sense of relief
That the truth came out, and that there was, uh,
There was finally a verdict.
Um, it was the right verdict.
- Alex's mom did not attend the trial,
But followed it closely and tweeted.
- Becky kogut, after the verdict,
Tweeted "justice for my beautiful baby."
- Mm-hmm.
- Did you talk to her about the verdict?
- Mm-hmm. - And what did she say?
- It was-it was a private conversation between two moms.
There were tears, of course.
Um, doesn't bring back alex. It doesn't.
- Clayton whittemore was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Now, among those who know
The story of alex kogut's life and death,
There is a new awareness about the vulnerability
And challenges of young love, especially because,
Prosecutors say, there was evidence
To show clayton had a history of threatening alex.
He left angry voicemails on her phone.
Assistant district attorney at the time, meredith vaka.
- There were almost thirty voicemails
That she saved from him.
They were all of that aggressive, controlling nature
Is what we-we argued to the court to-to, um,
Seek admissibility of them at trial.
- The voicemails were not admitted in court,
But prosecutors read an excerpt for dateline,
Editing out the expletives.
- "I'll kill you next time I see you.
You're a slut and a skank, so don't call me,
I'm sick, I'm sick of you."
And I left a lot of words out.
- When you add in those expletives,
It is really hard to hear. - It was.
These were voicemails that really were scary.
- Those close to alex and her family say
They never knew about the voicemails,
Never knew there was a problem.
They say there were no red flags
About clayton whittemore.
- That's why it's out of blue.
Never saw that coming. - Nothing.
Totally, totally caught me off guard.
- Perhaps for parents, there is a lesson to be learned:
Ask questions, know what's happening,
Even if there are no warning signs.
- Even if, you know, they might be not wanting to
Talk about it, you know, ask those questions.
- After alex died, sandra whitney and her family
Started the purple pinkie charitable foundation
To campaign against dating violence.
Purple symbolizes the fight against domestic violence.
It was also alex kogut's favorite color.
Sandra came up with the idea as she comforted
Alex's former teammates.
- And I said "so, paint your pinkies purple,
And this is for alex.
You have more strength in your little finger
Than the worst thing that could come at you."
- Two years later, there were still purple ribbons
In alex kogut's hometown,
Still friends tending a college memorial
To honor students who have died at a college
That as itself had to heal.
A college that has since opened a center
To raise awareness about dating violence,
And there are still those like paige whitney
Who will never let their memory of a graceful, joyous
Young spirit fade away.
- For the rest of my life, whenever I see purple,
I will think of her.
Whenever I hear a story of any type of domestic violence,
I will think of her,
And I will not stop telling her story.
- And that's all for this edition
Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.