- I'm craig melvin, and this is
"dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- I called my mom immediately.
I just cried, I cried.
I couldn't feel, my body went numb.
I told her karlyn's gone, she's gone.
- She was a beautiful young mom doing important work.
- She was a intelligence specialist.
- Some of her work was very sensitive, top secret.
- I believe she had top-secret clearance.
- When she was found dead, everyone wondered,
Did her work cost her her life?
- I remembered him telling me, "did she come into
"a lot of money that she couldn't explain?"
- Maybe she was selling secrets?
- Maybe.
- That's, like, out of a spy novel.
- What about other secrets, the personal kind?
- We knew they were having issues.
- Right before they got married
She found out that he was cheating.
- But somewhere out there
Was a stranger keeping secrets too.
- My data guy starts going though her facebook.
- She'd made reference to firearms in her social media.
- We saw that they were communicating her gas mileage.
What a weird thing to do.
- A mystery that would drag on for months.
And then...
One final secret uncovered by science.
- You start peeling the layers back
Until the number is visible.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
Smart, caring, and ambitious,
Karlyn ramirez was hitting her stride.
She had a new husband, a baby girl,
And a top-secret job with the military.
But in a flash, karlyn was dead.
Her killer would go to extremes to hide the truth,
But investigators were determined to follow the clues,
Exposing a plot so devious it defied imagination.
Here's andrea canning with "the alibi".
- Bye bye to mommy.
- Across the spectrum of love, is there any more precious
Than that of a mother for her daughter?
♪ you are my sunshine my only sunshine ♪
- Our story is about that maternal time
That endures from generation to generation.
It begins in a military town near the mexican border.
Del rio, texas, a small city
Anchored by the lackland air force base.
Karlyn ramirez grew up there.
She was an easy-going child, says her mom,
Susan garcia-ramirez.
- Karlyn, when she was young she was really calm and quiet.
- Karlyn loved to sing.
She just-- she would sing all the time.
♪ let me see there baby ♪
- Whenever she was out with her friends,
You know, she would sing for them.
- Rosanna flores was one of those friends.
- What was it about karlyn that
You wanted to be her friend?
- Her smile, her voice, big heart.
I can honestly say she never saw any bad in anyone.
- Her friends, anais avara,
And valerie mckechnie, say it wasn't all about singing.
- And we'd go to the-the local bar here and we would dance.
♪♪
- And they say the dancing could literally happen anywhere.
That's karlyn in black.
- Yeah, I was like fun-fun times
At the walmart parking lot.
- Only in a small city, right?
- She went to college in del rio, started in nursing
And then transferred to criminal justice.
Nothing that prepared her mom for what she did at 22--
Enlist in the army.
- How did mom feel about that?
- I was not happy. - Why weren't you happy?
- I just-- I didn't- I didn't want her--
I didn't want her to go away from me, mostly.
But she did it.
She didn't ask me, she didn't get my opinion,
She told me after she had done it.
- Your family is-is a military family?
- We are. Um, my dad was air force,
Um, my sister is retired air force,
And then I was in the army reserves.
- After specialty training in information technology,
The army sent karlyn to south korea.
Off-duty, she found time to give back.
- And she found herself volunteering at an orphanage.
- So nice. - She start--
Well, she starts sending me pictures of a little boy
That she's in love with.
And she says, "mom, I wanna adopt him."
I said, "no."
- In korea, karlyn found another kind of love.
She began dating a handsome sergeant named maliek kearney.
- She was attracted to his confidence,
To his air and the way he carried himself.
- He was a decorated soldier? - Yes.
- Did she like that about him? - Yes.
They worked out together and they ran,
They're very competitive.
- Karlyn gushed about maliek to her friends.
- She said that he was a great man,
That he treated her right,
And then she told me they were engaged.
- Engaged and expecting.
- I believe it was an instagram post that she said--
- Yeah. - --That she had gained
A couple pounds and she wasn't mad about it.
And I was like, "you're having a baby!"
- What? - And I was like,
"no way, no way!" she was like, "yes!"
And also happy, 'cause that was, like, one of her dreams
That she always wanted to have her own child.
- Pregnant, the army transferred her to fort meade, maryland,
Home of the national security agency,
And one of the nation's most secret and secure facilities.
- Was she happy? Was she excited?
- She was excited.
She started working and absolutely loved it.
- Top secret? Some of it?
- She would say, "mom, I can't share anything
"about what I do." - meantime, the army
Moved maliek to fort jackson, south carolina,
Where he trained recruits in chemical warfare.
The couple was 500 miles apart.
While living by herself in maryland,
Karlyn became friends with another soldier,
Marissa manthy.
Marissa loved working with karlyn.
- She was the light of the office, she was loving.
Everyone loved her, even people from other sections
Would come into her office just to talk to her
And conversate.
- Marissa was a single mom with a young daughter,
So when karlyn was nearing the end of her pregnancy,
They decided to share a house together.
- It had a backyard, it had a decent sized kitchen,
And it was right by base.
- Did you ever have security concerns
About the townhouse or the area?
- We did have-- karlyn had mentioned that she came home
One day and felt like stuff was moved around in the house.
- Really? - Yeah.
- If somebody says that to me I'm--
- Yeah. - --I'm getting worried.
- The two women kept the doors and windows locked,
And worked together to make their townhouse a home.
Marissa helped karlyn setup a nursery.
And then, on April 23rd, 2015,
Kattaleya vale ramirez was born.
Grandma susan was on the first flight from texas.
- What was it like for you seeing karlyn
And-and her new daughter, vale, together?
That your baby's now had a baby.
- Yes, it was amazing.
I-I got her and I wouldn't share her with anybody.
- Vale was healthy and beautiful.
Karlyn, radiant.
Their townhouse was filled with the joyful sounds
Of karlyn singing to vale.
She particularly loved, "you are my sunshine".
♪ you'll never know dear how much I love you... ♪
- She was happy.
It looked like she found her purpose in life.
- Three months after vale was born, karlyn and maliek
Married in a small ceremony in south carolina.
After the party, karlyn went back home to fort mead
In maryland with the baby.
- She said it was hard, the distance
And not seeing him all the time.
- Susan stayed in touch with her daughter.
- I spoke with karlyn every day, sometimes twice a day.
- But Tuesday, August 25th would be different.
Susan called karlyn that morning.
- And she didn't answer.
- And is that-- - that's unusual.
- I mean, you two have such a close relationship.
- So I waited, and I called her again.
And she didn't answer.
So I sent her an email to her work email,
Never got a response to that.
Called her on my lunch break, and she didn't answer.
I said, "if you do not call me back or message me,
"I'm gonna call the police."
- A now frantic susan reached karlyn's commanding officer
At his home.
He promised to have someone on the base find her.
- I hang up with him and I put the phone down,
And I hear a ruffle.
In our front yard we have river rock,
And so I looked out and I saw three uniformed soldiers.
- Oh, gosh. - And I knew.
- That-that just made me...
- Yeah, sick. - Sick.
- That's what it did to me to.
- It's what any relative of a--
Somebody in the military dreads.
I mean, I'm a marine corps wife myself, and it's--
- That's the last thing--
You-you don't ever wanna have to see that.
And, uh, I yelled my husband's name, and I just,
I dropped to my knees and I said,
"something happened to karlyn."
And then they knocked.
- She was right, something had happened to karlyn.
And now, this house call was about to confirm
A parent's worst fears.
- Coming up... - What did they say?
- We regret to inform you...
Just like they always say.
- What the soldiers said next
Would leave this mom horrified and confused.
- So what scenarios are running through your mind?
- I couldn't even imagine what could have possibly happened.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- In del rio, texas, susan ramirez's husband
Opened their door to an army casualty notification team.
And the worst news imaginable-- their karlyn was dead.
- What did they say? - We regret to inform you...
Just like they always say, same words.
They had a chaplain with them
And couldn't give me any specifics.
I asked for the baby,
They said that she was in the hospital.
- So what scenarios are running through your mind?
- I couldn't even imagine
What could have possibly happened.
- The answers would come 1,700 miles away
At karlyn's townhouse in maryland.
Homicide detectives, kelly harding and dan myers
Of the anne arundel county police department
Were on the case.
- A maintenance person, uh, saw a dog walking around
Into an open backdoor of-of the townhomes.
He called 9-1-1 and the officers got there and, uh,
Karlyn ramirez had been murdered.
- Patrol officers led the detectives
To a second floor bedroom
And an appalling scene--
It was karlyn
And her four-month-old daughter together.
- She was laying in the master bedroom,
And a little girl was, um,
They thought initially also had been murdered.
But it turns out that she was just sleeping
Alongside her mom.
The baby was unharmed.
- The investigators began their search for clues
With karlyn's body.
- She was laying on the floor, um, near the crib.
Her pants and her, um, underwear had been removed.
- Did that suggest to you that there may have been
A sexual assault?
- It's something that you have to consider.
- The crime scene investigation ramped up.
Csis dusted for fingerprints
And collected hair and dna samples.
Karlyn had been shot three times.
Ballistics experts traced the bullets' trajectories
And recovered a bullet from the floor.
They were able to narrow down the weapon
To a few different models.
- The caliber of the projectile was 357/38 special.
- Of course, a hard look at the spouse
Is homicide investigation 101.
So the day after they found karlyn's body,
Detectives flew to south carolina to talk with maliek.
- He'd been placed in an interview room
And he was waiting for us.
- They started by asking about karlyn.
- Maliek's superior officer had given him only
The vaguest of details about what happened to karlyn.
- They wanted to know maliek's whereabouts
The day of the murder.
He told them he worked his usual shift Monday,
Leaving around 2:00 pm.
He said he stayed in his apartment
Until he reported for duty Tuesday morning.
- The questions got personal.
Detectives had been told karlyn was planning
To divorce maliek.
- They'd learned about a brief relationship
Karlyn had with another soldier at fort meade
Shortly before she married maliek
And asked him how he felt about that.
- The detectives cut to the chase.
- Was he being really cooperative with you?
- He appeared to have nothing to hide.
- Maliek let them download his phone, and that wasn't all.
He volunteered his bank records, offered fingerprints,
And provided a dna sample.
He gave police permission to search his apartment and car.
The detectives got to work.
- Right away, uh, we talked to neighbors that--
In his apartment building.
Uh, they said that his car never left.
- Maliek kearney's apartment and car,
A distinctive jaguar xjl, came up clean.
And all his electronics, his cell phone,
And netflix account, put him at home that night,
500 miles from the crime scene.
Police checked toll plazas and license plate readers
Between south carolina and maryland.
There was no sign of maliek's jaguar anywhere
On what would have been a 15 hour round trip.
- Would you say that he had a good alibi?
- Yes.
- Maliek kearney was free to go.
The maryland detectives were back to square one,
At the beginning of what would become
An incredibly complex homicide case,
An investigation that would span a half dozen states,
Involve hundreds of witnesses, multiple government agencies,
And a mountain of forensic evidence.
- Coming up... Could karlyn's top-secret work
Have cost her her life?
- I wondered if she was targeted or knew something
She wasn't supposed to know.
- I remember specifically them telling me, "did she come into
"a lot of money that she couldn't explain?"
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- A little more than a week after she was killed,
Private first class karlyn ramirez
Was buried with full military honors.
Flags were presented to her parents,
Husband, and daughter.
Susan had little time to mourn.
She was busy caring for karlyn's daughter, vale,
In texas, while her father, maliek,
Was on active duty in south carolina.
Susan was also doing everything she could
To help solve the case.
Investigators asked again and again,
Who would want karlyn dead?
- I would say, you know, "I am wracking my brain
"and I wish I could tell you
"but I-I just cannot think of anyone."
- Detectives cast a wide net.
They spoke with karlyn's roommate, marissa,
Multiple times.
They were curious about the solider karlyn had
The brief relationship with before she married maliek.
Could her death have been the result of
A love triangle gone bad?
- Their line of questioning made me think that they were
Looking at, um, the soldier that she was involved with.
- The guy that she was having the fling with at work?
- Yes.
- What kind of questions did they ask about him?
- What their relationship was like, did he love her?
Did she love him? Did maliek know?
- Did you have to check into this soldier that she had
The little side thing with? - Certainly.
And he was devastated that this happened.
He provided his phone, his whereabouts.
We concluded that he was telling the truth
Where he was during the time.
- With the boyfriend cleared, some of karlyn's friends
And family thought the murder might be connected
To her top-secret work at fort meade.
- I wondered if she was targeted or knew something
She wasn't supposed to know because of her job.
- The detectives were looking for any sign that karlyn
Might have been recruited as a spy by foreign agents.
- I remember specifically them telling me, "did she come into
"a lot of money that she couldn't explain to you?"
No, she didn't.
- Maybe she was selling secrets? - Absolutely not.
- That's like out of a spy novel.
- Yes, yes. - That theory.
What did you learn about karlyn ramirez's role
In the military?
- She was an intelligence specialist.
- Did you have to explore the fact that
Maybe this has something to do with her job?
- There was no evidence of a-a handler or any sort of
Misbehaving with her information.
- Espionage was ruled out.
Weeks went by without a break in the case.
- Homicide detectives are still conducting
Several interviews, we're still processing
Evidence from the scene.
- The crime scene investigation intensified.
- They had my house taped off for almost a month
Of just going through evidence, going through the house,
Trying to find things, trying to find leads.
- And marissa lived in fear, remembering karlyn's concerns
About someone creeping around their townhouse.
- Karlyn had said she thought maybe somebody had
Moved things around.
Did your mind go at all to the possibility
That it could have been someone random?
- It even almost seemed like a hit man had did it
Because it was so meticulously planned out.
Nothing was stolen from the home though.
We had laptops, ipads,
A jar of money in the kitchen.
So they ruled out
Someone just coming in to burglarize the place.
- Karlyn's roommate had told us that they had
Security concerns, that someone had maybe
Been in the townhouse at-at some point.
- It was always something we kind of
Kept in the back of our minds.
- Did you have to consider the possibility that maybe
Karlyn had a stalker?
Someone who was watching them, watching her?
- Yeah, we-- it looked extensively into her background
And into her communication.
- Investigators pursued the few leads they had.
All the while, susan was pushing them for answers.
- Two or three times a week, you know.
They would hear from me.
- It must have been getting frustrating that
She was murdered, her killer is out there.
- Yes.
- And her daughter is with you.
You must have just felt that fear.
- Constant fear.
Vale was not out of our sight.
- But she heard nothing.
In April, on what would have been karlyn's 25th birthday,
The family took vale to visit her grave.
- Bye bye to mommy.
- By that time, maliek was living nearby.
The army had allowed him to transfer from south carolina
To fort sam houston.
- He had gotten orders to get closer to the baby,
And as close as he can get was san antonio so he can
Come and spend time with the baby on the weekends.
- The ramirez family struggled to find normalcy.
Back in maryland, the investigation
Seemed to have stalled.
Anne arundel county offered a $20,000 reward
For information about the case.
The reward generated no promising leads,
And homicide detectives wondered if karlyn's death
Could be part of a larger, even more sinister crime.
- Detectives turn to the fbi
As a stunning new theory takes center stage.
- Coming up...
- There's no likely suspects.
So the first thought is a serial killer
Or some unknown individual.
- And then an eyebrow-raising revelation
About karlyn's estranged husband.
- She said that they had been intimate for several years.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm craig melvin.
Who killed karlyn ramirez?
With a gunman on the loose and the investigation stalled,
Her loved ones were living in fear.
Police had cleared karlyn's ex-boyfriend,
And phone records showed that her estranged husband,
Maliek kearney, was home when she was shot.
But soon, they would uncover an explosive secret
Pointing to a new person of interest.
Once again, here's andrea canning with "the alibi".
- It had been months since karlyn ramirez had been found
Murdered at home with her infant daughter in her arms.
With all leads exhausted, homicide detectives wondered
If karlyn's death might be part of a pattern.
They reached out to profilers with the fbi's
Behavioral analysis unit.
Fbi special agent, jonathan shaffer,
Would join the team.
- The story is that the husband's
In south carolina.
There's no apparent likely suspects.
So the first thought is a serial killer
Or some unknown individual,
That's where they'd requested the profiler.
- Had there been any serial killers in the area
That could possibly tie to this then?
- No there-there wasn't at that time.
It was a long shot.
- Did this lead anywhere, contacting the bau?
- Their opinion was that
Probably somebody close to her did this.
- With no obvious progress in karlyn's case,
Friends began to despair.
- It scared me that karlyn was never gonna get her justice.
- But what they didn't know was maryland detectives
And the army's criminal investigation division
Had been quietly collecting a massive amount
Of electronic information.
Of course, police had initially talked
To karlyn's estranged husband, maliek.
But his phone records had indicated
He was at home, 500 miles away,
When karlyn was murdered.
But months after they'd asked for it,
Police finally had not only maliek's data,
But the data of everyone
Who had been contacted from his phone.
- We then requested and received information
From the people that maliek was communicating with.
- All their tedious digital searching paid off.
It was a development that took them
In a whole new direction.
Buried in maliek's phone records
Were numerous calls and texts
With a woman named delores delgado,
A former soldier living in florida.
When investigators poured over her phone records,
A dramatic discovery.
- We had learned that delores was actually
In south carolina during the time of the murder.
- That phone data not only had delores in south carolina.
It placed her in maliek's apartment complex.
- This must have been a big break.
- This was a huge break.
- On a Wednesday afternoon in March 2016,
Detective harding turned up announced
On delores' doorstep in coco beach, florida.
- Knock on the door, and I say,
"hi, I'm detective harding,
"I'm from anne arundel county, maryland.
"I'd like to talk to you."
And-- - that's a shock.
- And she was very shocked.
She said, "about what, maliek?"
And I said, "yes, actually."
- In an interview room at the sheriff's office,
The detective asked delores
About the night of the murder,
If she was in maliek's apartment,
And if he was with her.
- She admits that she was there that night.
- What happened at maliek kearney's house?
- She was in the living room,
And he went to bed.
As far as she knew, he was there the whole time.
- Was this a sexual relationship?
- She said that they'd been intimate,
You know, for several years.
- So she's a long-time paramour.
- They definitely had a long relationship.
- The detectives now knew one thing for sure
After talking to delores delgado:
Maliek kearney had lied to them;
About being faithful to karlyn for starters.
- But most critically, about what happened
The night of karlyn's murder.
- If you have somebody that can account
For your whereabouts during the time of the murder,
Why wouldn't you offer that to us?
Why would you keep that secret?
- The detectives had to consider
That maybe maliek just didn't want to admit
He was cheating on his wife with dolores.
They took a closer look at this girlfriend,
Who told them she and maliek hooked up
When they were both serving in kuwait years earlier.
Then, when harding and myers examined delores' phone data,
They learned she also lied...
About owning a gun.
- She told me that she was almost ignorant
About firearms.
But in her phone, I could see that she was looking
For a very particular firearm.
- On her phone, there was a text that read
"my last .357 I paid $400
"so I wanna stay in that range."
Detective myers dove deeper into delores' life.
- My data guy here starts going through her facebook.
- There were some things going on with firearms,
Some information about where she purchased
Firearms previously.
- This is the woman who had no knowledge of firearms?
- Right.
- The posts led myers here,
To a gun shop near delores' home.
The shop had a sales receipt
And a federal firearms transaction record
For a taurus .357 revolver.
Both forms were made out to delores delgado.
The revolver delores bought matched the caliber of gun
That had killed karlyn.
- We saw that this gun was one of the ones on the list.
- Of itself, this purchase of a gun
Wasn't a smoking gun,
But the detectives had to wonder why delores
Would lie to them about owning a weapon.
And there was something else:
Myers soon learned that delores
Had put a box of .38 caliber ammunition
Up for sale on facebook.
- Now that's obviously-- you can't say
It's the same bullets,
But it matched all the characteristics.
- All this sleuthing took months.
And while the detectives were working,
Delores moved to san antonio, texas
Into an apartment not far from maliek kearney.
150 miles west on their farm in del rio,
Karlyn's mom knew nothing about this new person of interest,
Despite staying on the detectives.
- It's me again.
I just don't want you to forget my daughter,
Because she was very much loved.
- The investigation now encompassed a half dozen states.
But maryland detectives and fbi agents
Were homing in on delores delgado.
- What were you all learning about the relationship
Between maliek kearney and delores delgado?
- Just how, for lack of a better term, weird it was.
They were friends. They were friends with benefits.
They were lovers but not really romantically involved.
They were just sort of best friends
With a romantic bend.
- There was another weird thing.
Delores delgado's phone was full of texts
Between her and maliek kearney
That weren't on his phone.
And what a twisted story those texts would tell.
- Coming up:
A tip from a complete stranger
Could blow the case open.
- He said, "one night we got rid of a gun.
I think that was your murder weapon."
- I mean, do you get calls like this every day?
This is pretty remarkable.
- Uh, I wish, but we don't.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- It was a bittersweet day in August 2016
When karlyn ramirez's loved ones
Celebrated her life
On the first anniversary of her murder.
Back east, lead detectives, kelly harding and dan myers,
Had developed two prime suspects:
Karlyn's husband, maliek kearney,
And his long-time mistress, delores delgado.
As they studied the couple's text messages,
The detectives found something curious.
Maliek had wiped a lot of texts off his phone
That still existed on delores' phone.
Her texts made them look at the night of karlyn's death
In a whole new light.
- We saw that they were communicating her gas mileage.
You know, what a weird thing to do.
- Not only that, they were talking gas cans as well.
The detectives had delores' bank records,
Which showed a purchase at this florida home depot.
- We were able to get a copy of the receipt of her purchase,
Which included two gas cans.
- Finally, they saw the pieces of their puzzle coming together.
At the start of the case,
Harding and myers thought it was unlikely
That maliek would have been able to travel
All the way to maryland,
Kill karlyn, and return undetected.
But this new evidence changed everything.
- Take us through what you believe happened that night.
- Delores is providing all the tools,
The firearm, the ammunition, a vehicle.
And really the important alibi
Of her staying and using his phone.
- The detectives saw it as an elaborate plot.
Delores was in maliek's apartment
Pretending to be him, texting on his phone
And streaming his netflix account,
Creating an electronic alibi
While he killed karlyn.
This scenario explained why they didn't find
Maliek's jaguar on any license plate readers.
If he did that long drive in delores' car
And carried extra fuel
To avoid gas station security cameras,
There wouldn't be any trace of him.
- So he drives straight there.
You believe he kills karlyn ramirez
Relatively quickly?
- At the most, he would have been there
For-for ten minutes.
- And then turns around and...
- And goes back and only stops the one time,
It's just on the roadside in a dark area,
To fill up the car,
And then immediately gets back in the car
And continues to drive.
- Just to plan this out so meticulously.
Did you think about that?
Just how cold blooded this was?
- He had a lot of time along the way
To say never mind.
You know, what am I doing? This is crazy.
Driving eight hours by yourself
With your own thoughts in a car,
You have a lot of time to change your mind.
He was determined.
- 13 months after karlyn's death,
Maliek kearney and delores delgado
Were arrested in san antonio.
- Out of the blue, I get a phone call at work,
And they asked me if I could come to san antonio
That evening. And I said, "for what?"
And they said, "there's been an arrest
"in your daughter's case." but he didn't tell me who.
- Susan and her husband made the long drive
Across west texas.
- That's when I first met the federal prosecutor.
They're the ones that told me
That maliek had been arrested
And, uh, and his girlfriend.
- What were you learning about delores?
- I didn't know anything about her.
She was no one; she was no one to me.
- Assistant u.S. Attorneys, jim warwick and ken clark,
Met with delores and maliek.
- I introduced myself to mr. Kearney.
- And you also got a chance to speak with ms. Delgado.
- We'd presented to her the facts that we had
And the evidence that we had compiled against her
At that point in time.
- After the arrest came a new lead,
A tip to detective harding from an ex-boyfriend
Of delores' in florida.
- He called me and said, "hey, one night
"I was hanging out with delores,
"and we got rid of a gun."
And he said, "I think that was your murder weapon."
- I mean, do you get calls like this every day?
This is pretty remarkable.
- I wish, but we don't.
- Investigators met with the tipster
In merritt island, florida.
He said that not long after karlyn's murder,
He and delores delgado had burned some clothing
And sneakers here. And that wasn't all.
He told them he destroyed a revolver for her,
Dismantled it, and that the two of them
Threw the pieces of the gun off this pier.
An fbi dive team out of miami
Was soon on the scene.
The water was gin-clear that day,
And divers found forensic sunken treasure.
There on the bottom, rusted, covered with seaweed,
And encrusted with barnacles,
Were the pieces of a hand gun.
The parts were rushed to the fbi crime lab
In quantico, virginia.
"dateline" was given rare access
To the fbi's world-renowned crime lab.
In his first ever interview, firearms expert, brett mills,
Told us how he examined and reconstructed the weapon.
First, he carefully cleaned the frame of the gun.
- When I finished cleaning it,
There was no serial number there.
From our reference collection,
I knew where the serial number should be.
- It was gone because delgado's ex-boyfriend
Had ground it away,
Totally obliterated it; or so he thought.
Mills had a plan.
- We call it serial number restoration.
There are still compressed layers underneath
That still has that impression of the serial number.
Using acid,
We can restore that number.
- He demonstrated the process on a gun
From the fbi collection.
- Once you polished it,
You go in and you literally start peeling the layers back
With the acid until the number actually is visible.
- It's amazing how it just reappears,
The serial number.
- Sometimes it does,
Other-other times you might not be able
To restore any type of number at all.
- There was another way to determine
If they had found the murder weapon:
Mills would try to match the telltale markings
On the bullets that killed karlyn
To the gun from the river.
- These fine striations that you see
Are the equivalent of a human fingerprint.
- But there was no way the recovered weapon
Would ever fire again.
So mills removed its barrel, gently cleaned it,
And attached it to a working revolver
For a test firing.
He demonstrated that process with a similar revolver.
[gunshots firing]
- Mills was able to do six test firings
With the recovered gun.
Everything he found was added to the evidence.
Now, prosecutors would have to see if it would hold up
When the defense pointed the finger
At someone else in baltimore federal court.
- Coming up... The trial begins.
Could a major twist tip the case?
- It was right before christmas.
- So it was, like, an early christmas present?
- Yes. - And then, the verdict.
And the emotional fall out.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
Maliek kearney was arrested,
Charged with the murder of his wife, karlyn ramirez.
Detectives were convinced he drove 500 miles
To kill karlyn
While his mistress, delores delgado,
Used his phone and netflix account
To create a cover story.
Now, maliek was heading to trial while prosecutors
Would lay out the jaw-dropping plot.
But they knew the case hinged on a surprise witness.
Here's andrea canning with the conclusion of "the alibi".
- In August of 2018, maliek kearney's trial
Began in federal court in baltimore.
He was charged with interstate travel
For the purpose of domestic violence
Resulting in death.
The trial would be the culmination
Of a three-year investigation
That had gathered thousands of pieces
Of electronic and physical evidence
In an extraordinary forensic effort.
Prosecutors jim warwick and ken clark wanted jurors
To see maliek kearney not as a superstar army sergeant,
But as a killer; a soulless executioner
Who took karlyn's life
Because she wanted to divorce him.
And endangered his baby daughter
By leaving her in her dead mother's arms.
- He was used to getting what he wanted.
Relationships could end with maliek kearney,
But they had to end on his terms.
- The government showed jurors their digital evidence.
- There was a tremendous amount of electronic data
Including text messages and, um, photo messages
That she shared with mr. Kearney.
- Including photos delores had sent maliek
Of her car's odometer to demonstrate its driving range.
And critical correspondence about what they said
Was the murder weapon.
- One particular text message was very important.
He's test firing the gun and he texts her saying,
"this gun is so darn loud."
- This was part of the prosecutor's plan
To put delores' gun in maliek's hands.
Fbi firearms expert, brett mills, told jurors
About the results of that serial number restoration test
He did on the gun recovered from the river.
- I wound up pulling up all but one of the digits.
It wound up matching the bill of sale
For ms. Delgado's purchase of the revolver.
- Is that like a bingo moment for you
When you put this stuff to the test and it works?
- Finding out that the number I restored was basically
The exact same one that was on her bill of lading
Was-- that was awesome.
- And mills had something else to tell the jury.
Remember, he'd done a test firing like this one,
Through the barrel of the recovered gun.
- And what happened when you test fired those bullets
And compared them to those bullets from the crime scene?
- We did a comparison from the victim,
And we identified
Those three bullets as having been fired
From that revolver that was recovered from the creek.
- The prosecutors introduced that interrogation video
Of maliek kearney.
- We did that so that the jury would realize
That he was being untruthful.
- And there was something on the tape
That prosecutors wanted to be sure jurors noticed.
- Incredibly, stupidly, he never actually asked
How did my wife die?
- But the u.S. Attorneys knew their case would hinge
On whether jurors believed their star witness,
Delores delgado.
Delores had agreed to cooperate
Three months after her arrest.
- It was right before christmas, too.
- Oh, so it was, like, an early christmas present?
- Early christmas present for 2016, yes.
- Prosecutors argued that maliek's long-time mistress
Would do anything for him.
On the stand, she backed that up.
Delores testified about how she gave maliek her gun,
Her car, those gas cans,
Even packed him a sandwich for the drive
And provided him with that crucial electronic alibi.
- In your directive,
"delores delgado you said maliek wasn't home
"that night, was he?" and she answered, "no."
Was that the beginning of the end for his alibi?
- It is, uh, placing him at a location
Other than where his phone was was critical for this case.
- The prosecution rested,
The defense argued the government
Had proven nothing.
They argued someone else did it,
That maybe jurors should take a closer look
At the government's star witness,
Delores delgado.
After all, it was her gun
Disposed of by her ex-boyfriend that killed karlyn.
And with karlyn out of the way,
She'd have maliek all to herself.
Maliek's lawyer showed the jury a text
From delores to a friend, sent before karlyn's murder:
"crazy bitch is gonna be put out."
But the jurors didn't buy it.
They quickly found maliek kearney guilty.
Karlyn's mother had been in court every day.
- How did that feel? - Yes.
- Hearing those-- hearing guilty. - I was so glad.
I was so glad because with the guilty verdict,
I don't have to worry that I'm gonna have to have
Any dealings with him.
- At his sentencing, the judge called maliek kearney
A predator and sentenced him to life,
Plus another ten years on top of that.
Delores delgado was sentenced to 17 years
For her part in the crime.
- Why do you think maliek kearney
And delores delgado did this?
- I think maliek kearney killed karlyn
Because she was the first woman in his life
That was willing and able to stand up to him,
And he couldn't handle that.
As far as delores, she was a pawn to kearney,
That she would just kind of do whatever, um, he said.
- It was important to karlyn ramirez,
It was important to the baby,
It was important to the ramirez family
To bring them some measure of justice.
- With the trial behind them, the ramirez family
And karlyn's friends focused on raising vale
And teaching her about her mother.
♪ you are my sunshine my only sunshine ♪
- She sang to her when she bathed her,
She sang to her when she dressed her.
♪ my only sunshine ♪
- Vale could still hear that loving voice.
Karlyn's sister put a recording of her singing
Inside a teddy bear.
♪ you'll never know dear how much I love you ♪
- We are at this point the constant in her life.
We want her to feel protected, loved,
Everything I know her mom would have given her.
- That's all for this edition
Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm craig melvin, thank you for watching.