- I'm craig melvin and this is
"dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- I didn't wanna believe it.
My sister's dead, and I just--
Sorry.
I just kinda fell apart.
- Inside a silent home, an eerie scene:
Water pouring through the rooms.
- You heard the water running?
- Yes, it was just, like, gushing.
I saw her in the bathtub.
- Face-down. - Right.
- Drowned? No.
- She was badly beaten. - Mm-hmm.
- Lots of bruising.
- But clues would be hard to come by.
- Detective sanchez claims that by leaving her
In the water, that washed away any dna evidence.
- I thought it was over.
She was just dead, and nothing was ever
Gonna be done about it.
- Not if this family could help it.
- We started lookin'. Lookin' for what happened.
There was still water in the tub.
We pulled the drain and saw black scuff marks.
- A case that would see a key suspect skip town.
- I was like, "wow, he's goin' to alaska."
- But that's exactly what people do!
They get in trouble, they take off.
- And unearthed dark deeds from the past.
- She would wake up and he'd be standing over her
Watching her. - That's creepy.
- Sinister stories.
- She told me that he was following her.
- Yet justice was anything but certain.
- You want that smoking gun. - Uh-huh.
- And there's just not one.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to
"dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Cassy farrington dreamed of medical school.
A baby soon changed her focus, but not her drive.
She became a nurse, helping to save lives.
Yet no one could save cassy
From the person who took her life.
Unsatisfied with the investigation,
Her parents set out to solve this mystery,
Uncovering secrets police missed.
But could they catch their daughter's killer?
Here's keith morrison with "suspicion in silver city."
♪♪
- Out in the middle of new mexico, hours of
Desert highway from better known haunts like santa fe,
Is an old mining town called silver city.
And such an unusual place it is.
Quirky would be a good word.
- Very old west.
There's a lot of history in silver city.
- A vast, arid desert one way outta town,
Lush green mountains the other.
Fourth, fifth, sixth generation ranchers
And silver miners coexist with artists and hippies
And wide-eyed newcomers.
As we say, quirky.
- It's just lots of different perspectives,
Which is always fascinating.
- But of course, this is not a travelogue, no.
No, this is about what happened here.
Or more precisely, what happened in there,
Inside that little house, to her.
- She was beaten from head to toe.
She had bruises from top of her head down to her feet.
- Her name was cassy farrington,
And what was done to her in the bathtub
Of her own house was dreadful.
- It was also, for a very long time,
An unsolved mystery.
Cassy brooks was her name then.
Her mom and dad darlene and chuck.
- She was very, very outgoing,
Uh, driven, motivated.
- From when she was a little kid?
- Yes, from the time she was little.
Straight as, all the way through.
Perfect grades.
- Wow. - She worked hard.
- Cassy seemed to be good at pretty much everything.
- She lettered in five sports her senior year, too.
And she was in the national honor society,
Future business leaders of america.
- What sports did she play?
- Volleyball, basketball, softball, track, and poms.
- You must've been amazed. - She never quit.
I would have to make her take down time,
Take a weekend, a Saturday or something.
And I'd just tell her, "okay, you're not doin' anything,
"you're goin' to town with me."
"no, dad, I have this."
"nope, it's time for a break."
'cause she just pushed herself so hard.
- She aced high school in just three years,
Announced to her family that she was going to be a doctor.
And then, she was 16 years old.
She tried to hide what happened,
But of course, couldn't.
She was pregnant.
How'd you find out?
- We were at her basketball game, and she couldn't
Keep up with the other girls on the court.
She was slowin' down.
And she's still tryin' to hide her stomach, the baby.
And I just told my wife, I said,
"I know she's pregnant. Just take her to the doctor.
"make sure she's okay."
- Med school was not going to happen.
And then, said cassy's siblings elizabeth and beau,
Events kind of whizzed by.
- She had a baby, got out of the hospital,
Graduated high school, got married,
And moved out in one month.
- Wow. - Yeah.
- Super fast.
- But the marriage didn't last.
And by 22, cassy, now cassy farrington,
Was on her own in silver city
With two small kids, working as a nurse.
In fact, she moved into a house owned by one of
Her nursing professors-- this woman, charnelle lee.
Was she a good tenant? - Oh, yes-- like, the best.
- Spit spot, all the time. - Always.
- Hmm. - Yeah, she was awesome.
- Just around that time, charnelle was heading toward
A breakup with her husband, billy.
Billy was also a nurse, maybe a mentor of sorts
To cassy, and he seemed to be very fond of her.
Saw her a lot-- at work, around the house.
Then, pretty soon, a serious boyfriend came along
For cassy-- david berry.
- He was wonderful with the children, and that was
Something that she really liked about him.
- Cassy's friend and coworker, mary flores.
- They had a relationship that was fun.
They were just building a life together.
- Especially on the morning of March 24th, 2014.
Something billy lee had been trying to arrange for her
Came through.
- She had just been notified by billy lee--
- Yeah.
- That she was getting off of the med search floor,
Goin' to the er, the job she wanted.
- Cassy had just finished her graveyard shift
At this silver city hospital when she called her mom
To tell her the news.
That was the plum job, the one she always wanted.
- Yes.
- Then she went home to get the kids off to school
And have a nap before meeting her friend mary again later.
- I had heard that the shift was particularly difficult,
So I texted her and told her to go home and get some rest,
And then when she got up to get the kids from school,
We could all-- they could come by,
We'd go get ice cream or something.
- The afternoon came. No cassy.
- I understand you have kids, and, who knows.
I mean, a million things could've come up.
- And when cassy's parents got a call
From their grandson's school to say
She didn't show to pick him up,
They weren't really worried.
- I was hopin' that she'd just slept through her phone,
Because she'd worked graveyards the night before
At the hospital.
- But eventually, a request to charnelle, the landlord--
Could she check on cassy, please?
- So I drove down, um, from my house up at the hill.
- Up there. - Down-down this way,
And up here to go in and check on her
Through the back door.
- Which is where she noticed the strangest thing.
- I looked through the door, and there was water--
You could see through the door that there was just
Water rolling out.
And I knocked.
- Was it coming out under the door?
- No, it was just rolling out into the kitchen
Right there. - Just over there-- weird.
That would be very strange to see.
- Yeah, it was very strange.
And then I-- as soon as I saw that and I knocked,
And I called for cassy and nothing happened, and then--
So I had to go back up to the other house to get the key.
- And then just came right back here.
- Yeah, and then-then I unlocked the door.
- Dread gripped her then.
Something bad in there.
And where was cassy?
- A home full of water, an ominous sight.
But nothing compared to what came next.
Coming up--
- I've never seen anything like it.
It was heaped up, and the waves were just, like, cresting.
- That's a deep-- big, deep bathtub.
- Yeah, it was, like, cresting.
- You're a nurse, you've seen lots of things.
- Yeah.
- But that can't have been easy.
- No.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Something was clearly wrong inside this small home
On the outskirts of silver city, new mexico.
- Very strange.
- Charnelle lee, checking on her tenant,
Cassy farrington, opened the back door
And was confronted by water everywhere.
And you heard the water running?
- Yes, it was just, like, gushing.
- Coming from? - The bathtub.
- So she ran to the master bedroom,
Intending to turn off the water.
And there she was.
- I saw her in the bathtub.
It was like-- I've never seen anything like it.
It was heaped up, and the waves
Were just like cresting.
- That's a deep-- big, deep bathtub.
- Yeah, it was, like cresting.
And she was on the top. - Ooh, in the water.
- And she was-- yeah, she was upside down,
And-and it was-- - face-face-down.
- Right. - I mean, you're a nurse.
You've seen lots of things. - Yeah.
- But that can't have been easy.
- No.
Well, at the time, you know, you're just in,
Um, like, emergency mode.
You know, you just-- you don't even stop to think.
And so I just went and grabbed her,
And pulled her over to here, and turned her over
To see if there was something I could do to help her.
I mean, it was kind of horrifying.
Because she was still in her nursing scrubs.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then I checked to see if she was--
Had a pulse and she didn't.
- Nothing to do now but call 9-1-1.
- As charnelle talked to the 9-1-1 dispatcher,
She turned off the faucet, and...
- I heard water running in the extra bathroom.
- At the other end of the house?
- Yes.
- So charnelle ran back there and discovered
Water running in the other bathtub, too.
No flooding-- that drain was unplugged.
When she turned off the water,
Charnelle noticed that the towel rack was broken.
It was this bit right up here? - Yes.
- It was just yanked off the wall, then?
- Totally yanked off the wall. - Huh.
- And then, that's her--
- Like leaving a gaping hole or something.
- Right, yes.
- By then, the grant county sheriff's deputies were
Arriving, and they asked charnelle to leave.
What'd you see?
- I saw water on the ground on the north side
That had been coming out of the trailer.
It was still dripping, in fact.
- Lieutenant ray tavizon was the supervising chief deputy,
And while his lead detective, jose sanchez,
Took charge of the scene and the investigation,
Tavizon had a look around.
Any sign of forced entry anywhere?
- No, no. - No sorta footprints
Or tire marks or anything else?
- No, the-the way the ground is,
The gravel and stuff, there wasn't any.
- Hmm. And inside the house?
- We saw that there had been what looked like
Maybe a scuffle in that bathroom.
- What told you that?
- Well, there was a broken towel rack
Laying on the floor. - Hmm.
- There was a pair of glasses laying on the floor.
And then from there,
We went to the north end of the trailer.
Her bed was made, hadn't been slept in.
Her lunch box, her backpack, and her purse were
All on the foot of the bed.
- In other words, this was not a robbery.
- Apparently not, no, no.
- Didn't look like it. They would've taken that stuff.
- Correct.
There was a laptop in the bathroom.
- Uh-huh. - And then she was laying
On the floor. And at that point,
I went out and called my superiors
To inform them what we had.
- There is no getting over the phone call
Cassy's parents got then.
- All I remember is she started screaming, "no."
And then she told me they found cassy dead
In her home. And I just grabbed
My car keys and we were out the door and gone,
Headed to silver.
- What was that drive like?
- Seemed like it took forever, but it was
The fastest I'd ever made that trip.
- What goes through your minds?
What-what do you say to each other?
- We're just hoping that they're wrong.
- Yeah, hoping they were wrong.
- But, they arrived in time to watch
Cassy being carried away in a bodybag.
But then, traumatic as that was, as they stood
There, lieutenant tavizon approached them
And seemed to say it looked like she'd taken her own life.
- Lieutenant tavizon mentioned to you
How many times? Three times?
- Three times in that evening.
He brought up suicide and-and I said,
"she wasn't suicidal." - as if, what,
He's trying to persuade you that that's what--
- Yes.
- It wasn't a suggestion that was made.
It was a question that was asked.
- But sitting here all this time later,
Lieutenant tavizon told us
They must have misunderstood him.
You heard that they eventually decided that
What you had done was suggested it was suicide.
- Well, yeah, they were-- they were upset
Because I asked the question.
- Did you think so at the time?
- No.
- So what did the lieutenant think?
- A young lady just doesn't die, you know,
Just outta the blue.
We consider it a homicide until we're proven otherwise.
- Sure.
Of course, there was that other matter
That needed proving... Who did this?
- Coming up... After just a few hours
At the house, detectives leave the scene.
- How can you be done
With your investigation that quick?
- So the family decides
To do a little detecting of its own.
- There was still water in the tub.
We pulled the drain and we saw black scuff marks,
Like from shoes, rubber-- black rubber shoes.
- In the tub? - In the tub.
- And where did those scuff marks come from?
- From a struggle.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪ - it's a terrible thing to encounter.
Cop or not, so young, just 23 and a mother of two.
But there she was and what happened to her,
As the deputies could clearly see,
Was close up and intense, and murder.
Did you see any obvious injuries on her body?
- Well, there was some bruising on her arms.
There was some bruising around her neck.
- What was less clear, however, was
Exactly how her death was caused.
Although... Did it leap out at you, though,
And say, "somebody beat this girl or strangled her?"
- It was suspicious, very suspicious.
- Sort of thing could keep crime scene investigators
Busy all night, swiping for dna, taking fingerprints,
Collecting all the bits of evidence.
And yet-- and this was very strange--
After just a few hours, during which
They didn't do those things, the deputies left
And told cassy's family, "go on in if you want."
- Yeah, they released the house.
"you can go in."
- They-they-- and they put their hand to--
At the door. "you can all go in now."
- How can you be done
With your investigation that quick?
- Odd. Not exactly normal protocol,
Especially since once people start walking in and out,
The scene becomes highly compromised.
Did you go into the house that day?
- Yeah, when-when they said,
"you can go in the house," we went in.
- They were hoping to find some sign or clue
To explain what happened to cassy,
But they never imagined they'd find evidence
That the deputies just left behind.
- There was still water in the tub,
So we pulled the drain, and when we pulled the drain,
Then we saw black scuff marks,
Like from shoes, rubber-- black rubber shoes.
- In the tub? - In the tub.
- And where did those scuff marks come from?
- From a struggle.
- They also found cassy's glasses
And a hair ribbon near the broken towel rack.
No one had bothered
To collect them as evidence, so they did.
So strange to have the family
As a kind of csi group.
- Yeah, we gathered up the hair with a bobby pin,
And the ribbon, her glasses. We were gathering evidence.
- Did it seem shocking to you that you were
Gathering evidence as not-- and not the police?
- That was frustrating. - Yeah.
- Kind of like a tell right off the top
This isn't gonna necessarily go well.
Deputies did return to the house the next day,
Though, and discovered
The carpet in her bedroom was gone.
- Billy lee, the landlord, goes in
And starts ripping the carpet up.
- Wait a minute. - Yeah.
- You got a guy going in right after,
And the first thing he does is rip the carpet
Out of the master bedroom? - Well, it's soaking wet.
- And that finally seemed to get the attention
Of the lead investigator, sergeant sanchez,
Who by then already had a few reservations
About mr. Lee.
Why would he remove the carpet?
To get rid of evidence?
And what was his relationship with cassy?
- Mr. Lee told him that
He really didn't have any dealings with cassy.
Then later found out that she had applied for
A position in the-- in the emergency room,
And billy lee was the one that was helping her,
And that's what threw red flags up
For-for sanchez. - Why?
- Well, because he was thinking maybe he was there
To try to collect a favor
For-for getting her the job.
- Did cassy reject billy lee and pay a terrible price?
A few days after cassy's death, the investigating deputy
Set out to officially question billy,
But billy was gone,
Had quit his job, left town,
Was far, far away, in alaska, without his wife.
- I was like, "wow, he's going to alaska.
"maybe-maybe sanchez is on to something."
- That's exactly what people do, you know.
- Yeah. - They get in trouble,
They take off for alaska or someplace like that.
Or mexico or something. - Yeah, that's right.
- But, for whatever reason, no effort was made
To bring billy lee back to silver city
For questioning, and investigators quickly
Turned their attention to another man in cassy's life,
Her live-in boyfriend, david berry.
- His behavior the first few days after her-her death
Was very strange and peculiar to me.
- How? How so?
- I myself never really saw him shed a tear,
But I was suspect of
Everyone that had any contact with her.
I didn't trust anyone.
- At the funeral, cassy's casket was left open
To tell the world what was done to her,
Said her siblings.
- Her face was covered in bruises.
Her neck was a giant bruise and swollen.
Her hands were black.
- But who had done it? For months,
All anyone could do was speculate.
- I thought it was over.
I thought she was just dead and-and that was it,
And nothing was ever gonna be done about it.
- At the sheriff's office, investigative supervisor tavizon
Questioned his deputy, sanchez.
Why hadn't he even dusted for fingerprints?
- He says, "no," he said, "it's too clean."
I-- it-- to him, it wasn't anything that would've been
Helpful to the-- to the investigation.
- Kind of an assumption there, huh?
- Well, I guess I would-- that's what you could call it.
- What's the old expression,
To assume makes an ass out of you and me?
- It makes both-- yeah, exactly.
- So with zero physical evidence to point to anyone,
The case of the murder in the bathtub went cold.
Until... Until six months later,
A particular friend, once suddenly gone,
Just as suddenly reappeared.
Time for a pertinent question or two.
- Coming up...
- Billy lee back from alaska, admitting
He and cassy were close.
- But what will he say to this?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
In the aftermath of cassy farrington's murder,
Investigators wondered if her landlord's husband,
Billy lee, was keeping secrets.
Why would he rip up the carpet at the crime scene,
Then hightail it to alaska?
Now, billy was back, ready to face some tough questions.
And nobody wanted answers more than cassy's family.
Once again, here's keith morrison
With "suspicion in silver city."
- Cassy farrington's parents, chuck and darlene brooks,
Were in pain-- deep, endless, searing pain.
About cassy's murder, of course, but also
About the long wait for justice.
That period of waiting? - Hard.
- Very difficult. Difficult on us, between us.
- Yes. - How come?
- I was crying all the time.
- Few things eat at a marriage quite like grief.
Even the best marriages.
- All she wanted to talk about was cassy's case.
- And when months went by with no arrest...
- And I finally got to the point where I just told her,
"I can't do this anymore." I thought about it, too,
But I didn't wanna talk about it all evening with her.
- But the topic was unavoidable.
Any new lead or development had to be discussed.
The medical examiner's report, for instance.
That didn't come out for four months.
And when it finally did, it was vague.
- It was homicide by undetermined means.
- Undetermined means?
You saw bruises all over her body,
And apparent strangulation?
- And they wouldn't classify it as
Strangulation was the cause of death.
Multiple mechanisms is what caused the death.
- They knew that if the case ever went to trial,
That vagueness could be a problem.
That is, if it went to trial,
Because the investigation seemed to be going nowhere.
The family found things out,
Like how boyfriend david had a solid alibi.
So why wasn't he officially cleared?
Why did darlene seem to be a more active investigator
Than the deputy? - She drove me nuts,
Tryin' to play crime scene investigator.
But it also helped me to push the cops.
- Too hard, maybe?
- Detective sanchez said, you know, "I'm tired of
"mrs. Brooks calling me all hours of the night."
- But they kept pushing anyway.
- I asked, "well, did you get billy lee down here
"from alaska and have him do his polygraph?"
He said yes.
- Remember, billy lee lived on the same property
As cassy, and was married to her landlord.
And hours after the murder,
He ripped out cassy's bedroom carpet,
And then decamped for alaska.
The question was, why?
Months after he left, billy returned.
- And sergeant sanchez finally had his chance
To question him.
- But curiously, sanchez did not ask why
Billy removed the carpet,
Or why he suddenly took off for alaska.
But he did ask about the nature of
Billy's relationship with cassy.
- Really?
Back at the crime scene, day of the murder,
At least as sanchez told his supervisor,
Billy claimed to barely know cassy.
Now they were pretty close.
Too close?
Billy told the detective he had an alibi.
He and a buddy were out in the country
Working on his cabin.
- But of course, as any detective could tell you,
People lie all the time about alibis.
Sanchez asked billy to take a polygraph.
- The results were inconclusive.
Not so good for billy.
And that alibi just kinda sat there unchecked.
Until finally, a year later, lieutenant tavizon himself
Did some checking and confirmed that billy's alibi
Was absolutely solid.
Though, when we tracked him down, he said this.
- They never did, in my mind, ever really
Truly suspect me, because I had such an alibi.
- I hate to say it,
But I've looked at what they were sayin'.
You were their number one person of interest.
At least, one investigator's
Number one person of interest.
- They never told me that.
- Billy also found any suggestion he was
Too close to cassy particularly offensive.
- Absolutely never even a thought in my mind
To have had a relationship with cassy.
Not even a little bit.
Treated her like a daughter.
- So why take off for alaska after the murder?
- I had my alaska license since the day
I got outta nursin' school.
I love alaska, been up there multiple times.
Wanted to live there.
Got a lucrative job offer up there, so I took it,
Not even thinkin' of-- - that it would look bad.
- Yeah. Why would it look bad?
- And he felt the same about that carpet he ripped up
In cassy's bedroom.
- I didn't know what to do, so I call one of those
Professional carpet cleaner guys to come in to clean it.
He says, "I can get all the water out of it,
"but it's still gonna have a lotta moisture.
"so you need to take this one up, and lay it out to dry."
So that's why we took it out.
- There were some people who thought,
"billy took that outta there
"because billy didn't want evidence to be found."
- Well, what kinda evidence woulda been in the carpet
More than woulda been somewhere else?
- You knew that question was being asked about you.
- After the fact. - Yeah.
- Yeah, oh, sanchez, he said,
"well, why did you take the carpet out?"
- I says, "uh, 'cause you released the place
"and we needed to save that flooring."
- But what about that polygraph?
Why that inconclusive result?
- I can tell you why.
They said, "have you ever been in the house?"
- Uh-huh. - I said, "yes."
And she kinda raised her eyebrows when that happened,
'cause that was our rental house.
Of course I've been in the house.
Multiple times.
- Maybe they should've asked cassy's family,
Who didn't for a minute suspect billy lee.
They would've told the deputies it was
Long past time to focus on someone new.
And who could that be?
The person the family had suspected all along.
- He did it. He killed her.
We know he did.
- Coming up...
- Didn't you wanna call the police?
- Yes, but I felt like if I did anything,
He would hurt her.
- Disturbing stories about one of the men
In cassy's life. - She would wake up
And he'd be in the dark standing over her watching her.
- That's creepy.
- And then, a new theory of the case.
- He said a cop did this, that this had been done
By someone who had been trained in police tactics.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- A dreadful whispered suspicion was making
Its corrosive way around silver city, new mexico.
That somehow, cops were protecting cops.
The blue code, they called it.
- At first, I didn't wanna believe it, but as time went on,
It became more apparent that it seemed that way.
- Why?
Maybe because the investigation
Of cassy farrington's murder had been
Going nowhere for so long,
Even while the family kept trying to tell the detective,
Sanchez, that a particular silver city cop
Killed cassy.
But the detective hadn't done a thing about it.
He never questioned him?
- Uh-uh, and I asked him that.
And he said he was trying to eliminate everyone else
That could be possibly a suspect,
And then he was gonna talk to him.
- But sanchez's supervisor, lieutenant tavizon,
Had already confirmed billy lee's alibi.
Boyfriend david's, too. - We know he was at work.
He left at 5:00 in the morning to go to work
In deming, and all that was verified.
- And still nothing happened.
Till one day, months after the murder,
The anger cassy's family was feeling boiled over.
- I called the da's office, asked for a meeting
To complain about the sheriff's department.
- And complain he did.
Forcefully, said then chief deputy district attorney
George zsoka.
- People got a little hot under the collar.
The-the sheriff, the undersheriff were there.
- Uh-huh.
- And lieutenant tavizon was also there.
- He and the others had to admit that
Lead detective jose sanchez had made mistakes.
Many mistakes.
- I had no reason to doubt him, but I should have.
I should've micromanaged him.
- So maybe the whispers about some blue code
Were understandable, said deputy tavizon.
Just not true.
- We do not protect officers.
If an officer makes a mistake or commits a crime,
We treat them just as we would any other person.
- The real reason behind a stalled investigation?
- Just, um, laziness.
- The decision was swift, sanchez was off the case.
And this ranch owner and veteran detective stepped in.
- I came in one day and I was told, "hey, we're goin'
"to assign you to the-- to the cassy farrington case."
- Sergeant jess watkins.
"see what you can find," they told him.
- First thing I did was sit down, read through
All the interviews, read through all the reports.
- And then he listened as cassy's family told him
About the city police officer who had never even
Been questioned about the murder.
- I knew it was farrington that did it.
- Brad farrington, cassy's estranged husband.
When cassy died, the two had been separated
For more than a year.
They were going through a nasty custody battle.
- As soon as we found out she was dead,
We all thought it was him.
- Cassy's family told detective watkins that
Cassy had been living in fear of brad for years
And wasn't shy about saying so.
- He had her convinced he was gonna kill her.
- Watkins listened to their stories, many stories.
One, when cassy's mom was right there, watching.
- He has her against the wall on her side,
But he has her in a headlock.
- Didn't you wanna call the police?
- Yes, but I felt like if I did anything
He would hurt her.
- And she would wake up during the night
And he'd be in the dark
Standing over her, watching her.
- That's creepy. - Yeah.
That is the first time she said,
"he's going to kill me."
- And she really believed this?
- Yes. - The first time.
- Mm-hmm. - How many times?
- Oh, she told me at least three times.
- And then there was what brad did to the kids--
Binding their hands and feet together,
Even taping the baby's mouth.
Cassy told her mom about it, said he called it a game.
They were relieved when the couple finally split,
And they liked her new boyfriend, david berry.
- I thought when she moved in with david that maybe
She'd be more safe, could get on with life.
- The kids loved him. - Mm-hmm.
- Well, triston actually started calling him
"daddy david," which cassy would be like,
"you can't call him that. Your dad's gonna get mad."
- And sure enough, said cassy's sister, he did.
- He expressed to cassy that he didn't like it,
That the kids better not call him that.
- He blamed cassy for it. - Yeah.
- And a few weeks before cassy's death,
She told her parents son triston came home
From a visit with brad utterly terrified.
- I ask him, "what's wrong triston?"
He says, "daddy said he's gonna kill
"mommy and david." he was five years old.
I don't think a five year-old makes that up.
- By then, brad was no longer on the police force
And things weren't going so well for him.
When sergeant watkins finished reviewing it all,
The police reports, his own interviews,
What he felt was something like amazement.
- Wow, nobody in this world is pointed out
As having any reason to want to harm her
Other than brad.
- As long as she was alive, cassy had the kids,
And a new man, and a great job.
And he was losing everything.
- He no longer working at the police department.
You know, they hadn't reached any agreements
On these kids. I think that was his way
To take what he could from her.
To say, "hey, look, those kids are gonna--
"they're not gonna have you."
- Was watkins right? We asked to hear
The farrington side of the story
From brad or his family or both.
We asked multiple times, but they told us
They didn't want to be interviewed.
Anyway, for sergeant watkins, the evidence was
Too compelling to ignore, especially what came
Right outta the autopsy.
Photos, which the detective said to the prosecutor,
Told an unmistakable story.
- He said, a cop did this. That this had been done
By someone who had been trained in
Police defensive tactics.
- What'd you think when you heard that?
- Well, I thought, uh, we now have
The evidence we need to charge bradley farrington.
- Five weeks after sergeant watkins took over
The case, and a year and a half after cassy was killed,
Law enforcement tracked down brad farrington
In tucson, arizona, where he had taken the children,
And they arrested him and charged him
With first degree murder. Just one nagging worry:
There was no evidence at all
To put brad at the murder scene.
And without that, odds of conviction weren't good.
- I was scared that he was gonna get off.
- Coming up...
At trial, the defense comes out swinging.
- It will be clear that other people had access,
Motive, and ability to complete this crime.
- What will the jury think?
- Oh, I was so nervous.
I just paced up and down the halls, in and out.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
It was no secret darlene and chuck brooks believed
Brad farrington killed their daughter cassy.
Now, more than a year later,
They hoped a jury would agree.
Brad was about to stand trial for murder,
And his relationship with cassy would take center stage,
But the defense had a surprise in store,
A star witness with an unexpected revelation.
Here's keith morrison with the conclusion
Of "suspicion in silver city."
- It was the day the brooks family feared
They'd never see,
Brad farrington on trial for murdering cassy.
- I never thought we would get this far.
- Too far? The prosecutor's opening
Argument was a warning to the jury.
"we don't have a lot."
- No one saw the defendant enter
Cassy farrington's home.
No one saw the defendant strangle her.
- No, and there was absolutely no evidence
From the crime scene to help their case.
The prosecution didn't even call the now retired
Detective jose sanchez as a witness.
- What we were rather brief on was the scene.
- That was a weakness, actually.
- Well, I don't know if I would call it
A weakness, uh, but it wasn't a strength.
- You should be in the diplomatic corps.
- Well, there just, uh, there just wasn't anything
There that was terribly useful, so we showed the scene
So the jury could see, you know,
"this is where it happened."
- It was unilluminating, and that was a problem,
Until the prosecutor argued for the right to present
Hearsay evidence, normally disallowed,
And he won.
- Brad was being verbally and physically abusive
Toward her.
- So one by one, cassy's friends repeated
Stories cassy told them about her fear of brad.
- There would be times where he-- she felt like
He was following her.
- And then cassy's mom told the jury
What she saw when brad was with cassy.
- And he had her in the choke hold on the bed.
- When you say a choke hold, can you describe for us
Just how he was holding her?
- His arm was up on her neck, like this.
He had her neck.
- To frighten, control-- darlene wasn't sure.
But shortly before she died, said her mom,
Cassy confessed there was another reason, too.
- He liked to choke her during sex.
- How did that relate to murder?
Remember, the medical examiner was vague about
The cause of death, but not this guy.
Dr. Michael hunter, then chief medical examiner
In san francisco.
- We were seeing bleeding
Within, uh, some of the muscles.
- He made it crystal clear to the jury
That cassy's killer strangled her.
- Once you see injuries to the neck,
Petechial hemorrhages, evidence of assault, um, that
You can form an opinion and I have formed an opinion
That this represents strangulation.
- But why should the jury decide brad did that?
- He was in the academy from January 2006--
- This is ed reynolds, retired silver city
Police chief, and also once
Brad's police academy instructor.
The man who taught him the choke hold.
- [indistinct] and you pull back.
- So eerily similar to what darlene demonstrated.
- His arm was up on her neck, like this.
- All of which was interesting, said
Defense attorney nathan gonzales, but did not
Prove that brad was the killer.
In fact, he told the jury, they arrested the wrong man.
- It will be clear that other people had access,
Motive, and ability to complete this crime.
- But their star witness to drive that point home
Was none other than retired grant county deputy
Jose sanchez, and what he said on the stand...
Oh, my.
- Mr. Farrington, a suspect in your--
In your investigation? - No, he was not.
Not my suspect, no.
- Now that was shocking, because sanchez had told
Cassy's parents that brad was a suspect.
- He believed there was an altercation, a fight,
And that he killed her, and then took her
And put her in the other tub.
He told us that the day after her death.
- This is sanchez? - This is what sanchez said.
- Bur now, in court, sanchez told a different story
Altogether, which if the jury believed it,
Could undermine the prosecution's entire case.
- I was focused already on--
- Mr. Lee. - Mr. Lee.
- Mr. Billy lee.
- Why did you choose to focus on mr. Lee?
- There was just too many discrepancies.
- Remember, billy was cleared, had a solid alibi.
But now the defense was using sanchez
To raise doubt about who the real killer was.
- There's a lot of smoke here, but, um, no-no fire.
- Muddles it up.
- And that I believe was the defense strategy,
That if you have enough of that, then
The jury won't see through it.
- The jury retired to consider.
- Oh, I was so nervous.
I just paced up and down the halls, in and out.
- Four hours later they were called back into court.
- Has the jury reached a verdict?
- We have, your honor.
- Okay, and the defendant shall please rise.
We find the defendant, bradley farrington,
Guilty of first degree murder.
- When they announced their verdict?
- There was a lot of tears, lot of sighs of relief.
One of the deputy attorneys says, "thank you
"for not giving up. Thank you for pushing."
And I said, "how could I? It was my little girl."
- Brad farrington was sentenced to life.
No parole for at least 30 years.
Cassy is but a memory now, and so her parents remember
Their way through their pain to the good in her life.
The kids live with brad's family now,
And when we last spoke to chuck and darlene,
Their one hope was to see their grandchildren again.
- They don't allow us to see or talk to 'em.
- Anything you'd wanna say to them if you could?
- That we love 'em.
- That their mama loved 'em, unconditionally.
- That's all for this edition
Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.