[gunshot]
We don't see murders like this very often in Dallas, Texas.
[police siren]
[Eric Barnes] It was pretty shocking.
[Mike Braun] How did this young, beautiful,
pediatric dentist come to be murdered
in the safe gated parking garage
of the building where she lived?
We have two suspects and they're both obviously lying.
[Barnes] I had to find concrete evidence
to go along with the tidbits of truth they provided.
Things didn't happen the way they said that it happened.
[gunshot]
[narrator] Every day in North America
dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case,
detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline.
The minutes and hours containing evidence
that can help unlock the mystery
and catch the killer.
Dallas, Texas, heart of the Lone Star State,
and a major hub for young professionals
looking to kickstart their careers.
Dallas is a Texas city of opportunity.
It's got 41 colleges,
it attracts a young crowd.
People who are looking to get their careers going,
to find their place in the world.
Like any city with a lot of wealth and a lot of,
with a lot of contrast between wealth and poverty,
there's a lot of crime.
There are certainly parts of town
where you don't wanna wonder around alone,
but sometimes even being in the right part of town can be dangerous.
[narrator] At 7:44 on the night of September 2nd,
Dallas Police receive a 9-11 call.
[phone ringing]
[police siren]
The caller had exited the elevator
going to the parking garage,
he gets to the parking level...
-[woman screaming] -[gunshot]
[Barnes] He sees a female laying in a pool of blood.
He sees a black Jeep drive past him very fast.
[tires screeching]
He's very frightened,
and he decides to run to his car and get out of there.
[narrator] Detective Eric Barnes responds to the call.
He's a three-year veteran of the Dallas Homicide Unit.
[Barnes] When I walk into the crime scene,
I see a white Toyota Camry
and I see a female victim
laying next to the white Toyota Camry in a pool of blood.
The victim is face up,
and it appears that she's in the medical profession
because she's wearing scrubs.
A cellphone is on the ground next to her.
The victim's purse was missing,
so, it made me think that it might have been robbery.
[narrator] Police find no identification on the victim,
so they run the plates on the nearby Camry
hoping its registration reveals her name.
[Barnes] The victim is named Kendra Hatcher,
she's a pediatric dentist and she's 35 years old.
[narrator] Dr. Kendra Hatcher lived in Parkdale's
upscale 27-story condo above the garage.
It appears that she had just arrived home when she was killed.
[Barnes] We see a fired cartridge casing
inside Dr. Hatcher's vehicle.
We collect the casing,
and we send it off to the firearms examination team
to determine if that firearm was used in another crime.
Very close to her body is a flattened bullet fragment.
It appeared to be fired from close range,
and based on the hit in the concrete,
the bullet just kind of fragmented and broke apart.
Next to the fragment is a magazine
that appeared to fall out of a handgun,
and it looked like it was a 40-caliber
Smith & Wesson magazine.
She had one wound at the back of her head
and another wound directly underneath her chin.
In combination with the flattened round that was fired,
it appeared that she was shot in the top of the head
and that the bullet came out through her chin
and then struck the pavement at close range.
[narrator] Detectives now have enough evidence
to form their first impression of what may have happened.
[Barnes] I think she had just opened her car door up,
and she was gathering her things,
and whenever she turned around to close her car door,
I think that's when she saw the shooter.
Once the killer approached at gunpoint,
I think she kinda cowered down
in kinda, you know, an attempt to give up
and say, "Hey, whatever you want, take it."
And by kneeling down,
the shooter shot her from behind with one shot.
[gunshot]
[Barnes] And the shooter left with the victim's purse.
I see about 175 to 200 murders a year in Dallas, Texas.
We don't see murders like this very often.
This was a precise shot and it was meant to kill.
This just doesn't happen in uptown Dallas.
It doesn't happen to people like Dr. Hatcher.
[narrator] To solve the murder,
Detective Barnes must piece together
the last 24 hours of Dr. Kendra Hatcher's life.
[slow scream]
At this point in the investigation,
I have a witness that saw a vehicle
at the time of the murder at 7:44 p.m.,
but that's it.
[narrator] Detectives hope security cameras
may have captured what happened before the dentist was attacked.
[Barnes] With it being a newer building,
I thought the cameras would be pretty, pretty modern,
and that we may get a good glimpse of our suspect
and also our suspect vehicle.
When we looked at the surveillance video...
...we were able to determine
that a black Jeep pulls into the parking garage,
and sits there waiting on our victim.
While the Jeep is waiting,
we get a good angle of the driver,
and it looks like, you can definitely tell it's a female,
uh, younger brunette female.
[narrator] But no license plate is ever visible.
Twenty-nine minutes later, Dr. Hatcher arrived
into a secure area of the parking garage
and parked in her parking spot.
In the surveillance video,
you see a dark silhouette walk over towards her vehicle.
We see the shooter get out of the car,
so, he had to be lying down in the backseat
because he got out and he was not seen on any other footage.
At 7:42 p.m.,
the actual confrontation and murder takes place
even though you can't see it.
[gunshot]
And then the shooter runs back to the vehicle
and the Jeep takes off.
[narrator] Detective Barnes now knows
there are two perpetrators involved.
A female driver,
and a male shooter.
From what I've seen on the footage now,
it was very obvious to me
that this wasn't just a crime of opportunity.
There was plenty of people that they could have robbed,
but they were seeking out Dr. Hatcher,
and it was intentional.
The shooter shot her from behind...
[gunshot]
[Barnes] ...with one shot.
[narrator] Now with all the information in hand,
Detective Barnes steels himself
for the worst part of his job,
reaching out to the victim's parents.
Calling Dr. Hatcher's family was very difficult.
I could that this was the last call
that they were expecting to get.
[narrator] Through tears, Kendra's mom explains
that her daughter wasn't just successful,
she was also generous.
Kendra Hatcher worked at Smile Zone,
which provided free dental care
for some who couldn't afford it.
It was in a not exactly great part of town,
but she was somebody who gave of herself to her patients,
her pediatric patients who loved her.
She had a way with children.
Somebody at the top of her young life,
at the top her game.
Kendra's mom was very torn apart,
and she had a hard time making sense
out of why someone would wanna do this to Kendra.
[narrator] Detectives have the same question.
Why was Kendra Hatcher gunned down in her garage?
Police believe the unidentified driver
of the black Jeep has the answer.
So, they release a video still of her to the media
hoping someone from the public
recognizes her and comes forward.
[Braun] Kendra's murder throws Dallas media
into a frenzy of coverage.
Not only the local media,
but national media flocks to town.
How did this young, beautiful pediatric dentist
come to be murdered in the safe gated
parking garage of the building where she lived?
[narrator] Detective Barnes doesn't have to look far for his first lead.
Less than 24 hours after Kendra Hatcher's murder,
her brother Neil steps forward to offer assistance.
Neil shifted into, uh, protector mode.
Someone did something very bad to his sister,
and he wanted to make sure that he helped us
with finding out everything we could find out,
and Kendra's brother thinks it's very important
that we speak with Dr. Ricardo Paniagua
who was her current boyfriend.
[narrator] Dr. Ricardo Paniagua
is an up and coming dermatologist.
He and Kendra have been dating for about six months.
The vast number of, uh, female homicides
in the United States, uh, involve intimate partners,
whether current or former.
So, investigators always prioritize
a boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, mother.
[narrator] Dr. Ricardo Paniagua
says he wants to help in any way he can,
but his behavior tells investigators something different.
Ricardo was acting very nervous,
and just very, very anxious,
and it was an immediate sign to me that,
you know, I needed to dig a little deeper to find out
what was going on with him,
and what he was doing during the time of the murder.
[narrator] So, Detective Barnes decides to record the interview,
but the doctor objects.
He was really concerned about,
uh, recording the interview...
...and he didn't want me to look at his cellphone.
That was pretty suspicious to me.
Most people that are involved in crimes
don't want the police looking through their phone.
[Keira Stockdale] Dr. Richard Paniagua
is reluctant to have police look at his cellphone,
which begs the question, "What is he trying to hide?
Why would he not volunteer willingly
all the information he has to try and solve this homicide?"
[narrator] Detectives wonder if Dr. Paniagua
is responsible for his girlfriend's murder.
[gunshot]
Could this guy kill someone that he was so in love with?
[narrator] A day after 35-year-old dentist
Kendra Hatcher is gunned down in her parking garage,
detectives suspect her boyfriend,
Dr. Ricardo Paniagua, may be responsible.
Ricardo's behavior is pretty suspicious.
He doesn't wanna turn over his phone,
and the police have questions for him.
Could he really have killed Dr. Hatcher, his girlfriend?
[Barnes] I really needed Ricardo to cooperate,
and at this point in the case,
I, basically, had a matter of fact conversation with him
letting him know where the investigation stood
and that the last thing that he wanted
was not to cooperate.
[narrator] Ricardo reluctantly agrees to be recorded,
so Barnes can start the interview.
[Barnes] Dr. Paniagua tells me
that him and Kendra kind of fell in love pretty fast.
They had a deep chemistry with each other,
and it was a relationship
that just kinda took flight as soon as they started dating.
[narrator] On the same day Kendra was killed,
the couple was prepping for a trip.
[Barnes] They were planning on going on a vacation
the very next day to Cancun.
Kendra was on her way home from work,
and she stopped by a friend's house
to pick-up an underwater camera to take on their vacation.
[narrator] Twenty-five minutes later,
Ricardo pings her again.
Ricardo was texting her trying to figure out
what time she thought she would be home
so they could go out and have a nice dinner
before their vacation.
[narrator] According to Ricardo,
Kendra didn't show up for dinner.
Instead, he grabbed takeout from a place
around the corner from her building.
[Barnes] Nine minutes later,
Dr. Paniagua is standing outside her parking garage
with takeout food,
and he's trying to get in contact with Dr. Hatcher,
but she doesn't answer his call.
[police siren]
[Barnes] He tells me that he sees
police cars and fire trucks surrounding the building,
and he was clueless as to anything happening to her.
I think my true suspicion with him
was the location.
Just seemed really convenient that he would be at the location
just a few feet away from where she was murdered
during the time she was murdered.
[narrator] Is Kendra Hatcher's boyfriend telling the truth
or has he contrived an alibi
to explain his presence at the crime scene?
Investigators need Ricardo's phone to confirm his story.
[Barnes] I get Ricardo to hand over his cellphone
by letting him know that if he doesn't cooperate,
it's just gonna stall the investigation.
[narrator] Ricardo's texts with Kendra
provide a snapshot of her activities on the day she was killed.
In the morning she's at a tanning booth.
Then works from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m...
At 7:18, she picks up the underwater camera
for their upcoming vacation...
...just as Ricardo had said.
[Barnes] At 7:35 p.m.,
Ricardo received his last text from Kendra.
She had left work, and she had picked up the underwater camera,
and she was on her way to her apartment.
After 7:55 p.m.,
Ricardo is returning back to the apartment building with takeout food.
[police siren]
[Barnes] That's when he sees police cars and fire trucks
surrounding the building.
He decides to send Kendra a text message
to let her know that she can't park at that spot.
And she never responds.
[narrator] The texts confirmed Ricardo's last messages with Kendra
But Detective Barnes still needs to corroborate
Ricardo's alibi with one more source.
[Barnes] We checked with the restaurant,
Ricardo's alibi checked out.
[narrator] With his alibi confirmed,
detectives are certain that even though Ricardo
was outside the crime scene just after Kendra was shot,
he could not have been the shooter.
[gunshot]
[Barnes] At this point in the investigation,
Ricardo's not looking like the person
that I believe that killed Kendra Hatcher.
He was just a hurt boyfriend,
and he was dealing with the loss of someone close to him.
[narrator] Kendra' grieving boyfriend is free to go,
and the investigation is back to square one.
But not for long.
So, the next day after the media runs the picture of the Jeep,
the police catch a break.
I received a phone call from Jose Luis-Ortiz
who's a mechanic in the Dallas area,
and Jose recognizes his Jeep
from the still photograph we released to the news
on the day prior.
Jose tells us that he let a friend of his
borrow his Jeep the day before.
Jose identified his friend
as Brenda Delgado.
Jose said that he grew up with Brenda,
and Jose's sister and Brenda were best friends.
[narrator] When police run a background check on Brenda Delgado,
her driver's license picture appears to match the driver.
Brenda Delgado was of Mexican decent.
She had moved with her family to Dallas for a better life.
She was going to dental hygiene school,
and by all accounts she was good at it.
[Barnes] Jose loaned his vehicle to Brenda,
and he continued to work at his mechanic shop for most of the day,
and that evening he met Brenda
to have dinner at a nearby restaurant.
We bring Brenda Delgado in for questioning,
and as soon as I meet her,
my first impression of Brenda
is she's very mild, meek mannered,
and she appears to be very calm
considering that she's at a Dallas Police headquarters
being questioned on a homicide.
Brenda told me that her car was overheating,
so, she decided to take it to her friend's mechanic shop,
and she asked to borrow his Jeep
because she had to study for her finals.
I ask her, "How does this Jeep end up in the parking garage
during the time of the murder?"
More importantly, "Who's driving it?"
She says, "Yeah, I had the Jeep,
but I loaned it to my friend Crystal Cortes
who needed it to take her son to school the next day."
Brenda says she has no idea
what Crystal did with the vehicle that night,
but she returned it the next day.
[Barnes] I asked Brenda what she was doing
around 7:44 p.m. during the time of the murder.
Brenda tells me that she's having dinner
at a nearby restaurant with Jose,
which matches his story.
Brenda then offered to provide me with proof
that she was at the restaurant.
She opens up her purse and hands me a receipt
from her dinner at the time of the murder.
There was nothing unbelievable about her story.
Her alibi checked out.
[narrator] Closer inspection of the surveillance video
confirms it's not Brenda behind the wheel.
So, her alibi checks out and she's let go.
So, now the hammer comes down on Crystal Cortes
because she is tied to that car and the murder scene.
[Barnes] At this point I need to speak with Crystal
to figure out what she was doing at the parking garage.
[narrator] Brenda provides a phone number
and a home address for Crystal Cortes.
[Barnes] I ran a criminal check on Crystal,
and it came back clear, she had no criminal history.
So, now we bring Crystal in.
[Harry Hunsicker] Crystal's 22 years old,
she has a six-year-old son,
and she lives at home with her grandmother.
She's a single mom, she's struggling financially.
[Barnes] When I first meet Crystal,
Crystal is very nonchalant, almost very childlike.
Uh, she doesn't seem to be bothered
that she's being questioned about a murder.
I ask Crystal if she was anywhere near
the parking garage in question.
Crystal told me that she was passing through
the Downtown area looking for a parking spot.
She wanted to park in that specific parking garage
because she wanted to take her son to go play in a nearby park.
Now I've been able to physically get her
to admit that she was in the parking garage
and inside the same vehicle
that we believe was used in the murder.
[narrator] Crystal Cortes admits she drove into that garage,
but nothing else in her story seems to check out.
I believe I was getting about 10% truth from her
because the surveillance video shows that the shooter
got out of the backseat of the car that she was driving.
There was no six-year-old kid in that car.
And now I know that she's lying.
[narrator] Dallas Police believe
23-year-old single mother Crystal Cortes
is lying about not being the getaway driver for a murderer.
The gunman is seen leaving Crystal's black Jeep
seconds before he shoots
Dr. Kendra Hatcher in her parking garage.
So, I start challenging Crystal's stories.
Who, specifically, got out of her car
inside the parking garage?
[narrator] Crystal gives a surprising answer.
Crystal claims that she was carjacked.
Which is not entirely unheard of in Dallas.
[Barnes] Crystal told me that she was at a light
prior to entering the parking garage
and someone forced their way into her vehicle at gunpoint
and told her to drive to the parking garage.
[narrator] She claims it was Kendra Hatcher's killer
and he threatened to kill Crystal, too, if she didn't comply.
It's a terrifying story.
But detective Barnes isn't convinced.
We do have carjackings that occur in the city.
But they're normally not
carjackings for older model Jeep Cherokees.
And, after looking at the surveillance footage,
Crystal had every option to drive away
as soon as the shooter got out of the vehicle.
But she didn't drive away.
She waited for him to get back in.
And carjackings just don't happen like that.
[narrator] Detective Barnes needs to find a way
to get Crystal to tell the truth.
[Stockdale] Police are limited in what they can do.
How can we compel this person
to provide information that's going to be helpful
and maybe there's something in it for them if they do.
[Barnes] I reminded her that she didn't want to look like a liar.
And that telling the truth was very important to her
and it was very important to how the rest of the night was gonna play out.
I just kind of used the surveillance footage
to play against her story and kind of refresh her memory
that, "Things didn't happen the way that you said they happened."
And, so, she slowly started giving little nuggets of truth.
Crystal has, basically,
put herself in the middle of a murder.
And she's an accessory to the murder.
And, so, being that she was involved,
we charged her with murder.
[narrator] With Crystal now facing a possible death sentence in Texas,
she offers details on the shooter
in the hopes for leniency.
[Barnes] Crystal describes him being a black male.
And she describes his hair as being dreadlocks.
And that his name is Lamar.
[narrator] Crystal claims she doesn't know
Lamar's last name or his whereabouts.
So detectives look to her phone to confirm her story.
[Barnes] We got a search warrant for Crystal's phone.
Our hopes were that we may be able to find numbers
that link her phone back to the gunman's phone.
[narrator] As they search, on recurring phone number stands out.
We were finally able to locate a number
that we think belongs to the gunman.
They think they have the right phone number,
but now they need to track it
to the person to whom it belongs.
So, the bring in the FBI.
[narrator] Dallas FBI Taskforce Detective Lee Thompson
is assigned to assist the investigation.
Detective Barnes secured a warrant for the location
of the phone number in question.
We were tracking the phone in the southern part of Dallas
to an apartment complex there.
You're trying to locate someone that you just have a vague description of
and you're looking for the movement of the phone to follow
and hope the phone is in the possession of your suspect.
[narrator] Investigators stake out the apartment complex
where the suspect's phone is located.
[Thompson] We're sitting at the apartment complex.
There's three or four of us that have it surrounded
and we're waiting on the phone to move.
We're there for maybe an hour
before the phone started moving.
It just so happened I'm in the spot
where the suspect walks out of the building.
He gets into the vehicle and leaves the apartment complex
so we follow him
in and out of traffic, trying to keep up with him.
We feel pretty good in our chances
at getting this car stopped.
Because we think that our shooter's gonna be
in the car with the cell phone.
[narrator] The team tracks the suspected killer
to a second north Dallas parking lot.
Officer Thompson reached out to me and said,
"Hey, I think we have the shooter and also his cell phone.
Do you mind calling the cell phone
to see if it matches the number that we're pinging?"
I dialed the number.
And it rang.
[narrator] When the suspect answers, Detective Barnes hangs up
and gives the green light to arrest Lamar,
uncertain if he's armed.
[Thompson] We had converged on his vehicle
and tried to get some identification from him and the others.
The suspect gives us a bogus name.
[narrator] Investigators find no weapons on him.
But they do find a driver's license
with the suspect's real name, Kristopher Love.
[Thompson] He had outstanding warrants.
We placed him under arrest.
He was transported back to Dallas police headquarters
where Detective Barnes then begins the interview.
[Barnes] Kristopher denies having any involvement
in a murder.
He denied knowing Crystal or Brenda
and he also seems like he could care less
about being questioned about a murder.
[Thompson] Kristopher Love is a small-time drug dealer.
He's been in and out of prison and jail a number of times.
Assault, drug dealing, various other violent crimes.
He's not a standup guy.
[narrator] Dallas police can't hold him
since his warrants are from outside Texas.
Even though we felt stronger and stronger
about him being a suspect, we just didn't have enough
information at that time to arrest him.
So we decided to shift the focus
and go search his car at the autopound.
[Thompson] His vehicle had just all kinds of things inside.
It was just a mess.
But nothing was found at that time.
[narrator] With no evidence to go on,
it looks like investigators' prime suspect might walk.
But then, help comes from an unexpected source.
The ATF had one of their canines at Dallas police headquarters
and he was demonstrating how,
uh, the dogs searched for explosives or firearms
and someone suggested that the dog be used to search the vehicle
that the possible suspect was driving.
It's game on, now.
[narrator] Without evidence,
Dallas police will have to release their prime suspect
for the murder of 35-year-old dentist, Kendra Hatcher.
So investigators bring in powerful help
to sniff out possible evidence from the suspect's car.
[Barnes] We'd never worked with this handler before.
We'd never worked with a canine
and it was a fairly new process to us,
having a canine that could help with searching a vehicle.
And the canine was introduced to do a sniff
to see if he could actually smell
the gunpowder linked to the firearm to the ammunition inside the firearm.
And once the dog locked in and got focused,
he gave the signal that
there's a firearm in this vehicle.
[Thompson] The dog detected something.
There was a loose panel on the right side of the consul.
And upon pulling on the panel,
a 40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun was located.
[narrator] It's an incredible discovery,
but only if it's the actual murder weapon
used to kill Kendra Hatcher.
We were pretty excited that we found the firearm.
So, we sent it off to the firearms examiner to be tested
to determine if this same type of weapon
was the exact weapon that was used.
[Hunsicker] There's a lot riding on the firearm examiner's report.
If it's not the gun, then they're back at square zero.
The firearms examiner called back.
Not only was the casing that we found at the crime scene
fired from a 40 Smith & Wesson,
but it was fired from this exact firearm that we recovered.
We were able to 100% say that the firearm we recovered
was the firearm used to kill Kendra Hatcher.
Without a doubt, it's the most important find of the case.
[Barnes] When I presented Kristopher with a picture of the firearm,
his body posture changed, his head dropped
and he looked defeated.
He admitted to being present for the murder
in the parking garage.
[narrator] Kristopher Love admits he was there,
but he's adamant he wasn't the one who pulled the trigger.
Despite having the gun in his possession,
Kristopher Love says, "No, I didn't shoot her.
Uh, that was the getaway driver, Crystal."
[Barnes] He says that it was a robbery gone wrong.
He was supposed to just take
Dr. Hatcher's ID and her purse.
And he gets out of the vehicle to approach to get her purse.
But Kendra refused to give up her purse.
And as he was trying to get that away from her,
Crystal backed the Jeep up and then shot Kendra.
It was Crystal who was the trigger man.
[narrator] Detective Barnes isn't sold.
Evidence from the crime scene shows that Dr. Hatcher
was shot from behind at close range.
Not by Crystal from a moving car, as Lamar attests.
It was impossible for Crystal to be reversing in a vehicle
and firing out the window in order to kill her.
It was just impossible.
I pressed him on it and he asked for a lawyer.
And so that was the end of the interview.
[narrator] Like the getaway driver, Crystal Cortes,
Kristopher Love is charged with murder.
But to prove the case against them,
one glaring question remains.
Why would they want to kill Dr. Hatcher?
We have two suspects.
They both are tied to the crime.
And they're both obviously lying.
And, if you look at it real hard,
neither one of them really had a motive.
[narrator] But as a Dallas police officer arrives
to transport Kristopher Love to lockup,
he has a change of heart and asks for Detective Barnes.
I went back to my desk to start doing the paperwork
and he knocks on the door and wants to talk again.
Like, he just wants to ask me one question.
And, so, I read him his Miranda Warning again
and reinitiate the interview.
And he wants to ask me, why did we let her go?
[narrator] Since Crystal is now locked up,
Detective Barnes asks him if there's a third, unidentified suspect.
[Arntfield] There is no honor among thieves.
And, when properly stoked by a good interviewer,
in terms of letting the offender know
that there's people who got away with it
and he's left holding the bag.
That can be a strong motivator.
[Stockdale] The potential shooter wants to know
why another suspect has been released,
maybe she's provided information about him.
Maybe we can use anxiety about the information that she has shared
to, uh, exact or extort a confession from him.
[narrator] After hours of questioning,
Kristopher Love offers the name of an alleged third suspect.
He said that he was only involved in this because Brenda,
Brenda Delgado, wanted this done to Dr. Hatcher.
[narrator] Brenda Delgado was the woman who loaned the Jeep to Crystal.
Brenda was also questioned earlier by police.
But her alibi of dining while the murder occurred checked out.
Kristopher tells the police that she offered him $3,000
and all the drugs he could use for him to shoot and kill Kendra.
[Barnes] Kristopher Love now confesses to his role in the murder.
[Thompson] Brenda and Crystal picked Kristopher up at 10:30
on the morning of the murder.
[narrator] They drop Brenda back at her home.
[Braun] And then Crystal and Kristopher
tailed Kendra Hatcher around from her work
and eventually back to where she lived.
[narrator] They arrived early at Kendra's parking garage
to wait until the beloved dentist showed up.
Then that's when the crime occurs.
So, we know what happened. We know who was involved.
We just don't know why.
We need a motive for Brenda Delgado.
[narrator] With no clear motive to connect Brenda to the murder,
all Barnes has is the word of two criminals.
[Barnes] Kristopher Love and Crystal Cortes,
they're both pathological liars.
They came in and they lied for hours and hours during the interrogation.
And their word alone is no good.
Like, it's not enough to put Brenda in jail.
So I had to find concrete evidence
to go alone with the tidbits of truth they provided.
[narrator] Then, Kendra Hatcher's boyfriend,
Dr. Ricardo Paniagua, calls police
with a stunning claim.
[Barnes] Dr. Paniagua, he says that he's looking at
this grainy still photo on the evening news
of a brunette driving a dark colored Jeep Cherokee.
He tells me that's Brenda Delgado.
[narrator] Ricardo says he knows Brenda Delgado.
But detective Barnes knows Ricardo's mistaken about who's driving the Jeep.
Brenda and Crystal both are very similar
in their physical appearance. They both are brunettes.
They both have olive colored skin.
There are some similarities between the two, so,
I don't think he was giving me the wrong name,
I just think that Ricardo was confused.
[narrator] But what the doctor tells police next is a bombshell.
Brenda Delgado is his ex-girlfriend.
[Barnes] It was pretty shocking that she was his ex-girlfriend.
Dr. Paniagua told me that they had a long-term relationship
and they dated for about two years
prior to him meeting Kendra.
But Brenda wanted to get married
and the relationship just didn't work out.
Dr. Ricardo Paniagua ended up breaking up with Brenda.
[Hunsicker] So, they bring Brenda back in
and she denies any involvement.
She says, "I don't bare any ill-will to Ricardo.
Uh, he wasn't that big a deal to me.
And when I found out he was dating someone else, I wished him well.
And I certainly wouldn't want to kill anybody."
She even called Ricardo to offer her condolences
at the time of the murder.
[Barnes] It was very challenging
because I felt Brenda was involved
but I just didn't have the evidence to prove it.
So I had to let her go.
They know they're getting close.
They know she's involved.
But they don't have enough to charge her.
What they don't have is a motive.
Why would Brenda Delgado want Dr. Kendra Hatcher killed?
[narrator] Four weeks after 35-year-old Dallas Dentist,
Kendra Hatcher is gunned down inside her parking garage,
police have arrested two people responsible.
Caught on the garage surveillance cameras,
the driver, 23-year-old Crystal Cortes
and the shooter, 31-year-old Kristopher Love.
Kristopher Love also fingers
a third suspect as the mastermind,
13-year-old Brenda Delgado.
But Brenda claims she's innocent.
[Hunsicker] At this point, the police feel that Brenda is lying,
but they don't have any real evidence
that points to her being involved in the crime.
So, the next thing the police do,
they take a deep dive into her life.
I need to figure out who the real Brenda is,
the person that she was trying to conceal.
I found high school friends, college classmates,
also ex-employees that worked side by side with Brenda.
[narrator] What detective Barnes discovers
doesn't match Brenda's earlier statements.
She said her breakup with Dr. Ricardo Paniagua was no big deal,
but Brenda's friends and colleagues say that's not true.
[Barnes] They all say the same thing.
Brenda had a hard time
dealing with the breakup with Ricardo.
[Hunsicker] When he started dating Kendra Hatcher,
she was devastated.
She moved from Ricardo's luxurious upscale apartment
to a one-bedroom place near downtown Dallas.
They discovered that, uh, Brenda Delgado
was cyberstalking her ex, Ricardo.
[Braun] She had an app that tracked Ricky's phone.
She had keys to his house.
She had a logon to his iCloud account.
So, she was able to follow
what he was doing, what he was saying,
who he was seeing.
Able to keep track of his life.
[Barnes] Brenda went through an extreme phase of jealousy.
What she saw in Kendra, with her career,
with her future, with Ricardo,
was everything Brenda envisioned for herself.
She became obsessed with removing Kendra from Ricardo's life.
She starts asking friends and family members
if they, or anyone they know,
can, uh, help her kill someone.
I spoke with several people
that Brenda solicited their help
to help her "eliminate" Kendra Hatcher.
So, now I have a motive
for Brenda Delgado killing Kendra Hatcher.
Jealousy caused her to snap.
Brenda was able, uh, through her friendship with Crystal
to find that person that she was looking for.
$500 is all it took.
And Crystal was part of a scheme that would end up
with Kendra Hatcher with a bullet in her head.
She became the driver
who would take the gunman into that parking garage.
[narrator] Detectives finally understand what happened
in the final 24 hours of Kendra Hatcher's life.
[Barnes] On September 2nd, at 10:30 a.m.
Brenda and Crystal drop off a BMW at Jose's shop.
And they borrow the Jeep.
Crystal and Kristopher spend that day
following Kendra around from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Kendra is working at a Smile Zone.
At 7:13 p.m., Kristopher and Crystal
pull into the parking garage
where they wait for Kendra to show up.
And then Kendra texts Ricardo that she's picking up
the underwater camera from a friend.
At 7:35, Kendra texts Ricardo
to let him know she's on the way home.
At the same time, Brenda is eating dinner with Jose, who knows nothing.
At 7:42 p.m., Kendra is parking her car in her parking space
and Kristopher Love approaches her vehicle and shoots her.
[narrator] He steals her purse to make it look like a robbery.
[Barnes] Right after Kristopher shoots Kendra,
Crystal drives him to his apartment complex
where he stashes the murder weapon inside his Chrysler.
So, we have what we need
to take Brenda into custody, now.
But there's a problem.
[narrator] Right after Brenda's last interview
with Dallas police, she fled to Mexico.
Tracking Brenda down in Mexico is a pretty large task.
We began working with the FBI to come up with a plan
to get her in custody as fast as possible.
And, in order to aid in her capture,
she was placed on the Ten Most Wanted List.
[Braun] With a $100,000 reward tacked on her head.
Police are very interested in finding out
just where in Mexico Brenda is.
It takes police six months.
But they finally track her down.
She's with relatives, family, in Mexico.
But she surrenders peacefully when they finally arrive
and find her at their house.
I fly with two other FBI agents
to Mexico City.
And we bring Brenda Delgado back to the US.
[narrator] Thirty-one year old Brenda Delgado
is tried and convicted of capital murder in Dallas.
[Barnes] Brenda was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
[narrator] And for Brenda's hired driver, Crystal Cortes,
the court sentences her to 35 years.
Brenda's trigger man, Kristopher Love,
receives the death penalty
for shooting Kendra Hatcher in her prime.
As a homicide detective,
the thing that you want to do is to make sure
that you can give families closure
and at least give them justice.
[Hunsicker] Kendra Hatcher, who had so much promise
and had so much to offer.
Had her whole life in front of her.
And she's just gone because of jealousy.
Holidays won't be the same. Birthdays won't be the same.
They lost Kendra. They lost a critical, loving,
beautiful member of their family.
And nothing can ever replace that.