[water gurgling]
[somber piano music]
- It's just the saddest thing in the world
To think that tom and larry lasted such a short time.
- This was one of the most graphic crime scenes
I've ever been to.
- There was blood everywhere.
- Seeing the two dead bodies downstairs
And the footprints upstairs--bloody,
Leaving the area--we definitely had a killer on the loose.
- We have to think about whether or not
This could be a crime of passion.
- I mean, how do you stab someone 28 times?
- How could this happen to our friends?
We were in--in total disbelief that it could have happened.
- We found a whole slew of cards,
A card for every day in February.
- When the bodies were brought into the coroner's office,
The question as to whether or not this was a love triangle.
He seems to be obsessed.
I want this guy dead, and I want him to suffer.
- That was the saddest day of our lives.
[tense music]
[man sobbing]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[waves crashing]
[atmospheric music]
- Quintessential family-oriented community.
- It's a beautiful city.
They have beautiful homes, lovely homes.
- And we could go down to balboa
And walk around and dream about having a wonderful--
A little house on balboa island.
- It has been the number one safest city
For numerous years in a row.
- I think if people had money and they had a choice,
I think many of them wanted to go and live in irvine.
- It's a beautiful, beautiful, wonderful place to live.
- Bad things don't happen very often here.
But they do happen.
Narrator: It's easy to imagine growing old
Under the golden california sun.
But life in this stunning part of orange county
Isn't always so pretty.
In the summer of 1999, dark clouds
Roll over the irvine community of solana.
- I'm larry montgomery.
In 1999, I was an investigator in charge of
The crimes against persons unit
At irvine police department.
On the 20th of July, 1999,
Police department was called because a man and his daughter
Had gone to a house in irvine to take a piano lesson
And the people in the house did not respond.
[tense music]
The gentleman opened the door
And he smelled natural gas in the house.
He still was able to come in a short distance
And look down a staircase
Where he saw what looked like a dead body
And immediately called the police department.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- My name is mike hamel, the chief of police
For the city of irvine in california.
In 1999, I was a police detective
Assigned to crimes against persons
Here at the irvine police department.
A call came out over the radio of a possible 187,
Which is a murder.
When I arrived there, there were about
Four other officers on scene.
The paramedics were there. Fire was there.
We knew that we had to go inside the residence
To check on victims,
To ensure there were no suspects that were still there.
- Once it's determined that there's gas inside that house,
You now have to be very careful opening windows, opening doors,
And without giving it any source of ignition
Like a static electricity.
They cordoned off the area.
And they were able to shut the gas off in hopes of
Airing out the house before they could enter
Safely to help out with the investigation.
- So the first thing that I noticed as we were
Approaching the front door is this red brick porch area.
And I could see what appeared to be bloody footprints.
We got inside the house, we began to walk
Around the different areas-- into the kitchen,
Into the laundry room.
We began to see these bloody footprints
All over the house,
Eventually making our way down the stairs.
- Going down those stairs to the first body,
That particular individual was on his back
And he had numerous stab wounds that we could see--
At least, they appeared to be stab wounds on his body.
Passing him, there was a door to the right,
And that was the entranceway to the master bedroom.
[tense music]
- We enter the master bedroom
And went around the side of the bed.
And that's where we saw the second victim.
[camera shutter clicking]
He too had sustained multiple stab wounds.
- I don't think I recall a scene that I've been to
That had more blood splatter on the walls, on the ceilings.
- This was one of the most, uh...
Graphic crime scenes I've ever been to.
♪ ♪
One of the things that's standard for us
During these cases is to do a neighborhood canvass--
Talk to all the neighbors.
So myself, other detectives did this,
And we really came up empty.
No one that heard anything that night.
Based upon how the crime occurred,
There was no sign of forced entry.
♪ ♪
One of the things that's always important for us to do
Is to positively identify the victims.
- When we got down to the second body
In the bedroom, there was actually some clothing there.
And in the clothing, there was id
For a lawrence wong.
[ominous music]
- We had the name of the primary resident
To verify the person that we found
Deceased inside the residence as tom whitney.
We found his wallet and his identification card.
- Tom whitney, he played the piano;
He played a number of instruments.
He was 60 years old.
And he seemed like a nice individual
From everything we learned about him.
[sentimental music]
- My name is joan rutkowski.
Tom whitney was my friend--
My friend for a long, long time--1965.
♪ ♪
We first met while we were graduate students
In the music department at usc.
He was a happy person. He loved to laugh.
We used to laugh so much.
He was a really good soul--
That kind of good person, that kind of good friend.
You pick up the phone and call him,
Tom would listen for hours.
- My name is bolen high.
I met tom in new york.
He was introduced to me through a mutual friend.
He was a very accomplished pianist.
He was also a musical director.
And he was a wonderful teacher.
He loved to teach piano.
That was one of the--one of the gifts that he was given
Is the joy of "helping people turn on to music,"
Is the way he put it.
And it gave him great joy.
♪ ♪
- Tom had these incredible eyes.
And they were very blue.
He looks a little sad here.
Being gay was not something that was approved
In his family.
It was hard. Those days were difficult.
Now it's a totally different world we live in.
- In our conversation, tom said,
"you know, I've met someone that I think could really work.
His name is larry wong."
- Larry was on the same plane as tom.
Larry was a fabulous musician and a classical musician
And a wonderful pianist and coach for opera singers.
- Larry wong, somebody who I got to know his character
Through working this case and interviewing people
That were his friends and family
And coming to learn that larry, too,
Was a caring and gentle man.
Larry worked at la harbor college,
And I believe that's how tom and larry met
Was through their love of music.
- And I said, "well, it sounds like you met someone
That maybe will turn out to be a lasting relationship."
He said, "I think it might very well."
- He was a good match.
And it's just the saddest thing in the world to think
That it-- it lasted such a short time.
[waves roaring]
Narrator: At the crime scene, detectives continue
To sort out the pieces of the puzzle.
- As part of our overall survey of the entire residence,
We look in every nook and cranny,
One of the things that we located was a knife block.
And in this knife block,
It looked like there was a knife that had blood on it.
Crime scene investigators had discovered
That there were actually two large kitchen knives
That were in the knife block that were covered in blood.
[dramatic tone]
- Does that mean there's more than one person?
Does that mean they'd used both hands?
I don't know.
When we looked at the victims, tom had 36 stab wounds,
Which is a hefty amount of stab wounds.
Larry wong had 25. That's overkill.
Whoever did this,
Are they more angry with one over the other?
One thing we did notice is there were bloody footprints
On the actual tile-- really distinct,
Very accurately placed footprints
Coming in and out of the areas of the house.
If you're looking at this crime scene,
Seeing the bloody footprints upstairs,
Away from the victims,
We knew we had a killer on the loose
And we don't know who it is.
Narrator: Detectives find a trail of bloody footprints
Around tom's home.
Could these gruesome missteps
Reveal the secret identity of tom and larry's killer?
- The fact that we only saw one set of bloody footprints
Probably would limit it to one person using two knives.
We now know the size of the foot,
We know if we find somebody that knew these people
And had a grudge against them,
And they had the same size foot,
That gives us something to look at.
Basically, if the sock doesn't fit,
It's not gonna be that person.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- He perhaps met some people that he would not have ever
Had any contact with under different circumstances.
- Larry's sister mentioned that larry wong had been
In a previous relationship that was a long-term relationship.
- Please, I want to go home.
I want to go home.
- When the policed call me, I explained to them,
"I don't know his name. But I think I know who did it."
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[somber music]
♪ ♪
[waves crashing]
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- We received a telephone call from a family friend
Very early in the morning
Saying that tom and larry had been killed.
And we didn't know how, and we didn't really...
Understand what possibly could have happened.
[tense music]
It was so shocking.
The barbarity, the anger,
The cruelty,
Something I've never seen or--
Or ever experienced ever.
Tremendous sadness.
Anger.
How could this happen to our friends?
♪ ♪
- My name is sam allevato.
In 1999, I was the lieutenant
In charge of the investigative bureau
For the city of irvine police department.
Because of the fact that it appeared
That there was no forced entry into the residence,
Initially, you would think,
"okay, this is not a stranger to these two victims.
Someone they knew."
So that kind of lessens the opinion
That this would have been a random attack.
Stab wounds on the victims is very personal.
That indicates a very heat-of-passion type of crime.
♪ ♪
- When we're looking at a crime scene like this,
We have to look at exactly what's going on inside
And who would have done it.
♪ ♪
Narrator: The brutal murders of newly coupled
Larry wong and tom whitney has cast a dark shadow
Over their cheery irvine, california, neighborhood.
While evidence suggests the slayings were committed
By someone who knew them,
Neighbors still feel their loss
And wonder when their killer will be found.
The murderer left a mess at the crime scene,
Providing a treasure trove of evidence.
♪ ♪
- Since we looked at this crime from the point of view
Of who would do this horrendous amount of stabbing
And knew that there was probably consistent
With somebody with passion,
You could be hurt very easily if the person
Finds another weapon to come back at you
'cause they don't die right away,
'cause--unless you hit something like a heart
Or something that'll kill them.
But a lot of things won't kill you right away.
So this is just not something you plan to do as a crime
To get something from the house.
It is something you would do if you're passionate about,
"I want this guy dead and I want him to suffer."
So that's what this scene tells us--
We may want to look that way. Not guaranteed,
But we may want to look that way first.
That's where it's pointing towards
From the evidence we saw at the scene.
We're looking for somebody that had passion
Either on larry's side or on tom's side.
[dramatic music]
- We did have somebody reach out to us--
Larry's sister-- that mentioned that larry wong
Had been in a previous relationship
That was a long-term relationship
With someone by the name of john rarick.
And then digging a bit deeper and finding out
That john actually had a life insurance policy on larry
And the fact that larry was killed--
John was going to be the recipient
Of a large sum of money.
We need to ask more questions, dig deeper, examine motives,
See if john has an alibi.
[waves crashing]
- John was obviously heartbroken at the time
When the breakup occurred.
He was angry. He was depressed.
But when we gave him the news
That the pair had been murdered,
He was not overly dramatic.
- So one of the things that john conveyed to us
Is that larry had left him to be with tom
And that that did pain him a lot.
But john told us that he was not responsible
And knew nothing about the murder of larry or tom.
Narrator: Sure seems like john rarick
Had plenty to gain from larry's death.
But does that make him a murderer?
- John's alibi for the crime was he was in a chatroom
In north hollywood somewhere.
Whether you can prove the alibi or not is another thing.
- So we interviewed john rarick
And we asked him where he was between these hours.
He was able to produce documents
That were date and time stamped that showed his name
And the fact that he was in this chatroom.
And of course, we followed up with the internet service
Provider to be sure that these were genuine documents.
One of the things we did ruling john rarick out
As a suspect is we looked at his feet
And we got impressions of his feet.
And his feet were much larger
Than the footprints at the crime scene.
And we knew that there is no way, physically,
That his feet could have made
Those impressions at the crime scene.
And we were certain there was only one person
That left bloody footprints at the crime scene.
Narrator: The ominous trail of bloody footprints
Along with the coroner's findings
Brings investigators one step closer
To the cold-blooded killer's identity.
- The coroner did a autopsy on both victims.
And in terms of the damage done to the victims,
Tom had more stab wounds.
And one of the stab wounds was right into the eye
And another one was real close to the other eye.
[rising tense music]
When you have this violent type of activity,
The possibility of having a past lover
Is certainly somebody you want to look at.
Who are the past lovers of tom whitney?
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Narrator: Just a day after lovers
Larry wong and tom whitney
Are found dead in their orange county condominium,
Irvine detectives take a trip down memory lane
In search of a suspect.
- When tom came out in the '90s,
It was a different world.
And I think that tom was almost like a teenager
Because he was excited finding new people,
New people that didn't know him as a serious musician,
Who just knew him as who he was: Tom.
We had known tom for so long.
We were family.
And to lose a family in such a violent way
Is--is, you know, very sad.
[emotional music]
I think that when he was experimenting
And he was meeting new people,
He perhaps met some people that he would not have ever,
Ever had any contact with under different circumstances.
- So now we have a whole team of detectives
That is going to the home, searching for evidence,
Looking for anything related to the crime.
We found a whole slew of cards.
They were greeting cards that were addressed to tom whitney,
And they were signed by someone named choy.
- During this time, we could not figure out who choy was.
We didn't have any name other than choy.
- We had a lot of people calling us and telling us,
"hey, I know tom.
I want to give you information."
And we asked friends if they know who choy was.
[dramatic music]
- When the police call me, I explained to them,
"I don't know his name, but I think I know who did it."
And I said, "I think it was this young asian man
That tom had been dating."
I always called up tom on his birthday,
Which was April 15th.
This young man who he had seen before
Was actually pounding on his doors
And trying to get in when I called him.
And tom was hysterical.
I mean, this guy was screaming.
He was running around the house,
Pounding on the doors, pounding on the windows.
Tom then told me that he had come in before
Through the garage.
And I said, "tom, just call the police."
He said, "no, no. I can't do that.
I can't call the police."
He said, "what would the neighbors say?"
And I said, "this is california.
I mean, things happen."
He said, "no, no, not in this--not where I live,"
Which was a very protected community.
- Learning from tom's sister that tom had sold a car
To this person named choy,
We were able to run the license plate
And see who the new owner was,
And through some other checks and some other connections,
Identify the possible owner of this car as vincent cheung.
- My name is dave lopez.
I was a reporter in los angeles, orange county,
Since 1972.
Retired a little over a year ago.
In 1999, I was assigned to the orange county bureau.
What the police were comfortable with is the fact
That they were not dealing with some massive crazy lunatic
Who was gonna go out and do the same thing again.
It wasn't a case where the media, you know,
Said we've got a killer on the loose
And they just had to go and find out who it was.
And cheung, who was known as choy
In all these love letters, he was their suspect.
Narrator: There's a strong probability this double murder
Was a crime of passion.
Now that there's no doubt who the mysterious choy is,
Detectives dig into his former relationship with tom whitney.
- Once we discover who vincent is,
We find that he has a pretty big history of theft.
He likes to steal things.
He's not a really upstanding citizen.
We did discover that vincent cheung
Had a relationship with tom,
And it started about six months earlier.
[ominous piano music]
Vincent and tom are together.
But they break up right about the time
That tom and larry start coming together.
- Tom was not particularly proud
Of that relationship with vincent.
It was not something serious for him.
He was finding who he was
And living a different life for a while.
♪ ♪
- When tom said that, you know, "I don't want you anymore,"
It was devastating for cheung. It was absolutely devastating.
- When tom ended that relationship
And then subsequently
Started another relationship with another man,
I think that freaked him out.
Narrator: It's clear to detectives that vincent cheung
Couldn't get his pent-up desire for tom off his mind.
- Cheung, he'd always have a camera with him.
And he would just take picture after picture
After picture of him and tom or tom by himself.
You know, he would go into the house,
And he would sit on the piano naked,
Waiting for tom to come home.
Sometimes he would surprise him in the garage.
Tom would drive into the garage
And cheung would be hiding somewhere
And then pop up out of nowhere.
And he just would not leave him alone.
I mean, you talk about an infatuation, that was it.
[ominous music]
- From talking with other friends,
There's information that vincent,
He's seen coming to the house
When he's not supposed to be there,
Knocking on the door,
Leaving presents, leaving gifts.
He seems to be obsessed.
♪ ♪
- At this point, vincent cheung became our primary suspect.
♪ ♪
- And our goal was to interview him
To see where he was the early morning hours of July 27th.
- I don't know nothing. I don't know nothing.
[sobs]
- He was extremely upset because we were talking
To him about him being involved in this incident
Where these men died.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[waves crashing]
Narrator: Two days after news of a shocking double homicide
Rocked one of california's best places to live,
Eccentric vincent cheung
Tops the irvine police department's suspect list.
But did this obsessed ex really stab tom whitney
And his lover larry wong to death?
- Once the investigators were able to determine
That vincent cheung was available
Possibly to commit the crime, looking into his history,
They discovered he has a warrant for his arrest
For a parole violation basically,
The decision was made to,
"let's get him into custody asap,
"just in case; if he is in fact the guilty party,
"we don't want him absconding and leaving
Or hurting somebody."
- Police knew who they were looking for.
It was just a case now of trying to find him.
[tense music]
- We have enough information that now vincent cheung
Is considered a suspect.
So we now have a location where we think he's living.
At this point, we're talking to the district attorney
And to judges about certain search warrants
That we want to write and obtain for his home
For the 1990 chevy lumina that we were looking for.
♪ ♪
Meanwhile, now that we have an address
Where we think he lives,
We have a special team that we sent out to the residence.
It was a residence in san gabriel
Where we believed that he may live with his mother.
- We went to vincent's mother's house
In the san gabriel valley and spoke to her.
- She was very helpful and said
That vincent has had some issues
And hasn't been around the house
And was not--at least she couldn't give him an alibi
For the night of the murder.
But she did say that her son has problems.
♪ ♪
She said that he has been in trouble.
He's been incarcerated for theft.
Narrator: Police are confident
They can outsmart vincent cheung
And waste no time trying to track him down.
[radio chatter]
- We had a stakeout on vincent's house...
[radio chatter]
In hopes that maybe he would return
And we could find him.
[radio chatter]
[camera shutter clicking]
- As we are in the stakeout,
There's a motel across the street or nearby.
[dramatic music]
And we noticed, actually,
Vincent had come out of that motel
And was coming across the street to his mom's house.
And so there he was.
And right in front of us. We ended up arresting him.
♪ ♪
The arrest was for the parole violation,
And he understood.
He even said, "I figured that would happen."
♪ ♪
- So once he's in custody, and we--at this point,
We already have signed search warrants.
And we also were able to associate him
With a hotel room that was across the street
From his residence.
And we found out that he had checked into the hotel room
On the evening of the 27th,
Which would have been the same day
That we discovered the crime scene.
And so we were able to
Do what we call a piggyback warrant
And able to write another warrant
To search the hotel room.
Narrator: Detectives have taken
Vincent cheung into custody.
With search warrants in hand, would they find the evidence
They needed to tie vincent to the scene of the crime?
- Pursuant to the search warrant,
We searched the garage.
We found a car that was under a blue tarp.
Pulled back the blue tarp, and that was
The 1990 chevy lumina that we were looking for.
The car that helped us
Make that initial connection to vincent,
It was in his mom's garage.
And so we had a warrant for that car.
And rather than searching the car there,
We had this car towed to the orange county crime lab
So we could do a better analysis of it.
[dramatic tone]
♪ ♪
- During the time-- once vincent's under arrest
And we did a search warrant on the house,
We discovered a few interesting things.
The date on the 27th,
He had "goodbye" written on his calendar.
♪ ♪
- This was the date of the murder of tom and larry
And would kind of indicate to you that vincent had
Said his final goodbye to these two individuals.
- Our goal was to interview him to see
Where he was the early morning hours of July 27th.
- He was extremely upset
Because we were talking to him about him
Being involved in this incident where these men died.
And his answers were not consistent with innocence
Of somebody being--'cause they would be able to answer
The questions we were asking regarding the activities
That they were doing at that time.
And he just could not answer.
He would just mumble something or mumble,
"I don't know, I don't know. I don't know,"
When the question's pretty simple
And he should know if he was innocent.
- Vincent was very small, kind of demure.
You wouldn't pick him out as,
"oh, I think that guy could kill two people with knives."
He doesn't look like that. He's not a big man.
He's very kind of meek in his speaking and his actions,
So he doesn't match the description
You'd think of a killer who could do this to two people.
[dramatic tone]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- I don't know. [sobbing]
Narrator: Even though police in orange county
Have larry wong and tom whitney's
Suspected killer vincent cheung in custody,
Getting a confession out of him
Might be easier said than done.
- Larry and I went to the jail facility
Where vincent was being held.
And we went there, we mirandized him,
And we had a conversation with him.
- [sobbing]
- It was really unusual because, at first,
Vincent cheung began to become very emotional,
Almost hysterical at times.
He was trying to say he didn't even know
Who tom was.
As we kept on talking to him
Over the course of more than an hour,
Then at that point, he began to talk about the fact
That he did have a relationship with tom
And provided a little more detail about that.
But never admitted to killing tom or larry.
[emotional music]
♪ ♪
- So we did ask him about the calendar after we had found it,
And that it said "goodbye" on the calendar on July 27th.
And he explained it that he had
Planned on killing himself.
And so writing "goodbye" on that date
Was a reflection of the fact
That he was going to kill himself.
We thought at the time that the fact
That he said that "goodbye" referenced to the fact
That he was gonna try and kill himself
As a convenient alibi or deflection.
- While interviewing vincent cheung,
It was very interesting because
When you have an innocent person
And you're talking to them about a topic
And they're innocent,
Therefore they can answer your questions
Without worry because they're innocent.
And therefore they will answer your questions
90% to 100% of the time fairly accurately as much as they can.
And it pretty much fits like a puzzle.
- However, if you have a guilty person
And you want to interview them about this incident
That they're guilty of doing something,
Therefore they have to lie, it causes stress
Because they must lie about certain things.
And so what I look for in an interview
Is to see how up front they are,
How easy it is for them to answer questions,
And do they use techniques to avoid answering the questions.
And in this case, with vincent,
That was exactly what you could hear him
Have all kinds of anxiety for answering questions.
- [sobbing]
- We were able to elicit more and more information
That helped us, again, paint a picture
Of the situation to learn more about him.
And at times, he was very matter-of-fact
And he talked about tom
And the relationship in vivid detail.
And he talked about how much they cared for each other,
And he talked about how he was showered with gifts.
- He admitted that he had made,
Oh, 100 plus cards and letters,
And he had given them as a present to tom,
And tom was not happy about getting the present.
And he was very angry
And upset that tom didn't accept his present.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- As we were deep in interrogation of vincent,
He was still talking and...
- [sobbing]
- I know. I know.
- He took responsibility for what we would describe
As stalking behavior, for being obsessive,
And not taking no for an answer.
[ominous music]
- Once in custody, we had vincent
Take his shoes off, put socks on.
♪ ♪
- We brought rolls of butcher paper.
And we brought ink with us.
We wet his feet to simulate,
Like, if the socks were wet in blood.
We rolled his feet in ink
And then we had him walk along rolls of butcher paper
And to see what kind of footprint he left.
- And I watched very closely,
And I watched him crinkle up his toes
To make his foot smaller as he walked.
I called him on it and told him to straighten them out.
He was reluctant, and it was very interesting though,
'cause I'm thinking to myself,
"if he is innocent,
"he has no idea who killed these guys
"and he has no idea how big their foot is
"or how small their foot is.
And therefore, why is he crinkling up his toes?"
So that was huge because I watched it
And called him on it.
- [breathing heavily]
- I was there to assist the crime lab
Doing testing on the car,
Telling them that if this is the right suspect
And had this car, that he killed people,
Showed the scene with the blood,
Therefore probably had lots of blood on him.
And so we're looking for any blood
That might be found in that car.
- So we went over that car with a fine-tooth comb,
And in this case, a combination
Of different chemicals were used to try to bring out areas
Where there could be evidence such as blood evidence
That isn't visible to the naked eye.
Narrator: Investigators montgomery and hamel
Suspect vincent isn't telling them the whole truth.
And so detective jacobson steps in
To try to coax a confession from him.
- When the crime lab called and told me
What the results were, my--my jaw dropped.
- [sobbing]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
Narrator: With telltale dna results back from the lab,
Irvine detectives are determined
To get vincent cheung to finally admit he's to blame
For the murders of tom whitney and larry wong.
- There's a running board that's just--
Runs right below the driver's seat.
And on that running board,
Again, through enhancing with chemicals,
Crime lab was able to find some blood droplets
That, again, weren't visible to the naked eye.
Crime lab called and they told us that
In that blood sample, they were able to extract dna
From both larry and tom and the suspect.
- That shows that there's a connection
Between the victims.
And we know that night there was a connection
Between the victims.
And whoever did it very possibly
Had both bloods on them in great amounts
Because of the sheer damage done in that house.
- So when we found this out that this blood sample
Contained dna from all three, that, in our opinion,
Was an incredibly important piece of evidence
Because it's showing that there is combined dna
In this blood droplets on the running board of the car
That at this point, we believe, was the getaway vehicle,
So to speak, that was used by the suspect
To drive to the crime scene and leave the crime scene.
Narrator: Before investigators
Confront vincent cheung once again,
Shocking information from one of cheung's friends
Gives them even more ammunition.
- At one point in the investigation,
Before vincent was formally charged with a crime,
We were contacted by his friend named drew messusum.
And drew was a very good friend of vincent's.
And so drew reached out to us after he saw on the news
What had happened to tom and larry.
And drew had shared that vincent had left a message
On his voice recorder.
And this message was left on the 27th.
- Drew was a very good friend of vincent's.
And so thinking back about drew's courage
And what he did to bring this information forward,
It was something that was a pivotal piece of evidence
For which we were grateful that he contacted us.
[phone beeps]
- Due to the fact that we don't have a video
Of everything that happened at the time of the murder,
We can make some reasonable suggestions
As to what might have occurred.
- He probably had a key to the residence still.
He took off his shoes to be quiet.
He grabbed two knives from the butcher block.
[chilling music]
He quietly went downstairs...
♪ ♪
And attacked them while they were sleeping.
- Both of them awake, there was a struggle
And the stabbing with both knives.
Tom is not struck in a vital area right away,
So he's able to live longer and fight a little bit longer,
While larry probably was hit in his abdomen
Somewhere where it took him down faster.
Basically, stab, stab, stab until he's tired.
And then he gets to go back and put the knives away and leave.
♪ ♪
- He was formally charged with 187 of the penal code--
Murder.
[atmospheric music]
- I got a call from the assistant
District attorney of orange county.
And they said, "we would like you to testify,"
Because I could help them because of this weird
Little phone call to tom on his birthday
That turned into the only person
Who could actually tie vincent to tom.
Not only would I be happy to do it,
I felt that it was the least that I could do...
To help tom.
[emotional music]
- I went down and stayed with my sister
And went to every day of the trial.
♪ ♪
It was a strange, strange thing.
Vincent didn't look the least bit vulnerable,
Remiss, remorseful.
He looked like an empty body to me.
He looked like he was dead.
- After I testified, the assistant district attorney
Came up to me said, "went very well."
I said, "well, I just said what I had to do."
- The prosecutor said that, you know, it was a dna case.
And I think it was over a period of four days
That the jury deliberated.
- When I heard the guilty verdict,
There was a tremendous feeling of relief.
And, "it's over."
[emotional music]
♪ ♪
- Tom was someone who did not allow life to destroy him.
That's, to me, the thing that I still hold
Was that he was a man
Who had to go through hell to find life.
- Larry and tom would have been very happy.
And I suspect they would have found it possible
To get married in the time that has--
That has passed from then to now.
It's amazing how much has passed.
- For someone to come and cut their lives short
Just seemed like such a travesty and tragedy
Not only for the gay community
But for the irvine community, irvine family,
Was something that I think resonated
For many years thereafter.
- And, you know, I don't even cry much now.
I think having this kind of an experience
Of going through with tom makes you stronger.
It makes you more aware.
It makes you appreciate things.
♪ ♪