Leaves a mother dead.
- Everything on the floors
And the walls and on the ceiling was blood.
(tense music continues)
- She fought with her life until she couldn't do it anymore.
- This was probably the most violent death
Of a single person I've seen.
- [narrator] as the investigation begins, a family implodes.
- The father had suggested the son was angry
And he wanted to inherit all the money.
- His mother sided with him and that became the rift.
- [narrator] revealing a deadly desire for the good life.
- He didn't realise, with her financial know-how,
She was watching.
- I called the detective and I said,
"I think I know what happened now."
- This relationship, it was all about him being
The most powerful person in the room all the time.
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
About 9:30 p.M., the night before Halloween,
The police got a signal from a burglar alarm company
In coral gables, which is an upper class affluent community,
A suburb of miami.
- I was dispatched to this residence on an alarm call.
Didn't think it was gonna turn out to be anything
'cause in most of our alarm calls they're nothing.
(tense music continues)
As I'm approaching the front of the house,
On the very end of that side of the house, there's a garage.
And as I approached it,
I could see that the door was slightly ajar.
I opened the door about an inch and I felt some resistance.
I began to push on the door even further
And I opened it about six inches.
I could see a foot, a human foot on the floor,
As if someone was behind the door laying on the ground.
I began to push on the door further
Until I could get my upper body into the room.
The room was very dark,
But I could see her body, you know, on the floor.
Then my attention was immediately drawn to
What I thought was a very bizarre design on the walls.
I then realised that everything that I was seeing
On the floors and the walls and on the ceiling was blood.
(dramatic music)
It struck me as being out of a horror movie,
Just blood everywhere.
It was just so violent,
The most violent homicide I'd ever seen.
- [narrator] as the officers look closer,
They see the victim is female.
- Her clothing was dishevelled, her eyes were open,
Just a blank stare, and there was no movement from her.
The other officer, they went up to see if she had a pulse.
She did not.
(tense music)
I got on the radio and I asked for backup.
- When I arrived on the scene with other investigators,
The body was found in the centre of this room.
It was a bloody mess.
There were gashes in her elbows and her forearms.
There was also trauma to her head.
Near her body was this metal rod,
Commonly referred to as an asp.
If you would picture expandable baton that the police had.
It was a long thin rod, maybe a half inch thick,
Solid metal, looked like a ball,
Small ball on the end of it.
And that was bent.
That was lying next to her.
And there are some wounds on her body that it matched up
Through being struck with that.
It appeared like this was a crime of passion.
We really didn't have any indication who she was.
- Her purse wasn't taken, but all her credit cards were,
And some money was taken, and her identification was taken.
So police called the alarm company
Who identified the victim,
And the alarm company said, "we called the homeowner."
That person's name is edward locascio.
Edward lived in the house with his wife silvia,
Known as maggie locascio, and their son,
Who we also named edward locascio jr.
- We knew we had one person who we presumed to be maggie,
But where are the other two people of the house?
Did something happen to them?
We really didn't know what was going on.
(gentle music)
- Maggie locascio was a very smart woman, very intellectual,
Loves to read and very educated,
And she was a very beautiful woman.
- [narrator] born silvia quiroga,
She fled cuba as a child to come to america,
Where she was known to her family and friends as maggie.
- Maggie was extremely close to her mother.
That was her protector.
- [narrator] in the 1970s, maggie met ed sr.,
And their relationship blossomed.
- Ed and maggie met in 1972 at the university of florida.
They were both accounting students,
And because she excelled,
She received a great job offer right out of college.
They decided to get married
And ed got a regular accounting job
And maggie was making money.
- Maggie became pregnant with eddie jr.
She gave up her practise and became a full-time mum.
- Over the years, she kind of created her lifestyle
Around her son and her house.
- By this time, eddie had success doing the accounting
And being the money man for all the very wealthy people
Who were pouring into miami beach.
- Everybody liked ed.
Ed had clients that were very formidable
In the miami-dade community.
- [narrator] ed becomes more financially successful,
And in the years leading up to her death,
The pressures of being a picture-perfect wife
Begin to take a toll on maggie.
- Maggie was a very shy person,
I would say a little bit of an introvert.
Ed was like a social butterfly.
Ed would talk to everybody.
Maggie didn't like to go out much or socialise much.
It would bother ed.
He would say that, you know,
Like all she wanted was to stay home and be with her son,
And that was something that, it triggered him a lot.
- [narrator] it's now close to 10:00 p.M.
And there's no sign of the victim's husband.
So with the contact information they received
Through the alarm company,
Investigators reach out to ed locascio sr.,
To see where he is and what he knows.
- And I ask him if he could come to the house.
I wasn't going to divulge to him
That there was a homicide on the phone.
He told me that he was going through
A rough divorce with maggie.
- She caught him having an affair with a woman.
- In June of 2000, she got herself a good divorce lawyer.
- Now they were going through this divorce
And it was gonna be final anytime.
- He said that he had subsequently moved
To a condo on miami beach,
And he didn't want to come to the house
Because he had a restraining order
And he said that he didn't wanna violate
The restraining order.
- Knowing there's a restraining order,
Immediately I think everybody's feathers
Get sort of plumped up.
- I convinced eddie sr.
That we would not hold him responsible
For the restraining order,
That he was allowed to come to the house,
And he says that he was on his way.
- When ed sr. Arrived,
He was brought across the street from the scene
For us to search his vehicle, and he seemed like he was,
In my opinion, a bit nervous.
We were looking for any injuries,
You're looking for any blood spatter on them,
You're looking at their shoes,
And there was nothing out of the ordinary.
- What was also really interesting was he didn't say,
"what happened, is everyone safe?
Is my wife okay?
Is my son there?"
He said nothing.
- [narrator] while ed sr. Is taken to the station
For further questioning,
Miami detectives finished processing the scene
In coral gables.
- We made sure all evidence
And everything was collected around the body,
Including fingerprints, dna swabs throughout the scene.
Went through the entire house and checked everything.
- [narrator] with no immediate evidence
Pointing to her husband,
Investigators need to consider other theories.
- It could have been that there was somebody
That surprised her as she was coming home,
Maybe followed her from one of the local stores.
We really didn't have any firm ideas.
- [narrator] as detectives continue to work into the night,
One of the responding officers
Approaches with an observation he made
En route to the scene.
- The officer is on the street
Two blocks north of the scene.
He observed a small white truck coming toward him,
But the small white truck all of a sudden made a u-turn
And left going westbound away from the scene.
- This is 9:30 at night and it piqued his interest
Because the truck was driving erratically.
They had to start looking for a white truck in miami.
Good luck.
- [narrator] it's now the middle of the night
In this quiet neighbourhood,
When officers see a dark figure approaching the house.
- I noticed somebody walking towards the scene.
When I looked over, they kept closer and closer,
And when he got to where the crime scene tape was
And started interacting with an officer,
And they summoned me to talk to the person
Who we find out is eddie locascio jr.
I talked to him, he's very, very upset.
He explained to me he was a student in medical college.
It was just him and his mother that were living there
And there should be nobody at the house but his mother.
I didn't divulge to him at that time what had occurred.
- Not knowing that his mother was dead,
Not knowing anything,
But putting two and two together when he saw the lights
And he said, "my father killed my mother."
He was out partying, spending money.
He lived an incredibly high lifestyle.
- Told us that his father apparently abused him,
Abused him mentally, verbally.
- The police say, "who do you think could have done this?"
And he says, "well my son, my son hates his parents."
(tense music)
- [narrator] after a gruesome scene is discovered
At the home of maggie locascio in the early morning hours
Of Halloween 2001, ed locascio sr.
And his 19-year-old son, eddie jr.
Are placed into separate interview rooms at miami metro pd.
Detectives start with ed sr.
- When he was told that his wife had been murdered,
The police noticed how unemotional he was in his response.
- By my experience, some people are obviously more nervous,
Some people are very calm.
He was like in the middle of that.
- They asked him where he'd been, he said his alibi,
He'd played golf earlier in the day
And then he'd gone home at early evening to his condo
And had remained there all night until in fact
The police had called him in the early hours
To bring him over.
The detectives asked him if he knew anybody
Who had a white truck and he didn't.
- The police say, "who do you think could have done this?"
And he says, "well my son.
My son hates his parents."
And he wanted to frame his dad.
- He talked about what eddie would gain,
Which would've been the house,
Which would've been any finances.
Also his relationship with his mother,
That they were too close or something suspicious about it,
And that's why he wanted to, you know, keep her quiet.
- The father had suggested the son was a bad lot.
He was angry, he was violent.
Ed jr. Wanted to inherit the family fortune.
- Though he killed his own mother,
We needed to talk to eddie jr. To try to determine
If it was true.
- [narrator] after this shocking accusation from his father,
Detectives sit down in the adjacent interview room
With maggie's son, eddie locascio jr.
- When he heard that his mother had been murdered,
He was quite naturally very, very emotional.
- He said that he was very close to his mother.
They had a great relationship.
- They stayed up late at night and watched tv together.
They fell asleep together.
They did everything together.
- Eddie, he didn't like to socialise,
He always wanted to be home,
So he was very introvert as well.
Just like the mom.
- Eddie jr. Tells the detective he was on
An excelled medical school programme.
He was actually in medical school at the age of 19.
Eddie was and is a brilliant guy, very, very smart.
On the other hand, his father was like a frat guy.
He liked to party.
He coached the elementary school cross country team,
And at a young age
He made his son be on the cross country team,
And that's when the feud began.
Eddie hated it.
He hated running, he hated the sport,
He hated everything about it,
And he cried to his mother, "I'm not going to practise."
And his mother sided with him.
And that became the rift.
To ed, eddie was a failure.
He wasn't a guy's guy and he hated him for that.
- It was weird to me because his wife and son
Were always out of the picture.
They were never present on his life outside the house.
- That interview, his demeanour appeared determined
And a bit angry toward his father.
He was convinced that his father
Had something to do with this.
Told us that his father apparently abused him,
Abused him mentally, you know, verbally.
He would not refer to ed as his father.
He referred to him as ed.
- Eddie jr. Suggested that the father
Always ill-treated the mother,
And that's why he was the only person
That the son could think of as a possible murderer.
- According to their son, ed would call maggie stupid,
Call her useless, all in front of eddie, constantly.
- [narrator] investigators ask eddie jr.
Where he was that night.
- Eddie jr., his alibi was that he was
In the laboratory at university all through the evening,
Until he returned home.
So both of them were released
While the police then checked out both their alibis.
- [narrator] investigators have one way to track
Ed sr's comings and goings prior to the murder.
- Ed's apartment was right on the ocean.
Beautiful apartment.
There was a camera right above the doorway.
That was recording.
- The police got the security camera,
And they got it for the whole 24 hours.
- [narrator] while a team of investigators begins
Poring through the footage,
Ed is asked to officially identify maggie's body.
- Because he wasn't fully divorced,
He was the one who needed to go to the morgue
And recognise her body.
I worked as a little bit of his personal assistant
Of the business, and I remember going with him.
There was a lot of emotions.
He was broken.
He couldn't even look at the picture.
I was the person who saw the pictures and said,
"yes, this is maggie locascio."
I mean, it was very, very disturbing.
(tense music)
- [narrator] the evening after the incident,
An autopsy is performed,
And the report depicts an even more horrific scenario
Than detectives had imagined.
- And the autopsy report was really, really horrifying.
Maggie had been killed in three different ways.
(tense music)
- She was hit many times to disarm her,
On the top of the head with the asp.
That was bone-crushing, it is solid metal.
That likely stunned her initially,
But it also cracked her skull.
- She had a nearly severed pinky finger
And what that indicated to me is that
She was fighting for her life.
She had two stab wounds to the chest.
In addition, she had blood on the bottoms of her feet,
Which indicated that she fought
Whoever was attacking her.
She was on her feet before she ended up on the floor
Or on her back.
- The knife bends on her rib.
She had ligature marks around her neck
And she had petechiae eye in her eyes,
Meaning your eyes become bloodied.
(dramatic music)
So what we could surmise was that
The killer had taken her shirt
And used that to strangle her,
Because her shirt was quite bloody.
- So she had been strangled, she had been stabbed,
She'd been beaten with a police baton,
To the point that this steel baton was bent
From the force of it.
- And the coup de grace was he stamped on her chest.
(dramatic music)
And there was a bloody footprint of a shoe on her chest.
That's a crime of rage.
(dramatic music continues)
This was not a burglar.
It's a personal crime.
- [narrator] this clear crime of passion
Leads investigators to believe
That maggie's son could not be responsible.
- Eddie did not appear to be a violent type of person.
He was thin, he was calm,
He was actually pleasant to deal with.
He certainly didn't fit the picture of somebody
That would murder somebody in this fashion,
In this manner.
- [narrator] investigators still need to confirm
Ed jr's alibi on the day following the murder.
- Eddie jr. Said he was at the university of miami,
Which is not far from the scene, being within a mile or so.
I went to the college and spoke to the professor
And he verified where eddie was that entire evening.
Everything was checked out, everything was clear.
- [narrator] as miami investigators
Become more focused on ed sr.,
The next day they get a call about
A potential break in the case.
- So it was the day after Halloween we got a call
From coral gables police department
That they were called to a house that was in the exact area
Where this white truck was seen
On the night of the murder making a u-turn,
Two blocks away from the crime scene.
- The neighbour went out to see whether
Her garbage had been picked up,
And she sees that there is a green bag.
So she thought maybe her son had thrown out a green bag.
So she initially opened it up
And she knew it wasn't her son's,
'cause she saw the death kit.
Maggie locascio's murder,ratr
Miami pd receives a call about a suspicious gym bag,
Found blocks away from her home.
(dramatic music continues)
- Homicide came and they secured that green bag.
In that bag there was the sheath to the asp,
Maggie's identification and her credit cards,
And bloody latex gloves.
- They saw a knife in there and men's clothing.
- [narrator] csi techs take this new evidence to the lab
In hopes of recovering dna or fingerprints.
Investigators continue working their way
Through interviewing everyone who knew maggie and ed,
Starting with his coworkers.
- I find out at the police station that
They were looking for a suspect and, you know, I was like,
Okay, why do I, I am here when I'm just a somebody
Who works for this person.
I told them ed was very generous, very caring.
They said, well we're looking for a white pickup truck
With a canvas.
And I was like, "I don't know,
I don't know anybody with that."
But if I know I'll let you know.
- [narrator] that same day
They sit down with maggie's sister ursula
To gain more insight into the family dynamic.
- Ursula, maggie's elder sister, was very, very upset.
- Ursula was very much up on the problems that
Maggie was having,
'cause maggie shared that information with her.
Ursula insisted that
Edward had to have something to do with this,
And because of all these troubles
That maggie was having with him.
- We found out that that feud between eddie and ed
Would boil up, and ed would take it out on maggie.
Until the incidents became more and more violent.
In 1999, they had the one incident where ed
Not only had grabbed her by the arm in front of eddie,
But threw a statue at her.
- [narrator] ursula then tells investigators
That in June, 2001, four months before she was murdered,
Maggie locascio finally found the strength
To kick her husband ed out of the house
And file a restraining order against him.
- It was clear to me at that point
That she did a restraining order.
There was the abusive side of him at home
That she felt not safe around him.
- Edward fought that restraining order
Until it became permanent on October 23rd,
Seven days before the crime.
- Ed was upset about the restraining order
Because he was worried about, you know,
His clients and what people in society would say.
- He was out partying, spending money.
The one thing he didn't realise was maggie,
With her financial know-how, was watching.
- [narrator] the statement given by maggie's sister
Confirms eddie jr's account of the family dynamics,
But it doesn't exonerate either father or son
As potential suspects.
- [narrator] but the security footage taken
From ed sr's apartment does confirm his whereabouts
At the time of the murder.
- There were surveillance all around ed's building,
And it would show the parking lot where his car was
And him getting into his car or coming out,
And you could see him drive away.
In connection with when he showed up at the scene,
It all matched.
- So ed's alibi checked out.
That changed the course of what was happening
In the investigation.
- [narrator] investigators have ruled out ed sr.
As the killer, but they discover something suspicious
As they continue viewing the security footage.
- At ed's apartment, they see there's a guy at about 12:30.
- Trying to get into his condo,
Knocking at the door,
Failing to get in.
They didn't know who it was.
- And he became somebody that
We had an interest in speaking to.
- Could this possibly be the murderer?
- [narrator] as 48 hours pass in the investigation,
Detectives wrap up their interviews for the day
With no clear suspect.
- Around 7:00 p.M. We got released from the police stations
And ed is calling, calling, calling,
And he says, "let's go to eat something."
So we went to the restaurant
And the gentleman that was working with us at the time,
Just sitting next to me, and all of a sudden ed said,
"what kind of questions do they ask?"
He said, no, they're asking about you and maggie and,
You know, all normal questions.
I say to him, "you know, it's kind of weird,
They're looking for a white pickup truck."
They saw a white pickup truck leaving the scene
With a canvas.
And he goes, "oh I don't know
But my brother drives a honda like that."
And I said, "ed, I never ask you what your brother drives."
He goes to the restroom and the other employee goes,
"I've seen that white pickup truck.
His brother drives a white pickup truck."
(tense music)
And we left.
I called the detective and I said,
"I know where your white pickup truck is."
(rhythmic music)
- [narrator] two days after the murder,
Gudelay gonzalez reaches out to detectives
With a potentially huge break in the investigation.
- Gudelay called us and said michael locascio,
Who was eddie locascio's brother,
Who was living in north carolina,
Has been in town for the last several weekends
And he had a small white truck.
- [narrator] this incredible revelation
Has investigators wondering what else gudelay knows
About ed sr's brother michael.
- Michael was ed's younger brother.
He'd always messed up, he wasn't good at school,
While his elder brother ed was a successful accountant,
Had always done things properly.
And the younger brother emulated him, adored him.
Just wanted his approval and his companionship,
But he never got it.
Ed sr. Tried to keep him at arm's length.
- Gigi, ed locascio's brother michael
Didn't usually come to miami,
But she said that all of a sudden several,
Like three or four weekends in a row, he was in miami.
- It was sort of like a renewed found brotherhood
Between ed and michael,
Because never before michael came down to florida.
Their relationship wasn't that tight.
- [narrator] gudelay also reveals to detectives
A damning conversation she had with ed sr.
- About a few weeks prior to the murder,
I was in the office one morning filing
In the filing cabinet, and ed is sitting behind me
And he's making this comment like, "my brother is crazy.
He told me that if I wanted to get rid of the bitch
He'll do it for me."
- [narrator] after hearing this shocking information,
Detectives begin digging into the records they have
On ed's brother, michael locascio.
- Police go into their computer system
And they see that there is a michael locascio
In charlotte, north carolina.
- Learned he had several arrests,
Some of them were for extortion and some minor other crimes.
- They do a dmv, the department of motor vehicles check,
And discover that in fact michael does have a white truck
Which matches the description that they've received
From the initial police officers.
- [narrator] michael is further implicated
When detectives compare his photo id
To the security video taken at ed's condo.
(dramatic music)
- They were able to identify michael with the male
That they had seen on the security video
Outside ed sr's condominium.
- The officers could see michael coming back
To talk to ed about 12:45 that early morning hour.
- So, at this point, we had an interest in michael locascio.
- [narrator] detectives reach out to eddie jr.
To see what he knows about his uncle.
- We learned that he didn't have a close relationship
With michael locascio.
- Eddie jr. Had said that michael was
The black sheep of the family, the classic black sheep.
- It was clear that eddie certainly wouldn't have hired
Or tried to get michael locascio,
His uncle who he barely knew, to come kill his mother.
- [narrator] detectives make the 11-hour drive
From miami to charlotte.
- We went to north carolina to visit michael,
And we contacted him at his residence
And he was cooperative.
He admitted that he was in miami.
- [narrator] michael tells the detectives that he had made
A last minute decision to drive down to miami
To see what his brother ed sr. Was up to for Halloween.
- His own wife and child were out of town
So he was at a loose end
So he thought he would go down and see his bro,
But unfortunately hadn't been able to find him.
- He said that it was a new york yankee world series game
That night, and at eight o'clock at night
He went to a restaurant bar called fridays,
Which was right catty-corner across the street from
Ed locascio's condominium on miami beach.
And he said,
"I was there the whole night watching the world series."
- [narrator] detectives are surprised to learn from michael
That his pickup truck was at a shop
Just days after maggie's murder.
- And so we went to that shop
And we found that he brought it there
And the whole interior was stripped out
Of carpeting, seat covers.
Even the ceiling lining was all taken out
And there was also some water inside that truck.
- Police think, well maybe he's ripping out
All the blood evidence,
On top of which it had been hosed down,
Cleaned out with a high pressure hose.
- We ended up getting a swab from him for dna testing
And we came back to miami.
Michael was as good a suspect as any at this point.
- [narrator] back at locascio's office,
The situation becomes more stressful for gudelay gonzalez,
Who's become the investigators' trusted informant.
- I was still working at the office
Because I was told by detectives,
"continue your day to day, stay there,
Don't make any changes because the moment you do,
He's gonna know that something is happening."
I remember one day he slammed his hand on the desk
And he looks at me, he goes,
"you told detective that my brother murdered maggie,
That my brother drove the white pickup truck."
He got very aggravated with me
And I remember I was like playing the game.
I'm like, "I don't know what you're talking about."
He got in my face, but he kind of like went like this, like,
And I guess he realised he was about to lose his temper
And that's when I ran out.
Never came back.
- [narrator] while ed's behaviour is suspicious,
There's still no proof he had a hand in his wife's murder.
Investigators focus on building a case against michael
While they wait for the dna results.
- So one of the leads when we got back to miami
Was to check out his alibi,
And I went to the fridays restaurant
And I spoke to the employees there.
The employees first of all said no,
That guy came in after midnight that night.
So he wasn't there watching a world series game
And he wasn't there from eight o'clock until,
You know, after midnight.
- [narrator] two weeks after maggie's murder,
The dna test results are in.
- There was male dna there with maggie's dna
On the metal asp,
On all of the items in the bag,
And on the bloody glove.
- It didn't match eddie jr. Or his father eddie sr.
- But there was a dna hit as belonging to michael locascio.
(dramatic music)
- They discovered that his dna matched everything.
- [narrator] detectives now have all they need
To charge michael locascio
With his sister-in-law maggie's murder.
- We were able to get an arrest warrant in,
On michael locascio, and we went back to north carolina
And we ended up arresting him and interviewing him.
We tried to talk to him for like
An hour and a half, two hours.
He was acting like he was crazy.
He was staring at the wall, he was rolling his eyes,
He was not cooperating.
You could see it was an act, you know,
Because when we certainly contacted him,
He wasn't acting like that.
Now all of a sudden in the interview he's doing that.
He was gonna be loyal to his brother.
He was not gonna admit to anything.
- [narrator] after michael locascio's arrest
For his sister-in-law's murder,
He refuses to give a statement to police.
But even without a confession,
The prosecutor has confidence in his case against michael.
- It was a great case of dna that he had left
All over everything in his trail,
And he had the truck that matched.
It was not a circumstantial case.
- So from one point of view, there'd been a murder,
And we know that michael committed the crime.
Case closed, but the family were unhappy with that
Because they felt that ed sr. Was the brains behind it
And he was going to get away with it.
To an overwhelmed criminal justice system] due
In miami at the time, michael locascio waits in jail
For a trial date.
In the meantime, maggie's family insists
That both locascio brothers are held accountable.
- I met with the family, and maggie's sister, ursula,
She was very direct.
Her first discussion with me was, "eddie jr. And I,
We want ed to be arrested."
- Ursula is a driving force for eddie jr.
Make sure that we didn't turn our back
On this investigation.
Every day I was getting calls.
"what's going on next, what's happening here,
What's happening there?"
- I kind of agreed with ursula and eddie jr.
I just wasn't sure how to go about it yet.
But when I looked at the crime scene photos
Of what was in the getaway bag, something stuck out at me.
It was a water bottle from st. Teresa's cross country.
Now there would be no reason for michael
To have a water bottle
From a coral gables elementary school
On the cross country team.
But edward locascio sr., his brother,
Coached the team for many years.
To me, that connected michael and ed.
That ed had given michael a bag,
Not realising that he had had an old water bottle in there,
And that that connected him to his brother.
- [narrator] looking for a clear motive,
Investigators dig deeper into ed sr. And maggie's divorce.
So they reach out to maggie's divorce attorney
And find ed wasn't pleased with their impending settlement.
- In florida, if you start out as a young couple together
And you're married for so many years,
And they were married for a good 28 years,
She's gonna get half of everything.
That's just the way it works.
And ed knew that.
He was not gonna deal with half, ever.
He lived an incredibly high lifestyle.
He had a mercedes.
She had a mercedes.
Eddie jr. Went to the university of miami,
Which is a private institution, and didn't have any loans.
- [narrator] the divorce attorney tells investigators
That maggie had been growing suspicious of ed sr.,
And used her accounting expertise
To look into their finances.
- Her divorce attorney tells police
Maggie knew that ed just was not telling the truth
About his financial situation.
Eddie jr. Knew it.
He helped his mom.
They went through all of the paperwork together
And together they were able to see
Exactly what was happening.
Maggie had told the divorce attorney,
"I think he's funnelling money to the cayman islands."
(tense music)
Maggie had her scheduled deposition on October 31st,
To talk about his finances.
- She was going to court to tell the judge
Where she believed he had hidden the family wealth.
- Then the day before the hearing, she was murdered.
(dramatic music)
- The very next day he had his lawyer go in
And say, "she's dead now."
- His attorney said, "unfreeze my client's assets,
The divorce isn't going to happen
And he wants his money back."
- [narrator] now law enforcement have a very clear motive
For ed sr. To want maggie dead.
But investigators still need evidence
That ed masterminded the murder of his wife.
- Pulled michael's own records,
Including his calls that he made to his brother
Locascio in miami.
- We see that all of a sudden,
Between August and October 30th, 39 calls.
When there had been two, three in the years past.
That was pretty telling evidence.
- At this point, we felt that we had plenty of evidence
Against edward locascio circumstantially,
To charge him with this crime.
The state attorney, the case wanted a little more.
- We could not trace any money.
We had accountants look.
There was no money exchanged between michael and ed.
- [narrator] without a clear payment,
Attorneys feel they can't move forward
With the arresting ed, putting them back at square one.
The case stands still for four years.
- During that four years,
They weren't sure that the case against ed could hold up.
We're watching to see what happens.
Is ed getting into any trouble?
Is he talking to anybody?
- Meanwhile, ed gets on with his life.
He's living with his girlfriend.
- He started to become very aggressive with her.
She didn't like that.
- Ed and his girlfriend,
They had a fight and she reported it.
And she told us that he, edward said to her that
"you're gonna end up just like my wife."
(tense music)
You know, during the heat
Of this angry exchange between them.
Basically indicating to her that he would do to her
What was done to maggie.
(tense music)
- [narrator] four years after the murder of maggie locascio,
Ed's girlfriend reports the threats of physical violence.
Authorities finally have the last piece of evidence needed
To move forward with charging ed sr.
- We had enough to present to the state attorney who said,
"there's plenty here to be able to get a conviction
On this case."
- [narrator] on October 21st, 2005,
Nearly four years from the day maggie locascio was killed,
They arrest him.
- When I find out that ed got arrested,
I felt a sense of relief.
I felt a sense of freedom that I can go out
And not have to worry about
Whether somebody is looking after me
Or somebody wants to hurt me.
- [narrator] at the station,
Ed is placed into a room for questioning.
- Michael was ed's younger brother,
But there was another brother, an older brother,
Who heard about the arrest, contacted the police and said,
"listen, can I come and talk to my brother?"
- So we put him in a room,
In that room we have a secret camera.
- That is not a statement of an innocent man.
- He'd never admitted that he was behind it
Or he did anything with this homicide.
- [narrator] detectives go back to michael
To see if he will turn on his brother.
- Michael was steadfast.
He was not gonna talk to us.
He didn't care what we asked.
Michael was facing the death penalty.
He wasn't gonna negotiate life or death.
- [narrator] in February, 2006,
Michael is the first brother to go to trial.
- I felt pretty confident that he's gonna get convicted.
There was just lots of good solid evidence.
(tense music)
- [narrator] at the end of a five week trial,
The jury returns with a guilty verdict
And michael is sentenced to life in prison.
- Ursula and eddie jr. Were pleased,
But our work was not done.
- [narrator] 11 months later, on February 12th, 2007,
It's ed's turn to have his day in court.
- So while michael's trial had been pretty black and white,
Ed sr's trial was much more difficult.
All the evidence, what there was, was circumstantial.
- I think the most valuable information
As witnesses would be gudelay gonzalez.
(tense music)
- Testifying was nerve-wracking,
'cause at that point I haven't seen him in years,
But I knew that maggie deserved justice
At the end of the day, and that's what I was there for.
Somebody needed to be a voice for her.
- What I saw with ed locascio when he was on trial
In front of the jury, he seemed arrogant.
He seemed like, you know, shaking his head
When witnesses were testifying, he seemed unremorseful.
- [narrator] ed locascio jr. Takes the stand
To testify against his father, ed sr.,
For killing his mother, maggie.
- He really looked like a deer in the headlights.
I think eddie actually softened up that jury
And the jury realised the pain that that child suffered.
- After all the evidence was heard,
All the emotion in a trial of a son accusing a father,
A father accusing the son of murdering the mother,
The jury took just two hours to find ed sr. Guilty
Of murder in the first degree.
- He got a life recommendation.
- [narrator] in 2018, ed locascio sr. Dies in prison.
- There was a feud within the family.
The husband taking all these risks
Just to stop the mother of his child getting any money.
- I don't think anyone deserves to be beat
And broken alive to death.
It's scary and it's brutal and she fought for her life
To the end.
She fought.
She fought with her life until she couldn't do it anymore.
No one deserves that.
No one.
(gentle music)
Eddie is an amazing human who's a victim that
Unfortunately his father decided to murder his mother,
Which was everything for him.
- Ed jr. Did inherit the family fortune,
Including the house,
But he couldn't bear to ever go back to that house.
That house has sat there abandoned, derelict.
A very, very sad monument, but he didn't want to sell it
And sully the memory of his mother.
These are all things beyond money.