- FEMALE NARRATOR: Two couples form
the unbreakable bond of friendship.
- The four of them started cycling together.
They were all really great friends.
- NARRATOR: But when one of them goes missing,
their friendships are put to the test.
- We tried calling her and uh she- she didn't answer.
- Her roommate was so scared and- and worried
that something may have happened to her.
- NARRATOR: A cryptic dream could hold the key
to solving the mystery.
- It was kind of strange. She wouldn't get out of bed.
- She's had this dream where someone may have hurt
or someone may have killed.
- NARRATOR: The intensive investigation will expose
a series of brutal betrayals.
- He was upset, he found out that the woman he loved
was with another man.
- All of the sudden, both marriages fall apart.
- NARRATOR: As detectives get closer to the truth,
they discover what started as a dream
soon unfolds into a nightmare.
- She was beaten until the person couldn't beat anymore.
- I think that's when people say somebody's evil,
that's what evil is.
- *
- NARRATOR: February 15th, 2010. Indiatlantic, Florida.
It's just after 9 PM
as personal trainer Mark Knopf anxiously waits for his client,
Kelly Brennan.
- Kelly had an appointment in the evening,
uh, with a personal trainer and then she didn't show up.
She had never not shown up.
That would be very out of character for Kelly.
- Mark went out to check the parking lot
to see if her car was there, and couldn't find it.
He said, "Hey, this is totally unlike her,
she's always early."
- NARRATOR: Worried, Mark begins calling
to track Kelly down.
It's not long before the news reaches her roommate,
Stephanie Griffith.
- Stephanie Griffith, she last saw Kelly Brennan
that morning at 6 a.m., um, when Kelly was leaving for work.
She hadn't spoken with her throughout the day.
She was concerned because with Kelly,
she always kept a regular schedule.
- No one's heard from her, and they get very worried
at that point, because she always answers her phone.
- A little after 11 o'clock, um, Stephanie Griffith um
decided to call 911 to report her friend,
Kelly Brennan, is missing.
- NARRATOR: Deputies from
the Brevard County Sheriff's Office arrive
at Stephanie and Kelly's apartment at 11:21 PM,
hoping to get more information
for their missing person's report.
- When Stephanie arrived home after getting off of work
at 9:30 that night, she did see that Kelly
had taken her bicycle.
Her scrubs that she had worn to work were in a hamper.
So, she knew she had come home to leave for the gym.
- TOD GOODYEAR: Stephanie seemed to believe that
this was extremely out of character, and distressing,
because she was so punctual.
So, we get to the background to help us determine
their activities,
the people they may have been in contact with.
Where do they work? Do they have any medical issues?
Those are the types of things we're looking for.
- We were very on edge, wondering what happened to her.
We were very worried about it.
- NARRATOR: Born in 1963,
Kelly Brennan grew up in New Jersey.
With four sisters, Kelly had plenty of experience
getting along with others.
- She had just a cute smile, and she was always pleasant,
and people did, people loved Kelly. Absolutely.
- LUIGI IERVASI JR.: Kelly had a lot of friends.
Everybody that knew her, you know,
would eventually become a friend.
- NARRATOR: After graduating high school,
Kelly dreamed of attending nursing school,
and took a job at a local seafood restaurant
to pay her own way.
- KIM MERIEDETH: She was a very hard worker,
and she worked a couple jobs.
We worked the four til midnight shift most of the time.
- NARRATOR: After nursing school, Kelly set her sights
on establishing a successful career.
- She worked as a nurse at the hospital,
so had a job that was very physical,
and had a great compassion for people.
- LUIGI: Around the hospital, Kelly was known as a Sarge,
because of her work ethic.
She would always push and strive to do better,
and she would push others around her to do better.
- NARRATOR: Outside of work, Kelly longed for love.
And in 2003, she found it with an old friend
named Gino Rallo.
- Kelly Brennan and Gino met while working at the restaurant.
Gino was the manager of the restaurant she was working at
to put herself through school.
- LUIGI: He was always a nice guy, easy to talk to.
Very, very awesome host.
- They started to grow intimate the more time
they spent together.
They started a relationship, eventually got married.
- LUIGI: Kelly and Gino seemed very happy.
They would have little get-togethers at their house,
and it was always a good time
and very happy, upbeat atmosphere.
- NARRATOR: But a diagnosis Kelly had received
in her early thirties sometimes took a toll.
- LUIGI: Kelly had M.S. It affected her nervous system.
And some days, she'd be a little slow.
She would move with difficulty and, a little weak.
- KIM: She always looked very healthy, very fit.
When I was told she had M.S., I- I was shocked.
- NARRATOR: Kelly refused to let the diagnosis control her life.
- LUIGI: When Kelly had the flare-ups,
she would power through and keep going.
She wasn't a quitter.
That was something that was very inspiring.
- Kelly was a real advocate for M.S.
She would do bike rides for fundraisers
to help raise money and awareness.
- NARRATOR: Kelly also kept herself busy
with friends who shared her passion for staying active.
Including 38-year-old Sheila Graham-Trott.
- TOD: She moved here from Canada
and was drawn here by the coastline
and the surf and the water that we have.
She was a diving instructor,
and Brevard County's a great place for that.
- KIM: She was good enough to teach diving.
She was very smart.
I met both Kelly and Sheila at the same time.
Kelly Brennan, and Sheila, and myself,
we were all servers together in a restaurant.
We closed together every night, and we were a tight-knit bunch.
We became great friends, and stayed friends.
- NARRATOR: The restaurant industry also helped Sheila
find the love of her life, Dan Trott.
- KIM: He's attractive, he's funny, and he's charming,
and it's not hard to see why he, you know, could pick up girls.
- NARRATOR: Dan dreamed of becoming a pilot,
and when the couple married on August 26th, 1989,
Sheila worked nights and weekends to pay
for Dan to go to flight school.
- I think that she looked at it like, "I'm a good wife
and I'm supporting my husband in everything he does."
- NARRATOR: Eventually, Sheila's hard work paid off.
Dan became a pilot, and the couple started a family.
- They had two kids, Graham and Creighton.
- KIM: She always took good care of the kids.
Made sure they had what they needed.
And she was a good wife.
She, you know, made dinner and poured a cocktail
when Dan walked through the door.
- MARLON BUGGS: She worked in the restaurant business,
and she also did real estate.
At some point, Dan had actually became involved
in city politics and became the mayor of Indiatlantic.
- KIM: I voted for him, because I felt like
I was voting for Sheila.
Because Sheila was on top of everything.
She knew everything going on in Indiatlantic.
- NARRATOR: While Sheila and Dan rose to prominence,
they kept in touch with their old friends Kelly and Gino
as much as possible.
- Kelly got into biking and wanted to be a triathlete.
Sheila was into biking.
And then both of their husbands got involved.
- The four of them started cycling together.
They were all really great friends.
- NARRATOR: But in 2009, one half of the cycling group
hit a speed bump.
- Dan was cheating on Sheila.
I'm sure that Sheila's heart was probably breaking,
but she didn't make like it was.
Sheila was, you know, she was loyal.
She was a loyal wife,
and wanted to hold her marriage together,
so she tried everything, but that didn't work for her.
- NARRATOR: Finally, in March, 2009,
the couple started talking divorce,
and Dan moved out of the family home.
- I do know the struggles that he put into Sheila's life.
I know he did, he made her crazy,
because he did cheat on her.
- NARRATOR: But Sheila and Dan weren't the only ones
whose marriage had hit a breaking point.
- Things got bad with Gino and Kelly.
- TOD: All of a sudden, both marriages fall apart.
It's an interesting little twist
of people that were close friends.
There had been some problems between Gino and her.
Gino wanted to reconcile, but Kelly was pretty set
on the fact that she wanted out of that relationship
and to move on with her life.
- KIM: Kelly moved in with Stephanie.
They were, you know, close people.
And Kelly needed a place to go,
and Stephanie had a- a place for her.
- NARRATOR: But now, less than a year later,
on February 15th, 2010, Kelly mysteriously goes missing.
And investigators hope Stephanie can help them find her.
- She knows Kelly's activities pretty well
on a day-to-day basis.
She knows that Kelly left for work,
but she hasn't seen her since, in person.
- MARLON: Kelly suffered from multiple sclerosis,
and it is a disease that affects the central nervous system.
- LUIGI: We were worried with the history of the M.S.
that she maybe had a flare up
and she could have lost control of the car
because of either weakness or a seizure or something like that.
So, we worried about that.
- Stephanie was so scared and worried
that something may have happened to her.
- We were determined to find Kelly,
and hopefully to find her alive.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: an unprecedented curve ball
throws investigators down a strange path.
- TOD: She's seeing someone may have hurt,
or someone may have killed during an argument.
- NARRATOR: Just before midnight on February 15th, 2010,
investigators with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office
are on a desperate search
for 46-year-old Kelly Brennan,
who suffers from M.S.
- TOD: We begin investigating that night
because of the fact of she could be an endangered person
because of her medical condition.
- MARLON: She may have had an episode
while driving to her gym appointment,
maybe was involved in a car crash.
Maybe was transported to a hospital.
- At that point in time, you just check local hospitals.
"Hey, has somebody come into your emergency room like that?"
- MARLON: We sent a BOLO out, be on the lookout,
to other agencies, with the tag information
in an attempt to locate the vehicle.
- NARRATOR: After having no luck locating Kelly,
deputies head to her gym to speak with her personal trainer,
Mark Knopf.
Mark says that although Kelly never showed up,
someone else did.
- It was probably about 9:30, he actually saw Dan Trott arrive.
And Dan was also concerned when personal trainer
said that she hadn't arrived for the gym.
- Mark does tell us that originally Kelly worked out
with her soon to be ex-husband, Gino.
And recently he had noticed that she was working out
with Dan all the time.
So his thought process on that was that
there must be some kind of,
a little more than a friend relationship going on.
- NARRATOR: As the sun rises on February 16th,
detectives fan out in search of Dan.
But before they track him down,
dispatch receives an odd call from his mother-in-law.
- TOD: About seven-thirty the next morning,
Indiatlantic Police Department gets a 911 call
from Margret Byers, who is the mother of Sheila Trott,
and calls in and says, "You need to come out here."
- NARRATOR: Margret says her daughter can't stop
rambling on about one of her friends.
- MARLON: She was calling out that she sees Kelly's face,
Kelly's been hurt. She provides them
with the name of the person, Kelly Brennan.
- NARRATOR: Fearing their missing person's case
may be turning into something more sinister,
the Brevard County Sheriff's Office immediately responds
to Sheila's home.
- She doesn't know that we have a missing person report.
It's not been broadcast to the news.
As we respond, we're looking at the fact that
Sheila's Dan's soon to be ex-wife.
Dan may be, Kelly Brennan, our missing person's boyfriend.
- We start to treat it as,
okay, with this, we need to get serious now.
We need to look deeper into this.
- NARRATOR: When officers arrive at the home,
Sheila's mother Margret and teenage sons,
Graham and Creighton, confront them
with a bizarre story about the previous evening.
- NARRATOR: Sheila's son says the event was so alarming
he had actually called 911 himself at 11:07 PM
on February 15th, the same night Kelly went missing.
- She goes to the hospital. They run a series of tests.
They find nothing medically wrong at that point
and so she's released to come home.
- At that point, the kids called grandmother
to get some assistance.
- MARLON: The grandmother had concern enough
that she actually called 911 to report that
Kelly was possibly hurt.
- NARRATOR: After speaking with her family,
the officer heads upstairs to talk with Sheila.
- MARLON: So, when we're in the room talking to her,
obviously it was kind of, you know, strange.
She was in bed. She wouldn't get out of bed.
- TOD: She seems to have had some type of mental break,
and yet she's had this dream where she's seeing a face
that's of a person named Kelly that either she may have hurt,
or someone may have hurt, or someone may have killed
during an argument.
- NARRATOR: Sheila insists her friend Kelly Brennan
is in danger, and she soon reveals a clue as to where.
- She kept saying, "I see Marks Landing.
She's hurt. She's at Marks Landing."
Marks Landing is pretty much like a residential area, um,
of homes located, um, pretty far down in the south end
of Melbourne Beach.
And unless you live in Brevard County, um,
you're probably not likely to come across it.
There's very few houses that are actually on the beach,
because of the way the dune lines.
- TOD: The first reaction that we have when we hear
some of these things is we need to send people to Marks Landing.
I would give it probably a zero percent
that she can come up with those specifics out of a dream
and not be involved in some form or fashion.
It's not out in the papers, this is the next morning.
This is overnight. So, she wouldn't know it officially.
- NARRATOR: Investigators quickly dispatch a team
to Marks Landing,
the location where Sheila believes Kelly may be in danger.
- MARLON: She didn't give a particular location
of exactly where we could find Kelly.
We sent several units to do a search of the area,
both in cars and on foot.
During that search, they determined that the dunes
themselves were heavily vegetated.
- When the police initially went there,
they initially couldn't find her.
- MARLON: So at that point, we requested a helicopter
to give us a better aerial search view.
Almost immediately upon arrival of our star helicopter,
the pilots noticed a body.
- Once our crime scene investigators and everything
get there and take a closer look,
she's wearing athletic attire.
The first officer, based on the clothing description,
and the pictures that he has, he's confident
that this is Kelly Brennan.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: a deadly nightmare becomes reality.
- You could tell she had a lot of blunt force trauma.
It was kind of a gruesome scene.
You could tell by looking at the injuries, this was personal.
- NARRATOR: And new suspects emerge.
- He had made threats against her.
- NARRATOR: February 16th, 2010.
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Kelly Brennan
have just located her body in Marks Landing,
the area where her friend, Sheila Graham-Trott,
thought she might be hurt.
- MARLON: You could tell she had a lot
of blunt force trauma to the head area.
Her hair was kind of matted and covering her face,
from the blood.
It was kind of a gruesome scene.
- TOD: It didn't look like she had been there
a very long time, but possibly had been there overnight.
It did not look like there was a spree attack
or some kind of blitz attack that occurred right there.
There would have been a tremendous amount of blood
on the scene. There would be evidence of a large struggle
And those types of things, they weren't present.
- There appeared to be some type of a drag mark
through the sand, leading up into that area
where we finally located her body.
That was a telltale sign that this happened somewhere else,
somebody brought her to this location.
- NARRATOR: While Kelly's body is transferred for an autopsy,
detectives are left with a pressing question:
How did Sheila know that Kelly's body was on the beach?
- I've worked cases when I was in special victims
where we've had psychics call us and tell us about,
you know, visions they've seen.
But here was a woman telling us about a dream
about a particular friend and a particular incident
in a particular location.
It doesn't seem plausible at all.
The fact that she's seeing Kelly's face
tells me that, you know, she was there when it happened.
- The only way someone would know where the body was,
if they put it there.
- If she didn't do it, she was there when it was done
or knows a lot about it.
- NARRATOR: Detectives return to Sheila's home,
and turn their attention to Dan Trott,
Sheila's soon to be ex-husband,
and Kelly's possible boyfriend.
- MARLON: Once we found Kelly Brennan's body,
Dan Trott had responded to Sheila's house,
and while he was there is when he was interviewed
by one of the agents from the homicide unit.
- NARRATOR: Detectives question Dan about his contact with Kelly
the evening she was reported missing.
- MARLON: Dan Trott and his wife had been separated
for almost a year during this time.
And during their separation, he developed
this relationship with Kelly Brennan.
Their relationship got more intimate,
and this relationship she has with Dan Trott is growing.
- NARRATOR: Dan says that in early 2009,
he and Sheila filed for divorce.
- He did not live at home with his soon to be ex-wife,
he actually had a residence somewhere else,
and he had started in a relationship with Kelly.
- NARRATOR: According to Dan,
the relationship wasn't well received by his ex.
- NARRATOR: Dan claims Sheila
wasn't the only jealous spouse in the mix.
- Kelly had been married to Gino.
They were still legally married,
but she had moved on and was now seeing Dan.
Gino I don't think knew that.
- NARRATOR: But, Dan says, on Christmas Eve 2009,
Gino somehow found out about Kelly's new flame.
- MARLON: Gino burst into the residence.
Obviously, he was upset, and he had a blunt object
that he was able to use and hit Dan Trott about the head.
- Kelly is begging him to stop, you know,
telling him to quit, to leave.
And at some point, she says she's calling the police,
or they actually dial 911. Gino runs off
and hides from the police response.
- NARRATOR: Dan says after Gino left him bruised on the floor,
he thought everything was over, but he was wrong.
- Kelly went back to the house that night,
she went back to Gino's house.
- MARLON: She confronts Gino about the incident
that happened with Dan. They get into an argument.
Gino's upset. He ends up putting his hands on Kelly.
She ends up calling 911. Law enforcement arrives,
but no one was arrested, and Kelly left.
- NARRATOR: Dan claims that
when Kelly quickly filed for divorce,
Gino felt Dan was stealing his wife.
- He was calling Dan, just leaving messages,
um, threatening him about the whole incident.
- NARRATOR: While Dan's insight
casts heavy suspicion on Gino,
detectives must clear Dan as a suspect first.
- MARLON: Dan Trott was an airline pilot
for one of the local airlines,
and he was on duty that day.
Dan had spoke with Kelly at six-thirty,
and he still had not flown into, um, or arrived,
in Brevard County.
The timeline of him between that time
and actually arriving at the gym at nine-thirty
didn't give him the ability to come back to Melbourne,
commit this crime, be able to drive
all the way down to Marks Landing.
- TOD: It would be at least 45 minutes from the gym
to get down there to Marks Landing.
We were able to confirm actual times
and- and lock in his timeframe of alibi to, uh, to show that
he wasn't able to commit this crime.
- NARRATOR: After clearing Dan, investigators set their sights
on Gino Rallo.
- There's plenty of reasons to look at Gino,
as far as being a person that could possibly hurt her.
And so we have to take that seriously and look at him.
- NARRATOR: Detectives become even more focused on Gino
when the medical examiner reveals the results
of Kelly's autopsy.
- GARY BEATTY: There was multiple, multiple
blows to the head.
No observable defensive wounds whatsoever,
which suggests that the initial blow
came from behind and incapacitated her.
- TOD: It was blunt force trauma.
And their most likely object was that it was possibly a hammer.
They did say tire iron as a possibility.
- MARLON: Someone was so brutal and with force
that it completely cracked the skull
and left actual holes in the skull.
You could tell by looking at injuries, this was personal.
She was beaten until the person couldn't beat anymore.
- NARRATOR: Detectives can't help but notice
the similarities between Kelly's cause of death
and Gino's attack on Dan a few weeks earlier.
- My first thought was Gino must have killed Kelly.
That was my first thought.
- NARRATOR: Detectives rush to meet Gino
at the home he used to share with Kelly.
- TOD: He was very cautiously cooperative.
I think partly due to he probably figured
he was a suspect.
Of course, that makes you very apprehensive
talking to the police, not wanting to say the wrong thing.
- NARRATOR: Gino says he initially found out about
his wife's infidelity from a friend,
who's name is all too familiar to investigators...
- Gino told us that he had been receiving information
from Sheila Trott about his wife's relationship
with Dan Trott.
- KIM: She had written a lot of letters, you know,
"Gino, Kelly's cheating on you with Dan."
And like, I remember one letter Gino even writing back,
"You're crazy, leave me alone."
- He never really looked into
or tried to find out if there was this relationship.
- NARRATOR: According to Gino, he refused to believe
the rumor about his wife and Dan,
until one night in December of 2009.
- Sheila gave information to Gino and just kind
left it as, "If you don't believe me, check for yourself."
Gino was overcome with curiosity,
so he drove to the residence.
- MARLON: Gino, um, found out about the relationship.
And it was shortly after this incident,
Kelly decided to move out of the residence, um,
and she moved in with Stephanie.
- NARRATOR: Gino says that though his jealousy
got the best of him then, he is not responsible
for Kelly's death, and he can prove it.
- TOD: Coming back to town,
he stopped at a couple of different businesses
that we could time date-stamp.
- The last time she was known to be alive
was when she talked with her estranged husband Gino
at about 7 o'clock.
She was supposed to have been meeting her trainer
at approximately 9 o'clock.
So, it's very likely that the murder occurred
sometime between those points in time.
Police were able to go to that drugstore
and find him on the store surveillance camera
at the time he claimed to have been there.
That store video was the conclusive evidence
that he couldn't have done it.
- NARRATOR: With Kelly's current and former lovers
seemingly in the clear, one suspect remains.
- And now we've got Sheila. Number one on the list.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: a pair of witnesses
finally reveal a gruesome secret.
- KIM: She said she killed Kelly.
They said, "Fine, then let's go, show us.'
- They drove down to Marks Landing,
and she showed them Kelly's body.
- NARRATOR: Detectives investigating
the brutal murder of Kelly Brennan
have zeroed in on her friend Sheila Graham-Trott
as their prime suspect.
- We did try to re-establish contact with-
with Sheila and her boys
to conduct additional interviews,
but at that point they were no longer willing
to speak with us.
- NARRATOR: With Sheila no longer cooperating,
investigators now shift focus to where Kelly
was actually killed.
- The last place that we can figure she must have been,
uh, would have been at Stephanie's house.
Investigators go back to the house again to take a look.
- Stephanie's house, it's several miles from the dumpsite.
She has trees that border her front yard
along the roadway.
Right off the bat, we noticed there was tire marks
leading into the grass.
There was like a matted area of the grass,
where it looked like somebody had sprayed a bunch of water.
There were divots in the ground from where
it appeared to be like a hammer striking
and hitting into the dirt.
- That would strongly suggest
that this is where the crime occurred.
Hard to come up with another reasonable explanation of that.
- NARRATOR: Down the street, patrol officers
make another discovery.
- GARY: Kelly's car was found abandoned
in a parking lot of a, uh, condo complex a few miles away.
- MARLON: There was a large amount of blood
in the passenger's side floorboard of the vehicle.
- NARRATOR: With the discovery of Kelly's vehicle,
detectives finally have a theory about what happened
on February 15th.
- MARLON: I believe she made it home from work,
I believe she changed.
She loaded her bicycle in the back of her vehicle.
I think at some point, she was walking back in the house
and her attacker came up from behind her.
Struck her with the first blow, which put her down,
and she didn't have a fighting chance.
The tire tracks at that point assumed to be
Kelly's vehicle being pulled into the yard
so that the attacker could place her into the vehicle.
- This isn't just an accidental shooting
or anything like that,
this was a brutal personal attack on another human being.
- NARRATOR: Detectives canvass the neighborhood
and find one neighbor who remembers
seeing something unusual on February 15th.
- About eight-thirty that night, he described a light-colored
or white vehicle. And Sheila has a white vehicle.
- NARRATOR: According to the neighbor,
he also saw a woman standing in the yard.
- The neighbor who saw someone out in the front yard
at approximately 8:30 described that person
as having blonde hair, which Ms. Graham-Trott does,
and then you have her story to the police,
"I had a dream about all this."
- MARLON: We did a search warrant at Sheila's residence.
We seized her vehicle and one of the pieces of evidence
that we recovered from the vehicle was blood splatter
that was found on the passenger side of her vehicle.
That piece of evidence happened to be the blood
of Kelly Brennan.
Overall, the evidence that we had,
everything led to Sheila.
- NARRATOR: On February 17th, 2010,
a judge issues a warrant for Sheila's arrest
on the charges of 1st degree murder.
- They, like, got her at a corner
and came from all directions, and- and pulled the car over.
- MARLON: At that point, she had nothing to say to us.
She didn't ask any questions.
She didn't ask why we were arresting her.
Um, she just remained quiet.
- NARRATOR: As the trial approaches,
prosecutors make one final attempt
to extract information from Sheila's sons.
- MARLON: For a couple of years there-
there was really not much to do but wait
and be prepared for trial.
But at some point prior to the trial,
the state attorney's office subpoenaed the two boys,
Sheila's sons.
And although they were represented by an attorney,
they were given the opportunity
to provide depositions to the state.
- NARRATOR: The boys' lawyer agrees on one condition.
- I was not going to allow them to testify
unless there was immunity given.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors agree to grant Sheila's sons
full immunity.
On August 26th, 2014, four and a half years
since the murder of Kelly Brennan,
the boys, now aged 21 and 23, finally open up
about their home life and mother.
- During those depositions,
they provided information that Dan is the one
pushing for the divorce.
And although they were going through the divorce,
I don't think she really wanted the divorce.
- BRYNN BRITO: I believe that the boys
had to take care of their mother a lot.
I'm sure that there were a lot of episodes
where the mother was hysterical and crying
over this divorce.
- NARRATOR: The boys tell prosecutors
that once their father began dating Kelly,
their mother's behavior became more erratic.
- Deep down, I think she still loved Dan,
and she blamed Kelly for taking Dan away from her.
- KIM: I had been getting weird texts from her.
So, she wasn't herself.
- NARRATOR: On the night of February 15th, 2010,
the boys say their mother had spent the day
repainting their home, when she suddenly said
she had to go to Walmart,
and didn't return home until 11 PM.
- TOD: We have now these four and a half hours
that fit into that timeframe of would she be able
to commit a murder, take someone to Marks Landing,
and come back home. She has the time to do it.
- MARLON: She returns home pretty much empty-handed.
She's wearing different clothing.
- BRYNN: The mother was acting completely unhinged
and unmanageable.
- KIM: She did tell the boys
that she thought that- that she killed Kelly.
And Graham said to her, "That's crazy,
you didn't kill Kelly."
And she said, "No, I did."
He said, "Then where's the body?"
And she told them, "Marks Landing."
So, I don't know which one of the kids it was,
but they said, "Fine, then let's go, show us."
- So, they drove down to Marks Landing
and Sheila showed them Kelly's body.
- GARY: What the sons were confronted with now is,
Mom says this was a dream, but guess what?
It isn't a dream.
- KIM: The thought that the kids saw that up and in real life,
makes me sick to my stomach.
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
just when investigators think the case is closed,
their prime suspect has one final story to tell.
- GARY: While she was sitting in the county jail,
she wrote an extensive letter.
And in that letter, she said,
"Oh, my memory has come back to me."
- KIM: She said, "I saw somebody
having a confrontation with her."
- She said, "I saw her get killed out in her front yard."
- NARRATOR: In September of 2014,
Sheila Graham-Trott is given a choice:
force her two sons to endure testifying against her,
or take a plea bargain.
- That plea bargain would have avoided her children
having to testify.
So, if anyone's ever testified in court,
that's pretty traumatic.
And so Ms. Trott could have avoided that for her children,
and she chose not to.
- KIM: Sheila shouldn't have put her kids through all this.
She should've stepped up to the plate,
and she should've told the truth.
- NARRATOR: Instead, Sheila doubles down on her innocence.
On September 3rd, 2014, prosecutors receive a letter
Sheila wrote to her friend, Kim Meriedeth.
- GARY: While she was sitting in the county jail,
she wrote an extensive letter.
And in that letter, she said,
"Oh, my memory has come back to me.
"It turns out that this was not a dream,
that I actually saw Kelly get murdered."
- NARRATOR: In the letter, Sheila claims
she had gone over to Kelly's house that night
to talk to her about Dan.
- She was the kind of person that's like,
"I'm gonna go confront her, I'm going- I'm gonna talk to her."
She said, "I parked around the corner,
"and I walked around and I saw somebody
having a confrontation with her."
- NARRATOR: Sheila claims it was too dark
to see who the other person was,
but she could tell when the man attacked Kelly.
- It had every blow to the head,
it had all this description.
- GARY: She said, "I saw her get killed out in her front yard,
"and then I saw the killer load her body into her vehicle
"and drive her to where it was found,
and I followed them there."
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe that Sheila
is actually describing how she carried out Kelly's murder.
- TOD: My view of the letter that Sheila wrote,
when I read it, is it's a confession.
It has so much detail, uh, as far as actions that were taken.
It doesn't make sense that you would watch a crime like this
be committed and then follow the person around
and not call the police.
- NARRATOR: Undeterred by Sheila's letter,
the trial begins in September of 2014.
In their opening arguments, prosecutors tell the jury
they believe Sheila first tried to get Kelly's husband Gino
to end the affair for her.
- Sheila figured since she wasn't reaching Dan,
that by letting Gino know of this relationship,
it would cause a disturbance on that side of the relationship
that might be able to pull Kelly away from Dan.
- NARRATOR: When that failed, prosecutors insist
Sheila took matters into her own hands.
- MARLON: So my belief is that originally
she probably went there to confront her,
and I think with all the anger that she had built up,
that it was a crime of opportunity.
Sheila came up behind her, put her down,
and just continued to beat her out of anger.
- She then loaded Kelly's body into Kelly's car,
drove her to where she disposed the body,
then disposed of her, then abandoned Kelly's car.
- LUIGI: Sheila was a classic example of someone
that let jealousy control her and her--
and she just, uh, just snapped.
- NARRATOR: While prosecutors rely on the testimony
of Sheila's sons to secure their case,
Sheila's defense insists there are other people
who wanted Kelly dead.
- Her attorneys were trying to lean in
to create that reasonable doubt
by presenting as much as they could about Gino.
- NARRATOR: But will the jury believe it?
- GARY: This is a straightforward case.
The verdict came back guilty.
- KIM: There was just too much evidence.
She looked at me a couple times, no emotion.
She didn't cry, she- she- there was no emotion.
- NARRATOR: On September 16th, 2014,
Sheila is sentenced to life in prison
for first-degree premeditated murder.
- GARY: I think she's clearly where she belongs.
She killed somebody.
Um, she did it in a very brutal fashion.
- I believe that when you behave in a manner
that Sheila Trott did that the only answer is life in prison.
- NARRATOR: To those close to the case,
it's a reminder of just how consuming jealousy can be.
- She thought Kelly absolutely betrayed her,
and Kelly did betray her.
But, she didn't deserve to die.
- BRYNN: Something like this
is pure anger and revenge.
And that is the brutality of it all.
And I think that's when people say somebody's evil,
that's what evil is.
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