♪ dark clouds they come ♪
♪ in the heart of the darkness beats a truth ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ in the heart of the darkness beats a truth ♪
I think this is the most unique case we've ever had.
- Four people killed. I mean-- - a quadruple?
How many quadruples did you work in your whole career?
Oh, man. I would say less than five.
I can think of three that are prosecuted.
The main one that I did was a dope killing.
This doesn't look like a dope killing.
And why do you need to kill people
When they're in their 60s and 80s?
And it's on Halloween night, honest to god.
Yeah. How odd.
Steve and I are back to help
The anderson county sheriff's office
Look into one of the biggest
And most famous cold cases in south carolina.
The 2015 quadruple murder
Of beloved couple mike and cathy scott
And their elderly mothers, barbara and violet.
All four of them were brutally stabbed,
Shot point-blank,
And discovered by cathy's daughter, amy.
This is a case that terrified the whole community
And brought a lot of media attention.
Newsman: Monday afternoon, four adults were found dead
Inside a home in pendleton.
Investigators say the victims didn't have time to fight back.
Those are probably the most significant knife injuries
I have ever seen. Their throats are slashed,
Their stab wounds penetrating into the lungs.
Then there's that coup de grâce. Postmortem gunshot wound.
At least one in everybody's head, two in some.
Whoever did this wanted them dead,
And they wanted that money.
Yeah.
Spingola: Mike and cathy didn't trust banks,
And it was believed that they kept
Tens of thousands of dollars in cash in their house,
Money that was stolen from the scene.
But who else knew about the cash?
And who would be willing to kill four people in order to get it?
I call these, like, lukewarm ones, you know,
Kind of like room-temperature homicides instead of cold.
So you got a lot of the technology.
The sheriff's department collected lots and lots
Of physical evidence. The blood spatter.
Siegler: Plus facebook records, gmail records.
Lots to play with.
I've seen a lot of cases in my career, but nothing like this.
Mike and cathy and barbara and violet
Were good, innocent people.
It's hard to think about the devastating loss and fear
Their families have suffered for eight long years,
Knowing that whoever did this is walking around out there free.
We're not leaving this town without justice.
Spingola: And they slaughtered these people.
These were armed wolves that went in
And killed the sheep one at a time.
There's a special place in hell for this guy,
I'll tell you that much.
- Or a girl. - Yeah.
Spingola: Time to hit back.
Did you even bring a coat?
- No. - Really?
I got a thinner one. This is nothing.
Siegler: It was 39 degrees this morning.
Hey. I'm tyler duncan.
Hello, tyler. Nice to meet you.
- Hi. I'm steve. - Scotty hill.
I saw your name in the file.
We asked you guys here to review one of our cases.
We've been very passionate about it.
Our guys have worked so hard on it,
And we're just glad y'all are here
To take a look at it with us.
Siegler: Thank you for asking us.
Are y'all ready to get working?
- We'll show you the way. - We're ready.
I think this case bothered not only the public,
But it's also bothered a lot of the detectives
From the very beginning.
It's put a fear in people. They're afraid to this day,
Which is the reason we feel so strongly
That we gotta do something
And get these killers off the street
So they don't hurt anybody else.
How long have y'all worked for the sheriff's department?
I started here in 2016.
- So after this happened? - Yes, ma'am.
Okay. And you were here when it happened?
I was here, yes. I was on scene that day.
You wanna start with the victims and tell us about them?
Mike scott and cathy scott were husband and wife.
The two of them were very, very close.
Siegler: How old was mike? 58?
- And cathy was 60. - Mm-hmm.
Mike worked for the department of transportation.
Cathy. She was kind of taking care of the mothers.
Siegler: After cathy and mike are married,
Cathy lets her mom, violet, move in with them.
What caused that? Do y'all remember?
She was having some health issues.
And then at some point,
Mike's mom moves in with them, too. Barbara.
Mike, cathy, barbara, and violet lived in a double-wide trailer
While cathy's daughter, amy, and her new husband, ross,
Lived in a single-wide trailer,
Along with amy's daughter and son on the same property.
The trailers are how far apart?
Hill: Less than 50 yards.
The weekend of the murder,
Amy's kids were out of town at ross's parents' house.
After a couple of days of not seeing her family,
Amy went to check on them and found all their bodies
As she told the news in an emotional interview
Shortly afterwards.
I keep feeling like I should be waking up from a dream...
Right now, and it--
It's just not happening.
So, yeah, it's, um--
It's like a movie or something.
Siegler: The murder actually happened on Halloween.
Start with the front of the story.
The call comes in.
November 2, 2015.
When I got on scene, there was a lot of--
One of the bloodiest scenes I've ever been to.
The gunshots were obvious.
They had bullet holes in their faces.
- All four? - Yes.
And then we saw all their throats were cut.
Then we knew we were dealing with something
That none of us had ever seen before.
- How were their throats cut? - Pretty much filleted open.
I mean, just all the way across.
This is just a particularly brutal level of savagery.
Right.
Spingola: Not only was this crime unique
For having four victims,
But killers don't typically switch weapons mid murder.
If you have a gun, why not just shoot your victims?
And if you have a knife to kill 'em quietly,
Why shoot 'em afterwards?
Is it possible that there was more than one killer?
That's one of the mysteries
We're gonna have to try to solve here.
There wasn't a lot to indicate a massive struggle,
And there was no forced entry.
At the time, we believed whoever killed them
- Was let into the house. - Okay.
We talked to some of the family,
And that's how we found out mike bought and sold gold.
He really didn't trust banks. He liked to deal in cash.
He liked to get cash and pay people in cash.
Several people told us that they knew
He kept a lot of money in the house but not where.
Investigators noticed a shelf
That was tipped forward in the main bedroom closet
That looked like something heavy had been removed from it.
The theory is it was a safe containing the stolen cash.
All right, so let's start with "unknown suspect."
What would you start with under "unknown suspect"?
The fact that he sold gold, is this a random murder?
And what all did mike sell?
- Jewelry. - Collectible coins.
- Sell guns. Yeah. - Guns.
He'd sell it on facebook, ebay.
Siegler: So ebay attracts weirdos.
Back in 2009, we had people doing the same thing murdered
In anderson county.
Another couple were murdered inside their car
Trying to buy some jewelry.
I'm gonna put it up here as "mike's high risk."
Anytime you have cash as a motive,
It opens up your world of potential suspects.
We don't know who mike was doing business with,
But because there's no forced entry,
That suggested at least it's gonna be someone
That he was comfortable enough to allow inside,
Which brings us to our next suspects.
Let's put up amy and put up ross.
When this happens, amy's 32 years old.
Hill: She's cathy's daughter and mike's stepdaughter.
It's a strained relationship.
- Does not like her mom. - Mm-hmm.
How many times do you think you read in the file
That amy calls her mom a narcissist?
- Constantly. - I thought it was very telling
That she's getting married, and every other marriage
She'd invited her mom to, but not this one.
Amy was a little bit of a wild child,
And she had a handful of ex-husbands
Before marrying ross just a week before these murders.
She told friends that cathy was a narcissist,
And they argued a lot about how amy was raising her kids.
According to the reports, amy and ross had a big fallout
With cathy and mike sometime in July,
Which is just months before the murders.
Ross is 28. What's he like?
Honestly, he's a pretty likable guy.
You talk to him, and he was telling me how impressed he was
With our deputies going into the house
And how it reminded him of iraq.
Not only is he a marine,
But he's somewhat a decorated marine.
He went through specialized training for combat
To guard embassies.
What else, physical evidence wise, connects to amy and ross?
A lot of cash.
Once we found the money in the single-wide,
That's when red flags kind of started going up.
It was $67,998.
Siegler: When investigators searched amy and ross's trailer,
They discovered over $60,000 in cash.
They claimed that that money came from their life savings
And money from their dog-grooming business.
But could it really have been mike and cathy's stolen cash?
If so, could amy have killed her family
And just pretended to have discovered the bodies?
Did ross kill for amy, or did ross kill on his own?
Did they do it together, or is it somebody else entirely?
Scotty, who's the person from the family
You've most been in touch with about the case?
Her name is pam isbell.
She is barbara's daughter and mike's sister.
She has been pretty much our consistent contact
Since we started with the case.
Through the years, mike's sister pam has been
The primary spokesperson for the families.
- Pam, I read all about you. - I'm keith.
Keith, I'm kelly siegler. Nice to meet y'all.
Pam was also the last person to talk to mike on the phone
The night of the murders.
If you could tell us a little bit
About who your mother was, who your brother was,
And his wife, and, of course, violet.
I'll start with mike and cathy.
They actually were in junior high school together.
Siegler: Okay.
And they were boyfriend and girlfriend then.
As they went to high school,
Cathy went to a different school.
And so they came back in contact with one another years later
And just struck it right back up.
Very caring people.
She loved horses. She loved being outdoors.
Most of all, she loved her grandchildren.
Mike was the ultimate big brother.
He was always there for me and for my children.
Mother was just-- just an exceptional woman.
She cared about her family and her community.
She spent countless hours in her church
Taking care of the children in the nursery.
She and miss taylor were good together
Because they kind of had each other, you know.
She was such a sweet, very quiet-natured woman.
[sobbing]
What are you thinking about, pam?
We all lose family members,
But there's something unnatural
About losing family members in-in this way.
You don't ever forget about it. It's just always there.
I'm just not the same as I was.
And not just me.
So many other people, so many other lives
Waiting for some sort of justice.
When we went to the mortuary, I told the mortician, you know,
"mother didn't want to be buried in any of her jewelry."
And he said, "I'll bring it to you."
And he brought me one bloody earring.
That was all.
It's heartbreaking to listen to pam relive her grief.
But she's also a witness to all this.
And we have to ask her about the fallout
Between mike and cathy and amy and ross.
[sobbing]
It's hard to think what this is like for pam,
Losing her mother, her brother, her brother's wife,
And her mother on that tragic Halloween night eight years ago.
I know it's hard for her, but we need to learn everything
That we can about the family fallout
And the animosity over mike and cathy's grandkids.
So they really actually almost raised them?
Pam: Cathy bought all of their clothes.
They did everything. They took 'em to school,
Took 'em to church, changed their diapers, fed 'em.
Pam: Father-daughter dance at school.
What was going on with amy,
Why she wasn't raising the kids herself?
Pam: I think it was probably just easier for her
So she could live her life.
So when ross comes into amy's life,
How was the relationship between the whole family?
To begin with,
Mike spoke very highly of him. They got along.
Do you have any idea what caused a falling-out?
What I was told
The church had some sort of fourth of July celebration.
Mike and cathy took the children.
And when they came home,
Amy and ross had friends at the house.
They were drinking.
So when they came in,
They just tried to take the children
On into the house, away from it,
And a fight kind of started.
And amy, "they're my children. Let me have my children."
And she took them,
And basically, they never got to see those children again.
The week that ross and amy got married,
When mike came home from work,
He went down and knocked on their door,
Apologized to amy.
He didn't want to apologize to her,
But he felt like it was the right thing to do.
He told her not being able to see the grandchildren
Was just really killing cathy and miss taylor.
So that week, amy started coming back to their house,
And she was telling them
That when they went to pick the children up in columbia
That next weekend,
That they would be able to see them.
Siegler: If amy was keeping those kids
Away from their grandparents
When they only lived a few feet from them,
Their relationship was more tense than we thought.
But mike had told the family
That they had made up before the murders.
So could amy really be behind what happened to them?
For us to still be here eight years later,
It's not justice.
I don't wanna tell you to get your hopes up,
But I have my hopes up, so, you know...
- You're an answered prayer. - Well, you're sweet.
I have prayed for you for about the last three or four years.
If anybody can do it, kelly can.
Be patient for another week or so,
And then he'll call you back, okay?
This is good.
So, I am looking over a case that happened back in 2015,
A homicide that happened at your neighbor's house.
Siegler: The next witnesses we wanna talk to
Are mike and cathy's neighbors.
None of the neighbors reported hearing any gunshots that night.
But what did they hear or know
About amy and cathy's strained relationship
And this potential fourth of July blow-up?
Is there anything you can tell me off the top of your head
That you remember about it?
You actually heard her say that she wished they were dead?
- Okay. - Not only did this neighbor
Hear amy's attitude toward her mother firsthand,
She heard amy say she wished cathy was dead.
But did amy have anything to do with making that wish come true?
I knew about the deal
With the daughter got angry with her
And kept the children from cathy.
So tell us about that one.
It seemed that they really tried to help amy a lot.
And mike and cathy, they really took care of the kids.
And it broke cathy and mike's heart.
She just really missed the kids.
And the two older ladies that lived there,
They were used to them kids coming in and out.
You think cathy was afraid at all of amy and ross?
No. She never expressed that.
But it was always the talk of the area
That mike would go to flea markets
And he would get some kind of video games that he collected.
There was a good resale market for him
And that he would buy any old jewelry
That had some gold in it.
It was always a rumor
That he kept a lot of cash and gold stuff around.
And I think you've got to be one sick puppy
To go in there and kill two helpless old women.
- I agree with you. - Yeah.
The thought that somebody came in
And killed those people,
I still have nightmares about that.
Sounds like a lot of people knew about mike's side business,
Which may have put a target on him.
And it's curious that the murders
Occurred on Halloween night with no forced entry.
Could the killer or killers have,
Under the guise of being a trick-or-treater,
Gained entry to the house?
These are all things we need to consider
In this investigation.
That's just still a lot of money to keep.
Spingola: Yeah. I just don't understand people--
"I don't trust banks."
Your chances of losing money to a bank,
It's way less than somebody
Busting into your house looking for it.
Right.
This morning, we're gonna get dr. Pinneri to come in
And go through the autopsy stuff.
- Mm-hmm. - We know
That on Halloween night, mike and cathy scott
And their mothers were brutally stabbed and shot.
- Y'all, this is dr. Pinneri. - Hey. I'm tyler duncan.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
What we don't know is what their injuries can tell us
About their attacker or attackers.
There's a lot to cover, so buckle up.
Because with so many victims, it raises the question,
Was there just one assailant or more?
November 1, 2015, there were four individuals
Found dead in a trailer.
The husband, a wife, and both of their mothers.
We have one person in a bedroom,
And the other three are in the living room.
They all have similar injuries.
All of them are concentrated in the head and neck area.
Every single one of them
Has a defense-type injury of their hands.
So they're all fighting back against whoever this is.
Terry michael scott is a 58-year-old male,
And he's found face down in the living room.
There's a huge pool of blood there.
It's very clear that he exsanguinated at that area.
So I think the male was probably killed first.
There's no disturbance of that blood.
So if he's getting up and walking around
And trying to protect the other occupants,
I would have expected
There to be more smeared blood from him.
He has six sharp force injuries of the left side of the neck.
Six different swipes.
- Yes. - I thought there were just two.
The longest one of these
Is estimated six and three-eighths inches.
So, you know, probably about that long.
We're talking about a long knife blade.
So the gunshot wound to the head behind the left ear,
There's no real hemorrhage in the soft tissues.
I think this is a postmortem injury,
Meaning he was already dead when it was sustained.
The neck injuries and the incised wounds
And stab wounds,
All of them were fatal in and of themselves.
I'm not really sure why this particular person or persons
Chose to inflict the gunshot wounds
After they were already pretty much dead,
But that's what happened.
All right, so now we have the two elderly females.
They're laying side by side on the floor in the living room.
Violet is on the outside and barbara's on the inside.
Violet. She has probably one of the most significant wounds.
It's a near decapitation.
It goes almost all the way across
From one side to the other.
Also, she has two gunshot wounds of her head,
And she's got defense wounds of her left hand.
So this is a 85-year-old lady that's fighting back.
Barbara scott has the most injuries of all of them.
Approximately six stab wounds
Of the neck, chest, and left shoulder.
So she has a gunshot wound to the head.
It goes in behind the right ear.
There is stippling and residue on the actual ear,
So we're talking about close.
Hearing about the knife wounds
To barbara and violet made me angry.
These two old ladies wouldn't hurt a fly,
Yet they went through hell.
Stab wounds don't kill you instantly.
They're slow, painful, and frightening.
So now we'll go to cathy scott, and she's found in the bedroom.
She's just got the one stab wound.
It goes into her right lung. It gets the major blood vessels.
She has a lot of internal bleeding.
This one goes in nine and a quarter inches.
There is a rectangular bruise on the lateral edge of it
That would be consistent with the handle.
These injuries are very consistent
With the ones caused by combat-type knives
With a hilt or guard near the handle.
Ross vilardi was trained as a marine,
Including in using a combat knife,
Typically a ka-bar.
Ross can't explain where his ka-bar was
Or if he ever had one.
Could he have not only used his training
But the actual weapon he was trained to use?
So cathy, she's got two gunshot wounds.
And this is the hallway that's leading up to where she's found.
And you can see footprints.
So I don't know if she's having this altercation
With a person right there.
But in order for her to have this on her foot,
She had to have walked on the carpet.
The carpet where it's all bloody.
- Yes. - Could cathy scott
Have had any of her three injuries in the living room?
Which of those would have given her time and ability
To still be hurt but not dead to go to the bedroom?
The stab wound.
It takes time for that blood to accumulate
And deprive the brain of the oxygen it needs.
So, yeah, absolutely. She could walk around with that.
- Okay. - The stab wound was fatal
Regardless of the shooting.
- Yes. - Okay.
This is not a quick event.
If you have a gun and you wanna kill four people,
Why not just shoot them all?
Dr. Pinneri picked up on one of the biggest mysteries
Of this crime.
Why would a killer use a knife if he had a gun?
And why use the gun
If the victims are actually already dead
Or dying of the knife ones?
Could this have been a two-person job
Or just extreme overkill?
Or did something not go according to the killer's plan?
Hill: Thank y'all for coming down here.
We know it was your mother and sister
That were involved.
Siegler: With four victims, two murder weapons,
Thousands of dollars in stolen cash,
And the possibility of multiple killers,
Our crime-scene reconstruction analysis
Is gonna be way more elaborate and detailed than usual.
So while we work to bring in some help,
We've got more witnesses to talk to.
We just kind of wanna go over what y'all remember
About the case and then kind of get some details.
Siegler: We're hoping that cathy's brothers
Can tell us a little bit more
About her strained relationship with her daughter amy
And the possibility that mike's cash-driven side hustle
Got him and his family killed.
Now, one of the things that was brought up
Was mike's business that he did on the side.
Y'all know anything about his business?
Not a lot. But we were sort of concerned about it
'cause cathy was going with him.
They wouldn't have people come to their house?
I don't think they ever did.
He'd meet 'em somewhere most of the time.
I know he was trying to make some money,
But I said, "there already been a couple murdered."
One guy was murdered was kind of local.
Siegler: Detective hill actually made the scene
Of a local couple who sold gold like mike,
Who were robbed and killed over it.
That killer was caught.
But if mike was meeting customers away from the house,
It seems less likely that they would know where he lived
Or where he kept his cash.
What was amy like? Y'all known her her whole life.
- She was odd. - How was cathy able
To maintain control of amy growing up?
I don't think she could.
I've seen 'em fight, and she'd get the best of cathy.
Cathy and amy would actually go to it, fight?
Yeah.
This is the first we've heard
That cathy and amy had actually gotten
Into physical altercations in the past.
It sounds like they were having trouble
Long before their feud over how to raise amy's kids.
And toward the end,
Did it get to where cathy just kind of gave up on her?
She had give up on amy when she took the kids
And she know she wasn't gonna get 'em back.
Why would amy do that to her mom,
Tear the kids away like that?
She wasn't getting the money she wanted.
She used those kids as a weapon on her mother.
She used the kids,
Threatened to take 'em away or take 'em away.
She ever asked you all for money?
No. She always hit her mama up.
According to cathy's brothers, amy and cathy argued over money.
I'd wondered if amy's feud with her mother
Over how to raise her kids was enough to want her dead,
But maybe amy had 60,000 other reasons.
Will you just tell us what you remember
And kind of what your relationship is?
Okay.
When was the last time that you had spoken with cathy?
Spingola: We read about the fact
That amy posted online about the feud with her mother.
Our digital forensics expert is looking
At all the social media available on amy's posts
About her mother and mike's side business.
I don't care much for social media,
But it could contain evidence
That would help us solve this tragic case.
I'm sorry about your grandma.
She's in a better place than you and I are right now.
Tell us what you remember about that night.
We got the call from my mom.
We got there, and it was overwhelming.
And the family members, the neighbors
Lined up on both sides of the street.
The news media outlets were there.
How was amy acting?
She was just standing there like a normal...
"I'm outside waiting for someone to pick me up."
People crying on shoulders, and they're just iced.
You know that's evidence.
How people are acting is evidence, too.
Did she speak with y'all at all?
No. We didn't speak to amy till the funeral.
And she just looked at us and said, "I didn't do it."
She wasn't crying or upset or...
No. She was in a red dress.
She wore a red dress to the funeral?
A red dress with a-- you know like the 1960s?
Like you would go to a horse race with the big hats.
- Like the kentucky derby? - Like a kentucky derby hat.
And I need to tell y'all,
The day that we had our funeral service,
A few hours later,
Him and his family went in the house
And ripped everything out of the house
And threw everything in the front yard.
All the blood, the carpet, the furniture.
Everything went in the front yard.
How fast did it start to become apparent
That there was gonna be an issue about the money
And the jewelry and the coins and whatever?
That was probably within the first week.
The neighbor across the street, he calls,
Like, "just let you know, they came into the vehicles."
They were looking for some documents,
Whether it was the deed, property, money.
Siegler: Amy seemed unemotional about the murders,
And it sounds like her husband ross was, too.
And as soon as they buried the bodies,
They were getting rid of the old and looking for the gold.
Maybe this was about more than just mike's stash of cash.
So, what's your take on ross and amy?
Really? So he's not her punk.
She doesn't control him that much?
- I don't think so. - You don't?
I think they stick together like glue.
Mm-hmm. So it's more like a partnership.
Oh, yeah. They can come together to make one.
♪ hot color in this summer ♪
♪ I'm a sweatshirt on the black-top burner ♪
Siegler: Okay, so what all with this crime scene
Are you hoping you can point out?
'cause I'm the one sitting there going,
Did amy do this all by herself,
Or did she have a little bit of help?
Or did she not do any of the stabbing, shooting at all?
What are you thinking?
One of the things I hope to point out
Is that you can track the people via the blood,
Where the blood was, where they were found.
Siegler: On Halloween night, 2015,
Mike and cathy scott and their elderly mothers,
Barbara and violet, were all fatally stabbed and shot.
Cathy's daughter, amy, and her husband, ross,
Have potential motives,
Especially when you consider the tens of thousands of dollars
Of stolen cash taken from the home.
But did they really carry out this crime?
Was it one person or two?
It's time to re-create this complex scene
And try and figure out how this unfolded
And exactly who was in that trailer.
You got some recruits, too, huh?
Yes, ma'am. Wayne mills.
- Nice to meet you. I'm kelly. - Nice to meet you.
- Scotty, who's over here? - Some of our new hires.
They're recruits to assist in whatever y'all may need.
Okay. And we have somebody that can play each victim.
- We do. - Thank y'all.
- Thank you. - Really helpful.
So, captain, you were there that day.
- I was. - And, scotty, you were there.
- Yes, ma'am. - Let's go in the house,
In the trailer, and you kind of orient us.
The scene when I first arrived
Was the most brutal thing I've ever seen in my life.
Blood everywhere. The smell.
I think about it hard enough, I can still smell it.
Just a really strong copper smell.
Everyone that I still talk to that was there that day,
It was pretty traumatic for all of us.
So, you come in and you walk straight into the living room.
Off the living room was the master bedroom to the right.
There's a table with a large playset for toy cars.
It really jumped out to me as being out of place
Once we found out the kids haven't been there
Since at least July 4th.
It looks like they were preparing
For the children to come over.
- Okay. - The other thing,
A bucket of Halloween candy never opened,
But it was right next to the door.
Siegler: The night of the murder,
Amy and ross were just a few hundred feet away
In their trailer and her kids were out of town.
We know that she had been keeping her kids away from them
For a couple of months.
But according to witnesses and these toys,
It looks like mike and cathy were preparing
To see the kids again soon.
Could amy have made amends with her family
Right before the murders so they would let their guard down?
Okay, why don't y'all start with mike?
He's right here.
Just blood all around him.
And I'll tell you what struck me is the fact
That it was all in one place.
He obviously didn't make it far.
Barbara was found right here
On top of this corner of the loveseat.
Violet was just right behind her.
And they were actually so close
That violet was actually touching barbara.
So cathy is in here.
We strongly suspect that at some point she was out here
Because we have footprints that belong to her.
But as she made her way into the bedroom,
She fell over top of...
It was a big pillow and a backpack.
And, scotty, tell cathy where the holster is in the bedroom.
Hall: Underneath the bed near her.
Inside of the bedroom near cathy's body,
Investigators discovered an empty holster,
Which could have contained a .38-caliber revolver,
The same caliber of the gun that was used on the victims.
It raises the possibility
That cathy actually went into the bedroom
And retrieved the pistol
In order to defend her and her family,
And it was turned against her
And the other victims in this crime.
I believe the initial strike of cathy happened
Outside the room.
I think she went to get the gun, came back out,
And that's why we got the footprints this way in blood.
The holster itself had a very small drop of blood on it.
I think she's bending over it.
Right? And you can see a void pattern.
That's where the gun comes from.
- Absolutely. - She's going for it.
I think that just enrages him,
And it gives him another weapon here.
- You're a marine, right? - Absolutely.
Can you give us some marine thoughts on knives and all that?
Marines go through martial arts training
At parris island.
They get various levels of knife training
And hand-to-hand combat.
And we know that ross endured this training.
Would a marine be expected to be able
To handle multiple people in that situation?
Absolutely, especially after having
Marine security guard training.
That is an eight-week program
That teaches marines to defend embassies.
One of their training requirements
Is handling multiple assailants at one time.
It specifically says you aim for the neck area.
- Wow. - I went through
The marine corps back in 1997.
I believe with the expertise that this took place,
I believe it was somebody
That was very comfortable with an edge weapon.
And a marine fits that category.
This definitely took someone who took some training,
Had some background in this type of situation,
And obviously was very personally related
To the victims.
If you could go back to the front door
And walk us through what you think happened.
I think amy has everyone gathered in here.
Family meeting. The kids are coming over. I don't know.
But everyone's in the living room waiting on ross.
I think ross does come to the front door.
I think amy probably lets him in.
He turns, locks the door, comes in,
Stabs mike right away.
Mike starts to get up,
Cuts him across the throat.
And then mike goes to his knees right here.
And he's coming down, stabbing him here.
That's when barbara tries to get up to get away.
He hits barbara right here, taking the earring off.
Cathy gets up, runs to the bedroom.
Barbara is still getting up,
And that's why we have so many stab wounds
'cause she's trying to go this way.
And he's coming behind her, stabbing her and stabbing her
And slicing her as she goes.
She finally drops here.
I think violet, at this point, had made it here.
And I think amy is right here going, "nope."
Amy's stopping her.
So he comes across really hard with her,
Nearly takes her head off.
She goes down.
I think that's when cathy comes out with the gun.
He grabs her, stabs her just like that.
Amy takes the gun out of her hand.
Cathy goes back in the bedroom.
She kind of falls backwards. She's hurt. She's bleeding.
She trips and falls down.
Amy comes in with the gun.
And ross says, "finish her."
Shoots her twice, close range.
And now amy's worked up,
And so she just comes in and just shoot, shoot.
Grandma. Pow, pow.
Gun clicks. That's the end of it.
Spingola: I agree with sergeant hill.
Though I think that if it was amy and ross,
It's more likely that ross used the knife and the gun
While amy simply corralled everyone.
There's no way to know for sure.
But either way, I agree that this was a two-person job.
A handler and a hunter.
This is one stone-cold trained killer, man.
He'd have taken two cops out in this room here
Before we got a shot off.
I believe this was extremely quick and extremely clean.
If I'm amy's lawyer, though,
You don't have any hard, commonsense argument here
To put amy in the room.
This theory could just be one killer,
If I'm being objective.
This area right here, I think, is paramount to the case.
The barefoot of cathy
Shows her coming and going from this bedroom.
The transfer from the asics is on the floor.
There are asics speedstar shoes?
Asics speedstar.
Which has also been confirmed by the asics company
That this is no doubt this shoe print in the house.
And these shoes were never found.
Okay.
Along with cathy's bloody footprint,
Investigators identified a partial shoe print,
Specifically that of an asics speedstar running shoe.
The question is,
Which of our suspects does that belong to?
Thank y'all so much.
It really was special to do it this way. Thank y'all.
So. I think devlin's here and he's ready to get started
If y'all are ready.
Okay. Yes, ma'am.
'cause this might take a little bit.
He's gonna go through it pretty detailed.
The best part about investigating a cold case
That's only eight years old,
There are so many more resources
For potential evidence, including social media.
Both of our victims, mike and cathy scott, and our suspects,
Amy and ross vilardi, were avid facebook users.
Our digital forensics expert, eric devlin,
Has been reexamining their social media data.
All right, you ready to get going?
- Yes. - Tons and tons of social media.
Starting out, you see a lot of communications back and forth
From mike and cathy scott as well as amy
That seemed to be fairly normal.
So next one here. This is a post
From mike and cathy scott's account.
"my grandchildren and I."
Just showing family relationship type of picture.
And this is before the blow-up 'cause it's in may.
Here's where I think you're starting to see
Where the blowups starting to occur.
July 9, 2015.
This is amy vilardi making a public facebook post.
"you can tell the same lies over and over.
It's never going to make them true.
You best make sure that the other party
Can't prove your lies wrong.
Just because you are older than someone
Doesn't make you right."
And this is the one that people
Are all telling law enforcement about.
She was talking about mike and cathy on facebook.
Y'all should go read facebook.
It started with this, don't you think?
On July 10, 2015,
This is a direct message from pam isbell to amy vilardi.
Siegler: That's 'cause she's mike's sister.
Right. "amy, I am very sorry
That things are not good right now.
I know you are upset,
But I wish you would take the bad talk off of facebook.
I have no idea what has happened,
But I do know that words hurt.
Think about the children, please, before posting things."
Amy vilardi responds, "you have no idea what he's done to us.
I'm not going to be bullied by him anymore.
Pam, my mother lies for him, too.
He will stop because I am finally done.
He is not my kid's grandfather.
He can never be that to them again."
So if you could take that July 10th post right there
And make your best argument for motive
And the deterioration of the relationship,
There's your foundation right there.
On July 16, mike and cathy scott to amy vilardi--
"your mom and I want to apologize.
No favors asked or requests.
We have two elderly people suffering from this.
They have done nothing.
As you all prepare for your vacation,
We wish you a safe and enjoyable time."
Trying to mend fences, build bridges at this point.
These social media posts further prove what we've heard,
That their feud over the kids came to a boil in July
And amy was keeping the kids from mike and cathy.
Amy also posted quotes about emotional abuse,
Narcissistic parents, and disrespect.
But more than that, she posted videos
Of her and ross arguing with her family.
There's an argument with her mother, cathy.
What could I do to 'em?
And an argument between ross and mike's mother, barbara.
I don't know what cathy does.
And that one ends with a haunting comment from ross.
- Beggars! - That's right. I'm a beggar.
But the best piece of evidence might be a facebook message
That mike sent to a coworker before the murders.
On October 29, 2015,
The account from mike and cathy scott to aaron luffy.
Facebook image right there.
That's taken directly from that facebook account.
"you're in the money." interesting picture.
Two days before the murders,
Mike sent a facebook message to a coworker
With a photo of some cash,
Cash we believe was stolen from his home by his killer...
My understanding is y'all found $100 bills.
Siegler: ...In the trailer where amy and ross lived.
- It was in a safe. - Devlin: Hold on one second.
Let me get to...
So that's the picture y'all took of the money
Y'all grabbed from it.
And you actually see the exact same serial number.
Anderson county investigators inventoried the cash
And photographed it that they recovered
From amy and ross's trailer after the murders.
And the serial numbers on their $100 bills
Matched mike's money that he posted on facebook.
That's proof that amy and ross
Had mike's money in their trailer.
That's absolutely amazing.
Have you ever had that, eric, where you can prove the money
From the dead victim's house is in your suspect's hands
'cause the serial numbers match?
I never have a picture good enough
That I could read the serial number on.
Because that shows you
Your relationship deterioration, your motive.
That was a treasure trove.
Could a defense lawyer make the argument
That mike gave that money to amy and ross? Possibly.
Which is why we have a lot more work to do,
And we're just getting started.
Next time on "cold justice"...
The military knife, it was large like this,
Including the blade.
A chunk of change comes in right after that.
What's he buying?
There's all their calls always hitting off of this tower,
Which is covering both trailers.
Here's a message that I found particularly important.
She says, "hey, babe, we need to go ahead and run."
We know what happened. We're about to prove it.
You don't wanna roll the dice on this, I'm telling you.
You actually have the video of where ross went that night?
- Yes. - Okay.
Of him walking out a store. This is the camera at the door.
So you notice right here.
Nice. Nice.
- If I decided to take a deal... - Right.
...Mine is gonna be "better" than amy's
'cause I came to the trough first, right?
We're not the ones who put you on this predicament.
It's time to put some type of an end to this.