Woman: ...Message.
♪ you got you got the devil inside ya ♪
♪ you set the church on fire ♪
♪ you got you got the devil inside ya ♪
We worked two cases in missouri before.
You did the first one, remember?
I do.
They were also fighting over divorce
And custody and all that.
And then we came back here in 2019
And worked another one in missouri.
That--oh, my god. That also was another nasty split-up case.
I think that breaking up with people
Is a bigger motive than money.
You start having sex with somebody
And then the relationship goes bad,
There's just a certain hatred.
That's the problem.
Steve and I are here in missouri
To investigate the unsolved murder
Of a hardworking, loving, single father
Devoted to his two little boys.
Our victim, ricky luebbert,
Is just like every boy I grew up with.
He likes to hunt. He's a hard worker.
He clearly loves his two kids,
And I think that's the center of his whole universe.
He had quit drinking,
And he basically turned his life around for his kids.
And how ironic that the bullet that passes through him
Hits a handwritten note from one of the kids
That says "I love you" and bounces off of the wall
After it passes through his body.
In November of 2007,
Ricky luebbert was alone in his trailer,
And as he was passing by a window,
He was shot by a high-powered rifle
From over a hundred yards away, hunted in his own home.
It's a football field and a half.
- Yeah. 380 feet. - That's a long-ass shot.
Spingola: Everybody has got a rifle here. Deer hunting
Is the second-biggest religious holiday.
Deer season opened that following Saturday.
Exactly. Somebody's a skilled deer hunter.
Ricky's only known enemies were his ex-girlfriend,
Who he was in a heated custody battle with,
And her hostile new husband.
But would a mother really kill over custody
If that meant she was gonna be robbing her own two little boys
Of their dad?
These little boys were six and eight.
That basically means their whole life
Has been lived under this whole cloud.
Spingola: And over the years, wouldn't you become
A little bit suspicious of your own mother?
I mean, you're gonna sit down at some point
And say, "hey, what the hell happened here?"
- How are you? - Good. I like this weather.
- Rowdy douglas. - Nice to meet you.
- Scott lindsey. - Nice to meet you, sheriff.
I'm graham applegate.
We're excited to have you here in texas county.
I think we can do some good on this case.
We don't have a whole lot of cold cases here,
And we're excited to have the help.
- Nice. Let's go. - All right.
This will be the first cold case
That I've ever worked in my career.
I know his dad really wanted this resolved before he passed,
And, unfortunately, we couldn't do that.
So I think it's important now to everybody that knew ricky
To give them some closure and some justice.
Siegler: Talk about ricky. What was ricky's life like back then?
Douglas: He was 42.
He worked at a factory in cabool.
He worked around the farm for his landlord.
You know, off the radar. Kind of just did his thing
And never really bothered anybody.
- A good ol' boy. - Seemed like it. Yeah.
Okay. So, here we got ricky with the two little boys.
Everyone talked about how good of a father that ricky was.
He'd do anything for his kids
And that he always wanted to spend time with them.
There is a photo of ricky on an inner tube with his boys,
And he had his hand on one of the boys' chest,
And he had his other hand holding his other son's hand.
But even in that moment of fun, he's still keeping 'em safe.
These boys lost their dad.
I want justice for ricky. I want justice for his boys.
Okay. Tell us how this all started.
Ricky was last seen on November 7th
At the cabool football game.
Ricky went over whenever he'd seen his kids.
Alice mader, the ex-girlfriend
And mother of ricky luebbert's children,
Let the kids go with him to play.
We believe he left somewhere between 7:45 to 7:50.
November 10th
Is when the landlord of his mobile home called.
Mr. Luebbert was supposed to show up
And do some work for her that morning.
When he failed to show, she went to check on him.
He was laying there in a pool of his own blood
And starting to decompose.
It looked like he was shot
Through the front window of his house.
There was two bullet holes.
One went completely through the trailer.
The other one passed through ricky,
Through his right side around his armpit,
And it exited on the left side.
- Spingola: A perfect shot. - Yeah.
Along his heart. It's over with.
They said that it pretty well took the top of his heart off.
Really? And that window that he shot through,
What does it look at?
It's facing highway h.
Siegler: How far off is the highway from the window?
Douglas: It's about 130 yards.
There was about 66 feet of acceleration marks
Found near the entrance to the driveway.
I think he was probably sniped from a vehicle
Laying in wait across the road from him.
It's way more deliberate and mean and cold.
Spingola: Investigators recovered the bullet
That killed ricky, and it was determined
That it was fired by a .30-caliber rifle,
The type of weapon used often by deer hunters.
But this was no hunting accident.
It was a cold-blooded assassination.
Douglas: No sign of burglary.
No sign of physical altercation inside or anything like that.
Whoever shot him wanted him dead.
That's all they had to gain from it.
Siegler: At the time of the murder,
Ricky and alice mader had been separated
And fighting over custody
In and out of court for four years.
She made it clear to everybody in town that she hated him.
They're fighting about custody.
Specifically, they're arguing over discipline,
Doctor appointments.
Unclean house. Education.
She had told several people that she wished he was dead
And that her life would be easier if he was gone.
- She's ready to be done. - Yeah.
Based on ricky's clothes
And his absence from work on November the 8th,
The sheriff's department believes that he was shot
After that football game on November the 7th.
That makes alice one of the last people to see ricky alive.
What do we know about alice on Thursday?
Douglas: On Thursday, November 8th,
Alice mader reported ricky luebbert as a no-show
For his failure to meet her and her sons earlier that day.
She calls again on Saturday
And informed that he had missed his son's appointment.
Siegler: Alice called the sheriff's department twice
Before ricky's body was ever even found
To report that he had uncharacteristically
Not shown up to get the boys.
The deputies didn't think much of it
Until ricky's body was discovered.
Is she legitimately wondering what's going on
And therefore not involved,
Or is she trying to say something
To get him found to make herself look good
'cause she is involved?
Yeah.
Police have never believed
That alice was the one that actually pulled the trigger,
But she may have had it done.
And if she did plot to have ricky killed,
The obvious person to do it would be her new husband.
Mr. Tommie whetzell.
Tommie whetzell started dating alice
Shortly after she and ricky separated in 2003.
And they got married in 2005,
And he moved in with alice and the boys.
Is there anything behind the fact
That they got divorced shortly after ricky's murder?
Douglas: Tommie and ricky did not like each other at all.
When tommie was interviewed, he told the investigators
That ricky would tell the boys
They didn't have to listen to tommie,
That he wasn't their father.
These two guys hated each--
- Yeah, they do. - The air they breathed.
Siegler: Okay, whetzell claims "most conversations between us
Consist of threats of violence."
He was proficient with a rifle.
Siegler: We can't put the gun with him.
We just know he owns a lot of rifles.
We can put that up here, right?
Spingola: After the murder, investigators searched
Tommie and alice's home and recovered a number of firearms,
Including some high-powered rifles.
However, none of those turned out to be the murder weapon.
Siegler: In his interview, he mentions a thirty-aught-six.
Where is that thirty-aught-six, right?
The strange thing is that tommie actually told investigators
That he owned a thirty-aught-six rifle.
Though that isn't one of the rifles
To have been recovered during the search,
It is the right type of rifle to have been used to kill ricky.
Is there anything else that happened
That goes under "tommie" leading up to it?
He said he hit the kid in the ear.
Tommie admits that ricky calls tommie on November 7th
When alice is at the football game,
And that's where this argument apparently kind of takes off.
Tommie admitted that he hit one of ricky's kids.
So ricky called tommie and violently threatened him
The night of the football game.
"luebbert tells me 'keep your hands off my boys.
We're gonna settle this with the boys,
And I'm gonna whip your ass.'"
Could that threat have driven tommie
To kill ricky later that night?
What did alice know? Was she part of the plan?
Was it her plan?
Anything else about the crime itself
That links back to tommie?
He's got no alibi really for the time period ricky's dead.
Well, his alibi is "I was on the computer."
- Yeah. - Douglas: Yeah. Home alone.
And y'all recovered all the computers
That were involved with alice and tommie back then?
Yes. And we're gonna reach out to the cellular company
And see if they can pull the cell tower records
For alice mader and tommie whetzell
To verify their statements that they give in 2007.
But it's a long, long shot 'cause that company got bought.
We're gonna have tommie's computer
And phone records analyzed if we can track 'em down.
The question is, can we punch a hole in his alibi,
Or is it possible that ricky was killed
By somebody else entirely?
Ooh, that's a pretty good start.
Okay, so, you're gonna go talk to randy?
Yep.
Man: ♪ it's been a while ♪
♪ since I've been here ♪
♪ wrapped up in something new ♪
Siegler: We're gonna go meet ricky's brother, randy.
He's very happy that it's got reopened
And that we're looking in it.
Good.
I'm hoping to have the chance to tell him
That he wasn't forgot about.
Siegler: From our understanding, one of ricky's sons
Is currently working offshore,
And the other son is not interested in talking to us.
I don't know how anyone can deal with the loss of their dad
And possibly suspecting that their mother
Is the person involved.
- Rowdy, how are you? - Nice to meet ya.
- I'm kelly. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
So, we're gonna go meet with ricky's brother, randy.
Who is older, you or ricky?
Me. I'm one year older than rick.
He has a birthday coming up.
- Oh, really. - Yeah. It'd been March 4th.
Oh, that's right. Yeah.
What was he like?
Oh, rick.
Oh, his first 30 years, he was a wild man.
He was no saint.
He liked to party and have fun. He liked to live life good.
What all did he like to do when you say wild guy?
Oh, he liked to four-wheel and ride motorcycles,
Party and drink.
[laughs]
But then, you know, he started growing up.
When he had that first boy, then he started changing,
But it took a while.
Ricky, when he got older, just once he had the boys,
He started to turn that corner, and he started to mature
And started trying to become a different guy.
He was a great father. He loved his boys.
He'd do anything for his boys.
He loved outside stuff.
Siegler: He did.
He was just an outdoor guy.
In fact, with his boys, that's what they would do.
They would chase snakes and lizards.
Okay.
He taught 'em which ones they could catch.
The boys were so young at the time.
I know they didn't understand.
For me, it was, uh-- uh, it was heartbreaking.
Didn't understand.
Had no idea why.
And the boys were the anchor for him to be here.
Seem like they meant a lot to him.
- They were everything to him. - Yeah.
He was gonna try to get custody.
Was there a time that you were aware of
Where it went from kind of rocky to, like, even worse?
Well, he moved out, but I don't know what all happened.
He didn't really talk about all that.
He wasn't a guy that shared everything.
Siegler: He just didn't do that. You the same way?
Okay.
Yeah.
The only thing he ever talked about
Is that there was a threat made.
Threat made by who? Tommie?
- That boyfriend. - Siegler: Okay.
Yeah. About something with the boys.
Douglas: What was the threat? Do you remember?
He said he was gonna take care of him,
In so many words.
Tommie threatened to kill him.
Yes. And it kind of worried me.
I was like, "you're not worried about that?" and he goes, "no."
Do you know if rick had any other enemies?
- No. - He never told you
About having any problems with anybody at work
Or anywhere else?
No.
Sometimes I feel like it's harder
To talk to these tough men,
'cause even though they don't wanna let you know
How much they're hurt, they are.
They don't ask a lot of questions.
They don't get emotional. They're not nosy.
So they don't go down that road.
Well, we can't promise anything, but...
No, I know that. I'm hoping.
My dad, he always talked about that.
He wished he could get some resolution.
Siegler: Ricky's dad passed away without getting any answers.
But you know that randy wants to get 'em, too,
So maybe we can get the answers for him.
I wish I had all the answers.
I wish I had-- I wish I knew everything.
Well, we're gonna get to work and hopefully
We'll have some news for you by the end of the week, okay?
- All right. Thank you, sir. - Thank you so much.
I've turned this thing on and off so many times
I don't know if it's on or off now.
We're investigating a 2007 murder of ricky luebbert.
His brother couldn't share much information
On his and our suspect alice mader's custody battle.
The big question is, did alice just hate ricky,
Or was she planning on doing something about it?
Rick was a good guy.
He cared a lot for his kids.
He said she was using every excuse she could
To keep the kids from him.
She would never let the kids talk to him one on one
On the phone.
They always had to be speakerphone.
He said she would control every situation.
He was following the books, you know, doing everything,
Hoping to get things cleared up
To where he could probably get custody of 'em.
And rick wanted the best for them boys.
He would have done anything for 'em.
But I knew he was getting close to a court case
Right before he passed away-- got shot--
That would help determine
Whether he got custody of his kids or not.
That's what he was talking about.
Yeah.
You remember any of the specifics
About what he thought was gonna come about?
He was hoping that he would get 'em,
'cause he had proof
That she wouldn't let him talk to the boys.
Spingola: According to court records,
It does appear that ricky and alice had a court hearing
For custody scheduled on November 29th,
Just a couple of weeks after he was killed.
I've worked several other cases where homicides were involved
To avoid the court date.
Nobody wants to lose their house or their kids.
He made comments
That she kinda threatened him off and on before,
And he always told us
If anything ever happens to him, it's her.
It's alice.
Siegler: Denise and mark quessenberry
Back then, they worked at woodpro with ricky.
Right.
When the quessenberrys were first questioned about the case,
They told the investigators that alice's husband, tommie,
Made some pretty shocking statements to them about ricky
In the days right before the murder.
Douglas: Are you denise?
- Yes. - Hi, mark.
I'm rowdy douglas. I'm with the sheriff's office.
We're wondering if they can give us any more insight
Into tommie's animosity toward ricky
Or if there was any other escalating tension
Between the two of 'em.
Rick was a real nice guy.
I mean, he'd do anything for anybody.
The day that he didn't come to work,
I thought, "well, that's odd."
Then the next day he didn't show up.
Then Saturday we hear all these ambulances going out.
Then somebody calls the house. They say they found rick.
I thought, "oh, no."
It was sad. We went up to the funeral.
We go to his grave every now and then.
- Douglas: Oh, really? - Yeah.
So, at the funeral-- you bring that up.
Do you guys remember alice being there?
- Yeah. - She was there with the boys.
Do you remember how she acted?
Denise: I didn't see her crying.
Do you guys remember tommie whetzell,
The satellite installer?
- Yeah. - Okay.
He came out and installed your satellite.
And when he did that, he found out you guys knew rick
And made some threatening comments.
- You guys remember that? - Yeah.
Mark: Nah, he didn't care for him.
How did he put it? What were his words?
Nothing. It was just threatening.
Because he--in a way, he just seemed like
He was watching what he was saying...
- Yeah. - ...In a way.
"I'll never go to jail for murder," he said.
He'd never go to jail for anything but murder.
"anything but murder." okay.
He'd just wish something kind of would happen.
- Yeah. - You remember that, though?
"I wish something would happen"?
Mark: Like he would wish he would have...
"watch rick. He's a backstabber."
Do you guys remember tommie saying that?
Yeah. Yeah.
Siegler: Tommie said that he wouldn't go to jail
For anything but murder.
As if the punishment would be worth killing ricky.
And this was on November the 3rd,
Just four days before the murder.
Maybe tommie didn't need alice's encouragement after all.
Denise: That's why we don't sit in front of our windows.
Mark: Yeah. No kidding, right?
We sit where there's no windows behind us.
Janice woodmancie was the manager
Of the bullseye convenient store
And had contact with alice on a fairly regular basis.
And what I understood,
Alice would come in there quite frequently,
Maybe even every day, and sometimes speak her mind.
So maybe she's got some information.
Hopefully she can still remember this.
Janice woodmancie worked at a convenience store
That alice visited every day.
It's possible that she may have noticed
That alice was behaving differently
At or about the time of ricky's homicide.
Did you know ricky?
- I didn't know him. No, sir. - Okay.
But, I mean, I've known alice for years and years and years.
So, mader would come into your--into the bullseye
On a pretty regular basis, right?
Oh, every day. Yeah.
So you kind of knew what she was normally--
Kind of a talkative girl.
- She never shuts up. - Yeah.
I didn't wanna say that, but, yeah, that's right.
Probably, I would say, like a month before,
We were sitting outside on the front,
And alice was asking us
If we knew how she could get rid of her husband.
She would just talk about that.
Every once in a while, she'd be like,
"I just need to get rid of him."
What do you think she meant by that?
She meant she wanted to kill him, have him killed.
Did you think she meant that at the time?
Yes. Absolutely. She hated him.
She didn't want him around her boys.
It's one thing to go around and tell people you hate your ex.
But it sounds like alice was looking for a hit man.
Did she stop coming into the store after the murder,
- Or did it just continue? - She just continued.
And did you notice anything different about her demeanor?
She was just as nutty as ever.
So I don't think she was any different.
In my heart, I always felt she had something to do with it.
I don't think she did it,
But I think she had somebody do it.
Spingola: You would think alice would wanna be more secretive
In finding somebody to kill ricky
And would ask her new husband for help
Before the general public.
Is it possible she did?
And tommie was too scared of jail after all.
Is it possible that alice got somebody else to do it?
And them kids lost their father for nothing.
- Yeah. - Yeah. They did.
Janice: It's a shame.
You ready, ma'am? They're all excited to meet you.
Guys, this is dr. Perry.
- Rowdy douglas. - Nice to meet you.
- Graham applewaite. - Good to see you, doctor.
Spingola: In 2007, ricky luebbert was shot and killed
With a high-powered rifle.
Today, dr. Kathryn pinneri
Is here to help us examine those wounds
And explain what actually happened.
So, from the scene findings,
Ricky was found dead on the floor of his residence.
The entrance gunshot wound is right by the right shoulder,
And the exit wound is by the left shoulder.
We have just a very slight downward trajectory
As it goes through the upper lobe of the right lung,
The aorta of the left lung and then exit.
The shot that killed ricky pierced his heart and lung,
An area deer hunters call the "boiler room."
What's odd is that one shot was so precise
And the other shot missed.
One has to wonder if the killer was nervous.
Another interesting thing about this case
Is we have an intermediary target--
The window that the bullet is going through.
When a bullet goes through an intermediary target,
It causes it to be unstable.
What we will see on the skin sometimes
Is a wound that's described as atypical.
So it's not a circle.
It has more irregular characteristics.
Now, ricky's wound is a circle.
So that suggests that he's not very far
From where the bullet entered.
The intermediary target, the one that went into him,
Definitely within a foot of the window.
So maybe he's, like, looking at the curtains.
- Could be. Yes. - That makes a lot more sense
On how he would have got a good shot on him.
Wow. Well, thank you very much.
Man: ♪ desperate and dangerous ♪
♪ a gun in my hand ♪
♪ they'll never see us coming ♪
♪ before they know it ♪
♪ it's the end ♪
We're talking 130 yards here at least.
That's a fair shot. I'm not kidding.
That's a skill set that most people don't have.
Siegler: Ricky's trailer is no longer on the property,
But we've erected a window there to help us better understand
How he was so viciously hunted in his own living room.
♪ they'll take me dead or alive ♪
♪ I'm hunted ♪
So, this window is the front living room window?
Right.
And the two little red dots are bullet holes?
Yeah. We were standing up there, eye level for that bullet hole.
That's almost perfect where the truck is parked.
Siegler: Based on these acceleration marks
And the trajectory, the sheriff department believes
That ricky's killer fired the shots
From sitting inside a vehicle alongside this highway.
That sure did make for a quick getaway.
The acceleration marks were right around here
For 60-something feet.
I know that the firearms report says 30-class rifle.
Is that correct?
It'd be a 30-caliber rifle.
Spingola: We don't know
What kind of 30-caliber rifle was used.
But we know that tommie whetzell was a trained hunter
And suggested that he owned a 30-aught-six to investigators
Which could be the murder weapon.
However, investigators never found that weapon
During a search of his home.
So if I pull up here and I put it in "park,"
There's ricky's trailer right out the window.
All day long.
So you shoot "bang!"
Bang.
It would explain why the casing is never found.
- It'll eject out and back. - Inside the truck.
Siegler: So he didn't have to pick it up.
Damn. That's all fast-- from the pull-up
To putting it in "park" to driving off could be...
- Ten seconds. - Yeah.
- Look through the scope. - All right.
We don't know what time ricky was killed,
But we know that alice and the boys
Got home from the football game around 9:30.
And at that time, tommie was home.
If tommie killed ricky,
Then it likely happened before then.
He and alice lived about 20 minutes away.
So he could have easily made it back home in under an hour.
Hold it out the window. Put your elbow on the...
Window frame.
And now you're right in the window with him.
Hold. Do this.
Yeah. All the way back. Pull straight back.
Push it forward. Push it down.
And you're ready for a second round.
Siegler: It'd be easy if you were a good shot.
You're right inside the window with him, aren't you?
Yeah.
Looking through this scope at this crazy distance,
I'm reminded of what tommie told the investigators--
That earlier that day,
Ricky threatened to whip his ass.
We can't say for sure who killed ricky,
But whoever did this did it in the most cowardly way possible.
Well, I think we've got a good idea of how it went down.
Does that make more sense in your head?
- It does. It does. - Yeah.
Spingola: The key right now is aric.
If he's got something solid...
From the cellphone tower information or the calls.
We've heard that our suspect, alice mader,
Wanted ricky luebbert dead,
And we wonder if she may have gotten her husband,
Tommie whetzell, to do it.
But so far, we don't have enough evidence to prove it.
Our digital forensics expert has analyzed their phones
And computer for their activity that night.
All right. Everybody's waiting. Everybody's waiting.
Devlin: Are we ready to get going?
We know that ricky threatened tommie on the phone
Around 6:30 p.M.,
And then ricky showed up at the game around 7:30 p.M.
But what happened after that?
Call detail records. So, this is the first number.
This is the one they attribute to alice.
At 7:30 p.M.,
Alice mader makes a phone call to tommie's phone.
She says in her interview, she called tommie from the game.
Right. That conversation lasts for 68 seconds.
What happens after that?
At 7:43,
Alice mader calls tommie whetzell's cellphone.
Siegler: Okay.
Devlin: At 8:11,
Alice mader makes another call to tommie whetzell's cellphone.
At 8:38, tommie whetzell
Calls alice mader.
Siegler: We don't know for sure
What time ricky luebbert was killed,
But the communication
Between alice and tommie
Suggested it could have been
Between 8:11 and 8:38 p.M.
But without knowing
What alice said,
There's no way of proving
That alice was trying to set ricky up.
Where in all that do we have proof
That she's encouraging, aiding, abetting, assisting?
Tommie could have just said, "he just pissed me off.
We got into it again. I'm mad."
And she could have said, "don't do it. Don't do it."
And then she's calling back or worried or coming home,
Wondering if he's done it.
While we're looking at alice's cellphone records,
Do you have any calls made
Looking for ricky Thursday, Friday, and Saturday?
There was a 7:47 call on the 8th,
And then there was another call at 8:30.
And then there's calls on the 10th.
She calls a couple of times on Saturday.
So she's calling.
I did not expect that.
If alice knew that ricky was dead,
Then why is she calling ricky on the 8th and the 10th?
And these are the same days
That she reached out to the authorities
To say that she was concerned
That ricky had missed appointments with his sons.
We had wondered if alice was just trying
To make it look like she was innocent,
But maybe she really was.
Getting into tommie's calls over the years,
The cellphone tower names have changed.
But you can still show movements.
That is correct.
Spingola: According to tommie whetzell,
On the night ricky luebbert was shot,
He was home watching television and using his computer.
We'll see what his phone and computer have to say about that.
So, 11-7-2007, 7:30 p.M.,
Receives a call from alice mader.
That's hitting from a tower that appears to be his home tower.
7:43, receives a call from alice mader.
He's still hitting off that same tower
That looks to be like his home tower.
At 8:11, call from alice mader.
He is still hitting off that tower
That belongs to his home.
At 8:38 p.M.,
Tommie makes a call to alice mader.
He is at that point in time hitting off a tower
That is not his home tower.
He is now hitting off of a different tower.
If you were arguing to a jury,
You'd draw a big circle around that right there.
The key is this anomaly right here.
Tommie whetzell's phone
Changed cellphone towers
At 8:38,
Right around the time
That we believed
That ricky luebbert was killed.
This suggests that tommie
Could have left his house after his call at 8:11,
Driven to ricky's trailer, killed him,
Called from a different tower at 8:38
And gotten home before alice and the boys
Returned from the game at 9:30.
You know we're not done.
Sergeant and chief have found the computer.
On November 7, 2007,
From 7:58 p.M. Till 11:58 p.M.,
There was no computer activity at all.
- He's not on it, period. - Right.
- There you are. - It's all we need.
It's time to confront alice and tommie.
If I was a hugger, I'd give you a big hug.
- [laughs] fist bump. - Siegler: Nice.
It'll be interesting to see if one flips on the other.
Siegler: I hope tom's home.
He says, "come in in. Let's talk."
Siegler: We don't think that our suspects,
Alice mader and tommie whetzell, talk to each other anymore,
But we can't take any chances.
So while steve and detective applegate
Go try and talk to tommie,
Rowdy and I are on our way to talk to alice.
[knocking]
- Yes, sir. - How you doing? Are you tommie?
- Yes. - I'm sergeant applegate.
I'm with the sheriff's office in texas county.
Would you be comfortable sitting and talking to us?
As long as you don't cuff me and drag me away.
No, we ain't doing that.
Douglas: Hey, alice, how are ya?
You got a minute to talk with us?
Sure.
Siegler: Analyzing tommie's cellphone
Tells us that he was not at home at the time of the murder,
Like he says he was.
Alice: I was working outside all day today.
Siegler: You get a lot done?
I work like a damn man. Yeah, I did.
We're less certain of alice's involvement,
Because she talked to tommie multiple times that night
But also called the authorities and ricky after the murder,
Seemingly unaware he's dead.
Douglas: Let's go back to the night of the football game.
Was everything cordial between you and rick at the ball game?
Yeah.
While you were at the game, you called and talked to tom.
- Do you remember that? - Oh, yeah.
Why did you need to call tom to tell him that rick was here?
- Because rick had the kids. - Okay.
Okay? So here I am.
What do I do? I'm just standing there now.
Okay. So you needed something to do, so you called tom.
- Yeah. - I got you.
Do you know about what time he left?
I know it was a long time ago.
I don't. All I know is the boys said
He had to be at work early the next morning.
So then it shows at 8:11, alice calls tommie's cell.
I was calling him back and forth. Yeah.
Did you call him and say,
"that sorry son of a gun left the kids by themselves"?
Basically, yeah.
And then tom calls you back.
Well, he had told me that he was leaving
To go do something.
There was an old couple
That he's gotta go fix the satellite.
So I was not expecting him home.
And when I came home, he was here.
And I said, "I thought you were going to fix the satellite,"
And he said, "they got it working."
Okay. So he didn't leave the house all night.
I don't know. I wasn't here. I was at the game.
According to alice, tommie told her
That he needed to leave to go help somebody fix their tv,
But he never did.
It makes you wonder if he was trying
To alibi himself to his own wife.
Applegate: Do you remember the football game night?
I remember going up to the football field. Yeah.
Alice called me, wanted me to come up,
Spend some time up with her and the boys.
'cause I was sitting home
Getting ready for work the next day.
So I went there-- I went up to the football field.
And I guess ricky was supposed to show up there
And never did.
When you talked to the investigators afterwards,
You didn't say that you went up to the game back then.
You said that you stayed home alone by yourself.
Is that what you told law enforcement--
That you stayed home that night?
If that's what it says I said, I'm not gonna deny it.
I just can't remember.
Did you guys have words that day, you and ricky?
Did you guys get into it about flicking aaron's ear?
He got pretty upset about that. Yeah.
He said, "what are you doing thumping my boy?"
I said, "he was disrespectful, so I thumped him."
That's another time he threatened
To come and whup my ass.
Was that the night of the game
That you guys had that conversation?
I couldn't tell you when that conversation was for sure.
Tommie first said he went to the game. Now he doesn't remember.
He remembers the argument with ricky,
But not when it happened.
Maybe his memory is that bad,
Or he's picking and choosing what he cares to remember.
So, people that we've talked to said that alice made comments
To the extent of, um,
"do you know anybody that will take care of him?"
She never mentioned anything like that to me.
- She never asked you? - No.
Did she ever...
Lead you to believe in any way that--
That's something she would consider doing
Was having him killed?
Well, she wished he was dead a few times.
Right. Well, I know you did, too.
Yes, I did. I definitely did.
Applegate: So, what does your gut tell you?
Well, alice might have hired somebody to do it.
According to tommie, alice never said
She wanted to have ricky killed,
But he thinks that she may have hired somebody to do it.
It sounds as if he's trying to distance himself from this crime
And throw alice under the bus.
You said you left the game around 9:30-ish
And he was still awake when you got home?
That was the weirdest thing.
When we got home, it was the first time
We had a conversation as a family.
It was just, like, nice.
And we were actually sittin' and talkin',
And that was bizarre.
Douglas: The night that rick is murdered,
He's in a great mood.
Is that not weird?
- The whole thing is weird. - Right.
But I think that he told you after the murder, alice,
And if he did, this is the time,
Because we're talking to tommie right now.
We got guys in liberal, missouri.
He's been in the car with them for over an hour,
And you know what he's saying?
That you paid somebody to kill rick luebbert.
[alice scoffs]
He's gonna try to throw you under the bus
And make you out to be bad.
Okay, just so you know, he didn't tell me anything.
Spingola: Let me show you something, tommie, here.
They pulled up your cellphone records,
And this is damning.
Applegate: That's your phone
Making a call to alice 8:38 p.M.
What I'm telling you is you weren't home.
Okay.
You never went to tommie and said...
- No. - ..."you son of a bitch,
Did you kill him?"
No. Have I had, you know, thoughts on it? Yeah.
Douglas: What do you think?
Well, at one point--
Go through your notes.
When I came home, I smelled gun stuff.
Douglas: That's not in any of the reports.
Back up and start from the beginning.
You get home that night after the football game,
And what do you smell?
He's sitting in the chair, in the rocker, watching tv,
And I smelled gunpowder.
I was like, "what is that smell?"
And he said, "aric and him were target practicing."
Alice smelled gunpowder on tommie
The night of the murder.
That is brand-new information.
They're not married anymore, and she ain't holding back.
And that is a beautiful piece of circumstantial evidence
Against him.
Spingola: Think about this for a second.
They're talking to alice right now.
It comes down to mercy or justice here.
Do you want people to look at you
As kind of being pulled into this,
Or you're gonna be looking
Like some type of cold-blooded murderer?
That's a tough choice there, 'cause I--I didn't do it.
[spingola sighs]
I don't know.
But I think I'm gonna have to get a lawyer.
Okay.
Spingola: Tommie's done talking to us,
But, fortunately, I think he's told us enough.
So, alice, if you just read the file, me, an outsider--
- Oh, yeah. - You're the one
Going all over town saying, "I want him dead."
Yeah. I'm all aware of it.
So that's why we're asking you.
We know you're in the middle of this.
Help us understand what really happened.
If I knew, I would tell you.
- Okay. - I don't know.
The bottom line is, I wouldn't do anything to hurt my kids.
Siegler: What can you say about alice?
She was open.
She said, "I know my mouth got me in trouble.
"that's why I'm sitting here.
I know why you gotta look at me."
If she would've killed ricky or had something to do with it,
There's no way that woman could've kept her month shut
For 10 minutes, much less 15 years.
Alice just went from being prime suspect number one
To being a very critical witness in this case.
[spingola humming]
- Spingola: Gentlemen. - Good morning.
I could not sleep when I got back in that room last night.
- Yeah. - I couldn't either.
- It was a good day. - It was a good day.
Throughout this whole investigation,
We have found no evidence
That ricky luebbert had any enemies
Besides our two suspects on the board.
Now we wanna revisit all the information we've gathered.
We got miss alice up here.
We learned that her phone made calls to ricky
The day after the murder
And then two days after the murder.
Do you have any calls made looking for ricky
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday?
Yes. There's calls on the 8th, and there's calls on the 10th.
Why would you call a dead guy?
If you knew he was dead, why would you call?
And I didn't think she was smart enough
To think of, "well, I'll call the dead guy
So they'll see me calling him."
But then I thought if she was smart enough,
She'd bring it to our attention.
Knowing alice and knowing her mouth,
I don't think if she knew anything
And she was lying about anything
That she would have been as consistent as she was.
I think we can eliminate her.
I don't think she's got the smarts,
The ability, the skill set.
I don't either. I don't think she can keep her mouth shut.
Siegler: It's clear why people looked at alice.
She ran her mouth all over town
About she felt about ricky and wanting to get rid of him.
Everybody knew they had an upcoming court date
And they were fighting over custody of the kids.
But now that kind of seems like an unfortunate coincidence.
There is no direct evidence of any involvement
Or commission of any act that alice did that night.
And just like she told us,
None of us believe that she had the heart
To want to take away her kids' dad.
We can clear alice out for good.
All right. Tommie whetzell.
What makes you think tommie's the shooter?
He just can't keep his story straight
On where he was at the night that ricky was killed.
Do you remember the football game night?
I remember going up to the football field. Yeah.
He says in 2007 that he was at home the whole time
On the computer and watching tv.
Well, we know he wasn't.
- Siegler: Okay. - 'cause his cellphone's
Hitting off of a different tower.
At 8:38 p.M., tommie makes a call.
He is hitting off a tower that is not his home tower.
What did we learn from alice last night?
- He smelled like gunpowder. - For the first time ever.
Acted like they're a happy little family.
And gave her a mini potential alibi
In case she came home too early.
He had told me that there was a old couple
That he's gotta go fix the satellite.
"and I was so surprised when I pulled up and he was home."
And he said, "oh, they took care of it themselves."
Right. That old couple.
In the little window of time where it happens to be
That your cell tower's switched to a new location.
- Yeah. - And then you had
That phone fight-- "I'm gonna whip your ass.
Don't you put hands on my kids again."
And the beautiful thing yesterday
Is that he reconfirmed it.
He said, "what are you doing thumping my boy?"
He threatened to come and whup my ass.
And he mentions a 30-aught-six.
They go to get it from his house.
He can't turn it over.
If there's a conflict between the two of them
That tommie's decided it's gonna end tonight,
He's not gonna do it face-to-face
Where ricky can get ahold of him.
He's gonna do it from a distance.
Unlike alice,
Tommie's mouth keeps digging his hole deeper
Every time he opens it.
His argument with ricky. His changing story.
His missing rifle. His shattered alibi.
All of this is solid circumstantial evidence
Against tommie.
What I wanna do is present this
To our prosecuting attorney, parke stevens,
And see if he'll put it in front of a grand jury
And see if we can get tommie whetzell
Indicted for murder.
Nice. Nice. You feeling good, too?
- Hell, yeah. - Well, go.
We'll sit here and wait for you.
- All right. - Well, go have some good luck.
- We'll let you know. - Take care, guys.
Siegler: Randy drove back down here again from st. Louis
For you to catch him up. Aren't you excited?
I am excited. This is the first cold case I've worked, so...
- That's cool. - Yeah.
Man: ♪ I can hear the engines go ♪
♪ I can see the smoke as it follows me ♪
Rowdy and applegate had a meeting
With their prosecuting attorney, and we have some good news.
When I reached out to aaron, ricky's oldest son,
I don't think he was ready to talk about it.
I think maybe after we talk to randy,
We can have randy call him.
And it's all good news for him
To know that his mother really did have nothing to do with it,
And he's finally gonna get something done.
Yeah.
Siegler: For now, we're headed
To share this good news with ricky's brother, randy,
Who's been waiting 15 years for an answer.
We had a pretty good week.
I was prepared for the worst, but I'm hoping for the best.
We went and talked to alice and tommie again,
And I think pretty confident to say
That alice was not involved.
Okay.
I talked to the prosecuting attorney yesterday,
And I'm pretty confident
That we're gonna take this in front of a grand jury
And try to get tommie whetzell indicted
For first-degree murder.
Great. I'm happy.
I was hopeful, but I didn't wanna get excited.
- Siegler: Okay. - But now I'm pretty excited.
Good. You don't show it too much,
But I guess that's just the kind of man you are.
I'm excited. I'm excited.
So, what do you think this would mean to your dad?
Everything. Everything.
I really wished we'd have got a chance to do this
Before he passed away.
You did it for your dad.
You kept pushing, and you finally got here.
Yeah. I'm real excited.
It all clicked. It all came together the way it should,
And I really, really, really appreciated of it.
I want it to come a day
When aaron and aric come back through town to visit
And you've come down here and meet with them,
And they all go to your office and y'all all sit down and talk.
I didn't even get a chance to tell him that.
- You can tell him. - Yeah. I will.
All right. Well, let's-- it was very nice meeting you.
Thank you so much.
Losing a father is life-changing,
Especially if it happens under traumatic circumstances.
Tell them boys to call me or come down and see me.
I will. Thank you so much.
- It was nice to meet you. - Thank you.
Siegler: We can't help the two little boys
That lost their dad,
But I hope that we can give two grown men a sense of peace.
- Tommie? - Yeah.
Will you step out here? We need to speak to you.
You're under arrest for the murder of ricky luebbert.
Siegler: On June 29, 2022, tommie whetzell was arrested
For first-degree murder, armed criminal action,
And discharge of a firearm at or from a motor vehicle.