Kelly siegler: There are millions of security cameras
All over this country.
The average american is caught on those cameras 34 times a day.
And for some, that's the last time they're ever seen.
Woman: ♪ I don't think that I can break your fall ♪
♪ every time I build you up you make me feel so small ♪
Siegler: This time we're in dunlap, tennessee,
And the chief has asked our old buddy,
Bill phillips from chattanooga pd tennessee
When we worked with him eight years ago,
To come work with us again on this case.
- It'd be fun to see him. - It will.
- Remember billy goat hill. - Yeah.
- That one turned out right. - It did. They prosecuted that.
They had a trial.
In 2014, we assisted sergeant bill phillips
In charging lebron hollingsworth
For the murder of his estranged wife vicki.
And now we're here again working with bill,
Looking into the disappearance
Of 42-year-old devoted grandmother and mother,
Tiffany holbert.
Tiffany grew up right here in this part of tennessee.
Her kids were here. Her grandkids were here.
Spingola: Got all kinds of mouths to feed.
Siegler: She worked at mcdonald's.
She's trying to get by.
It's just a harder life that a lot of people don't realize.
Tiffany was a hard-working single mom
Supporting her daughters and grandchildren
Who lived with her.
After her divorce,
Tiffany began dating a younger man,
And she was probably trying to maybe find herself
As she entered that next chapter of her life.
She always went for a walk around this certain area,
Around the sequatchie dam, from her trailer.
And then all of a sudden, she disappeared.
The problem is, could she be alive?
You know, and all these ideas that she ran away
'cause her life was miserable.
Spingola: On June 13, 2018,
Tiffany went out for her nightly walk
And was never seen or heard from again.
A nearby atm captured tiffany
Getting into her boyfriend geramie campbell's car.
When investigators learned
About possible abuse in their relationship,
Geramie became the prime suspect in this case.
Steve, I grew up in a world
Where ladies walk around all the time with black eyes.
I can remember when I was a little girl,
I'd be standing there saying, "mom, just leave him."
And what did mom do? Took him back.
It's just setup for the most volatile situation you can have.
And I read a case like this
And think it's everywhere, steve.
It's my life. It's not just our job. It's everywhere.
[rain pattering]
Spingola: Oh, this is a mess.
Puddles are as big as lakes.
Siegler: I'll take this over your dang snow.
Thank you, thank you.
We almost melted. Hi. Nice to meet you.
Chief steve spingola. Nice to meet you, sir.
- Lieutenant lindley. - Detective wallace cunningham.
Hey, wallace. Nice to see you.
- And you don't... - Welcome.
- Hey, bill. - How are you?
- Good to see you, man. - Kelly. How you doing?
- Glad to be back home with you. - Good to have you back.
Did y'all know that the case we worked with bill last time
Ended with very good luck?
I did.
Which is kind of what y'all need
To push it over the edge, right?
Yes. I hope we can get some closure for the family.
Y'all got a good spot for us to work in?
- Absolutely. - All right, let's go.
Let's go.
Dunlap pd contracted me to come in
To assist with this case.
And because of my experience with "cold justice" in the past,
I knew that this was a really good opportunity.
Tiffany missing has been like something missing
From this community.
It's time for some closure for her daughters,
Her grandchildren, and other loved ones.
So, we can start with miss tiffany up on the board.
She was 42.
Cunningham: From everybody we've talked to,
She was a great mom, devoted grandmother.
She had five daughters.
She had recently been through a separation.
She's loving and caring.
You know, the single mother just trying to get by.
So, the first thing we can do
Is let you start running the case down to us.
On June 13, 2018 at approximately 6:00 p.M.,
Tiffany holbert went on a walk just around the neighborhood,
Which wasn't unusual.
The only thing she took with her was her cellphone.
A couple hours went by.
Her daughter had noticed that she wasn't home yet,
And she was starting to worry about her.
She called her cellphone, and she never answered.
Then the following day,
Her daughter ended up calling 911
And reported her mother missing.
The investigators ended up getting some atm video.
Tiffany walks right in front of the camera.
You see her make a turn.
You see her go onto the parking lot.
There's a car that actually pulls up,
And she gets in the passenger side of the car
And they drive off.
- Describe the car. - Appeared to be
A red pontiac bonneville sedan.
We learned that car belonged to geramie campbell,
Which was tiffany's boyfriend.
- Siegler: Okay. - The night that she disappeared
The investigators asked him about her.
He said that he hadn't spoke with her in three months.
But he changed his tune when they said,
"hey, we got atm video."
Well, when that happened, the story changed.
"yeah, she did get in the car with me.
We were gonna go to my house."
But he said they ended up
Getting into an argument in the car.
He said he just let her off on highway 111
On the side of the road and he went home.
And he had indicated
That it was somewhere on top of the mountain
Where he lets her out.
Well, the investigators asked him,
"can you show us where she got let out at?"
He said, "I've hired an attorney.
I can't talk to you."
Although geramie was probably following his lawyer's advice,
If he really did just let tiffany out of his car,
You would think he would wanna help law enforcement find her.
So is it possible that their argument escalated into murder?
He was 25. So, a 17-year difference?
- Yeah. A 17-year difference. - Eee.
Cunningham: He showed her some affection
And she just loved him to death.
But it seemed like it was pretty common knowledge
That he was violent towards tiffany.
There were rumors of abuse
Between tiffany and geramie's three-year relationship.
We wanna see if there's any truth to these allegations
And if it may have played a role
In what happened to her that night.
Is there anything else big we need to put under geramie?
He gives them notes.
Cunningham: He had given some handwritten notes
To the investigators that he said tiffany had wrote him.
Which is kind of odd.
According to him, she had written him a note
Giving him directions on where to come pick her up.
Are we still wondering if they really came from tiffany?
Yeah.
After police approached geramie with the atm video,
He gave them a handwritten note
That he claimed tiffany had given to him,
Possibly to show that they had an amicable relationship.
On the back were instructions where to meet her that night.
We sent that to our handwriting expert for analysis.
If it was forged, that could go a long way
In proving that geramie was involved
And trying to cover his tracks.
Okay. Now let's talk about miss gloria.
Cunningham: Geramie's campbell's mother.
- Siegler: She's 44. - Yeah.
She was just pretty approximate to tiffany holbert's age.
Evidently, she had instructed him
Not to bring her to his house.
Siegler: At the time of tiffany's disappearance,
Geramie was living with his mother, gloria,
Who did not like tiffany.
So we have to consider the possibility
That if geramie is responsible, his mom could have helped.
Approximately five days before tiffany holbert's disappearance,
Tiffany had been in an altercation at a car wash
With gloria.
Physical altercation.
Cunningham: Both holbert and gloria were arrested.
Siegler: Okay. The date?
Yeah. They were set to go to court on 6/15.
So just a couple days after she went missing.
Siegler: You're trying to figure out
Is she, like, mad about the car wash incident
To where she's instigating the whole thing
To see if she's involved or if she knows more, huh?
Cunningham: Yeah.
Okay. Next, mark coots.
How does he know gloria and geramie?
- He's their neighbor? - He's their neighbor.
Cunningham: When they went and served the search warrant
At gloria's house, where geramie lived with his mother,
He didn't like that they were messing with gloria.
And while they were explaining the warrant to her,
That's when coots tried to come barging in the door.
Siegler: Okay.
Coots was close to this family.
So the question is, did he help geramie?
Cunningham: Yeah.
Spingola: Whether he's involved or not,
Mark coots is right in the center of this investigation.
If geramie, gloria, or both of them killed tiffany,
It's unlikely they'll give each other up.
So coots could be a co-defendant or our best witness.
All right, we got one more.
This is charles o'rafferty.
And he's the father of how many of the kids?
- I think all of 'em. - All of 'em?
Spingola: Charles o'rafferty was tiffany's ex-husband.
They were childhood sweethearts, so they have a long history.
Charles actually lived in the area that tiffany did,
And they shared custody,
So he had regular contact with tiffany and the children.
According to the daughters, the divorce was mutual.
But he's on our suspect board because who put him up here?
Geramie threw his name out there.
And what did geramie say specifically about o'rafferty?
Cunningham: He said they've had domestic situations in the past.
While it's possible that geramie
Was trying to divert the investigation from himself,
It's clear that we need to learn more
About charles's relationship with tiffany
At the time of the disappearance.
Siegler: Let's consider the idea that tiffany just walked away.
Maybe she just wasn't happy in her life.
She had a rough life.
Overwhelmed-- question mark, right?
Siegler: Tiffany was struggling to get by financially.
She was supporting multiple children and grandchildren.
She also was dealing with two hard-of-hearing children.
She had just had a foot procedure done
Which left her in a walking boot.
She was recently divorced,
And she was looking at an upcoming court date.
Every kind of trouble you can have she had.
So she had a lot of reasons to walk away if she could've.
It's possible that all of that just overwhelmed her.
But if she's gone as a result of foul play,
Then we first need to prove that
And then determine if one or more of our suspects
Is responsible.
We're gonna go talk to tiffany's daughters,
Allison and chelsea.
How old are these girls today?
Early 20s. You know, they all loved their mother.
In missing person cases, the family's not only dealing
With the loss of their loved one.
They're looking at uncertainty,
Making it even more difficult for them to heal.
And after just four years,
I'm sure the pain is still pretty fresh
With tiffany's daughters.
- Hello, ladies. - Hello.
Oh, baby, don't be nervous.
This is gonna be okay.
I'm gonna let you talk about your mom.
I'm gonna ask you some questions.
What's your name?
- Chelsea. - You're chelsea?
- And you're allison? - Yeah.
How about you just tell us about your mom?
She was a great mom.
She was always there.
She never missed holidays, birthdays.
How often would you talk to her?
Every day, all day.
- All day long? - Whenever I felt like it,
I just picked up the phone and called her.
- Over nothing. - Over nothing.
My mom was amazing. She was a hard worker.
She loved her grandkids. She was always there for us.
Four years ago, did your mom have anything at all
Going on with your dad?
Chelsea: Just the divorce.
They weren't doing a back-and-forth relationship,
Romance thing at all?
- Mm-mmm. - Can you remember
The first time you ever laid eyes on this new man, geramie?
Yeah. And I couldn't stand him from day one.
How come?
I just didn't like his attitude and he was our age.
They had a pretty tumultuous, I guess, relationship.
Was it physical?
- Yes, it was physical. - It was physical.
He would always put his hands on her.
And one time he shoved her up against the refrigerator
In front of all of us.
She had a black eye at one point, right?
- A big ol' black eye. - Okay.
It was-it was-it was bad.
Their relationship changed over time?
Yeah. She had told us at one point they wasn't dating,
And it was a lie.
Okay. She was still seeing him.
They were just "having sex."
And why do you think your mom was hiding it from y'all?
'cause she knew that we didn't like him.
We're gonna try and find out exactly what happened, okay?
It's just like a nightmare that never ends.
Well, that's the thing.
Your nightmare's been going on for four years.
[sobs]
And I think it's time for us
To try and get you some answers, okay?
Thank you. We appreciate it.
Tiffany's daughters are the same age that I was
When I remember my mom being abused,
And I know what that feels like, and I know how hopeless you feel
When you look at your mom going through all that.
- Try not to worry. - Thank you.
And it makes me just madder and more determined
To try and get them some justice and some answers.
Siegler: Heather weaver.
She was really good friends with tiffany,
So you should get some insights.
In 2018, 42-year-old mother and grandmother,
Tiffany holbert, disappeared.
The question still remains,
Was she the victim of foul play?
Possibly at the hands of one or more of our suspects.
Or was she just so overwhelmed with her life
That she just simply up and walked away?
[knocking]
Hello there.
We need to learn all that we can
About tiffany's relationships, pressures,
And problems she was dealing with at the time.
So we wanna talk to everyone we can
Who knew her the very best.
Cunningham: We just wanna talk a little bit about your cousin.
Tiffany was the most kindest-hearted person
I've-I've ever known.
She was a great mother.
Every time I ever talked to her,
She was doing something for the kids,
Doing something for the grandkids.
You couldn't separate her and them grandbabies.
You just couldn't. So when I found out
That she just up and left, I was shocked.
She would not leave and not come back.
That's not her.
She was too much of a devoted mother and grandmother.
Too much.
Cunningham: Did you know her relationship with geramie?
When she told me she was dating jerk monkey,
And I was like, "okay. I wanna meet him."
I did not like the vibe the first time I met him.
As soon as he shook my hand, I wanted to punch him in the face.
I'm not gonna lie to you. I could feel his ego.
I did not like him at all. I'm gonna get emotional.
Cunningham: Yeah. I know. It's hard.
Weaver: I hurt for her daughters and her grandkids.
[sobs]
I'm not much help.
- Oh, yes, you are. - You've been a great help.
Siegler: You're doing a lot of help.
It's not enough to bring her home, though.
Siegler: Oh, he's already at the door.
- Hey. You charles wynn? - Yes, sir.
You worked with tiffany holbert a few years ago at the...
As a matter of fact, my station was just right in front of hers.
But the thing of it is two weeks before she disappeared,
She got a management promotion.
Siegler: Can you remember?
Did tiffany pick up her last paycheck?
- She didn't. - You remember that?
Yes, ma'am. If she was gonna up and run,
She'd have come and got some money.
We already thought that tiffany probably didn't just walk away,
But when you factor in
That she had just gotten a promotion at work
She was very excited about
And this woman who was so financially dire
Didn't pick up her last paycheck,
It doesn't make any sense that tiffany would just walk away.
Cunningham: Did you ever see her boyfriend?
Yeah. I actually had to run him off the property once.
When I got there, I was a little late.
And he actually had his arm in the car.
He was trying to reach in and grab hold of it.
- Siegler: Did she look scare? - Oh, yeah.
Oh, she'd tell us stories about a guy that would just--
I mean, it would scare you to death.
Siegler: Give us the stories.
Her and her daughter had left and went to the grocery store.
Well, I guess they didn't get back in time.
Well, he shows up there,
Literally reaches in the car and grabs her by the throat
And tries to pull her through the window.
That's what she had been telling us.
- Thank y'all very much. - I appreciate your time.
Charles witnessing the violent act by geramie
Not only suggests that the rumors were true,
But if geramie killed her,
It could be a clue into how he did it.
Woman:
Hi, dawn. This is detective cunningham
With the dunlap police department.
We're doing an investigation into tiffany holbert.
So, you saw bruises.
Did anybody ever ask her where she got the bruises?
Geramie. Okay.
So, she's pretty open about the abuse.
Siegler: It's common for victims of abuse
To keep all that hidden because they're embarrassed
And they don't want people to know about it
Out of proud or fear.
Fortunately for us, though, tiffany did talk,
And all of these witnesses were adding beautiful pieces
To the story.
Mm-hmm.
How you doing?
Hi. I'm diane's little brother.
Steve spingola. Nice to meet you.
We've been getting great information
From tiffany's friends about her allegedly abusive relationship
With geramie.
But we're hoping she opened up even more
To her father and brother.
We just wanna sit down with you guys
And ask you a few questions.
Let you tell us what you think
About the relationships she was in.
Wayne: He used to smack her around.
You're talking about geramie now.
Yeah. She'd come home with black and bruises,
And we'd ask her, "what happened?"
"oh, I fell."
We knew better.
But she would never tell us that he would do all this.
But it was all the time.
She'd come home with black and bruises.
Her eyes black.
Did you know when she would come home like that
That she had been with geramie?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
'cause he'd pull up and drop her off.
Yeah.
You're talking about o'rafferty?
I mean, he's part of the investigation.
Well, just tell me a little about that.
Okay.
We were thinking we'd be getting more on geramie,
But instead we're hearing about charles,
And it sounds like their marriage was a lot worse
Than we initially thought,
And we need to take a harder look at charles
As a possible suspect.
We need to get something done. We need to get something done.
That's him. Just like his picture.
This is a beautiful hill here.
How's it going? I'm wallace. You care if I call you chucky?
- Or you want me to call you... - Everybody calls me chuck.
- Chuck? - Yeah.
Tiffany's ex-husband, charles o'rafferty,
Became a suspect in this case
After geramie mentioned his name to law enforcement.
I appreciate you talking with me.
Well, I ain't got nothing to hide.
We need to talk to charles about his relationship with tiffany
And where he may have been on the night tiffany disappeared.
Cunningham: How old were you guys when you got together?
Tiffany was like 12, and I was 13.
So, you probably know her better than anybody.
- Well, I used to think I did... - Yeah.
...Until we got a divorce.
How would you describe your and tiffany's relationship?
I loved her and she loved me.
Did y'all fight?
There was times we'd fight over certain things like money.
- It didn't get physical. - No? We argued. No. Uh-uh.
I'd never hit her. I loved her too much.
- And I still do today. - Mm-hmm.
When's the last time you talked to tiffany?
I just got out of jail.
The kids had a little dinner for me
'cause I just got home.
- Mm-hmm. - And she was there.
And I said, "why aren't you outside mingling with us?"
She was on the phone, whatever.
She said, "I'm fine in here," and I said, "okay."
- That's kind of the end of it? - That was the end of it.
That was the last time I'd ever talk to her.
Who do you think geramie blames for tiffany going missing?
Probably me. That's what my girls said.
- Why? He don't know me. - Mm-hmm.
And I wasn't even around her. How could I? I had a girlfriend.
Yeah. You had nothing to do with her going missing?
I have nothing to do with nothing, sir.
But I wish it was over one way or another
So my children can rest,
'cause you don't know how they call me.
And it's hard to be a strong daddy
When somebody that you love is not there.
Cunningham: Mm-hmm.
Yeah. It's rough.
You can tell he still loves her even after their divorce,
And he seems sincere.
He's trying to be there for his daughters
After the loss of their mother.
More decent than I'd thought he would be.
Seems like he's-he's authentic.
[line ringing]
Hey, elisha.
This is wallace up here at the police department.
Now that we've talked to tiffany's ex-husband,
We're gonna turn our focus back
To the other man in her life, geramie campbell.
The day before tiffany went missing,
According to reports, she saw her friend elisha green,
Who handled her car loan at the local bank.
You had talked with her the day before she went missing
At the american trust.
Do you remember anything about that day?
Well, what did she say about her boyfriend?
You think she was scared of him?
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, really? What makes you say that?
Yeah.
Oh. He would say stuff like that?
Wow.
- Mr. Sperry, can you hear us? - I can hear you, yes.
Okay, guys, this is grant sperry.
He is a handwriting analysis expert,
So let's see if he can bring us some luck today.
With everything that we're learning
About tiffany and geramie's relationship,
It's time to take a closer look at the love note
That he gave law enforcement
After being confronted with the atm video.
He claimed that she wrote it
As well as the instructions on the back
About when and where to meet the very day she went missing.
We sent the note
And some handwriting examples from tiffany
To our handwriting expert for comparison.
If the note is a forgery,
That could be a huge piece of circumstantial evidence
Where geramie was trying to cover up his involvement.
Tell us what you got, mr. Sperry.
Detective cunningham submitted
A number of note writings of tiffany holbert.
So I compared the note writings to "I love you, geramie"
Which is on the front of this note.
And I had absolutely no difficulty
In concluding that it was written by tiffany.
So then I began a comparison of the p.S. Related entry
To these note writings,
And I found a number of differences.
This "d" is made in this fashion here.
And the d's throughout the note writings
Are more of a cursive-style "d."
Also the a's,
The staff of the "a"
Is more abbreviated than we have in the "a" in "and."
There are differences.
One of the things that was significant,
And I just touched on here.
Remember what I said earlier
That this "I love you, geramie,"
It was written by tiffany.
But these entries in this postscript
Are totally inconsistent with the habits
That we have represented in "I love you, geramie."
So these were penned at a different time
Which could explain the differences
In some of the writing features and characteristics.
The writing on the back
Is not consistent or contemporaneous
With the writing on the front?
- That's correct. - Okay.
I mean, that's pretty good.
If the notes on the front and the back
Were written at different times,
It raises the possibility
That geramie wrote or had somebody else write
The instructions for meeting tiffany on the back.
But why take all that risk of forging a note
Just to show that tiffany wanted to see him that night?
You're thinking the bright green writing got on there later
With somebody else.
Everything he just told us
Is still consistent with that theory. Okay.
Well, have you thought about
That if you didn't have that atm camera shot
Where your case would be without it?
I don't know if we'd have a case.
I know.
We know from our atm video
That tiffany holbert got into our suspect geramie campbell's
Maroon pontiac and they drove off.
But in the hopes of trying to better understand her mindset
In those final moments,
We wanna take the walk that she did
From her trailer to the bank.
This is our trailer. Help me understand the walk.
Tiffany made this little routine walk.
This day she walked a little longer than normal,
And she didn't have her grandkids with her.
So I guess she would come out the steps there.
She would go down the gravel drive, turn left.
Siegler: So let's walk up
To appreciate kind of where she's going.
As I walk in tiffany's footsteps,
I appreciate how at the age of 42 years old,
She was trying so hard to regain her youth,
And then she hooks up with this guy so much younger than her
Who was allegedly abusing her,
And all she was trying to do
Was do everything she could to please him to keep him happy.
This is a really good walk on a hurt leg.
She gets up somewhere, I believe, in this area.
Siegler: Okay.
Phillips: And then you see
The maroon vehicle pull onto that lot.
Siegler: Okay, so that's where we first see the red car.
This is when tiffany throws her hands up.
Siegler: Why do you think she does that?
I think she's frustrated because now she's got to walk there.
So then she just walks across the street.
He made no effort to make this easier on her.
Siegler: No.
Okay, so, here's where he stopped, right?
So, tiffany comes up.
The passenger door opens.
She goes in the vehicle, and then the door closes.
Siegler: Okay.
And the car takes off pretty quickly.
That way, toward highway 111.
Siegler: And we don't know which way it goes on 111, huh?
- Can't tell. - Can't tell. Okay.
'cause, steve, he's not taking her somewhere to start a fight.
He's taking her somewhere to get some.
I don't think they ever got that far.
Ah, he's gonna have sex.
That's the only thing he can think about.
We don't know what geramie's attentions were that night.
The police searched his vehicle
And found no evidence of sexual intercourse
Or a struggle.
Maybe an analysis of geramie's text messages
Will give us an indication of his state of mind that evening.
So, the last time you ever see tiffany alive is right here.
Right here. That's the last known video
Of her being alive or anywhere.
Siegler: Dang. That's just luck, you know.
She happened to walk in front of that camera.
- This is eric devlin. - How are you? Eric devlin.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
Siegler: In a case that's only four years old,
Cellphones could provide the key piece of evidence
That we're looking for.
Unfortunately, tiffany's phone
Was quickly powered off and never recovered,
So tower location and data are not available
And geramie did not have a phone.
However, he did use a messaging app called textnow.
- You ready to get started? - Siegler: Yes.
Our digital forensics expert, eric devlin,
Was able to examine recovered messages
Between tiffany and geramie from the day of her disappearance.
Maybe there's something said between them
That points to geramie as her killer.
This is the text messages on geramie's account
Regarding tiffany.
They're bickering back and forth on 6/13.
- Our day of. - Correct.
- Okay. - June 13th,
Tiffany sends geramie...
Geramie then replies...
Tiffany then replies...
So, they're talking about dumping and breaking up here.
- She's worried to death... - Yeah.
...He's gonna not talk to her.
Devlin: Tiffany replies...
Geramie replies...
He's horny, and she's trying to say,
"I took my boot off, but I'm in pain.
I'm really not feeling like sex right now, dude,"
And he's still going.
- That's exactly what it is. - He's horny.
Devlin: Tiffany replies...
Geramie replies at 5:36 p.M...
5:36 he's leaving.
Devlin: Tiffany replies...
She's bringing up black eyes.
- Right. - Like it's a reminder.
Good god.
When you hear the nature of their relationship
And how horribly mean geramie is to tiffany,
You can kind of feel how borderline desperate she is
To try and keep that relationship going,
Which makes it really, really sad.
I don't know where we're ever gonna get a case
That has this much information just from text messages.
It's wonderful.
What also is interesting here,
Starting at the one at 5:00 p.M.,
These messages are actually all deleted at this point in time.
All these are deleted messages?
- Devlin: Yep. - Oh!
Our records show that these texts
Were the last time that geramie ever contacted tiffany,
And they were deleted possibly by geramie,
Initially trying to hide the fact that they had met up.
Is it possible that after the police department
Confronted him with the video
Showing her getting into his car
He felt he needed to explain
How he knew when and where to meet her that day?
So he took an old love note she had written,
Added the instructions on the back
And gave them to the police.
This "I love you, geramie"
And this postscript are totally inconsistent.
So these were penned at a different time.
Was geramie going through extra efforts
To cover his tracks?
It shows time. It shows motive.
It shows mindset. It shows everything.
Spingola: Mark charles coots. He's the neighbor of paulet.
You know, he was pretty docile
Up until they served the search warrant
That he went zonkers.
- What business is of yours? - Yeah.
Mark coots placed himself on law enforcement radar
When he became hostile as law enforcement attempted
To search geramie and his mother's trailer.
Hey. How you doing? You mr. Coots?
Yeah.
Was he innocently protecting his friends
Or interfering with police when they were attempting
To uncover evidence in the murder of tiffany?
Geramie and his mom, they was good neighbors.
Good friends.
Geramie used to come here to hang out,
'cause I was like his second dad.
What does he say about her being gone and nobody can find her?
Coots: She told him to come over or something
Up there in dunlap somewhere where she lived at.
And he went up there. He was in the red car.
They drove off and left,
And they went down the road and sat and talked.
They got into an argument.
She seen somebody she knew in a white pickup truck.
So she jumped out of the car.
She got out of the car and told geramie, "[bleep] you,"
And she got in the truck
With some man in a white pickup truck.
And I don't quite believe that, but that's geramie's story.
Mark coots is giving us a new version of geramie's story--
That tiffany drove off in a white pickup truck.
If he was involved with geramie,
It doesn't make much sense that their stories wouldn't match.
This sounds more like geramie
Couldn't keep his story straight.
No bull[bleep]. You think geramie killed her?
Well, I didn't think so,
But the way he turns that glock...
- The gun. - ...The gun...All the time.
And he's got a bad attitude.
He's mean, real mean.
And when it comes to women,
He's kind of like a controlling womanizer.
So, would you say that geramie
Was controlling of tiffany when she was around?
Oh, yeah.
How did she act in response to that?
She was kind of timid.
From one minute he'll be right,
And then like you hit a light switch.
The next minute, it's just like he flips his wig,
And he'll just...
I don't know. He just lose it.
His own mother would be scared of him to a point.
Do you remember when they served
The search warrant on the trailer?
At which time?
They raided that place four or five times over here.
So, did you ever talk to him
About why they served any search warrants on him?
He said they're looking for stuff
To tie him to tiffany.
Mark coots seems like he's being up-front and honest
About what he knows
And about his relationship with geramie and gloria.
If he was trying to protect them back then,
It feels like as time has passed
So does his allegiance to geramie and gloria.
He's looking more like a witness and less like a suspect.
If he told he'd killed her, would you tell us?
Oh, yeah. I would be the first one on the phone
To tell you he did.
If y'all can prove it on geramie, hey, good.
[line ringing]
Woman:
Hello. My name is detective wallace cunningham
With the dunlap police department.
I'm trying to reach gloria paulet.
Siegler: We're trying to find geramie
Who we believe is out in california with his mom gloria,
And we have questions for her, too.
So we're gonna give her a call,
Trying to kill two birds with one stone,
Hoping to get answers from both of 'em.
I'm still investigating a missing person case.
Yeah. There's quite a bit of age difference
Between her and geramie.
She was a lot closer to your age than she was his.
And what did you think about that?
Oh, yeah. Not at all.
Siegler: It seems like gloria's really trying
To push the idea that tiffany just skipped town.
Could it be a way to try and get the focus off of her son?
Geramie was the last person to see her.
He picked her up in the car, and then he said he let her out.
Mm-hmm.
Is geramie living with you?
I would like to talk to him.
Yeah.
But all right. Well, it was good talking to you.
We don't have contact information for geramie's dad.
Gloria would not provide that to us.
Even if we got a hold of his dad,
He's gonna run interference for his son.
Geramie got an attorney way back then,
So it's not very likely
That geramie would even talk to us.
Cunningham: She's very defensive of geramie.
Of course she is. That's his mama.
So, why don't we go through all the people up on the board.
When we started, did you say that your chief
Might wanna come in here and listen in to all of this?
Yeah. You want me to check on that, see if he's ready?
- Go get him, see if he's ready. - Okay. Just a second.
Siegler: Even though we weren't able
To directly question our primary suspect, geramie campbell,
We're feeling pretty good about this case.
He's ready.
Chief randy phillips is gonna join us
To help us review everything we've learned about our suspects
And the possibility that tiffany holbert
Just left on her own.
So, did she walk away?
We spoke to all her family, friends.
That's so out of character for her.
She wouldn't walk away from her grandkids.
He was too much of a devoted mother and grandmother.
She never picked up her last paycheck.
If she was gonna up and run,
She'd have come and got some money.
People who were holding out hope in the beginning,
I think even those people are now realizing
That tiffany's not coming back.
So, walked away. Everybody's in agreement on that.
- Chief, you, too? - I don't see anything
That points to the fact that she walked away.
So, charles o'rafferty, tiffany's ex-husband,
The father of all of her children.
They did argue and fight some,
But he said it never turned physical.
I'd never hit her. I loved her too much
And still do today.
He was as honest as anybody I talked to in this case at all.
And he's only on our board because...
Geramie threw his name out there.
So, everybody's good
With taking charles o'rafferty off the suspect board.
- Cunningham: Yes. - Now we're getting over here.
Let's see what we think about mr. Mark coots.
He actually questioned geramie a little bit
About what was going on with tiffany.
She got in the car with some man
In a white pickup truck.
And I don't quite believe that, but that's geramie's story.
Mark coots. Everybody's good
With scratching him off the board as a suspect.
Okay. What do we do with gloria paulet, his mother?
I don't think you'll ever gonna be able
To prove that gloria's involved with this here,
Because I don't think she is.
Cunningham: Mm-hmm.
We considered the idea that gloria might have been involved
Because she did not like tiffany
And they were involved in a physical altercation.
Maybe gloria was just protecting her son back then, too,
But we did not uncover any additional evidence
That shows that gloria played a part
In tiffany's disappearance.
An overprotective, loving mother is one thing.
A co-defendant is something else.
I'm in agreement.
Okay. Geramie.
At first he did not seen tiffany for three months
Until he was confronted with the evidence.
"hey, buddy, we have you on video picking her up."
Co-workers knew that geramie was beating tiffany.
Well, he shows up there,
Literally reaches in the car and grabs her by the throat.
He tries to pull her through the window.
How about what tiffany told elisha green
The day before she went missing?
And then you go through those text messages.
Literally the last message she sent him was...
Also, the text messages, they're deleted.
Devlin: ...Starting with the one at 5:00 p.M.,
These messages were actually all deleted at this point in time.
Minutes before she leaves her trailer
And takes off her boot to hobble down the street
To go make him happy,
She climbs in that car on this video
And is never seen or heard from again.
Nice.
Woman: ♪ all these tears I've cried ♪
♪ drowning me ♪
Four years doesn't seem like very long
In the world of working cold cases.
But for tiffany's babies, it probably feels like a lifetime.
And now that the case has been presented
To their attorney general,
We can finally bring them some answers
On what happened to their mom.
How you feeling about talking to the girls, wallace?
- I'm feeling good. - Yeah.
I like the feeling about what all we've done
And everybody we've talked to.
It's unfortunate that there's a mother and a grandmother
Gone forever now.
And they know that. Just reinforce it, you know.
It's just sad.
♪ set me free ♪
- Hello, ladies. - Hello.
- How y'all doing today? - Good. How are you?
Good.
Well, it's been a long week. We've talked to a lot of people.
I think the first thing you ought to know
Is that everywhere we went everybody was telling us
Every single thing they could remember
About what your mom told them,
And everybody told us that she would've never left y'all.
You knew that.
- Yep. - But I think it's important
For y'all to hear that everybody else knew that, too.
And today was a day
That wallace met with your prosecutors to go over it all.
Our hope is to bring charges against geramie campbell
For the murder of your mother, tiffany holbert.
[sobs]
I'm very thankful that the dunlap police
Was doing everything they can
To find out what happened and give her justice.
I'm happy.
I just want whoever did something to her to pay for it.
The prosecutor wants to meet with all of you girls in person.
You need to all be sitting there to represent your mama.
You look 'em in the eye and you say, "we want you to fight."
You're the victims here, too.
- We want justice. - That's right.
Give me a hug. Come here, girl.
- I'm proud of you. - Thank you.
Take care of yourselves.
[exhales]
[vocalizing]
♪ all these tears I've cried ♪