When you get to the house and you found him,
You knew he was dead, right?
What did you think had happened?
♪ way down in the water ♪
♪ mm-mm-mm ♪
♪ way down in the hole ♪
I'm happy to see you, terri.
I like bringing you all the way down here to florida.
It's a nice time to come to florida
When it still cold up in wisconsin.
Well, we worked a case also here in putnam county
With the detectives jason and clayton.
They're young. They're eager.
So you're gonna like working with them.
Siegler: We're back in putnam county, florida,
Where we recently looked into the 2007 case
Of tyvon whitford.
This time the sheriff's office has asked for our expertise
To help solve the seven-year-old unsolved homicide
Of family man and veteran marine thomas joe wall.
Joe was only 34.
He was a baseball coach for his kids.
He liked to fish. He liked to drink beer.
Just a regular good ol' country boy.
It seemed like things were going well,
And then out of the blue, something like this happens.
When you're sitting in your own living room on your couch.
Right.
Siegler: On January 18, 2015,
Joe had spent that day fishing with his 12-year-old son,
Playing with his little five-year-old daughter,
And having dinner with his wife.
That night while joe was relaxing on the couch
And watching a game,
His wife left to go pick up the kids.
When they returned, she discovered joe fatally shot.
He was shot in the top of the head
And the side of the face.
- Close. - Close.
Yeah, somebody had to be right there.
There were no signs of a struggle at the scene.
And joe's autopsy revealed
That the only wounds were the fatal shots to his head.
So there's always been a question
About how the killer approached him with such ease.
I think it's a really sad case, and I really hope
That we can try to get this family some answers
To what actually happened.
Plus, you're good luck.
[chuckles] I hope so.
Welcome to the humidity in florida, terri.
Hook: I know.
Siegler: Hello, guys.
- Hey. - This is terri hook.
- Hi. - Hi. I'm klayton usina.
- Jason theed. - Captain piscitello.
- Terri hook. - Nice to meet you.
Captain's gonna run down the case with us.
He was the first person on scene back then.
I knew the victim, and I knew the victim's family.
So we're happy that you're here to work through this with us
And see if there's anything we can do.
- You wanna get started? - Yeah. Absolutely. Let's go.
We're exciting about having kelly and the team back.
We're certainly eager to get this case solved.
All these years later,
The wall family is still hurting and grieving.
I wanna get those answers and resolution for joe's family.
Okay, well, let's start off with our victim,
Thomas joe wall.
But he goes by joe.
Usina: Joe is former marine.
He was a hell of an athlete in school. Father of two.
Joe's son, tommy wall, from a previous marriage,
Was 12 at the time,
And then he had a daughter with his wife lauren
That was about five years old.
He's a little league baseball coach,
And so the kids all loved him.
He knows a lot of the families in the community.
It looks like he liked to fish, huh?
Yeah.
He had just taken
Some of the little league boys he coaches fishing that morning.
In 2006 when joe and lauren were both serving in the military,
They got married.
After they were both discharged,
Joe went to work in the family plumbing business,
And lauren focused on raising the two kids.
Captain, how did this investigation start out?
Well, January 18th of 2015,
They kids are gone to lauren's parents' house that night.
And lauren was having a romantic night with her husband.
- She goes to the store. - A dollar general.
A dollar general store. Correct.
She goes and picks up her children.
She comes back home.
And when she opens the door, she sees joe and then calls 911.
911. What is your emergency?
[crying]
You need an ambulance or an officer?
I got there. Lauren was visibly upset.
We see joe laying on the couch.
We realized that he had been shot in the back of the head.
There was no signs of a burglary
Other than the sliding glass doors were open,
And they weren't supposed to be open.
Siegler: Bullet fragments suggested
That 38-caliber class rounds were used,
But the murder weapon itself was never recovered.
And with no signs of any forced entry or robbery,
Investigators started looking at the person closest to joe,
His wife.
First up here, we got lauren wall.
They've been married for how long?
Approximately nine years.
What do we know about the marriage?
- It's not happy. - A troubled marriage.
She's considering leaving.
During her initial interview,
Lauren was open about her strained marriage,
And she did admit that she was having
A long-distance relationship with nick carter.
You still talk?
Hook: Nick was living out of state at the time
And was never considered a suspect.
But lauren is still with him today.
So if she did kill her husband,
It makes you wonder if nick's the motive.
Let's talk about all the things that seem unusual
Before joe was found.
There was the "romantic" dinner.
And I'm gonna put "romantic" in quotes.
- Sneed: Okay. - Well, the other weird thing
Is she took the dog with her.
Why take the dog?
According to lauren,
She took the kids and her dog to her parents' house
So that she and joe could have a romantic dinner
And work on their relationship.
But if that's the case,
Why did she go to the dollar general?
She makes a call from the dollar general to the house.
Theed: And it's with dollar general's phone.
- Hook: Right. - Why use their phone?
Right. When she has her own.
Siegler: After lauren left the dollar general store,
She went to her parents' house
To pick up the kids and their landscaper
Who she also gave a ride home, too, that night.
What she initially failed to tell the investigators
Was that she stopped at the kangaroo store
Along the way.
What happens with that receipt?
- She actually throws it away. - At the scene.
Theed: At the scene. Into the kitchen trash can.
I like that.
After the receipt was found, then lauren admitted
That she had stopped at the kangaroo store
Where she bought cigarettes and beer for their landscaper.
But it's odd that she left out this seemingly innocuous detail.
I don't know your relation to him.
Y'all were clearly together tonight.
It seemed like lauren was trying to minimize
Her relationship with her landscaper, charles arrants,
And the contact that they had that night.
Okay, so y'all wanna put up charles "chaz" arrants next.
Hook: He is the parents' landscaper.
He says there's no relationship between him and lauren.
What else do we need to put up here?
Theed: Purchase of the bullets.
Do we know what kind of bullets he bought?
- .357. - Yeah.
Siegler: Charles told law enforcement
That he purchased .357 bullets for a friend to go hunting.
Not only are these bullets consistent
With the rounds that were used to kill joe,
They were bought just a few weeks before the homicide.
Okay, so we're gonna put the whole lauren's family up here,
Decide if we all believe that they had any involvement
Before the murder or after, if at all.
Obviously, it's a close-knit family.
Right? That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Mom and dad immediately hires a lawyer
On lauren and the family's behalf.
The very next day.
And now they're together in bessemer, michigan
Up in the middle of nowhere.
The night of the murder, lauren's parents
Were taking care of her kids.
But in the months that follow, lauren and her parents
Bought property in upper state michigan,
Where they still live today.
So, were they trying to get her out of town
For a fresh start, or were they helping her escape?
Okay, let's talk about, is there an unknown random intruder?
- Right? - Correct.
What about that sliding door?
Usina: The sliding door is unsecure and slightly ajar.
Rumors of drug usage.
Drug involved, question mark.
Hook: When investigators first looked at joe's murder,
Rumors started to surface that he was using or selling drugs.
We'll have to see if there's any truth to these rumors
And if it has anything to do with his death.
That's a pretty good-looking board already.
♪♪♪
When everything happened, the 12-year-old son, tommy,
Ended up being raised by joe's dad, his grandpa.
It seems like he's kind of lost his whole family in all this.
His whole life changed.
Usina: Seven years is a long time to go without answers.
- Tommy: Hi. - Siegler: Hello.
- Hey, man. Tommy? - That's me.
- Klayton usina. - I'm kelly.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
When joe was murdered,
His son, tommy, lost not only his dad.
He lost his entire family.
His stepmother, lauren, took away his little sister
And moved her to another state
To start their new life with nick carter,
Leaving tommy behind.
Tommy has not heard from them since.
Tell us about your daddy.
Played sports together.
I mean, I looked up to him, you know.
Was he your coach?
Yeah. He had me out there on the tee
Hitting 500 pitches every day.
He personally helped me, you know, with homework,
If I needed help with homework or something like that.
He played in high school for four years on the varsity.
He played football. He was a heck of an athlete.
What made him decide to go into the marine corps?
9/11 was his birthday.
So he decided he was gonna go into the marine corps.
He had two tours over there in iraq.
I spent, like--[sniffles] a lot of time with him.
He taught me everything I knew about baseball,
Everything I knew about almost anything.
I just--I looked up to him.
I don't think I could've asked for a better dad.
What do you remember about that night?
Me and dad played, I think, madden
On the playstation for a little bit.
And then we left and we went to laurie's house.
Who's we?
Me, my sister, and my mom.
It feels weird calling her mom.
It's okay.
Lauren leaves for a certain amount of time.
And then she comes back, and then we went home.
I was going to get out of the vehicle,
And lauren told me no.
She said not to get out of the vehicle
And just wait for my sister.
She never told you to stay in the car before?
She's never told me to stay in the car.
I waited. She walks up to the front door,
Drops her groceries, runs inside,
Comes back outside.
And then from there, it's kind of a blur.
I'm extremely upset at the time, not knowing what's going on,
And the only thing I can think about is keeping my sister calm
And keeping her okay.
Sorry.
I was so upset the entire time,
And I couldn't understand why my sister was going somewhere else.
Like...
It was just--it's ridiculous.
I haven't seen my sister since I was like 12.
I mean, I spent like every day with her.
She said that I was her favorite person. [sighs]
Well, we're doing all this for you, you know, and for you.
But mostly for you. Okay?
We're gonna try our very hardest, okay?
I want you to know that.
- We'd like to see closure. - How about justice?
- Yeah. - I don't believe in closure.
Closure means that you get your son back.
Let's just hold accountable whoever did this.
We'll go ahead and knock out the dna call,
See if we got anything new.
Siegler: Okay.
- [line ringing] - in 2015,
Joe wall was fatally shot in his living room.
There were no signs of forced entry,
But a rear sliding glass door was left ajar.
We sent swabs from its handle and the front door handle
Off for dna testing.
A match to joe's wife, lauren, wouldn't really be of any help.
But if the dna from those swabs matched charles "chaz" arrants
Or somebody else, that could identify our shooter.
- We appreciate it. - Good talking to you guys.
- Yep. Thanks, danny. - Hook: Thank you.
Siegler: That's no surprise.
If you got an unknown profile, how are you ever gonna match it?
I know. But if you get an unknown
And you can match it to charles...
- Good try. - Yeah.
- Good dedication. - [all laughing]
It's disappointing that the dna results came up empty,
But cold cases are rarely that easy.
We're hoping this is mike whippel.
So now we're gonna hit the streets
And start talking to everybody that we can find in joe's world.
Hey, mike. Detective theed with putnam county sheriff's office.
We wanna learn all that we can about lauren and joe's marriage
Or any problems joe might have had with anyone else,
Including this rumor
That joe might have been involved with drugs.
Theed: We just wanted to pick your brain
From what you could remember in the thomas wall homicide.
What kind of guy was he?
We hung out quite a bit. Went fishing a lot.
Okay.
Do you know if joe was into drugs
Or selling drugs or anything like that?
No.
Was he a drug user or was he selling drugs?
Did he have any enemies that you're aware of?
Okay.
Siegler: It sounds like all these rumors
About joe being involved with drugs
Were simply that-- just a bunch of rumors.
Do you know what the relationship was like
Between lauren and joe?
How much did he confide in you
About how the marriage was going?
I knew he wasn't happy. I don't know why.
But we'd drink, you know, after work,
And he'd start getting sad.
And why did he think that was?
And this happened how much before he ends up murdered?
We knew that lauren wasn't happy in her marriage
And had begun talking with nick carter.
But he lived out of state.
So if joe suspected that lauren was having an affair
With somebody in town,
Could that person have been charles arrants?
Did one of you have a significant other on the side?
Hello. I'm terri.
- Nice to meet you. I'm ray. - Joel. Nice to meet you.
Joe's brother, ray, and his co-worker, joel,
Were close to joe and lauren at the time of his murder.
Hopefully, they'll have some insight into her behavior.
That night I texted them.
It was like 7:00-ish, 7:30-ish.
We were both watching a patriots playoff game.
We were talking about two texts.
Hook: Ray was texting joe during the time
He was allegedly having a romantic dinner with his wife.
Maybe it wasn't as romantic as lauren made it out to be.
What was the relationship like between her and joe
Leading up to his death?
My brother was always kind of to himself about that.
But there's been a lot of instances in their marriage
That I can remember.
She would constantly go and go and go and be gone,
And, like, he kind of questioned her where she went
Or what she was doing.
It was like nothing was ever good enough.
She was pretty vindictive and just nasty.
But she was one of the strangest people I've ever met.
She thinks she's the smartest. Apparently, she's pretty clever.
Never met anybody quite like her.
You see her at the funeral, and then seeing her that night,
I saw no, like, tears, no crying,
No remorse, no being upset, nothing like that.
The insurance policy, which we found out later,
It paid $600,000 for the term insurance policy.
He was murdered literally like less than a month
Before the policy came to term.
Hook: We've been considering the possibility
That lauren's relationship with nick carter was her motive.
But hearing about her husband's life insurance policy,
It sounds like there's over half a million other reasons
To want him dead.
We got lots of stuff today, eric.
- Afternoon. How are y'all? - All: Good.
We have two potential motives
For lauren to have wanted her husband dead--
Love and money.
But we still have questions
About the relationships in her life,
Especially with her family landscaper,
Charles "chaz" arrants.
- Ready to get started? - Yeah.
She's always minimized their relationship,
But maybe phone records can tell us
If there's more to it than she's letting on.
First, this is all calls between lauren and charles arrants.
12/30/2014 through 1/18. You've got a lot of calls.
Whoa.
So, the three weeks leading up to the murder,
She called chaz a lot.
- Yeah. - That stands out to me--1/10.
I mean, 23 minutes with your landscaper?
They had that long one on the 14th.
- 46 minutes. - That's a lot of talking.
Hook: The frequency of the calls leads us to believe
That they may have had an intimate relationship.
But it's odd, considering she's having
An emotional affair with nick carter.
Moving on to lauren's messaging activity,
1/18/2015.
- This is the day of our murder? - The day of our murder.
- Okay. - 6:38 p.M.
Message from nick carter...
She replies...
Then nick carter...
For her romantic dinner preparation with her husband.
She's cooking her dinner to try to make it right.
Seeing those text messages between them that night
Tells us all we need to know
About her alleged romantic dinner with her husband.
In any case, we know after dinner
She left for the dollar general.
The question is, was her husband still alive?
Then sends a message to her husband 8:03 p.M...
At this point in time, he's still alive here.
He's communi--he's texting.
He replies...
She replies...
He replies at 8:10 p.M...
"I don't know."
That was the last message from joe.
So, we think he's dead around 8:10
Based on their communication?
Mm-hmm.
There's no evidence that anybody other than joe
Was responding to lauren's texts.
That means that joe was alive
When lauren left for dollar general,
And it's unlikely that she was the shooter,
But it doesn't mean
That she wasn't still involved in this case.
Moving on. 8:17 p.M.
Lauren's message to joe...
Nick carter butts in again...
Lauren sends a message to nick carter...
9:41 p.M., lauren sends a message to joe...
Since earlier on, nothing has come from joe.
- Right. - They're all from her.
Here's what I found was interesting.
From January 11, 2015 through January 17, 2015,
There were zero messages to joe wall.
No texting at all.
- No texting from lauren to joe. - Ooh, I like that.
Clearly, she's trying to over-text him.
- Right. - She's covering herself.
It's possible that lauren was texting joe that night
To help craft her alibi.
But what she might have overlooked
Is that law enforcement could also uncover
All of her flirtatious texting with nick carter.
Strangely, she did not text or call chaz that night.
So if he's involved, it's still unclear how.
- Thank you, eric. Thank you. - Yeah.
Maybe examining the crime scene
Will help us figure out what we're missing.
When we get there, let's pick apart
Where we know the gunshot wound enters his head
And then where were all the doors in the house,
Right.
No.
- Usina: Good morning. - Good morning.
So, y'all got us in the actual house.
- Yes, ma'am. - Okay, let's go see.
There were no signs of a struggle
Or any defensive wounds on joe
Suggesting that joe either didn't see his killer
Or had no time at all to react.
Here's our living room.
So, how was he approached,
And what does that tell us about his killer?
The trajectory of his wounds should give us some answers.
We know he's found on the couch. Get down there.
Now, he's watching tv.
So, now let's talk about
Exactly where we think the entry wound is.
I think the first shot goes, like, right here...
[bang]
...And it goes diagonally down here,
And he slumps over like that, and now he hits him again.
And then the next one is right there.
[bang]
That's the one that came out of his mouth.
- Yep. - Based on his injuries,
It appears that joe was sitting upright when he was shot.
Being a former marine,
You'd think that joe would defend himself
If he saw someone enter his home with a pistol or a rifle.
His killer must have gotten the shots off quickly.
So, which door did he come in?
If you shoot from here, you can't even make the first shot.
You're shooting back.
- Now doing this, no. - It's not the angle.
Totally.
Hook: Considering the angle and trajectory of the wounds,
It appears a shot from the rear sliding glass door doesn't work.
What about the front door?
You come through the front door.
No way.
You can't make the angle of the shot.
Well, yeah, you can't shoot him from over...
And he's not gonna get the time to walk away
And do it from the right direction.
Hook: A shot from the front door doesn't work either.
This leaves us with an even more sinister scenario.
Joe's killer was already inside the house.
If somebody helped lauren-- chaz or whoever--
The only door's here and here, and here's joe.
You can slip chaz in that door right here in the garage.
If you remember from the crime-scene photos,
This was just packed full of stuff.
That's why I think he could hide in here 'cause it was mess.
So, you have somebody hiding out in here.
You come out of this room. You come around this corner.
You make your shot.
We can't say for sure how or when
Lauren might have let charles into the garage,
But it's possible he was lying in wait
For the right time to strike.
And with this scenario, you have to wonder
If lauren got the dog out of the house that night
Because it may have warned joe.
Klayton, go in the garage and then come in.
Bang.
Reload.
Bang.
Can you see me?
No. Not in my peripheral at all.
You're here. You're getting this thing open,
And then you're running.
Hook: Booking through the woods.
Siegler: If lauren persuaded charles
To kill her husband,
This scenario makes the most sense.
While she's out crafting an alibi,
Chaz is sneaking up on joe
Sitting there peacefully and vulnerable
In his own living room,
Where he shoots him, sneaks out the back door
And possibly runs to lauren's parents' house
Less than a mile away,
Where we know lauren later picks him up
And gives him a ride home.
And you believe that a handgun and a rifle
Can make that shot.
Either scenario works.
The difference is today you now believe
The shot came from right there where you're standing
And not over here at the sliding glass door.
- Usina: Yeah. - Siegler: All right.
Ooh, that's him right there. Right there he is.
Hook: How are you?
We're working on an old cold case,
A homicide that took place about seven years ago,
So we just wanted to talk to you and see what you can remember.
He was my cellmate.
Shortly after joe's murder,
Charles "chaz" arrants was arrested for probation violation
For an unrelated crime,
And he shared a cell with two other inmates.
Hi, man. We just kind of wanna talk to you and pick your brain.
Hook: When people get locked up, they chat.
We wanna see what chaz may have told them about joe's murder.
So, the three of y'all were in a cell together.
- Mm-hmm. - Okay.
What was it that you can remember?
From what I remember, I'm pretty sure
He was, like, dating some older lady
Who was married.
He was basically bragging about, like, killing the guy.
Put the gun to the back of his head and blew his head off.
And her getting money or something
And, like-- you know what I mean?
Something along them lines, from what I remember.
I guess there was insurance or something on the husband.
That's why they wanted the money--to haul ass.
Okay.
Witness: He bought the bullets in st. Augustine.
- What kind of bullets? - He said 357.
357. Okay.
Chaz's former cellmates are not only saying
That he confessed to shooting joe.
They're telling us about the bullets he bought
Which are consistent with the 38-caliber class rounds
That the police believed were used.
This was not public knowledge,
And the only way that they could get this detail
Is if it came from chaz.
Witness: I remember him describing
Getting rid of a gun in a lake.
Usina: And this was from his mouth to your ears.
Oh, I didn't make none of this up.
This was, like, freaking me out, sleeping next to this dude.
Yeah, it really bothered me.
The credibility of inmates is always questioned,
But the fact that these two have had no contact
With each other for years
And tell the same story with no benefits to coming forward
Makes me believe they're telling the truth.
And if so, this is a piece of circumstantial evidence
Pointing to chaz's involvement.
It's time we talked to him.
Hook: He's already been talked to twice.
We should get to the brass tacks of it.
With everything we've learned, it's looking more and more
Like charles arrants is the person
That pulled the trigger and killed joe wall.
But if we can get any inconsistencies out of him
Or bolster his connection with lauren,
That could strengthen this case even more.
- [dog barking] - usina: Sheriff's office.
- How you doing? - Hey, man.
I'm working on a homicide from back in 2015.
Uh--uh, what's his name? Uh...
- Joe. - Joe.
- Wall. - Oh.
It was on the tip of my tongue.
We can step out on the back over here.
- Okay. - All right.
Uh, let's see. What I remember that night,
We were all sitting over at our parents' house.
Lauren had left.
I think she went to making dinner or something like that
And then came back.
And then she took me home.
Man, that's really all I remember
From the night, honestly.
Okay. What about your and her relationship?
Nothing ever happened
Until probably like a year after and everything.
Pretty much from the day the homicide happened
To several months afterwards,
You were with the family nonstop, correct?
Not nonstop. I'm sorry. I'm gonna move this.
- I got the sun in my eyes. - No, no, no. You're fine.
Charles seems agitated and can't sit still.
He's swatting bugs and wiping sweat from his brow.
It really isn't that hot, and it really isn't that buggy.
After everything went downhill and all that sh-- happened,
I ended up staying there, and that was my rent.
It was keeping up the place, you know,
Paying the electric bill and keep the grass mowed.
Anything ever suspicious of lauren?
I mean, she's an unusual person,
But nothing really rung out to me
That said that she had anything to do with it.
Whenever she was going through the stuff
With the life insurance policy,
I guess she settled for a lot less
Than what the insurance payout was.
Hook: And did she give you any of it?
No. Hell, no.
Usina: What about bullets in st. Augustine?
So, my buddy's dad had a 357 lever-action.
And whenever I'd go hunting, that's what I always got to use.
So that's what you bought the bullets for?
Yes, sir.
Usina: I don't see your motivation to do this
Unless it's on her behalf.
I didn't do this. I am not involved in this sh--.
Hook: There's a lot of stuff that points right back to you.
Buying the bullets.
And then people in the jail
That are saying that you're making comments to them.
Yep. That don't look too good, does it?
Hook: It doesn't. And you wanna say it.
I know you wanna say it. I can see it in you.
I can see that you wanna tell us.
- What do I-- - the truth.
You wanna tell us the truth, chaz.
I wanna tell y'all something that's gonna save my ass.
I'm sitting here searching.
I'm sitting here digging through my [bleep] brain
Trying to come with something, and I can't.
- You know the truth. - Do you think I knew
I was getting myself involved with whenever I got her--
Do you think that I knew I was gonna be freaking facing
A murder investigation and all this sh--?
Her old man was gonna get killed and all this?
- Usina: No. - Like--[scoffs]
I was just dirt ----ing broke and wanted to fish
And talk to a cute girl and drink beer, and that's it, man.
Usina: What did they tell you to do with the gun?
Don't know what the [bleep] you're talking about, dude.
I didn't get rid of no gun. I didn't kill anybody.
I did not have any involvement with killing him.
You're not believing what I'm saying here,
So I really don't feel like this conversation
Is carrying any more progress.
Charles is answering all of our questions,
But there's just too many odd circumstances surrounding him
That he can't explain.
I guess I'll be seeing you shortly.
Sorry I couldn't ----ing help.
All right. Take care of yourself, charles.
And from my experience,
The signals that charles is giving us
Are speaking louder than his words.
Hook: The mosquitos aren't bothering us,
But they're bothering him.
Usina: Yeah. They ate him up because he's pouring sweat.
His arteries are sticking half an inch out of his neck.
- I know. - Obvious indicators
That people give off
When they're nervous about something.
Siegler: Why would you come up here
To bessemer, michigan all the way from florida?
- A whole family. - Yeah.
They all come back to the same address.
Yeah, I think that that's odd.
Siegler: In the months that followed joe's murder,
Lauren and her family moved to a small town in upper michigan.
She's been bunkered down there with them
And her boyfriend, nick carter, ever since.
This is it. This is their little...
- Those little tan buildings. - Exactly.
Oh, turn your camera on. Got this stuff.
Siegler: The day after the murder, lauren's father, mike,
Hired a lawyer for the whole family.
Law enforcement has always believed
That mike knows more than he's letting on.
Maybe if we catch him off guard, he'll reveal some clues
That he was involved.
How you doing, mike?
Detective theed with the putnam county sheriff's office.
Do you mind talking to us, sir?
- I would love to talk to you. - Awesome.
Siegler: Take us to Sunday.
Take us to the day of the murder.
Theed: You're all having dinner together?
I don't recall. I'm sure we ate something.
'cause we're a family. I mean, we're tight-knit.
Obviously, we're tight-knit.
- Is chaz part of the family? - No.
Siegler: How much was chaz around?
Theed: Did he work for you? Did he do stuff for you?
He did yardwork, sh-- I couldn't do.
Did you pay him? Did you pay him for it?
I kicked him a few bucks, lunch money.
Yeah, I got him some cold drinks.
Did he ever spend the night or just kind of hang out?
During the day thing.
It'd be like once a week he'd come cut the grass
Or do something-- do something odd for you or no?
Just odds and ends. He'd stop by.
Siegler: We know from charles
That he lived with the gorskis after the murder.
I ended up staying there, and that was my rent.
It was keeping up the place, you know,
Paying the electric bill and keep the grass mowed.
So, we know from mike that he's now trying
To minimize their relationship with chaz.
Siegler: You understand why they were looking so hard
At your daughter, right, mike?
Yeah.
Theed: She was the first one to find him.
And they were having marital issues.
- Gorski: Yeah. Yeah. - Siegler: And you knew that.
Well, no. I didn't know it.
Siegler: Wait. You didn't know that joe and your daughter
Were having marital issues?
No. Whatever their deal is between the two of them...
- Theed mm-hmm. - ...I don't know.
Siegler: That's why lauren's still stuck
In the middle of all of this,
So we can just talk to lauren about all that.
Maybe mike is being evasive to try and protect his daughter,
Or maybe mike only knows so much.
I think it's time we talk to lauren.
Lauren hasn't spoken to law enforcement
Since the night her husband was killed.
You didn't start showing emotion
Until we told you that he was shot.
We know that she had two potential motives
For wanting to kill her husband--
Love of nick carter and the money from the life insurance.
Now it's time to get some answers.
Theed: So, we're just kind of revisiting everything.
I know your encounter was traumatic, so if you can--
I'm already having a panic attack.
Just take your time. Just take your time.
We've got all notes and watch the interviews
And stuff like that.
- Please, no. - No, no, no. Not pictures.
- Siegler: No pictures. - Just words. Just words.
- Oh, wow. - Just words.
Oh, my god. I was not prepared for this today. Guys, I'm sorry.
Did you find anything else about him?
Not as of yet.
That's why we're trying to get it all together.
In the past seven years,
Lauren has never picked up the phone
To ask a single question
About the progress of the investigation
Or voice any concern about losing her husband.
And now she's sounding way to concerned.
We haven't even been able to find out yet anything
About the life insurance money.
What happened with that?
Oh. Um...Um...
My chest is, like, pounding.
We got it cut to my parents.
'cause they were the second beneficiary.
Yeah.
Theed: That's what helped buy the house?
We bought a house.
So because you weren't cleared as a suspect,
They gave it to the contingent beneficiaries--
Your mom and dad.
- Right. - How much was it, lauren?
Oh, dear. I don't remember. I'm so sorry. I don't remember.
Theed: Was it 600?
No. A bunch of the lawyers got a whole bunch.
Lauren downplayed the amount of money
She got from the life insurance to chaz.
Why would she do that?
So, lauren, help us understand then,
When you went to your mom's to pick up the kids,
Who all was at your mom's house?
Thomas and dad.
Oh. Um--[snapping fingers] charles arrants was there.
He had done a bunch of yardwork for my parents that day.
I gave him a ride home, and I picked up beer
Because I was paying him in beer.
He was just a yardwork guy, right?
- Yeah. - So how come after the murder,
He's staying with y'all at your house?
He wasn't.
- No, he got into your house. - How did that happen?
- He stays at your house. - A whole month.
I can't remember. Hold on. How did that happen?
Theed: Did you have a relationship with chaz?
Not before everything happened.
It was a long while after.
Y'all moved away within months.
Siegler: Where does nick carter
Think your relationship with chaz was?
I don't know. I don't--what?
What was your relationship with nick carter?
On the day that your husband was shot in your house,
What was your relationship with nick carter?
I feel like I'm ready to go call my lawyer.
I mean, if that's what you think you need to do.
You understand that we have
All your text messages with nick carter
During the time, right around the time
Your husband was killed?
Yes. I'm aware.
It looks disgusting.
- That you were telling him-- - it looks disgusting.
Joe and I were working on a divorce.
And working on a divorce.
And I'm aware how terrible it looks.
And, lauren, the night that you were cooking this dinner
For a fun night with your husband,
You're texting nick carter that very same night.
- At the same time. - Two men at the same time.
- Yes, I am. - And chaz is the one
You took home that day and bought him beer.
- Yes. - And chaz has told people
That he killed his girlfriend's husband
For her for money.
- What? - Yep.
You know what he's saying.
Oh, what the [bleep].
You know what he's saying. We know what he's already said.
That's why we're here. We're here for the truth.
I understand that.
- I need to go call my lawyer. - Okay.
The way she acted in the car today
With her overdramatic histrionics,
I don't think anybody would buy anything she had to say today.
That fake drama bull[bleep], nobody's gonna buy that.
- Nobody's gonna buy that. - No.
- Well, good morning, guys. - Good morning.
One more day, boys.
Siegler: We've had a productive week,
And we're feeling good about our case.
Now we need to review everything we've learned
And determine the level of involvement of our suspects
In the murder of joe wall.
What do we think about everything?
There's no way it can be an unknown random intruder.
Theed: Yeah. I agree.
We haven't found anything about him using drugs.
Was he selling drugs or...
Home invasion. Your point of entrance--
You're not gonna make the shot to the back of the head.
If you shoot from here, you can't even make the first shot.
It's not the angle.
Okay. With all that in our heads,
Can everybody agree that "unknown random intruder"
Is x'd off the board?
- Yes. - Correct.
Okay, so now we got the gorski family up here.
Do we think that they had prior knowledge
And were involved in the planning
Or accessory after the fact?
- No. - To me, it looks like,
"that's our daughter. We wanna protect her."
And there's nothing that would suggest involvement
Or accessory after the fact.
- I'd cross 'em off. - Jason.
- Yeah. I'd cross 'em off. - Hook: Yep.
Okay.
So, chaz. What do y'all think about the other inmates
Now that you met 'em in person?
I think their stories are truthful.
First of all, they didn't have to tell the story,
Because they were already out of jail.
Basically bragging about killing the guy.
Lauren from the very beginning
Didn't even acknowledge his existence.
And then she minimized it.
And even seven years later, they're still lying about chaz.
...Odds and ends. He'd stopped by...
He was just a yardwork guy, right?
What's your thinking on chaz's involvement in this case?
I think there's a lot of evidence he's your shooter.
What about you, jason?
All the information in the facts that we've found
Kind of point in that direction.
- Terri? - So do I.
You wanna tell us the truth, chaz.
I wanna tell y'all something that's gonna save my ass.
Okay.
On our left board dedicated to lauren,
I really feel like in a murder-for-hire,
The person that's the hirer
Who's the instigator who wants it done
Is even worse than the trigger man.
She sets up this "special romantic dinner"
That takes, like, one hour.
And she's texting her lover while she's planning the dinner.
- Theed: That is true. - Hook: Yes.
Well, what about the fact that she tells the kids
To stay in the car?
She said not to get out of the vehicle
And just wait for my sister.
She never told you to stay in the car before?
She's never told me to stay in the car.
Usina: She's the one that has access to the house.
- And there's no forced entry. - Going above and beyond
To try to culminate an alibi.
Lauren's message to joe...
All the text messages in this window of time,
She just overdoes it.
She was done with joe, and their marriage was doomed.
- True. - Yeah.
When you go to your asa, what are you gonna ask him for?
We're gonna ask for first-degree homicide,
Warrants on charles arrants and lauren wall.
Nice. Jason, you feel good about it?
- I do. I feel good. - Great.
Woman: ♪ honey, won't you hold my hand? ♪
♪ feels like the walls are falling down ♪
♪ things are going through my head ♪
Today we're gonna go talk to tom and tommy again
And tell them how it went. You excited?
Yeah. We'll talk with them and tell them, you know,
Where we sit with the investigation.
Detective usina set up a meeting with the state's attorney
To run down the case.
- Welcome back. - Hello, tommy.
We're excited to update joe's son and dad
On the progress we've made.
We've went all the way back through this case top to bottom.
Through our investigation, we show probable cause
To believe that lauren wall and charles arrants
Are responsible for your father's death.
We're gonna seek murder charges against them.
- Glad to hear that. - It's extremely good to hear.
What are you thinking about all this?
I mean, it's not gonna make me miss him any less,
Anything like that,
But...I have to live with it.
Did you guys see my sister? How she's doing?
I'm not sure she was home from school when we were there.
All right.
I'm extremely happy there's hope for what's gonna happen soon,
And after seven years, I feel like it's needed.
I really wanted to hear about my sister.
But, I mean, I grew up with her.
[sniffles] it just--
Having not just one but two and three...
You know, you lose everybody at once.
I want you to know
That your dad's friends all asked how you're doing.
They all still think about you.
- And you're 19, right? - Yes, ma'am.
So you're about to start the next phase of your life.
So you need to focus on yourself.
Leave it up to him and not let it consume you
Or make you sad or make you try to fix it all,
'cause you can't.
They're working their tails off
To be able to try and make the system work for you.
And for you for losing your son.
Thank you.
You don't have to say thank you. We're worried about you. Okay?
All right.
Siegler: Tommy's whole world was ripped away from him.
He lost his dad. He lost his little sister.
He lost his whole family and life
As he knew it back then.
Thank you.
- Thank you. - All right. Bye, tommy.
Hopefully knowing that now he's finally closer than ever
To getting justice will give him some peace
And maybe the ability to move on with his life.
Something's gonna happen.
- Will I get some closure soon? - Yeah.
♪♪♪