The serenity of the ozarks is rocked
When a cowboy is gunned down in his home.
[jermey] not knowing who did it or why,
It's like I was in a bad dream.
[mike] he was a good person.
He was always there if you need something
Or need somebody to talk to.
[narrator] the lists of suspects will grow
As detectives dig deeper
Into the victim's off-the-grid lifestyle.
I'm like, "somebody is gonna kill you over that
One of these days.
My buddy's lying in there, dead,
And somehow he knew something about it.
[narrator] the ensuing investigation
Will lead authorities to a desperate couple
Who will stop at nothing to evade capture.
Everything was to aid them in starting a new life.
She was his ride-or-die and he was her protector.
She could be being held against her will.
She could be a willing participant.
He became a monster that you did not wanna go toe-to-toe with.
[music]
[narrator] with its rugged hills and deep valleys,
The ozark mountain range is a place of stunning beauty.
But life on the fringes of the ozarks
Is a humble existence for those who call it home.
[wendy] lawrence county is a very rural area
In the northern part of arkansas,
Right along where the ozark mountain range runs.
There's a lot of very small communities in that area.
Agriculture is a driving force.
Lots of farming, lots of livestock.
Very blue-collar, hardworking, middle america.
[dramatic stinger]
[narrator] on the morning of may 7th, 2020,
Employees at a local ranch grow concerned
When 61-year-old james "caveman" sartorelli
Fails to arrive at work for the second day.
That morning, I got a phone call from the owner of the farm,
Saying somebody needs to go out there and check on caveman now.
Caveman lived in a trailer that was actually on the property
Of the farm where he worked.
[mike] I pulled into the driveway,
And as I'm approaching the front door,
I just kept getting a more eerier and eerier feeling.
So, I went up to and opened the door up,
And the first thing I had seen was just a puddle of blood.
Caveman was down on the floor, hunched over.
You see that, you just freeze for a minute,
And then it starts hitting you.
I backed up, and that's when
I called the boss and told him what I found,
And then we called the police.
[wendy] when the lawrence county
Sheriff's department deputies arrived,
They entered the trailer and they saw, pretty quickly,
That is was definitely a gruesome scene.
Hey found the victim on the floor
In the trailer with a gunshot wound to the head.
They asked me who the person was in there,
And I explained to them who caveman was.
Explained to them where I was and why I was there.
I had all kinds of stuff running through my head.
"how could this happen? Who did this? Why?"
Caveman didn't deserve that.
He was too good of a man for that.
[narrator] born on December 17th, 1958,
James sartorelli had been known as caveman
For as long as anyone could remember.
James sartorelli, that was caveman.
He was something else.
He was a character.
[jermey] caveman was a small man.
He, 5'10", maybe 115 pounds, soaking wet.
He was called caveman because o his hair and his beard.
He looked like a small version of a caveman.
Caveman always said he's a ghost.
He didn't use a social security number.
I know he didn't have a driver's license.
[pasha] he didn't have a bank account.
He didn't have a credit card.
He was off the grid completely.
[wendy] caveman wasn't from arkansas.
He was from new hampshire,
But he was a big fan of the outdoors
And very drawn to the beauty of the ozarks.
[narrator] after settling down in lawrence county,
Caveman landed a job as a ranch hand
On a locally-owned cattle farm.
I met caveman for the first time,
I'm going to say, in 2004.
He found out that our boss needed help
And he had been there ever since.
Caveman was feeding the livestock
And just tending to the general things
That had to be done around the farm.
One could call them arkansas cowboys.
It's very hard work.
[jermey] we liked to use horses when we could,
But definitely physical, demanding, back-breaking.
You're feeding hay.
You're walking in mud up to your knees,
Just to bust open water troughs or ponds.
He did all the stuff that nobody else really wanted to do.
And he was an older guy.
But he would get out there and outwork the youngest person
[mike] he was a good person to talk to.
He gave you good advice.
He was always there when you need something
Or need somebody to talk to.
[pasha] he was one of the most intelligent men
That I'd ever been around.
He would talk about everything. He was ex-marine.
And he was a lineman.
He owned two companies before
And you could tell that he lived a lot.
He'd been married twice and he had a daughter
Up in new hampshire.
And he also had a son in massachusetts.
He didn't keep much contact with either one of the children
[jermey] he really didn't talk about his life a whole lot
Before he got to arkansas.
He kept to hisself about that part.
[narrator] after working hard labor
For more than 40 years,
James was ready to ride off into the sunset.
[pasha] he loved working on the farm.
But he loved the thought
Of retiring in December even better.
He was getting things done to his camper.
And he said he was gonna sit back
And watch all them drive by to go to work.
And he was just gonna sit there, and watch them,
And sip his coffee.
[narrator] but only seven months before his retirement,
James is found shot to death inside his trailer.
In lawrence county, homicide's not something
That happens often.
The lawrence county sheriff's deputies
Realized pretty quickly
That a crime scene of this nature
Was a little bit outside of their experience,
So they called the arkansas state police
And requested their assistance.
We responded to the scene
Which was a very rural scene.
The camper was on a farmland area.
There wasn't any houses around.
There was no sign of any window
Being ajarred or broken.
The door was not forced open.
So that led us to believe
That james either let the suspect in the residence
Or the suspect just walked in,
So that told us that it was probably somebody
That james knew.
[creston] the camper residence only had one door
And that was from the front.
One way in and one way out.
On the table we observed,
It looked like drug activity.
There was drug paraphernalia.
We had james' body laying on the floor.
There was a large pool of blood underneath his body.
We noticed that james had a single gunshot wound
Just below his right eye.
That led us to start looking for a shell casing.
We looked for a shell casing. We could not find it.
One cushion had fell off on the floor
That had blood on it.
But there was no evidence of a struggle
That we could find.
[narrator] as detectives study the scene more closely,
They spot something that may speak to the motive
Behind james' murder.
We made our way toward the bedroom.
We observed a collector's coin
And we located a bank bag,
Unzipped and completely empty, lying on the floor.
We also observed that he had been using
The refrigerator as a safe.
And it was left open and there was nothing in it,
Which led us to believe that he was probably robbed.
That just left law enforcement wondering,
Who could've possibly done this
[narrator] coming up, detectives discover
A mysterious text message
That changes the course of the investigation.
And a troubled couple lands at the top
Of the suspect list.
He totally was controlling her mind.
She did whatever he told her to do.
[music]
[narrator] in the ozarks of arkansas,
Friends of 61-year-old ranch hand
James "caveman" sartorelli
Are mourning his untimely murder.
Not knowing what happened, not knowing who did it,
Or why, it's like I was in a bad dream.
That's family, man.
[narrator] a ransacked safe in the victim's trailer
Leads detectives to theorize his death
Was likely the result of a violent robbery.
They first turn to the man who initially alerted authorities.
[wendy] it was incredibly important for law enforcement
To talk to the person who made this discovery,
Which was mike brawley.
The officer approached me to make a statement and all that.
[tony] upon interviewing mr. Brawley,
He stated that james stayed to himself.
He never caused any problems.
He was at work every day, always showed up
And never complained about anything.
[mike] caveman really didn't have conflicts with nobody.
He got along with pretty much just about everybody.
[narrator] detectives pivot their line of questioning
And ask mike how he came to discover
His friend's body.
[mike] I explained to them, I got a phone call
From the owner of the farm.
He just told me that somebody needed to go check on caveman.
[wendy] investigators definitely wanted
To talk to the farm owner
And they didn't even have to contact him.
The owner of the property, along with jermey chesser,
Showed up at the scene.
[jermey] when we pulled up and there was a line,
It looked like something that you'd see in new york city,
On our little country road.
[narrator] jermey and the ranch owner
Confirmed mike's account
Of what happened that morning.
[jermey] it had been two days since caveman had been to work,
But caveman, sometimes he would take,
What he called, a sabbatical.
He'd take him a little break
Because he said, "I got a young mind
But a old body."
He was gruff.
He would definitely tell you what he thought,
Whether you liked it at all,
But he had a heart the size of texas.
He would do anything for you.
If you asked for anything, he would give it to you.
[narrator] based on the evidence that james
Was likely the victim of a robbery gone wrong,
Detectives ask his friends
If they're aware of any valuables he may have owned.
[pasha] he was an outdoors guy.
He loved his guns and shooting.
All the rifles and pistols were taken.
[narrator] caveman's friends also confirm
His collection of rare and valuable coins.
Caveman collected coins, a lot of rare coins,
And all that, and people knew that.
[pasha] he was a huge coin collector.
We would sit and go look
For hours and hours and hours at his coins.
[jermey] he had a book that he would look up his coin.
Every once in a while he would make a trip to memphis
With his coins.
[pasha] he had a money bag and he always kept it on him.
Caveman always worked for nothing but cash.
He was flashing a lot of money.
I'm like, "somebody is gonna kill you over that [bleep]
One of these days."
[narrator] while they can't think of anyone
Who would want to hurt their friend,
Jermey reveals that he had received
A cryptic text message
Earlier that morning.
Jermey chesser told us
He received a text from andy capps.
Andy capps, he's a carpenter by trade
And he knew caveman probably longer than me,
To be honest with you.
He wasn't around much.
[wendy] so although andy capps didn't work with these guys,
This is, again, a community where everybody
Knows everybody,
So everyone was familiar with andy.
[jermey] and I showed him my phone.
All I got was that we needed to check on caveman.
I didn't know if he was beat up
Or what was going on because it didn't state.
Putting two and two together, it's pretty simple.
My buddy's laying in there, dead,
And somehow he knew something about it.
So let's figure it out.
[music]
[narrator] just hours into the murder investigation
Of 61-year-old james "caveman" sartorelli,
Arkansas state police have keyed in
On their first suspect,
A local man named andy capps,
After learning that andy alerte
James' closest friends to check on him
Before his body was discovered.
[jermey] after the detectives seen the text
That was on my phone,
I told them where he lived at.
That led us to andy capp's residence
Where we interviewed him.
Andy capps never stated
That he knew that james had been murdered.
He was just concerned about hi.
We noticed that, andy, he was very standoffish.
He just was not forthcoming on his information,
Which led us to believe
That there was more to the story than what he was telling.
We just had red flags going off.
[narrator] while andy swears
He doesn't know what happened to caveman,
He says he may know why he was targeted.
Andy capps, he led us to believe
That james was a big-time drug dealer.
Any mention of drugs, no matter how big, how small,
It's gonna be something that investigators
Need to take a look at.
[tony] during our investigation of checking james,
He had no criminal history,
No traffic violations on his record.
He basically had a clean record
And never been arrested for anything.
[creston] his drug dealing was minimal.
He only sold to a select few and generally it was marijuana.
[narrator] but just as the drug-deal-gone-bad angle
Seemingly goes up in smoke,
Detectives receive a tip
That shifts attention back to their most recent suspect.
[creston] we received information
From a confidential informant
Who informed us that andy capps had texted him
On the morning of may the 6th,
And insinuated that andy capps
Knew something about this murder.
[wendy] this text was a little different
Than the one that jermey had received
Because this text indicated that caveman might be dead.
[creston] after receiving this information,
We knew that andy capps wasn't being truthful
In what he told us.
[wendy] so when investigators go to talk
To this other person who had called them,
He gives them even more information.
When we asked this informant why andy capps
Would text him that,
He says andy and him are friends,
And andy trusts him.
[narrator] the informant tells detectives
The 33-year-old hunter carlstro
Worked with caveman on the cattle farm.
[jermey] hunter carlstrom, he'd come in 2018.
Caveman got him a job working with us.
Caveman and him, of course,
Had apparently known each other for a long time.
I think caveman knew his dad.
[wendy] this new revelation
Sends investigators back to andy capps
And they know that they have to be
A little bit more serious this time.
[narrator] the following morning,
Detectives bring andy capps into the station
For a formal interview.
During the second interview, andy was more nervous.
We started presenting a little bit more facts
That we knew.
We started pressuring him more.
Andy told us that hunter had borrowed the truck
And while he had the truck,
He had wrecked the truck in sharp county
Which is an adjoining county to lawrence county.
Caveman was a little agitated at hunter
For wrecking his feed truck.
Hunter was supposed to take it straight home
And then straight back to work the next morning
'cause he didn't have a ride.
A wrecked pick-up truck doesn't equate to homicide
In most instances.
[narrator] but two days before james' body was discovered,
Andy says hunter and his 23-year-old fiancé,
Xaveriana cook, showed up at his house
With a disturbing story.
Andy stated that hunter carlstrom
Did murder james,
And that carlstrom took cash and weapons.
Andy capps stated that hunter wanted him
To burn james' residence,
Just to dispose of all the evidence was there,
To burn the body, just whatever was there.
Andy agreed to take the money
Because he was afraid that hunter was gonna kill him
If he refused.
[narrator] detectives press andy about
Hunter's fiancé xaveriana's role in the murder,
But he believes she wasn't involved.
Andy capps is charged with hindering apprehension
For initially lying to police.
But before he's hauled away,
He drops one last bombshell.
[creston] andy capps told us
That he didn't believe that hunter carlstrom
Would just surrender easily,
That he would shoot it out with the police.
It's alarming.
[jermey] he said, whatever it's gonna take,
He would never go back to prison.
Something of this nature, we always go
On a very high alert,
Knowing that this is a very dangerous person
That we are going to encounter.
[narrator] coming up, law enforcement agents
Are sent on a manhunt across state lines.
And we knew that our time was running out.
[narrator] and before it's over,
More bodies will fall.
He stayed very true to his word.
[music]
[narrator] five days after finding the body
Of james "caveman" sartorelli,
Detectives have identified 33-year-old hunter carlstrom
As their primary suspect.
Arkansas state police begin digging into hunter
And his 23-year-old fiancé xaveriana cook.
At this point, the police start trying
To understand hunter and where he comes from,
And they found that he was actually from
Rockford, illinois.
Xaveriana was also from rockford.
The arkansas police got in contact with me
And explained to me what was going on,
And that, now, the police were looking for hunter
And xaveriana.
I was so shocked. I was a loss for words.
[narrator] while xaveriana's mother
Hasn't seen xaveriana or hunter
She offers detectives more details
About the couple.
[amanda] xaveriana was born and raised
In rockford, illinois.
She had two brothers and a sister,
And they were all very close.
We were all a very close family
She was a happy kid, growing up,
Had a good childhood.
[amanda] she went to school with the brother of hunter.
And he introduced his brother to he.
So that is how they met each other.
Hunter had a little bit of a troubled childhood
And had some troubles in high school.
And after that, it didn't get a lot better for him.
He had spent some time in prison,
Not just for minor offenses, some pretty serious time.
[amanda] xaveriana told me that she was dating hunter
And that he had been in prison before.
That worried me. That's my daughter.
And I just watched him and his actions
Towards my daughter.
And he was very loving to her.
He seemed like he would do anything for her.
[amanda] I think hunter, seeing that, xaveriana,
She was a very loving person and had a very big heart,
And I think hunter liked that about her.
[narrator] in 2018, the couple moved to arkansas
Where hunter's father helped his son
Get a job working on the cattle farm.
[jermey] we all worked a lot together on the farm.
I actually thought that hunter was changing his life.
He was a hard worker, stout as an ox,
And could cook.
Believe it or not, at some point in time,
He did some culinary school or something like that.
[narrator] xaveriana's mom says, about a year later,
The young couple got life-changing news.
[amanda] they both actually called me
And told me that there was a baby coming.
And they were both very happy and excited.
He proposed to her and said
He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
She said she was gonna do it, that she loved him,
And she wanted to raise their baby together as a family
She was his ride-or-die and he was her protector.
[narrator] but a few months later,
Amanda says her daughter called with concerning news.
Xaveriana was probably about four months' pregnant
And at that point, everything started getting very bad.
Hunter was getting very abusive with her.
She thought he had been using drugs.
Hunter was a very caring and loving person.
It was when he started using drugs
That he became a monster,
That you really did not wanna go toe-to-toe with.
I started getting very worried
And telling xaveriana that I didn't want her to be with him.
I could just feel something, it was gonna end badly.
I just wasn't sure how.
[narrator] xaveriana's mother tells police
That she had last heard from her daughter
Two days earlier.
But she hadn't mentioned anything
About james sartorelli's murder
Xaveriana called me. It sounded like she was scared.
She was like, "I will try to call you back later.
I'm okay, though.
I'm trying to make my way back home and I love you, mom."
And that was our last phone call.
I knew that she was in danger, traveling around with him.
I was just hoping that my sister was all right.
[wendy] she could be being held against her will.
She could be a willing participant.
But one thing they do know for sure is that she's pregnant.
So that really changes the dynamic
Of how they need to approach this.
[narrator] after speaking to xaveriana's family,
Detectives track down hunter's father
To see if he knows the couple's whereabouts.
Hunter's dad tells police
That he did hear from hunter
And that the police were looking for him
Because they believe that he killed caveman.
Hunter's dad did provide us with hunter's cellphone number
And with that information, we were able to reach out
To cellphone providers and have hunter's phone pinged
Which'd give us the location where hunter was at.
The ping showed that hunter was located
In oxford, mississippi,
Which is a 244-mile drive.
With the cellphone pings being
Outside of the state of arkansas,
We then reached out to the us marshal service.
We apprehend violent fugitives is our main mission.
They can't find the guy,
They ask us to come in and see if we can find him.
The arkansas state police put out
A be on the lookout, or a bolo, for this individual.
We were told that hunter carlstrom
Was wanted for a capital murder
It was said that he fled
With xaveriana cook, his girlfriend,
In a black car.
We knew, based on, his criminal conduct,
That he was gonna be a dangerous individual.
He had 67 pages of arrests
For assault, resisting arrest,
Weapons charges, firearms charges, burglary.
We had a couple of vehicles roving the area,
Canvassing the area, looking for the vehicle.
[narrator] four days into the search,
Marshals in oxford, mississippi spot the vehicle.
[bob] he was able to positively identify
Carlstrom in the passenger's seat
And cook as being the driver.
We have a couple of unmarked units
That are following him.
We were hoping that he would pull into a convenience store
Or a residence, but it did not.
It continued north toward oxford.
We did not want carlstrom and cook
To get inside the city limits.
You got students walking around everywhere.
You got a busy town square.
We were told that carlstrom was not going back
To prison and would shoot it out
With the police if confronted.
We hear that all the time,
But based on his criminal history
And interviews that had taken place,
We believed him to be a real threat.
We decided that we needed to probably make plans
For a traffic stop.
We wanted to conduct it
Where there wasn't a whole lot of members of the public
That would be at risk.
Shane theobald phoned ahead to the oxford police department
And asked them to shut down
Any southbound traffic
At highway 7 in grand oaks boulevard.
[narrator] but just before xaveriana
And hunter reach the roadblock,
Xaveriana makes a rash decision
I'm assuming she looked up ahead and saw
Marked police cars with lights on
And no traffic coming down the road.
And she turned left off of highway 7.
Then we knew that our time was running out
So we had the sheriff's deputy in front of us
Activate his emergency lights to have xaveriana pull over.
[music]
[narrator] in oxford, mississippi,
A multi-agent task force has just caught up
To suspected murderer hunter carlstrom
And his pregnant fiancé, xaveriana cook.
The car pulled over.
As soon as it came to a stop,
Xaveriana exited the vehicle
And came back to where the deputies were.
[narrator] while hunter remains in the passenger's seat,
Members of the fugitive task force
Prepare for a standoff.
You're positioning cars where they can provide cover
And concealment for you
In case there is gunfire.
I was behind of our investigator's vehicles
Engine blocks.
Guns were drawn, ready to be used if they needed to be used.
Our arrest team approached on the right rear
Where they could see hunter carlstrom
In the passenger's seat.
He opened the door but was refusing officers' commands
To show us his hands.
[bob] he was being verbally non-compliant,
And at a certain point,
We felt like that we needed to elevate our commands
From just giving him verbal commands
To the use of a taser.
I said, "look, the door is open
I've got a clear shot where I could tase him
In the back."
Almost instantly, carlstrom turned
And I saw him with a handgun.
I could hear the taser deploy
And immediately after that,
I heard gunfire.
The first shot heard was from hunter carlstrom.
The second volley of gunfire, which was almost immediate,
Was our agents returning fire
And striking carlstrom.
Hunter carlstrom was killed by return gunfire.
He caused his own demise.
He stayed very true to his word.
[bob] at that point, I started checking myself
And I felt a little tingle coming from my left side.
So I reached under my vest, saw some blood.
[shane] I heard deputy dickerson say,
"I'm hit, I'm hit,"
And I can see him backpedaling away from the vehicle.
And I immediately went to deputy dickerson's aid.
I could see the blood begin to pool on his shirt
And realized that we had to get him to the hospital.
I just start fading.
I had lost so much blood, I was just getting really weak.
Everything after that is pretty foggy.
[narrator] while deputy us marshal bob dickerson
Receives medical attention,
Xaveriana cook is arrested
And brought down to the local station
For an interview.
Once in custody, xaveriana did confess
That she knew that hunter had committed this crime,
That he killed caveman
And he took the guns, he took the money.
And she was quite forthcoming with information
Once everything was said and done.
[narrator] xaveriana admits that on the night of may 5th,
She gave hunter her car,
Knowing full well what he planned to do.
She told investigators that it was his intention
To kill caveman.
[narrator] according to xaveriana,
James' propensity to flaunt his valuables
Caught hunter's eye.
Hunter had seen an opportunity to get some money
And guns.
[wendy] xaveriana said everything that hunter took
From caveman
Was to aid them in starting a new life.
Maybe he felt, by him doing that,
He was protecting her
From being broke in the future
Or the baby coming.
[wendy] I don't think that the amount that was taken
In this situation was realistic
To consider starting a new life,
But everybody has their own definitions
Of starting a new life.
Xaveriana said that, when he came back,
He told her to pack her clothes
And that they were leaving.
[narrator] xaveriana felt as though she had no choice
But to stand by her man.
[wendy] she was thinking about a baby.
She was thinking about someone that she clearly loved,
And she was really thinking about being
In that desperate situation.
And you have to make a decision to stand by the person
That you love, no matter what they've done,
And hope that, at the end of the day,
You all come home together.
It was when hunter started using them drugs,
He became someone that you did not know
And someone that you did not even wanna mess with
Because he would hurt you.
She was afraid hunter was gonna hurt her
And didn't know what she should do.
He totally was controlling her mind.
She did whatever he told her to do.
[narrator] after hearing xaveriana's version of events,
Authorities believe hunter is the mastermind.
But they aren't ready to exonerate xaveriana.
[wendy] xaveriana was clearly not the ring leader
In any of these instances.
I don't believe that that is disputed on any level.
It wasn't her idea to do any of these things.
That all fell on hunter,
But xaveriana had knowledge that it was going to happen.
So after everything was said and done,
She didn't come out of this unscathed at all.
She was looking at a long list of federal and state charges.
[narrator] following her preliminary hearing,
Xaveriana is released on bail.
The judge allowed her to come home.
He put her on house arrest.
And she was able to come home, have the baby.
And she got to spend a little time with the baby.
[narrator] on February 7th, 2022,
The young mother pleads guilty
To being an accessory after the fact,
And aiding and abetting the possession of firearms
By a prohibited person.
She was sentenced to 84 months in prison.
[amanda] she was very surprised by the sentence that she got.
It shocked both of us.
[jermey] a lot of people say she deserved more
In my honest opinion, I think it was fair.
She got to watch the person that she loved be killed.
So let her live with that.
She's got the hell she has to live with
Over and over and over in her mind.
[narrator] for special agent bob dickerson,
His brush with death
Was followed by a long recover.
It was nine surgeries, total, over a year-ish,
10 months.
I had to almost learn how to walk again.
I think hunter carlstrom is the epitome of evil.
I'm willing to forgive a lot of people.
I don't know that I could forgive him.
Hunter didn't really get any punishment
For doing what he did to cave.
I know he's not here,
But it's just too easy for hunter.
It's not for everyone else, for his family.
But for hunter, he should've been punished for that.
[jermey] hunter's a thug. He murdered my friend
And left him face-down.
When it all boils down to it,
It was about money.
Greed is the root of all evil.
It was always good to go and visit caveman,
Then talk to him for hours and hours and hours.
I miss those greatly.
He was a great man to talk to.
To this day, it still feels unbelievable
That something like that happened
To one of you best friends.
It's still hard to grasp.
[jermey] when somebody thinks about caveman,
I want somebody to grin because I do every day.
He was such a loving, generous, big-hearted person.
[music]