(suspenseful music)
- At 87 years old, dad took good care of himself.
He was still active.
He was always tinkering or working on the car
Or adding on our house.
He was involved with
Sons and daughters of pearl harbor survivors.
He would take veterans to appointments.
Even at, you know, in his 80s, he did that.
He just had a good heart.
Everything changed that day.
It didn't seem real.
It just didn't seem like that could even happen.
(suspenseful music)
The only type of person that could do something like this
Had to just be pure evil.
I was just in this dark, determined space.
I didn't care about anything, but finding out who did this.
(suspenseful music)
Who killed our dad?
(suspenseful music)
I was living in columbus, ohio,
Which is about two hours south of canton,
Where dad lived.
We would talk about three times a week on average.
We were close.
(suspenseful music)
When I got the call that night,
I had had a neighbor over.
And he and I were putting together an entertainment center
I had just bought.
And everything was fine.
And then the phone rang and it was my brother.
And he said, "I just wanna let you know,
Dad's house is on fire and it doesn't look good."
And he said, "I'll call you back when I have more information."
And I kept trying to call him and he didn't answer.
I just didn't know what to do.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] becky angelo is terrified
For the safety of her 87-year-old father, bennie,
Who lives alone in the old family home.
- We grew up in a middle-class neighborhood.
We had the type of home
Where everybody would kinda hang out.
(soft music)
My parents threw really big christmas parties.
Mom would start baking cookies in like October.
My dad worked a lot at the steel mill.
But when he was available,
He'd like to have people over and entertain.
He had a great sense of humor.
(suspenseful music)
Sundays at our house were fun
'cause there used to be a radio station
Out of alliance, ohio, that played polka music on sundays.
And he loved polka music and we all polka danced.
I mean it was just a big deal.
(upbeat polka music)
(suspenseful music)
He was kinda feisty.
He was opinionated.
And I believe that he was entitled to be
'cause, you know,
Going through what he went through in his life.
Dad was in the military.
He was in the army.
And he actually, you know, he was at pearl harbor.
(bombs whistling)
- [narrator] bennie is one of the few people still alive
That witnessed that lethal attack,
Which pushed the u.S. Into joining the second world war.
(bombs whistling) (flames crackling)
- He would tell stories where he could see the eyes
Of the japanese pilots coming down.
That's how low they were when they were coming in.
(explosions booming)
They were in the chow line for breakfast.
And then the person in front of him,
His mess kit got hit with a bullet or something.
And shrapnel flew.
And my dad got some shrapnel in his ankle.
Every year, he would go to a couple junior high schools,
You know, and talk about it.
He just wanted to keep that memory alive.
- Bennie was a local celebrity.
Everybody knew bennie. Everybody loved bennie.
He had deep, deep roots to veterans organizations.
A world war ii pearl harbor veteran.
They're the toughest of the tough, right?
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] fire investigator joe carafelli rushes
To bennie angelo's burning house,
Well aware that lives are likely at stake.
(fire crackling) (radio chattering)
- Anytime a fire comes in
In the middle of the night like that,
And it's in what would normally be an occupied structure,
It kind of ramps things up for the firefighters.
You know you're coming into something
Where possibly you have someone deceased in there.
But quite possibly, you may be able to save 'em.
You might be able to get 'em out.
- [narrator] carafelli's firefighting colleagues
Are already in the house.
- They didn't wanna waste any time
With getting in and trying to get him out of there.
Minutes, seconds.
There was pretty much zero visibility
Because it was very smokey.
He was basically just going by feel
As he crawled through there.
Found the bedroom.
Of course, that's one of the first places you look.
Felt up on the bed.
Felt mr. Angelo
And immediately pulled him out and tried to get him outside.
He didn't notice any signs of life.
Couldn't hear him breathing.
There was no coughing or response from him.
Once he got him out,
That's when the paramedic was trying to resuscitate him.
- [narrator] but it's too late.
Bennie angelo is dead.
(suspenseful music)
- We look in the mouth
To see if there was any soot in the mouth.
There did not appear to be much soot at all
In the mouth or the nose,
Which indicated that he was deceased prior to the fire.
- [narrator] carafelli carefully enters
The smoldering house. (suspenseful music)
- We had to determine every possible competent heat source
That could start a fire and then rule those out one by one.
(camera snapping)
The stove is ruled out.
We rule out the hot water tank.
We looked at the electrical system of the house.
In the front room, it was basically just cluttered there.
You know, you had some chairs and furniture and boxes.
Pictures of him as a proud soldier,
Pictures of him with his family.
It looked like stuff had been rummaged through
And thrown aside.
And the tables were upended
And there were chairs piled up on it.
There were several liquor bottles laying around.
And there were strange burn patterns.
You could see what appeared to have been liquor
That was splashed around and then lit.
- [narrator] those suspicious burn patterns
Tell carafelli that the fire
Was almost certainly started deliberately.
- You went into the bedroom,
You could see where mr. Angelo took his last breaths.
And there was some blood and stuff on it.
And there was a safe open right there
At the foot of the bed.
And it just kind of telltale, you know?
It looked like we had a crime scene here.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] detective victor george
Of canton police department remembers
That tragic night when he got the call.
(suspenseful music)
- This is mr. Angelo's house.
I came immediately out to the scene
And started scouring the house for any evidence
That could be found.
Of course, with the water damage
And the condition of the house,
Physical evidence was kind of few and far between.
From what we've seen in the bedroom,
We were able to deduct
That this was a home invasion or a burglary.
(suspenseful music)
We could not find any sign of forced entry.
There was no breaching of the door jams
Or the locks or anything of that nature.
I felt that somebody knocked on his door,
Got inside his house,
Allowed somebody else or some other people to come in.
So with that,
He possibly knew the person
Who was trying to get into the house.
There was no pry marks on the safe.
There was no tooling marks.
Nothing that indicated
That there was force applied to the safe.
Inside the safe,
We were able to find a handgun that belonged to bennie.
I spoke to the family in reference to this handgun
And asked, did he have any other firearms?
And they told me
That he kept a revolver next to his bed.
Always.
And it was a 32 caliber revolver.
It was missing.
(suspenseful music) (siren wails)
- Mr. Angelo was transported from the scene.
When I got to the hospital,
One of the first things that the doctor talked to me about
Was that they did have what appeared to be puncture wounds.
Most likely bullet holes.
I think as far as everybody was concerned at this point,
Somebody forced mr. Angelo to open the safe
And then shot and killed him.
Then set the fire to cover it up.
- My brother finally called me back and he said,
"are you sitting down?"
And I'm like, "what's going on?"
And he said, "dad's gone, he was shot four times."
And I remember,
I remember just kinda collapsing to the floor.
There was confusion.
There was sadness.
There was questions.
There were so many things.
I mean, you know, my mind was just flying
All over the place.
You know, like, what do you mean
He was shot four times?
(suspenseful music)
- It just seemed so surreal.
Like who gets a phone call,
And, you know, "hey, your dad's been shot four times."
I mean, that,
Never in my life ever did I ever expect
To live through anything like that.
(suspenseful music)
I got in the car that next morning and drove.
I knew that I had to get up there.
So it was a long drive.
It was probably the longest drive I've ever taken
In my life.
And it was only two hours.
When I got to dad's house,
It was bizarre.
It was boarded up.
There was black soot on things.
There was crime scene tape.
We couldn't even get into the house at that point
Because, you know, there was an investigation going on.
But just the feeling of standing out there
And wanting to go in.
But not being able to.
But then when all that stuff was taken down
And we were able to go in.
And just to see the struggle and things.
It was hard.
It was hard to see that, you know?
It was hard to see a puddle of blood on his chair.
It was hard to see hand blood,
You know, streaks down the hallway.
I think I was more angry than anything.
I think at that point is when it clicked.
I just remember the family being there
And detectives being there
And news people being there.
And it just didn't seem like there was any time
To even process anything, you know?
- Everybody was just in utter shock and heartbreak.
It was absolutely devastating.
- [narrator] becky sees a familiar face
Among the investigators on the scene.
Lead detective victor george.
- Victor and I went to high school together.
Now he was an athlete. I was an athlete.
- You always want to run into your old acquaintances,
You know, your high school classmates.
But you don't wanna have to tell them,
"I'm investigating your father's murder."
- Just having him around, somebody familiar,
Was comforting in a way.
He was just really reassuring
That he was gonna solve this case.
- [narrator] the coroner's report confirms
That bennie has been shot four times.
Once in the head and three times in the chest.
- He was shot and killed with a 32 caliber revolver,
Believed to be the one belonging to mr. Angelo.
- To be killed with your own gun in your own home.
You know, that's a hard pill to swallow, you know?
- [narrator] even though bennie was 87 years old,
He was in good health.
- That's why I believe there was more than one person
Because I think it had to be,
'cause it would've taken more than one person
To take my dad out.
You know, that's the type of...
He had such a strong spirit.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] there's little chance
Of finding any forensic evidence.
The fire and the water used to put it out
Have made the investigators' job much harder.
- You have to go in and put a bunch of water
Into a place to put it out.
There was active fire in there
And water did need to be put on it to put it out.
Otherwise it all burns up.
This is something that's kinda unique
To fire investigation.
You know, it's one of the only crimes
That your evidence decreases as the crime progresses.
(suspenseful music)
- If there was any dna that we wanted
To try to retrieve from somewhere in a house,
It would've destroyed that. (suspenseful music)
- [narrator] but against all odds,
One potentially valuable clue survives.
- Our identification bureau was able to find a hair
In the front door mechanism.
One single hair.
That hair appeared to be blonde.
I know the family of bennie angelo,
And they're all dark haired.
Bennie had white hair, but he had very short hair.
Why is there a blonde hair in the mechanism of the door?
That was a huge lead for us.
I believe that belonged to the person
Who entered the residence and ultimately assaulted him.
- [narrator] detective george sends the hair
To the lab for dna analysis.
The family, and the town of canton,
Mourns the loss of their local hero.
- We had a vigil on the front lawn of dad's house.
And we had the military there.
We had the 21-gun salute.
People were laying like teddy bears, flowers and things.
And then the bugle player showed up.
(bugle playing "taps")
- It was so hard, but it was a proud moment,
For me, to see how many people cared.
(bugle playing "taps")
- I just, I can't even listen to "taps" anymore
Without breaking down
Or, you know, thinking about dad.
It takes me just right to those moments.
(bugle playing "taps")
- You'll never find a nicer guy than what bennie was.
- I was just amazed by how many people were out.
I mean, it was bitter cold, you know?
I remember being there and looking at everybody
And just watching people, how they were reacting,
Thinking maybe I could see somebody behaving strangely
Or, like, who is this person?
You know, why are they here?
Everybody was suspect at that point
Because, you know, nobody knows anything.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] a young blonde woman
Wearing a cowboy hat stands out.
- We just thought she was acting a little suspicious
Or just different.
And she had this pink cowboy hat.
So she put this hat on the pile for the memorial.
And I thought, okay,
We gotta get this hat.
And they're gonna get dna off of it.
And we're gonna figure out who this person is
And why she's here. (suspenseful music)
(melancholy music)
- It was such a brutal crime.
Here's this poor man who served our country.
He survives an attack on pearl harbor
And he's killed in his own home.
It was very sad.
Very sad.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] in the days after the murder,
The family wonders about one of the mourners
At their father's vigil.
A young woman in a pink cowboy hat
None of them had seen before.
- So when I interviewed this female of interest,
She answered all of our questions.
She cooperated with us.
She didn't appear to be stammering around,
Looking for answers.
- Turned out to be nothing.
It was just some woman from the neighborhood.
Just wanted leave her hat there.
But you know, when you're that desperate, you grasp,
You know, any little thing you see.
'cause nothing is too small.
Any little thing off kilter, you automatically say, okay,
That could be the person, you know?
Or maybe this person's involved.
Or maybe this person knows something
Until you drive yourself half nuts.
(car whooshing)
- [narrator] next, detective george interviews the family.
- Becky angelo told me that, when her mother passed away,
Her father put four envelopes in that safe.
And it had $5,000 a piece in it.
That money was for each of the children when he passed away.
And I believe, in speaking with becky angelo,
She was the only one that knew that.
So there was $20,000 in the safe that was not there.
After speaking with mr. Angelo's four children,
It was very clear that none of them
Had anything to do with his death.
He didn't have life insurance.
He didn't even have homeowner's insurance.
So the house, when it got destroyed,
Was a loss to the family.
- [narrator] george checks police records connected
To bennie's address and finds a promising lead.
- Two weeks prior to mr. Angelo's murder,
He had a burglary to his residence.
He wasn't home at the time.
But somebody had broke in and they had stole envelopes
That had cash in it for christmas presents.
Now a patrol officer went out.
Took a report.
He looked around.
Didn't see any sign of forced entry.
Now you go two weeks ahead and he's broken into again.
- [narrator] investigators think the pattern
Of repeated burglaries could be significant.
- There was just something about,
It had to be somebody from the neighborhood.
- There was actually two brothers
That lived down the street.
Both of them were drug addicts
And they've had issues with burglaries
And the drug trafficking.
And, you know, minor violent stuff.
We thought maybe that they broke into the house
To get money to buy drugs.
So being that they were on probation,
Their parole officer did a home visit
And we didn't find anything that would link
That young man or his brother to bennie angelo at that time.
We developed another female suspect of somebody
That would come over and do work for mr. Angelo.
The family felt she took advantage
Of their father for monies.
And she had blonde hair. (suspenseful music)
I went and interviewed this young girl.
I asked her if she'd voluntarily give me some dna sample.
And she said, "sure."
And I said,
"I just wanna get a couple of your hairs outta your head."
- [narrator] before he can run the test,
The lab results come in on the blonde hair found
At bennie's house.
- The hair ended up being non-human.
It belonged to a dog.
- [narrator] investigators widen the search.
- I probably looked at several dozen people of interest.
I mean, any time we had another homicide
That was similar to this, same mo,
I would rush that down to the crime lab
And try to get ballistics on it
To see if it was the same firearm or not.
- [narrator] then an accidental discovery offers new hope.
(suspenseful music)
- An elderly gentleman who is just cleaning up his debris,
And underneath a bush, he rakes out the old dead leaves
And he finds a brown leather holster
And a wallet with bennie angelo's id in it.
I would say, the way the crow flies,
It was probably 1,500 feet from mr. Angelo's house.
- [narrator] the find is their best lead yet.
- What the discovery of those items did for us
Was show us a path that one of the persons
That left mr angelo's house was walking
And discarded those items under some bushes
So that nobody would ever find them.
It revived me with a new sense of energy on the case.
And I was excited to hopefully come up with a resolution
To this murder. (suspenseful music)
- After we found a holster and a wallet
With bennie angelo's id inside,
They were sent down to the crime lab for analysis.
But they had been sitting in the weather
Since January 7th till July.
There was no fingerprints to obtain.
There was no dna.
There was absolutely nothing
Other than the recovery of those items.
It was tough.
This case kept dragging on.
All you wanna do is bring peace
To the surviving family members.
And I couldn't do it.
(suspenseful music)
- Victor took some phone calls from me
At all hours of the night
That probably, I wasn't my best self.
I was like, are we ever gonna solve this case?
I said some terrible things
Because things weren't happening
Maybe as quickly as I thought they should.
- I would get another homicide case
And be able to solve it right away.
And that's when her anger would come.
And she says, you know,
"you can solve everybody else's murder, but not my father's."
(somber music)
You know, you take it with a grain of salt.
I understand what she's going through.
- It was frustrating.
Just not knowing.
Nothing's happening fast enough.
He allowed me to just get it out
And then we would just move,
We would move forward. (suspenseful music)
I just kept thinking, what else can I do?
I started investigating stuff on my own.
(suspenseful music)
Knocked on doors.
Approached people to ask 'em questions.
I wasn't afraid to ask anybody anything.
I got a little determined, I think is a good word,
Determined to find out who did this.
I knew where there were a couple bad spots
In the neighborhood.
So I would casually, kinda incognito,
Wear a lotta clothing,
And go hang in, you know, go walk around these people
And be amongst them.
I knew I had to be careful
Because I was all over the news at that point.
And I didn't wanna be identified.
(suspenseful music)
- Having a civilian attempt
Their own investigation is always a concern.
You know, leave it to the detectives.
We know the dos, the don'ts, what we can do.
There's always that potential
That you're gonna scare somebody off.
- She would sometimes put herself in situations
That maybe were not the best situations
That she should have been in.
- It's not like when you go through something like this,
There's a manual.
Hey, go get a book at the library.
It'll tell you exactly what to do to get through this.
There's nothing.
I started feeling like maybe what I was doing
Wasn't the healthiest or, you know,
Like, what if somebody recognizes me
Or something, you know, even worse.
So what I was doing is like, what can I do
To help and not hinder?
But, you know, not put myself in danger
Or put my family in danger.
- Becky actually put a reward up.
And the local fbi in our department threw in
And we had a $15,000 reward
For the conviction of the person
Or persons responsible for his murder.
- I walked around with a sandwich board on me
For a long time
With, "who killed bennie?"
With a reward.
And it was like a three-year-old put this thing together,
But I didn't have any shame in wearing it.
You know, and I went with whatever I could
Just to keep people talking.
Don't let people forget. (suspenseful music)
We learned some things,
But nothing really ever amounted to anything.
(suspenseful music)
Another year goes by.
Still nothing.
It was just like everything was stacked against us.
It was frustrating.
To go on that long not knowing,
Your mind goes places and, you know,
You think about, what am I missing?
You know?
This person's probably right under our nose.
They have to be close.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] months pass with no new leads.
The case of the murdered war hero goes as cold
As the winter winds that blow across ohio.
- I felt like I did everything I could.
And there was just nothing left to do at the present time.
When you're out of leads, it's kind of outta your control.
This case going unsolved played a lot more on my emotions
Than any of the other cases.
Just based on the fact that I had a personal friendship
With the daughter of mr. Angelo.
- I never lost hope.
Even if it was just a teeny tiny bit, I hung onto it.
I mean, I hung onto it.
'cause it was just so tiny,
I was afraid if I'd let that go,
You know, I don't know
That I'd even be sitting here today really.
That's how dark it was.
I'm like, if somebody could do this to dad, 87 years old,
We gotta stop 'em.
We gotta get these people off the streets.
The only thing I cared about was bringing justice.
And that's when I started sending out
Posters to the jails.
People in jail talk.
I just kept thinking, somebody's gotta know something.
(suspenseful music)
- I was not thinking that this would be a story
One year, two years, three years down the road,
I thought police would solve it.
But there weren't any answers.
- This is years now, but no real concrete suspects.
It seemed like every time I took a step forward,
I felt like I was getting knocked backward.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] becky angelo does not give up
Her fight for justice,
Doing anything she can to keep her father's case alive.
- Just one night I thought, okay,
I think we've put flyers
On every telephone pole and business.
And wasn't really doing anything.
And I just figured people in jail brag and talk.
So let's go there.
And I thought, okay, ohio has 88 counties,
Which probably means there's 88 county jails.
And I thought then maybe I should branch out
To pa, michigan, you know, indiana,
All the surrounding states.
And just attached a little 8-by-10 poster
With a note to the sheriff,
Please post this in your jail.
- They were hung up right in the receiving area
Where you bring a prisoner in.
And in may of 2012,
I received what they call a kite.
And it is a message
That a person in our county jail passes on
To a corrections officer.
And their request is to speak with a detective.
We get requests from inmates a lot,
That they have information
In reference to a certain case we're investigating.
It really doesn't spark an interest to us
Unless they could tell us something
That has not been released
For the public to see or hear.
(suspenseful music)
So I went out there to meet with this young lady.
And she told me that she's in a pod cell
With a young girl whose name was regina crank
Talking about the murder of bennie angelo.
(suspenseful music)
And that her cousin was involved.
And I was able to interview regina on the same day.
Regina told me that she was at a party
And her cousin was there, chester crank.
Apparently she was raised with chester
Like brother and sister.
They were very close growing up.
So he trusted her.
He had been drinking
And he had mentioned to her and other people
That he is gonna go to prison
For the rest of his life
For shooting and killing somebody.
(suspenseful music)
And that somebody was bennie angelo.
(suspenseful music)
Chester crank was somebody that wasn't even on our radar.
This is something fresh, something new.
I mean, I was enthused.
- I'm like chester crank?
I've never heard of the name.
That name never meant anything to any of us.
We had no idea who this person was.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] two more inmates see becky's posters
And tell police similar stories
About chester crank's involvement
With bennie angelo's murder.
- You hear it once, you take it with a grain of salt.
You hear it twice, your ears perk up.
You hear it three times, now you've got something there.
I did my due diligence on chester crank.
He had a handful of felonies.
I found out that mr. Crank lived
On 19th street and harrisburg road.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] crank's address makes sense.
It's close to bennie's house
And the spot where his holster and wallet were found.
- The pieces, to me, were starting
To come together on this case.
I asked regina, if I was able to get her released from here,
Would she be willing to wear a recording device
And go out with chester crank?
You know, I told her there's a reward put out by the family
If you get an arrest and a conviction out of it.
But if you mess up, you're going right back in.
She was more than willing to do it.
- Regina worked with detective george
To do the wire tap and
They put it in her bra.
And then she went out with mr. Crank.
- I was excited.
I was really hoping she could get a confession out of him.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] detective victor george finally
Has a solid suspect in the bennie angelo murder case.
A man named chester crank.
George hopes crank will confess to the crime
While being recorded by an undercover informant.
His cousin, regina. (suspenseful music)
- I almost couldn't believe it.
I was a little worried for her.
I didn't want her to put her life at risk,
But I thought if he's the person, she's gonna get him.
- She would go out with chester
Sometimes three, four hours at a time.
And then I would meet up with her
And retrieve the recording.
- Each time, we were able to get a little bit more detail
Towards what had taken place at mr. Angelo's house.
- [regina] you did?
(suspenseful music)
- When our office heard the taped conversation,
We were confident that we had enough
To present this to the jury.
We finally had him on tape.
He was charged with arson, murder, robbery and burglary.
- I was ecstatic, to say the least.
But I guess the emotions didn't really hit me
Until I called becky to let her know
That I am gonna have an arrest tomorrow.
- I just, I was like, what?
This is really happening?
I was just like shaking the whole time,
Thinking, is this really gonna be it?
Is this really the person?
Is it gonna be over? (melancholy music)
- [narrator] under interrogation
At canton police department, crank denies everything.
- Mr. Crank named three other suspects.
But he said he, you know,
He was not involved in this case at all.
- I probably spoke to him for over two hours.
Tried everything I knew to try to get him to break.
To tell me that truth.
To tell me what happened.
And it did not come to fruition.
- [narrator] the audio tapes covertly recorded by regina
Tell a very different story,
Providing damning evidence against crank.
- He made an admission
That he was the one that shot and killed bennie.
And explained why there was four gunshots on his body.
When the other three, they're inside ransacking the house,
A gunshot goes off.
They run into the back bedroom where the gunshot was.
Bennie angelo was in there
And crank had told the other three
That they had to shoot him too
Because they were all as culpable
Or responsible as he was.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] after months of delays,
The trial of chester crank finally gets underway.
- [anchorman] tracy carloss is live
With what happened today in court.
- Crank's defense attorney does not deny
That he blabbed about the night that angelo died.
But the attorney claims he was drunk
And there is no evidence to support his ramblings.
- Mr. Crank was sort of nonchalant.
You know, that I didn't do this.
You know, you got the wrong person, kinda attitude.
- I'd have to say that was one of the hardest things
I'd ever had to go through
Was to sit in the courtroom
Within probably four to six feet away
From the person that killed our father.
And he was just smirking.
And like, he didn't didn't care about anything.
The things we had to hear, it was tough.
My dad fought to the end.
He had defensive wounds on his arms.
And I believe one of the bullets even went through his hand
And then went through his head.
And I wanted to inflict as much pain
On chester crank as I could, physically.
But we knew we couldn't do anything
To jeopardize a mistrial or anything.
- [narrator] the defense offers no witnesses.
And after just five days, the trial concludes.
- Any prosecutor that thinks they got 100% slam bam case is,
I've never met that person.
You can present the greatest case.
You just don't know what 12 jurors are gonna do
On that specific day or trial.
(suspenseful music)
- Chester was found guilty by a jury of his peers
Of aggravated murder, aggravated arson,
Robbery, and burglary.
The family asked the judge
If they would pass sentence immediately.
And he was sentenced to life in prison
Without the possibility of parole.
(melancholy music)
- The guilty verdict was very satisfying to me
Because I knew how his family was so involved
In making sure justice was served here.
And I know how detective george
Just worked very hard on this case.
So I was satisfied that chester crank definitely received
What he deserved. (melancholy music)
- You talk about a celebration.
I mean, it's almost like you could breathe again.
Like you could just get air in your lungs
And be like, wow, okay, this, this is happening.
You know, I'm not living this nightmare anymore.
And it was worth it.
All the struggles, all the tears, all the...
You know, I mean to finally get somebody.
It was a great feeling.
I think I finally felt joy for the first time.
(melancholy music)
Whoo.
Yeah, the first time in about seven years,
I felt like, finally. (melancholy music)
- I was truly happy for the family
That they finally were getting justice
For the murder of their father.
This had been a case that had gone cold for a lotta years.
Becky is among the strongest people that I've ever met.
She did not give up. She did not waver.
She wanted this solved and she got it.
- I know we all cried.
We all hugged
Out in the hallway.
We maintained our decorum in there,
But we were all holding each other's hands and
(melancholy music)
Just saying, thank god, thank god.
- We are very confident that we convicted the killer.
We are confident in that regard.
- But there was evidence to show
That there was approximately three other people
That was involved in this whole incident.
- If any evidence comes forward,
I'm sure they will proceed to present it to a grand jury.
But, at this point in time,
That's all they are at this time, is suspects.
- And that's why that chapter might be closed,
But this book isn't done
Because I know that there's other people
That need to be held accountable.
(melancholy music)
Chester crank took the only father that we ever had.
The holidays aren't the same.
I mean, not having dad and the way he was taken from us.
Yeah. I don't even put a christmas tree up.
I know. It's tough.
I'm working on that.
You know, I'm just trying to
Get better about it.
Every day I miss him.
There's certain things.
Like somebody will do something or say something.
And it'll be like, god, that reminds me of dad.
You know,
I miss him a lot.