Narrator: A young woman with a troubled past
looks for a fresh start.
Morgan: She was ready to prove that
she could move her life forward.
Narrator: In a new home
with a promising new group of friends.
Sarah: He owned his own home
and was involved in the community.
And he was a member of the town council.
Narrator: When she goes missing,
her family fears the worst.
Vonda: She didn't call.
And I said, "something's wrong."
narrator: And an ominous text message.
Vonda: All it said was, "stay by your phone."
"I think something is going to happen."
narrator: Leads police to a surprising suspect.
Dan: A neighbor saw him burying something.
Narrator: And the discovery that even
the nicest of neighbors have buried secrets.
They were just trying to be their own little biker gang.
[♪♪]
[train horn honking]
sarah: Laramie draws in a lot of people
from the surrounding area, colorado,
northern wyoming.
Narrator: Laramie, wyoming, is an old frontier town
that conjures up images of the historic wild west.
Sarah: It's also a great jumping point for skiing,
snowboarding, hiking, and hunting elk.
Narrator: But as the last snow melts
on a sunny day in April 2016,
there's a disturbing scene in the shadow
of the majestic rocky mountains outside laramie.
Acting on a tip, police vehicles converge
on an isolated area in the wyoming woods.
Ben: Based on all the interviews that we had done,
we were able to narrow it down
to about a quarter mile stretch of road.
So we started walking on one end of that quarter mile
and then we had a couple detectives
start on the other end.
Robb: And they found a body buried in a shallow grave,
covered by bushes and other sticks
behind a prominent log in the ground.
Narrator: Evidence found with the body
tells the police this is the missing woman
they've been searching for.
Ben: It was all rolled up in this carpet,
along with a blanket that was very specific to her.
Robb: The body was decomposed and with multiple stab wounds.
Dan: I could see her sticking out
at the top of the carpet, and a tattoo.
And that was still visible.
Ben: We called in
all of our field evidence technicians
to start processing that scene.
Dan: I'm sure as heck we found her.
We still don't know which version of the story
really happened.
But there's only one truth.
[♪♪]
narrator: Seventy-five miles south of laramie,
across the state line in colorado
lies the remote town of pierce, a tiny speck of a place.
Robb: Pierce is so small,
they don't have their own police agency.
There's only a couple cafes and a bar.
It's just a small town where everyone knows everyone.
Narrator: Town board member dj myer
is especially well-known in pierce.
Dj sometimes rents out rooms in his house
to newcomers in town.
His latest lodger is 34-year-old tera lewandowski,
who has moved to pierce from nearby loveland
and has big plans.
[♪♪]
morgan: Tera was feeling like she could go out on her own,
things were going really well.
And I think she was just kind of ready for that step
and to prove that she could move her life forward.
Narrator: From an early age, it's been clear to everyone
that tera is whip-smart and multitalented.
Austin: She was extremely smart,
trigonometry, geometry.
She knew how to divide into the third decimal
before I could put it into a calculator.
She was beyond smart.
She was my best friend.
Vonda: I was 21 when tera was born,
so everything I did, everything I thought of
was in regards to what it would do with tera.
Narrator: But tera's world changed forever
after two bad car wrecks,
the first when she was just 16.
[tires screech then bangs]
austin: A drunk driver t-boned into the driver door.
They had to remove an ovary,
infused her hip to her lower vertebrae together.
Narrator: Not long after, she was behind the wheel again,
driving friends home from a party
when another drunk driver plowed into her car.
Vonda: They rear-ended her going about 55 miles an hour.
Austin: Her second accident,
she had three vertebrae and her hip all fused together.
She went through all of that and she never quit smiling.
[♪♪]
narrator: Despite the setbacks,
tera heads off to college,
unwilling to give up on her big plans for the future.
Morgan: When we were kids,
tera always talked about being a veterinarian.
Anything she could do to help animals
was where she wanted to be
and where she wanted to spend her energy.
Narrator: But the severity of tera's injuries
complicate her studies
and begin to derail her dreams.
Vonda: Tera from the accident was in a lot of pain.
She had the different surgeries,
and so their answer was to just give her
more pain pills, um, which she became addicted to.
She had different times that she was sober,
then she went into rehab,
and then would come out
and stay sober for quite a while,
and then would end up relapsing.
Narrator: In September 2015,
tera's mother vonda feels tera's sobriety
is on solid ground after a stint in rehab
where she's become friendly
with another recovering addict, dj meyer.
[♪♪]
vonda: I looked at dj just like I did anybody else.
He's in rehab.
He's trying to get his life better.
Dj and tera, they were both in their 30s,
so it was a situation
where they got to know each other in the rehab
and became friends.
Sarah: He was involved in the community
and was a member of the town council.
[♪♪]
narrator: Dj soon begins dating crystal griffin,
another mutual fend at the live-in rehab center.
When they leave the facility,
the couple offers tera a place to make a fresh start,
a room in dj's house in pierce.
She said, "yeah, mom. We're all kind of like-minded."
"we all wanna help each other stay sober."
"and it'll be fine." and I'm like,
"well, all right."
it looked like the whole situation
was gonna be a good fit.
[♪♪]
narrator: Tera moves in to her new home
accompanied by her chihuahua puppy, diablo.
Morgan: She was over the moon for diablo.
He was just this tiny little thing
that was glued to her and loved her.
Everywhere she went, this dog went.
[♪♪]
narrator: Just nine days after moving in with her friends,
tera comes down with a bad chest cold.
Vonda: I picked up her prescriptions,
even food and things, and went over to the house.
Well, tera was the only one at the house
and you could tell she wasn't feeling good.
She took me upstairs and showed me her bedroom.
And we had dinner together
and I sat and talked to her for several hours.
It was about 9:30, 10:00
when I left there and went home.
[♪♪]
narrator: The following morning,
vonda wakes up to a strange text message
sent during the night by tera.
Vonda: All it said was, "stay by your phone."
"I think something's going to happen."
and I was like, "what?"
"what does this mean?"
I tried calling her and I couldn't get her.
And I thought, "well, you know, she's not feeling good,"
"she's probably sleeping."
and so I went to work.
And I remembered tera had a pain specialist appointment.
And so I called the office and I said,
"did she come to her appointment?"
and they said, "no. And she didn't call."
and I said, "something's wrong."
narrator: Concerned when she doesn't hear
from tera all day, after work,
vonda drives to tera's home.
She's greeted by tera's friends
and roommates, dj and crystal.
Vonda: Dj said, "tera's not here."
and he said that morning they had taken her
to the urgent care because she was sick.
And I said, "you come and say she's not here."
"all her belongings are gone."
and I walked into the house,
and he takes me through the living room
and through the kitchen, and he said,
"that was her bedroom right there, downstairs."
at that point, I knew something wasn't right.
Because I knew my daughter's bedroom was upstairs
and on the left,
she showed me the night before.
I walked straight out the door,
and got in my car, and I was shaking so bad,
and I was calling 911 while I was driving.
[♪♪]
narrator: Vonda tells the police
she's worried that something has happened to her daughter.
Because tera's disabilities maker her vulnerable,
officers immediately follow up
and ask dj to come into the station
to answer a few questions.
Narrator: When they go to dj's home,
he explains the discrepancy that has vonda so concerned
is just a misunderstanding.
Robb: And the officer notices the place is very dirty.
But there was no sign of tera.
Narrator: Dj tells the officers he doesn't know where tera is,
but he adds something
he didn't share with her mother.
Robb: Dj talks to them and says, you know,
"I dropped her off in greeley, that's the last time I saw her."
dj said he thought tera was looking for her drug dealer
who is named chich.
Narrator: Given tera's history, the story is troubling.
If tera has relapsed,
she could be in grave danger.
[♪♪]
tera wasn't the type of person to go missing.
No matter if she was using or not using,
she wasn't one of those people that would just disappear.
There was that kind of panic.
This was really bad.
[♪♪]
vonda: I decided I was gonna put diablo on the poster also
because I know people may not remember another person,
but they'll remember a puppy.
Robb: The neighbor said he was burying something
in the backyard.
I look over there and I see the skeleton bones.
[♪♪]
narrator: Tera lewandowski has disappeared
from a small town of pierce, colorado,
and police are following a lead
that she may have given in
to her addiction to painkillers.
Ben: Her friends, dj meyer and crystal griffin
indicated that tera had possibly been with a drug dealer
in the greeley area.
Robb: Given what dj had told vonda
and also told officers at his house,
law enforcement did check
the lincoln park area in greeley.
They also checked with the urgent care
on 10th street where, uh, dj had dropped her off,
to see if they could gather any information
about tera's whereabouts at that point in time.
Narrator: The investigators' concern grows
when they visit the urgent care clinic.
They can find no indication
that tera ever entered the building.
[♪♪]
vonda: Dj and crystal knew I was out looking,
and they started texting me,
and say, "we had looked at this part of greeley."
"we've checked here. We've checked there."
robb: Law enforcement did go look for this guy
named chich in greeley,
unfortunately they were not able to locate tera.
They were also unable to locate chich
and didn't come up with anyone involved in drug dealing.
Ben: Vonda was able to give us information
on tera's bank accounts.
None of the accounts has been touched
since the time that she had last gotten
the text message from tera.
Tera was using a tablet rather than a cell phone
to communicate with vonda
because she was able to connect to wifi.
So she didn't have any sort of trackable means
when she was outside of the wifi signal.
Robb: It had now been two or three days.
There was no sign of tera.
They didn't have any information as to where she might be,
and they were suspicious of what might have happened to her.
Narrator: While police dig for other leads,
vonda takes things into her own hands,
print the town of pierce,flyerr
all over the town of ault, the part of greeley,
and everywhere I could put them.
Narrator: A week after tera went missing,
vonda's effort pays off.
A farmer thinks he has found diablo.
Ben: We went out there
and I was able to take photographs of the dog.
Vonda: I said, "that's diablo."
"I know it's him."
robb: He was in the middle of a country road,
out in the dirt by pawnee grasslands,
north and east of pierce.
The fact he survived with coyotes
and other sorts of predators out there
was amazing.
Austin: From the looks of him,
he had to have been out there for about two, three days.
Vonda: Tera treated diablo just like he was her baby,
her kid, you know.
And they were inseparable.
Morgan: There was definitely the thought that
maybe tera is somewhere nearby.
Robb: The fact that diablo was found out
in the middle of nowhere
definitely put up some red flags for law enforcement.
The weld county sheriff's office
has sheriffs and deputies to ride horses.
They were riding the pawnee grasslands
looking for tera.
They had aircraft doing grid searches.
Dan: We're looking for something abnormal.
Uh, maybe a mound, maybe some clothing.
Just something different than everything else.
And it all looked the same. There was nothing undisturbed.
Narrator: As police and tera's family
learned more details about how and where diablo was found,
their concerns continue to escalate.
Vonda: The police found out that diablo had been found
about seven days after tera was missing.
But the farmer actually had him
at that point for seven days.
That changed things,
because dj told the officers that he had dropped tera,
diablo and all her belongings
off at the urgent care on September 30th.
But actually that same morning
is when the farmer's wife found diablo
walking up a country road.
Narrator: The discrepancies in the timeline
caused investigators to wonder
whether tera's friend dj
has been telling them the whole story
of the day she disappeared.
They decide they need to do a deeper search of dj's home.
Robb: On October 7th, after hearing of this,
the ault police department
along with the weld county sheriff's office, uh,
got a search warrant for dj's house.
Ben: Inside the house,
they were able to find a lot of cleaning solutions, uh, rags.
Robb: There was bleach bottles left out.
Part of the carpet in the room vonda believe
was tera's was torn up.
The fact that bleach bottles were out
was not overly concerning,
but at that point their interest was piqued
more than it had been.
Narrator: As the detectives consider what they found,
they get another surprise.
Robb: When law enforcement was at dj's house,
a neighbor had contacted them
and said dj was burying something in the backyard.
Dan: There's some fresh mound of dirt.
Ben: The evidence technicians were on scene.
They have dig up a shallow grave.
I look over and I see the skeleton bones.
[♪♪]
narrator: A little more than a week
since tera lewandowski vanished,
police have made an alarming discovery
in the backyard of the house in pierce, colorado
that she shares with roommates,
dj meyer and crystal griffin.
The neighbor advised that they saw
dj burying something in the backyard
and there was a fresh mound of dirt.
That area was excavated and...
There was a skeleton of a dog.
It happened to be an old dog that he buried.
After police find the dog,
they realized this is yet another dead end.
Narrator: Detectives take a closer look at
roommates, dj, a trusted public official
elected to the town board
and his girlfriend crystal.
They really didn't have
any criminal history that we could find.
But we knew something was up in that house.
Narrator: The detectives asked tera's mother, vonda,
if there's any more information she can give them
about her daughter's living situation.
She tells them how tera was learning her new home
was not the fresh start she expected.
Robb: Dj was in his 30s
and he hung out with some younger guys,
mike vassil,
chad iler,
karly hanchett.
Dj's house was kind of the hangout
for this younger group of people.
All of them, chad iler, mike vassil,
karly hanchett were all from the area
and they would just come and go as they please.
And tera thought that was disrespectful
to just walk into someone's house
without knocking or anything like that.
Tera had told me that she was laying there,
watching a movie,
and that she had, like, five minutes left,
and, uh, dj and crystal
and, uh, bunch of others had come in.
Sarah: A girl named karly blasted the radio
and tera thought that that was extremely rude.
And she asked her to turn the radio down.
Vonda: And they refused to turn the music off
and said that she didn't own the house.
She didn't have the right to tell them what to do.
Narrator: The investigators realize they must now confront
an alarming possibility
that the tense situation in tera's new home
escalated into violence.
Robb: Law enforcement was looking at all angles,
whether one person within that group of friends,
dj, uh, mike vassil,
any of the other folks just committed the crime
and didn't tell anyone else.
Or if tera did go try and find drugs
and was back in that lifestyle.
No one knew exactly what happened
and tera still hadn't been found.
At that point in time, they were certainly not enough
to arrest anyone or charge anyone with the crime.
But law enforcement was keeping an eye
on dj and dj's house.
[♪♪]
narrator: Each day with no news
is a struggle for tera's family.
We had a lot of those moments,
waiting, thinking maybe,
and it kind of turning into nothing.
Narrator: But then on October 16th, 2015,
just over two weeks after tera vanished,
the investigation suddenly becomes white hot.
Robb: A person called into law enforcement,
saying he knew where tera lewandowski is.
Narrator: The caller is the brother
of tera's roommate, crystal griffin.
He tells police that crystal knows what happened to tera,
but has been too afraid to come forward.
Now, she's decided she can no longer keep silent.
Ben: I helped with the initial interviews
with crystal griffin.
Narrator: She claims that her boyfriend,
mild-mannered, town board member dj meyer,
has been leading a bizarre double life.
She describes that this group of friends,
dj, chad, mike,
and karly
had formed their own little gang.
They refer to themselves as
the unforgiven or the 21 gang.
Dan: According to crystal,
the gang would practice fighting
or stabbing trees, having big knife infatuation.
All kinds of homemade weapons.
Narrator: Crystal tells investigators that tera
had no idea she had walked into this violent world.
And she claims the group ganged up on tera
because of an argument she had with one of its members,
karly.
Ben: Crystal said because karly was dating mike
who was supposed to be higher up in their gang,
tera's disrespect to karly had to be dealt with.
Robb: Crystal said they decided to get revenge
on tera a few days later,
so they ran upstairs to her room.
Ben: She said that she had heard
what she described as
being sounds of tera being murdered.
Robb: Crystal said she was not involved
in the actual murder itself.
She did say she was with them when they went
and disposed of her body.
Narrator: According to crystal,
the group dumped tera's body on a quiet,
rural lane in neighboring wyoming.
It's a frightening story,
but for the detectives,
there's a lot of it that is hard to believe.
Ben: Dj was part of the town board
for the town of pierce, but she said he had a drive
to portray himself as some sort of a gang member.
It was strange to hear that he was doing two
so different things at the same time.
Dan: We have experts here in greeley,
they're the gang unit.
And you contact them and you'd say,
"hey, have you ever heard of this dude?"
and they're like, "never heard of him."
robb: Law enforcement were trying to vet everything
to see if this is an accurate account of what happened.
And to make sure crystal wasn't herself involved.
Dan: Dj said crystal killed her.
[♪♪]
[sighs]
they're all monsters.
[♪♪]
narrator: The search for tera lewandowski
takes a frightening turn
when one of her housemates
crystal griffin comes forward claiming
tera was brutally murdered in her own bedroom.
Robb: Crystal said they decided
to get revenge on tera
for some sort of sleight towards their gang.
Ben: She told us that she didn't remember exactly
where tera's body was even though she had gone on the ride
to get rid of tera's body.
Narrator: Crystal story is detailed and chilling.
Yet, detectives have questions about her credibility,
since she's a potential suspect herself.
Police bring everyone known to hang around
the house in for questioning,
including karly hanchett,
mike vassil,
and chad iler.
Robb: Karly refused to talk to police
and said she didn't know anything.
Mike also said he doesn't know anything.
Ben: And they all denied any involvement
or any knowledge of where tera would be.
Narrator: The town board member dj meyer
has a very different story.
He claims that everything his girlfriend
crystal has told police is a lie.
Dan: Dj said that crystal killed her.
He was nowhere around,
when he got home crystal rolled tera
in his carpet,
and was trying to carry her out to the truck.
Narrator: Detectives have their work cut out for them.
They're looking at conflicting stories
about what happened to tera
without any solid evidence
that a murder has even taken place.
With nothing to hold their suspects on,
the investigators must let them walk free
while they keep digging.
Ben: After the interview with crystal,
we were able to get enough probable cause
to conduct a search warrant out at mike's house
where karly hanchett and mike vassil
were living with his father, tom vassil.
Narrator: The detectives want to check out something else
crystal claimed in her interview,
that the gang burned tera's belongings
at the vassil house after they killed her.
Ben: Tom vassil was older,
uh, had a lot of health issues.
Every time that I talked to him,
he was compliant he was cooperative.
At his house, we did find a burn pit
and we found the evidence there
that someone had burned some of tera's belongings.
We found pieces of her ipad in that burn pit.
Narrator: It seems to support crystal's version of events,
but without a body,
detectives still lack enough solid evidence
to take anyone into custody for tera's murder.
Dan: But with what we knew from crystal
and the burn pit evidence,
we had enough reason to get their phones,
which was huge.
The phones from mike, chad, karly, and dj
were submitted to the crime lab
to get cell tower dumps.
Narrator: Could the cell phone data
lead detectives to tera's body?
While they wait for the tech report,
the detectives bring crystal in for another interview.
They want to either definitely prove her story
or catch her in a lie.
Crystal throws a new name into the mix,
expanding the group she says killed tera lewandowski.
Ben: Scott hanchett was karly's brother.
He had decided to come from rapid city, south dakota
down to colorado to see her.
Sarah: Crystal said that scott was the one
who gave the final blow that killed tera.
Narrator: After that, crystal claims
the killers drove tera's body to wyoming
and buried her somewhere in the woods.
Dan: Uh, we needed to get dj's pickup truck
because that's what crystal said the body was moved to wyoming.
Ben: Dj's truck was impounded.
During the search warrant, in the back of the pickup,
they found some luminol hits
indicating blood on one of the floorboards
on the rear of the vehicle.
Dan: Everything was adding up
that this really did happen.
Narrator: Even though they haven't found tera's body,
investigators are confident
they now have enough circumstantial evidence.
They bring murder charges
against everyone connected with the house
that tera once believed held the key to her future.
Vonda: When we got the confirmation from the police
that she was dead
and that they had murdered her,
my first thought was tera misread that one.
And then I felt so sorry
that I hadn't pursued some of that further.
And why those younger kids were there.
Finding out there were so many people involved
was really-- really shocking.
I think that none of them had a had a conscious
to come forward or stop anything from happening.
Narrator: But there's just one problem.
Dan: We're looking for everybody,
but they were gone.
Narrator: A month after tera lewandowski
vanished in colorado,
there's mounting evidence that she was murdered.
There are several suspects,
but detectives discovered
they're all nowhere to be found.
Mike vassil and karly hanchett got married at a courthouse
and then left immediately for their honeymoon in texas.
They knew that we were starting
to put two and two together.
Dan: We had gotten their phones
after their first denial of their first interviews.
Ben: We did call their families
and told them that the phones that they had confiscated
were available for release.
When they came in, they had chad iler with them
and all three of them were taken into custody.
Dan: We had surveillance
on dj and crystal,
so the next day when they drove down to greeley,
I went to dj's grandma's house and arrested them there.
Narrator: U.S. Marshalls tracked down
the remaining murder suspect,
karly's brother, scott,
and arrest him in rapid city, south dakota.
As soon as he's brought back to colorado,
he confesses to everything.
He admitted to actually stabbing tera
along with others in the room.
Dan: Scott says that karly hit her with a bat
and dj stabbed her in the chest area.
Scott said, "she was suffering"
"and so I stabbed her twice in the back,"
"trying to cut her spine,"
"so she wouldn't suffer."
ben: Scott was supposed to kill diablo,
and he said that it was strange to him
after having just stabbed tera,
but he was unable to kill the dog.
They just set it free.
Narrator: A few days after the arrest,
the analysis of the suspect's cell phones
finally comes in.
Robb: Cell phone records were very revealing
in this case.
They determined that all of them
shut their cell phones off
at the same time on September 29th
except mike vassil.
Because mike vassil left his cell phone on,
you could see the path they took to dump diablo,
and then they came back,
and took tera to wyoming.
Narrator: But the phone data cannot provide
one crucial piece of information.
Where did the band of accused killers bury tera?
Robb: We charged all of them
before having tera's body found.
They were all looking at life sentences
and they begin giving us information,
trying to get a better deal.
[♪♪]
ben: Unfortunately, some of the parties
weren't given the opportunity to take us
to where tera had been buried,
either didn't recall or were taking us
in the complete opposite direction,
which is what dj did on multiple occasions.
But January of 2016,
we have logged hundreds and hundreds of miles
and still did not know
where tera lewandowski's body was.
Vonda: As a mom,
you wanna recover their body.
You wanna know where your child is.
Dead or alive, whatever,
you want to have them back with you.
Dan: Finding tera was like finding
a needle in a haystack, literally.
Next to a hayfield.
Robb: There were couple things consistent
with all their descriptions.
One was a sign that said laramie
and had an arrow pointing to the left.
Ben: We received a list of signs
from the wyoming department of transportation.
The list was approximately 200 long.
I was able to check on the google maps application
and narrowed it down.
Crystal had, uh, described to us
that one lane dirt road,
they took a right-hand turn, and went right
into what appeared to be the side of a mountain.
She told us that she had been able to hear water running,
but not actually see it.
So there was a creek nearby.
[♪♪]
narrator: On a bright April morning,
a small search team armed with maps and satellite photos
descends on the possible location.
They spread out over the wooded area.
It doesn't take long to discover
that their painstaking research
has finally led them to tera's body.
[♪♪]
robb: Tera's body was found
a hundred and eighty-seven days after her murder.
[♪♪]
vonda: There was a fallen tree
and her body was laid by the fallen tree.
And there was a stream running right alongside there.
And wildflowers and it would have been a place
that she felt at peace in.
It helped to-- to tolerate it better,
knowing that she laid there for seven months.
Narrator: The day after police find the body
buried in the wyoming woods,
the medical examiner uses dental records
to confirm that it is tera lewandowski.
The cause of death was determined
by the medical examiner,
would be multiple stab wounds to her spine
and other vital areas of her body.
Scott hanchett described
that they disposed of the murder weapons
in a pond near pierce, colorado
by throwing all the knives used in the murder
as well as the pipe that karly used
to hit tera into this pond.
So they go out in scuba gear
and looked for the murder weapons there.
And they find two knives and the pipe.
And the knives were very similar to the ones seen in the photos
recovered from dj's house.
Narrator: But after months in the water,
no dna is found on any of the weapons.
Now prosecutors must find a way to convince the jury
that this group of seemingly mild-mannered young adults
is actually a murderous gang.
Robb: The 21 group or the unforgiven
was not on law enforcement's radar before.
It was not a real gang under the true meaning of the word.
They were just trying to be their own
little pierce biker gang.
Dan: We had to figure out how this group of people
went from zero to a hundred.
From no criminal history to killing somebody.
[♪♪]
narrator: As prosecutors build their case
against tera lewandowski's accused killers,
they're trying to unravel
how a trusted town board member, dj meyer,
and his young friends became a gang
capable of murder.
Ben: As we did these interviews,
the impression that I got is that the gang members,
they're all lost people that had found each other
and just decided that this is how they're gonna feel tough
and accepted was by having a gang.
Dan: It was all about a disrespect issue
between tera and karly
over loud music of the tv.
Narrator: Committing murder over a seemingly small argument
seems puzzling,
but investigators discovered a key detail
in the gang hierarchy that helps put the pieces together.
Robb: In this fledgling biker gang,
you have mike vassil who was dubbed
kind of the leader of this group.
Ben: We found out that mike
was not doing anything without the okay
from his father, tom vassil.
Dan: Tom was the president,
mike was the vice-president, dj was the enforcer.
Robb: Tom vassil rarely left his house.
He was attached to oxygen,
but he was involved in a biker gang
in the 70s or 80s.
They considered tom vassil kind of the og,
the old gangster, and would see him
for what they thought was advice.
And when tom was told about the squabble
between tera and karly,
tom said, "you got to handle it."
and ultimately gave the command to kill her.
We believed tera had heard the gang downstairs
planning on hurting her, but she didn't know
if they were just talking or not.
Narrator: That's when tera sent the ominous text message
to her mother saying,
"something is going to happen."
but the cry for help came too late.
All of the gang members are offered a plea deal
and all of them take it except town board member
dj meyer,
who decides to take his chances with the jury.
Vonda: When I found out the way they did it
and how they went about it
makes it even worse
that they would plan to kill somebody like this.
They're all monsters.
Narrator: It takes the jury less than an hour
to find dj guilty of first-degree murder.
He is sentenced to life plus 18 years in prison.
Morgan: The shock of actually hearing the words
that he was guilty was...
Like nothing you can imagine.
Justice was served.
Vonda: I have no compassion for dj.
None.
I wanted him to go away.
These people strip the world
of a really beautiful, loving soul.
She'll be greatly missed.
[♪♪]
that's it. Good boy.
Morgan: We have this amazing happy diablo,
and we adore him.
Diablo.
Morgan: You know, he holds a very special place
in our family.
Austin: She can't be here physically,
but she's always in my heart and always beside me.
Vonda: I always try to find
the blessings in bad things, too.
I think it helps me to cope with things.
I know it-- it gives me comfort
that I guarantee the only reason
diablo is alive is tera.
And she was with diablo to keep him safe.
One of the things they said,
it was the last thing tera said
before she passed away was, "don't hurt my puppy,"
which would be the last thing she would say.
[♪♪]