[water trickling]
[motors buzzing]
It's July 5th 2015, we are in Leeds, Alabama.
a suburb of Birmingham.
In an area referred to as a playground,
where people tend to go to party and ride their ATVs.
This particular day,
the riders see something that looks out of place.
Something different than anything she's ever seen.
She realizes she's looking at a dead body,
[screams]
And so it begins.
I spent my career closing murder cases.
But I'm not the only one who answered the call.
It takes a rare breed to solve the unsolvable,
to catch a ruthless killer,
to find justice for the dead.
That's what it takes to be an American detective.
[man] Sound speed.
I'm Kevin Palmer.
When I was really, really young, my father was a deputy sheriff.
I remember the star badge that he would have laying on the dresser.
That kind of sparked my interest a little bit as a young kid.
I started in law enforcement in 1997.
And by 2015, I was the lead detective at the Leeds Police Department.
Investigations, for me, has always been the most exciting part.
It's a cat and mouse game.
It's an adrenaline rush.
The evening of July 5th, I was getting ready to go out to dinner with my wife.
-[phone beeps] -Detective Palmer.
I got a call about a burnt body in a pile of debris.
And so I told my wife "This is what I need to do
to help my fellow coworkers."
Because I knew they needed some assistance out there.
[Kenda] It's a constant problem when you're a detective.
Your personal life goes out the window whenever the phone rings.
I would interview people before they came into Homicide
and I would say "Don't ever tell me you're tired.
Don't ever tell me you're hungry.
Don't ever tell me you have to go home and see your wife."
If I thought you needed a wife I would issue you one.
You have to be dedicated and Palmer is dedicated.
The Markeeta Playground is owned by a railroad company, it's private property,
however they didn't really enforce trespassing too much.
Because of the 4th of July weekend,
the playground was not the best location for evidence gathering.
This was an area where people would go out there drinking.
There we broken bottle pieces, and just various trash.
[Kenda] There are tire tracks everywhere.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of expended casings.
People discharge firearms, shooting at bottles and other things.
There is an enormous amount of potential evidence that can be absolutely meaningless.
[Palmer] Myself and the crime scene technician start approaching the pile.
Even before I walked up to the pile
you could just smell that smell. It was a very distinct smell
that really does not smell like anything else.
No one can communicate
the odor of burning flesh.
It has a sickly sweet smell.
Once you've smelled it, you'll never forget it.
[Palmer] What stood out to me on the pile was the frame of a couch.
As I'm seeing this, I can make out that there is a human arm
that is outreached from the pile.
And once we pulled back that furniture piece,
we could tell that there was a human body on this pile of burnt debris.
The facial features are gone, burned away.
I could not determine race, sex, age.
It looked like something you'd see in a horror film.
I have never seen a body that destroyed.
What could possibly have happened that you would do that
to another human being?
Someone put this person here.
Whether or not they killed them was the question.
[Kenda] What if somebody's there,
they take drugs and they die and it's an overdose?
Their friends decide out of panic
"We'll just destroy the body and no one will ever know."
My first assumption was that it was just a drug deal that went bad.
In the Leeds area, most crime revolves around drugs.
It didn't appear there was anything useful at the scene
that would tell me who this was or who was involved.
It weight in the back of my mind "Am I gonna be able to figure out what happened?
The body is then removed and sent to the morgue
for subsequent examination.
Two things happen of significance during the autopsy.
The largest bone in the human body is the femur
that joins the hip to the knee.
The femur was shattered by a large caliber bullet.
An entry-exit gunshot wound, no slug was recovered.
Secondly, another complication.
The autopsy report also indicated
that there was a high level of methamphetamines in his system.
Because of the fire, it was impossible for the coroner to say
whether or not the methamphetamines were at a fatal level.
So, now we have two possibilities, drugs killed him,
or a gunshot wound to the leg killed him.
It doesn't take long to bleed to death.
Humans are fragile. They break easily.
From that point, our goal was to find out,
number one, who this person is.
We must identify him before the investigation can even begin.
We starting putting our heads together thinking about who this could be.
There is a young man that we would deal with from time to time.
There's a local drug dealer and user named Don Whitestone.
[Palmer] It wouldn't be shocking to us if he was our victim.
Maybe a drug transaction had gone bad.
But I discovered that he's actually in the Jefferson County Jail.
on some unrelated charge.
He's alive and well, so it's not him.
A lot of times, what it's gonna be is reaching out,
going through the database to see if there have been any Missing Persons reports
in the past 24, 48, 72 hours,
however long we wanna go back.
[phone rings]
Detective Palmer.
We got a call back from the coroner's office.
The coroner was able to run fingerprints on the victim's hand that was not burnt badly,
and they identified the victim as Anthony Gibson.
He was 20 years old.
Anthony Gibson has been missing for several days.
Who knows Anthony Gibson?
And how does he happen to be in this fire pit?
We have the first piece of this jigsaw puzzle.
Now let's see if we can solve this thing.
On the weekend of July 4th in 2015
a body was found in a pile of burnt debris.
The body was badly damaged,
but we discovered...
it was Anthony Gibson and he was 20 years old.
Anthony Gibson was reported missing three days before
he was discovered in the fire pit.
Last seen driving grandma's car,
a small, white compact car.
So, I reach out to Anthony's grandmother, Caffie.
[people chattering indistinctly]
And so we met at the Huddle House in Chelsea.
So, I'm just gonna ask you a couple questions.
I don't divulge to her right away that I know that Anthony is the victim.
I'm really just trying to get to know Anthony a bit better.
Anthony was born in Panama City, Florida.
Me and Anthony's mom split up when he was nine months old.
Anthony and his dad were best friends. He loved his dad.
Him and his grandmother were really close.
They all lived together,
so he was very tight knit with his family.
[Shawn Dodson] Anthony was a really good person.
He was the type of person that would take the shirt off his back for anybody.
His personality literally would light up a whole room.
His laugh was so contagious.
He had a way of making you feel included
and welcome, and just loved and cared for.
[Lee] Anthony had lots of friends.
He loved to play the guitar.
He learned to play through church and just picked it right up.
He was an inspiration.
[Christopher] Anthony worked with all of us in the family business.
We did vinyl siding, metal roofs, put windows in.
He loved work. Loved making money.
[Johnstone] He wanted to be his own boss,
and the way to do that was to run his own business.
And because he worked full-time.
he took on online schooling to get his degree.
He had a lot of dreams
and all of that was just put to a screeching halt.
Tell me about the night he disappeared.
He had been doing some school work, and I was sitting in the kitchen.
He came in there and told me that he was gonna go to the store
and get something to snack on.
And he never came back.
We're trying to call him, started to get more worried,
because he's never not answered my call.
The family was pretty adamant that he didn't just take off,
that it wasn't his personality.
Something is wrong. Something has happened.
We were putting out that he was missing.
Everybody is sharing it, putting it on Facebook.
They had been searching for Anthony for quite some time with no result.
Did Anthony have any drug issues that you're aware of?
I knew that he had used here and there.
But he paid his bills. He showed up for work every day.
I wasn't really worried about him doing it.
but I didn't want him doing it.
Was he dating anybody?
Anthony was very handsome. I don't remember a time
that he didn't have a girlfriend.
He had this on-again, off-again girlfriend named Jessica.
[Palmer] Typically, when you have a murder investigation,
if there's a significant other,
that person is gonna be a prime suspect.
[sighs]
At that point, I unfortunately had to tell Ms. Lee
that the body we found in Leeds is her grandson, Anthony.
It's just very heartbreaking.
I just felt like I needed to scream.
But at the same time, I needed to get on the phone
and I needed to call Shane and tell him to come to the Huddle House.
I got there and I lost it.
Just hit the ground crying.
I lost a piece of me.
I mean, only way I really know how to explain it.
Worst feeling I ever had.
I was sick to my stomach. I remember we all just sat outside and held each other.
It was awful.
It was literally one of the worst times in my entire life.
I've never... It was terrible. [sighs]
Palmer knows that Jessica could be the key
to unlocking the mystery of the death of Anthony Gibson.
I decide to meet Jessica while she's at work.
She was working for a local fast food restaurant.
When was the last time you spoke with Anthony?
[Jessica] The night he disappeared.
Jessica and Anthony were gonna meet at a Walmart parking lot.
[Jessica] Right across the street from my job.
On that night, July 2nd, she got her break.
And Anthony never shows.
She's just very confused.
She said she waited and then she went back to work.
[Kenda] Palmer checks with her manager at the fast food place.
Jessica is not at the playground burning Anthony Gibson's body.
She's at work where she's supposed to be.
So we're back to the beginning.
Now what?
You put it aside, you forget it,
it's gone.
Okay, this didn't work. Let's find something that is going to work.
So Palmer decides to request Anthony's cell phone records,
including his text messages.
But he knows it will take some time to retrieve.
So, he reaches back out to Anthony's grandmother.
[Palmer] I call Anthony's grandmother, Ms. Caffie Lee.
I ask her about Anthony's cell phone records,
because she actually is the owner of the cell phone.
We could see the last call that Anthony had had on the phone.
[Palmer] I start doing some phone calls, reverse searches of it.
And what's remarkable to me is that the phone number comes back
to a young man that I know very well.
[Kenda] The last number he called was none other than a charming Don Whitestone,
Palmer's nemesis who he knows is a drug dealer.
But Whitestone's in jail. You can't have your phone in jail.
Who's got Whitestone's phone?
I decided to call the phone number.
-[phone ringing] -[woman] Hello?
The person on the other end of the line is a female.
[Kenda] She says her name is Candie Zito.
Hello, Candie Zito.
Why do you have Whitestone's phone?
"Well, we're boyfriend and girlfriend
and when he went to jail, he gave me the phone."
Did you by any chance happen to talk to Anthony Gibson
-the other night? -[Zito] Anthony?
Candie tells me that she does know Anthony,
that they had dated sometime in the past,
but that she has not spoken to him in quite some time.
[Candie] I'm sorry, sir. I wish I could help you, but I gotta go.
[Palmer] She seems to be trying to get me off the phone quick.
And I don't really get the impression that she's being very truthful.
Palmer thinks "What if Palmer makes that call to score some drugs
expecting to encounter Mr. Whitestone
and instead he encounters Candie Zito?"
Maybe?
Palmer, like all good detectives has informants he develops over time.
[phone ringing]
He reaches out to his most trusted informant.
After doing some digging,
[phone ringing]
...the informant calls and says "I've got a scoop on your dead guy, Anthony Gibson."
Oh, pray tell.
He's telling me that there are two individuals who could be involved
with Anthony's death.
Word on the street is that they aren't too happy with Anthony Gibson.
Oh, really?
Why might that be?
Let's find out.
He believes that there are two individuals that can be involved
with Anthony Gibson's death.
Jerry Lepinsky and his buddy, Jesse Clemons.
Well, he said Jerry and Anthony Gibson
were dating the same woman. Who's that?
Well, it's Candie Zito.
That's a familiar name.
The same Candie Zito that's been dating Palmer's drug dealer nemesis
Don Whitestone, she's been a busy girl.
What if Candie Zito's getting slapped around by her boyfriend
and she calls Anthony Gibson for help?
Is that a reason to kill. Sure it is.
Affairs of the heart can be a very powerful motive.
Is it for Jerry Lepinsky and his associate, Jesse Clemons?
That is the question.
[Palmer] I start looking into the two of them.
and I find that they're no stranger to the criminal justice system.
They are serious players.
They have extensive criminal histories and are currently wanted on warrant.
[Palmer] Being that they're felony warrants,
I was able to reach out to the US Marshal task force,
and put locates on both the subjects.
Upon the discovery that he and Candie might have had some involvement together,
there was speculation that Candie might know where I could find this guy.
There's all this activity rotating around Candie Zito.
How is she connected to this?
[phone ringing]
[Zito on phone] Hello?
-Hi, Candie, it's Detective Palmer again. -Yeah?
I'm basically trying to convince her to come talk to me at the office.
And she's telling me "I have nothing to tell you."
"I don't know anything about this.
Stop calling me."
And she says "This is the sound of me throwing the phone out the window."
Hello?
Candie, hello?
Well, Candie, it seems like we touched a nerve. Didn't we?
This is that moment that a detective looks forward to.
That "Ah-ha" moment of like "I think I've got something here."
She's up to her neck in this, somehow, or some way.
Palmer can feel it in his bones.
Everything else kind of went to the back burner.
Really my focus began strictly on Candie Zito.
Who is this woman?
[Palmer] So Candie is a young white female.
Her parents live in the Chelsea, Alabama, area.
Candie grew up in a very wealthy family.
She didn't want for anything.
She had been married previously
and she had a daughter.
And at the time that we were friends,
she was a good mom.
But we went separate ways.
Candie was doin' drugs, doin' whatever she wanted.
She's 31 years old
and has a daughter that was taken away from her
because of her behavior.
[Palmer] We're looking at Facebook posts.
Pretty much what we were gathering
is that Candie was flamboyant.
She was kind of this larger-than-life kind of personality.
So I decide to actually go to her house in Chelsea
hoping that she might be there.
[siren chirps]
So we pull up to the house
and we're met with Candie's brother,
pressure-washing the driveway area.
Detective Palmer, Leeds PD.
Are your parents home?
Nah.
It turns out that Dad is a government contractor
and he's living in the Middle East with his wife.
Candie's brother was just there
to touch up the house for the family.
What about your sister, Candie?
He hasn't seen her in quite some time,
and he kind of gives me the backstory
that Candie's not allowed inside the house
because Candie's had issues with Mom and Dad.
Candie's family had pretty much...
washed their hands clean of Candie.
[Palmer] As I'm walking around the property,
I'm just taking pictures of the house.
Then, one of the things I noticed, there was a tent...
set up in the backyard.
And what we're believing at this point
is that Candie might have been staying in this tent.
[Joe] She's 31 years old
and she's living in a tent
in the backyard of her parents' home.
Excuse me?
He was gonna tell his sister,
"Hey, the detectives came by here.
They wanna talk to you."
So Candie's whereabouts are currently unknown.
When Palmer returns to the office...
he finally receives the detailed records
of Anthony Gibson's cell phone to include text messages.
[Palmer] What we discover is
there was a communication between Anthony and Candie
through text message.
Candie's telling Anthony that she doesn't have money,
she's broke, starving, she's hasn't eaten in days.
And so she's really putting a guilt trip
on Anthony at this point.
[Joe] But that's not all.
Palmer also finds pictures of Candie
in various stages of undress
and promises of sexual activity with Anthony.
[Palmer] The text messages revealed
that Candie was a very manipulative person.
So he agrees to bring her food to her tent in the backyard.
So now we know, based on the text conversation,
that she was in communication with Anthony
on the night of his disappearance.
Candy is sweet,
but not this one.
This candy is contact poison.
So Anthony Gibson is murdered...
after Candie Zito asked him to bring her food,
which he agrees to do.
Most likely, that was Anthony's last act of kindness
on this earth.
[Palmer] What stood out to me about Candie
was the fact that she lied to us
during the investigation initially.
[Joe] Candie had told Palmer
she hadn't talked to Anthony Gibson in years.
But, in reality, she contacted him
and sent naked pictures of herself to him on July 2nd...
a matter of days, not years.
Days.
The issue is we needed to find Candie Zito.
And since this girl doesn't have anything,
including a cell phone,
she's probably in Anthony Gibson's car.
[Palmer] When I was speaking to Anthony's grandmother, Caffie,
she was able to tell that on the back of the car
was a bumper sticker.
[Joe] "My child shines at Oliver Elementary."
So Palmer, in his instincts, notes the bumper sticker.
[Palmer] And we put a be-on-the-lookout, a BOLO,
for that vehicle.
Put it out in the media.
I want the news to broadcast...
[indistinct communications announcement]
...what the tag number is,
what the description of the vehicle is.
I'm looking to get as much attention to Candie as I can.
Candie was all over every news outlet.
When they put the picture out as the person of interest,
I think people were like, "Well, who's this lady?"
[phone ringing]
[Joe] Palmer then gets a phone call.
No kidding.
A taxpayer says, "Hey, I was at a Fourth of July party
and Candie Zito was there,
driving this little white car."
"Really?"
The person says,
"The thing I thought that was odd about it
is it didn't have a license plate on it."
She's removed the plate
so it doesn't hit as a stolen car.
She is now panicked
and she's on the run.
But even when it seems like there's nowhere to go,
Palmer is a quintessential detective.
He pushes when there's nowhere to push.
He looks where there's nothing to see.
[Palmer] At some point, I'm reviewing my photographs
I took at Candie Zito's parents' house.
And when I'm reviewing it...
I see what appears to be coagulated blood
where the grass and the concrete meet
from the driveway.
[Joe] Palmer thinks back to the moment...
when they went to the house to find her.
What's her brother doing?
He's power-washing the driveway.
Why are you doing that?
[sirens wailing]
So he sends the crime lab and says,
"See if you can find traces of human blood
on the driveway."
You can power-wash blood all you want.
But blood is like water.
It seeks the line of least resistance.
There are cracks in the asphalt, seams in the cement,
all kinds of places where blood will collect.
They discover evidence of human blood.
Not dog blood,
not deer blood.
Human blood.
Well, my, my, my.
I'm thinking we probably know where the murder started.
[phone ringing]
So, the next day, we get a tip
from Daviess County, Indiana...
that Candie may be in the area.
What we discover is that she actually has a grandmother
that lives in Indiana.
The grandmother called and said,
"My granddaughter tried to come here.
There was a guy with her."
And she wouldn't let them in.
And so my ask of them was,
"Hey, if you guys spot them,
please give me a call as soon as possible."
[Joe] So they put the word out to the troops.
It doesn't take long.
One of the patrol deputies sees the car...
[indistinct police radio chatter]
...recognizes the bumper sticker.
[siren chirps]
He turns on his overhead lights.
And the moment he turns those light on...
[tires squealing]
[siren wailing]
...now we have a pursuit.
You wonder what's going through someone's mind
when they run.
'Cause what do they think? Are they gonna get away?
Come on.
[siren wailing]
Tires overheat at high speed,
particularly in a small car.
And when a tire fails at 100 mph,
you're not gonna control it unless you're a NASCAR driver.
If you think this is going to end well,
you're sorely mistaken, my dear.
[siren wailing]
Candie Zito has been spotted in Indiana.
There is no escape.
The Indiana deputy pursues the car...
[tires screeching]
[loud crash]
...until the driver loses control
and impacts an oak tree,
completely crushing the car.
The passenger is Candie Zito,
grievously injured.
The driver is near death.
They were both transported to the hospital.
[Joe] Candie Zito suffered a fractured jaw
in multiple places,
while the male is in a coma, listed in critical condition.
But who is he?
They discover the driver is Corey Zito.
He is a cousin to Candie Zito.
He's 26 years old from Louisiana.
He has an extensive criminal history to include drug abuse.
He's as charming as his cousin.
Ah, the family that commits crime together,
stays together.
I know in my heart
that Candie Zito was involved.
The question was "Who is Corey?
And how is he involved?"
So we sent a tow truck
all the way to Indiana to pick up the car.
And what we discovered is there's an actual
what appears to be a bullet hole
in the driver's side door.
They also discover...
blood in the trunk,
which they believe belongs to the victim,
Anthony Gibson.
Finding the blood makes one believe
that he probably bled to death in the trunk of his own car.
So, we get a search warrant for Candie's phone
and we discover a lot of photographs...
of her and her cousin Corey
holding what appears to be an AK-47 style rifle.
[Joe] High-velocity,
perfectly capable of going through a femur.
But the gun is not in the car.
They most likely disposed of it
somewhere between Alabama and Indiana.
Further, there is a picture of Corey and Candie Zito, cousins,
in a loving embrace.
[Palmer] There was some kissing involved.
It would appear that Candie and Corey
were having a romantic relationship
outside of being cousins.
Pretty weird.
You don't see that. And I lived in West Virginia.
Their family tree
probably looks more like a family circle.
-I don't know, man. -[crew laughing]
So I immediately started my drive to Indiana
to interview Candie.
[Joe] She's as innocent as the driven snow
and how dare you suggest otherwise.
She's probably used to getting her way.
And I can tell in my interview with her
that she was trying to manipulate me.
What she probably didn't realize
is I was also manipulating her.
She's really implying that there may have been
a rape situation that occurred at her house.
She says she sees Anthony go to the ground
and she ran to the backyard and got in the tent.
And that's where she stayed.
Candie is minimizing her own involvement.
"I didn't do anything. I'm a victim.
Anthony is a criminal.
Corey is a hero."
[Palmer] And I'm thinkin', Bonnie and Clyde,
but I know that they were romantically involved
and they were criminals.
I don't know if they were cousins or not.
By putting the pieces together, there was really
no reason for us to believe
that Anthony was the aggressor in this scenario.
[Joe] There are kernels of truth in Candie's statement,
but her version of events
doesn't exactly add up.
[Palmer] At this point in the investigation,
we did not have enough to file a murder charge.
For now, Palmer can hold Candie
for stealing Anthony's grandmother's car.
But if he doesn't get something more concrete,
Candie Zito could walk free.
There's still a lot of loopholes
that need to be tidied up.
Anthony was at her house.
Now the question that really remains
is just "What happened once he got there?"
Sometime later, they let me know
that Corey has now come out of his coma
and he is fully awake.
[Joe] He's still kicking.
Not too high, but he's still kicking.
[Palmer] He looks depleted,
kind of stares off into space.
Ultimately, he doesn't remember any of the details.
[Joe] So he is useless
as a potential witness.
We were kind of feeling that maybe we were hitting a dead end.
[Joe] A few weeks later,
a moment of magic happens.
Palmer gets a phone call.
An inmate in the jail would like to speak to him
regarding her cellmate, Candie Zito.
The true sociopathic reptile rises to the surface.
She doesn't want food. She wants drugs.
So, based on the informants testimony,
we might be able to gain some clarity on what happened
on that fatal night.
-Hey. -Hey!
Candie convinces Anthony Gibson
to bring her something to eat.
[Candie giggles]
Ah, thank you! You're the best.
She says Corey emerges from his hiding place...
[Anthony yelps]
...and the robbery goes south rather quickly.
Did Anthony fight back?
Was Corey scared? Who knows?
Either way, a shot is fired.
[Anthony groaning]
[rifle clicking]
Ultimately, we don't know who fired the shot.
[gunshot]
And a second shot goes through Anthony's leg.
She says they threw him in the trunk of his car.
And Anthony is beating frantically
to get someone's attention.
[thumping from trunk]
[Joe] Candie told the informant,
as they drove around, the beating on the trunk lid
began to slow down.
They take him to the playground.
They investigate.
Anthony is dead.
They soak him in gasoline.
They pile a bunch of stuff on him...
...and they light him up.
Anthony Gibson responded to a plea for help,
and it got him killed because of who was pleading.
A viper, not a human.
[Palmer] At that point,
I was able to get a warrant signed
for Candie and Corey's charges.
So, instead of going to trial,
the State releases plea agreements
with Candie and Corey.
They both plead guilty to murder
and receive 20 years in prison.
Twenty years, that's what they get.
That's crazy.
I really just wish they would drop dead.
They're gonna get out
and they're gonna be right back out on the streets
to cause another family more grief.
'Cause these are monsters.
I think about what was he thinking about
when he was in the trunk? What...
Was he thinkin' about me? What...
Where am I at? I think about all that often.
You know, I keep him with me. I got his ashes in an urn.
Like, a necklace urn.
Anthony had the most beautiful soul
of anyone I've ever met in my entire life.
He had a lot of life to live.
And know that he would've lived it
to the very fullest.
I just...
hate that he'll never get that opportunity.
[Caffie] He was very special to us.
And he got took away.
Candie didn't have the right to do that.
[Palmer] Anthony is 20 years old
and he's trusting this girl that he's known for some time.
And he had no idea what to anticipate.
Candie and Corey Zito offer an example
of what the sociopathic personality is capable of.
"You're my friend.
Until I don't need you anymore.
And then you're nothing.
And if you have to die, well, then you do."
A frightening concept indeed.
On the next American Detective...
This is a body floating in the Black River.
If you are out of control, angry, and jealous,
what are you capable of?
Just about anything...
including murder.