- ♪
- FEMALE REPORTER: Becki Dillard was found dead.
Authorities say this is near where Becki's body was found.
They say she was near her car,
but her injuries were not consistent
with that of a car crash.
- WARREN: The vehicle was still running,
the young lady was laying in the roadway
with a gunshot wound to her head.
- DEBBIE: When Justin drank,
he became a totally different person.
He became angry.
- JUSTIN: Every day, I've gone over what happened,
if I could do anything different.
- RIZWAN: A lot of cases turn on just luck.
And that's what happened in this case.
- CLINTON: Adrenaline was coursing through my veins.
How far behind was I from the killer?
- MALE NARRATOR: Five unique perspectives,
five points of view, one murder.
- JUSTIN: I'm Becki Dillard's husband.
- DEBBIE: I am Becki's mother. - CLINTON: I was
the first responding trooper to the murder of Becki Dillard.
- WARREN: I'm a criminal investigator.
- RIZWAN: I was the prosecuting attorney.
- ♪♪
- ♪
- My name is Justin Dillard.
I'm Becki Dillard's husband.
Becki was like a little bumblebee.
She's ADHD, running around, touching everybody,
making everybody's life happy.
Like a little fairy, just as sweet as she could be.
I loved that she could walk in a room,
and it could be a bad day in that room,
and she'd just turn it all around.
"I'm here, here I am. Smile now, it's okay."
We were doing pretty good,
at that happily ever after fairytale,
kind of what we wanted.
Here--here we are, married down the road and kids.
This is my best friend, my--my wife,
mother of my kids.
Uh, we were supposed to be together,
arguing, bickering over her cooking 20 years from now.
My life literally changed.
All--all--it changed completely in one day.
I have never felt the pain that I felt.
I wouldn't wish this on anybody.
It was Friday the 13th.
I remember thinking,
"Oh, Lord, here we go, what's gonna happen today?"
Becki got home and changed
and was getting ready to go to her sister's party.
It was Sarah's 21st birthday party.
She was already late.
She had to get gas, she had to go back to Walmart,
she was gonna pick something up for Sarah.
I really didn't want to go.
I...changed my mind two or three times
and finally I decided, "You know what?
I'll just-- I'll just stay home."
Well, at 9:30 that night,
her brother had called and said, "Where's Becki?"
"She should be there pretty soon, she left at 9."
Ten o'clock came around and she still wasn't there.
I talked to Sarah that time.
And Sarah said, "Well, she should be here by now."
And I said, "Well, yeah, she--she shou--
she should be there." And she still wasn't.
By the third phone call, I was worried.
And I thought, "Okay. Something ain't right."
At that point, I knew it was not good.
So like, "Okay, we need to go find out where she's at."
So I call my friend, Lindsey,
that was also her friend as well.
I said, "Lindsey, come up here and get me."
So, Lindsey says, "I'm on my way."
And she comes and gets me and we tried to track her down,
and we went where she was supposed to be going.
We actually went to the gas station she was going to.
We went the way she was going and...
she wasn't on the side of the road.
Nobody knows where she's at.
And that's-- that's not like her.
We always knew where everybody else was.
We get to the party, and there's some police
that wanna talk to me.
They tell me that I need to come with them.
I didn't think it had anything to do with Becki.
My world was perfect, and... she's not supposed to be hurt,
she's not supposed to be harmed, that never crossed my mind.
When Becki and I met, we hit it off right off the bat.
We became really close, really good friends.
Becki was the new-- was the new girl.
And you know, when somebody's new,
everybody wants to find out about them, what they're doing,
who they are, what's going on, and--
I had a small little crush on her.
Our interests were very similar.
She was into fashion and clothes, and hair
and appearance--and I know that sounds vain--but...
back then we were-- we were still in high school.
We'd call each other and be like,
"Well, what are you gonna wear? I'm gonna wear this."
We were always inseparable, but we were for real together.
We graduated high school in May and, by mid-June,
she moved in with me and my mom.
- ♪
- JUSTIN: I got to the police station.
I sat there, and it seemed like I sat there
forever and ever and ever before anybody even came in,
and--and then this man came in.
They wouldn't tell me anything.
They wanted me to answer all these questions,
but they would not answer any of mine.
And finally, this older gentleman said,
"Well, we found Becki without a pulse."
I'll never forget the pain, the sickness.
It is not something you can describe.
When someone tells you your whole world is not alive,
is gone, is dead, is over.
That blunt.
You don't just do that to somebody.
They questioned me for-- it seemed like hours.
They asked me questions like,
"Do you have weapons? Do you have guns?
"Is there anybody that would harm her?
Would you harm her?"
I watch enough TV to know that they come after
the--the husband or the spouse in--in--in these situations.
I thought, "Well, surely, they're gonna come after me."
- ♪
- I'm Clinton Howell,
I was the first responding trooper
to the murder of Becki Dillard.
I was north of West Plains on 63 Highway
working some traffic that night.
And Troup called me and informed me
of a motor vehicle crash with injuries on FF Highway,
in the southern part of Howell County.
While I was in route, then I was advised that
there may be a fatality involved.
- [siren blaring]
- I come around the corner, and there was a vehicle
sitting on the left-hand side of the road in the grass
still running.
And I could see a-- a young lady laying
near the center line all crumpled up,
and there was a few people standing around.
I jumped out of my car real quick...
and went right to her right off the bat.
I noticed blood on her scalp.
Assessed her real quick, and she was already gone.
There was nothing I could do for her at that point.
This young lady was still very warm,
it wasn't like she'd been laying there very long.
It was an odd scenario because the vehicle didn't have
any damage on it when I rolled up.
And it was upright, sitting off in the grass
like it had been pulled up there.
So, my gut instinct was already going--going wild.
Started looking around.
Located a couple shell casings in the road near her body.
They shined in my patrol car headlights.
Adrenaline was coursing through my veins.
Is there somebody out just 20 feet off the road
in the brush?
Because there's no lighting out there,
and the only way the scene is lit up is
with my patrol car headlights.
I knew that I needed some help real quick.
I immediately keyed up and-- and told Troup to get
DDCC investigators in route.
And as I'm waiting for my investigators
and a backup to show up,
and I'm telling everybody to stay put and not move
because they're actively part of a crime scene.
One of them could be the shooter.
So, I visited with each one of them individually
to try to assess them and their story,
why they were there.
There was no flags from anybody I talked to.
I moved over to her vehicle, making sure not to touch it.
Looked in it through the glass.
I could shine my flashlight in there;
I could see that the heater was on,
and it was sitting there idling.
Her purse was still there in the vehicle,
it didn't appear to be disturbed.
It was like, in the same spot where she had set it,
over in the passenger side.
When people break in and steal vehicles,
of course they usually dump them or scatter stuff.
Robbery was not a motive with this victim.
When entry was made into the vehicle,
it was made by Warren Wiedemann, our DDCC investigator.
He looked in her purse;
of course there was a driver's license.
It was easy to make positive identification right there.
Her name was Becki Dillard, from the West Plains area.
The early assumption is that she was traveling
to an undisclosed location-- we didn't know--
and for some reason she got flagged down
and she exited her vehicle to get out and talk to them,
and they shot her right there in the middle of the road.
She would not stop in the middle of the night
for a stranger, in the middle of nowhere
on this old back road.
It was blatantly obvious it was somebody that she knew
and she felt comfortable with.
Everything was intact, none of her clothing was ripped.
There was no signs of no struggle, ah,
so, all the obvious indicators are it was a hit.
And it was our job to find out why...
and get that person.
If there's a fatality involved,
then I have to notify next of kin and contact family,
and we never do that by the phone.
We always do it in person.
Throughout our conversations with some of our local contacts
and people, we were able to determine that Becki
had a husband and his name was Justin Dillard.
Of course, we don't rule out anybody at that early stage.
Everybody is a suspect at that point.
And we needed to interview him.
We developed information that Becki's husband was at a party
on a county road west of West Plains.
So, me and a deputy rolled on to that location.
- ♪
- CLINTON: We tell him that we have, you know,
some bad news for him.
Uh, he's distraught.
Very, very, very dramatic.
Some initial observations that made some flags go off
from--from a--just an investigation standpoint.
He's a young male married to a beautiful young woman
with two beautiful kids,
and he's wearing, uh, pink cowboy boots,
a pink shirt, and has makeup on.
And that may not be a flag in a metro area,
but in rural Howell County, that's a huge flag.
We had to figure out, was there, you know,
extra marital affairs going on?
Was there domestic violence?
We placed him in a patrol car,
headed towards the sheriff's office as quickly
and safely as possible.
At that point, it was time for me to step back out.
When I left the sheriff's office that night,
he was one of the suspects, definitely, in my mind.
I just couldn't-- couldn't shake it.
- ♪
- I am Debbie Talbert, Becki's mother.
Around 2 o'clock that night, the phone rang.
I got up and answer it.
And it was Becki's father, Benny.
He was crying, which is unusual for Benny,
and he said, "Something has happened to Becki,
and you need to come to the police station right now."
- ♪
- DEBBIE: We got there to the police station.
Charlie, who was Sarah's husband at the time,
grabbed me and sat me down...
and told me that Becki was gone.
Before I even had a chance to racket that particular time,
Justin comes running in the room,
and grabs me by the head
and said, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, Becki's dead,"
and started crying.
I immediately, instead of crying, got angry,
because I knew that he had done something.
I wasn't surprised when Becki told me
that she was seeing Justin.
I thought he was a little feminine then,
but he seemed to be a really nice boy,
and they hit it off pretty good.
Justin would listen to Becki,
and he knew exactly what to say to her.
He was a more softer person, more gentle.
When Becki found out she was pregnant,
she had a good support system on both sides.
Both Becki and Justin wanted to go to cosmetology school.
Justin's mom, Debra, took care of Koby
while they went to school,
and they were getting along really good,
living in Debra's house.
- ♪
- DEBBIE: When they were going to school,
Justin started to drink a little bit more.
I don't exactly know why.
Maybe he was more scared of actually raising Koby
and providing for Koby as a father.
He was falling down on his duties as a provider
for the family.
And a lot of times he missed school because he overdrank
the night before.
It was causing a rift in their relationship.
She didn't want to live in that house forever.
She wanted her own house just like every person does.
Becki was hoping that once they had saved up enough money,
they could get a place of their own
and they could actually make a go of being a happy family.
Well, after Koby was about three and a half years old,
Becki became pregnant again.
She had asked Justin to stop drinking
because she wanted to have another child.
So, he did for a while,
and then after she became pregnant again...
he started drinking again.
When Justin drank, he became a totally different person.
He became angry at everything and everyone.
I begged her to please come and stay with us,
but she wouldn't do it.
Becki did have some hope that they would be able
to be together and make a happy family,
but in my heart, I didn't see that happening.
So, she started taking some of her check and hiding it.
So that she would have some money eventually
to get an apartment or a down payment on a home.
She was trying to move out of the house with Justin
and get out from underneath the chaos
that was in the Dillard home.
- ♪
- DEBBIE: Whenever someone is murdered,
you usually look to the spouse first.
On that particular night,
Justin did show up at-- at Sarah's party
at a particular time, and he was yelling,
and crying out, "Where's Becki? Where's Becki?"
And they didn't know what was going on.
He was crying, "Oh, she's in a ditch somewhere dead."
My whole family knew that Justin was involved
in some way.
They just had to prove it.
- ♪
- DEBBIE: Whoever was in the truck following Becki
had stopped her on the highway.
There was a vehicle that came from the opposite direction.
And they saw both vehicles stopped there.
- DEBBIE: It was a big break in the case for the detectives
because had not someone remembered seeing that truck
on the road, they probably never would have
been pointed in the right direction.
- ♪
- My name is Warren Wiedemann
with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
I'm a criminal investigator,
and I assisted in the investigation
in the homicide of Becki Dillard.
- ♪
- WARREN: When I advised Justin of his Miranda Rights,
he became extremely emotional,
to the point of almost being hysterical.
It was obvious that he was under the influence of something.
We weren't really getting a whole lot out of him.
He was leaning forward and just rocking
side to side and crying.
He just didn't seem that concerned to help us.
He was more worried about his own emotions
than he was trying to figure out what happened to his wife.
We didn't have enough to take him into custody,
but we still felt it was very possible that he was involved
in, uh, this death.
- WARREN: Lieutenant Gary Lamb and I began to interview
numerous people that had been at the party.
Dean Ellis's name came up quite a bit.
We find out that Dean Ellis was actually Justin's father,
who had had nothing to do with Justin for about 15 years.
And, uh, it was my understanding that Dean Ellis was having
some heart problems and had decided he wanted to basically
reconnect with his family and get to know his son.
So, Dean Ellis, just a short time before this,
had actually moved back into Debra Dillard's residence
with Debra Dillard and her current boyfriend,
and Becki Dillard and her husband, Justin.
So it's a little unusual having your father living
with your mother and your mother's boyfriend
all in the same residence.
We'd gone back to the residence to photograph vehicles,
to check for any firearms and--and other weapons
at the residence.
And then when Dean was there, uh, as he came out, you know,
I asked if he'd be willing to talk to me.
He was--older man, did not seem very healthy,
did not get around real well.
It just did not appear that he was involved,
he didn't have the--the ability to leave the residence.
He was--was pretty open with discussing, you know,
the coming and goings at the house,
of--of Becki getting home from work,
of Debra Dillard going to run errands,
about what time people got home.
It did stand out to me when he told me
that Billy Eastep had been sleeping all evening
through all of this.
Billy Eastep's name had come up during the investigation,
that was Debra Dillard's boyfriend and lived with her.
I specifically asked him,
"How do you know that he was sleeping?"
And that's when he pointed out that--
that that's what Debra Dillard had told him to tell us.
Now it seemed unusual that Debra Dillard is providing
alibis for Billy Eastep.
That was definitely a red flag.
Our initial interview with Billy,
basically we were just trying to kind of go through
the timeline of the previous day.
It seemed like he was trying to distance himself
from everything and just say he was asleep and knew nothing.
Uh, I felt like he was holding information back.
Between Debra Dillard, Justin Dillard,
and Billy Eastep, we're really narrowing it down,
but we're not sure if it's all of them, one of them.
So, we're still looking for more physical evidence.
About five days later, uh, a witness comes forward,
and that was a big turning point in this investigation.
And that was Tyler Bean.
Tyler Bean was driving on Highway FF that night
with his girlfriend.
There was a vehicle sitting facing northbound
with the headlights on, and when he went by,
Tyler described that as this black Ford Explorer,
and he said behind it was a--a Chevrolet pickup.
- WARREN: That was absolutely a huge moment.
Not only that somebody had drove by and saw this,
but somebody who knew vehicles well
and could not only just say that he saw two vehicles,
he described them and was able to pick those vehicles out.
He actually looked at photo lineups of vehicles
and picked out the vehicle that Becki Dillard was driving,
and Billy Eastep's truck.
We absolutely wanted to bring back Billy for an interview,
and basically either confirm through a polygraph
that he was the one that did this, or to help clear him.
The questions would be very direct of whether
he caused the death of Becki Dillard.
Or whether he knew for sure who did cause that death.
Billy Eastep showed deceptions
indicated during that examination.
But, uh, in the post-test interview interrogation,
he did not admit to having shot Becki
or even being present when she was shot.
He stuck to his story and continued to deny it
until eventually he wanted to leave,
and so he was allowed to leave.
We didn't have enough at that point to charge him.
His girlfriend, Debra Dillard, is requested,
and she voluntarily comes to the highway patrol headquarters.
She is driven there by Billy Eastep,
in his vehicle with the white door.
Debra Dillard comes in for her polygraph.
And she also fails.
After somebody fails a polygraph examination,
in the post-test interrogation, it's a very direct accusation.
Because now you know that they either did it,
or they know for sure who did it.
And so you--you go after them.
During the interrogation, she admits that
she has lied to us and that she knows
who killed Becki Dillard.
And she's saying that Billy Eastep is the one
that did it.
She said he threw the gun into a lake,
and that the gun is gone.
So of course, with Billy Eastep also being present,
officers immediately got a hold of him,
began to talk to him also.
They're letting him know that she is telling the truth,
and she is blaming him and that he's the one that did it.
And at that point, he admits that he was there
and he has lied to us.
But he says that Debra Dillard was the one
that pulled the trigger.
- ♪
- My name is Rizwan Ahad
and I was the prosecuting attorney in this case.
I received a phone call from law enforcement officers
that they had asked Billy Eastep to come
to the Highway Patrol to discuss his, uh, involvement.
When I arrived, he'd been speaking to law enforcement
for probably about 30, 45 minutes.
When Billy Eastep was confronted with Debra Dillard's statement,
I just remember the-- the surprised look on his face.
Almost like he knew he'd been caught.
At the time that Billy Eastep was arrested,
we knew that Debra had knowledge of, uh, the murder,
but we didn't know her involvement.
When he made that statement,
that he was present at the shooting,
in my mind, Debra became a stronger person of interest.
During the investigation, we determined that Debra Dillard
and Becki Dillard had a tumultuous relationship, uh,
that there was--there was a lot of animosity
between the two of them.
There were a lot of disagreements, uh,
mostly over Justin, but there were other things.
We learned that, uh, Becki may have been
thinking about leaving Justin,
and Debra was very concerned that
if Becki were to take the children,
that she may not have any more contact with them.
Billy Eastep, in his explanation,
he stated to us that Debra Dillard and Becki
had an argument.
That Becki was wanting to go to the party
and that Debra wanted her to stay so that Justin
could get ready and go with them.
But Becki had left.
According to Billy Eastep,
he didn't know exactly what was going on.
Debra told him to get into the vehicle
and they followed her.
They caught up to her, at which point Billy says
Debra Dillard started flashing her lights.
Becki pulled over.
- [muffled gunshot]
- At that point, Becki went down.
And Billy saw Debra walk up to Becki
and shoot her a second time.
- [muffled gunshot]
- RIZWAN: It would have been enough to charge her,
but it wouldn't have been enough, I believe,
at that point to take her to trial and convict her.
We found more evidence later on.
What happened was, the longer Billy stayed in jail,
the more, uh, Debra was becoming a little more guilt-ridden.
She started, uh, discussing with individuals that Billy
was being railroaded, that he had nothing to do with it.
We received information that Debra Dillard
had written a several-page letter.
Law enforcement officers then went to Debra Dillard's house,
where they discovered she was laying in bed with a gun
next to her,
and this, uh, letter that she had written.
She's confessed in that letter that she was the one who shot
Becki Dillard that night on that highway.
According to the officers, she was very distraught.
They stated to me she looked suicidal at that point.
The Sheriff himself, I believe, removed the gun from her.
It was loaded.
- She said that she cared about Billy so much that she figured
that she was going to write this letter
admitting to this, uh, and then killing herself
so that Billy could be released.
She then said that she decided that she wasn't going to do it,
but it was too late, because she had already
sent out these letters.
- At that point, we weren't 100% sure she was confessing
to the crime or she was trying to get Billy out of it.
- We only have one shot to convict a person,
otherwise double jeopardy attaches
and we would not be able to try her again.
- RIZWAN: A lot of cases turn on just luck,
uh, and that's what happened in this case.
Now, West Plains is a pretty small town,
and one day the sheriff of Howell County,
uh, Mike Shannon, happened to be, uh,
getting a cup of coffee at the convenience store.
The cashier made a statement to him that Debra Dillard
had once stated to her that, uh,
she was going to kill Becki Dillard,
but that she received a reprieve
because she was pregnant with a child,
and that she was gonna wait a year.
And oddly enough, almost to the day a year later,
Becki Dillard was murdered.
When we received that information, uh,
we felt like we had enough evidence to charge Debra Dillard
with the murder of Becki Dillard.
- ♪
- CLINTON: I've dealt with other scenarios with in-laws
and family members and everything, but never--
nothing so violent, so cold-blooded.
They're just acting like a concerned grandparent
and her boyfriend, and the whole time,
they're the ones that done it.
- JUSTIN: Every day for ten years,
I have gone over what happened.
I don't feel that my mother had anything to do with it
the way that everybody is saying she did.
- RIZWAN: Our, um, theory behind the case
was that Debra Dillard just wanted Becki
out of the way.
She was making Justin's life miserable,
that Debra had had enough.
- WARREN: She wanted those children,
and the only way that she saw she was gonna keep them
is by getting rid of Becki.
Because Justin, there's no way that he would ever get custody
with his alcohol problems.
- CLINTON: Becki's gonna get the babies,
she's gonna get child support,
and then she's gonna go on with her life.
- DEBBIE: Debra knew that once those children left,
that Becki's mom and the rest of her family
was not gonna let those children go back.
- RIZWAN: We believed that was the motivation
that pushed her over the edge.
That night Becki had, uh, angered Justin,
and we believed Debra had just had enough,
and that she was going to cure the problem.
- DEBBIE: When I walked into the courtroom,
Debra Dillard looked at me,
but I tried to ignore her as much as possible.
I saw the hatred in her eyes.
- WARREN: Deb Dillard felt like she could control things,
like she could make this happen,
and that she could get away with it.
- RIZWAN: The defense focused on Billy Eastep,
stating that Billy was actually the one that did it.
- DEBBIE: She had to put the blame on someone,
so she chose Billy to put him as a scapegoat.
- JUSTIN: He had knew that she had extra money
because it was Christmas.
He robbed her, and so she wouldn't tell on him,
he killed her, and played it off like
nothing had ever even happened.
- RIZWAN: We believed we had enough evidence to prove
Debra Dillard guilty beyond a reasonable doubt without him,
uh, but we wanted him to testify.
We found out when we arrived for trial
is that somebody had hit Billy Eastep,
had given him a black eye, and at that point,
Billy refused to testify.
Debra Dillard also took the stand,
and she testified on her own behalf, um,
and she explained that she and Becki had
a wonderful relationship,
that she was a great daughter-in-law.
- JUSTIN: She wanted me to be with Becki.
She liked Becki.
She still will--will say "my daughter"
when she talks about Becki.
- RIZWAN: The entire focus of her cross-examination
was the letter that she had written.
I went, uh, line by line with her on that,
and actually gave her the opportunity to explain it away,
and she tried, and it was obvious to me
that she was not being truthful.
- Her brother testified against her,
and actually told the whole court that she had conspired
to do this a year before,
when she found out Becki was pregnant.
That she was going to be the one that murdered Becki
because she was bad for her son.
- JUSTIN: If she was gonna kill somebody,
it wouldn't be her children.
It wouldn't be me, it wouldn't be Becki,
it wouldn't be our kids.
It would be somebody that hurt us.
My mother confessed because, if she didn't,
she was afraid that they would come after me and the kids.
- RIZWAN: Whenever a case goes to the jury,
I'm always concerned.
Did they believe the witnesses?
Did they believe Debra's version?
Every prosecutor has that concern, uh,
because, of course, we have to prove a case
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The jury found her guilty.
She broke down, I mean, she basically fell apart.
- DEBBIE: Not until the jury came back and said, "Guilty,"
did she show any kind of emotion.
That just tells me she was guilty
with no remorse whatsoever.
- JUSTIN: She didn't kill anybody.
She wasn't there.
She couldn't have been there.
Whoever killed Becki,
I don't think we will ever know why.
- RIZWAN: In a first-degree murder case in Missouri,
the only sentence in this case would've been
life without parole.
So, when the verdict came down, and the sentencing came down,
I just felt like justice had been served.
- WARREN: We were never able to prove that Justin Dillard
had anything to do with Becki's death.
There is suspicion, but even today,
I couldn't tell you for sure who pulled the trigger.
- JUSTIN: Becki's family has done a very good job
of making me look bad.
I feel like I have been victimized, very much so.
I lost my house, my kids, my wife, my mom.
Ten years and it still hurts just as much.
It's never gonna go away, ever.
- DEBBIE: Whatever Justin did, Debra told him to do.
Whatever Billy did, Debra was in control of that.
She was the more dominant one in that home.
And there was only one person in that home
that wanted to defy her, and that was Becki.
- WARREN: The wolf followed Becki to that roadside spot
where she was killed.
And so, we--we work hard for every victim.
But it's especially difficult when you see somebody that
isn't doing the wrong thing, and bad things come find them.
- JUSTIN: My best friend, my wife,
my--my everything is in the ground.
I pray every day that Heaven's real,
because that's where she's at.
And I know that all I have to do is keep praying
and I'll see her again.
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