- In season 8, "snapped" told the story
Of tausha fields morton,
Whose husband mitchell kemp suddenly vanished in 2004
Under mysterious circumstances.
- His family hadn't heard from him
The last two or three weeks.
- We knew for sure
Something was wrong.
- After the disappearance goes cold,
A homicide case is opened four years later.
- Mitchell kemp's family members always believed
That tausha had something to do
With his disappearance.
- Now serving a life sentence
In the missouri department of corrections,
Tausha sits down for a rare interview
To give her side of the story
And point the finger at her ex-husband, greg morton.
- I should be punished for my part.
But I didn't know that this was gonna happen.
He very methodically and calculatedly
Planned that whole day,
But it was all on me.
- While tausha blames greg for mitchell's fate,
Many close to the case believe she was the mastermind.
- Tausha could get a man to do anything she wanted,
And eventually she pitted two of them
Against one another,
And it ended in murder.
- When you know somebody has the capability
Of shooting somebody six times,
You could be next, or you could just go with the flow.
- She still has this fear of him
Because he's a dangerous individual.
- I was made out to be this horrible monster.
♪♪
- My name is tausha fields,
And I've decided to do this interview
Because it is my turn to tell my story.
I've stayed quiet for a long time.
Just imagine your life being told,
You've sat there quietly,
And it's so far from accurate.
It's just frustrating.
The truth is just the truth at this point.
It's my truth, and I'm just ready to--
For everybody to know.
- I find tausha to be that person
Who's still holding back.
She hasn't taken the journey to go deeply inside herself,
To understand what has happened to her.
She needs to forgive herself at some point
And she needs to forgive other people.
She still blames everybody else for her plight.
Plain and simple, tausha was caught,
And it's difficult to believe any of her stories now.
- I've been incarcerated since 2009.
My life has been everyday prison life
And trying to fight for my freedom.
I don't deserve to be here still.
Greg killed mitch.
I didn't know that was gonna happen.
Mitch didn't deserve to die.
I was made out to be this horrible monster
And that's just exactly what it is.
- August 2004.
In boone county, missouri,
The family of 39-year-old mitchell kemp
Becomes concerned when they realize
He hasn't been home in weeks.
- His mother called me,
And I said "well, he hasn't called or anything."
- Mitch would call my mom, uh, about once a week.
I mean, it was like clockwork.
We knew something was wrong.
We called the boone county sheriff's office
About two weeks afterwards probably,
Telling them that mitch had disappeared.
- Born in fulton, missouri in 1964,
Mitchell wayne kemp grew up in a tight-knit family.
- We had a good time as kids, a real good time.
Uh, even as we were growing up into adult life
We became real close friends,
And were always around each other.
- Mitch got married, uh, when he was young,
And they had two children.
- After 15 years together,
Mitchell and his first wife separated.
The 37-year-old quickly found solace
In the arms of 26-year-old tausha fields.
- It wasn't long after he got divorced
That he met tausha.
Uh, I would say within months.
I could see him definitely having an interest in her.
She was a younger girl and-and very good-looking.
- I grew up in miami, oklahoma.
I finished high school,
And I left home and never went back.
I moved around a lot. Um...
I don't really get connected to people.
I'm here today and I'm gone tomorrow,
And I've been that way my whole life.
When I first met mitch,
He's a super, super funny person.
Mitch was the life of the party.
Everybody loved mitch.
- After a whirlwind romance,
Tausha found out she was pregnant
And moved in with mitchell in 2002.
- Tausha and mitch were both very happy people.
They were fun.
And they seemed like to be a very happy couple,
They were together a lot.
- The couple tied the knot in August,
Nearly a year after the birth of their daughter, lexie.
- Mitch loved lexie to the best of his ability.
I'm just going to be honest.
We had no business having a baby.
We had no business being in a relationship.
But it's what we tried.
- By the end of 2003,
Mitchell's work was taking him away from home more often,
Leaving tausha alone with the baby.
- I owned a fitness center at the time in town.
Mitch worked a lot,
So she started coming up to the fitness center
And bringing her daughter with her.
She did tell me that she couldn't stand him anymore,
She didn't love him anymore.
She wanted to divorce him.
- But on February 8th, 2004,
Instead of filing for divorce,
Tausha filed assault charges against mitch.
- He blacked my eye, and when he hit me,
Lexie fell out of my arms and hit the doorframe.
- There was an incident of domestic assault between them.
He ultimately pled to that.
Um, a misdemeanor I believe.
- Mitch is a really scary person,
But I'm not trying to portray myself
As, um, like poor tausha,
Because I don't want anybody to think that.
I'm just here to tell you what it is.
- Mitchell served over a month in jail,
After which he and tausha became embroiled
In a heated custody dispute.
- Mitch needed a place to stay
So I said, "well, come on."
He lived with me for about four months.
Tausha would call,
And he'd pace back and forth through the house,
You know, one end to the other,
Raising hell basically.
- She was getting a lawyer and child support enforcement
And all this other stuff.
You know, tausha was just going after him with everything.
- If he had to go through the court system
To do it, he would do it,
But that he was gonna get to see his daughter.
- But after being out of jail for only four months,
Mitchell's family reports him missing.
Investigators in boone county inform his family
Of several open warrants against him.
- In August of 2004,
They were investigating mitch for
Possibly having stolen some items
From some friends of his.
- They kinda told the family,
You know, he's probably not wanting to be found.
- They took a missing person's report,
But the case just went cold quite frankly,
Because they didn't do anything about it.
We didn't hear from him again.
- By February of 2008,
Three and half years since mitchell's disappearance,
Tausha had moved on with her life.
She relocated to marianna, florida
With her five-year-old daughter
And was dating a man named dewayne barrentine.
However, her new relationship would only last eight months.
- He ultimately found out
That she was possibly cheating on him.
- He had access to her myspace account,
Because he knew the password.
And so, dewayne gets on her myspace account,
Basically to mess with her.
- I found two or three emails, and they were from
Mitchell wayne kemp's sister-in-law.
And they said, "we haven't heard from you guys
In over four years.
If we don't hear from you, we are going to the media
And contacting law enforcement," is what it said.
- The kemp family knew in their gut
That something had happened to mitch
And so they-they just weren't going to let it go.
- Immediately, I changed the password on the account
To where she couldn't access it,
And I printed off all those emails.
And I called the chief of police.
He said that he would check into it,
And he would let me know.
He called me that night, and he said,
"dewayne, this guy had been missing for four years."
- When dewayne reaches out
To one of tausha's ex-boyfriends named keith,
He makes a startling discovery.
- I said, "what do you know about tausha?"
He said, "well, I know she was involved
In the murder of one of her exes."
Everything just made sense.
This is the missing husband.
- Coming up...
Investigators confront tausha fields.
- Did I make all the right choices that day?
No.
I was scared to death.
I didn't know what to do.
- In boone county, missouri,
Mitchell kemp has been missing
For nearly four years
When tausha field's ex-boyfriend, dewayne,
Claims to have new details about his alleged murder.
- It all started because mitch was missing,
And his family obviously was concerned.
How things really got rolling back here in missouri
Was through dewayne barrentine.
- When investigators in missouri make contact with dewayne,
He tells them he doesn't know where tausha is...
But after speaking with tausha's ex, keith,
Dewayne realizes he knows less about
The woman who shared his home than he ever thought.
- He told me that she had been married five times.
He said, "I know one of her exes...
Greg morton."
I said, "she didn't tell me she was married
To a greg morton."
I said, "what else do you know about her?"
He said, "well, I know she was involved
In the murder of one of her exes."
I said, "where would this supposably happen?"
He was like, "I don't know."
He said, "but the man probably didn't deserve
What happened to him."
- After taking dewayne's statement,
Boone county investigators decide it's time to revisit
Mitchell kemp's missing person's case from 2004.
- There was no receipts,
No activity with bank statements, phone, nothing.
And so, it was really obvious that,
That something bad had happened to mitchell kemp.
- Investigators sit down with mitchell's brother,
Who quickly shares his own suspicions about tausha.
- Right before mitch had come up missing
Was when I heard the story
That hey, mitch told tausha,
"I'm going to get my daughter,"
And, uh, I think that was a threat to her.
And that's what may have started a lot of it quite frankly.
- Mitchell kemp's family members
Always believed that tausha had something to do
With his disappearance.
- Investigators learn that only a year into their marriage,
Tausha had begun an affair
With a local electric lineman named greg morton.
- I met greg at a super, just bad time.
Uh...
Lexie was about six to eight months old.
I worked at steak and shake and at a gym.
Um, that is where I met greg.
He's older than me,
And he seems so together, you know.
- Greg grew up in missouri.
He was an all-american boy,
And all of his friends said he was a nice person
And if they ever needed anything,
He was someone they could depend on.
He was just a nice guy.
- She would continually tell greg
What a terrible person mitch was.
That, uh, mitch was threatening her,
Bothering her, interfering with her life.
- Tausha was saying they were getting divorced,
And she was having him served.
- While mitchell was serving time for assault,
Tausha had packed up and moved in
With greg on his farm.
- Greg had inherited, uh, from his stepfather
A, uh, farm, a very nice farm.
- His property was kind of his pride and joy.
- It was very surprising when tausha moved in,
'cause it happened really fast.
- And on August 12th, 2004,
Tausha kemp became tausha morton.
- She married greg.
They went to arkansas and got married,
But she was still legally married to mitch.
So, she was married to two men at the same time.
- So, greg and tausha returned to missouri,
And mitchell continued fighting for custody of his daughter.
- It wasn't long after mitchell kemp suddenly vanished
That tausha and greg sold the farm
And left the state for gulf shores, alabama.
- That's what was really jarring
To anyone that knew greg.
They couldn't believe that he moved.
He seemed like the kind of guy
That would want a nice piece of property
And to sell it and leave was really shocking to people.
- Investigators subpoena the mortons' bank records
And discover the couple lived lavishly
Off the profits from the 2005 sale of the farm.
- Tausha got breast augmentation.
Greg had a-a big tattoo on his back of her.
They're just buying boats and trucks
And just spending the money
Until they-- there was no money to spend.
- When investigators pull municipal records,
They determine that greg morton filed for divorce
In the summer of 2006.
- Authorities determined that this was around the time
That tausha began dating keith, and then dewayne.
- She always had to have a man.
Always someone to take care of her.
Money was very important to her,
So she was drawn to anyone that had a little bit of money.
- Then, on may 20th, 2008,
Boone county investigators decide it's time
To talk to tausha.
They track her down in dothan, alabama
Where she's currently living with a new boyfriend.
- It was scary. But I didn't know what to do.
I didn't know I could just leave.
I didn't know that.
I've never been in trouble in my life.
- Investigators waste little time confronting tausha
About mitchell kemp's disappearance.
- Detectives are frustrated with tausha's denials.
So, they turn the tables against her,
Playing tausha's victim card,
Empathizing with her as a loving mother
And as a victim of all the men in her life.
- They played it like,
"tausha, we know more about greg than you're telling us.
So, we know what greg's capable of and so do you."
For five hours, that's what I listened to.
And, um, it was crazy.
- On may 20th, 2008,
Tausha morton finally admits to boone county investigators
That she knows what happened
To her ex-husband mitchell kemp.
- She's talking. She continues to talk.
The story is evolving.
At first, it's, you know,
"I don't know what you're talking about",
And then it's "now I've got some more information."
- Tausha tells investigators that late on the evening
Of August 24th, 2004,
She got an angry phone call from mitchell.
- Tausha says after she hung up the phone,
Greg left the house, and she went to bed.
- She finally admitted in the interrogation
That-that greg shot him.
And she talked about a hole being dug.
- The way she described greg was he was a psychopath.
She never took any ownership
In-in her part of any of this.
Everything was put on greg.
- According to tausha, mitchell's body is buried
On greg's old farm.
She agrees to travel back to missouri
And lead investigators to his grave.
- She came voluntarily,
And we actually paid for a plane ticket
For her to-to come up here.
We took her down to the property
And she, uh, very generally,
Uh, indicated that the gravesite
Was over in one particular area.
- It was, "I don't know, maybe he's over here.
Maybe he's over here." and they would walk around,
And she would-she would,
You know, kind of remember certain spots.
- We used ground-penetrating radar,
We used cadaver dogs,
Um, just a number of methods.
But they turned out not to be clandestine graves at all.
- We really want a body
If we're going to, you know, file murder charges.
- Without a body, tausha is allowed
To return home to alabama,
While investigators confront greg morton
Back in missouri.
- After tausha moved on from greg,
Greg came back to st. Louis.
He was I think doing a trade school,
Working in a trade.
I believe had a new girlfriend.
We had an old burglary that we had found
That he had been involved in with the stealing of some guns.
And so, they had arrested him for that.
- We tried to interview him about mitch's death,
And he invoked his right to an attorney
And didn't want to speak to us about it.
- Refusing to give up, investigators return
To alabama one month later to interview tausha
For a second time.
- They played it like, "you're safe, tausha.
"rest assured, you're safe."
- She told investigators she'd go back
And help them to locate the body again.
But she had lied so much and lied all her life
That she began to believe her own lies.
So, she probably was gonna continuously try
To lead detectives in a different way,
Believing that she was smarter than them.
But her time was running out.
- On August 9th, 2008,
Tausha returns to the farm with investigators.
- She gets there. She showed us.
They dug it up. There we go.
She was playing us for quite a while.
She knew the whole time where the body was.
- Coming up...
Tausha's story changes again.
- I watched him murder somebody.
I know what you're capable of, you know?
I thought it was over.
My life had gotten, like, super normal, you know?
And, uh...
It came crashing down pretty quick.
♪♪
- Four years after mitchell kemp went missing,
Boone county investigators have identified the location
Of his body with the help of his ex-wife tausha morton.
- It took the second attempt when we came back
Before she actually identified where the body was.
- He was face down.
We found several spent shell casings there
In the grave pit with the body.
Cell phone was in his pocket.
- As soon as we got the dna results back,
Then, in fact, it was mitch.
I think it was at the end of August,
We filed charges against greg.
- He was not surprised when we did arrest him.
- We didn't file charges against tausha morton
Even though we had probable cause
To arrest her for murder.
I mean, she was interviewed so many times
And there was just a progression of lies you know from,
"I don't know anything about mitch",
All the way to, "yeah, I saw him shot."
- The plan was to let greg sit in jail with tausha out
And see if that would motivate greg
To wanna cooperate with us.
- After nearly four months behind bars,
Greg still refuses to talk.
Investigators decide to charge tausha
With first degree murder anyway.
- Her charge was based upon their theory
That tausha lured mitch out to the house.
- Being arrested, it never crossed my mind.
I thought it was over.
It wasn't over.
My life had gotten like super normal, you know?
And, uh...
It came crashing down pretty quick.
- She was shocked.
I-I really think she thought
She had manipulated the system.
She'd helped just enough,
You know, because we wanted the body.
So, she gave us that,
And so I think she thought she was good.
At this point, I had gotten indication
From greg's attorney milt harper
That greg really wanted to sit down
And give his side of what happened
In this thing.
Greg came in, within five minutes
Of sitting down going through the pleasantries and stuff,
"I shot that man."
I wasn't expecting that, to be honest with you.
I kind of expected tausha shot him.
But he never did that.
- Investigators switch gears and bring tausha in
For one more interview.
- Investigators aren't letting up on tausha,
And her story, slowly but surely,
Begins to shift again.
- Tausha admits that after spending the afternoon
With mitchell on August 24th, 2004,
She drove him out to the farm.
- As I turned in my driveway that day,
Mitch was in my passenger seat.
Greg called my cell phone and said,
"hey, what are you doing?"
And I said, "I'm at walmart checking out.
"let me call you back."
I didn't know he was sitting in the house watching me
Come up the driveway.
So, we pull up, and we were laughing hysterically.
I got out, he got out.
Greg was waiting.
- I think greg assumed for sure that mitch and I
Had something going on.
But mitch was my friend.
When I saw greg shoot him six times...
Time stopped.
The world stopped, and it was in slow motion.
It was a matter of minutes,
But it seemed like a long time.
When greg buried mitch, um...
It was surreal.
Like, um...
He was really dead.
There's no comeback from that.
And I'm by myself still with greg,
In the middle of nowhere.
When you know somebody has the capability
Of shooting somebody six times,
You could be next,
Or you could just go with the flow.
- She couldn't tell the truth to save her life.
Her story changed over and over again.
I believe that she felt like she was good.
That she had manipulated everyone,
Like she is the master manipulator
And that she had this story,
And she had the detective eating out of the palm of her hand,
And she was good to go.
And that she was being helpful,
And so she gives us what we want, she--
She's clear.
- I stood to gain nothing,
Nothing at all,
By mitch being out of the picture, nothing.
They charged me with first degree murder
And armed criminal action.
- Without greg talking, investigators fear
They don't have enough evidence
To make a first degree murder charge stick.
- Tausha was a flight risk.
She lived a nomadic life, hopping from man to man,
And she had disappeared before.
Investigators knew she would do it again.
Especially, with the risk of prison time.
It was now or never.
Greg morton needed to roll on tausha.
♪ - in December of 2008, four years after
The disappearance of mitchell kemp,
Boone county investigators have arrested his ex-wife,
Tausha morton, in connection with his murder.
- Being arrested was surreal.
It never crossed my mind.
I didn't live in fear of it coming.
I don't think the reality of it sets in
For a very long time.
- In order to get a first degree murder conviction
Against tausha, prosecutors know they'll need greg morton
To implicate her.
And in June of 2009, after nearly a year in jail,
Greg agrees to testify against tausha in exchange
For a plea deal.
- His attorney reaches out and says,
"okay, greg wants to talk."
He never denied that he shot mitch kemp.
He never denied, um, any of, of that,
But what he gave us was how he was manipulated
And talked into doing that.
- On June 21st, 2010,
Nearly six years after mitchell kemp's murder,
Tausha morton's trial begins in the boone county courthouse.
- In trial they talked about mitch was gonna
Take lexie away from me, which was crazy.
Um, the last time mitch saw lexie
Was on her first birthday.
I was her mom, and I was a good mom.
And nobody was taking lexie away from me.
Um, they used lexie in my trial as a pawn.
- To drive their point home,
Prosecutors call greg morton to the stand.
- They dressed him up.
They put like these little round glasses on him
And put like these too big of clothes on him,
So you couldn't tell, like, he was big and buff.
And he acts so passive and meek.
They coached him, and it's fair to say coached,
Because it's exactly what transpired.
- Greg claims that tausha had given him no other option
Than to kill mitchell kemp.
- She had told greg that mitch had raped her,
Molested lexie.
- There was never any evidence of this.
Tausha's a pathological liar.
She's lied all her life and that's what she knows.
- She started laying that groundwork that,
"mitch is bad, mitch is doing these things.
"we can never be happy.
"we can never move on from this.
"we got to get rid of mitch.
"we got to get rid of mitch."
- Greg testifies that tausha told him
Exactly when she would be bringing mitchell to the farm.
- Greg morton's testimony was genuine,
He was authentic, and he, you know,
Was asked at one time even by the defense attorney to--
In front of the kemp family, to pose and stand
How he was with the gun, and he did it.
Greg put one more in his heart to finish him off.
And he had to say that in front of mitch's family,
And I think that was tough.
It was pretty shocking testimony,
Especially for the jury.
Because, uh, it, takes a lot for someone to relive
And give up how they killed somebody.
And he really had no emotion.
He wasn't sorry he did it at all.
Greg took an innocent man's life for no reason.
But couldn't just tell the truth.
You shot mitch because you wanted to shoot mitch.
You laid in wait and planned.
- Coming up,
With no physical evidence connecting tausha to the murder,
Prosecutors face an uphill battle.
He sat on this stand and told a story
That I don't know where he got it.
You wanted to make sure you messed my life up as well.
And you did.
♪♪ - in boone county, missouri,
Greg morton has testified that his ex wife tausha morton
Was the mastermind behind mitchell kemp's murder.
- All roads lead to this was her idea,
This was her plan.
I thought no way could somebody not see
That this is exactly what happened.
- Somebody that shot somebody six times
Became a saint,
And sat on this stand and told a story
That I don't know where he got it.
It's just that simple.
- On cross, tausha's defense team
Disputes all of greg's claims.
The defense attorney tried to discredit him
By saying he just made a deal,
He made this all up to help himself,
That tausha was just the innocent, ah, bystander
And that greg had conceived the whole thing all by himself.
- The defense was trying to make her the victim.
- The defense rests without calling tausha to the stand.
- I wasn't really asked during my trial
If I really wanted to talk,
Because they said I come across too blunt.
- On June 29th,
The jury takes only seven hours to deliberate.
- I think she thought she was going to walk,
I really do.
I think she thought she could just get off of this
By lying and manipulating people.
- The justice system failed me.
Very much so.
I'm being held accountable for greg morton's actions.
Way more than himself.
- On August 16th, 2010, the judge sentences tausha.
- I was sentenced to life without parole.
Plus, twenty years for armed criminal action.
I just feel like I should be punished for my part.
But I didn't know that this was gonna happen.
He very methodically and calculatedly...
Planned that whole day,
But it was all on me.
Greg's evil.
There was no emotion or feeling
And absolutely no remorse.
You wanted to make sure you messed my life up as well.
And you did.
- Even though he's behind bars and she's behind bars,
She still has this fear of him,
Because he's a dangerous individual.
- I've been incarcerated since 2009.
Life in prison is very lonely.
Um...
Some days are better than others.
I've changed a lot.
I know who I am.
I don't think I ever knew before.
And my whole life,
Not just my crime, my whole life,
I've just accepted it for what it is.
I'm not perfect.
I got a bunch of scars, but I'm okay.
I like tausha today.
I don't want to be tausha,
The girl that was in prison for murder.
I don't want to be her.
I just want to be tausha.
And, uh, that's all.
- She will never tell the full story.
There's always gonna be some secret part within her.
That's the way that she's lived life.
And so, at some point it may come out,
But there are certain things that tausha's gonna take
To her grave with her.