narrator: Two young real estate agents
are executed in their suburban office.
- It was a brutal scene.
I can't think what they were thinking before this happened.
- They had their hopes, their dreams.
Before dinner, they're dead.
narrator: But who would commit such a brutal crime
in broad daylight?
[police sirens wailing]
- But we had a still photograph.
The individual was trying to hide his face.
You could tell it was a white person in a black vehicle.
narrator: And just as detectives
identify a suspect...
- The co-worker of his recognized him and said,
"I think this could be our person."
narrator: He disappears.
- He calls me and says that they saw a big white guy
running through the backyard.
He's on the run.
narrator: As the team embarks on a cross-country manhunt,
they race to catch him before he strikes again.
- If some poor innocent person gets hurt
or some cop gets shot, it's gonna be on me.
We gotta get him.
[dramatic music]
* *
[sirens wailing]
[upbeat music]
* *
narrator: In 2003, the Empire City of the South
was expanding in all directions
as Fortune 500 companies
make Atlanta the home of their headquarters.
- Atlanta was really booming.
The housing market was going up.
Lots of new homes were being built.
- It was a successful time
and a prosperous time in Atlanta.
narrator: The prosperity also spreads
to the more distant areas of the metro-Atlanta area--
in particular, the idyllic suburb of Powder Springs.
- In 2003, the area was a little bit rural still.
There was a lot of housing,
new communities popping up everywhere.
narrator: But on November 3, 2003,
a 911 call comes in that turns the American dream
of buying a home into a brutal nightmare.
- And I can remember it like it was yesterday.
And I heard the radio traffic.
Precinct 5 had been dispatched
pursuant to the 911 call--
two deceased females in a house.
[dramatic music]
narrator: The crime scene is an office inside a model home.
- The location of this scene was in a newer development,
which is why they had the model home
and were showing this home as an example
of what you could get in that neighborhood.
narrator: Detective Eddie Herman and his team
make their way to the high-end development.
- There was this adrenaline rush.
I always had the passion.
It didn't make any difference what I was dealing with.
I was gonna be headfirst into it.
I was all in.
narrator: Herman learns the two victims were
discovered by a builder that worked in the subdivision.
- The builder identified the victims as Cynthia Williams.
She was 33.
And Lori Brown was 21 years of age.
And I entered with the crime scene tech.
And I saw a female, nude, laying in front of the desk.
And she had on black leg stockings.
But she was nude other than that.
Turned out to be Lori Brown.
- She's shot once in the head.
It's almost like a kill shot.
- If you step to the side and look behind the desk
was victim Cyndi Williams.
And she was nude, except for stockings, slumped forward.
- Cyndi was found shoved under her desk
and also had been strangled in some way,
'cause there was a ligature around her neck.
And the ligature was actually a pair of underwear.
And she had two gunshot wounds, but they're really in the back.
So what that tells us is, she was shot from behind.
[gunshots]
- I remember the sense that we were just dealing
with a matter of a few hours.
It was no more, in my opinion--
no more than four hours that they had been murdered.
- So when you see a female naked with underwear off
and around their neck, you look at that a little more closely
because there is some suggestion of a sexual assault
in all of that.
narrator: Investigators know if there was a sexual assault,
the autopsy may reveal DNA evidence.
- It was a brutal scene.
I mean, it was almost inhumane.
You can't think what they were thinking
before this happened.
Just a desperate, cowardly act.
narrator: The team scours the scene for ballistics.
- We didn't find any shell casings.
Obviously, the killer-- or killers--
took time to pick up the shell casings.
narrator: Detectives will have to wait for autopsy results
to recover any bullets and determine
the make of the weapon.
The forensics team brushes for fingerprints
and swabs for DNA.
They come up empty.
But some markings on a nearby desk pique their interest.
- It appeared to the police that there were some markings
that someone noticed on some of the paper in the area
where it wasn't actual writing, but it was the indentations
from where someone had written some numbers.
narrator: Unsure of what the numbers mean,
the CSI team collects the mysterious clue.
Detective Herman tries to make sense of this puzzling scene.
- The first thing I noticed was a drink in a Wendy's sack
with some food in it and a pocket book on a desk.
There were no wallets in the pocket books.
There was no IDs, bank cards.
I thought the fact that Lori Brown
still had jewelry on, that was taking us away
from some type of theft or robbery.
You got a lot of things you're thinking about.
Are we dealing with some type of hired hit?
Or is this domestic related?
If it's domestic related, why do we have two victims?
- We had had a few double homicides before this.
Most of the others were domestic related
or something of that nature,
but this one was a true whodunit.
narrator: As they wrap up the crime scene,
the team starts investigating those closest to the victims--
family and significant others.
- Murders usually occur between people who know each other--
a husband and wife, or coworkers.
It's uncommon, I would say, for a stranger
to murder two women just out of the blue.
narrator: But first, they have to break
the devastating news to Cyndi and Lori's families.
They start by speaking with Lori's mother.
- He said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you,
but your daughter is dead."
And I'm like--
I'm like, "You are crazy."
I said, "I just left that kid an hour and a half ago."
I said, "Let's get in the car, we'll go over there,
and I'll show you you're wrong."
This is not happening.
And he said, her partner, Cyndi Williams, is dead also.
[somber music]
* *
Lori was always outgoing,
always forceful, very matter of fact.
And she was caring.
- She drew you in.
She had this infectious personality
that everyone wanted to know-- what did Lori have to say?
Why was Lori always smiling?
Lori went straight into real estate out of high school.
She was doing something with her life.
And she was waiting till she gotmarried
to go live with her fiancé, soon-to-be husband.
narrator: Investigators then contact
Cyndi Williams' husband.
- He kept telling us this isn't true.
You're looking at him, and he's crying.
You're trying to convince him
that his wife has been murdered.
And he's just-- he didn't believe it.
And that's a gut punch.
It's just truly sad.
I mean, truly sad.
- Cyndi was a little bit older than Lori,
and she kind of took Lori under her wing.
And they became really good friends.
Cyndi used to be an event planner.
And she was gonna help Lori with her wedding
free of charge.
She had a really good sense of humor, very outgoing,
very statuesque girl.
And she and Lori were very similar.
- In your initial contact with the family,
you're looking for anything that may give you any reason
to think, are they estranged?
Is there a relationship issue?
We didn't have that in this case.
narrator: Detectives checked the alibis
of Cyndi's husband and Lori's fiancé.
Both are confirmed.
- I had all but eliminated any domestic angle or a hired hit
once we got knee deep into the victims' backgrounds.
That didn't fit.
We were standing outside of the crime scene
and we were talking about the case,
and I remember telling the lieutenant, whoever did this,
he's got a history with the area
because it's off the beaten path.
We have to try to find out who did this.
[dramatic music]
* *
I just felt like it was just gonna be a matter of time.
Once he started using those ATMs,
we were gonna get him soon.
- He's a big guy,
and we suspect he may have stolen
one of his coworker's weapons.
And we're also pretty sure he's on parole.
The antennas went up on that one.
[dramatic music]
narrator: Real estate agents Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown
were murdered in their office in broad daylight
in the idyllic Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs.
- They had their hopes, their dreams,
looking forward to their life,
and before dinner, they're dead.
We do all homicides wide open, hard as we can go,
but there's a little something extra for a double like that.
* *
- When we were trying to get through those first few hours,
and, um...
I remember Lori Brown's mom took my hand, and she said,
"I can't change what happened, but you can.
You can help. Just please help us."
[clears throat]
It's--it's kind of hard to talk about that.
If I didn't need any drive or desire or heart
or whatever you wanna call it to get after whoever did this,
you take it from that kind of meeting
and it became a passion.
narrator: Detectives have eliminated
the family as suspects.
Now they turn the investigation
to the hours right before the murder.
* *
Lori's mother tells investigators
that she and her daughter worked
for the same real estate company.
A few hours before Lori was murdered,
they attended a company meeting together.
- They announced that day that she was moving up
to a senior sales position.
She was so excited.
And so we leave there, and we go to Wendy's drive-through.
Then we came back home to get her car.
narrator: The two then split off,
each going back to their real estate office.
- It was probably about 10 after 1:00 on that Monday.
That's the last time I saw her.
- When we met with Cyndi's husband, Ted,
we learned that Cyndi Williams had gone home for lunch.
And she had started back around 12:15, 12:30,
to go back to the office.
The time frame we were looking at for what had happened--
Lori Brown's mom, she left her about 1:10.
So we're dealing with a condensed time frame there.
The initial contact could have been 12:45, 12:50
with Cyndi Williams, then at some point,
maybe about 1:15, 1:20 with Lori Brown.
And then in talking with the builder,
he got back to the site about 1:45 p.m.
narrator: With a more precise timeline for the murders,
investigators check phone records in the office
between the hours of 1:10 and 1:45 p.m.
And they get a hit.
- There were two calls from the office phone
to 800 numbers, which turned out to be banks.
And they were most likely for the purpose
of obtaining bank information for the two ladies.
narrator: The victims' wallets
were missing from the crime scene.
But what remained was a series of mysterious numbers
etched into a notepad.
- You can see on this pad
there were two sets of numbers, four digits.
- And they realized what they had on the notepad--
pin numbers, bank numbers.
And they were able to talk to the families to say,
"Hey, don't do anything with the bank accounts
because we're gonna be watching."
narrator: Investigators reach out to both banks
to see if anyone tried to withdraw money
after the victims were killed.
- We were notified by Bank of America security
that both victims' bank accounts had been accessed
at two different banks.
We dispatched two detectives to both banks.
There were receipts on the ground
that fit the time frame.
One of them had said "declined."
And they'd used the card then used it again,
and tried a third time, and it declined there.
narrator: Investigators asked the banks
to tap into their surveillance system
to see if this could be their killer.
- But we had a still photograph.
You could tell that the individual
was trying to hide their face.
You could tell it was a white person
and that it was a black vehicle.
But that was it.
You couldn't really make anything else out.
And it was good information.
I just felt like it was just gonna be a matter of time.
Once they started using those ATMs, we were--
we were gonna get them soon.
narrator: The image is grainy and hard to make out,
but it's their first real look at the killer and their car.
- They needed more information on what kind of car
the suspect was driving, the make and model at minimum,
and perhaps even the year.
narrator: Detectives canvass the neighborhood
where Cyndi and Lori were killed
to see if anyone has seen a large white person
in a black truck.
Luckily, one neighbor provides a crucial tip.
- She had come home from school and was meeting her boyfriend,
and she noticed a black Dodge Durango,
and she noticed a white male walking back,
getting in the Durango, and driving away.
That information at the scene
that we got from the witness was huge
because you don't always get that with eyewitnesses.
We were looking for a black Durango.
I was sure that was our guy.
[dramatic music]
narrator: Investigators are working around the clock
to identify a suspect in the killing
of two young real estate agents
in the quiet Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs.
After obtaining a surveillance photo of the suspect
and his vehicle, police are now frantically searching
the Atlanta area for the killer's car,
a black Dodge Durango.
As the news spreads in the community,
so, too, does a sense of fear and dread.
- Model home where the two sales reps were murdered
remains surrounded by crime scene tape,
a vivid reminder-- the killer or killers
remains on the loose.
- It was very shocking, and the community was on edge.
We would get a few calls to the DA's office.
Is anything solved yet?
- And they think this person's at large.
And they could do this again, you know?
People were very cautious.
- There was a BOLO placed out on the Durango,
and it was a fairly popular machine and color at the time.
They got a lot of returns off of that,
most of which were meaningless.
But you don't know until you search everyone down.
narrator: While police search for the black Dodge Durango,
the team gets word that the results
are in from the autopsies.
- When the victims were found, they were both nude.
And Cyndi had a ligature.
There is some suggestion of a sexual assault in all that,
but we didn't find any evidence of seminal fluid.
narrator: With no DNA from the perpetrator
found on either victim,
investigators turn to the ballistics evidence.
- We had at least three gunshot wounds in the two victims.
We had a fractured projectile
that was in the coagulated blood at Lori Brown's head.
The firearms examiner-- they jumped right on it
and told us within hours
we're looking for a 9-millimeter.
narrator: Armed with the descriptions of the killer's
weapon and vehicle, detectives re-canvass the neighborhood.
- Area residents said that they saw a black Durango
in the days and as far back as a week before
driving in the area.
It's very possible that it was him driving around,
checking the office out.
narrator: Investigators wonder if it's possible the killer
was stalking the housing development.
Herman then speaks with a real estate agent whose office
sits across the street from the murder scene,
who says she had an unsettling encounter
an hour before the murderers.
- A man in a black Durango came into her office
and asked where the other two realtors were.
Supposedly, he was looking for them specifically.
- He had told her that he had checked
the office at Morrison Homes, and that
there wasn't anybody there.
- He was looking to buy a home,
and the lot number was managed by the women
in the Morrison Homes office.
He asked why these women weren't there
and when they would be back.
He then left the real estate agent alone
because she wasn't who he had come for.
- And then he went back out and sat in the Durango
and waited for them.
narrator: Based on the witness's account,
it becomes clear to detectives
that this killer had targeted these two specific women.
- She seemed to be the best witness
out of everybody we had who had a look at the killer.
And we had her come in with the forensic artist
and do a drawing of who
the individual was that had came in.
narrator: With the description of a possible suspect in hand,
detectives cross-check with the victims' families
for a possible ID.
They come up empty.
So investigators disseminate the drawing to local media.
- Placing a name to the face will be difficult.
It looks like solving this case will take time.
- They're confident that they're gonna solve the case,
but it is--you know, it's a troubling case,
and it's a baffling one at this point.
- What we had out there was a large, balding white male,
early 30s, 6-foot-plus, 200-plus,
driving a black--a nice, clean, black Dodge Durango.
The phones started blowing up.
I mean, we were getting a lot of leads and a lot of tips.
And so we were trying to sift through them and prioritize.
narrator: Within hours of releasing the sketch,
one caller insists he knows the man in the picture.
He tells police he's the man's boss,
and he's known him for over a year.
- We got a call from 911 that they had
an individual on the phone by the name of Ben Lindsey.
And he was a supervisor on a job site.
He said he got an individual that works for me
whose behavior has been bizarre.
He made some comments, "Well, I guess the cops
are gonna be looking for me."
- He says he's a big guy,
and we suspect he may have stolen
one of his coworker's weapons.
And we're also pretty sure he's on parole.
The antennas went up on that one.
We're like, that sounds like somebody that
we would need to look at really close.
narrator: Detective Herman asks the tipster
what he remembers from the day of the murders.
- He said, "I can tell you he was not at work on Monday."
So we had a name--
Stacey Humphreys.
narrator: And then Humphreys' boss delivers
a crucial piece of information that blows the case wide open.
- He says he's driving a black Dodge Durango.
This could be our killer.
* *
- All thoughts were that he was on the run
with a murder weapon.
And that's dangerous for everybody in the community.
- I remember sitting in the office,
getting the maps out, and plotting the path.
Which way would he go? We gotta get him.
[sirens wailing]
[dramatic music]
narrator: A brutal double murder
has paralyzed the Powder Springs community with fear.
After releasing a composite sketch of the suspect
to the public, calls have been pouring in.
But one tip in particular stands out.
- We had a call from a man that said,
"Look, I've got a guy that works with us
"on a construction site.
"He drives a black Durango.
He looks a lot like this."
He was able to provide a name, Stacey Ian Humphreys.
- We found out that he had come to work
the day after the murders, later in the day,
making comments about, you know, the two women killed,
and that he expected a call from his parole officer.
A coworker out there on the job site
had a Ruger 9-millimeter stolen,
and he had suspected Humphreys was involved.
narrator: A Ruger nine-millimeter,
the same weapon used in the murders.
- When I punched him into our system, he's an ex con.
He's a parolee.
He had previous arrests from a few years earlier
on a subdivision immediately adjacent
to where our crime scene was.
And I did some more digging around on him.
He'd been arrested for carrying a firearm
up at Town Center Mall.
Got into the tag system, found that he owned a Black Durango.
- Humphreys' sister lived
about a mile from the development.
Humphreys had lived with his sister for years.
- We're looking for somebody that's been
in the area and is familiar.
He listed an address at a house
in the Brookstone subdivision,
which is within a mile of where we were at.
So that puts him out here.
narrator: Not only had Humphreys lived nearby,
but detectives find something from his work history
that ties him directly to the subdivision.
- We found out that he had done some contract work
with Morrison Homes.
I remember, I was thinking he's looking good as a suspect.
narrator: But Detective Herman needs more than just a call
from the tip line to make an arrest.
He meets with a real estate agent
that had an encounter with the suspect.
- I met with Ruth Jenny again, had her come in.
And I had prepared a photo lineup,
and I had her view the lineup,
and she was not able to make an identification.
It was sort of a gut punch when she couldn't identify
Humphreys out of the lineup,
because I felt like if she had been able to,
I probably would have moved forward at that time
with an arrest warrant.
narrator: Detective Herman still thinks
Humphreys is a suspect.
But without a positive ID, he can't make an arrest.
- The last thing I wanted to do in this case
was take an arrest warrant
just kind of based on iffy circumstances.
I wanted it to be strong.
I didn't--it had to pass muster, so to speak.
Stacey Humphreys was a convicted parolee.
So I wanted a controlled environment.
I knew he lived with his grandmother.
I wanted to avoid a confrontation there.
I made the decision to reach out
to Stacey Humphreys' parole officer.
So I asked him, can you arrange to have him come back in?
If you can get him in there, we'll be there with you,
and then we can encounter him in that controlled environment.
narrator: The parole officer tells Humphreys
to meet him first thing in the morning.
But that night, Detective Herman makes sure
to keep an eye on his suspect, just in case.
- I had a couple of detectives sitting outside
of his grandmother's house.
narrator: The next morning, Detective Herman waits
at the parole office for Humphreys to show up.
At the same time across town, another detective unit
continues to watch the house where Humphreys lives.
- As they were surveilling the home,
they saw him packing up his car.
The car had been backed into the driveway,
and the trunk of the car was open.
- I got a phone call at the parole officer's office
from Detective Mike O'Connell,
and he was watching Humphreys.
O'Connell said, "It doesn't look like
he's gonna head your way," and I said,
"Well, whatever we do, don't let him--
don't let him leave again."
And Humphreys spotted the unmarked car.
So he started moving and getting some things
out of the Durango.
He went back into the house holding a bag
and closed the garage door.
At that point, O'Connell told me, "So we may have a--
we may have a standoff out here."
narrator: Herman rushes over to Humphreys' house,
determined to avert an armed confrontation.
- We're headed over there, and O'Connell calls me and says
the next-door neighbor saw a big white guy
running through the backyard.
Humphreys had fled the house and took off.
That was a gut punch.
So now he's on the run.
narrator: But despite their efforts to catch up,
he disappears.
Now that he's on the run, Cobb County PD
mobilizes their search teams to track him down.
- Dunwoody looked like it was under siege this morning.
DeKalb County police helicopters
flying low over the rooftops,
search dogs looking for a trace.
- All thoughts were that he was on the run
with a murder weapon,
and that's dangerous for everybody in the community.
- I just remember praying that,
please, don't let him hurt anybody else.
We gotta get him.
narrator: Investigators have finally identified a suspect
in the cold-blooded murders of real estate agents
Lori Brown and Cyndi Williams.
The suspect, 30-year-old Stacey Humphreys,
has an appointment to meet his parole officer.
But instead, he makes a run for it.
- Well, whenever someone like this is loose
in the community, it's a huge danger.
But you can't unring that bell.
Once he's gone, he's gone.
narrator: In the hours after Humphreys' disappearance,
detectives keep tabs on him through his credit card
and bank account activity.
- And we found out that he's at the rental car agency.
He had rented the Jeep Cherokee.
This is all real-time information coming in.
At this point, it was just a matter of tracking him
and getting him in custody.
narrator: The Cobb County Police Department
enlist the help of the U.S. Marshals
to bring their killer in.
Through new technology for 2003,
the marshals keep close tabs on Humphreys' cell phone.
- The phone pinged in Nashville, Tennessee,
in Southern Indiana.
We knew he was going north.
What he was doing was, he was turning it on
and checking his voicemail, and then turning it off.
And when he turned it on, you get the ping.
I remember sitting in the office getting maps out
and plotting a path.
Which way would he go?
- If a person that could potentially face
the death penalty gets into the Canada area,
Canada will not extradite him back to the United States
unless the prosecutor waives the death penalty,
and that was very likely where he was headed.
- We put the lookout out on the Cherokee,
gave it to all the agencies in that area,
proposed path he may drive.
The first 24 hours in a case like this
are always pretty involved and intense,
but from the time he got away,
I think was as intense as I've ever dealt with in my career.
All I could think about was, if some poor innocent person
gets hurt or some cop gets shot,
you know, it's gonna be on me.
narrator: As Humphreys heads north
through Nashville and Southern Indiana,
Cobb County PD and the U.S. Marshals
put out a BOLO to all jurisdictions in its path.
* *
narrator: Just 16 hours after he made a run for it,
Humphreys' rented Jeep is spotted right before daybreak,
outside Milwaukee.
- A sharp-eyed officer in Wisconsin
had just pulled his patrol car off to the side
of the entrance ramp on the interstate
after eating breakfast.
And he pulled up on his computer screen
about a BOLO out of Georgia wanted in this double homicide,
a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
narrator: The officer is a highway patrolman
out of Waukesha County, Wisconsin,
about 660 miles from the Canadian border
and 830 miles from Atlanta.
- The officer said, and I looked.
Here comes a Cherokee that fit the description.
And he pulls out on it.
- By this time, he's got a couple cars helping him,
and the chase is on.
- One of the Wisconsin agencies used stop sticks.
And he went over the stop sticks
that blew the two front tires.
And he was still going a pretty good speed.
narrator: For 35 minutes,
more than half a dozen police vehicles
from different jurisdictions in Wisconsin
continue the chase to capture Humphreys.
* *
narrator: Humphreys finally gives up.
He exits the rented Jeep and is taken into custody.
- There was a huge sense of relief
when I finally talked with a sheriff's captain up there
and said, "We got him. He's in custody.
Nobody's hurt."
That was, like, huge.
narrator: Now with the suspect in custody,
sheriff's deputies search his Jeep.
- In the console of the Jeep Cherokee
was a Ruger 9-millimeter.
There was some blood that was submitted
later on for processing.
narrator: A Ruger 9-millimeter--
the same gun that was used in the killings.
If the blood is a match, Humphreys' connection
to the murder is all but certain.
Detective Herman and his team head north to Wisconsin
to finally confront their suspect.
- That was a haul. That was a legit 12 hours.
You're not tired, even though you haven't slept in a week.
Hey, this is--this is what it's all about.
I'm gonna get a face-to-face with him.
I can remember thinking, you know, for somebody that's
as big as he is and has committed this kind of crime,
I mean, he's just a weakling--
beat down, his shoulders slumped, mumbling his words.
- My methodology has always been just being laid back
and dangling it out there
instead of being confrontational.
He says, "I will talk to you.
I'm not gonna answer a bunch of questions."
- And there's a time to be confrontational.
If I could get him to talk,
it would just strengthen the case.
[dramatic music]
* *
narrator: After a 24-hour, cross-country manhunt
spanning six states, the search for justice
in the double murder of Cyndi Williams
and Lori Brown is one step closer.
The suspected killer, Stacey Humphreys,
has been captured after a 35-minute, high-speed chase.
Detective Eddie Herman
now sits across from his prime suspect.
- He told me--he said, "There's nothing wrong with me.
I don't remember what happened."
- I did not believe that he was having blackouts,
that he was having a loss of memory
when it comes to the crime.
I just kept at him because I wanted to try
to get as much information as we possibly could.
I still was trying to pick out details
which I thought would be important later on
when we went to trial.
- He didn't confess or anything of that nature.
But they were convinced they had their guy.
- To me, he remembered
what went on inside that sales office.
I think he remembered it
like it was as clear-- crystal clear.
He just was not gonna talk about it.
narrator: The interrogation ends
without a confession from Humphreys.
But his connection to the crime and the area is clear.
- This crime was not random.
He had been stalking these women
and chose them for this attack.
Why he killed them?
We'll probably never know.
narrator: Detectives describe what they believe happened
to Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown that afternoon.
- Cyndi Williams gets back, she walks in,
and the shooter then either walks in behind her
or waits a minute.
She's dealing with the killer first.
She's forced to undress, give up her bank information.
- He may have been about to sexually assault her
or was sexually assaulting her when Lori Brown walked in.
- And then when Lori Brown walked in,
his plan wasn't gonna work out.
So then he's got both women.
He executes Cyndi Williams
and then is dealing with Lori Brown.
And after getting her bank information
and making the calls to the banks,
she's then killed also.
narrator: Humphreys is transferred back
to Cobb County to appear in court.
In the meantime, results for the DNA on the 9-millimeter
found in the Jeep come back from the lab.
- The murder weapon had blood on it.
The DNA of that blood matched Lori.
So it was such a crucial piece of evidence.
- He was charged with two counts of felony,
two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder,
and two counts of armed robbery.
narrator: Humphreys appears in court to answer the charges.
He pleads not guilty.
- To this day--
I said it then, I'll say it now--
the type of murder it was, the fact they were executed,
that case screamed for the death penalty.
I just believe in this case that it's necessary,
and that's true justice.
- I felt we had put everything we had
into getting that and justifying a good reason
for the death penalty.
narrator: A change of venue and the intense prep
of a death penalty case delays the trial for four years.
In August of 2007,
the trial finally begins.
- In the beginning of the trial, we sat behind him.
I remember shaking, like, violently inside,
just knowing that he was in the same room.
- Prosecutors present their case against Stacey Humphreys.
- In this case, we're looking at circumstantial evidence.
For instance, the gun that was stolen
from Stacey Humphreys' workplace, he stole it.
It was the gun he used to murder two women.
And the DNA on that gun linked back to the crime scene.
Direct evidence would be when he went to the ATM,
and we actually have pictures from the ATM camera
of him putting in the card and getting money from the ATM.
So to me, that was a very strong case.
narrator: In October 2007, Stacey Humphreys
is found guilty on all counts.
He is sentenced to death.
- Not only do you have to go through the pain and agony
of losing your child, but then you've
got to go through this battle to see this person convicted
of what they had done to your child.
And so there is a lot of pain involved in that.
[somber music]
- I particularly was close with Lori's mom,
and she gave me a big hug and was crying.
And I always wanted the right ending.
I felt like we had the right ending here.
narrator: Stacey Humphreys sits on death row to this day.
While the families wait
for his sentence to be carried out,
they hold the memories of their loved ones
close to their hearts.
- The company created an award
for her and Cyndi in their honor.
And it was called the Shining Star Award.
She was a shining star.
I think about her every day in some manner, some way.
My husband and I talk about it, you know,
a lot of times about some of the crazy things
that she said and did.
And so she'll never be forgotten,
not as long as I live.
* *