(dramatic music)
- I can't even fathom going to school,
Coming back home and seeing my mother dead.
- She had the 50 something stab wounds in her back.
- And bite marks on her arm.
- It had been a long, drawn out battle.
- Everyone was feeling unsafe.
No one could believe in the greater atlanta area
That this gruesome murder had happened.
(dramatic music)
- She was a very loving mother and very caring mother.
- They found out there is another man in nikki's life.
- We couldn't get in contact with him.
- Was it a lover's quarrel?
- It had to be some crime of passion.
- There was written notes that they had given
To each other back and forth.
- We discovered some video surveillance.
- We still had to see why they were lying
And what they were lying about.
- No one could believe that and no one saw that coming.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] 24 miles east of atlanta,
Lies the quaint suburb of conyers,
Known for its majestic homes and small town charm.
- It was a hidden jewel.
Many pastures and farms had turned into subdivisions.
So, middle class and upper class,
Even some atlanta hawks notables, called conyers home.
- We had hosted some of the events for the 1996 olympics,
So we had experienced growth.
- Conyers did not experience a high rate
Of violent crimes like what you would expect
To see in metro atlanta.
It was a very safe area, good schools, quiet community.
- [narrator] however, on January 13th, 2010,
At around 3:00 pm,
This peaceful hamlet is turned upside down,
When something happens that puts conyers on the map
For an entirely different reason.
(police siren wailing)
- That afternoon, it just so happened
That a rockdale county sheriff's deputy
Was serving civil paperwork in the neighborhood,
When a girl ran outside.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] the girl says her name is tasmiyah whitehead.
She explains that she,
Along with her 16-year-old twin sister jasmiyah,
Have just returned home from school.
- She's frantic, clearly distraught,
Seeking his assistance because she's telling them,
"there's blood everywhere.
My mother is dead."
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] the officer meets the second twin,
Jasmiyah, at the door.
He has both sisters wait
Outside while he enters the single story home.
(mysterious music)
- Inside the home,
It was an unimaginably brutal crime scene.
There was blood on the floor.
There was even blood on the couch.
Everywhere he looked, they saw signs
Of a very brutal incident that had taken place.
- He could tell immediately that
There were drag marks on the floor
That leads into the bathroom.
(creepy music)
He then sees a woman
In a pool of blood,
In a bathtub, dead.
(suspenseful music)
I can't imagine what he was feeling
Because this was an incredibly horrific scene.
Blood everywhere.
Two girls find their mother murdered
And you wonder how could something like this happen,
In of all places, in conyers?
- [narrator] police take the twins to headquarters
And a call is put out to their next of kin,
Great-grandmother, della frazier.
The deputy officially alerts the homicide team
To begin investigating the murder
Of 34-year-old jarmecca nikki whitehead.
- When I first walked into the house,
You have to steel yourself because you're looking
At all this blood and gore and a body.
But the smell was overwhelming.
- Nikki was found in the bathtub,
Still wearing a nightgown,
Water in the bathtub
And just covered in blood.
It was uh...
It was horrific.
- She had multiple lacerations on her forearms and hands,
Defensive wounds where she might have been defending off
A bladed attacker.
She had 50 something stab wounds in her back,
With a large concentration around the back of her neck.
- She also had bite marks on her.
Her fingernails,
The fake nails were busted off and removed.
She had blood stuff under her nails.
When the coroner comes in, he inspects the body.
He gives an on-scene opinion about the time
Of death based off the body's temperature and stiffness.
That would've been probably anywhere from seven to 10,
Even 12 hours earlier than when we found her.
And that could have put it into the early morning hours.
- [narrator] the medical examiner estimates
That nikki was likely killed between eight and 10:00 am.
- This was almost like your mind just,
I can't believe this happened to someone.
I feel bad.
I feel horrible, and I'll admit,
I, just from the emotion, I shed a few tears
Just to get it out.
- This was totally unheard of
In the community of conyers,
That a woman had been brutally murdered inside
Of her home and it was absolutely horrifying.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] detectives exit the bathroom
And begin searching the rest of the house for clues.
- You go into the bedroom, you could see
Where her body was drug through the bedroom to the bathtub.
- There was impressions
Of nikki's braids in blood against the wall
- In the living room leading to the the bedroom,
There was a couch, blood all over the pillow,
The red vase that was broken.
I've been in scenes with a lot of blood before,
But this was unlike anything I've seen.
You could smell it, you could even taste it.
- I could see from the crime scene
That it had been a long, drawn out battle.
She had fought for an extended amount of time trying
To get to her room.
At her room, that's where we think
The the fatal blow was struck.
And then from there we believe
That she was dragged to the bathtub.
- But windows weren't broken out.
The doors weren't locked.
So you have to wonder, did she know the perpetrator?
Did she let 'em in?
Did they already have a key?
- However, we did not find a murder weapon.
- And because there was so much blood at the scene,
Police knew there was gonna be forensic evidence
That they could test to find out if it's just nikki's blood,
If it's nikki's blood and her attacker,
If there's more than one attacker.
- We also took an impression of the bite mark on nikki
To be the sent to a a dental odontologist.
- When you see this type of violence against nikki,
You're immediately wondering,
What could have pushed someone to do this?
What led up to this type of violent confrontation?
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] as police wrap up the crime scene,
A crowd begins to gather outside.
Officers decide to canvass nikki's neighborhood in hopes
That a witness or a camera saw something related
To this chilling murder.
- And we got nothing.
Most people in the neighborhood didn't see anything,
But we discovered that there was one
House across the street.
It has some video surveillance of outside their house,
But in this case, it just didn't catch nikki's house.
(dramatic music)
- There was a a lot of pressure to get a lot of things done
With little resources.
We were a small department
And this tasked us
With there was a million things to do at one time.
(dramatic music)
- With the canvass yielding no results,
Detectives returned to headquarters to speak
With their only potential witnesses,
Twin sisters, jasmiyah and tasmiyah whitehead.
While police await the arrival
Of the girl's great-grandmother,
Child protective services remain with the twins
And give police permission to speak to the girls.
- We had the department of family children's services
To act as the guardians for them to see after their welfare.
But when you're doing victim interviews,
You don't need to wait.
You can start talking,
Because if you got a suspect out there,
Time could be of the essence.
At the police station, we had put 'em in a big room
Where they both sat together so we could talk to 'em
And just try to get 'em to let us know what happened.
(dramatic music)
- That's when the twins tell us that they're living not just
With their mother, but also their mother's boyfriend.
- It was a unique open relationship.
- She felt like when the cat is away
The mouse will play.
- What exactly is going on here?
(dramatic music)
(upbeat music)
- [narrator] police are investigating the murder
Of 34-year-old nikki whitehead,
Who was stabbed to death in her home,
Set amidst the idyllic atlanta suburb of conyers.
Investigators are speaking
With nikki's twin daughters,
Jasmiyah and tasmiyah, who discovered nikki's body.
(somber music)
- Law enforcement immediately knew
That these girls were traumatized
And it was clear that they were just in shock,
And of course, they would be traumatized.
They walked in and found their mother dead in a bathtub
And blood everywhere in their home.
- Detectives felt so terrible for these young girls
And was quite taken with the grief
That these young girls must have been feeling.
- I'm a father.
I had, at the time, one of my daughters was a teenager,
So I kept that in my mind
And thought if this was my daughter going through this,
How would I want them treated?
- Jasmiyah and tasmiyah walked detectives
Through the timeline of what happened
When they left for school that morning.
- [narrator] the twins then tell officers that
After leaving the house, they walked to school
And arrived at around 8:00 am.
- They said they missed the opening bell,
But they still made homeroom class.
- I can't even fathom getting up in the morning,
Going to school, having a normal day,
Coming back home and seeing blood everywhere
And my mother dead.
I just cannot imagine what that would be like.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] investigators ask the twins
If nikki was romantically involved with anyone.
- That's when the twins tell us that they're living not just
With their mother, but also their mother's
Boyfriend, robert head.
- They said he was a truck driver
And he had been at the house the day before,
But he wasn't there now.
- But the girls emphatically said he loved nikki,
He loved the girls.
There's no way that he could have done this.
- [narrator] the twins' great-grandmother,
Della frazier, arrives at the station.
- So police asked della, the great-grandmother
Who could possibly have done this,
And they immediately asked her about robert head.
Della shares with police that robert head had just been
So kind and loving to both nikki and her daughters.
Della told police she didn't think robert was the guy.
- [narrator] she explains that she has no idea
Who was responsible for nikki's murder.
So detectives released jasmiyah and tasmiyah
Into her custody.
They then turn their attention
To nikki's boyfriend, robert head.
- Regardless of what the girls said,
Police still have to investigate robert head.
In fact, he's their number one suspect,
Because usually it's the spouse
Or the significant other or the ex.
Who could have done this?
Because it had to be some crime of passion.
- In our minds, it's super important
To contact robert head as soon as we can.
We gotta account for his whereabouts
Since he actually lives at the house.
So we initially reached out to him
And couldn't get in contact with him.
- Unable to track down nikki's boyfriend, robert,
Investigators reach out to her loved ones,
Starting with her best friend, yucca harris.
(soft music)
- When I heard the news, nikki had been murdered,
The detective, actually, he's the one
That, that told me.
It was surreal.
It was something like out of the movies.
I had so many emotions before even the questions began.
It was a lot.
I first met nikki back in 1988.
Nikki and I had been friends over 20 plus years.
She was like my sister.
She was an amazing person.
She didn't come from structure,
But nikki had got her license and became a hairstylist.
And before I knew it,
She had enrolled herself in a fashion institute,
Which was bauder college here in atlanta, georgia.
- She was a very good student.
She was always on time.
Her grades was very well.
She was so energized.
I knew that whatever she decided to do in that arena,
In that industry,
I knew that she would do very well with it.
- She was hardworking, she had a great job.
She was doing all of this to show her girls
How success could be for them.
She wanted to set a good example for them,
Because when the twins' biological father found out
Nikki became pregnant, he bailed.
He was not a part of the girls' life.
He's actually living out of the country.
He is in canada,
While nikki stayed in atlanta as a single mother.
- Nikki, she was a very loving mother, a very caring mother.
- [narrator] detectives ask yucca
If she can shed any light on nikki's
Relationship with robert head.
- The relationship nikki and robert had,
I really felt like it was best for her.
She actually met robert in the mall.
(soft music)
- He was an older gentleman who was quite smitten
With her at first sight,
And lo and behold, they developed this relationship.
- He courted her and eventually they began to date,
And then eventually he was able
To talk her into moving in with him.
- The kids absolutely loved him.
He was tremendously supportive, not just to nikki,
But to the girls.
- And although he was much older than her, I just felt like,
You know, he was settled
And you know it was a good thing for her and her girls.
- But yucca says the relationship
Had recently run into some problems.
- Robert would be on the road for days.
Nikki was yearning for a lot.
You know, she felt like when the cat is away,
The mouse will play.
- She says that there's another man in nikki's life,
A man by the name of joe carter, who is nikki's lover.
- So now police believe there are a number
Of possible motives here.
Did robert head find out about joe carter?
Did joe carter get upset about robert?
What exactly is going on here?
- Was it a lover's quarrel
Between joe and robert head and nikki?
Was that the reason why nikki was killed?
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] detectives in the quiet
Atlanta suburb of conyers
Are investigating the brutal murder of nikki whitehead,
Found stabbed to death in her bathtub.
Investigators have just learned
That nikki was allegedly cheating on her boyfriend,
Creating a potential love triangle
That could have ignited this brutal crime of passion.
- So now police have to talk to both men,
And at the time, robert head was out of touch with them.
So now they turned their attention to mr. Carter.
- As we talked to friends and family of nikki's,
We were able to put together
That joe carter worked in a barber shop
That was next door to nikki's salon.
Detectives went to the the barber shop.
There was a group of guys out front
And the officers asked for joe.
Joe stepped out of the group
And identified himself.
When they explained to him
That nikki had been murdered,
He was grief stricken, distraught.
He told the detectives
That they were lovers for several months.
- As we're talking to joe, we're keeping in mind
That the scene looked very violent.
I believe obviously nikki had put up a fight,
So if she put up a fight with somebody,
There's a very good chance they're gonna have
Marks and scrapes on them.
We asked joe if we could see his hands and his arms.
He complied readily.
There was no marks or anything on him.
- They don't find any scratches,
They don't find anything on joe's body that would show
That he was involved
In a physical confrontation with nikki.
- [narrator] detectives ask joe
Where he was between eight and 10:00 am,
The day nikki was killed,
And he says he was at home and didn't leave until 11:00 am.
- Joe also tells the police
That there's video footage from his apartment complex
That would show that he was there.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] the team gets hold of the surveillance footage
And proceeds to scrub through it.
- We saw that he had only left that morning to go
To work at a time that would not have put him able
To be involved in the the murder.
- So based upon all those factors, it leads police
To believe that joe is not the killer.
(tense music)
- [narrator] with joe carter ruled out,
Police turned their attention back
To the other man in nikki's life,
Her live-in boyfriend, robert head,
Who they've been unable to track down.
Investigators continue to call robert's phone,
But he never answers.
Finally, on the second day of the investigation,
Detectives get a call back.
- When robert head finally calls police
And learns of nikki's death, he is distraught.
- He told us that he was actually in indiana
On one of his truck runs for the past couple of days.
- He tells law enforcement
That he will immediately make his way back from indiana
And one of the first questions he asked police was,
Where were the girls?
- [narrator] police assure robert
That the girls are safely in the custody
Of their great-grandmother.
However, they need to ask him some questions
About his relationship with nikki,
And if he knew anything about the affair with joe.
- The police were a bit surprised
That not only did robert know who joe carter was,
He told police that he and nikki had an understanding
And nikki could do what nikki wanted
To do when he was outta town.
- He just chose to ignore that as long
As they were good when they were together,
It was a unique open relationship.
(dramatic music)
- Police still have to do their work.
They have to investigate
To see if in fact he's telling the truth
About being in indiana.
They reach out to his trucking company
And the trucking company provides the gps information
That shows that robert was, in fact, in indiana.
- [narrator] with nikki's boyfriend robert head cleared,
The team is at a loss.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] with no suspects
And detectives still waiting on forensic tests
To come back from the lab,
Pressure is building for police to come up with answers.
- Conyers was known as this place of solace.
No one could believe in the greater atlanta area
That this gruesome murder had happened
And everyone felt so sorry for the twin daughters.
- The police department was feeling pressure
From multiple sides.
There was pressure from the mayor's office,
There was pressure from the community.
There was pressure from other people who were just
Concerned about the fact that a woman had been brutally
Killed in her home and they still did not have a suspect.
- And in this community, everyone was feeling unsafe.
If it could happen in conyers, it could happen anywhere.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] investigators widen their search for clues
And begin contacting nearby businesses,
Looking for any witnesses
Or surveillance video of suspects
Around the time of nikki's death.
They start with the gas station across the street
From nikki's house.
- The police learned that the gas station
Actually has security footage.
- They scrub through
To around the time of nikki's murder.
And as they're scrubbing through the video,
They come across something quite suspicious.
At 10:10, they see the girls walking on this video.
- The surveillance video is not the best quality,
But the police are able to recognize the girls.
- [narrator] but why would the twins
Be so close to home,
Just after their mother was killed
Between eight and 10:00 am?
- It's a two hour difference from when they told police
They had gotten to the school
And where they are on the surveillance camera.
- They had told police
That they had been in school at 8:00 am.
So now police wanna know what are the girls hiding?
Why are they lying?
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] detectives are investigating
The chilling murder of nikki whitehead,
Stabbed to death in her home in the quaint atlanta
Suburb of conyers.
Police have just discovered surveillance footage
Near nikki's home,
Showing her twin daughters at a gas station,
Two hours after they told police they arrived at school.
- So this indicates that the teens have lied to us,
But people lie to the police for different reasons.
So we still had to see why they were lying
And what they were lying about.
- Police decide, let's do a little bit more digging.
They go to the school
And ask the school for their closed caption footage.
- And we see the twins arriving
At about 10:16 in the morning.
- This video footage suggests to law enforcement that
What the girls told them originally is not consistent.
- [narrator] detectives contact nikki's grandmother,
Della frazier,
Who has custody of jas and tas,
And ask her to bring them to the station
For another round of questioning.
- [narrator] ms. Frazier remains in the room
With each twin as the police employ
A new interrogation tactic.
- This interview's a little bit different.
We have them in separate interview rooms
And this time we confront them
With the discrepancies in their stories.
- Police immediately saw
That there are two different sides to these young ladies.
- The police are starting to observe
That the girls are no longer as cooperative
And grieving as they were before.
Now they're becoming very dismissive,
Very uncooperative with the investigation.
- [narrator] investigators decide
To conclude their interviews with both girls,
But not before getting blood samples
And molds of their teeth.
- There's obviously inconsistencies,
Both with the story and the girls' behavior.
So they want to look into their background
To learn more about the history of the girls and nikki.
- Turns out there had been a history of some domestic issues
Between the girls and their mom.
- In June of 2008,
Law enforcement was called to the house
Because the girls had got into a fight with nikki.
The girls and nikki give different stories.
The girls say that nikki attacked them.
Nikki say that the girls attacked her.
- Nikki had some little bruising and scrapes.
The twins did not have any.
And they also determined
That nikki was more believable than the twins.
- It was determined that just to keep peace
And keep people from fighting, getting hurt,
That the twins would stay at least
For the night with their grandmother.
- Detectives discover that
Because of this altercation that happened nearly two years
Before the murder, the twins' great-grandmother,
Della frazier, made the decision to take nikki to court
For custody of the twins.
- While in court, the judge decides
The girls should be with della frazier.
This is the best option that the court comes up with.
- Nikki was just devastated by this.
- I remember that nikki, she would just cry
And just cry so hard
Because of the fact that she just felt like della
Had so much say so, not just over the kids,
But she also had a lot of say so over nikki,
Which was their mother.
She didn't want for her kids
To respect della more than their own mom.
- But after almost two years of the twins living
With della frazier,
Nikki really loved her girls and wanted them back.
And so she had gone to juvenile court in rockdale county
And fought hard to get custody back.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] finally, on January 5th, 2010,
After two years of living without her daughters,
The court awarded nikki whitehead
Full custody of jas and tas.
- Nikki's friends and family expressed
That nikki was very excited to get the twins back.
- But the police learn
The girls are completely against this.
They want to stay living with della,
Because they have ultimate freedom
To do whatever they want to do.
- [narrator] unfortunately, the celebration
Of the girls' return was short-lived.
- It transcended quickly into nikki complaining
That the girls were threatening her
And that she felt scared of 'em and constant disputes.
Every day there was a problem that seemed to escalate daily.
- Nikki called me and she was upset
And she felt like the girls were acting unruly.
She didn't know where it was coming from
And I never heard nikki to speak in that tone.
- And just eight days later,
Nikki was killed.
(dramatic music)
- There's obviously inconsistencies with
The girls' story. That's pretty powerful evidence,
- That led us to believe this incident was premeditated.
- It shows their intent to kill nikki.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] detectives in the atlanta suburb of conyers
Are investigating the brutal stabbing death
Of nikki whitehead.
The team has just discovered that nikki's twin daughters,
Jasmiyah and tasmiyah,
Who claimed to have discovered her body,
Had just moved back in with her
After a hostile custody battle
And had physically attacked nikki in the past.
- In the early stages of the investigation,
It's almost unconceivable
That these girls could have actually murdered their mother,
Especially in the manner and as violent as the scene was.
It was very difficult to imagine.
- But, now that the girls' story has changed
And there's obviously inconsistencies,
Both with the story
And the girl's behavior,
The police have now elevated them
To being suspects in the case.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] investigators then search
Nikki's home a second time,
Focusing on the twins' bedroom.
(suspenseful music)
- In the twins' rooms, we found journals.
Nikki had taken their phones away, so instead of texting,
They would write in the journal.
First person to first person.
- And in this journal they talked about how they were
So miserable living with their mother.
- There was written notes that they had given
To each other back and forth.
Within the notes,
It talked about the girls wanting to leave.
- [narrator] but it's an entry from January 5th,
Just days before nikki was killed,
That catches detectives' attention.
(mysterious music)
- One wrote to the other,
If we don't get rid of her now,
We'll be stuck here forever.
And then the second one agreed.
That led us to believe this incident was premeditated.
The girls felt trapped and that they didn't see a way out.
- As a prosecutor, when you see writings from an actual
Suspect actually stating that a person needs to die,
That's pretty powerful evidence.
It shows their intent to kill nikki.
After four months of investigating this murder,
The police finally get back the results from the crime lab
Of the blood collected from the crime scene.
The blood shows that it belongs to nikki
And it belongs to the twins.
- [narrator] but that's not the only forensic link
Tying jas and tas to the murder.
- And we know that nikki had bite marks on her arm.
And since we had our csi do molds of the girls' teeth,
It was determined by the me that tas actually bit nikki.
- This, on top of the written documents
That they got from the twins,
And the inconsistencies in the timeline gives the police
The probable cause they need
To place both girls under arrest on the last day of school.
(soft beep)
- [news anchor] police arrested twins
Jasmiyah and tasmiyah whitehead,
Now charged with murder in the stabbing
And beating death of their mother.
- When the twins were finally arrested,
They were put in back of a patrol car.
Well, within those patrol cars we got video
And audio recording.
Well, what came out of those two girls together
In the back of the car wasn't the same two sweet girls
From when we first met them.
- They were vile, cussing, nasty, threatening,
Complete jekyll and hyde.
- It's unbelievable to police
And to the community that these girls
Who everybody thought were victims, they weren't victims.
They might be the actual killers.
No one could believe that.
And no one saw that coming.
Police are desperate to now figure out
What happened to nikki.
Are the twins going to tell what happened?
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] in the quaint atlanta suburb of conyers,
Twin sisters jasmiyah and tasmiyah whitehead
Have been charged with murder
For the brutal stabbing death of their mother, nikki.
- It was just shocking to finally learn what they had done
To their own mother,
Just because they wanted freedom
And they didn't like the fact that she had rules
And the lengths that they would go to cover it up.
It was horrible.
- And that's like, can't be one of her daughters.
I was in disbelief on that.
I couldn't wrap my brain around that.
That's when I really broke down.
- For nikki to, you know, birth these girls
And you know, give them everything
And then they take their mother life.
It was just like unbelievable that this had transpired
Between her and the girls,
Because I didn't see it coming at all.
(dramatic music)
- After four months of investigating this murder,
The police finally have the results from the crime lab,
On top of writings from the girls actually stating
That nikki needs to die.
That shows the girls were responsible
For this brutal murder.
(dramatic music)
The charges against tas and jas were felony murder
And aggravated assault.
- But the girls were afforded the opportunity
To take a plea and they did.
- The rockdale county da said they have
To do a video interview
And say what really happened the day nikki
Was found dead.
Finally, they have to come clean.
- They say that that morning nikki woke
The girls up to go to school.
(suspenseful music)
(vase shattering)
(mysterious music)
(somber music)
- In January of 2014, tas appears in court
And finally pleads guilty to the murder of her mother.
- A month later, jas pleads guilty as well
For nikki's murder.
- [narrator] jasmiyah and tasmiyah whitehead
Each receive 30-year sentences
With the possibility of parole.
(soft music)
- The community really struggled with this case,
Because initially they were completely behind the girls.
So the community had a very difficult time understanding
How this could happen.
And they were just devastated.
- When they was convicted, and I saw them,
Like they wasn't the girls that I remember.
They were different.
And deep down within me, I knew that her kids took her life
And I wasn't ready for it.
- Conyers will always have the stigma
Of being the location of one the most bizarre
And violent murders in recent memory took place.
- I think conyers wants to be known
For something other than this case,
But this case will always be a part of their history.
(soft music)
- For nikki's family and friends,
The pain of her loss will never go away.
- What I miss about nikki is conversation.
I think about nikki every day.
I do, I really think about her every day.
And this was like my sister, this was my family.
- I have photos of her
And every once in a while I look at it, you know,
And just to, just reminisce of the person who she was.
So for me, I still, there's a part of me
That still keeps her alive in my heart.
(soft music)