(ominous tone)
(telephone ringing)
(ominous music)
- [Narrator] Every suspect accused of a crime
has the right to remain silent.
Many agree to be interrogated anyway,
but they can stop the interview at any moment,
making it a race against time.
(dramatic mounting music)
Justice hangs in the balance.
(dark suspenseful music)
- A 911 call came in from Miss Tabitha Smith
who reported that her 91-year-old neighbor,
Mr. Edward Vaughan,
had been assaulted.
- They dispatched a deputy to the scene.
(police siren blaring)
The deputy made contact with Tabitha Smith,
who was also in the presence of Edward Vaughan.
Edward Vaughan had lacerations to his face,
bruising, swelling.
He had blood coming out of his ears.
Mr. Vaughan at that time was very lucid and of a clear mind
and was able to easily recall what happened.
Mr. Vaughan told the primary responding deputy
that he actually made contact with two men earlier,
and that these individuals were interested
in buying a vehicle that Mr. Vaughan had for sale.
He said these individuals took Mr. Vaughan
and basically abducted him,
held him against his will,
and put a blanket or some type of a carpet over him
and drove him out in the county
where they physically assaulted him.
- He said they did zip tie his hands together
and assaulted him, punched him,
hit him in the head two or three times,
and ultimately, they brought him back home.
- At this point, Mr. Vaughan, being 91 years old,
needed intense medical attention.
- Ultimately, he was loaded up in the ambulance
to go to the hospital.
(ambulance siren blaring)
- The first time I met Edward Vaughan
was with Mission Machine, a non-profit,
and I was just a volunteer
driver at that time.
Mission Machine's mission is to help homeless
with a temporary place to stay,
and he was just needing a place
until he could get into an apartment.
The happiest memory I've got of Mr. Vaughan
is when he got his apartment here,
he was just very happy about where he was at,
and very proud of what he had.
- Mr. Vaughan didn't have a whole lot of money.
He didn't have much for his self,
but he had a very charitable soul to him.
He would've helped just about anybody, I believe.
- Mr. Vaughan was a World War II vet.
He had got a Bronze Star.
He was very proud of the fact
that he had served his country.
- He served me, he fought for me, my freedom, for all of us.
- Everything that he had done in his life through war,
through the many years after,
he had always been a survivor.
He knew what he needed to do
and he knew how to survive.
- Miss Smith said that she noticed
when she left that morning at about 6:30
that Mr. Vaughan's car was gone.
When Miss Smith came back about 8:00,
the car was back and Mr. Vaughan was inside the car.
- That's when she saw Mr. Edward Vaughan
in the presence of Mr. Jake Miller.
(ominous music)
- I knew Jake because I had seen him
around the apartment complex before.
He had a friend that stayed in the apartment complex,
but never seen him around Mr. Vaughan ever.
He was so out of place.
Jake seemed agitated.
He was very aggressive.
Mad, almost.
I guess you could say, I don't know, it just felt wrong.
I approached Mr. Vaughan.
The left side of his face was so swollen, It was horrifying.
I asked him what the heck happened to his face,
and he whispers to me to call 911.
And that's when I took him inside his apartment.
I had him lock the door behind us.
I grabbed the phone and I dialed 911.
- At some point prior to the arrival of law enforcement,
Jake Miller left.
- One of those neighbors said
that she was actually awake
between 4:30 and 6:00 a.m.
and heard who she knew to be Tommy Trosper
at Mr. Vaughan's residence.
We were also able to verify through another neighbor
that Tommy Trosper was at Mr. Vaughan's house
on the morning of the 911 call.
- Jake and Tommy were very well known to us,
mainly in property crimes, some assaults.
Key thing here is that Tommy Trosper
and Jake Miller were thick as thieves, so to speak.
They were friends. They were always around each other,
so the fact that Tommy and Jake
were identified being together,
it really streamlined the investigation
because now law enforcement had suspects.
Once it was identified that Tommy Trosper and Jake Miller
were actually the suspects that we were looking for,
it was extremely important to find them.
- We initially notified
surrounding law enforcement agencies.
We issued a BOLO for Tommy Trosper and Jake Miller.
We exhausted no resources in that attempt to locate them.
(clock ticks)
They did tell us that
Mr. Vaughan's health was deteriorating
and that if we wanted to speak to him,
that we needed to speak with him fairly quickly.
- The purpose of speaking with Edward Vaughan
was to obtain what law enforcement calls
a dying declaration.
To obtain an official identification of the suspect
was extremely crucial in this investigation.
- Based on Mr. Vaughan's injuries
it was very difficult for him to speak,
so we actually sent Detective Manues photos
of Tommy Trosper and Jake Miller
to confirm the identity of the suspects.
- I remember walking into the ICU unit,
and when I looked at Edward Vaughan
I was absolutely speechless.
I've been doing this job for 30 years.
I have seen evil in just about every way you can imagine.
I've seen crimes that would keep you awake at night.
When I seen what this man looked like,
and the extent of his injuries,
it absolutely stunned me to the point where
I had to gather my composure.
And I recall that his eyes looked at me.
He had the most sincere eyes.
He had the most comforting...
I told him what I was there for, and I said,
"I want you to be able to identify these people."
I said, "Do you know 'em?"
I said, "If you know who these people are,
can you blink your eyes for me?"
And he blinked his eyes.
I said, "Mr. Vaughan," I said,
"Are these the people that hurt you?"
And he just blinked his eyes.
I said, "If you're 100%,
I want you to blink twice for me."
And I no sooner said that than he blinked twice.
And that was a solid identification.
I remember his eyes.
I'll never forget 'em.
(police sirens blaring)
- The police department pursued the vehicle.
After a short pursuit,
they're actually able to take the driver into custody.
(dramatic music)
Tommy Trosper was then arrested
for being in possession of a stolen vehicle,
and was then taken to the White County Sheriff's Department
where he was processed and booked on those charges.
- Our detectives went and pulled him from there
before he was even dressed out on his charges.
(pulsating suspenseful music)
- It was gonna be tough to get a true confession
out of Tommy.
He was no stranger to this type of criminal procedure,
but we had to try to get him to talk.
I actually seen the face of Edward Vaughan
and I was looking at the person
who made Edward Vaughan look like he looked,
who beat that man to that condition.
A suspect's confession is exactly what I wanted.
- [Reporter] A 91-year-old man is fighting for his life
after police say he was kidnapped
from his Judsonia home Monday morning.
- We were all very much shocked.
We never thought that
something like that
could happen in our neighborhood,
much less to a man as kind as Mr. Vaughan.
(pulsating suspenseful music)
- We knew from past encounters
that Tommy Trosper had with law enforcement
that we needed to cut straight to the chase.
Building a rapport with Tommy Trosper, it was useless.
- In the state of Arkansas,
one adult propositioning,
another adult for sex
is not illegal whatsoever.
Knowing Tommy Trosper,
that immediately brought my interest
because he's starting to pad his involvement.
He's starting to make it a little bit easier
for the world to understand why he did what he did.
- I don't think that video
bothered Tommy in any way at all,
other than the fact it give him the motive that he'd need
to later blackmail Edward Vaughan.
- I knew that Chris Torres and Tommy Trosper
were probably acquaintances, to say the least.
- Chris Torres did have a building
next to his house out there that they did work on cars.
Maybe Tommy thought he could take that car out there
and Chris could look at it
and see if it was worth buying.
(detective tapping pencil)
- Tommy is incoherent.
He's stuttering.
A truthful person just simply needs to recount an event
where a liar needs to create it.
- You had this video, this was your idea.
You took it and, you know, you did so with a purpose.
It just showed that Tommy was the mastermind
behind this whole thing.
- My next step, I wanted to 100% identify him
as the actual ringleader behind this.
Sometime turning up the heat will let you know
exactly where you are in the interview.
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
- So, after hours of speaking with Tommy Trosper,
he still was lying.
He would talk to us enough to verify his involvement,
however, he wouldn't give us the details of his involvement.
- If he said nothing else,
we present him to the jury as a liar.
And that is amazing, amazing advantages for the prosecution.
- The most important things that we were able to get
from an interview with Tommy
was Tommy's admission
that him and Jake Miller, at one point in time,
were in the presence of Edward Vaughan,
had taken Edward Vaughan to someplace out in the county,
which is identified as Chris Torres's house.
That him and Jake Miller were present
when Edward Vaughan was bound against his will.
That they were present when Edward Vaughan was assaulted.
So, basically it was a confession,
but just in piecemeal.
(Tommy sobbing)
(clock ticks)
- Well, we had Tommy in jail
and now the next step is absolutely find Jake.
(pulsating mysterious music)
- Chris Torres told law enforcement
that on April the 9th of 2017,
that Tommy Trosper, whom he knew,
and Jake Miller, whom he knew,
came to his residence in Judsonia with Edward Vaughan.
And that Tommy Trosper showed Chris Torres
a video that he had.
- At one point Tommy asked Chris,
did he want to help in quote-unquote
"roughing Edward Vaughan up"?
And Chris Torres told him no.
- According to Chris,
that was when he saw Edward Vaughan
actually bound with zip ties.
- Chris said he becomes upset and he's ordered 'em, like,
"You gotta get outta here, get off my place.
I'm not involved with this."
And they leave.
Another thing that Chris was willing to tell us was
that Jake's hiding out in an abandoned trailer,
just a few trailers down from where he was living.
So, we left immediately from Chris Torres' house
and drove down the road, looking for the address.
We surrounded that house
and ultimately found Jake Miller and took him into custody.
- Based off the evidence alone,
we suspected that Jake Miller was just
along for the ride, or the co-conspirator.
We believed that this was all Tommy's doings,
that Tommy was the main puppet master behind this.
Tommy Trosper was the one that wanted the vehicle.
Tommy Trosper was the one that knew Chris Torres,
and that's where they took Edward Vaughan.
Tommy Trosper was the one that recorded the secret video.
(door clicks open)
- We had Tommy's story.
We had Tommy blaming Jake for a lot of stuff.
So, now we're gonna try to see how truthful Jake might be
and how different a story he was gonna tell
from what Tommy told him.
(pulsating suspenseful music)
- He already knows why he's there
and he's automatically going to a denial.
That strategy is just to
make him feel like he's standing alone,
like everybody else has blamed you.
We know exactly what happened.
So, we're past you telling the lies
and trying to protect your friends
because they blamed it all on you.
- Getting Jake to actually admit these little key pieces
was absolutely critical in this investigation.
Primarily because Jake began to confirm
exactly what Edward Vaughan said earlier.
- I felt like he opened up and told us more of the truth.
I think Jake Miller was scared.
I think he was worried
about the outcomes
and the situation he had found himself in,
where Tommy I don't think cared about any of that.
- It's the two individuals pieced stories together
that we was able to find a basic consistency
that supported the allegation by Edward Vaughan.
- But it was hopeful that Mr. Vaughan would pull through
and be strong enough to testify in court against the two,
and actually be able to be the victim
that stands up there and points at 'em,
and says, "These are the men that attacked me
and did this to me."
(clock ticks rapidly)
(sad quiet music)
We received a call from the hospital
Mr. Vaughan was at,
that he had actually passed away from his injuries.
And that changed everything for us.
- It's always the cases like this,
that involve children or the elderly,
that can't defend themselves,
that you take most to heart, as an investigator.
You know...
So...
You know.
- He was a very sweet man.
It broke my heart that something this tragic
could happen to a person so kind.
(clock ticks) (suspenseful music)
- The charges were amended from kidnapping and battery
to actual capital murder and kidnapping.
- Without having any type of forensic evidence,
and now we have a victim that's not gonna be there
to testify in court,
it was all on us.
We were gonna have to tell Mr. Vaughan's story
and seek justice for him.
- I felt it was extremely important
to interview Tommy Trosper again,
to see if had any remorse for what they did
and see if Tommy Trosper would admit it.
And if he would admit it, if he would tell the truth.
- So now we was wanting to see
how far he would be willing to go speaking with us,
when we tell him that his charges are upgraded
to the most heinous charge of a criminal act
you can be charged with in this state.
What is he going to do?
Is he going to actually admit this?
Is he gonna tell the truth to save himself?
Or is he gonna continue on with his lies and deflection?
(music rises and crashes)
(quiet disturbing music)
(door clicks open)
I did not foresee Tommy Trosper
being any more sympathetic to the plight of Edward Vaughan
than what he was the first time around,
even with being leveled with the accusation
of a capital murder upgrade,
but I was wanting to see.
(rising dramatic music)
(pulsating suspenseful music)
Even with presented with the possibility
of being charged with murder,
he maintained his specific denial.
- I have already established he is a liar,
so now the strategy was
I wanted to show the jury exactly the type of person
you're gonna be seeing.
- Even though we weren't able
to get a full confession from Tommy Trosper,
he put himself there.
He put himself as a participant.
He gave us the motive,
which I believe was the only motive.
- I felt we were extremely successful in the interview
'cause Tommy Trosper did confirm the basics,
but he also confirmed that he had absolutely no sympathy
or any remorse for what he did.
(clock ticks rapidly)
- Out of all the cases I've worked,
I've never went to a victim's funeral.
I just felt honored to be at that funeral.
- It's a very unique thing
about the Veterans Cemetery in Arkansas
because whenever you go into those grounds,
it demands silence.
It demands reverence.
And I couldn't think of a better place
for Edward Vaughan to rest.
(train rumbles along tracks)
(clock ticks rapidly)
- Tommy Trosper pled guilty
to murder in the first degree and kidnapping
and was sentenced to 40 years
in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Later, Jake Miller pled guilty
to murder in the first degree and kidnapping
and was sentenced to 20 years
in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
I'm happy with the investigation.
I'm satisfied that we were able to get that conviction
that we needed for this case
and do what we could to get justice for Edward Vaughan.
- Mr. Vaughan was pretty amazing
and it's great to be able to call
a World War II veteran a friend.
(sad piano music)
- I would like him to be remembered as a kind gentle man.
Thank you for serving our country.
I'm very grateful to have gotten to be a part
of Mr. Vaughan's life.
- Edward Vaughan should be remembered
as the person who he was.
A hero.
A true hero.