ERIKA: You look at this group of honor roll students,
of overachievers,
this group is competitive,
and it's fierce.
Failure was not an option, it really wasn't.
They both were straight A students, they both
wanted the same thing.
But also, they had a little competition going on
as far as boys.
ERIKA: She's got one up on her.
He's cute, he's popular, he's mine.
She was just standing her ground.
If she do want to fight, I'll fight her.
She seemed like she wanted her to just die.
It was just a toxic relationship.
It was only gonna lead one way.
[theme music playing]
KAYHLA: I had economics class second period.
10 minutes into class,
everybody's getting up, moving around.
I'm still sitting at my desk with my headphones in.
And then everybody starts shouting, "Call the police."
[distant screaming]
FRANCESCA: We hear screaming.
We're all trying to figure out what's going on.
Everyone's up and scattered around the room.
I see drops of blood
from the back of the classroom to the side of the classroom.
It was a moment of shock.
[school bell rings]
NARRATOR: It's the start of a new school year at
Fitzgerald High School.
Fitzgerald High School is about 13 miles north
of downtown Detroit.
It's your typical high school.
It has the social cliques just like any high school,
but is known for its academics, as well.
At some schools, you would think that smart kids or brainiacs
are kind of the nerdy kids, but at Fitzgerald, it's not
really seen that way.
NARRATOR: Instead of prom queens and cheerleaders,
here, it's the smart girls who rule the school.
Most of my friends were brainiacs.
They were all straight-A students.
JIM K.: These are kids who want to be everything.
They want to get involved.
They want to be attractive for colleges so they can get
accepted to good schools.
From the outside looking in, you look at this group of
overachievers, and they may look perfect.
But there is strict competition between them,
and it's fierce.
NARRATOR: It's a race to get into the best colleges,
and there's one girl at Fitzgerald who's the queen bee
of APs, 15-year-old junior Danyna Gibson.
Danyna was a competitive, A-plus student.
She was the type of student to volunteer,
or it's a question, she know the answer.
We was in a group together, like she just wanted to do
all of the work.
She was serious about her future,
serious about her career.
So she wanted to make sure she got things done right.
Danyna was smart, and she knew she was smart.
It was very important for Danyna to
become valedictorian,
But she also enjoyed having a good time.
So that's why I call her the fun nerd.
She really enjoyed robotics.
She liked putting the wires together and kind of
just building things.
FRANCESCA: She liked her sports. She was on top of her grades.
She was just on top of everything.
ERIKA: She would kind of make a remark here and there to
remind everyone, "I am kind of at the top of the pack here."
KAYHLA: She really could make your day just by looking at you.
I never seen her not smiling.
She gave off the energy of the sun, literally.
NARRATOR: Orbiting around Danyna is a tight group of friends.
Danyna's friends consisted of Carlycia, her best friend,
Jakayla, one of my closer friends, Tia,
Lexi, Jordan, and Daja.
This is the group of friends that I seen
cliqued up at breakfast.
If they had lunch together, they was cliqued up,
or after school, they was cliqued up.
They were cool.
NARRATOR: Everyone knows Danyna has her sights set on being
valedictorian, but there's one girl in their circle
who's looking to stand in her way.
ERIKA: Tanaya was also a junior at Fitzgerald.
She's kind of sporty.
She dressed in jeans and sweatshirt,
casual, wore Vans.
Not as extroverted or magnetic as Danyna,
but they were all friends.
FRANCESCA: I met Tanaya in the economics class that
we all had together.
She also was a go-getter, as well.
She always wanted to be, like, on top.
KAYHLA: We'd be sitting outside after school.
She'd be on the bleachers doing her work.
Plus, she was taking college classes already.
I know that she wanted to do something great with herself.
NARRATOR: It's Danyna versus Tanaya when it comes
to school achievement.
They both were academically smart, both
striving for valedictorian.
Both beautiful, pretty smile.
NARRATOR: The two are good friends.
But Tanaya has one thing Danyna doesn't.
Evan was Tanaya's boyfriend, my best friend.
I met him in seventh grade. They met in eighth grade.
They were dating for about two years.
They were a cute couple.
Evan is a ginger, freckles.
He dressed nice all the time, blue eyes.
He was talkative, he would crack jokes.
I would say he was a cute kid.
NARRATOR: When it comes to high school social status,
having a boyfriend is like acing two AP classes.
But when you're on top, you have to watch your back.
KAYHLA: I'd see Tanaya and Evan in the hallway,
and Tanaya'd be just holding on to him.
I believe he was walking her to class, every class.
She'd always have his arm.
NARRATOR: Tanaya proudly wears the promise ring Evan gave her,
but it doesn't keep the eyes away.
KAYHLA: A lot of girls were looking at Evan,
so she was probably getting more insecure.
Tanaya definitely wanted people to know that
Evan was her man.
Evan was my best friend, and she didn't want him
talking to me.
I felt like that was a little mean.
So we still talked.
NARRATOR: Danyna pays no mind to Tanaya's possessive behavior
until one day, the drama finds her.
ERIKA: As the junior year progresses,
Danyna and Tanaya's boyfriend,
Evan, are in an AP class together.
And they get paired up to become study partners.
And they start studying at Evan's house together.
NARRATOR: An arrangement that doesn't
go over well with Tanaya.
When Evan was around Danyna, they laughed a lot.
I know they were really goofy, and they had a lot in common.
Tanaya was probably jealous.
I think that Tanaya just didn't like the fact that
Danyna was having the alone time with Evan as far
as them studying -- I mean, I get it.
Beautiful little girl is around my boyfriend,
spending time with him -- I mean, I get that.
Any normal teenager would probably be jealous at
the time or something like that.
Evan knows his girlfriend, Tanaya, is also striving for
valedictorian, so in her mind, she might be
thinking, well, why is he helping Danyna study?
Why isn't he helping me?
[phone ringing]
Tanaya starts calling him constantly,
interrupting their study time.
KAYHLA: The fact that Danyna and Tanaya consider themselves
friends, you would like to think that she took
that into consideration.
But no matter who it was, you could
have been her sister. -[phone ringing]
I don't think she wanted anybody close to Evan.
[phone ringing]
JIM K.: This is confusing to Danyna -- she's studying.
She's not used to this drama.
She's not really sure how to deal with it.
NARRATOR: One thing is certain, Danyna is not about to
get pushed around.
ERIKA: Danyna isn't backing down.
She's not gonna be told who she can and can't hang out
with, especially if she's strictly doing homework
and trying to do well in school.
KAYHLA: Evan would tell me about Tanaya getting mad about him
talking to Danyna.
He was kind of stuck in between.
He loved his girlfriend, but some things that
she wanted, he just couldn't do.
It became the competition between Tanaya and Danyna.
It was almost like anything and anyone
was fair game at that point.
NARRATOR: High school junior Tanaya Lewis is none too happy
when her boyfriend Evan continues to study with
her friend, now rival, Danyna Gibson.
As the year progresses, Tanaya's possessiveness kind
of goes into overdrive.
She wants to know where Evan is at all times.
She's constantly checking who he's with.
If you think about the competitive nature between
these two girls, it kind of escalated.
KAYHLA: I know Tanaya was sending Evan messages
about being friends with Danyna.
It made him uncomfortable -- he cared about how she felt,
but he also had to make decisions for himself.
NARRATOR: Evan and Danyna are strictly friends.
And at this point, Danyna's fed up with
Tanaya's controlling behavior.
While Evan's phone is just blowing up while they're
trying to study, Danyna says to Evan, "Maybe you should
"focus more on your studying instead
of Tanaya's possessiveness."
Of course, Tanaya is upset.
KAYHLA: Tanaya would sigh when she seen Danyna and Evan
walking down the halls or talking.
You didn't have to ask her how she felt about it.
You could see it on her face.
I tried to convince him to break up with her.
It was times where months went on,
and we didn't speak just because of that.
NARRATOR: That December, Tanaya demands
to track Evan's location through his cell phone.
That's the last straw for Evan, and he breaks up with her.
That leaves one of the rivals happy.
I'm sure Danyna felt fine about the breakup.
They can study in peace, and they can be friends,
and they don't have to worry about a jealous
girlfriend constantly interrupting.
Tanaya was distraught when they broke up because of how
possessive she was and how clingy she was.
She was not over him. It made her angry.
ERIKA: Meanwhile, Danyna develops
a crush on a boy named Jack.
And she's sitting there with Daja and the other
girls, and they're chatting.
And Tanaya is kind of quietly there, listening in.
And not long after, Tanaya starts dating Jack.
NARRATOR: Danyna confronts Tanaya.
Dating her crush is a clear violation of the "girl code,"
but Tanaya isn't sorry.
FRANCESCA: I feel like girl code is an important thing,
but at the same time, I felt like they were just competing
at that moment.
This is kind of mean girl behavior.
It's like a backstabbing behavior to go after
your good friend's crush.
[sports whistle blowing]
NARRATOR: Danyna's next move is the best revenge.
Evan is on the cross country team.
She signs up too.
FRANCESCA: I would think that Danyna
joined the cross country team
to get back at Tanaya for getting with somebody that
she said that she liked.
It's like what girls do.
They get back at their friends.
KAYHLA: I think Tanaya thought that
Danyna was doing that probably
out of spite -- it made her angry.
ERIKA: What does Tanaya do?
She says, "Well, I want Evan back."
She breaks up with Jack, and she starts
pursuing Evan again.
I don't know what she would do or what she would say,
but she would say things to Evan that made him come
right under her wing again.
NARRATOR: By spring, Tanaya and Evan are back together.
But as the weather warms up, so does Tanaya's
need for control.
Tanaya promised that she'd keep her cool and she
wouldn't act possessive, but Danyna and Evan are still
running every day in cross country together,
and she starts going crazy.
She starts getting clingy again.
She's looking at his cell phone, asking where he's been,
checking where he is all the time.
KAYHLA: So there was a time where Tanaya went through
and deleted all of Evan's female friends through
his Snapchat, including me and Danyna.
It just made me feel ugly towards her, because why would
you be so spiteful?
NARRATOR: By summer, Evan has had it with Tanaya again.
SHARITA: I think Evan loved Tanaya.
I think he wanted to be with Tanaya, but I think the way
that she was, it was too much for Evan.
He didn't like it.
ERIKA: He doesn't just break up with her,
but he kind of breaks up with her for good.
KAYHLA: She was very upset with Evan breaking up with her.
I can imagine that that's what she thought of 24-7.
NARRATOR: When school resumes in the fall, Tanaya Lewis
enters the building a different person.
Gone is the confident potential valedictorian.
Tanaya was never completely over Evan.
At the start of senior year, she was more so to herself.
She was more so her hoodie on, earphones in,
about her studies type of thing.
She really didn't talk to anybody.
When I did see Tanaya in the hallways, she was either
by herself or with Evan.
I think she was trying to be friends with him to get more
so in his circle again.
NARRATOR: But just friends has never been enough for Tanaya.
Meanwhile, Danyna is at the top of her game.
This is fourth already. This is yearbook,
and this is our senior year -- 2019, baby.
She's in color guard. She's in AP classes.
She's still pursuing valedictorian.
Her and Evan are seemingly closer than ever.
When I seen her, she was smiling all the time.
NARRATOR: It may be a new year, but for the girls at
Fitzgerald, the gossip never stops.
Daja tells Danyna that Tanaya told her a secret.
And she swore you can't tell a soul.
It's a big secret.
It's a doozy.
ERIKA: Senior year starts.
One day, Daja and Danyna are sitting at
lunch, just chatting.
Daja tells Danyna that Tanaya cheated on Evan
a few months back.
Danyna can't believe it.
Tanaya, this whole time, has been so possessive over Evan,
yet she's the one who cheated on him.
NARRATOR: The irony of the secret isn't lost
on Danyna, nor is the opportunity
to keep Tanaya and Evan apart.
KAYHLA: I don't wanna say that she felt empowered,
but that's a big piece of information to hold.
ERIKA: Danyna gets home, she immediately calls Carly,
and she says, "I wanna tell Evan, I gotta tell Evan."
And Carly says, "Danyna, you can't.
You gotta mind your own business."
But Danyna says, "He's my friend, I gotta let him know."
I feel like Danyna probably wanted to say something
because it was a possibility that Evan could go back.
So she wanted to ensure that, you know,
with that information, he wouldn't, or at least he'd
have the option to know.
NARRATOR: The following week, Danyna can't hold
it in any longer.
She tells Evan that Tanaya cheated on him
the previous spring while they were dating.
KAYHLA: I heard about Tanaya cheating through mutual friends.
It started spreading around school.
It was a big school, but every clique was cliqued up
with the next clique, so everybody knew everything.
I felt like Tanaya was very manipulative,
especially considering the fact that she didn't want
him to talk to other females, but she was allowed to
go out and cheat.
But to be quite honest, I would have kept that
information to myself.
That's for him to know, for him to find out.
NARRATOR: Even though they're no longer dating,
Evan is hurt and furious.
If Danyna didn't want him to get back together with
Tanaya, mission accomplished.
Evan and Tanaya were still on talking terms.
I know that he cared for her enough to be friends with
her, but he was livid about, you know,
finding out that he was getting cheated on.
This was the breaking point for him.
NARRATOR: That day, Evan asks Tanaya to return
the promise ring he gave her when they began dating.
JIM K.: There's a whole new level of anger for Evan
with this bombshell.
And Tanaya's not used to seeing him this way.
He confronts her.
He says, "I want the promise ring back."
She's devastated.
She says, "I would have never told you.
"I would have slit my wrists and taken this to my grave
before I told you."
Everything blows up.
SHARITA: Evan taking his promise ring back from Tanaya,
it really let her know that he was serious.
He wasn't playing with her anymore.
I felt like this was really a sure way of saying,
"We're never getting back together."
SHARITA: I would think that Tanaya's
state of mind at that point was,
how did he find out who said this?
How does he know this?
NARRATOR: Evan doesn't tell Tanaya
how he found out she cheated,
but Tanaya has her suspicions.
Word starts to get around among their group that Danyna
said something, and Danyna decides, "All right, I'm gonna
get in front of this," and she calls
Tanaya to apologize.
Tanaya basically told her she wasn't going to accept
her apology, something was going to happen,
and hung up the phone on her.
She sends Danyna a text and says,
"You made the biggest mistake."
At that point, they weren't friends.
Like, they were just at each other's necks over
stuff that happened.
Danyna probably felt like they were going to fight,
so she probably just brushed it off.
Like, oh, it's about to be a girl fight.
Danyna meets up with her friend Carly and Donald.
It's marching band practice, and she's filling them in on
her call with Tanaya.
She told them, "Hey, I told Evan about Tanaya
"cheating on him, and Tanaya threatened me.
I tried to apologize," but she's basically expecting
Tanaya to try and fight her at school today.
KAYHLA: Danyna was just standing her ground.
Like, if she do want to fight, I'll fight her, but I don't
think, honestly, that Danyna ever wanted to fight.
Like, she's at the risk of getting suspended.
And in our school, we had police officers,
so you could even get arrested.
So she was putting her academics at cost.
ERIKA: Tanaya's day started like usual.
She got up, got dressed, walked the dog.
She called Evan for a ride, said she wanted to talk.
Evan picks her up, and she starts apologizing.
But the more Tanaya apologizes, the madder Evan gets.
KAYHLA: I think Evan agreed to take Tanaya to school to
probably hear her out.
But I don't think Evan really cared to hear much of what
Tanaya really had to say.
ERIKA: Before they kind of part ways and go to first period,
Tanaya gives Evan $100 and says, "Here, you know,
this is everything I have."
As anyone would be, Evan's confused.
He doesn't understand why Tanaya is giving him money.
Is she trying to bribe him? Is she trying to get him back?
What's this money for?
KAYHLA: And Danyna,
when I seen her, she wasn't happy.
She was really quiet,
which was unusual.
JIM K.: Danyna knew that the breakup
was traumatic for Tanaya,
but nobody knew how far this might go.
[school bell rings]
ERIKA: Tanaya walks into second period economics.
She doesn't have Evan anymore.
Does she really even have a lot of her friends
in her group anymore?
It's hard to think of how Tanaya must have been feeling
at that point.
She just seems not herself.
She's listening to a song over and over.
I remember, Tanaya this day was quiet.
She had her headphones in, and she was like kind of
slouching her seat some, just standoffish.
FRANCESCA: Everyone sat down as normal.
We used to do, like, good news in class.
Some people raised their hands to do good news,
and everything was just normal.
Danyna walks in and kind of bumps her books
when she walks by, knocking them over.
She goes to her desk and sits down and starts working.
My first memory from Danyna that day was looking over at
her, and she literally was just looking at the board in
blank space, like she was in blank thought.
But it was unusual for her, because
she was always smiling -- I'd never seen her like that.
At the same time, Evan is in his second period class in
another classroom, but he gets a text from Tanaya saying,
"Do you like Danyna?"
He texts back, "I don't have to tell you."
About 10 minutes into second period, the teacher asks
everyone to kind of break up into groups to work.
Everyone got up, and it was, like, a lot of commotion,
because everyone is trying to find each other, and, like, most
people really don't even know each other,
because it's the beginning of the school year.
And I'm walking to the front, waiting for Tanaya,
because she was my partner at the time.
At 8:25, Evan gets another text from Tanaya.
It says, "It's time."
Everybody's getting up, moving around.
I'm still sitting at my desk with my headphones in,
even though I'm not playing music.
Tanaya and Danyna started walking around me.
They were just doing, like, a fast walk
type of thing, so I paid it no mind.
I didn't hear arguing or nothing, so I didn't think
it was a fight or nothing -- I thought they were playing.
[distant scream]
FRANCESCA: I heard loud screaming, and people are
hopping over desks.
People in the classroom are just trying to figure out,
like, what just happened?
As I stood up, I turned around, and I see drops of
blood from the back of the classroom to
the side of the classroom.
Everybody starts screaming, "Call 911."
[numbers dialing]
-[phone ringing] -CALLER: Oh, my god.
NARRATOR: Fitzgerald High School goes into code red lockdown.
At 8.29 a.m., the Warren Police Department
receives a 911 call to the school.
Officers were in a patrol car not too far from there,
and they were there quickly, within less than a minute or so.
The school is attempting to get the place locked down,
but it's just chaos, because at some point, it becomes obvious
that something horrific has happened.
And you've got this big building full of students.
And I think, at that point,
you're just trying to gain control.
The school resource officer gets to the room,
and he sees blood on the floor.
He sees a student lying there, and there's a knife
next to her body.
He immediately starts performing CPR to
try and save her life.
I didn't realize somebody was stabbed until I was walking
out of the classroom.
We were ushered to another classroom.
A lot of the kids were still processing it.
We had a lot of crying.
Some students were telling other students what
happened in the classroom.
NARRATOR: By now, rumors are quickly spreading like
wildfire through the school.
At 8:31, students are texting each other.
The word is getting around.
Evan gets a text, and he texts his friend, Zach,
who was in the economics classroom.
Evan says, "Hey, did Tanaya do something?"
And Zach says,
"She stabbed Danyna with a knife."
[indistinct radio chatter]
Police find a kitchen knife with a three-inch blade.
Danyna was stabbed in the back of the classroom,
and she had run up
to in front of the teacher's desk,
and that trail of blood was 58 feet long.
JIM T.: We figured there must be 15
to 30 kids who had witnessed it.
Detectives were tasked with interviewing as many of those
kids as we could so we could get an idea on what
exactly took place.
I told the investigators
I saw Tanaya stab her in the back
when she was running.
Tanaya didn't seem mad when she was
chasing her with the knife.
She seemed like she wanted her to just die, but she was
happy that she was doing it.
KAYHLA: I told them I could never get
Tanaya's face out of my head.
She was smiling...
the biggest smile I ever seen on her face.
Like, she was happy about this.
She was just taunting her. "I'm gonna kill her."
Her eyes were really blank,
like she didn't have a soul
type of thing.
She was lost, I would say, evil.
NARRATOR: Police piece together the chilling scene.
Some kids are on their desks, some are trying to
go for a window.
The teacher, seeing all of this chaos unfold,
grabs Tanaya, pushes her out of the room.
And still, Tanaya is fighting to get back into
that classroom, screaming,
"I hope you die. I'm going to kill you."
She also screamed,
"You told Evan."
I was gonna be one of the lead detectives on the case.
Danyna was transported to St. John Oakland Hospital,
which is only a few miles from the school.
And patrol had the alleged suspect secured,
and that they were going to be bringing her to
the Warren Police Department shortly.
I went into it thinking it was a fight.
Two girls were throwing punches, and one of them
got a knife out.
What we learned is that it was a little more
cold-blooded than that.
Tanaya is placed in an interview room
with Detective Twardesky.
Her demeanor is calm, but it's intense.
It was readily apparent very early on, I was dealing with
a very highly intelligent person.
NARRATOR: Tanaya refuses to proceed with an interview until
she talks to Evan.
Police locate Evan and arrange the phone call.
JIM T.: They had a whole conversation.
I think it was starting to set in what she had done
and how she had changed
the trajectory of her life dramatically.
JIM T.: So she has the phone conversation, she ends it,
and then she said, "I want to talk to you now."
NARRATOR: When asked to explain what happened at school,
Tanaya admits to bringing a knife with her that day
but denies stabbing Danyna.
NARRATOR: But she is clear about one thing.
JIM T.: I've been a cop for a long time.
You don't expect a scary or creepy statement coming
out of a normal-looking 17-year-old girl who was in
advanced placement classes and getting all As.
It just kind of threw me off, how much hatred
was coming through in her voice.
NARRATOR: While the questioning continues, Danyna succumbs to
her injuries at the hospital.
I was at work,
and my sister called me and said that Danyna
had been stabbed, and she was in surgery.
And I said, "Okay, I'm about to leave,
I'm about to come up there."
But then, not even 3 minutes later, my sister
called me back and said she didn't make it.
I couldn't believe it.
JIM T.: The ER and the hospital staff did everything they could,
but approximately 9:24 a.m., she was declared deceased.
It was determined she had approximately four stab wounds,
one to her heart, two to her back,
and one to the lung.
NARRATOR: Officers gather statements
from traumatized friends and classmates,
who also hear the news that Danyna is gone.
They told us that Danyna passed away when we were in
the multipurpose room doing the interviews.
Everyone, including me, was just devastated.
I was in such shock, with her being such
the sweet girl she was.
Going through that moment and looking at it,
it was heartbreaking.
NARRATOR: 17-year-old Tanaya Lewis
is charged as an adult with
first-degree murder with premeditation.
JIM T.: In this particular case, we had 20-some eyewitnesses.
There was no doubt that she had stabbed
Danyna in the classroom.
NARRATOR: And just as damning is the evidence police uncover
that she planned the attack, from the knife she brought
from home, to handing Evan her last $100,
to the song she was playing on her headphones.
♪ Baby I am not afraid to die ♪
♪ Push me to the edge, all my friends are dead ♪
JIM T.: Tanaya, at that point, I think knew in her mind
what she was planning to do.
And I think that song kind of fit with the way she felt.
She felt pushed to the edge.
KAYHLA: I don't think she seen a life without Evan
at that point.
So once he took back her ring, it really finalized her life
at that moment, you know?
Can't have him, she don't want nothing.
I feel like Tanaya wanted to take Danyna down, as well.
"If I can't have a life, you can't either" type of thing.
ERIKA: Danyna was her target. She was obsessed with Danyna.
But not everyone kills
over obsession.
Not everyone does that.
NARRATOR: In August 2020, Tanaya accepts
a plea deal that spares her a life sentence without parole.
She is sentenced to 27 to 60 years and will be eligible
for parole in 2045.
KAYHLA: I don't think justice was served, no.
She hurt a lot of lives.
She didn't only take Danyna's life.
She ruined the lives of classmates.
This was a very difficult case as far as dealing with all
the students and what they saw and what took place.
It was just a level of violence
that really no one should see.
but for a group of high school kids, I don't know how
they wrap their head around what they saw.
NARRATOR: Danyna Gibson's friends
and family remember her as
a bright light with a promising future,
gone too soon.
Danyna should be remembered as a cheerful, outgoing person,
a straight-A student, somebody who strived to
give everything they could, somebody who just loved life
and wanted to enjoy it.
Every year, um,
on September the 12th, the day that
she passed, we have a candlelight.
I miss Danyna's smile, and I miss
her saying, "Auntie Sharita."
Danyna's death affected us all very deeply,
from then till now, but we still try to share
light and share her honor.
She really had that spirit to, you know, make you happy,
and I really wish she had more time.
On the next Mean Girl Murders.
There is a lot of cattiness.
At the beach there can be a lot of competition.
She was pretty and that turned into power.
She wasn't going to let her get the upper hand.
And that's when the mean girl started coming out.