Everything about Uptown is luxury.
All the young ladies are just very fashionable.
[Casey] There are a lot of women and men in Dallas
that go out for the jugular when they date.
[laughs] So either step up or move out of the way.
We have three different women.
Crystal wants to be Brenda,
and Brenda wants to be Kendra.
She was very gifted in the tricks
and trades of manipulation.
She was the ninth female to ever be placed
on the FBI Most Wanted list.
It's been 3 and 1/2 years of hell.
Everybody think they a genius when it comes to committing
a crime until they get caught.
[theme music playing]
The Uptown neighborhood of Dallas is a safe neighborhood
that everybody feels comfortable walking in.
All of that is shattered on the evening of September 2nd, 2015.
[gunshot blasts]
[phone ringing]
[siren wailing]
[Eric] When I arrived at the parking garage,
I noticed that the victim was a white female.
She appeared to be late 20s, early 30s, brown hair,
laying in a pool of blood.
[Derrick] She was laying on her back.
Appeared that she had a gunshot wound to the head.
[Eric] Laying next to the victim was her cell phone.
Also, there was a magazine from a firearm.
And I looked for the victim's purse,
and there was no purse to be found.
So it just kind of made me aware that maybe this could
have been a robbery that went wrong.
[Lanie] Uptown Dallas is a playground
for young professionals
who want to really socialize where they live.
Whether you want to go to the bars,
the restaurant, you wanna get pampered, get your nails done,
get a massage, whatever it is that you want to do,
it is right there.
[narrator] This is where the Dallas elite
goes to see and be seen,
especially the hot young women with money to burn,
known as the Uptown girls.
The typical Uptown girl is upwardly mobile,
young professional, enjoys the skinny latte,
enjoys going to yoga, buys from Lululemon.
Young, beautiful people who enjoy exercising.
They look like they were going somewhere fancy even though
it was just going to work out.
[Casey] There's a vibe in the community that we're proud
of what we're doing, and, "I'm going to show you that
"I'm making it. I've got the Gucci purse.
"I've got the Prada shoes. I'm going to the right clubs.
"I'm driving a nice car. I've got it.
"I'm proud. I'm gonna show it.
"So either step up and show it
or [clicks tongue] move out of the way."
[narrator] But not every woman in Dallas is living the dream.
Although it's only 12 miles across town, the working class
neighborhood of Pleasant Grove seems light-years away.
[Nekeya] Pleasant Grove is the hood.
Living in Pleasant Grove, you're thinking about,
you know, just not being a victim of crime.
The pressure on everybody that grew up in Pleasant Grove
was to achieve.
People are motivated to make it out of the hood
into Uptown.
[narrator] And there's one woman in Pleasant Grove
who has always known what she wants.
[Nekeya] I met Brenda Delgado in second grade.
She had come from Mexico, and we both were new
to the school.
She would have her personality, playing with her friends
and things like that, but it was always
love and fun.
She didn't have to be the center of attention.
She was not loud.
Her whole goal was make it out of the hood.
[narrator] Brenda knew from an early age
that where you were born
wasn't necessarily where you belonged.
Brenda had high aspirations for herself.
She really wanted to be a dentist,
but unfortunately could not afford the university tuition
that would go into gaining a bachelor's degree and then
going to dental school.
[Nekeya] Brenda became a dental assistant.
It wasn't easy.
I remember the frustration that she went through,
but I also saw the determination, and I saw
her push herself -- I was very proud.
But she wasn't making great pay, so she found a job
working part-time at a luxury spa doing teeth whitening.
So those folks that come into those luxury spas are
the Uptown girls,
enjoying spending on themselves
with their girlfriends.
They were the luxury class, so to speak.
Brenda saw that lifestyle, and she craved the enjoyment,
she craved the access, she craved the exclusivity.
[narrator] Without the means to move up that ladder,
Brenda takes the path of many up-and-comers --
fake it till you make it.
Brenda ended up finding a white Lexus through a car
dealer friend, and she had to take a high-interest car loan
that she could not afford.
She wanted and needed that symbol of status that she's
moving into the right place, that she's an Uptown girl.
All she wanted was for people to see her driving around
Uptown in that white Lexus, and that, for her, meant more
than having to pay that car note.
And even though Brenda didn't live in Uptown Dallas,
she loved going up there to hang out with
her girlfriends and party.
[narrator] By age 30, Brenda has become an Uptown fixture,
even if she doesn't actually live there.
There's just one more thing she needs in order to achieve
the lifestyle of her dreams -- her own Prince Charming.
Brenda gets a lot of attention on her social media profiles.
She's a beautiful brunette who has a lot going for her.
And she meets Dr. Ricky Paniagua.
Ricky Paniagua is from California.
He grew up in a trailer park, and he worked really hard to
go to medical school at Stanford University.
[Casey] Dr. Ricky was finishing up a residency in dermatology,
was on his way up, had already moved into that upscale area,
and was looking to settle down.
[narrator] In other words, he's perfect.
Brenda and Ricky have a first date,
and it's not just any first date.
Ricky really wants to dazzle Brenda, and he decides to take
her to a Jennifer Lopez concert.
It felt good, because no boyfriend she had before that
has taken her to a concert, especially not J-Lo.
They connected with similar cultural backgrounds,
similar economic backgrounds.
He made her believe that he's trustworthy,
that he's driven.
That's different from what she was used to seeing.
We didn't see a lot of driven men in Pleasant Grove.
After three months of dating each other,
Brenda and Ricky move in together.
She was finally living in Uptown Dallas.
From the humble beginnings that Brenda experienced,
moving into an Uptown condo with her boyfriend,
that's a dream come true.
[narrator] The only thing left to do is
get Ricky to put a ring on it.
Brenda and Ricky dated for two and a half years.
That's pretty promising, especially dating a doctor.
The doctor knows exactly what he wants.
And Brenda thought it was a sealed deal.
But then Ricky broke up with her and asked her to move out.
Move out? What is the explanation?
Oh, he just needs to work on himself.
[Casey] It's not you, it's me.
As someone who's put more than two years into a relationship,
you'd want a few more answers.
Where is she supposed to move to?
That was enraging.
She's obviously not about to move anywhere near the quality
that she's currently living in and has been living in
in the past two and a half years.
[narrator] Brenda's been forced to leave
her handsome doctor and their perfect
Uptown life together to go back to the place
she couldn't wait to leave.
But the girl from Pleasant Grove can't just
give up on her dreams.
[Casey] She was bound and determined to have that life.
She was not gonna give up this lifestyle without a fight.
Brenda felt lied to and just humiliated,
devastated by Ricky.
She moved from a nice apartment in Uptown to
a small apartment behind a department store.
I can only imagine how depressing
that could have been.
Everything around Brenda is crashing down.
She's depressed.
She's having difficulty paying her bills.
And she's really feeling the crush of the weight
around her, however, Ricky and Brenda's breakup is
not a typical breakup.
Ricky still continued to pay Brenda's cell phone bill.
They still communicated.
And those things are -- they're a little confusing
to read.
[narrator] But there's something that Brenda took with her when
she left that she hopes will give her some clarity about
what is really going on with Ricky.
She breaks into his computer and steals his passwords.
And she also installs a tracking app on his phone
so that she can monitor his location.
Brenda might be kicked out of Ricky's life,
but she's going to be monitoring him.
[narrator] And what she sees is a total nightmare.
There are a lot of women and men in Dallas that go out
for the jugular when they date.
They date hard.
They put themselves first in a dating situation.
Ricky is dating actively, finding nice women that he's
interested in, taking them out to nice clubs
and VIP experiences.
She's seeing that he's thriving and that he's having
generally a much better time than she is.
[narrator] A handsome single doctor in Dallas
won't go unclaimed for long.
And just four months after breaking up with Brenda,
Dr. Ricky gets snagged up by an Uptown girl with a resume
to die for, 35-year-old Kendra Hatcher.
Kendra Hatcher was from Plains, Illinois,
and she had the all-American childhood.
She was a head cheerleader, and after graduating from
high school with strong academic honors,
she gains her bachelor's degree in
biochemistry and Spanish.
Kendra went to dental school, and she was on top
of the class.
[narrator] After graduating dental school,
Kendra joins a dental practice
in Dallas and moves Uptown.
[Casey] She moved to the 17th floor
of Park Gables 17.
Beautiful views of downtown, all kinds of luxuries that
she was happy to spend on herself.
Self-care, going to the Ritz for spa days.
She was earning good money.
She was excited about her career and what she was
doing, and she wasn't afraid to pamper herself.
People like Kendra run the show.
I was Kendra's yoga teacher.
We met at Bikram Yoga Studio.
She lit up the room.
She always made the effort to see how your day was.
Just that energy that she had, the smile.
[narrator] And if it sounds like Kendra
couldn't be any more perfect,
on top of everything else, she's even a do-gooder.
She worked as a volunteer going to South America for
trips to help children that needed dental care services.
[narrator] Kendra is everything Brenda has always wanted to be.
Beautiful, successful, and kind.
And now, she's got Ricky.
it makes so much sense for them to be together.
Ricky and Kendra's relationship takes off.
They began going on trips together, and Ricky ends up
taking Kendra to visit his family in California.
[Elene] Ricky and Kendra enjoyed life.
They're going out Uptown and having dinner at wonderful
restaurants, and they were always dressed so beautifully
and very stylish.
I'm like, wow, what a life they both are living.
[narrator] Although they haven't yet moved in together,
Kendra and Ricky live their glamorous, romantic life
out loud on social media, unaware that there's one
follower who's watching their every move.
A lot of jealousy and anger start to swirl
inside of Brenda.
[Casey] The more that she keeps tabs on Ricky,
from Brenda's point of view,
this feels like, have I been robbed?
Why am I not there? Why am I here?
So as Brenda goes deeper into monitoring of Ricky,
it turns into the next step of coincidentally
showing up where Ricky is taking salsa lessons,
coincidentally showing up where Ricky is jogging on
a popular path, which Brenda would know because of
Ricky's calendar when she saw him.
He was still friendly, but then when you look at that
from Brenda's point of view, does that mean
he still loves me?
[Nekeya] I just still feel like, even in those moments,
he was still leading Brenda on.
Brenda definitely dealt with insecurity that was provoked
by Ricky.
I do believe that she felt wronged.
I do believe that she felt lied to and deceived by Ricky.
But how can a dental assistant compete with a dentist?
[narrator] Brenda decides that the best way
to vie with the likes of Kendra Hatcher
is to move her way up the ladder.
Brenda wasn't satisfied just being a dental assistant.
She wanted to also become a dental hygienist.
That would increase her pay. That would increase her power.
[narrator] Working part-time and going to school,
Brenda also begins to rebuild
her network of trusted female friends.
[Casey] She draws on two female friends, a friend, Jennifer,
that she's living with as a roommate,
and Crystal Cortes.
[Lanie] Crystal Cortes is the receptionist working in
a dental office.
Crystal lived in a low-income neighborhood with her son.
Crystal saw that Brenda had her life together.
Brenda was riding around in a white Lexus, and she really
aspired to be like her, and she's on Brenda's side,
believing that Kendra stole the lifestyle
she was wanting for herself.
And Crystal wants to help and make it better.
And Brenda starts to take her under her wing.
One night, she decides to look at Ricky's calendar
to see where he and Kendra are going to be.
And she decides that her and her co-worker
are gonna go to the same bar.
[Casey] They go to this nice, lovely, upscale bar.
Then Brenda points out, "Oh, hey, look at that.
Look who's sitting at the bar. That's Kendra."
[Lanie] The thrill that Brenda is feeling when she sees Kendra
and knowing that Ricky could walk through those doors at
any moment,
and then suddenly, Brenda's phone rings.
[phone buzzing]
And it's Ricky on the other end.
[Lanie] Brenda's phone buzzes.
[phone buzzing]
She picks it up, expecting a nice hello,
[phone buzzing]
but instead, she's greeted with an angry Ricky, who's in
the parking lot, realizing that Brenda
is in the same bar as Kendra.
This was not the first coincidence for Ricky
since he and Brenda broke up.
He had been noticing a lot of opportunities that Brenda took
to be in his presence, whether they were running on
the same trail, meeting at the same restaurant.
These coincidences started to build up for Ricky.
And now, he was angry and really wanted Brenda to stop.
"Hey, I really need you to leave,
because this is getting weird."
[Lanie] Brenda doesn't protest. She doesn't fight back.
She packs up her things and walks out the door with
her tail between her legs.
I don't think that Kendra was even aware
that Brenda Delgado existed.
[narrator] And the only thing more insulting than being
less than is being unseen.
By now, Brenda's obsession with Kendra has alienated most
of the people in her life.
The only woman left to turn to is Crystal Cortes,
who's become her ride or die.
And she's down for whatever, so long as it will impress
her new best friend.
After the devastating change of life that occurred when
Ricky and Brenda broke up, I'm sure Brenda needed
a support system.
That's where Crystal Cortes came along.
Brenda begins to bring Crystal along on her stalking rides
of Kendra.
Crystal goes out and buys binoculars so they can amp up
their stalking of Kendra to find out what she's doing
and where she's at.
And this is really Crystal indicating to Brenda that
she's willing to do whatever it takes to
support her friend.
[Casey] It becomes very troubling.
Brenda Delgado is parking in front of Kendra's office,
is watching her, is seeing what's going on.
Crystal Cortes is along for the ride, is not objecting,
is offering thoughts and help.
There's a lot of possibilities in Crystal Cortes's mind.
If Brenda is able to step up to this luxury lifestyle,
is she gonna take me along? Will we go on trips together?
There is a good impetus from Crystal's point of view to
stay involved in this and see where it goes.
[Lanie] So here we have three different women.
We have Kendra as the dentist on top, living a great
and wonderful life.
And then you have Brenda, dental assistant,
who is envious and wanting to be the dentist.
Then Crystal Cortes is the receptionist
working in a dental office.
Crystal wants to be Brenda, and Brenda wants to be Kendra,
no matter the cost.
[phone rings]
[sirens wailing]
Have they got cameras that come in and out of this place?
[man] Yeah, they're checking on it right now.
-Okay. -[man] I don't know.
So we saw the young lady lying on the side of the car,
doors was open.
Ended up running a registration to that car,
and we got her name.
She was Kendra Hatcher.
[Elene] I was at home.
I saw on the news there was a shooting
that happened in Uptown.
A really good friend
called me and was crying on the phone.
She goes, "The person that was shot, it was Kendra."
And, um...
I get chills.
And I just remember just crying.
I couldn't believe it, it's like, this cannot be true.
It's not Kendra. It cannot be Kendra.
You know, what did she do?
She's an amazing person.
Why would someone do that to her?
Why would they rob her?
Why? Why her?
It really just tore me to pieces.
[Eric] While I was at the crime scene, I was speaking with
management of Gables 17, and they told me that there
was a young man that was there that they believe that was
dating Kendra Hatcher named Ricky Paniagua.
And so I had to give him the news that Kendra was dead.
He was pretty speechless.
Ricky, he just kind of lost all emotion.
He seemed as if he was about to go into shock.
I wanted to figure out what he was doing there.
Mr. Paniagua told me that he was waiting on Kendra to
get home from work and that he had seen the police tape
and saw fire and the ambulance, but he didn't know that
we were there for his girlfriend.
[narrator] And who does the distraught doctor
reach out to in his moment of grief?
[Lanie] Ricky texts Brenda to let her know
that Kendra has died.
Brenda immediately replies back to Ricky with condolences
and says that if he needs anything, she's there for him.
[narrator] As investigators process the crime scene,
they test the ammunition clip and spent shell casing found
near Kendra's body for DNA and fingerprints.
But both items are clean.
So they turn their attention to surveillance video from
the parking garage.
Kendra's shooting didn't happen on video,
but upon reviewing the surveillance video,
we see a black Jeep.
The vehicle sat in the parking garage, waiting
and waiting and waiting.
We weren't able to make a clear view of
who our suspect was, even if it was a male or a female.
But we could just see a grainy figure.
But while the suspect vehicle was waiting outside
the parking garage, it pulled at an angle,
and we were able to actually get a clear shot at a driver.
The driver appeared to be a female with dark hair.
[Derrick] Couldn't get a license plate
off of the surveillance video.
So we released the video to the media, asking the public
for help to identify the car.
[narrator] Within hours, they catch a break.
I received a phone call from an attorney that was
representing an individual named Luis Ortiz.
Luis actually hired an attorney and wanted to
protect his own interests because he realized that
the Jeep in the parking garage was his.
Luis Ortiz is a mechanic that lives in the Dallas area.
He's telling me, "Hey, I loaned the Jeep out to
Brenda Delgado."
And I learned Brenda had been in a long-term relationship
with Ricky Paniagua.
They were live-in boyfriend and girlfriend for a while,
and they abruptly ended the relationship a few months
before Ricky met Kendra.
So at this point, I'm like, I need to sit down and talk
with her, and she voluntarily came in and wanted to sit down
and to clear her name.
-[door creaking] -[indistinct talking]
Like I said, I appreciate you coming down and talking to me.
[Brenda] Yes, sir. Of course.
When I asked Brenda about where her whereabouts were on
the day of the crime, she said, "I was dropped off at
"a library, I was studying for an exam with friends,
and I had dinner with a couple of classmates."
And not only did she have answers, she had receipts
showing where she was at.
[Eric] This murder happened around seven o'clock.
Brenda wasn't there. She had an alibi.
And it really threw me for a loop.
I have a brunette driving the vehicle inside
the parking garage at the time of the murder.
And if this brunette is not Brenda,
I need to figure out who it is.
Brenda simply explained to me that her friend,
Crystal Cortes, was the driver of the Jeep.
So she actually got the keys, but it wasn't for her.
It was for Crystal.
And so Crystal dropped Brenda off while Crystal was running
errands all around Dallas.
[narrator] Could Crystal have gone rogue
with the hope that reuniting
Ricky and Brenda would improve her own station in life?
There's only one way to find out.
She said that she was taking her son to a dog park that was
nearby, and that she was looking for parking
and a gentleman forced his way inside the vehicle
at gunpoint.
[Eric] Okay.
[Eric] He gets out of the vehicle.
[Eric] And he got back in the vehicle
and forced her to drive away.
I had a huge problem with this story.
[narrator] And with that, Crystal finally comes clean.
[narrator] After weeks of tagging along with Brenda,
it seems Crystal wanted
a slice of Kendra's lifestyle for herself.
[Eric] She said she intentionally took the shooter
to the parking garage because she wanted Kendra's purse.
And the robbery went wrong.
We needed to figure out who he is and figure out
if she's actually telling the truth.
[narrator] Detectives obtain a search warrant
for Crystal's phone.
They discover that on the day of the murder, Crystal dialed
one contact that she had never called before.
They traced the number to a man named Kristopher Love.
[Eric] Kristopher Love was a drug dealer.
We used his cell phone to track him down.
It's the same cell phone he was in contact with Crystal with.
[narrator] While Mr. Love is being interviewed,
crime scene techs search his car,
where they find a critical piece of evidence.
[Eric] We did a search on his vehicle, which ultimately
turned up a firearm, which matched the magazine
and ammunition found at the scene,
and also the shell casing that
was used to kill Kendra Hatcher.
[narrator] Crystal Cortes and Kristopher Love
are both arrested.
But something still doesn't sit right with
Detective Barnes.
[Eric] I had a really hard time believing that two people
would plan a robbery just for a purse,
and it just went wrong.
Someone was a mastermind behind this murder.
Unknown to Brenda, there is reason to believe that Crystal
has something to gain.
If Ricky got back with Brenda, Crystal can get back on that
upscale girl track, that premium lifestyle.
While we was at the scene investigating Kendra's death,
we learned that the boyfriend arrived.
Now, that was important.
During my conversation with Ricky, I found out that he was
waiting on Kendra to get off work, and he was the last
person that I believe actually spoke with her.
I wanted to take a look at his cell phone.
I felt like his cell phone would provide me with
a opportunity to see what he was doing during this time,
and maybe there was some communication between him
and someone else.
When I asked Ricky for his cell phone, there was
resistance as to why we needed to look at his phone.
It raised a red flag.
[Eric] Ricky was Kendra Hatcher's boyfriend.
So obviously, looking at his phone was huge for me to
figure out if he was involved, but he was a little cautious.
So I explained to him, look, this is what
I'm looking for, and this is why I need to do this.
He complied.
There was some patient info that he had in his phone that
he was concerned with HIPAA laws that he didn't want
it just disclosed.
So we were able to work around that.
I was able to figure out he had no communication with
any of the parties that were actually involved
in the offense
and ultimately ended up clearing him.
[narrator] With Dr. Ricky in the clear,
the detectives still have no motive
for why Crystal Cortes and Kristopher Love would
target Kendra Hatcher for a robbery.
[narrator] Finally, after hours of lies and half-truths,
Crystal Cortes gives up the goods.
This case is definitely what I would consider
a murder for hire.
Brenda was very, very gifted
in the tricks and trades of manipulation.
And in a very short amount of time, she could meet someone,
figure out what it was that they needed in life,
and how to introduce that thing to them to get them to
do whatever it is she needed to do.
Kristopher Love was looking to get going in the Dallas
market with the drug trade.
[Eric] Brenda was promising him that she could hook him up with
the drug cartel and give him a supply of cocaine if
he carried out this murder for her.
In reality, she had no access to a drug cartel.
The idea was to create this distance between herself
and Kendra by adding these third parties that wouldn't be
traced back to her.
[narrator] Brenda may have been playing the long game
with Crystal, but she didn't count on
her so-called best friend being willing to throw
her under the bus to save her own skin.
Brenda believed that she could commit a murder and could take
a human being's life for her own selfish purposes
and that the world was gonna carry on
and never skip a beat.
She was maintaining a fairly normal life,
but secretly, she had this world that was very dangerous
for her and also very dangerous for Ricky
and for Kendra, and I think that
it all came crashing down for her.
[narrator] Crystal agrees to cooperate
with the investigation and testify
against Brenda and Kristopher.
But the mastermind of this entire scheme is suddenly
impossible to find.
Brenda realized that she was on a sinking ship, and she
needed to get out of Dallas fast.
And then 48 hours later, Brenda Delgado was on a bus to
Mexico, fleeing the country.
We came up with a plan to get her put on the FBI Most Wanted
list, and I think she was the ninth female to ever be
placed on that list.
[narrator] With a price on Brenda's head,
it doesn't take long before
someone close to her gets greedy.
We received a tip that Brenda was hiding out in Mexico,
and the FBI actually took Brenda into custody.
[narrator] Nearly four years
after the murder of Kendra Hatcher,
Brenda Delgado finally stands trial in a Dallas courtroom.
She pleads not guilty.
I was on the jury panel of the Brenda Delgado
murder trial.
Kendra's mother was one of the first people to testify.
And she said, "Mom, she's been shot.
And I'm like, what? What do you mean she's been shot?"
And then -- and then she said
that she didn't make it.
And it's been three and a half years of hell ever since.
[Casey] Listening to her and the heartbreak that she had,
her daughter was gone, the future was gone,
Things have changed irrevocably for that family,
but I saw zero remorse.
Brenda was sitting there staring lifelessly.
The only time was when Ricky was testifying.
She looked directly at him and listened to him.
She was, um,
offering any assistance, such as, um,
providing groceries.
To me, it was an open-and-shut case.
[reporter] Some breaking news, we just learned that the jury
has reached a verdict in the murder-for-hire trial
involving alleged mastermind Brenda Delgado.
She's been found guilty of capital murder.
[Casey] Scares me, just our human nature
of those darker feelings.
That frenemy thing that women have, help me get what I want,
and Crystal Cortes was pulled into that.
There's just so many lives that are changed irrevocably.
Kendra's family are trying to heal and trying to move on
without their daughter, without their sister,
without their niece.
How could this be worth it?
How could a young woman's life be worth this tainted,
messed up vision you have for your future that's never gonna
be there anyway?
So what's Brenda's happily ever after?
Literally sitting in prison until the day she dies.
My takeaway from this story is don't lead
people on -- cut off all communication.
If you're done, you're done.
As the case was happening, I still felt like, no,
she couldn't have done that. How?
It's just difficult. It's very difficult to accept.
There are no winners in this situation.
[Elene] Kendra, she left such a big hole in my heart,
I still cannot believe she's gone.
When it first happened, I mean, I would still try to look for
her in the yoga room, like I was waiting for her to walk in
the studio at those times.
A lot of students and teachers to this day still
remember Kendra.
They miss her. We really miss her.
There's a big hole in
this world, not having her in our lives.
[narrator] On the next Mean Girl Murders...
She was just a fireball.
But she was on this dark path.
And that turned out to be a very toxic thing.
She said, "If you tell anybody, I'll kill you. Love you, bye."