[camera shutters clicking]
To stand out, you have to be nothing less than perfect.
They're both really proving themselves to be a force
to be reckoned with.
[Tatianna] This girl came in, and she's flipping.
It's almost like she could walk on air.
But nobody likes a sore loser, you know?
[Jessie] She's turning into a different version of herself,
a harder, more bitter, angrier version of herself.
[man shouting]
You could see the damage that had been done to her.
Every competitor has a target list
who they need to get rid of in order to succeed.
[theme music playing]
Las Vegas is, of course, this place of great excess.
It's Sin City.
[Gayle] You can let your hair down.
You can go out and have a good time and enjoy Vegas for what
it is, I mean, it's exciting.
You don't get a name like Sin City unless
there's some sin going on.
[narrator] But for female fitness and female bodybuilding
athletes, Sin City is the arena for Ms. Olympia,
the gold standard for both categories
in the highly competitive sport.
[Gayle] To actually compete in the Ms. Olympia, you have to
have qualified at one of the other professional shows,
like the Miss International Bodybuilding
or the Miss International Fitness.
The difference between fitness competitions and bodybuilding
other than looks,
the fitness girls, they pose very similar as
we do, but they have a fitness routine that they have to
perform to music, which is very gymnastic.
It will have flips, whereas the bodybuilders,
we didn't have to do the flips and the jumps and the splits.
The competition was pretty fierce.
[Lee] It was pretty hard to get anywhere close to the Olympia.
It was a long journey involved.
The higher up the ladder you climb,
the harder it becomes.
[narrator] And some women are willing to do anything to win.
Everybody clawing for very few positions in the spotlight
creates a culture [inhales deeply]
of mean girls, essentially.
It's people who are willing to do whatever it takes
to get ahead.
And if that means running over some friends or frenemies,
then they'll do it.
You have to be really competitive
but not show that you're competitive.
You only have to give that porcelain face
and not let anyone know.
[Lee] They'll be saying things behind people's backs.
They'll rarely say something in front of somebody.
They have a cattiness, and they have a competitiveness,
but they're more coy about showing it.
Without naming names, I've heard, you know,
people will come up to other competitors, and they'll be,
"Oh, yeah, oh, you look great, oh, oh, my God, you know,
yeah, good luck," and everything.
And then you'll hear from a friend of theirs that they'd
said, "Oh, my God, so-and-so looks [bleep]."
[laughing] You know what I mean?
[Tatianna] That competitive nature can be a bit dark, I'll say that.
It can create a monster. It just does.
[distant siren wailing]
It's the wee small hours of a December morning just west of
Las Vegas in the desert.
A volunteer fire chief is called out to a scene where
there is a burning car.
The original call that came into 911 was a truck driver
that was passing by
and saw a vehicle that was engulfed in flames.
That call then went into the Mountain Springs
Fire Department to the chief of the fire department,
a volunteer firefighter.
He responded out to the car fire.
He was able to extinguish the fire.
He shined his flashlight into the backseat area, which had
been completely consumed by the fire.
Just had the frame for the backseat.
And through the wall, the back wall of the vehicle
into the trunk, he was able to see what he thought to be
human remains.
[distant siren wailing]
Once we had personnel on scene, we were able to pry the trunk
of the vehicle open.
It was pretty much our impression at that point
that we were more than likely dealing with a female body.
We could tell that an accelerant was used,
because you could smell it.
It was clear to us that it was something
similar to charcoal lighter fluid.
The chief of the fire department was able to copy
down the license plate of the vehicle when
he initially responded.
And we were informed that the vehicle was registered to
a Kelly Ryan, one of the top women's fitness competitors
for years.
[Jessie] Kelly Ryan was born in 1972 in Minnesota,
and she was a really
adorable child from a great family, loving parents.
Her family traveled around quite a bit, and she ended up
in Texas at the age of six, where they found out she was
incredibly talented at gymnastics.
She was so good at gymnastics that she ended up training with
the world-famous coach, Bela Karolyi.
Bela Karolyi is known for creating Olympic champions.
[announcer] Only a handful will have a chance to make the Olympics,
but Karolyi demands Olympic-style dedication
from them all.
Kelly, from a very early age, seemed to exhibit a highly
competitive nature -- she always wanted to win.
[narrator] Despite her hard work,
Kelly decides not to chase an Olympic dream.
But she is so athletic that she gets a scholarship to
University of South Carolina for athletics.
Kelly liked the aspect of competition, because it gave
her great satisfaction to beat someone, you know, to know that
you've beaten someone and you are better than someone.
You derive satisfaction from overcoming other people.
So you're not jumping hurdles, you're jumping people.
[Jessie] In 1994, Kelly's about to leave college,
and she manages to catch
a female fitness competition on ESPN,
and she falls in love with it.
She now has a new career path.
She knows that this is a world that she can succeed in.
When Kelly Ryan first appeared on the scene,
it was like a bullet.
It's hard for anybody, even with no interest in
fitness competitions to not be glued to her performance,
because the degree of athleticism was so intense.
You just couldn't keep your eyes off her.
[narrator] 23-year-old Kelly begins winning first place
right out of the gate.
I first met Kelly at a fitness show.
[announcer] Kelly Ryan!
[Gayle] Kelly was in fitness. I was in bodybuilding.
She was just always smiling, laughing.
I mean, very competitive. I really liked her.
I met Kelly at the Mr. and Ms. Olympia, the expo.
She was angelic. She was very sweet to meet her.
And then you see her on stage, and she was...she was a beast.
She showed exactly who she was. She was Flyin' Ryan.
Kelly got that name because, at that time, yes,
the girls were doing cute routines,
but this girl came in, and she's flipping and she's flipping.
And she's -- it's almost like she had springs on the bottoms
of her heels.
You know, it's almost like she could walk on air.
She gave performances that could have been
in a daggone circus.
[announcer] Fantastic job, Kelly!
Because of her agility, her skill,
her gymnastic background, her charisma on stage,
she immediately started winning competitions, and she became
a force to be reckoned with in the fitness world.
[announcer] And our 1996 winner of the Fitness America Pageant,
Kelly Ryan! Congratulations, Kelly!
[Jessie] Kelly really starts to make
a name for herself in this industry.
She's just blowing people out of the water with her athletic
ability and these routines that she comes up with.
She would do anything to stay in that number one slot.
[narrator] But staying number one isn't easy,
given the tough competition.
We've got competitors like Jenny Hendershott.
[Tatianna] Jenny was fierce. She was an amazing competitor.
She was poised. She was beauty.
Jenny Hendershott was a Barbie.
We've got Adela Garcia...
♪ Boom boom boom boom boom boom ♪
...who was born in the Dominican Republic.
She brought this spiciness that
really wasn't seen and had not been seen before.
[singing indistinctly] ♪ Ya ya ♪
Another competitor that comes to mind is Susie Curry.
[Tatianna] Susie was more polished.
At that time, Susie,
do you know they say someone can turn a phrase?
Susie could turn a pose.
Susie could turn a flip.
Yes, Kelly was Flyin' Ryan, but there was a finesse that
Susie had.
It was a ribbon ceremony with her body.
[Jessie] They're all coming up together.
They're friendly with one another,
and they are kind of friends.
[narrator] But even with friends, in this world,
you always need to watch your back.
There's always gonna be a rivalry.
I mean, it's just a part of the package.
It could cause even the closest of friends who are competing
against each other to just turn sour.
This powder keg of pitting yourself against other women
will result in Kelly ending up in a very volatile situation,
a very competitive situation,
one in which she has never been in before.
-[man] 17, please. -[scattered applause]
[Lee] Kelly was a force.
Nothing can stop you, because you won't let
anything stop you.
You have an endgame, and nothing's gonna get in your way.
[announcer] Kelly Ryan.
Always being in that top spot, it was do or die for her.
It really was, it was a lot of pressure,
because there were so many wonderful competitors.
[narrator] Kelly's competitors aren't the only ones watching
the young star rise.
While on stage during a competition in Florida a few
years earlier, Flyin' Ryan catches the eye of the top
male bodybuilder, 30-year-old Craig Titus.
Craig was 100% the it guy.
He was a merchandiser's dream back then, because not only was
he the big, muscular guy, but he was a good-looking guy.
I mean, he looked great on the cover of magazines.
This guy is a big deal
metaphorically, but also a big deal physically and literally.
This guy is huge.
[narrator] He is known as the bad boy of bodybuilding.
I met him backstage again at all the competitions.
He was always super polite to me, but I know he had some
conflicts with several of the bodybuilders.
A lot of the guys didn't care for him.
He's just kind of out of control temper-wise,
just very arrogant.
[Tatianna] So I was doing a photo shoot,
and, like, I knew who he was.
And I remember him coming, asking me how I was doing.
He was super, super, super nice.
He is just the sweetest person in the world.
He really is.
But is he crazy? Yup.
That was almost a prerequisite for being in that top.
[narrator] And now he's making his move on the fitness queen.
[Tatianna] I knew that he liked her, but I don't know that she fell
head over heels for him as fast as he did for her.
For her, he might have been a bit of a liability.
Despite their very different reputations,
Kelly as a good girl,
Craig as a bad boy,
they did have one very important thing in common,
which was they were both ambitious.
[narrator] And Kelly's no fool, bad boy or not,
having Craig on her arm could make her even more famous.
When they became a couple, they became what
the bodybuilding world loves to refer to as a power couple.
They would get more gigs, they would get more
guest posing, they would get more opportunities.
[narrator] It's enough to infuriate anyone competing against her.
[Jessie] But this is a great feeling for Kelly.
They have a lot of appearances and meetings to manage,
so they need to get an assistant, and luckily,
they have the perfect person in mind, Melissa James.
[narrator] Not long after Kelly and Craig begin dating in 1999,
22-year-old Melissa James meets the couple in
Panama City, Florida.
[Jessie] Melissa James was born in New Jersey in 1977.
She's a highly motivated, very energetic, very adorable
child in New Jersey, but eventually, her family moves
to Florida, and that's where she really blossoms.
In her teenage years, she's a cheerleader,
she's on the dance team.
She's just an absolutely gorgeous young woman, too.
[Alisa] I met Melissa James when she was just fresh out
of school, she was 19 years old.
She was a teacher at one of my friends' dance studios,
and she started teaching my daughter dance at three.
She was great with the children, they loved her.
She worked there probably about maybe a year,
and then she opened up her own studio.
Melissa was big into not just dance, but fitness.
She was huge into fitness and to
her body and choreographing and videos.
She had met Craig and Kelly
at a bodybuilding competition here.
[Jessie] Melissa was working in a promotional capacity,
and they were there, as well, being paid to be there as part
of the event.
And they all just really clicked.
Melissa really looked up to Kelly quite a bit,
and they really were close -- Kelly trusted her.
[narrator] It's not long before Melissa is
working as an assistant for the dynamic and powerful duo,
moving between Florida and their home
in Venice Beach, California.
Melissa's biggest dream was to be a dance choreographer.
Her impression was that they were going to introduce
her to people in the industry
that could help her grow in that area.
I thought that that was great for her, because I knew she was
bigger than what this small town was.
I thought it was great that they were offering her these
things and to help her blossom and grow in the industry.
[narrator] After a year of dating,
the superstar of the fitness world
and her number one fan trade the stage for an altar.
Wonder of wonders, this unlikely couple
get married, and they get married
in a little chapel in Vegas.
And they buy a beautiful, gorgeous five-bedroom mansion.
They would receive, like, Hollywood royalty.
[Lee] They're given the best tables at restaurants.
They're invited to the best parties.
Everyone wants to have them in their circle.
It is definitely the place for them.
The lights, the action, the flashiness.
And Melissa's gonna come along for the ride.
For six years, the fitness competitions has
been Kelly's life.
She is now a veteran of this industry.
She has earned every number one,
every number two she's ever gotten.
She has put her whole energy, her whole body,
her whole being into these competitions.
But she wants to win Ms. Fitness Olympia.
She never has.
[Gayle] The Olympia, whether it be for bodybuilders or fitness
competitors, is the final show of the year.
So it's just the show that every competitor wants to win
and have that title.
[narrator] Claiming Ms. Fitness Olympia makes it official.
Whoever holds this coveted title has the bragging rights
as the country's top fitness queen of the sport.
And Kelly is determined to claim her "it" season and to
snag the title from the reigning winner, Susie Curry.
Susie Curry is in it to win it.
She's got a strong hold on that, you know, on that trophy.
She holds onto that trophy like the Statue of Liberty with that,
with that flame -- she's not letting go.
I'm sure Kelly had to be wondering, what do I need
to do, do I need to up my fitness routine?
Do I need to change my physique?
You know, what is it I need to do to change to, you know,
to win this title?
[Tatianna] She made it very known that when
she didn't win that trophy, this was mine.
And I don't understand what's going on.
She started to get angry.
I do remember Kelly talking about that and complaining
about it -- she was ready to blow up.
She's looking at Susie Curry, because every competitor has
a target list, a hit list, if you like.
You know, like an executioner
as to who they need to get rid of in order to succeed.
[narrator] For the second year in a row,
Susie Curry has achieved what Kelly cannot.
[announcer] Susie Curry.
This is a very tumultuous time for Kelly.
[announcer] Second place, Kelly Ryan!
[Jessie] Even though Kelly has the most raw athletic talent
that's usually on stage, she's still not winning Ms. Olympia.
Nothing is working for her.
Kelly is starting to go, well, why?
Is it about my body?
Is it about something cosmetically I could change?
So Kelly gets an incredible amount of plastic surgery done.
She gets a boob job, she gets a nose job,
she gets lip injections.
She looks like a totally different person.
[Tatianna] You change your eye color, you change your hair color,
you get boobs, you do all these things because we're gonna do
whatever we have to do to win.
[Jessie] And many people believe that this was all at Craig's
behest, his instruction.
At the same time, Craig is going through his own battle.
He also has not become Mr. Olympia.
He would do anything to win, and that was including
steroid use, and in Craig's case, overuse of steroids.
[narrator] It isn't enough for both competitors
who are desperate to win big.
They were supposed to be Mr. and Ms. Olympia.
[narrator] But their lifestyle in Las Vegas
may be standing in the way of their success.
Kelly and Craig's parties were, I wouldn't say famous,
probably notorious.
Because they just turned into full-out orgies of drugs
and, you know, sex, and anything went.
Everything was fueled with drugs.
And it's just like, you know, they would go on for days.
They were a party couple.
There might have been a narcotic here,
a narcotic there, a naked girl here, a naked guy there.
All these women were flocking around him because of
his bad boy image.
You know, it wasn't like -- that wasn't a deterrent,
that was the attraction.
[narrator] And Craig doesn't mind all the attention his adoring fans
are willing to give, whether Kelly likes it or not.
I think when she saw all the women he was attracting,
she must have known that he was sleeping with these other women,
as well.
Kelly is focused on her career.
She may have let him know,
listen.
You can put one big toe outside the line, but don't go too far.
[narrator] Still, Craig can't stop himself.
He's had his eye on a younger woman
who's under the same roof.
There was one story where he had Melissa get her nails
done, and so when she came home, Kelly saw that her nails
were done, and he was pointing out how beautiful her nails
were, just to get Kelly's ire up.
I mean, who does that?
It's pure entertainment for the narcissist.
Melissa shared with me that he wanted to have
a relationship, and she was not comfortable with that,
because he was married.
I think Kelly got very jealous of Melissa.
I mean, Kelly was a beautiful woman,
but Melissa was just...dynamic.
[Lee] At this point, Kelly was silently spiraling.
That energy, that light that had propelled Flyin' Ryan to
the top, it was starting to dim, and now she's also fighting to
keep her husband's attention.
Kelly was developing a real hatred towards Melissa.
She was competing with another woman for her own husband.
And let's face it, Kelly had enough competition
on the stage -- she didn't need it in her home.
This is all a lot for Melissa to deal with.
So she realizes, this might not be
professionally what I signed up for.
I'm not really getting the mentorship that I was
looking for.
Her career hasn't launched in the same way that
she had hoped.
[narrator] So Melissa makes the tough call to go home to Florida
permanently and restart her life there.
She was very disappointed, because she really thought that
they would help her with her dream, and it didn't turn
out that way at all. She said, "I'm done.
I'm not going to talk to them anymore."
She was not gonna go back, and she then decides to open up
another studio, and I remember that
very clearly, because she was very excited about it.
[narrator] With her competition for Craig's attention gone,
Kelly can turn her focus back to winning Ms. Olympia.
But once again, she suffers yet another defeat
to the reigning queen, Susie Curry.
Her self-esteem has to be, I mean, in the gutter.
[narrator] And with Kelly coming in second, not only in
Ms. Olympia, but smaller competitions,
as well,
Craig is taking her losses personally, too.
Despite everything that he's doing to accelerate
Kelly's career, none of it seems to be working.
And so he starts to spiral even when he's in the audience.
He can't handle seeing his work of art not be judged as such.
[bleep]
It was her turn, it was going to be her "it" season.
But she's 31 at this point.
She has been doing this for 8 long years.
And she's pouring thousands of dollars into
plastic surgery and training
and she's not having her it time.
She is somebody that doesn't want to give up and is willing
to fight, but it's getting harder every day,
and she's turning into
a different version of herself, a harder,
more bitter, angrier version of herself.
[Lee] It has been alluded to that they had violent fights.
Now there was never any explanation further than
the word violent, but I wasn't there.
[Jessie] Kelly doesn't realize the danger she may be in with
her husband because he has always put her on a pedestal.
So maybe she doesn't care if he's a roided out monster, as
long as he's her monster.
[Lee] Craig spent all this money on having reconstructive surgeries
done to her body, be it cosmetic or just,
you know, physical, and nothing seems to be working.
There has to be a degree of frustration for them both,
and maybe she saw how much attention that Melissa
got from Craig.
Maybe she thought, oh, I'm gonna be a brunette,
and I'll get that attention.
I don't know if this is true or not.
Nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Something must have happened in those last years that has just
really damaged her, whether it be at herself,
mentally, or whether it be someone within her circle,
you know, whether it be Craig, who's hurt her so badly that
she's damaged emotionally, mentally.
I don't know.
[narrator] Kelly Ryan's burnt car has just been found
in the Nevada desert
with a female body in the trunk.
Detectives race to her home to notify her husband.
Detective Wilson and Detective Mogg
arrived at the registered address for Kelly Ryan,
and they knocked on the door to inform whoever was living there
that more than likely we had the body of Kelly Ryan found
inside her burned out Jaguar.
But instead, to their surprise,
Kelly Ryan is the one that answered the door.
[Jessie] Back in Florida, Melissa's dance studio had
actually closed.
It seems like perfect timing, then, when Craig and Kelly get
in touch with her and tell her that they are launching
their own apparel brand, and they will have
a retail store, that she would be
perfect in the position of manager.
She believed with that two years of space, everyone had
matured a little bit, the air had certainly cleared.
She thought this might be the perfect opportunity that
she needed at the right time.
[Tatianna] She moved right back in like nothing had ever changed.
Like, she just popped right back into the household
to help them with the clothing business and to be
their assistant and to help them in every facet.
[narrator] But after a few weeks,
it becomes clear nothing has changed after all.
[Dean] Craig is paying more attention to Melissa again.
You have Kelly that's been surgically altered and gone
through all these issues, and she's older versus Melissa.
She's not surgically changed in any way,
and so that increased the tension between
the two women.
Melissa finds herself back in the middle of Craig and Kelly
and their dysfunction.
So she told her mother that it just wasn't happening and that
it was probably best that she come home permanently.
[narrator] On December 12th, the tension is so bad,
Melissa moves out of the house, and Craig buys her
a one-way ticket home.
[door creaks open]
When the detectives knocked on the door, and they were met by
Kelly Ryan, they were taken aback by it, no question.
After the shock wears off that Kelly Ryan is not the victim
that was found in the desert, they definitely need to speak
with her to figure out who this mystery victim is now.
[Dean] Part of what Kelly told us is that
at about 5 o'clock in the morning,
she had gone into the garage, and she saw that
the Jaguar was missing.
And she suspected that their live-in assistant,
Melissa James, had snuck back into the house
and had stolen the car.
Kelly didn't report it to the police because they were
hoping that she would bring it back, and they didn't want to
get her in trouble by reporting the car stolen.
Kelly told detectives that they, over the past couple of
weeks, prior to the Jaguar being missing, that they had
discovered that Melissa was using their credit card outside
of what she had been given authorization to do.
She explained that they went into Melissa's room
and searched through it, and that's when they found
the credit card.
They also found receipts and other information, too,
regarding their account information and Kelly's
personal information.
According to Kelly, she told detectives that
she had an argument with Melissa over the accusations of
taking money from them
and that they were done and that Melissa was being
essentially kicked out of the house.
[narrator] While Kelly gives her version of events
over the past few days,
Craig is interviewed separately.
[Dean] He also said that they suspected that Melissa was
stealing from them.
He told Detective Mogg that he knew about Melissa using
the credit cards, and that he had been -- he had
given her permission to do that.
But when the fight occurred between Kelly and Melissa,
he took Melissa to the local hotel
just for everything to cool down.
He purchased a one-way ticket for Melissa to go back home,
and he brought her back to the house on the afternoon of
the 13th so that Melissa could pack up her things in order to
make the trip back for Christmas.
[Jessie] At this point, detectives believe the body
that was found in the trunk was Melissa James.
Or, if she is not the body that's in that burning car,
then where is she?
[narrator] While they await forensic testing of
the remains in Kelly's burned car, detectives drilled deeper
into Craig and Kelly's story.
We had the location of the local hotel where Craig
said that he took Melissa.
We were able to go there and confirm that.
We have the debit card, and we were able to see
purchases that occurred at a local Walmart.
We were able to pull surveillance video
for the time period
of the last purchase, which was approximately
4 o'clock in the morning on the 14th.
[narrator] Detectives are stunned at what they see.
We saw who we recognized to be
Kelly Ryan wearing a red jumpsuit
with white stripes on it.
We were able to track her all the way through the store.
We found that she purchased seven large bottles
of charcoal the lighter fluid,
and then she left the store.
We saw the red Jaguar pull up in front of the door.
You could tell that the driver was a very large individual,
we believed to be Craig Titus,
get out of the driver's seat as Kelly brought the lighter fluid,
and they put it behind the driver's seat
of the vehicle.
Craig got back in the driver's seat.
Kelly got into the passenger seat.
Nobody opened the trunk of the vehicle to put
the recently purchased items.
We still needed to confirm things by getting a DNA sample
from the body.
But I was confident at that point that we were
investigating the murder of Melissa James.
Based on the evidence we had, that was enough for us to then
put together a declaration of arrest for Craig and Kelly.
On the 20th, we call the criminal
apprehension team to go to their address and take Craig
and Kelly into custody.
But when they go to get Kelly and Craig,
they're gone -- they've taken off.
We have no activity. We don't have their vehicles.
We don't see anything happening.
Kelly and Craig left that house never to go across
the threshold again -- they never went back.
It hurt to know that my friend Craig and Kelly
were even involved in this.
It didn't match their personality.
It didn't match who I knew them to be.
[Dean] I got a phone call from a criminal defense attorney
saying that he had a client by the name of Megan Foley.
She was a friend of Craig and Kelly.
So we had already talked to Megan.
We got kind of a superficial interview.
And now Megan is reporting that she had been given some items
by Craig and that she wanted to meet with the police again.
[narrator] Megan is ready to tell the truth about her
and her husband's visit with Kelly and Craig
on the evening of December 13th,
the night before Kelly's car is found burning in the desert.
One of the things that Megan told us is she was talking to
Kelly, who told her this allegation that Melissa was
stealing from them.
Kelly told Megan that she and Melissa had gotten into a fight
about the theft earlier that day.
And during the fight, Kelly said something about
Melissa pulling this taser on her.
And then Kelly tells Megan that she was able to get the taser
away from her and that she used the taser on Melissa,
but that didn't have the effect that she wanted to have on it.
[Jessie] Megan told police that Kelly screamed for help from Craig,
who came running, and at that point,
he grabbed Melissa, and he body slammed her
into the floor.
And from that point on, he began beating her.
He began beating her senseless.
Kelly did not seem horrified by this.
In fact, she joined in.
[Dean] Craig ended up confessing to Megan
that he had killed Melissa,
and even to the point where he told her that Melissa was in
the trunk of the Jaguar.
Finally, they find an appropriate break to say,
"Wow, it's getting really late. We've got to go."
And as they're heading out the door, Craig says,
"Hey, while you go, just take this with you, will you?"
And he hands them a black duffel bag.
[Dean] And she's like, "That's not ours."
I mean, "Why are you giving me that?"
And then Craig
suggested that he had already talked to her husband about it.
So after they got back to the house,
Megan and her husband opened the bag.
And they find inside the bag, the case and the taser
contained inside it.
[narrator] Megan was shocked that her friends not only
confessed about torturing and killing Melissa
for supposedly stealing from them,
they also bragged about it.
[Dean] Megan said that one of the reasons she didn't go to
the police was because she was fearful of what Craig Titus
might do.
[narrator] Megan also reveals
Kelly and Craig are headed to Boston
and then out of the country.
[Dean] And that blew things wide open.
They intended to meet up with this bodybuilder friend
in Boston.
We were in touch with that person.
We now had that person, for fear of being involved,
on the side of law enforcement and cooperating in the capture
of Craig and Kelly.
When Craig and Kelly got to the Boston area, we know that
they were in contact with this bodybuilder.
But Craig, uh,
went to get the oil changed on the truck, and Kelly was
getting her nails done at the time that
they were apprehended.
She didn't look anything like the magazine covers
and the promo photos -- you could see the scars.
You could see the damage that had been done
to her over the years,
again, at Craig's prompting to make her look better.
[Gayle] How arrogant.
You know, you're just there just living your life,
and you've killed someone else. Where's your humanity?
I mean, just -- you've lost your way somewhere.
Something's, you know, you're lost.
[Alisa] When they got arrested, I was happy, but I was shocked,
and I was mad,
because she was getting her nails done,
and he's sitting in the car like any --
like just a normal day.
[narrator] Craig is charged with the murder of Melissa James,
kidnapping, and third-degree arson.
Kelly is charged with battery, substantial bodily harm,
and third-degree arson.
Weeks later, dental records confirm that the victim in
the trunk is Melissa James.
We think collectively that there never was this misuse of
the credit card, there never was stealing.
There was jealousy on the part of Kelly
for Melissa getting more attention than
really she should.
This is really a tragedy of Kelly's character, because of
all of her experiences in life, -[woman] Congratulations, Kelly!
because of the way she had treated women, and women had
treated her and the pitting of women against each other
for her entire career,
when she felt that rage because Craig wanted Melissa,
she didn't turn it towards her husband.
She turned it toward the woman.
And they killed an innocent person.
[narrator] As the trial is about to begin,
everything suddenly changes.
Craig and Kelly both plead guilty.
Craig is sentenced to 21 to 55 years in prison.
Kelly is sentenced to two consecutive terms
of three to 13 years.
She serves nine years and is released in 2017.
The power couple divorce in 2009
while they are both in prison.
Those close to Melissa hold tight to memories of
her gentle, beautiful spirit.
Craig and Kelly didn't just take away Melissa.
They took a lot of girls' dreams.
Oh.
That's a hard one for me.
My daughter didn't dance after Melissa was killed.
She quit dancing, so it's really hard.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Oh, if I had one last thing to say to Melissa, I would just
tell her how missed she was
and how much I miss our birthday luncheons
and that
I hope she's dancing.