0:01

Tonight on Dateline. Introducing Elvis Music. That's

0:03

what we do. Mr. Scott Sessions right here ladies and gentlemen. It

0:05

was really an honor to have him in the band. One

0:10

of my backup vocalists said, Hey,

0:13

there's been some news about the finding of a body.

0:15

You know we're all thinking, well it can't

0:17

be Scott. It's not Scott. It

0:22

broke my heart that he laid up there in the cold. To

0:25

think of that, it hurts. Who

0:27

would murder Scott? Mr. Scott. Somebody

0:32

in a rage. Yeah. An immediate, we want to kill

0:34

you. We want you dead. The

0:37

day that he went missing, he had

0:39

contacted a person, Heather Frank, via Facebook.

0:42

Did you think it remotely possible that Heather could

0:44

have committed murder? No, not even for a second. She

0:48

was fearing for her own life. None

0:52

of us knew that that was going to happen. It

0:54

was like I got hit by a wrecking ball. I

0:59

said, please tell me she's still alive. A

1:02

missing musician, an Elvis impersonator,

1:05

and a murder suspect who becomes

1:07

a murder victim. I'm

1:09

Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's

1:20

Keith Morrison with The

1:23

Last Weekend. Greeley

1:27

Radio, 104.7 The Pirate. It

1:36

was a glorious winter Monday in Greeley,

1:39

Colorado. A clean, thick quilt

1:41

of new fallen snow was gleaming in

1:43

the sun. And morning man

1:45

George Gray of 104.7 FM was in a fine mood indeed.

1:50

Good morning. It is going to be

1:52

a beautiful day here in northern Colorado.

1:54

And of course you're listening to The

1:56

Pirate. George

1:58

had been waking Greeley at night. up for more than 20

2:01

years by the time February 10, 2020 in the long. No

2:03

preparing for that day.

2:08

Happy talk would not suffice

2:10

after that Monday morning. Do

2:12

you remember what you did that morning? Yeah. Yep.

2:16

I try not to live it. Sometimes

2:18

you, you know,

2:21

I think things are real. For

2:23

many in the greedy area, mornings

2:25

revolve around breakfast at Doug's Diner.

2:28

And that Monday bacon and eggs perfumed

2:31

the air. But a young

2:33

woman named Shelby Kabong hardly noticed.

2:36

She worried about her friend and

2:39

fellow waitress, usually coiffed and

2:41

manicured Heather Frank. That

2:44

was the first time I think I'd ever seen

2:46

her without makeup or with her hair all done

2:48

up. She

2:51

didn't seem herself that day at all. Two

2:54

hours north and thousands of

2:57

feet up Pooter Canyon, a

2:59

County snowplow driver had already been up

3:01

for hours that day, busy

3:03

clearing some remote roads in the Rocky

3:06

Mountain National Park. He

3:08

saw some smoke off road up a small

3:11

hill. So he decided to pull

3:13

over to see what it was. Of

3:16

course, it was much later when

3:19

Bill Meade took us up there to

3:22

show us where he found what

3:25

he found. As

3:28

I was coming up this way, I could

3:31

see that there's log was burning. I

3:34

wondered why, why is the log on fire?

3:37

As I took a few more steps, I

3:40

could see what looked like branches.

3:42

And then I realized the branches

3:44

had shoes on their boots. And

3:48

at that point I knew that this was a crime scene.

3:50

So I backtracked and ran

3:53

to my truck. I

3:55

have a dead body. Okay, and do

3:58

you believe you've found any help? Yeah,

4:01

he's definitely passed away. I

4:03

said, oh my God, probably a hundred times while I

4:06

was waiting. Waiting?

4:11

Way up there in that remote place through 45 minutes

4:14

it seemed an eternity. And

4:18

then the first responders were there, and they

4:20

moved the log and found a

4:22

male body. His legs,

4:24

torso, arms, badly burned.

4:28

No ID to say who it

4:30

was. None. I'd

4:32

never seen a body as damaged

4:37

and hurt and destroyed.

4:40

This was murder. No

4:42

question, said investigator Justin Atwood of

4:44

the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. And

4:46

the fire was clearly meant to

4:48

destroy all evidence of it. Had

4:51

he been wrapped up in

4:53

anything or had they made an effort

4:55

to conceal a body? They had wrapped

4:57

him in a light

4:59

blue blanket and plastic and

5:01

then used duct tape to

5:04

secure the plastic

5:06

and the blanket around his body.

5:09

And if Bill means the snowplow guy hadn't

5:11

been up there, the charred

5:14

remains might never have been found, let

5:16

alone a cause of death. Instead,

5:20

investigators could clearly see the victim's

5:22

neck had been slashed deep, almost

5:25

clear through. Somebody in

5:28

a rage had taken a knife to him.

5:30

Yeah, my initial thoughts was that this was

5:32

not a fight. This

5:34

was an immediate, we

5:37

want to kill you. We

5:40

want you dead. But who

5:43

was the victim and who killed

5:45

him? Why? No idea.

5:48

Not a clue. Later

5:53

the same Monday, back in

5:55

a town near Greeley. crowd

6:00

was about to enjoy a concert.

6:05

Elvis was in the house, or

6:09

at least an impersonator was, and

6:12

he's someone you've already met. George

6:14

Grey, morning

6:17

DJ, nighttime Elvis.

6:20

I tell people I'm not Elvis, I'm just here to keep the

6:22

music and spirit alive. Which he

6:24

did, was with the

6:27

help of his 11-piece backup band. We're

6:30

all supposed to meet there at a certain time for a

6:32

sound check. So when it

6:34

got to where it's about 30 minutes

6:36

before show time, everybody's

6:38

there except for Scott. Scott.

6:41

That would be Scott Sessions,

6:43

the band's ace trumpet player. And

6:46

then it got to about 15 minutes till, and

6:48

now everybody's trying to call him, trying

6:51

to text him, and he's not responding. Which

6:53

was extra weird because Scott was entirely

6:56

dependable. Always on time,

6:58

always smiling, his infectious smile. And

7:00

at 53, he had earned a

7:02

reputation as one of the best

7:04

trumpeters around. Here he was

7:06

in a concert the year before.

7:09

He was, I think last year, voted

7:12

Northern Colorado's best trumpet player. How'd

7:15

you do this year? Washed

7:18

out this year. No, it actually didn't hold

7:20

it this year, George. Very good. Mr. Scott

7:22

Sessions right here, ladies and

7:25

gentlemen. But

7:27

that Monday, no choice. They went

7:29

on without Scott. Still,

7:31

George Grey couldn't help but be

7:34

distracted. Thinking in the back

7:36

of my mind, you know, what's going

7:38

on with Scott? Two mysteries

7:40

now, equal and opposing,

7:43

and strange events to come. morning

8:00

George Gray was a worried man. Now

8:03

he woke up Greeley just like he always did, but

8:06

the unexplained absence of Ace Trumpeter Scott

8:08

Sessions was all he could think about.

8:11

So right after his radio show,

8:13

George called Scott's dad. I

8:16

said, hey Stan, Scott

8:18

didn't show up for the gig last night. He

8:20

goes, well that's unusual. He loves that

8:22

band. And I said, I

8:25

think I'm going to run over to his house and

8:28

make sure he's okay. I

8:30

was becoming a little worried. I wasn't

8:33

like him. So

8:36

Stanley Sessions drove over to his son's house

8:39

where he met George and

8:42

used a key he had to get inside. So

8:45

Stan walks through the living room

8:47

to the back bedroom and I hear him say, hey, hey

8:50

buddy. And then my heart sunk.

8:53

He's actually talking to the cat. Oh my

8:55

lord. So Stan comes back.

8:57

He goes, he's not

9:00

here. I don't think he made the home. So

9:02

I said, well George, I'm going over to

9:04

the police department and I'm going to report

9:06

that he's missing. Stan

9:09

told the police his son performed in

9:11

multiple bands and painted houses on the

9:13

side. He last heard

9:15

from him on Saturday night, three days earlier

9:18

when Scott called from his car. Dad,

9:21

I'm on the way to Fort Collins to

9:23

visit with some friends. Then

9:26

he said, oh, there's the address. He said,

9:28

I'm here now. I said, I'll see you

9:30

in the morning. But

9:32

Stan said he had no idea who his son

9:34

went to visit. And

9:36

so that was that. All

9:39

he could do then was go home

9:41

and wait and try to keep

9:43

the awful thoughts at bay. He

9:48

tried and said to think about good things. Stan

9:51

and his wife tried for many

9:53

years to have a child. Finally,

9:55

they adopted Scott, but

9:58

they weren't totally ready for his. last-minute

10:00

arrival. We

10:03

were nervous because now we had a little

10:05

person we had to take care of, and

10:08

we didn't have anything. So we

10:10

used a laundry basket for a while until

10:12

we got some baby stuff

10:15

for him. Soon, another

10:17

son made it a family of four,

10:20

and when Scott turned 25, he tracked down his

10:23

biological mother. And

10:25

that's when he discovered he had a

10:27

sister. I got a call from Scott,

10:30

and he said, hey, sis, I guess I'm your brother.

10:35

And we just automatically clicked. Allison

10:38

Weldon lives in Kansas, but distance

10:40

didn't seem to matter. The

10:43

bond was pretty much instant. We're

10:45

in tune with each other. We

10:47

like the same things. We acted

10:49

the same way, even down to our

10:51

cat. And

10:55

she quickly learned what his world

10:58

revolved around. His

11:02

trinket was his loss. How

11:07

do you describe passion? He

11:12

said, Dad, the only time I'm really,

11:14

really happy is when I'm on that

11:16

stage playing my trumpet. He

11:22

loved music. He loved people.

11:24

He loved his family. Now

11:27

his family was desperately worried. A

11:31

few hours after he reported his son missing, Scott's

11:33

dad got a call to come back to

11:35

the police station. Inside

11:38

was investigator Justin Atwood, waiting

11:41

to tell Stanley about a body

11:43

they identified by fingerprints, the

11:46

body of his son. He

11:48

said, Stan, we found your son. They

11:51

believed that he had been murdered.

11:55

I thought, who would murder Scott? Who would

11:57

murder him? Everybody loves Scott. Except,

12:01

obviously, not everybody. At

12:04

least one person, maybe more, wanted him

12:06

dead. And now his family

12:09

had to listen to

12:11

the gruesome details. It

12:13

broke my heart that he laid up there in the

12:16

cold and

12:18

to burn him afterwards. You know, like it

12:20

wasn't good enough that they did what they

12:22

did. So, to

12:25

think of that, it

12:27

hurts. But I

12:31

know he's not hurting any. Who

12:34

would do such a thing? Investigator

12:36

Atwood assessed what was known. We

12:39

didn't have a lot of information at that point

12:41

about who had done this to

12:43

him. We just had Scott's cell phone information.

12:47

Which was not nothing. Because

12:49

the cell phone data told a story of

12:51

sorts. It's not one that made a

12:53

whole lot of sense. On

12:55

the Saturday before the missed Monday

12:57

concert, as they could clearly see,

13:00

Scott's phone did not go to Fort Collins

13:02

where he told his dad he was going.

13:05

Instead the phone and, presumably,

13:07

Scott spent the entire night

13:10

in Greeley, somewhere near

13:12

this King Super's grocery store.

13:15

Armed with that information, police warmed the

13:17

area and... We

13:20

ended up locating his vehicle parked in

13:23

the parking lot of the King Super's.

13:26

And so when we found his vehicle in that

13:28

area, one of the things that we wanted to

13:30

do is start immediately pulling video

13:32

security footage from the area

13:35

businesses that were around there. And,

13:38

well, it was winter and the quality wasn't too

13:40

good. But they scanned it

13:42

all, hours and hours of video, until

13:45

they saw this. The

13:48

curious thing that happened Tuesday morning, 6.48

13:50

a.m. This

13:53

was the day after Scott's body was found.

13:56

And here was somebody driving his

13:58

car into the... and

16:00

they just might find a clue or two. They

16:03

pulled the file and found

16:06

trouble. Two years earlier

16:08

they discovered Scott's temper had gotten the better of

16:11

him, and a then-girlfriend

16:13

was given that order of protection. Her

16:16

name? Loretta Bolick.

16:19

We knew that she had a very

16:21

up and down relationship with Scott Sessions.

16:24

At one point they had got into an

16:26

argument at her apartment. Loretta

16:29

said Scott threw a coffee cup toward

16:32

her. She asked him to

16:34

leave, and he did. He

16:37

ended up getting arrested for a domestic

16:39

violence charge involving Loretta

16:41

Bolick. Was she injured? No,

16:43

she was not. Still, that was certainly

16:45

worth following up, especially when they

16:48

looked up Loretta's address. It

16:50

was right near the King's Super Shopping

16:52

Center, where Scott's car was found, and

16:55

his phone flashed pained that Saturday

16:57

night. Loretta's house

16:59

was approximately two to three hundred

17:01

feet north of where that tower was.

17:03

What did you think when you saw

17:06

that? I was extremely concerned. I started

17:08

thinking that Loretta was involved in

17:10

this. Well, I appreciate

17:12

you coming, Alex, and us. So

17:16

they asked her to come in. How

17:18

long did you guys date for? Well,

17:20

we dated consistently

17:24

until he

17:27

got arrested on July 15, 2018. This

17:30

was the odd thing. Even though

17:32

they broke up then and there, they

17:35

remained friends. Good friends.

17:38

In fact, she had a voicemail from that

17:41

Friday night, less than 24 hours

17:43

before Scott vanished. Hey,

17:45

how's it going? I know you practiced

17:47

again. Anyway, hope you have a great

17:49

day. So

17:54

you didn't talk to him at all on

17:56

Saturday, and then on Sunday, did you hear

17:58

anything from? anybody

18:01

so you didn't hear anything until Monday

18:03

till Wednesday oh till Wednesday till

18:06

Wednesday why didn't she

18:08

learned about Scott's death until that Wednesday

18:11

because she said she was offline

18:14

I called a sick for today at

18:16

Tuesday and Wednesday I can't tell you why but I was

18:19

emotional I couldn't get out of bed and

18:21

I had no way I did right why what

18:23

to make of Loretta no

18:27

never returning Scott's call being

18:29

out from work for no specific

18:32

reason it seemed a little suspicious

18:35

but at the same time as she

18:37

answered their questions they could see she

18:39

was genuinely upset and then as they

18:41

sat there talking investigator at

18:55

which phone pained urgent

18:57

message important new

18:59

information so he quickly

19:01

entered the interview what

19:05

happened the sheriff's

19:07

office got a search warrant for Scott's

19:09

home and inside they found

19:11

a list of his passwords he'd

19:14

written them all down left

19:17

the paper on a countertop so

19:19

that let them log into his Facebook

19:21

account where they found some

19:24

very private messages not

19:26

to ex-girlfriend Loretta her

19:29

they realized they could clear no

19:32

this was someone new and we were

19:35

able to see that Scott had a

19:38

conversation with a young

19:41

woman identified as Heather Frank Heather

19:44

Frank a mom of

19:46

three adult sons who was

19:48

a waitress over at Doug's diner investigators

19:51

could see that Heather and Scott had been

19:53

sending messages to each other that Saturday night

19:56

so then they looked up Heather's address you

20:00

know. She had also lived

20:02

right near where the King Supers was. It

20:04

sounds like maybe you want to go and

20:06

talk to that woman Heather Frank. There was

20:08

a lot more work that we needed to

20:10

do before we had that conversation. As

20:14

in good research makes for a good interview,

20:17

who was Heather Frank? Besides

20:21

a warm and bubbly waitress who

20:23

seemed quite beside herself after

20:26

that strange last weekend of Scott

20:29

Sessions life. Remember

20:45

in the classic TV series Cheers, the

20:48

bar was a gathering place where

20:50

everybody knows your name. Doug's Diner

20:52

was like that. Would

20:55

this be like the iconic diner

20:57

of the movies and the kind

21:00

of Americana? It kind of is.

21:02

Half of our customers we know their orders, we

21:04

know their dreams. Shelby

21:06

Kabong is a waitress at Doug's and

21:09

she was at work the day police stopped

21:11

by to ask about her co-worker Heather

21:14

Frank. Well that was

21:16

easy said Shelby. Heather was

21:18

her mentor, her friend and

21:21

she was friendly and sweet and

21:23

kind and a

21:25

very good person. She

21:28

just looked beautiful all

21:30

the time and she was just

21:32

as beautiful inside as she was

21:35

outside. Shelby also knew Heather had

21:37

recently broken up with a long-term

21:39

boyfriend. Did she branch out,

21:42

start seeing other people or? She

21:44

started going out to concerts in

21:46

Greeley. She'd met somebody and it

21:49

was kind of exciting to hear that. Yeah,

21:51

definitely was. She was moving on. That

21:54

somebody, though Shelby didn't know it,

21:56

was Scott Sessions. Heather

21:58

had gone to one of his concerts they keep

24:00

an eye on things. He got more

24:02

than he bargained for. I

24:04

remember very vividly we pulled

24:07

into the cul-de-sac

24:10

where Heather Frank's apartment is

24:12

and I immediately looked

24:14

at a Subaru crossover station wagon

24:16

type vehicle and it had red

24:18

dirt caked on the sides of

24:21

it. Why

24:23

did the red dirt matter? Well,

24:25

it looked a lot like the dirt they'd

24:28

seen on the mountain roads up near Scott's

24:30

body. Anything else about that

24:32

car? Seem unusual. There was some damage to

24:34

the front of the vehicle. So

24:37

they called in the plate number. The

24:39

car, they were told, belonged to

24:42

a guy named Kevin Eastman and

24:44

who was he? Heather Frank's

24:47

ex-boyfriend who'd worked

24:49

in Colorado's oil fields for years.

24:52

So five days after Scott's body was

24:54

found police got hold of the cell

24:56

data from both Heather and Kevin Eastman's

24:59

phones. We were able to see that

25:01

Heather Frank's cell phone, Kevin

25:04

Eastman's cell phone, and

25:07

Scott Sessions' cell phone were all within

25:09

very close proximity of each other

25:12

for about 12 hours. To

25:15

begin with, in or near

25:17

Heather's place, that's Saturday night when

25:20

Scott went to see her. And

25:23

then very early in the morning, on

25:26

Sunday morning after Scott had

25:28

disappeared, we saw

25:31

Kevin Eastman's cell phone and

25:33

Heather Frank's cell phone traveling along

25:36

roadways in Greeley. The

25:38

signals traveled for nearly two hours

25:40

before losing reception as the phones

25:43

approached Pooter Canyon where Scott's

25:45

body was found. Investigators

25:47

found out along the same route. And

25:50

that's when they found surveillance footage from a local

25:52

business. Early Sunday morning,

25:54

a Subaru crossover station wagon traveled the

25:56

very same route as Kevin and Heather's

25:59

cell phone. towards

26:01

Pudrkanyan. Then they

26:03

noticed something else. We

26:05

saw the damage to the front bumper, the same

26:07

damage that was on the vehicle at Heather's apartment.

26:09

Could you see who was in the car? No.

26:13

But three hours later, there was the

26:15

very same car going back the other

26:18

way. They couldn't make out the plates,

26:20

but they were convinced that was

26:22

Kevin Eastman's car. So

26:27

they both have to be involved in this somehow.

26:29

Based on the cell phone data records, yes, we

26:31

were starting to believe that both Heather Frank and

26:33

Kevin Eastman were responsible for Scott's

26:35

murder. So

26:38

the sheriff's office decided to put Heather

26:40

and Kevin under hidden video surveillance. Would

26:44

they have done that, had they known that

26:47

it wasn't over? It

26:49

certainly, certainly wasn't. In

27:06

those first few days after Scott Sessions was

27:08

killed, his father Stan carried an

27:10

extra burden of grief. Stan's

27:13

wife of 58 years, Scott's mom,

27:16

was in a nursing home. And

27:18

now with a heavy heart, he sat with her

27:21

and gave her the news. I

27:24

told her what had happened. And

27:27

she just kind of gazed into space and

27:29

she said, who would

27:32

want to murder my son?

27:35

Who would want to kill my son? Police

27:38

suspected they knew the answer. Heather

27:41

Frank and her ex-boyfriend, Kevin

27:43

Eastman, he, they discovered, had

27:45

a rap sheet, including assault,

27:47

weapon possession, and driving while

27:49

impaired. The

27:52

investigators, though, felt they needed more evidence before they

27:54

called them in for interviews. So

27:56

they installed hidden cameras across the street

27:58

from Heather's house. and secretly

28:01

placed GPS trackers on their cars,

28:03

his and hers. Could you

28:05

have put somebody outside her place for

28:07

a rotating batch of detectives? We could

28:10

have. The problem with that is

28:12

that we were using all of our detectives to

28:15

work the case. Late

28:17

the next day, Lt. Donnie Robbins was watching

28:19

a live stream from the hidden camera. And

28:22

there they were, Kevin

28:24

Eastman and Heather. We

28:28

had seen them leave her

28:30

residence, get in his vehicle

28:33

and travel to a farm in Weld

28:35

County. Did you know who the farm

28:37

belonged to or what might have been there?

28:40

Not immediately and we didn't know what

28:42

the connection was. Using

28:44

the GPS coordinates of the hidden car

28:46

tracker, Lt. Robbins drove out to that

28:48

farm about 45 minutes into

28:50

the country. When

28:52

I drove by, it was dark enough. I

28:55

could see his light zone in a house

28:57

in an exterior garage, but I couldn't see

28:59

Eastman's car, couldn't see anything. It was

29:01

too dark. No, Kevin.

29:04

No, Heather, either. Discouraged

29:08

and tired, he went

29:10

home. The investigators

29:13

had been full tilt for five days. They

29:15

were all exhausted. And so

29:17

while GPS kept track of the suspect's

29:19

cars, the investigators went

29:21

home to bed. All of

29:23

them. We're going to go get some sleep. We're

29:27

going to go take showers. We're going to go

29:29

visit with our families, see our kids. The

29:32

next morning, officers could see

29:34

troubling movements on that GPS. Overnight,

29:39

Kevin Eastman's car had left the farm,

29:42

cruised around the countryside, stopping here and

29:44

there along the way. There

29:47

was key points that happened at 3 o'clock,

29:49

4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning. And

29:51

that's very unusual behavior. And the first thing

29:53

that I thought was we're losing evidence in

29:55

our homicide that he is out dumping the

29:58

knife. He's out getting rid of it. evidence that

30:00

is going to help us prove this homicide. That

30:02

got to be a sinking feeling. It leaves

30:04

a very bad taste in your mouth. The

30:08

knife, the one presumably used

30:10

to kill Scott. So,

30:12

Lieutenant Robbins hopped in his unmarked police car

30:14

and headed back toward the farm where

30:17

the GPS indicated Eastman's car had

30:19

returned. And

30:21

as I was driving out there, I saw a column

30:24

of smoke coming from the property and

30:26

I observed Kevin Eastman standing

30:28

out by what I would call

30:31

referred to as a burn pile. You

30:33

could see Eastman was tending to a fire

30:36

at a large outdoor burn pit. Hadn't

30:38

Scott Sessions body been found burning?

30:40

So, what was Eastman burning now?

30:43

It was impossible to see. Then,

30:48

a problem. Kevin Eastman's car was on

30:50

the move again. My

30:52

initial thought was crap. I'll

30:54

be honest with you because I'm the only one out here and

30:56

I'm going to have to try to follow him by myself, which

31:00

he did to a gas

31:02

station. He pulls

31:04

into the gas pumps and exits his

31:06

vehicle and he's got a gas can

31:09

that he's trying to pump gas into. When

31:12

you saw him filling up a gas can, what

31:14

did you think? My immediate thought was he was

31:16

getting more gas to go back and destroy whatever remaining

31:18

evidence there was at that burn pile.

31:23

In time, there was no time to

31:25

consult his bosses. So, Lieutenant Robbins

31:27

walked up to Kevin Eastman and

31:30

arrested him. Probably the last

31:32

person in the world he thought he'd see that day.

31:34

He was pretty shocked. At

31:38

the station, Eastman waved his right

31:40

and agreed to speak with Investigator Atwood and

31:42

a colleague. Right? Yes,

31:45

he did. I just walked here. Thank you.

31:48

Yeah, I had my speaking message

31:50

in mind. It

31:52

seemed timid, even

31:54

gentle, and it

31:56

soon became quite apparent his interview would

31:58

be like no. other.

32:02

Time to find out more about

32:04

Kevin Eastman. But

32:11

where was Heather? Well

32:14

all this was going on. Was

32:16

she hiding? Had she fled? Oh there

32:19

would be an answer soon enough.

32:35

Kevin Eastman wasn't acting like her average

32:37

suspect but he was adamant about one

32:40

thing. He had nothing to do

32:42

with the killing of Scott Sessions. I've

32:44

never even seen this to be as call

32:47

to Scott. So Eastman agreed

32:49

to talk to the detectives who

32:51

were then still looking for Eastman's

32:54

suspected accomplice and ex-girlfriend Heather Frank.

32:56

The truth? The truth

32:59

was said Kevin Eastman that

33:08

Heather, the woman he dated on

33:10

and off for years, was the

33:12

love of his life. Heather's

33:16

answer was always no.

33:18

But they were together that Saturday

33:22

night and not

33:31

just them said the detectives. Scott

33:34

was with them, had to be,

33:36

since Scott's phone was pinging

33:38

in the very same place. The

33:43

three of you were at Heather's house for

33:45

an extended period of time. We

33:48

know that as fact. We know that you

33:50

were there. So

33:54

then they showed in the photos of

33:56

his car going up to the mountains

33:58

to the same area. where Scott's

34:00

body was found. Do you

34:02

think all this is a coincidence? I

34:08

don't know what to think about any of that. They

34:11

wanted to show him the messages between Heather

34:13

and Scott. Eastman covered his

34:15

ears. Oh, please. No,

34:18

it's not detailed. I don't know. No,

34:20

I don't want to hear anything. I'm

34:22

getting the cutting. No, please. After

34:28

that, Kevin Eastman said he felt sick. During

34:33

a break, he withdrew to a corner and

34:35

prayed to God to help the

34:38

police. Let me help his name. Get

34:40

to the bottom of this case. Please

34:43

keep Heather safe. And

34:46

then, in the middle of the interrogation,

34:49

Atwood got a message. About

34:53

Heather. It

34:56

was like I got hit by a wrecking

34:58

ball that they had found Heather

35:00

Frank's body. Heather

35:05

was dead. Her

35:07

body hidden under some lumber on that farm.

35:10

Two fatal bullet wounds in her chest.

35:14

We found her body wrapped in the

35:16

same manner that Scott Sessions' body was

35:18

found. Wrapped

35:20

in plastic, perhaps waiting to

35:23

be thrown on the fire pit at the farm. To

35:25

be burned like Scott was burned.

35:28

And so they confronted Kevin Eastman. All

35:32

right, Kevin. Heather's dead. You know she's

35:34

dead. Scott's

35:36

dead. You

35:41

need to start talking to us. But

35:43

Kevin Eastman was a wall of denial.

35:47

Kevin, you're under arrest.

35:50

They charged them with two counts of

35:52

first-degree murder for killing both Scott and

35:54

Heather. To jail clothing. Okay, we're going

35:56

to take some photographs of you. The

36:00

word slowly got out to

36:02

Heather's friends, including Kimberly Shiver.

36:05

I didn't understand why she was with it. Ever.

36:09

From the day I met her, I didn't understand it.

36:12

Heather, the sad truth was, had

36:14

been physically and emotionally abused by

36:16

Kevin Eastman for years. This

36:18

is the first time you've been in

36:20

a hospital. It's not the first time?

36:22

Here, as recorded by police at a

36:24

year before her death, was

36:27

Heather in a hospital. Taken thereafter,

36:29

she said Eastman punched her. I

36:32

just walked side of my room, and

36:35

I had to get on there. It

36:38

hurt worse. Kimberly said Heather

36:40

told her about other incidents. Kevin

36:43

held a knife to her throat and

36:46

threatened to kill her. And

36:49

the really bad episodes would come

36:52

when she would try to break up with him. But

36:55

she just couldn't shake him off, said

36:57

her fellow waitress Shelby Cabon, no

36:59

matter how bad it got. She

37:02

really opened up to me about how

37:04

he was treating her and what he had done

37:06

to her. What had he done to her? He

37:09

had beat her a handful

37:12

of times. Heather,

37:14

almost everyone agreed, was a

37:16

victim herself. Chief

37:18

Deputy DA Steve Wren. Have

37:21

you had opportunities in the past

37:23

to talk to victims of domestic

37:25

violence to kind of untangle the

37:27

difficult strands of what those relationships

37:29

are like, to understand them? I've

37:31

had a lot of opportunities. And

37:34

the common thread

37:37

is they themselves find

37:39

it hard to explain to

37:41

somebody else their emotions

37:43

and as a result, their actions. So,

37:47

what happened that Saturday night? Police

37:50

think Kevin Eastman simply wouldn't allow

37:52

Heather to move on without him.

37:54

So he came up with a

37:56

plan to eliminate his competition. Jealous,

37:59

right? Is that what that was? Joe Srej,

38:02

that was my take. Investigators believe

38:04

Kevin Eastman and Heather were both at the

38:07

house that night. But it

38:09

was Kevin, not Heather, who sent

38:11

those messages to Scott, inviting him

38:13

over. Here's a man

38:15

who is luring somebody to his

38:17

death. Certainly looked that way. Police

38:20

found a large blood stain on

38:22

the carpet inside Heather's front door.

38:24

They think Eastman hid behind that

38:26

door, ambushed Scott, slashed his throat,

38:29

and Scott never saw it coming. Would

38:32

Heather have known what Kevin was going to do to

38:34

Scott? I think that would have been a very good

38:36

question to ask her if she was alive this day.

38:41

Some of Heather's last moments alive were

38:43

captured on that surveillance video, walking

38:46

to her death without knowing it, under

38:49

the control of Kevin Eastman. If

38:52

she was not going to be with me, she's

38:54

not going to be with anybody else. And

38:57

also, I don't want her telling the

38:59

cops what I did. It

39:01

seems that Heather was most likely killed

39:03

during the hours the detectives were taking

39:06

a rest. If you look back

39:08

on that and you think, damn, why don't we just

39:10

spend one more night at it? Yeah, in hindsight, 2020,

39:13

we didn't make the decision to

39:16

murder Heather Frank. That was a decision that Kevin

39:18

Eastman made. But it sits with me, day in

39:20

and day out. There is not a day that

39:22

goes by that I don't think about that decision.

39:26

And what could we have done differently?

39:29

Please rise. Kevin Eastman

39:31

pleaded not guilty and went on trial in

39:33

June 2022. His

39:36

defense? That Heather actually

39:38

killed Scott. And that the man

39:40

who owned the farm killed Heather. As

39:43

relates to count number one. The

39:45

jury would have none of it. We

39:47

the jury find the defendant, Kevin Dean

39:50

Eastman, guilty of murder in

39:52

the first degree after deliberation. Guilty.

39:55

Kevin Eastman was given two consecutive

39:57

life sentences. You'll spend two days in the morning.

40:00

the rest of his life in prison. Recently

40:08

George Gray's band put on a

40:10

memorial concert at Greeley's Union Colony

40:13

Civic Center for Scott and for

40:15

Heather. On

40:20

the stage, Scott's trumpet

40:23

in the air, and

40:30

the audience is Dad and Sister. Two

40:41

months after Scott's death, Stan

40:44

Sessions lost his wife,

40:46

Linda. His last words

40:48

to her were about their son. I

40:56

said to her, honey, it's okay.

40:58

You've lived a great life, you've raced good

41:01

family. You can go now and go see

41:03

our Scotty. That's

41:08

all for this edition of Dateline,

41:10

and check out our Talking Dateline

41:13

podcast. Keith

41:27

Morrison and Andrea Canning will

41:29

go behind the scenes of

41:31

tonight's episode, available Wednesday in

41:34

the Dateline feed wherever you

41:36

get your podcasts. We'll see

41:38

you again next Friday at 10, 9

41:40

central, and of course I'll see you each

41:42

weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm

41:45

Lester Holt, for all of us at

41:47

NBC News. Good night.