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states and situations. Tonight

0:26

on Dateline. It was a young

0:29

female. She

0:29

had a high school graduation ring on.

0:34

I promised Courtney, kneeling on her

0:36

grave, I'm gonna find out

0:38

who put you here. We

0:42

end up getting a anonymous phone

0:44

call saying follow the money. I

0:47

polygraphed four, five, six different

0:49

guys.

0:50

When they asked you, did you kill Courtney?

0:53

I said, no, I didn't kill my sister. I

0:56

told Stephanie that day, yes, I'm gonna solve this case,

0:59

I'm gonna die trying.

1:01

He was going to open his podcast

1:04

up for tips. Hello

1:06

everybody, welcome to this episode of Real Life Real

1:08

Crime. The hotline was blowing

1:10

up. I get a phone call

1:13

saying her ex-husband knows who

1:15

did it. He returned home in

1:17

the middle of the night smelling of death.

1:19

You're about to tell them the

1:22

answers. All of them are crying, they're blown away.

1:25

You must have just felt such betrayal.

1:28

Yes ma'am.

1:31

I was floored. A teenage

1:33

girl is found dead. Her family's

1:35

long fight for justice reveals a

1:38

dark secret. I'm Lester

1:40

Holt and this is Dateline. Here's

1:43

Andrea Canning with Who Killed Courtney

1:46

Coco?

2:03

It was a fall morning in 2004, and

2:06

Chambers County, Texas, just east of Houston,

2:08

was already heating up. The temperature

2:10

had hit 70 degrees and was quickly climbing.

2:14

David Rabelais remembers that day well.

2:16

I was actually working that day. He

2:19

was a detective then with the local sheriff's

2:21

office. I had gone to the

2:23

main sheriff's office in Anawak, turned in some paperwork.

2:27

At 8 a.m., a call came in from a patrol

2:29

officer looking for Rabelais' captain. He

2:32

told him we have a deceased body in

2:34

an abandoned building over on 1406.

2:39

1406 is a busy highway,

2:42

a two-lane road that runs through the tiny town

2:44

of Winnie, Texas. One of the

2:46

local farmers riding by on his tractor, and he just happened

2:49

to glance over there and he saw what he thought looked like

2:51

a body.

2:52

A body? The detective

2:54

had to see it for himself. Discoveries

2:57

like that don't happen often in Winnie, mostly

2:59

farm fields and ranch homes. It

3:02

isn't a town known for crime.

3:03

I figured the guy was just seeing something

3:05

he didn't know what he was seeing. Rabelais

3:07

also didn't want to believe it. His

3:10

house is just a stone's throw from where he was

3:12

headed. 150 yards? 150 yards? Yeah,

3:15

I knew exactly what Bill and I were talking about. It

3:18

was a house that was started and never finished. Rabelais

3:22

pulled up to the abandoned house, not expecting

3:24

much. But when he got out of his

3:26

truck... As soon as I drove up, I could

3:28

tell it was a body.

3:31

A woman's body was lying at the entrance

3:33

of the garage. Young white

3:35

female. She

3:37

was nude from the waist down. A

3:40

disturbing and perplexing sight.

3:43

She had a blue LSU t-shirt

3:45

on. It was pulled up to her neck, but she still had her

3:47

bra on. There's no way that anybody

3:50

could have identified the body. Was it obvious

3:52

how she died? No, that was the thing.

3:55

No obvious signs whatsoever. But

3:58

the detective had a theory. The first

4:01

thing I thought was sexual assault. I

4:03

just had a feeling that somebody's sexually assaulted, and

4:05

then thought, oh, no, I've got to kill her or she's going to tell.

4:09

He couldn't be sure of anything without an autopsy.

4:11

It was all just speculation. How

4:14

long did you think she had been dead for?

4:17

I thought she'd been in probably at least three days. Three

4:19

to four days. How

4:22

she died and why she was left in an abandoned

4:24

building in Winnie made for a mystery unlike

4:26

any Rabelais had ever seen before. He

4:29

knew the case needed more resources, so

4:32

his bosses

4:32

called in the Texas Rangers. We

4:35

bring all the state resources with us, whether

4:37

that's crime lab or aircraft

4:40

needs, depending on what type of investigation it

4:42

is. This is

4:42

the equivalent of bringing in the big guns. Yes,

4:45

ma'am. Now retired,

4:47

Texas Ranger Skylar Hearn, who'd

4:49

grown up in Winnie, raced over to the

4:51

scene. His first impression

4:54

was that the body appeared staged.

4:56

That someone intentionally put

4:58

her in that position, especially with the clothing

5:00

missing, exposing her to the roadway

5:02

that way. He also

5:05

noticed a faint set of tire tracks. The

5:07

floor had a layer of dust where

5:10

the body was, and there were some tire

5:12

tracks that ended where the body was

5:14

found. Did it seem to you that someone had

5:16

driven the body to this location and then transported

5:19

her from the car? Right. Just

5:22

the first appearance is that those tire tracks probably

5:24

associated with a car backing

5:26

into that

5:27

garage and dumping her there. Were

5:30

there any footprints? There was a couple

5:32

of foot impressions or shoe impressions

5:34

in the dust that were visible. Detective

5:37

Rabelais had noticed them too. They

5:39

had the circles, you know, the circles they'd graduate

5:42

smaller and smaller pattern.

5:45

So I knew it was a tennis shoe cramp.

5:47

The investigators continued to comb the

5:49

area, anything giving

5:51

you some clues. There was an old

5:54

beer bottle that was probably six, seven feet away from her.

5:57

I had no clue if that was dropped by the

5:59

perpetrator if it was some kids

6:01

that had come in there before and drank and threw it down.

6:04

So many unknowns, but the biggest,

6:07

who was their victim? Was there anything

6:09

around her to give you a name, a wallet,

6:12

a purse, a phone?

6:13

No, we didn't find any of that. But you could

6:15

tell she was a young woman? Yeah, I could tell

6:18

she was probably in at least her early mid-20s. Detective

6:21

Rabelais had a strong hunch she wasn't

6:23

a local. I know, until

6:25

I worked Winnie, I live in Winnie. I pretty much

6:27

know everybody in Winnie. I looked at her and

6:30

I thought, she just doesn't ring a bell. But

6:33

he had one thing to go on. She

6:35

had a high school graduation ring

6:37

on, and I knew, because

6:40

I'd raised four boys, I knew that usually they'd put their

6:42

name on the inside of the ring.

6:43

The name of the school was engraved on

6:45

the outside of the ring, Alexandria

6:47

Senior High, located in neighboring Louisiana,

6:51

and on the inside.

6:52

When we opened the ring up, we saw

6:55

her name, Courtney Coco. Did that name

6:57

ring a bell to you? Not to me. Courtney

7:00

Coco, the graduation date

7:02

on the ring was 2003, which meant

7:04

the owner of the ring would be about 19 years old. This

7:08

is a big break that you have this class

7:10

ring.

7:10

Oh, 100%. But

7:12

it was still too early to know for sure if it was

7:14

even her. The ring could have been borrowed,

7:17

sold, or even stolen. Investigators

7:20

needed answers about Ms. Coco and

7:22

hoped the Alexandria Police Department would

7:24

have them.

7:25

I called Alexandria, Louisiana

7:27

Police Department, and got ahold of a

7:29

detective there. They

7:32

never imagined that call would spark a

7:34

15-year investigation with so

7:36

many twists and turns, starting

7:38

with Courtney's class ring and

7:40

a string of suspicious burglaries.

7:59

Two hours after a body was found in Winnie,

8:02

Texas, a call came into the Alexandria

8:04

Police Department in Louisiana, some 200 miles away.

8:08

It was Texas Ranger Skyler Hearn

8:11

asking for help in identifying the deceased

8:13

young woman who'd been found.

8:15

He was wanting to know if we

8:17

had a missing report or anything

8:19

like that on a Courtney Coco.

8:22

Sergeant Cedric Green took the call and looked

8:24

through the police database. He

8:26

didn't find a missing persons report, but

8:29

he did come across Courtney's name for

8:31

a different reason.

8:32

What I found was that she had

8:34

made several reports in

8:37

our system of her resident

8:39

being burglarized.

8:40

Burglaries that happened

8:42

less than two months earlier, which meant

8:45

someone easily could have stolen her ring. Correct.

8:48

Sergeant Green needed to find out if Courtney

8:50

Coco was actually missing and

8:52

came across a name he believed was a relative.

8:54

A lady that possibly

8:57

could have been her mother. So

9:00

I took a chance and I called the number. Stephanie

9:03

Belgard is Courtney's mom and was home

9:05

alone when the detective called and introduced

9:08

himself. He said, is Courtney there?

9:11

And I said, no,

9:13

sir. I said, but this is her

9:16

mom. I said, is something wrong? What

9:18

does he actually tell you? He told me they

9:20

found a body in Texas that

9:24

had my daughter's ring on her finger. And

9:27

I was like, no, sir. I said, it's not her.

9:29

Her house has been broken too. Maybe

9:32

someone stole her ring. Stephanie

9:35

told Sergeant Green that 19 year old Courtney

9:37

lived nearby and that she was sure her

9:39

daughter was safe and sound somewhere in Alexandria.

9:43

She hung up with him and immediately tried

9:45

Courtney's cell phone. I was just

9:47

like, Courtney answered this phone. Courtney answered

9:49

this phone. Courtney answered this phone. You

9:51

just wanted to hear her voice. Yes, but

9:54

no answer. No,

9:56

no. Still

9:58

desperate to reach Courtney, Stephanie. called

10:00

her oldest daughter Lace, who was at work. Stephanie

10:12

told her what little she knew. He

10:14

couldn't get there fast enough, so a

10:16

friend drove Lace to her

10:18

mom's place.

10:26

She

10:32

was there when Sergeant Green arrived hours later

10:35

and explained how the unidentified

10:37

body was discovered. Then

10:39

he launched into some questions.

10:48

Stephanie told him she saw Courtney just three days

10:51

before, on Friday. She'd

10:53

come over for a visit while Stephanie and her husband

10:55

were getting ready for a camping trip. Stephanie told

10:58

Sergeant Green that was

11:00

the last time she saw Courtney. Did she have any connection

11:02

to Winnie? No, she

11:04

didn't have any connection to

11:06

Texas at all. That was a good thing, she thought.

11:10

But as the hours passed and no one was able to

11:13

locate Courtney, her family began

11:15

to realize what they had to do. They

11:17

had to go to the hospital to

11:19

find out what they had to do. They had to go to the

11:21

hospital to find out what they had to do. When Stephanie

11:24

and his husband were able to locate

11:26

Courtney, her family began to realize what they feared most might

11:28

actually be true. Sergeant

11:32

Green needed a family member to travel to Texas and view the body

11:34

to know for sure. Courtney's

11:38

uncle agreed to make the trip with him.

11:40

Courtney had just had braces

11:40

put on her teeth a couple of weeks

11:43

before, and

11:45

she had just had a butterfly tattoo on her back, and

11:49

I told him to look for those two things. All

11:52

Stephanie could do then was wait and

11:55

pray. I was feeling

11:57

horrible because I didn't want it to be anybody else's

11:59

child.

11:59

but I definitely

12:02

didn't want it to be my child. It

12:04

was hard for Courtney's mom to imagine that anyone

12:07

would want to hurt her sweet, bubbly Courtney.

12:10

Happy birthday

12:12

dear Courtney. Stephanie could remember

12:14

so many happy moments with her, like

12:16

this family gathering for Courtney's 16th

12:19

birthday. Mom

12:21

and Courtney were laying out.

12:23

Carefree memories, they were all so

12:25

precious. There's Courtney.

12:30

Courtney was the baby of the family, the youngest

12:33

of three. Two older sisters? Two

12:35

older sisters, and so

12:39

she was very spoiled. It

12:41

got her way a lot. Lace

12:44

had always been protective of her baby sister.

12:47

She was like the daughter I never

12:49

had. I mean,

12:50

I helped change her diapers at seven years old.

12:52

Courtney may have

12:54

been the youngest, but she'd always been

12:56

the mature one. Stephanie says

12:58

when Courtney's father died, at eight years

13:01

old, she helped plan the funeral. She

13:03

picked out his flowers, what he was going to

13:05

wear, everything. It was at

13:08

eight years old. Courtney

13:10

even chose the plot where he was buried,

13:12

and then another for herself right by

13:14

his side. She was very

13:16

close to him, and part

13:19

of her died with her daddy. She

13:21

always grieved for him. She would go out to

13:23

the graveyard constantly.

13:26

Her aunts, Lynn and Michelle, were there to

13:28

help her through the grief.

13:29

Courtney, I'd like to have you tonight. And

13:32

with her family's support, Courtney continued

13:34

to thrive. How

13:37

was she as a teenager? She was a very

13:39

good teenager, actually. She made good grades,

13:42

and I was really lucky. Stephanie

13:45

says she also excelled at sports. Softball

13:47

and gymnastics were her passions.

13:50

And she went into cheerleading when

13:52

she got to high school. She must have been good

13:54

at the cheerleading since she was a gymnast. In gymnastics,

13:57

yes, ma'am.

13:59

in Candace was the same age

14:01

and was always impressed with her outgoing personality

14:04

and generous spirit. She loved

14:07

everybody, and she saw the best

14:10

in everybody. It didn't matter who you

14:12

are, what you looked like.

14:14

After graduation, Courtney enrolled in

14:16

college and planned to major in criminology.

14:19

Where did that come from?

14:20

I think she took a

14:23

criminology class in high school,

14:25

and it really sparked her interest. And

14:28

I found some of her old notes. She was even

14:30

like, how to solve a murder, like

14:32

the steps that you go through. That's

14:34

chilling. Yes, it is. Chilling,

14:37

because back in Winnie, Texas, it was looking

14:39

more and more like the unidentified young

14:42

woman was Courtney Coco. And

14:44

what they were about to find in her home made

14:47

them even more

14:48

convinced.

15:05

As the sun rose the next day in Alexandria,

15:08

Louisiana, Courtney Coco's family

15:10

huddled together for the cold that threatened

15:12

to shatter their world. When

15:14

the phone rang, Courtney's aunt Lynn picked

15:16

it up and answered. She

15:19

was the first to hear that the body was

15:21

in fact Courtney's.

15:23

I did not want the words to come out of

15:25

my mouth to my sister. But

15:28

I told her, we need to plant a funeral.

15:32

And I passed out. I

15:34

just hit the floor. The

15:37

family's worst fears were now a reality.

15:39

They were heartbroken, but also confused.

15:42

There were so many unanswered questions,

15:45

like how did Courtney die, and what was

15:47

she doing in Winnie, Texas? That

15:51

morning, both Texas and Louisiana

15:54

law enforcement were at the autopsy. And

15:56

the medical examiner's findings would only

15:58

deepen the mystery.

15:59

Even after he examined the body, there

16:02

was no bullet holes, there was no stab wounds, there

16:04

was no ligature marks, there was no bruising around

16:07

the mouth. Like they had suffocated or, you know, there

16:09

was just nothing.

16:10

Was there any sign of drugs,

16:13

drug use, alcohol? Very, very

16:15

low alcohol concentration in her body. The

16:18

medical examiner believed those levels were normal

16:21

for a person who'd recently died, not

16:23

due to alcohol consumption.

16:25

As for drugs in Courtney's system, it was

16:28

too soon to know. Investigators

16:30

would have to wait for the toxicology results.

16:33

Are you thinking this could possibly be maybe a

16:35

drug overdose?

16:36

It's possible. It's

16:38

not uncommon for people to

16:41

have an accidental overdose or poisoning and

16:43

then panic and then leave

16:46

the deceased somewhere.

16:48

And the theory that Courtney

16:50

had been sexually assaulted? It wasn't

16:52

the case at all. According to the autopsy,

16:54

there wasn't any evidence found of sexual assault. But

16:57

the medical examiner did have enough

17:00

information to rule Courtney's death a homicide.

17:03

So what's your gut telling you now? My

17:05

gut's telling me I don't know.

17:08

The detective figured whoever left Courtney's body

17:10

inside that abandoned house had to know

17:13

his way around the area.

17:15

We went back to that house. Someone lives

17:17

there now. She was laying inside

17:19

this door. In this garage right here? Yes. She

17:21

was probably six, seven feet

17:24

inside.

17:24

Rabelle was also convinced the person

17:26

had seen the house before. I

17:28

figured it was somebody that lived off somewhere else and they evidently

17:31

passed through here from time to time and knew it was here,

17:33

knew it was dark, knew it was abandoned. And

17:36

it'd be a good spot.

17:37

Would it have been easy for somebody to get to

17:39

a location like this from Alexandria? Well, yeah.

17:41

Quarter of a mile up the road. Exit

17:44

I-10, come down here and find a spot and dump

17:46

her and get back on I-10 and go back to Alexandria.

17:50

As Sergeant Green drove back to Louisiana,

17:53

he had a hunch the killer was from Alexandria,

17:56

the city where Courtney lived. He

17:58

hoped his search of Courtney's home would be

17:59

tell him something. Do you find

18:02

anything in the house? Signs

18:04

of a struggle. The house was not

18:07

in terribly disarray or anything like

18:09

that. In the bedroom, Sergeant

18:11

Green zeroed in on one thing. Her

18:13

jeans were laying on the floor by

18:15

the bed. Shoes were there too.

18:18

It was a pretty typical mess for a young adult,

18:21

but it made him wonder if Courtney was wearing the jeans

18:23

the night she died. If she'd

18:25

gone to bed and was then abducted or killed,

18:27

it would explain why Courtney was found nude from

18:30

the waist down. And there was also

18:32

this. It appeared to be

18:34

a sort of a cash box that

18:36

was under her bed, but that

18:38

was nothing in it.

18:40

Did it look like someone might have broken into the box? It

18:42

wasn't broken into, no. He

18:44

continued searching, but neither Courtney's wallet

18:47

nor phone turned up. Her car

18:49

was missing too, a 1999 Green

18:51

Pontiac.

18:53

Robbery was on the table as a possible

18:55

motive, but there was a problem with that

18:57

theory. There was no sign

18:59

of forced entry. All the doors were

19:01

locked, the windows were locked. Did you think

19:03

that she willingly let someone in,

19:06

that this was possibly somebody she knew? Yes,

19:08

either she let someone in or someone had a

19:10

key. Green believed

19:12

Courtney recently had guests over. Beer

19:15

cans and cigarettes were still on the dining table.

19:18

A Domino's Game 2, along with a scorecard,

19:20

listing two other names.

19:22

There was Jackie

19:24

and Lewis on the scorecard.

19:27

Sergeant Green learned from Courtney's sister that Jackie

19:29

was one of Courtney's closest friends. He

19:31

asked her down to the station to answer some questions.

19:35

Jackie told us that her and

19:37

Courtney had been together

19:39

that evening. This is Friday evening?

19:41

Friday evening, yes. She gave

19:44

investigators a detailed account of that night,

19:46

the last night Courtney was seen alive.

19:49

And later, after further investigation,

19:52

she met with the detectives again and reviewed

19:54

her statement. This time,

19:56

they recorded the interview.

19:57

I'm

20:00

gonna let it fly out again. Jackie

20:02

described how she and Courtney drove around that

20:04

night, not doing much, until

20:07

they picked up Jackie's boyfriend, Lewis, from his fast

20:09

food job at Sonic, sometime around 10 p.m.

20:12

You drive right straight from Sonic,

20:14

straight to her house? I think it's

20:16

not business at all. What's that? I

20:20

don't know. Was it a gas

20:22

station? Yeah, it was a gas station.

20:24

From there, she said they all went to Courtney's

20:26

house and played dominoes for the rest of the night.

20:29

She said later, sometime after midnight,

20:32

a friend of Courtney stopped by. His

20:34

name was Mel.

20:35

How long did Mel stay? About

20:39

five minutes. Out of the church, just to see

20:41

each other. They walked outside.

20:44

She said he was

20:45

gonna do it. Yeah, take a beer, take a bath.

20:47

He's still tasting. He didn't come back.

20:50

So he didn't stay. Then

20:53

around 2 a.m., Jackie said Courtney drove

20:55

her and Lewis home.

20:57

Investigators questioned Lewis, too, and

21:00

he told the same story. They didn't know if

21:02

she was going to see anyone else, but Courtney

21:04

was supposed to come back the next

21:06

morning to pick up Lewis to take him to work.

21:09

Did she show up? No. Jackie

21:11

and Lewis were cooperative, but Sergeant

21:14

Green set out to check their stories. And

21:16

whatever happened with Mel, while

21:19

he was focused on that, Courtney's family

21:21

was locked onto someone else,

21:23

someone they felt should be at the top

21:25

of the suspect list.

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22:42

As the days passed, a timeline

22:45

of Courtney's final hours slowly began

22:47

to emerge. Her friends, Jackie

22:49

and Lewis, told detectives they spent Friday night

22:51

at her place playing dominoes until about 2

22:54

a.m. and then Courtney drove them home.

22:57

Were you suspicious of Jackie and Lewis

22:59

at all, or did you feel that they were being

23:01

upfront with you?

23:02

I was feeling that they were

23:04

being upfront. His team checked

23:06

their alibis and tracked down this gas station

23:08

surveillance video. It showed

23:10

Jackie and Courtney buying drinks at 11 23 p.m. just as

23:12

she told them. That's

23:15

Courtney in the blue t-shirt.

23:16

My good feeling was that something

23:19

happened once she dropped them

23:21

off. He wondered though, did Mel,

23:23

the friend who stopped by during the dominoes game,

23:25

return to Courtney's house sometime

23:28

later?

23:28

So we made contact with him.

23:30

Did you learn anything from him? No.

23:34

At least nothing new, and detectives

23:37

found no evidence to suggest he ever

23:39

returned to Courtney's house that night. Investigators

23:42

ruled him out as a suspect.

23:43

But what about those burglaries

23:46

Courtney reported before her death? Maybe

23:48

there was something there. This is Courtney's

23:51

house that she was living in at the

23:53

time of the homicide.

23:56

Shortly before her death, it had been burglarized

23:59

three times. in one week. Her

24:01

TV, stereo, and some jewelry

24:03

were taken. Was your gut telling

24:05

you that maybe these burglaries were connected

24:08

to her death? Sure. It's a possibility.

24:10

Somebody might have thought she wasn't coming back

24:13

or whatever, and she surprised them when she came

24:15

back home.

24:16

But how did someone get inside the house if there was

24:18

no forced entry?

24:20

Courtney's mom believed Courtney's ex-roommate,

24:22

a woman named Alexandria, knew

24:24

the answer to that.

24:26

Courtney told her family she thought Alexandria

24:28

was behind two of the burglaries.

24:31

She thought it was the roommate because they had

24:33

to have had a key.

24:34

And she didn't know if the roommate maybe made an extra

24:37

key. Stephanie explained to detectives

24:39

that Courtney kicked the roommate out of the house after

24:41

a heated argument. Alexandria

24:44

didn't respond well. She threatened to cut

24:46

her guts out.

24:47

Wow. Did you look at the

24:49

roommate? Yeah, we located her

24:52

and talked to her. We did not get

24:55

an indication that she was involved.

24:57

Sergeant Green quickly ruled Alexandria

24:59

out as a person of interest and found no

25:02

evidence linking her to the burglaries or

25:04

additional leads connecting the burglaries

25:06

to Courtney's murder. But detectives

25:09

were learning something that might be important

25:11

to the investigation.

25:13

Several people in Courtney's inner circle had

25:15

criminal records involving theft and

25:17

the sale of marijuana. So

25:19

I don't know if maybe some of the

25:21

drugs was playing part to that. Courtney

25:23

was doing drugs? Yes. Her

25:26

cousin, Candace, knew Courtney smoked marijuana.

25:29

She says it started toward the end of high school.

25:32

And why do people do drugs? You

25:34

know, to escape something, to

25:37

fill a void, to fill a hole.

25:39

That void? Candace believes it was

25:41

created by the death of Courtney's father. I

25:44

think that because she had a

25:46

daddy-shaped hole in her

25:48

heart, she sought love and

25:50

attention elsewhere. And when Courtney

25:52

dropped out of college after one semester,

25:54

Candace noticed her cousin took a turn for

25:57

the worse.

25:58

She was especially concerned about the pain. company

26:00

Courtney started keeping. They

26:03

were either dealers or they had been caught

26:06

doing something or another. Courtney

26:08

had a little

26:10

life that we knew about

26:12

and one that we didn't know about. I'm assuming

26:15

you didn't love what you were hearing about

26:17

this other life. Yes, ma'am. That's right.

26:20

It was just the type of

26:21

people that she

26:23

was around that had me really

26:26

concerned. People like

26:28

a guy named Jiddy, Courtney's on-again, off-again

26:30

boyfriend, who at first seemed nice, polite

26:33

when he met her family. Courtney brought

26:35

him over to my house and

26:38

she introduced him

26:39

as her future husband. But as the

26:41

months passed, Lace learned he had a

26:43

darker side. I did know that he

26:45

sold drugs. OK, that's

26:47

not good. No.

26:49

She also began to suspect he might be violent.

26:52

She had bruises on her arms

26:55

at work a couple of times. Courtney

26:57

wouldn't say if Jiddy was responsible. But

27:00

one day out of the blue, Lace says Courtney

27:02

made a startling comment. She

27:04

told me one time, if anything ever

27:07

happens to me, Freud, Lee

27:09

Williams Jr. did it.

27:11

And I said, well, who is that? And she said, that's

27:13

Jiddy. Nobody on the street

27:15

knows his name. So she wanted me to

27:18

give that to the police. That's

27:20

exactly what Lace did after Courtney's

27:22

death. She told Sergeant Green everything.

27:25

How seriously did you take what

27:28

the family was saying about him?

27:30

I took everything that they said seriously

27:34

because nobody knew who was involved at

27:36

that point.

27:37

Sergeant Green tracked Jiddy down

27:39

and brought him to the station for questioning. And

27:42

when he asked him where he was during the weekend Courtney

27:44

was killed,

27:45

he said he was around,

27:49

around town and from different places

27:52

or whatever. So he wasn't giving you specifics?

27:54

No. What are you thinking? I'm thinking

27:56

that he's trying to keep something away

27:59

from us. The investigator

28:01

knew Jiddy had a criminal record, but

28:03

there were no violent offenses. He

28:05

also didn't believe Jiddy was capable of killing

28:08

Courtney and moving her body. He's

28:10

small in stature, I think, five, six, five,

28:13

four, something like that. He's a small guy. Did

28:16

you straight-up ask him, did

28:18

you have anything to do with Courtney Coco's

28:20

death? Yes, and he said no. Sergeant

28:23

Green believed Courtney's killer was someone close

28:26

to her,

28:26

perhaps another man in her life.

28:29

Officially, Jiddy remained a suspect, but

28:31

without evidence tying him to the murder, Green

28:33

didn't see what more he could do. Courtney's

28:36

family believed just the opposite.

28:38

They thought there was a lot more he could be doing.

28:41

I wasn't happy with the investigation, and

28:43

I have zero negative

28:47

feelings towards law enforcement, but

28:49

I felt like

28:50

proper measures were not taken.

28:53

Not taken or pursued. I

28:56

feel like because of the choices that

28:58

she made, the lifestyle she held,

29:01

or the people she hung around,

29:03

that it was almost like she was treated

29:06

secondary. You know, like, we'll get

29:08

to that case later. The family

29:11

was losing faith fast in the Alexandria

29:13

Police Department.

29:15

What they didn't know, the APD

29:17

was on the horn with the Texas Rangers, and

29:20

together they were about to catch a break

29:22

that could crack the case wide open.

29:26

It's a parent's biggest fear, having

29:28

to bury a child.

29:32

And I just kept asking

29:34

God why. Just a week earlier, Stephanie Belgarde

29:36

was staring at her daughter Courtney's

29:39

sweet face. Now, she was looking

29:41

for a child. She was looking for a child.

29:44

And she was looking for a child. And

29:46

she was looking for a child. And she was

29:48

looking for a child. And

29:51

she was looking for a child. And she was looking for

29:53

a child.

29:55

Now, she was looking down at her coffin.

29:58

Everything that I care. about.

30:02

I didn't

30:02

care about it anymore. I didn't

30:04

even want to get out the bed. I

30:06

would imagine that Stephanie's pain

30:09

is your pain. It absolutely

30:11

is. When she cries, we cry. And

30:14

then we try to be the rock

30:17

for her if she needs to melt. Hundreds

30:20

of people attended Courtney's funeral to say their

30:22

goodbyes. But no one could

30:24

forget that her killer was still on the loose.

30:27

There was lots of federal marshals and policemen

30:29

all walking around. Courtney's cousin

30:31

could feel the tension. You know, they were

30:34

convinced that whoever did that to her would show

30:36

up at the funeral. You look at everyone in

30:38

a different light. You know, did you have

30:41

anything to do with it? Did you have anything to

30:43

do with it?

30:44

Courtney's sister Lace was on edge,

30:46

but heartbroken too. She

30:48

wanted to see and touch her sister one last

30:50

time. The hardest thing

30:53

was it wasn't even an opening casket.

30:56

We couldn't even hold our

30:58

hand, kiss her cheek. We

31:01

couldn't tell her goodbye

31:03

the way we wanted to. She

31:05

was glad to have her family there as support,

31:07

especially her fiancé. Your

31:09

fiancé, Anthony, was one of the pallbearers.

31:12

He was a pallbearer. He

31:15

wanted to be a pallbearer too. They

31:18

carried Courtney to her final resting place

31:21

next to her father. Remember, it

31:23

was her wish from when she was just eight years old.

31:26

It was there at the cemetery that Stephanie

31:28

made her daughter a promise. Nilly

31:31

on her grave, I said,

31:33

I'm going to find out who put you here.

31:36

And if the Lord lets me live long enough, I'm

31:39

going to do it.

31:44

Back in Texas, Detective Rabeli was

31:46

trying to do the same, but his investigation

31:49

was stalled. He'd been striking

31:51

out since day one. take

32:00

him getting polygravity passed. But

32:03

on the very day of Courtney's funeral, he got

32:05

word of a new development. The

32:07

Alexandria Police Department crime scene

32:09

unit had subpoenaed Courtney's phone records and

32:11

sent them to Ranger Hearn.

32:13

They showed that she stopped using her phone at 4.30 a.m.

32:16

Saturday, not long after she drove her

32:18

friends home.

32:19

But then Sunday night, her phone records

32:22

registered a sudden flurry of calls

32:24

that continued after her body was found.

32:27

And when it turned back on, it

32:29

was using a Houston cell tower and

32:31

started calling Houston phone numbers. It

32:34

was the first real break in the case. Did

32:37

you feel like if you could find the phone, find the phone,

32:39

you could find the killer?

32:40

Potentially, yes. If you can get there, you

32:42

get to the person who last

32:45

saw her and took her phone from

32:47

her.

32:48

Courtney's phone was pinging off two cell towers

32:51

60 miles away in a section of Houston, Texas

32:53

called the Fourth Ward.

32:55

Detective Rabelie and Ranger Hearn followed

32:57

the pings and to their surprise found

33:00

the phone in the custody of a 15-year-old.

33:04

So what is this teenager

33:07

saying about how he got this phone

33:09

and does he know Courtney? So he says

33:11

he has no idea or any

33:14

connection to the victim. He said two guys,

33:16

one short and one tall, were walking down the

33:18

street and offered

33:21

him the cell phone for $10. Just

33:23

random strangers who approached him.

33:25

He did not know them by name or

33:27

had not seen them before. And

33:30

just like that, their only lead

33:32

vanished.

33:33

But a week later, they caught another break

33:35

and were back in Houston. They'd been looking

33:37

for Courtney's car, the green Pontiac,

33:39

and found it parked outside an apartment complex.

33:42

Is this getting you any closer to

33:45

Courtney's possible killer?

33:47

We're hoping so. The detectives

33:49

learned the description of the two men who drove

33:51

Courtney's car to Houston matched that of the

33:53

men who sold her phone. This

33:55

time they got a name for one of them, Red.

33:59

Now you have a name.

33:59

have at least a nickname. It wasn't

34:02

much, but Ranger Hernan Detective Rabelais

34:04

followed every lead they came across in

34:06

their search for Red. They knew

34:08

he could be key to solving the case. Red

34:11

might have information leading to...

34:13

He might have information leading to something. He

34:16

got the car from somewhere. The

34:18

car came from Louisiana, and he ended up with it somehow,

34:20

so... Or he could even be the killer. He could.

34:24

But law enforcement never found Red or

34:26

learned his real name. Still, they

34:28

had Courtney's car and a crime scene

34:30

team to quickly process it.

34:32

We checked it for fingerprints. We

34:34

collected cigarette butts from inside

34:36

the car. They also sprayed Luminol

34:39

and found something. We found some

34:41

blood on the trunk latch. Was it Courtney's

34:43

blood or maybe her killer's? Once

34:46

again, law enforcement would have to wait for

34:48

lab results to know the answer. Meanwhile,

34:51

the investigation back in Alexandria

34:53

was about to zero in much closer

34:55

to home in a way that would put

34:57

Courtney's own family under the

35:00

white hot spotlight.

35:20

In the weeks after Courtney Coco was laid

35:22

to rest beside her father, Courtney's

35:25

mother felt the need to cross into Texas where

35:27

her daughter's body had been found. What

35:30

did you hope to get by

35:32

going there or feel? To me,

35:35

it was sacred ground,

35:38

even though it was horrible how she

35:40

got there. And we

35:43

brought a priest with us when we went,

35:47

and

35:49

he blessed the place. And

35:51

in a more visible sign of faith, while

35:53

the whole family watched, Lace's

35:55

fiance, Anthony Burns, helped plant

35:57

this cross near the building where her body was still.

36:00

found.

36:00

Her cross was so beautiful it

36:03

stood real about five foot high. We

36:06

put it down and

36:09

they're kind of off

36:11

to the side where it wouldn't be like

36:14

right in front of the building but like

36:16

where I had a spot to at least go leave flowers

36:18

every now and then.

36:21

Courtney's family was juggling a range

36:23

of emotions sadness confusion

36:26

anger it was the lack of answers.

36:29

The Houston crime lab had finished processing

36:31

all the evidence from Courtney's car and they

36:33

found nothing.

36:35

None of the fingerprints or the DNA led

36:37

investigators to a man who went by the name

36:39

of Red or anyone else who

36:41

brought them closer to identifying Courtney's killer.

36:44

The final toxicology reports were

36:47

also in and showed no drugs

36:49

in Courtney's system.

36:50

The medical examiner determined her cause of death

36:53

was likely asphyxia or suffocation

36:55

and that she was smothered to death.

36:58

It left the family feeling like they had to solve

37:00

the murder on their own. We would go

37:02

out and we would hand

37:04

out flyers and put

37:07

flyers on every store in

37:10

town. Fliers with

37:12

Courtney's photo and her mother's phone number

37:14

asking for any information that might help with

37:16

the investigation. They wrote

37:18

down every tip they got every person

37:20

they spoke to and looked through Courtney's

37:22

phone and banking records documenting

37:25

every detail and they shared

37:28

it all with Sergeant Green. They

37:30

weren't giving up but after

37:31

more than a year passed they felt like the detective

37:34

already had. Is Detective Green

37:37

talking to you being forthcoming sharing

37:40

with you what they're doing? No Stephanie

37:42

would call very frequently to try

37:44

to get updates.

37:45

It just got to a point where it

37:48

felt like it was on the back burner. But

37:51

Sergeant Green says the murder investigation

37:53

was never on any back burner and

37:55

that he was doing the best he could with the resources

37:57

he had. I

37:58

had other homicides. that were coming

38:01

in, other things that were going on. And

38:05

no, I was not at their beck and call. I

38:07

was not.

38:07

He also denies the family's allegation

38:10

that he treated Courtney's case as less important

38:12

because of the lifestyle she led and

38:14

the people she associated with. How

38:17

did you feel about the fact

38:19

that the family was kind of doing their

38:21

own

38:22

investigation, playing the role

38:25

of detective? I thought that that

38:27

was interfering with

38:29

our investigation. How was it interfering?

38:31

They wanted to know everything we did.

38:34

They wanted to know

38:38

who we talked to, what we asked

38:40

them. And that's

38:43

not some things that

38:45

we

38:46

usually divulge.

38:49

They felt that they were calling you with tips

38:51

and leads that you

38:54

either weren't following or weren't following

38:57

well enough. Yeah. They were,

38:59

I felt like, sending me on a whole bunch

39:01

of wild goose chases. And

39:04

the detective wondered, was there more to it

39:06

than that? A year and a half

39:09

after Courtney's murder, Sergeant Green's

39:11

ears went up when he heard something that none of

39:13

the family members had ever mentioned,

39:15

something that suddenly cast real suspicion

39:18

on them.

39:19

We end up getting an anonymous

39:21

phone call at first, saying

39:24

to us, follow

39:27

the money. What did that mean to you, follow

39:29

the money? At that point, I didn't know what

39:31

it meant. So then we

39:34

started to try to track down

39:37

why was that said and who was saying it. Because

39:39

it came in anonymously at first.

39:42

Investigators soon tracked the call to Courtney's

39:45

grandfather. The man told police

39:47

that his son, Courtney's father, had once

39:49

been injured on the job. He lost

39:51

a leg and received a settlement.

39:53

And when he passed away,

39:56

Courtney was the beneficiary.

39:58

Courtney was in jail. grade

40:00

school when her father died and apparently had no

40:02

idea he'd left her what would become a

40:04

small fortune. Every five years

40:07

she got a lump sum

40:09

and it doubled

40:10

every five years all

40:12

the way up to 300, 400 thousand dollars or so. They

40:16

start coming to her and her

40:18

name. They meaning checks, $1,500

40:21

every month. That

40:24

was just the start. Researchers learned

40:26

that a few months before Courtney died she'd

40:29

received a check for $20,000 and where there's money, often

40:32

there's motive.

40:35

Through talking to people, this

40:37

is maybe had caused a little

40:39

bit of strife between her and her mom.

40:42

We had some indication that her

40:44

and her mom had argued about

40:47

the money and that was a problem

40:50

for Courtney apparently. The

40:54

Green found it strange that Stephanie had failed to

40:56

mention any of this in their many conversations.

40:59

So in March 2006, 17 months

41:02

after Courtney's body was found, he called

41:04

Stephanie down to the station for questioning.

41:06

Now you're on the potential suspect

41:09

list. Of theirs I guess. So

41:12

I gladly gave them a DNA. I

41:14

did whatever they asked me to do.

41:17

I cooperated 100%. Stephanie

41:20

even took a polygraph. They asked

41:22

me all these questions like, do

41:25

you know who killed your child? Did you

41:27

help kill Courtney? All

41:29

these horrible questions which I understand

41:31

you have to do.

41:33

As insensitive

41:36

as it seems, it

41:39

has to be addressed at

41:41

some point we had to ask.

41:43

And as far as the issue that landed Stephanie in police

41:46

crosshairs, Courtney's mom said

41:48

she'd known about the money all along and managed

41:50

it until her daughter turned 18. So

41:53

maybe you wanted Courtney's money. Right.

41:55

Because would it go to you if she died?

41:58

I assume that it would go back.

41:59

to his family, but it didn't. It came

42:02

to me. Was anything she was saying

42:04

suspicious to you that... No. She

42:06

might know something about the murder? No. Did

42:08

she pass the polygraph? She did. Courtney's

42:12

mom was in the clear, but another

42:15

member of the family was about to face the

42:17

same treatment, and her

42:19

visit to the police station ended

42:21

in far more troubling fashion. I

42:24

went ballistic.

42:26

I lost it. I ripped the stuff

42:28

off. I was about to lose my

42:31

mind.

42:46

Just days after Courtney's mom Stephanie

42:48

walked out of the police station and out

42:50

from under any cloud of suspicion, Courtney's

42:53

sister got a call.

42:54

It was Sergeant Green. He said,

42:56

Lay said, you should come down to the station tomorrow

42:59

morning, about nine o'clock, and

43:01

he said, I have some information on your sister. Are

43:03

you thinking maybe there's been an arrest? I

43:05

didn't know what it was. I just knew that there was some

43:07

information and I was all for it. Seventeen

43:11

months had passed without any promising

43:13

leads in Courtney Cocoa's murder. As

43:16

Lay set off for the police station, maybe

43:18

that was now about to change. I

43:21

went down there and he

43:23

opened this door and there were two

43:25

FBI agents and

43:28

two police officers or

43:30

detectives sitting at this long

43:32

table. First thing he said is, you're in

43:34

big trouble. So now they're

43:37

looking at you? Yes.

43:38

We felt like Lace

43:41

knew more than what she was giving

43:43

us. Lace does

43:45

have a record of misdemeanor robbery and assault.

43:49

Nervously, she agreed to answer questions

43:51

about her sister and was wired up for

43:53

a polygraph test.

43:55

Are they treating you like a suspect in your sister's

43:58

murder? Yes. start

44:00

the polygraph. The polygraph

44:03

came out, and his exact words,

44:06

it will be a miracle if she

44:08

passed this test at this point. Because

44:10

she's lying or she's just not handling the test

44:12

very well? Apparently, she wasn't being truthful

44:15

at that point. OK. Lace insists

44:17

she told the truth, but got stressed

44:19

and overwhelmed by the long, drawn-out interview.

44:22

I want to say it was like six hours

44:24

or seven hours or something. Do you think that

44:27

they think that you killed Courtney? Yeah. Or

44:29

know someone who did? Or knew someone, yes.

44:32

I mean, they were putting it on me.

44:34

The questions for Lace, just like those

44:37

asked of her mother, well, they hit

44:39

a nerve. When they asked you, did

44:41

you kill Courtney? I

44:44

went ballistic. I lost

44:46

it. I said, no, I didn't kill

44:48

my sister. And I was like,

44:50

man, what are you all trying to do to me? And I

44:53

ripped the polygraph off. And

44:55

I was leaving. He said, if you

44:58

don't come back here tomorrow morning to retake this

45:00

test, it's going to look like you killed your sister.

45:02

And my mind was so blown

45:06

because I know I didn't

45:08

kill my sister. Sergeant

45:10

Green wasn't in the room at the time, but he heard

45:12

what happened. What do you think about that

45:14

when you find out that she runs out on the

45:18

interview?

45:18

Well, what would you think? I want

45:20

to know what you think. I'm thinking

45:22

that's something that she knows that she's

45:24

not telling us.

45:25

So you're thinking, like, now Lace

45:27

could be the key to potentially

45:29

solving this murder? Yes. But

45:32

you don't know exactly why.

45:33

Don't know exactly why. When Lace leaves

45:37

the station, is she a suspect now?

45:39

She is probably more

45:43

of a person of interest than she was

45:45

before she came in.

45:48

Despondent,

45:48

Lace called her mom. Did

45:50

that bother you that Lace was questioned

45:53

for hours? Very much so, yes. And

45:55

she was on seizure medicine at that time,

45:57

and they didn't even allow her to take her medicine.

45:59

or get anything to eat

46:02

or drink in like almost eight hours. And

46:05

she was in tears, but she went back the next

46:07

day and finished. Lace

46:09

passed the polygraph but remained under

46:11

suspicion. So if you

46:13

thought Courtney's family was fed up with Detective

46:16

Green before, well,

46:17

they were about to turn up the heat

46:19

by turning to his boss.

46:21

I told the police chief, I said,

46:24

I do

46:25

not want Detective Green on Courtney's

46:27

case. Please take him off. I

46:30

just wanted somebody that would give

46:32

me answers. I was told by

46:34

the chief, I've been sitting up all

46:36

night trying to figure out how to fire you. I'm

46:39

like, are you serious? Fire me

46:41

for what? He said that

46:43

you told them that they are possible

46:46

suspects. Well, yeah, I don't know

46:48

who killed her. Do you know?

46:50

Do they know? Could

46:53

you sort of see their point that a lot of time

46:55

had gone by and there was no arrest? Maybe

46:57

time for some fresh eyes?

46:59

Well, maybe. I mean, I didn't

47:01

have a problem with that. Did that hurt a

47:04

little bit? I mean, did you want to see it through? Did

47:06

you want to continue to try to solve it? I did. There's

47:09

no homicide that I've started on that

47:12

I don't want to finish. I mean, yeah,

47:14

it was hurtful, but I'm also

47:17

a professional. Yeah. So

47:20

if that was the decision to be made,

47:22

I had to move on. Sergeant

47:25

Green wasn't fired, but was reassigned. And

47:27

eventually another detective was put on

47:29

the case.

47:31

But first, a new revelation

47:33

would hit Courtney's family, one that

47:35

would challenge everything they thought they knew

47:38

about her murder. And he

47:40

said, I'm here to tell you all

47:42

that your daughter's

47:43

death was an accidental death.

47:49

And

47:54

I'm here

47:54

to tell you all that your

47:57

daughter's death was an accidental death.

47:59

until somehow it had been a decade

48:02

since the murder of Courtney Coco. The

48:04

case had gone bitterly cold.

48:07

The frustration must have just been overwhelming.

48:10

Yes. Not having answers. Yes, ma'am.

48:12

I even came to the realization

48:15

that her murder might never be solved. And

48:18

I gave it to the Lord and I said, you know who

48:20

did this? And the ultimate

48:23

justice will come from you.

48:24

You didn't give up. No. But I wanted

48:27

to. So many times, I just, I was

48:29

tired. Desperate for answers,

48:31

Courtney's family asked yet another

48:34

agency for help, the local Louisiana

48:36

Sheriff's Office.

48:37

They also joined a group called Parents of Murdered

48:40

Children. And eventually, they even

48:42

reached out to Dateline. And we featured

48:44

Courtney's story online in our Cold Case

48:46

Spotlight series. Meanwhile, they

48:48

did whatever they could to keep Courtney's case

48:50

in the public eye. We did any

48:53

march, candlelight vigil,

48:56

victim's march, anything we could do. Courtney's

48:59

family doubled down on their search for answers

49:01

and had the binders of information to prove

49:03

it.

49:05

When I look at this, all of the

49:07

materials, I think of like your own little war

49:09

room. Every little tip

49:12

that would come through, whether it was

49:14

wrote on a regular piece of paper, a

49:18

receipt, we filed it.

49:20

Courtney's grandmother saw flashes of hope

49:23

in a sea of despair. I know

49:25

you, you're the matriarch. What was your feeling

49:27

as you're watching them go through this?

49:29

It was very, very hurtful,

49:32

because I noticed every

49:34

time a new tip came in, their

49:37

eyes lit up. And there were times

49:39

when I felt like we were out there by

49:41

ourselves. And that

49:43

if we were gonna give help, we had to try

49:46

to help ourselves. The police

49:48

said they were doing their best, but that did nothing

49:50

to ease the family's frustration. That

49:53

put a strain on daily life. And

49:55

across the state line, it had also taken

49:57

a toll on Texas detective David Rabelick.

49:59

who ended up leaving the sheriff's office.

50:02

I got to the point where I couldn't do anything

50:04

else on the case. It

50:06

tore me apart. I was on depression

50:09

medication from the doctor. I

50:11

had another heart attack.

50:13

Because of this case? I just felt like I failed

50:15

the family. I'm not doing my job. I'm

50:17

not good enough. What else can I do? These

50:20

people are hurting. What if it was my child

50:22

and I'm laying in bed wondering how my child died,

50:24

who killed her? Then in 2016,

50:28

12 years after the murder, came up bombshell.

50:31

The family was called together not by the

50:33

Alexandria Police Department or by the investigators

50:36

in Texas,

50:37

but by the Louisiana Sheriff's Office. It

50:40

turned out the Sheriff's Office had answered

50:42

the family's plea for help, but hadn't

50:45

told them they'd ordered new lab tests. And

50:47

now the family stood before a detective who

50:49

was holding some documents.

50:52

He hands us each one of

50:55

a copy of a second toxicology report that

50:58

they did on Courtney's blood. The

51:01

detective told Courtney's family the Sheriff's Office

51:03

had ordered a new tox screen on a vial of

51:06

Courtney's blood that had been stored

51:08

in evidence since the murder.

51:11

He said it revealed prescription pain

51:13

medication and a large amount of alcohol in

51:15

Courtney's system. He said, I'm here to tell y'all

51:17

that

51:18

your daughter was an

51:20

accidental death. She

51:22

OD'd. I'm

51:25

like, what? But the

51:28

first autopsy, there was no sign of drugs

51:30

or alcohol. The first

51:32

toxicology report was

51:34

no drugs or alcohol in her system. But

51:37

he said if I had to classify your daughter's

51:39

death right now, it would be accidental. I was like, forward.

51:42

I was like in a state of shock. I'm

51:44

like, she was last seen

51:47

in a store that night. If

51:49

she'd have taken all these drugs, there was

51:51

no way she could have walked. I looked straight at

51:53

him and I said, hold on a second. Courtney did not

51:56

put her body in the trunk of a car and

51:58

go to the store. dump herself

52:00

in Texas. Somebody's responsible

52:03

for that. And

52:05

we will not accept this answer. Did

52:08

you have to think, though, that it was possible that she maybe

52:10

the first autopsy was messed up, that

52:13

she really did OD, and then someone transported

52:15

her body

52:16

to the scene? No, we never

52:18

doubted the first autopsy report

52:21

because they had her actual body. They

52:23

tested her actual spleen and everything right

52:25

then and there. I've never heard of

52:28

anybody going from a clean talk

52:31

screen to suddenly with all these drugs

52:33

in their system. Right, right.

52:35

We weren't going to believe it. No.

52:38

Courtney's

52:40

family believed law enforcement just wanted

52:42

to close the case, be done with

52:44

all of it, and done with them. Days

52:47

later, Stephanie called the detective. And

52:50

I said, I'm not buying it.

52:52

I don't believe it for a minute. Keep

52:56

digging. I said, now, you can tell

52:58

me who put my daughter's body in

53:00

that building that she was in. Then this

53:02

case is not solved.

53:05

But if the Louisiana sheriff wanted to be done

53:07

with the Courtney Cocoa case, well, in

53:09

one sense, it worked.

53:11

Because Stephanie and her family were now done with

53:14

official law enforcement channels.

53:16

You decide if they're not going to do it,

53:18

they're not going to solve this. I am.

53:21

I'm going to get someone. I wanted a private investigator

53:23

or somebody. A family member

53:25

happened to know someone with a passion for cold

53:28

cases.

53:29

His name is Woody Overton, a

53:31

former criminal investigator for the Louisiana

53:33

State Police with over 20 years in law

53:35

enforcement. But in 2019,

53:38

he added a new line to his resume.

53:40

Hello, everybody. I'm welcome to this episode of

53:42

Real Life, Real Crime, the podcast.

53:45

True Crime Podcaster. My wife said,

53:47

everybody loves you. Boys said, everybody loves your stories.

53:49

You need to start a podcast. She's

53:52

mom, Stephanie, had spoken to Woody years before

53:54

about her frustration with local law enforcement.

53:57

But after his podcast launched, she reached

54:00

out to him again. Could he help

54:02

crack Courtney's case? I

54:04

begged him. I said, please help me. And

54:07

he knows the law, like the back of his hand.

54:09

It broke my heart. And I'm like, I told

54:11

Stephanie that day, I said, I'll tell you what, I'm

54:14

going to solve this case. I'm going to die trying. Wow.

54:17

What was her reaction to that? She

54:20

cried. Yeah. Finally

54:22

someone was… Right. Well, you

54:24

know, people have been promising herself for over 16 years

54:27

at that point. Something tells me she could

54:30

feel that you meant it. Right. Well,

54:33

I did.

54:36

Woody took on the case and went

54:38

on the air. I'm your host, Woody

54:41

Overton. And as his

54:43

listeners responded, it wasn't

54:45

long before he came face to face

54:48

with someone who said she knew Courtney's

54:50

killer.

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56:04

Former criminal investigator and podcaster

56:06

Woody Overton has one of the most popular

56:09

podcasts in the country, and he

56:11

was now delving into Courtney Koko's

56:13

murder.

56:14

His first step was to take in all the information

56:16

Courtney's family had gathered over 15 years.

56:19

What did you make of the family's files?

56:21

I thought it was just amazing. It was

56:23

an amazing testament to this family, not ever

56:26

giving up. People would call them the tips

56:28

or tell them this and tell them that. They had everything

56:30

written down. Woody chased

56:32

down leads from the family's files. It

56:35

just morphed into what I used to do. Working

56:38

the case actively, boots on the ground is what

56:40

I call it. And every week

56:43

I would release an episode of what I was doing

56:45

on the podcast. Today we're

56:47

going to be getting a new chapter.

56:50

In September 2019, Woody

56:53

said Courtney's name on his podcast

56:55

for the first time. Who

56:57

murdered Courtney Koko?

57:00

Who indeed?

57:03

The Alexandria Police Department didn't know, and

57:06

Woody was highly critical of the department.

57:08

Now I'm playing an armchair quarterback,

57:10

right? But the things that weren't

57:12

done that were throwing up red flags

57:14

for me. Woody also wanted

57:17

to eliminate any suspects he could, including

57:20

members of Courtney's family.

57:22

My sister Lace remained under suspicion

57:24

in the police investigation. And

57:26

Woody, an experienced polygrapher,

57:28

wanted to satisfy himself that she wasn't

57:31

involved. Did you take offense to

57:33

it that he wanted to give you a polygraph?

57:35

No, I will cooperate with

57:37

anything. Because he's a podcaster now,

57:40

and he's giving you a polygraph. Right, I know

57:42

it can kill my sister. So if you want to do a polygraph

57:44

on me, do one on me.

57:46

Once again, Lace took a polygraph

57:49

and passed.

57:51

Now, just like the police, Woody had

57:54

no obvious suspects. So he

57:56

turned to his fans. I'm 18

58:00

years old now, and I do not

58:03

think it can be solved without the help

58:06

of the public.

58:07

And you lifers out there? Lifers

58:11

is the endearing term Woody uses for his most

58:13

loyal and hardcore listeners. He

58:15

set up a Facebook page and a tip line for

58:17

them to share their thoughts and theories. I

58:20

just went and gobbled up every episode I

58:22

could. It kind of reignited a fire for

58:24

me.

58:25

The series attracted new fans, like

58:27

Karen Fowler, a high school friend of Courtney's.

58:30

I got in contact with people that I went to high school

58:32

with, and we had group messages going

58:34

of, well, did you know about this, and what did you think

58:36

about that? Just kind of getting

58:39

information for the first time. As

58:41

the tips started rolling in,

58:43

Woody set up shop in Alexandria and

58:46

took digs at the Alexandria Police Department

58:48

to step up and solve the case.

58:50

We don't get satisfaction. We're going

58:52

to take it to the media, and we're going to blow it up.

58:55

Woody's in-your-face style apparently didn't

58:57

sit well with some. Woody says

58:59

he received not so subtle messages

59:02

to drop the case. I had several

59:04

incidents, including the window being

59:06

shot out of my truck, wires

59:09

ripped out of the vehicle another time. I

59:11

had to leave Alexandra and

59:13

get a cabin in the woods while I was still working

59:15

the case for my own safety.

59:18

In spite of the danger he felt, Woody

59:20

stuck with it. As he dug deeper,

59:23

wading through paperwork and speaking with witnesses,

59:26

a name emerged as Courtney's possible killer,

59:29

a name he was hearing again and again.

59:31

Talking about suspect number

59:34

one. Woody gave him the moniker

59:36

Suspect Number One, and

59:38

his suspicions only grew when one of his podcast

59:41

lifers made a startling revelation

59:43

about Suspect Number One.

59:45

I get a

59:47

phone call saying, hey, we have a lifer.

59:50

It says her ex-husband

59:52

knows

59:54

that Suspect Number One did it.

59:56

So she's saying her ex-husband,

59:59

his friend. His best friend. Has

1:00:01

confessed to him that he did this, that

1:00:03

he killed Courtney. And it even goes

1:00:06

deeper.

1:00:06

Her now ex-husband was gone

1:00:09

that we can also return home in the middle

1:00:11

of the night smelling of death.

1:00:13

That tip from a woman named

1:00:15

Tiffany sounded more than promising

1:00:17

to Woody. But he needed proof.

1:00:19

A recorded conversation, perhaps. I'm

1:00:22

like, can we wire her up? Can we get

1:00:24

her on a cell phone? How'd you get her to agree?

1:00:27

Because that could be dangerous for her. She

1:00:29

wanted help. And she did it.

1:00:32

Oh my God, listen to this. Tiffany

1:00:36

agreed to secretly record her ex, named

1:00:38

Sheamus, talking about Courtney's murder.

1:00:41

Sheamus, have you been following the broadcast?

1:00:44

You haven't listened to the broadcast at all? No. I'm

1:00:46

under what? It's

1:00:49

under broadcast, Courtney

1:00:51

Coco. As they were driving,

1:00:54

Sheamus, unaware he was being recorded,

1:00:56

confirmed his best friend had killed Courtney.

1:00:59

When

1:01:11

Tiffany called Woody and told him what she had on tape,

1:01:13

Woody couldn't contain himself. Back

1:01:17

home, with a recording in hand, Woody prepared

1:01:19

a new podcast with a message to the man he believed was

1:01:21

Courtney's killer.

1:01:40

Meanwhile, he'd called a meeting with Courtney's

1:01:42

family to finally answer the

1:01:44

question. Who killed Courtney

1:01:46

Coco? You must have just

1:01:48

felt such betrayal. Yes,

1:01:51

ma'am.

1:02:00

15 years after Courtney

1:02:03

Koko's murder,

1:02:05

podcaster

1:02:07

Woody Overton believed he knew

1:02:09

who did it. He

1:02:12

gathered Courtney's family together to reveal

1:02:14

the name.

1:02:15

And now you're about to tell them the answers,

1:02:17

that they've been desperately wanting

1:02:20

all these years. Right, and I

1:02:22

prayed hard before I did it. Your heart

1:02:24

must have just been pounding. It

1:02:26

certainly was hard. And it was

1:02:28

hard for Courtney's family to comprehend

1:02:30

what Overton told them. Who was it?

1:02:33

Who did he believe had done this? I was floored, I was floored.

1:02:35

It was Anthony Burns. Anthony

1:02:38

Burns, Lace's fiance.

1:02:41

It's since broken things off, but he was once

1:02:43

so beloved by Courtney's family. Are

1:02:46

you asking yourself how's this possible? Anthony

1:02:48

was a pallbearer at Courtney's

1:02:50

funeral. He helped you erect

1:02:52

the cross. Yes. Lace's

1:02:55

fiance.

1:02:56

Yes. Your fiance. My

1:02:58

fiance. Your former fiance. You're

1:03:00

sleeping with a killer. With a killer. Potentially,

1:03:04

if Woody's investigation is right. Yes,

1:03:07

I started thinking of all

1:03:09

them times, he came in

1:03:12

and laid in the same bed with me, knowing

1:03:15

that he was a killer. And

1:03:17

he could have easily killed

1:03:19

me. You must have just felt

1:03:21

such betrayal by Anthony.

1:03:24

He'd been such a big part of your lives. Yes,

1:03:27

ma'am. I didn't want to believe

1:03:29

it.

1:03:30

Stephanie cried and ran out

1:03:32

of the room. All of them are crying,

1:03:34

they're blown away. Woody's podcast

1:03:36

wasn't enough to arrest Anthony, but

1:03:39

it was enough to get the Alexandria

1:03:41

Police Department to revive its investigation.

1:03:43

The podcast gained significant

1:03:47

momentum. It brought the case

1:03:49

back to life. Tanner

1:03:52

Dryden was the detective who took it over and

1:03:54

told Courtney's family, how did the family

1:03:56

react?

1:03:57

Oh, they were so happy. They were ecstatic. Pretty

1:04:00

much all they ever asked for was to

1:04:02

not be put on the back burner or forgot about.

1:04:06

Woody was happy too and handed his evidence

1:04:08

to Dryden. And man, I called Flagford.

1:04:11

My fans were mad that I turned back over to the

1:04:13

Alexandria Police Department because it blasted

1:04:16

him so hard in the beginning.

1:04:18

But Dryden couldn't rely on Woody's podcast

1:04:20

investigation. He had to do his own. And

1:04:23

that meant starting back at square one. I

1:04:25

started going through the case files,

1:04:27

re-investigating every lead

1:04:30

from every agency, starting over. He

1:04:33

questioned Anthony Burns' friend Seamus who'd

1:04:35

been captured on that secret recording. Did

1:04:38

he confirm what he had said on that recording,

1:04:40

that Anthony killed

1:04:42

Courtney? Yes. As

1:04:45

he dug deeper, Dryden discovered two

1:04:47

more former friends of Anthony Burns had come

1:04:49

forward years before saying Burns had

1:04:51

confessed to the murder. Their stories were

1:04:53

compelling, but one friend had a criminal

1:04:55

record and the other said Burns was drunk

1:04:58

when he confessed. Dryden needed

1:05:00

more to bring charges. And

1:05:03

then he got a big break. As

1:05:05

you're going through all these documents,

1:05:08

you find a tip that's almost

1:05:11

buried in all this stuff that's

1:05:14

going to take you on quite an interesting

1:05:16

ride. Yes.

1:05:18

The tip was from a Texas man named Jude

1:05:20

Wilson who'd come forward a few days after

1:05:23

Courtney's body was found. He

1:05:25

said he'd seen her car, the green Pontiac,

1:05:27

around the supposed time of her murder.

1:05:29

And he calls in and says, hey, I

1:05:32

saw that car. I know it's

1:05:34

that car because it almost

1:05:37

backed into me. We almost had a wreck. Where's

1:05:39

the location? The dump site

1:05:42

in Winnie, Texas. Where she was

1:05:44

found. Courtney's body was found. Jude

1:05:46

Wilson's statement might have been a game changer

1:05:48

to the investigation back then. But

1:05:51

the officer who took the incident report typed

1:05:53

in the wrong date. And so it was

1:05:55

pushed aside.

1:05:57

back

1:06:00

into me. It was only

1:06:02

when Dryden found Wilson and recorded

1:06:04

an interview with him that he was able to confirm

1:06:07

the near-miss incident did happen

1:06:09

during the window of Courtney's murder. Sunday

1:06:11

evening before midnight around that time frame. Did

1:06:14

he get a look at

1:06:15

the driver of the car? Yes.

1:06:18

He was definitely not a heavy-set person, probably

1:06:20

a younger person. He described the

1:06:22

driver as being

1:06:25

slim with small

1:06:28

features. Like Anthony

1:06:30

Burns. But the incident happened

1:06:32

in a flash. It was dark and Wilson

1:06:34

got only a side view of the driver. So

1:06:37

maybe it wasn't him after all. Dryden

1:06:40

wanted to find the truth. So in October 2019,

1:06:43

he decided to confront Burns himself

1:06:46

and brought him in for questioning. All

1:06:48

right. I don't even know Courtney.

1:06:51

I met Courtney after I

1:06:53

started dating Lace.

1:06:55

The detective got to the point. Where

1:06:57

was he the weekend Courtney was murdered, starting

1:07:00

with that Friday. Did

1:07:01

you work that Friday? Did you have to work the white Friday?

1:07:04

You did? I'm pretty sure I did. Did you

1:07:06

have been with Lace Friday night? I

1:07:08

was really interested in him.

1:07:11

On Saturday and Sunday, he said he was in bed

1:07:13

with Lace.

1:07:14

Me and her stayed in

1:07:16

bed. I always ran in with it. One of

1:07:18

those ways.

1:07:23

On Monday morning, he said he went to work and then

1:07:25

surprised Lace with a romantic gift of

1:07:27

flowers.

1:07:28

I want to say with chocolate

1:07:30

roses, I'm not for sure. It might have been red

1:07:32

roses. That was his story. I

1:07:34

went and talked to Lace. You

1:07:37

think she could help verify some of

1:07:39

this? Hell

1:07:41

yeah.

1:07:43

So Detective Dryden questioned Lace.

1:07:45

And her version of events differed sharply

1:07:48

from Burns's. We didn't

1:07:50

even argue. We got into a big fight. Probably

1:07:53

started Friday and then it got worse. At

1:07:55

about midnight. He left another Friday?

1:07:58

He left, yes.

1:07:59

No, you can't tell me

1:08:02

where to go or anything.

1:08:03

She said the next time she saw Anthony was

1:08:05

after Courtney's body was found. Lace

1:08:07

is saying they were not making

1:08:09

love all weekend. That's great. And

1:08:11

there was something else, something

1:08:14

huge. Not long before Courtney's

1:08:16

murder, Lace had called Anthony and

1:08:18

heard Courtney's voice in the background. And

1:08:21

I heard my sister in the background say, who is

1:08:23

that? She believed Anthony and

1:08:25

Courtney were seeing each other behind her back.

1:08:28

What's more, she said Anthony purchased a

1:08:30

set of two gold promise rings and

1:08:33

gave Courtney the one with a special

1:08:35

meaning. She had a gold ring and a

1:08:37

heart on it. She had like the pretty

1:08:39

part

1:08:39

of the ring and had the banner. It's like

1:08:41

he bought that set and gave her

1:08:45

the ring and gave me the ring.

1:08:47

Lace said Anthony and Courtney denied

1:08:49

seeing each other. She never told anyone.

1:08:52

She suspected an affair and didn't make

1:08:54

a connection between Burns and Courtney's

1:08:56

murder.

1:08:57

Dryden still didn't have enough to arrest

1:09:00

Burns. However, he did persuade

1:09:02

him to take a voice stress test conducted

1:09:04

by another detective that would maybe

1:09:06

show if Burns was lying.

1:09:09

Is today Monday? Yes.

1:09:12

Are you involved in the death of Courtney

1:09:14

Coco? No. Is

1:09:17

this the month of November? Yes.

1:09:21

Are you involved in the disposal of

1:09:23

Courtney Coco's body? No.

1:09:26

Burns failed the test. I'm

1:09:28

going to take you over to the next room. I'll take Dryden

1:09:30

and speak with you soon. Are you convinced

1:09:33

now that you're sitting across from Courtney

1:09:36

Coco's killer? Yes, I

1:09:39

am. When I brought him back in there to ask

1:09:41

him about the questions that he felt, he just immediately

1:09:44

got mad and lawyered up. The

1:09:47

detective believed he had the right man, but

1:09:49

the evidence was circumstantial. It

1:09:51

took the prosecutor another year to put

1:09:53

together a case and present it to the grand jury.

1:09:56

What's their decision?

1:09:57

Their decision was unanimous.

1:10:00

to indict him for the murder of Courtney.

1:10:02

You're going to go make your arrest? Let's

1:10:05

go, Tom. As Dryden set

1:10:07

off to arrest Anthony Burns, he

1:10:09

was counting on eyewitnesses to help

1:10:11

put him away. One in particular

1:10:14

had a doozy of a story to tell.

1:10:16

It's one of the most bizarre and

1:10:19

startling eyewitness stories that

1:10:21

I've ever run across, and I've been doing this a long

1:10:23

time.

1:10:28

The

1:10:32

murder

1:10:32

of Anthony Burns is a very interesting

1:10:35

and interesting story to tell.

1:10:38

In April 2021, Detective

1:10:40

Tanner Dryden and his partner approached Anthony

1:10:42

Burns' workplace with their guns drawn.

1:10:45

So we sneak inside. You know, we have him at gunpoint.

1:10:49

I said, Anthony, you're under arrest

1:10:51

for the murder of Courtney Cuckoo. Did

1:10:54

he say anything? He just kind of grinned. Grinned?

1:10:57

Oh, yeah. He was so arrogant. Dryden

1:11:00

immediately called Stephanie, who was in her car.

1:11:03

She just started crying.

1:11:06

She was so happy. I was at a red light.

1:11:08

I think I ran through the red light. I

1:11:11

don't even remember, but I wanted to

1:11:13

jump for joy.

1:11:17

More than 16 years after Courtney's murder, Anthony

1:11:19

Burns was in jail, and Courtney's family

1:11:22

had some hope for justice. Lace

1:11:24

hoped he'd never be free again. I

1:11:27

suffered with nightmares because

1:11:29

I would think that

1:11:31

he was going to hurt my

1:11:33

mama or my grandma because

1:11:35

he knew where they lived. Or you? Or

1:11:38

me. To keep Burns behind bars

1:11:40

for the rest of his life, the DA brought

1:11:43

in a big gun for hire, Hugo

1:11:45

Holland, one of the most formidable prosecutors

1:11:48

in Louisiana.

1:11:49

Would you say you're the guy they call when they

1:11:51

can't win, or when it's a tough win?

1:11:54

When the DAs need somebody

1:11:56

that's had a lot of experience, they

1:11:59

usually call me. Holland

1:12:01

works across the state, bouncing from parish

1:12:03

to parish. You travel around in

1:12:06

this airplane to

1:12:09

all these cases around the state.

1:12:11

Either this one or another one I have an interest

1:12:13

in, but yeah. And you've built this yourself? Me

1:12:16

and a few other guys. Yeah, this

1:12:18

is a home-built aircraft. So your

1:12:20

career is pretty unconventional. You're like, you're

1:12:23

a roving prosecutor. It's extremely

1:12:26

unconventional. He's controversial,

1:12:28

too. In 2014, Holland

1:12:31

was forced to resign from his assistant DA position

1:12:33

after trying to make a dubious weapons purchase,

1:12:36

but was immediately hired by other parishes

1:12:38

because of his success in court.

1:12:41

However, even with Holland's impressive

1:12:43

record, the circumstantial case against

1:12:45

Anthony Burns would be an uphill battle.

1:12:48

You had no eyewitness to the crime. Correct.

1:12:50

You had no DNA from your suspect, no physical

1:12:53

evidence. Correct. You had conflicting toxicology

1:12:56

reports. Was it overdose? Was it murder? Correct.

1:12:58

And years had

1:12:59

passed. Yes. So

1:13:02

Holland cautioned the family. I

1:13:04

was concerned enough about this case, so

1:13:06

I'd already started preparing them for a not

1:13:09

guilty before the trial

1:13:11

even started. Really? Yes, ma'am. In

1:13:14

October 2022, 18 years after Courtney Coco's murder, Anthony

1:13:19

Burns went on trial. Local

1:13:21

reporter Brooke Buford was there on day one.

1:13:24

There were a lot of people there. Courtney's family

1:13:26

had a lot of supporters. Anthony Burns

1:13:29

did, too.

1:13:30

A lot of people who felt that he

1:13:32

was getting the blame placed on him

1:13:35

for not a lot of evidence pointing to

1:13:37

him. Stephanie was there with Woody

1:13:39

Overton and some of his podcast lifers

1:13:42

as prosecutor Holland addressed the jury.

1:13:45

There was a mother who'd

1:13:47

lost a child, sister who'd lost

1:13:50

a sister, somebody that's never had

1:13:52

children because of what Anthony

1:13:55

Burns did. To tell that story,

1:13:57

he didn't focus on the means and motive, but

1:13:59

on the witness. witnesses. He put on

1:14:01

the stand those two former friends of Anthony Burns

1:14:04

who said he confessed to killing Courtney.

1:14:06

One testified Burns said he'd smothered

1:14:08

her and wrapped her in a blanket. The other

1:14:10

said Burns told him he choked Courtney to death.

1:14:13

I try to make clear the only way

1:14:15

that they would have gotten the information would be from

1:14:18

Anthony Burns. Then

1:14:21

the prosecutor rolled out his star witness,

1:14:23

Jude Wilson.

1:14:25

Wilson was the local Texas man who said he'd

1:14:27

nearly been T-boned at night by a car

1:14:29

backing out of the abandoned home where Courtney's body

1:14:31

was found. But he had a much more elaborate

1:14:34

story to tell.

1:14:35

It's one of the most bizarre and

1:14:38

startling eyewitness stories that

1:14:40

I've ever run across. It turned out

1:14:42

Wilson said he had a photographic memory.

1:14:45

In fact, he'd picked out Anthony Burns from

1:14:47

a police photo lineup. But Wilson

1:14:49

was also an illustrator and was able

1:14:52

to draw a sketch of the driver he said he

1:14:54

glimpsed from the side.

1:14:56

I've never ever had

1:14:58

a witness say, oh, well, give me a piece of paper. I'm

1:15:00

going to draw you what this guy looks like. Never

1:15:02

had that. That's unheard of. I thought

1:15:04

it was pretty crazy. With a flourish,

1:15:07

Holland produced a moment of drama on the courtroom

1:15:09

monitor. I took the silhouette

1:15:11

that Jude drew and I put it on like

1:15:14

the left half of the screen. Then he showed

1:15:16

an image of Anthony Burns driving lifted

1:15:18

from home video. And I put him side

1:15:20

by side. You could lay him over the top of each

1:15:22

other. And Wilson, the

1:15:25

witness, had another surprise for the court.

1:15:28

He remembered part of the license plate of the

1:15:30

car believed to be Courtney's that nearly

1:15:32

T-boned him.

1:15:34

I remember the letters from the license plate. He

1:15:36

said, and the reason I remember that is because some

1:15:38

of those letters in that license plate

1:15:40

are my initials. And he said, I remember

1:15:43

an eight as well. Well, as soon as

1:15:45

he said that, I popped Courtney's plate

1:15:47

up and guess what? There's an eight in it. I think it was

1:15:49

a big win for the prosecution and that he was confident

1:15:52

in what he saw, whether the jury

1:15:54

would believe that all these years later

1:15:56

would be another matter.

1:15:58

The prosecution seemed to be a on a roll.

1:16:01

Another important witness was Tiffany,

1:16:03

who'd secretly recorded that conversation

1:16:05

with her ex-husband, Sheamus, for Overton's

1:16:08

podcast. I don't know about that,

1:16:09

but, uh, you can't go Courtney. Let

1:16:12

me tell you that. Tiffany

1:16:14

testified not only had Burns confess

1:16:16

to her ex-husband, she also said

1:16:18

Sheamus was M.I.A., the weekend of Courtney's

1:16:21

murder.

1:16:22

That his regular truck driving route would take

1:16:24

him right past the site where Courtney's body

1:16:26

was found,

1:16:27

and that she found a pair of women's underwear in his

1:16:30

truck.

1:16:31

That testimony about Sheamus fed into Holland's

1:16:33

overall theory of the murder.

1:16:35

He believes it took place after Anthony

1:16:37

Burns and Courtney started an affair. Take

1:16:40

us through what you think happened. So

1:16:42

he goes over to Courtney's to have

1:16:44

sex with Courtney, be with Courtney? He

1:16:47

believes Courtney rejected Burns.

1:16:49

There's a struggle. He murders her on

1:16:52

her bed in her bedroom. Burns

1:16:54

calls his buddy Sheamus. I murdered

1:16:56

Courtney. Get up here and help me.

1:16:58

Then he thinks Sheamus helped move

1:17:00

Courtney's body. Sheamus knows

1:17:02

the area. Sheamus knows that that

1:17:05

house is unoccupied. Let's go dump

1:17:07

the body there.

1:17:08

Tiffany testified that, that

1:17:10

when Sheamus came home after disappearing

1:17:13

for the weekend, she said he smelled like death.

1:17:15

She said I wouldn't even let him come in the

1:17:17

house. He smelled so bad. But prosecutor

1:17:19

Holland could never prove Sheamus was an accessory

1:17:22

to the crime.

1:17:23

Sheamus denies any involvement

1:17:25

and was never charged.

1:17:27

When he took the stand for the prosecution, he

1:17:29

did so reluctantly. But did

1:17:32

testify Burns told him he killed Courtney.

1:17:35

Sheamus was friends with Anthony

1:17:37

Burns, had been long time friends with Anthony Burns.

1:17:39

He changed

1:17:42

his story sometimes up on the stand. Sheamus

1:17:44

was sort of a hostile witness

1:17:47

for you? Oh, he is very hostile. I had to

1:17:49

threaten him a couple of times while he was testifying. It

1:17:51

was clear to the jury that he was hiding

1:17:53

information.

1:17:55

As the prosecutor's case began

1:17:57

to wobble, he would also have to contend

1:17:59

with an expert witness for the defense, a

1:18:02

doctor with a different take on

1:18:04

Courtney's death. Maybe, after

1:18:07

all, there was reasonable doubt that

1:18:09

Anthony Burns killed Courtney.

1:18:24

Anthony Burns was on trial for the murder

1:18:26

of Courtney Coco, facing life in

1:18:29

prison. Now, his defense

1:18:31

attorney Chris Lacour rose to address the

1:18:33

court, and he wasted no time pouring

1:18:36

cold water on the prosecution's circumstantial

1:18:38

case. For

1:18:39

him, the biggest one was Courtney's official cause

1:18:56

of death.

1:19:06

To prove his point, he put the author

1:19:09

of that second toxicology report on

1:19:11

the stand.

1:19:12

Remember, that report found high

1:19:14

levels of prescription painkillers and alcohol

1:19:16

in Courtney's system. He

1:19:36

cast doubt on those two

1:19:38

witnesses who testified Anthony Burns

1:19:40

had confessed to killing Courtney. do

1:20:00

things that you normally wouldn't do. Well,

1:20:02

confessing to a murder, I don't know that

1:20:05

a lot of people have been intoxicated

1:20:07

and confessed to

1:20:08

murder. Well, that's the thing. What

1:20:10

did he really confess to? La Cour

1:20:12

argued the witnesses had two different stories,

1:20:15

so it wasn't clear exactly what Burns had said.

1:20:18

And as for Seamus, that former friend of Anthony's

1:20:20

who changed his story, the attorney

1:20:23

explained he only added to the doubt his

1:20:25

client was guilty.

1:20:26

His stories just wasn't adding

1:20:29

up. You think he's an unreliable witness.

1:20:31

He is completely, totally

1:20:34

unreliable. And what about the prosecution's

1:20:36

star witness, Jude Wilson, the illustrator

1:20:39

who picked Burns out of a lineup and testified

1:20:42

to seeing him in Courtney's car the night before her body

1:20:44

was found? Wilson testified

1:20:46

that he only saw the driver's silhouette that

1:20:48

night.

1:20:49

He said he didn't see their face, and

1:20:51

he just drew a regular profile. And

1:20:54

they put a line up in front of him and said,

1:20:57

who most closely matches this silhouette?

1:21:00

He did pick the right man if you believe

1:21:02

that Anthony did this. He

1:21:04

picked the person that matched a

1:21:07

profile he drew. The

1:21:09

defense argued that lineup was shown 15 years

1:21:12

after Courtney's death, and Wilson's

1:21:14

sketch never included specific

1:21:16

facial features.

1:21:18

Would you be OK with someone picking

1:21:20

you out of lineup if they say they never

1:21:22

saw your face? I could match

1:21:24

a profile. That doesn't mean

1:21:26

it's me. The attorney

1:21:29

said the witness's stories didn't add up and

1:21:31

should not have been enough to arrest Anthony

1:21:34

Burns. Why would he kill her?

1:21:36

It just made no sense. The family

1:21:38

was suggesting that she was cheating

1:21:40

with

1:21:40

her sister's fiancee, with no

1:21:42

proof, though. The defense

1:21:44

rested, optimistic Burns would

1:21:47

be acquitted. Was it venturing

1:21:49

into slam dunk territory in your mind?

1:21:52

I never liked to be overly confident, but

1:21:54

I was pretty confident about this one. The

1:21:57

prosecution was concerned. the

1:22:00

family, I feel like we got a 50-50 shot

1:22:02

at a conviction. That's it. I

1:22:05

mean, those aren't great odds.

1:22:08

No, they're not. As the jury

1:22:10

began its deliberations, everyone stayed

1:22:12

in the courtroom, including local

1:22:14

reporter Brooke Buford. Both

1:22:16

families were nervous, you know, asking

1:22:19

each other, what do you think will happen? But

1:22:21

no ill will existed between the families.

1:22:24

In fact, every day something truly

1:22:26

extraordinary happened.

1:22:28

His family and Anthony Burns'

1:22:30

family, all strong Christians, stood

1:22:33

together and prayed. They came

1:22:35

and we held hands and we prayed for justice

1:22:38

because we were all hurting. They were hurting

1:22:41

and we were hurting. Less

1:22:43

than two hours after deliberations began,

1:22:45

the jury came back with a verdict. Anthony

1:22:48

Burns was found guilty of second-degree

1:22:51

murder.

1:22:52

I can't even explain how I felt. It

1:22:54

was almost like I was in like a euphoric

1:22:56

state.

1:22:59

Like, is this really happening? And

1:23:01

we were all shaking, shaking

1:23:03

and shaking so bad.

1:23:05

Like, thank you, Jesus. Thank

1:23:08

you. Lace,

1:23:11

for the last time, looked at the man she

1:23:13

once loved.

1:23:15

Did he have any reaction? He

1:23:17

just grabbed his stomach and went

1:23:19

down. Podcastor

1:23:21

Woody Overton had a much-needed emotional

1:23:23

reaction to the verdict.

1:23:25

That deserved a cry and

1:23:27

it was a beautiful moment. Your

1:23:29

investigation played a major role

1:23:32

in this arrest. Right. I've

1:23:34

done a lot of great things in my career. This

1:23:38

probably is the best I've ever done. Forty-five-year-old

1:23:41

Anthony Burns was sentenced to life in

1:23:43

prison without the possibility of parole.

1:23:46

But before he was taken away, Stephanie

1:23:48

turned to address him.

1:23:50

And that's when I told him that I had

1:23:52

zero mercy for him and I hope he rotted

1:23:55

in jail and then hell. He

1:23:58

still claims he didn't do it. Absolutely.

1:24:00

That's what cowards

1:24:02

do.

1:24:04

And he'll probably never admit it.

1:24:06

Anthony Burns plans to appeal his conviction,

1:24:10

but that doesn't bother Stephanie. You

1:24:12

made a promise to Courtney that you would

1:24:14

find out who killed her. And you lived up

1:24:16

to that promise. I did. I did.

1:24:20

She now wears Courtney's class ring, the

1:24:23

ring Courtney was wearing when she was murdered, that

1:24:25

started this mother's quest for justice.

1:24:29

Does it make you feel closer to her? Yes. And

1:24:32

I, it

1:24:35

makes me sleep good at night. Sometimes

1:24:37

I just hug it.

1:24:39

This is priceless to me. How

1:24:41

do you think Courtney would feel about how hard

1:24:44

you fought for her? Oh my God, she'd

1:24:46

be so happy that I kept my word

1:24:48

to her. I did things that I never

1:24:51

knew I would have to do in my life. You

1:24:53

needed to protect Courtney even

1:24:56

in death. Even in death. Yes, I did. I did

1:24:59

it. And I know she'd

1:25:01

be happy. I know she

1:25:03

is happy.

1:25:08

That's all for this edition of Dateline.

1:25:10

We'll see you again Sunday at 7, 6 central. And

1:25:14

of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC

1:25:16

Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For

1:25:19

all of us at NBC News, good

1:25:21

night.

1:25:29

Hi, I'm Andrea Canning and Friday on

1:25:32

an all new two hour Dateline mystery.

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