20-20 - Can I Prey First
A musician with a rising career, involved in the brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his children.
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00:00:00Tonight, a love story that turns into a lost story.
00:00:04A lost mom of two young boys, that is.
00:00:07Plus a key witness, Deborah,
00:00:08who asks the police to pray with her
00:00:11before she tells them what she knows.
00:00:12And All New 2020 starts right now.
00:00:20She was a wonderful mother.
00:00:21She loved her boys more than anything,
00:00:24more than her own life.
00:00:26A young woman who is a parent suddenly disappeared.
00:00:29Was there anything suspicious in the car?
00:00:31We saw in the back seat there were car seats,
00:00:34you know, for the two boys.
00:00:36But to disappear without them,
00:00:38that was impossible, that was not Laura.
00:00:41She drops off the mat.
00:00:42This wasn't gonna be just a normal missing person.
00:00:45Oh, baby, don't go.
00:00:48Oh, baby, don't leave me.
00:00:52He knew how to charm a lady and charm the crowd alike.
00:00:56Oh, I don't wanna leave you lonely.
00:01:00And then it wasn't too much longer later
00:01:03that Amanda came into the picture.
00:01:06What did Grant tell your mom about Laura?
00:01:09That she was crazy, she was mentally unstable.
00:01:14He lied.
00:01:15And here was a document
00:01:17that said she sold her kids for $25,000.
00:01:20And they were like, well, Laura's missing.
00:01:22And I was like, wait a freaking second.
00:01:26Are you sure?
00:01:28What are you thinking at this point?
00:01:31Something is really wrong.
00:01:40You've gotta be sick and deranged.
00:01:42What would drive anybody to commit such a crime?
00:01:44Wherever she is, her heart is breaking.
00:01:47The search continues.
00:01:48There's been cases I investigate, I don't even remember.
00:01:51But then there's some that while you're in the midst of it,
00:01:53you know this one was just different.
00:01:57Orchard Creek is notorious for alligators.
00:02:00This is a long meandering creek.
00:02:03It's a small creek, slow moving in that area.
00:02:07Very dark, murky, muddy water.
00:02:10Has zero visibility.
00:02:12It's heavily wooded, there's a lot of lily pads.
00:02:15All the lily pads literally took off the creek.
00:02:18It was the perfect place to get rid of
00:02:22what they wanted to get rid of.
00:02:26This is Oyster Creek,
00:02:29a quiet spot about 30 miles outside Houston, Texas.
00:02:33On a hot, steamy July day, just like this one back in 2011,
00:02:37police divers were scouring these murky waters,
00:02:41searching for clues in the disappearance of a young mom.
00:02:44But Laura Akerson was last heard from 1,200 miles away from here,
00:02:49in North Carolina.
00:02:52Wednesday, July 13th, at 419 p.m.
00:02:57Hi, ladies, it's Laura.
00:02:59I'll be here in about an hour, but I'm going to go visit with my boys.
00:03:03Don't know what's going to happen as far as I'm concerned.
00:03:06Laura left that voicemail for a friend she promised to visit later that night.
00:03:10Meanwhile, another friend and business partner,
00:03:13Siobhan Mathis, was also waiting to hear from her.
00:03:17It was just very odd that it was going straight to her voicemail
00:03:21because she always had that phone on.
00:03:24I walked to her house, but it's gated and locked,
00:03:28and you can't get in, but I can see into the garage,
00:03:32and her car wasn't there.
00:03:34Then she sends her an e-mail,
00:03:36I'm really worried.
00:03:38If you don't get up with me, I'm going to call the police.
00:03:42Siobhan was getting more and more worried with every passing second,
00:03:47and she decided to report Laura missing.
00:03:51I don't want to think the worst,
00:03:53but it's almost like what else is there to think?
00:04:00Police in Raleigh, North Carolina, start looking into Laura Akerson's background.
00:04:06They find out she's a small-town girl from Michigan.
00:04:09Roger Akerson was her dad.
00:04:12She was curious. She wanted to learn things.
00:04:15She'd crawl up on my lap with a book, want me to read to her.
00:04:19Laura's parents divorced when she was just a toddler.
00:04:22As she grew older, it was clear she had a bright spark.
00:04:26Full of dreams.
00:04:28She could see beyond the end of her nose, where a lot of people can't.
00:04:32Everybody she met, she would always see the good in everyone.
00:04:35She didn't become the valedictorian of her high school class
00:04:40because she didn't want to do all the work.
00:04:42But a couple of years down the road, she said,
00:04:44Boy, I wish I had.
00:04:46After high school, she moved to North Carolina and landed a waitressing job.
00:04:50That's where she met Heidi Schumacher.
00:04:52We were working at Applebee's together.
00:04:54Her first day, I was training her.
00:04:56I, you know, was a little snippety at her,
00:04:59and she said, You're not going to talk to me like that.
00:05:01Nobody had ever stood up to me before, and I said,
00:05:03Oh, you know what?
00:05:04I smiled at her, and I said,
00:05:06Well, let's go out tonight.
00:05:08We're going to be great friends.
00:05:10And then when Laura turned 23, she had an announcement to make.
00:05:14She was like, Oh, my gosh, I have a surprise for you.
00:05:16And I said, Okay, well, happy birthday, because it was on her birthday.
00:05:19And I was like, Okay, what is the surprise?
00:05:21She's like, Okay, it's a guy.
00:05:23And I said, All right, surprise, it's a guy.
00:05:25♪
00:05:33Grant Hayes was an aspiring musical artist.
00:05:38♪
00:05:42He was known to Raleigh area.
00:05:44♪
00:05:51Raleigh is a place we call the New South.
00:05:53It's a great mix of people coming from all over the country,
00:05:56raising their families.
00:05:59It's big enough that you have a city atmosphere,
00:06:01but it also has some small-town values.
00:06:04Downtown Raleigh was kind of burgeoning,
00:06:06and so there were all these new bars and restaurants,
00:06:09and he was a musical act who would play at a lot of these places.
00:06:12♪
00:06:17People liked his music.
00:06:18People liked his vibe.
00:06:20Grant Hayes, we love you!
00:06:23And she said, We share a birthday.
00:06:26We're so connected.
00:06:28She thought it was some sort of cosmic intervention
00:06:31that they were supposed to meet and they were supposed to be together.
00:06:34♪
00:06:42And she was smitten.
00:06:43She was.
00:06:44And he was, you know, he's a nice-looking guy.
00:06:46He's charismatic.
00:06:47And so seeing that, I think maybe a little bit of starstruck.
00:06:50I grew up in the pew, Little Grant III,
00:06:54watching my father preach, and my mother would sing.
00:06:58And they've always been a huge inspiration.
00:07:02Grant was known by his last name, Hayes.
00:07:05He thought he could get some more buzz
00:07:06by changing H-A-Y-E-S to H-A-Z-E, Hayes.
00:07:10♪
00:07:13She was kind of in awe of what he did.
00:07:17See, he would go to bars and he'd take his guitar
00:07:20and he'd sing songs.
00:07:21I'm working with some iconic figures in history,
00:07:24you know, music history.
00:07:25Little Richard, godfather of rock and roll.
00:07:28Laura and Grant fell in love very quickly.
00:07:31She goes, My surprise is that I just got married!
00:07:35And I said, Oh my gosh! Awesome!
00:07:38She just was a spur-of-the-moment kind of person,
00:07:41so it didn't really surprise me, I guess,
00:07:43that she would just meet somebody
00:07:45and get married to them.
00:07:46And she was, like, ecstatic at that moment.
00:07:49♪
00:07:52Laura got pregnant very early on,
00:07:54and she had a little boy named Grant IV.
00:08:01Always referred to as Little Grant.
00:08:03What she told me after she delivered the baby
00:08:06was that she was very happy
00:08:08because when Grant walked in and saw him,
00:08:10he fell in love with the baby.
00:08:12♪
00:08:19Heidi was not a fan of Grant Hayes,
00:08:21and she was very clear about that.
00:08:23We've had hateful tension between us
00:08:25since the moment we met.
00:08:26And she said, Why can't you just be happy for me?
00:08:28I said, I know, but I just got this really bad feeling from him.
00:08:31And she would say that I was just trying to protect her
00:08:34and I was just being an overprotective friend
00:08:36and, you know, all that.
00:08:37And so I backed off.
00:08:40Soon, an opportunity in the Caribbean
00:08:42takes Laura and Grant's lives in very different directions.
00:08:46Parties, stay out late, stay up all night.
00:08:48They were kind of living two separate lives.
00:08:51There was something simmering underneath that
00:08:53in the relationship.
00:08:54There may have been trouble there in paradise.
00:08:57♪
00:09:13St. John is a really quaint, quiet island.
00:09:18About 4,000 people.
00:09:21It's a magical place. It's a fantastic place.
00:09:25It's got an affluent clientele that goes there
00:09:27because 80% of the island's National Park
00:09:29can't even be developed.
00:09:32Yeah, there is no airport.
00:09:34The only way to this island is by boat.
00:09:40If you're going to take your flight to St. Thomas,
00:09:42you're going to have to take a passenger fare.
00:09:45St. John's attracts musicians from all over.
00:09:48Kenny Chesney owns a home here,
00:09:50and a local island hangout
00:09:52helped inspire his song, When I See This Bar.
00:09:55Yeah, that's what I see
00:09:59When I see this bar
00:10:02Grant had an audience.
00:10:03People liked his music here in Raleigh,
00:10:05but he thought he could take the next step
00:10:07in his career with music
00:10:08by going to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
00:10:14Jose, who asked us only to use his first name,
00:10:16booked musicians into the bars and nightclubs on the island.
00:10:21My phone rang, and it was Grant.
00:10:24He explained that he was looking to make sure
00:10:27that he could get enough gigs
00:10:29to support his basic cost of living.
00:10:32I promised him that I could get him five shows a week.
00:10:36So he packed up and went down there.
00:10:40He did speak of his son and Laura,
00:10:42and that she was going to eventually come down here
00:10:44once he got settled.
00:10:47The Caribbean can be very seductive.
00:10:49With the night air, the breezes, the music, the sand.
00:10:54When the sun goes down is when it really comes alive.
00:11:00He knew how to work his crowd
00:11:02and play the right music for the people in the audience.
00:11:07And I was listening to him play, and I really liked his sound.
00:11:10You know the artist, Sade?
00:11:15He was like a male version of her.
00:11:17He had kind of a groovy, smooth vibe.
00:11:23He definitely had some similarities to someone like Darius Rucker.
00:11:38I owned a bar on the island of St. John.
00:11:41How I first encountered Grant Hayes,
00:11:43he was playing, I believe it was at the Parrot Club.
00:11:46He was taking a break. He says, man, I really dig your sound.
00:11:48I'll bring some people from my bar down.
00:11:50And he says, really? From your bar?
00:11:52Yeah.
00:11:53But they won't be spending money with you if they're not at your bar.
00:11:56We'll have a good time.
00:12:00He was just waiting for that one guy to come in that's on vacation
00:12:04that might be with a record company.
00:12:06To actually identify and recognize
00:12:09that this guy has talent and let's make him an offer.
00:12:16But for now, he had to make do with paychecks of $150 to $200 per gig.
00:12:25It looked, from the outside looking in,
00:12:28that Laura and Grant had a great relationship.
00:12:30No one really knew the trouble brewing.
00:12:33He was very possessive. It was like he owned her.
00:12:36Grant didn't want her to have a relationship with her brother.
00:12:42He did not want any close relationships except for the one with him.
00:12:49She had pretty effectively been isolated from everyone else in her life.
00:12:54I mean, he would take her self-esteem and just crush it into the ground.
00:12:58I got to the door and she answered and she had a bloody nose
00:13:03and an almost black eye already.
00:13:05I tried to get her to go to the hospital or file a police report or anything.
00:13:09No, no, no, he won't do it again. It's okay. It's going to be okay.
00:13:12I'm not going to press charges. It's fine.
00:13:14She's an optimist. She thought, well, he may change eventually.
00:13:19Always looking for the better side of him.
00:13:24Grant denied ever hitting Laura.
00:13:27Now she's planning to join him on St. John.
00:13:30But then she says she receives a stark warning from family and friends.
00:13:35I told her, don't go back.
00:13:37You don't need to go back to that.
00:13:40She really realized, man, I don't, you know, I have to leave him.
00:13:44And I said, okay.
00:13:45And then we had a plan for her to leave and she had gotten sick
00:13:49like three or four mornings in a row.
00:13:52And she was pregnant.
00:13:54I said, you can still leave. You can still go.
00:13:57And she said, no, I have to tell him it's the right thing to do.
00:14:00It would have been easy to stay here.
00:14:03But instead she went back.
00:14:06She was going to do whatever it took to make that family work.
00:14:09She went down to St. John to start over,
00:14:11and she had told me that he said, oh, when you come down here, it's going to be great.
00:14:18Now reunited on the island of St. John,
00:14:20Laura gives birth to their second son in August of 2009.
00:14:24They name him Gentle.
00:14:26And then you have Gentle because now in my maturity,
00:14:32I'm understanding what real masculinity is.
00:14:34And it's gentle.
00:14:36She was a wonderful mother.
00:14:38She loved her boys more than anything, more than her own life.
00:14:43She was a good mother, and she laid low and was a housewife.
00:14:46She wasn't into the party.
00:14:50They were kind of living two separate lives.
00:14:53And that's one of the reasons why he would hang out at my house,
00:14:56just so that he could do what he wanted and be himself,
00:14:59because he couldn't do that at home.
00:15:01Party, stay out late, stay up all night.
00:15:05I never saw him, like, walk over and kiss her on the cheek or any of that.
00:15:08There wasn't that kind of in-person tenderness between them that I ever saw.
00:15:16The little baby, Gentle, needed some medical attention
00:15:20and thought that here in North Carolina
00:15:23would be a better place to get him the medical care he needed.
00:15:26So she made plans to move back to take care of her boy.
00:15:31Laura had left the island, and he was kind of on his own.
00:15:34That wasn't really good for him,
00:15:36because then he could just really do whatever he wanted.
00:15:39He knew how to charm a lady and charm the crowd alike,
00:15:43so it wasn't hard for him to have a group of ladies to chat with
00:15:47after he stopped playing.
00:15:49He had no problem getting them to blush and getting a phone number.
00:15:53And sure enough, another woman soon makes waves in Grant's island life.
00:15:58Amanda, to me, was a striking woman.
00:16:01And Laura became concerned and suspicious
00:16:04and had a huge surprise coming her way.
00:16:18It appeared that things were going well in St. John's.
00:16:20It appeared that things were going well in St. John's.
00:16:23Grant was trying to get his music career going there.
00:16:31And Laura, she's living here in North Carolina
00:16:34with the two little boys trying to get their youngest son
00:16:38needed medical treatment.
00:16:42And then it wasn't too much longer later
00:16:45that Amanda came into the picture.
00:16:48Amanda, to me, was a striking woman.
00:16:52Amanda's daughter, Shay, shared a lot of details with us,
00:16:55but she asked that we not use her last name.
00:16:57And what was your relationship like growing up?
00:17:00My mom was my best friend. My mom was my hero.
00:17:03Like, what do you want to be whenever you grow up?
00:17:05I want to be like my mom.
00:17:07Amanda had been married three times previously,
00:17:10and the most recent husband before Grant
00:17:13was a wealthy businessman in St. John's.
00:17:16He was a wealthy businessman in Texas.
00:17:19And he actually died in an accident.
00:17:23After his death, there's a lot of money that Amanda inherits.
00:17:27Her big claim to fame was in acting.
00:17:30She was in the actual Stepford Wives,
00:17:33the remake that was done with Nicole Kidman,
00:17:36and she had a very small part.
00:17:42So how did she end up in St. John's?
00:17:45She was down there on vacation.
00:17:47She was supposed to be gone for two weeks.
00:17:51She loved it so much.
00:17:53She moved down to the Virgin Islands.
00:17:55That was where she wanted to live.
00:17:58You lived there with her? I did.
00:18:00How old were you at that point? I was 20.
00:18:03And so how did she meet Grant Hayes?
00:18:05He was playing music.
00:18:07So I brought some people down there to listen to Grant play,
00:18:10and Amanda come in, and she was looking at him
00:18:14Who pursued whom?
00:18:16The tango is two-sided.
00:18:18And did you see their infatuation romance unfold?
00:18:23It wasn't instant.
00:18:25It wasn't like, oh, my gosh, fireworks, oh.
00:18:27I definitely started seeing him hanging with Amanda,
00:18:30and it was obvious that they were a couple.
00:18:33I called him out for this.
00:18:35Man, you can't be doing this with her up in the States,
00:18:37you know, Lori up in the States.
00:18:39He goes, oh, no, no, we're getting divorced, and it's over.
00:18:41She's staying up there.
00:18:43She's never coming back to the island.
00:18:46What was Grant's relationship like with Amanda?
00:18:49Yeah, I think with Amanda, because she was a little bit older, more mature.
00:18:53I don't think that she was sort of pushed around and controlled.
00:18:56Yeah, very territorial.
00:18:58Let's say there's a group of females in there,
00:19:00and one was, Grant and her were having too much eye contact and smiles, whatever.
00:19:04Then Amanda being over here would have the server bring her a drink.
00:19:09It kind of set her territory.
00:19:11And Laura, from a distance here in North Carolina, became concerned
00:19:15and suspicious there was something else happening there.
00:19:20Eventually, this relationship between Amanda and Grant takes the next step.
00:19:24It develops into something more,
00:19:26and they make the move from the Virgin Islands to New York.
00:19:30She convinced him that she can introduce him to the people
00:19:34that can make his career take off.
00:19:37Was he successful?
00:19:40I mean, he got repeat bookings at some of the different places.
00:19:45You know, he played the Grant Hayes Variety Show.
00:19:49How do you get a warm welcome from Mr. Grant Hayes?
00:19:57I don't know. I ain't trying.
00:19:59And then Grant says to Laura, I would really like little Grant,
00:20:03their oldest son, to come visit me in New York.
00:20:06Grant is shorter. This is just for ten days.
00:20:09Ten days came and went, and he hasn't brought Grant back.
00:20:13And Laura was asking, why? You said you would.
00:20:17Laura had to file for custody to even see her son again.
00:20:21She didn't have a choice.
00:20:26Fighting to get her oldest boy back, in April of 2010,
00:20:30Laura hears surprising news.
00:20:32Grant calls her and says, Amanda and I just went to Vegas,
00:20:35and we got married.
00:20:37It's a bombshell. It's a shock to Laura.
00:20:40It was a little surprising that they were getting married.
00:20:43They were definitely moving very fast.
00:20:45I married my soulmate, my best friend,
00:20:49and she is something that I wanted my whole life.
00:20:54Friends and family had been given the impression
00:20:57Friends and family had been given the impression
00:20:59that Laura and Grant were married,
00:21:01but apparently they never were.
00:21:04Then Grant took a very aggressive move
00:21:08and went to court without her.
00:21:11He made these allegations about she's mentally unstable,
00:21:14she doesn't have a stable home, she's working as an escort.
00:21:19They had alleged that Laura was a danger to the children.
00:21:22He lied.
00:21:24He said several things in the ex parte custody order
00:21:27that just plain weren't true.
00:21:29And based on those allegations,
00:21:31Mr. Hayes got Judge Turner to sign an emergency custody order.
00:21:35He granted a temporary custody to Grant,
00:21:39not just little Grant, but also Gentle.
00:21:42And little Gentle was carted off from there
00:21:45and given over to his father.
00:21:49The worst time in her life
00:21:51was when she did not get to see her kids.
00:21:54She was devastated.
00:21:59She went to work to do whatever it would take
00:22:02to get the two boys back.
00:22:06As for Grant and Amanda, they moved down to Raleigh
00:22:09as the custody battle heats up.
00:22:12We had the court appoint Dr. Ginger Calloway.
00:22:14Where do you practice?
00:22:16In Raleigh.
00:22:17To evaluate both parties.
00:22:19To be able to give the court an opinion
00:22:21over whose home may be the best home
00:22:23for these children to be in.
00:22:24During that evaluation, Laura went on the record
00:22:27to say that Grant had isolated and controlled her,
00:22:30while Grant charged that she was the one manipulating him.
00:22:35When the psychologist's report came in,
00:22:37the parts about Mr. Hayes
00:22:39referred to him having some, what the psychologist called,
00:22:43illogical and disturbed thinking.
00:22:45He rages angrily about Laura in front of the children.
00:22:48It is obvious they do not want Laura
00:22:50included in the children's lives.
00:22:52This is very concerning because, in essence,
00:22:54they want to obliterate her.
00:22:56And she came basically to the conclusion
00:22:59that, yeah, Laura had work to do.
00:23:01She is less mature than other adults
00:23:03and is easily overwhelmed.
00:23:05The psychologist did recommend a 50-50 split in custody,
00:23:09and that would have been a substantial improvement
00:23:11for where we were.
00:23:14In the meantime, Amanda had gotten pregnant.
00:23:17Lily in love.
00:23:18Lily in love?
00:23:19Yes.
00:23:20And gave birth to a little baby girl.
00:23:23All right.
00:23:25They were thrilled to welcome baby Lily into the world,
00:23:28joining Grant's two sons.
00:23:30But that was overshadowed by Grant's struggles
00:23:33to break through in the music business.
00:23:35Between the legal proceedings and, I think, Grant's spending,
00:23:38they're out of money.
00:23:40It was a mess.
00:23:41Yes.
00:23:42He was the reason that my mom was not okay.
00:23:45Sitting in a bathroom floor, crying, going,
00:23:47I have no idea how the hell I'm going to do this.
00:23:50I mean, what do you do?
00:23:52You've gone through over $200,000 in 18 months.
00:23:56That's how much money they went through?
00:23:58Easily.
00:23:59How dire was the financial situation?
00:24:02Oh, they were getting evicted from their apartment.
00:24:05Grant called his mom, Patsy,
00:24:07and said, hey, we need to move in with you.
00:24:11Hey, Mom, it's Grant.
00:24:13Mom, me and Amanda and Lily are going to move in with you guys.
00:24:17I don't have the money for a storage building right now.
00:24:21If you could fund that to me, okay?
00:24:24All right. Bye-bye.
00:24:28It's now July of 2011, and while Grant and Amanda sink,
00:24:31Laura's fortunes were finally rising.
00:24:34Her main priority in life was to get her kids back.
00:24:37She went back to school.
00:24:39She, you know, got her own place, got her own job,
00:24:41got her own car.
00:24:43She was very enthusiastic about the career
00:24:46and getting her boys back.
00:24:48Laura even started a new company with her friend Siobhan,
00:24:51selling ad space on restaurant menus.
00:24:54She successfully pitched local restaurant owners
00:24:56and socialized with new friends.
00:24:58I have a meeting with you tomorrow.
00:25:00I don't know if I'll be able to see you before 7,
00:25:02but I want to find out if you're going to be available
00:25:04after that at any point.
00:25:06Okay, later.
00:25:09Laura sounds upbeat, but she has no idea
00:25:12that she's now driving straight into terrible danger.
00:25:21It's July 2011.
00:25:23Laura Akerson hasn't been heard from in days,
00:25:26and her friends are worried about the 27-year-old
00:25:28mother of two.
00:25:30They report her missing.
00:25:32ABC 11 Eyewitness News at 5.30 starts right now.
00:25:36So far, there's been no other signs of the missing woman.
00:25:40I'm not the only person that's worried about her.
00:25:43She's been missing for quite a while, but, you know,
00:25:45I still hope.
00:25:46Akerson apparently came to Raleigh last week on business.
00:25:49We got a description of Laura's vehicle,
00:25:51and we put a bolo out, be on the lookout for patrol officers
00:25:55just to see if they are able to locate the vehicle.
00:25:58That night, by 11 o'clock that night,
00:26:00our patrol guys had found the car.
00:26:03So where was it?
00:26:05Right over here, if you see this black color SUV,
00:26:07it's right there in that same parking space is where it was.
00:26:12Was there anything suspicious in the car?
00:26:14Nothing really of evidentiary value.
00:26:17I mean, we saw in the back seat there were car seats,
00:26:20you know, for the two boys.
00:26:23There was an idea that maybe she decided,
00:26:25hey, I'm going to go to the airport,
00:26:27I'm going to take a trip somewhere.
00:26:33If she had disappeared with her boys,
00:26:36that would not have been an overwhelming surprise.
00:26:39But to disappear without them, that was impossible.
00:26:43That was not Laura.
00:26:45So we definitely explored that possibility.
00:26:47We checked Laura's financials, we checked her cell phone records,
00:26:51all that.
00:26:52All her activity ended on July 13th.
00:26:56She's not buying gas, she's not buying food,
00:26:59she's doing nothing.
00:27:00She just completely goes silent.
00:27:03Something that we would normally do in a missing person case
00:27:06is we want to go to their apartment or their house.
00:27:09Maybe they left a note.
00:27:14The police go into Laura's apartment
00:27:16and thoroughly search it,
00:27:18looking for anything that could point to a problem
00:27:22or that any violence occurred.
00:27:25It was very well kept, it was clean.
00:27:27She had several plants that were inside the apartment.
00:27:30None of them had been watered for numerous days.
00:27:33That was a good indication that she had not returned
00:27:36or that nobody was coming in and out of the apartment
00:27:38to take care of things.
00:27:40From looking at the apartment, you could tell
00:27:42she's definitely a dedicated mother.
00:27:44That's what stood out, number one.
00:27:46Almost half the apartment was dedicated to space for the kids
00:27:50and that kind of reflected her life,
00:27:52that so much of her life was focused on her children.
00:27:57They pulled the video from the public spaces
00:28:00of Laura's apartment building.
00:28:05The video captured the hallway outside of her door
00:28:08on the morning of the 13th.
00:28:10Just a lady that was on her way to work in the morning,
00:28:12by herself, completely normal morning.
00:28:17She was not under duress, did not seem to be in a hurry,
00:28:22did not have suitcases that she's dragging behind her.
00:28:27We learned that Gentle had a birthday party
00:28:30the following weekend that was scheduled
00:28:33and that Laura had no showed on it.
00:28:38That's all when we started thinking
00:28:40this wasn't going to be just a normal missing person.
00:28:43We still want to look, hey, are there other people
00:28:47in Laura's life that may have something to do
00:28:51with her disappearance?
00:28:52Laura admitted that she'd gone to some sugar daddy sites.
00:28:56You're trying to meet maybe wealthier men.
00:28:58We were never able to show that there was any meeting
00:29:02of any kind between Laura and somebody else.
00:29:07One detective reaches out to Laura's ex, Grant Hayes,
00:29:10and says that Laura had visited him
00:29:12on the night of Wednesday, July 13th.
00:29:15He gives timeline of when she was there at the apartment.
00:29:19Well, she actually came up here to visit the boys
00:29:21and says that she left, you know,
00:29:23after being there for a little while.
00:29:27Grant Hayes also tells investigators
00:29:29that two days after visiting his apartment,
00:29:32Laura was supposed to meet him at the local Sheetz gas station
00:29:35for their scheduled custody exchange.
00:29:39He shows up to the scheduled Friday 5 o'clock time.
00:29:42He has the boys with him.
00:29:44They would come in the store to use the restroom.
00:29:47Grant goes in to buy a pack of cigarettes.
00:29:49But essentially, they're waiting in the parking lot.
00:29:53And waits for over an hour for Laura to arrive.
00:29:57And she never arrives.
00:30:01He was sending out very angry email messages
00:30:05and text messages to Laura.
00:30:10You're late again. Where are you?
00:30:15And first at 5.30 tonight, we have new details
00:30:18and new updates on the big stories happening now.
00:30:20I'm Steve Daniels. I anchor the evening news covering Raleigh.
00:30:24This was a really compelling case.
00:30:26Our viewers were watching this every step of the way.
00:30:29She was to meet them and their father in Wilson that afternoon,
00:30:32according to the children's grandmother.
00:30:34She didn't show up at 5.
00:30:36And so he was there until 5, and he called me at 6.30
00:30:40and said she had not shown up yet.
00:30:42It's distressing, and I just hope it all comes to an end quickly
00:30:45and that she's all right.
00:30:47It's not like her to do something like this,
00:30:49especially to not pick up her kids.
00:30:52Detectives realize that no one has heard from Laura
00:30:55since that voicemail she left on July 13th
00:30:58for her friend, Oksana Smarsky.
00:31:01I was in the study group, and I saw my phone ring,
00:31:04and I wish I would pick it up.
00:31:06And if I knew what would happen, I would not let it ring.
00:31:21Laura's destination that night had been Grant and Amanda's apartment.
00:31:27Tell me, where is the apartment?
00:31:29And so their apartment is right on the other side
00:31:32of this small building here.
00:31:34So how did you get a search warrant to go in?
00:31:37So we had developed enough information, I just think,
00:31:41to get that search warrant initially.
00:31:43We were really trying to develop a timeline for Laura,
00:31:46any evidence that maybe Laura had been there.
00:31:50So one of the things that we did find in the apartment was a note.
00:31:55It appeared to be handwritten.
00:32:00Up on the counter in the kitchen area,
00:32:02just kind of laying there very conspicuously, which was weird.
00:32:08And what that note said was that Laura Ackerson,
00:32:12in exchange for receiving $25,000,
00:32:15would give up custody of her children.
00:32:18It was signed, Laura Ackerson.
00:32:22That was suspicious,
00:32:24because everybody had been telling the police
00:32:27Laura would not leave her boys.
00:32:30Those boys were Laura's life.
00:32:32She would have never signed over her children for any amount of money.
00:32:35Why a note?
00:32:37You already are going through the court system.
00:32:39Why don't you just go through your attorneys?
00:32:41And that is not the only curious discovery in that apartment.
00:32:45Soon as they opened the door,
00:32:46hit with an overwhelming smell of bleach.
00:32:57It's been a week since Laura Ackerson's disappearance,
00:33:00and investigators are now searching the apartment of her ex, Grant Hayes.
00:33:05Police were here yesterday asking a lot of questions.
00:33:09It's a three-bedroom apartment.
00:33:11There's a small kitchen area.
00:33:14I remember there being a couch, maybe a table,
00:33:17but there's not a lot of furniture.
00:33:19Was there anything unusual about that moment when you walked in the door?
00:33:23It smelled like bleach.
00:33:24You know, it's just that strong odor of bleach that hits you.
00:33:27And so, what did that tell you?
00:33:30At least that someone had been cleaning, is what it appeared.
00:33:34And, but then we see this large, you know, bleach stain.
00:33:41At that point, alarm bells are going off.
00:33:43Right. And that's not like a little old stain.
00:33:45No, a significant bleach stain, right at the entryway in the apartment.
00:33:51It was clear something happened right here at this door
00:33:55that required them to bleach this carpet.
00:33:58And then there were a couple other things that we find
00:34:01that kind of throw up red flags as well.
00:34:04The bathroom, which before July 13th,
00:34:08had been the place where the little boys went to brush their teeth,
00:34:13take their baths, play in the bathtub.
00:34:16Suddenly, there was nothing in that room.
00:34:23It's the cleanest bathroom I've ever been in.
00:34:25There's no floor mats. There's no shower curtain.
00:34:27And like shiny clean on every possible surface.
00:34:31And what does that point to?
00:34:33That something has taken place inside this bathroom that required cleaning.
00:34:37And I think it really stuck out too, because the rest of the home,
00:34:41it wasn't super dirty, but it was not clean.
00:34:44It wasn't super dirty, but it was not clean to the level that that bathroom was clean.
00:34:49Clearly, something happened in that bathroom.
00:34:54We did everything that you could do to a bathroom. We tore it apart.
00:34:58We ripped up the floor. We took out the plumbing
00:35:01and did everything that you could do forensically at that time.
00:35:05We even went to the apartment below,
00:35:08came up through the ceiling to get the plumbing.
00:35:11And nothing. There was nothing.
00:35:15There was no blood. Laura's body was not there.
00:35:19Nothing broken to indicate a struggle.
00:35:21So we still were kind of on the fence of what do we have here?
00:35:26So investigators now have a lot more questions for Grant and Amanda.
00:35:31But first, they have to find them.
00:35:33Detective Falk had learned that Amanda had a daughter.
00:35:39Her name was Shay. And Detective Falk conducted an interview with her.
00:35:43The police show up at your door. What was that like?
00:35:46Terrifying. I've never had a speeding ticket before.
00:35:49I've never been in trouble before.
00:35:51And so what did you tell them?
00:35:54Well, they wanted to know where my mom was.
00:35:56And I was like, what do you mean, where is my mom?
00:35:58And I was like, what is this about?
00:36:00And they were like, well, Laura's missing.
00:36:02And I was like, wait a freaking second.
00:36:05You guys need to find my mom.
00:36:07And I need you to find out where the babies are because they are probably not OK.
00:36:12Shay tells us my mom and Grant, they took off and they went down to Texas.
00:36:17Grant and Amanda were loading the kids up and making a trip to Texas
00:36:21to visit Amanda's sister, Karen Berry.
00:36:24She was going to go visit my aunt because my grandmother had just died
00:36:27and she hadn't seen her sister in years.
00:36:30And I told my mom, I was like, I want to go with you.
00:36:33And she told me no.
00:36:36Amanda's daughter Shay tells police Grant rented a U-Haul trailer at this location.
00:36:41On July 16th, that's three days after Laura went missing.
00:36:45Now what investigators want to know is why.
00:36:48So after finding that, I requested surveillance video from U-Haul here in Raleigh.
00:36:56Why'd they rent a U-Haul trailer?
00:36:58Well, according to Shay, there's this kind of antique hutch that she was going to give to my aunt.
00:37:05At this point, Grant and Amanda were downsizing their belongings as they were getting ready to move.
00:37:10I guess that Grant was like, take it to your sister's. It'll be safe there.
00:37:15Did that sound odd to you?
00:37:17I mean, we've had this piece of furniture for like 20 years.
00:37:20Why are you worried about where it's going to be now? But whatever.
00:37:26Grant makes a comment when he goes to get the U-Haul trailer
00:37:30that he's going on a fishing trip with his son.
00:37:35The police wanted to know where Grant was
00:37:38so they checked his cell phone pings and found out that he was in Texas.
00:37:45One of the first pings that we get on Amanda's cell phone is her sister Karen Berry's house.
00:37:53The court ordered that they were not allowed to take Grant and Gentle
00:37:59out of the state of North Carolina until the whole custody situation is resolved.
00:38:07It was definitely significant to us that he was willing to take the risk and go to Texas with these boys,
00:38:15knowing that if that was found out, that would be a problem for him.
00:38:19Pretty immediately we make a decision, hey, we've got to go to Texas.
00:38:23This is literally a 20-hour drive on a hunch that we could find evidence out there.
00:38:29So Skinner Lane is in the middle of nowhere.
00:38:33Two deputies, myself, drove to Karen Berry's house cold.
00:38:36She didn't know we were coming.
00:38:38We told her that basically we wanted to talk to her about Grant and Amanda.
00:38:42She told us that she was expecting us.
00:38:46She was very, very nervous.
00:38:48She cried a lot and she said, before I answer any more questions, do you mind if I pray?
00:38:54And it means there's something big that you're about to tell us.
00:38:58I'm a homicide detective.
00:38:59Anytime somebody wants to pray, you let them pray.
00:39:12My first reaction was, whew, this just got real.
00:39:18It was the lead story on the news night after night after night.
00:39:22Grant shows up to the Friday handoff and waits for over an hour for Laura to arrive and she never arrives.
00:39:29I can't imagine being under that Texas sun, trying to find the woman's body.
00:39:35It was just a grotesque thing to have to do.
00:39:39And you would have to dive through murky water like this?
00:39:42It's not a swimming hole.
00:39:44It's not a place where people go paddling in.
00:39:48This is just sort of a wasteland.
00:39:51You found a manual for the power saw. What went through your mind?
00:39:54No one does construction work in this house.
00:39:57I'm just buying a saw at 2 o'clock in the morning.
00:40:00How the hell did we get here?
00:40:02As soon as prosecutors hear this song, they're like, wow.
00:40:06It was a song.
00:40:08Not real life.
00:40:10Until it is real life.
00:40:12When Laura first went missing, this case sort of blew up.
00:40:15A young woman who is a parent who suddenly disappeared.
00:40:19And she really disappeared off the face of the earth.
00:40:23At this point in the investigation, we really don't know what exactly has happened to Laura.
00:40:28Grant and Amanda had gone down to Texas to visit Amanda's sister.
00:40:33They rented a U-Haul truck.
00:40:35We knew that Grant and Amanda had come back to Raleigh.
00:40:40Where is Laura Ackerson?
00:40:42That's what everyone's been wondering since she went missing days ago.
00:40:45Raleigh police finally have what could be a breakthrough lead.
00:40:49So they drive 1,200 miles to pay an unexpected visit to Amanda's sister here in Richmond, Texas.
00:40:57Karen Berry was Amanda's sister.
00:41:00But in a lot of ways, she was more of a mother figure.
00:41:04She was who Amanda always turned to when she had any problems.
00:41:11Well, it was a Sunday afternoon, and I received a call out advising that the Raleigh police department had traveled from North Carolina.
00:41:20Well, it was a Sunday afternoon, and I received a call out advising that the Raleigh police department had traveled from North Carolina.
00:41:27And they were requesting some investigative assistance from the sheriff's office.
00:41:32When they knock on the door of Karen Berry and she answers, it's almost like she was counting the minutes for them to get there.
00:41:39And her first reaction to them is, you can come in and I'll talk to you, but can I just have a moment to pray first?
00:41:45There's some soul searching going on.
00:41:47Yes.
00:41:48And do you remember the words that she prayed?
00:41:51Basically just a prayer of, give me the strength to do the right thing, to help me do what I need to do.
00:41:58After she finished praying, she tells us that Grant and Amanda had shown up on Monday the 18th.
00:42:06She's excited to see her sister.
00:42:09Lily had just been born, and Karen had never seen her.
00:42:13She had never met Grant.
00:42:14Karen didn't get a very good impression of Grant because he was hyper-nervous.
00:42:20Grant slept most of the day.
00:42:22Karen pointed that out.
00:42:24And she could tell something was wrong with her sister.
00:42:27Amanda seemed troubled, but also concerning were several inquiries that Amanda and Grant had made of her and her boys.
00:42:35What were the peculiar questions?
00:42:37Well, one was about the creek.
00:42:40Just across the street is Oyster Creek.
00:42:44Karen's boys, they had a flat-bottomed boat.
00:42:47Grant and Amanda, they were asking permission to use the boat to go out there to explore for sharks.
00:42:54We're 90 miles inland, and this is a freshwater creek.
00:42:58I'm pretty confident there's never been a sighting of a shark in Fort Bend County.
00:43:03Grant asked, are there alligators where I can access Oyster Creek?
00:43:09And then they talk about they want to go fishing.
00:43:12They'll take the boat out fishing.
00:43:14And Karen said, no, that is not a place that you need little toddlers fishing.
00:43:21Karen told the police that they took the boat out one night.
00:43:25She didn't know why, and the boys were sound asleep.
00:43:29So it didn't make any sense to her.
00:43:32I conveyed to her repeatedly that we are not looking at her as a suspect.
00:43:37And then we directed the conversation toward Laura.
00:43:41Did Grant and Amanda tell you anything?
00:43:44She clearly conveyed to me that Laura and Amanda did not get along.
00:43:51And then she told us Amanda had come into the kitchen and said, I need to talk with you outside.
00:43:58It's important.
00:44:00Amanda said, Laura's not a good person.
00:44:03Amanda then tells Karen, I hurt her, I hurt Laura, I pushed her, and it's bad.
00:44:13We asked her, do you think that Laura's dead?
00:44:17And Karen said, I think that there's a good chance.
00:44:22And at that point, she gave us consent to search the property.
00:44:26The scene was immediately cordoned off.
00:44:29There were several areas on the property itself that we needed to search,
00:44:33in addition to searching the creek across the street.
00:44:36This creek is off of Skinner Lane off in Corbin County.
00:44:39We're about 100 yards west of the 4300 block.
00:44:43It looks different now, right?
00:44:45Yeah, things have changed a lot in the last 13 years.
00:44:49There were big piles of trash all in the backyard.
00:44:53There was a hog pen to the right of the house.
00:44:56You uncovered a lot of evidence here.
00:44:58We did. We uncovered a lot of evidence.
00:45:02Karen was asked what items were left behind.
00:45:05Are these yours, or are these something that you know nothing about?
00:45:09We found some empty carry-on suitcases, presumably left by Grant or Amanda.
00:45:16We found some ice chests.
00:45:18Karen was not aware that they came down there with three coolers
00:45:22until she saw Grant cleaning them out in the backyard.
00:45:27If these were ice chests that were needed for their long journey to Texas from Raleigh,
00:45:34why weren't they needed during the long journey back?
00:45:38Fort Bend Police call in Crime Scene Investigator Officer Kim Oreskevich.
00:45:43They want her to search that muddy creek across the street from Karen Barry's house.
00:45:47When I got here is when the tenant told me that, hey, you're looking for a body.
00:45:52And so what was going through your mind?
00:45:54I was like, no, we're not going to find it.
00:45:56If it was dumped here in the creek, normally the current would take it out.
00:46:04The creek was probably 25 feet wide, very swampy looking.
00:46:12It's not a swimming hole.
00:46:14It's not a place where people go paddling in.
00:46:17This is just sort of a wasteland.
00:46:20There are alligators.
00:46:23They had someone in the boat ready to shoot an alligator.
00:46:27We're down obviously on our knees in the boat, so he's literally above us
00:46:31watching for gators in front of us, see if there's any signs of a gator coming out.
00:46:34With a long gun in his hand.
00:46:36Absolutely.
00:46:38I can't imagine being under that Texas sun trying to find a woman's body.
00:46:43It was just a grotesque thing to have to do.
00:46:49What did you see?
00:46:51I saw like, okay, there's something big floating on top of the water in the water lilies.
00:46:54My first reaction was, this just got real.
00:47:11From the water to the riverbed.
00:47:14The search for Laura Ackerson continues.
00:47:18Laura's body believed to be dumped here in Texas.
00:47:21It was a hot July day when you went out on the boat.
00:47:24Yes.
00:47:26What did you see?
00:47:27We found something big floating on top of the water in the water lilies.
00:47:31And it was just white and pinkish.
00:47:33When we got up close to it, you could see that it's one half of a torso.
00:47:39When they said, oh, you're looking for a body,
00:47:41I wasn't expecting a dismembered body, so that was a shock to your system.
00:47:47Kim pretty quickly locates what ultimately was determined to be two portions of a torso
00:47:53kind of tangled up in the vegetation of the creek.
00:47:56And that kind of confirmed to everybody here, now this is a homicide.
00:48:05Once those dismembered body parts were found floating near the surface of Oyster Creek,
00:48:10Houston dive teams were called in.
00:48:12They had to search now beneath the surface of these murky alligator-filled waters,
00:48:17looking for more remains.
00:48:19They need to know, is it really Laura?
00:48:22It's becoming important to find things like the hands or the feet or the head
00:48:27that can help with identifying the body.
00:48:30Mark Thorson and Brian Davis of the Houston police dive team
00:48:34still remember being on scene that awful day.
00:48:37What kind of dives did you normally do on this unit?
00:48:41We pretty much go get anything out of the water, vehicles, guns, bodies.
00:48:47And what's visibility like underwater?
00:48:49Most of our dives on the dive team, we do not have visibility.
00:48:52You're basically just fanning your hand out or your arm out in front of you.
00:48:56You want to feel it before you run over it.
00:49:00The first two hours we searched underwater, we didn't come up with anything,
00:49:05so we had to change our tactic, and that's when we decided to go on our tiptoes
00:49:09and go through the lily pads.
00:49:14And you would have to dive through murky water like this?
00:49:17Yes. This is what we were facing.
00:49:20When you're in the middle of it, it just closes in on you,
00:49:24and it's difficult searching, or it's hard searching for what we're looking for.
00:49:29We started seeing sheen and smelling.
00:49:32If you've ever smelled a decomposing body, you know that odor,
00:49:36and you're not going to forget it.
00:49:38We're moving the lilies, and the scent would get stronger or it would get weaker.
00:49:43As we're moving the lilies, you can see a white, grayish object in the water
00:49:50and immediately knew that I had a body part.
00:49:54All I saw was what looked like skin, and I could see a bone.
00:50:00I called out to Mark. Mark swam over, and he placed his hands on top of mine and rolled it,
00:50:06and that was when we learned that we had the head.
00:50:12We recovered virtually all of her body,
00:50:16but the most important piece was being able to recover her head
00:50:19because we were able to do dental record comparisons
00:50:23where that's as good as a fingerprint.
00:50:26They were able to confirm that it was Laura Akerson
00:50:33and that mother of two boys was now dead.
00:50:38And they knew they had found Laura in the Texas creek.
00:50:50Sorry.
00:50:53What was your reaction when you heard about body parts being found in a creek near your aunt's house
00:51:01and how your mom's mixed up in it?
00:51:04It was the most devastating thing to have ever happened in my life.
00:51:11In my interviews with Karen, I was aware that Grant and Amanda were inquiring about where a Home Depot was at.
00:51:19They had some shopping that they wanted to do.
00:51:22Investigators visit a local Home Depot and uncover this video of Grant purchasing suspicious items, including muriatic acid.
00:51:32We had video evidence of the purchase of the muriatic acid, garbage can,
00:51:37and also some large cuff neoprene chemical-resistant gloves.
00:51:42A Home Depot employee told law enforcement that Grant had asked if the acid would eliminate the odor from a hog pen.
00:51:50We searched the hog pen and we noticed a larger darkened spot, circular spot, right in the middle of the hog pen.
00:51:58In getting close to the soil, you could smell the chemical smell of presumably muriatic acid.
00:52:04So what do you think happened there?
00:52:06They attempted to dispose of Laura in that hog pen.
00:52:09Destroy her physical remains.
00:52:12Or at least means of identifying her.
00:52:16Despite having found Laura's body parts, the police still don't know how she was killed.
00:52:22But they do have enough evidence for arrest warrants for Grant and Amanda.
00:52:27We head down to Kinston to arrest Grant and Amanda at their parents' house.
00:52:33We take them into custody.
00:52:35Grant left a note on the dresser of his parents' house.
00:52:40It said that he grants sole custody of Grant, Gentle, and Lily to his parents.
00:52:48He had to know that he was in a dangerous position.
00:52:54Both Grant Hayes and his wife Amanda are now in jail.
00:52:57Hayes and his wife Amanda are both charged with murder in the death of Laura Ackerson.
00:53:02Both pleaded not guilty.
00:53:04I even sent him a message.
00:53:06What the hell, dude? What are you doing? Why, you know?
00:53:09I don't know if he ever read he was incarcerated at that point.
00:53:14What was your reaction to her arrest and being charged with murder?
00:53:18Shocked.
00:53:20How the hell did we get here?
00:53:22I can't imagine a daughter watching her mother be arrested and charged with murder.
00:53:28And have to contend with that.
00:53:30It's soul shattering.
00:53:32It makes you question your morals and values.
00:53:35It makes you question who you are.
00:53:39Soon, authorities find even more evidence they say will bolster their case.
00:53:44When you see the surveillance video, what went through your mind?
00:53:49It's scary. It's barbaric. It's inhumane.
00:53:54The Case for the Murderer
00:54:02Soon after their arrest, Grant and Amanda are led into the courtroom.
00:54:06Are you Grant Ruffin Hayes?
00:54:08Yes.
00:54:09Jason Ackerson watched from the front row as the father of his sister's children faced a judge.
00:54:14Grant Hayes III is now charged with killing his children's mother.
00:54:17They have also charged his wife, Amanda Hayes, with murder.
00:54:20Today, both Hayes and his wife went back to jail with no bond.
00:54:24These guys are monsters.
00:54:26My mom's not a monster.
00:54:28She got pulled into a bad situation.
00:54:31That woman in that picture is not the mama that I grew up with.
00:54:36Shay, she didn't think her mother could be responsible for anything violent.
00:54:44At some point, she had found this owner's manual for a skill saw.
00:54:50You found a manual for the power saw.
00:54:53For some type of power saw.
00:54:55What went through your mind?
00:54:56No one does construction work in this house, and I don't see anything freshly built.
00:55:03She made a decision to kind of help us.
00:55:06I figured if they had the manual, they could figure out where he bought it, and they did.
00:55:13It was Walmart that tells us, yeah, we actually soaked one on the early morning hours of July 14th.
00:55:20They found Grant Hayes at 2.30 in the morning after Laura Ackerson was last seen on the 13th at Walmart
00:55:28buying supplies, plastic gloves, PPE, plus a reciprocating saw.
00:55:36A reciprocating saw, depending on the blade you use, can rip through almost anything.
00:55:42The video shows him kind of pacing back and forth and looking at the different saws.
00:55:48You know, you wonder, like, what's going through his mind as he's doing this.
00:55:51He went in. He didn't disguise himself.
00:55:54He didn't try to cover up his looks, didn't try to dodge cameras.
00:55:58He's very cool and calm and collected,
00:56:02knowing that he's got a dead body at home.
00:56:05I'm just buying a saw at 2 o'clock in the morning.
00:56:11I am a retired reporter with the ABC station in Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina.
00:56:17I'm at crop right now in Raleigh.
00:56:19I was the crime reporter.
00:56:21Early in pre-trial motions, we started learning that the defense strategy for Amanda appeared to be to blame Grant.
00:56:29And for Grant, it appeared to be to blame Amanda.
00:56:33They both throw each other under the bus.
00:56:35They absolutely do. They both blame each other.
00:56:38It's like a murderous he said, she said, for sure.
00:56:41And it makes sense, right, if you're looking at it from a defense standpoint.
00:56:45For either one of them, you need to blame it on somebody else.
00:56:48Once it became clear from defense motions that one defendant was going to blame the other,
00:56:53the judge said, if we do them separately, they both get a fair trial.
00:56:58Finally, two years after the murder of Laura Ackerson, Grant's trial begins.
00:57:04I was an assistant district attorney. I prosecuted Grant and Amanda Hayes.
00:57:08On July 13th of 2011, Laura Ackerson woke up excited.
00:57:13Little did she know that within 24 hours, that that man, the father of her children,
00:57:19would be the one responsible for her murder and disappearance.
00:57:23I represented Grant Hayes. Another attorney, Will Durham, joined me.
00:57:27Our defense was, Grant didn't do this, there's no evidence he did this,
00:57:32and all the evidence suggests that Amanda is the perpetrator of the homicide.
00:57:37His attorneys made this point, and they were right.
00:57:39Just because Grant did a gruesome deed by disposing of a body and dismembering it,
00:57:46doesn't mean he's a murderer.
00:57:48His mindset was very much, he didn't do this, they couldn't prove it, and he would be fined.
00:57:54In the two years since the murder, Grant Hayes has appeared in court several times.
00:57:58Some court observers say he often looks smug.
00:58:01Maybe that's because he thinks he can pin the murder of Laura Ackerson on his wife.
00:58:05What was Grant's demeanor like during the trial?
00:58:08Disgusting. He was so nonchalant. He had no problem.
00:58:14He was so nonchalant. He had no problem. He was going to beat this.
00:58:17He was so nonchalant. He had no problem. He was going to beat this.
00:58:21Does the attorney make all your witness?
00:58:23The way the prosecution decides to begin their case is to paint a portrait of Laura Ackerson.
00:58:29To do that, they bring in the people who know her best.
00:58:32Laura loved her children more than anything, and it showed in every action that she took.
00:58:37I told Laura that if she wanted to fight for her kids, I would be there to support her.
00:58:42And she said, I'm going to fight every step of the way.
00:58:44Could you state your name, please?
00:58:46Siobhan Nicole Mathis. Her main priority was to get her children back before anything else.
00:58:54Even when she was working, she would drop whatever she had to do for her kids.
00:58:59As we watched this case unfold, it was so striking to see the extraordinary lengths Grant and Amanda went
00:59:05to try to cover up their crime, but they left a very clear trail behind them.
00:59:11Describe the range of evidence you had to deal with.
00:59:15The defendant went out and tried to find the best saw blade and the best plastic sheeting and acid.
00:59:21We were able to use these saw blades and had a scientist from NC State compare the saw marks in Laura's body.
00:59:27You can see how the blades actually match up.
00:59:32These coolers really were evidence of the deliberation and thoughtfulness that the defendant had after the murder.
00:59:38Could you unfold that and display that for the jury?
00:59:41It has some sort of bleach discoloration.
00:59:43Electrical tape that was purchased.
00:59:46Despite this mound of evidence, we don't actually know how she was murdered.
00:59:51Sure. You know, there's three adults in the apartment when this happened, and two of them are charged with first degree murder.
00:59:56And, you know, one person's dead. It was kind of hard to prove exactly what transpired.
01:00:01I didn't have enough information with the parts that we received to determine the exact cause of death.
01:00:06What was your opinion as to the cause of death?
01:00:09I called it undetermined homicidal violence.
01:00:15The defense lawyers are telling that jury, look, there's no murder weapon. There's no exact cause of death. You can't find this guy guilty.
01:00:24The issue is who killed Laura and what happened and why. And the state really didn't have any direct evidence.
01:00:33This made the defense feel like there was a chink in the armor and that they had a way to get in.
01:00:41But soon, prosecutors would try to use Grant's own words against him.
01:00:51As soon as prosecutors hear this song, they're like, wow.
01:01:03Despite the mountain of evidence in this case, it's still unclear who killed Laura and how.
01:01:10The prosecution is about to call a witness who claims to know what happened.
01:01:16Here is jailhouse informant Pablo Trinidad who can tell us what Grant said happened inside that apartment.
01:01:23Pablo Trinidad met Grant at the Wake County Jail where they were both behind bars.
01:01:28Pablo was being held for drug related offenses.
01:01:30He's the typical snitch witness. He was doing maybe 25 years.
01:01:36He was looking away to try to get a sentence reduction.
01:01:39Were y'all housed in the same area of the jail?
01:01:41Yes, ma'am. We had several conversations throughout the period that we was housed together.
01:01:48Pablo Trinidad got in front of that courtroom on the witness stand and he said, Grant told me in our jail room,
01:01:55he and Amanda strangled Laura.
01:01:58He said he made the call to her and lured her to his apartment.
01:02:04And that's when him and his wife seduced her and strangled her.
01:02:09With the corroborating evidence, there was this glimmer of truth in there.
01:02:15Whether you want to believe what he's saying, you know, you got to take it with a grain of salt.
01:02:19You can't prove it other than, you know, this is just my work.
01:02:22Your testimony is that during that five days, y'all developed such a special bond that he told you all his deepest dark secrets.
01:02:29That's correct.
01:02:30Defense lawyers chipped away at Pablo.
01:02:32They knew that Pablo had snitched on other cellmates before.
01:02:37And so you started thinking back, what are all the names I can give these people, didn't you?
01:02:42Yes.
01:02:43And you remembered Grant Hayes. He was your meal ticket, wasn't he? One of them, at least.
01:02:49I hate to say that a jailhouse snitch was a pivotal witness in this case, but he was.
01:02:55The prosecution has one last piece of evidence.
01:02:58And fitting for Grant, it starts with a beat.
01:03:03Shea actually brought her attention.
01:03:05She knew about this song that Grant had previously recorded.
01:03:09It was called Broomstick.
01:03:10It was a song that she had written.
01:03:12Shea actually brought her attention.
01:03:13She knew about this song that Grant had previously recorded.
01:03:17It was called Broomstick Rider.
01:03:24The lyrics of it told what his desire to do to Laura was.
01:03:37He wrote this song with Laura in mind.
01:03:39His attorney called it a parody.
01:03:41The state at this time could seek to publish a song that was recovered off of the defendant's iPod.
01:03:47The defense objected to the song, saying it wasn't relevant.
01:03:50But the judge overruled and allowed it in.
01:03:57They both kind of peer over and see the defendant.
01:04:01Bobbing his head and sort of rocking out to the song about killing the person that he was on trial for killing, which is sort of a staggering event.
01:04:09It was a song. It was a song.
01:04:12Not real life.
01:04:15Until it is real life.
01:04:18And it messes up your entire existence.
01:04:21It messes up who you think you are at your core.
01:04:28Can we take a second?
01:04:30Yes.
01:04:36The defense calls a witness with crucial firsthand testimony that seems to support Grant's version of the story.
01:04:42It's Amanda's sister, Karen Berry.
01:04:45Remember, Amanda told her sister that she hurt Laura.
01:04:49Could you please state your name for the court?
01:04:51Karen Berry.
01:04:52Could you tell me how you know Amanda Hayes?
01:04:55She's my sister.
01:04:56The defense is trying to prove Grant didn't commit this crime, that it was Amanda who committed this crime.
01:05:04Our case focused on statements that Amanda made to her sister.
01:05:09She came in and she told me that she had hurt Laura and that she had hurt her bad.
01:05:18She says, I hurt Laura, not we hurt Laura, or he hurt Laura.
01:05:23It actually benefited Grant to some degree because for Grant, you know, his defense is Amanda did this.
01:05:29Well, that was definitely a defense bombshell.
01:05:35But when she was pressed further, she detailed another story that happened.
01:05:40I said, I want the truth out of you now.
01:05:44And I looked her straight in the eye and I asked her if she was covering for Grant.
01:05:49How did she answer?
01:05:51She looked me straight in the eye.
01:05:56She shook her head and went.
01:06:01Well, that kind of undid everything else.
01:06:05The defendant's whole case sort of backfired on them.
01:06:07I mean, Karen's testimony did not come out like they wanted it to come out.
01:06:11In their closing arguments, each side has one last chance to convince the jury.
01:06:16They're trying to give you some reason to convict him without giving you the evidence.
01:06:21You will not let emotion decide this case.
01:06:24You will not let your disgust for the things that happened in this case lead you to a verdict.
01:06:31Ladies and gentlemen, the jury.
01:06:32I really wanted to communicate to the jury that the way that this murder happened was different.
01:06:37It was more personal.
01:06:39Here's the saw.
01:06:40And so that's why I pulled out that saw.
01:06:43This saw cut someone in half.
01:06:46These are the lengths that the defendant went to to try to not just get away with this murder, but also erase Laura from the world.
01:06:55He is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and you should find himself. Thank you.
01:07:00After three weeks of graphic testimony with 50 witnesses and 500 pieces of evidence, the jury goes out to deliberate.
01:07:09Within two hours, they're back with a verdict.
01:07:14We, the jury, by unanimous verdict, find the defendant Grant Ruffin Hayes III to be guilty of murder in the first degree.
01:07:24Grant Hayes was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole.
01:07:30I was happy to see that he got that, and I was happy to see that the jury felt the same way.
01:07:34Glad he's not going to be part of society.
01:07:36But it's consolation for that factor, but it still doesn't bring her back.
01:07:40Only a couple of months later, it's time for Amanda to face justice.
01:07:45Amanda took the witness stand in her own defense.
01:07:47I was just doing whatever he told me to do.
01:07:50Grant did not testify, but now he's talking to me.
01:07:54This is a global telling.
01:07:56We take calls from.
01:07:58Grant Hayes.
01:07:59Hello.
01:08:00Hey.
01:08:01We take calls from.
01:08:02Grant Hayes.
01:08:03Hello.
01:08:04Hey, Grant?
01:08:05Yes.
01:08:06It's Juju Chang at ABC News.
01:08:15This is a global telling.
01:08:18We take calls from.
01:08:19Grant Hayes.
01:08:21After Grant's trial and conviction, many questions remain unanswered, like what happened in that apartment.
01:08:28So we arranged to speak with him from prison.
01:08:31But his claims about how Laura died doesn't really add up.
01:08:35Grant, can you hear me?
01:08:36It's Juju Chang at ABC News.
01:08:38Thanks so much for calling.
01:08:40Thank you for picking up.
01:08:41So let me ask you this.
01:08:42People have described you as very charming, but also manipulative and even scary.
01:08:47I don't really have any defense for what people think about my character.
01:08:51But, you know, I'm not in prison for being a bad person.
01:08:54I'm in prison for killing a woman.
01:08:56And that didn't happen.
01:08:58So you're saying you didn't kill Laura?
01:08:59No, I didn't kill Laura.
01:09:01So what happened that night in the apartment?
01:09:04How did she die?
01:09:05From what I was told, when I left the room, she had asked to hold our five-week-old baby.
01:09:13And Amanda had refused her.
01:09:16And Amanda told me that Laura had actually grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back.
01:09:21And that she had swung back with her elbow, hit her, dislodged herself from her and ran into my recording studio.
01:09:28And when I came back in the room, Laura was laid out.
01:09:33I just want to get this straight, Grant.
01:09:35You're blaming Laura for her own death?
01:09:37Laura attacked a woman.
01:09:39I don't know any other way to look at it.
01:09:42And so at that point, why not call 911 to try to resuscitate her?
01:09:48I was freaked out.
01:09:49Honestly, I was afraid.
01:09:50I was very, very afraid.
01:09:52And then you're captured on video buying a saw.
01:09:55Buying a saw.
01:09:56Who came up with that plan?
01:09:58Well, Amanda had a plan to take Laura's body to a swamp at her sister's in Texas.
01:10:05And we had to get it out of the house.
01:10:07And the only way we could do that was if it were dismembered.
01:10:10So I guess you could say it was carrying out a plan that was Amanda's.
01:10:18It's only been a few months since Grant's conviction.
01:10:21And now, Amanda Hayes' trial is set to begin.
01:10:25In Amanda's trial, we're still putting forward the same evidence as Grant's trial.
01:10:29But at the same time, we want to accent Amanda's role in everything.
01:10:33The defense was trying to show Amanda she was coerced by Grant
01:10:39and only did what Grant said in order to protect herself and her child.
01:10:45But Amanda isn't just sitting there idly.
01:10:48She is an active participant in everything that we see.
01:10:50In Texas, there was a camera trying to catch people illegally dumping or littering.
01:10:57And it captures exactly that.
01:10:59Where are we in relation to where her sister's house is and where the body parts were found?
01:11:04We're just a mile and a half down.
01:11:06At my particular unit, we were in charge of environmental crimes.
01:11:09At that time, the camera was set up right where you see these two trees.
01:11:13I saw something was odd in the photos.
01:11:17A female that got out of the truck started unloading boxes and jugs
01:11:22and started shoving them under the tree in this fence line right behind me.
01:11:27She was shoving it into the bushes.
01:11:29And then I found some boxes of acid.
01:11:32It seemed really strange.
01:11:34And I had watched the news the night before showing her court appearance in Raleigh.
01:11:41And so how did you put that two and two together?
01:11:43They looked the same, looked like the same lady.
01:11:46It was kind of really basic.
01:11:48People look at that and say she doesn't look like she's under duress.
01:11:52She doesn't look like she's afraid.
01:11:55A picture can tell a thousand words, but it can hide a thousand words too.
01:11:59What do you think that picture was hiding?
01:12:02I think that that picture shows a still frame of a woman thinking she's out in the middle of nowhere in the country
01:12:08and just trying to hurry up, get it over with, get it done.
01:12:13And my question is, if you are driving a vehicle down the road dumping evidence and you are so scared, keep driving.
01:12:22Go to the police, go somewhere for help.
01:12:26The one difference between these two trials, we found out Amanda would testify.
01:12:31I think the defense had decided that if she went on the stand,
01:12:35she had a way of projecting innocence.
01:12:39Right now we're going to begin with the North Carolina trial of a woman accused of killing the mother of her stepchildren.
01:12:45Taking the stand for the first time this week, Amanda Hayes' defense was simple.
01:12:50I was just doing whatever he told me to do.
01:12:53Her husband made her do it.
01:12:55How would you describe her?
01:12:57Strong, poised, well-rehearsed, but in a very sweet, almost sing-songy baby voice.
01:13:06Amanda, did you kill Laura Ackerson?
01:13:08No, sir, I did not.
01:13:10Did you help Grant kill Laura Ackerson?
01:13:13I absolutely did not.
01:13:15Were you present when Grant killed Laura Ackerson?
01:13:18No, sir, I was not.
01:13:20Grant told me that Amanda killed Laura in self-defense, but Amanda says it began with an accident.
01:13:26The picture that Amanda paints inside that apartment on the night of the murder
01:13:31has Laura bumping into Amanda as Amanda is holding their newborn baby
01:13:37and describes Laura falling to the ground.
01:13:41Amanda Hayes says she had no idea Laura Ackerson had died after Ackerson was injured at the Hayes Raleigh apartment.
01:13:47She says she left with the children when Ackerson fell and hit her head.
01:13:50I think she hurt her own credibility by telling these implausible stories
01:13:55about she came back after a couple of hours and had no idea that Laura had been killed and her body disposed of.
01:14:02You can't even do all that in a couple of hours.
01:14:05This is a small apartment.
01:14:08Dismembering somebody takes a lot of things.
01:14:12Seems hard to believe that your mother didn't know.
01:14:15It seems hard. It does seem hard to wrap your head around. It does.
01:14:18I know you love your mom. I know you support her.
01:14:22Could it be that you're seeing it through rose-colored glasses?
01:14:27Absolutely.
01:14:29And that perhaps she was more involved than you'd like to believe?
01:14:32Nobody will ever know what they don't know.
01:14:36She also testified that her husband threatened to kill her if she didn't help dispose of the body.
01:14:42He told me that I had to help figure out how to get rid of this body or else none of us were making it back to North Carolina, to Raleigh.
01:14:53Did it ever seem to you like she could have also been a victim of Grant Hayes?
01:14:58You know, I feel like there's a possibility that Amanda was a victim of Grant's charisma, Grant's narcissism.
01:15:07But beyond that, I don't believe that she was a victim of anything.
01:15:12No one knows what that relationship's like.
01:15:15But those pictures on Amanda's camera reflect Amanda having a good time and smiling the whole time.
01:15:22Amanda Hayes is a former bit part performer who attended acting school in New York.
01:15:27But according to one of the prosecutors, none of her acting jobs were as good as the one she gave in this courtroom.
01:15:32She is given the performance of her life.
01:15:34She came across as sympathetic. She came across as, you know, Grant's the controlling jerk and I just got swept up in all this.
01:15:44We're asking that you find her not guilty on both charges.
01:15:48But would the jury believe Amanda?
01:15:51We may never know what kind of verdict Amanda Hayes expected. If it was something different than what she got, her face didn't show it.
01:15:57And what does Grant make of it all?
01:15:59Laura's death killed me.
01:16:01You're saying essentially that you're the victim in all of this.
01:16:14The last night that I was with Grant, he handed me a notepad with these pages on it.
01:16:22Told me that it was important lyrics and that it was going to be worth money one day.
01:16:27But this was probably the most unsettling of the poetry that I found.
01:16:33I guess it's one sentence with the word murder in it six times.
01:16:38It's murder, murder, murder, murder in my veins, murder in my soul, desertless in my heart, but to let this all go.
01:16:46And I think that's what just really upset me a little bit and had goosebumps when I read that for the first time after finding out about Laura.
01:16:57Dramatic testimony to first degree murder case. Did her husband force her to cover up his crime?
01:17:03It will be up to the jury to decide if Amanda Hayes was his accomplice or another victim.
01:17:09It's time for Amanda to face justice.
01:17:13They wanted Amanda found responsible for her role in the death of Laura to the tune of first degree murder.
01:17:23It is the unanimous verdict of the jury that the defendant is guilty of murder in the second degree.
01:17:31Amanda was convicted of the lesser charge of second degree murder and she was sentenced to between 13 and 17 years in a North Carolina prison.
01:17:40They were both there. They both had the opportunity to save Laura's life. Neither one of them did it. So to me, it makes them both guilty of first degree murder.
01:17:48What was your reaction to the verdict against your mom?
01:17:52It was a glimpse of hope.
01:17:56Why is that?
01:17:58Because it wasn't life with no chance of parole.
01:18:01Amanda is later tried and convicted in Texas for tampering with evidence resulting in an additional 20 years in prison.
01:18:10What does justice look like for her?
01:18:13I think more of it is what does justice look like for Laura and those little boys?
01:18:18Who actually delivered a death blow? I don't know if Grant did it or if Amanda did it.
01:18:24The fact is, this husband and wife collaborated to kill this woman.
01:18:30Despite being convicted for killing Laura, Grant remained steadfast in defending his image.
01:18:36It doesn't sound to me like you have a lot of remorse about Laura's death.
01:18:40I'm not talking about my remorse in Laura's death. Laura's death killed me. Killed my family.
01:18:47So I think I'm the most remorseful person.
01:18:50I'm the one who everyone points at and says he did this. He's the bad guy. He's the monster under the bed.
01:18:57It's just not true.
01:19:00You're saying essentially that you're the victim in all of this.
01:19:04No. Amanda and Lillian were the victims.
01:19:09What, if any, regrets do you have in this whole matter?
01:19:13I regret that we took her body apart.
01:19:17It just colors the way that people are going to see me for the rest of my life.
01:19:23When you think about Laura, what comes to mind?
01:19:28I talk to her. I ask her to always watch over all of the kids.
01:19:35And I tell her thank you for watching over me.
01:19:39Today, all three of Grant's children are being raised by his own mother.
01:19:44The kids have no contact with Grant or Amanda.
01:19:48Those boys were Laura's life. She was doing everything to have a better life for them.
01:19:53She was a wonderful mother. She loved her boys more than anything. More than her own life.
01:20:05We should point out tonight that Grant Hayes has filed several appeals. All have been denied.
01:20:10He tells 2020 he's continuing to fight for freedom.
01:20:13Meanwhile, his ex-wife David Amanda is in a Texas prison serving out her conviction.
01:20:18She declined to be interviewed.
01:20:21That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.
01:20:25And I'm David Muir from all of us here at ABC News in 2020. Good night.
01:20:34you