Dateline Nbc 2025 S02 É28
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00:00:00She would show up sometimes before the pastor.
00:00:05She loved the love we gave her.
00:00:10I got a phone call that she didn't come home.
00:00:13She went missing on Friday the 13th.
00:00:16I heard sirens, and my heart kind of dropped.
00:00:20Kids would call it a haunted house.
00:00:22You couldn't imagine a scarier place.
00:00:26You couldn't imagine a scarier place for a body to be found.
00:00:32We're trying to identify potential suspects.
00:00:35John Adams was Shante's boyfriend.
00:00:38He said, I'm your boyfriend. I have a rock.
00:00:41She just moved up.
00:00:43Collin's name had been mentioned multiple times.
00:00:45Collin told her to meet him in the shed and not to tell anybody.
00:00:51She knew Ryan.
00:00:52He was missing. He couldn't be located.
00:00:56Take me to that Wednesday night church service.
00:00:58He starts talking about demon thoughts.
00:01:02That's when it just exploded.
00:01:06I grabbed the pew, and I was like, ow.
00:01:11Ow.
00:01:13Church is a place where we expect confessions, but not one like this.
00:01:18I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.
00:01:26Here's Blaine Alexander with The Haunted House Confession.
00:01:37Down this back country road is an isolated stretch of land,
00:01:42a place where hunters come looking for prey.
00:01:46Behind the fence, just through the overgrown grass, sits an abandoned farmhouse.
00:01:52The few people who know it's here call it The Haunted House.
00:01:57This place is truly creepy, straight out of a horror movie.
00:02:02But one night, the horror became real.
00:02:06This was the scene of a crime so evil, it haunted an entire community
00:02:12and made neighbor doubt neighbor.
00:02:15Everybody was a suspect.
00:02:17In a very, very dark room,
00:02:20Everybody was a suspect.
00:02:21In the very beginning, absolutely.
00:02:24The search for justice would lead to a different house,
00:02:28a house of worship.
00:02:30Had evil made its way there, too?
00:02:39For the congregation of North Lake Community Church,
00:02:43this simple building was a refuge,
00:02:46a place to sing and worship in peace,
00:02:49a haven for people like Shantae Blankenship.
00:02:54You walk in that church and you felt like this is home, this is family,
00:02:59and I really think that is what kept her coming back.
00:03:04She felt safe there.
00:03:05Yes.
00:03:07Shantae was 25 and lived with her grandfather and boyfriend
00:03:11in a community on Lake Brownwood in Central Texas.
00:03:15Linda and Russell Lamond met Shantae at church.
00:03:19Russell was the assistant pastor.
00:03:21He and his wife took Shantae under their wing
00:03:24when she started showing up with a notebook and her own Bible.
00:03:28You couldn't help but smile with her around
00:03:32because she just, she glowed.
00:03:34Yeah, she glowed.
00:03:36It didn't take a lot to make her happy.
00:03:38Shantae's younger sister, Destiny Jarvis.
00:03:42She was happy with where she lived, her church, her neighbors,
00:03:46going on her walks every day.
00:03:48Neighbors could count on seeing Shantae every day
00:03:52as she strolled her neighborhood by the lake.
00:03:55Friday, May 13, 2016, was no different except that evening,
00:04:01Shantae went out for a walk and didn't come home.
00:04:05Her grandfather called Shantae's mom, Michelle McDaniel.
00:04:09My dad had called and said that Shantae hadn't came home.
00:04:13We just, my dad had kind of figured
00:04:15she had spent the night with one of her friends.
00:04:18Shantae's mother wasn't too worried at first,
00:04:21but as the hours ticked by, that changed.
00:04:25He told me she still wasn't home.
00:04:28The next day, her mom went to the house,
00:04:30took a look around, and saw that her purse was still there.
00:04:35She didn't go anywhere without her purse.
00:04:38Shantae's grandfather said he'd been calling her nonstop.
00:04:43It was normal for her not to communicate, especially with him.
00:04:47I remember us vividly walking down the street,
00:04:50and her mother pulled up in her car, and she said,
00:04:53have you seen Shantae?
00:04:55She hasn't reported back in, she hasn't called,
00:04:58and it's not like her.
00:04:59And I said, no, we haven't seen her.
00:05:01Was her mother worried at that point?
00:05:03Yeah, her mother was worried sick.
00:05:05The family reported her missing to the sheriff,
00:05:08and in a community this close, word spread quickly.
00:05:12A search was organized after church on Sunday.
00:05:16Were you surprised by how many people turned out to search?
00:05:19Actually, no.
00:05:20She was loved by everybody, and the moment we found out
00:05:23that she was missing, it was like not even a thought.
00:05:26Let's look for her.
00:05:27We had to find Shantae.
00:05:29I remember coming down the hill back to the church,
00:05:32and the parking lot's full, probably 200 people.
00:05:35All there to search for her?
00:05:37Yes.
00:05:38Since it was such a small community,
00:05:41it's like she's got to be around here.
00:05:43You know, she couldn't have walked that far.
00:05:46We searched under piles of leaves.
00:05:49We searched under boats, you know,
00:05:51anything that would look like it would be hiding something.
00:05:559-1-1, what's the location of your emergency?
00:05:57I have no idea where I'm at.
00:05:59I am in the middle of nowhere.
00:06:02We were looking for Shantae Blankenship.
00:06:04It was Sunday afternoon.
00:06:06Shantae had been missing almost 48 hours.
00:06:10We found her.
00:06:12Deputies sped down a road five miles from Shantae's home
00:06:16to that abandoned farmhouse.
00:06:18Their body cameras were rolling
00:06:20as they met Charlie Radel and his girlfriend Jackie Neal.
00:06:24We were just driving around looking for her.
00:06:26Everybody met at 3 at the church to go look for her,
00:06:29and we were just driving around.
00:06:32I walked around in the house.
00:06:34Uh-huh.
00:06:35I didn't see nothing there.
00:06:36I went to all the outbuildings.
00:06:37Yeah.
00:06:38And I was coming back, and that storm cellar there
00:06:40had a bunch of grass knocked down.
00:06:42So I run around and looked, and there she is.
00:06:44She's upside down in there, and she is beat to s***.
00:06:49I got a daughter that age.
00:06:52I don't find any.
00:06:54Brown County Sheriff's Office Investigator Scott Bird
00:06:57responded to the scene.
00:06:59What was the condition she was in?
00:07:01Very brutal assault.
00:07:03There was cuts, bruises all over her face and head.
00:07:07So it was very clear to you from the beginning,
00:07:10this is a murder investigation.
00:07:11Oh, yes.
00:07:13That meant all hands on deck.
00:07:16Texas Ranger Jason Shea was called in to help.
00:07:19I'm a dad.
00:07:20I've got kids.
00:07:21It kind of hits home to you because we all have kids,
00:07:26and it affects you.
00:07:29I can tell just looking at you.
00:07:31When you talk about it, it affects you.
00:07:33Yeah.
00:07:34Sure.
00:07:36A young woman of violent murder.
00:07:39It felt like it couldn't have been a first-time killer.
00:07:44The disappearance on Friday the 13th
00:07:47and the location where she was found,
00:07:49is this some type of cult activity?
00:07:52It could have been anybody.
00:07:54How long could a murderer hide?
00:07:57I can't grab hold of him.
00:07:59I can't find him.
00:08:00All of a sudden, it was almost like somebody turned the lights on,
00:08:03and you were like, oh, and there he is.
00:08:06I realize it's like I just put my face in front of a killer's face.
00:08:10I mean, that close.
00:08:13Shantay's mother, Michelle, heard the sirens first.
00:08:17Then a friend who'd helped organize the searches
00:08:20came to find her in person.
00:08:23I remember her telling me they had found her.
00:08:26I remember falling to my knees, screaming.
00:08:29Are there other people?
00:08:31I don't know.
00:08:32I don't know.
00:08:33I don't know.
00:08:34I don't know.
00:08:35I don't know.
00:08:36I don't know.
00:08:37I don't know.
00:08:38I don't know.
00:08:39I remember falling to my knees, screaming.
00:08:42Are there any words to describe what you felt?
00:08:46I was lost.
00:08:49I just had lost myself at that moment.
00:08:53I'd fell to my knees and ask him why.
00:08:56I was devastated.
00:08:57Yeah, devastated and in shock.
00:09:00There's bad things that go on in the community anywhere.
00:09:04You'll get that anywhere.
00:09:06Her specifically.
00:09:08Why her?
00:09:11Why would anyone want to hurt Shantay?
00:09:15What was it about Shantay that just really drew people to her?
00:09:18Her love.
00:09:20Just her.
00:09:22I mean, just meeting her would make you just fall in love with her.
00:09:27She'd always make you laugh.
00:09:28She'd always do something or say something.
00:09:31Stephen McDaniel is Shantay's stepfather.
00:09:34He'd known her since she was six years old.
00:09:37What was Shantay like?
00:09:39Funny, loved music.
00:09:41She had a good smile.
00:09:42You couldn't question whether or not she was happy.
00:09:45People not only noticed Shantay's smile, she had a sense of style too.
00:09:50She thought everything was better in pink or with sparkles or glitter,
00:09:56and she had like the sassy attitude to go with it.
00:10:01Shantay was tiny, not even five feet, barely 90 pounds,
00:10:06but she had big opinions about what to wear, what to do,
00:10:11and how to pronounce her name.
00:10:13We call her Shantay.
00:10:15She calls herself Shantay.
00:10:16It was a big voice for such a small person.
00:10:19She knew what she wanted, always.
00:10:21And her grandfather Charlie, the one she lived with,
00:10:24was happy to give her whatever she wanted.
00:10:27He'd helped raise her from birth.
00:10:29I had her when I was 16.
00:10:31I guess I was trying to live for me for a while.
00:10:34I worked and I partied, so she just became my dad's permanent kid pretty much.
00:10:40Growing up, Shantay needed extra care.
00:10:44She developed more slowly than other kids.
00:10:47So her walking, her talking, all of that was delayed.
00:10:52If you talked to her, you would know that she was different than a normal child.
00:10:57She still kind of talked like a child.
00:10:59It was like she aged to a certain point, and she stopped.
00:11:04How did she navigate those challenges?
00:11:08She just did.
00:11:10Nothing ever bothered her.
00:11:11She would figure it out.
00:11:13But she didn't do it alone.
00:11:15It seemed everyone in the neighborhood had a protective eye on her,
00:11:20from her family, her friends, and, of course, her boyfriend John.
00:11:25He spoiled her just like my dad.
00:11:27She never went without as long as they were together.
00:11:30Sounds like he really took care of her.
00:11:32He did take care of her.
00:11:34So did her friends at church.
00:11:36I understand that there were some times you would help her with the hymns that would be sung in church.
00:11:42She stood right next to Linda and I in the choir.
00:11:46She was like our daughter.
00:11:47She felt like family to you.
00:11:48Yes.
00:11:49This is the church, North Lake.
00:11:51Shante's church had become the makeshift headquarters for her search.
00:11:55Now it was where authorities launched their investigation.
00:11:59Pastor?
00:12:01How are you, sir?
00:12:03Hey, folks, could you have your attention just a minute?
00:12:05If you believe you have information that will assist in this investigation,
00:12:11I ask you don't discuss it with anybody else.
00:12:13I want your recollections to be your own.
00:12:15We'll be speaking to you as we get to you, all right?
00:12:17She wasn't involved in any type of drugs or gangs.
00:12:21This was an innocent girl who hadn't done anything wrong,
00:12:25and then we find her in the bottom of a cellar.
00:12:27Texas Ranger Jason Shea and a team of investigators
00:12:31canvassed Shante's neighborhood, retracing her final steps.
00:12:36This really was the starting place for your investigation.
00:12:39Yes, this is the very beginning of it.
00:12:41Besides the crime scene, we knew that she had been over here,
00:12:44so this is the main area where we focused a lot of our investigation.
00:12:48What did you hope to find out?
00:12:50Somebody that had seen her or seen her get in a car with somebody.
00:12:54A handful of neighbors had seen her at a local restaurant
00:12:58just a few hours before she disappeared.
00:13:01Then she went home, said goodbye to her boyfriend John
00:13:04before he left for work at 6 p.m.
00:13:07She set out for her walk right after,
00:13:10eventually meeting up with a friend.
00:13:13That friend, Kaitlyn McAbee, told investigators
00:13:16that she and Shante walked together for a couple of hours.
00:13:20Her grandpa called her right before we got to the end of the street,
00:13:26said, hey, it's getting dark.
00:13:28She was like, it's okay, Papa, I'll be home soon.
00:13:32She says, I'm walking, and that's all she said.
00:13:38Her grandfather confirmed to police that call was at 8.48 p.m.
00:13:45Kaitlyn said after that, she and Shante said goodbye.
00:13:56And then within minutes after, she and her friend split.
00:14:00She goes missing.
00:14:01And where she and her friend parted ways, how far was she from her home?
00:14:05Quarter mile.
00:14:06When you think about that small window,
00:14:08does it mean that the killer was maybe following her, waiting for her?
00:14:13He could have been.
00:14:14He may have been waiting for her and watching for her
00:14:17and waited for that time to where she was by herself to take his chance.
00:14:24What happened next was still a mystery,
00:14:27but a bizarre clue was about to spark a new and terrifying question.
00:14:32You think Friday the 13th, you start wondering,
00:14:35is there something more sinister than just somebody got murdered?
00:14:54The old house was set back from the road, isolated and in a state of disrepair.
00:15:02Even for a native like investigator Scott Bird, a complete mystery.
00:15:07I've never seen that house before.
00:15:09I don't know that I've ever been on that county road in my career.
00:15:12Investigators soon learned it was a party spot for kids.
00:15:17Teenagers had nicknamed it the haunted house.
00:15:20So it's obvious that people haven't lived here for years.
00:15:23The floor is gone. It's just joists going across.
00:15:28You're going to find snakes in there, other living animals in there.
00:15:32What were you looking for immediately when you got here?
00:15:35We looked for shoe prints, what's being left in the dirt, tire tracks,
00:15:39looking for any kind of biological material, blood, hair.
00:15:44I've got his body cam so we can get a video going over there.
00:15:50Investigators set up a grid search, combing every inch of the property for clues.
00:15:56There's good tire tracks that just dead end at the gate and back out.
00:16:00And then there's spin out marks.
00:16:02Like someone's been through it recently or something.
00:16:05They found Shante's bracelets scattered across the grass.
00:16:09Here's another pink man right here, John.
00:16:12She wore a bunch of different colored bracelets.
00:16:15There was one on this side of the gate and then there was one just on the other side of the gate.
00:16:19So what did that tell you? Bracelet here, bracelet there, both on the ground.
00:16:24Somehow or another she's losing them off of her arm.
00:16:28At that point we didn't know what caused that.
00:16:31Then, in the gravel, they found strands of brown hair.
00:16:36Kind of see it out there in this grass?
00:16:39Where it looks like something's been through here.
00:16:41Yeah, right here too.
00:16:43Investigators concluded someone had dragged Shante to the place where she was found.
00:16:50Her body had been thrown over the fence and then she was dragged by her hair to the cellar.
00:16:55Something very brutal happened out there.
00:16:58You don't just walk and lose your hair and your bracelets and your jewelry.
00:17:03Traumatic events were happening.
00:17:05Just the brutality of it is what sticks out.
00:17:08You could tell the person thought this would be a great place to hide a body.
00:17:13Investigators found a rusty lawnmower blade near her body.
00:17:18It was covered in blood.
00:17:20And there's blood spatter on that brick, so you know she's bleeding good.
00:17:24There were deep cuts on Shante's scalp and face, bruises on both sides of her neck, her arms and legs,
00:17:33and something odd on her chest.
00:17:37We didn't know what it came from.
00:17:39It was kind of jagged lines, almost like triangles.
00:17:45We even took a picture of that and sent that to FBI headquarters.
00:17:49Did you have any idea what it could have been?
00:17:52We didn't know if somebody hit her with a car or a blunt object.
00:17:58Was it a shoe print?
00:18:00An autopsy revealed Shante had died from blunt force trauma consistent with that bloody lawnmower blade.
00:18:08She had also been sexually assaulted.
00:18:12Not only did we have a murder, we had a rapist as well.
00:18:16Crime scene techs collected evidence at the scene and sent it out for DNA testing,
00:18:21hoping it would lead them to Shante's killer.
00:18:24There is a lot of fear that's generated when something like this happens in a place like Brownwood.
00:18:34Alicia Bird is Investigator Bird's wife.
00:18:37She is also the county's assistant DA.
00:18:40There becomes a time when you switch from your role as a supportive spouse to I am a prosecutor
00:18:48and there is a murder within my county.
00:18:51When she saw a photo of that mark on Shante's chest
00:18:55and considered that the murder happened on Friday the 13th, a theory started to take shape.
00:19:02When you put all that together and you think Friday the 13th,
00:19:05you start wondering if there's something connecting all of this.
00:19:10You know, is there something more sinister than just somebody got murdered?
00:19:13Is this some type of cult activity?
00:19:18Maybe that could explain the why.
00:19:21If only they could figure out the who.
00:19:25Right away, Investigator Bird knew who he wanted to look at first.
00:19:30We were looking for Shante's ownership.
00:19:32Okay.
00:19:33We found her.
00:19:34Charlie Radel and Jackie Neal, the searchers who found Shante.
00:19:39I thought we already found who did this because you're five miles away from where everybody else is looking.
00:19:45You're in the middle of nowhere.
00:19:47She can't be seen from the road.
00:19:49You have to get out of your truck, climb a fence, walk through 100 yards of tall grass to get to where she was.
00:19:57So you're thinking we found who did this and they gave themselves away.
00:20:02Correct.
00:20:04Time to head to the sheriff's office for questioning.
00:20:08What might a polygraph reveal?
00:20:11Did you kill Shante?
00:20:14The search for Shante had ended, but the hunt for her killer was just getting underway.
00:20:22To start, investigators wanted to take a hard look at Charlie Radel and his girlfriend, Jackie, the searchers who found Shante.
00:20:33It seemed so unlikely that they just got lucky.
00:20:37The house is so remote, it's almost impossible to find, even with GPS.
00:20:43It's on a dirt road.
00:20:45On a dirt road.
00:20:47On a dirt road.
00:20:49On a dirt road.
00:20:51On a dirt road.
00:20:53On a dirt road.
00:20:55On a dirt road.
00:20:57On a dirt road.
00:20:59GPS.
00:21:00It's on a dirt road off of another dirt road.
00:21:05What are the odds that he found her out there innocently?
00:21:09Sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire.
00:21:11If y'all want to have a seat in the truck so we don't make any more footprints than we've already got.
00:21:16Charlie and Jackie were both in their 40s, and they both knew Shante from her daily walks in the neighborhood.
00:21:22She lived about a mile away from them.
00:21:25I got a daughter that age.
00:21:28I don't mind it.
00:21:30Investigators took note of Charlie's emotion at the scene
00:21:34and invited him to the sheriff's office to see how he would answer questions there.
00:21:39Do you go by Charlie?
00:21:41Everybody don't go by Chap.
00:21:43Chap, okay.
00:21:44Charlie told the investigator he'd just seen Shante out walking not long before she disappeared.
00:21:51When you saw her on Friday, what was she wearing?
00:21:53What was she wearing?
00:21:54A white shirt with kind of faded Daisy Duke shorts on.
00:22:01Charlie said that as soon as they heard a search was being organized,
00:22:05he and Jackie jumped in the truck and hit the country roads.
00:22:09We said the prayers for Shante's safe return.
00:22:14I was talking to Laura, and I said,
00:22:16Laura, I hope she's okay, but if she's in a bad way, please show her to me.
00:22:21Me and Jackie talked.
00:22:22We checked every ditch, every culvert, all the way around.
00:22:27Then he said they came upon that dirt road, the one leading to the haunted house.
00:22:33He had stated that his kids used to go out there
00:22:36and teenagers going out there and partying at this old abandoned house.
00:22:40I walked over to the galvanized gate, and I propped up on it.
00:22:44I'm looking at that house.
00:22:45Jackie, she comes up behind me.
00:22:47She's pointing with her foot.
00:22:48She said, what is that?
00:22:49I got down close to it, and I grabbed it.
00:22:52I said, Jackie, that's human hair.
00:22:55I shopped through the fence, and I went to the house.
00:22:58After looking around the dilapidated house,
00:23:01he said he decided to check the storm cellar.
00:23:04That's where he found Shante's body.
00:23:07Jackie asked me, she said, is she dead?
00:23:11I said, yeah, she's dead.
00:23:15She had it all on the phone.
00:23:18She said, is this Shante?
00:23:19I said, yeah, that's her.
00:23:22Did you touch her?
00:23:23No, no, I didn't touch her.
00:23:25Why do you think somebody would kill her?
00:23:30I don't know.
00:23:33I can't imagine how anybody could do something like that.
00:23:36They also interviewed Jackie.
00:23:38The investigator asked her where Charlie was on Friday the 13th,
00:23:42the night Shante disappeared.
00:23:57They offered investigators their DNA.
00:24:03Charlie also agreed to a polygraph.
00:24:06How hard did law enforcement press Charlie?
00:24:09Extremely hard.
00:24:10Did you participate in killing Shante?
00:24:12Shante, no.
00:24:15Did you kill Shante?
00:24:17No.
00:24:19Then he showed no indication of deception during that polygraph.
00:24:23And we decided it's time to move on.
00:24:26While investigators searched for Shante's killer,
00:24:30her family was facing the difficult task of planning her funeral.
00:24:36Mourners gathered for the service at her beloved church.
00:24:40Everybody had a touch of pink somewhere,
00:24:42whether they were wearing, you know, just pink bracelet
00:24:45or that they were wearing actual pink.
00:24:49You know, my mom, my brothers,
00:24:50they'd all got, like, matching shirts and things like that,
00:24:53which Shante would have loved because they're going to wear her color.
00:24:57I think if she could have planned her own funeral,
00:25:01she would have planned it very similar to how it was.
00:25:04What stands out to you the most about that day?
00:25:08The people.
00:25:09Some people are standing outside,
00:25:11walking into the church, being seated, and it's packed.
00:25:14People are standing.
00:25:16The whole parking lot's full of people.
00:25:18Did you feel the love that this community had for your daughter?
00:25:21I did. I did.
00:25:23Did you ever consider the possibility
00:25:26that her killer might be right there in the room,
00:25:29in the church with you?
00:25:30I didn't.
00:25:31She didn't, but investigators did.
00:25:35They rigged up surveillance cameras inside the church.
00:25:39You thought that it was important to see who was coming, who was going.
00:25:44Yes, people will come back to see what we have found
00:25:48or to downplay what they've done or to hide in plain sight.
00:25:54They also set up cameras at the cemetery by Shante's grave.
00:25:59Just to see if somebody was acting strangely
00:26:03or causing issues with the family.
00:26:07But after scrubbing through hours of video,
00:26:10investigators didn't find anything suspicious.
00:26:14Still, they were convinced Shante's killer had to be close by,
00:26:18almost certainly someone she knew.
00:26:21She wouldn't get in a car with somebody she didn't know.
00:26:24Everyone just knew that about her.
00:26:25They knew that.
00:26:26I can't tell you how many people came up to us and said,
00:26:29had to have been somebody I've known
00:26:30because she wouldn't have gotten in a vehicle
00:26:32that she didn't know that person.
00:26:35So they would have to look at everyone in Shante's circle,
00:26:39starting with the man closest to her.
00:26:42He said, I'm your boyfriend. I have a right.
00:26:45She said, you know your doctor.
00:26:57In the days after Shante's body was found,
00:27:00her family and friends tried to come to terms with her savage murder.
00:27:05I know that you'd said at some point, even after she was found,
00:27:10there were days when you almost still expected to see her on those walks.
00:27:15Yes, I remember the first time we drove down that road
00:27:20and it was sad.
00:27:23And it was sad.
00:27:25It's like, she's supposed to be here.
00:27:27She's not here.
00:27:28It was almost like living that day over again
00:27:32that we found out that she wasn't alive.
00:27:35Was it hard for you to grasp that reality?
00:27:38Yes, because I've never been that close to that kind of tragedy.
00:27:46Death, yes, but someone that was killed,
00:27:50that was murdered, it was too close.
00:27:53And I was like, no, this doesn't happen here, not at all.
00:27:57But it had happened.
00:27:59And as investigators looked for Shante's killer,
00:28:02those closest to her were under scrutiny.
00:28:06When we're doing any of these investigations,
00:28:08who are the first people you look at as boyfriend?
00:28:10John Adams, Shante's live-in boyfriend.
00:28:14At 26, he was a year older than Shante.
00:28:18They'd known each other since middle school,
00:28:20had been a couple for more than three years.
00:28:23They were even starting to talk about marriage.
00:28:26John meant a lot to her.
00:28:28She meant a lot to him.
00:28:30That's what mattered to Shante's family.
00:28:33They made it clear to John that Shante was special
00:28:36and needed to be protected.
00:28:39So with John, I think there was a lot of conversations
00:28:43between him and other family members about it.
00:28:47And I think they trusted him to not ever take advantage of her
00:28:51and to treat her right.
00:28:54Two days after Shante's body was found,
00:28:57investigators paid John a visit.
00:28:59Hello, Carlisle, Guilford.
00:29:01What's your name?
00:29:02John Adams.
00:29:03John recognized the deputy from a traffic stop.
00:29:06Who pulled me over before?
00:29:08I pulled you over before for what?
00:29:10I was down there on Susie Woodson Road.
00:29:12Oh, okay.
00:29:14Is this where y'all live in here?
00:29:15Yeah.
00:29:16Can we go inside?
00:29:17Yeah.
00:29:18John led them to the bedroom he shared with Shante.
00:29:22Is there anything missing out of here?
00:29:24No.
00:29:25They studied the room.
00:29:27Can we have this brush?
00:29:29Took pictures and examined Shante's belongings.
00:29:33I'm just going to dump this out.
00:29:39So she goes everywhere with her purse, but she just didn't have her purse today.
00:29:44Then they went back outside.
00:29:46That's when they let John know they weren't just looking for clues,
00:29:50they were looking at him.
00:29:53Normally, boyfriends are going to be the number one suspect a lot of times.
00:29:58And also a lot of times when we do these, we do find another suspect.
00:30:04So when we do find the real killer, then we can say, oh, we covered that base.
00:30:11They walked around the property looking into outbuildings.
00:30:15What is that on that hammer?
00:30:17Is that for pulling out nails or something?
00:30:19They took pictures of John's pickup truck
00:30:21and were interested to see a lot of lawnmowers in the shed.
00:30:26Man, do you guys have a lawn care service or something?
00:30:30Remember, it was a lawnmower blade that killed Shante.
00:30:34That was missing a – that was tore up.
00:30:37Police also wanted to know about John's relationship with Shante.
00:30:42Investigators had heard it was loving but could be tense at times.
00:30:48It was strained.
00:30:49They weren't the Ozzie and Harriet.
00:30:51They weren't perfect.
00:30:52Shante liked to wave at boys, and boys would wave back, and it made her feel good.
00:30:59That made him a little jealous.
00:31:01I didn't mean anything by it, but John was a little bit jealous, so it upset him some.
00:31:08Did you ever learn that Shante had complained to neighbors about John
00:31:11sometimes wanting to control her?
00:31:13Sure.
00:31:15Would tell her what to eat, what not to eat, where she could go, where she couldn't go.
00:31:21Bitsy Hobbs, one of Shante's friends, told investigators she heard the couple fighting.
00:31:27Shante sounded angry.
00:31:30He had no control over me.
00:31:32He could not tell me what to do.
00:31:35You know, went on cussing me.
00:31:39He said, I'm your boyfriend.
00:31:41I have a right.
00:31:43She said, no you don't.
00:31:45You do not have control over me.
00:31:47I'll see whoever I want to.
00:31:49I think talking to witnesses who had spoken to John prior to the homicide,
00:31:56that he was worried about the relationship and didn't know how much longer it was going to last.
00:32:02So he was thinking it may come to an end soon.
00:32:04Quite possible.
00:32:06You know, could this have been a spat, an argument, and that's why she was killed?
00:32:13We didn't know at that time.
00:32:15But they were about to find out.
00:32:18They had a stack of questions for John Adams.
00:32:21For starters, what did he do with his phone?
00:32:26These text messages that you deleted, and you know what I'm talking about,
00:32:30because you even told somebody, hey, my phone's clean.
00:32:44I spoke with John Harper the first night and stuff, told my side of the story.
00:32:48John Adams seemed like a friendly guy when he met investigators.
00:32:52Who lives here?
00:32:53Charlie Barnett.
00:32:55And this is where you live too?
00:32:56Yes, sir.
00:32:57But friendly didn't mean innocent.
00:32:59We didn't know if he knew more about what had happened to Shantae than what he was actually telling us.
00:33:05Did you bring him in?
00:33:06We did bring him in and asked him what was going on.
00:33:09So we had a good timeline of where Shantae was at, and we needed to see where he was at during that time.
00:33:14So the last time you talked to her on the phone?
00:33:17John said that around 5 p.m. he picked Shantae up at the restaurant where neighbors had seen her that afternoon.
00:33:24So he picked her up and took her to where?
00:33:26To the house.
00:33:27And dropped her off?
00:33:28No, and we had a shower, and then we were there.
00:33:32John said he then went to work at his restaurant job around 6 p.m.
00:33:37So he left and she stayed there?
00:33:39Yeah.
00:33:40Is that what time you have to be at work?
00:33:42Are you supposed to be at work at 6 or 5?
00:33:44It was 9.
00:33:45If I show up, you can ask her.
00:33:46I always show up early.
00:33:47You're supposed to go to work at 9.
00:33:49Yeah, but I show up early sometimes.
00:33:51He said he worked an overnight shift and got home around 5 the next morning.
00:33:57Shantae wasn't there.
00:33:59He thought maybe she was at a friend's place.
00:34:02That's when you discovered she wasn't there.
00:34:04Yeah, I went and saw her room.
00:34:05Did you start calling her phone?
00:34:07I called her phone and it was disconnected.
00:34:10They dug into his relationship with Shantae.
00:34:36After that interview, John was free to go.
00:34:40But investigators found something while searching his cell phone data.
00:34:45He had given us his cell phone to download.
00:34:47We looked at that and noticed that there was some communication that had been deleted.
00:34:52So we had to pull him back in.
00:34:54Some messages?
00:34:55Some messages.
00:34:56This time the conversation was less friendly on both sides.
00:35:00You delete your text messages?
00:35:02Yeah.
00:35:03Okay.
00:35:04And apparently you deleted some yesterday before you showed up.
00:35:07I was going in early.
00:35:09That's not what these text messages that you deleted.
00:35:13And you know what I'm talking about because you even told somebody,
00:35:15hey, my phone's clean.
00:35:19So why don't you tell me about that?
00:35:21John admitted he was trying to hide something, but not about Shantae.
00:35:26I smoke weed and I just don't want that.
00:35:29That's the only thing that would be in there.
00:35:31You know, he said, hey, this is what was going on.
00:35:35I was using drugs, and those messages were in reference to buying and selling marijuana.
00:35:41And so that's how he explained it.
00:35:43They interviewed John four times.
00:35:46They're pressuring me.
00:35:48We interviewed him, too, and asked him what it was like to be grilled like that.
00:35:53You could tell that when they were talking to you, they weren't just trying to get information.
00:35:59They were thinking that you had something to do with it.
00:36:01They were trying to pressure me to confess what they were trying to do.
00:36:05Were you upset?
00:36:06I was.
00:36:08I was very upset.
00:36:10It hurt.
00:36:12I don't have a bone in my body to do something like that to someone.
00:36:17He told us the same thing he told investigators.
00:36:20His relationship with Shantae was not perfect, but it was solid.
00:36:25Were there ever any rocky moments?
00:36:29There were times, you know, she'd just get mad for certain reasons.
00:36:33There would be times where I just had to walk away.
00:36:36I wouldn't yell, really at her or argue with her, you know.
00:36:40But, I mean, there and out, we stayed together, you know, made it work, you know.
00:36:45Even if there were ups and downs between the two of you?
00:36:47Yeah.
00:36:48It wasn't just investigators.
00:36:50John knew neighbors were quick to assume the boyfriend was to blame.
00:36:55He told us what some saw as controlling behavior was his way of protecting Shantae.
00:37:01Already people were starting to point their fingers at you.
00:37:04And it made me mad.
00:37:06Knowing Dame well, I didn't do nothing.
00:37:10I did nothing but protect her.
00:37:13Investigators needed to check out everything John told them,
00:37:17including what he said about other men in town.
00:37:21Like a guy named Bobby Sosa, who John said liked to throw parties.
00:37:27He lived in the area.
00:37:29He was always seen driving around that area.
00:37:32Shantae's friend told investigators she'd seen a red and white Bronco in the neighborhood
00:37:37the night Shantae disappeared, that the driver waved at them and seemed creepy.
00:37:43They tracked down Sosa and confirmed he drove a red and white Bronco
00:37:48and brought him in for questioning at the sheriff's office.
00:37:52I understand you guys got to do your job.
00:37:54Sosa said he did drive by Shantae on her walk that night, but that was it.
00:37:59If you did have something to do with this, you need to let me know now.
00:38:02I would have told you before.
00:38:04Did investigators search his house, search his car?
00:38:06They searched everything.
00:38:07He would come in my house, search my vehicle, look anywhere he wanted.
00:38:11Sorry about the mess.
00:38:12Oh, you're good, man.
00:38:14So he was very open.
00:38:15Absolutely.
00:38:16He also shared where he'd been that night.
00:38:19He had gone to another residence, and there were multiple individuals there
00:38:24that he didn't leave till late that evening.
00:38:26Were you able to verify that?
00:38:27We were able to verify that.
00:38:29The pressure to find Shantae's killer was mounting.
00:38:33We just know that they're out there.
00:38:35It's scary.
00:38:36You were preparing for a manhunt.
00:38:38We were getting ready for a manhunt.
00:38:40It would all come to a head in a place they least expected.
00:38:44I remember saying,
00:38:45Please don't tell me he's talking about Shantae.
00:38:48Please don't tell me.
00:38:50That place that Shantae loved most of all.
00:38:54We want to hate you, but we can't.
00:38:59John Adams, Shantae's serious boyfriend,
00:39:02was an obvious person to look at,
00:39:05even more so after investigators found out
00:39:08he'd been deleting text messages from his phone.
00:39:12Why don't you tell me that's not it?
00:39:14Investigators checked out his phone
00:39:16and found that he'd been using his phone
00:39:18to text messages to Shantae.
00:39:20He'd been using his phone to text messages to Shantae.
00:39:23He'd been using his phone to text messages to Shantae.
00:39:26Investigators checked out his story
00:39:28and confirmed those deleted text messages
00:39:31were just about marijuana.
00:39:33So you caught him in something else, but not murder.
00:39:36Correct.
00:39:37They were also able to get security video
00:39:40from the restaurant where John worked,
00:39:42along with the timesheets.
00:39:44He told us exactly where he was, what he had done,
00:39:47and everything he told us was truthful.
00:39:49So he gave you an alibi and you were able to verify it.
00:39:52Yes, through video.
00:39:54I mean, it doesn't get much better alibi than that.
00:39:56He was just worried and upset that his fiancée had been killed.
00:40:00He wanted to figure out who had done this also.
00:40:03I want to ask you, John, what do you miss the most about Shantae?
00:40:10The most I miss about Shantae?
00:40:18Her laughter.
00:40:21It made life easy when she smiled and just laughed
00:40:24and not mad at you.
00:40:27She was like my best friend.
00:40:30John as a suspect was a dead end,
00:40:33but that didn't mean talking to him was a waste of time.
00:40:37Not at all.
00:40:39We still needed more information of potential suspects
00:40:42that might be involved in the case.
00:40:44So we had to continue to try to keep him on our side
00:40:48to get as much information as we could.
00:40:50John gave them another name,
00:40:53a name they heard from other neighbors, Colin Smith.
00:40:58When we started doing interviews,
00:41:00his name had been mentioned multiple times.
00:41:02Colin was in his 20s,
00:41:05did some lawn mowing and odd jobs around town,
00:41:08and he lived just around the corner from Shantae.
00:41:12Shantae went missing and it was right there by Colin's house.
00:41:17Here's where Colin was living at the time.
00:41:19Right here?
00:41:20Yep.
00:41:21Okay.
00:41:22And it kind of backs up, back to the road
00:41:24to where Shantae was living at too.
00:41:26Okay.
00:41:27So she would have had to walk down this area
00:41:31the day that she went missing.
00:41:34John Adams told investigators Colin was a troublemaker.
00:41:39He used to ride around with them and stuff,
00:41:41and he used to just do stupid stuff.
00:41:44I mean, like, fly around with drones.
00:41:46And Shantae's stepdad, Steven,
00:41:48recalls that months before the murder,
00:41:50Colin took Shantae out for a late-night joyride.
00:41:54Steven was furious.
00:41:57What'd you say?
00:41:58I just asked him what he was doing with her,
00:42:01and I made her get out of the vehicle
00:42:05and told him better stay away from her.
00:42:07You told him to stay away from her?
00:42:08Yes.
00:42:09Did he?
00:42:10As far as my knowledge, yes.
00:42:13But Ranger Shea heard that's not what Colin did.
00:42:17Miss McBee that had been walking with Shantae
00:42:20had told us that Colin Smith had purchased her some shoes recently.
00:42:26Shantae also told her friend Colin wanted to meet up
00:42:30the night she disappeared.
00:42:32Saying, hey, meet me out by the barn tonight,
00:42:35but don't tell anybody.
00:42:36To Shantae?
00:42:37Yes.
00:42:38She told me Colin told her to meet,
00:42:42yeah, told her to meet him in the shed behind his house that night
00:42:49and not to tell anybody.
00:42:52That very well meant that Colin
00:42:54could have been the last person to see her alive.
00:42:56Sure, and that's what we were thinking.
00:42:59Is he the one?
00:43:01Did she say something that upset him?
00:43:03In my opinion, he was a number one that we needed to talk to.
00:43:07Shea went to see him in person.
00:43:10How you doing, sir?
00:43:11I'm Jason Shea.
00:43:12I'm with the Texas Rangers.
00:43:13What's your name?
00:43:14Colin.
00:43:15How did you find him?
00:43:16Did he seem shifty to you?
00:43:18He really didn't.
00:43:19There was a little bit of concern.
00:43:21I mean, it's ridiculous that I'm even being looked at.
00:43:25Like other neighbors investigators spoke to,
00:43:28Colin said he did see Shantae the night she disappeared,
00:43:31but only from a distance.
00:43:33He'd seen her pass by his house on her last walk.
00:43:37But probably around the last time we'd seen her,
00:43:41it was around 6.37.
00:43:43Shantae was just a friend, Colin said,
00:43:46but he told investigators that she was interested in more than friendship.
00:43:51I had to change my number because she would call it from like 6.30
00:43:55in the morning to like midnight at night.
00:43:57Just call, hang up, call, hang up, call, hang up.
00:44:01Like a high school girl.
00:44:02Yeah.
00:44:03Did y'all have any type of physical relationship at all?
00:44:06So never.
00:44:08Investigators wanted to ask him more questions,
00:44:11this time hooked up to a lie detector.
00:44:14Why are we here today, Colin?
00:44:21But right before they got started,
00:44:23a key part of his story changed.
00:44:26He admitted he did have a physical relationship with Shantae.
00:44:36Colin told police he didn't know Shantae and John were serious.
00:44:51He ended up admitting that he had been in a sexual relationship with her.
00:44:55Was that the only thing he'd been hiding?
00:44:58Wired up to the machine, the questions got very specific.
00:45:03Did you physically cause the death of Shantae?
00:45:05No.
00:45:06You don't know how she died?
00:45:10Not at all.
00:45:11You don't know what kind of weapon was used?
00:45:13No.
00:45:14The investigator told Colin the results of the tests were not good.
00:45:19I've done a lot of these tests and I'm looking at this
00:45:24and I'm showing deception.
00:45:27Was that a red flag?
00:45:29That's a big red flag.
00:45:30I'm telling you right now that something is causing the issues on this
00:45:33and I want to get down to the bottom of it.
00:45:35If you didn't kill her.
00:45:36I have no idea.
00:45:37I didn't do it.
00:45:38Bottom line.
00:45:39Colin, who had been cooperative up to this point,
00:45:42seemed eager to leave.
00:45:47You still want to cooperate, right?
00:45:49Yeah.
00:45:50Don't make me out to be the bad guy here.
00:45:53I will hire a lawyer.
00:45:55Hey, I don't give a one way or another if you're going to hire a lawyer.
00:45:58Do not sit there and try to threaten me with hiring a lawyer.
00:46:02You're the one that's in here cooperating, are you not?
00:46:04Yes, sir.
00:46:05I thought you said we were done.
00:46:06Okay.
00:46:07Go ahead and put your hands together, please.
00:46:09I thought you said we were done.
00:46:10I'm sorry.
00:46:11Colin stayed long enough to give them his alibi.
00:46:14He'd been at his brother's house, he said, about 10 miles away.
00:46:18Where did you stay that night?
00:46:20I was in my brother's living room,
00:46:22fall asleep watching a basketball game.
00:46:24Texas Ranger Shea and I knew we had to get to the brother
00:46:28to talk to him before Colin could,
00:46:30to get the true story and not Colin calling his brother and saying,
00:46:34hey, cover for me.
00:46:35Would Colin's alibi check out?
00:46:38Or would police be forced to consider a whole new theory?
00:46:42It felt like it couldn't have been a first time killer.
00:46:51Investigators thought they might finally be getting somewhere.
00:46:55In a room with a young man they found highly suspicious.
00:46:59Colin Smith was my main focus.
00:47:01Colin had initially lied to detectives about his relationship with Shantae,
00:47:06and when they hooked him up to that polygraph,
00:47:09it seemed he still had a chance.
00:47:12Shantae was a young man.
00:47:14He was a young man.
00:47:17And when they hooked him up to that polygraph,
00:47:19it seemed he still wasn't telling the whole story.
00:47:22Colin told the polygrapher that he had an alibi,
00:47:27he was with his brother,
00:47:29but couldn't explain why he fell the polygraph.
00:47:32Investigators raced to talk to Colin's brother before he could,
00:47:37and the brother confirmed his alibi.
00:47:40It's not just his brother that we talked to.
00:47:42Who else is there with you?
00:47:44They also talked to his niece and nephew,
00:47:46who said they saw Colin too.
00:47:49Of course, they're family members,
00:47:51so we've got to look at that too.
00:47:55It's not the strongest alibi.
00:47:56It's not the strongest because, you know,
00:47:58family members will cover family members.
00:48:00Investigators also took Colin's DNA and sent it to the crime lab.
00:48:05How does that come back?
00:48:06It comes back that he's not a match to the DNA that was found on her body.
00:48:10So you're able to clear him?
00:48:11Yes.
00:48:12Another dead end.
00:48:14By now, DNA results were coming in from the other men they'd talked to.
00:48:19Shante's boyfriend, John, was not a match.
00:48:22Neither was neighbor Bobby Soza.
00:48:25Nobody may have ever looked in that cellar.
00:48:27It may have been years.
00:48:29And the DNA also proved those searchers who found Shante
00:48:33were exactly what they appeared to be, good Samaritans.
00:48:37Far from suspects, they had been a blessing to the investigation.
00:48:42We were very lucky, very blessed.
00:48:44There's all kinds of predatory animals out here,
00:48:47coyotes, bobcats, stray dogs, any kind of occasional mountain lion.
00:48:54If we hadn't have found her, that's probably what would have found her,
00:48:57some kind of animal.
00:48:59The timely discovery of Shante's body was a stroke of luck
00:49:03to investigator Bird felt like divine intervention.
00:49:07But that luck seemed to be running out as they tore through lead after lead.
00:49:13How many calls were coming in that you guys had to chase down?
00:49:17A lot, hundreds.
00:49:19At first, it was just try this name, try this name, try this name.
00:49:24And you all have to chase after each and every one.
00:49:26Anytime somebody called in and said, hey, this person was in the neighborhood,
00:49:31we'd go talk to them and we would ask the male for a buckle swab
00:49:34to take their DNA.
00:49:36Investigators collected samples from at least two dozen men,
00:49:40including Shante's grandfather, Charlie.
00:49:43It seemed unthinkable the doting Charlie could be the killer,
00:49:47but Shante's mom was in favor of testing him.
00:49:51You thought he could have possibly been involved?
00:49:53Everybody was involved.
00:49:55Nobody was ruled out in your eyes?
00:49:57Nobody was ruled out in my eyes.
00:49:59It wasn't the grandfather, and it also wasn't anyone in CODIS,
00:50:04the National Law Enforcement DNA Database.
00:50:07Back to square one.
00:50:08Back to square one.
00:50:09Just heart-wrenching.
00:50:11Heart-wrenching for everyone in Shante's quiet lakeside neighborhood.
00:50:17As weeks went by, and then months.
00:50:20We just know that they're out there.
00:50:23It's scary.
00:50:25Out there and possibly right there in the community.
00:50:27Right.
00:50:28Is this a neighbor?
00:50:29Is this a friend?
00:50:30Everybody was scared.
00:50:31The kids that walked out there constantly started pairing up.
00:50:35Nobody walked alone.
00:50:36It snatched away that feeling of safety from the whole community.
00:50:41Everybody started locking doors.
00:50:44I'm sure there were people who were out there wondering if they were
00:50:48eating supper beside the person who had done this.
00:50:51At Shante's church, parishioners were desperate for answers.
00:50:56I can't believe they would take such a precious person.
00:51:01She meant so much to Linda and I and to the community.
00:51:04Pastor, how are you, sir?
00:51:06The pastor hounded investigators for updates.
00:51:09Called me every day, every two days, every three days,
00:51:14wanting to know what we found and asking questions about the evidence.
00:51:19Asking about the case.
00:51:20Yes.
00:51:21And because no one was above suspicion,
00:51:24investigators even wondered about the pastor himself.
00:51:28When somebody becomes too involved in your case,
00:51:31sometimes they're trying to figure out what you do know,
00:51:34what you have found out, what you haven't found out,
00:51:37to protect themselves.
00:51:39That went nowhere.
00:51:41And while authorities suspected the killer was someone Shante knew,
00:51:46they couldn't rule out other theories.
00:51:49Did you ever consider the possibility that you were dealing with a serial killer?
00:51:53You know, that's always a possibility of things that we look at.
00:51:56There was absolutely a thought process of, you know,
00:51:59look for other similar patterned crimes to see because it felt so brutal
00:52:05that it felt like it couldn't have been a first-time killer.
00:52:11Alicia Byrd was still thinking about that strange symbol on Shante's chest.
00:52:17What could it mean?
00:52:18The disappearance on Friday the 13th and the location where she was found,
00:52:23it just all, you know, you're looking for some sort of cohesiveness.
00:52:28You're looking for some theory of the case.
00:52:30A lot of sleepless nights laying there wondering,
00:52:34what did I miss today?
00:52:36Did I talk to this person today?
00:52:39It makes you start second-guessing yourself.
00:52:42What are you missing?
00:52:44You were really taking this case personally.
00:52:46Absolutely.
00:52:47Investigator Byrd's wife could see the case was weighing heavily on her husband.
00:52:52The great thing with us both being in this field is we're able to give each other that space,
00:53:00recognizing that he needs to be able to think
00:53:04and to figure out what his next investigatory step will be.
00:53:09Shante's family feared the investigation had hit a wall.
00:53:14It seemed like that nothing was getting done to me.
00:53:19Desperate for answers, Shante's stepfather admits he badgered his neighbors.
00:53:25I would stop everybody that drove by the house.
00:53:27I was out there morning till dark trying to find out answers.
00:53:33I caused a lot of problems out there.
00:53:35I wanted to know.
00:53:36You were desperate.
00:53:37That was your girl.
00:53:38Yes, ma'am.
00:53:40You start thinking at that point,
00:53:41you probably never actually find who did this.
00:53:44They told me they would never stop, but in my eyes they had stopped
00:53:47because they were doing stuff that I didn't know at the time.
00:53:51What she didn't know was that Investigator Byrd
00:53:54was about to take a leap of faith with a cutting-edge technology.
00:53:59Maybe this would reveal the face of the killer.
00:54:03I'm willing to try anything.
00:54:04It very much seemed too good to be true.
00:54:12Investigator Byrd.
00:54:23One year after Shante was murdered, her mom organized a memorial.
00:54:28Friends and family came together and walked Shante's route.
00:54:32Everybody was out of breath.
00:54:33We didn't know how she did it.
00:54:35That was her thing.
00:54:36It was her thing.
00:54:37She loved it.
00:54:39Everybody always talked about her.
00:54:42All the beautiful moments, everybody's seen her.
00:54:45Most of them are her walking and her smile.
00:54:48She had this little walk where her little honey shook.
00:54:50That's how you remember her is seeing her.
00:54:53Living out there on that road with her being gone, I could see her.
00:54:58Those were difficult days for everyone.
00:55:01Those who loved her spent hours by her grave,
00:55:04the stone inscribed, singing in the angels' choir.
00:55:08Her stepfather, Stephen, was grieving and feeling guilty.
00:55:12Before she went missing, he told Shante he might take her fishing on that Friday.
00:55:17Instead, he picked up an extra shift at work.
00:55:21It's been hard.
00:55:23Real hard.
00:55:24Because I figured if I wouldn't have went to work that weekend,
00:55:28she'd still be here.
00:55:30You think through all these what-ifs.
00:55:34And I blame myself every day.
00:55:38The Lamonds were suffering, too.
00:55:40I cried for months and months.
00:55:42Afterward, it came to the point where it was unsolved.
00:55:45It hurt.
00:55:47I was really angry that if I said,
00:55:49man, if I just get five minutes alone with this guy,
00:55:52that's not a proper way to think.
00:55:54But still, they took something from all of us.
00:55:58Despite all the leads the investigators had run down,
00:56:02Shante's killer was still out there.
00:56:05Now, like a losing football team, they were ready for a Hail Mary.
00:56:10I was trying anything I could.
00:56:13We were lost.
00:56:15We didn't know what the next step was.
00:56:19Bird felt incredibly frustrated.
00:56:22He couldn't crack the case, even though he had the killer's DNA.
00:56:27It tells us who the killer is.
00:56:29It doesn't give us a name, but it tells us who did this.
00:56:32And it's undisputable.
00:56:34So what you have in your hand is quite possibly the best piece of evidence
00:56:38in terms of identifying someone, but no name.
00:56:42Right. That's how I've described it to people.
00:56:44I know exactly who you are.
00:56:47Then Bird heard about a new DNA technique his department had never used.
00:56:52The process is called phenotyping.
00:56:55It uses DNA to predict the way a person looks,
00:56:58eye, hair, and skin color, among other things.
00:57:02Back in 2017, it was a shiny new tool for law enforcement.
00:57:07One of our investigators, who doesn't work for us anymore,
00:57:12saw a show on TV, and it was about phenotyping.
00:57:17And he told me about it.
00:57:18Bird Googled it and called around.
00:57:21So you're hearing success stories.
00:57:23Correct.
00:57:24And thinking, this could work for us, too.
00:57:26Right.
00:57:27But when the investigator ran it by others, he hit a wall of skepticism,
00:57:32including his wife, Alicia, in the district attorney's office.
00:57:36It felt very television-esque.
00:57:40It felt like something that you see on TV,
00:57:43but it doesn't really happen that way in real criminal cases.
00:57:49And so it very much felt like a science fiction idea.
00:57:54You doubted it from the very beginning.
00:57:56From the very beginning, I didn't believe that it would work.
00:57:59This is not a TV show.
00:58:00This is not a TV show, and this is not.
00:58:02They can't do that with DNA.
00:58:04You had a lot of people to convince.
00:58:06I did, including the sheriff, the district attorney,
00:58:10and then I had to convince them to give me some more money.
00:58:13That couldn't have been easy.
00:58:14That's not easy.
00:58:15The price tag, $3,600,
00:58:18more money for an investigation that was already
00:58:22one of the most expensive this sheriff's office had ever done.
00:58:27Michael Murray is the Brown County District Attorney.
00:58:30Did you have concerns about whether or not this would even be admissible in court?
00:58:34Right.
00:58:35This could help the case.
00:58:36It wasn't so much that we needed to use it in court,
00:58:38but we needed a lead that would help lead to real other evidence.
00:58:42And so sometimes, while it may not be the primary evidence you use in court,
00:58:46if it leads to other evidence, that would be the important aspect here.
00:58:50Finally, they all agreed.
00:58:53It was time for that Hail Mary.
00:58:55They got the money, and the DNA was submitted to a lab
00:58:59owned by a Virginia tech company called Parabon.
00:59:03You thought, there goes $3,600 down the drain.
00:59:05Yes, I think the county just wasted some money.
00:59:08Five months later, Investigator Byrd got an email.
00:59:12It was late afternoon.
00:59:14I pulled it up, and it said the image was included.
00:59:18Oh, goodness.
00:59:19What are you thinking before you open this picture?
00:59:21I hope I recognize the person.
00:59:23I hope this gives me an idea of who the person is.
00:59:27This is the image in the email.
00:59:30So I opened it, and I had no clue.
00:59:32It was just a stranger.
00:59:34Zero recognition?
00:59:35Zero.
00:59:36Did you see it?
00:59:37I did.
00:59:38Did you think that it looked like a person?
00:59:40I mean, did it seem like, hey, this could lead us somewhere?
00:59:43It looked like, to me, it looked like every white kid out at Northlake.
00:59:47It could have been anybody.
00:59:48Not exactly the miracle they were hoping for.
00:59:51Still, they posted it on social media and pinned their hopes on the public,
00:59:56the chance that somebody out there just might recognize this face.
01:00:01I mean, you're like, I have no idea.
01:00:03This looks like just an average white boy with sandy blonde hair,
01:00:08and it's like, I don't know who that could be.
01:00:12We look at the sketch, me and my husband, and nothing.
01:00:16Did anything about it stand out to you?
01:00:18Nothing.
01:00:19Nothing.
01:00:20Did not.
01:00:21Not familiar, nothing notable.
01:00:23My dad looked at it.
01:00:25Nobody knew it.
01:00:27Shante's sister studied it and was struck by its sophistication.
01:00:32You know, you grow up looking at the news,
01:00:34and they're looking for the guy who did whatever,
01:00:37and it's like a stick figure,
01:00:38and it looks like something you could have drew in art class.
01:00:41This was way advanced, you know,
01:00:44compared to anything that you had seen prior to that.
01:00:48But it didn't ring a bell for destiny either.
01:00:51To me, looks like any dude, a pitcher, you know.
01:00:55Everyone felt defeated.
01:00:57Then Michelle got a call from another member of the family, Shante's half-brother.
01:01:03He saw something others didn't and gave his mother a name to look up.
01:01:10My heart hit the floor, and I remember crying, and I turned and I said,
01:01:14This is him.
01:01:28At first, the Parabon sketch felt like a big dud.
01:01:33Police posted it on social media and showed it to the family,
01:01:37but nothing.
01:01:39Then Michelle's son, Cutter, called her.
01:01:42He said he felt like he knew it right then.
01:01:46Cutter told his mom he was sure the sketch showed somebody he knew,
01:01:52someone named Ryan Riggs.
01:01:56I looked him up, and soon as I seen that face,
01:02:00my heart hit the floor, and I remember crying, and I turned and I said,
01:02:04This is him.
01:02:07All of a sudden, it was almost like somebody turned the lights on,
01:02:10and you were like, there he is.
01:02:13Ryan Riggs was a local, a member of Shante's church.
01:02:18Cutter knew Riggs from high school and would never forget him.
01:02:23Ryan had bullied Cutter in school
01:02:25and had poured a whole glass of sweet tea over his head.
01:02:28So your son had known him for years.
01:02:30They all did, and they all used to play video games together.
01:02:35Michelle called Scott Bird and gave him the name.
01:02:38You've got a picture. You've got a name.
01:02:41How do you put those together?
01:02:43We went to social media.
01:02:45We basically looked up Ryan Riggs on Facebook,
01:02:49and the picture that popped up of him
01:02:52was the spitting image of the computer image that we had received.
01:02:58It felt definitive.
01:03:01It felt like here is the answer.
01:03:04We have been looking for a year and a half,
01:03:07and we've had nothing, and here it is, and it's a perfect match.
01:03:16What did you think when you saw that side by side?
01:03:18I started becoming a believer.
01:03:20Maybe it wasn't a waste of $3,600.
01:03:22Maybe this is not a waste of money.
01:03:24Investigators still had a lot of work to do.
01:03:27The sketch alone wasn't enough for an arrest.
01:03:30We start diving into Ryan Riggs to find out who he is.
01:03:36They learned that the 21-year-old Riggs loved playing video games online
01:03:41and picked up work doing lawn care.
01:03:44When Shantae first went missing, he'd even been part of the search,
01:03:49riding with John on an ATV.
01:03:52Just knowing her name and just trying to see anything that was out of ordinary
01:03:57or if we could just get lucky to find her, you know.
01:04:01And Ryan was calling her name, too?
01:04:03Yeah, he was.
01:04:05When investigators looked in their own files, they learned more.
01:04:10We found that he was a suspect in an illegal dumping case.
01:04:15That's where he dumped some trash on a county road.
01:04:19Dumping trash is no big deal, but where he dumped it was.
01:04:25Just a half mile from where Shantae's body was found,
01:04:29along that same remote country road.
01:04:33So what does that tell you?
01:04:35He knows the area.
01:04:37What's more, in those dark days after Shantae's murder,
01:04:41Riggs was a constant presence.
01:04:45He is captured on the police surveillance video attending Shantae's funeral,
01:04:50waiting at the entrance to the church, then watching from the doorway.
01:04:55Midway through the service, he gets a program and takes a seat,
01:05:00and then he leaves before it's over.
01:05:04He was at the house for, you know, her wake.
01:05:07He was at her house multiple times with John.
01:05:10Shantae's boyfriend.
01:05:12I'd be crying, talking about it, and he'd just act like just normal.
01:05:18He would come into your intimate space and offer comfort, give you hugs.
01:05:26He was there standing next to me, shook my hand.
01:05:30He shook your hand?
01:05:32Yes, ma'am.
01:05:35The day we buried my daughter.
01:05:37The fact that he was there for some of the most painful moments,
01:05:41that had to feel like the ultimate insult.
01:05:43It was.
01:05:44How could anybody do that?
01:05:46I mean, I just don't understand.
01:05:53And I was mad just because he was there the whole time, and I couldn't see it.
01:05:59And he was right there.
01:06:02After 18 months of hard work, investigators now had a new and urgent priority.
01:06:09Find Ryan Riggs.
01:06:12We find his mom and dad.
01:06:13They let us come in and look in the house.
01:06:15He's not there.
01:06:17They don't know where he is, hasn't been home for several days.
01:06:20After police released the sketch to the public, Riggs had taken off.
01:06:25So now we know Ryan's on the run from us.
01:06:28We figure he's seen the sketch, he's seen the news release.
01:06:32And at this point, you're looking, but...
01:06:34We can't find him.
01:06:36My job at that point was we're going to have to come up with a plan to locate him.
01:06:41If that's out in the woods, out in the brush, wherever he's at, we've got to find him.
01:06:46You were preparing for a manhunt.
01:06:47We were getting ready for a manhunt.
01:06:50The investigation had been jump-started,
01:06:53and another dramatic development was just around the corner,
01:06:57not in the woods or the brush,
01:07:00but at the very church that Shantae loved.
01:07:05I want you guys to take me to that Wednesday night church service.
01:07:27Ryan Riggs was now the prime suspect in Shantae's murder.
01:07:31But almost a week after the DNA sketch was made public, he was nowhere to be found.
01:07:37Scott Bird believed he was on the run.
01:07:40We're calling informants.
01:07:43We have his picture out to the police department, our department.
01:07:47Everybody out driving around is looking for him.
01:07:51Russell and Linda Lamond had no idea there was an all-out manhunt underway
01:07:56for the young man they knew from church.
01:08:00He would pop up every once in a while.
01:08:02He was always with his mom and dad, or if mom was there by herself.
01:08:07And his sister as well.
01:08:08Yes, his sister.
01:08:09What did you know about Ryan Riggs?
01:08:11Oh, he was a good kid. Good kid.
01:08:14He would do anything for you?
01:08:16Mm-hmm.
01:08:17Anything you would ask him?
01:08:18Hey, can you do this for me?
01:08:20And it would be, yes, ma'am, yes, sir.
01:08:22We had a community cleanup of one of the homeless shelters.
01:08:25I remember him out there weed-eating,
01:08:27just going to town to weed-eat and clean up the community.
01:08:29He was very excited about doing it.
01:08:32On November 15, 2017, 18 months after Shantae was murdered,
01:08:38the Lamonds headed to church for a regular Wednesday night service.
01:08:43I want you guys to take me to that Wednesday night church service.
01:08:52Okay, I'll start.
01:08:55When we got to church, there's Ryan's parents, the pastor and his wife,
01:09:02and then I see Ryan in the middle.
01:09:06There was Ryan, not hiding, not on the run,
01:09:10but there in plain sight at the church.
01:09:14We sat down, and the pastor said that, you know, Ryan wants to tell us something.
01:09:21And he starts talking, but he's talking about his salvation.
01:09:28And my thought's like, what is he talking about?
01:09:30So you're just lost.
01:09:31I'm lost.
01:09:33And he starts talking about that he had, you know, demon thoughts
01:09:38or he had, you know, voices in his head that was telling him to do things.
01:09:46And then Ryan Riggs, standing alone at the pulpit in front of the whole congregation, said it.
01:09:54He was a murderer.
01:09:58I start crying, and I don't even remember everything he said at that point.
01:10:03I want to ask you, Russell, all I had to do was mention that church service,
01:10:08and you were almost brought to tears.
01:10:10It was very difficult, very difficult, because when he said, I'm a murderer,
01:10:18I just got sick.
01:10:19I was like, and I remember saying, please don't tell me he's talking about Shantay.
01:10:25Please don't tell me.
01:10:27And the pastor's wife was standing next to us, and she goes, yes.
01:10:32And I remember putting my head down, and I was so angry.
01:10:42I was so angry.
01:10:44But I put my head down, and I grabbed the pew, and I was like, how?
01:10:50I love this boy.
01:10:52And Pastor saw that he could see the look on my face.
01:10:56You were really conflicted.
01:10:58He goes, Russell, I want you to come stand next to him.
01:11:01And I'm thinking to myself, that's probably not a good idea right now.
01:11:06You know, I'm not an angry person, but I wanted to hurt you for five minutes.
01:11:11I kid you not, because I loved her so much.
01:11:13And now you're being asked to stand next to him.
01:11:15So now I'm being asked to stand up next to him.
01:11:19And I went up to the pulpit, and I put my arms around him, and I embraced him.
01:11:27And I told him I loved him.
01:11:30It was one of the hardest things I had to do.
01:11:33Did you forgive him in that moment?
01:11:35Yes, I did.
01:11:37I did.
01:11:38This is a brutal, cold-blooded murderer, and he's being treated with kid gloves.
01:11:44He's allowed to come to this church where he's very familiar,
01:11:48confess in front of people who love him.
01:11:51Where's the SWAT team?
01:11:52Where are the dogs?
01:11:54Yeah.
01:11:55Yep.
01:11:57I didn't know how he was able to do that at church.
01:12:03And my thought was, he needs to know we're angry.
01:12:07And so before he left, I just put my face in front of a killer's face.
01:12:12You know, I mean, that close.
01:12:14It kind of scared me a little bit, but I had grabbed his hands and told Ryan,
01:12:20I said, Ryan, we want to hate you, but we can't.
01:12:26We love you.
01:12:27Because I just wanted him to feel that what he did was wrong.
01:12:33Do you think he felt that?
01:12:34I'm hoping he did.
01:12:38Before that unforgettable scene at the church, Riggs had been on the run for several days.
01:12:44But then he showed up at the church with his parents,
01:12:47told the pastor what he'd done, and asked if he could confess to the congregation.
01:12:54The pastor agreed.
01:12:56So after the confession, what happens?
01:12:58Pastor Keener calls Sheriff Hill and says, I'm bringing in Ryan Riggs.
01:13:04He's just confessed to me in the church of killing Shante.
01:13:08So they all ride to the sheriff's office together.
01:13:10He's not cuffed.
01:13:11He's not arrested.
01:13:12He's just in the car with his parents going to the sheriff's office.
01:13:16The sheriff met him out on the highway and followed him in
01:13:20to make sure Ryan didn't have a change of heart.
01:13:23Investigator Byrd and Ranger Shea rushed to the sheriff's office.
01:13:28As they're processing all of this.
01:13:30How can you process that, that he just confessed to the church that he attended,
01:13:34that he's the one that everybody's been looking for for the last 18 months?
01:13:39You know, driving to the sheriff's office,
01:13:42trying to process that.
01:13:44A million things are going through your mind.
01:13:46Did he really do it?
01:13:47Is he just saying that he did it?
01:13:50This is somebody that you've been pursuing for 18 months, day in and day out.
01:13:55Finally, you're face-to-face with this person.
01:13:58What was that moment like for you?
01:14:00I kept thinking, my job's not done yet.
01:14:04Now it's time to talk.
01:14:05And did he talk?
01:14:06Yes, he did.
01:14:09I've always had this, it's like this different part of me
01:14:14that just wants nothing but destruction and evil.
01:14:20This was the news Michelle had wanted so badly for so long.
01:14:25Ever since that terrible Friday the 13th,
01:14:28her daughter's killer was finally in custody.
01:14:32But she was confused by the way it happened.
01:14:35Right now, she's in the hospital.
01:14:37She's in the hospital.
01:14:38She's in the hospital.
01:14:39She's in the hospital.
01:14:40She's in the hospital.
01:14:41She's in the hospital.
01:14:42She's in the hospital.
01:14:43She's in the hospital.
01:14:44Finally in custody.
01:14:46But she was confused by the way it happened.
01:14:49Ryan Riggs did not confess to authorities.
01:14:52He'd done it in front of the congregation at Shante's church.
01:14:58This was the place where she would go and find comfort day after day,
01:15:02where she would sing and sit in the pews.
01:15:05The place she loved.
01:15:08How did it feel to know that he had chosen that place, that church,
01:15:12to confess to killing her.
01:15:14I couldn't imagine being a person sitting on that pew
01:15:17when he confessed that.
01:15:20Michelle was angry that the pastor had arranged
01:15:23what Riggs himself described as a moment of salvation.
01:15:29I felt like it was done wrongfully,
01:15:31that he shouldn't have been brought into the church.
01:15:35Should not have been able to step foot in that church.
01:15:39The way he decided to go about telling everybody
01:15:41was like his opportunity to try to cleanse himself
01:15:44or ask for some sort of forgiveness
01:15:46or his way of saying like, hey, look, I'm sorry.
01:15:51I don't believe he was sorry.
01:15:55When Riggs arrived at the sheriff's office
01:15:57after the service, he was finally face-to-face
01:16:00with Ranger Shea and Investigator Bird.
01:16:04What I'm gonna do is take you back a little bit
01:16:07and go through some of the stuff.
01:16:09Where did you find Shontay that day?
01:16:12She was walking past the mailboxes
01:16:14and I had stopped and asked her if she needed a ride
01:16:18and she got in my truck.
01:16:21Riggs said they drove around the neighborhood.
01:16:24Then he pulled over in a secluded spot.
01:16:27When y'all were sitting in the truck talking,
01:16:29what were y'all talking about?
01:16:31Music.
01:16:32What y'all liked, what was playing and what?
01:16:35I was letting her go through all my music
01:16:38and every time she'd play a song,
01:16:41she'd say something like, oh, that's my song.
01:16:46He told investigators that as they sat there in the truck
01:16:49listening to music, something inside of him snapped.
01:16:57Out of nowhere, I just put my left arm around her
01:17:01and began to strangle her.
01:17:03And whenever she had passed out,
01:17:08I took her clothes off and I raped her.
01:17:14While she's unconscious?
01:17:15While she's unconscious.
01:17:16Then what happened?
01:17:18He told us he knew he couldn't let her live
01:17:21because he had raped her
01:17:23and he couldn't have her talking.
01:17:25I went to the abandoned house.
01:17:28Riggs knew about the haunted house
01:17:31because he'd been there with friends
01:17:33when he was a teenager.
01:17:35I threw her over that fence
01:17:37and then climbed over the fence
01:17:39and dragged her to that tank battery
01:17:44where I had put her.
01:17:46But before I threw her in there,
01:17:51I went back to my truck
01:17:52and got a lawnmower blade out of the back of my truck
01:17:55and I went back to where she was
01:17:58and I beat her to death with it.
01:18:00I had stomped on her chest as well.
01:18:04So he stomped on her chest to try to kill her.
01:18:07That was the mark.
01:18:08And that's the mark from his shoes.
01:18:11It was an appalling story,
01:18:15but the way Riggs told it was cold,
01:18:18almost methodical.
01:18:21I think whatever came over me
01:18:25was that I knew that she was an easy target.
01:18:28What was his demeanor?
01:18:29Matter of fact.
01:18:31And that's what surprised us also.
01:18:34There wasn't really a whole bunch
01:18:36of emotion involved in this.
01:18:37It's like this different part of me
01:18:42that it just wants nothing but destruction and evil.
01:18:47It wanted to kill somebody.
01:18:49It wanted to rape.
01:18:51How long have you been having those thoughts
01:18:53before this happened?
01:18:54I've always had these thoughts.
01:18:57We used to have a chihuahua
01:19:00and I tried on numerous occasions
01:19:02to drown that chihuahua in a five-gallon bucket of water.
01:19:09But I would just hold it there long enough
01:19:12to where I would just think to myself,
01:19:15what am I doing?
01:19:17Your parents never saw you do it?
01:19:18No, I always made sure to do it whenever they were away.
01:19:22As you're sitting there listening to him,
01:19:25what are you thinking about this guy?
01:19:27This guy's dangerous.
01:19:29This guy's scary.
01:19:31He kills without remorse.
01:19:34And I'm shocked he hadn't done it again.
01:19:36Did you believe that Ryan Riggs would kill again?
01:19:38Absolutely.
01:19:41If you could say something right now to Chante,
01:19:44what would you say?
01:19:46That I'm sorry that I did what I did.
01:19:49And whatever I have coming towards me, I deserve.
01:19:55What do you think you deserve?
01:19:57Death for sure.
01:20:00Riggs was charged with capital murder.
01:20:03In the state of Texas, if you commit a murder
01:20:06and there's aggravating circumstances around it,
01:20:09for instance, in this case,
01:20:11sexually assaulting the victim,
01:20:13that by itself transformed this from a regular murder case
01:20:16into a capital murder case.
01:20:17So the death penalty is on the table.
01:20:19At this point, it very much is.
01:20:21But before DA Murray went to court
01:20:23to seek the death penalty, he talked to Chante's family.
01:20:27He wanted them to know there is a long process
01:20:30before an execution can be carried out,
01:20:33likely spanning many years.
01:20:36The question is, are you going to be able
01:20:38to get justice for the family in a reasonable period of time
01:20:41that's not gonna prolong their agony?
01:20:44Chante's mom decided death was too good for Ryan Riggs.
01:20:50To me, that would have been an easy way out.
01:20:52Easy for him?
01:20:53Easy for him, what?
01:20:54He wouldn't have got to suffer.
01:20:56So the state offered Riggs a deal,
01:20:59a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
01:21:03It was important for our community to have closure
01:21:06and the finality of being able to tell everyone
01:21:12we are guaranteed that he will remain in prison.
01:21:17That was incredibly valuable for our community.
01:21:20Riggs accepted the deal.
01:21:22He was sentenced in February 2019.
01:21:26He will never marry, never have kids,
01:21:29but he's still alive and he can still see his family.
01:21:36He got the choice to live or die, and Chante did not.
01:21:41Michelle feels she knows what would have been
01:21:44in her daughter's heart.
01:21:46She would have forgave me.
01:21:48Do you forgive him?
01:21:48I don't.
01:21:52Chante's loved ones try not to dwell
01:21:55on the man who killed her.
01:21:57Michelle would rather remember her feisty, radiant daughter.
01:22:03When you close your eyes and think about your daughter,
01:22:08what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
01:22:10Her smile.
01:22:11Her smile.
01:22:15Yeah.
01:22:17It doesn't never go away.
01:22:19I see her all the time.
01:22:26I want people to remember her singing at the choir,
01:22:29walking down the street, waving at people.
01:22:31That's how everybody needs to remember her,
01:22:32not as some sort of a victim.
01:22:37And on the streets where she walked,
01:22:41in the church where she sang,
01:22:44Chante's spirit is still very much alive.
01:22:51Her family visits her on holidays, decorating her grave,
01:22:58and picturing her smiling
01:23:01as she sings in the Angels' Choir.
01:23:05That's all for this edition of Dateline.
01:23:08We'll see you again next Friday at nine, eight central.
01:23:11And of course, I'll see you each weeknight
01:23:13for NBC Nightly News.
01:23:16I'm Lester Holt.
01:23:17For all of us at NBC News, good night.