Killers Caught On Camera S01E04
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00It just sounds like something bad is happening to her.
00:04I heard her scream, no, stop it.
00:07I heard some gunshots.
00:09Drop it, whatever it is, drop it!
00:11That is not true, I killed my wife.
00:14We know what happened because the video tells us what happened.
00:17The camera doesn't lie, lie, lie.
00:20This time on Killers Caught on Camera.
00:24Flutter County, 911, where's your mission?
00:26In Jacksonville, Florida, a woman is found dead in her home.
00:31They think that my wife accidentally shot herself.
00:34A history of violence is revealed by cameras hidden in plain sight.
00:40Some of the most shocking footage that I've ever seen in my entire law enforcement career.
00:45You should be on my body.
00:47Why?
00:48Because you're...
00:49And in Manchester, in the UK, a family become the unintended victims.
00:56Michelle's eldest son, Kyle, was getting into a bit of a bad crowd.
01:01Of an unimaginable act of revenge.
01:06This is a very heartbreaking story that shocked the nation.
01:09Palm Coast, a small community an hour south of Jacksonville.
01:30Home to 25-year-old Brandy Salenza.
01:34Her six-year-old son, Ryland.
01:36And Brandy's sister, Amber.
01:40These photos bring a lot of memories back.
01:44Happy ones.
01:46I can't really remember a sad day with her.
01:50Brandy became pregnant with Ryland at just 19.
01:54My favorite photo of when she had her baby.
01:57She was young, not even out of high school, and was getting pregnant, so she had nothing.
02:03She played like a child, and Ryland got to just have a fun mom.
02:10She was always around.
02:12She had...
02:13She was carefree.
02:14A few years later, in May 2014, she met Keith Johansson.
02:20They fell in love and married in 2017.
02:25Nicole Quintieri was part of the community's police force in Flagler County.
02:29They were just this big, happy family that went out and did family activities, and everything
02:37was just amazing.
02:39Brandy's son, who was not Keith's son, according to Keith, referred to Keith as daddy.
02:45Everybody was happy.
02:46They had their life all right there.
02:50After getting married, Brandy, Keith, and Ryland moved into a new house in the suburbs.
02:56You know, even though it's cold, it's so beautiful to be here.
03:05Detective George Horistakopoulos knew the area well.
03:08I worked this zone on patrol for about a year or so.
03:14Very quiet neighborhood, retirement community, very quiet area.
03:20She was friends with everybody.
03:22Just had that personality, no judgment ever.
03:26She loved laughing.
03:27She just...
03:28I think she liked hearing herself laugh, and that made everybody else laugh.
03:32She had that giggy laugh.
03:34It was this beautiful, perfect marriage that they were getting ready to have a vow renewal.
03:41They had just gotten a new home.
03:45On April 7th, 2018, they were all at home.
03:50Brandy was making breakfast for her son, Ryland.
03:54I never had that tiny cereal.
03:58Two religious visitors knocked at the door.
04:01Good morning, how are you doing?
04:02A very normal morning, but just a couple of hours later...
04:11Emergency services responded to a 911 call about a shooting in the home.
04:21I was in the tower, and I heard some gunshots.
04:25Okay.
04:25I think that my wife accidentally shot herself.
04:29Baby, please stay with us.
04:30There's an ambulance on the way.
04:32When they arrived at the house, they found Brandy in the bedroom, with two gunshot wounds to the chest.
04:41Keith was distraught.
04:44You just got married, man.
04:45I got you.
04:47When did you guys get married?
04:49Last year, but we were going to renew our wedding in two months.
04:52Please, please, please, please tell me that you guys are safe.
04:55There would be no renewal of wedding vows.
05:00Brandy was pronounced dead at the scene.
05:02The phone rang at work, and I just basically dropped the phone and just fell right then and there, at work, in front of everybody.
05:13Police body cams recorded everything.
05:16I got to call him out.
05:20I don't want to confuse anything more than what's already going to happen.
05:27I'm going to explain to you what's going to happen.
05:29Detectives are coming out, they're going to want to talk to you, they're going to want to talk to Riley, all right?
05:35With everyone in shock, Keith's dad turned up to comfort his son.
05:41Keith was worried about the guns in the house.
05:43Police discovered Brandy's six-year-old son, Ryland, was in the house when his mother died.
06:08Hungry, thirsty, all good?
06:11You just like sitting in my car, don't you?
06:13Keith was the only adult witness.
06:17His account of events was vital.
06:20How long were you in the shower, what did you say?
06:22Maybe five minutes.
06:23Five minutes, right.
06:23I thought it was a balloon.
06:24How many shots did you hear?
06:25Two.
06:26You heard two?
06:27And I thought it was a balloon at first.
06:29I ran out there and seen her laying in there going, so I called you guys immediately.
06:35But Keith's physical appearance confused officers.
06:39Is he scratching his head?
06:40Yeah.
06:41He's all wet.
06:42No.
06:43He said he was in the shower.
06:44Yeah.
06:46The medical examiners began to determine exactly how Brandy died.
06:52Keith explained to detectives what he thought had happened.
06:55I knew that something was wrong, that she had accidentally got shot, when I didn't know where.
07:03Who do you think accidentally shot her?
07:06Not me.
07:09Herself.
07:09I figured she was trying to move them, or trying to move them, or I don't know.
07:22I don't know what you guys would tell me.
07:23I don't know what you guys would tell me.
07:24I don't know what you guys would tell me.
07:26We're interviewing Keith, and he says that Brandy was probably just being a good housewife and tidying up, moving the firearms.
07:35And they both fell, and both went off, and both shot her.
07:40I feel like you've been honest up to this point about your relationship with Brandy and about your love for Brandy.
07:50I mean, I can see it in your face.
07:53It's in a, it's in God.
07:55Yeah.
07:55How much you love her, and I can also see...
07:59She loved me just as much, though.
08:02He described the most perfect marriage, the most perfect relationship in the world, and he said that they never argued, and they were thinking about renewing their vows.
08:14But the picture-perfect family life Keith described started to unravel.
08:20When I started asking the deeper questions of, were there any issues in your relationship, were you guys faithful to one another, Keith Johansson told us that Brandy very nobly came to him and told him that she might have had an online relationship or some sort of online affair.
08:45She had this online bang, you know what I mean, that she admitted to.
08:51You know, I've been flirting online, but whoopee, who cares?
08:54You didn't do nothing physically.
08:56But that was nothing, no big deal.
08:58It was all water under the bridge.
09:01How would you describe your relationship?
09:03The best one that I've had yet.
09:07I mean, she was everything that I wanted her to be.
09:13I agree that there's a problem here and there now, of course.
09:15But it was, she woke me up, she made breakfast, she had my back, you know.
09:22And that's very rare.
09:25I've had one bad relationship before, and that was nothing like this one.
09:31I mean, as far as I know, we were both happy, we did things with kids, we did our thing.
09:39And we're trying to start a new life, you know, in a new house.
09:42And it's, I would say it was great.
09:49Back at the house, officers discovered a home rigged with cameras.
10:02And an armory of small firearms monitored 24-7.
10:09We noticed multiple gun safes, multiple cameras on every angle of the house.
10:18And there's a few, I don't know if they're active inside the house as well.
10:23To go into a house where the residents have cameras in all of the rooms, like the bathrooms, was very abnormal.
10:34Police discovered recording devices close to where Brandy was found.
10:40Surveillance cameras are an absolute game changer in law enforcement.
10:44The sheriff instituted a real-time crime center here at the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
10:49And we have analysts almost around the clock so we can conduct a better informed investigation.
10:56Detectives knew analysis of the footage would be key to solving the case.
11:00But when they asked Keith to view the recordings, he was uncooperative.
11:06What service are you using?
11:07Is it cloud-based or what?
11:10I'm not even sure.
11:11There's someone new.
11:13I believe...
11:15Who are you paying?
11:15You paid somebody.
11:16I wasn't known.
11:18So you don't pay any...
11:19Who did you buy the cameras from?
11:20Walmart.
11:21Walmart.
11:22Do you know what brand they are?
11:23R...
11:24R something?
11:25None of the passwords that he gave us worked.
11:30And he gave us several different variations of the same password.
11:35The detectives had no idea what the footage would show.
11:39But they knew it could be crucial.
11:41They issued a warrant for the video from the surveillance company.
11:45I tried for seemingly forever to just try to get a human being that I could serve this legal process to and get this search warrant.
11:58It was a frustrating delay in the search for evidence.
12:03But the autopsy provided detectives with their first breakthrough.
12:07We received information from the medical examiner's office that said there were two gunshots, which it's very uncommon for somebody to shoot themself two times.
12:22One time, suicide, understandable.
12:25Two times, unlikely, but still possible.
12:29But the big kicker was one of the shots was a distance shot, which you can't shoot yourself from a distance.
12:37The forensic pathology revealed a major discrepancy in Keith's version of events.
12:43Brandy's husband was now the prime suspect.
12:47The home surveillance camera system had become a vital electronic witness.
12:53If we were successful in getting this footage, we knew that it would be absolutely, absolutely groundbreaking.
13:02Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Dunton was brought in.
13:05She knew the digital recordings could help her go back in time.
13:11In this case, we didn't have an eyewitness, which we rarely do.
13:15So it was very important to piece together all the evidence.
13:19The video evidence was sort of like, you know, it was an eyewitness to events.
13:24When the footage eventually arrived, it revealed what had gone on behind closed doors.
13:31And what we saw was some of the most shocking footage that I've ever seen in my entire law enforcement career.
13:42An argument about alleged flirting online had been escalated by Keith.
13:47Dude, you f*** up, man.
13:52This is, like, bad.
13:57It's only an amount of time.
13:58Watching these videos, the drastic difference between what the suspect portrayed to us and what was actually going on,
14:09I don't know that I've ever had a lie so in-depth to the contrary of the actual incident.
14:17I think we could see whether he was portraying his sniveling, begging us to see his side of things version,
14:40versus this version where he absolutely looks like a monster.
14:43Never in a million years would I have thought that Brandy Salenza was going through what she went through
14:56for the days leading up to her death.
14:58Brandy's body language was revealing.
15:01She just sat there and cried in a fetal position much of the time.
15:07Even the way he positions himself on the bed, looking at her, threatening her.
15:12I'm putting a tracker on your ass and everything, dude.
15:14I cannot trust you, dude.
15:16It's just a, it's completely different.
15:20I'm not alone.
15:21Get me out of here.
15:23Or are you even waking up?
15:26You can try to envision what that life is like, but you don't know until you live that.
15:32And so this was a true insight into what domestic violence looks like.
15:37I want to just hurt you and leave you safe.
15:44God bless you, sir.
15:50So people typically stay in abusive relationships because there is a gradual shifting baseline.
15:56So you experience more and more abuse over time.
16:00The violence escalates.
16:01It usually starts as psychological or coercive control.
16:05So belittling a partner as psychologically controlling their behavior, maybe controlling finances,
16:12mocking them when they try to go out and see their friends.
16:15And then that often escalates into physical violence and or sexual violence,
16:19which then can escalate even further to murder.
16:22At this point, he's so enraged that he's telling her to use a gun on herself so he doesn't have to.
16:40Giving her a gun and telling her to use it, you can tell she's just absolutely broken at this point.
16:47He's totally broken her self-esteem, and she just looks in disbelief, like, what's happening?
16:56She can't believe it.
17:00Too many chances, man.
17:03Too many.
17:06Show a cop these videos.
17:08I don't give a f***.
17:09I'd rather be in prison.
17:10It was horrible having to sit there and go through those videos and watch and imagine what she was going through.
17:18I had to call when my homies and the tree will die.
17:22Brandy's whole family had no idea what she was going through.
17:26She was happy.
17:27That house is a happy house.
17:28I don't understand.
17:30You don't care about me, do you?
17:31I do.
17:32Everybody was happy.
17:33Why didn't she say anything?
17:35I grew up with you forever.
17:38We've done everything together, and you couldn't even say one thing or, like, hint.
17:45I never got a hint.
17:50Telling your loved ones that you're in an abusive relationship is often an incredibly difficult thing to do,
17:56and it's because of the barriers to reporting being really high.
18:00So, for one, as a victim of intimate partner violence, you often feel like it's maybe your fault.
18:07So, there's an internalization of the perpetrator's course of control and psychological manipulation.
18:13So, the perpetrator has convinced you that maybe you do deserve to be violently treated
18:19because they've belittled you for so long that you've internalized that.
18:22Not telling family and friends is often also because maybe you're dependent on your partner,
18:27and you don't want to dissolve the relationship.
18:29You don't want to break up, or maybe you're worried that it'll get worse.
18:34So, there's lots of different barriers.
18:36Some are more because of dependence on the person than others,
18:39and there's also shame and guilt and feeling like you shouldn't have gotten yourself into the situation.
18:46You can see when Keith Johansson is just mentally abusing her that she's staring off, you know,
19:01a thousand miles just to not feel what she's going through.
19:05You can see the tears rolling down her face, but she's emotionless almost on her face
19:11because she just has nothing left.
19:18You should be on my mind.
19:20Why?
19:21Because you're...
19:22When someone is mentally and emotionally controlled by their partner or by their spouse,
19:30it gets to the point of where they feel like they are actually the person that their spouse is telling them that they are,
19:39that they'll be nothing without their spouse, that they will make nothing of themselves,
19:44that they are nothing, that they're not worthy of anyone else other than them.
19:50I gave up everything on a chance.
19:53Somebody lied.
19:57Jeez, does this and that.
20:00Behind closed doors, you don't know how far bickering can go.
20:04We had never seen, on video, in such great detail, somebody being so evil towards another human being who he supposedly loved.
20:16You know what?
20:17Well, we may here haunt you.
20:19Maybe one day you will.
20:22There was almost no doubt in my mind that he killed his wife.
20:27But there was a crucial element missing from the recordings.
20:31The murder was not caught on video, so you have to piece it all together and prove your case in a different way.
20:40Investigators believed Keith deleted the footage from the day of the murder.
20:44The question remained, was there enough video evidence to prove a motive?
20:50If he did it, what points to premeditation?
20:53So every time I'm looking at something, that's the lens that I'm looking at it through.
20:59You better walk.
21:00Two eyes behind you, man.
21:02You better walk strapped all the time.
21:04Every time the word, I'm going to kill you, comes out of your mouth, that clip's coming out.
21:09You know, any threat to do harm.
21:10I'll kill you both.
21:12And then what, to give context, what the fight was over, what the motive was, what he was upset about.
21:17You can only blame yourself if you're cheap.
21:20I'll kill you both.
21:21It gave a very clear picture that Keith Johansson had it in his mind days before that he was going to kill Brandy Salenza.
21:37He said it several times on video that he needed to leave the home so that he wouldn't kill her.
21:45She needed to kill herself so that he wouldn't kill her.
21:49I'm going to kill you and go back to jail.
21:51I'm going to kill you and go back to jail.
22:21I'm going to kill you.
22:23Keith never actually tried to save his wife's life.
22:32Our 911 operator tried to have Keith check if Brandy had a pulse and things of that nature
22:39and tried to get him to stop the bleeding.
22:43Can you apply, are you applying pressure to that wound?
22:46No, I can't.
22:46Find yourself.
22:47I'm wet.
22:48I'm sliding on my floor.
22:50You can't apply pressure.
22:52I can't see it.
22:54I got wood floors and I'm sliding.
22:56I don't want to risk hurting her or possibly one of the guns going off too.
23:02Maybe please stay with me.
23:06Is the ambulance on the way?
23:08Keith was saying, Brandy, Brandy, stay with me, stay with me.
23:12CCTV footage showed Keith wasn't even in the same room as Brandy when he talked to the 911 responder.
23:21Here he is in the living room hiding his narcotics because he was more worried about getting in
23:27trouble for the drugs in his house than saving his wife's life.
23:32The connection between substance use and alcohol and intimate partner violence, particularly
23:42also intimate partner homicide, is so strong.
23:45People who already have violent tendencies are going to act on them because the front
23:50part of your brain, your prefrontal cortex, is usually sort of diminished as you're making
23:53worse decisions and you're less likely to inhibit things like violence.
23:57In the videos, you had verbal abuse, that demeaning type of treatment of her, but it very,
24:15very quickly escalated to actual threats of harm and threats of death.
24:19And then ultimately two days later, unfortunately, you know, deadly violence was huge.
24:26The footage of Brandy just moments before she died revealed a calm and loving mother.
24:32We were looking at as many pieces of evidence to show that minutes before she was killed, she
24:39was functioning completely normal.
24:41We had her on video just three or four minutes before he calls 911, acting completely normal.
24:50Hi, Brandy.
24:52Looks like a young city looks like a young person.
24:55I'm 25.
24:56Wow.
24:57I thought she was like 14 or 15.
24:59She had the interaction at the door with the religious visitors and answered questions.
25:06And you can see her picking up a cat.
25:16And then feeding her child, talking to her child about going to the fair, just a normal,
25:23sleepy, slow morning in her house.
25:25We made plans for the fair coming up that weekend.
25:35She was being a very loving mother.
25:37Her son was just being a typical little boy.
25:41I love you.
25:43I do.
25:45Telling his mommy that he loves her.
25:47They parted ways in the kitchen, and Brandy's son would never see her again.
25:55Individual cameras brought into focus the control Keith had over Brandy's life.
26:01Keith apparently frowned on her having friends and wanted to isolate her.
26:07His intentions were to have full control over everything that she did in her life.
26:14He can see anybody and everybody that she's talking to.
26:17He bought the house.
26:18He can put cameras and stuff wherever he wants.
26:22He made her quit her job, so she has to stay home.
26:26So really everything that Brandy Salenza wanted to do in her life, he controlled.
26:34Get the f*** out of my life.
26:37The cameras in the home provided damning evidence.
26:40Three weeks after Brandy's death, Keith was arrested and charged with murder.
26:47We initially arrested him on second-degree murder.
26:50And then after we had a chance to thoroughly go through those videos again,
26:54and we saw both the motive, but really the premeditation that those videos outlined,
27:00all of his threats, direct threats to kill and to hurt her and do bodily harm,
27:06and the removal of the camera just days before that really showed premeditated design from his perspective.
27:13You push a person to either beat or kill you because you're a...
27:17So we chose to upgrade it to first-degree murder at that point and take it to a grand jury.
27:22The trial began in October 2021.
27:29The video surveillance was key.
27:32I think without the video, you would have not seen the death threats.
27:35No one would have known about that.
27:37Brandy was not here to tell us.
27:39So those videos spoke for Brandy in court, which we very rarely have.
27:43With the CCTV footage, it helped the jurors in the court find Keith guilty of first-degree murder.
27:53It was a tragic example of that escalation of violence that occurs,
27:57and it can go from just verbal abuse to deadly force very, very quickly.
28:06Keith Johansson was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.
28:13That's what we wanted to hear from day one.
28:16That's what we knew.
28:17We knew that he did this.
28:20And just finally hearing it, it was like waves just crashing,
28:28and just it was an awesome feeling.
28:32It's just relief.
28:34Relief that we've gotten justice for the family.
28:38She was my best friend.
28:40She was a mom.
28:42She was an aunt.
28:43She was a daughter, a granddaughter.
28:46She was all these things, a best friend to everybody.
28:50Little things were big things to her.
28:55A butterfly, just amazing person all the way around.
29:00Had no fear.
29:04An awesome person.
29:05Whether it's inside or outside the home, cameras now follow our daily lives.
29:23All seeing digital eyes capture our words and deeds.
29:28Often they record crucial evidence of our darkest thoughts.
29:33Like in the case of Michelle Pearson.
29:36Michelle Pearson was a single mom to five kids.
29:51The oldest was Kyle, Demi, Brandon and Lacey.
29:56And the youngest was Leah.
29:57It's quite a tight-knit community.
30:00Lots of terrace houses.
30:01Michelle was very well-known in the area.
30:11December 11th, 2017.
30:13Around 5 a.m., emergency services were called to a fire.
30:20It was Michelle's house.
30:23Mike Broadley was working for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.
30:29Michelle Pearson makes a 999 call from a mobile phone.
30:33By the time this is passed from the BT operator, Michelle's call has dropped.
30:37And there is no information passed.
30:41The crews make a very fast response.
30:43All the neighbours are out in the street.
30:46And they can see the house completely engulfed in flames.
30:50And the neighbours know that Michelle is in there with her five children.
30:57This was a very rapid, developed fire.
31:01Michelle's eldest son, Kyle, was on the top floor.
31:05Kyle exited via the box bedroom front window onto just above the door and got to safety.
31:13The upstairs window was wide open.
31:16Air flowed faster through the house and the fire accelerated.
31:21The heat, smoke and flame just raced up the stairs,
31:24ripped all the plasterboard off the walls,
31:26caused extensive damage and straight out of their bedroom.
31:30And due to the scaffolding being up the front of the property,
31:33they couldn't open the windows either to escape.
31:35By the time the crews answered,
31:38they found Michelle next to the bath, the baby in the bath.
31:42Fire crews got Michelle and her youngest daughter, Leah,
31:46out of the bathroom and they were put in an ambulance.
31:49Brandon and Lacey were also pulled from the fire,
31:52but were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
31:55When the crews were searching,
31:58the bedroom that Demi and the siblings were in had been on fire
32:02and suffered heat and smoke damage.
32:06Demi died at the scene.
32:09Michelle and her daughter, Leah,
32:11were left in the hands of emergency doctors.
32:14Fire investigators got to work at the scene
32:17to find out what happened.
32:21Mike Broadley was one of the lead investigators.
32:25We'll go into a full investigation,
32:27looking for evidence, signs of burn patterns
32:30that could indicate where the fire started
32:32and why it travelled the way it did
32:34and behaved the way it did.
32:35We discounted that it was accidental through electrical,
32:38through candles, through smoking,
32:40through the cooking process.
32:42And once we'd discounted all the accidental causes,
32:44we were only left with the one option of,
32:46this is a deliberate act.
32:48The Pearson home was now a crime scene.
32:58Perpetrators of this kind of crime
32:59often think they're not going to get caught.
33:01And so that's a key motivator for doing it,
33:03because if you think,
33:04well, the evidence is going to burn up anyway
33:05and they won't catch me,
33:07then this is a good avenue to get justice in some way.
33:10It might be easier to distance yourself
33:12from the consequences of setting a fire
33:15than knowingly, say, stabbing someone
33:18or hurting someone in another way,
33:20because you have that possible psychological justification
33:23where you go,
33:24well, I don't know what the fire is going to do.
33:26I don't know whom it's going to harm or not.
33:29And so you can distance yourself a bit
33:30from the potential consequences of that fire setting.
33:37Fire investigators needed to know
33:39how the fire was started.
33:42It quickly became apparent
33:44that the kitchen window had been smashed.
33:47We found evidence of a Budweiser bottle
33:49on the kitchen counter
33:51with a bit of a burnt wick.
33:53When we went into the front room,
33:54we actually found that
33:56there was a glass bottle at the front
33:57near the door leading to the staircase.
34:00This was the bottle
34:01that delivered the fatal fire, unfortunately.
34:05And where it landed
34:06blocked the escape to the front door.
34:08This fire took less than two minutes
34:10to develop the way it did.
34:12So as soon as that bedroom window was opened,
34:15it was straight away, it was instant.
34:18Mike and his team decided
34:20the fire was started by two petrol bombs.
34:24It was concluded that a bottle
34:26had been introduced through the kitchen window
34:28containing an accelerant,
34:30which we believe was petrol.
34:32Police collected footage
34:37from any surveillance cameras
34:39they could find.
34:41Incredibly, and quite crucially,
34:43the investigators found CCTV
34:45that showed the perpetrators.
34:50Shortly before two minutes to five
34:52in the morning,
34:52the offenders had lifted
34:54the back fence panel up,
34:56made entry through the garden
34:57to the back kitchen window.
34:58Dr. Fasilios Karadianopoulos
35:06is an expert in cybercrime
35:07at the University of Portsmouth.
35:10This CCTV footage definitely shows us
35:12how useful CCTV footage
35:14from the murder scene can be
35:16because we can see the suspect
35:17or any accessories.
35:19The petrol bombs are thrown
35:21in the ground floor.
35:22The first flash
35:26and then the second one
35:28from the explosion.
35:38Obviously, it was very hard
35:39for the family to escape.
35:46This was now a multiple murder inquiry
35:49with a recording of the event.
35:52Emi Polito is a forensic video analyst.
35:57It is very rare in a murder case
36:00for the police to be able to find
36:01the CCTV of the actual incident.
36:04In this instance,
36:05even though the CCTV was not
36:07of good quality,
36:09but it was able to put
36:10a number of people at the scene
36:12and actually show the extent
36:14of the incident
36:14and of the damage that it has caused.
36:16The chilling footage revealed
36:20more than one person was involved
36:22and the direction of their escape.
36:26We can see the offenders
36:28trying to get away.
36:30We can see how big the flashes are.
36:32We can see them running away.
36:33The search for evidence included
36:36the cameras on the fire trucks
36:37at the scene.
36:38They joined their home place
36:41in a getaway car
36:42and we can see footage
36:44from the dash cam
36:46of an emergency vehicle.
36:52Catching the escape car
36:54as it's leaving the scene
36:56after the petrol bombs
36:58have been thrown
36:59in the Pearson property.
37:00Quite compelling evidence
37:03and images for the police
37:05during an investigation
37:07and it's very powerful.
37:11This is important information
37:13because they actually
37:14show the incident.
37:15It really starts
37:16putting the picture together.
37:19Police had no idea
37:21who the figures
37:22caught on camera were,
37:24but new information
37:26came to light.
37:27They had been
37:29an emergency call
37:30earlier on that morning
37:31to the police
37:32because somebody
37:33had been outside
37:34shouting for one of the children
37:35and being a nuisance.
37:38So they had called
37:39the police earlier.
37:42Michelle's eldest son, Kyle,
37:43was getting into
37:44a bit of a bad crowd.
37:46He'd ended up in a feud
37:47with another young lad
37:49and there was this cycle
37:50of sort of tit-for-tat
37:51revenge violence
37:52that was going on.
37:54But Greater Manchester Police
37:56still needed more information.
38:00That feud involved
38:02minor crimes and incidents,
38:05several incidents
38:06and retaliation
38:06between the two groups.
38:09It escalated
38:10when Kyle set fire to a car.
38:14Kyle had caused fire damage
38:16to this guy's car
38:18and in revenge for that,
38:20this guy had started
38:21to threaten Kyle.
38:23He also later turned up
38:24to the family home
38:25and started threatening
38:27Michelle as well.
38:28The discovery of the feud
38:30gave police
38:31a prime suspect.
38:33But the CCTV
38:35couldn't identify the man.
38:39The police received
38:41a tip-off.
38:42They were told
38:43that the perpetrators
38:44had been seen
38:45in and off license
38:46just hours before
38:48the arson attack
38:49had happened.
38:49The police acquired
38:53point-of-sale CCTV
38:54from the off license.
38:57Point-of-sale cameras
38:58are very, very useful
38:59for various kinds
39:01of investigations.
39:02They can show us
39:03who is making a purchase
39:05so we can see
39:06their faces,
39:07for example.
39:08We can see
39:09the way they've paid,
39:10whether they've paid
39:10with cash
39:11or with credit cards.
39:13We can see
39:14what they've purchased
39:15and when that happened.
39:17The footage showed
39:20three young people
39:21buying alcohol.
39:23Police identified
39:24one of them
39:25as Zach Bolland,
39:27the man
39:28who threatened
39:29Kyle at his house
39:30hours before the fire.
39:33We can clearly
39:35see their faces
39:35and they are buying
39:37alcohol.
39:38The beer brand
39:39matched the bottle
39:40full of petrol
39:41used to start the fire.
39:43They're holding
39:44a box full of
39:46bottles of beer
39:47which we believe
39:49were then used
39:49to commit the arson.
39:53But it wasn't enough
39:55to make an arrest.
39:57They're kind of laughing
39:58and joking
39:59with each other.
40:00To be honest,
40:01they look like
40:02they don't really
40:02have a care in the world.
40:04Then,
40:05a breakthrough
40:06on another
40:07liquid purchase.
40:08The police
40:10also got
40:11CCTV footage
40:12from a petrol station.
40:14Two men
40:15are caught on camera.
40:17Their identity
40:18hidden.
40:20Their purchase
40:21clearly seen.
40:25They think
40:25they are being clever
40:26by covering themselves
40:28up with the hoodies.
40:29However,
40:30we are able
40:30to pick up patterns
40:31on the clothing,
40:32on the jackets,
40:34the color
40:34of the trousers,
40:35even features
40:36on the shoe wear.
40:37And the combination
40:38of the clothing items
40:39between the two people
40:40are similar
40:42to those
40:43that we are able
40:43to see
40:44in the first
40:44bit of CCTV footage.
40:47It can't be
40:48a coincidence.
40:50Zach Bolland
40:50is clearly linked
40:51to both locations.
40:54That then enables
40:55the police
40:55to assume
40:56that they are
40:57the same person.
40:59If the suspects
41:00are masked
41:01in some of the footage,
41:02that doesn't mean
41:03that investigators
41:03cannot combine
41:04and use that footage
41:06with other
41:07CCTV
41:07in order
41:08to reinforce
41:08their case.
41:10Police identified
41:11the two others
41:12with Zach Bolland
41:13as David Worrell
41:15and his girlfriend,
41:16Courtney Brierley.
41:18All three
41:19were arrested.
41:22Zach Bolland
41:23denied the attack.
41:26His girlfriend,
41:26Courtney Brierley,
41:27went no comment
41:28to all questions asked.
41:30And Dave Worrell
41:30was the only one
41:31who gave a comprehensive
41:32account on interview.
41:33He actually told us
41:35that he believed
41:36they were going
41:37to set fire
41:37to a bin
41:38at the premises.
41:39We've set about
41:40disproving this,
41:41proving that the bins
41:42were at the front
41:43of the premises,
41:44exactly where
41:45the group knew
41:45they were
41:46from the earlier
41:47incident where
41:47they've threatened
41:47the persons.
41:48And there were,
41:49in fact,
41:49no bins
41:50in the back garden.
41:52On the 13th of
41:54December, 2017,
41:56Michelle's youngest
41:57child, Leah,
41:58died in hospital.
42:00She was only
42:01three years old.
42:03Michelle had now
42:04lost four
42:05of her five children.
42:08Due to the severity
42:10of the injuries
42:11that Michelle
42:12had sustained,
42:13she struggled a lot
42:15with memory problems.
42:16She would often
42:17ask where the children
42:19were because
42:20she didn't remember
42:21or recall
42:22that they had sadly died.
42:23The children
42:25had the procession
42:27through the local area
42:28and arrived on
42:29horse-drawn carriages
42:30to the church
42:31where there was
42:33a very big turnout
42:35of friends,
42:36families,
42:36and the local community
42:38came to support
42:38everybody as well.
42:40In May 2018,
42:43Courtney Briarley
42:44was found guilty
42:45of manslaughter.
42:46Zach Bolland
42:47and David Worrell
42:48were found guilty
42:49of the murder
42:50of four children
42:51and the attempted murder
42:53of Michelle
42:54and Kyle.
42:56Zach, Courtney
42:57and David
42:59were all sentenced
43:00for a total
43:01of 98 years
43:02between them.
43:04Today may be
43:05the end of the trial,
43:07but it's not
43:08the end for us
43:09as we may try
43:10to recover
43:10and get on
43:11with our lives.
43:13This incident
43:14led to the death
43:16of pretty much
43:17a whole family.
43:17and when you look
43:19at the images
43:20from the staircase
43:21and the bedrooms,
43:22it was extremely hot
43:24and it had been
43:24extremely terrifying
43:25for that family.
43:32So here we're going
43:33from very petty disputes
43:35to really serious consequences
43:37and it's really easy
43:38to think
43:39how can that happen
43:40and surely
43:41that's not normal
43:42but actually
43:43statistically speaking
43:44that's exactly
43:46how a lot
43:46of these situations happen.
43:48They start
43:48from these really petty
43:49normal human interactions
43:50and then they spiral
43:52out of control
43:53into these really
43:54extreme consequences.
43:59The point-of-sale cameras
44:01were an unexpected
44:02and vital witness.
44:04In this particular case
44:06point-of-sale cameras
44:07were instrumental
44:08in actually
44:09cracking the case.
44:11CCTV and video evidence
44:12is effectively crucial.
44:15It's a crucial
44:16piece of evidence
44:18in a criminal investigation.
44:21But the killer's convictions
44:23were not
44:24the end of the story.
44:27On the 25th of August
44:302019
44:30Michelle Pearson
44:32very sadly passed away
44:34following some complications
44:36after she had
44:37an operation.
44:38She said she'd lost
44:39any will to live
44:40at this point
44:41and just wanted
44:43to let go
44:44to be with her babies,
44:45her angels.
44:49It was 20 months
44:51after the fire.
44:53Michelle was 38 years old.
44:57Zach and David
44:58had their sentences
44:59increased by three years.
45:02Her coffin
45:04followed by four
45:05white horse-drawn carriages,
45:08one for each
45:09of her children.
45:11This is a very
45:13heartbreaking story
45:14that shocked the nation.
45:16This was just
45:18such a desperately
45:19tragic
45:20and completely
45:21harrowing story
45:23that not only
45:24affected the local
45:25community in Salford
45:27but all across
45:28the city of Manchester
45:29and beyond.
45:31They were known
45:32locally
45:32as the Walkden Angels.
45:34It had that much
45:35of an impact
45:36on the local
45:36community here.
45:41This incident
45:42is one that will
45:42always stay with me.
45:45The whole idea
45:46that you can do
45:47that act
45:47and just drive away
45:48and you've left
45:49that devastation
45:50behind you.
45:51I just can't believe
45:53somebody can do that
45:53and just drive away
45:55and get on with their lives
45:56knowing that you've
45:57potentially wiped
45:58a whole family up.
45:59a whole family up.
46:00We'll see you next time.
46:01We'll see you next time.
46:02We'll see you next time.
46:02Transcription by CastingWords
46:32CastingWords