01x02 - Mother

[bunniefuu]

[Applause] [Music] [Applause]

jörgen Thomas in Louisiana for know small town what like 300 something population I guarantee you everybody

there knows everybody else and their business and everything about him on August the 27th 2006 67 year-old Mattie

Williams was not answering her telephone and that caused her children to call the police Mattie Williams got the name mother

because she was like a mom to so many kids let alone her 13 kids he would give

you anything she has she needs ID to know you she would just help people so when somebody like her gets m*rder*d in

a little town like that it's a huge thing when the Sheriff's Office arrived at miss Maddie's house her purse had

been rifled through there was blood spattered on the walls and she was not at home so she went missing in there was like a

huge town search for her she had been

stabbed several times and she had an unknown injury to her head there has to be somebody in that town that knows more

about what's going on than what we've ever heard her mom went home they don't forget about it had to be someone she know there's no way you're gonna just

let somebody k*ll your mom and you just sit back and watch you do this Kelly and

I are up to speed we know the case history we're here to look at this nearly seven year old case and hope that

we can bring some closure to this family maybe there's just some little point that we can open maybe it would make a

difference I've tried hundreds and hundreds of cases but the ones they give me the most are the ones like miss Mattie who's so

beloved by everyone and who ends up getting violently m*rder*d we're determined to solve this case our goal

this week is to talk to all the witnesses we possibly can and try to get to a point to where there is sufficient

evidence to bring criminal charges against the people or person involved in

k*lling Mattie Williams it has been 16 years and still no at

least consider her k*lling a cold ears later the case is still unsolved

there are so many cold cases out there just waiting to be solved

the crime scene ultimately tells the story of the m*rder we want to bring

justice to these victims

[Music]

Terry Yolanda McClary nice to meet you hey Terry I'm Kelly it's nice to meet you I'm happy to meet y'all this has

been bugging us for a long time with you really used some help like to introduce you to Chief Randy Tiffany I'm sheriff

might we're glad to have y'all thank y'all for Thomas to meet you know I knew miss Mattie all my life she lived just

right up the road from me I used to be a warehouse playin with a kid when I was little what was a town like when it happened her funeral and

all that I was sad very sad I'm just real concerned if something don't shake out at this point that this thing may

may Lake hold indefinitely I think the problem with this case is it initially the investigators focused too much on

what they didn't have the m*rder w*apon fingerprints or a strong witness instead

of focusing on what they do have which are all these little pieces that if they develop them just a little bit further could get them just to where they need

to be I want to see everything you have cuz we want to download your brain into ours to make sure we know everything

that you know okay honestly in a case like this the more

Minds that work the better Johnny bonds and Armando Perez have over 40 years combined of m*rder investigation

experience and their masters of interrogation they studied the case and if anyone can get people to give up key

information it's gonna b*at them Johnny bonds Terry why during that's bad to meet you sir one phrase pleased to meet

you right Maddy Williams she's what we call a totally innocent victim I mean she's just in her house minding your own

business and somebody comes in and kills her I think in this case you feel a little more driven to find the K*llers

we're assuming that the motive in this was robbery I would agree with the honey I agree with that yeah when you end up

working cases like this one where the victims purchase land on the floor with items from it scattered about it's safe

to say that it was probably a theft that resulted in m*rder and I think also that there's that possibly there gonna be two

suspects involved in this yeah I think that you have two different knives involved what Ashley k*lled her was two

Kn*fe stabs to the side of her neck cutting her two main arteries also she

had a lot of superficial cuts to her but something hit her in the head making very unusual marks not sure what

that came from okay so why don't we start talking about the suspects from the beginning Terry who were y'all

focusing on a guy named Stanley Mitchell had been seen driving around her house

sitting in his car across the street in the days preceding our second suspect

it's Freddy Miller in the night of this homicide some people saw these two men together just a couple of miles down the

road also the police chief he had a confidential informant they told him that Stanley Mitchell and Freddy Miller

had been talking about robbing someone and just in the past few days before this crime remlick Jackson suspect

number three it had known the victim inside the crime scene on Miss Mattie's kitchen table was a work check pay stub

made out to Renwick Jackson also we had a statement that he had power washed his

car this is the Mitsubishi we're talking about that's so light and I mean go you go a three year old car and you go open it up

and take take a power washer on the interior which makes me a pretty good suspect yeah moving forward we have a

number of things we need to figure out how was Miss Maddie k*lled and what was that mysterious wound on her head we

want to talk to the witnesses to see if they have any new information and we want to look at our suspect list to see

if there was anybody else we need to add and finally we want to see whether or not any of our evidence comes back with

DNA on it well I think the first thing we have to do is go meet the family

[Music] good morning I do appreciate that the

family of members being here today miss Maddie has 13 kids she has umpteen

grandchildren these are all the people that are hoping someday they can get

answers to this stuff they don't have any by the end of this what will we have learned new I think you're gonna have a

lot more questions answered even if we don't get to arrest somebody I hope we do we wouldn't be here if we didn't

think we could baby okay where do y'all think the k*ller's first confronted her

at the front door she let them in mom went home they don't fit anybody it had to be somebody know y'all know whoever

in what Jackson is right what she open it for Renwick I have to dispute that

theory because she didn't trust him any reason for him to ever go to the house no white other thoughts about this that

we're talking about right now yes sir well what I have to say is kind of touching back we got a brother named

John Miss Maddie's son John behaved suspiciously after her death and he was

called in for questioning John would come over that sometime and want to borrow money and if he didn't get it he

would get mad you that's important oh no what's the worst he ever did to her to my life female talk back did he ever hit

her he tried to yeah let me say it John has respected mom really I think John

probably got involved with some wrong people maybe maybe a friend might be one huh and probably over to them for money

and John went to mom probably trying to get the money how many of y'all thinking like Harold just naturally oh okay let's just assume

for one second that that's the truth but at the point that somebody is murdering your mom you're gonna intervene there's

no way you're gonna just let somebody k*ll your mom and you just sit back and watch

not intervene there's no way you would even just thinking that your brother had

something to do with it words can't describe how that feels

because that's your own flesh I talked to John and the last time I talked to

him tell me you going tonight and he didn't want to be found how long ago did

you talk to that about three weeks I guess after talking with the family I think we need to look more carefully at

John Williams as a suspect all right thank you living without resolution to

my mom's cases it's like a dark cloud that follows you everywhere you go

I've got married I have son but there's still this dark cloud that I can't

overcome it so to have light shone on that place of darkness that would mean

the world to me [Music]

if you're working on a cold case in a big city you can take your time going to the crime scene because words not gonna

get out that you reopen the case by going out there if you're in a small town the whole dynamic changes and you

only have a limited window where you can try and probe for new information this is the house

[Music] before we can determine who committed this crime we had to determine what

happened where it happened and how it happened at this point we don't know

where she was k*lled I mean they took her out of the house but why and was

she's still alive when they left fortunately for us the house is vacant I'm thinking this is definitely more

att*ck area see the fingerprints in this

case are inconclusive one it was hidden in this folder we're going to need to follow the blood trail from this crime

scene to piece this together this room had nothing in it no blood drops no not a we didn't see any blood in here that

would tell how much blood that the towel has open it's not that bloody so they're kind of taking her this way yeah tell me

what y'all are thinking she left your life she left here alive and probably consciousness the stabbing in the neck

she would have been like a hose squirting water that didn't happen that's the same it had to happen

somewhere else

we're in Collinson Louisiana investigating the m*rder of Mattie Williams who was known and loved by all

the people in this town as mother this m*rder happened nearly seven years ago and it's never been solved and one of

the first things we want to do is go to the crime scene and get a real live look at it to be able to appreciate better

what might have happened that night by what we have here on scene there's a few

scenarios that could happen by the different areas that have blood so we're actually gonna play out just a couple of

different possibilities of what occurred here so here we go wham Wham I'm knock

her down you stay with her so we got a lot of blood here we got the towel here

they grabbed her purse Turner purse inside out where's the rest of money where is it but she doesn't

have much honor no there's some blood drops as I'm holding my head all right the freezers here you reach out and you

touch the freezer come on come on how you wrap here rip here he staggered over he hits the sink

you're not hearing along like where's the money where's the money take you this way this way we go down the hallway

is it in here I show me the money show me the money he brings her in here got

blood on the floor end wall here all right they come out of this room

there are footprints and blood down this hallway almost to the door and then they stop these guys are thinking what are we

gonna do with there's some disruptions on that table stuff turned over and this is where the pace that was so they take

her out on the porch there's more blood here in there more blood right here on the porch they let her sit down right

here somebody's get in the car come on and she falls against the house here and

then they put her in the car and go they took Mattie's body to the dump site I think to buy themselves some time to

cover their tracks it's speculation unless somebody tells us exactly what happened we can only have our theories

and scenarios now that we know that the

m*rder part did not happen at the home it's only just a very short distance up this road we are headed to the piece of

property where Miss Mattie's body was found this field is four miles from Miss

Mattie's house when she was brought here she was still alive I can't even imagine

what went through her head those last moments that she was alive so Terry at

the time this didn't exist right it was all brush through here was that tall grass in a big area

Stanley Mitchell's father and uncle were overseeing this property Stanley

Mitchell just lived that far up the road 3/10 of a mile from here north of here right ok over there Annette in that area

she was right at the edge of the woods he got here and saw the body she was laying face down his expert is laying

face down she was stabbed there and fell down we'd have more blood on her left side do you

remember how much blood was under her body when they rolled her what I remember was a pretty good-sized spot

there's enough blood to her body that the fatal wounds could have been delivered right there where they found the body I agree with you we got our

facts together to be able to answer the what where and how but now we need to

concentrate on the who one [Music]

[Music] we have received information that

Stanley Mitchell was in jail some time ago and he talked with inmate about some

facts regarding this case we're gonna try to talk to the inmate them see what

kind of information he might have did he

say where he hid her or with what or anything did he say where did he say

where you got the break from or anything unsaddle house okay when he says that

Miss Maddie was hit with a brick I'm thinking I need to look at the crime scene video to see if maybe something

was overlooked you did the right thing thank you sir appreciated in looking back at some of the video that was taken

of the crime scene on top of a trash can is a red brick

[Music]

hearing from our confidential informant that Stanley hit miss Maddie in the head

with a brick and after reviewing the tape and seeing that there was a Brooke on scene I think that we need to go back

to the crime scene there was a large green Barbican that set right here and

the brick was sitting on top of the garbage can is this it and that looks

like the exact same that's what we were just saying is this the brick did they maybe just set it look at the knotch

coming through I think you think there's any chance of finding anything on it seven years later and when it's been

outside well you never know but the thing about it is man it looks identical it looks identical to the one in the

face why would they throw it away they wouldn't know - they would know to throw it away I'm just looking I'm like that's

impossible here him plain date is the brick what

are the chances of that oh my god

we finished examining the crime scene so now our focus is going to shift to interviewing as many witnesses as we can

possibly find hello how you doing I'm doing fine my name is genomic bonds

there were two or three people that we want to talk to again and one of them was our suspect grim with Jackson's sister and she supposedly is the one who

told the police about this car Washington incident but tell me what happened that was so unusual about that car I'm talking about the car being

power-washed okay so he say you went to take his boss name is boss been ignoring

lunch stop in a console for yourself do tell my arms in word she's saying you

won't let me clean up not thinking we own just one cup and got rid of wife's

coffee got the cinnamon in it true yeah

he's in there was he just doing the seat sir was he doing everything he ever talk

around mckubre yeah you're suspicious

Renwick Jackson he's power washing a car to do what get rid of the evidence in it

get rid of any blood or anything else so money strong is suspect right now would

be read with Jackson

this is our brick from the front porch now that I have this brick in my hand after being at the crime scene yesterday

I need to know is this gonna match up to the wound at all what I want to do is actually trace pieces and parts of this

brick that looked like maybe it hit just within the right angle with this could

it make that impact wound on her head so now let's just do the same thing because

remember that V that she has on the side of her head I need pretty well in kindergarten with

this won't lady I'll be all right it's

even more Funky's how this comes out and then goes back up well this comes out and then goes back up look at this

for what we're doing is we're doing that is very close I'd sure bet my money on that bird oh

yeah you're you're gonna send this off to the lab right right see if there is any any blood that's still left in this

brick that would go back to her

[Music]

today is the big day on our evidence are you excited you kidding I need to sleep all night last night all there's pieces

of evidence that we sent off to be looked at are coming back today with an

answer from the lab I just want one piece to come back we're just one of the suspects at least that nails the one and

then maybe that person would roll knowing they're done but they ain't

gonna take this by themselves hopefully you know what would be beautiful if something comes back to Freddie I know

since he's the one that we had the least on right now and it's still frustrating was the fact that we can't decide on

John you know to tell the family the answer to their biggest question did John was he involved in this too

this may be the office right here around have told us that he was at work today

miss Mandy's body was found we're gonna talk to him about that and also see what information he has about his car you

remember he was driving his mother's Mitsubishi Galant I recall him driving

right did you ever ride in that car did

you ever make any comments about the condition of the car or say anything about it being dirty doctor doc can

recall miss Mandy Williams body was discovered on August the 28th and one of

these things I want to clear up the best we can is whether or not rim weight was it work for you that days it appears we

didn't do anything and we can put Renwick own like a salary so he got a

check for that week but he didn't we didn't have any timesheets for that week okay

what evidence was tell the original things that were sent we have her purse

her blue jean dress her shoes morning

good morning sheriff oh I just got off the phone with the crime lab oh man nothing on our suspects

all profiles are consistent with Miss Williams is their exact wording dang that's a lot of pieces y'all perk up man

in all these cold cases how many times is DNA pin the clincher for me never you

know we used to clear faces before there was DNA exactly every time I hear somebody go well it's a circumstantial

case life it's a weak case it makes me crazy I'm like circumstantial evidence cases are beautiful circumstance means

the truth and all these little bitty truths when you add them all up together make for a very strong case looking at

our suspect board we still have a strong case against Stanley and rent way yeah I

was hoping we'd find some DNA for Freddie me too let's go to work all right let's go to

work we brought in chianti who is

Renwick Jackson's son the local guys have known kiante forever they have questioned him about this case

forever their opinion was he's a hardened kid on the streets who is not gonna tell you any more than he already

has you see we really wanted to talk to him

because at one point when Renwick was interviewed years ago they asked how did your paycheck stop in an envelope end up

in Miss Maddie's house know that his paycheck stub was found in her house

okay then you're gonna have another surprise here the reason he read you your rights is because your father he

said that maybe my son can't they put that there because he's mad at me

because I don't like his friends and that you were trying to set him but you're trying to set him up on this

m*rder you know he dad's a prime suspect

in this m*rder do you think he did yeah you do think he did okay John you've

talked to him respectfully like a man and gave him the opportunity to tell for

the first time what he knew and I think that when Johnny went in there with that new approach we saw a new kiante and

when he was talking I started feeling good about the case who else you think was with he didn't do it by himself he said something that we

have suggested is that John was kind of duped into going over there and he said

that John may be afraid they might have scared him so at the end of all of it what where do y'all think we stand right

now on starting our probable cause against Renwick and Stanley I think it's good I think you have enough yeah you

you know without at you I think it's good yeah yeah yeah all right so let's let's quit for the day and then we can

start type any morning okay okay

in order to arrest somebody for a felony offense of m*rder you have to have

what's called probable cause it's a higher standard than 50/50 which is more likely than not it is not beyond a

reasonable doubt which is what you need to convict somebody it's somewhere in between we had enough probable cause to

type up warrants for Renwick Jackson and for Stanley Mitchell Stanley Mitchell

was seen watching this Maggie's house in the days and the week preceding the m*rder and we know that Stanley Mitchell

worked on the property when her body was found you have this confidential informant saying Stanley Mitchell k*lled

that old lady and Collinson with the brick did he say where you got the brick from seeing that brick that is

consistent with this curved kind of injury is corroborating evidence of what the CI told us against Renwick Jackson

we have the fact that he was known to hang around with Stanley Mitchell that

during the days following miss Maggie's m*rder he had gone and power-washed his car his paycheck stub was found in Miss

Maggie's house and finally Renwick boss confirmed that he lied about being at work the day he said he was when Miss

Maddie was found we didn't have any time sheets for that week well we may not have enough on Freddie Miller or John

Williams I feel confident that there's enough evidence against Renwick Jackson and Stanley Mitchell for the DA to feel

justified in issuing a warrant for their arrest

[Music]

I spoke with the district attorney's office and at this point they do not

feel comfortable and issuing us an arrest warrant then wants just to

continue working on I think they'll agree there's probable cause but he's looking further down the

road to a trial if we get a not guilty then the doors closed you know I don't know at this point is it we're trying to

talk to the base I mean we can't Bluff Stanley Mitchell and Renwick with anything if we tell me things got me

something for sure that we know wait why can't you bring him in and hit him with the brick hit him with the I know where

you k*lled her the brick for sure well you wouldn't be lying to him if you told him that we also have that brick the DA

didn't think we had enough probable cause to arrest somebody so we can't force anybody to talk to us they have to

do it voluntarily we're gonna do Stanley first yep then we're gonna bring in Renwick and Randy can find Stanley for us we're all

quickly [Music]

what's going on in here we need to talk to him now Stanley must think he's got it all

figured out because he came down here to talk to us voluntarily in 30 minutes

[Music] Stanley Mitchell is a top suspect in the

m*rder of Mattie Williams he's agreed to talk to us probably because in seven years no one's been able to break him

but this time were armed with new information about the brick he used to hit miss Mattie we'll see if that gets

him talking to Johnny I want you and I'm not gonna try to bless you I think you

k*lled Maddie went up the wrong tree

puttan bang do that that's done I got you man you know I would not hurt you don't know buy the old period I love old

people to the fullest oh yeah old people hey you on y'all give an inch so what I

did was telling what we need we know about the brick the one that we have and

we've matched it up and we know it's the brick that was used to hit her in the head and Lee Mitchell is he's pretty

good I listen to him and if I didn't know what I know I could see where somebody would believe what he had to say you

know and the frustrating thing is you have to really let him go when you came in voluntarily he's not under arrest

when we were done with him we had to let him go he's hard as a brick wall and that's what I told you from Jim he's gonna be

the hard one bring on the other hand maybe just a little bit softer y'all cheering oh okay

I'm gonna be back I'm always good see

right over now this was it Renwick Jackson is our last sh*t to do something with the case the DA doesn't think we

have enough you have the right to talk to about you for advice before I ask you any questions to have that value read during questioning our last avenue to

get there is Renwick Jackson your suspect you know that Wow you get - I'm trying to figure out why your pay

stuff was at her house I don't know how my chick stuff that did I think someone got my chick stuff I know how this story

rose and talked the guy worked for in one room listen here he say uh why you

don't clean this house so mister Fontana don't you need cleaning huh he just say it's too bit of cotton why so nasty did

he actually give him the car how'd he know that he was in a car mister Fontana was in the car me brother I went and

talked to mr. Fontana he told me he has never rolled in that car we lost so

Howard there we looked at the work records then showing you worked at all that week Johnny just kind of lays it

out with them he's like look this is your story and that's [ __ ] and you

know it is so he kind of hits them up for a little longer and then bring some pictures in to show I'll show you something be really as fries and you

know you can tell it shakes renwick out for a minute it shakes him up that's the brick she's

hitting head with my Prezi on that Bri how do you know I know Jeb glut no I'm not on that breath not

because some somebody else had that Brickner and we know who you are we know you were thinking they know is your car

your innocence don't buddy you're pretty sharp guy you're a good

talker but you ain't gonna b*at this [Applause]

yeah pretty much I'm feeling sick to my stomach because if friend wake Jackson doesn't talk then

we're done there's nobody else left to talk to there's nothing left to do there's nothing left to check on there's nothing

left to test we're done I don't think I'm effective anymore is there anything y'all could think of

we have a cover oh I like to make a stamp with it cooking it through all

right Johnny bonds was very aggressive with Renwick and Renwick was upset when

we worked homicide my role is to go in there and be the nice guy are you ready sh*t this way I don't want

to push Renwick at the edge because he gets to the point and said hey I wanted my attorney that's it you have set it

down you want something to drink coke or anything you what your lips it yeah I

don't blame you listen I've seen many a man go to jail

and end up dying there what I'm trying to do is make you realize in my

experience okay if you end up cooperating you'll be a

lot better for you I'm giving you an out here I've given you the opportunity to

help yourself if I told

if I tell how the wall honey than that tell us what you know I was on the road

but I happen the scenes Angola Stanley heard that one

tell me what happened mr. Jackson but uh John was kind of weak and he persuade

his uh mom he needed some money John

he's putting it on John so John goes over knocks in the door okay then what

happened she's off all the weight if you didn't want to live in me okay

you know the time the way late and don't keep that door square were you a I don't

like that on the side of the road but you stand in there or sit any karma your

car so they went into the living room and in the kitchen you say I was kitchen

is a place to eat can see everything from that corner gonna show he's have a provision yah she kept saying why have

you done it she said you know I want you you know she was talking to her tears go

Corinne wick is talking all about John and Stanley and how they got to the

house and how he heard it all and he saw it all but he was across the street and he wasn't involved and the more he

talked the more he dug his own hole because there was no way he could see and hear all those things from the position that he said he was in we need

to get some clear - okay we know that she was placed in your car and we know

that she was placing your car because she you end up taking it to a car wash and trying to get it cleaned up am I

right mr. Jackson its am i right oh okay well you mean that all the way when

Stephanie got there and they got the judgment he grabbed it later John did ask me but first he tried to

put her in that car put her in your car they were trying to get it okay and I

don't know okay did they get her in the car you gotta kind of sit it down okay so

they did get her in your car the truth okay so that's the reason you push your watch the car on the outside is that

correct yes okay we just hit the jackpot Renwick

Jackson admitted that he was there when Miss Maddie was att*cked at her house he admitted that Stanley Mitchell and John

Williams were there with them and he finally admitted that the reason why he pressure washed his car is because they

put miss Maddie in his car but he won't go any further than that he won't admit that he k*lled her he won't admit that

he was inside her house but the point is he's now changed his story he's admitted he was there and that ought to be enough

for the DA to believe there's probable cause to arrest rent for the m*rder of Miss Maddie yes sir that's right all

right sir thank you very much may a great job you two on the interview super job you don't give up you don't give up

on homicide you know you got to keep on trying so at this time you're under arrest for second-degree m*rder and

conspiracy to commit second-degree m*rder

[Music]

we want to tell you that Renwick Jackson has been arrested and we feel very

strongly that soon they should be arresting Stanley Mitchell and probably

your brother and all the things that y'all thought about how your mom opened

the door and how he got in you were right right now I'm just thinking about

what her last moments must have been like and it's hard to imagine that

anybody would want to do that to her especially

her own son [Music]

it's been a life of the last six it's been it's been a whole lot I so thank

you guys so much my mom and I always tell us when I'm

gone all you'll have left are your brothers and sisters you have to forgive

them you have to forgive them and move forward and if you can't lean on your brother or your sister then you're in a real estate place a few weeks later John

Williams was arrested in Tallahassee Florida he had an extradition hearing he waited

and he was brought back to Louisiana you know right to move out of town

did you go to your mother's house yes we need to my mother and in the art of having a cool name it

was a guy named Kane Dimitra I'll go for my mother and knock on the door and my

mother asked me John who do you not see the jump she was I

wonder she sounded and did and sent me books go ahead of them being family and

many myself in Stanley keep these over and if you need to hit my mom and maybe

even hit my mother will you see and I was in the portrait living room and you leaving him and where were you at I was

thinking of watching okay did you ever say thank you memories are honest and

father's weekly mother no because I was afraid they would not do the same thing

to me [Music]