Up next...
A single mother
doesn't survive
a life and death struggle.
It was blood everywhere.
I mean, all over
the living room,
the walls, the back door.
She fought for her life.
Probably the longest
fight to death
that I ever investigated.
No one can believe
this woman would
be a target for m*rder.
No one can believe
this woman would
be a target for m*rder.
I was immediately
taken into a detective car
and he asked me do I know
of anybody that would
have wanted to harm Nikki.
And I'm like,
"Harm Nikki?"
Evidence shows
the k*ller is uncomfortably
close to home.
Would get
into physical altercations
all the time.
Almost getting a little
teary-eyed now about it,
'cause, I knew. I knew.
Nikki Whitehead's life
was full of obstacles
from the moment
she was born.
Nikki was born in prison.
You know, she was
the oldest of five siblings.
Unlike her brothers and sisters,
Nikki was not raised
by her mother.
Nikki was not raised
by her mother.
Her mother was behind bars
for most of Nikki's childhood.
She wasn't in the same
household as her siblings.
What she didn't know,
and I even said, like,
"Oh, my goodness, Nikki.
You didn't know
you was born in prison.
So that's how you was...
in the custody
of your grandmother."
This made for some rocky times
during Nikki's teenage years.
But she was determined
to have some
stability in her life.
She graduated
from cosmetology school
and opened her own
hair styling business
and opened her own
hair styling business
in an Atlanta suburb.
She made good money.
She was good at doing hair.
Um, she quickly
built a clientele.
As she was building
her business,
Nikki had a brief affair
with a Jamaican national
and, in 1993, gave birth
to identical twin daughters,
Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah,
who became known
to everyone as Jas and Tas.
Jas and Tas,
they were well-behaved kids.
They were straight A students.
They were straight A students.
I can remember one
of the girls receiving
like, the highest
achievement award,
in her grade at that time.
Sadly the twins'
father left the family.
But Nikki did her best
to be a devoted single mother.
Nikki really wanted
to get things straight,
have a good family.
She's had her own
business going, and...
things were heading
in the right direction.
In 2000, Nikki,
started a relationship
with a man
named Robert Head,
started a relationship
with a man
named Robert Head,
who was 30 years older.
She and the twins
ultimately moved in with him.
Robert first met
her at a mall.
Saw her at a mall.
And just fell in love
with her at first sight.
He loved the way
she looked and everything.
And Nikki, at that
point in her life,
kind of needed somebody.
On a January afternoon in 2010,
a local police officer
doing routine
rounds in the area
was flagged down by the twins.
They came home from school,
like they normally do.
They came home from school,
like they normally do.
They walked in the house,
they see the crime scene.
They just go to pieces,
come running out the house,
screaming,
"Call 911!! Call 911!"
Inside,
police found a scene
of incredible v*olence.
We entered the house,
there is...
uh, immediate stench
of coppery blood smell.
Almost that you can taste.
It's so thick in the air.
There is blood on every wall
in the living room, dining room.
This is just a chaotic scene.
This is just a chaotic scene.
It was immediately clear
that a hard-fought
struggle had taken place,
all through the first
floor of the house.
I've been policing
quite a long time.
I've seen a lot
of bloody scenes.
This was probably one
of the worst I had seen.
Nikki Whitehead
was found in the bath tub,
apparently stabbed to death
and placed there
after she was k*lled.
A blood trail gave investigators
a pretty good idea
of what happened.
At one point,
Nikki had her back
against the wall.
Nikki had her back
against the wall.
And her hair was braided.
You can see the blood pattern,
the braid and the blood
pattern up against the wall.
You can see different
intervals of the fight,
um, as the blood smeared.
The blood trails
showed Nikki made
it out of the house.
But only briefly.
We canvassed the neighborhood,
and when detectives
went up to the house
next door,
um, as they approached
the house,
they saw a bloody handprint
on the column of the porch.
And interviewed that neighbor,
he had been laying in bed,
he had been laying in bed,
listening to a morning
show on the radio.
So we were able to, kind
of, pinpoint the time frame
about the show
that he was listening to.
He'd said
somebody's banging
on his door.
Y'all call the police.
And I asked him why didn't he,
he said it was none
of his business.
Nikki's k*ller
somehow got her
back inside the house.
Her autopsy showed scores
of defensive wounds.
She'd been stabbed
more than 80 times.
When I found out
that Nikki fought back,
When I found out
that Nikki fought back,
and she fought for her
life, I had to bury her.
Um, so therefore...
excuse me.
So, yeah, therefore, you know...
thinking that I was
going to be able
to bury her...
Yeah.
It did something
for me to know that,
you know, she just
didn't give up.
There was
no sign of forced entry.
There was
no sign of forced entry.
And the only thing
apparently missing
from the house
was the m*rder w*apon.
In the aftermath
of Nikki Whitehead's m*rder,
her 16-year-old daughters,
identical twin sisters
Jas and Tas Whitehead,
were interviewed by detectives.
Naturally, the girls were
in shock after finding
their mother's body.
After a while,
investigators were finally
able to ask the twins
the key question.
Investigators were finally
able to ask the twins
the key question.
Did they have any idea
who would want
to k*ll their mother?
This possibility made
a lot of sense to detectives.
The evidence
at the scene
of the m*rder
indicated Nikki
endured a brutal att*ck.
And the stabber was
just stabbing on her
repeatedly in one area
would indicate that this
is a crime of passion.
Would indicate that this
is a crime of passion.
The key man
in Nikki's life
was Robert Head,
her boyfriend and owner
of the house
where the family lived.
The house where
the m*rder took place.
Robert being her
live-in boyfriend,
uh, of course we wanted
to speak to him
and find out where he
was, or what was going on.
Come to find out
later on, pretty quickly,
that Nikki and Robert
kind of had an understanding
in their relationship.
That understanding
was that both partners
That understanding
was that both partners
were free to see other people.
Robert was smart enough.
He knew that Nikki
was young, much younger.
And that she would
still want to go out
and do stuff
that young people do.
Go to clubs
and that sort of stuff.
He wasn't interested in it.
Robert,
a long haul truck driver,
was away from home
for days at a time.
He didn't really care
what she did
when he was gone.
He just wanted her there.
Just when he was home,
he wanted her there
and she obliged that.
GPS satellites
were able to track down
Robert's whereabouts
for the time of the m*rder.
We got in touch
with his trucking company,
and they had GPS
on their trucks.
And we were able
to follow the route
and use his phone
to give us times
of where he was.
And he was out west
and had not come back
since he had left.
So we had cleared
Robert as being a suspect.
But the twins
said there was a new
man in the picture.
And they didn't know
that much about him.
His name was Joe Carter.
His name was Joe Carter.
It was possible Joe,
the new man in Nikki's life,
wasn't as open-minded
about the open relationship
she had with Robert Head.
When I asked
Jas and Tas who they
felt could've done this,
they mentioned that Nikki
and Joe had been
arguing over on the phone
the last few nights.
And that maybe he was...
has something to do with it.
When you hear a love triangle,
your antenna goes up,
'cause somebody in that triangle
more likely is not gonna
be happy.
And a lot of times,
it goes back to one of 'em.
Joe Carter, a local barber,
was located and told
what happened to Nikki.
Joe was devastated
when we approached
him and notified him
of Nikki's death.
Of Nikki's death.
And he also
had a solid alibi
for the time of the m*rder.
His barber shop
had surveillance cameras
and showed he
couldn't be Nikki's k*ller.
Investigators were
running out of suspects
in a case that clearly
showed a prior relationship
between k*ller and victim.
Nikki Whitehead's twin
daughters, Jas and Tas,
told detectives nothing
was amiss when
they left the house
the morning of their
mother's m*rder.
They told me
that they woke
up that morning,
uh, late, and was getting
ready for school,
missed the bus,
knocked on their
mother's door,
which was shut.
And, um, she didn't answer.
So they just left for school
and walked to school.
It's probably about
three or four miles.
Detectives
checked surveillance
cameras along this route.
We pulled video
from surrounding
businesses,
We pulled video
from surrounding
businesses,
and we saw that they were
several hours late for school,
walking to school.
We even got the video
from the school,
when they came in.
Uh, they're supposed
to be at school around
7:00, 7:30 in the morning.
They didn't get to school
till about 10:00 a.m.
This video didn't line up
with the twins' stories
that they'd walked
straight to school.
But why would they lie?
Detectives could reach
only one admittedly
tentative possibility.
And it was unthinkable.
And it was unthinkable.
Could two 16-year-olds
have conspired
to k*ll their own mother?
And then do it with such
incredible v*olence?
I can tell you from my
experience, it is rare.
Very rare.
And then to have twins, no less.
Makes it even tougher.
To get two people
to agree to that
is tough to do.
It turned out
the twins weren't
unknown to police.
Our police department
had been to the house
on several occasions,
uh, where Nikki
and the twins
were having confrontation.
Uh, where Nikki
and the twins
were having confrontation.
And at least one of those
confrontations got physical.
Nikki contacted the authorities.
And the police,
of course, got involved.
Um, the girls were
charged with simple battery.
It was for them
to get counselling.
Everyone to get counselling,
from individual
to group counselling.
Local detectives now look back
over all their interactions
with the twins,
in the frantic hours
after they reported
their mother had been k*lled.
It was just pretty chaotic.
It was just pretty chaotic.
First thing that struck
me as different
was in the back
of the ambulance.
I think it was Tas,
was biting her, um, wrist.
And we confronted her,
"What are you doing?"
And she told us
that she did that
when she was
emotionally distraught.
At the time,
amid all this trauma,
this seemed within the bounds
of reasonable behavior.
But now, with all other
potential suspects eliminated,
could this have been
part of an attempt
could this have been
part of an attempt
to cover up involvement
in a m*rder?
Being in a room
with Jas and Tas
during the interview,
wasn't anything
they were saying or doing.
It just felt like I was
in presence of evil.
I've never had that feeling
before with people.
I've been in rooms
with murderers before.
But this just felt evil.
The question now was,
what possible reason
would the twins have
to k*ll their own mother?
To k*ll their own mother?
We've got two very angry girls
who don't want to live
with their mother,
for whatever reason, you know.
She was scared of them.
I mean, she openly admitted
that she was scared of them.
Nikki wanted them to behave
and do good
and have a good life.
They just wanted
to be rebellious
and do their own thing.
Which is most kids.
But most kids don't s*ab
their mom 80 times.
With the twins
as possible suspects,
in a crime with
this much v*olence,
they were photographed
on the assumption
that they could
have been injured
that they could
have been injured
during the commission
of the m*rder.
And what this showed
casts serious doubt
on what the twins
were telling police.
And once I saw those marks,
I knew they weren't
telling the truth
about what had happened.
If detectives'
suspicions were correct...
that meant this interview
with the twins,
shortly after the m*rder...
was a well-planned performance,
designed to throw
them off the trail.
You definitely don't want
to believe it's possible.
You never know who's
really capable of m*rder.
You never know who's
really capable of m*rder.
In the immediate
aftermath of her
mother's m*rder,
Tas Whitehead was
seen biting her wrist
in full view
of first responders.
Tasmiyah Whitehead, she said,
"This is something
I do when I get
nervous or I get upset."
You know, like children
cut themselves,
she bites herself.
But a bite mark
on Tas' left arm,
didn't appear
to be self-inflicted.
Waa it possible that Tas'
mother had bitten
her in self-defense,
while fighting for her life?
And that Tas later bit herself
in front of police,
in front of police,
so that she'd have
a plausible reason
for this bite mark on her arm?
It looked like when
Tas was biting her arm,
she knew she had
marks from her mom,
where Nikki had
bit her in defense.
You know, she was
trying to cover that up.
Was it possible to prove this?
The possibility presented
huge problems.
Bite mark evidence
is highly controversial.
These days, no prosecutor
will go to a jury
with only a supposed bite
mark match as evidence.
But in this case,
investigators weren't
looking for a bite mark match.
But in this case,
investigators weren't
looking for a bite mark match.
All they needed to prove
was whether the bite on Tas' arm
was the result
of Tas biting herself.
Or the result of her being
bitten by someone else.
The difference in everybody's
bite is enough that
you're not really gonna
have exact matches.
People's mouths are wider.
They've got teeth
that are intruded.
They got spaces
in between the teeth.
Lots of these
different kinds of things.
For comparison,
a flexible impression material
For comparison,
a flexible impression material
is placed
in the suspect's mouth.
Once removed,
it is filled with plaster
which later hardens.
This was done with both twins.
And also done postmortem
on their mother, Nikki.
The material sets up,
at which point in time,
we pull it out.
And now we have
a mold of their teeth.
The bite of Tas' arm was shallow
with a minimum puncture of skin.
This lack of tearing
on the skin surface
made for an unusually
clear pattern.
And in this case,
investigators got
a surprise break.
Investigators got
a surprise break.
Nikki Whitehead
had a common dental
condition called diastema,
basically a gap
between the front teeth.
So while it was
impossible to say that
Nikki Whitehead
inflicted the bite
on her daughter's arm,
it was possible to say
that someone
with diastema did.
And neither of the Whitehead
twins had this condition.
Ruled two girls
out as the biters,
and narrowed it down
to Nikki to be the biter.
But
investigators knew
there was no way
But
investigators knew
there was no way
this evidence would be
enough to secure a conviction.
However, a bite mark like this
could possibly have led
to a k*ller shedding
blood at the crime scene.
Of course, the twins
lived in the house,
so their blood might
be in various places.
The question now was
where investigators
might find blood.
In the twins'
closet, we found
shoes in a shoe box
with a blood drip on it,
in the saddle on the shoes.
And actually we found
two pair of shoes
with the blood marks on 'em.
And actually we found
two pair of shoes
with the blood marks on 'em.
Inside one of those shoes
was a wadded up napkin,
um, that had blood on it.
And inside it was a wad of hair,
like it had been pulled
from someone's hair.
This hair
was consistent
with Nikki Whitehead's hair.
And the blood belonged
to one of the twins.
Since twins' DNA is identical,
the blood could have
been left by either of them.
And both of them
had cuts on their arms.
After a four-month
investigation,
the evidence was clear
the evidence was clear
and the conclusion inescapable.
The Whitehead twins
had m*rder*d their mother.
But why did they do it?
The answer incredibly
is that Nikki simply
wanted to impose
some discipline on the twins.
And they weren't having it.
Jas and Tas wanted the freedom
to do what they wanted to do.
They wanted to come
and go as they please.
They wanted to be able
to go out and stay out.
They wanted to date older boys.
I think they did what they did,
I think they did what they did,
and didn't realize
there was consequences
to their actions,
until they got caught.
I can only just remember
the last thing Nikki said to me,
and she felt like
it was a evil spirit
that overcame them.
Prosecutors believe
the twins had been planning
the m*rder for some time.
They think the att*ck
started as Nikki
was asleep on the couch.
She was hit over
the head with a vase,
which started the blood trail.
A terrific fight ensued
all through the first
floor of the house.
At some point, it appears
Nikki bit Tas in self-defense,
At some point, it appears
Nikki bit Tas in self-defense,
a bite that no
amount of self-biting
after the fact
could ultimately hide.
And the blood
evidence finally
sealed the twins' fates.
Jas and Tas...
did every single thing together.
They had the same rage,
the same hate.
They just fed off each other.
And that frenzy of hate
resulted in this tragic ending.
I don't think they
could stop themselves.
I don't think they
could stop themselves.
In 2014, Jasmiyah
and Tasmiyah Whitehead
pleaded guilty
to voluntary manslaughter
and were sentenced
to 30 years behind bars.
They won't be
eligible for parole
until they're 47 years old.
It's impossible to say for sure,
but investigators believe
this might be the only case,
at least in the modern era,
where identical twins
conspired in the m*rder
of their own parent.
That's got to be
one in a million.
That's got to be
one in a million.
The girls thought they were
smarter than everybody
in the room, all the time.
And I think that they
can be incredibly charming,
and I think that works at times.
But when you get a room
full of detectives,
who know...
exactly what's going on,
you just have to put
the pieces together.
We're not buying it.
You're not gonna
charm a detective.