02x17 - Second Thoughts

[bunniefuu]

on December 17th 1981 a woman in Oakwood village Ohio noticed something strange

at her neighbor's house when I took my kids to school my son said mom

Alma's doors open I don't know how long the door had been open the snow had

bloated I kept calling her name I saw her laying there on the bed facedown and

they could get response from her she was

only 29 years old right Alma nove singer was a single law with three children and

probably what was bought in the state's places in the country she was a tiny little thing - five foot three hundred

oh sweet little Alma who shouldn't have had an enemy in the world somebody one

introduced Anthony and then I suppose it would make them so measure they would

b*at her to them like that 932 years this will be a challenge

because the case was originally investigated by the local law who did their best at the time but this was

before forensics as we know it today he had worked a lot of m*rder cases they don't have that many here it's good for them yeah we're not read the case it

scared me because it's 32 years old that's a lifetime and how many witnesses can still be alive and still be locals

it only takes like two good witnesses to make a case you don't have to have that you say we want 56 don't speak to it

they're good that's all you need so now we have to try and figure out who had the anger and the means to m*rder poor

Alma and leave those babies without animals [Music] it has been 16 years and still no

consider her k*lling a cold years later the Kapus dilemma there are so many cold

cases out there just waiting to be stalled the crime scene ultimately tells

the story of the m*rder we want to bring judgment for these victims

[Music] nice cool little PD huh yeah very nice

to meet you boy you're tall yes I'm glad

you guys are here how are excited the size of our office it kind of limits us to work these cold cases so means a lot to us and we

appreciate it I'm sure the family does as well parties a small community we're rule we don't have a lot of homicides here and

we don't want to back in 1981 I was in elementary school growing up I heard

about almost cased the fact that someone was brutally m*rder*d in our area in

fact it a great deal of people so it's not only some closure potentially for the families but it's also closure for

our community so you got to place that up first oh yeah I got a woman back here if you won't follow me the Paulding County Jail is only seven years old I

love it make us feel right at home huh but because it's not currently in use it's gonna serve as our workspace this

week finally where y'all belong in jail Alan brown Rob Garcia Rob Brian Hanna

crap right I'm excited helping Yolanda and me out this week is Alan brown don't

want to sit down start talking about the case you are Alice come in on this case because we're working with deputy Rob

Garcia who really wants to learn and Alan is very patient and he likes teaching so that ought to be a good

combination you wanna start and tell us about the case it's a homicide of Alma nursing she

was a single mom and three kids from two marriages divorced twice December 17th of 1981 about 9:20 morning

EMS got a call of a body they found Alma on her bed face down arms underneath her

and her head had been obviously hit with something and it was bloody and there's blood all over

no signs of forced entry the door was actually open nothing was stolen there was no signs of sexual as*ault or

anything like that this was an extremely brutal crime the medical examiner reported seven strikes to the head but also that her

hands were black and blue one hand was even broken and she had puncture wounds to her forearm the date of our m*rder is

well that's gonna either be the 15th or 16th but the 17 is when she's found yes Emma's body was discovered on Thursday

the 17th but she was last seen alive just two days prior by her neighbor because the medical examiner was unable

to establish a specific time of death all we know for sure is that she was k*lled somewhere in that three day time

span okay y'all want to start with this suspect first who's this rob David Otto

senior David Delgado is Alma's first ex-husband and the father of her two oldest children Debbie and Davey she had

recently given custody of those two children back to him he's still involved in her life even though she turned over

their kids to him recently it was still kind of a raw fresh thing she was regretting it they were adjusting there could have

been some resentment going on with that yep she had given custody back to David for a reason so we need to look into

that relationship to figure out why that could have been there's no better motivator for getting people fired up in

a divorce in custody and all that and then also he's under the influence of Maria Alma and David had been divorced

for a little while he had moved on he was sending a lady named Maria David and

Maria eventually got married but back then Maria had some serious issues with

the fact that Alma was still around in the world of David she hated each other

Alma was a thr*at to her Elmas always calling with every problem she has David's always helping her new

girlfriend doesn't like that too much she thinks we're too much of an attachment there Alma had been sending David cards let's get back together I'm

missing you and that was threatening to Maria her next move is to go to state Maria go to Steven who's Alma's second

husband and chosing these cards that Alma had been sent and David and the cards implied that halma wanted

I mean a lot of girls hate the ex-wife but she actually took our amm*nit*on to

Steve and Jose I'm trying to cause trouble that was more of a [ __ ] move than most women would do yeah Maria

wasn't suspect in the original investigation she failed her polygraph the polygraphs are not admissible in the

courtroom which makes it even more important that we go and talk to her again and ask for all of our questions so the last suspect is Steve na singer

Steve na finger is Elmas most recent ex-husband the two had met while working

together at a meat processing plant called the dinner bell they married and had one son named Ryan when he would sue

they got divorced and she gained custody he was making an effort at the time to try to reconcile he was very jealous

apparently he's definitely committed to that relationship she's not he wasn't over her she was over him all right

correct Oreo starts a pot almond Steve started getting separated divorces bond

gets final pretty fast and seven months later she's dead so Alma had two

ex-husbands and one of them is with a very jealous woman who those crazy be even talks to her I can't tell you how

many cases are prosecuted therefore because of the divorce those issues between people never go away our first

stop is to visit the members of Alma's family we want to go meet them and see how they've dealt with this horrible

tragedy hello hi so nice to meet you it

has been very trying not knowing who did it and that they're still out there this case has been open

for 32 years it's time tell us the stories about Alma when she was a little

girl what was she like aw just quiet she was very quiet she was very very

caring I'm 71 she was seeing David they met at the high school here in

defiance and she got pregnant with her first child they had gotten married and

didn't tell anybody what seemed like she was really in love with him at the time yes yes was she a good mom

yes she was she adored David I talked to her almost every weekend okay it was

just how are the kids you know and she ever give you any hints about never going on I never kept it all to herself

and when you first heard would that do to your mom and dad devastated you guys

showing up that's happening now I think

about her every day every day and everybody else us too we're gonna try

our very hardest and try and find everybody we can to put all the little pieces together okay

[Music]

we're investigating the death of Alma nove singer who was m*rder*d in her bed while she was sleeping in 1981

welcome to the mock crime scene because we no longer have access to Alma's home we've set up a mock crime scene my hope

is that it can still teach us something about the case the blue lines would be

your walls so this will at least give you a visual since we can't go back 32 years Alma was found facedown in her bed

dressed in a nightgown and a robe the pillows and mattress were soaked with blood other than a couple of pillows on

the ground nothing else seemed out of place which tells us whoever k*lled Alma was able to sneak in silently and

approach her undetected all while Alma was sleeping I know in these pictures you see a lot of blood when you look at

her you got blood from the waist up which would indicate someone's sitting on her yeah and hit me if I'm on top of you and I'm trying to hold you down say

I am striking you and you're trying to get up you're moving hard you're moving your face around that pillar those

sheets everything she literally has abrasions on her chin so what's hitting

her head we're not seeing anything distinctive here like a hammer will leave that realm our impression that you

can see no w*apon was found in this case whatever was used as a w*apon wasn't

anything heavy enough to cause the skull to completely cave in now she does have

skull fractures so I would probably gear more towards a material like wood because metal caves and wood doesn't

tend to do that she also has on her arm a small 1/8 inch in diameter puncture

wound both of her her hands are so swollen and black and blue and in fact

her left hand is broken but remember when she was found she actually had hairs recovered from her hand at the

time yes her own hair not the k*ller's hair what do we always do when someone's striking you you bring your hands up

because it hurts and you're trying to protect yourself although Emmy accounts 7 distinctive

to her head that's not many times she was hit a lot more than 70 if her hands were taking some of these blows to the

point that one growth that tells me that she was hit far more than what we can tell just when you have those blows

directed like the face in the head area that's like a personal att*ck and how angry the person was how they had to

know who it was how they had to know where they were going and then and that's not just I meant to k*ll her that's I'm mad and I mean to k*ll her

otter age we need to find out which of our three suspects David Maria her Steve could have hated

Alma enough to commit this brutal m*rder we're gonna start by looking at the person Alma was closest with her first

ex-husband David Alma Beal David ended up a bit two kids and she said it was

foolish that she gave them up I mean she was really upset after marrying Steve

and having Ryan Alma gave custody of her two oldest children Debbie and Davey jr. back to their father David it's possible

that this was still a point of contention between Alma and David's team did I only have a good relationship with

Dave her first husband yes the kids and everything I never saw nothing out of control or you know seeing Stephen here

kind of trying to get back together of course Dave's girlfriend Maria didn't like the idea how many times I met her I

had heard she was a very jealous woman when Jill is over Alma coming around and being around Maria has motive because

Alma is attempting to get back with David David has motives because he's moved on with his life he's got his kids

he's got his girlfriend and then here comes Alma get in the way so either David or Maria could have been upset

enough with the Alma that they would be willing to k*ll her

[Music] so y'all are headed to the airport like around noon yes and we're hoping to talk

to them tonight while y'all are having fun we'll be taking care of business here I Brian all right we'll be in touch

David and Maria ended up getting married and live out in the Houston area so Alan and Rob we're gonna go to Texas to talk

to them what I always try to do my good on these deals is trying to figure out

something new to add Alan brown yeah we

don't talk a lot of your time is Maria here too can we talk to her and then maybe talk to you sure do you have any

cross words with Alma at all do you

remember when Alma signed the custody papers over and gave her kids full custody to David I was just told about

it tell us about the cards that were being sent and you found oh you know

thinking of you cards we interviewed Maria roughly an hour and

we were very pointing our questions because we wanted to know if she was angry enough to k*ll her element so when you find these cards and you go to Steve

how does that transpire we met downtown and defines and I told

him why Selma sending David these cards you know I should have never so he

wasn't happy about that yeah to me now it seems challenged I mean just by showing Steven off singer those

cars that caused a rift and Steve and Alan's marriage she basically got this ball rolling which caused the divorce

well we appreciate your time to me Maria has motive but it's very light

and she was very straightforward I got no vibes from Maria that she had any intention of ever harming Alma

so knowing Alma you're her first ex-husband yeah for many years so she came to find me or whatever you know she

appears to be a good mother gets person in exact would that be your opinion ever true so what point did she like really

start trying to get back with you when she was pregnant she comes to me I'm sorry I just can't you know I didn't

know she don't want to go down well that

sounds like Michael no he hasn't according to David Alma had confided in

him that she didn't even want to marry Stephen she tried to back out she went through with it because she was pregnant

with him Ryan she knew she made a big mistake but she related to you that the reason for giving the kids custody to

you was because of Stephen yes and what he was doing to history it's not like

her and talking to David it didn't appear he had any kind of grudge towards Alma over the children or anything else

we appreciate your time thank you

did you miss us actually yeah when your honor I were playing that long we could even miss you guys

we've learned that Alma nove singer gave up custody of her children Debbie and Dave jr. because of problems with her

second husband Steve that's a big sacrifice for a mother to make and that tells us that things must have been

really bad with Alma and Steve does anybody still feel like David Delgado and Maria Delgado need to be on the

suspect board all right let's take them down with David and Maria cleared this is a case of one suspect Steven Hawkings

[Music] David this is lieutenant Hannah pad at

the Paulding County Sheriff's Office how are you David jr. was 10 years old when his mother was m*rder*d but he lived

with Alma and Steve before she gave up custody when I was little so I don't remember a lot he was never nice to be

my sisters we weren't his real kids you know like Ryan was but he definitely would get physical with my mom when I

went into like the family room one day and Steve was like oh my mom by the arms

and grabbing her real hard and stuff and you know me being loved to like leave my mom alone you just know that means he was like you

want me to break her arms right here right now Alma never found any police reports of domestic v*olence which means that if

Steve is Alma's k*ller anything that Debbie and David jr. saw with their own eyes or heard with their own ears could

be crucial to this case can you talk a little bit about what if anything you remember about your mom they don't have

a lot of memories I was pretty young right growing up without a mom was difficult and it wasn't until I had a child of my

own that I realized you know probably have difficult things were for my mom it's still hard so it's really hard to

to did not have her what do you remember about Steve I don't have that many

memories of him just that it was not a really nice guy he would yell at me a lot and you would definitely favor my

half-brother right okay so not a lot of fond memories there then of Steve no I can't make it one what

about you and Ryan we didn't grow up together he started talking to him when we were in high school I just knew that

he was my brother and so I wanted to have a relationship with him I had asked him was growing up did he know that we existed and he said that you know in

pictures yeah my brother would be in them but his dad I told him that we were neighbor kids she didn't tell them that

you know he had a brother a sister you hear that story and I mean I lived in a

small town I went to a high school like that how do you grow up in a town this size and never know that on the other

side of town are two people that are your blood that are your brother and your sister how can that happen unless

someone is diabolically manipulative and trying to keep it from you for some

crazy reason what about you and Ryan today okay

thank you for all your help okay dad II thought that we don't want to talk to

Ryan right now because he's still close to Steve but we've managed to track down another witness that could be really

valuable and next that Steve was with 17 years after Alma's death we'll go

through two or three coffees and then bring her out here our witness live with

the her opinion for anything Steve might have told her about Alma could tell us

what kind of man were dealing with he said he was a widow that she was an

undercover cop and was k*lled in a car accident that it seemed like he was

affected by it he said I'll always love her she'll always be in my heart

several weeks to a month maybe past I went to the public library and I got a

pose I

[Music]

he said when are you coming home I said

she might not have suffered the same physical abuse that Alma did but this woman was smart and brave and strong

enough to leave as soon as she did I remember him saying you know buddy

Oliver take that away that's the same thing he told you about how I felt about almond look what happened to her yes

[Music] as we expand our investigation to the

people who were close enough and Steve's life we come to his family there's not

much from them at all in the case files so they could have some new information Jim you may have some information for us

on this homicide case well I was worried Steve's sister what can you tell me about it

I remember hearing that he done it that was the the atmosphere amongst the

family had to die did you have any first-hand knowledge of that I remember hearing that there was a nightstick or a

stick he had in the car inside the driver's seat Steve had a club in his car yeah like when he was hunting or

whatever to hit the animals if they wasn't dead this kind of stuff a wooden Club could have caused most of Alma's

injuries especially the type of damage seen in Alma skull it's worth trying to find out more about it the delay never

say she would she stick up for Steve when she tells her true feelings oh yeah

we talked to your ex-husband Jim and do you remember Steve and Eric

carrying a club in his car like three

feet two and a half three days they would hang up a beep on it dinner bell okay my been hanging out happen beeps like

that's taken in a favor hang on it this smoke stick could possibly match Alma's

injuries but it only helps our case if we can prove that Steve had it at the time of the m*rder what he carried for

protection did he still have it in the timeframe of when all this transpired but you've already gotten rid of why did

he get rid of it oh he Maxim bit Ryan when the pilot and Brian play with it okay because Steve

got rid of the smoke stick it's impossible that we'll find it thirty two years after the fact all of a sudden the stick was missing after the m*rder and

he comes up with wife's doin tryin playing with it that's a [ __ ] excuse the smoker stick would be a perfect

w*apon but without it it's a bust we got nothing without a m*rder w*apon

we still need insight that can connect Steve no singer to the m*rder of his ex-wife Alma so we're on our way to

question Steve's sister Cheryl and her husband Tom she is his sister so you

have that bond or being a sibling and they don't want to tell you no they don't want to be the one that says I put my brother in prison at first it appears

they don't want to talk to him and then Tom tells us the whole family's scared of Steven off center he's violent and

he's odd so Tom tells me that Steve nob singer had a wife before Alma and they

had a son that was stillborn and that after that Steven was never the same when it came to Stevens first

living son Ryan he didn't care about Alma he didn't care about the divorce he's here at anything Ryan

when you work on cases like this you always want to try and figure out why someone would commit such a horribly

brutal m*rder so the question is because they've lost his first child does the

possibility of losing Ryan become the trigger for him brutally murdering

almond and going through all the divorce paperwork I found this they thought for the divorce then they try to reconcile in

the middle of the counseling time period this says honor about the 8th day of March while at their home the plaintiff

that's Steven he's the one that fought for the divorce did physically abuse her by grabbing her by the arm and throwing

her to the ground and threatening to break her arm so there's two incidents at least two yeah and this is when

they're supposed to be getting back together again he did his best to convince her to stay with them and that's what happened five months later

John said this is what he says in his affidavit violent for divorce my wife

departed the marriage will DOMA sell Thursday January 29th 81 I fear that if my wife is granted custody of the child

and she will be a child for me and I will never see the child again it's looking to me like Steve was going to go

along with divorcing Alma but when he wasn't going to get custody of ryan he could not handle it when Steve went to

court he got custody and complained in his name it says in here for the reason that the child's natural mother d*ed on

December 16th 1981 that was kind of funny it's pretty interesting that Steve is peaking such a specific day because

law enforcement never actually determined which day she d*ed they didn't stuff the day right what y'all think

yeah because if you k*lled someone you're not gonna forget you can fail him even the police are confused exactly

when she d*ed be apparently you're not only don't for sure is that Alma d*ed

sometime between Tuesday the 15th and Thursday the 17th because Tuesday is the

last time Alma was seen alive by her neighbor Mary Schaefer so Mary Schaefer who were going to see says that she was

standing at her kitchen window saw i'ma drive in her driveway didn't see anyone get out of the car doesn't know if Brian

was with her not only was Mary the last person to see Alma alive she was also the first person to discover Alma's body

on Thursday morning I guess we never seen her laying there on that bed she

was such a good person and such a good friend and I think about it a lot

[Music] what do you remember about Steve or anyone else involved Steve was a hothead

before I had even met Elmer she clove to my house when I pour down rain and she

said that her and Steve had gotten into a big fight I said you wanna call the cops and she said no so she was

distraught enough to run out and go to somebody's house she's never been to right I know she was scared

how was Alma as far as lettin Steve had the baby on his off days she would let

him have whenever you wanted him when is the last time you talked to elle m'a the Monday just before she was k*lled

he just called me and told me that Steve was all upset and they got in a big argument about it stuff and she told

Steve that he wasn't going to get Brian anymore other than regular visitation

we may have just found the trigger that pushed a sick man over the edge she is

going to be the DA's number one so legs yeah I've worked a lot of cases where a

divorce is the motivating factor I had a case where a woman left her husband and

he pulled up to her house got out of the car with the bat and b*at her upside the head with that baseball bat over and

over and over again you see that kind of anger and rage and it tells you who the k*ller is just like in this case we need

to always ask ourselves who won and Alma did I think it's time to prepare for a face-to-face confrontation with Steve we

have the Defiance County Sheriff's Office ready to go as far as we can tell he was potentially home yesterday

afternoon he has a white Ford f-150 registered in his name which was there

yesterday we've got the unmarked units ready to go we've got the security

detail set several blocks away it's a big day I'm hoping he'll talk to

us freely what's the plan just telling them we reopened Alma's case we'd like

to talk to him don't say if you have time because they and kind of gives people an out Rob and Alan Butler says

the trucks in the driveway but it doesn't see any movement we're here from

what I've learned about Steve it's possible he has quite a g*n collection so we got to be careful there they are

there's no doubt about where he stands on burgers yeah

you see him down there I see him

he only has one vehicle that we know of right

beware the owner a guy with sounds like that probably

doesn't interest or very easily because of those signs on the door and because of people telling us how opinionated he

is and how odd he is I thought he was home he just wasn't answering the door boss walk around see it was open a

minute ago that was yeah please home alright we're gonna call him because I

think he's in here Stephen officer you

know where the Defiant Sheriff's Office's

there's a very good possibility he's in I guess we go the Sheriff's Office

good morning everyone this is him so

yeah home right now huh yeah all right if I take me 10 or 15 minutes to get over there but you're at home right

he says he's home he has to stay there and watch the dog he's always been home he's always been home I told him did I

take me 10 15 minutes even off singer calls back and says you know what on second thought I'm not coming down there

y'all can come to my house if you want to talk to me I'm gonna asking why she likes just about being in the mall cuz he's a freaky man but no but I answer

his door so you know you got to do what you got to do we load back up and go

back towards his house Steve is running us around town he wants this interview to happen on his time at his place it's

gonna be his way that's right Showtime Steve agrees to talk to Alan

and Rob in his home meanwhile we're all outside listening to every word and right off the bat Steve's acting like he

barely even remembers Alma last time he says we're live and he doesn't remember he was in a city would I'm sure the last

time you saw your brother for the last time I saw my mom exactly and we didn't do anything wrong they asked him every

question we have about Alma about Ryan about the abuse his answer to nearly

every question is I don't remember he's pretty smart he just won't say anything he's starting to get comfortable and

closed down in me that's happened between cold cases all the time he said I don't remember the Vince

[Music] over two hours later Robin Ellen have no

choice but to just walk away when things became uncomfortable to Steve if I had a question for him that he didn't seem to

like hit a drink he'd drink from it and he'd get up and walk off say oh let me go over here and get a towel and he'd

wipe the kitchen table come back my feeling is Steve was calculating and thinking of the answer the right answer

that he wanted to give I mean he

selectively chose to remember what he wanted to write but he was pretty good at coming up with follow-up BS Steve

doesn't add much to our case but you don't prepare circumstantial evidence cases by hoping for a confession because

it doesn't usually happen you have to build a probable cause that can stand all by itself and that's what we hope we

did this week okay so we've pretty much

done talking to witnesses at this point everything else on the board all these

points have now been addressed and corroborated and strengthened with live

witnesses who can testify in a courtroom the evidence that we found this week specifically shows a case that wasn't it

there it wasn't a r*pe it was personal we have a tremendous amount of blood and

how angry the person was how they had to know who it was how they had to know where they were going and a suspect with

a history of domestic abuse just yelled at me to break her arms right here who

concealed the truth about Alma's death and the people that were closest to him he said that she was an undercover cop

and was k*lled in a car accident the witnesses and the evidence in this case clearly shows that Steve had motive he

was upset about his divorce from Alma and most importantly in the days before her m*rder they fought and she tried to

take away from Steve the thing he cared about most in the whole room his son Ryan he told me that he wasn't going to

get Ryan anymore what we have is a probable cause it shows that Steve was so desperate to keep Ryan in his life he

elevated his abuse to m*rder with all these factors with all the witnesses of all the do you feel like there's enough to talk

to your DA absolutely Rob yes Brian my heart 100% I believe that we're on the

right track Paulding County has never

had to work on a cold case before so as Brian Rob and Jayson bring in the prosecutor and present the probable

cause to him it's a chance to solve one for the first time at this point we've accomplished quite a bit this week my

belief in what we have today based off of all of our evidence all of our interviews based off of the original

incident report the crime scene photographs and a multitude of people that are willing to come to Paulding County and testify under oath to the

truth as they remember it Steve nob singer is responsible for the m*rder of his ex-wife

[Music] okay we're dying to him all right so

here's the deal we laid things out boring that's how I want you to be honest with me give me your honest opinion we take this to grand jury or

can't we and he said that he will take this to grand jury oh that's awesome good for him beautiful whole new

perspective on how to work cases and all these little things how important their I'm very grateful for the help that

Kelly and Yolanda and Alan have been able to bring the Paulding County this is my first cold case and I did learn a

lot to me it really opened my eyes their talent their knowledge it's just been an

awesome experience and to bring some sort of peace or closure to Alma and her

family and her friends is a feeling that's beyond words we can't wait to go tell Danny and CeCe

the good news usually it's kind of a nervous day but this is gonna be a good

one good mornin and Alma's oldest two children and Debbie and Davey drive in

to hear the news - well we had a very busy week yesterday the sheriff set up a meeting with the DA Joe Burkhart and

then he said that he is very excited to take the case to a grand jury to ask

them to indict Steve non-singer for the m*rder of your mom yes

[Music] after 30 years my good ending to all

this my mom very happy yeah and I think

that when a jury of people here in this county hear it one day they're not gonna have any trouble finding him guilty I

know it's a lot to take in I think their son yeah yeah I kind of given up

hopefully she'll get justice and closure and be at peace and and the family will

too and that we'll see her someday again y'all don't have any contact with Ryan right now you might reach out to him

when you feel ready he's lived his whole life with a certain version of the truth in his mind so sometimes it takes all

the way to the trial when they hear it the very first time the best thing you can do is just be patient yes there's

just lots of moments in my life where I needed a mom and didn't have her so that's peace has always been missing I

feel bad for Ryan because he didn't have a mom either and you know this is his

dad and so this is something that he's gonna have to deal with and it can't be easy so I know there's like a lot of

celebration and a lot of you know happiness for us but I can't imagine what he's gonna have to go through it is

really nice to be able to tell them good news that 32-year patience has finally paid off there all this time

that's a great day

prosecuting attorney Joe Burkhart convened a special grand jury in the case of Steve non-singer grand jury in

Paulding County Ohio indicted Steve for the capital m*rder of Alma on August the

1st 2014 Steve not singer who is arrested by the Paulding County Sheriff's Office and he currently awaits

trial