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01x05 - Evil in Cajun Country

Episode transcripts for the TV show, "Cold Case Files: m*rder in the Bayou". Aired: December 27, 2024.*
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A dark secret lies beneath the murky depths, but determined investigators, loved ones, and allies won't rest until it's exposed, proving that no misdeed can remain hidden forever.

01x05 - Evil in Cajun Country

Post by bunniefuu »

(melancholy music)

- [Ina] Courtney loved

family get togethers

and she loved having friends.

Happy birthday to you

- They all loved Courtney

because she had that

bubbling personality.

(cheerleaders chanting)

- And I got the phone call

that changed my life forever.

- She was nude from

the waist down.

It was evident that

the body was posed.

(radio muttering)

- She let the person

into the house.

It's somebody she knew.

- You think of all

these horrible things

that go through your mind.

- Why haul her so

far away from home?

Especially with all

the bayous and canals

and stuff in Louisiana where

you could throw a body.

- I said, I'm gonna solve this

case or I'm gonna die trying.

- We never stopped.

We never stopped looking.

We never stopped

asking questions.

In all those years,

we never stopped.

(somber music)

(film reel clicking)

(helicopter whirring)

(flies buzzing)

(boat rumbling)

(birds shrieking)

(gators growling)

(film reel clicking)

(cows lowing)

- Winnie, Texas.

Small farming community.

It's all Texas Bayou country.

Rice, hay, cows, horses.

People go into swamps

and they hunt alligators

and they duck hunt.

Everybody knows everybody,

so you better not

do nothing wrong.

Our crime rate is low.

Most of it is a burglary

or farm equipment stolen.

You get a m*rder

once in a while.

(somber music continues)

- [Narrator] It's a

hot morning in Winnie.

Just north of town,

a farmer on his tractor

passes an abandoned building.

He spies a body in the

shadows and calls the police.

- I knew exactly where it was.

It was about 150 yards down

the street from my house.

The first thing that

went through my mind is,

whose child is it?

Is it one of my neighbor's kids?

I had no idea it

could be somebody

from outta state or outta town.

- It was very clear

that this was a body

of a petite young white female.

It was also very clear

that she had been dead

for some period of time

because there was significant

decomposition to the body.

- She was lying on her back

and her heels pulled

up to her body

so that her knees were up.

She was nude from

the waist down.

It was evident that

the body was posed.

- Who would wanna hurt

somebody to this point,

degrade 'em to this point?

That has to be a sick

individual who did this.

- [Glenn] There were some

tire tracks that led up

to where a car would

logically be positioned

to remove a body from the trunk.

- You're a quarter of a

mile from Interstate 10.

I figured it had to be somebody

who traveled that road

pretty frequently,

who knew that place was there.

If she was sexually assaulted,

wherever it happened, or

wherever she was m*rder*d,

she wasn't k*lled there.

(somber music continues)

We were looking for any

other kind of identifiers,

any other way to

identify the victim.

And I noticed a class ring

from Alexandria High School

in Alexandria, Louisiana.

About 3 1/2 hours away.

There was a name printed

on the inside of it.

Courtney Coco.

I stepped outside the building

and I called Alexandria Police

Department in Louisiana.

(somber music continues)

- [Narrator] Courtney Coco is

a 19-year-old receptionist,

born and raised in Alexandria.

- It's a little small town.

It's a mix of a lot

of country folks,

but a little bit of

Cajun from down South.

It was an awesome place

to raise my girls.

- [Narrator] Courtney has

a house near the Red River,

a short drive from her mother's.

(birds chirping)

(somber music)

- My mom and dad had a

camp at Saline Bayou.

It was on a Friday,

3:30 in the afternoon.

Courtney came to my house,

and I asked Courtney

if she wanted to go

with us to the camp.

She said, "No, Mom, I'm

not the country girl."

And I gave Courtney $10 for gas.

She was gonna come

back and forth

and feed my two little dogs.

So we got home from the

camp late Sunday night,

and I noticed that my

little dogs didn't have

like their food,

but I really wasn't

concerned too much about it

'cause I just thought

maybe Courtney

had come earlier that day.

And Monday around lunchtime,

October 4th, 2004, the detective

from the Alexandria Police

Department called me

and asked me if

Courtney was there.

I said, "Courtney doesn't live

here, but this is her mom.

Is something wrong?"

And he said, "Possibly."

That's when I got the news

of them finding a body in Texas

with my daughter's

ring on the finger.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] Alexandria

Police ask the family

for a way to identify

the victim as Courtney.

- I had told them that Courtney

had braces on her teeth

and that she had just got

a new butterfly tattoo

on her low back.

I didn't want it to be

someone else's child,

but I surely didn't

want it to be Courtney.

And I just remember

the phone ringing

and my sister saying it is.

And my mom said that I

passed out on the floor.

And that's all I

remember about that.

(somber music)

Courtney was the baby.

Her older sisters,

Lace and Heather,

would haul her around like

a little sack of potatoes

and, you know,

play house with her

and play doctor with

her or whatever.

- Courtney was a lovable child.

She had a curious

little nature too.

- [Stephanie] She

loved birthdays.

- She had wit.

- [Stephanie] I love it.

(bright music)

- Courtney was

very into baseball.

Then she got into cheerleading.

- [Cheerleaders] Team up!

- [Ina] Every time

we'd have get togethers

for holidays and stuff,

there was so much

laughter, so much fun.

- Courtney had already

taken some college classes

in her high school

because she wanted to go

into criminal justice.

Her sister, Lace, was working

at a dentist's office,

and Lace got Courtney a job

as the front receptionist.

(bright music continues)

Once Courtney got

out on her own,

now she's got friends

and boyfriend,

and she was dating

a guy named Jitty.

So we didn't get to

see each other as much.

- It was not long after that

where this all

happened with Courtney.

(tense music)

- On October 5th, 2004,

the Jefferson County

morgue did a autopsy

on Courtney Coco's body.

Dr. Brown had reported

that he thought the cause

of death was asphyxiation,

that she had been smothered.

- He immediately realized

that the advanced state

of decomposition was not normal

for the time from which

she had gone missing

to the time she was found.

- He said, well, she

had to be someplace

that was hotter than

the ambient temperature,

like in a car.

- There was no

drugs in her system.

There was no alcohol

in her system.

So we know she didn't OD.

Then there was no evidence

of sexual as*ault.

The way they posed the body

and disgraced her

and everything else,

it surprised me.

- [Narrator] Hoping

for more leads,

Alexandria PD searches

Courtney's house.

(tense music)

- There had been

a party recently,

I believe dominoes

were on the table.

There was some

things in disarray.

Her bedroom, the

bed was in disarray.

There was no

comforter on the bed.

- [Narrator] Under the bed,

police find an empty

Brinks security box.

- Investigators learned early on

that Courtney had

received a settlement

from the untimely

death of her father.

- The first thing

that law enforcement

tends to focus on is,

was this part of a a robbery

or a burglary gone bad?

- [Narrator] Missing

from the house

is any sign of

Courtney's cell phone

or her Pontiac Bonneville.

Detectives notice

something else is missing.

- What we did not find was

evidence of forced entry.

What that means is that she

let the person into the house.

It's somebody she knew.

The names that were written

on the dominoes scorecard

were Courtney,

Jackie, and Lewis.

- [Narrator] Police discover

Lewis is Jackie's boyfriend.

Jackie is a good

friend of Courtney's

and the sister of

Courtney's boyfriend, Jitty.

(tense music continues)

- According to Jackie,

Courtney had driven Jackie

and her kids around town

to run errands.

They went to get

something to eat.

They came back to her

house to play dominoes.

Courtney dropped Jackie off

at Jackie's house around

four o'clock in the morning.

Courtney received a phone

call from Jackie's brother,

Courtney's boyfriend,

Jitty, around 4:30.

- Jitty was Courtney's

off-and-on boyfriend,

and Jitty was known

in the neighborhood

as a possible dealer.

Money is a big

motive for m*rder.

That the Brinks box was open

and empty could indicate

that it was a potential robbery.

I mean, if he's an

on-and-off boyfriend

and he knows about the money,

he knows when her door's locked.

I felt at that point that he

may be involved in the m*rder.

(tense music continues)

- [Ina] They are big crawfish!

- [Stephanie] I know!

- [Ina] God!

- [Father] My baby

loves crawfish.

(child whoops)

- Anytime a female is k*lled,

one of the main ones

you wanna look at is,

who do you suppose,

husband or boyfriend.

- When I was finally

able to interview Jitty,

he answered one

or two questions,

but he answered 'em far

off into left field.

He kinda tapped

around any answers,

and then he just kinda

quit answering anything.

- [Narrator] Detectives

check into the stories

of Courtney's friends,

Jackie and Lewis.

They confirm the two were

dropped off at 4:00 AM.

(tense music)

- They also went

to a gas station

where we see Courtney

on video surveillance

with the clothes

on that were

found later in

her apartment.

She seemed like

everything was fine

in the video

surveillance.

- As far as Alexandria

Police were concerned,

the last person to see Courtney

alive was Jackie and Lewis

and their story checked out.

So in that regard, they're

excluded as suspects.

(tense music continues)

Alexandria Police

looked at Jitty

and he alibied out as well.

At that point, they're outta

people that they know were

with Courtney the day

she was last seen.

And they don't have any motive

that they know of for

Courtney to have been k*lled.

(bells clanging)

(tense music continues)

- I remember my sister saying,

"We need to plan her funeral."

And it was just terrible.

I mean, I was still in shock.

I was still in denial.

(tense music continues)

- The church, which is the

largest church in Alexandria,

the cathedral, was so packed.

There was standing room only

and people standing outside.

So many people talked

about how horrible the fact

that Courtney had been m*rder*d.

- I chose most of

the pallbearers.

Anthony, Lace's

boyfriend at the time,

Courtney's daddy's

little nephew,

and a few of my friends.

I sat next to my dad and I said,

"Daddy, you're my rock.

You're my rock and I need you."

(somber music)

I don't remember what

happened exactly,

I just remember my mom and

dad had to leave straight

from there and go

to the hospital.

(siren wails)

- My husband, Nelson, had

a stroke at the graveyard

when we were burying Courtney.

He did get better,

but he never ever got to be

that Nelson Laborde

that he used to be.

He could not take the loss

of one of his grandchildren.

- [Narrator] While the family

mourns Courtney's loss,

that very same day,

detectives get a

break in the case.

(tense music)

More than 200 miles

away from Bayou Country,

someone is using

Courtney's cell phone

in a place where she has

no known connections.

Houston, Texas.

- At that time, pinging cell

phones was still fairly new.

Your cell phone

carrier can tell me

what tower is

servicing your phone,

so that tower can

track your location

and where you're

using that phone at.

It was traced to an

apartment in Allen Parkway.

Allen Parkway Drive was in

the Fourth Ward of Houston,

which is a pretty low-income

government housing neighborhood.

High crime.

And when we knocked on the

door, a lady answered the door

and we told her who we

were, why we were there.

And a 15-year-old male tried

to dart out the back door,

but the door was locked.

He couldn't get it open.

And we were able to get through

the front door and get him

and grab ahold of him

before he got out.

He had the phone

in his possession.

(tense music)

When we told him who

the phone belonged to

and what happened,

his jaw dropped and

his pupils dilated.

He told us, "I had no idea."

- The young man that purchased

Courtney's cell phone

described that

there were two men,

two Black males in

this green Bonneville,

that sold him the phone for $10.

- He said that he

had just bought it

from somebody off the street,

somebody named Tree and Red.

- [Narrator] Investigators

realized the green Bonneville

could be Courtney's missing car.

They put out an alert

through Crime Stoppers.

A tip leads them to a couple

living in the Fourth Ward.

(tense music continues)

(horns honking)

- Courtney's car was located

there in Houston early night

on October 13th, 2004,

which was almost two weeks

after her body was discovered.

- Two suspects were later found

in possession of Courtney's car

and in what law enforcement

sometimes term a

rent-a-rock deal,

which basically is you

have a stolen vehicle

and you rent that out for

drugs and other things.

- The Houston Police

and the Texas Rangers

drug the couple

into the police department and

they sweated 'em pretty good.

I mean, they sweated

'em really good.

And they both told

a consistent story.

They had traded some

drugs to Red for the car,

and they're just

gonna use the car

until Red shows

back up to get it,

which, of course,

Red never does.

- It got to the point real quick

to where I thought in my mind,

I need to speak

with Tree and Red.

I need to find out

how they got the cell

phone, how they got the car.

(tense music continues)

These two guys are key

players in this case,

and they need to be found.

(thunderous crash)

(somber music)

- Red's obviously

an important link

because Red got the

phone and the the car

from whoever's responsible

for k*lling Courtney.

- You've heard of a

needle in a haystack.

This would be like the eye

of the needle in a haystack.

I mean, you're

looking for two guys

and that's all you

know is Tree and Red.

- But the vehicle, of course,

could contain forensic evidence,

could contain all

sorts of things

that could lead us to

the k*ller or K*llers

in this case.

- The Texas State Police,

when their crime lab

processed the vehicle,

there wasn't any fingerprints

on the door handle

or the steering wheel.

It had been wiped clean.

And there was

bloodstains in the trunk.

When we got to the crime lab,

we sprayed it with luminol

and several spots glowed

in the carpet in the trunk.

- [Narrator] Technicians

compare Courtney's DNA

to the bloodstains.

One is a match.

(somber music continues)

- Finding Courtney's

DNA in the trunk

of her own car is significant.

It confirms that her body

was back there at some point.

- [Narrator] But the car

doesn't contain any clues

to who drove it to Houston

or who are Tree and Red.

- We never did ID Tree or Red.

It was a dead end.

It was just another

tip that went nowhere.

(somber music continues)

- I put my complete trust in

everything into the police

because they were all I

had to get me answers.

- The last time I

went to Alexandria

and I came back and

I told my sheriff,

"I'm getting absolutely nothing.

Alexandria was not helpful."

And my sheriff finally said,

"We've sent you

there three times.

We can't keep doing this."

- When Mr. David Rabalais

came into town to meet us,

and every time he

would talk to somebody,

he felt like they didn't

wanna cooperate with him.

It was kind of like a turf thing

and that bothered that

man and it bothered us.

- [Narrator] The pace of

the investigation slows

like the winding

waters of a bayou,

and the case goes cold.

(melancholy music)

- It was All Saints Day.

I took Stephanie

to the graveyard

to put some flowers

for Courtney.

- I kneeled on her grave

and I said, "Momma promises you

that I'm gonna find

out who put you here."

- That's what she needed to do

because she had to refocus

and she had to get back into

that mode, that fighting mode.

So Stephanie and I, along

with Lace and Heather,

we would get out in the

streets and hand out flyers.

We started hunting

and getting as many tips

as we could from people.

We put up signs.

We did everything we could do.

(somber music)

- I still have dreams and

nightmares of this case.

When I pull outta my

driveway, I can see the house.

It pops back in my mind.

Me and my girlfriend

have put flowers

on Courtney's cross

a couple of times.

The next day I leave, I may

remember the whole crime scene.

I keep asking myself, what

could you have done different?

(somber music continues)

- [Narrator] Determined to

solve Courtney's m*rder,

Stephanie looks for an

expert in cold cases.

- Hello everybody and

welcome to this episode

of Real Life Real

Crime the podcast.

And as always, I'm your

host Woody Overton.

I served over 20 years

in law enforcement.

I kinda made my bones off

of solving cold cases,

and that morphed into

investigative consultant.

The podcast got started

totally by accident.

My wife, she said, "Hey,

everybody loves your voice

and everybody

loves your stories.

You need to start a podcast."

I'm like, "What's a podcast?"

I said, "They

wanna hear a story?

I'll tell 'em a story."

- And I pretty much called Woody

and I begged him

to please help me.

- When I sat down with her

and listened to her pain,

it just broke my heart.

I said, "I'm gonna solve this

case or I'm gonna die trying."

(somber music)

This case is 15 years old now,

and I do not think

it can be solved.

I know it can't be solved

without the help of the public.

And we're going to

establish a hotline

where people can call in tips.

(phone rings)

It was approximately

September of 2019,

three weeks into the podcast,

when I received a telephone

call from a listener.

Tiffany said she knew

beyond a shadow of a doubt

who m*rder*d Courtney Coco.

(tense music)

(tense music)

- Tiffany listens to

Woody, calls Woody's show

and says, "I know

something about

Courtney Coco's death."

- And so I was able

to contact her,

and she told me

that her ex-husband

was the k*ller's best

friend back in that day.

Her ex-husband's

name was Shamus.

- [Shamus] Hey, Mom.

- When this phone call came

in, it changed everything.

It was a great piece of

the puzzle to start with.

I asked Tiffany to do

the recording of Shamus.

I said, what if it

was one of your kids?

What would you do?

I didn't know if she

would do it or not,

but she wanted to

help and she did it.

(tense music continues)

- David Anthony Burns was

Courtney's sister's fiance.

When I first heard

the recording,

I was like, holy smokes.

It wasn't necessarily

the smoking g*n.

Shamus coulda had

a beef with Burns.

You know, I had to work it.

But it was fire.

Then I was able to find out

that David Anthony

Burns was missing

that weekend Courtney

had been m*rder*d.

A witness had called and was

asked to clock him into work

on that Saturday,

October 2nd, 2004

even though he wasn't at work.

And Burns said that he was

at the Dunes that weekend

which is a place where

they ride four-wheelers.

He was telling all

these different things

and none of 'em added up.

He was later picked up

in Lake Charles on Monday

by his mother, 50 miles

from Winnie, Texas

where Courtney's

body was dumped.

So this is a fluid act of

things that I'm stacking up,

stacking up for the

next three weeks.

(tense music continues)

- [Narrator] Woody sits

down with Stephanie

and the family and

breaks the news.

- I said, "Listen, what

I'm about to tell you

is gonna be so hard

for you to hear.

David Anthony Burns

m*rder*d Courtney Coco."

- We were all kind of in shock.

Lace was literally

just traumatized,

like uncontrollable crying.

- It was very hard for

us to grasp the fact

that Anthony could

have done this.

Anthony and Lace lived together.

And he prayed with us,

cried with us, every time we met

and discussed Courtney's case.

- And even when we went

and erected the cross

in Winnie, Texas, he helped

us dig the hole to put it in.

- I couldn't believe

that he was a pallbearer

at Courtney's funeral.

That was really hard to take.

I guess that's why

it hurts so deep.

- The questions start coming.

So I then had to explain to them

that I couldn't go any further.

I had to turn this over

to law enforcement.

- [Narrator] Woody

turns over the recording

to the Alexandria Police.

A new set of detectives

take on the case.

(tense music)

- When they showed up to pick

Shamus up for questioning,

he said, "I've been waiting

15 years for this moment."

During the interview,

Shamus said

that David Anthony Burns

had told him he

k*lled Courtney Coco.

- [Narrator] Investigators

comb through the list

of tips reported over

the past 15 years.

They find several that

mentioned Anthony.

- The Alexandria

Police Department

did talk to two people

that said Anthony Burns

told me he k*lled Courtney.

They thought this is the time

to go talk to Anthony Burns.

- Lace damn sure remembers

what was going on the weekend

that Courtney disappeared,

and the story that she

gave was not the story

that Anthony Burns

provided the police.

According to Lace, she and

Anthony had been arguing

and fighting on Friday.

And Anthony gets mad

at her and leaves,

and takes the only car

they have between them.

(tense music)

- And she vividly remembers

that she saw Burns

for the first time after the

whole family was gathered

at Stephanie's house

after they learned

that Courtney's

body was in Texas.

- You got not one, not

two, but three people

that have said Anthony Burns

said he m*rder*d Courtney Coco.

He has a connection

to Courtney Coco

and he's lied about where he

was the weekend she's m*rder*d.

Not looking too good for

Anthony at this point, is it?

(tense music continues)

- There's no other possibility

in my professional opinion

than David Anthony Burns

murdering Courtney Coco.

(gentle music)

- Anthony Burns' alibi was,

he was at home with

Lace that weekend.

That's not the story she gave.

It was something

totally different.

- [Narrator] Police

bring Anthony Burns

back to the station

for a CVSA, computer

voice stress analyzer.

It detects tiny modulations

in a person's voice

when they lie.

- [Policeman] Okay.

(tense music)

- Anthony failed the voice

stress analysis test.

At that point, he decided

he didn't wanna talk anymore

until he conferred with counsel.

- [Narrator] The evidence is

mounting against Anthony Burns,

but police want more

to secure a conviction.

(tense music continues)

- Detective Tanner

Dryden went back

and combed meticulously

through all

of the leads that came in.

He found a witness by

the name of Jude Wilson.

- The night before the

body was discovered,

Jude's on the road

which has the abandoned house

where Courtney's body was found.

And there's a dark

four-door sedan

that backs out of that house

at 10:00 something at night.

He almost gets in

a wreck with it.

- He went to report this at

Chambers County Sheriff's Office

like the next day, and it

got lost in an investigation.

- Jude is contacted by Tanner,

what, 16 years

after this occurs.

And Jude said,

"Oh yeah, I remember it

like it was yesterday."

- [Narrator] Investigators

realize the description

of the car and the license plate

matches Courtney's

Pontiac Bonneville.

- Jude Wilson.

He's an artist,

and he's like, I could draw

you a sketch of his profile.

And he did it and sent it over.

And it looked just like

David Anthony Burns.

- When they put the lineup

in front of Jude Wilson,

he immediately picked

one picture out.

And that was the picture

of David Anthony Burns.

(tense music continues)

It really was a turning

point in the case.

Now we have something

that ties a suspect

to the body dump location.

There's a special

prosecutor in our area

that actually travels

throughout the state

named Hugo Holland.

And he is a hired g*n

for district attorney's offices

in places that have

difficult cases.

- I set the case

up for grand jury.

It took the grand

jury, I don't know,

about three minutes to decide

to indict Anthony Burns

for second-degree m*rder.

And I walked out and said,

"Hey, here's the indictment.

Let's go get a warrant

and pick this guy up."

(tense music)

- Detective Dryden and his

partner went to Burns' workplace

and they took him into custody.

He just grinned.

He thought he was smarter

than everybody else,

and he thought he

was untouchable.

- I was at a red light

and my phone rang.

And Tanner Dryden said,

"Guess who I have in

the backseat of my car?

David Anthony Burns."

And I think I ran

through that red light.

I had to pull over, I was

shaking and crying so bad.

(somber music)

- Anthony Burns pled not guilty

to the m*rder of Courtney Coco.

- [Narrator] Prosecutor

Hugo Holland prepares

for a trial based

on witness testimony

without any physical

evidence connecting Burns

to Courtney's m*rder.

(tense music)

- I fully realized the

problems with the case.

I wasn't sure how strong

Jude was gonna come off

and I didn't know if the

jury was gonna believe

the three confessions.

I warned Stephanie

and Courtney's family,

we've got a 50-50 chance

of winning this at trial.

Let me go and explore a

possible manslaughter plea.

When I approached the

defense lawyer with that,

he laughed at me.

He said, "We're

trying the case."

And I said, "Well, okay

b*tches, let's do it."

(somber music)

- Anytime you take a case

of this magnitude to a jury,

you never know the outcome.

- We finally got

our day in court.

Anthony would not

look us in the eye.

(somber music continues)

- [Narrator] Prosecutor

Holland brings

in his three witnesses

to testify that Burns admitted

he k*lled Courtney Coco.

- There was a skittish witness.

Did not wanna be there.

- When Shamus gets on

the stand at trial,

he doesn't exactly say

what was on the recording.

He tried to color

it a little bit.

- And then the third

one was a homeless guy

who I had to send Glenn

Younger with the state police

to arrest at a

shelter in Missouri.

And the witness looked

right at Anthony

and said something like,

"Anthony, you know

what you told me.

Why don't you get

up here like a man

and tell 'em what you told me?"

That got a reaction

from Anthony.

You could tell he wanted

to beat the guy up.

- Mr. Holland put

up on the screen

this silhouette drawing

that Jude Wilson

had drawn of Anthony Burns.

And then he does a

still frame of a video

of Anthony Burns driving

down the road in a car.

It really got the

jury's attention.

The defense attorney came

at it very aggressively.

How could you pick

someone from a silhouette

and pick 'em from a line up?

- The family,

they didn't know.

Here I guess they had a

certain amount of fear

that he was gonna get off.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] The jury

leaves for deliberations.

In a surprising move,

the 12 members return

in just over an hour.

- And I knew, just 'cause

I've done this more than once,

that a jury is not acquitting

somebody in 75 minutes.

- The jury came back with a

unanimous verdict of guilty

for David Anthony Burns

for second-degree m*rder

and the death of Courtney Coco.

- Anthony Burns was

dutifully convicted

and tossed into Angola

for the rest of his life.

(door buzzing)

- The trial, it was bittersweet.

Still to this day, I still

don't know how Courtney died.

I don't know where

Courtney died.

(somber music)

- I believe the motive was

Anthony Burns attempted

to have sexual relations

with Courtney that night,

and she spurned him

and he k*lled her.

(somber music continues)

- So what does he do?

Well, he uses the comforter

that was on her bed,

wraps her up, and puts her

in the trunk of her car.

As soon as the body

gets dropped off,

Anthony does what

Anthony's gotta do.

He's gonna show her, so he

poses the body like he does,

and then get on over to

Houston to get rid of the car.

(somber music continues)

- I will one day get

Anthony to tell me

what he really did to Courtney.

(somber music continues)

- The next day was

All Saints Day,

exactly 18 years to the day

that I kneeled on

Courtney's grave

and promised her I'd find

out who put her there.

I was on my knees

thanking the Lord

for bringing

somebody into my life

that actually helped me.

- Hey.

And that was Woody.

- It's so good to see you.

- My hero.

- Mua.

Still got your bracelet.

- Remember the first

day in your kitchen

when we took it on, right?

And you gave it to me

and haven't taken it all since.

You can still read it.

- [Stephanie] It says,

"Justice for Courtney"

and, "The Lord is close

to the broken hearted."

- Right.

It just means a lot to me.

And then at some point I know

I gotta take it off, right?

But I can't make

myself do it yet.

(somber music continues)

- Oh, this is so precious.

- [Stephanie] I know.

- She had

I think about Courtney

every moment of my day.

- [Ina] That is my

absolute favorite.

- Courtney brought lots

of joy to our lives.

She's teaching him how to dance.

- [Ina] Oh, that's just Lace.

- Even though she was only here

for 19 short years,

she did a lot.

She touched a lotta

people's lives.

- [Ina] 'Cause that was

the last time I saw her.

- Hmm.

- And you know

- I felt a calling to

be a victim's advocate

for people that didn't have

nobody in their corner.

I do it because Courtney pushes

me forward to keep going.

And I feel like with

me helping others

that her death wasn't in vain

because that's what she

wanted to do was help others.

(somber music continues)