03x06 - Mo Wilson and Liam Smith

[bunniefuu]

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: This time on "K*llers
Caught on Camera," in Austin,

Texas, a woman is
shot three times

on the eve of a bike race--

NARRATOR: --after a lunch
date with a friend

shapes a fatal love triangle--

NARRATOR: --that evolves
into an international manhunt.

- Somebody had
stood over her and

fired one shot through
her after she had

already fallen to the floor.

NARRATOR: And in the North
of England,

a suspected gangland
hit involves

a shotgun and sulfuric acid.

- Why would an orchestrated
hit like this

happen in such a quiet
residential area?

[THEME MUSIC]

MAN [ON PHONE]: It just
sounds like something

bad is happening to her.

WOMAN: We know what
happened because the video

tells us what happened.

WITNESS: I heard some g*nshots.

OFFICER: Drop it.

[OVERLAPPING SPEECH]

OFFICER: Drop it.

SUSPECT: That does not
prove that I k*lled my wife.

MAN: The camera doesn't lie.

NARRATOR: In Central
Texas, the state capital,

Austin, in May 2022,
emergency services

received a panicked call.

[SIRENS WAILING]

NARRATOR: Austin Police
were the first on the scene.

NARRATOR: First responders
found a young woman

lying on the bathroom floor.

The friend, who had called


[CRYING]

- On the right, right here.

TIMOTHY PRICE:
As the first responding

patrol officers arrived
and emergency medical services,

they quickly realized that
the victim was deceased.

And they pronounced
her dead on scene.

[OVERLAPPING SPEECH]
- Yes.

Yeah, they're here.
OFFICER: 1, 2, 3.

MAN [ON PHONE]: OK, I'll let
you go so you can talk to them.

OK?
- OK.

OFFICER: She talk to anyone--

NARRATOR: Police questioned
the friend to find out

who the deceased woman was.

NARRATOR: Moriah
Wilson, known as Mo,

was staying in Austin to take
part in the Gravel Locos race.

- Mo was a remarkable friend.

She was introverted,
but she really

had this intensity
and fierceness

and this like, quiet power.

NARRATOR: Mo grew up
in East Burke, Vermont.

She was born
into an athletic family.

- Mo comes from
an athletic family.

Her dad was a very
successful ski racer.

She also had a younger brother
who was also a ski racer.

NARRATOR: When Mo went
to study engineering

at Dartmouth
College, she joined

the Women's Alpine Ski team.

- She was a competitor
through and through.

NARRATOR: But after
a series of injuries,

Mo moved on from
skiing to focus

on competitive bike racing.

FORESTE PETERSON: Cycling was
the next best thing for her.

She was really good at it,
and she could channel

that competitive energy.

NARRATOR: In 2019, Mo
graduated from Dartmouth

and moved to San Francisco.

She started competing
in gravel racing competitions.

JIM MILLER: Her
first few races,

she just dominated the field
and a world-class field

at that.

And then from there,
her star was on the rise

as one of the premier
racers to come

along in a long, long time.

[RADIO CHATTER]

NARRATOR: At the crime
scene, police

began a meticulous
search for evidence.

- There had been fired
cartridge cases located

near her body,
and she had wounds

consistent with being shot.

NARRATOR: They also discovered
that Mo's bike was missing.

NARRATOR: But the bike wasn't
far from the apartment.

- My initial thought
is, why is this property

belonging to the victim
several feet down

and hidden in the bushes?

We felt pretty certain
that the possible suspect

in the homicide had
removed that bike.

NARRATOR: Mo's injuries
also gave the police

another clue about her k*ller.

- We located a g*nsh*t
wound in her chest

that went through her
chest, through her back,

and into the floor below her.

And it appeared that
somebody had stood over her

and fired one shot
through her after she had

already fallen to the floor.

I began to get the feeling
that whoever did this,

there could have been
a personal aspect to it.

NARRATOR: Police began
searching the area

for surveillance footage.

They discovered
a camera pointing

down the alley
beside the apartment

where Mo had been found.

TIMOTHY PRICE:
There was a vehicle

observed on that
video footage that was

identified as a black Jeep.

We also observed the brake
lights going on and off,

which showed us that the person
was possibly unsure of where

they were going.

We found the black
Jeep also had

a very distinct wheel pattern.

NARRATOR: Police questioned
Mo's friend to find out who

Mo had been with that night.

- And was with him?

NARRATOR: Colin Strickland
was a professional bike racer.

He'd won some
of gravel cycling's

most prestigious races.

RICHARD SPITLER:
Colin and Moriah

had a very brief relationship.

That relationship
ended when Moriah

left to go back to California.

They were still friends and
would still meet up on rides

every now and then, if they
happened to be in the same city

or at the same race.

NARRATOR: As the last
known person to see Mo,

Colin was now
a person of interest.

The next morning, Thursday, May


went to Colin's residence.

RICHARD SPITLER:
At this point, I

didn't know if Colin
was the person

responsible for this m*rder or
if maybe he was just a witness.

I decided that I would
do a death notification.

- I didn't have any
solid proof to indicate

that Colin was the person
responsible for this m*rder.

So I told Colin that
I wanted his help

in investigating this
crime, and I wanted to find

out who was responsible.

NARRATOR: Colin was
brought in to the police

department for an interview.

- I began asking him
more about Moriah,

more about their outing.

- He was able to show
me different text

messages, the plans
that they were making.

- The name in Colin's phone
for Moriah was Christine Wall.

NARRATOR: The question
was, why did Colin

have to keep Mo Wilson
saved in his phone

under someone else's name?

RICHARD SPITLER: He indicated
that he does have a girlfriend

named Kaitlin Armstrong.

Kaitlin currently
lives with him

and she would tend
to be jealous.

JULIA SHAW: Having
a contact in your phone

under a different name,
it definitely feels

shady in the first instance.

If you have a partner
who is jealous,

and you want to communicate
with someone whom you've

had a sexual
relationship with before,

then you might just put
them under a different name,

even if there's nothing
else really going on.

The problem with
minor deceptions

is that it can really
amplify a jealous mind.

When he says that
Kaitlin is jealous

of it seems all
his female friends,

that signifies that there is
a bigger issue going on here

with her general jealousy.

It seems almost as if it's part
of this idea of love for him,

and that he's thereby
normalizing or rationalizing

it, even though it
sounds like it might be

jealousy that is quite severe.

[THEME MUSIC]

KATY CONNER: We were
able to get an alibi.

We were able to get a story
of where he had been,

what he had done,
and so started

trying to look to see if we
could find surveillance

video at that point
to try and corroborate

his story and his alibi.

NARRATOR: Police obtained
surveillance footage

from the pool bar
where Colin said

they went after their swim.

- This video shows Collin and
Moriah having a conversation.

They appear calm.

She doesn't look like
she's in any kind of fear.

She drinks from his
drink, very friendly.

NARRATOR: Mo and Collin
left the pool bar together.

They were then captured
on multiple cameras

on Collin's motorcycle,
heading towards the apartment

where Mo was later found dead.

- There's another angle of
Collin on that white motorbike.

This is important
because this corroborates

the story that
Colin has told us

of what happened that evening.

NARRATOR: In his
interview, Colin

told police that
he had dropped Mo

off in the alley behind the
house where she was staying.

NARRATOR: Investigators
discovered

that the apartment
where Mo was staying

had an electronic door lock.

It logged her arriving
home at 8:36 PM.

Just one minute
later, the black Jeep

was captured
on camera in the alley

just outside the apartment.

While we don't have
a clear view of the license

plate of this car,
that doesn't stop us

from getting a lot of
information, this very obvious

running stripe, as well as what
appears to be some sort of rack

on the back of the vehicle.

This car is in the area
at the time of the homicide.

NARRATOR: In the hours
leading up to Mo's m*rder,

the black Jeep was caught
on camera multiple times

circling the neighborhood.

KELLY FICNER: We're able
to see that running stripe

in the bike rack on the back.

We've seen this vehicle now
on several camera angles

and traveling at a very
slow rate of speed,

really appearing
to prowl the area.

This is potentially
the suspect in this homicide.

NARRATOR: Police had
seen this vehicle before.

It had been parked
in Collin's driveway

when they first
visited his house.

KELLY FICNER: We noticed this
dark SUV with the bike rack

on the rear.

We see that silver
running stripe

along the side of the vehicle.

NARRATOR: Detective Spitler
asked Colin who owned the Jeep.

RICHARD SPITLER: I told
Colin that Kaitlin's Jeep

is on camera, that it's
in the neighborhood at the time

that Moriah had
gotten home after he

had already dropped her off.

Colin was shocked.

He was very surprised.

- When he says that she's a
mild, gentle person, that to me

feels like he in his
mind has a version of her

that even though she's jealous,
she would never do anything.

He's probably running through
all these moments, maybe even

the jealous moments, maybe the
moments where she's potentially

gone through his phone and yet
thinking, no, but she's gentle

and she's like me.

We're the same.

We're calm and quiet.

And so it feels
like he's trying

to say to this police officer,
it couldn't have been her.

Like, this is not
in her demeanor at all.

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: When they asked
if Caitlin owned a g*n,

Colin told the police
that he had

recently bought two
handguns, one for himself

and one for Kaitlin.

NARRATOR: Colin had been
in an on-off relationship

with Kaitlin
Armstrong since 2019.

She was a yoga teacher,
realtor, and also

had a background in finance.

RICHARD SPITLER: It
was found that Kaitlin

had an active warrant for her
arrest, a class B misdemeanor

warrant for theft of service.

She had received
a Botox treatment,

but she didn't pay for it.

NARRATOR: It gave the police
a reason to bring Kaitlin in.

NARRATOR: It was a chance
to volunteer anything she

might know about Mo's death.

KATY CONNER: She was placed
in the interview room.

And we let them sit
for a little bit

because we do want to watch
their body language,

see what they do, how they
respond, they're fidgety,

if they're not.

She was interesting because she
was extremely still,

which kind of stood out to me.

- Typically, with
a truthful person

that has not done
anything, they're

going to respond in a manner
of, how can I help you?

They're going to offer
up information.

So it was a very
different reaction

than what I expected from her.

NARRATOR: Kaitlin Armstrong
was allowed to walk free,

but the police had a search
warrant for the home

she shared with Collin.

- We were able
to locate two handguns.

Those handguns were tested
against the fired cartridge

cases that I found
on scene near the victim.

One of the handguns came
back as a positive match.

NARRATOR: Police also
found footage of Kaitlin

at the sh**ting range.

She was clearly capable
of handling a g*n.

[THEME MUSIC]

Both Collin
and Kaitlin's cell phones

were seized during
the search of their property.

When the police traced both
of their movements on the night

that Mo had been k*lled, they
revealed a major discrepancy.

RICHARD SPITLER:
Colin's whereabouts

are known for that night,
but Kaitlin's are not.

It appeared as,
though, her device

had circled around
downtown Austin

and then began traveling
to East Austin.

Kaitlin's device, it turns off.

This is something
that is normally

seen when someone is trying
to conceal their movements,

because they are about
to commit a crime.

NARRATOR: Colin Strickland
was now in the clear.

Armed with this new evidence,
police issued a warrant

for Kaitlin's arrest.

- The only problem was that
when they went to pick Kaitlin

up, no one could find her.

KATY CONNER: We noticed that
her social media shut down.

Nobody had heard from her.

So we knew, OK, something's up.

She might have taken
off at that point.

NARRATOR: Police discovered
that two days after Mo had been

k*lled, Kaitlin
Armstrong was at a car

dealership in South
Austin where she sold

her black Jeep for $12,000.

KELLY FICNER: This video
shows Kaitlin Armstrong

in the waiting area dealing
with her cell phone.

There appears to be some
plastic hanging off this phone.

Is this a new cell phone?

Is she making plans
to leave the area?

She doesn't seem agitated.

NARRATOR: When the police
seized the Jeep,

the GPS system revealed
Kaitlin's exact movements

on the night Mo
Wilson was k*lled.

- There was a lot of data
and GPS hits showing the Jeep

circling the neighborhood.

We were able to put that
black Jeep on the scene

at the time of the m*rder.

It showed that Kaitlin
Armstrong had planned this.

It showed that she knew
where Mo was staying.

And she was going
to wait for them to come

back to possibly confront Mo.

NARRATOR: Mo Wilson was
caught in the middle

of a complicated situation,
unaware of the intensity

of emotions
and their consequences.

Police knew Mo had been shot
three times, twice in the head

and once in the chest
while lying on the floor.

Then police found footage from
a neighbor's security camera,

which revealed
the distressing sound

of Mo Wilson's last moments.

The pattern
of the shots is callous.

[g*nshots]

KELLY FICNER: The space
of time between that second and

third shot would have allowed
the sh**ter to turn and leave,

but this perpetrator
didn't do that.

They followed the victim
into another room

and fired that third
and fatal shot.

- I stayed away from
the investigation.

I found that it just--

it kind of unraveled me.

The more I learned, the more
it just deeply upset me.

NARRATOR: But Kaitlin
Armstrong was on the run.

She was missing, wanted as part
of a m*rder investigation.

Weeks passed by, and the
investigation hit a dead end.

Then a breakthrough.

Police discovered that
Caitlin had fled the country

using her sister's passport.

KELLY FICNER: We have
Kaitlin just making her way

calmly through the airport.

She's wearing a face
covering, which,

while not mandated at this
time, is very easy for her

to obstruct her face
from view of the cameras

and from other people
without causing any alarm

or raising any red flags
for those around her.

But we can see Kaitlin's
distinctive yoga mat here.

NARRATOR: Her yoga mat was
the only clue the police had.

US Marshals flew to Costa Rica.

Weeks of investigation
drew a blank.

Investigators decided
to try their luck

and put out a flyer
for a yoga teacher.

- Kaitlin just
happened to reach

out to one of those flyers.

NARRATOR: After 43
days on the run,

Kaitlin Armstrong
was finally located

and arrested at a hostel.

But she looked different.

[THEME MUSIC]

RICHARD SPITLER:
Caitlin had changed

her hair color, her style,
the length of her hair.

But she also had
gotten a nose job,

and she was currently
in the healing process

from this surgery.

- She ran.

She fled the country,
changed her appearance,

spent thousands of dollars
altering her face

with cosmetic surgery.

NARRATOR: Because she
traveled into the country

illegally on her
sister's passport.

Caitlin was deported
from Costa Rica

and arrested by US officials.

Kaitlin was charged with
first degree m*rder.

She pled not guilty.

But two weeks before
the trial was due to start,

her determination to flee
justice surfaced again.

- She claimed that
she had a leg injury

and which required her
to not use leg restraints,

and that she needed to go
to a doctor's office

that was outside of the jail.

As they go to this doctor's
office, she bolts for it.

It was a thought out escape.

It was-- it was not something
that was a spur of the moment.

She gets almost a mile away
before she's actually caught.

It was very telling.

She does not come across as a
person that has any remorse.

NARRATOR: After
a 17-day trial, Kaitlin

Armstrong was found
guilty of the first

degree m*rder of Mo Wilson.

She was sentenced to 90 years.

But the question
remained, why did she

commit such a horrific m*rder?

TIMOTHY PRICE: By all
accounts, Kaitlin Armstrong

appeared to be a fairly
intelligent person.

I believe that there
was a jealousy issue.

And I believe that she k*lled
Moriah Wilson in cold blood.

She plotted and planned
this m*rder.

She tracked Moriah
Wilson to that apartment.

And she stood over her
and shot her one final time.

And for somebody
to be able to do that,

to have the capacity
to do that, it's

just-- it's just cold hearted.

JULIA SHAW: It's extremely
rare to have a woman k*ll

another woman over a partner.

Mo ends up being the target
of Kaitlin's jealousy,

of her morbid jealousy.

And I feel like it
could have almost

as easily been somebody else.

But maybe because Mo
kind of had it all--

she was a really successful
cyclist, which was exactly

what her partner was into.

She was beautiful.

She was intelligent.

She was a friend who
often saw her partner

and had a sexual
history with him.

So maybe she was the ultimate
threat in her mind.

And so that's why
she k*lled Mo.

[THEME MUSIC]

JIM MILLER: The reaction
among the cycling community

was just utter disbelief
that something like this

could befall
our world, let alone

Moriah Wilson, someone
who had just so much

future, so much potential.

It was devastating
and shocking on every level.

FORESTE PETERSON:
I think I'll best

remember her as this hard
charging, gritty, sweet girl.

She was fierce,
intense, but so sweet

and had the kindest heart.

She was really special.

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: Kaitlin
Armstrong brutally

m*rder*d Mo Wilson as a result
of her morbid jealousy.

JULIA SHAW: What
jealousy does is

it moves you from
suspicions to beliefs,

and those beliefs
become your reality.

And at some point,
you might feel

the need to act
on that reality,

even if it's not based in fact.

And sometimes you might be
jealous or morbidly jealous

because you perceive
a relationship

between your partner
and somebody else,

and you seek at some point to
eliminate the romantic rival.

In other circumstances,
though, you

can have a single instance that
is just sticking in your mind.

And in those cases,
it can become

an all-consuming
experience where,

again, even without
sufficient evidence

that anything particularly
untoward happened,

you constantly are thinking
about this moment in time.

And that kind of fixation,
that version of morbid jealousy

can also lead to taking
matters into your own hands.

NARRATOR:
In the winter of 2022,

British police found
themselves confronted

with a complete mystery,
a case, which ultimately

also came down to jealousy.

[THEME MUSIC]

In the Northwest
of England is Wigan.

AMBER HAQUE: Wigan is
a former industrial town.

It was known back
in the day for its textiles,

like many of the towns
and cities

around here in the North
that declined

throughout the 20th century.

And nowadays, it's a lot more
known for its green spaces,

its parks, and canalside.

NARRATOR: At 6:38 PM on
November 24, Greater Manchester

Police received a call.

A body had been found in the
Shevington district of Wigan.

Emergency services were
quickly on the scene.

What they found was
highly disturbing.

[RADIO CHATTER]

- When the first responders
arrived at the scene,

it was apparent quite
quickly that the victim

had been attacked with some
sort of corrosive substance.

- His body was covered
in sulfuric acid

and sodium carbonate.

His body was smoking,
really concerning

for everybody who approached
there and also prevented people

actually rendering first aid.

- The paramedics were
uncertain about what

this corrosive
substance might be,

but it was apparent
that the victim

had succumbed to his injuries.

[BEEPING]

NARRATOR: It was only when
police accessed footage

from security cameras that
they began to understand

what they were dealing with.

[THEME MUSIC]

[g*nsh*t]

- Although it was
dark at the time,

the police heard this really
distinctive noise of a g*nsh*t.

[g*nsh*t]

Alongside the acid attack,
the victim had suffered

a single g*nsh*t to the face.

This changed the police
investigation completely.

NARRATOR: The crime
presented a total mystery

for investigators.

- Even though this sh**ting
bore all the hallmarks

of a gangland
sh**ting, this is 90%

elderly people living there.

So who and why would
an orchestrated hit like this

happen in such a quiet
residential area?

NARRATOR: It wasn't until
the day after the m*rder

that a possible name
for the victim emerged.

- In the initial
search of the area,

police found
a property which had

been left unsecured, as though
somebody had just popped out.

A short while afterwards,
that person's family

then reported him missing.

NARRATOR: The victim
was confirmed

as 38-year-old Liam Smith.

[THEME MUSIC]

AMBER HAQUE: Liam Smith
was an electrician.

He had his own business.

He was the father
to two young sons.

And although he was
separated from his partner,

he was still very much a part
of his children's life.

In many ways, this only deepens
the mystery for the police.

They're then wondering
about the motive

for such a vicious crime.

Could it even be
the case that this

was an incident
of mistaken identity,

where Liam was just in the
wrong place at the wrong time?

ROBERTA BABB: The extreme
use of violence

may communicate
a number of things.

It might be about
destroying evidence.

It may be about obliterating
the identity of the individual.

But it could also be about
sending a clear message

to the families of the victim
that this person

has done something wrong and
retaliation has taken place.

NARRATOR: An autopsy
on Liam's body

revealed further
alarming details

of the manner of his k*lling.

- He was shot in the face
with an adapted GL*CK

with shot pellets
and a much larger

sphere that had been added, I
believe, for maximum damage.

They were really
interesting aspects,

and as a team made us
ask lots of questions

around why somebody would
use those particular types

of chemicals.

Why would somebody use
that particular combination

of ammunition.

NARRATOR: With so little
information to go on,

police began to search
for more video evidence.

Liam's own security
cameras provided

the first breakthrough.

AMBER HAQUE: A little
after 6:30 PM,

a man in a high vis jacket and
a head torch gets out of a car,

which is parked a little
further away on the street

and heads towards the house.

GINA BRENNAND: He disappears
for probably about 40

seconds out of camera,
potentially to lure

Liam out of his address.

He has a phone in his hand.

And then he turns
left in Liam's drive,

and he walks back
to the vehicle

wearing a fluorescent
jacket, a headlamp,

all efforts to disguise
his identity.

- Liam comes out of his
house, presumably

alerted by the CCTV cameras.

He checks around
the side of the house.

He then comes
to the front and pauses

before heading
towards his parked car

a little further up the road.

GINA BRENNAND: That's a
heartbreaking moment to watch.

It's the last few
seconds of Liam's life.

Less than half
a minute later, there's

the sound, the audio
sound of one g*nsh*t.

[g*nsh*t]

- The vehicle drives
away, but then,

strangely, a few minutes later,
returns to the crime scene.

The man gets out of his
car with the chemicals

and pours them
onto Liam's body.

It does seem strange after
sh**ting Liam in the face

fatally that this assailant
would return to the crime scene

to then throw these
chemicals on the body.

It does beg
the question, was this

to cause further
damage and pain to him,

or maybe even to send
some kind of message?

NARRATOR: Police continued to
search through hours of footage

from the surrounding area.

- Police now discovered two
vital pieces of evidence.

The first was some
footage from the dash cam

of a supermarket delivery van.

[THEME MUSIC]

On that footage, we
see the assailants

vehicle arriving on the street
at 7:30 AM that morning.

This vehicle was also spotted
on the cameras of a bin lorry

in the area that morning.

It was a car with the license
plate beginning R22.

GINA BRENNAND: He parked
up on Liam's road,

and there he stayed
without breaking cover,

without leaving that
vehicle for almost 10 hours

before he m*rder*d Liam.

- The fact that someone sat
outside Liam Smith's house

for 10 hours gives us a real
insight into their psyche.

This is someone who is
committed to the course

of action that
they want to take.

They're subscribing to a code
that makes sense to them,

but really makes them judge,
jury, and executioner.

NARRATOR: Police
quickly discovered

the license plates
on the vehicle had been cloned.

- From the assailant's
movements,

the police thought
that he must have

had some prior
knowledge of the area,

maybe had even visited
the address previously.

NARRATOR: The hunch
proved to be correct.

After days of meticulously
searching CCTV,

they found further sightings
of the car in Liam's street

three weeks before the m*rder.

- The driver
of this car matched

the description
of the assailant

from the night
of Liam's k*lling.

NARRATOR: Police believed it
was a hostile reconnaissance.

At that time, the license plate
on the Jeep was different.

Again, they checked
and worked out

that the plate was also fake.

- These false plates had
been caught on an ANPR camera

over in Sheffield.

So this now gave the police
their first clue and a new area

to search.

GINA BRENNAND: A couple of
weeks into the investigation,

we received intelligence
from South Yorkshire Police

that a vehicle had been
stopped three weeks

before Liam was m*rder*d.

And in that vehicle
was the R22 plate.

It was that that really
unraveled this case.

- This is a false number plate.

So they confiscate it, but it
then seems that the driver

created an identical set.

NARRATOR: Police
were now able to link

the driver of that vehicle back
to a business in Sheffield.

They visited
the premises and searched

CCTV cameras in the vicinity.

- They found footage
of an individual who

matched the description
of the assailant,

parking a Shogun car with
the false number plates

and then going
into the business premises.

They then found footage
of the same individual

parking an Audi car
outside the premises.

NARRATOR: A check of the
license details on the Audi

gave them a name,
Michael Hillier.

[THEME MUSIC]

AMBER HAQUE: Hillier
was a known drug dealer

around the area of Sheffield.

He had previous
convictions for violence.

Police also discovered
incidences of coercive control

and domestic violence.

NARRATOR: Hillier was tracked
down to his home in Sheffield

and taken into custody.

- This photograph communicates
power, control, and dominance.

To me, it's a communication
of aggression, distance.

There's the communication
that this connects

to a gangster lifestyle.

- When Hillier was first
interviewed by police,

he played it very
cool, giving no comment

answers across the board.

And the police were really
struggling at this stage

to establish
a link between Liam

in Hillier, other
than the fact that he

had been seen on that CCTV
footage outside Liam's home.

But unbeknown to Hillier
his car insurance details

revealed another name
to the police, Rachel Fulstow.

Rachel had been
in a relationship with Hillier

since 2021, and they had
just come back from a holiday

to Jamaica.

When police arrive
at Rachel Fulstow address,

she admitted
to officers that she

had met Liam Smith
in September 2019,

that they had gone on a date
after meeting on Tinder.

They had spent the night
together and also

gone for lunch the next day.

NARRATOR: She was initially
brought in and questioned

as a potential witness.

GINA BRENNAND: When
she was interviewed,

Rachel spoke at length
but denied any involvement.

She said she only
knew that Liam

had been k*lled when
Hillier told her the day

after Liam had been m*rder*d.

NARRATOR: At first, she
was treated as a witness,

but it wasn't long before
further evidence came to light.

- Police found she searched
for Wigan wicked m*rder

just hours after Liam had been
k*lled, before his name had

been released to the public.

GINA BRENNAND:
That in itself was

a really significant search.

How could she have known
that the man that she'd

had a one night
stand with two years

before was dead on the street,
unless she was involved.

NARRATOR: Detectives then found
a string of suspicious messages

on Fulstow's phone.

AMBER HAQUE: The day
before the m*rder, Hillier

sent a text to Rachel
saying he was ill

and in need of some TLC.

She said she was on her way.

GINA BRENNAND: Rachel was
sending Hillier messages

knowing he wasn't
there, because Rachel

had been at Hillier's house
when he left to m*rder Liam.

And she knew he'd
left his phone there.

Clear alibi messages.

Hillier sent no messages.

He had no phone with him.

He deliberately left
his phone at home.

NARRATOR: Deeper dives
into Fulstow's search

history only added
to the weight

of the evidence against her.

- In October 2022, a month
before Liam's k*lling,

Fulstow had been searching
for his company details online.

And she'd been looking up
his address on Google Earth.

Her phone also showed searches
for a Mitsubishi Shogun car

and how long it takes
to burn a car out completely.

This was just days
before Liam's k*lling.

NARRATOR: The vehicle
was eventually

found burnt out in a forest
in the North of England.

Hillier and Fulstow were
charged with m*rder.

- Rachel and Liam
had gone for one day

in Rachel's hometown of York.

They'd stayed the night
in a hotel together.

The pair never saw
each other again.

In 2021, Rachel
began a relationship

with Hillier, who she
said could be verbally

a*usive and quite volatile.

Fulstow said that
Hillier was not happy

when he found out about
this one night stand

with Liam, despite this
happening two years earlier,

and that he would
continuously bring this up

whenever the pair would argue.

- Michael Hillier had very
strong views about women.

He was disturbed by the fact
that Rachel Fulstow did not

only have a dating
life before they met,

she also had a sexual life.

And that was intolerable
for him to comprehend.

- This is where things
become a bit complicated.

So Rachel Fulstow denies
that she ever said this,

but Hillier seems
to get in his mind

that that night, Liam Smith had
unconsensual sex with Rachel

and that he then needed
to take revenge against Liam

in this act
of vigilante justice.

ROBERTA BABB: We
can understand how

someone may feel jealous when
they hear about a partner's

sexual past, because it
does challenge

sometimes the experience
in the here and now.

However, it's not so much the
feelings that's problematic.

It's how a person
responds to that.

And it seems that
in some cases,

the activation
of a criminal code

provides a pathway by which
to resolve this issue.

- What Michael
Hillier would say

is that he is someone
a very traditional values,

and he didn't like the fact
that Rachel Fulstow had had

a one night stand with Liam.

ROBERTA BABB: The disturbing
thing about this situation

is that these thoughts
and opinions about women

initiated and fueled a very
calculated, sadistic and

violent response that
ended up in a person dying.

[THEME MUSIC]

AMBER HAQUE: Fulstow claims
she knew nothing of the k*lling

until Hillier came back
to her house the next day,

and that she was petrified
to go to the police,

but police found evidence that
Hillier and Fulstow began.

Planning to m*rder
Liam in May 2022,

six months before he
was eventually k*lled.

NARRATOR: Just days
after the brutal m*rder,

they marked the occasion by
wallowing in the luxurious bays

of the Caribbean.

Their case went to court
in the summer of 2023.

AMBER HAQUE:
As the trial wore on,

Hillier and Fulstow seemed
to turn against one another.

Hillier claims
that it was Fulstow

that planned the route
to and from Liam's address,

that she had sourced the acid
to use in the attack,

and that she had even suggested
that he sever Liam's p*nis.

NARRATOR: Hillier and Fulstow
were both convicted of m*rder.

Fulstow was also
convicted of perverting

the course of justice.

Michael Hillier
was sentenced to 33

years in prison
and Rachel Fulstow

was given a 30-year sentence.

[THEME MUSIC]

- Liam was more than just
a family member to us.

He was our rock, our Liam.

He had the biggest
and most kind hearted soul

and would literally do
anything for anyone.

Liam's life wasn't the only one
that was destroyed that night.

Everyone who knew and loved
Liam had been left completely

heartbroken, devastated,
and traumatized

by the events that happened
on the 24th of November.

GINA BRENNAND: It was
unbelievable the motive

for Liam Smiths m*rder.

Liam's family will never,
ever get over that,

nor should they be expected to.

AMBER HAQUE: This case
begins with police

arriving to this crime scene.

There's an unknown body laid
in this residential street

covered in a mysterious,
corrosive substance.

It's confusing and mysterious
from the get go.

But what materializes is
this really senseless,

brutal k*lling
of a father of two,

grounded in nothing
more than malice.

And Liam Smith did not deserve
to die in the way that he did.

[THEME MUSIC]