04x06 - Beth's Last Party

[bunniefuu]

♪♪

Narrator: a family christmas torn apart...

By a gruesome discovery.

Harris: it was human flesh.

Our worst fears were now a reality.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Narrator: no witnesses.

No suspects.

♪♪

No leads.

I just couldn't believe that anything this horrific

Could happen to my sister.

♪♪

Skebo: we prayed that there was some surveillance footage

To give us a lead

On who may have been responsible for her m*rder.

Harris: every second counts.

The longer they're out there,

The more chances someone else getting hurt exists.

♪♪

O'neil: I miss her.

♪♪

I love her.

--Captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: tuesday, december 22, 2009,

Spotsylvania, virginia.

♪♪

Santa claus!



Is caught up in the christmas spirit.

Buster, you hungry?

Langlois: beth was the friendliest person you would ever want to meet.

She just had a great presence about her.

She was always happy, always laughing,

Always willing to help.

Oh, wow. My mom -- she had a big, open heart.

[ Telephone rings ]

She believed, you know, if you do good by others,

Someone's gonna do good by you.

[ Telephone rings ]

-Hi. -Hey.

Eric: you still coming for the holidays?

Narrator: beth's 48-year-old brother, eric,

Lives an hour's drive away. -You betcha!

I'll see you tomorrow around noon.

My sister told me that she was baking cookies for her church,

And then she was gonna come up to my house the day after that.

Sounds great.

You know, I got to go.

'Cause I've got friends coming over.

Glad you're keeping busy.

♪♪

Narrator: the next day, eric's looking forward

To seeing his sister.

But the minutes tick by without any sign of her.

Beth: leave a message after the beep.

[ Beep ]

Hey, what's going on? You still coming?

Narrator: eric isn't the only one having trouble

Reaching beth.

I was trying to call her when nobody was hearing from her.

Eric: hello?

Eric, I can't get through to mom.

Yeah, me neither.

It was out of character for my sister not to call me back.

That's when I became worried about her.

I'm calling the cops. I-i'll talk to you later.

♪♪

I called the local police department in spotsylvania.

They said that they were gonna send a cruiser out there.

The officer called me on my cellphone.

He told me that everything looked normal.

There was water in the dog bowl, and there was dog food in there.

And he said besides being a little messy, he goes,

"Everything looks okay."

Narrator: but when two more days pass with no word from beth,

Eric decides to go investigate.

Eric: after christmas, I decide to drive down to her house.

Beth?

I went in myself, and I looked around.

Beth, you here?

♪♪

Narrator: oddly, the power's out.

And there's another worrisome discovery.

♪♪

Eric: I had noticed that she had a big rack of dvds

And probably 80% of them were all gone.

♪♪

[ Buster barking ]

Hey, buster. Come here, boy!

Come here.

Oh, good boy.

Where's mommy?

Beth?

Eric: I saw a red stain on the carpet.

At that point, I decided to call the detectives

To have them come down and take a look again.

Dispatcher: 911. What's your emergency?

Yeah, police.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Narrator: detectives j.d. Harris and troy skebo

Respond to eric's call.

Harris: as a detective, we get calls like this

All the time about missing people.

Over here! Over here!

So, we were trying to let him know,

"Don't worry until we need to worry."

♪♪

There's blood there.

Eric showed us what he thought was a blood stain

On the floor in the living room.

Myself and detective harris took a look at it.

Skebo: looks like...

The stain he thought was blood was actually wine.

Narrator: with eric's fears laid to rest,

Detectives searched the house for clues

To where beth might be.

♪♪

Oh, my god.

♪♪

Well, this is not wine.

Skebo: I saw copious amounts of blood throughout the bedroom.

On the wall was high-impact spatter.

And on the bed and floor was contact blood transfer.

Harris: when we saw how much blood was lost,

We knew either someone was dead or was in grave danger.

Look at this, harris.

♪♪

Skebo: I lifted up a mat that was right next to the bed...

Jesus.

...and I observed a large volume of blood that was coagulated,

And it also had human tissue

And brain matter embedded in the blood.

So, this is definitely leading out of the room.

I'll get csi.

Yep.

♪♪

Harris: I knew we had to get eric out of there.

♪♪

Eric: when he told me that he saw something

That led him to believe there was foul play,

Of course, I had racing thoughts about where my sister was,

And I guess I was just praying for the best at that point.

Narrator: while eric's taken back to the station,

The csi team moves in.

Harris: we searched the residence.

We searched the outbuildings.

We searched the property.

♪♪

We couldn't help but notice a suspicious trash pile...

Harris?

...and it was far enough away from the house

It wouldn't be your normal dumping ground for trash.

♪♪

Is that...

We could tell it was human flesh.

Our worst fears were now a reality.

♪♪

♪♪

We started piece by piece, taking off trash

Until we got to a sheet.

♪♪

We started to remove the sheet slightly

And saw the horrific scene...

That will always be in my memory.

♪♪

Narrator: the body is confirmed to be that of beth von steinner.

While she's taken to the morgue for autopsy...

The csi team scours her home for clues.

Harris: we saw a mop bucket that had a liquid

That looked to be possibly blood.

♪♪

There were several items that were missing

From the residence to include her dodge pickup truck,

Her purse, her cellphone, credit cards,

And dvd and vhs tapes.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Harris: over 200 items of evidence were collected

And were sent down to the lab.

We had to wait days to confirm

What other evidence was there that the naked eye couldn't see.

Narrator: the investigators also dig into piles of papers.

What do you have?

We found a lot of statements and deposit slips

Through wachovia...

Look at that.

...and her account was in the positive

For roughly $16,000.

That's a lot of money.

Trying to establish the motive of why anyone

Would want to hurt beth, much less k*ll her,

We had to take into consideration

This large amount of money.

Narrator: they find a record of a transaction

Taking place on december 22nd,

The last day beth was known to be alive.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Detectives head straight to the bank to pick up the trail.

Harris: starting a homicide investigation,

You know every second counts.

The longer they're out there,

The more chances someone else getting hurt exists.

Narrator: if they can find beth's transaction on tape,

It may help them figure out who k*lled her.

So, we got one camera up there.

Skebo: we prayed that there was some surveillance footage

To give us a lead

On who may have been responsible for her m*rder.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: it's a horrifying new year's eve

In spotsylvania, virginia,

After beth von steinner's body was found

Under a frozen trash pile outside her home.

With few concrete leads,

Investigators are pinning their hopes

On bank surveillance footage

From the last day beth was known to be alive.

Harris: beth had used her atm card

At the wachovia branch near south point.

Come on in, gentlemen.

In cases like this, video footage,

When available, is priceless.

Got some footage here.

It's an irrefutable record

On where someone or something is.

Okay, let's roll from here, please.

Narrator: they cue up the footage and hit play...

♪♪

...but right away, they know something's not right.

The video is corrupted.

It shows people popping on and off screen like ghosts.

Can we slow this down at all?

[ Key clacking ]

♪♪

Narrator: at the counter,

There's a woman wearing a bandana.

It looks a lot like beth von steinner.

Viewing the video footage, I got a much better understanding

Of what she looked like, what she was wearing,

And realized this was the first time

I had seen her since I had found her dead.

♪♪

Narrator: detectives watch it again, frame by frame,

Looking for any lurking danger...

♪♪

...but there are no signs of anyone or anything menacing.

At this point, we knew we had a whodunit,

But we had no suspects, no clues,

And evidence that wouldn't get back to us for days.

♪♪

Narrator: meanwhile, beth's family are struggling

To come to terms with her brutal end.

♪♪

Eric: I think that I was in denial at first.

♪♪

I just couldn't believe that anything this horrific

Could happen to my sister.

♪♪

I was crying uncontrollably.

♪♪

One of the biggest challenges I had was to call my nephew.

♪♪

O'neil: when they told me they had found my mom...

Thrown in a trash pile...

♪♪

...i...

I just -- I lost it.

Like...

♪♪

I mean, you only got one mom.

♪♪

There's nobody else that's gonna fit her role.

♪♪

Narrator: with the bank's cctv revealing frustratingly little,

Investigators turn to beth's neighbors.

One of them reveals she spoke to beth

On the evening of the 22nd,

Just hours after she left the bank.

And what time was that at?

It was around 9:00, and she was having, like, a party.

Beth told her she had a couple of friends over

And mentioned she'd already kicked out a woman

Who was intoxicated.

But there's one other thing that was really odd.

She told me it was an all-girl party...

Yeah.

...but I am positive that I heard a male voice.

♪♪

She may have heard the voice of beth's k*ller.

We had to find out who it was.

Narrator: the meticulous processing of the crime scene

Pays off with another new lead.

-Okay. Thank you. -Okay. Thanks.

♪♪

What do you got?

Receipt from walmart.

A mop, bucket, cleaning supplies, stuff like that.

It's dated december 21st at 1:07 p.m.

♪♪

Could be her k*ller bought the supplies in advance

To clean up after the m*rder.

♪♪

Harris contacts the walmart,

Confirms their cctv cameras were rolling that day,

And obtains a copy of the footage.

-Let's start at the registers. -Okay.

Narrator: he cues the video to just before the transaction,

Hoping to see beth's k*ller.

♪♪

♪♪

Come on. Move into view.

♪♪

A hand dips into the shopping cart

And places cleaning products on the counter.

♪♪

Finally, the customer steps into frame.

It's beth herself, wearing the same bandana

She wore at the wachovia bank.

Is she alone?

♪♪

Harris: we realize she was the one

That had bought the cleaning products.

She had no idea it'd be used to cover her m*rder.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: after she pays,

Beth loads everything back into her cart,

Then leaves the store.

♪♪

Let's see what else they've got.

Luckily, the footage was not just of the interior,

But also the exterior.

Narrator: multiple cameras cover the store's exterior

And parking lot.

Detectives study the footage

From the time beth left the checkout.

They know she drove a gray dodge pickup.

♪♪

And there it is --

On one of the parking-lot cameras

At the very top of frame.

Okay, let's keep this rolling.

Let's see if we can see any more.

♪♪

Look at that. Who are these guys?

Narrator: at 1:11 p.m.,

A fully-laden shopping cart comes into view.

Now beth's got company.

-Can you zoom in any more? -Let me see.

♪♪

Narrator: two figures help beth load her purchases

Into the back of her truck...

This is too grainy.

...but they're too far away to make an i.d.

The biggest information we were able to gather

From this video footage is beth wasn't alone.

Narrator: all three of them climb in.

It became clear to us that these two people with beth

Were there with her knowledge.

♪♪

Narrator: they drive off together --

The victim and the people who may have ended her life.

We got to see their faces somewhere.

Harris urgently scans the rest of the cameras.

He hopes one of them will reveal the faces of beth's K*llers.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: detectives working the beth von steinner m*rder case

Have found footage of their victim

With two unidentified figures outside a walmart

The day before they think she was k*lled.

I-i can't even tell if they're male or female.

Skebo: when we uncover surveillance footage,

Detectives are on pins and needles,

Hoping that it unveils a suspect.

We got to see their faces somewhere.

[ Sighs ] okay.

Narrator: they cue up footage from a camera above the store's exit.

♪♪

♪♪

They wait anxiously for beth to emerge.

♪♪

After 25 seconds, a shopping cart piled high

With cleaning products comes into view.

There.

♪♪

Narrator: beth leaves the store...

Along with two companions.

Freeze it.

Play it frame-by-frame.

♪♪

Narrator: the first figure is small and slim,

Wearing a light-colored top and hat.

The second figure is taller, wearing a baseball cap, hoodie,

And baggy pants.

It appeared to be that she was with a male and a female.

♪♪

If these were the guests at her house

The night before her death,

Then they were the last people to see her alive.

♪♪

But once again, there's no clear view of their faces.

♪♪

Out of video leads, harris and skebo turn their attention

To the medical examiner's findings.

Gentlemen.

♪♪

Skebo: beth died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

It was apparent because of the wound pattern

That it was a sharp, rounded item,

Consistent with a spade.

Harris: the injuries were like nothing I had seen before.

It was either a very strong k*ller...

Or more than one.

Realizing the types of injuries and that the suspect or suspects

Could just throw her away like a common piece of trash,

We knew they had to be caught.

Thanks, doc.

♪♪

Narrator: beth von steinner is laid to rest

In her childhood home of alexandria, virginia.

The funeral for my mom was beautiful, but it was hard.

It was hard, man.

Langlois: eric and thomas just burst into tears,

And the church was full of sobs,

And I think it was because beth was so full of life

That it was the only way...

[Voice breaking] to say goodbye.

You always want to, uh, have that last word with them,

And when they're gone, they're gone.

So, yeah, I was very upset.

♪♪

Narrator: with a terrified community clamoring for answers,

Investigators continue to hunt for new leads.

♪♪

Boss.

What you got?

Beth von steinner's bank records.

Look at this.

Narrator: beth's credit card was used at a local kohl's

And a nearby gas station on the 23rd of december.

That's after she failed to show up

At her brother, eric's, house.

Of course, we requested the video footage

Of both of those businesses to watch.

♪♪

Woman: we have every square inch covered.

I'm fairly confident we'll have it.

Okay, great.

Narrator: at kohl's, investigators cue the footage

To just before the transaction...

...and focus in on the register where beth's card was used.

♪♪

♪♪

At 5:14, a customer in a pink bandana appears

And places clothes and shoes on the counter.

Let's roll it back a little bit.

♪♪

They can only see the back of the customer's head,

But it's clearly a woman.

Can we just roll that back again?

Woman: yep.

♪♪

Harris: right there. Right there.

The video footage showed beth was not the one using her card.

♪♪

Narrator: harris is hoping for a better shot

Of the mystery shopper.

Is there another angle we could look at?

Woman: yeah, just give me one second here.

♪♪

Narrator: for the first time in the case,

He gets a clear view of a suspect.

Who is that?

Whoever she is, she's just become the prime suspect

In beth von steinner's m*rder.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: it's been almost two weeks

Since beth von steinner was beaten to death

And discarded in a trash pile.

O'neil: I feel like I have a piece of my life that's gone now

That you can never get back.

Who? What? Why?

I just could not imagine anybody murdering my sister.

♪♪

Narrator: cctv has revealed an unidentified female

Shopping with beth's credit card.

We knew the female seen in the footage was not beth.

She was slimmer, younger, and smaller in stature.

Narrator: investigators think it's the same woman

Who was at walmart with beth before she died.

But in that footage, she was with a man.

So, where is he now?

Do you have any footage from the front entrance?

Yep.

♪♪

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who is this? Is this guy with her?

♪♪

Narrator: at 4:50 p.m., The doors slide open.

A little boy retreats wearily out of the way,

And the female suspect saunters in...

Followed by a man in a gray sweater and hat.

It hit me when I was viewing the footage,

These two could be responsible for beth's death.

♪♪

It was rewound,

Blown up, magnified.

♪♪

Narrator: but they can't get a good close-up of him.

Okay, can we get another angle?

Let's try to get a better look at this guy's face.

Sure.

Let's see. Shoe aisle.

It's by the cash register.

♪♪

Okay, there she is.

Narrator: they've had a clear view of the female suspect,

But the man has a knack for avoiding the cameras.

♪♪

Back at the sheriff's office,

Beth's neighbor has agreed to come in

And see if she can help identify the suspects.

The neighbor doesn't recognize anyone.

But she recalls beth mentioning a name.

♪♪

Desi.

But before harris can follow up on this new lead...

All right, what if...

...footage arrives from the gas station

Where beth's card was used for the last time.

-We need to look at this. -All right, let's go.

♪♪

Narrator: at 5:42 p.m. On december 23rd,

Half an hour after the two suspects

Were captured on camera at kohl's...

♪♪

...a pickup that looks like beth's pulls in.

That's her truck.

♪♪

♪♪

Let's check the other angle.

[ Keys clacking ]

♪♪

Let's back that up.

♪♪

Harris: it appeared that this same female and male

That we had seen in previous video footage

Were using beth's credit card to fill up gas in her truck.

Narrator: but there's something different

About the male suspect.

Skebo: we've seen that sweater before.

[ Sighs ] okay.

Harris returns to the kohl's footage

To check their purchases.

♪♪

As he suspected, they bought that white sweater

With beth's credit card.

Mere hours after she's dead,

They're using her credit card to buy clothes and shoes...

Without a bit of remorse.

Skebo: they're going on a shopping spree

With this dead lady's credit card.

Causes me great concern that we're dealing with

Some violent individuals.

Narrator: harris is now convinced

The couple caught on camera with beth at walmart on the 21st

And using her credit cards on the 23rd

Were responsible for her m*rder.

But he has no way to identify them

Except for the name "desi."

♪♪

Nothing.

Harris draws a blank, so he expands his search.

How about "deserie"?

♪♪

[ Computer beeps ]

Bingo.

♪♪

Narrator: 28-year-old deserie warthen is known to police.

Harris: she had actually been arrested december 22nd

'Cause she was drunk in public in the city.

Narrator: that's the same night beth told her neighbor

She'd kicked a drunk woman out of her house.

We realized deserie was a perfect match

For that unidentified female in the video footage.

Narrator: investigators have no time to lose.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Harris: we were able to track down deserie

At a battered woman's shelter in northern virginia.

Narrator: she's been in hiding for the past few days,

Following a violent as*ault.

Have you ever seen this lady before?

Harris: it didn't take long to realize

She wasn't telling us everything she knew.

Narrator: when deserie refuses to talk,

Harris reveals he has footage of her and beth together.

Once we confronted deserie with the video footage,

She knew we knew.

♪♪

The last time I saw beth was her stupid party.

We got drunk, and then she kicked me out, all right?

And then it was just her and benny.

Benny?

Narrator: finally, deserie admits

She was at beth's house with someone else.

Who is benny?

Look, he will k*ll me, okay?

He'll k*ll me. You don't know him.

Tell me about him, then.

♪♪

Deserie explains that on december 22nd,

She and her friend benny helped tidy beth's house.

She was a nice lady...

And she was helping me get back on my feet.

That's when she dropped the bombshell.

She said they had found a statement

For $16,000 in beth's account.

Narrator: benny and deserie agreed

She would try to wire herself $500 from beth's account.

Harris: and deserie stated she did it 'cause she was drunk

And thought she could use the money and not get caught.

Beth: what are you doing?

Narrator: but beth was onto her.

Deserie was thrown out

And later arrested for public intoxication.

She was held until she was sober the next morning.

Establishing that timeline let us know

Deserie wasn't there when beth was k*lled.

Narrator: deserie was released without charge,

And she and benny went shopping with beth's credit cards.

He said that beth said it was fine.

Deserie claims benny told her

He had beth's permission to use the cards,

Though she had her doubts.

She started questioning benny, "where's beth?

Why do you have her truck?"

Did you do something to her, benny?

I asked him...

Just shut the hell up.

...where she was, and then...

Did you do something to her?!

...he popped me in the face.

That's how I ended up with that.

Desi, I need his last name.

He told me to shut the hell up

Or I'd end up in the trash pile, too.

Narrator: that's a telling detail.

No one else knew where we found beth.

We knew what she was saying was true.

Benny who?

♪♪

Benny wayne mccroskey.

♪♪

[ Sighs ]

♪♪

Narrator: a background check on benny wayne mccroskey

Turns up a disturbing criminal history.

Harris: he had quite the life

And had just recently been released from prison

November 5, 2009.

♪♪

Skebo: it's the same guy.

We got him.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: two weeks after beth von steinner's m*rder,

Investigators have uncovered a sinister motive...

That's a lot of money.

...and identified a suspect.

Benny wayne mccroskey.

Detective harris has a lead

On one of his last-known addresses.

[ Knock on door ]

Hi. I'm detective james harris.

Mccroskey's been living with a woman

Named brandy taylor.

Have you ever seen this man?

Yeah. That's my boyfriend's uncle.

When we interviewed brandy, she was able to provide

A timeline of the days that were in question.

He's been staying with us off and on since the 22nd.

Narrator: benny hasn't been around for the past couple of days,

But brandy reveals a missing piece of the puzzle.

On december 23rd when benny came over,

He had a trash bag full of dvds...

Along with a dvd player as a gift for her son.

We realized that dvd player

Was one of the ones missing from beth's house.

Narrator: not all of the missing dvds are accounted for.

Call me if you hear from him again.

-Of course. -Thanks. Have a good day.

Narrator: harris has a hunch benny will try to sell

The rest of beth's dvds.

[ Police radio chatter ]

So officers scope out local pawnshops

To see if they can track their suspect that way.

A few hours later, there's a lead.

Afternoon, sir.

A pawnshop 10 miles from beth's house

Has just had a visitor --

A man matching benny mccroskey's description

With 70 dvds to sell.

Our detective started surveillance

Outside the pawnshop awaiting his return.

♪♪

Skebo: detectives spotted him at the pawnshop in question,

And when we tried to speak with him,

Benny took off on foot and ran from us.

Rich, I got a 10-40 -- hey!

The last place benny was seen running across to

Was a car dealership.

At that point, not only was a perimeter set up,

But a k-9 was called.

[ Barking ]

All right, we got him. We got him.

Let's go. -Let's go.

He was ultimately found in the car dealership parking lot,

Hiding under a car.

Come on, benny.

Harris: when it went over the radio that benny was in custody,

There wasn't a single person on the scene

That wasn't high-fiving another person.

Narrator: mccroskey refuses to talk about beth von steinner,

But detectives now believe they know what happened

The night of december 22nd.

Okay, benny, let's go over it one more time.

♪♪

After beth threw deserie out...

Beth: what are you doing?

...benny turned violent.

♪♪

Skebo: the bloodstain pattern that we saw in the bedroom

Told us a story.

The attack started in the bed.

It was very obvious that there was a large amount of blood

In the bed, on the mattress that dripped down on the floor.

♪♪

Then we noticed the cast-off on the ceiling,

So we know the blows occurred while she was in the bed.

♪♪

She was put on the floor

And more trauma was inflicted to her head.

♪♪

Skebo: the body was then dragged through the house,

Out the back door,

To the trash pile that was formed right next to the shed.

♪♪

Benny mccroskey is a cold-blooded k*ller --

A person that has no remorse, no soul.

It kind of -- it's kind of scary.

♪♪

Narrator: before the case goes to trial,

Mccroskey enters an alford plea, asserting his innocence,

But admitting the evidence against him is overwhelming.

He's convicted of second-degree m*rder and grand larceny

And sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Deserie warthen admits to using beth's credit cards,

Even though she suspected benny stole them.

Police believe she didn't know beth was already dead.

Deserie pleads guilty to credit-card fraud

And identity theft and gets eight months.

Harris: without the video footage,

There's no reason to believe deserie

Would have ever told us the whole truth.

We may have never known who benny mccroskey is

And this case could still be unsolved.

♪♪

Langlois: I think in their mind, she had a lot of money.

Because her father had passed away,

Her mother had passed away, her brother had passed away,

And she inherited quite a bit.

But she also spent it.

And she didn't have it anymore.

♪♪

Harris: for less than $300, whether it was clothes

Or gas to fill up a truck,

Benny mccroskey k*lled beth von steinner.

♪♪

Eric: I miss her.

♪♪

I miss her smile.

I miss my sister's smile probably more than anything.

♪♪

So it's been a tough journey, but...

I'm good.

♪♪

O'neil: I think about my mom every day.

♪♪

I miss her.

♪♪

I miss her. I love her.

♪♪

♪♪