01x02 - Clay County k*ller

[bunniefuu]

The scene was horrific.

This was the first homicide
that I had worked

where I actually
knew the – the victims.

There were two different objects
that had been used to k*ll him.

This kind of thing's not
supposed to happen

in Clay County.

There's just so much forest and
rivers and lakes around here.

Unless you have some
pretty good information

about where something may be,

you know, the needle
in the haystack

doesn't begin to describe
how hard it is.

We were saying
that it was revenge.

He was acting erratic.

He was extremely nervous.

He was convinced
we had guys in the trees

around the trailer park

in camouflage watching him
and listening to him.

I honestly wanted
to see him dead.

♪

♪

[Wings flap]

Clay County
is a very rural part

of the East Central Alabama,

almost halfway
between Birmingham and Atlanta.

The closest interstate
is probably 30 miles away.

I used to tell people,
if you find yourself here,

you're either coming to see
somebody or you're bad lost.

You don't have to go
through Clay County

to get anywhere, really.

♪

There's so many people here
that come here to visit,

and they decide
they want to live here.

You know, they're like,
"This place is great, you know.

People – Everybody's
so friendly."

With a population
of less than 15,000,

Clay County, Alabama,

holds the unique distinction
in the state's history.

In 2016, it was the last county
in Alabama

to legalize alcohol sales.

Clay County was dry
my entire life

growing up here.

There was literally
a prohibition law here

in Clay County
where it's against the law

to sell alcohol in the county.

People live here because they
want to be out in a remote area

where it's quiet,
where it's peaceful.

And it is – it's wonderfully
peaceful and quiet

until it's not.

On June 20th, 2001,
a frantic 911 call

comes into the Clay County
Sheriff's Department.

A man identifying himself
as Michael Lambert

tells the dispatcher
that he's just discovered

the bodies of his parents,

Billy and Debbie Triplett,
m*rder*d in their home.

Law enforcement arrived,
and when they arrived,

the law enforcement officers
could see inside the dwelling

and see that Ms. Triplett
was laying in the kitchen

covered in blood.

He made a cursory
search of the area

to make sure the suspect
was no longer there,

and then he exited out
and called for assistance.

A m*rder investigation is more

than the Clay County
Sheriff's Office

can handle on its own.

They immediately call
in reinforcements

from the Alabama Bureau
of Investigation.

The house was a small home.

When we arrived, we met where
the entry was in the back.

Ms. Triplett was lying
on the floor of the kitchen.

It was clear to us she had been
struck right as she came

in the back door.

Her feet were less
than three or four feet

inside the threshold
of the back door.

♪

There was a lot of blood
in the floor.

♪

Her head had been bludgeoned,
skull had been crushed.

And then a knife had been used
to cut her throat.

It appeared that when she fell,

Debbie's purse probably had been
across her body.

It looked like the strap
had been cut,

and it had been pulled
from underneath her.

Her purse had a lot
of blood on it.

And there were blood
on the contents.

It looked like somebody
had gone through her purse.

Moving through from the kitchen
into the den,

we found Mr. Triplett.

Billy's body was found laying
face down adjacent to the couch,

appeared to have been laying
on the couch

when he was struck in the head,

because there was blood
on the arm of the couch,

there was blood on a cushion.

It was apparent that someone
had taken a sharp object

and basically tried
to decapitate Mr. Triplett.

[Camera shutter clicks]

They were unsuccessful,
but it left an enormous wound

around the entire circumference
of his neck.

The scene was horrific.

This was the first homicide
that I had worked

where I actually knew
the – the victims.

Growing up here in Clay County,

I knew Billy Triplett
and Debbie Triplett.

They were a very well-liked
couple in the community.

They were, you know,
scratching out a living

running the country store.

Debbie had a couple of kids,
Michael and Michelle.

I knew Randy,
their step-brother.

So being from here personally
was gonna be very difficult

to deal with
for our investigation.

But, you know,
somebody got m*rder*d,

and we got to find out who did.

♪

You know, our job was to collect
all the evidence that we saw.

So we worked with two agents
with our latent print lab

to try to collect any usable
fingerprints we could.

We'll start at one location
and move our way through,

looking for footprints,
for fingerprints,

other things that could possibly
be relevant to this case.

An odd thing we saw –
it was apparent

that someone had taken a tube
of lipstick and written "NARC"

on the paneling wall
in the living room.

And we saw a "NARC" had been
written on the wall

in red lipstick.

It was shocking.

There have been, you know,
murders all over America

where someone finds out
that someone's cooperating

with law enforcement
in a narcotics investigation,

and they're m*rder*d.

So, you know,
we had to look at the fact

that Billy and Debbie
might have been involved

in something to do with drugs.

It was obvious whoever committed
these two murders struck them

with a very heavy, dense object.

We couldn't find
the m*rder weapons in the house.

I say weapons because
their throats were cut.

So there had to be
two different objects

that had been used to k*ll them.

We searched the yard, search the
property adjacent to the house

to make sure there was nothing
that had been discarded,

you know, right there
around the house.

But there's just so much
forest and rivers and lakes

around here, unless you have
some pretty good information

about where something may be,

you know, the needle
in the haystack

doesn't begin to describe
how hard it is.

As investigators continue
to work the crime scene,

Michael's sister, Michelle,

arrives to join him
outside their parents' home.

Me and my husband
went to mom's house.

Michael was standing out
in the front yard,

kind of pacing around,

and we pretty much ran
towards each other,

he was just holding me,

"Sister, they're gone.

Sister, they're gone."

Just kind of stood there on
the side of the road in a daze.

You know, like,
this can't be real.

♪

My world fell to a million
pieces at that moment.

I lost [Sniffles]

my best friend.

♪

I was 9 when my mom and Billy married.

They were two completely,
totally different people,

but they worked.

Mama liked to dress up
and look really nice.

I would always do
her hair and makeup,

you know, that was our thing.

Billy wore a baseball cap,
blue jeans,

and a polo-type shirt.

He loved my mama.

There's nothing my mama wanted
that my mama wouldn't get.

I never heard them fuss.

It was always, "I love you,"
a kiss on the cheek,

you know, when they'd leave,

if one of them was going
somewhere when they got home.

I loved Billy.

I called him Dad.

And his son, Randy,
he was my brother.

Billy loved all of us unconditionally.

It was perfect.

♪

4 o'clock that afternoon,
Randy shows up at the house.

Randy came to the property,

and he was trying to force
his way into the crime scene.

I knew Randy since I was a kid.

We had two high schools here,
Ashland and Lineville,

and there was a big rivalry
between the schools.

So, you know, I was
on the scholar's bowl team

in high school.

Randy, he was on the scholar's
bowl team for Lineville.

He was a very smart guy.

We ran around
with some of the same people.

I got him calmed down and,
you know, made him understand

that he couldn't go
in the house,

that it was a crime scene.

While Randy, Michael,
and Michelle wait outside,

investigators make a discovery
that suggests a possible motive

for their parents murders.

Outside of the house,
we found what the family told us

was Debbie's van, and sitting
in the front floorboard,

there was a cashbox,
and it had been emptied.

Now, that was a – a strange
place for the cashbox.

The keys were left in the
passenger seat of the van.

Someone had opened the van,
opened the lockbox.

On the outside
of the passenger door,

There was a piece of fiber
caught in a piece of trim.

So i-it appeared that someone
had wiped the van down

after they had opened the door.

And there were no fingerprints.

Investigators want to know
why a cashbox is in Debbie's car

and more importantly,

whether it had once
actually contained cash.

I know that my mom always took
the whole drawer

out of the cash register.

That's how she done
for closing up the store,

she'd just pick the whole thing
up and put it in the lockbox

and took it with her.

Because that way,
when you get back to the store,

you just take it back out,
and put in the register.

The family told us that Debbie
had closed the store that night,

and she had gone a-and had
supper with Michael, her son,

after she closed the store.

And we felt like
she had gotten home, you know,

sometime around 10 o'clock
that evening.

So her m*rder had to happen
around that time.

Whoever committed
these two murders,

there's a couple
of different areas he got cash

from the scene
of the homicides –

Debbie's purse being one,

and then the cashbox
in her van being the other one.

So, you know, we had to look at,
you know,

could it have been
somebody k*lled them

for the cash that they had?

♪

Three guys came in the store,
duct-taped Billy

and put him into
the walk-in cooler.

During the examination
of the car,

they found a smudged,
bloody fingerprint.

How did I feel?

Hate.

♪

♪

Word travels quickly

through the quiet town
of Barfield, Alabama,

that the owners of
the local country store,

Billy and Debbie Triplett,
have been brutally m*rder*d.

I just remember somebody
calling me and saying,

"Oh, they just found
Billy and Debbie, you know,

and they were m*rder*d."

♪

And I'm like, "What?"

You know, of course, it just
kind of sends a chill

down your spine.

They didn't know
who the m*rder*r was

and so there was a lot of scare
in the community.

This kind of thing's not
supposed to happen

in Clay County.

♪

The next day,
I was at the ABI office

looking at the evidence.

The prints that were collected
at the house belonged

to the family,
and that's normal.

I mean, that information

didn't in any way
help us with a suspect.

♪

Detectives are working
on two theories that this

is either a robbery gone bad
or a drug-related m*rder.

With the "NARC" thing
that was written on the wall,

we wanted to definitely
make sure that that

was something we looked into.

We reached out to other agencies
that had confidential informants

that might've been involved
in a narcotics investigation.

At the time,
we found no evidence

that the Tripletts were involved
in any drug crimes at all,

nor any narcotic investigation.

So that was frustrating.

People were saying that –
that Billy had narced,

which means ratted out
drug people,

and that it was revenge
because of that.

But I never believed that.

Clay County's not bad guys going
after the family.

I-It is not
your Mafia-type place.

This is Mayberry.

♪

We took it as far as we could,
but it never materialized

to anything more than that
just being written on the wall.

We felt like maybe
that was a – a ruse,

you know, someone trying
to throw the investigation off.

With one possible motive eliminated,

investigators search for leads
to help them determine

if this was a robbery gone bad

as clues at
the crime scene suggest.

It was several days
into the investigation.

So we went out
and talked to people

in the community,
person to person,

talking to each individual,
documenting what they tell us.

Something that I learned
was that Billy was known

for his different
business endeavors

that he had that might not have
necessarily been ill*gal.

I mean, everybody knew Billy
was kind of into some things,

you know,
whatever would make him money.

Clay County was dry.

It's against the law
to sell alcohol in the county.

Clay County was that way
my entire life.

In any type of environment
where you have something

that's restricted,
there will be individuals

who will try and profit
from that restriction.

Individuals, it can be for
marijuana, drugs, other things.

If something is ill*gal,
then it's hard to get,

then someone will try to find
a way to profit off of it.

I don't think we have
bootleggers of that situation.

[Money crinkles]

It was reported to us
by a lot of folks –

Billy, he sold beer
and liquor on the side.

Apparently, if Billy knew you,
you know,

you could slip in there
and buy a six pack.

But it wasn't
a huge-volume business.

This is a country store

on a state road
in Clay County, Alabama.

There's, you know, there's not
that much traffic through there.

He's probably providing
a service

for the people in the community.

Still, the detectives must look
into Billy's bootlegging

for possible connections
to the m*rder.

As they do, they learned

that selling black-market
alcohol wasn't the Tripletts'

only off-the-books
source of income.

We were told Billy
ran some poker machines

in the back of the store
and took some wagers on,

you know, SEC football.

That's gambling,

and that, you know, around here,
that was ill*gal.

It wasn't this big,
huge racketeering thing

that you see from the Mafia.

It was I got to put food
on the table.

I got to put clothes on my kids.

I never really had a problem
with the law coming in,

you know, because
it wasn't – it wasn't

anything big and major.

[Money taps]

It was reported to us
by the family

that it was their habit,
Billy and Debbie,

that at the end of the night,
they would clean out the $1's

and the $5's, you know,
that were in the machines.

And Debbie if closed the store,

she would just take
the stack of $1's and $5's

and just stick down
in her purse.

If you think back
on the crime scene,

it looked like someone had taken
something from her purse,

and that probably was
the $1's and the $5's

that came out of
the – the video poker machines.

We had to consider
that they were k*lled,

because people knew that they,
Billy and Debbie, had cash.

♪

Investigators learn
it's not the first time

Billy and Debbie were targeted.

The family told us that a few
months before the killings,

Billy had been robbed
at the store.

♪

That was February the 26th
of 2001,

and I know that, because
it was my son's birthday.

Three guys came in the store,
duct-taped Billy,

and put him
into the walk-in cooler.

And he was able to get loose.

[Duct tape tears]

After the murders,
there were people who thought

that it might have been
the people

who robbed him the first time

and came back to get more money
or get revenge,

or telling on them,
whatever the case might be.

The investigators, too, wonder
if these crimes are related.

They start looking
for information

about who robbed the Tripletts,
but quickly hit a roadblock.

Because of all these different
ill*gal business endeavors

that Billy'd had,

there was no police report
that had been made.

Billy didn't report it.

He didn't tell anybody about it.

We didn't have any way
to causally connect the robbery

to these crimes.

We couldn't identify anybody
that allegedly had done it.

We were back where we started,
and that was not a good place.

♪

♪

Several days
into the investigation

of the murders of
Billy and Debbie Triplett

in Barfield, Alabama,

detectives have had nothing
but dead ends.

We went back and talked
to all the neighbors –

who was here at this time?

Did you see anyone,
any strangers in the area?

What was unusual,
if anything was,

that would lead us
to anyone who came through?

♪

Because of where their house
was located,

it would be more probable
than not that someone

that was familiar with the area
would have committed the crimes.

Just because you're not gonna
get off the interstate,

drive 35, 40 miles, turn on
a county road, it's possible

that someone could do that,
it's just not probable.

So, you know,
it is more likely than not

that someone in the community

that knew the Tripletts
had committed this crime.

When I was out talking
to people here in the community,

I didn't encounter anybody
that was afraid to talk to me

about Billy or Debbie

until we talked
to Leonard Southers.

Leonard Southers
lived in proximity

to where the crimes occurred.

I try to impress upon him
how important it would be

if he had any information
related to this crime,

that he tells us.

You know, he told me he didn't
have any information about it.

He didn't know
anything about it.

But he was acting erratic.

He was extremely nervous.

It was obvious
that he was an avid drug user

from the track marks
on his arms.

And we knew that he was probably
using methamphetamines,

especially because
of the "NARC" thing

that was written on the wall.

He was a guy we
hadn't talked to.

He was very paranoid,
and he was convinced

we had guys in the trees
around the trailer park

in camouflage watching him
and listening to him.

Believe it or not, I can be
a not-nice guy if I have to.

So I fed into that paranoia

to try to get
any information from him.

And of course, I told him,
"You're doggone right

that's what we're doing,
we're listening to you."

It's time he was living
with his mom and his daughters,

and I told him that
if he had any information

related to the homicides

and he didn't come clean
and tell us

that I'd make sure those kids
w-would be put somewhere else,

because he'd be going to prison.

Nearly two weeks
after the murders,

investigators finally have a
person of interest in the case,

although Leonard Southers
insists he knows

nothing about the crime.

As police dig deeper
into his background,

Investigator Wheeles continues
to work his local resources.

At the time, my dad was
a county commissioner here

in Clay County.

My mom is a nurse.

My uncle was the fire chief.

So I had a lot of ties,
and this was my home county,

and I was getting calls
from the community.

And we got a lot of rumors.

And every time someone called
and said,

"Hey, I heard this,"
we put agents on it.

Someone in the community
reported to us

that they just saw
Randy Triplett

at the Walmart
with a lot of cash.

And that was unusual, because
Randy didn't have any money.

He wasn't working.

He owed money to child support.

At the crime scene,
Debbie had a cashbox

she had left in her van, and
the – the cashbox was empty.

So that's something we had
to look at.

Randy, at the time, was living

with his grandmother
in Barfield,

about a mile and a half,
two miles from his dad's house.

The scuttlebutt in the community
was that Randy and his step-mom,

Debbie, didn't get along,
and many, many people had heard

Randy say that
once he got out of high school,

I think he started using drugs.

We had some new kids
come to Barfield

from the bigger cities,

and that's when I noticed
a change in him

when he started
hanging out with them.

I just thought
these were bad influences

that changed my brother,

because he wanted
to be like his friends.

I didn't know that
until much later

that he had a problem
with drugs.

There's a lot of people
that have had a brother or a son

or a father
that have had a drug problem,

and you just don't turn
your back on them.

You try as much as you
can to help them.

And I think
that's what Billy did.

He tried to help Randy over
and over again, it's his son.

And Debbie had told Billy,

she said, "Look, at some point,

he's got to sink
or swim on his own.

You know, we can only
bail him out so many times."

And Randy would find out
she said that,

and it'd make him mad.

It was reported many times
that Randy had told Billy,

"You've got to choose me
or Debbie."

♪

Now Randy shows up with cash.

We had to look at where
he got the money from.

So I confronted him about that.

Randy said that his classmates
from Lineville High School

had taken up a collection
for him

and left this card
with $600 in it in his mailbox.

Apparently, he just didn't think

that I knew
all of his classmates.

One of – One of the guys
that he said gave him the card,

I was in his wedding when he got
married, so I called him.

I called my friend and said,
"Hey, did any of y'all

get together and collect some
money for Randy?"

And his report was,
"Not that I know of."

And I said,
"Well, you check around,

call everybody that you know,"

and nobody gave him any money.

It didn't quite make sense.

♪

Why would he lie?
Unless he doesn't want people

to think he took it
from the m*rder scene.

We found some video footage
from Walmart

that showed Randy
buying the sympathy card.

He literally bought
a sympathy card

and had someone at the Walmart
fill it out for him.

So now I had concerns
about Randy.

♪

♪

Alabama Bureau of Investigation
Agent Todd Wheeles has caught

his childhood friend,
Randy Triplett,

lying about
how he came into money

after the m*rder of his parents.

♪

I asked him
about his whereabouts

the night of the killings.

♪

Randy told us that he had been
at his daddy's house.

His daddy was laying on the
couch watching the Braves game.

Randy said they had a
great conversation then he left.

Randy told us
when he left his dad's house,

he had a flat tire about a mile
from his dad's house

about by David Porter's house.

And he actually went to David's
house, knocked on the door.

I think Mrs. Porter was there.

They helped him, got a tire,
and he got the tire changed.

He was there till
about midnight.

Flat tire story checked out.

He was at the Porter's house

some time between 10 and 10:30
that evening,

about the time
that Debbie got home

within a 30-minute window.

The alibi seems to clear

Randy Triplett, despite his odd
behavior and questions

about his newfound money.

As they consider
their next steps,

investigators receive a strange
call from Leonard Southers,

the other possible suspect
they'd been watching.

I got a call from Leonard,

who was neighbors
with the victims.

And he told me he was
in possession

of some $1's and $5's

that he thought
might have blood on them.

Circumstantially, why would you
say something like that?

I think I properly motivated him
when I made him think

that we were, you know,
watching every move he made.

He had to have thought that
we knew that he had this money.

After Leonard called,
45 minutes later,

I was down there at
Mad Indian trailer park,

which is where he was living
at the time, talking to him,

looking at about
58 different pieces of currency.

The currency obviously
had been washed and dried.

I mean, we all know
what a dollar bill looks like

that you leave in your pocket

when it goes through
a washing machine and a dryer.

This currency had been washed,
literally laundered.

But a lot of times, things
that stain don't come off

just in – in a washing machine.

And that's true for blood.

It seems several of
these pieces of currency

had what appeared to be
reddish brown stains on them

that I thought –
what felt like was blood.

Debbie's purse has been cut out
from underneath her –

it was very, very saturated
with – with blood.

We felt like there
was some currency out there

with Debbie Triplets'
blood on it.

So we felt like maybe we have
now got some evidence

that we can tie
directly back to the scene.

And we have Leonard Southers
as a suspect.

♪

So I talked to Leonard.

I asked him
where he got the money from,

and, you know, he told me
he was given this money by

Randy Triplett.

Investigators immediately
send the bills out for DNA tests

to see if they can be connected
to the m*rder scene.

Randy Triplett's brought
back in for questioning.

I asked him, during the
interview with him,

about the money.

Randy said, "That money
you got from Southers?

Yeah," he said,
"well, that's my God damn money.

I want my money back."

You know, it's – it's almost
hard to believe

that he said that.

It looked like
Leonard was telling the truth

about the fact that he was given
this money by Randy,

who asked him
to keep it for him.

So we were able
to disqualify him as a suspect.

I asked Randy
where he got the money from.

He said he found some money
in his dad's bedroom closet

after the murders.

We did a thorough search
of that house

after the killings happened,

and we didn't find any money.

I confronted him about that,
but he was like, "Man,

you know I didn't k*ll them.

I didn't do it.

If I'd have done it,
I'd have burnt the house down,

you know, that way there
wouldn't have been

any evidence."

And that was just
a-a-an odd thing to say.

You know, was it evidence
to support the fact

that he committed
these murders?

No, it wasn't.

So we had to – to go further.

If you think back
on the crime scene,

it was extremely bloody.

So it would have been difficult
for someone

to commit those murders

and not take some
evidence with them.

We felt like that
we really needed

to thoroughly examine his car.

And he let us impound it.

For us to look
at suspect's vehicles,

it's a common thing.

In this case,
Mr. Triplett volunteered.

Now we did not obtain search
at that point, he gave consent.

So that made it an easier
process for us

to move forward at that time.

He had what I call
a $200 car –

it ran, but you could have
bought one 200 bucks.

Based on what we were told,
it was not his custom

to keep a-a clean automobile.

[Trash rustles]

It had fast food wrappers in it,
it had junk in it,

it was dirty.

You know, you could
grow stuff in the floorboards,

because there was
so much dirt in there.

That was his custom.

And we brought it here
to Ashland,

to the police department,

and they have an area
in the back

where you can bring it inside,
close the door.

Two gentlemen from the Alabama
Department of Forensic Sciences

who collect blood evidence,

we then had them go through it,
you know, meticulously.

♪

The car that he had –
if you're sitting

in the driver's seat,

you would have to stick
your hand behind

and pull the door handle
to open the door.

During the examination
of the car,

they found on the back side
of the door pool,

there was a smudged,
bloody fingerprint.

♪

♪

New evidence has turned
the focus of the investigation

into the murders of Alabama
country store owners

Billy and Debbie Triplett
to their son Randy.

We got a smudged, bloody
fingerprint from Randy's car.

So I asked Randy about it.

You know, Randy had
an explanation for everything.

And he said he had been injured
in the week or two

before the – the killings.

And he said that's how
the blood got in the car,

"Because I had scratched my arm
or cut my arm,"

but I-I didn't ever believe
that to be the case.

♪

We collected all the blood
for a forensic examination.

Todd contacted me
about the blood

that was found in the car,

and I just kind of went
into a daze.

I can understand it.

I really couldn't understand it.

He was my brother,
but I still hoped

that he didn't have anything
to do with what had happened.

Investigators send the blood
sample from the car

out for DNA testing.

They'll have to wait
for the results,

along with the results of tests
on the bloody money.

Despite Agent Wheeles'
suspicions,

there's no hard evidence
against Randy.

So to the investigators
frustration, he's free to go.

At that time, DNA was just kind
of taken hold here in Alabama

as a tool that could be used
in a forensic examination

of a – a m*rder.

It would take six or eight weeks
to get the DNA results back.

But this was an important case.

We wanted to see that
we did everything we could

to resolve this situation
with the community.

They were in fear,
and DNA was the best avenue

we had to solve this case.

Any investigator

that's assigned
to investigate a homicide

feels a tremendous amount
of pressure.

And being from here,
I think i-it was more pressure,

because I knew people.

Every time I talked to my mom

or dad or my uncle
or my cousins,

that was one of the first things
they would ask me,

"Hey, how's that case going?"

It was just a small town,

you know,
and – and people were afraid,

they really were.

In the community,
they were very afraid.

So there was a lot of pressure
to get it resolved.

I would come down here
to Clay County almost every day

to talk to somebody,
follow up on something.

And every time
I was down here working,

I dropped by the house.

After the murders,
nobody was living in the house.

So every time that I drove
by the house,

Billy's car,
which was a white Chevy Lumina,

was sitting there
in the front yard.

And one day I drove by,
and it wasn't there.

♪

When he contacted me and said,
"Captain, I've just gone by."

He said,
"I think we have a problem,

because this is still
an estate,

and that car is
no longer there."

I found out that Randy
had took my dad's car

and sold it without permission.

So I called Todd
and, you know, tell him,

"Hey, Randy took my car."

And he says he would,
of course, check into it.

Agent Wheeles pursued it further

and found out – he tracked down
where the car went,

how it was sold,
and who was sold to.

And he indicated
that Randy Triplett had forged

his father's signature
on the documents

to sell that vehicle.

Randy took the title
to his dad's vehicle,

signed his daddy's name to it,
and sold it.

[Paper rustles]

That car belonged to the estate
of Billy Triplett,

it didn't belong to Randy.

And you can't just sell it.

♪

So my opinion was that
he has committed two felonies –

he stole this car,
he committed a forgery,

he signed his daddy's name.

The DA issued warrants
for Randy Triplett

for the theft of the vehicle
and for forgery.

Randy, at the time,
was living with his grandmother,

so I drove up to Barfield
and caught him – caught him

at home and knocked on the door.

And he was kind
of i-incredulous that –

"What," you know.

"You're crazy."

"What? That's – That's my car,"
you know.

No, it's not,
that belonged to your dad.

And can't just sell it.

♪

So I put handcuffs on him

and brought him in down here
to the county jail.

The intent was to get him
locked up

until we could get the –
the forensic reports back.

Weeks pass while investigators
wait for the DNA test results

on the bloody money
and the blood in Randy's car.

We were at the office
in Jacksonville.

I remember when they faxed us
the forensic DNA reports

from the blood
that was on the money

and from Randy's car.

The money and the bloody smudge
in Randy's car had

Debbie Tripletts' blood on it.

Between the blood in the car

and blood that was collected
on the money,

we had a pretty strong case
against Randy.

I was very happy.

We had what seemed like
an answer to the big question.

♪

Todd called me and told me

that they would be formally
charging Randy.

♪

That really, really floored me,
because, why?

I mean, why would you mess
with Mama?

How did I feel?

[Scoffs]

Hate.

Utter hate.

I honestly wanted
to see him dead.

♪

He had ruined my world.

You know, most days I don't care
if I woke up,

because I just wanted
to go be with my Mama.

♪

We secured warrants
for the capital m*rder

of Billy Triplett
and Debbie Triplett.

♪

And I served them all on Randy
at the Clay County jail

that day, which is
where he was in jail

for the theft of the vehicle
and for forgery.

And I just went down
and I said, "Randy,

I'm – I'm arresting you for
the capital m*rder of your dad

and for Debbie Triplett."

And he didn't have much to say
for the first time.

♪

♪

Prosecutors in tiny
Clay County, Alabama,

are getting ready to bring
Randy Triplett to trial

for the murders of his parents,
Billy and Debbie.

Throughout the trial,
Randy still was like, "Man,

you know I didn't k*ll him.

I didn't do it."

Having to sit through
the trial,

having to listen to people,

go into detail
about the autopsy.

It was a nightmare.

Despite Randy's insistence
that he's innocent,

based on the investigation,

prosecutors were able to present
the jury with a solid theory

about what he did
on the night of the murders.

Randy told us that he had been
at his daddy's house

the night that Billy was k*lled

and that they had a really
good conversation.

But I think that Billy
had chastised Randy.

♪

Billy told him he had
to get a good job.

He had to pay his child support.

Time to be a productive
member of society.

And I think
that it infuriated Randy.

And he k*lled him.

Debbie, she had gotten home

sometime around 10 o'clock,

and Randy k*lled her.

Her throat had been cut
in a manner that would indicate

that there was a lot of anger
or malice toward her.

Because Randy felt
like she was trying

to turn – get his dad
to turn on him.

And Randy took the money
after the m*rder.

Randy's lawyers remind the jury
that he has an alibi

for the night of the murders.

But it's a claim prosecutors
are ready for.

Randy told us when he left
his dad's house at flat tire

about a mile
from his dad's house,

about the time
the killings happened,

sometime between 10 and 10:30
that evening.

The key was Randy, who was
in close proximity that night.

Doesn't take as long
as you think

to k*ll somebody like this.

You know, you can do
some terrible damage

in a very short period of time.

A grown man with a heavy object
can k*ll somebody in a second.

The prosecutors contend that
after murdering his parents,

Randy tried to cover his tracks.

We were not able to determine
why "NARC" was written,

but we think Randy might have
been trying to throw off

the investigators in some way.

But when you have the bloody
smeared fingerprint

of Ms. Triplett in the car,

when you have the blood
on the money,

all of that's so important.

♪

Being from here,

we took it personally,
and we were the representative.

We had to come in and –
and speak for the person

that couldn't speak anymore.

So we're very pleased
that at the end of the trial,

the jury found him guilty
of the capital m*rder

of his dad and capital m*rder
of Debbie Triplett.

And he was sentenced
to life without parole.

♪

I'm older now than my Mama
was when she died.

So when I hit that birth–
45th birthday,

that was really hard,
because I was now older

than my Mama ever lived to be.

I tell everybody, make sure
you hug the people you love

every chance that you get,

and kiss them
and tell them you love them,

because you never know
when it's gonna be the last.

Because I never thought
in a million years

at 3:30 in the afternoon
on June the 19th,

when I walked out of that store,
that that would be the last time

I got to tell my Mama I
loved her and give her a kiss.

Me and Michael lost our mama
and our dad.

I hated Randy
for what he had done to us.

But I would have probably –

I was to the point
that if I could have got

my hands on him,
I'd have probably k*lled him

with my bare hands.

♪

13 years after Randy Triplett

is convicted
of k*lling his parents,

there's one last shock
for the Triplett family.

♪

Randy hung himself in prison.

No, it wasn't fair.

Now he don't have to sit there
and think about what he done

and what he took from us,

and we still have to.

We still have
to remember what we lost.

♪

♪