06x12 - It Looks Like You

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: a young mom ambushed in broad daylight.

[ g*nsh*t blasts ]

We, uh... We couldn't believe it.

Narrator: a family left in the dark.

We just couldn't fathom

Why anyone would want to k*ll her.

Narrator: a random attack...

[ Siren wailing ]

Downs: I knew we had to be dealing with

A very dangerous person, very evil person.

Narrator: ...or something more sinister?

That looks like him.

Narrator: only surveillance footage...

Downs: what we saw just briefly

Was a figure that appeared to be our suspect.

...can unveil the truth.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: for heather strube, family always comes first,

So much so that she and her parents have

Gone into business together.

Heather was an amazing young woman.

She was always a bright and happy person,

Even as a child.

She went to university, and she picked up

Flower-making at a local flower shop there.

[ Baby crying ]

Narrator: a perfect job that lets her keep an eye on her little boy.

Lewandowski: she was a great mom.

That baby pretty much never left her side.

Let's go get you a new toy.

Allen: she and carson would go

To work every morning, and she would have a place for him

To be while she was attending to customers.

Narrator: heather separated from carson's father, steven,

Last summer,

But lately, things are looking up.

Today is her 25th birthday.

Surprise!

Heather was looking forward to her new phase

After her birthday,

Because she had a lot going for her.

She had this beautiful baby boy, she had a fantastic, wonderful

Supportive family, she had this drive

For a business that she was growing,

And she had a new boyfriend.

Hello!

-For you, happy birthday. -Aww.

Allen: michael was a man that she had come to

Be very much in love with after the divorce.

And michael and carson had become great little friends.

-Yeah, that'll be nice in, like, the spring. -Yeah.

Lewandowski: mike was an amazing person.

He loved her the way that they write in story tales.

He was kind and supportive and what you would want in

A relationship.

-I like that one. -Very cool, yeah.

Lewandowski: it was definitely headed towards marriage.

Narrator: after spending the weekend with mike,

Heather heads out to pick up carson.

Steven had visitation rights.

Twice a month, heather would bring carson to steven,

Or he would come get him on fridays,

And then he would bring him back on sundays.

Narrator: they've arranged to meet at a target parking lot.

Allen: she started getting very cautious about

The exchange, because many times, there were arguments,

So what she decided to do is to begin having

Those meetings in public spaces like a shopping mall

Parking lot.

Narrator: at 6:03 p.m.,

A 911 call comes in to snellville police department.

[ Phone ringing ]

[ Siren wailing ]

Narrator: police chief roy whitehead is quick to respond.

I received a call from the shift supervisor that

There had been a sh**ting at the target shopping center,

So I immediately went to the scene.

Narrator: a public sh**ting in broad daylight has plenty

Of eyewitnesses.

Narrator: patrol officer neal carter is first on the scene.

There's a lot of people around, I'm worried about

Where this person that shot somebody had walked off.

I find a young lady laying on

The ground, she'd obviously been shot in the forehead.

She was laying beside a car.

Of course, I want to check for a pulse,

But it was obvious that -- that she wasn't gonna make it.

As I'm focused on the woman laying on the ground,

Somebody yells out to me that there's a child in the car.

[ Baby crying ]

So I get the child out of the vehicle.

Think he was too young to really know what was going on,

But the child definitely seemed scared,

And it just broke my heart.

So I secured the child in one of our patrol cars

To make sure that he was safe.

We were able to locate a purse inside the car.

Nothing was missing out of the purse.

There was her i.d., Credit cards, money,

A birthday card, 'cause she just celebrated her birthday

Not too long before that,

And we were able to identify the victim was heather strube.

Whitehead: so it was clear to us that robbery was not

The motive, that the intent was to specifically harm heather.

Narrator: as officer carter secures the scene,

Backup units search the area.

We contacted our canine units

And had them come out, because the suspect left on foot

Going around the corner of the building.

So we wanted to track to see where they went to.

Carter: we were able to start the canines out on just

About the exact area that witnesses said that

The suspect left.

I followed him through the grassy area beside

The building

Towards the back side of the building to a concrete area.

And that's where the -- the dog lost the track.

Narrator: the track stops cold outside a nearby hotel.

An officer follows up with staff on the front desk.

Narrator: it seems the suspect is long gone.

We believe that the suspect got into a vehicle

And drove away.

Narrator: at the crime scene, witnesses give a detailed

Breakdown of the moments leading up to the m*rder.

Carter: witnesses had described what appeared to be

A custody exchange.

Said that a gentleman driving a green van

Had just dropped off a child to the victim.

And the victim had placed the child in the car.

The gentleman in the green van left the scene,

And it wasn't too long after that

That the suspect approached the victim.

The victim screamed, placed her hands over her face,

And that's when the suspect pulled a g*n

And shot her in the head.

Narrator: an hour after the sh**ting,

Detective trey downs takes over as lead investigator.

Downs: somebody had came into our target shopping center

And m*rder*d somebody in broad daylight,

And that was truly alarming.

We had six eyewitnesses that actually saw the m*rder

Take place.

But when you have that many eyewitnesses,

You have different stories, people see things differently.

We had a whodunit.

Narrator: now, the detective hopes to find

Another kind of witness.

We immediately saw that there was a surveillance camera

In that location.

It looked like it was an overview of

The entire parking lot,

And so we knew we had to get our hands on the video

Surveillance as soon as possible.

Narrator: an hour after heather strube was m*rder*d

In front of her 18-month-old son,

Detective trey downs hopes cctv footage

Will help identify her k*ller.

The inside cameras had been updated to digital,

But the parking lot cameras

Were on an old analog vhs system.

Go to 5:45.

Downs: the camera that appeared to cover the whole

Parking lot actually panned from left to right.

Narrator: but the moving camera means downs can only see what

Happened to heather when it pans in the right direction.

Mayfield: when we started looking at the video, it was grainy.

It wasn't preserved well. We were terribly disappointed.

Narrator: the quality of the footage is frustrating,

But it's a place to start.

Downs begins by looking for heather's car

Entering the lot.

Is that the one?

Narrator: the car is the right color and arrives at the suspected time,

But downs notices something.

The car doesn't park in the right place.

Detective downs knows heather's car was

On the other side of the lot.

No, that's the wrong car.

Keep it playin'.

Narrator: he keeps watching the busy car lot.

There -- pause it there.

Downs: we observed the victim's vehicle, which was a burgundy

Cadillac escalade, park a pretty good

Distance away from the building in the far corner

Of the parking lot.

Okay, keep it playing.

Narrator: with heather's car located,

Now they want to see her estranged husband arriving.

There -- can you zoom in on that?

Downs: a few minutes later, you see a green minivan pull in.

The recording shows he arrived in the parking lot.

He turns down an aisle towards the back

Of the parking lot, but the camera pans away.

When the camera came back to heather strube's car,

We could see that he parked his minivan

Right next to heather's car.

And at this time, we knew from

The witnesses that the exchange of carson

Was taking place.

Narrator: suddenly,

The camera turns again.

Downs: unfortunately we were not really able

To see the custody exchange,

Which was very frustrating to us.

Mayfield: the camera continues to pan away,

And we can eventually see that after

A couple of minutes, that green minivan has gone.

We can see it driving away through

The parking lot as the camera pans.

Narrator: investigators haven't seen the exchange,

But so far everything matches witness descriptions.

They know the m*rder will happen any second.

Downs: we continue to watch the surveillance video

To see if it captured the m*rder on the footage.

Hey, can you play that back? Rewind that.

Okay, pause it there.

Downs: what we saw just briefly

Was a figure that appeared to be our suspect.

Ok, keep it playing.

Narrator: frustratingly, the camera pans away again,

And by the time it returns to heather, it's too late.

Mayfield: the image is so degraded, but by the rear tire,

You can see a small pixel that wasn't there before the m*rder.

And from the m*rder photographs from the scene,

We can determine that is, in fact, heather's body.

Narrator: despite the degraded footage, downs isn't giving up.

There is one more camera

Overlooking the pathway that the k*ller took

To make his getaway.

But the video is corrupted.

Can you make a copy of this? Wanna have our guys clean it up.

Narrator: news of the sh**ting soon reaches heather's parents.

[ Phone ringing ]

We got a phone call on mary's cell.

[ Phone ringing ]

It was her dad calling.

[ Phone ringing ]

So she picked up the phone, said, "hey, dad."

And his first words were,

"Mary hand the phone to buddy."

And mary knew it was gonna be bad news.

She knew the men she handed me that phone -- she knew.

Yeah?

He said, "buddy...

Heather's dead."

And I looked at her, and...

What?

I said, "heather's dead."

I handed the phone back to her,

And she talked to her dad for just a few minutes.

And then she hung up and lost it.

We, uh...

We couldn't believe it.

Heather was so well-liked

And loved and wouldn't hurt a flea.

We just couldn't fathom why anyone would want to k*ll her.

When I found out that heather

Had been m*rder*d, I was devastated.

I lost...

Such a huge, formative part of my life,

Such a wonderful example of...

How to be,

Not just as a business person, but as a woman,

As someone who loved and cared for people.

Narrator: back at the station,

Investigators analyze the information they have.

Whitehead: it was clear this was not a random crime.

It was clear that they knew that heather would be there.

We knew that our suspect had to know

The time and location of the custody of exchange.

Mayfield: we learned that heather was going through

A divorce, there was a custody dispute over carson.

And that can be a motive for m*rder.

Narrator: the first person police want

To question is heather's estranged husband.

We were able to determine that steven strube

Was living with his mother.

So we went to his residence to make

Notification to him about the m*rder of his wife.

And also...

Do you mind if we come in?

...he's a suspect at this point.

We know he was there.

Steven, could you have a seat for us, please?

We need to talk to you.

At that point, they told him that heather had been k*lled.

He did seem to be truly shocked that heather

Had been m*rder*d.

Either that was feigned, or he was truly shocked.

Can you tell us where you were earlier this evening?

When investigators asked steven strube what he had done

That day, he indicated that he had

Spent most of the day at his mother's house with his mother,

His girlfriend, and with carson.

His mother left before six o'clock to see her parents.

Steven left with carson to make

The exchange that was scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

On that sunday.

Narrator: as steven answers their questions,

Detective down studies his physical characteristics.

It was evident from

What the witnesses told us this steven strube was too tall

To have committed this m*rder.

Not only that, it certainly appeared to be

Him driving his own minivan away from heather's vehicle.

There was no way he returned to the scene

To commit this m*rder himself.

That didn't mean that the sh**ter

And steven weren't associated in some way.

Narrator: with no evidence to link steven to the m*rder,

Investigators turn their focus

To her current romantic interest.

Downs: when we found out that heather, in fact, had

A boyfriend, he immediately became a suspect, and so we went

To his home and spoke to him.

I am very sorry.

And when we told him that she had been m*rder*d,

He broke down crying, I mean, he was visibly shaken,

Crying uncontrollably.

And said he was at work and that

His manager could verify that he was there.

Narrator: detective downs calls mike's boss straightaway.

His manager was able to verify that he was there during

The time of the m*rder, so we completely ruled him out

As a suspect.

Narrator: back at the p.d.,

Footage from the second target camera has

Finally been restored and is ready to view.

Downs: I knew we had to be dealing with a very dangerous person,

Very evil person, because not just anybody would

sh**t somebody in front of their own child.

Investigators can only hope

The face of a k*ller is about to be revealed.

Narrator: hours into heather strube's

m*rder investigation, detective trey downs

Has obtained the footage he hopes will i.d. The k*ller.

The second camera angle that we had received from target was

In a static position, and it filmed a cement walkway

That led from the parking lot to around

The left side of the target building

And out towards the street.

We knew the m*rder occurred at 6 p.m.

So the first thing we did was to look at

The footage to see the suspect leaving the parking lot.

There.

Looks like him.

Downs: all the witnesses described the suspect

As looking like a teenage boy with strange hair

And a strange-looking mustache.

Narrator: now watching the second camera,

Detectives get a clearer view of the suspect.

Downs: one of the things that we observed

Was that our suspect was small in stature,

And that they had an unusual gait when they walked,

Not really a limp, but just a distinctive gait.

Narrator: but they cannot see the face, so detective downs rewinds

The footage to before the m*rder, hoping to catch

The man arriving.

[ Music climbing ]

♪♪

But he's too far away to i.d.

Downs: once we were able to determine that the suspect had came into

The parking lot and left the parking lot

In the same direction, we knew that that suspect had

To have some form of escape in that area.

Mayfield: even though grainy, and even though

It's in still shots, this recording

Gives us more detailed image of the sh**ter than

The other recording.

Narrator: the footage confirms

The bizarre witness descriptions.

Whitehead: with the information we had, we had a composite done

That showed the unique characteristics of our suspect.

We were hoping that that, combined with the stature of

The person, that somebody might have an idea who the person

Might be.

Narrator: detective downs hopes heather's parents

Can identify their daughter's k*ller.

But before he can find out, more information comes in.

Downs: the day after the m*rder, the gwinnett county

Medical examiner performed an autopsy on heather strube.

During the autopsy, they were able to

Retrieve the b*llet fragment that caused her death.

That b*llet fragment was a 38-caliber round,

And it was likely fired from rossi 38-caliber handgun.

Mayfield: this b*llet had enough information on it that was

Transferred from the barrel of

The g*n onto the b*llet itself, that if we could find

The m*rder weapon,

Then we could find the k*ller.

Narrator: following heather's m*rder, buddy and mary

Are given temporary custody of carson.

After the m*rder, of course,

Then carson became our primary concern.

He wanted to know, "where's mom?"

He wanted to understand.

Would you mind telling me if you recognize this person?

They put the drawing together, and it was a strange-looking,

Thin person with long, stringy black hair

And a bushy mustache.

No I don't recognize this person.

There was no way that we knew that person

Or why that person would even be there at that time.

Okay.

We're gonna get this image out to the new stations,

And we'll see what comes up.

Allen: we start thinking about the background.

What was the intent?

Since carson was still alive,

Maybe he was the intent.

Maybe somebody wanted carson.

And so we became very concerned.

Narrator: with carson's custody dispute now at the center of

The investigation, police turn their attention

Back to heather's estranged husband.

Mayfield: so with an obvious motive, and yet knowing steven

Didn't commit the m*rder, investigators began to look at

People that steven knew that

May have been accomplices in this m*rder.

Steven's girlfriend,

Stacy, is brought in for questioning.

Narrator: investigators push her

On her relationship with carson.

She loves steven, and she loved the child,

But she did not want to have him all the time.

She just wanted the two of them to be together.

Narrator: her story suggests she has nothing to do

With the m*rder,

And after confirming her alibi,

She is ruled out of the investigation.

Just as downs thinks he's hit

Another roadblock, a promising tip comes in.

Downs: we received a call from another witness after they saw

A news story that just gave some general details about

The m*rder, and he said he was staying at an extended stay

Motel behind the target shopping center, and that

The day before the m*rder occurred, he saw a white ford

Pickup truck, and he saw

A person in that vehicle who appeared to be taking

Photographs of the back of the target shopping center.

Narrator: it could be the break he's looking for.

He heads straight to the motel to meet with the witness

In person.

Mayfield: he wasn't allowed to smoke in the hotel,

So he went to the cab of his truck.

As he's smoking and looking through the windshield of

His truck, he could see

An older white pickup truck in the parking lot that was

Occupied by a single male.

He described this sort of puffy hair,

Strange-looking person.

They made eye contact,

And immediately, the driver put it in drive and squealed away.

Downs: he described it as a white ford f-150 pickup truck,

Older '90s model -- you see those all the time.

This description of this truck, describing

A driver that matches the sh**ter,

Is our first real lead that we get with the case.

Wait,

What kind of truck was that?

Mayfield: while the investigator was talking to the truck driver,

He recalled that there had been

A similar white pickup truck parked in stephen strube's

Mother's driveway a day or two before.

Downs: he said during that conversation that if we were

Able to find that truck, he would be able

To pick it out, and we asked him how was that,

And he told us that he was an over-the-road truck driver,

And all he did was look at vehicles every day, and he said

This particular white ford

F-150 pickup truck had a very distinctive black molding that

Would appear to be looking like a stripe down the side of it.

Narrator: downs returns to the strube residence.

Downs: we decided to drive him by the residence and let him

Look at the pickup truck to see if he could identify it.

Once we drove him by there,

He immediately said, "that's the truck.

That's the truck right there."

Narrator: two days after heather strube

Was m*rder*d in a target parking lot,

Investigators get their first big break

In the case.

Detective downs runs a check on

The white truck identified by their witness.

Mayfield: the white pickup truck was one of millions,

But it warranted further investigation.

The truck belongs to steven's mom, joanna hayes, but there's

No one at the home who fits

The k*ller's distinctive appearance.

Mayfield: several eyewitnesses described this strange man

With the strange hairdo,

Sort of a poofy dark-colored hair.

Narrator: still, detective downs wants a closer look.

We got a search warrant to search that truck

And her residence.

When we were at joanna hayes's home executing a search warrant,

We did have a discussion

With her about where she was at the day

Of the m*rder.

She told us she did, in fact, drive

The white ford f-150 pickup truck to her mother's.

Narrator: the story matches the accounts

Of both steven and his girlfriend.

She told us

That on the way she stopped, and she bought a frosty at



She said that receipt will prove I didn't commit

The m*rder, just look at the time on it,

And that'll show you that

I didn't have enough time to commit the m*rder and make it

To this wendy's in time.

Okay, and we'll check the truck.

Narrator: that would put joanna 68 miles away

Little over an hour after the sh**ting.

Downs: we saw that she had purchased a frosty at the wendy's at 7:19.

And her point was that there was no way she could drive

To that pilot station and buy that frosty in that small

Amount of time.

Narrator: it looks like another dead end,

But to be sure, the truck is taken away for

Forensic examination.

With testing underway, heather's loved ones come

Together to say goodbye.

We had a plan

For the funeral, and we called it a celebration of life.

We asked mary's dad, who is

A presbyterian minister, to actually conduct the ceremony.

It was packed --

Friends and family and people we'd never met before, but...

That heather had helped out.

People of all ages -- 80 to 13.

And they came to, uh...

Pay their respects and celebrate what was

A great young woman.

Narrator: back at the police department,

The search of joanna hayes's truck is underway.

Mayfield: they used large sections of adhesive tape

To pat down all the seats and all the floorboards

And lifted them up, looking for fiber evidence.

They were able to recover a fiber

Which was approximately 4 inches long, it was black in color.

It was examined closely, and it determined to be

A type of fiber that is generally woven into ropes,

But this had never been woven.

When asked what other purposes this fiber might

Have been used for, the expert indicated a wig.

The length and the color was

Consistent with what the witnesses described.

If our sh**ter was wearing a wig, this might be evidence

From that wig.

Narrator: detective downs returns to the cctv footage

Of their suspect.

Downs: our witnesses described a person that was small

In stature.

One of them even described that

It could have been a teenage boy.

And joanna was small in stature.

Mayfield: when we compared her with the descriptions given by

The witnesses, it was obvious that

The wig might be an explanation that our sh**ter

Was actually a female in male clothing.

Downs: when we determined that joanna hayes was our prime suspect,

It was very shocking to us.

I remember us sitting around talking

About how could somebody k*ll their daughter-in-law

In front of their grandchild?

So we decided to ask steven, her son,

To come back in for another interview.

Downs: we wanted to show him the surveillance video.

At this point in the investigation,

That had not been made public,

And we wanted to show it to him

To see if he recognized the person in the video.

Mayfield: he believed it was his mother,

But there wasn't a lot of proof of that.

She was in disguise.

It was a still picture of a fuzzy

Surveillance tape.

So the investigators asked him to make a phone call to his mom

And asked him if they could record that telephone call,

And he agreed.

They took him outside and placed him in a car

And had him call his mother, where we recorded it.

[ Phone ringing ]

And the recording of that conversation is nothing

Short of chilling.



Investigators believe her mother-in-law,

Joanna hayes, pulled the trigger.

But with little evidence, they want a confession.

[ Phone ringing ]

Based on steven's reaction during the phone call

With his mother,

We knew that he didn't have any

Involvement in the death of his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Narrator: with steven ruled out as a suspect,

Investigators bring his mom in for questioning.

They start by showing her the sketch.

Okay.

Mayfield: quite frankly, she came in

With quite a bit of attitude.

She was confrontational at some points and nonchalant

At other points.

Narrator: with joanna denying any likeness to

Their suspect, detectives try a different approach.

At the end of the interview, when she was being pressed by

One of our detectives, she leaned into him,

And he's a fairly large individual, and she stared him

Directly in the eyes.

Downs: the way in which she answered our questions,

Her defiance, her lack of intimidation,

It all just came together.

This is the kind of person that could walk up to

Their daughter-in-law in broad daylight,

Put a p*stol to her forehead,

Pull the trigger and k*ll her in front of her own child.

We decided we would go speak to

Joanna hayes's ex-husband, steven strube, sr.

He told us that while they were married,

He had bought her a lady rossi 5-shot, 38-caliber p*stol,

And that when they divorced, she kept that p*stol.

He said on the day that he told her that he was

Leaving her,

She pulled that same p*stol out and pointed it at him

And told him she was gonna k*ll him,

And you could see in his face

That it scared him to talk about that story.

Narrator: police now have confirmation joanna is lying.

Not only does she own a g*n, it's the same

Model that ballistic evidence showed was likely used

To k*ll heather.

Now it's time to test her alibi.

Downs: we decided we were gonna drive

To the pilot station wendy's from behind the target.

And we also decided we were gonna do it

On a sunday and leave at around 6 p.m.

So it would be the same time, the same day.

All right, let's go.

We were able to make it

To the wendy's at 7:20.

So now we know that she had enough time to

Drive from the scene to the wendy's to buy the frosty.

Narrator: joanna hayes took the custody battle into her own hands,

And the evidence to prove it is overwhelming.

She is charged with m*rder and held without bond.

She pleads not guilty, but prosecutors present

A very different story.

On the day of this m*rder, joanna hayes gathered everything

She needed, all the clothing,

The disguise, the weapons, and then she went about

The business of committing this m*rder -- she knew where

The exchange of carson was gonna take place,

She knew when it was gonna take place.

She drove behind the shopping center,

Parked her car shortly before 6 o'clock,

And walked around in broad daylight in her disguise.

And she waited.

It's okay, baby.

Joanna advanced towards heather, and heather started

Backing up, getting away

From joanna -- this was not going to end well.

She backed all the way around the front of the car

And tried to open the driver's door, but joanna forced it shut.

And then she k*lled her.

[ g*nsh*t blasts ]

Narrator: after three days of deliberation, the jury

Reaches a verdict.

Joanna hayes destroyed a life.

She destroyed the life of a mother.

She destroyed the life of a son.

I asked the jury to return justice,

But I really asked them to return justice for carson.

He's the true victim here.

Joanna hayes is found guilty of malice m*rder,

Felony m*rder, aggravated as*ault,

And possession of a firearm during the commission

Of a felony.

She receives life plus 5 years.

We were relieved that joanna was gonna be in prison

And that we could go back to living a more open life again,

But we were still going through

The devastation of losing a child.

Lewandowski: what I lost when heather died was...

A mentor,

A big sister, a mom,

A cheerleader, a kick in the butt

When I needed it -- everything.

I lost a huge part of my life when she died.

As allen: okay.

Narrator: due to the circumstances surrounding heather's m*rder,

Buddy and mary are given

Full custody of carson.

Steven still gets to see his son.

Carson actually stayed living with us, and mary and I

Took the care of him

That we know that heath would be pleased with

And hopefully proud of.

He's quite a kid.

I'm so proud of him.