- I was Andy's little sister,
and, you know, I always wanted
to be wherever he was.
Andy definitely wanted
to start a family.
The first time he met Stephanie
I felt like,
you know, they would be
a good match for each other.
Stephanie didn't really talk about
her family or about her past.
And it does make you wonder
if there was more to this story
than we know.
She definitely had that
Jekyll and Hyde kind of behaviour.
- Looking back on it now,
there's some signs
that we probably missed.
- [VOICE SHAKING]
It's hard to think that somebody
that I let in my life
is capable of something so horrible.
[PHONE RINGING]
- Oh, god!
[STEPHANIE SOBBING]
- Andy was my older brother.
Everybody loved him.
We did have a great relationship
growing up.
I was 10 and Andy had just turned 16
when my dad passed away.
That was very hard.
Andy was there
and was ready to take on
anything he needed to take on
as the man of the house.
And he made sure me and my mum
were very well taken care of.
Andy always wanted
to be a police officer
for as long as I can remember.
- I worked
many years
with Andy Kimbrel
on night shift
and through
different assignments,
and he was the nicest,
positive attitude, happy, eager,
every definition
that you could think of
as a good friend,
a good police officer,
that would fit him to a tee.
- When Andy came to work
for the Vestavia Hills
Police Department in October 2002
he was assigned to my shift.
When you describe a police officer
as to serve and protect
that's exactly what he did.
Always
wanting to do
things
for other people.
A real happy, positive guy.
- Andy
and Dawn were
high school
sweethearts.
Him and Dawn
had a great relationship.
You could just feel the love
between them
when you were around them.
Dated for years
before they got married.
They were, you know, beyond excited
to welcome a child in it,
especially a little girl.
They were thrilled to be parents.
- He was the happiest
he could ever be was when him
and his wife had the baby.
- I'd say that it was a dream
come true for him.
And then subsequently
there were some medical conditions
and medical issues that took a turn,
and tragically his wife passed.
To say that his world
stopped would be
an absolute understatement.
- Dawn passed away
shortly after their
daughter was born.
He struggled.
And I'm sure,
you know, having a new baby
was a lot for him and then,
you know, shortly losing his wife
was, you know,
a whirlwind for him at the time.
And, I mean, he was never the same.
- Watching one of your own officers
go through
what he had to go through
was very traumatic for all of us.
- But, you know,
just like he did
when my father passed away,
he really just stepped up,
and did what he needed to do,
and was a great father to Emma.
We always hoped that Andy
would find just happiness again,
just genuine happiness.
He met Stephanie
at a school carnival.
Her son was the same age
as Andy's daughter,
and so they were
kind of at the same stage in life.
I felt like,
you know, they would be
a good match for each other.
When they were together
you could tell they were
enjoying each other's company.
And, you know,
there was an attraction there.
You could definitely see
that as well.
Andy would be kind of silly
and just very affectionate.
It was nice to see Andy happy.
Stephanie, you know,
her and I, we would go out
to lunch occasionally.
You know,
I always wanted a sister-in-law,
you know, to be able
to be close to,
and I wanted to get to know her.
I wanted to be
a part of their lives.
She was very quiet.
She didn't really talk about,
you know, her family
or about her past,
what her background was, or any,
you know,
personal details about herself.
I remember
not being completely comfortable
to ask her those things
because she wasn't
sharing those things
with me automatically.
Her background
was definitely a mystery,
and it does make you wonder,
you know, if there was more
to this story than we know.
One day,
my mum came to me and said,
"I think Andy got married."
And I, of course,
was very caught off guard,
and I said, "What do you mean?"
And she said,
"Well, he showed me
this piece of paper
"and it looked like
a marriage certificate."
And I said, you know, "Surely not."
I said,
"Surely he would have told us."
I was a little bit shocked
and, you know, obviously hurt by,
you know, the fact that
he had gone off
and gotten married and didn't,
you know, tell us before
or even after.
Those are things
you tell your family,
and if you're not telling
your family those things there's,
there's a reason
you're not telling them.
It felt wrong and,
you know, it made me wonder
whose idea was this.
I think there was some manipulation
going on.
After they had gotten married
you could notice some problems.
They would seem to be
arguing quite a bit.
Stephanie definitely had a temper.
I just remember thinking
something's not quite right.
Andy didn't really go
into a lot of details...
but, I mean,
he definitely struggled.
Kind of his whole world
had been rocked at the point.
She was very manipulative.
I feel like she did things,
you know, to deliberately
get a rise out of Andy.
Stephanie absolutely knew
how to press Andy's buttons.
Her behaviour definitely
felt kind of mind gameish,
for lack of better words, and then,
you know, so I definitely think
that was kind of her lifestyle.
There were instances
where their arguments
were got out of control
and got physical.
You know, there was one instance
she threw Andy's belongings off
the balcony of their apartment.
They lived in a very, you know,
busy apartment at this point,
so, she had to know
that other people
were going to see it.
And she may have
very well done it to embarrass him.
That's humiliating.
When Andy and Stephanie
would have arguments
Andy would go over
to my mum's house.
That was his escape to get away
and kind of remove himself
from the situation.
Stephanie would follow him.
I mean, essentially, track him down.
And Stephanie
did show up at the house,
banging on the front door.
She called him
and asked him to come outside.
He went outside and she went
immediately up to him
and kissed him.
He was very caught off guard by it
and kind of stepped back
because this, of course,
is in the midst of an argument
and, you know, asked her
what that was about.
And she said,
"I just wanted to see
if there was anything there."
And she said, "And there's not."
And I just remember thinking,
"Well, that was, you know,
that was very odd."
It just seemed like
she was playing a game.
This is not normal, this is not OK.
She definitely had that
Jekyll and Hyde kind of behaviour.
She was most definitely
trying to manipulate him
and assert her dominance.
That was definitely
the moment that I stopped
being friendly with her
and stopped reaching out to her.
At that point I didn't know
what the future held
for their relationship.
I never in a million years thought
it was gonna
turn out the way it did.
[STEPHANIE SOBBING]
- I think Stephanie
was attention seeking at times.
A lot of her behaviour
she knew would,
you know, frustrate Andy
and I don't know
if she was trying to pick fights
with him at times,
but, I...I definitely think she did.
My family, we had gone out to dinner
at a little fast food restaurant
in town...
and Andy and the two children
walked in the door
and I said to my husband,
"You know, hey, there's my brother."
And I asked him where Stephanie was
and you could tell he was agitated
and he had said,
"Yeah, when I got home
Stephanie was hungry,
"she didn't wanna cook
and they were gonna go
"and get something to eat.
"When we pull up to the Taco Bell
she turns round and says,
"I'm going to Target."
And so that, to me,
shows that there's some type
of manipulation going on.
We were wanting to just shake
and say, listen to us, do something.
It's very,
you know, frustrating
to not be able to do anything
and being on the outside looking in,
it's just...
it's a horrible feeling.
I can definitely see Andy
trying to have his life
appear to be as normal as possible.
This is a photograph
that Andy had posted
on Facebook.
Looks like a picture
that actually Stephanie
took of the two of them,
and underneath it
there is a comment
that Stephanie posted that says,
"Oh, who's that hot chick
"in your car?"
Stephanie,
it appears,
has definitely
doctored the photo.
She seems to have a filter
on her face.
The post is all about her.
But I also think
that was in Andy's nature,
you know, to be all about her.
Andy responds with,
[LINDSEY
READING]
He thinks,
obviously,
very highly
of her
and seems to be very much in love.
Thinking about it now, I mean,
it makes me feel a little bit sick
to my stomach.
Andy, you know,
even if he knew
was not a good situation,
I don't think
he ever would have said to us,
"You're right."
He just tried
to be the tough guy police officer.
- Andy would
not have been
the aggressor,
in my opinion.
Andy was not that type of person.
He wasn't the type
that would run from anything,
but he was also not the person
that was trying
to provoke anything, either.
Looking back on it now,
there's some signs
that we probably missed.
- I definitely think
it was getting worse.
There was a situation where
Andy's daughter was on the phone,
through Snapchat,
with a friend of hers.
And they could see them arguing.
The friend could see
Stephanie and her behaviour...
And had even brought up
the situation to her mum.
The girl was that concerned
about what was taking place.
If that was happening that night,
it was probably happening
much more frequently
than we heard about or knew about.
- In 2018, when I got reassigned,
I would see him in passing
and there would be days
that he wouldn't be
as jovial as normal.
There was a change in his demeanour.
- We had both moved on
to different assignments.
I think each of us knew,
deep inside,
that we wanted to talk
but we just never
went to that level.
[PHONE RINGING]
- Andy was secluding himself from us
and so that was very hard
to wrap our minds around.
[PHONE RINGING]
- The changes
in his personality alone
would show you
that he was struggling.
We never, you know,
openly saw him tearful,
but you could definitely tell
that he was struggling.
But it really got to the point
where he wasn't spending time
with my mum that much.
And one day Andy
had come over to the house.
He had asked me
if I could print
something out for him.
You could tell
he was not in the best mood.
We were in the living room together,
and my son
was kind of tugging on his jeans
and trying to get his attention.
All he had to do was
kind of reach down and pick him up,
and, you know, something.
And it didn't happen.
I knew something
was going on with him
because that was not
like him to do that,
you know,
to go from this doting uncle to,
you know, somebody
that's pretty much ignoring him.
And that was really a moment,
I guess,
that was really a turning point
for me to see that.
And so I very blatantly said,
"Hey, you know,
"I don't know what is going on
with Stephanie or anything else,
"but, you know,
"my child deserves
to have an uncle that he knows.
"And I'm here to help
"but I'm not going
to be the person you call
"when you need something.
"I want to be a part of your life."
I proceeded to say
some pretty hurtful things.
Some I meant, some I didn't,
and our relationship at that point
became pretty much non-existent.
That was...
[VOICE SHAKING]
That was the last conversation
I had with him.
- I would reach out to him
periodically just to,
you know, to say hey.
I just didn't get a response back.
But I remember hearing their
arguments became more frequent.
The people that
lived in the apartment complex
reached out to us and...
told us they saw them
arguing in the parking lot.
These total strangers
are reaching out to us,
you know, to tell us these stories.
It's one thing to have an argument
inside your home,
but when you are completely,
you know,
oblivious to that
you're having an argument
in the middle of a parking lot
with people around,
and, you know, I definitely think
that shows some sort of escalation
that things
are getting out of control.
There was one instance
where he went to my mum's house
and showed her scratches on his neck
where Stephanie
had put her hands on his neck.
I don't know how they got there,
if she was choking him
or just had put her hands on him
in some form or fashion.
But there were visible scratches
on his neck
that appeared to be,
you know, pretty significant.
You think most people,
you know, including myself,
when they hear
of a domestic violence situation
you automatically assume
it's probably initiated by a male,
but things are not
always what they seem.
My mother was upset.
She was obviously very fearful
for him.
Her words were, "Please come home.
"You need to get away from her.
She's going to k*ll you."
It wasn't a good situation for Andy,
or Stephanie, or the kids,
anybody involved in it.
On all sides
it was not a good situation.
And it is heartbreaking to watch.
He never came out
and said, you know,
"Yes, I know that
our relationship is not right."
- I think that Andy
just didn't know how to,
or didn't know
where to go to for help.
- He was just completely hiding
it from everybody.
I think that
he was good at
turning it on
when he needed
to turn it on, that,
"I'm fine, I'm good."
You know, "Just let me go to work."
- But knowing Andy
and the type of person he was,
he wanted to fix it.
We were frustrated
watching it all fold out,
and wanting to just
[LAUGHS NERVOUSLY]
take him and, you know,
and shake him,
and say, "Listen to us."
You know, "Please do something."
[PHONE RINGING]
- God.
[SOBBING]
[DISPATCH]
[STEPHANIE SPEAKING]
[DISPATCH]
[STEPHANIE SPEAKING]
[DISPATCH]
[STEPHANIE SPEAKING]
- Oh, my god.
- [DISPATCH]
[STEPHANIE SPEAKING]
[PHONE RINGING]
- About 11:15
I received a phone call
from our Deputy Chief of Police,
and he said,
"Andy Kimbrel's
been shot."
And I was like,
"Where's he at?"
And he said,
"He's on his way to UAB."
Andy was still alive,
and I said,
"I'm headed to the hospital."
[PHONE RINGING]
- We were asleep in bed
and I got the call,
one of the captains
from Vestavia Police Department,
and his words,
I will probably never forget them,
were...
"Andy's been shot
and it doesn't look good."
I remember just panic,
just absolutely panic
and just not knowing what to do.
I didn't know,
I mean, I assumed
it happened at work, you know?
But I didn't know...
How do I tell my mum this?
What do I say?
What, you know, what's next?
I didn't know what to do.
[SIREN WAILING]
- They brought him down
to the hospital,
so, I walked into the emergency room
and I met with the nurse
and met with the doctor.
They let me in the room
where they were working on him, and,
you know, I just remember walking in
and seeing Andy laying there.
And his head was bandaged up
and I could see one of his eyes,
but I just remember looking
at him and going, "Wake up."
[MACHINE BEEPS]
And that's when I found out
that he had been shot in the head.
[MACHINE BEEPS]
They had him on a ventilator,
and they said,
"We're trying to track
his brain activity."
And everybody
was frantically trying to do
anything they could for him.
[MACHINE BEEPS]
- And so I remember asking
the doctor,
"If he's shot in the head,
I mean, is he gonna make it?"
- When I first got the call,
my Sergeant called me
and told me
that there had been
a sh**ting
at an apartment in Gardendale.
When I arrived on the scene
I entered the master bedroom.
The walk-in closet is to your left,
and about middle-ways
down the wall there's a door leading
in to the bathroom.
There was a bloody handprint
on the toilet.
Inside the closet
I could definitely see
blood splatter.
On one side of the wall
there was a large pool of blood
in the corner.
At first glance
at the blood splatter
I could tell
that it was not a long-range shot,
that it was fairly close.
The g*n was a nine millimetre GL*CK.
Fairly standard issue
for law enforcement.
A shell casing was right outside
the door of the closet
on the floor of the bedroom.
Whoever fired the shot
was standing in the doorway
of the closet or very close
to the doorway of the closet.
After leaving the scene,
we returned
to the police department.
Stephanie had been placed
in an interview room.
We just kind of introduced ourself
and she agreed to speak to us.
- Mmm.
- Stephanie told us that
he'd accused her in the past
of being unfaithful.
So, according to Stephanie,
you know, this,
this argument wasn't,
you know, wasn't out of the blue.
She was basically painting
a picture of her being
just an extremely calm,
non-combative,
non-argumentative person.
[DETECTIVE TALKING]
[STEPHANIE TALKING]
- I've been in law enforcement
for over 24 years.
I've never seen a g*n just go off.
On a GL*CK the safety
is actually on the trigger.
So, in order to disengage the safety
you have to pull the trigger.
So, you know, it was obvious
that the trigger was pulled.
- I know that
if someone is trying to
shove something at me
that I don't want,
I'm not gonna reach for it,
you know?
I'm gonna back away
or I'm gonna put my hands up.
I'm not gonna grab it.
The longer she talked,
the more question marks
and red flags kept popping up.
- Under her story,
they were both
standing up,
and Andy had the g*n
in his hands,
and he shoves it into her hands
when the g*n went off.
But the fatal wound,
the only wound on Andy,
was a b*llet strike to his forehead
just about the hairline.
- It just wasn't possible
for a g*n to go off
at waist level
and the entry wound be
basically on the top of the head.
It just didn't make sense.
- Paging Dr Line. Line two.
- When we got to the hospital
one of the pastors
that the police department
uses was there.
I don't even remember what he said
but made mention of the coroner,
[VOICE SHAKING] and that's...
The moment
that we learned
he had died.
And that's the moment that I learned
that Stephanie had shot him.
I just remember being in shock.
This has to be an accident.
This has to be, you know,
what could have happened?
Did she realise what she was doing?
Did she,
you know, was it an accident?
Was it [STUTTERS]
I never, and even to this day,
it's hard to wrap my mind
that she possibly could've
have a g*n in her hand
and fire it at him.
It's hard...
To make sense of that.
- I mainly, kind of,
wanted to just gauge her reaction.
And so,
you know,
in the interview you can see me
just kind of laser-focused
on her, really.
She sounded upset
but when she raised her head up...
she wasn't crying.
- You know,
I looked directly into her eyes
and they were dry as a bone.
There was no tears
in her eyes whatsoever.
What really happened?
What's really going on here?
What Stephanie didn't know
was down the hall
we had several witnesses
that were present
in the house that night.
- When I was told that,
it changed everything.
Down the hall we had...
Stephanie's son and Andy's daughter.
Andy's daughter begins to talk,
you know, and she
kind of just starts describing
what she's been through,
and, you know, again,
the loss of her mum at a young age
and now the loss of her father.
It was very tough not
to get emotional
interviewing her.
- Mmm-hmm.
[DET PANNELL SPEAKING]
[EMMA SPEAKING]
- According to what we were told,
Stephanie was the physical ab*ser
in the relationship.
She was the verbal ab*ser
in the relationship.
That painted
quite a different picture
than what Stephanie was telling us.
At one point in the evening,
she had received a text
from Andy saying,
"Lock your doors, she's crazy."
- Stephanie's son
advised us that
he was asleep the entire time
and he didn't hear anything.
- Andy's daughter,
she was a very important witness
because not only
was she directly across
the hallway from the incident,
she was awake the entire time.
- When Andy's daughter
made the comment to us
it changed everything.
I know in my mind this just changed
from an accident
to a possible m*rder.
We went back down the hall
and spoke with Stephanie again,
and then we confronted her
with that detail.
- Her credibility,
in my eyes, was over.
It was done.
- In the mugshot
she's clearly injured.
Defence attorneys
and certainly members of the public,
they get to see the mugshot,
had some
suspicions
as to how
she got her injuries
and then blaming
the victim, Andy.
- Like this comment here.
[DET PANNELL READING]
- It's extremely hard
to read these comments.
Just absolutely heartbreaking.
The first posts says,
[LINDSEY
READING]
Andy was never a*usive to her.
You want to scream it
from the rooftops,
but there are some people
that are gonna,
you know, question the situation,
and especially
after seeing her booking photo.
- This is a video
that was taken
from the jail surveillance footage
that shows Stephanie Keller
while she is in custody
and handcuffed.
This was taken a few hours
before her mugshot.
The video itself was interesting,
to say the least.
And she,
essentially takes a step
towards the vending machine...
She nails the vending machine
with her face.
It would seem to be
a very intentional act.
- It's very difficult to not be able
to reach out to these people
that are saying
these horrible things,
you know, and tell them
"You're wrong.
"This is not how this is.
"This is
a very different situation."
- When we went to the trial
any doubt that I had
that this was a horrible accident
just went away very quickly.
[VOICE SHAKING]
It's hard to think that somebody
that I let in my life
and had a relationship
with is capable
of something so horrible.
[SNIFFS]
It's a hard pill to swallow
to think about that.
- When Andy's daughter testified,
her story was...
very impactful
for the members of the court.
It was impactful for the jury.
The judge did come down
for the sentence of 20 years
in the penitentiary
for Stephanie Keller,
and that was the maximum
under provocation manslaughter.
- I think that the sentence
that she received
was appropriate.
I mean, you know,
nothing is ever enough.
It will never be enough.
But it also won't change it,
no matter what it is.
- As a police officer,
we're usually the ones that say,
"Hey, here's how
you handle this situation."
And when we can't do that
for ourselves
we question ourselves
as to whether we're a failure.
And so we have to reach out
for help...
just like everybody's
reaching out for us to help.
- Losing Andy had very much
an emotional impact
on the department.
Every member
of the police department
was at the funeral.
- People came from everywhere,
you know, and they just heard
about it and wanted to come
and show their respect.
It makes you so proud
to be driving down the road
and seeing flags
that are, you know, for him.
It was definitely a moment
to be proud of him.
I mean, he's...
I will always be proud of him.
He was a really great person, and...
A great father.
You know, I wanted
to remember all the good things
that he did as a police officer.
Honestly,
if I could say
anything to her
I would ask her,
"Why?"
I think she's
a horrible person.
I think she...
I...
don't even
know
if I should
say this,
but I think
she is,
this could
happen again
given the opportunity.
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