-[distant applause]
-[cheerful music playing]
[vocalizing]
Choir was pretty competitive.
You have to definitely
fight for it.
She could have
a mean girl streak.
A lot of us could.
It was almost like instant,
they really liked each other.
But things were getting
extremely obsessive.
You want to be
a supportive friend,
but she's doing
something wrong.
She had a hatred,
like a deep-seated hatred.
She woke up, she heard someone
busting in the back door.
She has stab wounds
all over her body.
That takes some guts --
at that point,
you just don't care.
[theme music playing]
Humble, Texas, is about
It is your typical
suburban neighborhood
just outside of the big city.
I think people live in Humble
for more of a simple life.
NARRATOR: Life may be simple
for the adults in Humble...
but for the teen girls at
Nimitz High,
it's more like survival of
the fittest.
Without even knowing,
there was this system.
[cheerleaders chanting]
Defense! Defense!
There are the cool kids.
There are the not so cool.
NARRATOR:
But when the TV show "Glee"
premieres across the country,
the high school pecking order
is turned upside down.
[a cappella singing]
OLIVIA:
"Glee" was so popular.
Everybody was talking
about "Glee."
All those choir kids
became the "it" kids.
Choir was pretty competitive.
You have to actually read
music and memorize
the songs and the notes
and things of that nature.
The freshmen began
in JV choir.
Um, and then it was varsity
choir, which is typically
sophomores and juniors,
some seniors,
and then, um,
there was chamber choir,
which is like the top
class to be in.
The cooler, more popular kids
were in chamber choir.
The ones that you wanted
to fit in with.
NARRATOR: Choir culture
is cutthroat.
So students will do whatever
it takes to be front
and center.
You want to sing and showcase
what you have, and sometimes
that opportunity wasn't
always given.
So you have to definitely
fight for it.
We would have girls who had
older siblings in chamber choir
and they would end up in
chamber choir,
or girls that were
more friendly with teachers,
and they would end up
in chamber choir.
There was a lot of favoritism
with the choir teacher, and if
she just took a certain liking
to you,
I can almost guarantee you,
you would be selected for
a solo even if you didn't have
that much talent.
♪♪♪ Yeah ♪
[vocalizing]
NARRATOR:
In the Fall of 2010,
a new batch
of freshman girls join
the junior varsity choir
at Nimitz High.
COURTNEY:
Amber, Heather,
Olivia, Antoinette, and Keri,
they all hung out together.
Choir brought in
so many different types
of people,
and we were a solid group.
I feel like that was
my core group of friends.
AMBER:
We were pretty tight.
Heather was semi-quiet,
not too quiet.
Um, she's very fun.
She's hilarious.
Antoinette was,
um, she was quiet.
She had a lot of things
going on.
She was nice to talk to.
She was...eccentric.
[short laugh]
Amber sometimes can be rude.
I mean, Amber is very funny.
She was my best friend.
But if she was having
a bad day,
she would be very rude to you.
I mean,
I told it like it was.
NARRATOR: There is no shortage
of drama in this choir clique,
especially the kind that
buzzes around their Queen Bee.
Keri was outspoken,
outgoing, she loved performing,
she loved singing.
ANTOINETTE: A lot of people
who were in choir
gravitated towards her
and liked being around her.
COURTNEY: Keri was kind of
that leader of the pack.
She was the one that
those girls looked up to.
NARRATOR: And just like any good
diva, Keri knows how to stay in
the spotlight.
Keri could have
a mean girl streak if --
if she was really up to it.
Um, a lot of us could,
if we wanted to actually,
you know, go that route.
ANTOINETTE: There were just days
that she would come to
school and she would just have
it out for everyone.
She could get very snarky
and very rude at some times.
There were some secrets that
were told behind my back,
um, that Keri had talked
about, and there were some times
that she was just mean to me
because of somebody I liked,
um, at the time, she was like,
"He's not gonna be interested in
you, blah, blah, blah,
whatever."
NARRATOR: To be in with Keri,
you had to follow her rules.
Keri was a possessive,
uh, friend,
definitely, um, she was
allowed to have other friends.
Um, but if I had a boyfriend
specifically, um,
she would want me to break up
with him, like,
we would have sleepovers,
and she would try to
convince me that I'd be better
off alone and that I didn't
need a boyfriend and that
he was bad for me.
So she definitely kind of
wanted me to herself.
Someone might be friends
with Keri and think
she's possessive,
where I see her and think
about our friendship
and I see loyalty,
very loyal.
If she loved you,
she loved you,
and she would show it, in any
way, would fight for you.
I think Keri, to the public,
to her friends carried herself
in a way that
she looked confident,
but on the inside,
her self-confidence was really
kind of rattled
during this time.
Keri was very tall,
taller even than the boys.
She towered over everyone.
She carried a little bit
more weight.
AMBER:
She had freckles on her face.
She was very pale.
She was, um...
not super impressive
to look at.
Um, I don't know if that's
kind of rude to say, but...
so that's just -- she just
wasn't a -- a looker.
HEATHER: She was never as thick
as she thought she was,
but of course,
if you're not stick thin,
especially back
when we were kids,
you might as well
be a house.
NARRATOR: But Keri's looks
aren't the only
reason for
her mean girl ways.
There's also her home life.
She had two loving parents,
hard-working parents.
She had an older brother.
AMBER: Keri and her brother
were super close.
They did a lot together,
they hung out a lot together.
BRANDY: Keri's dad, Don, worked
nights as a machinist.
You're gonna find dirt
under his nails
is the way we like to say it
here in Texas.
From the outside,
Keri's family looked great.
There was a lot of love
between Keri and her mother.
But Keri's parents' dynamic,
from what I heard,
wasn't the best.
COURTNEY:
Unfortunately, at this time,
Mary Ann and Don's
relationship is rocky.
They're not sleeping in
the same room.
He's sleeping on the couch.
They're arguing,
if they're even speaking,
ANTOINETTE: Seeing
that aggression on a daily
possibly made her seem
like it was normal to treat
people the way
that her parents would treat
each other, and she just wanted
to make everyone feel what
she was feeling inside.
NARRATOR: And Keri's casual
cruelty isn't limited to
her girlfriends.
Zein was
a upperclassman at school.
[vocalizing]
I'm not sure how Keri and
Zein came to be involved.
He had a crush on her, but she
didn't feel that way about him.
[vocalizing]
HEATHER: I believe that Zein had
a slight obsession with Keri.
But Keri looked at Zein
as just a friend.
She was never interested in him,
never found him attractive.
It was just Zein for her.
AMBER:
Zein was a loner.
Um, I didn't really see him
hang out
with a whole lot of people in
high school.
HEATHER: He had a long ponytail
and kind of a soul patch.
He was on the shorter side.
Um, and I remember him
having like a --
kind of like a emo attire.
He would wear baggy jeans
and chains,
and imagine somebody
coming out of Hot Topic.
[choir vocalizing
"Carol of the Bells"]
Every December, the choir puts
on a holiday performance.
This is a big deal for choir.
We all would come together
and sing, and sometimes all of
the choir would be up singing
at the same time.
AMBER: As a freshman
in junior varsity choir,
it was a blast to get
together with the varsity
and the chambers
as one big choir family.
NARRATOR: And that's the night
Keri's life changes forever.
AMBER: If I could go back in
time and change something,
I would probably change Keri
meeting Rebecca.
Unfortunately,
it took a turn for
the worst, and somebody
had to lose their life.
[vocalizing]
BRANDY: Keri met Rebecca
at choir rehearsal when
they were rehearsing for
the Christmas concert.
Rebecca was in varsity choir
as a senior.
AMBER: Rebecca was skinny,
she wore glasses.
Um, she had blonde hair,
always wore jacket and jeans.
She was bisexual.
It wasn't like a big thing in
our high school that
there was g*y kids.
Everybody called her Bunny.
I have no idea how she
received the nickname Bunny.
We just all called her Bunny.
ANTOINETTE: I believe
she did cross country,
and she was a loner
and very quiet.
NARRATOR: But senior Bunny finds
a kindred spirit in
freshman Keri.
OLIVIA:
It was almost like instant that
they really liked each other.
I think there was something
magnetic there.
NARRATOR: Their fast
friendship snowballs.
And after a few weeks,
Rebecca tells Keri
she wants to be more
than just friends.
And previously heterosexual
Keri is all in.
HEATHER:
I never knew Keri was g*y.
I always thought
she was kind of going
to follow what her mother
wanted for her,
but we all welcomed Keri
with open arms.
Um, we weren't worried
about her sexuality.
Her parents were another story,
definitely, because they
are Southern.
They are Christians.
COURTNEY: A few months
into their relationship,
Rebecca urged Keri
to talk to
her family and come out
to them.
Keri was really nervous
about talking to her parents,
especially her mom, Mary Ann.
Mary Ann was strict.
She had
her Christian upbringing.
OLIVIA: I think she was
extremely nervous,
terrified, unsure of how
her mother would respond.
COURTNEY: One day at dinner,
Keri essentially ripped
the band-aid off,
and she came
out to her mom and told her
mom that she was in
a l*sbian relationship.
Clearly, Mary Ann was shocked
at this news, had no idea.
But after discussing
with Keri, I mean,
really wanted her daughter to
be happy
and was giving her
her blessing.
NARRATOR: Before long, Keri
and Rebecca's Juliet
and Juliet romance becomes
a full-on love affair.
AMBER:
Keri was excited.
She always wanted
to hang out with Rebecca.
Um, and I felt like Rebecca
made Keri feel seen.
They were very lovey dovey
with each other, holding
hands, hugging,
kissing each other all of
the time.
It didn't bother me at all.
But Keri was a freshman.
Rebecca was a senior.
So the age gap
was definitely pretty huge.
NARRATOR: Keri and Rebecca
spend every
waking moment together,
and mean girl Keri
starts to sing
a different tune.
ANTOINETTE: Whenever she did
interact with the group,
um, she became more mellow,
more level-headed.
She didn't really get into
that many arguments.
She wasn't quite
that mean girl anymore.
She was a little bit
more happy.
NARRATOR:
Although her friends are glad
that Rebecca has softened
Keri's sharp edges,
not everyone is thrilled
with the happy couple.
At this point, Zein is
observing this relationship.
He feels sort of left out.
I think he misses
the friendship with Keri.
NARRATOR: But as far
as Keri is concerned,
Zein is yesterday's news.
HEATHER:
I heard nothing of Zein.
He might as well have been on
the back burner.
He might as well have moved
to another state.
Keri never brought him up.
Um, he was a non-issue.
COURTNEY: Close to the end
of the school year,
Keri's mom, Mary Ann,
finds out Rebecca's age.
She was 19, about to graduate
from high school.
Remember, her daughter is 15
and a freshman.
At this point,
Mary Ann tells
Keri that the relationship
needs to end.
HEATHER: By the time
that Mary Ann found out,
the cement had already set.
There was
no undoing that bond.
She was going
to do whatever it
took to stay by Bunny's side.
When Bunny graduated, all she
did was focus on Keri.
I didn't hear much
about jobs from her.
I didn't hear
much about plans
for the future
that didn't involve Keri.
She was just living at home
and thinking
about the next time
she could see Keri.
AMBER: Keri, um, would
sneak out of her house.
They would go to Jesse Jones
Park, uh, her and Rebecca.
They would hang out there at
the park talking, um,
like all night long.
Um, and then there were some
times where she would say
she was going to Heather's
house, and, um,
she would just meet up with
Rebecca and, you know, lie to
her mom and, you know, um,
they would just
hang out all night.
I didn't think
too much of it, that
they were sneaking out
and hanging out together.
I thought, okay, you know,
you're just --
you're trying to see each
other, fine.
You're rebelling, fine.
NARRATOR: But it isn't long
before Keri's mom catches on.
Mary Ann was a hard a*s,
and she was
serious about her rules.
So when she found out that
Keri was sneaking out,
she was pissed.
AMBER: She had, like,
grounded her, took away
the phone, said that she wasn't
allowed to go anywhere.
But everything that
Miss Mary Ann tried,
it just didn't work.
HEATHER: She would sneak out
the back door.
She would sneak out
the front door.
She was going to find her way
to Bunny.
That was not going
to stop her.
So after a while, I do remember
Rebecca giving Keri a phone
so she was able to still have
that line of communication
through Rebecca.
HEATHER: It had a name,
the Bunny Phone.
We all knew about
the Bunny Phone.
It was a...
out and open
secret between her friends.
ANTOINETTE: It just became
very unhealthy.
At one point,
they couldn't talk to anyone
without the other one knowing.
And if they did,
it would cause
a lot of tension
between the two.
AMBER: They would have
like, you know,
secrets with each other,
like talking in low tones.
It was very secretive,
very, like...
spy-like? Yeah.
NARRATOR: After a year of
dating, Keri and Rebecca
decide to take a dramatic
step in their relationship.
HEATHER: Keri told me that Bunny
had proposed to her,
which took me by surprise.
We were 16.
ANTOINETTE: There was a plan
to just hop in the car with
nothing and just run
to California
and build a life there.
You want to be
a supportive friend.
At the same time,
you know
that she's doing
something wrong.
And so it --
it was uncomfortable.
AMBER: Whether it had been Keri
or it had been Rebecca,
somebody was gonna get hurt.
HEATHER: Things were
extremely obsessive
with Keri and Bunny.
There was the Bunny Phone,
there was the sneaking out.
Um, there was seeing each other
by any means necessary,
continuous lying,
continuous hiding.
The absolute final straw
for Mary Ann was when
Keri's father, Don,
came home
and found Keri and Bunny
in the shower together.
One, she's not supposed
to be in the house at all.
Two, you are doing sexual
things in the shower at home.
That takes some guts like,
I mean,
at that point, you --
you just don't care.
NARRATOR: Mary Ann
lays down the law.
The next time
she catches them together,
she's calling the police.
Mary Ann had gotten up in
the middle of the night to go
check on Keri and make sure that
she was still in the house.
And when
she had walked in there,
she had found Rebecca
in bed with Keri.
I think Keri was pushing her
mom, um, past her limit just to
see how far she could push her,
just push and push
and push until, you know,
her mom finally snapped.
[siren wailing distantly]
Mary Ann is furious, and she is
going to hold her promise.
She doesn't let Rebecca
leave the room.
She calls the authorities.
HEATHER: She called the police,
and Bunny was
arrested for trespassing,
as she should have been.
COURTNEY: And also,
she gets a restraining order.
There is no contact to be made
between Keri and Rebecca.
I think that was the breaking
point for Keri, truly.
ANTOINETTE: I think that there
was now too much trouble
and toxicity in
the relationship with Rebecca
to even remotely think
about keeping it going.
I knew it was done.
[choir vocalizing]
So, at the end of
the sophomore year,
we had our final performance
and, um, Keri did participate.
HEATHER: And we had
a really good one that year.
Keri loved it,
Mary Ann was there,
my mother was there.
Um, it was
a really good time.
NARRATOR: Keri's choir friends
aren't the only
ones happy to have her back.
There is now more time for
Zein and that friendship
with Keri.
HEATHER: I'm sure that Zein
probably thought, "This is
"my chance, Bunny's become
a thing of the past.
It's -- it's my turn."
At this point,
Keri's laying low.
She's trying to abide
by her mom's rules.
So it really felt like
things were
going to get better
from the outside
at that point.
NARRATOR: Keri and her mother
are alone in the house.
Her brother and father are
working overnight shifts.
-[numbers dialing]
-[phone ringing]
[operator speaking]
COURTNEY:
A phone call comes in to 911,
and it's Keri Murphy.
Keri tells 911
that she woke up.
She heard someone
busting in the back door,
and then her mom screaming,
"Stop, stop, stop."
The first responders enter
through the back door,
and they start making
their way through the home.
COURTNEY:
They're not seeing anything
until they get
to a back bedroom.
BRANDY:
As they enter the room,
they find Mary Ann Murphy
lying face up on her bed.
She is covered in dry blood.
She has stab wounds
extensively all over her body,
her arms, her chest, her legs.
COURTNEY: Mary Ann
was stabbed 73 times.
It was brutal.
NARRATOR: First responders
break the news to
Keri that her mother
is gone.
Keri calls her brother
and her father,
and they return
home immediately.
At this point,
detectives are really
trying to figure out
what happened.
And so Keri, Scott,
and Don make their way
to the police station to
give their statements.
Keri tells investigators
that, at 11:15 p.m.,
she was scrapbooking
and noticed some
suspicious lights,
headlights,
around the house.
Didn't think anything of it.
At about 12:15,
she went to bed,
and shortly after that is when
she awoke to her mom's screams.
She heard footsteps,
somebody running in the house.
She gets up,
opens the door,
calls for her mom,
and gets no response.
And as she did that,
she saw two men leaving
out the back door,
didn't know what direction.
She then ran to a neighbor's
house to call 911 because she
didn't have a phone because
her mom had taken hers away
as punishment.
REPORTER: Mary Ann Murphy
has lived here with
her two children
and husband for years.
Murphy died as a result of
multiple stab wounds.
My mother sits us down in
the living room, and she
just told us, "Mary Ann was
stabbed to death this morning,"
and I heard the word "to death,"
and I was like,
"Seriously? To death?
She's dead?
Mary Ann's dead?"
My choir director calls me,
and I was like, what?
And she's like, "Yeah,
she died last night."
And I was like,
what?
So after my mother broke
the news,
she drove us over to
a family friend's house,
which is where Keri
was at the time.
I saw her,
and I ran to her.
I hugged her,
she hugged me, and we cried.
We sat there
for maybe 10 minutes
in the middle of the road
just crying.
It was surreal.
AMBER: Seeing Keri lose her mom
was very sad,
especially at a young age
like that
and in the manner that
Mary Ann had passed away,
you know, it was traumatizing.
I couldn't think of
a single soul
that would want to hurt
Mary Ann.
It felt so random.
NARRATOR: Something else
that seems random are
the details
of the crime scene.
The investigators notice
a busted window
by the back door,
but it was too small for
anyone to fit through,
and you couldn't
actually physically
open the back door if you stuck
your hand through this window.
COURTNEY: And for the most part,
the inside
of the house does not
look ransacked.
It is kind of put together as
you would expect to see
a house.
And detectives find
a 22-caliber p*stol
under Mary Ann's pillow.
Mary Ann slept
with this g*n
under her pillow
for protection.
She knew how to use one,
and it was there
if she needed it,
which means she had no time
to react to what
was happening to her.
She was completely
and 100 percent ambushed
while she was sleeping in
her bed.
NARRATOR:
The clues suggest the scene
was staged to look like
a break-in,
leading investigators to
wonder if this was actually
an inside job.
The husband is always
first to be looked at.
So they had to verify
where Don was.
COURTNEY: Detectives
now talk to Don,
and what detectives notice
is that his reaction,
his demeanor, is slightly
different, is a little kind of
like red flags are flying up,
because he's not super
emotional about
his wife's m*rder.
And Don admits that their
marriage had some rocks.
Keri would confide in me
about her parents arguing all
the time, how sometimes, like,
it was physical
and that she,
you know,
felt like she had to step in.
NARRATOR:
But Don's alibi checks out.
He was at work when
Mary Ann was m*rder*d.
So was their son, Scott.
While investigating, detectives
find Mary Ann's phone,
and they look through it
for any evidence at all,
and they discover the last
person that she spoke to was
actually a coworker of hers.
Investigators track down
the coworker.
His name is Mike.
They go to him,
and he's visibly
upset to hear this news
about Mary Ann.
He tells investigators they
were having an affair.
Now detectives have to look
at another possible
suspect here.
Was this
a crime of passion?
He says that it only
happened at his house.
He had never been
to her house and shared
his phone records
with detectives
and also gave them
an alibi.
And it checks out --
he was not involved.
So they were able
to clear him.
NARRATOR: Police now turn
their attention back to
the last person to see
Mary Ann alive.
BRANDY: You know,
Keri is the only
one at the house
when this happens.
COURTNEY: And so they want
to do a polygraph test.
Keri does the polygraph test
and does not do well.
Detectives tell Keri,
and she completely
breaks down,
and she tells detectives
she knows who did it.
HEATHER:
I forgot who got the call.
But somebody got the call
that police were going
to Zein's house, and that he
was getting arrested.
Keri told investigators that
the person responsible
for k*lling Mary Ann
is Zein Ahmed.
I thought that it was,
you know,
impossible, because I didn't
think that Zein had ever even
met Mary Ann.
So it was kind of like,
you know,
it doesn't make any sense,
it wasn't adding up,
um, why Zein would, you know,
m*rder Mary Ann.
Keri tells detectives this
all stems from a few days ago.
Mary Ann caught Keri
sneaking back into
the house and accuses her of
seeing Rebecca.
[rustling noises]
BRANDY: Keri says that she heard
something suspicious outside,
saw two men by her window,
and that she went outside
to check it out.
NARRATOR: Mary Ann
didn't believe a word
of her daughter's story --
as punishment,
she took Keri's phone,
totally unaware
Keri still had the Bunny Phone
that Rebecca had given her.
Two days later,
the Bunny Phone comes in
handy when Keri needs
to call in a favor.
Keri asked Zein to come over
to the house to knock on
the walls and really just
to scare her mother.
She wanted her mother
to believe the story
about the two
strange men.
He loved her
so much that
he would do absolutely
anything for her.
NARRATOR: That's when her plan
goes off the rails.
Keri tells investigators
when Zein showed up,
he had a knife with him.
He comes into the house,
and he
goes directly back to
the mother's bedroom.
Keri says she hears
her mom screaming,
[distant scream]
and she goes to her room,
and that's where she sees Zein
stabbing Mary Ann.
BRANDY: He comes out of the
room, throws a brick through
the window, and tells her
to say it's a robbery.
COURTNEY: Keri said he thought
he was proving his love to her,
and she lied to detectives in
the beginning, because she knew
Zein was coming over.
So she had to lie.
NARRATOR: At first, Zein denies
any involvement,
but he changes his tune
when detectives
hook him up to
a polygraph machine.
About halfway through,
the polygraph examiner
comes out of the room
and tells police,
"He's ready to confess."
Zein says that he didn't mean
to k*ll her,
that he just wanted to scare
Mary Ann.
BRANDY: He tells police that
he went upstairs to her bedroom.
He holds a knife over to her
neck, and he says, "Boo,"
and then he doesn't know
what happened next.
He just starts stabbing her.
He freaked out, he panicked,
and stabbed Mary Ann
four times.
Zein even tells police
where they can
find the knife that k*lled
Mary Ann.
It's in his bedroom.
It has a red handle.
NARRATOR:
The knife is right where Zein
told them it would be.
Doesn't look like
any residue is on it,
but they do take it to
the crime lab to be processed.
Zein is arrested for
the m*rder of Mary Ann.
I think he wanted to gain
Keri's love and trust and say,
"Hey, you know,
I took care of your problem,
"and, you know,
now you can be
with me, and, you know,
you owe me."
HEATHER:
At the funeral,
when we went
to go see the body,
she was dressed up.
The neck had to be
covered, and I found
out it was because of such
deep lacerations to the neck.
That's not a good time,
at a funeral,
to hear the brutality
I had heard.
NARRATOR: While Mary Ann's
family and friends mourn,
detectives continue
to work the case,
and they realize Zein's story
has several false notes.
He told police he stabbed Mary
Ann four times, and she was
stabbed well over 70 times.
He also told police that
he went upstairs to get to
her bedroom,
but this is a one-story home.
NARRATOR: Could Keri's
wanna-be boyfriend
have given a false confession?
COURTNEY: Zein's parents
tell investigators that
he was home all night
playing video games.
They actually have
photographic evidence that
timestamp that
he was at home.
Also, that knife came back
from the crime lab as
totally clean.
Zein then tells police,
"Look, I didn't do it."
He said he gave a false
confession because he was
scared and nervous,
and he felt
that perhaps if he said that
he committed this crime,
they'll let him go home.
BRANDY:
Based on this evidence,
police dismissed the charges
against Zein
for the m*rder of
Mary Ann Murphy.
OLIVIA: I didn't really know
what to believe,
because everything
was so misleading.
Everything was so
like a feather in the wind.
You couldn't
grab any truth.
NARRATOR: Investigators call
their star witness in for
more questioning.
Keri told me about
the police investigation.
She said that they were giving
her details about the m*rder.
She thought they were trying
to break her down with all of
this information,
and they were
trying to get her to confess
to something that
she didn't do,
and she seemed horrified
by all of these details,
and she stopped talking.
NARRATOR:
But a background check on
Keri shed some new light
on the investigation.
COURTNEY: And they learn about
this restraining order against
Rebecca,
and a little light goes off,
and they think,
"We need to look into this
a little bit more."
They bring her in for
questioning, and she comes in
and tells them that yes,
there was a relationship,
and it didn't continue.
It didn't work out.
And, as a matter of fact,
they haven't even seen each
other or spoken to each other
in months because there was
a restraining order
against Rebecca.
But Rebecca's lying.
Detectives bring in Scott,
Keri's brother, again to try
to get to the bottom
of Rebecca
and Keri's relationship.
Scott tells them
that they had
this secret way
of communicating.
They called it
the Bunny Phone.
So the phone records to
the Bunny Phone were subpoenaed.
There's multiple phone calls,
multiple text messages,
including the night
of the m*rder.
So police want to talk to
Rebecca again about
the phone records,
and they confront her
with the fact that they know
they were talking even up to
the day of the m*rder.
NARRATOR: Rebecca knows
it's finally time to come clean.
Rebecca says,
"Keri's been talking
about k*lling her mom
for months."
Rebecca tells investigators
that Keri has been talking
about k*lling her mom
for months,
but everything started to
unravel when Mary Ann takes
Keri's phone away
and threatened to unlock it.
NARRATOR: Keri still has the
Bunny Phone to make calls.
That's not why
she wants her phone back.
Keri knew what Mary Ann
would discover would be
nude photos of her minor
daughter, sexting with an adult.
All of this was going
to land Rebecca in jail.
Keri refused to give
the code to her mother
to get into the phone,
but Mary Ann said, "I'll bring
the phone with me to work on
"Monday,
and I will have someone
at the office get in
this phone."
NARRATOR: Keri couldn't bear
to lose Rebecca.
So the couple puts
a murderous plan into action,
and the Bunny Phone
comes in handy.
Rebecca and Keri
were texting back
and forth, waiting for Mary Ann
to go to bed.
Once Mary Ann goes to sleep,
Rebecca comes over
to the house.
Keri enters her mother's
bedroom, stabs her to death.
Rebecca watched from
the hallway, then together,
they staged the scene to make
it look like a home invasion.
Rebecca made Keri strip down
all of her bloody clothes.
They put them in a garbage bag,
including the knife.
BRANDY: Rebecca then leaves
the home with the garbage bag.
She jumps the fence
behind Keri's home,
goes into
the school parking lot,
and puts that bag
into a trash can.
NARRATOR:
The confession is enough to
arrest both Keri and Rebecca.
OLIVIA:
I would have never thought
Keri was capable of m*rder.
I would have never
thought that.
I was not completely convinced
that Keri was guilty of this.
I felt like, you know,
maybe the cops were
just trying to find somebody to
pin it on and, you know,
the daughter's, the,
you know, easy target
because, you know,
mom and daughter were --
were having problems.
A few months after
Keri was arrested,
her grandmother was able to
come up with the bail,
and she got out.
Um, Bunny stayed in jail.
I visited Keri, I saw her
often, she was fine.
She gave me
a picture of me
and Mary Ann together at
Chuck E. Cheese
when we were still kids.
She talked about Mary Ann,
how much
she loved her
and missed her.
She was normal.
Keri told me that
she missed me,
and she said that
she wanted to see me.
We ate at the food court.
She could tell that
I was uncomfortable.
She seemed like
normal Keri.
I had asked her, like,
"You know I wanna ask you,"
and she said,
"Ask me what?"
And I was like, "Well,
did you k*ll your mom?"
And she looked me dead in
my eyes, and she's like, "No,
I didn't."
NARRATOR: Keri may seem
like she's moving on,
but she just can't
quit Rebecca.
BRANDY: Both Rebecca
and Keri still communicated
when Keri was out on bail.
Rebecca and Keri would have
phone conversations, um,
from the jail.
Police start listening to
these jailhouse conversations.
COURTNEY: While the police
are listening in
to one of those jailhouse
phone calls,
Rebecca tells Keri,
"I'm just glad
you didn't see
what happened in there."
Keri said, "I did, I was in
the hallway, and I looked."
Rebecca says,
"You weren't supposed to see.
I told you to stay
in your room."
NARRATOR: Rebecca has
simultaneously confessed to
premeditated m*rder
and admitted Keri
was an accessory.
[vocalizing]
I would have never thought in
a million years that, you know,
two -- two girls in --
in high school, in choir,
you know, living life,
would have turned
what was puppy love,
super cute, super fun,
into super crazy,
massive m*rder.
Keri did what she did,
but...
I think if she didn't have
the influence of Bunny,
it wouldn't have
turned out like this.
But it broke my heart
that Keri was involved.
Just there's one thing
thinking and having that
question but to have
the answer for sure --
it destroyed me
and my mom.
OLIVIA:
I didn't want it to be true.
I don't know.
I was so hopeful.
I was so hopeful.
I feel like
I was played in a way,
like I was
just another person that
she could manipulate or --
or, uh, I don't know, lie to.
Yeah, I definitely
feel betrayed.
I feel disappointed,
honestly in myself.
Oh God.
[crying quietly]
NARRATOR: With the phone call
confession as evidence,
the investigation comes to
a quick end.
Both Keri and Rebecca ended
up pleading guilty.
Keri is sentenced
to 30 years in prison.
Rebecca is sentenced to 60.
HEATHER: I felt like
She might not have m*rder*d
her mom,
but her actions led to it,
and 30 years is
a long time to sit
and think about it,
long time.
I think they both
should have gotten life.
You get 30 years
because you sat
there and you watched
your mom get k*lled?
It's not enough time.
If I could go back to the day
that Keri met Rebecca,
I would say,
"Turn away.
Don't do this. Just --
just listen to your mom."
AMBER: Your life could have
been totally different
had you not met Rebecca,
had this not unfolded
to what it did.
It could have led Keri on
a whole other path to being
something great.
ANTOINETTE:
It starts making you think,
how well do you know a person?
And you may think you know
someone, but
you never know if they're
gonna betray you,
or if they're gonna portray
somebody that they love,
and just knowing that I knew
her and she was
able to do something like that
just blows my mind.
♪♪♪
NARRATOR: On season 2 of
"Mean Girl Murders"...
nine more mysteries
that are bigger,
badder, and meaner.
-[screaming]
She was pretty,
and I think that gave her
confidence, which then
turned into power.
She was number one in
everything she did...
even m*rder.
Well,
I'm just one of those girls
that can do
a lot of drugs and not die.
She wanted to be part of
the "it" crowd.
But she didn't fit in.
These girls grew up on
the other side of the tracks.
Nobody messed with them.
She wanted
that girl to suffer.
I think she did it
with the full joy in her heart.
She said, "If you tell anybody,
I'll k*ll you."
"Love you. Bye."
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