Fatal Affairs Episode 4 - Deadly Desert Secrets
Fatal Affairs Episode 4 - Deadly Desert Secrets
Category
š„
Short filmTranscript
00:00I
00:09Remember him telling me I think I found the perfect woman
00:13The romance was fast and furious
00:17This woman was willing to give him sex all night long
00:22Once that happened it was on
00:30This
00:35Relationship was wholeheartedly a toxic relationship
00:39She's so manipulative. It was unbelievable
00:43It was at that point that paranoia started to set in
00:48He actually was worried about his life
00:51All three of them are delusional and it could be a recipe for disaster
00:57He knew how to use his guns he knew how to kill
01:03It ended up being more serious than I thought it was going to be
01:09I can't see my life without you
01:14My god
01:19The scene was who would have a motive who is the killer if she loved you enough to kill him
01:26In stories like these
01:29Fairy-tales rarely come true
01:46The town of 29 palms was literally founded as an oasis in the desert
01:51It was one of those stopover points for the gold rush era
01:57And it's also home to the country's largest US military installation for the Marine Corps
02:05The town is a very small tight-knit community where the Marines interface with the regular public
02:12They go to the local bars the local pubs
02:15Where there were a lot of fit young people as you might imagine there were a lot of opportunities for romance
02:22You know choosing your lover can be a thrilling but risky business
02:27What if you can't decide?
02:28Well a lot of times when affairs begin keeping secrets just becomes a new way of life
02:33The danger around the lies and the stories you tell for some people becomes addictive
02:38And when those cravings for that forbidden love become a habit those secrets can become deadly
02:52Curtis Krueger is one of those that the military loves to have because he is right out of central casting
02:58This guy has got the chiseled features that everybody wants. He's an all-american boy
03:05Curtis met Ashley Stapp
03:08sometime in 2017
03:10She worked at a jamba juice, which is a smoothie establishment
03:17She had this really bright smile very bubbly personality
03:21Ashley worked with Angeline and Angeline is Curtis's cousin and the two of them became fast friends
03:31Ashley and Curtis met
03:35And they ended up dating and it was a fast and furious romance
03:41Curtis was very excited about
03:43Curtis was very excited about his new girlfriend. She's blonde. He's the marine. They just made a good couple
03:54There's not much to do in the tiny town of 29 palms
03:57But they were both outdoors people and there's a lot of hiking opportunities in Joshua tree national park
04:03They were able to venture out a little bit and they had a lot of fun together
04:06On one of their hiking adventures the two then stumble on this abandoned house off of one of the trails
04:13And they have how should you say a very intense passionate moment in this house?
04:20And that became sort of their secret lair
04:24The place that only the two of them knew about and that's where the two of them met
04:29And they were very close friends
04:33And that's where they met
04:36the first of their
04:38relationship
04:40They met in the beginning of their relationship
04:42And they met in the beginning of their relationship
04:44secret lair, a place that only the two of them knew about.
04:49And they would say it days at a time.
04:52They had no running water.
04:53Essentially, they were sleeping in the elements of 29 Palms,
04:57which can be extremely drastic at times.
05:02He had told one of his friends that if Ashley could put up
05:05with this, that he knew she was the one.
05:09Ashley and Curtis were getting more and more serious.
05:14On the other hand, there were some oddities and concerns
05:17about Ashley's behavior.
05:21There was definitely some warnings
05:23from Angeline to Curtis.
05:26She told Curtis that Ashley had several incidences
05:30where her drinking got her into trouble,
05:32incidents of blacking out drunk on Ashley's part.
05:37One time, she got so drunk that she passed out
05:40in her car in the desert.
05:43And she absolutely had no idea where she was at,
05:45how she got there.
05:48Angeline actually warned Curtis to stay away from her.
05:54And Curtis didn't listen.
05:57Curtis decided that positives outweigh the negatives
06:00with Ashley.
06:02After Ashley was found, passed out
06:04in the middle of the desert, Curtis requested
06:07that she always provide him with her physical location.
06:11Curtis insisted that he have a tracking app put on her phone
06:15so he could keep track of her every movement.
06:19Ashley really saw Curtis as a way to a better life.
06:22And she was willing to go to any lengths
06:24to help him get to where he needed to be.
06:26Ashley really saw Curtis as a way to a better life.
06:29And she was willing to go to any length to get that.
06:33If it was showing her location to Curtis,
06:36then that's what she would do.
06:38And by January of 2018, Curtis was actively
06:43tracking Ashley, seeing where she was going.
06:47You know, Ashley and Curtis had a great honeymoon period.
06:50But over time, they started to get a reality check.
06:53Once baggage started to come out, you have to decide,
06:56what are you going to admit to?
06:58What do you think you should hide?
07:00And what might look like a perfect picture
07:03can really start to show cracks before too long.
07:13The truth is that Ashley was upset at being tracked.
07:18She didn't want any of that.
07:20So Ashley decided she would shut off the GPS on her phone
07:23to kind of thwart Curtis's abilities to track her.
07:30What was going on in reality is that Ashley
07:33was keeping a second life, a secret life, from him.
07:40One of the biggest secrets happened back in 2016,
07:43way before Ashley and Curtis met.
07:45When she went on Craigslist, which is a notorious site
07:49to find almost anything you desire,
07:52she was going on Craigslist to find a man
07:56and met Henry Stange.
07:58And they started a relationship in the tiny town of Murrieta,
08:02about an hour away from 29 Palms.
08:08And in fact, the relationship between Henry and Ashley
08:11was a very, very close one.
08:13In fact, the relationship between Henry and Ashley
08:15was still very much a regular thing,
08:19even though she was dating Curtis.
08:23Henry was 54.
08:25She was 27, 28, and madly in love with him.
08:31For someone her age, I didn't understand
08:34the attraction she would have.
08:37He did profess that he loved her.
08:41I told him, you've only known her for a few months.
08:44Reel it back a little bit.
08:55When we get the call that there's a homicide,
08:56we could not believe what they were talking about.
09:00They discovered an unidentified body
09:03buried in a very shallow grave.
09:06It was definitely a violent crime scene.
09:10They weren't just shot and killed.
09:12They were given a prolonged beating.
09:15There were numerous skull fractures.
09:18The person died from blunt force trauma to the head.
09:28Curtis and Ashley developed this big burning desire
09:32and passion for each other.
09:34On the surface, you had what was the most perfect looking couple.
09:38But Curtis doesn't know anything about Henry,
09:42and Henry absolutely had no idea about Curtis.
09:45W-8-6-R-X-E, let's try to have a pleasant evening.
10:01It's up to you guys.
10:02I will get what you give, and I will give what you get.
10:06My brother, Henry, he was never an introvert.
10:10Lord have mercy.
10:15He was loud, and he was proud of being loud.
10:28Henry was the Howard Stern of ham radio.
10:33You either loved him or you hated him
10:37because he was controversial.
10:40Still chomping up to get the best of you,
10:43and I already proved it.
10:44And Henry liked that.
10:47He liked to be the show.
10:49He was the show.
10:52Even my fans were saying, good show,
10:54but I need to dial it down a little bit.
10:57Ham radio is also considered amateur radio.
11:01You have to have your own transmitter.
11:03Once you have your call sign,
11:04it provides a great connection to the world.
11:06Ashley was out here.
11:07She's talking to people.
11:09I've got pictures of us at the grocery store.
11:13Henry, Henry, dude, dude, slow down.
11:15We all know there's no Ashley.
11:18No, Ashley, you're a fool.
11:22He had sent me this text message and this picture of him
11:25with this girl who looked younger,
11:29but she was his new love interest.
11:34She was a good friend.
11:36She was 27 and he would have been 54.
11:42So the age gap was massive.
11:47I was happy for him because he was so lonely.
11:53His ex-wife had left.
11:56He was alone for about six months or so.
12:01And then here comes this little hottie.
12:04I remember him telling me,
12:06I think I found the perfect woman.
12:10She doesn't want to get fancy
12:11and go out to dinner and do all that.
12:13She wants to hike with me,
12:15just sit by the campfire, cuddle.
12:19I was trying to teach her how to play the guitar.
12:25Henry was very proud of the relationship with Ashley,
12:27but he did some stuff that wasn't that normal.
12:30Some of the ham radio guys had indicated
12:32Henry had broadcast a sex act
12:34with Ashley over the ham radio.
12:41This woman was willing to give him sex all night long,
12:46have a good time, not a care in the world.
12:49He told me he was in love with her.
12:52I said, I know you probably haven't had a lot of sex lately,
12:56but just really, really, really, really,
12:58but just reel it back a little.
13:02He was falling way too hard, way too fast.
13:06I figured it was a passing thing
13:08and I just felt that it wouldn't last.
13:16We never went out of our way to meet her
13:18or know who she was or anything like that.
13:23And certainly we had no reason to suspect
13:27Ashley was dating someone else.
13:31Maybe Ashley thinks her secret lover
13:32is just a little innocent flirtation,
13:34but what she doesn't appreciate is that
13:36she has created a potentially deadly love triangle.
13:40And when this truth comes out,
13:42someone could get seriously hurt.
13:47Henry was unemployed.
13:49He was kind of an eccentric guy.
13:54And he lived at the home alone.
13:58A couple of years prior, his ex-wife left the house.
14:02My brother had a really bad motorcycle accident.
14:07A car plowed into him.
14:10There were many broken bones.
14:15When they gave him OxyContin, that did the job.
14:18He was back.
14:19He was completely back to normal.
14:22He was feeling so much better.
14:24It also kind of amped him up.
14:28But he always wanted more.
14:31So that's when he became addicted to OxyContin.
14:38The nature of the relationship between Ashley and Henry
14:41was very simple.
14:43The fact was that Ashley was also addicted
14:48to pain medication.
14:50So she was getting the drugs from where she could,
14:52and Henry was a source of getting those drugs.
14:55He kept his things going on in his life
14:57that weren't quite so normal.
15:02He would keep a lot of that quiet.
15:05That's not the Henry we knew.
15:20Ashley realized that she was going to be a victim.
15:24Instead of paying money for drugs,
15:26she could exchange sex for drugs.
15:28And that's exactly what Ashley was doing with Henry.
15:32She knew how to use her feminine wiles to reel him in.
15:37And once that happened, it was on.
15:42Once he fell in love with somebody,
15:44they could do no wrong.
15:47To keep her drug addiction secret from Curtis,
15:50she was turning off the phone
15:51when she was going to Henry's house.
15:55So of course, Curtis had no idea where she was at.
16:03And it really freaked him out.
16:09Did I pick the wrong woman?
16:11Is this someone I can really trust?
16:15Curtis's cousin also warned Curtis
16:17that one of her issues was drug addiction.
16:20Until that night, Curtis thought it was under control,
16:24but there was eventually an admission from Ashley.
16:28She was still addicted.
16:37It was really at that point that paranoia
16:39started to set in on the part of Curtis.
16:42His surveillance of Ashley really sort of escalated.
16:49I mean, he started to get into her emails.
16:52Curtis finds an email from Henry.
16:55At that point, Curtis didn't know who Henry was.
16:59He was shocked to see that Ashley would have meetings
17:02with Henry and potentially use drugs.
17:06Curtis was furious.
17:10Curtis emailed Henry and told him
17:12that he needed to leave Ashley alone or he would regret it.
17:18Henry told me that he had gotten this message
17:21from this guy, and he asked Ashley about it.
17:26And Ashley told him that it's just
17:30one of these guys I used to date, and he's a stalker.
17:35That's what he told me.
17:36She told Henry that this guy was nothing.
17:42Henry immediately sent him a message.
17:47Henry told him, you know, I'm going to date her.
17:51As long as she wants to see me, I'm going to see her.
17:54So if you have a problem with that,
17:55you need to speak to Ashley, not me.
18:01Henry basically blew off any threat toward him by Curtis.
18:06This is a messy situation getting even messier.
18:10Curtis shows no faith in the relationship with Ashley,
18:13so he started substituting control for care.
18:17Meanwhile, Ashley's addiction to drugs
18:19means that she only lives in the moment,
18:21and her driving force is getting her hands on her drugs.
18:25And then Henry's relationship with Ashley
18:26is really just transactional, which
18:29he thinks actually makes their relationship
18:31simple and honest.
18:33All three of them are delusional.
18:34They see the world in black and white,
18:36and it could be a recipe for disaster.
18:41The relationship between Ashley and Curtis
18:44wholeheartedly was a toxic relationship.
18:46You had somebody that had a lot of insecurities matched
18:51with somebody who was willing to do anything
18:52to get loaded or get drunk.
18:59Curtis would send her messages like,
19:00I hope you're having fun with Henry.
19:04The crazy thing is that Curtis was actually
19:06replying to a lot of different emails
19:08to a lot of different men that were reaching out to Ashley.
19:12He started actually making notes to himself
19:16keeping a log of her behaviors.
19:19Curtis started tracking people he thought she might be getting
19:22drugs from, such as ex-boyfriends or basketball
19:26players that were attending the Copper Canyon
19:29College out at 29 Palms.
19:37Curtis used the protection of Ashley
19:39as the excuse for his jealous, his stalking behavior.
19:46Both of them had things about their past
19:49and about their present that were starting
19:51to leak out in the relationship, that the relationship was
19:53starting to bring out in them.
19:55And it wasn't good stuff.
20:02When Ashley was with Curtis, she was all his.
20:05She was his girlfriend.
20:08And that's what she portrayed.
20:10She was his girlfriend.
20:11She was his girlfriend.
20:12She was his girlfriend.
20:14And that's what she portrayed.
20:16I am Curtis's girlfriend.
20:18However, Ashley was having sex with another man
20:21out at 29 Palms.
20:24Meanwhile, Henry keeps thinking that she's
20:26his steady girlfriend.
20:29Right now, Ashley appears very agreeable and compliant.
20:33But really, this is her way of controlling these men,
20:35because she wants something from both of them.
20:38She wants to stay with Curtis because he
20:40represents a stable future.
20:43But she's got to stay with Henry because he's
20:45the one who gets her drugs.
20:48If the balance of power breaks down,
20:50the question is, which lover will survive?
20:55Once a month, Ashley'd stop by, have sex with Henry,
20:58and pick up her Oxy, and that would be that.
21:02The rest of the time, Henry was immersed
21:04in the world of ham radio.
21:07I'm much tougher than a queen of the latrine marine like you.
21:12Are you still on your line, Henry?
21:14They got their thrills by being mean to each other.
21:18You got the men of a five-year-old Henry.
21:22They got pretty ugly sometimes.
21:25I'll reset.
21:26I got jammed, you moron.
21:29Henry liked to say things to rile people up.
21:31He liked to say things to rile people up.
21:33He liked to say things to rile people up.
21:35And he really developed some hatred from some
21:37of the other ham radio operators.
21:48They talk a big game on the ham radio,
21:50but you just couldn't imagine someone
21:52might actually try to kill him.
21:55Shut the f*** up and die.
21:57Die, f***, die!
22:05Ashley came to see Henry.
22:11There was blood everywhere.
22:14Henry called me on the phone and told me
22:18that someone broke into his house
22:20and attacked him with a hammer.
22:27And he saw some people.
22:30And he saw some people running away
22:33and he thought he saw a woman.
22:37That's all he really knew?
22:40It made no sense to me.
22:44My family thought it was kind of a stretch of a story.
22:47It just seemed so unbelievable, but I believed him.
22:54They should have killed me.
22:56They should have killed me.
22:59How could anybody survive one or more blows from a hammer?
23:07Henry himself believed that it was people
23:11from this ham radio organization who attacked him.
23:15And he talked about all of that on the ham radio.
23:19If the police don't get him, I'm going to go get him, Henry.
23:26He was a big one for his guns.
23:32He had lived with guns his whole life.
23:35He knew the laws.
23:36And if ham radio people would threaten him,
23:39he knew if they walked into his house, he could shoot them.
23:43So he had guns and he knew how to kill.
23:50He ended up putting up quite a few surveillance cameras
23:54because he actually was worried about his life.
23:59After the hammer attack, Ashley stayed with him for a few days.
24:04My brother told us that she was taking care of him
24:07and he loved her more and more.
24:12I think he could see a future in her.
24:17Henry's really invested emotionally in Ashley.
24:19You combine that with his volatile personality
24:22and having access to firearms,
24:24there's certainly potential for violence here.
24:28If he feels like his connection to Ashley
24:30is being threatened in any kind of way.
24:33Maybe he was friendly with his family and friends,
24:36but Henry had a reputation.
24:41The last thing you do with Henry is to threaten him.
24:44He would get his back up on it.
24:49Thing is, he always pushed things to the edge.
24:53Ashley was kind of a master manipulator.
25:01Somebody who was willing to do anything to get what she wanted.
25:05She played many parts.
25:09As the months went by, Henry had a realization
25:12that Kruger was not just a stalker trying to get her back.
25:17There was something much more going on.
25:23It was around this time that Ashley
25:26thought that she was pregnant.
25:27Ashley told Curtis that it was going to be his kid,
25:30that he'd be a new dad,
25:32that they were going to live that happily ever after.
25:36And she told Henry that it was going to be his kid
25:39and that they could live a life.
25:42But Henry was beginning to suspect that Ashley saw Henry
25:46as being a way out if Curtis didn't come through.
25:49At the time, Henry was very upset with Ashley,
25:52so he emailed Ashley.
26:04He was very odd, frankly speaking.
26:12This relationship between Ashley and Henry
26:15was really fractured.
26:18Spring of 2018 was probably the best time
26:22in their relationship of Ashley and Curtis.
26:26Ashley had not only agreed to stop using drugs,
26:31Curtis was going to receive orders
26:33to rotate out of 209 Palms
26:35and Ashley was going to go with them
26:36to this new area and new life.
26:41Ashley and Curtis were going to be together
26:43for the rest of their lives.
26:44A new life.
26:46Ashley and Curtis got engaged in April of 2018.
26:52In the Marines, they really want you
26:54to have a stable home life.
26:55He could see having that perfect Marine family with Ashley.
27:00But what you saw on the surface was not at all
27:03what was going on behind the scenes.
27:06And they had no idea that this complicated love triangle
27:09was about to end.
27:15Memorial Day is one of the most important days of the year
27:19for any military installation.
27:20I mean, this is the day that they honor
27:22their fallen brethren.
27:26Curtis was very big about appearances and family,
27:29and so it would be expected that Ashley would come
27:32to the Memorial Day service.
27:36But she didn't.
27:42She told Curtis that she needed to go home
27:44to her mother's house to get luggage.
27:47This was something that didn't make any sense to Curtis.
28:00Curtis was furious.
28:02He lost his mind.
28:06He called her multiple times.
28:08She never answers her phone.
28:10Curtis told his commanding officer
28:12that he believed that Ashley had some mental health issues
28:14and that he didn't know where she was.
28:18He finally says, listen, I think my fiance is suicidal.
28:21I have to attend this.
28:25Curtis went off base and started to look for his fiance.
28:30By telling his commanding officer
28:32that Ashley is suicidal, it seems
28:34like Curtis might be trying to sow the seed that she
28:37might end up dead.
28:38In my experience, it is usually women.
28:42Pay the price for infidelity.
28:45Curtis tracks Ashley's phone to the location
28:48of her mother's home.
28:51There's no Ashley.
28:55He searches the premises.
28:59He finds Ashley's phone outside in a planter.
29:04Well, he immediately thinks that Ashley's kind
29:07of playing him as a fool, leaves the phone there
29:09to sort of get him off the scent, if you will.
29:14But he also realizes that Henry Stange's house
29:16is only 20 minutes from her mother's home.
29:22How dare she make me look like an idiot?
29:32That morning, Ashley got an email from Henry
29:36that he has filled a prescription for OxyContin
29:40and that there's an Oxy party that she's invited to.
29:44Ashley blew off Curtis so that she could have sex with Henry
29:48and pick up her Oxy, and that would satisfy her craving.
29:59Henry was sitting there with a guitar,
30:03writing a wonderful song for Ashley.
30:21Henry must have thought, what in the hell?
30:23Henry must have thought, what in the hell?
30:40So a hiker was in the Joshua Tree National Park,
30:43and he sees this group of vultures
30:46over this kind of this carcass.
30:48And he takes a few pictures.
30:52And after looking at the photos,
30:53they believe what the bird was digging and eating
30:57was actually human remains.
31:00The Riverside County Sheriff's Department
31:02came out and discovered a body in a very shallow grave
31:08and really bad shape.
31:13The autopsy revealed that the person died
31:15from blunt force trauma to the head.
31:19They were able to rehydrate some of the skin on the skeleton,
31:24and they were able to get a match of the fingerprint.
31:32My sister called me, and she said, are you sitting down?
31:41And you never want to hear that.
31:42You know it's going to be bad.
31:46I had to tell her Henry had been murdered.
31:54It just, it was unbelievable.
32:03He wasn't just shot and killed.
32:06He was given a prolonged beating.
32:10Then, that was rage.
32:16Henry's home in Murrieta is two and a half hours away
32:20from the Joshua Tree National Park.
32:23In the garage of the home, there was a trail of blood
32:26all the way towards the roll-up door of the garage.
32:31And what stood out to me was Henry's cell phone
32:35was not in the home, and we noticed
32:37that all the video surveillance was missing.
32:40So we thought that maybe Henry knew
32:42who came in his home that day.
32:46At this point, we discovered that Henry actually
32:50had a girlfriend.
32:53Was she involved in the crime?
32:58A simple Google search of Ashley's staff
33:00revealed that she lived in 29 Palms,
33:02and we found photographs of her with the Marine,
33:06whose name was Curtis Kruger.
33:09In one of the photographs, the caption
33:11said that she was a fiancee.
33:13It looks on the surface as some sort of love triangle.
33:18We decided that we would attempt to wiretap
33:21Ashley and Curtis' phone.
33:25Most people aren't generally going to talk
33:27about crimes they committed, even in private.
33:31So we have to do something to stimulate that conversation.
33:36My partner and I actually went to Ashley's brother's apartment
33:41and we asked if he recognized the man in the photo.
33:46Yeah, that's my sister Ashley, but I
33:48don't know who the guy is.
33:50We were hoping that her brother would contact Ashley
33:54to let her know that, hey, the police were just at my house.
33:59Sure enough, that started this domino effect of phone calls.
34:06They mentioned your black truck.
34:09They mentioned your black truck.
34:11Seriously?
34:12Yeah.
34:13Well, that changes everything.
34:16Yeah, it does.
34:18It just makes me wonder if a neighbor or something said,
34:22yeah, I saw a black truck leaving.
34:24It was a dumb girl that waved hi to us when we were leaving,
34:27I'm sure.
34:29Somebody waved bye?
34:30Yeah.
34:32And they said, we took all the video surveillance.
34:35We took all the cables.
34:37He put up his own cameras.
34:39That's how I knew where all of them were.
34:42They actually talk about loading Henry's body
34:47into the back of Curtis's truck.
34:50We pulled in close enough, I guarantee you,
34:52by the lip of the roof that they wouldn't have showed he was
34:55loaded into the back of my truck.
34:59That was it.
35:01That was the moment.
35:02That was the evidence that we needed.
35:04I remember it was August 29th.
35:06One of the detectives told me that they were
35:09arresting Curtis and Ashley.
35:11I was thrilled.
35:12It was actually my birthday.
35:14I never suspected her.
35:18Never.
35:21We interviewed Ashley, and she denied any involvement.
35:34It was deny, deny, deny, until we told Ashley that we had
35:41recorded conversations of their phone calls.
36:04And so there's no secrets there.
36:07Once she knew that, she became more honest.
36:16She basically said she didn't witness the murder of Henry.
36:21But when I was in the bathroom, I just heard screaming.
36:24And I knew it was Henry screaming,
36:25because I knew his voice.
36:31Curtis said, I did something terrible.
36:34We need to go.
36:50Ashley didn't seem remorseful for the crime.
36:54She talked about what happened like it was any other day in her life.
37:06We drove to Joshua Tree.
37:13He started digging a hole, and then he was covering it up.
37:18And then he was like, help me.
37:20So then I was like helping him cover it.
37:27At that point, we had a ton of evidence.
37:30We thought we had enough for prosecution.
37:34The Murrieta Police Department presented what they had to the
37:38district attorney's office.
37:39But they started to question some of the evidence.
37:42And they said, well, here's the deal.
37:45Ashley's not that much of a reliable witness.
37:48Because she's got a documented past of drug abuse.
37:52Maybe she's been lying a lot.
37:54All they have is a lot of hearsay and a lot of circumstantial evidence.
37:58And not enough to actually charge them with any crime.
38:02That was a big blow to investigators.
38:04Because they knew they had their culprits.
38:09And then from out of nowhere, we get a random phone call from Curtis's cousin.
38:15She had information related to an attack at Henry's house prior to the murder.
38:25She tells us that back in February, Curtis had told her that he had crept into the residence,
38:34found Henry sleeping, and hit him in the head with a hammer.
38:40At the time of the hammer attack, Henry believed that it was somebody from this ham radio organization.
38:48So this is nuked information.
38:51This was a break in the case.
38:53Not only had Krueger killed Henry, but had previously attempted to kill Henry.
38:59After presenting Ashley with those facts, she began to be more honest.
39:05Ashley tells us that she was present when Krueger hit Henry over the head with the hammer.
39:10She threw it out in the desert, off of that property, the abandoned property that we were
39:17staying at.
39:18She just chucked it far out to the distance.
39:22We started searching the expanse of the desert.
39:26Describe that hammer.
39:28The whole thing was bad.
39:29It was shocking that we actually found it.
39:32This was a eureka moment because we could show that Ashley was telling the truth.
39:39The DA's office now believed that we had a good witness inside the garage.
39:44We were certain that we had enough evidence to file the homicide charges.
39:49Because of Ashley's statement and her cooperation, Ashley was basically led off in a really light
39:56way.
39:57She was never caught red handed.
39:59She was never charged with a crime.
40:02She was never found guilty.
40:04She was never charged with anything.
40:07She was never found guilty.
40:09She was never found guilty.
40:12And she was never caught red handed.
40:13In her cooperation, Ashley was basically let off in a really light sentence.
40:33The center of Henry's brutal murder is the terrible truth that love and deception often
40:39go hand-in-hand.
40:40Sadly, Henry was a tragic victim of passions ignited by lies and carried out by people
40:46for whom love is nothing more than a means to an end.
40:54He trusted her.
40:55He just couldn't imagine someone being so cruel as to just be using him.
41:02I find her the most evil.
41:11Everybody in town knew about this affair.
41:15He had to either completely leave his wife or be with her.
41:19He might be about to lose everything.
41:22That's where everything turned.
41:24It still haunts that community to this day.