Tell Me How I Died S01E09 A Tell Tale Heart
When the body of a Jane Doe is found dumped on a roadside, it's up to Dr. Satish Chundru to not only identify her but find out how she died, spawning an investigation that re-traces the victim's last night and uncovers a long list of potential suspects.
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00:00This dispatch, can I help you?
00:14Yes, ma'am.
00:15I was leaving my house and there's a person laying in my driveway.
00:18What's your number?
00:19I don't know if they're alive or dead.
00:21You can tell the caller's obviously upset.
00:23She doesn't know if they're deceased or alive.
00:25So she was concerned for their welfare.
00:30It was in a heavily wooded area.
00:31It's a rural area.
00:32It's not a place where a person would be walking or jogging.
00:36There were tire tracks that were near the body that looked like someone had done a three
00:41point turn and driven out of the driveway.
00:44There was not a whole lot of physical evidence.
00:46We did not find any identification.
00:48We don't know where to start.
00:51We can't do a victimology if we don't know who she is.
00:55We have some competing causes of death.
00:58Her heart weighed 650 grams, three times the size of a normal heart.
01:03Is it possible that her heart is actually what caused her death?
01:09Her forehead had different types of injuries.
01:11She had skin scrapes, bruises.
01:13She was clearly fighting for her life.
01:16The hardest part of our job is when you believe that heinous crimes may have happened, but
01:22you don't have enough evidence to prove it.
01:27Toxicology can be a major issue.
01:30Could it be drugs that we don't know about yet that caused her death?
01:34During the autopsy, we found something that I'd never come across in my 20 years of prosecution
01:40experience.
01:41You're still second guessing and you're still hoping that everything that you did was enough
01:45that it's going to get justice for this person.
01:47I never knew the details on how my mom died until I was older.
01:53And that right there sits with you.
01:57Tell me.
01:58Tell me.
01:59Tell me.
02:00Tell me.
02:01Tell me.
02:02Tell me.
02:03Tell me.
02:04How I died.
02:15This dispatch, can I help you?
02:24Yes, ma'am.
02:25My name is...
02:26Sandy Point Road.
02:27Okay.
02:28I was leaving my house and here's a person laying in my driveway.
02:29What's your...
02:30I don't know if he's alive or dead.
02:31Stay on the line with me.
02:32I'm going to get somebody around.
02:33I'm going to be sending an officer, but I'm also sending the fire department with an ambulance
02:34so they can check on him.
02:35Okay.
02:36I'd say we get called maybe twice a month to investigate a suspicious death, but most
02:53of them turn out to be natural causes.
02:56The ones that are actually suspicious to us when we show up are relatively few.
03:02Upon arrival to the scene, we found a driveway to a residence in a somewhat rural area.
03:08We parked on the side of the road.
03:10I noticed there was a female body about a hundred yards approximately from the roadway
03:16lying on her back on the ground to the left of the driveway and her arms were raised over
03:21her head.
03:22She was wearing a black striped shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes.
03:28She had brown wavy hair, mucus coming from one of her nostrils, and her head was turned
03:33slightly to the right.
03:36When law enforcement came across this body, it was viewed as a suspicious death for a
03:41number of reasons.
03:42One, the area where the person was found.
03:46It was in a heavily wooded area.
03:48It's a rural area.
03:49It's not a place where a person would be walking or jogging.
03:52Two, the age of the person was a relatively young person.
03:57This wouldn't be a person who would normally succumb to a heart attack or a stroke or something
04:01like that.
04:02We searched around this deceased person's body, along with the pockets and any of the
04:08surrounding area, looking for any type of identification.
04:11At that time, we did not find any and we were not sure who she was.
04:17During our investigation, I had noticed there were emergency vehicles that pulled up real
04:21close to the body.
04:23So my concern was that there could be evidence that was destroyed by the approach of all
04:29the emergency vehicles.
04:31But we were able to find that there were additional tire tracks that we determined weren't left
04:35by the first responders.
04:38They were near the body.
04:39It looked like someone had done a three-point turn and driven out of the driveway.
04:45While on scene, we also called out our crime scene unit, took plaster casts of the tire
04:49tread impressions so that we would have those for later comparison.
04:55The struggles that we had on this scene was that there was not a whole lot of physical
04:58evidence.
04:59We certainly had tire tread impressions, but without a vehicle, that's very difficult to
05:04match.
05:05In general, this was a fairly difficult case from the beginning, just because we had no
05:09witnesses or anything else to go on at that time.
05:13We knew that this particular death was suspicious, so we wanted an autopsy.
05:17The autopsy was important because we were hoping that the medical examiner could help
05:21identify her, either through fingerprints or whatever means that they might have.
05:25Not being able to identify a victim is a huge obstacle for us.
05:29At this point, we don't know where to start.
05:32We can't do a victimology if we don't know who she is, so we can't track down where she
05:37might have been last or who might be able to tell us anything about her.
05:43Law enforcement and medical examiners have to have a good working relationship in order
05:48for us to be able to put the pieces of this puzzle together.
05:52Certainly we rely, as law enforcement, on the medical examiner to explain to us all
05:57the types of injuries that are actually on this body, as well as their interpretation
06:01of how these injuries could have occurred.
06:04The body was picked up by the local mortuary and taken to Travis County Medical Examiner's
06:10office in Austin.
06:18I've been working in forensic pathology since 2004.
06:22The main thing is, honestly, finding the answers.
06:25We're ultimately the last stop to make that final diagnosis.
06:29And talking with a lot of families, you realize, you know, they need answers, and we're able
06:34to provide that for closure.
06:36We're always trying to find out what happened to this individual.
06:40And by doing the autopsy, they're telling us what happened to them.
06:47When we received the individual, we open up the body bag and we start making our assessments.
06:55The post-mortem examination performed beginning at 10 a.m. on January 21st, 2010, at the Travis
07:01County Forensic Center, Austin, Texas.
07:04External examination.
07:05The body's that of a 66-inch, 147-pound, white female.
07:11The scalp hair is brown, wavy to curly, long, and is tied in the back with a hair clip.
07:17Clothing.
07:18The decedent has on tennis shoes, wide ankle socks, pants with vertical stripes, tank top
07:23shirt with horizontal stripes.
07:27Because this person came in as unidentified, we're trying to look for anything that can
07:32be an identifying marker.
07:34We're looking at scars.
07:35We're looking at tattoos.
07:37This unidentified female had multiple tattoos.
07:41There was a rose on her left chest.
07:44And then she also had these two distinct heart shapes on her right shin with the word
07:49love.
07:52As I was evaluating the external exam where I'm looking at her skin, I noticed a scar
07:58on the left upper chest, and every doctor understands what this scar is.
08:03It indicates that they have an implantable heart device because of some pretty severe
08:08heart disease.
08:10Heart disease, it's the number one cause of death that we as forensic pathologists
08:14observe at autopsy.
08:16When you have had heart disease, you can pass away at any time.
08:21When I was performing the autopsy, her heart weighed 650 grams.
08:26Now what does that mean?
08:27So in a young individual, her heart should typically be about 250, 275 grams.
08:35So her heart was actually three times the size of a normal heart.
08:40I have to ask, could she have died from that?
08:53During the course of the autopsy, Dr. Chun-Ju found something that ended up breaking our
08:59case wide open.
09:02When I see a scar on the left upper chest, it indicates that they have an implantable
09:08heart device.
09:11There's really nothing else that it can be.
09:14So we do a Y incision, which is an incision that goes from the left side of the chest,
09:19which is where the scar is, and an incision that goes from the right side of the chest,
09:23and we meet here in the lower chest and then go down to the groin area.
09:28By doing the Y incision, it was clear that there was a metallic device, what's called
09:33an ICD, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator device.
09:40When a person has heart issues, it's always constantly monitoring the heart.
09:45If the heart goes into an abnormal heartbeat that can result in death, it recognizes that
09:52and it sends a shock to the heart to get it to come back to normal.
09:58In a person that's unidentified, this is the best thing that we can find because there's
10:04always a serial number etched on the device, and there's a company name.
10:10Investigators with the medical examiner's office called the manufacturer of the ICD
10:15and they were able to give us a name of who that was implanted in.
10:18They identified her as Julie Perez.
10:23Being able to identify the victim now is a huge break for us, because now we can determine
10:27who her next of kin is, notify them, they can tell us anything about her that we might
10:32need to further our investigation.
10:40January 20th of 2010, I just got off of Franklin ISD's school bus in front of my granny's
10:48house.
10:50I was nine.
10:51And an officer walks out, he tips his hat at me, and he says, I'm so sorry for your
10:57loss.
11:01I didn't know anything.
11:04I didn't know what he was talking about.
11:06I walk in, climb my granny's lap.
11:12She had a tear rolling down her eye.
11:20She said, baby, I guess I'm going to tell you.
11:27My granny was my best friend, and the fact that my best friend had to tell me that my
11:32mama had passed away, that broke me.
11:36I was so mad at the world, because when things go wrong, sometimes all you want is your mom.
11:47I met Julie back when we started sixth and seventh grade together, back in middle school.
12:08And we became very, very close.
12:15Julie was a center of attention on the school.
12:18She was glamorous.
12:20She was very, very beautiful.
12:21She had this long, black, curly hair.
12:25She was very funny.
12:26She was very, very lovable.
12:28And, you know, she would give the shirt off of her back to anybody.
12:31Let me tell you, she did not put up with no bull.
12:37She'd tell you real quick, hey, this is the way it's going to be, or else.
12:42She didn't care who you were.
12:44She had to be right in every conversation she had.
12:47She would argue with a pole if it would sit there and argue back with her.
12:51You know, that's just the type of person she was.
12:55My mom was a free spirit.
12:58She lived her life like there wasn't a next moment.
13:04No matter what, you were getting honesty.
13:07You were getting love.
13:08You were getting compassion.
13:12You were getting her.
13:15Kids always wanted to be around her.
13:18Julie was the mother goose.
13:20She always loved to be with kids.
13:23Julie was a great mom, but I never knew that Julie had any kind of heart trouble or anything.
13:30She never told me.
13:31She never wanted me to worry.
13:45After we received Julie's medical records, I was able to look through them and see that
13:51she ended up having this postpartum dilated cardiomyopathy diagnosis.
13:58Women who are pregnant and they have a delivery, they could be fine.
14:05And then within the next several months, their heart starts to fail.
14:08It's heart failure.
14:09So you need a device that can restart your heart.
14:15And that explained why she had the ICD in her chest.
14:21As I retrieved the device from her body, I knew at this point that we can get some data.
14:27ICD devices are always monitoring the heart so you can see what kind of rhythms they're
14:33in.
14:34And they have a little bit of memory so you can see what's happened in the previous days.
14:39It didn't show that she had any kind of abnormal heartbeat, so she was never shocked.
14:45So it wasn't her heart disease that caused her death.
14:52Through our investigation, we were able to find that Julie was known for occasional drug
14:56use.
14:57She'd go out, she'd go party, but you know what?
15:02She always knew she had a responsibility though.
15:05She'd make sure that Amber had food, clothes, everything that she needed.
15:12I always knew about my mom and what choices in life she made, but that never changed how
15:18I felt about my mom because at the end of the day, she made sure that no matter what
15:26she did, you can guarantee she was always there.
15:32She struggled a lot, but she never gave up.
15:39Once we had Julie identified, we began the search of who did this.
15:44Unfortunately, the lifestyle that Julie was living made it very difficult for us because
15:49of the potential number of people that she would have been in contact with in this lifestyle.
15:56On every individual that we autopsy, we collect samples of blood and we submit that to our
16:02toxicology department.
16:04And then they analyze the blood and look for common drugs that are abused and other less
16:11abused drugs.
16:13We have to assess everything, including any drugs in her system, which could also lead
16:18to her death.
16:20In the case of Julie Perez, the toxicology results are really important because drug
16:25use and a bad heart don't mix.
16:34In the case of Julie Perez, we have the very enlarged heart that's severely damaged as
16:41well as drug use.
16:43So toxicology can be a major issue because those can play a role together.
16:50Julie Perez struggled with drug use, so we want to make sure that we're getting a toxicology
16:57screen.
16:58A toxicology screen basically looks for if there are any sort of substances in the blood
17:03to make a determination as to did this contribute to or did not contribute to the person's death.
17:10Every death does not get an autopsy.
17:22So the ones that go for an autopsy are going to be the ones that are suspicious deaths.
17:27With the Julie Perez case, the autopsy is important because we hope to get any microscopic
17:31evidence.
17:32It might tell us if she was assaulted prior to death.
17:35During this autopsy, Dr. Tundru found the most important piece of evidence that was
17:39really going to help us with this case.
17:42As I was evaluating the external exam, her face, especially her forehead, had different
17:48types of injuries.
17:51She had abrasions, which are just skin scrapes, and then she also had contusions, which are
17:56just bruises.
17:57And she actually even had a hematoma on the right side of the forehead.
18:01And a hematoma is simply a swelling of the skin due to blood being in it.
18:08We always look in the decedent's eyes to evaluate for petechiae.
18:13Petechiae are these small blood vessels in your eyes that can burst when there's pressure
18:18around the neck.
18:20And the reason why that happens is, normally, there's blood that drains from the head and
18:26goes back into your heart.
18:27When you compress the neck on both sides, you block those, then all the blood stays
18:33up here, and it kind of causes a backflow.
18:37And these fragile blood vessels, they can't take on that extra pressure, and so they burst.
18:43And there was some petechiae in the eyes.
18:46There were also injuries to her lips, both on the outside and on the inside of the lips.
18:52I was actually thinking, is there foul play involved?
18:56One of the more striking marks that I saw on her body were these linear marks around
19:02her neck that also extended about her lips.
19:09A ligature is anything that could be used to compress the neck.
19:14Anytime we have ligature marks, we always want to try to find out what the actual object was.
19:20Sometimes the pattern is pretty distinct, like a belt.
19:25You may see the buckle, so you know it's a belt.
19:28But other times, it's not as distinctive.
19:30The ligature marks were what we would call complex.
19:34They were not like a single ligature around the neck.
19:37This had multiple lines, some deviating, some going upwards toward the mouth.
19:43And so these kind of ligature marks suggest that there was a struggle.
19:47But that doesn't necessarily mean that this was a homicide.
19:51If she had any drugs in her system, then was the strangulation through an accidental means
19:57or was it homicidal means?
19:59And so we're trying to figure out what caused her death.
20:03When we're dealing with a ligature strangulation, clearly the victim is going to be grabbing
20:09for the neck, trying to grab the ligature itself or grab the person.
20:14So the fingernail swabs were gathered as evidence to look for someone else's DNA.
20:20In this particular case, the deceased's fingernails were too short to get clipping, so we had
20:26to do swabs instead.
20:29We wet a swab and then we just go along the fingernails and collect it, and then that
20:35could be analyzed for someone else's DNA.
20:39We're making very important decisions about people's lives, so we want to make sure we
20:43do our due diligence, and sometimes that takes time.
20:48We want to wait for all the toxicology results and DNA tests to come in, assess all that
20:54information before we come to a conclusion.
21:02During our investigation, we found that Julie was married to a man named Rufus.
21:05It was a priority to speak with him, one, to notify him, and two, to get information
21:10about Julie.
21:16Rufus is my brother.
21:18Him and Julie had met, you know, one afternoon, my brother had came in from out of town.
21:23So I introduced her to my brother one weekend, and my brother was like, I just, she's beautiful,
21:32she's perfect, you know.
21:34This is who I would like to settle down and share my life with.
21:37That was love at first sight for him.
21:39He needed her, and she needed him.
21:43Next thing I know, Julie's saying, well, guess what, Dolly, I'm marrying your brother.
21:47I was like, oh my God, you're going to marry my brother?
21:49I was like, I don't want you to marry my brother, because that's going to take you away from
21:52me.
21:53You know, and she was like, no, he'll never take me away from you.
21:57And like a couple of months later, like, I think like five months later, she took an
22:03ultrasound and found out we were going to have Amberlynn.
22:11We normally want to speak with the significant other of a deceased person, because statistically,
22:16they're usually involved in the death of the loved one.
22:19Rufus was Rufus.
22:20He had a hothead on him.
22:21Let me tell you, she's been in a fight with my brother plenty of times, too.
22:25Go away.
22:26There was a lot of conflict between them.
22:28He didn't wear the pants, she did.
22:30The relationship between my mom and my dad was a rollercoaster.
22:36There was good times, bad times, in between times.
22:47Detective Matthews, after making contact with Rufus, was able to get him to the Bryan Police
22:51Department, where he gave a statement explaining that he had been more or less estranged from
22:56Julie since approximately Christmastime, which was around a month before Julie's death.
23:01I remember my dad was questioned.
23:05They thought he could have something to do with it, and that right there sits with you.
23:11Due to Rufus being Julie's husband, we certainly wanted to find out where he had been at that
23:18time.
23:20Rufus was able to explain to Detective Matthews that he was working in Tyler at the time that
23:24this occurred, which is approximately two hours from Bryan, Texas.
23:29During the interview, Rufus did provide a DNA swab to assist with our investigation.
23:34Detective Matthews collected a DNA sample from Rufus to either determine if he had been
23:40there at the time or potentially to rule him out as a suspect.
23:45During the interview with Rufus, he had remembered dropping Julie off at a house in Bryan, but
23:50he couldn't remember the address, so I put him in my car and we drove around, and Rufus
23:56pointed out a house on Randolph Street.
23:58The area around Randolph Street is an area known to us that's fairly rough and has a
24:03fairly high crime level.
24:06In speaking with witnesses, we learned that the night of Julie's death, Julie went inside
24:10this house, and they said there was a guy there named Mike.
24:15Later in the evening, Julie Perez had left the house on Randolph Street with Mike.
24:20Unfortunately, at this time, all we had about Mike was his first name, but we knew that
24:24Julie had a half-brother named Mike.
24:33The night of her death, we knew that Julie had left the house on Randolph Street with
24:38a male by the name of Mike.
24:40Julie had a half-brother named Mike.
24:44We certainly wanted to find out where he had been the night of her death, and so at that
24:49time, I made contact with Mike and asked if he would come with me to the Bryan Police
24:53Department to answer some questions.
24:55During the interview, he was visibly upset about Julie's death.
24:59From talking with him, I learned the last time that he actually saw her was January,
25:03but he told me that he had been out of town working the night of Julie's death, so he
25:08did have an alibi.
25:18The night of Julie's death, the last person that Julie was seen with that night was a
25:23guy named Mike.
25:27But at this point, we don't know who this person named Mike is, so we spoke to the owner
25:32of the house on Randolph Street, and during the interview, I was able to get something
25:35very important that was helpful with this case.
25:38It was a phone number.
25:39I was able to put it into a search engine, and it came back with the name of Michael
25:42Peck.
25:46We certainly wanted to find Michael Peck, but at that time, the medical examiner was
25:50trying to determine the cause of death.
25:54Through the course of the investigation, we received the toxicology results, and it showed
25:58that she had drugs in her system.
26:02In this case, there were a couple of controlled substances that were found in the body, but
26:08not enough to cause the death of Julie Perez.
26:13We had ligature marks around the neck, the petechiae in the eyes, also her lips had injuries.
26:21So anytime a person is smothered, their lips and nose are covered.
26:26That's a lot of forces applied, and so you can have damage to those structures.
26:33After reviewing all the investigative information, the autopsy information, the toxicology information,
26:41it was very clear that the cause of death was determined to be homicidal asphyxia, and
26:47so the manner of death was clearly a homicide.
26:51The detectives need to investigate what happened.
26:57In a routine police investigation, individuals who are suspects in crime, police will run
27:03their background and criminal history to find out exactly who they are dealing with.
27:07In this case, with Michael Peck, he had had prior convictions for assault with an individual
27:13from West Texas, as well as another individual who lives right outside the Conroe-Montgomery
27:19County area.
27:20So we knew that there was violence in his background.
27:24After learning Michael's identity, I ran him through our internal records system, and we
27:29were able to determine that Michael Peck worked under the Fulton Ranch in Franklin, Texas.
27:35Detective Matthews and I went to try to locate him.
27:37When we arrived at the ranch, we found the blue SUV that we had been told that Michael
27:43was driving when Michael had left the house on Randolph Street with Julie.
27:48We ended up contacting Michael outside in the driveway.
28:18We ended up moving the interview to the Robertson County Sheriff's Department to be a little
28:30more conducive to an interview.
28:49She's in Bryan?
28:50That's where she was found, dead, in Bryan.
28:53No, I know Julie here in Franklin.
28:56Yeah, she lived here.
28:59Julie lives here.
29:00What can you tell us about Julie?
29:01I didn't even hardly know her.
29:02Okay.
29:03When's the last time you've been in Bryan?
29:04The beginning of this month?
29:05About last week, on Tuesday.
29:06Oh.
29:07And you didn't meet up with Julie at any time in Bryan on Tuesday night?
29:08I ain't seen her.
29:09I ain't seen her at all.
29:10What kind of stuff is she into?
29:11Hell, I don't know.
29:12I don't f**k with her.
29:13I don't mess with her or her half-brother.
29:14Okay.
29:15It doesn't do with them people, man.
29:16When I bring a person in for an interview, I always want to start off by allowing them
29:32to explain to me in their own words what had happened.
29:36From that point, I will pick out the lies that they've told me and introduce evidence
29:42that I have to discredit those statements, and then watch what the person will do.
29:47And oftentimes, people will change their story, and it will build and build and build until
29:52finally we get to some semblance of the truth.
29:55Here's the reason that we're here speaking with you, is because there were some other
29:59people at a house where you met up with Julie.
30:06They said that they met a guy named Mike from Franklin who works on the Fulton Ranch.
30:10Do you know any other Mikes that work out there?
30:12No.
30:13You're the only one that works there?
30:14I don't think it was me, though.
30:15He told us, like he's trying to explain, that you were at the house in Bryan.
30:24He left with Julie around 10.30, and then she was found deceased the next morning around
30:3111.
30:32Mike, here's the thing.
30:33No one in this room thinks that you're a bad guy.
30:36Something just got out of hand.
30:37It ain't got nothing to do with being a bad person.
30:39I ain't done shit.
30:40Michael's interview was kind of progressive, where he denied knowing her all the way up
30:45until then he did know her.
30:49As an investigator, when I hear someone constantly changing their story or their statement, that's
30:54an indication that they're being deceptive.
30:56We know that vehicle was there.
30:59You left some tire marks.
31:02I wasn't nowhere, man.
31:05Mike, sitting here denying it is not going to help at all.
31:09It was somebody else.
31:10You were there.
31:11We would not be here if we did not believe that it was you.
31:14I don't mess with her.
31:16Not going to be any evidence that she's been in that Ford Explorer?
31:19No.
31:20How about your DNA?
31:21Is it going to be on her?
31:22My DNA?
31:23What?
31:24Hell no.
31:25Why would it be on her?
31:26I ain't seen her.
31:27Would you be willing to give us a sample of your DNA?
31:29You sure about that?
31:30I think that shit's hot, man.
31:32During the interview, Mike did provide a DNA swab to help with our investigation.
31:36I didn't even smoke a cigarette, man.
31:38You stay out there with her.
31:39I didn't even smoke a cigarette.
31:40This interview had progressed for quite some time when Detective Matthews and I then accompanied
31:45him outside the building, allowed him to smoke a cigarette.
31:49Mike, did you kill Julie?
31:52We don't want to be the dead horse here, but you got to know that we know.
31:58I knew you all were a cunt.
32:05Everybody's telling us he left with her.
32:07And you got to know that we know.
32:10During the interview, Michael wanted to smoke cigarettes, so we walked outside.
32:14And at this point is when he stated to us...
32:17I knew you all were a cunt.
32:19Why's that?
32:20To me, that would indicate that he's kind of softening up and he's starting to tell
32:24us what actually happened that night.
32:28When Michael made statements explaining that he was expecting us to come find him, I immediately
32:32knew that we had the right person.
32:36You're all a crack, man.
32:39You know what crack does.
32:41See it mess up a lot of people?
32:42Yeah, it messes me up.
32:45Were you smoking it that night?
32:46That night?
32:50Everybody was.
32:52Hard.
32:56At that point, I began to progress a little further into the interview, ask more heated
33:00questions, more determinate questions, and try to pin Michael down on exactly what he
33:05was doing.
33:06So what happened?
33:09What spiraled out of control?
33:10Not me.
33:12Not me, man.
33:14I can tell you we already know what happened.
33:16What happened?
33:18You know too.
33:19There's nothing we can do here if you're not going to be truthful with us.
33:22I am being truthful, man.
33:24I was over here getting high.
33:27Michael, there's nothing we can do to help you if you don't tell us the truth.
33:30I ain't done nothing.
33:32Michael, you started out by telling us you didn't even know Julie.
33:35Until I saw that picture, I didn't know no Julie.
33:38See how your story keeps changing.
33:40Every time that you tell me one thing, I know whenever I explain to you how we have evidence
33:46that you change your story again.
33:48I suspect crack played a big part in it, but unless you tell me what happened and why it
33:52happened, I can't say for sure.
33:55It doesn't matter, though.
33:56You see...
33:58It does matter.
33:59She's not alive, though, I see.
34:00You're right.
34:01She's not alive.
34:02So it don't matter.
34:03It does matter.
34:04You just want to get it.
34:05I have to get it.
34:07I want to know why.
34:09You killed Julie, used an instrument, put it around her neck and tied it up until she died.
34:15Was it a piece of wire that was around her?
34:19Is that still anywhere around there?
34:23No.
34:24I just pushed it out of my car.
34:27Pushed her out of the car?
34:29Out of the car.
34:31Did she get hung up on the car somehow?
34:33No.
34:34What happened to her?
34:35Did she fight with you?
34:36Did she bite you?
34:37Did she try to take your money?
34:39She tried to take my wallet.
34:42Did she pull a gun on you?
34:43I mean, what happened?
34:45We were smoking dope.
34:47And she tried to take his wallet.
34:49And I wrestled her and get her off me and get my...
34:53Wallet.
34:55Next thing I know, man, I'm...
34:57Drawing her out, man.
34:59She got hung on something, man.
35:00I don't know.
35:01My seatbelt or something.
35:02I don't know.
35:06I believe that Julie and Michael probably did get into
35:08some kind of disagreement and scuffle.
35:11And then ultimately he ended up strangling her.
35:15Michael admitted to being on Sandy Point with Julie
35:19and that they got into a scuffle over money.
35:22And his actual claim is that he had to pull her out of his vehicle
35:27but he left her there and she was alive at the time that he left.
35:31I don't know if she was...
35:32I think she ran over her.
35:33I don't know if I ran over her.
35:34I don't know, man.
35:37All right.
35:38You're not gonna have me so fast.
35:40I was scared.
35:42It was hard.
35:44No doubt you're gonna go to jail.
35:46For what?
35:47For killing Julie.
35:50I'm already old, man.
35:52You've already been there, I know.
35:55All my life.
35:58After obtaining Michael's statement,
36:00Michael was then placed under arrest for that murder
36:02and we took him across the street to the Robertson County Jail.
36:13The first thing that we are looking for in this case is
36:16how do we prove the evidence of the case?
36:19This is not a case where you have eyewitness testimony
36:22where, yes, I saw person A shoot person B.
36:26We're looking at a case where it's indirect evidence
36:28or what some individuals call circumstantial evidence.
36:32During the autopsy,
36:34Julie's fingernail swabs were gathered as evidence
36:37to look for someone else's DNA.
36:41However, after analyzing the swab,
36:44there's no foreign DNA found under Julie's nails.
36:54The hardest part of our job is when
36:57you believe that a person is guilty,
37:00but you don't have enough evidence to prove it.
37:14After we were able to determine Julie's death,
37:16it was certainly a homicide,
37:18and Michael Peck was placed under arrest.
37:21We had obtained a search warrant for the blue SUV
37:24and we did take the vehicle
37:26and have it towed back to Bryan Police Department.
37:29They were able to take impressions of the tires
37:32for comparison to the tire tracks around the body
37:35that were found on scene.
37:39One of the kind of key pieces of evidence, I thought,
37:43was the detective's crime scene took some tire casts
37:47there at the scene, which this doesn't look like much,
37:52but when they took a picture of the casts
37:55and they did the markings of the tire tread
37:59and then went and did the tire print,
38:04the markings match the tire prints
38:07that were found right near Julie's body.
38:14When we get the case, we've got the trail
38:17that the investigators have gone down
38:19and we're able to then put that puzzle together
38:22and start taking the pieces of evidence
38:24that they have collected and assembling that for a jury.
38:31From a prosecution standpoint, we know
38:33anytime that an autopsy shows an underlying health condition
38:37that could have contributed to the death of that person,
38:40the defense is going to say,
38:42is it possible that her heart
38:45is actually what caused her death
38:47because she had cardiomyopathy?
38:49It's something we have to consider
38:51and be able to answer for the jury.
39:01I did end up testifying at the trial to explain,
39:05yes, she had a really significant heart disease,
39:08but we have another more significant thing,
39:11which are ligature marks and injuries to Julie
39:14that superseded the heart disease,
39:17and therefore we definitely know
39:19that there was a strangulation that led to her death.
39:28The trial lasted about two weeks,
39:30and as a jury is deliberating,
39:32it is the absolute worst time in the world
39:35because you are essentially putting your heart
39:38into 12 strangers and asking them to believe you.
39:43When you get that knock or that phone call or that text
39:46that says there's a verdict
39:48and you don't know what that verdict is yet,
39:50and the walk from our office to the courtroom
39:53and the standing and waiting for the jury to enter the room
39:56without knowing, to me, is the worst part
39:59because you're still second-guessing
40:01and you're still hoping that everything that you did was enough
40:05that's going to get justice for this person.
40:08Ultimately, Michael Peck was convicted by a jury
40:11of the offense of first-degree murder
40:13and the judge sentenced him to life in prison.
40:21Seeing the sentence, seeing that her life mattered
40:24not only to them as family members,
40:27but to the jury and to the judge over that particular case,
40:31that was the most satisfying part about it.
40:35A lot of what we do makes a difference in society.
40:40It brings closure to families.
40:42If we can't give them a right answer
40:44or we don't evaluate the case appropriately,
40:47the family's going to have a wrong answer.
40:50I knew that Michael was convicted for murder,
40:55but I never knew the details until I was older.
41:00I remember reading the newspaper articles
41:03on how he was being tortured and being beaten.
41:07I was so scared.
41:09I remember my mom being so scared.
41:12I remember my dad being scared.
41:14I remember my dad being scared.
41:16I remember reading the newspaper articles
41:19on how my mom died.
41:22You never forget something like that.
41:26When I heard that he had been found guilty,
41:30I mean, I'm not going to lie, I screamed and I cried.
41:33But, you know, still wasn't going to bring her back, though.
41:37The day I hear that he's dead is the day I'll be happy.
41:41Because he had no right to do that to her.
41:44He didn't deserve that.
42:00My mom's memorial is...
42:05it's my spot.
42:08It's not there because that's where she was killed.
42:12But that is where I genuinely feel closest to my mom.
42:17I do come out here as often as I can.
42:20I really try to. I'm out here all the time.
42:25The necklace. It's her necklace.
42:29It doesn't come off my neck.
42:32My mom never wanted me to see her fail.
42:35And with that being said,
42:38anytime I feel like I'm going to fail,
42:43I always hold her necklace and I always talk to her.
42:46And it snaps back to me.
42:50Hey, she's watching you.
42:53You can't fail with her on your side.
42:59I love you, my angel.
43:08I love you.