New.York.Homicide.S03E01
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00We were just one big happy family.
00:11And then it all came to a screeching halt.
00:18We have a homicide, 15 stab wounds.
00:21It was a violent death.
00:24On Staten Island crime is very low.
00:27Pressure went strong on NYPD to solve this.
00:32It's an uphill battle.
00:33No video, no witness, no murder weapon.
00:37You have to dig into her life.
00:40The computer searches were pretty damning.
00:44Flags are going up.
00:46This is a sick individual.
00:49I've never been so close to something so evil in my life.
00:56Make sure you sock it to you, you son of a bitch.
01:19Staten Island may be the forgotten borough, but even in the quietest corner of New York
01:23City, the quest for justice never sleeps.
01:26Like in 2012, when the home of a beloved schoolteacher became the scene of an unthinkable
01:31crime.
01:32For the NYPD officers who protect and live in this close-knit community, the case was
01:37especially personal, and they'd stop at nothing to solve it.
01:47911 operator, 678 with emergency.
01:50I just came home.
01:51My wife is dead.
01:52Oh my God, I think my house is robbed.
01:54I know you're scared, but why do you think she's dead?
01:57There's blood all over!
02:06July 5th, 2012, I received a phone call that we had a homicide in our jurisdiction, and
02:13that I was going to be the lead on the investigation.
02:15NYPD on Staten Island has a vested interest, a personal vested interest, because it's their
02:21community.
02:23Most detectives and officers live on Staten Island, which is different than the other
02:27boroughs.
02:28I did grow up in Staten Island, and I worked on Staten Island my whole career.
02:34You're running into the same officers, the same detectives in your personal life as you
02:38are in your professional life.
02:45Within minutes, officers arrive at the townhouse of husband and wife schoolteachers, Simonette
02:50and Jonathan Kruby.
02:52A crowd had formed on the north side at the crime scene tape.
02:56Neighbors looking to see what's going on.
02:59Investigators immediately speak with the grief-stricken 911 caller, Simonette's 30-year-old husband,
03:05Jonathan Kruby.
03:07He stated that he left the house at about 7.30 in the morning.
03:11He had been running errands, and that he hadn't been home all day.
03:16Jonathan explains that they're both teachers on summer break, and that Simonette was still
03:20sleeping when he got up to leave.
03:23He tells police that he woke her to let her know his plans before taking off for the day.
03:28When Jonathan came home, he couldn't recall when he turned the key if it was locked or
03:31unlocked when he arrived.
03:33He entered the house and found his wife deceased on the ground and called 911.
03:42When he left, she was alive.
03:44When he returned at approximately 1.30, she was not.
03:48With a preliminary window for the homicide established, investigators take Jonathan to
03:52the 122 for further questioning.
03:58We enter the house.
04:01In the foyer, I seen the victim, Simonette Mapes, laying on the ground with her arms
04:06kind of spread out, and she had been stabbed multiple times.
04:11It was violent.
04:12It was a violent death.
04:14She was lying at the bottom of the stairs, and there was a broken door gate near the
04:18stairs.
04:19That indicated to me she had been pushed down the stairs, fell through the gate, and then
04:26ultimately met her demise in that foyer.
04:31Simonette's body is sent for an autopsy.
04:33In the meantime, investigators continue searching the crime scene.
04:38Walking through the house, it was completely trashed.
04:42It was excessive.
04:47There's no reason to flip over mattresses unless the person was looking for something
04:50specific.
04:51I've investigated thousands of burglaries and that kind of mess, to me it looked like
04:58it was staged.
05:00I didn't see any signs of forced entry, but the back sliding glass door had been opened
05:08a little bit, maybe two or three inches.
05:12So the crime scene unit checked the sliding glass doors for fingerprints, and also swabbed
05:18the handle for DNA.
05:25At this point, the scene is disrupted, with the arrival of Simonette's mother, destroyed
05:29after receiving a series of panicked phone calls from her son-in-law, Jonathan.
05:33Oh my God, Theresa, you can be found!
05:37It was right around ten to two in the afternoon.
05:40Jonathan had phoned me several times.
05:43Simonette, it's an emergency, the house is robbed!
05:48And he said, Simonette's dead.
05:50Oh my God, oh God, for God's sake!
05:56I collapsed on my knees.
06:00I was trying to get down the stairs to get in the car to go to my daughter.
06:06My mom called me in a panic, saying that Sissy was dead.
06:10I remember just asking her to repeat herself, and my mom just kept screaming on the phone.
06:16Little John called and said something happened to Sissy.
06:20I get in my truck, head across the Verrazano Bridge.
06:25I'm in a stinkin' fog.
06:28I get off of the exit, and I'm hoping that's it, because now I forgot where my daughter
06:34lived.
06:36I couldn't remember where she was at.
06:42Immediately, the detectives stopped me from running inside to get to my daughter.
06:48They wouldn't let me.
06:50I wanted to make sure that they had the right girl.
06:56Maybe they got it wrong.
06:58Maybe it wasn't Simonette.
07:05Sissy, smile.
07:13When Simonette was born, I was so grateful to God for giving me a daughter.
07:20We were not only just mother and daughter, we were best friends.
07:25Simonette had a laugh that if you were in the room, you had no choice but to be hysterical
07:33laughing with her, not even knowing what you were laughing at.
07:37She loved life.
07:38She loved to have fun.
07:40She loved to vacation.
07:43She could be at any function, and she would dance.
07:48She wasn't really afraid to kind of make a fool of herself.
07:54Simonette and Jonathan were the funniest couple.
07:57They would make everybody laugh.
08:00They enjoyed singing and dancing, and we all loved to be around each other.
08:06They had the same goals in life when it came to becoming teachers.
08:12Simonette chose to work in the low-income areas.
08:17That was her way of trying to make the world a better place to live in.
08:22I don't want to say she was a bleeding heart, but she lived her life to service other people.
08:30Who would want to do this?
08:33Who would want to hurt Simonette?
08:41Across town, the district attorney's office swings into action.
08:46On Staten Island, we have a system where we actually meet and speak with the assigned
08:51detective within the first few hours.
08:55We help out NYPD with things like search warrants, obtain subpoenas, interview witnesses.
09:02You have to speak to the neighbors, see if there's any suspicious people in the area.
09:06As investigators canvass the scene, detectives Burdick and Casenza sit down with the victim's husband.
09:13In domestic situations, the husband or the spouse is the first person that's looked at.
09:18What I found out about John Krupe is that he's a 30-year-old teacher at School for Classics
09:24in Brooklyn, along with Simonette.
09:27They were both attending College of Staten Island to get their master's degree.
09:31They wanted to start a family at some point.
09:33I didn't see anything in the background that would indicate that he had a criminal past
09:37or anything like that.
09:40Investigators asked Jonathan to detail his whereabouts that morning.
09:43It's so important to get a timeline down, a base, something to work off of.
09:50He told us he left his home at approximately 7.30, drove to the TKTS booth at Metro Tech
09:58in Brooklyn.
09:59He was going to buy tickets to a Broadway play for their upcoming anniversary.
10:05He proceeded to head to School for Classics, where they were both taught to gather some
10:09materials for the two of them for the summer school.
10:12From School for Classics, he went to get his car inspected.
10:18After that, he went to a couple of sneaker stores.
10:21Jonathan tells detectives he texted Simonette several times that morning.
10:26He was asking Simonette to pick a paint color because he was headed to Home Depot.
10:30But he says his wife never texted him back.
10:34He was very forthcoming with his answers.
10:38You don't want to be accusatory.
10:39I mean, the husband just lost his wife, and it's way too early to jump to conclusions
10:43at this point.
10:44But is he a person of interest?
10:46100%.
10:50Coming up.
10:51We have unknown DNA in a home, and it's neither of the occupants.
10:56She wanted me to promise her that I would not tell her dad or her brother.
11:01That phone number was also in her phone and saved as woman, as a contact.
11:07We never expected the information that she was going to give to us.
11:16Two hours after his frantic 911 call, Jonathan Krupe is at the 122 precinct, speaking with
11:37detectives about the murder of his wife, Simonette.
11:41It's easy to say it's the husband right from the beginning.
11:44You have to dig into her life.
11:47You have to start uncovering stones and digging deep and getting personal with family and
11:52friends.
11:53Across the borough, a separate team does just that, sitting down with the Mapes family.
12:00Of course, we were all distraught, but they just wanted a little bit of information.
12:07Detectives pieced together a picture of Simonette and Jonathan's relationship, starting 12 years
12:12earlier, when they first met.
12:17She was introduced to Jonathan through a mutual friend of theirs.
12:24They didn't know each other, but come to find out, they both went to the same high school.
12:28And on the first date, Simonette came home and said, oh, mommy, hopefully he calls me
12:33back.
12:35When I first met Jonathan, I was thinking, why is she, you know, interested in him?
12:43See you later, babe.
12:46I thought he was a nerd.
12:48I did.
12:49He liked comic books.
12:51He had a lot of expensive tennis shoes.
12:56He was very protective of his tennis shoes.
13:00I was not used to guys that age being so into the way they looked, especially when they
13:05weren't particularly the best-looking individuals, but he tended to make her laugh a lot.
13:12He loved to dance, and he had no problem dancing with my sister.
13:17Eventually, I remember saying to myself, I couldn't pick a better person for Simonette.
13:25They got married in 2007.
13:27They had everything.
13:28They had the world at their fingertips.
13:38After they got married, Jonathan and Simonette had gotten a job at School for Classics in
13:46Brownsville, New York.
13:48It was in a very dangerous neighborhood, but she really loved her students.
13:54They were both seeking their master's degree, advancing both of them into the next stage
13:59of their career.
14:02She wanted to start a family.
14:04She had buckets that were labeled Baby Creepy.
14:08She was starting to buy little trinkets, and we were so thrilled.
14:15Now, just two days before what would be her fifth wedding anniversary, this beloved wife,
14:22daughter, and sister is found dead by her own husband, and the man the mapes claim as
14:28another son is facing police questioning.
14:31I was able to interview John Creepy for three hours.
14:36He wasn't crying.
14:38His demeanor was kind of flat, but people can tend to grieve a certain way.
14:46Jonathan is released, and while detectives look into his story, across town, our team
14:53is speaking with Simonette's family, piecing together the hours before her murder.
14:58July 4th, we went to my friend's house so that we could celebrate together.
15:05We do everything together, all the holidays.
15:09We went swimming.
15:10We had a barbecue.
15:12My sister wasn't feeling good and left the party a little early.
15:17I don't want it to sound cheesy, but the last words I did say to her was, I love you, right?
15:24And I didn't say that to her.
15:28I really didn't.
15:29She said it to me all the time, and I remember giving her a high five and saying, I love
15:34you.
15:35And that was it.
15:36That was the last time I saw her.
15:44I got home, and I called her at 8.36 p.m. that night.
15:50Simonette answered the phone crying, and I immediately said, what's the matter?
15:57And she goes, oh, no, Mommy, my throat hurts.
16:00I said, please, Simonette, in the morning, you've got to go to the doctor.
16:03I will, Mom.
16:05And that's how we left it.
16:07As the interview continues, investigators press the family for possible suspects.
16:13They wanted us to make a list of people that we think that would hurt Simonette.
16:19And I remember telling the detective, I can't think of one person to put on that list.
16:26Not one person.
16:28The conversation winds down, and the Mapes men escort the investigator out.
16:34I just remember asking the detective, do you have any idea who could have done this?
16:40And then they had asked me a question about Jonathan.
16:45And I remember telling the detective at the time, I don't trust Jonathan.
16:51It was just that gut feeling that I got that Jonathan did it.
17:05Detectives from the 122 Prison in Constantin Island are interviewing the family of murder school teacher, Simonette Mapes-Gruppi.
17:23Simonette's older brother, John, admits he's suspicious of her husband, Jonathan.
17:29I had in my mind that he had something to do with this.
17:33I go, John, wait a minute, do you think that he could ever do something this horrific?
17:39John says, I just don't like the guy.
17:42I don't like him, I don't, there's something off about him.
17:46His personality could switch at the drop of a dime.
17:49He could be extremely happy, and he could be extremely agitated.
17:55I started seeing these little outbursts in him.
17:58There was times where not everything was perfect, and not everything was rosy.
18:04But all our lives were together, we were as one.
18:07We're a family.
18:08And that included Jonathan.
18:10There's no way this could be Jonathan.
18:18Armed with conflicting impressions on Simonette's husband, our guys return to the precinct.
18:23And as they sit down to discuss the crime scene, red flags start to surface.
18:29The odd part about the burglary was we found tons of jewelry and items of value still there.
18:37There were things like credit cards, blank checks that were out on the counter.
18:43Even an engagement ring in the bathroom was still sitting there.
18:48So whoever this burglar was, took the time to go through every single room, drawer, cabinet,
18:55yet took nothing.
19:03Jonathan had this detailed timeline.
19:06So two days after the homicide, me and Mike Berdick decided to retrace the steps according
19:11to his alibi.
19:13Detectives recovered video from each location.
19:17We looked at video from School of Classics, where they both taught.
19:21He arrived at the school at 9.28, and that matched up with what he told us.
19:26At 10.11, we have him entering Best Auto Spa, according to surveillance, and that also lines up with what he told us.
19:33At Best Auto Spa, we got a receipt that his car was inspected, and the mileage is noted on the receipt.
19:41Our guys cross-check it with Jonathan's odometer and are able to calculate the number of miles he'd driven that morning.
19:48We had retraced Jonathan's steps, and before we left, we had noted the mileage on our car.
19:55We had driven 8 to 10 more miles than he had, which was interesting.
20:00It was a lot of miles to be missing.
20:04To account for the missing miles, investigators go over Jonathan's timeline again.
20:09Everything lines up until the final stop.
20:12He stated to me that he went to the Home Depot in Charleston area of Staten Island.
20:20We reviewed video footage for the time that he said he was in that parking lot.
20:26After viewing that video over and over, they realized that Jonathan's vehicle never entered.
20:34That missing stop would explain why Jonathan's mileage was 10 miles less than the investigator's.
20:39Just because you don't get to a certain location that you said you got to doesn't make you a murderer.
20:46Maybe he just, you know, ultimately changed his mind in getting that paint at Home Depot.
20:50But now we have to establish where he actually did go versus where he didn't go because his story wasn't adding up.
20:59I have to say to myself as an investigator, why do I have the husband of a homicide victim lying?
21:05Why do I have him telling me he's somewhere where he's not?
21:10As investigators strategize next steps, a game-changing piece of forensic evidence arrives.
21:17There was a DNA swab that was taken of the sliding glass door handle that was open.
21:22Jonathan had stated that was not the way he had last left it.
21:26Everything was locked and secured per him when he left that morning.
21:31It's very important because it could have been the point of entry for whoever did this.
21:35The results turn this investigation on its head.
21:40The DNA came back to Jonathan Krupe and a female. That was not Simonette.
21:46This is his home. It's not out of the ordinary that his DNA would be found on his sliding glass door.
21:53But the female threw us off.
21:56Why is there unidentified female DNA on the door handle that was ajar?
22:01Forensic evidence has led to a surprising development in the investigation of slain school teacher, Simonette Mapes Krupe.
22:30We got the results back from the DNA swabs that were collected from the rear sliders.
22:34Jonathan's DNA was present as it should be because he lives there.
22:38But there was also a female donor that was unknown.
22:42So we take the DNA, we'll insert it into the database and wait for it to catch a match.
22:49But there's no immediate match in the system.
22:52As our team works to identify the mystery woman, Simonette's loved ones gather for the funeral.
23:00There were several hundreds of people that were there.
23:05They had to give us two rooms.
23:08The kids that she taught came to her funeral.
23:12There had to be 80, maybe even more.
23:15They were all there for her.
23:18Saying, I want to let you know what an impact your daughter had on my life.
23:23I didn't know half the stuff that my daughter did until after my daughter left this earth.
23:30One of the things that stood out was that she had developed a program for them.
23:34Students who couldn't afford to go to prom.
23:37She would get donations, several hundred gowns.
23:41All those young ladies would have a beautiful dress to choose from.
23:47And she also paid for their tickets to the prom and chip in for their limos.
23:54She wasn't looking for recognition.
23:56And that's the epitome of what a good person should be.
24:02The more investigators learn about this selfless teacher,
24:05the more driven they are to uncover the truth behind her tragic death.
24:09As much information as we could gather about Jonathan and Simonette, we went for.
24:14One of those avenues was to speak to a principal that knew them both for a long period of time.
24:21She shed a lot of light on their professional relationship.
24:25Simonette was the golden child in School of Classics.
24:28And Simonette had begged her to bring Jonathan there as well.
24:35Because they wanted Simonette at that school.
24:38They agreed.
24:40Speaking to the principal, he told her that Jonathan had said that he came there to get supplies for some school.
24:46And she thought that was strange.
24:48The principal really was adamant about the fact that he did not need any books for this summer class that they were teaching.
24:56Armed with this new intel, investigators focus on why Jonathan was there that morning.
25:02Viewing the video surveillance again in more detail, we see him entering the school with a green computer bag.
25:10And then we realized, where is this bag? What happened to it?
25:16He says hello to one of the custodians. He goes up the steps. And he appears to go into a room.
25:24John Krupe is inside the room for a period of time. I believe it's a half hour.
25:30Detective Burdick stopped the footage and made a few phone calls right then and there about what that room was.
25:38After speaking to some of the staff, we discovered that it was a computer room.
25:42And this computer teacher told us which computer to use.
25:46Using a search warrant and subpoena, we submitted it to the NYPD Computer Crimes Lab.
25:52In addition to the desktop computer from the classroom, over the next few weeks, investigators also subpoena and seize Jonathan and Simonette's school-issued laptops.
26:03We went through the history of the two DOE-issued laptops for each of them.
26:09In Jonathan's computer, he searched for baseball caps, searched for hip-hop songs and lyrics, sneakers that he wanted to resell.
26:16Simonette was searching how to have a child in vitro fertilization. One or two of them were about marriage counselors.
26:29The detectives meticulously combed through their data.
26:32When you obtain computer devices, sometimes you don't know what you're looking for.
26:37I searched hundreds and thousands of lines of computer searches.
26:41One of Simonette's past Google searches catches their attention.
26:45On Simonette's computer, there was a Google of a phone number.
26:50That same phone number was also in her phone and saved as woman as a contact.
26:59After doing extensive investigative work on that particular telephone number, we come to the conclusion that it belongs to an escort by the name of Miss Pumpkin.
27:07We made a decision to have an interview with her, so I called the phone number up and asked for a date at a local motel.
27:16It was very nerve-wracking. We needed to make sure she shows up.
27:23Investigators take out the motel, and right on cue, Miss Pumpkin walks right through the door.
27:29We identify ourselves and explain to her why we're there. She agrees to come speak to us at the local precinct.
27:35We wanted to know who she was and what she knew.
27:40We showed her a photograph of Jonathan Krupe. She knew him as Mike.
27:44We never expected the information that she was going to give to us.
27:49We had no idea what was going to happen.
27:53Investigators are speaking with Miss Pumpkin, an escort, whose contact information they found on Simonette's phone.
28:00We have no idea who she is.
28:03We have no idea who she is.
28:06We have no idea who she is.
28:09We have no idea who she is.
28:12We have no idea who she is.
28:15We have no idea who she is.
28:17An escort, whose contact information they found on Simonette's phone.
28:24She tells us she's been dating him for two years.
28:28When I say dating, I mean sexual encounters.
28:31He communicated with her on a throwaway cell phone.
28:35He made arrangements in advance.
28:39He would call her several days or a week before to arrange for that.
28:43It was never a last minute thing.
28:44Until July 5th, the day the homicide occurred.
28:50He explained to her that he needed to see her then and there.
28:55And she agreed.
28:57She tells us that she met him at 1245 at the hotel.
29:01Our guys immediately take note.
29:04It's the same time Jonathan had told investigators he was pulling into the Home Depot.
29:09This explains the missing mileage from his car.
29:15They collect details of Ms. Pumpkin's whereabouts to verify her alibi.
29:20She gave us all the information willingly.
29:23She also volunteered a DNA swab.
29:28A comparison was made to the swab of the unknown female DNA.
29:35And it was a match to Ms. Pumpkin.
29:37We needed to look into the possibility that she was involved.
29:43The discovery of Ms. Pumpkin's number on Simonet's phone coupled with Simonet's search history
29:49leaves detectives certain she knew of Jonathan's affair.
29:54We also found in her computer searches leading up to the days before her murder
30:00she visited the college website and looked up all the graduates
30:05and who had received a degree for their masters.
30:08Records relating to John Krupe showed that he never got his master's degree
30:13and that he wasn't attending class.
30:16Curious if she confided in her family, investigators head back to the Mabes.
30:23And Teresa confirms their suspicions.
30:27Right around July 2nd, Simonet had called me and said,
30:30Mom, I got a letter in the mail and it said that I graduated with a 3.9.
30:37And I said, oh, congratulations, honey.
30:40I said, how did Jonathan do?
30:42She goes, funny thing is, Mom, he didn't get a letter.
30:46According to Simonet's mom, she had discovered that and he did not get his master's.
30:51And she was going to confront him about it.
30:53She was paying for his college.
30:56All his money went to him.
30:57All her money went to rent, car payments, college.
31:03And she wanted me to promise her that I would not tell her dad or her brother to let her handle this.
31:13Teresa also reveals her own change of heart.
31:17The way he's acting, everything is just not right here.
31:22Just lack of emotions.
31:24And he was using the fact that his wife had been murdered as a benefit to get people to give him things for free.
31:33There's a photograph. He actually texts somebody with a picture of the shoe up at his mouth.
31:39Somebody sent these to me for free because they knew my wife was murdered.
31:44Never once did he call and ask how the investigation's going.
31:47Are we making progress?
31:49Never heard from him once.
31:50Never heard from him once.
31:52We had found out that he was a horrible husband.
31:55And a horrible person.
31:57But we didn't have an eyewitness.
32:00We didn't have a murder weapon.
32:02And all this circumstantial evidence, it's all building and it's great.
32:07But still it's just not quite enough just yet.
32:15I went together with the detectives to Jonathan's home.
32:18To look for more evidence.
32:20And I noticed the closet which was in the hallway between the entryway and the kitchen.
32:29During the investigators' initial walkthrough, this closet had been obstructed by Simonette's body.
32:35We went inside that closet and we checked the jackets.
32:39A few minutes later, the investigators came back and informed us that they had recovered a throwaway cell phone.
32:49And it corroborates all his contact with Miss Pumpkin.
32:54The detectives also recovered the green laptop bag.
32:59His personal laptop was inside.
33:01We apply for a search warrant to the judge to be authorized to actually go into that computer.
33:07While investigators wait on the search warrant, another piece of the puzzle clicks into place.
33:13The autopsy report in full was received in October.
33:17The medical examiner was able to provide the information that Simonette Mapes was murdered at and around the early morning hours of July 5th.
33:28Jonathan left at 7.30 by his own mouth.
33:30He doesn't have an alibi at the wee hours of the morning, 2 a.m., 3 a.m., when this heinous act happened.
33:38Jonathan's meticulously detailed timeline for that morning is now irrelevant.
33:43As for Miss Pumpkin, her alibi for that period is airtight.
33:48We verified where she had been with her cell phone and cell site records.
33:53And we had no reason to believe that she was physically inside of the house where Simonette was murdered.
34:03So, we had to think about how else her DNA could end up on that sliding glass door.
34:11Investigators determined there's only one logical explanation.
34:15After their first encounter with Simonette, her DNA was found on the door.
34:19Investigators determined there's only one logical explanation.
34:22After their hotel rendezvous, Miss Pumpkin's DNA was transferred to the crime scene by Jonathan via touch DNA.
34:30He had his hands all over her and then uses the door handle.
34:34Last touch to her, last touch to the door handle.
34:38Each revelation adds more doubt to Jonathan Krupe's version of events.
34:43But it's not until the results from his personal laptop come in that the truth is finally revealed.
34:49What we found on his personal computer, it was disturbing to say the least.
34:56Jonathan was searching how to clean up a crime scene.
34:59NYPD forensics, does bleach kill blood?
35:02How to suffocate someone.
35:04How to cut a throat.
35:07And these queries date several months back.
35:11He's been planning this for some time.
35:14This is a sick individual.
35:20This is a sick individual.
35:31Four months after the brutal murder of Simonette Mapes Krupe, investigators are closing in on her husband.
35:38Finding the searches in his computer about how to murder someone, that matched up with injuries and the events.
35:49Now we had enough.
35:53A huge pile of things.
35:56That sets a great scene for the jury.
36:07We had gotten a call at 6.30, 7 a.m. in the morning.
36:12And it was detective Burdick and he said we're going to get him.
36:16And it all came to a screeching halt.
36:20Because it was Jonathan.
36:23He was family.
36:25Him and Simonette lived with us for a couple of years.
36:30I wouldn't wish that feeling of betrayal and sorrow on anybody.
36:37We arrest John Krupe at his parents' house in Brooklyn, New York.
36:41Detective Cassandra and I let him know it's over.
36:45There was no reaction.
36:48We got him.
36:50And the relief.
36:54Because now there is no more wondering.
36:59It was the answer to a lot of questions.
37:03With Jonathan in custody, the family is briefed.
37:06With Jonathan in custody, the family is briefed.
37:10It's my policy to tell a family in advance the items that are going to be presented that may upset them.
37:21There was another life to Jonathan that we were totally unaware of.
37:27There's all those things that we didn't know.
37:31The computer he was using in the school, on that day he was searching pornographic websites.
37:38We also found out there was a strip joint right next door to the school.
37:43And that's where Jonathan spent most of his day.
37:47He had spent so much money, they had given him his own area in the strip club.
37:53They also learned why Jonathan didn't graduate, despite Simonette paying for him to get his degree.
37:59He would drop her off at college and say he's going to his class in another building, and we'd just leave and go visit prostitutes.
38:08And then we found out that Jonathan had visited a hooker right after he murdered my daughter.
38:19That is where I almost lost it.
38:22It shook me with hurt, but with also a lot of rage.
38:25I never knew what kind of an animal Jonathan was.
38:35As they prepare for trial, law enforcement pieced together what they believed happened that fateful night.
38:43It was our theory that Simonette confronted him that night, about the prostitutes, about him not attending school.
38:52And that she was leaving him.
39:00So he kills her.
39:02We stage the crime.
39:07And he created this alibi.
39:17After his motel meetup with Miss Pumpkin,
39:19Jonathan returned home and stashed his computer bag and burner phone in the hallway closet.
39:26The kicker really was the realization that he climbed over her bloodied, dead body to place his throwaway phone and his laptop inside of that closet.
39:40In June of 2015, three years after Simonette's murder, the trial begins.
39:46The theme from the defense was, he's a horrible husband, but he's no murderer.
39:53Over the next five weeks, both sides present their cases.
39:57And on July 21st, after three hours of deliberation, the jury comes back with a verdict.
40:02Everybody stands up. Guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty.
40:07We got that closure, and it was the best feeling in the world.
40:13Teresa grabbed me, and she literally sobbed.
40:17To be able to give her justice for her daughter is unlike any feeling in the entire world.
40:24Wanda DeLaverie was the strongest woman I'll ever know.
40:28She put him to bed.
40:31And NYPD worked morning, noon, night, and day to try to get this case solved.
40:38And they became our family.
40:41You put this out there, you let people know how important those cops are to you.
40:46And you let people know how important they are to you.
40:49You put this out there, you let people know how important those cops are to you.
40:54Because without them, I swear to you, I don't know if I would be here today.
40:59And that is the truth.
41:03Three months later, Jonathan is given the maximum sentence of 25 to life.
41:09John Krupe gave a statement to the court, and he still vehemently denied that he was involved.
41:15After everything my family did for him, never apologizing for what he's done,
41:20never offering any reasoning for why he did what he did.
41:25And it goes to him just being a cowardly, evil son of a bitch.
41:31He took my little girl from me.
41:34And...
41:37Sucked.
41:44Even though she was 29, that's my baby girl.
41:48Smile.
41:51That's Sissy.
41:54I miss not being able to call my sister.
41:59She, in a lot of ways, was like a safety blanket.
42:03And that's gone.
42:05The family created Sissy's Angels.
42:08And it can't be more of a perfect tribute to their daughter.
42:13We provide education to teenage young men and women about domestic violence.
42:20Something that taught me how to be a better person.
42:24And I'm so grateful to her for that.
42:34AVAILABLE NOW