"Come on outside. Keep your hands where I can see them." "What's going on here?" "Okay, so Ian, is Thomas Lopez staying up here?"

This is the father and son who owned this ranch house in the New Mexico desert miles from anywhere. Police believe a murderer is hiding inside their home. Thomas Lopez, a man who days earlier fatally assaulted his girlfriend.

"Do you know where he might be staying at or anything?"

But what makes this interesting is that the son is in fact hiding this man and the father is about to find out that his son is protecting a murderer inside the vents of his own home.

"They said he might be in the vent." "Thomas, talk to me, man. I know you're down there." "We don't come over here for simple stuff."

"Yeah. Yeah. So, what's up?"

On the 24th of February, police were called to a hospital in New Mexico to investigate something horrifying.

26-year-old Sabrina Calderon had just been brought in unconscious, severely injured, and barely clinging to life. "Um, so her name is Sabrina Calderon." "She is so severely dehydrated that her kidneys are failing. She is too sick for us to care for here." "And who brought her in?"

"I believe they said they thought it was her dad." "Would you say that is something from being hit?"

"Probably. She's 26 years old. She should not be in this condition." "Right."

Sabrina is in such critical condition that the nurses are almost certain she won't survive. But what made the hospital so suspicious is that Sabrina's injuries were that of someone who had been severely assaulted. And the man who dropped her off left almost as quickly as he possibly could. The hospital called in police, but with no leads, the cops decided to use her emergency contact info and call up her dad to see if he could shed any light on what just happened.



"Can you hear me now, Mr. Calderon?" "Uh, yes." "Could you tell me what happened real quick? Why she has these injuries?"

"Uh, yes. Uh oh. Thomas Lopez. He got her from here."

"I guess at knifepoint. He took her over there and uh where's over there?" "It's a ranch house. He had her locked up in the room and he was just beating her." "He was assaulting her there every day."

That was almost disturbingly simple. Apparently, a man had taken her at knifepoint from her dad's home and was beating her every day at a house out on a ranch somewhere in New Mexico. The officers found it extremely strange that he never contacted police. So, there is some amount of suspicion to cast on him. Regardless, they ask him for some details about the guy that he claims did this to her, knowing that if this lead hits a dead end, they know who to suspect next.

"Where does he live at?" "He was just going from place to place." "How did you get her?" "He ended up taking her to the hospital and I thank God for that. He dropped her off and took off."

"Do you know what he looks like?" "I sure don't. I don't. Say his name one more time." "Uh, Thomas Lopez."

"Thomas Lopez. Okay."

Police now have a name. Thomas Lopez. The victim's father claims that Lopez was the one who both attacked and dropped Sabrina off at the hospital, which would explain why he was in such a big rush to leave.

"Where do you think he resides? Mostly in Carlsbad or in Portales?"

I mean, he he just stay wherever he could. I guess it seems like Thomas is going to be extremely difficult to track down. The officers did not have a description of him. He has a common name and constantly jumps from place to place without a known address.

If this guy had gone on the run, it could be weeks before they managed to find him. But that's when everything changed. Sabrina briefly woke up and found the strength to confirm that it was indeed Thomas that had done all this to her. And she managed to give police the address of the ranch her father mentioned. All before taking her final breath and dying moments later.

Sabrina had identified the man she said was responsible before she died. Immediately, the officers headed to the address prepared for a dangerous encounter, knowing that they might come face to face with a dangerous suspect. However, there is one problem. Police haven't had time to get a search warrant, meaning that they have no right to enter the home without permission. That means they're stuck outside knowing that just feet away a dangerous homicide suspect could be hiding.

"Ian, is that you?" "Ian, come to the front door for me." "Hold on a second. Who is it?" "It's the sheriff's office."

"Let me let me see your hands. Come outside. Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands." "Is the dog okay?"

"Yes, sir." "Hey, Rice. I got contact. I don't have nothing."

"Okay. Sit tight right here, man." "Okay. Yes, sir. I'm sorry."

This is Ian, part owner of this ranch and good friend of Thomas Lopez. Sabrina had told cops about him and said that he could be vital to tracking Thomas down.

At this point, the cops have no idea how much Ian knows. But they do know that his house is supposedly where Sabrina was attacked. For all they knew, he could have been involved as well. So, they have to be extremely cautious when dealing with him and clearing out the house.

"Who's all here, man?" "My father, my friend, Bugsy." "What's Bugsy's real name?" "I don't know." "Come on outside."

"Keep your hands where I can see them." "What's going on here? Is Thomas staying out here, or has he been out here?" "Um, I've been out here a few times, but yeah, I see."

"Is there anybody else inside? You said Bugsy, if I can go with you at the door, can you call her outside?" "Yeah." "Okay." "You want me to go get her?"

"Yeah. Well, just call her from the door, please."

Bugsy is another one of Ian's friends that happened to be staying at the property around this time. She couldn't have anything to do with the crime, but officers were still interested to learn that there might be another witness and someone that could help them track their suspect down. So, what we're doing is we're asking everybody to come out of the house cuz we're fixing to do a search warrant on the house. And supposedly, there was an incident a couple of nights ago where somebody got beat up out here. And so, now we're securing the house to do a search warrant for evidence.

Okay. See how Perry keeps looking over to Ian. It's almost like he knows something is wrong because this isn't the first time that Ian's brought criminals over to this house. Something police would later bring up. With that said, Perry obviously doesn't want to give his own son up to the police, so he decides to stay quiet.

"We're We're good. Uh we're out here with Ian Wayland and his dad, and so there's nobody else in the trailer, so both are just chilling out here. Work for Temple."

Notice how Ian doesn't say a word.

"That's because he just hours earlier helped Thomas crawl into the vents inside his house to hide him from the cops. However, his father has absolutely no idea." "Yeah, we're good. We're good for the next few minutes out here." "Uh, just a warrant."

"That'll work. Thank you." "Well, we don't have it right now. We're getting it. Like I said, we just came here."

"Okay. Well, then we don't have to do anything. You say we're securing the house." "You don't actually have a warrant."

"No, I do not have a warrant yet. Ian, Ian, I can't do anything." "Come here." "I'm exercising my rights." "Ian, come here so we can talk."

"Okay. Would you mind if I walked inside with you just so we can make sure there's nobody else inside?" "Sure." "Okay, I will go with you. Like I said, I'm not looking for anything except for just make sure there's nobody inside."

They're still not 100% sure that the house is empty. Ian mentioned someone called Bugsy, but wasn't sure if they were still around or not. So, the officer prepares to head inside and clear the scene with Ian.

"Thank you." "You have to you might have to put on some lights." "Yeah, go for it, man. It make it easier for both of us, man." "And you don't have anybody staying with you currently?"

"No." "No." "I just want to make sure, you know, not somebody waiting behind me, you know."

"Shit's back here, man. So, okay. Do you mind if I walk make sure there's nobody on this side? Go ahead."

"Appreciate it, man. Yeah, absolutely, bro." "Okay." "Thank you. Do you mind if I walk in here?"

"Like I said, I'm not worried." "Go ahead. Go ahead." "I'm not looking for anything. Just make sure nobody's in here."

"Sure. It happens, man. Um, do you mind if I take a look inside?" "Appreciate that, too."

"Okay. Thank you." "My cross be filing." "Right on. Do you have just friends stay from time to time or you got every once in a while, you know?"

"Hey. Hey." "Sorry. My bad. Hey, I'm right here."

"Okay. Come back here." "What?" "You under the covers. Let me see your hands."

"What's up?" "There's somebody under the blanket there. You under the covers. Let me see your hands."

"Let me see your hands. It's not a guy, but you see it's not a guy." "Okay." "All right." "Mind coming with us, ma'am?"

"You're looking for Okay. No, she's fine." "Look, you we're not looking for her, but we do, ma'am, need to ask that you uh come outside with us."

Clearly, Bugsy isn't the person they are looking for, but she would turn out to be extremely useful to the case down the line. She's been staying at the house recently, so the officers kept her available thinking she might have seen something Ian didn't. The officer then clears the rest of the house and finds it to be totally empty. In the meantime, the officer outside catches Perry up on everything that's been going on at the house lately and what they plan to do in the search.

"So, you got to refer to this Thomas." "Yes." "Yeah. Thomas has gotten himself into some pretty heavy at this point. So, uh yeah, by what I've seen other than I don't care for the dude."

"Okay." "Uh keep this between me and you. Uh I'm here trying to make right and I apologize for my son. You know what happens?" "Okay."

"Not dude." "Okay. That's Yeah, obviously not the guy we're looking for. So, Mr. Wayland."

"Yes."

Um, so they're fine where they are right now, but what it's sounding like is uh the investigators are wanting to do the entire property covered in the search warrant. So, what does that mean? Well, meaning the car is going to have to stay here.

"They can they're okay in there for now." "Um, but they and they are asking the the entire property. Y'all want to go through the barns and Yes, sir. That's what it's sounding like." "We could probably go do that right now."

"Well, the warehouse is locked up and the barn's unlocked." "Okay." "But I could take y'all on a tour if you want."

Yeah, we're going to wait for them to get the paperwork done just so that I don't think I'll be honest with I don't think Thomas is hiding in the shop or something like that. But on the off chance that he is, I don't want him to have the uh the ability to talk to a lawyer and say, "Will they illegally search the barn?"

"Even if we have permission at this point, we're just going to kind of stand by and do it through the by the books so the paperwork. Okay."

The thing is, Officer Rice was wrong thinking that Thomas wasn't hiding on the property. Had he gone looking for him on his own, things could have ended much, much worse for him. However, the day is coming to an end, and it's time for the officers to go over everything they've figured out so far. However, they can't risk Ian or Perry overhearing any of this.

See if you can figure out why that might be, and we'll reveal it after this clip. She's been living here.

"Probably. Did you ask her? I've asked her question. I would ask her cuz if she has been living here, she might have witnessed this."

"Sorry, I don't mean to be on edge, but you Yeah, especially after Yeah. But um I guess the way it's looking she died from that whole situation like those beatings." "I see." "I'm guessing there was some internal injuries." "Okay."

"So it wasn't like he tracked her down and the way it seemed. Okay."

The officers are clearly trying as hard as they can to conceal the exact details of the case from Ian and Perry. That's because detectives plan to interview them later. So, the less information that gets put into their heads, the better. This is usually for two main reasons.

If they're guilty of something, this stops them from changing their answers to hide evidence based on what they know. Or if they're just a witness, it stops them from giving answers based on what they heard from the cops rather than what they actually saw, protecting their credibility in court. It should be made clear that this isn't the first time that cops have been dispatched to Ian's house. And in fact, multiple criminals had been arrested here before, though never Ian himself. He just seems to hang around with the wrong people.

"Let me tell you, okay." "Hey, listen. They're expanding the search to the whole property. He cannot take the car." "Okay."

"So, okay. So, the thing is with it is you guys physically yourselves are not being detained. Okay. Other than I guess today, any other issues going on?" "Okay, that's that's good, I guess."

Unfortunately, no. you know, got a nice place out here. I'd be more selective about who comes out.

"Yeah."

Dude, honestly, I used when I lived out in the county, if I had friends over and they brought somebody I didn't know, I would straight up tell them, "Guys, I'm cool with all y'all." But I don't know him. He said, "And if I don't know him, he doesn't need to be here."

"If you haven't noticed, the longer this goes on for, the more uncomfortable Ian seems to get. And as that continues, the officers became more suspicious, too."

After having multiple criminals caught and arrested on his property, you'd think he'd start to be more careful about who comes over. That's what made the cops suspicious here. If he's been hanging around so many criminals, he might feel obligated to cover up for them. That's the main thing on the officer's mind when he decides to bring Ian to the interview room.

But they actually decide to wait before questioning him. They have a fairly large number of witnesses for the case, so they want to get as much information from the others first before talking to the riskiest of the group. Ideally, they'll get information that could help catch Ian in a lie and force him into telling the truth. So, they start by questioning his father, Perry, the owner of the property.

"Too many people coming and going." "I'm getting sick of this."

So, you were in your room. They had been there a couple of days. Um, you heard her getting slapped. You knew she was getting slapped by the way she was sounding.

You peeked out. Ian was telling him, "Hey, y'all need to calm and quit this or whatever he said." the girl outside, this Elizabeth chick um and some other guy gave the girl that was being slapped after she said, "Y'all need to help me."

"But that apparently was two different women. See, I thought the girl that would got beat up was not this girl." "I don't know. I'll stay back in my room."

"But you saw a woman getting beat, but I didn't think it was her. She was already in Carlsbad, right? Is it time?" "She just barely got in Carlsbad." "Probably Friday."

It seems that Perry absolutely heard Thomas attacking at least one woman, but wasn't able to confirm who it was. He backs up Ian's propensity to let anyone and everyone over to the house and tells the cops that it was bound to end up badly eventually. If Perry can identify the girl that he saw Thomas hitting though, it could be a massive help for the cops as it would mean all the evidence lines up and they can begin their search for him immediately.

"Supposedly you just got the you got the faces mixed up cuz you don't see him." "Sure, but you know what?" "Thought I thought there's two there. And there was there is Thomas did beat up another girl that he has warrants out for his arrest now, too. That's why he's running."

"Does he beat up every woman he comes in contact with?"

See, I thought we was talking about another woman. I knew this I knew of this chick. The picture you showed me, I knew her going to the ER, but the chick that I heard through the wall saying, "Y'all got to help me." was not her.

Perry is saying that he had heard Thomas beating a girl up, but that it was a completely different girl to the one that they were looking for. So now there was even more reason to catch him as soon as possible, as it seems like this wasn't an isolated incident at all. Maybe I'm confused cuz Okay, once she went to the ER, she never went back to the house, right?

"Okay, I'm thinking of another chick. Does that make sense?" "No, but we'll figure it out." "I'm sorry, man." "I'm sorry."

This whole thing is just confusing this for me. I need to be more involved. I know with who comes and goes, but you know, he thinks he's a grown man now.

"Ian's going to have to start putting his split down about who stays at the house." "Made it simple. Well, we need to get this man."

Perry unfortunately didn't have much else to add. So now they turn their attention to Bugsy, their surprised witness, who might just have the answers they're looking for.

"Okay. Cuz you might have might have seen or heard something that happened out there at Ian's house a couple days ago." "Um, honestly, I just got there today to do some laundry, so I have Well, Ian says you were out there a couple of days ago whenever this incident happened. Okay." "Oh, okay."

"Do you know Thomas, the guy that's always out there with Ian and all them guys?" "I mean, I've seen him a few times out there. Yeah. I mean, even if I was if I was there, I didn't I mean, I didn't see none of that." "Did you hear any of it?"

I didn't. At first glance, it seems like Bugsy might not be as much help as they anticipated. But things can change quite quickly when a witness is told just how serious the situation is. That's why the officer decides to let her in on what happened to Sabrina and see if that jogs her memory at all. The reason we're here is because there's a girl that was with Thomas today.

"She started having complications from what Thomas and Sabrina had an altercation over." "Okay." "She is now deceased."

Unfortunately for the cops, this didn't change the fact that Bugsy hadn't seen anything at the house. However, she was able to give them one piece of information that could end up proving infinitely more useful than what they were hoping for initially. She gave them the address of another house Thomas was known to stay at. Inside that house is actually another one of Thomas's victims, and the police are about to discover that he's actually a serial domestic abuser. This is crucial to build a strong case against Thomas.

"Gooding yourself?" "Pretty good." "All right." "Looking for Thomas?"

"He's not here. Um my my friend Mo'Nique, that's her boyfriend. Okay." "She asked me to stay here because she's Is Mo'Nique not here either?"

"No, she not. She went She went out to Clovis." "Okay." "And I'm just watching." "Do you know where Thomas is?"

"He's not supposed to be here." "I just really need to talk to him." "He's not supposed to be here. We changed the locks for the locks for him."

"She's really scared of him. So Oh, yeah." "Yes. We changed the locks."

"Okay. Was she battered a while back?" "Yes. Is that what that Do you mind if we just make sure he's not in the house?" "That's fine."

"What's that?" "I'm her friend." "But nobody else is in this house." "Yeah." "Um the only thing is that she called me since she scared me."

"My boyfriend changed out the box for her. He took her phone." "Oh, he took her phone."

"Well, you're saying her? Who? Who are you talking about?" "She hasn't been here all day. back in the day here, sir."

"But she still lives here." "Yes. Yes."

"She hasn't had contact with him that you would know of. She pretty much wanted nothing to do with him. How long ago was it was their incident that happened?"

That was yesterday. But she called me and told me to come to to come change out her locks because she's scared of the one. It turns out this is the home of the other girl that Thomas had reportedly been beating, which if anything is worrying the cops even more since we know he's not limiting his violence to one girl. It would make sense if he's hiding out here waiting for this girl to come back home. The homeowner, however, is telling the cops that he's not here and she's not seen him for days.

"Is she working or where is she at?" "Um, she just got out of rehab and well, she went to Clovis with her daughter." "Oh, I mean I guess that's what I mean." "About yesterday." "Does he have any friends around here that we know that he hangs out with?"

"Family know of him because she's my friend, but I know she don't have nobody. He terrorizes her." "Do you think he still has her phone?" "Oh, he does." "Get that number."

He does have her. The officers continued to search every room in the house as well as the attic, but weren't able to find him anywhere. According to everyone they'd talked to, Thomas had gone off the grid and was nowhere to be seen. But there was still one person they hadn't talked to.

The one person that they knew was acting strange from the very beginning. Ian Wayland. If anyone was going to know where he was, it was going to be Ian. So later that night, they brought him into the interrogation room for hopefully the last interview that they need in this case.

"Their cameras are down, so I'm using this thing. Okay." "Okay." "I'll explain to you why we're here talking."

"You're not in any kind of trouble. Okay." "Oh my god." "I'm not in any trouble." "You have any idea why you might be down here?"

"Well, yes." "Because of the fight or whatever, I guess that Thomas had, right? Do you know anything else about it?" "No."

Remember, Ian hasn't been told any details of what actually happened yet.

"He doesn't know that Thomas killed Sabrina or even that there was a physical exchange, but that's all about to change in just a few moments." "Tom, let's talk about Thomas Lopez. When was the last time you seen him?" "It's been about like a day or so."

"A day or so. What about his girlfriend Sabrina?" "About a day or so."

"Okay. What happened between Sabrina and Thomas? I just like heard an altercation. I didn't like see anything."

"I just heard them screaming at each other enough to where it alarmed me. And Were they inside your house when they did that when they were screaming?"

"Okay. Was there any anything physical going on or just screaming? Did you see anything physical? Did you hear anything physical?" "Did you hear yelling stop or stop or anything?"

"Mhm." "No. So, whatever you heard screaming and stuff, where were they at?" "Like I guess it would be like down towards the kitchen area. I don't know."

"I heard them yelling and whatnot and I went out there and I was like, 'Hey, man. Are y'all okay?' And they just like, 'Yeah, man. Fine.' You know, and what did she say?"

Nothing. It's clear Ian was around when the fight happened, but it seems like he didn't realize how bad things had actually gotten. Apparently, Sabrina was actually crying when he went to talk to them, but he just figured it wasn't his business and went back to sleep in his room.

"Do you know what the fight was about? I don't. And honestly, I've got so much stuff of my own crap. Like, okay." "When was the last time you heard from Sabrina?"

"I don't know Sabrina." "Like, I I'm not making this up. Like, but she was that's Thomas's girlfriend or whoever."

I don't even know that. Like, I just know that that that there was an altercation between I don't even know if this Sabrina is if this is who like messed up teeth. I'm assuming that's who it was. So that day that whenever we went out there with extension, as the officer mentioned earlier, Ian has a habit of letting people that he barely knows stay at his house. But it turns out this is a recipe for disaster.

Since people know he likely won't get involved in their business, they see this property as an area out in the middle of nowhere where they can do whatever they want with no eyes on them at all. Initially, this only resulted in smaller crimes, robbery or drug possession. But this time, it turned into something much more serious. And Ian is now about to find out exactly what happened.

"Do you know why I'm here?" "No."

Remember I told you last time we don't we don't come over here for simple stuff.

"Yeah. Yeah." "I remember you told me that." "So, what's up? She's dead."

"You'reing me. What happened? Do you know?" "Well, from what she told us before she died was that she was getting her ass beat by Thomas over that your house in the barn with the cough." "Died."

"Mhm." "And so whenever you heard him arguing when he said he was getting pretty roughed her, what did you see him do?" "Like just slapping her." "Slapping her."

Well, I just trying to figure out what happened. And first of all, he's in your house. He knows that. So we From the very beginning, the officers figured he knew a little more than he was letting on.

Now he knows exactly what happened, how serious it was, and what the consequences will be if he doesn't give up everything he knows. Not only will he be implicated in the crime, but if Thomas is on the property and he ends up harming an officer, that will be his fault. The question is, is that enough for him to turn in his friend? When was the last time you seen Thomas? When even Okay.

"Is he at your house?" "I don't know." "Where does he hide? In your house whenever the cops are trying to get him." "Where did Where would he go hide inside?"

"We're over there. Okay. The house is secure. We're going to search warrant for it."

"Where would he be hiding? If he's in your house, where would he be at?" "You don't want that problem at your house?" "No. Like, I didn't know."

"Have you seen Thomas?" "Have you seen Thomas today?" "Tell me the truth, man." "Yeah. I mean, where was he at when you seen him?"

"uh in the house." "Okay. Was he there when the cops got there just a while ago?" "Um Ian, can we take the Oh, you can't do that."

This is Ian's ultimatum. Ian had been put in a scary position. He knew what the right thing to do was, but he was also terrified of this footage getting out. Amongst the people he hung around, he didn't want to be seen as someone untrustworthy, so he asked for the camera to be turned off and told the detectives the truth.

Ian admitted that Thomas was at his house. In fact, he was hiding in the vents. Apparently, that's where he was the whole time. Now, the officers knew exactly where he was, but getting to him would be no easy task.

To arrest him, they'd have to try everything they could to make contact with him or else get into the cramped vents with a known killer, right? Damn it. He knows we're here. I assume he knows we're going to come back, I guess. I don't know.

In the interview, they said he might be in the vent.

"Uh, yeah, that's what they're claiming is that he might be."

So, if he's in A's vent, the only one large enough for an adult that I know of is when you go in, there's a hallway that goes all the way back to the house.

"There'll be a blanket in the hallway right now." "As we go in, still clear all the little areas that we go past. So, I don't want to get fixated and have him come out behind us."

"You hit that vent. The only downside is you'll have two rooms to clear in the hallway before the vent. The last door is literally next to the vent." "We'll figure it out if anybody sees something weird."

Several cops made it to the scene a few minutes earlier and have managed to locate the vent they think he's hiding inside of.

"Thomas, this is the Roosevelt County Sheriff's Office. Come outside." "He's not answering or nothing. He might answer." "Let him know if he does."

"Look around." "Sheriff's Office. Deputy Bachman. Call out, man, with your hands up. Know you're down there."

"Is that the bank you went in or this?" "Is this over?" "I saw it. It goes down. There's no access back there."

"Ian had the screws needed to replace the vent cover." "He puts the vent back on so he can do his own."

The officers are right. The vent cover couldn't have been put in place from the inside. So Ian had to have helped him hide. But they'll figure out what to do about that later.

For now, they need to figure out a way to get Thomas out of the vents. To start with, locate his exact position. And they came up with a creative solution to do this.

"He's right there. These How far approximately all the way down there's a bit." "Just trying to see if there's a mirror."

I got a good point. This needs duct tape and a mirror. There's probably duct tape in the garage. Tape a phone and flashlight together. Stick down in there just so we get some really good light and light up.

"I just have to confirm." "It sounds far-fetched, but after pointing a phone and a torch deep into the vents, they were able to confirm precisely where Thomas was." "See, it looks like you can see the back of his neck, a jacket."

The problem was he still wasn't responding, and they certainly didn't want to get in the vents with him. So, while another group of officers checked the outside to ensure he couldn't escape, the officers tried desperately to reach out to him. But quickly, they started to get concerned about something else entirely.

"Thomas, if you can hear me, man, answer." "I know you're down there. I We saw you in the pictures. Answer me. Just let me know you're okay, man."

"Are you okay down there?" "Yeah. Don't move, man." "at your door."

"Like you would think that he'd shuffle a little bit. I haven't heard him." "Well, looks like he's moved since." "Yeah, but like no noise, nothing."

Thomas had been down there for hours now, possibly even days. The officers knew he's there, but they haven't seen his face or any movement whatsoever. They're fearing the worst, but they still can't risk going down there with him. That's when one of the officers gets a genius idea.

"You're going to want to push him back this way cuz he's going to have to come out this way." "So, if you introduce gas, you want to introduce it on that." "Okay." "Have a fogger or spray." "Yeah."

"I would introduce it down there." "You want to do the same thing with a video. It may make him uncomfortable enough that he'll come out. That going to make you cough."

"Turn around. It looks like he's facing us. Hey, his his head's up here for sure." "He went in deeper." "Yeah, cuz you don't want them to crawl."

"So, I would introduce it over there, too. Pushing him this way." "Yeah. Yeah."

They're planning to shoot pepper spray into both ends of the vents, forcing him out. If he was to stay inside, he'd end up choking and writhing in the pain the gas caused. But it turns out this plan was so smart and terrifying to Thomas that they wouldn't even have to put this into action.

"I hear him." "Hey, come on out, man." "Dude, come on out." "What do you come out and we'll talk?" "I'm I'm scared, sir."

"Well, there's nothing to be scared about. Come on out." "Okay, I've been beat up by the cops before." "I understand, but nobody's going to hurt you. I just need you to come out slow."

"Yep. We'll get you some to go. We'll get some be got some dirt in there. You want to take the hood off?"

The concept of being stuck in the vents with the pepper spray was just too much to Thomas. And with some convincing, they were able to get him out. The ideas and tactics used in this extraction were far from textbook, but they were incredibly smart. Now they just had one more job to do. Interrogate Thomas and finally figure out the truth of what happened to Sabrina.

"Move all this over here. Okay. You speak English or Spanish?" "Both."

"Okay. You want Preferably English though?" "Preferably English. We'll stick with English. So listen to me."

"We are in America." "You have the right to remain silent."

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Well, what we are here for is what happened with Sabrina the other night. That's what all this is about.

There is an enormous amount of evidence against Thomas. Remember, everyone involved in the case has pointed the finger towards him, including the murder victim herself, but that doesn't mean he's not going to try and defend himself. Notably, without the presence of a lawyer. The story he chooses to go with though isn't the most convincing.

"Okay, we talked to Sabrina. Okay, she told us what happened to her. Okay, I need you to be honest with me and tell me the truth. Okay, were y'all guys fighting that night?"

"Just an argument. That's all it was. We weren't fighting. We didn't get past school." "Did she How many times did she hit you?"

"I don't want her to get in trouble, sir." "Okay. How many times did you hit her?"

"I didn't hit her. We just bumping each other like you know what I mean? Did you shove her down the steps?"

"I want to show her. That's my kid's mom. But you guys had a kid together?" "I don't want to hurt her." "So tell me what happened in that barn."

That's when she fell. And certainly we went back there and argued cuz I want we didn't want to be arguing in in that house. I don't want to get thrown out cuz I know where I don't have nowhere to live. But apparently they went out to the barn because they didn't want to argue in the house and Sabrina slipped and fell down some steps causing all of her injuries.

You guys are arguing. Okay. And it did get physical, but you didn't want to tell me what happened, right? Is that what you're telling me? It got physical, but you didn't want to tell me what happened.

"We just kind of like just got in each other's face about it." "Was that the same you took her to the hospital?" "Um, I mean, it was it was ongoing for like a couple days." "So, you guys were just like basically arguing for two days pretty much." "When was the pushing and shoving?"

"I want to say pushing and shoving. We just kind of a chest pump and whatever. Yeah. When was that?"

"All right. During that that night when she fell." "Okay. So, you guys just do this chest chest p cuz we don't want to argue in that house cuz I don't want to get thrown out of there."

Thomas is also claiming that he didn't hit her or even push her around. The worst they did was get into each other's faces and bumped each other's chests. That account was not consistent with Sabrina's condition or with what she had told police.

"But Thomas's story gets even more unbelievable as he continues." "So then you guys go out to the barn." "What happens next?" "We just sitting there just smoking a cigarette and stuff. We're up there."

"So you guys go up and are you like upstairs in the barn? Is that what you're saying?"

Yeah. In that loft. You start up there and then she starts coming back down and she loses her foot. You know, there she goes down the damn steps. So, where was So, when was the I pick her up, walk her to the house, and she's like, "Well, if I can't bear it anymore, then I need you to take me to the emergency room."

"So, when was when was the uh the chest bumping or uh all that? When where was that at?" "It's kind of beginning when we got in there, like got in there, then that's when How'd she fall down the stairs?"

"She lost her footing, you guess. Like, you look at the stairs and they're inside that place. It's there's a big gap between each. It's not constructed pretty good." "There's like some some just put together like are we talking from the top all the way to the bottom?"

"It was about halfway toward the bottom. She lost her footing." "All kinds of junk and stuff that's in that barn."

So, not only did Thomas not have anything to do with her injuries, but when she got hurt, they'd already made up. He believes that this story has explained away why Ian will have heard shouting in the house, why they went out to the barn, and why Sabrina had such serious injuries. This is why it's so important that detectives keep as much of the evidence as possible secret. He's constructed a story that technically covers up all the evidence that he thinks exists.

And while it's not comprehensive, it would definitely make proving his guilt in a courtroom slightly harder. But it doesn't explain a huge number of other things like how the injuries were sustained by a golf club or the drugs Sabrina said he had injected her with. Both things he doesn't know the officers knew about. And in fact, he was never able to explain these other things away.

There was simply too much evidence for Thomas to deal with, and he chose to plead guilty at his trial. Nurses from the hospital told the jury that Thomas had initially told them she'd fallen down the stairs, too. But Sabrina immediately refuted this claim when she woke up. She said he'd hit her multiple times with his bare fists, struck her repeatedly, including with a golf club, and had restrained her in a chair in the barn for an extended period while this all happened.

Even worse, she said this had been going on for around a month. And for the entire time, she felt as though she had been held captive. There was little Thomas could do against this evidence, and he was convicted of murder, kidnapping, and resisting an officer. He was sentenced to 18 years behind bars.