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I was imagining how she had to have felt in
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that predicament. It's just heartbreaking to be a 16-year-old girl.
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A monster like that comes in and takes your life
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from you.
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Jason Scott was an extraordinarily dangerous criminal who masqueraded as
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an ordinary person.
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He's saying to you, criminal justice system, I am smarter
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than you.
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If you feel like somebody is watching you, they are.
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I'm successful at doing it.
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Why stop?
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It don't cross your mind that sick people like that exist.
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My life was perfect. before everything happened.
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Upper Marlborough, a suburb 20 miles east of Washington, D.C.,
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is home to the Lofton family. Dad, Kirk. Mom, Karen.
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Two sons, Kirk Jr. and Keon. And daughter, Carissa.
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My daughter was a very inspiring, very beautiful gift.
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She was a gift. She went through some struggles.
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She had an open-heart surgery because she had something going
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on with a valve in her heart and everything, and
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she bounced right back like it was nothing.
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I mean, she was very strong.
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I am Keon Lofton. Karen Lofton was my mother. Carissa
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was my younger sister. My mother was a really caring person.
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She was in the nursing field as long as I
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can remember. I remember being a little child and going
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with her to work with her and just all the
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love that she would get from her coworkers.
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She was probably one of the best nurses of her time.
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Carissa's personality around that age was typical teenage girl. She
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was still trying to figure herself out, pleasant, kind person.
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You can see her modeling after the characteristics and values
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and things that my mother instilled in all of us,
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and you can just see the trajectory of the type
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of woman that she was going to become.
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In 2008, Kirk moves away after his marriage to Karen
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breaks down.
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Moved to Georgia in 2008. I was remarried. I still
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remained in contact with my daughter. As a matter of fact,
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she was supposed to move down here and go to college.
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Prince George's County 911 Center.
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What is your emergency?
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Ma'am, I've been shot.
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My mother has been shot.
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I'm bleeding through the ass.
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Please slow down.
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What's the address?
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You know, if we need any kind of testament to
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Carissa's courage, this is a young teenager, a 16-year-old, who
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has been involved in a home invasion, which is one
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of the most terrifying things anybody can imagine. She's been shot,
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and she has the kind of strength of mind to
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call 911 while she's bleeding. and to report to them
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that she has been shot, her mom has been shot,
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and she tells the operator, you know, I'm bleeding to death,
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please hurry. Unfortunately, the phone is hung up. And by
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the time they get there, it's too late.
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So the night of the, when everything happened, I was
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at my girlfriend's house. My mother-in-law now told me that
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two women had been found, killed on our street. And
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she told me to call and check with my mother
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and sister. So I called and nobody answered. So I
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kept calling, I kept calling and nobody answered. So I
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just got up and left and started, you know, got
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in my car.
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I was driving.
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It had to be about two, three o'clock in the morning.
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Got there to the house, probably about a 10-minute drive.
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Police kind of had, like, the street blocked off, whatever,
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and I got out. I was trying to see who
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it was, and a police officer or detective asked who
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I was, and I told him my name. And he said, okay,
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we got the son right here. And I just broke
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down then because I knew, it came to realization that, okay,
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it was him.
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I was in the room, asleep, and my son, my
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oldest son, Kirk Jr., he called me at probably, you know,
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three in the morning, four in the morning, something like that.
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He was crying, and I said, what's wrong? He said,
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have you talked to Keyon yet?
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Ma and Carissa got killed.
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The first thing that I thought was, They got into
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a car accident or something like that, but then he
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said they were shot. I immediately got off the phone
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with him and I called my other son, my younger son,
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and he told me that somebody came into our house,
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the family house, and killed both of them.
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It's just heartbreaking to be a 16-year-old girl and be
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in the comfort of your own bed, and a monster
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like that comes in and takes your life from you.
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I was imagining how she had to have felt in
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that predicament, somebody storming in, you know, shooting you, and
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you have to, you know, call 911, trying to get
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somebody to save you. You know, it's heartbreaking.
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With no signs of forced entry, the police suspect the
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murders have been committed by someone with access to the
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Loftons' home.
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They kind of step back and go, okay, what do
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we do? We start from the innermost circle and we
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work our way out. Most often, sadly, those are the perpetrators.
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One of the first persons to come on the radar
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is Karissa's older.
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Brother, Keon.
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Honestly, I didn't know why I was in a police car.
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I had no idea. Everything was an immediate shock right there.
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From there, I remember being in the interrogation room.
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Did your mom set the alarm for the house? Mm-hmm.
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Okay, all the time?
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Every day, every time.
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Would you have hurt your mom and sister?
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No. You wouldn't have hurt your mom and.
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Sister, though?
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And I remember them letting me come out to, like,
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one of their desks and letting me hear, like, a
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snippet of the 911 call. Anybody who's getting accused of
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anything they haven't done, they're going to be upset. When
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I'm in that interrogation room and I'm hearing... them accusing me,
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and I'm just trying to process, like, did this really happen? Like,
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did my mother and sister really just get, you know, murdered?
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Are you guys really accusing me of doing this? Everything
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just felt like a nightmare or a dream. Like, it
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just felt really surreal. I knew 1,000% it wasn't me.
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They didn't know what to think. They didn't know anything
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about who this person was. They had no fingerprints. There
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was no forced entry.
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And all of a sudden, here it is. The 48
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hours have passed, which of course is often the critical
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period for getting that first lead. And they're sitting there
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kind of going, we have no idea.
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And if you're going down the wrong road with that,
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you've allowed the individual to perhaps clean up the case,
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to perhaps even be further away from the case. So
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it's very important those first initial hours of any case
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that you hope the investigators are on the right path.
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Kirk and Keon begin to develop their own theories about
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what happened.
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I know how safe that Karen was. And Karen would
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not let anyone in that house at 2.36 in the
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morning without, she would have the alarm on. They said
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the alarm was disengaged.
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She took that really seriously. You know, when I would
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leave out, she would make sure the back door is locked,
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things like that. So to make sure the window is locked,
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she was always a stickler for those things. But I'm
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pretty sure I thought that, okay, somebody forced her to
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put the alarm in. It's just no, it's no other explanation.
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At the time of the Loftons murders, a burglar is
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successfully evading capture in the neighborhood.
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Jason Scott came across as very mild-mannered. He held a
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part-time job with a package delivery service. He wasn't viewed
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as being dangerous by his friends and family, so he
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was somebody who masqueraded as an ordinary person.
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Jason Scott was somebody who seemed to have a lot
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of potential. He was somebody who had a college degree.
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He was somebody who worked at UPS. So he was
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somebody who, at least on the surface, seemed to be
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somebody who really had his act together.
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27-year-old Jason Scott has two master's degrees and until recently
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was unknown to authorities.
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He had started committing robberies in his, at least as
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a teenager and perhaps early 20s, and had graduated from
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committing robberies robberies of unoccupied houses to home invasion robberies
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and violent crime.
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So at the same time that Jason Scott was living
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this kind of law-abiding life on the surface, this is
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somebody who, in the privacy of his own home, seemed
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to be absolutely obsessed with crime, with forensics, with understanding
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how to get away with crime.
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One of the notable things about Mr. Scott is the
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clothing and tools that he used during his criminal activities.
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So he dressed like a criminal. He would dress all
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in black. He wore black gloves. He carried a black backpack.
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So he dressed like a thief.
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Jason Scott spent hours of his life thinking about crime,
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learning about crime, learning about forensic techniques, almost considered himself
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like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
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Hyde.
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I would imagine to some extent he feels kind of
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this sense of impunity, like, or the sense that I'm untouchable.
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Nobody's gonna catch me. Another thing that stands out about
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Jason Scott is he was an incredibly diverse criminal. So
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not only was he interested in burglary, in home invasions,
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He was interested in peeping. He was interested in cruising
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the neighborhood and taking pictures of people in the privacy
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of their own homes. He had no idea what he
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was doing. It's not uncommon for that to progress to
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breaking into a home, to some kind of sexual offense.
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So this progression is a natural part that we as
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criminologists are concerned about with any crime that someone does.
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Does it then have an opportunity to develop, to make
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that person a criminal that is looking for a career?
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I'm doing it. I'm successful at doing it.
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Why stop?
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The murders of mother and daughter Karen and Carissa Lofton
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have shocked this respectable Washington suburb. There's a spate of burglaries, too.
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But the police are yet to track down the perpetrators.
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Two months later, another murder is called in.
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My name is Courtney Hicks. My mother is Dolores DeWitt.
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and my sister's Ebony do it. My life was perfect before,
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before everything happened. My mom was the kindest person that
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I ever met. She was always there for me, even
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still after everything that's happened to me in my life
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because of how my mom taught me to believe in myself.
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My sister was someone I could always depend on, I
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could always count on, just as well as my mom.
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I miss him so much, so. When I got home,
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I don't remember if I had to disable our alarm
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or not, but I just go in the house and
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I see my sister's jacket on the back of the chair.
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Everything just looked normal. It just looked like they just
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weren't there. My mom's car was in the driveway. Everything
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looked normal. They just weren't there. I go upstairs and
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I go in my sister's room. It was no bleach
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spot on my sister's floor. So that kind of like
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struck me like, okay, maybe Ebony did come home. She
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probably dropped some bleach or something in. When I got
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into my bedroom, I just like sat down on my bed.
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That's when I got the feeling that you need to
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get out of this house. I've run out the house.
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I get in her car and I goes to my
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boyfriend at the time's house. And when I got to him,
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I'm just calling my mom. And this is like now
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probably going on. It was late. and still no response.
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The following day, Courtney hears that her mother and sister
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have been murdered. Their bodies are found in a stolen
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car that was then set on fire at a different address.
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Police identify Dolores and Ebony through dental records.
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Then they came to our house. I want to say,
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was it later on that day? I believe they came
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to our house. And that's when they did tell us
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about the dental records matching my mom and my sister.
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They were in the burning car. When I was 15,
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my dad died. So I honestly didn't think that... I
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never in my life thought anybody, like my mom or
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my sister, would be murdered or anything like that. I
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don't think anybody would think somebody they love would be murdered.
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My family was everything to me. My mom, my dad,
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and my sister. I didn't have a worry in the world.
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Certainly in the murders of Dolores and Ebony DeWitt, This
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is somebody who engages in incredibly risky behavior.
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He steals a car.
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And the person that he steals the car from actually
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witnesses this.
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What's the nature of your emergency?
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I just left my house maybe an hour ago and
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have come back.
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My car is missing out of the carport.
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That's my car.
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Okay, it just zoomed past me. Wow.
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So this is somebody in the middle of the day,
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steals a car, drives it to a house, puts two
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people in there who are no longer alive, and burns
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this car.
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In a relatively short amount of time.
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I mean, how risked can you be?
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It's a horrific, horrific crime scene of a burned body.
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Dental records are needed to identify the individuals to know
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whom they are. This does buy time. By moving the
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bodies to another place, by putting them in a car
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that has nothing to do with them, and then burning
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the bodies allows for additional time.
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For the individual to get away.
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I used to feel like people would be watching us
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outside of our house. My mom would always feel like
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people would be watching us. If you feel like somebody
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is watching you, they are. And if you really have
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that over-sense and urge, like, I feel like somebody watching me,
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I feel like somebody watching me, they are. It don't
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cross your mind that sick people like that exist.
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I think most people, of the time when people have
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a sense of being watched, they probably are. And I
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think it's very, very important to trust your gut and investigate,
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call the police, whatever you think is going to make
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you feel safe. Too many of us in the past
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have had these gut feelings, had these kind of spidey senses,
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or the hair on the back of our neck stands up,
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and we talk ourselves out of it, when really it's
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our body's way of telling us that something is wrong,
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even though we don't consciously know it.
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There have been two mother-daughter murders less than two miles
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apart in just eight weeks. Like Karen Lofton, Dolores DeWitt
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was a nurse and at home alone with her teenage daughter.
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In many respects, there are a lot of similarities between
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the murders of Karen and Carissa Lofton and Dolores and Ebony. And,
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you know, the similarities, of course, they're both nurses, they're
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both single parents, they have teenage daughters. Yet there are
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some significant differences. So police know that Karen and Carissa
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are murdered in their home. that they are shot to death.
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And this is very, very different from Ebony and Dolores,
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who are removed from their home before they were eventually
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found in a burned-out car. It would be really nice
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if serial killers always did everything exactly the same, because
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it would be much easier to catch them. And so
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it's important to kind of step back sometimes and kind
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of go, okay, yes, There are some surface differences here,
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including the way these people were murdered, but we can't
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rule out the possibility, given these other similarities, that there's
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some connection between the two.
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At the time of the Lofton and DeWitt murders, police
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are already investigating the death of 46-year-old mother of three,
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Vilma Butler, in June 2008. She is shot dead and
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found in her burning home. around 15 miles from the
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00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:15.400
DeWitts and Loftons. But police still do not believe they
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are dealing with a serial killer.
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Serial killers usually are not this meticulous in their acts.
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You know, we usually see that there's opportunity is the
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00:22:25.009 --> 00:22:28.609
main factor. There is that of a special type of
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person he or she is interested in committing these acts with.
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00:22:33.380 --> 00:22:36.920
But to see intelligence put together, to see elements of
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information put together, this is a different ball game. This
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is a different realm.
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It's unfortunate that he was awake, was able to get
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away with it for so long. And then he ended
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up getting caught.
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There have been five murders in this respectable suburb since
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June 2008. Police don't believe they're dealing with a serial
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00:23:18.650 --> 00:23:23.710
killer and are yet to identify a suspect. But separately
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00:23:23.750 --> 00:23:27.630
from the murders, authorities are getting closer to catching local
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00:23:27.670 --> 00:23:29.190
burglar Jason Scott.
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The crimes that Mr.
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00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:36.519
Scott committed were clustered around his own neighborhood in Prince
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George's County, Maryland, which is a suburb just.
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East of Washington, D.C.
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In May of 2009, Jason Scott and his accomplice, Marcus Hunter,
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00:23:49.529 --> 00:23:52.049
traveled up to Woodbine, Maryland to commit this robbery of
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00:23:52.069 --> 00:23:59.359
a gun shop. They stole 39 firearms, including automatic weapons,
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00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:02.700
machine guns, silencers, and a large volume of ammunition.
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Someone who moves to being involved in gun deals has
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00:24:09.009 --> 00:24:13.009
a lot of spheres of activity going on. You usually
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00:24:13.029 --> 00:24:16.849
don't expect that in someone who's involved in criminal activity.
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One becomes good at one part of criminal activity, but
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00:24:19.970 --> 00:24:23.309
does not drift, as we say in criminology, to perhaps
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00:24:23.369 --> 00:24:27.690
having a life of regular conformity and then going to
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00:24:27.730 --> 00:24:31.319
be an innovator of criminal activity. This is what makes
335
00:24:31.380 --> 00:24:36.200
this case so special. He's confident in what he does.
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00:24:39.980 --> 00:24:43.920
After doing this, he decides to make some money by
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00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.890
selling some of these illegal weapons. And yet, I think
338
00:24:48.930 --> 00:24:55.470
his boldness really does propel him to take these ridiculous risks.
339
00:24:56.210 --> 00:25:01.039
I mean, selling illegal weapons in the UPS parking lot?
340
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:05.680
I mean, it seems like that's something that is not
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00:25:05.720 --> 00:25:07.960
a criminal, something a criminal mastermind would do.
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00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:09.319
You work there.
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00:25:10.650 --> 00:25:12.549
Jason Scott had let it be known among some of
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00:25:12.609 --> 00:25:16.369
his criminal compatriots that he had guns to sell, and
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00:25:16.410 --> 00:25:19.849
an undercover ATF agent arranged to meet Jason Scott in
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00:25:19.869 --> 00:25:23.529
a parking lot and purchase four weapons from him.
347
00:25:23.549 --> 00:25:28.809
Agents then were able to verify that four of those.
348
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Weapons were the weapons that had been stolen on May
349
00:25:41.390 --> 00:25:45.650
26th from the gun shop. Well, this was the moment
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00:25:45.670 --> 00:25:51.549
that exposed Jason Scott to the subsequent search warrant. During
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00:25:51.569 --> 00:25:53.910
the course of executing that search warrant, the agents recovered
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00:25:53.910 --> 00:25:57.960
16 firearms that had been stolen from that gun shop in.
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00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:01.039
Woodbine back in May of 2009.
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00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:05.519
They also obtained from Jason Scott's bedroom many of the
355
00:26:05.559 --> 00:26:07.779
burglary tools that he had used to commit the crime.
356
00:26:07.799 --> 00:26:11.900
The clothing that he wore, the black clothing, the ski mask,
357
00:26:12.259 --> 00:26:15.960
and the backpack containing his burglary tools, which included things
358
00:26:16.019 --> 00:26:19.960
like bolt cutters and screwdrivers and pry bar, and also
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00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:22.440
included a police scanner.
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00:26:24.579 --> 00:26:27.359
There is almost a black comedy here if things weren't
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00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:32.059
so horrific. that this is somebody who is intelligent, he's
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00:26:32.140 --> 00:26:37.000
graduated from college, he's a personal person, and yet he
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00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:40.000
almost lives in this fantasy world, it seems like.
364
00:26:46.059 --> 00:26:48.359
One of the items of evidence that we recovered from
365
00:26:48.380 --> 00:26:51.380
Jason Scott's home was a video recording that he had
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00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:54.849
made of this teenage victim when he was recording the
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00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:58.099
victim while she was naked during one of his home
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00:26:58.140 --> 00:26:58.920
invasion robberies.
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And at one point, Mr.
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00:27:00.579 --> 00:27:05.900
Scott himself crossed in front of the camera. There actually
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00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:09.019
was an image captured of Mr. Scott in his full
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00:27:09.380 --> 00:27:13.390
regalia that he would wear to commit his crimes. And
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00:27:13.430 --> 00:27:16.710
when the authorities found those recordings and photographs and the
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00:27:16.750 --> 00:27:20.190
burglary tools, they realized they were dealing with a master criminal,
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00:27:20.250 --> 00:27:24.869
not simply somebody who had committed a robbery at a
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00:27:24.910 --> 00:27:27.869
gun shop but somebody who posed a continuing threat.
377
00:27:28.109 --> 00:27:29.230
Of violence in the community.
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00:27:29.250 --> 00:27:32.470
The agents were working with local police who knew about
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00:27:32.529 --> 00:27:35.210
the spree of home invasion robberies in addition to the
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00:27:35.250 --> 00:27:37.609
murders that had been committed in the area. And so
381
00:27:37.670 --> 00:27:40.190
once they found this evidence, they immediately settled on Jason
382
00:27:40.230 --> 00:27:43.730
Scott as a likely suspect in a whole spree of crimes.
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00:27:47.470 --> 00:27:49.890
I think when you think about this kind of sexual
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00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:54.599
aspect or sexual assault, that is so consistent with somebody
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00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:58.470
who has a history of peeping and voyeurism than progressives.
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00:28:00.009 --> 00:28:06.309
Most people who peep don't progress to worse things, but
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00:28:06.890 --> 00:28:11.119
people who do progress to worse things often have a
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00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:13.319
history of peeping and voyeurism.
389
00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:18.660
I think Jason Scott enjoyed the sense of power and
390
00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:22.720
control that he exercised when he committed these home invasion robberies,
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00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:26.200
where he kept people under control.
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00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:28.079
He kept people at gunpoint.
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00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:31.660
In a couple of instances, he detained people in their
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00:28:31.700 --> 00:28:35.079
homes while his partner, Marcus Hunter, took their ATM cards
395
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.160
and went to withdraw cash. And I think Jason Scott
396
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:41.569
enjoyed that sense of power that he obtained while he
397
00:28:41.630 --> 00:28:43.250
was detaining innocent victims.
398
00:28:46.390 --> 00:28:50.230
There was one home invasion that he carried out where
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00:28:50.670 --> 00:28:52.579
the victims were, of course, terrified.
400
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:53.980
They had no idea.
401
00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:00.960
They felt completely helpless. The victim later on said, you know,
402
00:29:01.319 --> 00:29:06.900
when you have absolutely no control over a situation, you
403
00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:10.500
don't know what to do. And she said, I started praying. And,
404
00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:17.539
you know, Jason Scott said, shut up. I think that
405
00:29:17.619 --> 00:29:21.440
affirmed to him that I am powerful. I am a
406
00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:24.559
criminal mastermind. I am in charge of these situations. And
407
00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:26.819
I do think that was very important to him. And
408
00:29:26.859 --> 00:29:31.970
for whatever reason, he really did embrace this criminal identity.
409
00:29:33.250 --> 00:29:36.970
Jason Scott is now a suspect in the five murder investigations.
410
00:29:37.849 --> 00:29:39.970
But police don't have enough evidence to charge him.
411
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:40.299
Him.
412
00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:46.180
But the evidence from the firearms offenses, home invasions, and
413
00:29:46.220 --> 00:29:49.670
sexual assault makes police believe he's linked to a vast
414
00:29:49.730 --> 00:29:55.910
array of crimes. Rather than charge him for just the
415
00:29:55.970 --> 00:29:59.549
crimes they have evidence for, Scott is taken into custody
416
00:29:59.849 --> 00:30:01.509
and offered a proffer interview.
417
00:30:02.210 --> 00:30:05.470
In a proffer interview, the government promises a defendant that
418
00:30:06.170 --> 00:30:08.150
things that he says in the interview won't be used
419
00:30:08.190 --> 00:30:10.769
against him directly in court. And so the proffer is
420
00:30:10.789 --> 00:30:13.359
an opportunity for the defendant to come in with the
421
00:30:13.420 --> 00:30:17.039
promise of immunity and reveal to the government the criminal
422
00:30:17.079 --> 00:30:18.480
activity in which he participated.
423
00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:24.420
They're thinking, this is somebody who's going to help us
424
00:30:25.420 --> 00:30:30.119
catch other criminals almost arms dealers, or people who are
425
00:30:30.140 --> 00:30:35.880
selling illegal guns. And so Jason takes advantage of this.
426
00:30:38.430 --> 00:30:41.970
During the interview with federal authorities, Mr.
427
00:30:42.009 --> 00:30:46.670
Scott admitted that he had committed approximately 28 burglaries and
428
00:30:46.769 --> 00:30:48.410
nine home invasion robberies.
429
00:30:50.430 --> 00:30:54.420
Law enforcement is absolutely stunned Mind this.
430
00:30:54.759 --> 00:30:57.940
He's saying to you, criminal justice system, I am smarter
431
00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:01.460
than you. That I was able to be successful with
432
00:31:01.500 --> 00:31:04.319
these crimes. I am good at what I do, and
433
00:31:04.420 --> 00:31:06.559
I am better than you at this time.
434
00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:07.839
The jig is up.
435
00:31:08.420 --> 00:31:10.299
So if it is up, let me just go ahead
436
00:31:10.339 --> 00:31:13.220
and tell you and show you how much smarter I
437
00:31:13.259 --> 00:31:17.789
was than you, how much intelligence and research goes into this.
438
00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:22.849
And of course, Jason's sitting there, smug as can be, thinking.
439
00:31:24.569 --> 00:31:27.930
I've got immunity from all these things. Nothing I said
440
00:31:28.349 --> 00:31:33.069
today can be used against me. He was a little misguided,
441
00:31:33.269 --> 00:31:34.869
I think, in thinking that.
442
00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:40.690
Police cannot charge Scott with the burglaries and home invasions
443
00:31:40.779 --> 00:31:45.279
he's confessed to. But he can still be charged for
444
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:49.079
other crimes because of new evidence or if implicated by
445
00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:49.779
an accomplice.
446
00:31:52.150 --> 00:31:56.130
Once authorities realized that Jason Scott had been involved in
447
00:31:56.170 --> 00:31:59.420
a crime spree in the area, they started to review
448
00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:02.759
all crimes that had been committed in the area over
449
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:05.680
the past couple of years to identify which ones were
450
00:32:05.740 --> 00:32:08.059
likely to have been committed by Jason Scott.
451
00:32:14.549 --> 00:32:15.910
Marcus Hunter revealed that.
452
00:32:15.829 --> 00:32:18.950
He was a friend of Jason Scott and that he
453
00:32:18.990 --> 00:32:20.490
had participated with Mr.
454
00:32:20.529 --> 00:32:24.900
Scott in many of the robberies and burglaries that Mr.
455
00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:26.339
Scott had committed in the community.
456
00:32:28.829 --> 00:32:31.849
Marcus Hunter used the term spooky house to refer to
457
00:32:31.869 --> 00:32:35.309
an abandoned property that he and Jason Scott would go
458
00:32:35.410 --> 00:32:39.019
to after the crimes to split up the proceeds. So
459
00:32:39.099 --> 00:32:42.880
on multiple occasions, Jason Scott and Marcus Hunter went to
460
00:32:42.940 --> 00:32:46.740
the so-called spooky house with the proceeds of the robbery
461
00:32:46.759 --> 00:32:54.259
and then divided the property among them. The most compelling
462
00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:58.309
evidence recovered from the spooky house that was used in
463
00:32:58.329 --> 00:33:02.369
the state case was that they found charred bits of
464
00:33:02.450 --> 00:33:06.910
fabric and hair at the spooky house that were connected
465
00:33:07.009 --> 00:33:09.970
to the murder because they matched evidence that was found
466
00:33:10.109 --> 00:33:12.990
on the bodies when they were recovered from the car.
467
00:33:12.730 --> 00:33:13.410
That had been burned.
468
00:33:20.650 --> 00:33:23.390
This vital new piece of evidence links Scott to the
469
00:33:23.430 --> 00:33:29.539
crime scene of Dolores and Ebony DeWitt. Jason Scott is
470
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:32.930
charged with their murders while being investigated for the others.
471
00:33:34.390 --> 00:33:37.289
This is the beginning of the end for Jason Scott.
472
00:33:47.910 --> 00:33:50.289
It's one and a half years since Jason Scott was
473
00:33:50.349 --> 00:33:52.349
charged with the murders of Dolores.
474
00:33:51.970 --> 00:33:52.869
And Ebony DeWitt.
475
00:33:54.809 --> 00:33:57.829
As a case is building against him, he's first facing
476
00:33:57.890 --> 00:34:00.849
trial for the crimes that investigators have more evidence of.
477
00:34:02.970 --> 00:34:07.309
In the federal system, we prosecute defendants for the most
478
00:34:07.390 --> 00:34:12.230
readily provable offenses. And so in this case, we identified
479
00:34:12.389 --> 00:34:15.510
four home invasion robberies in which the proof was the strongest.
480
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:19.860
and the witnesses were the most credible and compelling. And
481
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:23.079
we charged Mr. Scott with those four home invasion robberies,
482
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:27.179
in addition to the child pornography he had produced during
483
00:34:27.219 --> 00:34:29.340
one of those robberies, and then the possession of the
484
00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:32.969
stolen firearms that had been taken from that gun shop
485
00:34:32.989 --> 00:34:33.510
in Woodbine.
486
00:34:36.090 --> 00:34:38.050
The most important piece of evidence in the.
487
00:34:38.010 --> 00:34:42.090
Case was the video recording that Jason Scott had made
488
00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:44.800
of this teenage.
489
00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:47.369
Victim, Mr. Scott at one point actually crossed in front
490
00:34:47.389 --> 00:34:48.050
of the camera.
491
00:34:49.429 --> 00:34:52.710
So in this case, the federal sentence for the series
492
00:34:52.750 --> 00:34:56.789
of crimes, 11 violations in total, amounted to 100 years
493
00:34:56.829 --> 00:35:06.340
in federal prison. I know the family members of the
494
00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:09.300
murder victims were present at the sentencing and they were
495
00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:12.469
very relieved, They were confident that Mr. Scott had been
496
00:35:12.489 --> 00:35:15.449
held accountable and would no longer pose a threat to
497
00:35:15.469 --> 00:35:18.010
the community, regardless of whether or not he ultimately was
498
00:35:18.050 --> 00:35:20.380
convicted on the state charges for the murder.
499
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:25.539
What we do see is someone who's become very good
500
00:35:25.579 --> 00:35:29.900
at being a criminal, someone who's intelligent, someone who looks
501
00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:34.559
at information that's publicly accessible, plus perhaps has a charm
502
00:35:34.860 --> 00:35:39.260
that allows for many people not to feel threatened, We
503
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:43.400
hope that these elements don't come together. And thank goodness
504
00:35:43.880 --> 00:35:46.869
that person is no longer on the street causing these
505
00:35:46.909 --> 00:35:47.570
heinous acts.
506
00:35:56.769 --> 00:36:00.739
Jason Scott is in jail. Police suspect him of the
507
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:05.280
murders of Vilma Butler, Dolores and Ebony DeWitt, and Karen
508
00:36:05.300 --> 00:36:09.550
and Carissa Lofton. but they only have strong evidence linking
509
00:36:09.590 --> 00:36:14.670
him to the DeWitt's murders. In order to prosecute him
510
00:36:14.710 --> 00:36:18.010
for the provable crimes, police strike a deal using an
511
00:36:18.150 --> 00:36:18.949
Alford plea.
512
00:36:19.889 --> 00:36:24.130
It's been around since about the 1970s. Here you have
513
00:36:24.170 --> 00:36:28.530
an environment in which one pleads to say, I'm not
514
00:36:28.590 --> 00:36:31.630
saying I'm guilty of doing this act, but I am
515
00:36:31.690 --> 00:36:34.590
going to go ahead and move the process in order
516
00:36:34.630 --> 00:36:36.780
to perhaps receive a lesser sentence.
517
00:36:38.750 --> 00:36:40.840
As part of the Alford plea for the murders of
518
00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:45.199
Dolores and Ebony DeWitt, Jason Scott now won't face trial
519
00:36:45.219 --> 00:36:48.780
for the murders of Vilma Butler or Karen and Carissa Lofton.
520
00:36:52.280 --> 00:36:53.610
We never had our day in court.
521
00:36:55.489 --> 00:36:56.750
He was going to spend the rest of his life
522
00:36:56.809 --> 00:36:59.869
in jail anyway, so I guess they assumed why spend
523
00:36:59.929 --> 00:37:01.809
money to satisfy the family.
524
00:37:03.619 --> 00:37:06.760
Carissa Lofton, I always speak her name, and I always
525
00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:09.079
say she's such a strong girl, because she comes home
526
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:13.239
only to find someone killing her mom, and then she
527
00:37:13.260 --> 00:37:15.570
gets shot in the head from what the story tells.
528
00:37:16.010 --> 00:37:17.530
To be able to pick her strength to pick up
529
00:37:17.550 --> 00:37:20.070
the phone to call 911. Ma'am, I've been shot.
530
00:37:20.090 --> 00:37:23.869
Me and my mother have been shot. I'm bleeding to death.
531
00:37:25.309 --> 00:37:26.030
Sweetie, slow it down.
532
00:37:26.050 --> 00:37:28.250
What's your address?
533
00:37:29.469 --> 00:37:34.000
It's just heartbreaking when you hear her It's heartbreaking. It's
534
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:39.510
so heartbreaking because they didn't deserve it. Nobody deserves it.
535
00:37:40.969 --> 00:37:45.550
There's still a very empty void in myself and my
536
00:37:45.570 --> 00:37:49.789
family's hearts because we don't know. We didn't get the
537
00:37:49.849 --> 00:37:54.940
satisfaction that the DeWitts got of a trial and a
538
00:37:55.519 --> 00:37:59.380
killer that admitted and was found guilty of their crime.
539
00:37:59.420 --> 00:38:00.079
We didn't get that.
540
00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:13.219
I used to hate him for a while, but I
541
00:38:13.260 --> 00:38:16.360
had to get over that. At first, I used to
542
00:38:16.380 --> 00:38:20.679
want him dead. I pray to God that while he's
543
00:38:21.110 --> 00:38:23.510
locked up, every time he closes his eyes, he sees
544
00:38:23.530 --> 00:38:30.989
them as he left them. Now, I just feel like, no,
545
00:38:32.869 --> 00:38:34.849
what he got is the best thing for him.
546
00:38:34.869 --> 00:38:41.369
I don't even want to give him any real estate
547
00:38:41.429 --> 00:38:46.059
in my mental space. So he's where he needs to be.
548
00:38:46.079 --> 00:38:53.699
I think that Jason Scott has all the hallmarks of
549
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.880
a serial killer in terms of so many different things.
550
00:38:57.239 --> 00:39:01.690
His interest in forensics, the way he researched his crimes,
551
00:39:01.849 --> 00:39:05.349
and most importantly, the way he carried out so many
552
00:39:06.210 --> 00:39:12.539
different crimes. and really exhibited no compassion, no empathy whatsoever
553
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:13.619
for his victims.
554
00:39:17.420 --> 00:39:21.050
This was probably the most memorable case that I've personally
555
00:39:21.110 --> 00:39:24.889
prosecuted in my 30 years with the United States Department
556
00:39:24.909 --> 00:39:29.389
of Justice because of the scale of the harm that
557
00:39:29.409 --> 00:39:32.960
Jason Scott had visited on the community and obviously the
558
00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:36.340
particular harm on the victims of the murders, the home
559
00:39:36.380 --> 00:39:40.820
invasion robbery, and the child abuse. You save lives by
560
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:43.320
taking somebody like Jason Scott off the street.
561
00:39:50.670 --> 00:39:52.730
My parents, my mom, my dad, and my sister, they
562
00:39:52.789 --> 00:39:54.989
always told us, if you believe in yourself, you can
563
00:39:55.010 --> 00:39:58.699
do anything. So with that, even through all the tragedy
564
00:39:58.739 --> 00:40:02.099
in my life, I could pat myself on the back
565
00:40:02.139 --> 00:40:05.099
that I just never gave up. And that's only because
566
00:40:05.139 --> 00:40:10.320
of them. Life has never been the same. Life will
567
00:40:10.340 --> 00:40:13.019
never be the same. I'm just been trying to adjust
568
00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:19.880
to it. It's just, I was shattered. I had nothing now.
569
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:29.050
I compare everybody in this world to my family. And
570
00:40:29.070 --> 00:40:34.630
it's like I said, I haven't met anyone that just
571
00:40:34.849 --> 00:40:37.179
measure up to how great they were.
572
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:45.969
You know, I have three kids now with my wife.
573
00:40:47.869 --> 00:40:52.650
And my mother or sister has met none of them.
574
00:40:52.710 --> 00:40:57.360
So she was robbed from having three beautiful grandchildren that
575
00:40:57.389 --> 00:40:59.420
she could be interacting with.
576
00:41:01.159 --> 00:41:05.320
I still feel lost, like it's a loss. I've grown
577
00:41:05.380 --> 00:41:05.719
a lot.
578
00:41:05.900 --> 00:41:10.719
I had to learn how to turn a tragedy into something.
579
00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:12.340
Helpful.
580
00:41:13.170 --> 00:41:14.769
And that's the only way that you can get through
581
00:41:14.809 --> 00:41:19.789
something like that. Jason Scott, I feel like they're not
582
00:41:19.829 --> 00:41:23.269
responsible for two murders, they're responsible for three in my family,
583
00:41:23.329 --> 00:41:28.389
because my son, Craig Jr., never recovered. He went through
584
00:41:29.619 --> 00:41:35.719
a very dark period. He was drinking, very depressed, and
585
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:40.699
everything for years. Six months ago, well, a little more
586
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:46.260
than six months, A month after his birthday, exactly a
587
00:41:46.300 --> 00:41:50.260
month after his birthday, then he died. They found him
588
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:56.869
in a hotel, and the cause of death is alcohol poisoning.
589
00:41:57.409 --> 00:42:00.030
You know, he had died from alcohol, so.
590
00:42:02.130 --> 00:42:12.500
Jason Scott definitely played a part in it. I used
591
00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:16.159
to call Carissa my butterfly, and she loved the color green.
592
00:42:18.760 --> 00:42:22.570
That year, after she passed, then it was an influx
593
00:42:22.619 --> 00:42:30.010
of green butterflies all through Georgia. The main thing that
594
00:42:30.070 --> 00:42:34.139
I had to remember is that God didn't make mistakes
595
00:42:34.780 --> 00:42:38.139
and that my story had to help somebody else.
596
00:42:58.710 --> 00:42:59.550
Thank you.
1
00:00:12.529 --> 00:00:14.449
I was imagining how she had to have felt in
2
00:00:14.470 --> 00:00:17.890
that predicament. It's just heartbreaking to be a 16-year-old girl.
3
00:00:17.910 --> 00:00:20.350
A monster like that comes in and takes your life
4
00:00:20.390 --> 00:00:20.589
from you.
5
00:00:43.700 --> 00:00:49.119
Jason Scott was an extraordinarily dangerous criminal who masqueraded as
6
00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:50.219
an ordinary person.
7
00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:54.219
He's saying to you, criminal justice system, I am smarter
8
00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:54.600
than you.
9
00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:58.200
If you feel like somebody is watching you, they are.
10
00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:01.899
I'm successful at doing it.
11
00:01:02.340 --> 00:01:03.020
Why stop?
12
00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:08.890
It don't cross your mind that sick people like that exist.
13
00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:17.989
My life was perfect. before everything happened.
14
00:01:59.969 --> 00:02:04.069
Upper Marlborough, a suburb 20 miles east of Washington, D.C.,
15
00:02:05.579 --> 00:02:11.759
is home to the Lofton family. Dad, Kirk. Mom, Karen.
16
00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:18.000
Two sons, Kirk Jr. and Keon. And daughter, Carissa.
17
00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:25.050
My daughter was a very inspiring, very beautiful gift.
18
00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:28.490
She was a gift. She went through some struggles.
19
00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:31.129
She had an open-heart surgery because she had something going
20
00:02:31.150 --> 00:02:33.090
on with a valve in her heart and everything, and
21
00:02:33.210 --> 00:02:35.569
she bounced right back like it was nothing.
22
00:02:35.590 --> 00:02:36.789
I mean, she was very strong.
23
00:02:43.090 --> 00:02:49.750
I am Keon Lofton. Karen Lofton was my mother. Carissa
24
00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:55.610
was my younger sister. My mother was a really caring person.
25
00:02:56.909 --> 00:02:59.009
She was in the nursing field as long as I
26
00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:02.919
can remember. I remember being a little child and going
27
00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:08.139
with her to work with her and just all the
28
00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:10.800
love that she would get from her coworkers.
29
00:03:12.590 --> 00:03:16.090
She was probably one of the best nurses of her time.
30
00:03:20.530 --> 00:03:26.099
Carissa's personality around that age was typical teenage girl. She
31
00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:31.810
was still trying to figure herself out, pleasant, kind person.
32
00:03:32.310 --> 00:03:37.270
You can see her modeling after the characteristics and values
33
00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:40.289
and things that my mother instilled in all of us,
34
00:03:40.370 --> 00:03:44.349
and you can just see the trajectory of the type
35
00:03:44.370 --> 00:03:45.810
of woman that she was going to become.
36
00:03:49.289 --> 00:03:52.830
In 2008, Kirk moves away after his marriage to Karen
37
00:03:52.870 --> 00:03:53.490
breaks down.
38
00:03:53.509 --> 00:03:59.479
Moved to Georgia in 2008. I was remarried. I still
39
00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:01.300
remained in contact with my daughter. As a matter of fact,
40
00:04:01.379 --> 00:04:04.439
she was supposed to move down here and go to college.
41
00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:12.560
Prince George's County 911 Center.
42
00:04:12.580 --> 00:04:13.819
What is your emergency?
43
00:04:14.530 --> 00:04:15.590
Ma'am, I've been shot.
44
00:04:15.610 --> 00:04:16.790
My mother has been shot.
45
00:04:17.689 --> 00:04:18.790
I'm bleeding through the ass.
46
00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:20.889
Please slow down.
47
00:04:20.930 --> 00:04:21.490
What's the address?
48
00:04:27.110 --> 00:04:29.810
You know, if we need any kind of testament to
49
00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:36.779
Carissa's courage, this is a young teenager, a 16-year-old, who
50
00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:41.240
has been involved in a home invasion, which is one
51
00:04:41.259 --> 00:04:44.660
of the most terrifying things anybody can imagine. She's been shot,
52
00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:48.600
and she has the kind of strength of mind to
53
00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:54.110
call 911 while she's bleeding. and to report to them
54
00:04:54.290 --> 00:04:56.410
that she has been shot, her mom has been shot,
55
00:04:56.470 --> 00:05:00.029
and she tells the operator, you know, I'm bleeding to death,
56
00:05:00.110 --> 00:05:07.290
please hurry. Unfortunately, the phone is hung up. And by
57
00:05:07.329 --> 00:05:08.709
the time they get there, it's too late.
58
00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:19.399
So the night of the, when everything happened, I was
59
00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:25.329
at my girlfriend's house. My mother-in-law now told me that
60
00:05:25.589 --> 00:05:31.120
two women had been found, killed on our street. And
61
00:05:32.439 --> 00:05:35.000
she told me to call and check with my mother
62
00:05:35.019 --> 00:05:38.959
and sister. So I called and nobody answered. So I
63
00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:42.560
kept calling, I kept calling and nobody answered. So I
64
00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:45.189
just got up and left and started, you know, got
65
00:05:45.209 --> 00:05:45.610
in my car.
66
00:05:45.629 --> 00:05:46.189
I was driving.
67
00:05:46.209 --> 00:05:49.089
It had to be about two, three o'clock in the morning.
68
00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:54.060
Got there to the house, probably about a 10-minute drive.
69
00:05:56.069 --> 00:05:58.269
Police kind of had, like, the street blocked off, whatever,
70
00:05:58.310 --> 00:06:01.589
and I got out. I was trying to see who
71
00:06:01.610 --> 00:06:05.829
it was, and a police officer or detective asked who
72
00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:08.329
I was, and I told him my name. And he said, okay,
73
00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:11.589
we got the son right here. And I just broke
74
00:06:11.610 --> 00:06:14.189
down then because I knew, it came to realization that, okay,
75
00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:14.759
it was him.
76
00:06:18.259 --> 00:06:21.920
I was in the room, asleep, and my son, my
77
00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:28.009
oldest son, Kirk Jr., he called me at probably, you know,
78
00:06:28.069 --> 00:06:30.290
three in the morning, four in the morning, something like that.
79
00:06:30.310 --> 00:06:35.569
He was crying, and I said, what's wrong? He said,
80
00:06:36.350 --> 00:06:37.490
have you talked to Keyon yet?
81
00:06:39.069 --> 00:06:41.430
Ma and Carissa got killed.
82
00:06:43.170 --> 00:06:46.019
The first thing that I thought was, They got into
83
00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:49.269
a car accident or something like that, but then he
84
00:06:49.310 --> 00:06:55.329
said they were shot. I immediately got off the phone
85
00:06:55.370 --> 00:06:57.470
with him and I called my other son, my younger son,
86
00:06:57.790 --> 00:07:02.670
and he told me that somebody came into our house,
87
00:07:02.709 --> 00:07:05.329
the family house, and killed both of them.
88
00:07:07.910 --> 00:07:15.860
It's just heartbreaking to be a 16-year-old girl and be
89
00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:20.180
in the comfort of your own bed, and a monster
90
00:07:20.220 --> 00:07:23.439
like that comes in and takes your life from you.
91
00:07:26.189 --> 00:07:31.129
I was imagining how she had to have felt in
92
00:07:31.170 --> 00:07:36.610
that predicament, somebody storming in, you know, shooting you, and
93
00:07:37.529 --> 00:07:39.509
you have to, you know, call 911, trying to get
94
00:07:39.529 --> 00:07:43.670
somebody to save you. You know, it's heartbreaking.
95
00:07:47.370 --> 00:07:50.509
With no signs of forced entry, the police suspect the
96
00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:53.209
murders have been committed by someone with access to the
97
00:07:53.269 --> 00:07:54.079
Loftons' home.
98
00:07:54.100 --> 00:08:00.819
They kind of step back and go, okay, what do
99
00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:03.379
we do? We start from the innermost circle and we
100
00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:10.060
work our way out. Most often, sadly, those are the perpetrators.
101
00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:13.579
One of the first persons to come on the radar
102
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.139
is Karissa's older.
103
00:08:15.939 --> 00:08:17.180
Brother, Keon.
104
00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:23.079
Honestly, I didn't know why I was in a police car.
105
00:08:23.560 --> 00:08:27.850
I had no idea. Everything was an immediate shock right there.
106
00:08:29.370 --> 00:08:32.309
From there, I remember being in the interrogation room.
107
00:08:33.269 --> 00:08:35.690
Did your mom set the alarm for the house? Mm-hmm.
108
00:08:36.269 --> 00:08:37.230
Okay, all the time?
109
00:08:37.490 --> 00:08:38.370
Every day, every time.
110
00:08:38.750 --> 00:08:40.529
Would you have hurt your mom and sister?
111
00:08:40.590 --> 00:08:43.570
No. You wouldn't have hurt your mom and.
112
00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:44.029
Sister, though?
113
00:08:45.259 --> 00:08:48.669
And I remember them letting me come out to, like,
114
00:08:48.889 --> 00:08:51.590
one of their desks and letting me hear, like, a
115
00:08:51.730 --> 00:09:02.269
snippet of the 911 call. Anybody who's getting accused of
116
00:09:02.330 --> 00:09:07.320
anything they haven't done, they're going to be upset. When
117
00:09:08.259 --> 00:09:12.830
I'm in that interrogation room and I'm hearing... them accusing me,
118
00:09:12.909 --> 00:09:15.769
and I'm just trying to process, like, did this really happen? Like,
119
00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:19.340
did my mother and sister really just get, you know, murdered?
120
00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:22.600
Are you guys really accusing me of doing this? Everything
121
00:09:22.620 --> 00:09:25.980
just felt like a nightmare or a dream. Like, it
122
00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.860
just felt really surreal. I knew 1,000% it wasn't me.
123
00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:41.340
They didn't know what to think. They didn't know anything
124
00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.399
about who this person was. They had no fingerprints. There
125
00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:45.580
was no forced entry.
126
00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.779
And all of a sudden, here it is. The 48
127
00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:52.120
hours have passed, which of course is often the critical
128
00:09:52.179 --> 00:09:55.149
period for getting that first lead. And they're sitting there
129
00:09:55.169 --> 00:09:56.730
kind of going, we have no idea.
130
00:09:57.850 --> 00:09:59.870
And if you're going down the wrong road with that,
131
00:10:00.220 --> 00:10:03.559
you've allowed the individual to perhaps clean up the case,
132
00:10:03.980 --> 00:10:06.779
to perhaps even be further away from the case. So
133
00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:10.279
it's very important those first initial hours of any case
134
00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:13.440
that you hope the investigators are on the right path.
135
00:10:14.950 --> 00:10:18.070
Kirk and Keon begin to develop their own theories about
136
00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:18.710
what happened.
137
00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:24.539
I know how safe that Karen was. And Karen would
138
00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:27.740
not let anyone in that house at 2.36 in the
139
00:10:27.799 --> 00:10:30.259
morning without, she would have the alarm on. They said
140
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the alarm was disengaged.
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She took that really seriously. You know, when I would
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leave out, she would make sure the back door is locked,
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things like that. So to make sure the window is locked,
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she was always a stickler for those things. But I'm
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pretty sure I thought that, okay, somebody forced her to
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put the alarm in. It's just no, it's no other explanation.
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At the time of the Loftons murders, a burglar is
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successfully evading capture in the neighborhood.
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Jason Scott came across as very mild-mannered. He held a
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part-time job with a package delivery service. He wasn't viewed
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as being dangerous by his friends and family, so he
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was somebody who masqueraded as an ordinary person.
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Jason Scott was somebody who seemed to have a lot
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of potential. He was somebody who had a college degree.
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He was somebody who worked at UPS. So he was
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somebody who, at least on the surface, seemed to be
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somebody who really had his act together.
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27-year-old Jason Scott has two master's degrees and until recently
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was unknown to authorities.
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He had started committing robberies in his, at least as
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a teenager and perhaps early 20s, and had graduated from
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committing robberies robberies of unoccupied houses to home invasion robberies
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and violent crime.
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So at the same time that Jason Scott was living
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this kind of law-abiding life on the surface, this is
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somebody who, in the privacy of his own home, seemed
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to be absolutely obsessed with crime, with forensics, with understanding
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how to get away with crime.
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One of the notable things about Mr. Scott is the
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clothing and tools that he used during his criminal activities.
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So he dressed like a criminal. He would dress all
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in black. He wore black gloves. He carried a black backpack.
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So he dressed like a thief.
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Jason Scott spent hours of his life thinking about crime,
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learning about crime, learning about forensic techniques, almost considered himself
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like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
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Hyde.
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I would imagine to some extent he feels kind of
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this sense of impunity, like, or the sense that I'm untouchable.
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Nobody's gonna catch me. Another thing that stands out about
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Jason Scott is he was an incredibly diverse criminal. So
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not only was he interested in burglary, in home invasions,
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He was interested in peeping. He was interested in cruising
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the neighborhood and taking pictures of people in the privacy
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of their own homes. He had no idea what he
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was doing. It's not uncommon for that to progress to
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breaking into a home, to some kind of sexual offense.
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So this progression is a natural part that we as
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criminologists are concerned about with any crime that someone does.
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Does it then have an opportunity to develop, to make
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that person a criminal that is looking for a career?
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I'm doing it. I'm successful at doing it.
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Why stop?
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The murders of mother and daughter Karen and Carissa Lofton
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have shocked this respectable Washington suburb. There's a spate of burglaries, too.
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But the police are yet to track down the perpetrators.
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Two months later, another murder is called in.
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My name is Courtney Hicks. My mother is Dolores DeWitt.
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and my sister's Ebony do it. My life was perfect before,
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before everything happened. My mom was the kindest person that
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I ever met. She was always there for me, even
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still after everything that's happened to me in my life
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because of how my mom taught me to believe in myself.
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My sister was someone I could always depend on, I
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could always count on, just as well as my mom.
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I miss him so much, so. When I got home,
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I don't remember if I had to disable our alarm
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or not, but I just go in the house and
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I see my sister's jacket on the back of the chair.
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Everything just looked normal. It just looked like they just
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weren't there. My mom's car was in the driveway. Everything
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looked normal. They just weren't there. I go upstairs and
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I go in my sister's room. It was no bleach
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spot on my sister's floor. So that kind of like
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struck me like, okay, maybe Ebony did come home. She
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probably dropped some bleach or something in. When I got
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into my bedroom, I just like sat down on my bed.
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That's when I got the feeling that you need to
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get out of this house. I've run out the house.
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I get in her car and I goes to my
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boyfriend at the time's house. And when I got to him,
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I'm just calling my mom. And this is like now
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probably going on. It was late. and still no response.
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The following day, Courtney hears that her mother and sister
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have been murdered. Their bodies are found in a stolen
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car that was then set on fire at a different address.
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Police identify Dolores and Ebony through dental records.
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Then they came to our house. I want to say,
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was it later on that day? I believe they came
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to our house. And that's when they did tell us
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about the dental records matching my mom and my sister.
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They were in the burning car. When I was 15,
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my dad died. So I honestly didn't think that... I
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never in my life thought anybody, like my mom or
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my sister, would be murdered or anything like that. I
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don't think anybody would think somebody they love would be murdered.
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My family was everything to me. My mom, my dad,
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and my sister. I didn't have a worry in the world.
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Certainly in the murders of Dolores and Ebony DeWitt, This
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is somebody who engages in incredibly risky behavior.
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He steals a car.
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And the person that he steals the car from actually
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witnesses this.
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What's the nature of your emergency?
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I just left my house maybe an hour ago and
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have come back.
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My car is missing out of the carport.
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That's my car.
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Okay, it just zoomed past me. Wow.
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So this is somebody in the middle of the day,
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steals a car, drives it to a house, puts two
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people in there who are no longer alive, and burns
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this car.
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In a relatively short amount of time.
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I mean, how risked can you be?
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It's a horrific, horrific crime scene of a burned body.
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Dental records are needed to identify the individuals to know
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whom they are. This does buy time. By moving the
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bodies to another place, by putting them in a car
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that has nothing to do with them, and then burning
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the bodies allows for additional time.
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For the individual to get away.
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I used to feel like people would be watching us
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outside of our house. My mom would always feel like
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people would be watching us. If you feel like somebody
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is watching you, they are. And if you really have
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that over-sense and urge, like, I feel like somebody watching me,
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I feel like somebody watching me, they are. It don't
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cross your mind that sick people like that exist.
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I think most people, of the time when people have
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a sense of being watched, they probably are. And I
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think it's very, very important to trust your gut and investigate,
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call the police, whatever you think is going to make
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you feel safe. Too many of us in the past
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have had these gut feelings, had these kind of spidey senses,
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or the hair on the back of our neck stands up,
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and we talk ourselves out of it, when really it's
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our body's way of telling us that something is wrong,
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even though we don't consciously know it.
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There have been two mother-daughter murders less than two miles
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apart in just eight weeks. Like Karen Lofton, Dolores DeWitt
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was a nurse and at home alone with her teenage daughter.
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In many respects, there are a lot of similarities between
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the murders of Karen and Carissa Lofton and Dolores and Ebony. And,
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you know, the similarities, of course, they're both nurses, they're
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both single parents, they have teenage daughters. Yet there are
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some significant differences. So police know that Karen and Carissa
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are murdered in their home. that they are shot to death.
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And this is very, very different from Ebony and Dolores,
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who are removed from their home before they were eventually
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found in a burned-out car. It would be really nice
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if serial killers always did everything exactly the same, because
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it would be much easier to catch them. And so
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it's important to kind of step back sometimes and kind
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of go, okay, yes, There are some surface differences here,
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including the way these people were murdered, but we can't
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rule out the possibility, given these other similarities, that there's
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some connection between the two.
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At the time of the Lofton and DeWitt murders, police
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are already investigating the death of 46-year-old mother of three,
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Vilma Butler, in June 2008. She is shot dead and
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found in her burning home. around 15 miles from the
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DeWitts and Loftons. But police still do not believe they
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are dealing with a serial killer.
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Serial killers usually are not this meticulous in their acts.
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You know, we usually see that there's opportunity is the
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main factor. There is that of a special type of
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person he or she is interested in committing these acts with.
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But to see intelligence put together, to see elements of
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information put together, this is a different ball game. This
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is a different realm.
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It's unfortunate that he was awake, was able to get
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away with it for so long. And then he ended
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up getting caught.
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There have been five murders in this respectable suburb since
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June 2008. Police don't believe they're dealing with a serial
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killer and are yet to identify a suspect. But separately
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from the murders, authorities are getting closer to catching local
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burglar Jason Scott.
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The crimes that Mr.
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Scott committed were clustered around his own neighborhood in Prince
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George's County, Maryland, which is a suburb just.
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East of Washington, D.C.
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In May of 2009, Jason Scott and his accomplice, Marcus Hunter,
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traveled up to Woodbine, Maryland to commit this robbery of
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a gun shop. They stole 39 firearms, including automatic weapons,
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machine guns, silencers, and a large volume of ammunition.
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Someone who moves to being involved in gun deals has
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a lot of spheres of activity going on. You usually
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don't expect that in someone who's involved in criminal activity.
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One becomes good at one part of criminal activity, but
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does not drift, as we say in criminology, to perhaps
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having a life of regular conformity and then going to
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be an innovator of criminal activity. This is what makes
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this case so special. He's confident in what he does.
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After doing this, he decides to make some money by
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selling some of these illegal weapons. And yet, I think
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his boldness really does propel him to take these ridiculous risks.
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I mean, selling illegal weapons in the UPS parking lot?
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I mean, it seems like that's something that is not
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a criminal, something a criminal mastermind would do.
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You work there.
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Jason Scott had let it be known among some of
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his criminal compatriots that he had guns to sell, and
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an undercover ATF agent arranged to meet Jason Scott in
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a parking lot and purchase four weapons from him.
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Agents then were able to verify that four of those.
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Weapons were the weapons that had been stolen on May
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26th from the gun shop. Well, this was the moment
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that exposed Jason Scott to the subsequent search warrant. During
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the course of executing that search warrant, the agents recovered
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16 firearms that had been stolen from that gun shop in.
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Woodbine back in May of 2009.
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They also obtained from Jason Scott's bedroom many of the
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burglary tools that he had used to commit the crime.
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The clothing that he wore, the black clothing, the ski mask,
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and the backpack containing his burglary tools, which included things
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like bolt cutters and screwdrivers and pry bar, and also
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included a police scanner.
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There is almost a black comedy here if things weren't
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so horrific. that this is somebody who is intelligent, he's
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graduated from college, he's a personal person, and yet he
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almost lives in this fantasy world, it seems like.
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One of the items of evidence that we recovered from
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Jason Scott's home was a video recording that he had
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made of this teenage victim when he was recording the
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victim while she was naked during one of his home
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invasion robberies.
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And at one point, Mr.
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Scott himself crossed in front of the camera. There actually
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was an image captured of Mr. Scott in his full
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regalia that he would wear to commit his crimes. And
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when the authorities found those recordings and photographs and the
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burglary tools, they realized they were dealing with a master criminal,
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not simply somebody who had committed a robbery at a
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gun shop but somebody who posed a continuing threat.
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Of violence in the community.
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The agents were working with local police who knew about
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the spree of home invasion robberies in addition to the
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murders that had been committed in the area. And so
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once they found this evidence, they immediately settled on Jason
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Scott as a likely suspect in a whole spree of crimes.
383
00:27:47.470 --> 00:27:49.890
I think when you think about this kind of sexual
384
00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:54.599
aspect or sexual assault, that is so consistent with somebody
385
00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:58.470
who has a history of peeping and voyeurism than progressives.
386
00:28:00.009 --> 00:28:06.309
Most people who peep don't progress to worse things, but
387
00:28:06.890 --> 00:28:11.119
people who do progress to worse things often have a
388
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:13.319
history of peeping and voyeurism.
389
00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:18.660
I think Jason Scott enjoyed the sense of power and
390
00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:22.720
control that he exercised when he committed these home invasion robberies,
391
00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:26.200
where he kept people under control.
392
00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:28.079
He kept people at gunpoint.
393
00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:31.660
In a couple of instances, he detained people in their
394
00:28:31.700 --> 00:28:35.079
homes while his partner, Marcus Hunter, took their ATM cards
395
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.160
and went to withdraw cash. And I think Jason Scott
396
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:41.569
enjoyed that sense of power that he obtained while he
397
00:28:41.630 --> 00:28:43.250
was detaining innocent victims.
398
00:28:46.390 --> 00:28:50.230
There was one home invasion that he carried out where
399
00:28:50.670 --> 00:28:52.579
the victims were, of course, terrified.
400
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:53.980
They had no idea.
401
00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:00.960
They felt completely helpless. The victim later on said, you know,
402
00:29:01.319 --> 00:29:06.900
when you have absolutely no control over a situation, you
403
00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:10.500
don't know what to do. And she said, I started praying. And,
404
00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:17.539
you know, Jason Scott said, shut up. I think that
405
00:29:17.619 --> 00:29:21.440
affirmed to him that I am powerful. I am a
406
00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:24.559
criminal mastermind. I am in charge of these situations. And
407
00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:26.819
I do think that was very important to him. And
408
00:29:26.859 --> 00:29:31.970
for whatever reason, he really did embrace this criminal identity.
409
00:29:33.250 --> 00:29:36.970
Jason Scott is now a suspect in the five murder investigations.
410
00:29:37.849 --> 00:29:39.970
But police don't have enough evidence to charge him.
411
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:40.299
Him.
412
00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:46.180
But the evidence from the firearms offenses, home invasions, and
413
00:29:46.220 --> 00:29:49.670
sexual assault makes police believe he's linked to a vast
414
00:29:49.730 --> 00:29:55.910
array of crimes. Rather than charge him for just the
415
00:29:55.970 --> 00:29:59.549
crimes they have evidence for, Scott is taken into custody
416
00:29:59.849 --> 00:30:01.509
and offered a proffer interview.
417
00:30:02.210 --> 00:30:05.470
In a proffer interview, the government promises a defendant that
418
00:30:06.170 --> 00:30:08.150
things that he says in the interview won't be used
419
00:30:08.190 --> 00:30:10.769
against him directly in court. And so the proffer is
420
00:30:10.789 --> 00:30:13.359
an opportunity for the defendant to come in with the
421
00:30:13.420 --> 00:30:17.039
promise of immunity and reveal to the government the criminal
422
00:30:17.079 --> 00:30:18.480
activity in which he participated.
423
00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:24.420
They're thinking, this is somebody who's going to help us
424
00:30:25.420 --> 00:30:30.119
catch other criminals almost arms dealers, or people who are
425
00:30:30.140 --> 00:30:35.880
selling illegal guns. And so Jason takes advantage of this.
426
00:30:38.430 --> 00:30:41.970
During the interview with federal authorities, Mr.
427
00:30:42.009 --> 00:30:46.670
Scott admitted that he had committed approximately 28 burglaries and
428
00:30:46.769 --> 00:30:48.410
nine home invasion robberies.
429
00:30:50.430 --> 00:30:54.420
Law enforcement is absolutely stunned Mind this.
430
00:30:54.759 --> 00:30:57.940
He's saying to you, criminal justice system, I am smarter
431
00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:01.460
than you. That I was able to be successful with
432
00:31:01.500 --> 00:31:04.319
these crimes. I am good at what I do, and
433
00:31:04.420 --> 00:31:06.559
I am better than you at this time.
434
00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:07.839
The jig is up.
435
00:31:08.420 --> 00:31:10.299
So if it is up, let me just go ahead
436
00:31:10.339 --> 00:31:13.220
and tell you and show you how much smarter I
437
00:31:13.259 --> 00:31:17.789
was than you, how much intelligence and research goes into this.
438
00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:22.849
And of course, Jason's sitting there, smug as can be, thinking.
439
00:31:24.569 --> 00:31:27.930
I've got immunity from all these things. Nothing I said
440
00:31:28.349 --> 00:31:33.069
today can be used against me. He was a little misguided,
441
00:31:33.269 --> 00:31:34.869
I think, in thinking that.
442
00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:40.690
Police cannot charge Scott with the burglaries and home invasions
443
00:31:40.779 --> 00:31:45.279
he's confessed to. But he can still be charged for
444
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:49.079
other crimes because of new evidence or if implicated by
445
00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:49.779
an accomplice.
446
00:31:52.150 --> 00:31:56.130
Once authorities realized that Jason Scott had been involved in
447
00:31:56.170 --> 00:31:59.420
a crime spree in the area, they started to review
448
00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:02.759
all crimes that had been committed in the area over
449
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:05.680
the past couple of years to identify which ones were
450
00:32:05.740 --> 00:32:08.059
likely to have been committed by Jason Scott.
451
00:32:14.549 --> 00:32:15.910
Marcus Hunter revealed that.
452
00:32:15.829 --> 00:32:18.950
He was a friend of Jason Scott and that he
453
00:32:18.990 --> 00:32:20.490
had participated with Mr.
454
00:32:20.529 --> 00:32:24.900
Scott in many of the robberies and burglaries that Mr.
455
00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:26.339
Scott had committed in the community.
456
00:32:28.829 --> 00:32:31.849
Marcus Hunter used the term spooky house to refer to
457
00:32:31.869 --> 00:32:35.309
an abandoned property that he and Jason Scott would go
458
00:32:35.410 --> 00:32:39.019
to after the crimes to split up the proceeds. So
459
00:32:39.099 --> 00:32:42.880
on multiple occasions, Jason Scott and Marcus Hunter went to
460
00:32:42.940 --> 00:32:46.740
the so-called spooky house with the proceeds of the robbery
461
00:32:46.759 --> 00:32:54.259
and then divided the property among them. The most compelling
462
00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:58.309
evidence recovered from the spooky house that was used in
463
00:32:58.329 --> 00:33:02.369
the state case was that they found charred bits of
464
00:33:02.450 --> 00:33:06.910
fabric and hair at the spooky house that were connected
465
00:33:07.009 --> 00:33:09.970
to the murder because they matched evidence that was found
466
00:33:10.109 --> 00:33:12.990
on the bodies when they were recovered from the car.
467
00:33:12.730 --> 00:33:13.410
That had been burned.
468
00:33:20.650 --> 00:33:23.390
This vital new piece of evidence links Scott to the
469
00:33:23.430 --> 00:33:29.539
crime scene of Dolores and Ebony DeWitt. Jason Scott is
470
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:32.930
charged with their murders while being investigated for the others.
471
00:33:34.390 --> 00:33:37.289
This is the beginning of the end for Jason Scott.
472
00:33:47.910 --> 00:33:50.289
It's one and a half years since Jason Scott was
473
00:33:50.349 --> 00:33:52.349
charged with the murders of Dolores.
474
00:33:51.970 --> 00:33:52.869
And Ebony DeWitt.
475
00:33:54.809 --> 00:33:57.829
As a case is building against him, he's first facing
476
00:33:57.890 --> 00:34:00.849
trial for the crimes that investigators have more evidence of.
477
00:34:02.970 --> 00:34:07.309
In the federal system, we prosecute defendants for the most
478
00:34:07.390 --> 00:34:12.230
readily provable offenses. And so in this case, we identified
479
00:34:12.389 --> 00:34:15.510
four home invasion robberies in which the proof was the strongest.
480
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:19.860
and the witnesses were the most credible and compelling. And
481
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:23.079
we charged Mr. Scott with those four home invasion robberies,
482
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:27.179
in addition to the child pornography he had produced during
483
00:34:27.219 --> 00:34:29.340
one of those robberies, and then the possession of the
484
00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:32.969
stolen firearms that had been taken from that gun shop
485
00:34:32.989 --> 00:34:33.510
in Woodbine.
486
00:34:36.090 --> 00:34:38.050
The most important piece of evidence in the.
487
00:34:38.010 --> 00:34:42.090
Case was the video recording that Jason Scott had made
488
00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:44.800
of this teenage.
489
00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:47.369
Victim, Mr. Scott at one point actually crossed in front
490
00:34:47.389 --> 00:34:48.050
of the camera.
491
00:34:49.429 --> 00:34:52.710
So in this case, the federal sentence for the series
492
00:34:52.750 --> 00:34:56.789
of crimes, 11 violations in total, amounted to 100 years
493
00:34:56.829 --> 00:35:06.340
in federal prison. I know the family members of the
494
00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:09.300
murder victims were present at the sentencing and they were
495
00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:12.469
very relieved, They were confident that Mr. Scott had been
496
00:35:12.489 --> 00:35:15.449
held accountable and would no longer pose a threat to
497
00:35:15.469 --> 00:35:18.010
the community, regardless of whether or not he ultimately was
498
00:35:18.050 --> 00:35:20.380
convicted on the state charges for the murder.
499
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:25.539
What we do see is someone who's become very good
500
00:35:25.579 --> 00:35:29.900
at being a criminal, someone who's intelligent, someone who looks
501
00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:34.559
at information that's publicly accessible, plus perhaps has a charm
502
00:35:34.860 --> 00:35:39.260
that allows for many people not to feel threatened, We
503
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:43.400
hope that these elements don't come together. And thank goodness
504
00:35:43.880 --> 00:35:46.869
that person is no longer on the street causing these
505
00:35:46.909 --> 00:35:47.570
heinous acts.
506
00:35:56.769 --> 00:36:00.739
Jason Scott is in jail. Police suspect him of the
507
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:05.280
murders of Vilma Butler, Dolores and Ebony DeWitt, and Karen
508
00:36:05.300 --> 00:36:09.550
and Carissa Lofton. but they only have strong evidence linking
509
00:36:09.590 --> 00:36:14.670
him to the DeWitt's murders. In order to prosecute him
510
00:36:14.710 --> 00:36:18.010
for the provable crimes, police strike a deal using an
511
00:36:18.150 --> 00:36:18.949
Alford plea.
512
00:36:19.889 --> 00:36:24.130
It's been around since about the 1970s. Here you have
513
00:36:24.170 --> 00:36:28.530
an environment in which one pleads to say, I'm not
514
00:36:28.590 --> 00:36:31.630
saying I'm guilty of doing this act, but I am
515
00:36:31.690 --> 00:36:34.590
going to go ahead and move the process in order
516
00:36:34.630 --> 00:36:36.780
to perhaps receive a lesser sentence.
517
00:36:38.750 --> 00:36:40.840
As part of the Alford plea for the murders of
518
00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:45.199
Dolores and Ebony DeWitt, Jason Scott now won't face trial
519
00:36:45.219 --> 00:36:48.780
for the murders of Vilma Butler or Karen and Carissa Lofton.
520
00:36:52.280 --> 00:36:53.610
We never had our day in court.
521
00:36:55.489 --> 00:36:56.750
He was going to spend the rest of his life
522
00:36:56.809 --> 00:36:59.869
in jail anyway, so I guess they assumed why spend
523
00:36:59.929 --> 00:37:01.809
money to satisfy the family.
524
00:37:03.619 --> 00:37:06.760
Carissa Lofton, I always speak her name, and I always
525
00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:09.079
say she's such a strong girl, because she comes home
526
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:13.239
only to find someone killing her mom, and then she
527
00:37:13.260 --> 00:37:15.570
gets shot in the head from what the story tells.
528
00:37:16.010 --> 00:37:17.530
To be able to pick her strength to pick up
529
00:37:17.550 --> 00:37:20.070
the phone to call 911. Ma'am, I've been shot.
530
00:37:20.090 --> 00:37:23.869
Me and my mother have been shot. I'm bleeding to death.
531
00:37:25.309 --> 00:37:26.030
Sweetie, slow it down.
532
00:37:26.050 --> 00:37:28.250
What's your address?
533
00:37:29.469 --> 00:37:34.000
It's just heartbreaking when you hear her It's heartbreaking. It's
534
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:39.510
so heartbreaking because they didn't deserve it. Nobody deserves it.
535
00:37:40.969 --> 00:37:45.550
There's still a very empty void in myself and my
536
00:37:45.570 --> 00:37:49.789
family's hearts because we don't know. We didn't get the
537
00:37:49.849 --> 00:37:54.940
satisfaction that the DeWitts got of a trial and a
538
00:37:55.519 --> 00:37:59.380
killer that admitted and was found guilty of their crime.
539
00:37:59.420 --> 00:38:00.079
We didn't get that.
540
00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:13.219
I used to hate him for a while, but I
541
00:38:13.260 --> 00:38:16.360
had to get over that. At first, I used to
542
00:38:16.380 --> 00:38:20.679
want him dead. I pray to God that while he's
543
00:38:21.110 --> 00:38:23.510
locked up, every time he closes his eyes, he sees
544
00:38:23.530 --> 00:38:30.989
them as he left them. Now, I just feel like, no,
545
00:38:32.869 --> 00:38:34.849
what he got is the best thing for him.
546
00:38:34.869 --> 00:38:41.369
I don't even want to give him any real estate
547
00:38:41.429 --> 00:38:46.059
in my mental space. So he's where he needs to be.
548
00:38:46.079 --> 00:38:53.699
I think that Jason Scott has all the hallmarks of
549
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.880
a serial killer in terms of so many different things.
550
00:38:57.239 --> 00:39:01.690
His interest in forensics, the way he researched his crimes,
551
00:39:01.849 --> 00:39:05.349
and most importantly, the way he carried out so many
552
00:39:06.210 --> 00:39:12.539
different crimes. and really exhibited no compassion, no empathy whatsoever
553
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:13.619
for his victims.
554
00:39:17.420 --> 00:39:21.050
This was probably the most memorable case that I've personally
555
00:39:21.110 --> 00:39:24.889
prosecuted in my 30 years with the United States Department
556
00:39:24.909 --> 00:39:29.389
of Justice because of the scale of the harm that
557
00:39:29.409 --> 00:39:32.960
Jason Scott had visited on the community and obviously the
558
00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:36.340
particular harm on the victims of the murders, the home
559
00:39:36.380 --> 00:39:40.820
invasion robbery, and the child abuse. You save lives by
560
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:43.320
taking somebody like Jason Scott off the street.
561
00:39:50.670 --> 00:39:52.730
My parents, my mom, my dad, and my sister, they
562
00:39:52.789 --> 00:39:54.989
always told us, if you believe in yourself, you can
563
00:39:55.010 --> 00:39:58.699
do anything. So with that, even through all the tragedy
564
00:39:58.739 --> 00:40:02.099
in my life, I could pat myself on the back
565
00:40:02.139 --> 00:40:05.099
that I just never gave up. And that's only because
566
00:40:05.139 --> 00:40:10.320
of them. Life has never been the same. Life will
567
00:40:10.340 --> 00:40:13.019
never be the same. I'm just been trying to adjust
568
00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:19.880
to it. It's just, I was shattered. I had nothing now.
569
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:29.050
I compare everybody in this world to my family. And
570
00:40:29.070 --> 00:40:34.630
it's like I said, I haven't met anyone that just
571
00:40:34.849 --> 00:40:37.179
measure up to how great they were.
572
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:45.969
You know, I have three kids now with my wife.
573
00:40:47.869 --> 00:40:52.650
And my mother or sister has met none of them.
574
00:40:52.710 --> 00:40:57.360
So she was robbed from having three beautiful grandchildren that
575
00:40:57.389 --> 00:40:59.420
she could be interacting with.
576
00:41:01.159 --> 00:41:05.320
I still feel lost, like it's a loss. I've grown
577
00:41:05.380 --> 00:41:05.719
a lot.
578
00:41:05.900 --> 00:41:10.719
I had to learn how to turn a tragedy into something.
579
00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:12.340
Helpful.
580
00:41:13.170 --> 00:41:14.769
And that's the only way that you can get through
581
00:41:14.809 --> 00:41:19.789
something like that. Jason Scott, I feel like they're not
582
00:41:19.829 --> 00:41:23.269
responsible for two murders, they're responsible for three in my family,
583
00:41:23.329 --> 00:41:28.389
because my son, Craig Jr., never recovered. He went through
584
00:41:29.619 --> 00:41:35.719
a very dark period. He was drinking, very depressed, and
585
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:40.699
everything for years. Six months ago, well, a little more
586
00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:46.260
than six months, A month after his birthday, exactly a
587
00:41:46.300 --> 00:41:50.260
month after his birthday, then he died. They found him
588
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:56.869
in a hotel, and the cause of death is alcohol poisoning.
589
00:41:57.409 --> 00:42:00.030
You know, he had died from alcohol, so.
590
00:42:02.130 --> 00:42:12.500
Jason Scott definitely played a part in it. I used
591
00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:16.159
to call Carissa my butterfly, and she loved the color green.
592
00:42:18.760 --> 00:42:22.570
That year, after she passed, then it was an influx
593
00:42:22.619 --> 00:42:30.010
of green butterflies all through Georgia. The main thing that
594
00:42:30.070 --> 00:42:34.139
I had to remember is that God didn't make mistakes
595
00:42:34.780 --> 00:42:38.139
and that my story had to help somebody else.
596
00:42:58.710 --> 00:42:59.550
Thank you.
