20/20 - Can I Prey First?

Episode Date: October 12, 2024

A love triangle that ended with the murder of a mom of two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

She was a wonderful mother. She loved her boys more than anything, more than her own life. A young woman who is a parent suddenly disappeared. Was there anything suspicious in the car? We saw in the back seat there were car seats, you know, for the two boys. But to disappear without them, that was impossible. That was not Laura. She drops off the map.

This wasn't going to be just a normal missing person. Oh, baby, don't go. Oh, baby, don't leave me. He knew how to charm a lady and charm the crowd alike. Oh, I don't want to leave you lonely. And then it wasn't too much longer later charm the crowd alike. And then it wasn't too much longer later that Amanda came into the picture. What did Grant tell your mom about Laura? That she was crazy, she was mentally unstable.

He lied. And here was a document that said she sold her kids for $25,000. And they were like, well, Laura's missing. And I was like, wait a freaking second. Are you sure? What are you thinking at this point? Something is really wrong.

You've got to be sick and deranged. What would drive anybody to commit such a crime? Wherever she is, her heart is breaking. The search continues. There's been cases I investigated, I don't even remember. But then there's some that while you're in the midst of it, you know this one was just different. Oyster Creek is notorious for alligators. That's just a long, meandering creek. It's a small creek, slow moving in that area.

Very dark, murky, muddy water. Has zero visibility. It's heavily wooded. There's a lot of lily pads. All the lily pads literally took off the creek. It was the perfect place to get rid of what they wanted to get rid of. This is Oyster Creek, a quiet spot about 30 miles

outside Houston, Texas. On a hot, steamy July day, just like this one back in 2011, police divers were scouring these murky waters searching for clues and the disappearance of a young mom but Laura Ackerson was last heard from 1,200 miles away from here in North Carolina Laura left that voicemail for a friend she promised to visit later that night. Meanwhile, another friend and business partner, Siobhan Mathis, was also waiting to hear from her. It was just very odd that it was going straight to her voicemail because she always had that phone on. I walked to her house but it's

gated and locked and you can't get in but I could see into the garage and her car wasn't there. Then she sends her an email, I'm really worried if you don't get up with me I'm'm going to call the police. Javon was getting more and more worried with every passing second. And she decided to report Laura missing. I don't want to think the worst, but it's almost like what else is there to, you know, to think. Police in Raleigh, North Carolina, start looking into Laura Ackerson's background. They find out she's a small-town girl from Michigan.

Roger Ackerson was her dad. She was curious. She wanted to learn things. She'd crawl up in my lap with a book, want me to read to her. Laura's parents divorced when she was just a toddler. As she grew older, it was clear she had a bright spark. Full of dreams. She could see beyond the end of her nose where a lot of people can't. Everybody she met, she would always see the good in

everyone. She didn't become the valedictorian of her high school class because she didn't want to do all the work. But a couple years down the road she said, well I wish I had. After high school she moved to North Carolina and landed a waitressing job. That's where she met Heidi Schumacher. We were working at Applebee's together. Her first day I was training her. I, you know, was a little snippety at her and she said, you're not gonna talk to me like that. Nobody had ever stood up to me before and I said, oh you know what? I smiled at her and I said, well let's go out tonight. We're gonna be

great friends. And then when Laura turned 23, she had an announcement to make. And she was like, oh my gosh I have a surprise for you. And I said, okay well happy birthday, because it was on her birthday. And I was like, okay, what is the surprise? She's like, okay, it's a guy. And I said, all right, surprise, it's a guy. So flip and tie, shoes on the floor, food in the pan, what makes a man? Grant Hayes was an aspiring musical artist. Show me a woman, and I'll show you a man.

He was known to Raleigh area. Talk to her sweetly, tell her no lies. Raleigh is a place we call the New South. It's a great mix of people coming from all over the country, raising their families. It's big enough that you have a city atmosphere, but it also has some small town values. Downtown Raleigh is kind of burgeoning, and so there are all these new bars and restaurants,

and he was a musical actor who'd play at a lot of these places. Are you still with me when I'm gone? Are you still with me when I don't come? People liked his music, People liked his vibe. Grant Hayes, we love you! Serious. And she said, we share a birthday.

We're so connected. She thought it was some sort of cosmic intervention that they were supposed to meet and they were supposed to be together. We were always together, right? And the night time would go outside. And she was smitten. She was. And he was, you know, he's a nice looking guy. He's charismatic. And so seeing that, I think maybe a little bit of starstruck. I grew up in the pew, little Grant III, watching my father preach and my mother would sing. And they've always been a huge inspiration. Grant was known by his last name, Hayes.

He thought he could get some more buzz by changing H-A-Y-E-S to H-A-Z-E, Hayes. She was kind of in awe of what he did. See he would go to bars and he'd take his guitar and he'd sing songs. I'm working with some iconic figures in history, you know, music history. Little Richard, godfather of rock and roll. Laura and Grant fell in love very quickly. She goes, my surprise is that I just got married! And I said, oh my gosh, awesome! She just was a spur- the moment kind of person, so it didn't really surprise me, I guess,

that she would just meet somebody and get married to them. And she was ecstatic at that moment. Laura got pregnant very early on, and she had a little boy named Grant the Fourth, always referred to as Little Grant. What she told me after she delivered the baby was that she was very happy because when Grant walked in and saw him, he fell in love with the baby. Oh baby don't walk, oh baby don't leave me. Heidi was not a fan of Grant Hayes,

and she was very clear about that. We've had hateful tension between us since the moment we met. And she said, why can't you just be happy for me? I said, I know, but I just got this really bad feeling from him. And she would say that I was just trying to protect her, and I was just being an overprotective friend,

and all that. And so I backed off. Soon, an opportunity in the Caribbean takes Laura and Grant's lives in very different directions. Parties stay out late, stay up all night. They were kind of living two separate lives. There was something simmering underneath that in the relationship. There may have been trouble there in paradise. St. John is a really quaint quiet island. About 4,000 people. It's a magical place. It's a fantastic place. It's got an affluent clientele that goes there, because 80% of the island's national park

can't even be developed. Yeah, there is no airport. The only way to this island is by boat. You're going to take your flight to St. Thomas, and you're going to have to take a passenger ferry. St. John's attracts musicians from all over. Kenny Chesney owns a home here and a local island hangout helped inspire his song, When

I See This Bar. Yeah, that's what I see, when I see this bar. Grant had an audience. People liked his music here in Raleigh, but he thought he could take the next step in his career with music by going to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Come on, walk, walk, walk out that door. Jose, who asked us only to use his first name, booked musicians into the bars and nightclubs on the island.

My phone rang, and it was Grant. He explained that he was looking to make sure that he could get enough gigs to support his basic costs of living. I promised him that I could get him five shows a week. So he packed up and went down there. He did speak of his son and Laura and that she was going to eventually come down here

once he got settled. Caribbean can be very seductive with the night air, the breezes, the music, the sand. When the sun goes down is when it really comes alive. Chica, chica, love me. He knew how to work his crowd and play the right music for the people in the audience. I was listening to him play and I really liked his sound.

You know the artist Sade? He was like a male version of her. Just kind of a groovy, smooth vibe. Show me a woman, and I'll show you a man. He definitely had some similarities to someone like Darius Rucker. You can call me your fool. All I want to be with you. I want to love you, and I want to get involved. I owned a bar on the island of St. John.

How I first encountered Grant Hayes, he was playing, I believe it was at the Parrot Club. He was taking a break. He says, man, I really dig your sound. I'll bring some people from my bar down. And he says, really? From your bar? Yeah. But they won't be spending money with you

if they're not at your bar. I don't know. We'll have a good time. Are you still with me when I'm falling? Are you still with me when I'm falling? He was just waiting for that one guy to come in that's on vacation that might be with a record company. To actually identify and recognize that this guy has talent and let's make him an offer.

But for now, he had to make do with paychecks of $150 to $200 per gig. $150 to $200 per gig. It looked from the outside looking in that Laura and Grant had a great relationship. No one really knew the trouble brewing. He was very possessive. It was like he owned her. Grant didn't want her to have a relationship with her brother. He did not want any close relationships except for the one with him. She had pretty effectively been isolated from everyone else in her life. I mean he would take her self-esteem and just crush it out of the ground. I, you know, got to the door and she answered and she had a bloody nose and

a like almost black eye already. I tried to get her to go to the door and she answered and she had a bloody nose and almost black eye already. I tried to get her to go to the hospital or file a police report or anything. No, no, no, he won't do it again. It's okay. It's going to be okay. I'm not going to press charges. It's fine. She's an optimist.

She thought, well, he may change eventually. Always looking for the better side of him. Grant denied ever hitting Laura. Now she's planning to join him on St. John. But then she says she receives a stark warning from family and friends. I told her, don't go back. You don't need to go back to that. She really realized, man, I don't, you know, I have to leave him. And I said, okay.

And then we had a plan for her to leave, and she had gotten sick like three or four mornings in a row. And she was pregnant. I said, you can still leave. You can still go. And she said, no, I have to tell him it's the right thing to do. It would have been easy to stay here. But instead she went back. She was going to do whatever it took to right thing to do. It would have been easy to stay here, but instead she went back. She was gonna do whatever it took

to make that family work. She went down to St. John to start over and she had told me that he said, "'Oh, when you come down here, it's gonna be great.'" Now reunited on the island of St. John, Laura gives birth to their second son in August of 2009. They name him Gentle. And then you have gentle because now in my, in my maturity, I'm understanding what real masculinity is and it's, it's, it's gentle. She was a wonderful mother. She loved her boys more than anything, more than her

own life. She was a good mother and she laid low and was a housewife. She wasn't into the party. They were kind of living two separate lives and that's one of the reasons why he would hang out at my house, just so that he could do what he wanted and be himself because he couldn't do that at home. Party, stay out late, stay up all night.

I never saw him like walk over and kiss her on the cheek or any of that. There wasn't that kind of in-person tenderness between them that I ever saw. The little baby, Gentle, needed some medical attention and thought that here in North Carolina would be a better place to get him the medical care he needed.

So she made plans to move back to take care of her boy. Laura had left the island and he was kind of on his own. That wasn't really good for him because then he could just really do whatever he wanted. He knew how to charm a lady and charm the crowd alike. So it wasn't hard for him to have a group of ladies to chat with after he stopped playing. He had no problem getting them to blush

and getting a phone number. And sure enough, another woman soon makes waves in Grant's island life. Amanda, to me, was a striking woman. And Laura became concerned and suspicious and had a huge surprise coming her way. It appeared the things were going well in St. John, Grant was trying to get his music career going there. Good night train, don't give a ride to the moon. And Laura, she's living here in North Carolina with the two little boys,

trying to get their youngest son needed medical treatment. And then it wasn't too much longer later that Amanda came into the picture. Amanda, to me, was a striking woman. Amanda's daughter, Shay, shared a lot of details with us, but she asked that we not use her last name. And what was your relationship like growing up? My mom was my best friend. My mom was my hero. Like, what do you want to be whenever you grow up? I want to be like my mom.

Amanda had been married three times previously. And the most recent husband before Grant was a wealthy businessman in Texas. And he actually died in an accident. After his death, there's a lot of money that Amanda inherits. Her big claim to fame was in acting. She was in the actual Stepford Wives, the remake that was done with Nicole Kidman. And she had a very small part.

So how did she end up in St. John? She went down there on vacation. She was supposed to be gone for two weeks. She loved it so much she moved down to the Virgin Islands. That was where she wanted to live. You lived there with her? I did. How old were you at that point? I was 20. And so how did she meet Grant Hayes? He was playing music. So I brought some people down there to listen to Grant play, and Amanda come in. She was looking at him like she hadn't eaten in a while, and he was a steak. Who pursued whom?

The tango is two-sided. And did you see their infatuation romance unfold? It wasn't instant. It wasn't like, oh my gosh, Fireworks, oh. I definitely started seeing him hanging with Amanda and it was obvious that they were a couple. I called him out for this, man you can't be doing this with her up in the States, you know, the way up in the States. He goes, oh no no, we're getting divorced and it's over. She's staying up there. She's never coming back to the island. What was Grant's relationship like with Amanda?

Yeah, I think with Amanda, because she was a little bit older, more mature. I don't think that she was sort of pushed around and controlled. Yeah, very territorial. Let's say there's a group of females in there, and Grant and her were having too much eye contact and smiles, whatever. Then Amanda being over here would have the server bring her a drink. So that's from Grant's girlfriend. It kind of set her territory.

And Laura, from a distance here in North Carolina, became concerned and suspicious there was something else happening there. Eventually, this relationship between Amanda and Grant takes the next step. It develops into something more. And they make the move from the Virgin Islands to New York. She convinced him that she can introduce him to the people

that can make his career take off. Was he successful? I mean, he got repeat bookings at some of the different places. You know, he played the Grant Hayes variety show. I want to get a warm welcome for Mr. Grant Hayes. And then Grant says to Laura, I would really like little Grant, their oldest son, to come visit me in New York. Grant is shorter. This is just for 10 days. 10 days came and went, and he hasn't brought Grant back.

And Laura was asking why. You said you would. And Laura had to file for custody to even see her son again. She didn't have a choice. Fighting to get her oldest boy back, in April of 2010, Laura hears surprising news. Grant calls her and says, Amanda and I just went to Vegas and we got married. It's a bombshell, it's a shock to Laura.

It was a little surprising that they were getting married. They were definitely moving very fast. I married my soulmate, my best friend, and she is something that I wanted my whole life. Friends and family had been given the impression that Laura and Grant were married, but apparently they never were. Then Grant took a very aggressive move and went to court without her. He made these allegations about she's mentally unstable, she doesn't have a stable home, she's working as an escort. They had alleged that Laura was a danger to the children. He lied. He said several things

in the ex parte custody order that just plain weren't true. And based on those allegations, Mr. Hayes got Judge Turner to sign an emergency custody order. He granted a temporary custody to Grant, not just little Grant, but also Gentle. And little Gentle was carted off from there and given over to his father. The worst time in her life was when she did not get to see her kids. She was devastated. She went to work to do whatever it would take to get the two boys back. As for Grant and Amanda,

they move down to Raleigh as the custody battle heats up. We had the court appoint Dr. Ginger Calloway. Where do you practice? In Raleigh. To evaluate both parties. To be able to give the court an opinion over whose home may be the best home for these children to be in. During that evaluation, Laura went on the record

to say that Grant had isolated and controlled her, while Grant charged that she was the one manipulating him. When the psychologist's report came in, the parts about Mr. Hayes referred to him having some, what the psychologist called, illogical and disturbed thinking. He rages angrily about Laura in front of the children. It is obvious they do not want Laura included in the children's lives. This is very concerning because in essence they want to obliterate her. And she came basically to the conclusion that yeah Laura had work to do. She is less mature than other adults and is easily overwhelmed. The psychologist did

recommend a 50-50 split in custody, and that would have been a substantial improvement for where we were. In the meantime, Amanda had gotten pregnant. Lily in love. Lily in love. And gave birth to a little baby girl. All right.

They were thrilled to welcome baby Lily into the world, joining Grant's two sons. But that was overshadowed by Grant's struggles to break through in the music business. Between the legal proceedings and, I think, Grant's spending, they're out of money. It was a mess, yes. He was the reason that my mom was not OK,

sitting in a bathroom floor crying, going, I have no idea how the hell I'm going to do this. I mean, what do you do? You've gone through over $200,000 in 18 months. That's how much money they went through? Easily. How dire was the financial situation? Oh, they were getting evicted from their apartment.

Grant called his mom, Patsy, and said, hey, we need to move in with you. It's now July of 2011, and while Grant and Amanda sink, Laura's fortunes were finally rising. Her main priority in life was to get her kids back. She went back to school. She, you know, got her own place, got her own job, got her own car. She was very enthusiastic about the career and getting her boys back.

Laura even started a new company with her friend Siobhan, selling ad space on restaurant menus. She successfully pitched local restaurant owners and socialized with new friends. I want to find out if you're going to be available after that at any point. Okay, later. Laura sounds upbeat, but she has no idea that she's now driving straight into terrible danger. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Is there something that scares you? Halloween lets us have fun with what scares us,

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monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. It's July 2011. Laura Ackerson hasn't been heard from in days, and her friends are worried about the 27-year-old mother of two. They report her missing. ABC 11 Eyewitness News at 5.30 starts right now. So far, there's been no other signs of the missing woman. I'm not the only person that's worried about her. She's been missing for quite a while, but, you know, I still hope. Ackerson apparently came to Raleigh last week on business.

We got a description of Laura's vehicle, and we put a bolo out, be on the lookout for patrol officers just to see if they are able to locate the vehicle. That night by 11 o'clock that night our patrol guys had found the car. So where was it? Right over here if you see this black color SUV it's right there in that same parking space is where it was. Was there anything suspicious in the car? Nothing really of evidentiary value. I mean we saw in the back seat there were car seats you know for the two boys. There was an idea that maybe she decided hey I'm gonna go to the airport I'm gonna take a trip somewhere.

If she had disappeared with her boys, that would not have been an overwhelming surprise. But to disappear without them, that was impossible. That was not Laura. So we definitely explored that possibility. We checked Laura's financials. We checked her cell phone records, all that. All her activity ended on July 13th. She's not buying gas. She's not buying food, she's doing nothing.

She just completely goes silent. Something that we would normally do in a missing person case is we want to go to their apartment or their house. Maybe they left a note. The police go into Laura's apartment and thoroughly search it, looking for anything that could point to a problem or that any violence occurred. It was very well kept. It was clean. She had several plants that were inside the apartment. None of them had been watered for numerous days.

That was a good indication that she had not returned or that nobody was coming in and out of the apartment to take care of things. From looking at the apartment, you could tell she's definitely a dedicated mother. That's what stood out number one. Almost half the apartment was dedicated to space for the kids, and that kind of reflected her life, that so much of her life was focused on her children. They pulled the video from the public spaces of Laura's apartment building. The video captured the hallway outside of her door on the morning of the 13th. Just a lady that was on her way to work in the morning by herself. Completely normal morning. She was not under duress. Did not seem to be in a hurry. and by herself, completely normal morning.

She was not under duress, did not seem to be in a hurry, did not have suitcases that she's dragging behind. We learned that Gentle had a birthday party the following weekend that was scheduled, and that Laura had no show on it. That's all when we started thinking this wasn't going to be just a normal missing person. We still want to look, hey, are there other people in Laura's life

that may have something to do with her disappearance? Laura admitted that she'd gone to some sugar daddy sites. You're trying to meet maybe wealthier men. We were never able to show that there was any meeting of any kind between Laura and somebody else. One detective reaches out to Laura's ex, Grant Hayes, who says that Laura had visited him on the night of Wednesday, July 13th.

He gives timeline of when she was there at the apartment. Well, she actually came up here to visit the boys and says that she left, you know, after being there for a little while. Grant Hayes also tells investigators that two days after visiting his apartment, Laura was supposed to meet him at the local Sheetz gas station for their scheduled custody exchange.

He shows up to the scheduled Friday 5 o'clock time. He has the boys with him. They would come in the store to use the restroom. Grant goes in to buy a pack of cigarettes. But essentially they're waiting in the parking lot. And waits for over an hour for Laura to arrive, and she never arrives. He was sending out very angry email messages and text messages to Laura.

You're late again. Where are you? And first at 5.30 tonight, we have new details and new updates on the big stories happening now. I'm Steve Daniels. I anchor the evening news covering Raleigh. This was a really compelling case. Our viewers were watching this every step of the way. She was to meet them and their father in Wilson

that afternoon, according to the children's grandmother. She didn't show up at five, and so he was there until 5, and he called me at 6.30 and said she had not shown up yet. It's distressing, and I just hope it all comes to an end quickly and that she's all right. It's not like her to do something like this, especially to not pick up her kids.

Detectives realized that no one has heard from Laura since that voicemail she left on July 13th for her friend Oksana Smarsky. I was in the study group and I saw my phone ring and I wish I would pick it up and if I knew what would happen I would not let it ring. I'll give you a call when I'm done, and I'm calling on 802. I don't know if I'll be able to see you before 7, but I'll see you. Laura's destination that night had been Grant and Amanda's apartment. Tell me, where is the apartment? And so their apartment is right on the other side of this small building here.

So how did you get a search warrant to go in? on this small building here. So how did you get a search warrant to go in? So we had developed enough information, I just think, to get that search warrant initially. We were really trying to develop a timeline for Laura. Any evidence that maybe Laura had been there. So one of the things that we did find in the apartment was a note.

It appeared to be handwritten. in the apartment was a note. It appeared to be handwritten. Up on the counter in the kitchen area, just kind of laying there very conspicuously, which was weird. And what that note said was that Laura Ackerson, in exchange for receiving $25,000, would give up custody of her children.

It was signed Laura Akerson. That was suspicious because everybody had been telling the police Laura would not leave her boys. Those boys were Laura's life. She would have never signed over her children for any amount of money. Why a note?

You already are going through the court system. Why don't you just go through your attorneys? And that is not the only curious discovery in that apartment. Soon as they opened the door, hit with the overwhelming smell of bleach. It's been a week since Laura Ackerson's disappearance, and investigators are now searching the apartment of her ex, Grant Hayes.

Police were here yesterday asking a lot of questions. It's a three-bedroom apartment. There's a small kitchen area. I remember there being a couch, maybe a table, but there's not a lot of furniture. Was there anything unusual about that moment when you walked in the door? It smelled like bleach. You know, it's just that strong odor of bleach that hits you. And so what did that tell you?

At least that someone had been cleaning, is what it appeared, and... But then we see this large, you know, bleach stain. At that point, alarm know, bleach stain. At that point, alarm bells are going off. Right. And that's not like a little old stain. No, a significant bleach stain right at the entryway in the apartment.

It was clear something happened right here at this door that required them to bleach this carpet. And then there were a couple other things that we find that kind of throw up red flags as well. The bathroom, which before July 13th, had been the place where the little boys went to brush their teeth, take their baths, play in the bathtub. Suddenly there was nothing in that room. It's the cleanest bathroom I've ever been in. There's no floor mats, there's no shower curtain. And like shiny clean on every possible surface. And what does that

point to? That something has taken place inside this bathroom that required cleaning and I think it really stuck out too because the rest of the home, it wasn't super dirty, but it was not clean to the level that that bathroom was clean. Clearly, something happened in that bathroom. We did everything that you could do to a bathroom. We tore it apart. We ripped up the floor, we took out the plumbing and did everything that you could do forensically at that time.

We even went to the apartment below, came up through the ceiling to get the plumbing and nothing, there was nothing. There was no blood, Laura's body was not there. Nothing broken to indicate a struggle. So we still were kind of on the fence of, what do we have here? So investigators now have a lot more questions for Grant and Amanda. But first, they have to find them.

Detective Falk had learned that Amanda had a daughter. Her name was Shay. And Detective Falk conducted an interview with her. The police show up at your door. What was that like? Terrifying. I've never had a speeding ticket before. I've never been in trouble before.

And so what did you tell them? Well, they wanted to know where my mom was. And I was like, what do you mean, where is my mom? And I was like, what is this about? And they were like, well, Laura is missing. And I was like, what do you mean, where is my mom? And I was like, what is this about? And they were like, well, Laura's missing. And I was like, wait a freaking second. You guys need to find my mom. And I need you to find out where the babies are, because they are probably not OK.

Where Shay tells us, my mom and Grant, they took off and they went down to Texas. Grant and Amanda were loading the kids up and making a trip to Texas to visit Amanda's sister, Karen Berry. She was gonna go visit my aunt because my grandmother had just died and she hadn't seen her sister in years. And I told my mom, I was like, I wanna go with you. And she told me no.

Amanda's daughter, Shay, tells police Grant rented a U-Haul trailer at this location on July 16th. That's three days after Laura went missing. Now what investigators want to know is why. So after finding that I requested surveillance video from U-Haul here in Raleigh. Why'd they rent a U-Haul trailer? Well, according to Shay, there's this kind of antique hutch that she was going to give to my aunt. At this point, Grant and Amanda were downsizing their belongings as they

were getting ready to move. I guess that Grant was like, take it to your sisters. It'll be safe there. Did that sound odd to you? I mean, we've had this piece of furniture for like 20 years. Why are you worried about where it's going to be now? But whatever. Grant makes a comment when he goes to get the U-Haul trailer

that he's going on a fishing trip with his son. The police wanted to know where Grant was, and so they checked his cell phone pings and found out that that he was in Texas. One of the first pings that we get on Amanda's cell phone is her sister Karen Berry's house. The court ordered that they were not allowed to take Grant and Gentle out of the state of North Carolina until the whole custody situation is resolved.

It was definitely significant to us that he was willing to take the risk and go to Texas with these boys, knowing that if that was found out, that would be a problem for him. Pretty immediately, we make a decision, hey, we've got to go to Texas. This is literally a 20-hour drive on a hunch

that we could find evidence out there. So Skinner Lane is in the middle of nowhere. Two deputies, myself, drove to Karen Berry's house cold. She didn't know we were coming. We told her that basically we wanted to talk to her about Grant and Amanda. She told her that basically we wanted to talk to her about Grant and Amanda. She told us that she was expecting us. She was very, very nervous.

She cried a lot, and she said, before I answer any more questions, do you mind if I pray? And it means there's something big that you're about to tell us. And as a homicide detective, anytime somebody wants to pray, you let them pray. My first reaction was, whew, this just got real.

It was the lead story on the news night after night after night. Grant shows up to the Friday handoff and waits for over an hour for Laura to arrive, and she never arrives. I can't imagine being under that Texas sun trying to find the woman's body. It was just a grotesque thing to have to do.

And you would have to dive through murky water like this? It's not a swimming hole. It's not a place where people go paddling in. This is just sort of a wasteland. You found a manual for the power saw. What went through your mind? No one does construction work in this house. I'm just buying a saw at 2 o'clock in the morning.

How the hell did we get here? As soon as prosecutors hear this song, they're like, wow. It was a song. Not real life. Until it is real life. When Laura first went missing, this case sort of blew up. A young woman who is a parent who suddenly disappeared, and she really disappeared off the face of the earth.

At this point in the investigation, we really don't know what exactly has happened to Laura. Grant and Amanda had gone down to Texas to visit Amanda's sister. They rented a U-Haul trailer. We knew that Grant and Amanda had come back to Raleigh. Where is Laura Ackerson? That's what everyone's been wondering since she went missing days ago. Raleigh police finally have what could be a breakthrough lead, so they drive 1,200 miles to pay an unexpected visit to Amanda's sister here in Richmond, Texas. unexpected visit to Amanda's sister here in Richmond, Texas. Karen Berry was Amanda's sister,

but in a lot of ways she was more of a mother figure. She was who Amanda always turned to when she had any problems. Well, it was a Sunday afternoon and I received a call out advising that the Raleigh Police Department had traveled from North Carolina and they were requesting some investigative assistance from the sheriff's office. When they knock on the door of Karen Berry and she answers, it's almost like she was counting the minutes for them to get there. And her first reaction to them is, you can come in and I'll talk to you, but can I just have a moment to pray first? There's some soul searching going on. Yes. And do you remember the words that she prayed? Basically just a prayer of, give me the strength to do the right thing, to help me do what I need to do. After she finished praying, she tells us that Grant and Amanda had shown up on Monday the 18th.

She's excited to see her sister. Lily had just been born and Karen had never seen her. She had never met Grant. Karen didn't get a very good impression of Grant because he was hyper nervous. Grant slept most of the day. Karen pointed that out. And she could tell something was wrong with her sister. Amanda seemed troubled, but also concerning were several inquiries that Amanda and Grant had made of her and her boys. What were the peculiar questions? Well, one was about the creek just across the street. This Oyster Creek.

Karen's boys. They had a flat bottom boat. Grant and Amanda, they were asking permission to use the boat. They go out there to explore for sharks. We're 90 miles inland, and this is a freshwater creek. I'm pretty confident there's never been a sighting of a shark in Fort Bend County. Grant asked, are there alligators where I can access Oyster Creek? And then they talk about they want to go fishing. They'll take the boat out fishing.

And Karen said, no, that is not a place that you need little toddlers fishing. Karen told the police that they took the boat out one night. She didn't know why. The boys were sound asleep. So it didn't make any sense to her. We conveyed to her repeatedly that we are not looking at her as a suspect. And then we directed the conversation toward Laura. Did Grant and Amanda tell you anything?

She clearly conveyed to me that Laura and Amanda did not get along. I called and I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said,

I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said,

I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I said, I'm gonna call you back. then tells Karen, I hurt her, I hurt Laura, I pushed her and it's bad. We asked her, do you think that Laura's dead? And Karen said, I think that there's a good chance. And at that point, she gave us consent to search the property. The scene was immediately cordoned off.

There were several areas on the property itself that we needed to search, in addition to searching the creek across the street. This creek is off of Skinner Lane off of Corbin County. We're about 100 yards west of the 4300 block. It looks different now, right? Yeah, things have changed a lot in the last 13 years. There were big piles of trash all in the backyard.

There was a hog pen to the right of the house. You uncovered a lot of evidence here. We did. We uncovered a lot of evidence. Karen was asked what items were left behind. Are these yours, or are these something that you know nothing about? We found some empty carry-on suitcases, presumably left by Grant or Amanda. We found some ice chests. Karen was not aware that they came down there with three coolers

until she saw Grant cleaning them out in the backyard if these were ice chests that were needed for their long journey to texas from raleigh why weren't they needed during the long journey back fort bent police call in crime scene investigator officer kim oreskevich They want her to search that muddy creek across the street from Karen Berry's house. When I got here is when the lieutenant told me that, hey, you're looking for a body. And so what was going through your mind?

I was like, no, we're not gonna find it. If there was dump here in the creek, normally the current would take it out. The creek was probably 25 feet wide, very swampy looking. It's not a swimming hole. It's not a place where people go paddling in. This is just sort of a wasteland. There are alligators.

They had someone in the boat ready to shoot an alligator. We're down, obviously on our knees in the boat, so he's literally above us, watching for gators in front of us, see if there's any signs of a gator coming up. With a long gun in his hand. Absolutely. I can't imagine being under that Texas sun trying to find a woman's body. It was just a grotesque thing to have to do. What did you see?

We're like, okay, there's something big floating on top of the water and the water lilies. My first reaction was, whew, this just got real. I was prey. and manages to escape after being pulled underwater, and how a hiker in Alaska survives a 1,000-pound moose attack after the animal crushes her limbs. I Was Prey features audio from hit shows like This Came Out of Me, Nature's Deadliest, and Still Alive, and Monsters Inside Me. Listen to I Was Prey wherever you get your podcasts.

From the water to the riverbed, the search for Laura Ackerson continues. Laura's body believed to be dumped here in Texas. It was a hot July day when you went out on the boat. Yes. What did you see? We found something big floating on top of the water and the water lilies. And it was just white and pinkish. When we got up close to it, you couldlies and it was just white and pinkish.

When we got it close to it you could see that it's one half of a torso. When they said oh you're looking for a body I wasn't expecting dismembered body so that was that was a shock to your system. Kim pretty quickly locates what ultimately was determined to be two portions of a torso kind of tangled up in the vegetation of the creek. And that kind of confirmed to everybody here, now this is a homicide. Once those dismembered body parts were found floating near the surface of Oyster Creek, Houston dive teams were called in. They had to search now beneath the surface of these murky, alligator-filled waters,

looking for more remains. They need to know, is it really Laura? It's becoming important to find things like the hands or the feet or the head that can help with identifying the body. Mark Thorson and Brian Davis of the Houston Police Dive Team still remember being on scene that awful day.

What kind of dives did you normally do on this unit? We pretty much go get anything out of the water. Vehicles, guns, bodies. And what's visibility like underwater? Most of our dives on the dive team, we do not have visibility. You're basically just fanning your hand out or your arm out in front of you. You want to feel it before you run over it. The first two hours we searched underwater, we didn't come up with anything.

So we had to change our tactic. And that's when we decided to go on our tiptoes and go through the lily pads. And you would have to dive through murky water like this? Yes. This is what we were facing. When you're in the middle of it, it just closes in back on, it closes in on you, and it's difficult searching, or it's hard searching for what we're looking for.

We started seeing sheen and smelling. If you've ever smelled a decomposing body, you know that odor, and you're not going to forget it. We're moving the lilies, and the scent would get stronger or it would get weaker. As we're moving the lilies, you can see a white, grayish object in the water, and immediately knew that I had a body parted. All I saw was what looked like skin and I could see a bone. I called out to Mark. Mark swam over and he placed his hands on top of mine and rolled it.

And that was when we learned that we had the head. We recovered virtually all of her body, but the most important piece was being able to recover her head because we were able to do dental record comparisons where that's as good as a fingerprint. They were able to confirm that it was Laura Akerson and that that mother of two boys was now dead. And they knew they had found Laura in the Texas creek. Sorry. What was your reaction when you heard about body parts being found in a creek near your

aunt's house and somehow your mom's mixed up in it? It was the most devastating thing to have ever happened in my life. In my interviews with Karen, I was aware that Grant and Amanda were inquiring about where Home Depot was at. They had some shopping that they wanted to do. Investigators visit a local Home Depot and uncover this video of Grant purchasing suspicious items including muriatic acid. We had video evidence of the purchase of the muriatic acid, garbage can, and also some large cuff neoprene chemical

resistant gloves. A Home Depot employee told law enforcement that Grant had asked if the acid would eliminate the odor from a hog pen. We searched the hog pen and we noticed a larger darkened spot, circular spot right in the middle of the hog pin. In getting close to the soil you could smell the chemical smell of presumably muriatic acid. So what do you think happened there? They attempted to dispose of Laura and that hog pin. Destroy her

physical remains. Or at least means of identifying her. Despite having found Laura's body parts, the police still don't know how she was killed. But they do have enough evidence for arrest warrants for Grant and Amanda. We head down to Kinston to arrest Grant and Amanda at her parents' house. We take them into custody.

Grant left a note on the dresser of his parents' house, and it said that he grants sole custody of Grant, Gentle, and Lily to his parents. He had to know that he was in a dangerous position. Both Grant Hayes and his wife Amanda are now in jail. Hayes and his wife Amanda are both charged with murder in the death of Laura Ackerson. Both pleaded not guilty. I even sent him a message.

I said, Grant, what the hell, dude? What are you doing? Why? You know? I don't know if he ever read it. He was incarcerated at that point. What was your reaction to her arrest and being charged with murder? Shocked. How the hell did we get here? I can't imagine a daughter watching her mother

be arrested and charged with murder and have to contend with that. It's soul-shattering. It makes you question your morals and values. It makes you question who you are. Soon, authorities find even more evidence they say will bolster their case. When you see the surveillance video,

what went through your mind? It's scary. It's barbaric. It's inhumane. Soon after their arrest, Grant and Amanda are led into the courtroom. Are you Grant Ruffin Hayes? Yes. Jason Ackerson watched from the front row as the father of his sister's children faced a judge. Grant Hayes III is now charged with killing his children's mother.

They have also charged his wife, Amanda Hayes, with murder. Today, both Hayes and his wife went back to jail with no bond. These guys are monsters. My mom's not a monster. She got pulled into a bad situation. That woman in that picture is not the mama that I grew up with. Shay, she didn't think her mother could be responsible for anything violent.

At some point, she had found this owner's manual for a skill saw. You found a manual for the power saw? For some type of power saw. What went through your mind? No one does construction work in this house and I don't see anything freshly built. She made a decision to kind of help us. I figured if they had the manual they could figure out where he bought it and they did. It was Walmart that tells us yeah we actually sold one on the early morning hours of July 14th. They found Grant Hayes at 2.30 in the morning after Laura Ackerson was last seen on the 13th at Walmart

buying supplies, plastic, gloves, PPE, plus a reciprocating saw. gloves, PPE, plus a reciprocating saw. A reciprocating saw, depending on the blade you use, can rip through almost anything. The video shows him kind of pacing back and forth and looking at the different saws. You know, you wonder, like, what's going through his mind as he's doing this. He went in.

He didn't disguise himself. He didn't try to cover up his looks. He didn't try to cover up his looks, didn't try to dodge cameras. He's very cool and calm and collected. Knowing that he's got a dead body at home, I'm just buying a saw at 2 o'clock in the morning. I am a retired reporter with the ABC station in Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina. I'm at C.R.U.P. ABC station in Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina.

I'm at Crop right now in Raleigh. I was the crime reporter. Early in pre-child motions, we started learning that the defense strategy for Amanda appeared to be to blame Grant. And for Grant, it appeared to be to blame Amanda. They both throw each other under the bus. They absolutely do. They both throw each other under the bus. They absolutely do. They both blame each other. It's like a murderous he said, she said. For sure. And it makes sense, right, if you're

looking at it from a defense standpoint. For either one of them, you need to blame it on somebody else. Once it became clear from defense motions that one defendant was going to blame the other, the judge said if we do them separately, they both get a fair trial. Finally, two years after the murder of Laura Ackerson, Grant's trial begins. I was an assistant district attorney. I prosecuted Grant and Amanda Hayes. On July 13th of 2011, Laura Ackerson woke up excited. Little did she know that within 24 hours, that that man, the father of her children, would be the one responsible for her murder and disappearance. I represented Grant Hayes. Another attorney, Will Durham, joined me. Our defense was, Grant

didn't do this, there's no evidence he did this, and all the evidence suggests that Amanda is the perpetrator of the homicide. His attorneys made this point, and they were right. Just because Grant did a gruesome deed by disposing of a body and dismembering it doesn't mean he's a murderer. His mindset was very much, he didn't do this, they couldn't prove it, and he would be fine. In the two years since the murder, Grant Hayes has appeared in court several times. Some court observers say he often looks smug. Maybe that's because he thinks he can pin the murder of Laura Ackerson on his wife.

What was Grant's demeanor like during the trial? Disgusting. He was so nonchalant. He had no problem. He was going to beat this. District Attorney, may I call your witness? The way the prosecution decides to begin their case is to paint a portrait of Laura Ackerson. To do that, they bring in the people who know her best. Laura loved her children more than anything, and it showed in every action that she took. best. Laura loved her children more than anything and it showed in every action that she took. I told Laura that if she wanted to fight for her kids I would be

there to support her and she said I'm gonna fight every step of the way. Would you state your name please? Siobhan Nicole Mathis. Her main priority was to get her children back before anything else. Even when she was working she would drop whatever she had to do for her kids. As we watched this case unfold, it was so striking to see the extraordinary lengths Grant and Amanda went to try to cover up their crime, but they left a very clear trail behind them.

Describe the range of evidence you had to deal with. The defendant went out and tried to find the best saw blade and the best plastic sheeting and acid. We were able to use these saw blades and had a scientist from NC State compare the saw marks in Laura's body. You can see how the blades actually match up. These coolers really were evidence of the deliberation and thoughtfulness that the defendant

had after the murder. Could you unfold that and display that for the jury? Has some sort of bleached discoloration. Electrical tape that was purchased. Despite this mound of evidence, we don't actually know how she was murdered. Sure, you know there's three adults in the apartment when this happened and two of them are charged with first degree murder and one person's dead. It was kind of hard to prove exactly what had transpired.

I didn't have enough information with the parts that we received to determine the exact cause of death. What was your opinion as to the cause of death? I called it undetermined homicidal violence. The defense lawyers are telling that jury, look, there's no murder weapon. There's no exact cause of death. You can't find this guy guilty. The issue is who killed Laura and what happened and why.

And the state really didn't have any direct evidence. This made the defense feel like there was a chink in the armor and that they had a way to get in. But soon, prosecutors would try to use Grant's own words against him. Hey, LTD, it's real free, baby. I can't take any more from you. As soon as prosecutors hear this song, they're like, wow.

Despite the mountain of evidence in this case, it's still unclear who killed Laura and how. The prosecution is about to call a witness who claims to know what happened. Here is jailhouse informant Pablo Trinidad, who can tell us what Grant said happened inside that apartment. Pablo Trinidad met Grant at the Wake County jail, where they were both behind bars. Pablo was being held for drug-related offenses. He's the typical snitch witness.

He was doing maybe 25 years. He was looking a way to try to get a sentence reduction. Were y'all housed in the same area of the jail? Yes, ma'am. We had several conversations throughout the period that we was housed together. Pablo Trinidad got in front of that courtroom on the witness stand and he said, Grant told me in our jail cell, he and Amanda strangled Laura. He said he missed the call to her and lured her to his apartment. And that's when him and his wife seduced her,

seduced her and strangled her. With the corroborating evidence, there was this glimmer of truth in there. Whether you want to believe what he's saying, you know, you gotta take it with a grain of salt. You can't prove it other than it's, you know, this is just my word. Your testimony is that during that five days, y'all developed such a special bond that he told you all his deepest dark secrets. That's correct.

Defense lawyers chipped away at Pablo. They knew that Pablo had snitched on other cellmates before. And so you started thinking back, what are all the names I can give these people, didn't you? Yes. And you remembered Grant Hayes. He was your meal ticket, wasn't he? One of them at least. If you want to put in those words, that's your words, not mine. Thank you, sir. You missed no time. I hate to say that a jailhouse snitch was a pivotal witness in this case, but he was. The prosecution has one last piece of evidence, and fitting for Grant, it starts with a beat. Shay actually brought our attention. She knew about this song that Grant had previously recorded.

It was called Broomstick Rider. Broomstick rider, just happened to be my baby's mama. Deshawn, you got me? The lyrics of it told what his desire to do to Laura was. I put a price tag on your head. That's right, you must have told your attorney I got intentions on killing you. What? This order might stop me, my bullets will get you.

He wrote this song with Laura in mind. His attorney called it a parody. The state at this time had secretly published a song that was recovered off of the defendant's iPod. The defense objected to the song, saying it wasn't relevant. But the judge overruled and allowed it in. Broomstick letter, just happened to be my baby's mama. They both kind of peer over and see the defendant. I got two, be my baby's mama. We both kind of peer over and see the defendant. I got two kids by you.

Bob in his head and sort of rocking out to the song about killing the person that he was on trial for killing, which was sort of a staggering event. Don't talk to me. Don't want your drama. It was a song. It was a song.

Not real life until it is real life. And it messes up your entire existence. It messes up who you think you are at your core. Can we take a second? The defense calls a witness with crucial firsthand testimony that seems to support Grant's version of the story. It's Amanda's sister, Karen Berry. Remember, Amanda told her sister that she hurt Laura.

Could you please state your name for the court? Karen Berry. Could you tell me how you know Amanda Hayes? She's my sister. The defense is trying to prove Grant didn't commit this crime, that it was Amanda who committed this crime. Our case focused on statements that Amanda made to her sister. She came in and she told me that she had hurt Laura and that she had hurt her bad.

She says, I hurt Laura, not we hurt Laura, or he hurt Laura. It actually benefited Grant to some degree because for Grant, you know, his defense is Amanda did this. Well, that was definitely a defense bombshell. But when she was pressed further, she detailed another story that happened. I said, I want the truth out of you now. And I looked her straight in the eye and I asked her if she was covering for Grant. How did she answer? She looked me straight in the eye.

She shook her head and went. Well, that kind of undid everything else. The defendant's whole case sort of backfired on them. I mean, Karen's testimony did not come out like they wanted it to come out. In their closing arguments, each side has one last chance to convince the jury. They're trying to give you some reason to convict him without giving you the evidence. You will not let emotion decide this case. You will not let your disgust for the things that

happened in this case lead you to a verdict. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury. I really wanted to communicate to the jury that the way that this murder happened was different. It was more personal. Here's the saw. And so that's why I pulled out that saw. This saw cut someone in half.

These are the lengths that the defendant went to to try to not just get away with this murder, but also erase Laura from the world. He is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and you should find him, sir. Thank you. After three weeks of graphic testimony with 50 witnesses and 500 pieces of evidence, the jury goes out to deliberate. Within two hours they're back with a verdict. We the jury by unanimous verdict, find the defendant, Grant Ruffin Hayes, third to be guilty of murder in the first degree.

Grant Hayes was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. I was happy to see that he got that, and I was happy to see that the jury felt the same way. Glad he's not going to be part of society. It is consolation for that factor, but it still doesn't bring her back. Only a couple of months later, it's time for Amanda to face justice.

Amanda took the witness stand in her own defense. I was just doing whatever he told me to do. Grant did not testify, but now he's talking to me. This is Global Telling. Grant Y prepaid call from Grant Hayes. Hello? Hey, Grant? Yes? It's Juju Chang at ABC News.

This is a global telling prepaid call from Grant Hayes. After Grant's trial and conviction, many questions remain unanswered, like what happened in that apartment. So we arranged to speak with him from prison. But his claims about how Laura died doesn't really add up. Grant, can you hear me? It's Juju Chang at ABC News. Thanks so much for calling. Thank you for picking up.

So let me ask you this. People have described you as very charming, but also manipulative and even scary. I don't really have any defense for what people think about my character. But, you know, I'm not in prison for being a bad person. I'm in prison for killing a woman. And that didn't happen. So you're saying you didn't kill Laura? No, I didn't kill Laura. So what happened that night in the apartment? How did she die? From what I was told, when I left the room,

she had asked to hold our five-week-old baby. And Amanda had refused her. And Amanda told me that Laura had actually grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back and that she had swung back with her elbow, hit her, dislodged herself from her and ran into my recording studio. And when I came back in the room, Laura was laid out. I just want to get this straight, Grant.

You're blaming Laura for her own death? Laura attacked a woman. I don't know any other way to look at it. Wait, Grant, you're blaming Laura for her own death? And so at that point, why not call 911 to try to resuscitate her? And then you're captured on video buying a saw. Who came up with that plan? Well, Amanda had a plan to take Laura's body to a swamp at her sister's in Texas. And we had to get it out of the house. And the only way we could do that was if it were dismembered.

So I guess you could say it was carrying out a plan that was Amanda's. It's only been a few months since Grant's conviction, and now Amanda Hayes' trial is set to begin. In Amanda's trial, we're still putting forward the same evidence as Grant's trial, but at the same time, we want to accent Amanda's role in everything. The defense was trying to show Amanda. She was coerced by Grant and only did what Grant said in order to protect herself and her child.

But Amanda isn't just sitting there idly. She is an active participant in everything that we see. In Texas, there was a camera trying to catch people illegally dumping or littering, and it captures exactly that. Where are we in relation to where her sister's house is and where the body parts were found? We're just a mile and a half down.

At my particular unit, we were in charge of environmental crimes. At that time, the camera was set up right where you see these two trees. Saw something was odd in the photos. Female that got out of the truck started unloaded boxes and jugs and started shoving them under the tree in this fence line right behind me.

She was shoving it into the bushes. And then I found some boxes of acid. Seemed really strange. And I had watched the news the night before showing her court appearance in Raleigh. And so how did you put that two and two together? They looked the same, looked like the same lady. It was kind of really basic. People look at that and say, she doesn't look like she's under duress. She doesn't look like

she's afraid. A picture can tell a thousand words, but it can hide a thousand words too. What do you think that picture was hiding? I think that that picture shows a still frame of a woman thinking she's out in the middle of nowhere in the country and just trying to hurry up, get it over with, get it done. And my question is, if you are driving a vehicle down the road dumping evidence and you are so scared, keep driving. Go to the police. Go somewhere for help. The one difference between these two trials, we found out Amanda would testify. I think the defense had decided that if she went on the stand, she had a way of projecting innocence.

Right now, we're going to begin with the North Carolina trial of a woman accused of killing the mother of her stepchildren. Taking the stand for the first time this week, Amanda Hay's defense was simple. I was just doing whatever he told me to do. Her husband made her do it. How would you describe her? Strong, poised,

well rehearsed, but in a very sweet almost sing-songy baby voice. Amanda, did you kill Laura Ackerson? No, sir, I did not. Did you help Grant kill Laura Ackerson? I absolutely did not. Were you present when Grant killed Laura Ackerson? No, sir, I was not. Grant told me that Amanda killed Laura in self-defense,

but Amanda says it began with an accident. The picture that Amanda paints inside that apartment on the night of the murder has Laura bumping into Amanda as Amanda is holding their newborn baby and describes Laura falling to the ground. Amanda Hayes says she had no idea Laura Ackerson had died after Ackerson was injured at the Hayes Raleigh apartment.

She says she left with the children when Ackerson fell and hit her head. I think she hurt her own credibility by telling these implausible stories about she came back after a couple of hours and had no idea that Laura had been killed and her body disposed of. You can't even do all that in a couple of hours. This is a small apartment. Dismembering somebody takes a lot of things. Seems hard to believe that your mother

didn't know. It seems hard. It does seem hard to wrap your head around. It does. I know you love your mom. I know you support her. Could it be that you're seeing it through rose-colored glasses? Absolutely. And that perhaps she was more involved than you'd like to believe? Nobody will ever know what they don't know. She also testified that her husband threatened to kill her if she didn't help dispose of the body. He told me that I had to help figure out how to get rid of this body

or else none of us were making it back to North Carolina, to Raleigh. Did it ever seem to you like she could have also been a victim of Grant Hayes? You know, I feel like there's a possibility that Amanda was a victim of Grant's charisma, Grant's narcissism, but beyond that, I don't believe that she was a victim of anything. No one knows what that relationship's like, but in those pictures on Amanda's camera reflect Amanda having a good time

and smiling the whole time. Amanda Hayes is a former bit part performer who attended acting school in New York but according to one of the prosecutors none of her acting jobs were as good as the one she gave in this courtroom. She is given the performance of her life. She came across as sympathetic she came across as you know grants the controlling as, you know, Grant's the controlling jerk, and I just got swept up in all this. We're asking that you find her not guilty on both charges. But would the jury believe Amanda?

We may never know what kind of verdict Amanda Hayes expected. If it was something different than what she got, her face didn't show it. And what does Grant make of it all? Laura's death killed me. You're saying essentially that you're the victim in all of this. The last night that I was with Grant, he handed me a notepad with these pages on it.

Told me that it was important lyrics and that it was going to be worth money one day. But this was probably the most unsettling of the poetry that I found. I guess it's one sentence with the word murder in it six times. It's murder, murder, murder, murder in my veins, murder in my soul, desert-less in my veins, murder in my soul, desertless in my heart, but to let this all go. And I think that's what just really upset me a little bit and had goosebumps when I read that for the first time after finding out about Laura.

Dramatic testimony to first-degree murder case. Did her husband force her to cover up his crime it will be up to the jury to decide if Amanda Hayes was his accomplice or another victim it's time for Amanda to face justice they wanted Amanda found responsible for her role in the death of Laura to the tune of first-degree murder it is the unanimous verdict of the jury that the defendant is guilty of murder in the second degree. Amanda was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree murder,

and she was sentenced to between 13 and 17 years in a North Carolina prison. They were both there. They both had the opportunity to save Laura's life. Neither one of them did it, so to me, that makes them both guilty of first-degree murder. What was your reaction to the verdict against your mom? It was a glimpse of hope.

Why is that? Because it wasn't life with no chance of parole. Amanda is later tried and convicted in Texas for tampering with evidence, resulting in an additional 20 years in prison. What does justice look like for her? I think more of it is what does justice look like for Laura and those little boys.

Who actually delivered a death blow, I don't know if Grant did it or if Amanda did it. The fact is, this husband and wife collaborated to kill this woman. Despite being convicted for killing Laura, Grant remained steadfast in defending his image. It doesn't sound to me like you have a lot of remorse about Laura's death. Let me tell you something about my remorse and Laura's death. Laura's death killed me, killed my family.

So I think I'm the most remorseful person. I am the one who everyone points at and says, he did this. He's the bad guy. He's the monster under the bed. It's just not true. You're saying essentially that you're the victim in all of this. No. Amanda and Lillian were the victims.

What, if any, regrets do you have in this whole matter? I regret that we took her body apart. Ooh. It just colors the way that people are going to see me for the rest of my life. When you think about Laura, what comes to mind? I talk to her. I ask her to always watch over all of the kids.

And I tell her, thank you for watching over me. Today, all three of Grant's children are being raised by his own mother. The kids have no contact with Grant or Amanda. Those boys were Laura's life. She was doing everything to have a better life for them. She was a wonderful mother. She loved her boys more than anything, more than her own life. more than her own life.

We should point out tonight that Grant Hayes has filed several appeals. All have been denied. He tells 2020 he's continuing to fight for freedom. Meanwhile, his ex-wife, David Amanda, is in a Texas prison serving out her conviction. She declined to be interviewed. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Muir from all of us here at ABC News in 2020. Good night.