48 Hours - Murder in Pinyon Pines

Episode Date: August 2, 2015

A triple murder, a young woman set afire in a wheelbarrow. Police have suspects until a courtroom twist changes everything. Troy Roberts investigates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama.

Being in the military, in law enforcement, I've seen a lot of people die. I've seen a lot of really bad things. But you never think anything's gonna happen to you. Not that you're above it. It always happens to somebody else. Nothing could have prepared me for what actually happened. The deputy showed up at my door.

All he said was, you need to call your dad. The deputy showed up at my door. All he said was, ìYou need to call your dad.î My dad started crying, and he told me that there had been a fire at my momís house. The only people living in the house was my mom, Becky, her boyfriend, John, and my little sister, Becky. Weíre still waiting for positive identification on three bodies found at a burned-out home in Pinion Pines. We knew right away that everyone was dead.

Maybe my mom fell asleep with a cigarette or a gas leak. But what happened was much, much worse. I learned that Becky was found in a wheelbarrow. Apparently she had been placed in this and set on fire. My baby sister was caught. This was the front of the house and the wheelbarrow was found here. We know that it was brought to this spot because there were tracks rolled out that way. Why bring her body towards the front of the house? We think it was to pose her, and they wanted to leave some kind of symbol,

make it as personal as possible. That's hate. She was obviously the target. When I heard the wheelbarrow situation, that's when I knew it was him. I'm waiting for my precious boyfriend. Say hi, Robert. Hi, guys.

Because he had threatened to kill her. A lot of the evidence pointed toward Robert Pape and Christian Smith. Robert Pape was Becky's ex-boyfriend. Christian Smith was Robert Pape and Christian Smith. Robert Pape was Becky's ex-boyfriend. Christian Smith was Robert Pape's best friend. Robert Pape and Christian Smith both had an extreme fascination with fire. For some reason, a lot of this was not followed up on as thoroughly as it should have been. If it had been, this case wouldn't have stalled.

And this case stalled and continued to stall for years. Seven years. Seven years went by before anything happened. Yesterday, police arrested 25-year-old Kristen Smith and Becky Friedle's ex-boyfriend, Robert Pate. We know Robert, and anyone who knows him knows how ridiculous the accusations are. My son Christian saves lives. He saved lives in Afghanistan. He doesn't take lives. These two men are unlikely killers. They don't have criminal records. One's a decorated army vet.

I've seen just as many cases where you have somebody who leads a golden life, a perfect life on the outside, and they have their little hidden personalities. There's no way. It's all very obvious that there's no way. I know my son didn't do that. He's not a monster. Who wants to believe that their son committed murder? There is not a doubt in my mind that they have the right people.

I know that they do. I'm Troy Roberts. Tonight on 48 Hours, murder in Pinion Pines. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time,

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You can listen to the best idea yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear,

but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked.

And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. This foundation is all that remains of the Friedley home in Pinion Pines, California. On the evening of September 17, 2006, Tanya Friedley's childhood home was burned to the ground. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened. I miss them every day.

Inside the home, investigators have found the bodies of Tanya's 53-year-old mother, Vicki Friedle, and her 55-year-old boyfriend, John Hayward. It was later determined they had both been shot. The homicide unit is treating this as a homicide. Outside in a burning wheelbarrow were the charred remains of Tanya's 18-year-old sister, Becky, her body too badly burned to determine the cause of death. The worst part is, is that's my baby sister. I was supposed to be the one to protect her and be there for her. That's my baby sister. I was supposed to be the one to protect her and be there for her.

That's my job. Tanya, then a deputy sheriff in another town, relayed the devastating news to her sister Drew, an Air Force medic stationed in Japan at the time. I think it's just mortifying when you find out that somebody could be that horrible and sinister, like something you'd see in a horror flick as opposed to real life. For Drew and Tanya, it's hard to reconcile that horrific murder scene to their storybook upbringing on the property. Their father, Ron Friedley, had built their home himself

in the mountains high above the desert heat of the Coachella Valley. It was just a nice place. It was country. It was definitely out of the city, and I liked it. It was a great place for the kids to grow up. We used to go for walks up in the forest all the time, and we had a great time. Ron doted on his daughters, and so did his wife, Vicki. doted on his daughters, and so did his wife, Vicki. My mom was just a very kind-hearted, wonderful woman. She loved being a mom. She loved gardening.

She loved sewing and quilting and cooking. You know, that was really important for her to teach us how to cook, even from a very, very young age. The youngest of the sisters was high-spirited Becky Friedle. Becky was always just an amazing person. I mean, even when she was small, always had a smile on her face. She was always there for you. She's smart. Becky used to actually help Tanya and Drew with their homework. And, you know, she's four years younger than them. She got along with everybody.

She really did. She was just a fun, happy person. But the happy times as a family didn't last. Ron and Vicki divorce after 13 years of marriage. She was a good person, but we sort of grew apart. As the years passed, Tanya and Drew also left home. Becky remained behind with her mother, who eventually found love again with contractor John Hayward.

My dad called Vicki his cupcake because she was just so sweet. Kitty Hayward is John's daughter. They were drawn together because they both loved the outdoors, and they loved living up there together. I would be like, Dad, why are you guys living up here? Just come down to the city. What is up here? And he would always say, like, it's free up here.

No one will ever bother us, and this is the safest place that you can be. Then came that night in September. At first, no one could imagine who would want to hurt John, Becky, and Vicki. I really had no idea. The finger was being pointed at everyone, I think. There were all those rumors. Rumors started circulating that perhaps they had been murdered by someone with a grudge against Ron Friedle. Ron had retired the year before from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Did you believe that this may have been some sort of retribution for your work in law enforcement? No, I really didn't.

I never really was involved in anything where somebody would have said, I want to get back at this guy. I didn't have that kind of career. So you had no enemies? Not really, no. Investigators looked into that theory and quickly ruled it out, but then rumors began swirling about Ron Friedle himself. I mean, it's just natural to think that possibly the husband or family could have been involved, and I understood that going into it. Were you interviewed? Yes, I was. I was crying probably through most of it. I thought it was crazy that this, you know,

my dad had just lost his youngest daughter. He was really grieving at the time. You know, he was already beating himself up that he wasn't there, and then he has to go defend himself. Investigators asked Ron to take a polygraph test. That was probably the first time that I really felt like I was kind of a suspect. So I got up there, I took the polygraph, and the lady came out and she said, this is one of the best tests I've ever given in my career.

She says it was incredible. You did fine. Phone records put Ron 11 hours away at his property in Northern California when the crime took place, and police ruled him out as a suspect. But there was one person, a friend of Becky's, who says she knew immediately who was responsible. This was intentional, and he did it. And I. This was intentional and he did it. And I've known since day one he did it.

Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list.

She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informance Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island.

It's a little known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on

generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique,

lonely, Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. In the first days after the murders, Ron Feedly was besieged with questions. None of us really knew why it occurred or had a reason for it. The last thing I thought was that it was something to do with Becky. But once the initial shock had subsided, Ron began looking at the crime through his investigators eyes and came to believe that it was Becky who had been targeted. It seemed too personal because of a fear Becky had. She was really,

really afraid of fire. When she was younger, her mom was fixing tacos, and she had a pan full of hot grease, and Becky had pulled it down off the stove, and it burned on her chest. She had third-degree burns on her chest. So someone that's with someone intimately would know that she had these scars and was scared of fire. Becky's friend, Jeannie McDaniel,

was suspicious about someone right away. So immediately when you heard the murders, your mind went to Robert Pape? Immediately. Nothing else in my mind. There's nobody else that could have done this. Robert Pape was Becky Friedle's ex-boyfriend. Robert got Becky a corsage. The teenagers started dating in high school and were together for over a year. Looks like you guys are getting married. At first, Becky and Robert seemed happy. I think it was her first love.

Dun, dun, da-dun. I just think she was madly in love with him. Aw. But Jeannie says Robert soon grew possessive of Becky. When her and I went on vacation about 10 months before she died, he called about 20, 30 times in a night, just harassing her, wanting to talk to her while we were hanging out with friends. 20 to 30 times in one night?

Mm-hmm. I mean, minutes within each other. In January 2006, Becky and Robert broke up and started seeing other people. But according to Jeannie, Robert's obsessive behavior only grew worse and took an even darker turn shortly before the murders in September. She came to my house three weeks before she died and said he had even threatened to kill me. Those are her exact words, he even threatened to kill me. Why?

She said because he wasn't taking the breakup well and he wanted her and didn't want anybody else to have her. That's what she said kill me. Why? She said because he wasn't taking the breakup well and he wanted her and didn't want anybody else to have her. That's what she said to me. So were you concerned for her? I was, but she gave me the impression that it wasn't a big deal. And so I kind of just took her word for it and let it go. But after the murders,

Jeannie says she went straight to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department with her suspicions. As it turns out, Robert Pape was already on their radar. Everyone was whispering about Robert. They moved pretty quickly in the direction of Robert. There was a lot of little tiny bits of information from different sources. tiny bits of information from different sources. One of the sources was Becky's close friend, Javier Garcia Jr., who had given investigators an interesting bit of information. On the night of the murders, he says Becky had told him

she was going hiking on her property with Robert and his friend Christian Smith. Tanya Freedly believes her sister probably just wanted to smooth things over with Robert. My sister was a fixer. She loved with all of her heart, and she gave herself to everything she did. Garcia Jr.'s lead placed Robert Pape and Christian Smith at the scene of the crime the night of the murders. With rumors pointing towards the two men,

the Friedleys were sure that the case would soon be solved. I kind of felt a sense of relief that they would be arrested. But as surely as the momentum had started, it seemed to stop. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department never publicly shared any details of the investigation or named any suspects. Nothing happened for years. of the investigation or named any suspects. Nothing happened for years. They did the initial investigation

and it was passed on from detective to detective. It was frustrating, but they just kept saying they didn't have it. They didn't have enough to make an arrest. Private investigator, Luis Bolaños, saw his friend Ron grow increasingly despondent. About two or three years into this, I'm getting updates from Ron

and I'm finding out that nothing's happening. This case has stalled. It's gone cold. Luis and Ron had met years earlier at the sheriff's office where Ron had been one of Luis's first training officers. Now it was time for Luis

to help his old teammate. I begged Ron for years, two or three years, let me do this for you. Lewis had also worked in the Riverside County DA's office. Although they parted on bad terms, he was certain he could get things moving again. I knew that we can get this back on the front page where it needed to be and get those phones burning again. I really wasn't ready because I really felt in my heart that I thought the Sheriff's

Department was going to solve it. I really did. But as the six-year anniversary of the crime approached with no arrests in sight, Ron finally gave Lewis the green light. The media-savvy PI got to work, and one of his first orders of business was putting up this provocative billboard. We wanted to do it before and after a beautiful picture of Becky, and then a simulated picture of Becky in the wheelbarrow, on fire. It really, really pulled at heartstrings and sickened people. We believe the following to

be true. Lewis also held a press conference at the murder site with Drew and Tanya Friedle. We are in this because we believe this case can be solved. We know somebody out there knows something. Over the next year, tips started coming in. One of them from Becky's cousin, Daniela Zermano, who remembered something that might help investigators. I had spoken to Becky the night before the murder, and she told me that her ex-boyfriend, Robert,

had come into her work at Denny's and was harassing her. He had harassed her to the point of being removed from the restaurant. Daniela says after the altercation, they had discussed going on that hike. And I think talk about whatever their relationship was, how it was finishing and where it was. And on the seventh anniversary of the crime, Lewis held yet another press conference

at the murder site with Daniela by his side. The suspects then ignited the accelerant and in turn engulfed Becky in flames. Ron believes all the media pressure paid off. A few months later, the DA's office subpoenaed Robert Pape and Christian Smith to appear before a grand jury. It was just stirring the pot.

There was something on the news every day about it, and I think they just said, all right, let's go do something, and they did. As the grand jury drew to a close, there was news. You're watching KESQ, the desert's news leader. Two arrests after nearly eight years in the Pinion Pines murders. Pape and Smith were arrested for triple homicide. I was very happy. It was probably the happiest day of

my life. I was very, very happy, relieved. But Lewis was not done with his media campaign. He released this interview of Robert Pate. He had recorded it months before under the pretext of making a video tribute for Becky. Yeah, I'm Lewis. When's the last time you saw her? Uh, shoot, I guess that, I guess that was some time ago. Alright, how about the last couple of times? Your last few memories of her. The last time that you spoke to her on the phone or physically.

It could be the last two or three times. That would be something we could use for the trivia. You know, again, I guess I'm just, I'm not, I can't think off the top of my head. He couldn't even think of one nice thing to say about Becky. He looked like a deer in headlights. He looked scared that we were there, very nervous. But as investigators were sure the killers were finally in custody, two families say they are just as certain the men

are wrongfully accused. Innocent till proven guilty is a myth. It's guilty till proven innocent. And the truth is going to come out. It will come out. For over seven years, the families of Becky Friedle, her mother Vicki, and John Hayward have been waiting for this moment. My heart was in my stomach seeing them in the jumpsuits and seeing them in the flesh and seeing them handcuffed. Robert Pape and Christian Smith, both 25, found themselves in a Riverside County courthouse charged with triple homicide. Both pled not guilty. I think they thought they were going to get away with it. But these two men hardly fit the image of typical defendants. Neither have criminal records. Christian Smith is married and a decorated war hero. Robert Pape is also married

and an active member of his church. I had a really hard time just keeping it together, you know. Robert's sister, Christy, struggled seeing him accused of the brutal murder and burning of three people. Somebody like him, someone like him being put in that position, it's really hard to watch. Christy and Robert's mother, Kathleen, say he is innocent and not the man he has been portrayed as in the media. They tried to make him out to be a monster, CHRISTIE AND ROBERT'S MOTHER, KATHLEEN, SAY HE IS INNOCENT, AND NOT THE MAN HE HAS BEEN PORTRAYED AS IN THE MEDIA. They tried to make him out to be a monster, a jealous monster, and he just isn't that.

What kind of man is he? Robert is an amazing person. He's got a good heart. He's got a gentle heart, hardworking, patient, honest. He's always there when you need him. He sort of takes care of all of us, takes really good care of his wife. hardworking, patient, honest. He's always there when you need him. He sort of takes care of all of us, takes really good care of his wife. Robert started dating his wife, Sarah, after his breakup with Becky.

He and his wife both have this tremendous heart for animals. He cares about people, he cares about animals. He's just got the utmost integrity. And Christy and Kathleen aren't Robert's only supporters. We've had no less than 10 or 11 people at every single hearing. And there's been 30, 33 or 34 people at one of the hearings just coming to support. And the courtroom can't even fit that many of us. People called us immediately after he was arrested, and they were like, no, this isn't right. This is not the Robert I know.

Also looking on in disbelief has been Christian Smith's father, John Conrad Smith. I know my son didn't do that. I know he's not capable of that. Smith says his son is an honorable man and was living his dream serving his country in the military as part of the Army's elite 75th Ranger Regiment. It was in Afghanistan that Smith says his son became a hero. He saved another man's life who was actually shot through the lung. And I have a picture of him pulling him out and two of his battle buddies and Christian has one hand on a rifle and pulling his comrade out and firing back at Afghanis. Christian has won commendations for valor and has been awarded two Purple Hearts.

This one is when he was wounded and he was shot through the arm. He got this one. This one was when he took the grenade shrapnel. He deserved better than this. I mean, he's put his life on the line for five years now. He's a good guy. Christian Smith may be a war hero now, but investigators believe back when he was 17, he committed murder with his 18-year-old best friend, Robert Pape. Christian Smith and Robert Pape had been really, really good friends in high school,

and they both kind of beat to the same drum. When they were separate, they were good guys, but together they were combustible. Robert Pape and Christian Smith both had an extreme fascination with fire. Becky had complained about Robert and Christian to close friend Brandon Coogler Harrison. There was one time that they were playing with fire, him and Christian, and they said something on fire. I think it was a match. I'm not 100% sure, though. I remember her just getting mad at him over that and not talking to him for a couple days.

Did your son have a fascination with fire? No. No, there was no fascination. They were not troublemakers. They were good kids. But prosecutors plan on using Robert's words against him. Just a few months before the fire here in Pinion Pines, Robert had an instant message conversation with his then-girlfriend Sarah. In that exchange, Robert seemed to offer a solution to Sarah's problems with the next boyfriend. Well, if you know where he lives,

we can professionally burn his house down. Considering how Becky, Vicki, and John were killed, it's a very concerning statement. This is eight months prior to the homicide. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department and DA's office wouldn't comment on the investigation, but 48 hours obtained a copy of the grand jury transcripts. During the proceedings, both men pled the fifth, but when questioned by police years earlier, they denied they ever went near Becky's house and said they never had any intention of hiking with her. Robert and Christian told police during the interview

that they were heading to church that night. Apparently they made a phone call on the way there and the church was in fact closed. When those plans fell through, the boys said they headed back to Christian's dad's home to hang out and play video games. Where was your son the night of the murders? You know what? I wasn't in town.

Well, what did he tell you when you eventually saw him? We were here. The boys said they eventually wound up at this middle school where they shot paintball guns. Nobody saw Christian or Robert at the school playing paintball. Nobody. Their only alibi is each other. But it was the boys' cell phone activity that night

that raised the most red flags to investigators. They put themselves on the other side of town, and the cell phones say differently. At 7.13 p.m., Robert's cell phone pinged near the start of Highway 74, the road leading up to the home. Minutes later, both Christian and Robert's cell phones went silent from about 7.30 to 10 p.m. The time frame investigators believe the murders took place. They came out of their way to find Becky. Hard to say if John and Vicki were collateral damage. Tracks and footprints at the scene place Becky's attack near the desert behind the house. Becky was then placed in a wheelbarrow

and rolled back towards the house and set on fire. What kind of evidence was recovered from the scene that links this crime to these two young men? Well, we know that at the point where the wheelbarrow rolled from, where they put Becky in the wheelbarrow, that they found a business card. And on that business card, they eventually found DNA that was consistent with DNA belonging to Christian Smith. Inside the home, it was determined Vicki had been shot with a.40 caliber handgun and John Hayward with a shotgun before the house was set on fire. When investigators searched the boys' homes a year later, they found shotguns similar to the one used in the crime.

No handguns were ever recovered, but in Robert's house, there were accessories to the type of gun that may have killed Vicki. In that search warrant, they recovered ammunition to a.40 cal, and they recovered a holster to a Glock.40. That's a powerful piece of evidence. You believe that police have the right men? Oh, I'm confident they have the right two guys. Absolutely.

But defense lawyers charge investigators ignored other possible suspects and that the evidence will never hold up at trial. You have the wrong person here. For Tanya Friedley, hearing the specific details of the murders has been difficult. To think about how they must have been pleading for their lives, how scared all of them were, is horrifying. And believing that one of their alleged killers was someone Becky once loved has been especially painful for Ron Friedley. She loved him a lot. She really did. I think she actually considered spending her life with him. And that's probably one of the saddest parts about the whole story is, you know, she loved him to death.

And he threw it all away. Threw it all away. For nothing. But nothing is what defense lawyers say the state's case is based on. And I kept looking for the proverbial other shoe. I went over it. I just didn't see it. other shoe. I went over it. I just didn't see it. Richard Blumenfeld represents Robert Pabe and says the case against his client is built entirely on questionable and hearsay evidence. He points

to Becky's cousin, Daniela Semenyo, who said Becky had told her about a fight at Denny's the day before the murders. Robert had gone to Becky's restaurant and there'd been a scene, an argument, and they'd been asked to take it outside and so on and so forth. That never happened. Never happened. Never happened. Nobody could substantiate that anything like that ever happened. Blumenfeld says a grand jury should have never heard Daniela's testimony

or the evidence about the IM exchange between Robert and Sarah, in which he had seemingly suggested burning down her ex-boyfriend's house. Blumenfeld argues it was said in a joking fashion. There were probably over 100 pages of these conversations, and they took one excerpt out of context. It was clearly not seriously said. Blumenfeld also denies that Robert threatened Becky's life and says there would be no reason for him to be jealous or want to harm Becky because he had already moved on. He wasn't seeing Becky anymore seriously.

She was trying to revive their relationship, but he'd moved on. He was with Sarah. Whether Robert had a motive or not, Christian Smith's alleged role never made any sense to his attorney, John Patrick Dolan. The motive, if you can believe this, is he's Robert's friend and he went along with him. That's it. There's no connection with Kristen and Becky. There's nothing that suggests he has any animosity toward her. It's a pretty weak argument. Dolan thinks all the evidence is weak, starting with the boy's lack of cell phone activity

around the time frame of the murders. He says it doesn't prove anything. It is unusual for a teenager not to use their phone for two and a half hours. Well, you could say that. You could also say that he was having a shower, having dinner, and he had a paintball gun and he went out and tested it out near a middle school. And he didn't make any calls for two and a half hours. It's really not that uncommon at all. But before the boys' phones went silent, there was that cell tower ping that put Robert

and presumably Christian at the start of Highway 74 up to Pinion Pines. Didn't the ping show that Christian and Robert were somewhere near Becky's home? Well, that's one of those really interesting anomalies, because a ping doesn't show at all that Christian was anywhere near that home. Dolan says that three minutes before Robert's phone pinged near Highway 74, Christian's phone pinged off a cell tower miles away. And I can tell you that prosecution is going to have a hard time getting over Mr. Smith's phone being on the other side of the Coachella Valley when they say Mr. Pape's phone was pinged sometime near the time that there would have had to been an ascent up the mountain.

But the state's FBI experts say cell phones at higher elevations sometimes bounce off other towers. Pinging phones or not, investigators say there is hard evidence putting Christian at the scene, that DNA on the business card. And that puts him there, and we know that he has denied ever being there. Dolan questions whether the DNA is Christian's, as the prosecution says it unequivocally is, and argues that even if it is a match, Becky could have previously picked up the card from his client. She carries it up to her house. She drops it on the ground. That doesn't prove he was there. It simply proves he touched a card. And they have to have something more than he touched a card to prove he was there committing homicide.

And if Dolan dismisses the DNA evidence, he says the gun evidence is almost laughable. What the argument was by the district attorney was he had access to the kinds of guns that were used. Does that make anybody guilty because they have access to the kind of gun that was used? With no ballistics, with no measurement, with no slugs, with no nothing. And Christian's father says that the entire argument is moot anyway, as far as his son is concerned, because the guns were with him in another state the weekend of the murders. They were with me. They got put in the trunk of my car. The defense believes that other people should have been looked at more closely,

like Javier Garcia Jr., that friend of Becky's who had first turned investigators towards Robert and Christian, saying they were all going hiking. So Javier says Becky says something. How do we find out whether or not that's just him making up something because it points things elsewhere? Some friends say Garcia Jr. wanted to be more than friends with Becky, and Dolan and Blumenfeld point out that while their clients' phones didn't ping up in the mountains where Becky lived, Garcia Jr.'s did. If you follow the route that he alleged that he took,

it puts him right by Becky's residence. Why was he driving in the area near the time that this took place? And I was told that Javier Garcia would not testify at the grand jury unless he was granted immunity. Why does he need immunity if he doesn't have anything to do with this? Dolan also points out that Garcia Jr.'s father is an investigator in the DA's office, raising questions about a possible conflict of interest. Interesting question about that. There was an investigation, by the way, and to be fair, we have to say the Attorney General came down and looked at it, said it doesn't look like there's any conflict of interest here. And I accept that for now, but I don't accept it forever. He was extremely forthcoming with

the police and was instrumental in their investigation. Former federal prosecutor Eduardo Roy represents Javier Garcia Jr. He says Javier's only role is that of key witness and not as a suspect. He was asked to testify before a grand jury. Yes, he was. Did he? He did not. Why? We were there and then it was decided that they didn't need him. Did you ever ask for immunity for Javier? I asked for them to be clear before I made him available that he was not a target or a suspect of the investigation. Why? Because I'm a very good lawyer, that's why.

Roy says the reason why Garcia Jr. was driving in the area before the murders was because he wanted to join the group going hiking, but Becky told him not to come. So he turned around and went home, and what the police did was track where he was. Police determined Javier Garcia Jr. was back on the desert floor at the time of the murders and ruled him out as a suspect, and Daniela Zermeno independently backs up Javier's story that Becky planned to go hiking with Robert and her friend the night of the murders. They had a definite plan to go hiking, the three of them.

The Friedleys believe the evidence, circumstantial or not, paints a damning picture. When you put it all together, it's them. I can only hope and pray that a jury of their peers will hear the evidence and come back with a guilty verdict. But will a jury ever hear this case? I call it the drive of tears. Almost every Saturday for the last six months, John Conrad Smith makes the hour-long drive to visit his son at the Riverside County Jail.

I just think about Christian and I cry all the way up and all the way back. Smith says Christian has missed a deployment with his unit and is all but certain to miss out on a huge life event. His wife Jackie is about to give birth to their first child. He's not going to be there for that birth. He's not going to be able to see that birth. And it's horrible. I mean, he's taking it hard.

And to see him in that orange jumpsuit, it breaks my heart. It breaks his heart. Robert Pape's mother, Kathleen, has also been having a hard time seeing her son behind bars. The thought goes through your head, like, will I ever be able to touch him? But there is another parent out there who wakes up each morning thinking these men are exactly where they belong. One of the first things I do in the morning is I get a cup of coffee and I go outside. I think about Becky and I think about those two boys in jail. After years of waiting, the Friedleys and Haywards feel they are one step closer to justice as they wait for a trial date to be set.

It's a nice feeling knowing that they're going to have to answer for what they did. If the jury finds them not guilty, so be it. If they found guilty, then they're going to pay for the crime that they committed. But the case was about to take an unexpected turn. about to take an unexpected turn. Eight years after the murders, the prosecutor assigned to this case walked inside this courthouse and asked that all charges against Robert Pape and Christian Smith be dropped. A bombshell out of an Indio courtroom today. Charges dropped. Really emotional. Yeah, I mean, I'm just happy. I'm numb. Yeah, I'm happy he's coming home.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to go get him right now. The DA's office offered little explanation for their decision. In a prepared statement, they said legal issues had arisen during the Grand Joy proceedings against Robert Pape, making it appropriate to ultimately dismiss the charges against both men. The system worked. I have faith in my son, and that's all I can tell you. The dismissal was so unexpected that neither man was in the courtroom that day. Christian's dad broke the news to him from outside the jail. You've been released. You've been released. Your mom and I and everybody, everybody's here. The baby's on her way. We're just waiting for you to get the paperwork done and for you to walk out that door. We're

all waiting outside for you, son. And just a few hours later, Christian Smith, with Robert Pape closely behind, what out together? Christian held his two-week-old daughter Zoe for the first time. I just want to be with my beautiful baby girl and my amazing wife and loyal family. My brother's over in the military. And I've been loyal to me throughout this whole thing. I just hope I can just move on with my life and put this behind me.

Robert's family was waiting for him at a location nearby. What was it like hugging your son when he walked out? Oh, my gosh. That first time holding him, you know, I just, I didn't want to let him go, but I had to scoot over and let her hug him, let his wife hug him.

But it may not be completely over for Papen Smith. The DA can technically refile charges against the men if new evidence emerges. Tanya Friedling has always been convinced that they had the right man. And I have thought about if they get away with murder, to know in my heart that Christian and Robert took my family from me and could get away with it. I hope that they have to think about this every day for the rest of their life, that my sister screams and pleads for help, find them every night in their dreams,

that my family's faces are something that haunt them for the rest of their life. Haunted, Tanya says, like her father, who can't even bring himself to look at pictures of Becky at times. I still don't look at a lot of these because it's hard to do. It is. It's very hard to do. I think it was easier just to kind of hide things and put them off at a different place. Our father is not the same person that he used to be. He's distant and reserved. I'm not the same person I used to be. He's distant and reserved. I'm not the same person I used to be.

I'm broken and I'm hurt. Everything hurts. We don't have a normal family anymore. Not only did we lose our family, we lost all of our baby books, memories, family heirlooms. Just the sense of what home is. We lost everything.

But Tonya and Drew don't want their mother and sister's memory to be lost too, and Becky known only as a murder victim. My sister was a beautiful person inside and out. And I want that remembered. I want to remember her for her, not for how she died. A new DA was sworn in in January. He said he would review the case with an open mind. Christian Smith has been honorably discharged from the Army. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.