48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Sneak Attack on Katlyn Lyon

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

48 Hours correspondents Anne-Marie Green and Erin Moriarty discuss the murder of Katlyn Lyon Montgomery and why her family turned to TikTok to demand justice. They explore why the case evolved from a possible drug overdose to a homicide investigation and why police first suspected Katlyn’s roommate. Erin also shares what it was like to be in the courtroom. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And today we are discussing the case of 28-year-old Caitlin Lyon Montgomery, who was found unresponsive by her roommate in October of 2022. When she later died of her injuries to her head and her neck at the hospital, the case evolved into a homicide investigation. And it sparked a social media fight for justice from her family. So joining me today's 48 hours correspondent Aaron Moriarty to talk about this case. Thank you, Erin. It's another tough one, Anne-Marie, because Caitlin's mother described her as glitter. She was such a loss. So it's a tough case to discuss.

Remember, everyone, if you haven't listened to the 48 hours episode yet, head on over to your podcast feed for the full audio version of it. You're going to find it just below this podcast. Go listen and then come on back. All right. So let's get into this case. In the early morning hours of October 7, 2022, Caitlin Montgomery was rushed to the hospital after her roommate, Jacob Piercy called 911.

Now, and this is a heartbreaking part of this. It was her four-year-old daughter who first alerted Jacob that her mom would not wake up. But Caitlin's home wasn't initially treated as a crime scene, and that's because first responders thought that Caitlin probably overdosed on drugs. drugs. At the hospital, doctors discovered the bruises around her neck. So my question to you is, how did first responders miss this? How did they miss that there was a possible strangulation here?

Amory, this was a new one for me because as it turns out, she had been so recently attacked that those bruises didn't come out and they didn't see anything. And because she was unresponsive And because she was young, they assumed she must have taken something. It must have been an overdose. And this case really serves as a reminder. And I hear this all the time of why every scene, death scene, has to be treated like a homicide. But the other side of this is, of course, that the first responders, she was still alive. Their priority was not that scene. They wanted to save her life. Yeah, and now that I'm talking it out with you, I can count the number of times that I've maybe hit my thigh on a table and said to myself, boy, that's going to bruise. And I know the bruise isn't going to pop up probably for another hour or so. And so when I think about that, it makes sense that the bruises would not have been visible by the time the first responders were there. You're absolutely right. In fact, in many strangulation cases, I mean, there may be no bruises. at all or they may be internal and not show up on the outside. And this was an attack that was very quick. She was probably asleep, so there were no defensive wounds. But those bruises did become visible at the hospital. And I thought it was really interesting that actually those bruises helped a lot in terms of creating like a timestamp for the attack. The fact that the bruises

didn't immediately appear, actually in a weird way, helped the investigation because it helped the lead investigator to determine approximately what time the attack happened. And what they believe is that it happened about an hour before Jacob Fiercy called 911, which would make it somewhere between 4 and 5 a.m. And that becomes very important during the trial. Mm-hmm. Do investigators know where Caitlin's daughter, Malani, was when the attack happened? Oh, this is so sad, yes. She was in bed with her mother. Hopefully, she won't have any memories if she saw any of it. She was just four years of age when this happened. But because she was there, she was either awakened by it or awoke on her own right afterwards. And thank God that she ran to get Jacob. Because to be on, honest, if she had not gotten Jacob right away, those certainly the bruises would have appeared, but they might not have been able to figure out exactly when she had been murdered.

So after Caitlin dies of her injuries, investigators almost immediately zero in on Jacob Percy, her roommate. At one point, they actually tell Caitlin's family that they're 99% sure that it's Jacob. So what made them sort of pivot from being 99% sure that it's the roommate to looking at, well, what could that 1% be? Well, I mean, there's a reason why investigators first looked at Jacob Percy for one reason. He was the only other adult in the apartment. It was Caitlin, her daughter, and Jacob Piercy. There is no sign of force entry. This was actually Jacob Piercy's first night living in the apartment. He had just moved in the evening before she was attacked.

And they learned that he had tried to ask Caitlin out. And so they're thinking, you know, maybe she spurned him. But on the other side of that, you know, he was so cooperative and handed over his phone right away and wanted to do whatever he could do help out the investigation. And that just didn't fit with someone who was trying to hide what he had done. And I should point out, they're also hearing from the family that there was somebody else that the family suspected. But I have to tell you, they were looking hard at Jacob Piercy and he knew it. He was scared. He was. Yeah, you know, I felt I felt for him, but he looks a little suspicious.

The investigator, which I thought really helped him, before they really moved off of Jacob, he went back and listened to the 911 call, and you could hear that Jacob was trying to do what he could to save her life. Right. So it did make investigators finally look at somebody else. Right.

And you mentioned that her family was mentioning, hey, there is someone else you should look at. Investigators start looking at Caitlin's ex-boyfriend. His name is Trenton Fry, and he's got a motive. Because 10 days before the attack, she dumped him. She had discovered that he was really kind of overplaying this idea that he was a successful businessman. And he spun this whole story about who he was and what he did for a living.

And so she was no time. She breaks up with him. She blocks him. You know, Aaron, the investigators and the prosecutor, they're really kind of characterizing this as a case of domestic violence. I know you've covered many domestic violence cases. When women leave their partners, they are particularly vulnerable. You know, I've covered too many of these stories, Anne-Marie. And if there's anything that viewers and listeners take away from this story, I want it to be that.

And that certainly seems to be the case in Caitlin's case. So Trenton Fry on paper looked like the perfect guy. He had done a lot to promote this image of himself as the owner of security business and construction business. And he apparently, according to the prosecution, was very upset when Caitlin held him accountable for the lies. you know, when it turned out that he may have had those businesses, but he wasn't making any real money. He didn't have good credit. And she was upending that image that he had created. And there's one other, I think, important point.

We find out later that that Caitlin wasn't the only woman in his life. He had other girlfriends. You're kidding me. Yeah, no, it's true. And apparently this fact. that Caitlin could walk away so easily, according to the prosecutor, was enough to make him angry. See, to me, that's, you know, those, one of those red flags that this is not about love. This is about ownership. That's certainly what the prosecution believes was the motive.

So, you know, Fry, of course, tells investigators he wasn't anywhere close to Caitlin when this attack happened, that he was hours away, he was working in North Carolina, except they find some pretty solid evidence that he wasn't. For one thing, they noticed that there were cell phone tower pings that occurred in Virginia. When he had told investigators he was in North Carolina, and those pings started three days before the attack. And then another interesting thing is that two of Caitlin's neighbors saw an unfamiliar man sitting outside the apartments. And one neighbor was so scared of this guy that she actually went home to her parents. So he must have been sending off really creepy vibes. And the other person actually took a picture and it's time stand on October 6,

which is a day before she was attacked. Then we get to what investigators uncover. with the browser history. They figure out that he's been actually looking at the layout of her apartment. And that is very helpful because this is a case where you have to wonder, how did he get into the apartment? Her apartment was on the second floor.

There isn't like a fire escape or anything. So you're wondering that. And how was someone able to find her room so quickly? Kill her. Get out. and get away. I'm in a very short period of time. So that layout really mattered because it showed that he was trying to figure out where everybody was in the apartment.

And he had, as you point out, Emery, those three days sitting out there. So I think the prosecution's theory was that he was outside looking where the lights were and could figure out where was her bedroom as opposed to Jacob Pierce's. I do find kind of that part of the case challenging that he was able to slip in and slip out without anyone noticing, without making noise. And there are dogs in the apartment. Amory, that was, I had the biggest problem with that because dogs bark at everything. Now, I understand why Caitlin's dog might not have barked because Caitlin's dog knew Trent and Fry. But what troubled me was that there are also two dogs in Jacob Piercy's room.

But the prosecutor says those dogs were in a closed room with Jacob. Jacob wasn't being threatened. And so there wasn't a reason for the dogs to bark. And the other thing is, you know, often it's very difficult to disturb a scene without leaving something behind. and investigators found nothing that really placed Frye inside Caitlin's apartment. That is true, and that was the strongest argument that the defense leaned on at trial. But that scene was so contaminated by dogs and people and first responders and made it more difficult for investigators later on. Now, the only real evidence that pointed to Trent and Fry being in the apartment is this time

when Trent and Fry's phone connects to Caitlin's iPad, which is very damaging. And the prosecution uses that to say he had to be in the apartment to make that connection. But what the defense argued was, how do you know that iPad was... actually in the apartment at that time because when Caitlin's aunt came to the scene, when they first thought it was an overdose, Aunt Sherry took the iPad home with her. And that's where investigators got it. When investigators sort of confront Fry with the evidence that they have about allegedly being in Caitlin's apartment, he claims he has no memory of it. And he starts to talk about, you know, he has periods of blacking out. We've heard this before. And

Erin. And Amri, if we've heard it a lot, think how often the investigators have heard that. Everyone needs help with something. If investing is your something, we get it. Co-operators' financial representatives are here to help with genuine advice that puts your needs first. We got you. For all your holistic investment and life insurance advice needs, talk to us today. Co-operators, investing in your future together. Mutual funds are offered through Cooperators' Financial Investment Services. Inc. to Canadian residents except those in Quebec in the territories.

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Drive design, deliver, make it sing. AI builds the deck so you can build that thing. Do that, do that, do that with acrobat. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with acrobat. October 20th, 2020, 22, Trenton Frye is charged with Caitlin's murder. And he pleads not guilty. Now, before Trenton Fry's trial even began, Caitlin's mother, Crystal, her two aunts, Sherry and Tina, they took to social media.

They started posting videos on TikTok to talk about the case. And it's definitely something that we've been seeing. whether it's the families of victims wanting more attention on a case that hasn't been solved or wanting more attention on a suspect who has been charged. I just did a case involving Molly Bish and her sister used TikTok to try to get new tips and new evidence. So yes, it's happening all the time. In this case, though, as reporters, you really get a sense of what this family went through in a way you couldn't any other way. way. Caitlin's mother, Crystal, happens to have two sisters, and these women all are very supportive of

each other. And so when Crystal was having difficulty grappling with her pain and her loss, her sisters come through in the way they support her is on TikTok and telling people what's happening and how we have to have justice for Caitlin. You know, they really were pushing for that. a lot of these videos really brought Caitlin to life. Like she pops off the screen. Oh, she does. I often feel this, but I felt this in particular in this case that I wish I'd known Caitlin Montgomery.

As I mentioned, her mom called her glitter. And she does remind you of glitter. She was very adept at a dance called shuffling. I was not familiar with it. that before I start on this story. It's this very, very quick step dance that Caitlin had learned from her brother. And remember, Caitlin Montgomery was this tiny little thing. And so really what you see when you see videos of her are just her little feet moving, moving, moving, and so she does pop. Yeah. Trenton Frye also had support from his family. Trenton Frye, he has a sister who clearly

loves him. And I think she felt she had to defend him if there were all these TikToks pointing the finger at him. And so when the trial started, there were a lot of TikTok videos that she produced to say, wait a minute, you know, maybe he didn't do it. Here's why he didn't do it. Why are we looking at him? He actually takes the stand in his own defense, which is, as we've said every time it happens, it's unusual, despite the fact that it seems to happen more often than not on 48. hours, it's not, it's not normal. It is not. You know, the general view of defense attorneys is you do not put your client who's standing trial for murder on the stand. But what I've heard in this case is that this particular attorney often puts clients on the stand. And he said to me that he felt in this

case, Trenton had to take the stand, that the jury needed to hear from him. And Trent and Fry had to make that decision as well, that he was the one who would take the stand and he wanted to. The defense tried to raise doubt during the trial by suggesting that Jacob Piercy had been the one who strangled Caitlin because of some sort of consensual sex act that went too far. I understand the role of the defense. But just kind of personally, it felt a little icky to kind of throw this out there. I have to agree with you, Amory. The defense often, and certainly has the right to raise reasonable doubt where the defense attorney feels its best. What's wrong with that is the defense knew that there was evidence that contradicted it. The medical examiner actually tells,

testified that there was no evidence that she had had recent sexual activity. So I was troubled that that would be raised because it probably wasn't going to be enough to sway the jurors when there was no evidence of it and they heard that. But it did hurt the family, particularly Caitlin's mother, was so upset. And so that one, oh, I struggled with. The defense has the right to do it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing to do. Mm-hmm. So it doesn't take the jury long to come to a conclusion here. They're only deliberated for about an hour before delivering the verdict. Trent and Fry was found guilty of first-degree murder and Caitlin's death. Four months later, they returned to court for Trenton Fry's sentencing.

Erin, you were there for the sentencing. What was it like in the courtroom? Well, of course, I really wanted to go because the defendant might say something accepting responsibility or at least apologizing or something that might give some peace to family members. But in this case, he accepted no responsibility for it. So it upset, I think people belonging to Caitlin's family, but it really upset the judge. And I think you need to hear it for yourself because it really shows and explains why the judge ended up sentencing him the way he did.

This murder was as cold-blooded, premeditated, and calculated as any I've seen. The manner of death was strangulation. Death was not instantaneous. the amount of terror, the amount of horror inflicted upon this young, innocent woman is unimaginable. Unimaginable to anyone, to everybody

except you. Because you were there. You saw it. You caused it. I hereby sentenced you to imprisonment for life. Because, in my opinion, a sentence for anything less would be less than what you justly deserve.

You could hear people responding in the courtroom. I think it was from both sides because I know that Caitlin's family, there were tears, but there were tears on the part of Trent and Fry's family too from all appearances, and certainly they testified on his behalf, support him. But this was a judge who had been both a prosecutor and then a judge for 47 years,

and you would think had seen everything. And this case really set him off, as you can tell. That gave me chills hearing it again. Melani, she is with Caitlin's aunt now. But why is she not living with her grandmother, Caitlin's mom. Aunt Sherry has always been the mother hen of the family. She's the oldest of the three sisters. And she had a very close relationship with Caitlin and Melani. And so at this point, she is raising Melani.

But Crystal is all good with that because she can see her granddaughter any time she wants. And I think from the family's perspective, they all. have said this is definitely the right way to do it. And you could just see she is blossoming as a child. And I think we have a little bit more sound about how she's doing. There were moments in the beginning that, you know, it was heartbreaking, but we do everything we can to keep her busy. And she's just a happy little girl. What does she call you? She calls me Mama now, Mommy. Was that hard for you at first? Yes, because I didn't want my son. sister to be upset because I didn't want her to think I was taking Malani from Caitlin and erasing

Caitlin and I'm not trying to do that. But how can I tell Malani not to call me, Mama, when I'm doing everything, you know? She's used to being with me. I was the first one to be at the apartment to get her. And from that day on, it was like I've been her person. It's like I rescued her. And she has clung to me. she feels safe with me. And the way we have it works for us. This is a story of a wonderful, wonderful, warm family that lost a very important member and they are trying to get through it and make it the best they can for her daughter. It's inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time.

Erin, it's always great talking to you. Thank you so much. Thanks, Amory. Thank you.