48 Hours - The Shape of a Killer - Encore

Episode Date: December 22, 2019

Three murders in Austin, Texas, and little evidence to go on. Did a man testing a thermal imaging camera inadvertently capture the image of one of the killers? "48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher investigates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

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. Personally, I could sort of relate to Kathy Blair and just thinking about what that would be like as a woman to be home alone. That is the boogeyman story for every woman, right? It's awful.

An intruder is in your house. Yeah. Someone is stabbing you. What's happening, Mr. This is a case that sticks with you throughout your life. My name is Derek Israel. I was working in the homicide unit when this case occurred. My name's Kerry Scanlon,

and I was the lead investigator on the Kathy Blair murder. Kathy was larger than life. She's my big sister. I have always thought everything Kathy did was amazing. How would you describe her from a student's perspective? She was so kind, just believed in me wholeheartedly. It still makes no sense. Who kills a choir director? Who does that?

She's a monster. I get notified that there's been another murder. The victims are an elderly couple. They were the best parents you could ever want. They were just sweet people like anybody's grandmother and grandfather. Right from the get-go, it started sounding really familiar. Right from the get-go, it started sounding really familiar. It's so violent, and it's eerily similar to Kathy Blair's.

And when we saw the connection, we just continued to work the investigations together. Carrie and I both kind of came to the conclusion that there was a serial killer working here in Austin. I was out testing a thermal scope. I needed to get some video of some deer. Rob Leaf has this thermal imaging scope. It's a night vision rifle scope. So I saw the car pull up in park. I zoomed in with the scope, and by the time I had zoomed in, someone had gotten out,

walked over to the sidewalk. That is just unbelievably chilling. The last thing they were expecting was high-resolution thermal video. This video showed the murderer walking towards Kathy Blair's house. The actual killer? The actual colour. 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 reach the age of 10

that would still have urged 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. 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 bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans. Discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. These days in Texas, it seems like all roads lead to Austin. The sleek skyline of the Lone Star Capital glittering. A boomtown that welcomes newcomers chasing dreams. It's a city charged with life. An unlikely place to find tragedy as dark as the death of a dreamer like Kathy Blair. She loved life. You loved being around her. What were the things that were important to her?

She had, I think, a sense of justice, right and wrong. Kirsten Matheson is Kathy's younger sister. She was bossy. And even as kids in California, it was clear Kathy had a passion. She was always singing. She had a God-given talent, which was her voice. It was music that led Kathy to Austin. It was music that led Kathy to Austin. Kathy went to UT Austin to get her master's degree in vocal performance. She loved Austin.

But love didn't always work out for Kathy. She divorced twice. Still, her affair with Austin held firm. And by 2013, Kathy was renting a house on a quiet street here on Tamarack Trail. It was home. She loved the people here. She loved the vibe. In a city known around the world for music, Kathy Blair fit right in. She had melody and rhythm in her soul. but you wouldn't find her singing the blues here on Austin's famed 6th Street. Instead, she chose a more spiritual stage for her talents. Christian Choral Society was a positive social setting. The kids were kind to each other.

Barbara Sally's daughter was one of hundreds of students touched by Kathy's talent as a choir director and teacher. I think she lived, breathed, ate, slept music. Barbara, along with Kathy's student, Kristen DeGroote, met with us to share their memories of Kathy. She was so kind, just believed in me wholeheartedly, which was something I really needed. And for Kristen, Kathy was a role model. She and I were the same music needed to be in our lives or we would die. She was their teacher and their mentor. One of her friends called it the Kathy Nation.

The Kathy Nation? The Kathy Nation? The Kathy Nation. It was December 6, 2014. Kathy's son Joe was staying with her while waiting for his assignment from the Navy. After a night out, he came home to Tamarack Trail. What he found was shattering and echoed across that Kathy nation. I think my mom is dead. There's a lot of blood. She's been a real killer. She killed my mom. Joe, what's your mom's name? Her name is Kathy Boyer. This case was clearly different, really, right from the get-go.

Starting with the location. Oh, this is a nice neighborhood. This is a place where people, I think, feel safe. Up until this case, which would frighten and chill Austin and shock veteran detectives Scanlon and Israel. One of the first things I thought of, I'm like, why this house? Why this house? There's nothing that makes this house stand out from all the other ones.

This is the living room right here. Then, in Kathy Blair's bedroom... There's a full-size jewelry case right here. Large drawers. All the drawers have been pulled out and they're stacked up. So it's like someone dumped them out and then put them in a pile right here, large drawers. All the drawers have been pulled out and they're stacked up. So it's like someone dumped them out and then put them in a pile right here. Someone who had time to do that? Correct. A jewel thief who had time. Because Kathy Blair was already dead. This murder started right here on the bed.

The murder started right here on the bed. 53-year-old Kathy Blair lay alone, asleep in her own bed. She awoke to the ultimate nightmare. Yeah, Kathy Blair fought like hell. Choked, stabbed, and finally slashed across the neck. The wound is a fatal wound, but she still has time, you know, to put up that fight. She fought for her life. Kathy's here, and there's blood all around her. So much blood that it formed the timeline of a murder. There's a light switch. Now that light switch, we saw blood, like a blood swipe. That

told us that the perpetrator had come in here after the murder and switched that light on. There are more blood swipes on these drawers, That tells me the murder of Kathy Blair occurs before these drawers were removed. Words soon spread across Austin and across Kathy Nation. I said, no, that's not what happened. That cannot possibly be what happened. Was Kathy Blair the kind of woman who might have an enemy who would do that? No. She didn't have a malicious bone in her body. Why does someone come in here and murder someone in order to steal a little bit of jewelry? You know, it doesn't make sense. It would be the first in a hideous series of senseless events. It's just one of those moments where you're in disbelief. You think you're

living in a dream. This does not happen. But it did happen. And the killer left almost no evidence, no DNA. No fingerprints. No fingerprints. And no blood from the killer. No. Israel and Scanlon would need all their street smarts and then some, because just nine days later... I get notified that there's been another murder. Hot shot 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 defence 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 Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. 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. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. For Austin detectives, Israel and Scanlon, images of Kathy Blair's death were harrowing. Attacked in the middle of the night, and it was a really horrific scene. But there was no physical evidence from a killer who made virtually no mistakes.

And that meant there was no clear suspect. Then suddenly, the search for a suspect changed in a way no one could imagine. It was around 1.30 a.m. on the night that Kathy Blair died. One of her neighbors was out for a late-night walk. What he saw and what he did would give the detectives their first big break in the case. I was out testing a thermoscope. I needed to get some video of some deer, and we've got some deer up and down the street.

Rob Leaf lived a few short blocks from Kathy Blair. So it's a thermoscope, so it picks up a heat signature. Wow. It's like daytime. Except it was the dead of night, and Rob was only looking for deer. I saw the headlights of a car coming up. I saw the car pull up and park. On this street? On this street. Rob kept recording. This is video he recorded that night with a scope like this one. I zoomed in with the scope and by the time I had zoomed in someone had gotten out and walked over the sidewalk. You can flip the setting to red to see the image more clearly. Did you focus in on the car? I first focused in on the

person and turned left on Tamarack. Kathy Blair's street. The next day Rob flew to Las Vegas on a planned trip with old friends. Reading the news on my phone and saw a murder story. I clicked on it and I saw the address. Rob raced back to Austin. He checked the video of that stranger on his street. And I called Austin police. How important does the video end up being in Kathy Blair's case? Very, very important.

The video was tantalizing, but blank on images that did not give off heat. So you couldn't actually identify the man, a license plate number, or even if there was anyone else inside the vehicle. Still, there was one important clue. It gave us an idea of what kind of vehicle our murder suspect arrived at the crime scene with, and it was a sedan of some sort. These cops needed much more evidence. Then, nine days after Kathy Blair's murder, in another peaceful Austin neighborhood just 15 minutes from Kathy's home, they would get it. The victims are an elderly couple murdered overnight.

Viciously. Viciously. Sidney Jr., Johnny, and Brenda want their parents to be remembered as the outstanding people they were, not the grim headlines they became. people they were, not the grim headlines they became. Billy and Sidney Shelton were hardworking and happily married for 64 years. We were never rich, but not once did Daddy ever complain about it. Not once did Mama ever complain about it. A life well-lived and peacefully slowing down. Billie was 83. Her husband, Sidney, 85. These are sweet people that'll, you know, send you on your road with some cookies.

Home nurse Dow Catrola was making her scheduled visit on December 15th, 2014. I knocked, nobody answered. Front door was splintered. It was clearly had been busted open. Dow nervously headed to the Shelton's modest bedroom. Their room had been ransacked and then to the left I saw him on the bed and I ran. I just turned around and I ran. Sidney and Billy Shelton had been beaten and stabbed. The knife is still present in one of the victims. Yes, it's correct. Is it clear that it's also a burglary?

Yeah, I was seeing some of the same things. The same things found at Kathy Blair's murder scene, starting with an empty jewelry box. And again, the drawers were pulled out, they had been emptied and stacked. Three people had been slaughtered in their own beds. The crime scenes were eerily similar, and investigators were privately wondering, was there a serial killer loose on the streets of Austin? If word gets out that there's a serial killer, it kicks it to an entirely different level. So investigators kept their worst fears to themselves. But why would any killer target Kathy

or Billy and Sidney, who cops determined didn't even know each other? None of these people had any enemies that we could figure out. What is it that connects these people together besides the killer? Every lead was chased down. Then, almost three weeks after Kathy was killed, the name of a stranger surfaced, Tim Parlin. He'd done yard work at Kathy's house, and a friend reported Parlin was weird and rude. I go to our computer system. It was a simple and easy search. Tim Parlin had spent decades in prison. And he stole jewelry. And he stole jewelry.

Specifically jewelry. At night. Are you hopeful at this point? Yeah, I am. So this is the in-town suites. Tim Parlin, we're here, he's living at the time the murders happened. Israel and Scanlon went to look up the lifelong convict. The detectives snapped these photos of Tim Parlin.

Told him, we're homicide detectives. So he asked us a few questions as well. About the murder? Well, yeah, like, so how'd she die? Wow, that's bold. You know, stuff like that. He's sussing it out to see... What we know.

Cat and mouse. It is. Parlin spoke to the cops in the hotel's parking lot. But when they asked to see his room, he refused, claiming his wife was inside and asleep. And you drive away, and what's the conversation? I said, this is our guy. You did? Yeah, and Derek says, I don't know yet.

A return trip to the in-town suites just a few days later pays off. Parlin wasn't home, but his wife was. Explain what we were investigating. And she knew the Shelton's. His wife knew the Shelton's. Tim investigating. And she knew the Shelton's. His wife knew the Shelton's. Tim Parlin's wife knew the Shelton's from church. And Tim Parlin had worked in Kathy Blair's yard. It was tenuous, but it was a connection.

She gave us permission to search the apartment. Did you find anything? We did. A pawn receipt. This is that pawn receipt. For a piece of jewelry, a nugget pendant. And it turns out that pendant belonged to Kathy Blair. It was pawned on the same night that Kathy Blair was murdered. We found out that his sister had a green Toyota. Harlan had been using his sister's car, a green Toyota. Its outline appeared similar to the car in Rob Leaf's video.

And one caught on security footage approaching that Austin pawn shop less than 24 hours after Kathy was murdered. We took it. We had it towed. Towed and tested. On the passenger seat, traces of dried blood. Blood belonged to Kathy Blair that was in that car. Austin was on edge. Kathy Blair was found dead inside her home.

Hoping for an arrest. The wait for justice has been troubling for her students, family, and friends. My name is Hema Muller, and I'm an anchor at CBS Austin News. It was very, very shocking in the community and it was really unsettling. But now justice was closing in on one man, Tim Parlin. But you're thinking one guy still. Oh yeah. When Kathy Blair's blood was found in Tim Parlin's car, detectives Israel and Scanlon were convinced that he had killed her.

At that point, we're all jubilant. We're super excited. We got our guy. Parlin fit the bill perfectly. He had done yard work for Kathy Blair and was a career criminal with a long rap sheet of burglaries. Now I just need to question him, confront him. Hopefully he'll confess.

If he doesn't, we have hard physical evidence to tie this guy to the murder. Israel had Parlin arrested for an unrelated parole violation and brought in for questioning. Seemed like a pretty short and straight road to charging Tim Parlin with murder. It turned out it wasn't a short road and it certainly wasn't a straight road. The first step was to get Parlin to corroborate some of the details of Kathy's murder. I just straight up told him that, you know, we knew that he had killed Kathy Blair. What's his response? I didn't do it. And this was the thing he really liked to say. These hands didn't kill anyone. So the detectives asked him who did,

but Parlin wasn't giving up that information so easily. So after hours of this conversation, he finally says, okay, I'll tell you who it was. And that's when he said, Sean Gant Benalcazar. Who is that? That's what I said. Who is that? Did you think he was stalling? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

This sounded completely made up. And I knew as soon as he said it that he had screwed us. Because now he had to go chase him down. Because now we got to go hunt some mystery guy down and prove that he didn't commit a murder. With their lead suspect behind bars for now, the detectives reluctantly contacted Parlin's mystery man. Sean Gant Benelkazar had never been in trouble with the law. He had a degree in microbiology, was once a high school science teacher,

and seemed an unlikely acquaintance of a serial jewel thief. This guy lived in Galveston. He didn't cause any trouble. Gamp and Alcazar readily agreed to meet with them that night at the Galveston Police Department. Go see how the cops did. All right. We're investigating a murder in Austin and in particular we're looking at Tim Parlin as the person that we believe committed the murder. I'm completely in the dark on this. Who was murdered? He tells the detectives he barely knows Parlin, that he just met him a few months earlier when his sister began dating Parlin's nephew. So we started talking, OK, when's the last time you were in Austin? Well, I've been in Austin a few times over the last month.

He was in town during the weekends of both of those murders. So we started talking, okay, when's the last time you were in Austin? Well, I've been in Austin a few times for the last month. He was in town during the weekends of both of those murders. And on top of it, he was staying with Tim Parlin. The thing is, honestly, I want to help you guys out because this guy, wolf in sheep's clothing, basically, didn't tell me anything about his past. And I'm starting to feel like he set me up like a patsy or something. The detectives knew from Parlin's criminal record that he did have a history of being a master manipulator. Did Tim ever approach you about doing burglaries? And before long, the mystery man who initially said he knew nothing slowly started to crack.

who initially said he knew nothing, slowly started to crack. Gant Van Alcazar now says he was sitting in the car when Parlin went into Kathy Blair's house. So where are you sitting in the car? Passenger seat. Well, if he's sitting in the passenger seat, then why is there blood in the passenger seat? But Gant Van Alcazar had an explanation. He says Parlin came back to the car clutching a bloody pillowcase. Came back with a sack, had blood on it, threw it in the passenger floorboard, and I took a peek at it. It had jewelry in it, and I didn't want anything to do with it. When did you figure out that it had something to do with the murder?

The fact that it had blood on it was not a good sign. Then, about four hours into the interview, as he walked down a hallway, and he was walking in front of me, I looked up and it just, I mean, I got a chill because I was like, that's the same walk as the guy in the video. Remember that spooky thermal video that the cops think accidentally caught Kathy Blair's killer ambling down the sidewalk? You know, it was just the broadness, the deliberate steps.

I thought it was him. I definitely believed it could be him. Was it actually Gant Benalcazar and not Parlin who had gone into Kathy's house? We started pursuing, you know, the line of questioning along the lines of maybe he was in the house. Did he bully you into going into the house? I was scared and, you know, he was taking a threatening tone. He told me to go in the house and get the stuff. And finally he admitted, I did go into the house and get the stuff. And finally he admitted I did go into the house and I did steal the jewelry. Came in through where? The back door you said? Yeah it was open.

Okay. Open a lot. A lot. Yeah. I looked around and kind of prowled and snuck through quietly and I turned on a couple lights in rooms where I didn't see her. I found the room where she was, and she was fast asleep. That was the room her jewelry box was in. And so I opened the jewelry box, took the stuff out, put it in the thing. Maybe he went back? I don't know. But I didn't kill her. I told him that's impossible. Everything you said is true

except that it's not possible she was still alive when you left. And I explained that the person who turned on those light switches you talked about turning on. The person who removed that pillowcase you talked about removing. The person who removed those drawers

you talked about removing. That person had Kathy Blair's blood on his hands. So the person who did all that killed Kathy Blair. I kept pushing him for the reason. Something happened in that room when you were there. What happened? And that's when he said, I was standing there, I was looking at her. With no room left to lie, he breaks down.

She woke up, she lunged at me, grabbed the knife, started trying to wrestle it out of my hand. And then it was a struggle, and I stabbed her in the neck. The confession came unexpectedly. The witness was now the prime suspect. We had gone to clear the guy, and instead he confessed to capital murder. Gamp and Alcazar kept talking and claimed that after murdering Kathy Blair, he handed off her jewelry to Parlin. You didn't get to keep any of it?

No, he didn't give me anything. I got nothing. You're going to have to ask him where he fenced it. Sean Gamp and Elkazar appears to have gained absolutely nothing from this senseless murder. I've never met anyone who would go into someone's house and sneak in at night and murder them in their bed. For what reason? None. For their own gratification. That's it.

We're going to place you under arrest for capital murder. Detectives immediately read Gant Benalcazar his rights, but they still wanted to learn what he knew about the murder of the Shelton's. We started talking again and asking about the Shelton's. what he knew about the murder of the Shelton's. We started talking again, asking about the Shelton's. Try as they might, Gant Benelkazar wasn't talking anymore. Well, I wasn't there for that one. I don't know anything about that one. By this point, everyone is exhausted. So eventually, he just, he terminated the interview. He said, I'm done. Done. I wish this all had never happened. After the arrest, Detective Scanlon made this video of Gant Benalcazar on his cell phone.

His hunch seemed right. That's the moment that you think it's him. That's when I thought it was him. Two men are in jail in connection with the murder of a beloved choir teacher. Four days later, Austin police announced that they had made two arrests. 30-year-old Sean Gant Benalcazar of Galveston is charged with capital murder. 49-year-old Timothy Parlin is also expected to face charges related to Blair's murder. Sean Gant Benalcazar, he was a UT graduate.

He had no criminal record of any kind. How did he get involved with a crime like this? Tim Parlin had an answer. Later, while in custody, Parlin admitted to the cops that he had driven Gamp and Alcazar to Kathy Blair's house and to the Shelton residence on the nights they were murdered. And Parlin says he knew all along that Gamp and Alcazar had killed all three of them. Investigators now thought they understood what had happened. Sean murdered the Sheltons. Tim Parlin was a party to that murder.

He planned it. He facilitated it. He profited from it. He assisted in it. But you are 100% convinced that it was Sean who murdered that couple? Yes. Will he ever be brought to trial for it? It seems unlikely.

Unlikely because there was no direct evidence linking Gamp and Alcazar to the Shelton murders, and he would always deny he had killed them. Prosecutors would focus instead on building their strongest case, using Gamp and Alcazar's confession to convict him of killing Kathy Blair. But when Sean Gamp and Alcazar finally gets his day in court, no one could have anticipated what would happen next. Makes you worry because this guy cannot be out on the streets. Okay, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We're here to start the trial of the state of Texas versus Sean Gant Benalcazar. Three years after Sean Gant Benalcazar confessed to the murder of Kathy Blair, his trial begins. Did then and there intentionally commit murder by causing the death? You never know

what a jury's going to do, but it was a very, very strong case. You're all here today. Assistant DA's Andrea Austin and David Lovingston present the state's case. The man who sits among us in this courtroom, the defendant, Sean Gant Benalcazar, is Kathy Blair's killer. How hard was it to be there during that trial? It was really hard. There were some pictures throughout that I saw that I can't unsee.

There was a car that parked while I was on the walk. Kathy's neighbor, Rob Leaf, testifies about the video he recorded on the night she was murdered. By the time I zoomed and zoomed back in, someone was already out of the car and was crossing onto the sidewalk. That someone, the prosecutor tells the jury, was Sean Gant Benalcazar on his way to murder Kathy Blair. I just kind of looked through the rooms, you know, and I turned on a couple lights in rooms where I didn't see her. The prosecution's case hinges on Gant Benalcazar's rambling five-hour confession, where he describes breaking into Kathy's house. She woke up. She lunged at me. He had a knife out. They fought over the knife. And I stabbed her in the neck. He didn't just kind of confess.

He straight up confessed to all the details of killing Kathy Blair. That confession was vital to the prosecution's case. He gave enough details in this confession that were kept out of the media so we could show the confession was from the actual killer and that he knew enough about this crime to have either been there or done it himself. There is no question that this is a horrible, horrible crime. But Gap and Alcazar's defense lawyer, Ariel Payan, makes a bold accusation right off the top. That damning video? She just was trying to fight the knife away from me.

It was all a lie, a false confession coerced by detectives Israel and Scanlon. Now I'm just wondering, did they use a restroom? The defense tells the jury that during that five-minute bathroom break in the hallway, when Gant Benalcazar was not being recorded, detectives threatened him. Law enforcement went down there, we believe the evidence will show, with the express idea, plan, purpose, and intent to try to get him to confess to something he didn't do. They have to come up with something. They have to argue that it's an involuntary statement, but we obviously knew that wasn't true. The exact words were, this is important and you're not going anywhere until we

finish. Gant Benalcazar takes the stand to blame the cops for his confession. That if I didn't explain a reason for having done it, even though I didn't do it, I would get the death penalty. And he maintains that it was actually Tim Parlin who killed Kathy Blair on that chilly December evening back in 2014. Were you worried the jury might believe it? You always have to worry with juries. You don't get blood on your hands and put it on a jewelry chest. At closing arguments, prosecutors insist Gabb Benalcazar voluntarily confessed

and offered details about the crime only the killer could have known. I think it comes down to credibility. And hopefully are sitting there thinking, this guy confessed, why are we here? The case goes to the jury. When the hours started ticking away, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, you feel awful. Were you worried? Yes. The idea that he would get out is just unthinkable. I mean, Sean is going to kill somebody else if he got out.

I mean, Sean is going to kill somebody else if he got out. After 19 hours of jury deliberations. This time I'll declare a mistrial. A mistrial. The jury cannot reach a verdict. If one person held out, she didn't want to consider the confession. I mean, look, that's what this system is about. We're required to get a unanimous verdict.

We didn't get a unanimous verdict. How hard was it to hear that there was a mistrial and you would have to go through it all over again? Really hard. Yeah, that was tough. With a retrial in the works and Tim Parlin's trial less than a month away, prosecutors were worried. Could they get any jury to convict either of these men? Good morning. This man, Timothy Parlin, knew that Sean Gant would go in and murder Kathy Blair.

With Sean Gant Benalcazar's mistrial still fresh in her mind, prosecutor Andrea Austin is determined to put Tim Parlin away for life. He stands trial for both the murders of Kathy Blair and the Shelton's. He stands trial for both the murders of Kathy Blair and the Shelton's. In Texas, if you were part of the crime, then you were also guilty of that crime. You can convict him even if you don't believe he stepped foot inside that house. Because he was there and he participated. Correct. I'm going to ask you to find him guilty of capital murder. to find him guilty of capital murder.

Detectives were convinced Gant Van Alcazar had killed the Shelton's but had no evidence to charge him with their murders. So Tim Parlin would prove to be an easier target for prosecutors. Parlin admitted he drove Gant Van Alcazar to both murder scenes and the car Parlin was driving had Kathy Blair's blood in it.

Oh, he did much more than sit in the car. He's the one who targeted Kathy. He's the one, for whatever reason, said, hey, you know what, this would be a good person for you to murder. Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Parlin's lawyer, Keith Lowerman, argues that despite his client having confessed to driving Gant Benalcazar to both murders, there is no evidence placing Parlin inside the two houses. He never set foot in either one of these houses. And at the very end, you're going to realize that this man and those hands never participated in any murders. that this man in those hands never participated in any murders.

After a nine-day trial, the jury doesn't take long to reach a verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, Timothy Parlin, guilty of the offense of capital murder. Guilty. Parlin is sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the murders of Kathy Blair and Sidney and Billy Shelton. Five months later, Gamp and Alcazar went to trial a second time for the murder of Kathy Blair. The nerves were much higher the second round. Well, there's a lot at stake. There's a lot at stake.

The vehicle parked on the side of the street that wasn't in front of a house. Again, Rob Leaf's testimony is critical for the prosecution. And at some point, did you see an individual get out of that car? Yes, sir, I did. I want you to watch this. It was a struggle, and I stabbed her in the neck. Look what he does with his hands. He's retrieving a memory, right? Involuntarily, he's doing this. He remembers doing because he's the one who murdered her. The police wouldn't let me go. Once more, Gamp and Alcazar swears

the cops coerced his confession. And I come out of the bathroom. They keep saying, oh, we know you did it. There's no doubt you did it. And they keep saying it, keep saying it. And I just got worn down. This time out, the jury deliberates less than three hours. We, the jury, find the defendant, Sean Gant Benalcazar,

guilty of the offensive capital murder. We poured our emotions out into this case. It was justice delayed and, yeah, but delivered. But delivered. Like Tim Parlin before him, Sean Gant Benalcazar was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. We're pleased. We miss Kathy. This isn't going to bring her back. Our hearts are never going to completely heal. A few months after the verdict, I spoke with Gant Benalcazar via a prison video phone.

I wanted to ask why. Why would a guy who'd never been in trouble with the law suddenly turn into a vicious killer? Instead, with no evidence of any remorse, he repeated what he told the jury. That he was innocent, the cops had forced him to confess, and that Tim Parlin was the one who had killed Kathy Blair. When I went to go see him at 4 a.m., he said, well, we're going to go get breakfast, and drove me out to the place, and then said that he had killed her and told me about it. Tim Parlin confessed to you that he killed Kathy Blair? Yeah, that's right.

How could you have known the movements of the killer? Anything that I said was something that either, you know, Tim told me or I just made up. And not surprisingly, when I visited Parlin at a prison in Northeast Texas, Hello. Hello, how are you doing? And not surprisingly, when I visited Parlin at a prison in northeast Texas, he pointed the finger at Gamp and Alcazar and claimed he knew absolutely nothing about the murder of Kathy Blair. After Sean viciously kills Kathy Blair, gets back in your car and drives away, and he goes back to Galveston. He never said a thing.

Never said a thing. He never said a thing. Stone cold individual, actually. Right. You've been described as the master manipulator. That you talked him into doing it. My IQ is very low and I have a big heart. I believe that. It is. It's very low actually. And I have a big heart so I'm not the mastermind behind anything. You're just a big teddy bear behind bars? Yeah, pretty much. Rob Leaf is the accidental hero of this story, someone who never knew he'd be called upon to help solve a murder. And you ended up leaving the neighborhood. I did. Needed a change. I did, absolutely. I would not be where I am as a professional actor and musician without her influence. Kathy Blair's student, Kristen DeGroote, is moving to New York to pursue her dream of a career in music.

One of my greatest regrets is that I never was able to tell her that she did this for me. How proud do you think she would be of you? I hope she'd be really proud of me. They're just evil people. In the end, they're just two broken human beings who basically put a path of destruction through, you know, two families. Two families who will forever share the same tragedy. They were the best parents you could ever want.

I just miss her. And at the end of the day, she's gone, and I can't call her tonight. What do you think really happened? Watch more of Maureen's interviews with the two convicts at 48hours.com. 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.