48 Hours - The Sneak Attack On Katlyn Lyon

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

A mother goes viral on TikTok demanding justice for her murdered daughter. Erin Moriarty reports. 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

I wanted to say that I know everybody doesn't agree on sharing this. I feel like I'm lost. And just hoping that one day, Caitlin's story will help someone. I definitely needed somebody to be held accountable. I needed to tell Caitlin's story, you know. I needed people to know about her. She was beautiful, she was smart, and she loved to shop and dance. She had so many friends.

I always described her as glitter. She expressed her individuality through her hair. She always had different colors, and it was always so cute on her. I loved the purple on her. She used to travel for those music festivals. I mean, she's been all around the world. Yeah, the shuffling queen.

That's what we always say. She had the best sense of humor. She loved Melani. She loved her daughter. She was single. She, you know, she was getting a new apartment and she was starting over. I mean, did you worry at all about her safety there? No.

I thought, man, she's near me, you know. I mean, I never thought this would happen. Never crossed my mind. Okay, tell me exactly what happened. My roommate's daughter just came and looked me up in my bedroom. She told me that something was wrong with Mommy and that Mommy wouldn't wake up. Is she breathing? Yes.

No. I don't know. you get on here. Sheriff's office. I was woken up to a phone call. Do you know what time it was? 35 a.m. It was Jacob on the phone saying that Caitlin is unresponsive.

They're doing CPR and the EMS is there. My sister called. She's like, Sherry, get to Caitlin's right now. Something's wrong. And my only thought was, let me get to that baby. Who's up there with Melani? Where's the baby at? I grabbed her and she just like melted into me.

Yeah, it was pretty bad. The way the code of Virginia is, nobody can get in trouble for overdoses. They asked me, does she do drugs? Do I do drugs? Did you give her something? Does she take something? I was like, I don't do drugs. All the signs are looking for like an overdose.

The police were adamant that it was a drug overdose. And I'm like, she doesn't do drugs. We're taking off at this point. I've genuinely believed she's going to be okay. She had CPR, she was alive, she had a heartbeat. She was going to be okay. In the hospital, they even wanted to bring a chaplain in, and I was like, no, my child's not going to die.

I don't need a chaplain in right now. A tech came to me and walked me outside. She said, it wasn't drugs, someone hurt your baby. Who would want to hurt her? She loved everybody, and everybody. She loved everybody and everybody loved her, you know. She didn't have enemies. That you were aware of.

Yeah. I will never stop seeing my daughter's name, and I will never stop seeking justice for her. Erin Moriarty reports the sneak attack on Caitlin Lyon. I walk into the hospital, saw my daughter there, and I watched him to CPR, and I'll never forget that. On October 7, 2022, as Crystal Sale arrived at the hospital bedside of her daughter, Caitlin Lyon Montgomery, she knew the two people she needed most. And would you say your sisters have really stepped up for you?

Absolutely. I don't know what I'd done without my sisters. The oldest of the sisters, Sherry Cox, was taking care of Caitlin's then four-year-old daughter, Malani. while periodically checking in on Caitlin in the hospital. I knew it was bad. What did you think had happened to Caitlin? I didn't know. I called Sherry. The first thing she said is something was wrong with Caitlin, but they didn't know what.

Sherry told their youngest sister, Tina Hopkins, nearly 5,000 miles away in Hawaii. The 28-year-old Caitlin was unconscious, an engraved condition. You know, Sherry told me like, you have to come home. It's not, it's not good. I was just shocked that this was even happening and just confused. Especially when doctors told her that Caitlin sustained injuries to her neck and head. Any medical history? While first responders had initially thought Caitlin had suffered a drug overdose.

She's OD. Her physical injuries and the lack of drugs found at the scene. Indicated Caitlin was actually the victim of a violent assault. That she had been strangled. We were all, we were speechless, were baffled. Who would have done this? I got a phone call to take a strangulation report. Lead investigator, Robbie Burnett, with the Bedford County Virginia Sheriff's Office,

focused on documenting Caitlin's injuries. I saw two distinctive, marks parallel to each other on her neck. Since those marks weren't visible until after Caitlin had arrived at the hospital, Burnett says it helped timestamp the attack. It was very recent. Like when you say very recent.

Within an hour or so, most likely, when the call came in. So her apartment's on the second floor. Right on the end of the building. Yes. Shortly after learning about Caitlin's injuries, Investigator Michelle Alderson was sent to secure and process Caitlin's apartment, now a crime scene, one that had been disturbed by first responders, EMTs, and Caitlin and her roommate Jacob Piercy's dogs.

So my scene was not as exact as I would like my crime scenes to be. Investigator Alderson set out to find what could have caused the injuries on Caitlin's neck. She found a huge clue wrapped up in Caitlin's Comforter. It was a multiple charging cord adapter. Did they look like they matched what had been described on her neck? I would call them consistent, yes. With the cords found on the bed, Alderson suspected that Caitlin was attacked there. But she soon learned that first responders not suspecting foul play at that

time, had given the family permission to wash Caitlin's sheets and clean up. Doesn't that make it difficult to obtain DNA, fingerprints? Yes, yes. Investigators were unable to recover any DNA or fingerprints at the scene, including any on those charging cords. As they searched for evidence identifying Caitlin's attacker, doctors struggled to revive her. After 29 hours, Caitlin was officially declared brain dead the next morning, October 8th. I remember going to her. One of the only things I remember is telling I'm sorry that I couldn't protect her.

I can say that there are no words that have been invented to describe how this feels. It's excruciating. I just can't comprehend that she's gone forever. Like, I can't, I can't go there. Tina arrived just in time to help say goodbye. My instinct is just to take charge and fix whatever's wrong. That affects me greatly, that I couldn't fix it for my sister and our family. Tina documented the moment Caitlin was escorted to fulfill her final wishes to be an organ donor. Tina shared the video on TikTok.

My family and I have been through a tragedy. She and the rest of her family started posting photos and videos. I'm going to talk about my niece. Memorializing Caitlin. She liked music, right? I love music, specifically electronic dance music. Music that Caitlin had discovered with her older brother, Jake Lyon. And there was this like dance party type thing.

I know at the end of the night she ran up and like bear hugged me. She's like, I want to do this all the time. Why, what is it? Tell me, what is it that she took to? I think just the energy and the social element. She would draw a crowd. She loved life. She absolutely loved life. A life that had changed unexpectedly when Caitlin learned she was pregnant with Malani.

I mean, we were very supportive and was like, you know, we'll help any way we can. But the always independent Caitlin didn't need much help, says Crystal, even with Melani's father out of the picture and while working full-time as a restaurant manager. Caitlin was rocking it. She was rocking it. What do you mean rocking it? She was providing for her child. Caitlin's family now had to grapple with the reality that someone had intentionally taking her

from her beloved child. I still can't believe my daughter was murdered. She said, you're going to find whoever did this to my daughter. I said, there will be no stone left unturned. So who's the first person you're looking at? We definitely looked at Jacob Piercy, the roommate. With no sign of forced entry,

and being the only other adult in the apartment, Caitlin's new roommate, Jacob Piercy, who had called 911 reporting her injured, was an obvious suspect. Investigators told us that it was 99% sure he did it. But Tina says she suspected this man, Caitlin's ex-boyfriend Trenton Fry, whom she had broken up with 10 days earlier.

That was my first gut instinct. You first saw Trenton? I did. Trenton lived three hours away in North Carolina, so investigators gave him a call. He said that he was in North Carolina working the entire time. agreed to come up for an interview, appear to be cooperative. So focus intensified on Jacob Piercy,

especially when investigators learned what Malani said she witnessed that night. My brother killed my mom. Brother was the nickname she used for Jacob Piercy. Did you have anything to do with hurting Caitlin? Absolutely not. Everyone needs help with something. If investing is your something, we get it. Cooperators' financial representatives are here to help.

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Again, these videos are just. just for my sisters. So I'm not going anywhere today. Tina, you're not going anywhere today because your husband has stopped giving you lunch money. For Tina, Crystal and Sherry, making TikTok videos started as a fun way to connect their family. That changed after Caitlin's death. My niece was murdered. We don't have hardly any information. We felt wronged, and we weren't going to stop fighting.

In those agonizing early days, Krista was too deep in her grief to speak publicly. So Tina stepped up to post updates on the case. There is an ongoing investigation. When did you last see her? We were hanging out. Stop. We were out here watching TV.

That investigation centered on Caitlin's roommate, Jacob Piercy. We were looking at him pretty heavy at first. What do you mean? Meaning he was in our number one suspect at that point. In my mind, I'm just here to tell him what I can tell him, help him figure out what could have happened, what couldn't have happened. I was in full denial. But after being interviewed several times,

having his body photographed for possible defensive wounds and his cell phone confiscated, Jacob Percy knew he was in serious trouble. Were you scared you'd be blamed for whatever happened to her? Absolutely. You know, I'm the main suspect of something so terrible. We're still at a loss at that point because he's fully cooperating and we haven't called him in a lie yet.

What troubled investigators was four-year-old Malani's statement. She said she had seen Jacob killing her mother, but Burnett soon discovered that she had actually witnessed Jacob performing CPR. She actually did the motions with her hands of what Jacob was doing to her. Going like this. Yeah, that's a motion she made. To be sure, Burnett reviewed the 911 call. You can hear Jacob doing CPR.

You could tell he was definitely putting effort in. I thought I had done enough. But I think that's what tears me up the most. It's just I wasn't able to save her, you know. At that point, investigators began to look closer at Caitlin's ex-boyfriend Trent and Fry. They tried calling him in North Carolina a couple of days after their initial conversation, learned, he was unable to talk to them. He checked himself into a mental health facility.

And what did that say to you? He had some kind of break. Something happened to him, apparently. So investigators turned to Caitlin's friends to learn more about the relationship. Do you think he was the person he presented himself to Caitlin? Absolutely not. Hannah McDowell met Caitlin two years earlier, when she landed a job at the restaurant, Caitlin managed.

Sharing a love for music and dancing, they became fast friends and eventually roommates. They also shared their frustrations about the local dating scene in Bedford County, Virginia, which prompted them to look for love online. What was she looking for? Well, she wanted someone that was supportive and be a father to Malani as well and possibly get married. In January of 2022, when Caitlin connected with Trenton on a dating app, the tall fitness-obsessed and apparently successful North Carolina native

seemed to be marriage material. How had she described him to you? Well, he had his stuff together. She was excited to have a relationship with him. When Caitlin's Aunt Sherry met Trenton, she admit she was impressed. He told me that he owned a security company, and he owned his own construction company. We had talked about him doing my floors

because he had me thinking he was, you know, this awesome builder. Then eventually he was at the apartment all the time. Which made Hannah wonder how Trenton, who lived three hours away, could spend weeks on end at their apartment while also running two businesses. And when I would leave in the morning, when I would come home from lunch, when I would get home from work,

he would always just be on the couch. And she says over time, it seemed Kaelin wasn't leaving the apartment much either. She's quiet, she didn't hang out with friends. She was just very isolated. Did you get the feeling that it was because of him, that she wasn't going out as much, dancing as much? Yes.

And he would track her location on her phone. I feel like she was chained to him almost. I can't say that I liked him, but I can't say that I didn't like him. While Crystal had her concerns about the relationship with Trenton, Caitlin never confided that anything was wrong. She's always been so strong,

so I knew my daughter could handle herself. But Caitlin did express some frustration with the relationship to her Aunt Sherry. She said, I'm so tired of paying for everything. She said, if he's got to be a problem, all this money, I mean, these businesses, why does he have money? And I said, well, Caitlin, that's a red flag right there. More red flags appeared when he tried to convince her to move with him to North Carolina, where he said he would find them an apartment. In reality, he was not reliable and

wasn't fulfilling what she thought he was going to do. In early September 2022, Trenton admitted the truth. Ruth. He couldn't find an apartment because he lacked the credit and source of income to qualify. Caitlin called me from work, and she was screaming and crying, I mean, just like bawling crying. And she was like, he's a liar. He's lied about her thing. He doesn't have a job. Days later, Caitlin announced she was breaking up with him. She was done. She was done. So she cut him off. She did. She blocked him?

Oh, she actually blocked him, too. Blocking, yeah. And that's when Caitlin learned her friend Jacob Piercy was also looking for a place. And asked if he wanted to find an apartment with her and Melani. They finally found this one apartment, and we were so excited that they were going to be so close to us. While Caitlin was making a fresh start, it seemed Trent and Fry did not want to let her go. He was actually sitting in the parking lot of her apartment watching everything Caitlin was doing. Have you seen a big change in your sister?

She's just sad all the time. She has bags under her eyes now where she didn't happen before because she don't sleep. She's not sleeping. I woke up this morning and she was panicked. In the days following Caitlin's death, Crystal began sharing her grief with others on TikTok. I'll get a text message and for an instant I'll think that. an instant, I'll think that it's Caitlin. I end up seeing some of her

TikToks by accident. She was completely innocent. She didn't do anything wrong. Investigator Burnett was convinced that Trent and Fry had somehow gotten into Caitlin's apartment and strangled her. Why did Trent and Fry

kill the woman he said he loved? I think it's because she told him no and he couldn't take the rejection from her. Investigator Burnett now needed to prove it. We started looking at obviously more of his cell phone records tracking that history. We found that his phone pings were in the area of Forest Virginia.

Commonwealth Attorney West Nance was assigned the case. He says investigators were able to obtain Trenton-Fry's cell phone after he checked himself into that mental health facility in North Carolina. And that's how they learned that the device had started pinging off a cell tower in Virginia on October 4th, three days before Caitlin's attack. He wasn't just in Virginia. He was in at least the area of Caitlin's new apartment complex. Investigators canvassed the apartment complex and found two of Caitlin's neighbors who

remembered seeing an unfamiliar man sitting at a picnic table for hours. One snapped a photo of the stranger on the afternoon of October 6th, the day before Caitlin's attack. Who do you believe that is? Well, we've later determined it to be Trenton Fry. How close to Caitlin's apartment is that? Why there? So this is an elevated vantage point. It looks directly down on her building. Did Caitlin Montgomery have any idea that somebody had been watching her for days? No, no, ma'am. And does it appear that she wasn't just being watched? She was being followed and stopped?

Absolutely, yeah. Investigators learned two hours after that photo was taken, Trenton Fry's SUV was recorded by a surveillance camera, pulling into a gas station near the apartment complex. He was seen inside the store, now wearing, all black. It was around that time that Fry texted Aunt Sherry. He wanted to know if I still wanted my floors finished and I didn't respond back to him. I immediately called Caitlin. Well, she unblocks the number and tells him, do not call my aunt anymore. The text between Caitlin and Trent and Fry,

says prosecutor Nance, became heated. Fry made it clear he knew she was living with Jacob Piercy And he didn't like it. So there's an anger and jealousy underlying those text messages. He starts to call her a piece of . And tell her that karma is a bitch. Jacob Piercy says that Caitlin called him sounding frightened. At one point, she told me that she wanted to go to her mom's house and pick up her self-defense weapon that she has, her pistol.

Caitlin didn't go through with that plan. Later, Jacob, Caitlin, and Malani had dinner together and watch TV. Around midnight, Jacob says he heard a noise near their second floor balcony. Spread open the curtains real quick to look. I didn't see anything. Did you lock or unlock the sliding door? Yeah, I believe I locked it. But investigators later learned the lock on the sliding glass door was broken.

and they suspected that's how Trent and Fry gained entry. His Google searches revealed that he had looked up the layout of the unit, which they believed helped him find Caitlin's bedroom. I think it was an absolute brutal, sudden sneak attack on a then-sleeping Caitlin. Fry strangled Caitlin, investigators say, with those charging cords, while her daughter, Malani slept nearby. With her child laying beside her, I don't think it gets much worse. After Fry left, says Nance, Maloney alerted Jacob Piercy that something was wrong with her mother.

Trenton Fry's digital footprint from that morning, says Nance, gives him away. Mr. Fry started to Google breaking news, and specifically, he looked to see if he had any arrest warrants out for himself. There weren't any warrants for him at the time. But 13 days later, investigators have one in hand as they traveled to the mental health facility in North Carolina. I'm not stupid, I know you guys are here to take me in. Trenfrey agreed to talk to investigators and denied any involvement in Caitlin's death. He said he had checked himself into the hospital because the only person he had ever considered harming was himself. Knowing who I am, I could never hurt her on how much I care about her.

He did finally admit he had been in Virginia, but claimed he was only looking for a job in apartment, hoping that he could eventually convince Caitlin to get back together. I was trying to give her space, why I figured everything out. But when challenged with evidence that he was at her apartment complex... I'm missing pieces of time for like the last month. Trent and Fry claimed he had no memory of it, that he sometimes blacked out for long periods of time, including the hours around Caitlin's attack. Is there anything else that could contribute to your memory loss? Drugs?

No, no, I'm alcohol. No, you guys can test me. Investigators had heard enough. And took Trent and Frye into custody. And how did you feel that he had been arrested? Relieved that somebody was going to be, you know, held accountable. Trenton Frye was charged with first-degree murder and pleaded not guilty. There's no evidence, no hard evidence, nothing you can point to,

to prove that Trenton was ever in that apartment. Trenton Fry's defense attorney, Joseph Sanzon, insists his client didn't kill. Caitland. He prepared to argue a trial that there wasn't a murder at all. I don't think anybody tried to kill Caitlin. I think it was purely an accident. For that studio, your new foundation. Use PDF spaces to generate a presentation. Grab your docks, your permits, your moves. AI levels of your pitch gets it in a groove. Choose a template with your timeless cools. Flex those two. Draft design, deliver, make it sing. AI builds the deck so you can build that thing.

Learn more at Adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat. What's up, guys? I'm Candace Dillard Bassett, and you may know me from my time on the Real Housewives of Potomac or as a part of the latest cast of the traders. And I'm Michael Arsino, author of the New York Times bestseller, I Can't Date Jesus.

On our podcast, Undomesticated, we don't just say the quiet parts out loud for putting it all on the kitchen table and inviting you into the chaos. If you're ready for bold takes, real talk, and a little fun. come join us. Listen to and follow Undomesticated and Odyssey podcast,

available wherever you get your podcasts. Today marks two months. Two months from the last time that I told my daughter I loved her. Tomorrow marks three months. Today is 16 months. It's been 25 months since my 28-year-old daughter was murdered. As the months dragged on a waiting trial, Crystal and her family demanded justice for Caitlin,

on billboards purchased around town. We now have a new court date. This one should be it, and I pray to God that it is. Trent and Fry entered the courtroom in March of 2025, two and a half years after Caitlin's death. Her family was there. Her brothers were there. Her aunts were there.

CBS Roanoke reporter Laila Mitchell covered the trial. Prosecutors argued that Trenton Fri stopped, obsessed over and ultimately strangled Caitlin Lyons. Layla Mitchell reported on TV. Caitlin's family updated their growing community of supporters on TikTok, while prosecutor West Nance made his case to the most important audience of all, the jury. Well, of course, we called him later that same afternoon.

Mr. Fry told him I wasn't in Virginia. I was working in North Carolina. I didn't even know where Payton lived. Mr. Fry had given a number of inconsistent statements. What I would absolutely characterize as lies, because they were all in conflict with one another. And so they approached him again. And this time, he relied on it,

and he stutes out of a bad soap opera. Planned we had amnesia. I don't remember any of them. My whole head is being messed up. But Prosecutor West Nance didn't have to rely on Fry's memory, Not only did he have the digital data from Fry's phone placing him in the area, investigators had also discovered that his device made one very important connection after Caitlin and her daughter went to bed.

At 4.15, right after they go to bed, Trenton Fry's cell phone connects to the iPad, and the iPad shows the connection. Fry's phone had automatically connected. to Caitlin's iPad via Bluetooth, providing the only evidence as Nance that place Frye inside Caitlin's apartment. Now we have the two of them within feet of each other during the window of the injuries. And what about that sound that Jacob Piercy heard earlier that evening? Nance believes that it was Trent and Fry positioning this metal bench that belonged to their

downstairs neighbor on the brick wall under their balcony. The perfect extra separate route that Mr. Fry would need to get to that center of Florida. Trent Fry's defense attorney Joseph Sanzone concedes that Fry, devastated after the breakup, was in the area and admits that Fry was at Caitlin's apartment complex, but says he was only outside. I agree with the billboards in this case, justice for Caitlin. But it should happen after a review of all the evidence.

He points to the lack of DNA evidence at the scene and disputes the prosecution's iPad Bluetooth connection theory. We don't know where the iPad was. And that's because the iPad was recovered by investigators at Aunt Sherry's. house. She told them she grabbed it from Caitlin's apartment when she picked up Malani after the attack. But it was in the apartment, right? No, we don't know that. We just know it connected. Would you admit though that he's a pretty unlucky guy that he happens to be outside the apartment when someone else kills his ex-girlfriend?

Yeah, and whoever did it in that circumstance is the luckiest guy. found Caitlin Lyon unresponsive, took the stand to testify today. Jacob Piercy Sanzone argued was the more likely killer. What would be Jacob Piercy's motive for killing, Caitlin? I don't think anybody tried to kill Caitlin. I think it was purely an accident. Sanzone suggests that Jacob Percy strangled Caitlin in a consensual sex act, one that went too far.

I was furious. He degraded. He humiliated my daughter. Oh, I was so mad. The medical examiner found no evidence of any sexual assault or even recent sexual activity. This is not sex gone wrong. This is a murder.

A murder, Sanzone says Trent and Fry couldn't have committed, saying it was impossible for Fry to get into Caitlin's apart kill her and get away without waking anyone, especially the dogs. Isn't it possible that someone slipped into the apartment quietly, strangled her and left, and not alarm the dogs? Only Tom Cruise can do that as far as I know. I just can't imagine in real life. Sanzone is a witness whom he believes can help make his case.

Trenton Fry himself. himself. Did you know that Staples Professional can tailor a custom program to make running your business easy? With a Staples Professional account, you get one vendor, one delivery, and one invoice for all your must-haves. From tech to cleaning supplies and dedicated support from Staples experts who guide you on everything, from product selection and ordering to payment. Join today at staplesprofessional.ca and get expert solutions tailored to your business. That was easy.

Did you expect Trent to take the stand? I didn't. I was shocked. When Trent Fry took the stand to tell the jury his story, he appeared to have regained his memory of his actions that night. Do you do anything except for one? No, that's all I did was watch and walk around. If they don't hear from your client, they're not going to believe.

believe what you say. They need to hear from the person. I don't ever remember being in an apartment because I never was. Prosecutor West Nance challenged Fry's story. You were spying. Yes. You were gathering intel. Yes. But Fry remained adamant that he could not have killed Caitlin. And I could not have climbed that balcony without making a sound. I would have to be a ninja of some sort. But Nan says that gas.

station surveillance photo at Frye, taken hours before the murder, proves that he dressed the part. A ninja is known for being in stealth mode, and I think changing his outfit to black is him going into stealth mode. Don't let the excuses. Don't let the word play. Don't let the memory we ask confused. Friddy Fry's get into first of your room. But would that add up to reason? are both doubt for the jury. Until they have some proof that my client is inside that a part, nothing in this case would be proven. Not one thing.

Today, the jury will be told that they can either find Trenton Fry guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder, or they can find him not guilty at all. All of our nerves are on edge. So wish us all up today. It's going to be rough. We weren't going to leave, whether it was an hour or 20 hours. She didn't have to wait very long, did you? No.

The jury wasted no time today, deliberating for just about an hour. Because it came back so quick, I was very concerned that it didn't go the way that we wanted. Moments later, Crystal heard the three words she had been praying for. Guilty first degree. Trenton Frye was found guilty of first-degree murder in Caitlin's death. I was staring at his face the entire time, and he had no reaction when the verdict was read. Caitlin's family burst into tears. Having Trenton Frye be accountable for his actions does bring our family a little bit of peace.

Tina, flanked by her sisters and Caitlin's brothers, announced the verdict to their supporters. This entire process has been brutal for our family. Four months later, they returned to court for Trent and Fry's sentencing. This man didn't just take a life. He destroyed a family. Caitlin's brother spoke about the impact on Malani. He left my niece to wake up next to her mother's lifeless body. She now lives in fear of the dark and the monsters that come into her home while you're sleeping. I beg God too many times to count to please take me.

Please take me. Let me die because the pain is unbearable. Crystal was clear what she hoped for her daughter's killer. I was sentenced to a lifetime without my daughter. Melanie was sentenced to a lifetime without her mama, so he needs life. Mr. Fry, if you would stand, please, sir, is there anything you wish to say? Trent and Fry turned to Caitlin's family. I probably have not felt it on the level that you all have.

but I have felt it for her loss, and I truly am sorry for the loss that you have experienced. But he never took responsibility for Caitlin's murder. The amount of terror, the amount of horror inflicted upon this young, innocent woman is unimaginable. Responsibility that Judge James Uptake reminded him was his alone. Unimaginable to anyone. To everybody, except you. Because you were there. You saw it.

You caused it. I hereby sentenced you to imprison it for life. Life in prison. Even though we got the verdict we wanted, my daughter's still not here. If I could walk out of that courtroom and hugged her, then I would have won. Nobody won.

that everyone that has lost their lives to domestic violence, their names need to be said. Crystal's TikTok videos are now focused on sharing Caitlin's experience and hoping her story could help save someone else. I don't want another mother, another family to go through what we're going through. I have to be my daughter's voice and I have to help save other women. She and her family have embraced the man who did all he could to save Kate. Jacob Piercy. He's a hero. She needed him and he was doing everything he could to help her.

They opened up and welcomed me to Christmases and thanksgivings and hangouts and birthdays and cookouts and they really made me feel like part of the family. A family is still adapting in Caitlin's absence. See my head, it's burning up. Crystal enjoys a familiar role as Melani's grandmother. grandmother, while Aunt Sherry, who always shared a special bomb with Caitlin and her little girl, has become Malani's guardian. 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 sister to be upset because I didn't want her to think I was taking Melani from Caitlin, erasing Caitlin. I was like, absolutely not, you know. You are her mommy now. She knows she's got Mommy number one that had her. Caitlin, but you're her mommy now. Melani will get to know her first mom

through the journals she left. Your younger self would be so envious of where you are now. You're such a hard worker and such an amazing mother. Caitlin, as she saw herself. You're beautiful, powerful, and so strong. Her final entry focused on one subject, love. I am loved.

I deserve to be loved. I am worthy of love. She knew that she was loved. She still is. Very much, though. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.