48 Hours - Vegas Heat

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

On December 14, 2005, the charred corpse of a young woman was found in a burned-out Jaguar on a Las Vegas, Nevada desert road. The car was registered to Kelly Ryan, who was married to Craig Titus, and both were stars of the body building world. Craig and Kelly claimed their car had been stolen the day before by Melissa James, their 31-year-old live-in assistant and a dancer, who was headed to New Jersey to spend Christmas with her mother. Melissa never made it to New Jersey. “48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 9/18/2010. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.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. Four o'clock in the morning. The report was a brush fire, a possible brush fire on the Sandy Valley Road. We have so many car fires down there people not

not wanting to make the payments anymore on their cars so they take them down there and burn them up on that road the car was on fire from the back seat all the way to the front seat, all the way to the front. And then I got my big spotlight. I could see something in the trunk. And there was a body in it. These things that these people did to her, the beauty that they took out of her, it was just unimaginable what it must have been like. I saw what looked to be a human body that was curled up in somewhat of a fetal position. The firemen that had first arrived at the scene had recorded the license plate numbers.

We were able to determine that the car was registered to Kelly Ryan. Kelly Ryan was incredible. There is nobody like her that's competed in fitness. Congratulations, Kelly! I never would have imagined that things would have ended up this way. We're in Vegas. We play the odds. I never would have imagined that things would have ended up this way. We're in Vegas. We play the odds. You expect it to pan out one way.

Sometimes you get a curveball. I was expecting to have to tell her husband she was deceased. Well, we knocked on the door, and she comes to the door. She identifies herself as Kelly Ryan. I'm thinking, if you're Kelly Ryan, who's the body in the car? Vegas Heat, tonight's 48-Hours Mystery. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus

in the Wondery app. 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 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 Informants 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. We're in the receiving area for the Clark County Coroner's Office. That charred body was placed on this gurney and then was taken into this room. Was there a recognizable face on this body? Unfortunately, there was not.

Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy had a mystery on his hands, a charred corpse discovered on Sandy Valley Road. So you have a body that is burned beyond recognition. You know it's female, but you have no idea who this is. That's correct. Fingerprints were not a possibility because of the burning of the body. Facial recognition was not a possibility. He named the body Sandy Valley Jane Doe. It would take weeks to make a positive identification. It was found that the face was covered with duct tape.

Duct tape? Duct tape. So the next question is, why would that occur? I can tell you that there was evidence that there was some type of an accelerant used. would that occur? I can tell you that there was evidence that there was some type of an accelerant used. An accelerant, like lighter fluid, used to start and spread the fire. In our investigations, the sooner you can identify your victim, the sooner you can identify your suspects. It was dawn on December 14, 2005, that Las Vegas homicide detectives Robert Wilson and Dean O'Kelly came upon the smoldering car.

But this is as it was. The whole dash was burned away. The steering wheel was completely consumed. Fire investigators that came out to the scene told us that we were looking at a fire in excess of 1,200 degrees. I certainly believe that the objective is not to destroy the vehicle, but to destroy the body in the trunk. I'm glad we're pretty sure she was dead when that happened.

That'd be a terrible way to go. Knowing that the plates checked back to Kelly Ryan, detectives headed to her house. And that's when Detective Wilson got his first surprise, one of many to come. So I just went ahead and I knocked on the door. She says, well, I'm Kelly Ryan. Kelly Ryan, one of the most famous fitness athletes in the world.

She was an amazing athlete. Her nickname was Flying Ryan. Megan Foley trained with Kelly and was her best friend. She was Flying Ryan. She would fly through the air, do crazy different things in the air that nobody else could do. Kelly was born to be a star. Stronger than spinach because I eat spinach. Kelly had once been on the U.S. gymnastics team, trained by legendary Olympics coach Bella Caroli. This is a great sport because it's a combination of everything. In a 1996 interview, Kelly described what helped make her a champion in her sport.

You can be athletic, you know, and there's a lot of passion in the sport. And I think that comes through in our routines and the way we carry ourselves on stage. Back at Kelly's house, still trying to figure out who's in that trunk, Detective Wilson was in for another surprise. Craig Titus takes the head... Craig Titus, Kelly's muscle-bound husband. A champion in his own right, Craig Titus was known as the bad boy of bodybuilding. It's Craig Titus. Craig was such a star, he was hired by Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil.

His arms were as big as my legs. He's just a monster. To whip the hard-partying rock star back into shape for a special aired on VH1. Good workout, baby. I mean, he was like, he was it. He was the guy. You know, he was the rock star of the bodybuilding.

And this is coming from a rock star. There you go. After meeting Craig Titus, Detective Wilson asked Kelly if she knew where her car was. She said, no, I don't. I think maybe our assistant took it. And that was the first time that we heard anything about someone named Melissa. Did Melissa have a last name? Yes.

Melissa James. Melissa James. Melissa James, Kelly and Craig's 28-year-old live-in assistant. Kelly told detectives that Melissa had just left Las Vegas the day before, heading to New Jersey to spend Christmas with her mother. She didn't want to stay in Las Vegas for Christmas. She was a family girl. She had to be with her family. Maura James is Melissa's mom.

On the morning of December 14th, she went to Newark Airport to pick her up. So I got there and I parked and I went into baggage claim and I didn't see her anywhere. I think everybody was calling voicemail, voicemail, voicemail, voicemail, probably until the box was full. Samantha Anderson was trying to reach her best friend.

Desperate, she spoke with Melissa's mom. She said, no, she didn't get off her, she didn't get off the airplane. Melissa was missing. I just had no idea where she could be or what could have happened to her. I was calling emergency rooms. What about calling Craig or Kelly? I did call Craig a couple of times and left two messages. Three days had passed.

Maura was growing frantic. She'd been told about the body in the car. It was over at the morgue, still unidentified. Then, Craig Titus finally called back. You must have asked Craig, where's Melissa?

He said that the police had come and talked to him and that he didn't even think it was her in the trunk. Craig told Maura he was sure Melissa was alive. But then I thought, who's in the trunk then? And where is Melissa? Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every

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that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the desert, Kelly Ryan continued to insist to police that she didn't know where her roommate Melissa James was. So then we began to ask them, okay, who is Melissa? She was a beautiful person. Samantha Anderson was Melissa James' close friend. She's always been the type of person who can walk into a room full of 20 people

and not know a single person and walk out with 15 of them, they're best friends already. Everyone knew Melissa loved dance. She did have a natural grace. Her mom, Maura. Especially for the ballet, she had all the moves. She just loved it. At just 19, Melissa opened her own dance studio.

She had danced her whole life, and that was her dream to grow up and teach people, these children, how to dance. Hello, I just want to say thank you for coming. It looks like we lost our crowd for awards ceremony. Melissa was in her mid-20s when she first met Craig Titus at a bodybuilding competition in Panama City, Florida in 2001. Melissa introduced him to Samantha Anderson. What was it like to see Craig Titus for the first time? He was huge. He was massive. In a cool way or a freakish way? Both. You know, like, that's kind of cool, but wow, that's big. Last second preparations for Craig Titus.

Melissa was fascinated by the bodybuilding world. She was also attracted to Craig. Samantha says they began a long friendship. She was very proud that she knew him. He was impressive to her. Here's this guy, he's wealthy, he's big, he's from Vegas guy he's wealthy he's big he's from vegas he's you know he's got talent but in 2005 melissa fell on hard times and lost her dance studio craig invited her to las vegas to help run a new clothing store he and kelly wanted to launch you

know they have this big house with extra rooms. She always had a good time with Craig and Kelly, so, I mean, those were her friends. Yeah, she didn't have much money. So Melissa moved in with the bodybuilder and his wife, the fitness champ. She loved Vegas. She did. It was completely her style, the glamour of it. She always told me, you have to see it. It's so beautiful.

But Samantha worried that Melissa was being drawn into life in the fast lane. I know that the person that she was, she started changing when she met them. Craig Titus loved Vegas nightlife. Everyone knew he used steroids, and he shared shared them with clients like Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil He would shoot me with with steroids and human growth hormone and you know all that stuff So obviously, you know that he was he was really into that But Craig and Kelly were also known to use illegal drugs cocaine and painkillers. Do you believe that Craig Titus introduced Melissa to a world of drugs?

Yes, I do. Months went by in Vegas. The clothing store Melissa was going to manage never opened, and tensions began to rise between Melissa and Kelly. She did not like Melissa at all. Kelly's best friend, Megan Foley. Kelly and Craig's marriage was definitely on the rocks. They were having issues left and right,

and obviously a lot of that comes down to the fact that Melissa had moved in. Kelly was already insecure about her looks and at Craig's insistence had multiple plastic surgeries. Take a look at the dramatic change in her appearance over the years. You see this athlete that's so strong and so wonderful yet when it comes to her marriage she was the weakest person on this planning. She would just roll over and allow him to do anything that he wanted including bringing Melissa a beautiful younger woman into their house there were whispers of an affair between Craig and Melissa Kelly was at her breaking point did Melissa ever say that she and Kelly would argue not really but it was getting a little weird towards the end and she was getting she

wanted she was ready to come home but Melissa never made it home and now Craig and Kelly accused her of stealing their car the same one found burning in the desert so Craig and Kelly are telling you they think Melissa stole that Jaguar. Right. And that's not all. This is Melissa's room in here. This was Melissa's room, except it didn't look like this. It was completely trash.

The couple led detectives into Melissa's messy room to show them this debit card, which they claimed Melissa was using to steal from them. They said this is the card that Melissa had. They were really intent on me focusing in on this card. And lucky for us, because that card later in our investigation became very significant. As you leave the house after these interviews, what are you thinking? Now I'm thinking Melissa James is the one that's probably in the trunk of that car.

And I'm thinking that one or both of them may have had something to do with Melissa's death. We were a long way from proving it at that point. After detectives left, so did Craig and Kelly. They locked up their home and went

into hiding. Craig and Kelly came to my house after the police left their house. Jeff Schwimmer, a wealthy businessman who retired young in Vegas, was a close friend of Craig's. Did Craig ever tell you there was a jealousy between Kelly and Melissa? Kelly did not like Melissa. According to Craig, she did not like Melissa at all. Schwimmer wouldn't allow them

to stay the night so craig and kelly moved on to another friend's house mandy polk kelly came in and just wrapped her arms around me and started crying mandy was a fitness athlete who sometimes trained with kelly she was renting a house from craig titus she said homicide was renting a house from Craig Titus. She said, homicide was at our house this morning. They found our car burned in the desert. I was trying to put the two together. What does homicide have to do with your car? How did it get there?

Why are you crying? It was very strange. As Craig and Kelly were figuring out their next move, detectives got a break. They discovered Kelly's debit card was last used at Walmart. And guess what

Kelly bought. Seven bottles of lighter fluid. Lighter fluid? Lighter fluid. Barbecue lighter fluid. Kelly then takes the purchase out to her Jaguar, which was soon to go up in flames. Helping Kelly is someone who looks a lot like Craig Titus. It was incredibly good luck for us and bad luck for them

that we were able to obtain that video. The Vegas cops were on a roll, but they were about to discover something even more shocking that would lead to arrests on the other side of the country. 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, early and ad-free, with a 48 began building a murder case against the couple. building a murder case against the couple. The DNA tests were still out, but police believed the body in that car had to be Melissa James. Come here, buddy. The most startling piece of evidence came from Megan Foley, Kelly's pal, who went to police with an astonishing story.

an astonishing story. Megan told police she was invited to the Titus house the night Melissa James went missing. Craig answered the door, and I was like, where's Kelly? And she was upstairs in her bathroom, drying her hair, acting totally normal and putting on makeup. Megan said the couple began to talk about their problems with Melissa, accusing her of stealing from them. But Craig said the problem had been solved.

He would start joking around, oh, she's never going to bother us anymore. She's not going to hurt us anymore. And I was, you know, I'm like, what do you mean? I was, she's just not. She's gone. We shipped her back to Florida. But minutes later, says Megan, Kelly pulled her into a bedroom closet out of Craig's earshot. Kelly then whispered that an argument with Melissa had spiraled out of control. Kelly said she then reached for a taser gun they kept in the house.

Kelly was standing right there and she pulled out the taser gun and tried to use it on Melissa and she I mean she honestly told me that I didn't have it turned up high enough because it didn't do anything so then she turned it up on her and shot it again so Kelly tells you that she tases Melissa what happens then Melissa took it from her and that's when Craig grabbed Melissa and he said he body slammed her. Then, Megan says, Craig pinned Melissa down while Kelly injected her with narcotics. Kelly took a needle and shot a needle full of morphine into her leg. Megan then went on to tell police that Craig barged into the closet with a disturbing tale of his own. He said, yeah, you know, it's really funny.

It's like, if you ever want to know how you can kill someone by choking them, I can show you. And I was like, what do you mean you can kill someone by choking them? And he came behind me and he, you know, put my hand in there and he went like this and he squeezed his bicep on me. So he's saying Melissa has gone, and right after that he's saying, I'll show you how you can kill somebody with a chokehold? Mm-hmm. What are you thinking to yourself?

He's crazy. All Megan wanted to do was get out of that house. As she was leaving, Craig pushed a black gym bag into her hands. And at this point... And Craig hands you a bag. At this point, I'm not asking questions. You didn't ask what's in the bag? I believe that we did. I think I did. And he said that it was some workout equipment, some fitness bands and a taser gun. Frightened, Megan took the bag home.

She had her attorney call police, who went back to Craig and Kelly's house with a search warrant. Right on the edge here, there were some taser dots. So we had some of the apodoxin. Yes, you could see them. When a taser is fired, it also shoots out dozens of tiny dots, similar to confetti. They identify by serial number when you look closely at them with a magnifying glass, the serial number of the cartridge that they were fired from. The dots matched the taser gun Craig had given Megan.

We believe that Melissa was shot with the taser. And that's a five-second ride of 50,000 volts. And that whoever was on the other end of the taser kept pulling the trigger. And Megan wasn't the only friend who was implicating Craig. What did Craig tell you? Well, he first walked in and he said that he had finally got to see somebody, what somebody looks like when they get hit with a taser gun. And he said, you should have seen this girl flop.

Jeff Schwimmer was one of Craig's closest friends. He thought it was funny. With all that evidence, police put out a warrant for the arrest of Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan. But first, they had to find them. Nine days after Melissa's disappearance, the FBI tracked the couple to Boston. Kelly Ryan was arrested in this beauty shop

while having a pedicure. Craig Titus was waiting in the truck outside. They were charged with murder and arson. in the truck outside. They were charged with murder and arson. Police now had a theory of Melissa's final moments. It started with a violent fight in the house between the two women. There was a problem between the two of them.

A knock down, drag out fight started. We know that there were tensions between the two. In this marriage, there was the freedom to involve themselves sexually with different partners and certainly with threesomes and menage a trois type situations. So I'm sure it was a jealousy issue. 21 days after the body was found, it was officially identified as Melissa James. One of the worst days of my life was the day that I had to walk into a funeral home and see a casket with flowers on it and know that my best friend's body was in there and her own mother couldn't even have it. that my best friend's body was in there,

and her own mother couldn't even have it. One look, one more look at her, because of the things that these people did to her. But getting justice for Melissa may be difficult. Prosecutors could have a hard time proving their case because the body was so badly burned, the coroner couldn't say for sure how she died. could have a hard time proving their case because the body was so badly burned, the coroner couldn't say for sure how she died. He couldn't even say it was murder. I'm a layperson, but I'm thinking to myself, somebody's face is wrapped in duct tape,

something around the neck, body's been burned. Sure sounds like a murder to me, like a homicide to me. Yes, sir. Does it work that way in medical examining? You know, it doesn't. And in our world, when you have two conflicting manners of death, the appropriate term is undetermined. It doesn't mean that we don't have our suspicions, but that's what we can factually report.

And Craig is fighting back. and Craig is fighting back, hiring a heavy hitter to defend him. It's you, and it's the other guy. Mark Sajis is a professional boxer. And if he's better than you, he kicks your ass. And if you're better than him, you kick his ass. He's also Craig's defense attorney.

I had heard about it on TV, and I thought, wow, this is pretty horrific. But I am a defense attorney, and I understand there are always two sides to every story. His partner, Michael Cristalli, is defending Kelly Ryan. The fact that there was a body found in the trunk in the desert that was burnt does not mean that Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan committed murder. And a deflated Craig Titus is about to tell his side of the story. Did you attack Melissa James with the intention of killing her? Okay, that's a tough question. Craig, did you after Melissa James' body was found in a burned out car, Craig Titus tells his story for the first time.

He insists it wasn't murder. He says it all began when he walked into his house and saw a shocking sight. My wife's on the ground with taser darts in her leg. There's blood on her face and her shirt. Melissa's standing there with the gun in her hand. I struck Melissa. I threw her to the floor, and I went to help my wife. And then whack! She's hitting me in the head with the taser gun.

She attacks you? From behind. The taser gun. This thin little woman is attacking one of the most powerful men in the United States. Absolutely. I say, what the F are you doing? And she says something profane. I'm killing the bitch or something. Excuse me.

Sorry. Craig says the fight started when Kelly accused Melissa of stealing, and she became enraged. She jumped on me. Then I grabbed her on the neck, strangled, choked, held, restrained, and I'm screaming, stop, calm down, stop, calm down. F this, F that, calm down, stop. Just pack your s**t, get out of my house. Kelly screamed stop, and then it stops. That's it. It's the end of it. According to Craig, Melissa then ran into her bedroom and slammed the door. He then went upstairs with Kelly. About 40 minutes passed.

It quieted down. We went downstairs and she was dead. And I tried to revive her, which seemed like a long time, and I couldn't. Craig claims that he and Melissa and Kelly had been getting high on cocaine, painkillers, and crystal meth for days leading up to the fight. And afterwards, Melissa took things too far.

You're telling me she OD'd? She OD'd. She'd been shooting those drugs for days. In fact, the autopsy report revealed there were enough drugs in Melissa's system to kill her, including a fatal level of morphine. But how did it get there? Well, there's Craig's story that she OD'd, and then there's what Megan Foley told police. He held her down, and Callie took a needle and shot a needle full of morphine into her leg. Just tell me whether those allegations are true or not.

It's ridiculous. Craig insists everything that happened after they found Melissa dead, from the burning of her body to their fleeing across country, occurred because they were scared. You've said you were panicked, right? Oh, my God, I was terrified. Yet, Craig and Kelly had enough sense to plant the debit card, buy the lighter fluid, burn the Jaguar,

and falsely accuse Melissa of stealing money from them. That doesn't sound like two people that are panicked. Sounds like you are meticulously thinking this through. Well, no, we were terrified and still doing drugs and continuously doing. And it was all bad. You've lied to cops. You've lied to Melissa's mother. Why shouldn't I think you're lying to me right now, Craig? I don't know why you shouldn't think I'm lying right now.

All I can do is tell you that's what happened. Well, there's really two things we know about Craig Titus. One is that he likes to talk, and secondly is that he's kind of got an allergy to the truth. Now it's up to prosecutors Josh Tomchek and Robert Daskus to build their case. They begin with that duct tape around Melissa's head. Duct tape covering the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the ears, completely wrapped around the head.

Who duck tapes a dead body? A murderer. Their biggest challenge is the coroner's legal finding that Melissa's cause of death is undetermined. The fact that the coroner could not label this a homicide, that hurt your chances for a prosecution? You know, I don't know that it hurt our chances. I think when you have defendants who beat and taser and inject and duct tape and burn a body,

it's a little tougher for a pathologist to say, here's exactly what happened. But defense attorneys Mark Sagese and Michael Cristalli say that if prosecutors can't say exactly how Melissa died, how can they prove a murder occurred? If you look at the medical evidence in this case and you separate it from the events that occurred after she had died, the state will not be able to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt that a murder occurred. Yay! Sajee says Craig and Kelly are guilty of a panicked cover-up, but not murder. High on drugs, they tried to dispose of Melissa's body any way they could. See, that's the problem with the case.

It became barbaric because it didn't matter once she died. She was already expired. So for wrapping duct tape around her whole head, she's dead. It says now we're deceiving. Now we're engaged in the activity necessary to cover this up. Prosecutors say the panic story is nonsense. Craig and Kelly cleaned up the crime scene and even tried to get rid of all those taser dots. There's a substantial number of taser dots in the canister of their vacuum cleaner, another indication that they were cleaning up and covering their tracks. Detective Wilson, I have to ask you, Craig Titus tells me that Melissa physically assaulted his wife and that she had been left bloodied and that she had a fat lip.

When you were there at the house, which would have been just a few hours after this assault, did you see any injuries on Kelly? I didn't see any evidence of any type of injuries on Kelly Ryan. Craig and Kelly also tried to dispose of that taser. But inside the gym bag, investigators discovered yet another weapon. This is a leather sap. This one's much narrower than the one that we were given by Megan Pearson in the black bag. Wow. This is really heavy at the end.

Right. That could do some serious damage. Absolutely. And what did you find on the sap that was significant? We had the sap tested for DNA. And on the handle end of the sap, we had Craig Titus' DNA. On the striking end of the sap, we found Melissa James' DNA. What does that tell you?

It says that she was hit with the sap. The motive for all this? Prosecutors believe it's the oldest one in the book. Love you guys. Sex and jealousy. Here, chow. That was a recipe for disaster. You've got three people involved with drug use.

You've got to push this over, buddy. Can you get us both? This is Kelly. You've got the potential of Kelly believing Okay. Can you get his book? This is Kelly. You've got the potential of Kelly believing that Craig's having a relationship with Melissa, and so in all likelihood,

there was some confrontation between Kelly and Melissa. That's probably what started the whole thing. Prosecutors want the jury to remember that even though Melissa was not perfect, she did not deserve to die the way she did.

I mean, the fact of the matter is this. You can't cast a play in hell and expect to have angels as actors. And in jail, this hellish play takes a strange turn. A tactical team hauls Craig Titus out of his cell after jailhouse rumors of an escape plan. And soon, another bizarre plot twist will threaten to derail the whole case. The once king of bodybuilding sat strapped and humbled in his new jailhouse throne. Two and a half years had passed since Melissa's charred body was discovered.

But as trial is about to begin, everything suddenly changes. Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan end their claims of innocence and accept a plea deal. What would be justice for you? Justice for me would be for them to spend the rest of their life in prison. Craig pleads guilty to second-degree murder, kidnapping, and arson, while Kelly gets off easy, pleading guilty to battery and arson. But before he's sentenced, Craig tries to take it back in an interview with a local TV station.

Just three days after taking a plea deal in a high-profile murder case, former bodybuilder Craig Titus says he did not commit the crime. I took the plea bargain and admitted something that did not happen so that my wife can go home. So you took a plea deal to a crime that you did not commit?

Yes, sir. Did you intend to murder Melissa James? No. I never intended to kill Melissa James, murder Melissa James? No. I never intended to kill Melissa James, murder Melissa James. No. In court, a furious Judge Jackie Glass demands to know if there is a deal or not. The moment I saw that on the news, I had concerns about whether your plea was really freely and voluntarily given. So I'm here to find out from you before we go through this,

is this what you pled guilty to? Yes, ma'am. And is this what you did? Yes, ma'am. All right, Mr. Titus, have a seat. Melissa's mom, Maura, and best friend, Samantha, have traveled across the country to be in court. This is the first time I'm going to be in the room with

these two people who took my friend's life. The only thing worse than losing a child, I would imagine, is losing a child in this manner. If your dog, if your pet, if your goldfish died, you wouldn't give it a burial like this. What they did is unspeakable. Kelly Ryan, almost unrecognizable from her cover girl days, speaks for the first time to the court and Maura.

For the past two years and seven months, through prayer, soul-searching, and many hours of reflection, I have questioned my own actions and my very soul. I am truly, truly sorry for this. I ask forgiveness from both this court and Melissa's family. I take responsibility for what I did. All right, Mr. Titus, it's your turn. Legally, Craig Titus admits to murder. But personally, he refuses to accept true responsibility for his actions.

I'm ashamed and I'm sickened at my actions after Melissa passed away. It was all drug-induced. It was all ridiculous. I'm so sorry this happened. I don't know where her mom is. Nothing he says could ever bring me peace, because everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Would you please raise your right hand and be sworn? Then it's Maura's turn to speak. From the moment Melissa failed to arrive on her flight on December 13, 2005,

Craig Titus told the kind of lies that pierce a mother's soul. As long as I live I will never hear her voice never see her face Never experience the joy of seeing her married nor see the birth of her first child All of the passages of Melissa's life are forever halted because Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan said so As God forgives me of my sins. I also forgive them I'm not asking her for forgiveness. I know I'm sorry for what happened.

I'm really sorry. I'm sorry Melissa's dead, and I'm sorry she was trying to kill my wife. After all the statements have been read, Judge Jackie Glass lays down the law. Mr. Titus came into this process as the big man. All kinds of muscles and famous. And you look at him now and you see what he has become. He's nothing. He's nothing but a murderer. but a murderer. Craig Titus receives the maximum sentence, 21 to 55 years. You both took that woman from her family. Kelly Ryan, who was at Craig's side the day Melissa died gets six to 17 years. Six years for a life? Six years.

Beneath a beautiful desert sky outside Las Vegas, Maura and Samantha begin constructing their own memorial to Melissa at the very spot where she was abandoned in a trunk and left to burn. She was such a beautiful, vibrant person, and they took that away from her. She will never get the chance to do anything that she should have been able to have the chance to do. It's about Melissa.

It's about celebrating who she was and what she meant to us. She didn't deserve this. Kelly Ryan was released from prison in 2017 after serving nearly nine years. While in prison, she divorced Craig Titus.