48 Hours - What Ally Kostial Didn’t Know - Encore

Episode Date: February 19, 2023

A college student's troubling text messages lead investigators to her killer. "48 Hours" contributor Michelle Miller reports.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. Ali got along with everyone. She was very bubbly and spirited. She always had a smile on her face. Ali, what are you doing? Taking a picture for Sunsets by Ali.

Follow me. She wanted to live the college life in a large university. She really wanted to be involved in a school that had that ranking, good football team. Bob Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, Mississippi. It is the home opener for the Ole Miss Rebels. It's fair to say she loved Ole Miss. Yes, Allie loved Ole Miss. It was fairly late at night. She was going out to the bar.

It wasn't weird for her to go out on her own and meet up with other people at the square where all the bars are. She takes an Uber and she goes home alone. Sardis Lake is a big area. There's lots of hunting camps and recreational spaces that people use on the lake. The Sheriff's Department here does a really good job of doing their best to patrol these locations. The deputy is on a routine patrol of that area. I don't know what the moonlight was like, but there's nothing around you. You're in the pitch black dark. It's not like a lover's lane or nothing. I mean, it's just rural.

A lot of people don't know about it. When you got there, what did you find? A white female laying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to her back. I have not worked a murder where somebody's been shot that many times. When the ambulance crew was driving in, they noticed the purse in the road ditch. As soon as we opened the purse, Ole Miss ID card and a driver's license. Hey, Morgan. This is Wicca East, Escalope County Sheriff's Department.

I'm calling in regards to a friend of yours, Allie Hostel. I realized I had a missed call, and it was the police, and they were calling about Allie. The police came to the door, and they told us. What did they tell you? There had been a homicide and that she was the victim. And I still don't believe it. Here we are. That led investigators to go and look in her apartment, in her room,

and they found her Apple Watch. And even though her phone was not there, some of those messages still synced to that watch. The hardest thing to do is to go back and read her messages. The heinousness of this, the crime itself, to shoot her as many times as she had been shot seems so personal. Yeah. Basically, almost was like execution-type style. In your mind, the motive for murder was...

Get rid of a problem. How would you describe this case? A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Thank you. 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?

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And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. It's unclear why a 21-year-old student would be in that area some 30 miles away from campus. Authorities have released limited details on the case, but did say they suspect foul play. Though it's been years since Cindy and Keith Costell's daughter, Allie, was found murdered on July 20th, 2019, it still doesn't seem real to them. It does seem like she's still away at school. And I still don't believe it. And here we are, still in denial.

The Costells had visited Allie at her apartment a few days before. She wanted us to stay an extra day. She was having so much fun. She wanted me to cook her home-cooked meals. We went shopping. She loves a beach theme, so we just bought a bunch of new decor, you know. Cindy and Keith had returned home to St. Louis when Cindy spoke with Allie on the phone just hours before she died. It was like 7 o'clock at night. She had just woken up from a nap because she had a test actually on that day. I said, what are you going to do tonight? She said, I'm going to go out with some friends. 24 hours later, Lafayette County Sheriff's Department investigator Jared Bundren was hoping clues from Allie's Apple Watch might lead to the first break in the case.

We just started from there. What was she like to you? She was like my sister. Like so many who knew and loved Allie, Maddie Norris, one of her best friends in high school, was trying to make sense of what had happened. I just was like in shock. The two were inseparable. It was like if Allie was there, Maddie was there. I love you too. She was like my other half. We had like a bunch of adventures together. Girl things, watching chick flicks, watching Legally Blonde. I'm driving in her convertible. When it came time to go prom dress shopping... She just tried on this red

dress and she called her mom and was like, I'm going to have to get this dress. Did she have a boyfriend in high school? She had boys she had, like, crushes on, but nothing ever serious. She didn't find a date for prom, and so I asked her to be in my prom date. After graduation, Allie was thrilled to be heading to a college steeped in tradition, history, and football, the University of Mississippi. She liked the preppy life, very, like, girly, like pearls. Allie arrived in the fall of 2016, but the marketing business major may have had something more on her mind. She wanted to meet a southern boy and get married and have children one day,

and she thought that would be a perfect setting for her to meet her companion for life. By junior year, we were thick as as thieves like best friends. Morgan Hull went to college with Allie. She's always like rearranging and redecorating her room too which is always so funny to find little Allie like moving all the furniture around by herself. We were both from St. Louis. Elizabeth Brock met Allie at a campus party and became fast friends. So then we're like, oh my God, how did we not meet until now? Elizabeth says Allie was fascinated by sunsets. She had a sunset Instagram account where she'd post pictures that she took of sunsets.

As for dating at college, Cindy recalled Allie saying she met someone her freshman year. She said, I met this boy. He's from Texas. She, for whatever reason, loves the state of Texas. And she was real excited to invite him to a sorority dance. That's the boy she really liked. What did she first say about him? That she found a guy that was cute, that she was starting to like, had a crush on. That crush would turn out to be fellow student Brandon Thiesfeld from Fort Worth.

Was she really excited about him? Yes, like head over heels. I think she took him to most of her date parties that her sorority had. So when Maddie went down to Oxford to visit, she was looking forward to meeting the new man in Allie's life. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. You never met him? Mm-mm.

Because he never came around? Never came around. How does she feel about that? I mean, it hurt her. You had like your best friend from high school coming down to visit you and your crush is MIA. Maddie was concerned that there was something about her friend's relationship that wasn't quite right. But otherwise, Allie seemed to be thriving at college. She loved it. She could not get enough of it. She finally achieved the goal of going there, and she just was living her life. Three years later, her life was cut short.

Three years later, her life was cut short. Now, with the clock ticking on finding her killer, Allie's Apple Watch proved invaluable to investigators. What did the watch tell you? The watch was telling me she was having very lengthy text message conversation with Brandon. Brandon Thiesfeld, Allie's freshman year crush. It seemed the two were planning to see each other that very night. Learn more about Allie's life and messages were with Brandon Thiesfeld,

they wanted to talk to him, and soon. We called late Saturday, early Sunday morning, to come in and give an interview. Investigators also tried tracking Allie's phone on Saturday, but it only pinged once in Oxford before the signal died. Thiesfeld responded, but made excuses about why he couldn't meet all weekend. Finally... He said that he would be there at 8.30 Monday morning. And 8.30 Monday morning came?

No branding. Lafayette County Assistant District Attorney Mickey Mallett says that's when the decision was made to start tracking his phone. When they do that mid-morning on a real-time situation, they can see where he is. What did you find out? That he was on Interstate 55 headed north toward Memphis. From here to go to where he lives in Texas, that's probably the most common way to go. They can see his location moving away from Oxford. District Attorney Ben Creekmore says

with Thiesfeld appearing to be on the run, investigators got an affidavit of arrest for murder and immediately sent out a bulletin. When we saw that his truck was leaving Oxford, there was a bolo for his tag. A bolo? Be on the lookout. It didn't take long for the Memphis Fugitive Task Force to spot Thiesfeld. About an hour and a half, two hours later, they caught him at a gas station. Bundren says Thiesfeld was sitting at the pumps in his pickup truck, which had easy-to-spot license plates.

The tag on the plate. It says, take it. Hard to miss. Very hard to miss. A dash cam captured Thiesfeld being taken into custody. Police immediately alerted investigators in Mississippi about what they found in the truck and on his clothing. He had a 40 caliber gun consistent with the caliber of the shell casings that

were found on the scene and he had blood on him. Bundren headed north to pick him up. He was calm, you know, read him his rights, invoked his rights, wanted his returnee. He was picked up in Tennessee. We asked him if he would sign a waiver of extradition and come back to Mississippi, and he signed it, and we brought him back. With Thiesfeld in custody, investigators began retracing his steps

the weekend of Allie's murder. They learned that he had been popping up all over Oxford, starting on Saturday. He stayed with some friends. They said it was very casual. Uh, they went bowling, normal stuff, but there was

nothing normal about what he brought to a friend's house on Sunday. Said he came in to his house carrying a gun and unloaded the gun in the house. He brought in a friend's house on Sunday. Said he came in to his house carrying a gun and unloaded the gun in the house. He brought in a six-pack of beer and said that they set up for a while. When he got up the next morning, he was gone.

While Thiesfeld wasn't talking to investigators, he would eventually talk to an attorney, Tony Farris, hired by his family. He had a life full of promise, received lots of love and a good Christian family. Farris learned Thiesfeld was a doctor's son. He seemed to have enjoyed a typical Texas childhood. He liked outdoors, hunting, fishing.

He was a soccer player. He had never been in a fight in school, no history of violence. It wasn't long after arriving in Oxford that Thiesfeld met Allie. He met her at a local bar. They dated casually during their freshman year. I think she was more enthralled with Brandon than Brandon was with her, quite candidly. According to Farris, their relationship became complicated when they were sophomores. Did he actually block her from his phone? Yes, she had texted him so much late at night when she's out and and partying, and it got to the point where he did block her phone, yes.

But something shifted by their junior year, and the two got back in touch. I think she saw this as a mutual romantic endeavor, and Brandon did not see it that way. Which would explain one thing. So when did you first meet him? I never met him. Allie's closest friends didn't know Thiesveld at all.

Morgan says she'd only met him one time. It's so odd that we were her best friends and we still really didn't even know him that well. Like when this happened, we didn't even know his last name. But in August of 2019, Thiesfeld's name was front page news. That's when the case was presented to a grand jury. The evidence included pictures of the gun and shell casings. And this letter, investigators recovered during a search of his apartment. Apparently written by Thiesfeld, the weekend Allie was found dead. Prosecutors say it's a confession.

The letter that he's written to his mom and dad concerned about what he's done. Thiesfeld wrote that he'd always had terrible thoughts and this is the end for me. I'm either going to prison or going to die. He also wrote, I know I'm going to get caught. He confessed. I think he did.

He didn't say he committed the murder. You could argue that it was a confession. An apology to his mom. It was an apology. Tony Faurice says he spoke to Thiesfeld about the letter and says it was also something more, a suicide note. He writes a goodbye note to his family, tells them that he loves them, apologizes for what he's done. I am told by Brandon that he has the gun to his head and then passes out.

The grand jury handed down their indictment. Capital One murder. At the time, Jake Thompson was a reporter for the local paper, the Oxford Eagle. He says these felt faced the death penalty for kidnapping and murdering Allie. It rocked Oxford to its core because, you know, Oxford takes in these people. They're one of their own for four years, five years, however long you're here. And so it was tough for both the academic and the university and the citizens of Oxford. In late September, Fiesfeld appeared in court to enter a plea, not guilty. The big question, you know, of course, why did it happen?

And that was something that we were all initially trying to figure out. something that we were all initially trying to figure out. Investigators hope to find some answers in hundreds of text messages between Allie and Thiesfeld. And what they discovered included some life-changing news. The first messages about it started in early April. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. 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 a virgin. 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+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. We're stuck.

Can't move forward. Days are just rough. When you think about her not being here, that makes you feel what? Sad and broken. I'm like broken. Back up. As Allie's friends and family waited for Brandon Thiesfeld to go to trial for her murder, prosecutors were building their case. All rise.

They were hoping text messages between the two could provide insight about what may have led to her death. We know more about what he may have been thinking, and we know more about what she may have been thinking. What was the relationship between these two? Well, that might be different depending on who you ask. I think it would be fair to say that she looked at it with a more serious eye over the entirety of their relationship. Thiesfeld's defense attorney, Tony Farris.

From Brandon's standpoint, it was a casual sexual relationship. They were never boyfriend and girlfriend. They didn't go on dates. He didn't pick her up, take her anywhere after dinner, none of that. But he would tell her that he wasn't good enough for her, and that's why they couldn't be together. Morgan and Elizabeth say it was an odd relationship. He definitely manipulated her.

Carried out over texts. I think we were just more like upset with how if she would show us like texts from him or tell us things he would say that were really unkind to her. So you knew she liked this boy? Yeah, yeah. But she never really had mentioned him, at least to me, over time, or that he was, you know, even in the scene at all.

Was there anything in her behavior that suggested things weren't normal? See, and that's the thing, she's told me everything in life, but never discussed him. but never discussed him. Cindy and Keith say they have not read their daughter's text conversations uncovered by investigators. No, we haven't read any of it. Will you? I don't know. If I can.

In April 2019, just three months before her death, Allie was getting ready for spring semester finals. What her mom didn't know was Allie was focused on a different kind of test, a home pregnancy test. When you learned about that, was that something so out of line for Allie in her behavior? Big time, yeah. On April 14th, she texted Brandon Thiesfeld a photo of an inconclusive home pregnancy test

and this message, like it's a very faint blue line, but I don't know. I guess I can wait and see if my period comes. Thiesfeld's response? Well, all right, we will see. But if it is pregnant, we are not keeping. We can get a pill. She was definitely worried. She thought she might be pregnant. In this text, Allie, it seems, was anxious and conflicted. I'm not saying what I am going to do because I don't know what's happening. But even if you don't want to be involved, like I am really pretty and sweet and I know I will meet a real man

one day. It appeared Thiesfeld did not see fatherhood in his immediate future. I'm serious. No kid at all. It will ruin my life. She was trying to get into contact with Brandon about this and she had texted him and he would either just ignore her or do the thing where he would tell her, okay, like I will come over tonight and we can talk about this. And then he would never show up. So she talked to you about this? Yeah, she came to us right away. Investigators would later learn after Brandon Thiesfeld received news about that pregnancy test, he had been searching the Internet for, mother wants kid, father does not. Yes, he did suggest an abortion initially.

There was talk about that. He regrets that, but that did occur. That's memorialized in the text messages. So in your mind, if she was pregnant, she would have had the baby? She would have given it the world, honestly. Allie, despite the ambiguous test result, would text Thiesfeld day and night. Many of her messages are long, revealing, and troubling, says forensic psychologist Chris Mohandy. He was not involved in the case. We asked him to read some of the text messages. These lengthy, pretty much one-sided conversations that were initiated by Ali,

you know, with very little in return from Brandon, make this a very lopsided investment into this relationship. This exchange begins on Monday, April 15th, 2019 at 1257 a.m. with Allie writing, I lived it up this weekend and was drunk 24-7. I did that so my body might decide, ha ha, no, not today. Then at 2.37 a.m., she texts, I thought about it. If you want to talk to me in person, that would be better. Fiesfeld responds, almost nine hours later, I can talk tomorrow. I'm busy today. I'm still going to have the decision of the pill. To me, there's several layers there. Do you sense that at all, based on what you've read, that he has any desire to keep her on the sideline? It appears that he has no desire to keep her on the sideline from what I've seen in these communications.

from what I've seen in these communications. He's communicating just enough for a purpose to try to influence her into terminating the pregnancy, if indeed she is pregnant. That seems to me to be his only investment in any of these communications. Mohandy says Allie may have been trying to get Brandon Thiesfeld's attention with texts about her drinking.

In the past 48 hours, I've literally drank a full bottle of tequila, two bottles of champagne, seven beers, a glass of wine. I can't even imagine someone her size being able to consume that much alcohol. That's a lot of alcohol to consume for somebody of her size and for many people, if not most people. My concern would be, you know, alcohol poisoning or an overdose from alcohol, which is why I raised the question of how much she's drinking. Or it's being exaggerated to show, hey, to tell Brandon, I'm self-destructive. Come to my rescue, you've got to help me, I'm desperate. Do you believe Brandon believed she was pregnant? I know that Allie claimed to have been pregnant.

So the question is, why would she claim to be pregnant if she were not pregnant? Hence, my conclusion is that she wanted a serious relationship with Brandon, which in her mind could have included marriage. The text messages had created a digital map of a complicated relationship. They also gave investigators clues about where Thiesfeld was heading a week before Allie's death.

On Friday, July 12th, Thiesfeld would take a road trip home to Fort Worth, Texas. That same day, Allie texted him a photo of two more ambiguous home pregnancy tests. Less than 48 hours later, at 4.16 p.m., he posts a disturbing photo on social media. He does a Snapchat saying, with a picture of this.40 caliber gun. And there's a chilling caption, finally taking my baby back to Oxford. By the time Brandon Thiesfeld drove back from Texas to Mississippi, he'd left a digital footprint,

and prosecutors say it revealed a deeply disturbing web search history. He is doing some computer searches on how to get away with crimes, how to conceal crimes, planning preparation type stuff, how to tie people up, how to lure them in. He did a search on Ted Bundy. lure them in. He did a search on Ted Bundy. For Allie's friend Morgan, it was an eerie reminder. A few months before this happened,

Allie and I watched the Ted Bundy movie together. Extremely wicked, shockingly evil, vile. And we just sat in her bed and we ate popcorn and snacks and we were like, this is so messed up and then months later, you know, this happens to Allie. What explanation do you have for what he was thinking when he's making these searches? Well he certainly has some searches that could be troubling. It depends on how you view those. When you start looking at someone's search history,

you're watching TV, you've got all sorts of news shows that feature Ted Bundy. Attorney Tony Farris says the search history doesn't prove Thiesfeld had been planning to shoot Alley. He says there's an innocent explanation for why his client brought that pistol back to Mississippi. That's not outlandish. In our part of the country, in Mississippi, in Texas, people shoot. We've got shooting ranges here in Oxford. So we deny that it was brought back for the sole purpose of killing Allie.

But it was clear to prosecutors Thiesfeld's trip to Texas and the computer searches were part of a carefully laid out plan. When you put it together, it would appear to us what his purpose was in bringing the gun back. A gun that apparently he didn't even know how to use. If you sit there and you go through all of his Google searches, he don't even really know how to work a gun. He was Googling hollow point ammo and what button does what on a Glock pistol. On Thursday, July 18th, shortly before 2 in the morning, Allie texts Thiesfeld a photo of her stomach.

The following day, Friday, July 19th, the day before her death, Thiesfeld texts Allie, are you going to be home today? Because I could visit. Almost two hours later, Allie texts him another photo and this message. Like it isn't like I'm not that small anymore and I can pretend I'm fat right now, but I don't know. It's getting hard. After a few more texts from Allie, Thiesfeld writes, just let me know when you are back from going out. Is your house private right now? The horrifying irony is that text messages from him to her were asking, is it a good environment? Are your friends going to be there? And you could assume that she's thinking he wants to talk about the

pregnancy issue and to work on the relationship. In his mind, he's thinking, I don't want any witnesses when I get her in the car with me. Minutes before midnight, a security camera captured Allie walking out of a bar in Oxford Square. Then around 1.30 in the morning, prosecutors say Fiesfeld and Allie take that dark and desolate drive to Sardis Lake. Once you turn off that paved road onto the dirt road and then another 10 minutes to get to here, There's no one out here. I mean, this is an abandoned fish camp. Yes, ma'am.

Assistant District Attorney Mickey Mallett and investigator Jared Bundren took us to the place where it happened, where there's now a makeshift memorial. I mean, I can only imagine what was going through her head. Wasn't she alarmed? Wasn't she concerned? In her mind, she may not have had a reason before that to be in the same kind of fear. We'll never know,

but I think she was just so blinded by her desperation to talk about what to do in their relationship. Investigators found cans of White Claw hard seltzer on the picnic table. Eleven shell casings were discovered on the ground. What did ballistics tell you? Ballistics told me he was sitting either across from her or on that side of the table. He fired one shot. There was one shell casing here,

and the other ten were in that area coming around the table. They was not all in one spot. It like started and started coming all the way around. He circled her? Yes. And with every move? He was fired. Made even one round, hit the table right there. And he just left her here? Left her here. her here. Left her here. Thiesfeld knew all about that place on the lake. He'd been there his freshman year. His attorney told us what Thiesfeld says happened that night. He had been drinking all that day. She had been drinking. They're listening to music. They start talking. Brandon has some cocaine. He goes to the truck, does a little cocaine inside of the truck, goes back to the picnic table.

Thiesfeld, he says, goes back to his truck again, grabs his pistol, and fires a shot across the lake. She states, oh, you're crazy. You sit there and talk. Then he shoots her. Remember, Allie was shot at least nine times. Why? It just came out of nowhere? I'm not sure out of nowhere. Brandon denies that it was planned when he took her out there. I don't think Brandon would have been in this situation but for his choice of consuming alcohol and then using cocaine.

So you're saying in that moment, under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, he snapped? That's what I'm saying. It was out of rage, out of rage. And rage for what? Maybe he thought he was going to be a father and he wanted to end it his own way. The evidence against Brandon Thiesfeld, according to prosecutors, was overwhelming. There was a lot of planning on Thiesfeld's part about what he was going to do. I'm not saying it was smart the way he did it, but pretty good indication that he was looking for a remote location so her body would not

be discovered. No doubt in your mind that this was premeditated? No doubt. No doubt. Heat of passion. No. No. It was cold and calculated. This was calculated over a very extended period of time. Which is why it was capital murder. In Mississippi, a capital murder charge means another felony crime was involved. And in this case, prosecutors say that crime was kidnapping. They believe Thiesfeld lured Allie into his truck. Under the guise of working the relationship out, when he had a.40 caliber pistol and had planned her murder all along.

Feesfeld's attorney says that theory might be tough to prove at trial. They were going to have to show that we kidnapped Allie. She voluntarily gets in the truck. They're going to try to say that we tricked her. That's a very, very big stretch. With Feesfeld facing a possible death sentence and prosecutors knowing a capital murder trial could be grueling, emotional, and risky for everyone involved,

they presented the defense with an offer. If you get a plea offer other than death, then guess what? You've got a scenario where a plea to a lesser charge of first-degree murder is certainly more attractive. And that's exactly what happened. On August 27, 2021, Brandon Thiesfeld, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Allie's family and friends were there wearing her favorite color, pink. The judge sentenced Brandon to life in prison. Reporter Jake Thompson was in the courtroom.

We never saw a motion from him until the plea hearing where he spoke or read a little bit. He broke down in tears. That was the first time he showed a motion. Fiesfeld's audio was muffled when he faced the judge and addressed the court. He said in part, quote, There is no excuse for my actions. I have asked God for forgiveness, and I hope one day that you will find it in your hearts to forgive me.

Brandon Thiesfeld stood up and accepted responsibility in open court and the realization of the consequences of his actions are very real and sobering. There is no parole for murder in Mississippi. So let me tell you, that is a terrible penalty. Why did he say he killed her? There is no justification for his conduct, and I believe no good explanation for what he did. Does he say why, though?

No, I'm just telling you to the best of, I mean, there is no good answer. I think what has been explained is he's impaired on alcohol, he's drunk, he's impaired on cocaine. We certainly know what that does to someone's mind. You know, was he justified? Absolutely not. Were they arguing? Not to my knowledge. Did the allegation of pregnancy going on and on and on contribute to that? Certainly could have. He shared with us that he didn't know, but he didn't believe that she were pregnant. He said he didn't believe she was pregnant?

Well, he doubted that she was pregnant. He doubted that she was pregnant. He doubted that she was pregnant. Prosecutors say the home pregnancy test results were inconclusive. Allie's autopsy report, however, was definitive. We know medically she was not pregnant. Could Allie have been pregnant in the months leading up to her death? According to a text message she sent Thiesfeld in early July,

Allie says she had been bleeding and believed something was wrong. There was some evidence that would have, that could indicate she had a miscarriage. Do you believe she was pregnant? I do. At some point, I do. To your knowledge, was she pregnant? We just don't know. She could have been, but also the results were inconclusive,

so we really just aren't sure. Prosecutors believe what happened between Allie Costell and Brandon Thiesfeld is a cautionary tale. I can't imagine how there could be any way possible that Allie could have known that Brandon Thiesfeld was capable of doing what he did to her. If she had any idea that this is what this person was capable of, she would never have gotten in that truck. I think love can blind us to certain things that other people can see that we can't. to certain things that other people can see that we can't. Brandon Thiesveld's family chose not to participate in our broadcast. His mother asked his attorney to share these words.

When I heard Brandon was being spoken to by the police, I still had no single thought that it could be him. Now, after two years and knowing more of the details of their relationship, I'm heartbroken for every person this impacts and crushed that our son did not share with us any of the turmoil he was trying to manage. I encourage every parent to regularly sit down with their children, teenagers, young adults, and discuss with them that there will never be anything too big, too complicated, too out of control that they cannot tell you about.

We will always pray for the family and friends of Allie Costell. Cindy and Keith are holding on to their memories. How are you doing? It's the quietest moments that are the most haunting. She was my life, my everything. For her friends, Allie's love for sunsets still shines through. Allie, what are you doing? Taking a picture for sunsets by Allie. Follow me. So every time we see a sunset or a pink sunset, we're like, that's Allie. And we just try to live for her and bring her light into the world. Could this doorbell video help prove murder?

A cop's wife shot dead. What happened inside their house? I had nothing to do with it. Or did he? There's something not adding up. 48 Hours, next on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.

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