Anatomy of Murder - Betrayed (Heather Rich)

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

A late night party turns tragic, when a 16-year-old cheerleader is found slain in a nearby creek. When the complex case came to a close, the answers to what, how and who, were mind boggling. For episode information and photos, please visit https://anatomyofmurder.com/ Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc

I believe he was just one of those individuals who simply wanted to kill. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murder. The loss of any human life as a result of violence is both tragic and heartbreaking for the loved ones of the victim and also the communities they call home. But there's something especially cruel about the murder of a young person whose entire life still lies before them. Their hopes, their dreams, and their potential taken in one terrifying instant.

To think it could come at the hands of one's own friends is almost unthinkable. 16-year-old Heather Rose Rich was the third and youngest child of Gail and Dwayne Rich, and according to her parents, she was as beautiful and sweet as her middle name suggests. In 1996, the Rich family lived in Huarica, Oklahoma, a small town on the border with Texas, less than two hours north of Fort Worth. For today's episode, we spoke to Tim Cole, who was the district attorney of nearby Montague County, Texas. That was a very small town, pretty similar to the one that I grew up in,

St. Joe, Texas, which is just across the state line from Warika. A very close-knit community. Everyone knew everyone else. I think there was a population of perhaps 1,500 at most. As you can imagine, in a small town like Warika, it's hard to go unnoticed. But even by small town standards, Heather was a standout. Known for her outgoing personality, Heather was an honor student at Warika High School, a cheerleader, and even a nominee for homecoming queen. And just to make this all-American picture complete, her boyfriend Randy Wood was the captain of the football team

and the runaway favorite to be her homecoming king. But as we all know, there is often more going on on the inside than we see on the outside. And like many teenagers, Heather faced the same pressures that a lot of young people do. The pressure to be popular, the pressure to look a certain way, the pressure to be, well, almost perfect. Combine that with the constraints of small-town life, and you can understand how even honor students like Heather could be susceptible to the temptations that lots of kids face, like drinking alcohol. She'd been having some problems in school, acting out as teenagers do, and she, in fact, had gotten into some trouble at school,

been suspended for using alcohol at an athletic event. She was a cheerleader. She got caught drinking. Heather's mom, Gail, thought that some of Heather's issues might be the result of some of the difficulties they were facing at home. Heather's dad had recently suffered a serious work-related injury. And with Gail now working two shifts to make ends meet, Heather was often tasked with the various household chores and caring for her father. It was a lot of responsibility for anyone, let alone a 16-year-old high school student. And as you can imagine, it was beginning to cause some friction at home. And there's one night in particular that Heather's mom, Gail, would never forget.

It was a Wednesday night, October 2nd, 1996, and she and Heather had just had a heated mother-daughter argument over what Gail thought was an excessively high long-distance phone bill. And for anyone that might have grown up in the 80s or, say, 90s, they might remember some of those conversations. I have to admit, Scott, I remember having some of those myself. But on this night, their argument unfortunately ended with Heather storming off to bed and slamming her bedroom door. Also, probably a familiar sound for any of our listeners with teenage kids.

Her mother and she were very close. She was close with her parents. They had a habit or a routine of when they went to bed, she would kiss them goodnight and say, I love you. And on that evening, she did that with her dad, but not her mom, just because she was angry with her. But this is where Heather's story goes from typical to tragic. The following morning, Heather's mom went to her room to wake her up for school, only to find her bedroom was empty. Nothing is gone from her room. She didn't take her purse.

She didn't take anything that would indicate that she was planning to be gone for a long time. There was nothing amiss in the room that would have indicated any kind of struggle or anything of that sort. The room was just as it always appeared. Just no Heather. And when Heather didn't show up at school, her mom, of course, became even more worried. Despite her recent trouble at school,

Heather was not in the habit of sneaking out or even threatening to run away. So Gail did what most parents would do. She called the police. But due to Heather's age and the circumstances around her disappearance, the local sheriff was hesitant to file a missing persons report, assuring Gail that Heather would likely turn up soon. Local law enforcement in Warika really were, I don't want to call it reluctant, I don't know that that would be accurate, but they assumed it was a runaway. But sometimes even an officer or investigator's experience

is no match for a mother's intuition. Heather's mom immediately took matters into her own hands, reaching out to Heather's friends and classmates to see if anyone knew where her daughter might be. She was especially keen to talk to Heather's boyfriend, Randy, and any other students that were also listed as absent the same day that Heather went missing. Her parents actually confronted two of these boys

and asked them if they'd seen her because they'd heard that there was some party the night before, and they both denied it. But once again, Gail suspected that something was not right. She said that when she talked to Randy, it was as if he was robotic, like he had memorized what he was saying. There was no emotion, and it just didn't seem real.

And Scott, I just think the word robotic is telling because whether he knows something or not, this is his friend, his girlfriend, or whatever their relationship might be termed. But to hear that she's missing, I don't know, I guess no matter what, know something or not, you would expect some sort of emotion or at least show of concern. You know, in a situation like this where you would have a heightened sense of concern, really wanting to know where your daughter is, I'm sure that Gail was hanging on every word. I'm sure she was also keying in on his behavior. But having said that, it doesn't necessarily mean he had done something wrong or anything criminal was going on. He may have just been covering for his friend, which teens do, especially if Heather really did run away. And so let's just talk about that running away for a moment. Running away from home as a teen, even for a night or two in this circumstance with this

teen, well, on its face, at least, it might seem like a logical explanation. You know, maybe she took off to try to teach her mom a lesson or just took the time to cool off. But there are some details about Heather's room that seriously question that theory, specifically the fact that she had left her purse, her clothing, and even as minor as this sounds, her cosmetics bag behind.

She was the type who would have taken those things if she was planning to run away. Her mother had no doubt of that. And to balance the expectations here, there's also the matter of Heather's typical behavior. According to her parents, she had never done this before or even threatened to run away. So they really couldn't shake the feeling that something or someone was keeping her from home. They didn't feel like that if she was going to leave, that she would stay away very long. If she was angry, she wasn't the type to stay angry and not come back. And they felt that if she had left voluntarily, that she would come back. But of course, as we know, she didn't.

And as time passed, as it got longer and longer, and the days became more and more, they became more convinced that something had happened to her. After a week had passed with no word from their daughter, her parents were getting desperate. They even hired a private investigator who used bloodhounds to search the woods around Warika. One of the most frustrating and frightening aspects of their search was that none of Heather's

friends could share or were willing to share any clues of what might have happened to her. As you might expect in a small town, that didn't stop the speculation. There were many, many rumors. There were rumors flying around that she had gotten involved with drug dealers and she'd been kidnapped and taken somewhere and murdered by drug dealers or that she was being held somewhere captive by someone. So there were all kinds of rumors like that. What the investigators felt from the beginning and what I felt from the beginning

was that this was probably close to home. Sadly, police predictions would prove to be correct. On October 10th, eight days after Heather went missing, a local rancher and his granddaughter were walking the banks of a creek just over the border in Monte County, Texas, when they spotted something unusual in the water. The Red River is called the Red River for a good reason. The water is red. border in Monte County, Texas, when they spotted something unusual in the water. The Red River is called the Red River for a good reason. The water is red. It's a very muddy, red-looking color. And this stream fed directly into that river. All they could really tell was that it looked like a human body. After local authorities responded to the scene, they were able to confirm that it was indeed the body of a young female with extensive traumatic injuries. I think I'd actually just finished another fairly major case involving some teenagers that were killed by a drunk driver. And I got a call from my investigator who told me that it looks like a body has been found

in this shallow creek. I was actually there when her body was removed from the water. The sole prosecutor, literally, in Monte County, District Attorney Tim Cole was used to working closely with law enforcement during every step of the investigation, and this would be no exception. I think I've tried 36 murder cases. I always went to the scene simply because it made me able to feel it more and to feel what these investigators were seeing and to describe it in my own mind. Because if I could see the scene in my mind, I could describe it more easily and more descriptively. And he told us, for him, the picture of this particular crime scene is as vivid today as it was in 1996. She was clothed and she had been in the water for so long, so I'm sure you know what that does to a human body. It was also clear that this female had sustained massive injuries to her head, neck, and back.

Clear signs that she had likely been murdered. It was obvious that she had been shot in the back of the head at the back numerous times. So she was unrecognizable. Despite being in a neighboring state, Tim was well aware of the teenage girl that had been reported missing in nearby Huarica. Suspecting it could be her, authorities in Texas quickly notified Heather Rich's family. The only way that we could identify her or that she was identified was through some of the jewelry that she was wearing. And when shown the signet ring recovered from the girl's body, Heather's father confirmed

that it belonged to his missing daughter. It had been a gift for her 16th birthday. I remember that her mother was what I would call on the verge of being hysterical. She took it extremely hard. Her father was devastated. There were a lot of tears. And for Tim, the prosecutor, it affected him too. I had a daughter who was the same age at that time.

That made it come home to me even more. Even as law enforcement from Montague County were securing the crime scene, there was already an issue of who had jurisdiction to investigate and ultimately prosecute this case. Both Gene Christian, the other prosecutor, the other district attorney, and I, we had not sorted out yet who this case would belong to

because jurisdiction could have been in either county. Because she was kidnapped in Oklahoma, in Jefferson County, obviously that would give them jurisdiction of the case. They could have gone forward. And the fact that we knew she was murdered and located in Texas gave us jurisdiction. But both Jean and I agreed that that night we were simply going to tell them that everything possible would be done to bring whoever did this to justice. And that mission started with the crime scene, which was the entirety of the creek where the body was found, as well as a small footbridge that spanned the creek.

It wasn't long before some evidence was discovered there and began to paint a picture of how Heather died. As we walked across this small bridge, it became evident that there was a large area of blood that was just about at the center of the bridge. And it was pretty obvious also that there had been dirt and grass and mud thrown in it to try and cover it up. That led pretty early to a pretty good conclusion

that she was probably shot on that bridge and then dumped into the creek. An autopsy would later determine that Heather had been shot a staggering nine times at close range with a shotgun. It is a clear and horrifying display of overkill and an indication to investigators that Heather's murder was not the result of some hasty botched robbery. This appeared to be a deliberate depraved act of rage by someone that derived satisfaction or maybe even pleasure from the kill. Perhaps even more frightening was the idea that the killer might have been someone she knew. In fact, Heather's mom was so certain that the perpetrator was not a stranger that at her

daughter's funeral, no one was allowed to touch the casket so that, as her mother promised, whoever did this would never touch her again. The investigation into the murder of Heather Rich spanned state lines and multiple jurisdictions, requiring the cooperation of investigators from Montague County, Texas, Jefferson County, Oklahoma, and even the Texas Rangers. And of course, the FBI was involved as well. They picked up and assisted with the investigation after her body was discovered. And it looked like she had perhaps been kidnapped in Oklahoma and then murdered in Texas, because that's a classic federal type of case. And that kind of multi-jurisdictional investigation has the potential to create some logistical challenges, but it also provided a lot of manpower and resources.

And that's just what they needed in the early stages of this investigation. In the days following the discovery of Heather's body, investigators interviewed hundreds of people trying to learn as much as they could about Heather and about who might possibly have had a motive to kill her. In terms of victimology, Heather didn't have a criminal record or a history of associating with people that may put her at risk.

She was a typical high school student and her diary confirmed all of that. But in talking to some of her classmates, it did come to light that Heather had recently broken up with her boyfriend just several weeks before her disappearance. Not uncommon, of course, amongst teenagers or, well, anyone. But if you're an investigator, it's an immediate red flag. His name was Randy Wood. They had a relationship. I don't know that you could say that they were boyfriend, girlfriend. They were close friends and maybe dated a few times, if you could call it that, you know, riding around in the car in the small town of War Eco.

And let's also point out that this was the same Randy that Heather's mom, Gail, had talked to the day after Heather went missing. The boy who she thought seemed tense and defensive. It was also someone that the Rich family knew well and someone that had a good reputation at school and was known in the community as a quiet and hardworking kid who was from the less affluent side of town, and that only matters and is being given to you because it just may factor in later. He was the football star, the captain of the football team, and in fact, I think it was about a week or 10 days after Heather's body was discovered, he was actually crowned homecoming king of Warika High School. But homecoming king or not,

he would have to answer some pretty tough questions about where he was on the night Heather was killed. And those questions came courtesy of the Texas Rangers. According to Randy, he had spent that night with his friend Josh, drinking beer and driving around town before heading to a travel trailer owned by Josh's grandfather, a wealthy landowner in Jefferson County. They said that they were playing cards or dominoes or something at Josh Bagwell's house in a camper behind the house. Randy even made a startling admission that he and Heather did have a plan to meet that night. The investigation established that they had some kind of plan that

night to get together. And that's the reason she crawled out the window. But Randy claimed that when he and Josh arrived at the designated pickup spot, Heather was a no-show. So with no evidence proving otherwise, investigators had to take Randy at his word. but they didn't have to like it. So let's just stop here for one second, Scott, because when I heard that piece, it just goes back to Heather's mom describing him as robotic. So if they'd had the plan that he was supposed to meet Heather and she didn't show up, why not tell that to her mom? You know, again, it could be for some explanation that has nothing to do with him doing something,

but I don't know. There's nothing natural about that reaction when it is your friend or even your ex-girlfriend when their mom is asking you when you last saw her. As an investigative path, that's a great start. You know, a statement from Randy Wood, placing him with the victim that night. But also you have a Texas Ranger who was likely thinking, you know, when was going to be the right time to give Wood an opportunity to be the first one

to tell the truth. But as it turns out, investigators really had their doubts as well. Some of the investigators, particularly the Texas Ranger, just had a feeling that Randy Wood and Joshua Bagwell were involved in it somehow. So, Scott, let's just look at what they have in terms of any evidence thus far. Well, you know, at the moment, even though there was blood on the bridge

and a body in the Red River below, the crime scene was absolutely challenging and even complicated for reasons you may not expect. There was a complicating factor with this bridge because apparently it's a small bridge where lots of rural local residents like to stop and shoot their.22s or their shotguns off of this bridge. That bridge was literally covered with shell casings of all kinds.

And so you can imagine what kind of problem that caused with gathering evidence. So the bridge was littered with bullet casings and spent shotgun shells, which meant that finding the shell casings, the actual ones used in this crime, that could potentially identify the murder weapon was going to be very difficult, if not impossible. At that point, it was impossible to rule out anything standing there on that bridge. Remember, the autopsy had determined that Heather was killed with a shotgun.

And of course, it's not uncommon in Texas and Oklahoma to find a citizen that has a shotgun. There's nothing rare about that at all. So needless to say, tracking down the murder weapon would not be easy. But the first big break, at least forensically, would come courtesy of the autopsy, which had determined that Heather was not only shot nine times, she was shot at incredibly close range.

In fact, so close that the wadding from the shotgun shells were found inside her body. And just a quick side note, wadding is a disc of material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile to separate the propellant from the loosely packed shots. So it's basically that plastic piece in between. And believe it or not, I actually know a little bit about having to work with shotguns, because while we definitely did not have many homicides with shotguns in Brooklyn, I did have a few. But here, two weeks into the investigation, forensic testing on that wadding that was found in Heather's wounds matched it to a particular type of Winchester shotgun shell. Investigators also noted that it was unusual that Heather had suffered nine shots from the gun since most shotguns typically hold three to five rounds.

But an ATF expert, that's the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agency, informed them that there was one weapon, the Mossberg M9, that was the only of its kind to hold nine shells. Armed with this new information, investigators hit every local hardware store and gun shop until they found the one that had made a recent sale of Winchester shotgun shells to a well-known local team. We knew that the ammunition that had been used was double-aught buckshot, Winchester brand.

They then discovered that Josh Bagwell had purchased some of that ammunition a few days before this happened. According to the store owner, Bagwell had told him he needed the shells for hunting, and despite Bagwell not being of legal age to purchase the ammunition, the salesman made an exception. After all, he was a Bagwell, and in this small town, that name carried some weight. But the shop owner also mentioned that Josh Bagwell had been with another young man that day, his frequent hunting buddy, Curtis Gamble. Curtis Gamble was just

someone who just happened to be there. He was not in school. He was two years older. He was 19. And in contrast to Bagwell, Gamble was a high school dropout with a juvenile record that suggested he was capable of extreme violence. Curtis had a very violent past. He had spent years in the juvenile system in Oklahoma, had actually escaped from a juvenile facility at

one point and essentially aged out of their system. And some of the rumors swirling about Curtis Gamble were plain and simple scary and troubling. He was known not just for fighting himself, but for making other boys fight each other. And there was also a rumor that he made a sport of shooting livestock. I mean, you can literally just almost picture it, unfortunately, like driving by in a car and shooting at cows or someone else's farm animals just for the fun of it. In fact, he had already been prosecuted and kicked out of school as a high school senior for bringing a gun to school. All the investigators' interests began to be focused on him. It just seemed that he had more of the background that might lead him to do something like this.

And there was also some telling circumstantial evidence, too, because Curtis Gamble happened to own a nine-shot Mossberg M9 shotgun, and that was enough for detectives to bring him in for questioning. Gamble was very cocky, as you might expect of someone who had his history and his background. Curtis Gamble not only admitted that he owned this unique shotgun, he even offered to show it to police. They took him to his home and he went inside and brought it back out. He even had a name for it. He called it Old Blackie. But of course, Curtis Gamble denied that he used it to shoot Heather Rich.

He claims that the ammo he and Josh Bagwell purchased was for a hunting trip. After sitting for a couple of hours and denying it any involvement, as he had the other times that he had been interviewed, he eventually agreed to take a polygraph, and of course, the polygraph showed deception. After that is when he began to come up with his story as to what happened. Gamble cocked his head and began to recount the events of October 2nd, the night Heather Rich was killed. It was almost as if once it began to come out, he was kind of proud that they were interested in him. You know, it's as if he was enjoying it.

He gave, as I recall, a two or three page written confession. 19-year-old Curtis Gamble told investigators that he was with Josh Bagwell and Randy Wood in the trailer at Bagwell's grandfather's house when they decided to invite Heather to join them. He went on to say that when she arrived, Josh Bagwell supplied her with alcohol to the point that she not only became intoxicated, but very much so.

And then he went on to claim that Heather and Josh had what he described as consensual sex. Well, let me say this. While Gamble called it consensual sex, if Heather was intoxicated to the point of being incapacitated, well, that's not consensual. Then we are talking about sexual assault. If Heather was intoxicated to the point of being incapacitated, well, that's not consensual. Then we are talking about sexual assault. Gamble also claimed that at some point Heather supposedly flirted with Randy and himself, and that the two of them decided to, in his words, get a piece, but that she passed out. From there, Gamble said that when she momentarily woke up, Heather began crying and screaming, accusing them of having taken advantage of her, and then she passed out again. He said that it was Josh Bagwell and

Randy Wood who began to panic about having committed what would be tantamount to sexual assault and attempted sexual assault, and that they then decided to do something about it. Curtis Gamble said it was Randy Wood who was jealous of Heather's encounter with Josh Bagwell and then carried an unconscious Heather to Josh Bagwell's pickup and then drove all of them to Belknap Creek. He named Randy Wood as the person who shot her in his confession, but he also made himself an accomplice, or as we call it in Texas, a party to the crime.

So he's basically putting the three of them together who in some form, based on what you do and don't believe, are having some sort of physical, sexual something with this young girl who is drunk to the point of being incapacitated, and then the three of them together take her to this creek where she is shot? Well, then Gamble goes on to even show investigators where the three teenagers disposed of the nine spent shotgun shells that Wood had supposedly emptied into Heather's head and back. He actually took them to the location where the nine shotgun casings that had been collected the night that she was shot and been thrown out the window as they were driving back to Warika.

He took the investigators to that location and those nine casings were recovered. And of course, ballistics showed a match to the firing pin. And that being the firing pin on the unique shotgun that belonged to Curtis Gamble, the gun he called Old Blackie. Based on Gamble's version events, plus the other various pieces of evidence investigators had gathered, Josh Bagwell, Curtis Gamble, and Randy Wood were all arrested in the late hours of October 24th of 1996, and each charged with the first-degree murder of 16-year-old Heather Rich. The homecoming king, the rich kid, and the juvenile delinquent.

The story of their arrest for Heather's brutal murder shook Warika to the core. But two people that were not shocked, Heather's parents, Gail and Dwayne Rich. I don't think they were surprised. I think that they had almost made up their minds at that point that they knew at least two of these boys were involved. And we knew that there had been a party the night before. They had all finally admitted that they were there together at that trailer. And I think the parents believed that all three of them were involved. But exactly to what extent each suspect was involved was still up for debate.

Because when Randy Wood was questioned by police, he provided an entirely different version of events. Wood insists that after Heather passed out, it was Curtis Gamble that sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated. And it was Gamble that insisted that they were all at risk of being implicated in her assault. And so according to Wood, it was Gamble who then grabbed his shotgun, demanded Wood and Bagwell put Heather in the truck, and drove all of them to the bridge over Belknap Creek. Wood further claimed that he never got out of the truck, but when he heard the

blast from the shotgun, he looked up and saw Gamble with the weapon in his hands, which means, Anastasia, that we now have two competing versions of Heather's murder. Curtis Gamble named Randy Wood as the gunman. Randy Wood named Curtis Gamble as the gunman. So we had two competing statements, and we had to decide which one was most credible. In my view, that was pretty easy to do, because if you look at Curtis Gamble, his history, his personality, the fact that the gun was his, the fact that the scene was a location only he knew about, everything pointed to him. Of the three suspects, only Josh Bagwell exercised his right to remain silent and provided no statement to police.

Ordinarily, I would think the feds would take this case. Kidnapping, rape, young girl, 16 years of age, taken across county line. Normally, particularly in these small counties, the federal government would take and prosecute. However, two of these boys were 17, so they were juveniles under federal law. They were also juveniles under Oklahoma law. They were also juveniles under Oklahoma law. They were not in Texas. In Texas, you become an adult basically for the purposes of the criminal law at 17. That meant that Tim could and would prosecute all three suspects, including Warwicka's homecoming king as adults. And if convicted, all three would be eligible for the death penalty.

They were all three charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder. The trial began on October 2, 1997, the one-year anniversary of Heather's death. Tim argued that regardless of who pulled the trigger, all three of the accused had distinct roles in Heather's murder. And, you know, Scott, we've definitely talked about this saying that we use, I've often used in the courtroom, which is in for a penny and in for a pound. And that's really what it comes down to in acting in concert. If you have the same intent, no matter how minor or major your role,

under the law, you are all equally culpable. Yeah, you don't need to be the one pulling the trigger. You just need to be there and involved in the actual act of the murder. So even though the defendants were contradicting each other about who did it, who fired the round, who took her out of the truck, who stayed in the truck. It really didn't make a difference. What it did was give people an opportunity to see if they wanted a deal. Would they testify against each other? And just for a second to legal sidestep here, you know, when you have multiple defendants like here and each are, or at least a couple of them, are pointing fingers at one another,

well, that's called, in legalese, antagonistic defenses, right? Because basically it means that you can't believe what one person is saying without disbelieving the other. So you can't try those people together unless, and this is what we did in Brooklyn quite often, you do it with multiple juries. But now faced with all this and where the juries is going to come out, just like Scott said, it does lead down the road sometimes that one or more wants to cooperate, cut a deal, or at least prosecutors then think about various pleas. So it was paramount to the prosecution and to also Heather's family that all three suspects be held responsible for the role in Heather's murder. So in an effort to secure Curtis Gamble's

cooperation and testimony against Bagwell, Tim offered to remove the death penalty or take it off the table as a possible sentence. It was a difficult decision that required the blessing of Heather's parents. And just for a moment, I mean, each one of you out there might be saying, wait a second, so you're making a deal with the guy who you believe pulled the trigger. But remember, two of the three made statements and Josh Bagwell didn't. So he would likely in this case be the most difficult to prosecute. And so while you're not saying that Curtis Gamble is getting a pass, it's just taking that ultimate punishment, the death penalty off the table. And that's what Tim Cole and Heather's parents were grappling with.

Obviously, they agreed with seeking the death penalty against Curtis Gamble because they, as I did, believe that he was actually the one who really caused this to happen. It was in charge, giving orders, and the one who pulled the trigger. But they were willing to give up a potential death sentence if he would admit that he was the shooter and testify against Josh Bagwell. And so that's eventually what was offered to him. And that's what he did. And for Tim and Heather's parents, they ultimately decided that this deal was necessary, believing that Josh Bagwell's family's prestige, money, and influence just might ultimately get him off. The family really wanted to make sure that all three of these guys were convicted and that they all three got punished. And they were worried that Josh Bagwell would not be because he had the money to defend himself. Bagwell ended up taking the stand in his own defense, claiming that he was not even in the trailer

when the decision was made to kill Heather, and further claimed that he thought they were just driving Heather around until she sobered up. His theory was he didn't participate in the murder, and it just came as a surprise, and he just happened to be there. Their theory was he was there, he didn't do anything, he didn't know it was going to happen. He also claimed conveniently that he was absent on the bridge,

testifying that he had been relieving himself in the woods when he heard the gunshots. And when he looked up, Josh Bagwell said it was Randy Wood, not Curtis Gamble, holding the gun. He claimed in his trial that Randy Wood was the one that shot her. He did admit to helping throw her body over the edge of the bridge. That's really the only thing he would admit to with regard to his role. So, Scott, we now have this third version of the murder.

So it's basically now a he said, he said, and he said case. You'd have to ask the question, if he was so innocent, why didn't he try to exonerate himself earlier? And why not call the police with information about a murder that occurred? Of course, obviously, there's no responsibility or requirement for someone to reach out to police. But there really is a simple answer. His mother told him not to. The mother, who was an attorney in Oklahoma, testified that he had come to her and told her that he was involved and where the body was. And she advised him not to tell anybody because he would get railroaded. He

wasn't involved and he would get charged with it. So just keep quiet. That was her advice to him. So she allowed Heather's body to lie in that water for a couple of weeks longer just because she was trying to protect her son and didn't go to authorities with that information. And you can imagine how well that went over with the family and the jurors. So we have three suspects that have all admitted to being present and involved in some capacity to conspiring, committing, and covering up a murder, which, if proven, is enough for a conviction. But here's where things go a little sideways. Now, Randy Wood suddenly decided he was not going to take his deal.

In his mind, since he didn't pull the trigger, he didn't think he should be charged with murder. Randy Wood was refusing a deal that would spare him the death penalty for an opportunity to defend himself against Josh Bagwell's accusation that it was he, Randy Wood, who had pulled the trigger. He did so because he wanted the jury to believe that he was telling the truth. So he didn't care if he had a deal or not. He was still going to testify because it's all he could do for Heather at that point and her family. And so he decided to take the stand and testify without a deal. I think that was a very powerful moment in that trial. And later, Wood had said that he did this because he owed Heather and her family that much.

Well, during his testimony, Woods stated that Josh Bagwell was indeed a party to the plan to kill Heather and had assisted in carrying Heather's body to the bridge, weighing down her body in the creek and then covering up the blood on the bridge with dirt. So what really happened? Probably the best person to ask is the man who spent over a year of his life and decades since immersed in the facts, its nuances over to this party, and I believe that it was a prearranged meeting between she and Josh Bagwell. I think what happened is that Josh Bagwell got her very drunk to the point of being passed out and had sexual intercourse with her. And if incapacitated, Heather could not have consented. And then Gamble sexually assaulted her.

And as we revealed in the trial, Randy Wood also assaulted her. And when Heather came to be aware of what happened, she attempted to defend herself. That's when Curtis Gamble decided to carry out his plan. He wasn't going to go back to prison. He wasn't going to go down for rape. And so he's the one, I believe, who concocted the plan. It was his gun. And he essentially ordered the other two to put her in the car, dress her. Randy admitted that he put her clothes back on her. They carried her to the truck. I think it all happened very quickly. I think she was pulled out of the vehicle. I think she was still unconscious. She was shot nine times in a row. Most of the rounds were to the back of the head, and you can imagine what that did to her head and her brain. There were several rounds also in the back. They were all from the back.

The details are almost too horrific to recount, but the extreme violence of the killing brings me back to something we said at the top of the show, that it demonstrated what we called overkill. And to me, that suggests a motive that is more than just covering up their crime of sexual assault. And if we agree that Gamble was indeed the shooter, it suggests a degree of depravity, maybe even also a sociopathy that is truly disturbing. Frankly, I think that he, for a long time, had a fantasy of killing someone. The guard at the juvenile detention center where he was at the time, who heard him say one day that he would be famous someday for kidnapping a beautiful girl

and blowing her head off. His exact words. And despite their conflicting stories, Wood and Bagwell did nothing to stop them. In fact, they participated in the initial assault and then helped him carry out his violent fantasy. For Heather's parents, the wait as the jury deliberated was almost unbearable. They were extremely worried that Josh Bagwell was going to get away with this, and they believed that all three of these guys needed to be held accountable. But after more than seven hours, Bagwell was found guilty of capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder. They were, I think, most, I guess the word I would use is elated, when the verdict came back on Josh Bagwell.

He was convicted of both, received a life sentence for both. So he received two concurrent life sentences. Randy Wood claims he doesn't regret turning down the deal offered to him that would have spared him the life sentence. He essentially forced me to take him to trial, even though I offered to actually prosecute him for conspiracy rather than the actual murder. But he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't accept it. So he went to trial on capital murder, just like the other two, and was found guilty and received a life sentence. As for Gamble, after violating his initial plea agreement, he too went to trial, was convicted, and sentenced to two life sentences that the judge ordered to run consecutively.

I wanted to see that he never got out. So in the end, at least in the courtroom, justice was served. But incredibly, that is not the end of this story. And if anyone needs any more proof of their lack of remorse, Josh Bagwell and Curtis Gamble, after spending less than five years in prison, the two of them teamed up again, this time to break out. They overpowered a jailer. Gamble had a shank that he had made and hidden. And so he puts the knife to her throat and tells her to go get his buddy out. And they walked out, stole the car, ditched the car a few hours later, and were gone to Oklahoma.

The convicted killers eluded law enforcement from Texas and Oklahoma before being cornered by U.S. Marshals in a convenience store where they had taken a 71-year-old shopkeeper hostage. The greatest fear was that they had nothing to lose. And that made us all deeply concerned about this shop owner. Both men eventually surrendered, and as of today, all three of Heather's killers are incarcerated in a Texas penitentiary. Bagwell and Wood will be eligible for parole in November of 2036. For Gamble, he will be eligible for parole in 2026. And while he will be eligible,

the chances of early release, I'd say unlikely. It was a case, I suppose, that captured me more so than any other case that I've ever had. But it's also a case that Tim continues to struggle with in one respect. As I got older, I began to question my decision to send Randy Wood to prison for life. And I had participated in an attempt to get his sentence shortened. It's not going to happen because that's next to impossible to do in Texas.

But I would have to say that I have some regret that I did not prosecute him for conspiracy. He still could have gotten a life sentence, but I think after what he did to help convict the other two, I think that a jury probably would have been more lenient had I prosecuted him for conspiracy. They could have given him a lesser sentence. I think that he probably did not deserve the same sentence that the other two guys. I've talked to so many prosecutors over my career, and I really don't remember the last time, especially in an interview setting, that a prosecutor would say they're regretting something like this. I think it was such an interesting moment in my discussion with him. I kind of look at this in the larger picture of the reminder that criminal justice

and for prosecutors and all involved, these are weighty decisions that we have to make or involved in. And Tim's feelings really, it's not about Randy Wood's guilt. And I think that's an important factor, but it is about the length of his sentence. And to me, that just really highlights

the complexities of this work and that there's just sometimes no easy answers. And I also think it talks about the person that Tim is. I think his definition of justice is true here and how he feels about the way these sentences should be handed down and the decisions that he made then and how this case has stayed with him for so long. Agreed. I think it really is a good example, albeit a difficult one for Tim Cole, of just the

humanity in it all and certainly within himself while he carried out his role to the best of his abilities at the time. Heather was nominated Homecoming Queen just days before she disappeared. Almost all of the nearly 2,000 residents in her small town knew her and knew that smile. She was the typical type of teen, looking for more independence and looking to follow her own thoughts and dreams until she came face to face with true evil. A dark figure in the night holding a nine-round shotgun who decided way before pulling the trigger

that that weapon was meant to kill someone that night. Heather Rich at 16 was taken advantage of in the very worst of ways. But in life, she was a teenager who was very much loved by her family. Now both her mother and father have passed away respectively in 2015 and 14. After her death, they divorced and both remarried. We hope that they found support and love in their final years as they struggled with the grief of losing their child. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. Anatomy of Murder is an Audiochuck original

produced and created by Weinberger Media and Forseti Media. Ashley Flowers is executive producer. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?