Anatomy of Murder - Partners in Crime - Part 2 (Samuel Johnson, Jr)

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

No forensic evidence tying them to the crime, and one has an alibi, but two daughters of a police sergeant are the top suspects in a homicide. Detectives unravel a murder conspiracy that tests the bonds of family and love. 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

Previously on Anatomy of Murder. How do you brutally murder someone and then showing some compassion by gently placing them at a cemetery? Samuel Johnson had been shot multiple times and did have an insurance policy out on him. Vanessa was the beneficiary and was the daughter of one of our internal affairs sergeants. I'm going to be honest, I love my sister dearly. I realized that this case was a little more complex than just your average front-of-the-mill homicide. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anasika Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murder.

In our last episode, we started to profile the murder of Samuel Johnson Jr., a 26-year-old man from San Antonio, Texas, who was found dead in a cemetery, his body simply placed underneath a tree, but he was shot six times somewhere else. At the time of his murder, he was engaged to a woman who was pregnant with his child, but he also had a kid with his ex, Vanessa. And we also learned that Vanessa and her younger sister, Susan, were the daughters of a police sergeant in San Antonio, Texas Police Department. And a year earlier, those same two sisters had spoken about murdering Samuel for insurance money. But now detectives Kimberly Bauer and her partner Lisa Miller needed the proof.

Would part of that proof be a confession? I just need to ask you because you understand my partner's talking to Sue, so we just need to verify, you know, that you have the same story. So they brought the two of them, Vanessa and Susan, in for an interview. They weren't in custody. Police just wanted to know what they had to say. And the investigators strategically separated the two sisters. And then as we spoke to them, we would take little breaks and come out, you know, verify their information to see if they were actually filling us with a line of crap or not. And again, I would ask you, you and your sister are extremely close. We're all like one big family, you know?

Lisa had decided to take the bold tactic of telling Susan that her sister, Vanessa, was telling her Susan was there when Samuel was murdered. I went and checked because Vanessa's talking with Detective Bauer. And Vanessa's telling Detective Bauer that she received a phone call while she was at Adrian's house where she told her that he had accidentally killed Sam. No, she didn't. No, she didn't. Lisa was just hoping that Susan realized that she was sitting across from someone who had intimate details of the crime, directly implicating her. She's thinking, where did that information come from?

Did my own sister turn against me? And is there any leniency left for me? That's what I'm thinking that's going through Susan's mind at that very moment. Yeah, she did. No, she didn't. I'm telling you, girl. OK, I don't believe that. Susan was loyal to Vanessa.

I think she was having a hard time processing that Vanessa was actually going to get away with this and Susan was going to be left holding the bag. But Susan displayed a great poker face. And she stood up, and then she motioned towards the door. Yeah, displayed a great poker face and she stood up and then she motioned towards the door. Yeah, I'm ready to go. Now, Anastasia, this was a bit of a surprise, I think, when I went through the interrogation video and saw her body language. I'm sure it was not clear to Susan what would happen. You know, would she be free to leave when she would get up? Would she

be arrested? And, you know, Lisa played it exactly the best way possible, is that she really played it cool. So Susan went out and was waiting in the lobby with her mom after she cut off my interview. But I went back out there and I said, Susan, I just want you to know that Vanessa is in there telling Detective Bauer that you're responsible for this whole thing. So just picture for a moment what is going on at that moment. She hears officers talking. She doesn't know what they're saying. She could probably hear the police radio run, walkies going off, and hearing Lisa walk away back to her desk.

But the loudest thing of all to her is the thoughts inside of her head. What I am doing right now may not just affect the rest of my life, but all of those around me. I think it took her a little bit to process that that was actually happening. Because then she changed her mind and I got a call from our service desk in the lobby. They said, hey, this lady says she needs to talk to you. And I went back out there and Susan goes, I'm ready to tell you what really happened. Let's step back for a moment and try to imagine what Susan was thinking while she was walking down that hallway out to the lobby and her mom, the police sergeant, was still sitting there.

Now, I'm just speculating, but I can assume that when she did walk out and her mom, the police sergeant, was still sitting there. Now, I'm just speculating, but I can assume that when she did walk out, her mom realized that she had not told the truth and that Vanessa was still in there talking and that the mom made it known to her the jig was probably up. And that's an out of seagrism. The jig is up. And it was time for her to save herself. So I brought her back in to the interview room and sat down. You know, at this point, here's my take. There is no other reason for Susan to walk back into that room knowing what questioning she would probably be facing unless she was really ready to bear it all. She was likely feeling vulnerable and felt like all of the get out of

jail cards may be used up by her sister, Vanessa. What do you think, Asika? I think what you're saying is exactly right, Scott, right? Because if she goes in that room, it is to say something very different than she had said before. I'm going to be honest, I love my sister dearly. I know that. I'm going to tell you everything. Okay.

Now, in a room just down the hall, Vanessa is still talking. In fact, she never stopped. But her approach was more about Samuel. Her version was that in the year prior, Sam was very unhappy and depressed and he wanted to kill himself. And that Vanessa hatched a plan. Well, hey, look, Sam, if you want to kill yourself anyway, let's take out a life insurance policy so that me and baby Sam will be taken care of financially, we'll be able to be financially stable,

and you'll get to kill yourself. And so it's kind of a win-win, but we're going to have to make your suicide look like a murder so the insurance company will pay off. And that Sam had agreed to that. And that's why he signed the life insurance paperwork. Oh, my gosh. Like, you know, this man that you've been in a relationship with, who you share a child with, is, at least according to her, talking about being suicidal. And it's not like, hey,

can I help lift you up? Can I help get you some help to try to get you to a better mind space? Like, it's just, it's very hard to wrap your head around that type of reaction, if what she's saying is even true. Well said. When people are cornered, they get desperate. And when they get desperate, they try to find ways to misdirect attention. And that is a sad attempt on Vanessa's behalf to talk about a young man who's been murdered, who was the father of her child. And it makes it seem like that was her wish. Was he at a low point? Was he contemplating death by suicide? And so she actually took that opportunity to kind of play him to get him to sign

this life insurance policy. You know, or is this like you said, just this ruse that she's making something up to try to explain why it is that she has such a high amount of money laid out on his life. But as time went on, Sam decided, yeah, you know what? Maybe I'm not going to kill myself after all. Well, by that time, Vanessa was like, oh, yeah, you are. Because I want that insurance money. Obviously, the change to his mind really doesn't make sense at all. I mean, anything less than just pure cold-blooded murder. To make something look like homicide when it is really death by suicide,

if that part was even true, well, that is certainly also a crime. There are usually clauses in life insurance policies that include specific conditions that must be met before someone collects for a self-inflicted death. So whether this is fraud to try and get around those provisions, or if it is in fact simply cold-blooded murder, either way, there's a crime here, but it's not making a whole lot of sense based on everything else that we know about this young man. Okay, I just have two questions to ask you. Did you kill Sam?

No, ma'am. Do you know who killed Sam? I'm not sure. And I'm asking you for the truth because I know what happened. You don't know what I know. And it is here when Kimberly decides that the time is right for her to lay out the cards that they know to be true on the table. I finally confronted her with what Adrian said that she was in Mississippi when they called her to tell her that Sam had been murdered. And she finally confessed that she knew Sam was murdered.

And she confessed that she had given Susan money to buy a gun. Susan and her boyfriend did buy a gun. So Susan's boyfriend is BJ. Still looking to reduce her culpability in his homicide, Vanessa was now blaming the murder on what was supposed to happen, that Susan and BJ were just protecting her heart, trying to warn Samuel to stop being unfaithful and to show they were serious.

He was struck in the head with a two-by-four. She just said that, you know, that they were going to teach him to stop messing with my sister. Stop. We know that you're still fooling around. You know, yank her hard around. And she said he fell. She just kept saying that. When I came home, I said, what did he fall on? She said he just fell.

I guess he got hit in the head with a two-by-four. And then she said that he was dead. So guess he got hit in the head with a two-by-four. And then she says he was dead. And I tried to hold it together. And I was just like, what did y'all do? I missed it. I missed all of it. I missed the text message. I missed the telephone call.

I missed everything. This would not even be like this. But I missed the call. Now, I don't know about you, but I have zero sympathy for Vanessa right now. There's no reason for us to believe it. And all I could think about when I heard her giving this, you know, oh, if I'd only answered the phone, none of this would ever happen. It was like liar, liar, pants on fire, right?

Because it's ridiculous. So they, now they're just supposed to do something mild, you know, but yet they on their own go to commit this very heinous homicide. And she just happens not to answer the phone like it just doesn't look believable when she's speaking. And it certainly doesn't make any sense. It's amazing to see how this is now, Anastasia, working out between the two detectives and the two sisters. And when you think about it, right, it's not two people conspiring to commit this homicide. It's two sisters.

We're throwing out a lot of different names, so let's just kind of remind ourselves who is who and who the different players are. So far, at least, alleged to be involved in this homicide, you have Vanessa, you have her sister Susan, and you now have her sister's boyfriend, BJ. But there's also going to be a fourth person who's now been named, too. Who hit Sam with a two-by-four. What's her name?

Now, Lakeisha is Lakeisha Brown, who is BJ's cousin, who also lived with Vanessa and Susan. After Vanessa tells us this and Susan tells us part, we interview Lakeisha. She's BJ's cousin. So now what they say happened is this, is that Susan called Sam and told him to come over to Vanessa's house again to try to get this money that he was supposed to pick up from her. And that then when Sam actually got to the house that she did, Susan gave Sam the money. And then Lakeisha says Susan went upstairs because basically she was a coward and she didn't want to see it. Sam was hit over the head with a two by four. And Keisha admits that she did hit him once. She does admit that.

But then she says that it is BJ that basically does everything else. And that began with tying him up and placing him in the trunk of the car. The next step for the trio was to find the location where the execution of Samuel Johnson would actually take place, as the plan would be to dump the car after the murder was carried out. Both vehicles would head to the outskirts of San Antonio. They pull up to a home, which happens to be BJ's stepfather's home, remotely located on a few acres. Here is what Lakeisha told them next.

Lakeisha says that BJ gets Sam out of the trunk of his own vehicle. Samuel begged for his life, you know, don't kill me, I'm sorry, you know, I don't want to die. But BJ, he didn't seem to have a problem with it. He had a six-shot revolver and he put all six shots into Sam and Sam being on his knees and the shooter being above him now that stands true after Sam is killed they put Sam back into the trunk of his own vehicle then BJ drives Sam's car and Lakeisha drives BJ's car. And Lakeisha says that on the way there, BJ had broke the gun up into several pieces and told Lakeisha to throw it out the window. They drive over to the east side of town to an abandoned, what used to be a gas station. They leave the car there,

and they left the keys in it. They drove off in BJ's car and went back to the house. So while this is this unbelievably horrible story, can what they're saying be corroborated by other evidence? So let's start by talking about the car. It's already in police possession, and they had processed it. And when they processed it, they found blood. So at least that part of Lakeisha's story is checking out. Now, on top of that, the night that Samuel was murdered, an officer had spotted that very same car at a gas station.

So again, another check in the evidence box. So we verified that what Lakeisha said was true. They did dump him there while he was still in the evidence box. So we verified that what Lakeisha said was true. They did dump him there while he was still in the trunk. But because the vehicle didn't come back as stolen or reported missing, then the officer just kept on driving, thinking, eh, maybe it broke down there. You know, that's legitimate.

It was an older vehicle. Lakeisha said the car was at the gas station with Samuel in the car's trunk. But the car was found on the street miles away and Samuel was found in the cemetery. I asked her and Susan both, how did Sam end up at the cemetery? And they both said the same thing. We don't know. We left him in the trunk of the car. You know, it really is confusing in a way that just doesn't make sense. For if what they're saying before is true, why not give up this too, right? Because they've talked about hitting him in the head.

They've talked about tying him up the head. They've talked about tying him up, leaving him in the trunk of his car. So why not talk about where they left him? It's not unusual in an interview with a suspect that they omit details conveniently for themselves to protect themselves. But if you're accused of murder, then dumping a body in a cemetery post-murder seems not like it would really add any more years to a possible sentence if they were prosecuted. And perhaps we should all be thinking that maybe actually they're telling the truth. But what if they're kind of going to go with, well, you know, we didn't plan to kill him. We only planned to hurt him. He was very alive when we left him in the car. And really kind of distancing themselves to put the blame more on

one more person who has not yet spoken to police. And that person is the guy we know by the initials BJ. They seemed legitimate that they didn't know. I think they were being honest. And I also had that car swabbed up and down and none of the DNA came back to the girls or to BJ. It's obvious in this murder plot, there was a tremendous amount of pre-planning, even to the point that there may have been as much as a year, you know, so it's well within reason to think that they wore gloves when they were driving the vehicle, expecting that the vehicle would be found and at some point in the investigation, it would be checked for DNA. So the fact there was no DNA recovered, I believe, was not significant. You know, one of my favorite sayings has always been, the absence of evidence is not the evidence

of absence. So with all the information they now have from Lakeisha, investigators have the lead that they've been looking for since day one of the investigation. Because remember, they know that Samuel was placed in the cemetery. They knew that he'd been transported. They had blood evidence in his car trunk. They always knew there was another crime scene out there, which is where the actual homicide would have occurred. But now the thing that they have added into the equation of things they know is that it started with Samuel being attacked inside Vanessa's house. And according to Keisha, there was some blood on the carpet. This may be investigators' best opportunity to link Samuel Johnson's DNA in that house,

showing that the initial attack started at Vanessa's. That would also completely back up the story independently told at least by Vanessa, her sister, and now Lakeisha. And also down the road, if any of them happen to try to recant their statements, and of course we know that happens, it would protect against that happening for investigators. Without that forensic proof, credibility is going to be the thing that at least right now is going to potentially carry the day.

So anyway, Lakeisha says they went back to the house and that's when Susan was cutting up carpet where Sam had blood on the carpet and they were rolling it up to throw it away. And I believe they threw it away behind some Walmart at one of their dumpsters. And by this point, it had been several days since the murder, so that trail ran into a dead end. So far, we've discovered two crime scenes. Vanessa's home, where the initial attack occurred, and confirmed by both Susan and Lakeisha.

And next, the trunk of Sam's vehicle, where his blood was located. And now that remote home belonging to a relative of BJ, Lisa and Kimberly were about to get a search warrant, and that would prove fruitful. We didn't know where this property was, but Keisha did. Keisha drove the detectives over there to show them where Sam was killed. And so almost as soon as investigators get out there, they start to see exactly what you've been talking about. So you drive out to this property, and when you go around the back, what do they find? Bullet casings, rope. And it turned out

that Keisha and BJ had also burned their clothes. Now, Lakeisha had never mentioned that when she spoke to the police. But again, it's sometimes hard to give everything in, but I don't think there's anything to make of that, that she left out this detail that now the police do have some extrinsic corroboration of their being there at that site. So they find all that at the place that, remember, she takes them where she told them the homicide had occurred. And so when they had gone through that, they had a search warrant to collect whatever evidence had been left behind. So now we have two confessions, a mountain of evidence, including potential DNA, shell casings. So, you know, you may be asking, when is it time to make the arrest? And surprisingly, there's really not a rush. There also is the question about motive, not just for Vanessa, but for all of them. So perhaps if you believe Vanessa that Susan

wanted to protect her from Samuel, because according to Vanessa, Samuel was messing with her mind and her emotions. But what about BJ and Lakeisha? That's a good question. And you're about to find out why. And it turns out that Vanessa, Susan, BJ and Lakeisha were all living in Vanessa's house. So after talking to Lakeisha, we felt that BJ, Susan and Lakeisha all felt obligated to do this murder for Vanessa because all of them would be homeless if not for Vanessa housing them and feeding them. And so they were not only family, but they wanted to live, they wanted to eat. And so really what it comes down to is that Vanessa is the one who holds the purse strings for all of them. Simply put, without Vanessa's money, Lakeisha and Susan would probably be homeless

along with BJ. And she really used it in a way to be like a puppet master. You know, here, do what I need to do and I'm going to give you some money. Go here, do this. I will continue to let you live here in my home as long as you kind of go about things the way I want. But it really all came down to the money that she had and that she used to get all these people to do exactly what she wanted.

So keeping Vanessa happy means keeping them under the roof and fed and money in their pockets. It's because within just a few months time, she had already spent that $300,000 that she got from the house fire, and she was out of money. That's why she was insisting that this murder had to happen, and it had to happen pretty quick because she was out of money. She had spent that whole $300,000 from the house fire. Let's talk about Vanessa. Let's go to her motive. Was it the insurance money, this life insurance policy that she had taken out on Samuel almost a year before? Or is there some other reason also brewing behind this murder? Sam started dating another girl, and she gave me an interview and said, yeah, we were seeing each other all the way up to,

well, until his time of death. And again, if we're talking about love, at least according to some of the people that police were speaking to, that Samuel wasn't just seeing one other woman, but multiple. He admitted that he had had several girlfriends. And it was just interesting that he had Erica. He had this girl I was taking an interview from. And he had Vanessa. And we don't even know about any others. You know, it's always important for homicide investigations, for the investigators to get the most complete picture of not only the potential suspects, but clearly knowing as much as you can about your victim.

This does not change the fact that Samuel Johnson Jr. was murdered, executed in the most cold and calculated fashion. How about, is it in any way justify murder, you know, or was it just enough to agitate Vanessa, right? That now she is the woman scorned because he is no longer with her, that that is going to be the extra incentive to make sure that he is not with anybody else. Samuel's history and behavior was definitely unsettling for some, but investigators were also puzzled by something that Vanessa and Susan told them. They mentioned that a year ago that Samuel was suicidal, which was the impetus, they say, for the murder plot. But was this actually the case?

At the time, I didn't really know why he would be so depressed as to do that. Then investigators decided to look deeper into Samuel. But then after we arrested Vanessa and I sat and talked with her for an hour or so, things kind of fell into place a little bit. There was more to Samuel that they hadn't realized. The picture that Sam's mom and dad and his fiance, Erica, painted of him was a completely different picture than what Vanessa had painted of him. So after they had spoken with Vanessa and Susan and Lakeisha, the investigators let them leave because it was going to take them time to type up these arrest warrants. But it was when they spoke to Vanessa and Susan's mom, remember the police sergeant who said,

Hey, listen, Vanessa just went to a hotel and it went further than that. That's when she called and Lisa talked to her and she says, I think Vanessa is going to commit suicide. They went to go get Vanessa and bring her back based on the fact that she's a danger to herself. And I was still typing up the three arrest warrants. While it may not seem to be a common occurrence, there have been cases, Adesika, I know that you have worked where this has been an issue, a concern. Yeah, unfortunately I've had it more than once, you know. I've had it mostly where it ends up being suicide by cop, or at least attempted, where the person just says like, that's it, I'm done, they know it's me, and I'm going to go out with the distinct purpose of having the police hopefully kill

them. So it's called suicide by cop. But I've also had it again, unfortunately, more than once where people go into, I don't know if it's a depression or they just decide they can't go to jail or that there's no reason at that point. They're so overwhelmed by what might happen next that they're found out where they have ultimately taken their own life. I've definitely had it where they have contemplated and made an attempt.

Yes, it is uncommon, fortunately, but also more common than we would think. We were going to have her evaluated by our mental health unit. That's why I went and got her. It was at this point that Lisa learned a lot more about Sam and Vanessa, something that surprised all of us. That's when I sat and talked with her at length about her history of her relationship with Sam. Was on again, off again. He was always lying to her.

So what would be her motivation to give this story? Would it be aiding her defense? I say unlikely. As the investigator, you want to keep her talking because clearly other things like confirming your evidence could come up within those conversations. And then there's a possibility that it very well may be true and the family was well unaware of what he was doing. But that doesn't change the fact that this was still cold-blooded murder. She said he had two or three different cell phones and one of his scams was he would

meet women online pretending to be a sheriff's deputy and he would go out with these women and treat them very badly and then he would wait a couple of days and recontact these women posing as his own twin brother. And he would go meet these women to apologize for his twin brother's bad behavior. And he would seduce these girls. Yeah, I can't wait to hear your reaction to this story. But, you know, for me, that is a pretty wacky story. We have no idea if it's true, but who would for me, that is a pretty wacky story. We have no idea if it's true, but who would come up with that sort of a story, right? I don't know. I mean, that was definitely like a head turn all the way around to me when I heard that one. Knowing that she was directing others to do her bidding, Vanessa may have been feeling pretty guilty and perhaps painting him in a bad light would relieve some of her own guilt.

But I want to put the emphasis on her own guilt. It is selfish. And even if it's true. We got a version of who Samuel was from his family, a church going in love with Erica, going to have a baby. They're getting ready to get married. He was very stable. And then we get a version of Sam from Vanessa that was an absolute double life. But the things she was saying were believable because she was like providing background of why

Sam was suicidal at one point. But let's turn the tables on Vanessa. She shared a lot of information in her initial interview about Samuel and even pointed the finger at his fiancée, Erica. But why didn't she share this information before? Why wouldn't you offer that up initially when you're talking about it, right? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, you know, certain things that she said when she said them, other than she is just trying to escape from her own responsibility. And in her confession, when she

was asked, why did you do this? Her reply was, I just thought it would be better. She thought it was better for who? For you, Vanessa? For Sam? For their child? Obviously, there's so many options. Let's just say there are a million other options opposed to murder. She even goes so far as to like point the finger at the new girlfriend. But she isn't going to give all this stuff about Samuel at the time if this is true.

The timing is just very suspect to me about its truthfulness, about when she finally gives all this to the police. Why did you tell me about Erica did this? Why come in here and start out like that? She's innocent, Vanessa. She's an innocent person and you wanted me to look at her for murder? Four people are accused of being involved in the execution murder of Samuel Johnson Jr. and they would stand trial.

Vanessa, Susan, BJ, and Letitia. Susan and Letitia made deals to testify against Vanessa in exchange for lighter sentences. Both of them pled guilty in exchange for their cooperation. Susan received a sentence of 25 years and Lakeisha received 20 years in prison. Well, Vanessa went to trial twice. The first time she received 70 years. And then she got a retrial.

And then the second time she received 70 years. But BJ's case had a different outcome. And I knew there were problems with the case because BJ, who was the actual murderer, didn't confess that night. All three of the girls gave us confessions, but BJ didn't. He just sat in a chair and he wouldn't say anything at all. And I knew that was a problem. But in Texas, you can't get a murder conviction just based on co-defendant testimony. And that was the problem with BJ is we had some circumstantial evidence, but we didn't have any confession or corroborating testimony from someone who wasn't a co-defendant. That's why he got off.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, like, how is that possible? He is the one that inflicted most of at least the physical wounds that actually caused his death. But there doesn't seem to be that independent piece needed for the jury to find him guilty. So while morally it's hard to think that if he is responsible for all the things that were put on him by Susan, Vanessa, and even Lakeisha, that he was a free person. However, that is what the jury decided. So under the law, he is not guilty of this crime. But there was yet one mystery in this investigation that remained unsolved. Samuel's car and no one, none of the four defendants were owning up to placing Samuel's body in that cemetery. Well, detectives did have a theory.

Now, this is just Lisa and I. We couldn't verify this because the DNA didn't come back. But Lisa and I strongly believe Susan and Vanessa, they wanted the vehicle to be stolen. And it looked probably like a carjacking or something, right? If they leave the they wanted the vehicle to be stolen and it looked probably like a car jacking or something, right? If they leave the keys in the vehicle. And the people who were involved in the theft of the car potentially would leave their DNA in the car, redirecting the investigation towards them. Well, we think that somebody on the east side stole that car and went joyriding in that car. At some point, they look into the

trunk and they're like, oh, there's a body in the trunk. So they didn't want to get stuck with a dead body. They didn't kill him, but they did steal the car. So they're the ones that took this dead body nicely and placed it in the cemetery. And then they take that car and they dump it on the other side of town because they don't want to be tied in with this murder. And that's why the car was found so far away from the body. You know, when I heard it, I basically kind of shrugged and I was like, yeah, you know, I could see that. But again, we never heard from the fourth player,

at least that's allegedly involved. In the end, Vanessa received 70 years. Susan got 25 years in prison and Lakeisha got 20 years and BJ was acquitted. The thing I couldn't deal with was that BJ got away. He actually was found not guilty. He never can be tried again. So now all the girls are in prison and he's out. And I pray to God that in the end, we'll all get justice. I really do. There's still another person who was on the periphery in this case,

Vanessa and Susan's mother, the sergeant with the San Antonio Police Department. You know, the department ended up moving her out of internal affairs, and I always had to wonder, at what point is she required to act as a police officer, and where is that line that she's required to act as a parent? I think it's pretty obvious where Anastiga and I stand on the lack of action by a sworn member of law enforcement here. Moving her out of internal affairs is an obvious move.

I'm sure there was questions about her continued certification as a member of law enforcement in the state of Texas. And I think she kind of summed it up when she said, you know, when this whole thing started, I had two daughters and I had pictures of them on my desk. And I can't put the pictures of my daughters on my desk anymore. I mean, this murder affected so many lives. It's just a tragedy. You know, in looking at this case, one of the things that stands out is how very different partnerships can be. You know, on the one hand, you had this group of partners, these partners in crime, who together committed such devious acts together. But then on the other hand, you had a very different type of partnership, and that was Kimberly and Lisa.

Their partnership formed by these two strong women was a strong union. They complemented each other and were able to take their strength to work this investigation for forces of good. And in the end, they used their partnership together to try to achieve justice for Samuel Johnson. 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 Frasetti Media. Ashley Flowers and Sumit David

are executive producers. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?