Anatomy of Murder - Walking in the Night - Part 1 (Tristyn Bailey)

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

A young teen disappears and the search to find her becomes national news. After she is discovered murdered, the answers to who, what and why are as perplexing as they are horrifying. 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

Here we were in a beautiful community that is so focused on children. It's Mother's Day. It's a young missing cheerleader. It was the perfect storm. Watching the news, seeing that, you know, it's our sister up on the screen, there was so much shock and so much surrealness. Like, why our family? I just, we said that so many times. This type of crime wasn't an impetuous crime. This was something that was thought out, that was obsessed about. 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. Today's episode started out as one kind of story. It revolved around a race-against-the-clock investigation carried out over the course of a day. The life of a missing 13-year-old girl hanging in the balance, told to you by the prosecutor.

We're still going to tell you that story. But right as we were set to record, we were put in contact with the 13-year-old's family, so we are fortunate to now have their perspective too. So as a heads up, this episode will include more voices than we normally have. And two of those voices are from the Bailey family of St. John's, Florida. My name is Forrest Bailey, and I am Tristan Bailey's father. My name is Brittany Bailey Russell.

I am the oldest of five siblings. The Bailey family origin was actually in Colorado, because that's where Forrest met his wife, Stacy. Their oldest, Brittany, was born there, along with a younger brother and sister. After Colorado, the family moved to Pennsylvania, where they had one more girl. Then Forrest found out his job would be moving the family to Singapore. But that wasn't the only news Forrest had to tell his four children. Here's Brittany telling the story. Two weeks before they committed to move, I think they found out they were pregnant with our fifth one. And I do remember the reaction of everybody finding out

that we were having another sibling. We were sitting at a restaurant called Freddy's, or Friendly's maybe, and everybody was less than, well, I'll just, we were shocked. Like, how could we possibly have another one? The Bailey Six would become the Bailey Seven, a nickname that they still refer to themselves by. Shortly after the move to Singapore, Tristan Bailey was born. Brittany, who at the age of 15 had mixed emotions about welcoming another sister to the family,

was enamored. She said that Tristan came into the world with a literal screech. She came out spitfire, like ready to go. Her screech, I actually was in the room, and the screech that came out of her continued for all 13 years of her life. Just very vocal, very verbal, always had something to say and loved to be the center of attention. She was like that from day one. Tristan's mom liked to joke that Tristan

was the loudest baby in the nursery. And as the youngest of five siblings, that's not so surprising. So Scott, I know that neither of us are from families of this size, at least when it comes to the siblings. And while now me being the oldest of two and my younger brother is one of the people I am definitely closest to in this world, I, remember not being so thrilled when he was first born. I actually just saw a picture in a photo album the other day at my parents' house that told me exactly what I felt by the look on my face. I can't even imagine living in a household with four other siblings. I mean, I have an older sister, so it was just the two of us, but lots of craziness just even there. But a total of five kids under one roof, all different ages,

I'm sure that was just crazy town. Even though Tristan was the youngest, she didn't always act like it. She kept us all in check while still having a humble side, yet bold, you know, outspoken personality that you could not adore it. It was contagious. I feel like we all aspire to be a little bit like her in that regard. Tristan was also generous, kind, and able to befriend just about anyone. By the time she entered middle school, some of the older siblings had

already moved out, but they still remain close. My dad's always said that the best gift he could have ever given any of us was a sibling. And I believe that all the way to my core, because every move we had, we always had built-in best friends. We never had to really worry about who was going to be hanging out with us because we always had each other. In addition to having a built-in friend group, the siblings also followed in one another's footsteps. Tristan's mom was a cheerleading coach, and Brittany had been very involved in cheer and dance growing up. Even though Tristan was 15 years younger than her sister Brittany, she also got that cheer bug. But her mom was pretty much over it at that point. She didn't want Tristan to cheer, knowing what a time commitment it would be.

But Tristan really wasn't taking no for an answer. Tristan's determination to get herself on a cheer team was bigger than I've ever seen anyone's determination. My mom told her if she can get her back walkover, I believe, she would put her on the team. And sure enough, she practiced in the living room and without fail got her back walkover. And my mom said okay well I guess I have to stand my word. Her sister Brittany remembers being moved to tears watching eight year old Tristan cheer for the very first time. I just was crying because I was reminiscing on my own self but I was so proud that she had that much determination to be able to get herself where she was on her own.

And she did well at it. She was so happy. And even if she didn't hit all of her stunts, she would beat herself up a lot about it, but that didn't stop her. She was so driven to be able to be the best version of herself. Tristan was so devoted to cheer that she eventually became the co-captain of her squad. But even with cheer practice and the many other extracurricular activities the Bailey kids were involved with, the family always made time for one thing, Bailey Sunday Fundays. It just was a time where all the kids knew on Sunday there was no plans with kids, there was no plans with friends, there was time with the family and we didn't know what we were going to do,

but we knew Sundays were dedicated only for the siblings and the parents. But one particular Sunday would instead turn dark for the Baileys. Sunday, May 9th, 2021 was Mother's Day. Brittany was in Vegas with her husband. It was the first day of their honeymoon. Meanwhile, some of the other siblings were home and planned to surprise their mother with a surprise breakfast. But it was past 9 a.m. and Tristan still hadn't woken up, so her brother went upstairs to check on her. Tristan's dad, Forrest, explains what happened next. He went up to get her and when he couldn't find her,

everybody at that point kind of toured through the house. Tristan was missing. Her sister had seen her talking on the phone around midnight the night before, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But when they tried Tristan's phone, it went straight to voicemail. So where could Tristan have gone between midnight and 9.30 a.m.? Remember, this is a 13-year-old that we're talking about, so her parents or siblings knew where she was pretty much at all times.

Within 20 minutes of noticing she was missing, Tristan's mom called the police. And at first, police tried to assess what type of teen Tristan was. Was she having problems with anybody? Did she have a history of running away or sneaking out? And getting this information helps investigators know where to focus their initial efforts, who to reach out to, and maybe where to start looking. But sneaking out or sleeping over at a friend's house without telling anyone first was definitely out of character for Tristan. That was not even a thought that crossed anybody's mind that she would have snuck

out. It's not a typical thing that would happen. Nobody knew where she was. After the police were called, Forrest hopped into his car to see if he could find his daughter Tristan. I went out and started driving around. I think I went by some of the neighbors. I'd seen some neighbors outside and told them. They started to look in the community and I was just driving around looking for her and just really tore through the neighborhood. But the police told Forrest the best thing he could do was go back home. They wanted him to be available to answer questions as more information came in. And so, Scott, while I think in many ways it's common sense, at the same time, there are pretty specific reasons why police would ask him to please go home. Yeah, let me just talk

in broad strokes here because it doesn't necessarily relate to this case. But here are a couple of potential reasons. Preservation of evidence. You know, law enforcement professionals are trained to handle and preserve potential evidence. If untrained individuals conduct a search, they could unintentionally compromise a potential crime scene. And another would be this. A family-led search might interfere with the work being done by investigators. For instance, people being questioned by the family may become wary or defensive when later questioned by police.

So the family's actions may tip off a perpetrator. You know, once again, I'm not suggesting that this was the motivation here, but it is so understandable that people dealing with a missing loved one feel helpless just doing nothing. And personally, it's a situation that I would handle extremely delicately. So there really needs to be Anastasia a balance that is struck. While Forrest understood why police wanted him home, you can imagine how difficult it must have been for him to get back into his car and head back to the house? It was extremely difficult. Every cell of my body wanted to go out and be looking and trying to do anything that could be done to find her. But I also had to respect the fact that these were people who knew a lot more than we knew and, frankly, needed to bounce things off of us. We recognized that what we had to do was give feedback and say, yes, this is somebody that Tr own multi-pronged effort to find Tristan,

which included a call out on social media to let people know that she was missing. But before they posted, they needed to tell Brittany what was going on. At first, Brittany wasn't so alarmed. Because she realized that young people, including her sister Tristan, sometimes do things that even their families don't expect, like sneaking out. Kids are kids. And, you know, sneaking out of the house, I feel like there is a plethora of kids that do that. I am not innocent in that. I was one who did that also. So as I said that to my sister, I said, you know you're home by 6 a.m. before dad wakes up.

And Brittany's sister simply responded, I said, you know you're home by 6 a.m. before dad wakes up. And Brittany's sister simply responded, I know. Something in the way she said it made Brittany's stomach immediately drop. Even if Tristan had snuck out that night, well, she still wasn't home and it was way past 6 a.m. Right then and there, the feeling set in of worry, of scare, of what is happening, and the fear of not being right there with my family. That was very dark. It was a very dark feeling. There wasn't a lot that Brittany could do to help at that moment, so she focused on spreading the word on social media while she waited for more updates. The story of Tristan's disappearance was spreading quickly, both on social media and the local news. One person who remembers seeing Tristan's picture is Jennifer Dunton. Jennifer is a local, but she is also a Seventh Circuit Assistant State Attorney

in St. Augustine, Florida. Because it was Mother's Day, I know where I was. I was at a pool enjoying my Sunday. I remember seeing on the news, whether it was the Amber Alert or just through social media, the news outlets, just this 13-year-old girl. I remember her being in a cheerleading uniform, obviously young, 13, and just reported that she was missing. While Jennifer kept her eye on the developing story, the Baileys focused on talking to Tristan's friends. Maybe one of them had information on where she might be. Kids are starting to give Mrs. Bailey all sorts of information about, you know, could be this friend or that friend. And they're going out and they're literally driving to neighbors' houses and checking all of these places.

And no one had seen Tristan. And within all of this information came out the name of a friend she had, a male that went to her school. The name of this friend was Trey. He was another local teen and he and Tristan's homes were just a short walk apart from each other. Police decided his house would be their first stop. Initially, he denied seeing her at all and having anyone over. But as the conversation kept going, Trey began to hesitate and then said something investigators didn't expect. What he had first told them wasn't the truth. As it turns out, he'd seen Tristan the night before,

and he hadn't just seen her, she had been at his house. A local teen admits to police that Tristan Bailey had been at his home the night before, and that when she'd arrived, it was a bit after midnight. And that evening, he'd been hanging out with a friend of his, another 14-year-old named Aiden Fucci. At around midnight, Fucci had called her on the phone and convinced her to sneak out of her house and come over, which she did. So you may be asking asking why the first lie? You know, Anastasia, as you know,

most teens have a nervousness about talking with members of law enforcement. And to be clear, it doesn't mean they've done anything wrong, and they do it for all sorts of reasons, thinking they may be getting in trouble or they're going to get a friend in trouble. So I think it's really natural, and I think it's also critical for the person in uniform to create a dialogue with that person to determine if there's really anything there. But, you know, being nervous around members of law enforcement is not unusual. And remember, this 13-year-old girl was missing. So maybe he was just scared. You know,

maybe he knew something or maybe he was covering for himself or somebody else. And so while investigators looked at the why, the reason for his lie came down to this. We found out later he was, he was technically grounded by his father and didn't want to admit that he had friends over to the house the night before. So I guess to you, Anasika, does this sound familiar with your experience working with teens within the court system in any of your cases? Teens are like anybody else. You know, they come in all shapes and sizes, but there is something to age. And if we all think about just with common sense, people, well, they have more common sense normally as they get older. And teens are notorious, just like preteens may have attitude with their family.

Teens, too, you know, they don't necessarily think out repercussions the way that adults might. And so I certainly have had the cases where not because of anything necessarily nefarious, but that teens just don't realize that by stonewalling or not telling the truth or telling falsities, how that may impact not only themselves, but investigation down the road. Aiden Fucci also lived in the neighborhood, but his house was a bit further away than Tristan's. He and Tristan knew each other from their social circles, but really weren't good friends. Aiden was at Trey's house when Tristan arrived around 1230 that night. Trey told police by the time she got there, he was too tired to continue to hang out. He just said, y'all, I'm not even supposed to have you guys over. He had actually snuck them

into the house. He didn't want to fall asleep with these friends in his house. And he told us, he just said, y'all are going to have to get out. I'm going to bed. I can't stay awake. According to the teen, Tristan and Aiden left together around 1 a.m. So the obvious next step was to find and speak with Aiden. Maybe he knew where Tristan was. The following is a short piece of an audio conversation when police approached Aiden. Hey, are you Aiden? Yes, ma'am. We're trying to figure out where Tristan's at. I know. And I'm not trying to get you in trouble or anything like that.

Obviously, I'm more concerned right now about her safety and what she's doing and where she could be hanging out. Yes, ma'am. Have you heard from her at all? No. No? Okay. All right.

When they first approached Aiden at his house, they let him know that we know you were one of the last people to see Tristan last night, and he indicates that he was at Trey's house and that Tristan was there, but that they have left around 1 a.m., basically saying that when they walked together until she got to her street, which would have been before his street, and that she turned and walked home, and he kept on going and went home.

So was this another brick wall for police, or was he potentially hiding something, just like Trey had been when he first told police that he hadn't seen Tristan the night before? At this point, it was hard to tell, so police left to check on other potential leads. Remember, in a missing persons case, time is not on your side.

You have to really go down every potential road you have and do it as quick as possible. And now within the Bailey family, just a few hours earlier, Forrest, Tristan's dad, had posted on social media about Tristan's disappearance and the post had taken off like wildfire. When Tristan went missing, I just put a post out on Instagram and that post was quickly public. You know, here we were in a beautiful, wonderful community that is so focused on children. It's Mother's Day. It's a young

missing cheerleader. It was the perfect storm. All that attention resulted in a lot of leads, as well as speculation on where Tristan was. That came with its own set of challenges. Social media was also so very difficult in going through and what were the falsities. You know, somebody would say, well, I heard Tristan was with this person that was at this place, which ended up not being true.

The St. John's Police Department took an active role in sorting through all the information that was coming in via social media. Now, Scott, can you just talk to, when you get this amount of information coming in from the public, how police try to prioritize, you know, what to look at first and then down the line? Does that lead have a second source? Meaning, is there more than one person saying the same thing, independent of each other? And does that lead make sense? You know, if it's a sighting, as an example, could

it be realistic that Tristan is in a time and distance component that would really be possible? You know, those are some of the early considerations you'd make. And credit to the police for however they were able to take those leads and kind of follow up on many of them, yet they also had a sense as to what were coming in that had a little bit more validity. One person who sat waiting for more information was Brittany. Remember, she is still in Vegas, and all those miles away from her family made her feel that much more powerless to help. So she sat waiting while her family was busy working police and trying to support the search for Tristan. So it was really hard for Brittany to get a full picture of what was actually unfolding. I will be honest, when I say it was really dark,

it was extremely dark because social media revolves around phones. And everybody was on their phone frantically posting and calling and doing anything in their power. So me staying in contact with my family was near impossible. I couldn't get anybody on the phone for longer than, I kid you not, maybe 15 seconds, and they were on to the next. And Brittany, as you can imagine, feels helpless. She wanted to fly home, but her father said the best thing she could do was stay put and focus on the social media efforts.

It would be that much harder to do so from an airplane. While she did remain hopeful, as you can imagine, her brain was also racing with different darker scenarios as well because your brain runs wild your brain goes into directions that you didn't even know were capable of doing you feel hope and you want the best outcome while still trying to fight off the demons that are invading your brain as to what if. So having a little bit more insight, even if it's misleading information, it still gave hope. I think that at the end of the day, everybody just held on to that hope for as long as possible. Forrest and Stacey, who's Tristan's mom, tried to remain optimistic even as the hours went by. From a hope standpoint, you are hopeful that there was an abduction. So I think it was probably twofold.

We were still hopeful that she was going to be found alive and she was going to come back to us. So while everyone did their best trying to stay positive, the search continued. Meanwhile, police spoke to a few more of Tristan's friends, but it didn't seem to bring them any closer to finding the missing girl. One of the deputies suggested going back and talking to Aiden Fucci again. And then that deputy is like, you know what, I need to go back and talk to that kid. He is the last person to see her. And so then the second time, he approaches the front door because the garage door has been put down.

And they have another conversation at his house on a sprint porch in the presence of his mom and stepdad. The deputy had Aiden walk him through his night one more time, which the teen did. He said he'd been hanging out with his friend, and then Tristan had come over. He and Tristan had left his friend's house around 1 a.m. Tristan turned on her street and then he, Aiden, continued to walk home. In that same conversation, he and or his parents kind of said, well, you didn't get home until after three. They had surveillance video on the house where Aiden Fitchy lived. And so his mother already knew that he came home sometime after 3. He says he left her around 1 a.m.

That left a two-hour gap, and that starts not making sense. The distance between Trey's house and Aiden's house is about one and a half miles. So according to what his parents said, it would have taken him over two hours to walk a mile and a half, which did sound excessive and definitely off. So police now had not only one, but two teens who would rather potentially lie to law enforcement than get into trouble with their parents. So was it just their age or was it something more? Well, investigators needed to find that out.

And their next step was to try and backtrack. And then that deputy asked, you know, hey, would you mind showing me the paths that you guys walked home and the way you took so we could help, you know, pull cameras and whatnot? And Aiden agrees, his mom lets him go. So the officer and Aiden started driving in the police car with Aiden's stepfather following in a golf cart behind them. But then, completely unprompted, Aiden changes his story again and says this to the deputy. You know, she didn't turn down her street, basically. I lied to you earlier. Another lie, this time about when he last saw Tristan. So the question loomed large. Why?

And would uncovering the answer help find her? Aiden Fucci admitted to a deputy that he had lied when he said Tristan turned down her street and he continued walking home. And that wasn't his first lie. Now he told the deputy that he and Tristan got into some type of altercation when they were walking. According to Aiden, Tristan either grabbed or pushed him in his groin. He got upset and then he shoved her. Here's some more audio from a conversation between the deputy and Aiden.

We're at Trey's house and I stayed there until probably like 1.50 a.m. And then I was really late to be home so I just had to leave or else my mom would like seriously just kill me. So we started walking home and then next to like where that brick wall starts up there. Okay. Is where like she touched my and I like pushed her off me real hard and then I just kind of like got I want

kind of walked away out of anger. You know as soon as I heard this it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It sounds like someone who is making up an excuse for something, whether it is why she may be found injured or something's going to happen later that she is injured and now could plausibly have walked off on her own. But, you know, Scott, you've got to think that this right away is going to be on police radar as something suspect. You know, he claims that she touched him inappropriately and his reaction was to push her to the ground and then just leave. And here's the first point in the investigation where he admits to physically pushing her and then running away. I mean, if you're the investigator sitting back,

you're thinking to yourself, does this really make any sense? And I think the answer is that nothing he's saying is making a whole lot of sense. You know, he's the one who gets her to come out of the house. But yet now, all of a sudden, she is going to make this, whether it is suggestive or aggressive move towards him, that even that happened, that he's going to react by physically hurting her. Again, it's just it's almost like he's trying to figure out what to say, but that you can tell that what he is saying isn't credible. But again, it's a long way off from what police are still trying to find. And that at this point is mainly Tristan Bailey.

Now we have someone admitting that they've pushed someone down and at least injured them. She's still missing at this point. And it's just not making sense. He doesn't have good answers for the questions he's being asked. So that's when he's essentially detained, initially on scene, and then ultimately brought back to the Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division while we sort of get to the bottom of this. So Anastig, I think it's an opportunity for us

to explain a little bit about the difference between being detained and actually being arrested. Obviously, as you're all hearing this, there isn't going to be anything at this point, at least, to arrest him for. You know, there's a lot of speculation and conjecture. What he's saying isn't adding up, but that's all they know.

However, police can detain in various scenarios. Here, they have someone who has admittedly been with someone who is now missing. He has said things that he, by his own words, are not true. It's like things are happening very quickly. So they have him there while they're gaining this information, whether it's to continue to talk to him or his parents or know where he is while hopefully very quickly they are

led down that road to find Tristan or need to come back to him to speak to him again. So back to our all-important timeline. At that point, it was about 2 p.m. and just four hours after Tristan was reported missing and 14 hours after she was last seen by her sister. So you could really see how quickly investigators are moving in the case. And the search for Tristan continued. Now, Jennifer Dunton, too, is following the search for Tristan in real time, and she's used to seeing alerts for missing children.

But those are usually resolved pretty quickly, and that wasn't happening here. It was getting late in the day, and Tristan's disappearance was still all over the news. So Jennifer put on her prosecutor's hat and got on the phone. I reached out to my boss and kind of said, have you heard from the St. John's County Sheriff's Office? Do you know what's going on? And one of us reached out to them. And by that point, you know, it was midday and they had already gotten some information that was causing them to be, you know, believe that this was more than just a missing child. And so they said, why don't you guys go ahead and respond? Now, we've talked a lot about the working relationship between prosecutors and police.

And here you could see exactly how and why it's so important they work together from the very beginning of a case. If you have a suspect and you know things are going to unfold quickly versus an investigation that takes months and months to do, you want to be there for all those decisions and help guide them and ultimately authorize arrests if they need to be made quickly. You know, Anastasia, there's a conversation that you and I always have because, you know, there's such a synergy between, you know, a detective working a homicide and a prosecutor

who's covering a homicide. I know that for me, besides always a great thing to write warrants, and I always say to you that we love when we come to prosecutors and ask them to help us with warrants, prosecutors can provide valuable insight into the type of evidence which is required to build a strong case. Chain of custody, as you know, is really, really important. You want to know what would be admissible in court

and how it could be effectively used at trial. So, you know, I liken that relationship to being sort of like we have here. You know, it's a good tug and pull. It's a good fit and it's there for a reason. And what people don't always realize that this is not out of the norm. It's actually what normally happens

in most jurisdictions anyway, certain in New York City. Prosecutors work hand in hand with law enforcement from the time that a crime like this is suspected or realized. And it is just for as Scott was saying, it is because whether it is something as straightforward as the legal things like writing a warrant, but we're also there because if there's eventually going to be a criminal case, and remember, they still don't know that here, but it is looking more likely that there may be some criminality involved. Well, then they are there to help guide the investigation, to help make those decisions or guide police as they make them, knowing the long-term implications of what they're doing now may very well affect things later on in court.

So Jennifer left her own Mother's Day pool gathering and got ready to head to the neighborhood in St. John's where the investigation was focused. But then, while she was driving, she saw something that was an ominous sign. I recall, other than memory, as myself heading back home, when we did get the call to say, you might want to start heading up here. I saw the command bus going north, the sheriff's office command bus. And I was like, this is not good. Soon, Jennifer, as prosecutor, got the news that everyone had been dreading. Tristan had been found, but not alive. A neighbor was out headed for a run when his wife asked him to look behind their house. I believe it was his wife who kind of mentioned to him, you know, there had been an issue with people throwing trash in there and kids going back there.

And she just mentioned to him, will you check that area? So he had physically kind of gone in to actually look a little closer when he located her body. Her body was at the end of a cul-de-sac behind a plant nursery just a few miles away from the Bailey's home. It also stood out that Tristan's body was in a relatively exposed area. It was sort of crazy because she wasn't that far from people. You know, she was feet away from this house at the end, yards away, just on the edge of this neighborhood. She was found in some brush, laying on her side, fully clothed and surrounded by a lot of blood.

Her phone was nearby, also with a pink vape pen, one of her rings, and a few loose bills. When I was told they found her, it wasn't completely clear how many injuries she had. But eventually, when crime scene technicians were able to approach the body after taking the proper photographs, it was pretty clear that there were some apparent stab wounds on her and there was blood in the immediate area of her body. But we did not know the extent of the injuries at that time. She was officially pronounced dead at 6.15 p.m., which is nine hours after she was reported missing. While the area where Tristan had been found was being processed by crime scene investigators,

police officers and a victim's advocate went to the Bailey's house to share the devastating news. Forrest and Stacey Bailey and three of their children were waiting at home. So there had been a large group that had gotten together from volunteers in the community who were going out to search. And we had gotten word that, you know, they had kind of gone back to that group of people and told people, you know, to kind of stop at that time. And it was almost at the same moment that we had the police officers show up and come into our home. And they came in and let us know that they had found Tristan and that she was gone. You know, clearly, Anastasia, this is the type of news you wish you never have to deliver to any family. They hang on every word and remember it for a lifetime. And similarly, it's also the thing that within that devastation, having to deliver that type

of news and seeing the pain on every person's face that you have to make that notification to, it is also the then motivation and the drive to now turn to the investigative part of this case. And while most of the Bailey family was there together, one member was still far away. And so Forrest was left to then call Brittany, his oldest daughter, to break the news. These details are blurry, but it was at some point at nighttime that my dad had FaceTimed me and gave me a single nod of confirmation that the body they had found was in fact Tristan's. I don't remember it specifically, but my husband said the shriek that came out was, yeah, it was a little bit debilitating.

He had walked away for a second to go downstairs to talk to the manager of the hotel and heard me from down the MGM hallway and came running back. And that was when it was confirmed that it had happened. Brittany and her husband boarded a red-eye flight back to Florida, but for both she and her father, those first hours after hearing that Tristan had been taken from them

were a complete blur. In addition to the incredible grief that every one of them must have been experiencing, there were still so many unknowns about the circumstances surrounding Tristan's death. Not knowing what had happened and who had done this, you also have a tremendous concern of, you know, what risks are out there and what's going on.

You just, your mind's in dark spaces. Now, remember the timeframe that all of this happened in was only around nine hours. So you can imagine that the family's head was just spinning, trying to absorb everything that had happened. And while one part of the investigation was now over, another part was ramping up. Fucci, the 14-year-old last seen with Tristan, was detained and waiting in the sheriff's office with his parents. A few hours earlier, investigators had received a troubling email with screenshots from Fucci's Snapchat account. During the time where she's still missing and law enforcement's still questioning a lot of her friends, Trey and Aiden were put in the same patrol car.

And it came out later and it started coming out that day a little bit on social media because they shared it. That Aiden had been taking videos from the back of a patrol car. You know, very crass. But essentially, you know, where are you, Tristan? Come out. Various things like that. There's one where he's joking about the firearms and things that are in the car with Trey.

I'm just essentially goofing off, flicking off the camera and just telling Tristan to come out and come home. He'd also posted pictures of himself. One was of his reflection in the back of a police car making a peace sign. And another was a picture that had a text banner across it that read, hey guys, has anybody seen Tristan lately? And someone there on the internet responded to that last image. You were with her, Aiden. You know what happened to her.

You know, I looked at those pictures and, you know, my first thought was it wouldn't be surprising to think that a 14-year-old boy is bragging that he's in the back of a police car, perhaps giving himself street cred. But this is a person that investigators had caught in several lies. And it really wasn't a good look for him. You know, and clearly investigators will attempt to use that lack of concern if he's willing to talk to them further. And really what it did was just fuel what investigators were already thinking. That yes, was it possible that Fucci

was just incredibly immature and so was hosting things like this without thinking about the ramifications or lying for innocent reasons? Yes, however, their suspicions told them otherwise, but those suspicions would only get them so far. Now they needed evidence. In the meantime, they continued to assemble different pieces of the puzzle in order to figure out what had happened to Tristan and who had carried out her vicious murder.

And one of the things they focused on was surveillance footage, and it proved fruitful. Fortunately for law enforcement, this neighborhood was full of surveillance cameras. Thank goodness. Almost every house had a ring camera, had some sort of surveillance system on it. And we literally just started collecting what we could as fast as we could that night and sort of putting it all together. With all of that footage, investigators were able to track parts of Tristan's path as she walked towards home. Some of the first important surveillance footage we had was actually at an amenity center. And it wasn't great footage as

far as quality, but you could see two figures at about the approximate time that they would have been walking by. The two figures walked in the direction of the cul-de-sac where Tristan's body was found. You see a taller, thinner male figure with very clear white Nike shoes with the black swoosh walking with a shorter figure who's in all black. On one of the camera angles, you can see that shorter figure appearing to be vaping because you can see the vape light up. So it was believed to be Tristan and Aiden. The two teens were seen on the other surveillance videos as they walked closer and closer towards the cul-de-sac. And then there was the video recovered very near to the location where Tristan's body was found. Detectives located some important video surveillance as close to the end of that cul-de-sac

as we could get with cameras. And we saw her last moments walking into the cul-de-sac. And then we saw Agent Fuji exiting the cul-de-sac and then we saw Ed and Fuji exiting the cul-de-sac all done. On the next episode of Anatomy of Murder. You know they found this girl, right? Where? In our neighborhood.

Down our main street. Is she good? No, she's not. She's dead. That's why this is very important. That's my problem. I couldn't process it for quite some time. I just couldn't wrap my head around that. What 14-year-old knows or has those thoughts take over their brain.

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 Frosetti Media. Ashley Flowers is executive producer. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?