Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Christmas shopping trip turns deadly for 7-year-old girl. Who shot Kennedy Maxie?

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

A beloved young girl heads to the mall in an affluent Atlanta neighborhood with her Mom and aunt. She never makes it home. Kennedy Maxie is shot in the head as the family leaves the parking lot. The 7-year-old dies from her wounds, but who shot Kennedy Maxie?Joining Nancy Grace today: Ashley Willcott - Judge and trial attorney, anchor at Court TV,www.ashleywillcott.com  Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta Ga www.angelaarnoldmd.com Sheryl McCollum - Forensic Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner for the State of Florida - www.pathcaremed.com Michael Seiden WSB TV Channel 2 Atlanta  TWITTER: @SeidenWSBTV   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You know, when you think of shopping with your parents for Christmas, it brings back all sorts of memories. I can remember having about $30 to my name, mostly in quarters and nickels and dimes. And my parents, all of us, five of us going shopping, and I would buy four presents with that $30, okay? And it would be wonderful. Then we would drive around and look at other people's Christmas decorations and generally be excited, right?

You know what? That's what I was thinking about when I heard about this beautiful little girl, Kennedy Maxie, just seven years old. How does Christmas shopping turn deadly for a seven-year-old little girl? You know, I have carted my twins, John David and Lucy Lynch, around. They just turned 13. And that beat up minivan, you know, trying to get the best minivan with the airbags and the this and the that and the warranty and the AAA. So everything I could do for their safety would be done. You know, we never put it in D for drive without everybody being buckled up, all the windows up, all the doors locked, and off we go. How in the hay is a mom or an aunt supposed to protect a little girl against this? I can tell you one thing. I want justice.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us today and every day here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Brace yourself. Take a listen to this. We were just leaving Lenox Mall. I literally just left it. We heard a gunshot, like a gunshot sound. And then all of a sudden my niece falls over. She's seven. You know, at trial, that's one of the first things I would play for jurors.

And you have to go through a lot of evidentiary hoops to get the 911 call in. It's got to be substantiated with a particular foundation with questions that are laid out verbatim in the criminal code so that you don't just end up playing anything you want to. Why is that 911 call so evocative? Why is that so important a jury hears it? Jack, if you could play that one more time, please. We were just leaving Lenox Mall. I literally just left it.

We heard a gunshot, like a gunshot sound. And then all of a sudden my niece falls over. She's seven. A seven-year-old little girl. And when you hear this aunt saying Lenox Mall, let me just tell you a little bit about that. Lenox Mall is across the street from another ritzy mall called Phipps Plaza. And I have now learned that that area of Atlanta has been referred to as the Beverly Hills of the East, where all of the wealthy people go shop, you know, like Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, specialty shops. Let me just tell you, there's not a Dollar Tree in there. That's what I'm talking about. In fact, the few times that I have driven by Lenox Mall, I see Lamborghini.

Have you seen the valet? And there's always Lamborghinis and BMWs and Mercedes and even a Rolls I've seen lined up to get valet parked. As if I'm going to pay $3 for somebody to park my car. That's not going to happen. So in this rarefied area, how does the little girl get shot? Why was she targeted? With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. First of all, judge and trial lawyer, anchor at Court TV. You can find her at ashleywilcott.com. Renowned psychiatrist joining me from the Atlanta area. You can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Director of the Cold Case

Research Institute, Crime Scene Tech. Cheryl McCollum is with us, medical examiner for the entire state of Florida. You know, when I was trying cases, I had an ME or someone within the ME's office for Fulton County, inner city Atlanta. This guy is for the whole state of Florida. That's nothing to sneeze at. It's Dr. Tim Gallagher, and you can find him at pathcaremed.com. But first of all, I want to go out to a special guest joining us for the first time today. It's Michael Seiden at WSB-TV, Channel 2 Atlanta. And you can find him, if you want to look into him, at SeidenWSB-TV.

Michael, thank you for being with us. You know, at Lenox... Hey, Nancy. Hey, dear. You know, at Lenox, it's always a big deal in Atlanta when they put the tree up. True, it's not the tree at Rockefeller Center, granted, but it's this beautiful, huge tree. It goes up every year on the top of Lenox Mall. And that kind of kicks off the season. People drive from, I remember

having cousins that would drive from Pensacola, Florida, down on the panhandle, to Lenox to go shopping. I mean, it is a shopping mecca. Now, Ashley, you know, every time I go shopping in a mall, I get a headache. So I don't like shopping. And Phipps then came along to top it off. I mean, even more expensive clothes stores like Gucci and Chanel. I mean, world-class designers. We don't even walk through there because it's so expensive. Tell me, first of all, Michael Seiden, WSB TV, tell me about the area.

Because it's really hard for me to get it into my head that a little seven-year-old girl in the car with her aunt gets gunned down in the back of the head, dead, in this rarefied, wealthy enclave. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's the premier shopping spot, especially in the Atlanta area. This is where everybody comes from. People drive from Alabama, Florida. All your high designers are going to all be there. What's in there? I have not been in those malls in so long, ever since I found out about Amazon. What is in Phipps? It's right across the street from Lenox. What stores are in there? You've got Saks, you've got Nordstrom's over there. Then you have a bunch of boutiques, Gucci, you know, all the high designers, high fashion designers, they're all in there. And you got a couple of restaurants. But I think during this

pandemic, it's kind of become the hangout because that's one of the only things that's really open. It's to walk around with your mask on. I know that there's a Tiffany's in there too. Ashley Wilcott, judge, trial lawyer, Anchor Court TV. What is in there? It's like a salt lick for cattle. I mean, what is in Lennox and Phipps that make them so popular, so highly desirable, Ashley? Listen, they're highly desirable because between the two, they literally have all of the high design expensive products that people want to buy. There's a Nike store. There's the Tiffany's, like you said.

Every single product that you see people touting on social media, on TikTok, the new rage, the thing you want to wear, the thing everybody wants. Between those two malls, you can find any of the high end brands, any of them, Nancy. Not only that, they're nice malls. You've been to them. You know, I love to shop and I used to go to those. I won't go there anymore. Jackie, are you telling, she's holding up a sign, Kate Spade, Christian Dior. Do you actually buy Christian Dior or Kate Spade? You do know they have knockoffs, which are illegal. I don't want anything to do with it. They have knockoff Kate Spades that look just like the other Kate Spades.

You know you're my boss, right? So no, you know I don't. You better not be showing me a Christian Dior. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We're talking about, first of all, where this happened. And at Christmas time, it is a glittery, beautiful area decked out for Christmas. So how does a little seven-year-old girl in the car with her aunt end up dead? I don't get it. Take a listen to Francesca Amaker, WXIA 11. New details in a shooting that critically injured a child. Atlanta police now telling us the child is seven years old and was shot while riding in a car past Dips Plaza on Peachtree Road around 9 p.m. According to police, the little girl's aunt continued to drive after hearing gunshots,

then realized the child had been hurt. Straight out to our special guest, Michael Seiden, WSB-TV, Channel 2, Atlanta. Michael, tell me what we know of what the aunt says happened, because I noticed she kept driving. And hold on, Michael, to you, Dr. Tim Gallagher. Dr. Gallagher, how is it that very often people sustain a gunshot wound and they don't realize they've been shot at first? Well, that's a very good question. There's a couple of factors that play into this.

It depends on the situation that they're in. If it's a high adrenaline situation where their blood is racing around and they're in the fight or flight mode and they get shot with, say, a small caliber, maybe a.22 or a.38 caliber projectile, they can go through parts of their body where there aren't a lot of nerves and they won't realize that they've been shot until they've experienced a blood loss or the situation has calmed down and then they'll look at their body and see blood on their clothing. So it's very, very common, especially in small caliber or long range type gunshot wounds. Because the aunt didn't even realize the little girl had been shot and the little girl didn't scream out. Cheryl McCollum, I want to backtrack to you, director of the Cold Case Research Institute.

We've processed a lot of crime scenes together and worked on a lot of cases together before you took over at the Cold Case Research Institute. You know, we've had very few cases at Lenox or Phipps. Not that there's not shoplifting or a grab and run, but I'm talking about serious felonies. You and I have looked at cold cases together, but you don't hear of murders of seven-year-old girls at Lenox and Phipps. My entire childhood, we had one case at a Lenox. It happened in 1965 with Mary Shotwell Little. You didn't hear about another thing happening at that mall until recent years.

You know, another issue here is the little girl is in the car, Cheryl. It's really hard. And you and I have also worked on a case where a woman was targeted in her car. In fact, we talked about it at a crime con and we were trying to figure out how you could pull off a shot like that if you're actually targeting someone in their car. And I think that's pretty difficult. Nancy, there's no way you're going to be able to do a headshot on a seven-year-old little girl while that car is moving. I don't buy it. Explain. In order to shoot that well, I mean, you have police officers that have a hard time passing their certification standing still with a target that ain't moving.

That's fairly good size. This little girl's in the back seat. She's little. She's small. So your target is, you know, less than the size of a dinner plate. And that target is moving, even if it's at 40 miles an hour. That's a difficult shot to make, a headshot. But she shot in the head, one shot, clear. So it seems to me this has to be a random shot, a lost shot. I don't believe she was the target. Or some type of road rage, something like that, where somebody shot into the car and hit the little girl. And also, where she's sitting, at seven years old, she's out of a car seat, but she's still tiny. So her little head would be down.

I mean, have you ever pulled up behind somebody on the interstate, and you can't even see their head? You pass them, it's a little old lady driving right behind the wheel. I mean, I don't know how her head was even visible, Cheryl McCollum. I agree, Nancy, and other things change the trajectory of that bullet. Glass can change it. Going into the doorway can change it. So, again, for them to have a headshot that is deadly is pretty remarkable to me. So again, they may have been close enough, but it's something that, you know, law enforcement has got to look at. There's another possibility

of why that car was hit. You know, also, I don't understand how the aunt or mother did not realize the child had been shot. There's so many questions because at that time of the year, you would think that the windows were rolled up and therefore a bullet would have to break the window. Take a listen to Portia Bruner, Fox 5 and Patty Pan. Police are desperately searching for the gunman who shot this beautiful little girl in Buckhead. Seven-year-old Kennedy Maxey was shot Monday night while riding in the car with her aunt and her mother. The aunt told officers she was driving by Phipps Plaza when she heard gunshots. Police are now offering a $15,000 reward to get the gunman off the streets. Straight back to you, Michael Seiden, our special guest on WSB TV. Tell me about the car. Tell me about whether the windows were up

or down. Was there the aunt and the mother or just the aunt? Where was everybody seating? I want to hear the forensic evidence. Yeah, so what we were told by investigators is that basically this little girl, Kennedy Maxey, her mother is in the front passenger seat. The aunt is driving. And little Kennedy's in the back. And they had just finished up some Christmas shopping. Apparently, I guess, were headed home or going to get a bite to eat. And all of a sudden, that's when gunshots rang out. Now, you brought up a great point.

You know, how do you not hear a shot? How do you not hear a bullet, you know, shatter your window? And those are questions we had for police. They've continued to tell us that it's an ongoing investigation. But as soon as the aunt did realize that, I guess, her niece had been hit, she immediately rushed her to the hospital. But really, some circumstances surrounding this that we initially learned about this tragedy, it was just kind of left us a little bit confused of how you would not realize right away that something like that had happened. You know, another issue is, and we've discussed it many, many times, in fact, I even write about it in a new book, Don't Be a Victim, addressing all sorts of true cases and how they relate to us every day. One of them is shopping.

I mean, think about it. Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Think about it. If people saw them shopping in Lenox or Phipps, you know, there were high price ticket items. They had to cost a lot of money. How do I know someone wasn't following them, took a shot to get their money or whatever they had in the car? Well, and that wouldn't be unusual these days either because those kinds of things are actually happening. And people do get followed. And you can tell exactly where somebody's shopping by the beautiful bag that contains the contents of what they've saved their money for all year to go and buy for Christmas. Although Cheryl McCall and the M.O. Motorcycle Perendite Method of Operation doesn't really fit because if you wanted to grab somebody's stuff or their pocketbook or their money, their jewelry that they just got at Tiffany's or Kay's or wherever.

You would do it in the parking lot. It would be so much easier to overpower two women with a child with them, which really makes them a target if they're trying to protect the child. They can't take care of their bags and their pocketbooks and all their stuff in a parking lot. So why would you fire a gunshot when you could just attack them? They're like gazelles at the watering hole. And these are the hyenas closing in. Why use a gun? Just grab their stuff in the parking lot. You're right, Nancy. They would have never made it to the car. As you know, my very first job in high school was I was a store detective

at Rich's when it was at Lenox. And we had shop lifters and we had person actors and we had some folks that occasionally would grab people's bags. Never did that person actually make it to their car when that happened. Never. Never. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Everybody, we were talking about the shooting death in the back of the head of a beautiful seven-year-old little girl. I wish you could see a picture of her. Even at seven, her teeth are perfect. Beautiful smile. Beautiful, big, brown eyes.

Just, she looks like she could be a model. This gorgeous little girl, Kennedy Maxie. How does a seven-year-old little girl end up dead? Christmas shopping, shot in the head. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 5. Kennedy Maxey, her family could use all the prayers we can send. The seven-year-old is in the hospital in critical condition fighting for her life. This after a stray bullet hit her in the head Monday night. Finding the person or people responsible is now the Atlanta Police Department's top priority and they are now asking for the public's help.

Kennedy was out shopping with her mom and aunt around Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza Monday night. As they were leaving, the women say they heard gunshots. They later realized Kennedy had been shot and rushed her to Scottish Rite, where she immediately underwent surgery. And again, although there may be homicides throughout the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia, as in every state.

This is an enclave, a pocket of wealth and privilege where many think a crime like this couldn't happen. Take a listen to our friends at WXIA 11 Alive. Metro police have worked 155 homicides so far this year. The latest victim is an innocent child. After spending five days in the hospital fighting for her life, police say seven-year-old Kennedy Maxey died the day after Christmas. The victim of senseless gun violence. Police say Kennedy was riding in the car with her mother and aunt last Monday near Phipps Plaza when she was shot in the back of the head. Back to Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner for the state of Florida.

Dr. Gallagher, I noticed they rushed her to Scottish Rite Hospital, which is only about two and a half miles from the scene of the shooting. There are several hospitals right there together, and one of them is Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. When a child is shot in the head, what can you do for them, Dr. Gallagher? How can you possibly save them? Well, it depends on where in the head that they were shot and the direction of the projectile. For instance, you have two halves of your brain, your right half and your left half.

Occasionally, if one of the halves get damaged, the other half can actually compensate for the loss of the damaged half. But now we're not talking about that. We're talking about an acute gunshot. And so now we're talking about the swelling. The brain will start to swell and normal size and take it from there. Just see what's functioning and what isn't. So I guess to Michael's side, WSB TV Channel 2, they didn't realize the import, the significance of the shooting and race her, of course, they'd race her no matter what, to Scottish Rites Children's Hospital, where doctors led a valiant fight to save Kennedy

Maxey's life. It was not meant to be. The child perished. I believe several days passed Michael Seiden before she was declared dead. Do we have any idea about the caliber of the weapon? No, right now, police, we've been actually trying, ever since this happened, on the 21st, we've been trying to get those details. And really, police have been keeping it close to the vest just because this has been an ongoing investigation. But at this point, all they said is that the family had heard gunshots. Next thing they knew, their daughter had been hit in the back of the head. But yeah, of course, the type

of gun that was used, all those details, those are things that police still haven't released. I mean, for all I know, they had Christmas music playing and didn't realize what had happened until they see the seven-year-old girl, Kennedy, slumped over in the backseat. Now the Atlanta mayor weighs in. Listen. In my conversation with Kennedy's mother on Christmas Eve, she couldn't stop crying. And she said repeatedly her baby didn't deserve that. that and in my conversations with her grandmother the morning after she passed they didn't even know a funeral home to call she said her family has been in atlanta over 20 years they've never had to bury anyone. Here's more of Atlanta Mayor Lance Bottoms.

So this is her granddaughter who's the oldest of her grandchildren. So the state of mind is one that we couldn't possibly imagine that you are out with your seven-year-old. The excitement of the holidays. You leave home to go to the mall. And you find yourself at a hospital at Christmas. I'm just trying to imagine what the mother went through. We now know she was also in the car in the passenger front seat. You know, I'm just trying to think about this mother, Cheryl. You know she's replaying it. Why did we go to Lenox that day? Why did we go anywhere near Phipps? Why wasn't I

driving? Why didn't I have her in, you know, a different position in the car? The reality is that mama did nothing wrong. The person with the gun in their hand is the only one to blame. Period. And now investigators are besieged with questions, looking at the mom, looking at the aunt. Was it a drive-by shooting? Was this the target? Was it an accident? So many questions. And as Michael Seiden, WSB-TV, told you at the beginning, a lot of those questions still have not been answered.

But in the last hours, we get news. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about the death of a seven-year-old little girl, Christmas shopping with her mom and her aunt. Then the tide turns. Take a listen to our friend Michael Seiden, WSB-TV. Interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant says good police work and an eyewitness who had the courage to step forward to help detectives identify the suspect and piece together what transpired minutes before the suspect started shooting.

You know that the suspect, Dequan Reed, he was at Saks Fifth Avenue in the parking lot. At some point, he became engaged in an argument. That argument ended. Dequan left the parking lot in a vehicle and in a senseless act of rage discharged a firearm out that window. Kennedy, a student at Sedalia Park Elementary in Cobb County, spent five days in the hospital fighting for her life before she succumbed to her injuries on Saturday. An argument in a parking lot and now this little girl is dead. Take a listen to our friends at WXIA. Daquan Reed is the main suspect in the murder of Kennedy Mapsey, a child shot in the back of the head while in her aunt's car driving past a mall.

There were approximately three, three shots fired, but only one of those shots struck Kennedy's vehicle. You leave home to go to the mall, and you find yourself at a hospital at Christmas. Reed, once convicted of forgery, was also arrested in connection to another mall shooting in 2019. Reed was charged as an accessory to a shooting that injured two people in Virginia. Reed was later arrested for that shooting in Atlanta by U.S. Marshals. He's not a stranger to law enforcement. According to Virginia court records, Reed was also previously arrested for assault and battery,

a strangulation charge, and other misdemeanors. Police say they're working to find out what his connection to Atlanta is and where he is now. And we'll continue to work diligently to bring him back into the city of Atlanta to serve out his justice. Man, you're not kidding about that. So to you, Michael Seiden, WSB-TV, Channel 2 Atlanta, who is this guy? Why does he keep coming back to Atlanta?

I'll tell you what, this guy is not going to be coming back anymore. We're talking about, his name is Daquan Reed. And what we learned about him is that he was involved in a separate mall shooting a year prior to all of this happening. And he decided to take off from authorities, ends up hiding out in Atlanta, us marshals catch up with him,

arrest him. He's actually, then we find out he's a convicted felon who shouldn't have even had a gun in the first place. They sentenced him to a year in prison, but they suspend the sentence so he gets out after a couple of months for time served. And here he is back in Atlanta again. We don't know if he has family here, friends, why he keeps coming here. Maybe, like you guys were mentioning, he's coming to Atlanta, hang out, go to the mall.

But literally, this girl had absolutely nothing to do with him. No affiliation. He didn't know the family. He was just in an argument, some type of fight. And it's just one of those situations, wrong place at the wrong time. You know what? I'd like to agree with you, Michael Seiden, by the whole wrong place, wrong time thing. But this is not his first offense. He's already shot somebody at a mall after an argument before in Virginia. Not only that, he's had assault and battery charges. After the Virginia shooting, he comes and hides out in Atlanta and they catch him and drag him back and they let him right out. In less than a year, this killer walks free to Quan Reed.

So his answer still, after having gone to jail, is to pull out a gun over an argument and a shopping mall parking lot. I mean, Ashley Wilcott, I don't care what anybody says about she was collateral damage. She was not the target. This little girl was not intended to die. That is not what mens rea, which is the Latin phrase for specific intent, evil intent. You don't have to have an intended target. If you have what we call an abandoned or malignant heart, like driving 90 miles an hour through a street fair, crowded with people, your blatant disregard for human life qualifies as intent. Does it not, Ashley?

No, I absolutely agree with you. And keep in mind, this is an area that is very, very busy. You know, there's commuter traffic, there's shopping traffic. You cannot get through that intersection. So I would argue that absolutely anybody who chooses to fire a weapon in that area clearly has the intent. I mean, for me, Dr. Angela Arnold, this guy should face the max and it better not get pled out cheap. I'm telling you that right now, Angela Arnold, because if this guy, first of all, it would still be murder, even if he didn't have a record. But what I'm arguing at a different level, this can never come in front of a jury,

is that he knew better. He'd already shot one person at a mark. Actually, that may come in as a similar transaction. Typically, we don't allow a defendant's past convictions come in unless they show modus operandi, method of operation, course of conduct, frame of mind, plan, motive. And in this case, it's a copycat. He knew what could happen, Dr. Angela. Right. And so he was in jail for a year or less than a year. Well, that didn't rehab him at all, did it? I guess not. You know, that's one place I never want to go. I mean, Michael Seiden, WSB TV, I don't know if your coverage has ever taken you to the fulton county jail you ever been there i have been there absolutely and it's not a place i ever want

to end up i don't even want my worst enemy and listen to this it's one of the better jails but the the food the surroundings the smell the oppressiveness of being in a cell knowing you're not going to get out i never never, ever, when I would go and interview witnesses that were in jail or execute a search warrant for blood or saliva, DNA, I couldn't wait. I still remember walking out of the jail, whatever jail it may be, into the parking lot and breathing and thinking, I never want to go to jail. He learned nothing. Cheryl McCollum, jump in.

Why are you so quiet? Nancy, he started his day committing a crime. The minute he put that gun on his body, he committed a crime. He knew he was a convicted felon. He knew he couldn't be around a firearm, but he chose to take that firearm to the posh Phipps Plaza. He chose to get into a fight with somebody, and he wasn't going to let anybody disrespect him. So now he's got to pull his weapon and prove what a big man he is, and he can't even aim, shooting all around whoever he thinks disrespected him. This is.

And let me, let me. Yeah. Jump in, Michael. No, go ahead. I didn't mean to cut you off. No, go ahead, honey. No, when you say pulling the gun and shooting wherever, I mean, you got to think about this again. Police said this guy gets into an argument in an act of rage, literally pulling out of the parking lot of fifths.

And as you mentioned, it's holiday time. Tons of people out there shopping and fires three shots at random. I mean, we're lucky. This is such a tragedy, but we're lucky we're only talking about one person who's dead. I mean, he could have hit a number of people depending on what kind of gun he was using. So this guy obviously had no regard for human life. And I know exactly which red lie that Ashley Wilcott was talking about, Michael Seiden, Channel 2. During December, you can't get over 15 miles an hour between Lenox and Phipps.

There's four or five red lights. And it's like an L.A. freeway at 530. It's like bumper to bumper. It's a parking lot. And here he is flying out into that kind of traffic and shooting a gun. I mean, not that it matters to me because it doesn't. But out of curiosity, what was the fight about, Michael Seiden? So what I'm hearing from multiple sources, and again, they haven't even released the incident report yet to the media. Apparently, this guy was

gambling inside the mall. Now, when you talk about gambling, what is this guy was gambling inside the mall now when you talk about gambling what is this guy doing gambling what are you in the mall you do know that's where i took the children for their santa picture right go ahead is that right yeah yeah so i mean i i don't know but regardless whatever the argument was it it had there's no reason why any gunfire should have been involved in this at all there's no reason we should befire should have been involved in this at all. There's no reason we should be talking about a seven-year-old girl being dead now without Christmas shopping with her family. Gambling in the mall. Ridiculous.

Well, bring me up to date. Michael Seiden, WSB TV Channel 2. What's the latest? Just like last time, he goes on the run. But right now, breaking news. Jump in, Michael. This just happened hours ago, actually. So basically, they identified this

guy. They had surveillance video. They put out Ebola. Be on the lookout for him. They were searching across state lines. They knew the guy was back in Virginia. And finally, last night, we were told U.S. Marshals tracked him down, got him into custody. So now we're awaiting extradition. They'll bring him back to Atlanta Atlanta where he is going to face a number of charges, including felony murder. But again, for this family, their young one, sweet little girl dying the day after Christmas. This will be the first step for them getting justice. But I know that police have been working around the clock, U.S. Marshalls, and they finally tracked him down last night in his hometown of Virginia.

Oh, yeah. You know, you can count on that. It's like a boomerang. He probably went home straight to mommy or grandmommy and hid under the bed. Big man. Big man. You know, a gun makes a big man little and a little man big. Just wait till he's in front of a judge.

We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.