Dateline Originals - Deadly Engagement - Ep. 3: Homecoming

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Just days before Denita Smith is laid to rest, a suspect is charged with her murder. This episode originally published on September 23, 2025. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz....com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 He'd had his eye on her for a while, ever since the day during Academy when she'd help new recruits like him learn the 10 codes and the 911 communications protocol. He'd definitely liked the sound of her voice on the radio. He'd liked her looks, all the guys did. He liked the graceful way she moved, like a long-stemmed lily in a gentle breeze. He had not hit on her. No, back then he was just a boot, a fresh-faced rookie recruit looking to make the Greensboro Force.
Starting point is 00:00:39 Besides, he already had a girlfriend back in Durham. Her name was Danita. Well, that was then. Now he was a veteran of the force, a guardian of the city, and at 24, handsome as all get-out in his crisp blue uniform. So it was that on a beautiful spring day in 2004,
Starting point is 00:01:04 Jermere Stroud asked Shannon Crawley for her phone number. It was the first step on the proverbial slippery slope, the start of a series of lies and half-truths. All of it, a long, sad tale Jermere would later tell many times. I met her years ago We had a friendship and a sexual relationship I had a girlfriend with me and used to live Now here's the thing about undercover lovers
Starting point is 00:01:38 Close friends, even family members Must be kept at a distance We were teasing her Saying, you know, what is he going to bring him to the house We're going to meet your boyfriend And she's like, it's not even like that So he never came to any family functions or anything all info had to remain on a need-to-know basis.
Starting point is 00:01:59 And most people did not need to know. I just remember her saying, he had my friend, Jemir. But she never talked about him as a boyfriend. No, never. Often, those kinds of affairs fade quietly with no one the wiser. Sometimes, if the drama becomes too intense,
Starting point is 00:02:17 the passion's too hot. Well, that's when secret lovers can become as public as the headlines on the front page. She knew what he was capable of. This was an obvious murder. It wasn't just a tragic accident. It was a murder. In this episode, you'll hear Shannon Crawley's version
Starting point is 00:02:36 of what really happened in Durham on the day Danita Smith was murdered. The shot, and not even a minute later, he was running down the stairs, putting the gun down in his waistband. You'll also hear from those who thought Jermere Stroud was a threat to others. I even asked her point blank one time.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Are you afraid of him? Are you afraid he's going to do something to you? And you'll hear from the detective who, after interviewing Jermere Stroud multiple times, still was not completely convinced. He had nothing to do with his fiancé's death. I didn't know him well enough to know if the eyes watering. I don't know how good of an actor he is. I'm Josh Mankowitz, and this is deadly engagement, a pie.
Starting point is 00:03:23 podcast from Dateline. Episode 3, Homecoming. It was late on a Tuesday night, when cars carrying Detective Pate and a small contingent of U.S. Marshals and police officers from both Durham and Greensboro rolled to a stop in front of Shannon Crawley's sister's home.
Starting point is 00:03:53 The marshals had been tracking Shannon's movements for days. They knew exactly where she could be found once a judge signed a warrant for her arrest. As the detective sat in the warm police car that frigid night, he likely felt as though he could finally exhale. This was actually my very first homicide. Everything was happening at a thousand miles an hour. We're having to go 45 minutes to an hour from Durham to Greensburg,
Starting point is 00:04:23 We had to get the marshals involved. I mean, it was a lot going on. The detective had learned quite a bit since his chat with Shannon Crawley. First off, she might have lied about never owning a gun. Maybe she'd also lied about never having been to Durham. One point in her favor, though,
Starting point is 00:04:45 the Campus Crossing's maintenance man had not picked Shannon out of a photo array, meaning he could not identify her as the woman he talked with, minutes after the murder. That did not keep Detective Pate from putting the arrest in motion. I'm not in my jurisdiction. It's the Marshals and Greensboro Police Department knocking on the door. There was some words exchanged.
Starting point is 00:05:10 I guess they came to an agreement, and Shannon comes out. She comes out, they cuff her. She walks out the door as though she's going to check the mail. there's no, no sad look or anything like that. Frosty breaths rose into the night sky as the marshals handcuffed Shannon's hands behind her back. She gets cuffed, she gets to the end of the driveway, and before she gets in the car, she looks at her family and says, raise them like they're your own. She gets in the car and we go to Durham.
Starting point is 00:05:45 Raise them like they're your own. Raise them like they're your own. Well, those are the words of a woman who does not expect to be raised. her own children. Exactly. On the ride back to Durham, Pate sat in the backseat with Shannon, while two supervisors sat up front.
Starting point is 00:06:01 Because state law required the reading of rights to be recorded, the detective kept the conversation light. I remember even from commenting on because of her height. I said, have you ever played any basketball? And you're a Carolina Duke fan or which one do you like? And she was Carolina and made a couple jokes and laughed and smiled. And it was fine.
Starting point is 00:06:19 We get back to headquarters, we put in an interview room, we uncuff her, ask her if she wants anything to eat or drink or whatever. She gets read her rights. As I'm reading her rights, everything's fine. She's looking at me. Not a whole lot of concern being expressed. The minute we start talking about the actual offense, you could see something like Showtime.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Like, she just got into a different mode. So more animated? Not more animated, I'd say dialed in. Like, I could tell that we're going to have wordplay. She did not ask for an attorney. And so for more than an hour, detective and suspect went round and round, mostly covering old ground,
Starting point is 00:07:07 her relationship with Jermere, the pregnancy, the abortion, and the bitter taste that would not go away. After the breakup, she says that Jemir was overbearing, intimidating, always carried a gun with him. She's come home from work sometimes, and Jemir had been in her house. Something had been moved, or he'd be waiting around back. Basically, he was stalking her, is what she was saying. At times, the detective must have felt as if he were conducting two different interrogations simultaneously.
Starting point is 00:07:41 simultaneously, one regarding a domestic stalking complaint in which Shannon Crawley was a potential victim. The other, a homicide investigation in which Shannon Crawley was a cold-blooded murderer. When you say to Shannon, what about that gun? Why'd you say to us, you don't own a gun, you don't like guns, when in fact you just bought a gun? Her response was that I only owned it about two days. It made me nervous I didn't like it in the house of my kids. so I got rid of it. I asked her where she got rid of it. She said she got rid of it at the Four Seasons Mall in Greensboro. She took the gun, unloaded it, threw it in one trash can, and she took the bullets and threw it into another one
Starting point is 00:08:24 because she didn't want to be so irresponsible as to throw them in the same dumpster. A model citizen. Absolutely. And when that same citizen was asked about cell phone evidence that put her in Durham, near Danita Smith's apartment the day before the murder, her. Shannon had no response. She simply lowered her head and said nothing. She just kept stating that I need to worry less about her and worry about more where Jamir was. Where was Jamir when this
Starting point is 00:08:56 happened? I asked her, I said, did you do this? She said, you need to worry about where Jamir was. That's what you need to worry about. Where was he when this happened? As he sat there with Shannon Crawley on the night of her arrest, the detective had the feeling there was something she wasn't saying. I don't think she knew where things were going to land, whether Jemir was going to be on her side or against her, so I think it was a little too early to start pointing a finger. But she did ask me, where was Jemir that day?
Starting point is 00:09:39 Imagine a scene straight from a youth. University brochure. A crisp fall day. Woolly clouds. Clear blue sky. A flawless day for college football. It's homecoming weekend at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.
Starting point is 00:10:00 Everywhere are signs of joyful reunion. Alumni who haven't seen each other in years are squealing with delight. Parents are hugging kids. Parents are hugging kids they haven't seen since move-in day. It was on a day like that, 2000, that Sharon Smith visited her daughter, Danita, a freshman at NCCU.
Starting point is 00:10:24 We went to homecoming because, you know, she played in the band, so we wanted to see her perform. Danita played the saxophone and looked splendid in her band uniform. And after a quick hug, one can imagine her turning to the tuba player, beside her and saying something like this is jermere the guy I told you about Sharon had been anticipating that moment I knew that I would get to meet him and I'm guessing you're looking him up and down like taking his measure uh-huh and he gave a very good
Starting point is 00:11:03 presentation very polite very respectful was not exactly wild about the idea of Danita having a serious boyfriend at college. She had to admit, Danita and Jermere made a handsome couple. Months later, though, when the relationship was still going strong, Sharon says she tried, in her own motherly way, to cool things down. Danes and I had a conversation, and I said to her, why don't you date other people?
Starting point is 00:11:36 If it's meant to be, it'll be. And she told me, no, I don't want to do that. I'm happy with him. We're getting along fine. So I said, okay. What was so great about him? I don't really know. She never really said.
Starting point is 00:11:51 He would make her laugh a lot. But other than that, I don't know. Edith Kearns knew. The two had roomed together during Danita's senior year. Edith says, Danita was quite simply head over heels for Jermere. He was already an officer that's Time in Greensboro. They have been dating for a few years, and Danita spoke very highly of him.
Starting point is 00:12:15 What'd you say? He's a gentleman. He's intelligent. He's active, involved, well-rounded. He's kind. He respects me. He protects me. He's loving. That sort of thing. The perfect guy. The perfect guy. She was like, he's so handsome. By the time Danita graduated in 2004, Sharon Smith says she's come to accept the inevitable. Her daughter was likely going to marry Jermere Stroud. Try to find every reason not to like him. Because? Well, you know, as a parent, we want our children to have the right person. I wanted him to prove his self to me that you are worthy of my daughter. I knew what he would be getting, but I didn't know what she would be getting. So,
Starting point is 00:13:09 I tried to find every reason to not like him. How'd you do? I failed because, again, like I said, he was very polite. He was very respectful. And you're thinking, damn, right? Couldn't you be rude or say some four-letter words? Exactly. You know.
Starting point is 00:13:30 He carried on conversation. And then that turned from trying not to like him to start to like him. He won you over. Right. And I see how happy Danita was, and that's what was most important. She was happy.
Starting point is 00:13:49 If she was happy, she was okay with him. Okay. Jermere told Sharon he did not expect to be a cop all his life. Maybe after DeNita was out of school and established in a career, he thought he'd like to become a lawyer. I thought good that he, wanted to have a good life. He wanted to give her a good life. And you thought, okay.
Starting point is 00:14:15 Okay. And he loved her. Fast forward now to November 2006, another homecoming weekend at NCCU. On this one, the reunited alumni still squeal with delight. And the new crop of freshmen are still proudly welcoming their parents to campus. What's different this year is Jermere Stroud, standing close to his longtime sweetie, Danita Smith. He drops to one knee. He had a photographer and did this big, beautiful speech, and he proposed. That's Danita's friend Edith again.
Starting point is 00:14:57 If memory serves correctly, I think he had two engagement shirts made for them as well, up at the moment down on his knee. You mean with the photo on it? Yeah, with the photo on it, like he had a, yeah, a t-shirt done that. Romantic. Yes, she was ecstatic. She was like, finally. Those were the happy memories, the ones eclipsed months later by the pain of Danita's murder.
Starting point is 00:15:23 Now the days were filled with the rituals of loss, attending to funeral plans, organizing travel, the logistics of grief. Danita's funeral was set for January 11th, 2007, a week to the day after her murder. Jemir came to Charlotte two times during that week before the funeral. And both times he was crying very bad, very hard. And again, I wasn't crying, and I started thinking there's something wrong with me. but I had to be the strength. I had to get through this.
Starting point is 00:16:04 I had to make plans for my baby's funeral. And now that I think back and look back on that, I know why he was crying. Because he knew a secret. He knew a secret. He knew you were eventually going to find out. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:16:24 News of Danita's death and the hunt for her killer were widely reported in the local press. For those closest to Danita, those reports were little more than background noise. I received a phone call from someone at church telling me they had a young lady in custody. Edith Curran's again. And then I did, you know, see things on the news.
Starting point is 00:16:46 That was when you first heard the name of Shannon Crawley. Absolutely. I had no idea who this woman was. Shannon Crawley had been arrested late on Tuesday night. By Thursday, The day of Danita's funeral, it was clear to anyone who'd been watching the news that Jermere Stroud was the link connecting Shannon and Danita. The morning of Danita's funeral, before the funeral, I got a phone call at my house
Starting point is 00:17:16 from Jemir's father. He said to me, Ms. Smith, the young lady that they took into custody was a friend of Jemir. A friend. A friend. That's how he said a friend. He didn't say, what kind of friend? He just said a friend. I said, okay. And do you have any questions? So I informed him, no, not right now, because I'm getting ready to celebrate my baby's homegoing service. But I'm sure after that I will have some question. He said, okay. He said, well, we'll be down in a couple of hours. I said, okay. Jermere's parents, who were driving down to Charlotte from Greensboro for the funeral, had already heard Jermere's version of the story. No one on Dena's side of the relationship had. Danita's friend Edith was one of the few who made the effort and called Jermere.
Starting point is 00:18:17 It was a very brief conversation, to be honest. He did not stay on the phone long. But what did he say? I was just talking about the coverage and, you know, trying to connect the dots of, you know, what happened and who this person was. he was just like give it some time to calm down and let the truth come out pretty much. I mean, it wasn't much to the conversation
Starting point is 00:18:34 and then you had to get off the phone. Let the truth come out. So Jermere's telling you, what, don't believe everything you read. I suppose that's what he was saying. By the time Jermere Stroud and his parents arrived in Charlotte for Danita's funeral service, most of those present knew or at least believed,
Starting point is 00:18:55 he had likely cheated on Denita with the woman suspected of killing her. For Jermere Stroud, it was the most agonizing public outing imaginable. Jermere rode in the family car with us. He cried the whole time. I was in shock and I felt I had to hold it together for my family, for my son and my daughter. So we went to the funeral.
Starting point is 00:19:28 How do you do that? How do you hold it together? By the grace of God. God was there with me the whole time. He's my strength. And, of course, I had family. I had friends. But all the honor go to Him, to God.
Starting point is 00:19:49 There were no words of recrimination said in that car. That was not the time. And when Jermere entered the church, well, there were likely some looks cast in his direction that would have frozen a baked potato. Jemir was sad and he was crying and he appeared clearly he was devastated. Edith Kearns. I think reality was starting to sing in and that it hit him that the love of his life was no longer with us. I think, you know, when you walk around to the cask and everything, it becomes very final.
Starting point is 00:20:24 It was very difficult to see her body laying there. You already knew that the person accused in his murder was Jermere's other girlfriend. We must have made it hard to speak to Jermere at the funeral. We didn't have much contact that day. Because you didn't want to. My thoughts in my head was more in grief by that point. I was just thinking more about getting through the day and speaking there.
Starting point is 00:20:50 Were you angry at him? I wasn't happy, but my focus was more on. getting through the day and being there to support Anita's family. After the funeral, Sharon Smith went home and spent the rest of the day
Starting point is 00:21:04 mourning the daughter who'd been taken from her and the world. The next day, she called Jermere. It was not a condolence call. And I said, we need to talk. And I said, but I can't do it right now.
Starting point is 00:21:22 Because you were too angry. Oh. And he said, okay. I said, well, rest is true, I'm going to call you. So I had to get myself together mentally, physically, and spiritually to be able to take on that conversation. And, of course, there's nothing that he could say is going to be the words I want to hear. But I needed him to say something. Well, I'm guessing Jermere said to you, I had nothing to do with this.
Starting point is 00:21:51 I never saw this coming. and I'm terribly sorry and I'm ashamed of myself. I got that about right? And I'm guessing that didn't do it for you. No, because I asked him to tell me when he met Shannon and why?
Starting point is 00:22:12 Why? Denita wasn't enough woman for you? Why? You know, you knew what Danita was all about. You knew where Danita was going. Do you have an answer? He just said that he did love De Nita. He was ashamed of what he did.
Starting point is 00:22:29 He was sorry. That doesn't bring the Nita back. I kept talking to him and talking to him, but the answers wasn't changing. No, on that day, in that conversation with his dead fiancé's mother, Jermere Stroud admitted to little that was not already known. Months later, Shannon Crawley would come forward. with a more detailed account of what she said really happened on the day Danita Smith was murdered.
Starting point is 00:23:06 In the weeks after Shannon Crawley's arrest, her family set about the task of assembling a defense team. To a one, her family was convinced Shannon was no murderer. And they told their new lawyers everything they knew about Jermere Stroud. One incident from March 2006 stood out. A family had gathered in New York for a funeral. By then, Shannon had told them she had recently broken up with Stroud. She didn't want to see him anymore, but he was insisted.
Starting point is 00:23:44 That's Shannon's mother, Anne. He would call her all the time, you know, at... My mother-law's funeral, he called her constantly. These calls kept coming in, over and over and over and over there. It would always be him. And that's Shannon's father, Keith Crawley, Sr. He would threaten her, you'd ask her questions, what are you doing up there? And just, he got to the point where she didn't want to answer the phone.
Starting point is 00:24:11 Because the relationship had largely been kept under wraps, there were few independent voices to back up Shannon's allegations. but here is one of them. I knew that she had gotten pregnant, and so she ended up having an abortion, and he was upset about them. And that's where all the problems started. That is Lisa Smith,
Starting point is 00:24:40 one of Shannon's supervisors at the 911 Communications Center. Smith told police she had seen Jermere hanging out at the 911 Center, when Shannon was working. She'd heard Shannon complain about his frequent phone calls. I even asked her, point blank one kind, are you afraid of him? Are you afraid to do something to you?
Starting point is 00:25:05 And she said, no, no, I'm not afraid of that. No, Shannon did not tell Lisa. She feared Jermere. Not then. Those comments to investigators came later after Danita Smith's murder. It was in phone calls and visits with her family in the county lockup that Shannon made chilling accusations about Jermere Stroud's behavior toward her.
Starting point is 00:25:31 Threatening behavior, she says, began after their breakup. He would appear in the neighborhood. You sit there in his car and watch the house. So, yeah. Follow her to work. Shannon told her folks, she had no idea Jermere had another girlfriend, in Durham during the time she was seeing him in Greensboro.
Starting point is 00:25:55 So, to be clear, Shannon didn't know Jermere had another woman, didn't know he was engaged, and wouldn't have been with him if she had no. That's correct. In May 2007, Shannon's defense team asked the court to release Shannon from jail on a bond of $175,000. Weeks after the court approved her release, Detective Pate received a phone call from one of Shannon's lawyers. Shannon, he said, had something she wanted to tell the detective.
Starting point is 00:26:29 At this point, we had turned over all discovery against her. That's Detective Pate. Generally, this is what they call a proffer. You have time to look at the evidence against you, and you can either come tell the truth, or you can get a story that answers every piece of evidence against you. And that's what you did. And that's what we got.
Starting point is 00:26:51 You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be and maybe use against you against the board. Do you understand each of these rights inside between 12 years? Yes. Having these rights in mind,
Starting point is 00:27:02 you know, we should answer questions. Yes. With her lawyers seated beside her in the small police interview room, Shannon Crawley began telling a story that neatly accounted for nearly all of the known facts. Shannon began by talking about the day
Starting point is 00:27:19 before Danita's killing. January 3rd, I woke up about 6, 15, 7. I was sleeping breakfast, and my daughter wanted a juice that we didn't have in the house. We went to the store. Shannon told the detective that when she returned from the store, she went upstairs to her bedroom,
Starting point is 00:27:42 where she found Jermere Stroud waiting for her. Jemir was in the bedroom coming from the bathroom into the bedroom. I started to ask him what he was doing. He put his hand up to his mouth and told me to be quiet and lifted his shirt, showing his gun. I continued to ask him what he was doing there, why he was there, what the problem was once,
Starting point is 00:28:05 and he said he wanted to talk. The topic, Shannon said, was their relationship. What went wrong? The usual. Though Shannon says she asked Jermere to leave, he insisted she'd take a ride with him. him. I asked him where we're going and he said, I just need you to go with me. I told him I couldn't because I didn't have a babysitter for the kids and I couldn't leave them wrong. He continued to and said, so I go with him. I realized that he wasn't going to give up and I needed to go with him.
Starting point is 00:28:35 That Wednesday happened to be Shannon's day off. So after telling her kids ages 10 and 8 that she had to run out for a bit and leaving a number for them to call in an emergency, Shannon says she went to the garage where Jermere was waiting. We left the house, and he drove my car. We got on 85 and headed towards Durham. I did not know where we were going at the time. We stopped in an apartment complex. He said he would be right back.
Starting point is 00:29:05 He took the geeks and my phone. He went upstairs. He was gone maybe five to seven minutes. He came back down. I asked him what had happened, where we were, I remember there. He went into me. We then drove to an office spark of some sort. He'd cycled through just a long time, and then we left.
Starting point is 00:29:29 We got back on 85, and we headed towards Franceborough. I believe I called my children on the trip back to check on them. They were fine. Shannon told the detective Jermere never told her why he wanted her on that little jaunt, or what it was he'd hoped to accomplish. She just chalked it up to Jermere being Jermere. Then later that night, close to midnight, Shannon said Jermere returned to her house. Jermere knocked on my right, right.
Starting point is 00:30:03 I went to the door, open the door, and he was standing there and said again, he wanted to talk to me. I told him I didn't step inside. I backed up. He was all invited in, but he just walking forward, he started yelling, telling him. made that he went and he didn't understand why I was refusing to talk to him. I was worried at that point that my children would hear him, so I did invite him upstairs to my bedroom so we could talk. So if the kids wouldn't hear, we talked all in.
Starting point is 00:30:34 Neither one of us went to sleep. According to Shannon, it was more hours of the same old thing, a tedious rehash of their bad romance, periods of calm, interspersed with angry outbursts. And I'll try to call him down, and he would get upset and just continue to ask him what the problem was. Why? Why he was so upset, why he wanted to talk. Never really given him his dreams.
Starting point is 00:30:59 I was just angry. About five in the morning or so, he said that he again wanted me to go with him. And I told I couldn't that I had to work that day. He argued with me and said, no, you don't have to work. And I said, yes, I do. Shannon said that argument lasted several minutes. Then she said, Jermere made her an offer she couldn't refuse.
Starting point is 00:31:23 He said, I'll make it real simple. You can hear children die or you die from Richard. You knew at that point it wasn't a question. So Shannon said she called work and told them her son had a doctor's appointment that morning and that she'd be late. After telling the kid she had to run out for a bit and giving them an emergency number,
Starting point is 00:31:46 Shannon says she and Jermere hit the road again heading back to Durham We got on 85 again drove to the same complex Mark the car He got out, took my keys And my cell phone, he went up the stairs I sat there a few more minutes passed
Starting point is 00:32:08 And I heard him arguing him yelling at summer Then I heard a woman Argument back I got out of the car Started up to side of the side walk to the breezeway at our gunshot. I stopped. I looked around, echoed. Seconds later, he was running out past me from the breezeway. I never saw him go down stairs, but he came through the breezeway towards me and was shoving the gun down in his waist. I asked him what
Starting point is 00:32:35 happened, and he yelled at me to get in the car. He got in the driver's seat. I started to get in the back seat, and the door was locked. And I told him, I can't get in the door. It's locked. Rather than simply unlocking the door, Shannon said. Jermere crawled over the console into the backseat of her SUV and told her to drive. Shannon said she was just pulling out when she was stopped by a man driving a black pickup. I stopped at the black truck and man asked me if I was all right. I said, shook my head, no. He said, did you hear a gunshot? I said, yes. He said, where does it sound like it was coming from? And I pointed to the door and it'll be just home from. He said, well, it sounded like to go over this way, and he went in another direction.
Starting point is 00:33:19 I didn't say anything when he said that. He again, I said if I was all right. I shook my head now. According to Shannon, Jermere was crouched in the back the whole time she was talking and kicking the back of her seat to get her to shut up. Shannon says she kept motioning with her eyes toward the back seat in hopes the maintenance man would see Jermere back there. But as we later learned, he couldn't see into the back at all.
Starting point is 00:33:50 Like, I'm looking at him, and he would ask me something, I'm trying to glance at the back seat, but still trying to look at him, getting him to realize that he was in the backseat. He asked me several times if I was all right, and every time I said, no. He asked me if I had the number of campus police, and I said, I didn't live there. And he said, okay, call me out.
Starting point is 00:34:08 I'm going to go and see what happened. Shannon said she encountered the black pickup truck a second time as she was trying to find her way out of the complex. And once again, she stopped. Jemar was asking, whispering, you know, what's going on? Why'd you stop? We need to leave, we need to leave. I didn't say anything back to him.
Starting point is 00:34:28 I just kept watching the guy in the truck. Then he drove away. Jemir sat up and said, we need to leave. Go that way. And can you make a left out of the complex. I'm going to have the complex. Got back on age. and came back towards Greensboro.
Starting point is 00:34:45 It was an hour's drive. Plenty of time for Jermere to explain what exactly it happened at the apartment complex that morning. But Shannon told the detective, Jermere explained nothing. I had asked him what happened. Both the problem was what happened. I was trying.
Starting point is 00:35:06 He was yelling at me. When we got back to Greensboro, we went to his house. took the keys, went inside. He came out a few minutes later, went back to my house, four of the garage. She asked me where I was going. So I have to go at work. You know I have to go to work. Shannon said she changed into her work uniform and went to her job where she clocked in at about 10. At 1115, she said Jermere called the 911 center and asked for her. While the girls up went, I answered the phone. No one was on the line. I asked her who was, and she said, I don't know. That guy that always calls for you.
Starting point is 00:35:41 I walked over to her and had her play the phone all back. I recognized his voice asking for me. The story Shannon Crawley had just recounted was hair-raising. In her version, Jermere was furious Shannon had broken up with him. That anger apparently made him not just unstable, but violent. He's threatened me on numerous, nuanced agents. He knows I'm afraid of him. He knows what to say.
Starting point is 00:36:11 And so, she said, Jermere Stroud killed Danita. Then, in an act of revenge against Shannon for rejecting it, he framed her for Danita's murder. When it was over, Detective Sean Pate was impressed. Shannon had run back and forth across the state's case and touched all the bases. She had explained why her phone hit cell towers near Danita's apartment, the day before the murder.
Starting point is 00:36:44 She'd explained why her car had been spotted at the scene of the crime by the maintenance man. She'd put the gun in Jermere Stroud's hand, and she had explained why gunshot residue was found on her car's steering wheel. So when she's telling this story, I'm thinking, wow, this actually sounds pretty decent so far. Did anything Shannon said in that three-hour interview,
Starting point is 00:37:11 you make you think maybe we were wrong about Jermere. She did put a doubt in my mind about Jemir again, but then I went back and I just said that and none of it makes any sense. Even if this story you were telling was true, why didn't you tell it the first day? Shannon's response was that she had feared Jermere might harm her kids or her family. If he learned she was cooperating with police. Again, my children were my main concern. I was not going to say anything or do anything until they were safe. That might have seemed a reasonable concern, except for one thing.
Starting point is 00:37:54 Shannon's children were living with her. And as for Jermere Stroud, well, it would only be a matter of time before he knew Shannon was talking to police. What would happen then? next time she's hysterical and i'm like what's you know what's the matter and and and she's she's telling me she said jameer he was here you know he hurt me you know how police work though you understand that we have to follow up on on everything anything anything we want to add recently's blatantly a lot i mean i just want to be left um
Starting point is 00:38:37 This podcast is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beecham is the producer. Marshall Housefeld, Brian Drew, and Deb Brown are audio editors. Kimberly Flores Gaynor is associate producer. Adam Gorffane is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Rich Cutler,
Starting point is 00:39:12 Bryson Barnes is head of audio production.

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