Snapped: Women Who Murder - Debra Dillard

Episode Date: May 22, 2022

A young mother of two on her way to a birthday party is gunned down on the side of a rural highway, and the ensuing investigation reveals fraying within a tight-knit family.Season 26, Episode 4Originally aired: September 22, 2019Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WsLCJWqmIebSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. She was a doting grandmother who would do anything for her son and daughter-in-law. My mother was very excited to have a little baby in the house. She would watch, take care of him like any grandma would do.

She actually treated my sister like a daughter. As a family, we were a team. We had a perfect life and they went to hell and hand-basket. The victim is laying in the center of the road, crumpled up, she was still warm to the touch, so I was just minutes behind the shooter. To find the killer, detectives will have to expose a motive. I don't recall any real direction as far as anybody that wished her harm.

There was no enemies out there. I couldn't think of anybody that would hurt any of us. As the investigation unfolds, detectives follow a twisted trail of suspects. It was obvious to us that they were keeping things from the investigators. She was secretly saving money. I just knew something was going on, and I wanted to know where she was. You get a shot of him and that hit it head. Her gut feeling is totes at the head of her own person.

November 13, 2009, Moody, Missouri. It's a quiet Friday night, as Corporal Clinton Howell of the Missouri Highway Patrol drives down a desolate stretch of highway. I was undue by myself that night. I was taking my calls, doing what I normally do. When Tripp headquarters called me and said that there was an accident with injuries.

A man and his wife were driving down the road. They saw this vehicle parked on the side of the road with the headlights on. And as they drove by, they saw the woman lying on the road. And I started moving that way very, very quickly. Lights and sirens as fast as I can possibly get there. The quicker you can get there to somebody that is injured, the quicker you have a chance of saving their life.

to somebody that is injured, the quicker you have a chance of saving their life. Within minutes, Corporal Howell arrives on the scene. I roll up on it, come flying out of my vehicle. The victim is laying in the center of the road, crumpled up. She was in early 20s, about 5 foot tall, maybe 100 pounds. She was just very small petite. She was still warm to the touch, had no pulse. She was already deceased.

At first glance, how the young woman died is a mystery. There was no trauma, no close to her, where maybe a vehicle would struck her. There was just some blood using out beside her head, just a small amount. Corporal Howell then attempts to ID the victim. He went ahead and opened it or the vehicle, and went through the purse.

And he found a driver's license. The young woman's name is Becky Dillard. I had my hands full. I'm out there by myself. I've got a young lady dead in the middle of the road and then I have to shut down the highway. It was quite chaotic. Born in 1985, Becky always stood out. Becky was Miss Chris. She was like, I think eight or nine when she started getting closed and matched her hair had to be perfect

Everything. I don't think she really set out to be the center of retention But in that little bit she got she just ended up being a center of attention By high school Becky was getting plenty of attention from boys too, especially classmate Justin Dillard Everybody logr she is very popular. She was beautiful. And we hit it off right off the bat. So, my niece, she's gonna be my friend. He was just like Becky. His clothes had a match. His hair had to be fixed. Becky would always call him.

Whenever something was going on, she needed someone to talk to. Justin was very sweet to my sister. They were the best of friends. They shared everything together and hung around with each other all the time. It wasn't until after graduation that Becky and Justin became more than best friends. When we got together, I knew that I could never do any better. And I was very lucky to even be with her because she didn't know how perfect she was. But I did. When Becky came to me and told me that she was in love with Justin, I really wasn't surprised.

I feel like we hit it off so well because we were a lot of like. We're both very into fashion. We both wanted to go to school to do hair. I mean, it was perfect. Becky decided to go to college in school and Justin decided to go as well. The couple hadn't been dating long before they took their next big step together.

We were going to have a baby. We were terrified because we were young. We weren't married. When Becky told me she was pregnant, I knew she was going to be an awesome mom already. So I just gave her a hug and told her I'd be there for her. Justin's mom, Deborah Dillard, was so thrilled by the news that she and her boyfriend, Billy Eastebb,

made room in Deborah's home for the couple and future grandchild. My mother was very excited to have a little baby in the house, especially mine. It's an extension of me. I'm an extension of her. Deborah had spent her entire life looking after people. That was her calling to take care of people.

She graduated from nursing school, top of her class, and was a charge nurse at nursing homes. Deborah would tell Becky, don't worry about anything. I'll take care of everything. And I'll guide you through this because I've had children before, so I know what I'm doing. True to her word, Deborah was right by Becky and Justin's side in May of 2005 when the couple welcomed

their son, Kobe, into the world. She was all like smiling, crying, first-grandbaby and stuff like that. She was so proud of Becky and what she did and telling me she did a good job. She was ecstatic about Kobe and we were kind of ecstatic to have her because we didn't have to pay a babysitter and we were still in school. So we'd get up and get him ready, give him to her, go to school, and come home and have all the free time we wanted with him. Never was very, very serious about a care for Kobe. She would take care of him like she would

any grandma would do for their grandbabies. In August of 2005, with three-month-old Kobe and tow, Becky and Justin married. She was my best friend, and who better to marry besides your best friend? I mean, it was perfect. Becky and Justin got married at Debra's home. Got married in the backyard.

They had chairs set up and a wedding cake was outside. And it was kind of a party situation. Becky was very happy at the wedding. Her Kobe was in it. As Justin walked down the aisle, he carried Kobe with him up there, as I said, you know, their vows. With Deborah still looking after their little boy,

Becky and Justin finished Cosmetology School, and both started working at a salon in the area. As a family, we were a team, and as a team, we were all very happy. Everything we needed was taken care of. If I couldn't provide it, Becky would provide it. If Becky couldn't provide it, my mom would. Debra was really sweet, very, very, very, very sweet woman. She was always caring.

She actually treated my sister like a daughter. In 2008, Debra had even more reason to bond with her daughter-in-law after Becky gave birth to a little girl named Cricket. My mom and Becky got along a whole lot better than sometimes my mom and I did. Though as close as Becky had become to Debra, she and Justin still dreamed of one day having a place of their own.

Our goal was to have an apartment or something somewhere. I know that Becky and Justin were trying to find a place, you know, alone away from parents, had their own privacy, but it took longer than they expected. Becky and Justin were happy. They raised their children together. They seemed to be in a good relationship. Everybody's dream is to have a son and then a daughter. And that's what we had.

We had a perfect life. And they went to hell in the hand basket. The once happy family is ripped apart when a Missouri highway patrolman finds Becky dead on an isolated highway on the evening of November 13th, 2009. Vehicles on the shoulder, she was laying in the middle of the road, so they just made the assumption that it was a crash, somebody ejected, and they called in. But Corporal Clinton howl quickly discovers this was no accident.

There was a couple shell casings in the road, what appeared to be 22 caliber shell casings. He was the first one to make that determination. It seemed to be in shot. It was a small caliber gunshot wound to her left temple between the ear and the eye. There was also another gunshot wound to the back of her head. It was so obvious that it was a murderer,

eye contacture, and tell them that I need an investigator to respond immediately. Coming up, detectives piece together is a grisly scene. It was a hit, plain and simple. And the death notification raises a red flag. He was grieving before. He knew what he should be grieving about. On November 13, 2009, Missouri Highway Patrol Officer Clinton Howell has just discovered 24-year-old Becky Dillard dead

from what appears to be two gunshot wounds. She was still very warm, so I was just minutes behind the shooter. And I'm on by myself. I have nobody else. I have no backup. I have nothing. So, yeah, you've got to be on point. You've got to keep your head on a swivel, and then do everything you can to preserve the evidence. When investigators arrive minutes later,

they first take note of the crime's peculiar setting. With where it was located out in the middle of nowhere, I mean, it's not a case of, there were stop signs or any reasons she would be stopped, where she's at. The vehicle was still running, so it's obvious it wasn't a car problem. What could have motivated the murder is also a mystery. You would think that if somebody was looking to steal something,

whether it would take the car, take the purse, her pockets did not appear to have been gone through. It all indicated that it was a hit. She was targeted, plain and simple. It wasn't a random act. As investigators continue to examine the crime scene, they take a closer look at the condition of Becky's body. She was dressed up to go out for the night.

A very clean, not dirty, anyway, shape or form. Her clothes weren't torn off of her, where maybe a physical altercation had occurred. The bullet hole that was on her left temple area, the blood from that flowed across her forehead and down the other side, which she would have had to been faced down for the blood to go in that route. So it appeared that whoever had done this had rolled over it possibly to make sure she was dead.

So I believe this was definitely to kill her with that intention. It is truly a rural area. Very few people live out there. Stranger violence around here is very, very rare. We felt like it was going to be somebody that she had some type of relationship with. And that's what it appeared that she had gotten out,

walked around back to have a conversation with someone. While crime scene investigators finish processing the scene, detectives go to the address listed on Becky's driver's license, a home just minutes away. We went to the door and knocked on the door, which was answered by Deborah Dillard. The officers did not tell her at that time what had happened to Becky because they weren't sure who had done this, but they spoke to her and asked her questions about where Becky may have been going.

Was Becky upset about anything? Was somebody following her, did she have argument with anybody? According to Deborah, Becky and her husband, Deborah's son, Justin Dillard, had spent the last hour bickering about a party they'd been planning to attend that evening. Becky was coming to the party,

and Justin was supposed to be coming with her. It's our understanding that Justin was supposed to be coming with her. It's our understanding that Justin was having a little trouble getting ready, and Becky was getting frustrated. There was conversation back and forth about whether he was going to go or not go, and then when she decided it was time to go, he wasn't ready, and that she had left. Debra tells detectives that Justin left for the party a few minutes later.

He got Debra Dillard to drive him to the party. There was two routes from there that they could get to town. And if they had traveled the route, or Becky Dillard was going across, they would have driven right by the scene. But they took a different route. Debra says she dropped Justin off 30 minutes down the road at Becky's father's house.

Detectives immediately head to the party to question Becky's friends and family. I think Debra Debra had called and let them know that we were coming. And Justin Debra and several others were all outside when we arrived. It just knew something was going on, and I wanted to know where she was. Is she in trouble? Justin's reaction strikes detectives as strange. He seemed to be assuming the worst, and it didn't feel normal.

He was grieving before he knew what he should be grieving about. Detectives have a deputy drive Justin down to the station for a statement. I'm like, am I being arrested? And they say, no, you just need to go with us. And so I'm like, OK, something's out. While Justin is taken to the station, detectives turn to Becky's family members.

They say Justin had been acting strangely since the moment he arrived at the party. He had showed up and was like asking where she was and Becky was nowhere to be found. He had freaked out. Justin got out, where's Becky? Where's Becky? Why isn't she here?

Where's she at? Oh no, she's probably in a ditch somewhere hurt. At the time, Becky's friends and family weren't too worried. We all knew Becky was always passionate to be like to any family get together, or some stuff like that. That is how Becky is. Justin was asking, you know, that they looked in the ditches

for her and things of that sort, like he knew something was wrong. Which, of course, he would assume something is wrong when she's not there at the party, and she's supposed to be there. They thought, OK, dude, you're being too dramatic. you're being what we used to call him, drama queen. However, considering that they just found Becky dead on the side of the highway, detectives can't write

Justin's comment off as mere drama. We ask if everybody there would be willing to come to the Sheriff's Department for us to be able to sit down and interview them and talk to them as far as any information they had come to the Sheriff's Department. First bill sit down and interview them and talk to them as far as any information they had relevant to the investigation. All the way in, we're talking, man. Well, I don't think this has to go to the hospital. You know, why didn't the evidence go to the police department?

You know, we've read a go to the hospital and see Becky if she's that bad, that hurt. It's only once everyone's at the station that detectives break the tragic news. Becky is dead, and it appears to be a murder. We were in a haze, disbelief, we were numb. I'm kind of in a zombie mode, as you say. I cry a little bit, but I don't want to want to be strong.

As the realization sinks in, detective start interviewing the grieving family members. Everything was pointing that it was going to be someone who knows Becky Dillard as being our suspect. One of the main things we try to look for is motive. So it's very important for us to see what the last few hours of Becky's life were. If she had angered anybody, if she had any enemies, if there was anybody that might be making threats towards her. They ask us who we think would do that, and we say, Justin.

My suspicion was on Justin. I didn't really suspect anybody else, but I suspected him, number one suspect. Becky's family tells the investigators that Becky and Justin started having problems in their marriage soon after the birth of the couple's son. The relationships started to break down. I believe that he wasn't ready to be a father.

Becky had, I guess, dealt with it already. Hey, I'm a mother, and I'm going to do the best I can put my best foot forward. I think things snapped in him that he went ready for. And then that is when his drinking came. Becky seemed to be on her way. Justin, on the other hand, was calling in the work. It wasn't showing up to work.

The family says that Justin's lack of motivation soon led to problems with Becky. What I understood, Justin, had not worked in over a year and that was creating financial hardships of a variety of things like that, where she is the one taking care of the family, and pretty much she was the glue holding everything together. Debra Dillard would take care of him while Becky was working.

Becky was upset, you know, it shouldn't be an end of the job to be a father figure to their grandbaby. It was his job, his responsibility. According to the family, as their household grew with the birth of their second child, so did Becky's resentment towards Justin. As it progressed when Becky had cricket, things have gotten worse. Finally, by the summer of 2009, the family says Becky had enough. She told me once before she was murdered, that she was going to leave Justin. She had the guts to walk away from things

that weren't good for her. Becky told me many times that she wanted to move out, but she did not tell Justin or Deborah about it because she didn't want them to know, because she was secretly saving money, stashing it so that she could move out. She was saving every tip up to a side, hiding it in the software.

She was only saving it so she can get away, get a place where only. Becky's family tells detectives that she had recently shared some upsetting news involving her secret stash of money. Becky couldn't find it. No one knew under the meme mom what Becky was saving this for. She didn't know where it went.

That kind of scared her a little bit. And made her sad, because now she had to redo it all over again and hide it in different spot. With or without the money, Becky never got the chance to leave Justin. But does that mean her husband is behind her murder? Coming up, Detective's interview Justin. He was crying with there was no tears coming out of his eyes.

And a key witness comes forward. There's two cars. It was parked on the side of the road. Hey, listener. It is me, Jason Bateman. I want to tell you that we've struck podcast gold in our new episode with David Letterman available four weeks early on one Drupal Plus.

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Join us for an unforgettable conversation that will have you laughing, pondering and quite possibly contemplating growing a beard like Letterman's. I know I have. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on Wundry Plus, find Wundry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Late on the evening of November 13th, 2009, just hours after state troopers found Becky Dillard, dead on the side of a Missouri highway,

detectives sit down with her husband, Justin Dillard. We were ready to talk to him. We kind of talked to everybody else first, three highway, detectives sit down with her husband, Justin Dillard. We were ready to talk to him. We kind of talked to everybody else first, kind of worked our way through before. We talked to him, because you want to know as much as possible before. You talked to the person that may be involved.

We did tell him directly that Becky was deceased, and that her death did not appear to be an accident. But we could not give many details due to the investigation. He was just extremely emotional and upset and immediately agreed to cooperate in any way possible. I couldn't deal with it. You cannot explain that feeling ever.

I can throw up now thinking about it. My first question was was she raped? Was she robbed? The only thing I could think of as a random person, he painted her as a very lackable person, that there was no enemies out there. There was nobody that he could point to that he thought would do this to her. The population on my town's 300 people,

I know every one of them. I couldn't think of anybody that would ever hurt Becky ever. No one. I couldn't think of anybody that would hurt any of us. When detectives ask about his relationship with Becky, Justin's version of their life together is very different from what Becky's family told them. Becky wasn't leaving. I was her best friend. I would have known if she was going to leave.

I knew everything she did. She knew everything I did. We didn't keep things from each other, and she wasn't going anywhere. She wasn't taking the kids. However, no matter how much Justin denies having anything to do with the murder, detectives are less than convinced. He was crying, but there was no tears coming out of his eyes, and we were strongly wondering if he was involved. But we don't have enough to incarcerate Justin, and we had to let him go. The following morning, detectives returned to Debra's house,

hoping to find clues that might shed more light on Becky's murder. The next stage was to do more follow-up at the house, to go back to where she had come from the last place that we could place her, you know, prior to her being found dead out there on the road. Detectives don't have a warrant, but now knowing her daughter-in-law has been murdered, Debra readily cooperates.

So with her permission, we did the consent search there. In addition to the search, detectives conduct a brief interview with Debra's boyfriend, Billy Eastep. My mother had just gone through a divorce and we knew him through church. And he was more or less our maintenance man. He was kind of a jack of all trades.

And I think my mom gave him a job, and so they became friends. I remember my mother saying, I'm too old to have a boyfriend, but Billy and my mom did have some sort of relationship. They'd been together for a while, but I didn't know how long they'd been together. They were very close from what we could tell. There's a little he can tell investigators

about the night of the murder. See, it told us that he had been drinking and that it wasn't feeling well. It had taken us from Nikequil and it kicked in and he just went to sleep. Billy says he doesn't remember Becky leaving or Debra driving Justin to the party. But he does say that Debra and Justin must have taken his truck. Debra and Becky shared a vehicle. Billy had the only vehicle that was there, that was running that we know of.

So if it's somebody left the residence, it would have had to been his vehicle. Once detectives learn about Billy's truck, they ask if they can conduct a search and he leads them outside to where it's parked. Billy East have drove a dark colored pickup truck with a white door on it. When detectives open that white door,

they make an alarming discovery. Inside his vehicle, there were some smudges that we thought were possibly dry blood. Detectives collect samples of the suspected blood. Basically hoping that we might get hit on some type of DNA or something. Detectives also ask Billy to come down to the station for a formal statement. But the interview doesn't add much to what he already told them. His story was that he had taken some cough syrup,

just immediately knocked him out. They found that hard to believe to begin with, that over-the-ccalf syrup was going to react that quickly. It's just a really strange story. But then he later talks a little bit about the arguments that Justin and Beckier having it. He just wasn't completely consistent

and he was trying to really eliminate himself from things is, you know, just separating himself. So it kind of makes you wonder. Which we believe made him more of an interest that he knew what had happened. If he wasn't there, at least he knew what was going on. Even though detectives suspect Billy may know more than he's letting on, they have no reason to hold him.

There was no evidence that Becky and Billy had any bad feelings towards each other. It seemed like they just existed in the house together. It was a voluntary interview, and he was allowed to leave at the end of the evening. A few days later, detectives are disappointed again when preliminary testing of the samples from Billy's truck reveal that the stains were blood, but not human. It had us perplexed on who it could have been,

or actually on a motive on why anybody would have done this. We're still hoping and looking, trying to find something that gives us some concrete evidence. While the investigation appears to be at an impasse, news of Becky's death continues to spread through the community. We don't have a lot of murders in Howe County, and so when something like this happens, it would be on the radio, it would be on Springfield news, it would be on the newspaper.

I'm sure it was all over social media, so everybody knew about it. We had a flood of phone calls, condolences coming in. After about two days, we just unplugged the phone. all over social media, so everybody knew about it. We had a flood of phone calls, condolences coming in. After about two days, we just unplugged the phone. We just want to be left alone. It was hard to deal with. I know he was.

Then, on November 19, six days after the murder of Becky Dillard, the Missouri Highway Patrol receives a call that could break the investigation wide open. A man named Tyler Bean called in and basically said, hey, on that day, I was on that road. Tyler Bean and his girlfriend had been at Walmart shop in that evening. Left Walmart went and gasped up his truck

and then drove home, so we had him and his girlfriend both. Seeing our victim parked out there on the road. However, as Tyler explains to detectives, Becky's car isn't the only one they saw on the side of the road that night. There's two cars, SUV and I think a Chevy pick up. It was parked on the side of the road and both their headlights are all on their things. Like, that's normal. Like, my stuff's in my talk. So I just pulled right up behind them.

He said there was somebody in the Ford Explorer, which was Becky Dorge vehicle, sitting in the vehicle. And that this other pickup, they couldn't say for sure. They couldn't identify the driver. No way you feel it. I hear anything. Any facial hair that was just, I can't tell you anything.

I thought that couldn't tell you positive if it wasn't, guys. But there is one thing about the truck that Tyler can remember. It was a dark colored, chilly pickup. They had a light colored mismatched body part on the driver's night of it. And that matched Billy Eastup's vehicle to a tee. Coming up, a polygraph test unirths a huge breakthrough in the case. I walked around the desk.

I said, you knew how you were going to do on this test. And accusations boil to the surface. She said he was wearing clothes that looked like they had blood on them. On November 19, 2009, Missouri Highway Patrol detectives investigating the murder of 24-year-old Becky Dillard appear to be on the verge of a breakthrough. An eyewitness has just placed Billy E. Steps pickup truck at the scene of the crime. There was a multi-colored dark vehicle with a white driver's door.

Just stood out like a sore thumb. On November 20, detectives contact the woman who'd supposedly driven that truck on the evening of the murder. Becky's mother-in-law, Deborah Dillard, she agrees to come in for a polygraph. That's basically an investigative tool to determine whether or not a person

when they're being questioned are being truthful. She was very relaxed, seemed like she felt like she was in charge of what was going on. Deborah seems just as confident when the test is over. She kind of clapped her hands and seemed like she's excited about it. I walked around the desk. I said, you knew how you were going to do on this test, even before I did.

And I'm sure it comes to no surprise to you that you didn't pass the test. It was obvious to us that she was keeping things from the investigators. She was totally deflated at that point. She was a loss for words, and I could tell it had really set her back. And at that point, I explained to Deborah

that it would be in her best interest to explain what took place. Put on the spot by detectives, Deborah suddenly caves. Belling out in the killer. She cracked and gave up that Billy was the one. And they actually even recorded a little bit of her saying that. She basically said, the thing that I was keeping from you is that Billy actually left the house that night.

That she was still there. And then when he came back, he was wearing clothes that looked like they had bought on them, and that he immediately jumped into the shower, took a shower, and then she said that really centipede flags for her. According to Deborah, when she confronted Billy about her suspicions, he didn't deny it.

He said, I'm sorry, he didn't deny it. He's a shot in the back of the head. Deborah kind of alluded to the fact that if Billy had done this, that he'd probably done it to help her maintain their way of life with the grandchildren. She was afraid that Becky was going to take away the grandchildren and move away from the residents. Before detectives wrap up their interview, they ask her one final question.

Have you ever said anything around him that he would consume that you want to be a technical? No. After Deborah IDs her boyfriend Billy as Becky's killer, detectives bring the 41-year-old handyman in for another round of questioning. Basically, Billy was confronted with the fact that Deborah was not saying that he had killed Becky.

He did state that too law enforcement that he was there, but he did not pull the trigger. He would not say who did it. That's one thing that he just refused to answer. He said, I want to talk to an attorney. And they came in and asked me, I said, yes, for an attorney, we're done. At which point, the questioning stopped immediately. And Billy was arrested. He was charged, but the investigation continued.

Debra Dillard was still a person of interest at that point, because we could not find a true motive on why Billy would have done it. Becky never said anything ill-willed about Billy at all. Our gut feelings toticed at the head of the wrong person. Debbie and I had talked about it. It was like, no, he can't be him. On November 21st, after only 15 hours in jail, Billy decides he's ready to talk to investigators. Are you withdrawing that statement? I have the honor of your request. That's why I'm asking you now.

If you're withdrawing that request, it'll all be real. I'm telling you, I'm free of will. If I did not pull that trigger. With Billy's ongoing cooperation, detectives question him about Deborah's involvement in the murder. Billy, it's okay. You're not going to hurt people's family. You're no how bad it is, they're not going to say it. They're tired of the man we're trying to get into the truth.

So let me get this straight. Did she go with you? Well, because she wanted to make sure it's done. Yeah, she went with you to make sure that she went with me called the sheep on the triggers. Tell her not to do it. You told her not to do it a lot. Tell her, don Tell her not to do it. You tell her not to be a wife. Tell her, don't, don't do it.

Always she gonna do. Kill them. While Billy says that the murder was Deborah's idea, the alleged motive stays the same. Back he was going to leave the household. Was going to take her grandchildren with her. She wasn't taking her babies. Deborah was very attached to the children. She did not want them leave the household. She was going to take her grandchildren with her. She wouldn't take her babies. Debra was very attached to the children.

She did not want them leaving the house. She wanted to keep the children there. If Becky was no longer in the picture, she would not only be able to see them on the time. She maybe even got in custody of the two kids. According to Billy, after Becky stormed out of the house on the evening of November 13th and drove to the party alone, Debra decided to act.

Debra and Justin's relationship seemed to be very close, and if Justin was upset, Debra would be upset. We don't know exactly what Becky and Debra talked about, prior to Becky leaving, but we believe that there was some kind of heated argument. We believe that was the instigator, the final straw that Deborah finally decided, okay, I'm going to take care of her at this point. So when Becky left, Deborah immediately got into the vehicle with Billy, followed her out on the highway and chased her down

and had Becky pull over. She got out and she said, Becky, come here. When Becky started walking over there, she stopped in front of the truck. And she said, Justin wants you to build back and go get him. And she's psyched. Becky turned around to go back to the vehicle. And Billy Eastep said, never pulled out a gun.

They went to turn around, they went pal. And what did Becky do to us? She just clapped. He said he wasn't aware that she had plan to do that. Because it went out. They have been down, and I heard a second shot. She wanted to make sure she was dead, so I heard a second shot. She wanted to make sure she was dead, so shot her a second time.

And then she got back in the truck, and I looked at her and I said, I can't believe you did. I can't believe you really did. Billy says that once Becky was dead, Debra had driven off to dispose of the murder weapon. It's our understanding that that was thrown off the how we went on one bridge into the North Fork Lake, which is very

deep, long bridge. The chances of recovering it there are just non-existent. Then, according to Billy, Debra had returned home and driven Justin to the party. 20 Justin's part of the party. I'm not about to kill his wife. I didn't know he found that. The far that we go, the less Justin

Dredillard's being mentioned, as far as having done anything, we have nothing that shows that he was involved. However, if Billy wasn't involved, either, why hadn't he come forward sooner? You could have said, hey, I'm going to crazy woman, it just killed one of my friends. I called out, kind of shared, so I was in tell. You had a chance to do it, Billy. I know it. I mean, you know, like I said, I'm a shadow dog, don't have man, I was shot.

She threw him under the bus to save herself, and he took the fall. With no eye witnesses and only Billy's statement against Deborah, police and prosecutors don't feel they have enough to make an arrest. But that all changes on February 14, 2010, when authorities receive a six-page letter from Deborah Dillard. She had written that the guilt was weighing on her and that she felt bad that Billy was sitting in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and that she wanted everybody

to know that she actually did it. This was the very first time somebody had confessed in the letter to a crime in my career. First time somebody had confessed in a letter to a crime in my career. Coming up, Will Deborah's letter lead to her arrest. That was it. That was the nail on the coffin. Or Will detectives be too late.

When they walked in, she was in bed, and she had piss a light beside her. On February 14, 2010, Sheriff's Deputies and State Troopers raced to Deborah Dillard's home outside Moody Missouri. Earlier that morning, authorities received a six-page confession from Deborah, claiming that she was the one who murdered her daughter-in-law, Becky Dillard. That was it. That was the nail on the coffin, basically. Once we received those letters, we had a case.

However, an arrest isn't the only reason officers rushed to reach Deborah. It came across to me when I first read it as a suicide limit. When they walked into our restaurant, she was in bed. And she had the pistol laid beside her. And when they walked in, they told her that they needed her to come to station.

And her hand automatically went to the puzzle. Detectives had to draw their weapons on her. And they were afraid that she was either going to harm herself or them. If she was meaning to end her life at that point, they basically talked her out of it and arrested her. When detectives question Deborah, it's clear that suicide isn't the only thing

she's having second thoughts about. Are you afraid to sit in jail before one's done? How about you? No, I'm serious. I haven't done anything. She said that she loved billing so much that she could not live without him and that her was her plan to make this false confession, saying that she did it and that Billy didn't do it and then she was going to kill herself.

But then she'd chickened out. Debra's sudden reversal is a frustrating moment for detectives. I've got to have you tell me the absolute truth today. I'm so sick of all the drama and the warcraft. My eye could not even flush it all away. No, but there's only another to this down-talented. And yet another twist, Debra also reverses her original statement fingering Billy for Becky's murder. That's really great. It's really great. It's not too hard. I really believe that.

Detectives don't believe any of it. At that point, we pretty much feel like we had the two people involved. She had a means motive and definitely had opportunity. They had enough probable cause to arrest Deborah Nielerd for first-degree murder. When I found out that they had finally arrested Deborah for murdering my daughter Becky, I was ecstatic. I was like, it, for murdering my daughter Becky. I was ecstatic. I was like, it's about, effentime. But they still had to prove it in front of a jury.

When Deborah goes to trial in January of 2011, the prosecution argues that Billy's story and Deborah's written confession are the truth that she was the shooter. The autopsy in this case revealed the trajectory of the bullets and was basically almost straight head on. Billy's e-step was roughly about 6'3", 6'4", and Becky was almost a roughly 5' tall. So if Billy would have shot Becky,

it would have been at a downward angle. When it's the defense's turn, Debra takes the stand, and once again claims that her confession was false. Debra Diller did testify that she missed Billy, and she really loved him, and she wanted to take the heat off of him. She was trying to manipulate the jury to believe that she didn't have anything to do it, but she fell. They said, how do you find her guilty?

Murder in the first degree in Missouri means life without parole. There is no other sentence, and that's what she received. The only time that woman ever cried was when she was sentenced. A guilty. No or more, what's so ever for the murder, except she got caught. Deborah's son, Justin Dillard, still believes his mother is innocent. She wrote a letter trying to see what she could do to get Billy out.

I feel like my mother was trying to save us all. I throw in herself under the bus. I lost my best friend, my children lost their mother, I lost my mother, I lost everything. For Becky's family, the police and prosecutors, the most fitting punishment is that while she was willing to do the unthinkable to get custody of her grandchildren, Deborah will never see them again.

Deborah was what I would refer to as a narcissist. It was all about her. Everything revolved around her needs and what she wanted. What she wanted is to have Kobe only to herself and cricket, and she's not the mall. My sister is and she hated it. So she made it to where it was only her. Becky would never have taken the kids away from Deborah. She knew that the kids needed to know their grandma, but grandma, Deborah was too greedy and she wanted all their love. Billy East Step pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

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