Sword and Scale - Episode 132

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

On July 17th, 2016, Cara Beckerle went up to the bedroom of her 19-year-old daughter, Aleah, to check on her. When she opened the door, the bed was empty, and Aleah’s wheelchair was sitting next to it. Aleah could not have left of her own free will, as she was incapable of moving on her own due to physical disabilities, and she was nonverbal due to mental disabilities. She was also prone to seizures and had to take daily medication for them. That medication was also still in her room.What happened to Aleah Beckerle?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised Calm down who do you think is this? I haven't found the letters. I don't know. a show that reveals that the war monsters are real. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Well, we're back in full swing here on Season 6. Thank you once again for joining us. This next story is truly a horrifying one. The victim could not possibly be any more vulnerable, and the case is one filled with twists and

turns and sheer madness. It's the kind of story that really makes you want to get an ADT alarm system, and also one that demonstrates just how real and present the monsters are. I'm sure we'd all like to live in a world where justice is inevitable. Where the most vulnerable members of our society are protected by the laws and systems we've set up to hold criminals accountable, where someone pays a price every single time a crime is committed. But that's just not the world we live in. Sure, sometimes justice is served, but sometimes it isn't. And other times, justice, at least as it's defined by the US legal system, is simply not enough.

But whoever the people are responsible person, are people, are responsible for this. If you have any heart, any heart, and you may even be watching what's going on right now. You have any heart, please. We are begging you to turn yourself in. This child needs justice. In March of 2017, dozens of people gathered on a quiet street in Evansville, Indiana, all brought together by a tragedy that shook their city to its core. It just has to stop. Evansville has to stop. This touch Evansville. It touched the world.

I see they don't see it in. So please, gather, prize, and pray to God that the officers, detectives, and stuff can come bring it to what is and we can get justice for this young lady. After praying and talking about how they could put their city back together, they all joined in singing amazing grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. More months earlier, at around 9am on July 17th, 2016, Kara Beckerly got out of bed in her home on East Iowa Street in Evansville. She went over to the bedroom of her 19-year- old daughter, Alia, to check on her.

When Carol walked in, she saw that Alia's bed was empty. Within 10 to 15 minutes, Carol's youngest daughter, whose name has been kept out of most media coverage, was on the phone with 911 to report Alia missing. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. My sister's missing. Okay, where are you? 403, silence.

Okay, calm down. I'm having trouble hearing you. 403, Shiloh. 403, East 403 East Iowa. East Iowa. How long has it been gone? We just woke up and she's gone. How did she?

19, but she's disabled. Okay. What's her name? Alia Darlin-Becchali. Alia Beckerly? Yeah. Do you have any idea how long she's been gone? early in the early alia beckerly yeah you have any idea how long she's been gone no

is there a challenge is it mental or physical? um... both I think she can't walk so far in things alia could not have left of her own free will she was incapable of moving on her own due to physical disabilities she was also nonverbal could not have left of her own free will. She was incapable of moving on her own due to physical disabilities.

She was also nonverbal and prone to seizures. When Kara had entered the bedroom, she noticed that Alia's wheelchair was sitting next to the bed and her seizure medication, which she had to take daily, was still there. As the 911 operator realizes the severity of the situation, she asks I cannot help you while you're screaming. Okay? Your daughters told me that she's mentally challenged. I want to know exactly how long it was as somebody didn't see her. When's the last time you saw her?

The last night when we put her to bed. Why time? Around like nine o'clock. It was like the same room. Okay. Okay. Is she wide black or Hispanic girl? She. Okay, is she wide black or Hispanic girl? She.

Huh? Is she wide black or Hispanic? She's by right or black and white. I'm going to throw up. Just try to calm down, okay? Somebody carry through my back with L. Ma'am. It's my daughter.

Ma'am, I'm trying to get everybody over there to help you. Now you need to calm down with it, okay? Okay. I know you're scared. This is scary, anybody, but you've got to try to calm down and let me help you. How tall is Alia? Oh, my four kids. How much does she weigh?

Like a hundred. What color is her hair? Her hair. Brown, in short. Like a boy. Okay, look. What color is that? What color is her hair? Brown, in short, like a boy. What was she wearing last night when you put her to bed? Is the T-shirt.

That's a dance theater, black. Black T-shirt. Yeah, and this is the theater. Has she ever taken off before or is she able to stand up? I did. I did. Calm down. Who do you think did this? have ever taken off before or she able to do that? I didn't walk. I didn't walk. I didn't walk. Calm down.

Who do you think did this? I have to find out the letters. I don't know. Nobody knows that size of the family is around. I have a slide for you. I don't know what to do with it. I only see one of her family. It's my size family is one of them.

The bathroom window was opened in the back door, that window, and locked the back door door in the case, but only in the back and the kitchen. They gave me and my house dismissed my disabled daughter. Any parents' worst nightmare is that their child will go missing. That all of a sudden, they won't know where their child is, or who their child might be with. It's just unimaginable. But usually, when a parent finds themselves in that unthinkable situation, there's still some degree of hope.

Hope that the child is safe. Hope that nothing is actually wrong. That maybe the child just went to a friend's house without telling anyone. Mr. Busce or ran off to go stay with a relative. But this situation is different because her daughter couldn't move on her own. Cara knows that someone took her. And as she talks to the 911 operator, all of the worst-case scenarios you can think of start to crawl into her head.

She suggests to the operator that someone might have taken Alia to sexually assault her. Don't take a thing like that, okay? No, let's make a plan. I'm hiding it. Calm down, please. Don't let things like that. Don't let those things get in.

Honey, I know. Don't let those things get in. Honey, I know that. But don't take it the worst, okay? Don't take it somebody hurting her. I don't know why they would do it. But you need to try to calm down and not think the worst, okay? I was so scared. I know you're scared. You've got to be scared.

Don't think of those things, okay? You've got two other kiddos there that are worried about you. You've got to take care of them right now. The officers on the way. They're going to come and talk to you. Okay. Oh, no. Why are we going to have to sit down? Honey, don't think that way. Don't think that way. I know you are. You would have to be. You've got to come down. I'll find her back home. Honey, why does that take her for me? We're going to work on that. Three surgeries, two weeks ago.

Okay. That was not a cause. What's your name? I care a bit, I really. Okay, Cara, try to calm down just a little bit. Okay. I'm trying to get everybody okay. Cara.

Cara. I know who. I know who. I know who. I know. I know that he's asking you to stop thinking about it. What I want to talk about is I'm not trying to be mean to you, but you have got to calm down, because the officer is going to have to ask you things. Okay. And he's going to be a guy who's you while you're crying so much, honey, you've got to try to calm down.

No, I'm just going to keep my face. I understand that. And the officer's going to come and help you with you. Try to calm down, okay? Take some deep breaths. Well, if you would take my daughter, I know calm down a little bit. I can't believe this is happening.

I can't believe it. It's making me so scared. It's so unaccompanied. I'm in my home. My daughter is leaving now. She's just a real away. And her right in front of us. We have a door so we can always see her.

And they took her all her flutes. Again, Kara brings up the possibility that whoever took Alia might be assaulting her. You don't know that anybody's doing anything like that to her and to take that. I don't know, but you can't think that way. You can't do anything really crazy. cannot do that. You can't really case it by the deck. My window didn't really case through it. I know. It's just my daughter.

I know. You told me that. Okay. What are the three that are the murder scenes? They should be there anytime. It's been less than five minutes. You were just so worked out. You're not paid attention that long.

It's been. What are the three that are full. I don't know. Let me talk to the little girl I talked to first, okay? Police arrive at Cara's house and in the background of the call, she can be heard telling officers, this has to be a bad dream. This can't happen to my baby. This can't be happening. Somebody took my baby. The rest of the day went without any sign of a Leah and the same goes for the next day and the next day and the day after that. Each passing day bringing with it more stress, more concern,

and more heartbreak. Family members knew that as time passed, it became less and less likely that Alia would be found alive, even if whoever took her didn't intend to kill her. Alia suffers from cerebral palsy and her mental functioning is equivalent to a six-month-old, and without medication, she won't survive. Community members began to organize search parties throughout the Evansville area. Family, friends, and strangers are now holding search parties in hopes of finding Alia. Search groups were assigned to different locations around Evansville to pass out flyers

and look for her. Alia's mother Kara just wanted answers. Nobody could be so sick and take her and just abandon her just because of a feeling that they're filling towards whoever. I don't understand it. I don't have answers. I don't even know why. Someone would ever do something like this. Do a child period of a child with special needs. That depends on

you. A hundred percent to love you, not hurt you. Even complete strangers were impacted by Alia's story and felt like they had to do something. And it's just the innocence of it. I mean, you know, she... She couldn't defend herself. I mean, she couldn't do nothing. I mean, she's an handicap girl. I mean, that's sick me. And that made me...

I don't know, that's what kept driving me. This was about a child abducted from her home and kidnapped and hidden and missing that child was innocent. She couldn't speak, she couldn't do anything without help. Whatever vendetta or evilness or ugliness was in your heart, that child didn't need to pay for it. In August, Kara invited a local news crew over to her house for an interview. Let's just get it all the way. I don't want to sit here no longer, I have to. Okay.

Tell us how you're feeling right now. Start off with that. Right now? Yeah. Okay. I don't know. I don't know what I'm feeling. I feel sad all the time.

I'm depressed, sad. Then I get excited when I think there's possibility she's coming home. That excitement goes like 100% plus. And then when my hopes get down, I go to negative 100 plus. So that's a roller coaster. I'm up and down.

Kara is sitting on the couch next to her youngest daughter and Alia's adult cousin, Donna Robertson. Are you awake at night, lying awake at night, restless, and what's going through your head right now? Yeah, nighttime's the worst. I think about her the most, because it's another day gone that we lost, you know, without her. And I just wonder where she is, is she sleeping,

is she God cover, you know, is she being taken care of? I know she's not being taken care of like I do, but, you know, where is she? That's all I think. All night long. A few minutes into the interview, Alia's cousin Donna holds up a missing flyer with a photo of Alia smiling. The poster notes, Alia was last seen wearing a diaper and a black t-shirt with the words

dance theater in white letters. and a black t-shirt with the words Dance Theater in White Letters. Or even yet you can contact our Facebook page, bring Lea home. Then please just do something. Just please, we want her home. Care and her sisters, you know, grandma, your aunts, your uncles, your cousins, we want her. Bring her back home to us. Call. At this point, the interview turns to Alia's little sister, who is about to go back to school for the fall. Where are you feeling going to start at school?

I don't want any questions and I know people are going to ask questions, but if you're not like all these people are so nosy but they're not even out here helping, that's all they want to talk. They just want to talk. But they're not even helping. Before the camera's all they want to talk. They just want to talk. Mm-hmm. That's all they want to talk to. Before the camera crew leaves, Kara shows them around the house. She takes them to where she and her youngest daughter

were sleeping the night Alia disappeared in a family living space with a couch and a bed. Because then, but I was sleeping right here. Like, you were sleeping right there. Yeah, you can tell them that on everyone. I was sleeping right here. She was sleeping right there. Carly was. Then she you can tell on that on everyone. I'll sleep right here, she'll sleep right there. Carly was.

Then, she takes them to Alia's room, just steps from where they were sleeping the night Alia went missing. Alia's bedroom looked right out into the family living space. There wasn't even a door separating it. It's awfully hard to imagine how anyone could have gotten into a Leah's room, grabbed her, and taken her out of the house without waking anyone else up. But according to Kara, that's exactly what happened. Around the time of this interview, there was a huge break in the case, or at least, it

seemed that way. Evansville police received a 911 call. A woman on the other end of the line told dispatchers they were with someone who was ready to confess to the kidnapping of Alia Beckerly. Officers were sent out to the house where they found a 51-year-old woman, Deborah Walner, who was the domestic partner of Alia's older cousin, Donna Robertson. Next to Deborah was a 41-year-old man named James Martin. After police arrived, Deborah turned to James and said,

now tell them what you told me. So, he did. James was hesitant at first, but when police brought him in for an interview, he confessed. He told them he was involved in a Leah's disappearance. That's it. That was the full story. Open and closed. Just like that. Okay, not actually. Not even close. Right away, investigators suspected that this guy wasn't talking to them of his own free will. When pressed, he told them he had been attacked, that Debra, Alia's cousin Donna, and a man by the name of James Wilson Jr. had held him captive for hours, kicking him and beating him with a metal pipe until he told them he would talk to police.

Police records give the following account of James Martin's interview with police. He stated two females identified as Deborah Walner and Donna Robertson and one male later identified as James Wilson Jr. had confined him inside the living room and kitchen of a residence from approximately one to seven on the morning of July 21, 2016. They would not let him leave. They were questioning him in reference to the disappearance of Alia Beckerly, and were trying to get him to tell the truth. He was tied to a chair in the living room and eventually moved to the kitchen behind the refrigerator. Walner repeatedly struck him with a metal pipe,

and Robertson beat him with her fists on the right side of his face, causing moderate bodily injury with the heightened chance of him losing consciousness. He stated Wilson put gloves on, punched him on his head, and kicked him on his head, causing moderate bodily injury and increasing the likelihood of Martin losing consciousness. He agreed to lie to law enforcement to get the beatings to stop. Martin was transported by Walner against his will in a blue Jeep Cherokee to 403 East Iowa street, where police were notified he was going to confess his involvement in the disappearance of Alia Beckerly. When we arrived on the scene, Walner was heard telling Martin, now tell

them what you told me. Police were inclined to believe James Martin's story, given that he had injuries matching everything he was describing. Police records note the following. Martin's left arm and shoulder were very swollen and possibly sustained broken bones. He had long marks and bruising on several areas of his body, consistent with the metal pipe he was reportedly assaulted with. He had lacerations on his face, the top and the rear of his head, consistent with the information he had been punched and kicked on the head. He was later taken to Deaconess Hospital

Emergency Room for an evaluation and admitted to the hospital for his injuries. He stated he sustained a broken left forearm, broken left scapula, shoulder, along with his other numerous injuries. Nine days later, police received conclusive evidence to back up James Martin's story. The police department was provided with a video that we believe shows the aftermath of that being. Police records give the following overview of the video. On 7 30 2016 officers were dispatched to meet with an individual that had video surveillance of the above events. In the video Martin was observed bleeding from his head and he appeared scared. A female voice which resembled Walner's voice was overheard giving him orders and demanding information.

Well, you don't want to hear that. I want to know why you only told me you had the girl. Now you're telling me all this other information. Near the end of the video, a male voice identified by Martin as Wilson's voice was overheard questioning Martin in a way to get him to lie to law enforcement about who beat him. And Marty did this to you because he knew that, Martin stated Wilson was recording the events with his cellular phone. The video, which was given to law enforcement at a later time, corroborated Martin's statements and the actions of Walner, Robertson and Wilson.

Based on this video, Debra Walner, James Wilson, Jr. and Donna Robertson were all arrested and charged with crimes related to the beating. The amount of time and resources that were devoted to investigating this portion of the events since O'Leah was reported missing caused us to divide our resources in our time to look into this, taking away valuable resources that we need to help bring a Leah home. As we were putting this story together, the name Donna Robertson sounded familiar, and not just because she was in the home interview we played a few minutes ago. So we went back and checked news footage, and it turns out Donna had shown up to join in

a number of the search groups. She'd even participated in interviews about Alia's disappearance. Here's a pure nightmare. Total disbelief that this has happened to us. To Alia, please just bring her home. Bring her home. It's hard to imagine that this same woman could be responsible for beating a man into giving a false confession. But as hard as that is to believe,

that's exactly what happened. If you're connecting the dots, you're probably guessing that Donna Robertson, Debra Wolner, and James Wilson Jr. were all somehow involved with whatever happened to Alia. I mean, you don't just go around beating someone into giving false confessions for no reason, but for the time being, nobody was charged with kidnapping, and more importantly, nobody provided any information as to Alia's whereabouts. So, the search continued. In September of 2016, a full two months after Alia disappeared, a search group came across

something suspicious and called police. Alia's two grandmothers both got word almost immediately. What, how did you find out that something was happening? Well, I was sitting on the couch with my guy friend, Eddie, and he said, hey, there's been something. There's something going on at South Weinbach down here. And about that same time, my nephew called and said, lady, there's something going on at South Weinbach. Have you heard? I know. And we jumped in the car and we came down here. How long have you been down here, guys? I've only been here probably half an hour.

I got a breaking news and I live in Newberg so. You came right over. Okay. Have you personally spoken to any of the authorities yet tonight? Not the authorities, but I heard from one of the neighbors here that live around here. They said that this police have been searching down here through this week and they had some suspect that they knew had been down here twice and that they had thought we better get searching this place. So they've been searching. I don't know how long throughout the week or two weeks maybe. I think I heard and then today I think I heard around the noon. They found something of interest. What that something of interest was,

they still didn't know. What was that something of interest? They haven't said. But they have just said that it's not a body or the corner would be here. We're standing here waiting to hear, just like everybody else. We've contacted the corner so far.

We do not understand that he's been called this direction. The suspect that they said they may have seen around here. Who is that? I don't know. They have not told us that. They tell us little bits and pieces. And really the only reason we know that, I know that, is because a neighbor had told me that. And I guess he had heard that from the police himself because he lives around here. Answers were few and far between,

so they just had to stand around and wait. This just to me seems even more, I don't know if it's something that tells me that this is gonna lead to her. She, we're gonna find her, yes. That's good. I feel so at first I felt like, oh please don't let them say a body.

No, no. And then when they told me no, it's not, it's, it's really a related. It's something, it's something of interest. Well, it's a little related because they've been searching here. Okay. Okay. It could be a blanket. It could be, what else could it be?

A toy maybe? Well, a diaper, I don't know. So, but like I said, they have followed someone down here twice. It is long as they tell them, so say they found Alia. I'll be all right. I'll be all right.

What's because that makes me think, okay, she's still out there. So what if they find her shirt or her diaper that just means she has something else on and they have her somewhere. Get looking for her. Find her. A leader of one of the volunteer search teams also received a call telling him to get down to this area that something big was about to happen.

What was it like to get back off? My stomach dropped. I mean it made me sick to my stomach. I mean I'm shaking, I'm still shaking right now. I mean you know part of me I hope it's not her. I hope she's still alive, you know, but she needs to be found whether she's alive or she's not with us anymore. She needs, she needs that. She needs to be found. Her family needs that. Yeah, everybody's just hungry for answers. And it's just they're not coming fast enough. A little speculation happens and it's just this and that and people get kind of ugly. Yeah, they do. They do. And that's probably why they have law enforcement out here. I mean, there's quite a bit, it's pretty good crowd out here. And I think that's why they have law enforcement out here.

In case something happens. I mean, we are all members of social media and, you know, some people in the community ain't as nice as we are. So it's brutal, it's brutal and all it takes is one bad apple to come out here and it could get bad. By this point a crowd had gathered but nobody really seemed to know what was going on. On some level I'm sure they were all hoping that this whole saga was finally coming to an end. But on another level they probably all realized that this whole saga was finally coming to an end. But on another level, they probably all realized that if Alia had been brought out to this

random patch of woods, then the odds of her being found alive were next to none. The street corner where everyone waited was lit up with flashing blue police lights, and detective searched a nearby wooded area. They spent close to four hours waiting for a search warrant, and then they dug something up from the ground. It was a large bag, and inside the bag were bones, but it was ultimately determined that the bones were not human. They belonged to some kind of animal

and had nothing to do with Alia's disappearance. This was good news in that it meant Alia might still be alive, even if the odds were slim, but it also meant that her family still didn't have any answers and that the exhausting search would have to continue. A few more months went by. In January, Cara celebrated her daughter's 20th birthday at a local church with some community members.

They released balloons into the sky as they wished Alia a happy birthday, wherever she was. Happy birthday to you guys! It has to be a long, because she's so innocent and perfect. I'm having it even. I don't even know why I took her in the first place. I just pray that they didn't do anything to her. And I'm going to get her back. She's never hurt anyone. She'll smile.

The people that took her, I know she smiled for her. And I'm while they took her out of her bed. I know she did. And I don't know why they took her. But I hope they bring her back. Please, I just want my donor back. A missing 19-year-old girl with severe developmental disabilities, a false confession, through arrests and an exhausting search. This case had seen it all, but there were still no answers. Volunteers had searched abandoned houses, fields, roads, creeks, landfills, you name it, but nothing seemed to bring anyone any closer to finding Alia Beckerley. On Monday, March 28, 2017, seven months after Alia disappeared, a woman named Kathy Murray was, in her words, Bando Hunting, with some friends on the south side of Evansville. If you've never heard of the term Bando Hunting before, it refers to searching abandoned

houses for anything of value. What will these crazy kids think of next? Kathy and her friends made their way to a vacant home at 1628 South Bedford Avenue, after gaining access to the home. Kathy wandered up to the second floor, as she did, she smelled bleach. She shined a flashlight in one of the rooms, apparently a bedroom, and spotted two mattresses stacked on top of each other. There were some clothes sticking out of the middle, so Kathy went over and began to pull

them out. To make it easier, she eventually flipped over the top mattress. As soon as she did, a horror was revealed to her. It was a body, a heavily decomposed body, covered in bugs, but unmistakably human. Neighbors had a hard time believing what they were being told, that for who knows how long they'd been living feet away from a decomposing corpse, walking back and forth in front of that house without the slightest idea what was inside.

I'm like really shocked. It's like things are going on around this neighborhood that's ridiculous and for them to find a body in that house, it's just like, wow, this is too close for home. I've got two kids I'm trying to raise and it's like, wow, this is too close for home. I've got two kids I'm trying to raise and it's like, wow. Of course, the question on everyone's mind was whether or not this in fact was the body

of Alia Beckerley. And the question now is what's next and of course it is that autopsy tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. And normally authorities can tell us things like manner of death, approximate time of death, male or female, or even if a person died at that

location or if they were perhaps moved there. Now, with this case, we're not sure how much of that information is going to be released. Of course, we'll find out tomorrow morning.

The next morning, autopsy results were made public. We have just heard from the Vanderbure County coroner that human remains discovered months ago. tomorrow morning. The next results were made public. We have just heard from the Vanderbure County Corner that human remains discovered Monday

evening at a home in Evansville are those of missing 19 year old Alia Beckerley. It really is a somber day here. You know, it's been several months since Alia was reported missing and so many questions and so many calls about what happened to her, where is she, where could she be, and now we have just learned that her body was found

on South Bedford Avenue and that they get home there just a couple of days ago. The body was Alia's. It was so decomposed that the corner was unable to determine an exact cause of death. But because there were no signs of stab wounds, broken bones, or bullet holes, suffocation seemed to be the most likely explanation. Months and months of painstaking search efforts had reached a sudden end. And with that, investigators began trying to figure out what had happened. How the hell had Alia ended up in this vacant house, and how was her killer able to avoid

suspicion for such a long time. Up until this point, it had taken a ton of time and effort to turn up even the smallest answers surrounding Alias' disappearance. Given that, it seemed as though the city of Evansville might be in for a long investigation. But just two days after Alias' body was identified, police made an arrest. And the person they arrested wasn't Donna Robertson Deborah Wolner or James Wilson Jr. the three people who beat the confession out of an innocent man. As crazy as it sounds, nobody involved in that whole shit show was actually involved in a leo's disappearance,

at least not as far as anyone knows. The person in police custody was a 24-year-old man by the name of Terrence Roach, a young man who had been in and out of Carabecchule's life for years. After he was arrested, Terrence confessed to taking Alia Beckerly from her home and bringing her to the abandoned house on South Bedford Street. Despite the confession, police still had plenty of questions, so they brought Terrence back into an interrogation room. Go ahead. It's so hot. The interrogator sat Terrence down with some McDonald's.

And while he eats his dinner, and I use the term dinner very loosely, they try to make some small talk. Where'd you get that done in? Yes, you heard that right. Terrence just told police that he got his own name tattooed on his arm when he was drunk one day. His own name, presumably, in case he forgot what it was. With a small talk out of the way, the interrogators let Terrence keep eating his meal.

Then they go over his rights and start showing him some photos of Alia Beckerley's house. Now you see there's a window right there that goes into her bedroom? Is that by chance to know anyone in? How are you going there? You didn't go in. You didn't even go in. Good job. You didn't go in. You didn't go in. You just reached through the window? I mean, this is pretty hard.

You would have had to crawl through at some point. Look, look, look. Then, whatever on that, this is the window. So, that window is right there. And that's her bed. Now, obviously obviously you'd have to reach pretty far. Tell me again how you did that because this is what we need to clarify. Tell me for sure how you took her off that bad without completely getting into that window. Terrence seems to be having a hard time remembering what happened. But he does That window. Are you sure he's reached the end of the effort?

Terrence seems to be having a hard time remembering what happened, but he does say something about a toy box. In the crime scene photos, there is a toy box situated between the window and Alia's bed. Did a toy box play a factor in this? Tell me, tell me about that. Because that's important. You don't be slidier over. I'm not going to block the window. Yeah, I'm okay.

Terrence tells investigators that he leaned in through the window, grabbed Alia, dragged her body across the toy box, and lifted her back through the window. Like this is a bit right here. That's the toy box you're sitting on. Okay, tell me show me how you how you how you did what you did. Okay. He makes a pulling motion with his hands. So you pull her through the window? Okay. There's a fence right outside the window. And Terrence says he managed to climb over it while carrying Alia's body. If you watch the video of this interrogation, it's clear that Terence isn't the strongest guy in the world. Say for example, you met him at a bar and he threatened to fight you.

You probably wouldn't be all that scared. So sitting across from him, interrogators can't seem to figure out how this scrawny little guy could have pulled this off. But at the same time, Aliyah was a couple inches shy of five feet and weighed less than a hundred pounds. Terrence attempts to assure them he didn't have any help from anyone inside the house. out. There's another friend, there's nobody else with you. If you were asked to place your hand on the Bible, on the stand next to that judge, like you said today, that's it. Oh, to tell the truth and all the truth. And they ask you the same question. You would say the same answer, if nobody helped you remove Alia from the residence. You're not worried about the testifier.

I'm using this in the exam. No, you may not have testifier. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that if you were asked to tell the truth in front of the judge, if you were asked to put your hand on the body, or wish to send a lie on that Bible, what I'm asking you is, would you still say the same thing that no one helped you remove Alia? Yes, okay. Without anything but Terence's word to go on, the investigators move on, eventually asking

him what he did next. He grabbed it by your arms and then he just put it to the window. So you never really, really later like flattling grass or anything, you just probably got the window in, you show me that you crate odor, like a, like a, what's that, will you crate with someone on the bare hug, I guess? Like a bare hug, is that hate you, crate odor?

And you said you struggled to get rid of the truck. You just lay her down at all where it just... I did serve her for a second. Do you remember what that was that? What is she doing during this time? Is she waking up or is she running? You know how sheep runs and makes the sounds. But she was laughing.

So she thought he's probably playing with her or something? I think I'm not sure. OK. The officers are already aware that Terrence then drove Alia to the abandoned house on South Bedford Street and covered her mouth with duct tape. You pretty served, tell me again how that duct tape was wrapped.

Still eating some McDonald's, Terrence sets his burger down to gesture that he wrapped the duct tape over Alia's mouth and all the way around the back of her head. Although there's no way to know for sure, that is more than likely what caused Oliya's death. You're probably already pretty disgusted by what Terrence is admitting to doing, but let me warn you, it's about to get a whole lot more sickening. To try to

jog Terrence's memory, officers remind him of something he told them in his earlier confession. Apparently, Terrence admitted to them he had sex with Alia's dead body. How'd you layer upstairs when you put her down? How did you lay your upstairs when you put her down? Well, when you had sex with the lay upstairs, was she on her back? You didn't do any of the positions with her, is that right? I mean, I had to be gross, I had to be blunt, I had to ask that question. And you had sex with her, you were on top of her, and she was on her back. You didn't put her on her knees or anything and

do anything else with her. After you head sex with her you wore condom. Did you wear a condom? What did you do with the condom? Where is that? What would it be in that house? And you said you wore a condom when you had when during the live part about having sex with her before. You you said you wore a condom during the live part about having sex with her before. You're saying you actually had sex with her with a condom when she was dead? You did.

And I know it broke. Now it's when she was dead. And the condom, you said it broke. When did you realize it was broken after you had already had a few, you had already came, or when did you know that it broke? I was done. I was done, you looked down and it's broken.

Terence nods his head, and the officers decide to change the subject. After that, how many times you go back after she's deceased? How many times you go back in that house? Just to check to see if anybody's found her. So one time I covered her up. And how long would have been after she was to see her after she had sex with her? How long after that did you go back and cover her up? Then I say a couple weeks.

Now when you said you covered her up, but you explained in detail to Jeff, because he wasn't here, explaining Jeff how you covered her up. Well, it closes, I was very worried if there was a second of the mattress. And I haven't been in the house, is this a place where people go get high, have sex, drink, or? Well, I know I I'm higher now. Okay. And did you feel comfortable, or did you feel safe bringing her there

because you were familiar with it? And if you told anybody, or you ever came close, or if you ever got close to another girl, or anybody or any friend that you came, any better close to telling what happened? Nobody? The interrogators asked Terence some questions about his relationship with Cara back early. that she came any better close to telling what happened. Nobody. The interrogators asked Terrence some questions about his relationship with Kara Beckerly,

Elias Mom. He says he's known the Beckerly's for a long time. According to him, the first time he met Kara, he was babysitting him. More recently, Kara had been dating his father, the Marco Roach. When was the last time you saw Kara and talked to her? Um, wherever her day was, I went over her, my dad got locked up for shooting up the house.

Okay, so after that you went over there? Okay. That may, Terrence's dad had been arrested for firing a gun inside the Beckerley's home. Terrence says that was the last time he was over at their house. Until the day he went over there to grab Aliyah. So, the day that this all occurs, so we're talking the 17th of July of 16th, the night all this occurs, runs through your day. What happened that day? I'm pretty much on my day.

If all of you spoke a lot of K2. Can you tell me more time? Pretty much my day. If all of you spoke a lot of K2. OK. Terrence spent the whole day smoking K2, a synthetic version of marijuana that convenience stores get away with selling by calling it Popeurie or incense.

In reality, K2 doesn't have all that much in common with marijuana. The effects are a lot less predictable and oftentimes far more dangerous, but it's cheap and readily available. In case he didn't catch that, Terrence said he was smoking K-2 and then all of a sudden it just popped into his head to go over to Alia's house and take her. That's when he drove over to the Beckerlees house. How did you pick that window? How did you...

I mean, take a deep breath here. Just the best of your recollection. Let me know how that night went. Parted now, and... Do you remember what clothes you had on? My own room, remember. Okay. Night time.

Okay. I know I was talking about sure with Todd and I. Okay. And we park in the alley and then what do we do? Let's go step by step through this. I can't remember if I went through the gate or jump fence. Okay. But I went to the gate or jump fence. Okay.

But I went to the Lea's wonder if it was a mod. He opened the window next to Olias' bed and leaned in. Terrence, is it? I don't know how hard this is just going on. Are you pretty quiet? I mean, I guess it sounds like you're good at going to the window and getting into a house without someone here. And you know, boy, it sounds. Is that a pretty accurate anything?

I mean how much you weigh? I mean $1,330 $1,320, so you're small or you're skinny So do you you think that you got to that window and drug the layout of that window across that toy box and Care never heard you I'm almost there but I know I just leave re-scan Okay, but I mean that care never got up and say hey you Somehow, Terence managed to reach in and pull Alia out without waking anyone else up in the next room over. And it turns out this wasn't the only time Terence had snuck into someone's house.

After Alia went missing, another woman in Evansville found him inside her house in the middle of the night. There's an incident where you, she caught you in her house. All right? And there's already to not be honest now, right? And you were able to get into this little one's house about 4.30 still in the morning. I don't think there's enough 4.30. Well, you know what?

She said her two incidents. Is she such a yelled at she had? You were three. Well, in the morning? Okay. Three, morning okay three third item from the exact time. I don't have my glasses hang on that. I think she reported it about fourth or okay. So it was a no-night. So you were able to get into this woman's home without her hearing you and she said that she woke and you didn't know she was on a cow. She were looking in her bedroom and she saw you crouching down in her hallway looking in her bedroom. Not crouching down. But you were in her hallway. He had some type of stepping your hand. A wooden club or something. I was carrying stick.

How'd you get in her house? What about her here and you? Her back in the window was open. That's where one knows of her. So he climbed into this woman's house through an open bathroom window carrying a stick. He tells the investigators that he just wanted to come inside and warm up. But for obvious reasons, that seems like a highly unlikely explanation. Being honest with me here, I, you've been asked by the else terrace where were you going to write her?

Yeah. Well, what was your intention to look in her bed, drank and have a stick and climb in her window? Because I was drunk and the police came. He tries to explain that he was just drunk and stumbled into this woman's house because he saw the police coming. But given everything they know, the officers aren't buying that for a second.

And at this point, they bring up something else that Terrence admitted in his previous confession. We have this, your younger, you have sex with a dog. Now you've got a leaf upstairs in the vacant house on bed for you. You've had sex with her, and she's like, I can't do it. Do you have a sexual drive that you can't control?

I mean, you know, now you're in another woman's home, you're in January, and her hallway by her bedroom was taken her in. You know, what was your, I mean, you're obviously in the influence, so it sounds like your sexual desire increases when you're under the influence. Were you going to have sex with this girl too? The officers realize they're not going to get parents to talk about this incident. So they go back to asking him about Alia. If there's anything in here that we haven't asked you, or is there any other details you

remember, anything about any of this case from the time that popped into your head, had you had thoughts prior about having sex with Alia prior to that night of smoking K2, any of the other nights you got high? Did you ever have any feelings or anything like that when you get high to have sex? Sometimes, but no, I got to know it makes me pass out. OK. Why do you think this time was different? I don't know. And do you know why we picked Alia? I don't know. By now, investigators have a pretty good idea of what happened.

Terrence took Alia, brought her to an abandoned house, suffocated her with duct tape, and assaulted the corpse. But what's missing from all of this is why it happened. Why did Terrence do any of this? And why did he target Alia in the first place? The drugs are definitely part of the equation, but not the full picture. You know, obviously, I'm never small K2, so I can't tell you I can... I know what it feels or anything so you're sitting in your truck smoking is that what you said and then just how

does it pop into your head I mean what was your thought process go over there and just to take or to have sex with her what was the process of what was the idea of just taking her then try to walk me through this. Put me in your head and let me... In terms... It's okay to be honest with you. Yeah, because you've been on for a bunch of years. I've just, you know, been on some of this part too,

even though you may think it's embarrassing, okay? I was one of the take-up for like a few days. Just to get back at her, because I thought she sat in my dead end. You wanted to get back a carer because you sent your dad? I thought she did. Terence's dad, Demarco, had been arrested for firing a gun inside Kara's home. For some reason, Terence was convinced that it was all Kara's fault. So he decided to get revenge by taking Alia for a few days.

Other than that, he didn't really have a plan. He just knew he was going to take Alia, and according to him, assaulting her was an afterthought. The investigators try to ask a few more questions, but Terrence begins to tear up. Not because he's feeling remorseful for taking an innocent life, but because he feels sorry for himself. Am I ever going to get a scene by again? I haven't seen anybody again, you mean as far as your family is up?

Well, Terran, it's obviously not can't predict the future, okay? But I do know that they do have visitation things, right? You're not gonna be totally kept in a black hole for no, you know. They put me in a suit like that from no reason. Well, and they won't give me a phone call. I don't tell you why, okay? That was suggested by higher ups because when you have a crime involving a handicap girl,

they're worried about other inmates trying to harm you. Okay? Because obviously when a crime happens to a girl like Alia, some people get angry and they want it. So right now that's just for your protection. Okay, things will calm down. Things will calm down. The investigators eventually leave the room and give Terrence a phone so he can call his mom. On the phone, his mom asks if he killed Alia. He tells her, it didn't go the way I planned it. I was trying to keep Alia a couple of days to get back at Kara because I thought she set up my dad and she died that day. His mom responds, Terence, you knew she was sick. Why did you

do that to her? She was a baby." Terence tells her, I didn't plan on killing her. I didn't plan on it. She died on her own. It was suffocation. Then his mom says, I love you no matter what. And he tells her that he loves her too. Terrence Roach went on trial in May of 2018 on charges of murder, kidnapping, burglary, criminal confinement, and the abuse of the corpse. Many of Alia's family and friends showed up at the trial wearing t-shirts that read Justice for Alia. But justice, at least the version of justice they were hoping for,

never came. On May 24, 2018, after 11 hours of deliberation, a jury found Territz guilty of criminal confinement and abuse of the corpse, but not guilty of burglary kidnapping or murder. Alias mom, Carebeckily, broke down in tears inside the courtroom and yelled out a very, very good question. What the fuck happened? Alia's family members could hardly believe what they'd just heard. It was very hard. It was hard to sit there and not scream and not cry. Get up and stop my feet. It was hard. It was and hard to sit there in the same room as him. Just like sometimes she just 12 feet away from me. This was a baby. She was disabled.

She couldn't run away. She could not scream out. She couldn't fight him. And he did some horrible things to her. The next month, Terence was sentenced to 17 years in prison. He will likely only have to serve around 10 years of that, meaning he will be a free man by the time Aliyah would have been in her early 30s.

The verdict in this case leaves us an obvious question. If Terence didn't kill Aliyah, then who did? After the trial, Terence's defense attorney shared a theory of his own. You think that there could be somebody else out there that's responsible? Was he a client? You know, I suppose it doesn't make a lot of difference. What I think, there's a lot of people in the community have their own opinions. If you look at any of these Facebook sites, their voice, I think, I think, Leah Beckley died in her home.

That's what I think. I don't think Leah Beckley died in her home. That's what I think. I don't think she was abducted in her lifetime. I think she passed away and then whatever happened after that happened after that. But when you reported disappearance and attract all of the media attention, I mean, you know, people come from all, you know, different places. Not only was this a regional kind of a news event, it probably hit spots in the nation. Once you tell that kind of story, you can't take it back, you know, it's not really easy to come in and say, oops, I was just teasing. So I don't know. I mean, I saw my job to find out really that's

long force when they said they're not going to do anything. So I don't know. Whether it was Terrence or not, one thing is clear. Somebody got away with murder. Evansville police have announced they do not plan on reopening this case. So unless new evidence is turned up, there will not be justice for Aliyah Beckerley. you