True Crime with Kendall Rae - When Jealousy Takes Over: The Murder of Heather Garraus

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

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Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel. So happy to have you here with me for another video if you are new. Welcome. So with every case I cover, there are always some of you out there who are local to it. And I know how interesting it can be when you can relate to a case in that way, when you recognize some of the locations, you know, just kind of the general vibe for where it takes place. It's a little bit more interesting when it happens kind of in your own backyard. And so today I wanted to cover a case

that is local to me. This takes place in Greeley, Colorado, which I actually have lived in Greeley for a short time in my life. Greeley, man, what a place. South Park has referred to Greeley as the opposite of Hawaii. Jesus, is this a long drive?

Are we in Hawaii yet? Hawaii, your foster home is here. Pretty much the exact opposite of Hawaii. What? Greeley? Greeley is really known for its agricultural land. But anyone who lives there or has been there or even lives in these surrounding areas knows that.

It's also known for its odor. Actually, people who live in Denver can detect when a winter storm is about to hit because winds traveling south from Greeley bring a distinctive, you know, manure smell. But even though Greeley, which I used to actually call reality, isn't the best city in the whole world, isn't the best city in the whole world. It is near and dear to my heart, it has a special place for me, and I found this case to be really interesting just because I could relate to it a little bit more.

I've been to most of the places that we will be mentioning as we go through this, and I really hope you guys find this one as interesting as I did. These types of cases where people are driven to extremes due to jealousy are always very interesting to me. And so I hope you guys find this one as interesting as I did.

Let's go ahead and jump in here. We're gonna start by talking about Heather Lynn Hodges. She was born on February 8th, 1969 in Wheatridge, Colorado. She and her sister Wendy were raised by their parents, William and Linda, and they spent a lot of their childhood in the greater Boulder area. And those who knew her say that she was a very kind person,

a very warm person. She was outgoing and generally cared about helping other people around her. Her sister said that she was always a friend to everybody. Heather attended the University of Northern Colorado, and that is where she met her future husband, Ignacio Carris. Ignacio says that it was just love it for a site for the two of them. They got married on July 27, 1991, in North Gunn, which is a city just outside of Denver,

Colorado. I've also lived there, but the two of them ended up settling in Greeley and starting careers there. Ignacio worked as an undercover cop, and this actually brought Heather a lot of anxiety, which I think is pretty understandable being with a partner who is in law enforcement or the fire department or military, anything that has some degree of risk to it, I think could cause a lot of anxiety. She was just always worried about, you know, her husband's safety while he was at work.

In 1993, Heather got a job as a teller at the Colorado State Employees Credit Union at the Hillside Shopping Center. When she worked there, she was well-liked and respected by her fellow employees. So in 1997, after Heather and Ignacio were married for six years, they ended up having their first baby, a daughter named Victoria. And Heather truly loved being a mother more than anything. She was extremely devoted to her daughter, and people who knew their family said that Heather was just born to be a mom. And for the next several years, the Gareth's family was very happy. Heather and Ignacio were still very much in love and they were hopeful about their future.

But 2003 came along and that was a very hard year for them, especially for Heather. Not long after her father died unexpectedly from a heart attack, her mother also passed away from cancer and understandably all of this loss really sent Heather into a depression. And that, in turn, ended up affecting her marriage. People around them said that she and Ignacio just weren't the same couple that they used to be. Heather became very distant and was experiencing a lot of anxiety attacks,

which is understandable after losing her parents in such a short period of time. So suddenly, Ignacio said that during this time, he felt neglected, he felt unloved, and he felt angry about this all the time. And he said their marriage really hit bottom after intimacy stopped. Heather had also started taking antidepressants and anyone who has experienced, you know, a mental health crisis or has taken antidepressants knows that sometimes it really can affect your life in huge ways and it can make a huge difference when it comes to your

sex life. Unfortunately, obviously a good understanding partner would help you work through that time. And obviously Heather had hope that Ignacio would be patient and wait for her, give her that time. And Ignacio knew that if he ever cheated on Heather, she would leave him. And he knew this because she actually told him that several times.

So for a while, he remained faithful to Heather. That is up until 2004, when he met a woman named Shana Nelson, which keep in mind, she started experiencing all of this loss in 2003. He couldn't even get to 2005 before he was already moving on and having an affair. So Shawna was a fellow police dispatcher for World County. That's where Greeley is located. And when the two of them met, World County and Greeley were consolidating

their 911 operations. I believe I met him almost immediately when this city of Greeley and World County Regional communications merged. Most of the Greeley officers were coming in and introducing themselves to all the new dispatchers and that's when I originally had met him. So let's talk a little bit more about Shana. Shana Louise Bunse was born in 1973 and spent her entire life living in Greeley. She was raised by her aunt and she was actually told

that her aunt was her mother for a very long time and her real mother, who was pretending to be her aunt, said she couldn't take care of her and handed her off to her sister. So anyway, in 1992, Shana becomes a dispatcher for Wild County. And on the same day she started her training, she also met this woman named Michelle. She and Michelle were both hired as dispatchers.

And according to Shana, the two of them socialized at work, but never outside of work. And they were friendly with each other until a riff kind of occurred between them. When Shana suspected that Michelle was having a fair with her husband, Chris. This was her first husband. She eventually met her second husband at her job as a dispatcher, and his name is Ken Nelson. Ken was a sheriff's deputy at the time, and in 1995 after Shauna's divorce from her first husband went through, the two of them started dating. Just a year later, the two of them got married and they ended up having two kids. Now, Shana's reputation at work

wasn't necessarily the greatest. Shana was known for cheating on her husband, and this was no secret at work. Even though Ken himself, who worked at the same department, seemed to be unaware of his wife cheating on him constantly. Shauna Supervisor said that whenever she would have an affair, she would get very protective and a little obsessive over that person and she would end up just heating their partner. She would have very hostile things to say about these people's partners. And her co-workers all knew this was going on because she would talk openly about it. It's also been reported that at one point, Shana figured out that Ken

was having an affair on her, and she contacted this woman that he was having a fair with and threatened to kill her dogs. And so as you probably guessed, she ends up having an affair with Ignacio Garris and this anger and hostility was definitely a factor in this relationship. Their affair started when their two departments merged and Shawna would answer dispatch calls from Ignacio. I would say this spring of 2004 we just started kind of flirting over the terminals. We could do like a terminal to terminal message him being in his police car me being in dispatch. It kind of got a little flirty.

I noticed that he was coming in more giving me more specific attention. So I interned gave it back and that's kind of how it started. And their affair really picked up speed when they started meeting up at Starbucks and their flirting turned into very deep talking. Eventually

things got more serious and they became intimate for the first time in July of 2004. And Ignacio says he felt guilty for cheating on Heather from the moment that this affair started. This is the smell of a warm three-day-old egg-solid sandwich in a wimpy trash bag. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy! Blah! And this is the smell of that same sandwich in a hefty ultra-strong trash bag with new Fabulouso Lemon scent.

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ultra-strong trash bags with the joyfully clean scent of fabulous salt. Wow, smells like great boasting unicorns. Happy, happy, happy, happy. Well, that turned out better than when I tried to split my assistant in half. New hefty ultra-strong trashbacks with Fabulous so sent, so strong, so joyful, it must be magic. But that guild wasn't enough for him to stop, or maybe be honest with her, and see if they could work through it. Nope, he decided that since they already soiled their marriage, he might as well just go him to stop or maybe be honest with her and see if they could work through it. Nope.

He decided that since they already soiled their marriage, he might as well just go full fledg into this affair. So he continues sleeping with Shana. And Shana is sleeping with other people too. Naseo isn't the only one that she's having a affair with. In August of 2004, just one month after she and Naseo had sex for the first time, she claims to have gotten in an intimate relationship with her friend and fellow co-worker who I mentioned

earlier, Michelle. Now Ignacio was not aware of her relationship with Michelle because he had some bigger concerns on his mind. He said that there was a shift in Shana's behavior three months into their affair. She started to take it really seriously. She started telling him that she loves him, that he's the one, even though he said he was continually telling her that he wasn't going to leave Heather. And that really upset Shana. And Ignacio said that she, at that point, became obsessed with him and would kind of blackmail him with the whole affair, threaten to tell Heather

unless he was, quote, a good boy. And I mean, Sean knew that Heather would leave Ignacio if she found out. And so she used this as a threat against him, actually to get him to have sex with her more. She's psychotic. And I'm just as guilty of being involved, but I was scared of her because I thought she's gonna tell my wife. with her more. Ignacio says that he frequently thought about ways that he could end the relationship,

but he knew that Shana would react very poorly. He said that he started feeling trapped. He was stuck in this situation. If he stopped having the affair with Shauna, Heather would find out. And continuing it wasn't enjoyable for him anymore, and he felt very guilty. So he was in a bad situation.

Plus, it didn't make it any easier that the two of them worked together. And because of her job as a dispatcher, she had access to his location at all times when he was on duty and she could use that information to pressure him into sex whenever she knew he wasn't with his wife. At one point, Ignacio said he even tried changing his phone number so she couldn't reach him as easily, but of course his job required them to have files of their personal contact information, so she was always able to figure out how to reach him.

And it got so bad that if Heather and Ignacio were ever out for dinner, even with their kids, Shana would figure out where they were and just show up with her husband Ken, and often would sit just a few tables away from them. So not too long into their affair, Shana actually finds out that she's pregnant. And the night that she found out that she was pregnant,

there was actually a retirement party that the police department was throwing at old Chicago's for a fellow officer. And old Chicago was quite the hotspot when I lived in Greeley. I actually spent my 21st birthday there. Couldn't really go out and do anything else because I had to test the next day. So I got hammered at an old seas.

So anyway, they're all at old Chicago's for this retirement party and Sean decides it's a good night to tell Ignacio that she is pregnant. She said she had a plan to tell him that night and that the two of them were going to leave the event together, but her plan changed when she saw him leave without her. I had found out I was pregnant, and I wanted to talk to him about it.

Did you at some point learn that he had left the party? Yes, I did. And you can call how you've learned that information. I actually, he walked right past me. He completely disregarded me and walked past me with Michelle Bush and got in Fred's Buds car and left. And Sean admits that she was heavily drinking that night. And later that evening when she saw Michelle was back at the party, she went back inside

and told her she was going to kick her ass. I have been outside and when I came back around, I noticed that she was inside through the window and I decided that I wanted to confront her about this whole situation with IG. My intentions weren't to kick her ass from what everybody's saying that's what I said. Did you say that? I was very drunk that night.

Everybody says that that's what I said. Do you deny that she said that? No, I don't deny it. So it ended up being two days later that she was finally able to tell Ignacio that she was pregnant with his child, even though she had told him she was on birth control. I had told him that I was extremely upset with his behavior, that I thought that we had had plans to talk after the party, that there was something that I really needed to talk to him about,

and I didn't appreciate being disrespected the way that he did. If he didn't want to be with me all he had to do was tell me. Did you at some point discuss your pregnancy? I did. When did that occur? I believe it was that same day. And what was discussed about the pregnancy? Almost the very first thing out of eggs mouth was we need to take care of this. And according to Ignacio, Shana would not allow him to use protection. And she said that if he used a condom, she would tell his wife about the affair.

So Shana tells him she's pregnant. And according to her, he wants her to get an abortion, even though she wants to keep the baby. Reluctantly, she agreed to go forward with it. And before she had the procedure done, a fellow officer actually told Heather, Shana was pregnant with her husband's baby. But when Shana found out that Heather had caught one to this, she calls her and she tells

her that the two of them are only friends and not to believe the rumors. This is obviously a lie, but she admits to doing it anyway. And Chana said that shortly after this, they go to Planned Parenthood in Fort Collins and have an abortion. And it was around the same time that Ken figured out that Shana was cheating on him. And apparently he found out because she had written it down in her journal and just left it out in the open. And this journal detailed everything that Ignacio and Shana did together. It's Jeep 4x4 season.

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Simply buy 5 or more participating items and save a dollar each with your card. Kroger, fresh for everyone. I had been out with my nieces shopping and I had gotten off work early that day and just kind of thrown all my work stuff down on the counter. And there was a journal about me and eggs complete everything. Our entire relationship. It was never meant to be left there intentionally for Ken to read, but he did read it. And he called me and confronted me about it. So once he found out about the affair, Ken gives Shana two choices. She can either end the affair with Ignacio and try to work things out with him or go be with Ignacio. And at first she said that she wanted to work out their issues and she would end the affair

with Ignacio. But that ended up not being the case. She continued the affair with Ignacio and about a month later, her and Ken end up getting divorced. So then, Shana ends up getting pregnant again with Ignacio's baby. This is July 4th of 2005. So Shana ends up calling Ken to tell him that she is pregnant with Ignacio's baby. And he had a very surprising reaction.

He ends up wanting to raise this child as their own and wants to get back together with the shodder. My recollection, I think Ken said that we were face to face, but I actually called him crying and told him that I was pregnant and that egg wanted me to have another abortion and I wouldn't do it and I just wanted him to know I didn't expect anything of Ken but I wanted to give him my heads up because it was a little embarrassing.

What was Ken's response? Ken actually was glad that I wouldn't have an abortion. And he said that we would get back together and try to marriage again and that instead of two kids, we would just have three. Did you get back together with Ken Nelson? We did. And Shana agrees to this and says she wants to work on things with him and raise this baby with him.

But what Ken didn't know is that Shana continues her affair with Ignacio and continues an affair with Michelle. And around this time, she even ends up getting a tattoo of Ignacio's family name on her leg. But anyway, Ken ends up with drawing their divorce petition in 2005, August of 2005, and then spring of 2006, they move back in together. And in March, Shana gives birth to Ignacio's baby, even though she's now moving back in with her ex-husband Ken. And now this is getting a little confusing. Now meanwhile, Heather still,

you know, isn't aware that her husband Ign Ignacio, is having an affair. And she has been told by Shana that the rumor that she has heard about them having an affair is not true. But her sister and best friend say that she definitely had suspicions that he was cheating on her. And they're ended up being four or five times

where Shana would harass Heather in public. She'd be in the store and Shawna would walk by her and point at her and laugh or call her a pig or something to that effect. She felt something else was going on but she wasn't sure what it was and she wasn't the type to lay blame or accuse unless she knew for sure. Her best friend, Jamie, said that Heather would ask, why is this happening to me?

And Jamie says that she believes Heather had an idea of what was going on, but didn't want to believe it. She wanted to believe that she was just jealous, and that's why she was harassing her. And when Shana would harass Heather, she would often have her friend, Michelle, with her. Michelle remembers that Shana would harass Heather, she would often have her friend Michelle with her. Michelle remembers that Shana would frequently talk about Heather being in her way of a real

relationship with Ignacio. And it was getting to a very unhealthy point. Even Shana's supervisor at work says that she would go to the gun range and pretend that Heather was the target. So in summer 2006, remember the baby was born in March 2006, someone approaches Heather and tells her that Ignacio was the father of Shana's baby. But when Heather asked Ignacio about it, he denied it entirely. So it ended up not being until December 16, 2006, when Heather finally learned that her husband really was having an affair. One night Heather woke up and Ignacio was not in bed beside her. Instead he was out at a bar called Cactus Canyon with Shana and Michelle.

And when he was at the bar he got a call from Heather asking where he was and he had been drinking so he asked a fellow police officer to take him home. And when he got back something must have just hit him, or maybe it was the alcohol, but he decides that that is the time to tell Heather that he has been having this affair and that he is the father of Shana's baby. And just like she said she would, Heather left him,

but only for one day. She was actually willing to give him another chance, but only if he did three things. Number one, get a NST test. Number two, seek out a counselor and get psychiatric help. Three, he would have to break things off with Shana and for good. Ignacio I think was pretty surprised that she was willing to give him a second chance. So he followed her wishes. And he really ended up getting his way, because now he could break things off with Shana

without her blackmailing him into staying with her because Heather already knew, and she was willing to stay with him, and Heather stood right next to him while he called Shana and broke things off. I called Shana in front of Heather to Shana with her. I'm gonna stay with my wife. Don't contact me.

Don't bother my family." And Seanate obviously was upset. And her response to this was to send Heather a picture of their son Christian and say, eggs, flesh, and blood. But Seanate tells the story of the night that they broke up a little differently. She says that when the three of them were at Cactus Canyon that night, she noticed Ignacio was nowhere to be seen. She was upset with his behavior, and according to her, she called him to end their relationship. She says that she told Ignacio she was tired of the drama. The following day,

December 17th, 2006, Shana and Ignacio meet up according to her. He explains that he had confessed everything to Heather and that he would only now be pursuing a relationship with her. But she claims her response to that was to encourage him to work things out with Heather. Even though the next day she sent him a text message

that said, my loyalty is gone. I loved you and trusted you and you fucked me. Be prepared. And Shauna says that she sent this message because she was upset at Ignacio for wanting nothing to do with their child. Because I was angry that Igg would abandon Christian like that. Just in a sentence say, okay, see ya. Don't care about your son, bye."

But she says she realized that this sounded bad and so she called him to clarify. After I sent it, I thought, wow, that sounds bad. So that's when I called their house and left to that other voice mail that you guys had heard that said, you know, if you guys think you don't have money or whatever, you're gonna pay and that's how I meant it, I meant that I was going to take them and get an attorney and have egg financially still pay for Christian. That same day, December 18th, Shana pays a visit to Heather at the Credit Union where she worked. She said that she went there to close her account because she didn't want to get in

their way anymore. So in an attempt to repair their relationship, Ignacio, Heather and their daughter Victoria all take a trip to Florida for the holidays. They're hoping to move on, that you know, things are completely done with Shana, and they could continue their life and their marriage together. But in January of 2007, when they returned to Colorado, they realized that their issues with Shana are far from over because on January 8th, Shana texted Ignacio a message for Heather.

And it said, Heather, if you're reading this, you're a psychobitch. And there were actually many messages sent to Heather and Ignacio. So many that they decided to hire a lawyer who sent Shana a formal request to stay away from them. Ignacio got really worried that Heather was going to seek revenge on them, so he would have them pull their cars in the garage at night in case she came along and tried to slash their tires.

But at some point in January the messages stopped and they thought that they had gotten rid of her, but they didn't. She was back on January 16th with an email. It read, I am dead inside from all that has happened, I wish you the best and hope you can be happy. I am now living every day in hell. And after this, things went quiet for a while, but the worst was yet to come from Shana. On January 23rd, 2007,

just after 6.15 pm, Heather was walking out of work when someone approached her in a Halloween mask. And witnesses heard this person say, you ruin my life, get on the ground. Heather got on her knees and then this person fired two gunshots at her and then ran away. And a coworker who witnessed this called 911 right away. A second witness also called 911 and identified the person who had been shot as he was a second witness also called 911 and identified the person who had been shot as Heather Garris. Ignacio was actually at home when

someone called to let him know what had happened to Heather and Victoria, their daughter was actually the one to answer the phone and handed it off to her dad. And of course, he immediately calls dispatch to see what was going on. Here David's here. What's going on?

I don't like we've had a shooting. That's crazy. There's a saying my wife was shot. I don't know that. OK, I'm on my way now. So Ignacio gets Victoria in the car and they actually go to the scene of the crime to see what was going on And then they go to the hospital where Heather is being treated Ignacio ends up going into the trauma center and It was there that he found out that Heather did not make it at age 37

Heather Garris was pronounced dead from two gunshot wounds from a 40 caliber two gunshot wounds from a 40 caliber Glock 22. And in one of the 911 calls, Sean and Nelson was identified as the shooter. And although they didn't know this for a certain, an APB was put out for Sean right away. So Sean's husband Ken was also working when he heard the bulletin. All he gathered was that there was a shooting

and Sean was the primary suspect. And he thought something happened to his kids so he grabbed another detective and took off towards his house and on the way to their house Ken actually sees Shana driving his truck and he stops her in the middle of the road. Shana said that when Ken stopped her he immediately seemed angry and upset with her and she said at the time she didn't know why. At this point they were seven miles away from the crime scene. Shana was identified wearing blue striped pants, a long sweater, a lavender top, and socks with no shoes. After the encounter with her husband Ken, she was

detained by the other detective he was with and brought in for questioning. And when Shana was brought in, she seemed to have no what happened in her version of events that led to being stopped by Ken. What happened that caused Ken to stop you guys? Or just help you? I had gone to the liquor store and I got out in front and I realized I didn't bring my purse. So I started alcohol and he was calling, which was over at college. Greatnight, I always go there. I'm on the United Point. That means college green. Okay, you know, right? I'm on the point.

Okay. I realized I had no makeups. Okay. So I started to go back home to get it. And I don't know if Kent was pissed because I love the kids. I don't know what. But I had to only answer the phone because I thought he'd be pissed if I told him I was going to look a star.

And he left a message saying a column. Nothing shit. You know, I wonder who he knows of the kids at home. And as I was turning to go home right there where you guys saw me, or the whole thing, he jumped out and pleaded stop and get out. What did he do? She didn't, she didn't think. They just wouldn't stop me at all.

He said, if he would show up, he was so pissed. Shana was then arrested three days later on July 26, 2007, for the murder of Heather Garriss. But it wasn't until the trial in February of 2008 that all the details of her plan to kill Heather really came out. So in order to really understand the trial and the evidence that was presented, we really have to go back and see what Shana said happened leading up to the shooting. So evidence shows that January 22nd the day before the shooting, Shana actually

called the credit union that Heather worked at, And she said that this was just regarding a question she had about a previous statement. But the prosecution said that she was clearly trying to track down Heather's location. And that evening, Shana and Michelle went to a bar called Jackson Hole, where they had been drinking for a few hours. And it was on their drive home from that, according to Shana, that she ended her sexual relationship with Michelle. I

Was driving Michelle home and told her That I no longer could have a sexual relationship with her But I'd been thinking about it all through our drinks and that Since I was trying to actually, maybe finally, be loyal to Ken, that I needed to completely fess up and that I was gonna go home and tell Ken, also about my relationship with Michelle. And I told her I loved her,

and that I still wanted to remain friends with her, but I couldn't keep lying to Ken. It was just, it was too much. What was Michelle Moore's reaction to that? She was very upset. And Shana testified that there was no mention of Heather that entire evening. The following day, January 23rd, while she was picking up her kids from school, Shana says that she calls up Michelle and apologizes for ending their affair

and says she wants to work things out with her. I had tried to call Michelle while I was waiting for the kids to come out of school. I just got her voicemail. I did leave a voicemail. I tried to call again. There was no answer. She wouldn't answer it.

What message did you leave for Michelle Moore? I told her that I was sorry that I had to end the affair, that I did love her, that I wanted to talk to her about it more, that I would be home all night, that I had a headache, and I was going to take a bath. Then after she picks up the kids from school, she takes them to Subway for dinner. And this is confirmed by Surveillance footage.

And then after Subway, they quickly ran into King's supers so that Shawna could pick up a few groceries that she needed, and then she and her kids drove back home. And when they got home, they had dinner. And then Shawna says that she offers her oldest son $5 to watch his two younger siblings while she takes a bath. She said that she wanted to take this bath because she had previously hit her head on a cabinet and wanted to relax. So her son agrees to watch the younger siblings for the five bucks, while Heather takes a bath

to relax from her cabinet injury. And then Shana explains that she had been recently taking some diet pills and she took one when they got home. And when she went upstairs to fill the bathtub and lock the door so that her kids couldn't bust in. And as the bathtub is filling up, she says she suffered an accident because of the diet pills.

Just taking it when we had gotten home and it takes a little bit to kinda kick in, but it does give kind of give you diarrhea and I had an accident so I was undressing and dealing with that for a while. Did you at A, did you lock the door to the bedroom? I did. So then she says once the tub was filled she decides that she wants to enjoy a

bottle of wine. But unfortunately all they had in their fridge was beer. And after making the decision that she wants this wine, she goes to put on clothes and she ends up getting them out of the dirty hamper. And apparently Ken's underwear was one of the items she decided to put on, and she explained that she didn't want to put on anything clean because she just had an accident. When she went downstairs, she said that she intended to put on shoes, but didn't before she left the house. I went to get the shoes and realized that I had actually, in turn, put the shoes in our closet.

So there weren't any shoes over there for me to put on. Why didn't you go and get the shoes? Because I had already locked to the bedroom door and I was just trying to hurry. What did you do then? I left. And she also says that she decided to take Ken's car at that point instead of her own. That's where the truck had ended up being parked from the previous day. And the way our garage is, we only can fit one car in there. And it's right in the middle of the garage. And when I was backing out earlier that day in my expedition,

I had almost hit the truck. So my initial intentions were to just take it and harket around front and get it out of there. So I wouldn't have to worry about hitting it again. So it's about 605 when Shauna says that she leaves the home wearing no shoes in Ken's underwear, driving his truck. But when she arrived at the liquor store, she realized that she'd forgotten her wallet

and wouldn't be able to purchase the wine. So she turned around and went home. And she says that she remembers being in like a days the entire time this is going on. And it's just a few minutes later that she is stopped by her husband Ken and fellow officer who ends up detaining her. I rolled down the passenger side window and I stopped right in the middle of the street and I said what's going on? He said, what have you done?

And I said, I don't, what are you talking about? I don't know. And then he said, get out of the truck. Was he just saying these things? What was his total price? He was yelling, he was yelling at me. So that takes us to the evidence that was found and discussed during the trial. The Ford F-250 was searched as Kendra of home to check on his children.

And inside, the officer found a black mask, but there was no gun or a robe. And then 700 feet away from the truck, a shoe was found, a left shoe. And it was abandoned and a few hundred feet further down the road. The right shoe was just learning on the ground. So they ended up doing gunshot residue tests on Shana, and here's what they found. Items that tested positive for gunshot residue include Shana's face, her hand, her sweatpants, her tank top,

her cap, her underwear, and her gloves. Oh, and also the interior side of the driver's door. So lots of residue here. The mask that was found in the car actually did not test positive for gunshot residue, though. And when it comes to the shoes that she was wearing, which were found outside on the ground, the right shoe tested positive for gunshot residue.

The left side did not. So during the trial, an expert from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation testified that there are three ways a person can test positive for gunshot residue. First, obviously, they fired the gun. Second, they were near someone who did. And third, they came in contact with someone who had gunshot residue on them. And so Sean's defense team argued that the only reason she tested positive for gunshot residue was because she was in Ken's truck.

They argued that Ken was a police officer, and he would often go to the gun range. They also pointed out that there was no blood found on the Halloween mask, and they said if she was the one who committed this shooting, wouldn't there be blood on the mask? But the prosecution came back to that and said that because Heather was ordered to get on the ground, she, you know, she was on her knees, that blood spatter wouldn't have reached all the way up

to the person wearing the mask. So there's a few other key pieces of evidence here worth noting. The first being the tire tracks that were left at the crime scene. Because it had been snowing that day, a clear tire track had been left by the shooter. And an expert in tire track comparisons testified that the tracks left at the scene were an exact match to Ken's truck. And the analysis was so precise that they could actually track down the tire marks to a rock that was lodged in Ken's tires.

And ATM surveillance footage even placed the car, matching the make and model of the truck, leaving the crime scene. There was some debate over whether the match was exact or not, but the commercial fleet manager testified that the ATM surveillance footage definitely showed a Ford F-250, just like the one that Sean had drove that night. As you can imagine, the mask ended up being a big part of the trial.

Even though there was no blood or gunshot residue on the mask, it was a match to the mask that was described by the people who had witnessed the attack that night. And one witness actually recalled seeing something bright underneath the hood. And as you can see, there's red on the inside of the hood. And it's definitely pretty bright. Now, Ken testified that he had never seen this mask before. However, Shauna says that it had been in his truck since 2006 But Ken testified that just a week before the murder he had been searching through his truck and at no point

Did he ever see this mask? So the shoes were also a major point of contention during the trial These were size 10 men's shoes and the defense argued that Shauna wouldn't have worn these because she's a size eight women's. Also, Ken said that the shoes didn't belong to him. He had never seen them. But the prosecution were adamant that these shoes were Shana's. And an expert in surrogi and DNA analysis testified that the shoes contained, quote, the presence of mixtures, meaning that DNA belonging to more than one person was detected. And she said that the major DNA component was female

and it matched to Shauna's DNA profile. So pretty good evidence there. And the prosecutors were certain that she ditched those shoes because Michelle testified that Shauna told her she'd leave behind evidence that would confuse investigators. So Michelle ends up having one of the most damning testimonies of the whole trial.

Investigators strongly believed that Michelle had helped Shana plan the shooting, but instead of prosecuting her to the same degree, she was offered a deal. She could testify against Shana and get a reduced sentence. And so in Michelle's testimony, she confessed that she and Shana planned Heather's murder. She explained how she and Shana talked about different ways that they could take care of Heather and one of the ways that they were considering was poisoning her. And Michelle even testified that they actually came up with a code that they would use when Shana was going to commit the murder and that was taking a bath.

And so that night that Ignacio told Heather about the affair, the same night he left Shana in Michelle at the bar. Michelle remembers Shana saying, well, I could just shoot her, just drive down to the credit union and shoot her. Michelle also testified that Shana said that she would make it look like whoever shot her was someone that Heather had denied a loan to. And investigators actually considered that maybe Shauna was trying to make it look like Ken committed the murder because she was in his truck and wearing his clothing. So it wouldn't be impossible to make the leap that he was the killer.

But of course the most important piece of evidence here is the murder weapon. And in a search warrant on January 24th, 2007, they found a box for the exact gun that matched the one used in the crime. But they couldn't find the actual gun. And the only people who would have had it are Ken and Shana. And Shana testified that she had pond off that gun. Well, my intentions were to go over to this Mr. Money over in Lublin and pond this gun for some money to take to Grand Lake.

When I got over to the pawn shop, I met this guy outside and pawn this gun for some money to take to Grand Lake. When I got over to the pawn shop, I met this guy outside and started talking to him and he bought it from me. But in Michelle's testimony, she said that Shana told her that she never actually pawned the gun. She just told Ken that she did. So in closing, the lead prosecutor reminds the jury of all the evidence against Shana Nelson. Remember the defendant had gunshot residue all over her. Her face, her right hand clothing. And there was even gunshot residue on shoes with her DNA that were with her.

And why were they with her? Because she saw her husband in Kell Halsey approaching. She hit the button for the passenger window. And what was the first shoe that went out? It was the left shoe because the right shoe was still on the gas pedal. That one went out. Then she switched and the right one went out. 700 feet later she was stopped. right one went out 700 feet later. She was stopped. And one thing that he really drilled home was the importance of common sense in this case and how Shana clearly had none.

The things that she did and said that she did that day just didn't even make sense. But would you really not get in the tub? Have you defecated on yourself for over 30 minutes? We decide I think I'll go to the liquor store in this condition and then I'll come back and get into the tub. Does that make any sense to anybody in their common experiences in life? The tub was filled with water ladies and gentlemen because she knew she was going to be coming back in a rush and she was going to be what was going on. I'm going to hit the house in a rush, and she was going to be, what was going to happen?

I'm going to hit the house and I'm in the tub, and any trace of it, it goes away, down the drain. That's why that tub was filled with ladies and gentlemen. And after 10 days of trial, it only took the jury a little over 5 hours to reach an anonymous verdict that Shana Nelson was guilty of the first degree murder of Heather Garris. Shana was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And she's currently serving that sentence at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility. And just like she was promised for helping the police, Michelle did receive a reduced sentence and Ken was actually charged with evidence tampering in the murder of Heather. And that's because the gun was never found. They assume that either Ken helped her get rid of the gun

or Shana ditched it somewhere in the minutes after killing Heather. I guess a high school student who was coming out of the parking lot right after Shana's initial arrest said he saw a man get out of a Jeep on the driver's side and reach his hand into the cab of the truck and pull something out. He said he didn't see exactly what was pulled out of the truck because whoever this person was took it, put it in their pocket very quickly and got back in their car.

So police believed that Ken had taken the gun and hit it somewhere after Shana was taken in by that other detective he was with. But the charges against Ken were later dropped because they did not have enough evidence. Now, as for Ignacio, he obviously was not charged with anything, but he feels very guilty about what happened to Heather. And he says he fully feels responsible for his wife's death. I guess he's currently living in Florida and is no longer working in law enforcement. So yeah, just incredibly sad how jealousy can make people do such terrible evil things.

It's crazy that Shana actually took it that far to take Heather's life who's completely innocent and Did not deserve that. I hope you guys were able to follow that. Okay. I know it got a bit confusing there. I mean Shana's conflicting stories get a little bit confusing to follow but as always I want to hear your thoughts on this one That is going to be it for me today guys Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. hasta luego, está ahí. O aprovecha los Dorbosters de fin de semana, como hasta 55% de descuento en shorts, hasta 60% en trajes de baño, y hasta 70% en artículos de lugar.

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