13x33 - Deadly Rebellion

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Up next...

A young aspiring singer
disappears.

A telltale sign of someone
who is running away from

something.

She had a history of running
away.

She's always come back.

Surveillance
cameras tell at least part of

the story.

When I saw the video, I
started feeling very confident

that we were focusing on the
right guy.

All they had to do
now was to find him.

Joshan ashbrook had dreams of
stardom.

Her sister and joshan used to
write songs all the time,

different little lyrics and
things, and they wrote one song

called "wanna."

And joshan sang this song, and
they really wanted to get it

recorded and to do something
nice with it, and she just

didn't get the chance to finish
that.

And if a singing
career didn't work out, she had

a backup plan.

Joshan wanted to be an
entertainment lawyer.

She could make deals and make
everybody happy.

Like many
teenagers, joshan had her share

of conflicts with her parents,
but they were usually resolved.

Joshan did have a history of
running away.

Normally, she would run away,
spend the night somewhere else,

and come home the following day
or maybe two days later.

But after an
argument with her parents about

smoking marijuana, she left...
This time for good.

Joshan's parents were very
concerned about her.

They were aware that she had
substance-abuse problems.

Her parents
notified the police, called all

her friends, and went to all of
her known hangouts.

Towards the end of the
evening, it was more frustrating

because it was like we had no
other leads.

We had nowhere else to go.

We couldn't think of any other
places or any other people to

talk to.

The next morning,
electricians working for the

power company spotted a woman's
body off the side of the road

outside of tampa, Florida.

The body was identified as
joshan ashbrook.

You could see that her throat
was cut, blunt trauma to her

face, her head.

There was cuts, defensive wounds
on her hands.

Joshan's pants
weren't found at the scene.

Looking at her body being
nude from the waist down, you

cannot help but think that maybe
she was sexually assaulted.

Gosh. I don't know how to
describe that feeling.

I'm never gonna see my daughter
get married or have babies.

I'm never gonna hold her first
child...

And I'm never gonna see her make
her dreams come true.

Investigators found
a single hair in a defensive

wound on joshan's thumb.

It appeared that this might
be the hair from her attacker,

like if she went to grab him and
when she was fighting him and

she grabbed him and it just got
embedded in there.

The hair had the root intact.

About 30 feet from the body were
fresh tire tracks.

It was obvious that whoever
was driving that vehicle backed

into the area and then dragged
her body into the woods.

The tire tracks
were in the sand, a surface

ideal for making plaster casts.

These were so clear, I could
say that there was not any rain

had occurred or any damage in
the environment at that time,

because they were such nice,
clear, quality impressions.

No one knew of
anyone who wanted to harm

joshan, but for investigators,
these clues were a very good

start.

As police search
for joshan ashbrook's k*ller,

the medical examiner learned
that the knife wound to her

throat was not the cause of
death.

The medical examiner
explained that the suspect may

have put her in some type of
wrestling move, like a half

Nelson, and turned or put
extreme pressure on her, which

dislocated... which broke her
neck.

An autopsy found no
evidence of sexual as*ault.

In a search for suspects,
joshan's family suggested police

interview John hanson, a


lived nearby.

John was an older gentleman.

He hung out at the house all the
time with us, but in my opinion,

he seemed, after a while, to get
too close to the children.

He always wanted to be their
friend more so than the friends

of an adult.

Within 24 hours of
finding joshan's body,

investigators went to hanson's
trailer to question him, but he

was gone.

We've talked to the park
manager and some of the

neighbors, and they said they
hadn't seen him in a day or two.

There was no sign
of v*olence in his trailer.

A background check revealed
hanson, a day laborer, estranged

from his wife, had no history of
v*olence.

A 60-year-old man having
teenagers visit the house and

hang around... I think it does
lead to suspicion as to what is

going on.

So, now he is somebody we
really want to talk to.

While police
searched for hanson,

criminalists measured the tire
impressions found near joshan's

body.

Those measurements and tread
patterns were entered into a

computer database of 20,000
different tires manufactured

around the world.

There was, then, seven
different manufacture models

that could have made that tire
impression at the crime scene.

Different manufacturers
sometimes sell their mold to

other manufacturers, so
therefore you would have the

same mold but yet under
different manufacturer model

names.

All seven of these
tire models were for larger

vehicles, which meant joshan's
k*ller was driving either a

truck or an s.U.V.

Then police got an important
lead from a woman who saw joshan

the day she ran away.

Hello?

Hi, it's joshan.

She received a phone call
from joshan about 8:30 in the

morning on July 31st.

She wanted to know if her son
was there and could she stop by.

Sure, you can stop by.

Joshan asked if she could
come by and drop off a letter.

Within minutes, a red Ford
pickup pulled up.

Joshan gets out, runs to the
door.

The note was for
the woman's son, Max, who was

joshan's boyfriend.

It was "hi. I miss you.

I love you.

I'll call you later"... that
type of note.

She just appeared to be in a
hurry and wanted to leave.

The woman said the
driver was a middle-aged white

male, but she didn't get a good
look at his face.

She did, however, provide a
valuable piece of information.

Max's mother provided us with
the cellphone number that was on

her caller I.D.

When investigators
called the number, a man

answered the phone.

We were able to get a person
on the phone.

He said his name was
phillup Thompson, and he was

asked if he knew anybody of the
name of joshan ashbrook and if

he had picked up anybody or knew
this female.

Phillup Thompson
confirmed he and his daughter

had picked up joshan when she
was hitchhiking...

Hey, can I borrow your phone
real quick?

Took her to her
boyfriend's house to leave the

note...

Can you give this to Max for me?

And then they
dropped her off at the local

Wal-Mart.

And that's the last that he
had seen of her.

Phillup Thompson
agreed to meet police later that

day, but he failed to show up
for his appointment.

Investigators looked at that
as possibly, you know, a

telltale sign of someone who was
running away from something.

But police received
some troubling news.

The cellphone wasn't registered
to phillup Thompson.

It was registered to
phillup partin, a convicted

k*ller.

Phillup partin was convicted
of a m*rder that he committed in


with a phone cord or some kind

of cord.

Short version was that
phillup partin was what they

call a hustler, a male
prost*tute.

He had picked up this gay math
teacher at a local club.

They went back to the teacher's
place.

Something happened there.

Partin beat him, strangled him
to death with a telephone cord.

Once he k*lled him, he took his
wallet, money, credit card, got

into the guy's car, and drove
off.

Partin was
convicted of second-degree

m*rder, served 6 years in
prison, and was released in



Police believed that it was
partin they'd been speaking to

about joshan.

Partin said he and his daughter
dropped joshan off at this

Wal-Mart the morning she
disappeared, but that's not what

store-surveillance tape showed.

The Wal-Mart surveillance
video shows them pulling in at

around 8:48.

You see the suspect, you see
joshan, and you see the

suspect's little girl.

They spend 5, 10 minutes,
purchase a couple fishing items,

and then they leave, get back in
the vehicle, and drive off.

The videotape left
no doubt joshan was with partin,

a convicted m*rder*r, just hours
before her body was found.

When I saw the video, I
started feeling very confident

that we were focusing on the
right guy.

There was only one problem.

Where was he?

Police searched
nationwide for phillup partin, a

convicted k*ller who had already
admitted to police during a

phone call that he had picked up
joshan ashbrook while she was

hitchhiking.

Investigators learned that
partin and his daughter were

living in new port richey,
Florida, with a friend he'd met

in prison.

He agreed to let him live in
one of the rooms of his house.

Partin had his daughter,
patrisha, with him, so they

move in there.

When questioned,
partin's roommate said he hadn't

seen partin or his daughter
since joshan's m*rder was

covered in the local news.

He also said he'd never seen
joshan ashbrook at his house,

either.

With a search warrant, police
examined the room partin and his

daughter had been using and
initially found nothing

suspicious.

We lifted up a throw rug that
was in between the two beds, and

when we pulled the throw rug
back, there was a huge

discolored stain.

The stain was about
four feet long and smelled of

bleach.

It looked like someone had
recently tried to clean it.

So, criminalists lifted the
carpet and found traces of blood

underneath, which they collected
for DNA testing.

Forensic analysts also went over
every inch of the room.

They started searching, and
on the wall, they found a speck

of blood that looked like it
might have been a castoff, a

little teardrop.

The blood on the
wall and underneath the carpet

yielded a genetic profile.

And it matched joshan's DNA.

We can say that joshan was
k*lled in that bedroom.

Partin's roommate
insisted he had nothing to do

with joshan's m*rder but
wouldn't cooperate further.

Did not want to cooperate
with the investigators nor the

state attorney's office.

Very belligerent.

Just hated authority.

Despised us.

Meanwhile, the
search for phillup partin wasn't

going well, even though he was
in constant contact with police

via his cellphone.

Detective.

Phillup liked to talk.

He would question detectives as
to, "what do you have on me?

Why do you think I'm the one
that did this?"

He was seeking answers.

You have nothing on me.

The problem was
partin would make a call and

then drive away, so it was
impossible to pin down his

location.

One call came from across the
country in Washington state.

This was just another way of
Mr. partin taunting the

detectives.

Finally, the phone
calls stopped completely.

But then, two months after
joshan's m*rder, police found an

abandoned red pickup truck in a
Wal-Mart parking lot 50 miles

away from where joshan's body
was discovered.

The license plate showed it was
partin's truck.

But on the truck were four bald
tires.

That didn't match the tire
impressions at the crime scene.

Was partin trying to show he
wasn't the k*ller by using decoy

tires?

He's got to know we were
gonna take tire casts and we

were gonna know what kind of
vehicle he was driving.

It was pretty smart.

But if that were
the case, partin made a colossal

mistake.

In the glove compartment,
investigators found three rolls

of film.

When developed, one picture
showed his truck with different

tires.

One of them was a wild country
brand tire.

I was able to determine that
the tire impressions made at the

crime scene was made by one of
seven, and one of them being the

Cooper wild country tire.

This became a crucial piece
of evidence for us in this case.

With the help of an
informant, police found partin's



Partin had dropped her off at a
friend's home after the m*rder

and never came back.

Partin tells her, "you don't
know where I'm at.

You don't know where I'm going.

And don't tell anybody.

Take care of my child.

I'll get back with you later
on."

He's never seen again.

Partin's daughter
confirmed joshan's whereabouts

on the night of the m*rder and
said joshan never left the

bedroom.

She remembered that they went
back to the house where they

lived, went into the bedroom,
and that she and joshan played

video games and watched TV.

Partin's daughter
said she was asleep in the

living room while her father and
joshan were in the bedroom.

When she awoke, joshan was gone.

We asked her, "what time did
joshan leave?"

And she didn't remember.

Probably after she went to bed.

She had no knowledge of when
they left.

And she couldn't
tell investigators where her

father was hiding.

This guy's pissing me off.

All the evidence in
the joshan ashbrook m*rder

pointed to one man...
Phillup partin.

He was the last known person to
see joshan alive.

His truck once had the same
brand of tires that left tracks

just feet from her body.

His own daughter put him with
the victim the night of the

m*rder.

And perhaps most tellingly of
all, when police went to

question him...

He went on the run, but he
couldn't control his curiosity

about the case and called
detectives from all over the

country.

He was pumping detectives as
much as we were trying to pump

him for information.

He ultimately thought he could
beat the system.

Well, in doing that, we were
able to trace his phone calls.

With a warrant,
investigators tapped his

roommate's phone just to see if
partin would eventually call

him, and that's what he did.

When partin called his roommate,
the police were listening in.

They traced the call to a
pay phone in fayetteville,

north Carolina.

We knew that Mr. partin was
involved in the air-conditioning

business.

We had a general area where the
phone call came in from.

So, we concentrated our search
in that area.

And that's exactly
where they found him.

Mr. partin was quite shocked
to see detectives.

He was taken into custody on a
warrant.

Upon questioning by detectives,
he refused most of the

questions.

He didn't confess.

But DNA finally told the tale.

Partin's DNA matched DNA on the
hair found on joshan's body.

This DNA just sealed the deal.

To see whether
partin's roommate was involved,

investigators searched his
s.U.V. And, on the front seat,

found a bloodstain, but a test
on the bloodstain didn't match

joshan ashbrook.

It was DNA from the man's son.

The roommate also claimed he was
at work in tampa on the night

joshan was m*rder*d, an alibi
corroborated by his employer.

He was obviously in pinellas
or tampa with these people.

He couldn't have been involved
in her m*rder.

Prosecutors believe
partin picked up joshan while

she was hitchhiking.

Hey, there.

Hi.

Partin gained
joshan's trust by having his

daughter with him and by helping
her with her errands.

The security tapes show the
three of them went shopping

later that morning, bought some
fishing gear, and according to

partin's daughter, went fishing
later that afternoon.

Partin's daughter said they
returned to their rented room

sometime late in the day.

After dark, partin's daughter
fell asleep on the sofa.

Partin may have made a sexual
advance towards joshan, which

she rebuffed.

There was a fight.

Joshan grabbed some of his hair.

And partin used a knife to cut
her throat.

Blood spatter got onto the wall.

But it was a broken neck that
caused joshan's death.

Partin took joshan's body to the
woods 15 miles from her home.

She had in her hand his DNA.

Partin left his tire impression
in the sand.

Later, partin attempted
unsuccessfully to clean the

blood from the bedroom.

Phillup partin is an
opportunist who preys on young

victims and vulnerable victims.

I would consider him a sick
individual.

It's hard for the defense to
look at this evidence and take

off in a different direction,
saying, "hey, my client's not

guilty."

Phillup partin went
on trial for first-degree

m*rder.

He was found guilty and
sentenced to death.

I held a lot of anger in, and
so that's what got me through

the trial was my anger.

He would stare at me.

He would wink at me and just be
as cocky as he could be.

The forensics evidence was
the case.

It was the case.

Her DNA in the bedroom and his
DNA, his hair found in her

finger.

That's the case.

Everything else was
circumstantial.

Mr. partin had a tattoo on
his body that said "live free or

die," and that was his motto
that he went by... either let me

free or k*ll me.

And, ultimately, I think it
speaks for itself.