07x02 - One Last Shot

[bunniefuu]

[police officer speaking]

[narrator] A brutal m*rder...

I'm just praying, "Please don't let it be her,

please don't let it be her."

[narrator] ...leaves a family in despair.

A g*nman on the loose.

He was on the run. He's a danger to the public.

[narrator] A shocking trail of evidence...

Stop, rewind on that.

[narrator] ...is the only way to find a k*ller.

We've just seen the m*rder of Jennifer occur

before our eyes.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Thirty-year-old, Jennifer Krajnak, is planning a night out

at nearby Dirk's Bar with her friends.

Jennifer was extremely sociable.

She had everyone from the bar on mass text messages.

She used to love to send them out to all of us,

you know, "Happy holidays."

[narrator] Jennifer is currently out of work,

but she's hoping to be accepted into coroner school.

She wanted to make something for herself

and to help her family out.

She was very driven like that.

It was part of her personality.

I love all my kids,

but I don't know, she was my only daughter,

it was just different from what I have with my boys.

Hi, Joey.

Happy New Year.

Hey, happy new year.

Is Mom there?

I didn't feel good that day

and I spent most of the day in bed.

No, sorry, she's just lying down.

Fine. I guess I have to talk to you then.

[chuckles] How's my favorite brother?

[Joseph] We were pretty close.

We would do a lot of stuff together.

We used to go everywhere together.

I'm good. How's my little big sister?

We used to always call Jennifer our little older sister,

because she was always so much smaller than us.

[chuckles] Hey, watch yourself, big guy.

She could mess with us,

but she would not let other people mess with us.

She was a really protective big sister.

Is Mom okay?

Yeah. She just told me to tell you if you call

that she loves you and be careful.

She just has a bit of a headache.

[Gale] I say that to all my children.

Anytime they're leaving the house,

it's "Be careful, I love you."

Tell her to feel better, and not to worry.

All right. Have a good night, sis. Love you.

[Jennifer] Love you both.

[Clyde] She was very loving. She was very kind.

She treated everybody as if they were family.

[Hubbert] Just after 2:00 a.m.,

Deputy Bunk, who's on Pacific Avenue,

he observed a person lying on the ground.

As he exits his vehicle,

he observes a female

with an apparent g*nsh*t wound to the head.

The female is still alive, but unable to speak.

[Bunk speaking]

[woman speaking]

[Bunk speaking]

[woman speaking]

[Bunk speaking]

[siren wailing]

[Hubbert] Numerous deputies were on the crime scene,

a mixed residential and commercial area.

I observed a large amount of blood,

as well as a purse,

and found identification in the name of Jennifer Krajnak.

[DuGal] Near her body, there were vehicle keys, a cell phone,

and an electronic tablet.

Robbery was likely not a motive

from the initial investigation.

[Hubbert] Within feet of Jennifer's body,

a 9-millimeter brass cartridge case

is located in the roadway.

It's all we've got.

I need you to do a search

through the victim's tablet and cell phone.

I'll call forensics.

[DuGal] We collect the electronic items as evidence,

then we write a search warrant

to get into those electronic items.

We forensically look at them to determine

who was the last person they called,

what text messages happened.

We send out deputies to knock on everybody's door

who may have seen or heard something.

[Hubbert] Several individuals reported

that they heard g*nshots early that morning,

but did not see anything out of the ordinary.

The Olive Tree Apartments are located south of the roadway

where Jennifer was found.

I observed a surveillance camera

that pointed towards the crime scene.

We hope that the camera captured the sh**ting.

[narrator] Hubbert crosses over Pacific Avenue

and faces the loading bay of a large retail store, GTM.

[Hubbert] The GTM store has 12 cameras

located around the building.

Four of the cameras appeared to be pointed in the direction

where Jennifer was found.

The surveillance could have information

that leads us to a suspect.

We need to contact the GTM's security office

and download all their footage.

-I'm on it. -Okay.

[cell phone ringing]

Hubbert.

At 2:37 a.m.,

Jennifer is declared deceased at Scripps Mercy Hospital.

[narrator] The case is now a homicide.

[DuGal] The suspect in this case has the time to flee,

and that's a big concern of ours.

We don't know what the motive was.

We don't know how dangerous he is to the rest of the public,

but we want to capture him as quickly as possible.

[cell phone ringing]

[narrator] Detective Hubbert centers on the victim,

- Jennifer Krajnak. -Hubbert.

[Hubbert] We find that she is a protected person

with a restraining order against Lee Crowell,

who was an ex-fiance.

Detective Hubbert assigned me immediately

to reach out and interview the ex-fiance,

as he was now a person of interest.

Yes, this is Detective DuGal of the San Diego Sheriff's Department,

requesting you come in for questioning, regarding...

We needed to find out where he was

and make sure he wasn't a potential suspect.

He also wanted me to immediately go contact Dirk's

and potentially find surveillance video, if they had it.

As I entered the nightclub,

I saw more cameras that would be able to see

if Jennifer was in there, who she intermixed with,

potential witnesses and potential suspects

from that surveillance video.

-Hey, can I help you? -Hey.

Yeah, do you know a woman by the name of Jennifer Krajnak?

Jen, yeah, yeah.

[DuGal] He was on duty that night.

One of the patrons that he noticed

was Jennifer Krajnak.

Shot?

She previously had worked at that nightclub.

How many more cameras do you have in this place?

We have eight inside and there's one on the exit.

Okay, well, I'd like to see some video surveillance.

I'm looking for any indication that Jennifer Krajnak

is going to be on the interior surveillance cameras.

Quick, go to around 6:00 p.m.

[DuGal] I'm hoping that I see Jennifer walking into the bar,

and who she may be with.

There's a small group of persons sitting at the bar...

Stop, zoom in.

Is that her?

[DuGal] One man is fairly large in stature,

and then there's a smaller person just beyond him

at the corner of the bar,

and it looks like Jennifer Krajnak.

[DuGal] I have some reasonable belief that

that may be Jennifer sitting at the corner of the bar.

I think so, yeah.

[DuGal] Definitely looks like her.

Try camera one.

I see a young female wearing a gray hoodie,

very defined ponytails on either side of her head.

-Freeze that. -[clicks on keyboard]

Let's zoom in.

[DuGal] That's Jennifer Krajnak.

She's chatting with what appears to be another couple.

They're having a good time, the female's on her left,

the male on the right in a checked shirt.

Everything looked very normal.

I'm looking at mannerisms, behavior of the victim,

potential witnesses, potential suspects,

to see if behavior changes at any moment.

There's a man in a dark shirt

who comes from the pool table area

to the girl I now believe is Jennifer.

He leans very close to her

and has some communication with her.

It looks natural.

She's in a good mood, he's in a good mood.

But just because there's no conflict

doesn't mean that the person she communicated with

wasn't the suspect.

Each one of those moments has a potential lead

to what happens in the next few hours

when Jennifer is found dead.

[phone ringing]

[Gale] My friend, Rose, called me

just after 8:00 in the morning.

Hello?

Rose kept asking me, "Gale, are you sitting down?"

No, I'm making breakfast.

I knew...

Why?

... it had something to do with Jennifer.

What's... What's the matter?

And I just yelled in the phone.

Just tell me what happened to Jennifer!

[Joseph] I'm, like, "Something's wrong,"

and I just instantly got the blood pumping.

And he was like, "What happened to my sister?"

-And he started trying to call her. - [line ringing]

Rose said that they had, uh, found somebody there

on the edge of the street in Lemon Grove

and that they thought it was my daughter.

-Where are your brothers? -I don't know.

-Where are your brothers? -I don't know!

And so,

we went over there.

I walked right under the yellow tape.

I'm just praying, "Please don't let it be her,

please don't let it be her."

I don't remember what exactly he told me other than,

yes, it was my daughter.

[Hubbert] We told her the unfortunate news

that Jennifer was deceased.

Was there anyone in particular she was close with?

Not since the ex-fiance.

Okay.

[narrator] Ex-fiance, Lee Crowell, is also at the crime scene.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Crowell, would you mind sticking around

and answering some questions for us?

-Of course, yes. -Thank you.

Whatever I can do to help you.

Okay, let's continue.

[DuGal] During the surveillance video analysis,

we noticed that there was a heavier-set man

in dark clothing with a dark ball cap,

who spent a considerable amount of time

seated next to Jennifer.

They had lots of communication.

Let's rewind that.

Everything looks normal,

looks like conversation I might have with another person, a friend.

There was no intimacy.

There was nothing that led me to believe

that they were anything more than friends.

But I'm looking for anything

that is troubling, or that changes.

Zoom in on that tablet.

Play on.

Jennifer is paging through the tablet

and showing him something.

Stop there.

Okay, let's continue.

He walks away from the bar,

out of the view of that camera.

Jennifer gets up and she goes in the same direction as the man.

There's no indication that they're leaving,

or that she's leaving, because her purse is left behind.

Where have they gone?

I tried to track them

on other surveillance video in the bar.

There was no coverage for this specific area,

I couldn't tell where they went,

I couldn't tell what was going on.

Let's go back to the camera at the bar.

Okay, rewind.

She's looking at the tablet.

The same man in dark clothing with the dark ball cap

comes in

and he's looking at her.

She's not looking up at him

and he tries to communicate with her,

it doesn't appear she's communicating back

and he turns and walks away.

And he waves her off.

Let's see what that guy does again.

It's definitely a red flag.

I have no idea what they've said.

I don't know what the conflict is,

but it's abnormal compared to all the previous video

that I've been watching of their interactions.

So something changed,

something in their relationship that moment changed.

Okay, let's see if he leaves.

There's a patron in the bar who exits.

And a very short time later,

the man in the dark clothing with the dark ball cap

that was seated next to Jennifer also exits bar.

Switch to the exterior camera.

Rewind.

Have you seen this guy before?

I think his name might be Casey.

[DuGal] At this point, I had no idea

if he was just a person of interest

or if he was going to end up being a suspect.

[cell phone ringing]

[narrator] Meantime, Detective Hubbert

sends Jennifer's ex-fiance, Lee Crowell,

into the bar for a formal interview.

I'll go meet him now.

So, Lee Crowell becomes our first lead.

[Lee speaking]

One of the important factors was

the fact that there was this temporary restraining order against him

protecting Jennifer from him.

[Lee speaking]

[narrator] That's a kind of restraining order

that allows the parties to be together,

if they stay friendly.

[Lee speaking]

They fell apart at the end of their relationship

and things were strained,

that's when the restraining order was taken out.

Subsequently, they had become friends again.

He had actually texted her the very night

she was m*rder*d.

[narrator] DuGal shows him the man from the CCTV.

[Lee speaking]

[DuGal speaking]

[Lee speaking]

[DuGal] We learned quickly that Toyo had a girlfriend

and her name was Krystal,

and she was a very good friend of Jennifer.

I knew I needed to find this Toyo and interview him.

[Lee speaking]

[DuGal] He goes by the name of Toyo,

but his real name is Custodio Ramirez.

Okay, can we go back to the camera at the bar?

[DuGal] After he's gone, she goes back to a very normal mannerism.

She's jovial, she's interacting with other people.

She's hugging the bartender goodbye.

It's only 20 minutes before somebody is going to m*rder her.

She looks happy and life is normal.

She's leaving the bar

and walking into what's going to become her death.

Can you try camera one?

[narrator] Detective DuGal wants to see if Jennifer left the bar alone.

[DuGal] Everybody's a person of interest at this point.

We just don't know who the suspect is

and we need to figure that out.

Stop, rewind on that.

Who is that talking to her?

Let's move on to the exit door.

No one's following her.

Were they already out there?

[DuGal] I'm looking over every inch to make sure that

there's nobody following her, there's no shadows,

but then I lose sight of her.

That's it. She's gone.

We're looking for a suspect,

and this is only moments before she's m*rder*d.

I need to ask you some questions about Lee Crowell.

Sure.

Did Lee and Jennifer get along after their breakup?

Eventually, yes, they got along fine.

[Hubbert] While speaking with Jennifer's family regarding Lee,

they're adamant that Lee and Jennifer

had a good relationship currently.

My son, Justin, was with Lee

and they were up at 4:00 a.m. playing video games,

and there's no way that Lee was involved

with what happened to Jennifer.

[Hubbert] Based on these family interviews,

we were able to eliminate Lee

as a potential suspect in this case.

Do you recognize anybody in this photo?

[Hubbert] Jennifer's family was shown the surveillance photo

of the person in the striped sweatshirt,

but they were unable to identify this individual.

[cell phone ringing]

Hubbert.

[narrator] All 12 cameras from the GTM store are processed.

It's all loaded, ready to go.

[narrator] They start with the GTM camera facing Dirk's Bar.

Is that her?

[Hubbert] At approximately 1:43 a.m.,

a figure is seen walking from Dirk's

towards the parking lot of the GTM.

We can see that this person is smoking a cigarette

and has a light-colored sweatshirt on.

[DuGal] I can't tell.

[Hubbert] You wouldn't know that was Jennifer at that point.

Let's try a different camera.

[Hubbert] Now you can absolutely tell it's her.

She was viewing something that was on the tablet.

I don't know what that something was,

but it was while she was all alone in that parking lot.

[DuGal] This is feet away from where Jennifer was found.

We realized that these were the last moments

that Jennifer will be alive.

[Hubbert] We lose her for just a moment.

[narrator] They switch to a camera from Olive Tree Apartments.

[DuGal] We picked her back up on this video.

We see a male subject confronts Jennifer.

There's a struggle,

both images actually leave the frame.

And then come back.

The smaller image, which is Jennifer,

drops to the ground.

[exhales]

[Hubbert] We know that we've just seen the m*rder

of Jennifer occur before our eyes.

[DuGal] Probably the saddest moment,

and yet, the best moment for the investigation

was the fact that we now had Jennifer's m*rder

captured on surveillance video.

[Hubbert] We know that if we delay and go home to sleep

that that may be the time

that the k*ller needs to get away.

[DuGal] Let's play that again.

We looked for anything that was identifiable.

[Hubbert] As this person is seen walking away from Jennifer,

we see that there's a glimmer or a light.

The unfortunate part is the video is very dark and very grainy.

[Hubbert] At 1:48 a.m.,

a dark colored truck is seen driving east

on Pacific Avenue.

The truck stops...

A male goes towards the area where Jennifer was lying.

It appears the person throws something down onto the ground

that is illuminated.

We believe the male tossed the tablet back onto the ground.

After that, the male returns to the truck

and drives off.

It's no good, I can't make out any features.

-[cell phone ringing] -Hubbert.

[narrator] Custodio Toyo Ramirez

has heard police are looking for him.

[Hubbert speaking]

[Toyo speaking]

[Hubbert] Toyo insists that he had

nothing to do with Jennifer's m*rder

and states that he was at home

during the time of the incident.

His girlfriend, Krystal,

confirms his account of the evening.

[narrator] Based on his statement and confirmed alibi,

Toyo is ruled out as a suspect.

It's now clear that Lee Crowell made a mistake

when he identified Toyo in the photo

that detectives showed him.

[Hubbert] Toyo was shown the photograph

of the person in the bar with Jennifer.

Toyo states that he doesn't know who this person is,

but Krystal tells him

that Jennifer was texting a person named Casey.

[narrator] The same name mentioned by the bartender at Dirk's Bar.

Both Krystal and Toyo are unable to provide any further details

about Casey other than they believe that he lives

in the Lemon Grove area.

While examining Jennifer's phone,

we locate several messages

that were between her and Casey.

The last text sent from Jennifer to Casey

was at approximately 10:25 p.m.

the evening Jennifer was m*rder*d,

asking Casey to meet her at Dirk's for a few drinks.

And it is our belief that Casey is the person

that was with Jennifer while at the bar.

[narrator] A regular at Dirk's Bar,

who often socialized with Jennifer,

comes forward with information.

Hi, Detective. I'm Clyde.

He tells me he's a friend of Jennifer's.

He did see her in the bar that night

with an unknown male.

I think I saw something or something that could be useful...

I had a gut feeling that this is the man

that they need to find.

The man started talking to Jennifer,

it seemed very cordial.

[DuGal] Part of his witness statement included a interesting fact.

There's a moment when Jennifer and this unknown male stand up.

[Clyde] Their conversation was clearly a little more personal,

a little more serious.

They decided to move it to the back of the bar,

where there's less patrons there.

No one was in the back to hear what they had spoke of,

but the entire mood in the bar had changed.

[narrator] A few minutes later, they're back.

[DuGal] The whole atmosphere was elevated.

His emotion and Jennifer's emotions don't match.

He's angry.

[Clyde] Seeing this man walk out of the bar

very upset, very emotional,

you knew right away that there was

some sort of negative discussion with Jennifer.

He's not getting the affection he's desiring.

That together turns into a perfect storm.

[narrator] The detectives track Casey on the parking lot cameras.

[Hubbert] We observed at approximately 1:30 a.m.,

Casey walking from Dirk's smoking a cigarette.

He enters a dark-colored pickup truck

and he leaves.

[narrator] Another angle gives Hubbert a better view of the truck.

Freeze here, let's have a look.

[video rewinds]

I think I can work with that.

The truck is dark in color,

has silver wheels,

and we're able to get a basic design of the front grille.

We believe that the make and model of the truck

was a Nissan Titan.

It's a match.

[narrator] Around 15 minutes before Jennifer is shot,

Casey's truck drives off.

But if he is the k*ller, it should reappear.

After the vehicle leaves the GTM parking lot,

it has gone for six-and-a-half minutes.

At last.

[Hubbert] It is seen returning towards the GTM.

The vehicle then proceeds on to Pacific Avenue...

Try a different camera.

...driving past the location

where Jennifer was later found,

and then turns into a apartment complex.

Based on this truck parking facing towards the area

where Jennifer would later be found,

I believe that Casey had returned to the area

and was waiting for Jennifer.

[narrator] But they still don't know Casey's last name.

We had a general description, we had no idea who he is.

There's a million Caseys in Lemon Grove.

We are concerned that the suspect is out there

and he's got a high potential to commit other murders.

We need to find him as quickly as possible.

We had numerous detectives working around the clock

to identify him and locate him.

There was a man who came forward,

who was a witness.

He had been in the bar earlier that day

and saw his friend Jennifer,

and Jennifer had relayed to him

that she was waiting on a man named Casey

who was coming to socialize and drink with her.

[officer speaking]

[man speaking]

She also told this witness that Casey was somebody

who was pursuing her in an intimate fashion.

He wanted to have a relationship closer than a friendship,

and she was aware of that.

He also knew from Jennifer

that this Casey lived not only on his street

but, like, very close to him,

and that this Casey drove a black pickup truck.

[officer speaking]

[man speaking]

[cell phone rings]

Hubbert. Noble Street's...

The address is entered into law enforcement databases,

and we find that a 2007 Nissan Titan

is registered to that address

and belongs to a person named Casey Tschida.

[DuGal] He is suspect of a m*rder.

He's a danger to the public.

We have to find Casey Tschida as fast as possible.

[DuGal] Once we had identified Casey Tschida as a suspect...

Got it.

[DuGal] ...we obtained a search warrant for his residence.

The vehicle is no longer there,

and upon entry, we find that

Casey is not at the residence, either.

[DuGal] All indications in the house was that

he packed up and he left.

He was on the run.

[Hubbert] We locate a receipt from a g*n store

for the purchase of several weapons,

one of them being a 9-millimeter handgun.

We put out a BOL or a "be-on-the-lookout"

to other law enforcement agencies.

[narrator] For two days, detectives chase down

reported sightings of Tschida and his vehicle.

[cell phone rings]

[Hubbert] On January 5th, we received a phone call...

Hubbert.

...from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department in Oregon.

Okay.

The detectives tell us that Casey Tschida

arrived at his mother's house

and tells his mother that "I k*lled somebody."

Casey's mother goes to the sheriff's office

and reports the claims that Casey made to detectives.

[narrator] Two days after Jennifer's m*rder,

Casey Tschida is arrested.

Myself and another detective flew to Oregon

to interview Casey and collect Casey's vehicle.

Mr. Tschida...

And so he did not make a statement.

But as he sat in front of me,

Casey's physical image through my eyes

was the same guy that was sitting next to Jennifer.

His truck was the same truck

I saw in the video surveillance.

I was confident we had our man.

[narrator] And a search of the truck confirms DuGal's theory.

[camera shutter clicks]

We locate a empty 9-millimeter handgun g*n case.

Inside is a test-fire cartridge

that matched the b*llet that k*lled Jennifer.

That test-fire b*llet cartridge

is compared with the cartridge that was located

next to Jennifer in the street.

The sheriff's crime lab confirmed

that those two cartridges were fired by the same firearm.

Also in the vehicle, we discover blood

on the driver's side arm rest.

That blood is compared with a DNA sample of Jennifer,

and it's confirmed to be a match.

[narrator] At trial, Tschida admits to sh**ting Jennifer,

but insists he snapped in the heat of the moment.

The prosecution lays out a very different story.

[DuGal] The night of the m*rder,

Jennifer goes to Dirk's Niteclub,

and she sends a text message to Casey Tschida

and she invites him to have c*ck with her.

He joins her, and they have a good time for hours.

They're drinking, they're socializing.

The video captures those moments

and all that time perfectly.

And there's nothing extraordinary

until closer to the end of the evening,

when we have some confrontation.

The hallelujah moment is,

we have the video.

[narrator] Jennifer rejects Casey's advances.

[DuGal] Casey on video kind of dismisses Jennifer,

where they're talking, and then he gets up and he dismisses her.

He's angry.

Jennifer, on the other hand,

is not exhibiting anger

through any of the surveillance cameras.

[Hubbert] Casey returned home to retrieve his firearm,

and then returned to the scene

to wait for Jennifer as she walked home.

[DuGal] She's captured on video

walking out of the bar,

walking through the GTM parking lot,

and walking towards the apartment

where she was staying.

He stops the vehicle by her location.

He gets out of the vehicle with the g*n.

He approaches Jennifer,

a confrontation ensues.

Casey shot Jennifer at that point.

[g*nsh*t]

She goes down to the ground and she never moves again.

He had the g*n when he got out of the car,

premeditated, shoots her, goes back into the car,

turns on his lights like nothing happened and drives away.

[narrator] But two minutes later,

Tschida returns.

[Hubbert] There's several theories on why he would do this.

One is that he was trying to wipe the evidence of him

touching the tablet.

[narrator] The jury find Tschida guilty of first degree m*rder.

He's sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

[Gale] He took her away from us.

It's just not fair.

[Joseph] I mean, she barely knew him,

and that's just crazy that

he could just go and do this kind of thing to her.

[Gale] She kept telling me, "I ain't never having kids,"

but on the sly, she would tell me every now and then,

"I wonder what it would feel like to be a mom."

I think about her every day, still.

I'd really just give anything just to be able to talk to her,

you know, just one more time.

It's so hard. We miss her so much.