01x08 - Lakeland Lotto Mystery

[bunniefuu]

The original call reported

that Abraham Shakespeare
was missing

and that no one
had heard from him

in numerous months.

I knew who
Abraham Shakespeare was.

He had won $30 million
in the Florida lottery.

At the end of the day,
one of the best strategies

for this type of investigation
is following the money.

Was Abraham missing on his own?

Was Abraham just hiding

and spending his money
on himself finally?

Is there something sinister
with it?

To hide a body in Lakeland,
it's not hard.

Mm-hmm.

The judge called her one
of the most manipulative persons

he'd ever seen set foot
in his courtroom.

♪

♪

Lakeland is the largest city
in Polk County.

It has a very affluent section,
and then it has

a not-so-affluent section
that's a little bit rundown.

I think Lakeland
over the years,

there's been a major transition.

At one time here, this was
kind of the citrus capital

along the I-4 corridor.

There was a very diverse community.

It's called Lakeland because
we have well over 400 lakes

just in Polk County.

You have the swamps.
You have the Green Swamp.

To hide a body in Lakeland,
it's not hard.

[Telephone rings]
The original call came in

to our missing persons unit
in early November.

It was reported to them

that a local guy from Lakeland
was missing

and that no one had heard
from him in numerous months.

And we learned that
it was Abraham Shakespeare.

I knew who
Abraham Shakespeare was.

I remember seeing in the paper,
seeing on the news

three years ago

that Abraham Shakespeare
from Lakeland

had won $30 million
in the Florida lottery.

That was the largest jackpot
by far

that any local person had won.

You know, it was a big story
at the time.

Who doesn't want
to win $30 million?

I was just sitting
in the newsroom

when I heard a story
about our latest lottery winner.

When I had the opportunity
to meet and interview Abraham,

we talked about
what life was like for him

prior to him
winning the lottery.

Abraham Shakespeare
was a day laborer.

He didn't finish school.

And so he could only pick up
blue-collar-type jobs.

He struggled a lot financially.

He said that he used to
walk around

this exclusive neighborhood
here in Lakeland

and he would dream.

He always dreamed of living in
a big mansion in North Lakeland.

And after he won the lottery,

he saw a house
that came up for sale

that he had dreamed
about living in.

And he – he bought that house.

Now Detective Clark
must determine why

it's been months since anyone
has seen Abraham

at his new home
or anywhere else.

The first thing
that came to my mind

when we got the case was,
was he missing on his own?

Is there something
more involved to this?

We just had to kind of sit down
and go over everything

that our missing persons unit
had – had learned.

When we were briefed
on the case,

we were briefed that, uh,

Abraham's cousin
reported him missing,

hadn't seen him in seven months.

So the first thing I want to do
is talk to Abraham's cousin,

Cedric Edom.

Cedric was cooperative.

We believe he called in
the missing persons report

because he was worried
something happened to Abraham.

Cedric claims he hasn't heard
from Abraham

in the past five months
and is unable to shed any light

on where his cousin
might have gone.

Detectives began speaking
with family and friends

to see what they can learn
about the missing man.

We were told there was a guy
named Greg Massey

who was, um,
his financial advisor.

The first contact they made,
they indicated to me

that they were the police

and that they wanted to speak
with me in reference to Abraham.

They just wanted
to get information

of when the last time
I seen him,

when I had talked to him,
what did I know,

what I didn't know.
At this point,

it was an early investigation
of a missing person report.

I told them the last time
I spoke with him was April.

When Abraham won the lottery,

I was overwhelmingly
happy for him,

you know, as one should be,
but I didn't run to him.

I didn't flock behind him.

It wasn't until he called me

that I actually went over
to Lakeland to see him.

By the time I got there,
he had done given out to friends

$1.75 million.

Greg tells detectives
Abraham needed help

managing his new wealth
and asked for his advice.

I often tell people that
when Abraham Shakespeare

won the lottery,

the entire community
won the lottery.

Abraham Shakespeare was
so generous with his money

that he was known for paying
for rents, groceries, funerals.

Anything that anybody needed,
he provided for them.

Someone would come to him
and say,

"Hey, my mortgage –
I'm behind on my mortgage.

I'm gonna lose my home."

And Abraham,
without flinching, would say,

"Well, I'll buy your house,
and you pay me the mortgage."

And he did that numerous times.

But detectives learn
this quickly started

taking a toll on Abraham.

He loved the attention,
but people were calling him

all times of day
asking him for money.

He loathed people pestering him
for his winnings,

and he started to become
estranged from his friends

and even some
of his family members.

The detective learns
Abraham also began

distancing himself from the man
who was helping him

manage his lottery winnings.

I tried to help him
put money in places

where he would still be,
to this day, wealthy.

He counseled Abraham,

and Abraham kind of
shied away from him

and didn't want his help.

Our financial communication
kind of subsided a little bit.

I didn't know what was going on.

At this point
in the investigation,

we don't know where Abraham is.

What happened to Abraham?

Is he dead? Is he alive?

There were people
who owed Abraham money.

There were people who felt like
he had wronged them

because he hadn't
given them money.

He had all sorts of hangers-on,

people who always
wanted favors from him.

At the end of the day,
one of the best strategies

for this type of investigation
is following the money.

So you have to look
at everyone that borrowed,

was given money from Abraham.

Are – Are they involved
in his disappearance?

Because Abraham going missing

means you don't have
to pay your mortgage.

You don't have to pay the loan
that he gave you.

You have to subpoena
bank accounts.

You have to track every bit
of money, every bit of property,

everything that
Abraham's money bought

or where Abraham's money was,
and there was a lot.

But we were gonna do
whatever we had to do

to either find Abraham

or find out
what happened to Abraham.

Abraham's financial records
point investigators

to some interesting information
about a familiar name.

Here's Cedric
reporting him missing.

However, Cedric has a house
bought by Abraham

that he's paying him
a mortgage for.

Cedric is a real, uh,
work of art.

He was one of those that felt
because they were blood, family,

that he was entitled
or Abraham owed him something.

He had to make mortgage payments
to Abraham,

and he didn't want to pay it.

Without Abraham around,

Cedric wouldn't have to make
the mortgage payments.

Detectives wonder if that's why
he waited seven months

to report his cousin missing,
or even worse,

if he had something
to do with it.

At this point
in the investigation,

he is definitely
a person of interest.

She's like, "Thank God you guys
came up there when you did.

That guy owed Abraham money,

and I think he was
probably gonna k*ll me."

The idea behind the meeting
was that

he was going to take the rap
for the m*rder.

I got my badge out.
I got my g*n out.

I go up to the car, and I go,

"I'm a homicide detective
with the Sheriff's Office,

and you got about 30 seconds
to cooperate."

[Siren wailing]

♪

Florida police looking
for missing lottery winner

Abraham Shakespeare
have learned

that the man
who reported him missing,

his cousin Cedric,
was in debt to him.

To detectives, it suggests
a potential motive

for wanting him gone.

We bring Cedric in.

We knew Cedric had a history
with law enforcement.

Some of it wasn't
the – the best.

And that showed he was probably
one of the most difficult people

to deal with
and was not cooperative.

Talking to him, I mean,
you would have thought Cedric

was trying to hide something.

But detectives hear nothing
from Cedric

that connects him
to Abraham's disappearance.

With no physical evidence either,

Cedric is free to go home.

Investigators continue
to dig for leads,

including a subpoena
for Abraham's phone records.

We get the phone records
for Abraham,

and we see for the past year,
all the way up until April 9th,

this guy is getting 500,
600, 700 calls per day,

and he is on his phone 24/7.

At that point, we're like,

"If Abraham's alive,
where is he at?"

But there was something else
going on

because after April 9th,
it just stops.

And from there, pretty much
the only communication

that he has from April 9th on

is with a lady
named Dee Dee Moore.

Who is this Dee Dee Moore?

Detectives learn from
Abraham's family that Dee Dee

is a local businesswoman who has
become friendly with Abraham

and has been offering him
financial advice.

We bring in Dee Dee Moore,

and she's super cooperative,
happy to be there,

comes in with a smile,
"Hey, guys,"

and sits down and we ask her,
"Where's Abraham?"

And she says, "He's around.
I can talk to him."

And she'll pull her phone out
and say,

"Let me text him.
Abraham, I am with the police.

Can you please just call me
so they know you're okay?"

And she'd sit there and say,
"Oh, he'll call me by tomorrow.

I'll let you know."

And so we sat back and said,
"Okay, let's see if he calls."

So everyone thought
that this would be

a two- or three-day case
and we'd find out where he was.

We all had the same mindset,
you know –

"We're gonna solve this case."

Days pass as the detective
waits to see

if Abraham responds
to Dee Dee's message.

Meanwhile, rumors are
spreading around town

about where he may be.

Some people said that he was
in a hospital dying of A*DS.

Some people said that, you know,
he finally decided to move away

when people were pestering him
for his money.

So there was numerous
different stories told,

including that
he was already dead.

I was sitting in the newsroom
at my desk one day

when I get a call
from Dee Dee Moore.

This was my first interaction
with her.

I said, "There's so many people
who have been telling me

that, uh, Shakespeare, uh,

is missing, uh, he's dead."

And she emphatically said,
"He's not dead."

At this point, I said to myself,
"Well, maybe he did get tired

and decided to get out of town."

And I was like,
"You need to come in.

You need to sit down
with myself and my editors,

and you need
to tell us what happened."

We had a three-hour interview
with Dee Dee,

and she told us from top
to bottom how she met Abraham.

Dee Dee tells Merissa
and her colleagues

that a mutual friend
introduced her

to the lottery winner
in October 2008,

a year before he went missing.

She said that she found him
to be so fascinating

that she wanted to write a story
about his life,

and so they stayed in contact.

Dee Dee told Abraham
about her business ventures.

She ran a very successful
medical staffing company,

so she was a good,
astute businesswoman.

I guess that's why
Abraham was able

to trust her so soon
and quickly,

because she appeared to him
like she didn't need his money.

She told us that everybody
in his inner circle

and everybody who, um,
knew Abraham

was taking advantage of him
except for her.

But this where the story got
really interesting for us,

because Dee Dee had control
of all his bank accounts

before he went missing.

Abraham went around
introducing Dee Dee

to the people who owed him money
and saying,

"She's gonna be handling
my financial affairs now."

So anybody who owed him money,

they had to submit
those payments now to Dee Dee.

Dee Dee claims
that not everyone

who owes Abraham money
likes the arrangement,

including
Abraham's cousin Cedric.

Dee Dee suspects Cedric
reported Abraham missing,

hoping to get her into trouble.

When Merissa Green shares
Dee Dee's theory

with investigators,
they're surprised

Dee Dee never mentioned it
to them.

Wondering what else
she might be holding back,

they call her in
for another interview.

And that's where she shows us
the video tape

with Abraham in his room,
Dee Dee asking him,

"So what do you want to do, Abe?
You just want to get away?"

And that video was taken
April 9th,

seven months before Abraham
was reported missing.

The video appears to confirm
that Abraham Shakespeare,

tired of everyone
asking him for money,

just wanted to get away
from it all.

But it doesn't answer
all of detectives' questions.

Was Abraham missing on his own?

Was Abraham just hiding

and spending his money
on himself finally?

Is there something sinister
with it?

The first time that anyone
talked to Dee Dee,

she said,
"He'll call me, I promise.

It'll be fine."
So we asked her,

"Hey, did you hear
from Abraham?"

"Nope. Let me send him
one more text.

Abraham, this is not
funny anymore.

Dadgum it, the police are
here with me,

and they just need to know
you're okay.

Call me, Abraham, or you can
just call the police yourself."

Dee Dee was very convincing,

but she's the last one
to see him.

Just to be on the safe side,

we're also sending out subpoenas
for Dee Dee's phone.

When Dee Dee's phone records
come in,

Detective Clark compares
the location data

with Abraham's phone records.

And what we realize is that
after April 9th,

every communication that Abraham
has with Dee Dee's phone,

according to GPS location,

they're either sitting in the
same car driving down the road,

or Dee Dee has his phone,

because their phones are
together every communication.

Something is not right here.

♪

♪

Several weeks
into their investigation,

Florida detectives suspect
missing lottery winner

Abraham Shakespeare's financial
advisor, Dee Dee Moore,

knows more
about his disappearance

than she's letting on.

So we call Dee Dee in

and say,
"Hey, we have a problem."

And she's like,
"Well, what's the problem?"

"Do you have Abraham's phone?"

"Absolutely not.
He has his phone."

And then we're like, "Okay,
well, here's what we know.

Ever since April 9th,

either you're hiding
Abraham in the house,

he's in the backseat
of your car right now."

Then she goes,
"Okay, you got me.

I do have his phone.
I did have his phone.

But he wanted me to do it.

He doesn't want you guys
to find him."

Why doesn't he want to be found?

Is he afraid the police
is gonna ask him for money?

I mean, why does Abraham want to
not just let us know he's okay?

"Well, Abraham's stubborn."

At this point, we have to
question everything she's done.

"Okay, where's the phone,
Dee Dee?"

"Well, I threw it out the window

a few days ago on I-4
and busted it."

"Why?"

"Well, because he didn't
want to be tracked."

So at that point,
we're like, "Okay,

now we have some craziness
on our hands."

And we realize that
Dee Dee is definitely

a manipulator, a liar.

But how do we prove it?
We have no evidence.

We couldn't do anything
with our gut feeling,

so it was important that
we push this a little further.

Digging deeper into Dee Dee's
relationship with Abraham,

investigators reached out again
to his cousin Cedric,

who Dee Dee claims had
vindictive motives

for reporting Abraham missing.

Cedric can't say much more
about their relationship,

but he admits that he only filed
a missing persons report

to put a spotlight on Dee Dee.

You know, I think he was
pissed off, so he thought,

"Let me go ahead
and report him missing."

Did Cedric really care
that Abraham was missing?

I-I don't – I don't know.

But there was motivation there,

financial,
for him to report him missing

because Dee Dee's demanding
payment for Cedric's house.

At that point, I'm convinced

that she's involved
in something.

So we had a meeting.

Where are we gonna go
with the case?

What are we gonna do?

We proved to Dee Dee
we knew she had his cellphone,

and we were kind of afraid
that she was going to

cut off communication with us
and stop talking to us.

Investigators don't plan to let
Dee Dee know she's a suspect.

They want her
to continue believing

they think she's helping them
find Abraham.

We asked her to come back,
and she still tells us,

you know,"
"Hey, he's gonna call me.

I say, "Listen, Dee Dee,
you know I support you

and you know I believe in you,
but the rest of those guys,

they think you did
something to Abraham."

Abraham frequently
called his mother.

So it was really wearing
on his mother's spirit

that she hadn't even
heard from her own son.

I tell Dee Dee, "Abraham's
mother has been with him

every Christmas of his life.

If Abraham doesn't call,

I'm gonna lose
a little faith in you, Dee Dee."

We just kind of put that seed
there to see what she would do,

and she goes, I'm gon–
I'll do everything I can.

I'll do everything I can."

We didn't know
what she would do,

but we felt like
she would do something.

♪

[Christmas music plays]

The day after Christmas,
Abraham's mother called me.

And she's like,
"Detective Clark,

Abraham called me."
I go, "He called you?"

She goes, "He sure did."

I go, "Did it really sound
like him?"

And she's like, "Not really,
but he said he'd been sick

and just not feeling well,
but, um, he called me."

And I'm like,
"Are you at home, Ms. Walker?"

And she's like, "Yep."

So I drove straight
to her house and I said,

"Where's the phone
he called you on?"

And she gave me her cellphone.
It was an old flip phone.

And, you know,
it was a private number.

Somebody marked
their number private.

And I'm like, "Well, tell me
about the conversation."

And she said,
"He just told me Merry Christmas

and happy holidays
and he's fine.

He's just dealing
with some things

and he wants to be missing."

And I'm thinking,
"What's Dee Dee up to?"

We knew the exact time
of the call,

so we actually go
to the state attorney's office,

get the subpoena
for Ms. Walker's phone,

because even if you mark
your number private,

if I send a subpoena
for your phone,

I'm gonna be able
to see that number.

We call Sprint
and we actually talk

to one of the guys
in the, uh, subpoena department

and, um, explain
our situation to him.

We ask for whoever
the user of that phone is,

and we want
the GPS location of that phone.

And he goes,
"Give me a few minutes."

And he literally sent us
an e-mail 30 minutes later

with that information.

The phone belongs to Greg Smith.
That meant nothing to us.

We hadn't talked
to a Gregory Smith.

We didn't know
who a Gregory Smith was.

And, you know, we're like,
"Well, maybe that's an alias.

Maybe that's the name
Abraham's going by."

Then we put in the coordinates

of the GPS location
of the phone.

And it's at the Lakeland Mall.

So we're like, "Let's go!"

There's thousands of cars

in the Lakeland Mall
parking lot.

We pull into a parking spot.

There's 7,000 people here.

So we're just sitting there,
and we look up.

And in drive's Dee Dee's car.

And we both look at each other
like, "Holy cow."

She gets out and we see her

get in the passenger seat
of this car.

And all we can see is, like,
it's a –

it's a – a Black male
in the car.

Who is this mystery guy?

♪

♪

Florida police trace
a phone call supposedly

from missing lottery winner
Abraham Shakespeare

to a shopping mall.

They rush to the location

and are surprised
when Dee Moore,

a possible suspect
in the disappearance,

arrives to meet the man
holding the phone.

We can see through
the binoculars

Dee Dee hands this guy
an envelope,

and he pulls, like,
a lot of money out,

and he's, like, counting it.

They talk for a minute.

And then she drives to the left,

and this car
pulls out to the right.

We follow it, and when
it gets to that stop sign,

I tell my partner,
Dave Wallace,

"Just cut the car off."

[Siren wails]

Dave whips around, cuts it off.
I get out.

I got my badge out.
I got my g*n out.

I go up to the car and I go,
"My name's David Clark.

I'm a homicide detective
with the Sheriff's Office,

and you got about 30 seconds
to cooperate,

or I'm gonna ensure
that you go to prison,

because you've done some things

you're not supposed
to have done."

And he kind of looks
and is like,

"I guess I'm gonna cooperate."

The man identifies himself
as Greg Smith,

the same name the phone
is registered to.

He agrees
to accompany investigators

to the Polk County Sheriff's
Office for an interview.

In talking to Greg, you can
tell he's a very street-savvy,

street-smart guy,
and he knows what he's doing.

And we sit there
with Greg Smith.

"Why did you make this call?
Did you make this call?"

He said, "Yeah.
Dee Dee paid me to call

Abraham's mother
and pretend to be Abraham."

"What's going on with Abraham?"

"I don't know.

Dee Dee, um,
told me that he just

doesn't want to be around.
She told me the police are

giving her a lot of headaches

and just to help her out
and call Abraham's mother

so the police
will get off her back."

We have to do digging,
you know, on Greg.

What's going on?
Well, we learn there's a house

that Abraham bought that Greg
was paying him a mortgage for.

After Abraham won the lottery.
Gregory Smith came to Abraham,

borrowed $63,000 to pay off land
over in Plant City.

So he was indebted to Abraham,
so, therefore,

indebted to Dee Dee.

So she solicited Gregory Smith

to be the guy
that she could go to

to help her.

Dee Dee had kind of duped
Greg and took advantage of him

because he owed Abraham money.

Sitting and talk to him
for about three hours,

we kind of tell him,
"Look, um, you don't trust us.

We don't trust you.
But you have just involved

yourself in some sort of investigation,

whether it's a missing person,
whether the guy's dead."

He's like, "Well, what do you
want me to do to –

to earn your trust?"

It was important that we push
this a little further.

We decided that we're gonna
have Greg on the inside

and have him meeting
with Dee Dee

and record everything.

Detectives say, "Hey, look,

you want to go down
with this woman?

Or do you want
to help us arrest her?"

And so Greg cooperated

and became a confidential
informant for the authorities.

We come up with a plan
that we're gonna put Greg

in a position to tell Dee Dee,

"I don't know if Abraham's
dead or alive, but...

I can solve your troubles."

Greg says to Dee Dee,
"I don't know what happened,

but everything
I've helped you with,

I hope you see I'm all in.

I'm here to help you.

If there's something wrong
with Abraham –

you say he's fine and alive,
but if there happens to be

something wrong with Abraham,

my cousin just got
a 30-year sentence,

and he's got to report to the
federal prison in two weeks.

He'll take a m*rder rap."

And Dee Dee sits there quiet
for a minute, and she goes,

"You know what?
Let me meet him."

We scramble.
We get back to the office.

We're like, "Okay,
we got to set this up."

Back when we were in narcotics,

we worked with a guy
named Mike Smith,

and Mike was
the best undercover ever.

Mike was mean-looking,
rough-looking,

and played the part.

So we call Mike up, who works
at a other jurisdiction,

and say, "Hey, Mike,
we need your help."

He goes, "I got you."

We brief Mike.
Here's what we want to know.

We want to know,
is Abraham dead or alive?

So we set the meeting up.

We're in the Lakeland Mall
parking lot,

and we're a few rows over
listening in.

Mike Smith tells her about
his going to prison

for the next 20 or 30 years
for drugs,

and that if she needed something,

he would take care of it.

She, uh, said,
"Will you take a m*rder rap?"

He goes, "Yeah."

Mike says, "I want to know
where his body is.

I want to know
how he was k*lled.

Because I'm not gonna
go to the police

and tell them
that I shot this guy,

whenever they find his body
and he's stabbed.

I'm not gonna look
like a dumbass."

We're all on pins and needles.
What's Dee Dee gonna do?

She goes, "What do you want?"

And Mike said,
"I want 50 grand."

And she agreed.

The idea behind the meeting was

that he was going to take
the rap for the m*rder.

This was the best piece
of evidence

that we had
that Abraham was dead.

Detectives searching
for Abraham Shakespeare

now believe he's dead
after his financial advisor,

Dee Dee Moore, offers
an undercover cop $50,000

to claim he's the one
who m*rder*d Abraham.

This was the first admission
that we had by Dee Dee

that Abraham was dead.

She had been so careful
about so many things

leading up to this point.

♪

The next morning,
Greg calls us and says,

"Hey, Dee Dee called me.

She said she needs
to meet with me right now."

She wants to meet him
at a gas station.

We actually go far away,
and, um, we can't see it

because we don't want to risk
getting our cover blown.

So we have to just kind of
sit back and see what happens.

Greg calls us 20 minutes later

and is like,
"Okay, we need to meet."

So we go and we meet with Greg
and he gives us this towel

and goes,
"Dee Dee gave me this

and said it's the g*n
that k*lled Abraham."

Greg Smith secretly recorded
the meeting

and the moment Dee Dee
handed him the weapon.

Greg says,
"Dee Dee told me that

when the sun goes down, she'll
show me where the body is."

We called our –
our contact with A*F.

Within an hour,
he calls us back and says,

"Hey, that g*n was purchased
by Dorice Donegan Moore."

Dee Dee Moore.

Now we have to wait
for the body.

Greg Smith was so cunning

in obtaining trust from Dee Dee

that she drew a map that showed
"X" marks the spot

on where Abraham body
was laying

in the Plant City area.

Plant City is –
is a farming community,

which is Hillsborough County.
We're Polk County.

So we have to call
the Hillsborough County

Sheriff's Office and say,
"Hey, we have this

two-, three-month investigation,
and here's where we're at.

We need to write a search
warrant for this property."

We tell Greg to call Dee Dee
and tell her

y'all are here
to dig up the body,

but there's police everywhere
and, um,

you don't know what to do.

We say, "Tell her to meet you

in the Lakeland Mall
parking lot."

So she agrees.

At this point, we're all

in the Lakeland Mall
parking lot.

And I walked straight
up to Dee Dee, and I go,

"Dee Dee, we got to talk."

She goes, "Yes, we do. We do.
We have to talk."

I take her in the interview room
and sit down.

She's like, "Thank God you guys
came up there when you did.

That guy owed Abraham money,
and I think he k*lled him,

and I think he was probably
gonna k*ll me."

[Chuckles] I go,
"All right, Dee Dee, listen,

I got some
really bad news for you.

I know who Greg Smith is.

I've known who Greg Smith is.

Every time you've talked
to Greg,

every time you've met with Greg,
I've been listening.

I've heard it all.
I know it all.

He works for us."

Dee Dee thought she outsmarted

everybody affiliated
with this case –

his friends, his family members.

She described Mike Smith
to a "T."

"I bet y'all didn't
know about him."

And I go,
"Well, listen, Dee Dee,

I do know about him.

His name's Mike Smith,
and he's a cop.

We sent him with Greg
to talk to you.

And we heard you
offer him $50,000.

We know all that."

She thinks for a minute.

And then she goes,
"Okay, but I didn't do it.

I didn't –
I didn't do anything.

I didn't k*ll him.
There was a drug deal.

There was a drug deal.
He's gonna k*ll my family.

This guy named Ronald
was gonna rob us,"

and she closes her eyes
and she says,

"I was standing there,
and we open the safe,

and there's a holster
in the safe.

It's got a g*n in it.

This guy – we just wanted
to give him the money.

He grabs the g*n,"
and she literally holds it up

and she – like she's
pulling the trigger

and shoots Abraham,
and she says, "Here and here."

And with her eyes closed,
she says,

"And Abraham goes, 'Why? Why?'

And he falls down and he dies.

And then they must
have buried him."

Although she didn't confess
or admit it,

that moment right there
will always stick with me,

because when she closed
her eyes,

she did relive that –
that m*rder right then.

She relived that.

And I go, "Dee Dee,
Abraham's never used drugs,

never sold drugs, never.
There's no Ronald."

Dee Dee started spinning
all sorts of tales.

She had another theory
where it was Greg Smith.

At one point,
she even blamed her own son,

saying that he was the one who
k*lled Abraham in self-defense.

Really, Dee Dee?

You're blaming this
on your 13-year-old son?

You're a sick lady.

Based on the information
Dee Dee provided Greg Smith,

on January 26, 2010,

police descend
on one of her properties

in Plant City, Florida,
and prepare to dig for a body.

We go out to the property

that we had already
identified in Plant City

that Dee Dee had purchased
with Abraham's money,

where there's a 30x30
concrete slab.

We were able to find
the business records

where she hired a paving company
come in

shortly after
Abraham's disappearance

and actually pour a concrete
slab in the backyard.

It took three days to dig
his body up from the ground.

And when the authorities said,
"We have skeletal remains,"

they wouldn't even confirm
on that third day

that the remains was Abraham's.

We had to wait for, um,
you know, positive I.D.

from the medical examiner's
office, but I knew.

I mean, I stood there
and looked at it and said,

"That's Abraham."

I'm there, and I'm seeing
the clothes Abraham's wearing.

I'm like, "Where have I seen
these clothes before?"

So when I get back to the
office, it was bothering me.

So I started looking
back on photos.

And then I remembered
the tape that Dee Dee gave us,

the video of Abraham saying,
"I want to go missing."

What's really eerie is
the clothes that he was wearing

when he filmed that video
in April of 2009,

are the same clothes
that he was found buried in

in January of 2010.

♪

♪

Nine months after he vanished,

the body of Abraham Shakespeare
has been found buried

under a concrete slab
in a Florida backyard.

We knew exactly what happened.

She made that video
at Abraham's house in Lakeland.

And then through
the phone records,

you can see Dee Dee
and Abraham leave that house,

travel together to Plant City.

Investigators learn that
Dee Dee's home in Plant City

was purchased
with Abraham's money.

They believe Abraham thought
Dee Dee kept a safe

full of his cash there.

Dee Dee walks in the house
with Abraham.

"Let me open the safe
and get you

all the money you want,
Abraham."

Opens the safe.

Takes the g*n out of the holster
and kills him.

[g*nshots]

And we learn through
the autopsy reports

that he was k*lled with
two b*llet wounds to the chest.

The room where the safe was,

we cut the carpet out,
and we did luminol tests.

And Abraham's blood was there.

So we know that it happened
in that room.

And we know that
that's where he was k*lled

and then ultimately
dragged out to the hole.

Dee Dee Moore is arrested

and charged
with first-degree m*rder.

She continues to insist
she had nothing to do

with the death
of Abraham Shakespeare.

No, I didn't.

No, you're not. No.

No.

Dee Dee was extremely calculating,

manipulative, cold.

This is someone who,
from the beginning,

had the intention
to take advantage of Abraham.

Early on, she ended up
taking control

of his money and his assets.

She was plotting against him
throughout their relationship.

And the best
that we can determine,

when Abraham realized
that she had fleeced him dry,

he probably confronted her,
and that's what led to

this last tragic piece
of the story –

k*lling him and burying him.

Dee Dee Moore's m*rder trial
begins on November 26th, 2012.

Even at trial, Dee Dee ended up

playing the drama queen
in the courtroom.

All sorts of histrionics
and breakdowns.

She had to be warned
multiple times by the judge.

The judge called her one of
the most manipulative persons

he'd ever seen set foot
in his courtroom.

Dee Dee buried her own self.

She buried Abraham,
but she buried her own self

with her desire
to be smarter than us,

with her desire
to come out on top.

And, um, you know,
we sit back sometimes and think,

what if she would
have just said,

"Hey, I got nothing to say.

Don't talk to me.
Stay away from me.

I want a lawyer"?

Who knows?

We may still be wondering
what happened to Abraham.

Dee Dee was convicted

of first-degree
premeditated m*rder.

The only possible sentence
was the one she got.

She was sentenced
to life in prison

with no possibility of parole,
and that's all we could ask for.

She had her freedom,

but she got greedy,

and all that went away.

- Uh huh.
- Still, to this day,

even from behind bars,

Dee Dee Moore
maintains her innocence.

No, this was not premeditated.

It wasn't something
I just mentally thought,

"Oh, I've got all
the man – man's money,

and now four months later,
I'm just gonna off him."

He was worth more to me alive. Alive.

Because his story was unique.

I thought it could make a movie.

The story
of Abraham Shakespeare

could have been written
by Shakespeare himself.

This is a rags-to-riches-to-rags
tragedy.

If you met him on the street
and you asked him for money,

he would give it to you.

It didn't matter
if you were a stranger.

I guess he felt like
it would never run out.

Abraham didn't want
to set himself apart

from the people he grew up with,

the people he hung out with

prior to him
winning the lottery.

He wanted to be seen
around town.

It was almost like
he was the big man on campus.

He was the same old Abraham.

People loved Abraham.
He was so giving.

Even after winning,
he never forgot.

His heart never changed.

He said, "If I lose it all
right now,

I've done
what I always wanted to do,

and that's win the lottery."

♪