tv 2020 ABC October 7, 2022 9:01pm-11:00pm PDT
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security video captures a little girl running around by herself, clutching a pillow. >> hair is just sticking up on my arms. it's giving me chills. >> so, we have this little girl in the parking lot, a little 3-year-old, and she has blood all over her feet. >> that's your mommy's car? where's mommy? >> there's blood on the front seat of the car. >> are you hurting, sweetheart? >> the car belongs to a woman named lynntell washington. >> everybody was concerned, certainly for this teacher of the year that just vanished. >> it's just a huge area to cover.
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>> pretty remote, too. >> very remote. >> she did not have any luck with men. hers was just jaw dropping. >> the thing is, it's a secret relationship. >> she asked, should i meet him face-to-face? and i told her yes. >> i said, yes and i should have said no. >> lyntell's daughter is in the backseat while off of this is going on. >> lyntell's daughter is in the backseat while off of this is going on. >> solving this murder comes down to a 3-year-old child. the only witness. is she in danger, too? >> i think the best way to describe baton rouge is that it's a smaller version of new orleans. >> it's the capital of louisiana. it gets that city vibe, but
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mostly it's just a very small town. >> it has the flavor, the culture, the people, and the history of a new orleans, but it's on a much smaller scale. >> baton rouge is right on the mississippi river, and it is a working port, one of the busiest in the country. >> if you think of baton rouge, you think of garth brooks. it's the motto of that city. ♪ i got to talk to the girls one more time ♪ >> garth brooks played at tiger stadium to about 102,000 people. >> the crowd got so loud it literally set off a seismograph, called it a garth quake. >> but behind that good time vibe is a troubling problem for baton rouge.
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>> a man's body dumped. >> the killing was brutal. >> a murder rate rivaling that of much larger cities. >> oh, yeah, they have -- definitely have a murder problem in baton rouge. >> security video captures a little girl running around by herself, clutching a pillow. >> and she's just walking around, a little 3-year-old. >> and no one knows who she is and why is she alone? i mean, this is a little child. >> someplace you wouldn't expect a little child walking around by themselves. >> my name is leslie parms. in 2016, i was driving for a company called family care, which is medical transportation. >> this good samaritan sees her. >> i noticed a young lady, a little girl, possibly about 3 years old. she was standing in the parking lot, about right here.
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>> he comes up to this child and he starts to converse with her. >> and he had asked that girl where her parents were. >> and she just kind of had this puzzled look on her face, and she was kind of teary eyed and distraught. and i asked her, i said, where's your mom? and she just kind of looked around, and i didn't see any adults out here with her, so i immediately called 911. this is leslie parms. i'm over on newcastle boulevard here, right off of sherwood. i have a child -- how old are you, sweetheart? >> 3. >> she's 3 years old. she's in a parking lot, standing here by herself with a pillow. no one's around, can't find anyone. i need an officer. >> okay. >> my passion is helping. and this child needed help, and i couldn't just pass by and feel comfortable not helping. >> there was a lot of chatter in the newsroom. the police scanner had picked up this call. >> i don't feel comfortable -- >> my name is brett buffington. i was a crime and breaking news reporter in baton rouge. there was a toddler walking around in a parking lot in south baton rouge. it sounded frantic.
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and then you hear, "and she's got blood on her." >> you hurt your foot? that's why you're bleeding? you have blood on your foot because you hurt it? so i asked her was she hurt. she said no. >> you said she was bleeding. do i need to send medical attention that way, an ambulance or -- >> i don't think so. i started to ask her questions, and we're relaying it to the 911 operator. but she actually could hear the little girl in the background speaking to me, because she's very articulate, very well-spoken little girl. she's out here by herself. i'm talking about 3 years old, no one around, holding a pillow. she was barefoot. that's kind of a concern as well, because you're out there, no shoes on in a parking lot. she is a black female. she has on shorts and a t-shirt with "cute" on it. >> okay. all right. we're going to send someone over there immediately. >> i was like, "you slept in the car all night?" she said, "yes." >> she's cute. she has a little shirt that says "cute" on it. but she's dirty, and she hasn't been taken care of and she's by herself.
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and i started asking her, well, where's mommy? where's mommy's car? and she pointed to her mom's car, which her mom's car was on the other end of the parking lot, closer to the fire hydrant. oh, my gosh. there's blood on the front seat of the car. >> okay. stay on the phone with me, okay? what kind of vehicle is it? >> it's a toyota corolla. >> there's a lot of blood in. >> it's a sizable amount of blood. it looks like something happened. that's the point when i walked to the car and saw the blood. something was really, really, really wrong for that much blood to be in the car. god, i hope this is not bad. >> you want me to stay on the phone with you? >> okay, i'll stay on the phone 'cause this baby here, she's terrified. >> i remember that 911 call vividly. >> come on. come on, guys. where y'all at? >> i'm checking for you. hang on, okay? >> i told them, something bad has happened at this location, so they need to get some officers to speed up and get over here. the woman's keys and her purse are in the car. >> okay. >> there's blood on both sides of the seat.
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a lot of blood, like somebody got hit with something. >> yeah. >> i don't know if she's in trouble somewhere. >> my name is brittany weiss. i am the "2 on your side" reporter at wbrz. i remember that day. we got a phone call. it was from someone who said that they found a little girl wandering alone by herself in a parking lot. we went out there, and we interviewed leslie parms that day, and he told us what he had found. >> just looking at the blood pool, i knew someone -- something happened really bad to someone, and it wasn't gonna be good at all. >> it was hot. it was steamy, the type of heat that you would not want to leave a child in a car or abandoned. >> did mommy bleed? mommy was bleeding? >> yeah. >> did you see where the blood was coming from? where was it coming from? >> from my mommy.
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>> this dash cam, the important thing is the audio. >> do you know where your mommy went? >> yeah. >> where at? can you point in the direction she went? >> my mommy is -- we were supposed to go to the beach. >> and you're hearing the same story from the 3-year-old, given to mr. parms and then given to the police officers who respond. >> that car has got a lot of blood in it. that little girl got blood on her feet. she said somebody hurt her mama. which, you know, 3 years old. i'm about to run the plate. >> police check the registration on the car, and they find out that the car belongs to a woman named lyntell washington. and she is the mother of the little girl that they have found. >> lyntell washington, teacher at a middle school. and no one heard from her. she didn't call in. she just didn't show up to teach her class. >> and i knew instantly something is wrong. >> she would never allow her
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daughter to be alone, never. >> we're not using the name or showing the face of lyntell's daughter to protect her privacy. >> yeah, you got a little blood on your foot. they're gonna take care of that, okay? >> i have to take a bath to get the blood off my feet. >> yeah, you got to take a bath. we're going to get you cleaned up, okay? okay, just be patient, all right? >> i drove into that parking lot. they stopped me and they said, ma'am, you can't go over that way. it is a crime scene. and i said, where is lyntell? >> the hair is just sticking up on my arms. it's giving me chills hearing this. >> immediately it was clear that something sinister had occurred. >> you're obviously thinking the worst case scenarios. what happened to this woman? >> and then to just find out what actually happened was extraordinary, shocking to the senses. shingles.
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“solsbury hill” by peter gabriel hello, little one. welcome to the “great unknown.” not the “ok unknown.” or the “underwhelming unknown.” it's the “great unknown” for a reason. it's a world of endless possibilities and adventures you can't even imagine. toyota. let's go places. here's liz, whose bladder leaks drop in uninvited.
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the investigation started thursday when washington's 3-year-old daughter was found wandering around a parking lot. >> when we showed up at that scene, we quickly realized, okay, this mother of this child is missing. >> police have figured out a few things. they figured out who the little girl is. who the car belongs to. but lyntell washington herself is still missing. >> foul play is not ruled out. >> where is she? >> lyntell washington and her
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daughter lived in a one-bedroom apartment very close to where lyntell's car was found. >> detectives want to know why lyntell's daughter and car wound up in that parking lot when her home is just down the street. >> security cameras in the area are able to fill in the holes of what happened. >> detectives rewind that parking lot security video back to 11:30 the night before. and bingo. there's a car consistent with lyntell's toyota corolla heading toward her apartment. now watch. it stops, turns around, and pulls into the lot, parking off camera. is that lyntell? or is it somebody else behind the wheel? it's just too dark to see. >> so here's lyntell washington.
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she's missing. we've got her little girl walking around, and there's blood everywhere. so the police want to find out what's going on in her life. >> this friend tells me lyntell washington is passionate, knowledgeable, and trusting. >> lyntell washington, she was a teacher at a middle school. you talk to her friends, she was well respected in the community. >> lyntell washington's nickname is "puffy." that was a name she had since her childhood. >> she was loyal, dedicated, and hardworking. >> very funny, very passionate, very kind person. we didn't call ourselves friends. we called ourselves sisters. >> her name was very, very important to her. she didn't want anything attached to her name that was negative, that was bad, and she wanted to be a great mother. >> lyntell washington has a twin
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sister named cyntell. >> she had a twin sister. >> yes. >> identical twin. >> i can tell them apart, but, yeah, they're identical. >> lyntell's friends share that she has been married and divorced, and eventually meets darren glasper. >> she meets darren at a barbecue. and then he sees cyntell. and so he says, oh, there are two of them. but he wanted lyntell. >> what was it about lyntell that grabbed your attention? >> her presence just, like, lit up the whole neighborhood. >> were they a solid couple? >> they were solid. yes. in the beginning, yes. >> did she talk about family and wanting to have children? >> when we first began dating, she told me she had surgery. and that they told her she was
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unable to conceive. >> and so she didn't think that she could have kids. >> and lo and behold, maybe a year after that, she found out she was pregnant. she didn't believe it. i didn't believe it. >> girl, i will be married. >> during this time, i was planning my wedding. and so when she found out she was pregnant, even though i knew i would be down one bridesmaid, i couldn't even be upset because we were so busy celebrating that you about to be a mother. >> was she happy? was he happy? >> was she happy? remember, she thought she couldn't have kids. and so she is ecstatic. >> so it's kind of a miracle pregnancy. >> it's a miracle pregnancy, yes. >> was there talk of marriage and really making this permanent? >> yeah, it really was. but i also had some issues and some demons i was dealing with.
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>> when you say demons -- >> yeah, i was still influenced by alcohol and drugs. it was wise that we decided to go separate ways until i got myself together. we actually broke up when she became eight months pregnant. >> lyntell washington's been recognized as teacher of the year in east baton rouge. this school year she worked as the instructional specialist at brookstown middle. >> ms. washington -- i called her ms. washington. she was my eighth grade social studies teacher. >> lyntell washington, she moved to baton rouge to start a new life. she had come from new orleans, and everything is actually looking great. >> she was a really good teacher. she always had a bright smile every time i walked into the classroom. >> what made her a good teacher?
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>> her heart. lyntell had a loving, caring heart, and no matter what those children did, no matter where they came from, she gave them everything she had. >> she used to listen to this one song that i -- i couldn't stand this song. oh, my goodness, it's the one where the lady says -- - ♪ i need a refill ♪ ♪ so can i get a refill ♪ >> i was like, "oh, my goodness, why does she need this refill? like, she's not satisfied? what's the problem? and so she was like, "oh, this is my song. i love this song." and now i love the song. that's what she really needed. she was looking for this refill of love that she just wasn't finding. >> did you get the impression that she was looking for love, jamicia? >> sure. but she didn't really connect with anybody. >> lyntell did not have any luck with men.
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i mean, probably none of us, but hers was just jaw-dropping, like, crazy stuff. >> but then lyntell meets somebody new. a relationship develops. the thing is, it's a secret relationship. >> somebody at school. >> she tells me that she's seeing him and she's not supposed to say anything. ah! come on! let's hide in the attic. no. in the basement. why can't we just get in the running car? are you crazy? let's hide behind the chainsaws. smart. yeah. ok. if you're in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. it's what you do. this was a good idea. shhhh. be quiet. i'm being quiet. you're breathing on me! if you want to save even more, you bundle your home and car insurance with geico. it's what you do. head to the cemetery! who's on it with jardiance?
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3-year-old. >> that's your mommy's car? where's mommy? you just stick with me. you're going to be fine. can i get the police over here? >> i remember going home, and i called my mom. and i just said, hey, i just wanted to tell you i love you. tough story today, a little 3-year-old girl, and it's not gonna be good. >> when we unfortunately, you know, had to bring her back to the house and -- and bathe her, when we washed her, the color of the water changed a bit because of the fact that she had blood on her. and she kept making comments about her mom and what had happened to her mother. >> lyntell has this identical twin named cyntell. she rushes to baton rouge to come get her niece. >> when she walked through that door, i thought i was looking at a ghost. >> did she look that much like her sister? >> so much like her sister that her daughter ran to her. >> instantaneously this girl's like, my mommy's back. my mommy's back. >> mommy.
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she said, are you okay, mommy? and she was looking. you could tell she was checking to see if her mother -- like, physically checking to see if her mother was okay. >> she thinks cyntell is her mom. and wow. >> she, um -- she had a good ma. she had a great mother. >> that little girl's mother is nowhere to be found. lyntell is gone to no one knows where. so now the attention begins to turn to the people in her life. >> i had a dream the night before, and i called her, and i left a voicemail on the phone. and i said, puffy, i just had the craziest dream that you was pregnant with a little girl. from there, i don't believe she ever everyone received that message. and i'm like, lord, i left this message on her phone. i hope these people don't think i have nothing to do with this. >> you don't where she is.
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you know, hopefully she's alive. so, you want to find out who's in her world, what's happening in her world that's different. ♪ >> his name was dr. robert marks. he was the assistant principal at brookstown. >> i'm assistant principal. robert marks is the other assistant principal. >> lyntell washington and robert marks start work at this middle school at about the same time. >> every time i see him in the hallway, he would always be, like, smiling and waving and saying hi. >> he was a very nice, kind man. >> this is a guy from the north side of baton rouge who was successful. he had a ph.d in education. >> just a good guy. highly educated. making good money. >> when lyntell started working, after she got the job, she didn't like robert marks. she was not attracted to him,
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mnh-mnh. no. she was like, "oh, no, girl, he this tall." at what point did you know that she was interested in robert marks? >> she started speaking a little softer about this guy, who reminded me of george jefferson. she shows me a picture of him. and so i say,"okay, he's nice looking. and she just started beaming. she started smiling. >> nobody at the school knows about the affair between the teacher and the assistant principal. did you have any inkling that they had a relationship? >> not at all. now, she did kind of say, i think he's so cute. do you think he's cute? you know? and i'm like, who? and she said, you know, yeah, you know, dr. marks. i said, girl, no. not at all. >> the thing is, it's a secret relationship, because robert marks is married. >> had a wife. beautiful wife. beautiful kids. >> we knew that he was married, bt never saw the wife. and he didn't wear his wedding ring.
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>> he wanted to take her out, and she asked him -- she said, aren't you married? >> he has told lyntell washington that he's very unhappy, that he is divorcing his wife, and that he's in love with her and wants to have a life with her. >> he assured her that it's a divorce. they're separated. he did say that there was this two-story house and the wife was upstairs and he was downstairs. >> they do live together, but they live on separate floors. >> he would go to her house. they would cook. her daughter was there. so she knew that it was one of these complicated situations, but she can only go by what he was showing her. she calls. he answers. he's available, so he's not moving like a married man. >> was she in love? >> yes, she was. i think she had her disappointments. and so now finally she gets someone who's dr. robert marks.
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and he wants her. he's pursuing her. >> with her motmmissing, that little girl, as you can hear on this police dash cam video, she soon begins innocently revealing family secrets. >> my mommy got a baby in her tummy. >> your mommy got a baby in her tummy? >> she was like, i got something to tell y'all. and it was like, what is it? and she was like, i'm pregnant. >> who learns that she's pregnant first? did she reveal it to you? >> oh, yes. she did. >> i'm two months pregnant. my baby looks so beautiful in my womb. >> and i'm like, oh, my goodness, what is he saying? and she tells me, he's happy. >> in lyntell's apartment, detectives will later find sonograms tracking her pregnancy, including one with an announcement on it -- i'm a girl. >> she says, dallon, that's the name. she said, ooh, i love it. then she tells it to robert marks. she texts me back and she says,
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girl, he loves the name. so he was excited about the name, and he was excited about the pregnancy. so, she was getting her family. >> the week before she goes missing, lyntell finally reveals the relationship to her boss and friend, jamicia. >> she said, this baby is for robert marks. >> she's pregnant with robert marks' baby? >> right, right. i said, girl, stop playing. and she said, no, i'm serious. >> jamicia payne knew what was going on. lyntell washington had apparently told her everything. she knew all the secrets. >> the pieces of the puzzle start to become very clear. >> she was saying, "i'm going to let his wife know what's going on."
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everybody was concerned, certainly, you know, for this teacher, this teacher of the year that just vanished out nowhere. >> for 20 plus years, melissa mason has been spending time with her best friend. they're like sisters. she says washington has been in a relationship with robert marks since early last year. >> he sounded like he was going to be someone that was a part of her life and the baby's life. >> robert tells lyntell that he's going on a trip for a few days. he's going to panama city to go to a family reunion. >> a family reunion like his mama, his daddy, you know, his sister. >> in fact, he's on a cruise with his wife. she saw a picture of robert and his wife on a cruise. she saw it on social media. >> she says, does this look like a couple that's going through a
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divorce? and i said, no. >> she spent the whole weekend trying to get in contact with him, and he was away on his trip. and so, she was getting more and more upset, angry, mad. she was saying, i'm going to his house. i'm going to go over there and i'm going to let his wife know what's going on. >> lyntell gets to robert's house, and there's a huge revelation. remember how she believed that they lived on separate floors, because they were getting a divorce? >> she says, girl, i went to the house. it's a trailer. she said, girl, that boy told me he stayed in this two-story house. he lives in a damn trailer, girl. >> and she says, he thinks he's going to ruin my life and go on with his life? he's not going to ruin my life.
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he's going to pay child support, and i'm going to tell his wife. she said, oh, i'm going to tell the wife. she was upset. >> by the time robert returns from his cruise on june 6th, he has got one angry lyntell washington waiting for him, and he knows he's got a problem. >> she said, are you lying to me? just tell me the truth. and so she texted that. >> lyntell sends a blunt text message to marks, questioning whether he is committed to her and to their unborn baby girl. >> just keep it 100% with me. do you really want me? or are you quitting to run away from your responsibilities with me and our unborn daughter? >> it was like, no, are you trying to skip town to avoid taking care of the baby? are you trying to leave?
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and so on. >> at some point, he suggested they get together or somebody wants to meet face-to-face. >> she says, do you think i should meet him face-to-face? and i said yes. i said, this way you'll know if he's lying. i said, look him in his face and see if he's lying. >> it was pretty clear cut that the last person who was with her was robert marks and the last person who had seen her was robert marks. >> we have to find him, find out where she was the night before. and talk to him and figure out where this young lady is right now. >> all right, mr. marks, i'm detective woodring. this is my sergeant. >> baton rouge police take robert marks in for questioning. >> robert, we are looking for lyntell. we believe you know where she's at. >> i don't know where she is. i tried to call her this morning, and i sent her a text. she hasn't replied to it. >> he tells police that he saw
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lyntell washington last night, the night before, for about a half hour. >> was she alone? >> no, her and her daughter. >> they were in her car? >> yes. >> what car were you in? >> i was riding a motorcycle. >> i see he holds his hands a lot towards his face, a clear sign he's lying. >> he explains that they just talked. >> he immediately admits to the affair. >> doesure wife know about her? >> mnh-mnh. >> and his wife did not know about the affair. >> well, i think se does now. did she ever threaten to talk to your wife? >> no. >> never? >> never. >> so, that would be news to you that she had planned on talking to your wife? >> yeah, that would be. >> robert marks, originally when he's questioned by detectives, he says, yes, i was with lyntell. and then afterwardss she went her separate ways and i went and
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hung out at a restaurant. >> where'd you go after you saw her? >> just rode around a little bit. passed by twin peaks. >> and when robert marks was talking to investigators, we find out that he's got an alibi. >> he tells police that the night before, he was watching the basketball game. >> with one minute left to go in the game, the score remains -- >> he tells them that he's at a local bar called twin peaks. >> twin peaks is the equivalent to hooters. >> she's not just missing. >> what do you mean she's not just missing? >> just what i said, she's not just missing. we have evidence that she's hurt bad. we got enough blood in the car to -- >> to assume that she's dead. >> yeah. >> so, the last person, the last adult to see her alive was marks. that is a big, big deal in an investigation. >> but first, an even bigger
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deal -- finding lyntell washington. at this point, she's not just a missing piece, she's the entire puzzle. >> active scene is unfolding as detectives search for lyntell washington. >> so, literally everybody was glued to the tv. everybody was glued to news coverage trying to figure out, okay, where is this woman? >> one of our reporters got a tip that there was a large police presence on the other side of the river. >> there's a massive, 50-plus law enforcement officers in the air, on atvs, with canines. there's this huge search effort. >> we've learned they've searched a six-mile radius from that command post. >> iberville parish is 575 square miles. you wanna get rid of a body, this is a good place to go. so. the new iphone 14 pro. it's amazing. yep, the camera's incredible. and you'll get our best deal. nice.
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lyntell washington didn't show up to work, something she's never done before. >> you have a woman who's five months pregnant. she's missing. >> her little girl is alone and abandoned, and there's a lot of blood in her car. >> the immediate concern is, what's happened to her and where is she? >> it was something that i was just in shock about because this is really happening. and it was really my friend that was missing. >> police say washington lives in this area off sherwood forest. they're searching for her. >> they were quick with putting clues together. within a day they knew where they needed to be searching. >> police are being guided in their search by cell phone records. where lyntell appeared to have been that night. one of the areas is across the mississippi from baton rouge.
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>> one of our reporters got a tip that there was a large police presence on the other side of the river. >> friday around 10:00 a.m., chief investigator chris nakamoto got a tip brpd's dive team was heading ramah to search waterways. >> we're here in iberville parish where an active scene is unfolding as detectives search for lyntell washington. >> there were people just scouring the scene about 25 miles west of baton rouge in an area called iberville parish, right adjacent to the atchafalaya basin. >> we have detailed information that directed us to this location. we have detailed information that pointed us to the baker, zachary, and st. francisville areas. >> if you leave baton rouge and drive west here 30 miles, you're in iberville parish. >> it was a massive search effort. in the air, on atvs, and on foot.
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>> it's remote. it's rural. it's farmland. it's sugarcane fields. you're not around civilization out there. >> i still was telling myself, she's okay. but then i was thinking, she's being eaten by alligators, because i start hearing these crazy stories about maybe he dropped her in the bayou. it was a lot of crazy thoughts going through my head. >> the water, the bayous, the cane fields and these different things. it was a massive area for them to end up having to search to try to find her. >> we've learned that they have searched a 6-mile radius from that command post that you're now looking at live from sky eye 2. >> now, there are members from state police, the iberville parish sheriff's office, the baton rouge police department aong with the east baton rouge parish sheriff's office, all behind me. >> police believe the former teacher of the year could be in the waters of this bayou near ramah.
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>> we had got a call from the baton rouge police department saying that -- and we had seen it in the local news -- that they were looking for this young lady. > chief criminal deputy ronnie hebert took me to that rural area where his department conducted a massive search for lyntell washington in june of 2016. >> you had heard there was a woman missing and a little child that was found. >> right. >> she had blood on her feet. what did that tell you about this case? >> well, it tells me that the person that was responsible for it was very callous. >> did your gut instinct tell you anything? >> i was hoping and praying that they would find her alive, but my gut instinct told me that she would probably be deceased. >> considering that there was foul play suspected, i don't think that hopes were high that they were going to find lyntell alive. >> in order to find out who hurt that 3-year-old little girl's mommy, in order to take that
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person and give them the justice for this family, they had to find lyntell washington. >> how big is the search? >> this is a massive area. cane fields, a lot of water. it's just a huge area to cover. >> pretty remote too. >> very remote. when you get off that interstate, it's a different world. >> the twin span here is i-10. i-10 west, i-10 east coming this way to baton rouge. this is the main corridor between baton rouge, lake charles, and further on into texas. >> sheriff brett stasi launched a couple of boats to show us one of the first places he and his deputies thought to look. it's a place called whiskey bay.
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>> it's actually beautiful back there. pretty treacherous place. we had received some information from a cell phone tower. immediately we thought about potential places to dump the body right here. so that's one of the first places we looked. >> when we heard this is where they were searching, nobody was surprised. >> we were drawn here because of this place's history. you want to get rid of a body, this is a good place to go. >> and look, all investigators, coroners, they -- you know, look, we want to find the body fairly quickly, preserve evidence, things like that. >> in south louisiana, with this heat and this humidity, a body will decompose very rapidly. that makes timing and finding the body, get it to the autopsy quick, and determine cause of
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death, especially in a homicide case, time is important. >> and tonight news 2's brett buffington is above in sky eye 2. brett, as i understand it, you've got some information you're just learning. >> sylvia, just within the last ten minutes confirming with the iberville parish sheriff and the baton rouge police department spokesperson that this search is in the phases of wrapping up. >> sun starts going down. no luck.he for e dy of ell washington. >> they did not locate her. >> police suspended the search, and i think people were initially really upset about that, because they knew that time was of the essence and it was fleeting. >> now police are hopeful someone will come forward with information as they work leads, an attempt to figure out exactly what happened to lyntell washington. >> this was the lead story in baton rouge.
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three reporters some days covering this, i mean, from the morning through the day and into the evening. lyntell washington's face was on the news. the police were asking for people to call in and give tips. >> if anybody saw anything that seems to be out of place, please give us a call. >> they had to be in the right area. they had the cell phone data. they searched. they searched. they searched. and finally, on the fifth day, they got a break. >> washington's cell phone was trace in the rosedale, that's in ibarville parish. >> if it were not for this 3-year-old, they would not have had a first-hand account of who was in the car and who did this to lyntell without that girl. >> who made the blood in the car? >> solving the crime comes down to a child. welcome to allstate where the safer you drive, the more you save like rachel here how am i looking? looking good! the most cautious driver we got am i there? no keep going how's that? i'll say when
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what did you hear when mommy got hurt? what did you hear with your ears? >> my ears! ow! >> is mommy in the lake? >> yeah. >> what you mean she's found? found where? i just couldn't process she was dead. like, what? >> was there any doubt in your mind when they found her body? >> there was no doubt in my mind from day one. now i knew this was murder. >> you want the get rid of a body, this is the place to go. >> would anything have led you
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back here searching? >> it's obvious this child sat there and watched this entire odeal happen in front of her. >> she's the key witness. she can identify him. >> everything he's doing in the dark is now coming to light. >> he played all these grown women, but he couldn't play this 3-year-old. >> i have a child -- how old are you, sweetheart? >> 3. >> she's 3 years old. she is standing in a parking lot holding a pillow. >> when i heard that lyntell's daughter was found wandering the parking lot and she had blood on her feet, i knew, this is not right. i knew something else was wrong. lyntell washington had been and then this whole week, jamicia and i, we would be on
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the phone with each other, like 3:00 in the morning, we're just waking up crying. >> i was still praying that she wasn't dead. but at that point, as the days went on, you know, you're getting more and more of the likelihood of her not being alive. so, yeah. >> "two" over a swamp where police are searching for a missing teacher. >> this was a huge story. it made headlines every day. it led the top of our newscast every day. everybody wanted to know where lyntell was. >> they searched. they searched. they searched. and finally, on the fifth day thy got a break. >> i received a call from the guy that owns the land here in rosedale. and he said, monty, look, i'm in grand isle. one of my workers located a body in our drainage ditch.
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i called major hebert. he said, hey, look, monty, i think this is probably going to be the school teacher. we need to get on up there and secure the scene. >> straight down here, this little -- it's called a headland. this road will end where her body was located at. >> well, this is certainly off the beaten path. >> it is, really. as you see, all the cane they got, right? >> right. >> and it's miles and miles of cane. the only people that would come here would be the workers that raised this cane. >> so, you got the call, and where had they found the body? >> right up in this area right here. in that time, they had some water in this ditch. becuase to me, it was a watery grave. >> and there was no question in your mind she had been dumped there? >> absolutely. she was transferred, dumped.
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>> it's very humid. we have a lot of flies, bring maggots. and a body can deteriorate in such a rapid pace. she was so badly decomposed. >> what i can say is that we know it to be a female. and that's all we can say at this particular time. >> our indication is that this is probably the person that we have been missing. >> physical evidence also indicates that the unidentified female is likely lyntell. >> the police had asked me what she was wearing, and i was able to go through the school's camera system and identify what she had on. >> the clothes match the clothes that lyntell wore to school on the last day she was seen. on that security camera footage, police zero in on lyntell's sandals. >> when we discovered the body, we noticed that the left sandal was there.
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when we found the car with the blood in it, on the passenger side, we found the right foot sandal. there was only one. >> the two sandals matched, which is actually pretty significant given the facts of the case. >> these investigators were very confident at that point that they had found the body of lyntell washington. they still had to confirm it. >> we were notified initially by the iberville parish coroners office. they had come across the decedent in a field. in this case, the manner of death was homicide, and the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. >> a distinguished teacher, a mom -- a mom who was pregnant has been found dead, shot in the head, found dead in a ditch. i mean, what kind of person would do this? >> melissa and i kept in touch. we were texting throughout. she was asking me, do you think
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that this is lyntell? and i said, well, i think we just have to wait and see. i think it was a few days later. the coroner had said, we were able to identify the body as lyntell washington with dental records. >> friends of lyntell remained hopeful, but tonight they gatter to remember the person she was. >> i remember i just dropped to the floor. and then my husband caught me. i couldn't even stand up because i'm like, what you mean she was found? found where? i just couldn't process she was found dead. like, what? >> my main concern at that point was her daughter. and keeping her away from the television, because they were constantly running the pictures
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and the -- you know, slain teacher and all of these different things on the news. >> i knew her. like, this is something i feel like if you was reading on the news you go, wow, i feel so bad for her students. and then you realize, i am one of her students. that story was connected to the school forever. >> her daughter, staying with family members, now without a mom. >> that was one of the hardest things i had to deal with, just to hear those words. "we found her." and that day just -- that changed my life forever. >> in what ways? >> that i knew i had to do better now. i knew that enough was enough of the life i was living, the choices i've made. this child's going to need her father in her life. >> as if lyntell's murder wasn't devastating enough, there's a second victim, her unborn child. >> we took a measurement of the fetus' femur. when the femur becomes a certain length, it equates to a certain
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gestational age. it was about 22 weeks gestation. >> even after the trauma of lyntell washington being shot in the head, the coroner believed that the child in there was -- would have been able to be saved. >> through dna testing, police determine that lyntell washington was indeed carrying robert marks' baby. >> the dna of robert marks matched the dna of that baby. that was his baby. jamicia has told us that there was some bickering going back and forth between the two of them. >> he was the father of the child, and that lyntell was threatening to tell his wife. so, we figured we had a motive. that was a huge piece of -- of evidence to support what we had been -- been hearing and thinking. >> was there any doubt in your mind once they found her body? >> there was no doubt in my mind from day one. now that i understood that it was murder, i knew that he had done it.
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>> but police need proof. they've got a witness, lyntell's 3-year-old daughter. what will she say? >> who hurt mommy? who put blood in the car? olive garden's never ending pasta bowl is back. which means the never-ending pasta you crave is back. enjoying them with homemade sauces and topping them off again and again? that's back too. going back for seconds? even thirds? back and back. starting it all off with our never ending first course? well, that's always been here. never ending pasta bowl, it's back, starting at $13.99. olive garden. we're all family here. (cecily) adam, look-y what i got... (asdam) is that the new iphone 14 pro? never ending pasta bowl, it's back, starting at $13.99.
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authorities now know that lyntell was indeed killed with a single bullet to her head. but what they don't know is who pulled the trigger. while they're searching for clues and they are looking everywhere, investigators go back to that statement that lyntell's daughter made the day they found her in that parking lot. >> here i am. see, i'm not going. i'm not going to leave you, i promise. okay? i'm going to stay here with you till somebody comes, all right? once she became comfortable with talking with me and realized that i was there to help, you know, she opened up more. >> so, we have a copy of the 911 call. >> okay. >> and when you're ready, just push play. >> okay.
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are you hurting, sweetheart? are you hurting? what's wrong? tell me. >> mr. robbie's gone. >> mr. robbie's gone? what happened to mr. robbie? that's the -- that's the first time she mentioned mr. robbie. at that point. she said, "mr. robbie's gone." she knew who left her in the parking lot. >> the little girl is very verbal, and she's very aware of the blood in the car. she says, mr. robbie put the blood there. >> mr. robbie did that. >> mr. robbie did that blood? she said mr. robbie did that blood. mr. robbie made that blood happen? did he hit your mommy? he hit your mommy? oh -- okay. tell them they might wanna step it up if they can.
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>> yeah, i let them know. >> at this point, i mean, it's obvious that this child sat there and watched this entire ordeal happen right in front of her. now i'm pissed, because whatever happened, happened in front of this child, and this child was left and abandoned in the parking lot by mr. robbie. >> and then he has to wait quite a while for a response from the police, all the while getting more information, finding out more what's happening. >> okay, they're about five minutes away, okay? >> oh, yeah, tell them that's not good. >> okay. >> they need to step it up a little bit. >> they're going to send somebody out there. >> when police finally get there, the little girl keeps talking. the audio is captured on a police dashboard camera. >> and of course, the police are trying to figure out, well, who's mr. robbie? like, no one knows who mr. robbie is. >> so, who made the blood? who made the blood in the car?
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>> mr. robbie. >> okay, who is mr. robbie? >> is he your daddy? >> we've got a 3-year-old who said, mr. robbie hurt my mom. well, the police have no idea at that point who that person is until the friend and co-worker, jamicia, shows up at the scene. she called me the lady. so she said, lady, mr. robbie hurt my mommy. >> the 3-year-old says this to you? >> yeah. so i'm like, what? mr. robby? and i'm still trying to process who mr. robby is. mr. robby, mr. robby. i said, wait, mr. robby from the school, mr. robby? and she was shaking her head. >> mr. robbie is the name lyntell's daughter called robert marks. jamicia tells police that marks is an assistant principal at the school where she and lyntell work. >> i said, okay, so -- to the
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police officer, i said, they were in a relationship. i said, he would be the first place that i would start. i was also responsible for taking her to the counseling center for them to get her testimony. >> they do these forensic interviews of children with people who are specifically skilled in this area to interview a child without further traumatizing them. >> you have to protect her because you don't know what's down the line for her psychologically. but understand that she's vital to your case. so she's a valuable asset in the investigation. >> as counselors are coloring with this child, they're asking her about her favorite food. they're asking her about what here hobbies are, what she likes. and in the midst of those questions, they're also asking her, what happened to mommy? what happen to your mom? >> you're about to hear the actual audio from the interview that authorities did with lyntell's 3-year-old daughter. >> who put blood in the car? >> mr. robbie. >> during the forensic interview, a little bit more
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information comes out that's really important. >> what did you hear when mommy got hurt? what did you hear with your ears? >> i hear the boom! >> did you see mr. robbie hurt mommy? >> yes, ma'am. >> awesome evidence. when we found the body, we did find that she was shot in the head, so that corroborated what the little girl said. >> you hear the little girl in her own voice saying, mr. robbie put the blood in my car. i heard a bang. my mama started shaking. my mama's asleep by a lake. >> is mommy in the lake? >> yes. >> the irrigation ditch is where she was in the sugarcane field. what is that? filled with water at the time. could that be the water that the daughter was talking about? >> that means she must have been back here. >> this ditch was full of water. she must have been here. she must have been here.
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>> she played all these grown women, he couldn't play a 3-year-old. >> but marks insists that he has no idea what the 3-year-old is talking about. >> you know her daughter's pretty intelligent. >> absolutely. yes, i do. >> okay, well, we've spoken with her daughter. why would her daughter say you hurt her? >> hurt who? >> lyntell. >> hurt her feelings? >> no, no. physically harmed her. why would she say that? >> i don't know. >> investigators are unwilling to pin their entire case on a 3-year-old. but it turns out there is another witness, a silent witness that was with lyntell and marks the entire time. >> everything he's doing in the dark is now coming to light. who's on it with jardiance? ♪ ♪ we're the ones getting it done. we're managing type 2 diabetes and heart risk. we're on it with jardiance.
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forever be haunted by the advice she gave lyntell, just days before her friend disappeared. >> when we got off the phone, the only thing she asked was, should i meet him face-to-face? and i told her yes. i said, that way, you'll know if he's telling the truth. and so -- that was hard for me because i said yes, and i should have said no. >> now lyntell washington is dead, and police are hoping that that very phone she used in her last conversation with melissa might help solve her murder. >> so robert marks, originally when he's questioned by detectives, he says, yes, i was with lyntell. >> when's the last time you saw her? >> i saw her yesterday at the walmart.
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>> what car were you in? >> i was riding a motorcycle. >> a motorcycle? > yes. >> he said afterwards she went her separate ways and i went and hung out with the guys at a restaurant. that's not what happened according to his cell phone records. >> he made a lot of mistakes. and your job as an investigator is find the perpetrator's stak evy name is sy ray. my role in investigations like this, as a subject matter expert in geolocation, is to analyze data that is captured by the cellphone carriers. >> investigators pull cellphone records for both marks and lyntell from the hours before and after she went missing. >> when we get these records back from the phone company, they're ruminates. they're hard to interpret. it's just a bunch of data. and they're hard to read. we have a system that we can map those and visualize that. and that's what we're looking at here. and when we look at this data, we can actually see travel patterns, how people are driving around town. a lot of people wonder, what is
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it that i do with my cellphone that creates some type of record that i could be tracked by? and it's really anything and everything. sometimes doing nothing, just having my phone sit on a counter completely in idle mode but powered on, it is generating a digital exhaust, if you will, or a trail. >> you don't have to be on that phone. so if you've got spotify, pandora, if you've got any app, anything running at any time on your phone, it's rolling. it's pinging. you don't have to be on that phone. one of those apps is receiving some data. > red icons are lyntell's device. blue icons are robert's device. where i'm starting here is we're looking at when both of them were at home before lyntell leaves her house that night. >> we know that robert marks texted lyntell washington. he said he wanted to meet up. she drove from her house up to baker. >> the data confirms at least part of robert marks' statement
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to police. he and lyntell did meet up near the baker walmart a little after 8:00 the night lyntell disappeared. >> she comes up there in her car with her baby in the back seat. she meets robert marks. he pulls up on a motorcycle. he gets into the car. >> we tried to find cameras that would pick up that area, but the parking lot where the motorcycle was left had no video. so we relied on the phone records. >> he says he left her at baker louisiana, at a walmart. but he got into a car with her. >> if you remember, red icons are lyntell's device. blue icons are robert's device. but you can see here briefly we're starting to get a purple icon. and of course, what we're seeing with the purple is that when red and blue are overlaid directly on top of each other, we're getting this purple color. this is just a really good indication that these two devices are traveling together. >> the phone ends up in the north end of the parish, above southern university. baton rouge police department
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and sheriff's office has a pistol range out in that area. and it's really kind of a secluded area. not a lot of reason for the phone to go there. >> our evidence shows that she was killed there. it would not have surprised the neighbors because it's a shooting range. >> after a time in this sparsely populated area, about 10 minutes, the phones are on the move again. >> he takes the huey p. long old mississippi river bridge, and he takes highway 190 and ends up going to ramah. >> we're kind of out in the middle nowhere now off of i-10, and both devices are gonna stop together for a period of about 30 minutes. and there's really nothing out there to stop at. ultimately, lyntell will be found in this area.
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>> he murders lyntell, drives her to this agricultural area, dumps her body. and this whole time, lyntell's daughter, who is 3 years old, is in the backseat of the car while all of this is going on. >> the records then show marks' and lyntell's phones traveling east right back into baton rouge. >> he comes back, heading east on interstate-10. and then her phone goes offline. >> you'll notice here is that we only see blue. we will no longer see the red device because it is now powered off. >> the assumption then was that her phone was maybe tossed into lake, at that point. >> so, it's 11:00 at night. robert marks has hidden lyntell's body, and he's gotten rid of her phone. now he's gotta deal with her blood-soaked car and her 3-year-old daughter.
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>> that car was in was parked over off of sherwood forest. and that morning, this baby, this 3-year-old child had gotten out of the car. >> this type of evidence, you really want. it's irrefutable. he was with her after walmart. he lied. he lied then. he lied throughout this entire event. >> it's important to remember that this is an ongoing affair. they're communicating constantly. and what's interesting about this is she goes missing, and guess who stops calling her phone? and that's because he knows lyntell washington is in a sugar cane field, she's dead, and she's not going to answer the phone. >> marks isn't contacting lyntell, but it doesn't mean he's finished making his calls for the night. >> he calls another lady friend. he's dating another woman. he started texting the other girl. come meet me here by sherwood forest. o. it's amazing. yep, the camera's incredible.
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once police confirm that that is indeed lyntell washington who they found dead in a ditch, police then charge robert marks with her murder. they charge him with feticide, the murder of the unborn baby, and several other charges. >> does it upset you that she's dead? >> the outside world is definitely pointing the finger at robert marks and saying, oh, he has done a lot of horrible things. but his wife is standing up and defending him and saying he's a good man. >> wife kala says she is stunned by the arrest of her husband. >> she described to legal commentator nancy grace the man she loves is not a man accused of murder. >> did you have any idea that they were having an affair? >> i did not. i did not. not one clue. >> i can only assume that she did that because her husband told her he was totally innocent
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and she was believing what robert had to say. >> within a couple of days of -- of robert marks being arrested, he had two lawyers. they, of course, have to go to work. >> they don't have a case. any dna evidence, i would challenge that has been contaminated. the body lay in the field for many, many days. >> but police say they've got another witness. cellphone records show that robert marks returns to baker to get his motorcycle around 11:00 on the night lyntell is murdered. but if he leaves the 3-year-old and lyntell's toyota in this parking lot, how does he get all the way back to baker? >> i was just watching the news, and they were saying about -- they showed him arrested. and they showed the lady and stuff like that. they said this happened wednesday night. i'm like, oh, my god, wednesday night. i was with him.
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>> so another woman emerges in this story. tramica jackson. tramica is also having an affair with robert. lyntell doesn't know about her. robert's wife doesn't know about her. but he's been having an affair with tramica. >> so she was the third woman in robert marks' life. he had her believing that he was some sort of medical professional in this community. >> he actually told her he was a medical doctor. what's going on in your mind and you creating all of these false images of yourself? what are you doing? you're lying to women. you're making them think it's just them. you're getting them to trust you. >> thanks to phone records, police know that tramica and robert marks are in close contact, texting and calling back and forth the night lyntell is murdered. >> when you look at tramica jackson, you don't know what role she played in it.
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is she involved in this? does she know what's going on? >> at this point, you kind of are an accessory, whether you know it or not. you see what i'm saying? >> i'll try to cooperate as much i can. i don't have a -- i want to give you whatever information. >> she's scared. she doesn't want to be involved in this. she comes in voluntarily without an attorney. and she's helpful. >> i just didn't -- i mean, didn't put nothing together. >> tramica provides a lot of important information for detectives. she is able to place robert at the scene where the car was abandoned with lyntell's little girl. >> it had to be 11:00. he say, you know where sherwood forest at? >> he calls up tramica jackson and says, hey, can you come pick me up? and there she pulls up. >> she picked him up on that street that leads into the
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apartment complex to the parking lot where the little girl was left. so we go out to a local bank and pull video. and it's not the greatest of video, but you can clearly see in the background his second girlfriend comes to pick him up. >> tramica has a dodge with very specific lights. think of it as a bar of lights. and so even though the video is grainy, the description of her car, the timestamp all line up with tramica's version of events. >> she picks him up and she drives him back to baker to get on his motorcycle and go home. i think with tramica, he sets her up. she's brought into this thing. >> she was very forthcoming, as far as her piece in taking him away from the scene. no indication that she knew anything about what had gone on. >> police are convinced that tramica was in the dark about
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lyntell's murder and about the abandonment of her daughter the night she gave robert marks a ride. >> i think it's safe to say that a lot of people in the community were pretty pleased that he was behind bars, considering what he was charged with. so it was really surprising when bail was set and he actually was able to leave jail. bail was over $800,000. >> i actually had the opportunity to interview robert. he was leaving the east baton rouge parish courthouse, and he came out. i said, robert, is there anything you'd like to say? >> first i want to express sympathy to the family of the victim, reassuring you that i had nothing to do with this. >> he was steadfast that he had nothing to do with it. looked me in the eye and said, i had nothing to do with it. >> this man just murdered a pregnant woman with his child in her belly and kidnapped my child to go dump their body, and y'all telling me he's not a danger or
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a flight risk? now i have to leave and go to another state, a safe haven just to protect my child, to cause her harm, because they know she's the key witness. she can identify him. she's the one that told the world who did it. >> marks' lawyers insisting that this man, robert marks, is not a murderer. >> the fact that crime is committed, and all of a sudden, this gentleman who has everything to lose is dragged into this, is about the sensationalism. >> as the state prepares to go to trial, the strongest piece of evidence against robert marks might be what the video doesn't show. new astepro allergy. no allergy spray is faster. with the speed of astepro, almost nothing can slow you down.
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>> opening statements began today in the trial of a former assistant principal. >> he's on trial for her murder in iberville parish five years ago. >> the trial of robert marks began with high emotion. >> robert marks is finally facing a jury after being out on bond for 5 1/2 years. waiting for him is prosecutor tony clayton. >> tony clayton is a powerhouse. >> people from all over this area sometimes like to go in when he's prosecuting a case just to watch him, because it really is a performance. >> speaks in the way that you could only hear in a louisiana courtroom. >> in his colorful opening statements -- >> this is lyntell. >> tony clayton asks this louisiana jury to serve up what
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he calls gumbo justice. >> in louisiana, we love gumbo. i told the jury that i'm gonna make a gumbo. i'm going to pull up his google records. i'm going to take his phone records. i'm going to take his computer. and i'm gonna put all that in a pot, and i'm gonna cook it up and serve it to him cold, like that ice cold water that runs through his veins. >> the defense argues that there is no murder weapon, no dna, and no eyewitness tying marks to the crime. >> they don't have a case. >> the key witness is the victim's own child. >> it is the strongest moment in the trial. and i think that they handled it so well. >> she seemed very collected. >> the evidence presented in court today was a video that showed the little girl being interviewed by a worker at the children's advocacy center in baton rouge. >> the daughter explained that the mother was grabbing at her head after she had been shot and that mr. robbie did it.
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>> the defense pins its case on questioning the reliability of a 3-year-old, suggesting that some her statements were inaccurate. >> based on their child witness, who told them to go to a water body, the body was recovered on land. so they've assisted us by discrediting their own 3-year-old child witness. >> it may have been in the context of a mind of a 3-year-old, but everything she said was accurate and backed up by the physical evidence. >> clayton uses robert marks' own words against him. his alibi was that he was at a bar. >> where'd you go after you saw her? >> just rode around a little bit. passed by twin peaks and rode around. >> we went to twin peaks and pulled up the cameras on that night. he never showed up to twin peaks. >> did he not know that bars have security cameras, that cellphones ping towers?
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investigators had no problem poking a hole in everything he said. >> oddly, the defense doesn't offer up a reason as to why we don't see robert marks on those twin peaks videos. ultimately, the prosecutor lays out the motive for the whole thing. >> lyntell was pregnant by robert marks and they were going through some problems. >> at some point, he implied an abortion. he didn't say it directly, but the comment made her upset. >> good morning. happy valentine's day. >> happy valentine to you too. you hurt my feelings yesterday. you really did. >> he fixes it by saying, no, i was just saying that i support whatever it is that you want to do. that's what i meant." >> we've got one of the oldest
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motives imaginable. he's having an affair. this woman has become pregnant with his child, and clearly this is a child he does not want. >> may 24th is a really important date, because that's the day that lyntell goes to the doctor, gets a sonogram, and it's revealed that they are having a little girl. rather than searching for things like, i don't know, baby bassinets online, he starts looking for guns online. he starts researching bizarre stories involving pregnant women who have gone missing or were murdered. >> again, the defense doesn't address this evidence at all. >> he has a life that he does not want to blow up when miss washington has this baby. >> her friends had told us she
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had texted robert, and basically said, if you don't tell your wife, i will. >> he wanted to make sure that his name and his image remained unharmed, and she was a big threat to that at that point because she was going to expose him. >> throughout that whole testimony, he just never moved. he just sat there, completely cold to everything. >> robert marks' attorney doesn't call witnesses and doesn't do a closing argument. >> how can you defend a man who is up on murder charges without presenting one witness? i don't get that. >> this is a circumstantial case, and in order for him to be found guilty of a circumstantial case, the state must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. >> i kept trying to read the
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jurors. i couldn't read them. and so part of me starts feeling a little nervous. >> also waiting for that verdict is lyntell's daughter who's not so little anymore. that brave little girl is now 9 years old. you'll meet her when we come there is nothing glamorous about migraines. since i was a teenager the pain has taken me away from my family and friends. but i finally found relief with nurtec odt it's the only medication that can treat my migraine right when it strikes and prevent my next attack. treat and prevent all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec. most common side effects, in less than 3%, were nausea, indigestion/stomach pain. with quick dissolving nurtec i can get back to normal fast
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they knock on the door and they say, we have a verdict. we, the people, the state of louisiana find you, robert marks -- and when she said that, he stood up and started putting his hands behind his back. so he knew before the clerk said, guilty. he knew what the verdict was. >> it only took the jury about 30 minutes to find robert marks guilty of murder and feticide.
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>> all of us were on the same side, same decision. >> i don't remember anybody even arguing. it was so ironclad. there was no upset emotions. we knew we were doing the right thing. >> and i remember just yelling, they got it right. they got it right. >> after five and a half years, finally got our justice served today. > i thought we had raised enough reasonable doubt that the result would have been different. >> after the verdict, marks' wife kala divorces him, telling "20/20" she was shocked to learn of his multiple affairs. >> robert marks was sentenced to life in prison, and he's actually in one of the worst prisons in this country. >> there are things worse than the death penalty. in louisiana, they call it angola. >> and he deserves every bit of what's going to happen to him up there. i hate to come across that
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tough, but this was just so unjustifiable. >> lyntell's daughter now lives with her dad darren. >> how do you think he's doing? >> i think he's doing a great job. when he came back to the custody court and he was clean, i knew at that point he was serious. >> yeah. >> he's doing everything he can to be a great father for her. >> i spent some time with lyntell's daughter who is now 9. she's a little shy, but like most kids, she tells me she likes making those tiktok videos. you get that that's going to be -- impressive! >> do you remember anything about your mom? >> mm-hmm. >> yeah? you look at pictures, he said sometimes. yeah? what do you see in lyntell, in her? >> i see that she's smart, educated. she focused when she puts her mind to stuff.
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>> i hope that somewhere inside of her, that strong little girl realizes that she stood up for her mom. >> my heart breaks for her. she's got to go to middle school for her first day. she has to go to senior prom. mom's not going to be there to take a picture, to give her a hug. and it's so sad, because robert marks made sure that her mom wouldn't be there with her. >> we have our good days. we have our bad days. sometimes she'd say, i miss mommy. i wish mommy was here. i say, i do, too, but mommy's in heaven with the angels now. >> immediately after his sentencing dr. robert marks got new teattorneys. he filed a new appeal.
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