exactly. all right guys, this was fun. it was. this was a blast of fun. thank you for having me corey. really appreciate it. always a pleasure. sealy sealy and geely. connecting. all right remember send us your like it or not questions. you can even record yourself asking one of the questions. we'll use it here on the show. we appreciate everyone watching. we will see you next time here on like it or not, have a good one. break it down. rock your body. m e it o ut >> i'm anna garcia right now on true crime news. we go wake up a frantic 911 call during a man's final moments. >> wake up man. oh my god. >> please, someone please. kukan. >> keep going, keep going. >> keep houston johnson horrifically stabbed to death the killer, his live in

girlfriend, kaylee. she claims it was self-defense. >> i didn't even do anything wrong. i just protected myself and even takes police on a tearful tour of the crime scene. so i came in here and i came in laying, laying down, and. >> but the clue she dropped on social media changes everything. then sherri papini's fake disappearance in california made national headlines. but at the same time, another woman really did disappear less than an hour away. >> how do you wake up one day and just not know where your live in girlfriend is? >> her loved ones desperate for answers? >> somebody has to know something in the search for stacie smart, they want one thing closure. >> however it may come. your daily source for true crime starts right now. we begin with a couple that was fire and ice, kaylie whitehall and houston

johnson loved each other deeply, and they fought with the same level of intensity. and when one of them ends up dead, police have to decide if it was self-defense or premeditated murder. a drunken night with friends turns tragic. >> so there's a knife right here. and i grabbed it and i went like this. >> a man is dead. was it self-defense? >> i couldn't breathe, and i felt like. >> like i was scared. or did a social media post show something more sinister? >> those thoughts were in her head for weeks before. >> everybody loved houston johnson. >> houston was very charismatic. >> he, you know, lived life to the fullest. >> maybe that's why on a summer home from college, mandy tomshaw met and fell in love with houston. >> we had a very fun relationship.

>> i always felt really secure with him. >> they had a son, kyle. eight months later, they split but remained close. >> houston and i ended up being best friends and a love for kyle and that bounded us together. >> then several years and girlfriends later, houston met kaylie whitehall. >> kaylie runs. >> kaylie runs. what? >> everything she wants. what? everything. my first impression of kaylie was negative, because she walked in with a can of alcohol in her hand. i mean, who does that when you go meet your boyfriend's family? >> i did not approve of her. from what he had told me, the bowling green, kentucky couple had been off and on again for three and a half years, and their last fight was a big one. >> a kick her out. i'm moving o, big one. houston even enlisted

the help of his best friend dennis melbourne. >> he was like, hey bro, help me move kaylee's stuff to the garage. i want her out. >> but the very next day, houston and kaylie were back together. >> they argue there was nothing too crazy until that night. >> dennis, his girlfriend brittany jones, and her son went over to houston's and kaylee's to hang out. >> everybody was drunk but me, and soon kaylie and houston were arguing and yelling and swearing at each other. somehow he put her in a headlock. i'm like, okay, let her go. let her go, houston, no, let her go. he finally lets her go and he leaves out the garage. >> kaylie told brittany she was moving out because of nights like this one. >> just rage came over her, everything in her sight. she starts picking up and throwing towards him. >> a whole lot was going on like glass shot glasses. bottles were thrown at him and i was trying to shield him. and we get back to his bathroom. he's holding his face, his blood. he has

blood on his hands. kaylee's still going ballistic. >> she goes around to the kitchen and she grabs a knife like a big butcher knife. and he was like, oh, you want to play with knives? >> brittany says. houston takes the knife from kaylie and she falls to the ground. dennis takes the knife away from houston and i'm like, kaylie, okay? >> it's getting crazy now, you and i, let's just go to my house. and she was like, no, i'm not leaving my stuff here. >> instead, she goes into her bedroom to take her tv. >> he hits her in her face, and i'm like, whoa, whoa, stop. >> through the hysteria, brittany manages to pull kaylie out of the room, but kaylie makes her way back into the bedroom. >> by the time i made it back in the room, dennis and houston were going in the bathroom and dennis closed the bathroom door to separate them. >> kaylie picks up an iron and throws it at the door. then a thud is heard from the other side of the door. it was houston. >> he collapses like knees first

and then he falls like face first to the ground. >> houston had been stabbed in the chest and dennis was like, call 911. >> she's like, no, he's just faking. he's just drunk. nothing wrong with him. >> but houston wasn't faking it. >> he was like really gasping for air. so she was like, oh, i know i'm about to go to jail. >> medical center ems, tell me exactly what happened. my friend has a puncture wound in his lung and he needs to go to a hospital asap. she's gonna wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up man. oh my god. >> haley can be heard in the background of the 911 call. please go on. >> please keep going, keep going. keep. >> it was on that bathroom floor. houston took his last breath. >> it was hard to see him just laying there with his eyes open and lifeless. >> houston johnson was pronounced dead at the hospital. >> i think god put me there in that situation to speak for him,

to tell the truth. >> when houston's ex-fiancée, mandy learned that he had been killed, one of my first questions was, did kaylie do it? >> and all i could think about was having to tell my son his father was gone. >> i saw my mom and my mom was crying. >> kaylie was taken down to the bowling green police department there. she told lead detective wade hughes her relationship was abusive. >> i didn't even do anything wrong. i was just protecting myself because i didn't want him hitting me no more. >> this happens all the time. >> like this is our normal thing. >> kaylee's clothes were taken into evidence and detective hughes dug deeper. >> so is the only time that you had the knife was in the kitchen? yeah, that's the only time. >> next, investigators took kaylie back to the house. there, kaylie stuck to her story. it was her grandma who came up from behind me, and he got me in a

choke lock. >> and i went like this, and i couldn't breathe. >> and i had a candle right here. then i threw the candle as i was trying to get him off of me, and it didn't work. so there was the knife right here, and i grabbed it and i went like this. so i came in here and he was laying, laying down, and i want you to tell me, because he was not he was so normal, like he yelled at me. he got vise grips to fix the tv to get the thing off. >> and so i just i didn't even think i touched him and then he just fell down. how did this get in the door? >> this has been here. >> this was from tonight. this is another dispute. where was the knife? honestly, i don't know where i put the thing, though. >> brittany didn't see the actual stabbing. she remembers kaylie not just having the knife in the kitchen, but also in the bedroom. >> i have the knife. get in here. >> i have no idea. okay, but it was in the room. >> in here? yeah, i think she still had it in her hand when

she came out. she was like, i didn't stab him that hard. like i think it was still in her hand. >> when did you see her with a knife? >> i'm thinking like when we were out there and she was throwing the iron like she had the. i think that's when i saw her with the knife before she picked up the iron and threw it. >> when we come back on true crime news, did one of kaylee's social media posts point to premeditation? houston's friends think so. >> whether she was trying to play around or not, those thoughts were in her head, kaylee says it was self-defense, but a key witness is about to blow her story wide open. >> at this very moment, children at saint jude are fighting to survive with a gift. right now, you can join the battle to save lives. >> without saint jude, i don't know where we would be weeksy. >> they have given children with cancer like maya winston a chance. >> she has neuroblastoma and it

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we're back with the story of kaylee whitehall in houston. johnson kaylee admitted to killing her boyfriend. she swears it was self-defense, but her story is about to fall apart. it only took another day before detective hughes hauled kaylee back in for more questioning. the audio was recorded the whole time. >> she tells me that your first statement isn't exactly what happened. >> detective hughes told kaylee he knew the kitchen wasn't the only place she had a knife. >> there was kidnaping incidents that happened. there was that one. and then there was the one when he was stabbed. >> detective hughes investigation showed this theory. after brittany pulled

kaylee away from houston in the bedroom. kaylee then grabbed a knife from the kitchen, went back into the bedroom and stabbed houston in the chest. mark sterling the killer. >> and so you get a knife from here and you're going back into the bedroom with the knife. when you got the knife, did you go back into the room and be like, i'm tired of this gun? yeah. >> no, no, i wouldn't do that. i wouldn't even go. >> i don't understand why we would, but i just wanted to make sure he wasn't going to come after me anymore. >> but then the part of the story that did remain the same was the motive. she said it was self-defense, but was it? some wondered. after a curious post on kaylee's social media site raised alarm bells written weeks before houston's death, kaylee wrote go back to sleep, baby. i'm planning your funeral. >> whether she was trying to play around or not, those

thoughts were in her head. >> reportedly, kaylee said it was a joke either way. more than two months after houston's death, kaylee whitehall was arrested and charged with reckless homicide. >> i was really surprised when that wasn't classified as a premeditated murder. >> almost a year later, the case went to trial, and prosecutors argued that kaylee recklessly caused houston's death. her defense counsel argued that kaylee was defending herself. >> i don't feel like she was fearing for her life. she wasn't fearing for her life at all. in fact, she made it known that she wasn't scared of him. >> the trial lasted three days. the verdict came in in three hours. guilty. >> the and defendant's sentence of reckless homicide and confinement in the state penitentiary for a term of four years. >> i believe that it was a slap in the face. this man is gone and she only got four years. the shoe was on the other foot. houston would have been so

blocked the courtroom before his trial even began. >> mandy wants people to remember that domestic violence does not discriminate. and to kaylee, she says, you may be able to carry on a future after you get out, but i hope you always remember the future you stole from my son. kyle hopes, good or bad, he'll always have his father's love. >> just doing good things, succeeding and sitting at everything i do. and even if i do something bad that he would realize that overall, i'm still his son and he would always love me. >> kaylee was sentenced to four years. she actually served only two and was released and is now out of the public eye. but do you remember the high profile case of sherri papini, the woman who faked her own kidnaping? up

next, there's another woman from the same city who is actually missing, but her case isn't getting as much attention. we will tell you about stacey smart next. we eed answers. somebody has to know something. >> if you have wet amd, you never want to lose sight of the things you love, we get it. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting ilia hd could significantly improve your vision. more people on ilia hd had no fluid in the retina compared to those on ilia. at four months, ilia hd is the only wet amd therapy that helped eight out of ten people go up to four months between injections after three initial monthly treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain, or redness or allergies to ilia hd, don't use eye injections like ilia hd may cause eye infections, separation of the retina, or rare but severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye. an increase in eye pressure has been seen. there is an uncommon risk of heart attack or stroke

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right. i mean, it is. >> it's so many things, right? >> yeah. look, all you really need to know is that progressive can save you money without sacrificing quality coverage. you follow? >> i'll just look it up. >> that went well. >> you probably remember the story of sherri papini. she's the woman who faked her own kidnaping near redding, california. the hoax sucked up resources and it grabbed all these headlines. but there's another woman from the same area who is actually missing, and it's not getting the same attention. and that case still has very few answers. >> i'm sorry, i just really surreal that that we're doing this right now. >> stacy smart, a loving mother of four, somehow disappears without a trace. >> she was free. she was

nurturing. >> she seemed very happy. and we were making plans to get together for halloween. >> but nicole says when her grandmother tried calling stacy in the weeks leading up to halloween, her home phone had been disconnected. >> my grandmother was concerned at that point. it had been throughout a couple of weeks before halloween, when halloween came and went without any word from stacy, the family took action. >> we went to the house. nobody was there. we left a note. please contact us. it's an emergency. it's important. and no call from her. >> but there was one person stacy's family hoped would have some answers. >> she was living with her boyfriend, tony brand. she was with him for about six months. a month before she had gone missing. she did call my grandmother and she was crying on the phone and said that tony had been cheating on her.

>> the two reportedly patched things up, but roughly a month after that tearful call, stacy was gone. >> so from there, i decided to file a missing persons report. >> the date was november 2nd, the same day sherri papini's faked kidnaping was reported, a story that blew up national headlines. leaving stacy's disappearance virtually unknown. a week later, the family meets with stacy's boyfriend tony. >> how do you wake up one day and just not know where your live in girlfriend is? and he's like, i don't know. she left. i made a few phone calls to people that have contact with tony and stacy on a daily basis, and when they told me that tony had told him that stacy had moved out two weeks prior, and that my sister had gotten violent and he had to

make her move, he was asked to take a lie detector test. >> he said, tony brand, i will pay for a lawyer for you to take the test. he agreed to take a test. he set up a time and date to take it. >> but when that time came, tony brand never showed up for the test, regardless of reason. refusing the test was tony's right, and with no evidence that a crime had even taken place, the family shifted focus to finding stacy. >> we had four public searches, as well as numerous private searches, starting from the residents and, you know, expanding out from there. >> at least 50 volunteers from the community showed up. but there was one notable absence, tony brand. >> he stopped by the first search for about three minutes, gave a flash drive with some pictures on it to melissa, and then left and got new tires on his truck. >> that day, though, tony brand remained a person of interest. his attorney had this to say

tony was in a loving, intimate relationship with stacy, which ended with as much mystery to him as anyone else. he has cooperated fully with the investigators in this case, and is as afraid for stacy as any of her other loved ones. >> everybody's a person of interest, but naturally, being the last person that we have confirmed to have seen her, we're obviously looking into that angle. besides the polygraph, he's he's cooperated. he allowed us into his house on multiple occasions prior to us even going there with a search warrant. he's been cooperative up until that point of the polygraph, but with no actual evidence. >> deputy sheriff ford can't say for certain whether there was any foul play. >> i'm hopeful that either we find miss smart safe and happy, and with a reasonable explanation for why she disappeared. and if that's not the case, i'm. i'm anticipating an arrest. we need answers. somebody has to know something. >> and there's one thing the family wants more than anything

else. >> closure. however it may come. >> stacy smart is still missing, and her daughter is angry that resources used when sherri papini faked her kidnaping could have been used to find her mom when she disappeared. so the search continues. and if you have any information on this case, please call our true crime news tip line at (888) 845-7555. we'll be right back. >> finish ultimate engineered for the toughest conditions. dry, burnt on stains. old dishwashers, very hard water. finish ultimate with cycle sync technology helps deliver the ultimate clean. >> with kids still at home and a full time job taking care of mom was becoming a real challenge. >> i was so grateful to discover visiting angel's mom's visiting

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basically by convicting either patsy or i. >> crimes most talked about. new series. >> if you all let him out, he's going to kill her. >> true crime news. for the latest breaking crime news, go to true crime news.com. watch more exclusive content on our youtube channel, listen to our podcast and follow us at my true crime news. that's it for today's true crime news. i'm anna garcia. see you n n (suspenseful music) - why was everyone so worried about joleen? - it was out of character for her just to disappear. - around the time she had gotten off work, there was no contact with anybody, no activity after that whatsoever. - [charity] as an investigator, these types of situations do raise a lot of red flags. (suspenseful music continues) - i would say at that point in time, he was the number one suspect. - i love her. i (bleep) care about her. (suspenseful music continues)