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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  January 29, 2023 11:00pm-1:00am PST

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survive. >> as i read in the journal i kept, it's too easy to look away from prison and prisoners. dignity is earned, but hope is the son shull. -- essential. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> when my mom came in, she said, nikki's not here. where is she? because it seems funny. in the bottom of my heart i knew something was really, really wrong. >> he looked underneath the sage brush and saw what he thought appear to be blood. >> a high school beauty found dead in the desert. bound, buried.
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>> what did that say to you? >> a great deal of rage by someone. >> he looked like your average high school student. tall, clean cut, polite. >> a teenager with two sides. >> he would yell at her. he would be pushing her around. >> a puzzle seemingly solved, then blown apart. >> we recorded the conversation and it was dynamite. >> micaela was on the ground and she wasn't really moving. >> to unravel the mystery, investigators would follow a trail through high school hallways, teaming with secrets and schemes. >> the hatred grew more and more and more. >> bad idea that became a horrible idea. bad idea that went very, very bad.
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>> they call him wendover will. he waves at you from miles. the big neon cowboy. wendover will is what he's called. and his job has been to tampa travelers off of interstate 80 near the utah-nevada border. pull them off the road to this tiny casino commerce. and most evenly a little lighter on the wallet. knowing precious little about the stories wendover like to tell. about the research who come here to break speed records in the nearby flats. about the local airbase, from which the enola gay took off or hiroshima. but there's also the story they whispered to each other, up and down the little strip. the one that shocked them all. the puzzles then still. about the terrible night when three families lost their teenage children. about the dark mysteries respond under the pointy chin
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of wendover will. it was a thursday afternoon. a windy, late winter day in the high desert. here at the local high school, star runner micaela costanzo cleaned up after truck practice. "mickey" as everybody called her, intended to walk home. not far, about a mile. her usual ride, her sister christina, was out of town. >> before we had left, me and or my husband would always pick up micaela from school. so, we were like, are you sure you're going to have a way home? >> this is something you do every day? >> this is something i do every day. it was the first time i left her. >> with mickey 16. a junior. clockwork reliable. said her mother cecilia. >> it's micaela not your typical teenager.
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that girl would check in with me all the time. so, we have a routine. i'm changing. i'm going to be heading out. and heading out the back. and heading home. i'm home. >> always kept in touch? >> always. to a fault. >> as the sun began to set, cecilia was still working at one of the local casinos, expecting mickey's usual check-in call. >> she did not call me to tell me track practice was over and she was getting ready. she didn't call me to tell me she was walking home. so, i started calling her phone. and it rang and rang and rang, the first time. and then i called it right back, because that was unusual. and it was like you hit the ignore button. this is so not her. >> now cecilia called christina 400 miles away in las vegas, to see if she had heard from mickey. >> and i said, mom, she's probably at practice. she says, no, practice ended
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and she's not home. and i said, come down. she says, you're probably just missing her. >> christina tried calling mickey, too. no answer. >> and i'm thinking, maybe for the first time in her life she's being a normal teenager. >> was mickey the youngest of cecilia's three girls. she was a star student, an athlete. mature beyond her years. she liked write poetry, short stories. and she was pretty. and a very popular. >> she was the one out of all three of us girls that was just going down the path you would want any child to go down. she was doing it the right way. stereotypically. >> right, talented, good-looking. a trifecta. >> yes, she had it all. >> one of those special kids, said cecilia. born happy. >> she was always positive. she just had a different approach to life.
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she found that good in everything and everybody. >> a depressive personality, she was not? >> no. oh, no. not at all. >> so, and one more thing, mickey and dj, her middle sister, were inseparable. >> i consider us twins. everything we did we had to be together. if we weren't, at the same place, we always had to know where the other was at all times. >> but now nobody seems to know where mickey was. it was getting dark in the desert. dark and cold. cecilia bolted out of work early and rushed home, hoping to spot on mickey the way. her finder at the apartment. but only dj was there. >> my mom came in and she said, is mickey not here. where is she? because this isn't funny. so i immediately went out and searched for her.
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called her friends, called my friends. if you hear from mickey, you need to tell me. >> word spread fast across west wendover. >> by the time i had already called the police, there was already over 80 people starting to look. that police asked me, did you check with this one? all of her friends? did you go every place that she would go? and i'm like yes, and they're all panicked and they're all out looking and everything. so, they immediately knew something was wrong. >> the tiny west wendover police department jumped on the case right away. donald burnham was the detective in charge. >> there's no point in waiting. the longer you wait, the bigger problem you have and the harder it is going to be to find them. >> hours now since mickey was due home. >> scared. upset.
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panicked. worried. because it was dark now and it was cold and she had no jacket -- and in the bottom of my heart, i knew something was really, really wrong. >> and you try to tell yourself no, no, no. can't be. >> yeah. >> and the police had an idea. maybe mickey's cellphone, the one she always used to keep in touch, would give them a clue. so, they checked her most recent calls and there it was. one particular number that kept popping up, just before mickey disappeared. ten digits. would they lead detectives to mickey costanzo? or something else altogether? this isn't charmin! no wonder i don't feel as clean. here's the new charmin ultra strong. ahhh! my bottom's been saved! with its diamond weave texture, charmin ultra strong cleans better with fewer sheets and less effort. enjoy the go with charmin. what the buck? need money? file your taxes today at jackson hewitt. you could get up to 3,500 bucks the same day with a no fee refund advance loan. buck yeah. file your taxes today at jackson hewitt.
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i didn't sleep. i had to stay home in case micaela came home. >> watch the door. >> watch the door. they kept saying, you have to be home.
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and i'm like, this doesn't help. >> mickey's sister, dj, was angry and terrified. or both. >> i called her phone, real mad. i said, this isn't funny. you need to tell me where you are. what's going on? and i just kept calling her phone. crying, begging her, please, answer. please be okay. >> elder sister christina, in las vegas attending nascar races with her husband, had been telling people, don't worry. she just being rebellious. not any more. >> i looked at my husband and i said, you need to take me home right now.
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he says, what changed your mind? i said it, because nothing happens in wendover and something did. and he took his truck and drove the street home. >> ten hours? >> it's about an eight and a half hour drive. he got me home in about six and a half hours. >> wow. pedal to the middle. >> yes. >> i know in wendover, it was the local media event. >> i just hope we can find this little girl safe. we've never thought anything would like this would happen in wendover. it's >> just like not like her to run away from home. everybody is just hoping. >> police were hoping, too, for a break. they had no solid clues. no eyewitnesses. nothing that pointed to mickey's whereabouts. >> i didn't believe she was dead i was hoping maybe she was just somewhere and we would be
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able to find her at the time. >> that she had just gone off to be with a friend and been irresponsible for once? >> we didn't know whether she'd met with foul play or if she'd been restrained and held somewhere against her will. it was obvious we had more than just a runaway, but we just didn't know how far it had gone. >> police started talking to everybody who knew mickey. like her boyfriend, javier. called him down to the station for questioning. >> how she'd been acting lately? >> she's been acting pretty fine. if something was wrong, she's not one of those girls that hides her feelings. puts her emotions in her. >> that they believe the boyfriend? when they pulled mickey's cell phone records, something odd stood out. at the very time she disappeared. >> there was a lot of checks and phone calls transpiring just immediately after school and up till just after five. >> and then they stopped? >> abruptly stopped right at the time she had left the school. >> those calls and texts, pinging off the local cell phone tower, we're all from one number. >> definitely having communication back and forth. >> there was something going on? >> something. the last calls were made to kody patten.
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>> kody patten? who is he. certainly not her boyfriend. but as any kid who had been all wendover knew perfectly well, was kody a friend. in fact, one of mickey's all this friends. >> they grew up together. they were friends. >> did they ever date mickey's micaela? >> no, micaela was not allowed to date till she was 16. but i'm sure it was probably like puppy love. what i call puppy love. >> was kody an 18 year old senior at mickey's high school. big, handsome kid. football player. he was lived in the same apartment complex as the costanzo family. now he was engaged to another girl and lived with his fiancée 's parents. police brought in kody for a top as well. >> when is the last time you seen her was? >> about 5:30. >> and that was where? >> at the school. >> she was with somebody? >> just some -- i thought it was her boyfriend. because it was -- >> her boyfriend name jair? >> yes, but kody was it sure it was half a year. but he seemed and probably was exhausted. he made up the night before searching for mickey. >> do you have any questions for me? >> yeah, finder. >> search teams calmed their desert outside of town. police, volunteers, mickey's sister, dj. >> i went out searching a remember dropping on the ground and i said, i really don't think she's a life. they're like, you need to think positive. >> we're was she?
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she was an at school. she was it with a friend. she apparently wasn't in town. and it's a very big desert. around wendover. so much space to get lost or to hold a person against her will. or god knows. to hide a body. >> cecilia's last hopes had been seeing mickey show up at school that morning, wondering what the fuss was about. >> when she didn't go to school on friday morning, i knew i wouldn't see my daughter a life. i felt like a failure. as a parent. not just for micaela but, for dj, too. because i couldn't make her better. >> i went to my mom's house and i told her that i was going to not go find my sister. even though she is not okay, i will bring her home. and for whatever reason, in my mind, at that point, i knew that i was going to find her and i wasn't going to find her the way we wanted to. but that i was going to bring her home. >> all night, christine wrote of the rugged landscape. alone. >> i stopped and i looked at any little mound of dirt that looked weird. and i went to the gravel pits. >> so close. had mickey called out, her sister would have heard her. but of course, that was it possible.
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36 hours since mickey costanzo left school and vanished. searched teams proud the deserts beyond sight of's neon casinos. faith hope. out here, the great empty basin spells 180,000 square miles. and then, saturday morning. one of the searchers noted something that looked sort of odd out here in the middle of nowhere. fresh tire tracks, veering off the dusty desert road. he followed them.
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>> he stated he saw some sage brush that seemed to have been disturbed and was covering some ground. so, he looked underneath the sage brush and saw what he thought appeared to be blood and decided that he needed to call authorities. >> this is the area they call the gravel pits. police took a camera to record what they might find their. >> remove the sage bush. and gently dug into the area and found what we thought was part of a human body. >> did you just uncover the body then? >> no, no. we backed out of the area and contacted washoe crime unit to come in and exhumed that area for evidence. >> crime scene investigators from -- >> reno. >> reno was 400 miles away. nine hours by car. still, nothing more to do until they arrived. so, they sealed off the area and waited. just as washoe mickey's sister christina, still searching, drove by. >> i just felt like your heart sink. i saw the unmarked police car driving on the gravel pit road
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that i was on the night before and i just thank. >> only one thing that could mean. so, she rushed for, picked up her mother, went to see the police chief. >> and he said, we have found a body. so, we called off the search and i guess, i would've hope, i said well, can you see her? and he said, no. i said, well you don't know it's her. and he says, you're right, christina. she's the only one missing, so we're pretty sure it's her. >> but they couldn't know for sure, said the chief. until the forensics team arrived the next morning. >> and i said, you are going to leave her out here again all night? and he said, yes we have to. and i remember seeing, and i'm not leaving. and he told us we had to. and he said, i'll have somebody out here at all the time. and i said, it shouldn't be strangers. it shouldn't be left with strangers.
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>> for them to look at me and tell me will all be here, she won't be alone. made me feel pretty good. as good as you can feel. >> then police made a public. >> shallow grave was discovered. the contents of which are unknown. >> because the discovery was outside city limits, that case came out of the jurisdiction of the sheriff's department 110 miles away in alcove, nevada. then detective kevin mckinney raced down interstate 80. he met the current forensic steam the next morning. >> they started sifting and it didn't take very long once it started. >> it was mickey. in a shallow grave, beneath a clump of sage brush.
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five miles from home. >> it was very emotional. the age of the victim and the brutality. i guess, disturbing would be the word. >> had mickey been beaten, cut, stabbed, repeatedly. >> several jagged slashes across her face, neck, head. the blood loss had saturated the ground underneath her. >> what kind of personal? >> yes. it was very aggressive. it was not a precision type of injury. >> and then those police men had to go to mickey's family and tell them what they found. >> my heart sank to my stomach. and i screamed. i just dropped and i just kept screaming. >> the one thing i will never, ever forget in my entire life is watching my daughter, dj, scream. just scream i hadn't heard from her, even as a baby. and fall to the ground.
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in shock and disbelief. she physically did what i felt like i wanted to do, but i couldn't do it because i'm the mom. i had to keep myself together. i had to be the strong one. >> and so, she had a news conference and said at this point, everybody in town was thinking. >> please, ladies and gentlemen, this is not over yet. until the person or persons who responsible are brought to justice. >> but why, mickey of all people? not an enemy in the world. at least as far as anybody knew. and yet, here the crime scene, one clue. one weird, awful clue. >> there was a zip tie that was bound around her wrist. >> what did that say to you? >> it indicated to be that she was restrained and more like
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more than likely taken from school against her will. >> somebody kidnapped mickey costanzo and then murdered her with almost unimaginable brutality. but who? and why? and then another clue. one of the officers going through surveillance video from the school found the grainy image of mickey, just outside the girls locker room. and she wasn't alone. hi. i'm susan from humana dental. these days, we're all watching our budgets and making choices on what matters most. one thing that should really matter is dental insurance. because the fact is, great oral health is critical to your overall health. that's why humana dental is committed to ensuring your teeth and gums stay healthy. because your
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>> now the tv trucks roared in from salt lake and all around northern nevada, poking about a little west wendover. demanding an answer. exactly what happened to that perfect daughter. that pretty and popular 16 year old, mickey costanzo. just his demanded an answer. the police chief supplied an answer for the evening news. >> we don't have a suspect and we don't have a person of interest, but we are getting leads all the time. >> that we can tell you now, there were a couple of things
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about the murder the chief did not disclose when he spoke to the media. it's true, there were no here's our fibers or fingerprints pointing to any particular suspect. that there was a person of interest. >> we started doing a little digging. we went back to the school. we obtained some video surveillance. >> remember what's mickey's kody patten said, that he saw her leaving the school that day with someone he assumed was her boyfriend, have a year. now the video showed kody, was right, had mickey indeed been with someone. >> just prior to her leaving from the back of the school, and we saw kody patten leave. the same doorway. >> kody patten, that's the someone she was with. kody, the childhood friend who had been calling and texted with mickey just before she disappeared. >> was kody patten probably the last person to have seen her
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due to the fact that she left through the southwest doors and he was in the area. >> now why didn't kody tell them that? the detectives went to mickey's mother cecilia, to find out a little more about kody. >> kody is a very interesting young men. kody could be the sweetest person in the world. and then turn right around and just not be okay. kody has a tough temper. kody as a hot temper. >> had kody been struggling at school and at home with his parents. so much so that kody left and moved in with his fiancée, toni fratto and her parents, and cassie, claude, mormon family. very devout. >> i wanted to extend a hand to him to help him get through school. >> we became second family. and more importantly, we were really invested in his success. >> but you really cared for him, right?
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>> of course. >> yes, he was like a son to me. >> but when the police asked to talk to kody, yet again, it wasn't claude fratto, but his actual father, kip patten, who brought him to the station. >> you look like your average high school student. tall, lean, clean cut, polite. he was very self confident. >> did you sleep okay last night? >> no. >> why not? >> i've slept horrible since mickey went missing. >> how come? >> it's one of my friends. >> kody rehash the story he cooled told the cops a few days earlier. how to be calling and texting mickey asking for help to move some car parts.
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and then he saw her walking towards the front door of the school. >> i said, okay, you all right? she goes yeah, i'm fine. i said, okay, well have a good day. and she said, all right, by. and that was it. >> he had seen her at the front of the school with her boyfriend. and everyone else had last seen her executing out the back of the school. >> not to mention the security camera that showed mickey walking towards the rear exit. no one else around but kody himself. >> okay, so what are you getting at? >> what i'm getting at is you
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are not being totally truthful with us. >> yes, i am. >> no, you're not. >> but there was no getting around it. video doesn't lie. >> the video from the school indicates to us that you were waiting for her, okay? >> i wasn't. >> because that was a time she disappeared. and that was the time she died. and you were involved. >> i wasn't involved in her death. >> i think you are. i know you were no. >> i did not kill micaela costanzo. >> i don't think you planned on it. i don't think you intended to. >> i didn't. i didn't do anything. >> and then kody asked if he could spend a minute alone with his dad. so the detectives left the room and kody's, kip, went in, closed the door. what happened in there? couldn't tell exactly through the door. but it didn't sound happy. not at all.
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>> three days after micaela "mickey" costanzo, brutalized body was found in the nevada desert, as dramedy of the different cameras plane out at the window for police department, tony paton and asked for a few minutes alone with his father, he wanted a closed-door. >> i didn't hear all was said, but at one point i heard some whaling from the father, i could hear him yell. sounded to me like he was
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crying. >> and then a few minutes later, the detective walked back into the interview room. >> his father told him he needs to tell us what happened. >> be a man. >> yeah. >> no telling when a lawyer would've told cody paton, but this is a father who had just heard the worst news of his life from the lips of his own son. and so here is what he said to cody. >> you've got to start fixing this now, as much as you can. but you did is heinous, kody, i don't abandon you at all, okay? you've got to do what's right, for mckayla as well. >> and this is what cody told him, that he picked up mickey at the school, and then when he started driving, mickey insisted you'd be a cup of his fiancée toni fratto, and be with her, when he refused. >> she started yelling at me, and senators because i'm not leaving tony, and then she started like pounding on my chest and stuff. >> by this time, said kody, they're out of the car, she hit him, and he pushed her. >> she fell down and hit her head and she just laid bare and was looking at the sky, and like her eyes started to turn black. and i didn't know what to do. i just sat there and she started to, like, shaken sees.
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>> kody insisted he tried to check her pulse and got nothing. and then he says she started flopping, so grab the shovel from the car. >> i kind of just tried to hit or on her head right here trying to just knock her out. and it hit like right here and it like tore it up pretty bad. >> he was very tearful, we have to stop several times to allow him to get his composure back, couple of times he told us he was getting physically ill while he was describing details to us. >> kody continued, saying he paddocks and to stifle the sound he cut her throat. >> and then she stopped, i didn't know it to do, i was going to call my dad but i knew that he would freak out. so i put her in the thing by the big bush, and i covered her up and i took the clothes over and gravel pit area and bring them. >> he stated he was alone, without mckayla, he did it alone detailing about why. no he did not. >> they arrested cody then, custom, treasure with murder, he didn't tend to join the marines after high school. now, he could face the death penalty.
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>> patent has been enrolled as a student in the west jounior senior high school and has been attending until the time of his arrest. >> what had you found out about him, what it is teachers said about his character and the kind of person he was? >> i think kody what's best described to me as a bully, by teachers with regard to the students at the school. >> a bully? where some people actually afraid of him. >> i believe so. >> some teacher? >> i believe some teachers were afraid of him. >> did you hear some thing about him being a good person also. >> a lot of people spoke highly of kody, stated that he had help them in a lot of different ways, that was a friendly and outgoing person. >> we heard, ha? >> a person with two
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personality? >> i think depending on who you were kody treated you in different matters. it was after he can vest, after put him in jail, that kody hired her attorney, john ohlson his specialties keeping accused killers off death row. but for kody, some like his other clients, didn't seem like a crazy killer. >> you obviously got to know him pretty well, what sort of family did cody have. >> nice family, they were working people, they seem to be fairly close, they did a lot of things together. >> of course, that's kody attorney talking, but even mickey family, the very people think would demand the death penalty, felt a very different emotion. >> i was completely shocked, it's not the person that i knew. and my husband was there, and i
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said kody didn't do this, he would never hurt her. >> and he said they he did, and i said then somebody made him do it. and i said that every single
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>> this entire town suffered as if this town was her parent. >> it really means a lot that all of you came here. because we can all see how many people loved her. like we did. >> and one by one they went as they said goodbye. and remembered micaela so cruelly murdered, as the ideal young woman, the pride of west wendover high. >> she was many things too many people. a friend, a fellow student, 18 meat, and an inspiration. >> in fact, perhaps the only friend who didn't attend the public funeral, didn't witness is outpouring of emotion and grief, was one of her illness friends, kody patten. kody, of course, was in a jail cell. awaiting trial for murdering her. naturally, a lot of people in town had come to see that boy as evil incarnate. the villain who'd snuffed out the life of their princess. and yet, even to mickey's
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family, it was more puzzling than that. it was simply inexplicable. >> he would never hurt her. i don't understand why he and it up confessing to it. i'm still like -- there's something more to this story. >> more partly because, kody's story of what happened just didn't make any sense. especially that bit about how the mickey penn demanded kody dump his fiancée toni and date for instead. impossible, said cecilia. had mickey her own steady boyfriend, and out of respect for toni, had been going out of her way to avoid getting anywhere near kody. >> micaela never liked confrontation. she did not like drama. she hated drama. if it was going to cause an issue, she would stay away. >> and we, everybody knew about kody and toni's engagement. saw them flash their engagement rings. he, the six foot six, soon to be marine. she, the wee slip of a thing who made it her business to tame his temper and set him on
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the road to righteousness. she'd even persuaded him to convert to the mormon church. >> she was determined to be kody's savior, as you will. >> a person that helped him to graduate. >> she was going to make him happy. >> to help him be happy. the person that helped him -- >> she took that responsibility. >> the person that helped him got into the marines. >> she encouraged that. she encouraged him to do his school work. she encouraged him to keep on track to graduate. she encouraged him to try and be a better person. >> now the man toni so badly wanted to save was facing the death penalty. but she stuck by him. send him love letters. promised to be faithful andrew. and often drove the four hours it took to visit him in jail. they talked on the phone sometimes, too. and, this being jail, those calls were recorded. >> not to see you every day and talk to you. like, things to think and everything. hold you in my arms or anything. it's just hard. >> yeah, i know it's hard for me, too. it really is. >> toni's parents of visited kody sometimes to provide support, but also to ask the particular question. >> i said, i don't understand
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this. why did you do this? why did this happen? and he just said, i don't know. i can't tell you anything. i don't know. >> but by now, kody's lawyer had told him, stop talking. >> tough case. real tough case. >> because the chances of his getting that death penalty were quite high. >> i think they were very high. it was the identity of the victim, it was the brutality of the killing. it was the poignancy of some of the photographs from the kids. we just broke your heart. >> not to mention, kody's confession, which made a defense all but impossible. >> i think he really regretted doing that, because he their confession early on was the strongest piece of evidence against kody. what kody had in mind, we told him when he was involved in the killing, or that he did the killing, god knows. >> but the more he studied kody's confession, the more ohlson came to believe, just like mickey's family did, that something about it didn't add up. so, hired ohlson a season
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investigator. a former secret service agent named bill savage. asked him to find out what he could about kody, the murderer. and that boys confession. >> some of the details that mr. patten reported, didn't quite pack quite passed a sniff test. me >> mickey's, swoons, so severe, so brutal. they certainly didn't seem to be the result of an accident, as kody had claimed. or from a shovel of all things. >> horrible. slicing, disfigurement to mickey's face. what >> did that say to you? >> a great deal of reach by someone. >> why would kody have done that to a childhood friend? >> had to be more to the story. attorney ohlson wondered if kody's fiancée, toni fratto, might provide some insight. had kody already talked to the police during the routine interviews with people who knew mickey. >> kind of curious, where is mickey? what's going on? you know? where could she have gone? >> so, ohlson spoke to toni himself. did she have any idea why? >> absolutely not. no idea. >> was she as devastated as other people seem to have been? >> i would just cry per aspect
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as deadpan i described her as emotional. us >> how did that strike? youth >> odd. . >> i very odd. >> mickey's details remembered that after the murder toni seemed to shut down. >> she refused to look at me. refused. i understand that you're not going to be very social because your significant other doing this, but she wouldn't talk to certain people anymore. but she normally would. >> new wheels were turning in that young woman spring. and then, early one spring morning in april, a few weeks after mickey's murder, climbed toni fratto into a car with kody's father, kip patten. she didn't tell her parents.
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she was out of town. toni was we're just her pajamas. nothing with her. as if she assumed she would never be coming back. it was one of mickey costanzo's the favorite places. the high school track where she won so many races. now on a bright spring day inmate, 2011, two months after her murder, the somber celebration was underway here. it would have been mickey's 17th birthday. >> i bought a kick balloons, but. took it down to the high
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school. invited her friends and that was the hardest day, next to finding out she was murdered. >> apparently murdered by a childhood friend, kody patten. he'd confess. was sitting in jail. the death penalty a distinct possibility. or so everyone thought. but as they celebrated mickey's life, there was something about her death they didn't know. several days earlier, kody's legal team had a surprise visitor, kody's fiancée, toni fratto. she arrived with kody's father at her side. said she was ready to tell the lawyers the story. >> so, are you willing to proceed? >> i think so, yeah. >> we talked and we recorded that conversation with her permission. and it was dynamite. >> you're about to hear the whole new version of mickey's murder that would turn the case upside down. >> am i to believe that you in fact were present when the girl got killed?
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>> yes. >> and here from the lips of this quite little teen, gave a horrifying story. kody was it the only color. it began for her, she said, with a text from kody saying, i have her. meaning mickey was with him in an suv he had borrowed. he wanted toni to join them. kody picture up, she said. then the three drove around. and it up at the gravel pits. then mickey and kody got out of the car and she started yelling at him. then pushing him. >> i looked away just for, like, a split second, and then i heard a loud that on the car or whatever. so, i had got out to see what happened. >> what did you see when you got out? >> micaela was on the ground and she wasn't really moving at that point. >> she said, kody started digging what appeared to be a grief. and when he'd finished, with mickey lying semiconscious on the ground, they both started kicking her, punching her. hit her with a shovel. >> she wasn't moving. and, so, we had moved her to the grave. and then, we were kind of standing there, deciding what do we do? we didn't know what we had just done. >> okay. >> i remember holding down her legs and we had slit her throat. >> who cut her throat? >> it was both of us.
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>> it was both of us. two kody's defense attorneys, five little words that changed everything.
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cody paton confessed to killing his childhood friend, nikki costanza. leaving nikki's family stunned, they've known cody for years. now, the case was taking another surprising turn. ahh maybe i'm just hungry. something smells great. don't i need to sign something? oh yeah over 12 weeks of freshness. you gotta sniff it to believe it. the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50.
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dropped a bombshell, freely admitting to cody's lawyers that she had also murdered mickey by slitting her throat.
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>> all of a sudden, he changed from one crazed killer to two people who committed a homicide. it gave us something to point the case towards, other than cody's actions. >> two colors, sharing the guilt. maybe with some good learning, his client could escape the death penalty, after. all like -- was almost besides the point for olson anyway. but not for tony's parents. not when they found out. >> no one that no stone would have ever seen this coming. it just is impossible. >> their daughter had been even been a suspect, not even a person of interest. now, she confessed herself into
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a murder that could send her to death row. >> my immediate thought was that she's been coursed into saying this. >> somebody's meter? >> yes. >> what person popped into? >> police that. >> cody's father, the man who delivered cody to the meeting. they had requested to appear on our program, but he insisted, tony told him what happened. and it was her idea to come forward and to meet with tony's
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attorney. he just drove are there because tony's parents were out of town. >> do you think, sometimes, that she thought i can do this with my parent? i have to wait until they're gone before i can actually go and confess to this terrible thing? >> i don't know, possibly so. but, we've always been very, very open. >> or, possibly a misguided attempt to save quality? but, she'd only succeeded in incriminating herself. >> she doesn't believe that she's confessing to the law enforcement. she's talking to cody's attorney, is asking them if it's going to help. >> but, tony didn't have an attorney client relationship with codes lawyers. no privilege, no protection. so, they turned her statement
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over to law enforcement. and, when detective donald reviewed the tape, the transcripts of tony's confessions. >> and i determined that we have probable cause to arrest or just based on her own admission. >> tony, just 18, was booked and held without bail facing, perhaps a capital murder charge. same as cody. >> i, in my heart of hearts near tony had something to do with it. because, they were a couple. it was very hard for me to know that she was at school wearing his engagement ring, acting like nothing that happened. and, she knew nothing about it. when i knew she knew. >> i said, i am so glad that she is now sitting and facing
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where he is, now it makes sense. >> but, little tony rattle honestly didn't seem like a killer. she was a beauty queen at 13, devoutly religious to. , and extremely close to her parents. >> she always went to church with us, you know a lot of kids you have to force them to get out and go. it was never that we were tony. >> she had goals in her life. she knew exactly where she wanted to go. >> so, a truly responsible child? >> yes, absolutely. >> outside of our family, tony had very few friends except for cody, of course. and the moment that they started dating in the night great, they were virtually inseparable. >> she loved him. she thought she loved him. >> he was very, very process of. did not like her talking to anybody else but him. >> now, the parents remembered a possessive, controlling cody so big and strong and when they thought about it that way, they wondered what was the real story behind their daughters confession? ♪♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver. harness the power of 7 moisturizers & 3 vitamins to smooth, heal, and moisturize your dry skin. gold bond. champion your skin. when you're ready to go, but static says “whoa.”
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called rush town. solutions, casinos. even brothels! four of them right in the middle of town. good businesses to, according to police. >> nearby, there's also an historic courthouse. a stage for preliminary hearings for teenagers accused of the brutal murder. but so, far not a single person could explain. least of all, nikki costanza's mother, cecilia, before the hearing she studied every grisly photo embraced herself what was coming. >> i had to know exactly what happened to my daughter. everything. >> no matter how bad? >> everything, every autopsy
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photo that was taken of my daughter, i saw. i saw it all. because i did not want to go into a courtroom and see my daughter like that for the very first time. >> there were separate hearings for tony and cody. two occasions for cecilia to hold up under question. >> it's right over there, and he's wearing a red jumpsuit. >> two occasions to hear a motion and incriminating confessions. >> i tried to, like, check her pulse on stuff. and i couldn't get anything and she was just flopping. >> cody, no surprise, was bound over for trial which everybody knew he could face the death penalty. >> and tony, pale and gaunt in her black jumpsuit, she listen to her own excerpts of her stunning confession. >> after that, she wasn't really breathing or anything. and so we -- we kind of just stood there. we're crying because we didn't know what we had just done. >> it was brutal, it was
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painful. it was long, it was tortures. and those two could not ever get away with it. they could not walk away free. >> but, people couldn't help but notice that the two kids toll very different stories. remember, cody said he was alone. well, tony insisted that he was with him and they murdered mckee together. >> tony's parents simply could not believe, despite the confession that they're cui dominican daughter was capable of so monstrous back. >> can you imagine her doing those things? striking her with the shovel, perhaps helping with the night?
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>> i don't believe that she had anything to do with the knife. >> she did, she did. >> there were no fingerprints, no dna -- >> striking her with a shovel was an order from codi. >> an order from codi. that was the answer to the questions and behind, it a terrible secret, over the years had the photos, tony had given cody lots of orders. he was extremely possessive. physically intimidating. more than a foot taller than little tony was often angry and abusive. >> he would delight, or he would be pushing her, around he with b restraining her, throwing her down. >> in fact, just two months before the murder, the school surveillance camera caught an educated cody appearing to get rough with tony right here at the locker. >> there was an instance that occurred in the hallway at the high school that depicts cody grabbing tony around the neck. and, realizing that he's six
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foot six, he's five foot one. >> but, tony declined to file charges. >> her explanation was that if something like this happens, you will not be accepted into the marines then i don't want to stand in the way of that. >> you have to realize what her goals were and what her expectations and her final result of all of this was to get her into the marines. >> and, perhaps get him out of her life? >> now, after the murder, and to news confession the photos look back on their relationship with quality with new eyes. tony, they decided was an abused woman. >> she was a living in fear of what she thought the repercussions would be if she brought it out. >> so, van cody might kill her to, tony's parents insisted her daughter had no choice but to cooperate with cody, the murder. >> so, her participation as people say, in what happened that night was strictly out of fear, controlling, manipulation and orders by the one that she had already been suffering abuse from for two years, three years. >>, but she participated in the attack. >> participated, participated
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under extreme -- >> orders. >> orders. she was afraid that she would be the one lying next to mckayla if she did not follow his orders that evening. >> to which, cody's attorney, john eastman, responded -- >> baloney. >> why do you say that? >> baloney. there is nothing in the relationship, ever, that would indicate that she was ever abused by cody. >> and when her parents support the idea that she was abused, why would parents do such a thing? >> i don't know. i don't think you abuse someone into committing murder.
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i've never heard of someone being abused ending up committing murder. >> tony was founded over for trial, just like cody. analysts now sitting in a jail cell, facing the daunting prospect of losing her life,, not to kody patton but to lethal injection, unless what if tony told a whole new story about her role in mickey costanza's murder? a story that just might eventually set her free. after advil. feeling better? on top of the worlddddd!!! before advil.
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nevada, christy costanza had been dead for nine months. >> christmas day, it was not fun for me. she was missing. it's not the same. and i don't ever think that's going to go away. i used to enjoy going to buy everybody christmas presents, wrapping them up. and it was in the saying. and then having to remember not to buy her something -- >> cody paton, and her fiancée, tony, spent their days in jail awaiting trial. on new year's eve, cody turned 20. >> that early in 2012, illegal deal the merged. cody would plead guilty to first degree murder, get life in prison but with the possibility of parole, no death
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penalty. and, in exchange, he would have to testify against tony. cody took the deal. and, just as suddenly changed his mind. >> instead, cody decided to take's chances in court. but just one day later, the da offered tony a deal. not the same deal. better. i've tony agreed to testify against codi, she'd be allowed to plead to second degree murder, with a chance of parole after just 18 years. by then, tony would be just 36. and, tony offered a chance to save her own skin by throwing cody under the bus said, yes. she signed the plea papers, right away. >> she said, you know what, enough is enough. the truth needs to be told and i am going to tell. >> so, on a chilly january day, tony was led from her jail cell to an office at the tourist apartment to tell her story. , and put her hand on the bible and promised to tell the truth. >> i am a person to tell the truth, and deep down i want people to know the truth because i knew cody wasn't
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going to come forward. >>, and for the next three and a half hours, tony told a whole new story about how cody was upset with nikki, how he hated the sound of her voice, that things were building up. then, the tell of the story that did not change, the afternoon of march 3rd with that texan cody. that over 100 to exchange that day. they fully recovered -- but, this one said tony would burn in her memory. >> what was the content of it? >> -- >> look from here, the story changed and blame shifted towards cody. as they drove off into the, deserts are cody, they drove back and was stuff back into the -- mickey look scared, said tony with their hands up to her face. cody look determined, angry she said.
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but, wouldn't talk to her. then, as they approach the gravel pit, said tony, right beside in the driver seat, center text. >> and it said, we have to kill her. just kind of looked at him and kind of lit, why? >> tony pulled over, said tony. an ordered her to stand guard as he dug a hole. then he took mickey from the car, pushed her to the ground, demanded that tony hit her. >> all i remember is him pulling your hair back and i went up and had neater in the face. >> but, in this new an entirely different version of her story, tony claimed she was an unwilling participant. and, insisted she backed off wall cody started punching and kicking mickey. and then, he issued an order. >> i remember looking up by cody and him telling me, hitter with a shovel, hidden with the shovel. and, so i hitter in the back of the shoulder with the shovel. >> said cody took the shovel back and what to make in the head. and then, in the whole he dug, cody got on top of her. >> and then, i remember going up and holding her legs down so that she could stop kicking. and then, all of a sudden her legs went completely still. and she was moving. and that freaked me.
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out so i backed off and i jumped up and walked off a little bit. >> remember, in her first confession, tony claimed she helped cut nikki's throat. not anymore. her new story, cody used the knife alone. while she, horrified, then backed off but kept watching and listening. >> she had looked up by cody unasked, am i still here? am i still alive? >> and, then cody ordered her to get in the car, she said, and shooting by herself, tony said she heard the last sound of mickey costanza's life. and, then she said it was over. cody very muggy by himself. -- they drove back into town, went to mcdonald's for a coal drink. and, then later they cruised across the state line into utah, pulled off into the desert and burned mixed clothes and belongings. >> you can't tell me, to this day, why this happened? >> no. >> he never told you that? >> no. >> and, with that, tony had her deal. this one statement she provided would now comprise much of the
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da's case against her fiancée, tony paton. >> in this new version of her story, cody was the killer, orchestrated the whole thing and she, terrified of cody's murderous rage was forced to go along for the awful ride. not at all like her original confession. but was there more to tony story? well, maybe. because just before she was arrested, tony left something behind, something in her very own words that just might reveal the real motive for mickey constand was murder.
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there's a final technique in law enforcement. two defendants? get want to take a deal and testify against the other. it looked like that was about to work in the case of a murder of mickey costanza. tony fragile apparent also to tell the world that her fiancé, cody paton, after abusing her four years, forced her to witness an even, in the minor, way assist in the killing. inside the tooth and calms the nerve down. and my patents say: “you know doc, it really works." are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters and my patents say: keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks, make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. need a backup plan?
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she did not know why cody did. it only that she, tony feared she killed her two if she didn't go along. >> but, of course, why was the question of the lips of every
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breathing sole inside of window where we'll hear. the idea that cody was brutally murdering his own childhood friend just did not make any sense. any more than that the idea that tony would go to such trouble to visit cody and jill and whisper sweet nothing to him on the phone and send him love notes and then factual deathly afraid of him, as she claimed. no, people around here have much given up on the fact of getting any kind of an answer. when suddenly, out of the blue, a little gift appeared. tony had turned out had been keeping a diary. >> before she confessed, tony gave it to kobe's parents, who turned everything over to defense investigators, bill savage. >> in my opinion, there were some valuable information in
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there in regard to tony's personality, her feelings -- >> in this little book, tony poured out her fears, her hopes, her deep insecurities and what cody's attorney thought was just perhaps a motive for murder. >> this, for example, she worried that tony would leave me for someone else, cheat on. me that cody and i won't last forever we won't get marrying. in here, she wrote of her own terror. that her relationship with cody wouldn't work out. and if so, that there was no point in living. i'm very angry today, so angry that i'm trying to overdose. after i got off the phone with cody, i went into four aspirants. >> in my opinion, a very troubled young lady. >> a troubled young lady, who, in many ways, did not feel worthy. >> that's correct. >> and, who loved this guy. but at the same time was terrified of losing him. >> yes. >> afraid of losing him to the
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girl she had grown up with, the attractive and popular mickey costanza. we might as well break up, so he can get back together with her. he will be happier and can see her a lot, a lot more than he will ever see me. they are perfect for each other. >> tony was jealous of nikki. and, if she were out of the picture then cody and tony would be together. >> so she was everything tony wasn't. >> yes, absolutely. >> they would be so happy together if i didn't steal him away. i know, in my heart, he really doesn't love me. >> the diary disclosed had real animosity that tony had for mckayla. >> right. >> no one's ever shown me any reason that tony had to hurt mckayla. none. >> but tony? >> tony had reason. >> was it possible she was the
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one who wanted mickey dead? that her big strong boyfriend was just doing what she wanted? vicky sisters remembered. >> tony used to get so upset if mccullough was seen talking to cody. she would just yell and holler and say horrible things to make a lot, you know. don't talk to him and caller every name imaginable. >> and intentionally -- intensely jealous girl. >> he couldn't be around girls. especially my sister. but, he couldn't do certain things. she couldn't go do certain things. and if they, did it was -- >> and cody, was, said christina, on a very tight leash. >> i must have been doing laundry or something and i could hear tony coming walking and saying, gotta go. and i was, like you can't even talk to me? >> he's like, no, i gotta go. i can't be seen, she's going to get mad. >> who is the driving force in that relationship? >> she was. >> but having heard told the sworn statement, tony sawyer
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knew that his client story about mickey dying after some sort of accident, now sounded like a cover-up of a cold blooded murder. and, therefore, tony's testimony who -- >> part of tony fried a statement, in which she said that, at some point in time in this killing, mckayla is set up in the grave and said, am i still here? can i go home? >> devastating. >> yeah. >> which is why, just weeks before the trial, he decided to plead guilty to first degree murder. >> that was the safest way to go. that was the way that would presented least a possibility that cody would see daylight again. and, it would take the death penalty off the table. >> with cody sentencing, in front of the packed courtroom, he made his case for a vengeful parole, pleading with the judge for mercy and begging mickey's family for forgiveness. >> -- >> and, then for the first, time cody spoke about his fiancée an apparent partner of the murder, the woman he protected in his conviction never revealing that she was there at the white -- crime scene. >> listen to what he said. now >> to the court, i just want to state that my codefendant is not entirely all to blame.
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>> did you hear that? tony was not all to blame. was cody implying that she played a role in at least some or even most of those horrific stab wounds to mickey's pretty face? >> there is no reason to know why. just the case and fourth. >> again, sorry is not enough. but i -- i apologize for everything. . >> norman's later, his sentence, a chance of parole at maybe 25 years. >> i sent into you to jail for life, there will be no possibility of parole. >> it was justice, said nikki's family. but, an odd feeling lingered. >> you have to sit there and go, oh my gosh. this person that i knew so well we'll never, never have a chance of anything. now >> they're conflicted. >> i see the good in him, i see what he did, i want him to be punished for what he did, but i see that good side of him. >> both kody and the prison where he spend his, life turned down a request for an interview.
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but, tony friday, a different story. tony had a lot to say about that dark night in the nevada does. it, and just what really
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happened to her romantic rival, mickey costanza anne. but for a young homeowner becoming their parents, it's a learning opportunity. come on in. [ chuckles ] the more, the merrier. paris, huh? bonjour! we got any out-of-towners in the elevator? tom. it is not easy. 10th floor, huh? must be a heck of a view. okay, see how everyone else is facing this way? progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. okay, that was terrible. okay, let's hang back. we're gonna try that again. (dog barking) we love our pets.
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queen was in a prison suit when they brought her to see us. >> we arranged our meeting in a small courtroom not too far from herself. the sheriff's people agreed to let her mother watch from an adjoining room.
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separated by a thick, plate glass window. she could hear us. we could not hear her. so, two lines of communication. our sweet tone, hers silently with her mother. >> we begin starting by talking about kody the fiancée that she seemed so afraid to losing too mickie costanzo. there are people who say that you were very jealous and that you manipulated him into committing murder. >> i was not jealous of micaela. yes, that one thing that i had wrote in my diary but that was way long early in our relationship. it never was brought up again. nothing of a recent. >> did you ever say to him, get
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rid of her? >> no i -- >> get rid of her, orioles was me. >> didn't say to her or me? >> no. >> didn't give him that choice? >> absolutely not. >> and then, we talked about the night of march 3rd, 2011. when she and cody took mickie to the desert and ended her life. >> when you put yourself back there, in your memory, what does that feel like inside? >> my heart just sings and, you know, to be honest it's like it takes my breath away. i feel like it's hard to breathe and everything. it's not something, you know, you want to sit there and think about. >> there are different stories. that's why have to ask these questions. >> right. >> and you hit her with a
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shovel? >> yes. >> why? >> because i was told to. i did not want to do anything to her or anything. he kept telling me over, and over again. just do it. it's okay, just do it. and, i just remember him putting her down and him standing over her. >> she was struggling, trying to get free. >> and then he backed off? >> yes. i don't know what he was doing up towards the top of her body. i could not see because he was standing in the way. >> and, she insisted, contradiction to that first confession of her. she did not help koji with the slashing and stabbing. >> and, you didn't hold the knife. you didn't qatar. >> correct. >> so, it reduced your culpability. >> my sentence, yes. i'm not trying to diminish my actions or anything of what i did. but i won't take responsibility
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for something i did not do. >> frequently, as tony distanced herself from the crime, she looked through the glass to her mother. especially when the question turned to why. >> i was too much and fear. i was scared, terrified. >> only reason she was there, she insisted. she was an abused woman. and, she was afraid he'd kill her too. >> when you're going through a type of abusive relationship, you don't always fight back with your abuser. to be honest, i, after finding everything out that i know now. i believed that i was next. >> why would you kill you? >> it's because i was a witness. and i was there with mcgill. >> so, why is mickie costanzo that? >> you would have to ask kody said toni fratto. i don't know his motive. i don't know. if i knew, i'd be more than willing to, you know come out and say why so it would make sense. >> is he just a lunatic or what? >> i don't know. i don't have an answer for that. >> and when he says he doesn't
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know why. do you believe him? >> no. he's got to know why. there's a reason why he did this. >> was this version of her story finally the truth? perhaps. and, in any event, mickie family had to be satisfied with whatever consolation toni fratto offered. >> i know sorry is not enough. if i could go back, i would and protect her and make sure that this wouldn't happen and everything. that you know, she would still be here today. >> can you see her face now in your mind? >> bits and pieces, yeah. >> you will probably be seeing there for a long time. >> for the rest of my life. >> and, with that, our interview ended. fratto never wavering from her story. the one she told when she cut that deal with the district attorney. the deal that could set her free but the year 2030.
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but, of course, toni couldn't know leaving here, nor could we that one more little surprise was waiting. toni had said something very interesting just before toni tucker deal. something very deep in the court files. but now, about to be revealed.
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♪ every search you make ♪ ♪ every click you take ♪ ♪ i'll be watching you ♪ - [narrator] the internet doesn't have to be so creepy, the duckduckgo app, lets you search and browse pria blocking most trackers all forf your search history is never tracked, so it can't be shared. and when you leave search, duckduckgo helps keep companies from watching you as you brows. kody patten and toni fratto are join tens of millions of people making the easy switch by downloading the app today. duckduckgo, privacy simplified. (upbeat music) in prison now.
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different stories about the murder. different sentences to. toni fratto we'll have a chance to win parole. but kody patten will most likely die in prison. by the way, this is an academic question. but there's one more version of the story of the murder of mickie costanzo which we found buried in the court false. and, it just might provide an answer. >> remember that plea deal cody for us except it and then decided to pass up? here's the story behind that very dramatic moment. kody i just started making a sworn statement to the da, it was going to be a full and frank account of what really happened and why. here is how it began, he said. there was an incident, the afternoon of the murder, just down there by the school. tony confronted mickie in the school hallway. >> toni tony saw mickie in the hallways said kody and called her a slot.
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look at there, there is that slot! the girls argued, said kody. he intervened, he told, or not get. off before anybody heard about this kody statement. mickie sister told us this. >> she needed her there, he said that she had walked by and said something so rude under breath. >> we're talking about a couple of years. bill >> yeah, the hatred between them grow more and more. i can't tell you why. it just escalated. >> as cody told the da, it escalated to a fever that day. and, suddenly he suggested, why don't you guys just talk it out? and, tony agreed and said, she just wanted to duke it out with micaela so i relayed the message to mickie. and said, while she wants to fight it. out and mickey came to the resolution and she's like,
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okay. >> so, said anne kody mickey did get into the car with him, voluntarily. they drove around for a while said kody. then they picked up tony. they all headed to the gravel pits. and, what did kody tell the da but would have been there? well, it turned out, nothing. because, just the -- fact the two met, confirmed briefly and kody stop talking. he had changed his mind, rejected the plea deal and never told the story again. and, his statement was filed away. but, olson, who was never disputed that cody was involved a safer than opinion about what probably happened at the gravel pit. >> my guess would be that there was an opportunity for toni to confront micaela. >> and they went out to have the confrontation in the desert away from. i >> -- >> a bad idea that became a
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screw up. >> a bad idea that became a horrible idea. a bad idea that went very, very bad. >> was it a high de hatched on the spur of the moment? who knows, at least not according to deede. who said she witnessed the hostility escalate for months. she heard tony bad-mouth mickie time in. again, and she saw tony play one nasty prank after another. including one that seemed like more than just a prank. >> he had a little box cutter bleed. and he swiped it across her arm. , and effort she said i didn't even know. and then i looked down and i'm bleeding and i look at him and he's laughing. >> was that kind of the straw that broke the camel's back? >> that was. he said, she's not worth it. and then i really don't want a person like that in my life, at all. >> then from then, on mickey avoided cody.
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never spoke to him. cut him out of her life. >> he grew really angry at her after that. would do things to try and make her mad. just so she talked to him. it was a real shocked him to, all of a sudden havre there, put the gun and then never have. >> but angry and abandon tony, i jealous tony? maybe that's why mickey had been so worried, said the day about what those two might be up to. >> she says, he keeps trying to get me to go with them. just constantly, that's what he wanted, just trying to get it to. go >> to go out with him and tony. >> and she was fully aware that she was public enemy number one as far as tony was concerned. >> she just said, i don't understand -- i don't get it, it's not right. something is just wrong. >> because the costanza family said mickey would never have gone with cody and tony voluntarily.
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and, there is evidence of that. this zip tie found around mickey's arm. something else, mick's family is convinced that kody toni near a few days around the murder were the only days that they would find mickey alone after school. >> the timing was to perfect. it was the one time, the one time that deede was a college. christina and donald where nascar. i was at work. it's the one time and all of this time that mckayla would've actually had to walk home. >> which, when we heard that, made us wonder, in our interview did tony slip and reveal hidden truth? >> remember, she claimed she wasn't abused women and an unwilling accomplice, they're only out of fear. but, listen to this. does it indicate the very planning revealed in cody statement to the da? planning that included picking a place for the showdown? >> all, well when i finally got out to the designated area and everything. >> what do you mean by designated area? >> where everything went down. >> that area was designated? >> well, just the area where we ended up. >> no plan to go there, insisted tony. so, designated area? maybe, maybe not. but, also a festering jealousy. scores of text messages, as a tie and one more explosive ingredient, an affair. >> police revealed that kody have been seeing an older
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woman. a woman from who he borrowed the suv used the night of the murder. >> tony knows that now, of course. that the other woman wasn't mickey. but did she know it then? the night they killed her? >> a woman knows. whether you are that age or my age. you know some things maybe not right, who that person might be, i don't think she would've ever in 1 million years thought it was an adult. so, the next person she, in her mind would think would be my daughter. even though it's completely wrong. >> does that sound like tony wasn't abused women or being an angry boyfriend? or, a scorned woman did turn to rig or self of a perceived rival? anne an unanswered question, which is probably the best will
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get, set a turning. alston >> outside of the participants who were in line, nobody knows. nobody knows. and nobody's going to know. >> they'll never get a -- >> no. >> but then, would any answer ever be good enough? >> i want the truth. well i ever get it? no. they'll never tell me. and there's nothing they can say or do that will make it better.
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they cannot fix this. >> three families broken in west and over, kody patten will never come home. toni fratto might someday, but too late for them. >> i don't think that she will be alive when she gets out. i don't think that there will be a time when will be together like that again. >> west wendover high school has retired mickie costanzo that jersey. it hangs now in a place of honor. an outside, the students got together to paint and sign a huge rock, a memorial in her favor color. >> how do you honor your sister? and go on and do what you need to do with your life? >> when she died, i was in the middle of a semester. and i was lost for a long time. but i thought about when she would want to do. she would want me to finish. she would want me to be all like i could be. so, i keep a picture of her with me all the time. and, i'd sit there and i would just think, well, what would mckayla want me to do? and that's what pushes me forward. >> up in the high desert
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mountains, outside of wendover, is a ranch with a small family sanctuary. it's a peaceful, sacred place where mckayla koch -- costanza, mickey, now russ. >> the ranch's home. she's exactly where she would want to have been. she's laying right next to my father.
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and she is in the most beautiful spot in the world to him. and she's like, sitting on top of the world. >> we all knew that my mom, myself, we'd all eventually be there. just not in the order that it seems to have happened. >> and here, on the little strip on i-80, when dover will still raises his granting welcome. but he points to a place a little older now. as if the neon lights turn up along the desert casinos had picked up a layer of grief. this sunday, outrage. this sunday, outrage. the brutal police beating video of tyre nichols shocks the nation and raises more questions about policing in america. >> he was a human pinata for

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