All language subtitles for Murder.360.S01E06.Wheres.Micah.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FLUX

Everyone was
looking for Micah.

Where was Micah?

Where would someone have come
by and tried to abduct her?

You add all the
things together

and something's not right.

It was clear that
they knew about guns.

He's telling me, I'm sorry.
I don't know where she is.

And she kept repeating,
he's going to kill me.

And he shoots my daughter.

That's about the
only time in my career

that I just wanted
to shoot him.

You can run,
but you can't hide.

Micah, as a child,
was the typical little sister.

She had a very
outgoing personality.

She had that tomboy
kind of a spirit.

We loved sports
and we liked being outdoors.

She loved running.

Micah had a way
of drawing people in

and making them feel
appreciated and making them

feel loved and encouraged.

Micah had a very strong faith.

We are a Christian family.

For Casey and Micah growing up,

we wanted to be authentic

and actually live our faith.

She had such a sweet,
tender heart.

I love that about her.

And she was a peacemaker
and was real sweet about

how she kind of
conducted herself socially.

Micah wanted to be a nurse

and got a job
as a nurse's aide.

You don't take on
that profession

without having a heart
for the vulnerable

and for the broken
and the hurting.

Micah was an
employee of mine.

She was the loveliest soul.

She was the nurse that
you wanted on your side.

The one that you
wanted to be there

to help you with a patient.

She was just
a kind-hearted young lady.

Thursday night,
which was the 30th,

Micah worked late nights,

it was kind of a dreary,
rainy night.

I remember
leaving that office,

and she was there
with patients.

I was probably one of the last
two people to see Micah alive.

We got a call that night.

I think it was around
10:00, 10:30.

Micah's husband, Thomas,
said, hey,

do you know where Micah is?

She's gone out for a run.
She hadn't come back.

Didn't know if you'd heard
from her or not.

It was not uncommon
for her to go running.

On the final call,
it was, OK,

Thomas, you need to be calling
the police and start a search,

and we're coming to Memphis
to help in that search.

We packed our stuff and
headed to Memphis immediately.

It's about a 2-hour drive.

Everyone was
looking for Micah.

Where was Micah?

So there's this big search,

this big hunt for Micah
the evening of the 30th.

Where could Micah be?
Where's Micah?

The dog was there.
She wasn't there.

Well, I drive to her house
and at her house,

there's yellow tape everywhere.

There's police cars
everywhere.

And it starts to make me
even more alarmed.

I mean,
it is a scary situation.

Well, as soon as we
got there,

Thomas said, well,
she's gone out for a run.

So I started running...

the routes that I knew that
we had been on,

different routes that
we had run

from her house around Bartlett.

She was running without
her phone and without her dog,

and that would have been
unusual for her

to go out without
either one of those.

There were severe
storm warnings

with lightning
and severe rain at that time.

It was uncommon for her
to go running late at night

in the dark in a rainstorm.

I'm looking at culverts
where she might have tripped,

she have fallen in off
the side of a road,

off the side of a sidewalk.

Where would someone have come
by and tried to abduct her?

What are some places where
that could have taken place?

I'm just looking for any kind
of sign about what's going on.

There was very little sleep
had by anybody.

Everyone's doing all they can
to try and find Micah.

I was like,
I've got to go find her.

You know,
what do you need me for?

Or what can I do?

We went and got four-wheelers,
side-by-sides, and we went

to the Loosahatchie Bottoms
to look for her.

So the Loosahatchie
is the river,

but we call it "The Bottoms"

where you actually
drive down to.

And we went through all
the crevices, the ditches.

We did that for a few hours
and came up with nothing.

We were standing at every
crossroad in Bartlett

near her home
handing out flyers,

thousands and
thousands of flyers,

and all of us searching.

Lieutenant Halford
came to the house about 7:00,

and that's when
the investigation

became much more intense

because he took charge
of the situation.

I get to the police station
and I walk in

and the first person I see
when I walk in is Thomas.

And Thomas is across the lobby.

And I walk in and we meet
in the middle of the lobby

and we hug and I'm crying
and he's crying.

And I'm like,
we're going to find her.

It's going to be OK.

He's telling me, I'm sorry.

I don't know where she is.
I'm sorry.

I don't know where she is.

One of my first questions
for Lieutenant Halford was

why are you taking Thomas
to this other place?

And he goes, well,
typically in these situations,

the first person we have
to eliminate is the spouse,

and so we're going to question
him separately from the family.

So that's when it began
to sink in that

we've got a problem.

There was one time that
I ask Thomas, you know,

just occurred to me, I wonder
if they've had a fight.

And I didn't get in his face or
scream at him or anything else.

I just said, you know,
did y'all have a fight

or did you have a disagreement
and maybe she's just left

and spent the night
with a friend or something?

He said, no,
they hadn't had a disagreement.

Nothing had happened.

When Thomas reported
Micah missing,

he said that
she was out jogging.

Well, a thunderstorm was
in the area that evening.

Heavy rain, heavy thunder.

Most people don't
go jogging that,

even if they're training
for a marathon.

As we were looking
through the house,

Micah's purse is
still at the house,

Micah's phone is
still at the house,

her ID is still at the house.

I mean,
even when you go jogging,

you go to the gym,
you take your phone with you.

As I was speaking to Thomas,
basic information, you know,

how tall is Micah,
how much does she weigh,

what color hair does she have,

he would just randomly
break down crying.

Very emotional
throughout the whole thing.

As I walked around the house,
instead of Thomas sitting

or talking to anybody
or talking to the officer,

he actually followed me
throughout the house,

made small talk with me

while I was looking
at different things,

uh, explaining things that, you
know, didn't need explanation.

Just very, very uneasy, very
nervous that we were there.

It was around noon

that the police
separated our families.

I felt like they knew
something was happening.

And that's when our
conversation started to move to

I think Thomas knows something
where she's at, or--

So as that progressed, we
became more and more concerned.

Does he know something
about it?

Anytime we would
ask him a question

that was
the least bit pointed,

that would maybe position him
to give us an answer

he didn't want to give us,
he'd start dry heaving.

You add
all the things together

and something's not right.

Out of high school,
my sister decided

to go to Harding University,

which is
our hometown university.

My sister really wanted
to pursue nursing

and that goes to
her heart of trying

to help people
and love people

and help people
through hard situations.

And so because Harding had
a good nursing school,

she wanted to be involved
with that.

Micah and Thomas met through
a friend group.

There was a crew of them
hanging out together

and he happened to be friends
of friends of hers.

He's athletic, and so it
matched up with my sister

wanting to play basketball and
be involved in those things.

They liked to be outdoors,
they liked sports,

and so I could see how
they could match up.

They were from
two very different worlds.

She led a rather
sheltered life.

It was a small town
in Arkansas,

predominantly very Christian.

There's like no alcohol sold
in that county.

His parents lived outside
of Atlanta, Georgia,

a much more metropolitan, open,

you know, exposed
to just about everything.

He was a much more
worldly person than Micah was.

We really didn't meet
him in person until

he came
to our home Bible study.

So then it was just a matter
of trying to get to know him

and seeing what he was like.

And a first impression was,
eh, he's OK.

Wasn't over-the-top impressed.

But didn't have
any big red flags

to start with either.

The more
I learned about him,

he was more of an introvert.

He did not like to be around
a lot of people,

and so, um,

that was a little bit opposite
of Micah's personality.

And so I was a little curious
why he was her choice

and why they were dating.

We found out pretty quickly

that much of what he was about
was not like Micah,

and we could not identify
exactly what it was

and name what it was,

but it just
did not seem to be a good fit.

As you learn more about him,

I was like, uh, I'm not sure
about this relationship.

As we were learning
to get acquainted with Thomas,

we found out different things
that he had in his background

that were concerning to us.

Part of that had to do
with a lot of partying,

a lot of drinking,
some promiscuity,

even dabbling some
in some drugs.

And then she would try
to justify and explain away

some of the flags
that we would point out.

By the time they had dated
for nearly a year,

we were starting
to really get concerned.

She was very bubbly
and friendly

and very outgoing
to everybody,

and then all of a sudden,
she was very withdrawn.

She was stressed.

I believe Micah went into
the relationship open,

whole-hearted, honest,
transparent, and vulnerable.

And then this very shining,
bright light in our lives,

the light just
kind of went out.

He would discourage her
from being part

of social things and
part of even family things.

The things that
we saw in her relationship

were very typical observations
that you would see in someone

who is trying
to manipulate another person,

trying to instill some power
and control over that person

in such a way that
they almost answer to them.

And that was what we were
having trouble with.

I remember very clearly

there was this moment where my
sister called me

and she called me and said,

Mom and Dad don't want this
relationship to continue.

I'm drawn to him.

What's your advice?

What's your big brother
advice to me?

And I remember being
extremely, extremely torn.

And what I share with her was
like, I trust Mom and Dad

and I love Mom and Dad,

but you need to make
the best choice for Micah.

There's about two years from
the time they started dating

till the time they got married.

Just the week prior
to her wedding,

I mentioned a young man

that she had a very sweet
relationship with,

and it probably
could have gone romantic,

but it just never did.

And I said that
I spoke with him recently

and I told him that
it was, you know,

it's coming up a few days
before your wedding.

And he made the statement,

I'm sorry I didn't pursue that
any further.

And she perked up and said,
he said that?

And I thought that
was interesting,

because just days
before her wedding,

that showed me that

she still had some doubts
about what she was doing.

Before I walked her
down the aisle,

I said, Micah,
it's still not too late.

If you want
to back out of this,

I'll support you 100%.

I want what's best for you.

And she just said, no,
let's go with it.

Let's take me down the aisle
and let's do this.

After that, she had
received a nursing job

with a clinic in Memphis.

They moved to Bartlett,

which is just on the outskirts
of Memphis.

One of the choices
that Micah made in order

to help their family and
to spend more time together

was she moved from
working in a hospital

where they have more
of a hectic schedule,

to move to the MOGA clinic.

She was the nurse
that everybody wanted to be.

Patients loved Micah.

She just was energetic and just
had this honesty about her.

And our patients
just really adored Micah.

Along with her coworkers.

What happened after
they got married then,

is we wanted to be
their cheerleader.

We tried to affirm and to do
everything we could to help

to give our blessing onto this
home that they were building.

I believe, because she knew
that we were working hard

to build that relationship,
then she was unwilling

to share anything
about her struggles

that had been taking place
in their marriage.

All of us that
worked with Micah,

just based on
interactions with Thomas,

kind of questioned him

and kind of thought he was
a little shady, disrespectful,

and she was such a loving,
kind-hearted person.

He just belittled her.

And I think that his drinking
didn't help that because

it would be in those spells
that he would drink

and things would come out
of his mouth that it shouldn't.

We all learned that there was

some marital counseling
going on.

She loved helping people

and that ultimately was
what fed into her marriage too.

She loved Thomas

and she wanted
to help that relationship.

The thing that I noticed
the most was the anger.

Thomas had a hunting dog

and he told the hunting dog

to stay in the back
of the truck.

And then the dog
got off the truck

and walked towards Thomas.

Thomas screams at the dog,

I told you to stay
on that truck.

And he picked the dog up
by the ears

and threw it back in the truck.

Extreme anger.

Extreme violence.

But then two or
three minutes later,

he goes back to the truck
and is petting on the dog

and telling the dog
how sweet it is.

And so these extreme moods
in anger and behavior.

But when I point out
the red flags,

because she was invested
in this relationship,

she wasn't willing to listen

to "Dad's advice"
at this point.

Whatever I would say

really wasn't taken to heart
because at this point,

Thomas had her heart.

He would push
to get his way,

to get control, to, you know,

he would make her
probably feel better

if they stayed at home alone.

You know, he'd give her
some compliments.

Or if they went out,
he'd probably say,

oh, why aren't you
dressing like that person?

Or why do you have to be
so picky about your food?

You know, things

that would make her feel bad
about herself.

We don't know that
he ever hit Micah physically,

but the yelling and the
screaming we know was there.

And so there would be
this argument and belittling.

You're so stupid,
why can't you get this right?

And then at the other extreme
of saying, oh, you're so sweet,

I love you so much.

It wasn't, like, bruises
and cuts and scratches

and broken bones
and cigarette burns.

It wasn't that kind
of domestic violence.

It was the kind of
scars in her heart

and her spirit dampened

and all those things
that made her who she was.

Many of those were taken away.

And she became
a little suspicious,

I think, of Thomas.

Like when she came home
and he was on the phone

with some other person,

evidently in
a very personal way.

At that point,
I think it became clear to her

that he was having an affair.

There was no sight of Micah.

And of course,
75% to 90% of the time

that someone ends up dead,

the spouse ends up as a suspect
at some point.

Then we have a search warrant

and the police gather things
from within the house.

That's where
they find hunting rifles.

And it was clear that Thomas
and Micah both knew about guns.

Thomas went hunting regularly.

He had all sorts of hunting
rifles and he had handguns.

He went hunting all the time
with his friends.

The police uncover
a lot of different things

from multiple bottles
of alcohol

to a history of pornography

to him reaching out
to another lady.

The officers tracked back
through his phone records

and there were many texts
with another woman

who was from New Jersey.

And then they got
into the credit cards.

And that's when
they discovered

that there were charges made
at Tunica, Mississippi.

He used the credit card
to play on the slot machines

and to pay for the hotel room
that he and this woman

from New Jersey
spent the night in.

Micah went home one day
and surprised Thomas.

He did work from computers

and on the phone
doing medical sales.

He said he was sick,

so he wasn't going
to be working any.

So she thought she would
go home and fix him some soup

during the middle of the day.

And when she got there,

he was on the phone
with somebody

that he seemed to be
talking rather intimately to.

And this was very alarming
to Micah.

According to her coworkers,

she came back to work
and sort of broke down crying.

I remember Micah
being totally,

totally distraught
to the point of where

I went and got her stuff

and helped her out the door
and she went home.

He actually had
met this woman

from New Jersey
on a flight to Atlanta

and he was indeed
in communication with her

and had met her for a weekend

at the casinos
in Tunica, Mississippi.

So he indeed wasn't very happy
with Micah,

and he was going after

a much more worldly woman.

All of these things were news
to our family.

And so it was sort of shocking
seeing all of these things.

All through
that search afternoon,

more and more doubts
began to arise about

what's going on here?

We're not getting
the whole story.

There's things here
that don't add up.

And they start going through
more personal items.

And it turned out that
Micah kept a journal.

The journal was
very revealing.

There was one entry in her
prayer journal in February

before this happened in April

and she had a whole paragraph
that spoke to

Thomas's indiscretions
and unfaithfulness.

"My heart is broken.

"I am so angry, sad, mad,

"disappointed at Thomas.

"If he truly loved me,
how would this happen?

"My mind cannot fathom
what he's done.

Am I so naive that
I didn't see this coming"?

It clearly showed
the dissolution of a marriage.

And this was a sacrilege

that was held very sacred
by Micah,

who's a very religious person.

"All I want to
do is cry and sleep

"and forget this relationship
ever happened.

"I've worked so hard
on our marriage.

"I never thought I would be
talking to You

about unfaithfulness."

She's miserable
and losing touch with herself,

and only feels
comfortable being herself

when she is in this journal
speaking with God.

And, you know, her ask for help

or ask for guidance

is just very heart-wrenching.

It's tragic and it's sad.

Micah's prayer journal
ties it all together

of her talking about
her rocky marriage,

the things that
she's going through.

It was very shocking
and very painful.

Thomas ends up
in an interview room

at the Bartlett
Police Department

and he's not telling the
Bartlett police anything

except for her leaving,

she's gone jogging,
he doesn't know where she is.

Thomas lied to the police.

You know, he failed
a polygraph test.

The agent told us that
he did not feel,

based on Thomas's results,

that Thomas was
being 100% truthful.

And when Thomas's father
came to town,

I think that's sort of
when things changed.

He went from
being very aggressive

and telling Thomas,
you know, don't lie to me.

Tell me if you hurt, you know,
tell me where Micah is.

He went from that within
a matter of minutes to

it'll be OK.

We had people around us
praying,

saying, God, reveal something,
make something happen.

That night,

the police pulled me
and my Mom and my Dad

into this side room
and they shared with us

that Micah was shot by Thomas

and that he had left her body
at the Loosahatchie River

and that he was taking them
to her body at that time.

He shoots my daughter

and he leaves her out there
for over 24 hours.

Wild animals, elements,
it didn't matter.

He takes the police
to her body.

I personally walked out
to where they found her

and it is way off the road

in the middle of thorns,

brambles, mud,
leaves, everything.

There was a very
off-the-beaten-path place

to leave her
and it looked as if

he had probably
carried her there

probably with the intention

of throwing her
in the Loosahatchie River.

But he couldn't make it
quite to the river,

so he left her there

face-down with a gunshot hole

in the back of her head.

And the interesting thing is
she's not wearing her shoes

and she's wearing white socks

which are not dirty
on the bottom.

And this is a muddy,
muddy place where she is

and it would be
extremely doubtful

that she went there
of her own free will.

We were just
so eaten up with anger,

just so mad that this man

allowed her family,
her friends

to spend this time looking.

Looking for her,
hoping to find her.

For you to know all along
that you had shot her

and left her at the Bottoms
with ants and mud.

Wow.

The fact that he knew
that whole time

and was lying to us
the whole time is so painful.

It's so, so painful.

Thomas, in trying to explain
what had happened to Micah

and how she ended up shot,

came up with this story of

they went here frequently
to fire guns.

And according to Thomas,

they would go target shooting
out there

and that somehow
there was a mistake

and he accidentally shot her
in the back of the head.

Something about
her gun misfiring

or her getting in the way
of him when he's shooting.

It just didn't make
a lot of sense.

I have lots of doubts
about his story

of the series of events.

We spent a lot of time
at a Christian youth camp

at Camp Tahkodah
and one of the things we do

at Camp Dakota
is target shoot.

We would have three
or four rifles

shooting at the target
at the same time

and she would be aware
of the safety issues

of making sure the rifles
are put away

when you go check the target,

that before you shoot,

there's nobody between you
and the target.

She would have had
to gone through gun safety

to get her carry permit
that she had.

And so she was well aware

of the safety issues
involved with guns

and to not
be in front of someone

with a loaded gun.

He raised her
to know about a gun.

Good, old Arkansas way.

You learn how to fire a weapon,

you learn how
to take care of it,

you learn what to do with it,
to clean it, load it,

fire it, and everything else.

There's no accident
when you shoot somebody

in the back of the head.

One shot with her own gun
and you don't call anybody?

You don't call 911?
That wasn't an accident.

Early on,
he was offered a plea deal

of second-degree murder
and 15 years.

And we asked our friends to
pray that he would take that.

And he did not.

It was a disappointment
to us that

he did not take the plea
on the front end.

He could have saved us
all those months of grief.

We wanted to grieve
the loss of our daughter.

We wanted to get used to this
new normal of having a daughter

that was no longer with us.

Instead, we had to concentrate
on all the stuff

that was going on in Memphis
and make trips over there

that were very
emotionally laden.

For all those months, we just
felt like we were, you know,

we were just dangling
on somebody else's string.

Seeing
the crime scene photos

and going through the autopsy
with the medical examiner,

it seemed evident
that his explanation

of what happened that evening

did not fit with the facts
very well.

Thomas is like over 6'.

I want to say 6'4".
She's maybe 5'4", 5'5".

The gunshot wound is
in the middle of her back--

the back of her head.

It goes through her ball cap.

And it's not quite a
contact wound, but it is close.

And Thomas was very experienced
in firing weapons.

And Micah had
grown up with guns.

I can't see that she would
ever be in front of the gun,

in front of Thomas with a gun.

We were ready
for jury selection.

We were ready to go over and be
there for this week-long trial.

At the last moment,
he made an Alford plea.

The Alford plea says,
I'm not confessing

to doing this, but the evidence
against me is overwhelming.

And so therefore,
I wave the white flag.

The judge clapped his gavel
on the desk and said,

you are guilty
of second-degree murder.

There was some comfort
in that.

When Thomas is told by
the judge,

you're guilty
of second-degree murder

and he walks through the door
to go to prison,

there was part of me that felt
some relief that this is over.

And so I say that
is God's way of saying,

here's the best blend

of justice and mercy.

We get to feel some justice,

that there's a consequence
being paid

for what happened to Micah.

So he was convicted
for 25 years with no appeals.

And seeing some justice
gives me the chance

to offer a little bit
better forgiveness.

Because that's what Jesus has
asked me to do as well,

is to give forgiveness,
so I forgive Thomas.

Micah has an amazing family.

Yeah, the strongest people
I've ever met.

And as a mom...

I don't know that I could have
done what they did.

That was their only daughter.

They forgave him.

I just don't know
how you do that.

I believe that
she caught him

in his adulterous exploits.

And as she realized what
was going on.

In my mind, I believe that was
the turning point

that led to her death.

Sadly, I think Thomas had
a volatile nature

and he may have felt like

he would have to get rid of her
to keep his little world going.

Sort of like
a good church member

that can't divorce his wife,
so he has to kill her.

I think she got out
of the car or whatever

and was mad, maybe perhaps,

ready to run back home
in the rain...

And he just shot her.

And then he got rid
of her body

in the best place he could.

And I think for some reason,

he carried her out there
and took her shoes off.

And I think that was
to throw off

being at the muddy bank
of the Loosahatchie.

Why look there?
Her tennis shoes are clean.

I miss my sister so much.

And she was a light

and she is just
an incredible example

of what love looks like.

And if I could talk to her now

and then in a way,
talk to other people

that are in struggling
relationships,

I pray that if you're
in a struggling relationship,

don't keep it to yourself.

Talk to someone about it.

There was one entry
in her prayer journal

and she had a whole paragraph
that spoke to

Thomas's indiscretions
and unfaithfulness,

and she said, "I can't believe

I gave my family up for this."

She didn't give us up.

But in her eyes,
it was him or us.

And that makes me so sad.

And she used to,
as a little girl,

when she would get upset
about something,

and even as an adult,
you know,

when she'd get upset, her eyes
would just be wide open.

And she had little freckles
on her nose.

And when I read that in her
journal, I can just see that.

You know, I can see
that sweet little girl

with her eyes wide open,
like oh, my goodness,

now I get it, now I get it.

And that was--that was just--
that was hard as a mom

to read because
she could have come to us.

We could have prevented this.

This did not have
to end this way.

Even though the marriage
was pretty bad,

she kept her faithfulness
and her love for God.

And that lets us
live with hope.

All she's doing
is a New Year's day,

taking a hike with her dog.

The blood was wet.

It was fresh.
That was disturbing.

It was a calm place,
she thought.

And then she was kidnapped.

The way in which
this person gets money

is by abducting these victims.

He fits the definition
of a serial killer by far.