All language subtitles for American.Monster.S05E04.WEBRip.x264-ION10

This is the story
of a young woman...

See.

...who loves her family.

Lindsey was always around,
and I knew that I could

count on her.

But not herself.

She struggled with her weight.

But as she finds love...

This meant a lot to see that
he really cared for her.

...and starts to love herself...

You could see her self esteem
just getting higher and higher.

...there are deadly consequences.

I had no idea what I was gonna find.

It's September 1985.

Steve pilkington and his wife,
Debbie, are overjoyed.

Wrapped tightly in a bundle of blankets

is a wonderful new arrival,

their firstborn daughter, Lindsey.

She was 7 pounds and 6 ounces.

Lindsey was the first grandchild and first

great-grandchild,

and the whole family showed up.

They were all there waiting.

In hairnet and medical
scrubs is proud father, Steve.

I'm tired, man.

It was a family affair for sure.

Yeah, everybody was there.
Everybody was happy.

And, my granddad was
there videotaping everything.

But with children comes responsibilities.

Things change
obviously right away, you know.

Now you're a parent

wonderin' how we're gonna make ends meet.

In their hometown of heber Springs, Arkansas,

job prospects are limited.

To support his new family,

Steve decides to join the military

in 1987, after completing basic training,

the young family moves to California.

You know, you couldn't get any
farther away from home.

This would be the first of many moves

for the pilkingtons.

Movin' around a lot was not
the easiest, always.

When you become a military spouse,

a military brat,

as they say, you kinda...

You get into that role.

It's 1990, and
four-year-old Lindsey now has

a one-year-old sister, karista.

Whoa!

Despite these
heartwarming home videos

of the two little girls...

-Hi!
- At first,

Lindsey's reaction to her new
sibling is a little cold.

Come on, get over here.

She did not like me.

It was that stereotypical,

she was that firstborn child,
and I was that younger child.

She was very, you know, bossy.

We would fight all the time.

They always had to keep US separated.

We were horrible.

Yeah! Hey!

Over time, the girls
become closer, and the camera is

always recording,

usually with dad, Steve, at the controls.

Lindsey loves her little sister,

and she clearly also loves the camera.

Lindsey would dance around a lot.

She loved to be silly.

She loved to play.

Everywhere Lindsey goes,

karista follows.

She was my big sister.

And yeah, I always wanted
to play with her and,

you know, she took up rollerblading,

so I wanted to Rollerblade,

or she learned how to ride a bike,

so I wanted to learn how to ride a bike.

In 1994, the pilkington family

moves to Germany.

It's not an easy way to grow up, bouncing

from house to house, and even
country to country...

...but nine-year-old Lindsey becomes

an expert at forging new relationships.

Yeah.

Lindsey was always more
mature, I think, for her age,

always friendly to people,
always got along with others.

You know, never had any
trouble at making friends.

Despite the upheavals in family life,

Lindsey also does well in her studies.

She did really great in school,
never any problems in school.

She was always "a" student.

Throughout her high school years,

there's one thing Lindsey
constantly battles with.

She struggled with her weight.

I think she got to the point
where she's just like,

"I can't do anything about it,

so I'm just gonna be whatever
I'm gonna be."

By 2003,
the pilkington family have moved

again to Columbia, south Carolina.

Lindsey is all grown up and
looking to pursue a career.

It's in 2008, while working
in a local bank,

that her whole world turns upside down.

One afternoon, a young
locksmith named Jason Lee

walks in.

Lindsey was working at the bank,

and he comes in to work on the vault.

Lindsey and Jason
strike up a conversation

and agree to go on a date.

It's not long before the young

couple falls head over heels in love.

They were very active.

Lindsey was always one to
go, go, go,

and he was the same way,

so that -- I think that's where
they kinda got along very well.

Jason fit into the family.

He helped me.

If something came up wrong
with my car, I could call him.

I knew he would come.

I really liked him.

Very nice, very funny guy.

We actually got along really well.

Before long, Lindsey and Jason

are inseparable,

so what happens next is no surprise.

Jason actually came to me and asked, um,

if this would be something
that she would like to do.

And he was gonna go out on a boat to

go see the dolphins and then
gonna propose to her then

at sunset.

And I told him, I said, "that is perfect.

That's all Lindsey."

Jason pops the question,

and Lindsey's answer, an emphatic yes.

I was excited for him to
be my brother-in-law.

It would be nice.

On September 25, 2010,

the family gathers in south Carolina

for Jason and Lindsey's wedding.

Jason, he was already crying

and, you know, just being happy.

We were all looking up there
thinking, wow, this is really

something, you know.
What a guy, you know,

he's up there cryin' already
before she even gets to him.

Jason blubbered like a baby.
It was --

he caught so much crap
for that -- after all that.

As soon as she started walking
down the aisle,

he just started crying wholeheartedly.

Yeah, it just meant a lot to see that

he really cared for her
and things were gonna be good.

As they perform their first dance

as husband and wife,

it's clear that Jason and
Lindsey Lee are soulmates.

A happy couple who seem to
have their whole lives

ahead of them.

Jason and Lindsey Lee
are celebrating their

love for each other with
family and friends.

As with all good
weddings, the best man takes

this opportunity to make fun
of the accident-prone groom.

But behind the smiles,

Lindsey's family is dealing
with heartbreak.

Just before the wedding,
my parents had separated.

Lindsey did not take
the separation very well at all.

It was extremely stressful
during wedding time.

When the wedding came,

it might have been the first time

I had seen him since our divorce.

You know,
with situation that we were in,

it was -- it was tough,

on US all, you know, to be there.

Kind of strained,

but way get through it.

Despite the sadness,
the newlyweds don't let it

affect the happiest day of their lives.

Jason and Lindsey slip
effortlessly into married life.

By 2012, Jason is thriving as
a locksmith,

and Lindsey has landed

her dream job 20 minutes away
in the Lexington county

sheriff's I.T. Department.

She's a popular coworker, and, as always,

quickly makes friends.

She was always happy.

She was a talker.

She would talk.

Doesn't matter who you were,

she would talk to you.

Her personality is --

the only thing I can describe
is infectious.

She wanted to -- to be
involved with you.

She wanted to know you.

I tend to be a pessimist,

but Lindsey would pull
the good out of you.

So we went from being work

partners to being very close friends.

Lindsey has found her niche.

Kids aren't on her radar,
and Jason's fine with that.

For the happy couple, life is sweet.

It's clear that neither Jason
nor Lindsey are

the domestic type.

If you talked to Jason,
Lindsey was the laziest person

on earth, she never did anything.

Well, if you talked to Lindsey,

Jason was lazy and didn't do anything.

They both liked to spend money,

but sometimes they overspent.

They would go to movies,
they would go shopping,

they would go out to eat a lot.

A lot of it was spent on food.

As money worries creep in,

Lindsey also starts to gain weight,

and she begins to lose some of
her usual bubbly confidence.

As her weight Rose, her self esteem

had gone down.

There was this brightness around

Lindsey that just kind of dimmed.

By 2014, four years into their marriage,

Lindsey and Jason are in a rut.

Jason decides it's time to make a change.

And that's how, in February,

he finds himself walking into
gold's gym.

Jason has caught the exercise bug.

What's more, he wants to share
his newfound hobby with Lindsey.

Lindsey didn't really,
at first, want to go

just 'cause she didn't want to do it.

I think the motivation wasn't there.

Lindsey and Jason are desperate to

reignite the spark in their relationship.

She wanted to feel better about herself for

her and her marriage.

Finally, in early 2015, Lindsey agrees

to accompany Jason to a training session.

It's here she meets Jason's
new fitness guru,

Graham hockley.

Graham, he was your,
British muscular karate dude.

Um, he was kind of confident
about his self.

He knew what he was saying and
what he wanted, put it that way.

He didn't beat around the bush.

She kinda got mad at him

'cause he was motivating her
to do and pushing her,

and she didn't like that
'cause Lindsey doesn't like

to be pushed.

Graham talks with
Lindsey about her life,

career, and her goals,

and not just about fitness.

She started seeing results,
then it became more of a,

"okay, this guy's helping me
out, so let's, you know,

give him more credit."

Graham introduces the couple
to martial arts.

He said, "I have these judo classes,

why don't you come to the judo
classes, you know, and stuff?"

So Lindsey and Jason started
the judo classes.

With Graham's encouragement,

Lindsey finds herself sticking
to a judo training schedule.

At first, I think
Lindsey did it for Jason, um,

because of her self esteem being so low.

But then her determination,
she got very determined, um,

and started doing it for herself.

Lindsey discovers she really enjoys

going to classes with Jason.

They're like, "okay, this is something

we can do together.
We can get fit."

The sparring sessions
prove to be a way for her

to get out all her daily
stress and frustrations.

Amazingly, she put her mind to
it, and there was nothin'

that girl, if she put her mind to,

she couldn't do.

For the first time in months,

the couple are back on cloud nine.

Their relationship got better
with the working out.

As Lindsey's training schedule intensifies,

there's a radical transformation.

She was in the morning at the gym,

go to work, after work,
she'd be at the judo place

working out as well,

and the weight started coming off

quicker and quicker and quicker.

At that point, I was married,
and I didn't see her as often.

So when I would see her,
I was just like, "wow!"

After a year of hard
work, Lindsey is like

a whole new person.

The gym features her success
story as part of their

before and after.

She wound up losing over 100 pounds.

She would call me so excited.

"I -- I'm in size 12!"

You know, or -- and then,
"I'm in size 8!"

She wouldn't miss a beat.

She wouldn't get off track.

You couldn't convince her
to eat or drink anything

that wasn't on her diet.

She was -- she was focused.

Lindsey Lee has become
Graham hockley's protege,

and she begins to enter
local competitions.

That's her in the blue,
executing an impressive

take down.

She could throw people that
were twice her size.

She would even tell me,

'cause her and Jason would
pit against each other.

I mean, she was even doing males
when she should have been

doing females, but she would --

she would fight the guys, too.

Graham films her
victory from the sidelines,

proud of the progress she's made.

You could see her demeanor,

you know, the self confidence, the...

Self esteem just getting
higher and higher.

It was -- you know, she was
coming into her own.

Lindsey's conquered her insecurities.

Now she's a strong, resilient fighter.

When Lindsey and Jason go out together,

he can't help but notice
the admiring glances

she's starting to get from others.

But too much change...

Can be a dangerous thing.

In just over a year, Lindsey Lee has lost

over 100 pounds.

Husband Jason loves the change in Lindsey,

and he's changed, too.

Now he wants kids,

but Lindsey's not on the same page.

They thought they wanted
the same kind of things.

She said,

"am I a bad person
'cause I don't want children?"

And I said, "absolutely not."

There's nothing that says you have

to get married and have 2.5 children,

you know, and a dog
and a white picket fence.

Jason struggles to
accept his wife's feelings.

The thorny issue of children
begins to overshadow

the marriage.

I guess there was some bumps
in road with that.

Between excelling at the sheriff's

department's I.T. Office
and her judo classes,

Lindsey's confidence is soaring.

Lindsey went from a shyer
female who was a little nervous

about her looks and how she

was to a self-confident woman
who was, like,

"I've got this, and I've got it
taken care of."

She spends more time
training with Graham.

Lindsey thinks of him
as more than just an instructor.

He's her mentor, a confidant,
and a friend.

Graham, he eventually

became just like part of the family.

He would come to Thanksgiving
and Christmas

and barbecues and things like that.

Meanwhile, Jason's going the other way.

His training sessions tail off.

Eventually, he stops showing up

to classes altogether.

Lindsey said,

"we started this journey
together, and he wanted to stop

the journey,
and I wanted to continue to go."

Jason's becoming suspicious of

Lindsey's relationship with Graham.

Jason did not like Lindsey

and Graham's relationship.

He always suspected something
was going on.

"She's cheating on me with him,"
you know.

He didn't understand that
a man and a woman

could be friends.

Things come to a head in April 2016,

just six years after their dream wedding.

Jason told me that Lindsey
had come in and just said,

"Jason, I'm done.
I'm finished.

I want a divorce."

Jason was upset.

He couldn't believe what was going on.

I received a call from her, and she

asked me if she could stay with me.

And I said, "of course."

I have always told both my children,

"if I'm 110 and I have a house,
you got a place to stay."

In the months that follow,

Jason and Lindsey do their
best to keep things amicable.

For a fresh start, Jason accepts

a job two hours away in Greenville county.

Then Lindsey gets an unexpected call.

He calls and is like,
"I don't want the house.

You can have the house.
I'm movin'."

He tells Lindsey he's moving to

an apartment closer to his new job.

She didn't want the house.

She just wanted out of it and
she would go do her own thing.

So when she moved back in, you know,

she decided she wanted to fix
it up and sell it.

Jason agrees and offers to help Lindsey

fix the bathroom.

And Jason's got some big news.

There was a picture of another
woman on his Facebook page.

And it wasn't even a picture.

It was a -- if I recall, it was
kind of a silhouette,

but it mentioned the fact that
he was already in another

relationship with another woman.

Lindsey's a bit
surprised, but everyone's happy

to hear he's getting on with his life.

It was a relief to know that, hey, good,

this guy's gonna, you know,
move on and find someone else

and let her do her own thing.

By early march 2017,
Jason and Lindsey agree

to finalize their divorce
the following month.

They've made a clean break.

March 14, 2017.

Lindsey's colleagues at
the Lexington county sheriff's

department are surprised to
see her desk empty.

Lindsey was one of the very first

people who would come in to the office,

and it's because of her workout
regime at that point,

and so when she wasn't there,
it was extremely odd.

I, texted or called Lindsey to --

to try to get her to answer me.

Lindsey's friend and colleague,

Shannon, is on patrol in the area.

They told me that,
Lindsey hadn't shown up for work

and she's not answering her phone,

if I can go check on her,
because I was only

ten minutes down the road from her house.

"Sure!"

So I get in my patrol vehicle,
and I go to the house,

went up to the front door,

knocked on the front door.
No answer.

So I went to go head to the back door.

But Lindsey doesn't answer.

It's almost instinct.

I knew something was wrong.

I've never seen Lindsey this happy before.

31-year-old Lindsey
Lee hasn't turned up for work.

Her friend, Shannon lovell,
is outside her home.

I saw the back door was splintered,

like somebody had broke in.

Soon as I saw that,
I called or backup.

When his partner arrives,

they enter the house.

I had no idea what I was gonna find.

Soon as I pushed in the door,

I heard water running.

The officers make their way upstairs

And enter the bathroom.

Inside, a shower curtain
obscures the bathtub.

When my partner pulled back
the curtain...

...there was Lindsey,

laid in the bathtub, coffin-style.

Looked like somebody had laid her there.

The cause of death is clear.

She's bled out from a large
incision across her neck.

Both of US were in shock
because we see a colleague

and a friend laying here, murdered.

There's no way Lexington county

sheriff's department can
objectively investigate this.

We reached out to the
state law enforcement division

and said, "hey, this is one of ours.

Do you mind getting officers involved?"

And so they did.

I couldn't be the best detective for her.

I couldn't help.

And that's hard.

While state law enforcement heads

to the crime scene,

local officers are tasked with
informing Lindsey's family.

You just find out your child's gone.

I screamed, I'm crying, and i'm
not gettin' it.

Yay!

My boss called me up to his office...

And said somethin' had happened
to, Lindsey.

I just couldn't wrap my head
around what happened

and why, you know?

Although investigators
learn Lindsey was on good terms

with her soon-to-be ex-husband,

they still need to eliminate
him from their inquiries.

They quickly track him down.

He's two hours away
at his locksmith store

in Greenville county.

Jason is surprised to see them.

He asks them, "what's wrong?"

They say, "Lindsey is dead,"

and Jason is crying and asking,
"what happened to her?"

Once he's composed himself,

he agrees to come to the station.

Jason tells the police that he
suffered a foot injury at work.

He took some pain pills
and was knocked out,

and he didn't wake up until
the following morning.

He tells investigators
that when he woke up,

his car was gone.

He assumed it had been repossessed.

Jason had no way to
get to Lindsey's house

two hours away in the window
when she was killed.

When detectives ask for a DNA swab,

Jason consents.

Back at the crime scene...

Investigators are combing for evidence.

There were grocery bags everywhere.

It really looked like there
had been a struggle.

Under some of the bags

and under some of the spilled
groceries were these

really tiny dime-sized pieces
of blue latex.

The scraps of latex look like the kind

used in surgical gloves.

While the scraps are sent for
DNA testing,

investigators establish
Lindsey's last movements.

According to her schedule,

she had a training session
yesterday evening.

The last person believed
to see Lindsey Lee alive

is Graham hockley,
so police want to talk to him.

Where is he?

As investigators try
to track down Graham hockley,

the forensic pathologist
examines Lindsey's body.

In addition to the fatal cut
across the neck,

the evidence shows that

Lindsey sustained other serious injuries.

There were some abrasions and
bruises linear across the neck.

She was probably

strangled to the point
of unconsciousness,

placed in the bathtub where
she was found,

and then the incised wound
across the neck occurred.

There was a fight.

There were some
what we call defense wounds.

She had her hand up trying to
stop the knife.

It looked like a, um...

A vicious attack, um,

maybe attack out of anger.

It was just over the top.

The highly personal
nature of the attack

suggests to police that
Lindsey may have known

her killer.

Police are able to finally make contact

with Graham hockley.

All he can tell them is that, as usual,

she attended his class the night before.

Graham says he then went home alone.

Investigators must establish
if Lindsey left

the gym alone or with Graham hockley.

They re-examine the evidence
collected at

the crime scene and focus on
a Walmart receipt.

They look at the timestamp.

She was at Walmart half an hour

before she arrived home and was killed.

Investigators pull
the surveillance footage...

And watch Lindsey's last moments alive.

It's been 48 hours since

Lindsey Lee was found
brutally murdered...

In her home in west Columbia,
south Carolina.

Walmart surveillance footage
shows Lindsey shopping

the evening she was killed.

She's not being followed.

She doesn't seem concerned.

She doesn't seem agitated.

She's just going about her day.

The footage proves Lindsey

left her judo session alone.

What's more, investigators can verify

her trainer was at home
the night of the murder.

Graham hockley is ruled out as
a suspect in Lindsey's murder.

Investigators believe
someone must have been lying

in wait for Lindsey to arrive home.

They now refocus their attention

on Lindsey's estranged husband,
Jason Lee.

Jason's banking accounts
reveal his credit cards are

maxed out,

and he's having serious money problems.

He was gonna be evicted.

His car was being repossessed.

He owed Lindsey Lee about $1300 before

the divorce was set to be finalized.

It appears Jason Lee
had a motive to kill

his estranged wife.

Investigators hunt for
evidence that undermine

his claim of being at his home
the night of the murder.

One day after Lindsey's body is found,

a patrol officer reports
a strange encounter in a Walmart

parking lot.

A man matching Jason's
description argued with him

over why the officer was near
his car.

The officer also remember
something else about the man.

They notice a big scratch on his cheek.

Investigators run the plates...

...and it's Jason's car.

The same car Jason told police
had vanished from his home.

Investigators pull surveillance

cameras overlooking

the Walmart parking lot.

At 5:15 A.M.

Just hours before Lindsey's
body is discovered,

Jason's car pulls into the lot.

A figure matching Jason's build
exits the vehicle.

We see a man walk across
numerous businesses'

parking lots in the direction
of his apartment.

Then 50 minutes later,
cameras capture more activity.

Jason Lee's work truck pulls up right

next to his personal car on
surveillance video...

...and he sits in it for about
four minutes.

Police believe that he was
moving something in

between cars.

Police consider this
could be the moment Jason was

moving the murder weapon from
his car to his Van.

Cameras inside Walmart also
captured Jason shopping.

The footage proves that Jason
Lee was not asleep as

he claimed,

and his car was not missing.
He'd moved it himself.

It's enough for investigators
to execute

a search warrant on Jason's apartment.

They found blue latex gloves,

a package of them, in his
backpack at his apartment.

The same type of blue latex

found amongst the groceries at
the crime scene.

Then, the most damning evidence of all.

The DNA results are back, and it shows

Jason Lee's DNA is found on all of

those blue latex pieces found
inside Lindsey Lee's foyer.

For investigators, it seals the deal.

I found out that Jason had

been arrested about
five o'clock Friday morning.

We did not see this coming.

We didn't know that it would be him.

On march 17th,

three days after Lindsey's
body is found,

Jason Lee is charged with
first-degree murder.

He pleads not guilty.

The prosecution built this
case that Jason Lee was

so bitter that he just could
not let her go.

So as their impending divorce was coming,

it was two weeks away
when she was killed.

At his trial in 2019,

prosecutors lay out what they
believe happened that night.

He broke into her house,

made it look like it was random,

and he hid in the dark until
she got home.

Jason wore gloves to
make sure he left no trace.

She came through that front door,

and with all those groceries
in hand, he attacked her.

She fought for her life,

but Jason overpowered Lindsey.

He injured her on the foyer.

He got her into this bathroom...

And he cut her throat, and he
left her there to die.

But Jason hadn't
noticed the pieces of his gloves

that fell to the floor
and sealed his fate.

Nine years ago, the
wedding officiant spoke of all

the things Jason's hands would
provide for his wife, Lindsey.

In the end, those hands were

used to carry out Lindsey's murder.

The jury finds Jason Lee guilty
of first-degree murder,

and he is sentenced to life
in prison.

Still, to this day,

Jason maintains his innocence.

Look at the camera!

For her family, a life without Lindsey

is unbearable.

People tend to think that just because

some time has gone by that
everything's okay.

It's not okay.

It's never gonna be okay.

The reality is I will never
see my firstborn again,

alive on this earth,

and it was brutally,
brutally taken from me.

And I have to live with that.

There's a -- there's this void
that's just --

it's not there, you know.

That brightness is gone.

The brightness is gone.

Without Lindsey,
it's, it's tough every day.

See.

And then, walk into our bedroom,

we have a cabinet there
with some pictures.

There's a picture of me
and Lindsey and her sister.

That was some of the last
pictures we took together.

I just think about her every
day and miss her.

You just, always wonder
why things happen.

We'll find that out one day.