Original subtitles

[Ariel Turk] I didn't want them to get married.

It took everything out of me not to object.

But I didn't want to ruin that fantasy.

What is it about this man that she's so drawn to?

I was honestly very frightened for her and the girls.

I was very afraid.

I was very afraid.

[ominous music playing]

[Ariel] As long as he was gonna

make everything right, then she was gonna stick beside him.

The Beauty and the Beast, but without the Beast changing.

[Olivia] What you doing?

[Christopher Jones speaking]

[man on dispatch speaking]

[man on dispatch speaking]

[sniffles] She deserved more.

You know?

[Christopher speaking]

[pensive music playing]

[Joshua Simmons] We grew up in a household of five.

Five siblings, and Olivia being the oldest,

me being the second oldest.

me being the second oldest.

Olivia was a beautiful person inside and out.

She was just very loving and caring.

And we're less than a year apart, so when I graduated,

I moved out of my mom's house

and moved with Olivia and her husband.

And my sister wanted to bring me under her wing,

basically show me how to find a job.

basically show me how to find a job.

I would always say... call her "Fabulous Olivia"

so this probably one of those moments.

She got the shades on, the drink,

got her nails done and the swimsuit.

So this was just Olivia being fabulous.

I know she was my sister-in-law,

but I always say she was my sister.

'Cause we talked about everything.

[Joshua] Olivia went into, um, the tax business where...

she became very successful.

She was just always in... into something

that was business-oriented.

[Joshua] This is when...

Olivia first became a mom.

This is my sister Courtney,

this is Olivia,

this is my mother when she had short hair,

and this is, uh, Ariel.

and this is, uh, Ariel.

Mom looks so young. [chuckles]

She looks so young.

It was pretty cool growing up.

We used to go camping a lot,

going swimming, climbing trees and stuff like that.

She always made sure that we had everything.

[indistinct chatter on video]

Basically a kid's, like, fantasy.

[Brittney] The divorce with her and Al was very upsetting to her.

Very disappointing.

[melancholy music playing]

I feel like it...

also made her insecure in areas.

And she was still just trying

to make sure that her and the girls were good.

[Ariel] She really had to start over.

She definitely did wanna meet someone new.

She definitely did wanna meet someone new.

She wanted to get that family aspect back.

[Brittney] She seemed reluctant, you know,

to kind of move forward,

but, you know, I told her, I say

"Hey, you gotta put yourself out there, you know?

You need to date. You know, have fun again."

[Ariel] I knew that she wanted to find someone

that was actually gonna love her.

And just be all for her.

[Joshua] When I first heard the news that Olivia had met someone,

I welcomed it, because I want to see her happy.

She always talked about how cute he was

and he has a good job.

[Joshua] He worked for the state of Texas as a prison guard.

You would think that, as a prison guard,

they would be some type of protective for their families, for sure.

[speaking inaudibly]

[cheering on television]

[Joshua] As long as I can remember as a kid growing up,

we used to have football Sundays, where on a Sunday,

you come together, you come at somebody's house

and there's a lot of good food to eat

and there's a lot of good football to watch.

Football Sundays at [chuckles] my in-laws'...

[indistinct chatter from TV]

...I had never seen anything like it

until I married into this family.

[speaking inaudibly]

[speaking inaudibly]

We would go straight after church

and stay there until, like, ten o'clock,

sometimes later.

Everybody'd still be there, be a packed house.

[Joshua] Just a lot of good family time,

and a lot of good family fun,

and Olivia was the centerpiece of all of that.

[Brittney] First time I met Chris,

I remember Miss Anita offering him, which is my mother-in-law,

offering him some food.

Olivia was sitting next to him,

Olivia was sitting next to him,

and he said, "Yeah, you can go fix me something to eat."

He told Olivia to go and fix the food.

And I just kind of brushed it off.

I said, "Well, maybe he's just one of those guys,

you know, very old school."

[Ariel] The first time I met Christopher,

his whole dynamic was just off to me.

When you talk to him, he comes off as arrogant,

he is a know-it-all.

he is a know-it-all.

And he used to tell me all the time, like,

"Oh, I'm gonna marry your mom," and all this stuff

and, he, uh...

I would be like, "No, you're not."

Like, "No, you're not."

And I would run and tell my mom like, "No, you're not gonna marry this man.

Please don't marry this man."

[Joshua] Early on in the relationship,

Olivia and Christopher Jones

had went out to a local restaurant in Beaumont, Texas one night.

There was a young lady that

There was a young lady that

Christopher Jones had been dating before.

Got upset and started an altercation with Olivia.

[Brittney] And we just happened to be there.

And I guess this was a first date for them.

[sinister music playing]

Then we see these girls just...

jumping Olivia.

It was three of 'em and she was by herself.

And one took off her shoe

and was hitting Olivia in the head with it.

You had one holding her and the other one was just kinda fighting.

Chris, and this is something I'll never forget,

is not doing anything.

I remember him laughing with his two friends.

[inaudible conversation]

[Joshua] At the time, the police was called,

and, of course, that's when Christopher Jones really tucks his tail and run.

And I just remember Olivia getting her Suburban at the time

and she was... blood and was red

and was crying a whole lot.

And I remember trying to tell her,

"Olivia, calm down."

And she was like, "No, I wanna go home."

After the fight happened, I did contact Olivia.

I said, "You need to press charges."

But Chris told her not to file a police report

because he was working at the prison at that time.

So he didn't want it to come back on him.

I never had a good feeling from Chris.

Never.

But she didn't see that.

[woman in distance] Oh, yeah!

[woman in distance] Oh, yeah!

[indistinct conversation]

[Joshua] Myself, my wife and my kids

and Olivia and her children

were at a local park here in Beaumont, Texas.

[child exclaims]

We had been at the park playing and catching up.

[cell phone ringing]

Noticed that my sister's phone kept ringing but she would never answer it.

[ringing continues]

And it would ring back to back to back,

basically, and she would never pick up the phone.

[ringing continues]

[ringing continues]

Olivia and, uh, her kids had got into her car.

And all of a sudden, we see a truck

kind of fly into the parking lot.

[Brittney] And I was like, "Well, who is this?"

And then I see Chris jump out the truck,

leave his door open

and I see him punching her glass window.

[inaudible conversation]

[inaudible conversation]

Like, he kept punching it, and at this point,

Josh, he sees what's going on.

When I seen him banging on the window,

I immediately started running up to the situation

with my wife grabbing me trying to hold me back.

And I just remember pulling my husband's shirt

because I'm like, "We got the kids right here,"

and I'm telling the kids, "Y'all stay right there."

And then, at the same time, I'm on the phone with 911.

And I see Olivia crying

and screaming, "Please stop, Chris, please stop!"

I heard my Aunt Brittney say, "I'm gonna call 911, I'm calling 911 right now."

And that's when he jumped in his truck and he sped off.

And I remember him speeding off because he turned the corner so fast,

it looked like the truck was gonna flip.

And at this point, my kids are hysterical.

And I looked over and Yalia and Ariel weren't crying.

When I noticed that, I instantly said,

"Oh, they've seen this before."

[Joshua] I got up to the vehicle, and Olivia was crying in the seat.

And at that point, that's when Olivia shut down.

And at that point, that's when Olivia shut down.

And she didn't want to talk about it.

[Brittney] After that altercation,

it did change our relationship with Olivia.

She stopped talking to us, uh, for about a year.

[Joshua] Looking back at it, I should have pressed it more.

He isolated her,

made her feel like the only people that was there for her

was his side of the family.

[Ariel] They didn't try to justify it.

They just said that they were going to counseling,

that he was getting better

and he would basically never do it again.

[Brittney] Turn around.

Ooh!

[Brittney] I believe when Olivia cut us off around that time,

she was in love with Chris.

She was embarrassed by what he had done.

And I think she wanted everyone to believe

And I think she wanted everyone to believe

that their relationship was...

good, they were in a good space.

From the conversations we had with my mother-in-law,

the family, you know,

just thought Chris was just this really good guy.

But me and Josh, my husband, we knew the truth,

and we knew he had a dark side.

[ominous music playing]

[woman 1] I'm gonna... gonna cry.

[all chuckle]

-[all exclaiming] -[woman 1] Oh, my God!

[man] Yes, sir! Yes, sir!

[all applauding and exclaiming]

[woman 2] Say yes!

[all laughing and cheering]

[woman 1 exclaiming indistinctly]

-[all laughing] -[man exclaiming indistinctly]

[man] Hold hands! Hold hands!

I just remember seeing on social media

that he proposed to her and they got engaged.

When she told us, I didn't have no words.

I think she considered, you know,

I think she considered, you know,

"This'll make sure my girls are taken care of."

I didn't want him to be my stepdad and I didn't want him in my life.

Olivia told me about Ariel having her reservations.

And, like, I told her,

"You have to listen to your child."

But she felt like it was because Ariel didn't want to see her move on

from-- with someone besides her dad.

[Ariel] As long as he made it seem like he was changing,

[Ariel] As long as he made it seem like he was changing,

that he was gonna make everything right,

then she was gonna stick beside him.

The Beauty and the Beast, but without the Beast changing.

[Brittney] Deep down in my heart, I was...

very confused.

I was wondering,

"What is it about this man that she's so drawn to?

"What is it about this man that she's so drawn to?

Why does she feel like him controlling her is love?"

And I was honestly very frightened for her and the girls.

I was very afraid.

It was hell, basically.

It was hell, basically.

Chris definitely brung the prison to his house.

He ran it like a prison.

He oversaw it as a prison.

So everything had to be done at a certain time

by a certain way.

Rooms had to be clean at all times.

We couldn't have literally anything on the floor,

the beds had to be made.

They... It couldn't have no wrinkles or anything in the comforter.

They... It couldn't have no wrinkles or anything in the comforter.

Like, everything had to be straight

and, like, you had to literally take your hand and...

straighten out the blankets.

Pillows had to be nice and neat.

If we had the TV on, and if he didn't like what was on the TV,

he'd either make us cut it off or he'd make us change it.

If you weren't in the room during the day, the door had to be open.

So that way, if anyone came down the hallway,

they would see how nice and neat everything was.

they would see how nice and neat everything was.

The dishes had to be done every night,

washed, the floors had to be cleaned every night,

the rugs had to be cleaned every night.

And his number one rule was like,

"Whatever happens in this house stays in this house."

One day, my mom called me into the kitchen,

and I told her, "Hey, like, I'll be right there."

And he actually whooped me with a belt.

And he actually whooped me with a belt.

Because he said that I shouldn't talk to my mom like that.

It was a very difficult situation to be in.

I feel like people need to know what's going on,

especially, like, your family,

and if they know what's going on,

then they can help you.

[sinister music playing]

My mom and her mom talked every morning.

And when she passed, it basically took away her other half.

Chris tried to make it seem like he cared.

He tried to make it seem like, oh, he was just so devastated,

"My mother-in-law passed away."

You know, but, in all honesty, he really didn't care.

[Joshua] In our culture, when someone passes away, of course,

everyone navigated to that house.

And I just noticed that Chris was never there.

After my mother-in-law passed away, we got really, really close.

And I just remember, she called me.

And I remember her whispering.

And I said, "Why you whispering?"

And I said, "Why you whispering?"

And she said, "Girl, 'cause he got them cameras in there,

and he... I don't want him to hear what I'm saying."

And I was like, "Huh?"

There were a total of ten cameras.

There were two in the front.

Then, they had one

pointed towards the hallway right above the front door.

He had another one in the corner of the living room

He had another one in the corner of the living room

so you can see the full living room and the kitchen.

Like, every inch of the house was covered in cameras

except for our bedrooms and the bathroom.

[tense music playing]

[Brittney] That was just real creepy for me.

You have no privacy, you know,

Olivia can't have a decent conversation

without, you know, him knowing about it.

[Ariel] He could, um, look at the cameras anytime he wanted to.

[Ariel] He could, um, look at the cameras anytime he wanted to.

He can also talk through the cameras, and we can actually talk to him back.

So if, while he was at work,

and he seen that we were in the hallway or something,

he can actually talk through it.

And they were also night vision.

Everything was very disturbing.

'Cause if you were living in the house, then you would know, like...

'Cause if you were living in the house, then you would know, like...

this should not be happening.

You're not supposed to be living in fear.

[Ariel] One night, Chris and my mom were in the room arguing.

The door was shut.

And all I could hear was like, "Chris, I can't breathe. Chris, I can't breathe."

[man arguing indistinctly]

And I opened the door and I said,

"Mama, are you okay?"

[arguing continues]

And the door quickly slammed.

And it slammed so fast that it hit my forehead.

He came out and he started yelling at me.

He started putting his finger right here on my forehead

He started putting his finger right here on my forehead

and, like, pushing me back.

And I was like, "You think I'm just gonna let you put your hands on my mom?

And she's telling me, and she's screaming out she can't breathe,

are you, like, are you crazy?"

[inaudible conversation]

I said, "Mom, are you really gonna let him do this to you?

Why are you doing this?

Why are you allowing him to do this?"

And she basically said, "Ariel, when I feel like enough is enough,

then I'm gonna leave."

then I'm gonna leave."

And I said...

"Are you serious?

You're really gonna sit up here and let him continue to do this to you?"

[dramatic music playing]

He knew it. He knew that...

she wouldn't leave him as long as he said the right words.

[mysterious music playing]

I didn't want them to get married.

It took everything out of me

not to object during the wedding.

But I seen how her face was so lit up,

she had the biggest smile on her face.

You should have seen her, like, her heart was...

You should have seen her, like, her heart was...

[laughs] It was so happy.

I didn't want to be the one to ruin that for her

because she had so many hopes, she had so many dreams

to be a wife, to be a mother,

to live in a stable household.

I didn't want to ruin that fantasy for her.

And she came to me, she hugged us both and she was crying

just to see us there.

just to see us there.

And she said, "I'm just so happy to see y'all here,"

because, you know, her sisters weren't there.

It was sad that my siblings weren't there.

It was strictly because, uh, Chris did not want them there

and they didn't feel welcome.

Chris wasn't gonna accept anything that wasn't his way.

It was either his way or the highway

and if he say he didn't want someone there,

then that person was not gonna be there.

He would get into fights at work.

And his problems was he didn't know how to control his anger.

He also brung recordings back to the house.

Uh, the surveillance footage that he showed me

showed him beating up the inmate so bad

that he couldn't even move.

They had to transport him to the E.R. with all his injuries.

They had to transport him to the E.R. with all his injuries.

I couldn't look at that. It was too much for me.

I've never seen that type of anger before in my whole life.

He showed us so that way, we can get in line also,

to show, like, this is what he'd do to people

that don't follow his rules.

Chris was having troubles with his job.

He was on suspension.

Olivia at that point had built up a clientele base

where she had tons and tons of clients

utilizing her tax business.

Seeing our family kind of struggle,

it created an ambition within her,

um, for her to go out and want better in life.

She definitely made probably two, three times more than he did.

She definitely made probably two, three times more than he did.

[Joshua] Olivia and Chris, what they did was...

start another business which was a food truck business.

So Olivia took the money that she earned

and invested it into the food truck

to get it up and going and get it running.

And that way, Olivia can continue to do what she was doing.

The idea, I would say, was his.

But she was the one that was doing all the work.

But she was the one that was doing all the work.

She was the one going to buy the food,

prep the food,

um, make sure the labels and stuff was correct.

She made it seem like he did all the work.

When in reality, the only thing he did was load the truck,

and cook the food. That was it.

He just had her by the collar and just, whatever he wanted,

she was gonna go do.

[melancholy music playing]

So, graduating high school,

I just knew that I was about to go to college,

I was about to be free.

And I just had a big sigh of relief

of me finally getting away from that house.

But it also scared me because...

I had to leave them behind.

Not only my mom, but my sister.

That wasn't how things were supposed to go.

And...

Yeah.

[sinister music playing]

On February 13th 2019,

I had a feeling that I need to talk to my mom

and just let her know like, "Hey, I love you.

I'm gonna bring you your Valentine's Day gift up here tomorrow."

I'm gonna bring you your Valentine's Day gift up here tomorrow."

After that phone call, I was a little uneasy

and the whole night, I could not sleep.

I just had a feeling like something was gonna happen, like,

something was... something was off.

But I just couldn't put my finger on it.

[line ringing]

[man panting]

[ominous music playing]

[cell phone ringing]

[Ariel] On February 14th, I got a call from Chris around 9:12 in the morning,

and...

He was, like, saying, "Hey, Ariel, um, something happened."

[police officer 1] Okay.

[Christopher speaking]

[police officer 2 speaking]

[Christopher speaking]

[police officer 2] Okay.

[Christopher speaking]

[police officer 2 speaking]

[Christopher speaking indistinctly]

[police siren wailing]

[dog howling]

I was like, "Is she okay?"

Like, "What's going on?"

And he was like, "Ariel, it don't look good."

And he was like, "Ariel, it don't look good."

[indistinct radio chatter]

[police officer 1 speaking]

We... We...

[police officer 1] Okay.

[police officer 1] Okay.

[Ariel] And he said that

she ran in the house and got the gun

and she put it up to her head and she was telling him,

"If I can't have you, nobody can have you."

And he said that when he was trying to get the gun

that it accidentally went off.

-[police officer 1 speaking] -[Christopher speaking]

[police officer 1 speaking]

[police officer 1 speaking]

[police officer 1 speaking]

[Ariel] I got there in a matter of 15 minutes.

[Ariel] I got there in a matter of 15 minutes.

I drove around the corner all I seen was cops and I seen the caution tape.

The police officers, they stopped me,

and I was just like, "I just wanna see her."

I went to his mom and I asked her like,

like, "What's going on? Is she okay?"

Like, "Is... Is she alive?"

And she... she had the same face Chris had, blank.

And she said,

"Ariel, she's not alive."

And I broke down.

[menacing music playing]

[menacing music playing]

[Joshua] I pulled up to a sight that I thought I would never have seen

with police everywhere, with detectives everywhere, with...

crime scene tape everywhere.

I pulled up to a nightmare.

[Detective Mendy Freeman] When I got onto scene,

Olivia's car was in the driveway.

Olivia's car was in the driveway.

Her keys were on the trunk of her car.

Her phone was inside of her car.

There was cold, uh, food product in her car.

Uh, hamburger meat, things of that nature.

There was a bouquet of flowers in the car

that seemed to have been there for Valentine's Day.

It seemed like she was in the middle of something that morning

and it got interrupted by this incident.

We made our way through the house to find, uh, Olivia

and she was deceased in her bedroom.

She was lying on the floor on her stomach,

um, partially clothed.

There was a great deal of blood.

There was blood spatter.

It wasn't until we... we rolled her over

and saw an exit wound coming out of her left eye,

um, that we realized that

the round had actually struck her in the back of the head.

Something that we did notice throughout the home

were cameras, surveillance cameras.

So we were hopeful we would be able to get some information

from those cameras.

Absolutely nothing on that scene

pointed to a woman that was suicidal...

or depressed,

or intending on taking her life that day.

[police officer 2 speaking]

[Det. Freeman] We first met with Christopher Jones

at the Beaumont Police Department.

He agreed to speak with us,

seemed very willing to do so,

wanted us to know, uh, what he said had happened.

They were preparing the food truck.

Uh, some time during that preparation,

he grew upset because he felt that

he grew upset because he felt that

Olivia was not doing her share of the work,

um, had failed him and was not keeping at where she should.

[detective] Mmm-hmm.

[detective speaking]

So because of these things, he decided he wanted to get a divorce.

She stormed into the house,

She stormed into the house,

went straight to the bedroom

and put a gun to her head.

[Christopher speaking]

-[Det. Freeman speaking] -[Christopher speaking]

[Det. Freeman] Mmm-hmm.

Well, during this time, uh, we happened to ask him about the surveillance cameras

Well, during this time, uh, we happened to ask him about the surveillance cameras

around his house.

We asked if we could have permission to view those on his phone.

He was very willing to allow us access to those cameras.

But the videos weren't there.

[Det. Freeman] There was a change in Christopher's demeanor.

He wouldn't look us in the eye.

[Det. Freeman] His immediate reaction was that the system was faulty.

He told me that he had been lazy in charging the cameras.

[Det. Freeman speaking]

[Det. Freeman speaking]

It was obvious that he was being, um, very deceptive.

[Det. Freeman speaking]

[Det. Freeman speaking]

[Det. Freeman speaking]

[Det. Freeman] How many had he deleted?

And...

come to find out everything except one camera.

[ominous music playing]

The only video that we saw around the time of the incident

was the one, uh, showing that...

Olivia didn't go storming through the house,

she didn't go to the bedroom.

None of those things. She was actually in the kitchen.

Washing up, cleaning up from preparing food.

Christopher was in the kitchen as well.

Christopher was in the kitchen as well.

He's the one that walked toward the bedroom first.

He stopped in the hallway.

When Olivia walked around to go toward the bedroom...

...she was startled to find him there.

When that video ended...

it was less than three minutes later

it was less than three minutes later

that Christopher was on the phone with 911

saying that his wife was shot in the head.

[Christopher speaking]

I think the reason that one camera was still there

is he ran out of time.

When Christopher was supposed to be saving his wife's life,

he was out in the front yard deleting videos.

By the time that interview had ended that day,

By the time that interview had ended that day,

Christopher was placed under arrest for murder.

[ominous music playing]

[Joshua] And there were several videos shown during that trial

that showed him being an absolute monster to my sister.

It was like a nightmare, living that trial.

[Christopher speaking]

[Olivia speaking]

[Christopher speaking]

[Olivia speaking]

[Christopher speaking]

-[Olivia speaking] -[Christopher speaking]

[Brittney] And once I seen the video footage,

I was just filled with sadness.

So much...

sadness.

I felt guilt as to, "Why didn't I see that?

Why didn't I know that she was dealing with, it was just this bad?"

You know, "Why didn't I say something when I could have?"

Typically, the victim will make excuses for the violent person.

Uh, the victim will think that they can fix the violent person.

Um, and either way, they think that they're in love with the violent person.

Once violence begins, it doesn't just stop.

-[Olivia] Hell. -[Christopher speaking]

And I'm gonna get emotional.

It breaks your heart that she went through what she went through.

It hurts to know that...

she, for whatever reason, could not remove herself from that relationship.

she, for whatever reason, could not remove herself from that relationship.

And but for that, she would still be here today.

I can honestly say he took a piece of everyone's heart,

everyone's soul, he crushed it.

Every day, I put on this ribbon.

This purple ribbon.

I put that ribbon on every day in remembrance of her.

And it signifies, uh, domestic violence.

And it signifies, uh, domestic violence.

So I, I wear it every single day.

I just, I love her and I miss her dearly.

It's a nightmare.

Think about her all the time.

[Ariel] I want my mom to be remembered as that happy thought

that everyone has.

That place they go to when they need peace, joy, happiness.

[sniffles] She deserved more. You know?

Like a smile that you see on everyone's face.

Like, that's her.

[sobs] That food that you love?

That's her, the one that makes your soul smile.

That's how I want her to be remembered.