Behind the Closet Door
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in all states and situations tonight on .

date line urgency. I about my girlfriend was nothing, I think he said .

SHE was laying in a backbeat room closet.

He said.

there's no easy way to say this. We found her mother dead. SHE had made a complete stranger into vacant do to take an old computer. Kevin was asking there, there any other people that knew about this computer guy? He was the top suspect in my mind.

但是 most murders are committed by people that.

you know, this could be a domestic IT didn't make sense.

He was spending money on online.

Point did me. I've sent .

maybe two to three emails to her.

What was the game plan when you go in for this conversation?

My plan was to confront him. I know what happened, but what I don't know is why you, my mom was my best friend. Kevin has shown he's not going to give up. I don't feel like I had a choice. He would have done the same thing for me, a mother murdered.

And while the detectives pursue one man, her son is convinced. If someone else, i'm less to hold. And this is deadline.

Here is josh manka z with behind the closet door. If she's only stayed in the water a little longer, maybe this all wouldn't have happened. Maybe SHE would have been swimming when IT all went down. Maybe sh'd still be with us. Andrea in kata always felt safe in the pool, and he loved IT there almost as much as he loved her son Kevin swiming was very important near all.

Yes, yes was why .

SHE loved swiming.

It's a total body workout, and it's very relaxing and and Graceful that you feel great for the rest of the day.

SHE swim every day, if he could. That's how Andrea was, according your friend Sally, persistent, also hip, smart and endlessly positive.

When I think about andy, I think of her as someone who was happy and and someone who was comfortable with yourself.

People who loved her say SHE knew what he wanted and her calling in life was grounded in what he loved to do.

SHE was an avid reader.

carrot. Frasier had been her friend for years.

Andrea was just a brilliant kid. I mean, he was really smart.

He wasn't surprised. Andrew became a librarian.

I said to myself, that makes perfect sense. He was very strongly connected to books.

Then came a hot August day in one thousand and ninety eight. Andrea was then living in arlington, Virginia, just across the pattern c from washington, D. C. SHE shared a cozy two bedroom apartment with her boyfriend, Chris Johnson. Andreas son Kevin knew their schedules.

He went to work at home deepo a little before seven in the morning.

Chris worked in the receiving department there. Andrea had that friday off from the library.

Her Normal routine, if SHE was off on a weekday, would be to go swimming the morning.

That's just what he did. Andrea headed out for a swim, checking IT to the high school pool at seven forty A M. Afterwards, he stopped by the public library.

SHE had a special project at the library that SHE needed to go into work for a couple of hours.

right?

And then that would have meant he was coming home around eleven or eleven thirty A.

M. The plan was a meter friend at one P. M. For lunch. Andrea and Chris is answering machines suggested the day hadn't gone as planned.

Just check in to see the job, right? It's the two clock and friday bye.

That's the voice of the woman Andrea was supposed to meet for lunch. SHE made that call because Andrea never showed. Next on the machine was a message from Andrea's .

boyfriend Chris, looking to try to get home about five thirteen. We can confirm whether we're going to. The movies are running of the day, otherwise you tonight love you .

as the day war on. Multiple messages came from Chris telling Andrea he'd .

be a little late pick prime at five thirty nine i've left home people who .

came home around the time sign of Andrea. He told Kevin what happened next.

Her car wasn't there, the door was unlocked and IT should have been locked.

Chris walked, called out for Andrea, then waited for her to come home. He had a snack, took a shower, did some laundry and waited some more. One of the messages on the answering machine offered a clue as to where .

Andrea might be. And thirty, we have the bad news. Give me call to a OK.

Judie was also a friend of Andreas. A family member of hers had received a frightening medical diagnosis, so maybe Andrea was with her. Chris called and left Julia message. He didn't hear back and said he grew alarmed and made more calls. He left a message for Kevin and phone at least one hospital.

and he called to see if there had been a car accident or if there was somebody there by her name.

He dozed off around eleven thirty pm, then woke up two hours later. Still no Andrea. He told Kevin that's when he noticed the bedroom closet door usually wide open. On this night, IT was mostly closed, Chris opening and found Andrea .

up to nine one. What is your emergency? I need an offer.

A twenty year mystery was just starting.

Emergency IT was August twenty .

second one thousand ninety eight, about one thirty in the morning. Chris Johnson had just opened the door to his bedroom closet and found .

the body of his girlfriend, Andrea snati. I had trainer ship report go out tonight. I to give her some time, I think he did you think? The over her side.

Petrol officers in emt arrived at the apartment minutes after Chris is non one one call, they found no signs of force entry and quickly realized this was a murder scene.

They then call for the homicide detectives, and the crime scene of people become process the crime scene.

Jim trainer is a retired homicide detective with the washington, dc. Metro police department. He was not there that night, but he studied the Andrea sanna atoc case file. When they first got here.

they noticed that the apartment itself was pretty a acculturation. Recently, any signs .

of a struggle, a closer look at the murder scene, revealed something else.

They noted that the apartment had .

been vacuum IT was Chris who noticed that and told police. He also mentioned a few things were missing from the apartment, a roll of quarters, a jar of coins and Andreas purses, nothing of real value except her light blue one thousand nine hundred eighty seven hundred civic IT was gone. Investigators put out an alert for the car and turn their attention to the victim .

when they found Andrea SHE was in a backbeat room closet. SHE has was laying on top of summer boxes and things like that, seeing the a back of the closet itself.

There was no evidence of sexual assault and no clear cause of death.

no stabbing, no gunshot wounds, nothing along that line. So your first inclination is going to be, you know, strangulation, suffer cation.

If every picture tells a story, then the images from the place where Andrea sin ka, ta died, telling experienced homicide detected like training a couple of different tails.

Since most murders are committed by people that, you know, this could be a domestic, of course, her car being gone, that kind of unusual, that kind of speaks more to like a burger y commendation, that sort of thing. Uh, but then again, on the flip side, the valuables in the house he was wearing, I believe, a watch and a necklace and things along that line.

Later that day, Andrea son Kevin was awakened by a detective at the door of his apartment about three miles from his momma's place.

He said, there's no easy way to say this. We found her mother.

dad SHE was fifty two, Kevin sin kota was twenty four, and he meant the world to him.

I was just trying to process IT, and I was, I was thinking of hoping there must be some stay.

Remember, these were the first hours of a murder investigation, according to Kevin. Nothing the detective said made sense. The detective didn't even tell Kevin Andrea had been murdered, and you thought the accident, heart attack let you speculate about what IT is, or he just tells you .

he very much encouraged me to speculate. I was in shark and I said, what happened? And he said, well, what do you think happened? And that sort of how our conversation .

was because he trying to find out what .

you know something, for whatever reason I said, was at a car accident. He and the officer looked at each other and he said, you know where the car is and I said, well, if he had a car accident, then it's probably near the body. And that's when they said that the body was in her closet.

That's when Kevin realized his mom did not die from some accident.

I said, if her car is missing and their bodies in the laws that you shouldn't be here, you should be out .

looking for the car for her friends. There was no soften this agony carnett couldn't .

believe IT. I was breathless. I what. Not what know how, why, who, when and where.

Sally worked with Andrea at the library, and he had the same questions.

The police came and told us that that andy was dead. And I was just crying. I was just sobbing .

at the apartment crime sin text that a forensic scrub of the scene, what DNA they found, didn't lead anywhere and no prints from anyone. But Chris, now police narrowed their focus. Those who knew the victim best. So the last conversation you had with your X Y was a fight about money.

yeah.

Andreas sankara s body was discovered after midnight on a saturday day. The next day, her x husband, Howard sync, ta found himself sitting across from arlington police detectives. Standard procedure is they're going to at least look at you as a suspect.

No question. I'm an x husband who lives in the area. They would have been negligent if they hadn't looked at me.

Detectives wanted to know all about Howards relationship with Andrea.

I matter in high school, and you know, he was smart, small, dark, cared, attractive.

Five years after high school, they got married. Eventually came Kevin and the family settled in washington, dc. Howard land at a good government job.

Andrew IT became a stay at home mom. IT looked like the start of a happily ever after life. You're married.

You got a good job. SHE sounds happy. You got a baby. Something goes wrong here.

Yeah, I mean, the short version is I had an affair and I left Andrea.

See this coming?

No, Andrew was always hurt and resent full. And I get filter for that.

Investigators learned Howard and Andrea divorced in one thousand and eighty three. Andrea became a single working mother devoted to her Young son, Kevin.

My parents split up when I was three, and I was an only child. IT was mostly my mom and me.

When Kevin was fifteen, his mother met Chris. They all moved in together and build a happy life.

And in the beginning he was putting herself through library school part time.

By one thousand hundred and eighty eight, the year he was killed, Andrea had found her passion for swimming and seemed content at work and at home. The anger over her bitter divorce looked like ancient history. Well, maybe police discovered the old resentments started to percuss ate once again.

One Howard was thinking of putting in his papers and asked Andrea to accept a smaller portion of his retirement money. And SHE was entitled to her response. Angry.

you can't seriously expect me to just sign a piece paper depriving me of of income that the loss as i'm entitled .

to so that keep you from retire and maybe you are angry .

about that was very upset.

So the last conversation you had with your x life was a fight about money yeah, for police, all of that was a good reason to take a close look at Howard ds. In kota. When they did that, investigators learned on the day Andrew was murdered, he was camping in rural maryland. Police questioned Kevin too, and he also had an airtight alii, and he was clearly a sun grieving his mother.

My mom was loyal and loving and intelligent, very, very supportive of me and my independence. And SHE was my best friend.

And IT was cleared red to her friends. How proud Andrea was of Kevin.

how smart was, how clever he was, how handsome he was. And I was so impressed by her relationship with Kevin.

There was one more person on the short list of those closest to Andrea, her boyfriend, Chris. In these cases, the boyfriend is almost always a suspect. Kevin, the thought of Chris as a murderer.

R made absolutely no sense. How was Christal you? I mean, stepfather.

all of a combination. Yeah, combination of stepfather and older brother.

Chris was kind of nerdy, according to Kevin. He sometimes called himself an engineer, even though he was really a geologist who worked at engineering firms. This was very handy around the house, and Kevin has found memories of living with them.

Chris used to grill right there behind that tree in front of those bushes on the right. He would bring the girl out. We'd d have barbecue on sunday night. That was IT was really nice.

I also really .

appreciate that he taught me how to drive, and that's really my biggest memory with him.

Kevin says. Chris was always kind and supportive and had a great partnership with his mom. They were building a dream vacation house together, kerr said. Construction skills, and Kevin says his mom contributed sweat equity and cash every month for supplies SHE .

had put in in half the money and half the physical labor I have.

the money being how much money .

to fifty a month over a period of years.

After ten years together, IT was a relationship that seemed to work for both of them SHE.

sort of all the pants and the family. He seemed to be very supportive. He allowed my mother to do ninety percent of the talking and emoting.

You described Chris, sort of this passive guy.

that's for sure.

Kevin described that behavior as enduring when police started taking a hard look at Chris that lay back passive personality would land him in a world of trouble.

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As they began their hunt for Andreas sga as killer, arlington police immediately focused on her boyfriend, ris Johnson. That wasn't just because he was her significant other. Chris is called the minor on that. None one one call had them wandering from the .

start tonight. I take to give her some time. I think she's, did you think also an issue?

The freshly vacuum department police wondered if Chris had cleaned up. And one big question, how could you possibly have taken so long for Christian notice andrey's s body in that little apartment? This is where Christina ander, we're living back in one thousand and ninety eight different people living here.

But the layout and the floor plan are the same. So let's take a look. IT is less than nine hundred square feet.

This is the living room that the kitchen through here, one bathroom, two bedrooms. This was Kevin's room here. This is the bedroom.

Now, Chris is story is that he was here for roughly seven hours before he opened the closet door and found under his body. Just a few hours after that, Chris was answering questions at police said quarters. He was interrogated for more than four hours later. That day, a break in the case in his car turned up on the shoulder of an inter state about the nine miles from the apartment. And out of everyone in the metro area IT was Chris, who spotted as he was driving home.

he called me at my dad's house and said that he had found the car good. Yeah, maybe there was blood or DNA or something, but he said, this is gonna be the last nail in my coffin. They're going to think I did IT because I found the car still.

Chris did call the detectives to report seeing the car, and he waited on the highway for them to arrive.

They dig toe IT in. I'd have a process forensically.

No DNA or fingerprints were found in the car as if I had been White down. Apparently, the last person to drive IT had trouble with a stick shift. The honest club was burned out that next day, Christmas, more hours being questioned.

The following day, monday, he was interviewed for a third time. Unlike the first two interviews, police have video from that session. By the way, the police added that black mask over the video.

Okay, Christ, tell me if, how do you and I.

we very comfortable. Ly, IT wasn't a mad, passionate beginning. IT was just a very comfortable beginning. And we just, we click.

Then the detective asked Chris about the ninety came home and found Andrea gone. And what started as a routine recording of events would soon border on the bizarre.

I think I called out her name but didn't hear anything. I went. I took a shower .

where the story was loaded with granular detail, like exactly how he .

did the laundry. I basket held IT over .

to one, which is lue.

And I got the last A W upper and eat proximately three and four crackers. Then I lay down on the bed.

Then he talked about waking up and noticing how the closet door was mostly close.

truly open, about that much SHE keep keeps the door class at open. So I get up open, the door looked down. I look in the class and I think I see something on the floor and I look in, and then I find, 80.

are you buying the story? Because police were not. They realized crisis must have walk by the closet at least a few times as he did the laundry. The laundry baskets were on either side of the door. Did you already know that handy was in the closet?

You're sure about that from what I know. yes.

Now why are you defining that? Why are you qualifying from what you i'm .

because what detective Brandon's partners said was that my fingerprints were on her body and at her time of death was after I got home.

You heard that right? Chris said the detectives told him they had evidence against him, his fingerprints on her net, and they told him Andrea died after six P. M.

That does not drive was what I believe happened.

What he believed happened. Didn't you know what exactly was going on here, but did you place andy in the closet?

I do not remember placing her in the closet. Based on what i've been told in this building, I can draw no other conclusion. I E. That I must have placed during the class because they said my fingerprints were on her body and not just on her ARM. They said her time and death was after I got home at six o'clock.

S wouldn't accept that answer. And they lead in the lead detective came in. Now, IT was .

two on one. Tell the truth, if what happened was an accidents, tell me that was an accident.

I have no idea what happened to .

her at this point. Cops encourage Chris to imagine what happened that night. And he just went along explaining how he did something bad to Andrea. That's when this interview went through the looking glass.

When you hear, how do you hear? Show me how you here.

With your hand open like that right now. And when you hit her like that, what what did he do? SHE falls.

Chris described andria hitting your head and how they both fell to the floor.

I tried to reach for a post. Do you feel a post? great. Now, personal post .

IT all sure sounded like a confession. So end of story. right? wrong. There was just one little problem. The story Chris told, that's not what happened.

Argenton police had been suspicious of Chris Johnson almost from the moment he reached out to them on nine one one, and after hours upon hours of close quarter interviews, detectives were only more convinced they were on the right track, especially when Chris seemed to just go along with something. Police had told him.

based on what i've been told in this building, I can draw no other conclusion that I must have placed in the closet.

So what exactly was he told? First off, IT was a lie in the united states. Investigators lying the suspects is a common practice, one that is routinely upheld by the courts.

Cops tell a suspect they have evidence that they don't actually have. And sometimes, lot of times, IT works both with people who aren't frequent fliers in these interrogation rooms and also with people who are, in fact, actually guilty. The result is often a confession, and usually those confessions hold up. Tell the truth.

if what happened was an accident, tell me that was .

an in this case, Chris says police told him in their first interview, they knew Andrea died after he got home and that his fingerprints were found on her neck new to the interrogation. What do you think old school veteran homicide detective gym training is an expert on police and interrogation techniques?

Basically, tom, you know we know you did IT um the evidence is there. There's nothing that you can say that will prove otherwise. All we wanted know is why.

And train says that's exactly what he sees when he watches the tape. After more than twenty hours of questioning over three days, Chris seemed to be almost in a trance, less denied and more accepting of the detective version of what happened.

Chris said Andrea hit her head as he fell, except once autopsy results came in, police realized Andrea did not have a significant head injury. SHE died of cervical compression, in other words, strangulation. And contrary to what they told Grace, detectives had determined Andrea died sometime before one P M. Because SHE had missed that lunch date, cops check Christi's time sheet and talk with his co workers. He was at home deepo all day, so despite their suspicion on police didn't have enough evidence to arrest Chris Johnson.

And when you hit her like that, what what does SHE do you think?

Chris did not tell Kevin about his odd statements to police. He did tell him his interrogators thought he was guilty. Kevin was certain. Chris was no killer. He was upset. Police were focusing on Chris and thought there was someone else who should be on the suspect list, someone you've already mentioned to a detective.

he said, if he was a victim of foul play, who do you think might have done IT in right away? I said, the computer guy.

the computer guy, a man, andrey a. Met several weeks before her death. Kevin didn't know his name. He was just a nicer Young guy. Andrea met one day when he was home alone.

He had this computer to get rid of and SHE walks out of the condo. And there's a big truck that says trash masters. And there's A A nice seeming guy right there with .

the truck and SHE, is you this computer?

And he ends up saying, oh, well, we don't recycle computer, but I would like IT for my personal use.

So Andrew invited the Young man, and he Carried away her computer and printer. You weren't that you never meet the computer guide. This is all her telling of the story, correct? And Chris wasn't there when to happen. He spoke on later on the phone.

That's correct.

yes. Christal police. Andrea asked him to phone the Young man a few days later because he was having trouble hooking up the computer. If all of this seems a little above and beyond what you do after giving away a computer to a total stranger, you're not alone. And both you and Chris said, why are you letting somebody in your .

house that you don't know you more so me like Chris agreed with me, but as usual, he was very quiet about IT. But yes.

after the murder, Kevin says he kept thinking about that encounter his mom had with the computer guy had Andrea's trash become a murderer. Treasure IT kept playing back in Kevin's head, but he just couldn't seem to get the lead detective on board.

I really tried to make the case that they needed to look harder at the computer guy, and he just SAT there the whole time, sort of like a deer in headlights. And then when I got done, SHE said, okay, what do you make of the fact that Chris found the car that interesting? I was ready to pound my head into a table.

A few months later, police were back in touch. IT turns out they had been looking into the computer guy.

Detective branham called me to announce that the computer guy had been officially eliminated and gave no other information eliminate. And that's IT. I I was pretty shocked because he was the top suspect in my mind. And I kept pressing her as to why .

would not tell you why? no. And police still wouldn't give Kevin the computer guy's name. So on the one year anniversary of his mother's murder, Kevin took things into his own hands and hired a private investigator. You didn't think police are moving quick enough.

correct?

However this comes out at that point. It's not going to bring your mom back.

That's right.

Why were you so invested?

I don't feel like I had a choice. It's like when someone sees someone drowning and they don't really think about themselves and they just instinctively jump in to try to save them, you don't think you would have to do that.

You had no.

I think he would have done the same thing for me.

Kevin was twenty five past the age when most Young man want to build lives of their own. He was working as a cost analyst for a defense contractor, and now he had a mission. Finding his mother's killer became a quest that would take over his life.

He did everything that I think you could do to get the case moved forward.

You took a while, but eventually that private eye learned the name of the computer guy. And IT turns out he had a past of frightening one.

Kevin's in canada was so frustrated with our lancome police that he hired a private eye nearly a year after that, and two years after his mother's murder, Kevin finally had the computer guy's name. According to the pi, the criminal guy might have been a Better title meat. Bobbi joe Leonard, registered sex offender. I first became .

aware of him after he was arrested in fairfax county, Virginia.

Tom jackman knows all about Bobby. Joe entered. He covers crime for the washington post and has reported on lander's criminal career.

Baby joe lander is a man born and raised in washington, dc, moved into crime in eighteen years. And by the time he was an adult, he was robbing and assaulting people in in doing time. He was in and out of jail and prison into his thirties.

Leonard was back on the street when Andreas san kaya was murdered. Less than a week later, he was arrested again for assaulting his wife.

Bobbi joe lenard is arrested in philadelphy, where he's gone to try to reconcile, he says, with his wife. Instead, he chokes and beats her and is arrested for assault in philadephia and is in jail when the orientation police locate him.

So it's a relatively short period of time later that they identify him as the computer guy and talk that's and one of them in that interview.

they all think it's him yeah. He convinces them that, no.

he wasn't there. Police took samples of Leonards DNA and fingerprints and didn't find any evidence connecting him to Andrea's murder letter served about two months for the assault on his wife. About nine months after his release, he attacked someone else, a thirteen year old girl. And this time, lender's M, O sounded somewhat familiar. The ground had won pretty significant similarity with the enter as murder.

He had placed his victim in the closet after choking her.

And you think, okay, now this is the guy.

yeah.

So for a second time, Kevin says he tried to persuade arlington police to look at the computer guy bobbi joe lard. And for a second time he says they declined.

I tell him everything that I know. They don't take any notes. And at the end he said, we're way ahead of you. We know all about Bobby.

joe and IT isn't him.

but SHE didn't say that, but that was the implication.

They're still looking at Chris and .

away from learner, right?

That was to dream you crazy .

breath taking incompetence to say that the computer guy was eliminated .

in the summer of two thousand. Kevin, actually, what as far as taking days off from work to attend Bobby joe lear's trial for the rape and attempted murder of that Young girl Bobby gee letter was appearing process as his own attorney.

I saw what my mother must have seen. He can be charming, and I could sort of see how he might have felt OK offering him the computer .

despite his charm. Lennard was convicted.

and that got in life that in in part because of his prior record.

which was very long at that point. Kevin's father, Howard, attended that sentencing with his son and told him I was time to move on .

so I could argue to Kevin, look, there's a rough of justice here. Let this go. Move on with your life. Letters in jail, probably for life. I know it's not for your mother's killing, but it's not like he's out there, Scott free.

And Kevin would say, no, not good enough, not good enough. After that, the Andrea's synthetic case went cold, ice cold for a very long time. Kevin wasn't happy about IT, maybe as a release for his frustration. He took up running and it's stuck.

I've done three marathon's and probably a dozen half marathon es Kevin's .

personal marathon, and defied his mother's killer, continued so that his relationship with Chris .

Johnson over the next couple of years, we kept in touch, and he helped me with handy work kinda stuff.

Eventually, Christmas, a woman at the movies, and they ended up getting married. After that, he and Kevin spoke less often. Chris moved with his new wife to another dc super.

They got a dog. Chris took up running himself and made friends with a neighbor or named danna. When I first met Chris in two thousand and two, I thought he was a very sweet person, very helpful.

Actually, I didn't know about what had happened with Andrea when I met him. I only knew that he'd had a fian say, and that cheer passed away, and that he didn't want to talk about IT very much. He had made him very, very sad.

Chris was trying to move on. Kevin was still trying to find his mom's murderer. IT would take decades, but eventually he would confront the man he believed to be her killer.

Arling ton Virginia police remained convinced Chris Johnson had something to do with the andrei's murder. They were equally sure they didn't have enough evidence to arrest in twenty years past with few new needs.

Not too long after andy died, we planted a tree in her memory. And so every time I would walked through that park in that, I would just kind of think about andy by .

two thousand and eighteen. Andrea son Kevin was forty five and was still making sure everyone knew about his mother's case, including Andreas old friend permet.

I was really happy to hear from Kevin. I also felt kind of sad because he was obsessed still, and I could here IT in his voice.

Kevin was still convinced police were looking at the wrong man. He thought seriously about contacting Bobby gee, lenders on his own, the man he suspected of being a murderer, the man who was locked up for a different crime.

So I had an to talk to him once his appeals were exhausted.

Somebody talk you out of that. Yeah.

who was that? My dad?

He said, don't do that because .

but it's dangerous. You're crazy. I'll play my games with you. This is not the movies you don't. You don't just go interviewing somebody who you think might have killed your mother. Stop talking crazy. What do you think you're onna do IT and wear a wire and end up on date line.

Kevin took his dad's advice. He did not speak with Bobby, joe Leonard and for many years, neither did the arline and pd. He just wasn't their main suspect.

I think that they had made period attempts at lendest, who was in prison for life. But yes, Christianson was still their main suspect.

and that's where things stood. When a new cold case detect you have dust IT off the file and took a fresh look, SHE reached out to Kevin.

and I was skeptical. Like, here we go again.

Would this be another session with police telling Kevin, Chris was their prime suspect? Kevin wanted no part of that. He's not the guy. Yeah, you didn't want you to be him.

no. And I know others have said that i'm biased. I can be objective in this case because of my involvement, and I am, by a stand, biased in crisis, favor r, because I had such a good relationship with him.

Sure enough, the detective shared suspicions about Chris, except this time he showed, given something he'd never seen before, the video of crisis interrogation in the days just after the murder.

I think I called out .

her name and they're asking him questions. Did you move Andrew, his body into the closet?

Did you place andy in the closet?

IT seemed like forever, like ten or fifteen seconds, and then he says, well, not that I have a direct memory of.

I do not remember placing her in the closet.

Oh my god, you don't know. You're not really sure whether you put her in the closet. Are you kidding me?

That was the moment when everything turned upside down for Kevin in kota. After years of defending Chris, he now thought that the man who'd been his friend and a second father might have been involved in his mother's murder.

Just watching that, I didn't seem like he was acting like an innocent person.

That sea change in Kevin thinking gave the detective and idea SHE asked him to secretly record a conversation with Chris. So in june of two thousand and eighteen, Kevin arranged a restaurant lunch with Chris. Police wired him with a hidden mike. They'd been in touch, but hadn't seen each other for a while to say.

you look different. I probably look different too.

No, you.

On the menu was deception. This is the first conversation you have ever had with Chris, in which you are one hundred percent certain that he is involved in your mother's murder.

That's really. I'll have the no tomato. No, I had an idea of what I now knew that was not consistent with what he had told me. And my plan was to front him about those things in the hopes that he would tell me the truth. So i've been thin about.

Kevin used the twenty anniversary of the murder to ease into the conversation, suggesting a memorial service for his mother.

Maybe finally enough time is pass.

I could do something. We could do something.

Kevin asked for detailed questions about what he did the night of the murder, things he once believed. We're insignificant.

Did they come a point at that evening that there wasn't you did. Come on, you.

Back in nineteen eighty eight, Christal police, he noticed the apartment had been vacuum. Now his story changed by saying he was the one who vacuum. Kevin believed Chris unwittingly admitted cleaning up the crime scene to get rid of evidence. And then Kevin's new feelings about Chris started bubbling to the surface. Kevin told Chris is spoken with police.

The police opened the files of me, and I saw everything.

Then you don't know everything.

And Kevin made IT clear. He now believed Chris was the killer.

I know what happened, but what I don't know is .

why Chris denied any involvement .

and insisted .

whatever he'd said in that interrogation room was coerced by detectives.

I was so by their ivory. 怎么了？

And so the things they introduced IT didn't happen that way, not did. How did IT happen? I came home, didn't even find her. So one in the morning.

Do you think my mom would .

be proud of that? this.

Unofficial interrogation went on nearly two hours.

At least you know what happened.

I don't have that, and I can give you to, yes, you can.

because you were never stop.

Several times, Chris denied killing Andrea.

He did IT quietly .

and politely in between bites of his girl chicken salad, all of IT in that same casual tone Chris used in the nine one one call, the tones that never quite matched, ed, the gravity of what was being discussed.

You're going to have to live with this for the rest of your life, and you had a chance to do the right thing for me, and you didn't take IT. I'm really sorry.

I want to help.

I gonna hear you getting angry on that day.

He was insulting my intelligence, and I don't like IT when people do that.

Chris came close to admitting something back in one thousand and eighty eight, but lightning wouldn't strike twice. Kevin sin katte's legal marathon was still a long way from the finish line. And then an unexpected confession changed everyone's thinking about what had really happened to Andrea sn. Kota when .

he came to the, he was kind of surprise in.

From the beginning, arlington police knew there was a problem with any case against Chris Johnson. Despite his odd behavior and his statements to police, Chris had a soli. He was at work all day and the corner's time of death man, he couldn't have strangled Andrea twenty years later. Kevin still felt the original detectives hadn't thought IT through.

They had tunnel vision as far as only looking at one theory of the crime.

which was Chris.

which was a theory that Chris killed her directly to the exclusion of almost everything else.

The new detective told Kevin SHE was still leaning toward Chris as a suspect, but also had concerns about Bobby jell lanner that could be because of what he found in the case file.

First, about to begin, SHE discovered .

detectives at polygraphed land her twice on both exams. He shown potential deception when asked about Andrea's murder. Here he is back in nineteen ninety eight. Do you for sure that woman .

was strangle? no.

So in two thousand and eighteen, the cold case detective drove to a wall's ridge prison, a high security castle on a hill in rural Virginia, to speak with bobbi jo enter. He was serving a life sentence for the attack on that thirteen year old girl. The detective made sure there was an audio recording. At first he had nothing to say about Andrea, synced a, and then suggested he might, if you weren't facing the death penalty.

if this was not a capital case, I would probably talk to you honestly about this case.

The prosecutor made that deal and took the death penalty off the table. Six days later, the detective returned to the prison with a colleague, and letter talked my only request. Lennard spoke about meeting Andrea, how he gave him the computer, then called him later to see if he was having any trouble with IT. And then this career criminal described how he took the dc metro back to her home a few weeks later .

when SHE came to the front. SHE was my like a really little skirt type of thing. You know, he was kind of surprised him, but he asked me how was doing.

He said, SHE talked about a friend, and then I told I have to go.

you know, but would you mind if I get something to drink before I leave? Came back with like a roses. And as soon as he walked the door, I just reach out above my hands and grow them about the road and start a chocolate. And he just laid down on the ground I mean that there was literally no struggle in.

His statement lender gave up details police had held back, leaving no question in the detectives mind. Those were his hands around Andrea sn kat's neck letter said he put into his body in the bedroom closet and left the apartment washington post reporter tom jack men.

and he takes her Carry ys, and he knows what car he is driving from. Having worked there.

letter said he started driving home.

driving down two ninety five, and the car broke down the cluck. Something was like, really wrong with the clutch, and IT broke down. I poured IT over to the side and write down what I felt like I had to write down and get out the car on.

And that IT was, a matter of fact, confession to murder the kind police here all the time. What came next was something out of the blue or out of a movie, and IT was something police had never considered. Lennard said. IT wasn't his idea to murder Andrea.

he said IT began .

on that midsummer day when Andrea called him to help hook up the computer in his southeast dc apartment.

Asked me what I to hook up and everything. We had a talk for a little while after that a gentleman colony.

the color didn't identify himself, but letter said the man first asked about the computer.

but after that he just asked me kind of like personal questions, you family work and and he said that he would be back in touch.

A few weeks later, Leonards said the same man did call back. And this time there was no talk about computers. Instead came something more seniors.

or there was more around lines. He knows me pretty well. He said that he knew that I have been locked up from one thousand hundred and ninety three, and earlier that year, nineteen ninety eight.

Leonard said the man still would not give his name, saying only he was an engineer.

and he told me that I wanted to come back over to the apartment and take care of something for him. He would give me five thousand dollars in cash, one hundred old bills.

lonard said. At first, the man wouldn't say what he wanted done to earn that money.

I just had to keep on put as to what is that that you want done and he started to tell me about, you know, the woman that gave you the computer, you know um that he was what he wanted done. How was IT .

clear that he wanted you to kill her .

what he did because he he eventually he told me, I don't want to use a gun is too low. When he said don't use the one, i'd knew that what he wanted means to do there was killed.

Leonard said. The man told him to come to the apartment the next day to do the job.

He told me that .

he would .

be home after the one I think he was either at the twelve by in the following day Andrew .

had scheduled a rare day off SHE was at home and not at the library. That was something very few people would have known .

you know in that if I don't care what he wanted me to take care of, I can have the money.

Leonard said. The man promised the money would be inside a shoe in the bedroom closet after a strangled anda lennard said he dragged your body into the bedroom and looked for the money .

and then describes going through the closet looking for the five thousand dollars, which is not there. And so there is a big jar .

of coins which he takes didn't get. A five thousand gives you try to find this guy. No, I never did, because I got a rest IT in photo lt, if not for the fact that I had gotten a rest IT, I definitely to person, no doubt about IT .

to police IT all finally made sense. They believed lenard was Andreas killer, and now they thought they knew who had hired to do IT. If letter was telling the truth, he'd been stifled out of five thousand dollars. So the detective set up another staying body matter. He said that you would be able to help us out that you own money from before.

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I knew that's what he wanted mean to do that there was killed .

after all those years. Bobbi joe Leonards confession had up ended this case. He admitted killing and said a gentleman on the phone had hired to do IT.

You may have figured out by now, wonder told police he was sure that gentleman was Andrea's boyfriend. And that raised one very big question, exactly why would Chris want Andrew? A dead IT is hard to comprehend. Why hire a dangerous, violent guy to kid your financing or girlfriend promise in five thousand dollars and then not?

Then I just can answer those.

It's hard. understand.

This is someone who was not willing or able to speak up for themselves in any kind of oral confrontation.

Chis.

yeah, he's not a violent person.

so he would need somebody else to do something violent.

We certainly would not have done himself.

There was not a lot of evidence to support later accusation about Chris, so police decided to try to get Chris himself to confirm letter red story by running another sting Operation.

They tried to caborn lander's confession by getting Chris to talk.

Remember, lennard said he never received that five thousand dollars for the hit. Police built the staying around that in december two thousand and eighteen, twenty years after the murder, a wired up undercover officer posed as bobbi jo lenders relative and approach Chris as he was leaving his house. And he said that you would be able to help us out, that you own money from before.

I don't know him any money.

okay. You just said that you did. You don't have to be right this second. But if you can help us, that would.

Because this is very, very strange.

IT really was strange. If Chris thought this was a shake down from somebody in leeds family. IT was a very polite one.

And what exactly did Chris mean when he said he didn't? Oh, any money? He doesn't say, okay, here's the five thousand dollars I promised him for killing my girlfriend but also one doesn't say, I don't know what they had you're talking you about.

I don't know that guy anything. Get away from here. You're right.

He's not violent rejecting them or dramatically rejecting them and he doesn't go is the .

minute they get off as long, which I certainly would do if I had nothing to do with that.

did not call the police.

The conversation might have been suspicious but nothing about IT screamed out that Chris was guilty so police staged a second stage designed to APP up the pressure and imposing six worth. Four reh officer was sent to crises house. IT was early morning before summarise.

thank you. No one here will be off my brother body.

Actually, no, I don't know .

why you're here OK well.

or you pay my brother of money.

First, so I need my lawyer. Okay, take your earning the police. okay? Well.

well.

i'm definitely not the police, so I know business with the police too. No, no way.

way that I could.

Little bit more ways than we're talking, okay.

If I are, you threatened me that if I don't pay this money, you'll do something.

And the .

reason for.

So from in this conversation.

once again, some of what Chris said was open to interpretation. He still did not call police. He did reach out to this man, criminal attorney. Man, well, labor.

He was worried, even though I was tell him, mom, i'm pretty sure this is a police Operation. He was worried. What if this is really the relative of bobbi geal letter?

Labor told Chris has stopped speaking about the case with anyone during the sting Operations. Chris had already opened his mouth a lot, and despite their suspicions, police still had one big unanswered question. What would be the point here? It's sort of hard to see what Christi's motive would be if it's .

in right y'd live together without any problems. No history of violence are really even arguing between them.

There's no life insurance that he gets. There's nothing like that, right? Even Kevin, who was by now convinced of Chris is guilt, could not understand what would be in IT for Chris to set up a murder for higher .

if Chris was involved. We do not, or at least I don't understand the exact motive.

That's true. So what was this all about? The mystery was only getting deeper. I think .

that he would have perceived IT as infidelity.

Over two decades, police investigating the murder of Andreas syn cada had focused on two possible suspects, the boyfriend or the computer guy.

I don't know what I did.

Suddenly, in two thousand eighteen, police were working off a new theory IT was the boyfriend and the computer guy. Murder for higher IT was a little hard to figure. We're susumu sed to believe that Chris risk his future prison term, the rest of his life, hiring a killer who he'd never met, who he'd only spoken to .

on the phone. right?

And why? Why would Chris want Andrea dead? They weren't married, no estate to inherit, no life insurance. Even so, Kevin and police thought this came down to money.

Remember, Christal police, Andrew was contributing two hundred fifty dollars a month toward the construction of that vacation house. Back in one hundred ninety eight, that would have been a lot of money for Andrea. So we're tagging what thousands of dollars, but not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That's right. Also, Chris wasn't just spending money on the construction of that vacation. Back in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight, he admitted to police he'd been spending time and money in some expensive live camera sex chat rooms.

You get more like a credit card number, and they do whatever takes a close up.

Or did you make some money? An check room with me.

with us. Did I meet them now? I talked with a girl that i've met on in, they called the intimate friend's network, and i've sent maybe two to three mails to .

her online chat at two dollars a minute can easily add up Christal police. He used his own credit card, presumably to keep andy from finding out. Now Kevin wondered, what if his mom had found out Chris was throwing away their money on a live born sight? You think that if she's found out about that, what big fight they break up, SHE throws them out?

I think that he would have perceived IT as infidelity let's say .

that he did perceive porn is infidelity and let's say the worst case in ero is SHE says, you're essentially cheating on me with this porn website and gear thrown on our money away and i'm throwing you out.

right and then he says.

and the way out of that is murder.

What if he says, I want my half of the beach house. I won't rest until I take you to court and get my half and so then his options at that point would have been a life of fighting her for half the beach chase or not.

Mean, it's it's thinner than some murder motives that i've heard if Chris .

was involved, as lennard says that he is, we do not or at least I don't understand the exact mode of that's true.

Of course, prosecutors didn't need a motive to put the evidence before a grand jury, so they moved ahead without one. And that grand jury came back within diatoms Bobby gee letter for murder and Chris Johnson for murder. For higher was like .

this huge cloud had been lifted.

Now storm clouds were gathering over Chris Johnson. In november two thousand twenty one, he was arrested as he left his house and spent a few days in the lock up before bonding out. Chris was under house arrest when his friend anna, I went to see him.

Chris had an ankle monitor on him, and he told me what had been going on. And my heart just went out to him, and he seems so trapped in that house. Chris was confined to his house for almost a year.

In the fall of two thousand and twenty two, his trial began at the argenton county course. Bobbi jo lender had pleaded guilty to murder and would testify against Chris, who faced a possible sentence of life in prison. I think the trial was incredibly hard on him, who had to relive what had happened to Mandy and go through the trauma of being in a trial where he is basically fighting for his life. The prosecution case, Chris higher, Bobby gee, lender to kill Andrea synced a then never .

paid him. And prosecutors .

played Chris nine, one, one.

What's wrong? What's going on? How about my goal was I had a trainer who was used to go out tonight. I got to give her some time.

The question is, was he looking for help or setting up an alii? Police told the jury they found Chris s. Tone oddly calm and attached.

I think she's did you think .

they played the police interview with Chris s. Bizarre behavior. And the state wasn't arguing Chris himself killed Andrew.

So what was the of playing IT for the jury? Prosecutors argued IT showed Chris was deceitful. And the .

prosecutors said, look.

he's lying. Washington post reporter tom jackman covered the trial. You can't believe this guy.

He's a liar. We want to present this to the jury to show him lying, which was because .

very od logic, because the lie is I didn't do IT, but then he confesses to doing IT. And even if that's not true, which you isn't somewhere in their crisis line.

right? And I somehow the prosecution thought that was a good idea.

The jury heard about the various stang's, the lunch thing with Kevin, and the fake relative stings with the undercover detectives.

我妈 二女。

得一。

but in the end the prosecution's case pretty much arrested on the testimony of Andrea's .

confest killer Bobby joe Leonard IT was that was shocking.

On the stand, letters spared no detail. He told the jury how he strangled Andrea then .

know something that none of us knew to that moment, which was dragging her body to the bathtub, filling the with water and then putting her head in the bathtub to make sure she's not breathing.

And then came the true purpose of Leonards testimony to convince the jury he was hired by Chris Johnson, that gentleman on the phone. He said in his destiny that that voice told him should be home that day, right? That does suggest that he had a conversation with somebody who knew her routine because that probably wouldn't have been in .

the newspaper or on .

the news was not right. Lender also told the jury he recognized the phone number as the same one Andrea had called him from. That was something he had not told police originally. How was bobbi gentle? And there is a witness.

pretty, very good. He's respectful. He gives detail. He tells the story. He start to finish. That seems quite believable when you you sit there and listen to him, tell IT.

according to the prosecution, the evidence was clear and according to crisis lawyers, what was clear was that there was plenty of evidence, bobbi gee letters was the murderer, and there was none that he was a murder for higher.

He's going to take the word of someone on the phone that he's never met who promises that five thousand dollars be left a in a job. Nothing sense.

On a warm autumn day in arlington, Virginia, Chris Johnson s. Attorneys laid out his defense, a torney lib. Van pelt told the jury.

Chris is a nice guy who endured years of suspicion. Chris is kind. He's loving. He's hard working, and he's just a Normal dude. He's had his life picked apart by teams of police for twenty four years, and it's a shame. He said the whole case was upside down. It's about the manipulative bobbi joe lanner and the trusting Chris Johnson where the police believe the guilty guy who lies to them and they disbelieve the innocent man who they lie to. She's talking about the lives police told Chris from day one of the investigation.

I do not remember placing her in the closet.

the defense said Chris Mavis, statements only after cops questioned for more than twenty hours over the course of three days.

You can begin by calling the truth in the very beginning to the end, and no doubt is painful, I believe. IT, you loved her. SHE loved you.

Did I push her? Did I hit her? But I don't play as mind, and I don't know what I did. Yes, you did. We are absolutely do.

A thorney Frank cell auto said he was thrilled when prosecutors showed Chris vae imaginings about hurting Andrea.

We never .

thought that the prosecution would ever play a false dream vision confession that their own experts have told them was a false stream vision confession to a jury of twelve people when they did was kind of Christmas gift to us. One of the expertise referring to is retired homicide detective gym trainer. The prosecution talked with training about the case, then didn't put him on the stand. The defense did, and the jury, listen, has trained to explain what he says cops missed during their interrogation.

Based on what i've been told.

he showed us, too.

that I must have placed in the lazer.

I must have put her in. I must have .

put her in a closet when you start seeing those qualifiers like that. That's a classic sign of an internalized false fashion.

What's more, the defense said the tape was irrelevant since the prosecution wasn't accusing cursive killing Andrew at himself. They argued the entire investigation was botched from the beginning, former FBI agent dan Riley testified for the defence. The crime scene was missed LED.

I saw no indication that any effort was made to recover trace physical evidence, which is, in my opinion, extremely important in every case, especially a murder case. As an example, the defense pointed out police never examined the contents of the vacuum bag. If their theory is that Chris Johnson cleaned up some crime scene evidence, open the dam back, see what's inside there. As for the star witness against Chris, Bobby, joe Leonard, the defense told the jury lennard was just trying to get a Better deal in prison. What we heard consistently from any inmate the dealt with Bobby gee lonard is that he wanted off that mountain and that mountain was violence rich, one of the most secure and difficult prisons to do time in and understand and defense questioning lender told the jury the cold case detective was the first to mention murder for hire during her prison interview with him. These were .

her words, i've had higher place, my moderation case, three, two offenders. And you'll take the that penalty off.

That's where he catches on. That's where he latches on to the murder for higher.

Remember, lender testified he recognized the voice on the phone as well as the number that showed up on his collar ID. But his ex wife Francis testified on the stand that they never had color ID. Back in one thousand nine hundred and ninety eight, the defense argued lending red new Andrew was home because he'd staked out, not because Chris told him. And that lendest story about Chris Johnson was just too incredible.

He's going to take the word of someone on the phone that he's never met who promises that five thousand dollars will be left in a closet if he does a job. Nothing of that make sense.

The defense argued letter didn't need to be paid to kill. He assaulted women before for free. Now Chris attorneys rested, but they were pretty far from relax.

Every case that I do is is difficult if you take IT seriously and you care. But when you have a guy like Chris, you don't sleep. And now this mystery went to the jurors. Who would they believe? One thing that stuck out in my head was, how do publish your letter note to go through that day?

The prosecution argued mild manner Chris Johnson was in reality a heartless killer the defense argued, you've already got the killer, the only killer and its Bobby joe enard and while neither side presented evidence about motive, jours definitely talked about IT when they began deliberations was jury former don't celebrations. We talked about possible motives for Chris Johnson.

We talked about possible motives for Bobby on lanner why he would tell the stroke that he told. LG thought some of lander's testimony ring true, like how would he know Andrew would be home that afternoon? One thing that stuck out of my head was, how do you publish your letter know to go there that day, right?

It's a detail Chris would have known. So how did let her know if Chris didn't tell him he selling the truth and Chris to tire him, right? That's, uh, one possibly.

And there are other reasons, other possibility that he didn't, and he just made that up. And the question is, why would he make IT up? This jury agreed with prosecutors that Christi's behavior that first night was hard to understand.

There was a lot of question of how did he missed the closed the door being closed and he obvious what passed IT multiple times um and how do he just wake up in the night realizing whatever IT could easily believable that exactly what happened right and just is easily believable that he knew that her body was there and didn't react to and didn't know what to do with that because might be fill guilty at that time what jurors focused on, he said, was the evidence, or lack there of Christian and never met in person that they didn't find any bank records of money transferred. They didn't establish, uh, good enough motive, right? Regardless of how good or how believable.

Bobbi, all winner quest, this wasn't twelve angry men. Jerry deliberated for less than an hour, and then people started filing back in because they got the text saying that there had been a verdict. Chris is friend anna. And then the jury came out, and i'd render their verdict of not guilty, not guilty. Andreas friend Sally couldn't believe how quickly the jury had done its work.

This was a complicated case. So I was shocked because I didn't feel that the jury could have possibly reviewed the evidence in that short of time.

Christmas reaction.

He was stunned. He's pretty stoic guy in general. So he didn't show a lot of emotion.

But he and his team started hugging. And that was that they were done. That was over outside .

the defense celebrated, Chris is innocent. This prosecution has bancorp's him in every way that you can background the man financially, spiritually, emotionally, otherwise or so happy justice was done today. This is the case .

of the prosecute should never brought the first place.

More than one jr. Apparently agreed.

They didn't think I should have going to trial. They didn't think this should have been. Indeed, uh, they didn't understand.

In the arlington county attorney declined a request for an interview, saying he had to respect the jury's verdict. Police also declined, saying they remain committed to seeking justice for Andreas and a. And while they appreciate our interest in the case, though, let the court record stand, neither wanted to answer questions about why this case was brought or how they missed the obvious suspect from the beginning. Arlington county police say they did their best to investigate this case, and despite his criticism of the police, Kevin says he's grateful for the cold case detective.

I think her efforts, we're heroic. And bringing this case as far as I did, I don't need a guilty verdict to know the truth about what happened to my mother and obviously send and disappointed, but I I accept the .

result, mr. John and reaction.

I'm relieved, but it's still a very sad thing.

Chris Johnson also declined an interview. He did email saying in part argenton made up their minds on August twenty second nineteen ninety eight, about this case. The only way that arlington could proceed with this case was if they drove a wedge between Andrea's family and myself. IT took over twenty years, but that is what aren't .

to accomplished.

The case is sure to put a spotlight on police lying to suspects, something many civil liberties groups have criticized. Crites has hired a civil atterley and says he's planning to file a suit for false arrest and prosecution. Bobbi joe Leonard, already serving a life sentence, received another life term for Andrea's murder. He declined our interview request as well at his sentencing hearing letter told the judge he was sorry for what he had done.

He says, I killed a woman who was nothing but .

nice to me in the end, lennard got nothing for his testimony. He's still doing hard time in that maximum security prison. You're forty nine. Your mom was fifty two, chewing at the little the rest of her life. What do you can do with the rest of yours?

I don't know, but I would like my legacy to be someone who never gave up and was relentless and finding out the truth about what happened to my mom and holding the people who are responsible, accountable.

I think that .

already is your reputation. If that's how I remembered, I would be very at peace with that.

That's all for this addition of date line. We will see you again next friday at nine eight central and of course, each week night for nbc nightly news unless your hot for all of us at nbc news. Good night.

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