Behind Door 813
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I heard from to say he is dead and I said, who's dead? SHE said, it's JoNathan .

to see your own child in a casket. That's the memory. I will never be a bit of .

you ever heard him ever talk about having suicidal thoughts?

No, that's not .

something JoNathan. We've done.

IT either had to be suicide or more.

The chinese delivery guy shows up and he could hear fighting.

SHE didn't show .

up at the funeral. They started .

telling us we don't have enough .

is going to be an answer. You're going to have to find IT is .

the last thing we want to do.

The start of the trial was incredibly tense. The family had a lot writing on this.

Averting to spend.

deliver IT was a really is surreal moment.

The thing I really wanted was for Johnson than to be indicated. I wanted his legacy to be the true legacy.

A Young life ended death by suicide, or something darker. Follow along as his family takes an extraordinary step to try to solve the mystery, unless to hold. And this is deadline.

Here's josh mango with behind door eight thirteen. Super bowl sunday, two thousand and fourteen, seahawks, broncos. And like millions of americans, Emily and her boyfriend Jacob were headed to a party they were hoping to spend time with. The best friend, Jacobean Emily shared a guy named JoNathan cruise. Only that night, JoNathan had other planes he .

was supposed to hang out with us, and he was insistently that he wanted to stay as a partner.

Jain had just moved into a new apartment here in the city of capel, just outside dallas. And he a long to do list. Emily texted him during the party, one of the couples that .

we were there with, they had a couch that they were selling. And I texted JoNathan, you know, pictures of IT, and I was saying, hey, these people are selling a couch. Somebody from my work is also selling. When i'll send you a picture of .

that and a little bit SHE didn't know that not long after the game, a call would commit to nine one one on the other end was a voice full of fear.

That panic voice belong to brendel ZARA, a twenty six year old teacher and martial arts instructor. Brenda was JoNathan on's girlfriend. They were together at his apartment wherever that was.

Department himself.

Benda said he didn't know the exact dress JoNathan had just moved in a week earlier.

We're trying to get some.

Do you have do you have any email or anything that you can give me the dress? 我 累死 我的女儿， 我 笑 死 你。 This is a good or whatever yes is A I can do the legible. I'm just press ing on that. The nine one one .

Operator asked brand that to see if a neighbor could give the address.

I want you to go and knock on a door or find a name of something. The chase department river chase, okay.

with that, first responders were on their way. JoNathan's parents, john and am crews, were home midnight with their daughter danny and their other son, Christian. They were just a few miles from JoNathan on's new apartment.

We had just settled down with super house sunday, and the ani and I had taped to A T. V. Show that we watched every sunday. And we had just turned IT on when her phone .

ring IT was branda.

IT was hard on her standard. SHE was just screaming the whole time, and I heard her say he's dead and I said, who's did and he said, it's JoNathan. And then my parents started like, who?

What's going on and so he walked to the end of my room and he said, Brenda, said Joanna s, and shot himself. And john made just this horrible noise and jumped out of the bed. I don't know how he did this, but he was in close and running down the the hallway less than thirty seconds. I thought.

if I get there, I can. Whatever does I can fix .

IT capel police arrived at eleven forty pm.

IT was chaotic. There were police everywhere. There were several emergency vehicles is crazy.

This is what .

body camera is recorded. As officers reached the door of JoNathan's apartment and spoke with Brenda.

was there?

Okay, just stay out here. Okay, right? okay. Another also come in, okay, two thirteen will make country.

The first officer entered the apartment and smelled gunpowder. Send in the part apartment. Paramedics were on the scene, but IT was already .

too late. 越 无聊。

Officers found JoNathan cruise lying in his bed with a gunshot wounds his chest. He was twenty seven years old.

Remember walking up to .

the police officer john .

I member, I could, I just didn't believe us in three times, is he OK and he told me three times he .

was gone.

unfortunately 知道。

The thing at that point was what happened, I am just trying to trying to absorb the idea that he was not longer with this was about all my brain and emotions could deal with.

Moments after john and danny arrived at the apartment came JoNathan on's, mom, pam, when do you see each other and .

what do you say you on? It's kind of a bright. Remember, it's all hug.

At one point, john just kept trying to get to JoNathan.

Just wanted to see you.

Yeah, and I know .

I couldn't see him, not how you want to. You know, we have your kids always think of these little important babies, you know, can you you just always look back and that, you know, can see my baby with a whole blown through him.

At this point, the only story this family had heard boiled down to three simple words. JoNathan shot himself. And that simple story raised a lot of complicated questions. Could this really be suicide, or maybe something else altogether?

I concluded that branda must be wrong. There must have been in intruder in the house. That shirt JoNathan IT .

was just after midnight and a year's long search for answers was just getting started.

The family of JoNathan crews returned to their home in the small hours of the morning, reeling from the news of his apparent suicide. What are you thinking?

really? Not much of anything. I think I was just kind of in shock, and I didn't really know what to do or what to think.

We're out of our mind at that point like there is no rationality. All yeah.

I was taken ambient, ambient to sleep.

JoNathan on's close friend anny woke up that morning after the super bowl with a bad feeling. SHE begin a strange text from JoNathan. After the game, I plug my .

phone in and a text message popped up. And IT was from john athan. IT said, I want to die, period.

You ever been saying anything like that before? No, Emily says when he first saw the text, SHE didn't take IT literally. SHE thought maybe JoNathan was having a bad night or being dramatic. Now IT was morning and SHE hadn't heard from him again.

I think I tried to call his phone and he didn't answer. And I look at Jacobs said, you don't think something happened right? Like this is just so weird.

Emily decided to drive over the JoNathan s. Before he could get there. The family called Jacob with the a horrible nuts.

And then I got a phone call from jab. And all that I could make out that he was saying was JoNathan, his dad, and he's been shot .

pissed and confused, like, I don't like, how did you get shot? I don't even know where you got shot.

One thing he and everyone closed to JoNathan did know JoNathan was a gun enthusiasts and kept several firearms at his place. How many guns we have?

Probably half dozen. maybe.

I didn't really like the guns i'd shoot with him. He was the one that first stop me to shoot.

Police determined the gun that killed JoNathan was indeed one of his own. Guns had been a part of his family's life for generations now. The entire family was in pieces.

my shop at their house, and, you know, his families, just in a days .

for those early, no moments of grief. All anyone could think of was JoNathan, such a Young life lost who were a very .

close family. But he was kind of the ring leader for everything that happened.

He seemed to greet every day with that with an excitement for what was gonna en.

He was the one that always like, brought party. You know.

I met him in later nite grade. I kind of fall into the dirty group. And and when JoNathan came in, you know, he was tall, handsome and pretty athletic.

And he was a cool guy.

and he was a cool guy for a while. And then he kind of became friends with my group.

The best friends went on to be roommates at bailer university or JoNathan major red in history. After college, he wanted to save for grand school. So john athan, a snappy dresser who loved colorful neck tize work as a manager in the men's department at dealers. That's where he met Emily.

We had very similar personalities. We would always kind of joke that I was like the female version of him.

And at what point you guys very briefly went out.

So we went on one day, he asked me to go out to, like, dinner and drinks, midnight. And I look ago, you know, this would never work, right? He goes, yeah, I know we're pretty much the same person that would be weird for me to date myself.

And that was IT after that.

Well, yes.

really good friends.

such good friends that JoNathan later played matchmaker me.

Jacob and JoNathan had gone out to drinks sweet night night. And jake of left and went to the bathroom. And I looked at john athan, I go, I think I like your friend because, okay, i'm cool with that. I'll help you. And then that night I think we kind .

of conspired together, fired against.

So that's actually against you.

That's for you. Yeah, right? You're married now.

Along with his tight circle of friends, much of JoNathan on's life started to revolve around this place. Wu I show in a martial art school in a couple strip mall, and IT became a family affair. JoNathan pain and danny all took classes there and practice come through.

There were a lot of social events, know, keep plugged out a lot. There were, you know, friendships and clicks .

made within schools. IT was there, danny first mp. Ara SHE was originally from mexico and a part time instruction at the marsh art school. You thought of brand as your best friend.

yes. SHE was one of the leaders in the school, and I I actually said to JoNathan, sometime, you know, this girl, brand a seems like a nice girl.

Maybe you would be interested in her. Jonson was interested.

He came to me and said, I knows your best friend. Would you mind? And I did, in fact, mind, my one stipulation was, don't ruin my friendship with her. I don't come between .

us anything like JoNathan on. And Brenda began dating in november two thousand and thirteen. Sparks very quickly turned to fire, and branda told friend he saw JoNathan was the one. How was JoNathan who was a boyfriend, from what you could tell.

very giving.

giving very forth bottle.

I would say, you know, he was a person that immersed himself fully into relationships.

Brenda seemed to be no exception. If SHE and jhn athan weren't together, they were constantly texting. Jain told his mom the relationship had become pretty intense. He said Brenda had gone through a rough childhood that he had trust issues and could be kind of insecure.

And so I said, why did you give a chance to see what it's like to be with a nice person? Because when he sees how loyal and wonderful you are should start to be a little more secure.

Three months into that horn wind of a romance, JoNathan decided to move out of his parents house and get his own apartment where they helped him pick. That plays out.

I believe SHE went around looking for some places, yes, and he was there. He helped to move SHE dim up embarks and cleaning supplies and cleaning everything .

out to his mom and dad. JoNathan seemed to be embarking on his next chapter. He had a new job, a new girlfriend, a new apartment. And so as they SAT crushed at the family home, the idea of suicide just didn't make sense.

I made a mental note of every area of his life. Everything was going so well in his life. And so I concluded that branda must be wrong. There must have been an intruder in the house that shot JoNathan, and he came in and found him that way and made an assumption.

Let me ask you this, which is not pleasant at any thought Johnson ever express any thoughts about taking his own life or hurting himself? no. Was he depressed? No possible that he was depressed or said, or miserable in some way. And you messed IT.

no. I actually think that JoNathan was in one of the best places that he'd ever been in in his life.

What happened in jahan's apartment that night? The only witness to this tragedy had a story to tell.

On the night JoNathan cruz died, capel police spoke with the only other person who was there. His girlfriend.

brando ZARA SHE was sitting .

on a stairs in the back, the apartment outside, and he was there, a police offers speaking to, and I walked up. That's what happened. And he basically said, go away.

And so if you want mind, just let me talk her for me. Then you can talk. Brenda began describing what happened that night .

at JoNathan on's apartment over .

chinese from here in town. Yes, did they deliver? Brida said. They watch TV in bed and talked. They were having a serious conversation about their relationship, he said at some points, IT became emotional.

那种 有 文明 那种 语 they love to you with the ending is he told me that he was gonna me。 We were not talking for a long time. Stay quiet.

He was on the bed. I was the end of the bed. Which just there we don't do anything and then you just to help me that he ask me that he loved me and .

he has me what say say he said, OK.

之所以， baby, I love you and you that I love you and then he has made to go with my ears in a ency and need in later to the year again.

So you don't know, I had to go in the house.

You very .

report with them.

Where are you?

One of this happen was about the asia sitting down on the floor.

Okay, then what happened? He told, he told his career is right. okay. What happened?

A few, my ears, and I didn't want to do what I tell him. Know why he just just we just cover new year's. I didn't say anything. So no intruder, as .

JoNathan on's mom had wondered. Randa told police he was right there when JoNathan shot himself. Police asked her to come with them to the station.

Drink, please try to make a little more comfortable. Be alright with you.

In the back of the police car brand.

the sob SHE was .

still crying inside the interview room. He took about twenty minutes before he was common enough to talk. I know about.

you can make sure that you gona be OK. We need to know who to call.

need to know after family that you have. And then branda told police the story again.

you here by the time SHE finished.

IT was early morning. Later that day, he went to stay with the cruise family.

I remember taking her face in my hands and look at at her and saying, this wasn't your thoughts. I thought I need to help her so that she's now ruined for the rest of her life.

Brenda didn't say much to JoNathan on's parents about what had happened that night. He did talk with her close friend, his sister, daily.

I asked her what happened, and he said that they were having a conversation.

not a fight, SHE said.

I think they had had a fight earlier that day, but he said that he was calm, he was having conversation, and then he said, i'm going to prove how much I love you. And then pulled out a gun and shot himself, and he fell back onto the bed.

Dani thought, brand, the story sounded strange. Who shoots themselves to prove their love for someone else? You thought this was an accident.

I figured that must be what I must be, an accident.

JoNathan on's dad was hoping police could provide some clarity.

I'm sure they asked me things like what he depressed in those kinds of things, although the thing that stands out is trying to impress upon me. Basically, we don't think this was a suicide, whatever the outcome is. Don't believe that what happened.

That was their big message.

That was their big message.

So the most like trying to make you feel Better.

Well, I assume they were. They had of some reason for that statement like he wasn't just to MIT me feel Better that they were facts that supported .

that the guns magazine was found not in the gun, but in a draw. The weapon, a six hour nine millimeter, can hold a bullet in its chAmber, even without the magazine. So maybe john athan didn't know the gun was loaded.

What we heard, what I heard of this was, at the very least, this was some sort of an accident.

The family had no clear answers one way or the other as they braced for JoNathan on's funeral .

to see your own child. And a casket is, I mean, that's the memory I will never be a bit of .

IT was awful to see like like his parents having to kind of like just great people, like next to a casket of their kid.

This is one of the tougher things I ve ever done. I just kind of is a blur I remember talking, and that's about IT.

So many people who love JoNathan paid their respects except for one. Brenda wasn't there.

Sh'd been texting me asking if he could wear jeans and asking the address. And so when he just didn't show up, I was like.

so where the family had saved her a seat up front with them and her absence Sparked a new fear.

People were concerned about her. We were afraid, you know, maybe she's done something to herself or maybe something .

that happened to the questions were piling up and some of the potential answers didn't make sense.

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JoNathan cruises family believe he never would have shot himself, at least not on purpose. And yet the more they thought about IT, the idea of an accident didn't fit either. JoNathan on's grandfather had taught him and his brother all about guns from childhood.

He was talking to them about how to shoot gun safety all out from the time that, you know, they were pretty.

pretty Young. Gun safety would not have been something .

new to no IT quite the up. He was very, very, very, very careful with this of guns. They went .

hunting with them and he was always um very careful about, you know where the mother was pointed. If I was loaded or unloaded, depending on what he was doing.

he had more formal firearms training as he got older and shot competitively. Here is on home video at a shooting range outside of town, jahan's parents believe there had to be another explanation. Maybe Brenda could help them understand. So where was he? He turned out danny heard from her after the funeral, branda was alive and well.

Then I think just can do IT. It's.

i'm too upset. Danny could not understand why SHE didn't show up. You were upset that he wasn't there.

I mean, I thought I was a really awful thing to do.

As they exchanged messages on facebook, things got tense. Brand told danny he was bothered by how the service had been planned.

SHE was very upset that their relationship was not the focal point of the feral.

their relationships .

he wanted the world to about their love and how important is what's time.

even though they'd been together like three months, and he'd been with your family his entire life. exactly. He thinks job about her, yeah. When they started dating, JoNathan promise to keep his relationship with branda from affecting danny friendship with branda. Danny says SHE now realizes that was wishful thinking. Once JoNathan and Brenda were a couple, danny started to see a side of brenn da SHE didn't like, so what do you observe .

a lot awareness .

stuff you hadn't seen before? no. Like what?

So before they even officially started dating um he and I made plans to hang out on a saturday. He kept getting text messages and he was like, hey, so brand is really accept with me because SHE texted me this morning and wanted to spend day together, but i'm at a cancel plans that i've worked me with you to hang out her. And he was complaining that he wasn't making her a priority in his life there.

Like, what?

Three days old. Yeah, I priority you just met or what do you mean?

Another example, a few weeks into the relationship, the cruise family took a vacation to europe. Everyone on that trip remembers JoNathan texting branda nonstop. They had only been going out a very short period.

but he spent a lot of time texting with her to where we had to ask him, you know, put IT down. We work together. Put IT down. We were at dinner, and SHE can wait free to .

come back after they returned. Danny says IT wasn't long before brande's jealousy arrived like the new sheriff in town. Suddenly there were rules in this relationship, and JoNathan on's new job was to follow them.

At one point, he wished a happy birthday to a female friend on facebook that he didn't spoken to in years, and SHE freaked out bt about IT and wanted him to get rid of all of his fealty. Friends on facebook.

ridiculous or reasonable people can disagree on that. Then after JoNathan on's funeral, this, we wanted to .

change his facebook page to a memorial page, and we couldn't access the facebook. SHE thought .

Brenda might have JoNathan on's passwords.

I asked for them and he was like, we have to promise, you know, we made the decision that he was going to remove all of his explore friends and so you have to promise me, because his wishes, that you won't add them back.

She's still thinking about that after he's dead.

Yes, that was like her one, her one stipulation for giving us to the password as his extra funds cannot be reached. His facebook.

So you went along with that.

yeah. We agreed. We did what we had to do to get her access.

So well, JoNathan on's family was frustrated with branda. He's close friends or just plain skeptical about her story.

What do you mean? Like cover your hours. I'm going to show you how .

much I love you that's down.

Wouldn't also like who does that? That's not something JoNathan we've done. That's a weird story.

So was IT a made up story. Could this be the opening act of a cover up? Maybe something darker LED up to the night.

john and cruise. Dad, finally, Johnson, you know it's going a Better because like it's just escalating at this point.

Despite being one of JoNathan on's best friends, Emily didn't know his girlfriend Brenda all that well. Even so, he had a unique window into their relationship. Early on, JoNathan asked Emily and Jacob on a double date so they could meet Brenda.

We both gave him a really big hug, like we Normally do when we see him.

They say ba was a during the whole meal so you're try to draw a little bit here and nothing .

but later I think he had texted me and said, like h, she's not feeling so that's why she's talk about now.

Fast forward a couple of months to the day of JoNathan on's death, the three friends met for brunch.

JoNathan started to get some text messages and seemed distracted by his phone, and then he started the conversation by saying, so Brenda has a problem with you and I I remember being very caught off guard because I was like, why? why? And he said, you know, he was really upset when you and I went to dinner that, like, I hugging you and I like, why was he upset that I hugged you? That doesn't make any sense, especially since I was dating his best friend.

Anathem tried to explain. He mentioned brand is difficult upbringing in mexico.

He said that he'd been through a lot of traumatic things, and one of those being that her uncle was murdered in front of her by the car. Tel, and so, you know, her family had to flee mexico and they weren't allowed to go back. So I made her hard to trust people.

Then JoNathan on's phone rang. IT was brender, and he wanted to talk to Emily.

When I took the phone, SHE literally was like screaming at me.

What do you think she's telling me .

that I was a disrespectful little girl for hugging her man and that I needed to stay away from him and keep my hands off of him. I said to her, i'm sorry if that bothers you, that I hugged him, but he's my friend. I greet everyone that way. I'm not gona not hugged him because that bothers you. I'm not interested in him like it's never been like that.

I've never even kiss him.

No, SHE said a after wards, let me talk to my man. My man and I said, absolutely. And I handed Johnson than the phone.

You say you're crazy girlfriend and wants to ask.

to be honest. There was a little bit overwhelmed. I handed him the phone and got up from the table and went to the bathroom and immediately started crying.

When Emily returned to the table, JoNathan tried to apologize. He just kept and apologizing all over himself.

I said, like, I know that you like her. Like you're in a relationship with her. I don't want you to have to choose between your girlfriend and me. I just like right now, I don't want to be around her.

Emily didn't know IT at the time, but brand, this issues with her had been a sticking point in the relationship since that first dinner. And in part because of that, JoNathan had been thinking about ending the relationship a day earlier. He had said his sister danny, a text laying out his options, fight IT and try to make IT Better, which want to happen to chose branda. In other words, give up. Emily three refused to give up either, and see if Brenda and is four and IT was Brandon now and he decides out of those four choices that to to end IT .

yes he said it's going to happen soon he goes, you know i'm really sorry um you know I know this is a lot of drama and no IT has probably affected your relationship with her and a break up my run IT further a memory star because that was my one saying that I promised you now at brunch.

After hearing Brenda lose IT about Emily, he told his friends what he was thinking Johnson make IT cleared during that conversation that was going to be the end of his relationship .

with branda very clear. He said several times that he was going to pack up all of her things and that he was absolutely done.

This is less twenty four hours in the end of the life.

driving in the car back to his apartment. You know, everybody was just kind of quiet and he also sudden got really tense and goes, oh my gosh, there her car and Jacob was like, Emily, we're just gonna I don't want you to talk like, of course, i'm not gonna talk to her like SHE is a black belt and they come through r whatever. He would beat me up.

Then the next morning, SHE heard JoNathan had been shot. Emmy's got told her something wasn't right. IT was a feeling SHE could not shake.

I thought, you know that he had done something to him. I knew john athan. I knew that he wouldn't have done this.

So then what about that text Emily received from JoNathan after the super bowl? I wants to die. yeah.

Did he talk that way? No, no. China's than when he gets stressed out. You know what I used to live him and and what I know about, he just go sleep, him texting, just that one little thing would have made since he would have said nothing at all, or he would have colder.

Emily and jacket turned IT over and over in their minds. You now do not believe JoNathan sent that text. No, you think this is that after he dies.

absolutely one .

hundred percent the raging, jealous y that unhinged phone call. Did those point to murder? That was that Emily and Jacobs thought, now, would police agree if .

we needed to take your DNA do have a problem with us doing that.

IT wasn't long after jomon cruise died that his best friend Emily reached out to his brother. SHE wanted to share her suspicions about branda. He said.

please don't talk my parents about this right now. They have enough going on. They cannot handle IT.

So a week a half went by before Emily, Jacob and another close friend SAT down in the family living room.

One of them said, should we show her? And I said, but you're showing me now and so they showed me this text messages that I wanna die. And I said JoNathan didn't write that and they said, we know, we know he would never write that.

So who did pm already knew about Brenda jealous streak, but says he was stunned at how, on the last day of JoNathan on's life brand, a demonstrated so much fury towards Emily.

I knew there was a problem with Emily. I didn't realize that. Was that ongoing?

What would your other?

Yes, that would have been enough for me to know.

That was unreasonable policy by far. Emily and jake obs. Biggest was JoNathan on's planned to break up with Brenda on the very day he was shot. You were unaware .

of that until that the first time I have had heard any of that, that was pretty much .

to game changer. This was the moment JoNathan on's parents became convinced IT was brender who had shot their son. It's not uncommon for families of people who have taken their own lives to not want to admit that they missed some of the science, right? And so they start looking for someone or something else to blame. That's not what's going on here.

No, no solution.

The signs you blame yourself for missing are all about branda.

absolutely.

Danny also blamed herself. The woman SHE now suspected of being her brother's killer had been her best friend. That has to be a terrible feeling.

Definitely makes me question my ability to to three people. I mean, I trusted this person.

The family suspicions were actually just catching up with what some investigators suspected from the gets go. Police already knew about the tension over Emily. They heard about IT from branda that night right away.

Brandon told this police .

officer SHE and JoNathan had been arguing about Emily. Is this a friend and next girlfriend?

What OK SHE gave more details to a surgeon at .

the police station, including herself, on that phone call with Emily.

I was, i've said when I talked to her, I told her that he was acting three.

Brenda said he became even more upset when JoNathan stop taking her calls after that, so SHE said he went to .

find him at his apartment and 他。

that was late afternoon, branda said. They argued, but IT was brief and everything was fine as they .

got ready for dinner. 喂喂喂， 喂喂喂。 We're from we're having from Brenda .

did not mention anything to police about a break up. SHE did say they've been talking about moving together and SHE worried JoNathan .

was getting cold feet 还是 怎么 的， SHE said, even though things were calm as they all red dinner.

JoNathan later mentioned Emily's name again, leading to another quarter. That's when he said JoNathan told her to cover years and then came the gunshot.

累死 我 了。 多 了的 裙子。

Was that the whole story, or had the stress and jealousy boiled over into violence?

And you should .

be as honest .

with me as you can. Alright, 点点 情绪。

Are you sure? I am sure. So when when you are investigation. Is IT going to show that he shot himself? Yes, if we needed to take your DNA do how apple with us doing that.

The sergeant and another officer swapped brand, his hands for blood and a gunshot residue. They also took her switched to test for bund spatter. IT was all packed up for the lab marked rush, Emily says when he went to talk with police, they told her, watch your back.

When I was giving them my password to log into the facebook, they had said to me, you need to not ever tag or post where you are right now, because you seem to be somebody that upsets her.

Weeks past, then months, the local medical examiner was finishing up the autopsy report. He was having trouble making sense of exactly what happened. If you've watched enough date line, you probably know a desertification IT has two important boxes to check.

First is the cause of death. In this case, pretty obvious, a gunshot wound. And just as important, a medical examiner has to determine the manner of death.

Was this excEllent suicide or homicide? And in this case, the M. I couldn't reach a conclusion, so JoNathan on's death went down as undetermined. Then, nearly a year after the shooting, JoNathan on's parents learned there was a new team assigned that their son's case.

I said, the regal people who investigated this in the ones on the case, you've got to basically a new team on the file. We've been looking at a very closely and they began to make noises about making arrest.

The thing I remember red them saying right off about and we ve got in there, was give us about six weeks and we think that we'll .

have some good news for you that is why what happened next came as a shock and let them to this woman, you won't sugar .

go this for no.

not at.

A year after JoNathan on's death, new investigators were on the case. His parents expected bruna to be charged at any moment with his killing. Then came unexpected news, the family says detectives told them, and arrest was not going to happen anytime soon.

Pretty sure you said what changed. You made us think that there was going an arrest for murder. And what's new now we .

started to getting a lot of I can't really talk about IT.

Here's their memory of what police did say when .

they started telling us we can't get there, we don't have enough, they said, but this is the kind of crime she'll be likely to um to repeat and they'll get the next .

time we'll get her the next .

time to that effect.

Your son is like the free space in the middle banging out like that yeah, you get one. But then after that, would you think when you heard .

that I was opposed, I thought, I bet they wouldn't say that if they thought the next person .

was going to be their son. Branda hired a lawyer who told police SHE wouldn't be talking. And in july two thousand and fifteen, JoNathan on's case was marked inactive.

The last thing I said to us was .

live your lives great.

Thank you. easier. Yes, the last thing they were going to do was stop trying to get answers for JoNathan.

JoNathan on's father is an attorney. He reached out to tom shaw, a colleague heat battle in court. Tom works with his sun Taylor.

I felt sorry for because they were, there were two broken people.

At that point. I could see a broken family that was looking for explanation. They talked about filing a wrongful death lawsuit against panda and decided to bring on a private investigator. Why you recommend you?

What I was fascinated by your story.

That was a story I covered on date line. Back in two thousand and twelve, shela was a suburban mom who became a pi just to help solve college roommates cold case murder. SHE did IT in part by getting on the phone to the police department.

SHE did that more than seven hundred times. You fought pretty hard to find out who killer I did. I did. Now, here we were again. More than a decade later, i'm tempted to say that you know look like A P I, except that I think that the fact that I don't think that means that you probably do look like an extremely effective bi.

I can get through doors because I look like everybody's mom. If I knock, i'm either lost run through your mind or there's something you want to know why this older ladies .

knocking at your door. And in solution, SHE will works with another pi, Daniel birch, and agreed to help JoNathan on's parents on one condition.

They said IT IT was called in as a suicide and I told him, if I take the case that if it's suicide, I stop. We're done.

I mean, you gar for people no.

not at all. Probably little too, uh, forthcoming. If you believe it's murder in its suicide, you're not to like me.

scare whatever because he was just very cute and SHE said, i'm going to look at this from every angle and if I find out your son killed himself, i'm going to tell you, can you live with that? And I said.

yes SHE was started by asking JoNathan on's friends and coworkers about his mental health. Once again, no one said he seemed suicide or even depressed.

We pulled his records from the doctor. Nothing we went to the insurance company was covered under and look to see if there was a psychist psychologist or whatever.

A year earlier, he'd been prescribed the anti anxiety medications anax, but told his family he only took one pill and never refiled the prescription. Any evidence that he was under psychiatric care or was on any kind of any depression?

There was no evidence.

As shila worked, the family filed their civil lawsuit against brender, seeking more than a million dollars in damages and asking for a jury trial. SHE a managed to get her hands on part of the police case file, and this detail caught SHE lo's attention. Remember how investigators found the magazine of the gun that killed JoNathan in a drawer? Well, that draw also held his necktie. And one thing he had knew about JoNathan was that he cared about how he looked and dressed.

John athan is a thai person. He's very particulars about his cloth. And having a breezy magazine in his tie, dorg doesn't make sense.

had someone else put IT there and could that someone be branda? As SHE tracked down witnesses, she've found someone police had never spoken with. It's the delivery man who brought JoNathan and brand of chinese food on that final night. He recalled a verbal argument so intense he could hear IT from .

the hallway. The chinese delivery guy shows up and he knocks on the door, and he has to continuously knock on the door because they're fighting behind the door. He couldn't .

get their attention.

He hear fighting, but not the words.

SHE will also located a witness who'd already been interviewed by police, a neighbor of JoNathan, who said she's heard what sounded like a gunshot just before eleven P. M. shot.

Here he is in a video taped deposition recorded for the lawsuit set up. I just thought to myself was that a gunshot um couldn't be in this area of a nice area. I just lay back down. Remember how in her called a nine one one, branda said he didn't know the address.

I want you to go and knock on a door or find a name of something .

JoNathan on's neighbor or says he heard a .

knock on her door. What was the time gap, if you can remember, was IT right away that you heard the knock on the door?

IT wasn't right away. I think like IT might have been maybe twenty minutes. okay. In her interview with police, the neighbor guess IT could have been as long as forty five minutes. While the time gap tom shaw has his suspicions.

SHE was stalling to wait for him to die.

You think he waited like a half hour to call my one? Yes, so that he would be dead? yes. SHE. The two is skeptical of the whole, didn't know the address element of brande's story, SHE thinks that may also have been a stalling tactic.

SHE helped john athan pick out the location is across the street from kong fu, and he has a hard time telling him where he was.

But if you believe in branda, SHE just saw her boyfriend kill himself and she's history and she's a little overrode as somebody might be in that situation. So maybe SHE isn't functioning the way that you would expect or you would hope true, or SHE just .

shot him and .

he is trying she's panic a little bit and trying to figure out how she's gonna get out of this.

This is his brain new apartment that he will pick out. Okay, but it's possible if only been there a week, maybe he doesn't know the address. Okay, i'll give you that.

I'll give you that there was more .

in the case file that raised red flags for seller. The trajectory of the bullet that killed JoNathan seem to be telling a story, one that didn't make any sense. And the story is that JoNathan and shot himself like this.

Each day without their son was unbearable. For pam and john cruise, some moments were worse than others.

JoNathan loved Christmas. He loved holidays, and so Christmas music was just an assault. And we had a few times where we just couldn't .

keep IT together as the civil case moved forward. Private echo y. Sai kept revisiting one detail the location of JoNathan on's wound. Traditionally, when men killed themselves with the gun and .

they shoot themselves the head, and especially somebody who's well educated as jhones than on guns, so jhones than was trained in guns safety, indeed, competitions. So if he's going to kill himself over a girl or anybody, he's gona know how to put a gun to his mouth ther's head and get this over with.

He going to look at the results of those gunshot resident tests conducted by law enforcement. JoNathan had g. sr. On his right hand, and Brenda, the lab, detected a ressie on both her hands and the front of her. Swisher t, that seemed odd to sha, since brender described being at the foot of the bed when the shooting happened.

Are you at the bottom of the bed? Yes, you can get gun powder r on you, but it's something to look at. As an investigator in .

two thousand and eighteen, SHE assembled a team of private investigators and forensic experts.

We spent parly eight to ten hours on JoNathan on's bed with the trajectory of the bullet to see IT does IT work. Does, does that not?

Li says they knew the exact path the bullet took through JoNathan on's body based on the autopsy, and law enforcement later determined the gun was fired at close range. The G, S, R tests told them JoNathan must have help the gun with his right. And so to them, that meant there was only one way JoNathan could have shot himself.

This, an exact replication is. And the story is that jonson shot himself like this. Guess why would anybody use this grip? Why would anybody shoot themselves in such an incredibly awkward way? Nobody to china and the family? The evidence was clear. JoNathan did not kill himself as their wrongful death lawsuit worked its way through the courts. They didn't give up on the idea of criminal charges.

The first time I heard about IT was when his parents, as if they could come and talk to me.

Mike snipe joined the dallas district attorneys office as a prosecutor in two thousand and seventeen, about three years after JoNathan on's death. After the cruise family reached out, snipes was asked to look into a JoNathan on's case.

a circumstantial evidence case. But in my, I had a very.

very good one tonight, says one stumbling block, criminal prosecutions can be what's written on the medical examiners report. So if the corners is cause that that is undetermined, and you go in with a murder case like that, kind of your reasonable, that out right there, even the corner came back .

up their .

mind IT conceivably could be, and IT makes a lot of other.

yes.

difficult, he says, but not invisible.

Or I thought I was that the story that he gave the police, and that was the prevAiling story that IT was suicide, was physically impossible to leaving IT. A only one other person could have done IT, and that was the suspect. So that was a kind of, my holy girl on this .

snipe says he wanted police to keep investigating and suggested steps investigators could take to bring the case closer to a criminal prosecution.

I was wanting the case to go to the grand jury, as has had some more things I wanted the copy police department to do. And that just never happened.

But what you were overrule.

no, was overruled. But you want to have the police department decide that they want to file the case with the das office, and they never reach that point.

Snipe left the da s. Office at the end of two thousand and eighteen, and the criminal investigation went nowhere. The civil case continued along with shiels investigation. She'd found dozens of witnesses, including someone from branda's past SHE just .

held some other hands. Someone goes, your mom, that was one done. That's the time that I called the police here.

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JoNathan on's best friend, Emily, told anyone who'd listen about his life, about his death and about the girlfriend SHE suspected of killing him.

There was a girl that had just recently started working at my company as we were building a report in a friendship. You know a lot about what i'd been happening. SHE asked me to see what the girl looks like.

So I took my phone and I handed at her, and I left the room and went to the bathroom. And when I came back in, I will never forget IT. Her face was pretty much White.

The co worker knew all about branda. SHE was friends with the main, and Brenda dated before meeting JoNathan. And that x had some stories.

I contacted the police and sad, like, hi I, I have this person and you guys should talk to him.

According to police records, a detective visited brand as ex, but he wasn't home, so the detective left a business card and another at the man's mother's own.

My understanding was they tried to contact him. He wasn't available and there was no follower.

which, in fairness, this is the police. And if they really want to speak with somebody about non going investig, they can make that happen. Shiela successfully drag him down. So did we. His name is Matthew kirk, and he might be the most interesting man in urban taxis.

I have an insurance business. I painted how to bali. I practice martial arts and I lost sixty five pounds, ince, twenty nineteen.

The martial arts part of that is what connected him to bring.

So I met Brenda in, uh, north college. Uh, matter. And our comfort class we're taking together was taken for semester.

A was a is a good girl and she's caring person. SHE was a very hard worker. He worked out hard. She's very intelligent. SHE a very passionate person.

Matthew says he fell hard for Brenda.

SHE was with me seven days a week. There were a few days in a year where we did not see each other.

but others as you were together all yeah.

yeah. He really like IT out with me. I'm a fun person, so I don't .

like the relationship started off so well. And then relationship .

with branda was any other relationship. IT was up and dance.

tell me .

about the downs. The downs was he was a bit jealous, especially around like maybe with my sister in law or SHE did not like me being in an elevator with another girl alone .

too long heard from around jain brand z ex says her jealousy was a constant thing. You ever give her a reason to feel so jealous?

I was a good looking guy at the time.

You know, you're good looking guy.

Yeah but I actually I was uglier than I was a head of hair and was chaba. But at that time, um I didn't give much reason to be jealous.

I an did you cheat on?

I never cheat IT on.

So what was the .

source that just insecurity? She's a very insecure.

Sometimes it's not just love is blind. Sometimes jealousy is too. Matthew said brend became enraged when he planned to visit his sister in law at the hospital after he gave birth.

They did. My sister law had her baby. SHE did not want me .

to be there now.

SHE really, really didn't want me to be there. And there was one point where he was crying, really upset. SHE broke up a miro in the bathroom.

Use mir 杀 to cut her rice when I was in the bathroom。 Sha door shit. And then SHE left. And then I want to go see in mind, you know?

But he used the rest because you wanted to go be with your sister when he had baby, right?

He has shed a lot of demons inside her.

He says. One fight with Brenda was so scary, he called police. That was when Matthew was trying to end IT with her.

Was I trying to break up with at one point and .

SHE .

graves some scissors and he says, i'm going to go see her mom. And I was like, what do you talking about? She's going.

Matthew says he gone into his car hoping to make IT to his mom's house first and on the way, call police.

He, my girlfriend, is getting little upset and go take care of this hand. So they got to her home and took her to the hospital.

If you had intervene, if you call the cops, what do you .

think happened? Oh, my mom's a very sweet lady. Probably my mom would have sweet talk or made her feel Better and all that. Also my moon's second degree black bill type do.

So after four years together, Matthew and bra broke up. He says he didn't think about her much until months later when he got a call from Brenda and he wanted to meet up IT was the day after .

JoNathan cruise died. Is what you do anything for me not like? Like, what's going? She's I need to do me a favor.

I was like, um what's a favorite? And he says, I want you to kill me. no.

And SHE says you okay. Then can you give me a gun? I want to kill myself. Not like, no, I can give you what's going on, what's happening and he says, um and he was a her boyfriend a was had a gun and he put the gun up to his head and shot himself in the head .

in the head oh yeah.

yeah.

He said that no question, he said in the head, right, that was a new version of events the attorney thought Matthew stories were important enough to include in the civil case, which finally want to trial in september two thousand twenty two.

right? A jury was .

about to here and see what JoNathan on's family believes really happened in that bedroom.

In the years since JoNathan on's death, brender lazaro had created a new life. He was married now with two kids, and according to her defense, atterley Andrew g. SHE was being tormented by a grieving family that would never be satisfied.

I think that the thing is important, remember about Brandon, is that she's experienced a tremendous loss here as well. This was someone that was very close to her that die a tragically in front of her.

When the wrongful death trial began in september two thousand twenty two. Brenda was there in the courtroom with her new family.

Her husband was at the entire time, as well as her english .

reporter in ahead rush. Ani darci covered the trial for the news outlet axiom.

The start of the trial was incredibly tense. You could tell john and pair and the rest of the family had a lot writing on this, and I can imagine that was a big day for Brenda as well, right? If he truly is innocent, this is a big way for her to prove that innocence.

This case, though, was in civil court, where juries don't decide guilt or innocence, just blame legal liability, and the burden of proof is lower than beyond a reasonable doubt. How hard is that? The proof of a murder in the civil case, the burn .

approve s different. In a civil case, it's more likely than not. So just a little more likely that he did IT in a criminal case.

It's beyond a reasonable doubt, which the da will tell you is is very high burden that they have compared to the burden that the civil lawyers like us had. This is a big deal. This is an important case if .

jurors found branda responsible, tom shaw asked them to award the family more than eighty million dollars. The cruise family knew branda did not have anywhere near that amount of money, and they didn't care. This was about answers. And in civil court, money is the closest you get to justice .

after you've heard all the evidence you'll be able to do with no criminal jury ever had a chance to do to bring justice to john ah's life, to bring justice to those from whom he was taken.

JoNathan's family described to the jury what they had lost when JoNathan died.

He wanted to get married someday. You wanted to have grandkids. And we were certainly looking forward to that.

You described to the jury with the last day .

and have years has .

been like to go. Huge part of my heart just threw IT away.

And his son set out to show the jury all the reasons they believed JoNathan could not have died by his own hand. First and foremost was their analysis of the bullet trajectory. As IT traveled through jhn athens body to then IT meant JoNathan would have had to reach at an odd angle to shoot himself.

He would have had to have been A A condor's ist in order to to take that shot and to pull the trigger, because this particular weapon in the six hour has a real hard pole on the trigger. I thought that was the most compelling evidence in the case. Was.

was that not bad or no? And the plaintiff expert witness said he was all the more unlikely because JoNathan had a shoulder injury. This former houston police detective testified about JoNathan visiting a doctor in the days before his death.

My expert of opinion, JoNathan creeds, could not control his shoulder across his body, and in that such manner, in order to manuvre the weapon, in order to make the shot in to his own chest, without pushing to a bizarre out of pain when he could have just stood up, put the weapon to is his head in his mouth, under his chain, or squarely into his heart. The family's attorneys told the jury about those gunshot residue tests showing branda had g, sr. On her switcher and both their hands.

And they argued that, well, JoNathan had no motive to kill himself. Branda did have a motive. JoNathan was about to break up with her. Emily testified to how angry Brenda had been on the day of JoNathan on's death.

I spoke her on the phone on the day .

he was killed. The attorneys played the recorded deposition of Matthew girk. He recounted those stories about how branda's jelic AK sometimes verged on violence.

He held some s and hands, anyone goes your mom I am trying for forget that girl SHE almost ruined my life.

Attorneys for the cruise family said brand told different versions of the shooting story to for people in some SHE was in the room when the gun went off. In others, he said he was in a different room. Danny testified to what brother told her.

He was in the door way facing him. He was having conversation.

The attorney deposed several of brand as martial art school friends, who also heard conflicting accounts that SHE went to the bathroom. And when he came out, he was already shot. Well, he said he shot himself in the head. Is IT possible. Do you think that that's the stress, the misery of that moment of being present when somebody you love kills themselves that may be distorted her memory or made IT hard for her .

to think clearly? I believe that win you. You're part of a traumatic moment. You don't forget the smell, the environment, those things never leave you, is brand to somebody who is an exception to the rule of that traumatic moment and doesn't remember IT. I don't know, but I believe that you don't tell different stories to five different people.

So if JoNathan didn't shoot himself, then what did happen in court? The family attorneys presented their story of that night. They believe JoNathan went to bed, and while he was sleeping, Brenda used his phone to send that I wanted die text message to Emily.

SHE is so obsessed with anyone. Who did you send that text to? That let us tell you when you if SHE was saying to anyway, I can help, you can have to illustrate .

what they think happened next. The family's lawyer showed the jury and animation IT was created by shela entertain based on their analysis of the bullet trajectory and on police reports about the evidence at the scene. IT depicts brander approaching JoNathan while he lies in bed and then shooting him as he wakes up.

The animation matches all the evidence that we showed in trial, and that one we did because IT is important for a jury to visually see what happened.

So many accusations against her. So what would brindle ZARA have to say?

Children, your motive for shaving john is the oldest motive in the jealous Y.

The suicide was not how they were investigating.

the lizard said. And listen to every witness.

he's not going to kill himself.

Evidence, the victim of mode, every bit of testimony that the cruise .

family lawyers use a to .

blame her for JoNathan on's death.

her husband was by her side the majority of the time. There were moments when if there was a difficult day and trial, they embrace each other for a long periods of time. You can see that he needed support and SHE turned to her husband or in loss for that.

her attack. y. Andrew g. Spoke for her. You mean some nail of branda ZARA.

who is he? Brenda is a, is a mother of two children. She's a great mom and a great wife, and she's really just got caught up in some really difficult circumstances. What's in court?

He attacked the plate of case peace by piece.

What's happened to the family? Clearly from that, but that doesn't room the allegation. But that doesn't prove what they're saying is true. First.

the notion that brand a told different versions of the story to different friends.

Lawsuit ten, her attorney .

said IT was the friend's memories that were wrong, not brand the stories.

Has anybody ever told somebody something important and repeated that to multiple people? Are they all going to say the same thing that you said? exactly? Probably not. What about two years later?

Probably less likely. And there were other parts of those depositions in which your friends and family said lovely things about brenna.

A, how would you describe somebody I trust, somebody I can count on?

SHE was always just a good, great person. I always looked up to her as an older sister, and, you know, SHE is very kind, respectful, is.

he is jealous type? No, not at all. no. Did you ever consider that I bring this ex.

Matthew curt, at all those crazy stories to share? Not even he described Brenda as a killer.

Would you sider able.

I don't know, is IT .

conceivable to you that Brenda was so angry at JoNathan for breaking up with her that he is lost her temper? Loser grip, grab gun in china now, always.

we broke up primarily two or three times in a relationship. And SHE never tried to kill me.

Did you ever got to?

Yeah, then he never tried to grab up anything like that. Never missed. I try do anything like that. So who .

explained for him? Mat definitely described branda as being controlling, jealous, kind of obsessive. But even he says he didn't think. But that would give butting.

you know, everybody hopes they don't know someone who could use a trigger and shoot someone. IT may be hopefulness burn.

This attorney says JoNathan could have shot himself at that. And even with a shoulder injury, IT wasn't that big of a deal.

He moved his apartment, the weak prior or so, with that same injury, apparently with no problems.

G also mentioned an incident from when JoNathan was in college. He fired a gun recklessly after drinking, suggesting he wasn't always careful around firearms, and the attorney said there was no motive for branda to shoot. JoNathan, it's not even clear he was really breaking up with her.

If you're going to break up with someone, you don't order dinner for two at eight o'clock at night and haven't spent the night, that just doesn't make any a sense.

So you don't think china is wanted to break up with or you just don't think there's enough evidence there of that.

I think that's total speculation.

Inter attorney says there was zero evidence that Brenda was the one who sent that text message to Emily.

I think is likely that he sent IT because IT was from an iphone that was locked and he needed a pass .

code and according to everybody who knows, he gave her his bet as codes. Again, that's just .

absolute speculation. There is no evidence to suggest that brand has sent that text.

As for Brenda waiting to call nine one one, he said the neighbor's memory was unreliable. SHE had been in bed when he heard the gunshot so back. And there was this.

if you listen to that none one one call, you listen carefully. You can hear JoNathan cruise mowing on that tape. So he was alive during that nine .

one one call. Here's the moment brand, as attorney is talking about.

What the cruise family really wanted to hear was what branda had to say. The plant of attorney called her to the stand.

I respectfully involved my privilege against self incrimination.

SHE took the fifth again and again. That didn't stop the cruise family attorney from asking her question after question.

And is not a true your motive for shaving. JoNathan is the oldest mode in the book.

Jealous Y I respect to involved my privilege inst stuff crimination how many times .

the brain does that take? The fifth.

about one hundred and thirty hundred and forty times.

Brand is atterley says it's unfair to read anything into that.

All lawyers will tell a client that is subject to criminal prosecution, especially a murder in a state that Carries the death penalty. To take the fifth IT would be legal malpractice to advise someone to do anything different.

Brenda may have said little on the stand, but her attorney said the facts of the case spoke for her. Despite their suspicions, police never arrested Brenda, and the M. A never ruled JoNathan on's death on oxide.

You also won't see any evidence that Brenda was ever arrested, charged, prosecuted or convicted. I'm not sure that you will see any evidence that indicates us an ongoing police investigation.

In the end, her attorney echoed one of the theories that had floated around the police department that JoNathan didn't know there was a bullet in the chAmber, and this was all a tragic mistake.

I believe this was an accident.

The case went to the jury. What would the answer be?

alright.

Word came quickly. After less than three hours of deliberation, the jury had a verdict as they waited to hear IT JoNathan on's parents and siblings hugged each other tightly.

alright.

IT was a really surreal moment because it's the thing that we've been waiting .

for so long to spend deliver.

IT is a union is .

vertical.

The jury found brendel ZARA responsible for shooting and killing JoNathan cruise. John, it's eight million. Ham is sixteen million. Then the judge rattled off some staggering numbers, the jury's calculation of what Brenda owed the family and for their suffering and for their son's life. And they come back with an award of two hundred and six million dollars, yes, which is money that brindle ZARA doesn't have and is never going to have. No, but that's a Victory.

It's is an incredible Victory. Because the parents were told for the first time that their son didn't take .

his own life, I underestimated how important this was to my daughter, to Johnson, to friends, even to my wife. A criminal trial, a criminal trial.

The thing I really wanted was for JoNathan to be indicated. He's not here to speak himself. He didn't kill himself.

We strongly believe that he, he killed him.

We spoke with jury forman edy Brown. He told us jurors pretty much agreed. Brenda was the shooter before they even took their first vote.

The biggest thing that let us to our decision was the trajectory of the bullet. Every one of us in the jury attempted to recreate the angle of what the bullet would have went through, where he had hold the gun in whether there was an accident on his partner. Now that seemed extremely unlikely. We couldn't recreated.

And as for that lower standard of proof in a civil trial, the form and told us managers thought the evidence was so strong against Brenda, they believe he was responsible beyond a reasonable debt. Could you have voted to lock up branda instead of a financial award? Yes, you didn't have any problem with that. No, not at all. Did anyone wonder why this was in civil .

CD and not criminal car? Yes, we were kind curious why the da wasn't moving forward .

with the criminal case. JoNathan on's parents hoped a win in civil court mightly to criminal charges that did not happen five months after the civil verdict, the dallas district attorney invited them to a meeting and said there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

They made a presentation that suggested that the video that we had made was incorrect and that we had misrepresented the facts to the jury.

We asked the days of us what facts they were talking about. They said, unlike what's shown in the animation, they couldn't draw a reliable conclusion about the bullet trajectory based on the evidence. That's because when police went looking for where the bullet ended up, they took apart JoNathan on's bad and the da things the bullet could have rolled around.

In the process, we wanted to know what else police did or didn't do. They declined to answer our questions, so we requested their case file and obtain some records that neither side in the civil trial ever saw. First, what's missing? There's no photo of the gun near JoNathan on's body.

He in .

get even for, yeah, he did all out of IT. That's right. The first officer on scene picked up the gun and moved IT from the bedroom to the kitchen, disturbing a key piece of evidence.

And according to records we examined, there was something else. Police did not have fingerprints. They waited six months to test the gun for them. By that time, I had been sent to a lab and swapped for DNA, possibly wiping away usable prints. The crime lab did find unknown DNA on a gun along with JoNathan, than except there is no record of police getting a DNA sample from brand to compare .

IT to if we needed to take your DNA do you with us doing that? An .

envelope labeled DNA saml from Brenda a was sent to the lab, but IT turned out to be a swab of JoNathan on's blood of her hands. I know this is hard, okay, but I have to ask these questions. All right.

That night, Brenda was questioned by police for more than two hours. The story he told police was consistent, some questions to try, catch and why, and things match. Even so, her story still raised a lot of questions.

But you see how this doesn't make sense.

IT did not make sense to me at all.

To this day, former prosecutor mike snapp ed thinks police could have done more, and he says he was willing to take a case against brendel ZARA before a jury in criminal court. Was this disappointing.

IT was, I mean, look.

if you're right, there's a murdered walking around out there free.

That's right.

Brand's atterley says the fact Brenda was never charged is the whole point. SHE wasn't charged because she's innocent of any crime.

She's been hounded now for nine years over this. And SHE would really like to put this experience behind her and and move forward.

Haman john say they will never give up fighting for answers about their son's death, and they also want people to remember how he lived. There are big, hard and goofy son, the doting big brother and best friend, who brought laughter into all their lives and loved every minute of IT.

He was something else, wasn't he? Never stop moving. He was so excited about life, and he never lost that just a joy of everyday.

That's all for this edition of date line. We'll see you again sunday at seven six central. And of course, i'll see you each tweet night for N, B.

C. nightlight. news. I'm lester holt for all of us at nbc news. goodnight.

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