NARRATOR: This time on
"Killers Caught on Camera." In Florida, a woman goes
missing after asking her friend to look after some money. I knew how she felt
about her son, Drake. That she loved him
with all of her heart, and she never would have
just left him like that. I love you. NARRATOR: And in the
North of England, a night in with friends. But one of the
guests proves deadly. She was snuggling up to him. She even was said to
have looked like she found him quite attractive. MAN 1: It just
sounds like something bad is happening to her. WOMAN 2: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened. MAN 2: I heard some gunshots. POLICE: Drop it! Whatever it is drop it! That does not prove
that I killed my wife. MAN 3: The camera doesn't lie. NARRATOR: United States. Jacksonville, North Carolina. A young community
with a large number of people in the armed forces. It was home to
33-year-old Taylor Wright and friend Vanessa Smith. We both worked at Jacksonville
Police Department together. She loved being
a police officer. She was happy to come to work. She was happy to
put on the uniform. She was happy to go out
there and catch the bad guys. And she would just-- she
would do really good work. NARRATOR: Vanessa
and Taylor both had husbands in the military. OK, we're getting ready
to start the engine. VANESSA SMITH: Being
a military wife can be difficult, especially
when your husbands deploy a lot. We were each other's
rock when we needed it. It was like a
sisterly friendship. NARRATOR: Taylor and her husband
Jeff had a son named Drake. VANESSA SMITH: Taylor
was amazing as a mom. It was fun to see
Taylor transition from, like, this big bad
cop to now this mother role. No, no, no, no. Don't use this hand. Hold it. OK, you can pull it. You won the wish. Now you have to make a wish. Did you make your wish? OK, give me a kiss. I love you. They were your typical family. We hung out with them. We went to dinner with them. We go over to their house a lot. (SINGING) You'll have fun. Make you have fun. Hey, yes, I am. She was a part of the family. She was a sister. Here, take. Take it.
Come on. Take. Good girl. NARRATOR: In 2015,
Taylor and Jeff divorced and Jeff eventually
took custody of their son. Two years later, Taylor
moved 800 miles away to start a new life
in Pensacola, Florida. Taylor started working
as a private investigator and at the same time
applied for a job at Pensacola Police Department. She made new friends and
began a romantic relationship with a woman who
she moved in with. Life was settling down again. But in September 2017,
just a few months after moving to Pensacola,
Taylor disappeared. VANESSA SMITH: Her girlfriend
at the time sent me a Facebook message and asking if
I had heard from Taylor because she was missing. It was a shock because that
wasn't anything like her. She loved her son. She loved him endlessly. And she would have never
just gone and left him. It didn't makes sense. NARRATOR: Taylor was reported
missing by her girlfriend, Casandra Waller. Richard Ghigliotty was a
detective for the Pensacola Police Department. The officer who
initially responded to this said she's an
adult. If she wants to take some time off
or take some time away, she's more than
welcome to do so. Some time I went by, I want
to say close to a week or so, the same reporting
person, Casandra Waller, came to the station
and said that she still hadn't seen Taylor Wright,
still hadn't heard from her and was growing a
little more concerned. NARRATOR: As well as not
returning home to Cassandra, Taylor also failed
to make any phone calls to her son,
who she usually spoke with every evening. VANESSA SMITH: I knew how she
felt about her son, Drake. That she loved him
with all of her heart, and she never would have
just left him like that. NARRATOR: Taylor was building
a new life in Pensacola. Despite the distance from
her old life and her child, things seemed to be going well. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY: You have a
mother who consistently calls her child now suddenly not. She has an application in to
work at a police department. If she wanted to just
disappear, why are you applying for jobs, careers? Something was more than
just a missing persons case. NARRATOR: The police needed
to speak to anyone who might have information about Taylor. Detective Chad Willhite
was assigned to the case. When we're investigating
a missing person case, the first person that
we're going to talk to would be the reporting
person, which would be Casandra Waller in this case. NARRATOR: Despite
a few relationship issues and some erratic
behavior, all was well. But her girlfriend received
a message later that day that was out of character. Casandra didn't hear
from Taylor again, and she didn't return home. Bridgette Myers Jensen is
the assistant state attorney. BRIDGETTE MYERS
JENSEN: Initially, when someone goes missing, I
think everyone is a suspect. So in this particular case, we
looked at Taylor's girlfriend, Taylor's ex-husband,
possibly anyone that was involved in her
private investigations work. NARRATOR: Police looked
at Taylor's finances. Cameras that scan
checks revealed a sudden large withdrawal
from an account that she shared
with her ex-husband. Taylor removed
approximately $100,000 in cash out of the joint
account that they had. And the judge had ordered Taylor
to give the money back based on her ongoing dispute
with her ex-husband, Jeff, and the fact
that there's $100,000 missing from the account. He is a potential
suspect in the case. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY: We
did contact Jeff Wright. He was a friendly enough guy. Still had custody
of their child. He gave us a little background
that Taylor, you know, has, from time to
time, taken off and didn't communicate
with friends, but did agree that she would still
communicate with her son. NARRATOR: There was still one
key person the police needed to speak with, a
friend of hers called Ashley McArthur, who
Taylor had trusted with a large sum of money. Ashley McArthur was
a friend of Taylor's. Ashley's husband actually
worked with Taylor in the private
investigations industry, and so that's how
Ashley and Taylor met. NARRATOR: Ashley
McArthur had worked briefly as a crime
scene technician at the Sheriff's Office. She also worked for
her family's amusement arcade company, which supplied
video games to local businesses. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY: Casandra
Waller paints this picture, Taylor let Ashley hold a
significant amount of money and that Taylor kept trying
to get the money back. Taylor grew more and
more concerned about this and expressed this to Casandra. NARRATOR: Taylor Wright's
girlfriend told the police that Ashley had
promised to give Taylor her money back on September 8. NARRATOR: That intimate
moment was the last time Casandra said she saw Taylor. She also claimed that Taylor had
a funny feeling about Ashley. NARRATOR: Casandra's
testimony meant the police were now
becoming much more focused on Taylor's friend, Ashley. She was called in for a chat. We, kind of,
honed in on the day of the disappearance with
Ashley and really try to get her locked into a timeline. Was Taylor trying to hide
until she could recoup maybe the funds that she had spent? Was Taylor hiding this
money with the hopes that they would just let it go? That was, kind of, an unknown. NARRATOR: Ashley gave a
detailed account of what happened on September 8. According to Ashley, they
proceed to Ashley's family farm out in East Milton. She says Taylor rides
some of the horses and they come back
into Pensacola. And Ashley says Taylor
gets into an Uber and leaves her residence. Ashley gives us permission
to look into her cell phone at the time. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
We kept the phone and had analysts
plug it in and start chipping away at downloading. NARRATOR: The police use
the cell phone data to check on Ashley's timeline of events. Then they tried to find
evidence for the route that Ashley said
she and Taylor took. We're looking for any kind
of surveillance cameras that we can find, any kind
of convenience stores that they may drive past. NARRATOR: They began
with the gas station that Ashley and Taylor went into
on the last day Taylor was seen. This is surveillance footage
from a fuel station convenience store called Tom Thumb. There's Ashley MacArthur going
in, purchasing some drinks. She just grabbed a
beer out of the cooler. She's on the phone here. So it's presumed
here that Taylor was likely in the vehicle. She certainly said that
Taylor was in the vehicle. NARRATOR: The video
of Ashley and the gas station backed up her timeline. But when they got the
cell phone data back, Ashley's version of movements
didn't match the route mapping from her phone. Neither Ashley's cell
phone or Taylor's cell phone ever goes over to East Milton. In fact, their cell
phones stay over in the area of
that petrol station where Ashley was observed making
purchases inside the store. We start looking for any kind
of property that either of them may have connections
to in that area. We know that Ashley, her
maiden name is Britt. So we type in the
last name Britt, and it brings up Britt Road. NARRATOR: The police discovered
Ashley's family owned a farm on Britt Road just north
of the gas station, where she was caught on camera. It's nowhere near where
Ashley said they were. This is not the farm in East
Milton she's talking about. It's in Cantonment-Beulah
area here in Escambia County. NARRATOR: Detectives started
to analyze the inconsistencies in Ashley's version of events. They also grew suspicious
of her eagerness to help. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
During the investigation, Ashley called several times
inquiring about the case. She would ask what we were up
to, or what we had going on, or if we'd made any progress. No one else during
the investigation called half as many
times as Ashley did. Someone being too involved
in the investigation by constantly calling
the police is something that I've seen before. And it is, again, one
of those circumstances where the person is
probably overcompensating. So they are trying
to show that they're concerned about their friend. What they're trying to, sort
of, theatrically perform is the worried friend. But what they're obviously
doing, because that's not how normal people behave,
is they're obviously trying to get information
about the case so that they can adjust
their story as needed. And almost certainly doing
something as unusual as this is going to raise suspicions
rather than quell them. NARRATOR: Her bank records
enabled the police to track down surveillance footage of
Ashley making a series of unusual transactions. CHAD WILLHITE: You can see a
large sum of money in her hand that she was depositing
into the ATM machines. We also received the
image of the check that Ashley had deposited. And you'll see various
images of Ashley making various transactions. NARRATOR: Crucial
footage at the ATM revealed inconsistencies in
Ashley's version of events. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
We get Ashley depositing Taylor's checks. Taylor had checks made
out to her in her name, and yet Ashley's on
camera depositing them. We look at Taylor's
signatures spanning back months and the signature
on the back of the check that Ashley's depositing
doesn't match the signature. NARRATOR: In another
breakthrough, Ashley was caught on camera
at a Home Depot store the day after Taylor disappeared. She had an unusual
shopping list. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY: In the cart
is concrete and potting soil. This is an employee that's she's
got helping her push the cart. And then she goes up and
pays cash for the items. NARRATOR: When
the police checked out another one of
Ashley's interview claims, they were baffled. Ashley told us that Taylor had
taken an Uber from her house. We investigated that. We learned she hadn't used
Uber in quite some time. We also checked other rideshare
companies, and none of those had any kind of records. NARRATOR: With
Taylor still missing, the way Ashley McArthur behaved
was in complete contrast to Taylor's girlfriend. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
Casandra, on the other hand, we asked her pass
codes to her phone, she gives them right over. We ask her for consent
to search everything, she signs everything. Open book. It became quite apparent
that Casandra wasn't involved in Taylor's disappearance. NARRATOR: Taylor's
ex-husband, Jeff Wright, was in the Army and many
miles away at the time of her disappearance. Detective Ghigliotty was able
to make contact with his command at his base and confirm that
he's been at work the whole time and he hasn't left that area. So it was easy to rule him out
as any kind of potential suspect in the case. NARRATOR: With Casandra
and Jeff in the clear, all the evidence
seemed to be pointing towards Ashley McArthur. The big question was, is
Ashley lying to us because she's hiding Taylor,
helping her hide out, or is she lying to us
because she hurt her? NARRATOR: The police decided
they needed another conversation with Ashley. At the same time,
they plan to search three key properties, including
the farm on Britt Road. CHAD WILLHITE: We have
teams in place to execute all those at one time. We also have myself
and Ghigliotty. We are going to
conduct the interview here at the police department. NARRATOR: Everything was
riding on this carefully planned operation. The police needed Ashley to
reveal what really happened to Taylor, and
they needed to find hard evidence from the
properties being searched. We wanted to confront
her with the information. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
Well, at that point, the first time really ever in
our interviews with Ashley, she changed her story. Ashley initially told us
she went out to East Milton. Well, you look at
the cell records and they never went
out to East Milton. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
Ashley now tells us that the two did, in fact, go
to the Britt Road farm that day. This is the first time
she'd ever mentioned this. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY:
We know we're investigating a missing person. You called us dozens of times. Why not say, hey, we went
out to this location? Why hold back? And her excuse was,
is that Taylor just didn't want us to know
that she went out there, which doesn't make any sense. In her second interview
when she came in, she had a completely
different demeanor. She was not as forthcoming. She clearly did not want
to answer questions. And she clearly did
not want to be as helpful as she was initially. NARRATOR: The police were
holding out for information from the search teams that
would enable them to keep Ashley McArthur in custody. CHAD WILLHITE: We're trying
to prolong the interview as long as possible. It was a very long time
during the interview of not being contacted. NARRATOR: With
Ashley holding back, Detective Chad Willhite
decided to go in hard. When I moved her chair
and turned it around, I wanted to break down
whatever defense she had. If I can get her thinking
about how uncomfortable she is, maybe she will slip up. This is exactly
the kind of thing that you'd expect with
what's called the Reid model of interrogations,
which is more akin to good cop, bad cop than
other forms of interrogations or interviews. And this idea of physically
cornering somebody or physically intimidating someone by changing
the room is very in line with that technique. NARRATOR: With no solid evidence
to keep Ashley in custody, they had to release her. It almost feels to a
degree like you failed. Because as an investigator,
you want that confession. And we didn't get it. NARRATOR: Everything was
now resting on the search at the farm on Britt Road. Detective Ghigliotty made
contact with the team on site. RICHARD GHIGLIOTTY: I happened
to call one of the sergeants at the time. While he's on the phone with me,
he's yelling in the background, we have a body. Unquestionably, we have remains. NARRATOR: The police
had to confirm who the remains belonged to. A unique item of jewelry
helped identification. We had pictures of Taylor's
necklace she commonly wore. Casandra said she was wearing
it the day of the disappearance. And sure enough, the
necklace was there. Taylor's body was discovered
on the other side of a fence in an area that was,
kind of, wooded. She was wrapped up in a tarp. She was covered with
concrete and potting soil. I will never forget the
day that they announced, you know, they had
found her body. It was difficult. Because
not only was she murdered, that her body was
put in a grave, that she just left
her there to be-- it's awful. They were able
to determine pretty quickly what appeared
to be a bullet wound to the back of the skull. The remains are taken to the
medical examiner's office to confirm cause
of death, which was later determined to
be a gunshot wound to the back of Taylor's head. Once the body was
located, everyone was on board that it was time to
arrest Ashley and prosecute her. NARRATOR: Bridgette Myers Jensen
led the case against Ashley in the summer of 2019. It was very significant
to law enforcement and to the prosecution
of the case that Taylor's body
was actually located. Ashley could have
used any defense. I mean, she could have
come up with anything if we didn't have a body
to prove that Taylor had been actually murdered. NARRATOR: The video
surveillance footage proved vital for the prosecution. The surveillance footage of
the convenience store and Home Depot not only gave
us the evidence that Ashley was purchasing
concrete and potting soil, but what it does, it
shows us the accuracy of the cell phone records. Because defense counsel
later in trial paints this picture that the
cell phone records can be inconsistent and inaccurate. And we can show that, well, in
fact, if the cell phone records show Ashley's phone
covering the Tom Thumb and she is, in fact,
on the surveillance footage at the time,
similar to the Home Depot and surveillance is
corroborating that, that these cell phone records
are, in fact, very accurate. It also helps show the jury
there's always that doubt, well, someone else could have
deposited those checks into Ashley's account. But when they're on camera,
it's hard to refute the fact that she deposited them. NARRATOR: A range of
cameras were used to help capture Taylor's killer. But the question
remained, why would Ashley MacArthur kill Taylor Wright? Taylor had withdrawn
approximately $100,000 from a bank account
that she should not have withdrawn based on court
proceedings with her ex-husband. In an effort to hide the money,
I believe she gave the money to Ashley MacArthur to hold. Ashley at the time
was having an affair and Ashley was showering
this man with gifts. The motive of the homicide
was greed, essentially. Ashley MacArthur
was in a position where Taylor needed
her money back, but Ashley couldn't give it back
because Ashley had spent it all. We always want a profound
psychological reason for murder, and it rarely exists. It's often much more
trivial and very often it's about things like money. This shouldn't be
the kind of thing that motivates murder and
yet much smaller debts have also led to
similar outcomes. VANESSA SMITH: When I found out
what had happened to Taylor, it was devastating. Devastating that somebody she
obviously loved and cared for did that to her, that they would
kill her over something as small as money. That's just awful. NARRATOR: After a week long
trial, the verdict came in. Ashley McArthur was found
guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. She was sentenced
to life in prison. JULIA SHAW: Women killing women
is so rare that we have almost no research on it at all. But we can take a little
bit of the research on women who perpetrate
violent crimes. And what we know is that
women who perpetrate gun crimes are more
likely to score high in certain psychopathic traits. So they're more likely, for
example, to be low in empathy. They're more likely
to be manipulative. And that is a package that makes
women more likely to offend violently using guns. But even that, we
really know very little about why women
perpetrate violent offenses because so few women do. [MELANCHOLIC MUSIC] VANESSA SMITH: Taylor
was an amazing person. She had a huge heart. And when she loved
you, she loved you big. And she was just a
breath of fresh air. She was very special to me. Yep, she was there through
a lot of things in life. I want people to know
that she was a good person and that her life mattered. OK, give me a kiss. I love you. [MELANCHOLIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: Ashley and Taylor
were just friends, new friends. But what do you do if
you feel a friend is not good for your mental health? There's so much in novels, and
movies and anecdotes from people around us about romantic
relationships, and breakups, and what those look like and
how to end a relationship. But there is so
little comparatively on how to end a friendship, or
how to deal with a friend who's not behaving
appropriately, or who you're not getting
on with anymore, or who's manipulating you. And I think there's
a real knowledge gap there and a
skills gap in what do you even do if
you've got a bad friend. How do you get rid
of this person? NARRATOR: In our next
case, a friend of a friend proves fatal after being
secretive about his past. In the UK, Tyne and
Wear, Sunderland, a port city on the
Northeast Coast of England, home to Michelle Hanson Michelle was 47 years old. She had five kids
and one grandchild. She was very close to them all. Her children often spoke about
sharing secrets with her. They found it very
comfortable to talk to her, and they felt that they
could tell her anything. Michelle was known as
a very outgoing person. She had quite a lot of friends. She was very family orientated,
loved going to parties, loved singing. She was generally the life
and soul of the party. NARRATOR: In early
2022, Michelle invited friends and family
to come over for a drink. But after going
quiet the day after, a family member
checked in on her and was confronted by
a devastating scene. Michelle's body was found
by a family member face-down on the floor, which had
about 29 stab wounds to her neck and appeared
to have blunt force trauma to her head as well. There was a broken plate nearby
and she was found with porcelain in her hair as well. NARRATOR: It was a brutal attack
that ended in Michelle's death. DAVID HUNTLEY: When
the police arrived, they cleared the scene,
taped the area off, looked around for evidence,
any sort of forensic details that they could find. They found blood on a
windowpane in the bathroom. They also found empty
bottles of alcohol. NARRATOR: The police sent the
evidence off for DNA testing. Michelle's body was
sent for an autopsy. A family member told the
police about a possible suspect who was seen with Michelle the
night she had friends over. Michelle appeared to be quite
comfortable in his company. She was snuggling up to him. She even was said to
have looked like she found him quite attractive. When the family member left,
she said that she was fine. NARRATOR: The family
member gave the police a rough description of the man
and his name, Alexander Carr. The police urgently
needed to speak with Alex. As soon as Alex
Carr's been highlighted as a suspect or a
person of interest, then the police will have gone
and started to investigate where he might be, his whereabouts. He was a current student
so they will have seen if he'd had student
lodgings or contacted his friends on the course. NARRATOR: Police started looking
for surveillance footage, tracking back to the time
Michelle's body was found. They were aware that he
didn't have access to a vehicle. So the obvious way in which
someone would leave the locality would be to use
public transport. NARRATOR: On December
2, a man matching Alexander Carr's
description was captured by bus surveillance cameras. Ray Evans is a forensic
image analyst who works regularly with the police. RAYMOND EVANS: We know
that he's a white male. We can see that he has a shaved
head, the shape approximately of his ear. He's wearing a backpack
that would give the police a little more information. So the footage could be
used for tracking the time, the date and the location. We can then utilize
that footage to track people across a location for
a certain amount of time. That would be very useful
because it would place somebody in a particular position. NARRATOR: The bus footage also
helped the police work out where Alexander Carr was heading. RAYMOND EVANS: Buses
have a specific route. If they've got footage of
him getting on the bus, being on the bus, and then
getting off the bus, it would tell you approximately
which direction he's going in. It's all about getting that
little bit of information that allows the
police to assess what the next step might be of a
person that they're looking for. It's very, very useful indeed. NARRATOR: Professor Coral Dando
is a forensic psychologist. The footage revealed
important details about Alexander Carr,
which proved helpful for the police investigation. It reveals information about
him, about his distinctive walk. We refer to that as a gait. So the way in which people
walk has been used quite a lot to identify individuals even
when we can't see their face. So he's got this,
sort of, swagger. His feet are turned
out and he does swagger from one side to another. And it is quite an unusual walk. NARRATOR: As the last known
person to see Michelle, the police needed to
speak with Alexander Carr, but he was proving
difficult to track down. Alexander Carr was known as
a bit of an urban survivalist. He was used to spend
time outdoors a lot. That was one of his hobbies. He's had periods
of homelessness and I think they've
been at various places around the country. It would have taken them
a while to track him down in terms of looking at all the
particular areas of the country that he might be. NARRATOR: But police received
a tip off and moved in to raid the property. This is footage
from mobile phone. It was filmed by a neighbor. You'll notice that
they are armed. It's important to get
the suspect quickly. Because if he turns out
to be the perpetrator, the murderer, then he's
a danger to other people. [DOG BARKS] NARRATOR: They didn't
know if he was inside. And after several
attempts to coax Alex out, they entered the property. Alex was not inside, but the
police found a jacket heavily stained with Michelle's blood. You wouldn't expect to see
things such as blood, hair, bodily fluids unless he'd
been involved in some, sort of, violent incident with her. NARRATOR: Alexander Carr was now
the prime suspect in Michelle's murder and he was on the run. DAVID HUNTLEY: A huge
manhunt was launched. The police were trawling
through CCTV footage. The police were urging
people not to approach him if they saw him. He was someone who
enjoyed being outside. He considered himself to be
an urban survivalist so no one knew where he could be at all. NARRATOR: With a killer on the
loose, news of Michelle's death was met with sorrow and alarm. No one could really
believe what happened. People had heard about the
violent way that she died. There was a lot of fear
and quite a lot of shock. NARRATOR: It was
unclear why anyone would murder such a well-loved
member of the community. Michelle's daughter, Shannon
Brown, appealed to the public to help catch her mom's killer. My mom was a caring,
kind and loving person. She would never hurt anyone. Even if someone did
something to her, she would forgive
them because she always saw the good in people. Please, if you have
any information, which can help the police with
their investigation, don't hesitate to get
in touch with them. Any little piece of
information could help. Our mom deserves justice. Thank you. NARRATOR: The charity
CrimeStoppers put Alexander Carr on their most wanted list. It offered a 10,000-pound
reward for information leading to his arrest. The police also made
the decision to release the footage from the bus. The reason it's
given to the public is to jog their memory, to see
if they've seen this person on that particular day. And that then gives
the police something that they can, you know,
tie into and refer back to. So it's useful. It's very useful as reference. Obviously, the hope
is that they will strike gold and
someone says, well, I know that person very well. And I can vouch that this is
the person who I think it is. NARRATOR: But Alexander
had slipped off the radar. He was on the run
for quite a while. And as the days
went by, the police were growing more
and more concerned, as were the community. NARRATOR: During
the investigation, the police received the
DNA results from the blood at the murder scene. It was a direct match
for Alexander Carr. As the police dug further
into Alexander Carr's history, they found a disturbing
pattern of violence. In 2010, Carr was sentenced
to three and a half years in prison for a hammer attack. It would be likely that
someone that's got a background of attacking another
human being with a hammer, violent, nasty, aggressive
will go on to re-offend. NARRATOR: Alexander Carr
posed a real danger to society and he was still on the loose. 18 days and counting, then the
police got another tip off. There was
information that Carr was in the North London area. Police then focused their
attention on the Upper Holloway railway station. NARRATOR: Police moved
in to arrest him. NARRATOR: Laser-guided
sights on the canvas. A knife is used for access. NARRATOR: Three loaded
automatic rifles-- NARRATOR: --pointed
inside the tent. Typically, one
wouldn't want to go and do a complex arrest such as
this in woodland in the dark. He's a known violent offender
with a violent history so they will be concerned
that he's got a weapon. And they will also be
concerned for their own safety as well as his safety. At this particular point,
he's managed to evade arrest for a certain number of weeks. So that may have given him
confidence that actually he was being very smart,
being very clever, and maybe didn't think he was
ever going to be apprehended. NARRATOR: Alexander Carr
was transported back to the Northeast. David Huntley was in the court
on the first day of his trial. When I arrived at court,
he seemed quite disheveled and quite bewildered. He didn't really seem to know
where he was at the time. He'd been on the run for over
two weeks, living in a tent, so he wasn't in the best
frame of mind at that point. Everyone was quite
pleased that this suspect had finally been caught. NARRATOR: During the
trial, the full details of what happened on the night of
Michelle's murder became clear. Michelle met Carr
earlier that night. She invited him into her home. They shared drinks. They had a laugh together. A family member actually
arrived at the property as well, saw them both. When the family
member left, Carr was left alone with Michelle. That's when he carried
out the brutal attack. He choked her. He smashed a plate
over her head. He beat her up pretty badly, as
well as stabbing her around 29 times in the neck. After the murder, he tried
to find a key to get out. He couldn't find one. Had to resort to climbing
out a bathroom window and escape that way. NARRATOR: At first,
Alexander Carr pleaded guilty to manslaughter
with diminished responsibility. Alex Carr has quite a complex
psychological background. In the past, he has had a lot
of mental health episodes. He has been diagnosed with
post traumatic stress disorder, and psychosis and
also some borderline personality disorders. There can be triggers
that can trigger a serious episode or incident. And when that happens,
that individual then can suffer catastrophic
drop in their mental health. And that can sometimes result
in very violent behavior. Despite knowing fine well
about his mental health condition, his mental illnesses,
his previous psychosis, he knew that if he
consumed drink and drugs, that it would affect him badly. And he chose on that night
to make that decision, and self-medicate,
and do exactly what he knew he shouldn't
have done and that was drinking and taking drugs. And it ended in the worst
way possible for Michelle. NARRATOR: Alexander
Carr pleaded guilty to Michelle Hanson's murder. He was sentenced
to life in prison with a minimum term of 19 years. Michelle's family
were left devastated and completely broken. He took their mother's
life away from them, and they'll never
forgive him for that. They've been left
traumatized and they'll never be able to get that time
back that they shared with her. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
