Abandoned Car In Woods Leads Cops To Killer's Secret Graveyard

Look at that. These officers just found an abandoned car in the middle of the forest. They don't know it yet, but in a few minutes, this very car will lead them to the most horrifying discovery of their lives. Hey, look at this. This looks like a grave. Less than a mile away, under a pile of leaves, officers find deceased, decomposing body of a missing mother. But in the days that follow this gruesome discovery, what starts as a search for one woman's killer quickly unravels into a decade's long trail of domestic crimes, dozens of victims, and a sadistic serial offender who's been slipping through the cracks for the past 20 years. She probably went out with somebody last night. He was gonna put my mom in my name, he's six feet under. I'll push you in, but we'll put shelter out. It's in our V communications for Asia. I was wondering if I can have a debt to leave come down and talk to me. My best friend is missing the last communication with Spurretto to give her both babies she went on her way to work. She never arrived, and then there's been some crazy text. Approximately 25 minutes after receiving this missing person's 911 call, a Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy is dispatched to speak with the caller regarding the disappearance of her friend, Crystal Hannah. Unknownly, this officer is on the verge of uncovering a case that will unfold into one of the darkest investigations the town of Elliston has ever seen. So what's going on? Okay, so my best friend, she supposedly went out with somebody last night. This is your best friend, Crystal? Okay, so that's your call. All right, this morning I get a phone call from her daughter. It was like, "Hey, have you heard from mom?" And I was like, "No." And she was like, "We can't find her." She texted somebody at court and said that she was on her way to work. This morning? This morning. Okay. And then she never arrived. All right. The van's missing, no one can find the van, her mom's van, that she was driving. All right, so do you know where she normally stays? Yeah, she's been staying down here all the way and breaking like that house. What worries me is she has an invasive end. The statements provided by Crystal's friend are troubling to say the least, but it's the combination of details that really stands out. Missing vehicle and abusive X and a mysterious man Crystal went on a date with just the night before. Taken together, hit paints a situation that could lead in almost any direction. With that in mind, officers quickly get to work. One heads to Crystal's home to conduct a welfare check. While another calls her daughter Chelsea to gather more details about the man her mother was supposedly meeting the previous night. My God, just wanted her to be home and everything be okay. Yeah, and I'm sure she's fine. I'm sure she's fine. So what time about last night was that last text? Okay, so about last night she told me at 803. She said, "Love you, beautiful." And I said, "Love you, mom." She said, "I'll probably going out." And then she told me where she would leave the key. And I said, "With who?" And she said, "A guy named Matt, don't say anything." Because she didn't want me to let her ex know because her ex is crazy. And she said, "I may not have service, he lives on 12 o'clock now." 12 o'clock now? Yes. Was there a specific address on at 12 o'clock now? Okay, now she actually said he lives on 12 o'clock now. So on that road. What's his first and last name? His name is Matt. And I don't know if he goes by Matt or Matthew. But his name is Matt Link, Matt Thomas. And I would appreciate it, like, as soon as I'll find out something, and if you find her or find out anything about her, please call this number. Absolutely. Okay, we'll do. With Crystal's daughter questioned, officers are now able to attach a name to her mysterious date. Matthew Thomas, who's supposed to live live somewhere on 12 o'clock now, Brode. Meanwhile, the officer, since he conduct a welfare check, arrives at Crystal's home. No one answers the door, and her van is missing. Detectives back at the station waste no time and begin calling more of Crystal's family and friends, trying to determine whether there's any chance she may have left voluntarily. That's when they learned that 44-year-old Crystal was somewhat naive, but also kind, trusting, and dependable. Which makes the idea that she would suddenly vanish, leaving behind her daughter, three sons, and her grandchild, without any notice, feel extremely unlikely. As the first day of Crystal's disappearance comes to an end, detectives now the first 24 hours are critical. So that night, they stay late, working to track down the man Crystal was supposedly meeting. Matthew Thomas. After digging through records and filtering through multiple people with the same name, they finally get a hold of the right one. But when he picks up the phone, the conversation takes a strange turn. Matthew confirms that he once did live on 12 o'clock now, Brode, but he says he moved out of the state a few years ago, and now lives in North Carolina. Matthew also says he has no idea who Crystal Hanna is, and claims he never spoke with her, let alone went on a date. These statements leave detectives stunned. Their strongest lead is suddenly over 100 miles away, and denying everything. This doesn't sit right with the investigators. So while they begin verifying his alibi, they also start digging into the social media account Crystal had been texting, the one belonging to Matt Thomas. Given the urgency of the case, they file an emergency request for Facebook login records tied to the account. What they receive are IP addresses linked to every recorded login on the account, and none of these logins came back anywhere in the state of North Carolina. Instead, they all originate from the same small Virginia town of Alaston. With this discovery, detectives are left facing an interesting possibility. The man Crystal thought she was talking to may have never been Matthew Thomas at all. It may have been someone impersonating him. With that theory in mind, officers request Crystal's phone location data, and when it comes back, it starts to confirm exactly what they feared. Because the final ping from Crystal's phone comes in at 9.50am on a stretch of road called Pedler Road, just three miles away from the home of Crystal's ex-boyfriend, James Hunter Stullard. By now, it's 1 o'clock in the morning, and detectives decide not to waste any time. Uncertain of what they'll find, they head straight to James's house, hoping Crystal might be there, are at the very least that James knows something about her disappearance and the mysterious date she had the night before. But as the detectives arrive, they approach the house with unusual caution. Almost as if they've already learned enough about James to know this situation could turn dangerous. I'm an investigator, Marshall. I'm coming out with him. I understand he had some troll guys talk to you earlier today. Is that about Crystal? So we're taking this thing pretty serious, you know, because she's been not coming for her to go off and be gone for any extra period of time when you guys were together, wasn't it? We mean. Like, would she go off the grid and turn her front and off, and she would do that? Okay. All right. Well, I understand when's the last time you saw her? Two days. Two days. So, Friday? What's the day? Yeah, it's good, good, screwy, and it's plus it's good. Yeah. Well, we're at one o'clock now. Unfortunately. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, so you think in Friday or maybe before that? Friday? So does that sound right? Did she drive up here? She probably has some groceries with mom in her bed. The commitment to get her to the driveway. Which one did she want? Okay. I don't know. I don't think she's talking to somebody else. She ever give you any inclination where she might go or anything? Okay. All right. Well, I want to show you this real quick, because I'm up front with everyone, okay? When I'm doing this stuff just because I want to figure out stuff and move on. So we don't waste any waste time figuring it all out there. So this yellow dot to your house, right? Right here? This is a cell phone tower. Okay. So I did an emergency ping on her cell phone, which is now, you know, turned off. And she was here. It was three points. So I got this box here. And what it says is it was west 3.1. miles from here. So I'll put this box so it's easy to see exactly 3.1 miles about here, she's here, 24 hours. This morning, this morning at nine o'clock. So not 24 hours. Yes, it's the last time I've been seeing it, I guess. So it was yesterday, not two days yesterday. One day. Today's technically Monday right now. So yesterday was Sunday. Uh-huh. One of the days. Okay. Well, this is not two days ago. This, this is, you get Sunday morning. Like, you get what I'm saying? It's not, I know. I've only got you. Yeah. Cause that, I mean, obviously it's not any trouble. We're just trying to find. When confronted with Crystal's phone location data, James appears genuinely caught off guard, claiming he knows nothing about it and struggles to recall the last time he saw Crystal. However, given the late hour, his calm demeanor and willingness to let officers search the house, nothing immediately seems suspicious. And as they prepare to search the home, they aren't aware of how much more involved he is than he's letting on. Let me feel better. You don't mind if we just walk around out here and whatever. Are you sure? Yeah. Okay, just so we can clear it off and. I guess it was great. You do whatever you need to do. Yeah. Yeah. You don't care if we walk inside. Go ahead, man. I appreciate it. Did she end up moving out? You cool if we turn these lights on. Thanks. Yeah. You mentioned she had some health that she ever mentioned when herself or anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Calls me fucking always for myself. Yeah. As you slept here in the last week, a couple of days before she brought groceries, she came here for that reason. And she came a couple of days ago for groceries and then yesterday, what was yesterday's reason? I don't know. Okay. Like you didn't see me here. No, she must have just stopped using a phone and took off. It's all on that kind of a senior. Okay. I appreciate you being so co-offered with us and, you know, letting this market spoil itself and things like that. All right, thank you. Thanks, man. See you next time. Thanks you too. The search of the house doesn't reveal anything important. And James's questioning provides no immediate cause for concern. As the first day of crystals disappearance comes to an end, detectives leave empty handed, heading into another night with no idea of where crystal is. And while they don't know it yet, they're only a mile from uncovering the truth. It's 5 a.m. and officer Richard just arrived to investigate a call about an abandoned car found in the middle of the forest. At first glance, it doesn't seem unusual. Vehicles are often dumped in remote areas after being stolen or used in other crimes. But this time will be different, because they're about to find exactly where crystal had been all this time. So, I just ran the number plate and it comes back to the missing woman from yesterday. Crystal Hannah. Let's not touch anything for now. We should call for backup. Upon running the license plates of the car, officers realize this isn't just a simple case of an abandoned vehicle, because this very car belongs to no one else. But to Crystal Hannah. Detectives and backup units are called in to secure the area and search for any sign of crystal. They split into groups, looking for any indication of where she might have gone. That's when two officers notice blood stains on the leaves not far from the car, and just beside them drag marks in the ground. Without hesitation, they follow them. Hey, look at this. It looks like a grave. The hell? 10, 50 are. I think we found the missing woman. Just 100 yards from Crystal's car, officers stumble upon something deeply unsettling. A small steep, made with leaves, with a rock and a couple of flowers set on top of it. A forensic team is called in immediately, and as they begin uncovering the leaves, they're prepared for the worst. Officers discover Crystal's body. It shows early signs of decomposition with mold beginning to form, and as the forensic team continues their work, the reason for her death becomes clear. Blunt forced trauma to the head and strangulation. And with that, the nature of the case drastically changes. This is now a homicide investigation. As officers in the forensic team continue securing the area, theories about Crystal's death begin to form. She was trusting in kind by nature, and with the possibility that she was catfished by someone impersonating Matt Thomas, investigators begin to suspect she may have been lured and killed. As officers work to collect evidence and secure the scene, a man arrives claiming to own the property where Crystal's body was discovered. At first, nothing seems out of the ordinary, but in reality, this man already knows the person responsible for Crystal's death. He just doesn't know it yet. The initial conversation with the property owner doesn't raise any suspicions, but unknowingly, detectives have just spoken to James's stepfather. This will soon give James an unexpected advantage, allowing him to adjust the way detectives see his involvement in Crystal's murder. But before any of that happens, the news about the dreadful discovery reaches Crystal's family. Even so, investigators still need to speak with Crystal's daughter and anyone who might have insight into who could want Crystal dead. So they arrange an interview with Crystal's devastated family, where they will soon learn of the threats Crystal and her family have been receiving for months. So, I don't know if you can tell you how toxic he was and the things he did to my mom that could have led to the anger that possibly hit a gilder. There was multiple occasions, but he tried to play it off as the good guy. I would leave, but there's pictures and I was in the hospital for crib 2, that he beat her, so she was almost dead. She was barely breathing at the hospital, they had to put oxygen on her to help her breathe again, and she had bruises all over her body. And the last time I saw her under left a bald spot, because they ripped her hair out, he chipped her teeth, he physically put his hands on her and hit her face into the concrete. He's put his hands on me, trying to drag me out of the house, he's trying to destroy everything we have. He told my mom that he wished she was dead, multiple times it brought to me, and it sounded very evil with it. I was like a last thing, and it was funny that he was going to kill her. He was even threatened us, he said we were all going to pay. He said that, you know, he did say we were all going to pay and that he was going to put my mom and my mom in my grandmother. But it was from text messages, okay. Clearly devastated, Crystal's daughter barely holds herself together, but despite everything, she and other relatives provide new, strong leads pointing serious allegations towards James, the detective simply cannot ignore, and although. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Matthew's alibi has not yet been confirmed the statements they just heard officially turned James into their prime suspect. As the day goes on, officers prepare and gather evidence for James' arrest planned for the next day. But then around 5 a.m., they receive a strange call from James himself. Following James's request, investigators rush to his house, already suspecting the reason behind it. With Crystal's body now discovered, James knows he's likely becoming one of the main suspects. So when he hears from his stepfather that the body has been found, he decides to solve the case in the most unexpected way. I'll get you. I'll get you. I'll get you. I'll get you. I'll get you in the sound. What do you do? It appears as if James' guilt and remorse have finally caught up to him, pushing him to confess to the murder. However, this will soon turn out to be a part of his new strategy. One meant to minimize the weight of his crime and gain empathy with a single goal. Shifting blame and reducing his charges to the minimum. Something investigators will soon discover he has managed to accomplish many times before. For now though, James is detained and placed in the back of a patrol car before being transported to the local police department for a formal interrogation. But before questioning begins, the lead detective takes time to prepare. He finds out that James' history of domestic abuse dates as far back as 2004. Over the years, he's been involved in multiple cases involving girlfriends, including felonious assaults, aggravated malicious wounding and repeated violent behavior. In 2013, James even assaulted his own mother during an argument over a chainsaw, calling her slurs before knocking her to the ground and forcing her face into the dirt. Few years later, he got into a confrontation with Crystal's daughter and managed to manipulate the situation so thoroughly that he was documented as the victim in the police report. Sadly facing only minor repercussions despite the severity of these incidents, it becomes clear that James is a skilled manipulator and that his relationships are defined by control and abuse. That impression only deepens when detectives speak with Crystal's co-workers and it becomes clear that Crystal was no exception. By now, the detective understands exactly who he's dealing with, a highly manipulative, violent man with a documented history of abuse and a pattern of evading accountability. Basically, based on what I'm doing or what we're doing here, just having a conversation with you to kind of figure out what happened. Sort of your explanation of how things went about. She came and she made love to me, loved all the stuff, and then when I got her phone, she started acting fucking belligerent. Is this Saturday morning or is this some other time? And she started acting fucking belligerent and got over her fucking messenger and she got fucking violent and she got fucking violent with her too. Finally I've heard her. I need you to be looking at you. I just don't have the proof. She wouldn't tell me. Nobody told me. And then when somebody for 10 years would find an outlet, they would put her around on her finger in January and she left for two fucking months and come back and she left her shit there. Or she's just been in my house all the time, she's been gone. I've had nothing to hurt in my house. I didn't even want to go in my house. You know what? I'm even fucking still standing at you. I fucking starved. I probably lost fucking shitty past fucking life. And all the time she's gone around. I'm just gonna fucking hold it. It's fucking, it's the worst fucking hurt I've ever had in my life. I think apparently that's the worst fucking hurt I've ever had in my life. Because I love her with everything I had in me. And it's like, I was loving the fucking floor or something. I don't understand it. But the other thing I could, I put her name across that. I'm a fucking hate. I'm just scared to fucking, it's the worst fucking hurt in the world, man. It's the kind of relationship that you all have most of the time. It was very toxic, but I never loved somebody as much as I loved her. You know what I don't understand? Like she could say to do the worst shit, she's hit me with a car. To say the worst shit to me in the world. I still, well fucking hard, don't do that. But fucking blood for her, you know what I mean? It's like she put a fucking curse on me or something. I don't know. I mean, our love was the strongest fucking love we've ever seen. I've ever seen. But the fucking, the fights were awful. Just as detectives anticipated, James tries to cast himself as the victim. But unfortunately for him, detectives have already done their homework and know exactly who they're dealing with. So they stay calm and act understanding because what matters most now is getting James to provide as many details as possible about the day of Crystal's death. However, while investigators prepared for more manipulation attempts, James is about to do the exact opposite. So we appreciate being cooperative and going through it. So as that's going on and you've referenced a few times that, you know, you said you hit her, right? Was that with an open hand closed, this was something, letters, okay. Do you have anything in your fist? Was it, do you know if it was your right or left hand or mine? Okay. Yeah. After you hit her, she said she is. I don't know what she said. She had so fucking mind. Okay. What's your name? I don't take your time. There was a lot of fucking. Yeah, I'm like, "Give my phone, give my phone, give my phone, give my phone, give my phone." I still had the phone with her because she still was out and fucking with her. Like, trying to fucking come at me and I was like, "Oh, she was worried I was the phone." So you wouldn't be fine with the phone. You make that fucking bad. You're pushing her and fucking later on. After you hit her the first time, you pushed her down. And you say, like, "Tackled her or just grabbed her and threw her down." Okay. Then what happened next? She jumped on top of her or what happened next? We showed her out. Then what happened? What happened next? I'm gonna move her where she lived. Okay. So for flowers, what do you use to cover her? Leaves and sticks. Chop it a lot. Pull it up. was like a Einstein or something. I wouldn't be totally disrespectful. I didn't love her. It's so fucked up. She was my fucking world. She's a terrible world for running. It's like she's running around with it. Surprisingly, James drops his attempts to manipulate the facts and gives detectives a clear account of the murder. At first, it appears as if James has given up trying to escape justice. But that impression does not last, because James is about to try something that he thinks will buy him time and help him minimize the consequences of his actions. Do you know what they are? You said intermediate. I'm sorry, intermediate explosive. So I got a power of BTS, ADHD, some other kind of fucking shit. I got diagnosed by some conscious situation too. So let's listen to some of this in one level of those kind of questions of some people that think they're kind of silly. So did you have any strange unusual mental experiences around the time of this crime? And if you did, what were they? So did you ever heard your same things that weren't really there? I've heard many things that I were obsessed with. Now is it while you're taking drugs or drugs? It's nice. And all the time, I had to speak to a doctor. A doctor? Like a psychologist. I need to speak with him until you know everything that he can dissolve his shit, figure out how he's doing all right? All right, will we record one? With James raising concerns about his mental state and requesting a psychiatrist, the interrogation comes to an end. He's placed in jail while awaiting a court-ordered mental evaluation, gaining time to prepare his act before any future questioning takes place. Meanwhile the investigators still have some work to do. They work on confirming Matthew Thomas' alibi, and when they do so, he's officially rolled out as a suspect, eliminating any uncertainties about his involvement. Then, just days later, James is evaluated and questioned by a court-appointed forensic psychiatrist. However, his performance doesn't last long. The evaluator finds no signs that James is mentally unfit to stand trial, concluding that he understands the charges against him and was fully aware of his actions during Crystal's murder. With that, James' final strategy fails, and the case continues to progress. Investigators try to determine whether James was the one impersonating Matt Thomas, but based on the available reports, it remains unclear. James, meanwhile, sticks to his claim that Crystal willingly came to his house at 1 a.m., and that no force was involved. The investigation concludes that Crystal was murdered around 9 a.m. on June 5th. After spending the night at James' house, she was getting ready for work when James took her phone and discovered messages with another man she had been talking to. From there, he lost his temper. The argument quickly escalated into a physical confrontation, during which James repeatedly struck Crystal and ultimately choked her after knocking her unconscious. Then, almost a year later, on August 18th, 2023, despite James' continued efforts to delay proceedings and deflect responsibility, he is convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.