Disturbing Evidence EXPOSED in Teen Girlfriend's Murder: Cops

Pictures of what appear to be bloody gloves, a knife, an internet searches about murder and whether he could be put to death. All allegedly connected to this 18-year-old who is charged with killing his girlfriend and calling on his mom to help cover up the crime. - Did you kill him? - What happened last night? We just got dozens of pictures laying out what seems like all the evidence that investigators would need to convict the suspects in this case, and that includes images that appear to have them caught red-handed. We're on the case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. (suspenseful music) I will be honest with you, I am shocked by the images that we got from police in Pennsylvania. They are investigating a teenager who is accused of killing his girlfriend, trying to hide her body, and then allegedly enlisting his mom to help cover it up. And his mom is also facing charges in connection to the alleged cover up. I'm gonna show you all the images that we now have, which I think lay out a pretty strong case for prosecutors, but they also show just frankly how unsophisticated this mother and son pair allegedly were as criminals and of course in a case like this, that is a good thing. - Did you kill him? First, let me remind you of who's involved in this case. That is video per WTAE in Pittsburgh of 18-year-old Royce Moser, right after his arrest last month in connection with the death of his girlfriend. - Tell us why you're sorry. - Now my son took a lie. - And that is video of Rachel Moser also per WTAE. Now Royce's mom is facing charges for allegedly trying to help her son cover up a murder. This is the girl who Royce is accused of killing. 18-year-old Caroline Heintz, just weeks ago, Royce went to prom with Caroline. Here they are together. I mean, they gushed about each other on social media. Caroline, she had a lot going for her. She was set to become a college soccer star. Her name was listed on the roster for Pennsylvania Western University, it's in California, PA, which is about an hour south of Pittsburgh. And Caroline, she seemed to be really in love with Royce. She kept his IG handle on her profile so people knew that they were together. On Royce's birthday, she wrote, celebrating you is so easy, I love you. Now we're gonna dive into what we know about what happened between August 19th and the early morning hours of August 20th. And I'm gonna show you the evidence that law enforcement is building their case on. Pennsylvania State Police say that Caroline and Royce had some kind of heart to heart on the 19th and it happened outside of Royce's dad's house. And during a hearing for Royce this week, investigators testified that Royce had asked Caroline to come over and he allegedly said that he wanted a hug in a kiss and Caroline allegedly responded, quote, IDK, you'll see. Now we don't know the specifics of that conversation, but please say it did not go the way that Royce wanted. And according to the criminal complaint, please say when the conversation went south, Royce allegedly told Caroline, quote, "I have something for you." Please say he then went into the house and grabbed a large kitchen knife before stabbing Caroline in the chest. Please say that Caroline then fell out of the car and out of the ground. And Royce allegedly put Caroline in the back hatch of her vehicle, the one where they were sitting and having this heart to heart conversation. Now this is a picture of the place where investigators believe Caroline's body was. We are blurring the blood in this picture. Now when police found this vehicle later on, they noted that there was still blood on the door handle. Caroline allegedly arrived at Royce's dad's house at 946 that night. Investigators say their cell phones start moving about a half hour later. Now according to police, Royce, after allegedly killing his girlfriend, called his mom. Here's an image of Royce on the phone from around the time police believe he allegedly killed Caroline. He is driving her car. Royce allegedly called his mom at 1025 that night. They spoke for 11 minutes. They then connected on the phone again at 1037. And they spoke for another 12 minutes, according to investigators. Both conversations were deleted from their phones. But according to KDKA, they were in the courtroom for this hearing they say that law enforcement were able to recover the data with a search warrant to see that those conversations and phone calls were had. Now Royce allegedly asked his mom Rachel Moser to help him drop off a car at Penn West University. Quote, he then admitted to her that he had stabbed the victim with a knife from his house. He then put the victim in the back hatch of the vehicle and needed her to give him a ride back. According to the criminal complaint, Rachel Moser told her son to come to her house located in Vielsville, PA. Now Royce told police that his mom allegedly told him to put the car in the garage and she would help him clean it with disinfectant spray and she gave him late text gloves. And I want you to take a look at these images. These could be incredibly damning as this case goes forward. I mean, frankly, all of this is damning to the defendants in this case. But these are images of blue late text gloves. And from what we can see, there appears to be blood on them. Now, police also found in a garbage bag, a large knife that also appeared to have blood on it. Now, that garbage bag also appears to have several wipes that were covered in what looks like blood as well. Rachel also allegedly told Royce to change his clothes and police shared a picture with us of what they believe are Royce's clothes in a washing machine. On top of that, I want you to take a look at this picture. Police appear to have video from inside Rachel Moser's house. That is an image of Rachel with her son in his bedroom. And you can see the blue gloves that are on. Now, we don't know what the video shows are. If there's audio, that would be important to this investigation. But these images place them where police believe this alleged cover-up took place. Now, police say they traced Caroline's body to the Mosers through tracking devices and surveillance videos. The Mosers allegedly left Caroline's body in her car in the California Borough Library parking lot, a public library in that small Pennsylvania town. Caroline had started the night at her family's home according to the criminal complaint. Her dad told police that she left his house around 9.30, and she said she was planning to swing into Target and then head to her dorm. Caroline reportedly then makes that stop around 9.45, 15 minutes after leaving her dad's house to have this conversation with Royce in her car outside of his dad's home. And police alleged that there was some kind of family party going on at Royce's dad's house. And this is where the two of them get into that conversation that goes south and Royce allegedly steps Caroline to death. Now, Caroline's dad knew her location because she has an Apple air tag on her, so he could see where she was. And you just feel for this family and everything that they're going through. And it's important not to lose sight of that as we go through this evidence. Now around midnight, Caroline's dad saw her location at 100 Woods Street in California, which is the address for the public library. Police say that Caroline's dad couldn't get in touch with her. So just after midnight, he called police who then go and discover her body in the back hatch of that car just after two o'clock in the morning. Now, I want to talk about these surveillance images that law enforcement have. Police say that license plate cameras picked up Royce driving Caroline's car. And here is that image on him. And I want you, you can see him on the phone. But let's zoom in here. And you can see that he has on what appears to be blue latex gloves. The same gloves allegedly found in the trash with blood on them at his mom's house. Police say that video also shows Rachel Moser following her son to allegedly dispose of Caroline's body. Now, we can't see Rachel's face in this image. But as you zoom in, you can see the driver is wearing blue latex gloves. Police say the Moser has made multiple stops in the parking lot where Caroline's body would be found. And they allegedly also went to two convenience stores. Police say that Royce Moser texted Caroline's phone at 12.47 in the morning. Now, this was after she died according to the investigator's timeline. And it didn't take long for police to track the Moser's down. Police served a search warrant on Royce's phone. And like a lot of the evidence that we've talked about, what he allegedly looked up around the time of Caroline's death is damning and frankly disturbing. So here is that search history. At 11.12 on the 19th, which is right after he allegedly killed Caroline, Royce allegedly searched what removes fingerprints from objects. And he allegedly searched that 32 times. At 12.09, he allegedly searched how long ring cameras store video. Then at 12.25 in the morning, he allegedly asks, quote, what does God say about murder? 13 minutes later, he allegedly searched what if a demon controlled you and murder someone? Then he asks, what if a demon controlled you and murder someone under Jesus? Then at 152, he allegedly searched can an 18 year old get the death penalty. Now to answer that, the death penalty is legal in Pennsylvania, but no one has been put to death in PA since 2015. But you can see those searches along with the video that appears to put Royce and his mom right at the scene. This is a very strong case for prosecutors. In the criminal complaint, Rachel, Royce's mom allegedly told investigators that her son told her that he had demons who told him to hurt Caroline. He also allegedly said that he didn't know if she was dead or alive, which is just something as far as Rachel Moser's case. Not only was this someone accused of trying to cover a murder up for her son, But you also think of an alleged lack of compassion, I guess is the word I'm looking for because at no point does it seem that Rachel Moser, if all that is alleged is true, cared one bit about Caroline Heinz. Now Royce told police that when Caroline said something that he didn't like in their conversation, quote, demons took over. Now let's talk a little bit about Rachel Moser's purplock and I showed you a little bit of video at the top of the episode here because she said something else. That will be another layer for prosecutors to use in the case against her son. This is the moment per WTAE that Rachel Moser admits to the media that her son allegedly took a life. Tell us why you're sorry. Now on top of all the evidence that we've laid out against the Mosers, a state trooper testified during Royce's hearing yesterday that as they searched, Rachel Moser's house, Rachel asked to use the bathroom. And the investigator says that Rachel was then found stuffing blue latex gloves in her pockets that investigators say they recovered as evidence. Now, Rachel initially told investigators that she had the blue latex gloves on when she was driving because she was out picking up dog droppings and then when her son called her, she decided to just keep those gloves on. Royce Moser is facing charges of homicide abuse of a corpse tampering with physical evidence and obstruction of law enforcement. As for his mom, Rachel Moser, she is charged with hindering the apprehension of a fugitive tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Now, again, with so much attention on this investigation, and it is important for you to see what investigators have since they are sharing these images with us. I really want to be clear that I just don't think we can lose sight of who this story is truly about. And the efforts that are there right now, the work that's being done by prosecutors and investigators to make sure that the Heinz family gets justice in this case. This is the statement that Caroline's family released to local media in Pittsburgh right after the Mosers were arrested. And it reads quote, this is a parents worst nightmare. It has been devastating for family, friends, and the whole community. Caroline was loved by all. She was a kind, smart, beautiful girl. We want justice for our sweet Caroline. Joining us on to talk more about this is retired detective commander Will Svilar with the Chicago Police Department. You look through these evidence pictures like what stands out to you the most of I think we got 37 total exhibits from the state of Pennsylvania. You know, I don't even know where to start. There is so much physical evidence here. It's actually hard to even where to start. I mean, I like to look at the back of the car with all the blood evidence inside of it. And then, you know, all the knives that were recovered and, you know, close in the wash machine driving her car with blue late text gloves on blue late text gloves in every garbage, you know, video of him inside his own home with blue late text gloves on. It's overwhelming. I mean, it's hard to put your finger on just one of them because there's just so many of them. And you look at it and you're like, what more do you need at this point? Because you have evidence, I'm just kind of looking through some of these pictures as well. Like, you know, at the scene, you have it, you know, them inside the home. You know, I don't know if they, you know, potentially, I guess if there's one spot they don't have, it would be, you know, the the part where they allegedly actually leave the body behind, but it seems like you can draw you like a jerk and absolutely draw conclusions based off the totality of all of this when it comes to surveillance video comes to the license plates and all of those types of things. How important, even though you have this physical evidence, well, in the in the garbage can and the trash bag and all of that, how important is the surveillance video of the car and them actually inside the vehicle. And then I think you add in the blue late text gloves, which is like a common theme through all of this, that just seems to kind of button one piece together to the other. Well, when you when you have the tracking of the vehicle and tracking other movements, their movements is essential because when you have evidence in different locations and there's evidence in different locations here on this case, it's important to track the movements of the person or persons involved because now you put them on the crime scene and you also show them traveling from one scene to the next, which could tell you why that physical evidence is in different places, especially in this stuff here when you've got them on the telephone, wearing late text gloves, I mean, and now you can track the phone. The evidence in this case is is overwhelming at this point. So yeah, it's so important. Well, I just feel like to it just comes down to like it's not really a who done it at this point, but I think it's more a question of like what would Royce Moser's defense actually be and he told his mom that demons took over, you know, he's searching on his phone about demons according to all this evidence that we have, but then at the same time he's also searching about the death penalty. He's searching about ring doorbell camera video. He's searching about what takes fingerprints off of an object and it just seems like those messages could blast away any sort of insanity defense, even though that seems like it would be weak if he, if you didn't even, if you didn't even have these searches. Right. Right. I mean, the physical evidence is overwhelming and the searches are damning. I mean, because the searches show you malice of fourth thought, fourth thought. Malice of fourth thought is what you're looking for when you're looking for first degree murder. Now, he can try it in sanity defense, but that evidence is there and you can't take away those searches. I mean, he is, I don't know what other defense you could possibly try to use except insanity, and I don't see it. I don't see it applies here. No, and you know, on top of it, you have his mom and let's talk about her a bit because not only I was, I was shocked is not only do you see, you know, the pictures here of her and her son in his room, you see her or at least we believe it is her driving this vehicle going back and force she has these phone calls with her son, but then on top of it, there's this account from the investigator of when they're serving a search warrant at her house. She goes and says, Hey, I need to go to the bathroom, but then they say that they find her stuffing blue latex gloves into her pockets and it just seems like already they had her on helping her son allegedly get rid of a body and now it just is another anecdote on top of it that this is a person who clearly did not care about the victim in this case and was only thinking about her son and what could be done to allegedly cover up just a horrific crime. You know, as a parent, I get the whole concept of you'll do anything to help protect your child, but this is ridiculous. I mean, yeah, you dispose of a body and I guess you figured in for a penny in for a pound, I might as well try to stuff as much evidence as I can if I can get away with it because she knew she was caught. And again, there's another not only the murder, but her involvement in the post, you know, after the murder, you couldn't ask for more evidence. I mean, these are these are not arch criminals here who planned out a lot of stuff. No, and that's the thing is like I know you've investigated a lot of homicides and I'm not trying to draw like a blueprint on how someone would actually get away with this, but it seems like there's just a complete lack of awareness on every single level, whether it's driving vehicles and the cameras that are in the area. I guess they tried to delete phone calls, which you can get that information back that those calls were made, you know, when you when you serve a search warrant on that, you have clothes in a washing machine, you have allegedly the murder weapon in a garbage bag and it just seems like one thing after another any attempt that they made to try and cover up and cover their tracks just ended up really just making things look even worse and just kind of laying out that of course it's all allegations at this point. That this was a cold blooded murder and then a cold blooded attempt to try and cover it all up, yeah, you talk about a blueprint, this is a blueprint of how to get caught. You commit a murder, you research how to commit the murder, not necessarily how to commit the murder, but how to try to get away with the murder, how to remove the evidence and then you take evidence from the scene and you bring it to your home. I mean, this is this is a blueprint of how you get caught and I'm glad I'm glad they did it, you know, maybe you get some justice for that poor girl who had a suffer through it, but yeah, this, this is if I don't want to say there's a dream case for the police, but this is pretty good case for the police and for prosecutors. It's a surprise that they released all these images when they did it was after kind of this evidentiary hearing for Roy Smoser and you know they put it out there and like Pennsylvania is a state you can't have cameras in the courtroom, but they're they're really laying out just how strong a case it actually is. And on you know, I know you worked in Illinois, I mean, and it changes kind of from state to state, but like what are the conversations like when it comes to whether or not you're going to release images to the media like we're seeing here. I've never seen anything like that that much evidence being released and I'll tell you why why I think it might be problematic where we're for people like us that are you know interested in the case it lays it out for us. However, what you worry about in a situation like that is when you're trying to pick a jury for a trial and you are you've already released all of that evidence and now you got to try to pick a jury who's going to say and again, you know, people don't a lot of people don't pay attention to true crime, but could that taint the jury. You know, if people start looking at that stuff and now you see all the sevens before you're sitting in the box, listen, they're very forthcoming with the with the released, but I don't know that you necessarily need to release all of that. I think it just shows like a supreme level of confidence that investigators have in this case and you absolutely can see why you know one defense that's also out there and kind of just spitballing because I think the case is so strong for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania here. Obviously, but you know, you always hear of that sudden passion defense, the fact that Royce Moser allegedly. goes into the house and grabs a knife and then comes back out no matter what this conversation that he was having with his girlfriend at the time, like to me that that also was an argument that's just not going to work in court. No. And when you talk about sudden intense passion in Illinois, that means second degree still murder, but it's second degree murder. And obviously there's different sentencing enhancements between first and second degree, but you're right. It's awfully hard to argue sudden intense passion when you do all these searches. And then when it comes to Rachel Moser, I assume you would need her for a witness because she's the one who talked to her son and he, according to the interrogation, he disclosed to her allegedly what happened and then talked about demons and all of that. But even with what appears to be really strong forensic evidence, if she's someone who doesn't want to testify, does she, do you actually, would you even need her going forward to make this case knowing that all the evidence you have seems to be so strong? Well, I mean, you would, I guess you could approach her and try to make a deal with her because co-defendant cannot be, you can't use a co-defendant to testify against the other defendant until their case is adjudicated. So they'd have to offer her an a deal, which you'd have to agree to to get her to testify. Now, anybody that's going to help somebody hide a body and go through the extreme measures that she went to to try to protect her kid. I doubt very seriously you're going to flip her and get her to be a witness for a prosecution. She'll do her time. No, and especially when you think of the fact that, you know, this stuffing of blue latex gloves into allegedly inside of her house as they're serving the search warrant, it's like she just kept going and trying to cover things up. An interesting part, I don't know if you saw this, but this was the perp walk where she answers questions from the media and she says, you know, I'm sorry my son took a life, something along that note. That is an admission that can be used in court, right? Like in a perp walk situation, it's not like it was an officer that was asking her those questions. I mean, it was the media that kind of brought her out. And even in that moment, I mean, she had been, I assume Miranda is at that point, but that's kind of a sudden outburst that can be used. That's that is not protected. There's no expectation of privacy when you're when you're in public and you respond to a question by someone who's not law enforcement. Miranda doesn't apply either. You're absolutely right. It's an outburst or it's a sudden, you know, sudden outburst, but it's just response to a question and there's no protection that answers not protected. So yes, it absolutely could be used. Yeah, it's just an incredibly sad case. Caroline Heinz was someone who's going on to college, had her entire life ahead of her. She went to prom with Royce Moser just last year. Seems like the relationship was coming to an end and then just a horrific case. And then I just, I also think of this mom and it's just at no point in time. Did she seem to show if all these allegations are true, any care whatsoever for the victim in this case? And we'll see how things play out going forward. We'll reveal our retired detective commander with the Chicago Police Department. It's always great to have you here on Long Crime. You talk about cases just like we do here on your own podcast, where can people find it? We're on, we're on YouTube and it's called a big city crime inside the red tape. It's myself retired FBI agent to retired homicide dicks that just hash out that stuff. It's in the, you know, some of our own cases and the stuff that's in the news now. Yeah, and a lot is going on, including this case. We'll see what happens next. We'll see you all are always great to have you here on Long Crime. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure. Thanks. Royce and Rachel Moser are both set to have formal arrangements on October 13th. We're going to keep a close eye on this case as it goes forward. But that will do it for this episode on the case presented by Law and Crime. Subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify and we're also streaming on Peacock. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.