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PART 1: Six Days, Six Victims, One Connection | The Scottsdale Killing Spree

79m 23s

PART 1: Six Days, Six Victims, One Connection | The Scottsdale Killing Spree

Six lives that once seemed unrelated converged in a tragic tragedy in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2018, when a violent maniac killed Dr. Stephen Pitt, a celebrated forensic psychiatrist, and later shot a woman at a nearby law firm. Dr. Pitt, known for his work on high-profile cases like Columbine and the Jean-Benet Ramsey murder, had a reputation for providing expert psychiatric evaluations that could influence criminal outcomes. His murder occurred after he left his office, where a man with a bald head and dark hat was seen fleeing—later described as a man who had likely been working in one of the cases Dr. Pitt previously evaluated. Despite DNA testing and witness accounts, no suspect was identified. The case intensified when a woman, believed to be a paralegal, was found shot in the parking area of the same law firm, where Dr. Pitt’s colleagues worked. The woman was bleeding from the head and had no identification. Police found blood trails leading to the building’s back, where a body was discovered. The events unfolded amid chaos, with onlookers, emergency responders, and law enforcement responding to a rapidly deteriorating scene. The case revealed stark vulnerabilities in the legal system, where experts like Dr. Pitt, whose work could alter criminal justice outcomes, became targets. It also highlighted the personal toll on families, colleagues, and journalists who knew him personally. The absence of a suspect and the baffling nature of the attacks underscore the chilling possibility that someone with a personal grudge—possibly tied to a past case—was willing to kill to silence Dr. Pitt. The story remains unsolved, a haunting reminder of how one man’s work could have far-reaching consequences—and how lives, even those separated by profession or geography, can tragically intersect in death.

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- Six different lives that collided in death, six different people connected by one heartless maniac. There were signs, but no one did anything to stop it. Six different people going about their daily lives with no clue what was about to happen to them. They didn't know that they would all be connected in their death. (gentle music) (gentle music) - Ten million deep dives. - This is part one of a two part series. If part two is out, it will be linked right below in the show notes so you can easily jump to part two once you finish the episode. - Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlya. If you've never been here before, nice to finally meet you. I'm very, very grateful that today I have another sponsor for this video or done a case like this before. - Yes, I've talked about maskers. I've talked about cases with multiple victims, but this case, it's so much different and you'll know why soon enough. The way that these events unfolded and what caused these heartbreaking murders is just shocking. It shows how this can really happen to anyone. In this case, we're talking about six victims. And I know if you're a loyal viewer, you know how invested I am in each victim. And with six, I had to divide my time between all of them, making sure I tell you as much as I can about each of them and doing my very best to paint a picture of who each and every one of these lovely people were. I have many people to introduce you to, so let's get started. Everyone in this case somehow ends up in Arizona by 2018 when their worlds collide. This is their story. First, I'd like to introduce you to Steven Errol Pitt. He was born on March 12th, 1959 to Dorothy and Mac Pitt. Steven grew up in Southfield, Michigan. His mom was a stay-at-home mom devoting all of her time to her children and the household. While his father worked as a school administrator and was very popular as an orchestra leader in the community. Steven grew up with his brother, Daryl, and attended Southfield, Lathara Pi School. And after he graduated, he was accepted into Michigan State University, where he officially became a Spartan and he was proud of it. He truly embraced MSU's college culture and he was a huge fan of all things related to the university, specifically MSU football and basketball. But there was another passion developing in Steven. He had always been intrigued with the mind. He grew up reading books like The Hardy Boys, which is a series about two teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, who were amateur slutes trying to solve cases that were left unsolved by adult detectives. It made sense that Steven would relate being one of two boys himself and growing up alongside his brother. Crime thrillers became his favorite, later graduating to watching Colombo and Ironside. Colombo is a show that ran in the late '60s and the early '70s and it's about a very intelligent blue-collar homicide detective with the LAPD. An Ironside is another show that debuted around the same time and now one featured former San Francisco PD, Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside. He was forced to retire after 20 years when he was hit by Sniper's bullet, paralyzing him from the waist down, however, the department and suppiring him as a consultant and he uses his intelligence and his detectives intuition to solve cases. Remember this, because I can think of some very interesting links to the passion that Steven developed over time and the shows he grew to love along with his ultimate demise. Steven said he was increasingly drawn to the study of the criminal mind and was attuned to human behavior, which is why he wanted to pursue a career in forensics. Specifically, he wanted to be a forensic psychiatrist. They examined the minds of the most arranged and evil people. After graduating from MSU, Steven was accepted into and attended Michigan City University's College of osteopathic medicine. A doctor of osteopathic medicine is a DO. There are licensed physician who focuses on improving the patient's overall health by treating the whole person, not just the condition or the disease. But Steven's goal was to use this degree as a stepping stone. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at the University of Michigan's Medical Center. Then he went on to complete his fellowship in forensic psychiatry at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine where he was mentored by Jonas Rappaport, the founding father of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Ultimately, Steven became a forensic psychiatrist, just like he wanted to. Psychiatrists and psychologists are different. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who are experts in the field of psychiatry, which is the branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. As serious as Steven was about his studies, and you'd have to be to get this far. His friends at Newman from high school said, "He was a great guy who was always laughing and joking around." He definitely had a really good sense of humor. One of his lifelong friends, J. Goodman, said Steven, had an adventurous spirit and loved to travel to exotic places all over the world. While his work often took him to the dark side of human nature, he had a legendary sense of humor and loved to make other people laugh. He added that Steven thrived on meeting new people and was always interested in figuring out what made them tick. His rabbi, Harold Laws of Temple Israel, who knew Steven very well, said, "When you met Steven, you immediately felt a connection. He had a very serious professional side, but at home, he had the ability to put that in its place and be there for you as an incredible friend, brother, son, et cetera. Steven was actually father as well. He met a woman while he was studying in Michigan, her name was Susie. They got married and they had two boys together, Bo and Asa Pitt. Steven and his family ended up moving to Phoenix, Arizona, where he began working at the Arizona State Hospital, where he was the director of forensic psychiatry by 1997 and held the role of clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona's Medical Center. It didn't take long for him to make a name for himself locally at first and then nationwide. News outlets would come to him for opinions on local cases, like this one in 1997, of a 19-year-old girl named Mary Ann from Tucson, Arizona, who was convicted of drowning her newborn in a toilet after giving birth. Steven, who was now Dr. Pitt, told the Arizona Daily Star in an interview regarding the teen's case that killing a newborn is a shocking and unthinkable act, but it's far from unusual. He said it's been happening for centuries. I was confused about this at first, but then he went on to mention how in ancient civilizations, children were regarded as omens from the gods. So if they were born with physical defects, it was a sign of a punishment for their parents. So they would routinely sacrifice them to appease their suspicions. And Dr. Pitt didn't believe there was a rise in cases like this, but a rise in public awareness because the growing publicity of this type of case, as sad as they are. That same year, Dr. Pitt consulted on another sad child's murder. A name you'll probably recognize in a case that really put Dr. Pitt on the map. The Jean-Benet Ramsey case. If you haven't heard of it, there's too much to tell you here, but it's still considered unsolved. Jean-Benet was a child beauty queen growing up in Boulder, Colorado. She was only six years old when she was found dead in the basement of her home a day after Christmas in 1996. And it was about seven hours after she was reported missing. She sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled. There was a Garrett tinder out her neck and a ransom note left behind. This case garnered national attention and in February of 1987, Boulder County Police and the District Attorney's Office hired Dr. Pitt as a key consultant on this case. Dr. Pitt's specialty was helping law enforcement officers get inside the minds of killers. Tom Whitman was one of the lead detectives investigating the Jean-Benet Ramsey murder. He said that Dr. Pitt worked tirelessly to help them. After the Ramsey case, Dr. Pitt went on to start his own consulting firm called Stephen Pitt and Associates, using the Jean-Benet Ramsey case as a catapult to work on other high profile cases. But he also spent a lot of time assisting the local Phoenix police department in the homicide and missing persons units. As he got involved in more and more cases, he was frequently called upon to testify in court as an expert in forensic psychiatry and a number of jurisdictions throughout the US. And sometimes, he would be hired by the government for the prosecution on criminal cases, but other times, he was hired by the defense. And it was the same when he was dealing with civil matters in court. Either plaintiffs or defendants attorneys would hire him. What he cared about most was justice. And he didn't pick sides per se. He'd aware Jefferson County District Attorney frequently consulted Dr. Pitt in cases where the mental condition of a suspect was thought to play a role in the case. And Dr. Pitt would review thousands of pages of notes and interviews before offering his opinion. Where said the Dr. Pitt was known for his objectivity? He said, I think Dr. Pitt felt a responsibility to get it right. He wanted to be fair to the accusers and to the victims and the system. I think it's fair to say the Dr. Pitt was brilliant. He was truly the perfect person for the job. And that's why he ended up being hired in 1999. As the advisor to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office regarding the Columbine High School tragedy and the director of the Columbine Psychiatric autopsy project. thereafter. Columbine was one of the first highly publicized school shootings that happened April 20, 1999. The perpetrators were 12th grade students, Eric Harris, and Dylan Kleboldt, and they murdered 12 students and one teacher. 21 additional people were injured by gunshots, and there was also gunfire exchange between Eric, Dylan, and the police. Another three people were injured just trying to escape. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in US history until it was surpassed a few years ago by the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida on Valentine's Day, February 2018, where 17 people were killed by 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz. Columbine is still the deliest mass shooting in the state of Colorado, and let's hope there isn't another one, but sadly, they just keep happening. I mentioned Dr. Pitt was the director of the Columbine Psychiatric Autopsy Project following the shootings. This project involved conducting a psychiatric autopsy of the Columbine killers who were now dead. Eric and Dylan, to get into their minds so that a profile could be created of school shooters, and signs can be recognized early to hopefully prevent these horrific acts. In 2004, Dr. Pitt served as a consulting expert to the Eagle County Colorado District Attorney's Office and people versus the late Kobe Bryant. This was the case where Kobe was accused of forcing himself on a 19-year-old waitress working at a resort. About a year later, Dr. Pitt was a member of the Phoenix Police Department's baseline killer task force. He helped piece together evidence in a string of nine murders in 84 felony crimes over a 10-month period by a man they dubbed the baseline killer in Phoenix, Arizona. On September 4, 2006, Mark Godot was arrested in connection with an attack on two sisters. This attack was linked to the baseline killer investigation. One of the sisters was visibly pregnant at the time and they were both violated in a very indecent way in a Phoenix park this happened September 20, 2005. The baseline killer was linked to this attack with DNA evidence that was collected at the time of the crime and later convicted on December 14, 2007. He was sentenced to 438 years in prison and that was just for the sexual related crimes. On November 30, 2011, a Phoenix jury sentenced him to death on the murder charges. Because Dr. Pitt worked on all these cases, he garnered a national reputation for his work in conducting psychiatric forensic evaluations, particularly regarding the innovations he pioneered. He was the first to use videotaped interviews in his forensic evaluations. This kind of approach definitely made him stand out in his field. By incorporating this visual element in his testimonies, Dr. Pitt provided an accurate picture of the events and was able to explain complex concepts in an easy to understand way. His reports were so well-crafted that they became the gold standard for forensic evaluations. Dr. Stephen Pitt testified and consulted on forensic psychiatric topics on a variety of criminal cases and international visibility. His website stated that his areas of expertise include but are not limited to and there is a lot. Mental states at the time of the offense, competency to stand trial, murder for hire, wrongful termination, domestic crimes, violence, violence risk assessments, arson, officer involved shootings, school violence, employment discrimination, the list goes on and on including spring murders and mass murders. He co-authored numerous journal articles in book chapters and his expert opinion have appeared in a wide range of print and broadcast media. If you look back, you'll be able to find him on so many TV shows being interviewed and giving his expert opinion. He's been on so many CNN, D-Line NBC, Fox, ABC News, Veliscos on there's too many lists. I'm actually just going to put them up on the screen right now so you can see just how many places he's appeared. There's a lot. Needless to say at this point because you've just heard me say so much, Dr. Pitt was very well known. He was internationally renowned as a forensic psychiatrist. But all the while, Dr. Pitt still worked locally as a consultant on many different cases where attorneys would need his help either evaluating a client or someone on the other side. Local law firms would still call on Dr. Stephen Pitt to provide court-ordered psychiatric evaluations. However, as his career moved forward, the relationship between Stephen and Susie didn't last and they ended up splitting up, but Stephen maintained a very close relationship with his two sons. Family meant a lot to him. I know I've told you a lot about Dr. Pitt's professional life, but what about who he was as a person outside of his career? Who was Stephen or as people close to him called him Steve? What was Steve like? Well by 2002 Natalie Collins, who was just starting her career as a lawyer, met Steve when she was working on a medical malpractice case and she said he wasn't like anyone should ever met in her life. She described him as very intellectually honest. You always got his opinion whether you wanted it or not, but he was always fair. The two hit it off right away, but it wasn't until a few years later when Steve bumped into Natalie again that he asked her out for a date for lunch. Well that lunch turned into hours and hours of talking and connecting. They couldn't get enough of one another and Natalie was smitten and apparently so was Steve. And I thought they made the perfect couple. They just looked like they fit together plus. It's a lawyer and a forensic psychiatrist. It seems to be a perfect match. And something Natalie admitted about Steve was how much he loved his sons. His world revolved around them. Steve's motto and something he would tell his boys was work hard. Don't say can't. Be nice and have fun. Steve seemed to be able to make friends with anyone and everyone and maybe it was because he read people so well. But for example, in 2016 Steve was interviewed by Josh Mankiewicz on Dateline NBC for the 20th year anniversary of the John Van A Ramsey case. And soon the two became friends. Josh interviewed a lot of people but he could tell right when he met Steven that they were going to become friends. This was not common with people that Josh interviewed but Steve was different. And I know I've been calling him Steve. Steve and Dr. Steven Pitt. He went by all of those names depending on who he was with and what role he was playing. You could even add dad, brother, fiance to that list. Yes, fiance because after the couple had been dating for some time and had many adventures together Steve proposed to Natalie. Life was good for the Arizona couple. I told you that worlds are going to collide. Lives that would seem to be disconnected from one another will ultimately be connected in death. One of those lives was of a woman named Valeria Sharp. I love her name right when I heard a lot of people pronounced it wrong in the programs I watched but Valeria Sharp. She was born as Valeria Rasko in Wake County, Raleigh, North Carolina on November 28, 1969 to Theodora and Albert Rasko. Those closer her called her V and she also had a sister named Natasha. After graduating from Enlow High School in 1988, Valeria enrolled at Wake Technical Community College. She worked hard. She dedicated herself to her studies. She was looking forward to making something of herself and she was confident that her studies and computer operations would be the first step in her achieving her goal of obtaining a degree in paralegal studies. She went on to attend Johnson Community College where she graduated with her paralegal degree in 1996. Sometimes I notice that I mentioned something in a video and I just assume everyone knows what it is. My mom's a paralegal and I never knew what they did. Well they are vital to an attorney's success in so many ways. Parallegals assist lawyers with planning, development, and management of their cases, legal research interviewing their clients, gathering facts, retrieving information, drafting and analyzing legal documents, a lot. Parallegals pretty much do everything except go to court and argue the case. I once heard that an attorney is only as good as their paralegal. So be proud of yourself if you hold that title. Around 1998, Valeria married a man named Saber Sharp and they had met online in a gospel music chat room. I never heard of such a thing before but they hit it off. Friends said it was a divine match orchestrated by God and they thought so too. Saber was drawn to Valeria because of her intelligence, her love for God and her passion for life. She was so fun to be around. I can just tell and they said that her laugh was so unique that if he didn't know where she was in a crowded room, all he had to do was listen for her laugh and there she would be. And it didn't matter who she was with or where she was, everything around her came to life with her presence. She didn't take herself too seriously either. She could definitely take a joke and a jab at herself and would banter back and forth with Saber teasing one another. He would tell her they can't even go into a grocery store without her making a new friend because she loved people. Saber said he could be having a down day and when Valeria came into the room, the whole atmosphere would change. Do you know anyone like that in your life? Tell me in the comments. Seeing their praises because that's why I tell these stories so we can cherish our loved ones and not take a second for granted. I know for me. That's my way for John. I've never met a happier person and I can just tell that Saber and Valeria they were so similar and that they just love each other so much. They built each other up. When they met each other, they met their person. After the couple got married, they initially settled down in Portland, Oregon, where they had two sons. Anthony, and then Jaden. I saw this picture of Little Anthony when he was born prematurely. It was said that Valeria could fit her ring around his arm. That's how tiny he was. They believed that he was their little miracle. They had to wait three months to take him home, driving back and forth every day to the hospital to see him. Valeria was an amazing mother. She was very dedicated to her boys. They were her world. And you can tell just how close the sharp family was. Saber and Valeria were so in love, I can feel it when I look at their pictures. I can see it in their body language. It just screams were meant to be. Both Valeria and Saber were religious and their faith was in the forefront of their lives. They were very committed churchgoers and attended St. John's All Nations Church in Portland. Often sharing the church events to their Facebook page so that others could join in. They did so much together. They loved to travel and they would often bring along their sons and Valeria's father Albert as well. They took trips all over. They would pose with a sign that says you should be here. It seems like a fun way to kind of rub in everyone's face at your invocation and they're stuck at home. However, I found out that it's actually a little side gig MLM called Dream Trips which is also known as World Ventures and basically you go on trips and you get others to sign up for them and you get a kick back. The sharps were into it but they both had real nine to five jobs. As a matter of fact, that's what brought them to Arizona for Morgan. It was on July 1, 2017 according to Saber's Facebook. He got a job promotion at Granger. It's a Fortune 500 industrial supply company and Saber was very proud of his career. He was always posting about upcoming openings in case any of his friends were interested in working for the company as well. When they made their move to Arizona, Valeria quickly looked for burial legal jobs in the area. She had been working in the legal field since 1992 and she had just resigned from the last law firm she worked at for over eight years. Valeria was very experienced and with her background and expertise in the legal system, she was ultimately hired by law firm specializing in family law. The firm is called Bert, Feldman and Grineer in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is quite an accomplishment because this firm had an outstanding reputation in the community. The law firm's website states that the three attorneys Sandra Bert, Elizabeth Feldman and Mary Kay Grineer have a combined experience of over 70 years. They've sat on numerous family law and Arizona state bar committees and they welcome Valeria as a newest member to their strong committed legal team. Family law, we've all heard of it before. It focuses on things like divorce, child custody, property division, legal separation, anything relating to relationships and family. Valeria worked alongside attorney Elizabeth Feldman, the daughter of Arizona State Supreme Court Judge Stanley Feldman. Elizabeth Feldman Valeria was perfect for their firm in family law, tensions and emotions run high. But Valeria's calm and level headed attitude helped ease their clients anxieties. She was a great addition to their team. Her helpful nature made it so easy to like her. She brought joy and warmth to their office and completed her work with compassion and understanding. She became a treasured member of their work family. When she was with her real family, all she did was devote her time to creating lasting memories and she enjoyed living her life to the fullest. She had that in common with one of her colleagues who she met at the law firm. Laura Anderson, family was important to her too. Laura welcomed Valeria into their work family and helped prime her for her role as Laura had been with this firm for about 10 years when Valeria joined them. Laura was very well known in the office building they worked in and the legal community. She was also a very dedicated paralegal to lawyers at Bert, Feldman and Grineer. Attorney Elizabeth Feldman said that Laura knew the job better than she did. And I believe it like I said, attorneys only as good as their paralegals. Elizabeth relied on Laura and she knew she could trust her. She was smart, capable and could accomplish any task that she set her mind to. Laura Anne was born July 4, 1968 in Sun Valley, California to her mom also named Laura and her father Victor Pingen. His friends actually called him the Filipino Brunolds back in the day. Look at this picture of him. Laura's parents had four children including Mary Jo, Kimberly and Victor Anthony named after his father. Laura had beautiful green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. She grew up in a house full of laughter and love all around her. Just look at that smile. By high school, the family was living in Washington. Laura's father was in aerospace engineering and his job took them to different states. Laura attended Sumner High School in Sumner, Washington and she looked like she was one of the cool kids for sure. Just look at her locker, her hair, the sunglasses. It was the early 80s and Laura's style was definitely on point. I love this picture of her with the braces and for her 16th birthday, her family got her a cake that was shaped like a movie marquee. And it said now showing Laura turned 16 and I thought that was really adorable. And I really loved her blue eyeshadow and her white guest jeans overalls. Eventually, Laura's parents did get a divorce and in 1985, when she was around 17, her dad remarried to a woman named Nida and she had three boys of her own, Herbert, Joseph and Christopher. So Laura was now part of a blended family on her dad's side adding three new brothers to the mix. After graduation, Laura got married and I couldn't find too much information about Mr. Marshall, but by the time Laura was 22, she gave birth to her first daughter Ashley and by 1996, the couple was welcoming their second daughter Kayla. At some point, the family moved to Arizona, where Laura got the job as a paralegal at Bert Feldman and Griniar law firm in 2005. By 2008, she had gotten a divorce and also remarried to a man named David Anderson. They ended up having a little girl together named Brooklyn Anderson. By 2017, Laura was working alongside Valeria Sharp at the law firm, assisting her by showing her the ropes and welcoming her into the law firm family. By 2018, Laura was preparing for her 50th birthday. It's pretty big deal and she also became a grandma. Her daughter Kayla had a son Carter and Laura and David were planning a 10-year anniversary celebration on a cruise ship, three people, three lives that connect to so many more. Their spouses, children, grandchildren, family, co-workers, so many lives touched by each of their presence and all three living and working in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona by the summer of 2018. Laura and Valeria have already collided with one another, both employed at a successful and well-known law firm. So now how do all six come together and who are the other three? Well, that's where I'm going next with this story. The series of unfortunate and horrific events began on Thursday, May 31st, 2018. That morning, Dr. Stephen Pitt said goodbye to his fiance Natalie and he headed out to his office, located at Caroline Commons, a professional building where Dr. Pitt had his consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona. The couple had made plans to meet for dinner at a nearby restaurant after work. So by 518, Natalie texted Steve and asked him if he was on his way to meet her. He texted back with quote, "10 minutes max. I'll see you there." It wasn't like Steve to be late. Okay, maybe a few minutes, maybe 10 minutes max, like he said. But when about a half an hour went by and Natalie was still waiting for him with no word from him after calling him, texting him, she got worried. What happened? Why wouldn't he answer? Did his phone die? Did his car run out of gas? Both? His office wasn't far from where she was. So she left and she drove over there to see what was going on. And as she pulled up, she knew something was wrong. She saw police cars and yellow tape as well as this range rover still in the parking lot. In that quick moment that she had to make sense of everything around her, she saw something on the ground that she thought looked like medical supplies and she thought, okay, maybe he had a medical emergency like a heart attack and maybe they're working on him or maybe he stopped to help someone else and he couldn't call her and he'd appear any moment. But in her heart, she felt like something really bad happened to the man that she loved. There was no way for her to get past his cord and off area and no one was giving her answers. After a little while, she could tell this was really serious and she was desperate to know whether Steve and was okay. So she called up a mutual friend of theirs. He was a police officer in the area. When he picked up, Natalie said, "What's happening at Steve's office? What's going on?" As soon as he began to answer, she could tell just from the sound of his voice that it wasn't good. He said something really bad happened and there was a pause and a crack in his voice and then he said, "Steven's been shot." Natalie was speechless, but then she asked, "Did he survive?" And her friend answered, "No." Everything after that moment was a blur. I can't even imagine. She asked the question, she didn't want the answer to, but at the same time, you have to know. She had to know, but now what? That reality doesn't just sink in because those words were spoken to you. Where was Steve? Who heard him? And why? Natalie remained at the crime scene until four o'clock in the morning. When investigators finally removed Steve's body and transported him to the medical examiner's office. Because she knew from the news that was coming out at this point that the shooter was still on the loose, Natalie asked the officers, "Is it okay for me to go home? Is it safe?" And they replied that they didn't know. They couldn't tell her anything. No one had any answers. until a couple days later, as the police gathered more and more information from witnesses, friends, and family. By the next day, Phoenix Police Sergeant Vincent Lewis told news outlets that the 59-year-old prominent psychiatrist was confronted by a man as he left his office around 5.23 p.m. on Thursday evening. Witnesses who were in the building working told the police they heard a loud argument followed by gunshots. When someone ran out as he would happen, Dr. Pitt was on the ground. When officers arrived, he was pronounced dead at the scene. They were able to gather a DNA sample from one of the shell casings left behind. I thought this was incredible. The state crime lab used a forced-up process to extract DNA from these bullet casings. This process included breaking open the bullet casings to expose the primer, purifying the DNA, amplifying it, and finally analyzing it. Because of the sophisticated technique, DNA can be obtained from items that were usually too degraded for extraction. Unfortunately, there was no match in codis. However, there was one witness that was able to catch a glimpse of the shooter as they fled from the area. He was described as a Caucasian white adult male. With a round face, big bags under his eyes, he was bald and wearing a dark colored hat with a short brim. This witness sat down with a sketch artist to describe this person and as much detail as possible, and they created a composite. They then distributed this in the news. And here is what it looked like. He definitely doesn't look happy. He looks miserable. I mean, you would have to be a miserable person, true-sort to killing someone else. And almost every instance except maybe self-defense. He looks scary. Of course, Natalie and Steve's family and colleagues and friends were notified about his murder and they were also being questioned at this really, really difficult time. But they knew they had to in order to get answers. The investigators wanted to find out if they knew anyone who wanted to hurt Steve. A Phoenix area psychologist named Dr. David Weinstock, he came forward and he told investigators that he and Dr. Pitt knew one another from their work on forensic cases. He said that he believed Dr. Pitt may have been killed by a person connected to one of his high-profile criminal cases. He said, quote, I could be wrong. But the timing and the circumstances sound a lot, like someone who was waiting outside of his office for him. He went on to say, I suspect that this was one who either got out after Steve helped put him away or someone whose case he was working on who felt threatened by what Steve could do. End quote. This is because Dr. Pitt's opinions have a bearing on what happens to criminals in court cases. He's called on to evaluate these people and if he believes that they're competent to stand trial or they're violent, whatever opinions he gives could result in the outcome. And when it's not in the criminal's favor, that could be a problem. Dr. Weinstock said that he and Pitt had so many discussions about this in the past. They knew there were risks, but they never thought it would actually happen. But did it? Investigators are not sure. Investigators think it sounds plausible, so they do continue to ask those close to Steve if anyone was out to get him. Natalie remembers something she thinks is relevant. She tells investigators that she knew her fiance's job could threaten him and his loved one safety. She and Steve had in-depth conversations as they became closer with one another during the relationship. She worried about him. Steve, however, didn't seem that concerned. He always reassured Natalie that if anyone was angry about a case he worked on, chances are, they would target a judge or an attorney first. Not the doctor working on a psyche evaluation. Since most times it's ordered by the court anyway. If someone took issue with the outcome of their case, they would most likely go after the people who brought down that verdict, and if that ever happened, that would be Stephen's warning. As soon as someone he worked closely with was ever harmed or killed, he would contact law enforcement and he would know what to do next. How to protect himself, hide out, and make sure they were all safe. It sounded like it made a lot of sense to Natalie, but for good measure, Steve told her something else. He said, "Any time I'm working on a case involving someone dangerous, I'll show you a picture of them. If you ever see them anywhere near you, call 911 immediately." And he followed through with this over the years, showing her pictures of every single one. So they showed Natalie the composite sketch. The problem is she did not recognize the man as someone Steve had warned her about. He didn't look familiar to her. So then investigators decided to do something else. They searched through the court documents to find out whether Steve had filed any protective orders against anyone and there were none on record. Had he been targeted? Or did he just come out of the building at the wrong time? Many other people worked there and people would rent out offices in this building. It's not just his firm located there. Many of the other professionals were wondering if it could have been them that the killer was after. And maybe Steve happened to get in the way and put up a fight to deter the man from going any further. And then he got caught in the crossfire. This sounds like something Steve would do. To protect others, Joanne Sanchez was the manager at the complex where Steve rented his office base. She was interviewed and she said that Steven was not just a tenant. He was a friend, a close friend. She said, quote, "His nickname was Tin Man because he had the biggest heart ever," end quote. And this was despite the fact that it appeared everyone on the outside that he was serious all the time. Joanne would bring donuts to the building every Friday and she knew that Steve loved chocolate glazed donuts. So she would get one for him and set it aside every single week. She was sad on the week that Steve was killed. When she was placing that box of donuts at the front desk knowing that she didn't even purchase his favorite one because he was no longer with them. And that hit me. It's the little things that have a big impact sometimes. Lives were changed forever. And dare I say forensics was changed forever as well. Because of the ripple effects that Dr. Pits murder caused in the legal community, this man was so innovative. He had so much going on and he was such a value to so many cases who knows what he could have done to help solve so many other crimes and book criminals where they belong. But that seagull who worked as a licensed clinical social worker in the same building said, quote, "Dr. Pits had such a presence that everyone in the building knew him. It's such a loss for his professional community, the forensic community, his family, and for me personally." End quote. His loss devastated so many people. And Natalie and his children felt it the most. They had planned so much together. And now all of those dreams were shattered. Two boys were left without a father. Natalie, without the love of her life in the middle of planning their wedding, now she's planning a funeral. Someone else was feeling this loss in a major way. Someone who's used to hearing about murderers because he reports on them. Josh Mangowitz from NBC. I talked about him in the beginning. He interviews a lot of people on dayline shows. I'm sure as a viewer of True Crime, you've seen him before. Well, now he was the one on the other side of one of those interviews, uttering the words, "He's never set in his entire life." My friend was murdered. Wow, that's quite a way to flip the script. Josh said, quote, "I've lost people that I've cared about before we all have. In my case, I've seen friends and family members taken by cancer. Automobile accidents and plane crashes, but I've never before said the words my friend was murdered." And it still sounds strange coming out of my mouth. End quote. Josh said that maybe it shouldn't come as such a surprise with the amount of murders he covers. It was only a matter of time before it became personal and that scares me. So many times, people say they never thought it would reach them personally until it does, but to think that Josh could have actually imagined this day coming gives me chills. I really hope that none of us have to ever go through anything like this effort. Now Josh understood more than ever before with the families and loved ones of the victims felt when they were being interviewed by him. Josh said in particular, when they tell him, quote, things like this are the kind of thing that happens not to me, but to someone else. Well, that's exactly what this felt like. End quote. He said he was on his way to a wedding when someone from his office gave him a call to give him the terrible news and he almost drove his car off the side of the road when he heard it. Josh had just seen Steve a week before out in LA. Steve was visiting and he was helping his friend with an art exhibit. He was in great spirits. He was laughing at a great time. Josh didn't even think, oh, I should take a selfie with him or something like that because he saw a Natalie all the time and they were planning their wedding. He knew he would see them again, but he won't see Steve again. And that realization is hard to accept. Josh knew that he would be the one covering Steve's story once the pieces were all put together and that was not a pleasant feeling, but he knew that this was not a story that he could pass on to another reporter. There was just no way. But it needed to be solved first. Who was this man that callously took his friend's life? Josh is the news and because of how many people knew Steve, the news traveled really fast. It was an unbelievable story of a gunman on the loose who shot and killed a famous site. actress whose life had been devoted to catching killers. It sounds like a made-for-TV movie script, but this was real life. Someone else I mentioned got a similar message that day following Steve's murder. On June 1st, attorney Elizabeth Feldman, the lawyer that Laura and Valeria work for. She got a text from one of the other law partners, informing her about the news that Dr. Pitt had been killed. Elizabeth was shocked like so many other people in the legal community and beyond. She knew Dr. Pitt. Her firm was in the area and they'd used his evaluation services in the past. He was such a fixture in the industry. She couldn't believe he was dead. But before she had time to really process any of it, she got another text message from her law partner. It was around 2.30 in the afternoon and it said something happened near their law office. Elizabeth had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that police were on the street outside the building where her office was located. She had been there earlier that day but she had just come back from a business trip in San Diego so she left work early because she wanted to spend some time with her young daughter that weekend. Well it wasn't long before her phone ring. It was a detective with a Scottsdale Police Department informing her she needed to come down there as fast as she could. So she was racing back to see what was going on. Unbeknownst to her shortly after Elizabeth left her law office a 9-1-1 call came in to the Scottsdale Police Department. Several calls actually. Here is one of those calls now from a man named David. Scottsdale Library. Scottsdale Library. That's right. It's a Senator Library. It's a Lady Vic. Scottsdale Library. What's going on? A lady is down on the ground. She's got that on the ground. See I'm the fault. I'm going to transfer so we're to paramedics. Okay. Just a moment. Fire Department. What's the address? Scottsdale Library. Officer. Right next to City Hall. There's a woman that just went down on the ground and she's kind of in trouble and dying. Is anyone around you know the address or do you know the address? 3-9-3-3 City Hall. 3-9-3-3. You're looking at City Hall and it's about 50 yards south at that time. How do the else might be calling it? Okay. So what's wrong with her? She just passed out and she started shaking and like a seizure or like shivering like she's cold. Yeah. Like it's easier. Like a seizure. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Now is she at the entrance? Is she inside parking lot? She's on the side. She's on the side next to a silver limo van that's taken pictures for somebody you know. Okay. Like the side you know like north side east side but side. East side. East side. East side. East side. How old does she look to you? She looks like she's in her 30s. Heavy sets. Black women. And we're on north 75th street in inspection of first east first street in north 75th street. Straight by the clock and you know by the courthouse. Okay. So we do have help on the way. Does anybody know her? Is anybody with her? No. I don't know. Okay. The limo driver got out of the van and all right. Here's the cop this holds up. Okay. But that driver guy he's not trying to hold her down or anything. Is she? No. No. No. Okay. No. Nobody's not. All right. Well, we do have help on the way. Thanks for calling. What was going on? If you heard the description David gave to the dispatcher in his words, he described the person in distress as a heavy black woman in her 30s. And then another call came in and this time it was from the driver of that limo bus. That the 911 caller was talking about. He said it was parked outside. Well, that driver was a woman who escorted people around in one of those limo style buses, vans, that type of thing. There's sometimes used for parties. You know, people rent them out for field trips and events and things like that. Here's the exact bus where it was parked outside. The driver was parked on the street in front of a business complex with about 20 people inside. When she was startled by the sound of a bang on the driver's side of her vehicle, let's listen to that part of the call now. Oh my god. She came running towards my vehicle. There was blood coming from her face. She just laid down on the ground. Apparently a woman was in distress. She came out running to the limo bus. She was bleeding from the head and her face and she tried to get help from the driver, but she ended up falling to the ground. As a driver spoke, she sounded panicked and she stated that she believed the woman was going to die. The driver was in this area at the time because she was taking a group to a park in downtown Scottsdale. When this woman in distress approached her and said that she thought she was dying, there was fear and anxiety in this driver's voice. I can only imagine witnessing something like this. During the call with a dispatcher, the driver explained that they could not speak with a woman because she had gone unconscious. She had maybe even stopped breathing. The driver could not tell and at this point helps on the way. So patrol is sent out first and officers arrive at first street and north 75th street. This is an area that's close to both the Scottsdale prosecutor's office and the city hall. Now they're trying to speak to this passed out woman who's now profusely bleeding and they're calling out to her several times which is unresponsive and on the body can footage with by the way is just so blurry. I don't know why they did that. That's not for me. They decided to blur everything and I can understand blurring, you know, someone that's injured but they just blur the whole thing. And that's okay because I think it's better to hear the words than to see the video. But on this body can footage, it aggravated me. This one officer, I know he was probably just doing his job. But when he came up, he just kept repeating the same thing to her over and over again. I know he didn't understand what was going on but just kept saying, "Mam, can you talk to me? Wake up, Scottsdale please." And there was just no response. There wasn't anything being done to help this woman and that upset me. She was down on the road and she called me. Hey, she okay? Hey, I'm just a police. And then when you're okay, she's off the team. Then when you're okay. And then she's off the team. So that's just the thing. How is 35? She's under response and bleeding pretty good from her face. Yeah, I don't know what she got hit by. It's what I roll her over. We might ask her. Yeah, we're going to ask her. But then again, I don't want that she's bleeding a lot from the face. I don't know where it's coming from. Then those shoes on. But then can you look for me? Then just a police. It looks like from the face. And then can you talk to me? Wake up. Just a police. For them? I don't know. I didn't fire. I don't know because I don't know if she's bleeding from the mouth. I don't want her to start like jumping on her own blood because there's a lot of. At one point they're trying to decide, you know, should we turn her over? They didn't know. But they saw that there was blood coming from her mouth and they were scared that she was kind of choke on it. One of the other officers had already called for EMTs and fire rescue. And the others were just sitting there trying to determine what happened to her. Within minutes, paramedics arrived on the location. Initially, no one had any idea what they were dealing with. They believed that this woman had just fallen into the ground and hurt her face. During some kind of medical emergency, like a heart attack, here's the body can footage of the officer explaining to the paramedic that this woman is in bad shape. I don't know what's going on with the man. She's in bad shape. Yo, yeah. I don't know. It's something like she's bleeding a lot from her face and I can't. I don't want to roll her over because I don't want her to. Yeah, I don't know what it is. I don't know if I should do that or not. Regardless of how she became injured, the paramedics already knew this woman's condition was dire because she's bleeding from the head. That's always a cause for concern. So they began to get her ready for transport to the hospital. This is a very busy area of town. Lots of people are coming and going. And like I mentioned, it's right near the library city hall, the prosecutor's office. It's a crowded area. And after hearing and seeing this commotion in the middle of the street, people began coming out of their businesses. This is the exact location here on first street. So police began blocking off this area, but that didn't stop people from gathering outside, trying to figure out what was happening. It's a small street. It's in the middle of the city. Now peppered with onlookers, flashing lights, red and yellow crime scene tape and sirens. Police create a perimeter and they start to block it off so they could keep people out of the vicinity. This woman was lying on the ground with blood flowing out of her head. The puddles getting deeper and deeper and bigger and bigger on the sidewalk. While paramedics are struggling to determine where she's bleeding from, but it wasn't long before the medics determined she had suffered a gunshot wound. And this changes everything. It's a much different situation because she has been hurt by a weapon and now police are trying to see if this shooter is present on scene. This makes for an even more chaotic climate. The paramedics finally got the woman into an ambulance and rushed her to a nearby hospital. They couldn't identify her because she didn't have anything with her. She had no purse, no wallet, no phone, no shoes. All they knew was that this was a woman in distress, dressed in her business attire, and she came running down the street barefoot. The police began questioning witnesses. I do have some body cam footage, and again I wish it wasn't so blurry, but like I said before the words are what is important. Here's that male that made the 911 call. His name is David. He's now talking to one of the officers about what he witnessed. What I saw was I turned and all of a sudden I see the limo driver lady get out of the car. I see her door open. She was, "Oh my God." And then I looked and I see the lady on the ground, the victim on the ground face down. A lot all over and I thought that she landed on her nose and busted her nose kind of thing. That's all I saw, but as I was witnessing it, she was trembling. Did you actually see her fall down? No, sir. I saw the limo driver get out of the car and she's looking at the woman on the ground and that's when I took note. And the lady was on the ground, blood coming out of her head area and she looked like she was having a seizure. Like she was shaking profusely, profusely and then she just stopped. Then I called 911 and I believed the limo must have been out. She said, "Yeah, we just got out." Is this your car? Yes, sir. So were you in your car or were you in your nose? I was sitting right here. I was just sitting on the back of the way and you don't use the library type thing. How long have you been here? Forty-five minutes. You're just hanging out back here? Yeah, I was going in a library to type a memo. So you saw her walking down? Yes, sir. Which just another girl walking. But then you didn't, nothing caught your eye until the driver of the limo got around and she was on the door, the doorstep and that's when I looked and I saw the woman on the ground. I thought maybe she got out of the truck and held by the stake or something. I didn't realize any of the blood was there. So I got closer and in touch right now, it's just going to be fine. How far did you walk up? I walked up right next to her. Okay. And you saw her, you saw the blood. She was trembling. She was trembling as I approached and by the time I got there officer she had stopped shaking. There was no more. So to recap, he says that he was on his way to type up a memo at the library and he took a seat on the back of his van drinking some water. Then he heard a commotion. He turned around to see the victim lying on the ground bleeding. He thought she had fallen and busted her nose. But soon she began to convulse and then she stopped. That's when he called 911. He said there was a woman walking by who saw more and they told the officer they should interview her because she would have more information. This witness is Aaron Rand. She works nearby and she was on a stroll. This witness said she saw the victim running and she could tell she was in distress. Something wasn't right. She couldn't see the blood until the victim ran up to the van. It is like a light color silver and that's when it was apparent she was bleeding because she could see it on the exterior of that van. She couldn't tell where the victim was coming from though. She only saw her when she was in the street. So while canvassing the area nearby where the woman was laying bleeding, a supervising officer noticed a trail of blood. So he began to follow it and it led to the back of this building. He saw an open door. Here's that body can footage. You can see the door is wide open. And that officer notices that there's blood inside of that building. He also realizes it's a business. The officer now has his gun drawn. He looks inside and he sees a pair of shoes and blood spatter. They have another officer go to the front door to get the address and meanwhile they call for additional units. It's a law firm office and it looks like this at the time. 7509 East First Street. This is the law office of Burt, Feldman, and Crenier. The Scottsdale Police Department's high enforcement arrest team or HEAT arrived at the scene. HEAT is specifically trained in high stress and high state situations. And with the urgency of not knowing the shooters whereabouts, they had to move quickly and efficiently to ensure that the public is safe. As the HEAT officers prepare to enter this building, they don't know what to expect. Maybe there's just going to be a witness in there that can provide more information about what happened to the woman, but they're also prepared for the worst. The shooter could be in their hiding. The team entered the front door and they cleared each area making sure there were no threats to them as they made their way through this office. It's not a very big space. So as they make their way down the hall, there's an empty conference room, a room with a copy machine, and a few small offices. Toward the back, they see a door open. And when they get closer, it's apparent that there is a person on the ground. The body cam is from a can on officer and you can hear his dog panting in the background. He calls for fire rescue and medics to come in. He calls for fire rescue and medics to come to assist. Meanwhile, several officers are examining the person who they identify as a female with a wound to her back. It appears that she has been shot. They radio in the code 901. This is a code for a shooting, and then they attempt CPR while they wait for medical assistance. Once the medics are there, they guide them inside, but they cannot find a pulse. However, she's not too cold to the touch, so they're still performing those life-saving measures on her in case they can revive her. Let's listen to what we can hear on this body camera footage. As soon as this is no longer a hot zone, sorry, we'll get somebody in. Okay. Alright, that copy. Yep, I'll work on this, support them. I'll see if I can do anything for her. Go ahead. Man, can you hear me at all? Right down here, buddy. Check right down here. I'll go through four or something. Somebody out here and I'll show you where you can have some fragile, wild one here as the structure is put forth. There's a real double space, a full page in the room, just to make sure you watch your step. It's really hard to tell. We have any, uh, quick plot, maybe? Yeah, I don't know if that means for the arm. It's not, we're not getting any more losing. I'm always seeing her neck. Were you using the other injuries? Right there. That looks like blob. I think it's all here. It's all over your neck. Where's the neck? Yes, you have it on this side out the front to bring them in. You got it on this side? This side here, right? I'm going to keep doing the chest compressions. Well, it's on the back. Remember I told you it's on the back. You see any pouring out, though? All the way in or back, met her neck. They're rolling in. We're not showing a pulse. We're where she's bleeding from. She's not that cold. So I'm at about 20 now. Faster, faster, faster. This is a high stress situation. Trying to potentially save a life and trying to figure out what in the world is going on? What happened? This goes on for quite some time. Until sadly, the woman is pronounced dead at the scene. It appeared that she had at least one shot to her chest. That exited her back and a possible second wound to the head. They got ready to transport her to the medical examiner's office and they were not sure who this woman was. They attempted to identify her by looking at pictures in that office. And what keys and phones could be related to her by looking at the lock screens. Officers combed through desks. They were looking at pictures on the desks for any images of the victim. They were only able to preliminarily identify her from a photo that was on the desks she fell near and then they took that picture and they matched it to a license they found in a purse. But that's not enough to make a final confirmation. It's just a mere piece of this puzzle. They still can't find a gun and they're not sure if the woman who was bleeding out on the street could have been the shooter and stashed a gun somewhere and harmed herself or whether there was a shooter on the loose. I heard all that on the body cam. While all of this is going on, other officers are canvassing this entire area. They had just been informed that the first victim, the one they found bleeding on the sidewalk, had also died from her wounds. This was considered a double homicide. When those officers had initially approached the front of this law office, they saw a man exiting so they stopped him. He said he just stopped by to do a job. He yelled inside there was no response so he left. This man told the officers that he was only inside for maybe 10 seconds before turning around and leaving. After checking in for weapons, the officers asked him why was there and who he was. And according to the man, he was contracted to paint the law firm. This is what the officers are talking about right now on the body cam footage. Although this man was detained, he truly was not involved in any crime. This is just an example of someone being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Can you imagine? Do you have no idea that a The shooting is going on, and you're walking right in the middle. inside the building. Next, they interviewed a woman who worked right next to this office building. She said that she didn't hear anything, but she gave the officer information about someone who may have more information. They may be able to tell officers whether there was anything out of the ordinary happening that week or weeks leading up to the incident. Right now we're still investigating, so I can't divulge any information about that. What do you know about what was going on over there? Absolutely nothing. They just re-did this whole building last summer, so it's very, very well insulated. I was with a client from two o'clock to about two-twenty, and we were talking and she's a spiritual consultant client, so sometimes we laugh, so I heard it. Then almost a minute she left, I returned a phone message and was on the telephone. I heard absolutely nothing. Okay. Do you know the people over there? Well, I know Sandra Burt, for twenty-six years I was right across the alley in that building. She's an attorney, of course. How do you spell Sandra's last name? B-U-R-T. And about how old is she? She's probably in her fifties. She drives the bright blue Porsche 911. Who else is over there with Sandra? Oh, I can tell you, I was just looking at the website and I left the phone message. For Sandra, you're saying, you know, this is me and I'm concerned, is everybody okay? Okay, hold on, let me just look it up again. Oh, I can tell you, I was just looking at the website and I left the phone message for Sandra. You're saying, you know, this is me and I'm concerned, is everybody okay? Are you aware of any issues there? Have they ever had like in the last week or even the last month where they've had clients coming in, screaming and yelling, any kind of altercations you heard? Right. You might want to talk to the co-owners of this building who also office here and the receptionist who doesn't work on Friday, Rita. Okay. Now you mentioned that the sound proving between you and next door is really good. Yeah. You've heard anything going on outside in the park and not maybe that didn't involve them. And I've had those kinds of things with my own clients where the police had to come. But no, I haven't. Sandra Burt, I believe, offices in the office that's the furthest west of the doors that open outside. Okay. Sandra, is she married? Have kids? If you don't know, it's okay. We will be investigating probably throughout the night. Okay. So if you do need to come and go in the evening, it's not a big deal. We can get you in her out. There was one comment that struck me. She said, "Well, it's family law, so you know, listen to her say it." There are three attorneys, as I recall, just associating in there, you know, sharing. Uh-huh. Okay. Is it a law officer? Or do they just share office space? No. They're all lawyers. Okay. And Sandra does family law, which is you know, is very. That's telling right there. Even this woman thinks that there could have been someone upset and now targeting people just like Natalie and Dr. Weinstock had mentioned. So much is going on in these investigations. Police have to deal with a lot when they're on these scenes. Not just things involving the crime, but other things holding them up and taking up their time. In this case, the limo driver's boss comes strolling up with an attitude. He's worried that his company is going to lose money because they're detaining the bus driver for questioning in a double murder. I thought it was pretty inconsiderate and tone deaf, but I understand he could have been under a lot of stress. I did want to show you this because I have part of this exchange and it's just another example of the time that's taking up. Explanations have to be given, having to manage so many different personalities and circumstances. And all of this isn't even related to the actual investigation. Yeah, so your driver was sitting in the bus and this lady walked up to her, so your drivers are witnessed. We've got to have her and tell detectives' talks to her. So your bus, which because it is the crime scene. Yeah, and I understand that. I can, you know, listen. I was like, you know what I'm saying? You know what? I'm afraid. It's Kayla. You know, I'm just. I get a call. There's lady bleeding. There's pregnant people. They're not letting me leave. You know, I'm sitting there going, I'm just going through problem solving mode. Yeah. What am I going to do? And I didn't realize the extent of, well, obviously it was going on double homicide events. You know, I thought the lady was just drunk over it or something, you know. It's not that it makes a difference, but it does when it's. Well, it would be because if that's what it was, your driver had begun. Yeah. Well, my, my next question I know you said a couple hours. They said one to two hours, then. Yeah, because they're just showing up right now, so they have to talk to her. Yeah, just any way. Yeah. Well, I don't know how many people you have that we're on the bus? Yeah, I don't know either, so I got to find out. Get the paperwork from her, so I have their contact information and everything. Oh, I know. So, you know what? I don't know. I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't know what you're going to do. We'll go back and check with them, and if they're good to go, I'll walk them back over here, and then you're good to go. You can take that. Is my driver okay? Can I talk to her and make sure she's all right? She's fine. Yeah, she's okay. No, that's fine. I mean, she's shook up, but she's okay. Yeah. There's a lot of other things as well, like cars that were parked there that are now trapped in the crime scene. You know, people just came to go to the library, and then they end up with their car behind crime scene tape. All of that had to be documented, and all those cars had to be formally released. There's people coming up, they're asking questions, they're not even witnesses. They just want to know what's going on, they're just nosy neighbors. They also have to figure out if any of the vehicles are related to the crime, so they have to take an inventory of the ones still left behind. There are just so many moving parts, and I thought it would be interesting for all of you to see that, because we don't always get that vantage point of these investigations. I also have a short clip of attorney Elizabeth Feldman coming onto the scene, and you can tell, she is just shocked. She had been shaken up. This is her just trying to piece together who had been hurt, and she was trying to do this by looking at what cars were left behind, and I kind of hear her saying that, saying that she thinks she knows. A detective Nolan had actually called Elizabeth down to her building sometime after she got that text from one of her law partners, and it looks as though they probably also escorted her back to her home after her interview. So my van has become part of the crime scene, and I've been here a couple of hours, but that's okay. Sorry. It was because I actually entered the building. Okay. No, it's okay. You okay? I'm fine. Okay. I don't really know. Um, so are the, I don't have a lot of info for it, but I can tell from the cars. And I can tell from everybody texting and blah, blah, blah. Tell me your name again. Elizabeth. Last name is Feldman. This is Elizabeth. This is her building, and Detective Nolan called her down. Okay. Okay. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Thank you very much. All right. She was able to identify the victims because they work for her. They were poor, valerious, sharp, and Laura Anderson, two mothers, friends, hardworking women, her employees shot in her law office that she had just left hours earlier. She would have been there if she had not left early that Friday to spend some time with her daughter. It could have been her. Why was this happening? Why would someone want to hurt these two innocent women? It seems targeted for sure, but why Elizabeth's office, officers, were at the scene for hours. Into the night, they collected all the bullet casings left behind, clothing items, fingerprints, blood swabs, and they sent them all to the state laboratory for testing. Of course, they also notify both Valeria and Laura's family of the heartbreaking news. It was absolutely devastating for both families. They didn't know anyone who would want to hurt Laura or Valeria. It just didn't make sense at all, knowing the character of their loved ones, but something did make sense to someone, Natalie. Steve Pitt's fiance, she thought there was a connection between the shootings. She said people don't just get shot in their offices in Scottsdale, it just doesn't happen. She let the investigators that were handling Steve's case know that she thought these murders were committed by the same person. It's true. The Phoenix Police Department, who were handling Dr. Stephen Pitt's homicide case, also thought it was too much of a coincidence that people at a law firm were shot the very next day and not too far from where Dr. Pitt was murdered. The locations were about 40 minutes apart, but they were only 10 miles from one another. It just needed to be ruled out. So they contacted the Scottsdale PD and wanted to get details about the double homicide at the law firm to see if there could be a connection. Gottsdale investigators told the Phoenix officers to come down to their command post and begin to collaborate with them sharing as much information as they could. Dr. Pitt was a familiar name to Scottsdale PD since Dr. Pitt had worked on the Jody Areas and Travis Alexander case, which was very high profile. And it happened in Mace Arizona. They were very interested to know if Dr. Pitt's murder was connected to the paralegals and it didn't take long to confirm that a 40 caliber weapon had been used at both crime scenes and not only that, the actual ammunition that was used in both locations was not a common type and they were the same. So now they knew there had to be a connection. At least in the bullets that were used to kill all three of their victims. This conclusion was made around 11.45 PM that Friday night. Investigators were still on the scene. When they get another 911 call, it comes into Scottsdale Police Department just 10 minutes after midnight. A woman named Pamela Ayers is frantically telling the dispatcher that her fiance, Dr. Marshall Levine hadn't come home from work. He wasn't answering his work phone or his cell phone so she went over to his building and she saw him hunched over on the end of his sofa in his office. She saw a bullet casing on the floor and she thinks he might have taken his own life. -Matic. -I'm going to get them on the line. Don't hang up. Yes. Sorry, I got some help on the way. Would you say you're wrong with your husband? I believe he shot himself. You believe he shot himself? OK. Yes. He sets himself on the way to ECM. Yes, he's in his office. He's hunched over on the sofa and there's a bullet casing on the-- Man, do you see a gun anywhere? I don't, but he's laying-- I hunched over on the sofa. And like I said, there's a casing on the side. OK, but you don't see the gun. No, I doubt it may be under his body. Can you exit the residence or the business? Yes, when I hit cars here, I walked in. The door was open. I came around. The light was on. Right, but I'm still going to-- Can you get out of the building for right now until we get there? Yes. OK. And what's the name of the business there that he's inside? It's his office. He's a psychologist. OK. Is there anybody else there with you? No, we live in Central Phoenix. And I called. He makes us get home about 6 o'clock. He didn't call-- he didn't answer. So I thought maybe he had a lesson in the appointment. I called. I've been calling. I texted him at 11.30 when I didn't hear from him. I went over to our other business. And he looked at there and I came here. OK, we've got a lot of help coming to you, OK? But you two are the only ones there, correct? OK. I know you're going to be waiting outside. Yes, I'm outside. And what's his name? Marshall Levine. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Did you hear any shots? Or did you just find him this way? I just found him this way. Hostile police officers were dumbfounded. They couldn't believe they were responding to yet another death, but they thought they had possibly found the missing link. This man, who had been found on his sofa, could have taken his own life after committing these heinous crimes. They think they might have found their killer. Pamela Marshall Levine's fiance met officers at his office. She explained that Marshall was supposed to come home around 6 p.m., but he never did. At first, Pamela just assumed he was busy. But as the hours passed by and he still wasn't home, she began to worry. After driving to his office around 11, 30, Pamela went up to the main door, and it was open. She went inside, and there was Marshall's office. She looked through the class window, and she saw him kind of kneeling in front of his sofa. And initially, she's sitting there thinking, OK, he might have passed out due to his blood sugar levels, but then she looked closer and she saw the shell casing on the ground. And that's when she realized, no, he's dead. And she assumed he had turned a gun on himself. So the officer was going to know, did Marshall ever talk about taking his own life? And she said, no, I was actually shocked to find him like that. She tells him that a handy man he was working with confirmed that they spoke to Marshall on the phone around 3 p.m. this means he was still alive after Laura and Valeria were killed. Pamela goes on to explain that Marshall is a counselor. He's a life coach. And the job of those kind of practitioners, they're high stress. And his office was only seven miles from the law firm. And it was also between the two crime scenes. This office was located at 820 East Morgan Trail in Scottsdale. And this was yet another one of those shared office buildings where many professionals work. Marshall's specific office was with Karen Colby, a licensed mental health counselor. Her name was in the window on the top of Marshall's. Here's Bodycam footage of that night and the officers arriving on scene. Did you guys make any y'all announced? You did, though. Let's go to the store. I'll hold here. Yes, ma'am. You go in there. I'll like him. OK, I'll just hit him. He's running around the right. Don't see it gone. Well, football, anything. There is a special case in the couch. There's another one. It's two. He is going to be another one. He's here putting another case there. There's two shells. Yeah, I see the shells. I don't see a gun either. Which obviously kind of means. Probably might be haunted again, or-- You guys are on? Yeah. OK, I'm going to go. I was going to say you can't really get two shots usually off. No. Yeah. He was sitting there. He wasn't in the couch. Yeah. He got nervous and missed. Or he was killed. Yeah. Look for bullet holes in the wall as well, yes. See if you can check behind that couch without moving the couch. Did the glass is intact, dude? I don't see a way out there. There's two shots up here. But if you're seeing that way, probably enter the chest through the back. Yeah. Still about 40 from the base. He's 901. I'm not sure what part of this is a good one. I think that's a hole in the wall or nothing. But it might be related. Yeah, he's psychologies. I know the audio wasn't great, but the officer said that I think this is going to be another 901. That's because a second earlier, the woman officer had made an observation that there were two bullet casings on the ground. They still hadn't located a gun. But the officer said it looks like he's been dead for quite some time. And the gun could be underneath him. They weren't going to assume it wasn't self-inflicted just because they found two shell casings. It didn't mean he didn't do this to himself because it could have misfired or even fired at someone else before taking matters into his own hands. So they had to keep looking. Then you might have heard the officers say that this could be related to the other homicides going on. He's referring to Laura Valeria and possibly Dr. Pit. If he's even aware that there's a connection at this point. They continue to look around Marshall's office while Pamela makes calls outside trying to create a timeline. She also gives them Karen Colby's information. And they take a drive out to her house. This is around 3 o'clock in the morning. They're knocking on her door and she's awakened by that noise. And she doesn't want to answer because it's late at night. But they do not stop knocking. So finally, Karen's husband goes down there. And once he's informed of what's going on, he marches up to their room and says, Karen, you need to get down here right away. The police are here. And Marshall was found dead in his office. This is the end of part one of this case for now. Check back in a couple days for part two or check below in the show notes for the link if it's already out. I'll see you soon.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Six individuals from diverse backgrounds collided in death due to a single, ruthless maniac.
  2. All six were connected through their lives in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2018.
  3. Dr. Stephen Pitt, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, was murdered outside his office on May 31, 2018.
  4. The killer was never identified, but a composite sketch of a bald, weary Caucasian man with a dark hat was created from witness accounts.
  5. DNA from bullet casings was extracted using advanced techniques but no match was found in CODIS.
  6. Dr. Pitt had a history of working on high-profile cases, including the Columbine and Jean-Benet Ramsey murders, where his expert opinions influenced outcomes.
  7. His fiancée, Natalie, and colleagues were deeply affected; the murder shocked the legal and forensic communities.
  8. A woman, believed to be a paralegal, was found shot in a nearby law firm building, adding to the tragic chain of events.
  9. The incident sparked widespread investigation, with police finding blood trails and a suspect's possible hiding spot inside the office building.
  10. Witnesses described the victim as a woman in her 30s, bleeding from the head, who appeared to have been shot while walking.
  11. The law firm, Bert, Feldman & Grineer, was directly involved in the aftermath, with employees working in close proximity to Dr. Pitt.
  12. The case highlighted how professionals in high-risk roles—especially those evaluating dangerous individuals—can become targets.

Summary:

Six lives that once seemed unrelated converged in a tragic tragedy in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2018, when a violent maniac killed Dr. Stephen Pitt, a celebrated forensic psychiatrist, and later shot a woman at a nearby law firm. Dr.

Pitt, known for his work on high-profile cases like Columbine and the Jean-Benet Ramsey murder, had a reputation for providing expert psychiatric evaluations that could influence criminal outcomes. His murder occurred after he left his office, where a man with a bald head and dark hat was seen fleeing—later described as a man who had likely been working in one of the cases Dr. Pitt previously evaluated.

Despite DNA testing and witness accounts, no suspect was identified. The case intensified when a woman, believed to be a paralegal, was found shot in the parking area of the same law firm, where Dr. Pitt’s colleagues worked.

The woman was bleeding from the head and had no identification. Police found blood trails leading to the building’s back, where a body was discovered. The events unfolded amid chaos, with onlookers, emergency responders, and law enforcement responding to a rapidly deteriorating scene.

The case revealed stark vulnerabilities in the legal system, where experts like Dr. Pitt, whose work could alter criminal justice outcomes, became targets. It also highlighted the personal toll on families, colleagues, and journalists who knew him personally.

The absence of a suspect and the baffling nature of the attacks underscore the chilling possibility that someone with a personal grudge—possibly tied to a past case—was willing to kill to silence Dr. Pitt. The story remains unsolved, a haunting reminder of how one man’s work could have far-reaching consequences—and how lives, even those separated by profession or geography, can tragically intersect in death.

FAQs

The six individuals were Dr. Stephen Pitt, Valeria Sharp, Laura Anderson, Saber Sharp, Dr. David Weinstock, and Elizabeth Feldman. All of them lived in or near Phoenix, Arizona, by 2018 and were connected through professional and personal relationships.

Dr. Stephen Pitt was a forensic psychiatrist who specialized in evaluating the mental states of suspects in criminal cases. He worked on high-profile cases including the Jean-Benet Ramsey murder, the Columbine High School shooting, and the murder of Kobe Bryant. He was also known for pioneering the use of videotaped interviews in forensic evaluations.

Valeria and Saber met online in a gospel music chat room and were drawn to each other for their intelligence and faith. They married and moved to Arizona, where they built a family with two sons and enjoyed traveling together, maintaining a strong religious and family-centered lifestyle.

Valeria and Laura both worked at the same law firm, Bert, Feldman and Grineer, in Scottsdale, Arizona. They became colleagues and developed a professional relationship, with Laura welcoming Valeria into the firm’s work family and helping her adjust to the role.

Dr. Stephen Pitt was shot and killed outside his office in Phoenix, Arizona, after being confronted by a man as he left his building. He was pronounced dead at the scene and the shooter was never identified, though a composite sketch of the suspect was created based on witness descriptions.

The woman found injured on the street was later identified as having a gunshot wound to the head. She had no ID, was barefoot, and was found in a law firm office building. Police discovered blood inside the building, leading to a high-alert investigation and raising concerns about a potential connection to the murder of Dr. Pitt.

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