Theresa Cox

A young suburban couple, gunned down on their front porch. People heard things they described as fireworks in the middle of the night. It looked like there was some kind of a gun fight. At the crime scene, there's another shocking discovery. I was very tense. We didn't know if there was more victims. Evidence suggests they knew an attack might be coming. There was a loaded shotgun behind the door. That told me they thought that they needed some kind of protection. Uncovering the truth behind the brutal slings reveals a killer hell-bent on revenge. I don't think she liked the fact that he was happy without her. It was the straw that broke the canvas back. When police are ready to move on their suspects, they completely vanish. They then cut and died their hair. They were trying to disappear. No one knew where they were at. Nobody knew what they might do next. So we were on high alert. [Music] Willard, Missouri is a quiet residential area 12 miles outside Springfield. But at 9 a.m. on November 14, 2020, this normally peaceful town is shaken by a horrifying discovery. 911 dispatch received a call from a neighbor. She said that she looked her window while she was serving breakfast to her family. And she seen her neighbors laying down on the ground on the front porch. She went to go check. [Music] And she found two bodies laying on the front porch, blood all over the ground. And there was a gun link just outside of his hand. [Music] 911 operators immediately send first responders to the address. I wasn't sure if I was going to a murder suicide or what exactly it was. When I first arrived at the crime scene, the reporting party, she was there. She pointed to the bodies around the steps. She said that she was afraid to go to them. But she believed that they had been there for quite a while. The male victim had several gunshot wounds to his head and also to his torso and arm. The female subject also had multiple gunshot wounds to her back and also to her head. He had a holster on his right side and his right hand was down just by his gun. It made me think there was some kind of a gun fight. The caller says the gunshot victims are 28-year-old Alex Shoot and 30-year-old Brianna Scrawl. She worries there might be another victim as well. She was very upset. She said they had a four-year-old daughter but she wasn't sure if the daughter was there or not. I was very tense when we went to search the house because I wasn't sure if we would find the daughter in the house. We didn't know if the shooter was going to be in the house. We didn't know if there was more victims, more officers arrived from the Green County Sheriff's Office. We evacuated the building, then we did a search of the apartment. The police go in, they're armed and they have their firearms out. I noticed the house just looked like a normal person's house. Nothing was missing. We just did an entire sweep through the apartment and that's when we located a four-year-old child unharmed in the bathroom of the apartment. She had to like she was happy to see us, just like nothing happened. The officers take her out the back of the house and shield her from the scene in the front. They whisked her way into a patrol car with a blanket stuffed animal. She went into protective custody with the Children's Division. With the child safe, police turned their attention to the victims. To find anybody dead in that manner in Willard is something that is almost unheard of. It could question us who did it. Alex Shoot was born in St. Louis, Missouri on November 11, 1992. He was the youngest of four children raised by officer Daryl Shoot and his wife Lisa. I was on duty with the police department so that was a four-year activity to get to the hospital and bring Alex into this world. It was his biggest baby and he was beautiful, perfect in every way. Only a year later, their happy home was disrupted by divorce. Alex was about one when they split. My dad got remarried and then my mom got remarried. But Alex's childhood remained a happy one. He was real big in an anime and cartoons. He loved video games like all kids. He actually won a Super Smash Bros. tournament when he was like 16. He really did fill the room with light and laughter. I guess you could call him the class clown. Alex was entering his sophomore year of high school when his life was upended once again. We were living with my grandmother and my mother and all of us kids. My grandmother had developed a pancreatic cancer and she was wanting to move back to New York. In 2008, we sold our house and we moved to upstate New York. Alex found it difficult adjusting to a new school until he bonded with a new friend, Teresa Cox. Teresa actually moved from Wilmington, North Carolina. They bonded because they both moved from different states and came to the high school at the same time. Teresa had a troubled upbringing with her family and her grandparents raised her. She was big in a video games and anime and stuff like that. They were pretty much together all the time every day. Alex was very smitten with her. She was farming over Alex so they seemed like a young couple in love. She made a very good first impression with us. If he liked her, we liked her and I always trusted his judgment. Alex and Teresa became inseparable. So when Alex's family moved back to Missouri after graduation, Teresa went with them as Alex's wife. They got married about six or seven weeks after high school on August 3rd of 2011. They got married in the courthouse. She had a beautiful dress. It was a really great day. We had a huge reception afterwards. A few years into the marriage, Alex's desire to serve and protect led him to enlist. Alex had made the decision to join the Army and the National Guard had become a MP, military police. And so he attended basic training at Fort Leonard Wood. Alex had just finished basic training when he achieved another goal by becoming a father. They decided they wanted to have a baby right after he got out of boot camp. They welcomed their daughter in May of 2016. The day that his daughter was born was the best day of his life. And for me to be able to witness that was beautiful. He was so proud. Shortly thereafter Alex was to deploy to Poland for a short mission or training. And Teresa began to need help with our granddaughter. But it seemed that Teresa went through and the family ended up taking care of the baby. She worked as a gas station attendant for a moment and then she didn't work at all. I don't think Teresa understood what being a mother was. Unfortunately, after three years of parenting together, the marriage fell apart in 2019. Alex and Teresa became separated and divorced. Whatever the incident was, he never discussed it with us. But we assume it was some infidelity that happened or something in that manner. When they got divorced. divorce, Alex. He let her keep the house. Alex remained devoted to his daughter, maintaining joint custody with Teresa. He took a new temporary job at a pizza place to make ends meet and got another chance at love with a coworker named Brianna Sproul. He began dating Brianna, which we all call her Bri. And they seemed to click together well. They were animal lovers, advocate for rescues. I know her parents got divorced when she was young. That was another thing that Alex and Brianna had in common. Alex moved in with her several months later. His daughter has the custody agreement allowed. They would spend time with her. A big part of Alex loving Brianna so much was the way that she treated his daughter. She took care of her, like she was her own. And she loved her and made her birthday cakes and costumes for Halloween. I think he was really excited about the future for the first time in a long time. He proposed to her. Then they started looking at homes. They were just building their future. And kids were in the works. They were making their lives ready to start a new and be a fresh family. Sadly, before Alex and Brianna could realize their dreams, they were both found dead on their front porch. When we began to search the crime scene, nine shell casings were found on the front porch on the front steps. One theory was that it was a murder suicide. Because there was one gun on scene, and there were two deceased people on the porch. But because his weapon was a 40 caliber weapon, and the shell casings were a nine millimeter shell casing, it dispelled that theory pretty quickly. When we searched the gun, the magazine was full and the gun was completely loaded, we didn't think he had fired any rounds. By the position of the gun, he was more than likely holding the gun when he fell. And it just had fallen out of his hand, which indicated to me that he did not try to protect himself when he fell. We're trying to make sense of what happened. All these things put red flags up to us. Coming up, investigators identified the time of death. Knowing the time of the crime was important to find out what their alibi was. And the victim's loved ones point to a surprising suspect. He didn't have a maternal bone in her. Detectives in Willard, Missouri are investigating the double murder of Alex Shute and Brianna Sproul. As they analyze the evidence on hand, detectives prioritize zeroing in on the time of the murders. One of the first things we start doing is trying to establish a timeline since they were obviously already deceased and been there for quite some time. At that point, I didn't have access to any family records or no, any people to call. However, Alex is wearing a security guard uniform for a nearby airport giving investigators a starting point. When I spoke to Alex, his supervisor, he said that he left an hour early. That Alex is supposed to get off at midnight and left 11 p.m. Alex had received some type of contact or message from his girl from Brianna, and he had notified another worker that he needed to go home and check on her. I asked the supervisor about the gun that Alex had. He said Alex is not commissioned to have a firearm while on duty. And that a holster and firearm is not part of their approved uniform. This indicated to me that Alex, perceived with threat, remained in uniform and eventually put on a holster and firearm. Investigators surmised the shooting took place between 1115 p.m. when Alex arrived home and 9.03 a.m. when the 911 call came in. They hope neighbors can help narrow down that window. There was officers that were going door to door and doing a neighborhood canvas to find out what other people might have seen or heard. There was several people that heard things they described as fireworks in the middle of the night, around midnight, one o'clock. This is Willard. There's not gunshots in Willard like that. A lot of people discounted what they heard and never called. Fortunately, one of the officers who lives nearby comes up with an idea. He lived 700 feet from the crime scene. He asked me if I wanted him to check his doorbell camera. He said that it captures sound and is activated by sound. And he checked it and he was able to locate a video clip from 121 a.m. We got the exact time that the murders happened. Knowing the time of the crime was important because as we start talking to people, we want to find out what their alibi was during the time of the crime. Hoping to find further clues, officers conduct a thorough search of the apartment. There was no sign of forced entry. The door was unlocked. Everything that was in the home appeared to be attacked. The first thing that I noticed was one of those fanny bags that had two clock magazines in it. And it appeared that it was just sitting out on the table right by the door. Another thing that I noticed was a loaded shotgun behind the door. As a parent, I wouldn't leave a loaded shotgun behind a door where it was accessible to a child. So that told me that at least Alex and Brianna thought that they needed some kind of protection. Whatever danger Alex and Brianna were expecting, it seems they may have trusted the person at their door enough to leave the shotgun behind. There was blood splatter on the front door and front of Brianna's brows head, which indicated to me that the door was most likely closed. So the scene looked like they had been lowered outside. Like the victims had a personal connection with this person that allowed them to be so close to them. At the scene, I also collected some papers from Children's Division and some legal paperwork that was in reference to custody issues. There was an ongoing conflict between the victim Alex Shoot and his first wife Theresa Cox. There was documents from Alex's attorney trying to establish full custody rights of the child. My suspicion immediately went to Theresa Cox. That was why when Chief McLean went to advise her of Alex's death, that he had a recording device on him if she said anything that could be incriminating. That afternoon, detectives arrive on the doorstep of Theresa's home 12 miles away in Springfield, Missouri. We knocked and she came to the door a few seconds later. Theresa was in her bed close and it was 3.30 in the afternoon. No, you're okay, okay. So the result here is made received. Please receive the report this morning. You can turn at south center south, but they did find Alex in her and Brianna deceased. My daughter is okay, she didn't see anything happen. It turned her into foster care to make sure she's safe. She's no, we need to think about any of that. No, no, no, it was working on it. She seemed for the most part somewhat unaffected. When they asked Theresa, where she was the night before. She says she was on her way home from her job at a pizza restaurant. - What was your shift last night from window width? - My shift last night was 6 p.m. The only one I got home from 30 ish. - Can you do a bit more on the same spot? - No, since then, I've been home. I got home, I know what to do. I'm going to sleep in the room. - Okay. I don't know how to ask what happened then. - We've got questions and a growing list of questions and so. I'm just, we just all we could say is that we're in the midst of a homicide investigation. - Due to the circumstances around her ex-husband's murder, their daughter remains in foster care until a judge can review custody. As Teresa's interview is wrapping up, Willard PD investigates her work schedule. - I wouldn't have spoke with her supervisor, Matthew Plum, the manager there to verify that Teresa Cox was working at the time of the murders. They were able to provide me with time card slips, which it did show that Teresa was clocked in. Speaking to Matthew further, he said that Teresa did have bad blood towards Alex, and Teresa had mentioned it before that she would like for him to be dead. - Right then, it really focused our attention on her involvement. - Hours into their investigation, Willard police have a possible murder suspect. Alex shoots ex-wife Teresa Cox. - My theory at the time was that this was potentially having something to do with custody of their child in common. - Alex's family might be able to answer questions about the former couple's relationship, but first, detectives must break the terrible news to them about the murders. - You see it in the movies where you fall to your knees and the whole world stops, and that's exactly what happened. And I just remember where I was screaming to my sister, and I could hear her tell my mom that Alex was gone. And her scream from a mother is something that you don't ever want to hear ever again. - Digging deeper into the custody battle, investigators ask about Teresa. - The started really when Teresa gave birth, and she had issues just taking care of the child. - I think that Teresa didn't have a maternal bone in her, and she showed no compassion for my knees when she was first born. She just would leave her there to cry, and she would show no love for her. - Alex was working with Bri. She is obviously a nice person. I think they just started developing really shit, and that's kind of what sealed deal. When Alex and Teresa got divorced, he let her keep the house. He let her keep their savings. He took on the debt. - They say Alex was determined to keep things amicable, but according to the family, Teresa's behavior made that impossible. - She was actually involved in a car accident one night, and the hospital called my brother, and the very first thing my brother said to the police officers is where's my daughter? - Well, come to find out. Alex told me Teresa had been leaving their daughter at home alone overnight while she went to work. Anything could have happened, and you have just blatant disregard for a child's life that you chose to bring into this world. Absolutely crazy to me. - Following the incident in 2017, and three years before his murder, Alex decided to pursue full custody. - My brother called CPS. Eventually, they intervened, and he got full custody of his daughter. - Teresa was not allowed any contact with their daughter at all, unless approved by Alex. - To investigators, it seems Teresa had plenty of motive, and they request a search warrant for her cell phone data. - Pretty quickly, we obtained the search warrant and seized her cell phone. The first cell tower search warrant we received was for Teresa Cox's phone number. That has showed that she was in Springfield the entire time and not in Willard. While the data corroborates Teresa's alibi by placing her 12 miles away from Willard, investigators are still left with questions. Next, they request a search warrant for Teresa's text messages. - We were able to get text message contact for about three or four days prior to the murder. It showed a text message between Teresa and an unknown person. It looked to be someone that was intimate or someone that was in a relationship since they were saying things like I love you or calling you babe and stuff like that. - One of the messages sent by Teresa Cox said something to the effect of change of plans for Friday. The message sent in response was, I need some time to myself. I need to be able to air out my mind before tomorrow night. The bigness and some of the information of those text messages could imply that that other number could be involved. - Police tracked the messages to someone named Duncan Bogle. - Duncan Bogle ended up being someone who was in a relationship with Teresa Cox at the time that the murders took place. Law enforcement spoke with some of the friends of Duncan Bogle to get more information. - I first met Duncan when we were 12 and 13. He moved to our small town and Duncan first met Teresa back in like February of 2020. They were working together at Walmart. I think it was like two or three months later that he was moving in with her. They didn't first start dating. What it was was Teresa needed help with bills. And so Duncan was like, well I wanna get out of my mom's house so they came up with the agreement that they could be roommates. Duncan was only 20, making Teresa eight years older, but that didn't stop romance from blossoming. - Duncan is a very quiet type kind of person. So it does kind of take him a minute to like really open up to people. - He was very excited. He was just like a teenager who was like, is in the middle of class with like a note from their crush. That's what he was. - And investigators must ask, did Duncan love Teresa enough to commit murder for her? - When we did a search warrant for Duncan Bogal, cell tower data, it showed that Duncan was actually in the area of the crime scene during the time the shots were heard. - Duncan Bogal and Teresa Cox, they lived in Springfield. And Willard is several miles north of the Springfield area. And so having Duncan's phone peeing off the tower and Willard around the time of the murders is crucial evidence. - Next, we served a search warrant for Teresa Cox's residents. - Coming up, a murder plot unfolds. All I can think of is she sold her soul to the devil. - And Cocon's spiriters begin to turn on one another. - Let's post the data on that. (dramatic music) - Cell phone data suggests Teresa Cox and Duncan Bogal were planning to murder her ex-husband. Five days into the investigation, police obtained a warrant to search the couple's home. - They were able to locate an empty gun box that was put in a nine millimeter gun and had the serial number on the outside of the box. - There was also a receipt found in the master bedroom. And that receipt said it was purchased on October 11th by Teresa Cox about a month before the murder. - They located inside a nearby safe. There was ammunition. That was nine millimeter caliber ammunition. And on the headstand, it was SNB 9mm. the exact same type of ammunition that was located at the crime scene with the showcasing. - However, the gun itself is missing. Police records show Theresa reported at Stolen about 10 days before Alex and Rihanna were shot. - The gun was reported stolen. The same day, Theresa was served with paperwork from Alex's attorneys requesting child support in the amount of $400. I believe it was the straw that broke the camel's back. - Police also find an interesting exchange on Theresa's phone regarding a man named Matthew. - There was kind of an odd message where somebody was saying to Theresa that she thought that Matthew was leaving her because he wasn't being responsive to her messages. That person was later determined to be Ariel. And she was the girlfriend of Matthew. Theresa had in some way told Ariel, "No, that's not the case. "We had a very busy night." Police tracked the number and speak to a woman named Ariel. The Matthew she mentioned turns out to be Matthew Plum, the night manager who gave Theresa her alibi. - There was some a point last weekend when you were concerned that that was going to leave you. Tell me about that. - If he got off simply, that's right, about like four, four, 10 or four 20. He didn't text me for like the entire next night. So I got on my 360 that night and was looking at where he was and he was headed up towards Theresa's house. - Matthew Plum's actions were suspicious that night that he stayed late for work. He was distant towards her, which led us to believe that he may have had a more important role in this. - Police bring Matthew into the station for a second interview, but he sticks by his story. - You're saying that the life 360 is going to show you going from pizza hut to home. - I didn't believe him. I just kept asking questions and then I noticed there were some loose ends or some lies. - Did you call her from the store phone? Is that going to show up on her phone records that you called her from the store phone? - I hope so. - Stop with the hope. And now it's about a time to protect your own. Now it's a time to save your own ass. Okay, you can help us with this. - He did eventually tell us that he conspired with Theresa. - I was supposed to be the olive eye. - Okay. - Matthew says it was to protect Theresa's daughter. According to him, Alex was the one abusing the child, not Theresa. - Theresa was constantly complaining that Alex was abusing their daughter and she wanted to do anything she could to protect her. - Theresa's plan was essentially to have Alex her ex killed by Duncan at a time where she was at work so she had an alibi. - Matthew said that he had given Theresa some pointers on how to get rid of a gun. - I told her, if you got one and you want to report it stolen, that's up to you. Tell a lot of people do it. They'll report it stolen and then there you go. - And then that is she was just saying when what day she was thinking about and what day she was thinking about to make sure I was at work and she was at work. - On November 13th, Theresa put the plan into action. - When Theresa had gotten to work that night, she made some comment to the effective. It's gonna happen tonight. And later on really into the next morning, around one or 130, Matt is still working there. Theresa's still there and that's when Duncan Bogle arrives back. And Duncan tells Matt Plum that he shot two people on the front porch. - Duncan was very upset about what had happened and they spent several hours trying to calm him down. - After that takes place, Matt takes the gun. - Okay, and you know where it's at now? I mean where it's at? That's gonna be exactly where it's at. You can take my wire. - The murder weapon is recovered just 10 miles away in a nearby creek. When the handgun was located, it had the exact same serial number on it from the gun box that they had found at Theresa Cox's residence. - During the autopsy, there was three projectiles found in Alex's body, two in his chest cavity, and one in his head. These were consistent with the other bullets that were found on scene, nine millimeter projectiles, full metal jacket. No projectiles were found in Brianna's body. The high-obtral crime lab here in Missouri were able to determine that that gun that was found at the creek in fact fired the shell casings that were located at the crime scene. - It was that pivotal piece where we could say that the casings came from the gun and that the gun came from Theresa. - On December 1st, Matthew Plum is arrested. - Matthew Plum was originally charged with first degree murder as an accessory for aiding and encouraging Theresa Cox and her plot. - But when investigators tried to arrest Theresa and Duncan, they cannot be located. - It looked like Duncan and Theresa had gone into hiding. - It was like living a nightmare because we didn't know what her plan was. - Theresa Cox and Duncan Bobo appeared to be on the run after evidence linked them in a murder plot to kill Theresa's ex-husband. - Nobody knew what they might do next. - The couple manages to evade police for a week and a half until a coworker comes forward with a tip. - She said that she took Bobo and Cox to Walmart where they got hair dye and they got a new phone for Bobo. She said they then cut her and dyed their hair and were acting suspiciously. - She took them to a truck stop where they were going to make their way to places unknown. - What she did give us was the newest phone number because after we took Theresa's phone, she bought a new phone. - I gave the US marshals that phone number which they were able to subsequently ping that phone number and locate Theresa Cox and Duncan Bobo in San Francisco, California. I believe they were trying to blend in with homeless people and disappear. - They were arrested on December 8th, almost a month after when the murders had taken place. - Duncan Bobo was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and Theresa Cox was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder. - In preparation for trial, the prosecution makes a deal with Matthew Plum in exchange for his testimony against Charisa. - Matt Plum would end up receiving a five-year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder and he received a three-year sentence for tampering with evidence and his sentences were ran consecutively, meaning one after the other for a total of eight years. - With his help, prosecutors piece together a narrative to convince the jury of Teresa's guilt. - I think that she didn't want her daughter. I think that she didn't want Alex to have her daughter. I think that she just wanted to wipe that side of her life away and move on to the next chapter for herself. - I believe Teresa decided to murder him. The day his daughter got forcefully removed. The checks were gonna stop coming for child support and that's the day that she called in, the gun missing. (dramatic music) To convince her co-conspirators to kill Alex, Teresa turned him into a villain. - Her narrative was Alex is a bad person, Alex is abusive, nothing that was ever founded, but those negative things probably make Matt or make Duncan Bogle feel like they're actually helping her out and that they're just not harming someone that is truly innocent. Duncan was definitely the perfect mark for her. Generally, he always wants to do what makes other people happy. And so, it made him an easy target. - Teresa and Duncan's murder trial is set for October 2022. Nearly two years after Alex and Brianna were murdered, but it never gets underway. Teresa Cox would plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. Duncan Bogle also would enter guilty please to two counts of second-degree murder, as well as a count of endangering the welfare of a child. - On November 1st, 2022, Teresa is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison. Duncan receives the same sentence, plus an additional year for child endangerment. - Teresa Cox sent her significant other over to the residents knowing that her child is inside that home. That's one of those things that always sticks with me. - In the aftermath of the trial, Alex's loved ones have dedicated themselves to raising his little girl. - Alex was a very great dad. He did what he had to do to protect his daughter and him and Brianna died protecting her. - Alex would want to be remembered by the way that he loved people and he was a loving, loving, loving son and brother and father. - A granddaughter always spent one night in emergency foster care and we went down and picked her up the next morning to take care of her and we've had her ever since. And now that we have adopted her a little while ago, it's a legalization of what was already in our hearts. She's asked us about calling us mom and dad, but it seems uncomfortable for us. We can continue to be papa and Mimi, we point out to her that mom and dad are still there. They're just in heaven. (upbeat music)