Relatively Evil (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Deadly Dynamics - full transcript

♪

[ cellphone vibrates ]

♪

[ breathing ]
[ hinges creak ]

♪

♪

[ baby crying ]

Narrator: This is the true story
about what happens

When an outsider is let in

And families are torn apart.

Lies, betrayal, and murder.



[ breathing ]
it's all relative.

♪

♪

♪

[ gasps ]

It's looking good.

Narrator:
It's the summer of 2000.

Joey crouch and her boyfriend,
mark hattenbrun,

Are very much in love.

So when they're given the chance

To take
their relationship forward,

They leap at it.

Joey and mark met
through a mutual friend.

They hit it off immediately.



Crouch: She liked his charm
and his cuteness.

They really liked each other.

Narrator:
Dating for less than a year,

Some wonder if the couple
is moving too fast.

Not them.

Liebl:
Mark wasn't anything

Like any of the other people
that she dated.

He was older,
had a very good job,

Very established.

You hungry?

Sure.

He just seemed
very put together --

Like, ready for
a solid relationship.

Narrator: But as mark and joey
work hard to make this house

Feel like a home,

Reality is they aren't
going to be living here alone.

Mark?
Where the hell are you?

They'll be sharing it
with the owner,

Mark's younger brother, randy.

Hey, randy.

Mark and his brother
were very close.

Have you seen
the nail gun?

She felt a little awkward
living with him and his brother.

Randy seemed to be a bit

Of a tougher harder,
edge than mark was.

Didn't she do a great job?

Narrator:
Randy isn't exactly happy

About the living arrangement.

Gotta go. Dad said to meet him
at the lumber yard.

And he's not the only member
of the hattenbrun clan

Who feels this way.

♪

Chelsea: The first time my
family met mark's family...

It was...

Different.

♪

Thank you so much
for having us.

Dinner was great.

There was the mother, patricia,

The father, brett,

And two sons, mark and randy.

Mom, isn't patricia's
cross beautiful?

Oh, yes.

Chelsea: Mark's mom was,
I could say, shy.

It really is.

Mark's family's
catholic, too.

♪

Mark's dad was a little weird.

He was a little strange
at times.

Narrator: Brett hattenbrun
is the unchallenged leader

Of his family.

Mark's family was under
the direction of brett.

Very much was going to keep
their family together

No matter what.

Loydgren: Brett was focused
on what he believes.

What he said was law.

He was
a very controlling individual.

♪

Narrator: There is no denying
joey is facing a challenge,

But wanting her relationship
with mark

To work means trying
to win over his family.

Hey, guys.

I'm making ziti for dinner.
Your mom gave me her recipe.

Sounds great.

Joey was so easy
to get along with.

♪

I mean, just constant sunshine.

There's just not a person
in the universe

That could have not liked her.

[ voice breaking ]
I mean, she was a pure soul.

♪

She just was
a very good person,

And she was full of love.

Randy:
Yeah, we'll see about that.

♪

Narrator:
But no matter what joey does,

She feels like randy wants
nothing to do with her.

Mark:
Where's she supposed to go?

I don't care.
It doesn't matter. Not here.

Randy wanted my sister
to move out

'cause he wanted his own space.

Dude, just get rid of her.
I don't want her here.

Randy didn't feel that joey
should be living there

Since it's his house

And he didn't have
anybody living with him.

Just be a man for once

And take care of it.

♪

See you around, joey.

Narrator: After months of trying
to make it work, mark gives in.

He tells joey, the woman
he claims to love,

She has to move out.

Liebl:
It was insulting to her.

She had been rejected.

♪

Chelsea: Joey moved back
to the family house.

I was so pissed off [sniffles]
at how it happened.

Liebl: The incident
with mark and randy

Having joey move out

Was definitely one
of many red flags for me

About their relationship.

Mark, in my eyes,
should have stood up to randy.

♪

Narrator:
A few weeks later,

Mark realizes he's made
the biggest mistake of his life.

No matter the odds,

He doesn't want to be
without joey.

Hey.

Chelsea:
They still loved each other.

They wanted to be
with each other.

Castro-conroy: Mark was
very close with his brother,

But he loved joey, and she
seemed to be happy about it.

Narrator: In a huge reversal,

Mark asks joey to marry him.

It's beautiful.
It was his grandmother's.

Castro-conroy: Joey always
wanted to have a family

And a home of her own

And a husband and children.

Ah.
It's gorgeous.

Chelsea: Joey and mark
seemed really happy,

And my parents were ecstatic.

[ glasses clinking ]

I was very happy for her.

♪

She was over the moon.
She was so excited.

The only reservation I had

Was the history of randy

Making joey move out

And mark
not standing up for her.

But that seemed
to be smoothed over.

Narrator:
With their troubles behind them,

Though not forgotten,

Mark and joey get married.

It's a day
both seem excited about.

Liebl:
I asked joey on her wedding day

If she was ready to marry mark.

And she --
you know, she said, "yes."

She came down the aisle,
and she looked beautiful.

And he looked so happy.

Liebl:
She was all smiles, as always.

You could just see the love,
like, glowing from her.

Narrator: That's not to say
that this beautiful fall morning

Isn't filled with tension.

♪

Liebl: Mark's family and joey's
family the day of the wedding --

It wasn't that they integrated,
that they became one family.

You could see
very much a separation.

It was kind of tense.

Oh, so excited.
Woman: Yeah.

Castro-conroy:
His mother, patricia,

And his father, brett,

Weren't interested
in meeting us.

Liebl: I felt like I was seeing
the true side of the family

That she was marrying into,

And I did not like it.

Man: What happened
to you, man?

Agsar: You want two families
to get along,

And it didn't seem
to be happening.

Narrator: Though not all of that
trouble is being caused

By mark's side of the family.

Man: Look into the camera.
Say something to your sister.

Something to my sister.

He really is my half-brother

From my dad's first marriage.

He was a troublemaker.

Loydgren: Joey's stepbrother
had been the subject

Of a few investigations
in another county --

Actually,
homicide investigations.

He was loosely associated in one

And a little tighter
in the other.

Narrator: Seth was a suspect
in the murder of his ex-wife,

Who was strangled
and found on a remote beach.

Murder charges against him
were eventually dropped,

And the case remains unsolved.

Seth had also been arrested
more than a dozen times.

Including charges
for domestic violence.

From what I understand, there
was really no real closeness

Between joey and him.

Chelsea:
I think he was jealous

Of what me and my sister had
with our parents.

We were close
when we were young,

But we kind of fell apart.

♪

Every time
he would get in trouble,

He would always have to call
dad for help,

And my sister
just disagreed with it.

♪

[ camera shutter clicks ]

Narrator: Wish as they might
for joey and mark,

There will be no casting
of family aside.

From this day forward,

They are all connected
for life --

In fact, soon to be sealed
by murder.

♪

Agsar: This case
is unforgettable because...

It's something
you would never want to happen

To your own family.

♪

I thought
you were at the party.

♪

Narrator:
In the summer of 2006,

Newlyweds
mark and joey hattenbrun

Are focused on putting

All the prewedding
family drama behind them.

This includes leaving
mark's brother, randy, behind

And moving into a place
of their own.

Liebl:
Joey appeared to be very happy

With their lifestyle,
being married,

And how much of a commitment
that was.

She was always very happy

About the progress
of their relationship.

Agsar: Joey worked as a pharmacy
technician in brooksville,

Which is about a 20-minute
drive away from her house.

Castro-conroy:
Mark was working

With a beverage-distribution
company,

And he drove the truck,
and he would make deliveries.

Narrator: Even though joey and
mark have a place of their own,

The hattenbrun family
is always present,

Looming over everything
this couple does.

[ timer ticking ]

[ gasps ]

[ gasps ]

♪

Did you...

Sorry.
I...Didn't hear you knock.

Joey was essentially
surrounded by mark's family.

Agsar: They all lived in really
close proximity to one another,

And mark's brother and father

Helped build
each other's houses.

Where's your drill?

Um, it's around here somewhere.

Loydgren:
There was always tension.

Mark didn't want his wife
to say anything.

Got to do it now.

And then for him to try
to stand up for his wife

Against his father
was something he just didn't do.

I'll be right back.

I- it won't take long.
I'll be right back.

Chelsea:
My family was a little worried

'cause mark's family
was that close

To her new house --

Not scared of them
but just worried

If something was gonna intervene
in their relationship.

Loydgren:
Joey tolerated brett

And just wanted to have peace
in the family.

♪

Narrator: Peace in the family
becomes even more important

When joey announces
that she and mark are expecting.

We are so thankful
to be blessed with so much.

All: Amen.

And...For the biggest
blessing of all.

♪

[ laughs ]

I was jumping up and down,

Finding out
my sister was pregnant.

She was thrilled.

She really wanted to be a mom.

Mark was happy, too.

♪

Liebl:
Joey was born to be a mother.

She had every motherly instinct
and so much love to give,

So when she found out
she was pregnant,

She was very excited,
and I was excited for her

Because I just knew that
she would be an amazing mom.

Mark's family was excited
about the baby,

Especially when they found out

That the baby
was gonna be a boy.

They were very happy about that.

♪

Narrator: But when joey and mark
welcome their son, will,

All isn't beautiful.

The strains of a newborn

Prove to be stressful
on their marriage.

Agsar: They split
their work schedules

So childcare was taken care of.

One person was leaving for work
as the other was coming home.

Castro-conroy: Mark would get up
in the morning really early

To go to his job.

Then on the days
that he was off,

Mark's father would insist
that his sons worked with him,

So they weren't really
spending much time together.

She was very lonely.

♪

I mean, I wasn't there
24/7 with her,

But I visited her a lot, and...

He was never there.

♪

She felt like...
She was all alone.

Narrator: Conflicting work
schedules make it difficult

For extended family to pitch in.

What should be a happy time

Turns bitter
for this young mother.

♪

And that loneliness
and isolation

Leads joey to do something
she never imagined.

Liebl: When joey
showed up at my house,

She didn't sound like herself.

There was definitely
something wrong.

I did something bad --

Really, really bad.

♪

♪

See you around, joey.

Narrator:
Mark hattenbrun's family

Has always treated his wife,
joey, as an outsider

They couldn't trust.

But now, six years
into their marriage,

Joey is afraid her own husband

Is distancing himself
from her, too.

Mark had really pushed her away

And spent the majority
of his time at work

Or in the garage
or with his dad or his brother.

She felt unwanted
and unloved.

What's going on?

I met a guy online.

I think she was talking to
someone because she was lonely

And someone
was giving her attention.

Agsar: Joey had met someone
playing words with friends

And kind of struck up
some kind of relationship.

♪

Joey spoke with this person
on the phone.

Never met the person.

I encouraged joey
to be honest with mark

About how she felt
that he was ignoring her,

That she didn't think
that he loved her anymore.

Narrator:
What joey doesn't know

Is that her husband
is already aware of her secret.

Joey is spending
a lot of time on her phone.

That made mark suspicious.

♪

Liebl:
So he grabbed her cellphone

And saw she was messaging
back and forth with somebody.

♪

Mark? Is that you?

♪

Narrator:
Mark turns to his father, brett,

To discuss the trouble
in his marriage.

You're surprised?

Joey's relationship
with brett was difficult.

Brett was not too easygoing
when it came to joey.

He referred to her as a princess

And felt she was more of
a hindrance to his son.

What are you gonna do
about it?

♪

Narrator: With joey at work
and his marriage in turmoil,

Mark takes his son over
to his brother, randy's, place.

His brother, randy, had
a gathering at his house,

So half a dozen guys come over
to hang out.

Narrator: While there,

Mark learns his relationship
issues are no secret.

Hey.
Well, dad told me about joey --

How she's been texting
some guy

And you didn't know.

Mark was upset with his wife

And wanted approval
of his loved ones.

Agsar:
I imagine randy wasn't happy

About joey texting
with other men.

And he wanted to put
an end to it.

Sure, if that's
what you want.

Narrator: Around 11:30,
mark heads home

So he can put his son to bed.

Mark and will
got a ride home from a friend.

♪

When mark got out
of the car that night,

He heard a rasping noise.

He thought maybe an animal
had been injured.

♪

Mark didn't realize
that it was joey right away.

♪

Joey.

There was blood on her face,
blood all over her head...

Joey.

...Blood all through her hair.

Call 911!

She was bludgeoned --
severely bludgeoned --

And appeared to be left
for dead.

Narrator: Mark's friend
takes mark's son away

From this gruesome scene
and calls 911.

[ siren wailing ]

Narrator: While his friends
talk with police,

Mark calls joey's mother
to tell her what's happened.

It's joey. She's --
she's -- she's been hurt.

Chelsea: Around 11:30,

That's when we got a call
from mark

Saying something happened
to joey.

No, I-I don't think she's okay.
I don't know.

And that's when me and my mom
rushed over there

To go see what happened.

[ siren wailing ]

I was so terrified.

[ voice breaking ] I wanted
to go see my sister so bad.

[ crying ] I wanted to see
if she was okay.

I knew she was not.
[ sniffles ]

Narrator:
Hernando county police

Arrive minutes
after the 911 call.

Lakin: Joey was still
hanging on to life.

It was obvious to the first
responders at the scene

That this was not an accident,

That somebody had deliberately
done this to joey.

Loydgren: In looking
at the scene right away...

[ camera shutter clicking ]

...And the amount of blood,

I knew that this wasn't
going to be good.

Narrator: An ambulance arrives
and takes joey to the hospital.

Lakin: Joey lynn
had severe head trauma,

Put upon being bludgeoned
by a blunt object.

You got home at what time?

Narrator: Right away, detectives
question mark hattenbrun.

A detective on the scene
records every word he says.

Agsar: Mark realized
that they were going to ask him

What happened to joey

And if he had
anything to do with it.

Loydgren: The significant other
of that person

Is always
the first person you look to

Because they would know
everything about them

And also have the most to gain
by the death.

Narrator: Did joey's betrayal
push mark over the edge...

♪

...Or is this a grudge
that goes far deeper?

Agsar:
When you get married,

They say you gain a family.

In this case, tragically,
it was joey's downfall.

♪

♪

Narrator:
In weeki wachee, florida,

Detectives working the brutal
attack of joey hattenbrun

Begin their investigation
with her husband, mark.

Lakin: Given the nature
of the injuries, we believed

That this was something
that was done

By somebody
who was known to joey,

Somebody that would have had
a lot of anger towards joey.

♪

Mark became more of
a person of interest at that.

♪

Narrator: Meanwhile,
joey hattenbrun's life

Hangs by a thread.

When we got to her room...

I was in...

Shock.

[ crying ] my sister
was hooked up to I.V.S.

She was on a breathing tube.

There was towels on the floor

Full of her blood.

I didn't know what to think.

Narrator:
Her family prays she'll recover,

But it's not to be.

Early the next morning,

Joey hattenbrun's wounds
prove to be too much.

♪

Carolyn and mark agreed

To make her
a "do not resuscitate."

♪

And...

♪

[ sniffles ]

...What...

Resonated with me...

[ sniffles ] was...

♪

...None of them
that were at the hospital --

[ sniffles ]

They couldn't...

Stay with her while she died...

Because they couldn't stand...

To look at the way
that she looked.

♪

And she had died alone.

♪

Chelsea:
The doctors told us

That my sister was already gone,

That she took her last breath,

And I wanted to be there
when she did,

But I wasn't.

Narrator:
An autopsy determines

That joey was beaten to death.

Her killer struck her
in the head over 10 times

With a heavy, blunt object.

♪

Most of the damage
was to the rear of her skull.

She never had a chance.

Lakin: That type of brutality,
that type of --

Of intense violence usually
has emotion attached to it.

It's normally
a crime of passion.

♪

Narrator: Detectives now have
a murder case on their hands.

They get to work
interviewing family, neighbors,

And close friends.

The first person
that came to mind was mark

Or one of his family members.

Narrator:
At police headquarters,

Sandy tells investigators
about a run-in she had with mark

Just a week
before joey was murdered.

♪

You know what she did?

This, for me, is forever,
like, seared in my brain.

♪

Narrator:
Investigators close in on mark

And question his brother
about mark's alibi.

Randy claims both he and mark
were together the whole night.

Loydgren:
I spoke with randy,

And he was at the party
the entire time.

It was at his house,

And they never left.

Narrator: Is this just one
brother covering for another?

Randy and mark agree to take
computer voice stress analysis,

A type of lie-detector test.

I don't know who did this.
You know anything about that?

Lakin:
His brother never exhibited
any signs of deception,

And he always exhibited
appropriate emotional responses.

♪

Narrator: After that,

Mark steers detectives
away from his family

And towards one
of joey's relatives.

Loydgren: He said, "well, you
know, joey's half-brother --

He doesn't really get along
with her well

And he's kind of the black sheep

And he's been in trouble
with the law before.

♪

Lakin: He had been a suspect
in a homicide in the past,

And he kind of lived
outside of the family.

Narrator: Mark tells detectives
about seth and joey's

Long-running family feud.

♪

Loydgren:
Myself and another detective

Went down
to the county south of us

And met up with him.

♪

Narrator: And with
their body cameras recording,

They interview joey's brother.

He was cooperating.

He was very responsive
to questioning.

He did not appear
to have anything to hide

In his questioning
with detective loydgren.

Loydgren: We knew
he had nothing to do with this.

It just didn't add up.

He didn't know anything
about his sister's activity,

Her routine,
what she was doing,

And although they had
a little animosity on things,

He loved her and was very angry
and upset of her death,

So he was ruled out.

♪

Narrator:
Seemingly back at square one,

Investigators know
there must be someone

Who had an axe to grind
with joey.

♪

Lakin: Throughout the course
of the investigation,

The entire family would stand
united with investigators,

Trying to help us
to solve this crime.

♪

Loydgren:
The truth is always the truth,

And a lie
is always gonna change.

I thought
you were at the party.

And in this particular case,

We had had
a lot of different lies.

[ breathing ]

♪

♪

Narrator: Detectives
investigating the murder

Of joey hattenbrun

Have cleared her husband, mark,

And brother-in-law randy.

Joey's brother, seth,
is off the hook, too.

But there's one more relative
for investigators to focus on.

Lakin:
As we're interacting with mark

And we're interacting
with randy,

We realized
we did not see brett.

Narrator: Brett,

The controlling,
overbearing head

Of the hattenbrun clan.

And thinking of everything
that was going on,

I just had an epiphany.

I said, "you know what?
We have to look at brett."

Narrator: Detectives bring brett
in for questioning.

He describes what he was doing
the night of the murder.

Lakin: Brett stated
that he was home all night

And that he had received
a call later that night

And responded to the scene.

Narrator:
But neighbors questioned
the night of the murder

Tell a different story.

They say brett was outside
joey's house

Before she was killed.

When investigators tell brett

What the neighbors said,

His story changes.

Brett had a lot of different
lies about the same act,

And he just kept changing
and changing.

And so now brett says, "well,
yeah, uh, I did go outside,

And I saw a strange car
by mark's house."

And he gets his gun,
jumps in his car,

And drives down there because
he sees a car right by the house

With the lights out,
and then it takes off.

♪

Lakin: We watched brett
suddenly manufacturing

Scenarios and stories to justify

Why somebody
may have seen him out there

The night joey lynn
was murdered.

Narrator: Then brett says
he drove back to his house,

Where he was when mark called

And told him
about joey's attack.

Narrator:
The interview with brett
runs for over five hours.

Still, he remains adamant

That he had nothing to do
with joey's murder.

He kept going over that
he did not do this to joey.

He didn't hurt her.

Laking: During this interview
with brett,

He became our suspect.

♪

Narrator: Investigators are
still a long way from an arrest,

So to strengthen their case,

They turn to brett's own family.

They tell mark that they believe

His father
killed his wife, joey.

Loydgren: I also wanted
to speak further with mark

To see if brett would inevitably
get to the truth.

He was completely cooperative,
and he seemed like he was eager

To get to the bottom of how
this happened to his wife.

Narrator:
Brett doesn't take the bait.

Instead, he continues
denying everything.

Mark knew his father
was a controlling person.

He knew how manipulative he was
and his disgust for joey.

But to take her life

And especially
in this fashion --

It was devastating for him.

♪

Narrator:
11 days after joey's murder,

Hernando county investigators
question brett a second time.

Lakin: I believe we were there
approximately seven hours...

♪

...Before brett finally made
the admissions.

He had a great deal of anger
and resentment

Built up towards her.

Narrator:
That anger boiled over

On the night
of September 16, 2011.

♪

♪

She never had a chance.

♪

This is a man who just
killed his daughter-in-law...

And there's no emotion.
There's nothing there.

Narrator:
On September 27, 2011,

Police arrest brett hattenbrun

And charge him with the murder
of his daughter-in-law.

Chelsea:
I found out about brett.

And I was shocked.

I was pissed off.
I was throwing stuff.

I was angry that...

If this was the person
that did this to her...

Why didn't they shoot him?

[ chuckles ]

In my eyes,

He should have gotten
the same...

Treatment that he gave joey.

♪

Narrator:
On March 25, 2014,

Brett hattenbrun is found
guilty of second-degree murder

And nine other felony charges.

Castro-conroy:
I thought it was a just verdict.

We wanted him
to be held accountable.

Narrator: He is sentenced
to life in prison

For the murder charge

Plus 105 years for 6 additional
counts against him.

[ voice breaking ]
and I remember telling brett

And looking him
right in the eye...

That he would never be able
to take her away from us

[crying] and that she would
always be remembered.

♪

Narrator:
Four years later,

Brett hattenbrun dies
in prison of natural causes.

He leaves behind
two broken families.

♪

Loydgren:
A little boy lost his mother.

A husband lost his wife.

A mother lost her daughter.
A sister lost his sister --

All these people affected
by one person's actions.

Chelsea: [ crying ] the death
of my sister broke my mom.

Joey was her baby,

Her firstborn,

The person that
she could talk to.

And...It --
it literally broke my mom

Into pieces.

It broke me.