Murder Loves Company (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Dorm Living Nightmare - full transcript

A murder
in a college dorm

leaves the surviving roommates
scared and in need of answers.

She was very upset,
very distraught.

We were afraid.

It's supposed to be
a safe place.

One's home should be
a sanctuary, not a living hell.

Were boyfriends there?
Were guy friends there?

There's suspicion about everyone
that had been

in and out of our apartment.

I didn't want to think
one of them did it.

They had such
a close relationship.



One has a deadly secret,

another nowhere to hide,

everybody under suspicion.

captions paid for by
discovery communications

On the eastern edge of the
Indiana Purdue fort Wayne campus

are the Waterfield
residence halls.

The upscale accommodations
are coveted student real estate.

It was
apartment living.

Students have more freedom
than a dorm style.

They are set up in kind of a pod
structure

where you have a common area

and then sleeping rooms or sort
of apartments that are attached.

Looking forward
to sharing this freedom

are four newly minted roommates,



including freshman
Shasta Meyers.

I wasn't originally supposed
to be in that apartment,

but I wanted to live on campus,

and luckily they called me
last minute

and asked me
if I wanted to fill a spot.

Two of the other spots
are filled by sophomore

transfer student Lola Martinez
and junior Mandy hake.

Lola was
the first person I met.

She just had, like,
a softness about her.

And then Mandy, she was in
and out a lot of the time

to see her boyfriend,
but she was really kind.

The final roommate to move into
the dorm is Tanzania Morris.

I was happy that
my roommates were welcoming.

You know, you have people
around you,

but when you don't
know them yet,

you still feel
a little bit alone.

A few months
into the semester,

Lola, a 22-year-old
graphic design major,

meets a new guy
at her waitressing job.

Lola started a job at Bandidos,

and she did get to know a guy
named Brandon that worked there.

When she started talking to me
about Brandon,

she did say that she had
feelings for him.

She liked him.

Over the next
few months,

Brandon is spending more
and more time over at the dorm,

but he's not the only
non-roommate occupying space

in apartment 460.

There were people
in and out.

There were friends.
There were guys.

My boyfriend came.
I had friends come over.

Lola, she had, you know, new
people that she met come over.

You're away from your support
group,

your family, your friends.

You have to create new.

Some people are better at it
than others.

And for the most part,
the roommates are good

about keeping guests
from overstaying their welcome.

Hi, guys.

This is my mom,
Tina.

Tanzania, she wanted
her mom, Tina, to come stay.

She wanted to talk to her.

She wanted to spend time
with her.

They didn't really get
to do that a lot.

That's her mom.
Of course, why would we mind?

Tina was going to stay on the
sofa within the living room,

and it was originally
just for a night or two.

When Tina Morris' stay
stretches into a second week,

the tension in
the apartment is real.

Hey.

Hey.

And it turns a planned TV night
into an optional event.

Tina, Tanzania and Lola watched
a movie in the living room.

I wasn't apart of
the movie night.

I had class the next morning,

so I skipped out on the
movie night and went to bed.

Mandy wasn't there that night.

Her door was closed though,
I remember,

so I guess I just assumed
she wasn't there.

What none of the roommates
are able to predict

is that soon after sunrise,

their lives will be changed
forever.

I had class the morning
that everything happened.

I just didn't feel that well,
and I did not want

to go to class that day.

But I don't know.

Something just made me feel like
I had to get up and go.

When I got back
to the apartment,

I was on the phone
with my boyfriend.

I walked straight to my bedroom.

I had chips in my room
that I needed to put away,

so I walked out,

and when I went to put my chips
away in the pantry...

...that's when
I first saw blood.

I just remember being confused
and not understanding

why there was blood
on the pantry door.

Hey. Hey, guys?

Guys?

I just got a sick feeling,
and I started saying names.

Mandy?

This part's hard for me because
I've had a lot of nightmares

about everything
that happened,

and I don't know
if this part is me remembering

or if it's part of, like,
a nightmare that I've had,

but I remember looking
in the bathroom...

...and just seeing blood.

Lola!

Lola.

Lola!

Lola! Oh, god!

I instantly got down
on the ground

next to her
and kind of shook her

and tried to call out her name,
and I got no response.

I remember exactly
how her face was,

and her hair was
just across her face,

and it looked wet.

Shasta races to
a neighbor who calls the police.

I don't remember
why I didn't dial 911 myself.

I was in too much of a panic.

I was in too much of a shock,
and that was just my instinct,

to run out of there
and get help.

I'm still shaking.

I'm still trying to process
what happened.

And I remember, like...

Sorry.

At 11:51 A.M.,
emergency services are ordered

to report to ipfw's Waterfield
campus and apartment 460.

First responders,
they are seeing

a lot of blood
on the walls.

They make entry.

They do attempt to start
giving first aid.

Check for
respirations.

But they determine
that there is no pulse.

22-year-old Lola Martinez

is officially pronounced dead.

Immediately,
an alert is sent out,

locking the campus down.

But as the investigation
gets underway...

...it will become clear
the twisted truth

about what took place
in apartment 460

is going to be difficult
to figure out.

We are closely monitoring
a developing story

of a murderer
on the loose.

When college coed
Lola Martinez is found murdered

on her dorm's bedroom floor,
a campus-wide alert

places the Indiana Purdue
university's campus on lockdown.

This was an attack,
and they did need to put out

whatever safety precautions
they had.

Was it a date-rape situation?

Was it a complete stranger?

Is it a serial-killer-type
scenario?

I mean, it was scary.

All the campus was in shock.

Everyone felt nervous.

We didn't know all the
information or all the details.

We were afraid
for our own lives.

For anybody that has
children in college,

yeah, this is
your worst nightmare.

It tugs at everybody's
heartstrings,

and the younger your victim,
the sadder it is for all of us.

Among those assigned
to make sense of the chaos

is sergeant Kenneth clement.

Myself and a deputy coroner
did a preliminary walk-through.

The first thing that I see,

there is something
wrapped around her neck.

It appeared that a T-shirt
or something of that nature

had been placed
to apply direct pressure.

Underneath the shirt,

there appears to be
several stab wounds

to the left side
of her neck and shoulder.

Nearby, the likely culprit.

The knife that we found
in the apartment

was an 8-inch kitchen knife.

When we found it,
this knife was actually bent

at a 90-degree angle
with the handle broken,

which would only be from force,
stabbing into somebody.

The stab wounds aren't the only
trauma visible on Lola's body.

Her skin is burned.

We were able to
determine that, at some point,

a pan was grabbed
from the stove.

Obviously it had boiling water.

Of everything
detectives find,

there is one fact
more troubling than the rest.

The killer wasn't the least
bit concerned

with covering up their crime.

We noticed all kinds of
blood on Lola's doorframe

and on the wall by the door.

There was a lot of blood smear

and possible prints
that might be within that blood,

so swabs were collected
from blood in the bathrooms.

Again, whose blood
we were looking at

we weren't real sure of
at that point in time.

When Lola's body
is taken in for an autopsy,

all attention turns
to the two main questions

that need to be answered...

Who did this and why?

When you see
that many stab wounds

and in those
particular circumstances,

then you know this was
a personal crime.

Who were her good friends?

Did she have any enemies?

Was she dating anybody?

Had she broken up with anybody?

You got to look at
the totality of everything.

What is in their life?

Who is in their life?

What are the different things
that could've happened?

In a murder investigation,
you rule nothing out.

By 2:00 P.M.,
authorities in fort Wayne

make contact with police

in Lola's hometown
of las cruces, new Mexico.

Their assistance is needed
to notify her family.

That day,
April 18th, 2008,

I was vacuuming at the time that
the officers came to my door,

And my thought was,
"okay. What's going on?"

When I saw the chaplain,
I knew something was wrong,

and when they sat me down,

then that's when they proceeded
to ask me

if I had a daughter attending
Indiana Purdue fort Wayne.

I was here by myself,
kind of went a little crazy,

but I had to compose myself
because I knew

I had to call my husband.

My wife called me.

She said, "hey.
You need to get home."

She wouldn't tell me
what was going on.

On the way home,
I called her again,

"I need to know what happened."

I insisted, and she told me.

I just lost it.

Liette changed her name
'cause she didn't like

when people
mispronounced her name,

so she just decided she was
gonna name herself Lola.

Detectives ask if Lola
had mentioned run-ins

with anyone who might have
harbored a grudge.

She never mentioned anything.

As far as I know, Liette didn't
have any disagreements

with her roommates.

She loved it out there,
and she created

some beautiful friendships,
you know, from what we saw,

so I didn't second-guess
anything, you know.

Meanwhile, back on campus,

there is a growing concern Lola
may not be their only victim.

Could someone else have been
in apartment 460,

and are they safe?

The first witness detectives
speak with is Shasta Meyers,

but she is the roommate
who found Lola

and struggles to be of help.

There's a lot of things
that I don't remember,

and trying to talk about
what just happened,

that's almost nearly impossible.

I mean, I'm still shaking.

I'm still trying to process
what happened.

I remember them asking me,
"were boyfriends there?

Were guy friends there?"

At that point, there's suspicion
about everyone that had been

in and out of our apartment.

She's very upset,
very distraught,

so Shasta couldn't recall
too much information,

and we didn't know
if things were missing

from the apartment
at this point in time.

Yeah. Hi, Mandy.

The next roommate
to be located is Mandy hake.

Mandy traveled back and
forth to see her boyfriend.

There was not really that
bond and connection

like there was
with everyone else

because of the lack
of seeing each other.

Yeah, this is sergeant clement
calling.

When I spoke with her
on the phone,

Mandy seemed very upset,

couldn't believe
that Lola was dead

or that somebody
would've attacked her.

Let me ask you something.

According to Mandy,

she arrived in Michigan
late Thursday night.

Yeah, you can definitely
talk to my parents.

Mandy also left a note
in Lola's bathroom

that backs up her story.

Just because somebody says
they had nothing to do with it

or weren't around,

you still have to verify
and check their story,

rule out the motives.

Of course, I had some of
the same questions for her

that I had for Shasta.

Do you know of any enemies
that Lola would've had,

anybody that didn't like her
or had an issue with her?

Mandy seems to have
a legitimate alibi,

but investigators can't close
any doors just yet.

Okay.
Thank you.

The last of the four roommates
to be located is Tanzania.

She and Shasta are brought
down to the police station

for questioning.

Mm-hmm.

I was 18.

My friend just passed away,
and...

And I didn't know what to think.

I just felt scared.

This means, over in
interrogation room two...

...Tanzania may be the only
one who can help.

But what she says will force
detectives

to question everything
they think they know.

As the news of college student
Lola Martinez's murder

continues to spread
across the ipfw campus,

fort Wayne, Indiana,
detectives

believe they've
come across a lucky break.

Of course, due to the
time frame that had occurred,

very few people were home.

Say, Friday, if they're
not in class, they're gone,

so we did not have anybody
saying

that they had heard
or saw anything.

Then the fact that it was
a higher floor in the complex,

we knew we had no forced entry.

We had no broken windows.

This means there
should be an easy way to tell

who was in the building
when the crime occurred.

To gain access
to the apartment...

...you had to have
a special key fob to get in.

With the fobs to get into
the building

and another key
to get into the room,

it's supposed to be
a safe place.

We contacted security
about the key-fob entries.

I was told that they would
be able to get lists

of who used what fob
on what door at certain times.

The information promises
to be a boon to detectives.

Unfortunately,
I discovered

that there was errors
with the system,

and they couldn't retrieve
that information.

It's a devastating blow,
one they hope Tanzania Morris,

the last roommate
they need to speak with,

can help them overcome.

The answers they were
giving me were very raw.

Trying to remember dates
and times

was not very easy
for them to do,

and they were struggling
with that.

Like her roommate
Shasta Meyers before her,

Tanzania's interview reveals
very little unknown information,

so detectives decide
to take a gamble

and reunite Lola's two roommates
for the first time.

It's frustrating, but the
meeting offers nothing new.

The revelation about the man
from Bandidos

makes him of chief concern.

Brandon was at the top
of my list to interview.

Obviously, a boyfriend of Lola's
was very important.

Brandon is located
at the restaurant

where he and Lola work.

For the first several hours,
nothing had been confirmed

except for the fact
that I had heard reports.

We all went over to make sure
she showed up,

and she hadn't, so we started
to piece things together.

Nothing had been confirmed yet,

but I was absolutely gutted
the entire day,

and I walked outside and hid
behind the restaurant,

and I cried, and I just tried to
make sense of what was going on.

I wanted to make a report,

not necessarily
to clear my name,

but to put my name out there
to say, "hey.

If you are thinking this is me
or whatever, I want to be here

and let you know that it wasn't,
and this is what I know."

And what Brandon
reveals is something no one

had told detectives before.

Brandon said that
during movie night,

Tanzania had started asking
a bunch of questions

about the movie.

Oh, so, like,
what happened before that?

Were they together?

Oh, my god. Can you just
be quiet and watch the movie?

Brandon claims,
after the comment was made,

the mood in the room
took a dramatic shift.

Lola was feeling
very uncomfortable,

so she came over and was, like,

so relieved to be out
of the apartment.

She expressed being sad
and upset.

She said the tension
in this apartment

is very awkward right now.

We had a very good time
that night.

About maybe 1:00
in the morning, 1:30,

I had put her in her car,

and I kissed her goodnight
and said,

"I'll see you tomorrow."

She said, "I can't wait."

We both stared at each other
through our car windows

as we turned away,
and I even said that night...

I was like, "man, this is great.
This is amazing.

This is something that's real."

This is the last time Brandon
claims to have seen Lola.

He seems genuine,

and investigators
have nothing to hold him on.

I started thinking of
who might have done it.

I didn't want to think
the roommates

because they had
such a close relationship.

And for a minor
argument to escalate to murder

is difficult to understand.

But detectives now have
more questions for Tanzania,

starting with,
where is her mother, Tina?

Could there be another victim?

24 hours
into their investigation

and detectives have
no new developments

to report to the family
of 22-year-old Lola Martinez.

It's a tough reality made harder

by the distance
that separates them.

We're a few thousand miles away,

so all we wanted to hear
from an officer,

what had happened, you know?

And all my wife could tell me
was that our daughter was dead.

Her laugh.

Her smile.

She would come in and, like,
snuggle up and purr

like a kitten
and then hug me real tight.

It's those little quirks
that she did that I missed.

Those days are hard.

Those days are hard,
but I pull myself up,

and I have to move forward
because I hear

Liette saying, "it's okay, mom.
It's okay."

In their grief,
the family does pass on

some important information
to detectives.

She did have a vehicle
parked on the campus

registered out of new Mexico.

We look for it right away
and did not find it.

Now that leads me to believe

that whoever did this to Lola
took her car.

So was this done for the car?

Was it murder done
for financial gain?

So we wanted to look
for that car right away.

An Apb
is issued on Lola's car.

In the meantime, detectives have
a few new questions

for her roommate
Tanzania Morris.

Investigators focus
on the alleged argument

that took place at movie night,
only hours before Lola's death.

Where'd she just go?

When asked,
Tanzania admits

there was tension
in the apartment.

No, wait, like,
what happened?

Oh, my god. Can you just
be quiet and watch the movie?

If someone's trying
to talk during the movie,

it's disruptive.

Any normal person would say,
"hey. Look,

let's just watch the movie,
and we'll chit-chat afterwards."

Tanzania downplays
any reaction to Lola's outburst.

Tanzania said she didn't
take it offensively at all

because she said, "I do ask too
many questions during movies.

I am that way."

Tanzania swears things
are fine between her and Lola.

It's actually her relationship
with her own mother,

Tina Morris,
that is strained.

Through most of her life,

Tanzania was actually staying
with other relatives,

and Tina had just come back
into her life for a minute.

Shasta confirms that
Tina had become a problem.

Hey.

Tanzania
had to go to class.

She had to work, so Tina
was there by herself.

I didn't feel annoyed by it,
but it came to the point

where we had to have
a conversation.

What's the plan?

Is your mom gonna be
leaving soon?

Tanzania reassures the roommates
that her mother, Tina,

had a bus ticket and would
soon be out of their lives.

So talking with Tanzania,

she did not know
where her mother, Tina, was.

And at this point in time,

we don't know
if Tina's a victim.

Or is there a
different solution entirely?

The answer may lie in how Tina's
visit impacted the roommates.

Lola didn't want to
be rude,

but it was starting
to weigh on her.

It was making her uncomfortable.

My advice to Lola was that
she needed to talk

with her roommates about it.

I mean, it's kind of like
she's been there for a while.

Lola and I
went to go grab some pizza,

and we did have a conversation
about our feelings

toward Tanzania's mom
staying with us

and continuing to stay there.

We have to
say something.

Yes.
I think so, too.

We both agreed that it was
a longer period of time

than we thought
it would be.

She was supposed to be leaving
after the end of the week,

and so it's like, "okay.
Your mom needs to go."

30 hours into
their investigation,

detectives get access to what
they hope is a game changer,

the security-camera
footage from the dorm.

Any time you have any kind of
surveillance footage,

what that does is it
gives you a time frame.

It's extremely helpful.

When I watched the videotape,
we were able to determine

exactly who was coming
and going from the apartment.

Scanning through
the security video,

roommate Mandy is never seen
on the day of the murder.

This confirms her alibi that she
left for home the night before.

Brandon is also never seen
on the security cameras,

thus backing up
his version of events.

The first person to make
an appearance

on the morning
of the murder is Shasta.

I then see Shasta
leave the apartment,

so at this point, I know
there's only two other people

in the apartment with Lola.

This means the answer
to who murdered Lola

comes down to a mother
and daughter.

Who will walk out last?

Lola Martinez's
murder investigation

has fort Wayne investigators
scrutinizing security footage.

Having cleared roommates
Shasta and Mandy,

two women are left
in the apartment

during Lola's
last hour alive,

the final roommate, Tanzania
Morris, and her mother, Tina.

I then see Tanzania leave
the apartment on the video,

so Tanzania and Shasta
both leave for the day.

The last person we see leave
the room

before we know something
happened...

...is Tina Morris.

I see Tina leave to go smoke
a cigarette.

Both of her hands are out
of her pockets,

and she's heading out
with cigarette in her hand.

I then see her come back
into the apartment.

Nearly an hour later,
Tina leaves again.

This time, her behavior
raises alarms.

She has changed her shirt.

Why did she change
an hour later?

Also, the second time,
her left hand is in her pocket.

She never pulls it out.

We see her at the elevator
on the security video,

but she gets impatient.

It seems like she does not
want to be there. She's antsy.

She's looking all around as
she's waiting on the elevator,

and then she hits the stairwell.

The next person
police see

is Shasta coming back
from class at 11:38 A.M.

We do see Shasta coming down the
hallway to the apartment door.

She's got books in her hand.

She's got a phone to her ear.

She actually drops her keys and
bends over and picks them up,

opens the door, goes in.

And then minutes lapse.

She comes out.

You can tell from the expression
on her face

that she has had one of
the worst days of her life.

Something has
tragically gone wrong.

A statewide search
for Tina is issued.

Yeah, sergeant clement.
We need...

When we couldn't find her
right away,

one thing we started doing
was contacting the bus companies

to see if there was any ticket
purchased in Tina Morris' name.

Thank you.

At that point,
we're still looking,

trying to figure out

if Tanzania's mother
is okay or not.

Sergeant clement
is about to find out

in a most unexpected way.

Sunday morning, I get a call
on my cell phone,

and it is Tina Morris,

and she tells me
that she is in Indianapolis.

She heard that we were
looking for her.

Immediately, myself
and another detective

got permission from command,
got a marked squad car,

and we took the 2-hour drive
to Indianapolis

where we did find Tina Morris
sitting in a park.

Turns out Tanzania
is really the one to thank.

She called her mom
and goes,

"mom, please tell me
you didn't do this."

It was Tanzania that told Tina
to stay where she was.

As soon as I met up
with her in the park,

I wanted to get
a quick statement

as to what she was
going to say occurred.

I'm gonna drive you back
to the station now.

I just want to come clean,
you know?

Tina admits she is
the one who murdered Lola.

It's all he needs to hear.

Right next to the park
where she was sitting

was Lola's vehicle
parked on the street,

so at that point, we loaded up
Tina into the police car.

We obtained a tow truck
to bring the vehicle back

so that it could be processed,

and then we did the 2-hour drive
back to fort Wayne.

Once back
at the station,

detectives conduct
a formal interview.

Sorry.

Always!

Tina said that this
offended her because she felt

that Lola should not talk
to her daughter that way.

She says she stewed
all through the night

and into the morning,
but she gives detective clement

an unbelievable version
of events.

And she said, well,
after everybody

left the apartment for the day,
she decided to talk with Lola

about how she felt
she disrespected Tanzania.

Well, that's not the way
you talk to my daughter.

Do you understand?

She said that Lola attacked her,
and she just defended herself.

Detective clement
isn't buying

the self-defense story
for a second.

I was not letting her tell me
what happened

but telling her
what happened.

I didn't mean
to kill her.

It did come out that Lola
never attacked her,

that it was her
attacking Lola.

She still held to the story

that Lola had
disrespected Tanzania,

and this was her reason
for the confrontation.

While Lola
struggles to get away,

Tina grabs
a boiling pot of water

and throws it in Lola's face.

I asked her to show me
her injuries.

The only injury she had...

Were cuts that would be
consistent

with sliding down a knife
as you're stabbing somebody.

Tina is booked into custody
and charged with felony murder

as well as nearly
a dozen other counts.

We ended up doing
a plea bargain with Tina Morris.

We didn't want to go to trial.

We didn't want to hear
the graphic details

of what transpired
in that dorm room.

We didn't want to go
through that.

Now, as forgiving her
for what she's done,

I'm slowly getting there.

I have to for myself.
Not for her, but for myself.

Tina Morris was
sentenced to 60 years in prison.

I know some people
have a hard time with that.

"They should get life."

Lola's loved ones
are left to try

and put their life
back together.

Nothing will ever bring
Lola back.

It doesn't matter how
many years a person gets.

It's not gonna bring that
person you love so much back.

She did nothing.

She's in her own bedroom,
her own house,

her own environment,
and look what happened to her.

The night I sent Lola
home, I was so excited.

Things were going so well,

and had the situation
been different,

had I had her stay
at my place that night,

she probably
would still be alive.

And that's something
that haunts me every day.

I know that
when I'm missing her,

I talk to her, and I just say,

"mija, just be with me.
I want to feel you,"

and I can feel her right now.

I feel this warm feeling
that I get through my body,

and I can feel it
right now.