Real Murders of Orange County (2020): Season 1, Episode 7 - Hancock - full transcript
JONATHAN VOLZKE:
Orange County
sheriff's investigators
were called to the scene
of a fire in Lemon Heights.
The house had been burned.
And on the patio,
we saw the first body.
And we saw another body
in the kitchen.
There were multiple gunshots
on both of the victims.
PAUL FUZZARD:
It's not something
you're gonna see
in Orange County
on a regular basis.
And it turned out to be
the Hancock residence.
NARRATOR:
A family
with a deep, well-healed
American history
is brutally victimized.
KARIN DeSOUZA:
I was in shock.
Such a horrific death
was quite devastating.
VOLZKE:
Killing them wasn't enough.
They had to be destroyed,
as well.
NARRATOR:
Were they a target
for financial revenge,
or was this an emotional
vendetta from the seedy side
-of the O.C.?
-This was gonna be a whodunit.
BOB BLACKBURN:
He liked to throw money around,
especially in the presence
of women.
VOLZKE:
She felt like
John Hancock had made
all these promises
that he didn't keep.
The local newspaper
hailed him as a hero,
but many people
said that he
was ripping them off.
BLACKBURN:
You look
at the facts of the case,
all those facts show
a coldhearted killer.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
The fashionable,
hill-swept Orange County
neighborhood of Lemon Heights
is home to an affluent crowd
taken to the leisurely habits
of the rich:
horseback riding,
poolside lounging
and keeping up with the Joneses
MICHAEL JACOBS:
Lemon Heights
is, uh, one of the nicer places
in the county.
Very low crime rate.
JACK DATT:
Lemon Heights would probably be
similar to Beverly Hills
or the Hollywood Hills.
And the house
that I had built up there
was at the very, very top
of the hill.
It was just a gorgeous place.
Back in 1995,
I ultimately decided
to rent the house.
Then I got approached
by John Hancock.
John Hancock VI.
And he was supposably
a direct descendent
of John Hancock,
who signed
the Declaration of Independence
I thought he looked like
Kenny Rogers.
He agreed to rent the house.
His mother, Helen Hancock,
was gonna live there
along with his two children
that were both
of high school age.
His daughter's name was Ashley,
and his son's name
was John Hancock VII.
NARRATOR:
The Hancocks enjoyed
a plush life in Lemon Heights,
and although it was
a long, winding road
that brought John
to this pleasant peak,
he had been swaddled
in the trappings of wealth
since childhood.
John Hancock was raised
in a family
that was very successful
on many levels.
John Hancock's father, Buddy,
he had invented a portable
film splicing machine,
which revolutionized
how they worked in Hollywood.
So, it had been drummed into,
uh, John Hancock his entire life
that money equated success
and value.
NARRATOR:
Even as a teenager,
John knew what he wanted:
to share the prestige
of his family name
with a stunning bride
and etch his name in the halls
of those successful
and affluent Hancocks
who came before him.
John Tyler and I were going
to Granada Hills High School.
Everyone knew him as John Tyler
and he was so good-looking.
It was like
staring into the face
of this golden god.
I was head over heels.
We had a stunning wedding.
The women were
in their cocktail dresses
and their furs.
It really was glorious.
And when our daughter,
Tamara Rae, was born,
he was pleased as punch.
He used to ride around with her
on his shoulders.
It was heaven.
NARRATOR:
The young Hancocks
enjoyed the O.C. good life,
complete
with exclusive cocktail parties
expensive cars and luxe living.
But after several
failed business ventures,
the burden
of lofty family expectations
weighed heavily on John.
DeSOUZA:
Success was extremely important
in the Hancock family.
Helen, J.T.'s mother,
wanted her children
to be successful.
I think it put a little bit
extra stress on him.
He was striving to be wealthy.
VOLZKE:
When Buddy Hancock
had a serious heart attack,
John Hancock was brought in
to run the company.
But his family was so displeased
with the job he was doing
that he was ultimately fired
from the family business,
and Helen Hancock became CEO
of Maier-Hancock Industries.
By all accounts,
they didn't get along very well
and certainly, she was not
pleased by her son's failures.
Even she described her son, uh,
saying that John Hancock
always seemed to be fighting
with the world.
DeSOUZA:
He started
not coming home at night.
I filed for divorce in 1974.
VOLZKE:
In 1978, John Hancock
married another woman.
They had two children together,
Ashley and John.
But just like
all of his business ventures,
that marriage ended
in bankruptcy and failure,
as well.
NARRATOR:
Although one of the privileged,
John had been leading
a troubled life.
But he seemingly made
a gracious turn to refocus
on family in 1995
and reconnected
with his estranged mother.
DeSOUZA:
She had been at odds
with her only son
almost his entire life.
So, John and Helen
had moved into a house
in Lemon Heights.
I think Helen worked very hard
to rekindle
the type of relationship
she wanted with her son.
VOLZKE:
Moving into
the Lemon Heights home
was a huge step
for John and Helen.
They'd never been close.
And I think the hope was that
if he could settle in with Mom,
they could rebuild
the relationship
and it would give him
a foundation to move forward.
And then he even had
his teenage children
from the second wife
move in with them.
He and the children both knew
that they'd missed out
growing up together,
and it looked like he was
really trying to build
some relationships that
had been lacking in the past.
Neighbors would say they seemed
like a very idyllic family.
NARRATOR:
Everything would change for the
Hancocks on one sunny afternoon
when neighbors suddenly spotted
billows of smoke and fire
bursting from the Lemon Heights
mansion where the family lived.
FUZZARD:
This was big news quick.
I remember helicopters
flying over, news channels.
It's a big thing
because it's not something
you're gonna see in Orange
County on a regular basis.
BLACKBURN:
My partner and I were told
to respond
to the 11000 block
of Dannen Lane.
The scene was chaotic,
'cause it was still
what we consider a "hot scene."
We saw the house... it literally
looked like a castle...
it was still smoldering.
We did a walk-through
of the premises.
Initially, we went around
to the backyard,
and, um, outside
the sliding glass doors
to the rear of the house,
and on the patio,
we saw the first body.
And we could tell
that it was a male adult.
He was laying on his back.
We could tell he was burned,
primarily from his waist up.
So his upper torso
had been burned.
VOLZKE:
His hands were outstretched,
as if warding off an attacker.
Or trying to push someone away.
BLACKBURN:
And then we went into the house
and we saw another body
in the kitchen.
This body was laying
on its side.
And then there was a wall phone
with the phone
off the hook and laying
on the floor next to the body.
Unfortunately,
the body was burned so bad
we couldn't even tell
if it was a male or female.
So whoever this person was
was possibly trying
to call for help
when they succumbed
to their injuries.
NARRATOR:
The scene was horrific.
The positioning of the victims
captured the body language
of their last living moments,
and made investigators
immediately suspect foul play.
They quickly collected
whatever evidence they could.
BLACKBURN:
The arson investigator
showed up while we were there,
and it didn't take him long
to figure out
that there was
an accelerant used.
Not only in the house,
but on both of the bodies, too.
'Cause there was
substantial damage done
to the interior of the house,
so we were concerned about
evidence that was gonna be
completely destroyed by a fire.
Until the coroner turned over
the bodies,
and it was at that point
when we could see bullet holes
in both bodies.
We were trying to figure out,
"Well, which came first,
the fire or the bullet wounds?"
If it was the bullet wounds,
then what was the intent
of the suspect or suspects?
So right away, I was thinking
there's a potential
that whoever did this
wanted to destroy evidence.
A body might be set on fire
to make identification
much more difficult.
The house turned out
to be the Hancock residence.
Perhaps one
of the family members
could've been the victims.
NARRATOR:
It seemed that some
of the Hancock family members
had fallen victim
to a cruel slaying
and fiery cover-up.
Was it John, his mother Helen
or more tragically,
the children?
FUZZARD:
We were gonna have to track down
who'd been at the house last.
Anything we can come up with.
This was gonna be a whodunit.
VOLZKE:
It was a very deliberate act.
Somebody was very angry.
Killing them wasn't enough.
They had to be destroyed
as well.
BLACKBURN:
Two weeks before,
a search warrant was served
at the Hancocks' home.
The door got kicked in
by the sheriffs.
They wanted explanations.
John Hancock was certainly know
as someone who made enemies
much more easily
than he made friends.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Questions floated through
the Orange County hills
like the lingering scent
of burned tinder.
Who were
the shooting victims found
at the torched
Hancock residence,
and why were they targeted?
The possibilities
suddenly narrowed
when two of the family members
arrived at the crime scene.
BLACKBURN:
I was told that John's
two children had arrived.
I knew that we had
to interview them to find out
if these were potentially his
and her parents in the house.
The Hancock kids found out
about the murders
from friends at school.
They actually came to us
at the scene.
Ashley was very upset,
very distraught.
She had a look about her
that she didn't know
what was going on
and really wanted some answers.
BLACKBURN:
We interviewed both Ashley,
who was 17,
and, uh, John Jr. who was 15.
Both of them said
that they were at school
at the time
that this incident occurred.
FUZZARD:
They said that the parents
had been divorced
for a number of years,
and John had been married
even before that.
But they preferred to live
with John in this big house
with a pool and all the things
that a teenager
would really like to have.
His dad was the money guy,
the provider for them
and that was a good place
for them to stay.
BLACKBURN:
Took some time
to make a positive
identification on both bodies.
Uh, it wasn't as difficult
on the male body.
We learned within hours
that that body was positively
identified as John Hancock.
The other body in the kitchen...
it took some time.
We needed
to do some fingerprint work,
and also,
had to have a dentist come in
and do some dental work, because
it was burned so bad.
But ultimately, we were able
to make a positive I.D.
on that body, as well,
and it turned out
to be Helen Hancock,
John Hancock's mother.
DeSOUZA:
I was in my apartment
in Beverly Hills.
All of a sudden,
this news came on.
John Tyler Hancock,
um, was murdered.
His mother, Helen, had actually
also been murdered.
I was in shock.
To find out that my ex-husband
had gone through...
such a horrific death was...
quite devastating.
I cannot even imagine
what was going through his head
to hear those gunshots.
I don't know.
I don't think
anybody should die like that.
NARRATOR:
Who would possibly want
to target this O.C. mother
and son?
And furthermore,
why would an elderly woman
be murdered so viciously?
Was one the intended target
and the other caught
in the crossfire?
Detectives carefully pried
what information they could
from the distraught siblings.
BLACKBURN:
Most of homicides
that I've ever worked...
the murders occurred by somebody
who knows the victim.
The family's got a lot of money
There could be
a financial motive there.
We need to eliminate
the family first.
The kids are part
of the immediate family.
And so, my synopsis
of the interview
and what I thought about
both Ashley and John Jr. was
that they were telling us
the truth,
and we were comfortable
in starting to eliminate them
as potential suspects.
We also learned
specifically from Ashley that
a car was missing
from the house,
which was a Ford Mustang,
red in color.
We went ahead and issued
an all-points bulletin alert
on that vehicle just in case,
you know, somebody were
to stop and locate it.
That detail definitely
made us think
it might have been a burglary,
but you take a step back
and say, "Why so much violence
towards the bodies?"
NARRATOR:
Investigators had to consider
whether this was a targeted
hit on the Hancocks.
And as they looked into recent
contacts and prior records,
a lead surfaced through
the owner of the residence.
The biggest thing
that was bothering me was
that I had been up there
a week earlier,
and it seemed very odd.
NARRATOR:
Just months after
the Hancocks had moved
into exclusive Lemon Heights,
the homeowner suspected
his new renters
were having some problems
at home.
DATT:
Before the fire and the murder,
I got a call from John Hancock,
and he said,
"I need you to come up
to the property
"because there's a problem
with the door.
It got kicked in
by the sheriffs."
And I asked him,
"Why'd they kick in the door?"
And he's like, "Oh, there's...
there's some misunderstanding
with something
that happened in Arizona."
BLACKBURN:
Two weeks before,
a search warrant was served
at the Hancocks' home
from the authorities
in La Paz County, Arizona.
The authorities in Arizona
had come out to California
to confiscate
some financial records
and whatever else they could
develop to help their case.
One of our financial crimes
investigators was assigned
to the La Paz County
Sheriff's Department personnel,
and was able to give us
some background information
on John Hancock.
FUZZARD:
He had been to the house
in the past,
and he had investigated
John Hancock
for fraud before.
DeSOUZA:
At this point in life,
John Tyler had gotten angry,
very angry.
He wanted to do all these things
in life.
A lot of 'em
just didn't form for him,
and he just didn't
understand why.
So, it just spiraled
downhill for him.
John Hancock had gotten involved
in some white-collar-type
financial crimes
in Arizona over some property
that he owned back there.
DeSOUZA:
The complex was called
"The Sandpiper."
He had condominiums, townhomes.
VOLZKE:
John, in April of 1994,
had purchased
this condominium complex
near the Colorado River
as an investment.
And...
immediately, trouble started.
NARRATOR:
As Orange County investigators
examined murder victim
John Hancock's
controversial business dealings
in Arizona,
they found that he may have bee
more desperate to succeed
than previously imagined.
One of our financial crimes
investigators
had developed some information
and some background
on John Hancock
through this other case
that Arizona had
from two weeks before.
VOLZKE:
In Arizona, John Hancock
was certainly known
as someone who made enemies
much more easily
than he made friends.
NARRATOR:
The investigation into
Hancock's dealings in Arizona
revealed a flood
of hostile connections
to the O.C. entrepreneur.
VOLZKE:
John Hancock owned condominiums
and a waste water treatment
plant along the Colorado River.
Working with
the local government out there,
he was trying to sell
the waste water project.
He wanted three times
what it was worth.
The deal fell through,
and even after that,
John Hancock went through
and reported 25 or so residents
in that area
who were still on septic,
that they were violating
clean water laws.
John Hancock seemed to be
a fairly shrewd businessman.
He wanted to force
the people to hook up
to his waste water treatment
plant so he could charge them
for using his system and
to profit from using his system
The local newspaper
hailed him as a hero,
but many people there thought
that it was, uh, retaliation
for the deal falling through.
MURPHY:
I had heard that some
of the tenants at The Sandpiper
were having some problems with
John Hancock, uh, themselves.
VOLZKE:
Tenants said
that he was ripping them off
and wouldn't refund their
deposits when they moved out.
DATT:
And they said he had taken
credit cards for their deposits
and then he started using
those credit card numbers
for his own purchases.
VOLZKE:
On top of all of that,
one of the tenants
at The Sandpiper alleged
that John had opened
an American Express
in his name
and ran up a $40,000 bill.
BLACKBURN:
And so, that was the case
that the authorities there
in Arizona were investigating.
And that's what led them
to Orange County,
to John Hancock's
current residence.
MURPHY:
I believe that John Hancock left
a trail of enemies in the area.
I felt that there might
have been somebody out there
that he crossed paths with
that took matters
into their own hands.
NARRATOR:
The Arizona file on John Hancock
exposed a dirty laundry list
of slighted tenants
and outright fraud victims.
But this early
in the investigation,
no viable suspects
were standing out.
FUZZARD:
We didn't have enough
probable cause
or evidence to arrest
anybody yet.
And so, we... there was still
some more work to do.
VOLZKE:
Not everybody thought
John Hancock
was a bad guy.
Uh, some people said
he was just misunderstood.
That in...
away from business dealings,
he was a very nice guy.
DeSOUZA:
I remember
that bright, shiny face
and that smile and that-that
love he would show me.
My knight in shining armor.
My angel.
The police were trying
to make up for what happened,
finding who did this to him
and giving him some peace.
BLACKBURN:
You're dealing with families
who have lost a loved one,
they want action taken.
So it's a big responsibility,
not only to take
one of those cases on,
but do the best job
that we can for the family
of the, of the loved one
that's been killed.
NARRATOR:
Investigators continued to tear
through Hancock's Rolodex,
and as John's grieving children
began to work their way
out of shock, they revealed
a disturbing and crucial detail
to Orange County sheriffs.
We were talking to the kids
and trying to get a feel
for what was going on
in the house.
Ashley brought up an incident
that had occurred
the day before the murders.
The day
before the murders,
somebody had come
to John's house.
BLACKBURN:
The kids both identified her
as Tynickia.
She goes by the name "Ty,"
a young woman that
their father had started seeing
I mean, to what state he was
seeing her, we're not sure,
if they were actually considered
boyfriend/girlfriend.
But-but we do know that,
at least for-for several weeks,
that their father
had been seeing her.
This was one of the first times
that they saw her at the house.
She was irate,
she was screaming and yelling.
She was demanding money
from him.
And then Tynickia actually put
a gun in John Hancock's face.
John's teenage kids
said John wasn't frightened.
He took the pistol, unloaded it
and gave it back.
BLACKBURN:
And then Ashley's dad asked her
to drive Tynickia to a bank,
and cash a check for her,
a $200 check,
and then drive her home.
VOLZKE:
When John Hancock's teenage kid
came back from dropping off
Tynickia,
they wanted explanations.
This woman had put a gun
in their dad's face.
He didn't seem fazed by it
or frightened by it at all.
And he told her that Tynickia
was actually a friend
who wanted to go
to South America
and he was trying to give her
the means and help her
get there.
FUZZARD:
Tynickia had no criminal record
No petty crimes,
no minor crimes,
no drug use
or anything like that,
and was under the radar from
any law enforcement standpoint.
BLACKBURN:
At the time,
she was 19 years old,
so she was relatively young.
But she was somebody
that we needed to talk to.
NARRATOR:
Despite her clean record,
Tynickia suddenly sprang
to the top of the suspect list.
And as the kids divulged detail
of their father's love life,
detectives highlighted
a possible connection
between another girlfriend
and their new suspect.
BLACKBURN:
The kids were also aware
that one of the female friends
that John Hancock had
at the time,
a girlfriend of his,
was Kimberly Wakefield.
We learned that perhaps Tynickia
was a friend of Kim Wakefield's.
We didn't know
what kind of relationship
the two of them had,
but we were just told that...
that the two of them
know each other somehow.
That's when we made
the determination
to go two different ways.
We have a team of people go try
and find Tynickia Thompson.
And then we needed to go try
and find Kim Wakefield,
'cause we thought
she could lead us to
Tynickia Thompson if the other
team of investigators
couldn't find her.
It was about 1:00
or 1:30 in the morning
on Thursday, May 9.
My partner and I found out
where Kim Wakefield lived.
We went over to her apartment.
Not a far drive,
but they were worlds apart.
NARRATOR:
John Hancock's romantic desires
led him away
from the gilded gates
of the hilltop
and into another world.
Investigators needed to know:
what was the connection
between Kim Wakefield
and Tynickia Thompson?
And were they responsible
for the murders?
She has a relationship
with John,
she's gonna know
some information.
Hopefully we can find out
who committed these murders.
NARRATOR:
Investigators were tracking
19-year-old Tynickia Thompson
and a woman rumored to be
her friend, Kim Wakefield,
to question them about
the brutal slaying
of John Hancock and his mother.
Did Kim's romantic involvement
with Hancock
intersect with his murder?
BLACKBURN:
On Thursday, May 9 of 1996,
my partner and I found out where
Kim Wakefield lived, and we
went over to her apartment
in the city of Anaheim.
She was present at the home,
so she invited us in.
We told her why we were there.
She gave us some
background information
on her relationship
with John Hancock.
She said back in March she was
working at Fritz That's It.
It's a gentlemen's club
in Anaheim.
She was a dancer
and a stripper there,
and John Hancock would
come in regularly.
She said he liked to
throw money around,
especially in the presence
of women.
She started seeing him.
Not dating him, in her eyes,
but just seeing him.
She had been over to his house
a couple times.
He had been over to her
apartment a couple times.
She divulged that
she liked to paint.
That this job that she had
at the gentlemen's club
was just kind of
a stepping stone,
trying to provide for herself
and her daughter
that lived at home with her.
By March of 1996,
Kimberly Wakefield knew
that she and John Hancock
wanted different things
from the relationship.
He wanted intimacy,
he wanted forever.
She wanted a friendship.
BLACKBURN:
And so she decided
weeks before the homicides
to break things off with him.
But she seemed sincere
and concerned about him
still wanting to continue
the relationship.
But she was also pretty firm
in the fact that
she didn't want it
to go any further.
I mean, to what extent
would Kim go
to make sure that
that relationship ended?
So we considered
the possibility that
maybe she had somebody
set up the murder somehow.
NARRATOR:
As the interview
with Kim Wakefield
pointed towards Hancock's
unrequited love,
she suddenly dropped
a detail on detectives
that revealed the connection
to Tynickia
they had been looking for.
BLACKBURN:
John apparently threw
some money at Kim Wakefield
and paid for a month's rent
at her apartment,
and even purchased
one of her paintings
that she had at the house,
and while he was there,
Tynickia came over.
Tynickia lives in the same
apartment complex
just three or four
apartments down.
Tynickia, because of her
proximity to Kim's apartment,
um, Kim would ask her to babysit
sometimes for her.
So Kim was comfortable
with Tynickia just
walking in the apartment.
And this was one of those times
where she just walked in,
and John Hancock happened
to be there.
And that's when
the two of them met,
John Hancock
and Tynickia Thompson.
John paid $700 cash
for one of Kimberly's paintings.
And Tynickia saw that he,
apparently, didn't think
that was any great amount
of money,
and began to
get to know him as well.
This relationship started to
blossom after that evening.
So Kim finds out that Tynickia
is now seeing John Hancock.
VOLZKE:
John and Tynickia
had developed a relationship,
and even became intimate.
He had promised Tynickia money.
He had promised her jobs
and different opportunities.
And they found
it wasn't unusual for Tynickia
to be seen with cash
and John's car.
BLACKBURN:
Suddenly Tynickia shows up
at Kim Wakefield's apartment,
and she's flashing money around
It was obvious that
Tynickia was flaunting the fact
that now she was
seeing John, instead of Kim.
That now Tynickia seemed to have
a little bit of control
over John's money,
more so than Kim did.
NARRATOR:
It seemed that John had shifted
his unrelenting adoration
from Kim to Tynickia.
But Kim also feared that
she was trapped
in an impossible love triangle.
BLACKBURN:
So the only thing
she could assume
is that John was still
interested in pursuing her
to the point where
he may have even had
Tynickia following her,
because she doesn't want to
continue the relationship.
VOLZKE:
There were some allegations tha
Hancock was paying Tynickia
to actually spy
on the woman that
he had affections for.
BLACKBURN:
At that point, Kim pretty much
separated from Tynickia
because she didn't know if she
could trust Tynickia anymore
after that.
John wanted to use Tynickia
for information about Kimberly,
and Tynickia wanted to
use John for money.
BLACKBURN:
Certainly, now our
antennas are up
over Tynickia because
she's probably
the most recent relationship
that John's having.
It's a lead that needs to be
developed sooner than later.
NARRATOR:
The salacious story spun
by Kimberly Wakefield
put John and Tynickia
in the center of
an indecent web
of mixed motives.
Now armed with direction
from Kim,
detectives headed straight
for Tynickia's apartment
to question her,
but tracking her down
wouldn't be so simple.
FUZZARD:
We made contact
with her mother, Edie,
and Tynickia wasn't at home
at the time.
But we told her mom we really
need to talk to Tynickia
about this.
Someone she knows
had been murdered.
Edie was a very, very
nice person to talk to.
We wanted to search the house,
and we were on our way
to get a search warrant.
And she signed a consent form.
We didn't have to do
a search warrant.
She consented to
the search of her house.
BLACKBURN:
By this time, it's late
into the night.
Edie said that
Tynickia's not here.
She hasn't been here
all evening.
And she's not sure where
Tynickia is
'cause she hasn't been home.
Edie didn't think Tynickia
had anything to do with it.
BLACKBURN:
Tynickia didn't have
a criminal arrest record
of any kind.
In speaking with
Tynickia's mother,
we were able to learn that
a recent boyfriend of Tynickia's
was Dana Warren, and said
that Tynickia even had
a baby with him;
that this was somebody
that she had spent
a lot of time with.
And Tynickia's mother said that
she was possibly with him.
NARRATOR:
The layers of intrigue
deepened.
Tynickia was involved
with Dana Warren
while the drama unfolded
between John
and Kimberly Wakefield.
Detectives were
piecing together motives,
but still needed the means
for murder.
Investigator Fuzzard asked her,
"Well, do you have
any weapons in the house?"
And she says, "Yeah,
as a matter of fact, I do."
I went into Edie's bedroom, and
in the master bedroom I found
a box for a .38-caliber
revolver handgun.
And the box was empty;
there was no weapon in it.
That was a turning point for us
because at the time,
we had several different avenues
we could be pursuing.
This was just one of them.
It was one of our better ones
because we knew that
Tynickia had been at
the Hancock residence
the day before
flashing a gun around.
That was a shock to her,
I think.
And I asked Edie,
"Where's the weapon?"
And she goes,
"It should be there."
And at that point
she trembled a bit
and her eyes went glassy.
She wouldn't say anything,
but she had that thought
that Tynickia might have
something to do with this.
We needed to talk to Tynickia
right away.
We received a phone call
that there was a witness.
He had information that
even the news didn't have.
We asked him, "Well, how are we
supposed to not think
that you're involved somehow?"
This was definitely a big
turning point in the case.
NARRATOR:
Investigators had
ripped through leads
and revealed a possibility
that John Hancock's
Anaheim love triangle had led
to the double murder
of John
and his own mother, Helen.
One player in this
twisted scenario
was standing out:
19-year-old Tynickia Thompson.
FUZZARD:
Ashley and John Jr.
had told us earlier on
that Tynickia had come
to the house
the day before the murders
with a gun.
BLACKBURN:
And now we talk to her mother
and find out that
her mother owns a gun
that's missing from
the apartment.
NARRATOR:
Could this unassuming
19-year-old girl
have used the same weapon
in a double homicide?
Detectives wouldn't have to
wait for an answer
as Tynickia quickly
came forward to talk.
BLACKBURN:
She agreed to meet with
Detective Fuzzard and I
at the Stanton substation
in Orange County.
She showed up.
She was very cooperative
with us.
She admitted a lot of things
that we already knew,
and then we got into,
"Well, when's the last time
that you saw John Hancock?"
And she said,
"Well, I saw him on Monday,
May the 6th."
And so we asked her,
"Well, are you sure
"it was Monday, May 6th,
as opposed to
Tuesday, May 7th?"
"No, I'm sure it was May 6th."
And so we said,
"Well, we've talked to the kids
"and they know about a meeting
that you had with their dad,
and that you last saw him
on Tuesday."
FUZZARD:
We knew either she had
her dates messed up,
or she was trying to lie to us.
BLACKBURN:
And then, so, we asked her,
"Well, what about a gun?
"Did you take a gun
to the meeting?
Did you take a gun
with you that day?"
She denied it.
And then we asked her,
"Well, does your mom own a gun?
She says not that she knows of.
And so she pretty much
denied anything about a weapon.
NARRATOR:
On her way out
of the interview,
Tynickia revealed
a bombshell accusation
that was hard to swallow.
FUZZARD:
Tynickia told us that
Ashley had been
sexually assaulted by
her dad John.
Tynickia also told us that
she had been
sexually assaulted by John.
BLACKBURN:
And then she also mentioned
that Kim Wakefield is dating
a law enforcement officer
who has access to weapons,
and could have had
something to do with it.
My feeling was that
she's just trying
to throw us off her track.
Unfortunately, no matter
how many things
she throws out there
as potential other leads,
we still have to follow up on.
Those are all options
we need to keep open.
BLACKBURN: So at that point,
we had no option
but to let her go.
We certainly didn't have
enough to arrest her.
NARRATOR:
Two days after her father
and grandmother
were found murdered,
a young, unsettled Ashley
agreed to speak
with detectives again.
BLACKBURN:
We went back to her, and we
confronted her about that.
"Have you ever had
any issues with your dad
sexually assaulting you?"
And she denied all of that.
We interviewed
Kim Wakefield again.
We interviewed her boyfriend.
These are additional leads
we need to pursue.
But after those
additional interviews,
we thought
it was a smoke screen.
And everything kept taking us
back to Tynickia.
She's still the most solid lead
that we feel we have.
FUZZARD:
On Monday, May 13th,
we got a call
from Long Beach
Police Department.
They found the car
parked on the street
in the city of Long Beach.
It was John's cherished Mustang.
FUZZARD:
Finding the car is
very important.
Now there's gonna be
forensic evidence.
BLACKBURN: Vehicle was towed
straight to our crime lab
and got it into a controlled
environment so that
evidence collection
could proceed.
NARRATOR:
Investigators hoped to detect
some forensic evidence
that would place
their lead suspect, Tynickia,
in John Hancock's car
and tie her to the crime,
thereby bringing
desperately needed answers
to his grieving family.
DeSOUZA:
The hardest part
through all of this was
he was my first love.
The first man I'd ever
been in love with.
You don't forget that.
And I think that's why
it hit so hard.
For his children to hear this..
What were they all thinking?
To have to hear that
your father went through
that kind of pain and agony,
that's-that's crazy.
That's bad, it's wrong.
It's wrong.
And that broke my heart.
While my partner and I were out
trying to interview witnesses
to firm up the case that we're
beginning to create
against Tynickia,
we received a phone call
that there was a witness
that was going to meet us
at our headquarters
in downtown Santa Ana.
And it turns out
he's a landscaper
that was working on a home
adjacent to the Hancocks'
residence
on the day of the murders.
And he proceeds to tell us
that he was
working outside when he saw
a single young female walk up
to the Hancock residence,
to the front door,
and ring the doorbell.
Nobody came to the door,
so she walked around
to the back of the house
and entered the side gate
and disappeared
into the backyard.
He told us he'd heard pops.
Didn't know if it was
firecrackers, a car backfiring,
but he heard pops.
(gunshots)
Ten or 15 minutes later, he saw
smoke coming out of the house.
BLACKBURN:
He realized that
the house was on fire.
He didn't really put it
all together until
he started seeing the reports
that it turned out to be
a double homicide.
This was definitely
a big turning point in the case.
BLACKBURN:
Tynickia's not only
placed at the home
the day before by the kids,
waving a gun around,
but now she's placed
at the home,
at least by her description,
on the day of the murders.
Tynickia is our prime suspect
in this case now.
However, the crime lab
is unsuccessful
in collecting any fiber evidence
from the red Mustang.
FUZZARD:
When they found the fax machine
in the car
that was stolen
from the house...
Those days, those things
were worth money.
BLACKBURN:
And also, there were
at least a couple latent prints
that were found
and were entered into
the nationwide system
to try and identify
who those prints belonged to.
VOLZKE:
Because Tynickia wasn't giving
Orange County Sheriffs
investigators anything
they can go on,
they had to get creative.
So they track down
her boyfriend Dana.
FUZZARD:
Dana was a little nervous,
but he looked us in the eye,
and he was forthcoming that
he didn't have anything
to do with this.
We also set up a polygraph
with him as well.
The question, "Do you know
who shot John Hancock?"
That came back inconclusive.
So that was our in.
BLACKBURN:
We asked him, "Well, how are we
supposed to walk away from here
and not think that
you're involved somehow?"
FUZZARD:
Dana said
he had information that
even the news didn't have.
He knew about the fax machine
in the Mustang.
BLACKBURN:
That was information
that he could have
only gotten from Tynickia
if she was the one that
committed the murders.
FUZZARD:
This was pure gold.
The probability's going up
and the window's narrowing
on who our suspect is.
NARRATOR: Dana Warren,
once a confidant to Tynickia,
was now an invaluable asset
to law enforcement.
Investigators bet that
Tynickia would trust him,
and he would serve as the
perfect bait for their trap.
FUZZARD:
Dana also doesn't want
to be implicated,
so he's gonna do
everything he can
to distance himself from
this double homicide.
BLACKBURN:
Dana decided that he was
gonna cooperate with us
and wear a wire, and allow us
to wire up his vehicle.
So he made a series
of phone calls that evening,
and then finally
Tynickia called him back.
She agreed to meet with Dana
the next day,
Friday, May 24th.
We had investigators set up
monitoring equipment
in a camper
that was parked
in the parking lot.
And sure enough,
Tynickia walked out of
one of the businesses
and got into Dana's car.
Dana expressed
how concerned he was
that she was involved in this.
He looked scared,
and he had a right to be.
She says, "Well, it's too bad,
but, you know,
I had no choice."
And then she finally admitted
the truth of what happened.
NARRATOR:
As the recording device rolled,
Orange County detectives
anxiously awaited
Tynickia Thompson's next words
to her boyfriend.
Would she confess to
murdering the Hancocks?
BLACKBURN:
During the conversation
that was recorded in the car,
Tynickia made comments
to Dana that, "I killed them.
"I killed them both.
"It wasn't my plan
to kill the grandmother,
but, you know,
I had no choice."
Those are the admissions
that we'd been waiting for.
FUZZARD:
Just coming out of
the suspect's mouth like that,
that's the most direct evidence
you could ever have.
BLACKBURN:
A bunch of our detectives,
including myself,
converged on the meeting site,
and we got Tynickia
out of the car
and arrested her immediately.
A couple other detectives
arrested Dana Warren
just to make it look good
that we thought
he was also a participant
in the murders.
However, as we were leading
Tynickia away from the scene,
she looked back at Dana Warren
and shot him a look
that, if it could kill,
I mean, he would have been
dead on the spot.
She knew he was involved
in setting her up.
NARRATOR:
Tynickia expected allegiance,
but seemingly had none
of her own
as she had maliciously
turned her back
on John Hancock.
She was further buried
when one of her friends,
Jose Mendez,
revealed a damning story
about the missing Mustang.
FUZZARD:
We got fingerprints on the car,
and Jose Mendez's fingerprints
were on the car.
BLACKBURN: Jose Mendez admits
that he's a friend of Ty's.
Not a close friend,
but that Ty reached out to him
after the murders,
showed up in the red Mustang
and tried to sell
the Mustang to him
for several thousand dollars.
But once he found out it was
a murder victim's vehicle,
he didn't want any part of it.
We were ecstatic to know
that we were
barking up the right tree,
and that now we had a case
that we could
present to the district attorney
for filing.
After Tynickia was arrested,
I kind of felt sorry for her.
At the time,
she was 19 years old,
so she was relatively young.
But then you look at
the facts of the case...
I mean, all those facts show
a coldhearted killer.
JACOBS:
In Orange County,
before those cases go to trial,
there's what's referred to
as a penalty determination,
or Livesay hearing,
to determine
whether or not we should
proceed with the death penalty.
FUZZARD:
Tynickia doesn't want to go
to a death penalty trial,
so she actually confesses
and pleads guilty
to take the death penalty
off the table.
VOLZKE:
Tynickia's decision to plead
guilty on the first day of trial
surprised all of us.
And it certainly surprised
John Hancock's family.
They want to know
what happened and why.
BLACKBURN:
As part of that deal,
she had to submit
a written confession
and verbally give
that confession
to the judge in open court.
JACOBS:
So what that means
is she'd have to say,
"I, with intent to kill,
"I intentionally shot the
two victims," name the victims,
and say, "I committed
those murders during the course
of arson and during
the course of burglary."
NARRATOR:
As investigators had theorized,
Tynickia's gun-wielding outburst
the day before the murders
was not an isolated event,
but an inciting incident
that led Tynickia
back to Hancock the next day
in one last attempt
to ensnare him
as her benefactor.
The O.C. good life
would be hers at any cost.
BLACKBURN:
On the day of the murders,
Tynickia went over to the house.
She had a friend drive her
over there and drop her off.
She confessed to chasing John
through the house, shot him
out near the pool,
poured gasoline on him,
poured gasoline
throughout the house,
and set the house on fire.
VOLZKE:
By all appearances,
Helen was murdered
just for being in the home when
Tynickia came to confront John.
In her confession, Tynickia said
she didn't even remember
shooting Helen.
That she wasn't there
to harm Helen
and had no ill will
toward Helen.
And the shooting
occurred in a rage.
BLACKBURN:
She wanted the relationship
to continue, and he didn't.
And she saw
these dollar signs
going by the wayside.
VOLZKE:
Later, we hear testimony
that she had actually set
the beds on fire
where she and John Hancock
had had sex.
Wasn't necessarily
her intention
to burn or hide evidence,
but it was just sort of
the rage... she had thought
that John Hancock
had made all these promises
that he didn't keep.
She felt like she had been
Hancock's whore.
And at the end,
Ms. Thompson says that's what
spurred her to kill him.
Tynickia was sentenced
to two life sentences
in exchange for the death
penalty being dropped.
So, at 20 years old,
she was gonna spend
the rest of her life
in California prison.
DeSOUZA:
What I would say
to investigators
that took the time
to find every little detail
of this horrible crime
and finding who did this to him
thank you.
Thank you from the bottom
of my heart.
VOLZKE:
At the time of the murder,
he was really trying to amend
and-and build some relationships
that had been
lacking in the past.
And in the end,
it was all taken away.
And the kids were actually
defending their father
as a good man
who had provided for them.
Very different picture
than what the public record
said of John Hancock.
DeSOUZA:
Anybody can remember
the bad,
but to remember the good,
that's important.
You don't forget
that first love.
And I think this will give
some closure.
He was kind and generous
and loving.
All the beautiful moments
I got to go through with him.
So many memories.
NARRATOR: For more information
on Real Murders
Orange County
sheriff's investigators
were called to the scene
of a fire in Lemon Heights.
The house had been burned.
And on the patio,
we saw the first body.
And we saw another body
in the kitchen.
There were multiple gunshots
on both of the victims.
PAUL FUZZARD:
It's not something
you're gonna see
in Orange County
on a regular basis.
And it turned out to be
the Hancock residence.
NARRATOR:
A family
with a deep, well-healed
American history
is brutally victimized.
KARIN DeSOUZA:
I was in shock.
Such a horrific death
was quite devastating.
VOLZKE:
Killing them wasn't enough.
They had to be destroyed,
as well.
NARRATOR:
Were they a target
for financial revenge,
or was this an emotional
vendetta from the seedy side
-of the O.C.?
-This was gonna be a whodunit.
BOB BLACKBURN:
He liked to throw money around,
especially in the presence
of women.
VOLZKE:
She felt like
John Hancock had made
all these promises
that he didn't keep.
The local newspaper
hailed him as a hero,
but many people
said that he
was ripping them off.
BLACKBURN:
You look
at the facts of the case,
all those facts show
a coldhearted killer.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
The fashionable,
hill-swept Orange County
neighborhood of Lemon Heights
is home to an affluent crowd
taken to the leisurely habits
of the rich:
horseback riding,
poolside lounging
and keeping up with the Joneses
MICHAEL JACOBS:
Lemon Heights
is, uh, one of the nicer places
in the county.
Very low crime rate.
JACK DATT:
Lemon Heights would probably be
similar to Beverly Hills
or the Hollywood Hills.
And the house
that I had built up there
was at the very, very top
of the hill.
It was just a gorgeous place.
Back in 1995,
I ultimately decided
to rent the house.
Then I got approached
by John Hancock.
John Hancock VI.
And he was supposably
a direct descendent
of John Hancock,
who signed
the Declaration of Independence
I thought he looked like
Kenny Rogers.
He agreed to rent the house.
His mother, Helen Hancock,
was gonna live there
along with his two children
that were both
of high school age.
His daughter's name was Ashley,
and his son's name
was John Hancock VII.
NARRATOR:
The Hancocks enjoyed
a plush life in Lemon Heights,
and although it was
a long, winding road
that brought John
to this pleasant peak,
he had been swaddled
in the trappings of wealth
since childhood.
John Hancock was raised
in a family
that was very successful
on many levels.
John Hancock's father, Buddy,
he had invented a portable
film splicing machine,
which revolutionized
how they worked in Hollywood.
So, it had been drummed into,
uh, John Hancock his entire life
that money equated success
and value.
NARRATOR:
Even as a teenager,
John knew what he wanted:
to share the prestige
of his family name
with a stunning bride
and etch his name in the halls
of those successful
and affluent Hancocks
who came before him.
John Tyler and I were going
to Granada Hills High School.
Everyone knew him as John Tyler
and he was so good-looking.
It was like
staring into the face
of this golden god.
I was head over heels.
We had a stunning wedding.
The women were
in their cocktail dresses
and their furs.
It really was glorious.
And when our daughter,
Tamara Rae, was born,
he was pleased as punch.
He used to ride around with her
on his shoulders.
It was heaven.
NARRATOR:
The young Hancocks
enjoyed the O.C. good life,
complete
with exclusive cocktail parties
expensive cars and luxe living.
But after several
failed business ventures,
the burden
of lofty family expectations
weighed heavily on John.
DeSOUZA:
Success was extremely important
in the Hancock family.
Helen, J.T.'s mother,
wanted her children
to be successful.
I think it put a little bit
extra stress on him.
He was striving to be wealthy.
VOLZKE:
When Buddy Hancock
had a serious heart attack,
John Hancock was brought in
to run the company.
But his family was so displeased
with the job he was doing
that he was ultimately fired
from the family business,
and Helen Hancock became CEO
of Maier-Hancock Industries.
By all accounts,
they didn't get along very well
and certainly, she was not
pleased by her son's failures.
Even she described her son, uh,
saying that John Hancock
always seemed to be fighting
with the world.
DeSOUZA:
He started
not coming home at night.
I filed for divorce in 1974.
VOLZKE:
In 1978, John Hancock
married another woman.
They had two children together,
Ashley and John.
But just like
all of his business ventures,
that marriage ended
in bankruptcy and failure,
as well.
NARRATOR:
Although one of the privileged,
John had been leading
a troubled life.
But he seemingly made
a gracious turn to refocus
on family in 1995
and reconnected
with his estranged mother.
DeSOUZA:
She had been at odds
with her only son
almost his entire life.
So, John and Helen
had moved into a house
in Lemon Heights.
I think Helen worked very hard
to rekindle
the type of relationship
she wanted with her son.
VOLZKE:
Moving into
the Lemon Heights home
was a huge step
for John and Helen.
They'd never been close.
And I think the hope was that
if he could settle in with Mom,
they could rebuild
the relationship
and it would give him
a foundation to move forward.
And then he even had
his teenage children
from the second wife
move in with them.
He and the children both knew
that they'd missed out
growing up together,
and it looked like he was
really trying to build
some relationships that
had been lacking in the past.
Neighbors would say they seemed
like a very idyllic family.
NARRATOR:
Everything would change for the
Hancocks on one sunny afternoon
when neighbors suddenly spotted
billows of smoke and fire
bursting from the Lemon Heights
mansion where the family lived.
FUZZARD:
This was big news quick.
I remember helicopters
flying over, news channels.
It's a big thing
because it's not something
you're gonna see in Orange
County on a regular basis.
BLACKBURN:
My partner and I were told
to respond
to the 11000 block
of Dannen Lane.
The scene was chaotic,
'cause it was still
what we consider a "hot scene."
We saw the house... it literally
looked like a castle...
it was still smoldering.
We did a walk-through
of the premises.
Initially, we went around
to the backyard,
and, um, outside
the sliding glass doors
to the rear of the house,
and on the patio,
we saw the first body.
And we could tell
that it was a male adult.
He was laying on his back.
We could tell he was burned,
primarily from his waist up.
So his upper torso
had been burned.
VOLZKE:
His hands were outstretched,
as if warding off an attacker.
Or trying to push someone away.
BLACKBURN:
And then we went into the house
and we saw another body
in the kitchen.
This body was laying
on its side.
And then there was a wall phone
with the phone
off the hook and laying
on the floor next to the body.
Unfortunately,
the body was burned so bad
we couldn't even tell
if it was a male or female.
So whoever this person was
was possibly trying
to call for help
when they succumbed
to their injuries.
NARRATOR:
The scene was horrific.
The positioning of the victims
captured the body language
of their last living moments,
and made investigators
immediately suspect foul play.
They quickly collected
whatever evidence they could.
BLACKBURN:
The arson investigator
showed up while we were there,
and it didn't take him long
to figure out
that there was
an accelerant used.
Not only in the house,
but on both of the bodies, too.
'Cause there was
substantial damage done
to the interior of the house,
so we were concerned about
evidence that was gonna be
completely destroyed by a fire.
Until the coroner turned over
the bodies,
and it was at that point
when we could see bullet holes
in both bodies.
We were trying to figure out,
"Well, which came first,
the fire or the bullet wounds?"
If it was the bullet wounds,
then what was the intent
of the suspect or suspects?
So right away, I was thinking
there's a potential
that whoever did this
wanted to destroy evidence.
A body might be set on fire
to make identification
much more difficult.
The house turned out
to be the Hancock residence.
Perhaps one
of the family members
could've been the victims.
NARRATOR:
It seemed that some
of the Hancock family members
had fallen victim
to a cruel slaying
and fiery cover-up.
Was it John, his mother Helen
or more tragically,
the children?
FUZZARD:
We were gonna have to track down
who'd been at the house last.
Anything we can come up with.
This was gonna be a whodunit.
VOLZKE:
It was a very deliberate act.
Somebody was very angry.
Killing them wasn't enough.
They had to be destroyed
as well.
BLACKBURN:
Two weeks before,
a search warrant was served
at the Hancocks' home.
The door got kicked in
by the sheriffs.
They wanted explanations.
John Hancock was certainly know
as someone who made enemies
much more easily
than he made friends.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
Questions floated through
the Orange County hills
like the lingering scent
of burned tinder.
Who were
the shooting victims found
at the torched
Hancock residence,
and why were they targeted?
The possibilities
suddenly narrowed
when two of the family members
arrived at the crime scene.
BLACKBURN:
I was told that John's
two children had arrived.
I knew that we had
to interview them to find out
if these were potentially his
and her parents in the house.
The Hancock kids found out
about the murders
from friends at school.
They actually came to us
at the scene.
Ashley was very upset,
very distraught.
She had a look about her
that she didn't know
what was going on
and really wanted some answers.
BLACKBURN:
We interviewed both Ashley,
who was 17,
and, uh, John Jr. who was 15.
Both of them said
that they were at school
at the time
that this incident occurred.
FUZZARD:
They said that the parents
had been divorced
for a number of years,
and John had been married
even before that.
But they preferred to live
with John in this big house
with a pool and all the things
that a teenager
would really like to have.
His dad was the money guy,
the provider for them
and that was a good place
for them to stay.
BLACKBURN:
Took some time
to make a positive
identification on both bodies.
Uh, it wasn't as difficult
on the male body.
We learned within hours
that that body was positively
identified as John Hancock.
The other body in the kitchen...
it took some time.
We needed
to do some fingerprint work,
and also,
had to have a dentist come in
and do some dental work, because
it was burned so bad.
But ultimately, we were able
to make a positive I.D.
on that body, as well,
and it turned out
to be Helen Hancock,
John Hancock's mother.
DeSOUZA:
I was in my apartment
in Beverly Hills.
All of a sudden,
this news came on.
John Tyler Hancock,
um, was murdered.
His mother, Helen, had actually
also been murdered.
I was in shock.
To find out that my ex-husband
had gone through...
such a horrific death was...
quite devastating.
I cannot even imagine
what was going through his head
to hear those gunshots.
I don't know.
I don't think
anybody should die like that.
NARRATOR:
Who would possibly want
to target this O.C. mother
and son?
And furthermore,
why would an elderly woman
be murdered so viciously?
Was one the intended target
and the other caught
in the crossfire?
Detectives carefully pried
what information they could
from the distraught siblings.
BLACKBURN:
Most of homicides
that I've ever worked...
the murders occurred by somebody
who knows the victim.
The family's got a lot of money
There could be
a financial motive there.
We need to eliminate
the family first.
The kids are part
of the immediate family.
And so, my synopsis
of the interview
and what I thought about
both Ashley and John Jr. was
that they were telling us
the truth,
and we were comfortable
in starting to eliminate them
as potential suspects.
We also learned
specifically from Ashley that
a car was missing
from the house,
which was a Ford Mustang,
red in color.
We went ahead and issued
an all-points bulletin alert
on that vehicle just in case,
you know, somebody were
to stop and locate it.
That detail definitely
made us think
it might have been a burglary,
but you take a step back
and say, "Why so much violence
towards the bodies?"
NARRATOR:
Investigators had to consider
whether this was a targeted
hit on the Hancocks.
And as they looked into recent
contacts and prior records,
a lead surfaced through
the owner of the residence.
The biggest thing
that was bothering me was
that I had been up there
a week earlier,
and it seemed very odd.
NARRATOR:
Just months after
the Hancocks had moved
into exclusive Lemon Heights,
the homeowner suspected
his new renters
were having some problems
at home.
DATT:
Before the fire and the murder,
I got a call from John Hancock,
and he said,
"I need you to come up
to the property
"because there's a problem
with the door.
It got kicked in
by the sheriffs."
And I asked him,
"Why'd they kick in the door?"
And he's like, "Oh, there's...
there's some misunderstanding
with something
that happened in Arizona."
BLACKBURN:
Two weeks before,
a search warrant was served
at the Hancocks' home
from the authorities
in La Paz County, Arizona.
The authorities in Arizona
had come out to California
to confiscate
some financial records
and whatever else they could
develop to help their case.
One of our financial crimes
investigators was assigned
to the La Paz County
Sheriff's Department personnel,
and was able to give us
some background information
on John Hancock.
FUZZARD:
He had been to the house
in the past,
and he had investigated
John Hancock
for fraud before.
DeSOUZA:
At this point in life,
John Tyler had gotten angry,
very angry.
He wanted to do all these things
in life.
A lot of 'em
just didn't form for him,
and he just didn't
understand why.
So, it just spiraled
downhill for him.
John Hancock had gotten involved
in some white-collar-type
financial crimes
in Arizona over some property
that he owned back there.
DeSOUZA:
The complex was called
"The Sandpiper."
He had condominiums, townhomes.
VOLZKE:
John, in April of 1994,
had purchased
this condominium complex
near the Colorado River
as an investment.
And...
immediately, trouble started.
NARRATOR:
As Orange County investigators
examined murder victim
John Hancock's
controversial business dealings
in Arizona,
they found that he may have bee
more desperate to succeed
than previously imagined.
One of our financial crimes
investigators
had developed some information
and some background
on John Hancock
through this other case
that Arizona had
from two weeks before.
VOLZKE:
In Arizona, John Hancock
was certainly known
as someone who made enemies
much more easily
than he made friends.
NARRATOR:
The investigation into
Hancock's dealings in Arizona
revealed a flood
of hostile connections
to the O.C. entrepreneur.
VOLZKE:
John Hancock owned condominiums
and a waste water treatment
plant along the Colorado River.
Working with
the local government out there,
he was trying to sell
the waste water project.
He wanted three times
what it was worth.
The deal fell through,
and even after that,
John Hancock went through
and reported 25 or so residents
in that area
who were still on septic,
that they were violating
clean water laws.
John Hancock seemed to be
a fairly shrewd businessman.
He wanted to force
the people to hook up
to his waste water treatment
plant so he could charge them
for using his system and
to profit from using his system
The local newspaper
hailed him as a hero,
but many people there thought
that it was, uh, retaliation
for the deal falling through.
MURPHY:
I had heard that some
of the tenants at The Sandpiper
were having some problems with
John Hancock, uh, themselves.
VOLZKE:
Tenants said
that he was ripping them off
and wouldn't refund their
deposits when they moved out.
DATT:
And they said he had taken
credit cards for their deposits
and then he started using
those credit card numbers
for his own purchases.
VOLZKE:
On top of all of that,
one of the tenants
at The Sandpiper alleged
that John had opened
an American Express
in his name
and ran up a $40,000 bill.
BLACKBURN:
And so, that was the case
that the authorities there
in Arizona were investigating.
And that's what led them
to Orange County,
to John Hancock's
current residence.
MURPHY:
I believe that John Hancock left
a trail of enemies in the area.
I felt that there might
have been somebody out there
that he crossed paths with
that took matters
into their own hands.
NARRATOR:
The Arizona file on John Hancock
exposed a dirty laundry list
of slighted tenants
and outright fraud victims.
But this early
in the investigation,
no viable suspects
were standing out.
FUZZARD:
We didn't have enough
probable cause
or evidence to arrest
anybody yet.
And so, we... there was still
some more work to do.
VOLZKE:
Not everybody thought
John Hancock
was a bad guy.
Uh, some people said
he was just misunderstood.
That in...
away from business dealings,
he was a very nice guy.
DeSOUZA:
I remember
that bright, shiny face
and that smile and that-that
love he would show me.
My knight in shining armor.
My angel.
The police were trying
to make up for what happened,
finding who did this to him
and giving him some peace.
BLACKBURN:
You're dealing with families
who have lost a loved one,
they want action taken.
So it's a big responsibility,
not only to take
one of those cases on,
but do the best job
that we can for the family
of the, of the loved one
that's been killed.
NARRATOR:
Investigators continued to tear
through Hancock's Rolodex,
and as John's grieving children
began to work their way
out of shock, they revealed
a disturbing and crucial detail
to Orange County sheriffs.
We were talking to the kids
and trying to get a feel
for what was going on
in the house.
Ashley brought up an incident
that had occurred
the day before the murders.
The day
before the murders,
somebody had come
to John's house.
BLACKBURN:
The kids both identified her
as Tynickia.
She goes by the name "Ty,"
a young woman that
their father had started seeing
I mean, to what state he was
seeing her, we're not sure,
if they were actually considered
boyfriend/girlfriend.
But-but we do know that,
at least for-for several weeks,
that their father
had been seeing her.
This was one of the first times
that they saw her at the house.
She was irate,
she was screaming and yelling.
She was demanding money
from him.
And then Tynickia actually put
a gun in John Hancock's face.
John's teenage kids
said John wasn't frightened.
He took the pistol, unloaded it
and gave it back.
BLACKBURN:
And then Ashley's dad asked her
to drive Tynickia to a bank,
and cash a check for her,
a $200 check,
and then drive her home.
VOLZKE:
When John Hancock's teenage kid
came back from dropping off
Tynickia,
they wanted explanations.
This woman had put a gun
in their dad's face.
He didn't seem fazed by it
or frightened by it at all.
And he told her that Tynickia
was actually a friend
who wanted to go
to South America
and he was trying to give her
the means and help her
get there.
FUZZARD:
Tynickia had no criminal record
No petty crimes,
no minor crimes,
no drug use
or anything like that,
and was under the radar from
any law enforcement standpoint.
BLACKBURN:
At the time,
she was 19 years old,
so she was relatively young.
But she was somebody
that we needed to talk to.
NARRATOR:
Despite her clean record,
Tynickia suddenly sprang
to the top of the suspect list.
And as the kids divulged detail
of their father's love life,
detectives highlighted
a possible connection
between another girlfriend
and their new suspect.
BLACKBURN:
The kids were also aware
that one of the female friends
that John Hancock had
at the time,
a girlfriend of his,
was Kimberly Wakefield.
We learned that perhaps Tynickia
was a friend of Kim Wakefield's.
We didn't know
what kind of relationship
the two of them had,
but we were just told that...
that the two of them
know each other somehow.
That's when we made
the determination
to go two different ways.
We have a team of people go try
and find Tynickia Thompson.
And then we needed to go try
and find Kim Wakefield,
'cause we thought
she could lead us to
Tynickia Thompson if the other
team of investigators
couldn't find her.
It was about 1:00
or 1:30 in the morning
on Thursday, May 9.
My partner and I found out
where Kim Wakefield lived.
We went over to her apartment.
Not a far drive,
but they were worlds apart.
NARRATOR:
John Hancock's romantic desires
led him away
from the gilded gates
of the hilltop
and into another world.
Investigators needed to know:
what was the connection
between Kim Wakefield
and Tynickia Thompson?
And were they responsible
for the murders?
She has a relationship
with John,
she's gonna know
some information.
Hopefully we can find out
who committed these murders.
NARRATOR:
Investigators were tracking
19-year-old Tynickia Thompson
and a woman rumored to be
her friend, Kim Wakefield,
to question them about
the brutal slaying
of John Hancock and his mother.
Did Kim's romantic involvement
with Hancock
intersect with his murder?
BLACKBURN:
On Thursday, May 9 of 1996,
my partner and I found out where
Kim Wakefield lived, and we
went over to her apartment
in the city of Anaheim.
She was present at the home,
so she invited us in.
We told her why we were there.
She gave us some
background information
on her relationship
with John Hancock.
She said back in March she was
working at Fritz That's It.
It's a gentlemen's club
in Anaheim.
She was a dancer
and a stripper there,
and John Hancock would
come in regularly.
She said he liked to
throw money around,
especially in the presence
of women.
She started seeing him.
Not dating him, in her eyes,
but just seeing him.
She had been over to his house
a couple times.
He had been over to her
apartment a couple times.
She divulged that
she liked to paint.
That this job that she had
at the gentlemen's club
was just kind of
a stepping stone,
trying to provide for herself
and her daughter
that lived at home with her.
By March of 1996,
Kimberly Wakefield knew
that she and John Hancock
wanted different things
from the relationship.
He wanted intimacy,
he wanted forever.
She wanted a friendship.
BLACKBURN:
And so she decided
weeks before the homicides
to break things off with him.
But she seemed sincere
and concerned about him
still wanting to continue
the relationship.
But she was also pretty firm
in the fact that
she didn't want it
to go any further.
I mean, to what extent
would Kim go
to make sure that
that relationship ended?
So we considered
the possibility that
maybe she had somebody
set up the murder somehow.
NARRATOR:
As the interview
with Kim Wakefield
pointed towards Hancock's
unrequited love,
she suddenly dropped
a detail on detectives
that revealed the connection
to Tynickia
they had been looking for.
BLACKBURN:
John apparently threw
some money at Kim Wakefield
and paid for a month's rent
at her apartment,
and even purchased
one of her paintings
that she had at the house,
and while he was there,
Tynickia came over.
Tynickia lives in the same
apartment complex
just three or four
apartments down.
Tynickia, because of her
proximity to Kim's apartment,
um, Kim would ask her to babysit
sometimes for her.
So Kim was comfortable
with Tynickia just
walking in the apartment.
And this was one of those times
where she just walked in,
and John Hancock happened
to be there.
And that's when
the two of them met,
John Hancock
and Tynickia Thompson.
John paid $700 cash
for one of Kimberly's paintings.
And Tynickia saw that he,
apparently, didn't think
that was any great amount
of money,
and began to
get to know him as well.
This relationship started to
blossom after that evening.
So Kim finds out that Tynickia
is now seeing John Hancock.
VOLZKE:
John and Tynickia
had developed a relationship,
and even became intimate.
He had promised Tynickia money.
He had promised her jobs
and different opportunities.
And they found
it wasn't unusual for Tynickia
to be seen with cash
and John's car.
BLACKBURN:
Suddenly Tynickia shows up
at Kim Wakefield's apartment,
and she's flashing money around
It was obvious that
Tynickia was flaunting the fact
that now she was
seeing John, instead of Kim.
That now Tynickia seemed to have
a little bit of control
over John's money,
more so than Kim did.
NARRATOR:
It seemed that John had shifted
his unrelenting adoration
from Kim to Tynickia.
But Kim also feared that
she was trapped
in an impossible love triangle.
BLACKBURN:
So the only thing
she could assume
is that John was still
interested in pursuing her
to the point where
he may have even had
Tynickia following her,
because she doesn't want to
continue the relationship.
VOLZKE:
There were some allegations tha
Hancock was paying Tynickia
to actually spy
on the woman that
he had affections for.
BLACKBURN:
At that point, Kim pretty much
separated from Tynickia
because she didn't know if she
could trust Tynickia anymore
after that.
John wanted to use Tynickia
for information about Kimberly,
and Tynickia wanted to
use John for money.
BLACKBURN:
Certainly, now our
antennas are up
over Tynickia because
she's probably
the most recent relationship
that John's having.
It's a lead that needs to be
developed sooner than later.
NARRATOR:
The salacious story spun
by Kimberly Wakefield
put John and Tynickia
in the center of
an indecent web
of mixed motives.
Now armed with direction
from Kim,
detectives headed straight
for Tynickia's apartment
to question her,
but tracking her down
wouldn't be so simple.
FUZZARD:
We made contact
with her mother, Edie,
and Tynickia wasn't at home
at the time.
But we told her mom we really
need to talk to Tynickia
about this.
Someone she knows
had been murdered.
Edie was a very, very
nice person to talk to.
We wanted to search the house,
and we were on our way
to get a search warrant.
And she signed a consent form.
We didn't have to do
a search warrant.
She consented to
the search of her house.
BLACKBURN:
By this time, it's late
into the night.
Edie said that
Tynickia's not here.
She hasn't been here
all evening.
And she's not sure where
Tynickia is
'cause she hasn't been home.
Edie didn't think Tynickia
had anything to do with it.
BLACKBURN:
Tynickia didn't have
a criminal arrest record
of any kind.
In speaking with
Tynickia's mother,
we were able to learn that
a recent boyfriend of Tynickia's
was Dana Warren, and said
that Tynickia even had
a baby with him;
that this was somebody
that she had spent
a lot of time with.
And Tynickia's mother said that
she was possibly with him.
NARRATOR:
The layers of intrigue
deepened.
Tynickia was involved
with Dana Warren
while the drama unfolded
between John
and Kimberly Wakefield.
Detectives were
piecing together motives,
but still needed the means
for murder.
Investigator Fuzzard asked her,
"Well, do you have
any weapons in the house?"
And she says, "Yeah,
as a matter of fact, I do."
I went into Edie's bedroom, and
in the master bedroom I found
a box for a .38-caliber
revolver handgun.
And the box was empty;
there was no weapon in it.
That was a turning point for us
because at the time,
we had several different avenues
we could be pursuing.
This was just one of them.
It was one of our better ones
because we knew that
Tynickia had been at
the Hancock residence
the day before
flashing a gun around.
That was a shock to her,
I think.
And I asked Edie,
"Where's the weapon?"
And she goes,
"It should be there."
And at that point
she trembled a bit
and her eyes went glassy.
She wouldn't say anything,
but she had that thought
that Tynickia might have
something to do with this.
We needed to talk to Tynickia
right away.
We received a phone call
that there was a witness.
He had information that
even the news didn't have.
We asked him, "Well, how are we
supposed to not think
that you're involved somehow?"
This was definitely a big
turning point in the case.
NARRATOR:
Investigators had
ripped through leads
and revealed a possibility
that John Hancock's
Anaheim love triangle had led
to the double murder
of John
and his own mother, Helen.
One player in this
twisted scenario
was standing out:
19-year-old Tynickia Thompson.
FUZZARD:
Ashley and John Jr.
had told us earlier on
that Tynickia had come
to the house
the day before the murders
with a gun.
BLACKBURN:
And now we talk to her mother
and find out that
her mother owns a gun
that's missing from
the apartment.
NARRATOR:
Could this unassuming
19-year-old girl
have used the same weapon
in a double homicide?
Detectives wouldn't have to
wait for an answer
as Tynickia quickly
came forward to talk.
BLACKBURN:
She agreed to meet with
Detective Fuzzard and I
at the Stanton substation
in Orange County.
She showed up.
She was very cooperative
with us.
She admitted a lot of things
that we already knew,
and then we got into,
"Well, when's the last time
that you saw John Hancock?"
And she said,
"Well, I saw him on Monday,
May the 6th."
And so we asked her,
"Well, are you sure
"it was Monday, May 6th,
as opposed to
Tuesday, May 7th?"
"No, I'm sure it was May 6th."
And so we said,
"Well, we've talked to the kids
"and they know about a meeting
that you had with their dad,
and that you last saw him
on Tuesday."
FUZZARD:
We knew either she had
her dates messed up,
or she was trying to lie to us.
BLACKBURN:
And then, so, we asked her,
"Well, what about a gun?
"Did you take a gun
to the meeting?
Did you take a gun
with you that day?"
She denied it.
And then we asked her,
"Well, does your mom own a gun?
She says not that she knows of.
And so she pretty much
denied anything about a weapon.
NARRATOR:
On her way out
of the interview,
Tynickia revealed
a bombshell accusation
that was hard to swallow.
FUZZARD:
Tynickia told us that
Ashley had been
sexually assaulted by
her dad John.
Tynickia also told us that
she had been
sexually assaulted by John.
BLACKBURN:
And then she also mentioned
that Kim Wakefield is dating
a law enforcement officer
who has access to weapons,
and could have had
something to do with it.
My feeling was that
she's just trying
to throw us off her track.
Unfortunately, no matter
how many things
she throws out there
as potential other leads,
we still have to follow up on.
Those are all options
we need to keep open.
BLACKBURN: So at that point,
we had no option
but to let her go.
We certainly didn't have
enough to arrest her.
NARRATOR:
Two days after her father
and grandmother
were found murdered,
a young, unsettled Ashley
agreed to speak
with detectives again.
BLACKBURN:
We went back to her, and we
confronted her about that.
"Have you ever had
any issues with your dad
sexually assaulting you?"
And she denied all of that.
We interviewed
Kim Wakefield again.
We interviewed her boyfriend.
These are additional leads
we need to pursue.
But after those
additional interviews,
we thought
it was a smoke screen.
And everything kept taking us
back to Tynickia.
She's still the most solid lead
that we feel we have.
FUZZARD:
On Monday, May 13th,
we got a call
from Long Beach
Police Department.
They found the car
parked on the street
in the city of Long Beach.
It was John's cherished Mustang.
FUZZARD:
Finding the car is
very important.
Now there's gonna be
forensic evidence.
BLACKBURN: Vehicle was towed
straight to our crime lab
and got it into a controlled
environment so that
evidence collection
could proceed.
NARRATOR:
Investigators hoped to detect
some forensic evidence
that would place
their lead suspect, Tynickia,
in John Hancock's car
and tie her to the crime,
thereby bringing
desperately needed answers
to his grieving family.
DeSOUZA:
The hardest part
through all of this was
he was my first love.
The first man I'd ever
been in love with.
You don't forget that.
And I think that's why
it hit so hard.
For his children to hear this..
What were they all thinking?
To have to hear that
your father went through
that kind of pain and agony,
that's-that's crazy.
That's bad, it's wrong.
It's wrong.
And that broke my heart.
While my partner and I were out
trying to interview witnesses
to firm up the case that we're
beginning to create
against Tynickia,
we received a phone call
that there was a witness
that was going to meet us
at our headquarters
in downtown Santa Ana.
And it turns out
he's a landscaper
that was working on a home
adjacent to the Hancocks'
residence
on the day of the murders.
And he proceeds to tell us
that he was
working outside when he saw
a single young female walk up
to the Hancock residence,
to the front door,
and ring the doorbell.
Nobody came to the door,
so she walked around
to the back of the house
and entered the side gate
and disappeared
into the backyard.
He told us he'd heard pops.
Didn't know if it was
firecrackers, a car backfiring,
but he heard pops.
(gunshots)
Ten or 15 minutes later, he saw
smoke coming out of the house.
BLACKBURN:
He realized that
the house was on fire.
He didn't really put it
all together until
he started seeing the reports
that it turned out to be
a double homicide.
This was definitely
a big turning point in the case.
BLACKBURN:
Tynickia's not only
placed at the home
the day before by the kids,
waving a gun around,
but now she's placed
at the home,
at least by her description,
on the day of the murders.
Tynickia is our prime suspect
in this case now.
However, the crime lab
is unsuccessful
in collecting any fiber evidence
from the red Mustang.
FUZZARD:
When they found the fax machine
in the car
that was stolen
from the house...
Those days, those things
were worth money.
BLACKBURN:
And also, there were
at least a couple latent prints
that were found
and were entered into
the nationwide system
to try and identify
who those prints belonged to.
VOLZKE:
Because Tynickia wasn't giving
Orange County Sheriffs
investigators anything
they can go on,
they had to get creative.
So they track down
her boyfriend Dana.
FUZZARD:
Dana was a little nervous,
but he looked us in the eye,
and he was forthcoming that
he didn't have anything
to do with this.
We also set up a polygraph
with him as well.
The question, "Do you know
who shot John Hancock?"
That came back inconclusive.
So that was our in.
BLACKBURN:
We asked him, "Well, how are we
supposed to walk away from here
and not think that
you're involved somehow?"
FUZZARD:
Dana said
he had information that
even the news didn't have.
He knew about the fax machine
in the Mustang.
BLACKBURN:
That was information
that he could have
only gotten from Tynickia
if she was the one that
committed the murders.
FUZZARD:
This was pure gold.
The probability's going up
and the window's narrowing
on who our suspect is.
NARRATOR: Dana Warren,
once a confidant to Tynickia,
was now an invaluable asset
to law enforcement.
Investigators bet that
Tynickia would trust him,
and he would serve as the
perfect bait for their trap.
FUZZARD:
Dana also doesn't want
to be implicated,
so he's gonna do
everything he can
to distance himself from
this double homicide.
BLACKBURN:
Dana decided that he was
gonna cooperate with us
and wear a wire, and allow us
to wire up his vehicle.
So he made a series
of phone calls that evening,
and then finally
Tynickia called him back.
She agreed to meet with Dana
the next day,
Friday, May 24th.
We had investigators set up
monitoring equipment
in a camper
that was parked
in the parking lot.
And sure enough,
Tynickia walked out of
one of the businesses
and got into Dana's car.
Dana expressed
how concerned he was
that she was involved in this.
He looked scared,
and he had a right to be.
She says, "Well, it's too bad,
but, you know,
I had no choice."
And then she finally admitted
the truth of what happened.
NARRATOR:
As the recording device rolled,
Orange County detectives
anxiously awaited
Tynickia Thompson's next words
to her boyfriend.
Would she confess to
murdering the Hancocks?
BLACKBURN:
During the conversation
that was recorded in the car,
Tynickia made comments
to Dana that, "I killed them.
"I killed them both.
"It wasn't my plan
to kill the grandmother,
but, you know,
I had no choice."
Those are the admissions
that we'd been waiting for.
FUZZARD:
Just coming out of
the suspect's mouth like that,
that's the most direct evidence
you could ever have.
BLACKBURN:
A bunch of our detectives,
including myself,
converged on the meeting site,
and we got Tynickia
out of the car
and arrested her immediately.
A couple other detectives
arrested Dana Warren
just to make it look good
that we thought
he was also a participant
in the murders.
However, as we were leading
Tynickia away from the scene,
she looked back at Dana Warren
and shot him a look
that, if it could kill,
I mean, he would have been
dead on the spot.
She knew he was involved
in setting her up.
NARRATOR:
Tynickia expected allegiance,
but seemingly had none
of her own
as she had maliciously
turned her back
on John Hancock.
She was further buried
when one of her friends,
Jose Mendez,
revealed a damning story
about the missing Mustang.
FUZZARD:
We got fingerprints on the car,
and Jose Mendez's fingerprints
were on the car.
BLACKBURN: Jose Mendez admits
that he's a friend of Ty's.
Not a close friend,
but that Ty reached out to him
after the murders,
showed up in the red Mustang
and tried to sell
the Mustang to him
for several thousand dollars.
But once he found out it was
a murder victim's vehicle,
he didn't want any part of it.
We were ecstatic to know
that we were
barking up the right tree,
and that now we had a case
that we could
present to the district attorney
for filing.
After Tynickia was arrested,
I kind of felt sorry for her.
At the time,
she was 19 years old,
so she was relatively young.
But then you look at
the facts of the case...
I mean, all those facts show
a coldhearted killer.
JACOBS:
In Orange County,
before those cases go to trial,
there's what's referred to
as a penalty determination,
or Livesay hearing,
to determine
whether or not we should
proceed with the death penalty.
FUZZARD:
Tynickia doesn't want to go
to a death penalty trial,
so she actually confesses
and pleads guilty
to take the death penalty
off the table.
VOLZKE:
Tynickia's decision to plead
guilty on the first day of trial
surprised all of us.
And it certainly surprised
John Hancock's family.
They want to know
what happened and why.
BLACKBURN:
As part of that deal,
she had to submit
a written confession
and verbally give
that confession
to the judge in open court.
JACOBS:
So what that means
is she'd have to say,
"I, with intent to kill,
"I intentionally shot the
two victims," name the victims,
and say, "I committed
those murders during the course
of arson and during
the course of burglary."
NARRATOR:
As investigators had theorized,
Tynickia's gun-wielding outburst
the day before the murders
was not an isolated event,
but an inciting incident
that led Tynickia
back to Hancock the next day
in one last attempt
to ensnare him
as her benefactor.
The O.C. good life
would be hers at any cost.
BLACKBURN:
On the day of the murders,
Tynickia went over to the house.
She had a friend drive her
over there and drop her off.
She confessed to chasing John
through the house, shot him
out near the pool,
poured gasoline on him,
poured gasoline
throughout the house,
and set the house on fire.
VOLZKE:
By all appearances,
Helen was murdered
just for being in the home when
Tynickia came to confront John.
In her confession, Tynickia said
she didn't even remember
shooting Helen.
That she wasn't there
to harm Helen
and had no ill will
toward Helen.
And the shooting
occurred in a rage.
BLACKBURN:
She wanted the relationship
to continue, and he didn't.
And she saw
these dollar signs
going by the wayside.
VOLZKE:
Later, we hear testimony
that she had actually set
the beds on fire
where she and John Hancock
had had sex.
Wasn't necessarily
her intention
to burn or hide evidence,
but it was just sort of
the rage... she had thought
that John Hancock
had made all these promises
that he didn't keep.
She felt like she had been
Hancock's whore.
And at the end,
Ms. Thompson says that's what
spurred her to kill him.
Tynickia was sentenced
to two life sentences
in exchange for the death
penalty being dropped.
So, at 20 years old,
she was gonna spend
the rest of her life
in California prison.
DeSOUZA:
What I would say
to investigators
that took the time
to find every little detail
of this horrible crime
and finding who did this to him
thank you.
Thank you from the bottom
of my heart.
VOLZKE:
At the time of the murder,
he was really trying to amend
and-and build some relationships
that had been
lacking in the past.
And in the end,
it was all taken away.
And the kids were actually
defending their father
as a good man
who had provided for them.
Very different picture
than what the public record
said of John Hancock.
DeSOUZA:
Anybody can remember
the bad,
but to remember the good,
that's important.
You don't forget
that first love.
And I think this will give
some closure.
He was kind and generous
and loving.
All the beautiful moments
I got to go through with him.
So many memories.
NARRATOR: For more information
on Real Murders