Real Murders of Orange County (2020): Season 1, Episode 8 - Sleeping with the Enemy - full transcript

NARRATOR:
A brutal rape and murder
sends shock waves

through a coastal
Orange County mecca.

TOM GILLIGAN:
The victim was upstairs.

Multiple stab wounds.

Blood on the bed,
blood on the floor.

GEOFF BOUCHER:
She had been

raped by a mystery assailant.

NARRATOR:
And the hunt for justice

unveils dark lies

and manipulation...

KIM DAVIS:
He would



monitor her calls.

She was scared to death.

Severity and the violence...

it's just mind-numbing.

NARRATOR:
...and a twisted answer that

leaves a family forever broken.

When I heard the news,

I felt sick.

The suspects fled to Mexico.

It's an outlandish story,

and one that would make the case

even more notorious.

ROBERT MOE:
It completely
tore the family up.

Shredded it.



♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
In the 1980s,

Huntington Beach was known
as Surf City USA.

Young, sun-soaked
up-and-comers flocked there

to stake their claim
in the O.C.

with big lifestyles
and big aspirations.

BOUCHER:
There was a lot of people
moving toward Huntington Beach,

looking for opportunity
or a good time.

And one of them was a young
fella named Mel Dyson.

LARRY WELBORN:
He was very smart,

and his family had some money,

and he started
a accounting firm.

He cultivated a pretty nice
clientele right off the bat,

I think with his family's
influence.

And so he had
hit the ground running

and was doing quite well for
himself at a very young age.

BOUCHER:
Mel Dyson made his living
dealing with the money

of wealthy people.

He certainly liked to exude

his success

with expensive sports cars,

and splurging in general.

He was very showy
with the money

that he had.
When Mel Dyson

was at
one particular party,

he ended up meeting
someone named Dixie.

She was about
ten years his senior.

He was 23 and she was 32.

But despite the age difference,
they had immediate chemistry.

NARRATOR:
Dixie grew up in a very
different world than Mel.

She forged her way through
a challenging childhood,

but eventually chased
her own dreams

to achieve a modest
Orange County lifestyle.

WELBORN:
Dixie was adopted by
a family in California,

and it wasn't exactly
a loving environment

when she was growing up.
She had

her share of troubles,
and she was trying to

escape from that.

She got married quite young

and had two kids real quickly.

ROBERT MOE:
My mom, she was a good person.

She would do anything
for anybody.

She didn't want to argue.

She let people have their way.

Very passive.

BILLY MOE:
She was a accountant. Moms was

extremely sharp.

DAVIS:
Dixie was very personable.

She was meek and mild and kind,

and she didn't have
a mean bone in her body.

ROBERT:
She split up from my father
when we were younger,

and my father moved to

Central California

and had custody of us.

Eventually, my mom

ended up in Huntington Beach,

and we would come and visit her
during the summer.

BILLY:
When I first met Mel,
I was impressed.

Mel was meticulously clean.

He worked out. We had
a lot of things in common.

We usually talked cars.

ROBERT:
Mel was definitely a go-getter.

I loved the fact that
my mom was with Mel.

It made her life much easier.

It was a nice change
for her not to have to worry

about making money.

BOUCHER:
If you think about the life
that Dixie finds herself in,

it checks off a lot of boxes.

She has a security

that she's never had before.
She's with a guy

that's giving lavish gifts,

-who's paying the bills.
-NARRATOR: Mel and Dixie

fell for each other fast

against the intoxicating
backdrop

of Orange County's
sun and sand,

and their romance quickly
transformed Dixie's life

from working single mom

to happy Huntington Beach
housewife.

They ended up getting married.

After a couple years of them
being together,

they had my little brother.

I think Mel was ecstatic.

BILLY:
Mel's mom... Grandmother Dolly
and his whole entire family...

were always very,
very welcoming,

They took us in as family.

From the outside looking in,

everything seemed just
normal as possible.

NARRATOR:
What the Dyson family

couldn't know was that

this magical time was fleeting,

and their seaside dream
was about to unravel

into a twisted nightmare.

BOUCHER:
November 17, 1984,

3:00 a.m.,
the early morning hours.

A 911 call is made from

Dixie and Mel's seaside condo.

Something horrible's happened.

DALE MASON:
I arrive at the scene,

and from there, you got to go

from zero to 60 immediately.

We walked throughout the condo,

examining every room.

It was neat and orderly.

The only evidence
of a struggle was in

the master bedroom.

GILLIGAN:
There was

blood spatters
on the walls.

Blood on the bed,

blood on the floor.

The victim was

Mel Dyson.

He was deceased,

and his wife
was reportedly raped

by the same suspect.

MASON:
Mel was on the floor,

face-down in a

fetal position.

GILLIGAN:
He had sustained

multiple stab wounds.

It was obviously a very
violent attack.

When this went down,

Dixie Dyson and Mel Dyson's son,

along with a young cousin,

were in another
bedroom, sleeping.

They were now
in the care of family

who had come down, actually,
at the request of Dixie

when this incident was reported.

NARRATOR:
A brutal, bloody killing
exacted in the Dysons' bed

and witnessed only by Dixie,
who had shockingly survived

her own unimaginable trauma
and the assault and aftermath.

Detectives hoped she'd be able
to give them some clue

as to who could possibly
be responsible

for these grisly acts.

GILLIGAN:
According to Dixie,

she and Mel
were in their bedroom,

watching television.

The two of them had sex.

And she said around 10:30

she hears the boys coughing.

So she gets up out of bed.

Eventually, she gets up

to return to the bedroom.

And when she opened
the bedroom door,

it appeared that Mel was now
on the floor next to the bed.

Suddenly, she was grabbed
from behind.

MASON:
Dixie described the assailant
as a male African American,

late twenties,
possibly thirties.

Average height, weight.

GILLIGAN:
The male said, "Don't scream,

or I'm gonna kill you
and the kids."

She was raped by the suspect.

Then he told her, "You're gonna
take me out of here."

To enter or leave the complex,

you have to pass through
the guard gate.

So the assailant hid
in the trunk of her car.

The assailant told her
to drive him

five miles from the house
to the intersection of

Golden West and Warner in
the city of Huntington Beach.

After dropping off
the assailant,

she called 911.

NARRATOR:
Detectives struggled
to make sense

of the gruesome details
of Mel's death

and Dixie's assault.

Was this a random crime

or could it have been
the consequence

of something more personal?

MASON:
She wasn't showing a lot
of emotion, but I consider

Dixie Dyson was just in shock.

I needed to make arrangements
to have Dixie

transported to a hospital

so that she could be
cared for and examined

for evidence of sexual assault.

BOUCHER:
Dixie is transported
to a local hospital,

where a rape kit
is processed.

They had discovered

seminal fluid from
two different males.

BOUCHER:
One man was her husband,

the other was unknown,
so that supported her story

that she and her husband had
had intercourse that night,

and then that she had been

raped by a mystery assailant.

MASON: Two weeks prior,

there had been
a report of a burglary.

Was this a rehearsal for a hit?

MASON: $300,000 wasn't

accounted for

in his firm.

DAVIS: I worried about Dixie.

She was scared to death.

ROBERT: I thought maybe this

could have something to do

with Mel's business.

NARRATOR:
Indiscriminate murders
were not the norm

in the safe seaside shelter

of Huntington Beach,

which made a vicious attack
on the Dyson family

all the more shocking.

MASON:
In the 1980s,

the types of homicides
we would get

were usually not random crimes.

Most of the homicides
in Huntington Beach

involved individuals that had

relationships with the victims.

NARRATOR:
Justice for the family was
top of mind for detectives

as they began piecing together
the sequence of events

that left Mel Dyson dead

and Dixie Dyson
struggling to cope

with both the loss
of her husband

and her own unspeakable trauma.

ROBERT:
I was in college.
When I heard the news...

I felt sick.

It-It's just one of those things
where it's like,

"Well, this can't be happening.

This is not true."

BILLY:
It was really difficult
to process,

my stepfather being...

stabbed to death.

My mom being raped like that.

The severity and the violence...

it's just mind-numbing.

I felt really bad
for-for my mom

for what she had gone through.

I just kept thinking,

"Who would do such a thing?"

You walk around in a daze,
not knowing what to think.

It was messed up
knowing that there was

somebody out there that had
gotten away with this.

DAVIS:
I was shocked.

Somebody broke in
and killed Mel.

And I worried about Dixie.

She was very upset.

She was scared to death.

She didn't know why it happened

MASON:
I was hopeful that I would find

some scientific evidence

that would help me
identify a suspect,

We talked to the guard
on duty that night.

The guard said
that Dixie Dyson left,

but she returned
a short while later.

That was consistent

with the story Dixie told us

after the assault.

She claimed the assailant

made her drive him
to a particular location

and drop him off.

BOUCHER:
The common sense thing is,

if the man that just killed
your husband and just raped you

is in a car trunk,
and you close the door

and he's inside the trunk,
then at that point

that you would run away,
or that you would get help.

But then again...

it's hard for anyone
to place themselves

in the position
of having undergone the trauma

that Dixie's gone through.

Who can say what mind she would
be in after something like that

MASON:
We process the car for prints,

and fingerprint experts
were able to lift

an unidentified latent print
from the trunk of the car.

During that time,
California didn't have

a fingerprint database, so once
the fingerprints were collected

they would be preserved,

in case, at some point down the
road, we were able to identify

a suspect, we could compare
those latent prints

to that person.

The murder weapon
was not found.

And there was
no blood evidence found

outside the master bedroom,

so that was something
that really stood out.

NARRATOR:
At first glance,
the Dysons' seaside condo

looked eerily intact.

No stranger's DNA was found.

Everything
was still in its place,

with no obvious signs
of anything stolen or missing.

So was this
a random break-in gone wrong,

or something more sinister?

What the investigators
do find is,

on the third floor
there's a screen

on a window,
and that screen is ajar.

WELBORN:
There's no way

to get up to the third floor...

no ladder and no marks
on the wall... so how did

the intruder get
to that third-floor window?

BOUCHER:
He would have to be Spider-Man

to get into this thing easily,
and it would be

a particularly unusual choice
to begin with,

'cause there seems to be a lot
of easier ways into the house.

MASON:
When you work a murder scene

like this,
one of the things you do is

you do background
on the location.

Now, the interesting thing
is that

two weeks prior,
around Halloween,

there had been a report
of a burglary at the residence.

BOUCHER:
The Halloween incident

stirs up some curiosity
among the investigators.

And-and some theories, too.

Was this maybe

a rehearsal, uh, for a hit?

Was someone looking

to kill Mel Dyson,
and so was their first attempt

on Halloween night?

Mel was living a very good life.

He was making good money,

and they're gonna investigate
if there's any connections

to that money that would cause
somebody to want to kill Mel.

NARRATOR:
It was time to dig deeper

into the Dysons' personal lives

to uncover any hidden secrets
that might lead investigators

closer to the truth.

As they revisited Dixie,
she let slip

that the Dysons'
comfortable beachside lifestyle

may have been propped up
by Mel skimming a little more

than his share from the books
at his accounting firm.

MASON:
Dixie Dyson told us

Mel had told her about $300,000

that wasn't accounted for
in his firm,

and had talked
about how easy it would be

to take that $300,000
without anyone knowing it.

After thinking about it
for a while,

I thought maybe this could have
something to do

with Mel's business.

There was always the chance
that he made somebody mad.

He had a temper,
and he would fly off the handle,

and then he
would apologize for it.

So I thought maybe he had

probably handled something
poorly and pissed somebody off,

and he came back
to settle the score.

MASON:
We interviewed Mel's
employer and coworkers,

but there was

no evidence that Mel
had been involved in any...

embezzlement or misuse
of the company's finances.

BOUCHER:
All the people

that he has transactions with
and business with...

none of them present themselves
as a logical suspect

at this point,
either through opportunity

or motive or means.

And the question then rises:
well, what is this case,

what is this crime,
and who is our suspect?

NARRATOR:
With every obvious
lead falling flat,

detectives were left
to wonder more

about their only witness.

Dixie's story had left
lingering, unanswered questions

that were hard to make sense of

Would Dixie be able to help
them piece it all together,

or was there something more
at play here?

MASON:
I had to take into
consideration that everything

Dixie Dyson was telling us
was true.

But in my opinion,
her demeanor didn't match

the circumstances.

GILLIGAN:
She wasn't emotional
through this.

Doesn't mean that

you have to be emotional
if you've been

a victim of a rape,
but we're having a problem

with her story...
what she did

and what she didn't do.

NARRATOR:
As the weeks wore on,

detectives had no choice
but to circle back

and retrace their steps,

combing through everything
they'd gathered from the scene

that might still conceal a clue

MASON:
During the search
of the scene, we had found

a receipt.

BOUCHER: That receipt
was from a pharmacy,

and the receipt was dated

the same day as the murder,

a couple of hours
before the crime.

MASON: And the interesting
thing was that

this pharmacy was located
at the intersection

of Goldenwest and Warner,
which is the same intersection

that Dixie told us
that the assailant

forced her to drive him to.

NARRATOR: One week after
the violent murder of Mel Dyson

and unspeakable rape
of his wife, Dixie,

Huntington Beach detectives
were still no closer

to finding a suspect.

So they went
back through evidence

collected at the eerie scene

and discovered a curious link

that just might guide them
closer to the truth.

BOUCHER:
The police had found
a receipt in the Dyson home

from a pharmacy,

and the receipt was dated
the same day as the murder.

The receipt has another
interesting detail to it:

That pharmacy is

on the same intersection

of Warner Avenue and Goldenwest

in Huntington Beach,

where Dixie says
that she drove this assailant

the night of the murder.

MASON:
So now we were very interested

in Dixie's activities

during the day
preceding the attack.

Dixie confirmed

for me that

at some point she went to

a hairdresser
and little drugstore, and

the receipt was
from that drugstore.

CHUCK MIDDLETON:
She was gonna have

her son and his cousin
over to watch TV,

so the... she bought

candy and different things.

MASON:
We interviewed the

hairdresser at the beauty salon,

confirming that.

I didn't feel
as though I learned anything

that would really help

the investigation.

NARRATOR:
What was the connection
to the intersection

of Goldenwest and Warner?

And why would the suspect
have wanted Dixie

to drop him off
at the same location

she'd been shopping
only hours before the murder?

Was it just
a star-crossed coincidence?

MASON:
I would say

that we were able to corroborate

parts of Dixie's story,

but my mindset was that

I was suspicious of her.

There were too many things
that didn't add up.

NARRATOR:
Detectives were still at a loss

to make a case
against any possible suspects,

but when they turn
to Mel Dyson's mother,

she seems to have no doubts
about who had done it.

MASON:
Dixie lived with
Mel's mom, Dolly,

after the murder.

She told me that she had had
some sort of plumbing problem

and that Dixie told her
she knew a repairman

that could assist her,
and made those arrangements.

Dolly told me
that she was suspicious

that there was
something going on

between this repairman
and Dixie, based on...

the way they were interacting
with each other.

This repairman was

Enrico Vasquez.

BOUCHER:
And it turns out
that Enrico Vasquez

was Dixie's boyfriend.

ROBERT:
My mom and Mel had

a falling out, you know,
two or three times.

And each time,
they would make up

and move back in together.

BILLY:
I don't know what led

to the separation.

My mom kept her cards
close to her chest.

ROBERT:
I knew that my mom
had a boyfriend

when she was apart

from-from Mel,

during one of their two or three

different breaks.

WELBORN:
Enrico... he grew up in New York

actually Manhattan, and now was

a ex-Marine who lived
in the San Diego area.

BOUCHER:
He was a little bit
more of a ne'er-do-well

compared to Mel Dyson.

He wasn't a man of means.

WELBORN:
He didn't have anything
going on for him,

except his charm.

Dixie would shower him
with gifts,

buy him neat things
all the time

and pay for their dinners.

She was like a sugar mama
to him, and, uh,

all that stuff
was coming from Mel.

She was using Mel's assets

to fund her boyfriend.

DAVIS:
I met Enrico.

He was kind of weird to me.

He tried to keep her away
from her friends.

He would monitor her calls.

It seemed like he

was manipulating her.

He made her sign her car
over to him.

I always wondered
what Dixie saw in Enrico,

because I didn't see much.

I told Dixie many times
that she should get rid of him,

that he didn't have a job,

that he was never
gonna get anywhere,

and she just told me,

"I can't."

And I tried to get her to talk
about it, and she wouldn't.

BOUCHER:
Even after Dixie
reconciles with Mel,

she brings Enrico
to live at a motel

not that far from the seaside
condo that she shares with Mel.

So she has an entire secret life

playing out
that Mel doesn't know about.

MASON:
Now, this information
I received from Dolly

regarding Enrico Vasquez was

exactly the sort of information
I was looking for.

Something that would
give me a clue

for the possible motive
involving Mel's murder.

NARRATOR:
Jealous lovers
have killed before.

It was possible
that Enrico had killed Mel

to keep Dixie to himself.

But the only way
to know for sure

would be to get Enrico's
side of the story.

I became very suspicious

that Dixie and Enrico were
involved in Mel's murder.

And the whole focus
of my investigation

shifted at that point

towards Enrico as an individual

but also towards Enrico
and Dixie's relationship.

DAVIS:
I did not think Dixie

had anything
to do with it at all.

I asked her once, did she have
anything to do with the murder,

and she told me no.

I did ask her if Enrico
had anything to do with it,

and she said she wasn't sure.

MASON:
Enrico was living in a place

called the Colonial Inn Motel

in Hawthorne, California.

We know where Enrico is staying,

we need to talk
to Enrico Vasquez right now.

NARRATOR:
It had been a month
since Mel Dyson

was viciously murdered

in the bed he shared
with his wife, Dixie.

But suspicion soared
as detectives learned

that Mel wasn't the only man

Dixie had been sharing
her bed with.

A hunt ensued
for Enrico Vasquez.

MASON:
We found out he was staying

in Hawthorne, California.

NARRATOR:
Could this dirty little secret

have corrupted
Dixie's intentions

to the point
where she had Mel killed?

MASON:
I asked Enrico

to come
to the police department

for an interview.

He agreed.

GILLIGAN:
It wasn't really
a confrontation.

He denied any relationship
with Dixie Dyson

but we already knew,
from several sources,

that they were
involved, romantically.

I didn't really expect Enrico

to tell me the truth
or admit to anything to me

at that point.
But I wanted his fingerprints,

because I knew
that we had unidentified

latent fingerprints
from the crime scene.

I asked him to allow us
to fingerprint him,

and he said no,
which I thought was odd.

So I was able to get
his fingerprints

off the surface
of the table after he left.

We compared them
to the unidentified

latent prints
from the crime scene,

but we didn't get a match.

It's frustrating, but the fact
that we didn't get a match

wasn't proof to me
that he wasn't in the scene.

MASON:
We knew he was lying

about his relationship
with Dixie Dyson,

and that just kept us going
in that direction.

We didn't have any reason
at that point

to veer off
in another direction.

We were gonna stay

with Dixie and Enrico
and see where it-it took us.

NARRATOR:
Enrico was lying
to investigators

about his sordid relationship
with Dixie,

even though Mel was
already out of the picture.

This proved he had
something to hide.

Was it murder?

Enrico, for his part,
he has an alibi

for the night of the murder.

He was at a party...
a well-attended one...

with a lot of witnesses.

If he was careful
covering his tracks

or if it was just a coincidence,
investigators didn't know.

MASON:
When I interviewed

the manager of the motel,

he told me about a male subject

who had visited Enrico.

He indicated that
this male subject arrived,

began staying with Enrico

about a week prior
to when the murder occurred

and left about a week
after the murder.

The description that the manage
of the motel gave

of the subject generally
matched the description

Dixie had given us
of the assailant.

Male, African American,

five, 11, medium build.

The motel manager,

he said that he had been
introduced to this visitor

by Enrico, and the guy

was going by the name of Gerald.

BOUCHER:
For the first time,
detectives at least have someone

who is close
to the suspect description.

The manager at the hotel
doesn't have

a lot of details about Gerald.

MASON:
All I had was

physical description
and the first name Gerald.

NARRATOR:
With only scraps to go on
about this Gerald,

investigators faced
yet another fragmented lead.

But a new discovery would bring
a likely motive into focus.

We learned of a life insurance
policy for, I believe it was

$100,000, payable to Dixie

if Mel was to die.

In short order
after the death of Mel Dyson,

Dixie files to collect
on his life insurance policy.

She's disappointed, however,
to find that, uh,

that the insurance company's
gonna withhold those funds,

because if there's
a murder case,

insurance companies
always hold back

until they can make sure
that the money's not going

to the person
that committed the crime.

GILLIGAN:
If she's involved,

maybe the motive in this case
is personal gain.

Get rid of Mel and collect
the life insurance policy.

We also had some questions,
because...

the suspect would have been
covered with blood.

And there should have been

maybe blood footsteps
going down the stairs.

Another key area,

the Toyota... there was

no blood found in that.

So that tells us,

"Hey, maybe they
engaged in this together

and both had the time

to wash up and not
have blood found on them.

MASON:
At some point

during this process,
I began to think that

this is a contract killing,
and that Dixie

and Enrico solicited
this mysterious visitor

to commit the murder.

Police were looking hard
at Dixie, and they-they

didn't like her story
from the night of the crime.

Now that they found that she had
had a lover and that that lover

was nearby
and had access to a friend

who matched
the suspect description,

these were all dominoes

that were lined up
one by one by one,

and they could see very easily

that if they could
just figure out a way

to tip them over,
they would fall the right way.

NARRATOR:
Investigators struggled

to stomach the possibility:

had Dixie been involved in the
brutal murder of her own husband

and somehow
faked her own attack?

Before they could begin
to formulate an answer,

Mel's family threw them
yet another curveball

that would keep them guessing.

MASON:
Apparently, Dixie
had stolen a ring

from a member of Mel's family
and subsequently gave it

to Enrico.

Well,

we were able to confirm

Enrico had pawned
the stolen ring at a pawnshop,

and we wanted

to see if we could shake him up.

So we filed charges against him
for receiving stolen property,

and we got a warrant

for his arrest.

Enrico was
to the second-floor room

of the motel.

When we knocked on the door...

(knock on door)

...we intentionally just said,

"Police officers with a warrant
for Enrico Vasquez."

But we didn't advise him
that the warrant

was for receiving
stolen property.

We wanted him
to think the worst.

He panicked,

jumped out
of a second-story window

and ran.

BOUCHER:
All their instincts

tell them that Dixie

is the key to this case.

MASON:
I was running surveillance.

ROBERT:
Everywhere she went,

they were there.

BOUCHER:
She tells people that she's just

sick of the police harassment.

So she goes
south of the border.

NARRATOR:
Investigators were unraveling
the twisted web

of a potentially murderous
O.C. black widow, Dixie Dyson,

and sought to ensnare
her guilty lover,

Enrico Vasquez,
on an unrelated charge.

But Enrico clearly
had ideas of his own.

GILLIGAN:
When we arrived there,

Enrico ran.

We had to chase him.

NARRATOR:
Enrico desperately leapt

from the second-story window
of his motel room

in the hopes
of evading the officers.

But he landed to discover

that they already had
the motel surrounded.

GILLIGAN:
He was literally captured
by a patrol officer

and took him into custody.

He denied involvement again.

So, where do we go now?
What do we do?

We're not getting
any information.

NARRATOR:
Enrico was savvy enough

to deny any involvement
with Dixie and the murder,

and traces
of potential assailant Gerald

had scattered
like smoke in the wind,

so investigators didn't have
enough to hold Enrico.

Though they guessed he might
quickly run from Orange County,

they had no choice
but to cut him loose.

As soon as Enrico
got out of custody,

he left and went back
to New York, in my opinion,

to get away from the pressure
of this investigation.

BOUCHER:
Detectives find themselves
in this situation

where all their instincts
tell them

that Dixie is the key
to this case.

GILLIGAN:
Our open mind went from a victim

to it was pretty clear
that we all thought

that she was involved,

but not enough to arrest.

MASON:
I was running

surveillances on Dixie Dyson.

My whole purpose was trying
to shake her up.

I needed to break it loose
and get more leads.

ROBERT:
My mom

was trying to put her life
back together,

but she couldn't.

Everywhere she went,

there was an investigator there.

BILLY:
They were

on the street out front
every day.

The investigators
were tenacious.

MASON:
Sometimes I would have
the surveillance team

operate in such a way
that she didn't know

she was being surveilled,

and there were other times
I wanted her to know

to the point where I would call

the surveillance team
and say, "Where is she?"

I would drive to the location,

intentionally pull up
next to her,

signal or something
and wave at her.

Just to tell her

the investigation
was still going on.

ROBERT:
She had told me
she was innocent.

I believed my mom.
There was no reason

for me not to believe my mom.

We were hopeful that they
would catch whoever did this

as quick as possible
so they would leave her alone.

NARRATOR:
Either Dixie was delivering

a manipulative, Oscar-worthy
performance for her sons

or investigators
were fruitlessly hunting

the wrong woman.

Only time would tell
if a guilty conscience

might get her
to break character.

Sure enough, in March of 1986,

a year and a half
into the investigation,

detectives caught
a possible slipup.

MASON:
We got a call

from one of the guys
in the surveillance team,

and he said, "We just followed
Dixie Dyson to a post office.

"She mailed a letter.

"The letter is addressed
to Enrico Vasquez in New York,

"but I can't get
the local postmaster to stop

"the delivery of the letter
and hold it for us

"while we get a search warrant.

"He's allowed the letter
to go into transit.

It's on its way to New York."

We knew which post office

the letter was going to be
delivered to in Manhattan,

and so that afternoon, I jumped

on a plane,
and I flew to New York.

Went to a federal judge.

Judge issued a search warrant,

allowing us
to search the letter.

We wanted it to be delivered.

We didn't want
Dixie and Enrico to know

we had the ability
to review their mail.

So... I didn't know

they could do this...

but the postal inspector

steamed the letter open.

We opened the letter.

It had all kinds of admissions
in it about the murder.

Dixie was telling Enrico
to be careful,

the investigation

was still going on.

That letter gave me
enough evidence

to charge Dixie with the murder

NARRATOR:
For all her cunning cover-up,

Dixie had just
unwittingly revealed

in her own words
a damning revelation

about who she was as a wife,
a mother,

and, at last, a killer.

I didn't have enough
to charge Enrico.

I didn't know who Gerald was,

but it was enough
to charge Dixie.

In the meantime,

Dixie Dyson

fled to Mexico.

BOUCHER:
Dixie is under pressure.

She tells people she's just sick
of the police harassment.

So she goes south of the border

NARRATOR:
With Dixie now on the run,

detectives needed a plan.

If they were right
about her motivations

for murdering her husband,

there was only one way
to patiently lure her back.

MASON:
Dixie didn't have access

to Mel's estate,

because his estate
was frozen

during the investigation.

So we thought

that it was just a matter
of time before Dixie returned

from Mexico.

There's not a lot of things
that would bring her back

to Orange County at that point,

but the one thing that would
was that insurance check.

NARRATOR:
Huntington Beach detectives
and Dixie Dyson

found themselves at a stalemate

Investigators knew
they had one last chance

to play into Dixie's greed

and desperation
to slip away for good.

MASON:
To assist us,

Mel Dyson's mother,

Dolly Dyson,
told Dixie

that the insurance money had
been approved and was available

in an attempt to lure her back

to the United States.

BOUCHER:
Dixie, she arrives
at the airport,

and the detectives
are waiting for her.

MASON:
Dixie was finally arrested
in December of 1986,

about two years
after the murder.

It's just a-a tremendous
sense of satisfaction

when you finally put

the pieces together.

GILLIGAN:
Just because Dixie was arrested
doesn't mean the case

was completely solved.

We had pretty good reason
to believe

that Gerald and Enrico...

they were involved in the case.

They give her
an opportunity to talk

about the two defendants.
She doesn't.

So she's gonna go to trial.

She thinks she's gonna win.

The evidence
is very strong against her,

especially the letter

that was retrieved
from the post office.

That letter sealed

her fate, as far
as the verdict in that case.

BOUCHER:
Dixie Dyson is found guilty

on all counts...
first-degree murder

and conspiracy to murder.

It doesn't look good for Dixie
at this point,

but the prosecutor comes to her

with an offer
to make things a little better.

The 25-to-life sentence
can be reduced maybe 15-to-life

if Dixie will detail

exactly what happened
and turn in her conspirators.

NARRATOR:
For justice to be
completely served,

Dixie now had to come clean

with all the lies
she had told along the way.

Would she do the right thing

and reveal the long hidden
truth about Mel's death?

BOUCHER:
The choice she has to make is

will she sell out her cohorts

or will she do even harder time
than she might have to?

GILLIGAN:
Eventually, Dixie
agreed to cooperate,

admit to her involvement,

tell the whole
and complete truth

in having her husband murdered.

BOUCHER:
When Dixie finally confesses,

she presents a tale

that's even more jarring

than the stories
that she's presented to date.

It's an outlandish story

and one that would make the case
even more notorious.

NARRATOR:
Two years into
the investigation,

detectives finally had
all the pieces in place

to arrest and convict conniving
lead suspect Dixie Dyson

for the brutal slaying of her
loving and unsuspecting husband

in their Huntington Beach home.

Dixie wanted to cooperate

in hopes of getting leniency
with her sentence.

So arrangements were made for me

to interview Dixie
at the Orange County jail.

BOUCHER:
It's a confusing case

until this point.

This is the time when Dixie

stitches together
this entire story.

NARRATOR:
Dixie's confession
would be the only way

for detectives to sniff out
her suspected conspirators,

Enrico Vasquez
and the elusive Gerald,

But as she began to speak,

the truth that spilled out

would darken even the sunniest
corners of Orange County.

MASON:
Dixie told me that she

and Enrico
had conspired to murder Mel

for his estate.

Her lover, Enrico, knew
that he would be a suspect

if her husband was murdered.

So he involved a friend

to be the person that
actually committed the crime.

MASON:
This was someone that
he grew up with in New York

by the name of George Lamb.

BOUCHER:
For the first time,
investigators hear

the name George Lamb.

And George Lamb
used that alias... Gerald.

MASON:
Lamb agreed

to travel to California

for the purpose
of murdering Mel,

with the understanding

he would be paid $10,000

after Dixie collected
the life insurance.

Dixie said
the murder was supposed

to occur on Halloween.

George was actually at
the residence, lying in wait

to kill Mel Dyson,

but something
made him uncomfortable,

so he left.

They staged the burglary scene
to throw us off.

BOUCHER:
The plan that they
came up with is that

Dixie would pick up George Lamb

at the corner
of Warner and Goldenwest.

George Lamb got into the trunk
of Dixie's car.

He's now secretly
brought into the home.

The amazing thing is

that he stayed in that trunk
for several hours.

Dixie was having dinner
and then

having sex with her husband.

She waited
until her husband fell asleep

before she crept back
to the garage.

And that's when she let him out

GILLIGAN:
She was actually

in the room
when the murder took place.

Her son
was just down the hallway.

And while Mel was sleeping,

Lamb came in and stabbed him
multiple times.

BOUCHER:
Dixie's account
of the night of the murder

is full of a lot
of disturbing details.

But Mel Dyson
was bleeding out on the floor

and dying when his wife

proceeded to have sex
with his killer.

She and George Lamb agreed
to have sexual intercourse

so that the police would believe
that she'd actually been raped.

It indicates to me
how cold-blooded

both of 'em were,
but especially her.

BOUCHER:
After she had
had sex with George Lamb,

he climbed back
into the trunk of her car

and she proceeded
to drop him off

at the same intersection
where she had picked him up

hours earlier.

GILLIGAN:
A lot of the suspicions that

I know that I had

came true.

She was lying.

NARRATOR:
The Dyson family had waited
years to find justice for Mel.

But as OC detectives
delivered the plot

behind the brutal murder

and the despicable lengths
that Dixie went to,

their satisfaction
was soured by a truth

that was uglier than anything
they could have ever suspected.

ROBERT:
When I found out
that my mom did confess

and was a big part of all this,

I... was furious.

I felt betrayed by my mother.

She had lied to me
all these years.

Maybe that was my problem.

I didn't want to believe
that my mom would be capable

of doing something like this.

What they did to Mel was just...

extreme violence.

BILLY:
Whatever it was,

she never let on to her children
that anything was amiss.

I guess that's
borderline psychopath.

MASON:
Dixie never expressed
any remorse.

Her reasons were
very matter-of-fact.

She wanted out,

and she wanted the estate.

GILLIGAN:
Once she laid everything out

and warrants were obtained
for their arrests,

George Lamb and Enrico Vasquez

were extradited from New York
back to California.

BOUCHER:
Police checked the fingerprints

of George Lamb and they matched
the latent print

that was retrieved
from the trunk of Dixie's car.

GILLIGAN:
George and Enrico,

they were put on trial.

And Dixie went to court
and she testified.

MIDDLETON:
Enrico Vasquez was found guilty
on both counts,

the murder charge and
the conspiracy to commit murder.

GILLIGAN:
George was found guilty
for conspiracy

to commit murder.

They were both sentenced
to 25 years to life.

NARRATOR:
Justice served for Mel Dyson,
but at what cost?

An entire family
is left struggling

to pick up the pieces,

the reprehensible acts
of one night

leaving an indelible mark
on the rest of their lives.

ROBERT:
Knowing that everybody involved

got a slice of justice
of their own...

there's some satisfaction
to that.

But it completely
tore the family up,

just shredded it.

I spent my life trying
to make up to my grandmother

what had happened,

as if I was trying
to fill Mel's shoes

and try to prove to her
and everybody

that I was good people.

Even though my mother
had done something like this,

I was still a good person.

I will always love my mother.

But, ultimately,
she got what she had coming.

NARRATOR:
For more information on
Real Murders of Orange County,