Death of a Showgirl

Was it our late 30-year-old Sakhova?

From the register of Evil The Dries. He was eight years old. Come to a new vision of the Crowns. Hey, Spitalin. Here's the name of this.

What happened with Katie? I will normally take that trick. Lee Cronen's "The Mummy". Up to 16 am now in Kino.

“A Vegas Silveral is a girl who has beauty, who has talent, who can be seductive.”

You have so many women with their unique talents, when they're bringing them to this city. A Vegas Silveral's glamorous. She's beautiful, she's sexy. She is Las Vegas.

Debbie, breathe dancing. She landed a spot in one of the scripts. Vegas shows called Fantasy. Sometimes being pretty puts you at risk. I can tell you from personal experience.

How scary Vegas can be.

Debbie was never late to practice.

She was always on time. But the last practice before the opening act. Debbie then show up. Red flags immediately started popping off.

“We have an employee that's been missing for about 24 hours now.”

We have to find her. Could she have been taken? Could she be kidnapped? Everyone knows that she would not have missed the final dressing rehearsal. This was her dream.

And for her to not show up to rehearsal that day, it just wasn't right. It wasn't going to turn out good.

My name is Celeste Flores Nervais.

My sister's name is Deborah Flores Nervais. She loved dancing. It was her passion. She loved being in the spotlight. She loved performing.

And she loved showcasing her ability and her creativity. Debbie decided that I'm going to pursue my dream of dancing and acting in modeling. And she moved to Las Vegas. Wow, Las Vegas is a city of light and spectacle and major entertainment.

Debbie wanted to conquer the world.

“I remember right when she moved to Vegas.”

She was posting auditions. She was posting trials. She could do jazz. She could do hip hop ballet. She's so graceful.

But she had so much personality in her movement. Debbie's ultimate goal in Las Vegas was just like the rest of us to star and a big Las Vegas show. She wanted to learn ballroom, theatrical arts, and also a Vegas show girl style.

She did a good job in the real tight bikini. A real sexy body, sex sales and Las Vegas. If you're not sexy, you're not going to get hired. Debbie had that Vegas show girl quality. And she was a hard worker.

So in Debbie lands, I coveted role as a background dancer on fantasy. It is a dream come true. When Debbie got a part in fantasy at the Luxor, she called all of us. She was so excited.

She couldn't stop talking about it. Fantasy is an institution in Vegas. It's one of the strips most popular burlesque shows. It's lasted decades. And it features dance performances with top musical artists.

I was so proud of her. So proud of her. Because she just felt as if she was now on the same plane field as many of us featured and made to productions in Las Vegas. Debbie's ambition doesn't stop at fantasy.

Well, she starts out as a background dancer. Debbie quickly earned her way to the front of the dance line. And lands a solo alongside Grammy-nominated artist Sisco. Debbie called and told me she was excited because she was going to be doing a show with Sisco.

And we all know Sisco is this dynamic entertainer. She's so talented, so popular. And his song, "The Thongsong" was everywhere. The thongsong was the biggest hit top 100.

is the biggest break of Debbie's career.

Debbie and Sisco shown here practice four weeks to perfect the routine. They practiced to make sure that they got the roll down.

“There's a part where I think he has to smack her on her butt.”

And he kind of like padded it. And she was like, no, no, no, no, no. You've got to smack it. They had practiced that day. And then they took a break.

Everyone went home. And there were to reunite back that night so they can have a final practice before the red carpet opening. The final rehearsal is going to be at midnight.

Very, very normal for a Las Vegas show. And Debbie then show up. Like this is not right. It's not right at all.

There's no way she's going to give up her dream opportunity

and not show up for rehearsals. It was just so surprising because Debbie is a very timely and professional person.

“Everybody was drinking for all the dancers.”

Debbie doesn't just miss midnight rehearsal. She can't be found. And when she doesn't show up to the premiere, the show has to replace her. I get to call from my mom and she says,

"Hey, I'm worried. I have a hurt from your sister. I've been trying to call her. I immediately called my sister in one straight to voicemail. And I sent her a Facebook message and I said,

"Hey, mom and dad are looking for you.

Just, please call them back."

As fantasy goes on without her, Debbie has not been heard from for 24 hours. Nobody knew anything. I decided to call her roommate. Who then told me, "I put a missing report out on your sister.

I haven't heard from her. This is serious." Hi, I know the pilot doesn't know that.

“Who is the person you need to file it on?”

I know me. Okay, how long has it been since you saw this person? I've told her that I was telling her, "I don't know. I'm sure she doesn't want to know."

Yeah, what is this person's name? Debbie, Debbie, please ask her, or you ask? I started getting anxious. I went on her Facebook and I put a message out saying, "If anybody's heard from my sister, just let me know.

Debbie went out of phone or her social media was unheard of." She was so very active on social media. She had a Facebook account with so many fans. And she took pictures every night. And that was a dangerous thing to do because you're letting thousands of people know where you work.

It can be very, very, very dangerous for many showgirls on Las Vegas. These women are exposing themselves physically to much of male audiences. I was certain that someone has snatched her. One of her fans, maybe someone was rejected and decided to maybe seek revenge. She's a beautiful woman.

She's a dancer. She's missing. Surveillance footage of Debbie leaving her apartment, walking out into the Vegas night where she disappears without a trace. The show is supported by Chime.

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That's one purchased, one donated with over 150 million donations and counting. Head over to bombus.com/20 and use code 20 t-w-e-n-t-y for 20% off your first purchase. That's bombus.com/20 and the code t-w-e-n-t-y at checkout. Do those in there? They're making pollo guisado con arro gui gandules, which is a Puerto Rican stew and it is very popular in Puerto Rico.

They've always extremely proud to be Latina.

She's got a good chicken dish. Some of her favorites with pollo guisado arro con abichuela arro compollo, which is rice and chicken arro compollo. My sister, it was a terrible cook. There were times when she would try to make a meal for like her boyfriend. We were both born in Puerto Rico.

My mom was a housemaker, taking care of me and my sister and my father. He worked for the military. And when we were seven and eight, we moved to Maryland, which was completely new to us. We were in a different world. We didn't speak English.

So it was like, "Oh my God, two new girls and they don't speak English. We want to know what they're like." My sister and I were really close.

My mother always dressed us alike.

We were only a year and four months apart. So we always had twin outfits on. She was just like a little ball of fun. She was just tiny, little, tiny little, little Debbie. Everybody always called her little Debbie.

When we were little, we would always perform in front of my mom. I just remember doing these like Michael Jackson dances that we would practice in our room. And then we would go present these dances to my mom. She just loved it. I met Debbie in seventh grade.

“I think I fell in love with Debbie, probably the moment I met her.”

Before you even see her, you're going to hear her voice. She has this very, very loud, raspy voice. Even the way she talked. It had this like accident. It had this like spiciness to it.

Debbie really did love her friends. If I told her that I needed something for anything, she was like, "I got you."

Debbie always had a smile on her face, but she also had a very sexy look to her.

She could really charm you with just a single look. When you look at her, you see this dark hair and these dark eyes. And she's beautiful. She is beautiful. Of course, as friends, we all talked about goals and things we want to do. And she said she wanted to be a dancer, but I think she didn't think that dancing would pay the bills less say.

So she buckled down, did good in school, went to college, got her to green. Debbie went to school for international business. And during that international business, she fell in love with law. And she took several classes. She was working at a very prominent firm in Baltimore downtown.

And was doing very well, very well. She had a nice cond. You know, things like that, all the things that you aspire, except she wasn't fulfilled.

“That one thing I think was missing. That was the dancing.”

Dancing at night in a club is fun, but it didn't fulfill her. She would go to salsa classes.

and ended up as a red skin ambassador.

Debbie was hired as a cheerleader ambassador. That's a very important public facing role. Really just a brand ambassador for one of the leading franchises. It's a big role to film. She loved being with other girls, you know, like wearing the cheerleader out there who doesn't love a bit cheerleader skirt.

She loved being the fans happy, you know, making them smile.

“People are cheering you on, and that's what she wanted.”

I can't believe it, but it let me know how much potential she had. But still, this was not enough for Debbie. I remember her personally calling me one day to say, "Hey, Celeste, I'm thinking about moving to Vegas." What do you think? I totally not.

I was so upset with her. Like, you're going over there by yourself. My thoughts of Vegas was since city. You don't know anybody out there. Your friends ain't there, your family's not there.

Who is out there? Nobody wanted her to go. But Debbie would not be discouraged. She was going to take a big risk. She was convinced she could do it.

She was going to head west.

“And she was going to go and follow her dreams to Las Vegas.”

I first met Debbie after our initial auditions for what was the Michael Jackson's. This is it. Release of his documentary film. What's it up to me about Debbie when we first met was how much she talks. She just had so much to say.

So many questions to ask if so many ideas. When you're in a situation of creating a project like that, it's wise to keep your place.

But Debbie was wanted to always just like jump in and say, why don't we do this this way.

Debbie's specific goal at that time was to be at the front of the dance line. Every time she had a big show, she was just so excited, so excited. And then of course, Debbie's promoted to that feature role with Cisco. So for those that know her, when Debbie doesn't show up for the final rehearsal, they know something must be wrong. And the alarm started going off.

She wouldn't have never known to show up. There's no other reason that she came to Vegas except to be at this point in time. Debbie's been missing now for 24 hours. And the police are involved. After the roommate called 911.

I understand it doesn't look good. So what is this person's name? Debbie. So detectives go to the apartment to talk to Debbie's roommate to learn more about what happened the night Debbie disappeared. The roommate said she was going to visit her boyfriend and then was going to work.

But she never showed up to work.

Detectives then obtained the surveillance video from the apartment complex. And it shows Debbie leaving a apartment just before 6 p.m. The security footage shows Debbie dressed nicely. And she's walking down the hallway and gets into the elevator in her apartment complex. She was wearing the high boots, dark color clothing.

She carried a bag with her in my opinion. It was going to be her dance clothes to go to the rehearsal late at night. Further on, there's footage of her vehicle driving out over the parking area. If Debbie was planning to stop by her boyfriend's place on the way to this final rehearsal, detectives are going to have to go find that boyfriend and find out what he knows.

Me personally, I'm thinking Debbie must have needed a break. She probably just left, didn't want to tell anybody. Parents haven't talked to her either. Nobody in Vegas has talked to her either. Well, nobody in Baltimore has talked to her.

The Christmas holidays, I should be thinking about my son's gifts and Christmas and family. Now, my mother's birthday, I flew out there. My main focus was to find where my sister was. I didn't care who went where. I just wanted to find her alive.

I was out there night and day from the moment I woke up in the morning. I was constantly driving around. I was putting her face out there, setting up volunteer groups to pass out flyers. Anytime that I would go outside, I would see the desert. I'm like, 'cause she'd be out there somewhere.

Look, this is Vegas.

“What's the old slogan they were using that would go in Vegas days in Vegas?”

Since Vegas was invented, it was a place that people disappear too.

And it doesn't mean that a crime's been committed.

Again, she could have just left. There could have been some issue. And we don't know. The media is all over this. There's pressure from every direction. Debbie's disappearance attracted so much media attention.

“On the news, Nancy Grace, what happened to Debbie Flores?”

She doesn't show up for rehearsal. She doesn't show up for a show. Seeing Celeste crying and pecking for her little sister's return was so hurtful. There's no hope or pressure. She is okay. She was everybody's sister, everybody's friend. She couldn't have an enemy.

So absolutely, let's find this girl. Detectives learned from Debbie's roommate that she left her apartment, prior to her final rehearsal for her show, to visit her boyfriend. He was another successful Vegas performer, Jason Griffith, who's also called Blue Griffith.

So, when you become an artist, you have a nickname as you evolve as an artist and the entertainment and treat them.

“So, Jason Blue Griffith is known as Blue.”

I learned that Jason was a very skilled and trained professional dancer. I learned that they were dating. And they were dating for a while. He danced with Tony Braggs, then. And he was in a service to lay love.

You know, these are like made shows in Las Vegas. So, the missing person's detectives contacted Jason Griffith. Well, we went to the house, where Jason and another man by the name of Blue. We're living. Jason said Debbie was there.

That he said that she never exited her vehicle.

That he only spoke to her through the open window on the driver's side of the vehicle.

“She was only in the driveway for a few minutes and then left.”

Police also learned from Jason. They had many on again, off again, girlfriends, and Debbie was just one of them. After detectives speak with Jason, they find that he's cooperative and not particularly suspicious. Other than that, detectives have very little to go on until Debbie's car is spotted across town. Police found her car, a 1997 Chevy prism, a nearby resident, said it's sat for several days.

It's awful that it has happened. And I just wish that somebody could have found her something. The interesting thing about her car was kind of hidden in the backyard of an abandoned house. So it couldn't be seen from the street, but a neighbor had realized that it shouldn't have been there and called it in. I noticed that there was a maroon car parked over there.

Grab my binoculars and I went out, so I looked through the binoculars and I wrote down the license plate number. First thing I noticed that it said Maryland, I called Tuesday morning. I noticed that the license plate was missing Wednesday morning. So sometimes between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, somebody come and took the plate. When officers in that area of town recovered the car, they found clothing in the back seat that matched the clothing on the video that she had been wearing.

They found the boots that she was wearing when she left her apartment the night that she went missing. When the police found her car, it was very upsetting.

She would never leave her purse, her dance bag, those types of things in the car.

She's the girl that you know, I gotta have lipstick, I gotta have whatever you need. That was a shock for me. I had been in that car many, many times with Debbie and with her belongings and everything. That to me was that just indicated that this wasn't going to be good, it wasn't going to turn out good. They searched the car, they searched the trunk, the properties around it were searched, we looked for video, nothing. There was no forced entry into the car, there was no blood in the car, except for the plate being removed and put inside the trunk, there wasn't much there.

Discovery of Debbie's car was a critical piece of information, this investigation, and it also started steering the investigation towards a homicide rather than just a straight-out missing person case. My parents are a distress, they're anxious, they're worried, but they're hopeful. There were times where they kind of gave up and thinking that she had already passed. And I wouldn't allow that. So the day's pass, there's no body, there's no obvious crime scene, it says if Debbie just up and vanished into thin air.

So detectives hold a news conference and they want to encourage the public to come forward has anybody seen her, hurt from her, anything that they could go on that might be a lead. Good morning. Thank you for attending this press conferences morning to discuss the disappearance of Deborah. We believe that Deborah was last seen on Sunday, December 12.

Well, detectives wait for tips to come in, they decide to pay Jason Griffith another visit. All we really knew at this point was he was the last person, reportedly, to have seen her alive. During the interview with Jason, he did indicate that he knew that there was a domestic violence case where Debbie hadn't been beaten. And Jason suggests to police that if anyone had a reason to hurt Debbie, it might be her former boyfriend. I mean, I could make, I could make that assessment that like, you know, this is somebody that hurt her.

“I think it's a horrible feeling when you don't know where your loved one is and you don't have no answers.”

Because the longer you're out there looking for her, the more you're thinking of possibilities and you just keep going and going and going. Could she be out there somewhere? What we know is on December 14, a missing person's report was filed by Deborah's roommate stating that she had not seen Deborah for a couple of days. Investigators are looking at Debbie's romantic relationships to honor any clues that might help them figure out where she is, including Jason Blue Griffith. Jason Griffith was Debbie's last known boyfriend when she disappears and he is completely willing to cooperate with the investigation.

All we really knew at this point was he was the last person reportedly to have seen her alive. They have surveillance video of her leaving her apartment alone in her geoprism and she tells everybody she's going to Jason's house and they're going to watch. That's the last time anybody sees her.

We're never hopeful to discover someone dead, but at this point we have a firm belief that Debbie is in fact dead not just missing.

We have some inconsistencies in how she was last seen by Jason Griffith's house. Jason Griffith's house. We have her car hidden on a different area of town from where she went missing and where she's last seen. So at this point we're suspecting foul play. The reason we're here is Deborah. A very close friend of yours has gone missing and from all accounts that we have at this point, you're the last person to see her. Is it trecta as far as you know? Yes, it's present.

We all sat down and we did a rather lengthy interview of Jason Griffith. She's standing at your door because that's her door. You say, "Oh, you're there. What is she wearing?"

“As much as you can remember, the extremely open doors.”

Her was down wearing black. Some kind of a black shirt. Some kind of a black top with everything else was black. There was nothing that stood up. So everything you say to us is going to be extremely important to us. And I let him talk as much as he wanted to talk. There was no confrontation of any kind and we just gathered information.

Jason tells detectives that Debbie left his apartment that night and he never saw her again.

During the interview with Jason, he did indicate that he knew that there was a domestic violence case where Debbie hadn't been beaten. It was hard for her because she had went through an abusive relationship. Jason brings up a situation from over a year prior between Debbie and one of her ex-boyfriends named Jamil McGee. And I was just told that he had beat her up. So there was a lawsuit that was going on. We can't overlook anything.

“You have to run everything down. She said that she was beat up, bruised, and stuff like that.”

And she had told me that she had a case coming up. So Debbie and Jamil, they met in Baltimore, and they dated for a while. And he was on the show, so you think you can dance. [Music] He's going to show the world what I got, you know what I'm saying? They both decide to move across the country to Las Vegas in search of achieving their dancing dreams.

But it isn't as romantic as it seems. And they had a relationship that at times was slightly tumultuous. Debbie liked broken birds as I would say.

When she saw something wrong with someone, she always tried to do the most in trying to fix people.

Somebody he would be afraid of.

According to family and friends, the relationship was a concern.

“And I remember her getting like just crazy calls from him, and I would go to her apartment and stay with her.”

And I would just like be there just to stay with her just so a guy can be there with her. There was an allegation of a abuse on his part, and he put his hands on my sister, and she took him to court. Debbie was granted a judgment of $250,000. In the suit she claims that Jamil committed battery against her, leaving physical scarring that limited modeling and dancework that she would have been able to be hired for, Jamil denied those claims in court.

He had really messed up things with her career, because the things that she was doing, you know, she wouldn't be able to do anymore. That's where she thought it.

But Debbie had healed enough to be back on stage.

So it was close to Debbie, say she was planning to collect on that $250,000 judgment before she went missing. Wait a minute, that's $250,000. People have gone missing, have gotten hurt for less than that. That to me is a huge flag. Detectives did look at him.

He alabied.

“He was not in Las Vegas at the time, but he was fully investigated.”

Jamil is completely clear, so investigators decided to circle back and take another look at Jason. He was her most recent love interest. Who is Jason Blue Griffith? Debbie seemed to be attracted to Jason and only Jason, or Jason was attracted to all pretty girls. But if Debbie wanted a monogamous relationship, Jason was not the guy for that.

I mean, at one point he told me he had six or seven girlfriends going at the same time. And his excuse for this was, this is Vegas, baby. Jason, Jason Blue Griffith, everyone loved him. He was very well respected in the dance community. People had nothing but great things to say about him as a person, as a artist.

Debbie called me and she said, "I met this guy, he's a dancer like me." What drew the two of them together initially was the fact that they were both dancers. And top physical shape, the idea of what they did, and they were both fairly attractive. Not many people understand being an entertainer and using your body to express yourself creatively in a passionate way. And both Blue and Debbie expressed themselves in that way.

When it came to Blue, Debbie really loved his passion and how talented he was. How much fun they would have together, how much they left, their inside jokes. She felt like they were soulmates. The problem here was that while Debbie may have felt that she and Jason were soulmates, Jason was playing the field. Debbie seemed to be attracted to Jason and only Jason.

Jason was attracted to all pretty girls. I learned that he was a playboy. He had several girlfriends. Debbie did want her relationship with Blue to be exclusive. There were rumors that there was another girl or there was others, and she was being cheated on. And Debbie didn't like that. She loved them. She cared about him deeply.

He told me he had six or seven girlfriends going at the same time. And his excuse for this was, this is Vegas, baby. One of those many girlfriends is Onya's room. An area-less to the show called Zumanity. And she seems to have captured Jason's heart.

She was French, such a sweetheart. I remember her and I did a couple industrial gigs together in Las Vegas. And I just love her. It's very talented. You do want to look at Onya's to see if maybe she could be involved. In Debbie's disappearance, or even if she just provided information.

I want to start off by asking about your relationship with Jason and Griffith, who you know has Blue BLU. Well, that means girlfriend.

“Okay. And how is your relationship with Blue progressed? How has it been?”

Recently. Recently. In the last couple of months. Okay. Now because I was very, very happy with him. For the first six months, when I've discovered that, in fact, kept three other, at least three other girls at the same time as me.

One is Debbie Flores, not the S. Debbie learns about Onya's and Jason dating, and she calls her.

Debbie is always kind of being in contact with me since the first three weeks I did.

Onya's did receive a phone call from Debbie, who her Debbie is warning her about being involved in a relationship with Jason.

She was warning me because she had been hearing from a common friend, that was a great girl. And she was like warning me not to do the same mistakes she did. It seems that Debbie wants Onya's to know who Jason really was in her mind. He was a serial data. Certainly Debbie was not okay with Jason seeing any other woman.

She was aware of them. She was aware of Onya's and Onya's was aware of Debbie and there was conflict in their relationship. I'm both relationships because of the other woman.

“They weren't okay with it, but apparently that's how Jason wanted to live his life.”

And if they wanted to be with him, they were going to have to deal with it.

At some point Onya's had enough of Debbie and the volatility of that particular relationship. And so she had broken things off with Jason. Onya's and Jason get back together just in time to celebrate Jason's birthday on December 10th, the same weekend Debbie goes missing. They spent parts of the weekend together at Otao. We slept at Otao called Rimmer.

We wanted to do something different for his birthday. He's not partying or he's not going out to club and stuff. We went to eat and we went to sleep at Rimmer. What did he say about Debbie that night? Well, that night he was saying that he explained her for real that night he went to be friends.

His call is telling me that he explained her and that she understood.

“And did you have any contact from Debbie after that?”

Detectives quickly determined that Onya's is not a suspect. She was pretty much cleared as being a person interest or possibly being a suspect. Police are stuck at this point they have no solid leads and then just before Christmas. They receive a call from the Arizona State Police. Metro received notification that there had been a burned body found over the state line.

Just passed the Hoover Dam on the Arizona side of the river. It's a female with long dark hair with a very thin build which matched the description of Debbie Flores. The body had been just dumped in the middle in the world just off the highway and doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. That gruesome discovery today investigating a possible connection between the missing dancer and the body found out as you were down.

“We heard that they found the body in Arizona.”

I was scared. Everyone was on pins and needles to find out if this was Debbie or not. At this point we're suspecting foul play. This is going to be Debbie.

Every second is agonizing.

The body is brought back to Las Vegas, a Clark County Corners office. At autopsy I learned that it was not Debbie. When it was confirmed that it was not Debbie, it kind of gave people a sigh of relief. There was a glimmer of hope that my sister still out there. She's alive. We have to find her.

Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! What investigators were learning is that as a couple, Debbie Flores and her bias in Jason Griffith may have brought out the very best and also very worst. We learned that Jason and Debbie's relationship was toxic. The more we learned about their relationship, very contentious, very volatile. I don't give up. I know legally the law and I know where it's legally wrong.

And she recorded her and announced to her and he questioned her. He videotaped her confession. He got the whole thing on tape. My tires is not legally wrong. Debbie and Jason had a very fiery relationship.

They were either on or they were very much off.

She wants monodomy and is exacting revenge on a cheating boyfriend.

Debbie for sure wanted a serious monogamous relationship. Debbie was not the type of woman that was not going to agree to just be someone's sidepiece. Throughout their relationship, both Jason and Debbie called 911 on each other. 911 emergency. I'm having a domestic problem.

My girlfriend would not leave my house. She just locked me out of my room. She doesn't live there. No, there's no look here. And then just a week later, another 911 call from Jason. So we are just need to swipe up, please.

Okay, what's going on? My girlfriend just came to the house and punched on my window. And she needs to go. And what's your year? I hope you're 15 years of agey bleeding.

“I'm here bleeding, but that's what I'm talking about.”

It's unusual in the moment that you would make that reaction when you're reporting that someone is hurt.

But I do know that ultimately Debbie did a lot of damage to Jason's property.

His calls to the police paint Debbie as someone who's emotional, unstable. That possibly wants to do harm to herself because relationship isn't going the way that she wants. Now on the other side, you have Debbie's accusations where Jason is unfaithful. Jason is violent. Jason is somebody to be feared.

And you can hear in the background of this call, Debbie is clearly upset. And what's your name? What's your last name? What's your name? I can't hear you.

What's your name? I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you.

I can't hear you. What's your last name? I can't hear you. I can't hear you.

“In that video, Jason secretly records of Debbie, the confessions continue.”

I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. This was after a huge fight they had.

He was caught cheating. Line, manipulating, and gaslighting her. Did you hear me? Did you hear me? Did you hear me?

Did you hear me? Did I? What can you hear? Did I look at your laptop? Did I pour egg whites on your car?

Did I slashed three of your tires because I said I'll give him one left? I am not going to lie, but I am doing it. And it was the weirdest thing to see her admitting, yes, I slashed your tires. And I did the only three of the four on purpose. I don't know why someone would do that, but it made perfect sense to her at the time.

I learned this from Debbie.

“If you want to really get under someone's skin, instead of slashing all four tires,”

slashed three, you have to buy your tires and sits. But I hear me. Did you hear me? Did you hear me? Because I think I can't prove it.

Do you think I'm slashing tires when I go? Do you think I have to? I don't know. You're slashed tires. No, you do.

I'm just going to be with you. I don't know. But you do. They think they slashed us out of this. You think you can fuck me and hurt with me.

Right. But you're the man. But you do it. And you make sure that there's no proof that you did it because so I can do it. You take any legal action.

There's going to be a break in point. And she reached that break in point where she slashed his tires because she's had enough. And they broke up. It had broken things off completely for several months and didn't have any contact with each other.

In October, just two months before Debbie's disappearance, she and Jason get into another fight. She was in his face and he grabbed her and threw her down and ended up pulling some of her out. So at that point, she had contacted the police and he was arrested for domestic violence. When Jason was arrested, she had got a restraining order against him. And even though he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near, she would come to his house to watch TV.

It's been almost a month since Debbie's disappearance. Police don't have a body, they don't have a crime scene, they don't even have proof that Debbie's been harmed. Until they receive a tip about a woman who has information vital to solving the case.

And when we were talking to her, and that was my first thought.

Why didn't you tell somebody about this? I'm scared, making a statement to you. And what she tells detectives is bone-chilling.

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All the work, all of a sucker for the MBA playoffs, presented Baguette continued. ESPN and ABC. Four weeks after Debbie's disappearance, Las Vegas detectives tracked down a former girlfriend of Jason Griffith in a suburb outside of Vegas. And Coleca Sorso reveals information that will break the case wide open. We tracked her down at her place of work and got an interview from her.

I'm just nervous, I'm scared. She wanted to remain anonymous, which tells me that she has information that she wants to put out there. But she wants to protect herself as well. I'm scared, making a statement to you because obviously if Blue can do that to her, he could do it to me. They know where I live.

She has been involved in her relationship with Jason, so she knows how he is. Coleca explains that she is terrified, because she believes that Jason killed Debbie and that someone else may be involved. Him and his roommate. Which roommate would you talk about, Louis? Yeah.

Blue's Columbo was Jason's roommate. Jason was popular, would have a lot of women. Blue's Columbo was completely opposite, but he really cared about Jason. There were best friends. And he was willing to pretty much do anything that Jason asked him to do.

It was imperative to us to find Louis Columbo that was her role.

“It cannot be overstated how important Louis interview was to ultimately finding Debbie.”

There was just an avalanche of information that Louis gave to the police, helped give Debbie's family some well-deserved answers. Now he had an opportunity to do the right thing and have that girls family know what happened. And at least have that club that club. You could tell he was scared. But he was playing the, you know, I don't know what you're talking about.

You know, I don't get it. I don't know why I'm here. Louis Columbo did not want me involved in the investigation at all. So what do you want? That was what you want right now.

We knew he was going to be the weak link, but we had to have something to enticing with him. And the deal was, was the enticement. We made the decision, we were telling him not to arrest him. I can guarantee this. You tell us what happened.

In you're not getting arrested. That's my guarantee to you. I don't know if he would ever talk if we didn't give him the deal. No, I don't want to say you're making a deal with the devil. But we wanted the information that he had.

We know you wish you could rewind it. You can't now you got to go forward. You need to tell us what happened. From the beginning all the way to the end. Louis.

No. That's not it.

You need to tell us what happened.

“Early on in the interview, there was obvious that he 100% knew what had taken place.”

Debbie showed up to the house. There was an argument. Just walk us through it. What were they arguing about? I don't know.

They were just arguing. They were just yelling at each other. Okay. No, there's pushing the shove in. You know, he grabbed her.

She grabbed her. She grabbed her. I split them apart. I saw him choke him. Very sorry, Debbie.

Turned the argument. And I pulled him off her.

That's why I got to some water.

And I asked him if they were going to be alright. I told him no more arguing, no more fighting. Like, she's still breathing. She's still talking. All right.

What she said to you? She said this before right. He's worried. And he asks both of them. And I leave you two here alone.

“And can you two be civil with each other?”

And they both say yes. Columbus as he leaves the house for about two hours. When he came home, he saw Debbie laying on the floor. One of the plastic bag over her head. And she was not moving and did not appear to be breathing.

That's what he said. He was like, "What are you talking about?"

And then he watched his studio and I saw it.

Like, I was in shock. I was shaking. He was like, you know, this is one of those different change moments. Jason said something to Louie about. This being a change your diaper moment.

So we had him explain that. Was it a change your diaper moment? You know, hey, when I raise you, I used to change your diapers. And now it's payback time. You know, I took care of you.

Now it's time to take care of me. He's done a lot from your leg. Faith doesn't stuff like financial and stuff. Okay. So he goes like, you know, this is one of those moments.

He was very specific about what happened afterwards. He said they had a big bin that they wanted to put her in there. You know, after an event? Yeah. What she called?

Yes. You know, Debbie had driven her car over the house to watch the texture. And so Jason decides that we need to get rid of her car. And so Jason drove her car clear across town with Louie following him. Just parked her car there and this little desert dirt lot kind of area.

And then Jason gets in the car with Louie and they drive back to the house. That night, clumber goes to his job as a balancer at a club. Jason had a date that night. He and Louis Colombo placed my sister in the garage. Jason went out that night with Anjay to celebrate his birthday.

They had a hotel room. He stayed the night. They had a good night as if nothing happened. While my sister laid dead with a bag of overhead in his garage. Colombo says that in the following days Jason Griffith devises a plan to entom Debbie's body and a block of concrete.

And then Jason winds up going to home depot and getting a bunch of cement. Because I do support concrete. So, you know, it tells me to stop me from the concrete. It's starting to become concrete. Where?

To the garage? What did they say to the garage? You know, in front of the van, put the concrete in it. How is she positioned in the van? Like, sort of curl that button was on the offer, shit.

It's your typical blue, sterile light storage container. So, when you put a 120 pound body in there and then fill the rest up with concrete, obviously it's heavy. It weighed at the minimum 600 pounds. How long do you let it set? Until the next day.

Okay. Can you read to the URL in what else? Oh, golly. And I have to go. They rent the u-hole and then Jason comes with a plan.

They then drive it out to Jason's ex in Henderson. He called and asked me if I would store some stuff for him. I said, all right, you know, what is it? He's like, it's just a tub. And she sees a u-hole truck.

And she looks inside and she sees Louie and Jason. Trying to manhandle this big blue sterile light storage tub. So, I'm like, whoa, what is that? Because I kind of got a bad feeling. And he just gave me this look, like,

if you want me to tell you. And I was like, yeah, you think you're storing that at my house. You're going to tell me what it is. And he was like, it's Debbie.

“And I was like, whoa, f**k that's no, you need to go right now.”

And it was very upset. So once they leave colleagues, they have to do something to me.

The body has been in this container now for a few days.

And it's starting to decompose.

“And now you have all this decomposition fluid.”

It starts leaking out of the crack in this tub. Yeah. So we started, I guess we got a little bit. And there's a trail of it from the sidewalk all the way up to the front door and inside the house. And then Jason came up with Plan B.

And they bought more bins. They bought more cement. They bought a mini sledgehammer. So we did something like a broken out of the concrete. The body.

So you actually break up the cement and break up the cement. And take her out. What does she look like?

Louie tells us that he can take us to where the body is.

So I'm going to abandon the house. Now a big question is, where's the house? On Benan's. Jacob Stewart. You don't have to go in.

What can you take us for the house? We got to go. We've got to get it.

“Louie's Colombo leads detectives to a vacant house.”

And what they find inside takes this case from missing to monstrous. Jason Griffith and Louis Colombo's problems are mounting. The Ben they have deviant is cracked and it's leaking all over the wood floors in the living room of a vacant house. They came up with a plan. They bought more bins.

They bought more cement. Gloves, bleach, sealant, plastic bags, garbage bags. They bought a wood saw, a mini sledgehammer, to chip her out of the cement and a crowbar. Louie says that they chiped her out of the cement and then Jason dismembered her by cutting her legs off. I had it on the two separate ends.

Kind of legs off. What does she kind of legs off? He didn't. Okay. It was like a saw.

Okay. You're in plastic bags. I'll put her in the bin. I'll put her in the closet. They put the legs in one bin and then her upper body and the other bin and put cement in with those.

Then they take all the tools that they used and put in the closet of the other bedroom and seal that closet door closed as well. But they leave all the cleaning agents and older masking agents that they had to buy so that they could work with the body. They leave that all out and plain view on the living room. So you stored her in the closet and let it sit in the closet. Then he asked me to go back a couple of days later just to check on it.

So I bought some great stuff. I bought a ceiling because I had a closet. I don't want it to smell like sealed the door. I think it was in it. It takes a lot of coaxing for Louis Colombo to reveal what happened.

And police tell him that because he cooperated, he won't be criminally charged while that's a relief he is haunted. It doesn't change how responsible I feel.

“Like you could say, "Oh, you have to feel responsible.”

It doesn't change the thing that I've done." Then I'll lift it to the rest of my life into the change. Any of that. It doesn't change. No.

So sweet listeners that I'm gonna have. Yeah. The smell that I still smell. It doesn't change any of that. Like now everything that changes is as jiggless to jail.

Possibly to the rest of his life. Like now I feel like that's my fault too. He admits to his involvement to the detectives. And he admits that he knows where the body is at.

So he ultimately takes two of our detectives to the location of the body.

They have a house where they can put her body and it's not gonna be connected to them supposedly. They knew somebody that had this house that had been deported and that the house was empty. After the interview with Louis, he jumped into my truck

and we had a caravan going. He was directing me and he pointed out the house and he said 100% she's in there. So we're pulling into the neighborhood. This has been hands away.

This is where the house is.

This house right here.

“It's one of the original houses built downtown.”

Probably back in the 30s or 40s. It's just this tiny two bedroom house. But it had wood flooring throughout. When we got here, they opened the door. There was an odor of decomp but it was mixed with chemical.

You could literally smell it from my vehicle. You could smell bleach and other chemicals. And they noticed that there was decomp. Jips on the walkway itself. I walked in.

There was the original bin which was this gigantic bin that they had about 600 pounds of cement in with her that you couldn't lift. That was in the living room.

The first thing I saw was the long black hair.

You could see her hair mixed in with the cement because it removed all the hair from her body.

“There was chunks of cement that were in the bin and some plastic.”

The two smaller green, 45 gallon bins. We're stacked inside of one of closet which had been sealed. And they had taken them out and got them open enough to where they found the body. She had been dismembered in two parts and put in the two bins.

Put in the two bins with cement and plastic. Thinking that would help with the odor. But it never does. They literally did the whole dexter thing. If you know anything about dexter,

the way he was supposed to body was dismembering them. It was kind of fitting, don't you think? And that was Jason's favorite TV show.

After almost a month missing, Debbie is finally found.

Generally, seventh, I was in a car with my friend at the time. She had taken me out to kind of relax a little bit. And I get a call on my phone and assess private number. And I knew right away. I answered.

“And he said, "This is detective." And I said, "You found her."”

Said, "You found her." I knew it was that whole call. One of my friends called and said, "You know, they found Debbie." And I'm thinking, "Good, where the hell is she bad?" She's like, "She's not here with us anymore."

Okay, what does that even mean? And she said, "Yeah, they found her body." And they definitely confirmed that. It's her. But somebody was such a big personality.

You don't picture things like that happening to them. I did not fed them that that was where it was going to go. When I found out what happened to her, I couldn't sleep. It was all over the news, 24/7. There are names of a missing local dancer have been discovered.

Of course, it's confirmed that the body of that missing dancer, Debbie Flores, Darvias, was found dismembered in Tubbs filled with concrete. I can't believe this has got to be a bad dream. And now it's hoping that Debbie would come me one day and say, "You ready to rehearse?

But I never got that call.

All I have is memories of her." You have someone who dances for a living. Their job depends on their beauty, their athleticism, their gracefulness, and to have a body just destroyed in the manner that her body was destroyed.

It's a cruel irony. It's horrible. Detectives now have Debbie's body. And with the evidence pointing firmly to Jason, it's time to quickly move in.

As Jason Fitterses is evening performance, detectives haul him back to the station for another chat. [inaudible] [inaudible] Hope we're here to ask you some more questions about what happened to Debbie.

This point, we knew where the body was. We knew his involvement. We didn't say, "Colaito, this is these things." And we didn't go Louie mapped all this out. You know, told us all these things.

Because we didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

“We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."”

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

“We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."”

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."

“We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie."”

We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." We didn't say, "You know, we didn't go Louie." For days later, Jason was charged with Debbie's murder.

However, he was not charged with dismembering her body. Morning Judge, we received a copy, and dying that we'd laid this formal meeting. It's going to be a not guilty plea. I was scared to go with the arrangement.

I... I didn't know what I was going to face, but I was sitting there. I don't look at this evil person and I was tried to control myself, and I just...

to the point where I just couldn't, and I screamed out. [bleep] I'm a bit... [bleep] Yeah, I'm a bit... I hope you rockin' hell,

because it's exactly where I wanted to put him. Was it hell? And I just wanted him to rock in there the way that he allowed my sister to rock for weeks. [music playing]

Most of the families we have to do, but this is the worst day of their life, the losing of a loved one. And I can only imagine what goes through victims' minds

when they see the killer for the first time.

I have four of those two seconds that felt so good, but at the same time, I was stuck in a situation where I couldn't do anything about it, and I had to wait. Most people would be very surprised to know

how much has to go on behind the scenes in order to get a case to trial. The delays in the criminal justice system can be difficult for families. When you watch law and order,

it takes like two weeks, reality is that it took about four and a half years to go to trial. He had no defense to... I didn't kill Debbie.

The evidence was overwhelming. And so then now, how do you beat self defense? In Nevada, we have to disprove self defense beyond our reasonable doubt.

This isn't going to be a case about self defense. It's going to be a case about murder. A choice to commit that murder because he wanted something. Thank you.

What's going on? We have to be perceived as strength. The government does not have proof

of criminal intent for first agreement.

Our main points where Jason was afraid and there's a hell of a lot more going on in this case. Okay, this guy killed his girlfriend, tried to hide the body and it's not that simple. It's a case about state of mind,

self defense, and it's about second guessing. And the evidence is going to show that he was scared that he was afraid

that she was violent and that Jason Griffin was defending himself in December of 2012, 2010. Prosecutors call almost two dozen witnesses

to help reconstruct the events leading up to Debbie's death

One of those witnesses was Clay Kassorsa. Clay Kassorsa was a former lover of Jason who both Jason and Lewis Colombo were going to attempt and store Debbie's body

and the cement on her back patio.

“What did you do seeing this item that they wanted to place in your house?”

Of course, they didn't tell her immediately that Debbie was inside. Yes, to what the heck it was. And what did the defendant say? He asked if I really wanted to know and I said, yes, if you're going to put that here,

I need to know what it is. I think, kind of, he just said it's Debbie. And what was your reaction? I was shocked. I kind of had kind of started to spend

like I couldn't comprehend it. States next witness. Lewis Colombo. Lewis Colombo was present for the beginning of the incident

and was one of the essential witnesses

to what happened that night. When I walked in the door, I think it just looked at him for a second. He was just sitting there and then he said something like, he's like, I messed up.

When you walk back to the studio, what did you see?

“So Debbie lay in on the ground of the studio.”

Did she appear alive or dead? Not she appeared dead. Who does the cutting? He's the dead. What did he do?

A hand saw. On cross-examination, Jason's attorneys don't hesitate to tell the jury that Louis Colombo was given immunity in return for his cooperation in this case.

Our attempts to undercut the credibility of testimony is number one, any time a person testifies with a grant of complete immunity. That automatically makes that person's testimony potentially suspect.

That is a big factor in what a jury will look at on whether they believe Mr. Colombo or not. I was so upset that he was on the stand. Did he take her breast? No.

“But do I consider him just as bad as Jason?”

Absolutely.

A ultimately cutie and been prosecuted.

He could have. That's often the case in the criminal justice system. We often times have to make that choice, which is how badly do we need this person? It cannot be overstated.

How important Louis statement was with regard to the prosecution of Jason? So after four days of presenting evidence, we were confident that there was no doubt that the jury knew Jason killed Debbie.

It was really at that point we turned it over the defense that the real fight in the trial started. Jason was a born performer. He was comfortable in front of a crowd and certainly, as he made his calculation,

about whether or not he should take the witness stand. I'm sure he looked at those jurors and he thought to himself, "I got this." It was about two and a half weeks. I think the trial lasted.

And I have to portray this strong woman when inside I'm breaking down slowly, but I'm still holding it together. Hoping that we would get justice from my sister. I ask if this time if the defense

is prepared to call their first witness. We are judges. While the fence calls, Debbie's ex-boyfriend Jamiel and they call Jason's ex-girlfriend on-yes to the stand, their case really comes down

to just one person. The defense calls Jason Griffith. In claiming self defense, Jason was compelled to testify and his lawyers quickly sought to portray Debbie as someone that he was genuinely fearful of.

We never argue to the jury that Jason

is mother Teresa and outstanding citizen. What we argue to the jury is he acted reasonably. Do you recognize that? It was a note that was left on my car at the Morosh. What's your understanding of who left you this?

Debbie left me that note. I will kill you before I let another bitch have you. I will find you wherever you hide. I love always your destiny. Is that what it says Jason?

Yes sir. The prior acts of domestic violence than 911 calls would lead any reasonable person to believe when there's another incident of violence that perhaps your life might be at risk.

What's going on? My girlfriend is in my job today. She has to be at work.

She has to follow me around town.

I have to be careful of me to stop.

“You said on the 911 call that Debbie was making threats.”

Tell the jury what kind of threat she was making to you. Oh, she's talked about slashing my tires again. She's talked about burning my house. Talk about killing me. I'm not going to let nobody be with you.

The volume of calls. I thought we did a decent job at showing that that was part of a pattern. He's on the receiving end of the harm. Debbie's history and Jason's history

and the tumultuous nature of it was particularly relevant in this case to the defense because they of course wanted Debbie to look as crazy as possible, as volatile as possible. Throughout the trial,

I would see that my mother was angry.

I would just kind of grab her and hold her arm. Like, I know Mommy, and don't let this make your emotional. It was the cross examination of Jason

“that the whole case was probably going to come down to.”

Some of the stuff Debbie did was true, right? She did slashes tired and all of the other stuff. But when it came to the one thing he's hung his hat on, he was lying and I could prove it. So what he testified to was that one night he came out of the Mirage

and he came to his car and there was a note on his car. You find that over the car, right? So now you believe Debbie, what you've said so far. Yes. And you guys continue to have conversation,

but at least now, unlike before, I don't have any written, right? The king, right? Yes.

And he told the jury that that was written by Debbie, that he was absolutely terrified, that this was proof that she wanted to kill him. Right, good to this. Do you have a chance to change your energy?

I don't mean to change the answer, sir. You recognize that number? Yes, I know that number. Whose number is it? It's losing number.

The morning is 22nd of 2010. Okay? Okay.

“So that's the morning that the incident is the car first.”

Yep. Here's Mr. Columbus text to you. I really thought you and knew it was me. The note was actually written as a joke by Louis. And what we knew from the text messages

is that Jason knew that the note was written by Louis. And he absolutely knew it as he sat on the witness stand and he testified before the jury. His entire testimony both direct and his cross examination. There was no way around and he lied.

But as the officers of the court, please come forward and be sworn to take control and custody of the jury. Once you have given the evidence to the jury and you've given the case to the jury,

you literally just sit and wait. It's an anxiety of what if this doesn't go the right way. What if he gets away with it? There is a roller coaster of emotions while you're waiting for a verdict.

Time kind of stands still. It just felt like forever. And the jury stood up and when the verdict came in

and they said guilty of murder of the second degree.

It was a moment of testification. That everything I did for her was for that moment. I was able to breathe. And just like go first I get.

And I just remember they get to myself. I hope that I did her proud. Just didn't have a lot of discretion. Secondary murder conviction. There's two possible sentences.

There's a life sentence. And then there's a term of years which is 25 years. Both of them have minimum parole to abilities after 10 years. Jason was sentenced for a second of your murder

to 10 years to life. And I've already had to go to parole twice to play with the parole board to keep him in. There is no sense of closure for them. But I certainly think it's better for them

to have to show up to a parole hearing than having to realize that he's completely free of the criminal justice system. Today, Jason continues to serve at a sense at High Desert State Prison,

waiting for his chance of freedom. Many of the people who help put him behind bars have long since moved on from the case. But there's one final twist to the story.

from an offender to Nevada Department of Corrections.

High Desert Correctional Center. It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey Shore.

“Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge.”

A search gets underway for the missing driver. 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows.

Old friendships. Buried cash. And a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang.

From 2020 and ABC audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lives. Wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, darling. It's Lisa Vanderpump.

My Hulu original reality series Vanderpump Villa is back in England.

“Where the standards are high and the chaos are unavoidable.”

And if you think I start this old drama, wait until you meet the guests. Love Island Rattler Nation. This is the white lotus of reality stars. Witness the reality star crossover event

you won't want to miss. New season of Vanderpump Villa is now streaming in New Louis Lulu on Disney+. For Bundle Subscribers, Serbs Apply. This call is from a corrections facility

and is subject to monitoring and recording. Since its conviction for the murder of Debbie Flores Navaya's in 2014, Jason Griffith has been waiting for his chance at parole. They are out 15 years later with an excellent BA here.

Jason has never agreed to a television interview before.

He called 2020 from prison to speak for the first time.

“Debbie Flores is dead and she did not deserve to die.”

I'm not trying to get out of responsibility. I'm not trying to diminish what this situation is like any each. Jason's most recent parole hearing was in 2025. Debbie's sister Celeste was there ready to oppose his release. I knew that I would be facing parole for him.

And this time around when I walk in, the assistant at the front desk told me, "Well, you're the first one here. We're also waiting for his wife." I'm sorry, what? Yeah, his wife Kale.

I thought I was hearing things when she said his wife and then she said her name Kale. There was only one Kale. I was damn near shaking because I had to deal with this woman again who knew my sister for three weeks that she was missing.

There are the words. I just, I... I couldn't speak. I was so angry. At the parole hearing, Kale spoke on Jason's behalf. And all I heard was, "We just want to apologize to you Celeste and I'm sorry and I just...

I just lost it and I just kept crying."

I will never accept your apology.

Ever. They both deserve each other. And I hope karma finds them and delivers it every day fresh on a plate. I thought myself and that situation was my sister. I would ask you.

So I hope it's never accepting my apology. Also, by telling a level of peace, then that's what she deserves. There was anything I could say to Blue. I would let him know that you heard a lot of people.

You took someone from this earth. That was very loving, caring, and meant a lot to a lot of people. Why? There wasn't any other way to resolve whatever it was in that moment. Killing somebody is not the way to resolve anything.

I want to say that I am sorry that this situation kept it the way that it did. And I'm sorry that it asked everyone involved. It caused them so much pain, so much loss. And I'm responsible for that. I should have done better.

I should have done better. I should have figured out something else.

The pressure is, it's an everyday fight.

The more I talk about my sister, the easier has become, the more I talk about my emotions.

“I think I thought that if I bottle it in,”

I don't have to feel it. I don't have to show it when I should have been talking about it. It's screaming about it and yelling about it and crying about it. I just really miss my friend. I wish she was here.

You can hear Debbie coming to a room before you see her.

You smile before she even walks into a room if you hear a voice. You already know what's coming in.

“This energy, this love, this caring person.”

She was so beautiful inside and out. Her spirit was so warm, so welcoming. It's so tragic that her life was cut so short. It's very heartbreaking.

She had so much to live or she was a star.

I took her home to Puerto Rico. And we took her to her cemetery where she lays to rest. And she sits on this beautiful mountain.

“Where she oversees this beautiful valley.”

I was with her. I talked her. I definitely feel as though her spirit is still with me. It's so clear that Debbie's spirit is still being fell. By now, Jason Griffith has served 15 years of his sentence. He's been denied parole twice, most recently in 2025.

And David Debbie's sister Celeste says, While it's painful, she is attending every parole hearing and hopes that Jason will spend the rest of his life behind bars. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.

And I'm David Yor from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Goodnight. [Music] Sunday nights on ABC. What happens when the person you love the most?

Turns out not to be who you think they are. Everything he told me was alive. I was betrayed from the number one true crime podcast. The trail. He's been living a secret double life.

My marriage ended with a 911 file. The tape is blood curdling. The trail. Secrets and lies. So many people are living with their own betrayal.

Sunday nights at 10 o'clock on ABC and stream on Disney Plus and Lulu.