Suspicion in Silver City

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“Tonight on "Date Live." I don't know what I believe it, but it's the star's dad, I'm not just sorry.”

It's just kind of felt hard. You heard the water running? Yes. It was just like "Gustie. I saw her in the bathtub." Face down. Right. She was badly beaten. Lots of bruising. We pulled the drain. They saw black scuff marks, like from shoes.

I was suspecting everyone that had any contact with her. She told me that he was following her. She would wake up and hit me, standing over and watching her. That's creepy. I was like, "Wow, he didn't want to go to Alaska." But that's exactly what people do.

“They can dribble, they take off. After a body is found in a bathtub, a case dries up.”

To the family takes matters into their own hands. We start looking, looking for what happened. Two strings to have the family as it comes to the outside group. One of the attorneys says, "Thank you for not giving up." And I said, "How could I? Here's my little girl." I'm Lester Holt, and this is "Date Live."

Here's Keith Morrison, with suspicion in Silver City. Out in the middle of New Mexico, hours of desert highway from better-known haunts like Sadafay is an old mining town called Silver City, and such an unusual place it is. Quirky would be a good word. Very old way. There's a lot of history in Silver City. A vast, arid desert one-way out of town, lush green mountains the other.

For fifth, sixth-generation ranchers and silver miners, coexist with artists and hippies and wide-eyed newcomers, as we say, Quirky. It's just lots of different perspectives,

which is always fascinating. But of course, this is not a travel log.

No. No, this is about what happened here, or more precisely what happened in there. Inside that little house, two heard. She was beaten from head to toe. She had bruises from top of her head down there, feet. Her name was Cassie Farrington, and what was not the her in the bathtub of her own house was dreadful. And she went in the bathtub and she's, I can't even be sleeping or she's stills.

Because also, for a very long time, an unsolved mystery. Cassie Brooks was her name, then. Her mom and dad, Darlene and Chuck. She was very, very outgoing, driven, motivated. For once she was a little kid. Yes, from the time she was a little straight-ase, all the way through perfect grades. Wow. She worked hard. Cassie seemed to be good at pretty much everything.

She led her in five sports for senior year, too. And she was in the National Honor Society future business leaders of America. She ace high school in just three years, announced to her family that she was going to be a doctor. And then she was 16 years old. She tried to hide what happened. But of course, couldn't. She was pregnant. Med school was not going to happen.

got out of the hospital, graduated high school, got married and moved out in one month.

Super fast. But the marriage didn't last.

“By 22 Cassie, now Cassie Farrington was on her own in Silver City with two small kids,”

working as a nurse. In fact, she moved into a house owned by one of her nursing professors. This woman, Sharon L. Lee. Was she a good time? Oh, yes. Like the best. Spitspot all the time. Always.

Yeah, she was awesome. Just around that time, Sharon L was heading toward a breakup with her husband, Billy. Billy was also a nurse. Maybe a mentor of sorts to Cassie, and he seemed to be very fond of her. So her a lot had worked around the house.

“Then pretty soon, the serious boyfriend came along for Cassie.”

David Barry. He was wonderful with the children, and that was something that she really liked about him. Cassie's friend and co-worker, Mary Flores. They had a relationship that was fun. They were disbuilding a life together. Especially on the morning at March 24th, 2014. Something Billy Lee had been trying to arrange for her, came through.

She had just been notified by Billy Lee, that she was getting off of the med surge floor, going to the ER, the jobs she wanted. Cassie had just finished her graveyard shift at the Silver City hospital. When she called her mom to tell her the news, that was the plumb job.

The ones she always wanted. Yes. Then she went home to get the kids off to school,

and have a nap before meeting her friend Mary again later. I had heard that the shift was particularly difficult, so I texted her and told her to go home and get some rest, and then when she got up to get the kids from school, they could come by. We go get ice cream or something. The afternoon game. No Cassie. I understand you have kids and who knows. I mean, a million things could have come up. And when Cassie's parents got a call from their grandson's school

to say she didn't show to pick him up, they weren't really worried. I was hoping that she just slept through her phone because she'd worked graveyards, and I'm a fort at hospital. But eventually, a request to Sharnel, the landlord, could she check on Cassie please? So I drove down from my house up at the hill. I'm there. Down this way and up here to go in and check on her through the back door, which is where she noticed the strangest thing. I looked through the door

and there was water. You could see through the door that there was just water rolling out, and I knocked. Was it coming out? I don't know. It was just rolling out into the kitchen right there. Weird. That would be very strange. Yes, it was very strange. And then as soon as I saw that, and I knocked, and I called for Cassie and nothing happened, and then so I had to go back up to that other house to get the key. And then just came right back here. Yeah, and then I unlocked the door.

“Dread, scripture then, something bad in there, and where was Cassie?”

Coming up, a home full of water, an ominous site, but nothing compared to what came next. You're a nurse, you've seen lots of things. Yeah. But that can't have been easy. No. Something was clearly wrong inside this small home on the outskirts of Silver City, New Mexico. Very strange. Turned out Lee, checking on her tenant Cassie Farrington, opened the back door, and was confronted by water everywhere. And you heard the water running? Yes, it was just like

gushing. Coming from the bathtub. So she ran to the master bedroom, intending to turn off the water.

And there she was. I saw her in the bathtub. I was like, I've never seen anything like it. It was

heaped up, and the waves were just like. That's a deep, deep bath. Yeah, it was like cresting, and she was on the top. Oh, and she was in the water. Yeah, she was upside down, and it was a face down. Right. And you're a nurse, you've seen lots of things. Yeah. But that can't have been easy. No. Well, at the time, you know, you're just in, like emergency mode, you know, you just, you don't even stop to think. And so I just went and grabbed her and pulled her over to here,

I mean, it was kind of horrifying, because she was still in her nursing scraps.

“Mm-hmm. And then I checked to see if she was had a pulse, and she didn't.”

Nothing to do now, but call 911. And she went in the bathtub and she, I can't even be seeping our she's still. Okay, so she's on responsibility right now. She's dead. As you're now, talk to the 911 dispatcher. She turned off the faucet. And oh my god, why the water running everywhere? It's weird. I heard water running in the extra bathroom. At the other end of the house. Yes. So Sharon, I'll ran back there and discovered water running in the other

bathtub, too. No flooding that drain was unplugged. When she turned off the water,

Sharon now noticed that the towel rack was broken. This is this bit right up here.

It was just a blanked off the wall. Totally yanked off the wall. And then that's her leading a gaping hole or something. Yes. By then, the grant County Sheriff's deputies were arriving and they asked Sharon out to leave. Would you see? I saw water on the ground on the north side that had been coming out of the trailer. It was still dripping in the back.

Lieutenant Ray Tavazon was the supervising chief deputy and well his lead detective Jose Sanchez took charge of the scene on the investigation. Tavazon had a look around.

Any sign of forced entry any other? No. No sort of footprints or tire marks or anything. No,

the way the ground is gravel and stuff. It wasn't any. And inside the house, we saw that there had been what looked like maybe a scuffle in that bathroom. We told you that. While there was a broken towel rack laying on the floor, there was a pair of glasses laying on the floor. And then from there we went to the north and to that trailer. Her bed was made and had been slept in. Her lunchbox, her backpack

and her purse were all on the foot of the bed. In other words, this was not a robbery. Apparently not. It didn't look like they were taking that stuff. Correct. There was a laptop in the bathroom and then she was laying on the floor. And at that point, I went out and called my superiors to inform them what we had. There is no getting over the phone call. Cassie's parents got

“them. I'll remember she started screaming now. And then she told me they found Cassie dead in her home”

and I just grabbed my car keys and we were out the door and gone headed to silver. What was that drive like? It seemed like it took forever but it was the fastest I'd ever made that trip. But go through your mind. We're just hoping that they're wrong. Yeah, hoping they were wrong. But they arrived in time to watch Cassie being carried away in the body bag. And then traumatic as that was. As they stood there, Lieutenant Tavis on approach them

and seemed to say it looked like she'd taken her own life. The Lieutenant Tavis own mentioned do you how many times three times? In that evening, he brought up suicide and I said she wasn't suicidal. Is it what he's trying to persuade you? Yes. It wasn't a suggestion that was made. It was a question that was asked. But sitting here all this time later, the Lieutenant Tavis on told us they must have misunderstood him. You heard that they eventually decided that

what you had done was suggested it was suicide. Well, yeah, they were upset because I asked the

“question. Did you think so at the time? No. So what did the Lieutenant think?”

Young lady just doesn't die, you know, just out of the blue. We considered a homicide till we're proven otherwise. Sure. Of course, there was that other matter that needed proving. Who did this? Coming up. After just a few hours at the house, detectives leave the scene. How can you be done with your investigation, that quick? So the family decides to do a little detecting of its own. There was still water in the tub. We pulled the drain and we saw black

scuff marks. Hey guys, Willie guys here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with Jason Sedakis to talk about a career that is taken him from a decade on Saturday Night Live to Ted Lasso, as he returns for a new season, playing that iconic title character. You can get my conversation with Jason now for free,

know why it happened. Who made it happen? How it's felt in the communities you care about. NPR's Daily News Podcast consider this gives you all of that. With context, backstory and analysis on a single topic every weekday. It's not just information. It's what the news means. Consider this from NPR. It's a terrible thing to encounter. Copper not. So young just 23 and a mother of two.

But there she was. And what happened to her as the deputies could clearly see

“was close up and it tense and murder. Did you see any obvious injuries on her body?”

Well, there was some bruising on her arms. There was some bruising around her neck. But was less clear, however, was exactly how her death was caused. Hello. Did it leap out of that to you, though, and say, somebody beat this girl, this triangle there. It was suspicious. It was suspicious. It was suspicious. Sort of thing could keep crime scene investigators busy all night, swiping for DNA,

taking fingerprints, collecting all the bits of evidence. And yet, and this was very strange. After just a few hours during which they didn't do those things, the deputies left, and told Cassie's family, go on in if you want. Yeah, they released the house. Hey, you can go in. And they put their hand out the door. You can all go in now. How can you be done with your investigation that quick?

Odd. Not exactly normal protocol, especially since once people start walking in and out,

“the scene becomes highly compromised. Did you go into the house that day?”

Bear, when when they said you can go in the house, we went in. They were hoping to find some sign or clue to explain what happened to Cassie.

But they never imagined they'd find evidence that the deputies just left behind.

There was still water in the tub, so we pulled the drain and when we pulled the drain, then we saw black scuff marks. Black from shoes, rubber, black rubber in the tub, in the tub. And where did those scuff marks come from? From a struggle. They also found Cassie's glasses at a here ribbon near the broken towel rack. No one had bothered to collect them as evidence, so they did.

So strange to have the family as it comes to the SI group. We gathered up the hair with the bobby pin and the ribbon. Her glasses to the scene. We were gathering evidence that you were gathering evidence. That was frustrating. Yeah. Kind of like a tell right off the top. This isn't going to necessarily go.

Deputies did return to the house the next day, though. And discovered the carpet in her bedroom was gone. Billy Lee, the landlord, goes in and starts ripping the carpet up.

Wait a minute. Yeah, you've got a guy going in right after and the first thing he does is

rip the carpet out of the house. Well, so can we. And that finally seemed to get the attention of the lead investigator, Sergeant Sanchez, who, by then, already had a few reservations about Mr. Lee. Why would he remove the carpet? Do you get rid of evidence? What was his relationship with Cassie?

Mr. Lee told him that he really didn't have any dealings with Cassie. Then later found out that she had applied for a position in the emergency room.

“And Billy Lee was the one that was helping her and that's what through red flags up for Sanchez.”

Why? Well, because he was thinking maybe he was there to try to collect a favor for forgetting her the job. Did Cassie reject Billy Lee and pay a terrible price? A few days after Cassie's death, the investigating deputy set out to officially question Billy. But Billy was gone.

Had quit his job, left town was far, far away in Alaska without his wife. I was like, wow, he's going to Alaska maybe, maybe Sanchez is on his son. But that's exactly what people do. You know, they can dribble, they take off for Alaska or someplace like that in Mexico or something. But, whatever reason, no effort was made to bring Billy Lee back to Silver City for questioning. And investigate is quickly turned their attention to another man in Cassie's life,

her live-in boyfriend, David Barry.

His behavior the first few days after her death was very strange and peculiar to me.

I didn't trust anyone.

At the funeral, Cassie's casket was left open to tell the world what was done to her, said her siblings.

Her face was covering and bruises. Her neck was a giant bruise and swollen. Her hands were black. But who had done it? For months, all anyone could do was speculate. I thought it was over. I thought she was just dead and that was it and nothing was ever going to be done about it. Now, the sheriff's office investigative supervisor Tavison questioned his deputy Sanchez.

Why hadn't he even dusted for fingerprints? He said no, he said it's too clean. I had to hear him. It wasn't anything that would have been helpful to the investigation. Kind of an assumption there, huh?

“Well, I guess that's what you could call it.”

What's the old expression to assume makes a mess, and you make both, yeah, exactly. So, we're zero physical evidence to point to anyone. The case of the murder in the bathtub. Until, until six months later, a particular friend, one suddenly gone, just a suddenly reappeared. Time for a pertinent question or two. Coming up, Billy Lee, back from Alaska, admitting he and Cassie were close.

But what will he say to this? How much time for it? Cassie Farrington's parents, Chuck and Darley and Brooks, were in pain, deep and less searing pain. About Cassie's murder, of course, but also about the long wait for justice.

That period of waiting? Hard. Very difficult. Difficult on us. Queen us. Okay. I was crying all the time. Few things eat at a marriage quite like grief, even the best marriages. All she wanted to talk about was Cassie's case.

And when months went by, with no arrest, and I finally got to the point where I just told her,

I can't do the same one. I thought about it too, but I didn't want to talk about it all even with her. But the topic was unavoidable. Any new lead or development had to be discussed. The medical examiner's report, for instance, that didn't come out for four months. And when it finally did, it was vague.

It was homicide by undetermined means.

“Undetermined means? You saw bruises all over her body in a parent's triangulation?”

And they wouldn't classify it as strangulation was the cause of death, multiple mechanisms. It's what caused the death. They do that, if the case ever went to trial, that vagueness could be a problem. That is, if it went to trial, because the investigation seemed to be going nowhere, the family found things out like how boyfriend David had a solid alibi.

So why wasn't he officially cleared? Why did Darlene seem to be a more active investigator than the deputy? She drove me nuts, trying to play a crime scene investigator, but it also helped me to push the cops. Too hard, maybe?

Detectives, I just said, you know, I'm tired of Mrs. Brooks calling me all hours of the night. But they kept pushing anyway. I asked, "Well, did you get Billy Lee down here from Alaska?" and having, you know, "Do his polygraph?" he said, "Yes."

“Remember, Billy Lee lived on the same property as Cassie,”

and was married to her landlord, and hours after the murder, he ripped out Cassie's bedroom carpet. And then, decamp for Alaska. Question was, why? Months after he left, Billy returned.

"I mean, Billy Lee, Billy Lee, her William, actually."

And Sergeant Sanchez finally had his chance to question him.

"I don't want him to know Cassie, and it's a quick journey of Cassie, whatever she was attacked in the emergency room." But curiously, Sanchez did not ask why Billy removed the carpet, or why he suddenly took off for Alaska. But he did ask about the nature of Billy's relationship with Cassie.

"We were real good friends. We didn't go far as together.

Did that kind of stuff though? We had a working relationship that was pretty close."

"Really?"

“Back at the crime scene, day of the murder,”

at least as Sanchez told a supervisor Billy claimed to barely know Cassie. "Now, they were pretty close." "Too close." Billy told the detective he had an alibi. He and the buddy were out in the country, working on his cabin.

"We were working on that roof, and then I got the call. We've been out there for a couple of days." But of course, there's going to need detective to tell you. People lie all the time about alibis. Sanchez asked Billy to take a polygraph. "Did you ever take any injuries to the victim on lunch 24th?"

"No." The results were inconclusive. Not so good for Billy, and that alibi just cut a sat there unchecked.

“Until, finally, a year later, Lieutenant Tavazon himself did some Jackie and confirmed that”

Billy's alibi was absolutely solid. "Oh, when we tracked him down, he said this."

"They never did in my mind ever really truly suspect me because I had such an alibi."

"I hate to say it, but I've looked at what they were saying. You were their number one person of interest, at least one investigators, number one person of interest." "They never told me that." Billy also found any suggestion he was too close to Cassie, particularly offensive. "Absolutely, never even thought my mind had a relationship with Cassie.

Not even a little bit." "Triggered or like a daughter." So, why take off for Alaska after the murder? "Yeah, a lucrative job offer up there, so I took it." "Not even thinking of what it looked bad."

"Yeah, why would it look bad?"

“And he felt the same about that carpet he ripped up in Cassie's bedroom.”

There were some people who thought Billy took that out of there because Billy didn't want evidence to be shown. "Well, what kind of evidence would have been in the carpet more than would have been somewhere else?" "You knew that question was being asked about you." "After the fact?" "Yeah." "Yeah, Sanchez," he said, "Well, I'd take the carpet of us because you released the place

and we needed to save that flooring." "But what about that polygraph? Why that inconclusive result?" "I tell you why. Instead of you ever been in the house." "I said yes. And she kind of raised her eyebrows on that out because that was our real house." "Of course I've been in the house multiple times."

"Maybe they should have asked Cassie's family who didn't for a minute suspect Billy Lee." "They would have told the deputies it was long past time to focus on someone new." "And who could that be?" "The person the family had suspected all along." "He didn't hate killer. We know he did."

"Coming up, disturbing stories about one of the men in Cassie's life." "She would wake up and hit me in the dark standing over and watching her." "That's creepy." "And then, a new theory of the case." "He said, "A cop did this. The this had been done by someone who had been trained in police tactics."

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and sometimes robots at work, and asking questions. Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. A dreadful whispered suspicion was making it corrosive way around silver sitting in Mexico. That somehow, cops were protecting cops. The blue code they called it.

"At first I didn't want to believe it, but as time went on it became more apparent that it seemed that way." "Why?" "Maybe because the investigation of Cassie Farrington's murder have been going nowhere for so long, even well the family kept trying to tell the detective sensures that a particular silver city cop killed Cassie, but the detective hadn't done a thing about it.

He never questioned him."

"And I asked him that, and he said he was trying to eliminate everyone else that could be possibly a suspect, and then he was going to talk to her." But Sanchez's supervisor, Lieutenant Tavizon, had already confirmed Billy Lee's alibi. Boyfriend David's too. "We know he was at work.

"And still nothing happened."

“"So one day, months after the murder, the anger Cassie's family was feeling boiled over."”

"I called the DA's office, asked for a meeting to complain about the sheriff's department." "And complaint he did, forcedfully said chief deputy district attorney, George Zokin." "People got a little hot under the collar, the sheriff, the under sheriff were there, and Lieutenant Tavizon was also there." "He and the others had to admit that lead detective Jose Sanchez had made mistakes, many mistakes."

"I had no reason to doubt him, but I should have." "I should have." "My crew managed him." "So maybe the whispers about some blue code were understandable to deputy Tavizon. Just not true."

"We do not protect officers. If an officer makes a mistake or commit the crime, we treat them just as we would any other person." "The real reason behind the stall of investigation, just laziness." "The decision was swift. Sanchez was off the case." "And this ranch owner and veteran detective stepped in."

"I came in one day and I was told, hey, we're going to sign you to the Cassie Farrington case." "Sarjan Jess Watkins." "See what you can find?" "They told him."

“"First thing I did was sit down, read through all the interviews, read through all the reports."”

"And then he listened."

"As Cassie's family told him about the city police officer who had never even been questioned about the murder."

"I knew it was Farrington that did it." "Brad Farrington, Cassie's estranged husband." "When Cassie died, the two have been separated from more than a year. But we're going through a nasty custody battle." "As soon as we found out she was dead, we all thought he was him."

Cassie's family told detective Watkins that Cassie had been living in fear of Brad for years. It wasn't shy about saying so. "He had her convinced he was going to kill her." Watkins listened to their stories, many stories. One, when Cassie's mom was right there, watching.

"He has her against the wall on her side, but he has her in a headlock." "Do you want to call the police?" "Yes, but I felt like if I did anything he would hurt her." "And she would wake up during the night and he'd be in the dark standing over and watching her." "That's creepy."

"Yeah. That is the first time she said he's going to kill me."

"And she really believed this." "Yes." "The first time." "How many times?" "Well, she told me that at least three times."

"And then there was this." "What Brad did to the kids?" Cassie told her mom about it, said he called this a game. They were relieved when the couple finally split. And they liked to new boyfriend David Barry.

"I thought when she moved down with David that maybe she'd be more safe, could get on with life." "The kids loved him." "Well, Tristan actually started calling him Daddy David, which Cassie would be like, "Can't call him that. Your dad's going to get mad."

"And sure enough," said Cassie's sister. "He did." "He expressed to Cassie that he didn't like it. That the kids better not." "Call him that."

"He blamed Cassie for him." "Yeah." "And a few weeks before Cassie's death, she told her parents. Some Tristan came home from a visit with Brad, utterly terrified."

"They asked him what's wrong, Tristan. He says Daddy said he's going to kill mommy and David. He was five years old. I don't think a five-year-old makes that a." By then, Brad was no longer on the police force,

and things weren't going so well for him. When Sergeant Watkins finished reviewing it all, the police reports his own interviews. What he felt was something like a basement. "Wow, nobody in this world is pointed out as having any reason to want to harm her other than Brad."

As long as she was alive, Cassie had the kids and a new man and a great job. And he was losing everything. Said no longer worked at the police department. You know, they hadn't reached any agreements

“on these kids. I think that was his way to take what he could from her.”

Just say, "Hey, look, those kids are going to, they're not going to have you." "Was Watkins right?" "We asked to hear the fairington side of the story from Brad, or his family, or both, we asked multiple times. But they told us they didn't want to be interviewed.

Anyway, for Sergeant Watkins, the evidence was too compelling to ignore.

Photos, which that detective said to the prosecutor, told him unmistakable story."

He said, "A cop did this.

“That this had been done by someone who had been trained in police defensive tactics."”

"What do you think when you heard that?" "Well, I thought we now have the evidence we need to charge Bradley Fairington." Five weeks after Sergeant Watkins took over the case, and a year and a half after Cassie was killed, law enforcement tracked down Brad Fairington and Tucson, Arizona, where he had taken the children, and they arrested him and charged him with

first-degree murder, just one nagging worry. There was no evidence at all to put Brad at the murder scene, and without that, odds of conviction weren't good. "I was scared that he was going to get off." Coming up, at trial, the defense comes out swinging. "It will be clear that other people had access, motive, and ability to complete this crime."

"What will the jury think?"

“"Oh, I was nervous. I just paced up known halls in and out."”

"It was the day that Brooks family feared they'd never see. Brad Fairington on trial

for murdering Cassie." "I never thought we would get this far." "Too far?" "The prosecutor's opening argument was a warning to the jury. We don't have a lot." "No one saw the defendant, and her Cassie Fairington's home. No one saw the defendant,

strangled her." "No, and there was absolutely no evidence from the crime scene to help their case. The prosecution didn't even call the now retired detective Jose Sanchez as a witness." "All we were rather brief on was the scene."

"That was a weakness, actually."

"Well, I don't know if I would call it a weakness, but it wasn't a strength." "You shouldn't be in the diplomatic court." "Well, there just wasn't anything there that was terribly useful. So we showed the scene, so the jury could see, you know, this is where it happened." It was unilluminating, and that was a problem.

Until the prosecutor argued for the right to present hearsay evidence, normally disallowed, and he won Brad was being verbally physically abusive toward her. So one by one, Cassie's friends repeated stories, Cassie told them about her fear of Brad. There would be times where he felt like he was following her. And then Cassie's mom told the jury what she saw when Brad was with Cassie.

"And he had her in a chokehold on bed." "When you say a chokehold, can you describe for us just how he was holding it?" "On was that on your neck like this, he had her neck." "To frighten, control, darlin wasn't sure, but surely before she dives at her mom, Cassie confessed there was another reason, too."

"How did that relate to murder?"

“"Remember, the medical examiner was vague about the cause of death, but not this guy.”

Dr. Michael Hunter, chief medical examiner in San Francisco." "We're seeing bleeding within some of the muscles." "He made it crystal clear to the jury, but Cassie's killer strangler." "Once you see injuries in the neck, particular hemorrhages, evidence of assault that you can form an opinion I have on an opinion that this represents strangulation."

"But why should the jury decide Brad did that?" "He was in the academy from January 2000." "This is Ed Reynolds, retired silver city police chief, and also once, Brad's police academy instructor, the man who taught him the chokehold." "So eerily similar to what darlin demonstrated." "All of which was interesting," said defense attorney Nathan Gonzalez,

"but did not prove that Brad was the killer." "In fact, he told the jury, they arrested the wrong man." "It will be clear that other people had access, motive, and ability to complete this crime." "But their star witnessed to drive that point home, was none other than retired Grant County deputy Jose Sanchez." "And what he said on the stand?"

"Oh, my." "Mr. Fairington, a suspect in your investigation."

"Because Sanchez had told Cassie's parents that Brad was his suspect."

“"He believed there was an altercation of fight, and that he killed her and then took her and put her”

in the other tube." "He told us that the day after her death." "This is Sanchez." "This is what Sanchez said." "But now, in court, Sanchez told a different story altogether,

which if the jury believed it, could undermine the prosecution's entire case."

"I was focused already on," "Mr. Lee." "Mr. Billy Lee." "Why would you choose to focus on Mr. Lee?" "There was just two major discrepancies." "Remember, Billy was cleared, had a solid animal." "But now that a fence was using Sanchez to raise doubt about who the real killer was." "There's a lot of smoke here, but no fire." "Muddles it up."

“"And that, I believe, was the defense strategy. That if you have enough of that, then the jury won't”

see through it." "The jury retired to consider." "Oh, I was nervous. I just paced up down the halls in and out." "For ours, later, they were called back into court." "Has the jury reached a verdict?" "The defendant shall please rise." "We find the defendant, Bradley Farrington,

guilty of first-degree murder." "When they announced their verdict." "There was a lot of tears,

a lot of size of relief. One of the deputy attorneys says, "Thank you for not giving up. Thank you for pushing." "And I said, "How could I? Here's my little girl." Brad Farrington was sentenced to life, no parole for at least 30 years. And Cassie is about a memory now. And so her parents remember their way through their pain. To the good in her life. The kids live with Brad's family now. So Chuck and Darleens,

one hope is to see their grandchildren again. They don't allow us to see her talk to them.

“I think you'd want to say to them if you could. "They don't have hope."”

"That their mama loved him unconditionally." "That's all for this edition of "Date Line." And don't forget to check out our talking "Date Line Podcast." In which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode. Available Wednesday in the "Date Line" feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 10, 9 central. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.