Tiesh Rhue

A devoted family man suddenly disappears.

He promised to come get the kids, and he never came.

She contacted his family, his friends. She was actively trying to find him. A search reveals evidence of a violent crime scene. There was blood on the floor, blood on the walls. It meant a blood that we found in that room.

I don't know how anybody could have walked out of there like that. At this point, it went from a missing person to OK, we need to find this body. Detectives questioned both his wife and his girlfriend.

They do not like each other. They have clashed in the past.

“You already thought he was going to talk to the fucking girl, right?”

The guy is a bitch.

She didn't have a girlfriend, too.

But the investigation reveals a more tangled web of lives, and a family who do anything for each other. This system is for you, baby. Let us take her to the water. If they were going down, they were going down together.

[MUSIC PLAYING] George Town, South Carolina, is a small town where everyone seems to know each other's business. But on March 9, 2017, one resident somehow disappears without a trace.

Ritney Green came in to the Georgetown County Police Department to report a missing person.

“This man is Leon Harrison, Jr., J.R. as everybody called him.”

Ritney Green had dated J.R., they were both in each other's past, but they had two children together. She says the last time she spoke to J.R. was on February 25th, nearly two weeks ago. I told him to take the--

he promised to come get the kids, and he never came.

He didn't reach out and say, why? He was very, very concerned, because we know that wasn't like him. She called J.R., multiple times. She contacted his family, his friends.

She was actively trying to find him through the community. However, no one close to J.R., has seen or heard from him in the last two weeks, either. The tech today asks why we take so long to come to the police about him.

“I told him, because J.R., lost his phone one point of time,”

and took him a couple of days to come to the house to let us know. But I just thought that that could have been the case. He got caught up with words. But as the days went by, we knew something had to go wrong. That's when we really started to get worried.

Leon J.R. Harrison was born and raised in Georgetown, South Carolina. His early life was shaped by tragedy. J.R. Loss is mom at an early age, and he lived with his father.

He has like three brothers and a sister, and J.R. was close to all his siblings. Most people with a scribe, J.R.R. is Jokey, he got a funny big personality. After high school, J.R.R.

enlisted in the military. He did about three years in Korea, and he did a year in Iraq. Between deployments, J.R. spent time with his family in Georgetown.

On one of those visits, he met a young woman named Brittany Green. J.R. and I met through his cousin. His cousin told me that J.R.R. had a crush on me and told J.R.R.R. that I had a crush on him.

What attracted me to, J.R.R.R. is his smile, his personality, the way that he loved on his loved ones. The Army sent J.R.R. back to Korea, but his heart stayed in South Carolina.

he and Brittany picked up right where they left off. When he came home, that's when we got serious. It was the year 2005. And I found out that it was pregnant. And he was excited.

And he was ready to be a father and build a family. After the birth of their son, they moved in together. Within the year, Brittany was pregnant with their second child.

You always say you want a boy first,

“and then his girl, and that's what he got.”

So he was happy about that. In 2012, after 11 years together, J.R. decided to propose. But he didn't get the answer he was hoping for. That's still felt like I was too young to be married.

So, and he said, OK, I'm getting me in a town, but we separate 'cause I stepped out on him. And then he found out. I knew he was heartbroken. But he just said that he has to go outside for ways,

and that he has to be there for me in the kids.

He remained a good friend to Brittany,

and a better father to the kids. By 2013, J.R. was looking for love again. He found it in 29-year-old Taishru,

“a single mother of five working as a security guard”

at the Georgetown Steel Mall. Like J.R., she wanted someone to build a life with, and within a year, they married. J.R. was definitely a family man. That's what he wanted marriage,

except like that. So, he was happy with his life at the moment. Over the next three years, J.R. did his best

to balance the responsibilities of two families.

During that time, he was more so just focused on his kids and not really being friends with me, because he was married, she didn't want a friendship with us. It was kind of like, I'm going to respect my wife, and just it's going to be about the kids.

That devotion to his children is why loved ones are so troubled by his disappearance. I really had to talk to my kids every day and just pray with them and give them hope. Maybe he's at a time, you don't want to job or something.

Did it's been 12 full days. Since the last time anyone has seen her talk with J.R., so that has got to have a real doom-like effect on anyone that's looking. As a part of the missing person's report,

Brittany provides detectives with every detail she can think of. Brittany starts talking about J.R., identifiable markings on his body, and one in particular is going to be a tattoo on his forearm, that is a remembrance to his mother.

“- We asked him, is he currently married, is he seen anybody?”

And she did tell us that he was married to Tayyish Roo. We looked up her information. She was actually a work as a security guard at the steel mill. - Police immediately contact Tayyish to see if she knows where J.R. is.

She says, "I've been out of town. I had to go pick up my kids in DC. She did add that she was concerned about not hearing from J.R., she said that she did reach out to J.R. several times by calls and texts, but no avail."

- Tayyish comes in after her work shift for a formal interview. She says she hasn't heard from J.R., since she left town 17 days ago. - Okay, why did you not come to a Facebook or a call and reported this on?

Now it's just for some that this was just another ask today. - According to her, they agreed to have an open marriage, but she recently caught him breaking the rules of their arrangement. - Tayyish was okay with Leon haven't a relationship

outside of their marriage. So long as it didn't become where he would call her his girlfriend. - She says that she suspects that he is involved with another woman.

about six weeks ago, but recently,

they began to patch things up. They started to reconnect.

“They went back and forth and she kept saying”

that she wouldn't him back in her life. Tayyish explains that on the night J.R. vanished, they'd made plans to try and reignite their romance. So on February the 25th at about 10 o'clock at night, J.R. comes over to her house with her kids,

her brother and her dad there. - Tayyish says she was working late that night and raised home right after her shift was over, but when she got there, she found J.R. talking to someone else on the phone.

- Remember that he was holding up, man?

He was supposed to have said, man, he didn't get back. - An altercation in Susan, she tried to take the phone from him after the argument he goes inside, grabs his lungs and he left down the sidewalk, and that was the last time she seemed.

- Oh, oh, yeah, but I told him he'd just tell me about it. - Yeah, that, that, that, that, that, that was there. - Coming up, investigators learn the details of a volatile romance. - In the white, and she tried to jump in the old (beep)

and a suspect emerges. - Do you have any idea of anyone that would have wanted to do harm to J.R.?

And immediately she says, yes.

- 12 days after J.R. Harrison went missing, his wife, Tayyish Ru, explains to detectives that the last time she saw him, they'd argued about the terms of their open marriage and he stormed off into the night.

- I love his stuff and he feels like he's not getting me any red on him, if he's gonna leave his money. - If it, you know, if I say it, it happens so often, I'm just used to. - How much you've rolled up all your day and day,

turning out that night, did they leave? - Not that I know of, when this situation happened, both of them, they come in and ask me if I was okay and I said, okay, fine, I won't just be. - Investigators asked Tayyish about the woman J.R.

was speaking to on the phone, Rosario. - I was paying for her at the time. That you still told me to send her to him. I've tried, so we started to do some email,

“what's the fault when I first found out about her in June?”

- She believed Rosario was a person who he was having a relationship with. And she even went into to describe her as the crazy girl friend. - She tells them that Rosario is jealous

and that she believes that Rosario meant to harm J.R. - Detectives run a record search for Rosario's last known address. She agrees to come to the station and answer questions about J.R.'s disappearance. - She says I haven't seen J.R. either.

- But we were romantically involved and we're really hitting it off well. - She was working as a cashier for McDonald's. And so he comes through the draft through 4 a.m. one morning. It was just star-struck.

- Rosario did seem very concerned, very heartbroken that he was missing and that she had not heard from him. - Wow, we don't call for it. But all of a week on Tayyish, he was saying that he's so proud. - I don't know what we're talking about.

- Well, the one in the past is still married. And I'm getting going to get to the end of the day.

“And by her said at first, I thought we'd do any of the key”

with embarrassed or trying to meditire that because she knows it's likely to cry on her. - Rosario says the last time she saw J.R. was also Saturday the 25th. 12 days before he was reported missing.

They spent the day together. Then around 9 p.m. she dropped him off at his father's house. A short time later, she got a call from J.R.'s phone, but he wasn't the one on the other end. - He decided to have a team to turn on the app,

and it was the right, and all I still was supposed to say was, "You started talking, but you know what I'm talking about."

- Taish was raining and raving and cursing her,

“basically saying, "You think you're going to have my man,”

"and I can tell you that you're not." - How much you're a buddy? - We're going to be here. We can be here. - Pressing anything, and then to the whole month,

so I say, "I need someone." - Tell me about what she's trying out about, you know how that goes. - Oh, okay, but I'm not just thinking, "You told her." - Is it the first time you're talking to one?

- No, that's okay. - And I hold up a phone, and then she called me and I find that that I didn't answer. - Those calls went to voicemail. - So police were able to get those.

And obviously, it shows Taish is very angry. - You already told you we were going top of the (beep) world already, the top of the bench.

“- She says, "You think I'm scared of you,”

"and then uses a lot of explodives "to explain how J.R. loves her and a staying with her."

- Rosario says, "She never heard from J.R.

"again." - She had called him numerous times, with no answer, which was one of the reasons why she believed they had just got back together and she was going to respect that.

- As one of the last questions that they would have, is do you have any idea of anyone that would have wanted to harm to J.R.? And immediately, she says, "Yes." - She's one mention that it was said

that, you know, as she can have a no-warn case. - According to Rosario, "If Taish wanted to get rid of J.R., "there's one person who would happily "to it for her."

- It's a nice part of that alley.

They don't get along. If it's only, I'd put him in McSunday issues in there, and there it's... (dramatic music) - After concluding Rosario's interview,

“there is no evidence suggesting she was involved”

in the disappearance of her boyfriend, J.R. Harrison. - Rosario is saying, "No, I'm not the valet person "that Taish makes me out to be. "That's not me." - You have Rosario throwing in Alex Jr. into the mix,

and also alleging that he and J.R. have an entire history of beef between each other. (dramatic music) - Hoping to gain neutral insight, detectives talk to the other woman in J.R.'s life,

the mother of his children, Brittany Green. - Biggie that was big and funny, dude. It was a biggie, dude. Alex, look back in. - Get in your little tail.

- If all you feel is going to do is set the ring soon. Cutting it's last year. The thing was, if I had to fancy... I was thinking about what I'm not, rather than doing it when I found it.

And how did I know what I said? (dramatic music) - Police went and talked to a lot of the family members. Sort of painting the same picture of a really volatile, terrible relationship

between J.R. and Alex Jr. - Investigators run a background check on Alex Jr. He's got a conspiracy charge and armed robbery charge. So he does have a violent tendencies in his past. They really made the police want to talk to him.

(dramatic music) - They also need to get a look inside the roof family's home. It's the last place anyone saw J.R. And one of the places he would occasionally stay before he disappeared.

He was in and out of the house. He also was living with Brzeario at this point in time. Police obtained a search warrant. And on the evening of March 10th,

Alex Rue's senior, Taisha's father, grants them access to the residents. - And the rear of the house was actually Ms. Taisha, Rue, and J.Rs, bedroom. Immediately what looked out of place

is that there was a rug over carpeted area.

was a space of carpet that had been cut out.

“- On the carpet padding, are these brownish reddish stains,”

which is consistent with dried blood. - So at this point, we started looking everywhere. We pulled out all the bad lannings. We checked the box springs. We checked the frame of the bed.

- On the mattress, there's a ginormous pool of blood. The barely even looks like it's cleaned up. - There's something called luminal that reacts to blood. It'll turn a different color if it's got the proteins of the blood in it.

- You start spraying around and you get the room lighting up like Christmas. - There was blood on the floor.

There was blood on the walls, on the bed.

- I mean, the amount of blood that we found in that room, I don't know how anybody could have walked out of there like this. - It went from a missing person to, okay, we need to find this body because somebody

did something very violent in it, and it happened in that bedroom. - The following day, March 11th, investigators re-interview TIE-EISH. - Okay, so, if you found this stuff in the house,

“it's very important to take in the room,”

and the room we found to be some busy carpet. - The room, the head spots on, and the head spots on, and the head spots, and the head spots, and the head spots. - Yeah, there is a lot.

- Those pieces of the carpet were just missing on the floor,

and the room, the man, I guess, was not next to that. - Okay, cut it. - How did he say this one in the room? - Thanks to the carpet, can you keep it? - Because, it was a lovely magic stick.

That's so Broadway. - Yeah, it's coming up. We've been on a very smart look. - But we go test it with yes, it all. - That's what he found.

- TIE-EISH establishment doesn't explain the placement or amount of blood investigators found,

“but they decide not to confront her with that, just yet.”

- They go back to her brother, Alex Jr. - We've been talking to each other. - Absolutely, yeah, we've been talking to each other. - They said, "Well, where is your brother at?" And she says, "I haven't seen my brother

since March 8th." - March 8th was three days ago and one day before J.R. was reported missing. Investigators suspect TIE-EISH might be covering for Alex Jr.

so they return to the room to talk with their father and see if he'll tell a different story. - We know that Leon was there at the house around 10 o'clock. Did you see him on that night? - I see him.

- Okay, was your son Alex, near to? - Yeah, he didn't know you'd know. - Okay, he was getting ready to go out and he said anything by saying him. - He likes to leave his head.

- Okay, does your son Alex and Leon get along? - Soon as he got along, he'll be well. - Just like TIE-EISH, he tells police he hasn't seen Alex Jr. in days. But detectives aren't buying his story.

- We didn't really know if he was telling us truth that he was possibly covering up for his children or giving a false alibi was definitely an idea. - Coming up, the discovery of a body confirms detectives worst fears.

Somebody just doesn't have himself saw and throw themselves in the river. And a witness comes forward. - He's so exiled at it. He's like, "Yeah, cause you're not in the name,

"no fucking art, but I need to get that fucking crap." - On March 12th, 2017, three days after JR Harrison was reported missing, investigators had received an urgent call. - The police department received information

at morning that eight property owner located would appear to be a body floating in the black river right by his dog, which had been probably about 10 to 15 miles from the city. - The Sheriff's Office and DNR officers responded to the scene.

They get a boat and they do a recovery. Rescuers find the body of a black male floating in the water.

Brittany Green, she told the police about JR's tattoos.

“And one in particular, a tattoo on his forearm”

that is a remembrance to his mother that tattoo was the way that the body was identified. - It's readily apparent by the decomposition of the body that this didn't happen yesterday, that this body has been here for a few days.

The decomposition made it very difficult to zero in own the cause and manner of death. - The pathologist is unable to identify a cause of death. But one thing is clear to detectives. - This was no accident.

- His arms and his legs were both bound with speaker wire. - Somebody just doesn't tie themselves up and throw themselves in the river. - There's no reason to tie up a person that's already dead. - It was our theory that he was still alive

when he was tied up and they grabbed the knots to actually drag him and throw him over the highway into the river. - It'd be bound up throwing the water. He was completely defense because he could be his owner

as legs.

I have never seen nothing as inhumane as this.

But I hope I never see that error again. - Detectives have already gotten statements from Taish and Alex Sr. But so far, they've been unable to locate Alex Jr. to question him.

“- Now, it was very important to talk out of three junior.”

We need to get out of our momentum. We need to try to do it like now. - Low and behold, he has locked up in the Georgetown County detention center. - He was arrested on an unrelated war

for stealing some money from a gas station he worked at. - In a strange coincidence, Alex Jr. posted bail that very day.

So detectives bring him in to finally get a statement.

A body who's a boiler and a glass person to probably be the same and with humans and your research. - I mean, I mean, I heard the thing outside. - Oh, I see. - Jerry, we're going to slide.

- I've never seen him. I've never seen him. - I've never seen him. - I've never seen him. - I've never seen him.

- My goal is to give a gross thought and make sure to think with a kick. - No.

“- Obviously, this group has gotten their story together.”

His timeline, his dad's timeline, and tell you his timeline are consistent but there's small holes in it. - When news of JR's murder spreads through the small town, a friend of Alex Jr. and Juan

comes forward with information that shutters the roof-family's claims. - One day in March, Antoine's brother asked if they could ride to Murdoch Beach to go get some furniture for his girlfriend.

Antoine asked Alex and the rude Jr. if he would go with them. On the way there, JR came on. - He's so exiled in it. He's like, "No, he's not in the room.

"No, he's f*cking off. "He's mad at you. The f*ck of rap." - Antoine was absolutely dead set that that meant that Alex and JR Jr. had killed JR.

- It's only he told me that he's disdainin, it's over here. And they knew they'd come over and he'd come forward around. - Antoine's statement gives investigators the probable cause they need to subpoena

the roof-family's phone records. - We started out with the victim cell phone and mapped out the, but they suspected was the day of the crime. - JR's GPS data shows him arriving at Taiya's house

around 10pm. At 10.55, he sends a final message. The last text message that is sent from JR's phone is actually too reserved. And what that text message says is, "I don't love you.

"I can't be with you anymore." We had an expert come in and distinguish the texting patterns of JR

and show that it's not typically the way that he texts. (dramatic music) - Despite what Taiya's told police,

JR's phone never leaves the house,

but around 1am, others do.

“- We had pings from Alex Sr. and Alex Jr.”

heading north on 701. After that one ping, we had a terminating event on almost all cell phones. Leading us to believe that these phones are manually turned off at 2am.

- There's a dead period that we're unable to see anything that's going on. - A deactivation of all three phones at the exact same time can only mean one thing. They acted together and conspired

to turn off their cell phones all at the same time so that their location could not be tracked. That tells us at that point that they're up to no good. That they have something to hide. After analyzing all the evidence,

detectives are convinced the murder of JR Harrison was a family affair.

“- Taiya's true was not telling the truth”

about her brother's location or father's location and then the brother and father wasn't telling the truth about both of their locations. - When lab results come in on the blood, found in Taiya's JR's bedroom,

they're even more certain the murder occurred there. So investigators had to actually go and send this blood to a private lab and it came back as being JR's blood.

On March 22nd, 2017, 25 days after JR's disappearance, authorities confront Taiya's with their discoveries. - They are trying to get her to go ahead and come clean. - We both do measures in the same message that would become a real issue.

We admit we can't lose all this stuff.

“- And we're just curious if that was a rumor”

to get him over there? - It's my cousin. - I'm there with you. - That's been there for a while. - A while of a sudden that day when we get together

and get back to you. You know what I'm saying? - Just makes sense to all of that. That's absolutely clear. As far as lowering the burden,

I would never lure him to anything.

That's a care for me. - She's absolutely livin' that that was not her intent at all that that's not what she did. And so, she really does a give us straight answer. During the interrogation,

Taiya's is given multiple opportunities to change her story. - Her brother, Ian your father's phone was on the move that did right here there. Maybe we've been away down with her also.

Where you were supposed to respond to me. You said you'd land, maybe, but his phone didn't even let you get left. Directly contradicts everything that she's saying. And we've confronted with dad evidence.

She says it must be wrong. - Also, and we talk a little bit about National Police. I know. If those took you see, you actually give up on the call. Going into the exits, we'll have a tour with him.

That bullet comes back to the border. - Where you gonna be, Taiya? - I can tell by the pressure of your face, and she knows something after you visit. - Nothing at that point she started getting very worried. - The net is tightening, and she sees that happening.

So she says, "I'm not going to give any other statements. I want to lawyer." - Without a confession, detectives fear there won't be enough evidence to ensure a conviction. - So they review the cell phone data again.

- JR's phone never left the tower that is closest to Taisha's house.

- Taisha never left the house. - Yet we have kings from Alex senior and Alex Junior heading north on 701. And in that direction, we have a Walmart. - Police intuition was, let's go see if they stopped at Walmart.

- At 106 a.m. on February 26, 2017, we see Alex senior walk into Walmart.

“- Investigators watch as Alex Junior appears on camera with his father.”

He is then seen buying a peculiar item. - This midnight run to Walmart was four. It was not groceries or meal or even beer. It was for hydrogen peroxide. - There's nothing that gets blood out of carpet, out of clothes, out of the back of a car.

Better than peroxide.

- And there's certainly at this point enough for a magistrate to sign a restaurant's on all three codependents.

“- After a three week investigation, South Carolina police arrest the roof family and charge them with the murder of JR Harrison.”

- By April 9, 2017, Taishru, her father, Alex senior and her brother, Alex Junior, have all been placed under arrest for the murder of Taish's husband, JR Harrison. - And I learned that all three of them was arrested for the murder. I was angry, I was mad at the fact that they took my case while I was moving. - Due to the complexity of trying three defendants at once and delays due to COVID,

the trial doesn't start until four years later, on October 11, 2021. Almost everything that we had was circumstance.

“And it was really important to us to show what those circumstances were.”

- Prosecutors argue that the text history between Taish and JR show her to be a woman desperately trying to win back her husband. And when she realized she was losing him to Rosario, she snapped. They do think it would have been different for her if he was going around and having relationships with multiple different women. But she saw the I love yous. She saw, I can't live without you. And that's really what caused her jealousy to come to a head.

She snapped not because of love. She snapped because of control. She didn't want anybody else to have it. It's our belief that she lured him over there with the promise of sex. But the real purpose was much more sinister, and that was to exact revenge. We theorized that they got into a fight, Taish stabbed JR, and that it wasn't that deep of a wound. But that point she feared that she was going to go to jail.

And so her brother and her dad tied him up, and he started to bleed out at this point. They then wrapped him up and drove him to the bridge and threw his body over. But there's no doubt that Mr. Harris was definitely killed in the most inhumane way possible. Taish put this emotion, and then her family really stepped up to help her. And our theme and the entire case as blood is thicker than water.

If they were going down, they were going down together. The defense argues that prosecutors have nothing more than speculation. The primary focus in the case in general was the lack of evidence. They couldn't even determine the cause of death. You would assume that the jury would want to know how a person died in order to determine whether he had been murdered.

After nearly 10 days, the case is handed to the jury to decide the jury stayed out for such a long time. It was the longest that I've ever had to wait for a jury to come back.

The first verdict that they read out was Alexignor's verdict.

Alexignor was found guilty of a suction of justice and got probation for his part in this reveal.

“There's no way to explain the way a jury's thinking, but I don't know.”

Maybe he had to do it to say each.

It was shocking to us, but it was still waiting on the other two breaks to be ready.

“Alex is next, and on Alex, they find him guilty of murder and obstruction of justice.”

I actually find her guilty of murder and obstruction of justice.

Taishru is sentenced to 45 years in prison. Alex Roo Jr. receives the same 45 years sentence. They lost a son, an uncle, a father, a brother, a friend. You got a child out there just now going to have to go through her life without a father, and that ain't a whole day of her feels. We celebrate his birthday, we celebrate Father's Day. We got pictures of him around the house, pictures in their bedrooms, memories.

We just pray, pray through it, talk through it.

“And remember to get time to still celebrate him as if he was still here.”

[Music]