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tv   2020  ABC  April 1, 2022 9:01pm-10:59pm PDT

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she came in with a sob story. i'm going through a divorce. i have a horseke car of. e s a little daughter. >> larry was in love with this girl, and it was all a lie. >> he left me for her. after two months of knowing her. >> they say a woman by the name of elisa mcnabbny murdered her husband. >> what did you just say? oh, many i god, what's happening? larry, are you okay? >> he had a dark side to him. >> we all had demons and he had demons. >> he grabbed me like and and he just kept squeezing. where was your mom? who was she with?
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>> this was their thelma and louise moment. >> the hungry mouth talks. >> i was horrified. >> how do you know what to believe? >> you just go, really? really. >> life is a crap shoot. what do you do? >> this is crazy. ♪ i'm hell on heels ♪ ♪ sugar daddy i'm coming for you ♪ i've been riding for almost as long as i've been walking. and it was one of the things that kind of gave me reprieve from the things that i didn't like to think about dealing with.
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the things that were hard. any time that you spend time around horses, you know have to introduce yourself. shows them i'm not a threat. i spent a significant portion of my life being known as elisa mcnabney's daughter. i have previously refused to talk just because i didn't want to have to deal with it anymore. i can reflect back on it. it didn't happen to me. i lived through it. >> haylei's mother, the central figure in this saga, grew up in brooksville, florida, part of a prominent family that had lived there for generations. >> we are in brooksville, where i currently reside and spent a good portion of my childhood. >> i mean, this was mayberry, baby. it was smaller than mayberry. >> i can't go anywhere without running into someone that either knows me or my family.
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for my mom, horses was always something that made her happy and she enjoyed, and she wanted to be around them. >> i think she was tom petty's american girl growing up, without a doubt. she was an american girl, raised on promises. ♪ she couldn't help but thinking there was a little more life somewhere else ♪ >> and she was a good student, honor roll student. >> super intelligent. just amazingly smart. >> what happened to her was she had a boyfriend and she was pregnant and had a child and dropped out of school. >> my parents ran away together and got married, divorced before i was born. when she had me, she was 9 days past her 19th birthday. >> i believe that she was, in her own way, a good mother for haylei. but on the other hand, she was a very fragile person who had very little self-confidence. and haylei felt many times that
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the mother/daughter relationship was reversed. >> i learned how to make was broccoli cheddar soup on the stove out of a can. i mean, like, don't be too impressed. i don't think she knew how to put my needs before her wants. >> she got in some minor trouble early on. it was always checks, or she had shoplifted some hair coloring. it was always petty things. >> nothing really serious, but she stayed in trouble all the time, was the problem. >> had a 145 iq, but she did not grasp balancing a checkbook. haylei kept the family accounts, managed the checkbook, and kept the checks from bouncing. >> for her, it was about fun until it was not, until it was about waking up in the middle of the night and saying, hey, we
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have to leave, because rent hadn't been paid or she was being evicted. >> i think to her that was normal. this is what mom and i do. we move once a year, every six months. >> then there was one specific incident at christmas that started a snowball effect. haylei's mom's new boyfriend was going through a bitter divorce. >> she had purchased presents for his children and had them delivered to the home in an effort to allow him to see the kids on a christmas. but the gesture didn't work. and when the wife said, no, that's not going to happen, she went in the house, got the presents. >> and she got caught. >> i think at worst, it was a trespass. but she got charged and got put on felony probation. >> and then violated her parole. and her parole officer was at the game that she went to. >> she was terrified of going to
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jail and being confined, and that began the cavalcade, that began the avalanche. >> she said, haylei, i have to go away and i'm not coming back. i can leave you here with grandma and grandpa, or you can come with me, but i want it to be your choice. i was 8. i didn't even hesitate. i just said, i'm going with you. it felt like life or death. i knew something -- i didn't know what was chasing us, but something bad was chasing us. we went to texas, mainly because it centered around horses. and for her, that was always -- and for me as well -- i loved it because she loved it. it goes back to her kind of always living in that teenage world. >> but haylei says her mom ran into trouble with the law again after she was caught trying to shoplift. >> and they took her into custody, and i was hysterical. but she bonded out. so when the situation in texas
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didn't work out, her next thought was, well, i'm halfway there. may as well just go to vegas. and that was it. we left again. >> haylei pulls into town with her mom, who's going by the name of elisa, and they rent an apartment in a nice area of vegas. >> but, of course, she doesn't have enough money for, you know, furniture, so they're sleeping on a pallet, mother and daughter. >> elisa was described by people who knew her or met her as a very striking, even beautiful woman who dressed professionally. she gave off an air of classiness. >> elisa had already gone through a series of difficult relationships in her life. and in vegas, she finds yet another new boyfriend. >> she meets ken, and he's got an up-and-coming business. she ingratiates herself with him. pretty soon, she's living with him.
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>> he was wonderful, very kind, and he adored my mother. and my mom was an easy person to love. >> then, pretty soon, he finds out there's charges on his credit card. she had stolen the credit card. eh, i'll marry her. it's this blind spot that men had to her. >> she and kenny got married in a drive-through in his pickup truck with me sitting in between them and his dog, lars. >> he wanted a family. he thought of haylei as his daughter. >> it made me feel safe for the first time in a long time. like, i knew, okay, i know where home is. i kind of relaxed a little bit, and i learned that i should not relax. because it could all be gone like that. >> if you have been hurt in an accident, the smartest thing to do is hire a lawyer who can take care of business. i can do that.
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i'm larry mcnabney. call me. >> and she got a job in a law office. she had been there maybe a month before she was telling me that the lawyer that she worked for wanted to take her to dinner. >> and that was the beginning of the end of larry mcnabney. ancestry made it really easy to learn about my family's history. finding military information, newspaper articles, how many people were living in the house and where it was, makes me curious and keeps pulling me in and the photos reminding me of what life must have been like for them. finding out new bits of information about the family has been a wonderful experience, it's an important part of understanding who we are.
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when we got to las vegas, my mom got a job in a law office. she listen there maybe a month before the lawyer that she worked for wanted to take her to dinner. and, he's so smart, and he just makes me feel so special. >> while elisa was a somewhat mysterious figure in vegas, everyone seemed to know larry. >> larry mcnabney cut a striking figure. 6 feet tall, about 200 pounds, but very fit. and women loved him. >> if we were at a bar and you needed to talk to some girls, we'd just send larry. like the pied piper, they'd come. >> you couldn't be around larry and not laugh and smile. >> your money's no good here -- that was the common refrain. when you went out to lunch with larry, he would take care of
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everything. >> he lived life at full throttle. larry had a great expression -- you can't put a price on a good time. >> his childhood would've been similar to mine. reno was a sort of upper middle class, wealthy town. >> biggest little city in the world. >> reno, as most towns in the west, were poor until they invented the quickie divorce trade. >> nevada had a very short window for residency, so reno became the divorce capital of the world. >> people would come to reno, live in a dude rank. >> this dude ranch brings us plenty of money. >> boom, get their divorce. one of the traditions was they'd walk over to the bridge, throw their ring in the river, and celebrate.
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>> "the misfits," the movie was essentially -- clark gable was a dude who went to the railroad station and saw marilyn monroe and was gonna go party with her while she was getting a divorce. >> if you throw your ring in, you'll never get another divorce. >> he had good relationships with women till he got married. they dearly loved him, and i'm sure would be very frustrated with some of the things he would do. >> larry met his first wife quite young, had a daughter, kristen. >> larry and my mom were high school sweethearts. they got married out of high school in 1967. i've got his cheeks, squinty eyes, the wave in my hair like him. >> they were divorced in 1970. larry continued law school, and graduate in the 1974 and moved back to reno. >> we were both practicing in the public defender's office. and larry kind of took me under his arm and we decided to start a law practice. larry mcnabney on his worst day was better than 99% of the trial lawyers on their best day.
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>> he just had a sixth sense on how to try a case. >> he would tell the people, it's the publicity that matters. >> in those days, the nevada bar association wouldn't let you advertise. i remember him yelling, think ink! think ink! as long as the press is talking about us, our name is getting out there. >> as much as larry loved the spotlight, he had a habit of periodically disappearing from it. >> he'd disappear for a fortune of time, and fortunately we could cover for him. and when he'd come back he was -- >> full throttle. his drinking was affecting ron and he couldn't take it anymore. >> we all have demons. and he had demons. and he took those demons on and off, on and off, over the years. >> their partnership broke up, and then along the way, larry got married again and had two more kids. i spoke to his daughter tavia in 2002 when i first reported on this story.
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>> this is my half-sister, kristen becker, and myself. wore matching dresses to my mom and dad's wedding. >> what was he like as a father? >> always there for me. he was just there if i ever needed him. >> but while his kids say he may have been a loving dad, larry's demons may have prevented him from being a great husband. >> larry was mentally abusive to women because of his drinking. and then cheryl tangen came along. >> what a beautiful boy. wyatt! we do have a wonderful wrangler with us today because these guys are 2,000 pounds, and they can be extremely dangerous. >> my name is cheryl tangen, and i grew up in reno. i'm an artist, and i was with larry for seven years. he was so instantly likable. two weeks after i met him, i knew i was in love with him.
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>> they were a very good couple because cheryl was understanding enough to want to do different things with larry. >> when i met him, he had just gotten out of a rehab. i think it was his third time. and he was clean and sober, and he was wonderful. >> with sheryl i think he was the most stable and grounded he ever was. >> we meditated every morning. and we loved it. >> they had joined this cult where they had tried to find inner peace. he was trying to center himself. >> some people might have called it a cult, but it was the best things that could have happened to larry. he was so happy. >> but then they began to want him to get involved more, and larry wasn't going to follow anybody else's drum. he was going to beat his own. >> larry was a chameleon. and he would get bored with a lifestyle.
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when he decided he was sick of living up there, he wanted to kind of get back and do law, and i think the pull to his addictions started then. >> this would have been probably in 1991. he came back. his business went off the hook. >> he wanted to change his image. he wanted to be on tv. and larry said, "i can do this, and i can make a lot of money." >> i met larry mcnabney. for lunch. he said, "what can you do?" i gave it some thought and started setting the tone with him and his western hat and western clothes. >> the smart thing to do is hire a lawyer who can take care of business. >> you could tell he was a true cowboy, almost like the marlboro man. >> if you have been hurt in an accident. if you have been injured in an accident, call me. >> it worked because people immediately connected to him on that level.
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>> may be important to hire a lawyer. >> the success of it was instant. when the spots run, the phones would ring. he was making like 300,000 a month paying for cars, houses, et cetera. >> he got so caught up in money and appearances. this was not the same larry. it got really, really scary. >> it was about a year when he decided to go down to las vegas and then open an office down there. >> and i'm thinking, "vegas and larry -- not a good idea. not a good idea." >> i asked him, "why are you gonna go down there?" and he said, "i can make twice the money that i can make here." >> larry was going to need to hire someone for his vegas office, and a single mom with a young daughter, haylei, would see that ad in the paper. >> he decided i'm doing vegas. i want to go big, i want to go big, and i went down there.
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and the whole time i was down there, i went just something is way wrong. this is really wrong. and that was the beginning of elisa. ♪ i'm hell on heels, sugar daddy i'm coming for you ♪ ♪ sugar dad you ♪ or waiting for the 7:12 bus... or sunday afternoon in the produce aisle. these moments may not seem remarkable. but at pfizer, protecting the regular routine, and everyday drives us to reach for exceptional. working to impact hundreds of millions of lives... young and old. it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. ♪ ♪ celebrate easter for less at kohl's. prep for the festivities it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. with up to 50% off home finds... a blender for just $99.99... and up to 15% off kids' arts and crafts!
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it's the summer of 1995, and in sin city, las vegas, the paths of larry and elisa are about to fatally collide. >> larry decided to open up his office down in las vegas. that is when elisa came into the picture. she had responded to an ad in the paper needing a receptionist, and she showed up. >> and she came in with a sob story. "i'm going through a divorce. i have a horse that i have to take care of." it was all poor me. he said, "well, i will hire you for doing the insurance." >> elisa was classy, carried herself very well, very intelligent. she kinda welcomed you with open arms. >> he was ecstatic about her. he said, "she is going to help me put this las vegas office together."
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elisa was a drug. she just charmed and seduced him. and he had a big heart. let me help you. >> she was good lookin', for one thing. and they ended up romantically involved shortly after she became employed. >> larry hired her in june and left me for her after two months of knowing her. i said, "you don't know what you're doing." that went in one ear and out the other. >> he had been convinced by her that she ws bright, smart, sassy, all the things he needed in a secretary. >> elisa is a quick study. she earned larry's trust and affection. she took control of office finances and client trust accounts. >> fueled by the lucrative law practice, larry and elisa are living the high life. >> they went back and forth on private jets.
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they were like movie stars coming down the ramp. >> and my mom, i am sure, was swept up in all of these lavish and generous things that he was trying to do for her. >> while elisa seemed smitten, haylei, who was still living with her mom's previous husband ken, didn't have a good feeling at all about the new boyfriend. >> i met him, and he's trying to hug me. and i could tell he was drunk. i could smell it. i was very uncomfortable. >> well, i don't think larry ever got along with haylei. like haley got along with ken. ken saw her as a surrogate daughter, and larry didn't. larry called her a bitch and was not friendly with her. >> larry tried to separate us initially on purpose. he very much enjoyed having a hundred percent of my mom's focus being on him. and having a small child made that very difficult.
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so what's the easiest way to do that? get rid of the kid. >> haylei was devastated after finding out her mother married larry without telling her and she was moving haylei into his home in reno with them. >> kenny came home one day and said, "your mom wants you to go to reno to visit." you know, i thought i was coming back. i didn't ever go back. i'm sorry. >> meanwhile, larry's loved ones feared elisa was isolating him from them and enabling his addictions. >> she was facilitating it. his drinking and drug use had reached a different stage than i ever knew.
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he wasn't enjoyable. he wasn't charismatic. >> i would challenge that larry was not one to have a woman come in and take over and push him around. nobody incapacitated larry except for larry. >> he became very paranoid that people were out to get him. >> and elisa and larry started fighting a lot. >> i think the relationship of these two was extremely destructive. how much can i hurt you? it was this back and forth, push-pull kind of deal. >> one night, i heard larry tell her, "i'm going to kill hailey in front of you. and then i'm going to tell the police that you did it. >> she would take off and he didn't know where she was and that drove him crazy. >> she did try to leave a couple of times actually. >> he tracked us down and said if she didn't agree to come home and live with him, that he would kill both of us and then kill
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himself. >> while haylei says her mom temporarily separated from larry, she eventually got back together with him. but then haylei says there was another abusive incident. >> he grabbed me like this, and he just kept squeezing. i was terrified. i had never had anyone try to hurt me before. that's when she started sending me away from my safety. >> the couple's toxic relationship extended to larry's business. the nevada bar association reprimanded larry after they found he had allowed his chief operating officer, elisa, to misappropriate just over $74,000 from his client's trust account. >> he was really upset about that because he still considered her the critical employee. >> so that's when he decided, "all right, fine, we'll just close the office. we'll move to sacramento, start anew." >> larry and elisa move into an
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upscale suburb of sacramento and set up a new law office. despite their tumultuous relationship, elisa encourages him to spend more time on the road with her and her first love, horses. >> my mother and larry had gotten further into horse culture, and they were starting to show. >> he had the best horses. he was very much into the halter and the quarter horse scene. >> our circuit champion 371. >> a halter competition is basically a beauty contest. you want to showcase them standing up and flexing off their muscles. >> you could tell he was loving the life he was living. >> their mutual love of the horse world seems to bring stability for this volatile couple. but soon, a young art student
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will dramatically change that dynamic and their lives forever. >> elisa's always hanging around this woman named sarah. and the stories that started coming out -- >> she got this baby face, but she's not as nice as she comes across. >> sarah was just the gargoyle on elisa's shoulder. ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? it's because they rub against you creating friction. and your clothes rub against you all day. for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle. just pour into the rinse dispenser and downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, fluffier, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. recognized by the national psoriasis foundation and national eczema association. new super stay concealer from maybelline new york full cover conceal ♪ ♪ no heavy feel
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♪ larry mcnabney became a star on the quarter horse circuit. he was showcased on video proudly displaying his horses in shows around the country. >> larry mcnabney, sacramento, california. >> he had a good trainer. he had good horses. he had a good eye for horses. he put a lot of love and time and attention into it. there's no doubt that larry mcnabney loved the limelight.
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>> this is one of the awards that larry had gotten from one of the horse shows that he did. he was grand champion in oregon, one of many trophies that he won along the way with his horse showing. >> he was leading the nation in his division. he was excited and really wanted to win it, so he was talking about really going for it. >> my mother and larry had gotten further and further into horse culture. they seemed happy. >> they would travel all over the country with their horse. it's kind of an adventure around america. >> elisa wanted to be known throughout the horse show circuit. she was just very personable and warm. she drew you in. >> as the mcnabneys established the law practice here in sacramento, they needed help. >> if you've been injured in an accident, call me. i'm larry mcnabney. >> the mcnabneys put out a
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help-wanted ad for an office assistant. and in comes a young woman who would dramatically change their lives. she is an art student from sacramento state university named sarah dutra. >> elisa interviewed sarah for the job, and they formed a quick, close connection. >> in her yearbook, sarah dutra was a bright, cheerful looking student at vacaville high school in the '90s. >> she was a real go-getter, somebody that you knew was very driven. >> president of her senior class, was an athlete. her teachers spoke well of her. young men were enamored of her. >> sarah was super smart, tall, blonde, cute, you know, the girl you wanted to know. >> elisa, i think, saw something of herself in sarah. sarah quickly became elisa's ally. >> they hit it off from the beginning. pretty soon, inseparable friends. they'd go out to restaurants together. they did a lot of shopping.
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>> elisa's daughter haylei, who was 15 at the time, resented her mom's new best friend. >> my mom would say, "we have fun." and i said, okay, well can you not spend time with me like that? i didn't understand why my mom was planning trips and spending all this time with this girl. i didn't get it. >> money was no object for elisa and sarah. elisa leases a shiny red jaguar. they'd go on these extravagant shopping sprees. >> everywhere they went, there was sarah. and after a while, larry got sick of it and confronted elisa and said, "i don't want her around." >> larry mcnabney told elisa point blank to fire sarah. and, of course, she didn't. what she did do was isolate larry even more, bring in sarah closer to her.
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and the business began to suffer. >> after sarah was hired, larry became increasingly disengaged from his practice. >> larry sometimes is on the horse circuit. sometimes he was on the golf course. larry was, uh, sometimes drinking. >> that allowed elisa to take a stronger role in the daily operations of the office. >> elisa led him down the path. let me keep you happy with your wine and your drugs, and i will take care of everything for you. >> he didn't want to talk to anybody. he didn't want to have anything to do with anybody. he was just by himself, in his own world. >> he was going off the rails. he was losing control of himself. i knew it got really bad when my mom looked at me and said, "oh, i got you a job training horses in maine." and i packed up and left.
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>> in early september 2001, the mcnabneys and their trainer loaded up a horse trailer, headed south to the city of industry in los angeles county for a big show, the pacific quarter horse classic. >> so the ninth, they go for dinner. sarah shows up. and larry didn't like her showing up. he said somethin' smart to her about leaving. and she turned to him and said, "[ bleep ] you, larry." >> to her boss. the dinner became extremely awkward. >> larry goes up to his room to pass out. and it's at this point elisa begins to carry out a truly twisted plan. >> this is a moment where you know they'd crossed the rubicon. that was the line in the sand. >> we went down to my trainer's truck, and i got the medicine bag out, and i got the
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-- i got the tranquilizer out of it. sarah said, "put it in a visine bottle." and then we stuck the syringe in there and then filled it up. and then he was sleeping on his back. and then i put, like, three drops in his mouth. and then i got all freaked out so sarah put some in there. >> the next day, the competition continues. but larry is disoriented. >> his shirt isn't tucked in. he can barely stand, barely walk. he'd been such a proud performer, so meticulous, and he couldn't pull it off that day. >> so that night, larry skipped dinner altogether. >> after he falls asleep, larry is given more drops of the tranquilizer. >> next morning, i wake sarah up and i said, "i think he's dead." and she pushes him and she said, "no, he's not dead." >> so now they have a problem of a guy who's still alive but incoherent. what to do with this guy? >> the next day was september 11th.
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>> we just got a report in that there has been some sort of explosion at the world trade center in new york city. >> the world was distracted by, you know, the tragedy in new york city. >> so we went down to the street and rented a wheelchair. and i got him dressed and put him in the wheelchair, and we rolled him out to my truck, our truck, and put him in the back seat of the truck, and we drove. >> i was like, "holy [ bleep ], this is crazy!" you just can't imagine these two petite ladies doing this. it's unreal. >> we were just freaking out at that point. and so we get him home to my house. >> but soon, a question begins reverberating around the sacramento area. just where in the world is larry mcnabney? >> larry didn't come home.
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elisa and sarah ar elisa and sarah are gone so often, they have to hire a third secretary. and that's ginger miller. >> yup, this is the office. brings back a lot of memories. this is where the nightmare began. i was supposed to work for elisa, and what i was gonna do was be answering phones, typing up documents, mostly taking calls and working with some of the clients.
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>> so, skringer mill ginger miller joins the practice as a secretary and she takes an instant liking to the two women. >> when ginger first came in, i could tell that she wanted to be one of the girls. >> we actually started all to be friends. we were going out together. we went shopping. we were pretty much, like, gal pals. >> elisa used to say she's charlie's angels, and she was charlie. >> good morning, angels! >> good morning, charlie! >> why does it always have to be on the phone? why can't we ever see charlie? >> and she liked the fact that everyone in the office was young and attractive and female. >> i'm larry mcnabney. call me. >> and ginger, right away, she notices that the guy whose name is on the door isn't around. it's a larry mcnabney law firm. where's larry? >> larry's office had a lot of his awards for horse shows, a lot of pictures of him at the
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horse shows. i thought he looked like a good guy, but it was still a mystery. when am i going to get to meet him? >> elisa initially tells ginger that larry had suddenly taken off after that horse show in southern california. >> i was told he was at an alcohol rehab in oregon. then i was told that he ran away from the rehab and joined a 12-month long rehab, so we wouldn't be hearing from him for a long time. but then sometimes she said, "oh, larry popped in the office. he left again. oh, larry was just here. you just missed him." >> larry's friends say it wasn't odd that he had temporarily gone awol. after all, it had happened before. >> i call them runners. he just left. left the office, left everybody in there, and took off.
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>> he could be gone for a week or two. but never longer than that. >> i'm alone with elisa in the office. she looks me in the eye and she says, "i want to talk to you about larry." we're going to separate. and she says and we're going to continue to run the office as if larry was here. >> it wasn't the first time he had taken off, and she had kept the business afloat while he was gone before. >> elisa didn't like to show up in the office until the crack of noon. she'd show up and act like captain kirk on the bridge. let's answer that call. let's move over there. let's dodge this phone call. i am not answering that. i need money. trying to hustle money from others where she could get it. >> did ginger see a chaotic situation? yeah, but it wasn't chaotic to me because i'd been there when larry was gone before. >> ginger miller noticed a lot of suspicious activity when she
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was hired. i mean, she's seeing sarah and elisa forge larry's signature, you know, spend money that wasn't theirs. >> so elisa would write checks in my name, have me cash them out for $1,000 to $3,000. and then i would bring her the cash in an envelope, and they would use that as their spending money. boots, vacations, trips out of town, horse show stuff. >> meanwhile, the weeks go by, and there's no sign of larry. his family grows increasingly concerned. >> where's pop? where's larry? we've been told three times now he's at rehab or at a golf tournament. >> joe and tavia, larry's kids, started asking, "where's our dad? where is he? why can't we reach him?" >> joe was larry's son. and he started calling elisa up
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all the time because he was very, very worried. >> when did you become suspicious? >> before his birthday. her commenting that he was depressed about his birthday wasn't a characteristic of our dad. >> that didn't sound like your father? >> uh-uh. we were thinking that maybe they had separated or maybe things had gotten bad and so he left. >> finally, in late november, two months after larry was last seen, the situation comes to a head. ginger has had enough of the constant lying and deception. and there was one other problem. >> the money started to run out and i didn't get paid. i said, "well, you know, elisa, i know a lot that's goin' on right now. and i could go to the police if i wanted to because there's a lot of suspicious things. and don't forget that a hungry mouth talks." november 30th, i go to the police department.
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i walked in. i was pretty nervous. i walked over to this window, and they handed me a small piece of paper. and i wrote on it, my boss is missing and i think he's dead and i'm pretty sure the secretary and his wife did it. and i stood and just waited for them to call me. and it literally was less than five minutes and they came and got me. that was when everything opened up like a can of worms. >> so you're working there through september. what are you hearing about larry? >> yeah, the first week i started, um, they said that larry was gone. they start calling other people and trying to do their homework to find him. >> based on the information provided by ginger, sheriff's investigators contact elisa. elisa feels the walls closing in.
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she said, could you kill somebody with this? and i said, you mean a horse? she says, no, a person. >> the guy whose name is on the door isn't around. it's a larry mcnabney law firm. where's larry. >> i wrote on it, my boss is missing and i think he's dead. >> say, that looks like a leg. and i took a closer look myself and had to agree with him. it looked like larry mcnabney. >> so now investigators have a body. what they're looking for is a suspect. >> i watched the countenance of my mom's face change.
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she said, it's time to go. >> why did they flee? what were they running from? >> you live the way i lived and you have these not so imaginary monsters that are chasing you. you're always prepared to flee. >> it's a big game of cat and mouse is what it is. >> elisa has always live in the a fantasy world, so to her it's almost like the next act if her movie. but how do you go from being a thief to being a killer. what did you just say? larry mcnabney, the attorney from sacramento, is missing. >> he'd been missing since september 10th in southern california at a horse show. >> a lot of the witnesses at the horse show remember seeing him in a wheelchair. the last sight of larry was he didn't look well. >> he was married to elisa mcnabney. >> elisa mcnabney was kind of running the show at the law firm, and then also sarah dutra was an assistant there. >> they were thick as thieves. they were best friends.
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>> larry was nowhere to be found, but yet they were signing his check, forging his name. >> the kids are saying, have you heard from larry? and then people are calling me, his friends. where is he? where is larry? and nobody knew. >> the weeks turned into months. and the suspicions grew until november, when a secretary in larry's law firm decides to take action. >> ginger miller was the one who first reported larry missing. she finally says, that's enough, and she contacted the sacramento sheriff's office. >> i felt deep in my heart that something had happened to him. i reported larry missing. then they came and got me. that's when the tape recorders came out. and i always miss him by five minutes, or he was supposed to come and something happened. but he never turned up, ever.
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>> after ginger comes forward, cops talk to elisa to question her about larry's whereabouts. >> she was very intelligent and was able to pretty much answer any of the questions without any major concern that she was being mistruthful. >> elisa feels the walls closing in. she goes to ginger, who helps her pack up her jaguar. >> she said she had to move immediately. and so we packed up elisa's jaguar, and we made three trips out to this horse trailer storage. i'm on the phone with the police, in my car. i'm like, "we're packing. she's skipping town." >> the police have been tipped off by ginger, who then try to intercept elisa as she's skipping town. >> i pull out, thinking that elisa would get arrested and everything was gonna go accordingly. it didn't. 'cause she outsmarted them as well. the police pull in, and she exits out the back gate in the nick of time.
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>> she picks up her daughter, haylei, and leaves town. >> there was a horse show in arizona, and she asked me to go with her, which gave me pause because i hadn't been invited to anything like that in years. >> now elisa's on the run, and she's nowhere to be found. so, investigators go to the next person who might be able to help, and that's sarah. >> give me your last name? >> dutra. >> okay. d-u-t-r-a. and your first name is sarah. >> she walked in dressed in pink with her tiny, little dog, munchie, to take questions. >> i was like, where's larry? have you heard from him? and she said, he'll call sometimes and hang up on me. stuff like that.
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>> okay, but you still had no contact with larry? >> right. >> sarah tells investigators that she not only hasn't seen larry, it also has been a while since she's heard from her close friend elisa. >> when is the last time you saw or talked to elisa? >> she was leaving to arizona. and i was going to fly down the next day, and she told me the ticket is paid for. and so i went to the airport and they said, your ticket is only on reserve. so i went to call her, and it was no longer a number. >> they know she's lying when they first talk to her. but they don't know where larry is, no more than they knew before they started talking to her. >> on february 5th, it's a day laborer who's walking down the vineyard row, taping up the vines.
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>> the farmer said that he had seen some buzzards that were circling in the area, so he went to check. he had uncovered what he believes to be a partially buried body in one of the grape vineyards here in san joaquin county. >> we followed the farmer. he drove us directly to the end of this road as far as you can see. there's a grape vineyard that's there. we could see something protruding from the dirt in between the grapevines. as we got closer, we could see that it was a human foot. we preserved the location and assisted with the excavation of the body. >> the next day, i went out to the scene. we progressively cleaned the dirt then away from the sides of the body, very slowly and meticulously. his body was actually in a pretty good state of preservation. >> ready to go? okay. a body was found buried in a
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shallow grave in eastern san joaquin county near linden. a couple of days later, the body was identified by fingerprints as larry mcnabney. >> we were notified on february 7th, um, they had found a body. we can't have justice. we can't -- we can't let everything go with our dad. we just ask for your help. >> that was a very shocking day. it was around this time probably 20 years ago. i was in my office at work in reno and got a phone call that he had been found. just surreal. >> there was no blunt-force injury, no projectiles, no lacerations, nothing. >> he's been dead for months, but this body is in really good condition. >> something happened in that time frame such that his body stayed relatively well
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preserved. after performing the autopsy, i had no idea what his cause of death was. >> the police were facing an uphill battle. they don't know what killed him! speculation was rampant. >> when we got the toxicology results, they said, you know, we think we've identified something here that's kind of unusual. they identified xylazine. >> xylazine is a horse tranquilizer. xylazine is the stuff they give to horses to knock their asses down. >> so now investigators have a body. what they're looking for is a suspect. >> it was time to talk to elisa mcnabney. >> the fbi is asking for help in finding a woman they say is a cold-blooded killer. >> i watched my mom's face change and i turned to say, okay, what's wrong? and she turned to me and she said, they found us. and she says, it's time to go.
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after larry mcnabney's body
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is found in a vineyard, sarah dutra is quickly brought in for another interview, this time with detectives from san joaquin county. >> the scope of the questions changed towards sarah dutra. at that point, she was denying any knowledge or information. it was so nonbelievable that it turned from an interview into ainterrogation. >> i'm sick right now to think that larry mcnabney is dead. ad who would do that to larry? >> who do you think would do it? >> who do you think did it? >> i don't know who would do that. >> what makes the most sense? >> sarah, come on. >> elisa? i mean, that's the only person i could think that would do that. >> meanwhile, elisa had taken haylei with her down to arizona for a horse show. it's there she learns larry's body has been discovered and the cops are looking for her. >> she said, they found us.
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it had been six years since we'd had to up and disappear. you live the way that i lived, and you have these not so imaginary monsters that are chasing you, so you're always prepared to flee. i didn't even question it. she says, it's time to go. so, okay. >> elise is now gone. we can't find her. there's not a trace of her. there's a nationwide search. >> the fbi is asking for help finding a woman they say is a cold-blooded killer. >> there's information that she may have gone to denver. she might have been to vegas. they said there was ties in florida. >> the police go, "well, let's just pull up who this is. oh, wait a minute. does anybody have a social security number on her? how about a driver's license?" no. they don't have a clue. >> and we drove all night to colorado springs. and we're driving this obnoxious car. i mean, you cannot ask for more attention than with a red sports
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car. especially in mountainous country in the middle of winter. i thought, "we're going to slide off the road and die." >> haylei says after driving 22 hours straight from arizona, her mother dozed off at the wheel and the car swerved. she was startled awake by the police siren pulling them over. >> if you had spent the better part of a decade running from the possibility of your mom going to jail, that's the most terrifying thing you can see. >> haylei says her mom apologized, and she worked her charm enough for the officer to let them go, no questions asked. >> so it kind of became "mr. toad's wild ride" after that. it was a two-week drive, and she kept going to these tourist locations, like, denver, new orleans, mobile. she's explaining why it's easy to disappear into a town that's based on tourism. >> they say a woman by the name
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of elisa mcnabney murdered her husband, a california attorney. authorities are looking for her and for her daughter. >> meanwhile, investigators took a deep dive into elisa mcnabney's background and make a startling discovery. elisa isn't who they think she is. her real name is laren sims. >> from the police perspective, at first they didn't know who the criminal was. and they sure didn't know who laren sims was. >> laren sims. born in florida, raised in florida, jailed in florida. and during a term in prison, takes her fellow inmate's name, which is elizabeth. takes her social security number. shortens "elizabeth" to "elisa," and that's her new name. >> the person we know as elisa mcnabney, she's used at least 11 different names. >> you finally discovered her
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rap sheet. how long was it? >> 113 pages long. >> 113 pages. they found the mother of two had a rap sheet around 100 pages for bad checks stemming back the 1987, plus outstanding warrants after skipping town on that felony probation for those christmas presents she took all those years ago. remember, she thought doing that would help her boyfriend see his kids. >> she actually served time for that, which is surprising. elisa mcnabney, aka laren sims, had been on the run for nine years. her parents, her family, they didn't know what happened to her. they hadn't seen her. >> the one thing that was so evident the entire time was how devastating it was for her to leave my brother. she would have tears in her eyes. and she said, it's one of the best things i ever did was leave him there so he could be okay. >> as the days go by,
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haylei starts to realize life on the run with her mom would mean her own life didn't count. >> at this point, i still had no idea what was happening in sacramento. but the prolonged flight from arizona had really just reinforced to me that this was going to be my life, to continue protecting my mom from whatever is chasing her. >> we can't -- we can't let everything go with our dad till we know that she's been found. >> but as mother and daughter continue to drive across the country, it begins to take a toll. >> she was just trying to find somewhere she felt like it was safe to settle, to stop. she was starting to get more anxious than i had ever seen her. and you know, just tired. we were both tired. we briefly stayed in biloxi. and she met a gentleman that had a timeshare in destin. he said, "well, why don't you
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just come stay at my time share. >> elisa has always lived in a fantasy world. she's built it, and she lives in it. so to her, it's almost like the next act in her movie. >> and that next act would bring an end to the wild ride in a small florida town and a shocking revelation from mother to daughter. >> she said, i need to tell you this, but i need you to not freak out. in the future we'll travel to incredible places with the help of magical technology. but what about today? i want my magical future now. ♪ i have places to go. ♪ rocks to climb. ♪ sights to see. and flights to catch... i can't wait for what tomorrow will bring, but in the meantime, let's enjoy the ride... ♪
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beautiful destination. it is a beach town. >> the sands are sugar white and, of course, the waters are an emerald green. destin's also the world's luckiest fishing village. that's their shtick. >> and trying her luck in destin was laren sims, aka elisa mcnabney. after weeks on the run, she had a chance encounter at a golf
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tournament in biloxi, mississippi. >> and that's where she met the guy who had a condominium at the pelican beach resort. in destin. and she finagled her way into a free beach-front luxury condominium where she could stay free of charge. >> we got to destin maybe like the second week of january. she said, "oh yes, i think this is the place. we can try and stay here for a while." >> she takes a job waiting tables at a upscale steakhouse later, she goes to work at a law firm. >> another attorney's office, as a secretary, with no i.d., no background. >> she said, we have to change both of our names. i was confused, because she had never asked me to do that and i picked the name penelope. >> to the people of destin, elisa mcnabney was known as
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shane ivaroni. >> i never met elisa mcnabney. i met shane ivaroni. she was really sweet, well spoken and she knew how to make people like her. that's what i got from it. >> she's got a new name, a new identity, and a new place to live. >> but she just can't seem to stay out of trouble, and that's when the walls start to close in on her. >> this guy was letting her stay at his condo. and then he found out that she had been using his credit cards and had been ripping him off. and so he called the lawyer's office and said, hey, i think something is wrong with her. >> they decided to run her license plates, and that's when they discovered that she wasn't shane ivaroni, that she was actually elisa mcnabney, and that she was wanted for murder out of san joaquin.
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>> they advised that we were looking for a white female who had killed her husband. and we knew that she was driving a red jaguar, which is a vehicle that stands out. >> for some reason, elisa gets a feeling that the law is closing in, and she makes a quick date with a guy she had met. she spends the night at his house. takes the keys to his pickup truck and $600, and she's gone. >> she takes the truck and leaves him the jaguar with a tan top. >> then she went to another friend's house where her daughter had been staying, picked up the daughter at like 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. >> my initial reaction was, why are you here? and she said, they found us. and i said, okay, where are we going now? >> haylei says her mom took her north up the coast, and after about a day and a half on the road, they arrived in
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charleston, south carolina, to start over yet again. >> we drove around, and we were coming back across the bridge, going back into charleston. and i had enough. i had enough. i had started coming to the realization that i was never going to have, like, a real life. i'm going to have to live that clandestine life. and said, i can't do this anymore. i cannot continue running like this. she was visibly shaken and had to pull over. and she laid her head down on the steering wheel for a minute. and she said, all right, but before i take you back, i need to tell you everything because yu need to be prepared. >> haylei says her mom took her back to their hotel and finally it's there she tells her what happened to larry. >> she said, i need to tell you this, but i need you to not freak out.
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>> i said, okay. and she said, we killed him. and it kind of felt like everything just -- white noise. i couldn't think. i couldn't -- i didn't see anything around me. i was horrified. >> she finally confessed to her daughter what she had done. and like that, it's over. all the running, all the lying, all the hiding is finally done. >> i had never seen her look so empty after that. the next morning, we got up early, and she drove me back to destin. >> haylei says her mom dropped her off and then left. worried about what her mom might
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do next, she says she then turned to the police for help. >> she seemed very concerned for her mother. she said that she thought that her mother might hurt herself. so we put a b.o.l.o. out for the vehicle again. on the air so the ts would be looking. >> we looked at the bars. we looked at the hotels in the area. then we started putting people on the beach. i got a call that the car was in the parking lot over here at the winn-dixie, so i started heading that way. >> the truck turns up in the parking lot across the street from the beach. the witness says, yeah, i saw her walking in that direction towards the beach. >> she sees the cop on the beach walking towards her, and before the cop can say anything, she goes, yeah, it's me you're looking for. >> and she just kind of looked at me and went, it's me, hi. so i cuffed her, and she wasn't making any effort to escape. she was talking to her daughter on the phone.
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>> i was both incredibly relieved that she -- was okay and horrified that i had contributed to her worst nightmare happening. >> after they pick her up on the beach, they take her to the sheriff's office for an interrogation. >> we were really kind of surprised, because she just opened up. >> one of those onions that you peel away. the more you peel away, the more shocked you are. >> how long was he in the refrigerator? >> three months. >> three months in the refrigerator?
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some call this the prettiest spot on the entire gulf coast. and this is where the hunt for laren sims came to an end. they arrested her up there on the pool deck. >> there's relief. there's, um, finally a little bit of closure. there's still a lot of anger and hatred. >> after her arrest, laren sims is brought into the destin police department to answer questions about what happened to
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her husband larry. >> what i'm going to start out with is just getting background information just to confirm what's -- you know, who you are. >> okay. >> she was very sad, very quiet. she wanted to talk. she was ready to get everything off her chest. >> i knew that something needed to happen. either i needed to put a bullet in my head or i needed to deal with it. and did i kill my husband? yes, i killed my husband. >> laren claimed that in the weeks before she killed him, her husband had become increasingly violent and erratic from substance abuse. >> he just started hitting me a lot. i would wake up, and he would be choking me. it was the drugs. it wasn't him. and i would be freaked out and scared. >> she was backed into a corner and she had no other choice. it was the only out she saw. >> he wasn't an abuser. was he a perfect husband? probably not. but he wasn't an abuser.
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>> in september of 2001, laren tells investigators how she and sarah tried to kill larry in that hotel room in the city of industry. >> i put, like, three drops in his mouth, and then i got all freaked out. so sarah put some in there. >> she explains how they used a wheelchair to sneak his larry's incapacitated body out of the hotel. >> he was in the back seat. sarah was driving. i was in the passenger seat. and we thought he was going to die in the car. >> they drive in larry's pickup truck to yosemite national park, which was a favorite destination for sarah as a child. and they intended to bury larry's body. they expected him to be dead by the time they got there. >> sarah got out and started digging a hole. and he was alive, okay, and i
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was freaking out. >> what do you tell her when she standing there and he's alive? >> we can't do that. >> so they took him back out to the house. and then, in the morning, they came out and he was dead. >> so what do you do with him at that point? in my garage we had this wine refrigerator, so we took the wine out of it and we took the racks out of it and we put him in. >> larry's body was in really good condition. the reason was because elisa put him in a refrigerator. >> sarah told me that she went by the house and that the refrigerator had come open. so she had to fold him back in there and then wrap the duct tape all around the -- >> what blows my mind is that they had house parties, they had dinner parties, and larry's in
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the fridge. >> laren tells investigators that it wasn't until sarah learned that larry had been reported missing to the authorities that the two women were finally forced to act. >> now you have to do something with the body. >> yeah, yeah. we put in the trunk. and he was like this. and we went to vegas. >> so, elisa and sarah drive to vegas. because larry loved vegas. let's bury him in vegas. that will do him honor. >> anybody who's been to the strip in las vegas knows the bellagio, the beautiful fountains. and, of course, that's where elisa and sarah chose to stay. >> and we pulled into the bellagio, and we pulled up to the parking garage. and there were security guards there.
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and they said, can you open the trunk? >> and sarah, who was driving, pops the button for the trunk. >> what was sarah thinking? why would she pop the trunk? >> she was just freaked out, you know. >> okay, so you get out and you close the trunk. >> yeah, i get out and close the trunk and told the lady i was just looking for for the mirage. and she said, just do a u-turn right here. >> how do you forget there's a dead body in your trunk? and then they pull out of the bellagio because they figure, just in case, maybe we won't stay here. >> the two women find another hotel in las vegas, and elisa goes out on her own to try to bury larry. >> and i started digging. but you hit a hardpan, like, two or three inches. >> and that's when she
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discovered that desert soil is very, very hard. she was unable to dig a hole, let alone a grave. >> and so i come back to the hotel and told her i can't do it. and the whole time he's in the trunk, and the valet parking us, and it's not good, you know? >> the next stop on this bizarre road trip would bring the final revelation about what happened to larry's body. and now that laren has told her version of events to the cops, how would sarah respond? >> talk about the trip to vegas. and be truthful, damn it. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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laren sims has just confessed to a twisted tale of how she tried and failed to bury
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larry mcnabney's body in the desert outside of las vegas. >> and i started digging, but you hit a hardpan in, like, two or three inches. >> after the episode in las vegas, it's back to woodbridge with larry still in the trunk of the jag. elisa decides that she will bury larry without sarah's help. elisa says that she alone drove out to a vineyard. >> how deep a hole did you dig? >> not deep enough, obviously. >> larry ended up in a shallow grave in a vineyard. elisa buried him in a place that represented a product that he loved, wine. >> she definitely implicated sarah. >> we put him in the trunk and he was like this.
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and we went to las vegas. >> she said sarah was her accomplice, that sarah helped her the whole step of the way, from feeding larry the horse tranquilizer to stuffing him in the refrigerator. >> i'm sick right now to think that larry mcnabney is dead. and who would do that to larry? >> she had been in several times, and each time, she minimized her involvement. i don't know what you're talking about. i have no idea. >> i had nothing to do with it! >> she was not forthcoming. it's obvious that she's not telling the truth. >> but after laren's confession, police bring in sarah for questioning again. and this time she tearfully admits to helping to get rid of larry's body. >> talk to me about the trip to vegas. and be truthful, damn it. okay. >> she said, just help me lift him into the trunk. and so i did.
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i didn't want to go to vegas. i said, "please, i'm scared." i wasn't driving with a freaking dead body in the trunk. >> sarah claimed that she was under the spell of elisa, that she was afraid of elisa, that she did things unwillingly because she was afraid of elisa. >> she had talked about not wanting him around anymore. and she said, i'm ready to kill him, just straight kill him. >> sarah claimed she didn't think elisa was serious about killing larry and denied she had helped poison him with the horse tranquilizer. she also claimed she had no part in putting or keeping his body in that refrigerator. >> she blames everything on elisa. her performance is not convincing as far as the detectives are concerned, and so they arrest her on a murder charge as well. >> meanwhile, laren is transferred to the county jail in her hometown for an
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extradition hearing to return to california to face murder charges. but that never happens. on easter sunday, her years on the run finally come to an end inside her jail cell. >> she decided to end her life. she devised a way to to take the bedsheets and tie them into a knot and hang herself in her jail cell. >> i think that as she was writing her own story, she decided when the finale was going to be, what she was going to do. >> my world ended with her. i didn't know what to do. what do you do when your whole life has revolved around protecting this person and you can't protect them anymore and you couldn't even protect them from themself? >> while laren's journey has
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ended, sarah still has to face justice for her part in larry's death. >> sarah dutra, is that your correct name? >> yes. >> i just saw her being arraigned on television, my class president, and i'm just thinking, holy smokes. like, wha -- how? why? what? >> you're charged on september 11th of last year of murder. the maximum penalty is death. do you understand the charges? >> yes. >> dutra was in tears after the arraignment. her attorney making her seem anything but an accused killer. >> a little baby that you just want to grab a baby blanket and put it around her. she is such a helpless little thing. >> sarah dutra's murder trial began january 6th, 2002, about a year after she had been arrested. >> if elisa mcnabney is to be believed, sarah dutra was a full and willing partner in the death of larry mcnabney.
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>> sarah dutra's main defense the entire time was that she was an unwilling participant and she was terrified of elisa. and the night when the murder occurred, she was as surprised as anyone. >> it seems like a classic instance of, you know, evil sort of wrapping around a sweet, young, little baby. >> everything she did was for her motive and for her gain, and i think that if sarah wasn't here, my dad would be. >> one of the prosecution's key witnesses was ginger miller. she had a firsthand view of the suspicious activities in larry's office after he went missing. >> ginger miller testified that sarah dutra practiced, you know, forging larry's signature and testified that she did a lot of illegal things. this is evidence of a woman who was best friends, cohorts, and
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co-conspirators in the murder of larry mcnabney with his wife, elisa. >> sarah apparently found a friendly juror, one holdout that might have saved her from a murder conviction and got her a far more lenient conviction -- voluntary manslaughter, accessory to murder. 11 years in state prison. >> but even with sarah's conviction and laren's death, this story isn't over yet. there was a final message from mother to daughter, one that will reverberate for years to come.
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safe driving saves you 40% with drivewise. ♪ ♪ the safer you drive, the more you save with allstate. click or call for a quote today. frank is a fan of fast. he's a fast talker. a fast walker. thanks, gary. and for unexpected heartburn... frank is a fan of pepcid. it works in minutes. nexium 24 hour and prilosec otc can take one to four days to fully work. pepcid. strong relief for fans of fast. >> this was a memorial that we had put together for him. >> larry may not have been a
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perfect man, but he was a good man. and he was one of a kind. he's smiling down on us right now because we're sitting here talking about him. >> sarah was paroled in 2011. she served roughly 8 years of an 11 year term. >> sarah dutra is now 41 years old and living back in her hometown of vacaville. >> a lot of folks, when things are rough, they go back home. and so she did come back. >> laren sims made it all the way back home, too. but before taking her own life alorida prison, she left a final message behind. >> in the end, she wrote a beautiful letter to her daughter. >> laren writes, i am so sorry for dragging you through the life i took you through. i hope that you can make your life good.
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if i am out of your life, you have a better chance of making it. >> she acknowledged all that she did wrong and wanted her daughter to have a good life. and i'm telling you, that's one touching letter. i mean, it really is. >> initially, after everything happened, i just wanted to be left alone. my entire world ended when my mother died. there you go. come here. hi. i know, stranger danger. there you go. i didn't know anybody. i came home to the town that i was born and raised in, but i hadn't seen my family in almost a decade. and i didn't know what to do, because the only thing i had ever done was make sure that my mom was okay. >> haylei was robbed of a normal childhood. she never had any long-term
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friends because she was always a fugitive with her mother. >> i needed to learn a different way to live. if you had asked me when i was 15 if i was ever going to be able to get married or go to college or have children, i would have said no. >> she decided to make something of herself. she got a master's degree in nursing. and she's been working for the last eight years as a critical care nurse, with an exemplary record. >> unfortunately, my marriage did not pan out. so i was a single mom with two children that i needed to support. i didn't want them to grow up with the kind of fear and anxiety that i had. i think that i came out on the other side, and everything i thought i would never have -- a career, an education, kids, a i have. >> i'm very proud of her. no matter what else laren sims left behind and in her wake, she
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also left behind haylei. to me, haylei is the silver lining. >> you never have to stay in a situation that you don't feel safe or in a situation that you question. you have a right to feel safe, and you have a right to whatever future you're willing to make. >> after years in the nursing field, haylei is now applying to law school. >> she also wants to focus on opening a center for abused women. that is awe program for tonight. i'm david muir. >> i'm amay robach. for all of us here on "20/20" and abc news, good night. y roba. for all of us here on "20/20" and abc news, good night. ama: the bay area is getting ready to welcome ukrainian refugees into our community.
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