Killing Fields (2016) s02e04 Episode Script
Search Warrant
1 They found a black male in a drum in the water from between 10 and 30 years.
Curtis Smith, nickname "Cochise.
" From day frickin' one, I knew the person that I think committed this homicide.
Tommy Francise.
The only Danny I know is Danny falcon.
And what did you do with it? I gave it back to him.
Tommy told me that he was gonna make sure he was gonna tell me.
He's still walking.
He's gonna kill your ass, and he's gonna continue to walk.
I think I might've found Tommy Francise's gun.
When he was arrested, they collected a .
22 rifle from the scene.
This shows it's still in evidence.
There's no perfect murder, and I'm gonna prove that to you, Tommy.
Wandering soul Walking the earth No peace in their heart Still left in the cold You know, I'm sacrificing a lot working this case.
You have to understand, when you're working a case, that's someone's loved one.
And they depending on you.
Curtis Smith, better known as Cochise.
Young man left his home to buy diapers for his child.
Never has been seen since.
Who's our number-one suspect? Tommy Francise.
Tommy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Tommy could've been whatever he wanted in life.
But he got a rap sheet a mile and a half long.
Tommy thinks he can do whatever he wants, and his family will take care of him and get him out of trouble.
Now we've got his .
22 rifle in our evidence room.
We're hoping that may be our murder weapon for Cochise.
All we have to do is find blood or DNA that come from Cochise, then literally, we have the smoking gun in our hand.
These cold cases that we've had, they've been tough.
Time has worked against us.
Eugenie's case is still a work in progress.
You throw Tommy Francise in the mix, I'm burning the candle at both ends now.
The first time I heard the Tommy Francise confession, I said, "you've got to be kidding me.
" This dude just confessed to murder.
"Why is he not in jail?" The gun that was collected from Tommy's house is very important.
If this gun has trace evidence, thank you.
You've sent a blessing from heaven.
Hopefully, we maybe could find something on here.
Who knows? Who knows, you know, what might still be on the gun.
Exactly.
You know, when you hit someone with one of these at close range, real messy.
I'm gonna mix up some luminol.
Luminol is an agent that you spray, and when you spray it on blood, it illuminates blood to a bluer color.
We drew DNA from Cochise's family, and if we find blood or DNA on that gun that matches, Tommy's gonna be in the big house.
Can you hit the lights for me? - Do what you do best.
- Okay.
I'm gonna start on the wood.
It takes a few seconds to show up.
Come on, baby.
Give me blue.
I'm not seeing anything.
I'm not seeing, on this side anyway, the reaction that I want to see.
Nothing's jumping out.
So you don't see nothing? I wish.
This gun is not the evidence to prove that Tommy murdered Cochise.
Either he cleaned the weapon very well or just it's not the weapon.
It's just another dead end to the case.
The .
22 rifle that we have in evidence, we thought perhaps there might be some blood, but we got nothing.
By Tommy's own words, he said that he shot Cochise in the house.
What do you think about going in the house to spray luminol? You got to assume there's some blood.
How old a blood can it detect? I mean, if it's been there a hundred years, will it still detect it? They've detected blood from the civil war.
I'll tell you this.
It's a long shot, but if the blood is still there, it will show up, and hopefully get some DNA off of it.
We need probable cause, though, to do a search warrant.
In order to get a search warrant, you have to show a judge that something is worthy for you to enter somebody's home without their permission and execute your duties.
Build a case around his statement.
You know, get enough people to corroborate that that crime, in fact, was committed in that house, and I think a judge will sign off on it.
I'm with Aubrey on this.
We need to find anybody that's been in that house that can say, "I seen blood.
I seen a weapon.
" Find whoever we can find.
Start with the wives, his girlfriends, baby mamas, or whatever, you know? That's the most important task we have right now To get in that house.
But, man, if we can find one speck of Cochise's blood, it's over, rover.
We can charge him with murder.
- Okay.
- All right.
Let's go find him.
Just calling to speak with you about a case that I'm working.
It's a cold-case homicide.
Your name came up in the investigation.
Tommy's had kids with a couple different women.
He might be more of a ladies' man than you, Rodie.
- Yep.
- Come on.
Don't ever compare me with Tommy Francise.
You know, I've probably dated half the women in this town.
Knowing Tommy, and hearing what I've heard, I think he dated the other half.
All we need, out of all he dated, is one of them just one To give us enough probable cause to get that search warrant.
What's up, major? What you got, bud? Check this out.
Found this lady, angel Porche.
She used to be married to Tommy, lived in the same house with him for seven years.
Why don't you and Rodie continue to find some more witnesses.
In the meantime, I'll take Nelson with me and travel down there and go visit her and give her an interview.
All right, buddy.
Major and angel kind of knew each other from the past when angel was down here.
And that goes a long way when you're interviewing a witness that's scared to death of Tommy Francise.
- Well, hello, lady.
- Hey.
- How you doing? - Nervous.
Can you tell us anything about Tommy.
And what kind of relationship y'all had? Very turbulent.
So, y'all would've met in '99, correct? Yeah, yeah.
Tommy he always needed something.
And his mom was always bailing him out.
Mom took care of him? Everything he needed.
Even had a money tree.
His mom put $10,000 in this envelope in this tree.
- So it was an actual tree.
- It was a tree.
- They would put money in it? - Yeah.
Did y'all ever talk about Cochise? That name ever come up to you? He he's told me that he put him in a drum, he put holes in it, and sank him.
Did he ever make mention about cleaning the house up, anything about blood, anything like that? I don't really remember.
I'm not sure.
Anybody else that you know of that would've been in the house that could shed some light on this? Yeah.
We we had a maid.
You kept a clean house? - I'm a clean freak, yeah.
- You are.
Do you think it's possible that she may have seen something? Yeah, maybe so.
Maybe so.
It's very, very important that we talk to the maid.
If the maid saw anything in that house pertaining to Cochise's murder, we got enough for a search warrant.
Was it something in particular that needed to be cleaned? Like blood? You know, I always said I had two families one at home, one at the office.
I know which one I should be spending time with.
But I've always picked the wrong one.
I went down the rabbit hole a long time ago.
For me, I know it's getting too late.
But for Aubrey, maybe there's still time.
I still have hope.
Can you flex it? A little bit.
I only get so much time with my son.
I live for that.
That's what I live for.
I live for him.
We got to break it in.
And when I have to give up that time, it's tough.
This is a mallet.
We're gonna work it to break it in.
When I leave the office, I'd be lying if I sit here and tried to tell you it doesn't click in my mind to think about a case that's going on right now and how I can solve it.
It's a constant struggle to find time to spend with your family.
Some days, you will go home so beat up from the case that you just want to say, "no, I don't feel like throwing a ball.
" You're not being a dad if you do that.
Two hands! Good.
I never want to tell my son I don't have time for him.
I'm not gonna let it happen to me.
Her name is Pearl Anderson.
That's gonna be a good interview.
- Yep.
- Yeah.
We received information from Tommy's ex-wife angel that Tommy had a maid.
Anybody else that you know of that would have been in the house that could shed some light on this? Yeah.
We we had a maid.
Who would know Tommy better than her? She was there every day or every other day.
If anybody knew about Tommy's house and what went on in there, she'd be the person I'd want to talk to.
Should be on her way.
Am I right, Rodie? Leslie's going to pick her up right now.
Miss Pearl.
- Yes.
- Hey.
If miss Pearl seen anything in that house that we need to know, that could be the information that we need to get a search warrant.
I do appreciate you coming to speak with us.
No, we have reopened the investigation, so he hasn't been picked up.
How long did you work for him? Was he a good boss? Those families deserve closure.
All right, miss Pearl.
We're investigating a cold case.
The homicide of Curtis Smith.
When did you start working for him? So you would've been there '91, '92? Do you remember that being the same time that Cochise went missing? You knew about the situation that happened with Cochise.
Did you ever talk to Tommy about it? What'd he call and ask you? So Tommy calls you and asks you, "Pearl, I need to clean the floors.
- "What do I use?" - Yeah.
Tommy calling Pearl and asking her what she cleans the house with? That gives us an idea right now that he needed to clean that house for some reason.
We need Pearl to tell us something significant about that house holding blood evidence.
Did he tell you what he had on the floors? Was it something in particular that needed to be cleaned? Like blood? Miss Pearl, he's walking around, bragging about killing Cochise.
What kind of person does that, miss Pearl? We need to stop it, and we need you to help us.
She don't want no part.
I understand completely, miss Pearl, that you don't want to get involved in this, 'cause you Yeah, exactly.
You don't want You know Tommy.
You think he's capable of something like this? She said, " Yeah he was.
" You know you're not the only person that has come in here and said that? My baby.
I was listening to a little bit, miss Pearl, when miss Leslie was talking to you, you know? Tommy confessed to me about killing Cochise 10 years or so ago, confessed to me out of his own mouth.
I cannot live my life knowing Tommy Francise killed Cochise and not do nothing about it.
And you know what? That pisses me off.
That's why I want to put him away.
Thank you, miss Pearl, so much.
Okay.
We're getting closer and closer to getting all the information that we need to get a search warrant.
It's almost like a spider web.
One web leads to another web, one strand leads to another strand.
There's pieces out there.
We just need to find them.
Pick them up.
Attaboy.
What would happen if I just let this pitch get here before I swung at it? The closer to the power source, the stronger your bat's gonna be.
I've been getting to work earlier and staying later.
I'm hoping for the day when I'm at work, I don't think about home, and when I'm at home, work doesn't cross my mind, either.
I appreciate you taking the time to work with Aubrey.
He's a great kid.
He works really hard for us.
All right, Aub, you ready, brother? Very good.
My son's got baseball games, and he needs attention.
When we interviewed Pearl, she gave us good information.
And now we got this lady named Arlene coming in to get interviewed.
As an investigator, you can be having the time of your life, then you get a phone call that changes everything.
All right, I'm on my way.
There you go.
Good job.
Come on, I got to go.
Give me a kiss.
Thank you, buddy.
I don't know what this woman knows, but one tiny bit of information could be the key to getting our search warrant and getting inside that house.
Bye.
What? Worried about that seventh wife? Because you know what? I learnt something, and I always told you.
When you go home, you want to devote yourself to your son and your family.
You want to leave that job at that courthouse.
The more and more I look, you're beginning to look like me.
You remind me of me.
And the more you work homicide, you're gonna get worse, so Go ahead, Rodie Jr.
Don't ever compare me to you.
It's the best compliment you ever got.
If you ever get this good-looking when you 60 years old, you're gonna say, "boy" You need to go see my dermatologist.
- "i look like Rodie.
" - Get some Botox.
No, I don't need Bo Collagen, make your lips look puffy.
Look at them lips you got.
What you want? A big, old lip? Man, luscious lips are nice.
My god.
All right, let's see what Arlene has to say about Tommy Francise.
What's been happening? Tommy and Arlene Both very, very close.
Arlene has a child with Tommy.
And the most important thing is, she was in that house probably the time that Cochise was murdered.
I'm almost sure she was.
And when I questioned Arlene years ago, she cooperated.
Back then, she was with Tommy still.
Now she's not.
Who knows? Arlene may give us another name.
If she does, then we'll take that and go from there.
Arlene, you care for some water? - No.
- You good? That's crazy.
It's like he's trying to be a step ahead of us.
Never cease to amaze me, bro.
He ever make mention of Cochise after Cochise come up missing? Like it happened yesterday? The night that Cochise come up missing? Tells Cochise, "come back later.
" Cochise and Tommy was arguing.
And he tells Cochise, "come back later.
" That's what he told Cochise? Did y'all ever hear Cochise tell you or you that him and Tommy had got in some kind of argument or anything? I mean, he said something about an air compressor.
Cochise told you he took Tommy's air compressor.
I guess Francine probably got mad with him or whatever, you know? Tommy tells you what? You left Tommy's house.
That's big, man.
That's a huge piece.
That's a good witness piece.
Tommy definitely asked you to go to Walmart and get cleaning supplies Clorox and whatnot? That's the evidence we need.
Tommy told Arlene he wanted Rodie dead.
As ballsy as it was, it's not no shocker.
And when he asked Arlene to clean up the crime scene, it's like Arlene is another one of his puppets he was trying to move on a string and do what he told.
All right, I think I'm done.
Let me step out one second, and I'm gonna let you go.
Well, you heard what she said? Yeah.
He asks her, "he want me to clean the blood.
" - Cleaned up.
- Cleaned up.
She's, "I'm not cleaning up nothing.
" There may be some evidence in that house.
I think we got blood in the house.
Arlene's statement about the possibility of blood being in that house, that can be the key to getting our search warrant and getting inside that house.
Submit what we got and see what happens.
Let's do it.
Good enough for me.
In order to get a search warrant, it used to be manual, where you had to go find a judge, wake up a judge in the middle of the night, sending out a page, everybody's beeper's going off, a message would come across.
Things worked different back in the day.
Now it's electronic.
But one thing is the same You have to have probable cause to show a judge that something is worthy for you to enter somebody's home, and that's difficult after 25 years.
Looking for blood, weapons, casings I would put barrels, too.
It could take up to 24 to 48 hours to get it back to us.
Then we go from there.
We get in the house, we light it up with luminol, we find blood, we swab the blood, it comes back to Curtis, ball game.
That's it, that's it.
We're getting closer and closer and closer to getting into the belly of the monster.
Send it.
Tommy done followed her around the store.
Cut her off.
Yeah, he was waiting for her.
Tommy, don't be intimidating any witnesses in this case.
Don't be threatening nobody.
He is so terrified that I'm gonna tell y'all something.
Everyone, come in here.
All right, I got a phone call last night at 9:38 from Tommy's ex-girlfriend, Arlene.
Apparently, she's at the store, and Tommy is there.
So she says, while she's in the store, Tommy cornered her, following her around the store.
He's intimidating.
Jeremy's gonna get the video, pull that video, get it back over here.
We'll put it on the board, and let's check it out.
The witnesses in this case is vital to Tommy's being found guilty.
What fears me the most is Tommy threatening them and they get too afraid and don't want to even talk anymore, and he could walk.
Hey, Jeremy.
Hey, I'm on my way.
You got it? Yeah.
Francise coming in.
There she is right there.
- Cut her off.
- Yeah.
He was waiting for her.
So she says Tommy done followed her around the store.
Everywhere she goes, he goes.
He talks to her and says, "you been talking to people?" He knew we was reaching out to her.
Dude's trying to be a step ahead of us now.
So she says he tells her, "it doesn't make a difference if they found the body or not.
They can't prove I did it.
" - Wow.
- That sounds like him.
Yeah, he was being an arrogant mother - Sounds like him.
- Yeah.
This is a small community.
Everybody knows everybody.
Them people heard about the things Tommy Francise had done.
So you know what? When Tommy puts the fear in people, it's all over.
They're afraid that he's pissed off, and you gonna have to look over your shoulder.
So he'll pay for his items.
What he does is, he checks out, and he forgets something at the deli and goes back to the deli and gets something.
So he just walked out with a deli item? He didn't buy it? He didn't pay for that That stole that deli meat.
I'm telling you he did.
He didn't check out.
I don't want to arrest him for stealing cheese.
I want to arrest him for murder.
I think what we need to do is, we need to call him and tell him, "let me tell you something.
" - Yeah.
- "We're investigating this.
" You are a suspect in this.
" - "You're threatening witnesses.
" - "Stay away from them.
If you go back to another witness, you're gonna get locked up.
- "Intimidating a witness.
" - Let's do it.
It's time.
- Tommy? - Francise: Hey, this is Ronny Hebert, the sheriff's office.
I want you to understand something.
Don't be intimidating any witnesses in this case.
Don't be threatening nobody.
You knew who the witnesses are, so don't get yourself in no trouble behind that.
While I got you on the phone, I need for you to come in and sit down and talk to me.
I'm only getting one side of the story, and I'd like to get your side.
You want to come in Monday morning and talk to me? There'll be nobody but me.
And I give you my word that I will be the only person that will interview with you.
We'll sit down and talk, and I'll hear you out.
I'm gonna tell you what I got and that you tell me what's right, what's wrong.
Okay? It's an unfortunate situation, Tommy.
But again, I got to look out for the victims.
All right, Tommy, take care.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
All right, look.
From this moment forward, do not speak about this search warrant.
I am not gonna take a chance of this son of a bitch finding out and destroy all the frickin' evidence if they got any in that house.
Absolutely nobody is to speak of this outside this room.
We have to be extra, extra careful.
If that word gets out, it's a great possibility your evidence is gone.
Save yourself For the devil's on his way So you pray Time to do some homework.
So you pray The last thing we want is for Tommy Francise to find out about us trying to get the search warrant.
If he does, he could destroy evidence.
Hell, he could be destroying evidence as we speak.
Hey, buddy.
I had to come check on something.
I'll be home soon.
Make sure you brush your teeth and say your prayers, all right? Love you.
Bye.
This case has me in front of a suspect's house instead of being at my own house with my kid.
As far as my life goes, the scales are tipped all out of whack, and there's not an end in sight unless we're granted the search warrant and we get into that house.
Evil calls your name You eat breakfast this morning yet? I got protein bars.
Just sit tight.
I'm gonna take you take you to eat some breakfast.
Probably gonna want me to buy breakfast, as cheap as you are.
That would be nice.
We'd like to have some good Louisiana coffee and - I don't drink no coffee.
- And some beignets.
Mixed-Berry smoothy, please! - That's it.
- A new partner.
- There you go.
- Thank you.
- You drink this stuff? - Yes, sir.
My goodness.
Look like baby poop.
Healthy food.
Look at that.
You can't even spell "healthy.
" Taste this.
Lookit, you got this stuff all over my shirt.
You worry about staying too clean all the time.
Eat your beignets, and let's go.
Jeremy, you hear from the judge yet? I was looking at main mail, to tell you the truth.
I'll do it again.
Damn, it's been a while now.
Sure in the hell hope that judge approved that search warrant.
We ain't gonna get a second chance.
No, no.
You know, to me, the statement from Arlene, that Tommy asked her to clean blood up I would think that's enough to get us that search warrant to get in that house.
But in criminal cases, that's like flipping dice You never know what's gonna turn up.
That house is where Tommy said he shot him.
That house is the last place Tommy said Cochise was alive at.
Hey.
Warrant's signed.
- Sweet.
- Really? Yep.
Yeah! Let's get him.
Now that we have a search warrant signed by a judge to search Tommy's house, it's pretty exciting.
We're going in this house, and we're gonna find out if there's some blood left over from 25 years that links to Curtis Smith.
No.
You can't have it.
Let me see it.
I've been dying for a long time to knock on that door and tell him, "hey, get your ass out the way, 'cause here's your warrant.
I'm coming in.
" You know, if we find enough evidence after 25 years, Cochise's family finally gets the answers they've been looking for all their life.
This is awesome, man.
Good job.
Devil wants his pound of flesh Devil wants his due Devil wants the fire you stole Devil comin' for you I worked this case for a long time.
I've knocked on many a doors.
I was told no by many people.
Believe me, I'm no stranger to sacrifice.
Hey, sinner It's judgment day And I've always believed in something, long as I've been a detective.
There's no perfect crime.
Hey, sinner It's judgment day I'm sure Tommy has been like every other criminal that thought he's cleared everything and everything's gone.
There's one thing about a criminal.
They think they cover everything.
But they always leave something.
It's judgment day Let's go.
Executing a search warrant after someone knows they are targeted in an investigation could turn deadly.
Yeah, somebody in the window.
You got somebody at the window.
At the window.
- Sheriff's office! - Get on the ground! Get on the ground! If the story's good, we should be exactly lined up to where the barrel went down.
We found a target here.
Not quite sure exactly what it is.
All right, pull it.
Coming up on something.
Whoa! Right there.
Let's check that out.
Curtis Smith, nickname "Cochise.
" From day frickin' one, I knew the person that I think committed this homicide.
Tommy Francise.
The only Danny I know is Danny falcon.
And what did you do with it? I gave it back to him.
Tommy told me that he was gonna make sure he was gonna tell me.
He's still walking.
He's gonna kill your ass, and he's gonna continue to walk.
I think I might've found Tommy Francise's gun.
When he was arrested, they collected a .
22 rifle from the scene.
This shows it's still in evidence.
There's no perfect murder, and I'm gonna prove that to you, Tommy.
Wandering soul Walking the earth No peace in their heart Still left in the cold You know, I'm sacrificing a lot working this case.
You have to understand, when you're working a case, that's someone's loved one.
And they depending on you.
Curtis Smith, better known as Cochise.
Young man left his home to buy diapers for his child.
Never has been seen since.
Who's our number-one suspect? Tommy Francise.
Tommy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Tommy could've been whatever he wanted in life.
But he got a rap sheet a mile and a half long.
Tommy thinks he can do whatever he wants, and his family will take care of him and get him out of trouble.
Now we've got his .
22 rifle in our evidence room.
We're hoping that may be our murder weapon for Cochise.
All we have to do is find blood or DNA that come from Cochise, then literally, we have the smoking gun in our hand.
These cold cases that we've had, they've been tough.
Time has worked against us.
Eugenie's case is still a work in progress.
You throw Tommy Francise in the mix, I'm burning the candle at both ends now.
The first time I heard the Tommy Francise confession, I said, "you've got to be kidding me.
" This dude just confessed to murder.
"Why is he not in jail?" The gun that was collected from Tommy's house is very important.
If this gun has trace evidence, thank you.
You've sent a blessing from heaven.
Hopefully, we maybe could find something on here.
Who knows? Who knows, you know, what might still be on the gun.
Exactly.
You know, when you hit someone with one of these at close range, real messy.
I'm gonna mix up some luminol.
Luminol is an agent that you spray, and when you spray it on blood, it illuminates blood to a bluer color.
We drew DNA from Cochise's family, and if we find blood or DNA on that gun that matches, Tommy's gonna be in the big house.
Can you hit the lights for me? - Do what you do best.
- Okay.
I'm gonna start on the wood.
It takes a few seconds to show up.
Come on, baby.
Give me blue.
I'm not seeing anything.
I'm not seeing, on this side anyway, the reaction that I want to see.
Nothing's jumping out.
So you don't see nothing? I wish.
This gun is not the evidence to prove that Tommy murdered Cochise.
Either he cleaned the weapon very well or just it's not the weapon.
It's just another dead end to the case.
The .
22 rifle that we have in evidence, we thought perhaps there might be some blood, but we got nothing.
By Tommy's own words, he said that he shot Cochise in the house.
What do you think about going in the house to spray luminol? You got to assume there's some blood.
How old a blood can it detect? I mean, if it's been there a hundred years, will it still detect it? They've detected blood from the civil war.
I'll tell you this.
It's a long shot, but if the blood is still there, it will show up, and hopefully get some DNA off of it.
We need probable cause, though, to do a search warrant.
In order to get a search warrant, you have to show a judge that something is worthy for you to enter somebody's home without their permission and execute your duties.
Build a case around his statement.
You know, get enough people to corroborate that that crime, in fact, was committed in that house, and I think a judge will sign off on it.
I'm with Aubrey on this.
We need to find anybody that's been in that house that can say, "I seen blood.
I seen a weapon.
" Find whoever we can find.
Start with the wives, his girlfriends, baby mamas, or whatever, you know? That's the most important task we have right now To get in that house.
But, man, if we can find one speck of Cochise's blood, it's over, rover.
We can charge him with murder.
- Okay.
- All right.
Let's go find him.
Just calling to speak with you about a case that I'm working.
It's a cold-case homicide.
Your name came up in the investigation.
Tommy's had kids with a couple different women.
He might be more of a ladies' man than you, Rodie.
- Yep.
- Come on.
Don't ever compare me with Tommy Francise.
You know, I've probably dated half the women in this town.
Knowing Tommy, and hearing what I've heard, I think he dated the other half.
All we need, out of all he dated, is one of them just one To give us enough probable cause to get that search warrant.
What's up, major? What you got, bud? Check this out.
Found this lady, angel Porche.
She used to be married to Tommy, lived in the same house with him for seven years.
Why don't you and Rodie continue to find some more witnesses.
In the meantime, I'll take Nelson with me and travel down there and go visit her and give her an interview.
All right, buddy.
Major and angel kind of knew each other from the past when angel was down here.
And that goes a long way when you're interviewing a witness that's scared to death of Tommy Francise.
- Well, hello, lady.
- Hey.
- How you doing? - Nervous.
Can you tell us anything about Tommy.
And what kind of relationship y'all had? Very turbulent.
So, y'all would've met in '99, correct? Yeah, yeah.
Tommy he always needed something.
And his mom was always bailing him out.
Mom took care of him? Everything he needed.
Even had a money tree.
His mom put $10,000 in this envelope in this tree.
- So it was an actual tree.
- It was a tree.
- They would put money in it? - Yeah.
Did y'all ever talk about Cochise? That name ever come up to you? He he's told me that he put him in a drum, he put holes in it, and sank him.
Did he ever make mention about cleaning the house up, anything about blood, anything like that? I don't really remember.
I'm not sure.
Anybody else that you know of that would've been in the house that could shed some light on this? Yeah.
We we had a maid.
You kept a clean house? - I'm a clean freak, yeah.
- You are.
Do you think it's possible that she may have seen something? Yeah, maybe so.
Maybe so.
It's very, very important that we talk to the maid.
If the maid saw anything in that house pertaining to Cochise's murder, we got enough for a search warrant.
Was it something in particular that needed to be cleaned? Like blood? You know, I always said I had two families one at home, one at the office.
I know which one I should be spending time with.
But I've always picked the wrong one.
I went down the rabbit hole a long time ago.
For me, I know it's getting too late.
But for Aubrey, maybe there's still time.
I still have hope.
Can you flex it? A little bit.
I only get so much time with my son.
I live for that.
That's what I live for.
I live for him.
We got to break it in.
And when I have to give up that time, it's tough.
This is a mallet.
We're gonna work it to break it in.
When I leave the office, I'd be lying if I sit here and tried to tell you it doesn't click in my mind to think about a case that's going on right now and how I can solve it.
It's a constant struggle to find time to spend with your family.
Some days, you will go home so beat up from the case that you just want to say, "no, I don't feel like throwing a ball.
" You're not being a dad if you do that.
Two hands! Good.
I never want to tell my son I don't have time for him.
I'm not gonna let it happen to me.
Her name is Pearl Anderson.
That's gonna be a good interview.
- Yep.
- Yeah.
We received information from Tommy's ex-wife angel that Tommy had a maid.
Anybody else that you know of that would have been in the house that could shed some light on this? Yeah.
We we had a maid.
Who would know Tommy better than her? She was there every day or every other day.
If anybody knew about Tommy's house and what went on in there, she'd be the person I'd want to talk to.
Should be on her way.
Am I right, Rodie? Leslie's going to pick her up right now.
Miss Pearl.
- Yes.
- Hey.
If miss Pearl seen anything in that house that we need to know, that could be the information that we need to get a search warrant.
I do appreciate you coming to speak with us.
No, we have reopened the investigation, so he hasn't been picked up.
How long did you work for him? Was he a good boss? Those families deserve closure.
All right, miss Pearl.
We're investigating a cold case.
The homicide of Curtis Smith.
When did you start working for him? So you would've been there '91, '92? Do you remember that being the same time that Cochise went missing? You knew about the situation that happened with Cochise.
Did you ever talk to Tommy about it? What'd he call and ask you? So Tommy calls you and asks you, "Pearl, I need to clean the floors.
- "What do I use?" - Yeah.
Tommy calling Pearl and asking her what she cleans the house with? That gives us an idea right now that he needed to clean that house for some reason.
We need Pearl to tell us something significant about that house holding blood evidence.
Did he tell you what he had on the floors? Was it something in particular that needed to be cleaned? Like blood? Miss Pearl, he's walking around, bragging about killing Cochise.
What kind of person does that, miss Pearl? We need to stop it, and we need you to help us.
She don't want no part.
I understand completely, miss Pearl, that you don't want to get involved in this, 'cause you Yeah, exactly.
You don't want You know Tommy.
You think he's capable of something like this? She said, " Yeah he was.
" You know you're not the only person that has come in here and said that? My baby.
I was listening to a little bit, miss Pearl, when miss Leslie was talking to you, you know? Tommy confessed to me about killing Cochise 10 years or so ago, confessed to me out of his own mouth.
I cannot live my life knowing Tommy Francise killed Cochise and not do nothing about it.
And you know what? That pisses me off.
That's why I want to put him away.
Thank you, miss Pearl, so much.
Okay.
We're getting closer and closer to getting all the information that we need to get a search warrant.
It's almost like a spider web.
One web leads to another web, one strand leads to another strand.
There's pieces out there.
We just need to find them.
Pick them up.
Attaboy.
What would happen if I just let this pitch get here before I swung at it? The closer to the power source, the stronger your bat's gonna be.
I've been getting to work earlier and staying later.
I'm hoping for the day when I'm at work, I don't think about home, and when I'm at home, work doesn't cross my mind, either.
I appreciate you taking the time to work with Aubrey.
He's a great kid.
He works really hard for us.
All right, Aub, you ready, brother? Very good.
My son's got baseball games, and he needs attention.
When we interviewed Pearl, she gave us good information.
And now we got this lady named Arlene coming in to get interviewed.
As an investigator, you can be having the time of your life, then you get a phone call that changes everything.
All right, I'm on my way.
There you go.
Good job.
Come on, I got to go.
Give me a kiss.
Thank you, buddy.
I don't know what this woman knows, but one tiny bit of information could be the key to getting our search warrant and getting inside that house.
Bye.
What? Worried about that seventh wife? Because you know what? I learnt something, and I always told you.
When you go home, you want to devote yourself to your son and your family.
You want to leave that job at that courthouse.
The more and more I look, you're beginning to look like me.
You remind me of me.
And the more you work homicide, you're gonna get worse, so Go ahead, Rodie Jr.
Don't ever compare me to you.
It's the best compliment you ever got.
If you ever get this good-looking when you 60 years old, you're gonna say, "boy" You need to go see my dermatologist.
- "i look like Rodie.
" - Get some Botox.
No, I don't need Bo Collagen, make your lips look puffy.
Look at them lips you got.
What you want? A big, old lip? Man, luscious lips are nice.
My god.
All right, let's see what Arlene has to say about Tommy Francise.
What's been happening? Tommy and Arlene Both very, very close.
Arlene has a child with Tommy.
And the most important thing is, she was in that house probably the time that Cochise was murdered.
I'm almost sure she was.
And when I questioned Arlene years ago, she cooperated.
Back then, she was with Tommy still.
Now she's not.
Who knows? Arlene may give us another name.
If she does, then we'll take that and go from there.
Arlene, you care for some water? - No.
- You good? That's crazy.
It's like he's trying to be a step ahead of us.
Never cease to amaze me, bro.
He ever make mention of Cochise after Cochise come up missing? Like it happened yesterday? The night that Cochise come up missing? Tells Cochise, "come back later.
" Cochise and Tommy was arguing.
And he tells Cochise, "come back later.
" That's what he told Cochise? Did y'all ever hear Cochise tell you or you that him and Tommy had got in some kind of argument or anything? I mean, he said something about an air compressor.
Cochise told you he took Tommy's air compressor.
I guess Francine probably got mad with him or whatever, you know? Tommy tells you what? You left Tommy's house.
That's big, man.
That's a huge piece.
That's a good witness piece.
Tommy definitely asked you to go to Walmart and get cleaning supplies Clorox and whatnot? That's the evidence we need.
Tommy told Arlene he wanted Rodie dead.
As ballsy as it was, it's not no shocker.
And when he asked Arlene to clean up the crime scene, it's like Arlene is another one of his puppets he was trying to move on a string and do what he told.
All right, I think I'm done.
Let me step out one second, and I'm gonna let you go.
Well, you heard what she said? Yeah.
He asks her, "he want me to clean the blood.
" - Cleaned up.
- Cleaned up.
She's, "I'm not cleaning up nothing.
" There may be some evidence in that house.
I think we got blood in the house.
Arlene's statement about the possibility of blood being in that house, that can be the key to getting our search warrant and getting inside that house.
Submit what we got and see what happens.
Let's do it.
Good enough for me.
In order to get a search warrant, it used to be manual, where you had to go find a judge, wake up a judge in the middle of the night, sending out a page, everybody's beeper's going off, a message would come across.
Things worked different back in the day.
Now it's electronic.
But one thing is the same You have to have probable cause to show a judge that something is worthy for you to enter somebody's home, and that's difficult after 25 years.
Looking for blood, weapons, casings I would put barrels, too.
It could take up to 24 to 48 hours to get it back to us.
Then we go from there.
We get in the house, we light it up with luminol, we find blood, we swab the blood, it comes back to Curtis, ball game.
That's it, that's it.
We're getting closer and closer and closer to getting into the belly of the monster.
Send it.
Tommy done followed her around the store.
Cut her off.
Yeah, he was waiting for her.
Tommy, don't be intimidating any witnesses in this case.
Don't be threatening nobody.
He is so terrified that I'm gonna tell y'all something.
Everyone, come in here.
All right, I got a phone call last night at 9:38 from Tommy's ex-girlfriend, Arlene.
Apparently, she's at the store, and Tommy is there.
So she says, while she's in the store, Tommy cornered her, following her around the store.
He's intimidating.
Jeremy's gonna get the video, pull that video, get it back over here.
We'll put it on the board, and let's check it out.
The witnesses in this case is vital to Tommy's being found guilty.
What fears me the most is Tommy threatening them and they get too afraid and don't want to even talk anymore, and he could walk.
Hey, Jeremy.
Hey, I'm on my way.
You got it? Yeah.
Francise coming in.
There she is right there.
- Cut her off.
- Yeah.
He was waiting for her.
So she says Tommy done followed her around the store.
Everywhere she goes, he goes.
He talks to her and says, "you been talking to people?" He knew we was reaching out to her.
Dude's trying to be a step ahead of us now.
So she says he tells her, "it doesn't make a difference if they found the body or not.
They can't prove I did it.
" - Wow.
- That sounds like him.
Yeah, he was being an arrogant mother - Sounds like him.
- Yeah.
This is a small community.
Everybody knows everybody.
Them people heard about the things Tommy Francise had done.
So you know what? When Tommy puts the fear in people, it's all over.
They're afraid that he's pissed off, and you gonna have to look over your shoulder.
So he'll pay for his items.
What he does is, he checks out, and he forgets something at the deli and goes back to the deli and gets something.
So he just walked out with a deli item? He didn't buy it? He didn't pay for that That stole that deli meat.
I'm telling you he did.
He didn't check out.
I don't want to arrest him for stealing cheese.
I want to arrest him for murder.
I think what we need to do is, we need to call him and tell him, "let me tell you something.
" - Yeah.
- "We're investigating this.
" You are a suspect in this.
" - "You're threatening witnesses.
" - "Stay away from them.
If you go back to another witness, you're gonna get locked up.
- "Intimidating a witness.
" - Let's do it.
It's time.
- Tommy? - Francise: Hey, this is Ronny Hebert, the sheriff's office.
I want you to understand something.
Don't be intimidating any witnesses in this case.
Don't be threatening nobody.
You knew who the witnesses are, so don't get yourself in no trouble behind that.
While I got you on the phone, I need for you to come in and sit down and talk to me.
I'm only getting one side of the story, and I'd like to get your side.
You want to come in Monday morning and talk to me? There'll be nobody but me.
And I give you my word that I will be the only person that will interview with you.
We'll sit down and talk, and I'll hear you out.
I'm gonna tell you what I got and that you tell me what's right, what's wrong.
Okay? It's an unfortunate situation, Tommy.
But again, I got to look out for the victims.
All right, Tommy, take care.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
All right, look.
From this moment forward, do not speak about this search warrant.
I am not gonna take a chance of this son of a bitch finding out and destroy all the frickin' evidence if they got any in that house.
Absolutely nobody is to speak of this outside this room.
We have to be extra, extra careful.
If that word gets out, it's a great possibility your evidence is gone.
Save yourself For the devil's on his way So you pray Time to do some homework.
So you pray The last thing we want is for Tommy Francise to find out about us trying to get the search warrant.
If he does, he could destroy evidence.
Hell, he could be destroying evidence as we speak.
Hey, buddy.
I had to come check on something.
I'll be home soon.
Make sure you brush your teeth and say your prayers, all right? Love you.
Bye.
This case has me in front of a suspect's house instead of being at my own house with my kid.
As far as my life goes, the scales are tipped all out of whack, and there's not an end in sight unless we're granted the search warrant and we get into that house.
Evil calls your name You eat breakfast this morning yet? I got protein bars.
Just sit tight.
I'm gonna take you take you to eat some breakfast.
Probably gonna want me to buy breakfast, as cheap as you are.
That would be nice.
We'd like to have some good Louisiana coffee and - I don't drink no coffee.
- And some beignets.
Mixed-Berry smoothy, please! - That's it.
- A new partner.
- There you go.
- Thank you.
- You drink this stuff? - Yes, sir.
My goodness.
Look like baby poop.
Healthy food.
Look at that.
You can't even spell "healthy.
" Taste this.
Lookit, you got this stuff all over my shirt.
You worry about staying too clean all the time.
Eat your beignets, and let's go.
Jeremy, you hear from the judge yet? I was looking at main mail, to tell you the truth.
I'll do it again.
Damn, it's been a while now.
Sure in the hell hope that judge approved that search warrant.
We ain't gonna get a second chance.
No, no.
You know, to me, the statement from Arlene, that Tommy asked her to clean blood up I would think that's enough to get us that search warrant to get in that house.
But in criminal cases, that's like flipping dice You never know what's gonna turn up.
That house is where Tommy said he shot him.
That house is the last place Tommy said Cochise was alive at.
Hey.
Warrant's signed.
- Sweet.
- Really? Yep.
Yeah! Let's get him.
Now that we have a search warrant signed by a judge to search Tommy's house, it's pretty exciting.
We're going in this house, and we're gonna find out if there's some blood left over from 25 years that links to Curtis Smith.
No.
You can't have it.
Let me see it.
I've been dying for a long time to knock on that door and tell him, "hey, get your ass out the way, 'cause here's your warrant.
I'm coming in.
" You know, if we find enough evidence after 25 years, Cochise's family finally gets the answers they've been looking for all their life.
This is awesome, man.
Good job.
Devil wants his pound of flesh Devil wants his due Devil wants the fire you stole Devil comin' for you I worked this case for a long time.
I've knocked on many a doors.
I was told no by many people.
Believe me, I'm no stranger to sacrifice.
Hey, sinner It's judgment day And I've always believed in something, long as I've been a detective.
There's no perfect crime.
Hey, sinner It's judgment day I'm sure Tommy has been like every other criminal that thought he's cleared everything and everything's gone.
There's one thing about a criminal.
They think they cover everything.
But they always leave something.
It's judgment day Let's go.
Executing a search warrant after someone knows they are targeted in an investigation could turn deadly.
Yeah, somebody in the window.
You got somebody at the window.
At the window.
- Sheriff's office! - Get on the ground! Get on the ground! If the story's good, we should be exactly lined up to where the barrel went down.
We found a target here.
Not quite sure exactly what it is.
All right, pull it.
Coming up on something.
Whoa! Right there.
Let's check that out.