WEBVTT - Episode 9 - The Good Samaritan, The Lying Husband and The Hit & Run 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.160 Crazy and Love is the true crime podcast that tells 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:07.760 love stories with a twist that he was still in 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:10.120 love with his ex, but could kind of explain why 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.680 he was hesitant to marry someone else. Sometimes. The twist 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.080 of a knife police's theory is that he test her 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:16.560 of the car so later he can go back to 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.560 the lot, take the car, and then use that car 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.160 to mow down Justine. Just because things start off with 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:28.240 once upon a Time doesn't mean everyone lives happily ever after. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.720 This is Crazy and Love, the production of Katie Studios 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:38.600 and I Heart Radio. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a true crime 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:43.120 producer at Katie Studios, joined by fellow producers Stephanie Ledecker, 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:48.400 Jeff Shane, and Beth Greenwalt. We've all worked for years 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.240 on various crime podcasts and TV series, and as crime 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:56.080 producers we talk murder all the time. One thing we've 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.560 noticed is just how many of them stem from love. 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.560 We're exploring the story of the good Samaritan, the lying husband, 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.240 and the hit and run. In the rural town of 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.959 Blue Ridge, Virginia, lived Justine Schwartz. She was a petite 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.399 woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, and friends compared 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.560 her to Barbie, but Justine never wanted to be a 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.000 living doll. She was driven and focused on working hard 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:24.800 in college. At the age of twenty one, while working 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.800 as a cashier at Lows, she made Eric Abshire. Eric 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.240 was a former marine who dreamt of owning his own 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.000 construction business. At twenty six, he was still working to 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.959 save money for his goal, and at the time he 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.720 was the manager at the same Lows that Justine worked at. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:48.120 Justine was attracted to Eric immediately. She described him as strong, decisive, 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.120 and determined. She told her friends that she respected him 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.960 and that that was very important to her. Justine was 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.240 the quintessential good girl, hard working and rarely drinking. On 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.680 the other hand, Eric was a bad boy. He skipped 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.320 college and admitted to picking fights in bars for fun. 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.520 In the beginning, it seemed like Barbie had met her ken. 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.120 After six years of dating, Eric proposed to Justine with 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.880 a beautiful five thousand dollar diamond ring at the end 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.799 of two thousand five. For a young couple who was 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.760 trying to save money, the ring seemed outside their budget, 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:28.120 but Justine loved it. On two thousand and six, the 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.639 pair got married on top of a hill overlooking the 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:36.000 vast Virginia landscape. It was a truly beautiful ceremony filled 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:42.480 with family and friends. Here's Jeff. Our goal is always 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.800 to shine a light on injustices and bring attention to 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.680 stories that we feel need to be heard. In our work, 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.400 we've noticed that many of these crimes stem from the 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.520 same thing, love, and that's why we decided to call 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.520 together some of the most egregious, shocking, and terrifying stories 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.000 of relationships that took deadly turns. Our hope is to 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.560 not only raise awareness about the victim and what happened 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:03.760 to them, but also help listeners learned to look out 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:05.959 for some of the warning signs in toxic situations that 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.120 arise in their own lives. Justine and Eric dated for 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.200 six years, and that might seem like a long time, 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.720 but it's actually only a little bit longer than the average. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.760 We did a little research and I was surprised to 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.919 learn that most couples date for almost five years before 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.600 getting married. Yeah, that's longer than I would have expected. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.720 And I think in this particular relationship, it might have 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.000 taken that amount of time for them to get married 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.480 because Eric was adamant that he did not want to 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.320 get married to Justine. He had previously been married and 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.040 already had two kids, and so doing it again was 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.400 really just not in his plan. Justine, on the other hand, 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.080 really wanted to have kids. She always dreamt of being 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.840 married and being a mother. The couple went back and 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.040 forth about this issue in the relationship that even broke 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.000 up a few times, until after six years of dating, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.720 Eric finally relented and proposed Beth. Do you know what 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:57.960 the couple was up to as they were planning this wedding. 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.720 Justine just got her dream job at an elementary school, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.440 you know, she was a kindergarten teacher. And Eric was 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.760 really doing all this research to try and start up 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.480 his construction business. So it kind of seems like Justine 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.200 and all these plans for her life, get married, have kids, 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.400 have this job, and Eric was acquiescing and giving her 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.039 what she wanted, which was creating this dream life that 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.560 she always planned. He had already been married, he already 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:23.920 had two kids. You know, he didn't want to do 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.200 it again, but she wanted more than anything else to 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.560 have a family and to be a wife. So I 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.560 think he realized he had given to keep her. Yeah, 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.120 I read that when he proposed, he kind of had 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.120 the ring box and he kind of just said, you win, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.680 let's do it romantic, but he seems like he was 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.120 maybe really determined to make this work. He bought her 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.279 this beautiful five thousand dollar engagement ring, and so he 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.480 really went above and beyond and got her her dream ring, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.560 which speaks to maybe how serious he was about being 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.120 married to her. May have been less about the actual 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.919 wedding itself and getting married, and maybe more about the 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.880 expense of having a full, blowing up wedding, which he 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.920 maybe had had before. While for most couples, a wedding 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.240 in the newlywed stage is supposed to be the happiest 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.840 time of their lives, but for Justine and Eric, there 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.480 were immediate cracks. Justine's parents remember that at the wedding 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:22.360 she seemed removed and almost down. She certainly was not 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:27.000 a blushing and giddy bride, and Eric didn't even invite 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.960 his children to the wedding. Furthermore, following the reception, Eric 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.840 left on his motorcycle, leaving his new bride to spend 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:39.120 a night in the hotel suite alone. After they were married, 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.960 Eric immediately made plans to start building a new home 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.040 for Justine and him to live in. While building their 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.040 new home, the pair rented a small center block house 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.159 on Fredericksburg Road in Rutgersville, Virginia. It was nestled in 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.720 a heavily wooded area. Justine's sister Lauren, said it felt 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.280 like Justine was starting to pull away from her family 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.000 and friends. She stopped calling them as much and didn't 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.000 respond to text messages as often. She also wasn't going 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.400 to as many family events as she used to. When 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.800 Lauren confronted her sister about it, Justine assured her that 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.120 everything was okay. She claims she was just very busy 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:22.280 with work and building the new home with Eric. Here's Jeff. 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.000 What it looks like is that this is a classic 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.680 sign of Eric trying to isolate Justine, which is a 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.080 telltale sign of domestic abuse, from removing her from family 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.200 events to driving a wedge between people that she once loved. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.640 Justine's family said they never liked Eric because it seems 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.240 like he wanted such different things out of life. Her 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.440 mom also said that Eric never seemed like he was 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.800 the one for Justine. According to loved ones, Eric was controlling. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.520 There was one time, when Justine even rejected it okay 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.599 if Rosa's her friends had gotten her. Her explanation, Eric 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.919 doesn't like when you give me gifts, but they were 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.800 loving and supportive of Justine, so wanted to go along 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.679 with the person that she loved, Yeah, Jeff. Her family 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.279 felt adamant that Eric was bad news, but other family 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.960 members felt the opposite. Justine's cousin remembered that Justine was 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.920 always happy and smiling, and Eric's older brothers said that 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.760 despite the cramped quarters of this home, they made it work. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.120 Why were they living in such a small house anyways? 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.960 The money was certainly an issue for the couple. We 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.880 were doing research and it definitely shows that Justine and 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.960 Eric were a bit underwater. Justine had some debt coming 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:30.560 into the relationship from graduate school, but very quickly they 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.360 hit troubled times financially. Justine had asked her dad for 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.160 forty dollar loan. When she asked her dad for the loan, 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.600 he said that he heard the desperation in her voice, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.760 but he couldn't do it. I looked into it, and 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.160 Justine's parents were pretty successful. Her dad was a vice 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.840 president for a telecommunications firm and her mother owned an 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.720 upscale culinary boutique, so perhaps Eric thought they had enough 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.600 money to loan out. Eric was having problems getting a 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:56.720 bank loan. He said it was because of his divorce 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.160 and issues with his ex wife and her credit debt. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.960 Justine's credit cards were completely maxed out and her checks 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.400 were beginning to bounce, and she began withdrawing money from 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.920 a retirement account that she had been saving. And it 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.520 also turns out that Justine had to buy her own 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:17.200 engagement ring, which is extremely significant. Wait, that beautiful five 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.720 engagement ring that Eric gave her, she paid for. She 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:25.040 purchased it herself. That's like insult to injury. It's like, 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.520 you don't want to really marry her. He probably was like, 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.840 get yourself a ring and I'll do it. It might 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.520 be antiquated to look at it this way, but the 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.520 man should pay for the engagement ring. That's just traditionally 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.960 what happens. And so for someone who wanted this traditional 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.400 life like Justine, that was probably a big blow and 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:44.280 kind of embarrassing and also a bit of a tell 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.679 because by all accounts, Justine had a very structured background, 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.400 especially financially speaking, So for her to engage in something 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.280 that was going to put her more in debt was 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.360 also considered out of character. She also led to her 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.720 family about it, which is very telling. On November two, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.760 two thousand and six, justine colleague said she looked distraught 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.760 at school. According to them, Justine's eyes were swollen shut, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.360 her face was flushed, and it looked like she had 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:16.760 been crying. Justine didn't seem like herself, wearing sunglasses inside, 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.240 not talking to fellow teachers, and leaving right when the 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:27.800 bell rang. Hours later. She would be dead early the 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.760 following morning, on November third, two thousand and six, Eric 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.560 spoke to the police in a panic. On November first, 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.320 two thousand and six, Eric called the police in a panic. 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.960 Justine had been hit by a car on a Desolate road. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.200 When officers arrived, Justine was dead. Eric filled an officials 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.680 on how she ended up there. According to him, Eric 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.880 came home that night and had a fight with Justine. 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.040 She said she needed to cool off and went for 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:00.600 a drive. She then called Eric with car troubles. He 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:02.200 told her to wait there, that he would come and 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.360 get her on his motorcycle. When he arrived ten minutes later, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.319 she was about two hundred yards from her car. Dead, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.959 Eric told police that, shocked, he picked up Justine's body 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.760 and put her in his lap. According to him, Eric 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.480 stayed with her like that for some period of time. Then, 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.199 despite having a cell phone in his pocket, he ran 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.800 to knock on doors, begging someone to call nine one. 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.520 When later asked why he didn't use his own phone 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.600 to make the call, Eric told police he was stressed 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.880 and forgot he had it. The crash was being looked 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.480 at as a hit and run. Justine was very close 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.319 with her parents, and when they got a call notifying 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:49.400 them that Justine was dead, they were devastated. However, that 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.200 sorrow turned to confusion as they learned more about the 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:57.760 circumstances surrounding her death. The way Justine died just didn't 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:01.320 make sense for variety of reasons, the first being why 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.760 was Justine out so late, walking on a desolate road 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.640 by herself? The teacher was afraid of the dark, so 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:08.640 afraid that her parents had one said, she was scared 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:10.800 of her own shadow. The idea that she would be 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.000 on this dark, twisty road, let alone get out of 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.000 her car on that freezing called night, just made no sense. Furthermore, 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.160 Justine's keys, cellphone, purse, and even a flashlight were found 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.360 on her two thousand and two Mustang. Why would she 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.440 not have brought those with her when she left the car. 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.480 The community of Blue Ridge, Virginia, a buzz with the 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.640 tragic story, was starting to cast a shadow of doubt 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.440 on the so called hit and run. Two days after 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.600 Justine's memorial service, her mother was eating at a local 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.120 diner when a waitress cryptically told her that Justine was 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.800 not killed in a hit and run. The waitress told 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.160 Justine's mom that she was murdered and Eric was the 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.720 prime suspect, while the waitress had no way of knowing 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:57.280 for sure. It was this type of gossip that quickly spread. However, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.840 police did not have enough evidence to charge Eric with 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.720 any crime, so for a time, it was just small 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:09.760 town chatter. According to the autopsy, Justine died of blood 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.480 forced trauma and severe blood loss. She had a d 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.880 thirteen external injuries on her body. However, there were some 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:23.000 clear inconsistencies. According to the lead pathologist of the State 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.079 Medical Examiner, there was no gravel, sand, grit or debris 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:31.000 in any of Justine's wounds. Also, the fractures in her 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.320 legs were not consistent with being hit by a car. 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:36.920 On top of that, the injuries to her chest, head, 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.520 and pelvis would be very unusual to find in someone 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:44.439 struck by a car. Officials noted that Justine's injuries, particularly 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.199 her scalp and facial lacerations, would have caused profuse bleeding, 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.320 leaving lots of blood at the location where Justine was killed, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.880 but police found just a small amount of blood at 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.600 the scene. Eric shared his concerns to the police about 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.640 catching the driver. Here's a portion of the audio. Whoever 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:09.839 did captive breasts away from Wow. So Eric knew right 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.880 away that there wasn't a lot of evidence in the 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.319 so called hit and run and was worried that it 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.760 would hinder the investigation. I feel like you could take 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.160 this two ways. The first thing that he was interested 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.360 in finding the killer. The other interpretation is that he 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.600 was just checking to see how much police actually knew, 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.040 hoping that the lack of evidence would stall their efforts 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.360 to catch the killer because maybe he was involved. We're 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.640 going to take a quick break. We'll be back in 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:50.480 just a moment. Here's Beth. Police had Justine's car checked 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.480 out by several independent technicians, and all of them said 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.360 the same thing. They were unable to find anything wrong 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.440 with it. And I believe one of the officers at 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.520 the scene even said that he put the key and 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.400 started and put into gear and it was operating just fine. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.439 It had gas in the tank and again it quickly 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.120 started several times. Battery was fully charged. There weren't any 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.880 loose spark plugs or connections, and according to the mechanics, 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.360 Justine's car had no mechanical defects which would have caused 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.280 it to break down, So it didn't really make sense. 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:22.720 That seems like a major lie. He told the police 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:24.360 that she said the car was broken down, but the 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.920 car is not broken down. He's building an alibi. You 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.720 also have inconsistencies to her injuries, and now you have 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.800 inconsistencies to the story because the car was fully functioning. 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.640 I would imagine that would immediately point the finger at 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.680 Eric as at least a person of interest. Additionally, as 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.800 detectives looked into the couples financial situation, it turns out 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.320 it was much worse than anyone ever thought. And it 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.240 wasn't just a few credit cards here and there that 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.480 were maxed out. It was literally every credit card that 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.480 the couple had. And furthermore, Eric was actually eighty five 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.360 thousand dollars in debt and for someone who is supposed 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.120 to be sponsible, which is one of the things Justine 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.160 loved about him, this is egregious. He's trying to start 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.160 a business, he's trying to start a life, and he's 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:08.640 almost a hundred dollars in debt. That doesn't add up, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.840 and that also was a bit of a red flag 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:15.920 to authorities. So police began looking into Eric's movements basically 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.640 everywhere he had been prior to Justine's death, and his 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.280 ex the woman he had been married to and had 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.880 two children with. Her name is Allison. That's when she 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.840 came into the picture because she told officials that in 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.280 the days leading up to the death, Eric had called 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.640 Allison forty three times and on one call, specifically, at 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.360 eleven forty six pm the night of Justine's death, Eric 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.960 of course called Allison, and on that call, she claims 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.560 that he asked her if she would ever be with 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:53.720 him again, and she responded by saying definitely not, not 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.640 as long as you're married. And then seventy minutes later, 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.720 Justine was dead. So It's like he has a fair 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.720 amount of motive, you know, between financial problems and maybe 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:05.520 being in love with his ex wife. There's a lot 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.640 of reasons why Eric would want Justine dead on the 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.080 side of the road. And according to research by the FBI, 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.600 money is actually one of the top motives to murder. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:15.480 And if he was pining for his X and it 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:17.240 was the only woman he was married to, it could 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.440 kind of explain why he was hesitant to marry someone 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.960 else if he was still in love with his ex. 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.960 Right back, you mentioned that Justine had asked her dad 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.280 for a loan, and now when you know that Eric's 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.800 eight dollars in debt, that request now kind of you 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:32.520 can look at that in a different light, like, was 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.240 she being put up by her husband to ask her 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.760 dad for that? And then when he said no? Did 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.320 Eric start to get desperate? If she was no longer 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:42.520 an a t M, if she was no longer providing 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:47.880 resources for him to open up his construction business, maybe 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.240 she wasn't abuse to him anymore. I wonder if he 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:55.960 stood to gain financially off of her death. Police continued 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.360 to look into Eric's life and discovered that he stood 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.560 to profit greatly off of his wife's death. Following their wedding, 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.800 Eric took out insurance policies on Justine that totaled one 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:11.399 point five million. He was the sole beneficiary. One of 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.479 the policies specifically granted a payout if there is an 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:18.920 accident involving an uninsured motorist. A hit and run would 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.680 fall under this umbrella. Detectives also found an insurance policy 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.439 on Justine that they believe had a forged signature in 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.399 Justine's name. While the case against Eric began to build, 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:32.800 it wasn't enough to make an arrest, but the more 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.399 police learned about Eric, the more he looked less like 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.439 a grieving husband and more like a conniving killer, adding 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.320 to their suspicion. Eric was not at all helpful during 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.720 the investigation. Here's a portion of a recording of him 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:57.800 being interviewed by police. The question, is any reasoning for that? 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:05.119 You know? They're at pointless to take forward. In this interrogation, 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.680 the police officer asks Eric if they needed it, would 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.560 he take a polygraph? Eric says no. That police officer 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.160 asks why, and he says, because they're inadmissible in court, 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.680 so it's pointless to even do one. He's not wrong. 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.600 According to the Virginia state law, polygraph tests cannot be 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:21.840 used as evidence in court. They are inadmissible in court, 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.040 but they also are viewed as a real indication of 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:30.280 a person's desire to be helpful to authorities, and although 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.800 they're not admissible, the findings are helpful for authorities at 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.840 the bare minimum. If you know you didn't do it, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.119 taking a polygraph and passing it would probably take you 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.240 out of the line of fire for authorities to be 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.240 investigating you, so you would, of course do it. Polygraph 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.960 society just doesn't seem like he was really being of 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.720 assistance or have a driver or a passion to figure 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.000 out what happened to her, And that to me is 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.800 really strange. You lose the person that you know to death, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.879 do us part. She died under such a horrific circumstances, 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.159 wouldn't Eric want to know what happened to her? And 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.560 that's a real tell about his character in fact, to 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.639 your point, bath after Justine's death, her friends and family 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.680 began comparing stories, and these stories they referred to as 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.560 quote violent Eric stories, and one family member remembers a 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:24.879 story about Eric storming into the apartment and he apparently 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.959 shoved Justine against Wall. Her other friends said that before 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.000 the wedding, Justine actually told her that she was afraid 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.560 of Eric, which is really hard to do. And there 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.520 were also always these rumors that Eric was actually cheating 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.000 on Justine. We also did some digging and found that 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.159 in two thousand and two, Eric had been charged with 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:49.040 malicious wounding. Malicious wounding basically means causing someone serious physical injury. 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.280 The charges stemmed from an issue that Eric had had 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.520 with his ax Alison. He claimed that it was in 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.240 self defense, but police clearly didn't see it that way. 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:58.840 The malicious wounding charge from July two and two was 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.719 certified to a grand jury before it was eventually dropped 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.480 after the victim moved away and left no forwarding address. 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.840 It's also important to note that Justine's parents found out 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.480 about these charges just one day after their daughter died. 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:17.320 The abuse wasn't just physical. Justine's close friend also remembered 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.520 a time when they visited Eric while he was working 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.200 at a local best buy. During the visit, he called 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:28.680 Justine quote stupid and dumb multiple times. Eric also had 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:34.960 a terrible nickname for his loving life. The thing so 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:36.879 Aside from this, there was also some other things that 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.359 started to come out that would make it look pretty 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.720 bad for Eric. About two weeks after Justine was killed, 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.680 a potential new clue surface. Apparently a black Ford Expedition 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.800 STV was reported stolen from a local car dealership. The 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.399 car was reported stolen on October, just five days before 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.960 Justine's fatal hit and run. And now this might seem irrelevant, 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.119 but it comes back into play because on November eleven, 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.639 almost two weeks after Justine's death, that stolen SUV was 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.400 found in an empty storage unit located in the same 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.080 storage facility where Eric was renting a unit. That storage 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:11.800 facility is located also just a mile from the spot 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.680 where Justine was found dead. When the police found the car, 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.400 they immediately went to the dealership and questioned who had 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:20.879 the car and how did the car get stolen? And 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.320 according to the dealership's records, the last person to test 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.080 drive the car before it was stolen was Eric Abshire 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:30.240 on October. The dealership officials told police that he took 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:31.879 the car for a test drive and after he returned 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.840 back to the dealership, he said that he lost the key. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.320 They accepted this and let him go on his way, 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.199 but a few days later that STV was stolen up 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:41.919 the lot. Police began to believe that this expedition was 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.440 the same car that killed Justine. He actually was plotting 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.399 this and he stole the car. Police's theory is that 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:50.640 he tested her of the car to steal the key 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:52.800 so later he could go back to the lot, take 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.480 the car, stash it at his storage unit, and then 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.280 use that car to mow down Justine. What don't that 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.320 be a real tell to police, or at least a 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.760 starting place to look into this. If they have identified 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:07.720 him as the last person to have driven that car, 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:10.479 wouldn't they just go straight to his house and do 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.160 an investigation. It seems like a lot of circumstantial evidence 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:16.840 and nothing concrete at this point, but the police would 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:22.960 eventually get something that was much more concrete. Let's stop 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:38.919 here for another quick break. A major break in the 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:42.000