All Episodes Discussion

[LittleIggy]

Wonder if that kid’s mother helped him make up that cock and bull story about the guy with the gun in the victim’s house? 🙄

[cooksdelight]

That was weird. No sign of anyone else in the home but him and the girl he murdered. And I wanted to hear more about the other murder where he put his photo in the news report, on his computer.

Edited May 11, 2019 by cooksdelight

[Irlandesa]

All I could think of is that poor girl.  First she was groomed by the stepdad's creepy friend (yay stepdad for believing her right away) Once she was taking charge of that and her life was getting better, she is this guy's sort of random victim.

[JudyObscure]

It is so spooky when someone like Robert turns out to be a raging, 40 stab wounds, murderer. 

He was so handsome, so talented, so intelligent, and popular enough to have plenty of girlfriends if he had just wanted  normal sex. 

I know sometimes people just turn out to be bad seeds, but I would still like to ask his mother a few questions about  anything that might have happened to him in his young life.  What about his father?  Was Ted Bundy right, can pornography turn a young man's mind into something horrible?

Two hours and then the ending seemed too quick.

[Lsk02]

I didn’t know what to think of the girl’s parents, especially her mom. When talking about the abuse allegations, mom’s first thought was to ask her daughter if this was for real, and worry about ruining the guy’s family. What the hell? I know it ended up having nothing to do with her murder, but I think their home life was in a lot more turmoil than they let on. 

[Annber03]

7 minutes ago, Lsk02 said:

When talking about the abuse allegations, mom’s first thought was to ask her daughter if this was for real, and worry about ruining the guy’s family. What the hell? 

Yeah, that struck me really odd, too. 

[Cementhead]

17 minutes ago, Lsk02 said:

I didn’t know what to think of the girl’s parents, especially her mom. When talking about the abuse allegations, mom’s first thought was to ask her daughter if this was for real, and worry about ruining the guy’s family. What the hell? I know it ended up having nothing to do with her murder, but I think their home life was in a lot more turmoil than they let on. 

I agree!  What the hell!

6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

All I could think of is that poor girl.  First she was groomed by the stepdad's creepy friend (yay stepdad for believing her right away) Once she was taking charge of that and her life was getting better, she is this guy's sort of random victim.

Quote

It is so spooky when someone like Robert turns out to be a raging, 40 stab wounds, murderer. 

I fell asleep before it ended.  Can you guys tell me who her killer Robert was?  Who was he and what was his connection to her?  Thanks. 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Cementhead

[cooksdelight]

57 minutes ago, Cementhead said:

I fell asleep before it ended.  Can you guys tell me who her killer Robert was?  Who was he and what was his connection to her?  Thanks. 

He was in the school orchestra with the girl, he played violin. Very talented young man. They would hang out together now and then, they seemed to have a normal teenage relationship as friends. But the school bus driver is who alerted police to Robert, saying he had an unusual fascination with her. 

Another thing that popped up after his arrest, he had used his computer to place his mugshot into a news story about a woman who’d been murdered. I wanted to know more about that.

No idea about his father. Mom came with him to the police station, and in the first sit-down she pulled him out into the hall to talk to him. Once they were close to arresting him, Mom once again started up, questioning the officer “Is he charged? Are you going to arrest him? Wait. Wait. Wait.”

I suspect something was amiss in his homelife. Overbearing mother, etc.

[Cementhead]

7 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

He was in the school orchestra with the girl, he played violin. Very talented young man. They would hang out together now and then, they seemed to have a normal teenage relationship as friends. But the school bus driver is who alerted police to Robert, saying he had an unusual fascination with her.

Thank you for replying, much appreciated.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I know it ended up having nothing to do with her murder, but I think their home life was in a lot more turmoil than they let on. 

Agreed, and I think that's very often the case with a lot of these victims, and that Dateline deliberately glosses over that in deference to the victim's family in in consideration of their cooperation. Understandable, but after you've watched enough of these things you start to read between the lines a lot. 

[LittleIggy]

IIRC, Robert photoshopped his pic into the story of an elderly woman who was raped and murdered. An extra level of sick.

[cooksdelight]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

IIRC, Robert photoshopped his pic into the story of an elderly woman who was raped and murdered. An extra level of sick.

That’s the thing I wished Dateline had done a little more digging about, not just mention it and move on.

[ridethemaverick]

Anyone else get a creepy feeling when about 20 minutes into one of these shows, you know you've seen the case before? And I don't mean that you recognize the victim's name or face or other details. I mean you're watching and you suddenly think to yourself "I believe this was the black guy with the chewing gum." Because that's exactly what happened to me and it weirded me out, especially since it came to me before they even did the DNA sequencing.

That poor girl. Molested by a trusted family friend and then murdered by a seemingly harmless classmate.

I don't know what made him believe his story was the least bit plausible but I guess he saw the writing on the wall and figured he'd take a shot. Glad he pled guilty.

[patty1h]

8 minutes ago, ridethemaverick said:

Anyone else get a creepy feeling when about 20 minutes into one of these shows, you know you've seen the case before? And I don't mean that you recognize the victim's name or face or other details. I mean you're watching and you suddenly think to yourself "I believe this was the black guy with the chewing gum."

I was wracking my brain because I also was trying to recall when/if I'd seen this case on a different crime show.  My difference was that I thought the killer was a late teens white kid, who hid in the house and attacked the girl with a knife.  I've seen so many of these crimes that they're blurring together.

[TVbitch]

Sooo, the girl is obviously going through something and dad threatens to "blister her butt" and that's when she tells about the abuse. And then the mom questions her certainty and talks about how it will destroy the molester's life and how it will be really hard on the dad. Hello, what about your child?!

I can't imagine what was going through her mind being so terrified that the molester was going to come back and kill her, only to find out that, no, someone else she probably thought was friend was actually going to kill her. She must have had a very bizarre and confusing moment of "Wait, what, you're the wrong killer."  

Andrea Canning continues to BUG ME. When the officer was crying over having seen the body, she goes.. "It's okay, I know how hard it is". No Andrea, you don't. 

[cooksdelight]

Here are articles from the Virginian-Pilot newspaper on the case, with a lot more information than shown last night. Click on the headline of each article to get the full story. 

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/history/article_5cc4f93a-3cd4-11e8-95b3-57666ccc2d63.html

[Irlandesa]

11 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

I suspect something was amiss in his homelife. Overbearing mother, etc.

I think the mother was just trying to figure out how to best protect her son but clearly didn't have the experience.  They needed a lawyer.

[UsernameFatigue]

9 hours ago, ridethemaverick said:

Anyone else get a creepy feeling when about 20 minutes into one of these shows, you know you've seen the case before? And I don't mean that you recognize the victim's name or face or other details. I mean you're watching and you suddenly think to yourself "I believe this was the black guy with the chewing gum." Because that's exactly what happened to me and it weirded me out, especially since it came to me before they even did the DNA sequencing.

I actually thought this was an old Dateline show, so was surprised to see that it was a new episode. The case has definitely been covered before (20/20? 48 Hours?) and like you I knew early on who the killer was because I remembered the outcome of the case. This is another Dateline episode that despite all the twits and turns, could have been cut down to an hour if they had left out all the interviews regarding how wonderful Meghan was. I am sure she was a lovely girl, but I didn't need to hear it numerous times. 

[Coffeewinewater]

On 5/11/2019 at 9:37 AM, Lsk02 said:

I didn’t know what to think of the girl’s parents, especially her mom. When talking about the abuse allegations, mom’s first thought was to ask her daughter if this was for real, and worry about ruining the guy’s family. What the hell? I know it ended up having nothing to do with her murder, but I think their home life was in a lot more turmoil than they let on. 

Yes, this stood out to me as well. Wth? She should have omitted that little tidbit.  

Poor girl. 

[Tabbygirl521]

19 hours ago, patty1h said:

I was wracking my brain because I also was trying to recall when/if I'd seen this case on a different crime show.  My difference was that I thought the killer was a late teens white kid, who hid in the house and attacked the girl with a knife.  I've seen so many of these crimes that they're blurring together.

Weirdly, just glancing at these posts and not even having watched the episode yet, I remember this case pretty clearly as well. I forget what show I saw it on but it was a few years back. I remember being so shocked that her apparently nice and normal friend turned out to be the killer. 

I watch way too much crime on TV!

[cooksdelight]

You might have seen this episode a couple of years ago.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-ncis-meghan-landowski-marilyn-allen-murders-to-catch-a-killer/

[iMonrey]

Quote

I don't know what made him believe his story was the least bit plausible but I guess he saw the writing on the wall and figured he'd take a shot. Glad he pled guilty.

Actually, at first I thought there might be something to his story, because I never fully believed the family friend who had been molesting her was innocent, even though none of his DNA had been found. I was waiting for the violin kid to name him as the guy who forced him to do this. But since he didn't and then when I heard about the weird photoshopping thing I resigned myself to him being the only perp. 

[ari333]

"Blister her butt" was very unsettling

[cooksdelight]

Tonight’s episode definitely needed 2 hours and Keith at the helm. The video taken in the car of the “friend” confessing to her murder and the grisly details was hard to watch. 

I wanted to know where in the hell that witness came from that said he saw her at 5 am and that her car was still there??? Police video showed the car being gone hours before. Who paid him off? And how much?

[Ohmo]

26 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

I wanted to know where in the hell that witness came from that said he saw her at 5 am and that her car was still there??? Police video showed the car being gone hours before. Who paid him off? And how much?

I don't know about where he came from, but the first thought I had about that was he saw a prostitute that night...a woman wearing a bomber jacket and high heels at 5 am sounds like a prostitute to me, so I'm more inclined to believe that he's not lying but mistaken.  Like maybe he did see a prostitute and has somehow conflated the location in his mind with the bridge, perhaps due to the media coverage of the case.

i definitely think Sarah's dead, Liam killed her, and Preston helped him cover it up.  I also agree with the female DA that the money was a side benefit for Liam but that he really just wanted to kill someone.

Edited May 18, 2019 by Ohmo

[LittleIggy]

24 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

Tonight’s episode definitely needed 2 hours and Keith at the helm. The video taken in the car of the “friend” confessing to her murder and the grisly details was hard to watch. 

I wanted to know where in the hell that witness came from that said he saw her at 5 am and that her car was still there??? Police video showed the car being gone hours before. Who paid him off? And how much?

No kidding! Dude could positively ID her in the dark from his car? Yeah, right. 🙄 If that defense lawyer thought the guy was a credible witness, then wow! 

That kid (the murderer) must have been born with no soul. That girl was a friend since first grade, and he thrill kills her! 🤦‍♀️ Did they show the bad seed’s parents? My eyes weren’t glued to the screen during hour 2.

[Ohmo]

9 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Did they show the bad seed’s parents? My eyes weren’t glued to the screen during hour 2.

No, all of the people involved in the show were from Sarah's orbit.  No one in defense or speaking about Preston or Liam.

[Lsk02]

I was pretty impressed that Keith himself was present in court for the trial. I figured that would be a producer or assistant’s job.  

I hope the murderer does not get an appeal. What an evil person. That poor father, losing both his wife and his only child. 

[thejuicer]

There is something so sociopathic about Liam AND Preston. Liam pled not guilty and showed no remorse whatsoever. Poor Sarah and the "friends" she grew up with. 

[Mondrianyone]

So many things about this case seem just . . . inexplicable.  Like, why would Sarah bring that single Rubbermaid bin filled with meaningless crap to her friend's house to be stored for her when she had her own house and that other house her father owned, which was presumably empty, to keep things in?  If you're leaving town, wouldn't you have a whole bunch of stuff to pack away?  And if you're not leaving, why store anything at all with someone else?  And when Liam got into Curry's car, he was talking like a low-rent De Niro or some recurring character from The Sopranos, accent and all.  He checked Curry for a wire but didn't look around the front of the car for a camera lens?  And just decided to let loose with a detailed confession--for what reason, exactly?  To a crime he'd already told Curry about.  It all seemed oddly staged to me.  Her trip to the bank, which he supposedly talked her into, didn't make much sense to me.  That crazy "eyewitness."  Can't put my finger on all of it, but I have a weird feeling about this one.

[iMonrey]

I was really distracted in one of the interview segments because Keith Morrison had this stray hair on his right shoulder and it was driving me crazy.

This was another case where I don't think we got the whole story. Clearly there was something going on between Sarah and her father but the show really downplayed all of that. 

[Ohmo]

2 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

So many things about this case seem just . . . inexplicable.  Like, why would Sarah bring that single Rubbermaid bin filled with meaningless crap to her friend's house to be stored for her when she had her own house and that other house her father owned, which was presumably empty, to keep things in?  If you're leaving town, wouldn't you have a whole bunch of stuff to pack away?  And if you're not leaving, why store anything at all with someone else?  And when Liam got into Curry's car, he was talking like a low-rent De Niro or some recurring character from The Sopranos, accent and all.  He checked Curry for a wire but didn't look around the front of the car for a camera lens?  And just decided to let loose with a detailed confession--for what reason, exactly?  To a crime he'd already told Curry about.  It all seemed oddly staged to me.  Her trip to the bank, which he supposedly talked her into, didn't make much sense to me.  That crazy "eyewitness."  Can't put my finger on all of it, but I have a weird feeling about this one.

I'll agree with you that the thing with the tote was weird.  The way it kept being shown made me think it would have more significance to the case.  I'd also buy that there was an undercurrent of something between Sarah and her dad.  Even with those things, though, that doesn't change my belief that Liam killed her, and his detailed confession isn't questionable to me.  He clearly wanted to talk about it and share with someone else.  I think he wanted to both brag and lament that killing someone wasn't what he thought it'd be.

I think that, as viewers, we have to remember that even though this is a TV show, it's a TV show about something that happened in real life.  Real life isn't a puzzle.  The pieces aren't always going to fit together and make sense, but that doesn't mean that Liam's not guilty.  The thing with the tote can be weird AND Liam can also be guilty.  Sarah could have had a rocky relationship with her dad AND Liam can also be guilty.  In real life, things don't always negate other things.  Both can be true, and/or one thing does not always impact every other thing in life.  If Sarah did have a rocky relationship with her dad, but she was just walking down the street one day and got hit by a bus, does that mean her relationship with her dad had anything to do with the bus?  Not necessarily and not automatically.  Things can be connected in life, but they are not always connected.

Edited May 18, 2019 by Ohmo

[Mondrianyone]

I'm not sure where I said or even obliquely implied that I thought Liam wasn't guilty.

[cooksdelight]

24 minutes ago, Ohmo said:

I think he wanted to both brag and lament that killing someone wasn't what he thought it'd be.

The epitome of a sociopath. He was bragging, bigtime. Thought he’d pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, especially police. Who better to kill than someone who trusts him being alone with him? Thank God he is off the streets.

I get her relationship with her father. A teenage girl and Dad don’t always see eye to eye. Mine chewed me out for things I didn’t do, because he was remembering back to the days when he and my mother were dating while teenagers in high school.... and what teens do when “in love” with someone. 🙂 

[Ohmo]

16 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

I'm not sure where I said or even obliquely implied that I thought Liam wasn't guilty.

I wasn't implying that, so apologies if that's what you perceived.  I meant that I'm in total agreement with you that the tote thing was weird and that there was something amiss between Sarah and her dad, but I also don't think those things had anything to do with the case.   They were just oddities of human behavior and life.

I think that when viewers watch shows like this, there's a tendency to want things to line up because we want things to make sense in our heads, but sometimes things don't.  So, while I agree with you that the tote is weird and Sarah's relationship with her dad might have been weird, I don't think that's material to the case.  Those things are just weird, as most of us likely has something odd in our lives that might not seem to fit with the rest of our lives.

[UsernameFatigue]

I started to watch this episode, and just a few minutes into it realized that I had seen it before. Is this an old episode that Dateline just updated, or did another show (20/20? 48 Hours?) already cover it? This is the second time in a couple of weeks where I thought I was watching a new episode, but found it was a case I had already watched (though the date shows it is a new episode). Are there really that few crimes being committed that an episode has to be shown twice, or covered by multiple true crime shows? Hard to believe that that would be the case. 

[TVbitch]

I think 20/20 did it. They all seem to follow the same cases. I wonder how they choose their cases. 

I think Liam's statement to the movie director kid sums it up: "What am I gonna do, live some boring ass life?" It seems like SOME young people are pretty empty inside these days, and are looking for the sort of excitement they see on the TV or video games. At the same time, they seem more aimless and lazy, but still want life to be comfortable for them without working for it. Not all of them and not to that degree, of course, but I even see it in the young adults in my family. Um, none of them are murderous though.  

[Fable]

To me, the eye witness seemed a bit sketchy.  He said he remarked to his son about seeing a car broken down on the bridge.  Why didn’t he stop to see if someone needed help?  He also claimed that he recognized the person he saw walking as the girl from the missing person poster, so why didn’t he call the police with that information?  I didn’t find him credible at all. 

[partofme]

5 hours ago, UsernameFatigue said:

I started to watch this episode, and just a few minutes into it realized that I had seen it before. Is this an old episode that Dateline just updated, or did another show (20/20? 48 Hours?) already cover it? This is the second time in a couple of weeks where I thought I was watching a new episode, but found it was a case I had already watched (though the date shows it is a new episode). Are there really that few crimes being committed that an episode has to be shown twice, or covered by multiple true crime shows? Hard to believe that that would be the case. 

I definitely saw it on another show, I remember how crazy Liam’s mother was.  

[UsernameFatigue]

2 hours ago, TVbitch said:

I think 20/20 did it. They all seem to follow the same cases. I wonder how they choose their cases. 

I just googled and it was 20/20. They just aired their episode in early March (it seemed longer ago than that). I wonder how they choose their cases too, as you would think that it wouldn't be that hard to find out that another show is already covering a case, given that they often interview the same people. One would think that covering a case already done by a competitor would cut down on your ratings if someone decides not to rewatch a case they have already seen. I didn't watch Dateline's because once around was enough for me. 

[EtheltoTillie]

And what was her connection to Canada?  Not that it makes a difference to the case, but it’s so sloppy to leave it unexplained. You can’t just pick up and emigrate to Canada. How would this have played out? Did she have friends there?  Art school?  I wonder why she wasn’t going to college when even those two psychos were going to college. 

Edited May 19, 2019 by GussieK

[Ohmo]

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

And what was her connection to Canada?  Not that it makes a difference to the case, but it’s so sloppy to leave it unexplained.

I thought the episode said that she became fond of Canada after going to Toronto for an art exhibit or art show.  Sarah might not have thought through whether emigrating to Canada was possible or feasible, but Dateline explained why she wanted to live there.

[EtheltoTillie]

6 hours ago, Ohmo said:

I thought the episode said that she became fond of Canada after going to Toronto for an art exhibit or art show.  Sarah might not have thought through whether emigrating to Canada was possible or feasible, but Dateline explained why she wanted to live there.

Thanks.  I guess I passed right over it. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I meant that I'm in total agreement with you that the tote thing was weird and that there was something amiss between Sarah and her dad, but I also don't think those things had anything to do with the case.   They were just oddities of human behavior and life.

Well, the show also thrives on misdirects and red herrings. Especially in these two-hour episodes. They've got to spend the first hour misleading the audience about where the case is going. It's annoying. I really prefer the one-hour episodes.

[cooksdelight]

20 hours ago, Fable said:

To me, the eye witness seemed a bit sketchy.  He said he remarked to his son about seeing a car broken down on the bridge.  Why didn’t he stop to see if someone needed help?  He also claimed that he recognized the person he saw walking as the girl from the missing person poster, so why didn’t he call the police with that information?  I didn’t find him credible at all. 

He is one of those people who want to be a “source” of information. No way he saw her car at 5 am, it had been towed hours earlier. Same with the girl, she wasn’t walking on the bridge. And in the wee dawn hours when it’s dark ... why didn’t he stop? 

[biakbiak]

I very rarely find witnesses like him credible where they remember a stranger’s face weeks or in some cases months later when there was not a compelling reason for that person/day to stand out to them and become a memory. I don’t even necessarily think they are lying just that memory is tricky.

Edited May 20, 2019 by biakbiak

[OpalNightstream]

On 5/18/2019 at 10:29 PM, GussieK said:

And what was her connection to Canada?  Not that it makes a difference to the case, but it’s so sloppy to leave it unexplained. You can’t just pick up and emigrate to Canada. How would this have played out? Did she have friends there?  Art school?  I wonder why she wasn’t going to college when even those two psychos were going to college. 

I’m guessing it was one of those not entirely thought out teenage thoughts. Just a pipe dream that kids seem to think is as easy as just packing a suitcase, a few thousand dollars and up and moving. 

[12catcrazy]

OK - so I would love to take Liam's lawyer and rub the guy's face in a hot, steaming pile of Great Dane feces.  I get it - a lawyer gets paid to get their clients off, but REALLY????   How does somebody like that guy sleep at night?  

[jabinlbc]

I also had seen the 20/20 episode, so I skipped this one.  For those who saw both, was there anything new revealed by Dateline?

[SunnyBeBe]

On 5/18/2019 at 7:11 PM, Fable said:

To me, the eye witness seemed a bit sketchy.  He said he remarked to his son about seeing a car broken down on the bridge.  Why didn’t he stop to see if someone needed help?  He also claimed that he recognized the person he saw walking as the girl from the missing person poster, so why didn’t he call the police with that information?  I didn’t find him credible at all. 

Eyewitness testimony is so suspect to me.  It really does need to be scrutinized.  The first thing I think is that the witness is mistaken OR they are lying.  Some people lie for no real reason.  Just attention, I guess.  I'm shocked when an eyewitness helps compile a sketch and it comes out right!