Sheriff

It's possible somebody was following her up the interstate. Maybe they knew her and they got her to pull over and stop. If she knew them, and I believe that she did know them, I think she knew how bad they were and how serious this situation was. And maybe that's why she ended off down at the bottom of the hill. Maybe she was running for her life and they caught her. The beating started there.

We're going toward where Michelle was found that night. There's nothing about this whole case that makes me feel good at all.

Talked to the average, everyday layperson, you know, and they would tell me the same thing. This kid didn't do it.

It's very unusual. In the law enforcement community, that's not a real popular thing to do. This wasn't a cold case. This was a closed case.

Once it started, it was like in a rage and there was no stopping it. But the worst part was yet to come whenever she was put back in the car. She was shot three times at point blank range. This was cold blooded. I think this person is a monster. I was calling monster.

This is the leather jacket that belonged to Josh Kieser.

Right, right.

We had it tested, and in fact, it wasn't blood.

No.

Right.

They contacted his defense attorney the next Monday and said that he was not at our party. They had a list of all the kids that was there.

I think we've done the right thing, and we move on and try to find out who done this.

There's people of suspicion. We have right now about six or seven different people that we're definitely interested in and we're looking at.

Doesn't need to get any worse than that. Josh Kuser was convicted of the murder of Angela Michelle Lawless, serving 60 years at the state correctional facility.

You could reach through the window and grab somebody and set them up not the way he said.

No.

Those boys, they would change places with each other, you know, from little boys on. You can't tell them apart.

So was Matt Abbott involved? Was Mark involved? Matt said he never was, but yet we got two people that says he walked in and reported it. They have him down as Matt Abbott. So, you know, that could be a conspiracy, couldn't it?

There's a lot of theories out there. One of them was that she had information on their drug dealing. And there's a lot of money involved in that, and that's motive enough for somebody to kill somebody.

I came here in hopes to find some DNA. We're looking to maybe get some skin cells off of some of the clothing.

This is just actually the fingers up here.

I didn't do it. There was people that came forward and said that he had bragged about killing Michelle Lawless.

I just grabbed her shoulder. I know what he said, where he touched her. If it's somewhere else that it was impossible for him to touch her, that's where we find it, then he has a problem.

She wouldn't take anything off anybody. She would fight if she needed to. I believe she fought for her life that night.

If she grabbed their clothing, she's not going to get any of their skin cells. Unless she got them in the face, there's a good chance that we're not going to get anything.

I'm an innocent man. People kept asking me, do you have the right person in prison? In the back of my mind, there was a possibility that maybe Josh didn't do this. If Josh Keezer didn't do it, I hate to think that there's somebody still out there that's responsible for this and got away with it all these years. I think they should be locked up like the animal that they are.

A lot of people are really scared about this case.

Maybe they're afraid of the people that done this.

I owe that to her family to find out who done it, and I owe it to this community to find out, because if there's somebody that's got away with murder, they need to pay for their crime.

I would very much like to find out who that is. And I will.

This is a small town, USA. You know, a lot of stuff like this just doesn't happen.

I believe that she got out of the vehicle, and I think there was an argument.

I was the first responding deputy to the scene that night of November of 92. I'll never forget that night. A couple came in and reported that a car was sitting down at the off ramp with the lights on and the engine running. We opened the door and looked in with my flashlight. And that's when I saw this girl slumped over in the seat. There was a lot of blood in her hair.

She ended up over the guardrail and down the bottom of the slope. A very violent altercation took place. I believe that she was beat at the bottom and knocked unconscious. There was a lot of blood.

I think she was fighting for her life. I think she was fighting more than one person. There was a blood trail going back up the hill. They carry her across the guardrail.

They put her back in the car.

I think after she got back in the car, I think that's when she regained conscious and somebody rushed through the window, shot her point blank in the face, shot in the back of the head, and then one more time in the back. I can't imagine what she went through that night.

I really thought that she was dead. Didn't appear to be breathing at all. Her name was Angela Michelle Lawless. She was a 19-year-old college student. She was approximately a half a mile from her residence when I found her. There's a lot of things that happened that night. It's still a mystery. She leaves her boyfriend's house, and she was on her way home.

You know, he had long hair, he was dirty. He slept on the street a lot of times and slept wherever he could. He'd already had a couple different run-ins with the law.

During the evening, Koloka went to his boss, the sheriff, who made the dramatic announcement on live TV. This morning, sheriff's homicide detectives arrested Richard Raymond Tuitt for the murder of Stephanie Crow.

Any thoughts today? Not right now, thank you. All right. Mr. Crowe, what are your thoughts?

I would think so. This one right here is about 48 to 50 pounds of pressure on your shoulder of recoil.

I don't see how, no.

What did you think when you heard this? I think that most of the community thought it was like a slap in the face.

But everybody here feels like Robin had something to do with it. What part does she play in this?

Why aren't y'all putting him in jail? I had one lady even call me and tell me I need to go see the governor and make the governor make GBI make an arrest.

Does she or doesn't she know?

And if it does, it's going to get more on my arm, which is going to leave more bruising, and it's going to hurt me more.

Exactly. If this gun slips at all, it will fall towards your arm, and it will definitely tear you alive.

Seems like we run into her quite often around the county.

The community still wants to know when we're going to arrest her.

If we find evidence that she's done something wrong, by all means.

Somebody had been killed, at least two. I did not know who it was. They just gave us an address on the page. At some point, and I don't remember where that was at, it was like, oh my God, that's got to be Phillip's house.

I knew Phillip ever since I came to the county back in probably 87, 88.

Philip wanted the family to be perfect. Good Christian family, good folks. Philip was just, he was a man of the house. Popular. Popular, extremely.

This is the Remington 870. This is their most popular shotgun.

If you're going to fire that at someone, it's a deadly force incident.

Gas fumes out by the road was just horrific.

You could smell it from the road.

They did.

Every time Phillip had had an argument with somebody, you know, we had to go and investigate and talk to those folks, see what was going on with it.

He knew that his wife was running around on him. Oh. But he did not tell me who it was with. That must have been something of a shock. It was, because every time you saw them together, it was just like the perfect family.

This is not a case of self-defense. This is a case of cold-blooded murder.

It was a cold-blooded murder.

I've never seen in my career a case that has as many twists and turns and mysteries as this case with Mark Stover.

Yes, five days after I started is when we found Danny's body. When you become the boss, you get to decide to do things the way you want to do things. I felt like, well, this is our time. Let's go get some answers.

And I told her, I am making a promise that we will find an answer to this case.

I don't know what they said, to be honest.

Of course. I mean, I think the reports speak for themselves. There were marks on her body. And if that's what they were told, then that's not the truth.

Sheriff, could you speak to the balance that you and your investigators have to... rely on in these conversations knowing full well that if he were to return he potentially could face state or federal criminal charges regarding this incident while also still trying to get him to return home?