Behind the Mask (Ernest Ibarra)
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You know what? You know what I think? I think it's not going to be long. I think you've been lying to me this whole time. You didn't get them right. I think you're a liar. I think you know exactly who did this and I don't buy your freaking story for a minute.
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.
I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction.
And this is Anatomy of Murder.
It's no secret that people all across the world are spending more and more of their time online for all sorts of reasons.
Whether it's scrolling social media, online gaming, or starring in their own YouTube channel, many people see the internet as a virtual world offering community, a bit of fantasy, and for some, even the promise of online fame or fortune.
And many can understand the appeal. Becoming an Instagram influencer or the hero in a video game can offer an escape from our normal lives, letting us become a very different version of ourselves with little or no repercussions.
But as we know, in the real world, there are consequences to our actions. And when fantasies give way to lies, people can get hurt and even killed.
Ernie Ibarra was born on Christmas Day 1985 in Mount Pleasant, Texas, a town about a two-hour drive from Dallas and not far from the borders with Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Growing up, Ernie had a knack for all things electronic and was known in school as the kid who could just fix about anything. Like a lot of teenagers, Ernie enjoyed playing video games, finding a safe refuge online from what could sometimes be a challenging home life.
Ernie's family often struggled to make ends meet, and it hadn't been easy in various ways, including when his dad spent some time in prison. So you can imagine how gaming could provide an escape from those often painful realities of everyday life.
Another great way to find a little joy, falling in love, which is exactly what happened when Ernie met an aspiring YouTube creator named Samantha Walford in 2008. Samantha had already had two kids from a previous relationship, but Ernie was ready to be a dad. After they got married, they quickly added kids number three, four, and five, all by the time Samantha was just 24.
There were an older set of twins from a prior relationship. And then with Ernie, she had a child and then another set of twins. But Ernie basically raised those kids, the other two, as if they were his own.
That's the voice of David Cauley, who in 2015 was a newly hired assistant DA in Titus County, Texas. His first year on the job would be what is sometimes referred to as a baptism by fire, as he would soon find himself embroiled in one of the darkest and most senseless crimes of his entire career.
It all started in the early hours of February 20th, 2015, when Samantha's mother, Rosie, received a frantic call from her daughter who said intruders had just broken into her and Ernie's home.
The masked men had dragged both of them from bed, beaten Ernie severely, and then abducted him from the house, all while their five children were sleeping just a few feet away.
So Samantha called her mother, who was in a town about an hour and a half away. And Rosie called her sister, who was about 10 minutes away. And so her sister and her sister's boyfriend just came straight to the house.
Samantha's aunt and her boyfriend found Samantha upstairs, where she was gagged and bound. Downstairs, they saw blood, a chunk of hair, and other signs of a violent struggle.
after her boyfriend, we'll say, cleared the house. He went in with his firearm, made sure nobody else was there, and at that same time, they're calling law enforcement.
It's Samantha's aunt who's on the phone, and Samantha is being untied by the aunt while she's on the phone. Her arms were tied behind her back. She had it like gagged in her mouth and then her legs were binded together.
Samantha is basically relaying the story and it gets relayed to law enforcement, which is that somebody had broken into the house, had pulled her and her husband out of bed from a sleep.
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Speakers
15 identified
David Cauley 14 min
Scott Weinberger 12 min
Anastasia Nicolazzi 10 min
Samantha Walford 2 min
Unknown Speaker 1 1 min
Jonathan Sanford 1 min
Unknown Speaker 2 1 min
Law Enforcement Officer 1 min
Investigator
Unknown Speaker 3
Unknown Speaker 7
Dispatcher
Unknown Speaker 5
Unknown Speaker 6
Unknown Speaker 4