Chapter 1: What tragic event occurred in San Antonio involving Lars and Debbie?
She was crying and crying.
I said, what's wrong? And she says, Debbie's dead. We all wanted to believe that it was an accident. There's no possible way he could do this on purpose.
A dark house, a husband with a gun, a wife dead on the floor.
Make sure that she is still breathing. Oh, I don't think she is, damn it. There was no question who killed her.
The mystery was why. I hear the door squeaking, and I hear the grumbling, and I hear the dog growling. How could you not tell that's your wife? It was dark.
He just kept saying it was an accident. He said he didn't do anything wrong. Others disagreed.
We never for a second believed that he didn't know who that was standing in front of him. Was it a tragic mistake? He was broken. Or cold-blooded murder? These bits of emotion are only done in front of the detective. They're not done when he's alone. A room too dark to see? So let's shut the light off. or a story too hard to believe. There was nothing accidental about what he did.
A shot in the dark and doubt in the light of day.
The love of your life. Yes, sir.
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Chapter 2: What evidence suggests Lars mistook Debbie for an intruder?
The answer comes as fast as a Serena Williams serve. Their friend, Debbie Kelly. Debbie, for me, was kind of the whole package of a person. Fair, fun, and a great leader. Debbie, fiercely independent, driven. Always wanted to be a career woman. She climbed the corporate ladder in health care. Her mom and dad, Jim and Ann Kelly, marveled at her commitment.
She spent many, many hours traveling and many hours working overtime. But Debbie hadn't found as much success in her personal life. She got married in her 20s, but it didn't work out. Now in her 40s and dedicated to her career, there was little time to look for the right guy. Was it hard to date? It was hard for her to date.
So in 2008, Debbie took a new job that allowed her to focus a little more on her personal life. That's when she got serious about her tennis game. She was a little bit of a tiger. That's how she met this bunch. Betty Pace, Syrett Shook-Kelly, and Ellen Mitchell.
She was not a big person, but all of her went up and the hair would fly up and she would smash that ball.
The ladies clicked off the court, too. bonding over post-match drinks. She had a great laugh. She throws her head back and chuckles and just her whole body laughs. She had a real silly, funny, quirky side. So I've heard that she was very private. Would she talk about dating and guys with you all or? Not with me. She just wasn't one to talk about herself, period.
But I was always trying to find her somebody. How did she receive Betty the matchmaker? Well, she'd always be like, oh, no. Husband or not, Debbie was ready to plant some permanent roots. She bought a house in a gated community and began to remodel it on her own. She told her friend Liz Sevilla all about it. Was she like an HGTV type of girl?
Yes. Oh my gosh. Hey, I'm going to Home Depot. She's working on the sprinkler system or she's deciding on materials for the floor.
But the busy executive couldn't do everything herself. So in 2012, she hired a contractor. His name was Lars Itso. But once work got underway, Lars seemed in no rush to finish the job. She was getting very frustrated. And she's just like, I wish this person would finish work. But Lars' siblings, Ken and Christy, said he wasn't dragging things out for the money. He had an ulterior motive.
He goes, yeah, she keeps flirting and talking and we're laughing and having a good time.
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Chapter 3: How did the police and 911 operator respond to the shooting?
And he goes, can I ask her out? I'm like, oh, yeah, why can't you? So began an unlikely courtship between Debbie, the petite powerhouse, and Lars, the six-foot-two Nordic He-Man. They were cute. They were goopy.
Yeah, teenagers.
Debbie got a kick out of Lars' laid-back ways. Just a guy into old-school board games, restoring muscle cars, and drinking Texas' favorite homegrown soft drink, Dr. Pepper. About a case a day. What? A lot of Dr. Pepper.
At least a 12-pack, I know.
I've never heard of someone drinking that much Dr. Pepper.
I thought it would kill him. He doesn't drink a lot of alcohol at all, just Dr. Pepper.
And when Private Debbie brought Lars out to meet her friends, they knew it was serious. And he arrived with her, hand in hand. Sure, they noticed Lars was a different sort of match for their friend. He's very quiet. He's got the blonde hair that would go with being named Lars. He seemed like a surfer big man. But to Debbie, he was the right man. I felt like she was really in love with him.
I can understand her thinking, you know, maybe it's time to try something just different. And pretty soon that something different was official. After a year of dating, Debbie and Lars were engaged. So baby brother finally settled down.
He did. And he was happy. I've never seen him that happy.
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Chapter 4: What were the circumstances leading to Debbie's death?
She's a female. No. We need to send an ambulance, please.
That female was Debbie, shot and gravely wounded.
I want you to walk over to her and make sure that she is still breathing. Oh, I don't think she is, damn it.
The 911 operator guided Lars through CPR.
Kneel beside her. Police raced up to the house, dash cams rolling.
The audio kept recording as they entered the house. they found Lars standing over Debbie's body back by the bedroom.
Go ahead and back up, please.
As an officer tended to Debbie, Lars tried to explain how the shooting happened.
And where did you hear the voices at?
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Chapter 5: What inconsistencies emerged in Lars' story during the investigation?
Ken and Christy remember their younger brother that morning overwhelmed with grief.
He was completely hurt, shattered, you know.
He was broken. In those hours afterwards, what was he talking about?
He really wasn't talking. He was just in shock. Yeah. If he opened his mouth, he broke down.
Across town, Debbie's tennis friends were out on the court waiting for her to start that early morning match. One of their husbands came out to tell them about Debbie.
So he called me over.
and said that Lars had shot her. What are you thinking when you hear that? It was very surreal.
I mean, I couldn't comprehend. How could someone shoot somebody? It didn't even make any sense to me.
In Arkansas, Jim and Ann Kelly learned the news from their son. That's just the worst news that a mother could ever hear. How does your brain process that information? Debbie's parents flew to San Antonio to spend time with Lars. to support him in their shared grief. He could hardly talk. He seemed extremely remorseful. Was he saying everything that you would want to hear?
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Chapter 6: What were the key arguments presented by the prosecution during the trial?
Maybe so. But his performance on the polygraph was enough for detectives to grill him relentlessly.
How could you not see that was a woman? It was dark, sir.
No matter how dark it was, how scared he was, how could Lars fail to recognize Debbie three feet away?
That's your wife. Height, weight, shape. How could you not tell that's your wife? It was dark. Do you understand how lame that sounds, Lars? It's so true. You're 36 inches from a human being and you can't tell it's your wife? I don't care if it's pitch dark. No room is completely dark. There's going to be a light from every room. It may not be much, but it's enough to tell the shape.
Otherwise, you wouldn't have fired. You obviously saw something because you fired the gun. I said I see the shape.
Lars insisted he thought there were intruders in the house and he and Debbie were in danger.
I thought there was somebody else in the house going down the hallway the other direction. I thought there was one coming at me this way. That's what I think. What made you think that it happened tonight because your dog roamed? Yes, sir. He never growls. He barks.
There was no witness or apparent evidence to contradict him. After an hour of questioning, police once again let Lars go. Six days later, he said his final goodbye to Debbie, her parents by his side. How was Lars at the funeral? Very composed, very reserved. He stood up with me. What did that say that the family was supporting him?
It said a lot. It was great.
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Chapter 7: How did the jury react to the evidence presented in court?
She was actually shot in the heart? Well, it penetrated the lining of her heart, yes. As family and friends tried to sort out their feelings, police reviewed the case, looking to see if this was a crime or not, since even an accident can warrant criminal charges. And sure enough, 11 days after Lars fatally shot Debbie, he was charged with manslaughter.
Carl Alexander and Leo Gonzalez were the prosecutors who caught the case. Why did manslaughter fit?
manslaughter is defined in the texas penal code as causing the death recklessly of an individual essentially that's what it boils down to it was somehow somewhat of an accident lars was released on bail debbie's parents continued to support him manslaughter still in our understanding would be an accident and so we go forward from there but as the days without debbie stretched into weeks
something cooled in their relationship he starts changing in terms of my conversation connections with him and he not so forthcoming if i ask him something he kind of holds back lars's sister said his behavior could be explained he had sunk into a deep depression he just kept saying he wanted debbie back if he could get her back it was an accident he was sorry
Investigators, as they worked through the case, looked into the couple's finances. Debbie's assets totaled more than a million dollars when she died. Her dad was named the beneficiary on most of her investment accounts. So Lars, it seemed, had little to gain by killing her. Still, the whispers continued among Debbie's friends, who told investigators there was another side to the marriage.
I know that she was frustrated. Even simple things caused tension. Liz Zavia volunteered that Lars the contractor was slow to finish projects around the house. She did send me a picture of what Lars did in the bathroom, and the measurements were incorrect, and so it ended up making a hole. She goes, I just want my bathroom fixed. She would express frustrations about Lars.
sitting around on the couch all day and watching TV. Debbie's friend, Ellen Mitchell, noticed a change in Debbie's behavior when she returned home from business trips. She would come home from some of these trips and say, hey, let's go get a drink. Let's have some dinner. And your expectation would be, I want to get home to my husband. She didn't seem to be in any particular hurry anymore.
Debbie's parents wondered if the marriage frayed because Debbie, the modern woman, wasn't meeting Lars' old-fashioned expectations. She was not the kind to stay home and bake cookies or walk in the door and serve you a meal because she had worked just as hard, too.
And all these friends, he goes and spends tennis time, does things. Maybe just you feel like you're getting shortchanged.
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Chapter 8: What was the final verdict in Lars Itzo's trial, and what were its implications?
To me, it sounded like overacting.
And investigators also noticed how Lars' story evolved over just a few hours. On the 911 call, he set the scene this way. To responding officers, he changed the order of events, telling them he saw that light after he got out of bed.
And Lars added various new details to his story.
In his interview down at the station, Lars revised his story again. That's when he said he woke to the front door squeaking and offered, for the first time, this description of how he realized he'd shot Debbie.
And I hear this groaning, and I knew it was my wife.
During those interviews, Lars appeared heartbroken, at times falling apart. He was described as pacing in the blanket. He was mumbling, moaning.
At various times, yes.
Is that not what a husband should do after something like that? It sounds normal.
Well, that's the thing. It sounds normal, right? But when the detective looks at him and he doesn't see any tears, okay, that doesn't jive with everything else.
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