• 2 days ago
Snapped Killer Couples S18E03


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Fun
Transcript
00:00It was one of the most brutal murders that I've ever seen or heard of, and it was clearly
00:08a murder that was intended for him to suffer.
00:11The body had been on fire.
00:13He was alive when he was set on fire.
00:16They wanted to torture him.
00:25This was premeditated, cold-hearted, just evil.
00:30He spoke to me about him, like, my girlfriend is afraid of her ex-boyfriend, and if he doesn't
00:38stop, I'm going to have to get involved.
00:41You don't have to kill somebody to make them leave you alone, okay?
00:47She had become upset, distraught, you know.
00:53We came up with this stupid idea.
00:57He felt like he was keeping her safe.
01:00She could have made this whole thing up to get you all stirred up.
01:03It was clear that she was simply a master manipulator.
01:08He found this golden ticket with her, and he had to do whatever she wanted him to do
01:15to obtain that.
01:18You took these two people together, and it just turned into pure evil.
01:38November 14, 2009, South Haven, Michigan.
01:43It's just after noon when authorities receive a 911 call from a concerned resident about
01:48a car fire in a forest clearing.
01:52He lived in the area outside of town, very close to Lake Michigan, but a little bit outside
01:58of the city.
01:59It was a pretty rural area.
02:01He came across a car that was burned out and called 911.
02:09South Haven Fire and Police Departments quickly respond to the scene.
02:14You could see the car smoldering from the road.
02:17It had been stuck in the mud.
02:20The car was not too far off the main road, and it was burned completely.
02:28At first, they're just trying to piece it together to find out what happened here.
02:34Was it someone that intentionally torched their car for insurance purposes, or was it
02:39something more nefarious?
02:46The fire investigators for South Haven Fire began to walk around the area to see if they
02:53could discover any evidence of a crime.
02:57One of the fire investigators, approximately 100 yards from the vehicle, came across a
03:03burned body underneath a tree.
03:06At that point, they then contacted our central dispatch.
03:10So once I received the call that we had a body, all detectives came out to the scene
03:15to work this case.
03:17The body had been duct taped around the head and mouth.
03:20The arms had been duct taped behind the back, and there was a large amount of duct tape
03:25around the thighs of the individual.
03:29It was one of the most brutal murders that I've ever seen or heard of, and it was clearly
03:33a murder that was intended for them to suffer.
03:38And as we stood there, we had more questions than we had answers.
03:45We had no idea what had occurred here.
03:52So we had to first discover who our victim was, and then from there work our way out.
04:00The car that was burned was totally unidentifiable, but there was a license plate in the bin that
04:06was also intact.
04:08The registered owner was Brandon Silverlight, and that's when we started backtracking, trying
04:14to find out where he was or if this was the deceased.
04:20Authorities head to Brandon's registered address, where they're met by his wife, Jennifer.
04:32We told her that we had a burned car, and we were trying to find out or ascertain where
04:38Brandon might be.
04:40We found out that Brandon was missing from the night before and had not returned.
04:45It was not returning any of her phone calls or text messages.
04:49We start with, when's the last time you saw him?
04:53Did he leave the home?
04:55What was his plans for the evening?
04:56What were you told by him?
04:58And that was the opening of our discussion.
05:06Born in Michigan in 1984, Brandon Silverlight grew up in South Haven.
05:13Brandon came from a good home.
05:14He had good parents, a good life.
05:18My first impression of Brandon was he was just a goofy guy, and he was very personable.
05:25He could just be silly with us, and he was always very nice to people.
05:35After graduating high school in 2003, Brandon enrolled in Western Michigan's School of Music.
05:43Brandon was very musical.
05:44His family was also musically inclined.
05:48He had scholarships lined up.
05:50He was going to be a music teacher.
05:53On nights and weekends, Brandon played gigs around town with a local band.
05:59My relationship with Brandon was bandmate.
06:03We met him at a party where we were playing, and he ended up just joining pretty much on
06:09the spot.
06:11He was a very good drummer, and he was also very good on bass.
06:20According to Jennifer, a shared love of music was what attracted her to Brandon in 2001.
06:26She was involved with a Western Michigan University marching band.
06:29At one point, Brandon was, so I believe that is the common denominator for them was music.
06:36Jennifer was an attractive woman and a very self-assured and strong-minded woman.
06:43The couple dated for seven years.
06:45In February 2008, they married in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
06:51They had been together for several years before marrying, and so there was a well-established
06:57partnership.
06:58He had a good life, and he had the whole world in front of him.
07:06Nearly two years into their marriage, Brandon's car has been found torched by the side of
07:11a rural road, and unidentified remains point to a homicide.
07:19Jennifer really didn't know what to think of it at that point.
07:22She had explained that he had left the night before to play video games and had not returned.
07:30She indicated that he was going to a LAN party.
07:33It was like a group of people getting together at a location and playing one of these online
07:40games, and he left around 10 o'clock in the evening or so.
07:45When it got later on in the night, she had texted, and his reply was very short, and
07:51his phone was then turned off.
07:54The phone calls went to voicemail.
07:56Texts were left unanswered.
07:59Jennifer indicated that it wasn't uncommon for Brandon to go gaming with friends, but
08:04it was unusual for him to be out all night the way that he was on this night.
08:11Jennifer says instead of letting her worries get the best of her, she convinced herself
08:16that maybe Brandon didn't come home for another reason.
08:21Jennifer indicated at one point that they did have an open relationship.
08:29Following their conversation with Jennifer, investigators attend the autopsy.
08:35The victim was taken to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, where the autopsy was performed.
08:40Because of the condition of the body, dental records had to be used to identify the deceased,
08:47and the deceased was identified as Brandon Silverlight.
08:53So they need to go in and find out more and do some digging into the background.
08:59Who would have wanted to do something like this?
09:02Who were his enemies?
09:05Coming up, the discovery of a bitter rejection will lead authorities to a scorned lover wrought
09:12with obsession.
09:13He had filed a stalking complaint against her.
09:17My own theory is that it was, well, if I can't have him, no one else will have him either.
09:23She had to have fed him some horrible lies so he would retaliate.
09:39On November 14, 2009, South Haven, Michigan authorities are investigating the brutal murder
09:46of Brandon Silverlight.
09:49From the autopsy, we learned that the victim had received several stab wounds throughout
09:54his body.
09:55He also had a laceration across the neck and had some blunt force trauma to his head area.
10:04The body had been on fire.
10:06The autopsy indicated the presence of elevated levels of carbon monoxide in the lungs.
10:12He was alive when he was set on fire.
10:14It looked like someone had drug Brandon about 100 yards underneath a tree, tortured him,
10:24stabbed him several times, and then that's when they set him on fire.
10:29It was definitely a hateful homicide, I would say.
10:34The person that was involved in this was definitely out to hurt this person and make them suffer.
10:39You begin from the inside and work your way to the outside because usually the closest
10:44people are either involved in a crime like this or they have information on who might
10:49have done it.
10:56Following the autopsy, investigators must break the tragic news to Brandon's wife, Jennifer.
11:04When we informed her that Brandon was deceased, she was very distraught.
11:10She was in shock and she was very upset.
11:15Investigators asked Jennifer about the state of her marriage to Brandon and whether it
11:20led to any issues.
11:22They had some rocky patches, but they had weathered them, as young couples do.
11:29She said she had recently become pregnant and that they were looking to start a family.
11:36Their marriage had grown closer as she had found out she was pregnant, so things were
11:43settling down, maybe not as open a relationship as they had agreed to initially.
11:52Brandon's wife seemed very concerned and truthful.
12:00Because he had not come home, she had done some of her own, for a better term, investigating.
12:07The phone that Brandon had was a family account.
12:12She could access this and she was able to access the numbers that had been called from
12:17early in the afternoon of the 13th all the way up until Brandon didn't appear to respond
12:25to the phone anymore.
12:29There was approximately 16 entries.
12:33We have no narrative, we just have the date and the time, who initiated, who received.
12:38Jennifer stated that one of the phone numbers that was repeatedly contacted, she believed
12:44to be an Allison Martins phone number.
12:48Allison had been in Brandon's life, his girlfriend, before he married Jennifer.
12:56Detectives wrap up their interview with Jennifer and reach out to 22-year-old Allison Martin,
13:01who lives an hour away in Kalamazoo.
13:09Detective O'Reilly and I had made contact and we conducted a voluntary interview.
13:16We did ask her some very general questions, did not get into any accusatory type of questions
13:23at that point, we were just gaining background information at that point.
13:29So Allison grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
13:32Her parents were, I would say, wealthy.
13:36She lived a privileged life.
13:41It appears that she had opportunities, that she had graduated high school from a good
13:47school here in the area.
13:51Allison had a job at one point at an animal kennel, but she just had odd jobs, no career
13:59set or anything like that.
14:02Investigators shift their line of questioning to her past with Brandon.
14:07She provided details of her dating and her relationship with Brandon.
14:15Investigators learn that Allison met Brandon when she was 16 years old.
14:20They had met while Brandon was working part-time at a guitar shop, and Allison would show up
14:28at his work.
14:29They dated for some time, but it didn't work out for various reasons.
14:34She claimed that she was over him and she had moved on.
14:38We kind of go through the dating history.
14:41She gave us a former boyfriend, two former boyfriends, and then she said she was currently
14:48engaged to Justin Terpstra.
14:51When was the last time that you actually physically saw Brandon?
14:56It's almost been a year now.
14:58Okay.
14:59All right.
15:00Have you talked to him or had any communication via phone, internet, email, text, or anything?
15:08Not yet.
15:10We knew she had had recent contact with Brandon, so that is an indicator that she's not being truthful.
15:18Following Allison's statement, investigators subpoena the data from both her and Brandon's cell phones
15:25and discover Allison and Brandon had been communicating frequently for the past week.
15:31So what the search warrants showed was in the evening hours of the 13th, there was repeated texting contact
15:40between Brandon Silverlight's phone and Allison Martin's phone.
15:45Allison saying, come on, let's meet.
15:48I have this other woman.
15:50Let's get together.
15:51Have some fun.
15:52Let's have sex.
15:53Let's have a three-way.
15:54Brandon said, okay.
15:56There was discussions about a rendezvous at a Cousins.
15:59That's a restaurant in South Haven.
16:01Another text, okay, we'll meet at Cousins and then follow you to the trailer.
16:07Investigators discover that on November 13th, Allison and Brandon sent messages confirming their plans.
16:16That was the narrative of the text back and forth.
16:21Can't wait to see you tonight type conversations.
16:24Allison Martin in her first interview with police said she hadn't seen Brandon in over a year.
16:29In an investigation such as this, when we find clear evidence that someone is lying, that's a strong indication they're trying to cover something else up.
16:50In the days following the brutal murder of 24-year-old Brandon Silverlight,
16:56investigators in South Haven, Michigan have discovered that he made plans to meet his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Allison Martin, on the night he disappeared.
17:07At this point, we decide that we're going to go confront Allison.
17:17Hey Allison, how are you?
17:19Can we talk to you for a couple minutes?
17:21We want to go back over a couple other things with you.
17:24And I got a little confused when we talked the other night.
17:29And I had asked you when the last time you'd actually seen him.
17:34And then the last time you had any kind of contact with him whatsoever.
17:39He's got his number. I really can't tell you.
17:45At which point, Detective O'Reilly confronted her with the fact that we had the sight towers, that her phone was in South Haven, she was in South Haven, and that we had the narrative in text.
17:55She flew into a rage.
17:58You can't do that. That's an invasion of privacy.
18:01We have search warrants. We have court orders.
18:03I want a lawyer. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I want a lawyer.
18:07You know what, Allison, quite honestly, you need a lawyer. And you better get a very good one.
18:12Thank you for your time.
18:14With Allison no longer willing to talk, investigators turn to the person closest to her.
18:21The next step that we do is research on her fiancé, Justin Terpstra.
18:29We want to gather some intel about Justin Terpstra before we choose to interview him.
18:38Investigators learn 24-year-old Justin was born in Michigan and raised by his father.
18:45My older brother Justin was the third of four children. There are three boys and one girl.
18:54We weren't necessarily a poor family, but we weren't wealthy either.
19:00We were kind of wild young'uns, kind of left to our own devices.
19:09Justin, I mean, he was a happy kid. He was very mischievous.
19:16He was a jokester. He was a clown. He wanted attention, but if he couldn't get it in a positive way, he would resort to negative ways.
19:24He was a bad boy. He was drinking, smoking.
19:28He had been in and out of different juvenile detention centers.
19:32He would get in trouble for stealing, and then while he is serving detention or whatever for that, he would go and steal something else.
19:43Me and Justin grew up together, and he would just somehow manage to get himself in that little bit of trouble enough to get himself thrown back into juvie.
19:52And then when he got out and we turned 18, we stayed in contact, but that's when he was having his issues with going back to prison.
20:01Justin was convicted of home invasion.
20:05After being released on parole in June of 2009, 24-year-old Justin got a job at a local restaurant and began taking classes at a local community college.
20:18He seemed like he was ready to start being a man and doing what it took to move forward in life.
20:23I think he just wanted to be a functional, normal civilian that contributes to society.
20:31He was doing everything he needed to do to pursue a better life, and I was happy for him for that.
20:38And then he met Allison.
20:42Their meet-cue was at the Crow's Nest, which was a coffee shop across the street from the house he was living at.
20:50He had a mutual friend that introduced them. He literally only knew her for like a week before he moved in with her.
20:57Allison seemed like a good fit for him because she wanted him to succeed and would be stern with him with the,
21:04I don't want you to drink in, you need to go to work. And I think he liked that because he has always needed that.
21:11After collecting background information, investigators tracked Justin down.
21:18We knew that Terpster was on parole. We would contact the parole office and inform them of what we're working on.
21:27It turns out that Terpster had reported his parole officer, but failed to comply with part of his parole.
21:35And they subsequently picked him up on a parole violation and lodged him in the Kalamazoo County Jail.
21:42Investigators travel to the jail to interview Justin, where he has been housed for the past few hours.
21:50Well, I'd shake your hand, but since your hand comes in, I'm Detective O'Reilly, Detective Mathis with the Allegheny County Sheriff's Department.
21:59I'm going to be straight up forward with you, okay?
22:04There was a homicide over the weekend, okay, just north of South Haven, and we've already talked to Allison.
22:13The person that's deceased is her ex-boyfriend.
22:17Do you know Brandon Silverlight?
22:23No, the only Brandon I know is my brother.
22:29He said he didn't know Brandon, had never met him, and really knew very, very little about him.
22:36And establish a relationship as you're engaged?
22:38Yeah, we're actually planning on getting our marriage license pretty soon.
22:43You're not involved?
22:45No.
22:46You got a good girl that you think loves you, and then you find out that maybe she does love you, but she may have feelings for somebody else.
22:56It's logical to think that.
22:58Another logical thing could be that she takes off, you're not really sure where she's going, so you follow her and catch her in the act.
23:08Maybe he went to kick his ass or something, and things got out of hand, correct?
23:12In my mind, it just seems so out-the-wall ridiculous.
23:16According to Justin, he was at Allison's home in Kalamazoo on the night of the murder.
23:22We have not done your cell phone yet. We're going to do your cell phone.
23:27If you're lying to us, you're in jail for the rest of your life. That simple.
23:31Okay.
23:33As the interview continues, investigators notice Justin has some injuries on his arm.
23:41Okay, what'd you get over here?
23:42Burns.
23:43Those are burns?
23:44Yeah.
23:45Did you report that at all?
23:46No. I mean, it was a brief burn from the fryer's.
23:51You go back to your cell, go back to your bunk, and you rest a while.
23:56The fact that he was burned was clearly suspicious, and more than likely indicated that he had in fact been involved with the murder of Brandon Silverlight.
24:11Coming up, stories begin to shift as a betrayal comes to light.
24:17Basically, she said something along the lines that it doesn't hurt when someone else has control over you.
24:26I really think he felt like he was keeping her safe.
24:41In their preliminary interviews with police, Allison Martin and her fiancé, Justin Terpstra, both denied any knowledge of the murder of Brandon Silverlight.
24:56But investigators know Allison is lying, and they strongly suspect Justin is too.
25:03Those are burns?
25:04Those are burns I got from working.
25:06Fire alarm?
25:07Two.
25:09Justin had claimed that he wasn't in South Haven the night of the murder, so investigators file a subpoena for his phone location records.
25:17In the meantime, they re-examine the messages between Allison and Brandon.
25:23We knew in the evening hours of the 13th there was repeated texting contact between Brandon Silverlight's phone and Allison Martin's phone.
25:34There was discussions about a rendezvous at a restaurant in South Haven.
25:39And then I will follow you to the trailer.
25:43It was discovered that Allison's parents owned a summer trailer.
25:49It's a gated area.
25:51The trailer that Martin's owned was less than a half a mile from the burnt car and the body recovery.
25:59My raw reaction was, holy crap, we got to go there right now.
26:04With a search warrant at the trailer, we did enter the trailer and there was no indication that there was any type of scuffle in the trailer.
26:14But the steps to the mobile home were askew, rocks had been displaced.
26:19Something happened there.
26:20There was also a piece of duct tape.
26:23The duct tape was significant because that's how Brandon was bound at the scene.
26:28That's where we thought the initial attack or assault on Brandon occurred.
26:35Detectives return to the station and get the proof they need when they receive the location of Brandon Silverlight's mobile home.
26:43Both Justin Terpstra and Allison Martin's phones were in South Haven on the early a.m. hours of the 14th.
26:51Armed with evidence that Justin had lied to investigators, they bring him in for a second interview.
26:58Justin was confronted with the following questions.
27:01He was asked if he had a gun.
27:03He was asked if he had a gun.
27:05He was asked if he had a gun.
27:07He was asked if he had a gun.
27:08They bring him in for a second interview.
27:11Justin was confronted with the evidence that put him near the scene.
27:16They talked to him again and again and eventually he did confess that in fact he is the one that killed Brandon Silverlight.
27:25I stabbed him several times.
27:31He said, I did it. Allison had nothing to do with it.
27:35Following Justin's confession, authorities charge him with murder.
27:41It was a shock to me. I mean, I can see Justin stealing. I can see him pulling crimes.
27:50But to actually haul off and murder someone was not something I ever thought him capable of.
27:58My jaw hit the floor. There was no way.
28:00I had known Justin my whole life. He was not a violent person like that.
28:07As investigators continue building their case against Justin, they reach out to his family,
28:14who explain that Justin had previously mentioned his dislike for Brandon Silverlight.
28:20Justin was talking about Brandon, Allison's ex-boyfriend, and how he keeps contacting her.
28:28He keeps contacting her and harassing her.
28:32Justin felt that Brandon was a threat to Allison from what she said and how she said it.
28:39That's how Justin spoke to me about him.
28:42Like, my girlfriend is afraid of her ex-boyfriend.
28:47And if he doesn't stop, I'm going to have to get involved.
28:50Following their conversations with Justin's loved ones,
28:54authorities attempt to corroborate Justin's claims that Brandon harassed Allison.
29:00There was nothing ever reported by Martin regarding Silverlight stalking her or harassing her or abusing her.
29:08In fact, Brandon had filed a stalking complaint against Allison in, I believe, 2007
29:16with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
29:18Brandon had indicated that she was engaging in unwanted phone calls to him
29:25and, I believe, came to his residence uninvited.
29:30And so the police actually investigated and did interview Allison Martin
29:36and she admitted to the police that she was, in fact, obsessed with Brandon Silverlight.
29:41Brandon was her first love and that she had boyfriends after that,
29:47but their relationship would rekindle from time to time.
29:51So Brandon meant a lot to her.
29:54We knew Allison was lying and not being fully truthful with Justin.
30:01At that point, the law enforcement team believed the motive for this crime was based on Allison Martin,
30:07on her not being able to have Brandon the way she wanted, and if she couldn't, no one would.
30:21In Allegan County, Michigan, authorities have charged Justin Terpstra with the murder of Brandon Silverlight,
30:29but they believe his fiancée, Allison Martin, played a larger role in the murder.
30:34His fiancée, Allison Martin, played a larger role than he admitted.
30:40Allison Martin still was maintaining she was not the responsible party for this,
30:46so they needed more evidence.
30:50Then, 20 days into the case, a local resident named Sean West
30:56contacts investigators with damning information about Allison.
31:00Sean West was a friend of Terpstra's and Martin's.
31:05Sean West said that during Thanksgiving dinner, he asked Allison what happened
31:11because he was hearing things and he knew that Allison and Brandon had been an item.
31:18Sean West said that Allison confessed to him.
31:22And she told him, I stabbed him first.
31:24She wanted him to experience pain, and she had made a reference to that it felt like stabbing chicken.
31:31Justin had been arrested, and Allison Martin had told Sean West to relay a message
31:37to Justin Terpstra to take the fall, if he talked to him again.
31:42So that was very key information.
31:45Investigators immediately issue a warrant for Allison Martin's arrest.
31:49Investigators immediately issue a warrant for Allison Martin's arrest.
31:54On December 7th, she turns herself in.
31:59Her attorney contacted the prosecutor's office, but she didn't make any statements to us.
32:06Without Allison's cooperation, investigators interview Justin for a third time,
32:12hopeful that he'll flip on his fiancée.
32:15So she has been charged?
32:17She's been charged.
32:19What has she been charged with?
32:21She's been charged with open murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
32:24We need to know Allison's participation.
32:27We know, there's no doubt with the text and the other things that have gone on
32:31that she helped you plan this.
32:33Bottom line is, it's all premeditated.
32:35She participated in luring him there.
32:38Allison Martin had invited or promised Brandon Silverlight
32:44a sexual three-way with herself and another unnamed girl.
32:49So let's talk about the text.
32:52Those came from Allison, right?
32:55Yes.
32:57Thank you. And in regards to the plan and the setup, she was doing all the texting?
33:03She was doing the texting.
33:05My influence.
33:08Justin said that he forced Allison to help him commit that crime.
33:13He basically was going to take the fall for Allison.
33:16They were lying to us.
33:18You didn't threaten her. You did not intimidate her.
33:21She acted of her own free will, didn't she?
33:23Because she was mad. She was upset.
33:27Justin continues to claim that Allison feared Brandon's harassment
33:31and makes another shocking allegation.
33:35Justin said that Allison had claimed that Brandon had sexually assaulted her.
34:01Allison and Brandon did have communication with each other,
34:05even after he filed the stalking report.
34:21In his mind, Brandon was very bad towards Allison and their relationship
34:26and that he believed Brandon was trying to get back in a relationship with Allison.
34:33I believe that she was using this story to get what she wanted.
34:39Allison was looking for someone to kill Brandon because she could not have him anymore.
34:57So she could have made this whole thing up to get you all stirred up, mad, angry,
35:03enough to help her carry out something.
35:09Could it be that she thinks that Brandon's happy and Brandon now is having a child
35:17and that she was just jealous of that entire situation?
35:19There's more to it than that. Is there? Okay.
35:23Under intense pressure, Justin slowly begins to crack.
35:29I'm upset because this guy who I don't think too highly of is contacting an older girl.
35:36I came up with this stupid idea.
35:41Eventually, he did tell the police that she was involved as well.
35:46I think that once he realized that she had lied, he blamed her.
36:04In his pre-arraignment interview on December 8th, 2009,
36:09Justin Terpstra has implicated his fiancée, Allison Martin,
36:14in the plot to murder her ex-boyfriend, Brandon Silverlight.
36:19Justin said that they tried to lure him to the Kalamazoo area prior to the South Haven area,
36:25and it never worked out.
36:28And then it developed into this potential for a hookup involving a threesome.
36:35And this was the bait to get him there.
36:39I don't know his mindset, but it appeared to spark his interest.
36:44What time did this happen?
36:46He was to meet her around 11 o'clock.
36:49Allison had dropped off Justin to the trailer prior to her meeting Brandon at the restaurant.
36:57At that point, Brandon had followed Allison to the trailer.
37:01Justin explains that when Allison and Brandon arrived at her parents' trailer for the threesome, he was waiting.
37:09Justin Terpstra hit him in the head.
37:14I believe knocking him out.
37:17They then duct taped him around his legs and ankles,
37:23and then were able to drag him to his vehicle and bring him to the crime scene.
37:31They got him out, duct taped him to a tree.
37:36I can't recall whether she stabbed him first or I stabbed him first.
37:43But you know she stabbed him twice.
37:46She stabbed him twice.
37:48Basically, she said something along the lines that it doesn't hurt when someone else has control over you.
37:57They both wanted Brandon to die, but they wanted to torture him before they ultimately killed him.
38:07I stabbed him a lot, I don't...
38:16I don't know, tell me 20, 30 times, I don't know.
38:19I don't know, tell me 20, 30 times, I don't know.
38:25They ultimately set him on fire and killed him.
38:33They tried to cover up the crime by burning his car.
38:37This was premeditated, cold-hearted, just evil.
38:43The motive was Allison's revenge.
38:45She was obsessed with Brandon Silverlight.
38:49She was upset that he had found another person.
38:53My own theory is that it was, well, if I can't have him, no one else will have him either.
38:59It was probably one of the most heinous, just most disregard for human life that I've ever seen in my 30 years.
39:09It's just, it's almost too cruel to think about.
39:14I absolutely feel bad for his family having to go through this.
39:19Nobody deserves this.
39:24Allison Martin and Justin Terpstra are tried separately in the fall of 2010.
39:30At Allison's trial, prosecutors present evidence that Brandon's ex remained fixated on him after their breakup.
39:39She had no prior criminal history, but she did have a history of numerous boyfriends and unusual behavior, obsessive type behavior.
39:54She tried to manipulate prior boyfriends into beating up Brandon.
39:59But that didn't work because they didn't believe the lies that she told.
40:04Unfortunately, Justin Terpstra did.
40:09I believe that she had to have fed him some horrible lies to make him believe that Brandon would have done horrible things to her so he would retaliate.
40:22I really think he believed that Brandon was a very bad person.
40:26He felt like he was keeping her safe.
40:30It was clear that Allison Martin, I don't know how else to say it, is simply a master manipulator.
40:38During their trials, they both pointed the finger at each other.
40:42You know, Justin's attorney argued that it was all Allison. Allison and her attorney argued that it was all Justin.
40:49The evidence was very clear that Justin and Allison lured Brandon to that remote location with the specific intent to murder him.
41:01Both were convicted of murder one, which in the state of Michigan is automatic life in prison with no chance of parole.
41:10I don't know that Brandon's family ever had a sense of closure.
41:15Not when the perpetrators were arrested, not when they were convicted, not when they were sentenced.
41:21Because I think for Brandon's family, for them, this is a life sentence.
41:26It broke my heart to have a brother who could do something like that.
41:31It does make me sad, but at the same time, I'm just so sad.
41:36It does make me sad, but at the same time, you made your bed, so he needs to lie in it.
41:47I think Allison manipulated Justin, and Justin, coming from a broken home, found this golden ticket with Allison and her family,
41:58and he had to do whatever she wanted him to do to obtain that.
42:03You took these two people together, and it just turned into pure evil.
42:09Brandon didn't deserve anything like this. He should still be here with his family, watching his child grow up.
42:17It's tragic for his family, for his wife, and for everybody that knew him.
42:33For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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