Transcription
[Music] That's the worst one I've seen. I couldn't, couldn't believe she was still conscious and alert with the amount of burn she had. What did she do that was so awful that she would die a torture's death like this? That's what we want to know. I have nothing to do with nothing. Nothing is my friend. I would never mind.
On March 24th, 2010, a man named Taryn sat outside his home in Pensacola, Florida, enjoying the fresh night air. By all accounts, it was a perfect spring night. That is, until a faint voice rang out from the forest surrounding his home. At first, Terence couldn't make out what the voice was saying. And then it came again, a panicked and pained moan. It was a woman calling out for help. Terence couldn't have had the slightest idea of the gruesome crime that had just been committed against this woman, a crime so brutal that you may have trouble believing it.
"A reference to the assault. We're on seeing the fire, saying that the patient, uh, she's got technically burns over 100% of her body. But as she's saying that, there was no vehicle involved. That people dragged her out of her house and set her on fire."
At first, through the forest shrouded in shadows, Terence couldn't make out the woman calling for hell. Moments later, when he finally could, he was horrified. A 19-year-old woman, Adriana Zimmerman, slowly stumbled toward him out of the darkness. Burns coated every inch of her skin, so severe that he couldn't make out the color of her skin or whether she was wearing any clothes at all. Terence called 9-1-1 while Adriana sought refuge on his porch.
"Number one, what's going on out there?"
"Later on fire, right now. What she bought all up? You gotta see."
As they waited for EMS to arrive, Terence noted that Adriana smelled heavily of gasoline and there was a severe injury on her head in addition to the burns. Whatever she had endured had left her barely clinging to life. By 9:24 PM, an EMT arrived at the scene to find Adriana sitting on the porch with her arms outstretched, rocking back and forth to soothe her pain. The extent of her burns meant that the EMT on the scene couldn't offer her much medical assistance. Even for a seasoned EMT, the site was deeply disturbing.
"She was kind of moaning. She was just in a sitting position and the way she was looking was it hurt to move anywhere. So she was kind of in whatever position she was most comfortable. It was in a sitting with her arms stuck straight out. She was, she was moaning and it was hard to understand her due to her jaw. Her jaw was very deformed and stuck out. So she kept, you know, mumbling, 'Help me, help me.' And I told her, you know, 'I'll try to help you. You just got to stay there and try not to move for me.' Really, with a burn victim like that, there's nothing much we can do until EMS gets there. And you're training experience, when you saw her, what was your first time?"
"That's the worst one I've seen. I couldn't, couldn't believe she was still conscious and alert with the amount of burn she had."
"Did you feel her condition was grave?"
"Yes, sir. Just from your experience and seeing what you've seen?"
"Yes, sir. Just from seeing that plus the head trauma. Uh, the amount of head trauma she had to her face. I, I would not have expected her to make it through the night. She kept telling me she was, 'I'm about to pass out. I'm about to pass out.' So I told her, 'Try to stay awake for me.'"
And I wanted to get the info of the suspects before she passed out. Fearing that she would never wake up if she passed out, the EMT dug for all the information that he could about what happened to her. She managed to tell him that she'd been taken from her house, tased, beaten with a crowbar, and then set on fire. En route to the hospital, the paramedic supervisor tended to Adriana's wounds as much as they were able to. In their interview with the police, they disclosed heart-wrenching details of the ride to the hospital.
"I told her, 'Keep fighting.' And, uh, she kept saying over and over again, 'Am I going to make it? Am I going to make it?' And I told her I was going to try. And she said, 'When I just tell me, I'm going to wake up and see my babies.' I got to talking to her and I told her that I was probably gonna be the last person she talked to for a while. And that we, in order to catch the people that did this too, I needed her to tell me if she knew who it was. And I asked her why, why they did it to her. And she said, 'I thought we'd made up.'"
Without being able to give more details about the horror she had endured, Adriana was given morphine for her pain and fell into a coma. Investigators were desperate to find the perpetrators behind such a heinous crime. It wasn't long before they inferred that waiting to all the convolution and getting to the heart of the horrific incident was going to be anything but clear-cut.
This is Cypress Trail Mobile Home Park, where 19-year-old Adriana had only lived for a few months before the horrific incident took place. Adriana moved to Florida with her children from her hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Her family, who lovingly nicknamed her Augie, missed her from the moment she left for the Sunshine State. She was a loving, dedicated mother to her two children, and her final words before she fell into a coma confirmed this. En route to the hospital, barely clinging to life, she repeatedly asked the medical professionals to take care of her children and check on them, since they were home alone.
Mere hours after Adriana was taken to the hospital, law enforcement arrived at the trailer park. They knocked on Tina Brown's door at Lot number three of the trailer park, where she lived with her 16-year-old daughter, Brittany Miller. Then, they knocked repeatedly at Lot number one, where Heather Lee resided with her husband, Darren Lee. For nearly an hour, no one responded until finally, after incessant knocking, Heather answered. She, Karen, and Tina had been holed up inside her home the entire time. By then, the police had plenty of questions for them.
Throughout the interrogations you're about to see, law enforcement is forced to wade through a sea of contradictions and lies created by suspects who were seemingly racing each other to dry land. That race to escape began the moment Heather Lee was put in a cop car to be brought back to the station for questioning.
The following footage has been analyzed by a qualified team, including a licensed professional counselor and a licensed attorney.
"It's cold in here."
"All right, come on."
"Sushi's cold back here. Can you tell me what's going on?"
"Huh?"
"Can you tell me what's going on?"
"Just hang tight, okay, dear? Okay."
After setting Heather in the car, the police leave her alone for another 20 minutes. She fidgets anxiously in the back seat.
"What's your full name?"
"H-E-A-T-H-E-R."
"You work anywhere?"
"Military tonight."
Several witnesses and neighbors interviewed alleged that many people in the trailer park sold illegal substances or allegedly worked as escorts, including Tina, Heather, Adriana, and their partners. In the four months leading up to the battery of Adriana, cops had visited the trailer park 25 times. But this time would prove to be the most ghastly, heartbreaking visit of all.
"What is going on?"
"Okay, well, first of all, we're investigating a, a battery here with your neighbor there behind you, Adriana. I guess the lady lives behind you."
"Listen to me now. Can I ask you some questions?"
"Okay."
"I can see Adriana earlier today. My name is Investigator Watch. I'm with the Sheriff's Office, and we were called out here on an aggravated, some type of disturbance tonight, okay? Where your neighbor was critically injured and you have been implicated, maybe having some knowledge or information or, or even being involved, okay?"
"I have to ask you some questions."
"Boy, ask any questions. I'm gonna have to write and find you here, right? Okay."
The detective reads Heather her Miranda rights. She accepts them rather calmly, but her calmness and patience will start to wane as the police begin to really question her.
"First of all, tell me, did you, do you know the situation we're talking about here?"
"Okay, that's why I keep asking what's going on."
"Okay. Where have you been all afternoon? What have you been doing?"
"We're here at the house. I was cooking. I see Adriana earlier today. Adriana, my neighbor, she was down this way by my aunt's house talking with us earlier. And then I had one back in the house. I cooked and I laid down after that."
"Okay. Is anybody in the house with you?"
"Nobody but my husband."
"Yeah, y'all. There's just two. Y'all live there?"
"Yeah, my kids."
"Okay. This girl was taken from her house and beaten up."
"Okay. Okay. I seen her earlier today. She told me that she had a date. That's all she would come. And I asked her who it was. She was riding the bike up and down Detroit. And I asked her when she went that way, I said, 'Where do you keep going when you go that way?' She kept saying, 'Follow,' but she will never tell me where I'm bound. And then she said, 'Girl, I got a hot date tonight.'"
It's interesting that Heather immediately provides information to deflect the interest away from herself and toward the supposed hot date.
"Do you know the lady lives in Lot 3 back there?"
"You can't."
"Yes, I know Tina. All of us know each other out here. I met her when she first moved after."
"How long has she been here?"
"Um, I'm not quite sure. It's been a couple months."
"So Champion living. I had no longer done a year."
"Okay. Where did you go tonight before we got here tonight?"
"What's tonight?"
"Tonight, yeah."
"I didn't go anywhere."
"So you've been, you've been in your house?"
"I've been here and down by Tina's house and by my aunt's house and back here. I was here cooking. My other aunt, my mom and sister came around here. Her and the kids and I was in there cooking fish and fries. And it's still on the stove."
Heather telling the officer that the fish is still on the stove is an attempt to prove that she's being truthful. In reality, her desperation to provide evidence of her activities only makes her look more suspicious. People who were innocent often don't feel such a stark need to back their story up. In just a moment, you'll see her try to validate her whereabouts even more by listing people who can provide her with an alibi. Take note of just how many times she does this.
"I won't sit here and believe what you're saying, but we're getting information. You know what's going on here. You, you was, you and Tina thing about what's going on here?"
"Like I said, I was here at the house. My mom called me on my cell phone. I talked to my mom. My aunt came here. Heard the kid. My two cousins was in the car with him. My aunt down in the fourth trailer, she seen me today. My Uncle Charles."
"You're sitting here and telling me that you and Tina, y'all didn't have a problem with this girl back there?"
"I didn't have no problem with, uh, Adriana. Didn't jump on her. No, I didn't do nothing to Adrian. I would not harm a hair on her head."
Heather's protesting that she couldn't have been involved because she would never hurt any part of Adriana is known as a convincing statement. This type of statement is often a sign of deception, as a truthful person's first instinct would likely be to outright deny an allegation rather than try to convince the person posing the question of something.
"I had to protect her once before. Her and some girls was getting into it and I stopped them from jumping on them. Other than that, I haven't had any problems with her. Her kids, I always have her kids with me. I mean, hydrant is just like that. Ever since she moved out here, we became friends here."
Heather's palm seems to be facing up as she's speaking. The palm-up position is not very affirmative and it suggests that the speaker is asking or pleading to be believed. This may indicate that she's feeling uncertain about the statement she just made.
"And the kids, I love the kids and they went with me to get my hair done and everything. I've seen her this morning and then I seen her about two and about three."
"Where'd you see her at?"
"I seen her down this way by my aunt's house. She's right here down there."
"Yeah, she was right down there. That's when you, when you were down there when you saw her?"
"Yeah."
"So you're saying you saw her three different times today?"
"Yes. I seen her and she was down there though. She was down there. She was talking to me."
"Is that all you, oh, you know about this?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay. And I put that on everything. You swear that this statement you gave me the truth, the best of your knowledge?"
"Yes."
"Audrina is my friend."
"No, sir."
"All right."
The police conclude their interview, but what Heather requests next is very telling and makes her look even more suspicious.
"Where you found it? Would you tell me if you knew what happened?"
"Yes, sir. I would. That's my friend."
"Okay. All right. We'll be back. We in just a second, okay?"
Once more, Heather is left in the car. She shifts uncomfortably and sniffles, wiping her tears until it seems she cannot take the anxiety brewing inside of her any longer. While to some, her next actions may seem to be those of a desperate friend, to others, they likely appear to be those of a suspect trying to feign concern.
"Baby, huh? I wanted to know what's going on."
"Didn't the investigator tell you already?"
"Yeah, they told me that, but, okay. Well, I can't tell you any more than what they told you, sweetheart."
"All right. They didn't tell me I was under arrest or no."
"You're not under arrest."
"All right."
Meet Darren Lee, Heather's husband. He's no stranger to run-ins with law enforcement, having been convicted of two prior felonies in 2001, including battery and sale of a controlled substance. As soon as he's put in the car, it seems that the couple begins retracing their steps in a discreet way to ensure her and Darren's stories are aligned once they're separated for questioning. This early in the investigation, we can only speculate as to the reason behind Heather and Darren having been placed in the vehicle together. It's possible that law enforcement just needs to secure them for the time being. However, it's also a possibility that officers are intent on capturing what the two might inadvertently disclose as the camera is running.
"Home."
"Facebook."
Heather's reaction to Darren mentioning the police taking gas cans off their porch is rather frantic and over the top, especially considering the fact that at this time, officers had not even disclosed that Adriana was burned.
"They told me I, I just think ing of today and now they saying she in intensive care. I seen him before he got dark."
"All right, I'll give you about a minute more. Say your things. A week. We fixing to go. Um, I need to talk to you real quick."
"All right. I'll give you about a minute more. Say goodbye."
"I am arrest."
"You are not free to go at this time. So you can consider whatever you want. You're not free to go right now, okay? Okay. All right. Okay. I think I can hold you 48 hours. You are, hey, I think you would change this time. How about that?"
"Sure."
The two are being detained as the officer has reasonable suspicion that there is criminal activity afoot or evidence of criminal activity to be found through the temporary detention and questioning of the individuals. A detention is different than an arrest, which requires that the officer has probable cause to believe a crime has in fact been committed, was in the process of commission, or was about to be committed. The standard for probable cause is higher than that of reasonable suspicion. Reasonable suspicion must be based on specific and articulable facts combined with rational inferences from those facts, and the suspicion must be associated with the specific individual or individuals being detained.
"Told that, oh God damn thing. You get my phone and call again."
"A gene."
Heather is referring to an attorney, who she will be asking for rather frantically soon after this. Heather, Tina, and Darren were brought to the station for further questioning. However, there was still one person missing whom cops desperately wanted to speak with: 16-year-old Brittany Miller, Tina's daughter. Tina told police that earlier, Britney had left for the hospital with her friends Jessica and Mallory in Tina's maroon SUV. Brittany had hurt her hand, though Tina told investigators that she didn't know how. Investigators searched the area for Brittany and the SUV, but their initial searches proved fruitless. Brittany's name, car make and model, and her physical description were broadcast to all patrol units in a desperate attempt to find her. Without Britney in custody, back at the station, the thorough questioning of Tina, Heather, and Darren began. On top of their stories contrasting with one another, even their demeanors in the interrogation rooms were wildly different.
"You have Heather, who is clearly distressed."
"Officer."
"Yes, ma'am. Look."
"Oh, smell good."
"I wouldn't be feeling good either right now."
"Kevin, anxiety attack. I have anxiety attacks."
"Why were he called? They're supposed to be coming back to you, okay? That's all I can do at this moment, okay? Down on the desk. Just breathe, right? Okay. Okay."
Heather's anxiety is tangible in the 30 minutes she's left alone in the interrogation room, and as you'll see shortly, when her interrogation continues, she has every reason to be anxious. Her husband, on the other hand, didn't seem entirely concerned when he was interrogated, even casually chatting with someone on the phone beforehand.
"Mom, I'm all right. Enough in use."
"Oh, yeah. You ready, man?"
"Yeah, I'm for real. I'm calling right back there."
"Oh, is it?"
"Out. You done?"
"Yeah."
"All right."
And then there's Tina, sitting emotionless in the interrogation room while she waits for police to enter and question her.
"Did you grab a phone?"
"No."
"How you doing?"
"I'm Investigator Lee Tyree, and this is Investigator Tom Watts."
After this, the police remind everyone of their rights. Now that they are officially in the interrogation rooms, an important thing to note is that Tina was the first to be interrogated, followed by Heather. Take a look at how their stories compare. Even their initial retellings of why they didn't answer the door don't align.
"I've been talking to you for a few minutes. I was kind of trying to find out why you won't answer the door when we came to your house this evening. You explained it, you saw the cops and that you were nervous about that. Is that true?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. I'm just watching movies."
"Okay. So you, Darren, and Tina were sitting, living with the other, sitting there in the, in the living room watching movies. And when the cops knocked on the door, which I'll do, you were sitting there, okay?"
"Why you answer the door?"
"It ain't my door."
"Did they do anything special when the cops knocked on the door?"
"Turn out the lights. Already off because we were being nosy, looking out the window, seeing what's going on next door."
"Okay. So you saw the cops next door first with the lights on before the cops came over next door?"
"Yeah. And then y'all turned them off when they came over next door?"
"You see better with the lights off. Everybody looking back at you."
"Tina having and Tina haven't been at my house all night."
"So you sitting there in the, in the living room watching movies. Tina hasn't been at your house?"
"She hasn't been at my house. Where was she at?"
"She said the police was out there, okay? And I just laid them on the couch and she laid there because I was asleep."
"Did she ever come in the house after she told you the police was there?"
"She came in the house and she said that in your house?"
"Yeah, she sat on my couch. And I asked her what was going on and she told me she didn't know."
"I'm confused here because Darren told me that y'all, you and Tina were there and cooking all night."
"Tina was there when I was cooking earlier, okay? But she wasn't out there all night."
"Where'd she go?"
"She had left. She told me she was going home."
"Okay. About what time was that?"
"It was, what time? I was cooking. It was getting dark when I was cooking. And I stopped cooking about six or seven."
"So Tina left around six or seven?"
"Yeah, she left."
"Okay. And when did she come back over to your house?"
"She came back probably like 30 minutes to an hour later."
"So she was gone for 30 minutes to an hour?"
"Yeah. And she comes back and the cops show up right at the same time. And she came in. She said the cops."
"I sat. Did you see the cops outside that time?"
"I looked. I got up and I looked and I seen the lights. You can see the spotlights. I see the spotlight."
"And where are they at?"
"They was outside."
"Are they outside?"
"It was outside the Tina house. It was outside of Adriana's house at all or no?"
"When I had came out, they was outside Adriana's house. Oh, yeah. They beat on that door and I don't like want anything because I was laying right there on the couch and I didn't hear no locks."
"Even your husband said they've been on the door and you weren't gonna answer the door and then Tina said that I got on the door and y'all didn't."
"I got up."
It seems Heather is facing what is known as the prisoner's dilemma. This occurs when two or more individuals who were involved in a crime are isolated from one another and urged to confess to the crime. Each is concerned only with receiving the shortest possible prison sentence, and each must decide whether to confess without knowing what decision the other or others will make.
"In Tennessee, hold on. Don't answer the door. And I asked her why, okay? We're getting a big diversity in this story. And open it. I'm gonna tell you like it did. Adriana is my friend. I would never hurt her. Tina came to my house and she told me not to answer my door. I asked her why. She said, 'Fuck the cops is out there.'"
Heather's emphasis points are extremely off here. When she states, "she's my friend," then hits the table, followed by "I would never hurt her," and strikes the table again, you can actually see and hear how her nonverbal emphasis does not naturally line up with her words as it should. This is widely recognized as an indicator of deception.
"We should say, 'Where are the cops at?' I said, 'They down about your house.' Why you keep asking me with the cops are?"
"And she would never say."
"She was a nurse. She started back puffing on the cigarette."
"Did she look like she'd been running or did she looked like she'd been in the fire?"
"She was acting normal."
Notice that Heather's palm is up here, which may be an indication, once again, that she's unsure of the story she's telling and asking to be believed.
"Let me ask you a question. You said you, she said, you know, 'I haven't seen it.' And she didn't, she didn't tell you why, why she didn't want you to answer the door?"
"She didn't say anything about what she did. Tell you not to answer the phone."
"And I told her, I said, 'I said, I don't have anything to hide. I'm gonna open my door.' And then I got up and I said, 'Who is it?' And they said, 'The Sheriff's Department.' I opened the door."
"What was Darren doing?"
"He was in the, at the bottom of the couch watching TV."
"Laughs."
"And you're absolutely sure of this?"
"Yes, sir. I'll sure because this story is a lot different than the story I am sure."
As the investigator has pointed out, how their story is wildly different from her husband's.
"Okay. She were sleeping till about seven, so you don't know anything prior to that?"
"No."
"Okay. And, um, you, wife tells me this story about, um, Tina coming in, seeing the cops are outside, and that, um, y'all look out and you see the cops surrounding, uh, Miss Zimmerman's trailer. And she says for y'all not to answer the door."
"Not recall any of that conversation going on in yours."
"Now, I do remember you saying y'all didn't answer the door because it was police."
"Tell me about that."
"I don't know what I said to pull these up, though."
"Okay. So you don't recall Tina coming in and saying the police are outside because your wife tells us that you and her are at home alone."
"Tina comes barreling in and saying, 'Hey, the cops are outside,' and y'all see the cops outside."
"In Tennessee, don't answer the door."
"No, that's enough. That's a lot."
"Okay. Because that's what Heather told us, your wife."
"I'll tell you that, love."
"Okay. Why would she lie to us?"
"Gina, I mean, she was distraught. She was crying. She was telling us this story. She seemed, she seemed like emotional."
"Well, emotional, but she also seemed sincere."
It's possible that Heather is lying in order to make Tina look bad and compromise her alibi, though clearly she and Darren aren't on the same page about that plan.
"Obviously know something's up."
"Yeah. So tell me what happened tonight."
"Nothing happened that I know of."
Notice how Tina is rubbing her neck, which is a major red flag. It's obvious that she's feeling very insecure and apprehensive. Neck massaging in general is a calming response. However, this isn't to say she's guilty, as she's clearly in a stressful situation, but it's also an important tell to take note of.
"See arms and hands. If I could, okay?"
"You can't see the top sides."
"Okay. Those old scars on there?"
"Yeah, I have a puppy."
"Okay. What's this right here?"
"That little scratch there."
"This?"
"Yeah, I have a puppy."
"And your puppy calls that look got your chin?"
"Okay."
"So where were you tonight?"
"At Halos, at Heather's house."
"Well, I was at home. Mom, my daughter's braid my hair. So I was at home. But, um, started hurting. And her little friend started coming by."
"Remember what Tina has said here about her daughter braiding her hair. It will prove to be quite important as the investigation continues."
"So, um, Heather said she was going to cook. So I went down there and she was cooking a fish and french fries. And then we just started watching movies."
"Okay. And, um, did you go anywhere from there? You were there all night until the cops came up there?"
"Tina has put her hand to her mouth here. Whether conscious or not, many individuals will attempt to hide their lie by physically covering the source of their deception."
"What time did you go over there?"
"Abby just started getting hot."
"Okay. So about, about sunset. You go over the Heather's. Was anybody over at Heather's house when you went over there?"
"Just Heather and her husband."
"Do you know what happened to Adriana tonight?"
"No, I don't. Heather just said she got beat up, but that's all I know."
"A little bit more than that. And what was Darren doing while y'all over there cooking?"
"Anything? Laying on the couch watching movies."
"Okay. All right. But you were home all night? You didn't see any kind of disturbance going on over there before the cops came over there or anything?"
"No, we would have heard something."
"You said you saw Adriana earlier today. What time was that?"
"Um, Adriana was coming and going, coming and going on a bicycle."
"Okay. You remember the last time you saw her? Was it while you were still over at, uh, Heather and Darren's?"
"I didn't come back out when I went to the house. We were cooking then."
"So it had been before sunset. So you saw her during the day, okay? And, uh, at once you went over the Heather and Darren's, y'all, you never left there? You didn't go to go get anything or go anywhere at all?"
"I think so."
Notice that Tina's been asked several times if she went anywhere that night.
"Not even 12 hours prior to this interrogation taking place, it seemed kind of lots of days are cool about this. We're gonna go out there. We know what happened out there. It's just gonna be a matter of getting fingerprints and evidence back, okay?"
"Out where it happened at her house?"
"Uh, no. It didn't. It originated, started at her house, right? And then it went, it went somewhere else."
"What started at her house?"
"The reason we're here."
"Well, we got some issues, okay? And we're gonna get to the bottom of it one way or another, okay? So, and we're sitting here talking to you. And then I, I'd certainly appreciate, and I know Tom appreciates that you're talking to us, but we gotta get to the bottom of this. And we gotta know what happened. The truth. And you know, there's two people, two choices here. Either you're gonna tell us, or Heather's gonna tell us. So who's gonna be?"
Tina is continuing to show signs of high anxiety, evidenced by her face, neck, and chin rubbing. It's unfortunate that the officer is throwing out questions at such a rapid pace that Tina isn't getting a chance to answer most of them.
"I didn't do anything to her, okay? And you were home all night?"
"Was the antler's house, okay? You were at Heather's all night? Never left there?"
"Because see, the story between Heather and Darren is already checking. And your story is a third version of what they've told us so far, okay? Now, there's pieces and parts that are the same, but they aren't exactly the same, okay? It concerns me. It sounds a little too good. And then the parts that are breaking up, I don't understand why they're not saying the same thing, okay? And so we need to get to the bottom of this. And somebody's last may end over this. Uh, we're getting, we're getting told that she's in pretty critical condition at this point, not likely to make it. So that's why we're here. Do you understand what he's saying?"
"Not likely to make it."
"Yeah. He's about to die."
"Yeah. Okay."
"That changed years when she does, it's gonna change gears, okay? All right. Do anything to her, okay? I don't want you to tell me anything other than the truth."
"I didn't do it."
"Okay. Still got a problem. You got anything? If you know anything and you're withholding, you want to be the first one on board. You see what I'm talking about? But once we take, once we get everybody, you know, get all the information, it's not gonna be second chances. And like I said, if, and she doesn't make it, you're trying to be sleeping with a lot of girls, a lot of guys around there. I realize that. What I could have did it. Do it. I promised."
Hey, while Tina maintains that she had nothing to do with the attack, Heather takes a much different approach. Their behaviors are as different as their stories are, and they only grow more dramatic as the interrogations continue.
"All right. Yeah. I'm very worried about Andrea. Tell us what happened earlier today."
"Let me tell you a little bit what's going on, okay? We didn't get a chance to talk to Adriana before she went to the hospital."
"Yes, she told us a few things. She told us who did this to her. She told us where they took her. What they did to her, okay?"
"You think I'm talking to you. I wish you got into a whippy minutes."
Heather's statement here left investigators wondering about what kind of things everyone in the trailer park were getting into with each other and what motive it may have provided for brutally attacking Adriana.
"We need to go over what you did tonight, okay?"
"Yes, sir. We just talked to your other son. He is Tina Brown. Is that your friend too?"
"Yeah. How about her daughter, Brittany?"
"Brittany, where were y'all tonight?"
"I was at home."
"Well, y'all, okay. When it came to the house, I was right there. Absolutely believe you were at home when we came over there. Where were you? Maybe half an hour, 45 minutes before that."
"How was that whole?"
"Okay. Well, we came over to your house and started knocking on your door about 10 o'clock at night. Almost dark."
"10 o'clock at night? So big difference. There's about four hours missing in there, okay?"
"Good. Three, four. That's my aunt. She's seeing me. The Jared and, uh, Heather. A lot of more people. Listen to me. About dark and 10 o'clock. There's a lot of hours in there, right there."
"Jerry was at my house. Listen to me. And what time did they get by? And what time did they leave?"
"It was dark with Jerry K. Buddy. He always come down there asked me for cigarettes."
"Wish Jerry's personal last name."
"His name is Jerry Johnson. That's my uncle. And my aunt's name is Terry Smith. I talked to them at the scene. They stayed down the trailer for, I think we got the same as from them out."
"Then my recollection was, I didn't see her this evening. It was, it was about two and three days."
"I don't care about two or three. That's the only time I see, uh, two or three. And that didn't matter."
"What time did your aunt and Terry Smith come by?"
"Sarah was at home. Her son came down. I asked him to go over to the store to get me some fish fry, okay? Before we started cooking. That's before dark."
"Yeah. After dark. After you cooked."
"After dark. That was, I'm not sure what time it was, but he came for a cigarette. It was dark."
"Yes. He asked me for a cigarette. I gave him a cigarette."
"Okay. I mean, the house all the time. And I've been trying to find out where she was at. Everybody telling me they didn't know where she was at."
"Heather, why would you be wondering where she's at?"
"Because she always hang out with me. Every night we always hang out every night."
"The last thing she told us was, 'You came in there along with your friends.'"
"Dragged her out of the house. I put everything I love. Put that much."
"And that's the last thing she told me."
"Yes. I went on tonight."
It seems fair to say that detectives aren't buying her story. This only becomes more clear as additional horrible facts and evidence come to light.
"She was the only friend I was closest to. The mother, you know, this is all we need to talk to you earlier and all that. He wasn't upset like this. Why are you upset now?"
"I was crying because I didn't know that. I didn't know that issue. The lady told me she was in intensive care and everything."
"This video of you in that car talking to your husband. You ain't talking like this."
"He was asking me did I see her today. I told him I seen earlier today."
"Well, you know, we watched the video too. We talked about you. But I don't care. I didn't have anything doing this. My friend. We talking about this. My friend. You said that's gonna die. This is my friend. You say you're gonna die."
"Cause you're telling me my friend's like, duh."
"Okay. So what turned Tina gonna beat over?"
"Gina said they'd get along time. I'd rather be just like today. Is the one hanging out your house tonight, right?"
"Yeah. Oh, that was his friends. But she wanted me to go out of town. Where to be a ball? And after I was the, I was gonna go with him. I promise to see her mom. I was trying to help. I get somebody to get home to her ball because she didn't have anybody here."
Pensacola. At the time Audriana was attacked, she was trying to leave Florida and return home to her mother, where she could get a fresh start and a healthy life. It's tragic that that opportunity was taken away from her. Whether Heather was actually trying to help her is uncertain, but there's no doubt Heather's hoping presenting herself like a savior to Adriana will make her look less guilty.
"When I asked you about Adriana and her date, yeah, he said he was supposed to come pick us."
"What she told me."
"Yes. And then you said you were sitting at your house and you saw a set of headlights come down, but you didn't pay no attention to it."
"No."
"Okay. Let's get back to Tina. Was she at your house at that time when the headlights came in?"
"No, she was not in my house."
"Okay. What did, did you see those headlights leave?"
"I've seen them came in. They went down. And then the headlights came back up. Came back."
"How long did they stay down there?"
"They had went down and was down for like 10 minutes. And then they came back up."
"So yeah, I, I think I can lay right there on my couch by the door and I can see headlights coming in."
"No, I didn't. I didn't ever look at them where the car went. I didn't never get up. See where it went. But I could see the headlights coming in and through my front one. And I can see the headlights coming back out through my window on the side where they draw the trailer is."
"What kind of car does Britney have?"
"Britney don't have a car."
"Was she riding around the car tonight? Did you see your car?"
"She riding with her friends."
"Uh, I didn't see her tonight."
Soon after Heather was interrogated, the police returned to question Tina more. With Heather's testimony, they have some new ways to confront Tina. The stories are a changing.
It's interesting that Tina is sitting with her arms in her shirt, which isn't something we typically see with adults. We do know, however, that a fight or flight response can cause extremities to feel extremely cold.
"So you had time to think about it. Where were you tonight?"
"Perhaps."
"Okay. When did you get over Heather's house?"
"Right."
"Um, let's start getting dark."
"When it started getting dark. Sunset."
"You stayed over there the rest of the night until the cops got there?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Because I hate the story I'm getting. You don't care, huh?"
"I didn't go anywhere."
"Heather's saying you're gone for half an hour to an hour."
"It was not gone for nothing hour to an hour. You come back right before the cops were over there. Cops are over there around 10 o'clock. So from nine to ten, I got you unaccounted for."
"So why is it that Heather's saying that your daughter didn't come by her house? That she went by your house?"
"Who went by my house?"
"Your daughter."
"My daughter was at my house, supposedly, because she came to Heaven."
"She made me. We asked her if Britney came by her house at all today. And she said no. She said the only time she saw Brittany right after school at your house. And that's the only time she saw her today."
"Well, maybe she saw Brittany. Trust me, she's cooperating with this as far as when we ask her stuff. And we asked her specifically, was Brittany at your house today?"
"At her house? I'm talking to Heather at this point. And Heather's saying no. I asked Heather, his house. I asked Heather if you were over at her house. And she said yes. She came over around dinner time. And then she said you left for half an hour to an hour. And that when you come back, when you come back, you come in in a hurry, nervous, and the cops are outside. Don't answer the door."
"You tell me if me and Heather were together doing this, then how is Heather going to be already in the house and I'm not in the house?"
It seems the detectives are trying to turn Tina against Heather by making Tina think they believe Heather may be innocent. This only stokes Tina's frustration more, as you're about to see.
"The problem I got, the story between you and Heather keeps getting further and further."
"Yes. I have not changed nothing on mine. Not nothing. Yeah, nothing at all. That's the truth."
"If that's the truth, then that's the truth. Okay. Okay. Nothing's changed from what I've told you."
"Now you have it. Nothing at all."
The divide between Tina and Heather was growing. Investigators had enough contradictions between the suspects' stories that the alarm bells were now deafening. When they finally got word that Britney's car had been located behind the house early in the morning, they brought Brittany in for questioning. Tina hadn't seen her daughter since she left for the hospital. Her panic when she thinks she sees Brittany in the hallway at the station before Brittany's first interview is evident.
"No, that's the girl. You other girl that was with you. Come on. That's my daughter's."
"That is not your daughter. You need to step back in here."
"It's not Brittany. Jesus."
"Do nothing. You probably tell her all kind of lies. Be afraid."
Her daughter is about to reveal some incriminating information to detectives. Here in the state of Florida, when a minor is taken into custody, efforts must be made to contact a parent or guardian. But generally speaking, an interrogation can take place, and this is likely not going to be favorable for Tina or her daughter.
According to 16-year-old Brittany, she hung out with her friends Jessica and Mallory after school until late into the night, at which point they left for the hospital. Her story of why the trip was necessary and why her right hand was now in a cast is interesting to say the least. When police ask her to sign a paper indicating that she's been read her rights, she struggles to sign because of her broken pinky finger, bringing even more attention to the mysterious injury.
"What'd you do to get out of here?"
"Broke my pinky."
"Yeah, just do the best you can."
"Why is it that you think you may be here?"
"I know we talked to your mom last night. Did she tell you what have you been told?"
"That they think that we did something for an extra paper."
"Hi, Adriana."
"Adriana?"
"What is it that you think happened? Have you been told at all?"
"I don't know."
"He used to hang out real good with Spirit, real close. And then you just stopped hanging out. Just stopped."
"Did y'all have any beefs or anything like that?"
"When was the last time you talked to her?"
"Yesterday. Read before. Probably riding a bike. And I just asked him wherever she's going with the bike."
"She said she was just going right."
"Short conversation."
"Yeah, it was still a short concert."
Brittany explains that she said hi to Adriana when she met her friend Mallory outside Brittany's home before the girls entered.
"When the house and I started to bring my mom's hair and then that's why the front kill that lives next door to me and she started to say I was hurting her head and stuff. So we stopped. And then she left around the Heather house. And me and my other friends, we just stayed there. Just listen to music, dance, watch movies."
"Who was at the house with you dancing, watching movies?"
"Mallory and Jessica."
"Mallory and Jessica. Is that it?"
"Yep."
Brittany explains that Jessica lives next door. The activities began around five o'clock that evening, she claims, and they continued into the night.
"About what time did everybody leave?"
"They stayed the night. Um, I always stayed the night. But it just because she went home. She went home about, um, six o'clock in the morning because we was at the hospital."
"Close your hand."
"Yeah."
"Yeah. Tell, tell me how that happened."
"Mallory, I was cleaning in my room. Cleaning up my room. And I asked Molly to talk to me. My kitty. And when she was a toss it out, went like that to tried to catch him. And that's when I hit like the corner of the door right there. That's how I broke it."
"In your bedroom?"
"About what time did that happen?"
"Around one o'clock, one, one thirty."
"And that's when left to go to the emergency room about one or one thirty?"
"And I went. That's why I went to the house. And I told my mom I messed up my arms."
"She told me to just go ahead and drive myself to the hospital."
"So you took yourself up there?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
Brittany claims that Jessica and Mallory went to the hospital with her, and you talked to your mom about hurting your hand before you left.
"I told her about. I went down. When I heard it, I went down to Heaven house where she was at. And I showed it to her because without hurting. She said, 'Just go ahead and go to the hospital.' And that's when we left."
"So from about, so that the only times I'm really missing is from about six to one. Y'all dance and watch movies from 6 p.m. to one until you hurt your hand?"
"Yeah."
"Did y'all ever go outside the house? Nobody saw y'all outside your house? Did you ever walk down the road into the trailers?"
Nope, what time did your mom wind up coming home?
Um, I don't know, actually. Because I was asleep. Once I came back from the hospital, I went to her room and I went to sleep. And that's when I got woken up by the all this stuff. And it's important that you really concentrate on what you're telling us. Yes, because you just don't take, uh, you know, could you times your or not in there? Okay, because you weren't at your house between six and one. We know that for a fact. We were out there all night. So, so I mean, this ain't something we we need to even ask anybody else. And if you, it's important you tell us the truth about that or something that minor, if you want to fib about that.
Foreign, but that's why I've been at the hospital. We know you went to West Florida Hospital, but you didn't stay. Yeah. Okay, we're taking too long. So we went to the other one. That's great. There you went immediately to the other one. We know that's not true. Well, that's where I went. So I mean, you weren't home then? I was at the hospital. You know, you were in hospital at one o'clock. You just said I was Florida. Where would you be? Where would you before that? I found you know what time we picked your mother up at 10 o'clock, maybe 11 o'clock. So we were at your trailer. Your mother went inside. I got the title to the car. You weren't there. The truck wasn't here. That almost already been gone to the hospital since.
Britney's story is unwavering. The police decide that it's time to take another approach. But will this one be more effective than the last? We make mistakes. I make mistakes every day. Okay, there's stuff I that I do that I wish that I could take right, but I can't. But the most important thing is that that we come in here and we correct our mistakes and we, you know what, you understand what I'm saying? Good. Pete, if you've done something wrong or some, or if you know somebody else's ass may not be you, but if we've done something wrong, we come in here and we talk about it. And if you know anything, and let's get it and make it right. There's consequences now before the for the mistakes that we make. So something happened. If you know something happened. If you were there, because the story you're telling us is not, it's not even close. We want to go in here and resolve this and get taken care of the best way we can. We had somebody hurt badly. See, you're growing. Don't you seem like a good person? Nobody's in here saying you're a bad person. But what we're saying is something bad happened to somebody that you know. And we feel like you know what happened. Still.
Britney sticks to her story. It was clear to detectives after the initial interviews on March 24th and the morning of the 25th that there were big gaps in everyone's timelines. Though those inconsistencies would aid them in their investigation, they needed some hard evidence and statements from others to take that next step toward actually arresting the prime suspects for attempted murder. Thankfully for investigators, there was plenty of evidence at the crime scene. Just off of Ashland Avenue, only two miles from the trailer park, was a gas easement set back in the woods. It was there where the most gruesome part of the crime against Adriana took place. Upon entering the easement, detectives came across tire tracks. When Tina's maroon SUV was taken in, it was found that the tires were a match for the tracks left at the scene of the crime. And that wasn't the only evidence the car provided. Spots of blood were found on the dashboard of the car, smeared across the passenger seat headrest, and speckled throughout the back seat. At the easement where the car pulled off, signs of a struggle were evident. A crowbar sat in the grass with what appeared to be blood spatter peppered over the cold iron surface. Blood and ash were found to be pulled in various spots in the grass and dirt. Pieces of clothing, burnt to an absolute crisp, were found and identified as Adriana's. Her bra was nearly unrecognizable. White napkins marred by blood were also left at the scene, as well as a pair of white shoes. There was something else alongside the weapons and blood that may sound a bit familiar. Strands of a hair weave were strewn across the scene, and they didn't belong to Adriana.
See where we...
Yeah, just my hair right here. Oh, that's your? Okay. Yeah. She was just breaking these in, but it hurt. We've been doing it for about three or four days now, and it hurts. Okay. All right. If somebody grab me some toilet paper so I can blow my nose, please. Absolutely. Thank you.
The police returned to the interview room about 30 minutes later. By now, it's around two in the morning, less than 12 hours after the 9-1-1 call was made, and they have a request that Tina may not even realize the importance of. Tina, do me a favor. Set up. Turn around. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Look at this right here. Oh, that's weave in there. That's weave in there. Yeah. I told you that my daughter was. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't realize she was weaving all that in the back. Yeah. So this is all my hair right here. Okay. It's not working. Yeah, that'll work. You see the missing patch of hair on the back of Tina's head was a match for the hair left at the scene of the brutal attack. It's likely that as Adriana bravely fought for her life, she managed to pull out the chunk of Tina's hair. And if the matching hair wasn't damning enough, at the scene of the crime, investigators found perhaps the most critical piece of evidence in the case: a black taser lying in the grass, which brought up an important question: who owned the taser? As you can imagine, no one from the mobile home park could quite agree on an answer, though they were eager to throw one another under the bus. Their discussion of the taser gives a glimpse of the possible motive behind the gruesome crime and provides a look at how dysfunctional their relationships were leading up to the attack on Adriana.
And Tina's first interrogation, mere hours after the attack, investigators ask if she recalls police visiting to speak to Adriana about problems in the trailer park the previous week.
You know, the police came out there last week to talk to her about the problem she had in our neighborhood. Yeah. They talk to me too. Okay. So you were there. What was the problem? Um, her and my, well, another girl come out there to fight Adriana because Adriana was supposed to have gotten smart with her on the phone. Okay. And Adriana's boyfriend was there, Andre Smith. And he sent Adriana in the house. No, he came outside the house. He was saying that I was in the middle of that, which I didn't even know. The white girl. And he said, oh, he cussed all the kids out and believed that was outside and get your Adriana to go in the house and get that thing or whatever. She came back outside on the porch. She's on the porch. Cousin, and she came out in the walkway, and she tried to taste my daughter. Who tried to chase your daughter? Adriana. Adriana got a taser. What kind of taser? Um, I just think it was a black one. A black one. She said that, um, you've seen it? Yeah, everybody. I just know it was black. Okay. When they made a loud noise. Okay. Everybody out there saw.
Heather has a different story about who owned the taser, however, and Tina isn't going to like it.
Does Brittany have any problems? Adriana? All right. Adriana. Hey, got into it. Adriana tried to taser. That's all that Britney had told me. They got into it, and Adriana tried to taste it. How long ago was this? I think that was like two, two, three weeks ago. They got into it. What kind of taser she got? Who has a taste? Uh, Britney had a taser. Britney had a taser. Yeah. The taste belongs to Brittany. I'm not sure what, what that taste look like. Oh, I seen it once before. It was big. It was long. It was a long time. It was made for God. I'm black. Okay. It was black. It was probably about that long. It had like little things on the side of it. I never seen the taste before. That was the first time I ever seen it when I seen it. How you know it's Britney's? Brittany had it, so I don't know. Have you ever seen? No, this today was the first time I seen them with. You saw her today? Today was the first time today. You saw Tina? On the counter earlier today. Earlier today. It was a man on the accountant. Business.
You can hear the uncertainty in her voice when she says "no" with an upward inflection when she repeats her answers. It's clear that she's attempting to make them sound more affirmative and honest, and she's trying to solidify her story.
No, this today was the first time I seen him with. Today was the first time today. You saw Tina? When the investigators returned to question Tina after speaking with Heather, they had new information to use against her in their quest for answers.
We talked to you earlier about a taser. I told you about taser. What'd you tell me about that taser? That, um, Brittany and the day that, um, a white girl came over to fight Adriana, that, um, Dre, Andre told Adriana, get that thing, and she went in the house and got Hazel. Okay. Okay. What about the taste that was over at your house today? Taser at my house? You all know about your house? No, I've been told about taser at your house. I didn't know it was there. You don't know anything about that? Huh?
Tina is extremely uncomfortable with this topic of conversation. She repeats back the question, which has the same sort of effect as a pause. It gives her more time to contemplate her answer. She keeps her hands perfectly placed in her lap, which is extremely atypical in normal conversation and indicates she is in a state of cognitive overload as a result of having to think very hard about what she should say. We don't observe these types of responses in individuals who are volunteering information from actual memory, and her odd behavior certainly hasn't gone unnoticed by the investigators.
Heather's telling me that she always has to protect Adriana from you and your daughter. You and your daughter chasing around all over the place. Your daughter has a taser. She saw the taser over at your house today. My baby don't have a taser. We never had it. I don't know. That's what she's telling me. Why is she telling me that? I don't know. We never had a taser, sir. Adriana had a taser. We never had a taser. My baby was tased. Your stories are getting further and further apart. Like I said, if you want to try to taste Brittany with the taser, I'm the. Brittany has a scratch across her chest right here that I was grabbing Brittany from off the porch so that they wouldn't fight. I told you we were best friends in that trailer park in the beginning. That's funny because Heather says that her and Adriana are best friends and that you and Adriana don't get along and that you and Adriana are constantly having problems and that you and your daughter have been chasing Adriana around this trailer park trying to hurt her and that you have a taser in your house and that that taser was Britney's taser and Brittany had chased. When the police came out there, if you can check back when the police come came out there, Adriana called the police that day. Okay. I told the police what happened there. Same thing I'm telling you is that Adriana tried to taste Brittany with the taser. The same thing I'm telling you. Adriana called the police. That you want to press charges? No. Do what I say. I don't know. No. Actually, no. They didn't even come out there to press charges. They told us to just cool it out. Cool it out for us. Stay on our side. For her to stay on that side. He was supposed to be leaving town. She was not going to be here for long. Okay. Right. Because I talked to that officer. He told me exactly that. But he told me that Adriana did not wish to pursue charges against y'all. Well, he never asked us about pressing charges. He just said for us the coolest part of these tired of coming out here. He didn't ask you because you weren't the one bringing forth the charges. She was. Okay. Her. Why would I bring charges? I didn't. No, you weren't. She was going to bring charges against y'all for attacking her. But we didn't attack her. But she needed her boyfriend. Adriana's boyfriend told her to go get that thing. Adriana was standing on the porch arguing. She wasn't even thinking about going to get a taser. He told her to go get that thing. We didn't know what that thing was until she came outside with it. I didn't know she had. Until why is Heather saying that she sees the taser in your house and that Brittany has it and that Britney? I know where it is right now. It's in my evidence locker. Okay. Well, how do we have it? Because Heather says you have it. Get a taser from. We don't even know. Nobody here. We don't have no family here. Only people we know is people in the trailer park. Where would we get a taser from? I don't know. Yeah, you can. Mom, all over the place. They sell them at pawn shops and everywhere else.
As you can see, Tina is growing frustrated with Heather throwing her daughter under the bus. Britney, however, seems a lot less upset about it.
We have information that that you and Andrea, you know, that y'all argued a lot. Ain't no fault because your mom had to break you up one time. Is this true? Yeah. What was y'all fighting about? I have the slightest idea. I really want to know the truth. Somebody else was there to fight her. We were outside to watch. She gets mad and she tries to chase me. We have Heather saying that the taser belonged to you. She seen it at your house. Okay. It's a lie. The only time I've seen the table is when Adriana tried to tase me that night. Mom. Well, that day. Mom had to separate out. How long ago was that? Um, two weeks ago. Let's go right there. When you almost had to fight on the board. Yeah. You ever seen a stun gun over in, uh, anybody's house? Oh, yeah. Where you seen one at? Oh, okay. That's interesting. You say that because your wife says she saw it over at Tina's house. So your wife's telling us all this stuff that makes Tina look bad, and you're telling us that it was at Zimmerman's house? Right. It was Dave too. It was gave to her by who? Oh, Andre Smith. Andre Smith gave her a taser. Yeah. Where's Andre Smith? He lost. Is that her boyfriend or her husband? My boyfriend. Boyfriend. And describe it. Why? Actually, I already described it, didn't I? Can't really ask you to description. Who put the tape on it? Who put the tape on them? You mentioned some tape. So there's a tape on there. All right. But you saw it with tape on there because the back's missing. So I mean, you see in a taser and there's tape on it is one thing. You see in a taser and knowing the reason for the tape being on it is a totally different thing. Exactly. So how come you know that the back is? Was this explained to you, or did you see it put on, or do you know? Okay. But like I said, seeing tape. If you saw tape on this recorder on here, you wouldn't necessarily know that the tape's on there to keep the battery in place. Doesn't have no back part. Okay. So it has no back plate and tapes on it. Okay. That does make sense. All right. So Andre Smith gave it to her. Yeah. Where does she normally keep it? In the cabinet. Aware? In the top cabinet by the refrigerator. Who else would know this? Who will be in the house? Well, she goes, hey, here's where I keep my Taser. No, because she was like always pulling another. We're playing with us, bro. Well, she made threats with people or something? No, she doesn't plan. You know, and I ain't gonna lie. At one point in time, everybody was cool with everybody.
Strangely enough, Darren's story aligns more closely with Tina's than with his own wife's. It's possible that Heather is trying to frame Tina while Darren is telling the truth so he doesn't get himself into trouble. The taser incident between Adriana and Brittany is just one domino falling in the long line of conflict that led to the attack of Adriana, a compounding of incidents that will unravel, revealing an absurd motive.
Following the first round of interrogations, everyone was released and sent home, unaware of just how much evidence was rapidly stacking up against them. And though they weren't talking freely to police, they sure were talking to people in their lives, people they probably shouldn't have been trusting.
On April 7, 2010, officers received a call from one of Tina's relatives in Illinois. They refused to identify themselves and stated that they had information to disclose about the case. According to the source, Tina called her mother two days after the attack and admitted that she, Britney, and Heather beat Adriana. She managed to scramble away, which caused a heated argument between Tina and Brittany. Brittany tackled Adriana as she made one last attempt to escape into the woods, and it was then that Tina lit her on fire. Tina, Heather, and Brittany callously fled. Though Brittany realized she left her shoes at the scene of the crime, as they drove away, Tina told her it was too late to turn around. Afterward, Tina ordered Brittany to leave the area and stay away until the police were gone. Brittany took that time to take care of some evidence: washing the car interior with hand sanitizer, burning the clothes they were wearing, and disposing of the lighter fluid. While telling her relatives the story, Tina didn't appear to have much remorse whatsoever for her actions. When her relatives urged her to turn herself in so the law would potentially go easy on Brittany, Tina told them that even if Adriana died, they'd be fine because the cops had no real evidence against them.
But on the late night of April 8th, only one day after that call was made to the police, Adriana tragically passed away, her family by her side, having never woken from the coma she fell into. She died just five days before her 20th birthday and never had the opportunity to turn her life around. The attempted murder that police were almost certain Tina, Brittany, and Heather had committed had turned into a homicide.
On the same day that Adriana passed, even more evidence against the three women was brought to light. Police received a call from a high school classmate of Britney's named Regine, stating that she had been being harassed by Britney and Tina regarding the case. When police reported to the high school, Regine stated she had received multiple calls from both Brittany and Tina trying to convince her to pose as Britney during a polygraph test so that Brittany could pass. The police were almost certain they were the culprits, but the question of why they committed these terrible crimes in the first place remained to be answered.
To get to the bottom of it, both Brittany and Tina were interviewed immediately after their arrests.
You remember me? You know what, you know what this is all about. However, instead of starting with questions, they begin by giving her some information. Now, we're going to tell you what, what we think happened. It's good though. On that particular night, you, Brittany, and Heather, we've gotten in a verbal altercation, a physical altercation with Adriana Zimmerman. Okay. Okay. The fight kind of escalated a little bit, got out of hand. She was attacked with a tire, a pry bar, whatever you want to call it, crowbar, and then she was disabled with a stun gun and then set on fire. So now, this was supposed to happen. Trailer park and nobody heard? No. I didn't try it. I didn't say at the trailer park. I'm saying during this, that night, it originated at the trailer park. You, Brianna, uh, Brittany, Heather, and maybe one or two other people transported her over to the Ashland Avenue on the gas lines, and that's where the the what, what Ashland Avenue? What is that? It's another road over by the house, and that's where it went bad. We've got information since you're, you're involved in it. It's true. They do in fact have some groundbreaking information. You see, there's a very specific reason that Tina was sought out by investigators, and when they finally divulge it, she's going to be absolutely shocked. Like this. Tina, not only did our victim name, we went and talked to them. Not only yesterday, did they name Heather? Not only did they name your daughter. You've also told people. You know, that's how we know the story too. Me? Yeah. Why don't you let me finish telling? Okay. Okay. Go ahead. We hear that you use lighter fluid, poured it on her, and lit her up. And you're mad at Britney because she got up off the girl, and that's how she got up and got to run away. I'm mad at my baby. Okay. What else? Sir. Yeah. What else? What else is it? She told two people. Who? She told the fire chief and she told the EMS supervisor. Okay. Now, when did she do that? Right before, right before they put her under. I got to talking to her, and I told her that I was probably gonna be the last person she talked to for a while, and that we, in order to catch the people that did this too, I needed her to tell me if she knew who it was. She told me yes, and she named three girls: a Tina, a Heather, and a Brittany. She did not give me last names. And I asked her why they did it to her, and she said, I thought we'd made up. If Adriana's supposed to have told these people this, wouldn't you think that she would have told them everything that can happen if you land on the ground and you burned up and you're about to die? She told everything she could. Was the pain she was in at that time? And they didn't give her long because they had to put her out. She said, you know, EMS supervisor told him, she kept after, am I going? Am I going to make it? Am I going to make it? Am I going to make it? She said, I'm gonna do the best we can for you.
The detectives have become privy to some other damning information that they share with Tina, and it's all about to come crashing down on her.
Hey, he ain't going around here telling people you're talking to your relatives and tell them that. Are they calling us? But you're talking to somebody and telling them that, uh, well, you should go ahead and die. Y'all be good to go. Well, that ain't the case, is it? Because she died. She died last night. She comes to her wounds. They told us that she was in a coma yesterday. She died last night. Why you think we come back out like gangbusters tonight? [Music] That's why you're under arrest. Ing his dad. He said he called down there and he said, and she was in a deeper a coma. Well, she didn't come out of it. Guess what? We got information from the MB that she didn't make it because of the burns. Okay. You sit there, you think about it. You think, you think about what we're saying. That woman, those kids would never see their mama again. You've got a chance to see your kids. I don't know that you got a chance to see your kids again somewhere down the road. Now, like I said, I'm not gonna sit. We're not gonna sit here with you as long as we did last, the other night. Maybe you didn't mean for it to be this way, but that's what I said. We don't know. So you're gonna need. You need us to be able to tell your side of the story when it comes time to go before the judge. And by you just sitting over there not, you know, thinking we don't have nothing. We've only gave you a little bit of what we got. And believe me, it's not all. It's not hearsay. We know. We know that that night, those clothes were taken and burned. That y'all were wearing. Where? Oh, that's. We still had the same clothes on the next morning when they came to get us. Doesn't have two small children. You know these children? Yes, I know. Okay. Mr. Mama ain't never gonna see again. I think the oldest one was a boy, correct? He saw this. He saw. He saw the stuff going down at the at the trailer park that night. When those people said that those babies was locked up in the room. I'm saying they saw all the commotion with us at their house that night. They were sitting there. Oh, yeah. They knew something was wrong. Have you ever heard of a dying declaration? No. That's powerful. I'm gonna tell you now. When we walk out this door this afternoon, there's not. Next time you see me, I ain't going. But then I don't want to talk. What I want to tell you, I can't hear much. Did you? What'd you say? You usually, when I'm talking to somebody about a murder, it's happened, and I'm giving them that advice that I think they should talk to me because I realize it's probably one of the last things you want to talk to a person about. And and certainly you don't want to tell the cops about it. But I think the thing that keep in mind and what, and I, what I reiterate to these people, and is that, you know, if there's circumstances, if there's a, if there's a reasoning behind this that could be mitigating. I mean, if there's a reason why this happened that you know, shows why you did this, it had to be agonizing. And then to run a distance that she ran because we know, I mean, the burnt clothes and and her shoes and everything is right there in the in the woods. To run that distance to a house and beg for help and to wait there still cooking for the analysts to get there. And then the last thing you're saying is, besides telling who your accusers are, am I going to see my kids? Am I going to live? Those are your last questions before you knocked out and told, hey, you may or may not talk to somebody again.
And one last-ditch effort to get a confession or some semblance of remorse from Tina, a detective presents her with a photo of Adriana's charred body.
Let me tell you something. That's her body. Let me, let me look at how much. You look at. So I know you understand what I'm saying. The medical staff and the medical examiner's office didn't even know if this girl was white or black. A black female or white female because she was so burnt, so bad. They didn't have a copy of our report at the time. I just want, I just, you, you wouldn't want this happen to you. You wouldn't want to go out this way, would you? Huh? Okay. We're gonna transfer. We're gonna transport. Just lost the street. Okay.
Tina doesn't budge. However, the photos have clearly had an effect on her. After she's left in the room, waiting to be taken to jail, she mumbles haunting things to herself through her sobs, even seemingly calling out to Adriana. The words she chooses to use are bone-chilling.
[Music] At first, come back and hot, hot, terrorized, please Adriana, Adriana, I told you, I told you. Oh.
The question of why they committed these terrible crimes in the first place remained to be answered. As it turns out, there were numerous alleged love triangles within the trailer park. All of the dirty truth, it seems, began making its way to the surface. Not only did Adriana reportedly tell Heather that Tina was sleeping with Darren, but allegedly Adriana herself was sleeping with Darren, and Heather had confronted her about it. It's a messy web of cheating and lies, one that Darren is surprisingly transparent about. However, he leaves out something that came out during the trial. According to Tina, she only slept with Darren in exchange for substances.
Tell me what was going on. There's been a discussion between us about an accusation flying around between you being accused of sleeping with, uh, your neighbor and a friend of your wife. Is that correct? Yeah. What's her name? Tina Brown. Okay. So the accusation is that you've been sleeping with Tina Brown. And who has been making these accusations? Everybody. Everybody. Has Adriana Zimmerman been making those accusations? My wife. Solomon actually told her that today. Okay. So your wife told you that Adriana had reported to her that you've been sleeping with Tina Brown. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. If you recall, in Darren's video interrogation with police, he dilly-dallied on the phone while he was unashamedly talking and laughing with someone, someone who wasn't his wife.
I will call you right back, man. You're done. Yeah. All right. Is that Heather? Huh? I don't know, man. Oh, sorry. When you said you were on the phone with your sugar thing or whatever, just now, was it Tina you were talking to? Okay. Um, but you told me that night you were seeing Tina. Yeah. Okay. So is she not your sugar thing? Yeah, that's my old mama. Okay. All right. Um, did you and Miss Zimmerman have any kind of relationship or something? Well, all right. Did y'all have? I don't know what. Okay. This ain't like Monica Lewinsky, man. You know, did you have sex with her or did? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you had sexual intercourse with Miss Zimmerman. Did your wife know this? No. Did your wife know of you having sex with Tina? Hello. I bet you all know about this other thing. Okay. Um, Okay. So, um, have you been accused by Heather of having with Zimmerman? Well, okay. Did Tina make any accusations? I mean, Tina probably knows that you're sleeping with Zimmerman, don't you? Okay. So none of you girls know that you're sleeping with other one. You're doing a good game, right? Okay. So Heather is aware of the accusations of you having sex with Tina, but her and Tina are still tied cooking fish together. See, that's what blows my mind, man. You got a good game going on. If them too knowing the accusation, there you still got to move their cooking fish together. Either you got a good game for Tina does, because you're playing it off. Well, so, um, you know, me and Rusty sat there and laughed about that all night, but we couldn't figure out how you get away with that, man, because our wives were, you know, we'd be done. They'd have our cars and our boats and everything else, you know, so you're getting away with it.
On May 10th, soon after Tina, Heather, and Brittany were arrested, the police received a letter from an incarcerated man who said he knew who killed Adriana and what the true motive was for the heinous crime. He stated that several months prior to the murder, he bought an illegal substance from Darren at the Rodeway Inn. He alleged that Adriana was with Darren in the hotel room while the illegal transaction took place. According to him, Heather arrived and threatened Adriana with a box cutter, reportedly yelling that she would get Adriana sooner or later. Fortunately, their day in court came sooner rather than later.
During the trial, it was revealed that the murder was even more disturbing than police could have imagined. Adriana had been lured to the trailer by Tina under the guise of rekindling their friendship. When she arrived, Tina used the stun gun on her and dragged her to the bedroom. There, Heather stuffed a sock in her mouth and Brittany beat her. When they drove her to the woods, Brittany and Tina took turns hazing her until Tina poured gasoline on her and lit her on fire. According to Heather, as the fire started, Tina jumped up and down, exclaiming, "Burn, [ __ ] burn!"
Tina Brown received a death sentence for her crimes against her former friend, making her one of only three women on Florida's death row. Though Brittany was 16 at the time of the murder, she was sentenced to life in prison. Heather took a plea bargain, testifying against Tina in order to receive only 25 years for the second-degree murder she was convicted of. At the time of this video, Tina has filed a motion to have her death sentence thrown out because of false testimony at her trial. According to Tina and a witness at the trial, the witness was coerced by Heather to testify that Tina had confessed to her in jail that she was the mastermind behind Adriana's murder. Heather reportedly threatened the witness, forcing her to say that Heather was present but had nothing to do with the murder. To this day, the former friends are spinning rumors about each other and trying to climb over one another to reach salvation. Only time will tell what the law will decide, but one thing is for certain: this brutal yet petty crime against Adriana should never have happened.