Bad Romance - Season 2 Episode 1 -No Tomorrow
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00:00Weddings are all about the future, a lifetime of tomorrows.
00:20A woman in suburban Dallas was days away from that future,
00:24but for Laura Grillo, sadly, there will be no wedding,
00:27no honeymoon, and no tomorrow.
00:30Am I ever gonna love, gonna love, gonna love again?
00:35Am I ever gonna love, gonna love, gonna love again?
00:41Happy birthday!
00:43Happy birthday!
00:46Oh my gosh.
00:52Make a wish!
00:54My name's Heather Neighbor.
00:55Laura was my best friend.
00:58She was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.
01:01Very giving.
01:03She always wanted to help people.
01:05Look at you and your bear!
01:08Her kids were her world.
01:10Are you wearing a brother's hat?
01:11So cute!
01:14I remember we finally picked out her dress and that perfect outfit for the perfect day.
01:21Making the wish, ringing the bell.
01:25I kind of talked her into that.
01:29I'm glad I did that.
01:31I really feel like she, for years, have been searching for home, and she found that in Rowlett.
01:43Rowlett's a bedroom community, a lot of rooftops, a lot of people leave town during the day to work in the city.
01:50Yes, we have a lot of commuters that work in Dallas and then come back home.
01:56It's a quiet neighborhood.
01:58What did she like about Rowlett?
02:03She loved the community.
02:05And she wanted to lay down roots in this little community?
02:08Mm-hmm.
02:09Yeah.
02:10And she did.
02:11Did she feel safe in Rowlett?
02:13I think she felt really safe in Rowlett.
02:19Unfortunately, she wasn't.
02:22We got a radio call of an unconscious female.
02:40She's not moving?
02:41I think somebody might have...
02:45You think somebody might have what, sir?
02:47I know this is going to look down.
02:51I'm not sure when you're talking.
02:57When we respond to any calls, we activate the body camera.
03:01When we arrived there, the fire department had made entry into the house.
03:07Looks to be a broom to the head.
03:09Koki starts to block a shell case panel.
03:11God.
03:12And they had backed out of the house because they located a shell casing.
03:17We got one down, shell casing on the floor.
03:20We made entry into the house.
03:22We're all puppies!
03:24And began clearing it.
03:26Clear.
03:28Searching for people and victims.
03:30Got blood in the kitchen.
03:32Blood down this hall.
03:33Stay on me, Drew.
03:35Yes, sir.
03:36One victim.
03:38We located a victim laying face down in the kitchen with a lot of blood around her head.
03:45I don't have her information yet.
03:47And that purse being right there next to her, I'm wondering if she just got here.
03:50She still had her purse and her keys in her hand.
03:53And her shoes were several feet away from her body.
03:56So it gave us the indication that whatever happened happened pretty quick.
04:01Inside the master bedroom, there was a safe on the dresser.
04:04The door was open and there was two plastic totes that were turned over on the bed.
04:10It didn't look as far as burglary that was interrupted or anything like that.
04:15It just didn't look right to me.
04:17Can you confirm CID in route?
04:20CID is the Criminal Investigations Division, which houses all of our detectives.
04:25Can you confirm that CID has been notified in route?
04:28I was pretty certain that this was going to be a major case.
04:32And I wanted to get those guys out there as soon as possible.
04:35We found one shell casing a couple of feet away from her body as well.
04:41That was the only piece of evidence that was left there at the scene.
04:44There was no gun.
04:45There was no blood that was out of place.
04:47There was no fingerprints.
04:49There was no DNA.
04:50So we had very little to work with.
04:54But we didn't touch the body, right?
04:57It looked like, I thought, I thought I saw an entry wound in her forehead.
05:04There was a large police presence and first responder presence at the house.
05:11There were several neighbors that started coming out and wanting to know what's going on.
05:18As we were securing the scene, I was approached by a male who called me by my first name.
05:24In law enforcement, we call each other by last name.
05:27Okay, come here, come here, come here, come here.
05:30But he called me by my first name and kind of took me by surprise.
05:34And that's when I recognized John Macris as the person that was calling me.
05:40Right now, all I know is there's somebody down inside the house that looks like a gunshot wound.
05:46John Macris was a volunteer with the police department in a program called VIPS.
05:52And I'd known him over maybe a two-year period.
05:56That is all I can tell you and that's all I know right now.
05:59Once I realized it was John's house, that made me start thinking that it was Laura that was down inside the house.
06:07Laura is John Macris' fiancee.
06:10Laura was part of the VIPS program.
06:12What does that stand for?
06:13Volunteer in police services.
06:16And she even tried out the emergency fire department ambulance program.
06:21You know Laura, right?
06:22Yeah.
06:23I did know Laura from volunteering police, fire.
06:28Can you go and verify that, sir?
06:31I can't right now.
06:34Happy birthday.
06:35Police are left to wonder why would anyone want to kill a 37-year-old mother of three eight days before her wedding?
06:47Was she a robbery victim or could she have been a target?
06:53We didn't have any idea what we were getting into on day one when we responded to this call.
07:01One victim.
07:02This was, in our opinion, it was a whodunit.
07:05There used to be a boom to the head.
07:06No piece of lots of blood.
07:07There was a shell based gun on the floor.
07:08God.
07:09Go left.
07:10Make them down.
07:11Mystery surrounds the shooting death of Laura Grillo at her home outside Dallas, Texas.
07:32And that purse being right there next to her, I'm wondering if she just got here.
07:37All right, let's back out.
07:40At the very beginning stages of an investigation like this, obviously we have to talk to everybody that lives in the house.
07:46And then John Macris, who just walked there.
07:48And we have to confirm their timeline of everything they were doing that day to rule them out as a possible suspect.
07:55I keep calling, calling, calling the answer, I call.
07:57And that includes Laura's fiancee, John Macris.
08:00Who runs his own construction company and is originally from Greece.
08:05I'll let you know everything when I find out.
08:08So at the time this happened, Laura lived in the house with her soon-to-be husband, John, and their three children.
08:13And Laura's adult brother, Brian.
08:15John's mom was also in town.
08:17Who all lives here?
08:19Me, Ben, her three kids.
08:23Okay.
08:24And now my mom is visiting.
08:26Okay.
08:27We determined that there was no forced entry into the house.
08:33So that kind of tightens our circle down a little bit.
08:37And we felt this was somebody that was pretty close to Laura and was able to either get in the home or somebody that she let in.
08:44John Macris and his mother, who was here from Greece for the wedding, are together that morning but away from this house.
08:51Laura's brother, Brian, the one who called 911, says he was asleep and did not hear a gunshot.
08:58So that throws up a red flag of, is he the suspect? Did he do this?
09:04We had to look at Brian, but what we found is that he's deaf in one ear and hearing impaired in the other.
09:12And if he's laying on his good ear, then that was the reason why he didn't hear the gunshot.
09:19Pretty early on, we eliminated Brian as a suspect.
09:24So, Rowlett, Texas police detectives decide to take a closer look at Laura's relationship with her fiancé, John Macris.
09:34Liz Frog is Laura's younger sister.
09:39Laura was living in Georgia and she used to play a multiplayer online game.
09:44So you could talk with anyone and meet other people.
09:47And that is Hashimajan.
09:49And he was living in Texas.
09:51They began a romantic relationship online.
09:55Was Laura a romantic?
09:58Yeah, she was.
10:00In the beginning stages, I think it was more like an infatuation.
10:03They hadn't met in person yet.
10:06It was like the excitement of something new.
10:08Like, she was happy about it.
10:12Laura has been married before and has two children.
10:15So, she decides to take things slowly with John Macris.
10:20She was, you know, really adventurous.
10:22She was also really smart.
10:23She had her kids to think about.
10:25And just moving in with some guy that she really didn't know was not an option.
10:31She moved to Texas.
10:32She did.
10:33But she did not move in with him.
10:34Yeah, she didn't move in with him right away.
10:36Laura had a job lined up.
10:39She was getting in her own place.
10:41So they could start a relationship and see how it would go.
10:50Laura found out that she was pregnant within the first four months of being there.
10:53How did she feel about the pregnancy?
10:58A little surprised.
11:00But, you know, happy about it.
11:03He wasn't.
11:05And he denied that the child was his.
11:09He said that she was sleeping with somebody else.
11:11He made her get a paternity test and go to his lawyer's office for the results.
11:16She was really hurt.
11:18And he still wasn't really willing to have anything to do with her until he knew 100% sure that Maria was his.
11:25But when the baby's born, all that is forgotten.
11:30John Macris dotes on baby Maria.
11:33This suburban home in Rowlett holds the entire family.
11:39Laura's kids, the toddler, and Laura's mom and brother.
11:45Laura juggles raising the growing family and helping at the kids' school,
11:50as well as volunteering at the local fire and police departments.
11:54At Rowlett, we have a program called VIPS, and it's Volunteers in Police Service.
12:00They were a modified volunteer uniform, and these are citizens of Rowlett.
12:08They help us a lot.
12:10Both John and Laura completed our Citizens Police Academy in the fall of 2014
12:15and had become VIPS members for our police department.
12:20When detectives asked John Macris to come in for an interview here at the Rowlett Police Department,
12:25it was a building he'd been to many times before as a police volunteer.
12:32In the interview room, Detective Cruz Hernandez breaks the news to John Macris that the victim has been identified.
12:40I just got a phone with the police officers and detectives at the scene.
12:44They've had a chance to go in.
12:46And I told John that I had confirmation that the deceased person was his fiancée, Laura.
12:52They're telling me that it is going to be Laura.
12:55It's going to be Laura.
12:59I'm sorry for your loss.
13:10Detectives remember what John said at the scene when they asked him who lived in the house.
13:15He stated that it was him, the kids, his mother, and the victim's brother, but he never did say the victim's name.
13:27He never mentions Laura.
13:30That was a huge red flag because maybe he knew a lot more what was going on.
13:36Detectives asked John Macris what he and Laura did the morning of her murder.
13:42He told us that morning, Laura left with the kids to take them to school.
13:47He left at that same time with his mom, and he drove to meet his two construction workers, Jesus and James, at a Home Depot in Dallas.
14:04Our very next step was to get in touch with those stores and pull the video surveillance.
14:11to make sure that what he was telling us was actually true.
14:16And there he is at the Home Depot.
14:21It cleared John at that point of the investigation.
14:26We knew that John had not committed the murder.
14:29So who had killed Laura Grillo?
14:34Police asked John if Laura had any enemies.
14:38She had any problems with anybody lately?
14:41Anybody that would want to hurt her?
14:43He could not think of anyone that would want to hurt Laura.
14:49Nobody was mad at him.
14:50Nobody was after him for anything.
14:53Filled with questions and short on leads, Rowlett detectives keep digging and they find out something that they didn't expect.
15:05This case had lots of twists and turns.
15:08We had no idea at the very beginning of this what we were getting into and how much planning actually did go into this.
15:14They very well may have gotten away with the perfect murder.
15:29Detectives have been chipping away at the mystery surrounding the mother of three's death a week before her scheduled wedding.
15:35The morning of Laura Grillo's murder, her fiance, John Macris, was meeting two of his employees,
15:42Jesus Trevino and James Vieda at a Home Depot in Dallas.
15:47When John told us that he had met Jesus and James at the Home Depot,
15:52we brought them in just to confirm that John's story was correct.
15:58Jesus Trevino is not only John's employee, he's also going to be the best man in John and Laura's wedding.
16:13We were going to meet up at Home Depot.
16:15I went to James' house down the street from me.
16:18So you picked up James?
16:19You picked up James.
16:21What kind of vehicle are you in?
16:23In the Lincoln, a black Lincoln.
16:26You can see on the Home Depot video that they're driving a black Lincoln.
16:31It's like a time they were considered witnesses.
16:34We had no reason to believe that they were involved in Laura's death.
16:37Do you know anything about that would help us in our investigation?
16:40I just can't have only worked for them for three weeks.
16:43After the interviews, we did do some background investigating into James and Jesus
16:48and found out that they are both sex offenders.
16:53It's relevant to authorities because these two alibi witnesses for John Macris both have criminal pasts.
17:02We took off, we took off like at 8.30.
17:05Jesus told us initially that he was in Dallas all morning with his co-worker James
17:10and that they went from James' motel straight to Home Depot to meet up with John.
17:16When you have time to get to the Home Depot.
17:19No, you go ahead.
17:208.45.
17:21His phone records said otherwise.
17:23At the time that John and Laura were leaving the house that morning,
17:26Jesus' phone was traveling from Dallas east into Rowlett.
17:32Not toward the Home Depot, but to the suburban neighborhood where John and Laura lived.
17:39At that point, we knew that Jesus had a lot more information than what he was initially providing.
17:46We obtained a search warrant to seize Jesus' cell phone.
17:50Shortly after that, he fled the state.
17:56Once Jesus fled and we could not locate him, we needed the public's help.
18:00Police announced a person of interest, 30-year-old Jesus Emmanuel Trevino.
18:05We needed Jesus' face out there and let him know that he was a person of interest of killing Laura.
18:10If someone could provide us with information, that will help us in locating him.
18:15We really had no idea at that point he could have been anywhere.
18:19With the nationwide manhunt for Jesus Trevino underway,
18:24John Macris is also on local television and he's saying he's looking for answers.
18:29Why somebody will do something like that to her?
18:32I mean, I'm not talking about Jesus.
18:34I'm talking about, in general, why?
18:37And I mean, now a name comes up, it's somebody that I know.
18:43It's like, the why now is even bigger.
18:48Why is the question the police have as well.
18:51So detectives turn to John Macris for answers.
18:54How have things been lately, relationship-wise, between you and her?
19:01She was happy, I was happy even.
19:04Of course, the couple have all arguments.
19:07Normal stuff?
19:08Normal stuff.
19:09Not really too many arguments.
19:12But detectives wonder, did this couple have hidden secrets?
19:17We were able to find one email that Laura sent to John that she wanted out of the relationship.
19:24In June of 2015, Laura had sent the email saying, I'm at my wit's in, I'm going to leave.
19:34She wanted to separate and she was trying to assure him that she's not out after child support and money and that he could still see the kids and that it's not a vengeance thing.
19:51It's just not working.
19:52And after that, out of the blue, John proposes.
19:55Right.
19:56To her.
19:57Exactly.
19:58John counters Laura's breakup email by asking her to marry him.
20:04And she says yes.
20:08It was a little surprising when she agreed to marry him.
20:13I was like, okay, well that kind of flip-flop, but, you know, okay.
20:19She wanted to have a stable life for our kids.
20:22She felt like maybe it would bring her and John closer together.
20:26He proposes and four months later, the wedding is set.
20:31You were her maid of honor.
20:33Mm-hmm.
20:34Yeah.
20:35We had a lot of fun picking out the dress.
20:38We tried several on.
20:40You know, it's always a long process.
20:43You know, picking out the cakes and the wedding flowers.
20:48And they were planning on getting married in November.
20:53It's just eight days before their November wedding when Laura is killed.
21:01That morning, her best friend Heather is shopping for Laura's bridal shower.
21:07So I was picking out cards and gifts when I got the call to go to the house.
21:16In an instant, Laura's friends and family go from planning for her wedding to planning her funeral.
21:26I was waiting to wake up from a nightmare.
21:29I'm like, none of this can be real.
21:32What was John's behavior like after she was killed?
21:36It was like maybe just a little hiccup happened in his life.
21:39You know?
21:41He was just, he was way too happy.
21:43He was smiling.
21:44He was, like, making jokes.
21:47The very day following Laura's murder, John moves the children back into the house.
22:01Rollet police released the house on Saturday.
22:04And John moved the family right back in the house.
22:07You got to remember, Laura's been killed in the kitchen.
22:12And the suspect is still at large.
22:14And so we found that odd that he never asked for any type of security detail.
22:20He didn't seem concerned at all about whoever this random person might have been at the time coming back to his home.
22:27It's another red flag.
22:29But John does ask for help from the neighbors to clean up Laura's blood from the kitchen floor.
22:42One of the neighbors was there helping clean.
22:45And he said, hey, go get her toothbrush.
22:48And so they were using her toothbrush to scrub blood out of the grout.
22:54He made someone clean up her blood in the grout of the towel with Laura's.
22:59Toothbrush.
23:00He said she wouldn't need it anymore.
23:03Her toothbrush.
23:04Mm-hmm.
23:07He was also complaining how, like, the funeral costs were so expensive.
23:12And even after Laura's dead, she was still costing him money.
23:16Laura's maid of honor says John wants to try to get refunds for the wedding cake.
23:23And even the flowers.
23:25The bridal bouquet.
23:28You know, there was no refunding that.
23:32So he decided to use it for the funeral.
23:39The wedding flowers be turned into funeral arrangements.
23:44Yeah.
23:45The pain and the grief didn't hit until I was at her memorial service.
23:51And seeing her picture and then this little box in front of it.
23:56That's when it really hit.
23:58Like, that's my sister.
24:00I was never going to hear her voice again.
24:02I was never going to be able to hug her again.
24:06detective's decide that John's employee, James Vieada, the one who'd only known him for three weeks, is the one most likely to cut a deal.
24:20and they bring a texas ranger into the interrogation room
24:25jim holland is a legend here in texas he is an expert at solving cold cases
24:37and one interview makes all the difference
24:50five months into the investigation police are still searching for jesus trevino that employee
25:02who met up with john macrus on the morning of the murder if someone could provide us with
25:08information to get him located and return to texas finally a tip leads authorities more than a
25:16thousand miles away jesus was ultimately located in the clearwater florida area and taken into
25:23custody by u.s marshals jesus trevino is in custody but he's not talking so investigators turn again
25:32to john macrus's other employee james vieda hey james jim along with the rangers how you doing
25:40this time police bring in an investigator with the texas rangers how's i treating you today
25:46the other it seems is starstruck you actually remind me of the the legend of the texas rangers
25:53i heard about but with the old wild west days yeah yeah they'll send all these marshals and
25:58sheriffs in there and it took one texas ranger one white one ranger right okay james was infatuated
26:05with texas rangers and that actually worked out to our advantage if you've ever trusted anyone in
26:09your life today's the name because there's no one else that can help you in this deal
26:14you just want to go home there's an opportunity for that
26:21you steer the boat man if you don't play you can get night at the capital murder
26:29james vieda decides to play and over the course of a four-hour interview he paints a disturbing
26:37picture of a plot of crime and a cover-up his story starts with a call from an old friend
26:43jesus trevino that other man from the morning laura was killed there was no conversation it was
26:51later on that the job came up john vieda says the conversation quickly turned from working a
26:58construction job to becoming an accomplice in a murder so first he tells you hey uh you want
27:08to help me with the job i'm going to shoot this lady and i'll give you a thousand dollars for it
27:12hey what else does he say that's what he tells me yeah it's about john's wife he's he's sending out
27:18vieda says he was paid one thousand dollars just to drive jesus to laura's home jesus had approached
27:26multiple people he said i'll pay you money if you drive me to kill my boss's wife and the first and
27:34second person turned him down so i believe that james was brought in at the last minute to drive
27:41jesus to laura's house to kill her james vieda tells police laura grillo's death was no robbery gone
27:50wrong he says it was a murder for hire orchestrated by the man laura was just days away from marrying
27:58john macrus he's not happy he doesn't want to marry her but he knows it'll be easier she'll take the
28:06kids and he wants to keep the kids so he's going to kill her to keep the kids basically yeah he mentioned
28:14that he and jesus had driven out to ralette several times attempting to kill laura but there was always
28:21something that scared jesus like somebody walking down the street or it was raining something that
28:26made them feel uncomfortable and they would go back to dallas james indicated that john was getting
28:33upset with jesus because it's getting close to the wedding and i need laura to be killed before the
28:39wedding get it done this is hard to get this done it's because i have got sued i'm not ready i'm not
28:47doing anything for the wedding you need to quit investigators find text messages john macrus sent jesus
28:57trevino on the morning laura was killed saying don't be late it's a good day to get some work done
29:06that information in conjunction with jesus's cell phone records that show his phone was traveling
29:11towards ralette we felt like that was the code for today's the day you know come get this done tell
29:17me where you dropped him off right in front of us i'm supposed to park uh on the other block and wait
29:27till he comes out once laura walked in she went to the right which goes towards the kitchen area
29:33and that's when jesus jumped out when he gets back in the car what does he say to you let's go james
29:43told us when they were leaving north out of ralette that jesus was throwing his shoes out he was throwing
29:49his hoodie out along the roads we were able to find one shoe and one hoodie that was still out there
29:59flattened out in the grass after we started heading to the home depot that's when he starts talking
30:06um i scared her she actually tried to run
30:11the other's confession may be a breakthrough but police still have a problem cameras never capture jesus
30:36trevino and his black sedan anywhere near the crime scene but james villeda has an answer for
30:43that too when you drove over there you drove yes okay what car were you driving
30:49um some great car jesus had gone out and purchased a car for the sole reason for committing the murder
31:04they brought the new car out committed the murder parked the car got in their black sedan and drove to
31:11the home depot to the home depot you can see on the home depot video that they're driving a black lincoln
31:21viella says he doesn't know what kind of car the new one is but he does know where to find it
31:27investigators recovered this silver kia sedan in a local dallas garage and when police go back to the
31:34surveillance video in raulet sure enough we were able to find that silver kia sedan leaving laura's
31:41neighborhood at the morning that she was killed james is finally deciding to cooperate and gave us the
31:50information that we needed to move forward with arresting john i'm gonna go arrest him
31:57police arrested the fiance of a mother of three found murdered inside her home in november john
32:03macrus is in custody and investigators are about to reveal just how far back they believe the plot
32:10to kill laura grillo goes when laura had sent the email saying i'm going to leave and we think that
32:17email signed laura's death warrant bond is set at three million dollars for a man accused of paying
32:30two employees to kill his bride-to-be john macrus and jesus travino were charged with capital murder
32:37they pled not guilty it was like there there's going to be some kind of justice we might never
32:43get closure but there will be justice had for laura yes finally hey come on have a seat and now it's john
32:55macrus laura grillo's fiance who's in the interrogation room with that texas ranger he denies having
33:03anything to do with laura's murder sometimes i was getting angry or mad with her and stuff like that but
33:10no i mean i didn't know what you killed if you arranged for him to kill her and then you changed
33:17your mind and said don't do it but he still wanted the money so he did it then that's something that needs
33:21to come out john because that's not what they're giving me investigators don't believe him i loved
33:29him i still love him they say john macrus is just playing the part of an innocent man john did a very
33:39good job of making sure that he was captured on video as many places as he could be that's when
33:47investigators become aware of evidence that they claim suggests macrus had been planning the murder
33:55for months in december 2014 an ex-girlfriend of jesus had made a report to the rock wild police
34:03department that was the first time that it was known that jesus was talking about committing this crime
34:09according to the police report a friend of trevinos offered him fifteen thousand dollars to kill his
34:16wife or five thousand dollars to find someone who would but according to the police he didn't say who
34:23that friend was this nearly a year before laura grillo was murdered he didn't give her any names at
34:32that point so she had no idea who the intended victim was going to be the case was referred to the texas
34:39rangers they declined abc news request for an interview he had been planning this since december
34:45of 2014. so in june of 2015 when laura had sent the email saying i'm going to leave and i can't promise
34:55i'll stay in texas john about 20 minutes later he forwards it to jesus unfortunately we think that email
35:03signed laura's death warrant and soon after that john macrus proposes but investigators don't believe
35:13he ever intended to go through with any wedding he knew that time was running out and that he had to
35:19act quickly to keep her here the motive here was he wanted to control laura he wanted sole custody of
35:27the four-year-old daughter and because he couldn't control laura he decided to just eliminate her
35:34when john is arrested little maria is taken in by laura's friend heather
35:41and in september of 2018 john macrus goes on trial in dallas county john's defense was that
35:50he had you know no involvement and jesus and james just went rogue and did this on their own it didn't
35:56make sense his defense doesn't make sense to the jury either john macrus is convicted of capital murder
36:05and so is jesus trevinio the man who actually pulled the trigger they are sentenced to life without
36:15parole but what about the driver james vieda he too was charged with capital murder but made a deal
36:25with prosecutors since james did cooperate with us and testify in both john and jesus's trial we did give
36:32him a lesser charge of murder and he was sentenced to 25 years in the texas department of corrections
36:41i wrote a victim's impact statement on behalf of my sister because my sister no longer has a voice
36:47so i'm speaking for her and the people that did this to her that took her life
36:53needed to be put away and kept away forever
36:56john macrus is now behind bars for life but his next step is hard to believe he's ready to go back
37:05to court this time to keep laura's best friend heather from adopting his young daughter the daughter she
37:12had been raising what happened when you get that notification that john wants his daughter i'm like
37:18well i'm fighting i'm not giving up that's my kid
37:33that day that laura was killed the family they stepped on the landmine
37:40laura gorilla was not the only victim in this brutal crime
37:43so are her three children including four-year-old maria whom laura shared with john macrus
37:50all of them have lost their mother and their home after laura was murdered and john was arrested
37:57then the two older children were returned to their biological fathers they lost the only siblings
38:04they knew it was pretty horrifying when john macrus was arrested heather laura's best friend and neighbor
38:16took maria in i love heather um she has such a caring heart and she loved those kids
38:25laura did even say like if you know something happens to me please take my kids to her
38:29but macrus convicted for capital murder wants his daughter to be raised by his mother
38:38he wanted maria to go to greece with his mom well knowing what i know about john and how he
38:45liked to be in control of everything i wasn't surprised i was just wishing that
38:53the four-year-old could stay here in texas because i felt that's what she knew
38:59in 2019 the case went to trial
39:08and the jury awarded custody to heather
39:13she's mine i adopted her why was that so important i wasn't gonna give up
39:20move your feet that's my kid
39:21this case had lots of twists and turns and you know i would characterize this case as a once in a
39:35career case we didn't have any idea what we were getting into on day one when we responded to this
39:41call you had a really sweet woman that did not deserve to be taken from her children
39:51the only person who had the means and the motive to take laura away from her family was john
39:56the jury saw john for the man that he was it was a feeling i'll never forget
40:05abc news contacted john macrus at the texas prison where he's serving his life sentence
40:11he declined our request for an interview he thought he could get away with something and john
40:20well you know what you stole something from a lot of people and
40:29as far as i'm concerned john macrus can rot in hell
40:35very pretty snow angel i should still be hearing her voice
40:39she was the coolest friend i ever had
40:47my sister was an amazing person anything that she decided that she was going to do she did it
40:52how often do you think of laura
40:57every day i can't help it i mean i got a little mini laura in my house you know she reminds me so much
41:05of her mom maria and her siblings are growing up now without their mother what do you want them
41:12to remember about laura she loved them more than anything in the world she would want them to be happy
41:35so
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