Some of the things that human beings
do to one another,
when you think about it from the point of view of that person
whose life is being taken...
..and think about what they are put through,
what their emotions are...
..I just simply believe there are times
when people do things that are so heinous,
so calculated, that we have an obligation to say,
"You have forfeited your right to live among us."
Everyone in prison will tell you they're innocent.
Either they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, they were
framed or they had a confession beat out of them by law enforcement.
I'm actually one of those people.
I am sitting on death row for nothing more than a series of lies,
while the person who actually committed the crime
got a life sentence.
Law enforcement is very crafty and they're out there to win.
Are they out there to do justice or are they out there to win?
And in Emilia's case, they were out to win.
Police are not on your side
and they are trained in interrogation techniques.
They befriend you, they just want to clear this up, they want to
clear your name and nothing can be further from the truth.
Because of her emotional state and physical state, being pregnant,
the hormones, they play all sorts of tricks on your head.
She believed that her love and her heart
and her honesty would bear out.
She was very good at manipulating people.
She was very conniving.
She was an innocent that was manipulated by law enforcement
into giving a false confession.
She's, I think, truly what you would call a sociopath.
Yes, I was told,
prior to trial and the
day that the trial began,
that if I would have taken a plea,
I would have avoided the death penalty.
Because I wasn't going to...
I didn't accept the plea
because I wasn't going to sign my life away for something I didn't do.
That's just...
No. That's not right.
That's foolish.
- We're currently looking into the disappearance of your daughter. - Yes.
- OK, have you heard from her? - No, I haven't.
When was the last time you heard from her?
Erm...somewhere about the 10th, 11th or 12th of February.
Is this unusual for...
Yes, it is and Heather's birthday is
Monday and if she doesn't call me
Monday, I know something's wrong.
Right. Right, yes, ma'am.
Me and Heather were really close.
We always talked about things,
she was always real open.
She never was in trouble as a child, so, you know,
we more or less spent a lot of mother-daughter time together.
Me and Heather had a lot of similarities in our past.
Just a lot of things growing up.
We had a lot of similar passions.
She wanted to be a teacher, you know, I became a massage therapist.
Just... We got along really well.
Our children is where we were closer.
We both had that maternal love
and we both always tried to do what was best for our kids.
Heather Strong was originally reported missing
somewhere around February 15th 2009
and, at this time, it's like March 18th 2009, so it's about a month, a
little over a month later and as far as we knew no-one had seen her
since that time.
- BACKGROUND CAFE NOISE - You got a blue one? Yeah.
She was a good employee.
That's why when she didn't come to
work we all knew something was wrong
because she always showed up
for work. She was a single mother
raising two kids.
Always showed up for work.
And when she didn't come, everybody was concerned.
I went to the Petro where Heather had worked.
I spoke to one of her co-workers who described that on the day
she disappeared, she had had a very upsetting phone call
from Josh Fulgham, who is actually Heather's estranged husband.
She got a phone call from Josh
and I don't know what was said,
I don't think Miss Brenda knows either
but she knows that it upset Heather.
After the phone call, she indicated to other people that she just
needed to get away from him and keep the kids away from him.
Josh had not been spoken to yet and Josh was also a suspect at the time.
There were things about his story we wanted to check out.
I try to pride myself in my work.
Some people say it's personal, I say it's professional.
The family needs answers.
I'm that person, I'm very, very nosy.
I'm not going to accept some quasi-answer a person may give me.
I'm going to check and balance that case or that lead or whatever
statement that they've given me.
I'm going to dig a little bit deeper.
Not saying that other detectives don't work as hard as I do
but I work at a different beat.
You have to think like a criminal to catch a criminal.
Thank you for waiting, I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah, I'm just...I get up at four in the morning.
- OK, I'm sorry. - That's all right buddy, take your time.
SGT SPIVEY: When we first started speaking to Josh, he acted as if
he had no idea where Heather was.
He actually indicated that he believed she was in Mississippi.
Knowing that Josh had picked up Heather and she had ridden in the
car with him and after this no-one else has seen her or knows where
she's at, leads us to believe Josh is the last one to see her
before she went missing.
DET BUIE: Now, at the Petro, where was she hanging out at?
There was a brick wall down there,
she was standing right over there and she had a red suitcase that's
pull-out, it's got wheels on it, she had it and a black duffel bag.
- So, a pair of jeans and a red T-shirt. - Red T-shirt.
I think it was Old Navy because it had a flag or something on it,
I think it was Old Navy.
And then you got back in your car?
- And I went back to the house. - And when you left, she was...
- Right there at Petro. - Standing up there at Petro.
You know there's a video at Petro, right?
Yeah. Oh, yeah, they got cameras all around that thing.
No video.
Of what?
Of her, of Heather
at that Petro on that date
- all day, all night.
We also learned that Josh had an
on- and off-again relationship with a female named Emilia Carr.
I was actually, we were home and we were cooking dinner
and it had to be about 7.00 or 7.30
and we get a knock at the back door
and me and my mom, we opened the
door and there's two detectives
standing there and they're like,
"Well, we wonder if you'll come in for questioning regarding
"Heather Strong being missing."
and I'm looking around, I'm like, "Excuse me?"
And my mom's like, "What's going on?"
They're like, "No, we just want to ask her some questions.
"We just want to, you know, see if she might know what's going on." So, I went.
- We'll be right with you, OK? - All righty.
We knew that Josh had lived with her for a time and then left her
and married Heather and then went back to Emilia.
Josh and Heather's relationship was very off and on.
They would be great together for a little
while and then they would separate and she would leave and she would
take the kids and then they would get back together for a little
while and then something would go wrong again
and it was just not a healthy relationship at all.
Me and Heather stayed in touch
because, at the end of the day, there was no animosity.
We would hang out, just girl talk.
We learned that Emilia already had three children
and was currently eight months' pregnant with her fourth child.
SHE BREATHES DEEPLY
The rumour being that this was Josh's child.
- Hey. - Hey. - Tired? - I'm exhausted.
- Exhausted? - About my bedtime.
I'm going to try and make this as quick as possible, OK?
- I appreciate you coming up here. - You look tired, too!
Very tired. I appreciate you coming up here.
- How far along are you? - I'm eight months.
- You're eight months? - Yeah. - OK.
Trying to get some things together, we're trying to sort out
some differences and get a clear understanding, OK?
'Emilia was a thinker.'
She was more calculating in everything she said.
She was aware that what she'd say may come back to bite her.
I'm hoping you guys find her, man.
Well, we're going to find her - find her with your help.
SHE SIGHS
- With your help, we're going to find her, OK? - Yeah.
I need you to understand that, I need your help.
I know, and I'm here to help.
I mean, we've got kids who need both parents and...
If you know something, this is the time, this is our opportunity,
- because you want to see that baby being born. - Oh, yeah.
You know what I mean? OK?
You don't want something to bite you in the behind if you know something.
- I know. - OK?
I was tired, cos, you know, when you are that far along,
you are tired all the time.
And I'm sitting there and waiting for them to come in and say
whatever they have to say so I can go home,
and the first thing he says to me when he comes in there is,
"You want to see that baby born, don't you?"
'And so, I'm taken off-guard, cos I'm like, did he just threaten me?'
And so, after that, I'm like, what's going on?
What's really going on? Because something's wrong here.