Snapped: Women Who Murder - BONUS: Buried in Money (Buried in the Backyard)

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

We are bringing you a special bonus episode featuring a case from Oxygen's hit series, “Buried in the Backyard.”  The luckiest moment in a man's life gives way to a dark mystery... when he vanishes after winning a multi-million-dollar lottery. Season 04, Episode 01Originally aired: November 18, 2021 Watch full episodes of Buried in the Backyard live or OnDemand for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, SNF listeners. We are bringing you a special bonus episode today from Oxygen True Crimes hit series buried in the backyard. We're turning to Oxygen on Saturday, July 1st at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time. You can also watch full episodes on Oxygen every
Starting point is 00:00:35 Saturday or on demand on the free Oxygen app by clicking the link in our description. Enjoy. The luckiest day in a man's life. He won $31 million. Turns him into a neighborhood hero. He bought us a house. He had that heart to give. But when no one hears from him for months, I talk to him every day.
Starting point is 00:01:00 And he had a new return like all. A bizarre phone call deepens the mystery. His voice sounds a little funny. Somebody could've robbed him. Of course, he's bitter. He lost a lawsuit involving millions of dollars. A guy from his shop imps took everything that we had in the safe for cash and left with it. And an undercover operation.
Starting point is 00:01:25 There's a recording device sitting in a empty can of Red Bull. Since police looking for answers, hidden below the surface of a quiet Florida town. She takes a piece of angler, sticks it in the ground, and whispers, tell your boy to dig six feet down. And this is where the plot thickens. Plant City is a rural patch of Florida back road where life is simple, and agriculture is king.
Starting point is 00:02:05 Plant city is known for strawberry farms. It's in between Tampa, the beautiful Gulf Coast beaches, and the theme parks of Orlando. It's the implant city. It's country. Most people, as you may want to hear the news, they go up on the tree and sit on milk crates and buckets and have conversation about what could have been and what's not today.
Starting point is 00:02:32 On a January morning in 2010, the conversation in Plant City is all about the law enforcement that's descended on an unassuming house in the town. The police are responding to a tip in a case that has puzzled this community for months. Their news camera is all around trying to get just a glimpse of what law enforcement finds. The police have reason to believe that a body is buried deep in the earth in the backyard.
Starting point is 00:03:03 The forensic team focuses on something that seems out of place in the rural backyard. A large cement slab. That morning we began breaking up the concrete slab. We finally get down to about six feet, two inches. And one of the crime scene technicians says, I think I've got something. We carefully start wiping away the dirt, and we realize that it's a body lay in there. The body had been there for nine months.
Starting point is 00:03:37 You can almost imagine the smell and the stench. They can immediately determine that it's human remains, but they have to see whose remains they are. The investigators believe they've finally uncovered the evidence they've been seeking of a brutal murder. This murder was the tragic finale to a rags-to-riches story that ended up with a person buried in the backyard. The chances of winning Florida's lottery are in a
Starting point is 00:04:14 stounding 15 million to one. But in places like the hard-scrabble community of Lakeland, Florida, dreams about hitting it big provide a welcome break from reality. In our community, we don't have too many things that we can't get into without getting into a little mischief. A lot of people play lottery. You dreamin' a lot of it.
Starting point is 00:04:36 I dreamin' a lot of it. For Greg Smith's friend, Abraham Shakespeare, that dream is one of the few things that keep his spirits high. I think he wished in hope and pray that he would hit the lottery. But Aaron was in a real fortunate person. He left school to go to work to see what he can do about helping his family. When he started writing the orange bro's, picking fruit, morn yards, ricking yards, and whatever money he made,
Starting point is 00:05:07 he helped his family with it. Abraham stayed with his mother and helped her with the bills and was pretty content being a day laborer. And his life was based around his mother and taking care of her. Abraham was sit on the porch and he would just tell us, you know, if he had money, what he would do. And he would like say what the house he wanted or nice cars and, you know, yeah, he was a dreamer.
Starting point is 00:05:42 On November 15, 2006, Abraham is working some odd jobs of a man named Michael Ford. And they stop at a local convenience store to pick up some food and drinks. Guys, when he wanted to sold us, and Abraham said, no, just get me two lottery tickets. That night, they got it on the door, came to my house. He said your cousin just hit the lottery.
Starting point is 00:06:08 He won $31 million. Abraham decides to take a one-time payout of $16.9 million. The money lets him show a generous side that he never could before. He bought us a house. He had that heart to give. He just felt like that's what he needed to do, just help people. When Abraham learns that a local barber, his friend and former boss, Greg Smith,
Starting point is 00:06:38 is trying to get an $87,000 loan from the bank, he steps in to help. He's braving his envelope. Cash is checking my name. I said, I'm not going to take this money from free from you. I'm going to take the payments that I was going to do to the bank, and I'll pay you the same amount. After a life spent in poverty, Abraham treats himself to. He bought a home in North Lakeland, which was a homey dream
Starting point is 00:07:03 dove. He bought a home in North Lakeland, which was a home he dreamed of. It was scary because he didn't know how to manage his money. He had a undergraduate around him, but half of those people he didn't know. They knew he couldn't read, they knew he couldn't write. You know he can sign down but his name. He said, man, if it's time I turn around, somebody won't stop.
Starting point is 00:07:28 He was their cash cow, and they milked him daily. Suddick sold them down to the neighborhood. You got to think now. You can go through this money. You got people coming from everywhere, so you got to be careful. But he was so happy not to be poor and more. That wasn't even a thought.
Starting point is 00:07:45 And his mo-h-h. By October 2008, less than two years after winning the jackpot, Abraham is down to his last $2 million. Then, his luck changes once again. When a local businesswoman named Dede Moore takes an interest in Abraham's rags to riches story. Dede Moore was introduced to him by a mutual friend. He had an interesting story to tell,
Starting point is 00:08:13 and she proposed that she write a book on him. And I think he was very captivated by that. But as the two start to work on the book, it doesn't take long before Dee Dee discovers that Abraham is in over his head financially. She found out that he hadn't paid the taxes on his house, that he was behind on certain bills. And so she made a pretty reasonable proposal. Why don't you let me handle your finances? When I first made Dee Dee, she came serious with that attitude.
Starting point is 00:08:45 Listen, I'm Abraham's financial advisor. Money's not being returned and I'm not here to lose money but to make money. It made perfect sense. With Dee Dee handling Abraham's finances, she advises him to stay home, away from all the outstretched hands that follow him everywhere. And he just couldn't turn him away.
Starting point is 00:09:11 He couldn't say no. But he was really unhappy. We just didn't see him, no? We thought, well, maybe he didn't want to be bothered. So we gave him a benefit at the doubt. She bothered. So we gave him a benefit at it out. After several weeks without any word from Abraham, his family reaches out to the only person they believe is still in contact with him.
Starting point is 00:09:35 His financial advisor, Dede. We call Dede to find out what Abraham was. And she told us that he went out of town. She was receiving text from him, and she shared those texts with his family to show the family that he was okay. He did mention wanting to leave town. We wanted to help him because everybody else dreamed he was trying to fulfill a never-haired type of itself.
Starting point is 00:10:08 And it might've went by, might've went by. And no Abraham. His phone was it going, it ring, ring, ring, answer service, come on. So it just don't seem like I'm going to report this. Seven months after anyone last saw Abraham, his cousin decides the family has waited long enough. In November of 2009, our missing persons unit took a call from a gentleman named Cedric Edom.
Starting point is 00:10:41 I said listen, my cousin is missing. I talk to him every day. And he hadn't been returning my calls. We reach out to Abraham's mother and find out it was around April that the last she actually physically saw Abraham. Since then, she tells the detectives she's received only text messages from her son.
Starting point is 00:11:00 But they've left her more troubled than comforted. Some texts were telling her that he was fine. He just don't want to be bothered. Abraham's mother told us we're a little confused. He can't text message because he can't read or write. So we had to determine, are we these text messages legitimate? Was he with someone that was actually sending the text for him.
Starting point is 00:11:25 We felt there was something suspicious about the case. This is more than a missing person's case. It was a missing person involving a $30 plus million dollar lottery winner. Abraham was owned money by lots of people. So you have the potential for people who owed him money or people that wanted money from him trying to hurt him in some way.
Starting point is 00:11:50 Right from the beginning, there are lots of different suspects in really no evidence and no leads. Michael Ford filed a lawsuit and alleged that Abraham stole the ticket from him. If this wasn't Abraham who called, who wasn't? We want you to record every conversation. Let me see, what we can do to get you out of this, because I know you didn't kill it. We get our binoculars out, we get our camera out,
Starting point is 00:12:23 we just like, oh my god, this is crazy. Seven months after multi-million dollar lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare was last seen, investigators are looking for leads in his disappearance. We began with Dee Dee Moore. She was the last person that we knew had seen him. Dee Dee says she's in touch with Abraham. Abraham just needed some time away. That he needed a break from everything.
Starting point is 00:13:03 Dee Dee shows us her phone where she's been receiving text message from Abraham. And the text message back from Abraham saying, I don't wanna be bothered. D.D. also shows investigators a video she made of a conversation she had with Abraham a few months earlier while discussing the book she planned to write about him. In this video, she speaks to Abraham and says,
Starting point is 00:13:29 are you tired of people asking you for money? Are you tired of all the stress? And Abraham says, yeah, I just want to get away. After our initial interview with D.D., we started looking at everybody that owed Abraham money. Once we learned the totality of all the money that Abraham had loaned out, given out, people owe him money. We had our hands full. We had 20, 30 people that we needed to talk to. We wanted to explore every avenue we could.
Starting point is 00:14:05 We wanted to explore every avenue we could. We learned that approximately six months after Abraham won the lottery, Michael Ford, who bought the lottery ticket, gave it to Abraham, filed a lawsuit, and took Abraham to court, and alleged that Abraham stole the ticket from him. That was investigated and was settled in court. And it was determined that Michael Ford was not the owner of the ticket. That Abraham did give him the money and was the rifle owner of the ticket. Investigators recognized that losing out on $31 million could cause Michael Ford to hold a grudge against Abraham. Michael Ford was actually living in Georgia, and we actually sent a detective to Georgia to speak with him in person.
Starting point is 00:14:59 Michael Ford, of course, he admitted, yes, we had to dispute over the lottery ticket. Of course, he's bitter. He lost a lawsuit against Abraham involving millions of dollars. But Michael Ford said, I lost the dispute, and I accepted it, and I'm not involved. But the detectives can't take his denial at face value,
Starting point is 00:15:30 not with a man's life potentially at stake. So they dig deeper into Michael's background. We actually went so far as to pull phone records of Michael Ford to actually see where he was at the time that we believed Abraham was last seen. As investigators wait for Michael Ford's phone records, the story of the missing lottery winner is splashed across the headlines.
Starting point is 00:15:56 The attention generates no shortage of tips. I mean, we got called just far as Los Angeles, California, from people that said they saw Abraham in a CVS pharmacy. They were so certain it was him. We called Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office and had someone go pull the video from the day this person said they saw him. Once we saw the video, we knew it wasn't Abraham.
Starting point is 00:16:26 You have to weed through. Is this true? Is this not true? And you know, you don't want to miss the tip that's gonna break it. A few days later, the cell phone records for Michael Ford come in and they confirm his alibi. After looking into his phone records,
Starting point is 00:16:45 we were able to determine that Michael Ford was in Georgia at the time Abraham went missing and was not involved and was no longer a suspect in the case. With no word from Abraham and no progress in the police search for him, those closest to him, including his mother Elizabeth, find it hard to hold on to hope. He was always riding around with different people and pulling up the clubs. Somebody could have robbed him because he kept money in his chump.
Starting point is 00:17:19 It was well known that he had a lot of money, and he carried cash around with him. Anything was possible. As Christmas approaches, the family finds it difficult to celebrate the holidays with Abraham still missing. Then, Abraham's mother receives an odd phone call. Abraham's mother was having lunch after Christmas, and she gets a call from Abraham. He wishes her a merry Christmas and tells his mother that he's
Starting point is 00:17:55 fine and just wants to be left alone. And when she gets off the phone, Abraham's mom or realize something, that it was not Abraham that she was talking to. Like any mother who knows her son's voice, she knew that someone had called pretending to be Abraham. And this is where the plot thickens. With this strange call to Abraham's mother. So that's where law
Starting point is 00:18:26 enforcement starts looking with one strong piece of evidence they have. And they're trying to figure out if this wasn't Abraham who called who wasn't. The hardest true crime story to report on is your own. I'm Tiffany Reese, host of the podcast, Something Was Wrong. For 15 seasons, I've always aimed to validate and amplify the voices of those who have survived abuse and crime. But for season 16, I'm opening up for the first time about my own experiences as an abuse survivor and a murder co-victim. With the help of trusted friends, we'll unpack my journey to becoming a victim advocate
Starting point is 00:19:08 by examining my past. From the emotional and physical abuse I endured at the hands of my parents, and the bullying I received from my classmates, to the murder of my brother, and the securities fraud my father was convicted of, I'm covering it all, and even learning more about myself through this process. This is obviously a very personal journey for me, but I believe that this will play a part in my healing, helping me to process the trauma that I endured. Follow something was wrong wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:19:36 You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. No one is heard from Florida Lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare for nearly eight months. Then, just after Christmas 2009, his mother receives a phone call from someone claiming to be her son. Abraham's mother said, his voice sounds a little funny. I'm like, what's the phone number he called you from? She says, well, it was a private funny. I'm like, what's the phone number he called you from? She says, well, it was a private number. I met with my partner and we knew we could subpoena her phone records and we're going to be able to
Starting point is 00:20:12 see what number called. Usually it takes a day or two to get anything, but with this subpoena, 20 minutes later, which is unheard of. We have an email with the GPS location of the phone. They also learn who the phone belongs to, and it's a big surprise. It doesn't belong to Abraham, but to someone close to him. This phone is registered to Greg Smith. Greg Smith was a barber in Polk County, and Abraham had lent Greg Smith $87,000 after he'd won the lottery.
Starting point is 00:20:52 The GPS coordinates placed the phone at a local shopping mall, and detectives realized it could still be at that location. We stop what we're doing, we jump in our car, and we drive to the Lake Le Mans. It's the day after Christmas, thousands of cars there. We pull in there, and we park, and we both look at each other like, what are we going to do? What are we looking for? We sit there for about five minutes and we look up and Incom's DD Moore's car. We just like, oh my god, this is crazy.
Starting point is 00:21:36 So, DD's car pulls up next to another car. She gets out of her car. She gets in the passenger seat of this car. She gets out of her car. She gets in the passenger seat of this car. We get our binoculars out. We got our camera out. We can't tell who it is. Dede hands this gentleman a lot of cash? She gets in her car and leaves.
Starting point is 00:22:08 So we're like, let's follow him. We cut the car off. I have my badge out and I go, hey, I'm a homicide detected with a sheriff's office. We need to talk to you. We don't need nobody to know we're talking to you. What do you want to do? So this gentleman says, I guess I'm talk to you. We don't need nobody to know we're talking to you. What do you want to do? So, this gentleman says, I guess I'm going to cooperate.
Starting point is 00:22:30 We identify him as Greg Smith. He's the one that made the phone call to Abraham's mother. I say this. I made that telephone call. A lady paid me $5,000 to call. And say I was Abraham Shakespeare. I'm thinking Abraham don't want to talk to him anymore. She's trying to get in contact with him. But investigators wonder whether he's telling the whole story.
Starting point is 00:23:03 We realize that Greg actually owes Abraham over $100,000. of getting contact with him. But investigators wonder whether he's telling the whole story. We realize that Greg actually owes Abraham over $100,000. Greg was very suspicious to us. So we sit and talk to Greg a little more. According to Greg, the plan was hatched when D.D. came to him to collect on Abraham's loan. The plan was hatched when D.D. came to him to collect on Abraham's loan. D.D. was putting pressure on him to pay this debt. Then on the other hand, she was offering money to do these phone calls. When we told Greg that something was going on with Abraham, he did genuinely seem surprised.
Starting point is 00:23:43 He said, you may have a telephone call and impersonated somebody else, and that's all. The detectives have nothing to charge Greg with, so he's free to go home. But now they want to know more about why DD, who everyone believes has been helping Abraham, would set up a phony phone call. They begin digging into her background. Law enforcement quickly realized that
Starting point is 00:24:08 Dee Dee did not have a squeaky claim passed. Dee Dee had been accused of stealing from the business that she worked. A mysterious fire in the office started which burned all the records. We also found she was arrested for insurance fraud has started which burned all the records. We also found she was arrested for insurance fraud, where she claimed that some guys, car-jacked her, robbed her, tried to rape her
Starting point is 00:24:33 through in the ditch and stole her car. Given her past, the detectives now consider a disturbing possibility, rather than helping Abraham, was DD methodically stealing from him? To help find the answer, the investigators go back to Greg Smith and ask for help. We told Greg,
Starting point is 00:24:57 we want you to be part of our team. We want you to continue talking to DD, but we want you to record every conversation. He said, listen, go meet with her. And see what she got to say. I say, serious man, I ain't trying to chase that woman. But when a thawist told me he's a missing man, I believed that. So I said, I'll tell you what, what you need me to do to help you out.
Starting point is 00:25:26 So, police end up wiring Greg Smith and sending him back out to meet with Deity Moore. I get the phone call. Hey, meet me at the gas station. So I say, okay, Eric, it's on. He says, if you want me to do this, I need the body. I am really here. Eight months after Abraham Shakespeare disappeared,
Starting point is 00:26:00 his friend Greg Smith has agreed to help police by wearing a wire and meeting with Abraham's financial advisor who is emerged as a possible suspect. At this point, we feel that Abraham might be the victim of foul play. And Dee Dee is a suspect in the case. So once we knew that Greg was in there with Dee Dee, our strategy was, OK, let's put pressure on Dee Dee
Starting point is 00:26:26 and see what happens. Ready to start their sting operation, Greg Smith sets up a meeting with Dee Dee Moore. There's a recording device sitting in a empty can of Red Bull, and Greg and Dee Dee are talking. an empty can of red bull. And Greg and Dity are talking. I asked Dity, I said, hey, man, listen. Where's Abraham at?
Starting point is 00:26:52 Where is he at? I ain't heard from him. She says. Everybody think I did something to Abraham. I said, thank you did something to Abraham. What are you talking about? Dity tells Greg that she needs to find someone who's willing to take the rap for Abraham's disappearance,
Starting point is 00:27:12 and that she'll pay someone to do it. There's no evidence of foul play at this point, but now police have her red handed, offering money to help cover up Abraham's disappearance. D.D.'s incriminating statements give the detectives the probable cause they need to do a deeper investigative dive. We set out subpoenas for Dede's phone and Abraham's phone. Prior to April 7th, Abraham averaged 200 calls a day on his phone. And the only communication he has after April 7th is with Dede Moore. The combined phone records reveal another alarming detail. Many times, texts were coming from Abraham Shakespeare's phone.
Starting point is 00:28:12 The cell phone towers that his alleged texts were coming from were hanging from the same towers as where Dee Dee Moore was at the time. It became evident at that point that unless they're sitting in the car next to each other, texting each other, D.D. has Abraham's phone. But investigators need solid proof of D.D.'s involvement in Abraham's disappearance, or worse, before they can charge her with anything. So they once again call up their man on the inside, Greg Smith. They instruct him to call D.D. with an offer.
Starting point is 00:28:53 We call Greg Smith and we say, hey listen, we want you to tell D.D. If there happens to be any chance Abraham's dead, any chance something happened to Abraham, I have a solution. I asked Dee Dee, I said, hey, is Abraham dead? It's a reverse psychology thing. I know you didn't kill him. What happened? Let me see what we can do to get you out of this.
Starting point is 00:29:18 Cause I know you didn't kill him. I said, you know what, I got somebody. He'll take the fall for killing Abraham. And he tells her, I have a cousin. This is about to be sentenced to 30-plus years. And for the right amount of money, my cousin will take a murder route. I say, you know what, I feel you don't get rid of all this. You got to tell me where the body at.
Starting point is 00:29:42 And Dee Dee, without admitting anything, just says, well, I want to meet him. At the detective's direction, Greg Smith sets up another meeting with Dee Dee. But this time, the police also send an undercover cop named Mike Smith, who poses as Greg's cousin. Me and Mike, we went out met Diti. We set it up in the Lakeland Mall parking lot. Greg pulls up with Mike Smith.
Starting point is 00:30:11 They get in Diti's car. She says, I don't know if anything's happened to Abraham. I can't get a hold of him. He wrote me, turn my calls. So Mike starts pressing her. You know, what do you mean? You think something, either something happened to him
Starting point is 00:30:27 or didn't. In that conversation, she finally admits that she believes Abraham's dead. And that somebody shot him. Prior to this meeting, there was no evidence that Abraham Shakespeare was dead. He could have been missing, and this was all just a cover-up for him being gone.
Starting point is 00:30:53 And Mike says, well, if he's dead, I'll take the murder route. He says, I want $50,000. But if you want me to do this, I need the body. The undercover is saying, for my story to law enforcement, to be credible if I'm going to confess to this crime, I need to know details. Deede tells the undercover she can identify where the body is. And that Abraham was killed with a 38-calibur Smith
Starting point is 00:31:25 and Westman revolver, and that she has to go. Did he leave Smichen Greg? But later that evening, she calls Greg and wants to see him alone. Yeah, I get the phone call. Hey, meet me at the gas station. So I say, OK, Eric, it's on. I got to be on my guards at all time.
Starting point is 00:31:48 I don't know what to expect from her. Law enforcement laid this great trap for D.D. They end up getting her to admit that Abraham Shakespeare is dead, that she has the gun, and she knows where the body is buried. She takes Greg Smith to plant city off Highway 60, where we had identified a house that she had purchased out there. When we pulled up to that house, she said, I'm gonna get out the car,
Starting point is 00:32:29 and I'm gonna show you exactly where the body is. She walks into the very far back of the house, and there's a concrete slab back there. And she takes a piece of angle iron, sticks it in the ground, and whispers to Greg, tell your boy to dig six feet down and you'll find Abraham's body. And D.D. actually hands Greg Smith, a Smith and Wesson 38 caliber revolver.
Starting point is 00:33:07 She says this is the gun that was used to kill Abraham. I was able to get it from the person that killed Abraham. The first thing we do is we secure a search warrant for that property. We need to buy. On January 25, 2010, police move into the backyard of the home just outside Plant City, Florida, Abraham's hometown. When the sun came up, we began digging. The first part, we had to break apart a 30 by 30 concrete slab. As we're breaking apart the concrete slab, we had to look for any evidence, and then we
Starting point is 00:33:54 began layer by layer taking the dirt away. We're putting it in a sifter, looking for any evidence, and another layer and another layer. So the first day, nothing. Second day, we continue and still we have nothing. So some of us are like, have we been spoofed again by D.D. Moore? And then about an hour later,
Starting point is 00:34:21 one of the crime scene technicians says, I think I got something. They find the decomposed remains of a human. They believe to be Abraham Shakespeare. The body still had dreads in place. Abraham was most known for his long dreadlocks. The medical examiner was able to examine Abraham's body, the body, and decomposed badly to the point
Starting point is 00:34:53 where it was almost difficult for them to determine some of the evidence around it. There were bullets found. The other thing was that the clothes they found to men were the same clothes he was wearing in the Good-Vide video. D.D. showed it to the police. And without a doubt, it was Abraham. I attended the autopsy of Abraham,
Starting point is 00:35:22 and it was determined that Abraham died of two gunshot wounds. After we dug Abraham's body up, I drove to where Abraham's mother worked. I had to tell her that we had found a body, I told her, it's your son. That is one of the hardest things I've had to do. When we found out Abraham was buried up on a slab and at my yard, it's just devastating. When we found out Abraham was buried up on a slab in the backyard, it's just devastating. I couldn't take it.
Starting point is 00:36:10 I mean, you know, it was just too sad. It was just too sad. He didn't steal that. He didn't take that. He literally won the lottery. And he had to pay his life for what was his. With the body confirmed to be Abraham,
Starting point is 00:36:35 Dede Moore is arrested at the million dollar home that she claims Abraham had sold to her. All right. Who are you working with as your attorney? The detectives can finally confront her with what they believe happened to Abraham Shakespeare. It took the guys money. They got everything in your name. He gets killed with your gun. He gets married off your property, and you pour a slab within a week later, right over where he's at.
Starting point is 00:37:11 I'm done with. You think I took a gun and shot somebody? You think I took a gun and shot somebody? At this point in the investigation, Dee Dee is the one that knows where the body is buried. She is the one who knows about the gun. But there's nothing actually connecting her to the murder of Abraham Shakespeare. Though she led them to the body, if investigators can't prove she pulled the trigger, Dee Dee
Starting point is 00:37:36 Moore could walk. They run ballistic tests on the gun, DD handed to Greg Smith, hoping that they might provide the connection they need. The police cannot determine definitively that the bullets used to kill Abraham had come from that gun. Law enforcement knew, without any eyewitnesses to the murder, without any compelling physical evidence,
Starting point is 00:38:03 they have to build as strong a case as they can on the circumstantial evidence. Investigators dig deeper into all of DD's relationships in a quest to connect her further to the crime scene. We go to DD Moore's ex-husband's house and we ask him, what do you know about the property that she had there? And he said, I went out there sometime around April and she asked me to dig a hole for her. So he dug the hole and he said when the sun went down that day, he said he went back and he filled
Starting point is 00:38:40 in the hole. And he's like, all I remember is it looked like it was full of concrete and trees and brush, but it was dark, and I just pushed the dirt over it. She ended up building the concrete slab over it and part them over home on it. He didn't know anything about Abraham. He had never even met Abraham. The case against D.D. is getting stronger by the day. Then, as planning for her trial begins, she makes a startling claim that she is a victim of a crime herself and desperately needs help. A diagnosis in shock took everything that we had in the safe for cash and left with it.
Starting point is 00:39:24 D.D. tells law enforcement that Abraham was killed in a drug dispute with a man named Ron Watson. And that Ron Watson threatened Dede and said that he would kill her and kill her family if she didn't cover up Abraham's disappearance. They put the gun in my mouth. You see my pain. That was fear. You think I'm done, man? You think I have a gun?
Starting point is 00:39:58 It shot somebody. D.D. Moore is under arrest for the murder of Abraham Shakespeare. But as she is interrogated, she makes a startling claim that she, too, is a victim in this case and has been forced to cover up someone else's crime. She says, I was taking Abraham to that house in Plant City and I was just going to get money out of the safe, and all of a sudden these drug dealers show up.
Starting point is 00:40:28 And they shoot Abraham. She says a drug dealer named Ronald Watson did it. The guy's name is Ronald. He was Ronald like this. He even threatened. Dee Dee and his pleading with law enforcement to help her claiming that this guy was threatening her and going to kill her family. I'm really scared. If what D.D. claims is true, it would change everything police and prosecutors think they know about this murder.
Starting point is 00:41:01 Police ended up following up on that Ron Watson lead. And they realized that there was no one with any drug history in Florida named Ron Watson who fit the profile of what D.D. was saying. The guy from his shop just took everything that we had in the safe for cash and left with it. And left you a lot. Yes. So this guy killed the you alive. Is that the story that we're gonna go with? I mean, really, I've got children supposed to that are in better place. When police prove there is no Ronald Watson,
Starting point is 00:41:36 D.D. story falls apart. Prosecutors continue with their plans to bring her to trial. In the fall of 2012, nearly six years after Abraham Shakespeare hit a $30 million jackpot, then disappeared. Deity Moore stands trial for his murder. Our prosecutor told the jury, this was a crime motivated by pure greed, greed that transformed into evil. Deedy Moore, Doug a deep hole, buried Abraham Shakespeare in the earth,
Starting point is 00:42:11 and covered over the whole with a concrete slab. She purchased a $70,000 corvette for her boyfriend, $30,000 truck for herself. She bought Rolexes, she bought diamond rings, for her boyfriend, $30,000 truck for herself. She bought Rolexes, she bought diamond rings, and just went through Abraham's money like it was nothing. By the time Abraham's body was found in January of 2010, it was determined that he only had about $10,000 left in his name.
Starting point is 00:42:45 Deity was living large on Abraham's time. She had stolen money from him. She was getting rich off of him. And it appears that he may have figured it out and confronted her. But it's never going to be known for sure. All we know for sure is that she killed him. She buried him, and she spent the better part of eight months covering it up. After two weeks of testimony, the jury leaves to deliberate. It took the jury a little more than three hours to deliberate, and they found her guilty of first degree murder.
Starting point is 00:43:36 She never once showed any remorse, never once showed any compassion. When the verdict came out, she started to cry. And that's the only emotion I saw from her. She didn't cry for Abraham. She didn't cry for Abraham's mother. She cried for her damn self. The judge made the comment to D.D. that she was one
Starting point is 00:44:00 of the most manipulative people he has ever sentenced, and sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole. For her to kill him, it was just like, why? He would have bought you anything. He would have gave you what you wanted. To me, that was senseless. Every amount of heart of gold, you couldn't change
Starting point is 00:44:32 as hard no matter what he had. I miss him every day. I like to say, because justice is served for now. you

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