Snapped: Women Who Murder - Tonya Miller

Episode Date: September 6, 2020

A homicide investigation is begun when a charred body is discovered in the bed of a burning pick-up truck in Atlanta, Georgia.Season 24, Episode 16Originally aired: December 9, 2018See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay 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. She was a single mom in her 30s, struggling to cope with her own sexuality. She decided to take that step and come out. So when she found love with a female veteran 15 years, her senior, everything felt right.

They started off hot and heavy, very passionate. She felt hard and she felt fast for her. Until a heinous discovery threatens it all. There is a mass in the back of the truck. You cannot recognize whether or not this was a male, a female, a race, or anything. Investigators are left trying to piece together a deadly chain of events.

Three lethal methods used on one person. It was overkill. And one key source of evidence leads detectives to a string of potential killers. Got somebody that tells us their attorney's gonna contact those, Nelly changed her phone number, and we still can't find them. The focus really becomes who are these two people

that she was taking to Atlanta? I'm saying she got evidence that she heard. and we still can't find them. The focus really becomes who are these two people that she was taking to Atlanta? I'm saying she got her to do a son of a cheater. Yes, she got her next time. I'm like, you know what I'm saying? You're going down the river. Do you understand that? I mean, I mean, I mean, I don't know.

There's this fine line between love and hate, and that often leads to murder. In the early morning hours of March 4, 2005, an officer with the Fulton Police Department is on routine patrol on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. As he was driving down the street in the middle of the night, working morning shift, he came across a vehicle on fire. It was a smaller pickup truck, but the fire

had fulling Gulf to the front and the significant portion of the bed area of the truck. Obviously, he called it into the fire had fulling Gulf the front and the significant portion of the bed area of the truck. Obviously, he called it in to the fire department. He went over to see if there was, you know, anything that he could do by that time. The vehicle was engulfed too much. The fire is just too big for him, so as luck would have it, there was a fire department just a half mile down the road, and they were able to come and extinguish the fire.

With the blaze extinguished, patrol officers examined the smoldering wreckage. The cab of the pickup truck was completely burned. The windows were blown out. The glass was shattered. To their relief, the cab of the pickup appears empty. Once they determine that nobody is injured inside the vehicle, they have to start to think, OK, why is there an abandoned burning truck

on the side of the road? That's when an officer's flashlight illuminates a blackened object in the bed of the truck. Good at that point. Everyone sort of says, well, wait a minute. Whoa. There was a body in the bed of the pickup truck. With the burn damage on the body,

it was significant, probably. Third degree burns over the majority of the body. Face was unrecognizable. The burns were so severe that you cannot necessarily recognize whether or not this was a male, a female, the race, or anything of that nature. Who is this person?

Why are they here? And who put them here? This fire was fast and furious and intense, and it mainly focused on the cab and the truck bed. The pickup truck has a lot of damage to it, so much damage that they can't even open the doors. Dores are just sort of seared shut. From the driver side of the bed of the truck,

there was a significant, almost looks like a poor drip stain going down the side of the truck. So it became readily apparent to them that an accelerant was used. An intense fire, it can eliminate things like DNA, weapons, other forms of evidence, fingerprints. Other potential clues, such as a driver's license, were also destroyed in the blaze.

The burns were so significant that if the person had purse, wallet, anything like that, it would have been burnt up and gone. While identifying the victim is proving to be a challenge, investigators do find evidence that sheds additional light on the true cause of death. As they examine the body and they see there's a belt around the neck, there is binding around the wrist and the ankles.

We're looking at a badly burned body in the back of a truck with legature on their wrists and ankles and an Accelerant used were aware that it's a homicide. The fact that they have a murder on their hands only raises more questions for investigators. It could have been a drug deal gone bad, could have been, you know, a robbery and things went bad, could have been somebody being tortured, could have been some you know, a robbery and things went bad, could have been somebody being tortured, could have been some sort of gang involvement. Still, to pinpoint a motive,

investigators need to identify their victim. In a stroke of luck, they ultimately find something that was spared by the blaze. You get to the rear of the pickup truck, and it's just an oddity that you have the one spot at the rear of the pickup truck where the license plate is. That's almost completely untouched. The plate on the truck was a Florida license plate. It was a veteran's license plate. So we were able to run that and get that information. It was a aha moment for the detectives because at that point, this is where we can start.

So we run the license plate and it comes back registered to a Cheryl Miranda out of the Tampa, Florida area. So that's really our starting point. That's really the only place we have to start. The problem right now is still, you don't know who Cheryl Miranda is. Is that your victim? Is that your perpetrator?

Is that just someone who innocently let her truck out? Now, the key becomes, let's find Sierre Miranda. -♪ An army veteran born and raised in Rhode Island, Sierre Miranda was bright, outgoing, and always ready for a good time. She was a big personality, very full of life. She was a genuinely kind, nice person. She would do anything for you. She was generous to a fault.

She was funny. She was just a fun, fun person. She was just a fun, fun person. But not everything in Cheryl's life was so carefree. She was torn between the life she had and the ones she truly wanted. Cheryl was an adult when she finally came out as a gay woman. And she was met by a mixed reaction from her loved ones. Coming out to parents in the 60s or 70s, especially blue collar, working class,

a second generation parents, is a pretty harrowing experience, I think, in Cheryl's case. Her father just, you know, she was a lesbian, but they just didn't talk about it. She decided to move to Tampa to just start a new. When Cheryl moved to Tampa, she met Kim, who was her first official girlfriend, and she fell hard and she fell fast for her.

Kim was the love of her life. They were very much in love and Kim kind of dumped her. Cheryl was heartbroken when Kim left. In my mind, she never really came back from that. I thought they were gonna be together a long time, and then all of a sudden Kim was just gone. Cheryl's heartbreak was compounded when she learned her father was terminally ill.

He did eventually pass. Now she's without her father, who she was very close with, and she's without her first love, who abruptly ended their relationship. Cheryl became more callous, colder. I don't think she wanted to give her a heart up to anybody else again. But Cheryl's hard facade began to crack

when she met Tanya Miller in February of 2004. Tanya grew up in the Atlanta area. She had a large family, the family who was very loving, a family who was very supportive. In her early 20s, Tanya followed the same path many others in her family had. She started a serious relationship and soon became a mother. Tanya had two children. She had a boy and a girl.

She had many things going for her that normal seeing life. She had family, she had friends, she had a mate, and she had two children. Deep down though, Tanya was conflicted. Tanya realized that she was gay. Eventually, Tanya's relationship with her children's father came to an end, and Tanya came out of the closet. Tanya's announcement was met with mixed reactions

from her family. There was one person, however, who's support for her was unwavering. Tanya's son, Jabaris. When she decided to come out, he didn't reject her. He didn't turn his back on her. He accepted her just for who she was, the way she was. He accepted her as being mom no matter what.

In 2003, Tanya decided to leave Atlanta, seeking a fresh start in Tampa, Florida. Jabaris, now 18, decided to go with her. It's sort of like a package deal, where Tanya went, Jabaris went. It was not long after moving to Tampa that Tanya started dating Cheryl Miranda. They started out hot and heavy, and they moving together.

Cheryl also welcomed Tanya's son, Jabaris, into her home with open arms. Tanya had a son, and the son came as a package deal with Tanya. She loved Tanya, so of course she wanted to accept her son. Shortly after moving in, Tanya took a job as a cafeteria worker, which, combined with Cheryl's military pension, helped the couple get by. Cheryl had worked. She was retired from the military and disability,

and so she had a regular income there. Cheryl is the breadwinner. She is the person who's bringing in the money. Though money was a little tight, Cheryl and Tanya couldn't have been happier. All accounts, they had a great loving relationship. However, what Cheryl and Tanya's friends could have never imagined is that in March of 2005, the horrific discovery

of an unidentified body in the back of Cheryl's truck would thrust the couple's relationship into the crosshairs of a heinous homicide case. What then began as a stolen vehicle or a dumping investigation now has turned to possibly a murder investigation. Coming up, could the victim's secret life be the key to catching the killer?

That automatically makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I'm like, oh, this isn't good. This is something we've got to look at. March 4, 2005. Police in Fulton County, Georgia have just discovered the charred remains of a body in a smoldering truck on the outskirts of Atlanta. After running the truck's plates, homicide detectives learned that the truck belongs to a woman from the Tampa, Florida area.

A woman named Cheryl Miranda. Fulton County investigators contact police in Tampa. They agreed to send some deputies over to the residents. It's a rental, so they're able to get, you know, contact with the owner. I'm going inside. They see no signs of struggle, no signs of a crime scene, no blood, no disarray, nothing like that.

Just looks like a regular, you know, apartment that somebody's not in at the time. Hoping to learn more about Cheryl, officers reach out to her neighbors. They began knocking on doors. They found the landlord. Landlord tells them, and other people that they speak with say that they haven't seen her in a few days.

When Tampa police reach out to Cheryl's family in Rhode Island, they explain that they hadn't spoken to Cheryl in quite some time. She was mostly disassociated from her family. She was retired. She wasn't working at the time, and, you know, we really didn't have a lot to go on. While police in Tampa continue searching for Cheryl Miranda, back in Atlanta, investigators are at the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office. We attend the autopsy.

We were able to watch as they're going through, and there's just things that obviously we don't see when the body's in the belly of the pickup truck that come to light at the autopsy. Beginning with the victim's sex and race, medical examiners find that this is a middle-aged, white woman. With regards to the victim's cause of death, the medical examiner finds any number of things could have killed this woman. But fire wasn't one of them. What investigators determined from the autopsy

was that she did not die from the fire. There wasn't any such in her mouth or in her lungs. She had blunt force trauma to her head. She had a stab wound to her neck, and she had bindings around her neck, indicating possible strangulation. This crime was gruesome and torturous. You now have a victim that was beaten

with blunt force trauma to the head, stabbed in the neck, and strangled. And that was all before they were bound and set on fire. As for the identity of their victim, the medical examiner is ready to put that mystery to rest. We had one viable fingerprint that the medical examiner was able to use and get a print that we were able to run

and confirm that it was Cheryl Miranda's. She had served in the Armed Forces before, and part of the processing and getting into the Armed Forces is you have to be fingerprinted. When they were able to get that single fingerprint, they did have her fingerprints in the database. With a positive identification of the victim, detectives now need to figure out

who would want Cheryl Miranda dead and why. Based upon what we know is probably somebody that knew her personally and had personal ties to her, it's a very personal murder. The next step for the investigation is, well, who are Miss Miranda's friends? Who do you see hang out with? What is her lifestyle like? Investigators turn to Cheryl's phone records. At this point, the police can start looking into who she's calling, who are the numbers that she's calling, the

frequency of the numbers that are calling. From February 28th through March 4th, Cheryl's phone pings along the highway from Tampa to Atlanta. Among the final calls made from Cheryl's phone are several to an Atlanta resident named Betsy. Investigators contact Betsy, hoping she can shed some light on the case. Betsey is very short with me. She says she doesn't want to talk to me and says, you know, she'll have her attorney contact me. She hangs up. Well, that immediately raises red flags everywhere for police.

That automatically, you know, makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. That brief conversation I have with her maybe lasts maybe about 30 seconds. Detectives try to contact Betsy again the following morning, but they quickly learn that Betsy has changed cell phones, and the number she gave them is no longer in service. That raises red flags because you wonder if this person is hiding something.

Do they have information to solve this crime? Did they, in fact, play a part in this crime? And why don't they want to speak to police? On the afternoon of March 16, investigators head to the residence that Betsy shares with her husband. While Betsy isn't home, her husband is, and he's more than happy to provide information about his wife. He lets us know that she's got an ongoing drug problem.

He doesn't see her much and his intention is to leave her to get divorced from her. He has no idea where she is. He seems very, very honest and forthcoming. He does not seem happy from her. He has no idea where she is. He seems very, very honest and forthcoming. He does not seem happy with her. This provides at least a loose motive. There's the possibility that this could have been a robbery of Cheryl for drug money or to get drugs or to support a habit. It's like another bad notch.

This is not going well. This is, you know, we got somebody that tells us their attorney is going to contact us. Natalie Chains, her phone number, and we still can't find that. So our resources are allocated in trying to find the spedsy. Despite the suspicious behavior of Betsy, the detectives not put all their eggs in one basket. She is the person of interest that they want to talk to and find out what she may or may not know about the situation. But they're their eggs in one basket. She is a person of interest that they want to talk to

and find out what she may or may not know about the situation, but they're still looking at other avenues. Investigators are pouring over these phone records and they tap into Cheryl Miranda's voicemail. And they hear something very interesting. It's the voice of a woman who's trying to get in touch with Cheryl Miranda. So who is this person on the phone?

You don't know. Is this person leaving fake voicemail messages to pretend they're looking for her or maybe she had something to do with the murder? Coming up, detectives talk to a potential new witness in the case. They hadn't heard from her, so I was just concerned. Coming up, detectives talk to a potential new witness in the case. They hadn't heard from us, so I was just concerned.

Anything could have happened, you know? And a shocking revelation brings the case into sharper focus. Tampa police come back with a doozy. They find that Cheryl had in fact taken out a restraining order against a woman. [♪ music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music available four weeks early on one Dree Plus. It's like a late night talk show hangout, but with a smart list twist. We are diving deep into David Letterman's incredible career

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I know I have. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on Wundry Plus, find Wundry Plus in the Wundry app, or on Apple podcasts. For investigators in Atlanta, Georgia, the discovery of the body of retired military veteran Cheryl Miranda has raised a flood of possibilities. Ourson investigations are some of the toughest scenes to work because they leave so many unanswered questions.

After tapping into Cheryl's voicemail messages, detectives work to uncover the identity of a woman who left Cheryl a message after she went missing. This led detectives to someone by the name of Teresa Smith. Teresa, a resident of Tampa, Florida, appears to be the last person to contact Cheryl before her phone began moving north towards Atlanta. Fulton County detectives give her a call. I was just shocked.

You know, I don't remember breaking down in tears or anything. I was just one of those things where you're surprised. Teresa is eager to help. Teresa is able to tell us that on the night of February 27th, that Cheryl was supposed to come over to her house and watch the Oscars with her. And Cheryl hadn't showed up. They hadn't heard from her, so I didn't know

if she'd been in a wreck. I didn't know if she'd gone away. I just didn't know. I was just concerned. Anything could have happened, you know? So I just tried to call her. For her to find out that Cheryl's body had been located in Metro Atlanta was a surprise to her.

She had no indication of why she would be in Metro Atlanta, in Atlanta, traveling through Atlanta, or anything like that. As for Cheryl's love life, Teresa informs detectives about Cheryl's girlfriend, Tanya Miller. I never met her. I didn't know her. I remember her talking about the woman

that moved in to her apartment. Detectives are anxious to talk to Tanya Miller. But when they try to track her down, they discover she's missing, too. Tanya is nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, a lot of old addresses, a lot of old phone numbers, so we went to a lot of houses trying to find Tony Miller.

With neither Tony Miller nor Betsy anywhere to be found, investigators again search for answers in Cheryl's phone records. When we come across one of the numbers, it's registered to a Joseph Schienes who luckily were able to get in contact with. It turns out that she was a lifelong friend of Sheryls and she finally

gives police the information that they need as to why Sheryl was in Atlanta. She told police that she was up in moving her life to Alabama. My impression from Josec was just Sheryl wanted to change her scenery. That she was just, you know, ready for a new life

and ready for a new start somewhere else. According to Josette, Cheryl intended to pass through Atlanta on her way to Alabama. Cheryl also told Josette that she didn't plan on making the trip alone. She's going to be driving a couple of friends and dropping them off in Georgia. We're the people that she's driving to Atlanta.

Why is she driving them? And what happened either on the way or what happened here in Atlanta? Josette tells investigators that she's never met Betsy or Tanya, but she does offer police a new lead. Roughly a week before Cheryl left town, Josette had run into her and one of the people with whom Cheryl planned to travel.

Cheryl was with a black male in his early 20s, late teens. From what it appeared to Josette, and Josette told me she didn't know who that person was. Could this unidentified person have something to do with Cheryl's murder? We'd love to know who this is. This is something we have to try to dig into to find out. We have very little information to go on.

The focus really becomes who are these two people that Cheryl was taking to Atlanta? Detectives hope the answer lies in the one piece of evidence they do have, Cheryl's phone. Police are still sifting through these phone numbers. They're working their way back. They speak with a woman named Erica Hammond. Police ask Erica, how do you know Cheryl?

And she said, well, my Antonia dates her. According to cell records, Erica received a call from Cheryl's phone soon after she left Tampa. When investigators question Erica at the station, they ask her to describe the call. Erica explains it wasn't Cheryl she'd spoken with. She told me that those phone calls were made from Cheryl's phone,

but it was her cousin, Jabaris Miller. We basically have now identified or think we've identified this young or black male in late teens early 20s. According to Erica, Jabaris said they had just left town, but that Cheryl's truck was out of gas, and they were all flat broke. Erica tells us that she could hear Tony in the background, telling Jabara to tell Erica just tell her to just send the money,

just send the money. Erica turns them down, she does not give them gas money. She has no idea how they made it to Atlanta, but the next morning, they did. Erica says she knows this because once they arrived in Atlanta, Tanya and Jabaris contacted another relative for a place to stay. She had told us that Jabaris and Tanya were both staying with her on Martina on welcome all road. The location of Martina's address leaves detectives speechless.

The apartment complex is literally maybe 50 to 100 yards through the woods to where Cheryl and Cheryl's vehicle was located. If Tanya and her son, Jabaris, were staying so close to where Cheryl's body was found, it could mean one of two things. Could they be victims as well? Or is it possible they had something to do with Cheryl's death?

It was a really positive lead that we had. We had something to go on to try to locate these two and find out, you know, why are they using her phone and what happened to Cheryl? In addition to Tanya and Jabaris, police are still working to track down a woman named Betsy, who has been missing since police first contacted her

about the case. What strange about what Betsy did was, Betsy pretty much said, I have nothing to say to you. And the next time that you call me, you need to speak to my attorney. Police finally catch up with Betsy, and they tie up that loose end,

and they find out that she had no connection to Cheryl Miranda, whatsoever. It was actually Jabaris, who was calling from Cheryl's phone. I don't know if it was, you know, a relationship or drugs or needed money or anything like that, but when I spoke with Betsy over the phone,

she told me the same thing, but kind of in the same breath, I don't know, Cheryl Miranda, but you can talk to my attorney. The more pressing question remains, why was Jibaris in possession of Cheryl's phone? Background checks on Jibaris and Tanya offer little additional insight. Jabaris in possession of Cheryl's phone. Background checks on Jabaris and Tanya

offer little additional insight. When looking at both Jabaris and Tanya's criminal histories, they each had a rest. I don't think it was anything extremely violent, any violent felonies. So nothing that stood out and said, you know, we've got a couple of killers on our hands. That's when investigators get a call

from their colleagues in Tampa, who have also been working on the case. Tampa police come back with a doozy. They go through Cheryl's records and they find that she had in fact taken out a restraining order against a woman by the name of Tanya Miller. Investigators discover that the incident

that prompted Cheryl to file the restraining order not only involved Tanya, but Jabaris as well. Cheryl believed that they had stolen something from her. She confronted them. They denied it and a big altercation ensued. The relationship between quite volatile between Cheryl and Tanya. According to the order, Cheryl claimed

that tension between her and Tanya had been building for some time. Jabaris was not working. He didn't have a job. He was not responsible. When Cheryl would tell him what to do, Tanya would come down on Cheryl and get Cheryl off of his back.

And so there was this friction that continued to ensue. And Jabaris was at the center of it. For Cheryl, Tanya's devotion to her son brought out a side of Tanya that Cheryl had never seen before. Tanya had changed. She started seeing an ugly side to her. Tanya is abusive, Tanya had changed. She starts seeing an ugly side to her. Tanya is abusive. Tanya is violent.

When they really delved into the restraining order, they had found that Cheryl said, I believe she will kill me. Despite Cheryl's statement that she feared for her life, it appears she and Tanya continued to see each other, even after the restraining order went into effect. They would, you know, have these passionate make-ups and everything would seem okay for

a while until something else came up. They'd have another big blow-up. Had Cheryl and Tanya had another fight? One that turned deadly? We have no idea if they're involved. Did they get into an argument? Did she try to kick them out of the truck? There's a multitude of things that could have happened

on the right up from Tampa or here when they got to Atlanta. We really needed to find Tony Miller. Coming up, detectives receive new information about the days leading up to Cheryl Miranda's murder. Tony and Jabaris show up at her apartment. They're driving a white truck. And they finally zero in on a suspect. Did you set her on fire? Did you kill her? Oh no. Just days after the grizzly discovery of 56-year-old Cheryl Miranda's body in the bed of a burned-out

pickup, detectives have finally identified the two passengers who allegedly traveled with Cheryl to Atlanta, Tanya Miller and her son, Jabaris. Tanya has become at least someone that the police want to interview and to find out what she knows about Cheryl's demise or her disappearance or her truck or anything of that nature. So she is, again, at this point, a potential witness and possibly a suspect.

Detectives head to the apartment of Tanya's sister Martina, where Tanya and her son Jabaris have allegedly been staying. Tanya and Jabaris aren't there, but Martina agrees to answer detective's questions. Martina tells us that T and Jabarris show up at our apartment. They're driving a white truck. She walks me over to the door and points to the area where it was parked. I said, OK, and which was very positive for me, because I knew that that was Cheryl Miranda's truck. So the truck sat in the parking lot of the apartment

for a few days in the same parking spot in Jabarraris and Tiny wouldn't drive it, according to Martina. It was on the night of March 3rd. Martina says she woke up to feed her baby and discovered Jabaris was gone. Jabaris is not there on the couch. We had been sleeping the past couple nights. She feeds her baby. She's walking around with the baby while feeding it,

looks outside and realizes that this time, the white truck that Jabars and Tanya had shown up to Georgian is now gone. She wakes Tanya up and says, hey, where did Jabars go? Why is he gone at 3 o'clock in the morning? And Tanya tells her that Jabars has gone to return the truck to the owner. Martina says the following morning, she began to put two and two together.

She's watching the local Atlanta news and sees the truck on TV and that a body was found in it and that was burned right outside of her apartment complex. She tells them, I don't know what's going on with you, but the two of you, what you've done, you have to leave here. Martina Miller said when she kicked them out, they went to Pamela's house in Atlanta. Tamela Given is the sister of Tiny Miller. Martina's statement is all the evidence investigators need

to take the next step. Armed with all that information, we were able to get applications for arrest warrants for Tony and Jabaris. On March 22nd, detectives and patrol officers converge on the home of Tony's sister, Tamala. Investigators finally find Jabaris. So they take him into custody.

We tell him why he's under arrest, handcuff him. He's compliant. We don't talk to him at all there. We, you know, put him in the back of a police car. As for Tanya, she is still nowhere to be found. Born into Jabaris, Tanya has gone back to Florida. We bring him back to our Major Case Division. We put him in interview room and begin to slowly try to

pull information out of him and interview him. We bring them back to our Major Case Division. We put them in interview room and begin to slowly try to pull information out of them and interview them. When detectives tell 20-year-old Jabaris why he's in custody, he claims he had nothing to do with Cheryl Miranda's murder. In fact, Jabaris says he loved Cheryl like a second mother. I see the fourth thing I can tell she's dead now. Oh, s***. S***, I didn't know. All right, let's hope we're asking. like a second mother. She was supposed to be a man who had a gun now. Oh, s***.

I'm a s***. It was like pulling teeth from him. She had a court order to keep your mother away from her. I don't know. I can't take it. You're gonna say I was a man. I'm a halogen. He's not dodging the question.

He's answering them, but he's not answering them truthfully. We could tell he was trying to hide stuff. Still, Jabaris remains steadfast in his claims of innocence. Right on the guy down, kill him. Right on the guy down, kill him. Jabaris is about to be taken. Detectives then decide to turn up the heat on Jabaris.

You know what you did on the night of the Ford? You left her house in this truck, and then you set Miranda on fire. Who could go to it? I know it. They're really working him over in this interrogation room. They're not letting up.

Jabaris kept denying everything. Did you set her on fire? Did you kill her? I don't know. Who did? No way. Everything matches up. All the puzzle fits in.

You know what does something fit in with you? Based upon the information we had with the cell phone records and knowing what he was in the truck, we were able to tell that he wasn't being honest with us. We told him exactly what we had. You're going down the river. Do you understand that? After two hours of intense questioning, Jabaris changes his story.

He changed his story about not knowing that her body was back there, you know, in the bed of the truck. Jabaris tells investigators that he discovered Cheryl's body in the back of the truck. He says that he did not commit the crime, but he was scared and he freaked out, and he decided that he was going to set the truck on fire

as to not to be implicated in the crime. Investigators still aren't convinced Jibaris is telling the truth. As far as what happened to her body, what caused her death, he would not talk about that. When it comes to whether or not his mother was involved, Jabaris claims she had nothing to do with it. Jabaris never implicated his mother.

He constantly kept her innocent in this entire crime. The interview leaves investigators with no clear answers about what happened to Cheryl. Detectives now need to track down Tanya to find more answers about the night Cheryl was killed. Tanya has gone back to Florida, local law enforcement, try to find her in Florida. Thankfully, on March 26th,

detectives catch the break they've been looking for in a call from Tonya's sister, Tamala. She ends up calling me on my cell phone one morning and saying that Tonya has shown back up. Coming up, detectives bring Tanya Miller in for questioning. I mean, hang in there, I don't know, I don't even know who's going on. And detectives turn up the pressure. Your son, your life would, is going to go to jail for the rest of his life for you.

Do you understand that? Not for you. Do you understand that? Not for me. For you. The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The the The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The Fulton County police have secured an arrest warrant for Cheryl's on-again off-again partner, 40-year-old Tanya Miller. Tanya's son, Jabaris, is in custody. When Tanya's sister informs detectives that Tanya is ready to talk. They bring Tanya in and Tanya's position is, I don't know what she's talking about.

I mean, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, hang in there, I don't even know what you're going on. Once again, detectives get tough. No, what I'm saying is that you killed Cheryl Miranda and your son. I killed Cheryl Miranda. No, no, no, no, no, no. And you and your son, your life would,

is going to go to jail for the rest of his life for you. You understand that? Not for me. For you. You got to understand one thing. You saying that I killed this woman and this boy is covered for me? That's not a lie.

We tell her exactly what Jabara said and confront her with it and she's basically you know and I don't care attitude. Being stabbed, burned, like an animal, do you think your son would say whatever it was necessary to protect you? I never discussed that with him. Why was Jafar telling the hidro of a caravan in his truck from Florida with his mother, Tony Miller, and if it wasn't true? I don't know. I don't know. Even without a confession, prosecutors believe

they have enough evidence to move forward with charges. If it wasn't clear before, let me make it clear. I know, I don't think you do. I've been arrest warrant for you, her murder, for the death of Cheryl Miranda. Fast forward to February 2008. Tanya Miller and her son Jabaris stand trial together in Fulton County Criminal Court. Prosecutors opened their case by laying out the events they believe led

to the murder of Cheryl Miranda. Now she was looking to go to Alabama to see can I start over again, get this behind me, get rid of this pain. Tanya and Jabaris approach approach Cheryl and Axe her can they lie to Atlanta, even though she has a restraining order. Prosecutors assert that somewhere along the ride north, Cheryl's final act of kindness took a deadly turn.

They don't believe the crime was planned at all. They think that there was some sort of a discussion that led to an argument and an altercation, most likely between Cheryl and Tanya. Jabaris, they believe, came into his mother's defense, and that is when the beatdown of Cheryl began. And this is when the overkill came into effect. That resulted in Cheryl Miranda's death.

Prosecutors argued that Jabaris and Tanya then put Chial Miranda's body into the truck and continued on with their plans to Georgia with Chial Miranda in the back of the truck. Prosecutors claim that after arriving in Atlanta, Tanya and Jabaris were unsure what to do with Cheryl's body. Finally, after three days, Tanya instructed her son to burn the truck and Cheryl along with it.

My theory is, Tanya directed the majority of what happened and directed Jabaris on what to do. As far as motive goes, prosecutors believe that the altercation that led to Cheryl's death was a combination of volatile romance and cold hard cash. Shea and Miranda had been a big financial support for Tanya Miller and her son Jabara's. So when shea and Miranda filed the restraining order,

that was a signal to Tanya Miller that her good days were coming to an end. She was angry because she believed that Cheryl ruined her life by having her arrested and filing this restraining order. I mean, when somebody files a restraining order on you, it puts you in a very difficult position. So she resented Cheryl for that.

She resented her for taking away her financial support. As for the defense, they argue that neither Jabaris nor Tanya should be convicted on circumstantial evidence alone. Nobody knows exactly what happened from February 27th to March 5th. And the state has the burden of piecing that together, and the defense wanted to create as much confusion as possible so that the state could not put those pieces together

solidly. The defense can argue, that's reasonable. Now, you should have quit my client. On February 22nd, the jury announces they have reached a verdict. 43-year-old Tanya and 23-year-old Jabaris Miller are found guilty of malice murder. Jabaris is also found guilty of arson for setting Cheryl's body on fire. Tanya is sentenced to life plus 10 years, and Jabaris gets life plus 20 years.

My initial reaction was just total meltdown. I could not handle it. I could not process it. I couldn't deal with it. I mean, this kind, warm, funny, gentle, wacky, delightful woman. And her life ended that way. It's a tragic end to a story of two women whose love for each other blinded them

to the rage one of them carried in her heart. You have all kinds of feelings involved. There's anger. You're still in love with the person, but you hate them. There's this fine line between love and hate. And that often leads to murder. For more information on snapped, go to oxygen.com.