True Crime Vault: Hell in Heels

Summary

20/20 True Crime Vault: Hell in Heels

Podcast: 20/20 by ABC News
Episode Date: January 13, 2026

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Overview

This gripping 20/20 True Crime Vault episode, "Hell in Heels," unravels the shocking true story of Elisa McNabney (real name: Loren Sims), a woman whose web of lies, murder, and flight captured national headlines. Through a blend of exclusive interviews (notably with her daughter Haley), journalistic narration, and courtroom drama, ABC News digs deep into the collapse of a prominent attorney’s life and the two women at the heart of his murder. This is a saga of deception, manipulation, addiction, and a mother-daughter relationship pushed to the limits of loyalty and survival.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Elisa’s Troubled Beginnings and Life on the Run

• Early Family Life (03:31–05:20):
  Elisa (born Loren Sims) grew up in Brooksville, Florida. Despite intelligence and charm, she struggled with self-esteem, made poor decisions in love, and developed habits of running from problems—including the law.
  • “She couldn't help thinking that there was a little more life somewhere else.” – David Muir (04:17)
• A Pattern of Running (07:09–08:15):
  Haley, Elisa’s daughter, recounts their constant moving to avoid consequences—first in Florida, then Texas, and onward to Las Vegas.
  • “I was eight. I didn't even hesitate. I just said, I'm going with you. It felt like life or death.” – Haley (07:13)

2. Meeting Larry McNabney: Romance, Success, and Deceit

• Larry’s Persona (10:15–13:57):
  Larry McNabney is described as charismatic, successful, and plagued by addiction. He quickly falls under Elisa’s spell upon hiring her at his Las Vegas law office.
  • “He lived life at full throttle. Larry had a great expression. You can't put a price on a good time.” – David Muir (10:40)
• Rapid Relationship & High Life (19:30–21:41):
  Elisa becomes indispensable at the firm. The romance heats up fast, and the couple lead an extravagant lifestyle, shuttling between Vegas and Reno.
  • “They went back and forth on private jets. They were like movie stars coming down the ramp.” – Haley (21:22)

3. A Toxic Marriage Spirals

• Haley’s Displacement & Increasing Abuse (21:50–24:35):
  Haley expresses discomfort with Larry’s drinking and his effort to exclude her from Elisa’s life. Abuse accusations surface, and the relationship between Elisa and Larry becomes destructive.
  • “One night I heard Larry tell her, 'I'm gonna kill Haley in front of you, and then I'm gonna tell the police that you did it.'” – Haley (23:43)
• Financial Irregularities and Relocation (24:49–25:39):
  Elisa’s mismanagement leads to a bar association reprimand; the couple flees Nevada for Sacramento, seeking a fresh start in horse culture.

4. The Arrival of Sarah Dutra: A Deadly Alliance

• Sarah’s Introduction and Influence (28:11–30:54):
  College student Sarah Dutra becomes Elisa’s close confidante and is rapidly integrated into the business and the family’s daily life. Their friendship isolates Larry further.
  • “Larry McNabney told Alisa point blank to fire Sarah. And of course, she didn't... what she did do was isolate Larry even more, bring in Sarah closer to her, and the business began to suffer.” – David Muir (30:10)
• The Plot Unfolds—Murder at the Horse Show (31:26–34:09):
  During a major horse show in LA, Elisa and Sarah put Larry in a tranquilized state. The attack is premeditated, and his health rapidly declines.
  • “We went down to my trainer's truck and I got the medicine bag out and I got the tranquilizer out of it... Sarah said, 'put in the vitamin bottle'...” – Elisa (32:12)

5. Cover-Up and Investigation

• Larry’s Disappearance (34:09–39:10):
  Larry’s absence doesn’t arouse immediate suspicion due to past disappearances. Elisa and Sarah explain away his absence with lies ranging from rehab to business travel.
  • “He could be gone for a week or two, but never longer than that.” – David Muir (37:21)
• Ginger Miller Blows the Whistle (39:44–41:11):
  Secretary Ginger Miller, suspicious over missing pay and oddities in the office, reports Larry as missing, telling police, “I wrote on it, my boss is missing, and I think he's dead. And I'm pretty sure the secretary and his wife did it.” (39:58)

6. The Grisly Discovery and Unraveling

• Body Found, Identities Unraveled (49:57–51:41):
  Larry’s body is found buried in a vineyard, preserved by being stored for months in a wine refrigerator. Toxicology reveals death by horse tranquilizer (xylazine).
  • “His body was actually in a pretty good state of preservation.” – Debra Roberts (49:57)
• The Hunt for Elisa: Flight and Revealed Identity (53:28–57:10):
  Elisa’s true identity (Loren Sims) is discovered. She flees with Haley across the South using stolen identities, ending up in Destin, Florida.

7. Mother-Daughter Reckoning

• Haley Learns the Truth (64:37–65:12):
  In Charleston, SC, Elisa finally confesses the murder to Haley.
  • “She said, I need to tell you this, but I need you to not freak out. I said, okay. And she said, we killed him. And it kind of felt like everything just white noise.” – Haley (64:46)

8. Final Fallout and Legal Resolution

• Elisa’s Suicide, Sarah’s Conviction (77:42–79:38):
  Caught in Florida, Elisa (Loren Sims) takes her own life in jail before trial. Sarah Dutra is tried, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and accessory to murder, serving 8 years.
  • “On Easter Sunday, her years on the run finally come to an end... My world ended with her.” – David Muir & Haley (77:42)
  • “11 years in state prison. But even with Sarah's conviction and Loren's death, this story isn't over yet.” – David Muir (79:38)

9. Legacy and Lessons

• Haley’s Life After Chaos (83:00–84:11):
  Despite trauma, Haley builds a career in nursing, raising two children with resilience. She finds purpose and dreams of helping other abused women.
  • “No matter what else Loren Sims left behind... she also left behind Haley Jordan. To me, Haley is the silver lining.” – David Muir (83:39)
  • “You never have to stay in a situation that you don't feel safe or in a situation that you question. You have a right to feel safe, and you have a right to whatever future you're willing to make.” – Haley (83:53)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Elisa’s Persona:
  “She was Tom Petty's American Girl growing up. Without a doubt, she was an American girl raised on promises.” – David Muir (04:06)
• On Elisa’s Manipulation:
  “Elisa was a drug. She just charmed and seduced him and he had a big heart.” – Haley (19:53)
• On the Murder Plot:
  “We went down to my trainer's truck and I got the medicine bag out and I got the tranquilizer out of it...” – Elisa (32:12)
• On the Aftermath:
  “I wrote on it, my boss is missing and I think he's dead. And I'm pretty sure the secretary and his wife did it.” – Ginger Miller (39:58)
• On Learning the Truth:
  “She said, I need to tell you this, but I need you to not freak out... We killed him.” – Haley (64:46)
• On Confession:
  “Did I kill my husband? Yes, I killed my husband.” – Loren Sims (Elisa McNabney) (68:44)
• On Legacy:
  “No matter what else Loren Sims left behind... she also left behind Haley Jordan. To me, Haley is the silver lining.” – David Muir (83:39) “You have a right to feel safe, and you have a right to whatever future you're willing to make.” – Haley (83:53)

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Timeline of Critical Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Details | |-------------|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:16–08:15 | Elisa & Haley's mobile, tumultuous life | Introduction to Elisa's early trouble and pattern of fleeing | | 10:15–15:43 | Larry’s rise, demons, and multiple marriages| Background on Larry McNabney’s charisma and vices | | 19:30–24:35 | Elisa & Larry: Romance & toxic dynamics | How quickly their romance developed, including displacement of Haley | | 28:03–34:09 | Sarah Dutra joins—friendship and plot thickens | Sarah is hired, becomes Elisa’s “partner in crime” | | 31:26–33:06 | The murder plot at the horse show | Detailed account of poisoning and subsequent efforts to hide Larry’s body | | 39:44–41:11 | Ginger Miller reports Larry missing | Secretary’s suspicions tip off investigation | | 49:57–51:41 | Larry’s body found & autopsy | Discovery in vineyard, horse tranquilizer identified | | 53:28–57:10 | Elisa's true identity revealed | Her background as Loren Sims and extensive criminal history comes to light | | 64:37–65:12 | Haley learns the truth from her mother | Elisa fully confesses to Haley | | 68:38–71:21 | Elisa/Loren’s detailed confession | Describes killing and failed attempts to dispose of body | | 77:42–79:38 | Elisa’s suicide & Sarah's conviction | Loren ends her life; Sarah’s trial details | | 83:00–84:11 | Haley’s path forward | Haley’s resilience, career, and hopes |

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Conclusion

"Hell in Heels" is a case study in deception, psychological manipulation, and the consequences of unchecked trauma and addiction. Through candid testimony and detailed reporting, this episode documents not only a sensational murder, but also the complexities of family loyalty, the destructive power of secrets, and the possibility of survival and growth after harrowing loss. The episode closes with hope—the once-hunted daughter building a life of purpose and safety, honoring lessons learned at terrible cost.

Transcript

[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

She came in with the sob story. I'm going through a divorce. I have a horse that I have to take care of. She has a little daughter.

[David Muir]

Larry was in love with this girl and it was all a lie.

[Debra Roberts]

He left me for her after two months of knowing her.

[David Muir]

They say a woman by the name of Elisa McNabney murdered her husband.

[Debra Roberts]

What did you just say? Oh, my God. What's happening? Larry, are you okay?

[David Muir]

He had a dark side to him. We all have demons and he had demons.

[Debra Roberts]

He grabbed me like this and he just kept squeezing. Where was your mom? Who was she with?

[David Muir]

This is their Thelma and Louise moment. Baby, where is Larry McNabney?

[Debra Roberts]

Where's Larry? Where can we find him? Who knows?

[David Muir]

Who doesn't ask? Why the refrigerator strapped a duct tape.

[Debra Roberts]

The hungry mouth tots. I was horrified.

[David Muir]

How do you know what to believe? You just go, really? Really? Life is a crapshoot. What do you do?

[Debra Roberts]

This is craz. Hell on heels, sugar daddy. I'm coming for you. I've been riding for almost as long as I've been walking. And it was one of the things.

[David Muir]

That.

[Debra Roberts]

Kind of gave me reprieve from the things that I didn't like to think about dealing with the Things that were hard. Anytime that you spend time around horses, you know that you have to introduce yourself. It shows them I'm not a threat. I spent a significant portion of my life being known as Elisa McNabney's daughter. I have previously refused to talk just because I didn't want to have to deal with it anymore. I can reflect back on didn't happen to me. I lived through it.

[David Muir]

Hayley's mother, the central figure in this saga, grew up in Brooksville, Florida, part of a prominent family that had lived there for generations.

[Debra Roberts]

We are in Brooksville, where I currently reside, and spent a good portion of my childhood.

[David Muir]

I mean, this was Mayberry baby. It was smaller than Mayberry.

[Debra Roberts]

I can't go anywhere without running into someone that either knows me or my family. For my mom, horses was always something that made her happy and she enjoyed and she wanted to be around them.

[David Muir]

I think she was Tom Petty's American Girl growing up. Without a doubt, she was an American girl raised on promises. She couldn't help thinking that there was.

[Debra Roberts]

A little more life somewhere else.

[David Muir]

And she was a good student, honor.

[Debra Roberts]

Roll student, super intelligent, just amazingly smart.

[David Muir]

What happened to her was she had a boyfriend and she was pregnant and had a child and dropped out of school.

[Debra Roberts]

My parents ran away together and got married. Divorced before I was born. When she had me, she was nine days past her 19th birthday.

[David Muir]

I believe that she was in her own way, a good mother for Haley. But on the other hand, she was a very fragile person who had very little self confidence. And Haley felt many times that the mother daughter relationship was reversed.

[Debra Roberts]

I learned how to make broccoli cheddar soup on the stove out of a can. I mean, like, don't be too impressed. I don't think she knew how to put my needs before her wants.

[David Muir]

She got in some minor trouble early on. It was always checks or she had shoplifted some hair coloring. It was always petty things, nothing really serious, but she stayed in trouble all the time. Was a problem at 145 IQ, but she did not grasp balancing a checkbook. Haley kept the family accounts, managed the checkbook and kept the checks from bouncing.

[Debra Roberts]

For her, it was about fun. Until it was not. Until it was about, you know, waking up in the middle of the night and saying, hey, we have to leave because rent hadn't been paid or she was being evicted.

[David Muir]

I think to her that was normal. This is what mom and I do. We move once a year, every six months. Then there was one specific incident at Christmas that started a Snowball effect. Haley's mom's new boyfriend was going through a bitter divorce. She had purchased Christmas presents for his children and had them delivered to the home in an effort to allow him to see the kids on Christmas. But the gesture didn't work. And when the wife said, no, that's not going to happen, she went back in the house, got the presents, and she got caught. I think at worst it was a trespass. But she got charged and got put on felony probation and then violated her parole. And her parole officer was at the game that she went to. She was terrified of going to jail and being confined. And that began the cavalcade that began the avalanche.

[Debra Roberts]

She said, haley, I have to go away, and I'm not coming back. I can leave you here with grandma and grandpa, or you can come with me, but I want it to be your choice. I was eight. I didn't even hesitate. I just said, I'm going with you. It felt like life or death. I knew something. I didn't know what was chasing us, but something bad was chasing us. We went to Texas, mainly because it centered around horses. For her, that was always. And for me as well. I loved it because she loved it. It goes back to her kind of always living in that teenage.

[David Muir]

But Haley says her mom ran into trouble with the law again after she was caught trying to shoplift.

[Debra Roberts]

And they took her into custody, and I was hysterical. But she bonded out. So when the situation in Texas didn't work out, her next thought was, well, I'm halfway there. May as well just go to Vegas. And that was it. We left again.

[David Muir]

Haley pulls into town with her mom, who's going by the name of Elisa, and they rent an apartment in a nice area of Vegas. But of course, she didn't have enough money for, you know, furniture, so they're sleeping on a pallet. Mother and daughter. Elisa was described by people who knew her or met her as a very striking, even beautiful woman who dressed professionally. She gave off an air of classiness. Elisa had already gone through a series of difficult relationships in her life. And in Vegas, she finds yet another new boyfriend. She meets Ken, and he's got an up and coming business. She ingratiates herself with him. Pretty soon, she's living with him.

[Debra Roberts]

He was wonderful, very kind, and he adored my mother. And my mom was an easy person to love.

[David Muir]

Then pretty soon, he finds out there's charges on his credit card. She had stolen the credit card. Eh, I'll marry her. It's this blind spot that men had to Her. If you've been hurt in an accident, the smart thing to do is to hire a lawyer who can take care of business. I can do that. I'm Larry McNabney. Call me.

[Debra Roberts]

And she got a job in a law office. She had been there maybe a month before. She was telling me that the lawyer that she worked for wanted to take her to dinner.

[David Muir]

And that was the beginning of the end of Larry McNabney.

[Debra Roberts]

When we got to Las Vegas, my mom got a job in a law office. She had been there maybe a month before. The lawyer that she worked for wanted to take her to dinner. And he's so smart, and he just makes me feel so special.

[David Muir]

While Alisa was a somewhat mysterious figure in Vegas, everyone seemed to know Larry. Larry McNabney cut a striking figure. Six foot tall, about 200 pounds, but very fit. And women loved him. If we were at a bar and you needed to talk to some girls and we just send Larry like the Pied Piper, they'd come. You couldn't be around Larry and not laugh and smile. Your money's no good here. That was the common refrain. When you went out to lunch with Larry, he would take care of everything. He lived life at full throttle. Larry had a great expression. You can't put a price on a good time. His childhood would have been similar to mine. Reno was a sort of upper middle class, wealthy town, biggest little city in the world. Reno, as most towns in the west, were poor until they invented the quickie divorce trade. Nevada had a very short window for residency. So Reno became the divorce capital of the world. All kinds of people would come to Reno, live in a dude ranch. This dude ranch business brings us plenty of money.

[Debra Roberts]

Boom.

[David Muir]

Get their divorce. As soon as they got their divorce, one of the traditions was they walk over to the bridge, throw their ring in the river and celebrate the movie. The Misfits was essentially Clark Gable was a dude who went to the railroad station and saw Marilyn Monroe and was going to go and party with her while she was here getting a divorce.

[Debra Roberts]

If you throw in your ring, you'll.

[David Muir]

Never get another divorce. He had good relationships with women until he got married. They dearly loved him and I'm sure would be very frustrated with some of the things he would do. Larry met his first wife quite young, had a daughter, Kristen.

[Debra Roberts]

Larry and my mom were high school sweethearts and got married out of high school in 1967. I've got his cheeks, squinty eyes, the wave in my hair like him. They were divorced in 1970. Larry continued law school and graduated in 1974, and he moved back to Reno.

[David Muir]

We were both practicing in the public defender's office, and Larry kind of took me under his arm, and we decided to start a law practice. The evidence will show Larry McNabney on his worst day was better than 99% of the trial lawyers on their best day. He just had a sixth sense on how to try a case. He would tell people, it's the publicity that matters. In those days, the Nevada Bar association wouldn't let you advertise. I remember him yelling, think ink.

[Debra Roberts]

Think ink.

[David Muir]

As long as the press is talking about us, our name is getting out there. As much as Larry loved the spotlight, he had a habit of periodically disappearing from it. He'd disappear for a period of time, and fortunately we could cover for him. And when he came back, he was full throttle. Larry's drinking was affecting Ron, and eventually he couldn't take it anymore. We all have demons, and he had demons, and he took those demons on and off, on and off over the years. Their partnership broke up, and then along the way, Larry got married again and had two more kids. I spoke to his daughter Tavia in 2002 when I first reported on this story.

[Debra Roberts]

This is my half sister, Krista Becker, and myself. We wore matching dresses to mom and dad's wedding.

[David Muir]

What was he like as a father?

[Debra Roberts]

Always there for me. He was just there if I ever needed him.

[David Muir]

But while his kids say he may have been a loving dad, Larry's demons may have prevented him from being a great husband. Larry was mentally abusive to women because of his drinking. And then Cheryl Tangent came along. What a beautiful boy, Wyatt.

[Debra Roberts]

We do have a wonderful wrangler with us today, because These guys are £2,000 and they can be extremely dangerous. My name is Cheryl Tangent, and I grew up in Reno. I'm an artist, and I was with Larry for seven years. He was so instantly likable. Two weeks after I met him, I knew I was in love with him.

[David Muir]

They were a very good couple because Cheryl was understanding enough to want to do different things with Larry.

[Debra Roberts]

When I met him, he had just gotten out of rehab. I think it was his third time. And he was clean and sober, and he was wonderful with Cheryl. I think he was the most stable and sober and grounded that he ever was. We meditated every morning, and we loved it.

[David Muir]

They had joined this cult where they had tried to find inner peace. He was trying to center himself.

[Debra Roberts]

Some people might have called it a cult, but it was the best thing that could have happened to Larry. He was so happy.

[David Muir]

But then I think they began to want him to get involved more. And Larry wasn't going to follow anybody else's drum. He was going to beat his own.

[Debra Roberts]

Larry was a chameleon, and he would get bored with a lifestyle. When he decided he was sick of living up there, he wanted to kind of get back and do lob. And I think the pull to his addictions started then.

[David Muir]

This would have been probably in 1991. He came back, and business went off the hook.

[Debra Roberts]

He wanted to change his image. He wanted to be on tv. And Larry said, I can do this, and I can make a lot of money. I met Larry mcnabney for lunch, and.

[David Muir]

He said, well, what are you going to do? So I gave it some thought and started getting that tone going with him in his western hat and western clothes. The smart thing to do is to hire a lawyer who can take care of business.

[Debra Roberts]

You know, you could tell he was a true cowboy, almost like the marlboro man.

[David Muir]

If you've been hurt in an accident, if you've been hurt in an accident, if you've been injured, if you've been injured in an accident, call me.

[Debra Roberts]

It worked because people immediately connected to him on that level.

[David Muir]

You've made the important decision to hire a lawyer. The success of it was instant. When the spots run, the phones would ring. He was making, like 300,000amonth, paying cash for houses and cars, et cetera.

[Debra Roberts]

He got so caught up in money and appearances. This was not the same Larry. It got really, really scary.

[David Muir]

It was about a year when he decided to go down to Las Vegas and then open an office down there.

[Debra Roberts]

And I'm thinking, vegas. And Larry, not a good idea. Not a good idea.

[David Muir]

I asked him, why are you gonna go down there? And he said, I can make twice the money down there that I can make here. Larry was going to need to hire someone for his Vegas office, and a single mom with a young daughter. Haley, would see that ad in the paper.

[Debra Roberts]

He decided, I'm doing Vegas. I want to go Vegas. I want to go big. I want to go Vegas. And I went down there, and the whole time I was down there. This Something is way wrong. This is really wrong. I'm gonna bring me a million hearts. And that was the beginning of Alisa. I'm hell on heels, sugar daddy. I'm coming for you. Shopping is hard. I can never find anything in my size. I don't even know my size. I buy my clothes the same place I buy My groceries. There's a way. Make it easy with Stitch Fix. Just share your size, style, budget and done. Your personal stylist sends pieces picked just for you. That was easy. Stitch Fix online Personal styling for everyone. Free shipping and returns. No subscription required. Get started today@stitch fix.com.

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[David Muir]

It's the summer of 1990 and in sin City, Las Vegas, paths of Larry and Elisa are about to fatefully collide. Larry decided to open his office down in Las Vegas. That time is when Alisa came into the picture. She had responded to an ad in the paper needing a receptionist.

[Debra Roberts]

And she showed up and she came in with a sob story. I'm going through a divorce. I have a horse that I have to take care of. It was all poor me. They said, well, I will hire you for doing the insurance. Elisa was classy, carried herself very well, very intelligent. She kind of welcomed you with open arms. He was ecstatic about her. He said, she is going to help me put this Las Vegas office together. Elisa was a drug. She just charmed and seduced him and he had a big heart. Let me help you.

[David Muir]

She was good looking for one thing. And they ended up romantically involved shortly after she became employed.

[Debra Roberts]

Larry hired her in June and he left me for her after two months of knowing her. I said, you don't know what you're doing. That went in one ear and out the other.

[David Muir]

He had been convinced by her that she was bright, smart, sassy, all the things he needed in a secretary. Alisa is a quick study. She earned Larry's trust and affection. She took control of office finances and client trust accounts. Fueled by the lucrative law practice, Larry and Elisa are living the high life.

[Debra Roberts]

They went back and forth on private jets. They were like movie stars coming down the ramp. And my mom, I am sure, was swept up in all of these lavish and generous things that he was trying to do for her.

[David Muir]

While Elisa seems Smitten Haley, who was still living with her mom's previous husband. Ken, didn't have a good feeling at all about the new boyfriend.

[Debra Roberts]

I met him, and he's trying to hug me. And I could tell he was drunk. I could smell it. I was very uncomfortable.

[David Muir]

Well, I don't think Larry ever got along with Haley like Haley got along with Ken. Ken saw her as a surrogate daughter, and Larry didn't. Larry called her a bitch and was not friendly with her.

[Debra Roberts]

Larry tried to separate us initially on purpose. He very much enjoyed having a hundred percent of my mom's focus being on him. And having a small child made that very difficult. So what's the easiest way to do that? Give her to the kid.

[David Muir]

Haley was devastated after finding out that her mother married Larry without telling her, and she was moving Haley into his home in Reno with them.

[Debra Roberts]

Kenny came home one day and said, your mom wants you to go to Reno to visit. You know, I thought I was coming back, and I didn't ever go back. I'm sorry.

[David Muir]

Meanwhile, Larry's loved ones feared Elisa was isolating him from them and enabling his addictions. She was facilitating it. His drinking and drug use had reached a different stage than I ever knew. He wasn't enjoyable. He wasn't charismatic.

[Debra Roberts]

I would challenge that. Larry was not one to have a woman come in and take over and push him around. Nobody incapacitated Larry except for Larry. He became very paranoid that people were out to get him.

[David Muir]

And Elisa and Larry started fighting a lot.

[Debra Roberts]

I think the relationship of these two was extremely destructive. How much can I hurt you? It was this back and forth, push, pull kind of deal. One night I heard Larry tell her, I'm gonna kill Haley in front of you, and then I'm gonna tell the police that you did it. She would take off often, and he didn't know where she was, and that drove him crazy. She did try to leave a couple of times, actually. He tracked us down and said if she didn't agree to come home and live with him, that he would kill both of us and then kill himself.

[David Muir]

While Haylei says her mom temporarily separated from Larry, she eventually got back together with him. But then, Haley says, there was another abusive incident.

[Debra Roberts]

He grabbed me like this, and he just kept squeezing. I was terrified. I had never had anyone try to hurt me before. That's when she started sending me away for my safety.

[David Muir]

The couple's toxic relationship extended to Larry's business. The Nevada Bar association reprimanded Larry after they found he had allowed his chief Operating officer Elisa to misappropriate just over $74,000 from his client's trust account. He was really upset about that because he still considered her the critical employee. So that's when he decided, all right, fine, we'll just close the office. We'll move to Sacramento, start anew. Larry and Elisa move into an upscale suburb of Sacramento and set up a new law office. Despite their tumultuous relationship, Elisa encourages him to spend more time on the road with her and her first love horses.

[Debra Roberts]

My mother and Larry had gotten further into horse culture, and they were starting to show he had the best horses. He was very much into the halters and the quarter horse scene. Our circuit champion.

[David Muir]

Congratulations.

[Debra Roberts]

Entry number 371, a halter competition is.

[David Muir]

Basically, it's a beauty contest. You want to showcase them standing up and flexing and showing off their muscles.

[Debra Roberts]

You could tell he was loving this life that he was living.

[David Muir]

Their mutual love of the horse world seems to bring stability for this volatile couple. But soon, a young art student will dramatically change that dynamic and their lives forever.

[Debra Roberts]

Elisa's always hanging around this woman named Sarah and the stories that started coming out. She's got this baby face, but she's not as nice as she comes across.

[David Muir]

Sarah was just a gargoyle on Lisa's shoulder. Larry McNabney became a star on the quarter horse circuit. He was showcased on video, proudly displaying his horses in shows around the country. Larry McNabbie, Sacramento, California. He had a good trainer. He had good horses. He had a good eye for horses. He put a lot of love and time and attention into it. There's no doubt that Larry McNameney loved the limelight.

[Debra Roberts]

This was one of the awards that Larry had gotten from one of the horse shows that he did. He was grand champion in Oregon, one of many trophies that he won along the way with his horse showing. He was leading the nation in his division. He was excited and really wanted to win it. So he was talking about really going for it. My mother and Larry had gotten further and further into horse culture. They seemed happy.

[David Muir]

They would travel all over the country with their horse. It's kind of an adventure around America. Elisa wanted to be known throughout the horse show circuit.

[Debra Roberts]

She was just very personable and warm. She drew you in.

[David Muir]

As the McNabney's established the law practice here in Sacramento, they needed help. If you've been injured in an accident, call me. I'm Larry McNabney. The McNabney's put out a help wanted ad for an office assistant. And in comes a young woman who would dramatically change their lives. She's an art student from sacramento state university named Sarah dutro. Alisa interviewed Sarah for the job, and they formed a quick, close connection. In her yearbook, Sarah dutra was a bright, cheerful looking student at vacaville high school in the 90s. She was a real go getter, Somebody that you knew was very driven. President of her senior class, was an athlete. Her teachers spoke well of her. Young men were enamored of her. Sarah was super smart, tall, blonde, cute, you know, the girl you wanted to know. Elisa, I think, saw something of herself in sarah. Sarah quickly became Elisa's ally. They hit it off from the beginning. Pretty soon inseparable friends. They go out to restaurants together. They did a lot of shopping. Elisa's daughter Hayley, who was 15 at the time, Resented her mom's new best friend.

[Debra Roberts]

My mom would say, well, we have fun. And I said, okay, well, can you not spend time with me like that? I didn't understand why my mom was planning trips and spending all this time with this girl. I didn't get it.

[David Muir]

Money was no object for elisa and Sarah. Elisa leases a shiny red jaguar. They'd go on these extravagant shopping sprees.

[Debra Roberts]

Everywhere they went, There was Sarah. And after a while, Larry got sick of it and confronted alisa and said, I don't want her around.

[David Muir]

Larry mcnabney told Alisa point blank to fire Sarah. And of course, she didn't. What she did do was isolate Larry even more, bring in Sarah closer to her, and the business began to suffer. After Sarah was hired, Larry became increasingly disengaged from his practice. Larry sometimes is on the horse circuit. Sometimes he was on the golf course. Larry was sometimes drinking. That allowed Alisa to take a stronger role in the daily operations of the office.

[Debra Roberts]

Alisa led him down the path. Let me keep you happy with your wine and your drugs, and I will take care of everything for you.

[David Muir]

He didn't want to talk to anybody. He didn't want to have anything to do with anybody.

[Debra Roberts]

He was just by himself in his own world. He was going off the rails. He was losing control of himself. I knew it got really bad when my mom looked at me and said, oh, I got you a job training horses in Maine. And I packed up and left.

[David Muir]

In early September 2001, the McNabneys and their trainer loaded up a horse trailer, headed south to the city of industry in Los angeles county for a big show, the pacific quarter horse classic. So the ninth they Go for dinner. Sarah shows up, and Larry didn't like her showing up. He said something smart to her about leaving, and she turned to him and said, you, Larry, to her boss. The dinner became extremely awkward. Larry goes up to his room to pass out. And it's at this point that Elisa begins to carry out a truly twisted plan. This is a moment where, you know, they crossed the Rubicon. That was the line in the sand.

[Debra Roberts]

We went down to my trainer's truck and I got the medicine bag out and I got the. I got the tranquilizer out of it. Sarah said, put in the vitamin bottle and stuck the syringe in there, filled it up, and then he was sleeping on his back. And then I put like three drops in her mouth. And then I got all freaked out. So Sarah put some in.

[David Muir]

The next day, the competition continues. But Larry's disoriented shirt isn't tucked in. He can barely stand, barely walk. You know, he'd been such a proud performer, so meticulous, and he couldn't pull it off that day. So that night, Larry skipped dinner altogether. After he falls asleep, Larry is given more drops of the tranquilizer.

[Debra Roberts]

Next morning, I wake Sarah.

[David Muir]

So now they have a problem of a guy who's still alive but incoherent. What to do with this guy. The next day was September 11th.

[Debra Roberts]

We just got a report in that there's been some sort of explosion at the World Trade center in New York City.

[David Muir]

The world was distracted by, you know, the tragedy in New York City.

[Debra Roberts]

So we went down the street and rented a wheelchair, and I got him dressed and put him in the wheelchair, and we rolled him out to my truck, our truck, and put him in the back of the truck, and we drove. I was like, this is crazy. You just can't imagine these two petite ladies doing this.

[David Muir]

This.

[Debra Roberts]

It's unreal. We were just freaking out at that point. And so we got home to my house.

[David Muir]

But soon a question begins reverberating around the Sacramento area. Just where in the world is Larry McNabney?

[Debra Roberts]

Larry didn't come home. And it's like, well, where's Larry?

[David Muir]

I knew something was wrong. I was thinking, he's dead somewhere. Elisa and Sarah are gone so often they have to hire a third secretary. And that's Ginger Miller.

[Debra Roberts]

Yep, this is the office. Brings back a lot of memories. This is where the nightmare began. I was supposed to work for Alisa, and what I was going to do is be answering phones, typing up documents, mostly taking calls and working with some of the Clients.

[David Muir]

So Ginger Miller joins the practice as a secretary and she takes an instant liking to the two women.

[Debra Roberts]

When Ginger first came in, I could kind of tell that she, she wanted to be one of the girls. We actually started all to be friends. We were going out together, we went shopping. We were pretty much like gal pals. Elisa used to say she's Charlie's Angels. And she was Charlie.

[David Muir]

Good morning, Angels.

[Debra Roberts]

Good morning, Charlie. Why does it always have to be on the phone? Why can't we ever see Charlie? And she'd like the fact that everyone in the office is young and attractive and female.

[David Muir]

I'm Larry McNabney. Call me and Ginger. Right away she notices that the guy whose name is on the door isn't around. It's a Larry McNameney law firm. Where's Larry?

[Debra Roberts]

Larry's office had a lot of his awards for horse shows, a lot of pictures of him at the horse shows. I thought he looked like a good guy, but it was still a mystery. When am I going to get to meet him?

[David Muir]

Elisa initially tells Ginger that Larry had suddenly taken off after that horse show in Southern California.

[Debra Roberts]

I was told he was at an alcohol rehab in Oregon. Then I was told that he ran away from the rehab and joined a 12 month long rehab so we wouldn't be hearing from him for a long time. But then sometimes she said, oh, Larry popped in the office. He left again. Oh, Larry was just here. You just missed him.

[David Muir]

Larry's friends say it wasn't odd that he had temporarily gone awol. After all, it had happened before.

[Debra Roberts]

I called him runners. He just left, left the office, left everybody in there and took off.

[David Muir]

He could be gone for a week or two, but never longer than that.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm alone with Elisa in the office. She looks me in the eye and she says, I want to talk to you about Larry. We're going to separate. And she says, and we're going to continue to run the office as if Larry was here. It wasn't the first time he had taken off and she had kept the business afloat while he was gone. Before.

[David Muir]

Elisa didn't like to show up in the office until the crack of noon. She'd show up and act like Captain Kirk on the bridge. Let's answer that call. Let's move over there. Let's dodge this phone call. I'm not answering that. I need money. Trying to hustle money from others where she could get it.

[Debra Roberts]

Did Ginger see a chaotic situation? Yeah, but it wasn't chaotic to me because I'd been there When Larry was gone before, Ginger Miller noticed a lot of suspicious activity when she was hired. I mean, she's seeing, you know, Sarah and Alisa forge Larry's signature, you know, spend money that wasn't theirs. So Elisa would write checks in my name, have me cash them out for one to $3,000, and then I would bring her the cash in an envelope, and they would use that as their spending money. Boots, vacations, trips out of town, horse show stuff.

[David Muir]

In third place. Meanwhile, while the weeks go by and there's no sign of Larry, his family grows increasingly concerned. Where's pop? Where's Larry? We've been told three times now he's at rehab or at a golf tournament.

[Debra Roberts]

Joe and Tavia, Larry's kids, started asking, where's our dad? Like, where is he? Why can't we reach him? Joe was Larry's son, and he started calling Elisa up all the time because he was very, very worried or when.

[David Muir]

Did you become suspicious?

[Debra Roberts]

Before his birthday. Her commenting that he was depressed about his birthday wasn't a characteristic of our dad.

[David Muir]

That didn't sound like your father.

[Debra Roberts]

Mnh. Mnh. We were thinking that maybe they had separated or maybe things had gotten bad, and so he left.

[David Muir]

Finally, in late November, two months after Larry was last seen, the situation comes to a head. Ginger has had enough of the constant lying and deception. And there was one other problem.

[Debra Roberts]

The money started to run out, and I didn't get paid. I said, well, you know, Lisa, I know a lot that's going on right now, and I could go to the police if I wanted to, because there's a lot of suspicious things. And don't forget that a hungry mouth talks. November 30th. I go to the police department. I walked in. I was pretty nervous. I walked over to this window, and they handed me a small piece of paper, and I wrote on it, my boss is missing, and I think he's dead. And I'm pretty sure the secretary and his wife did it. And I stood and just waited for them to call me, and it literally was less than five minutes, and they came and got me. That was when everything opened up like a can of worms. So you're working there through, you know, September. What are you doing about L. Yeah. The first week I started, he said that Larry was gone. They start calling other people and trying to do their homework to find him.

[David Muir]

Based on the information provided by Ginger, Sheriff's investigators contact Alyssa. Alisa feels the walls closing in, and.

[Debra Roberts]

I turn to say, okay, what's wrong? She turned to me and she said they found us. And she says that time to go. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old fashioned way?

[David Muir]

Mail and ship when you want, how.

[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit GrowTherapy.com booknow today to get started. That's GrowthTherapy.com booknow GrowthHerapy.com booknow availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

[David Muir]

She said, could you kill somebody with this? And I said, you mean a horse? She says, no, a person. The guy whose name is on the door isn't around. It's a Larry McNabney law firm. Where's Larry?

[Debra Roberts]

I wrote on it, my boss is missing and I think he's dead.

[David Muir]

Say that looks like a leg. And I took a closer look myself and had to agree with him. He looked like Larry McNabney. So now investigators have a body. What they're looking for is a suspect.

[Debra Roberts]

I watched the countenance of my mom's face change. She said, it's time to go.

[David Muir]

Why did they flee? What were they running from?

[Debra Roberts]

You live the way that I lived and you have these not so imaginary monsters that are chasing you. You're always prepared to flee.

[David Muir]

It's a big game of cat and mouse is what it is.

[Debra Roberts]

Lisa has always lived in a fantasy world, so to her, it's almost like the next act in her movie. But how do you go from being a thief to being a killer? What did you just say?

[David Muir]

Larry McNabney, the attorney from Sacramento, is missing. He'd been missing since September 10th in Southern California at a horseshoe.

[Debra Roberts]

A lot of the witnesses at the horse show remember seeing him in a wheelchair. The last sight of Larry was he didn't look well.

[David Muir]

He was married to Elise McNabney.

[Debra Roberts]

Elisa McNabney was kind of running the show at the law firm. And then also Sarah Dutra was an assistant there.

[David Muir]

They were thick as thieves. They were best friends.

[Debra Roberts]

Larry was nowhere to be found, but yet they were signing his check, forging his name. The kids are saying, have you heard from Larry? And then people are calling me, his friends, where is he? Where's Larry? And nobody knew.

[David Muir]

The weeks turned into months, and the suspicions grew until November, when a secretary in Larry's law firm decides to take action. Ginger Miller was the one who first reported Larry missing. Chief Arney says that's enough. And she contacted the Sacramento Sheriff's office.

[Debra Roberts]

I felt deep in my heart that something had happened to him. I reported Larry missing. Then they came and got me. That's when the tape recorders came out. I always miss him by five minutes, or he was supposed to come and something happened, but he never, ever.

[David Muir]

After Ginger comes forward, cops talk to Elisa to question her about Larry's whereabouts. She was very intelligent and was able to pretty much answer any of the questions without any major concern that she was being mistruthful. Elisa feels the walls closing in. She goes to Ginger, who helps her pack her Jaguar.

[Debra Roberts]

She said she had to move immediately. And so we packed up Elisa's Jaguar and we made three trips out to this horse trailer storage. I'm on the phone with the police in my car. I'm like, we're packing. She's skipping town.

[David Muir]

Ginger tips off the police, who then try to intercept Elisa as she's skipping town.

[Debra Roberts]

I pull out, thinking that Elisa would get arrested and everything was going to go accordingly. It didn't, because she outsmarted them as well. The police pull in and she exits out the back gate. In the nick of time.

[David Muir]

She picks up her daughter Hailey and leaves town.

[Debra Roberts]

There was a horse show in Arizona, and she asked me to go with her, which gave me pause because I hadn't been invited to anything like that.

[David Muir]

In Years Now Elise is on the run, and she's nowhere to be found. So investigators go to the next person who might be able to help, and that's Sarah.

[Debra Roberts]

Your last name? Dutra.

[David Muir]

Okay.

[Debra Roberts]

D U T R A. And your first name is Sarah.

[David Muir]

She walked in dressed in in pink with her tiny little dog Munchie, to take questions.

[Debra Roberts]

I was like, where have you been? And she said, oh, he'll call sometimes. Not hang up on me. She might hang up, but that's that. Okay. But you still had no contact with Larry.

[David Muir]

Sarah tells investigators that she not only hasn't seen Larry, it also has been a while since she's heard from her clothes close friend Elisa.

[Debra Roberts]

When is the last time you saw or talked to Elisa? She was moving to Arizona, and I was going to fly down the next day, and she told me to wait.

[David Muir]

And so I went to the airport.

[Debra Roberts]

And they said, you took it down on the shirt. So I went to call her. And no longer a member.

[David Muir]

They know she's lying when they first talked to her, but they don't know where Larry is no more than they knew before they started talking to her. On February 5th, it's a day laborer who's walking down the vineyard row taping up the vines. The farmer said they he had seen some buzzards that were circling in the area, so he went to check. He had uncovered what he believes to be a partially buried body in one of the grape vineyards here in San Joaquin County. We followed the farmer. He drove us directly to the end of this road. As far as you can see, there's a grape vineyard that's there. We could see something protruding from the dirt in between the grapevines. As we got closer, we could see that it was a human foot. We preserved the location and assisted with the excavation of the body.

[Debra Roberts]

The next day, I went out to the scene. We progressively cleaned the dirt then away from the sides of the body very slowly and meticulously. His body was actually in a pretty good state of preservation.

[David Muir]

Ready to go. Okay. The body was found buried in a shallow grave in eastern San Joaquin county near Linden. A couple of days later, the body was identified by fingerprints as Larry McNabney.

[Debra Roberts]

We were notified on February 7th they had found a body. We can't have justice.

[David Muir]

We can't.

[Debra Roberts]

We can't let everything go with our dad. But we just asked for your help. That was a very shocking day. It was around this time, probably 20 years ago, I was in my office at work in Reno and got a phone call that he would have been found. Just surreal.

[David Muir]

There was no blunt force injury, no projectiles, no lacerations, nothing.

[Debra Roberts]

He's been dead for months, but this body is in really good condition. Something happened in that time frame such that his body stayed relatively well preserved. After performing the autopsy, I had no idea what his cause of death was.

[David Muir]

The police were facing an uphill battle. They don't know what killed him. Speculation was rampant.

[Debra Roberts]

When we got the toxicology results, they said, you know, we think we've identified something here that's kind of unusual. They identified xylazine.

[David Muir]

Xylazine is a horse tranquilizer. Xylazine is the stuff they give the horses to knock their asses down. So now investigators have a body. What they're looking for is a suspect. It was time to talk to Elise McNamee. The FBI is asking for help in finding a woman they say is a cold blooded killer.

[Debra Roberts]

I watched my mom's face change and I turned to say, okay, what's wrong? She turned to me and she said, they found us. And she says, it's time to go.

[David Muir]

This was their Thelma and Louise moment, baby. Off we go into the wild blue yonder. After Larry McNabney's body is found in a vineyard, Sarah Dutra is quickly brought in for another interview, this time with detectives from San Joaquin county. The scope of the question changed towards Sarah Dutra. At that point, she was denying any knowledge or information. It was so non believable. That turned it from an interview to an interrogation.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm sick right now and think that.

[David Muir]

Larry McNabney is dead. And who would do that to Larry? Who you think is. I don't know who would do that.

[Debra Roberts]

I mean, Sarah Kamasi elite. I mean, that's the only person now I could think that would do that.

[David Muir]

Meanwhile, Elisa has taken Haley with her down to Arizona for a horse show. It's there that she learns Larry's body has been discovered and cops are looking for her.

[Debra Roberts]

She said, they found us. It had been six years since we'd had to up and disappear. You live the way that I lived and. And you have these not so imaginary monsters that are chasing you, so you're always prepared to flee. I didn't even question it. She says it's time to go.

[David Muir]

So, okay, Elise is now gone. We can't find her. There's not a trace of her. There's a nationwide search. The FBI is asking for help in finding a woman they say is a cold blooded killer. And there's information that she may have gone to Denver. She Might have been to Vegas. They said that there was ties in Florida. The police go, well, let's just pull up who this is. Oh, wait a minute. Does anybody have a Social Security number on her? How about a driver's license? No, they don't have a clue.

[Debra Roberts]

And we drove all night to Colorado Springs, and we're driving this knock car. I mean, you cannot ask for more attention than with a red sports car, especially in mountainous country in the middle of winter. I thought, we're gonna slide off the road, we're gonna die.

[David Muir]

Haley says after driving 22 hours straight from Arizona, her mother dozed off at the wheel and the car swerved. She was startled awake by a police siren and pulling them over.

[Debra Roberts]

If you had spent the better part of a decade running from the possibility of your mom going to jail, that's the most terrifying thing you can see.

[David Muir]

Haley says her mom apologized and she worked her charm enough for the officer to let them go, no questions asked.

[Debra Roberts]

So it kind of became Mr. Toad's wild ride after that. It was a two week drive, and she kept going to these tourist locations like Denver, New Orleans, Mobile. She's explaining to me why it's easy to disappear into a town that's based on tourism.

[David Muir]

They say a woman by the name of Elisa McNabney murdered her husband, a California attorney. Authorities are looking for her and for her daughter. Meanwhile, investigators take a deep dive into Elisa McNabney's background. And they make a startling discovery. Elisa isn't who they think she is. Her real name is Loren Sims. From the police perspective, at first, they didn't know who the criminal was, and they sure didn't know who Lauren Sims was. Lauren Sims, born in Florida, raised in Florida, jailed in Florida, and during a term in prison, takes her fellow inmate's name, which is Elizabeth. Takes her Social Security number, shortens Elizabeth to Elisa, and that's her new name. The person we know as Elisa McNaveney, she's used at least 11 different names. You finally discovered her rap sheet. How long was it? 113 pages long. 113 pages. They found the mother of two had a rap sheet for bad checks and theft going back to 1987, plus outstanding warrants after skipping town on that felony probation for those Christmas presents she took all those years ago. Remember, she thought doing that would help her boyfriend see his kids. She actually served time for that, which is surprising. Elisa McNabney, aka Lauren Sims, had been on the run for nine years. Her parents, her family, they didn't know what happened. To her, they hadn't seen her.

[Debra Roberts]

The one thing that was so evident for the entire time was how devastating it was for her to leave my brother. She would have tears in her eyes and she said, it's one of the best things I ever did, was leave him there so he could.

[David Muir]

As the days go by, Haley starts to realize life on the run with her mom would mean her own life didn't count.

[Debra Roberts]

At this point, I still had no idea what was happening in Sacramento, but the prolonged flight from Arizona had really just reinforced to me this was going to be my life to continue protecting my mom from, from whatever is chasing her.

[David Muir]

We can't.

[Debra Roberts]

We can't let everything go with our dad till we know that she's been found.

[David Muir]

But as mother and daughter continue to drive across the country, it begins to take a toll.

[Debra Roberts]

She was just trying to find somewhere she felt like it was safe to settle, to stop. She was starting to get more anxious than I had ever seen her and, you know, just tired. We were both tired. We briefly stayed in Biloxi and she met a gentleman that had a timeshare in Destin. He said, well, why don't you just come stay at my timeshare? Elisa has always lived in a fantasy world. She's built it and she lives in it. So to her, it's almost like the next act in her movie.

[David Muir]

And that next act would bring an end to the wild ride in the a small Florida town and a shocking revelation from mother to daughter.

[Debra Roberts]

She said, I need to tell you this, but I need you to not freak out.

[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

Destin, Florida, is a beautiful destination. It is a beach town.

[David Muir]

The sands are sugar white, and of course, the waters are an emerald green. Destin's also the world's luckiest fishing village. That's their shtick. And trying her luck in Destin was Loren Sims, aka Elisa McNabney. After weeks on the run, she had a chance encounter at a golf tournament in Biloxi, Mississippi. And that's where she met the guy who had a condominium at the Pelican Beach Resort in Destin. And she finagled her way into a beachfront luxury condominium where she could stay free of charge.

[Debra Roberts]

We got to Destin maybe like the second week of January, she said, oh, yes, I think this is the place. We can try to stay here for a while.

[David Muir]

She takes a job waiting tables at a upscale steakhouse. Later, she goes to work at a law firm. Another attempt attorney's office as a secretary with no id, no background.

[Debra Roberts]

She said, we have to change both of our names. I was confused because she had never asked me to do that before. And I picked the name Penelope.

[David Muir]

To the people of Destin, Elisa McNabney was known as Shane Iverone.

[Debra Roberts]

I never met Elisa McNabney. I met Shane Iverone. She was really sweet, well spoken, and she knew how to make people like her. That's what I got from it.

[David Muir]

She's got a new name, a new identity, and a new place to live, but she just can't seem to stay out of trouble. And that's when the walls start to close in on her. This guy was letting her stay at his condo, and then he found out that she had been using his credit cards and had been ripping him off. And so he called the lawyer's office and said, hey, I think something's wrong with her. They decided to run her license plates, and that's when they discovered that she wasn't Shane Iverone and that she was wanted for murder out of San Joaquin. We were looking for a white female who had killed her husband. And we knew that she was driving a red Jaguar, which is a vehicle that stands out for some reason. Elisa gets a Feeling that the law is closing in, and she makes a quick date with a guy she had met. She spends the night at his house, takes the keys to his pickup truck. $600 and she's gone. She takes the truck and leaves him the Jaguar with a tan top. Then she went to another friend's house where her daughter had been staying. Picked up the daughter at like 6 or 7 o' clock in the morning.

[Debra Roberts]

My initial reaction was, why are you here? And she said, they found us. And I said, okay, where are we going now?

[David Muir]

Haley says her mom took her north up the coast. And after about a day and a half on the road, they arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, to start over yet again.

[Debra Roberts]

We drove around and we were coming back across the bridge, going back into Charleston, and I had enough. I'd had enough. I had started coming to the realization that I was never going to have, like, a real life. I'm going to have to live that clandestine life. And I said, I can't do this anymore. I cannot continue running like this. She was visibly shaken and had to pull over. And she laid her head down on the steering wheel for a minute, and she said, all right, but before I take you back, I need to. To tell you everything because you need to be prepared.

[David Muir]

Haley says her mom takes her back to their hotel, and it's there that she finally tells her what happened to Larry.

[Debra Roberts]

She said, I need to tell you this, but I need you to not freak out. I said, okay. And she said, we killed him. And it kind of felt like everything just white noise. I couldn't think. I couldn't. I didn't see anything around me. I was horrified.

[David Muir]

She finally confessed to her daughter what she had done. And like that, it's over. All the running, all the lying, all the hiding is finally done.

[Debra Roberts]

I had never seen her look so empty after that. The next morning, we got up early and she drove me back to Destin.

[David Muir]

Haley says her mom dropped her off and then left, worried about what her mom might do next. She says she then turned to the police for help. She seemed very concerned for her mother. She said that she thought that her mother might hurt herself. So we put a BOLO out for the vehicle again on the air so that the destined units would be looking. We looked at the bars, we looked at the hotels in the area, and then we started putting people on the beach. I got call that the car was in the parking lot over here at the Winn Dixie.

[Debra Roberts]

So I started heading that way.

[David Muir]

The truck turns up in the parking lot across the street from the beach. The witness says, I saw her walking in that direction towards the beach. She sees a cop on the beach walking towards her. And before the cop can say anything, she goes, yeah, it's me you're looking for.

[Debra Roberts]

And she just kind of looked at.

[David Muir]

Me and went like, it's me. Hi. So I cuffed her. And she wasn't making any effort to escape. She was talking to her daughter on the phone.

[Debra Roberts]

I was both incredibly relieved that she was okay and horrified that I had contributed to her worst nightmare happening.

[David Muir]

After they pick her up on the beach, they take her to the sheriff's office for an interrogation. We were really kind of surprised because she just opened up one of those.

[Debra Roberts]

Onions that you peel away. The more you peel away, the more shocked you are. How long has he been refrigerator?

[David Muir]

Three months.

[Debra Roberts]

Three months in the refrigerator.

[David Muir]

Some call this the prettiest spot on the entire gulf coast. And this is where the hunt for lauren sims came to an end. They arrested her. Up there on the pool deck.

[Debra Roberts]

There'S relief. There's finally a little bit of closure. There's still a lot of anger and hatred.

[David Muir]

After her arrest, Loren sims is brought into the destin police department to answer questions about what happened to her husband larry.

[Debra Roberts]

What I'm going to start out with is just getting background information Just to confirm what's, you know, who you are. Okay.

[David Muir]

She was very sad, very quiet. She wanted to talk. She was ready to get everything off her chest.

[Debra Roberts]

I knew that something needed to happen.

[David Muir]

Either I need to put a bullet.

[Debra Roberts]

In my head or I needed to deal with it. And did I kill my husband? Yes, I killed my husband.

[David Muir]

Loren claimed that in the weeks before she killed him, her husband had become increasingly violent and erratic from substance abuse.

[Debra Roberts]

I would wake up, and he could choke at me. And it was the drugs. It wasn't him. I would be freaked out and scared. She was backed into a corner, and she had no other choice. It was the only out she saw. He wasn't an abuser. Was he a perfect husband? Probably not, but he wasn't an abuser.

[David Muir]

In September of 2001, Loren tells investigators how she and sarah tried to kill larry in that hotel room in the city of industry.

[Debra Roberts]

I put, like, three drops in the mouth, and then I got off. Freight jobs with Sarah puts them in there.

[David Muir]

She explains how they used a wheelchair to sneak Larry's incapacitated body out of the hotel.

[Debra Roberts]

And we thought he was gonna die.

[David Muir]

Car. They drive in Larry's pickup truck to yosemite national park, which was A favorite destination for Sarah as a child. And they intended to bury Larry's body. They expected him to be dead by the time they got there.

[Debra Roberts]

Okay. And I was freaking out. What did you tell her? Would you stretch them in there?

[David Muir]

He go lie. You can't do that. So they took him back out to the house. And then in the morning, they came out and he was dead.

[Debra Roberts]

So what do you do with him at that point? Oh, my gosh. He had his wine refrigerator. So. Larry's body was in really good condition. The reason was because Elisa put him in a refrigerator. Come open, so she'd have to. And what blows my mind is that they had house parties, they had dinner parties, and Larry's in the fridge.

[David Muir]

Loren tells investigators that it wasn't until Sarah learned that Larry had been reported missing to the authorities that the two women were finally forced to act.

[Debra Roberts]

Now you have to do something with the body. Yeah, we put him in the trunk, and he was like this. And.

[David Muir]

So Elisa and Sarah drive to Vegas because Larry loved Vegas. Let's bury him in Vegas. That will do him a honor. Anybody who's been to the strip in Las Vegas knows the Bellagio, the beautiful fountains. And of course, that's where Elisa and Sarah chose to stay.

[Debra Roberts]

And we pulled into the Bellagio, and we pulled up the parking garage, and there were security guards there, and they said, can you box truck?

[David Muir]

And Sarah, who was driving, pops a button for the trunk.

[Debra Roberts]

What was Sarah thinking? Why would she pop the trunk? So you get out and you close the trunk. Yeah, I got out and closed the.

[David Muir]

Trunk and told the lady, I was.

[Debra Roberts]

Just looking for Mirage. And she said she took a U turn right here.

[David Muir]

How do you forget there's a dead body in your trunk? And then they pull out of the Bellagio because they figure out, just in case, maybe we won't stay here. The two women find another hotel in Las Vegas. Elisa goes out on her own to try to bury Larry. And that's when she discovered that desert soil is very, very hard. She was unable to dig a hole, let alone a grave.

[Debra Roberts]

It's not good.

[David Muir]

The next stop on this bizarre road trip would bring the five final revelation about what happened to Larry's body. And now that Loren has told her version of the events to the cops, how would Sarah respond? Talk about truth today and be truthful, damn it. Loren Sims has just confessed to a twisted tale of how she tried and failed to bury Larry McNabney's body in the desert outside of Las Vegas. After the episode in Las Vegas, it's back to Woodbridge. With Larry still in the trunk of the Jag, Elisa decides that she will bury Larry without Sarah's help.

[Debra Roberts]

Help?

[David Muir]

Alisa says that she alone drove out to a vineyard.

[Debra Roberts]

How deep or what did you do?

[David Muir]

Larry ended up in a shallow grave in a vineyard. Alisa buried him in a place that represented a product that he loved, wine.

[Debra Roberts]

She definitely implicated the Sarah. She said Sarah was her accomplice, that Sarah helped her the whole step of the way, from feeding Larry the horse tranquilizer to stuffing him in the refrigerator. I'm sick right now to think that Larry McNabney is dead. And who would do that to Larry?

[David Muir]

She had been in several times, and each time, she minimized her involvement. I don't know what you're talking about. I have no idea. She was not forthcoming. It's obvious that she's not telling the truth. But after Loren's confession, police bring in Sarah for questioning again. And this time, she tearfully admits to helping get rid of Larry's body.

[Debra Roberts]

Talk to me about trip to race and be truthful, damn it. Okay.

[David Muir]

Sarah claimed that she was under the spell of Alisa, that she was afraid of Elisa, that she did things unwillingly because she was afraid of Elisa.

[Debra Roberts]

We had talked about not wanting to go around anymore, and she said, I'm just. I'm just raised. No, it's great.

[David Muir]

Sarah claimed she didn't think Elisa was serious about killing Larry and denied she had helped poison him with the horse tranquilizer. She also claimed she had no part in putting or keeping his body in that refrigerator. And she blames everything on Elisa. Her performance is not convincing as far as the detectives are concerned. And so they arrest her on a murder charge as well. Meanwhile, Loren is transferred to the county jail in her hometown for an extradition hearing to return to California to face murder charges. But that never happens. On Easter Sunday, her years on the run finally come to an end. Inside her jail cell, she decided to end her life. She devised a way to take the bed sheets and tie them into a knot and hang herself in her jail cell.

[Debra Roberts]

I think that as she was writing her own story, she decided when the finale was gonna be, what she was gonna do. My world ended with her. I didn't know what to do. What do you do when your whole life is revolved around protecting this person? And you. You can't protect them anymore, and you couldn't even protect them from themselves.

[David Muir]

While Loren's journey has ended, Sarah still has to face justice for her part in Larry's death.

[Debra Roberts]

Sarah Neutron.

[David Muir]

Is that your correct name?

[Debra Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

I just saw her being arraigned on television, my class president, and I'm just thinking, holy smokes. Like, what, how, why, what? You're charged on September 11th of last year. The maximum penalty is death. You understand the charges. Dutra was in tears after the arraignment, her attorney making her seem anything but an accused killer. Little baby that you just want to grab a baby blanket and put it around her. She is such a helpless little thing. Sarah Dutra's murder trial began January 6, 2002, about a year after she had been arrested. If Elisa McNabney is to be believed, Sarah Dutra was a full and willing partner in the death of Larry McNabney. Sarah Dutra's main defense the entire time was that she was an unwilling participant in and she was terrified of Elisa. In the night when the murder occurred, she was as surprised as anyone that the murder had occurred. It seems like a classic instance of, you know, evil sort of wrapping around a sweet, young little baby. Everything she did was for her motive.

[Debra Roberts]

And for her gain. And I think if Sarah wasn't here.

[David Muir]

My dad would be. One of the prosecution's key witnesses was Ginger Miller. She had a firsthand view of the suspicious activities in Larry's office after he went missing. Ginger Miller testified that Sarah Ducha practiced, you know, forging Larry's signature and testified that she did a lot of illegal things. This is evidence of a woman who was best friends, cohorts, and co conspirators in the murder of Larry McNabney with his wife Elisa. Sarah apparently found a friendly juror, one holdout that might have saved her from a murder conviction and got her a far more lenient conviction. Voluntary manslaughter, accessory to murder, 11 years in state prison. But even with Sarah's conviction and Loren's death, this story isn't over yet. There's a final message from mother to daughter, one that will reverberate for years to come.

[Debra Roberts]

This was a memorial that we had put together for him. Larry may not have been a perfect.

[David Muir]

Man, but he was a good man.

[Debra Roberts]

And he was one of a kind. He's smiling down on us right now because we're sitting here talking about him.

[David Muir]

Sarah was paroled in 2011. She served roughly 8 years of an 11 year term. Sarah Dutra is now living back in her hometown of Vacaville. A lot of folks, when things are rough, they go back home. As long as she did come back home. Loren Sims made it all the way back home, too. But before taking her own life in a Florida, she left a final message behind. In the end, she wrote a beautiful letter to her daughter. Loren writes, I am so sorry for dragging you through the life I took you through. I hope that you can make your life good. If I am out of your life, you have a better chance of making it. She acknowledged all that she did wrong and wanted her daughter to have a good. And I'm telling you, that's one touching letter. I mean, it really is.

[Debra Roberts]

Initially, after everything happened, I just wanted to be left alone. My entire world ended when my mother died.

[David Muir]

There you go.

[Debra Roberts]

Come here.

[David Muir]

Hi.

[Debra Roberts]

I know. Stranger danger. There you go.

[David Muir]

I know.

[Debra Roberts]

I didn't know anybody. I came home to the town that I was born and raised in, but I hadn't seen my family in almost a decade. And I didn't know what to do because the only thing I had ever done was make sure that my mom was okay.

[David Muir]

Hailey decided to make something of herself. She got a master's degree in nursing, and she's been working for the last eight years as a Christian critical care nurse with an exemplary record.

[Debra Roberts]

Unfortunately, my marriage did not pan out. So I was a single mom with two children that I needed to support. I didn't want them to grow up with the kind of fear and anxiety that I had. I think that I came out on the other side and everything I thought I would never have. A career, an education, kids I have.

[David Muir]

I'm very proud of her. No matter what else Loren Sims left behind in her wake, she also left behind Haley Jordan. To me, Haley is the silver lining.

[Debra Roberts]

You never have to stay in a situation that you don't feel safe or in a situation that you question. You have a right to feel safe, and you have a right to whatever future you're willing to make.

[David Muir]

After years in nursing, Haley now says she wants to go to law school. She also tells us, David, that she wants to open a center for abused women. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching.

[Debra Roberts]

I'm Debra Roberts.

[David Muir]

And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night. Carvana is so easy. Just a click and we've got ourselves a car.

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[David Muir]

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[David Muir]

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[Debra Roberts]

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