Murder On The Cape

Summary

48 Hours — "Murder On The Cape" (March 3, 2026)
CBS News

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Episode Overview

“Murder On The Cape” examines the haunting murder of Christa Worthington, a former fashion writer found stabbed in her Truro, Cape Cod home in 2002. This episode investigates the aftermath in the tight-knit community, the painstaking investigation, the controversial trial, and lingering questions of justice and doubt. Blending interviews with those closest to Christa and exclusive access to investigators and legal teams, 48 Hours explores how this harrowing crime shattered lives, challenged the justice system, and left wounds that remain decades later.

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Key Discussion Points & Timeline

1. Discovery of the Crime and its Immediate Impact

[00:40–02:12]

• Christa Worthington, a respected writer and single mom, was found murdered at home; her two-year-old daughter Ava was present but unharmed.
• Reporter Eric Williams describes shock in the small Truro community, which hadn’t had a murder in over 30 years.
• Heart-wrenching detail: toddler Ava attempted to “clean” her mother’s body with her broom.
• “The horror that came into this quiet house in the wintertime...and just blew up these little wonderful lives.” — Eric Williams, [01:18]

2. Christa’s Background and Relationships

[02:12–08:48]

• Christa, described as warm, ambitious, and a devoted mother, returned to Cape Cod from a glittering journalism career in New York and Europe.
• She had an affair with Tony Jacket, a married local fisherman, resulting in the birth of Ava.
• Friends note Christa wanted a child, even appearing on the “Liza” show to discuss single parenthood.
• Tony Jacket felt “set up” by Christa regarding her pregnancy.

3. The Investigation Begins

[08:51–11:35]

• Reporter Eric Williams recounts initial chaos and rumors; former boyfriend Tim Arnold found the body and became an early suspect.
• Details of the murder scene: forced entry, scattered belongings, and signs of struggle.
• The first homicide in decades made national news and triggered fear in Truro.

4. An Expanding Web of Suspects

[11:35–15:02]

• A community guessing-game: Tony Jacket, Tim Arnold, even Christa’s elderly father were suspected.
• Tim Arnold, who had lived with Christa, denied involvement.
• Townspeople grew anxious as time dragged on with no arrest.

5. Forensic Focus: The DNA Search

[14:32–20:37]

• Crucial DNA evidence found on Christa’s body became central.
• Police and DA Michael O’Keefe sought DNA samples first from close contacts, then from virtually every man in Truro — an unprecedented step.
• “They’re throwing darts at an elephant...they got no chance. It’s just crazy.” — Eric Williams, [20:18]

6. The Break in the Case: Christopher McCowen

[22:36–24:45]

• In 2005, three years after the murder, forensic breakthroughs matched the DNA to Christopher McCowen, Christa’s garbage man.
• “Who would have figured it would have been the garbage man?” — Eric Williams, [23:26]
• McCowen had previously denied knowing Christa and gave DNA voluntarily.

7. Confession and Controversy

[24:45–27:13]

• Upon facing DNA evidence, McCowen’s story changed: he admitted to visiting, having sex, and beating Christa, but shifted blame for the murder to friend Jeremy Frazier (whose DNA was absent).
• Defense attorney Bob George argues McCowen’s confession is false, police-coerced, and McCowen’s low IQ (76–78) made him vulnerable during the lengthy, unrecorded interrogation.
• “This is a false confession, and I don’t accept it.” — Bob George, [27:00]

8. The Prosecution’s Case vs. The Defense

[29:14–36:37]

• The prosecution’s pillars: 1) McCowen’s DNA on the victim, 2) his own admissions to police.
• The defense argues the DNA could be consistent with consensual sex; McCowen’s race, class, and cognitive ability unfairly influenced suspicion.
• “If you had the same body of evidence and Johnny White Bread...he wouldn’t have been charged.” — Bob George, [32:43]
• Questions about mishandled evidence, contaminated crime scene, and omitted physical evidence enhance doubt.

9. Jury Deliberation and Verdict

[37:07–39:47]

• The jury, including two African-Americans, deliberates for six days, even after a controversial juror replacement.
• “[The juror’s removal] confused things. In the end, he has confidence in the jury’s decision.” — Eric Williams, [41:05]
• The verdict: Guilty of murder in the first degree. McCowen addresses the court, maintaining his innocence: “All I can say is that I’m an innocent man in this case.” — Christopher McCowen, [39:47]

10. Aftermath: Doubt, Reflection, & Legacy

[41:45–43:43]

• Now cleared as a suspect, Tony Jacket expresses relief yet doubts about the outcome: “I felt there was reasonable doubt all over the place.” — Tony Jacket, [42:02]
• Tim Arnold remains haunted: “Sometimes the weight of events forces you to look back whether you want to or not.” — Tim Arnold, [42:22]
• Ava, raised by legal guardians, is “doing well” but will grow up without her mother. Friends vow to ensure she knows she was deeply loved.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The horror that came into this quiet house in the wintertime...and just blew up these little wonderful lives.” — Eric Williams, [01:18]
• “Who would have figured it would have been the garbage man?” — Eric Williams, [23:26]
• “This is a false confession, and I don’t accept it.” — Bob George, [27:00]
• “If you had the same body of evidence and Johnny White Bread...he wouldn’t have been charged.” — Bob George, [32:43]
• “I felt there was reasonable doubt all over the place.” — Tony Jacket, [42:02]
• “Sometimes the weight of events forces you to look back whether you want to or not.” — Tim Arnold, [42:22]
• “All I can say is that I’m an innocent man in this case.” — Christopher McCowen, [39:47]

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Episode Structure & Flow

• The episode flows from the immediate emotional trauma, to Christa’s backstory, the investigation and expansion of suspects, forensic hurdles, the shocking arrest, courtroom drama, and the agony of the verdict.
• The tone weaves community shock, personal heartbreak, and skepticism about the justice system.
• Throughout, personal interviews — from reporters, friends, family, lawyers, and suspects — drive forward a narrative of mystery, suspicion, and heartbreak.

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Closing Thoughts

“Murder On The Cape” is a chilling, thought-provoking exploration of a notorious case, highlighting small-town fears, investigative missteps, and enduring questions of justice. The fates of Christa, Ava, and the accused underscore both the fragility of truth and the lasting, tangled legacy of real-life crime.

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Further Exploration

• For additional background, the “Post Mortem” series (Tuesdays) offers in-depth discussions with correspondents and producers.
• Classic cases are revisited Wednesdays and Thursdays on 48 Hours.

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For listeners seeking a comprehensive, empathetic understanding of the Christa Worthington case, this episode delivers unmatched detail, multiple perspectives, and probing questions that linger well after the verdict.

Transcript

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It's a small seaside town just about at the end of Cape Cod in the wintertime. It's a really quiet place. The people that live here are year rounders. Everyone pretty much knows one another. I knew Rhonda to live anywhere else. It's just a beautiful place to hang out unless something really awful happens. Police are trying to solve the first murder in a small Cape Cod town in more than 30 years. The victim, a local writer named Christa Worthington, was found inside this house in Truro on Sunday. Christa Worthington was found stabbed once through the left chest, missing the heart, piercing the lung and the knife made an exit wound in her back and went into the kitchen floor below her. Worthington's two year old daughter was also at the house on Sunday and witnessed the attack, but she was not hurt. The details that we heard about apparently Ava attempting to clean her mother's body and finding a child's broom with blood on it and things like that, that was really, really hard to take. The horror that came into this quiet house in the wintertime at the end of the world and just blew up these little wonderful lives. My name is Eric Williams, I'm a reporter with the Cape Cod Times and I've covered this case from the beginning.

[A]

I'd say she had a very easy smile. She had a wide eyed wonderment about the world.

[B]

She was a mom. She was a great mom.

[A]

Her whole being lit up just by

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being with her daughter Ava. She was a flirt and you know, I could tell that there was an attraction. I'm Tony Jacket. I had an affair with Krista Worthington and we had a child together. Ava Worthington. It wasn't solved right away.

[A]

It is a murder mystery that continues

[B]

to haunt Cape Cod. I think people were spooked. Who is this person that did it? Where are they? I mean, are they a local? People around here are getting very anxious and time went on and A sort of rotating cast of potential suspects were trotted out. We got Tony Jacket, the father of Ava. It's disturbing to be a murder suspect. Tony's son in law, Keith Amato, was a person whose name came up. Dude, don't film me. The guy who found the body, Tim Arnold. Krista was an easy person to love and sometimes a difficult person to be around. I think there was the feeling like we're never gonna know whether this was your next door neighbor. An arrest in the murder of Krista Worthington, I mean, that was a shock. That was. Out of the blue, they arrested a guy. I mean, could you believe it? This was a great mystery. How could a single mom be executed in her kitchen in January in Cape Cod? Yeah, I love it in the wintertime because it is quiet and you have.

[A]

And I like the cold weather in the wintertime. Cape Cod can feel like the end of the world.

[B]

It's a real challenge being out on the water, you know, mentally and physically. Really a real independent way of life.

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It's the only world fishing warden Tony Jacket ever really has known.

[B]

I feel fortunate and blessed that I was born and raised here. Tony is like, he's like a nature boy.

[A]

And that, according to reporter Eric Williams, is pretty much how everybody in the town of Truro saw him. Hi, Nancy.

[B]

He's a great guy, gregarious, smart, you know, really a pleasant fellow, you know, who likes the ladies, you know.

[A]

In 1997, a new lady came to town. A glamorous former fashion writer from New York.

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She had a bungalow right next to the Habermaster shack. And this is the Habermaster shack, this pink one that was hers. She's sitting on the porch and I'm right there.

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And Jacket, married with six kids, nonetheless went for her hook, line and sinker.

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She was someone very different from the people that I knew. She was mysterious, enigmatic, somewhat of a loner.

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Her name was Christa Worthington. A 40 year old Vassar grad, she lived what seemed a life in the fast lane, covering the runways of New York, London and Paris for top fashion magazines. Scoring an interview with fashion superstar Yves Saint Laurent when she was just 26.

[B]

That was her building when she moved back from Europe.

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But Steve Radlauer, who dated Christa for two years in New York, says she never felt part of the glamorous world she covered.

[B]

I think she was feeling a little burned out after her European womenswear years.

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Her prominent New England family owned a

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slew of properties in Truro owned by John Worthington Sr.

[A]

Including this one where she moved a few months later, it seemed like the perfect retreat and the perfect place to have a child.

[B]

She had this having a baby thing in mind, and I think she felt that this would be a good place to do that. The complication was that she was not married, didn't have a boyfriend. She was, I think, intrigued with the local color.

[A]

Local color, including you.

[B]

Yeah. I could tell that there was an attraction. You know, ultimately, I ended up over a house having a cup of tea. And then one thing leads to another.

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For about a year, off and on, they had an affair.

[B]

I had become a slave to my ego.

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And for the beautiful writer who desperately wanted a child and the local fisherman who already had six, one thing did lead to another. So she comes to you at some point and says, I'm pregnant.

[B]

Right.

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This is a surprise.

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This is a total surprise.

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A surprise he didn't share with his wife of 26 years. Even when Christa gave birth to a daughter, Ava, in May of 1999, the

[B]

day she got pregnant, she was ecstatic. I was dumbfounded.

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Friends insist Krista had been told she couldn't have a baby, but Jacket always has felt she set him up.

[B]

How do I explain this? I'm like, all of a sudden I realize that I'm in.

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In fact, she had gone on the Liza show the year before to talk about women who choose to be single parents.

[B]

Trying to figure out how to be

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the best parent to your child, given

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that there is no father. She was very real. She was exactly who she was.

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Ava became the center of Christa's universe, says Linda Schlechter, who babysat a few times a week.

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A very devoted mother. And she would always have Ava on

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her lap, and they would always be playing or laughing. Now I'm just still in a lot of disbelief about what's happening happened.

[B]

It seems so unreal.

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Unreal indeed.

[B]

I walked into the newsroom here on Cape Cod, and we had just gotten word from the police that there had been a murder.

[A]

The first homicide in Truro in 30 years sent reporter Eric Williams into high gear, finding sources, working the phones. It was Sunday, January 6, 2002.

[B]

Surprisingly, you know, I knew the guy who found the body, and next thing I know, I'm calling him and talking to him about it.

[A]

He was calling Tim Arnold, another former boyfriend of Krista's who lived just through the woods from her house. Arnold's story was that he had simply dropped by the house at 4:30 that afternoon to return a flashlight and instead got the shock of his life.

[B]

He sees Krista lying on the floor in a sort of a kitchen hallway area. And he sees Ava near her mother's body.

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Arnold later told police little Ava was trying to nurse. He said he scooped her up and ran outside. He called 911.

[B]

This line's recorded. What is your emergency? Please send somebody to 50 Depot Road. Okay, what's the problem? It's Crystal Whitting. I don't know what happened. I think she. I'm sure she's dead.

[A]

Christa Worthington was dead, lying in a hallway off the kitchen.

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She was bruised up. It looked like there had been some kind of altercation that she had been in.

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She was half naked and stabbed once through the left lung.

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The blade went through the body and into the kitchen floor beneath her body.

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The front door was smashed. There were drag marks on the ground outside and several personal items scattered in the drive.

[B]

Some socks were found outside, maybe a barrette, a pair of reading glasses.

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The disarray continued inside. Shocked EMTs carelessly grabbed a blanket from the house to cover Christa's body. Soon, all of Truro knew what had happened.

[B]

We got just a phone call that Krista got murdered.

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What was your reaction when you got this phone call? Just disbelief.

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I mean, like, why it seems so senseless.

[A]

With all the elements of a classic mystery, sensational reports of the murder on Cape Cod topped the news around the country. It was a murder that rocked the world of high fashion, leaving Christa's nervous neighbors with no reason to suspect that it would take police literally years to solve this crime. Crime. Not that they didn't have plenty of suspects.

[B]

It became some kind of awful parlor game, you know, in living rooms on the Outer Cape and maybe even beyond, as you'd sit around and once again go through it and try to figure out, could it have been Tim? Could it have been Tony? How did it go down?

[A]

By the spring of 2005, townspeople were starting to think police never would figure out who killed Christa Worthington.

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This was just a random awfulness that just came screaming out of the woods of Truro and festered for three years.

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big business idea into Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com specialoffer. ABCs next time won't you sing with me? Christa Worthington's savage murder in January of 2002 left 2 year old Ava without a mother. And it left the townspeople of Truro edgy, nervous and silently wondering if the killer might be one of them.

[B]

Who else would come down to the end of the world in January and do this? You think it's gotta be someone who is here cause no one comes here in January.

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The best potential lead to the murderer's identity. DNA found on Christa's body.

[B]

It's DNA of an unknown male that's consistent with someone having had sexual relations with the victim. And it's that DNA that we seek to match.

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So says District Attorney Michael o', Keefe, investigators first zeroed in on her immediate circle, especially past boyfriends.

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You look at the people who are in the immediate orbit of the victim's life.

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While they waited for the crime lab to find a DNA match, they took a hard look. First, there was the neighbor and former boyfriend, Tim Arnold. Not only had he found the body, but his semen would turn up on the blanket thrown over Christa. Then again, they'd live together for a time in the house.

[B]

Tim Arnold was one of the few men under the age of 70 in Truro year round.

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Christa's friend Steve Radlauer says her relationship with Arnold, at times contentious, apparently was over.

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I don't think that she ever entertained the idea that this was going to develop into a long term relationship, that they were going to get married or anything like that.

[A]

But he may have.

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He may have. From what I understand, he was more serious about that as a long term possibility than she was.

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Arnold emphatically denied to police that he had anything to do with the crime.

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Have some good questions about what your

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memories of Christa are. Otherwise, he refused to discuss Christa Worthington. These days, Arnold struggles with health problems, mainly affecting his vision. But he says memories of what happened in 2002 never are far from his thoughts.

[B]

I think of it alone. I think about it just about every day.

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Sometimes writes about Krista.

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The Krista I knew was a person of contradictions. She was by turns bright, talented and ambitious. And then a homebody who wanted nothing more than to spend time with her child.

[A]

While Tim Arnold may have been at the top of the suspect list, I

[B]

was interviewed a lot early on.

[A]

Ava's father, Tony Jacket, wasn't far behind. You can certainly understand why the police would think that you had a motive to kill her.

[B]

Well, I had no motive. What was the motive?

[A]

Ava. Wow. According to Krista's friends, Jacket had little time for the baby at first and and eventually Christa demanded that he at least pay child support. She also demanded that he tell his wife. Susan. You didn't have a clue? No. He said, I had an affair.

[B]

And he said, there's a child.

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And I said, you're kidding. Then to Tony's total shock, she forgave him.

[B]

Take a walk on the beach. It's been too many years. And he's a nice man.

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People make mistakes.

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He's only human. Look at it, isn't it lovely? I don't want this anger in me.

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I just want to make this all work. And by the time of the murder, the Jackets claim it was more or less working. The three of them had a relationship of sorts, with Ava at its center. Tony, they say, had had no reason to kill Christa. We had her over for dinner and it was a little uncomfortable the first time.

[B]

But the more I got to know

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her, I liked her. I thought she was a nice person. Susan says Tony was at home with her when Christa was killed. But police refused to rule anyone out and the suspect list was expanding to Agatha Christie size proportions at times, even including Tony's then son in law, Keith Amato, who'd taken an outside shower or two at Christa's house near the beach. Even Christa's elderly father was drawn into the investigation through his 29 year old girlfriend.

[B]

You love taking pictures of me, don't you?

[A]

A former heroin Addict upon whom Christa thought he was spending far too much money. Meanwhile, the state crime lab was hopelessly backed up. Months passed with no word on the DNA taken from Christa's body. The police went to the FBI for a profile of the killer, but nobody seemed a fit. Then finally, a year after the murder, the crime lab at last produced results. Disappointing results, because the DNA from Krista didn't match Tony Jacket or Tim Arnold or any other suspect the police had.

[B]

You have this ever widening circle, if you will, of investigation going on. First group of people are looked at very, very intensely. Nothing is developing. You widen that circle.

[A]

The widened circle brought in DNA from repairmen, trash men, delivery men. With pressure mounting, DA o' Keefe took an unprecedented step, asking for DNA from every single man in Truro. State police investigators were actually in Truro

[B]

today, asking men outside the post office,

[A]

outside coffee shops for saliva samples for DNA.

[B]

At that point, like, what, are you crazy? I mean, this is such a needle in a haystack.

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How many people have been tested so far?

[B]

I'm not gonna say specifically, but dozens of people. Dozens and dozens. These guys are throwing darts at an elephant, you know? I mean, they got no chance. It's just crazy.

[A]

But chance is a strange thing. In the three years police were searching for Christa Worthington's killer, an uneasy peace settled over Cape Cod.

[B]

It's somebody that knows. Still no arrests in this case. No one's been ruled out either.

[A]

As the investigation dragged on. You know, it just makes you think,

[B]

you know, no one has been named a suspect.

[A]

Only the random DNA roundup got much public attention.

[B]

It did seem to smack of some desperation.

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Meanwhile, whole books were being written about this unsolved murder. Investigators under intense pressure still would rule no one out, including Tony Jacket.

[B]

I'm left in limbo if they don't solve it. And it's not right.

[A]

Little Ava, his daughter with Christa, was sent to live with a friend, Amira Chase, whom Christa had named Ava's guardian in her will. Jacket was allowed to see his daughter only one afternoon a week.

[B]

Who loves you? Daddy. That's right. Daddy loves you. Yeah. You know that's my daughter. You know, the Chasers are nothing to this little girl.

[A]

He fought for custody.

[B]

Worthington jacket.

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Matters 02W0006 long rise but lost to Krista's friend. And Tony thinks he know.

[B]

Well, being a suspect definitely cost me custody more than anything else. The custody of my daughter.

[A]

By 2005, jacket was getting used to another reality.

[B]

We're just going to have to live with the fact that the perception of my being a suspect is going to stay.

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But then, on April 7, investigators caught a stunning break. The crime lab had a hit.

[B]

We have a brief statement to make

[A]

a match for DNA found outside and inside Christa's body.

[B]

It just was a bombshell, huge bombshell, because we were just, like, electrified. Couldn't believe that they had come up with a match.

[A]

Suddenly, a match, a suspect and an arrest. All announced to the world by DA Michael o', Keefe. Three and a half years after the crime.

[B]

Last night, at approximately 7:15pm Detectives from the Massachusetts State Police arrested Christopher A. McGowan for the 2002 murder of Christa A. Worthington.

[A]

Which had a lot of people in town asking Christopher who?

[B]

Who would have figured it would have been the garbage man?

[A]

That's right. Christopher McGowan had been Christa Worthington's garbage man. Trow was astonished and relieved. It seemed like a done deal. The results were.

[B]

Were in the quadrillions.

[A]

So you're talking about as absolute as one could possibly get?

[B]

Well, you know, pretty much.

[A]

Police picked up a docile McGowan at his rooming house, lying on the bed watching cartoons. Marijuana and an open bottle of prescription painkillers were on the table nearby. Incredibly, he'd been right under their noses from. From the start.

[B]

Did you kill Krista?

[A]

Interviewed twice, Both times, he had denied knowing Christa Worthington. He'd given police his DNA voluntarily more than a year earlier. The laboratory could not get you results

[B]

as quickly as we would have liked them.

[A]

Well, a year, right?

[B]

Right.

[A]

When detectives took him in for questioning, McCowan waived his right to a lawyer. They say he again denied knowing Christa.

[B]

And then he's presented with what I would suggest is a relatively strong piece of evidence that he's lying.

[A]

DNA?

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Police say that's when his story changed.

[B]

He admits that, yes, he went there on Friday night. Yes, he had sex with her, and, yes, he beat her. But he doesn't want to bring himself to admit that he killed her. So he blames the worst part of it on someone else.

[A]

The somebody else was McCowan's friend, Jeremy Frazier, who'd been with him the night of the murder. But Frazier's DNA wasn't found anywhere on Christa's body. Was there an operating assumption that the last person who'd had sex with Christa Worthington had killed her?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

From the beginning?

[B]

Yes.

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And you believe that to be the case?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Christopher McCown's interview at the police barracks lasted about six hours. And for whatever reason, he declined to have it recorded. So the only record of this crucial interview is a report some 20 pages long that the detectives wrote from their notes about a week later. Enit McCowan is sometimes confused and comes up with at least half a dozen different versions of what really happened the night police say Christa Worthington died.

[B]

Chris McCowan didn't commit this crime, and the police know it.

[A]

Attorney BOB George took McCowan's case after the police interrogation and says they jumped to conclusions from the start, noting that the DA's website listed this murder as solved almost from the moment of McCowan's arrest.

[B]

A person of Chris McCowan's race, class and limited capacities was an easy target.

[A]

An especially easy target, he says, because Christopher McCowan literally wasn't smart enough to defend himself.

[B]

This is a person with a 76 to a 78 IQ on his best day, meaning on a day where he's not using drugs and alcohol, not under pressure.

[A]

Under pressure and under the influence.

[B]

He was using Percocet that day. He was using marijuana that day.

[A]

George says his client was putty in the hands of the police.

[B]

This is a false confession, and I don't accept it. I don't know how much of it is actually coming from Chris McCowan's mouth or how much of it is coming from the police investigation. I don't know.

[A]

As for the DNA, the linchpin of the prosecution's case, the significance of that, George says, is all in how you look at this crime.

[B]

Court's now in session. Please be seated.

[A]

And the police, he's about to tell the jury, are looking at it all wrong.

[B]

The forensics in the case could very well set Chris McCowan free. That person who killed Krista Worthington was white. They had footprints that were unidentified, they had palm prints that were unidentified, and they had unknown male DNA from three individuals under her fingernails.

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that are ready today with new construction communities in Ellensburg and throughout the Greater Seattle area. Dr. Horton has the right home for you. At Dr. Horton, we're still building with flexible living spaces, smart home technology and

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ready@dr. Horton.com Dr. Horton, America's builder and

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equal housing opportunity builder.

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For years Gone south has been a

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podcast about crime in the American South.

[A]

But for our new season, we're widening the lens through deeply reported narrative driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals and power structures that still shape the

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south and in a lot of ways, the country itself.

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Follow and listen to gone South Season

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5, An Odyssey podcast available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows. Down the Cape. Today, the infamous Crystal Worthington murder case has gone from a whodunit to a courtroom drama. All right, Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs Christopher M. McCowan.

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Prosecutors go into Christopher McGowan's trial confident that the jury will accept their simple theory of Christa Worthington's murder.

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That he went to this location for the purpose of having sex with this person, that that was denied to him and in a rage he raped her and killed her.

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The case against Christa's alleged killer, District Attorney Michael O' Keefe concedes, depends on two vital pieces of evidence.

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The DNA and the statement together were the two major pillars of the case.

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First, the DNA. We performed DNA analysis on 20. The state's expert says it proves beyond doubt that McGowan had sex with Christa Worthington. Christopher McGowan matched the major profile in the mixture. Then the statement.

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Can you tell us your name for the record please? My name is Christopher Mason.

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With Christa's father and other family members looking on, employed as a trooper with the Massachusetts State Police, Trooper Christopher Mason tells the court that although McCowan didn't actually confess, he did admit to police that he beat Christa and watched her die.

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Mr. McCowan stated, I never meant for that lady to get killed. It's a nightmare after nightmare and not a day goes by that I don't think about it. He went up there looking for sex. Crystal Worthington confronted him and it got very ugly.

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In the prosecution scenario, McGowan was drinking heavily that night. He joined friends at a local club. They were videotaped by an onlooker while taking part in a rap contest.

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This person wanted the company of a woman after partying and drinking all night.

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So O' Keeffe continues. At around 1:30am McGowan drove to Christa's house in Truro where he killed her. And he was alone. He was alone and he didn't have any prior relationship with her other than

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his familiarity with who she was, where she lived and the fact that she lived alone.

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That is where McCowan's attorney Bob George insists prosecutors have it all wrong.

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Now when they found the DNA for 39 months you will hear they were looking to speak to Christians last lover.

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He wants to convince the Jury, there is reasonable doubt about everything in this case.

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Suddenly, Krista's last lover was a rapist.

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For starters, George claims his client and Krista may have been involved.

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Chris McCowan could have reasonably had a consensual sexual relationship with Christa Worthington. And anyone who doesn't believe it is someone who just refuses to accept it.

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And that's the defense's explanation for the damning DNA evidence that Christa Worthington voluntarily had sex with McGowan, probably that Thursday, his day for picking up the trash, and that later someone else came along and killed her.

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You don't have McCowan's fingerprints at that scene. You didn't have McCowan's hair at that scene.

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You got McGowan's DNA at that scene.

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Yeah, consensual sexual episode on Thursday.

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But George says getting the jury to believe that could be a problem because his client is being tried in lily white Cape Cod.

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If you had the same body of evidence and Johnny White Bread was home for the holidays and was from some affluent family on the Cape, the same body of evidence, he wouldn't have been charged.

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But miles away in New York, Krista Worthington's former boyfriend, Steve Radlauer, says race and has nothing at all to do with his doubts.

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Let's hear about that consensual relationship. How long had that been going on? I saw Krista two weeks before she was murdered. Roughly. It wasn't going on then because we would have heard about it. That would have been her top story. Top of the Krista news would have been, I'm having an affair with my local trash man.

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You won't believe it.

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Top story

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back in court. The defense also must deal with it. Other big problem, that statement.

[B]

And when he walked into that police station on April 14, 2005, the police had to get a statement out of him.

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So they intimidated him, George argues, in a six hour interrogation, much as they'd done with other suspects like Tim Arnold.

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And when you told them that you did not kill Christa Worthington, what was said to you? Oh, yes, I have. It was like getting worked over, you know, like physically getting beaten up.

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Another one time suspect Keith Amato described a similar experience.

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Trooper Maughan slammed his hand down on

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the table and said, this is a

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murder investigation and if we so choose, we will turn your life inside out. They did exactly the same thing to them that they did to McCowan, except that they were smart enough and they had the wherewithal in the background to know when to say Stop. Cut it out. I'm not doing this anymore. I want a lawyer. As far as IQs go, what's the score for someone who's mentally retarded?

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George's witness. Forensic psychologist Eric Brown claims that with an IQ of about 76, Christopher McGowan simply couldn't understand the police's questions.

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69 is mentally retarded?

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Yes.

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And he's 76 on his best day? Yes.

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Rubbish, says the prosecution. McGowan seemed smart enough when Brown gave him an intelligence test.

[B]

For relativity, he indicated Einstein. And for Gandhi, he wrote Spiritual leader of India. And for Koran, he wrote Muslim Bible. That's correct.

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And he was clever enough, the State argues, to concoct a story blaming someone

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else be the truth, the whole truth.

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His friend, Jeremy Frazier, who appeared uncomfortable the moment he took the stand.

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Did you drive up to Crystal Worthington's house with Christopher McCowan? No, I didn't. Did you have anything at all to do with her death, sir? No, I didn't.

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But Bob George wants the jury to believe Frazier could have.

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What were you drinking?

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A couple beers at the party.

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Did you tell the police it was like six Coronas? I don't recall.

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Certainly Frazier and McCowan were together that night. The videotaped rap contest shows Frazier listening to music with McCowan nearby. But Frazier supplied an alibi. He later was seen at another party, then slept at a friend's house. And his DNA doesn't show up anywhere at the crime scene.

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He was a convenient patsy for the defendant to blame.

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Has nothing to do with this murder.

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No.

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Bob George also argues that police bungled the whole investigation. There were fibers, hairs, DNA that never made it to a lab. And a crime scene contaminated by careless EMTs.

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They had all kinds of evidence at that scene that was either mishandled, ignored or thrown away.

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Chris, Christopher McCowan never testifies, betting that his attorney has created enough doubt in this case to set him free.

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It's based on an assumption, a false assumption, that a Vassar educated, wealthy heiress could not possibly have had consensual sex with a black, uneducated twin. Troubled garbage. Me.

[A]

While the jury in the Christa Worthington murder trial deliberates, there's always that question

[B]

as to what's the truth, what isn't the truth.

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The case is still being tried in the court of public opinion, and everyone in town's got an opinion.

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I think the preponderance of evidence indicates that he's guilty.

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I think he deserves every bit of a reasonable doubt. If it's There.

[B]

I wouldn't be surprised if the guy gets off.

[A]

Days go by. The clock ticks on without a verdict.

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It's always good when they're out a long time.

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Christopher McCowan's lawyer, Bob George, is taking an optimistic, insisting that time and the evidence are on his side.

[B]

If you can't trust what you find at the crime scene because the scene has been corrupted, if you can't trust the statement because it's unreliable, and if the DNA doesn't mean anything because the defendant could have been involved in a consensual relationship with the victim, then what happened?

[A]

For five agonizing days, the jury, including two African Americans, debates that very question.

[B]

They said they were hopelessly deadlocked.

[A]

Then, on day six, a shocker. The judge announces he is throwing one juror off the panel. A white woman whose boyfriend was arrested in an unrelated crime. In a phone call with him, she was taped criticizing the police and. And there's concern about bias.

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You are to be discharged from the street. Word began circulating around 11:30 this morning that this jury had finally come to a verdict. It is now in session. Please be seated.

[A]

Two days after a new juror is seated, the logjam breaks.

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What say you, Mr. Foreman?

[A]

Christopher McCowan learns his fate.

[B]

We, the jurors, minimum speed. Return the following verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. He was devastated by the verdict. Anyone with eyes could see that he was terribly hurt by what happened.

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Hours later, before he's sentenced, he addresses the court for the first time.

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This case here is a very horrendous case. I feel sorry for the building's family, her daughter and her. And they remember this to ever take place.

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But he still claims he had nothing to do with Christa Worthington's death.

[B]

But, you, Honor, all I can say is that I'm an innocent man in this case. And in. And that's all I gotta say, the

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court doesn't buy it.

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The court hereby sends you to being prisoned at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction for and during the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole. On indictment number 051-0902, the jury have been found you guilty of aggravated rape. Did I want him not guilty? Of course I wanted him not guilty. You know, my belief in McCowan's innocence is what drove me. I believed he was innocent and still believe he's innocent and will believe he's not guilty until the day I die. You want me to stand at the

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podium even after the verdict? Bob George Refuses to give up. He's a little suspicious about what really happened to get that juror removed.

[B]

You've got a juror receiving phone calls on her cell phone from someone who's incarcerated in a deliberating deadline jury in a major murder case from the jail. You don't have to be Oliver Wendell Holmes to figure out there's something strange about that. We'll find out what happened. I think there's a lot of conspiracy theory types that you know will never be satisfied.

[A]

Eric Williams, who's covered the case from day one, says while replacing the juror confused things. In the end, he has confidence in the jury's decision.

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There was enough evidence, it seemed, to. To push them to unanimously agree. And I think for most Cape Codders, that's good enough. This case changed my life dramatically. It's not something that you ever imagine you're going to have to deal with. Kind of like being in a dark tunnel. I wonder if you'll ever see light again.

[A]

Are you glad that this is finally all over? Now officially cleared as a suspect in Christa's murder, Tony Jacket is relieved at the verdict.

[B]

The jury deliberated and carefully looked at all the evidence.

[A]

Although remarkably, he isn't sure the jury got it right.

[B]

I felt there was reasonable doubt all over the place. I think about the trial. I think about what it did to me, and I think about her.

[A]

Tim Arnold, too, is happy it's finally over. But to this day, he is haunted by what happened.

[B]

Sometimes the weight of events forces you to look back whether you want to or not. Just something that's always there. These happen to be a few snapshots I took of Ava and Krista when they were here only a couple of weeks before she was killed.

[A]

Ava lives still with her legal guardians, and by all accounts, she is doing well. One pretty little girl.

[B]

Yeah, she was really sweet.

[A]

When you look at this today, what goes through your mind?

[B]

Well, you know, I mean, basically, I think she was really happy. She was a great person. We miss her a lot.

[A]

Ava never will remember those happy times. But Krista's friends are determined that one day she will know how much her mother loved her. How would you want to tell her about the past?

[B]

A little bit at a time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is that good? Eva won't have her. That's the enduring tragedy, the whole thing. Christopher McCowan's defense continues to explore legal options. He has filed four motions for a new trial since his conviction. All have been denied.

[A]

I'm back. I'm really back.

[B]

School spirits returns.

[A]

Why am I here? Not dead, right?

[B]

This place is an absolute death trap. We need to get out of here now. School Spirits. New season, now streaming only on Paramount.

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