Breaking Point

Summary

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Dateline NBC: "Breaking Point" (May 12, 2026)

Main Theme / Purpose
This episode explores the shocking murder of Morgan Fox, a young FedEx manager in North Canton, Ohio. Through gripping interviews, family accounts, and the investigation’s twists and turns, NBC’s Lester Holt and reporters guide listeners through a true-crime mystery that exposes workplace harassment, the dangers of unchecked obsession, and failures to act on warning signs. The episode covers the crime, the suspects, the lasting impact on Morgan’s family, and the justice finally achieved.

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1. The Crime: Morgan Fox’s Murder and Immediate Aftermath

The Murder

• On October 28, 2020, Morgan Fox, 29-year-old single mother and FedEx manager, was found shot dead in her driveway as she was leaving for work (06:02).
• Her boyfriend, Jason Skarnackia, made the 911 call after finding her unresponsive in her car (04:39).
• The scene suggested an execution-style killing: "She was shot while she was getting into the vehicle." – Sgt. Craig Kennedy (01:13).
• No robbery motive: Money left in the car; purse untouched (07:56).

Family’s Shock and Grief

• Morgan’s relatives recall their devastation and disbelief:
  • “I cannot wrap my head around the fact that’s really how Morgan’s story ends. ... How somebody so pure is just gone.” – Cora Stonerock, stepsister (09:43).
  • Morgan’s daughter, Emmy, poignantly tried to “wake her up” at the funeral (45:14).
  • “I thought monsters weren’t real. But you proved me wrong.” – Emmy, at sentencing (86:43).

Early Suspicions and Red Flags

• Suspicion immediately fell on those closest to Morgan: her boyfriend and various coworkers (07:41, 25:25).
• Multiple red flags about the boyfriend’s calm demeanor and behavior (17:17, 18:21), although family ultimately did not believe he was responsible (23:16).

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2. Morgan Fox: Life, Work, and Rising Tensions at FedEx

Morgan’s Personality and Career

• Blended-family background, reputation for kindness, helpfulness, and resilience (10:26–12:03).
• Rose quickly from package handler to manager, earning colleagues’ respect and some resentment (12:29, 24:29).

Toxic Workplace Culture

• Morgan faced increasing harassment after her promotion:
  • “It just put a big target on her back.” – Cora Stonerock (24:29)
  • Co-workers (mostly male) played pranks—stealing her chair, hiding clipboards, and eventually taking her personal cell phone (25:06, 26:38).
• She reported harassment to management, but "nothing has been done." – Michelle Hanna, coworker (01:36, 28:16).
• “The culture at the FedEx facility... appeared that harassment... was a common practice, especially from male coworkers towards women.” – Sgt. Kennedy (25:47–26:03).

The Stolen Phone Incident

• Key moment: Her phone was stolen and accessed by coworkers. “She felt violated.” – Michelle Hanna (27:13).
• Instead of support, Morgan was reprimanded over dress code violations – selectively enforced only for women (27:30–27:55).

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3. The Investigation: Suspects, Red Herrings, and Breakthroughs

Major Suspects & Alibis

Jason Skarnackia (Boyfriend)

• Investigators probed his calm response and minor inconsistencies in his story (17:25–22:43).
• Alibi checked out; no evidence implicating him (23:16).

Colin McCauley (Coworker, Manager)

• Known to have had a crush on Morgan and potential involvement in phone theft (40:56).
• Cleared by police: “There was nothing... that would give us any indication that he was involved in this.” – Sgt. Kennedy (43:24).

David Dinarda (FedEx Manager)

• Rumored affair with Morgan, phone was wiped clean, inconsistent alibi about having a girlfriend (46:10, 47:13).
• Ultimately cleared after investigators confirmed his alibi (49:20, 49:50).

Jason McDermott (Coworker and Close Friend)

• Initially appeared to have strong alibi: phone never left his home (36:13).
• Subject of persistent suspicions and several red flags around his relationship with Morgan and history of workplace boundary issues (55:03, 57:29).
• Evidence began to pile up: obsessive texts, surreptitious photos of Morgan, fixation after being blocked, odd behavior at memorial (53:49–54:41), and questions about firearms access (61:54).

Critical Breakthroughs

• Surveillance and Forensics
  • Vehicle consistent with McDermott’s seen on traffic cameras near Morgan’s house at the time of the murder (68:52–69:13).
  • Rainy morning, but McDermott took his car through a car wash, twice cleaning the undercarriage (63:13–63:52).
  • Tire tracks at the scene matched the tracks left by his car (14:33, 63:25).
• Digital Evidence
  • FedEx video showed McDermott obsessively going through Morgan’s phone for almost an hour (56:12–57:06).
  • Cell phone evidence showed obsessive contact and secret photos taken from Morgan’s Instagram and phone (77:10).
• Behavioral Patterns
  • Pattern of stalking, culminating with another FedEx coworker, Sienna Clements, who had previously reported McDermott’s harassment (70:01–72:57).
  • “Why didn’t FedEx handle Jason McDermott with the first person the first time?” – Cora Stonerock (75:00).

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4. The Trial: Motive, Evidence, and Verdict

Prosecutor’s Case

• Portrayed McDermott as an obsessed, rejected coworker who escalated to violence when cut off (76:29–77:42).
  • “We painted a picture of Jason as an obsessed individual, somebody who was seeking in every way, shape and form a romantic relationship with some female individual.” – Prosecutor Dennis Barr (76:33).
• Circumstantial but powerful case:
  • Secret photos, texts, and evidence of stalking.
  • Phone left home to avoid location tracking (79:08).
  • Car tracked via cameras; suspicious car wash; possible gun match.
  • “If I can’t have her, nobody can.” – Cora Stonerock (78:39).

Defense Response

• Emphasized Jason’s meek, unthreatening personality and lack of direct evidence (80:51).
• Argued the car in the video could not be positively identified, and that the bullet could not be definitively matched (81:18–81:33).
• Raised doubts about Morgan’s boyfriend as an alternative suspect (81:40).

Jason McDermott’s Denials

• In exclusive interview, denied obsession, denied harassment, and denied the murder (83:06).
  • “I did not.” (83:06)
  • “I was never angry at her. ... I was the one that screwed up, not her.” (84:03)
  • “The only person that was ever allowed to handle his [father’s] guns ... was him.” (84:58)

Verdict and Sentencing

• Jury found McDermott guilty after less than a day of deliberation (86:20).
• Sentenced to life in prison, no possibility of parole.
• Morgan's daughter Emmy’s heartbreaking statement at sentencing:
  • “I thought monsters weren’t real. But you proved me wrong.” (86:43)

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5. Aftermath and Legacy

Accountability for FedEx

• The Fox family held a protest at FedEx and received a $4 million settlement (87:47).
• “Why didn’t FedEx protect her?” (75:14)

Morgan’s Memory and Prevention

• Family created the Morgan Ashley Fox Foundation to support children who’ve lost a parent to violence (88:42).
• “Do a Morgan” campaign encourages random acts of kindness, keeping Morgan’s spirit alive: “On the 22nd of every month, we do a Morgan, which is just a random act of kindness.” – Cora Stonerock (89:00).

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Quotes and Notable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Morgan doesn’t want to be in heaven. She wants to be here. She wants to be raising her daughter.” – Cora Stonerock (01:03)
• “She was shot while she was getting into the vehicle... It was an execution.” – Sgt. Craig Kennedy (01:13–01:17)
• “All was there as her shift started. Except on the morning of October 28,” – Lester Holt (03:48)
• “She stuck up for herself and she said ... all the male managers wear hats.” – Michelle Hanna (27:55)
• “We found close to 100 pictures taken off of Morgan’s Instagram without her knowledge.” – Prosecutor Dennis Barr (75:26, 77:10)
• “I just cannot wrap my head around ... how somebody so pure is just gone.” – Cora Stonerock (09:43)
• “That guilty verdict, it doesn’t turn back the clock. No, but it’s better than nothing sometimes.” – Narrator (87:10)
• “She was funny. She lived life. She was honest. When she loved you, she loved you. Everybody wants a Morgan in their life.” – Cora Stonerock (89:22)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:03–08:18: Morgan’s death, family/colleague reactions, crime scene
• 12:29–14:19: Morgan’s career and work relationships
• 24:10–29:19: Harassment, stolen phone, and workplace dynamics
• 33:48–36:13: Jason McDermott’s phone incident, relationship with Morgan
• 55:03–57:50: McDermott’s obsessive behavior, police suspicions rise
• 68:52–69:20: Car tracking breakthrough—video evidence
• 77:10–78:39: Obsession as motive, prosecution's closing
• 81:18–81:33: Defense strategies
• 83:03–85:59: Jason's denials in post-arrest interview
• 86:20–86:43: Verdict, sentencing, Emmy’s statement
• 87:47–88:15: FedEx accountability, settlement
• 88:42–89:36: Foundation, “Do a Morgan,” legacy

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Conclusion

“Breaking Point” is a sobering story of how workplace harassment, overlooked warning signs, and unchecked obsession can escalate to tragedy. Through detailed police investigation and the testimony of those left behind, the episode not only delivers a compelling whodunnit but also a cautionary tale about the real stakes of ignoring the pleas of vulnerable employees. The murder of Morgan Fox ultimately spurred change, but at a great, irreplaceable cost—her life. The Fox family now works to ensure Morgan’s legacy is one of kindness, protection, and advocacy for others.

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Transcript

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[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

When people tell me she's in heaven now. No, Morgan doesn't want to be in heaven. She wants to be here. She wants to be raising her daughter. She wants to be living the life.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

She was shot while she was getting into the vehicle.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

So this is an execution?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

That's what it appeared. She was discovered by her boyfriend.

[Detective Kennedy]

There's very distinct things that you're doing that are not normal.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

She was a manager at FedEx. She came to me and she was crying. She felt that people were were harassing her.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

She had complained about it to management. And what?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

She said that nothing has been done.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I'm like, oh my God. One of those boys at work did this to her.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you ever want something romantically with her?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you shoot Morgan Potts?

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

No.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

One manager had it bad for her. He really wanted to date her.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

You're wondering how, who, where and why.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

We found close to 100 pictures taken off of Morgan's Instagram without her knowledge.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Panic rushed over my body. Every single red flag came out.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Let me guess, this is all a big mistake. A young mom gunned down in the dark of night.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Even darker. The killer's secret obsession. I'm Lester Holt.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

This is Dateline.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Here's josh mankiewicz with breaking point. Here's the thing about working in America. You put a bunch of people in an enclosed space, tell them to work as a team, shoulder to shoulder, add in some deadline and performance pressure, and a couple of things are sure to happen. They'll start to rate each other. Who's good, who's lazy, who's cute.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

He was significantly into her.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You could tell.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

You could Tell they'll start to date each other. It's unavoidable.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

She met a guy at work. He was super sweet and super kind

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

and sometimes they'll start to hate each other. That's when management usually steps in.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

I went straight up to the supervisor and I was like, he's bothering me again.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Some things companies just can't predict. Some things they can, like the dependability of an employee like Morgan Fox.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Ah, Morgan. She was great. She was fun to work with. She was genuine and very much a hard worker.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

All was there as her shift started. Except on the morning of October 28,

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

2020, quite a few people were asking like, hey, has anybody seen her? Has anybody talked to Morgan today?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan worked the early shift at this FedEx ground sorting facility in North Canton, Ohio. Nikki Watkins was her co worker.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Everybody's radioing like, no, I haven't talked to her. Has anybody tried calling, Maybe try calling her mom?

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Because this was so unlike Morgan, people got concerned pretty quickly.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Yes, very quickly. And then we kind of ended the shift with it was a no call, no show. Maybe she just slept in.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It turned out Morgan had not just slept in.

[911 Operator]

911, you need police, firewarm, medical help.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

What her coworkers didn't know was that at about 6:30 that morning, Morgan's boyfriend Jason called 911 medical.

[911 Operator]

I mean, I'm pretty sure my girlfriend's dead. What makes you say that, sir? I came out, I got up for work, came out, looks outside, I've seen a car out here. I came out here and she's laying in her front seat, unresponsive, very cold, covered in blood. Looks like her head is bleeding from behind. I don't know if she fell or if she got bashed.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

If you think he sounds a little less than frantic, you are not alone.

[911 Operator]

You want to try CPR or do you think she's. You don't feel a pulse at all, sir? I don't feel false at all.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

When you get here, officers are already here. Paramedics are here.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Stark County Sheriff's office. Sergeant Craig Kennedy supervised the investigation.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Her car is parked right here in

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

the driveway and she's still in it.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

So partially she slumped into the driver's seat with one foot still out on the ground.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Door still open?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Door was still open. And there was some remnants of some food wrappers that appeared she was taking items for lunch.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The passenger side window had been shattered. 29 year old Morgan had been shot. So she comes out the front door,

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

gets in her car, somebody comes up from behind her.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It's quick.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And this is an execution.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Like there's no fight.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Around 8am One of Morgan's family members noticed the law enforcement presence at the house and called Morgan's mom, Cindy, who at first was not worried. She had just chatted with her daughter at 1:30am about six and a half hours earlier.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

She's like, she should be fine.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan's aunt, Chris Wilkop.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

So then she started trying to call Morgan, and she couldn't get ahold of Morgan. And then she called Morgan's boyfriend and couldn't get ahold of him. So Cindy got in the car and drove over.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That's when she found out.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

Yeah. When she got there, the police officer wouldn't tell her anything. Finally, a reporter screamed across the yard to her that she was dead. Somebody shot her in the head. That's how she found out.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That's not how that's supposed to happen.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

No.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Yeah, it is. The kind of loss that to this day is hard for Morgan's family to accept.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Doesn't go away, does it?

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

It's like something that you only see on TV that ever happens, you know, to you.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

To investigators at the scene, the time of Morgan's murder was starting to become clear.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

She talked to her mother at about 1:30 in the morning. She had to be at work at 2:30. So this was around 2:00am Right.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

So 2:00am when she would normally leave for work.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Answering the question of why she was killed was going to be a lot more complicated.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Anything of her stolen?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

When we looked through, there was money laying in the console of the vehicle and her purse was draped around her neck. So it didn't appear that anything was stolen.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Not a robbery, which meant someone wanted Morgan Fox dead and badly. The question now was who?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Nobody could think of any person that would have reason to do this to her.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

When she came to me, she was crying.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detectives would uncover many potential suspects.

[Detective Kennedy]

You didn't shoot Morgan?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No, absolutely not.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you love her? Did you want more?

[David DiNarda (FedEx manager)]

There was nothing intimate. There was nothing sexual.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You think to yourself, that could have been me.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I think it is a true definition of if I can't have her, nobody can.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Did you kill Morgan Fox?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan Fox's stepsister, Cora Stonerock, had just put a roast in the crock pot that October morning when one of her other sisters let out a scream.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I'm thinking, what could be wrong? So I go downstairs and she is completely ghost white. And she says she's dead. And I'm like, who? Who's dead. And she's like, Morgan. And I'm like, morgan who? Like, because in my mind, there's no way that, like, our sister is dead. And I remember screaming at her, like, how? Like, what? What are you talking about? Why are you saying that?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Hearing that made little sense to Cora. Didn't then, doesn't now.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that that's really how Morgan's story ends. Like, I just don't get it. I don't get it how somebody so pure is just gone.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Cora and Morgan met when they were both about 7 years old. Morgan's mom, Cindy married Cora's dad, and the two girls were suddenly siblings, blended together in a new family of 12 kids.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

I mean, that can go one of two ways, right? You can suddenly be put in this house with this other girl your age and you're like, yeah, you know, who are you? Or you can become great friends. And you became great friends.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah, absolutely. I remember literally meeting her and thinking, like, I just met my new best friend, and this is a friend that I get to live with, stay with. She doesn't have to go home. We get to share clothes. We don't have to return anything. She's just here with me all the time.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Cora says Morgan was fun and had a knack for getting them both into trouble.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

I heard you TP'd a house once.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yes, we have toilet papered a house. And Morgan thought it was a great idea to ring the doorbell and wake them up so that they could see our lovely teepee job.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And she was also unflinchingly kind, especially to those who needed a helping hand.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

The amount of animals that we brought home, the amount of trouble we got in on bringing said animals home, you

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

know, she didn't care.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

No, not at all. Not at all. I remember we were set on starting a non profit to help animals, to

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

help broken wing birds.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah, we were gonna have all the animals in the world and we were just gonna save everybody and give everybody a home.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And if she saw someone being wronged, she would stand up for them. And if she thought she was being wronged, she would say something.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah, yeah. Morgan was very loud. You know, that's something she didn't hold back on. That was. That was her beliefs. If she stand on it, she stood on it and she was gonna let you know about it.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan grew up quickly, pregnant at 20. She had a daughter, Emilia. Emmy for short. Morgan raised her as a single parent when she landed an entry level job as a package handler at Fedex that was good news for a working mom,

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

working at FedEx was a big step up from what Morgan had been doing before.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

Yes. Because she had had a lot of server jobs. So this was something that she seen as an opportunity to better herself and her life for her and her daughter.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Inside the FedEx facility, Morgan quickly made an impression. Within two years, she was promoted to manager. Her co worker, Michelle Hanna, saw Morgan's value.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

She didn't tell someone what to do. She would get into trucks and move packages, showing other package handlers how to actually do it.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Feels like exactly the kind of employee

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

you want to hire and retain.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Absolutely.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Mickey Watkins started calling her Mary Poppins after Morgan helped her through a feminine hygiene.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

She was like, what's wrong? Like, what happened? And I was like, I have no pads, nothing. And she goes, get somebody to cover my line. Grabs this little backpack, and shoved her whole arm in.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What'd she give you?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

She gave me a pad, and she handed me a little small bag of Cheez Its and a Hershey's bar and then said, do you need a Powerade so that you can get back to work and be hydrated?

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That's a great manager and a good friend.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

She was exceptional.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

FedEx is also where Morgan met the man who made that 911 call, Jason Skarnackia. Jason came out of the military and was a single parent, just like Morgan.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I remember her saying that she met a guy at work and that he was super sweet and super kind, but he had a daughter. And I remember thinking, like, I know that you would be a good person for his kid, too.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

At first, they kept their relationship quiet. When it became public, they decided it was best for one of them to leave FedEx.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Both of them knew that they wanted to be together, so they agreed that Jason would get another job.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

In July 2020, they moved into that house together, and Morgan started to dream about a future.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

She really wanted to expand her family. You know, she wanted to own a house, get married, have more kids. She longed for that.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Only three months after moving in, Morgan Fox was shot dead in her driveway. Investigators found a.22 caliber bullet lodged in her car door. And they noticed something else.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

When I look over here, there's actually a fresh set of tire tracks that had left indentations in the ground because it had been raining. Fresh mud had been flung all over the side of the fence as if. As if someone had pulled out in a hurry and spun out.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

So you're thinking that's your killer making a getaway?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Investigators also Talked with the neighbors who surprisingly had not seen or heard anything. At 2am it's gotta be dead quiet

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

here at that hour.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

It's a very quiet neighborhood. It's dark. Not a lot of street lights.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Nobody hears a gunshot.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Including her boyfriend who's right here.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Or at least that's what he says. He doesn't hear anything.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

That's what he told us.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It's safe to say that wouldn't be the last eyebrow raising thing about Jason Skarnackia.

[Detective Kennedy]

There's very distinct things that you're doing that are not normal.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Coming to Acorn tv, there's a killer on the loose. Brooke Shields stars in the new original murder mystery. You're killing me.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

You spin some crackpot theory and I find the evidence.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

I solve mysteries for a living.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

I think I'm good to go. Murder has met its match. You cannot be here.

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This is a police investigation.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

I've written you.

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What does that mean?

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He was a big city cop with a small jurisdiction.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Boomers are so cute when they flirt.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

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[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

If there's a handbook for how you're supposed to act when your girlfriend is murdered. Jason Skarnakia did not follow it.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

When we spoke with Jason, he wasn't super upset. He didn't exhibit signs of being hysterical or anything like that.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And he sounds pretty calm on that 911 call.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He was pretty calm on the 911 call.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

She's bleeding from her head.

[911 Operator]

It looks like it, yeah.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

But we kind of kept in mind people handle stress differently.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

His lack of emotion was not the only thing that caught investigators attention.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

When we wanted him to come to the sheriff's office for an interview. He said that he wanted to get a pair of socks. And at that point in time for scene preservation, we told him we couldn't just allow him to go through the residence that went we would retrieve them for him. And he decided not to wear any

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

socks to the sheriff's office, Suggesting he

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

doesn't want you looking through his bedroom.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Well, that must have made you sit up a little taller.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

That's our first red flag.

[Detective Kennedy]

Jason. My name is Craig Kennedy.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Within an hour, a sockless Jason was sitting face to face with Detective Kennedy and at the sheriff's office.

[Detective Kennedy]

How long you guys been dating? How long have you lived together?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Dating since August of last year.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And how does he seem in that interview?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

In the interview, he was relatively calm.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason walked the investigator through the previous 12 hours. He said he and Morgan had dinner at home. Then Morgan dropped off her daughter at her mom Cindy's house, where she sometimes slept when Morgan had to get up early for work.

[Detective Kennedy]

So once she comes back home, what happens?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I was in the bedroom. She goes, hey, I need to use your laptop. She's typing her email. I eat an apple. And I said, hey, all right, go on the bed. She goes, okay, I'll be in soon.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason said he went to sleep and was only half conscious. When Morgan got out of bed around 1:30am she goes, I'm getting ready for work.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I was like, oh, okay, that's right. And then I went to sleep.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason said he did not hear the gunfire that killed his girlfriend.

[Detective Kennedy]

Do you sleep with earplugs in, anything like that? You guys sleep with the fan on, anything like that?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

You never heard any gunshots last night?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No, I didn't.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason said he Woke up about 5 and at first did not notice anything unusual. Then he glanced out the window and saw Morgan's car still in the driveway.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I was like, okay, that's really weird. So I went up to a room, put on some clothes, got a flashlight and went out there.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That's when he said he found her.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Kind of shook her head a little bit. Morgie or Morgan? Morgan? He like, are you awake? Morgan? Hello? Morgan? Morgan? I was shaking her a little bit, checked for pulse, checked her wrist, couldn't

[Detective Kennedy]

find a pulse, and she was really cold.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Ran inside, up to my bedroom, grabbed my phone, went outside and called 911.

[Detective Kennedy]

Is your relationship good with Morgan? Absolutely. No issues whatsoever.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Fine. We're blending a family so fine, you know, there were challenges.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Investigators did talk to Morgan's mom, who Indicated that they were having some struggles in their relationship.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Her mom paints a little less rosy picture of that relationship than the boyfriend does.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you guys ever get physical with each other?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

Physical violence at all?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Well, a text on Morgan's phone suggested that wasn't true. Morgan had gotten physical with him during a fight just two weeks earlier.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

There was one text message that was in there where Jason indicated that he would never forgive Morgan. Morgan for what she did. And ultimately that was because she had either like, pushed or swatted at him.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And even though Jason handed over his phone willingly, he hesitated when Detective Kennedy asked to access it.

[Detective Kennedy]

You have a passcode on your phone?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I do.

[Detective Kennedy]

You do? What's that? Passcode.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Do I have to give you my passcode?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

This interview wasn't going well for Jason. Detective Kennedy told him exactly what he was thinking.

[Detective Kennedy]

There's very distinct things that you're doing that are not normal.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Okay.

[Detective Kennedy]

We call them red flags.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

He asked why Jason had been so reluctant to let investigators look through his bedroom.

[Detective Kennedy]

The drawer above my sock drawer.

[911 Operator]

I have a little bit of marijuana.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Okay.

[Detective Kennedy]

In the grand scheme of things, Jason, do you think I give two about

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

a little bit of marijuana? I give up. That I don't.

[Detective Kennedy]

So second question. What do you have on your phone that you're not real fond?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I have nothing. I was just asking. Okay.

[Detective Kennedy]

Because the typical reaction during a homicide when your girlfriend you're in love with, I presume, is what do you need? Whatever it takes.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Right?

[Detective Kennedy]

You know what I'm saying? You didn't shoot Morgan?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No, absolutely not.

[Detective Kennedy]

Would you tell me if you did?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Yes, I would tell you if I did.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

After the recording ended, Kennedy says Jason broke down at the end of the interview.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He did exhibit some emotions, which we would expect from someone that's kind of in shock and after everything finally hits them.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

So was he telling the truth? Morgan's family believed he was.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I think that it's normal to think that, like, boyfriend, you know, jealousy, something

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

goes wrong in the relationship.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Do you ever wonder about Jason?

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I never thought it was really Jason Scardechia. He cared too much about Morgan.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The Jason the family saw was devastated. Morgan's mom pointed sheriff's investigators in a new direction.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

The first thing out of Sydney's mouth was go to FedEx. FedEx is how this happened.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

As far as investigators could tell, Morgan Fox was a woman with no enemies. There was no obvious place to begin the search for her killer. Except, according to her mom, maybe one.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

The first thing out of Sydney's mouth was go to FedEx. FedEx is how this happened.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

FedEx. The job Morgan had been so excited to land. Her family says she had been happy working at the sorting facility for a couple of years. Then everything changed. Some of her colleagues didn't like it when Morgan was promoted to manager.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I think it just put a big target on her back, and she was young, and I think that it just rubbed them the wrong way and kind of made a few people upset.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

It wasn't just one person. It was a couple of people that were rubbed the wrong way because this. What, young, attractive woman was suddenly in charge?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detective Kennedy discovered Morgan's workplace had very quickly become the place where she was least comfortable.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

She had recently been having some problems with other co workers, male co workers, that she felt she was being treated unfairly and harassed by.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What kind of behavior are we talking about?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

It appeared that they were playing jokes on her by moving her chair, hiding items, and taking clipboards from her desk.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan's co worker, Michelle, says the warehouse wasn't exactly a comfortable place for women to work.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

I mean, it's a warehouse, so you walk into a big building and you feel like, as a female, I felt small walking around and then people staring and maybe making comments. So I know that Morgan experienced that because she actually told me, you know, that thing. People were making comments as she walked by or staring at her.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

What picture emerged of the culture at

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

FedEx throughout our investigation? It actually appeared that harassment at that point in time in that facility was a common practice, especially from male coworkers towards women co workers.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It was like a frat house.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yes, correct.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Were you aware that men who worked there were jealous that Morgan had gotten that promotion to manager?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Oh, yeah. I knew that there was quite a few people that made it verbally known that they did not like the fact that she was in that position. The one manager, he said she only got it because she was pretty slick. Okay.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Three weeks before Morgan was killed, she had apparently reached a breaking point. One of her co workers took her personal cell phone. She didn't know who.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

After she was looking around for her phone. It was just told to her that a group of guys had the phone. Kind of like phone tag. Like, I don't have it. They have it. I don't have it. They have it.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

She finally found her phone in the hands of a co worker she considered a friend. And it was unlocked. Morgan could tell someone had gone through it. In tears, she went to Michelle.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What was on the phone that made her so concerned?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

She had said that they had looked at her personal phone and private pictures.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Right. And she felt violated by that.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

She definitely felt violated.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan told Michelle she had complained to management, but almost two weeks had gone by and she hadn't heard a response. What Morgan did hear was that she had violated the FedEx dress code.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

She was given a form of the dress code so that she could be told she should be wearing khakis instead of leggings. And it seemed disgusting to me that she's asking for some resolution and she's instead getting reprimanded. She stuck up for herself. And she said the dress code policy also says no ball caps and all of the male managers wear hats.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

So that dress code was enforced for women, but not for men.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Apparently.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Michelle was an administrator who sometimes advised employees on workplace issues. She had heard enough. On Morgan's behalf, she sent an email to FedEx's off site human resources department.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

I explained about the phone, how nothing had been done. I explained the dress code incident where she's not to wear leggings and anything come of that? No, no. And she would ask me day to day, have you heard anything?

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Morgan would ask you.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

And I, yeah. And I said, have you heard anything? And she didn't hear anything either.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

As we know, Morgan Fox was not one to back down. She wrote her own email to HR after talking with Michelle one last time.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

We had talked on the phone that evening and I said, I think that HR needs to hear from you personally. Instead of getting the email from me,

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan hit send around 11pm At 7:50am the next day, HR responded asking to talk. Except by that time, Morgan Fox had been murdered in her driveway.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Were you thinking it was someone from FedEx?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

I'm thinking, well, who would have done that? I was like, would somebody have taken her life? Like, would somebody get that upset over her complaint and really do that?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Investigators were wondering the exact same thing. And suddenly they had a warehouse full of people to talk with.

[Detective Kennedy]

So I'm going to ask you a very direct question. Did you shoot her back then?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

After Morgan's murder, her aunt Chris arrived in Canton. Morgan's mom Cindy was waiting for her in the front yard.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

When I get there and I get out of the car and she just crumbles and starts crying. Cindy never cried, so it was really hard.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Cora drove in too, trying to prepare herself for what was coming.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I've never lost anybody besides grandparents. So I also was like, I have to be strong. I'm going to keep it together.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

She failed to do that. When she took Morgan's Daughter to the house to pick up some clothes. The lunch Morgan had packed for work was still lying there on the pavement.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I remember pulling up to the house and seeing the water bottle and the pot pie still in the driveway. And knowing that 36 hours ago, Morgan was still alive and standing right in that same spot and dropping those items because she was shot dead is something that I literally see in my sleep. It is something that sticks with me forever, and I hate it.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

At the sheriff's office, investigators now focused on the FedEx workforce, of which Morgan had been part in her complaint to human resources, she had named several co workers.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

One of them was the guy Morgan

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

found holding her phone, Jason McDermott.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

When we first started looking at Jason McDermott, we did some social media searches, and we observed his profile picture was him posing with a cat. We looked at each other, and we were like, this isn't our guy.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Single guys, single men with cats don't commit murder.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Cat lover or not, they had to look into him. Jason McDermott was also buddies with Mickey Watkins. He'd helped her get the hang of the job.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What made you guys close friends?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Jason was a really good trainer. He knew how to be helpful and keep you going pretty much throughout the day. And he had the same interests as me. I wasn't a gamer, but my son was, so he could tell me stuff about video games, and that made me a better cooler mom to my son.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Hey, Jason. Hello.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

We ended up meeting with him, and he was very quiet, calm, almost nerdy.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Anything you can help? Yeah, okay.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Kind of helpful.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He was very helpful.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

How did this nerdy cat owner describe his relationship with Morgan?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

As best friends. He said that they talked to each other quite often, which we verified through their text messages to one another.

[Detective Kennedy]

You guys get along good at work?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

We were friends before. She was the manager. Basically, when one of us was having, like, a bad day, apparently we were the person that we would go to and, like, vent about that type of stuff.

[Detective Kennedy]

Okay.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

She's been having issues on the morning shift with a lot of people, so she was venting to me about that.

[Detective Kennedy]

So I'm gonna take you to an incident that happened a couple weeks ago, this phone incident. I know you already know what he's talking about.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

This. Yes.

[Detective Kennedy]

Well, we have to talk.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I'm aware.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason explained what happened. He said he wasn't the one who originally took her phone. Jason said he found it in the hands of a co worker and got upset when he realized it was unlocked.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

The screen was open. My was open, so I was obviously Unhappy about that immediately.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Then, instead of just returning it to Morgan, Jason admitted he did something stupid.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Upon taking it back up to my workstation, I let my emotions get the better of me. I made the dumbest mistake. I was sitting there like, all right, I want to know what the hell he was at, looking, looking at. So I turn on her phone, and I regrettably, look through a few of her files. I saw one where she was in her brown underwear, and I was like. As soon as I saw that, I clicked out of it, because that wasn't our relationship. I panicked and closed everything on the phone, gave it back to her, and then I told her, hey, I found it like that.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Later, when he saw how upset Morgan was, he says his conscience got the better of him.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I admitted to her what I did, and she obviously wasn't happy about it, but I can't blame her for that either.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

FedEx management did speak with Jason. They told him to respect the privacy of others and that he would be fired if it happened again. Jason tried to apologize, but Morgan wasn't getting over it. She blocked him on social media.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

His story believable?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yeah. His story to us, did make sense.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Still, the detective probed a little more into their relationship.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you ever want something romantically with her?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

You didn't? Do you have a girlfriend?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Currently? No.

[Detective Kennedy]

You don't? No.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

He did say he had his eyes on someone else.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

There's another girl I'm interested in.

[Detective Kennedy]

There's another girl that you've been talking to.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

You've already met Mickey.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

When he was being interrogated, Jason told police that he was interested in you. You ever get any sense of that?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

I did get it. Sense of that. I actually sent him a long text message and told him, I'm not interested in that.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Then the detective got to the point.

[Detective Kennedy]

So I'm going to ask you a very direct question. Did you shoot her in the back of the head?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

So your phone that you have, is that phone gonna show you at all at Morgan's house last night?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

It's not?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

Where were you last night?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

At home.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He stated that he was at home and he had never left home that evening. And he also had had to get up for work at approximately 2:30am and he drove straight to work.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Does he willingly give you his cell phone?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Jason did willingly give us his cell phone to look through, which sort of

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

by itself kind of says a lot.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And sure enough, his alibi checked out.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You checked his cell phone tracking data?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

We did check his cell phone data. And it showed that it never left his residence.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

There's nothing like a good alibi to take you off the board. At the same time, Jason had a hunch as to who the killer might be.

[Detective Kennedy]

Who was the first thing that popped in your mind?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Colin.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

He was one of the other guys Morgan thought might have swiped her phone.

[Detective Kennedy]

Why?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Jealousy. Colin wanted her okay? Big time.

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[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I am not okay. None of this is okay.

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[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

In the aftermath of Morgan Fox's death, the FedEx facility where she had worked and succeeded became where investigators hoped to do the same.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Suddenly, your workplace is turned upside down and is in the middle of a murder investigation.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Is anybody getting any work done that week?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Everyone's expected to, but no. It's really uncomfortable for me. I was scared. I was afraid that maybe there would be retaliation against me just because of

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

you helping Morgan out.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Just because I had known what was

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

going on on top of that. Michelle thought her bosses were angry at her for not doing more.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Three of them took me into, like, the conference room and started grilling me about what's going on. And I said, I. I don't know. I told them the situation. From my perspective of. She came to me, she was upset. Nobody was doing anything about the situation with her phone. I don't know what's happened, but.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

But she's dead.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

But she's dead. And I felt that they were blaming me, that they kept questioning me, and I told them that I reached out to HR and nothing had happened. So what? Why are you pointing the finger at me like it's my fault?

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You have any theory of your own about what had happened? Did you think it was connected to FedEx?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Yeah, I knew there was a connection to FedEx, but I. My mind was open to many different people.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Mickey Watkins says the warehouse gossip revolved around one name.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What were people at work saying about who the killer might be?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

They all thought it was Colin.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Colin is Colin McCauley, Morgan's manager and one of the people she thought might have taken her phone. Mickey says it was not exactly a FedEx secret, that he had a crush on Morgan.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

She was a very pretty girl, long blonde hair. If we were back in high school, she was the head cheerleader that everybody wanted to get with, and she was kind on top of it. So he had it bad for her. He really wanted to date her.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That was Colin?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Yes.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

He tried, and it just was like, no, I don't want that. I have a boyfriend.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason McDermott also told the sheriff's office all about Colin.

[Detective Kennedy]

Who was the first name that popped into your mind when I said somebody shot her in the back of the head?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Colin.

[Detective Kennedy]

Why?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Jealousy. Way back when, before she started dating Jason Skarnecchia, her current boyfriend. Colin wanted her big time, and he's obviously ever since been very upset that Jason won.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Adding to the speculation, Mickey says she didn't see Colin for a couple of days after Morgan was killed.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

At some point, he comes back in. Yes, but he's different.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Definitely different. He came back, and he looked depressed, and he always had his, like. Had, like, a snow cap on, like a hat. And then he'd have his hood up over it. And he wasn't talking to anybody. He wasn't doing what he normally did. He just looked. I'm here. I'm just going to work, and that's it. And be monotone.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Investigators sat down with Colin for an interview. It was not videotaped.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Colin was Morgan's direct manager.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

He was Detective Brian Johnson, assisted with the investigation.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Also one of the people she suspected of taking her phone, correct?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He was.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And he also pretty clearly at one time had a significant crush on her.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He did. And that was clear in messages between him and Morgan as well. One thing he did tell us during his interview was that once he found out that Morgan was moving in with Jason Skarnecchia and it was serious, that he apologized to her and wasn't going to try and pursue a relationship with her.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Colin also denied ever taking Morgan's phone.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

Collin did tell her that her phone was on one of the workstations. He said he moved it. That's all I did. He never went through it. And there was no video to show him taking her phone or browsing through it that we got from FedEx.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Anything in Collin's phone or text messages that made you think his story wasn't the same one you were being given?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

There was nothing surrounding Colin that would give us any indication that he was involved in this.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He had messages with her that consisted of maybe going out for drinks or going out as friends. Once he learned about Jason Scharnecchia, that turned strictly to work related conversations.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

All of that seemed to clear Colin McCauley. There was another FedEx manager to talk with.

[David DiNarda (FedEx manager)]

We would get together, have some drinks. It wasn't like her and I were dating.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He was not happy being questioned about Morgan's death.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

After Morgan Morgan Fox's murder, her sister Cora and mom Cindy had to make arrangements. That's a very sterile word for planning someone's funeral.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Cindy said, like we need to pick out what she's going to get buried in. And I should not be picking out the outfit that my sister for her funeral. That shouldn't be happening.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It was the fall of 2020, the middle of the COVID pandemic. A difficult time for a lot of families to gather. Even harder to mourn.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

It's a 6ft rule. It's that we're only allowed in there for 20 minutes. It's that people aren't supposed to be gathering.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The service was open casket.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

What I saw in that casket is also something that I can never unsee.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Her hair still had blood in it and her mom showed me that. I'll never forget that.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And you're still thinking about it?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Yeah. It breaks my heart.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan's 8 year old daughter Emmy was there and she carried something with her.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

Emmy and her mom played a game, pretending like they would be sleeping. And the Vicks Vapostix they would Put it under their noses. Pretend like, you know, Emmy would wake her up. And Emmy took it with her to the funeral home because she thought if she would wave that under her nose, she'd wake up.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It was a heartbreaking moment. And with Morgan's killer still at large, there was also an undercurrent of fear

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

at the funeral to know that the person responsible is still walking the streets. You're not sleeping. You're wondering how, who. Where are they?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And why?

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

And why?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detectives were working to answer those questions, and they received a significant tip.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

A person that wanted to remain anonymous claimed they worked at FedEx. And there were some rumors about Morgan Fox and David Dinarda having an affair. This person was claiming that that affair was the cause of David DiNardo's recent divorce.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

David DiNarda was another manager at FedEx. Detective Johnson tracked him down at his sister's house, where Dinarda had been staying since his divorce.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

He's not happy to see you.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

Right? He was not happy with being questioned about Morgan's death. He was especially not happy about us taking his cell phone. Especially his FedEx phone.

[Detective Kennedy]

My name's Sergeant Kennedy.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Okay, sure.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detective Kennedy conducted the interview, and he did not pull his punches.

[Detective Kennedy]

I don't care what's on your phone, other than the fact of whether or not you were having conversations, had some type of relationship with Morgan going on. What I'd like to do is get a consent from you to go through your phone. We have a little machine.

[David DiNarda (FedEx manager)]

It got wiped two days ago.

[Detective Kennedy]

You got. You wiped it two days ago.

[David DiNarda (FedEx manager)]

I was at my girlfriend's house, and my phone popped up and said, you, fingerprint sensor doesn't work. Type in your code. I did it three times, and it said erasing phone, and it.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Wait, my phone told out.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

We ended up finding that there was information and data that had been cleared off of it.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Suspicious. Yeah, except Dinarda offered an alibi.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Where did he say that he was when Morgan was killed?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He actually had been having dinner with some family members and then went to bed.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

I mean, almost everybody's alibi is going to be, I was in bed.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Right?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yes. At that time of night.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

There was a glitch in Dinarda's alibi. He said his girlfriend was also at the dinner. Except his sister told detectives he didn't have a girlfriend.

[Detective Kennedy]

Why would your sister say she has no. No idea about you having a girlfriend?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

My sister.

[Detective Kennedy]

That's what I'm being told. Does your sister know that you guys are dating, or would she just consider her a friend? Or does she know what you're dating? No.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

She knows. To Detective Kennedy, David Dinarda's story was not passing the smell test, the credibility test or the alibi test. So he asked some very direct questions.

[Detective Kennedy]

You've never had sex with? No.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

Have you ever attempted to have sex? Have you ever talked to her about having sex with her?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Absolutely.

[Detective Kennedy]

She ever come on to you about having sex?

[David DiNarda (FedEx manager)]

There was nothing intimate. There was nothing sexual. Last year, her and I hung out a couple times after work. We would get together, have some drinks. It wasn't like her and I were dating.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Dinarda stuck to his story about the night of the murder, saying he slept at his sister's, heading to bed at 11:45.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you ever leave your sister's house after 11:45 last night?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Detective Kennedy]

Did you shoot Morgan Fox? No. Would you have a reason to shoot? No, she wasn't. Had nothing to do with your divorce?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Nothing. Morgan was my friend.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

A follow up investigation tracked with everything Dinarda said that included his company phone, which was wiped clean by FedEx and had nothing to do with Morgan. Detectives also confirmed he did have dinner with his girlfriend at his sister's house on the night of the murder and did not leave until the following morning. They believed his sister did not want to mention her brother had a girlfriend so soon after getting divorced.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

Is he being honest? Does everything line up well with what he's telling us? And I think it did.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

One by one, Morgan's co workers sat down for unpleasant questions about their relationship with her and where they were when she was killed. None were happy about the experience. And one of them was lying. Detectives narrowed their focus.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He tried to play the hero with Morgan. Clearly that was all a lie.

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[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

I am not okay.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

None of this is okay.

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[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Ugh.

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[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Hey.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Still got my hoodie?

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[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It was Halloween night, three days after Morgan Fox's murder. And this year, real life was more scary than anything a pagan ritual could generate. A young mom was dead. Her killer was on the loose, and Morgan was being remembered at a candlelight vigil organized by her FedEx friends, Mickey Watkins and Jason McDermott. Morgan's daughter Amelia was there, dressed in a Trick or treat Fox costume.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Her daughter ran to the side of my Yukon where Jason was, and he's. They're hugging each other, and he's telling her, like, I'm so proud of you. You still did the Fox costume, and your mommy would love to see that.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

About 50 people attended, mostly co workers sharing their memories.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Sad occasion or happy occasion?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Both. It was. People laughed about the things that she did at work. She would hide behind boxes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

She'd jump out and scare you.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

She'd jump out and scare you. That was her thing. It was just, I'm gonna wake you up in the best way possible. Or she'd just come up and make funny comments to you. Or she'd come up and help you. So people talked about those moments, and in those moments, we could be happy. But then it came down to that realization that we're staring at a cross with her name on it. There's candles, and she's not coming out the door.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason McDermott later posted a long, loving tribute to Morgan on Facebook. He wrote, it's so strange not having you around to talk to. And this has left a giant hole in my heart. You have left a lasting impact on all of our lives, and you will never be forgotten. Rest easy, Morgan.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

The Facebook post rubbed me for sure the wrong way. I'm like, there's just no way. I don't even know this guy.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Because it was too familiar.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah. Like, it was just like.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Because it sounded like it came from her boyfriend.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

It sounded like her boyfriend, her best friend, somebody that's known her forever. To say that, you are the light of my life.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

There's no way There was something else Cora had heard about Jason McDermott that bothered her. It happened less than three months before the murder during Amelia's birthday party at Morgan's house, when people there mistook Jason McDermott for Morgan's actual boyfriend, Jason Skarnackia. McDermott did not correct them. In fact, he totally went with it.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

So it was like he was the Jason, like Morgan's boyfriend Jason, and he was following Morgan throughout the house like he lives there?

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And not the other Jason.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Absolutely. He introduced himself to my grandma and said, you know, hi, Grandma, I'm Jason. And he just totally played a role that wasn't there to be played.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It was Jason McDermott's behavior and the purple prose in that Facebook message that also made Detective Kennedy lean forward in the saddle.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Jason McDermott kept inserting himself to the front of that investigation, including the Facebook post. That was kind of dramatic and to us, was over the top.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detectives took a closer look at Jason McDermott.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

FedEx cooperated with you in this investigation?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

They did. They gave us everything that we asked for.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That included security camera footage from the FedEx sorting facility.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What are we looking at here?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

So we were able to get some videos from FedEx of Jason McDermott arriving to work the morning of the homicide.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Anything unusual about him on camera that day?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

No. He walked in normal, clocked in normal, and it lined up with what he told us during his first interview.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

When I look at Jason, I don't see somebody who looks particularly worried.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

No, he's not distraught or anything in these videos. He walks in, it looks typical, like it would be any other day to him.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The sheriff's office got other videos from FedEx, including some from the day Morgan's phone went missing. And what those showed was a game changer.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

And in here, you're able to see Jason working on the line here. That's not his phone. In. In his hand there.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That's not his phone.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

That's Morgan's.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason had admitted looking at Morgan. Morgan's phone, but said it was just for a moment. The video shows him studying it like it's the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He has Morgan's phone, and on different clips, he's going through it. So right here, he's going through it.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

He's pretty clearly looking very carefully at her phone.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He is. And you'll also see throughout here, he's looking back, making sure nobody's watching him.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Morgan approached Jason and asked about her phone. That's when he handed it over.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

Little did she know, he was hiding behind boxes Looking at her.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

His story is, I was just trying to get your phone back. I was not snooping. But that's clearly not true from this video, obviously.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

Video. Video shows that that's completely untrue. He tried to play the hero with Morgan. Clearly that was all a lie. He had her phone for almost an hour.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Hour.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason had given detectives his phone without hesitation. What they found on it absolutely made them pause and think about his relationship with Morgan.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

This guy wanted way more than just a friendship. And he was very infatuated with Morgan. There were times where he would obsessively send 3, 4, 5 texts in a row with no response from Morgan.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

So he's pestering her.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

He won't leave her alone.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

It appears that the relationship is more one sided and that she's being nice to him as a friend and a co worker.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It was not a great look for Jason. But Mickey Watkins, who knew him very well, thought there was simply no way he played any role in Morgan's.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You did not doubt him?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

No, not one bit. That's my best friend. And we would talk for hours. He asked you about yourself. It wasn't just all about him.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

For detectives, this investigation was becoming all about him. They needed to have another conversation with Jason McDermott.

[Detective Kennedy]

This is a homicide investigation. This is as real as it gets.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The cell phone belonging to Jason McDermott started off as his alibi, proving he was at his home at the time of Morgan's murder. When detectives looked at what was on that phone, it raised a lot of questions. So they brought Jason back for a second interview later that same day, Detective Kennedy set the tone immediately.

[Detective Kennedy]

There's some things that I am going to confront you on.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Okay?

[David DiNarda (FedEx manager)]

Okay.

[Detective Kennedy]

Point blank. Because there's a lot of you left out with me.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Earlier in his first interview, Jason said he never wanted anything more than friendship with me. His phone suggested something else.

[Detective Kennedy]

So just from looking through you guys text messages, I 100% believe that you're in love with her. 100% believe that there's an infatuation there going on on your end. Maybe not necessarily her end.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I never saw it as such.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Kennedy had already pressed Jason about the true nature of his feelings for more Morgan. This time he pushed even harder.

[Detective Kennedy]

You ever had sex with her before? Don't lie.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Yes. Okay.

[Detective Kennedy]

This is not the time to be lying about.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

That's why I didn't.

[Detective Kennedy]

This is a homicide investigation. This is as real as it gets. I know you only had sex one time with her.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason said sex with Morgan was, quote, fun, unquote but not really a big deal. Hooking up, he said, was kind of his thing.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I have a few friends with benefits, yes. Okay.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason said once Morgan started dating Jason Skarnackia, he had no issues with returning to the friend zone with her.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Once you are not single, I'm not doing anything with you. That's always been my rule, and that's always will be my role.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detective Kennedy wasn't buying any of it and came to believe Jason and Morgan were never intimate, that it was just his fantasy.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

I don't believe it ever happened.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

I'm guessing that after that second interview, you're no longer thinking that this is a harmless guy.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

The course of the second interview changed because all flags that we were getting raised were all pointing towards Jason McDermott.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You search Jason McDermott's apartment?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And his car?

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason's apartment was clean. His Ford Focus contained the whiff of a clue. They wanted me to check it with my dog. Michael Green was the sergeant in charge of the canine unit. He brought in Judge, a police dog trained to sniff out explosives. He runs right up to the driver's side door. He then slowly moved down to right where the mortal molding is in between the seat and the floorboards. And as soon as he put his nose on that, he then sat, which is his alert. Green says his canine partner was signaling the presence of gunshot residue.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Did Jason McDermott own a gun?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He did not. His father owned several firearms.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason's dad kept his guns in a basement cabinet. Four of them were.22s. The same type of weapon used to kill Morgan.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Would Jason McDermott have access to that?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

He would, because the key was just a couple feet away in a drawer. Jason McDermott went to their house the day before Morgan was killed, and then he also went the day of she was killed.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

In the afternoon, guns from that cabinet were tested, and one came back as a possible match for that stray bullet found in Morgan's car. The lab could not say for sure because that slug was too badly damaged. Undeterred, investigators looked at Jason's movements before and after Morgan's murder.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

One of the things that Jason McDermott had told me was that he had stopped at a local gas station on his way way to his parents house.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

It happened after Jason finished his shift on the day Morgan was killed. Investigators were able to get security video from that gas station. And what they saw became an enormous piece of their case. Jason was washing his car.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

It's very unusual that someone takes their car through a car wash on a day that was pouring rain.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Oh, it was raining that day.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

It was raining that morning.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Remember the tire tracks and the mud found on the fence at the crime scene? It wasn't elite for detectives to think Jason's car left those tracks and got splattered in mud. Maybe his stop at the car wash was to get rid of that evidence.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He actually pulled up to the point where it washes the underneath of your car backed up and then went through that portion again and then ran through the entire car wash.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

So he made sure that the undercarriage of his car was washed twice.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Yes. That was a big indicator to us that we were on the right track with that guy.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And they were about to find someone with her own frightening story about Jason McDermott.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

It's really nerve wracking. I'm just living my life and it's like, boom. I look over my shoulder, there you are, like, hello.

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[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Take the exit, turn right into the drive through.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Nope, I'm making dinner tonight.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

You don't have time. Josh has practice. Oh, that's right. I'll just get a salad and fries.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

No, just the salad.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

But salad cancels fries.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Salad only.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Fries.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Salad, fries. Food noise isn't fair, but Mochi health is the affordable GLP one source that puts you on the road to successful weight loss. Hey, can I get the fries?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Salad.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Sorry.

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[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

licensed physicians and nutritionists. Results may vary. Mickey Watkins was doing her best to comfort her friend and co worker Jason McDermott, you spent a lot of time

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

with Jason in those days after Morgan was killed.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

How was he doing?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

He wasn't doing good at all. He wasn't eating.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

He was, however, says Mickey, pondering some creepy questions.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

At one point, Jason wants to know what a.22 will do if you fire

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

it into someone's head.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

He asked me about a.22, a.9, and a.45.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

The difference between the wounds caused by those three kinds of guns.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

She says he was also curious about traffic cameras near Morgan's house.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Were they running all the time, or was it just when you were, like, committing a criminal infraction, like, you're speeding or you blow the light, and I was like, I don't know.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Still, Mickey was certain he had nothing to do with Morgan's murder. That changed the day. She was on the phone with Jason at the exact moment detectives paid him a visit.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Hey, Jason.

[Detective Kennedy]

How's it going?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

It's going all right.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You can hear this?

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

I can hear everything that's going on.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

I just wanted to give you this.

[911 Operator]

So what is that?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

Another search warrant. So.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

So what we're going to do, we're

[Detective Brian Johnson]

going to collect your DNA.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Oh, okay.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

That's fine.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Mickey, who had taken classes in criminology, knew what that meant.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

Panic rushed over my body because I'm like, if they have a warrant, they have probable cause. It was like one push happened, and every single red flag came out. Like, oh, my God, this is what happened. He did it.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That afternoon, Mickey cut off all communication

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

with Jason, and I was terrified to do that, because the last time somebody blocked him or didn't talk to him anymore, they ended up dead. So I went home, and I sat with a gun in my living room and waited to see if he was going to show up.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

All night.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

All night. I did not sleep.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

For detectives, one giant obstacle remained. An alibi that has gotten thousands of suspects off the hook ever since the digital age began. In modern criminal investigations, your phone's location is nearly always assumed to be where you are. And Jason's phone was definitely at his apartment at the time of the murder. Okay, so what about Jason's car?

[Detective Brian Johnson]

We started just looking at traffic cameras going to and from Morgan's house.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Investigators scrolled frame by frame through hours of video, and then there it was.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

We did see a vehicle that we believed was Jason McDermott's vehicle.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Same thing of vehicle, same color.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Correct.

[Detective Brian Johnson]

On the cameras, you can see a bent up front license plate. You can also see two objects on his dash and hanging from his Mirror.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And those are consistent with Jason's car.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

They are.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And it's the right time.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

It's exactly the right time that puts someone there at the time of Morgan's murder.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

For prosecutors, it told a story. Jason McDermott's car on the way to Morgan's house in the minutes before her death. A week after Morgan Fox's murder, the sheriff's Office arrested Jason McDermott for committing it.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

And I remember feeling just so much relief, like, there's no good to this. Nothing's going to make it better. But knowing that he can't hurt Emmy was a huge relief.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

For me, that relief would soon be mixed with another emotion. Anger. Because in the days after the arrest, Morgan's sister found something.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

I saw a post on Morgan's wall from another girl that says, I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry he couldn't control his obsession with you like he could with me. And I remember screenshotting this post and calling my stepmom and, like, you need to call this girl. This girl knows something.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That girl is Sienna Clements. The story she told would reveal that Morgan Fox was not the first woman at FedEx to attract way too much of Jason McDermott's attention.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

I just remember him being that weird kid in the back of the class in my, like, eyes. Okay. Like, I feel bad for him.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Sienna was 19 when she started working at the FedEx warehouse and met Jason.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

So I was just like, let me go be a friend.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Around that time, Sienna was caught driving while impaired. She had to attend court mandated counseling sessions and her license was suspended. She says Jason stepped in and he

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

started giving you rides to work.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes. And mind you, he lives 30 minutes

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

away, so this was, like, an inconvenience for him.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

But he was still doing it.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Eventually, Sienna started getting rides from one of her neighbors.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

How'd Jason react to that?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

That's where things got weird. He started blowing my phone up all throughout the day. What are you doing on all of my socials?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Sienna blocked Jason on social media and asked him to leave her alone. She says he did not.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

It's really nerve wracking. I'm just living my life. And it's like, boom. I look over my shoulder, there you are. Like, hello.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And ominously, at one of her counseling sessions, she looked out the window and There was Jason McDermott in his Ford Focus.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

And I instantly, like, Gina, my counselor, I was like, I'm freaking out. Like, I've told him to leave me alone. So she goes, you stay inside. And so she goes back out there, and he finally drives off. She goes, I had to threaten the cops on him.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Sienna let coworkers know what was going on. And when Jason bothered her at work, she would yell and curse him out.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Did you talk to your manager at FedEx?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

I spoke to several supervisors at FedEx about the situation.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And each time you would say, jason is bothering me.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Following me.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Calling me?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Won't stop. And their response was what?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Their response was more so taking me away from where he might be working in the building or tell me to not even go around him.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Their solution to this was, you stay away from him?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Sienna says Jason continued to harass her, and one morning, her emotions reached a boiling point.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

He came by, just bugging me, and I immediately got flustered. And I went straight up to the supervisor, the main one, and I was like, he's bothering me again. I don't want to get in trouble for my language and my behavior, for lashing out on him. But, like, what do you want me to do? He keeps bothering me, and it's just more so. It felt like I was just getting shrugged off and shrugged off.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

A FedEx manager did speak with Jason and told him to stop all communication with Sienna. Sienna says Jason ignored the directive from FedEx to leave her alone.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What finally happened?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

I was just. Remember having a really rough day at FedEx, and I kind of got angry just because I was honestly over. Just stimulated with the job in general. And, yeah, they let me go. That day.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Sienna was fired.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What did FedEx tell you about why you were being let go?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

My behavioral issues.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Your behavioral issues?

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes, because I was the one yelling and cussing and screaming. But that was also after months of being harassed and not heard and tension just being built up.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason, however, still had a job. Two and a half months later, Morgan Fox was shot dead.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

When Morgan died, you think to yourself, that could have been me.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

Yes. Many times.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Sienna did see Jason one more time. It was at the candlelight vigil for Morgan.

[Sienna Clements (FedEx coworker)]

He had found me afterwards and came up to me and apologized for everything he's ever done to me. And I was like, well, how are you doing? Are you okay? I know you were really close to Morgan, and when I tell you this man dropped down on his knees and started bawling like just. It was nothing. I've never seen before. The chills it sent down my body was just unreal.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

When Morgan's family heard about what happened to Sienna, they were outraged.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Why didn't FedEx handle Jason McDermott with the first person the first time, you know, or Morgan the first time or the second time, why were there? Why are all these things still happening and nothing being done?

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Why didn't FedEx protect her?

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Now the family hoped for some measure of justice at the trial. That's also where they learned the true depth of Jason McDermott's obsession.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

He was recording her behind during the whole conversation,

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

29 year old Jason McDermott was behind bars, about to go on trial for the murder of Morgan Fox. One by one, investigators had cleared all the other potential suspects. Colin McCauley, David Dinarda and Morgan's boyfriend, Jason Skarnakia. Jason McDermott pleaded not guilty. And Morgan's family knew a circumstantial case might be a tough sale to a jury.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

No DNA, no video of him committing the crime.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Were you worried leading up to the trial? It was nerve wracking. I was scared, you know, I didn't know what, what to expect.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Prosecutor Dennis Barr tried the case.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What picture did you paint of Jason McDermott in that trial?

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

We painted a picture of Jason as an obsessed individual, somebody who was seeking in every way, shape and form a romantic relationship with some female individual.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Barr says the true magnitude of that obsession became clear when investigators did a deeper dive on Jason's phone.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

We found on his phone close to 100 pictures that he had taken off of Morgan's Instagram without her knowledge. We found Snapchat videos that he had taken off her phone without her knowledge.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Detectives also found found images of Morgan that Jason had recorded secretly.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

Some of those were at this facility and one of those videos actually was at her house and he was recording her behind during the whole conversation.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The prosecutor says it was Jason's obsession that drove him to look through Morgan's phone.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

That was the straw that broke the king camel's back for Morgan. She sent him a text. I don't ever want to talk to you again.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Barr told the jury Morgan's rejection and withdrawal of her friendship pushed Jason from obsession to homicide.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

His coworkers said Jason went into this downward spiral.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

He looked like he wasn't showering. His hair was just a mess. The clothes didn't seem like they were washed.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Around this time, Jason texted a coworker. I haven't been this bad in years. I feel like I'm constantly holding on by a thread. Over the next couple of weeks, he attempted to reconcile with Morgan via text. He even wrote her a letter. You are easily one of the greatest friends I've ever had. And I hope someday we can start to Fix this rift I've created with this mistake. It didn't work. Morgan kept her distance.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

If the prosecution's right, that's when he starts thinking, I'm going to kill her.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Yeah, I think it is a true definition of if I can't have her, nobody can.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

On 27 October, Prosecutor Barr says Jason put a carefully orchestrated plan into action. He says Jason grabbed a. 2022 caliber revolver at his parents house, set his phone alarm for 1:20am Then left his apartment without his cell phone. Deliberately off the grid.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That suggests a murderer who has thought ahead to what your investigation is going to be.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

It definitely shows pre planning. And how am I going to fool the police once this happens?

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Barr says Jason then drove to Morgan's house. When she left for work, he ambushed her from behind and in his rush to leave, left those tire tracks. Then Jason drove back to his apartment. By 2:59am he was ready to start his shift at FedEx. A murderer with a minute to spare.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

When he comes into work, he's all happy and chipper.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

He was clean shaven, his hair was brushed back, he had clean clothes on and he was smiling.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

He'd gotten control of whatever was going on.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

For the first time in like four

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

weeks, all that remained for Jason was to play the grieving friend. Barr left the jury with one final piece of evidence, a detail he never noticed in that car wash video. Barr says after Jason washed his car, he did something only the killer would know to do.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

He walks around his car and as he's going up to the passenger side, he looks down at the right front

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

quarter panel, which could be him checking to see whether the mud that came from parking next to Morgan's house was washed off.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

It absolutely is him looking to see if the mud has been washed off.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Now it was up to defense attorney Ty grand to convince the jury Jason was far too meek to murder.

[Defense Attorney Ty Grand]

He was a young man just trying to figure life out. Not menacing, not threatening. Didn't come across as a danger to society. Jason was very much so into things like Pokemon cards and Pokemon, Pokemon go, very much so into fictional stories. Enjoyed reading.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Graham argued the case was completely circumstantial, like those traffic camera images.

[Defense Attorney Ty Grand]

There was no proof that that was Jason's vehicle. There was not a reading from a license plate.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And Graham said the prosecution was never able to definitively match the bullet found at the scene with their supposed murder weapon.

[Defense Attorney Ty Grand]

The bullet was unique in how it was coded. None of those bullets were found in Jason's father's parents Home.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Graham suggested the sheriff's department may have arrested the wrong Jason. Graham pointed to that fight Morgan had with her live in boyfriend, Jason Scarnakia, two weeks before she was killed.

[Defense Attorney Ty Grand]

There were some pretty nasty things said by both Ms. Fox and Mr. Scarneckia. Jason Scarneckia, the prosecutor's response.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

By the day Morgan was killed, they were doing fine.

[Prosecutor Dennis Barr]

Jason had texted her when he woke up. Morning, babe. Hope your shift's going well. Love you.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The jury never heard Jason McDermott tell his side of the story, but he did have plenty to say to me.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Let me guess, this is all a big mistake.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

There's always more to the story.

[Sergeant Craig Kennedy (Sheriff's Office)]

To go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, listen to our talking Dateline series with Andrea and Josh, available Wednesday.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

During the five day trial, the jury never heard from Jason McDermott because he didn't take the stand. He did share his story with me.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Let me guess, this is all a big mistake.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

You'd be correct.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Did you kill Morgan Fox?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I did not.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Were you obsessed with her?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I was not, no.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

You certainly seem to be from everything we know.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Know what makes you, what makes you.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You wouldn't leave her alone. You texted her dozens of times, hundreds of times. You had hundreds of photos of her on your phone.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That all says obsession, all right?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

And I can explain the majority of that right there. One, Yes, I did save a lot of pictures on social media and stuff like that, which I admit was inappropriate behavior on my end. As for the texting, things like, yes, I realize there were a lot of unanswered text messages between the two of us. The main reason for that was she was always notoriously bad at responding to text messages.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

The police theory is when Morgan cut you off, you couldn't take it. You were angry, you were crushed because you were so obsessed with her and attached to her and you solved that

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

problem by killing her.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

No, I was never angry at her. Like, what did I have to be angry at her about? She did nothing wrong. I was the one that screwed up, not her.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason seemed to have an answer for everything, including his prior fascination with Sienna.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

She was someone who I was close friends with and me and her had a bad falling out. Like, things were said and done on both sides.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Like, did you stalk her?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I did not. That was a stupid misunderstanding that happened

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

one day that it's so coincidental that the guy that sort of wouldn't leave her alone and was constantly talking to her and bothering her at work also shows up at her counseling session. I think that's what she was reacting to.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I was stopping at that place well before she was ever forced to go to that counseling thing like, you can check my phone. I lived by there.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

As for the prosecution theory about how he planned and carried out Morgan's murder,

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You didn't borrow a gun from your dad and then referred to.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

The only person that was ever allowed to handle his guns at his house was him. Nobody, not even my mother, was allowed to know where the key was.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Where were you when Morgan was killed?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I was in my apartment.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And you never left?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Not until I went to work.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What made you want to wash your car that day?

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Just the fact that I was going into my parents house and I said, my mom's always on my. On my butt for not cleaning my car.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

You weren't washing mud off your car that came from being at Morgan's house?

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

No.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Jason also says that Mickey's stories about him are not true. The worst thing he did, he says, was to look at Morgan's phone and then lie about it.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I shouldn't have. And that was that. But like I said, we went a couple weeks without talking, but then after that, like I said, we were talking

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

again and everything was fine.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

Obviously, like, we were still working on repairing things, but.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

So you're unjustly accused, Correct? You gotta be like the unluckiest guy in America if you're telling the truth, right? I mean.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

I mean, I don't wanna.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Everybody else is lying or making something up, and you're the only one telling the truth.

[Jason McDermott (defense interview)]

I never said everybody was lying or anything like that.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That was Jason's story. I didn't do it. It wasn't me. Morgan and I were just pals. And I'm not an obsessed stalker. Now a jury would decide his fate. After less than a day of deliberation, they reached a verdict.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Guilty. The hugest sigh of relief. All I cared about was Amelia. I really was worried about Amelia.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And now she's safe.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

And now I know that he cannot hurt her.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

And it was eight year old Amelia who gave the most surprising and most heartbreaking statement at Jason's sentencing. While he and Morgan's family listened.

[Mickey Watkins (FedEx coworker and friend)]

I thought monsters weren't real.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

But you proved me wrong. You hurt so many people. You hurt me and the people I love. You ruined your own life because of how much of a bad person you are. Jason McDermott was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That guilty verdict, it doesn't turn back the clock. No, but it's better than nothing sometimes.

[Jason McDermott (FedEx coworker, suspect)]

Yes.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

He got what he Deserved.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

However, this family's search for justice was not over.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

As brutal as it is to lose Morgan, to hear that there were warning signs from the man convicted of killing her has got to be even tougher.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

Yes, it is. Hearing that just. It makes me furious. Because it could have been prevented.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

Might have saved Morgan's life.

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

Yes.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

One year to the day of her murder, her family and friends held a protest outside the FedEx facility where Morgan had worked. The company eventually agreed to pay the family 4 million. Other details of the settlement are confidential.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

I mean, interesting that, you know, Morgan spent her life sort of sticking up for other people.

[Michelle Hanna (FedEx coworker)]

Yeah.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

Nobody was there for her.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

And then when the time came for somebody to stick up for her, they weren't there.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

We reached out to FedEx, asking them to comment on the culture at their North Canton facility, the story told by Sienna, and the complaints made by Morgan. Their reply. Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Morgan Fox. In her memory, the family has created the Morgan Ashley Fox Foundation.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

What's the mission there?

[Chris Wilkop (Morgan's aunt)]

To help other peoples, like other children who've lost a parent due to violence.

[Narrator / Host (Lester Holt or Dateline narrator)]

That's a good cause.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

The foundation also encourages people to do a Morgan once a month on her birth date.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

On the 22nd of every month, we do a Morgan, which is just a random act of kindness. It could be, you know, telling somebody she looks nice today or paying for the meal of the person behind you.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

Paying it forward. Morgan Fox's legacy. Someone whose kindness and compassion inspires those she left behind.

[Cora Stonerock (Morgan's stepsister)]

She was funny. She lived life. She was honest. When she loved you, she loved you. She cared for her family. Everybody wants a Morgan in their life.

[Lester Holt (Dateline host)]

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

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