Deadly Engagement - Ep. 2: He Said, She Said

Summary

Dateline Originals: "Deadly Engagement" - Ep. 2: He Said, She Said

Original Air Date: November 13, 2025
Podcast Host: NBC News
Episode Focus: The investigation into the murder of Danita Smith, centering on her fiancé, Jermir Stroud, and his ex-lover, Shannon Crawley.

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Overview of the Episode

This episode dives deeper into the aftermath of Danita Smith’s tragic death, focusing on the tangled relationships and emotional fallout between her fiancé, Jermir Stroud, and Shannon Crawley, the woman from his past. Detective Sean Pate leads listeners through the evolving police investigation, unraveling a web of secrets, conflicting statements, and accusations. The narrative explores how "he said, she said" stories from Jermir and Shannon come under scrutiny as detectives seek to distinguish lies from truth and pinpoint motive, means, and opportunity in a headline-grabbing love triangle.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Double Life: Setting the Stage

• Jermir Stroud, Danita's fiancé, is brought in for questioning roughly 30 hours after her death. He immediately agrees to talk with detectives without a lawyer and is cooperative.
• The idea of leading a "double life" and the inevitable consequences is highlighted:
  • Detective Sean Pate: "Some stories are written before the first keystroke, as if the ending were a foregone conclusion... That’s particularly true of those stories in which a man or woman attempts to live a double life." (00:30)

2. Jermir’s Account: The Affair and Its Fallout

• Jermir admits to knowing Shannon Crawley, a 911 operator, and details their affair, which began around 2004 while he was already with Danita.
• The relationship escalates, resulting in Shannon's pregnancy in late 2005, followed by an abortion in early 2006. The affair ends soon after.
  • Interviewer/Reporter: "When Shannon said, 'Jermir, I'm pregnant. What are we gonna do?' He said, 'I don't wanna have a baby with you.' He told me that’s how he said it." (05:33)
  • After the breakup, Jermir claims little contact with Shannon until she moves into his neighborhood and joins his church, raising suspicions.

3. Shannon Emerges as a Suspect

• Jermir immediately names Shannon as someone who might bear a grudge, describing her as "dangerous, unpredictable, violent." (09:22)
• Shannon, when questioned, presents herself as calm and cooperative, but the detectives note inconsistencies.
• She files an internal affairs complaint against Jermir, accusing him of stalking her, which becomes a recurring contention point in the investigation.

4. Contradictions in Shannon’s Story

• Shannon claims never to have owned a gun and provides an alibi for the time of the murder (being at a doctor's appointment with a child).
• A coworker, Ronnie, contradicts her claim about firearms, saying she asked to buy a gun months before the murder and sold her a .38 caliber Taurus revolver with hollow point ammunition.
  • Ronnie’s Report: "She said something about fearing for her safety and... 'Do you have a gun I can buy?'" (15:09)

5. The Evidence Mounts

• Gunshot residue is found on Shannon’s vehicle (steering wheel, driver’s seat), though she is a civilian employee and would not be exposed to firearms in her line of work.
• Her statements about her whereabouts, ownership of a gun, and never visiting Durham are all disproved by evidence and records:
  • Interviewer/Reporter: "Nothing is adding up. Actually, almost every single fact that she gave me turned out to be a lie." (23:07)

6. The Love Triangle and Motive

• Detective Pate explores the nuance of Jermir’s emotional connections, including a 12-hour call with Shannon after their breakup, prompted by his church retreat.
• Detectives ponder whether Jermir’s continued support and contact gave Shannon false hope, possibly fueling a motive for violence.
  • Detective Sean Pate: "Men are always better at starting relationships than ending them. And like multitudes of men before him, Jermir Stroud was no match for a woman's tears." (28:17)

7. Suspicion Remains on Both Sides

• While evidence piles against Shannon, detectives remain suspicious of Jermir—whether through passivity or collusion, was he involved in Danita's murder?
  • Detective Sean Pate: "That bit about never owning a gun. Not true. If the coworker who said he sold her a gun was to be believed... And as for having never been to Durham, well, cell phone records show... she or her cell phone had been in Durham the day before Danita Smith was murdered." (22:35)
• Jermir is characterized as evasive, offering up facts only when specifically prompted, raising questions about the full extent of his knowledge and involvement.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Detective Sean Pate: "The beginnings of stories like that are as easy as sliding between satin sheets. That's when those lies of omission are tiny ones, when dishonest acts can go unnoticed." (01:29)
• Interviewer/Reporter: "When we mentioned Danita, his head dropped... And the shame in his eyes was there for everyone to see. Everyone to see." (08:06)
• Detective Sean Pate (on Shannon’s gun claim): "In my mind I'm thinking, you know, wait a minute, I just finished an interview with her five minutes ago and she told me I never owned a gun." (16:01)
• Interviewer/Reporter (regarding Jermir’s interactions with Shannon): "As long as you keep doing all the things that a boyfriend would do, then in her mind, she still has a chance." (29:30)
• Detective Sean Pate: "Why not tell it all? Why indeed? That question nagged at Detective Sean Pate." (31:54)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Key Point | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:29 | Detective interviews Jermir – the story of the affair begins | | 05:16 | Jermir discusses Shannon's pregnancy and their breakup | | 07:05 | Shannon moves into Jermir’s neighborhood and joins his church | | 09:22 | Jermir characterizes Shannon as potentially violent | | 10:03 | Shannon accused Jermir of stalking – files complaint | | 12:13 | Shannon questioned about the murder; claims innocent, provides alibi | | 15:09 | Coworker reveals he sold Shannon a gun | | 21:42 | Gunshot residue tests on Shannon’s vehicle | | 22:35 | Detective summarizes evidence undermining Shannon’s statements | | 26:17 | Second interview with Jermir—exploration of the emotional after-effects | | 30:24 | Detective considers if Jermir was a collaborator or simply complicit through neglect | | 32:15 | Interviewer/Reporter: "If you're not telling the 100 truth, it's a lie." |

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Tone and Language

The episode maintains the signature Dateline tone: suspenseful, slightly noir, and laden with dramatic pauses and evocative descriptions. Detective Sean Pate is reflective and methodical, while the interviewers offer candid, emotional reactions to each new revelation.

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Summary Conclusion

Episode two of "Deadly Engagement" skillfully peels back the layers of a deadly love triangle and the tragic consequences of secrets and lies. Through interview tapes, detailed narration, and firsthand accounts, listeners are left questioning where the truth really lies—with Danita’s grieving fiancé, his jealous ex-lover, or somewhere in between. The episode sets the stage for further revelations as the investigation intensifies, underscoring both the emotional complexity and procedural rigor that define classic Dateline storytelling.

Listen for:

• The slow unraveling of each suspect's story
• Tension as new evidence is uncovered and inconsistencies emerge
• The emotional weight carried by both investigators and those left behind

As Detective Pate prepares to confront Jermir Stroud a second time, the lines between victim, perpetrator, and bystander remain hauntingly blurred.

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Detective Sean Pate]

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

I was shocked.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

It was nothing there to make you doubt their love and where they were headed.

[Detective Sean Pate]

The beginnings of stories like that are as easy as sliding between satin sheets. That's when those lies of omission are tiny ones, when dishonest acts can go unnoticed.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I cannot tolerate a liar. I don't lie for my children. I don't lie to my children.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And the endings to those stories? You won't be shocked when I tell you they usually don't end well.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

There's some people in this world you go, okay, well, they got themselves in a mess. We watch this kind of stuff on TV all the time.

[Detective Sean Pate]

That's when secrets can be revealed in a pyrotechnic display of guilt and public humiliation.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The shame. It was there for everyone to see. Everyone to see. The main thing is I wanted my.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Friend to be there and for us to continue living life.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So no matter what the circumstances were.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

The main point is Danita's no longer with us.

[Detective Sean Pate]

This is a story about a promising young life, one cut much too short, in part due to the actions of someone they loved.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The decisions we make make us. I mean, it's sad.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Yes, it was a tragedy. And yes, I lost my daughter I.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Knew that she was going places.

[Detective Sean Pate]

I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Deadly Engagement, a podcast from Date Episode two, He Said, she said. It was mid afternoon when Detective Sean Pate walked into interview room two at the Durham police headquarters. Danita Smith had been dead for about 30 hours. Waiting for him in an uncomfortable chair was Danita's fiance, Jamere Stroud. He sat at the left end of a small table that was shoved up against the far wall.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

When I walked in, Jameer stood up, introduced himself and shook my hand.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And he doesn't show up with an attorney?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

No.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And he doesn't say, I can't talk to you about this now?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

No. He wanted to talk about anything we wanted to talk about.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And when he's asked, do you know anybody who would want to hurt Danita? He says, no.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Correct. But he was also asked, do you know anyone that drives a burgundy suv? And he tells us about Shannon Crawley.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Jermeer began to unspool a story, A Tale of Two Cities of Two Two Women of Two Different Realities. Shannon Crawley, Jermier explained, was a 911 operator in Greensboro. The person who asks you where and what your emergency is, Jermeer told the detective, Shannon Crawley drives a burgundy Ford Explorer.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He tells that he met Shannon when he was in the police academy and she was one of the people that was in the training session. He said, yeah, she caught Laura. I mean, she's 5 foot 10, long, pretty hair, thin. And we spoke for a short time.

[Detective Sean Pate]

This was in early 2003, and Jermir was well into his relationship with Danita Smith, so he did little more than smile and remember Shannon's name.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Around 2004, they bumped in again through work and he asked her for her number.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And at this point he's involved with.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Danita, involved with Danita. And he actually said that he told Shannon that he was involved with danita. Well, in 2004 they start having a relationship that actually started kind of like friendly, but then turned sexual. Toward the end of 2004, around September of 2004.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Jermir told the detectives Shannon was a single mother of two, a boy age 10, and a daughter who was 8. Jermir also said that in of 2005, Shannon became pregnant. There was no question who the father was.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

When Shannon said, jamir, I'm pregnant. What are we gonna do? He said, I don't wanna have a baby with you. He told me that's how he said it.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Not just I don't wanna have a baby or I don't wanna Have a baby right now.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I don't wanna have a baby with you. And that was in December 2005. I imagine that sucked just a little bit of her soul out when she heard those.

[Detective Sean Pate]

That had to sting.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I imagine it did.

[Detective Sean Pate]

In January 2006, Jermir said Shannon had an abortion and the two of them decided to go their separate ways.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The boyfriend, girlfriend thing. There was no more going to movies together. There was no more sleeping together, going shopping together, that kind of thing. It was more just see you in passing at work.

[Detective Sean Pate]

So basically, they broke it off.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

They did.

[Detective Sean Pate]

According to Jermir, the two barely had any contact for the next six months. Then one evening in July 2006, he says he spotted Shannon's burgundy SUV driving around his neighborhood.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He said, look, like everywhere I am, she pops up.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Then months later, in November 2006, Jameer said he learned Shannon had bought a home in his neighborhood just half a mile from his house.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He said, you know, I did actually have to go to speak to one of my friends at Internal affairs about it. Not an official complaint, but kind of judging. Where do I go from here? She moved into my neighborhood, and then she's joined my church.

[Detective Sean Pate]

It's worth noting that November 2006 was also the month Jermir asked Danita to marry him. And she said, yes, it's the month Danita put on that ring. The future may have looked bright to her, but Jermir no doubt feared what could happen if the two lives he'd led bumped into one another.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I said, well, have they ever met? And he said, no, they've never met. Shannon knew about Danita, but Danita had no clue. And everyone I spoke to about Danita said if she even suspected, she would have been out of that relationship. She had too much dignity for that.

[Detective Sean Pate]

So this was an affair Jermir was hiding. Correct. The detective estimated Jermir stroud at about 6ft tall and a solid 190 pounds. Except as the hours passed and as Jermir doled out the details of his affair like small change, he seemed to grow smaller.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

When we mentioned Anita, his head dropped. I mean, chin to chest every single time. And the shame in his eyes was it was there for everyone to see. Everyone to see.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Jamer told the detective the last time he laid eyes on Shannon Crawley was two weeks earlier at Christmas Eve services at their church. Danita, who was with him that day, was all smiles as Jermir introduced her to friends as his fiance. It should have been an unadulterated moment of joy, except Seated three rows behind him. And Danita that Sunday was Jermir's ex lover. And if Jameer turned around to look at her, he did not mention it. The two women did not actually meet that day. There was no chilly confrontation, no ugly scene in a church on Christmas Eve to mar the season. Okay, but what about now? With Danita murdered, Jermir wondered if Shannon had preferred her revenge on him and Danita to be served cold. How did Jermir describe Shannon? Dangerous, unpredictable, violent.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I remember when I interviewed him in length the next day, I asked him, do you think that Shannon is capable of killing someone? And he said yes.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Soon after Jermir left the police station, Detective Pate called the Greensboro pd. He was on his way. He told them he wanted to talk with one of their 911 operators, name of Crawley. Shannon Crawley, he said. By the time Detective Pate and a partner arrived at the 911 center in Greensboro that evening, Shannon was waiting with a story she wanted to tell.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

As far as she knew, we were there about Jameer and Shannon.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Crawley had plenty to say about Jermier Stroud. In fact, just that morning, she had filed a complaint with Internal affairs accusing Jermier Stroud of stalking her.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Shannon hears through a friend that the police Department's looking for 5 foot 10 black female that drives a burgundy SUV. Shannon gets up, goes and speaks with her supervisor and wants to make a complaint against Jamir. It starts rattling all the wrongdoings of the past and in the relationship.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Interesting. So that first day that she's a suspect, Shannon files a complaint against Jameer. Correct. Alleging?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Well, it was internal affair issues, but basically boiled down to stalking.

[Detective Sean Pate]

He was stalking her.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He was stalking her, calling her at work all the time, showing up at her house unannounced.

[Detective Sean Pate]

As you will see in future episodes, that stalking allegation would remain a point of contention throughout this case. How is she?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Honestly? She was pretty calm, easygoing, kind of like us sitting here.

[Detective Sean Pate]

She was, as they say in Carolina, a long drink of water. Tall and thin, with thick hair that fell to her shoulders. What'd you ask her first?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I asked her about Jameer, whatever. And she admitted that she knew him and about the relationship that they'd had.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Shannon's version of the story mirrored what the detective had heard from Jermir. They met in 2003, became lovers in 2004, and the romantic relationship ended after Shannon's abortion in January 2006, a year before Danita was killed.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

A year.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And whatever contact they had during that year, Shannon and Jermir, you don't think there was anything untoward going on?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I honestly believe them because they both agreed on what it was about.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Then the detective turned the line of questioning to the murder.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She says she's never been to Durham. I asked her about owning a gun, and she tells me that I've never owned a gun. I can't stand guns. I'm scared of them. I said, okay, I can understand that. A lot of people feel that way. And I asked her where she was the day that Danita was killed. And she told me that she was at a doctor's appointment with one of her children.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Then the detective asked Shannon a version of the same question he had asked Jermir hours earlier. Did she think Jermir could have killed Danita?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She told me that she didn't think Jameer was capable of violence. She wasn't scared of him.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Shannon would later change her story about how much she feared Jermir Stroud. But more about that later. Several times during the interview, Shannon excused herself and left the room to either take or return phone calls.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So everything is all glass. So she gets up and she goes outside and speaks in the, in the hallway. And we can't hear anything she's saying, but we can see her reactions. And she's, you know, trying to be calm. But I mean, it was a serious situation. She wasn't doing. You know, some people talk and they get their hand gestures. Wasn't a lot of that.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Shannon told the detective she was speaking with her sister and brother in law who were at that very moment driving down to North Carolina from New Jersey.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I said, why are they coming down? She said, to watch my kids. To watch. Where are you going? To watch your kids. For what?

[Detective Sean Pate]

Why do you need somebody to watch your kids?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We didn't get an answer on that one. She just looked at me.

[Detective Sean Pate]

According to Shannon, her sister and brother in law were telling her she needed a lawyer and that she should get up and leave that interview.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I told her about wanting to search her card and naturally she didn't want that to happen.

[Detective Sean Pate]

After about an hour and 40 minutes, Shannon told the detective she had had enough and out the door she went.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She was frustrated and she was leaving.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Minutes after Shannon left the room, Detective Pate says one of her supervisors handed him a note. There was another 911 operator named Ronnie. He was waiting in the hall and he had something he wanted to tell police.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Ronnie was white, male, I don't know, probably 40 years old, short, want to say Sandy blondish hair.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Ronnie told the detective he and Shannon were friends and often ate their lunches together. He said Shannon had spoken often about her ex boyfriend, Jermir Stroud, and Ronnie corroborated the story Shannon had just told in that interview room with one important addition.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She said something about fearing for her safety and you know, he's a cop, he always has a gun. I don't feel safe. Do you have a gun I can buy?

[Detective Sean Pate]

The detective was all ears.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He was anxious to tell. Not so much as far as like, oh, I'm going to tell on her. It was like, hey, I don't want this to come back on me.

[Detective Sean Pate]

According to Ronnie, it was sometime in late October 2006 that Shannon asked him if he could sell her a gun. That was two months before Danita Smith was murdered.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He said that he sold Shannon a.38 caliber.20 Taurus revolver with hollow point ammunition. In my mind I'm thinking, you know, wait a minute, I just finished an interview with her five minutes ago and she told me I never owned a gun.

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[Detective Sean Pate]

Stores [e-mail] it was nearly 9pm When Shannon Crawley walked out of the 911 operations center in downtown Greensboro that night and Into a light drizzle. Under the city's lights, the parking lot looked as if it were coated with a sheen of black lacquer. As she approached her vehicle, a burgundy 1999 Ford Explorer, Shannon saw a police car and a couple of officers standing near it. By then, a photo of the SUV had already been emailed to the maintenance man at the campus crossings apartments. He confirmed Shannon Crawley's burgundy Ford Explorer looked exactly like the one he'd seen the day before.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She came out to the car and the look on her face. She did not expect to see everyone out there around her car. When she came out, she thought she was going to get in her car and just ride off. And that didn't happen.

[Detective Sean Pate]

When asked to unlock the vehicle so officers could search it, Shannon refused. That standoff lasted several minutes when the ranking officer told Shannon that if the police had to break a window to gain access, the repair cost would be on her. Shannon then unlocked the door and got a ride home. A couple of hours passed before police received a signed search warrant allowing them to enter the suv. By then, rain was coming down in sheets so hard, in fact, investigators feared the rainwater would destroy potential evidence if they tried to do a proper search right there. So the SUV was towed to the Greensboro evidence garage, where it could be securely stored until police technicians could conduct a thorough search the next day. The Ford Explorer wasn't the only thing investigators wanted to search that night. They also had a warrant to toss Shannon's house. It was after 1am When Detective Pate and other investigators rolled into the suburb where Shannon Crawley lived. Although it was dark, the detective could see this was a neighborhood where lawn care and home maintenance were clearly priorities. Shannon and her kids were not there, But a neighbor who had a key was on hand to let investigators in.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

When we served a search warrant on that house, there was hardly any furniture in that house. The children were well cared for. Their room, you would never know. But the living room, her room, There was no. She looked house poor.

[Detective Sean Pate]

The good thing about a nearly empty house is it's easy to search. And for the next two hours, investigators went over that house looking for a gun, for bullets, journals, emails, anything that could conceivably connect law abiding Shannon Crawley to the murder of Danita Smith.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So we searched for the rest of the house, and we do find Greensboro communications, 911 center uniforms, and they are exactly as described by the maintenance supervisor, down to the color of the patch and the shape.

[Detective Sean Pate]

You find a gun?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

No gun was found. No bullets were Found nothing incriminating. Other than that, the detective hoped crime.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Lab technicians might find something else more incriminating once they were able to take a look inside that burgundy suv. Is there a gun in the car?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Nope. No gun in the car. No bullets. Nothing that just screams, hey, it's me.

[Detective Sean Pate]

The gray interior of the Explorer looked the way you'd expect any single mom's car to look. Children's clothes and notebooks, games and candy wrappers, plastic shopping bags and empty soda bottles. The back seat on the passenger side was folded down, Extending the cargo space there, along with boxes and more clothes, was a pillow, suggesting that at some point, somebody might have stretched out there and taken a nap. It turns out the real find in that Explorer was invisible to the naked eye.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We did gunshot residue tests on the car, which we swabbed. The steering wheel, you'd swap anywhere where a person would touch. Steering wheel, the window handle, gear shifter, you know, normal areas.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Gunshot residue is basically just sort of like microscopic dust.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

That's exactly what it is.

[Detective Sean Pate]

It comes off the gun onto the person using the gun.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Yeah, exactly. It's gonna be the microscopic dust from the powder that comes from the bullet itself.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And if you touch something else, you can transfer that power.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Exactly. That's exactly right.

[Detective Sean Pate]

So you test Shannon's car, Test her.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Car, and comes back. There is gunshot residue in the vehicle.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Tests showed gunshot residue on the steering wheel and the driver's seat. Shannon's a police department employee, but a civilian employee?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Yes.

[Detective Sean Pate]

So she doesn't carry a gun?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

No.

[Detective Sean Pate]

She doesn't regularly qualify at the range or anything like that?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Not at all.

[Detective Sean Pate]

That gets you pretty far down the road, doesn't it?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It really does. And the story starts to unravel.

[Detective Sean Pate]

That bit about never owning a gun. Not true. If the co worker who said he sold her a gun was to be believed. Shannon's story about having a doctor's appointment for her child on the morning of the murder? Well, the detective checked with the child's doctor and learned there was no appointment. And as for having never been to Durham, well, cell phone records show she or her cell phone had been in Durham the day before Danita Smith was murdered.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Nothing is adding up. Actually, almost every single fact that she gave me turned out to be a lie.

[Detective Sean Pate]

As the detective merged onto the eastbound interstate that morning, he knew several things he had not known 24 hours earlier. That hunch he'd had about Danita's roommate and her boyfriend, the one Danita had words with. That was a dead end. Pate's investigation had turned up nothing there. And Shannon Crawley, well, that felt like pay dirt. He expected he'd soon be arresting her for the murder of Danita Smith. But not yet. Pete knew Shannon was just one point of what looked like a deadly love triangle. Jermier Stroud was another. And the detective wasn't sure he'd gotten the whole truth out of Officer Stroud. The last time they spoke, Jameer would.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Tell me the truth, but you had to ask it. There was no. You know, sometimes when you tell people a lie of omission is still a lie. We need everything. Some people you have to ask the correct question to get the answer you're looking for.

[Detective Sean Pate]

He wasn't volunteering anything.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Absolutely not.

[Detective Sean Pate]

The detective knew that in two days he'd be back on this road, fighting the Monday morning traffic going westbound to Greensboro. He was going to have another sit down with Jermere Stroud.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Detective Sean Pate]

Greensboro Police Officer Jermere Stroud was on duty the morning Detective Sean Pate returned to Greensboro to question him again. Now, armed with a few specifics he'd gleaned from Shannon, the detective pressed Jermir on the new nature of their relationship. The heart of it, the detective thought, was Shannon's pregnancy and the abortion that had led to their breakup.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

When I Started asking questions about it. Then I see that the physical relationship ended, but not the emotional relationship.

[Detective Sean Pate]

So when they both agree jointly to break up in early 2006, that what, lights a fuse that burns for a year?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Here's the thing. So they really didn't speak until May of 2006. They broke up in January. And then Jameer goes on a men's retreat with his church. And in his men's retreat, you know, the pastor tells him, anyone you've wronged, you need to go back and get right with everyone that you've wronged before you can get right with God.

[Detective Sean Pate]

When Jermir heard that, he immediately thought of Shannon.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He said, I come back and I call her, and I apologize in great detail about everything that he's sorry for. He said, I was on the phone for 12 hours. My cell phone went dead. I charged it. I mean, had it plugged in, and we talked until I fell asleep.

[Detective Sean Pate]

He talked to Shannon for 12 hours.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

12 hours, apologizing, sorry for everything.

[Detective Sean Pate]

According to Jermir, that conversation was emotionally draining. Shannon cried and told him how upset she'd been about the abortion.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It was pretty much, how did we get here? Where did we go from here? And my. I felt this way at this point, and this led to this decision. They were just rehashing, rewinding, and reliving the whole relationship in 12 hours.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Men are always better at starting relationships than ending them. And like multitudes of men before him, Jermier Stroud was no match for a woman's tears.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

There were a lot of feelings that were shared, and since he had to make right with her, it wasn't right to come back, apologize, say, I'm sorry I mistreated you. And then after the conversation, okay, well, goodbye, hang up the phone, and that's it.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Interesting that in the list of people he wronged, he talked to Shannon about it. But not Danita.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Of course not. I guess she didn't know that there was something he needed to apologize for.

[Detective Sean Pate]

So they start talking again.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Exactly.

[Detective Sean Pate]

According to Jermir, talk is all it was ever intended to be, nothing more. He says, however, Shannon did not see it that way.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She was a single mother, and they were friends, and if she had a bad day at work or something like that, and she wanted to talk to someone, when she called, he answered. If something was going wrong at the house that needed a man's attention or whatever, he would come take care of it.

[Detective Sean Pate]

And Jermir, in all of this, doesn't see that this is Shannon trying to get Jermir back into her life?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Not at all. Not at all. And he doesn't see that he's leaving the door open. As long as you keep doing all the things that a boyfriend would do, then in her mind, she still has a chance.

[Detective Sean Pate]

There's still a shot.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Exactly. He saw it when I explained it to him, but he didn't see it at the time.

[Detective Sean Pate]

Does Jameer ever describe any instance in which Shannon was violent or threatened violence or talked about violence or said, you know, if I could just get rid of Danita, my life would be great?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Never.

[Detective Sean Pate]

You didn't believe him?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I didn't because I told him, jameer, I've been doing this for a while. And people say, oh, this person just snapped and went off the deep end. And I said, don't tell me that crazy just showed up. January 4, 2007. There's been something that she said along the way that you're a cop. Something made you say, whoa, wait a minute.

[Detective Sean Pate]

The question of whether Jermier Stroud had been a passive participant in his fiance's murder or an active collaborator was one the detectives struggled with. Although there seemed to be no direct evidence connecting him to the crime, there was anecdotal evidence that Jermir had at least considered the possibility that Shannon possessed a hair trigger heart and might be a danger to Danita.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

One officer that I spoke to, he told me that on one occasion he was talking to Jameer. And Jameer specifically said to him, she better not do anything to my girl. And I said, well, did he elaborate after that? He said, no, he was just pretty much not even really talking to me. But I'm at the table with him and he's looking off in the distance and more thinking out loud.

[Detective Sean Pate]

He's sort of talking to the universe, pretty much. But if you're thinking that, if you can verbalize that thought, that means you thought about the risk.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And naturally, I went back to Jameer and asked him again, this is what your friend said, that you made the statement on this day and time and don't remember that I didn't. I don't remember that. Maybe he misheard.

[Detective Sean Pate]

The friend has no reason to lie.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

None at all. But at this point, I'm thinking neither does Jameer. The worst thing you could possibly tell us about yourself, you've already done it. You've been the direct cause of someone's death that you claim that you loved. Why not tell it all?

[Detective Sean Pate]

Why indeed? That question nagged at Detective Sean Pate. Shannon Crawley may have been the detective's number one suspect. And Jermir Stroud? Well, the possibility he may have been somehow involved in his fiance's murder remained a very open question.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

This being my very first homicide, if you're not telling the 100 truth, it's a lie. Next time, he said, I'll make it real simple. Either your children die or you die from your children.

[Detective Sean Pate]

He would appear in the neighborhood, just sit there in his car and watch the house.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

She gets cuffed. She gets to the end of the driveway, and before she gets in the car, she looks at her family and says, raise them like they're your own. She gets in the car and they go to Durham. I was just trying to connect the.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Dots of, you know, who this person was.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He was just like, give it some.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Time and let the truth come out.

[Detective Sean Pate]

This podcast is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beacham is the producer. Marshall Housefeld, Brian Drew, Deb Brown, John Koster and Billy Ray are audio editors. Kimberly Flores Gaynor is associate producer, Adam Gorfayne is co executive producer, Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer from NBC News. Audio sound mixing by Rich Cutler. Bryson Barr is head of audio production.

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

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