A (14:41)
Paris's girlfriend floated a theory to investigators that Paris is shooting might have been retaliation for an incident that occurred when Paris had been in prison serving time for selling cocaine. Now, the one note in the case file about this tip doesn't describe what that incident was or even when it took place, but it does say who it involved, a name that is officially off the record. So we're going to call him Q. We've confirmed that Q has been incarcerated. He has a long list of criminal charges ranging from narcotics to weapon violations to burglary and theft. Now, our team wasn't able to find records old enough that confirmed if Q and Parrish served time together. And investigator Swain said that the state records he reviewed didn't show that they had been incarcerated together. But either way, it wasn't the only thing Paris girlfriend wanted to share with sheriff's deputies. She also told investigators that a person she knew told her that they saw Q, another guy and a woman in a car behind Paris's building before the shooting occurred. And after the shooting, these three people and the car were gone. Investigators went to the person who supposedly told this to Paris girlfriend, and sure enough, that source corroborated her story. Or, well, their story that they told Paris girlfriend that she told investigators. You get it? And actually this source was able to add more details. Her story from that evening is a little convoluted, but it's worth describing. She says that in the hours leading up to the murder, she had called a man to buy drugs. We're going to use a pseudonym for him, too. Investigator Swain asked us to call him Love. So this woman said she'd gone to meet Love in his car sometime after 9:30 that evening on the street behind Paris apartment building, a spot pretty close to where the canines had lost the suspect trail. When she got to the car, she saw Love, who is black, sitting in his car along with Q, who is white. And they were accompanied by a woman that she didn't know. Now, one thing to point out is that this sighting of Love and Q and this car happens well before Paris was shot around midnight. But that didn't mean it wasn't still significant. Investigators wanted to talk to Q and Love, and they were able to determine that the car seen that night belonged to Love. And eventually they stopped it on the road and pulled him over. Now, there were two other passengers with Love at that time, but neither of them were Q. This is where it gets interesting, though. The same K9 unit used to search Paris neighborhood was also called to the scene and alerted positively to Love's car. Now, there's no clear documentation if this hit was for narcotics or what exactly, but whatever this hit was gave police the ability to tow the car and get a search warrant for the vehicle and its contents. And they were able to bring Love into the police station for questioning, which he agreed to voluntarily. But it was a quick chat. Love said that he had an alibi for Paris murder. He had to be at work at 11pm that night, a full hour before Paris was shot. So he was let go. And sure enough, investigators were able to confirm that Love clocked in at around 11:30pm on April 28, and then clocked out the next morning at around 9:15am I mean, not only that, but his company used biometric data for this. Love had to use his thumbprint to confirm that he was on site. So Love was almost in the clear. Almost. You see, while they had been finding things that seemed to rule him out, that search of his car was underway. And they found something that very much kept him square on their radar. One of Love's two passengers had left her cell phone in the car when she got out, and that became part of the evidence that police were able to search. Now, that phone belonged to a woman whose name is, again, off the record, so we'll be referring to her as Linda. She had been riding in the car with her boyfriend while Love drove. And when police accessed her phone, they found some very suspicious text messages. These texts were between Linda and her boyfriend, Thomas, also a pseudonymous. Now, what we got is just a list of messages. It doesn't say who sent what or if this is the complete conversation. Much of it is written in shorthand, so it is confusing, but there's enough there to make anyone suspicious. And beyond the contents of the texts, when one of the exchanges began is important. Thirty minutes after Paris was shot, one of the texts says, I'm scared. Another described being worried about going to jail. The words shoot and rob are in there, too. And maybe not being in the car with them. And perhaps most notably, I was with Q and a reference in them to white boy, which is a nickname some people used for Q. And listen, I know that sounds confusing, but I'm telling you, these things are hard to interpret. There is just enough there to make investigators spidey senses tingle. Now, neither Thomas nor Linda had been arrested the day that Love's car was towed, so police didn't get a chance to ask them about these texts. But both of them were arrested later in a separate incident on drug related charges. That's when investigators took the opportunity to ask them about the messages. Now, Thomas denied any knowledge of the text messages and said that he wasn't involved in Paris murder. Linda tried to act like the texts weren't on her phone, and when she was assured they were, she just refused to talk about them. Ultimately, law enforcement was never able to determine anything conclusive about Thomas and Linda's involvement. Not even when a cellmate of Linda's came forward. This person claimed that she was told that these texts did in fact revolve around Paris and that the text specifically refer to the fact that Thomas had given a gun to Q that day. Now, a gun had been found at Thomas and Linda's shared residence when they were arrested on those drug related charges. But from the jump, it didn't seem like this was going to be the gun they were looking for. E Paris roommate had told law enforcement the gun that he saw was black. But the gun taken from Thomas home was described as silver in investigative records. Now, I know that was sent away for ballistics comparison, but the records that we've been given to review aren't clear about the results. All we know is that neither Thomas nor Linda have ever been arrested or charged in relation to Paris murder. But just because that wasn't the gun doesn't mean Thomas and Linda weren't still suspicious in their connection to Love. And their mention of white boy and Q in the text messages made police feel like even if they weren't hitting a home run, they were in the right ballpark. They just needed to find Hugh. This whole time, Hugh had been pretty elusive. But when he Got arrested on some outstanding felony warrants. After the murder, they were finally able to get in front of him, though that wasn't much help. Hugh just denied having anything to do with Paris murder and called for an attorney, ending the conversation. Which left investigators stuck. But while Q wouldn't talk, one thing deputies weren't short on was other people who would. Throughout the rest of 2013 and into 2014, rumors continued to make their way to investigators. And not all of the rumors were about Q and Love. And as more names came in to investigators, so did the results from evidence testing. Over the years, investigators were able to get DNA from various items that they sent out. That cigarette butt, a swab from the doorknob, Paris clothes, and even his lanyard produced results. Though unfortunately, these were all either mixtures or partial profiles. None that were good enough for codis. But there was one additional sample, One that came from under Paris fingernails. Documents from the case file note that the sample appears to be a mixture consistent with two donors, with at least one of them being male. And with these results, over time, investigators were able to confirm that a number of these men did not match the DNA they had. This included guys like Love and Thomas. E, the roommate. And one of the men whose argument Paris broke up. And most notably, Q was not a match either. Although this is a tricky sort of exclusion, right? I mean, by E's account, Paris only touched and interacted with one of the men who showed up at the apartment, the man who eventually ended up shooting him. That still left the second man, who may not have left any DNA behind. And to that end, Q only fit the description of that second man, not the one who actually shot Paris. But if sheriff's deputies were able to figure out who did match that profile, it seemed reasonable that they could sort out who the second person was. So that DNA profile from under Paris fingernails was entered into codis, but no matches came back. So investigators waited and waited, and then, In September of 2016, they got a hit.
