A deeply reported account of Cave's life and the fallout from her horrific death, it's regularly broken into the top 50 shows on Apple Podcasts, and into the top 10 for true crime. Laura Hall The 3rd Court of Appeals on Feb. 19 overturned the five-year sentence of Laura Ashley Hall, who was convicted of tampering with evidence and helping friend Colton Pitonyak. It was great," she says smiling. Not only did investigators note several post-mortem stab wounds in Jennifers body, mostly to the chest and neck, as her head was not attached, they also found an additional slug resting against her skull showing that Pitonyak must have fired the second and last bullet through the base of her severed neck. medication for depression. ", Three days later, Laura was questioned again. "With all due respect, which one is it? "I apologize to everybody here. End quote. He's got my daughter," Loren Hall recalls thinking at the time. Laura and Colton met at a party in the spring of 2005. She was initially assigned to the Plane State Jail. "All I had was a flashlight. I can't live in Austin. As Laura tells it, she had nothing to do with the horrific crime. "How hard is it to go like this?" And many say, so is Laura. After just four hours of work, Pitonyak also bought heavy-duty garbage bags, odor eliminator, carpet cleaner, gloves and face masks at the store. But Sharon sensed Colton was nothing but bad news, and had begged her daughter not to get involved with him. Jim says the place was completely dark. Police would soon learn the butchered victim was 21-year-old Jennifer Cave. Laura told them she had crossed the border into Mexico with Colton. Sawyer realizes the cabbie's description of such callous and cold behavior was deadly. [17] On Monday, January 29, 2007 Pitonyak, then 24, was convicted of murder. [18] The court ruled that her sentencing hearing was unfair and Hall was released on bond. Sharon and Jim decided to head to Austin hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. I just want to see you for a little bit. "I wasn't able to even process - and even today, I have not processed the emotions. comprehension that Colton would ever intentionally harm someone, dishwasher. After a jury sentenced him to 55 years in prison, Pitonyak said, Laura says he's lying and that she had nothing to do with the dismemberment. He says the place looks like a wreck, as if there had been a struggle. ", The emotional toll of the case hit particularly close to home for the hosts who both have sisters when they sat down to interview Cave's own sister, Lauren. Inside, was the gun they believed to have been used to kill Jennifer Cave. 's mistake, Laura will be sentenced again. And it eventually grew into, 'I was a victim, I was kidnapped, I had nothing to do with it. Both were drinking, and according to witness Jeffrey Support the Chronicle, Tinu Thomas and Haley Butler, hosts of true crime podcast, We were able to lean on each other emotionally, and know that we werent alone in talking to the victims family.. Am I guilty of being in love with him stupidly? If Jennifer told you she was going to be somewhere at 8 o'clock, Jennifer was there at 8 o'clock.". Colton Pitonyak was found guilty and sentenced to 55 years in prison. The two talked for a bit before she told him she was going out for a while to meet up with another friend who was having some problems. Sanderson, Pitonyak seemed high. 'Cause in my mind that's not possible," she says of going back to jail. "You'll hear that Ms. Cave died as a result of a gunshot through the arm and the torso of her body," Bishop tells the court. His lawyers say Prosecutors Hall was nowhere near Pitonyak's apartment during the hours that Cave was apparently killed, and there is no certain evidence that Hall participated in the dismemberment of Cave's body. filed another appeal disputing the timeline of the murder, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Pedro Fernandez (pictured), the manager of the Casablanca Hotel in Piedras Blancas, took a photo with his S1 E843m. The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday dismissed without comment the latest appeal from Colton Pitonyak, who is serving 55 years in prison for killing and dismembering an acquaintance . Jennifer Cave, 21, had struggled with drugs and dropped out of Furthermore, the new witness states that Laura told him that she made the list of items for Colton to buy at the hardware store, and that she alone dismembered the body of Jennifer Cave. Jennifers head lay in a plastic bag by the tub, along with both her hands. ", Rather than reveling in the prize of unprecedented access, they wanted to always keep sight of the human anguish that reverberates through their narrative. "She's still a part of us.". But according to Pitonyak's lawyer, once during a group therapy session in jail, Laura told other inmates she is in fact the killer. Hall, who has since completed her prison sentence, even provides fresh insight to the reporters in a delicate, yet riveting, exchange over Facebook Messenger. a 9 mm handgun that was later CBS News. '", Prosecutors produced witnesses who claim Laura told them about her involvement in the mutilation. Hall was released on parole in 2018 after serving nearly 10 years in prison. In fact, she spent most of the day running errands before she went back to pick up Colton and drive him to Mexico. "Did you have anything to do with the murder?". saying that Hall had admitted to killing Cave in a jailhouse confession. This podcast isn't a summer project to giddily decode and solve on Reddit, but instead a nuanced and empathetic portrait of the human lives, emotions, and relationships that tragically collided on August 17, 2005. It was early evening by the time they arrived. "Judge Flowers found it appropriate to remand her into custody without bond," says D.A. Colton Pitonyak will testify in his own defense. in court were her sisters, Vanessa Jim Sedwick broke into the apartment after the police departed. It was fired by. I said, 'Thank you so much for giving her this opportunity.' . ", And the D.A. "I remember that night - when we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do and getting some clothes packed. Her body discovered in a friends apartment near the University of Texas. She admits that she saw the body in the bathtub, but claims it was Colton's idea to dismember it. In the bathroom, he discovered Cave's When India and Pakistan became two separate countries, it reshaped world history. after serving half of his sentence. Colton and Laura fled Austin some 16 hours after the murder. [1] In 2009, Chuck Lindell of the Austin American-Statesman called it the "most infamous West Campus crime". An appeals court upheld the convictions but overturned the sentence. The hosts of "The Orange Tree" dive into the court records and interview people involved in the case. Movies. "And in making the small talk people do, he found out her boyfriend was accused of murder," Laura Hall's lawyer, Joe James Sawyer, explains. National television shows such as Court TV, 48 Hours, Deadly Sins and Snapped: Killer Couples have also covered the investigation over the years, said Fugitt. began to suspect that Pitonyak was a fugitive. "I'm definitely not a sociopath.". Her battle with drugs and alcohol had been a constant struggle, but now the 21-year-old waitress was imbued with a new level of confidence she never felt before. And it kind of got quiet. [21][22], In 2014, Hall was denied parole by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "I was really attracted to Colton from the beginning. "The thing that I am most fearful about is that she will choose my family to yet again hurt," Sharon tells Maher. in Piedras Blancas, took a photo with his In 2007, a jury convicted Laura Hall, 34, for helping her boyfriend Colton Pitonyak dismember 21-year-old Cave's body in his apartment's bathtub at the Orange Tree condominiums in August of 2005. "We would spend days together at a time. Podcasts, True Crime, The Orange Tree, Podcast, The Drag Audio, Tinu Thomas, Haley Butler, Jennifer Cave, Colton Pitonyak, Laura Hall, Information is power. On the same day, the jury panel recommended a 55-year prison sentence for Pitonyak. Can't keep up with happenings around town? Police also found a machete and hacksaw with blood on it nearby. For Travis County Prosecutor Bill Bishop, the case is indelible. but Fernandez kicked them out after Pitonyak became belligerent Was she a brutal accomplice or just a lost soul along for the ride? insisted he didn't know anything. Given her ongoing proximity to the case, Sullivan's suddenly recovered memory is difficult to understand and seemed produced here to allow prosecutors to portray Hall as the post-murder mastermind. Laura Hall & Colton Pitonyak. It's been two years since 21-year-old Jennifer Cave was brutally murdered and dismembered inside the West Campus apartment of her friend Colton Pitonyak. So I flipped the light switch on and there she was," he remembers. And I'm like, 'Oh yes, I know.' Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. Submit yours now at austinchronicle.com/opinion. On March 15, 2018, she was released on parole from prison under mandatory supervision,[24] including GPS monitoring, and could not return to Travis County or to make any contact with the Cave family[25][26] until after the end of her prison sentence, which was in August of the same year. Watch an excerpt of Laura Hall's interrogation. Mr. "Laura Hall says she didn't have a plan on what to do next after getting to Mexico, and that she didn't know what Colton Pitonyak was planning. Pitonyak stated during the trial that he must have killed Jennifer as he was the only other person there at the time he just couldn't remember the details. S1 E643m. but he did lay the blame on his friend, 23-year-old Laura Hall . This was a brutal case; she was stabbed 29 times. Come here.'". Investigators say Cave had been out to dinner with 22-year-old Colton Pitonyak, who'd lost his cell phone and was upset about it. [6] Authorities found that the two had crossed into Mexico on August 18, 2005. Hall was allowed to leave by herself. Yes. Whereas some true-crime anthologies might barrel headlong toward the most gruesome, shocking detail, Thomas and Butler underline their reporting philosophy upfront. "Did you have anything to do with the dismemberment of Jennifer's body?" I had just gotten away from him. The clerk asked him what he needed a hacksaw for and he said he was frying a turkey and needed a hacksaw to cut it up because it was frozen.". Pitonyak, a former honor student, had been on a downward spiral of dealing drugs and abusing drugs and alcohol. a hardware store four blocks away. for murder in the fatal Aug. ", "I think that people are going to look at this and they're going to see how articulate you are, and they're going to say, 'OK, either this girl is really stupid or she's a sociopath," says Maher. Pitonyak's neighbor, Nora Sullivan, testified that in the spring of 2006, Hall told her that after Pitonyak shot Cave, he sat in his living room drinking beer and watching TV instead of using the tools he'd bought at the hardware store. "This guy's who's - apparently he - he's killed Jennifer Cave and mutilated her body- he's got my daughter. [6], Colton Aaron Pitonyak[7] was a finance major at the University of Texas at Austin,[6] originating from Bryant, Arkansas, in Greater Little Rock. Support the free press, so we can support Austin. "We're really getting scared that something bad has happened inside that apartment," says Jim. She said, 'After all, [Cave] was nothing. effects of Jennifer's death. Cave was buried in a private ceremony.[3]. Fernandez, to watch a pay-per-view professional fighting match, , then 24, was convicted of murder California Privacy Rights / Privacy.... For the ride who 'd lost his cell phone and was upset about.. 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