by 2011, for the taylor family, crystal s murder was an ugly scar that was never going to heal. we had almost stopped being as obsessed with it. but you still wanted answers. but we still wanted answer. reporter: then the phone rang. detectives shared the big news about their prison interview with c-styles. they said, well, the shooter confessed. reporter: and told them it was derek smyer who put him up to it. reporter: in his confession, mr. styles said he saw another woman on the stairs and thought maybe that was crystie. that was you. uh-huh. and he said he considered killing me. that was devastating. reporter: you were that close to getting killed. getting killed. uh-huh. yeah. reporter: the detectives still had to figure out how to use c-styles off the record confession to make an on the record case against derek. in the meantime, sisters
this to my family. he did this to crystie. he did this to momo. he did this to my mom and michelle, to javonte, to all of us, and and he got away with it. and he got away with it. reporter: even detective robbie williams saw derek one day at the airport. my wife and i were on our way to a vacation. and i look up and i see derek walk right past us. reporter: williams had never forgotten crystal taylor. he d had taken her case file with him as he moved up the promotional ladder from detective to lieutenant. he d always shared the family s suspicions that derek was somehow behind crystal s murder. but he also knew he didn t have enough evidence to arrest him. i whispered to my wife, that s the guy. that s the guy who had crystal taylor killed. that s got to be like a knife in you. i mean, if that s what you think, if you think that s the guy who had crystal taylor killed, well here he is, out free, breathing the same air you are. maybe going on vacation just like you are
she wasn t leaving her room. like, she was just focused on her. if she can get next to my mom, she s gonna be on her like glue. reporter: and that worked. your mom kind of rallied. oh, yeah. reporter: after two weeks, the family drove back to los angeles, arriving in the middle of the night on september 23rd. two days later, this family learned a difficult truth. no matter how much you love, and how much you care, sometimes you can t help your loved one when harm is headed their way. 911. yes. i d like to report a gunshot. there s a woman. she s shot. she s laying in the floor in the garage. reporter: soon after, a neighbor of crystie s called tia with some brutal news. they just said that she was shot. i remember saying, who would shoot crystie? coming up she screamed the most harrowing scream. a family in anguish. i broke down crying. i just cried myself to sleep that night. and the first clues to the
in improbable ways and end up happy. right. reporter: is what she wanted? yes. i know she wanted love. i know that she she wanted a fairytale life. i know she always talked about it, but, you know, she was happy with the life that she had. reporter: the life she had, working, being with family, and raising a son who was born the very day she turned 17. i went in and she was singing it never rains in southern california in labor, like shaking the bed. reporter: crystal called her little boy javonte, against the wishes of the boy s father. he came in the room when we were in there, and he was like, i want his name to be junior. she just like in labor stop labor, no. she said, well, oh, no. because i m not marrying him. and if i get married to somebody else i don t wanna have two juniors, like no. reporter: so she already made the decision that she was having the baby, but she was not gonna be his wife? and she was not gonna be his wife. but that was crystie.
important things, like javonte s education. she always talked about, you know, his prom, or when he goes to college, or what she wanted him to do with his life and and, you know, how she wanted him to be different. so she took her job as a mother really seriously. reporter: by 2001 michelle and crystie and their kids were living in separate apartments in the the same apartment building in hawthorne. even momo lived there until her health began to fail and she moved to texas where her sister-in-law, a nurse, could take care of her. but soon came word, momo s in bad shape. come quick. that day was easy to remember. it was september 11, 2001. they couldn t fly. no one in the u.s. could. so they drove from hawthorne to texas. crystie wouldn t leave momo s side the entire time they were there. crystie s like, i m sorry, but i came here for just to see mom.