The girl nextdoor. She was really, really cute, blonde hair. One meant the guy of her dreams, love at first sight, but at Second Glance trouble, pregnant at 16. You wanted to be married. He didnt want to do that. One night an ambush, someone shot on the bedroom floor. Help me. A teenage mom at the center of a murder mystery. Fingers were pointed everywhere at everybody. Who had a motive to kill . Hello and welcome to dateline. When 21yearold ricky cowles and his teenage girl friend Amy Priestmeyer moved in together, her best friends moved in, too. At first it was like an endless sleepover, but then ricky was murdered. The killer bragged about the crime and police made a quick arrest, case closed. Not exactly. Unraveling who was behind the diabolical plot wouldnt be nearly as easy. Heres Keith Morrison with mean girls. Mean girls. An interesting species, teenage girls. Some are sweet. Some are not. Some are not. We call them mean girls and some in particular, as youre about to see, could be very mean indeed. It was 1997 when their story began here in the high desert north of l. A. , lancaster, california. There was sarah chapin, then 18, a cheerleader and local beauty queen. You were a pretty popular kid in high school. I wasnt really popular, about the i was a cheerleader. Which helps. Yes. Amy priestmeyer 16, sporty, an a. P. Student who looked like a girl nextdoor. Amy and i were just two goofballs and we had a lot of fun. Yeah, we partied, but things didnt get as serious until jennifer came in the picture and jennifer and amy became good friends. Jennifer kellogg, 18, a little dangerous, catalyst for mischief or worse. Jennifer was the wild child. She was on the dance team in high school and she always was the bolder one of any of us and she was always there for you if you needed her and especially if you got in trouble. She helped you get in trouble. She was the one your parents warned you about. Yes. Then there was shealynn cowles, 16, perhaps a little less street smart than the others, but drawn in by it all, too, even if some of the others werent that nice. They were fun girls, but they just always had an agenda on their mind of everyone owing them something kind of. Their parents werent going to tell them what to do and they just wanted to just be free. The girls just wanted to have fun, stay up late, meet guys, drink, do drugs. That was the time of freedom they were looking for and which they found in the summer of 97 along with the rest of what happened. 911. Whats your emergency . Help me. Help me. So what did happen . It began just after new years the previous winter. There was this house party. Amys parents went out of town and so amy said, lets just invite some people over, have a good time. Shealynn came along, of course. They were drinking, just kind of acting a little bit outrageous, you know, smoking, drinking, partying. Sarah was there and amy, jennifer, too. They were party girls. A little on the wild side. Yeah. They wanted to be adults before their time. They wanted to grow up. They didnt want anyone telling them what to do. But one of the people at that party actually was an adult or close to it. Shealynns brother ricky came to the party. Ricky was almost 21. He was done with school and he was working full time at his familys electricity business, high voltage lines, dangerous stuff, which paid very well. In fact, ricky was the proud owner of a new bmw and though he still lived at home, he was, if anything, mature for his years which mattered not a bit to the girls of the house party. To them he was tall and good looking and what else mattered besides that . Amy and one of our other friends were kind of fighting over him. They both had a little thing for him. Right away boom, she wanted him . Well, when youre a teenage girl and see a cute guy, of course, everything falls into place. It certainly did. Was he crazy about her to begin with . Yeah. He met her and it was like instantly. They were together from that very first night. It didnt seem to matter to ricky that amy was still in high school, was just a sophomore. They were in love. He took her away on trips, bought her lots of gifts, but when he introduced her to his parents, debbie and rick sr. , they were not quite so bowled over by amy. She just manipulated him. She was really, really cute, really petite, blonde hair. Wrapped him around her little finger. Yup. You saw that happening . Yes. But then we found out how old she was. That changed it a little bit. What were you worried about . At that point we were worried shed get pregnant or something. She was a minor that, you know, if he didnt want to be with her or something, maybe hed go to jail for rape or whatever. Rape, jail, what a place for a mind to go. Looking back, Debbie Cowles says it was just some gut instinct that told her amy was up to something and whatever it was wouldnt be good for her son, ricky. So debbie tried to put a wedge between the two young lovers. Ricky was living in his parents guest house. His mom made a firm rule. Amy could not stay over. She would be out there and try to hide in the closet and stuff like that. Thats when it finally got where you cant live here. We cant have this. What were you trying to do . I thought he would say okay, you know, you are 16 and i dont want to move out because im living here with my parents for nothing in this house of my own. Its a story as old as young love. Rickys parents thought free rent would trump nights with amy. They were wrong. Ricky didnt drop amy. He left home instead, rented an apartment in the sketchy part of town and amy, who had just finished her sophomore year at high school, moved in with him, but will it be happily ever after . No. No, it would not be because now act two, the hard part, was about to begin. The light in the bedroom. Coming up, the bffs move in with amy and ricky and thats when things turn deadly. She turns on a light in the bedroom, stands there for a second and then she looks down and falls against the door screaming. When dateline continues. Sometimes your work shirt needs to be for more than just work. Like when it needs to be a big, soft shoulder to cry on. Which is why downy does more to make clothes softer, fresher, and better. Downy. Breathe life into your laundry. The virus that causes shingles is sleeping. In 99 of people over 50. And it could strike at any time. Think youre not at risk . Wake up. Because shingles could wake up in you. If youre over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention. Were done. What about these . Looks right. Nooo. Nooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. And is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. And is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. Keith morrison it was a love story that spring of 97, blooming here in the california desert. It was spring of 97 blooming here in the california desert, but in lancaster, like everywhere else, the unstoppable desire of young adults can bring out polar opposites in parenting styles. While ricky cowles parents struggled to prevent what looked to them like a big mistake, amys parents, georgia and larry priestmeyer, had a different perspective. I didnt think about it very much because i was 17 when i met larry. How old were you, larry . 24. So there was six years difference. And that worked out. 34 years. So the age difference did not worry them. They liked ricky. He was good to their daughter and amys parents knew they didnt have much say in what amy did anyway. She always pushed. Maybe pushed the envelope. Yes. Always. Of course, rickys mom didnt know that when she called amys mom looking for an ally in her effort to put the brakes on the love affair. I called her mother when i knew ricky was getting an apartment. I said, shes 16. She needs to stay to them with you. What response did you get . She just says, we dont have any plans with her moving in there, and thats how we left it and a couple days later she moved in and it wasnt a week later or so she moved her friends in. Did the parents have any control at all over what she was doing . Oh, no. No. But did you guess this . There was Something Else going on, big news about which rickys parents knew nothing. Amy was pregnant. It was her parents, georgia and larry, who got the news first. I was disappointed, to be honest with you. My kids knew about contraceptives even though they were raised to be abstinent until they were married. You try to raise your kids to do the right thing. Sometimes they dont. Now amy was going to have to grow up fast, pregnant at 16, moving in with her boyfriend. Was she ready for all this . Maybe not. She was always very outgoing and liked having her independence. And girls just want to have fun at that stage. Exactly. Amy invited her two best friends, Wild Jennifer and sarah, the local pageant queen, to move in, too. Neither one of them wanted to be stuck at home under parental watch and pregnant or no, there was fun to be had. They went to parties. Jennifer stirring up trouble as usual brought her druggy friends over to visit, though amy insisted that because she was pregnant she wasnt using. Did she seem at all resentful about the idea that she couldnt do the fun things anymore . Well, a party girl becoming pregnant, its kind of hard because everything stops. Yeah. Especially when youre 16, youre still in high school. Youre not grown up yet. But ricky by then was 21. He had different ideas about moving in together. He wanted amy home when he got back from his long day at work on those high voltage electrical lines. He wanted amy home alone. At some point they began to have some fairly Serious Problems and ricky, for example, complained that these girls had moved in and he didnt want them there. Ricky decided to, you know, that he was done, that he needed them gone. Which pleased the friends, jennifer especially, not one bit. Amy wasnt happy either and so a couple months into this romance that started so hot and fast it seemed to be burning out. Theyd been fighting a lot. She had thought about ending the relationship, but she was afraid that rickys parents might take the child once it was born. There was a point where one night she just broke down and cried and said, i dont know what to do. I dont know if i should leave him. I dont know what to do. It was about then when ricky finally told his mom about his and amys predicament. He goes, i have to talk to you and dad. When he said, me and dad, im like what about . I want you to sit down and talk to you. He was really serious about some really bad thing and he tells me, well amys pregnant. And i said no, no. He goes yeah. Exactly what she worried about and ricky was talking about breaking up with amy. He says, i want to take care of the baby. I said, you will. Thats your responsibility. He said, i need a way to tell amy we cant be what she wants us to be. I need a way to tell her. She wanted to be married. He didnt want to do that. Now he had this big problem, just the problem you were worried about all along. And then turmoil. Ricky and amy argued. He told her she needed to leave, go back home to her parents. And then after she spent a weekend apart thinking it over, something changed. He said, you know, im so excited for our life now and ive just thought about everything and everythings just going to be fine. Were going to make it work. Ricky was happy. Ricky really was looking forward to being a daddy. Because a lot of guys 20 or 21 years old who just met a girl and got her pregnant right away would not be reacting that way. No. But ricky was a little different from everybody. He seemed more grown up. By then amy had had a change of heart, too. She said, im going to make this work. Its worth making work. I want my daughter to grow up with her daddy here. Which brings us to august 12th , 1997. Ricky left for work early. Amy left a note promising to be back by 9 00 to spend time alone with him. Then that afternoon she called him as he worked out in the hot desert just to confirm their plans and later when his dad and he went to the county fair to set up lights, the calls from amy kept coming. When are you coming home, she asked him. Of course, she had been out all day with friends. Around 10 00 p. M. Sarah in tow she headed home to see if ricky had arrived. She goes pounding up the stairs, gets up to the top of the stairs. Im looking at her. She turns on the light in the bedroom, stands there a second and she looks down and falls against the door screaming. Someone was lying on the floor still alive, a twisted, bloody mess. It was ricky. Comingup. Help me. How was amy . Panicked. The new father to be helpless on the floor, what had happened when dateline continues. To severe eczema, its okay to show off. With dupixent, show off your clearer skin and less itch. Because you have plenty of reasons to show off your skin. With dupixent, the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, you can stay ahead of your eczema. It helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema to help heal your skin from within. Many adults saw 90 clearer skin. Some even achieved long lasting clearer skin and fast itch relief after first dose. Serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. 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Whats your emergency . Help me. After a night of running around sarah and amy finally went to amys place and found ricky cowles, just 21, lying near death on his and amys bedroom floor. What did it look like there on the floor . He was kind of twisted up on the floor and all i saw was blood and so i said, lets get out of here. What does it do to you to see Something Like that . Scares the crap out of me. 911. Whats your emergency . Help me. She was such a mess. She was hysterical. Hes like bleeding everywhere. Maam, i cant hear what youre saying. I grabbed the phone from her and im like hello and shes like this is 911. So i start freaking out. Whats going on . Can you tell me whats happening . We just got back into the apartment and weve been calling all night long and we havent been able to get ahold of her boyfriend and we walked upstairs and hes lying on the ground. Hes all bleeding. Hes bleeding . Hes not moving or anything. We just turned on the light and came downstairs and called you. Hold on. Im transferring paramedics, okay . By now jennifer and another friend were there, too. Jennifer starts screaming to me ricky, i want to see ricky. I want to see ricky. No. Get downstairs now. Amy, you dont need to see this, honey. I cant even stand to look at it. Get downstairs. Hows he doing now . Hes twitching, convulsing all over. It looks like something went through his head. Paramedics and Law Enforcement showed up. What happened then was hard to watch, intense, as sarahs video camera recorded a man struggling to survive. Could he tell them what happened . When they came in the house, next thing you know theyre shoving all of us into the kitchen and they carry him downstairs on his bed sheet and worked on him in The Living Room. Did you shoot yourself . No. Who did it . My neck hurts. Who did it . My neck. His neck hurts. Who shot you in the head . Did you do it . As police tried desperately to get information from him, ricky became too weak to respond. How was amy at this stage . Just panicked. Beside herself. Yes. And sarah called rickys parents. Come quick. Something had happened. By the time we got there there was so many people. I was screaming ricky, ricky. I knew hed been shot, but we had no idea where or anything. Or how bad it was. Or anything until they brought him downstairs. I knew. I knew. I thought oh, no, no, no. Its like your whole life is disintegrating right under your hand. It did. Then the paramedics brought ricky to a waiting helicopter. Rick sr. Rode to the hospital with his son. He was comprehending what we were talking about a little bit, but he was hurting pretty hard. I tried to tell him well be okay. Well get to the doctors, try to fix this. And they did try. As the doctors worked on ricky, his family gathered. Amy was there, too, of course, but whoever attacked him had done so much damage to his head, to his brain by august 14th, two days in intensive care, it was clear there was no fixing ricky. He was comatose now. Only the machines kept him alive. His family went to his bedside to say their goodbyes. Amy was beside herself, hardly made sense. And she said why did you have to go ahead and die . You were supposed to buy me a car for my birthday. Youre supposed to buy me a car. Im thinking did i just hear that . In my mind i couldnt even fathom. Odd, of course, but the cowles were far too distraught to try to comprehend what was going on in the mind of amy, 16 and pregnant. It was soon after that ricky died. His heart, kidneys, and liver were donated to people in need. Amy moved back in with her parents to get ready to have rickys baby and debbie and rick sr. Vowed to find out who did this and thats when a long journey began, long and as youll see, very strange. Coming up, on the trail of a killer. He actually told people, he said, you saw those helicopters that were over there . He goes, that was me. He said, i did that. When dateline continues. this is a hot flash. but this is a not flash. for moderate to severe Vasomotor Symptoms due to menopause. Veozah is the first and only Prescription Treatment that directly blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. With 100 hormone free veozah. You can have fewer hot flashes and more not flashes. Veozah reduces the number and severity of hot flashes day and night. For some women, it can start working in as early as one week. Dont use veozah if you have cirrhosis, severe kidney problems, kidney failure, or take cyp1a2 inhibitors. Increased liver blood test values may occur. Your doctor will check them before and during treatment. Most common side effects include stomach pain, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, and back pain. ask your doctor about hormone free veozah. And enjoy more not flashes. 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