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He was just known to be one of the big movers and shakers in the real estate industry in the yakima valley. reporter: the detective had been called to the house where vern was found that saturday night. he d heard from the responding officer, the one who wore this body camera and captured these scenes from the moment he arrived just before 8 p.m. that a colleague had gone looking for vern when vern s wife had become worried that he didn t return from the showing. the colleague had found him here, lying in a pool of blood at this rural home near the small town of cowichie. the last people talked to vern around 11:15 and so we could surmise that he had likely been attacked sometime around noon. so he d been lying there, for what? maybe 7 or 8 hours? yes. not a whole lot of evidence to go on at the beginning? no. reporter: vern s truck, still parked outside offered little. ....
Jill took part in the plot, came from her own lips. if you believe the former family members who pointed fingers at her. enter, once again, chad, jill s ex-husband. he said that six weeks before the attack, jill said something strange when discussing supervised visits with their 3 children. she told me that, um, vern may not be around that much longer to be supervising visits . and i said, well why would you think that? and she told me then that, well y know he makes a lotta enemies. and he s gonna end up making the wrong kind of enemies. reporter: all of this eventually landed jill in the sheriff s office herself. is it okay if we talk about this? uh well, i would rather have a lawyer. i understand. just because it s such a delicate situation i need a professional. i m not trying to not, you know, cooperate. i don t take that personally. i do understand that, but i do need you to know you are under arrest for attempted murder. relief? satisfaction? satisfaction. ....
Do have the option of refiling at some in the future. but at this point, jill has never convicted of any crime in connection to vern s death. if it wasn t for jill putting it all together, helping daniel put the pieces together, this may not have happened. i think that s, uh, criminal. it s y know, shouldn t have happened. she, in my opinion, definitely got away with murder. and when you walk out of this interview, she might be standing on the street. yeah. y know never know. it crosses my mind. reporter: we wanted to talk to jill taylor. and it turned out, she wanted to talk with us to tell us a story of betrayal. but in her telling, she s the one who was betrayed. when we sat down with jill, she d been out of jail for about three months, claiming she was ....
he helps anybody out. reporter: mother to three of vern s grandchildren. his former daughter-in-law. jill taylor. what would her motivation be for, sort of, taking part in that plot? i suppose the only connection would be her relationship with daniel. and what s good for daniel is good for jill? i would think so. reporter: and, the detective found, that jill taylor was also the common link between daniel blizzard and another of the alleged participants in the plot, adriana mendez. what did adriana mendez and jill taylor have in common? methamphetamine. they met through a common friend at a party using drugs. reporter: detectives say, that friendship forged in meth became so close that jill invited adriana and her 3 kids to move in with her. and it was at jill s apartment where daniel met adriana and luis. adriana wouldn t know daniel without jill. ....
There s probable cause to think that you are an accomplice and that s why you re under arrest. within hours, detectives had adriana s boyfriend in custody as well. through an interpreter, luis gomez-monges too initially told a story about adriana contacting vern to sell a mobile home. that s bull you re you re telling me lies. and adriana started off tellin me the same lies. she said that you hit the guy from behind when he wasn t even looking. no. i don t think that your story is gonna hold up. you are under arrest for the attempted murder of vernon holbrook. reporter: detectives were convinced they had the two people who d attacked vern that saturday in may. but they also knew, or thought they knew, there was a lot more to the story. these suspects certainly weren t trained hired assassins. they were so clumsy they d even used their own phone. ....