We had received information that somebody had used the bank
card for Heather Strong
at a nearby Public supermarket.
We're reviewing the video and that's when I see a man
come up and he comes up and he uses the card
and, obviously, I can see from the printout of the ATM that he
uses Heather's card and I can see it's a man and right then
I just had a sinking feeling that something might not be right.
I noticed that the person looked to be part of a lawn
maintenance crew that worked there
so my first step was to identify what company that was.
Sgt Spivey told me that Josh Fulgham worked for that lawn
company and Josh Fulgham is Heather Strong's estranged husband.
I know for a fact...
..that you used her card.
OK?
You used her credit card and you got money off of it. Which one?
OK? Her work card.
You got money off of it.
I didn't get no money off of it. Yes, you did. I'm trying to think.
Got you on video. Where I at, though? From the ATM machine.
Getting money off that card. Where I at, though, is what I'm saying?
Don't worry about where at. You know if you did or not. No, I'm trying... You know if you did or not, Josh.
I smoke pot. I don't want to hear that pot bullshit. All right?
That's bullshit. No, it's really, it's not.
Yes, it is. I'm trying to remember. You don't lie to me.
OK? No, I... You don't lie to me.
Oh, my God. And that ain't good, Josh. That ain't good.
Cos I asked you, specifically, several times about that card.
Yes, sir, but you know what? I did get money off that card. You're right, you're right.
So when Josh lied to us about that credit card, knowing that he
could have had a legitimate reason to have that card,
it caused us concern
and it caused us to be suspicious of everything else he said past that.
This is crazy.
This is crazy as hell, right here.
Our suspicions about Emilia, when they were first brought in, was that
if Josh was responsible for this,
Emilia either probably knew something or might know something
and she might be the one who gives us the information
that leads us to the truth.
He wants her. She don't want him.
He wants to take the kids but he knows that's how the only way
he can financially support himself is having those kids
because if she takes the kids from him, he got to pay child support.
OK?
No, no, no, no.
No.
He took her cards.
OK?
Well, I mean, if you didn't do anything wrong,
why would you automatically assume you need a lawyer?
They kept her for long, long hours
and over the course of several days,
they would keep her there for six, seven, eight hours
and at two o'clock in the morning, they would say, "Well,
"we're going to take you home now."
And they would take her home
and she would lay down and within 45 minutes to an hour,
law enforcement was just knocking at her door again.
After the fifth time of them,
of the cops doing that to Emilia, I wanted to tell them
to leave her alone cos she was eight months pregnant.
I was feeling very protective of my sister, cos me and Emilia,
that's one thing we've always done. We try to protect each other.
When we first made contact with Josh, he actually took us to his car
and showed us in his trunk that he had stacks and stacks
of paperwork where he was trying to file for divorce from Heather.
He also provided us with this letter showing where
Heather had given him custody of the children.
As an investigator, when we work suicide and death cases,
it's suspicious when you find a typed letter
and there's only a signature at the end, because it's...
Obviously, you're unable to do handwriting analysis.
And the first thing I thought of when I saw this was the same thing.
Why she didn't handwrite a letter?
I don't know, man. I wasn't there. Why she didn't hand... But don't it look better typed out? Exactly,
why didn't she handwrite a letter? But don't it look better typed out? Huh?
Don't it look better when something's typed out instead of handwritten?
No. Actually, it looks better when it's handwritten.
If it's coming from a parent that says, "I'm giving my child to
"Josh. I'm hauling ass out of town.
"I want him to have full custody of this child."
Well, I wish to hell I'd have had her done that, then.
I honestly do.
I wish to hell that's what I'd have had her done.
She did.
No. Heather signed her name.
No.
Yeah.
Man, come on, now.
This shit has now gone too far. Huh?
This is... No, I did not.
You wanted them kids.
You didn't want her to have them.
No, I'm want to be honest with you, man. You didn't want her to have... I'm having...
No, no, no, no, no. You didn't want her. She was sitting up there telling you... She was telling you,
you weren't going to never see them kids. No, she was not. Um-hm. No. No. Um-hm. She wasn't.
DOOR OPENS
Hey. Hey.
Uh-uh.
No.
He had said that she had up and left without them.
It just struck me as odd because
as much as he loves his kids, she loves her kids
and every time she's ever left, she left with the kids, you know?
And I mean, like, he wouldn't really say much, other
than that she was gone, and that he had the kids.
Josh was telling all the other girls that she had just
disappeared, that he hadn't heard or seen
and everybody just knew that that wasn't true,
that she would never leave her children. Heather would never leave her children.
When you call Heather at her job,
OK, there was something not well between you two.
Because Heather... And this is other employees telling us this. OK.
Now, she was visibly shaken and upset.
And that she was so upset that she was saying that, "You know what? I'm tired of Josh.
"Josh ain't going to see his kids no more cos I'm tired of dealing with Josh and his bullshit."
She wanted to take the kids away from you, not give you the kids.
Yeah, Heather and Josh, they argued quite a bit after
so many years went by, you know, they started arguing
and then he got physical with her
and she'd leave him.
She'd come back here.
And then he would call her and beg her back and he would never do it again
and over the years, it just got worse.
A lot of people don't know what she went through,
you know, and she loved her kids and she wanted a career
and because she didn't have the education behind her, she was
so back and forth trying to get away, you know,
and then coming back and every time she would come back,
she'd have to be with him because she couldn't be on her own.
She just didn't have a chance.
And that's what happens with so many women in domestic, abusive
relationships, is that people see what's going on, but rather than
help and get involved, they stay out of it
because it's easier that way. So you have countless women who
go through things like what Heather went through, trying to get away.
In December of that year, they actually got married.
Right after they got married, though, they had a domestic incident
where Josh pointed a shotgun at her so he was arrested
and went to jail for approximately a month.
He kept talking to Heather, trying to get her to help him get out
and to drop the charges.
PHONE RINGS
And eight days after Heather had signed the paper, she went missing.