Puppet Master

0:04Last night I was going through looking at pictures and stuff and I relived the whole life all over again. I could look at those pictures and tell you exactly what we were doing and what a happy little girl she was. I always had a smile on her face.

0:28She liked to work out. Part of her was having the nice body. When she was younger, she modeled a lot.

0:40My name is Tracy Havlicek. I'm Sandra Razo's sister. Her heart was bigger than the earth, always wanting to help somebody any way she ever could. I still think she's going to call. When the phone rings, I always hope it's her saying, oh, ha-ha, I'm here.

1:02It was a hot, humid 4th of July weekend.

1:08This is the Park Place condominiums where the homicide occurred. Right there in that garage. I am Paul Andrews, Pinal's Park Place Department.

1:22Sandra drives into her complex in her black BMW and pulls into the garage. There's a smack on the window that scares her. She turns and sees the shooter. Muzzle flash, shards of glass flying everywhere. The shooter then proceeds to shoot eight rounds into the car, and ultimately into our victim. It was an ambush murder. Somebody wanted her dead. This wasn't a random act. Who does she know? Who could possibly want this done? I said, I know who did this. Pretty quickly, Tracy Humphrey's name came up as someone who would definitely have an interest in having her dead. There was just something about him from the minute that I even looked at him.

2:01That was very, very creepy. He threatened to kill her and all of the family.

2:10My name's Timothy Lee Humphrey. Everybody calls me Tracy. I'm charged with first-degree homicide. The minute I found out that that girl was dead, to me, in my heart, I felt like he did it. I knew that he had to have been involved. She was so fun and she was so beautiful. He repeatedly told her he was going to kill her. I am being charged for a crime that I did not commit. Who else would do this? The evidence led us in a way we did not expect. That was the shock of the century. He had an alibi. We know exactly where he was. There's no way he shot her.

3:03Sandy Rosso will always be remembered as a vivacious young woman devoted to her big dreams and gorgeous body. She's been doing modeling off and on since she was in high school. Sandy's mom. She was into weightlifting, always caring about her body. And her younger sister, Tracy. If she could help anybody in any way, that's how she wanted people to remember her and be proud of her. She wanted to get into some movie starring. She had the body. She had the face. She was perfect.

3:44Sandy spent her days looking for her next big modeling gig. By night, she tended bar at some of the hottest clubs in Tampa. She was just absolutely beautiful. Just very vibrant, very full of life. Heather Ursini worked with Sandy. It was fun. Sandy was beautiful, so a lot of men would flaunt to her because of how beautiful she was. She was divorced with a teenage daughter, Giovanna. But her ex-husband had custody. Her daughter was her life. She hated the fact that Giovanna wasn't with her all the time. At 37 years old, Sandy had never given up on finding someone special to share her life with.

4:25She was just doing what most single girls do, trying to find Mr. Right. Mitch Eubanks, Sandy's friend and hairstylist, was her confidant. We would always talk about, you know, guys. I'd give her my guy advice. You know, I think she always just wanted that kind of like storybook thing and like, you know, the little picket fence and the house and the kids and everything.

4:50And then one day, into Sandy Razzo's life, walked Mr. Wright, Tracy Humphrey, a six-foot-two, buffed-out muscle man who told everyone that he was a former underwear model and pro football player. I played some semi-pro football. I did model for the in-house photographer for Armani. I did a couple of shows. I kind of describe him as Mr. Clean with a goatee, which is what he kind of looked like.

5:20Kelly Terrell met Tracy at a gym. He had a reputation as a top personal trainer, popular with his clients, especially his female clients. He was very gentle and he was really good at what he did. A lot of girls thought he was really, really good looking.

5:45Sandy and Tracy met at a nightclub where they both worked. She at the bar, he at the door. Men definitely were intimidated by him. Women all over him. Tracy, of course, if he saw a pretty woman walk in, he'd open that rope and there she goes. Tracy's close friend, Hector Adorno. Nice, charming, masculine, everything that every woman would want in a man. and knew exactly how to look at a woman and say, God, you're beautiful. He definitely had charisma and knew how to play the field. Sexy? Oh, yeah. Charismatic? Yes. He told me that he was supposed to be Vin Diesel's stunt double or something in some movie.

6:28Vin Diesel's stunt double? Yeah. And he constantly bragged about who he was, what he's done in his lifetime. And that, to a lot of people, was interesting. Model in Italy for a while. Underwear model, wasn't it? Yeah, underwear model. And was Tom Cruise's bodyguard for a while. But Tracy says Sandy knew nothing about his colorful resume. But actually, he was attracted to her beauty. She caught my attention right away. She was so much fun to be around, not like most people. She was a great lady. How long did you date? Just like three or four months. But it was a real intense experience. His relationship with Sandy, from what I understand, was very physical as far as the bedroom is concerned.

7:25Sex? Yes, sex. He said that she liked violent sex, that she liked rough sex. At first, their relationship was passionate, says Tracy. But soon, they began arguing. Tracy says the trouble all started one wild night here in Tampa's party district, Ybor City. Allegedly, he and Sandy got caught by the cops, fooling around in his boss's Mercedes. Tampa police caught us in the SUV, and I was laughing. I thought it was funny. but they saw her naked and that made her mad. That embarrassing incident led to another big argument. Sandy and Tracy went home with other dates that night. Over the next week, I paraded around a couple other girls that I hooked up with in front of her and made her pretty mad.

8:25The relationship spiraled downhill from there. She started being cruel, making fun of me, ridiculing me. Just more game playing. Exactly. I said that I thought we needed to take a break and really look at this and maybe spend some time apart. But unwilling to give up a good thing, a couple of days later, Tracy went home with Sandy again. We went back to her apartment. We did what we did most of the time. We had sex.

8:56She liked to be roughed up. during sex.

9:02So we had what was normal between us. But a bruised and battered Sandy told friends and family a different story. Apparently they started drinking. He got angry. They got into an altercation of some sort. He tried to physically force himself on her. He hit her. She had black eyes. Sandy also told Heather that Tracy had raped her and threatened to kill her and her daughter. She wasn't really sure what to do because she was so distraught over the situation. But because Sandy was so afraid, she waited a week before going to the police to file charges. Were you surprised then when you were arrested?

9:42Absolutely. Did you have any idea it was coming? No. Tracy insists he did nothing wrong. She threw a pillow at me and I swung it at her. It hit her in the side of the eye, and it knocked her contact out. She fell face down on the bed.

10:03Was there any question in your mind that she had been raped and attacked, beaten? Oh, no. No. He beat her. He squeezed her head between his legs while he was straddling her and, you know, punching her face several times. He did beat her up. She did have a black eye. Detective Scott Gozewski. There was also allegations of sexual battery.

10:32But there was no DNA or medical evidence, because Sandy had waited too long to report Tracy to police. Instead, he was charged with assault, which carried a 10-year prison sentence, a prospect that utterly terrified him. Tracy told me that before he went to jail, he'd commit suicide. And that, police say, is when someone hatched a diabolical plan to make Tracy Humphrey's problems disappear. I don't think she suspected that anybody was watching her then. A plot that would involve seduction, manipulation, and murder.

11:34If Tracy Humphrey was worried about his upcoming assault trial, he certainly wasn't showing it. He was a player. He had a different girl. It seemed like every month he was dating somebody new. He wanted to go out and sleep with other women. And he was attracted to this sort of sexier, outgoing... Absolutely. He wanted them to look like that, sexy, and always, you know, in high fashion.

12:15But in autumn of 2002, Tracy had his eye on a different kind of girl, a girl just out of high school. Ashley was a little scared girl. She was not a sexy girl. She was not pretentious, stuck up. Ashley Laney was just 19. She was very fit, very bubbly, very vibrant, little ditzy. She was very cute. She was just so boy crazy and she wanted someone to love her so bad. Charlie Williams is one of Ashley's best friends. I liked Ashley the first time I met her. We had a lot in common. We used to go rollerblading together and we had the same taste in music. The girls worked together at a frozen yogurt shop across the street from the gym where Tracy Humphrey was head trainer.

13:06So I came in and I met her and I was kind of taken with her right away. She has that girl next door kind of a thing going. She was nice. She was fun. She was eager. She was very eager. Ashley wasn't a bartender. Ashley wasn't a, you know, topless dancer. Flip-flops, jeans and a regular t-shirt. As far as fashion, very simple girl. She was a bright girl, A's and B's in high school. But at home, Ashley led a troubled life. Her mom was horrible, and her family was terrible. Her dad spent pretty much his whole life in prison. And Ashley's friends say that background left her insecure, vulnerable. She aggressively looked for love.

13:53And that played right into Tracy's hands. Tracy's really good about making sure he feeds your insecurities by making you feel better about them. If they felt ugly, he'd make them feel beautiful. In no time, Ashley and Tracy had moved in together. She was a blast. She'd do anything that she thought would make me happy. And that's how our relationship grew. We got to be really good friends. I always got a bad vibe off of him. Ashley's best friend Charlie thought Tracy was a bad influence. I knew something was wrong because she wasn't normal Ashley, but he definitely took over her life. You could just tell that Ashley, there's something wrong with her.

14:37Like she went into like almost a zombie. Soon, Ashley was shedding her old friends. Taking on a new job with Tracy at the gym. And eventually, the couple started their own personal training business. Did you fall in love with her? Oh, yeah. But Charlie says Tracy was cheating on Ashley. I just knew there was something not right. I always started hearing, you know, about all the different girls he was with. And did the two of you talk about that? Yeah, but when you think you're in love, you're not going to listen to what anybody else has to say. In fact, more and more, the only person Ashley listened to was Tracy.

15:16By springtime, he confessed that he was potentially facing serious time in prison. because of what he claimed was a bogus assault case involving his ex-girlfriend, Sandy Razo. How did she feel about the case? I think she found a way to hate Sandy. Because Sandra was the one making the accusations? Right. Essentially, she would lose everything if she lost me. I told you she had a bad life. She struggled. And now we were starting a business together. She was an equal partner. If she lost me, she lost all that. she goes back to mom and the trailer park life. Then, just a month before Tracy's trial in the Sandy Rosso assault case, the couple surprised everyone and got married.

16:05I thought it was the craziest thing I had ever heard Tracy do. And whose idea was it to get married? That was mine. How did you propose? We had this running joke that as soon as I bought her boobs, that we'd get married. That's an interesting gift. You know, ring or, you know. Or boobs, yeah. Yeah, there you go. Tracy and Ashley got married at the gym. No minister, no rings. Just a marriage license and some unusual wedding gifts. They got tattoos of each other's names in large letters on their back.

16:49There would be no romantic honeymoon to make up for the less than romantic impromptu wedding at the gym. A day after Tracy got married, the woman who had accused him of rape was murdered. Sandy Rosa was shot eight times at point-blank range while she sat defenseless in her car. I was overwrought. I shared time with Sandy. You know, I loved her.

17:23There was a significant amount of glass. Lead investigator Paul Andrews. Absolutely had a tremendous amount of blood.

17:34And multiple shell casings that she could see on the floor of the garage and just outside the garage.

17:42somebody had it out for her this wasn't a random act

17:51with sandy's death the assault charges against tracy were dropped but his troubles were far from over he was now the prime suspect in her murder he threatened from day one that if my My daughter reported him, or turned him in, that he would kill her and all of her family.

18:38Almost from the start, police were convinced that Tracy Humphrey was behind the murder of Sandy Rosso. The trouble was, at the time of the murder, he was at home eating pizza. We spoke to the pizza delivery man, we described Tracy Humphrey to him, and he remembered going there. Shortly after the murder, Detective Scott Golzuski went to the gym where Tracy worked. When Tracy refused to speak with him, Golzuski decided to stop by Tracy's apartment and talk with his new wife, Ashley. She was very nervous, very scared. She almost threw up twice when I was interviewing her. However, it wasn't long before Tracy showed up.

19:30And the interview ended. What did you think when you walked out of that apartment? I said, she's definitely involved. She definitely knows something. The trail to finding out just what Ashley knew began when Golzuski and his partner, Paul Andrews, got a tip from the fire department, who had heard about the case. May 31st, her car was found on fire in Tampa. The fire department told the homicide detectives they had found Ashley's car in flames a month before the murder. Ashley had reported it stolen. Investigators suspected arson and turned over a background check they'd run on her to Andrews and Golzuski, who noticed some unusual purchases.

20:15She had purchased a couple of computer software programs that would enable her to look for somebody. One of them actually was a search that she paid for on her credit card for Sandra Raza. Trying to track down where she lived? Yes. And any sort of background information she could get on her? Yes. Another break came when they spoke with the cosigner of Ashley's car loan, David Abernathy, her mother's boyfriend. As we were leaving, I just asked him if he has any firearms, and he said he used to. Abernathy told them he no longer had a gun because he had loaned it to Ashley. It was explosive evidence.

20:54The shell casings from Abernathy's gun, a Ruger.22 caliber, matched the type found in Sandy's garage. It did open up the investigation to, we're looking at Ashley a lot harder. Ashley's cell phone records on the day of Sandy's murder sealed their case. The cell phone records were very damning. Cell phone towers picked up Ashley's calls in Sandy's neighborhood at the exact time of the murder. Now with a mountain of evidence against her, police arrested Ashley for the murder of Sandy Razo. Do you understand what you're being arrested for? Um, it's the murder of a woman, so I don't know. I told him in the interview, there's no more going to the malls, there's no more going to the gym working out.

21:49This is it for you. You'll have to enter to the charge of murdering the first to bring. Get my turn. What do you mean get him? You mean bring him here. Her tough talk didn't last long. After three weeks behind bars, Ashley cracked. She confessed to gunning down Sandy Rosso. telling police she did it because she was afraid of losing Tracy. She shot Sandra because, quote, she's telling lies that are going to put him in prison. It turned out that Sandy's murder was the culmination of a plan far more elaborate than anyone had imagined. The day that Sandra was killed, that was not the first attempt in her life.

22:37No. Detectives learned that weeks before Ashley borrowed the Ruger 22 from her mother's boyfriend, she had snuck into their home and stolen a rifle. Going hot. She stole a Chinese SKS assault rifle, almost identical to this one. A little girl or anybody can take a weapon like this and shoot fairly accurately with it, even as a novice shooter. And with that rifle, Ashley began stalking Sandy Rosso, donning elaborate disguises. She painted her face up to look dark-skinned and had baggy clothes on and shoes too big for her feet. Then, one month before the murder, Ashley drove her blue VW Beetle to a parking lot outside the bar where Sandy worked.