Texas realtor murder case. Arson and fratricide trial in New Jersey. Plus, Martha Moxley podcast.

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0:46With over 132 ,000 students joining in, both on campus and online, GCU is proving that education can be affordable and exceptional. GCU is purpose-driven education. Find your purpose today at gcu.edu. Good morning. It's the start of another workday for the Dateline team. Busy week at Dateline. So let's go ahead and jump in. Our producers are swapping tips and story ideas. You see first responders trying to revive her. It was quite a scene in the court. Was there a cause of death? Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's January 22nd, and here's what's on our docket. In central New Jersey, it's week two in the trial of a businessman accused of murdering four of his relatives, including his own brother.

1:33The prosecutor played audio of the brothers arguing just hours before the murders. I need it. I need it. Give me the f***ing call. In Dateline Roundup, the prosecution rests in the murder trial of former IRS agent Brendan Banfield. And new details in the arrest of Luigi Mangione will play you the 911 call. Is this individual still there? Yes, he's still in the back of our lobby by the bathroom. Plus, the reporting team behind an all-new podcast series on the murder of Connecticut teenager Martha Moxley. They tell us about their exclusive interviews with Michael Skakel, the Kennedy cousin whose conviction for the murder was tossed out after he spent 11 years in prison.

2:18I had no idea when Martha was killed. I had no idea what happened. I was a good fall guy. But before all that, we're off to a wealthy suburb of San Antonio, Texas, for the latest in the case of murdered mom and realtor Suzanne Simpson.

2:36On October 7th, 2024, Texas realtor Suzanne Simpson did not show up to school to pick up her young daughter. A few hours later, her friend called the police to report her missing. Clear alert has been activated for a missing mom out of Olmos Park. If you see her, you're asked to call police right away or 911. Tips began pouring in, including one from a neighbor who told law enforcement he'd seen Suzanne and her husband Brad arguing the night before she disappeared. And that he heard screams coming from the woods near the couple's home. Two days after Suzanne went missing, Brad Simpson was arrested on family violence charges.

3:15A few weeks later, even though her body has never been found, Brad was charged with murder. This obviously is not the development that Suzanne's loved ones and community wanted to hear. And Brad wasn't the only man arrested in connection with the alleged crime. His colleague, a man by the name of James Cotter, was charged with helping him hide a weapon. Neither of the men has entered a plea. Brad Simpson appeared in court this week, and my next guest, Jordan Elder from our affiliate WOAI San Antonio, was there. She joins us now to tell us what she's learned about the case. Welcome to the podcast, Jordan.

3:51Thank you for having me. So what can you tell us about Suzanne and Brad Simpson and their story, their relationship? Brad and Suzanne were very well-known in San Antonio. She was a very well-known realtor. And Brad had a couple different business ventures going on, but they had four children, the youngest of which, who was about five at the time. Yeah. And she so she's 51 and she has, you know, these four children between the ages of five and 20, something I know well. I'm between six and 16 and I'm, you know, 53 years old. So, you know, sort of hits close to home when you when you look at those details.

4:28Take us back to October 6th. That's the day before Suzanne missed school pickup. This is when the neighbor told police he saw the couple fighting. What were Brad and Suzanne doing that night? And what does the neighbor say that he saw? So before any of this happened, we know that Brad and Suzanne were at this very exclusive club in Alamo Heights called the Argyle Club, and they were seen arguing inside that club. And then they left. After they got home, that's when the neighbor reported not only hearing Suzanne yelling, but watching Brad put his hands on her. She was kind of resisting him. and he apparently saw Suzanne walk toward the woods.

5:12He was hearing yelling. He reported that at some point that night, he knew that Brad's truck left and then came back, but he didn't see Suzanne again. So Jordan, over those first few weeks, investigators conducted extensive searches in that wooded area near the Simpsons' home. They also searched a local landfill, but never found her body. What evidence do they say they have that a murder even took place? How did they know Suzanne didn't just up and leave? In the indictment documents, it talks about this motorized saw that people use in construction. They found DNA on that motorized saw, and when they ran it, it ended up being Suzanne's.

5:54And they kind of used that to show the grand jury and to show the judge, we don't believe that she is alive because of this. This saw, was it from the home owned by Brad? They haven't specified, but that's kind of the implication is that it belonged to him. Also, investigators say Brad bought cleaning supplies in the days after the fight. Cleaning supplies, concrete, surveillance video showed, trash bags in the back of his car, and there was a large object under a tarp with some things over it, holding it in place. And from the way investigators talk about it, that is not typically in his truck.

6:39Okay, so there were also some technical things. Suzanne hasn't used her phone or credit cards. Then there's the classic, you know, she's a mom before she would never leave her kids behind. That's been a big detail in this case, too. Suzanne was always the one to take their youngest daughter to school, always the one to pick her up. So the day after Susanna's last scene, the fact that it was Brad on surveillance video dropping their child off at school raised a lot of red flags. And in the arrest affidavit, we know that their child went to school and mentioned to her teachers, I saw my dad hitting my mom.

7:17So that was kind of their first clue that maybe something worse had happened. We mentioned a name off the top, James Cotter. He's the second man charged in connection with the disappearance of Suzanne. What do prosecutors say his role was in all of this? They believe that James Cotter, who goes by Val, helped Brad hide evidence. They identified some text messages between Brad Simpson and Val Cotter saying things like, make sure and leave all of that stuff in the pump house, especially the gun. So that was the red flag for investigators talking about potentially hiding a gun. So they went and did a search of Cotter's house.

7:57They did end up finding an illegally modified weapon, and it was hidden behind a false wall somewhere where it was clear that he didn't want people to find it. When they were able to finally find that weapon, they did confirm that it was Brad's gun. Prosecutors allege that all the evidence we just talked about proves that Brad murdered Suzanne and then disposed of the body. How is the defense planning to defend him? We got a glimpse into that strategy in court this week. The defense did a really, really long filing, and they talk about how the Olmos Park Police Chief, which is the agency that was originally handling this investigation, at one point in time let the mayor of the city review all of the evidence.

8:43So they're saying This is something that was supposed to be secure. We need to do an audit of this evidence because what if it has been tampered with? What if it's been changed? And they also said in this filing that some of the key investigators involved in this case had not disclosed some of their past infractions. So the strategy that we kind of see emerging right now is, is this evidence still pristine and are the people presenting it going to be able to do so correctly? Jordan, you mentioned Brad was in court. It was Tuesday. He was in court for a pretrial hearing. Did he say anything? Did he do anything?

9:23Especially in Bexar County, there's always a very stark contrast between the people who are in jail awaiting murder trial and other trials. The people who are waiting for murder trials are always dressed in red. So he came in, he was in his red jumpsuit and was shackled at the wrists and at the ankles. You don't typically see a lot of emotion for him, and it was the same in court this week. The other thing that has stayed really consistent is the people there to support Suzanne. It was two full rows, and they all wear pink and purple bandanas around their neck or pink and purple clothes to signify that they're with her because those were her favorite colors.

10:01His trial, Brad's, was scheduled for February, but that changed during the hearing. They have pushed it back. Essentially, the state said that they keep getting new waves of evidence that they need to go through. So they requested a continuance. The defense wasn't majorly excited about that. I think they really want to get this to trial, but the judge ended up granting it. All right. We will await a trial date. Jordan, thank you so much for this update. We'll come back to you as the trial gets underway. Thank you so much for having me. Coming up, a New Jersey man on trial for allegedly killing four family members.

10:40Prosecutors describe a brother's rift.

11:10We'll see you next time.

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12:20For our next story, we're returning to a New Jersey courtroom and the murder trial of Paul Canaro. He's the businessman charged with the unthinkable. The 2018 murder of his own brother and business partner, Keith, along with Keith's wife and their two small children. Prosecutors say Paul also set their home on fire, and then his own, while his wife and children were inside in an attempt to cover his tracks. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. The prosecution has painted a portrait of a man driven to kill by greed and desperation, whose lavish lifestyle was spiraling out of control.

12:57The star witness, Keith Canero himself. Just hours before his death, Keith's voice was captured on home security video. You can hear him confronting Paul over money he suspected he stole from him. That is Keith demanding the login information for his family's trust and an explanation for where the money went. Instead of giving it to him, prosecutors say Paul killed Keith and his family. Paul's defense team says the alleged motive is absurd, that the money in dispute was small change for the brothers and that prosecutors have the wrong man behind bars. Here to bring us the latest from inside the courtroom is NJ.com reporter Kevin Shea.

13:41Kevin, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. So, Kevin, this is one of the biggest cases in New Jersey in recent years. What has it been like in that courtroom? The courtroom has been a mix of very steady, almost standard kind of testimonies. There have also been several moments of high drama and heartbreak, 9-1-1 calls, body cams, some very dramatic footage and audio in the courtroom. OK, so we talked about opening statements on the show last week. Can you remind our listeners how the prosecution and defense set the stage for jurors in this quite complicated case? Sure. The prosecution painted a picture that Paul was struggling financially in over his head with an expensive lifestyle, learned his business partner, brother Keith, had plans of not only cutting off his salary, but moving on professionally.

14:33Keith then discovered that Paul was stealing from him, specifically from a life insurance trust fund. Now, authorities allege that Paul knew that he would benefit from this life insurance policy only if Keith and his entire family were dead. The defense has floated the theory that the third Canaro brother, Corey Canaro, also would benefit if Keith had died and that Corey was actually in worse financial situation than Paul. So they're definitely throwing some some doubt out there that the authorities not only have the wrong brother, but didn't even investigate Corey. The prosecution talked about the brothers relationship being in trouble, that there was this growing rift.

15:14And to help them make this point, they called on a close friend of Keith's by the name of Ben Paolucci. Yeah, Ben testified about the last time he spoke with Keith. They last were together Saturday before the murders. Ben worked at Amazon and was referring Keith to all sorts of positions at the company. So if Keith was applying to roles at Amazon, it certainly suggests that he had intentions of closing the family business with Paul and leaving him without income. During the testimony, Ben also talked about how he was trying to give Keith some advice. And Kevin, we actually have a clip of Ben talking about that to the prosecutor in court.

15:49Let's take a listen to that. I told Keith he needed to start worrying about himself and his family, stop supporting everybody else. And when you said everybody else, do you recall whether or not you mentioned Paul? It was Paul. Specifically, yeah. Sometime after that, the prosecution called a forensic accounting expert. Detective Deborah Bassender to the stand. And she really spoke to the heart of the state's case against Paul about this financial trouble that she says he was in. That's right. The detective examined Paul's bank statements in the years leading up to the murders and learned that his living expenses totaled more than$700 ,000.

16:28He had lease payments on three Porsches. He had mortgage payments, credit card debt. He also made payments for an Audi and an apartment for another woman. Now, this woman Paul was allegedly supporting was described in prior pretrial testimony as a woman that he was having an affair with. This expert, the detective, also talked about what Paul did to try to make up the difference because at the time of the murders, he was in the negative with his bank accounts. Correct. The main financial crux, as she testified, is that Paul stole money from the Keith Canaro Insurance Trust Fund. And this is the missing money Keith confronted Paul over in the hours before the murders?

17:13Correct. They played two calls that Keith made to Paul. They were not like regular phone calls. They were actually calls that you could hear and see Keith from inside his home. He had a security system, it recorded the calls. And so you can actually see Keith at one point calling Paul and asking for answers, and he demands a password and information from Paul, and it's very dramatic. Paul, I'm telling you, I need it. I need it. I need it. Give me the f***ing login, Paul, so I can see where the money went. Please wake the f*** up, Paul. It is very haunting to hear Keith's voice so close to his death.

17:56How did the defense handle this on cross-examination? Sure. I mean, the defense says it's absurd that Paul would kill Keith and his, Keith's wife and his niece and nephew. He loved those kids. He loved the family. These financial differences, you know, the defense says in no way means that Paul would drive over and kill Keith and wipe out his family. The prosecution called the woman you talked about. Her name is Yiselle Restrepo, and she had a translator with her. Let's take a listen. How did you learn about the fire at Paul Canaro's house? They sent me a very short text letting me know that there was a fire at his house.

18:36Prosecutors characterized this relationship between Yazelle and Paul as a friendship for the jurors, so not as the other woman, which is how they described her in pre-trial hearings. Can you clear that up for us? I'm not really sure where the change came from, but it was Giselle herself who said, under direct questioning, that she was friends with Paul. When she got on the stand, she said she paid her own rent and she generally supported herself. Paul did lease her an Audi, she said, and twice they traveled to her native Columbia. And she said they were friends. And then under cross-examination said, best friends.

19:18Prosecutors went on to ask Giselle if she had any idea that Paul was in debt. Was there ever a point in time in 2018 when Paul talked to you about any financial difficulty that he was having? No, no, God. No, never. So how is she helping the prosecution paint this portrait of a man under financial stress? I'm not totally sure about that. You know, we're very early into this prosecution, clearly, who might take six weeks to fully lay out their case. We'll have to see where they go with this. Thank you so much for bringing this to us. Yeah, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup, the latest in the trial of a man accused of masterminding a double murder so he could run off with a family au pair.

20:10and excerpts from the 911 call in the Luigi Mangione case. Plus, a new podcast series on the murder of Martha Moxley, the Greenwich, Connecticut teen found beaten to death with a golf club 50 years ago.

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22:03Welcome back. Joining me for this week's Roundup is Dateline producer Veronica Mazzaca. Welcome, Veronica. Thanks for having me. Veronica, we're starting off this week in Fairfax County, Virginia, with a trial in a case we've talked a lot about. This is the trial of former IRS agent Brendan Banfield, who prosecutors say murdered two people so he could be with his lover, the family au pair. He has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution's theory involves one of the most elaborate murder plots we've come across, Veronica. just remind us of what that plot entailed. So prosecutors say Brendan wanted out of his marriage with Christine so he could start a life over with the family au pair who looked after their daughter.

22:46She was a young Brazilian woman by the name of Juliana Perez Magalice. And prosecutors say that Brendan and Juliana lured Joe Ryan, who was a complete stranger, to the Banfields' home by posing as Christine on a fetish website and setting up a sexual encounter. When Ryan came to the house for that encounter, the prosecution says that Brendan shot him, stabbed Christine, and then staged the scene to make it look like Ryan had attacked his wife. And he had shot Ryan to try and stop the attack. So, yeah, definitely very complicated. Last week, Veronica, we talked about the bombshell testimony of the au pair, Juliana, Brendan's lover and alleged partner in crime.

23:26She flipped on him before trial and agreed to testify against Brendan in return for reduced charges. She has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection to the death of Joe Ryan, the man they allegedly lured to the house. We were all a bit surprised that the prosecution put Juliana on the stand, the au pair, so quickly on day one of testimony. What else did we see after that from the prosecution? Yeah, so the prosecution's case has been much more technical since then. They've called a series of timeline witnesses to try and corroborate Juliana's story, like the manager of the gun range where she said Brendan took her shooting.

24:05Otherwise, it's been mostly forensic experts testifying about the crime scene. Possibly the idea here is that the jury might wonder about Juliana's credibility, but physical evidence can't be explained away. How did the defense counter these findings? Brendan's attorney tried to paint a picture of a messy investigation, pressing all of the prosecution's expert witnesses on what was tested and what was not and the integrity of the crime scene. The defense strategy here is to create doubt for the jury. OK, so the defense started calling its first witnesses on Wednesday, including police officers and a digital forensics expert.

24:41We'll report back on what they have to say and be on the lookout for closing statements and a verdict. For our next story, Veronica, we're heading to South Georgia, where a verdict has been reached in the Susan Embert trial. This is the case we told you about a few weeks ago involving a woman who was accused of fatally shooting her husband, Jake, and she's accused of staging Jake's death to look like a suicide. Veronica, this has been a long journey for everyone in this case. Yes, this is the third time that Susan Embert has stood trial for the death of her husband. So, Veronica, what did the jury decide?