Transcript of The After Show: One Last Call New

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Hi there, everybody. Welcome to 2020: The After Show. I'm Deborah Roberts, and as always, it's great to have you with us as we take a deeper look at one of our 2020 episodes. And today we're going to look at our latest one called One Last Call. Now, this is a story that is riddled with family betrayal, lies, a secret relationship, a cold-blooded, calculated murder. I mean, it sounds like something out of a TV movie, right? Well, this was real life in Evansville, Indiana. Robert Doerr was a 28-year veteran firefighter in Evansville. He was a father, a grandfather, and many considered him one of the community's bravest first responders. Well, on February 26th, 2019, After getting off work, Robert was gunned down in his driveway. Police body camera footage captured the heartbreaking moments of the family learning of the news of his death.

It's my dad. I need to get down there. I understand you're not going through this crime scene. Okay, well then get my mother down here. Her name is Elizabeth Doar. Where's my mom?

Follow me.

Okay, let's go.

Is he alive?

No, he's not.

Oh my God.

Is that the daughter?

It was a lot that we revealed in the 2020 episode that just sort of grabbed us, of course, by the heart. Well, understandably, his family and his community were shocked, devastated, desperate to find out who would want to do this to a man who was so highly regarded. Well, turns out we wound up speaking to the person in an in-person prison interview, parts of which you saw on Friday night and some that you didn't see, which we will reveal. Oftentimes we give you clips here that you haven't had a chance to see, and we'll do that today on this podcast. But first to get us up to speed is 2020 editorial producer Mike Repplier. Hello, Mike.

Hi, Deborah.

Mike, you and I, first of all, this is the first time you've done the podcast. So welcome here. You and I have worked on so many stories together and you're one of our star bookers. And when you think about this community and how shocked they were, and you've got a veteran firefighter, a first responder, people were really shocked. So when you started digging into this story, and of course we'll talk about the murder and how that all unfolded, but talk to me a little bit about the family and the community and when you arrived there and what you sort of learned from them. This had already happened a little time before that, but what did you learn from the folks when you first got there about Robert Doerr and his death?

I spoke to a lot of people in Evansville. A lot of people who knew Robert, basically everyone in town knew of this guy. He had been a firefighter for 28 years. His father was a firefighter. It was sort of the family business.

They called him Robbie.

Robbie, yes. So Robbie's how everyone refers to him. And Robbie was just like a beloved teddy bear type of guy. And he loved the job.

A true hero.

Yeah, a real hero. He famously rescued a baby from a burning building. And a photo of him carrying the child away from the building made the local papers.

That classic photo, right?

Yeah. We have that in the show. And he just lived for the job. He lived to help other people. He just loved doing good and putting good into his community. And he didn't get rich off of this job. He had to take a second job in addition to being a firefighter. But he just really loved what he did.

Yeah. So that was why it was even more shocking, I think, because this was a guy who had such heart in what he was doing, and to be gunned down in such a horrible, vicious, tragic way. So let's go back to that night of the murder. He's arriving home. It's somewhere around 7 or so in the evening. His wife Elizabeth, who they refer to as Becky, is at home. He pulls up into the driveway. She would tell police that she heard gunshots. Later on, we would hear the 911 call. So these first responders, people who know him, are responding to his killing and learning in real time that it's one of their own. And what— describe that scene a little bit because we played that out in our episode too on Friday.

Yeah, you see in real time the first responders getting there, the members of the fire engine arriving, looking at the victim on the ground and realizing, recognizing him as one of their own. And you just hear their disbelief and shock realizing that it's Robbie, their close friend, their colleague. And then we see one by one his loved ones and family arriving at the scene and just the, the look of absolute disbelief and panic on their face, trying to get information, not really knowing what's happened yet, uh, then realizing that, that he's, he's dead, that he's gone, he's dead on the, on the driveway. They, they'd heard he'd been shot and didn't necessarily realize that he had already passed away when they got there. And that is just heart-wrenching.

One interesting thing, when the investigators got there, of course, they're always looking for DNA or something that's telling on the scene. They're not finding anything right away. They don't, you know, no security cameras that's revealing someone who maybe snuck up on him. Ultimately, one of those bullets, actually, they're able to retrieve, and that becomes the one thing that's kind of telling in the story.

Right. So the bullet that he was killed with matches a gun called a Taurus Judge. It's a very unique—

I've never heard of that before.

Right. It's not a type of gun that you typically hear about. It's a very rare type of gun. And it's unique because it can shoot both bullets and shotgun shells. So this is a great lead because it's a rare gun that, you know, in theory, police should be able to hopefully track down who owned that gun. Yeah. And they are able to learn that a local pawn shop had a Taurus Judge in stock that was recently stolen. They start digging more into this pawn shop, and they see that one of the employees is a man, young man named Larry Richmond Jr. His father is intimately involved in this story, in this family. He's engaged to Becky's sister.

And his father had been to prison. So alarm bells are starting to go off because this is kind of connected to the family. This isn't just some random person who showed up. So where do they go from there?

Well, at that point, this web is starting to form, and they're starting to see, like, these— cannot be coincidences, that the rare gun that's used to commit this murder is tied to someone connected to the family. So, they start looking into Becky's phone calls, and her most recent calls right before the murder. They see that there was a call minutes before her husband was shot dead in the driveway.

And that's the big twist here.

That becomes the big twist, and what our show's named after. They end up— going to the memorial service, and they pull in many members of this family, take them in for questioning, and put everyone in different rooms and try to nail everyone down on their story and figure out what's happening here.

And we've done other stories before too where police or investigators wind up at a funeral or at a wake because a crime has just happened and they suspect somebody in the family might be involved. But that whole idea that there was a phone call between Becky and Larry Sr. was really, really telling to the police. So they were convinced at that point that she had some involvement in this.

I think they were pretty convinced. I think the fact that when they did bring her in for questioning and asked her who'd called minutes before the murder, that she didn't own up to it. They already knew at this point that she had had a phone call with Larry Richmond Sr. So the fact that she attempted to hide the call from them, I think really convinced them that she was hiding something, knew more than she was saying.

If she's hiding that, what else is she hiding? Well, they are starting to look at Larry Sr. He's dating Mandy, Becky's sister, but are there other romantic involv— and this is a guy who just came out of prison, by the way, we talked about. Does he have other romantic involvements? What are they finding out about him?

Yes. So Larry, as we come to find out, was seeing a number of women around town. Even though he was engaged to Mandy, Becky's sister, he was seeing many women. Several were interviewed by police. He had sort of irresistible charm, apparently, that clearly drew people in.

Well, the plot thickens because we're going to look into his background and also how he wound up being connected to this case. So, Mike, don't go anywhere because now we've got an alleged affair, we've got a murder, a strong suspicion that Becky might have been hiding these secrets, as you say. So when we come back, we're going to unravel how police actually made an arrest and how finally Robert's killer landed behind bars and some exclusive family interviews that you're going to also hear about. So stay with us.

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Welcome back to 20/20: The After Show. I'm Deborah Roberts, and I am here with our editorial producer at 20/20, Mike Repllier. Mike and I are unraveling a case that we just featured on 20/20. It is the murder the murder case of Robert Doerr, a veteran firefighter and a local hero in Evansville, Indiana. When we left off, Mike, you and I, we were talking about the fact that his wife Becky and her sister's fiancé, Larry Sr., were hiding a secret. And police, of course, were suspicious. They weren't quite sure. But there have been whispers around, I guess, the area, right, that Becky somehow might have been connected to Robert's murder even before police were absolutely certain. When she showed up at the fire station asking about his pension, not long after she just lost her husband, a lot of folks thought that was pretty strange.

Definitely. Even her own son really, really was concerned and disturbed by that. Why, within a day of her husband's death, she was questioning the pension, going to find out more about the pension at the fire station. And for her part, She says that so many people were asking her about his pension and her plans for it that she wanted to get more information because she didn't know anything.

Well, paint a picture, Mike, because you were there on the ground and you're, you know, getting a sense of this community. You're getting a sense of these people. Becky was his second wife. They both had children. She had grown— he had grown children. Talk about their relationship a little bit and what people thought of the two of them.

So Becky and Robbie had actually known each other for years. They were colleagues at Taco John's, a local fast food joint. Robbie actually helped train Becky when she joined the store, and he apparently fell in love with her right away. He was kind of smitten with her from the start, but they were in the friend zone for many years. And then at one point, the timing was right where Becky was out of a relationship, and their friendship developed into more. And before long, before people even kind of realized that they were actually together, Robbie was proposing to her.

And they were getting married. But meanwhile, they've got grown children, and he's got a daughter, Lindsay. And she figures prominently into our piece. And we see the heartbreak that she's feeling after discovering the loss of her father. What about her and Becky? What did she think about her? New stepmom?

So Lindsay was not a fan of Becky, pretty much from the start. She found her— I think something off-putting about her. She saw her dad suddenly indulging in a lifestyle that he never was interested in before, buying a car for Becky, buying her nice jewelry, nice gifts, and that concerned her.

After the murder, of course, police begin to drill down. The investigators are looking into this case, and months and months are going by. And then something important comes to light. Nathan Guthrie, Becky's son, finds a little slip of paper in a sympathy card that turns out to be kind of a smoking gun in this case. Tell us all about it.

Yeah, so this is a really big twist in the story. Nathaniel, Becky's son, is gathering all the sympathy and condolence cards that came in after the funeral. And he picks up one and a little slip of paper falls out and it just says, "We need to talk," signed by Larry with a phone number. He doesn't know what this is about. He's confused by it. It's inside a sympathy card from Becky's sister, Mandy. So Nathaniel goes to police, shows them the note, and from there, I think that connected the dots for police between the deleted phone call between Becky and Larry minutes before the murder, and now after the murder, a secret note being passed in the condolence card saying, "We need to talk," just seemed like too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Yeah, they know something's going on. And we should also talk about the fact that for the family members here, for Mandy, Becky's sister, and even for him, and I mean, this was shocking stuff.

She is devastated. For her, Larry was her everything, her whole world. She felt like she'd finally found someone who truly loved her and was going to take care of her and be her partner. And so her world is completely destroyed by this.

How is it that they came to this conclusion that Robbie had to go? How— what was the collusion there between Larry and Becky. How did that happen?

So both of them still profess their innocence. So we, we only know based on what prosecutors and police claim and allege that their narrative of the story, from what we understand, they believe that an affair was happening between Becky and Larry, um, that started at some point when the two couples were spending time together and going out on double dates. And that at some point during that affair, an idea was hatched to have Robbie killed.

To get him out of the picture.

To get him out of the picture, you know, potentially for his pension, potentially to get her out of the marriage to be available. You know, prosecutors don't have to prove motive at trial, so we actually are still left with some some question marks about what exactly happened and how this all went down.

You know, that happens so often. You're absolutely right, especially when they're professing their innocence. And we want to talk more about what you've learned. But it took a while. It took a few years before they were able to make a murder case against the two of them. And before they finally went to trial. Ultimately, Becky and Larry are convicted of Robert's murder. Becky sentenced to 60 years in prison and an additional 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder. And Larry, of course, life without the possibility of parole. You know, he's offended again. You know, this was something though, even though they did this, and they were able to make this case, it's still tearing at a family, tearing a family apart, because you've got the two different sides of, you know, them professing their innocence and others being surprised that it happened and having a hard time coming to grips with it. Tell us, because we, you know, in the piece, you get to see the heartbreak amongst the family members, but you're right there with them. That was real and difficult for them, wasn't it?

Absolutely. I think just watching that crime scene video of Robbie's daughter, Lindsay, arriving, and the reality of what's happened washing over her face, seeing her father dead on the pavement, she just absolutely crumbles in grief. And it's just heartbreaking to watch. And she still feels that very strongly today.

I can imagine.

The pain is still just as strong today.

I can imagine. And then Larry Jr. has to testify. He's a star witness, has to testify against his own father.

So many families were torn apart by this. And Larry Richmond Jr. had to take the stand as the star witness against his own father, who he shares a name with. Helping get that conviction and that life sentence for him, I think, just was absolutely devastating for him. He told me after that guilty verdict came down, that he feels broken. And he's now just trying to piece his life back together. He has a family of his own to raise. And he's just trying to move forward somehow.

And trying to do the right thing, which is what he was faced with. We talked about Mandy earlier. And this had to just be shattering for her. On the one hand, this is her fiancé. On the other hand, this is her sister. They're behind bars for the death of her brother-in-law. And she was the one really who brought Larry into the family. Why did she want to talk?

So I think for Mandy, sharing her story now was a way to try to reclaim ownership of her life. Her entire world was turned upside down 7 years ago when this happened. Everything she thought she knew, everyone she thought she trusted was completely shattered. And not only that, she received a lot of blame. A lot of people in the family and out in the world blamed her for bringing this man into everyone's lives. And of course, she is not accused of anything. She has been totally cleared by police. She was not involved in any way in the plot, and she's another innocent victim here. But she still, you know, gets a lot of, I think, blame and negativity her way.

You and John Quinones, of course, sat down with her and brought this story to us, and we got to hear her side of the story on 20/20. But there was more to Mandy's story that you didn't hear on 20/20. So let's take a listen now.

To someone who doesn't know him, how would you describe Larry? What kind of person is he?

To me, he is very kind and loving, and he takes care of people. Like—

But he's also a killer.

I understand. That goes in a box, sir.

You put it behind you?

It goes in a box. 'Cause I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what to do with it. Because I know it's supposed to do something to me. I know it's supposed to make me scared of him. I know it's supposed to make me hate him. I know it's supposed to make— I know what it's supposed to do. But it doesn't. He was never scary to me. He was my protector. He was showing up when I would get off work at 10:30 at night, just to be there to make sure we got to our cars. Okay.

So she spoke so passionately about her relationship. What about her relationship with her sister Becky? That's got to be kind of tricky.

It's definitely tricky. It's very touch and go, I think, still. But after our interview with Mandy, she and Becky did speak for the first time in years. And she describes it as a hopeful conversation. I think that Mandy told her that she will always love her and support her, but that she can't talk about what happened. And—

That makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's how she has to compartmentalize these conflicting feelings she has about people that she loves, still very much who she feels have done horrible things.

Have betrayed her. I mean, she's got her sister in prison and she's got her fiancé in prison for killing her brother-in-law. Well, I want to talk to you a little bit more about her and those exclusive interviews because that was really something else. When we come back, we're going to have more that you haven't heard from inside the prison, actually, where Becky spoke with Mike. And you're going to hear about that conversation, details that you did not hear on on Friday night, so do not go anywhere.

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Welcome back to 20/20: The After Show. I'm sitting here with our 20/20 producer Mike Ripley, who, uh, was part of a pretty unforgettable story called One Last Call that just aired on 20/20. Story that centers around Robert Doar, a firefighter, first responder who was killed, and his wife Becky and her sister's fiancé, Larry Sr., were both convicted in his murder. And Mike, I've spent my time in prisons, my share of time in prison sitting across from folks who are convicted of murder. And it's a fairly strange thing to do. And for our cameras to go into this prison and to get a chance to sit down and talk with Becky was pretty remarkable too. You know, the assumption, at least a prosecutor certainly made the case, that she was having an affair with Larry. They wanted Robert out of the picture. She sort of told a different story, of course, to us.

She did. She has stuck to her story pretty much from the start, and that is that she has no idea what happened. She was not involved in Robbie's murder, and she doesn't know who did it.

Yeah.

So she continues to claim her innocence, but yet she and her sister are sort of forming a relationship. How does she seem to be adjusting to prison life, by the way?

You know, Becky sort of brought in this interview a calm and collected energy. And I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. But I think that she is in a place now where she's trying to find acceptance and make peace with the reality that she may die in prison.

She probably will, really, when you think about the amount of time that she has. Well, that conversation was quite revealing, and there were bits that you heard on 20/20 and some that you didn't. Um, but this took you inside the prison after Becky had served about a year and a half of her sentence. So let's take a listen.

I was able to watch part of the 20/20 episode. I didn't know how people, you know, in the prison were going to react to it, you know. It's surprising. It was surprising when, you know, somebody's like, hey, isn't that you on the TV? So I just got up and went out and I'm like, well, if you guys are going to watch it, let's, you know, let's watch it together. I was upset and went to the bathroom, and when I turned around, there— I had a bunch of girls all the way around me, and they supported me. I thought they were going to beat me up, but they supported me. I'm innocent, basically. I didn't do this. I'm still innocent. And I don't know who has— who did this. But again, I'm— I still stand on that I'm innocent. I mean, don't you think that I would want to have the person that killed Robbie brought to justice? It's not me, though.

As you said, she seems to be making peace with her situation. There's a little bit of a calmness there. Does she think that the family believes that she wasn't involved, or does she have a sense of what other people are thinking about her?

Robbie's family certainly steadfastly believes that she is guilty and got exactly what she deserved with that 90-year sentence. You know, her family, it's a little more nuanced, I would say. Her son Taylor, her youngest son, he is still standing behind her. He still supports her. And when it comes to her oldest son, Nathaniel, however, he was a star witness for the prosecution. He called her a murderer. He went to the police. He basically considers his relationship with his mother dead. And he considers Robbie his father, and that's who he mourns. There's a big range of emotions between the family. And as for Mandy, she acknowledges that the evidence points to Becky being involved and her having an affair with Larry. Um, but, but her heart tells her something different. And her heart doesn't want to believe it. Her heart is still praying, I think, that they are innocent.

In spite of the evidence that she saw in court, she's still connected to Larry? They're still, I guess, together, as much as one can be together when he's in prison?

So, they are still in contact. They still speak almost every day, according to Mandy. And she told us that she gets what she needs from him, that He checks up on her. He cares for her. He gives her the emotional support she needs. And she is fully aware of the contradiction here and that this would seem completely insane to most people, that this man's destroyed her entire life, essentially, and taken a life out of her family, turned everyone's life upside down, and that she still loves him and still has feelings for him. She's working on that. I think she's working on moving forward and creating her own life separate from this man. But it's easier said than done. Becky also swore to her that she and Larry never had an affair.

A convoluted story, as we said. It's hard to know what to take from this report in a way, because there is so much here that is so heartbreaking and so difficult. But then you do have the tenderness of family. I mean, Mandy determining that she can still try to connect with her sister. You know, I think it really just highlights the complications and shocking secrets that can happen behind closed doors in a family, but yet families still trying to go forth and make their way out.

Exactly, exactly. And families are complicated. And they're not— it's not black and white. And No matter how much anger, heartbreak, there's still that bond, and you can't just shut off your love for someone else. And I think Mandy is the perfect encapsulation of that. That she's fully aware of how much she's been hurt by these people, and yet she can't turn off her heart, and she can't turn off the memories she has, and the love she has for these people.

But yet, others in the family certainly have. Mike, it's a captivating story. Well done. Always, always a pleasure to work with you, Good to have you here.

Thanks, Deborah.

Thank you all for being here with us and joining us for this episode. Of course, you can watch our latest 20/20 episodes on Friday nights on ABC. And you can make sure that you come back and stream episodes like this one anytime on Disney+ and Hulu. Hope you all have a good day.

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