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April 10, 2025 44 mins

Aaliyah Kyles rented her first apartment in January, securing a unit at The Boulevard in the Hickory Hills neighborhood of Memphis.

The complex features smart locks on every unit, off-street parking, and regular patrols. Amenities include a gym, pool, basketball court, playground, and a spacious clubhouse. The location sits just minutes from Hickory Ridge Mall, the Memphis Coliseum, and Memphis International Airport.

Around 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 9, a resident at The Boulevard heard gunshots and saw a man dressed in all black running from a nearby apartment. She called 911 to report the shooting but could not provide details about the suspect.

Memphis police responded and found the door to Aaliyah Kyles’ apartment wide open. Nothing inside appeared immediately out of place, but officers discovered a gruesome scene in the bathroom. Kyles was lying dead in the bathtub. She was naked and had multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators determined the suspect entered through a window with a broken lock. The medical examiner later confirmed Kyles had been raped.

Joining Nancy Grace today 

  • Anthony Kyles  -  Father
  • Montina Kyles - Mother
  • Esperonza King  -  Kyles Family Attorney / Founder of EA KING LAW / Wrongful Death Attorney
  • Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide”
  • Chris McDonough - Director At the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective, and Host of YouTube channel, "The Interview Room,"
  • Dr. Thomas Coyne - Chief Medical Examiner, District 2 Medical Examiner's Office, State of Florida; Forensic Pathologist, Neuropathologist, Toxicologist; X: @DrTMCoyne
  • Sydney Sumner -  CrimeOnline Investigative Reporte

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
She's beautiful, she's brilliant, she is a hard working graduate,
and she's just nineteen.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
This beautiful grad.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Nineteen years old, enjoying her very first apartment.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
She's so proud, she enjoys it until a monster creeps in.
Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to
thank you for being with us.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Oliah Kyle's a nineteen year old recent high school grad
with a promising future ahead of her, wishing to follow
in her sister's footsteps. Aliah is an ROTC, hopeful and
dedicated employee, but things take a sinister turn when neighbors
report a disturbance at Elijah's apartment.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Can you imagine this little girl, all proud of her
very first apartment until a figure clad entirely in black
sneaks into the garden. Joining me right now are two
very special guests. Let me introduce to you Anthony and

(01:25):
Mantina Kyles.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
They are joining us from Memphis. Mister and missus Kyles,
thank you for being with us tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I really don't know exactly where to start, because when
I first heard about your girl and I saw her picture, my.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Heart nearly broke.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
How proud were you, missus Kyles on her graduation day.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
I was so proud of her because she it was
she's my baby.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Of I have floor dear girls, and she was the baby.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
And I was so proud that we was attending her graduation.

Speaker 5 (02:06):
She was so ready get out.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Of school, and she was looking forward to moving through
a sister's flo steps and going.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
To the army.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Now the sister was in the military. Correct, she was
considering following in her sister's footsteps. Now I'm looking at
that graduation photo, and I've just got to tell you
that it was the proudest day of my parents' life
when I graduated. I mean we, my brother, sister, and

(02:42):
I were first generation college grads. My dad worked on
the railroad Norfolk Southern. My mother worked her way up
from being a bank teller, and I remember my father
full on crying.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
When I graduated. It was so proud when I.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Saw that picture of your girl, mister Kyles, Do you
remember that moment she graduated.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Yes, I was so proud of my daughter. You know,
she was looking forward to doing a lot and she
loved to work. She loved to work, and she wanted
to go to the service.

Speaker 7 (03:24):
That was her nicked cole.

Speaker 6 (03:25):
But I just hated I allow her, which I didn't
allow her to move.

Speaker 7 (03:31):
She did it behind my back of getting all apartments.

Speaker 6 (03:35):
I wasn't ready, and I just want you know, I
didn't want to say no. I wanted to give her
a space just so she can see a little bit
what's going on in life.

Speaker 7 (03:53):
I think that was the worst mistake.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, mister Kyles, you're right, because if you don't
let them go a little bit, then they rebel and
they could leave forever, or they could have a bad
reaction and everything goes sideways. I mean, you can't hold them.
And I'm having a hard time with that right now

(04:16):
because my twins are about to turn eighteen and they
want to do things, and I think if all the
dangers involved, but I have to bite the bullet and
let them do things.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
You did the right thing. I hope you're not blaming.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yourself, because everything that ever went wrong with me, my
mom and dad thought, oh, we should have fill in
the blank. So this little girl you said, she wanted
to go into the military. That was her dream.

Speaker 7 (04:50):
She was going. She was on her way.

Speaker 6 (04:54):
I was talking to her I was trying to get
her to come back home and she said, Okay, Dad,
I don't come on back home.

Speaker 7 (04:59):
This was a month before.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Now what is this picture?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
It was of her in like a beautiful red sequined
dress and she's wearing a crown.

Speaker 7 (05:08):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (05:10):
Well that no, the red dress.

Speaker 8 (05:16):
She was.

Speaker 7 (05:18):
Two three, Queen of Woodale.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Look at her. Note she was the queen of what.

Speaker 7 (05:24):
Woodelle class of twenty three.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
She's gorgeous. Where did she get that dress?

Speaker 7 (05:32):
We got it made, right, Yeah, she got it made.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
That was a prom dress.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I thought I was the only one that did that.
Mister and missus Kyle's where I grew up in rural
bid County. Hey, we can afford a prom dress like that.
We had to get it, go to cloth world.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
And get the material and make the dress. That is amazing, amazing.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
You know, I'm looking behind you at it looks like
a cutout of her.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
What what is that behind you? Is that her?

Speaker 5 (06:07):
It's it's a cut out.

Speaker 7 (06:10):
And I got done.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
When she passed and I had at the barrier it
us general room.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
What did you say about burying her?

Speaker 7 (06:25):
That's what That was a.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Cut out that we did and I had it at
bar Buria.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
And from when they we got ready to bury on,
I put it up.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Miss Kyle's when did you learn.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
That something horrible had happened to your baby girl?

Speaker 5 (06:47):
I said, work.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
I got a couple of phone calls from my oldest daughter,
and the phone kept hanging up, maybe two three times.
So I worked, I was at the time, and I
was working with Chick fil like, I just have to
be at work at five. So she kept calling and
the phone kept hanging up. So when I finally got

(07:10):
her on the phone, she was crying and she was
like mom, Lely Indeed, I said, what it's like, my
Lely did?

Speaker 5 (07:23):
I was like shot, saying to come out.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
So I screamed real loud, start shaking and went to
my car, got my stuff, went to my car, but
I couldn't crack my car up. It just I just
couldn't move, and I cried. I cried for maybe thirty

(07:47):
minutes before I could put their car and drive. From
that point, I called her dad, piled her other two
siblings and my aunt and just called them and so
we went out to our house on the scene. Once

(08:14):
we got there, of course crime scens there play police.
They wouldn't let us go towards her apartment.

Speaker 5 (08:25):
So and that morning it was running very, very hard.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
So we had to sit after maybe four hours before
they broke up.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
All yell.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
In the bag.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
And there was the worst feeling to saw her being
rolled out her apartment. Did she really loved being there,
but to see her roll out on this, on this stretcher,

(08:58):
it took up. Its just my life. It's not been
inside it took It's just something took all of mine.
The life I have on the inside out is.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
Not the same.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
Is the way of life.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
The feeling to wake up, the pine, the hurt, the
missing her, and she was my kid that always mom,
what you cook. I'm gonna gonna get something I want
to I want some chips, and I want spaghetti, I
want some dressing.

Speaker 5 (09:34):
I'm gonna come help you do it.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
And so this holiday after she was murdered in July,
so when Thanksgiving came, it was hard. Christmas it was
hard because around those days all the time, she will come,
I'm gonna cut up the onion and bell pepper for.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
The dressing and spaghetti. She's always in the kitchen to
help you. Love to eat, and she'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I mean, I ain't been did you do you make
special things for her to eat as a way to
get her to come over.

Speaker 5 (10:06):
I didn't have to. I have to do the same.
I'm cooking, and they I'll come. I like it. They'd
be like, Mam, what you're doing? I said, no, I
just got through cooking.

Speaker 7 (10:14):
What you cook?

Speaker 5 (10:14):
Once I say what I cook, say on their way.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I do the same exact thing when my children leave
for school in the morre, I tell them we're making whatever.
I'm making, chicken and dressing or whatever. I'm making things
that I know they're gonna lie. I'm like, I come
home straight from school now because the house is gonna
smell good.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
They do.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Mister Kyle's when did you learn? What were you doing?
When did you learn about what happened? And when you
first learned that she had passed? Could you imagine someone
had actually broke in her little apartment and killed her?

(11:04):
Did that possibility cross your mind at the beginning?

Speaker 7 (11:08):
Well, I wasn't for sure what happened.

Speaker 6 (11:11):
But when I first heard my mom gave me a call,
and I can hear it just like it happened yesterday,
her crying and telling me I really don't want to
repeat what she said, but just some words really just

(11:35):
hurt me to my heart. To keep then think about
my baby being gone. I was devastated. I've never been
heard it, but that's.

Speaker 7 (11:48):
The only thing that really broke me down. I never
I don't think I ever be the same again. That
was my baby girl.

Speaker 6 (12:02):
She was she was my everything, you know, and from
the time that we separated and and she stayed with me.
It's just it's just hard could deal with her being

(12:22):
gone and trying to keep my life going and oh
scuriously Brandon.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Around three am on Tuesday morning, July ninth, a resident
at the Boulevard hears gunshots and sees a man dressed
in all black running from an apartment next door. She
calls nine to one one to report the shooting, but
can't get the operator any more details about the suspected shooter.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
How could a beautiful, young first grade teacher be stabbed
twenty times, including in the back, allegedly die of suicide? Yes,
that was the medical examiner's official ruling after a closed
door meeting. He first named it a homicide. Why what
happened to Ellen Greenberg? A huge American miscarriage of justice.

(13:16):
For an in depth look at the facts, see what
Happened to Ellen on Amazon. All proceeds to the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Eleiah Kyles is a nineteen year old teen from Memphis
and recent high school grad But police are called to
the scene when a worrying disturbance is reported at Eliah's
apartment and a man clad in all black is spotted
fleeing from the scene.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I mean, right there, a man clad in all black.
Chris McDonough joining me a director Cole Case Foundation, but
for my purposes. Former homicide detective has worked hundreds, literally
hundreds of homicides. You can find him on his YouTube channel,

(14:06):
The Interview Room.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Chris McDonough.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Much like the case you and I have been investigating
Brian Coberger charged in the slay of four Idaho students.
When you have a purp show up in a clad
in all black sneaking around the outside of someone's apartment,
it clearly shows premeditation. Don't you agree? It's not like

(14:34):
this just happened. He entered this apartment complex, which by
the way, has a horrible track record.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Hold on, let me pull this up.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Chris, between nineteen and twenty four five homicides, eighty five
agg assaults, two hundred twenty four assaults, Arson's burglary, vandalism.
It's too long for me to read. But when you
look at the apartments. When you look at them, they

(15:08):
are the boulevard apartments on Bald Eagle Drive, they look beautiful.
There is if we could pull up the pictures of
the apartments, beautiful manicured lawns. They've gone to trouble to
have it landscaped with gorgeous vegetation. Parking lot perfect there is.

(15:32):
There are security lights outside. Everybody gets to has their
own spot to park so they can go straight into
their apartment.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
I guess they didn't say anything to this little girl,
Aliyah Chiles when.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
She rented her very first apartment there about the crime record,
but I'll get three inches up their tailpipe in a moment.
I want to deal with someone coming to the scene
allegedly like Brian Coburger, sneaking around, skulking around clad in
all black in his case, even wearing a balla clava
over his face like a ski mask. I mean it

(16:08):
shows premeditation.

Speaker 9 (16:09):
Absolutely, Nancy.

Speaker 10 (16:11):
I mean this is this is every parent's worst nightmare,
that the Kyles are experiencing a wolf in sheep's clothing.
I e the den the apartment complex, and this is
an apex predator. This guy came to.

Speaker 9 (16:28):
That apartment with one in ten and that was to
victimize this sweet child and then ultimately take her life.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
It's disgusting.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Joining me, Sidney Sumner, Crime Stories, investigative reporter, Sidney, what
do we know about the night that this little girl
was murdered in her own apartment?

Speaker 11 (16:49):
And see, what we know about that night is that
Aliyah was minding her own business. She was in her
apartment doing her thing. It was just after three am.
She was proud asleep when someone broken to her apartment
through a broken window. Somebody entered her apartment through that

(17:09):
broken window, you hear multiple gunshots. A neighbor overheard the gunshots,
called nine one one and watches as possibly the shooter
runs out of her front door.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Guys, we learn more from Memphis police. Listen.

Speaker 12 (17:26):
Memphis police arrive and find the door to Eliah Kyles's
apartment thrown open. Inside, nothing immediately seems out of place,
but officers discover a gruesome scene in the bathroom. Aliah
Kyles is lying dead in her bathtub. Aliyah is naked
and has multiple gunshot wounds. Police determine her killer gained

(17:49):
access to her apartment through a window with a broken log.
The medical examiner later determines Aliyah had been raped.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
She should have more time she was on nineteen from
our friends at w R e G.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Three.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Mister Tyles, when did you learn the extent of the
injuries to your daughter?

Speaker 6 (18:10):
We found out about it when he was able to.
We already knew it was a gunshot. We knew some
knew she had got shot, but not knowing where she
got shot at until we had a chance to get
to see her. And the octos had also told us
a lot about what went off.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
What did you learn from the autopsy, mister Kyles?

Speaker 6 (18:34):
I learned that my baby had been shot and the
shes and he had found out that he raped my baby.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Who did this thing to this beautiful young girl? Why
did her parents have to get a call that their
daughter was found unclothed, bleeding out in the bathtub of
her very first apartment, then to add insult to injury,

(19:07):
to learn that this girl had been raped?

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Why? Why did this happen?

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Sidney Sumner joining us, explain to me how this I.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Don't even know what to call him other than a monster.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Dressed all in black sneaks into her apartment, clearly with
the intent to rape her.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
How did he get in? What happened?

Speaker 2 (19:38):
For instance, Sidney Sumner, did Alia live on a ground floor?

Speaker 11 (19:43):
Yes she did, Nancy, she lived on the ground floor.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
And was there something wrong with her window, probably unbeknownst
to her.

Speaker 11 (19:50):
Yes, that window was broken. That's what police found when
they searched her apartment that night.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
So all it would have required is someone going up
to that round floor window and just basically climbing in.

Speaker 11 (20:05):
That's exactly what happened.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Was there video surveillance our police security guards walking the
apartment complex, Sydney Summer.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I guess not.

Speaker 11 (20:13):
No, no surveillance footage of this incident, and the apartment
complex plane claims they have patrol units, but apparently no
one was around that night.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Eleah Kyles is found shot dead and naked in the
bathtub of her new apartment. Authorities are on the hunt
for her killer, who shot and assaulted the nineteen year
old Memphis girl.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
We want justice for this teen girl.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Joining me with an All Star panel, her parents and
the family lawyer. High profile lawyer joining us as Beranza King.
Miss King, thank you for being with us, Miss King.
I'm very curious what you have learned. I've read your
massive civil lawsuit against the apartment, but what have you

(21:01):
learned after.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Careful reading of the autopsy report?

Speaker 13 (21:06):
Yes, Nancy, thank you again for having us and for
sharing Aliah's story with the world. So this is still
an ongoing investigation, and within the last couple of weeks
we've learned new information. But when we did receive the
autopsy report, we did learn that Aliyah was shot twice,
once in the chest and once in the head, and

(21:28):
we also learned that she put up a fight. That
this was not something that you know, went down easily.
She put up a fight, there was evidence of some bruising,
and then we also learned recently that she was raped
by the assailant.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Joining me is a special guest to support the kyles
is Esperanza King. She's a high profile lawyer and founder
of EA King Law there in Memphis. Let me go
to doctor Thomas con joining US Chief Medical Examiner District
to Medical Examiner's Office in the State of Florida forensic

(22:07):
pathologist and neuropathologist, toxicologist. It goes on, doctor Coin, thank
you for being with us, Doctor Coin, you have performed
literally thousands, thousands of autopsies. Now, depending on the timing
of the gunshot wounds, it is very possible we've got

(22:31):
a shot to the chest and a shot to the
head on this teen girl.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Isn't it true?

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Doctor coinne that if she was shot in the chest first,
she would have lied in that bathtub knowing what was
happening to her. We know she put up a fight,
a fight for her life.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
When you hear.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Attorney Esperanza King described defensive wounds and bruising, what does
that mean? That means she's very likely got wounds to
the outside of her arms and hands.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Maybe her nails are torn off.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
There is probably bruising on her arms where she was grabbed.
She was unclothed, Doctor Coin, that wasn't done easily. You'll
think this girl fought back to some intruder clad in
solid black trying.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
To take her clothes off. Oh hg ln Oh.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
This girl thought she knew what was happening to her,
and if she was shot in the chest first.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
She very likely knew she was dying, doctor Coin.

Speaker 8 (23:43):
If the wounds of the chest came first, and it
did not strike the heart, but did strike you know,
a major arterial structure, she could have lost a significant
amount of blood and probably had upwards of a few
minutes or perhaps even a minute of consciousness before a
significant amount of what to her head was lost. But

(24:04):
with regards to defensive wounds and such, the autopsy report
or the autopsy position would have described all of the wounds, bruises,
injuries to our body to our extremities. Defensive wounds are
those which we see on the backs of the hands,
on the forearms, which indicate that a person is trying
to parry a blow while being attacked. Of course, obviously

(24:28):
the head wound would have been the fatal wound. I
don't know when that occurred. With regards to the order of.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Injuries, Doctor Thomas Coin, wouldn't you agree that shooting someone
in the head is what we call execution style?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Would you agree with that, Yes, it's a fatal wound.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
And what do you mean, doctor Coin, when you use
the phraseology execution style.

Speaker 8 (24:54):
Well, generally, any wound that is intended to be a
fatal wound, and so of course any gunshot wound to
the head will be immediately fatal.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
To Coin, would it matter to you if you found
stippling or gunshot residue around the gunshot wound to the head.

Speaker 8 (25:18):
Yes, that is how we determine a range of fire.
And so when we are examining a gunshot wound, first
and foremosts we have to make the determination is this
an entrance wound versus an exit wound? But there are
certain features of a wound that allow us to determine
whether a wound was perhaps contact distance, or whether it

(25:40):
was within close range. And so, as a bullet exits
the muzzle of the gun, with it comes gunpowder residue
and soot, and that is traveling in a high velocity,
will strike the skin, producing very punk tate or tiny abrasions,
which we call sipling or tattooing tattooing because that carbon

(26:01):
will actually get deposited in the skin much like a tattoo.

Speaker 7 (26:04):
And when we see that.

Speaker 8 (26:06):
That indicates to us that the person shooting the victim
was within three feet of.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Distance, Doctor Coin.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Gunshot residue alone, which is like a fine powder, can
be left behind thirty six inches or less. If the
gun is thirty six inches away from the body or less,
isn't that true?

Speaker 7 (26:30):
That's correct?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Okay, But if you've got stipling.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Stipling as you describe a tattooing on the skin that
comes from the gun being much closer to the victim,
doesn't end.

Speaker 8 (26:47):
Yes, we can see stippling up to three feet from
the skin surface. The pattern of sipling indicates also how close, right,
So if the stippling is much close together, you know,
or densely populated around the actual entrance, it will suggest
the s that the project that the gun was much
closer to the skin, let's say a foot or less.

(27:10):
As you get further from the skin, up to a
distance of three feet, that stippling will be more widespread.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Doctor Coin.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
When you refer to a gunshot wound as a contact wound,
how do you identify a contact wound and what does
that mean?

Speaker 8 (27:26):
Sure, a contact wound indicates that the gun was held
against the skin when it was fired, and you will
see telltale features of a contact, especially that on the
head because the skin is directly against the skull, and
so as the bullet exits the gun, all of that
gas that soot goes underneath the skin and will expand outward,

(27:47):
and it can create a large stelliate or star like
wound pattern on the actual skin. You will also see
all of that soot deposited immediately within the tissues, allowing
us to say this was a contact wound, and you
may also see features like a muzzle imprint if the
gun was pressed very hardly against the skin when fired.

Speaker 14 (28:09):
Police initially do not have any suspects, asking the public
for tips to help solve the case. Aliah's heartbroken family
calls for answers and justice. Devastated that Aliah's life has
been ripped away from her just as it began, the
family begins to speculate as to who could do this
to their loving, outgoing and happy, go lucky Aliyah.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Elia's family wants justice after their nineteen year old daughter
is shot dead in her own apartment. A lawsuit file
shows Alia's apartment complex reported five homicides, two hundred and
twenty four assaults, two kidnappings, over one hundred and fifty burglaries,
thefts and robberies, and many other crimes in the span
of just five.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Years straight out to mister and missus Kyles, Anthony Kyles
and Martina Kyles. I'm very curious when you began to
speculate as to who could have done this to Elijah?
What went through your mind?

Speaker 1 (29:11):
What were you thinking?

Speaker 7 (29:12):
A lot of things was going through my.

Speaker 6 (29:15):
At the time. I couldn't trust nobody.

Speaker 15 (29:18):
I just.

Speaker 6 (29:20):
Stayed to myself A lot had a lot of things
going through my head. What could have happened? Who done it?

Speaker 5 (29:26):
And work for?

Speaker 2 (29:27):
What did you think, Martina, missus Kyles, what went through
your mind as you try to figure out who would
have done this?

Speaker 15 (29:35):
What went through my mind? The only thing that kept
going through my mind when I happened was who did
And my prayer from the day she got killed murdered
up until maybe two three weeks ago, my prayers to God,

(29:55):
will our way, God let me know. I want to
know who did.

Speaker 6 (30:00):
I want to know.

Speaker 15 (30:01):
I didn't want it to take so long and to
go years. Our way great every night, I just want
to know.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
We did Thy joining me is doctor Jory l Across
and renounced psychologist's faculty Saint Leo University.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Doctor Jory, thank you for being with us.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
You've heard Aliah's father say, what could I have done?

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Was this my fault. Did I do the wrong thing.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
That's a type of survivor guilt where you blame yourself
because the one you love the most has been killed, and.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
The interminable wondering what.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Happened, just having a few pieces of the puzzle, trying
to put it together and figure out what happened that night.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
It's awful for crime victims. Dtr Jory.

Speaker 16 (30:55):
Yes, that's the I won't say normal reaction, but that
is the reaction of a parent, especially a father. I
lost my son. It was the same thing. I failed
there to protect him, you know, And even though the circumstances,
once they come out, you see that this was just
a pure act of evil, and you know, there was

(31:16):
nothing there really that could have been prevented from the
parental perspective as protecting her. You train your child how
to secure the house and all of that, but those
were overcome by this evil individual that broke in and
killed her.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
And then a break in the case. A week after
the shooting, Memphis police questioned.

Speaker 17 (31:37):
A seventeen year old suspect about his whereabouts the night
of Eleah Kyle's murder. Initially reluctant to answer, he eventually
confesses he raped and killed Aliyah. He biked to Aleah's
apartment complex, had no trouble breaking into her apartment through
a window, then ran back to his bike before police arrived.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
To high profile lawyer Esperanza King helping the Kyles. What
led police to this seventeen year old now almost eighteen
year old.

Speaker 13 (32:07):
Man, Nancy. It's still an ongoing investigation. We learned just
a few weeks ago. At this point, it's been almost
seven eight months since Aliah passed, and we just learned
that they were able to catch this juvenile. So we
are waiting to hear more about this. We hope to
learn more in the coming weeks as more information comes

(32:29):
comes from the.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Police, Miss King.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Before I went on to superior court trying adults, I
did a stint in juvie court. Isn't it true that
juvenile felony records are kept a secret?

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Isn't that true? Yes, Miss King?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Isn't it true that we have learned this suspect has
been charged with sex assaults, specifically rape, in the past.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Isn't that true?

Speaker 13 (32:58):
We're still learning, so we're still waiting to hear all
the information about this juvenile.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Cidy summer joining US Crime Stories reporter. Isn't it true
that there are several arrests and charges of a sex nature,
of predatory sex nature in this suspect's.

Speaker 11 (33:16):
Past according to several sources. Yes, that is true. We
do not have official record of this as the perf
the suspect is a minor, but that's what several sources
have revealed, Nancy.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
So if that's true, and of course his name is
being kept a secret, his record is being kept a secret.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
What about her? What about Aliyah? What about your daughter?
Miss Kyles?

Speaker 2 (33:45):
If this is true, If these allegations are true, it
means that this predator dressed in black, had already gotten
out on multiple sex attacks. If this is true, and
was skulking around outside your girl's window.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
He went straight to it.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
That tells me that he had already cased it, had
already seen it. He had probably seen her. How did
he know she was in there? It was three o'clock
in the morning. You know, she had her blinds and
curtains pulled. How did he know unless he had been
not been watching her before that? He went straight to
her place, dressed in all black and broke in. He

(34:28):
sex assaulted her and shot her multiple times, including in
her forehead right here in the forehead execution style.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
This perp had been let go before. That is wrong,
Miss Kyles.

Speaker 15 (34:46):
I agree, I'm there. It's like I we went to
court yesterday and it's like all their same protecting him
because he's a mind of everything about for kicking him.

Speaker 5 (35:00):
Ill monsters was out.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Can I tell you something, Miss Kyles, At seventeen years old,
my father had already lied to the Navy and was
halfway around the world on a fighter ship.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Okay, so I don't even want to hear this.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Miners under our constitution can be treated as an adult. No,
we don't throw them behind bars with adult males. They
stay in GV jail until they're eighteen to twenty one.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Then they go into the system.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
But this is not his first time as a felon,
as a predator.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
If these reports are true, this is not some baby
at the ice cream shop. Fat Did you see him
in court? Did you see him.

Speaker 11 (35:52):
Yes, ma'am?

Speaker 6 (35:54):
Indeed, what does.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
He look like? Is he tall? Is he skinny? Is
he pitiful looking? What does he look like?

Speaker 16 (36:03):
Look?

Speaker 15 (36:04):
Guy, gott.

Speaker 6 (36:07):
Don't look groomed.

Speaker 15 (36:08):
Groomed groomed up at all, looked like somebody gets out
of here, or don't mind about taking people live, young
girl life.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
What did he look at you? Did he look at
you in court?

Speaker 2 (36:23):
No?

Speaker 6 (36:23):
Man, No, ma'am, you wouldn't look. He would not And
he came.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Into that courtroom, did he even look over at y'all?

Speaker 6 (36:33):
You wouldn't look. He wouldn't look.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
No, ma'am, you are bringing back a very bad memory
for me.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
My first first exposure to a court of law was
this a witness in my fiance's a murder case. And
when I came down off that witness stand, I didn't
even know what was going on. I walked by the
defendant and he looked down, and I looked at his lawyers.
They all looked down. They wouldn't even look at me.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Is that what he did in court?

Speaker 15 (37:00):
Yes, mayam?

Speaker 9 (37:02):
Yes? Maya.

Speaker 14 (37:05):
Aliah Leeley Kyles nineteen is born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee.
She's the baby of the family with three older sisters.
Aliah is full of dreams and has a bright future ahead,
just graduating from Wooddale High School. While Aliah is considering
following in her sister's footsteps and joining the military, for now,
she's focused on striking out on her own. Aliah takes

(37:26):
a job at a restaurant while also working on a
small business selling handmade candles. Aliah is also living on
her own for the first time, settling into her new
apartment at the Boulevard.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Straight Out to veteran homicide detective now star of the
Interview Room on YouTube, my longtime friend and colleague Chris mcdona. Chris,
do you ever just get weary, I mean bone weary
when I hear the kyles tell me he wouldn't even
look at them in the courtroom and his mother wouldn't

(37:58):
even look at them at the court room.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
I know why, But.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Chris, according to these reports, he's done this over and
over and over in multiple ways, whether it's breaking in,
sex attacks, you name it. It just it's exhausting, and
now the childs are paying the price.

Speaker 9 (38:23):
Yeah, absolutely, Nancy, it's disgusting.

Speaker 18 (38:25):
I mean, here we have a young girl who's about
ready to take on the world and become and become
a military veteran at the same time, and yet she's
completely unaware that there's a hunter, a predatorial hunter for
sexual desire, hunting her down and the fact that he

(38:48):
broke into her house, rapes her, maybe in.

Speaker 9 (38:51):
One room, and then does he move her into the
bathtub for the coupdi gras.

Speaker 19 (38:58):
I mean, this is a moral problem that we're having
a society, and no parent should ever experience this.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Ever, Doctor Coin, you have read the autopsy report, as
have I, and I would like to direct your attention
to the perforating gunshot wound in the victim's head. Look
at her picture and imagine a gunshot entrance wound to

(39:29):
the left of her forehead, one half inch to the
left of the center.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Above her nose.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Notice the angle, doctor Coin, the trajectory path.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
What did you learn from that?

Speaker 7 (39:54):
Well, it's front to back and downwards.

Speaker 8 (39:56):
So it tells me that number one, the perpetrator was
facing the victim at the time and more than likely
standing above her, giving that downward trajectory as a projectile passed.

Speaker 16 (40:09):
Through the head.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
McDonough, Do you hear what Coin just said? Do you
know what that means?

Speaker 1 (40:14):
That means as this little girl.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Lying in the tub wearing nothing but a little orange
T shirt. By his own admission, he raped her. That's
why she doesn't have on underwear pants after shooting her
in the chest, stood over her, and shot this girl,
this beautiful girl, in the head.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Did you hear what doctor Coin said?

Speaker 7 (40:44):
Absolutely?

Speaker 9 (40:45):
And does this not even confirm for us that this
individual has no feeling for humanity. The fact that this
young girl is looking up at that gun and pointing
at her and for sure saw the flash of that muzzle.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Mister and missus Kyles, these are the facts that must
be presented to a jury. This cannot result in a
cheap plea. According to these reports, he's had many, many chances.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
To turn his life around.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
I feel horrible going through these facts with you listening.
I would never let parents sit in the courtroom unless
they insisted on it when I discuss autopsy reports. But
I know it's nothing you haven't already dreamed about, had
nightmares about Miss Kyles.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Ma'am sorry that every.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Time you talk about this you have to relive what
happened to Aliah. What is your message for the justice
system and to other parents tonight?

Speaker 15 (42:04):
I wouldn't want any parents to fill this hurts because
then was very simple. My daughter worked hard, she was
loving her apartments, work two jobs, she.

Speaker 5 (42:20):
Loves her nieces and next fews, she just.

Speaker 6 (42:22):
The life of the family. Uh, I will.

Speaker 15 (42:26):
We'll never get to see her coming through the door
with their lovely smile. What's y'all door?

Speaker 5 (42:34):
What y'all's finna eat?

Speaker 15 (42:35):
What we gonna eat?

Speaker 6 (42:36):
Who cook?

Speaker 18 (42:37):
It?

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Just want?

Speaker 16 (42:38):
I will?

Speaker 11 (42:39):
I'm just everything about her.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
She was a sweet It was my sweet little girl.
It was my baby. Love their mouths.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
It hurts.

Speaker 15 (42:51):
I'd be trying to be so strong, but sometimes it's
a lot of times when I get home from work
and I just sit here and not think about my baby.
I talk to God. I get asked us for strength,
but I am so sad and hurt. It's like my
life is not to sign anymore. I'm a chine. My

(43:14):
life is not. I don't life not to sign. It's
not every day insight on life, and how I feel just.

Speaker 6 (43:24):
A hurt that I have to walk around.

Speaker 15 (43:28):
And you know, try to act like everything signed.

Speaker 11 (43:33):
It's not.

Speaker 6 (43:34):
It's not sign it out.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Mister Tyles, Mister Tyles, what is your message for the
justice system and for other parents tonight?

Speaker 7 (43:45):
We do want justice and.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
They couldn't have come no quickly. Our daughter was a
light life by a life, and it's just been real
from us. But one thing I do liked. Thank God,
we're giving us the justice and we can't do nothing
but continue to pray and try to come together as
a family until we get healed.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Joining me Anthony and Mantina Kyles seeking justice for their
daughter Aliah.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
We wait as justice unfolds.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
If you know or think you know anything about the
brutal death of this beautiful teen girl, Aliah, please dial
nine zero one five two eight two two seven four
repeat nine zero one five two eight two two seven four.

(44:42):
Nancy Grace signing off good night,
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Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace

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