“What happened when he came home that night? Roxy’s car was there, but she wasn’t there.”
“All that stuff that she would be taking if she was going to be gone for a long time, that stuff was… it was still there.”
“He was cheating on her and she found out about her. Roxy sent her a kind of a scathing text.”
“It just really threw up a lot of red flags for me. Started changing up how we were looking at the other case, obviously.”
“What was the fear? Roxy had left and she was never coming back.”
“Hi, I’m Nancy O’Dell. Today’s crime expose brings us to Broken Bow, Oklahoma, the rural community that made headlines in 2019 when a woman named Roxy Fazi seemingly vanished from her own home. As a search to find her intensified, no one was prepared for what investigators would uncover.”
“It was January 26th, a quiet Saturday at the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office, when Broken Bow resident Brian McMahon called in to report a theft.”
“He contacted the sheriff’s office and made a report that he had $8,600 missing and his live-in girlfriend was gone.”
“Brian’s girlfriend was 56-year-old Roxy Fazi. He told police the last time he saw her was on Friday morning before he left for work.”
“He told us that he got home from work, she wasn’t there, car wasn’t there, and so he took a shower and then left and went to the gymnasium to referee the ball game, came home that night, and Roxy’s car was there, but she wasn’t there.”
“Brian said he tried calling her, but she didn’t answer.”
“The next morning, he gets up, starts looking around and discovers this money’s missing. And then he notices some photographs from the mantle of her children that uh are gone.”
“Brian told police he was upset Roxy had taken his money and left. He admitted they had been having issues but were trying to work on it. Officers made a report but didn’t think too much about it. But then a few days later, a second call came in that changed everything. This time it was from Roxy’s daughter in Canada who wanted to report her missing. She insisted that her mother would never have just run off and that something was terribly wrong.”
“She’s like, I talk to my mom every day. If not every day, it is every other day, no matter what.”
“What in her words convinced you that you had to investigate Roxy’s disappearance immediately?”
“The mere circumstances of how she was missing for 3 or 4 days. She always talked to her daughter every day, and nothing. It just really threw up a lot of red flags for me.”
“Detective Devin Black quickly sprung into action.”
“I just immediately started typing out search warrants for uh her residence to look and go see if there was any signs of foul play.”
“Investigators searched Roxy and Brian’s home, and although they didn’t find any evidence of a crime, there were certain things that led Detective Black to believe Roxy had not planned on leaving.”
“So what did you find in the home that was so troubling?”
“Being married for 15 years, I know what my wife’s going to take if we’re going to go on vacation. That stuff was still there at Roxy’s: toothbrushes, deodorant, all that stuff that she would be taking if she was going to be gone for a long time, that stuff was… it was still there. The house was spotless. I’m talking immaculate. Like there was not a speck of food, not dust anywhere. It was so precisely clean that the couch had vacuum marks, like vertical vacuum marks in it. And whenever I saw that, that kind of threw up suspicion for me.”
“And there was more. Roxy’s daughter had told Detective Black to look for a specific pillow that Roxy had from her childhood. She said her mother would never leave home without it.”
“So that was actually one of the items I listed in the search warrant to go look for, and we found it. It was there laying on the bed.”
“Nothing made sense, and detectives got to work trying to create a timeline of Roxy’s last known movements.”
“Her last phone call was to a friend. Their plan was to attend a basketball tournament. She made plans to meet her friend at the game that night. She asked her friend to save her a seat. Roxy would call her when she arrived at the gym and then they would sit together. But she never arrived at the game.”
“But detectives caught a big break when Broken Bow police let them know that they had pulled Roxy over for speeding late Friday afternoon, which proved she was alive earlier that day. This is the actual body cam video of that stop.”
“I don’t know how I did it. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s fine. You’re doing fine. Have a safe weekend.”
“Those words from the officer now seemed haunting. Investigators studied the video and couldn’t find anything that made it seem as if Roxy had been upset or wanting to run away.”
“Roxy was happy. She was, she was bubbly with the police officer.”
“In fact, Roxy’s daughter confirmed that her mom was more than happy. She was in love.”
“She loved Brian, like she would do anything for Brian. She was, I don’t want to say obsessed, but man, that was… that was her life as Brian.”
“Detectives got Roxy’s phone records, which showed that she had arrived home around 4:00 p.m. shortly after being pulled over. But just an hour later, the phone was turned off and she was never heard from again. Investigators had more questions than answers. But one thing was clear: Roxy’s sudden disappearance didn’t add up.”
“Detectives investigating Roxy Fazy’s disappearance were at a loss. It was as if she had faded into thin air.”
“Roxy had a planned trip to Fiji she was excited about. She went tanning. She had a hair appointment scheduled.”
“Whenever you find someone that has future plans, they don’t just leave on their own with no communication with anyone.”
“As the days and weeks began to pass, investigators turned to the media hoping the publicity might spark some new tips.”
“I got a news crew to come down and get her out on TV, show pictures, and kind of connect people with her.”
“Roxy’s boyfriend Brian McMahon gave this interview saying he was completely heartbroken.”
“We’re making plans to be together for the rest of our lives. I don’t know, I don’t know why she left.”
“But during the interview he also threw out a theory.”
“I think she met somebody and, and uh, I went away with him.”
“Was there anything you found that led you to believe that Roxy had a secret boyfriend?”
“We never found anything like that through any of her cell phone data, her messages, her Facebook, any social media events, uh communications with anyone where she had met anybody.”
“In fact, those closest to Roxy told detectives that it was Brian who had strayed from their relationship.”
“She discussed with various friends about she thought he was cheating on her.”
“But instead of getting upset with Brian, Roxy took it out on the other woman.”
“Roxy found out about her and contacted her and, and really took the lady by surprise. Brian met her at the library. He was an avid reader and Roxy was very jealous. I think she wrote her a letter telling her, you know, you’re a home wrecker.”
“And then Roxy sent a final text message to the woman the day before she went missing.”
“The timing seemed almost too coincidental, and investigators wondered if it had led to her disappearance. Without a body and no evidence, the search expanded.”
“Once we couldn’t locate her anywhere here, we started using border crossing logs, registration, uh, stalking charge.”
“Upon release, he moved to Las Vegas and tried to escape his past. But 14 years later, a new prosecutor was convinced that the passage of time proved that Tina was no longer alive.”
“John Sandoval was finally arrested for the murder of Tina Tournai.”
“Without a body, how could prosecutors prove that Tina was dead?”
“The approach that we took was to begin to examine every record source within the United States. So we’re talking Social Security, the National Crime Information Computer, nursing licenses, driver’s license repositories, social media. And ultimately we found no existence of Tina after October 20th.”
“Tina’s entire family was there every single day for every moment of that trial, and it was tense. There was fear. Uh, I talked to jurors who were afraid to look at him because he was so scary to even them.”
“The most compelling thing for me in that 30-day trial was listening to um, the women who he stalked, who he victimized for a long time, especially his first girlfriend, who he threatened to cut up into little pieces. You could, you could feel her terror.”
“The prosecutor succeeded in proving that Tina wasn’t alive and that her husband was responsible for her death.”
“John Sandoval was convicted for the first-degree murder of his wife Tina Tournai. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.”
“So what did it mean to Tina’s family to finally see the conviction?”
“The family, they just wanted justice. They wanted John to go down for what he did, and that’s what we received with that verdict.”
“But the justice Tina’s family so desperately wanted didn’t last. In 2016, John Sandoval’s conviction was overturned on a technicality.”
“One year after the Colorado Court of Appeals overturned John Sandoval’s murder conviction, Weld County moved to retry the case. The prosecutor requested all recorded phone calls by Sandoval while in custody.”
“So what was the reaction to the request for Sandoval’s phone records?”
“And within a few short hours, his defense attorney was authorized by Sandoval to negotiate a plea in exchange for Tina’s body. The Tournai family agreed to the deal and John Sandoval was sentenced to 25 years to life, and Tina Tournai’s body was finally found in a cemetery of all places, the Sunset Memorial Gardens in Greeley, beneath a casket which was buried on the same day that Tina Tournai went missing.”
“And even though a killer was convicted in her death, like the family of so many victims, the Tournai family had to endure the pain of not having their loved one home. And police say they had to make a deal with a devil just to get Tina’s body.”
“And now it’s time for our safety spotlight.”
“Tina Tournai-Sandoval’s story is a sobering reminder of the importance of taking threats and concerns seriously, especially when dealing with potentially dangerous situations involving an ex-partner.”
“Here are some safety tips based on her case:”
“When dealing with a strained or potentially dangerous relationship, handle all communications through lawyers whenever possible. This minimizes direct contact and reduces the risk of confrontation.”
“For your safety, never agree to meet an ex-partner alone. If there are concerns about their behavior, always involve a third party or arrange to meet in a secure, monitored environment.”
“If an ex-partner has a history of violence or makes explicit threats, treat these warnings with the utmost seriousness. Contact law enforcement and document any threats or aggressive behavior.”
“And if you have a gut feeling that something is wrong, don’t ignore it. Take proactive measures to protect yourself.”
“I’m Nancy O’Dell. For all of us here at Crime Expose, please join us next time and stay safe.”
“Heat.”
“Heat.”
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
