A 911 Call Raises Doubts After a Teen Is Found Dead (S1, E8)

A 911 Call Raises Doubts After a Teen Is Found Dead (S1, E8) | Murder at the Motel | Full Episode

At 9:45 a.m. on September 6th, 2020, emergency services received an emotional call at the Forest Motel in Ridgeland regarding a shooting victim. Detective Katie McCallister was notified by her former captain, Ryan Neal, that the Ridgeland Police Department had a murder and requested regional agents and crime scene assistance.

Upon arriving at the scene, McCallister observed people scattered in the grassy area, just standing and looking. Brian Redding, the victim’s 32-year-old boyfriend who had called 911, was still on the scene. He informed the authorities that the victim was Cypress Noonan, and she was only 16 years old.

The Crime Scene Cypress and Brian were staying in room 22, located in an L-shaped corner towards the back of the property. When McCallister pushed the door open, she found Cypress sitting up in bed, slumped to her left side with an obvious gunshot wound to her forehead. She was in a relaxed position with her legs straight out and arms by her side.

SWANSON: She was in a fairly relaxed position. Her legs were out straight and her arms were by her side. It was a bloody scene and there was brain matter on the wall all the way up to the ceiling. There was a lot of blood to the left side of her and on the sheets. Initially, we weren’t sure what had happened.

We knew that she had been shot, we didn’t know if it was self-inflicted or if someone else shot her. Our crime scene unit responded from Colombia. They processed the scene. Digital photographs, went through the entire room. Very standard. There was a bed, a table and chairs, an end table, mini fridge, bathroom.

The rest of the room appeared to be relatively normal. We’re looking for anything like, if someone hurt her, did they wash their hands in the sink? Could there be blood in the sink? We were looking for shell casings. Is there a gun in the room? Any weapons? ‘Cause our goal at that point is obviously safety.

We don’t want guns to be just lying around. We want to make sure that if we spot any evidence that we say it’s right there, so that when our crime scene unit gets here, they can go directly and collect that evidence without it being tampered with. The gun was not in the room, so we were confident that it was a murder case at that point.

But once all of our photographs were taken and the coroner came, we only found one shell casing. SWANSON: They also noticed that there has been no forced entry. The lock and the bolts and everything are intact. They noticed that there’s not been any sign of a struggle. There’s not chairs flipped over.

There’s nothing of value that is missing from the room. Mr. Redding could not describe anything that should have been there that wasn’t there. She did not appear to have tried to fight anyone off. She ended up not to have any foreign DNA under her fingernails or any signs of defensive wounds.

So it’s likely that she never even saw this coming. SWANSON: They should have taken Brian Redding out of the motel room first, but they didn’t. He was on the phone for a large part of that time when police were present. Several of my first responders noted that he would wail every now and again.

He seemed to be talking quickly and without a whole lot of emotion. He did call Cypress’s sisters actually shortly thereafter. TAYLOR COWHERD: I was leaving Florida with my kids. We were up there with our Papa Steve. We were loading up in the car, getting ready to head back to Ridgeland and Cypress’s Facebook was calling me.

I didn’t answer it because I had a lot going on in the moment. I’m trying to get kids in the car, bags in the car. But I texted and I said, “Hey, I’m leaving Papa’s Steve’s House. “What’s up?” And I got a message back saying “Something happened to Cypress. Call me.” I immediately called her Facebook.

I’m like, “Hey, what’s going on?” It was Brian. And he was like, “She’s unresponsive, she’s unresponsive.” I’m like, “Dude, you need to calm down “and tell me what’s going on.” He went into detail about his morning. What he did that morning. I don’t care about your morning.

Is my sister okay? Is she breathing? Is she okay? And then he said, “No, she’s been shot in the head. She’s dead.” DESIREE NOONAN: I was sleeping. My kid’s father woke me up to my neighbor at the door. I happened to be living at the apartments next door to the hotel. All I heard was her tell him to wake Desiree up right now.

Like, “I need her to come right now.” She was just like telling me how sorry she was. And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” She was like “It’s Cypress,” and I was like, “What do you mean, it’s Cypress?” And then… (CRYING) She was like… She was like “She’s gone.” And I was like, “What do you mean, she’s gone?” I pushed her off of me.

She was hugging me, so I pushed her off of me. And I jumped the fence. I see all my sisters out there, they’re crying there on the ground. It was like a movie. I got there before, like even the caution tape got up or anything. And the police officer came to me and said, “We’re investigating a homicide of your sister”.

And I fell down to the floor. I fell down to the ground. And then my twin had to come over there and tell me “Paige passed out. “They’re gonna call the ambulance. “They’re gonna call the ambulance.” RAVEN JOHNSON: Tops everything I’ve ever been through in my life. It’s the number one worst thing.

It was definitely heartbreaking. My mom couldn’t bring herself to get there. And the number one thing I wanted to do was jump over there, over that caution tape and just go fight somebody. I felt like a big anger of hate like… You just feel everything at that moment. And then I would like go to sleep that night and be like I’m gonna wake up and it’s not just a dream.

I’m gonna wake up, I’m gonna call her. Everything’s going to be good. And it was just never like that. NARRATOR: Due to the 911 call, Detective Katie McCallister has to interview Cypress’s sister Desiree as a potential suspect. DESIREE: We went down to the station to talk to her.

Brian called the police and in the car he’s basically crying saying his girlfriend was shot in the head. And then they asked, “Do you know who did it?” He instantly stopped crying and was like, “I don’t know, “but she got into an altercation with her sister next door.” He mentioned mine and her fight from like three weeks before.

He tried to say that I ended up killing her. And I proceeded to tell them my name and everything. After, like 30 minutes of being there, I was like, “I’m literally being questioned “about my sister’s death right now.” McCALLISTER: Based on the way Cypress was sitting in the bed, her arms were down by her sides.

She appeared relaxed. There were no defensive wounds. I believed at that point that her killer knew her. He was telling her that I was coming on to him and all this other crazy stuff.

And he asked me to do something inappropriate for him. And I told Cypress. After that, I wasn’t allowed to be around her. I wasn’t allowed to talk to her. He was just in her head, trying to make it seem like I’m the problem. Because I told on him, he switched it. She didn’t see what really was going on, she only saw inside their circle.

DESIREE: It was hard. I’m trying to explain to her that it’s not like that. I’m trying to reach out to her and show her the messages and show her everything. And as she’s getting ’em, he’s deleting ’em. She didn’t have her own mind. And I hate to say that, <

i> you know, it sucks saying that, but… Like I said, she had to do anything that he wanted her to do. SWANSON: I think we all know people with a bunch of sisters, and they fight like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, they’ll have each other’s backs. And that’s what these girls were like, too. Did anyone believe that her sister had anything to do with her death? Absolutely not.

Mr. Redding was still on scene. He had already given Ridgeland police a statement. We took him to the local police department and I re-interviewed him. I learned that Mr. Redding at the time was 32 years old and that Ms. Noonan was 16. He said they were happy that he was helping her get a job and her driver’s license

and the necessary things that you need to get a job. So I immediately had some concerns with that. RAVEN: They met at the laundromat. She was cleaning out my van. She noticed him at the laundromat and thought he was cute. How they connected and speaking or anything like that.

I have no idea. I just know that she told me about that story and then boom! They were boyfriend and girlfriend. COWHERD: I actually worked at Waffle House with Brian a couple of years before he met Cypress. I got a weird feeling from him then, but I just felt like, maybe it’s just because he’s trying to hit on me.

I told him, “Hey, I got a boyfriend”. And you know, he kind of was, like, pushy a little bit, but I didn’t work at Waffle House for very long so, you know, we went separate ways. So when she told me, I was like… “Dang Cypress, what are you doing?” (LAUGHS) RAVEN: Any time that I spoke on her, being young and being with a 32-year-old man.

It always ended up being like “I’m not listening to you, I’m not hearing it.” And then she’ll try to speak some positivity about him into the situation because she does want to change my mind. Everybody disapproved. She brought him to our home one time and I told her she can stay, but he had to leave.

Next thing I know, she’s leaving with him. And every time I would report it, nothing would happen. She would call me and ask me for money from hotel rooms, and I’d tell her, “No, come home.” They stayed constantly at the Forest. They were there for a good while. PAIGE: She couldn’t even talk without him knowing everything she was talking about.

When me and her talked it would be ’cause of him. Yeah, and then, like even, like, she’s with me all day, every day. You know what I’m saying? But the whole time she’s with me, he’s there. But on the phone, on speaker. -Yeah, always on phone. -And she has it on. Yeah. -If they’re not together… -They’re on the phone.

Yeah, they’re on the phone. So if you’re literally hanging out with her, you’re hanging out with him on the phone, too. So I’m thinking it’s because he you know, he could know everything that’s going on. RAVEN: I started noticing the phone calls and, you know, gradually hearing the conversation.

This relationship sounds like a big case of manipulation. She couldn’t have a schedule. She couldn’t make plans. If she had to do something, she’s got five minutes. KING: Nobody was allowed in that room. He would get really mad if there was. If we were to drop something off, we had to set it by the door and leave.

Or she had so much room to open up the door and push the stuff through to her. I mean, he manipulated her into thinking it was okay for him to have more than one girlfriend. Yes. Oh my God, yes. -And he’s driving her… -(LAUGHS) …and driving the other girlfriend’s car with her in it. -You know, like… -Yeah.

And it’s so crazy because me and her we’re not cool at that time, because of him. She wanted to speak to me, but I didn’t want to because of him. It was so crazy. It’s fine, though, because at the end of the day, she knew you all were sisters and you all have one another. NARRATOR: Detectives interviewed Brian Redding to piece together his whereabouts on the morning of the murder.

There were just things that he stated in his interview that didn’t add up and didn’t make sense. SWANSON: He seemed to have a lot going on. He started his morning off extremely early and made sure a number of people saw him and you know, basically had

a very crowded schedule all before 9:45 for a man that doesn’t work. NARRATOR: The 11th of October, 2020, one month after Cypress Noonan’s murder at the Forest Motel. Detectives bring Brian Redding back in for questioning. SWANSON: He says that he’s been away all morning.

He took a shower, he says, before 6:00 a.m. Goes to Beaufort, stops at Parker’s, which is a gas station on the way into Beaufort where he was picking up his girlfriend, whose car he had. When he was on surveillance, he was dressed in a Batman shirt. That was not what he was dressed in when he came back to the scene and found Cypress at 9:45 a. m.

SWANSON: When he was photographed at his interview, he did not have any blood on him. So we do believe that he cleaned himself up at some point. Washing his hands, changing his shirt. He could not produce that Batman shirt when we asked him for it. NARRATOR: Detectives then get a crucial breakthrough from the crime lab.

McCALLISTER: The shell casing was sent to the lab for ballistics testing, It could have only been fired from a specific SCCY or some people call it a “Sky” handgun. Her family had told us that she was in possession of a Tiffany blue handgun of that make and caliber. It was not recovered at the scene.

KING: Cypress sent me and a couple of other people the videos showing people a gun. It was blue. Like a really weird blue color. So I did some research and found out who had it. She had a video on her phone of Brian on Snapchat with the gun, showing it off while he’s driving.

My name came up in it, too, because I owned the nine. I even gave him a little grip, that didn’t fit mine for his. So I’ve seen it plenty of times. I keep having this image in my head of him, like just playing around with it, you know, threatening her l

ike you know, “It’s, you know, if you cheat on…” -and it goes off. -It goes off. -I have that same… -And that same vision -I have in my head. -Yeah, me too. ‘Cause we knew he played too much. And like I said, I was in an altercation where he put it, pointed it at me. You know what I’m saying? So, the only vision I keep seeing in my head is them in the room, her sitting up on the bed with her back against the wall board and him, you know, playing around too much, but you know, meaning what he says.

And then it goes off. NARRATOR: It’s the 11th of October 2020. Detectives are investigating the murder of 16-year-old Cypress Noonan. Cypress was born September 19th 2003. Even as young as I can remember,

she was always the boss, the life of the crowd. I’m a single mother of seven kids and I did what I could do. RAVEN: We have one big family. When you see the books of a big family, we fall right into that category. So it’s me, I’m number one, numero uno. I have a twin actually, she came 10 minutes later, which is Paige.

And then next was Taylor, And then, right after Taylor was Desiree and then Gregory, which is the boy. And then right after Gregory, it was Morgan and then Cypress. COWHERD: She was the baby of the family. So everybody loved on her. Everybody spoiled her. Like, she definitely was a spoiled baby growing up.

Anytime I would come home, she would be sitting in my yard waiting for me to get home, just so she could spend time with me and the kids. As soon as she sees me pulling in the driveway, she’d get this big old smile. And the kids would be like “Mama, Cypress is here.” I remember one morning I put on a pink shirt, and then Cypress and Morgan, they decided to go put on the same thing I was wearing.

They went in my closet and put on my clothes. I was in the bathroom taking pictures. And the next thing I know, they’re coming in to take the same pictures with me. (LAUGHS) She looked up to all of us, you know? And she was always happy. RAVEN: I would say softball is kind of like where she got to build some memories or some bonds with some of us.

She was young, but she was good. She played like an all-star. It was wonderful. MORGAN: I remember the last year we played, we were getting older and can’t play on the Little League no more. So we had to lie about our age (CHUCKLES) to be able to play ’cause we didn’t have a car and the next step was travel softball, and we couldn’t do that.

So we had to lie about our age. (GIGGLES) I didn’t even know that. (LAUGHS) Yeah. NARRATOR: Forensics uncover a vital piece of evidence from the crime scene. McCALLISTER: When our crime scene unit responded to the Forest Motel, the blood was visible on the door. They did swab that to identify whose blood it was.

And then our forensics laboratory did their magic. We were left with two names as a result of those DNA, Ms. Noonan and Mr. Redding. It indicated that Mr. Redding and Ms. Noonan would have had to be there in that room at the time that blood was left. He claimed that he touched Cypress, that he grabbed her face.

And if you did that, you would have blood on your hands. Not only that you would have gunpowder residue on your hands. But they didn’t find that on his hands. They only found it on his shorts. And if you’re in a panic, you find somebody like that, you’re not gonna be like, “Whoa! Let me go wash my hands.

” McCALLISTER: With the cell phone forensics we found evidence that Ms. Noonan was talking with her brother Greg, and she was trying to leave him. And it was kept secret. She did not want Mr. Redding to know that she was leaving. He was upset about that, and it ultimately led to a fatal argument.

So at that point, we believe that Mr. Redding was responsible for Cypress Noonan’s murder. SWANSON: We believe that he committed this murder early morning hours before he even left the motel to go give his side piece a ride to work.

He came back to the motel at about 8:00. Didn’t really give a good reason for it. We thought maybe he was stopping to see if her body had been discovered. We think that he wanted the manager of the motel to find her body so that he would be even that further you know, removed from the scene and then, you know, finding her and things like that.

The phone records indicate that he was at the Forest Motel for about 20 minutes, around 8:00 and then he takes his cousin back to her house and also, at some point drives by a family member of Cypress’s, one of their houses and waves to them and anyone that can see him that morning he makes sure that they see him so that he can create this false alibi for this murder that he committed in the wee hours And what was going through his head? We have no idea.

NARRATOR: Two months after the murder of 16-year-old Cypress Noonan, detectives have closed in on Brian Redding as her murderer. McCALLISTER: We met with the solicitor, discussed a path forward, and then ultimately we obtained arrest warrants. We got together, did some surveillance, located Mr.

Redding at a residence and he was arrested without incident. He didn’t fight or barricade or anything like that. It was routine as arrest go. I’ve had people who were overconfident and choose not to run. And they really work with us to try to figure out what we know. And then I’ve had people who panic and flee across the country.

I’m not sure what his mindset was at the time, kind of what he was thinking. But he did stay local to the area. NARRATOR: Brian Redding was charged with one count of murder, possession of a weapon and a violent crime. And possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. COWHERD: Katie called all of us to the police station.

We were all at the table and she came in and she’s like, “Well, I just wanted to let y’all know “that we arrested Brian today.” We had questions, but she couldn’t really tell us much because of the ongoing investigation. RAVEN: I was assuming it was Brian from the beginning only because of the evidence.

My information and aggression that I’ve seen myself and some of the things that I was learning during the investigation, like videos and… timing and all that had just… My finger went straight there. He tried to play a role as being innocent coming in the room and finding her. And that’s why we have Katie and Nicky to walk through and find out all that.

RAVEN: The first thing that came to my mind was, how could it be someone that she laid in the bed next to? Why couldn’t he just send her home? It’s scary. And to know that it can sleep right next to you. NARRATOR: Two years later, Brian Redding’s murder trial begins. SWANSON: The trial started August 15th of 2022 in the Jasper County Courthouse.

It has one courtroom on the second floor that’s where we have all of our general sessions, our state court crime trials in Jasper County. COWHERD: It was definitely emotional. We were told we had to be as quiet as a mouse. We couldn’t draw any attention to ourselves, so we basically sat very quiet and just took it all in.

McCALLISTER: It was about a week long. Hunter presented her case first. We went through all the witnesses, her friends and family. I testified. Our crime scene ballistics, they all testified. It’s a lot of pressure. You wanna do a good job and you want to give the family justice.

So there’s always anxiety of “Did I miss anything? “What could I have done better?” The defense likes to point out weaknesses in the case, and sometimes weaknesses are just part of it. The defense put the phone records in from Brian Redding’s phone. It did not corroborate the testimony of the defense witnesses.

And all it established was that he had been here and there and everywhere that morning. And then also that his phone may have gone dead for a while. They didn’t have their story together as far as what the phone records show. And so their rendition was just a few minutes, not even a cigarette worth five minutes is what they said.

They didn’t want to admit that there was 20 minutes at the Forest Motel, even though that’s just data. NARRATOR: Cypress’s sister Desiree is called to the stand. It’s hard, definitely hard, to be sitting up there in front of a bunch of strangers and being asked if you killed your sister. I felt like I couldn’t grieve the way I wanted to.

I had to watch what I said. Watch what I did, because I am being looked at like… You just threw my name in something that I didn’t… I would never think of doing in a million years. Yeah, I’ll fight my sisters, all of ’em. But I’m not gonna do something like that. That was real tough. And then looking this man in the face, just hoping that we would get an answer.

I had to keep doing this ’cause I didn’t wanna look at him. And then when he actually stood up and he started with the fake crying again, saying, you know, “I loved her.” None of us looked at him. None of us could look at him. None of us. I mean, everything as far as like evidence, it’s you. But you got the nerve to stand in this courtroom and look at us and speak with us as if you’re not the person that did it, and you really loved her.

No, it’s not true. (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING) Brian had to stick to somewhat of a script because he had already given a statement. And so if he were to deviate from that, I can impeach him with that former statement. He seemed very confident at trial, even cocky. He did not appear concerned. He was certainly not remorseful.

He thought he had pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes with his false alibi and, you know, his excuses and stories about where he was that day. He presented himself as Cypress’s savior. You know, that he was just helping her. He wanted to make sure she stayed on her “A game” is what he testified to.

I mean, by keeping her locked up in a hotel room with no money and, you know, doing nothing at all, I don’t know how that’s her “A game”. NARRATOR: The jury is then sent off to deliberate on whether there is enough evidence to convict Brian Redding of murdering Cypress Noonan. McCALLISTER: It’s nerve-racking because you never know what they’re thinking.

It really can go any number of ways. NARRATOR: It’s the murder trial of Brian Redding, and jury deliberations have begun. McCALLISTER: It’s nerve racking ’cause you never know when a jury is gonna come back. You never know what they’re thinking. They can look at you and smile and come back with a verdict you were not expecting.

They can look angry the whole time and give you the verdict you are expecting. It really can go any number of ways. SWANSON: You can do your best to prepare for everything, but you never know what’s gonna happen at trial. NARRATOR: But it’s not even an hour before the jury has reached a verdict.

I looked at my watch, it was about 30 minutes. It was very fast. I said, “Well, it’s either gonna go one of two ways. “Either they’re absolutely certain “of his guilt or they’re absolutely certain “of his innocence.” We took a deep breath and went upstairs to the courtroom and sat down and waited for the judge to come in.

The judge asked if they had reached the verdict. They indicated that they had. That’s a 50-50 chance. You never know who believes what. It was is very nerve wracking. waiting on an answer. The verdict sheet was given to the clerk of court, and he was found guilty of murder and possession of a weapon.

He was sentenced to 48 years. Between the conviction and the sentence he’s gonna spend, if not the rest of his life in prison pretty darn close to it. Prison is not an easy place to be, especially as you get older. And so I definitely believe that the jury got it right and the judge issued a very fair sentence in this case.

COWHERD: It was definitely a relief. It was like, “Yes, they finally got him, you know.” But at the same time, it’s still like… We’re still here with no sister. You know, like it’s still a sad event. Even though they got him, yeah, it still doesn’t feel like justice is justice. I mean, how could it be? She’s gone. We’ll never see her again.

But he still gets to talk to his mom and his kids and his family and he’s still alive. He’s still breathing. DESIREE: I just don’t understand why he did it. Or what happened? Like… (SNIFFLES) We know you did it. Just tell us why? We deserve that. He took a 16-year-old’s life. Hasn’t even gotten to live life yet.

COWHERD: To know Cypress is to know love. She was a very loving person, like she loved everybody. She didn’t… I don’t think there’s one person out there that I could say that she didn’t have a problem with. Maybe some girls, you know? Little regular girl drama, but she loved everybody, and everybody, if you came in contact with her, you would understand why.

RAVEN: She will be forever mentioned in my life. Her memory will never die. She will always be mentioned just like that. She will be someone that nobody will ever forget. You would know who she is through all of us. The way she talked, the way she walked, the way she laughed, the way she cried, anything.

And I say that by just specifically the way I talk. I say that specifically by the way my sister walks, I say that by the way my sisters laughs. I say that by the way my sisters cry. I say that by the grandkids. And once you get to know all of us, we are very unforgettable. We are all loving just the same way she was.

Cypress was just the perfect one that got away. KING: Because she’s truly missed… by a lot of people. We throw her birthday parties every year. (LAUGHS) Some people think we’re crazy. Doing a birthday party for somebody that’s not here. (SNIFFLES) But she was 16 years old. We go all out for our parties.

We do the big cakes and we’re gonna have a big bash this year ’cause she’d be turning 21. And what 21-year-old doesn’t have a big bash? Some years everybody shows up, some years it’s just family. And I really don’t care because it’s for her. It’s the day to talk about Cypress. Remember Cypress.

Talk about how fun she was, how dumb she was, how mean she was, and… (LAUGHS) And how loving she was. And yeah, we’ll probably still do it every year. Even if it’s just us. PAIGE: She definitely deserved to live. -She definitely… -She didn’t deserve this. -Long live Cypress. -Yep, long live Cypress.