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Sneak peek: The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee
"Are you gonna termination my mommy? Are you gonna termination me?"
Michelle Renee said those are the archetypal words she heard from her 7-year-old girl Breea aft 3 masked gunmen broke down their doorway successful San Diego County, California, connected the nighttime of Nov. 21, 2000.
Renee says she had mislaid show of her girl aft the intruders threw them to the level and bound them with duct tape. When she was yet capable to look up, she saw Breea "face down, with a weapon to her head."
The gunmen took their clip explaining wherefore they were there. They told her they had followed her for months.
"It was precise overmuch that caput power happening that they were doing, that, 'we cognize everything astir you,'" Renee said, including the information that she was a subdivision manager astatine a section bank.
Finally, the ringleader told Renee what they wanted.
"You're gonna rob the slope for us," she recalled them telling her. "Or you volition die, your girl volition spell first."
"48 Hours" contributor Tracy Smith takes america into this antithetic lawsuit in "The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee." An encore of the occurrence airs Saturday, May 24 astatine 10/9c connected CBS and streaming connected Paramount+.
Throughout the night, Renee said she heard the ringleader talking to a pistillate dependable connected a walkie-talkie. The pistillate called him "Money One," and she was "Money Two."
The pursuing morning, Renee, her roommate and Breea were strapped with dynamite. Renee said they told her they could detonate wrong a 10-mile radius if she made 1 mendacious move. Breea would beryllium placed successful a closet portion Renee drove to the slope —with the ringleader crouched successful the backmost of her car. By the clip the slope opened astatine 9 a.m., Renee walked retired with a duffel container filled with $360,000.
Recovered wealth from the slope robbery.
North County Superior Court
Once the gunman took disconnected with the cash, Renee raced home, not definite what she'd find erstwhile she got there.
"I don't cognize if Breea's gonna beryllium there," Renee recalled thinking. "I don't cognize if she's gonna beryllium live erstwhile I get there."
When she yet arrived the gunmen were gone, and Breea was inactive successful the closet wherever Renee had near her.
In a reenactment for investigators, Michelle and Breea Renee are seen wearing the fake dynamite that the intruders strapped to their backs.
North County Superior Court
The ringleader had forgotten to region the dynamite from Renee's back. After examining it, the weaponry squad discovered it was fake. Tom Manning, a authoritative successful the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, told "48 Hours" that it was conscionable 2 broomstick handles that had been chopped up, painted and taped unneurotic to look similar dynamite.
During the 14-hour hostage situation, Renee had recognized the ringleader's eyes due to the fact that helium had posed arsenic a lawsuit astatine the slope earlier that day, and helium had near down a concern paper earlier a pistillate companion had whisked him away.
"My encephalon was going, 'Oh my gosh, don't fto him cognize that you know,'" Renee said.
The pb would assistance investigators ace the case.
"Through that card, they started the investigation," Renee said.
The concern paper contained the suspect's existent name, Christopher Butler. The FBI soon discovered Butler was a convicted felon with a past of robbing banks. Through surveillance, they recovered Butler surviving successful a location with his fiancée Lisa Ramirez, the aforesaid pistillate who had travel with him to the bank. When Butler and Ramirez were arrested 10 days aboriginal astatine a postulation stop, investigators recovered carnal grounds tying them to the crime, including a BB weapon that matched 1 of the guns Renee had described, the skis masks with cutout oculus holes, Renee's recognition cards, and the wealth straps from the bank.
Kidnapped and threatened with dynamite, slope manager forced to perpetrate $360,000 robbery to prevention her daughter's life
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At the house, investigators recovered "all the ingredients to marque the fake bomb," Manning said, similar cut-up pieces of a broom grip that had been painted, and cans of reddish spray paint, including 1 with Ramirez's fingerprint connected it. Butler's fingerprint would aboriginal beryllium recovered connected the fake dynamite itself.
"It was crazy, I've ne'er seen that overmuch carnal grounds near astatine a transgression scene," Manning said.
Butler denied everything to constabulary and tried to support Ramirez. But during her interview, Ramirez admitted to authorities she was progressive successful the plot, and that she was the pistillate dependable connected the walkie-talkie. She adjacent took recognition for the thought to usage fake dynamite and kidnap the slope manager. She besides told detectives the wealth had been divided 3 ways among the suspects, but that some her stock and Butler's had been stolen. But during that interview, Ramirez besides falsely claimed that Renee had been successful connected it.
"We walked retired of that thinking, 'OK, Lisa's the mastermind down each of this. And, is it imaginable Michelle's involved?'" Manning said.
But ultimately, Manning said, helium knew Renee was innocent.
"The archetypal clip I interviewed her, she had Breea with her," Manning said. "And...I saw that enslaved and relationship. And erstwhile she left, I went, 'she's not progressive successful this.'"
There was besides each the grounds to corroborate Renee's account. The different 2 suspects, Christopher Huggins and Robert Ortiz, had fixed afloat confessions, neither implicating her.
Christopher Butler and Lisa Ramirez, aka "Money One" and "Money Two," successful tribunal during their June 2002 trial.
Zuma
In June 2002, Butler and Ramirez would beryllium tried unneurotic successful the archetypal of 2 trials.
"There was truthful overmuch evidence, determination was nary mode I thought that this proceedings was gonna beryllium thing but… a slam dunk," Renee said.
Manning said the DA's bureau was assured that Ramirez's cardinal statements astir her engagement would beryllium allowed into evidence.
Even Ramirez's lawyer Herb Weston admitted that it didn't look bully for his lawsuit — she had confessed connected camera. Weston told Smith helium thought Ramirez was blameworthy erstwhile helium archetypal got the case, and offered the prosecution a plea deal, which they rejected.
"If they play that tape, saying that she wasn't progressive would've been difficult," Weston told Smith.
But to everyone's surprise, and Weston's delight, since Ramirez's statements besides implicated her co-defendant Butler, the justice ruled the full interrogation inadmissible.
"We tin present reason that she's not involved," Weston explained.
Without Ramirez' statement, the lawsuit against her relied heavy connected Renee's testimony. In court, the defence would onslaught her credibility, and adjacent suggest she was complicit successful the slope robbery.
"I was treated similar I was the criminal," Renee said.
Manning remembers that "it got precise confrontational."
Weston told "48 Hours" his strategy was to "beat the hellhole retired of the unfortunate and constituent retired each the inconsistencies the unfortunate is saying."
He implied Renee was lying astir recognizing Ramirez's dependable connected the walkie-talkie the nighttime she was held hostage, pointing retired that it wasn't successful immoderate of the FBI reports. But Renee insists she told them, and Manning argued Renee did place Ramirez's dependable earlier she took the stand. But Weston argued that adjacent though his lawsuit had admitted the dependable was hers, the assemblage didn't cognize that.
"That's not the point," Weston said. "For me, it was a large opening to onslaught [Renee's] credibility."
Weston said it was suspicious that Renee hadn't taken the bait wealth — traceable bills banks support successful the vault to trap slope robbers. Renee explained, however, that she was not going to instrumentality the accidental that she could get her girl killed, particularly since the gunmen had instructed her "no comic money," she said.
Maybe worst of each for Renee, Weston formed uncertainty connected her maternal instincts, questioning wherefore she would spell backmost to the house, knowing she was strapped with dynamite that could perchance explode. But Manning said Renee's actions made implicit sense, fixed the accent and the unit Renee was nether to propulsion disconnected a slope robbery to prevention her daughter's life.
While Weston hammered connected each determination Renee made that day, Butler's lawyer picked isolated her fiscal history, and adjacent asked her astir her enactment life.
"They were trying to overgarment maine arsenic idiosyncratic that was irresponsible," Renee said.
"A selfish, unspeakable mother...that...would bash thing for money," she added.
According to Manning "the defence was to marque her a culprit."
A teary Michelle Renee successful court." I was treated similar I was the criminal," she said.
ZUMA
After Renee's 3 grueling days of nonstop grounds and cross-examination, Butler took the stand. He continued to support Ramirez arsenic helium had successful his constabulary interview, but present helium told a new, elaborate story, 1 successful which Renee masterminded the slope robbery. And helium claimed the 2 of them had antecedently had an affair. He said they had met astatine a market store, and that Renee had recruited him for the slope robbery.
Manning admitted it was jaw-dropping testimony, but contended it was each a prevarication and that the defence didn't contiguous immoderate grounds to corroborate Butler's claims.
"If immoderate of this were true, helium would've thrown Michelle down successful a heartbeat successful his [police] interview," Manning said.
But contempt the outlandish story, it would look the defence had done what they acceptable retired to do. After deliberating for 5 days, the assemblage recovered Butler blameworthy of the robbery and kidnapping of Breea and their roommate, but hung 9-3 connected the charges involving Renee's kidnapping.
Manning said 1 of the jurors had wholly believed Butler's story, portion the different 2 were unsure. Butler would inactive person aggregate beingness sentences for each the different charges, but Ramirez would locomotion distant a escaped woman. The assemblage recovered her not blameworthy connected each counts.
"Mind boggling" Renee said. "The information it was her thought to bash this to a parent and a kid and laughing and arrogant of it."
"It was the champion verdict I ever got successful my life," Weston said.
Even though the different 2 suspects would beryllium easy convicted astatine their proceedings a fewer months later, Renee said she felt revictimized by the defense's tactics.
"Is it just to bushed up connected the victim?" Smith asked Weston.
"Oh absolutely, absolutely," Weston replied.
Manning said the assemblage got it incorrect connected Ramirez. He believed she was "very involved...The investigators kept saying...she was the brains of the outfit."
It would instrumentality 2 decades, but the information would yet travel from an improbable source.
In January 2020, erstwhile Christopher Butler became eligible for parole nether California sentencing laws, Manning saw an accidental to inquire him astir the communicative he'd told connected the stand. Butler recanted his full testimony, admitting helium and Renee ne'er had a relationship.
"It's astir time," Renee said. "There was never, ever a chance...that I would...have been progressive successful thing similar this."
Butler was denied parole, but Renee was free.
"In a weird...way, I could breathe...I could exhale, finally, aft each these years," she said.
Robert Ortiz was granted parole successful January 2021.
Christopher Butler was granted parole successful December 2024.
Christopher Huggins was granted parole successful March 2025. ortiz
English (US) ·