Was young Airman's death a tragic accident or murder?

Brittany Austin-Goyne says the Foxxy Football League was serious stuff.

"It was a sport that, we didn't get paid to do it, we just did it 'cause we loved it. It was something for us to do as women," Austin-Goyne explained. "It's eight on eight...and it was full on tackle football. ...We had helmets, mouth guards, shoulder pads, elbow pads, knee pads, cleats. It was full-on tackle. It was awesome."

As team captain, she was delighted when Brittney Brashers signed up in 2009.

"She seemed so dainty, almost, because she just looked so fragile, and then when practice started, Brittney was a natural," said Austin-Goyne.

"She was very athletic," noted Susan Spencer.

"Very much so."

On Nov. 16, they drove to Denver for the team's publicity photo shoot.

"We all, at one point, eventually had no top and we would have...a body part of someone else covering. So, you couldn't really see anything, but it's supposed to be, like, a sexy kind of football league," said Austin-Goyne of how they posed.

"And everybody was having a good time?" Spencer asked, with a laugh.

"We had an amazing time. We really did," Austin-Goyne replied.

Not everybody. Although the shoot was supposed to be closed, Robbie Walters tagged along.

"He was kind of hunched over, kind of covering his face...," Austin-Goyne explained. "You know, he had his hand -- or his phone in his hand, and he kind of looked like he was, shaking or panting, you know when you kinda laugh?

"Then all of a sudden I saw just tears coming down his face, dripping to the ground. And I was like--" she continued.

Walters was sobbing and texting. He was sending text messages to Brittney's boss that night.

"I was sad the relationship was coming to an end," he told Spencer

He was turning Brittney in for seeing him against orders.

"So this is my way of getting back at her. She put me in jail," Walters explained. "And I figured if I got her in trouble, that would be the end of it and I could just leave and go to California."

Whatever anger Walters was feeling about the photo shoot and about the breakup, the couple was seen leaving together around 12:30 a.m.

Asked if Brittney was drunk, Walters told Spencer, "Oh yeah."

"Were you -"

"Was definitely drunk. Yeah, I was definitely drunk," he replied. "I put my head down, and I was listening to the music, and -- I wasn't paying attention to the driving at all."

About an hour later, Brittney's car slammed into a parked vehicle on a dead-end street. That's when Steve Sanchez heard the crash, ran outside and called 911:

Video

911 call from crash scene »

911: Hello this is the paramedics.

Steve Sanchez: Yes I got two people in this car right here, and the one don't look good at all.

911: Are you with the person that's hurt now?

Steve Sanchez: I'm standing right outside of the car.

"He was shaking her when I came out... I told him, 'You're going to hurt her. Quit shaking her, she might be hurt.' And then he looked over at me like surprised and started crying her name out," said Sanchez.

Spencer asked Walters, "Do you remember the actual crash?"

"No. No," he replied.

"Why was she off the freeway in this strange neighborhood?"

"I don't know. I don't even know where we were at," he said.

"And you were asleep?"

"I -- I wasn't asleep. I was in the process of goin' to sleep. I was slipping into unconsciousness, definitely."

Detective Troy Bisgard says at first, Walters' story seemed to make sense.

"He said that he had just woken up to find Brittney's head in his lap and she was unconscious... You can see the windshield there..." he said, pointing out to Spencer where Brittney hit her head.

But homicide was called in because the cops at the scene thought something just didn't look right.

"They're the ones telling me, 'Look, it was a car accident but it wasn't so significant that she should be dead from it,'" said Bisgard.

Medical examiner John Carver was baffled. "Here's this accident, I don't understand why this person's dead, but maybe the toxicology will show something," he said.

Brittney's blood alcohol level was over the legal limit, but only barely. There were no drugs in her system and she didn't hit the windshield all that hard.

"Brittney didn't have any any significant injuries of long bones, or internal organs, or the base of the neck, or the spinal cord, or the skull or the brain," explained Dr. Carver.

The injuries Brittney did have weren't what Carver expected to see.

"There's extensive bruising around her temple and upper right cheek..." he said.

More alarming, he saw telltale signs that she might have been strangled.

"The main thing...were these pinpoint hemorrhages on the skin of the face and surrounding the eyes," Carver explained.

But strangulation was hard to confirm because, Carver says, "Brittney's anatomy was different."

She was missing a piece of cartilage in the throat that usually is crushed when someone's strangled. "There was nothing to injure or to break," he said.

So Dr. Carver was in a bind. Without more proof, he couldn't rule Brittney's death a homicide; but it sure didn't seem like an accident.

"The cause of death to me was undetermined, the manner of death, to me, was undetermined," he said. "Undetermined. I don't know."

"Undetermined" meant no ruling of homicide. So, officially, no crime and no grounds for arrest. But the more Det. Bisgard learned about Robbie Walters, the more convinced he became that this was murder. First, there was a statement Brittney gave police after the October fight that landed Walters in jail.

"The officer's report, it specifically stated that the victim told them that he had threatened to crash the car and hurt or injure them both," said Bisgard.

And Bisgard had discovered something else: A hidden recording on Brittney's phone left after that fight:

Robbie Walters recording: F--k you. I hate your f---ing guts. You f---ed me over. I f---ing hate you. ... I hope you f---ing die. I f---ing hate you.

"She actually disguised the recording as the name of a ringtone and that's where it was, so it was just pure luck that we found it," said Bisgard.

"Why would you leave a message like that?" Spencer asked Walters.

"Why would I leave a message like that? That message was left after Britney called the cops on me and I went to jail. And I was -- I was angry," he replied.

Detective Bisgard also wondered why Walters couldn't remember anything about the crash -- but was crystal clear about one specific detail from that night.

"He told me at some point...that she took her top off during the photo shoot," Bisgard told Spencer.

"What did that have to do with anything?" Spencer asked.

"I don't know. And that struck me as odd. Why would you say that. I don't get that," he replied.

In his grief, Brittney Brasher's father, Barry, was confused.

Spencer asked, "So when you heard that she had not been wearing a seat belt?"

"Oh, that was absolutely a red flag went up," Brashers said. "She would never move a car without...puttin' her seat belt on. Never."

"...you were convinced that he had something to do with it."

"Oh, that he had some -- she was dead because of him. To what extent, I had-- I had no idea what," Brashers replied.

Barry Brashers soon was urging Detective Bisgard to keep investigating -- find something. But "undetermined" on that autopsy report meant Bisgard's hands were tied.

"...it just -- it didn't matter what I thought. It didn't matter what anybody else thought. We had nothing. Without a cause of death for Brittany, I -- I had nothing," he said. "I just did not see a chance of proving this case."

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[Hadenoughuc122]

There's a law called wiretap laws .your not aloud to record someone without there consent .So more then likely the recording will get thrown out.

[John782011]

Wire taps are exactly that, the recording of a phone conversation or the intercept of electronic data transmissions. The recording of a face to face conversation is not a wire tap even if it is on a phone or other communications device. It is similar to having a security camera operating in your house, you can record your house all you want with certain exceptions and sitting at the table chatting is not one of those exceptions.

[djseavy]

He will certainly appeal, but I think the recordings will stand. Because the recording was made during an in-person conversation, it's not illegal. If by some chance it does get tossed during the second trial (assuming there is one - the appeals court might just affirm the conviction and let it stand) I would lose all hope for our system of justice. Setting a self-confessed murderer free would be incredible. The one saving factor though, if all this comes to pass, is that the case has now been aired on national television. It would be difficult at best to seat a jury without having at least one person who watched the segment.

[touchdown327]

Have u not lost hope already. Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox are free.

[MomsHugs]

Will '48Hrs' have a sequence about Robbie Walters, including his background? What exactly did he do to get a dishonorable discharge? What behavior indicated he was capable of cold-blooded abuse and murder? Robbie Walters will be right at home in prison with men who live by animal pack behavior. Will he thrive there?

[erasmus111]

"His wife knew him in high school yet this behavior started later on."

He MURDERED someone later on. That does not mean he didn't have problems earlier. His wife was wanting to ignore his confession of murder, so why wouldn't she ignore any signs that he was mentally disturbed? It wasn't until they told her he was trying to have her killed that she finally decided to testify.

Chances are his parents saw the signs, too, but ignored them. Chances are, his parents could be the problem.

[THEORIGINALCREATOR]

For all young males and females, and older ones too! If you find yourself in this type of situation or even something similar, do not listen to the "One more try" or "One last time before we end it" or "For the last time" speech; you may find those very words as well as their meaning to be just what is stated "one last", "one more", "for the last" literally.

[THEORIGINALCREATOR]

Recordings for the purpose of exposing illegal activity should be permissible in a court of law; we must also take into consideration what the law states; and there a variance. Lets go with the recording of a conversation is permitted a long as "one of the parties" agrees to the recording. Robert's ex-wife surely by her actions "agreed" to record their conversation. I would go even further to say that the "EX" recorded the conversation for her own protection. Remember, this is a dangerous man that is speaking and telling his then wife about a murder he committed. She had to be scared out of her mind. I believe she also deeply loved this man and suffered from "battered woman syndrome!" Whether she was physically battered I am not sure, she was sure the heck manipulated emotionally and psychologically, which is also forms of abuse.

[four17]

In California, what Elena did in recording her conversations with Robert is not illegal. It was in person and she was a party to the conversation. Even if she weren't a party to the conversation, because it was in-person and not wire tapping and did involve the discussion of an illegal act it would not be illegal.

[rwsmith29456]

Why do women think these dirt bags are so attractive.

[erasmus111]

Any woman who would find this kind of man attractive, obviously has her own "mental" problems.

[standupfanatic]

The hole in his head fits the rock in hers. I think you generally choose someone of your own emotional/psychological level - and neither were mature.

[hifi44]

While I think he's obviously guilty & an evil person, I think unfortunately he will have the verdict overturned on appeal and he will not be convicted if retried without the recordings. I'm totally shocked that Colorado (?) would allow evidence that was illegally recorded in Calofirnia in. This is an utter waste of taxpayers money and the DA should have known better. Before I get told off, I think he's totally guilty but the evidence they used to convict him was clearly not admissible because it was illegally obtained.

[collie61]

This case should serve as a warning. Sadly, women get into abusive relationships thinking things will change. That they will change this persons behavior. The behavior just escalates and the abuse get worse. We see these cases over and over again. What is the answer, I don't know.

[PuleeezeGetReal]

I let my daughter see this horrible event because I want her to see what can happen if she denies the fact that the person she is with is violent and also if the courts have ordered them not to be together that she needs to listen.Not even the law can save someone if the orders are not followed.
I am hoping she will know that only she can make a wise decision for herself. This is a death that could have been avoided if she had only stayed clear like the court ordered.
Her boyfriend should have been put to death because he shows no remorse and even from inside prison he can still order his ex-wife or anyone that crosses him to be dead just like this young lady.