48 Hours Mystery: In Too Deep

In the summer of 2005, police were called to an apartment in Austin, Texas. Inside, a woman's body lay in the bathtub; her hands and head severed. Police would soon learn the butchered victim was 21-year-old Jennifer Cave.

For Travis County Prosecutor Bill Bishop, the case is indelible.

"As far as murders go, this is a very clean murder. He shot her through the arm, bullet traveled into the chest, through the heart pretty much killing her instantly. It was the post-murder behavior that made it so grotesque.

"The mutilation was anger… it wasn't any effort to hide the body or get rid of the body. It was just playing with it, like it was toy," Bishop tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Maureen Maher.

The apartment belonged to Colton Pitonyak, a University of Texas business student. But Colton was nowhere to be found.

"The kitchen I think was the oddest room to me because it was sparkling clean," Bishop tells Maher.

"Really? A boy's dorm room was sparkling clean? His kitchen?" Maher asks in disbelief.

"Even looked like the floors had been mopped. They found a machete that was in the dishwasher."

Police urgently needed to know everything about Colton and Jennifer.

"I have never heard anyone say anything but that she was one of the nicest people they knew," Bishop says of Jennifer.

But as the investigation grew, the most intriguing player would be Laura Hall.

"In your mind you're 100 percent convinced that Laura Hall was absolutely a part of the dismemberment and mutilation?" Maher asks.

"I believe she was," Bishop replies.

"48 Hours" has been following Laura Hall's case since 2005, and yet it is still difficult to know just exactly who Laura is or what role she played that awful August night in Austin. The events are so hard to believe. And many say, so is Laura.

As Laura tells it, she had nothing to do with the horrific crime. But she admits she is guilty of falling in love with the wrong man. "Oh, I loved the guy," she says. "I loved Colton Pitonyak."

Laura and Colton met at a party in the spring of 2005. She was also a student at UT, a government major with hopes of becoming a lawyer.

"I was really attracted to Colton from the beginning. I thought he was a very sexy guy. He was hot. We immediately just got together. Right away. It was great," she says smiling. "We would spend days together at a time. We'd just stay in the house all day. Yeah," she continues with a laugh, "I felt I was on top of the world when I was with Colton."

"Until you get to know Colton," she continues, "you can't see on the surface that there's something wrong underneath."

So without knowing anything was wrong, Laura says she showed up at Colton's apartment just before dawn on Aug. 17, 2005. He'd called her saying he needed to talk.

"He answered the door really kind of paranoid and fearful. And I'm kind of like, sitting up, 'Colton, what's the deal, what's going on?' I'm kind of starting to freak out a little bit. And he says, 'Come here. Come here.'"

Laura says Colton led her into the bathroom.

"There was a dead woman curled up in his bathtub. And I said. 'That's a mannequin.' I mean, that's how much I did not believe or wanna believe... I was like, 'Man, oh my God, you know, 'What happened?'"

Laura says Colton had been drinking and says he didn't remember what had happened.

"I remember him goading me out of the bathroom with a knife that had blood on it up to the hilt… The last thing you wanna think is this person that I've had sex with has, you know, killed somebody. So you kind of want to know, who came in here and did this? And the other thing you kind of think is, 'Well, there's one. Am I next?'"

But then, surprisingly, Laura says Colton just let her go.

Laura says she went home. "I mean I still - I was in denial, OK."

Asked if it never occurred to her to call police, family or friends, Laura says, somewhat defensively, "It didn't seem like a good move. I mean, look, I didn't know what was gonna happen if I called the police, OK? There was nothing I could have done to save her life at that point."

Maher asks, "Did you have any concern for the girl who was dead?"

Laura sighs before answering. "I wasn't able to even process - and even today, I have not processed the emotions. I didn't know who she was."Jennifer Cave grew up in Corpus Christi, in a family of five girls. She had spent time in Austin as a student, but was about to start work at a law firm.

"At about 3 o'clock, the law firm called me," says her mother, Sharon Sedwick. "And they said, 'Jennifer has gone to work for us.' And I'm like, 'Oh yes, I know.' I said, 'She's so excited.' I said, 'Thank you so much for giving her this opportunity.' And it kind of got quiet. And he said, 'Well, there's a problem,' and he said, 'We're concerned." He said, 'Jennifer didn't come to work today.' And I said, 'What?'"

Sharon says she knew something was wrong. "That's just not who Jennifer was. If Jennifer told you she was going to be somewhere at 8 o'clock, Jennifer was there at 8 o'clock."

Sharon began frantically calling around to find her daughter and discovered Jennifer had been out with Colton. When she finally got Colton on the phone, he told her nothing.

"Colton's going, 'No man, I don't know. I haven't seen her. I don't know what you're talking about.' And I'm like, 'Were you with Jennifer?' 'Oh man, no, I wasn't with her. Well, yeah, I saw her for a few minutes, but no I wasn't with her,' and he hung up."

Jennifer's stepfather, Jim Sedwick, also spoke with Colton.

"Hey dude, I'm eating pizza, don't bother me any more. Quit calling me,'" Jim remembers Colton saying.

Sharon and Jim decided to head to Austin hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

"I remember that night - when we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do and getting some clothes packed. We stood right here in [the] hallway. And I looked at Jim and said, 'This is gonna be really bad, isn't it?' And he said, 'Yeah, I'm afraid it could be.'"

The next day, Aug. 18, 2005, Sharon and Jim Sedwick hit the highway and raced four hours from Corpus Christi to Austin, and straight to Colton Pitonyak's apartment. He was the last person to be seen with their daughter, Jennifer Cave.

It was early evening by the time they arrived. They found Jennifer's car nearby.

Sharon says, "We start knocking on the door and we knock on the windows and we walk around the apartment seeing if there was a back door."

"We're really getting scared that something bad has happened inside that apartment," says Jim.

At around 8 p.m., Jim calls 911, but when the cops arrive, they wouldn't break in without a search warrant. So after they left, Jim muscled his way in through a window.

Jim says the place was completely dark. "All I had was a flashlight. I just started crawling through the window trying to push the drapes out of my way. And I was yelling, I said, 'Please don't hurt me. I'm here to help you. I'm not here to hurt anybody. This is Jim.'"

He says the place looks like a wreck, as if there had been a struggle. Jim tells Sharon to wait on the porch to protect her from what he feared he might find inside.

"So I kept going down this hallway, and then there was another door on my left which was closed. And I opened that door. It had the light in there. It appeared to be a bathtub, and I was seeing something. So I flipped the light switch on… and there she was," he remembers.

Jim had found Jennifer… or what was left of her.

After calling 911, police raced back to the apartment and began the search for Colton. They quickly found out something they didn't expect. Colton was not your typical clean-cut business student. He had a serious problem with drugs, especially cocaine. He was also a small-time dealer.

"He held himself out as a gangster," prosecutor Bill Bishop says. "I mean he had all the 'Scarface' posters."

Colton also had a collection of gangster movies. "'Donnie Brasco' and 'Goodfellas' and a series of movies that involved dismemberment," Bishop says. "I know one of them involves dismemberment with a machete."

Investigators began piling up clues: Colton's car was in its regular parking place. Inside, was the gun they believed to have been used to kill Jennifer Cave. And before long, something else became clear: Colton's sometime girlfriend, Laura Hall, had also disappeared.

Loren and Carol Hall desperately tried to reach their daughter

"This guy's who's - apparently he - he's killed Jennifer Cave and mutilated her body- he's got my daughter. He's got my daughter," Loren Hall recalls thinking at the time.

Finally, they got through to Laura's cell phone. Laura told them she had crossed the border into Mexico with Colton.

"She told me, 'Dad, Colton's killed someone and they found a body.' I heard this rustling, like someone's grabbing the phone from you. And that's when I said, 'Man, you need to turn yourself in,' and he goes, 'Your daughter had nothing to do with this. You need to get her out of here.' I thought, 'Yeah, I'm very aware of that. You need to get her out of there.' She looks just like Jennifer Cave. Who's gonna be next?" Loren says.

Laura's parents say they feared Colton was going to kill their daughter.

"We thought we'd never see her again," says Carol.

"Colton flipped out," Laura explains. "He wanted to get out of town. He ended up saying, 'Take me to Mexico,'" Incredulously, she adds, "So, I did."

Laura says she was afraid for her life, and that's why she drove him to Mexico. "I was trying to stay alive."Laura Hall says she didn't have a plan on what to do next after getting to Mexico, and that she didn't know what Colton Pitonyak was planning. "He was incoherent and in a sense, so was I. We were in no condition," she explains.

Colton and Laura fled Austin 16 hours after the murder. They drove Laura's dark green Cadillac some 200 miles to the Mexican town of Piedras Negras, a quiet border town just on the other side of Eagle Pass, Texas.

They weren't in Mexico for long. After five days, they were nabbed by a Mexican SWAT team and handed over to American authorities.

Back in Austin, Colton Pitonyac was charged with murder on Aug. 23, 2005. Laura was not arrested, but when police questioned her, she was less than cooperative.

"It was just too soon. I had just gotten away from him. I mean, I wasn't ready to be rational yet," she explains to Maher.

Asked what she told police, Laura says, "Just that I thought we were on vacation, I don't know anything about it, Colton's a great guy and he didn't do it."

"And that was a lie?" Maher asks.

"Of course," Laura admits.

Three days later, Laura was questioned again. "I know what's coming," she tells Maher. "Like I already know. They're gonna do something and you're not gonna like it."

Laura was arrested and later charged with "hindering apprehension" for her role in Colton's escape. Police didn't believe Laura's story that Colton had forced her to drive him to Mexico.

"I did not want to go to jail. I can't go to jail," Laura tells Maher. "That's just a whole new set of nightmares coming at me that I'm not ready to deal with."

Laura agrees to talk to police, but initially holds back. The interrogation lasts nine grueling hours.

In the end, Detective Mark Gilchrest finally gets Laura to give up the gruesome details. She admits that she saw the body in the bathtub, but claims it was Colton's idea to dismember it.

Watch an excerpt of Laura Hall's interrogation

"He said he was gonna cut up the body and get rid of it," she told the detective.

Asked if Colton had asked her to help him, Laura tells the detective, "No! He told me to get out of there."

"I think that people are going to look at this and they're going to see how articulate you are, and they're going to say, 'OK, either this girl is really stupid or she's a sociopath," says Maher. "With all due respect, which one is it?"

"Well it's neither," she replies. "I'm definitely not a sociopath."

But Laura does admit to a problem with men.

"I'm stupid with men. I'm absolutely stupid with them," she says. "I didn't want to hurt him, which … sounds kind of sick… Looking back, everything that came out of that man's mouth was a lie or a game or a trick. And he didn't care who got hurt in the process."

"I definitely feel like my life is closing in on me right now," Laura says of her situation. "I feel this huge weight of pressure - a dark cloud around me that is the police and the District Attorney's office that could snatch away what I have at any second. So like, I definitely feel shackled."

From September 2005, when she was arrested, until Colton Pitonyak's trial in January 2007, Laura Hall stood by Colton.

Prosecutor Bill Bishop believes the evidence against Colton was very strong.

"You'll hear that Ms. Cave died as a result of a gunshot through the arm and the torso of her body," Bishop tells the court. "You'll hear after her death she was dismembered. Her hands removed. Her head removed."

"We knew him to be the only person in her company that evening once they left Sixth Street, the location obviously of her body being in his apartment," Bishop tells "48 Hours." "He went to a hardware store and bought cleaning supplies such as ammonia and Febreze, masks, gloves and a hacksaw…. The clerk asked him what he needed a hacksaw for and he said he was frying a turkey and needed a hacksaw to cut it up because it was frozen."

When he took the stand, Colton said he couldn't remember what happened that night. He claimed he was strung out on drugs and alcohol.

Asked how he got back to his apartment, Colton said, "I assume Jennifer took me."

And he couldn't he explain the shooting. "I have no idea what happened that night."

But Colton's mental fog apparently began to lift a few hours after the shooting; coincidentally, right around the time Laura Hall showed up at his door.

Colton testifies, "I can't remember exactly what I told her, but I showed her Jennifer's body."

"And what did she say?" the attorney asks.

"She just said, 'What are we gonna do?'"

And for the first time, Colton started shifting the blame. Except for the murder itself, he blamed Laura for almost everything.

In court, Colton says he did not cut Jennifer's body with the knife." There's no way I would have done what was done."

"Of course he remembers all that - then incriminates me and nothing about his own actions," Laura comments sarcastically.

Laura says he's lying and that she had nothing to do with the dismemberment.

But the jury never heard Laura's side of the story. On the advice of her lawyer, she never took the stand at Colton's trial. It's something she regrets.

"I had no idea he was going to do what he did," she says.

Colton Pitonyak was found guilty and sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Then, it was Laura's turn.

"I am accused of some unspeakable things. I am facing 10 years in prison for mutilating a body. Colton did that. I want people to look at me for what I am. They have just created a fictional character and put my name on it. Everyone has pointed their finger at me," she says.Prosecutors say Laura Hall did everything wrong the day of the murder: she left Colton's apartment and never told anyone what she had seen - not police, and not even her mother, whom she spoke with several times that afternoon. In fact, she spent most of the day running errands before she went back to pick up Colton and drive him to Mexico.

Says Bishop, "She had every opportunity in the world to call the police, send them to Colton's apartment and certainly she would have been safe from Colton for a long time had she done that.

"I guess, to use my word, I would say you have to be, you have to have, a good case of evil."

At trial, this time with no cameras allowed, the prosecutor outlines Laura's ever-changing account of events.

"She gave a series of statements to the police," says Bishop. "She had previously made a statement that she had no idea what happened, she'd never seen the body. Her statement then became she'd seen the body but didn't know what had had happened. And it eventually grew into, 'I was a victim, I was kidnapped, I had nothing to do with it.'"

Prosecutors produced witnesses who claim Laura told them about her involvement in the mutilation. And Bishop says Laura's DNA was found on a key piece of evidence. "Her DNA was on the gun - the murder weapon itself, that was found in Colton's car."

Bishop does not accuse Laura of murdering Jennifer Cave, but the autopsy showed Jennifer was shot through the head after death. In addition to the gun, Laura's DNA was also found in Colton's apartment.

"It was on a flip flop in the bathroom. There was a shop towel out in the living room of the apartment that had both her DNA and Colton Pitonyak's DNA," Bishop says.

Asked if that was enough physical evidence to tie her to the dismemberment, Bishop says, "When put with her statements to co-workers and things such as that, absolutely."

But Laura was in Colton's apartment dozens of times before the murder and she says the DNA - even the DNA on the gun - means nothing.

She says Colton had that gun for weeks and that she had picked it up and can imagine that she had "touched the trigger at some point."

And the D.A. had more; a photo of Laura and Colton taken while they were on the run in Mexico. Bishop says of the smiling couple, "She does not appear to be there against her will."

"That photograph to me means nothing," Laura says dismissively. "How hard is it to go like this?" she says, reenacting the smile for Maher.

The defense had wanted the jury to see the tape of Laura's police interrogation, where for nine emotional hours, she firmly maintained she had nothing to do with the dismemberment.

"I didn't try and help him cover it up at all," she says on the tape.

Watch an excerpt of Laura Hall's interrogation

But the judge refused to allow it, calling it inadmissable hearsay. The ruling, in effect, tossed attorney Joe James Sawyer's defense out the window.

"The net result is I have to advise my client, even though we planned on you testifying, 'You can't do it,'" Sawyer explains.

So just as in Colton's trial, Laura never takes the stand. Sawyer can only hope the jury sees it his way.

"There's no question the most volatile component in this case is that people are going to be repulsed by what happened to Jennifer Cave," Sawyer says. "The great challenge is to say to them, 'Feel any way you want. Remember the difference between feeling and proof.'"

As the jury deliberates, Laura tries to remain optimistic.

"I'm ready to be acquitted," she says. "I will have a heart attack and die, probably on the courtroom floor if they come back with a guilty verdict. I can't allow myself to think that way."

The jury finds Laura guilty of tampering with evidence, for cutting up Jennifer Cave's body and helping Colton to escape to Mexico. She's sentenced to five years.

"All of a sudden I'm in a courtroom and then they're just taking me into jail. I could not believe it," she recalls.

But, as is usually the case with Laura Hall, that was not the end of this story.Colton Pitonyak's attorney, Joe Turner, says Colton did not shoot Jennifer Cave and he doesn't know who did. Asked who's the other possible suspect, he replies, "Well, there's other suspects and Laura Hall is as good as any.

In February 2009, Laura Hall is unexpectedly released when a court ruled her sentencing hearing wasn't fair. She's out on bond while prosecutors fight to put her back behind bars.

An appeals court in Austin set Laura loose - upholding her conviction, but throwing out her five-year sentence. She will get a new sentencing hearing.

It all has to do with the testimony of a taxi driver in Laura's original sentencing hearing, who swore Laura was a passenger in his cab.

"And in making the small talk people do, he found out her boyfriend was accused of murder," Laura Hall's lawyer, Joe James Sawyer, explains. "And he inquired, 'Oh, who is he accused of killing, Miss?' The answer in the presence of that jury, quote, 'Some Bitch.' End quote. 'Some bitch.' I watched my jury and I saw women and men flinch at that answer."

Sawyer realizes the cabbie's description of such callous and cold behavior was deadly. "And then they ask him, 'Can you identify that woman in court today?' 'Why yes,' he said, 'She's sitting right over there by Mr. Sawyer.' And that would be Laura Hall," Sawyer says.

Asked if the cab driver is lying, Laura says, "I never said that to him. He's certainly mistaken, if not flat out lying, yes."

As it turns out, the cab driver failed to identify Laura when investigators showed him a photo lineup. And then, it got worse when the district attorney failed to tell Laura's attorney about that - which was a significant legal mistake.

Prosecutor Bill Bishop was held accountable. "Mistakes were made," he says. "But it certainly wasn't a pattern of misconduct, or an attempt to railroad or conspire against Miss Hall, as Mr. Sawyer would have you believe."

Because of the D.A.'s mistake, Laura will be sentenced again. She could get more time or be let go permanently.

Laura continues to fight a current of public rage that she believes was sweeping away her very life.

"I think my life has been destroyed. I think if people set out to kill me, done. I can't live in Austin. I can't live in Texas," she says.

And it is about to get much worse. "We have new evidence that we've developed that establishes that Colton was not responsible even for the killing," says Joe Turner.

Colton Pitonyak's lawyer suggests Laura Hall murdered Jennifer Cave and her motive was jealousy.

"It's impossible for me to have been jealous of Jennifer Cave, because I not only didn't know her, but I didn't know she existed," Laura says.

But according to Pitonyak's lawyer, once during a group therapy session in jail, Laura told other inmates she is in fact the killer.

"They stated that during the group that inmate Hall confessed to the murder of Jennifer Cave," Turner explains.

"That's ridiculous," Laura says of the statement. "I'm innocent of all this. This was Colton's mess."

"Did you have anything to do with the dismemberment of Jennifer's body?" Maher asks Laura.

"Absolutely nothing to do with it," she replies.

"Did you have anything to do with the murder?"

"No! God no."

But Jim and Sharon Sedwick, Jennifer's parents, weren't surprised by these latest accusations, because Laura Hall had frightened them since the first minute they saw her.

"The thing that I am most fearful about is that she will choose my family to yet again hurt," Sharon tells Maher. She says she's "very concerned" for her family's safety. "She's a psychopath. I mean, when you look at Laura, there is nothing there - at all. Nothing. There is no soul."

Two scenarios were in play now and both were nightmares for Jim and Sharon. Colton Pitonyak was fighting for a new trial and Laura Hall was now fighting the accusation of murder from Colton's attorney.The next legal chapter in Laura's life is about to be written.

The court rejects Colton's appeal. He will not get a new trial, but his attorney now has more ammunition.

Just weeks ago, a new witness has come forward and swears that in 2005, Laura told him she was "going to get away with murder." Furthermore, the new witness states that Laura told him that she made the list of items for Colton to buy at the hardware store, and that she alone dismembered the body of Jennifer Cave.

Laura's attorney says the witness is not credible.

"I am innocent of the murder. I'm innocent of the mutilation. I'm innocent of all that," Laura says. "Did I drive him across the border? Yes. Am I guilty of being in love with him stupidly? Yes."

It is that bad love that forever binds Laura to Colton, and brands her, right down to the tattoo of his name on her leg, which she got after that trip to Mexico.

"When I got the tattoo, I was so in love with him," she says. "I felt he was innocent. I felt bad for him. I felt that he didn't really do this. And I was on his side, I'm sorry to say."

On Colton's side. The troubled young man seemed to somehow draw people in. Sharon Sedwick says her daughter, Jennifer Cave, was on Colton's side, too. But Sharon sensed Colton was nothing but bad news, and had begged her daughter not to get involved with him.

"I'm like, 'Jennifer, please, just don't - just stay away from that.' And she's like, 'Mom, he's my friend, and he needs my help.' And I'd be like, 'Jennifer, please stay away from that.'"

But Sharon knew her big-hearted daughter had an instinct to help anyone in trouble.

"Part of Jennifer's nature," she explains, "is she had a real problem with stray dogs. And I'm not talking the four-legged kind."

So that is how Jennifer Cave ended up partying with Colton Pitonyak on that last night of her life. Colton had reached out to her, and as usual, Jennifer responded.

"Colton called her, he said, 'You know, I really need a friend. Would you please help me? I just want to see you for a little bit. I'll take you to dinner to celebrate your new job.' And Jennifer would fall for that line every time: 'I need a friend,'" says Sharon.

Jennifer paid for that friendship with her life. She may have been Colton's friend, but the allegation is that Laura Hall was his accomplice.On Feb. 8, 2010, Laura reports to court to be given the date for her new sentencing hearing.

"It upsets me tremendously to be in the same room with her and see her flitting about and talking on her cell phone. Those things just really upset me," Sharon says.

But Jennifer's parents feel they must bear witness.

Once again, the D.A.'s office will go up against Laura Hall. Prosecutors are fighting for the new sentence to be as long as possible.

"She is a convicted felon, and it's no longer about whether or not she's guilty," Bishop says. "It is now about the appropriate sentence."

"I spent 21 months in jail for things I didn't do. What more do you want?" Laura remarks.

Cameras weren't allowed in the courtroom as the judge lays out how and when the new sentencing trial will proceed. But there is one other critical item on the docket: deciding whether Laura will remain free while she waits for that new sentence or if she will be back behind bars.

"I actually don't like to talk about that or think about that at all. 'Cause in my mind that's not possible," she says of going back to jail.

Apparently, it is very possible. And within just a couple of hours, the judge rules against Laura. She is to be sent back to jail.

"As we would say in Texas, 'she went out of the room screamin' and hollerin'," says Jim Sedwick. "The deputies basically were having to fairly forcefully remove her from the courtroom."

Laura will wait behind bars to find out what her final sentence will be.

"Judge Flowers found it appropriate to remand her into custody without bond," says D.A. Bill Bishop.

"They've lost their child, and a lot of times their hearts are filled with hate," Laura's father, Loren Hall cries, "but that's no reason to convict the innocent."

Laura Hall is back in the lock-up she despises, while her family and lawyer scramble again to set her free. Jennifer Cave's family hopes Laura gets even more time behind bars. And they will always remember the child that is gone forever.

"We still feel Jennifer in our lives," Sharon says. "She's still a part of us."

"She had a heart as big as Texas. And that's what got her in trouble," adds Jim.

As for Laura Hall, she remains a mystery. Was she a brutal accomplice or just a lost soul along for the ride?

Laura Hall's sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 2010. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Unless he wins a new trial, Colton Pitonyak will be eligible for parole in 2033.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson, Jenna Jackson and James Stolz