Livye Lewis murder: Texas investigators say jealousy was a motive in teen’s shooting death

In the early morning hours of Halloween 2020 — a day when the boundaries between the living and the dead become blurred — Livye Lewis was discovered draped over the steering wheel of her car, dead from a rifle shot to the neck.

Livye had just turned 19.

DEPUTY: (crime scene bodycam): And I don’t know if dispatch has notified her next of kin or not …

It happened in Hemphill, a tiny town in Texas with a population just over 1,000. It’s the kind of place where no one is a stranger, and news spreads like wildfire.

MAN (crime scene bodycam): Is that — isn’t that, uh…

WOMAN: Darci Bass’s daughter?

MAN: Yeah.

That is how Livye’s mother, Darci Bass, heard the news — when a friend called to say that Livye had been shot. 

Peter Van Sant: You didn’t know if she was dead or alive?

Darci Bass: No.

DARCI BASS (crime scene bodycam): I wanna see my child!

Darci Bass: And the next time I, yeah, I saw her, she was in — in a casket.

DARCI BASS (crime scene bodycam): I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. Oh my God!

THE MURDER OF LIVYE LEWIS

By all accounts, Livye was a remarkable young woman — a straight-A student and recent high school graduate with a scholarship to a local college. 

Darci Bass: Her dream was to go on to college, become a nurse, and then become a physician’s assistant.

Livye was already a certified nursing assistant at a local nursing home.

Darci Bass: She was loved by all the residents there.

Peter Van Sant: That’s a tough job, too.

Darci Bass Yes. And she loved it. … That was her passion.

That’s also where she met one of her best friends, fellow nursing assistant Taylor Barnett.

Taylor Barnett: We worked together, and then she just started staying with me all the time.

Barnett was nearly six years older and had a young daughter, but she says Livye fit right in.

Taylor Barnett: If you seen Livye, you seen me. We just clicked, like, automatically.

Bayley Williams met Livye in kindergarten.

Bayley Williams: She was a person that wanted stability and didn’t wanna play, like, the kid games. … She was ready to … be grown up.

That’s probably why Livye fell for an older man, Matthew Edgar, who was 23 when they met.

Taylor Barnett: … I was dating a guy who was actually friends with Matthew. … So, we all just kind of started hanging out. 

Livye was still a senior in high school when she and Edgar began a secret relationship. Edgar was married to Montana Bockel, the mother of his two young sons.

Phone records indicate that Livye and Edgar began texting each other in November 2019, when Matthew wrote: “You do realize you cannot say a word to ANYBODY that we are even texting lol.” Livye responded: “well obviously I’m not gonna brag about texting a married man but thanks for the clarification.”

It appears that after a very brief affair, Livye quickly and firmly ended things.

But Edgar wasn’t done. About four months later, he texted to complain about how unhappy he was in his marriage. “I cheated again,” he said. But Livye held her ground. “… I’m not really down for being a homewrecker,” she wrote.

Nearly two months later, Edgar ended his marriage in this text exchange with his wife where he said, “Ain’t you it’s me.” “Me always cheating on you.” Four days later, Bockel hired a divorce attorney, Edgar moved out and circled back to Livye.

At just 18, Livye was now navigating a relationship with a man who had two young sons, and a soon-to-be ex-wife.

Bayley Williams: At first … they didn’t get along, Livye and Montana didn’t. Uh, I think that was out of jealousy on Montana’s behalf. And then it was kind of just like the flip of a switch. All the sudden, Montana wanted to be Livye’s best friend, and they talked all the time.

Darci Bass: I think in Livye’s eyes, she was definitely thinking she had a friend.

Peter Van Sant: And in Montana’s eyes, what do you think?

Darci Bass: I think that she was jealous, and I think that some people get close to people and they have another reasoning behind it.

Peter Van Sant: And so, do you think in some ways a — a dangerous love triangle had formed?

Darci Bass: Yes … definitely a dangerous love triangle. Yes.

J.P. MacDonough: You can call it that. Absolutely.

Sabine County Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough questioned Edgar about his relationship with Bockel and Livye. 

J.P. MACDONOUGH: What’s your relationship like with both of them?

MATTHEW EDGAR: It’s awesome.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: OK. So, it’s not a typical, “I hate your guts”?

MATTHEW EDGAR: No. Hell no. (laughs)

J.P. MACDONOUGH: OK.

MATTHEW EDGAR: It’s awesome.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: OK.

MATTHEW EDGAR: My ex-wife and her, they’re big buddies.

Taylor Barnett: I just told Livye to just be cautious … you can get along with her for their children, but … don’t be too close with her. I mean because that’s his ex-wife.

But Burnett says that as time went by, it was Edgar’s behavior that became the most menacing.

Taylor Barnett: He was pretty much abusive … in more ways than one. … For a little while he was staying at my house with her … and he would just get drunk and crazy and either holler at her … and like, it got so bad that like, I didn’t want him there, at my house anymore.

Phone records show that the relationship was a rollercoaster ride. While at times Edgar sent texts to Livye like, “Goodnight baby I love you,” Livye’s texts alleged physical abuse: “idk why you keep putting your hands on me like that … my body hurts today.” 

Bayley Williams: I think that she was in love with who Matthew could be, ’cause she knew who he was and knew that what he was doing to her wasn’t right, but she still stayed.

Livye had been planning on moving to her new college campus, but in the summer of 2020 she stayed on that rollercoaster ride, agreeing to move in with Edgar and help take care of him and his sons. She even redecorated the boys’ rooms.

But things seemed to have quickly turned ugly.

Peter Van Sant: In August of 2020, Livye writes to Matthew, “I want to be in our home with you but I can’t do the way you act when you drink.” “I’m scared of you.” … “you’ve laid your hands on me multiple times” … “I deserve better than that.”

Peter Van Sant: Had she told you at that time that — he had been violent?

Darci Bass: No … she didn’t tell me that. … probably figured that I would go do something crazy, and she didn’t want me probably getting in trouble.

Livye did tell her cousin Sydney Ebarb what was going on.

Peter Van Sant: She sent you a disturbing photograph.

Sydney Ebarb: Yes. 

Peter Van Sant: Evidence of physical abuse, correct? … Do you have that photo?

Sydney Ebarb: I do …

Peter Van Sant: Can you show it to me?

Sydney Ebarb: Yes sir. … He busted her nose.

It’s not clear what caused the altercation, but texts would later show that Edgar was cheating on Livye with, of all people, Montana Bockel. On Oct. 4, 2020, Livye’s birthday, Edgar texted Bockel: “I didn’t cheat on Livye with multiple woman. … Just you LOL.”

Darci Bass: He was … continuing relationship on with his ex-wife and had my daughter in the middle of it. … not knowing that she is being manipulated by all of them.

Sydney Ebarb: I was in an abusive relationship. So, I just said, “Livye, you know it gets worse.” And she said, “I know.” And I said “OK, I love you.”

Livye broke up with Edgar, but in a small town like Hemphill you can run, but you can’t really hide. In the early morning hours of Halloween 2020, Edgar and Livye would end up together again — on the side of the road.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE HOURS BEFORE LIVYE LEWIS WAS KILLED?

The morning Livye Lewis was killed, her ex-boyfriend Matthew Edgar found himself in a hospital bed, claiming he had no idea how he got there.

MATTHEW EDGAR (hospital body cam): I have no clue why I’m here.

Despite the blood on his face, Edgar wasn’t injured. But he did admit to Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough that he’d been drinking.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: How much?

MATTHEW EDGAR: Bottle. … Jim Beam.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: Jim Beam. Anything else?

MATTHEW EDGAR: A few beers earlier in the day. 

He said he’d been at a party the night before at his friend Bobby Ozan’s house. That’s when he claims he last saw Livye.

MATTHEW EDGAR (hospital bodycam): Her and my ex-wife both was there.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: OK.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: So you left Bobby’s and went to your house?

MATTHEW EDGAR: I went home.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: You went home?

MATTHEW EDGAR: I was at my house.

And that’s where Edgar claims he blacked out, and simply can’t explain how he ended up in a fetal position between a black truck — that wasn’t his — and Livye’s car.

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital bodycam): You don’t know how you ended up on the ground behind the car?

MATTHEW EDGAR: No, sir.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: With the dead girl in it?

MATTHEW EDGAR.. I don’t — I don’t have no clue.

MacDonough took swabs of the blood on Edgar’s face for DNA testing —

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital bodycam): All right, Matthew. I’m gonna do this one on the chin.

— and Matthew’s clothing was taken into evidence.

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital bodycam): I’m gonna go through some of your clothes, OK?

MATTHEW EDGAR: Yes, sir.

Then, MacDonough placed Edgar under arrest.

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital bodycam): Charge is gonna be homicide, alright? Now, pay attention to me. I want you to understand why, OK?

MATTHEW EDGAR: Yes, sir.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: OK. You were found behind the vehicle where the decedent was. … there was some kind of relationship between you and her … There is a weapon laying on the ground behind the vehicle close to where you were found, OK? Based on that and a few other things, I’m gonna place you in custody right now for homicide, OK?

Peter Van Sant: What’s his reaction to that?

J.P. MacDonough: He had none.

Peter Van Sant: But he didn’t say, you’re gonna do what? I didn’t do anything.

J.P. MacDonough: No.

Peter Van Sant: Nothing at all?

J.P. MacDonough: Nothing at all.

With Edgar jailed, MacDonough was on a legal deadline. According to Texas law, the district attorney’s office now had 90 days to present enough evidence to a grand jury to indict Edgar, or they would have to release him on bond. So, MacDonough enlisted the help of the Texas Rangers and began piecing together what happened to Livye.

Shaun Dunn: Matthew was just an … easy arrest.

Shaun Dunn is an old friend of Edgar’s.

Shaun Dunn: He, he told me, hey look, you know I didn’t do this. … yes, I was there at the scene, but I — you know, I — I didn’t — I did not do this, I loved her.

Dunn, a former Texas oil and gas man, once employed a then 20-year-old Edgar as a supervisor on his pipeline.

Shaun Dunn: I know Matthew, I spent a lot of time with him. … He was a hard worker, you know, he loved his family. … he valued his friendship, uh, with people.

Dunn was also once a deputy sheriff, and says in his personal and professional opinion, Edgar is innocent.

Shaun Dunn: When you’re in law enforcement and — and you sit across the table from somebody that has taken someone’s life as a cold-blooded killer … there’s a certain feel that you get from that person. … I never seen him reach that point.

Dunn believes Edgar when he says he has no memory of what happened —

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital interview): The cause of death of that girl is not natural.

And thinks this moment was very real.

MATTHEW EDGAR: Did they tell you a name?

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital interview): Livye …

Shaun Dunn:  I believe that was, that was genuine. That that was the first time that he knew that she was deceased.

Which raises the obvious question —

Peter Van Sant: If Matthew Edgar did not kill Livye, who did?

Shaun Dunn: Uh …that’s kinda still up in the air. … In my opinion … there’s plenty of other people that — that, you know, could be involved in this.

Dunn won’t name names, but Edgar and his mother, Cindy Hogan, have insinuated that someone else killed Livye: Montana Bockel. Listen to this recorded jailhouse call.

CINDY HOGAN (jailhouse call): But I’m sayin’ Matthew — if it turns out that Montana did this …

MATTHEW EDGAR: I don’t want to talk about it, please.

CINDY HOGAN: I mean it’s not gonna make you wanna hurt her because she killed the woman you loved, are you?

MATTHEW EDGAR: I don’t know.

MacDonough says Bockel’s unusual friendship with Livye did get his attention.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: My husband left me for this woman, but she’s my best friend, you know, I — I — I have to question that as — as an investigator.

In one of the last photos ever taken of Livye, shown above, she is with Bockel at that party Edgar told investigators about at Bobby Ozan’s place.

Bobby Ozan: I’m gonna say there’s probably about 20 people there.

Including Edgar and Bockel’s sons. Ozan told investigators Edgar spent the night watching Livye and Montana party, with everyone but him.

Bobby Ozan: He would try to come over there and talk to them and they just really wouldn’t say much to him. … they were just basically ignoring him.

Investigators learned that Livye had broken up with Edgar just weeks earlier, and he had taken up with another young woman in town.

INVESTIGATOR: I am trying to find out your relationship with … Matthew Edgar. 

WOMAN: We were havin’ sex, just — I met him that Monday, and we saw each other every day.

INVESTIGATOR: So you just … known him a week?

WOMAN: Yeah.

But it was clear to Ozan that Edgar wasn’t over Livye.

Bobby Ozan: He was just … hurt and then now she don’t want nothing to do with him no more. … she’s going on with her life, just, like, you don’t exist anymore.

Ozan says Edgar was stewing at the party.

Bobby Ozan: He just wasn’t his self. He’s on edge.

Peter Van Sant: And drinking heavily –

Bobby Ozan: Yes, sir. Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: And the more he drank the angrier he got.

Bobby Ozan: Exactly.

DAMNING EVIDENCE IN THE CASE AGAINST MATTHEW EDGAR

As the party at Ozan’s was winding down, Edgar says he called it a night.

J.P. MACDONOUGH (hospital bodycam): Oh so, you left Bobby’s. Went to your house?

MATTHEW EDGAR: I went home.

J.P. MACDONOUGH: You went home?

MATTHEW EDGAR: I was at my house.

That’s where Edgar’s memory goes blank. But his ex-wife, Montana Bockel, remembers much more.

In an audio recording from an Oct. 31 interview, Bockel told investigators Edgar suddenly came back to the party and learned that Livye had decided to stay overnight at Ozan’s.

RANGER JOE HARALSON: And you think he heard Livye say, she gonna spend the night?

MONTANA BOCKEL: Oh, I know he heard her. ‘Cause that’s what made him so mad.

J.P. MacDonough: During the course of the investigation and during my interviews … with family and friends … Matthew had intended to ask Ms. Lewis to marry him. … that’s how significant he felt about Ms. Lewis. … to … hear her back at the house say that I’m gonna stay with … Bobby, was just –

Peter Van Sant: Meaning sleep with Bobby.

J.P. MacDonough: Correct.

Peter Van Sant: That was too much for him.

J.P. MacDonough: That was just too much.

According to Bockel, Edgar was so angry — he even took it out on her.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): He tried to choke me, and then, that’s when I went and got Bobby.

Bobby Ozan: So I … went outside and he had kicked all the doors in her car and was punchin’ on the window.

J.P. MacDonough: At one point Bobby had to pin Matthew against the car in order for the girls to be able … to leave.

Bobby Ozan: Whole time I’m holding him, he’s screaming top of his lungs, “I’m gonna kill y’all. I’m gonna kill y’all.”

Bockel says she and Livye left in separate cars. In search of safety, Bockel says she headed toward the home where Edgar’s mother and grandparents lived, and that’s where Edgar caught up with her.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): He pulled in behind me. … I went to get out and he started chokin’ me again.

Their children were in the backseat of Edgar’s van.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): And I was honkin’ the horn, so somebody would come outside.

In all the racket, Bockel says Edgar left, and headed for his own home, a short distance away on the same property. A shaken Bockel says she asked to stay the night with Edgar’s mother and grandparents — and then began texting with Edgar.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): I have messages.

RANGER JOE HARALSON: What does he say?

“You took part in it and you are guilty as she is !!! …” wrote Edgar, as he angrily accused Bockel of playing a part in Livye’s decision to spend the night with Ozan. Those texts would become damning evidence in the case against Edgar.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): He said, “You knew what was going on.”

A decision that appears to have enraged him.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): He said, “I will take your life her life and his life … Mark my words.”

At 3:22 a.m., Edgar texts: “I’m leaving better get here and get your kids.” MacDonough says evidence shows that a drunk and angry Edgar then got behind the wheel of his truck, where he kept his rifle, and went hunting for Livye.

J.P. MacDonough: I think she pulled over to talk to him and I’ll tell you why. … she was just sittin’ there with her legs crossed. … indicates to me she was not afraid. It was not a fight-or-flight thing where she was prepared to just bolt out the car, she was actually, to some degree, comfortable with who she was speaking with.

Twelve minutes after texting “I’m leaving,” Edgar texted: “I’m home. I got Livye’s keys and her phone.” Bockel asked: “Where is she.” Edgar’s response: “Dead.” 

Bockel told investigators she didn’t call 911 because she didn’t believe he was serious. Instead, Bockel texted Edgar, “Can I come down there.” His reply, “yeah.” But Bockel claims that Edgar’s mother wouldn’t let her leave — so she just fell asleep.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): I never left. I didn’t even know anything had happened until I woke up at around 6 o’clock this morning.

But Edgar didn’t go to bed. MacDonough says evidence shows that not long after sending that text that Livye was dead, Edgar did something no one can explain: he went back to the crime scene — this time in his cousin Zach’s truck. It’s that truck that was found parked behind Livye’s car.

Peter Van Sant: Why would he go back then? Why would he return to the scene of the crime?

J.P. MacDonough: That would be a question you’d have to ask Matthew. I — I can’t explain that.

Also hard to explain: Bockel’s  failure to call 911. It made no sense to Livye’s friend Bayley Williams.

Bayley Williams: She knew who he was and what type of person he was, and then she was receiving all those texts. I don’t think that you can just take that with a grain of salt after you’ve received those text messages.

Peter Van Sant: Yeah, it’s time to … to call police.

Bayley Williams: Right.

MacDonough says he and his team of investigators wondered if Bockel had been to the crime scene that morning to try and help Edgar cover up Livye’s murder.

MONTANA BOCKEL (interview with investigators): I know you don’t believe me, but I can’t tell you stuff that I don’t know happened. 

Two months after the crime, Bockel was given a polygraph exam.

POLYGRAPHER: Are you covering for the person responsible for Livye’s death?

After monitoring her physiological responses, Bockel was told she failed the polygraph.

POLYGRAPHER: There’s no doubt that you left something out. …That there’s something you’re not telling me.

But after an in-depth multiagency investigation, investigators concluded that Bockel was never at the crime scene and had nothing to do with Livye’s shooting or any coverup.

Peter Van Sant: And, so, to all those who think somehow, she’s involved, you say?

J.P. MacDonough: Not true.

Peter Van Sant: Not true at all.

All the evidence, says MacDonough, points to one person: Matthew Edgar.

Peter Van Sant: Is there a motive in your mind?

J.P. MacDonough: Jealousy.

Peter Van Sant: Jealousy.

J.P. MacDonough: Plain and simple.

In February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the courts and this case. With no grand juries being convened, a judge was forced by law to release a still unindicted Matthew Edgar on a “reasonable” bond — $50,000.

Darci Bass: For them to set it so low was insane to me.

Months after Edgar’s release, Bass was at her local convenience store when Edgar just strolled in.

Darci Bass: When he came in the door … I just went — started — started throwing whatever at him and went for him. … And I just remember saying, “you killed my daughter. … you killed my daughter …”

Edgar pressed charges against Bass, and she was arrested. The charges would eventually be dropped, but Bass says she just wanted some answers.

Darci Bass: She loved you and she was good to you and your kids and to your family. What made you think that this was the answer to anything that was going on?

On March 16, 2021, four-and-a-half months after his arrest, a grand jury finally heard the evidence against Matthew Edgar, and indicted him for the murder of Livye Lewis. But Edgar, who was still out on bail, wasn’t done breaking the law and tormenting Livye’s family.

Darci Bass: I just was like, are you — are you serious?

DEFENDANT MATTHEW EDGAR DISAPPEARS

As January 2022 and the trial of Matthew Edgar approached, Darci Bass was confident that the evidence in the murder of her daughter, Livye, would finally prove that Matthew had killed her.

Peter Van Sant: What, in this case, struck you as the most powerful evidence against Matthew Edgar?

Darci Bass: From him saying that he was gonna kill them — her, till him being at the scene, till it being his gun.

Then, there were all those venomous texts between Edgar and Montana Bockel, that Taylor Barnett and Bayley Williams say ended with a clear confession.

Taylor Barnett: When he texts and said she’s dead.

Peter Van Sant: ‘Cause who would know that except —

Bayley Williams: The person who did it.

And remember that text that read, “I got Livye’s keys and her phone.” Well, Livye’s phone was found in the truck Edgar had driven to the crime scene. Her keys were found on the driveway at his grandparent’s house — and reluctantly handed over to investigators by Edgar’s mother, Cindy Hogan.

Peter Van Sant: Is it true in your opinion that she tried to keep Livye’s keys from investigators?

J.P. MacDonough: That was the indication.

Hogan also tried help her son by suggesting that Livye had been killed by a drug cartel, because Edgar owed them money.

J.P. MacDonough: And that the cartel had killed Livye and staged it to make it look like Matthew did it, because … they were out $30,000.

Peter Van Sant: What do you think of that theory?

J.P. MacDonough: Uh, I think … it’s a far-fetched fairytale.

Darci Bass: It was so farfetched  … what was just a crazy story … to try to distract people from the truth.

On Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, Edgar’s trial began with jury selection. Edgar, who was still out on bond, walked in and out of court every day like a free man.

J.P. MacDonough: Due to the nature … of the crime … and the emotion throughout the county … we had security arrangements in place for trial. We even had Matthew wearing a bulletproof vest.

On the first day of testimony, the state began presenting its case, which included DNA lab results that detected a tiny speck of Livye’s blood on the pants Edgar was wearing when he was found at the crime scene.

Peter Van Sant: How important is that piece of evidence?

J.P. MacDonough: It’s critical. It puts him there at the time that that injury that caused her death.

But Edgar’s court-appointed defense attorney, Rob Hughes, argued that a tiny drop of blood doesn’t prove a thing.

Peter Van Sant: How else could that speck have gotten on his pant leg if not coming from blood spatter from the shooting?

Rob Hughes: You can get DNA transferred from just touching someone.

Hughes says there’s no telling how long that blood had been there.

And all that blood on Edgar’s face that MacDonough swabbed and had tested? It wasn’t Livye’s or Edgar’s — and once they were excluded, investigators didn’t pursue other matches. Hughes says there were additional DNA tests that also raised questions about who else may have been at the crime scene.

Rob Hughes: There were other people’s DNA on Matthew, and Livye was excluded as a contributor to those DNA samples.

Hughes tried his best to argue that the DNA should be considered reasonable doubt but admits that his biggest obstacle in defending Edgar were those texts —and Edgar’s insistence that he has no memory of sending them.

Peter Van Sant: In your entire career as a defense attorney, have you ever had a client who was functioning during the course of a crime —  texting, conversing with people, driving an automobile —  then said they had no memory whatsoever of the events?

Rob Hughes: I have not.

Peter Van Sant: And you understand why that would be hard for people to believe?

Rob Hughes: Yes.

Hughes also asserted that the murder weapon had not been tested for fingerprints or DNA. But conceded the rifle belonged to Edgar. After a second day of testimony, the prosecutor notified Hughes that he would be resting his case the next morning, and it would then be Hughes’ turn to call witnesses. Shaun Dunn says that he had been Snapchatting with Edgar, who was feeling optimistic about his chances.

Shaun Dunn: He was so confident that … he was gonna need a job … and asked me … would I find him a spot to go to work?

But the next morning, as Hughes arrived at the courthouse,. he got a panicked call from Edgar’s mother, who told him her son was now a fugitive.

Rob Hughes: She just started … frantically telling me that Matthew was gone. Matthew had run and he had taken a gun with him. And she was afraid he was gonna kill himself.

Darci Bass: Are you serious? Like he’s — he’s gone? He had — he shouldn’t even been out on bond. And he had an ankle monitor on. What happened with that?

Authorities say Edgar had simply waited for the battery on his ankle monitor to die, and then left home — most likely on foot. 

J.P. MacDonough: We started getting assets from all over. … Lufkin P.D. SWAT, uh, DPS, Texas Rangers … we even had tracking dogs from the — from the prison unit … they followed a trail through the woods, roughly two miles.

Meanwhile, Edgar’s trial went on without him. That very same day, defense attorney Hughes began presenting his case. The jury was not told that Edgar had fled, but they must have wondered.

Peter Van Sant: So, a case that’s already very difficult for you has now become, I’ll use the word impossible.

Rob Hughes: It — it made it much — it — it didn’t help, that’s for sure.

No one was surprised when, after deliberating for about an hour-and-a-half, the jury found Edgar guilty of murder. But he was still on the loose, out there somewhere — an armed threat to himself and the community.

Bayley Williams: I mean I think that it was like a scary time because … it’s Hemphill, he knows where everybody lives at.

Darci Bass: That was a terrible, crazy time for me knowing that he’s out there. … supposedly loved my daughter, but murdered her, and me, the one that’s actively trying to make sure that he goes to jail, what would he had done to me.

Bass says it felt like no one was searching for Edgar, so she became a mother on a mission and hung a homemade wanted poster all over town. But she wasn’t alone. MacDonough had been joined by Jeff Coulter, a special deputy with the Eastern District U.S. Marshal’s Service, and they were on the hunt for Edgar.

Peter Van Sant: Do you consider him right off the bat to be a dangerous fugitive?

Jeff Coulter: Oh, absolutely. Uh, from what I was told, the murder, the crime scene, yes, no doubt.

THE HUNT FOR A CONVICTED KILLER

The very spot where 19-year-old Livye Lewis was murdered is now a memorial lovingly tended to by her mother.

Darci Bass: (at the memorial) I just want everyone to remember what happened here … what Livye had to go through.

It’s also a place that Bass is convinced Edgar visited, after becoming a fugitive.

Darci Bass: I just felt it as a mother., I was like he’s coming here. He’s not far.

Bass says she also heard rumors that Edgar’s mother had been spotted buying her son’s favorite cigarettes and liquor in large quantities.

Darci Bass: Where is she taking ’em to?

One week after Edgar ran from the law, Jeff Coulter, a special deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service, was asked to take over the manhunt.

Peter Van Sant: When you first … begin your investigation, do you start with his family? …  to see if they’ve heard anything?

Jeff Coulter: No, no. … I don’t like being lied to. … I’ve already heard their stories … claiming  … she was killed by the cartel … So, no … I didn’t even waste my time.

Coulter says he quietly spent nearly a year working with the sheriff’s office and other law enforcement agencies around the country, to chase down every lead that came their way.

Jeff Coulter: And we had put in a lot of hours, a lot of weekends, a lot of late nights.

Then, a tip that Edgar might actually be hiding in plain sight – in a house just yards from his grandparent’s property.

Jeff Coulter: It looked great, it sounded great. But we physically have to put eyes on him before we make a move on his residence.

The house, which belonged to a family friend, was surrounded by woodlands, so Coulter enlisted the aid of two wardens with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The plan? To get as close as possible, under the cloak of darkness, using night vision to ID their man.

Jeff Coulter: We were gonna enter into the woods. Make our way up to the back of the property. Get as close as we could and sit there and see if we could get a visual of him.

While Coulter led a team of three men into the woods, MacDonough and his deputies were on the opposite side of the house, near the driveway — but out of sight, in their vehicles.

J.P. MacDonough: My job was to sit right there at the front door of that house.

If Coulter and his men made a positive ID on Edgar, they would finally have him cornered.

Jeff Coulter: We went in about 4:30 in the afternoon. We knew it was gonna get dark about 5:30. … we got into probably about a hundred yards of the house. And — we heard barking, um, come to find out they had a pretty good-sized Rottweiler in the backyard.

Jeff Coulter: We’re out there for an hour or so. … We could hear voices. … We hear a female voice. We could hear male voice, but it’s so thick. We can’t see. … Then we catch a violent thunderstorm … And there’s lightning and thunder and torrential rain. It was miserable. But it was a blessing in disguise … the noise covered our movement.

They were 30 yards from the house when a second storm hit, but there was no giving up.

Jeff Coulter: That’s 11 months and two days. … this needed to end tonight.

Drenched and exhausted, Coulter and his team could hear voices on the back porch of the house but couldn’t see faces. Until about 8 p.m., when a man stepped off the porch.

Jeff Coulter: Walks around the side of the house and he stands there.

One of Coulter’s men immediately recognized that man as Matthew Edgar.

Jeff Coulter: He goes, “He’s here. I got eyes on him.”

J.P. MacDonough: We got word that they had made a confirmation … drove down, pulled in the driveway. 

Jeff Coulter: Once we saw the lights, it was a 30-yard sprint, all four of us. … We break the corner, and we started screaming “law enforcement, police.” … He jumps up and he throws himself against the wall, like, oh, crap.

Peter Van Sant: You got me.

Jeff Coulter: Yeah. It was over with.

Peter Van Sant: Did you guys make eye contact?

J.P. MacDonough: Absolutely. … He said, “Hey, J.P..” I said, “Hey, Matthew.” And then he asked me, “You haven’t … proven my innocence yet?” And I said, “No, Matthew. — I have not.”

Coulter says that’s not all Edgar had to say that night.

Jeff Coulter: He said, “Please don’t shoot my mother.”

Peter Van Sant: His mother is in the house.

Jeff Coulter: His mother’s at the house.

Peter Van Sant: Was she crying? Was she upset?

Jeff Coulter: No. I think she acted amazed that he was there. … Like she didn’t know what was going on. 

Peter Van Sant: Really?

Jeff Coulter: Yes. … Surprised he was there.

Peter Van Sant: Was she arrested as well?

Jeff Coulter: Not at the time. She was not.

Cindy Hogan was eventually charged with “hindering apprehension.” “48 Hours” reached out to her attorney for comment but did not hear back. On Jan. 3, 2023, Matthew Edgar was formally sentenced for the murder of Livye Lewis: 99 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.

Peter Van Sant: Does it give you — I don’t know what the word is, not any peace, but … in prison he will likely suffer for decades?

Darci Bass: I can only hope, but he doesn’t suffer like … like her brother … He doesn’t suffer like… her little sister.

Bass hopes to be there when Edgar comes up for parole, and Barnett and Williams say she won’t be alone.

Bayley Williams: And I don’t care however he says that he changes while he’s in there. I don’t think that that’s … something you can ever come back from, because she’s definitely not coming back. 

Meanwhile, Bass is trying to save up enough money to buy a headstone for Livye’s grave.

Peter Van Sant: How do you carry on and honor your daughter’s memory?

Darci Bass: I just gotta get up every morning and just — just remember the good things … and I wanna make her proud.

Bayley Williams: I don’t want her to be remembered as the girl that got killed in the small town. I want her to be remembered for … the way that she carried herself, and the happy person that she was to be around.

Cindy Hogan is awaiting trial.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

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Produced by Judy Rybak. Iris Carreras is the field producer. Michelle Sigona is the development producer. Ken Blum, Michael Vele and Wini Dini are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.