On Dec. 16, 2021, Darci Bass was standing in her native comfort retailer when the person who stood accused of the capturing loss of life of her 19-year-old daughter Livye Lewis strolled in. “When he got here within the door … I simply went — began — began throwing no matter at him and went for him,” Bass informed “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant in an interview for “The Blackout Murder of Livye Lewis.”
An encore of the published airs Saturday, Jan. 17 at 9/8c on CBS and and streaming on Paramount+.
All of it started within the early morning hours of Halloween 2020, when Lewis was found on the aspect of a street within the tiny city of Hemphill, Texas. She was draped over the steering wheel of her automotive, useless from a rifle shot to the neck.
Bass says she was not notified by police of her daughter’s loss of life. As a substitute, she heard from a pal that Lewis was in bother and confirmed up on the crime scene demanding solutions. “I simply wanted to know is she alive or is she useless,” Bass informed Van Sant. Her anguished cries for solutions have been caught on police bodycam video. “I wanna see my baby,” she shouted. “Livye Lewis! The place is she?”
Sabine County Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough says that the minute he noticed Lewis’ physique, he knew that Lewis’ killer was no stranger to her. “She was simply sitting there along with her legs crossed,” he tells Van Sant. “Effectively, it signifies to me she was not afraid … She was truly, to a point, snug with who she was talking with.”
MacDonough says he did not should look very far for a suspect. Additionally found on the crime scene was Lewis’ boyfriend, 23-year-old Matthew Edgar. “He was discovered within the fetal place behind the automobile that Lewis was present in,” says MacDonough. Beside Edgar was his rifle.
Edgar was rushed from the scene of the crime in an ambulance. Bloodied however not injured, he’s seen on police bodycam footage mendacity in a hospital mattress, being interviewed by MacDonough.
“When was the final time you noticed Livye?” MacDonough asks Edgar. “Tonight,” he solutions, after which claims to don’t have any reminiscence of how he ended up on the crime scene. “You do not know the way you ended up on the bottom behind the automotive … With the useless woman in it,” says MacDonough. “No, sir,” Edgar replies. “I’ve no clue.”
Sabine County Sheriff’s Workplace 
However for Edgar’s protection lawyer Rob Hughes, it was not an open-and-shut case. “We received all of the DNA outcomes again and … there have been some holes within the case,” Hughes tells Van Sant. “There have been no fingerprints taken or DNA lifted off the gun.”
Shaun Dunn, who calls himself an in depth pal of Edgar’s, tells “48 Hours” that he believes Edgar when he says he cannot recall how he ended up on the crime scene. Dunn thinks that, like Lewis, Edgar was a sufferer and that another person pulled the set off. “I consider it was somebody that was … near Matthew,” he says. “Somebody that was concerned in occasions of that night.”
However the place Dunn sees a sufferer, MacDonough noticed a suspect and arrested Edgar whereas he was mendacity in that hospital mattress. Then, months later, Bass says that whereas she was praying for justice, Edgar was launched. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the courts and with no grand juries being convened, Texas legislation required {that a} still-unindicted Edgar be allowed out on bail.
It was months after Edgar’s launch when he walked into that comfort retailer in Bass’ neighborhood. “And I simply bear in mind saying, ‘You killed my daughter … you killed my daughter.'” In accordance with MacDonough, Bass chased Edgar into the parking zone, the place she grabbed a series within the mattress of his truck and began slinging it throughout his windshield. Bass says she simply needed some solutions: “She beloved you and he or she was good to you and your children and to your loved ones. What made you assume that this was the reply to something that was occurring?”
Edgar known as the sheriff’s workplace and filed a grievance in opposition to Bass, who was then charged with assault brought on by bodily harm, retaliation and legal mischief. An arrest warrant was issued and Bass turned herself in. The costs have been ultimately dropped.
On March 16, 2021, four-and-a-half months after his arrest, a grand jury heard the proof in opposition to Edgar and indicted him for the homicide of Lewis. However Edgar, who was nonetheless out on bail throughout his trial, was not achieved breaking the legislation. On the fourth day of trial, Edgar let the battery on his ankle monitor die and went on the run. His trial went on with out him, and the jury discovered him responsible. However it took authorities 11 months to seize Edgar, so he could possibly be sentenced to 99 years, with the opportunity of parole after 30 years.
