She Acts Confident in Interrogation, Thinks the Cops Believe Her — Then Her DNA Surfaces

Forcemith police, this is your last TIME TO COME OUT FREELY. Come out with your hands up. Keep your hands in the air where I can see them. Keep your hands in the air where I can see them. >> No. What’s your name? >> Taylor. Taylor. >> Who else is in here? >> Why did you say there was a white guy in there? There’s a white guy in there.

>> Did you say there was a white guy or the other girl? Okay, that must have been white. >> Okay, >> they’re all blind. >> Where’d you get the car? >> I already told him. >> You tell me. July 11th, 2019, a neighbor called the Fort Smith Police Department to request a welfare check on the man living next door.

 He had not been seen for several days and his car was gone. >> 911. We had a young man across the street from us that lives in a duplex and there is an elderly man that lives next door to him. He has not seen him in two days and his car is not there. and the man that lived there that um he’s concerned about.

 His his name is Bill Dub Boys. >> Officers arrived at the duplex and found the apartment locked. There were no signs of forced entry. One of the officers began speaking with Bill’s neighbor, Denton Stringer, who lived in the adjoining unit. >> Hello. >> How are you, man? >> Good. Him? >> He’s not answering. He thought answer, but uh I was laying in my bed the other night >> and I don’t I I can’t remember what time it was because and I I heard a something fall sound like a >> Did you have a car? >> Yeah, I had a car.

 But >> where’s his car? >> His car’s been gone for 2 three days. >> Well, maybe he’s gone. >> While the officer questioned him, she kept knocking on Bill’s door. No one answered. Okay. >> He would told us. >> Okay. >> You he would told us. >> Okay. What kind of car does he drive? >> He drives a van forward on it. >> Okay.

>> Was that headquarters for test one? >> You know what position his bedroom is at? >> Back that way up there. >> Okay. I’ll come back and talk to you in just a second. Okay. At first, it seemed like a routine welfare check, but just before the officer walked away, Denton casually mentioned something that would give investigators their first real lead.

>> What’s his name? >> Uh, Bill. That’s all I know. Bill. That’s all I called him. >> You said Deo. The call note said Deo. >> I They know him better than I do. >> Oh, they do? Yeah. They Yeah. He goes over there. Talks to them all the time. Everything else. >> What’s your name? >> Denton. D E N T O N. >> Denton.

>> Mhm. >> Last name? >> Stringer. S t r i n g e r. >> I understand. So you don’t have a phone. So you walked over there? Yeah. >> You should get a phone. >> I had a phone. I got me a phone and my daughter when she left, she she she stole it. >> Keep that in mind because Denton’s granddaughter was about to become one of the most important names in the entire investigation.

 While other officers remained at the duplex, one of the responding officers stopped at a nearby resale shop to ask if anyone had seen Bill recently. What seemed like an ordinary conversation would soon take the investigation in a completely different direction. >> Okay. So, the neighbor over there says that that that man sometimes comes over and talks with y’all.

>> He does. >> Is it a regular thing that he comes over? >> Well, not not a regular thing, but we chase with us or he’ll we’ll buy something and he works at the McDonald’s right down here. >> Okay. >> And so, um the one all the way at the on Grand Yeah. And he’s just kind of one of those good He just watches >> He used to be an old teacher, right? >> Yes.

He he kind of watches our shop and the last time you saw him. >> When’s the last time you saw him or his car? >> I know I have not seen it probably two days, but he’s not for sure when the last time I >> There’s some cause for concern. That’s why I’m asking. But let me call McDonald’s real fast. Yeah.

 Um because he’ll even tell us sometime are you going to be gone, you know, or something or um but he didn’t said anything like that to us and he just watches our place. You know the next people next door we’ve had some problems and not us necessarily but they find out there but Bill’s always been really great to watch our place.

 So I’ve said if anybody did anything it would be them. cuz that’s his shouldn’t even say that but because it’s just odd that they come over here and then he’s telling us to call Bill like this should check on him this 18 >> on his written on his mail 1800 number. >> Yeah, he gave me a number. I said, “Well, that wouldn’t be Bill’s number.

It would be a 1800 number >> cuz he doesn’t have a phone.” >> Yeah, that’s what he said. He said his daughter stole his phone. >> I don’t know. >> Get y’all. I’m going get y’all I’m going get y’all’s names just to be on the safe side. >> When officers finally gained access to Bill’s apartment, the smell reached them before they made it to the bathroom.

>> I know that smell and it could be the trash can. >> The trash is empty, sir. I didn’t see anything in that window, but I’m also not tall enough to see on the inside of the pane like once I got there. It’s only whiffs. I’m not I’m on the fence. [music] >> Inside, they found 72-year-old William Joseph Dubois Jr., deceased.

 He had been beaten so severely that investigators documented 27 separate impact injuries to his skull. The apartment had also been stripped. >> His I didn’t even notice his TV’s missing, too. TV’s missing. No wallet, no phone. Um, no force entry. like we need to talk to this guy. >> He just got here. Oh, I told Jeff um >> told Jeff these people.

>> Yeah, they I talked with them over there. They said he comes over a lot and talks with them and they said if anything ever happened to him, it would be because of somebody over his apartment. You notice him? There’s some red fuzz all over the place. I’m not sure. >> He’s laying on the blanket that the fuzz I think came from.

>> But there’s fuzz on like the kitchen. There’s fuzz on this on this right here. thing. All the doors in his bedroom are open. Keys, wallet, phone, stuff that normally would be laying out. >> What kind of car is it? I got it. He just told me it was red. >> It’s a red Ford Focus. We have the tag and everything.

 And Courtney just sent out Vololo did not release any information. Just said just stop this vehicle and notify our department. >> Two televisions were gone. The microwave was gone. His wallet, his cell phone, his gold army lieutenants bars, all of it taken. and the red 2013 Ford Focus that sat in his driveway every single day was nowhere on the block.

Investigators now had a homicide scene, a stolen vehicle, and a home that had been ransacked. What they still needed was a starting point. But before that first lead could take shape, investigators needed to understand the man at the center of it all. Bill Dubo had spent nearly his entire adult life in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

 He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arkansas, then spent 30 years in the Fort Smith public school system teaching oral communications and drama. After retiring from full-time teaching, he kept going for another 16 years as a substitute teacher. He was a Vietnam War veteran, a first lieutenant in the United States Army, a third and fourth degree Knight of Columbus, and a grandfather of three.

 He had also suffered a series of strokes and the last one had been severe enough that his family decided he needed a smaller place of his own close to his Andy and daughter Teresa. Susan, his wife, visited him on the evening of July 9th. She left roughly 2 hours before he was killed. It was the last time she saw him alive.

 What Denton Stringer did not tell police right away was that his granddaughter had been staying with him. Her name was Taylor Elkins. She was 21 years old, a mother of two, and she had been in and out of that neighborhood for weeks. Taylor Elkins had once been one of Bill Dubua’s students during his years as a substitute teacher. She was someone Bill likely would have recognized immediately, someone he may have opened the door for without hesitation. Keep that in mind.

 Then, just as officers were preparing to leave the scene, Bill’s son arrived and handed them the lead they needed. >> That’s his son. >> Out here, please. >> Uh, black box >> in the uh tracker. >> Tracker. Yeah. Did you say where it went? Where the car? >> Mom does that with her cars. [laughter] >> He says there is a train, but it’s not at his mom’s house.

>> Mom does it. >> But the car is not at the mom’s house. >> Okay. >> He told police that his mother had installed a GPS tracking device on Bill’s car. It was a Verizon service called HUM, something she had set up because of Bill’s health. That single detail changed everything. Officers immediately drove to Susan’s apartment.

When they got there, they first had to do the hardest part of the job. They had to tell her Bill was dead. >> Hi, Miss Susan. I’m Officer Hrix. I’m sorry meeting you under these circumstances. >> You know me. >> I’ve seen you at Northside games. >> I have been there [laughter] [gasps] now during you want to sit down for a minute.

 No, >> I’m fine. >> Okay. >> It might it might be better on your legs. I just just experience with experience. In every death investigation, we do a complete investigation from top to bottom because we don’t want to leave any stone unturned. Does that make sense? Okay. >> I’m a retired nurse, so >> Okay.

 Well, he and and we’re not saying this is a homicide at this point. Okay. >> No, he had a heart condition strokes >> and he could have fell and hit his head, but there’s some blood there that we’re concerned about. Does that make sense? >> He probably fell. >> Okay. >> Once Susan was composed enough to speak, detectives asked about the tracker.

 She gave them access to the HUM account that same [music] evening. >> Here’s our biggest Yeah, right now is the car is missing. >> Oh, no. >> Yes. Where’s your tracker? >> Do you have a tracker on that car? >> Okay. >> Her phone right here. Right here. >> No, that’s Tracy’s. >> Mine’s in the little kitchen in the bathroom.

>> Somebody run and get her phone. If you can try to get me a location on that call. >> It’s going to be tremendous. >> And it could be the fact that you left it somewhere and got home. >> Florida station next location >> off Kelly Highway. Pretty sure it’s stationary. >> It’s parked at a house. >> Oh sn Rider, too.

>> The car is at JP. >> Who’s north? >> It’s through JB Rider. [laughter] >> What? >> Okay. >> They pulled up the location and the car was parked at an address Fort Smith police recognized without hesitation. A known drug and sex trafficking house on the other side of the city. Formith Police Department. >> Hey, come out with your hands up.

 We know you’re in here. Come out. Boardsmith Police Department. Go ahead. Hold traffic 33. [music] >> Hey. Hey. Come out. Come out. It’s okay. It’s okay. Just come out on the side of the house. >> What have we done wrong? >> Who else is here? >> It’s an investigation. Investigation. >> We’re going to explain that.

 We’re going to explain that. Who else is in here? Come on. >> Just walk out to that side of the house for me. >> Who else is in here? Is anybody else in here? >> Just walk out here. Right here to the right. Thank you. >> Taylor. >> That’s Taylor. Who else is in here? >> Go ahead and step out. >> No. Go ahead and step over.

>> Forcement police. This is your last TIME TO COME OUT FREELY. Come out with your hands up. Keep your hand in the air where I can see them. Keep your hands in the air where I can see them. Good. Keep walking. >> Keep walking. Walk toward me. >> Randle Perkins. Correct. Pick it. Pick it. Okay, Randall, go ahead.

 Step off that porch and to your right on the side of the house. Okay. >> Okay. >> Who else is back here? >> Be real with me. >> I don’t know who came out. >> Two men and a woman were found at the scene [music] along with Taylor Elkins. Officers brought them onto the porch and asked a simple question. Who brought Bill Dubo’s car to that house? Not one of them hesitated.

 Every single one pointed at Taylor Elkins. That same evening, detectives sat her down for an interview. And that is when the stories began. Her first explanation was simple. A man named Shawn had given her the car. >> Officer Driggs, obviously. >> Did he read you your Miranda rights? >> Yeah, >> he did like your rights, your right to an attorney, everything like that.

Stolen. >> Okay. It’s It’s not stolen yet. That’s where we’re at. Okay. >> I didn’t I didn’t >> But he did read He read you your rights. Okay. Okay. >> Nothing today. I really >> Okay. Well, today >> why why did you say there was a white guy in there? There’s a white guy in there. >> Did you say there was a white guy or the other girl? Okay, that must have been >> No, no, no.

>> Okay. >> Where’d you get the car? >> I already told him. >> You tell me. >> I Okay, that boardwalk. It’s just like a friend. That’s it. The friend let me >> his name is Sean. I don’t know his last name. While Taylor was trying to build an alibi, one of the officers in the room recognized her from prior police encounters, and that changed the tone of the interview immediately.

 The officer knew Taylor Elkins was no stranger to investigators. She had a long criminal history and several felony cases pending at the time. >> That was that one I told you about. >> No, I’ I’ve dealt with her several times and I saw her in the jail. >> Yeah, that was the one I told you about, remember? That wanted to fill my fill a vacancy.

Um, >> anyways, >> that’s not Edmond. >> Hey, you know that’s her grandparents house, right? >> The the South Greenwood address is her grandparents house. >> Hers? >> Yeah. I swear to you, she’s bonded out to that address out of Crawford County. She’s got like 10 felonies pending. >> That was when the officer made a connection that would blow the case open.

 The address Taylor had given police during a previous arrest was the same address as her grandfather’s, the same duplex where Bill Dubo lived. >> Shut up. Did you tell Shelby? >> I said I think that’s Yeah. >> 1,800 South Greenwood. >> Hey, Sarge. Sarge. Sergeant. >> Give me just a >> Her address is the neighbor’s address. >> Huh? Her address is the neighbor’s 18wood is her uncle or her grandpa or her dad. That’s what I’m telling you.

That’s her grandpa’s house and she’s bonded out there. She’s got like 10 >> 1800 South Greenwood is all in ISIS about it. I think we uh this is >> she’s bonded out there cuz I arrested her two weeks ago and then like the week after >> her address is 1800 South Greenwood. She got domestic assault.

 The guy that called it in. >> Wow. >> That’s his is 1800 cuz our guys is 1800. >> The police decided to bring Taylor in for further questioning. At first she tried to play dumb. She stuck to the same story. Shawn had given her Bill Dubo his car and she knew nothing else about what happened. >> Hello. How are you? >> Good. >> Could have been better.

>> All right, Taylor. So, you you know why you’re down here, right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Why are you down here? >> So, supposedly the car is stolen. I don’t know. Um I had it in my Well, I didn’t have it in my um c Well, I don’t know how to say it. It wasn’t in my property. I didn’t I wasn’t in the car or nothing like that, but it was stolen and everybody pointed their fingers at me and I mean I admitted to driving it.

So >> Okay. And where did you get it from? >> This dude named Sean. >> Sean who? >> I don’t know his last name. I really I don’t know his last name. I just I say hey to to him basically. Um he he’s just a friend like he does drugs, you know. So I mean you don’t I don’t know everybody’s last minute. >> You’ve been you’ve been arrested lately? Yeah.

>> When was the last time you arrested? >> Uh last week. That’s when I got my kids taken. >> It was Miller and this other guy. >> And when you when you bonded out? >> Uh I finished one. >> Okay. What address do you use when you bond out? >> It’s Winder. >> You sure? >> Where’s my grandpa’s? >> Who’s your grandpa? >> Denton.

>> Didn’t see that. I bought it out, too. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, I bought Did he bond you out? >> No. >> Oh, okay. No, he got 40 1800 >> 1800 what? >> Greenwood Avenue. >> Detectives kept pressing her for details about Shawn and about Bill’s murder. But the more they asked, the clearer it became that Shawn was not real.

 Taylor could not give them a last name. She could not give them a phone number. She could not give them an address. And then the [music] detective tricked her into exposing the lie herself. >> So this is the guy you saying you got a car from? >> Are you sure? Well, no. He’s in jail. >> I don’t know. >> Well, told you he’s been in jail since June the 6th.

>> You think I’m making this up? >> No. >> So, if he’s in jail, I have to give you the car. >> It was him. >> You better rethink this, Taylor. That’s looking like you killed him. >> No. Yeah. No, it wasn’t. >> You think it’s funny? >> No, I said it wasn’t me. >> Well, you better figure it out then, cuz you just lied.

>> The story collapsed before it ever had a chance to stand. Taylor Elkins was arrested on theft and hindering charges and booked into the Sebastian County Detention Center. Her bond was set at $100,000 cash only, far more than she could afford. But by then, investigators were already building towards something bigger.

 Because there was still one question they had not answered. who actually killed Bill Dubois inside that apartment. By August 2nd, 2019, nearly a month after the welfare check, Fort Smith police officially ruled Bill Duba’s death a homicide. And as the investigation widened, a darker picture of Taylor Elkins’s connection to Bill began to emerge.

 She had been inside Bill Duboa’s apartment before the night he died, not as a visitor, not by accident. One or two days earlier, she had already stolen from him. She knew the layout. She knew what was inside. And she knew Bill would open the door. Then detectives got something even more damaging. Taylor’s own grandfather, Denton Stringer, told investigators what she said after coming back to his house.

She had knocked Bill in the head. Those were his exact words. Then she took the car. At that point, Taylor was no longer just the woman caught with Bill’s stolen Ford Focus. Investigators now had a statement placing her at the center of Bill Duba’s final hours. Remember the shop owner who told police that if anything happened to Bill, they needed to look next door? The troubled household she was talking about was the same one where Taylor Elkins had been staying.

 That warning had been pointing in Taylor’s direction from the very beginning. By then, Taylor had moved on to a third version of events. This time, she gave detectives a specific name, Joseph Rogers. She claimed Rogers went into Bill’s apartment while she walked to McDonald’s. She came back to find him leaving with the televisions. She insisted she had nothing to do with whatever happened inside.

>> Okay. So when when you you left McDonald’s, how how would how would Joe have gotten into the those two books? >> Not the door. I don’t know. >> The the door’s locked. Did you give him the key? >> I didn’t have a key. I had the keys to the car. >> Well, I mean, the house keys and stuff are on the key ring. >> He got knocked on the door.

So, you think Joe would have knocked on the door. >> Or did you did you give him a key? >> I didn’t have a key. >> He didn’t? Absolutely. 100% did not have the key to that duplex. >> Mm- >> What about your grandpa? Does he have a key to Bill’s place? >> But you did. >> I have the keys to the home. Well, after after it happened that you didn’t know it happened, but after Joe had the TV, did you go back up there and lock the door? >> Mhm.

>> You didn’t lock the door? >> Mm-m. >> You didn’t go back up to Bill’s door. >> Anybody could lock the door. >> Not common. Not real common. Especially when you have to have a key lock. It’s one of those kinds that you have to have a key. I’m asking you. >> You know, >> well, I know, but I’m just saying this is pretty important because obviously you’re the only one had a key.

 There’s no other sets of keys. There’s one set of keys. My own set there’s one set of keys and you you had those in your possession. So, what where are we missing? M cuz I didn’t I didn’t want anymore. >> Taylor claimed Rogers committed the crime while she was absent from the scene, but the physical evidence was about to make that version impossible to maintain.

 Detectives brought Taylor Elkins back in for questioning. This [music] time they had something she had not accounted for inside Bill Dubo’s clenched fist. Forensic investigators had recovered a single strand of hair. The DNA results came back as a match to Taylor Elkins. A 72-year-old man beaten in his own bathroom had grabbed her and he had not let go.

 That is when the story shifted for the final time. Start >> from the beginning. Whatever you told us in the past, we’re not going to even bring it up. Just tell us from the beginning what happened and exactly the truth the way it happened. Okay. >> Joe came over that night and he he that’s when he asked me whoever daddy and all that. That was true.

 Um he [clears throat] I told him he pointed at my uncle and know his uncle where uncle lives and I told him where he lived and um he told me that um he asked me what he had in the house and I told him that he didn’t have to like he would have nothing to even do anything with. Um, and then he told me that he he’s like, “Will you knock on the door?” I knocked on the door and then he went in. I left.

 That’s when I went to McDonald’s. And I came back. He told he took care of it. I killed him. I didn’t do nothing like that. >> Taylor now admitted she had been there. The plan, she said, was a robbery. Her role was to knock on the door. Someone else was supposed to go in and take the valuables, but the evidence told a different story.

 She was the one found with Bill’s car. She was the one whose grandfather had already told investigators she came home saying she had knocked Bill in the head. She was the one whose DNA was found in Bill’s fist. And she was the one who had already been inside that apartment before. But investigators were about to get the first account of what actually happened inside Bill’s apartment.

 And it would come from the last person Taylor should have trusted. While Taylor Elkins sat in Sebastian County Detention Center waiting for charges, she made the kind of confession killers usually save for themselves. She told a fellow inmate, Terry, exactly what happened inside the duplex. >> Let me ask you this.

 Tell give me a little something so I know that you know what you’re talking about and that you know that you talked to her. >> Okay. Um, it was not a lamp. It was a hammer. I don’t know why they sent you to the sewer because her grandfather told her to take it to the dump. It’s in six different locations at the dump. Uh, there was nobody in the house, nobody with her solo. And it was no surprise.

He let her in. and her exact words were wrong. I’m wrong, but I don’t care now. It’s not like I can bring you back. >> All right, give me just a minute. So, let’s start from the beginning. I mean, tell tell me what what she’s told you about how all this >> I can’t how she said what it was it started out as a robbery gone wrong.

 Uh she like she had she had dealt with him before. Um but it was never for pills. He didn’t do pills. He didn’t even have pills. Uh it was for money. Um, and she was high. Uh, she said that she she went over there with just intentions of robbing him. Uh, he was in his, uh, underwear cuz he was getting ready to go to bed and she was asking him for money and he didn’t have any.

 He was going to bed and he had [ __ ] he had to do the next day and she got mad. She just got mad because he didn’t have money or he, you know, and she hit him with the hammer 36 times. Did she tell you that? >> Yes. She said she I said I said why so many times? I said why even? She’s like because he I went over there and he should have had money.

 I said Taylor I said you can’t I said that I said that’s that’s overkill like you got mad. I said did I said did he ever hurt you before you? She said no. I said, “So this whole scenario that you [ __ ] he he touched you and you didn’t want to be touched and all that [ __ ] that you was just a lie.” >> Then Terry alleges that Taylor’s grandfather may have been involved that night.

>> Did you say her grandfather told her what to do? >> Yeah. Like he came in. He came in after she done hit him. He’s in the bathroom floor. grandfather sees him bleeding and turns around, walks out. And then when she goes back to the house, he’s like, “Well, TV’s go get him ped.” And that’s where Philip or whatever is Pete came in or whatever.

>> But said that uh I said, “Why did you [ __ ] car?” Well, I need a way to get around to take the TV. Shut the up. >> Anything about where he was at? He he let her in the door and she followed like he was going like to the bedroom but somehow they stopped right there at the bathroom and she found the hammer like on the way through the house like it was just laying off to the side and she just took it and when he told her no for like the third time I think she said that she he wasn’t going to give her money she got mad cuz she’s already high

and you know how Taylor’s temper is any damn way. So she got mad and was trying to beat it out of him. Justing was savage with it. Man, >> you can’t do that. >> But no charges were ever filed against Denton Stringer in connection with Bill Dubua’s murder. Taylor claimed her role was limited.

 But Terry’s account, the DNA recovered from Bill’s fist, the prior robbery, and her grandfather’s statement all pointed to the same conclusion. She had gone there alone. She had been led in and she had made sure Bill Duba could not tell anyone what happened. On October 9th, 2019, Taylor Cynthia Elkins was formally charged with first-degree murder.

 And in Arkansas, that charge came with a ceiling Taylor could not ignore, the death penalty. Negotiations opened with Sebastian County prosecutors. Susan Duba was included in the process, and she made her position clear. She was leaning away from the death penalty. Prosecutors offered Taylor a plea deal on first-degree murder.

 the terms 40 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. She would have to serve 70% before becoming eligible for parole, 28 years minimum. The Dubois family accepted the plea to avoid a trial. Susan did not want months of testimony or her husband’s death laid out in a courtroom for the public to consume. On January 16th, 2020, Taylor Elkins finally stood before a judge in Sebastian County to answer for what she had done to Bill Dubua.

 She offered no apology, no statement, nothing directed at the family of the man she killed. After pleading guilty to first-degree murder, Taylor Elkins was sentenced to 40 years in prison. She will not be eligible for parole until July 2047.