Mom’s heart-wrenching four words after facing daughter’s brutal killer for the first time
A grieving mother lashed out at her daughter’s killer as they came face to face at a Texas supermarket.
Darci Bass had been shopping at a local supermarket in the town of Hemphill, near the Louisiana border, when she faced the man accused of killing her 19-year-old daughter, Livye Lewis.
The meeting was anything but calm. Overcome with grief and anger, Bass hurled four heartbreaking words at Matthew Edgar, the man accused of murder: “You killed my daughter!”
“When he came in, I threw everything I could at him and went at him,” Bass said CBS News as she talked about the moment her stomach turned.
Livye was murdered on Halloween 2020, after being found dead on the side of a remote road in Hemphill in the early hours of the morning.
In a chilling scene, she was found hunched over the steering wheel of her car after being shot in the neck by a gun.
Investigators immediately suspected that Lewis knew her killer.
“She was just sitting there with her legs crossed,” said Sabine County Sheriff’s Office investigator JP MacDonough. 48 hours. ‘
That indicates to me that she was not afraid. She felt comfortable with who she was talking to.”
Darci Bass, a grieving mother, took off and lashed out at the killer of her 19-year-old daughter, Livye Lewis, center, as they came face to face in a Texas supermarket
Livye Lewis, 19, who had plans to become a nurse, was murdered on Halloween 2020
Investigators found 23-year-old Matthew Edgar, her boyfriend, curled up in the fetal position behind her car, near where Lewis’ body was found. He claimed not to remember anything
Not far from Lewis’ body, investigators found 23-year-old Matthew Edgar, her boyfriend, curled up in the fetal position behind her car.
Next to him was the rifle that quickly became the focus of the investigation.
Bloodied but unharmed, Edgar was rushed to hospital, where MacDonough interrogated him.
“When was the last time you saw Livye?” MacDonough asked.
“Tonight,” Edgar replied – although he claimed to have no memory of how he ended up at the scene covered in blood.
“You don’t know how you ended up on the ground behind the car… with the dead girl in it?” MacDonough pressed.
“No, sir,” Edgar replied. “I have no idea.”
Despite Edgar’s sudden ‘amnesia’, his arrest seemed inevitable.
Lewis was found dead on the side of a remote road in Hemphill in the early hours of the morning
Darci Bass, Lewis’ mother, is seen approaching officers and asking for details about her daughter
Overwhelmed with grief and anger, Bass shouted at Matthew Edgar, the man accused of her daughter’s murder, “You killed my daughter! You killed my daughter!’
Lewis had plans to go into nursing
Investigators immediately suspected that Lewis knew her killer
But his attorney, Rob Hughes, disputed the case, pointing out significant gaps in the evidence.
“No fingerprints were taken and no DNA was removed from the weapon,” Hughes argued.
This uncertainty left room for doubt, even as investigators remained convinced of Edgar’s guilt.
As the investigation stalled, the pandemic further delayed justice.
With the courts closed and no grand juries convening, Texas law required Edgar to be released on bail.
For mother Bass, it was this set of circumstances that led her to encounter Edgar at the local supermarket months later and her simmering sadness to turn into anger.
“I remember saying, ‘You killed my daughter… you killed my daughter,'” Bass recalled.
The verbal confrontation then turned physical as the pair walked into the parking lot.
Bass grabbed a chain from Edgar’s truck and smashed it into his windshield.
Sabine County Sheriff’s investigator JP MacDonough is convinced that Edgar was Lewis’s killer
The gun used to kill Lewis quickly became the focus of the investigation
A rifle, Edgar’s boots and a baseball cap were all found along the road
Bass, right, was charged with assault after confronting the man who killed her daughter, left. The charges were later dropped
“She loved you!” Bass cried in fear, still desperate for answers. “She loved you and she was good to you, your children and your family. What made you think this was the answer to everything that was going on?’
Edgar filed a complaint, leading to charges against Bass for assault, retaliation and criminal mischief, although public outcry and her anguish as a grieving mother led to the charges being dropped.
Finally, in March 2021, justice seemed within reach. A grand jury indicted Edgar for murder, and his trial began.
On the fourth day of his trial, he drained the battery of his ankle monitor and ran off.
Authorities continued the trial in his absence, with the jury finding him guilty of the murder of Livye Lewis.
Edgar managed to evade capture for eleven months, but when he was finally apprehended, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after 30 years.