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"Sinister Plot" Uncovered After Two People Killed and High-Speed Police Chase in Southern California
After a young father was murdered and a woman was stabbed to death in broad daylight, law enforcement had to determine whether the two crimes could be connected.
After two people were found dead in Southern California under different circumstances, investigators uncovered a “sinister plot” where nothing was as it seemed, according to Dateline.
In the wake of the shocking murders, the victims’ family members were “caught in the crossfire of tragedy” as authorities spent years trying to unravel the mystery that is the focus of a new two-hour episode of Dateline, airing Friday at 9/8c p.m. on NBC.
“A new father is found dead on the side of a road. Then the shocking stabbing of a young woman in broad daylight leads police on a high speed chase,” reads a synopsis for the “Wrong Turns” episode. “Investigators wonder: are these two chilling murders connected?”
As one investigator explained in a preview of the episode, detectives had a web to untangle as they sorted through the complicated details of the murders of Justin Hilbert and Bailey Sharp.
“There were two murders committed. The question was whether they were related, and how?” Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz told NBC Insider.
After Bailey was stabbed to death in July of 2016, the suspect in the murder led police on a high-speed chase throughout Southern California.
“I was watching the news,” Tonya Reppe, who was Hilbert's girlfriend, told Dateline of seeing the suspect’s white car race down the roads as police followed closely behind.
Reppe also had a close connection to the suspect, who even reached out to her as he tried to evade authorities. “He wanted to talk to me while he was being chased, but I didn’t want to talk to him,” she recalled.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the community was left stunned as “investigators uncovered a sinister plot where nothing was as it seemed," Mankiewicz says in a voiceover in the preview.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around it,” Hilbert's sister Mallory Goins told Dateline. “It didn’t make sense.”
Along with Reppe and Goins, the episode includes interviews with Cathy Hudson, Sam Marquez and Bailey’s parents, Jeff and Ericka Sharp.
According to Mankiewicz, there's an important message in the episode that he hopes will resonate with viewers.
“Keep your eyes on Bailey’s parents, who together absorbed an unexpected double whammy of grief and loss,” he said.
Mankiewicz told NBC Insider that the most challenging aspect of covering the story was speaking to the families of the victims.
“The hard part is always interviewing the families and the people left behind,” he said. “This episode was no different.”
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Who killed Justin Hilbert and Bailey Sharp?
Former Navy sailor Jared Bischoff was found guilty of murder and attempted kidnapping in Bailey’s case in April of 2024, according to NBC News. Bischoff and Danny Serrano were convicted of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in Hilbert’s killing. Both men were sentenced to life in prison in June. To find out their connection to the victims, and see how the complicated case came together, watch the “Wrong Turns” episode of Dateline, now streaming on Peacock.
Where is Jared Bischoff now?
Bischoff, 34, is currently serving his time at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California, according to the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation. He's serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
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Originally published Oct 4, 2024.
