This week on Impact of Murder, the team is investigating the brutal murder of university student Alyssiah Martin by her boyfriend, Jermaine Richards, in 2013 in Connecticut.
On April 19, 2013, Alyssiah disappeared after getting into her boyfriend’s car just outside the Eastern Connecticut State University campus, where she was a sophomore student.
An extensive search for the young woman ensued. Her mother later spoke of the search as lasting day and night as they combed neighborhood after neighborhood. The statewide search lasted twenty-seven days and, tragically, ended after the grisly discovery of partial remains in some woods near Trumbull, CT, about a mile from Richards’s Bridgeport home.
In the days following the disappearance, investigators began interviewing Alyssiah’s boyfriend of four years. During the interviews, they initially found Richards to be agitated and impatient. But as the interview continued, he shut down completely and refused to cooperate.
The police concluded that Alyssiah had tried to end the relationship with Richards, which had caused him to become enraged. The cops said he abducted Alyssiah and killed her before dismembering and scattering her remains.
Alyssiah’s friends called Richards jealous and possessive
At Richards’s trial, his former girlfriend’s family and friends took the stand to argue that he had been possessive and jealous towards Alyssiah, and at times, he’d even caused her physical harm.
Richards’s lawyers argued that the evidence was circumstantial and that there had been no witnesses and no way to tell when and where the sophomore student had been murdered. Richards was put on trial three times; the first two ended in hung juries, but the third led to his conviction for murder.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelIn March 2018, the 35-year-old Richards was sentenced to 60 years in prison without any parole. When the judge asked him if he had anything to say, he responded with: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the almighty.”
This caused Alyssiah’s stepfather, John Rich, to lose his temper and begin shouting obscenities at the murderer. Before the judicial marshals cautioned Rich, he shouted, “You need to rot in hell; you showed no remorse.”
More from Impact of Murder
Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on Impact of Murder.
The team investigated a truly horrific case from Longmont, Colorado when Dynel Lane lured pregnant Ellie Wilkins to her home with the promise of maternity goods for sale. When Ellie arrived, Lane choked the mom-to-be to the point of unconsciousness before slashing her stomach and removing her baby.
Botham Jean was in the prime of his life and was relaxing in his Dallas, Texas, apartment when off-duty police officer Amber Guyger burst in the door and shot him dead. Guyger, who was Jean’s neighbor, claimed she’d confused his apartment for hers and thought he had broken into her apartment.
Impact of Murder airs at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.