Well, please just not be a dead body or something. >> Hey, come here. >> Roseville, Michigan. 12:23 in the afternoon. A patrol officer responds to a reported collision at the intersection of Hayes and Common Road. A blue Ford pickup truck versus a tractor trailer. Routine call. the kind officers handle often. The semi-d driver is still on scene. The pickup is sitting in the roadway, but its driver is nowhere to be found. on Hayes on this side of Haze on foot. >> I'm almost definitely because the younger dude that was driving was getting down pretty good on foot going down Hayes. So when I called the dispatch, asked me for a plate number and I recognized that the plate was uh way expired. >> Okay. H. >> Were you involved in this? >> No, we got this guy. >> Were you involved? >> No. >> Hold on. Did you get in an accident? >> Yes. >> Okay. I need you to pull that further forward so it's on the curb so it's not blocking the road. Okay. 10 minutes out here. Traffic the traffic is there. >> The responding officer begins checking the pickup for any clues that might identify its owner. The officer runs the van and license plate. It comes back registered to Gabrielle Carla Sites, 63-year-old white female. Valid registration, matching plates, not reported stolen. At this point, it looks like a standard hit and run. >> What the uh person look like? Can you give me a description? >> Female. >> Male or female? I can't see. It's the reflection. Male or female? >> Female? >> Is she a white or a black female? >> White female. >> Where's Gabzilla? >> The driver of that took off. Well, I see an old very old tag on the plate, so I guess we got Yeah. Well, whoever's driving it is a white female, reddish hair, shoulder length, took off. >> Yeah, Gabzilla. >> Probably Gabzilla. >> It says on me. >> Yeah. >> You don't want me to do the info for you? >> It don't matter. >> Hello. >> Hi. >> I was worried somebody hit my truck. >> No, you're okay. >> Did I [laughter] do it? >> Nope. You're good. >> As much damage is on that thing, it hit the tire on the trailer. really. >> And it it did it like caused no damage to the tractor trailer. >> Uh anybody else was there? >> Yeah. Truck. >> They were turning and this car came flying up and hit the back end. Had the trailer of this truck and then this person took off running. >> Yeah. >> Oh, they took off. >> Yeah. >> All right. Officers learned that the blue pickup had run a red light before striking the tire of a passing tractor trailer, the semi sustained little to no damage. While the first officer sits in his patrol car running records and documenting observations, a second officer begins an inventory search of the abandoned vehicle. [music] During that search, he accidentally activates a Halloween decoration. Jesus hitting me. [snorts] Well, please just not be a dead body or something. I was kidding. Hey, come here. >> I was just kidding. >> What? >> There's someone dead in back. >> Are you kidding me? >> I made the joke and then [snorts] it wasn't >> 13. >> 13. Dispatch, >> there goes the explanation. >> Check that station out here. >> That might be the only >> way you do. >> I'm not going to touch anything else. >> Okay. >> You're going to want to um you're going to leave this for right now. >> There there's there's someone dead in back. Okay. Yeah, I'm calling my dispatch right now. >> I got to shut this road down. >> Yeah. >> Should we shut the whole thing down? Probably. You know what? >> Hey, >> just leave everything as it is right now. Even this. >> Okay. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I'll leave it right there. >> We'll just leave it. We'll have you come back and clean it up cuz we're going to shut this all down. >> Okay. It's not here. >> No, we'll call you back. >> Okay. >> Lying in the bed of the pickup is the body of Gabrielle's Sites, a shoelace pulled tight around her neck. Prosecutors would later describe what officers observed as obvious signs of strangulation. What began as a hidden run just became a homicide investigation. First responders immediately locked down the perimeter, string up the crime scene tape, and contact the homicide unit. Witness accounts are conflicting. Some say they saw a woman flee the pickup. Others are sure it was a man. Then the officers catch a break. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> He knows the suspect. He even got the video. >> Hello. >> Hi. >> I was just I heard it from this guy on Facebook. I don't know where he got it, but >> holy, this just happened. >> I don't know what's going on, but like a gray Nike hoodie. >> Yeah, we got all that. >> Yeah, that was the >> uh any chance you can email that and it's on Facebook? >> Yeah, it was just it like you can hit a news feed and it was it was on there. >> Okay. So, you don't know whose video it is? >> No. Okay. >> No. A Facebook live video that captured the collision's aftermath gives detectives their first clear view of the suspect. Officers searched the route he took and find a discarded duffel bag. Inside, identification belonging to Steven Lee Freeman. He's 19 years old. No criminal record with local agencies, but he had a history of substance abuse, including a recent stent in a drug treatment facility. They had a name. Now they needed to determine why he abandoned a pickup truck with a dead woman inside. Detectives immediately began retracing Freeman's movements over the previous 24 hours. That effort led them straight to the surveillance cameras at Gabrielle's apartment complex. Footage showed the suspect repeatedly appearing outside Gabrielle's apartment late into the night, lingering for hours. Then between 11:45 p.m. and midnight, he made eight separate trips carrying items from the apartment to Gabrielle's Blue Ford Ranger parked outside. At approximately 1:41 a.m., the pickup pulled away from the complex with its headlights off. Detectives had Freeman on camera at the scene, but the camera couldn't tell them what happened inside that apartment. A search warrant did. What investigators found inside painted a clear picture. signs of forced entry, evidence of a struggle, indications that someone had attempted to clean the scene, and bedding consistent with the material wrapped around Gabrielle's body. As detectives worked to reconstruct Gabrielle's final hours, those who knew her best were trying to process an unimaginable loss. Speaking with local television reporters, her family shed some light on who Gabrielle was. They also revealed that in the weeks leading up to her murder, she had also expressed concerns about her safety. >> She was the sweetest person in life that everyone that everyone loved and she can be around. She make people laugh how she was. She can she love to dance, sing, everything. >> It's been a challenging four days for Justin Omens of Roseville after learning the body of his mother, 62-year-old Gabrielle Sites, was found in the back of her pickup truck near Common and Hayes on Thursday. It's been even harder watching rumor and speculation swirl online. >> We couldn't be on Facebook. We couldn't watch the news at all because of everything was going on. >> Omen says the man who was driving his mom's truck seen in this video is a complete stranger to him. Police say the man is a person of interest in her death. >> He was going to go somewhere with my mom's body. He could have dumped it somewhere and he could have took the truck and took it to a junkyard and cr and could have got crushed and I would not know where my mom would be. Omens doesn't believe his mother knew the man either. He hopes the suspect is brought to justice soon so he and his family can begin to grieve. >> She was just a perfect mother, a perfect friend, and a perfect sister to everybody that know her. >> Despite rumors swirling around on social media, Justin says his mom didn't know the suspect, but she had been growing worried about her safety around her home on Udica Road in Roseville. >> She's just telling everyone like, "I want to get out of here. It's too much. there's too much danger. You know, something can happen to me. You know, I just want to get out of here. >> Unfortunately, those concerns proved to be correct. Based on the evidence, investigators believe Gabrielle returned home from work to find Freeman already inside. He had entered through a window. What followed was a violent altercation. Investigators believe Freeman sexually assaulted her, strangled her with a shoelace, wrapped her body in bedding, loaded her into her own truck, and drove away. Hours later, that sequence of events came to an abrupt end when he ran a red light and crashed into a semi. 2 days after the murder, officers located Freeman hiding inside a vehicle in Waterford Township and took him into custody without incident. While awaiting court proceedings, Freeman made an audio and video recorded phone call from jail to his former romantic partner. The call reveals Freeman's mindset and how he views the case against him. More importantly, they contain the closest thing to an explanation anyone would ever get for what happened to Gabriel's sites. >> I love you. I just want you to know that cuz I don't want you to feel like there's nobody out there. Regardless, I love you. I'm here. I wouldn't have been the first person to visit you if I wasn't since this all began. >> You are. You're the first. You're the first person. You're the first person who ever did anything while I've been in here. I know >> what the news saying. >> There's a lot being said right now. >> Tell me something, dude. I don't even know. >> Okay, so then I need you to tell me what was going on. Well, you know, that's what I'm saying. Right. But there it's a lot being said like um they're saying that you were living with her uh [ __ ] like that the media turned you into a monster. So I was the one that was defending you in the comments and everything. Huh? It's there's like no audio right now. Huh? Okay. There it goes. I woke up with her hands around my neck. >> What did Okay. Did you you told that to detectives when they got you? >> No, bro. I'm waiting to see a lawyer. I still haven't talked to my lawyer. I went to court today and still don't have a lawyer. >> Well, they're just going to keep pushing it back if you don't have a lawyer. Like, they're not you're not being charged with anything. You're only being you what they're being what they have on Mcome County is they have you for firstdegree and then homicide and they're in theory. You're not actually being charged with it. It's the theory. >> Do you know anywhere I could do bond? >> There isn't a bond right now. >> Seven and a half. >> Yeah, we looked I've been looking. There isn't any bond yet. As you can see here, Freeman is convinced there is bond while his partner says there isn't. Here's what's happening. When Freeman was first arrested, prosecutors had not yet authorized the murder charges. At that point, he was being held on lesser charges related to concealing Gabrielle Sites's body, and the judge initially set bond at $75,000. By the time of this phone call, however, the case was changing rapidly. As Freeman tells his partner he had been granted bond, the partner searches the court records online and instead finds that Freeman has just been charged with first-degree murder. Those more serious charges had either just been authorized or were in the process of being entered into the court system, meaning the online information no longer reflected the earlier bond. But once the full murder charges came down, that bond was revoked. Freeman wasn't going anywhere. My question is is where the did you hide at for them days? Damn, I might need an idea. >> I'll tell you when you come visit me in person. >> Hey, you want to know what I told Joe? And if you don't come out, I'm coming in. I'm I'm going to turn myself in. What do you mean come out? What do you mean? >> I'm going to be in Mcome County Jail with you. >> Baby, really? >> Baby, I wouldn't leave you in here. >> Baby, >> huh? >> I already know what I got coming to me. Don't >> Okay. Yeah. I told you in the beginning, yeah, I might not have treated you well, but it took a lot. And it took me to actually sit down and have a conversation with Zo and him to make me dumb ass. So you've never lied to me. You want to know something? And I'm really person. But now you have me fully. You have all my attention. I even got baby pictures of you. Even when you were chubby, >> I just need you to be okay. Like you like cuz Joe played them recordings for me. Baby, you can't know. You have to go through this. I got you though. Promise you that. I love much. And I don't see what anybody is saying or anything. You got this. Okay. There's still people out here that love you. You promise. >> Oh, I even love myself, dude. >> Okay. Well, you don't have to cuz I love you. Go off of that. >> You come to my court. >> You come in court. >> Don't do anything stupid. >> Please. >> H Don't do anything stupid. I'm not sure. >> I'll probably be in jail later that day. Just know that one. What block are you on? Are you in D block right now or are you upstairs? >> Right now I'm in the mental health. >> Mhm. You're in the mental health unit because of me? >> Because I tried to kill myself within the first 20 minutes. >> Oh, no. That I told them beforehand. I told the detective that you were You thought you were leaving me? Hell no. You're trapped. Remember you asked me to marry you, didn't you? Okay. Well, now you got now you got me fully. Guess what? If I don't if I'm not in there, guess what? Guess what my tattoo record's going to say? I'm going to get it as soon as I get some cheese. That's something that I'm getting over everything. >> But you're not going to care. I already know. >> Who me? >> Boy, you better quit playing with me. I got you. Don't make me walk in McCome County Jail and punch a guard. They'll they'll bring me right back. >> This isn't Mcome. This is Roseville. >> You're in Roseville. >> This is where I'm probably going to stay. >> No, you should be in Mcome County Jail. That's where they should have brought you to. >> Your location is Mcome County Jail. It's telling me right here. It says your name. I got your inmate number, the jail that you're in. >> I don't know what this is. >> I even know the walls behind you. I've been there too many times. I guarantee you if a guard walks by, I know who they are. >> But I wanted to make sure that >> is the basketball room like the old gym like where the court is now. >> Mhm. You're in the medical unit, baby. I knew where you were. You're going you're also about to go through detox because I know what you were doing. Everybody wanted everybody. That's the first thing everybody wanted to bring up. Oh, he was doing this. That does not make you do that. I guarantee that one cuz I do it regularly. Um, >> something to write with. >> Tell them number. Little do they know I like into my skin. Then >> I got 12 minutes. They had me for first degree >> period. [clears throat] >> So So if I get first, what's the minimum in Max? I mean, I know Max is right. >> If you go and tell them the truth, like everything from a from beginning to end on what happened. It's all in how you tell and how they believe you. So, if you're truthful right off of the rip and got everything done with and even talk to them, like if you carry it on, they'll offer you a plea deal. Your plea deal will be something for you to plead guilty. You might even do such amount of time. You're going to do time regardless because of how the media has you labeled. You're just not going to do lie if you tell the truth. >> What do you know? >> And when you tell the truth, like you're going to And I'll be I'll be on here next week, too. Okay. I'll be I'm coming to visit you next week, too. >> Yep. cuz I'm I'm on the west side right now, baby. I would, but and I also got a want. So, I'm waiting cuz I got to put some money on there for you first before I can come in there. I just want you to know that >> be funny if you were like married jailbirds, >> huh? >> Oh, how I love you, my ghetto love bird. I do. I love you. And it's say what do I do though? Do I just tell them the truth? >> Huh? You're telling the truth. >> Don't Don't [ __ ] They got you now. Tell them the truth. It'll make you If you lie to them, they're going to you in the end. There's no reason to lie to them. They already got you labeled as a monster. Prove them wrong. All right. Steven Freeman never gave detectives a statement. He didn't need to. The evidence did it for him. Surveillance footage, forensic evidence, physical evidence collected from the scene, and witness testimony. Prosecutors built a case that left the defense with little room to work with. The jury agreed. In September 2025, Steven Freeman was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, first-degree home invasion, secondderee criminal sexual conduct, concealing the death of an individual, and receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle. He faces the possibility of life without parole. However, because Freeman was 19 at the time of the murder, the court could not go straight to sentencing. Instead, a Miller hearing is required. Essentially, this is the court asking whether this person is beyond saving. That hearing is currently scheduled for July 10th, 2026. At that time, a judge will decide whether Freeman spends the rest of his natural life behind bars without the possibility of parole. >> [music]