I'm a bad girl for my takeout platter. What you need do? I could cop a taco platter. Am I so see? Trainers don't loop when you didn't sleep. What you gonna do? Did somebody say just eat?

Hi there, everybody. It's Deborah Roberts here, co anchor of 2020. I always like to know how a story turns out. And something tells me that you, as a 2020 podcast listener, feel the same way. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where we are revisiting some of the most memorable stories from our archives. We're also going to give you an update on what's happened since the story first aired. Take a listen.

Coming up a wild ride on a.

Country road oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

And an 8000 pound truck with a drunk teen behind a wheel playing chicken with other people's lives.

There's another child in the ditch.

Four innocent people dead.

It was carnage. Carnage and destruction.

Lives shattered.

Started screaming, where's my dad?

And a fancy defense for a rich kid.

Affluenza.

Affluenza. This is preposterous.

A teen with blood on his hands and money in his pockets, but not a day in jail.

I am sickened by this judge up.

To that point, life has just told him, you can get away with it.

But who's to blame? His parents in the hot seat.

When's the last time you recall disciplining Ethan? He seemed pretty responsible.

Then why is he on the run?

The search is underway for a wealthy teenager, the most wanted teenager in the country right now.

And he's not alone.

We believe that she's helping him and that she's assisting him.

His accomplice, his own mother, caught on surveillance footage.

They even had something that was almost akin to a going away party before they left town.

Details of the dragnet.

So they ate right there in the back.

And the question on everyone's mind did his parents shower him with everything except the word no? A case of Affluenza I'm John Quinones it was a story that grabbed headlines. A fugitive on the run. His passport and family bank accounts tracked by authorities, hundreds of leads pouring in. But this was no career criminal. It was an 18 year old crossing the border with his own mother. But the capture of Ethan Couch was only one bizarre chapter in a story that began two years earlier and thousands of miles away. It started in a place that prides itself on its beauty. But in this town, what was going on behind the closed gates of one home has been called some pretty ugly names. And as Matt Gutman first reported in 2015, it may have led to some tragic results.

Take I 35, 20 miles south of Fort Worth, and you arrive in Burleson, Texas, a land of big houses and big trucks. What kind of people live here?

Probably just the good average middle class. Hardworking folks get up every morning and go to work.

It was the night before Father's day, and Eric Boyles was spending it with his wife Holly and daughter Shelby.

Shelby and Holly called out and said, eric, come here. When I walked through the door, they were standing at the window to the front.

Eric's wife and daughter were looking out onto a scary sight. A young woman driving a white SUV had spun out just in front of their house and was now standing by her disabled car.

So the girls headed out the front door.

The driver of the SUV called for help while Shelby and Holly waited with her. That same night, down the road from the Boyle's house, lucas McConnell's family was hosting a party organized by their youth pastor, Brian Jennings.

He was one of the closest people that I had who wasn't family. I was around him all the time.

Around 11:00 p.m.. With a party winding down, brian needed to return some tables and chairs to his church. Lucas and a friend jump into the back of Brian's white truck, and they head down the road that would take them right past the Boyle's house.

I remember we saw a car on the right hand side of the road, and he decides to pull over.

It was that disabled car, along with Holly and Shelby Boyles, standing on the road with the driver.

We're trying to get out of the car, and he tells us, he's like, no, y'all sit tight. I'll be back in just a minute.

With Brian Jennings on the scene, there are now four people by the side of the road. Meanwhile, a third location. Just a few houses down, there's another party in progress. But this one's not so innocent. 16 year old Ethan Couch is there with seven friends.

They're drinking, they're having a good time. And then the young woman needs to go to the convenience store.

Eight teenagers load into Ethan's souped up fire engine red pickup. Six in the cab, two in the flatbed, and head on out the road. Ethan guns hitting nearly 70 miles an hour. In seconds, his truck barreling towards those bystanders. Near the Boyles family mailbox. Chance is bringing together a crowd of people whose lives are about to violently collide. The red pickup truck, packed with eight teenagers, two in the flatbed, loses control and swerves into a ditch, sideswiping that disabled white SUV, then mowing down those four bystanders crashing into Brian Jennings'white truck before flipping over into a tree. Eric Boyles is inside when his world changes.

You know, we don't live in California, but you'd almost think you just had an earthquake. I mean, the house shook.

These photos show what remains of the Ford F 350 that Ethan turned into a weapon of mass destruction and Brian Jennings accordion white Chevy tossed across the road. The bodies had been scattered hundreds of feet. At the moment of impact, lucas McConnell was seated in the back of Brian Jennings parth white truck. Do you remember the sound of metal.

Crunching of glass Breaking glass Breaking tire Screeching the car that we were in got hit, and we got shot across the road. We nailed the tree. The back window was completely shattered. A lot of that glass was in the back of our head.

Just seconds later, Lucas'father, Kevin, part of a caravan coming back from that graduation party, pulls up on the scene.

I see tail lights up ahead. As I got a little closer, I see debris in the road. And I'm thinking, that's not a party. That's a wreck. The debris in the road that I saw was the chairs that we had been taken back to the church. And my heart just sank. I was like, oh, my God.

As Eric Boyles brushes out his front door to where he left his wife and daughter, he immediately starts dialing the phone.

I was on the phone with 911.

What is your emergency?

There's a multi car accident out in front of my house.

While Eric's on with 911, half a dozen other frantic calls come in.

There's four or five kids or kids laying in ditches and streets. Are you with the accident right now? Yes. There's another child in the ditch. Oh, my God.

There were already people out there in front of the house. It was just debris everywhere. Their table and chairs and car parts and everything else. I walked in the road, and the first thing I did was I found there was a male laying in the road. Wasn't moving at all.

Between the four people dead in the street and the ten injured in the vehicles, the casualty count is staggering. Eric Boyles was yelling for his wife Holly and daughter Shelby.

I'm calling out Holly and Shelby as I walk, and I kind of got halfway between the road and my fence, and that's when I found Holly. And when I found her, I mean, there was no doubt that she was gone. Then it was a matter of, okay, so where's Shelby?

About 20ft down the road, eric sees a young woman, her body thrown up against the fence.

Everything told me this should be Shelby. It didn't look like Shelby. And I'm sitting there trying to process the amount of trauma the bodies went through, and what would the impact be, and what would that do to you?

At the same time, on that same dark road, kevin McConnell is also searching for his friend, youth pastor Brian Jennings.

On the other side of the road, I see Brian laying in the ditch. I ran over there.

So you're on the ground to tend to Brian and suddenly hear what you think is the voice of your son in the truck.

I just heard his voice. And it was just at that moment that I realized that Lucas had been in that truck with Brian.

Right as we got out, we realized that it wasn't just us. There was people everywhere. And then we saw Brian.

I tried to feel for a pulse. I didn't feel a pulse. And I pull out my phone. I'm calling 911.

Sir, how many people are injured, do you know?

One, two, three, multiple.

I don't even know how many. My dad said, just hold this fence right here and just pray.

You can hear Lucas's terrified voice in the background on that call. I need you to sit here and I need you to pray, okay?

Come here. I need you to sit here and.

I need you guys to pray, okay? Do you remember what you were praying for?

Brian's safety.

About that time is when the other cars from the party started getting there.

Brian's wife, Shawna, arrives on this hellish scene and realizes there's been a crash and her husband was involved.

I really thought, okay, he got hit, but he's going to be okay. And I'm thinking, God wouldn't do that to me.

But her faith is tested by what she finds farther down the road.

I saw him, and I knew that it wasn't good because I could see that Kevin was doing CPR.

And by now, Shauna's three children are also on the scene.

I was just crying out to God. I was like, please save my dad. I need him. You can't take him yet. I'm not ready.

The first ENT or firefighters, they got there, they were just so overwhelmed.

They would just walk down the road and, is he conscious? Are they conscious? Are they conscious?

The scene was as bad, if not worse, than anything I've seen. And that's 35 years of law enforcement, because it was a huge crime scene spread over hundreds and hundreds of yards.

Tonight, we're hearing the chaos in the moments after a truck full of teens.

Slammed into three cars, killing three Good.

Samaritans and a woman with the flat tie.

The chain reaction crash happened late Saturday night. It's almost like watching a movie. It's like it's not happening to you. And it's just surreal and it's not real life, but it was.

When we come back, the 16 year old who was behind the wheel of the red truck has left the scene. Does he really think he could just walk away? He's like, yeah, just remember my name. I'll get you out of all this. He kept saying that. Stay with us.

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The carnage out on Burleson Redder Road looked like a plane crash. Four people killed instantly. Over a hundred onlookers first responders, and victims'families like Eric Voyles jamming the street.

I've never been in the military. I've never experienced war, but I can appreciate what they go through.

Local news crews capture this footage. Authorities scanning through the wreckage they needed to find the person responsible for the crash. As it turns out, police wouldn't be the first to do that. What condition was he in? He was unconscious. Corbin Clark and his mother Shawna, two neighbors heading to the scene find a passed out teenager in a ditch a quarter mile down the road. And I kept saying, hey, what's your name? What's your name? He'd say, what's your name? And he said, hey, man, I'm Ethan. I can get you out of all this. I was like, I guess he thought I was involved, but he was like, yeah, just remember my name. I'll get you out of all this. He kept saying that his name. Ethan Couch is now one everybody in Burleson remembers. Somehow he not only survived the crash, but managed to free himself from the mangled truck. And rather than help anyone, he walked away. The police came and they said, we need to get you into an ambulance. Was he struggling with the officers? He kept trying to shake them off, saying, I don't need all this.

Once Ethan Couch was found, the story came together pretty quickly.

That shocking story would turn sadness into outrage. Get this ethan's a 16 year old living the life of an adult by himself, just seven doors down from Eric Boyle's. Ethan was supposed to be cleaning up the place so it could be sold. Where were his parents? Well, Fred and Tanya Couch had already moved on up to this sprawling place in Fort Worth, a 7000 square foot compound. Take a look at that glittering metal roof. You're looking at the Couch moneymaker. Fred's got a multi million dollar sheet metal business, and this estate is complete with guard towers, guest house, and a steel gate surrounding it. But the story of the crash begins to be told by Ethan's blood alcohol content. It comes back three times the legal limit for an adult, and that's 3 hours after the crash.

Now, understand, this is 3 hours of time he had for his body to clear alcohol out of his system. Speculation. What his blood alcohol was at the time of the accident is through the roof.

As Ethan awakes in a hospital bed, the sun also rises over Burleson Redder Road. It is Father's Day.

The next day. Yeah. I find these packages where my Father's Day cards had been filled out. And my Father's Day gifts were there, but they were gone. There was no preparation, no time to say goodbyes or anything else.

Tarrant county has suffered a terrible loss, but in the following days, support from the community would be overwhelming.

I'm going to live to make my daddy proud.

The memorial for local youth pastor Brian Jennings draws so many mourners, it has to be streamed online. Meanwhile, investigators continue to piece together the events of that fateful night, sifting through wreckage that spans nearly a city block. The day after the incident, just seven doors down, officers pay a visit to Ethan's house in Burleson. No one is home, but a trash bin brimming with cans and bottles right outside paints a vivid picture of the previous night's activities. Not only was he drunk, but there were traces of THC, Valium, and some other drugs.

Right? Which, according to our toxicologists, were bad enough on their own, but you combine those with alcohol, just a recipe for disaster.

Richard Alpert is an assistant district attorney who came onto the case just a day after the crash.

The first thing we started doing is bringing those witnesses in and talking to them.

Will you please state your name? Garrett Ballard.

Star Tigue.

Garrett Ballard, Ethan's best friend since grade school, and Star Tig, a former and brief love interest, were two of the teens in Ethan's red truck that night. These are never before seen deposition tapes from a civil lawsuit resulting from the crash. Starve says Ethan, Garrett and another boy started drinking around 06:00 p.m.. The night of the crash.

All three of them did a shot of vanillas. I don't know what it was.

So they start drinking, taking some shots, and then they decide to go pick up some friends on the way back. They decide we want to get some beer. So there's already alcohol at the house, and Ethan clearly has money. But they decide be more fun to steal the beer.

The Walmart. I went in, grab the beer.

This is surveillance video from that Walmart. Sure enough, there's Garrett Ballard and four other teenage boys.

Then we walked out the fire exit.

Ethan stayed with the vehicle, and when the other five stole the case of beer, they actually ran out the exit door.

The teens head back to Ethan's empty house and the drinking continues. Not just beer, but shots of the 190 proof grain alcohol called Everclear.

And then the young woman needs to go to the convenience store. But even the other ones who've been drinking knew Ethan had too much to drink. And they tried to talk him out of it and he would have none of it. Just made him angry with that.

All eight teenagers pile into the truck with Ethan couch behind the wheel. Right away, things start breaking back, pulls.

Out of there and immediately going so fast that there's the Star and he's telling to slow down. And so his response is, well, I'll just drive into oncoming traffic. So he starts playing chicken with a car in front of him.

He's yelling at him, get over, get over. You need to get over. And when he swerved the back tires jerked.

Just remember seeing something on the road and then loud bang. And I remember being in the air.

The vehicle was going about 68 mph.

Had Ethan ever pumped the brakes?

No brakes.

Never touched the brakes.

No evidence of braking was there. You know, your brain, when you're that intoxicated doesn't work the way it should.

And at that point, I thought Ethan was dead. So I freaked out and I got out of the truck. I climbed out the back and I guess I had tunnel vision. I just walked. I just took off.

But for Ethan Couch, walking away from the consequences of this accident wouldn't be as easy. No, not with this prosecutor determined to get justice.

I don't know if Ethan's life is salvageable, and quite frankly, I don't care.

But Ethan's parents believe his life can be salvaged. And for them, apparently, money is no object. A month after the crash, Ethan is sent to swank Newport Beach, California for rehab.

Ethan was at a spa like treatment center in California.

Welcome to Newport Academy. Its promotional video shows sunset around the fire pit. Equine therapy and yoga are parts of the program. Rehab that cost Ethan's dad nearly $100,000.

We're talking about him living in luxury even while he's being treated.

Ethan's parents, meanwhile, were trying to figure out how to keep their kid out of prison. They quickly assembled the best criminal defense team money could buy. And what a memorable defense it turned out to be.

When did you first see Ethan couch?

It was about 2 hours after he.

Got home from the hospital.

This is Dr. Dick Miller in another deposition video. Now he's a prominent psychologist hired as part of that powerhouse legal team. Well, I think Ethan Couch is suffering from adjustment. Reaction to adolescence, I would say. Where Dr. Miller was learning in his meetings with Ethan would come to shape this story that throughout his young life, ethan's parents showered him with everything except responsible parenting.

Ethan learned you should be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it.

I think that was the message. Generally or typical parents, the Couches definitely had plenty of coin. And for Ethan, that meant every day was Christmas. Nintendo's at Jet Skis as a kid, later a tricked out truck, even his own credit card.

Instead of the golden rule, he was taught that we have the gold, we make the rules. At the Couch household.

I said that. And for Ethan, there weren't many rules, even when it came to driving, which his parents let him do at just 13. By 15, he was starring in his own version of Home Alone at that 4000 square foot ranch house he frequently stayed at just down the street from the Boyles family. These pictures from the website Zillow show a wet bar in the den and a swimming pool out back. And if his parents weren't around, it sure seems that alcohol often was.

From the friends we talked to, the one thing they admitted very early on was that Ethan was no stranger to alcohol.

I think one night we went through a 30 pack just between us, roughly 15 beers apiece, probably about that.

Ethan's buddy Garrett even admits to seeing him drive drunk on at least three different occasions. There was history there.

There absolutely was history. There was history. And warning after warning of this was going to happen.

For prosecutor Alpert, enough was enough. It was time for young Ethan to get a dose of reality.

Up to that point, life has just told him, you can get away with it. We were going to make sure he didn't get away with this.

And he charged Ethan with everything he could, including four counts of intoxication manslaughter. Albert wanted the poor little rich kid to do some big boy time we.

Were hoping for and asked for 20 years.

When Ethan Couch loafed into court, the selfie swagger from Facebook had been replaced by this. Brian Jennings daughter abby couldn't believe it.

They made him look really innocent for the trial, and that's not who he was.

But it turned out there would be no trial. Ethan Couch admitted guilt, and the proceedings moved directly to a sentencing hearing.

Really didn't look at anybody. He just kind of sat there, basically stared off into space.

And now we come to the key moment in this case. While recommending treatment over incarceration, dr. Miller drops a curious term affluenza, which goes off like a bomb. Affluenza.

He got up there and he talked about the fact that the reason for this crime was he was a child of privilege and his parents didn't say no to him.

When you heard it, what did you think?

I smiled. I mean, it was ridiculous.

I looked at my mom, I just kind of gave her a look. It seemed like a made up word.

We all agreed he had terrible parents, but at some point, offering up that because he was raised as a rich kid, he didn't know the difference in right and wrong as a result of affluenza. Just kind of blew our mind.

And they were in for an even bigger shock. When Judge Jean Boyd announced her ruling, ethan Couch was sentenced to ten years probation and time in a rehab facility. Four dead, nine injured, and not a single day behind. Barns. WFAA reporter Jim Douglas covered the case. What was the reaction? Volcanic.

Mainly aimed at Judge Jean Boyd, longtime.

Juvenile court judge here.

She really never even got through with her sentencing. The place kind of lit up, and the bailiffs escorted her out pretty quick.

I felt like the judge spit in my face.

The media crushed to get a shot of the boy who cried affluenza to me. It's not right.

He'll be feeling the hand of God.

Money always seems to keep Ethan out of trouble.

Ethan's lawyer had a different take.

We applaud Judge Boyd for having the courage to issue this sentence. That's going to give Ethan Couch a chance.

Now, even in a law and order state like Texas, it's not uncommon for juveniles to get rehab instead of hard time. Still, the affluenza, defense and judge's sentence lit the national media on fire. A verdict in Texas sparking new outrage. Shockingly light sentence in a deadly drunk driving case. Affluenza too rich for jail. Judge Gene Boyd said the teen wouldn't.

Get the therapy he needed in jail. I am sickened by this judge.

People wanted this judge's head.

They just felt like there had never.

Been consequences in this kid's life. And here's one more example no consequences. Judge Boyd wasn't the only one in the public's crosshairs. So was Dr. Miller, who took to CNN to defend himself. This kid has about an 80% chance of becoming a full functioning citizen. If he goes to the jail, he.

Has about a 10% chance.

I mean, he killed four people. I really don't I wish I hadn't used that term. Everyone seems to have hooked onto it.

What he didn't anticipate was that the BS of what his opinion was was going to be hit the winds and he was going to get the reaction he got, which he deserved to get.

So many people were now asking, did Ethan Couch's affluence actually buy him a slap on the wrist? Maybe. And maybe not. Because for one family, the case was far from over.

Not so fast. This is not the end of this.

They were about to force the Couches into the hot seat to answer tough questions under oath.

When's the last time you recall disciplining Ethan for anything?

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Six months after a drunk driving crash killed four people and injured 916 year old Ethan Couch has been sentenced to rehab and ten years probation. His defense a psychologist hired by the family said Ethan suffered from affluenza. That argument might have saved Ethan from jail time, but his troubles aren't over. Once again, here's Matt Gutman.

If Ethan Couch's affliction was excessive wealth, the victim's families were eager to provide a remedy. Five of the families involved in the fatal crash brought civil lawsuits against the Couches and their family sheet metal business. While Ethan was spending eight months in a state run rehab getting well, the Couches settled those suits without admitting any wrongdoing.

Never once has Ethan apologized in any shape or form.

But one family announces they're holding out.

I've yet to see anything good come out of it.

The McConnells, remember? They live down the road from Ethan's old booze binge pad in Burleson. 15 year old Lucas was injured in the crash. Now they are determined to have their day in court.

I thought, not so fast. This is not the end of this.

So when your parents told you that they decided to go through with an actual court case, what did you tell them?

I was ready for that.

A lot of people were ready to hear something they'd never heard before. The boy and his parents at the center of this story. Speak.

Tell us your name, please.

Tanya Couch.

Please state your name. Frederick Anthony couch.

It fell to lawyers Greg Koonz and Tod Clement to extract the peculiar family history that shaped young Ethan's life. His parents seemed know regular old Texas parents in some ways.

There's nothing regular about the Couches.

Fred Couch, a brags to riches millionaire, has his own history with the law. And get a load of what he allegedly said during a 1992 stop for you. Got it. A DUI.

Did you tell the arresting officer I make more in a day than you make in a year? Probably.

Fred and Tanya had an on again, off again marriage. The second for them both. The kind of fractured family life which might require extra care for an only child entering adolescence. Instead, these lawyers say the Couches let Ethan fast forward into adulthood.

People don't allow their kids to drive at 13. You understood if he was at any time he was under 16, he was never to be driving by himself?

Yes.

Nevertheless, you allowed that behavior to happen, correct?

Yes.

I just kept asking because I wanted to. Eventually they started letting me drive just to the corner store by myself. And then that progressed to school? Yes.

Fred Couch admitted allowing Ethan to drive, but both parents say they didn't know about his regular drinking.

Have you ever seen Ethan drink as he's hit her today?

I don't remember ever seeing him drink.

Maybe not, but she definitely saw him drunk. Just four months before the fatal crash, 15 year old Ethan was stopped by police at 01:00, a.m. Relieving himself in a parking lot.

Fort Worth officer comes upon him. He's taking a pee outside of a truck. There's a half naked 14 year old girl passed out drunk in the car. And this 15 year old kid is just mouthing off to this officer for using profanity. His mother shows up, starts talking to him. So she clearly knew he was out there.

Did you ask him where he got the alcohol and the vodka? That was. In the truck?

No. I should have, but I did not.

Why didn't you ask him where he got it to try to stop it from happening again?

I don't know.

These attorneys say Ethan Couch wasn't even old enough to drive. Was violating as many as five laws that night.

Five violations of the law and nothing's done by Tanya?

Well, not quite nothing. Tanya does admit to concocting a story with Ethan to keep her husband in the dark about the more criminal details.

I wasn't sure how he would react, so I didn't tell him the whole truth.

Tanya told me that Ethan was peeing at the Dollar General. What action did you take? Ethan walked back and forth to work for a month.

Oh, really?

Do you remember any occasion where your dad punished you by making you walk to work? No, I don't remember ever having to walk to work.

Ethan was required to complete an alcohol awareness course and 8 hours of community service within 90 days. Guess what? Didn't happen.

We didn't do the community service.

You understood, did you not, that he was likely to continue the drinking and driving if there weren't consequences?

I should have known that. Yes. I really didn't think that that would happen again.

But her own daughter, Christy, Ethan's half sister, warned her that, yes, it could.

I just told her that I was nervous that he might be drinking, being at that house by himself, under no supervision.

How long prior to the crash was that told to her by you?

A week.

And that same week, Ethan's friend Star Teague says Tanya witnessed Ethan in the house with an open beer.

Do you know for a fact whether.

Tanya saw y'all with beer sitting there?

She saw us.

Tanya wanted to come in and say, you know, I was always really against drinking and driving. But then when you say what'd you do to enforce that there was just nothing. Zero. Do you recall ever disciplining Ethan for anything?

Sometimes I would take little things away from him. We would just discuss the problems.

When's the last time you recall disciplining Ethan for anything?

I don't remember.

Of course, it's hard to discipline a kid when he isn't always under the same roof. Remember the couches? Were letting Ethan play grown up by himself in the burleson house.

In your mind, it was okay to let a 16 year old kid stay at the burleson retta house by himself without anyone present, correct? That 16 year old kid, however foolish that it may have been, he seemed pretty responsible. Was there always alcohol then, when you were at the burleson location? Not always, no. Most of the time. Most of the time?

Yes.

If there's alcohol, most of the time, there's drugs as well. Yes.

You betcha. Ethan ratles off a list of drugs. Shocking for anyone, much less a 16 year old.

I'm taking Valium, hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, xanax Vivans. I think I tried ecstasy once. Pretty sure that was it.

Which brings us back to that deadly June night.

And what was your plan? Have a couple of people over and drink. Do you recall any sort of text exchanged with your mom the night of this crash? Yes, she just sent me a text. Don't be out late, and don't be drinking and driving.

She was asking what we were all doing, and he was telling her. She knew that we were drinking. She was like, well, just don't drink and drive.

That was certainly thoughtful. But by now, Ethan had years of experience blowing off the rules without facing consequences. Why should tonight be any different?

Do you remember pulling out of the driveway? Not really. I had, like, a picture in my head of just turning out of the driveway, but that's it. What's the next thing you recall? Waking up handcuffed through the hospital bed.

And after all this, ethan's father actually distances himself from the Affluenza defense he paid for.

I don't even know that I believe Affluenza is real.

16 year old Ethan, and despite all the terrible media coverage attorneys blame over coddling by his wealthy parents, his parents.

Maybe need to do a little talking as well.

Even being branded the worst parents ever, fred defends his family.

I don't think we're profoundly dysfunctional. Did you teach Ethan that wealth bought privilege? I don't believe that I ever intentionally tried to teach him that. Did you teach Ethan that indeed, because your family was wealthy, that the rules didn't apply to you? Never.

The McConnells are eager for a civil jury to hear every word of this testimony.

I feel like it needs to be done.

Why?

Because I haven't seen any punishment.

But the Couches are as determined to avoid another courtroom as they are to avoid our cameras. Mr. Couch, stay with us. Two and a half years after a truck driven by Ethan Couch plowed into four people on this road, the search for justice is still an exercise in frustration for everyone involved. What would justice have looked like to you?

Justice would have been the system doing something to Ethan that life hadn't done to him at that point, which is hold him accountable.

As the one remaining civil case, the one brought by the McConnell family, worked its way through the courts, the judge from the criminal case decided to call it quits. Jean Boyd, the judge who handed down that controversial sentence, retired in 2014, foregoing a run for reelection. She declined our request for comment. Her career in the public mind will.

Always be defined by this case.

Thousands of cases. But Affluenza is the one people will remember. Yes, we went to Texas to track Ethan down ourselves, but it was no easy task. We checked out the fancy Fort Worthhouse, but no answer there. Anybody home? So we went to the family business where he'd been working. We've been staking out Ethan and Fred's business, which is right across the way for about a week now. But they're not like regular people. They don't come to work at regular hours. They don't keep regular hours. So it's been really hard finding them. When that steel gate slid open and Ethan finally emerged, he clearly wasn't looking to talk. But if you take a closer look, that's him right there. The good news he's not driving at the time. Abiding by at least that part of his probation. And just as the trial in the McConnell case is about to begin, another stroke of good fortune for Ethan lucas and his parents have had a change of heart, settling instead of moving forward with the trial. The last time that we met, you were very serious about taking this all the way. What happened?

I think we've succeeded at least a little bit. I never saw the child Frank.

I don't think we're profoundly dysfunctional by.

Showing the world those deposition videos the McConnells believe they're showing the Couches shows where they really are.

By you guys coming here and focusing attention on this, this has made it where we've achieved our goals know, letting the world hear about this story.

But as it turns out, the story was far from over. Ethan found himself in a whole new world of trouble when this undated video appearing to show him partying near a beer pong table surfaced on Twitter.

I found it on Twitter and saved it and reposted it.

21 year old Hannah Hardy wasn't at the party, but an acquaintance of hers was and claims the gleeful blonde is indeed Ethan Couch.

It just was making me mad that they weren't taking any of this seriously. And after seeing the interviews with the victim families and just it really gets to me.

I think that was the trigger that sent him running once that video surfaced.

Eight days after that video goes viral, ethan misses a regular check in with his probation officer, and he and his mother Tanya, now no longer married to Fred, skip town.

We've had a very cooperative effort of all law enforcement and looking for Ethan Couch and now also his mother, Tanya Couch.

A warrant is issued for Ethan to rest, and the sheriff turns to the public for help releasing pictures of Tanya Couch's black truck.

We encourage the public to continue to watch for them, to look for them to look for this vehicle. If anyone sees anything, call your local law enforcement.

With the US. Marshals and the FBI now joining the international search, the pressure on mother and son Couch begins to mount.

We're not going to quit looking for him. And the longer he's gone, the worse it's going to be.

The search is on, and the whole.

Country seems to be asking, where in the world are Ethan and Tanya Couch.

The hunt for Ethan Couch and his mother? Oh, absolutely not. Where are they going to live? Like Ethan Couch can make a living in Mexico.

Stay with us. The Texas teenager who killed four people.

The case made national headlines as the affluenza teen a manhunt underway right now.

A week after a video of Ethan Couch surfaced on Twitter, raising questions about whether he violated probation. The infamous Texas teen has disappeared.

Mother and son apparently on the run together.

The manhunt for 18 year old Ethan Couch is intensifying jumping his probation and setting off an international manhunt. With the US. Marshals and FBI crossing the border to track him down, authorities finally catch up with him here in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The resort town may be known for its beautiful beaches, but it's in this gritty $80 a month apartment building where Ethan and Tanya Couch's Mexican vacation comes to an abrupt end. A neighbor snapping this photo of Ethan Cuffed and being let out by authorities. His black hair and goatee so different from the blonde kid who ambled into court just two years earlier. Ethan and Tanya had been on the run for three weeks, absconding to Mexico and Tanya's black truck.

They'd probably driven that to the border and then crossed over the border.

And get this according to Sheriff Anderson, before taking off, they took some time for goodbyes.

They even had something that was almost akin to a going away party before they left town while on the run.

In Puerto Vallarta, eating at this local restaurant. So they ate right there in the back. And here's Tanya on surveillance video in the tank top, chatting up a butcher at a nearby store. Two days later, there's Ethan in that same shop, breezily talking to a worker while buying chicken nuggets. Leaving with that wave just 2 hours later, ethan and his mom would be detained. Their downfall, authorities say, a call for a Domino's pizza delivery instead of a piping hot pie. Though it was Mexican officers who showed up. Shipped back to the US. Tanya was charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon. Her bail set at $1 million.

That is a third degree felony in Texas. That carries a range of punishment of two to ten years in the penitentiary. I think she deserves to be incarcerated.

Tanya Couch's attorney released a statement saying in part, while the public may not like what she did, tanya did not violate any law. As for Ethan, he was brought back to Texas in handcuffs to be held in juvenile detention as a flight risk. But when he turns 19, his case will be moved to adult court, where if he breaks probation again, the consequences will be much higher.

He could be looking at ten years on each death, which is a potential of 40.

Meanwhile, Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter in Ethan's drunken crash, is still in that same house. A lot of people would ask, why stay here?

Actually, people may not understand this, but there's probably a little bit of peace knowing where they were. Faith, family and friends is the only thing that gets you through it.

As for Shawna Jennings, the widow of youth pastor Brian Jennings, her faith points her towards forgiveness.

It's a daily decision to forgive because.

It'S so easy to hate, isn't it?

It is. But that doesn't do anything except punish you. I can't live my life bitter or angry.

This is Deborah Roberts with an update to this story. In April 2016, Ethan Couch's case was officially moved to an adult court, and for the first time, a jail sentence was handed down in the deaths of the four victims, 180 days each, a total of nearly two years. As for Ethan's mom, Tanya, her bail was later lowered to $75,000, and she was formally indicted for her role in helping Ethan elude authorities. She's pleaded not guilty, and the case is still pending.

Baseball fan or not. You've probably heard of Babe Ruth, hank Aaron and Willie Mays. But what about Satchel Page, josh Gibson? Or my Grandpa Norman turkey Stearns? They're baseball grades, too. But for decades, they were kept out of our record books and halls of fame. They were denied their rightful place in history. Now we're asking, what would justice look like? After so many years of exclusion?

Who are you to tell us that.

We are now major leaguers? We always considered our relatives as major Leaguers.

From ABC Audio Reclaimed the Forgotten League Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.