Previously in “Final Moments,” we witnessed the murder of Alexis Murphy. In the third episode of “Final Moments,” we will be looking into the case of a 22-year-old woman named Heather Maples.
Heather Maples was a normal girl from Texas who had dreams of going to college. In “Final Moments” Episode 3, we see her best friend from childhood describe her as a person who loved helping others, while her mother tells the audience that Heather dreamed of becoming a counselor one day. Heather used to live in Texas when she got a call from her friend Chaz. He asked her to shift to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to start a new life. Soon, she packed her bags and left for Tennessee. In Tennessee, she started dating Chaz; however, her relationship with him did not last long. She had made another friend in Tennessee called Kelsey Price, who was also her co-worker. Heather Maples was working as a leasing agent in Tennessee, and there were times when she would sleep in, and Kelsey had to call her for work.
On August 7, 2015, Heather Maples did not show up for work. Kelsey Price thought Heather Maples was sleeping and tried calling her; however, she did not pick up her phone. Kelsey Price then went to her apartment and found it open. Kelsey Price was under the impression that Heather was indeed sleeping, but her feet were dead-cold. At that point, Kelsey Price realized that Heather Maples was dead and there had been a homicide. She called 911, and the police arrived. Upon their investigation of the crime scene, the police found out that there was a bloody fingerprint on the bedsheet and that there were several blood stains near her bed. It was clear that Heather had been raped before she was murdered. The DNA samples were sent for further investigation, and the police started their search for the murderer.
On the day of the investigation, a friend of Heather’s reached the crime scene with her apartment’s keys. Soon, Michael became a person of interest. Upon questioning him, he revealed that Heather had called him and told him that she was in an uncomfortable situation at a bar where a man was constantly hitting on her. She wanted Michael to be there with her, and that is what he did. According to Michael, he dropped her off at her apartment around 2:30 AM, and that was the last time he had seen her. Hours later, he realized that he had Heather’s apartment keys, and that is when he arrived at the crime scene. The police took his DNA sample and found out that Michael’s DNA did not match, so he was ruled out as a suspect.
Another suspect was Chaz, Heather Maples’ ex-boyfriend. He was in town during the night of Heather Maples’ death, and the police went to his place to interview him. However, he had a solid alibi that the police were able to check. He was also ruled out as a suspect, and the police were back to square one. Heather’s mother was restless and frustrated. Soon, with the help of Heather’s friend Kelsey, the police were able to get access to Heather’s phone. They discovered that Heather had called a friend named Artavio to her place around 2:30 AM. Investigators called Artavio, who did not even know that Heather was dead; upon learning about her death, he was devastated and agreed to provide his DNA for further investigation.
The results revealed that Artavio was not the murderer, so the police ruled him out as a suspect too. After eight days into the investigation, the police got a call from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab. They had found a match for the bloody fingerprint, and it belonged to a guy named Brandon Bowling, who had submitted his fingerprint for a job. The police called him in for questioning, and Brandon admitted to going to Heather Maples’ apartment two months prior to her murder. He was unwilling to admit that he had murdered her. However, with the help of the fingerprint match, the police arrested Brandon Bowling for first-degree murder. To further build their case, the police obtained a subpoena to look at Brandon’s phone.
As the investigators searched his phone, they found a shocking video. There was a video of Heather Maple getting raped. The police also noticed that Heather was beaten up and suffering in the video. In 2018, Brandon Bowling pleaded guilty to the murder and rape of Heather Maples. He was then sentenced to 40 years in prison.
After the sentencing, Heather Maples’ mother read an impact statement that left everyone in the courtroom teary. She said that she had forgiven Brandon Bowling for murdering her daughter. According to her, she has not forgotten what Brandon did, but her job was to forgive, and that is what she did. She also hugged Brandon Bowling’s mother in the courthouse, but the loss of her daughter still makes her cry. She read the impact statement because she believed that it was the last time she could speak for her daughter.
