Kristin Colby interview

Wednesday, March 13, 2019 – 10:00 a.m.

Kristin Colby is a senior at Ole Miss student and an aspiring model.

Detectives Murphy and Parker interviewed her at the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department.

Participants:

• Detective S. Murphy
• Detective E. Parker
• Kristin Colby

Detective Parker: Could you please state your name and address for the record, please?

Kristin Colby: I'm Kristin Colby. I live on campus, 211 Sorority Row.

Detective Murphy: Thank you for coming in to talk with us. We have a few questions about Victor Jennings we're hoping you could help us out with.

Kristin Colby: Yeah, sure, whatever. Gets me out of Chem. What do you need?

Detective Murphy: Tell us about how you came to know Victor Jennings.

Kristin Colby: I met Victor through Samantha Hawke. Well, Terri and I did. She said we should talk to him, so we called him up and he suggested we get together. So me and Terri met him at Ajax. He was nice. He told us we were beautiful and needed to get more work and he could help us with that.

Detective Parker: Sounds like he was eager to help you.

Kristin Colby: Yeah, that's what we thought.

Detective Murphy: The Terri you mentioned, that's your roommate?

Kristin Colby: Yeah, Terri Smith. Victor said he was going to help both of us with our careers.

Detective Parker: And did he help you?

Kristin Colby: Yeah. He introduced us to some important people. Not major people, like from Hollywood or New York, but higher up than the people we'd met before.

Detective Murphy: How did he do that?

Kristin Colby: Do what?

Detective Murphy: Introduce you to these important people.

Kristin Colby: Oh. Mostly at parties. He'd invite all of us to his house, and we'd socialize, get to know each other, you know.

Detective Parker: How exactly did you get to know each other?

Kristin Colby: By talking to each other. How do you think?

Detective Parker: And how many of these parties did you go to?

Kristin Colby: I don't know. About ten maybe?

Detective Parker: Did you get any modeling work from the people you met at these parties?

Kristin Colby: Yeah, I got several gigs. It's been really great for me.

Detective Murphy: Did Victor want you to do anything for him in exchange for all this help he was giving you?

Kristin Colby: Not at first.

Detective Murphy: But that changed at some point?

Kristin Colby: Well… yeah.

Detective Murphy: When did it change?

Kristin Colby: We went to one of Victor's parties on New Year's Eve, and at first, it was normal. We went in and started to mingle. We dodged that freak show, Carl. We saw some people we'd met at the parties before, and me and Terri got separated, talking to different people. Then Carl comes up to me and says Victor wants to talk to me in the kitchen. I thought it was weird, but whatever.

Detective Murphy: What was weird about it?

Kristin Colby: I don't know. I mean, the kitchen? But so okay. I go in there. And all of a sudden, the perv gets all handsy and wants to go to his bedroom. I was like whoa, I'm nowhere near drunk enough to sleep with you yet.

Detective Parker: So you were willing to sleep with him?

Kristin Colby: Well, yeah. He was helping my career, and I wanted him to keep doing that, so you bet I was. So I made a choice and downed a couple of shots, and off we went to his bedroom.

Detective Murphy: What happened there?

Kristin Colby: He kept pushing me around and getting real, I don't know, like aggressive. He wanted to tape it too, and I was like no way, no how. I mean, nobody gets famous from a sex tape with an old guy, right? Anyway, that kind of pissed him off.

Detective Murphy: Then what happened?

Kristin Colby: He kept getting all up on me and wasn't even trying to set a mood or anything, like his needs are all that matter. Anyway, I pushed him off and kept saying no, but the pervert came back on me and put his hands up my skirt, and I slapped him. He jumped back, and I kicked him. I was so out of there, but the bastard grabbed my arm. So I turned around to tell him off, and he punched me! Knocked me on my ass. Do you know what trauma like that does to a face like mine?

Detective Murphy: What happened next?

Kristin Colby: Well I was kind of stunned, so I stayed on the floor, and I thought he was going to come after me again. But he just walked out, and the next thing I knew, the freak show picked me and dumped me in Victor's backyard. Victor was standing there behind him, and I guess he got brave then because he told me to leave and not even think about asking him for help ever again.

Detective Murphy: What did you say?

Kristin Colby: Nothing. I just took off. There was no way I was sticking around there.

Detective Parker: Not even for your roommate?

Kristin Colby: Hey, I had just been traumatized. All I was thinking about was getting out of there. And it's not like I could get back in the house anyway. Once I got in my car and locked the door, I tried calling her cell, but she didn't answer. What could I do?

Detective Murphy: When did you see Terri again?

Kristin Colby: Back at home, she came in all upset. It took her a while to tell me what was going on. At first, I thought she was mad at me, but it turned out that wasn't it at all. She finally told me that bastard had raped her.

Detective Parker: Which bastard?

Kristin Colby: Victor! Who else? I tried to get her to call you guys, but she wouldn't do it.

Detective Parker: Why didn't you call us?

Kristin Colby: She made me swear I wouldn't tell anyone, but I wouldn't swear until she agreed to at least go to Student Health and get checked out. She told me she already talked to y'all about what happened to her or I wouldn't be saying anything to you now.

Detective Parker: Even if Terri didn't want to report what Victor did to her, you could've reported what he did to you. That was a crime too.

Kristin Colby: I just— I mean, compared to what he did to her, he didn't even really do anything to me.

Detective Murphy: And neither of you told anyone else about what happened?

Kristin Colby: No. Well… I guess I told my brother too, but I had to. He saw my black eye and made me tell him how I got it. But I only told him about me, not Terri.

Detective Parker: And how did he react?

Kristin Colby: Kyle was mega pissed. He said he was going to have a conversation with him. Conversation is Kyle's word for a butt-kicking. I wanted Victor to get a taste of his own medicine, so I didn't try to talk him out of it.

Detective Murphy: What happened when he went to see Victor?

Kristin Colby: I don't know. All Kyle would tell me was that I wouldn't have to worry about Victor again. Look, I didn't have anything to do with Victor's death, and neither did Kyle. I won't lie and say I'm sorry he's dead, but I don't want that kind of bad karma on my head. I mean taking a life, especially one as worthless as his, I could like come back as a toad or something.

Detective Murphy: Yes, that would be bad. How can we get in in touch with Kyle?

Kristin Colby: Why? He didn't do anything.

Detective Murphy: Maybe he saw or heard something at Victor's that could help us find out who killed him.

Kristin Colby: I don't know.

Detective Murphy: It's nothing to worry about. Just write down his address and phone number on this pad of paper.

Kristin Colby: Well… okay.

Detective Parker: Do you think Terri was angry enough to try to get revenge on Victor?

Kristin Colby: Terri didn't kill that scum. She wouldn't harm a fly. Besides, she's not angry. She's…shattered, heartbroken.

Detective Murphy: She had feelings for Victor, and he broke her heart?

Kristin Colby: No, like she thought the world was a certain way, and when she found out it's not, it broke her heart.

Detective Parker: What he did to her was pretty horrible. It's understandable that she might want to get back at him.

Kristin Colby: You're barking up the wrong tree, Scooby. Someone did the world a favor, but it wasn't Terri or Kyle or me.

Detective Murphy: Did you have any contact with Victor after that night?

Kristin Colby: No way. We heard from his lawyer, but we never talked to Victor again.

Detective Murphy: What did his lawyer want?

Kristin Colby: He was trying to find out if we were going to go to the cops about what happened.

Detective Murphy: What did you tell him?

Kristin Colby: We never told him anything for sure. He kept offering us money—compensation for our time, he called it—but we never agreed on an amount.

Detective Murphy: You were holding out for more?

Kristin Colby: Ha! We didn't want Victor's money. We wanted to make him sweat. After he got arrested for that other thing, he was even more worried than before. It was awesome.

Detective Parker: Where were you last Saturday?

Kristin Colby: I was shopping with my friend Kim Rollins in Tupelo.

Detective Murphy: All day?

Kristin Colby: Oh yeah. You gotta spend all day if you want to do it right. Then we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. I really miss having an Olive Garden nearby.

Detective Parker: What time did you get back into town?

Kristin Colby: I dropped Kimmy off about 9:30 that night and went home.

Detective Parker: And Kim will back you up on that?

Kristin Colby: Yeah, totally.

Detective Parker: Kristin, were you involved in any way with Victor's murder?

Kristin Colby: No! Look, I thought he was a nice guy who wanted to help me out, but I was wrong. He got his, but I didn't have anything to do with it.

Detective Murphy: Well, thanks for being so open with us, Kristin. I think that about does it for today. We'll be in touch if we need anything else.

Interview ended – 10:41 a.m.