Sheriff's deputies met the parents at Witt's home in El Dorado Hills, California, where they discovered the body.
[2] In December 2008, during her first year of high school, 14-year-old Tylar began spending time at a local coffee shop, where she met 19-year-old Steven Paul Colver, who went by the nickname "Boston".
Catapano moved Colver's belongings to the sidewalk and warned him against further contact with the Witt family, threatening an "East Coast style" reprisal should he disobey.
Joanne considered filing charges against Colver for statutory rape, but agreed not to when Tylar promised to end the relationship.
Joanne contacted law enforcement to file statutory rape charges and turned over the journal as evidence.
[2] After meeting with law enforcement, Joanne took Tylar to dinner at Joanie's Cafe and Grill in Shingle Springs and informed her that she had proceeded with filing charges against Colver.
[3][4] On the night of June 11, 2009, Tylar poured her mother a drink and added a large amount of sleeping medication.
Norb unlocked the door to admit them and sheriff's deputies entered the home to find Joanne dead in her bed, with 20 stab wounds on her face, neck, and arms.
Their hotel room in San Francisco held what CBS News called "a bizarre mixture of Froot Loops, cake, and rat poison," which the couple had apparently eaten in an attempt to fulfill their mutual suicide pact.
[2] Additionally, police found condoms, marijuana, a suicide note, and a DVD of the film Donnie Darko.
When police reminded her that she was under arrest for murder, Tylar insisted her mother was not dead and claimed her right to legal counsel.
[3] In support of Tylar's story, small amounts of male DNA were found under Joanne's fingernails and on her body, in what were apparently defensive wounds.
Suder said, "It is very likely that the DNA comes from Joanne trying to fight her attacker," which she considered evidence of Colver's guilt, as he was the only male involved in the case.
Tylar responded by claiming that she suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, having what she termed "three souls crowded in one body": herself, an angel named Alex, and a demon called Toby, who took control of her during times of stress.
[12] Colver indicated that on the night of the murder, Joanne was already dead when he arrived at the house and saw Tylar holding the knife in her right hand, her pants stained with blood.
[12] After less than four hours of deliberation,[2] on June 15, 2011, the jury found Colver guilty of the murder and special circumstances of lying in wait, use of a deadly weapon, and killing a witness.
[1][14][15] Tylar Witt was incarcerated in Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and was granted parole on August 26, 2022.