Mother confronts suspected killer of daughter, faces assault charge

On December 16, 2021, Darci Bass was inside her neighborhood convenience store when the man accused of her 19-year-old daughter, Livye Lewis's death, entered. 

"When he came in the door ... I just went — started — started throwing whatever at him and went for him," Bass told 48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant in an interview for The Blackout Murder of Livye Lewis.

The tragic event unfolded in the early morning of Halloween 2020 when Lewis was found along a road in the small town of Hemphill, Texas. 

She was slumped over the wheel of her car, having been shot in the neck with a rifle.

Bass recounts that officials did not notify her of her daughter's passing. Instead, a friend informed her that something was amiss with Lewis, prompting her to rush to the scene seeking answers. 

"I just needed to know is she alive or is she dead," Bass told Van Sant. Her anguished cries for answers were caught on police bodycam video. "I wanna see my child," she shouted. "Livye Lewis! Where is she?"

Sabine County Sheriff's Investigator J.P. MacDonough recalled that upon seeing Lewis, he was convinced the perpetrator was familiar to her. 

"She was just sitting there with her legs crossed," he told Van Sant. "Well, it indicates to me she was not afraid ... She was actually, to some degree, comfortable with who she was speaking with."

MacDonough didn't have to search long for a suspect. At the scene was Lewis's boyfriend, 23-year-old Matthew Edgar. 

"He was found in the fetal position behind the vehicle that Lewis was found in," MacDonough noted.

Notably, on March 16, 2021, nearly five months after his arrest, the grand jury heard evidence against Edgar, leading to a murder charge for Lewis's death. 

It took nearly a year for authorities to recapture Edgar so he could be sentenced to 99 years, with parole possible after 30 years.