It is an undisputed fact that on the night of her death on October 22, 1997, Anastasia WitbolsFeugen met up with her boyfriend, Justin Bruton, at a Dairy Queen in Indepence, Missouri, near the Mt. Washington Cemetery. It is also an undisputed fact that Byron Case, a friend of Justin, and Kelly Moffett, Case's girlfriend, were riding along with Justin when he picked her up, and that they were the last three people known to have been seen with Anastasia before her death.

The reason they came along with Justin to pick up Anastasia, only two hours before Kelly's curfew and knowing full well that there was a long argument brewing, is still in dispute.

Case testified that he and Moffett tagged along because they didn't want to be left alone indefinitely at Bruton's apartment while he went to pick up Anastasia.⁽¹⁾ He gave a different version of that story to Anastasia's family in an email some five months after the murder,⁽²⁾ claiming that he would have had to walk home to drive Kelly home in his own car. Case would later go to great lengths to deny that his car was available that night.⁽³⁾

Case mentioned a number of times that he was concerned about getting Kelly home by curfew, but his excuses seem counterintuitive toward that end, and Kelly's mother, Debbie Moffett, testified that they got back to her home after curfew.⁽⁴⁾

Case's excuses for accompanying Justin out to Independence and later to Mt. Washington Cemetery do not make any logical sense. The best hypothesis to explain his reasons match Kelly Moffet's testimony,⁽⁵⁾ that he went along to kill Anastasia.