This story originally aired on March 11, 2023.
In the predawn hours of May 8, 2014, Stephanie Fernandes was desperate to learn from police what had happened to her fiancé, Andrew "Andy" Wagner.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES (crying): I — I don't know what's gonna happen. Please.
OFFICER PERO: Stephanie, just —
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Please, tell me if he's OK.
OFFICER PERO: Stephanie —
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Please, no
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: This is like a nightmare, a walking nightmare …
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: …what happened to him I can't take it.
OFFICER PERO: I know this is, I know this is a traumatic night, OK?
STEPHANIE: No, no. Please tell me Andy's OK.
OFFICER PERO: We have to get through this, OK?
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Oh, please tell me Andy's OK, please …
At around 10:30 the night before, after a sudden bloody encounter with Andy at their home in Worcester, Massachusetts, Stephanie says she couldn't find her cell phone, so she rushed to a neighbors' house to get help.
Angelina Fernandes (driving with Peter Van Sant to her former home): It's coming up on the left.
Peter Van Sant: Which house?
Angelina Fernandes: Right here on the left.
Stephanie's daughter Angelina Fernandes now 20, was just 11 years old that night.
Peter Van Sant: Where was your bedroom?
Angelina Fernandes: Um, I don't know, upstairs.
Peter Van Sant: But can you still remember.
Angelina Fernandes: Yeah, it's like pictures.
Angelina Fernandes: So, I was sleeping, and I heard the door slam shut, and it woke me up. And then I just heard my mom from outside, "Help me, someone help me." And then I just hear my mom screaming and crying.
Peter Van Sant: When you looked from that balcony down and could see your mother and Andy –
Angelina Fernandes: Mm-hmm (affirms) … there's blood everywhere.
Angelina Fernandes: And then I saw them giving CPR on him.
Angelina Fernandes: I just remember my mom. … And then she spotted me upstairs and she pointed at me, and she was like, "Someone get her, someone get my daughter!"
Police took Angelina to a relative's house. Andy was rushed by paramedics to the hospital. Police took Stephanie to the station, where she was led into an interrogation room and interviewed for almost three hours.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: No. No. Please tell me Andy's OK.
OFFICER PERO: We have to get through this, OK?
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Oh, please tell me Andy's OK … I can't even talk. Like, he's my life. It doesn't even matter. Like, I love him so much …
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Please. I don't—no, no. I don't know what to do. Like,
I'm gonna freak out ...
OFFICER: Sit down for a second.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: I don't wanna hear nothin'. I don't wanna hear nothin'. And if anything bad happened to my family, no, please don't tell me. I know I look psycho. Please.
OFFICER PERO: Stephanie —
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Please.
OFFICER PERO: — just for right now, I just want to get some basic information.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: OK.
Detective William Pero led the questioning
OFFICER PERO: Before we talk about the incident that occurred tonight, I have to read you your rights.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: OK.
OFFICER PERO: You have the right to use a telephone to … contact an attorney. Do you understand this right Stephanie?
OFFICER PERO: Right now, we can't talk to Andrew. I can talk to you, OK.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Why can't you talk to him?
The officers press on, telling Stephanie that Wagner is in the hospital. Stephanie appears to settle down a bit.
OFFICER PERO: Well, something did happen. You're covered in blood.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: I know. No. Oh yeah ...
OFFICER PERO: You have a lotta blood on you and that's, I would assume that's Andrew's blood?
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Yes. This is Andrew's blood.
Stephanie changes into a white coverall. And two hours into her interview finally learns Andy's fate.
OFFICER PERO: Andrew is no longer with us. And there's a reason why that happened, but we don't know that reason yet.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: Oh my God. Oh my God.
Stephanie is told Andy is dead. She begins to reveal details of what happened that night.
STEPHANIE FERNANDES: What happened was we got into an altercation, and he was hitting me. And that's what happened. And he pulled out a knife and guns. … He started like choking me and hittin' me and stuff.
An autopsy would later reveal Wagner had bled to death after being stabbed in the neck. Stephanie was later charged with first-degree murder.
Stephanie Fernandes talked publicly for the first time to "48 Hours" about the death of her fiancé Andrew Wagner.
Stephanie Fernandes: I never, never, and never would kill someone, harm someone in that way, on purpose.
Stephanie Fernandes: I will always love him.
But how did it come to this? Just five years earlier Stephanie was smitten with Andrew Wagner.
Stephanie Fernandes: Blue eyes, really nice smile, … Nice hair. … just really handsome and
Um, really fun personality, very talkative.
Peter Van Sant: And did you feel an attraction to him right away?
Stephanie Fernandes: Yes, I did. We had chemistry, a lot.
At the time, Andy worked at the tire shop of a Costco. He dreamed of working in law enforcement. In the beginning, Angelina got along with him.
Peter Van Sant: What kind of things would — did you guys do together?
Angelina Fernandes: We used to watch "Criminal Minds" together.
Peter Van Sant: Did your mom ever tell you … "Angelina, I, I love Andrew, I — I'd like to — I'd like to marry Andrew someday?"
Angelina Fernandes: Yes. She wanted that so bad. … a stable family for me and her. … She just — she wanted that.
But what Angelina didn't know at the time was that her mother's life with Andy Wagner also had a violent side, recalled Stephanie's friend Danielle Lord.
Danielle Lord: She constantly had, like, grab marks on her arms. She had marks on her inside of her legs, like I have never seen in my life.
Angelina Fernandes (referencing a photo with her mother): The little girl is me, and my mom is next to me, Stephanie Fernandes. … so tender and loving and … She was high energy and — I was like her little sidekick.
Angelina was just 6 years old when Andrew Wagner came into her life. She remembers good times at the beach, family gatherings and vacations.
Angelina Fernandes: We would actually go to Cape Cod every summer to his parent's Cape house, which was fun.
Angelina Fernandes: She loved him. She wanted a house with him. She wanted to get married to him. She wanted babies.
In those early times, Angelina says her mom never said how she met Andy Wagner and never revealed what she did for a living that kept her away at night.
Danielle Lord: She was beautiful. … she just had these piercing eyes, first, that you notice. And her hair was just beautiful.
Danielle Lord worked with Stephanie in a Massachusetts night club.
Danielle Lord: We both were very intimidating. A lot of men would say that we were intimidating, especially together. That's attractive to men. … We just became this kind of duo.
Peter Van Sant: What did you do at the nightclub?
Stephanie Fernandes: I was a topless dancer.
Peter Van Sant: Exotic dancer –
Stephanie Fernandes: Exotic dancer, stripper, yeah.
Peter Van Sant: And had you been trained in dancing at all?
Stephanie Fernandes: I took dance classes when I was younger, not in that way.
Stephanie was a single mom. She says after she split up with Angelina's father, she needed to earn a paycheck.
Stephanie Fernandes: I would go in there, make a lotta money, and then I would get out
And — and be there for my mom … and my daughter.
One night, back in 2009, a new guy at the club caught her eye.
Stephanie Fernandes: I was on stage. And he was there
Stephanie Fernandes: We just started talking and talked for, like, an hour.
Danielle Lord: She was instantly attracted to him. She wanted to be with him. She didn't look at him like a customer. She was like, "Oh, this is a cute guy. I like him."
At first, Stephanie loved the attention.
Stephanie Fernandes: I thought, "Oh he's just into me. He just really likes me."
Danielle Lord: I think she just had stars in her eyes.
Danielle says Stephanie and Andy's relationship quickly became a little obsessive.
Danielle Lord: A lot of alarms went off whenever Steph met Andy. And — you know, alarms that she couldn't hear. … He was completely … possessive right from the beginning. Andy was calling her nonstop, messaging her … and showing up at the club right from the beginning.
Stephanie and Andy moved in together almost immediately in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Danielle says their relationship moved from obsessive to dangerous.
Danielle Lord: I've never in my life seen bruises like that ever. And I don't — I don't even wanna think of what she went through to get the — those bruises. … We were covering it with makeup. … when she had the bruising down there, there was nothing you could do to cover it.
Soon after moving in together, Stephanie says, Andrew demanded some changes.
Peter Van Sant: Did he demand that you stop dancing?
Stephanie Fernandes: Oh, yeah. Yes. … His girl was not gonna dance at a club. And I said, jokingly, nervously, jokingly, "Well who's gonna pay my bills?"
Peter Van Sant: And why did he want you to quit?
Stephanie Fernandes: Because of the attention, the men … taking off my top in front of men.
Stephanie says she stopped dancing, but the violence continued.
Stephanie Fernandes: He's hit me in my head and my face. He's choked me …
Stephanie says she took this photo of her black eye, shown above, in 2010.
Stephanie Fernandes: Oh, body shots. All over the place. My mouth. My eyes. Everywhere.
Peter Van Sant: Why didn't you ever call the police and report this violence?
Stephanie Fernandes: I was told that bullets can go through paper. It would mean nothin' with a restraining order. He would get to me way quicker than the cops would. And just — I would die if I left him.
Danielle Lord: I can't explain it. It's very hard to leave a domestic violence situation. … You don't have your own money. You don't have anywhere to go. … you know, you're broken down completely. … Your brain is like scrambled eggs, and you can't think for yourself. And you just walk around every day like … you're in shock. … You just wanna end the day, and when you wake up the next day, it's just another day doing the same thing. So … I think she was just stuck in a situation that she didn't know how to get out of.
In spite of their volatile relationship, in 2012, Stephanie and Andy were engaged. A short time later, Andy became a corrections officer.
Peter Van Sant: You and Andy had bought a condo together. You were planning a wedding, correct?
Stephanie Fernandes: Yes.
Peter Van Sant (hands photo to Stephanie): You seem happy in that picture. What went wrong?
Stephanie Fernandes: Severe jealousy.
But Stephanie admits it wasn't just Andy. Sometimes she antagonized him, teasing and tormenting him with texts.
Peter Van Sant: They're pretty vicious.
Stephanie Fernandes: Yeah.
Peter Van Sant: You admit that, right?
Stephanie Fernandes: I do. It's embarrassing.
Van Sant asked Stephanie to read a few.
Stephanie Fernandes: "I'm gonna F your best friend." "You should kill yourself." "Hope a car falls on you."
Stephanie Fernandes: I admit I'm flawed. … Yeah, I can get upset.
She says Andrew would get upset too — especially when she wore outfits that might make her attractive to other men.
Stephanie Fernandes: He's freaked out over … the tank top that I was wearing, grabbed me, and then threw me on my bed in the room, and tore it off. Took out his gun, made sure I knew there was bullets it in, and jammed it down my throat.
Peter Van Sant: Did he threaten to kill you? Did he threaten to pull the trigger?
Stephanie Fernandes: If I — during that time — it was if I didn't listen to him, yes that he was gonna kill me.
Angelina Fernandes: When he was mad, he'd turn into a different person. His whole face would get red. His pupils would dilate. It was like possession of demonic entity.
Angelina recalls seeing Andrew trying to headbutt her mother.
Angelina Fernandes: He'd go like — like that (demonstrating a headbutt).
Peter Van Sant: Would he bump her? When he headbutt –
Angelina Fernandes: No.
Peter Van Sant: — would he literally make contact?
Angelina Fernandes: No.
Peter Van Sant: But it would go right up in her face?
Angelina Fernandes: Yeah.
Peter Van Sant: And –
Angelina Fernandes: Yeah.
Peter Van Sant: And she called that a headbutt, right?
Angelina Fernandes: Yeah.
Peter Van Sant: And did that bother her
Angelina Fernandes: Mm-hmm (affirms).
By early 2013 Stephanie decided she and Angelina needed a change. She left Andrew and began a new relationship with an old boyfriend, Mike Laramee.
Stephanie Fernandes: I left Andy to get away from the abuse and a number of things.
Stephanie says both men knew about each other.
Stephanie Fernandes: What I did with Andy, Mike knew about. What I did with Mike, Andy knew about.
She says Mike treated her very well.
Stephanie Fernandes: He spoiled me in every way. … He would carry me into bed if I fell asleep on the couch.
And just months after they got back together, Mike proposed, and Stephanie accepted.
Stephanie Fernandes: Mike brought me to Niagara Falls. … he did take out … the ring and
asked if I would marry him. … And I did wear the ring.
Peter Van Sant: Both men knew that you were engaged to the other man?
Stephanie Fernandes: Yes.
About a month later, Laramee says he broke off the engagement. Stephanie got back together with Andy, but she says it was more out of fear than love.
Stephanie Fernandes: If I didn't go back with Andy … he woulda killed Mike or definitely myself if I didn't go back with him. He never woulda let me live.
Once Stephanie was back, she says the cycle of abuse resumed. Just three days before his death, Andy texted her.
Peter Van Sant: He said, "I'm going to f
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