WAS A MISSISSIPPI MAN SO DISTRAUGHT OVER HIS GIRLFRIEND THAT HE TOOK HIS OWN LIFE OR WAS THERE SOMETHING MORE SINISTER BEHIND HIS DEATH?

"48 Hours" Reporting for "The Suspicious Death of Christian Andreacchio" Leads a Prosecutor to Take Another Look at the Investigation

Saturday, Jan. 9

Correspondent Peter Van Sant and 48 HOURS investigate the death of a young Mississippi man and new information uncovered by 48 HOURS that gives his family hope in their search for justice in "The Suspicious Death of Christian Andreacchio" to be broadcast Saturday, Jan. 9 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Andreacchio died from a single bullet wound to his head. Police say he was found in the bathroom of his apartment in Meridian, Miss., by his live-in girlfriend Whitley Goodman and his friend Dylan Swearingen on Feb. 26, 2014.

Swearingen told police 21-year-old Andreacchio was acting erratically before he died. According to a police report, Swearingen said Andreacchio threatened to shoot himself, telling Goodman to tell him that she loved him, before Swearingen intervened and took the gun from him.

Andreacchio is described by his family as a hard worker who was on the verge of becoming one of the youngest towboat captains on the Mississippi and facing a long, successful career.

Investigators ruled his death a suicide. However, his family didn't believe he would take his own life.

"I believe 100% he was murdered," says Andreacchio's mother, Rae.

"At this point, there has been further investigation by multiple agencies ... that have determined it to be a suicide," says Lauderdale County District Attorney Kassie Coleman, who was not part of the case at the time of the death.

Andreacchio's family hired a team of their own investigators to look at the evidence. They came up with a different conclusion - murder. Forensic pathologist Dr. Jonathan Arden believes the way Andreacchio was found - leaning over a bathtub, with little blood spatter - didn't make sense. Arden believes Andreacchio's body was moved after he was killed.

"None of this lines up for him to have shot himself in the position where he was found," says Arden. "It's a staged scene."

Police reports noted the gun had no fingerprints on it, suggesting it could have been wiped clean.

A grand jury heard the case in 2017 and did not indict Goodman and Swearingen. They each declined to be interviewed, but their mothers say they're innocent. .

"Did your son, Dylan, shoot Christian?" Van Sant asks his mother Pam Swearingen.

"Absolutely not. On a very bad day, my son lost his best friend," she says.

Goodman's mother Christie Chatterton says: "I just want them to know that she did not kill him."

Goodman did eventually agree to meet with a 48 HOURS camera crew to get some video shots of her and her mother. She would not take questions but used the opportunity to read a poem. "It just came to me, like, out of nowhere." Goodman said, reciting verses that reflect her life after Andreacchio's death. "I miss who I was, the person I once was allowed to be, before the anxiety, the pain and the notoriety - before your name was used in vain as the main source of my pain."

After reading the poem, Goodman said, "I was so confused whenever I started being blamed. I really was."

The case may not be over. In reporting the story, Van Sant and 48 HOURS discovered a key report in the case was not presented to the grand jury in 2017. When told of the discovery by 48 HOURS, prosecutor Kassie Coleman said she was willing to reconvene a grand jury.

48 HOURS: "The Suspicious Death of Christian Andreacchio" is produced by Chris O'Connell and Emily Wichick. Ryan Smith is the development producer. Grayce Arlotta-Berner, Michelle Harris, Joan Adelman and Diana Modica are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.

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