 Amanda Doss was just 34 years old in 2011. She was at home on the afternoon of May 11th, 2011, alongside her two children and a friend. When all of a sudden, someone clutching a knife unleashed on the family, then fled the scene of the crime. Just minutes later, the house went up in flames, destroying nearly every trace of evidence that had been left behind by this callous criminal. By the time detectives and investigators arrived at the scene of the crime, the smoke had settled, but the real mystery had only just begun. Who could have done such a thing to such a harmless family? Police would soon learn that the truth was much stranger than fiction, and it only took them about three months to get to the bottom of this heartless crime, after a suspect made a startling confession. Amanda Doss was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in August of 1976. Muskogee is located just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is home to around 36,000 people as of 2020. There isn't anything particularly interesting about Muskogee, it's a pretty ordinary town filled with ordinary people doing their best in life, and Amanda certainly fit that bill. Amanda moved at some point along the way, deciding to settle in Texarkana, Texas, a town that shares its border with Arkansas. Specifically, Amanda moved to Redwater, Texas, a small suburban area of Texarkana, with a population of about 853 people. We don't know too terribly much about Amanda's personal life, but we know that she must have gotten married somewhere along the way, as her maiden name is listed as Pruitt instead of Doss. Amanda gave birth to her first child, Gwynnevere, in August of 1999. Gwynne was known for being a wonderful child, attending Redwater Middle School as she grew older. She was an active member of the Girl Scouts and all around a great kid. Gwynne was remembered for being a selfless little girl who always cared about others. In fact, when she was just 9 years old, she decided to give all of her birthday and Christmas money, including her presents, to a local orphanage. Every month for the rest of that year, Gwynne and Amanda would work together to bake cakes and bring gifts and ice cream to all the children who were having birthdays each month. Almost four years after the birth of Gwynne, Amanda gave birth to her second child, a boy named Texas. Texas was born in May of 2003 and, much like his sister, was recalled for being an all-around great little boy. Following in his sister's footsteps, Texas decided to join the Boy Scouts and even attended Redwater School District as well. Amanda and her two children were known for being a happy family, and it seems they all got along well. But no amount of happiness could save the family from the impending tragedy that was about to strike, one that would destroy their notion of safety and leave behind nothing but ash and rubble. Before we continue with today's case, I needed to give you guys somewhat of a PSA. You probably didn't know this, but all of your online data might be getting sold to shady companies or individuals without you having any idea. At this very moment, there are thousands of data brokers out there that scour the corners of the internet simply looking to buy people's personal info so that they can sell it off to someone else and make a profit. This can include anything from your address to your phone number to bank account info or maybe even your social security number. The info they can get a hold of would seriously shock you. The good news is that you have the legal right to reach out to these people and request that they delete your info. The bad news is that this would take you years to do on your own. That's why I've partnered with Incogni because they'll do the work for you without you even needing to lift a finger. Incogni will reach out to thousands of data brokers on your behalf and request that they delete your data from their database, virtually eliminating your online presence automatically. All it takes is creating an account and providing Incogni with a few personal details so that they can better identify you. Then allow Incogni the right to work on your behalf. After this, you just have to sit back and watch them get to work. They'll keep you updated every step of the way. Some great examples of how your data gets into the wrong hands is, say you sign up for a free newsletter, then start receiving tons of spam immediately afterward. Maybe you're researching some medical complications, then start seeing ads for medical services you were never even interested in. The list goes on and on. Incogni is truly an invaluable tool and I'm honored to be able to work with them to help you guys get the protection that you deserve. All you need to do to get started is click the link in the description below or use the code tie knots to get started. By using my personal code, the first 100 people to sign up will get 60% off your Incogni subscription. Thanks to Incogni for sponsoring today's video. It was May 11th, 2011. Amanda, Gwen, and Texas had settled into their home for the evening, going about their usual nightly routines of having dinner, taking showers, watching TV, and eventually getting ready for bed. But this night's series of events would be much different. It was around 3 a.m. The children had been tucked away in bed, but Amanda seems to have still been awake, based on a report given by the Texarkana Gazette. At 3 a.m., a knock came at the family's front door. Amanda headed over to the door to see who it was and she was greeted by 17-year-old Rachel Pittman. Rachel was an old family friend who would often come over and babysit the two children, and Amanda welcomed her into her home with open arms, as she had many times before. Rachel was someone that the Doss children looked up to as somewhat of an older sister. But unfortunately for the family, this visit would be far different from the many other times that Rachel had stopped by. Over the years, Rachel and Amanda had become friends with the woman who's never been named by police or news outlets. She's only ever referred to as the woman, so I guess police chose to keep her anonymous for some reason. For the sake of the story, we'll refer to her as Tanya, just to make things simpler to understand. It's unclear what relation Tanya had to Rachel, but we know that Tanya was an adult while Rachel, as mentioned, was merely 17. Tanya had moved out of state about five or six months before this, but she kept in touch with Rachel all the time. Reports claim that Tanya had previously lived near both Rachel and the Doss family, allegedly living just a few houses away in the same neighborhood. Tanya, Rachel, and Amanda Doss were all known to have been close friends or at the very least, close neighbors. They'd often spend time together at Amanda Doss's house, sharing drinks and stories and generally being friendly with one another. But before long, darkness started to creep in. Rachel was considered by most people to have been a typical teenage girl. But as she grew older, she began to show signs of being a bit unusual, so to speak. I say this because according to Rachel, she believed that Tanya wanted to end Amanda's life. But Tanya claims she never suggested anything of the sort, nor did she have any bad intentions towards Amanda. They both got along great and enjoyed each other's company. But for Rachel, the message was loud and clear. Stepping back to the night in question, May 11th, Rachel arrived at Amanda's home at around 3 a.m. Once Amanda asked her to come inside, the two sat down and chatted for a while, talking about anything and everything. While Amanda was more than twice Rachel's age, the two were great friends and often confided in one another. But this particular get together would be unlike anything Amanda could have expected. After the two spoke for a while, Rachel got up and began heading toward the door, suggesting to Amanda that she was ready to leave. But no sooner than she reached the door, Rachel grabbed a knife that she'd been hiding in the waistband of her pants, turned around and ran towards Amanda. She ended Amanda's life in a matter of seconds. But at some point during the scuffle, Gwen and Texas woke up. To be completely upfront with you, the details of how things unfolded past this point are not very clear, but it appears as though Gwen knew something was wrong and ran away in fear. Rather than call the police though, Gwen grabbed a phone and called her grandparents. The call was incredibly confusing for her grandparents as Gwen doesn't appear to have said anything that could be understood. All her grandparents heard were shouts and screams in the background of the call, followed by Gwen shouting for her mother. As any good grandparent would do, the two threw their shoes on and jumped in the car, driving as fast as they possibly could toward the door's household. As they neared the home, their jaws hit the floor. They truly couldn't believe their eyes. The entire home had gone up in flames and they knew that their daughter and two grandchildren were trapped inside. They whipped their car into the driveway and without a second of hesitation, jumped out of the car and ran straight into the burning building. They found Gwen lying on the ground in polter from the fire. As they did so, both of the grandparents suffered severe burns that forced them to be admitted to the hospital later on. While they managed to pull Gwen from the blaze, they couldn't locate Amanda or Texas. Unfortunately, as the fire grew hotter, they were forced to admit that both of them were gone. Paramedics arrived at the scene just moments later. The grandparents were treated for their injuries and sent to the hospital, but as paramedics checked on Gwen, they realized that they were far too late and she was gone. The fire continued to rage on for hours after this and it wouldn't be until the following day that the fire department was able to put out the flames, allowing investigators to survey the scene of the incident and do their best to determine what had taken place. Initially, detectives believed that the fire had been caused by a faulty electrical outlet, one of the leading causes of home fires. But as they retrieved the charred remains of the DOS family from the rubble, they realized that what they had stumbled upon was something far worse. As police did their best to piece together the evidence from the scene of the fire, they quickly realized that things simply weren't adding up. When the fire experts began to analyze the incident, they found that some sort of accelerant had been used. Worse yet, the body of Amanda appeared to have been where the fire had originated. For police, they knew that this meant one thing, the fire had not been caused by some sort of electrical short. Rather, it was intentionally said and detectives began to believe it had been done in order to conceal evidence of a murder. Police scheduled interviews with the local media outlets and announced what they had uncovered, offering a reward of over $40,000 for information leading to the arrest of the individual who committed this crime. But despite such a hefty reward, no tips were ever called in that led to the suspect being caught. Police spent weeks searching every square inch of the property for even the slightest clue, but they repeatedly came up and de-handed. But after about three weeks of searching, a tip was called in from a woman who lived all the way out in California. The woman who's never been identified was very direct in her statements. She claimed that she knew for a fact that Rachel Pittman, the 17-year-old babysitter, was behind the murder. Now, we don't know why she believed this or why she was so certain about it, but regardless, police didn't take the tip seriously. Now, many people may be quick to blame investigators for this, but in reality, you have to admit that the tip seems pretty strange. After all, Rachel was a child and a close family friend, but more than anything else, how would someone in California have such pertinent information about a crime that was committed in Texas? Well, as weeks passed by, police did their best to follow up on almost every lead they received, but they never managed to get around to speaking with Rachel. The tip was considered low priority for officers, and they felt their services would have been more useful investigating other suspects. It would be three months before police ever got any closer to locating the person responsible for this disaster. During this time, another $100,000 had been added to the reward for information, and soon enough, they would receive a call that turned the case on its head. As months passed by, it seemed as though Rachel's conscience had begun to catch up with her. The past always finds a way to catch up with you, and for Rachel, the guilt was becoming more than she could bear. One day, Rachel had been at her mother's home. We don't know the specifics of their conversation, but Rachel's mother detected that something was bothering her. After speaking for a few minutes, Rachel finally opened up and confessed what had taken place. She told her mother everything. Rachel openly confessed to the crime, but this is where things get pretty incredible. A mother's instinct is almost always to protect her children, but in this case, Rachel's mother could do no such thing. She knew the gravity of the situation and without hesitation called the police. The officer who accepted the call remembers that Rachel's mother was filled with grief, sobbing as she revealed what her daughter had confessed to. Interestingly, submitting a tip like this would have made Rachel's mother eligible to receive the $140,000 reward that had been set up, but she even went as far as refusing the money. Now, I don't know anything about the type of person that Rachel's mother is, but this act alone proves that she must have been a person of character. That's a ton of money to just turn it down. Soon enough, detectives arrived and Rachel turned herself over to the police without a fight, but it's what she revealed to police after the fact that really sets this case apart, because it took investigators by surprise and revealed a whole new aspect of the story that no one saw coming. When Rachel was in police custody, she came clean about everything, revealing every last detail about what had unfolded that day in 2011. She explained that she'd been speaking with Tanya and that Tanya had asked her to end Amanda's life. More specifically, Rachel claimed that Tanya asked her to end Amanda's life but that she should do it when the children weren't whole, as there would be no need for them to be caught up in the crime. Rachel claims that Tanya's request sounded urgent and the more they spoke, the more Rachel felt as though this crime was a now or never situation. Thus, she decided to move forward with the crime without waiting for the children to leave, resulting in the entire family losing their lives. While this explains most of the story, it doesn't explain one major detail. If Rachel merely ended the lives of the family, then how did a fire break out? Well, the entire crime was premeditated from beginning to end. Rachel knew that if she took out the entire family, she was almost certain to leave behind some form of evidence, even if she did her best not to. So on her way to the family home, she decided to get a two liter soda bottle and fill it with gasoline. After carrying out the most gruesome part of the crime, she grabbed the bottle, doused the victims in fuel and then set the house on fire, eliminating virtually any piece of evidence she may have left behind. But there's one part of the crime that Rachel didn't anticipate. During the scuffle, she accidentally cut herself with the knife that she'd been using to carry out the attack, causing a pretty serious injury to her arm. After she set the house on fire, she ran back home to clean herself up before anybody would notice. She did all of this without anyone ever realizing she'd even stepped out of her home in the first place. But in the chaos of all this, Rachel had jumped a fence connected to the DOS family property. So after cleaning up at home, she ran back to the DOS's fence to clean up any prints or evidence she may have left behind. Again, without being noticed by anyone. Once she got back home, Rachel removed her clothing and burned it in the backyard along with her shoes. To top this off, she took the knife that she'd used that evening and broke it into 20 pieces, scattering the metal in the woods behind her house and burning the handle in the same pile that she burned her clothes in. Police were able to recover most of the pieces of the knife that Rachel had scattered in the woods, but nothing else was found. But as she spoke with investigators, they began to realize that there was much more to this story than meets the eye. Specifically, police were interested in the portion of Rachel's alibi in which she mentioned Tanya, asking her to carry out the crime. Police tracked Tanya down and listened to her version of events. As they would quickly learn, Tanya had no ill will toward the DOS family at all and considered them to be close friends. But if this is true, then why had Rachel lied? Well, she didn't. Sort of. When someone commits a crime of this magnitude, police will usually send the person in for a mental health analysis to determine if they may be suffering from some sort of mental health disorder. In Rachel's case, investigators were stunned by the reports that came back from multiple psychiatric investigations. One of the professionals believed that Rachel had been suffering from a form of paranoid schizophrenia. They believed that, in a way, Rachel had been telling the truth about Tanya. See, Rachel did truly believe that Tanya had asked her to take out Amanda DOS. But this simply didn't happen. According to the psychiatrist, the conversation that Rachel had with Tanya was nothing more than a twisted delusion. While the two did speak shortly before Amanda lost her life, the content of their discussion had nothing to do with Rachel claiming Amanda's life. The psychiatrist believes that Rachel's own mind was able to spin an ordinary conversation into a request for murder. This effectively cleared Tanya of any involvement. But many people question whether or not this cleared Rachel of involvement as well. Now, obviously, Rachel was the one who committed the crime. But if she wasn't of a sound mind, could she really be held accountable for such a tragedy? Well, according to one psychiatrist, Rachel knew that what she was doing was morally wrong. She knew that taking someone's life was, well, bad. The fact that she took every opportunity to conceal her involvement proved this. But the doctor believes that Rachel felt as though it was her only option, and in essence was the right thing to do for whatever reason. A second psychiatrist weighed in and said that Rachel knew that her actions were wrong, but that she was influenced by statements made on television, billboards, and even conversations that didn't involve her. Rachel found hidden meaning in these various avenues and believed that the universe was telling her to do it. So she did. In one interview with doctors, Rachel spoke about hearing snakes that began talking to her. She believed these snakes were demons and she also believed she could see ghosts. Later on, she mentioned encountering a pink cloud that she believed harbored the souls of her three victims. The doctors claimed that Rachel only decided to turn herself in after she made a deeper commitment to her religion, presumably in an attempt to ward off these so-called demons. Now, as you might expect, Rachel's defense team wanted to enter a plea of insanity and if her doctors are correct in their analysis, who could blame them? Rachel has exhibited every possible sign of being mentally ill and the crime very clearly appears to have been committed while Rachel was dealing with serious mental challenges. But in the end, for reasons that I just can't seem to understand, Rachel decided to plead guilty to the charges placed against her. Rather obviously because of her age, Rachel was placed in a juvenile detention center. But unfortunately, things only got worse for her from here. Her behavior behind bars greatly concerned the staff at the correctional facility. They say that she developed a cult following behind bars and that she was very disrespectful to the staff members. She would often speak to her friends and followers about God's forgiveness but she would do so in a warped and distorted way. While she gave outward appearances of being a calm and collected person, the slightest mention of her doing anything wrong would cause her to turn cold in distance. Ever since her incarceration, Rachel's behavior has been truly terrible. Reports about her stay in prison stopped being reported in 2012 but in that year alone, she's known to have begun multiple fights with multiple inmates. She attempted to break out of her cell. She knocked out an inmate's tooth, stuffed paper into the lock of her cell door so that she could open it whenever she wanted and was caught plotting an attack against another inmate. One time, she successfully broke out of her cell and wandered off into the prison doing her own thing. She even managed to get a whole of a blade from a pencil sharpener but rather than use it to attack someone, she used it to cut her hair off so that her hair couldn't be used against her in a fight. All of the prison staff believe that Rachel needs some form of medical intervention if she has any chance of getting better. But there's been no word on whether or not this will be mandated. As it stands, she's now being held in an adult women's prison in Texas but as far as we know, she's still shown no signs of improvement. She's expected to be eligible for parole after spending another 19 years behind bars but unless she gets the mental help that she needs, it probably goes without saying that Rachel will never see the light of day again. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you wanna see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit that like button and subscribe. If you'd like to help support the channel, the best way you can do that is just by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. If you wanna help out financially, you can do that by clicking the blue join button below or by picking up a True Crime Stories mug like the one you see on the desk behind me from tieknots.com. But with that, my name is Tie Knots and I'll catch you guys in the next video.