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(DALLAS, TEXAS) — Weddings symbolize a future filled with tomorrows. However, for Dallas woman Laura Grillo, there would be no wedding, no honeymoon and no future.

Urged by her best friend, Heather Nabor, and maid of honor, Grillo followed the ritual in the bridal salon, ringing a handbell when she selected her dress.

“I remember we finally picked out her dress and that perfect outfit for the perfect day,” Nabor told “20/20” “Making the wish, ringing the bell, I kinda talked her into it. I’m glad I did that.”

She never got to wear it — just a week before her big day, around noon on Nov. 13, 2015, she was found lying in a pool of blood on her kitchen floor.

When officers and emergency service workers arrived, they discovered Grillo dead. A shell casing was found on the floor — Grillo had been shot.

“Inside the master bedroom there was a safe on the dresser, the door was open, and there was two plastic totes that were turned over on the bed,” Detective Jeff Freeman, who worked on the case, told “20/20.” “It didn’t look as far as burglary that was interrupted or anything like that. It just didn’t look right to me.”

Since Grillo’s fiancé, John Makris, was captured on surveillance video at a Home Depot store across town at the time she was killed, after interviewing him police determined he couldn’t have killed her.

Nonetheless, his behavior following Grillo’s death raised questions.

Originally from Greece, Makris was a contractor.

Detectives recalled what Makris said at the scene when they asked him who lived in the house — before he was told that Grillo had died.

“He stated that it was him, the kids, his mother and the victim’s brother,” Freeman said. “But he never did say the victim’s name. That was a huge red flag. Because maybe he knew a lot more of what was going on.”

After finding out that the wedding flowers were non-refundable, Laura’s best friend says he repurposed them for the funeral, and asked a neighbor to help scrub Grillo’s blood off the kitchen floor using Grillo’s own toothbrush.

Jesus Treviño, one of two employees seen with Makris on the morning Grillo was attacked, was questioned by investigators — and disappeared.

Treviño was ultimately located in the Clearwater, Florida, area and taken into custody by U.S. Marshals. Treviño refused to talk, so investigators turned to Makris’ other employee seen with Makris the morning of the murder, James Vileda.

During a four-hour interview, he gave a troubling account of a plot, a crime and a cover-up.

He told police he received a call from Treviño — an old friend — about a new job. Vileda said that the conversation quickly shifted from working on a construction job to becoming an accomplice in a murder.

Vileda claimed that Grillo’s death was not a robbery gone wrong. He said it was a murder for hire, orchestrated by the man Laura Grillo was just days away from marrying –her fiancé, Makris.

In September 2018, Makris was convicted on a murder-for-hire charge and sentenced to life in prison. Treviño was convicted of capital murder and received a life sentence, while Villeda pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for his testimony and got a 25-year sentence.

From prison, Makris tried to have custody of their daughter awarded to his mother, so she could raise her in Greece. He did not succeed, and she was adopted by Grillo’s best friend Nabor — the woman who would have been her maid of honor.

ABC News reached out to Makris at the Texas prison where he is serving his life sentence, but he declined our request for an interview.

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(COSTA RICA) — The 14-year-old son of former New York Yankees player Brett Gardner was vacationing with his family in Costa Rica when he suddenly fell ill and died in his sleep, according to the U.S. State Department.

Miller Gardner’s death was announced Sunday in a statement by his father and mother, Jessica Gardner, that was released on the Yankees’ X account.

Brett and Jessica Gardner said their son died in his sleep on Friday while on vacation, after falling ill along with several other family members.

The Gardners said their youngest child “has left us far too soon.”

On Monday, the U.S. State Department confirmed to ABC News that Miller Gardner died while he was in Costa Rica.

“We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in Costa Rica on March 21,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We are closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the cause of death. Out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones during this difficult time, we have no further comment at this time.”

The State Department did not say what city the Gardners were staying in at the time of the teen’s death.

“We have so many questions and so few answers at this point, but we do know that he passed away peacefully in his sleep on the morning of Friday, March 21st,” the statement from Gardner and his wife read. “Miller was a beloved son and brother and we cannot yet comprehend our life without his infectious smile. He loved football, baseball, golf, hunting, fishing, his family and his friends. He lived life to the fullest every single day.”

The couple also expressed deep gratitude for the support and encouragement they’ve received.

“We are confident our faith, family, and friends will help us navigate this unimaginable loss,” the Gardners wrote in the statement. “Our prayers go out to Miller’s teammates and friends, as well as to all other families who have lost a child far too soon as we share their grief. Please respect our wishes for privacy as we mourn and search for healing.”

In addition to Miller, Brett and Jessica Gardner also share an older son, Hunter Gardner.

Brett Gardner, a former outfielder, spent his entire 14-season MLB career with the Yankees. He was named an American League All-Star in 2015 and won a Golden Glove Award in 2016, and was part of the team that won the World Series in 2009, just one year after making his major league debut. He retired following the 2021 season.

In the wake of the news of Miller Gardner’s death, the Yankees shared a separate statement on Facebook, offering “unconditional and absolute” love to the Gardner family, while also acknowledging their need for privacy during this difficult time.

“Words feel insignificant and insufficient in trying to describe such an unimaginable loss,” the Yankees’ statement reads. “It wasn’t just Brett who literally grew up in this organization for more than 17 years — so did his wife, Jessica, and their two boys, Hunter and Miller.”

“We grieve with Brett, Jessica, Hunter and their community of family and friends in mourning the loss of Miller, who had a spark in his eyes, an outgoing and feisty personality, and a warm and loving nature,” the statement added.

“May Miller rest in peace,” the statement concludes.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Multiple incendiary devices were found at a Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas, on Monday morning, according to the Austin Police Department.

Officers located the “suspicious devices” after responding to a Tesla dealership on U.S. Route 183 just after 8 a.m. local time and called the Austin Police Department Bomb Squad to investigate, police said in a statement.

The devices were determined to be incendiary and were “taken into police custody without incident,” officials said.

Police said it is an ongoing investigation, and had no further information to release at this time.

Recent attacks aimed at Tesla dealerships, vehicles and charging stations have been reported in Las Vegas; Seattle; Kansas City, Missouri; and Charleston, South Carolina, as well as other cities across the United States since Tesla CEO Elon Musk began his role with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

In a public announcement Friday evening, the FBI said incidents targeting Teslas have been recorded in at least nine states since January, including arson, gunfire and graffiti.

“These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night,” the FBI said in the public service announcement. “Individuals require little planning to use rudimentary tactics, such as improvised incendiary devices and firearms, and may perceive these attacks as victimless property crimes.”

The FBI urged the public to be vigilant and to look out for suspicious activity in areas around Tesla dealerships.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Monday over the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act last week to deport more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador with no due process.

The hearing comes hours after a federal judge ruled that the migrants deserved to have a court hearing before their deportations to determine whether they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang.

In a ruling denying the Trump administration’s request to dissolve his order blocking the deportations, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote that Trump’s “unprecedented use” of the Alien Enemies Act does not remove the government’s responsibility to ensure the men removed could contest their designation as alleged gang members.

Trump last week invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States. Boasberg temporarily blocked the president’s use of the law to deport more than 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador, calling the removals “awfully frightening” and “incredibly troublesome.”

An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subsequently acknowledged in a sworn declaration that “many” of the noncitizens deported last week under the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States.

“The Court need not resolve the thorny question of whether the judiciary has the authority to assess this claim in the first place. That is because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on another equally fundamental theory: before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” Judge Boasberg wrote in his ruling Monday, adding the men were likely to win their case.

Judge Boasberg acknowledged that the use of the Alien Enemies Act “implicates a host of complicated legal issues” but sidestepped the larger question of whether the law was properly invoked, instead focusing on the due process deserved by the men. He added that the men have been irreparably harmed by their removal to an El Salvadoran prison where they face “torture, beatings, and even death.”

“Federal courts are equipped to adjudicate that question when individuals threatened with detention and removal challenge their designation as such. Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge,” he wrote.

Judge Boasberg also cast doubt on the Trump administration’s allegation that the decision risks national security, noting that the men would still be detained within the United States if they had not been deported.

During a court hearing on Friday, DOJ lawyers acknowledged that the men deported on the Alien Enemies Act have the right to a habeas hearing — where they could contest their alleged membership in Tren de Aragua — but declined to vow that each man would be given a hearing before they were removed from the country.

A three-judge appeals panel is hearing arguments Monday over the Trump administration’s request to overturn Judge Boasberg’s ruling blocking the deportations.

If the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns Boasberg’s blocking of the president’s use of the centuries-old wartime law, the Trump administration could exercise the authority to deport any suspected migrant gang member with little-to-no due process.

Lawyers representing the Venezuelan men targeted under Trump’s proclamation have argued that the president exceeded his authority by using the Alien Enemies Act against a gang — rather than a state actor — outside of wartime.

“The President is trying to write Congress’s limits out of the act,” the plaintiffs argued, adding that U.S. presidents have used the law three other times during or immediately preceding a war.

But the Trump administration has argued that the judiciary does not have the right to review the use of the Alien Enemies Act, alleging the deportations fall under the president’s Article II powers to remove alleged terrorists and execute the country’s foreign policy.

“The President’s action is lawful and based upon a long history of using war authorities against organizations connected to foreign states and national security judgments, which are not subject to judicial second guessing,” DOJ lawyers have argued in court filings.

The Trump administration is asking the appeals court to overturn Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking the deportations, while Judge Boasberg continues to examine whether the Trump administration deliberately defied his order by sending the men to an El Salvadoran prison rather than returning them to the United States as he directed.

“The government’s not being terribly cooperative at this point, but I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order and who ordered this and what’s the consequence,” Boasberg said on Friday.

With deportations under the Alien Enemies Act temporarily blocked, the Trump administration has vowed to use other authorities to deport noncitizens. Over the weekend, Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez announced that the country had reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S.

“We’re going to keep targeting the worst of the worst, which we’ve been doing since day one, and deporting from the United States through the various laws on the books,” border czar Tom Homan told ABC’s Jon Karl on Sunday.

The three-person panel hearing today’s arguments includes two judges nominated by Republican presidents, including one nominated by Trump himself. The D.C. Circuit is the last stop before the Trump administration could take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Trump nominated three judges during his last term, solidifying the court’s conservative majority.

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