Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Dateline NBC‘s episode “Sound and Fury” will look into the investigation to catch Tiffany Pugh‘s killers, Andre Pugh and Adrian Harley. Tiffany was a mother-of-one and the wife of Andre, a famous Atlanta DJ who went by the name DJ Awesome. The upcoming episode will premiere on the network this Friday, May 10, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET.
According to CBS News and Oxygen, when authorities found Tiffany Pugh dead in her family’s Atlanta home, they believed it was a robbery gone wrong. The incident occurred on November 23, 2014, and her husband, Andre Pugh, was the first to call 911. Tiffany died of two gunshot wounds, while a third hit a wall in the presence of her toddler son. Reportedly, officers found two of their children sleeping and a third child close to the victim. The 30-year-old worked with Delta Airlines.
Police officers did not believe Tiffany’s death was related to a robbery and further investigated the crime. They acquired phone records which led to believe that her killers were likely the husband and his close friend Adrian Harley. They alleged that Andre hired Adrian to murder because the victim was trying to divorce him.
The case against Tiffany Pugh’s killers, Andre Pugh and Adrian Harley, resulted in two separate murder convictions. They each received a life sentence without parole. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Andre is serving his sentence in the Hancock State Prison. Meanwhile, Adrian remains incarcerated in the Smith State Prison.
How were Tiffany Pugh’s killers, Andre Pugh and Adrian Harley, caught?
Investigators had been suspicious of Andre Pugh’s involvement in Tiffany Pugh’s murder from the start. He reportedly called 911 in the early hours of November 23, 2014. However, CBS noted that he claimed he hadn’t been inside the house, telling officers, “my kids are in there! She’s not picking up the phone.” Instead, he explained that the alarm company had called him about an alleged break-in.
At the time, Andre had a solid alibi: he said he was at the popular Onyx nightclub, where he worked as a DJ. His alibi checked out. Following this, detectives were starting to believe that Tiffany’s death may have been a robbery-related incident. However, they soon learned that the victim was seeking to divorce her DJ husband, and her close friends knew about it. CBS stated that the young mother had consulted a divorce attorney only weeks before her murder.
Oxygen reported that after acquiring Andre Pugh’s phone records, they learned about his and Tiffany Pugh’s flawed marriage. He had been “begging her [Tiffany Pugh] not to leave him.” Other personal records such as the couple’s finances revealed that Tiffany was the family’s main source of income. She had been rising in ranks at Delta Airlines.
Per the outlet, detectives claimed, “Andre was trying to figure out how he could switch the mortgage into his name.” He knew Tiffany was about to divorce him and would soon move out of the house. They believed this could have been a possible motive for murder. Besides, he was in touch with several other women while he urged Tiffany not to leave him.
While investigating Andre Pugh, detectives found that he had been in constant touch with his close friend Adrian Harley. The former’s phone records revealed that they talked a lot, especially around the time of Tiffany’s murder. Later, they learned that Adrian, who failed to produce an alibi, was near the Pugh family’s house when the crime occurred. His GPS and phone data placed him near the crime scene.
Andre and Adrian’s phone data later revealed that on the night of the murder, the duo had talked on call, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They had exchanged several text messages and even met in downtown Atlanta at least a half hour before Tiffany’s murder. Security footage from the crime scene spotted a car similar to the vehicle Adrian owned. Additionally, detectives believed Tiffany’s killer was aware of the multiple security cameras around the house.
People Magazine reported that authorities arrested Tiffany Pugh’s suspected killers, Andre Pugh and Adrian Harley, in December 2014. The arrests were made on suspicions that Andre hired Adrian and had his wife murdered. The former, while denying any involvement in Tiffany’s murder, tried to pin the blame on Adrian, alleging that the victim owed him money. Andre claimed that this was Adrian’s murder motive and that he had confessed to him.
Andre stood trial in 2018, and a jury convicted him of murder and a second count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole, per his prison records. Elsewhere, Adrian’s delayed trial took place in 2022, eight years after Tiffany’s murder. He was convicted on the same charges and received a life sentence without parole.
Dateline NBC’s episode on Tiffany Pugh’s murder and the case against her killers airs on Friday, May 10.
