Detective
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Tom and Jackie Hawks, were in the process of selling the vessel to this other couple, Skylar and Jennifer DeLeon. We ran both of them to figure out, because they were probably or potentially the last people to see the Hawks. When we ran Skylar, we automatically find out that he's got a record.
He had done jail time for an armed burglary, where he broke into a house with a weapon, and he was on probation.
Newport Beach is the dream that a lot of people think of when they think of California.
So Skyler joined the United States Marine Corps.
He said he was Marine Corps Force Recon, which for those who don't know, is one of the elite military forces in the United States military. He got a Marine Corps Force Recon tattoo.
He would explain that he had attended all these classes and all this training and he had, you know, 62 confirmed kills.
We get a search warrant to look at the boat, and they find a bunch of things that are of interest, but they find that, number one, it's messy, so Tom Hawks has not left it that way. and they find a receipt from a Target store.
It's one of the few places in the United States that you can buy a multi-million dollar home and have a dock ready to accommodate a 50-, 60-, 100-foot yacht. Oh, yeah.
If I was going to kill somebody, you know, I'd have my clean kit, and it would be bags to get rid of evidence, you know, bleach to wipe down the scene, and maybe if I had a conscience, some Tums to settle my stomach after killing some poor people. Target security was able to pull up that specific purchase of these items.
And I was looking at an obese man, which was not Skyler DeLeon. Now we have another little straw on the camel's back saying, okay, who is this guy? And why is this receipt on this boat? And who is this clown?
They find a receipt from a Target store. And every time you purchase anything from a Target store, You're photographed at the cash register and you're photographed leaving. So we get this photograph of this guy and police trace it back. And it is Steve Henderson, Jennifer's father, who actually made this purchase.
So Newport detectives go to his house in Long Beach and they say, is this you in this photograph buying these items? We found this receipt on a boat. He immediately says, yeah, my daughter and son-in-law purchased that boat.
He says, they're helping to clean a church right down the street. I think they're there now.
When I see a family volunteering in a church... I was put at ease a little bit with that, thinking, okay, this is gonna turn out okay. The Hawks are fine. These people will tell us what happened and then we'll be able to locate them and close the case. I was talking to Jennifer and basically said, we're looking for the Hawks. The family's very concerned. And she said, we're really concerned too.
She goes, we've been trying to reach out to them continually since we bought it. They have a lot of property, clothes and stuff on the vessel. We don't know what to do. She was very specific and seemed very genuine in her concern for the hawks and finding them.
Skyler says, we purchased it. All the documents were proper. They signed them. We recorded them. I don't know what else to tell you.
We told Skyler that we needed copies of the paperwork. He told us that he had certified notarized paperwork regarding the sale, so the sale was legitimate.
He produces these documents indicating that Skyler and Jennifer had purchased the boat from Tom and Jackie Hawks. There are signatures on it. There are fingerprints on it.
I was shaking my head going, okay, I still can't get a handle on this guy. The following day, he agreed to go to the Newport Beach Police Department where we had him in a proper interview and recorded the interview. Go down and see Scott. We're still in the same position where we were yesterday. These folks are still missing. Family is very concerned, and that's understandable.
Schuyler was very forthright. He was very, very interested in finding where the hawks were. How did you hear about the vessel being
Of course, one of the big questions is, well, hey, man, where did you get the money? And he goes, look, as you look into my background, you're going to see I was involved in a burglary. In reality, that was a part of a dope rip. That was a drug ripoff.
At this point, I already knew Skyler was on probation for an armed burglary, so he's a felon. And now he said, I'm telling you, Sergeant, I want to go straight with my family. I'm a father now. I have another child on the way. So I'm trying to invest this money in a way that I can support them.
I go, so you're legitimizing this money that was illegal. And he copped out basically to money laundering.
You didn't have to. You could have told me, hey, man, you know, I inherited the money. I did whatever. You were very honest with me, and that's all I'm asking for.
So you got the money, and you initiate a call to the Hawks?
I was asking, what kind of container was this money in? Was it loose bills? Was it, you know, all hundreds? They're all $100 bills?
And I just know working narcotics, it was just a mishmash of cash. It was never something where you'd go into a bank vault and see perfectly stacked thousands of dollars in bank wrappers. So that kind of raised a flag. You flashed the cash to them? Yeah. Did you just open the briefcase or did you give it to them?
Skyler was very descriptive on Tom's reaction when he opened the briefcase, and it was full of cash.
According to Skyler, Tom asked him, is it all here? Skyler kind of giggled at me and said, yep, it's all there. And so they basically said, here's the keys to the yacht. Tom and Jackie drove off in their Honda. And Scott and Jennifer said that was the last time that they saw them.
Hey, I'm the captain of this boat. They were talking about buying a home in New Mexico, and we corroborated that from other sources. Tom was interested in that. Skyler, you got nothing to do with his disappearance, right?
And your wife doesn't either? No. Nobody in your family, your dad, nobody, right?
When you look at the interview, Skyler is leaning over to these detectives, and he is so convincing.
Why is it you guys have power of attorney? This is a big stumbling point for the family. They said that there's no way that their family members would give power of attorney to anybody. Power of attorney, that was a pretty powerful document because what I was looking at was that Tom and Jaggy Hawks had basically gave Skyler DeLeon complete control of their assets, which made absolutely no sense.
Jennifer and Skylar walk in, and they have this durable power of attorney. So the bank manager looks at this. It's been properly recorded. Their signatures are on it, it's been properly notarized, and takes one look at it and goes, no way am I giving you access to their accounts.
Go down and see Skyler. I'm going to borrow you for a little bit because I had to go over a few more questions on this thing. Why is it you guys have power of attorney?
Scott had volunteered that he was very experienced in purchasing property there and that he had dual citizenship, he was of Mexican descent, and that he could facilitate a sale. Since he was giving him such a great deal on the yacht, he would help him out get this money. And Scott had proceeded to tell us that Tom was very interested
We talked to friends and family of Tom and Jackie Ox. Sure enough, Tom had been talking to people about buying a little house in the Sea of Cortez.
Alonzo Machain, his name was there in full print as a witness on this bill of sale. And when I asked Skylar who is Alonzo Machain, he says, oh, he's a friend of mine that I've met, and he's from Mexico. Well, our investigation shows that Alonzo happened to meet Skylar while Skylar was doing jail time.
I'm going to be confident with Alonso because he's also one of the last people to see them, so that helps us. Okay, good. Yeah, that's fine.
They go and they interview Alonso, and Alonso tells essentially the same story. We're there in the parking lot. I watch Skylar hand this money over to this guy. They drive out in their car. The other person they interviewed was Kathleen Harris. Kathleen Harris, she was a professional notary, never been in trouble a day in her life, and she told a very similar story. They were down there.
She watched this transaction. She notarized the documents. We hit a dead end in this investigation. We had a group of people who were all telling the same story. We had no physical evidence of a crime. We had no word from Tom and Jackie Hawks. We had no break in the case at all. Brother, I don't want to keep here anymore. I appreciate you driving down here.
I was so relieved. I was overwhelmed and choked up. Please be the Hawks. I want to find them alive. I'm thinking, okay, let's get down it right away. If I was going to kill somebody, you know, I'd have my clean kit, bags to get rid of evidence, bleach to wipe down the scene, and maybe if I had a conscience, some tums to settle my stomach after killing some poor people.
Skylar says, look, I purchased this boat, and I don't know what else to tell you.
They scare the hell out of me. They're evil personified.
We'd been in a dead end for weeks, and we made the decision that we needed to get some media attention to the case.
But the couple's car was missing. We're splashing the license plate, the vehicle description, the picture of the Hawks everywhere we could.
And what Skyler says is, look, I bought the boat from these people, and last I saw was they were leaving the parking lot with a suitcase full of cash that I paid them.
We get a call from a retired couple that lived in San Miguel, Mexico.
It's right there. And she snapped a photograph of it and sent it to us. And here we are looking at the Hawk's vehicle.
They're speaking in Spanish, but I'm making enough out of what's going on.
And I go... And at that moment, then I just said, ugh. Any possibility that the Hawks were still alive died right there, unfortunately, because as soon as I heard that, I go, yeah.
The fact that Skyler dropped that car off, huge break.
Skyler had befriended this gentleman's son years earlier. And Skyler was an avid surfer. He would go down and surf, and he would stay with that family.
That family had no idea who that car belonged to or the circumstances.
This is the big urgency we have right now. These people are still missing. I'm fearful that they're not alive.
Newport detectives wanted to interview him as much as possible because this story was starting to fray around the edges.
You're saying you have nothing to do with their disappearance? No. You, as far as you know, they're alive?
And what you've told us so far is the truth regarding you getting money smuggled up here? No.
You want to leave the bag or deal right with it? Okay.
One of the first things detectives find is they find Tom and Jackie's laptop.
The film that was in it was of all the Hawks' adventures out at sea, and then it abruptly ends.
Skylar and Jennifer were using Tom and Jackie's camcorder to record their family Thanksgiving.
A fellow detective of mine, Jay Short, had found a business card. An LAPD officer named Joe Bahena. He's a detective assigned to Interpol. And basically it's his job whenever there's a crime committed that the Mexican police need to investigate. He's their liaison officer. I was curious to us why Skyler DeLeon had this business card in his property. That's an interesting clue.
Why is your business card in the home of our suspect? And that's when we first heard the name John Jarvie.
All John Jarvie needs to do is give Skyler $50,000 in cash. And then they'll go down to Mexico, do this big score.
and they drive down to Mexico, outside of Ensenada. Except John Jarvie didn't come back.
The other person they interviewed was Kathleen Harris. Kathleen Harris had no criminal background at all. She was a professional notary, never been in trouble a day in her life.
Tom had outfitted this vessel with everything. Inside was beautiful teak. It was immaculate.
There's no way Kathleen Harris saw Tom and Jackie Hawks. We had interviewed Kathleen Harris, I want to say, four or five times, and she would not come off her story.
Keith and I were having a pretty heated argument about it.
I remember Keith coming out saying, I'm sorry. And I'm thinking, are you kidding me? I go, I think you pushed her. I think we got her. The next call we got was from an attorney representing her saying that she wanted to come in and make a statement.
She'd never met Tom and Jackie Hawks. She was given documents and paid in cash to backdate the documents. And that was one of the most significant breaks we had in the investigation because now we knew Skylar and Jennifer never had that notarized with Tom and Jackie and that that was false.
That was the first domino to fall. Then we started pressuring everybody else because we knew everybody else had lied to us too.
Good morning, Alonzo. Good morning. We just want to know what you know. Alonzo Machain was actually a jailer in the Sioux Beach City Jail where Skyler was serving time, so that's how they meet.
We focused on Alonzo because we thought he would be a weakling too.
He turned himself in and Alonzo Machain took us detail by detail through the conspiracy to murder Tom and Jackie Hawks.
Skyler tells him that he's an international hitman. He gets his contracts out on people and they're all bad people because he'll only kill bad people. He won't kill good people. So he's an assassin with, you know, with a conscience.
Skyler promised Alonzo a million dollars.
So what does Skyler do to solve that problem? He immediately calls Jennifer and says, you've got to bring Haley down, their one-year-old, and put these people at ease.
That's actually the linchpin in the whole thing. Had it not been for that, Tom and Jackie Hawks would still be alive today.
Skylar realizes if they're going to actually pull this thing off, they need to get a big guy to sign on to this.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was an original founding member of the Long Beach Insane Crips. So he became the muscle in this whole scheme.
As they're heading out, the plan kind of goes into formation.
Skylar and John Kennedy went downstairs with Tom Hawks. Meanwhile, Jackie's in the kitchen, and she hears this ruckus.
He was able to restrain Tom Hawks long enough to get him handcuffed. Meanwhile, it's Alonzo's job to subdue Jackie Hawks.
Jackie's here, Alonzo's here, and then that's where Thomas Hawks, Skyler, and Jeff Care are on the bottom. And Jackie hears the commotion, she looks down this way, and this is where Alonzo overpowers her.
This is when you hear the part about Tom stroking her hand.
It curves down here to put her at ease. I don't like being down here. It's one of the most poignant things I've ever heard in my career. It's okay, sweetheart. We're going to be together. Where we're going, we're going to be together.
And it looked like somebody went back later and put in an S totally inconsistent with any way she'd ever signed her name. This is a woman who knows that she is going to her death. This is a woman who knows that she is about to be murdered. And she is sending this flare up into the future for somebody to make it right.
Skyler stands up with his smirk, tosses his huge anchor off the side of the boat.
What was Skyler acting maybe while this was happening?
Decides he's going to fish on the way back to Newport Harbor. John F. Kennedy took a beer from the Hawks' fridge.
Once Skylar was arrested, Jennifer was still out of custody. We still really didn't have enough information or evidence against her to prosecute her on much of anything at that point.
We extended immunity to Jennifer. We said, look, Tell us what happened.
They almost completed each other. Jennifer and Skylar, before they met, hadn't committed any crimes that we're aware of really as individuals. But when they met, it was like fire and gasoline.
The first person to go on trial was Jennifer DeLeon, and I think that she was still operating under the belief that she could blame Skyler for everything that had happened.
Skyler did not make a move without running it by Jennifer. At every significant event during the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks, he called Jennifer. They get down to Newport Beach, he calls Jennifer. They get on the boat out to sea, he calls Jennifer. They get out where they tied Tom and Jackie Hawks to that anchor begging for their lives, first thing Skyler did is call Jennifer.
That woman was physically not on the boat during the murders, but she was absolutely on the boat with guidance in spirit.
And her whole defense was she was terrified of Skylar. She only went along with it because she was afraid that Skylar might kill her too. And she has a gigantic grin on her face, the look of a woman whose financial problems and debt problems are about to be solved, not somebody that's afraid of the man that she's with.
She was convicted of the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks and received a sentence of life without possibility of parole.
During the investigation, there were some points that came up where Schuyler's gender identity was questioned, that he believes he was transgender, and that that was possibly a motive for not only the Jarvee homicide, but the Hawks homicide to facilitate payment for his transgender surgery.
Jackie was involved in a motorcycle accident when she was 22 years old and had some internal damage and tragically was unable to have children of her own. When her stepson, Matt, had that baby, she really wanted to play the role of devoted grandmother.
We found actually a receipt where Skylar had paid $500 to a surgeon who specialized in gender reassignment surgery.
To my surprise, when Skyler's attorney got up, he went to him. large flip chart.
In my 26-year career as a prosecutor, Skyler DeLeon is the best liar that I've ever seen. For example, he said he was a Marine Corps force recon.
Skylar was convicted of the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks, and also John Jardy.
Skylar DeLeon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy received the death penalty and are on death row. Jennifer DeLeon received two life sentences in her involvement and she's in prison now.
We decided that a 20-year sentence was appropriate for him, given his cooperation, given his instrumental role in the prosecution of all these other people that were involved in the conspiracy.
Justice was served because these people were found guilty, but it's never a win because Ryan and Matt lost their parents. Mrs. Jarvie lost her son. And now that the governor has taken the death penalty off the table, you know, they're getting three squares a day and living their life. So I have really mixed feelings on that.
He's receiving hormones on the state tax dollars. I think he's petitioned to have the surgery done. But you shouldn't be rewarded for brutally murdering three people so you can get your way. Any chance they get to
this case is probably the one of the few that just sheer evil is involved i was a prosecutor for 26 years this is a case i will personally never forget they're evil personified scariest people i've ever met i had a recurring nightmare for years where schuyler is running and i've got to chase him and tackle him and it's uh one of the most gratifying things in my career to have jury
make the right call, and not just once, not just twice, but three times, with Jennifer, with Skylar, and with John Kennedy.
So after this last Catalina cruise, Tom and Jackie had told Jim Hawks and other people that the sale was going to take place in the next few days.
That's what they were hoping to do. They believed that they had found a buyer to the boat, that they had essentially gotten the price that they wanted.
Before you sell a vessel, they take a sea trial. They take the vessel out. It's like a test run in a car.
Rocking and rolling on a well-deserved. She left a voicemail. It basically said that Tom and Jackie were out at sea with the purchaser and that she'd get back to them.
And the person that contacted him was Jennifer DeLeon.
Patricia Schutz, who they'd put in charge of essentially paying their bills and taking care of their finances while they were down in Mexico. Because during this time, way harder to deal with that from a foreign country, especially on a boat, which may or may not have internet access.
Jeez. Okay, well, this doesn't sound good right now. It became more and more sinister in the fact that nobody heard from them.
This couple, Tom and Jackie Hawks, had lived on their yacht in Newport, were in the process of selling or sold the vessel to this other couple, Skylar and Jennifer DeLeon.
Skyler happens to be a convicted felon. He's on probation. I go, geez. So my first indication, okay, well, this doesn't sound good right now.
We continued with the investigation and continued to try to have additional conversations with Keyes to learn more.
He told her not to turn the alarm on, that if she tries to do something, he would hear in the police scanner that the police is coming and then he would kill her.
Samantha's talking with him and really trying to engage him in conversation and asking him questions. And she's doing what she should be doing. She's really trying to personalize herself to him. And she's trying to do what she needs to do to get out of that situation.
Yeah, so as soon as I got a phone, I started sending text messages. He needed the phone in order to send the text to Samantha's boyfriend, which would ultimately buy him some time before police are notified that she's missing.
Keys realizes that he does not have her ATM card. And Samantha tells him where it is. And that is when he leaves Samantha and goes back to Samantha's residence and goes into DeWayne's truck and ultimately finds the debit card.
I was happy when Prosecutor Tyner came in and he allowed us to work on a case and investigate it like we believed it should be.
He's doing all of these things and Samantha is restrained in the shed.
On June 13, 2017, we attempted to serve a search warrant at Dr. Kaufman's office here.
I think this is every woman's nightmare of what could happen. And hearing it firsthand from somebody who was doing this was chilling. It was horrifying. It was difficult to listen to.
That very morning after killing Samantha, he was going on a cruise from New Orleans. He woke up his daughter, got her ready, made sure that their luggage was packed. Then they went to the airport, and then they went to New Orleans, where his girlfriend joined him the next day.
So this is the house here. The bedroom that April was found was upstairs.
We knew Dr. Kaufman that there was a point in time that he was inquiring about having her killed.
We were able to get a witness to cooperate with us this past November. That broke the case.
When he was on the cruise, he still followed the media attention, and he also saw that there was a big reward fund.
So he bought an old Polaroid camera in a thrift store. He wanted to make her very much alive. And so he put some makeup on her body because by then there was some discoloration.
The way that Keyes described what he did to Samantha was, there was no emotion. We're hearing this horrible thing that this girl had to go through, what this young woman had to endure, and he's just telling any old story. And it was during those times he had dismembered Samantha in the shed that he was gradually kind of taking her body out to Matanuska Lake.
He set up a shack and that kind of secured that fishing hole because it looked like just another fishing hole. He used a sled to transport five big garbage bags from his vehicle to that hole in the lake. And he came back on February 21st and February 22nd. I had a parent-teacher conference that day.
If Keyes had not used that ATM card, I don't know if he would ever have been found. There was just no connection between him and Samantha. But the way he talked about the planning that went into Samantha, it was evident that he had planned this out down to the detail, and it just didn't seem like this was the first time that he had done this.
I started to wonder very, very early on who else this could have happened to.
We have a name. We have a name of Israel Keys.
A lot of that evidence would have to be analyzed, like the computer evidence. We were hoping for fingerprints.
He knew that we had his computer, and he figured that having his computer, we'd be able to find big pieces of evidence.
Inevitably a murder of April Goffman.
We knew that Samantha Koenig is dead. We knew that there is no more hope. It's like my heart was sinking. I felt very emotional and, you know, all kinds of emotions running through the head.
I think it was obviously difficult for all of us.
It's been upgraded from a suicide to a homicide.
So, you know, I'm standing outside here. The bullet hole is, you know, just about shoulder height there in the wall. A big hole? No, it's just a small bullet hole, about the size of a ballpoint ink pen. Nothing about this area here. I locate this spent shell casing, the first spent shell casing.
Yes, ma'am. A second shell casing. So now, you know, I've got a second shell casing. Why is it here? Where'd it come from? Obviously, there was a second shot fired.
We spoke to the family. We spoke to her friends. And everybody kept giving us the name Riley Gall because of their relationship, because they had seen the way that Riley had treated her, the way he had talked to her.
He didn't say a whole lot. He was just kind of in a daze a little bit. He sat over his girlfriend.
Person dressed all in black, head to toe, even sunglasses, a hoodie on, face covered, goes to Emma's house, tries to get in, scares her.
And this is from a gun case from the grandfather of his.
You have the right to remain silent.
When I first met him at his grandpa's, he might have been a grieving boyfriend. When we got into the interview room and sat down, I felt like there's a dark side. He didn't have a whole lot of passion or concern about it.
In my opinion, he was emotionless. His interview was probably one of the most disconnected. It almost seemed rehearsed, deliberate. And you began to ask him about the gun. He did not have the gun, didn't know where the gun was, and basically didn't have anything to do with it.
What if I told you someone told us that they saw you with a gun? What would you think about that? I would wonder if he said that and where they saw him with a gun. Alex McCarty said that you showed him a handgun. Where is the gun? I do not know. You understand that for us? Alex has no reason to lie about something like that. Yeah, but I'm telling you, I don't know where it's at.
He said that you showed him the gun, you told him that you had it, and you told him that you got it from your granddad. I don't have the gun.
I knew immediately within minutes of sitting down to talk to him, Riley Gall wasn't going to confess to anything. He wasn't going to do it.
Do you ever remember having a conversation with Noah about getting fingerprints off a gun? How do you get fingerprints off a gun?
If they could help us get what they believe to be the murder weapon back, huge, huge piece of information.
He was taken into custody. He was cooperative, and he didn't say anything.
There was gloves and trash bags and tennis shoes, the black tape, some of the black clothing.
I really think that that was the clothes used not only the night of the murder, but I think also that was the clothes that was used the morning of the Man in Black incident.
We were looking for a purse. A section of Tonya Bennett's jeans had been cut away, a fly section. We were looking for that.
T, like in the initial T for Tonya, Bennett-Goodpeace. That, I thought, was amazing.
It's beginning to become very bizarre to me.
She points out exactly where that body had been placed. She couldn't have missed it by 10 feet. I thought, my God, this woman was actually here.
He agreed to accompany us to a substation located in Wilsonville. At that point, we interviewed John.
Today is Friday, February 16, 1990. Time now is 6.40 p.m. Mr. John Allen Sosnoski John, you realize that this conversation is being recorded? Yes, it is, sir. You understand we're investigating the homicide of Tanya Ann Bennett? Yes, sir.
Anything else you'd like to say, sir?
We'll conclude the interview. Time now is 6.58 p.m.
engaged in this process in fact she was showering them with calls at all times and kind of escalating the situation over the weekend laverne had contacted me and said that john had told her he may have written that note that was found in the dresser drawer that said t-ben a good piece
I'm thinking, this is really amazing.
I can't say it is for sure John's. I can't say it isn't John's. But it's a distinct possibility.
took a polygraph, flunked it. The examiner informs Corson that, in his opinion, John Cisnoski has direct knowledge of the death of Tonya Bennett.
Portland is located in Multnomah County. It's basically northwest Oregon. It's a rather large metropolitan area.
We go and try to talk to Chuck Riley. He says, you're crazy. No, that didn't happen at all.
No way would I do something like that. Chuck Riley voluntarily says, hey, look, he says, you guys can search my car. Fully cooperative with the examination of the car. It's fully processed. There isn't one item of evidence in there to indicate that Tonya Bennett had ever been in that car. No blood, no hair, nothing.
We were outside in an unmarked van, and we had asked Laverne to try to get John to volunteer information regarding the homicide of Tonya Bennett.
And he raises his voice and says, I don't know what you're talking about. Are you trying to frame me?
I have lost a great deal of what has been the seven years.
We'd send this section of jeans down to the crime lab to have them compared to Tanya's jeans that she was wearing when she was found, and it doesn't match.
We confronted Laverne with that fact, and Laverne admitted that she had planted those items in the trunk of the car, trying to convince us that John Cisnoski had been involved in the homicide of Tanya Bennett.
She stated also that she had met John Ciesnowski at J.B. 's Lounge and brought along a shower curtain. When she pulled into the parking lot, there was a body laying on the pavement.
Now, as Corson and I are proceeding on the Columbia Highway.
We drive past where the body had been deposited. And she says, oh, we've gone too far. Turn around. And we're driving back. She says, this here bugs me. Stop.
She points out exactly where that body had been placed. She couldn't have missed it by 10 feet. And that absolutely astounded me. I thought, my god, this woman was actually here.
I thought, okay, what do we got now?
We had enough probable cause to arrest John Sosnovsky and took him into custody and transported him to a booking facility.
So myself and Detective Corson go out to her condominium. She says, it's correction time.
I thought, okay, what do we got now?
Then we asked her if she'd be willing to make a statement on tape, and she said yes, she would like to do that.
Today is Monday, February 26, 1990.
They're leaving JB's lounge. John and Tanya are in the car. They're playfully fighting with one another.
And they drive up to the Columbia Gorge. They get to Vista House, Crown Point, on the scenic highway. He tells Laverne to pull into the parking area.
Laverne says she gets out of the car and she goes to the stairwell and Tonya Bennett's laying there in the stairwell. She's alive.
He says, draw the rope tight. Laverne says she continues to draw the rope tight and looks away.
She said Tanya Bennett was moving. Suddenly, Tanya Bennett ceases to move.
Laverne said at that point, they put Tanya Bennett back in the car. They transport her to where her body was located, and then they drive home.
Now, I'm thinking, she's pointed out the dump site. She's confessed to us on tape. She's told her own daughter the same story. Very convincingly. I'm thinking, my God, she is actually involved in this.
I'm told to place her into a holding cell. I said, okay, Laverne, you need to go into that room right there. She turned around and she looked at me and she gave me a hug. I thought, oh my God, I felt like I put my mother in jail.
You know, the night before the Burns trial was to start, I told Jim, I said, you know, I don't feel right about this. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was.
I worked for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Portland, Oregon. I retired as a sergeant. In January of 1990, I was working homicide. It was a Monday, of course. Everything was basically routine, you know, for about an hour and then maybe around 9, 9.30 we got notified that a body had been found in Columbia Gorge.
I thought, I thought, he's teasing the police. Like, ha ha ha, here I am, see if you can find me. Look over your shoulder, I might be right behind you. Obviously the guy was mentally ill, to say the least.
I checked my voicemail and I received a telephone message from him, a recording on my answering machine. I was very surprised by it. And you were right.
It was a female. Her clothing was lifted up above her breasts, and her jeans were down around between her knees and her ankles. And as I got to the body, I could see that she had been severely beaten and that there was a rope around her neck. And she was obviously deceased.
In March of 1995, I received a telephone call from my supervisor saying that they had recovered a body of a female that was over the embankment on Highway 14. There was no identification on her. We had no idea who she was.
We showed her a photograph to other residents of the area that we were able to identify who she might have been hanging out with.
This is Detective Joel Ebel, Clark County Sheriff's Office. The date is March 16, 1995.
Yes, she was. Okay, can you tell me a little bit, how'd they get here? In a blue semi-truck.
Well, from an investigative standpoint, we obviously wanted to talk to him. We wanted to find out if he knew what happened to Julie Winningham, because as far as we knew, he was probably the last person to be with her.
Okay. Then what happened?
There was nothing there that would have indicated who this person was. There was no identification. The only items that we found were a small red Swiss Army knife and a set of headphones for like a Sony Walkman, which were real popular back then.
And we flew down ahead of him. We were able to set up there, wait for him to show up.
The interesting part about it is after we told him that Julie Winningham was killed, he never asked how she died, what happened to her. We spent probably six or seven hours interviewing him in regards to his last contacts with Julie Winningham. He emphatically denied killing her.
His story was that he had consensual sex with her, so he had no physical evidence. So how do we prove different?
A great deal of time elapsed, probably seven or eight days.
Okay, Pete, tell me what happened. Where are you at right now? Right now I'm at the 4D truck stop exit 378 in I-10.
I told him, I said, I think you killed Julie Winningham. You know, all the evidence points in your direction. But he was never hostile. He was never aggressive.
OK, at this point, what I'm going to do is I'm going to call the local Sheriff's Department and have them come down and contact you, all right?
This is a Channel 2 News Brief.
I flew down to Arizona with another investigator, and we took him into custody.
That confession was the key to the whole investigation. Without his confession, we didn't have a case. We couldn't prove that he killed her.
I didn't know anything about the letter. We get back to my office and he wanted to make a phone call. He said, can I call my brother? I said, sure. I said, obviously you're in custody. I can't let you out of my sight. But if you want to use my phone in my office, go right ahead.
Detective Chris Peterson from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and Keith Hunter Jesperson. Do you want to talk to us about a homicide that occurred in 1990?
We tried to retrace Tanya Bennett's steps from when she was last seen on the 21st of January.
She had left her home, according to her mother, and she had some videotapes she was gonna return, and she had her Sony Walkman with her in her purse.
She walked in just happy-go-lucky and was hugging people. She was there playing pool with two guys. And then later during her shift, why, she noticed that Tonya had left and the two men had gone.
It wasn't unusual for her to leave the house and not come home for a few days.
Not only did we go to the B&I Tavern, we went to, oh gosh, I don't know how many bars. There was one down in southeast Portland at 92nd Foster that she liked to go to also.
I call it a diary of cases I worked on. Of course, this is just one year. And it's got a lot of the stuff about Tonya Bennett's homicide in here. There's 800 pages of reports. On this here, it says, follow up on homicide, see file number, blah, blah, blah. So I didn't go into detail. It was the most jumbled up case I've ever seen in my life. I wish I had never drawn it, to be honest with you.
It was just my turn in the barrel, I guess.
We also canvassed Tanya's neighborhood. That's basic. You go from door to door and ask people, hey, when was the last time you saw Tanya, blah, blah, blah. Uneventful. No fruit there.
It was the most jumbled up case I've ever seen in my life. It's beginning to become very bizarre to me.
He was only on probation for DUII. No criminal history other than that.
We were greeted at the door by Mrs. Pavlenak, And she invited us in. She was very cordial. Offered us coffee. And she struck me as just a really nice older lady. I thought, wow, this is going to be interesting. That was my first impression.
I found it an odd relationship. Now, why she was attracted to him, I have no idea. Laverne stated that she had been with Sestoski at JB's lounge and she had overheard him tell a man that he had killed a girl and left her body in the gorge and that he had sex with her.
the police start to zero in on John Sosnovsky.
He was very forthcoming in when he was there, why he was there, and really spared no details, encouraged them to call him if he could help in any other way.
Ron Logan was definitely one of the people police were looking very closely at. And part of the reason is that 15 different people called the tip line and suggested that he was Bridge Guy, that he was the man in the video.
Ron Logan was 77 years old at the time, and a lot of people would think he was too old. He couldn't have gotten down that hill. But to this day, many people in Delphi still believe Ron Logan was responsible for this crime.
know i'm heartbroken that my picture was used the man police say was behind the account kegan klein from nearby peru indiana he had been messaging the girls on snapchat he was using a fake profile with the name anthony shots and he talked about meeting the girls on the bridge at one point if you just look at the facts it makes sense that kegan klein would have been in the crosshairs of police
How was this man arrested? There was no DNA link between Richard Allen and the crime scene.
When Richard Allen first called the tip line, he was recorded with the wrong name. His last name and his street name were transposed initially. It was filed away. Nobody thought anything of it until it was discovered five years later and brought to the attention of the sheriff when that investigation was still continuing in 2022.
They questioned him very extensively at the police department, and he repeatedly denied being involved with it. It got hostile, and over and over he denied being involved. Toward the end, he got exasperated and essentially told police, if you think I did this, arrest me, almost as a dare. And shortly after, they did.
Richard Allen owns a navy blue Carhartt jacket similar to the one that appears to be what Bridge Guy is wearing. He also had some work boots and a stocking cap.
That bullet was the same kind that would have been used in the gun found at Richard Allen's home. That was just another clue that police thought potentially could have connected him to the crime.
Richard Allen is a longtime resident of Delphi, so he was well-known in the community. He has deep ties there, and he was working at the local CVS store, so he did interact with a lot of people in town on a regular basis.
His lawyers claim shoddy police work puts the evidence in doubt.
The judge in this case has been extremely strict about access to the courtroom and about media coverage. There are no laptops, there are no cell phones, there are no photos, there are no cameras. So we are really reporting this as we would have years ago simply with a pen and paper.
We didn't know anything about the method of their murders until the trial. The jury saw the photos of the girls in the leaves where they had been found, and both of their throats had been slit.
There was palpable reaction in the courtroom to seeing those photos, and it was absolutely heartbreaking. to see those girls at the crime scene and to watch their families have to go through that and to see those images.
One of the biggest days for the state was when they played the audio recordings of Richard Allen calling his wife and mother from jail. He talked incessantly about the crime and about the fact that he did it. And that was the first and only time we've heard from Richard Allen directly. So the jurors were hanging on every word of those calls.
He had a conversation, for example, where he asks his wife, I did it, Kathy, I did it. Do you still love me?
We heard from his psychologist who testified as to what a decline he had. And some of the behaviors that he displayed in prison were alarming. He was naked a lot. He was rolling around on the floor. He was eating paper. He was drinking from his toilet.
All of these things, they say, were proof that he was really suffering mentally and entering psychosis, including at the time when he was admitting to these crimes and making numerous confessions to his wife and mother.
There is a real sense of urgency and high stakes in that courtroom. It is tense. It is serious. There's so much interest in this case. The jury has a tough job ahead of them. It's really difficult to tell which way they're leaning.
Even once they arrested Richard Allen, there's been so much doubt across the board as to whether he's responsible. There are many people attending the trial and weighing in on social media that will say, there is no way he did this. Whether he's convicted or not, I think there will always be that speculation in Delphi as to who really is responsible for this crime.
For a long time, the question was, who is Bridge Guy? A lot of people in town thought they recognized him.
After Jenna's parents had reported her missing, Temple Police has a ton of things at their fingertips to figure out where their students are. Temple Police pulled Jenna's swipe card to see if she had swiped into any buildings on Temple's campus. She hadn't. Jenna was supposed to go to class that day, so one of the detectives went over and waited outside her classroom with a picture of her.
The Wednesday night before classes start is a popular hangout night with all the students. And that's where Jenna found herself, was out in the city with some of her friends from Temple.
When the investigators got to PubWeb, they showed Jenna's picture. The bartenders recognized her. There was also video recovered PubWeb has a lot of cameras.
They saw her at the bar the night before. Jenna stood out. She had her hair parted right in the middle and pigtails. So she was easy to identify.
What the bartenders did notice is she was trying to text and call people and was getting frustrated. Jenna and this guy just sat there next to each other, talking. But the bartenders didn't suspect anything weird or off. Maybe she looked a little uncomfortable. No red flag. The bar was closed. The lights turned on. So it was time for them to go.
Who is Josh? Can we get a hold of him? Let's try to find out what he remembers. Let's see if he knows where Jenna is.
The people at PubWeb were able to give detectives Josh's cell phone number. The captain of the Temple Police Department called him. Josh didn't answer. It wasn't until 11 o'clock that Josh did reach back out to the Temple Police. He said he was wasted the night before. He did $200 worth of shots. He has no memory.
It was the morning of September 1st of 2017. Jenna still hadn't turned up. Nobody had contact with her. Nobody could find her. So the detectives started again with their investigation. When the investigators spoke to Josh the night before, Josh gave his address.
They call him again. Josh doesn't answer. At this point, Jenna has been missing for about 36 hours.
And while they were walking around, there were two things that the captain noticed. There was a little bit of blood on a toilet paper roll, and there was a smear of blood on some sandals. And so they became more concerned about Jenna.
Everyone knew we had to find Josh. And hopefully, finding Josh would lead us to Jenna. And hopefully, she might still be alive.
Around 4 o'clock, Josh called the captain back. He said he was in South Philadelphia, which is about 25 minutes from Temple University's campus. Josh agreed to come to Temple University to the police department. The captain waited for about an hour. Josh never came.
So they drove out, got to the house, knocked on the door, no response. But while they were standing there, a car pulled up. And out of that car walks Josh and one of his family members. Josh explains that he was visiting his grandmother because he had a very, very busy semester coming up at Temple and he wanted to see her before the school year started.
Remember, he wasn't enrolled at Temple at the time.
Josh explained, oh, those scratches? I had a sexual encounter earlier in the week with a girl named Vicky from New Jersey. My hand, I was drunk last night, and while I was eating cereal, I broke a bowl.
The investigators got there from Philadelphia, and they took Josh back here to Philly.
The apartment itself was messy, so it looked like a typical college kid's messy apartment. But there were certain things that looked a little suspicious to the trained eye. There was a knife in the kitchen that looked like it maybe had a little blood on it. There was some blood on those sandals. Pieces of a broken bowl.
And so they wanted to preserve all that. They took photographs. They swapped them for DNA. There was no obvious crime scene. There was no big pool of blood. There was no murder weapon. Nothing. But something was off.
Josh's grandfather called the police. He'd been doing yard work out back, up at that same house that the state troopers had found Josh at. When he opened up this little storage shed, he saw a blue plastic container that he didn't recognize.
This wasn't a missing person anymore. We found Jenna. It's now a homicide. Investigators from the Dunmore Barracks as well as the Philadelphia Police Crime Scene Unit searched the property. They took photographs. They did DNA swabs.
Joshua Huperturs was arrested and formally charged.
What did Josh do from the time he walked out of the bar with Jenna to the time they found him in northeastern Pennsylvania?
There was cameras that captured them walking away from the bar together towards Josh's house. There was also video recovered that showed the front door of Josh's apartment building. And that video showed Josh and Jenna walking in a little after 2 a.m. on August 31st of 2017, but it never showed Jenna walking out.
What they did find from that same video camera was Josh and a person carrying a large blue storage container that looked heavy down the front steps of that apartment and towards a car.
That cousin thought it was just a big container of books, and Josh had asked his help to take it up to his mother's house, which is in the suburbs of Philadelphia. So Josh's cousin helped, had no idea that it wasn't books. He drove Josh to Josh's mom's house in the suburbs, helped him move the storage container into a garage, and that was it.
When the investigators spoke to the lift driver, they were able to find out that Josh put a blue container into his car.
The only people that know what happened in that apartment that night are Josh and Jenna. Jenna was gone, and Josh wasn't talking, so we had to figure out with circumstantial evidence what happened. An autopsy was performed.
Jason and I sifted through the evidence, all the crime scene photos, the lab reports, and our theory was that Josh and Jenna were involved in some kind of sexual encounter together. And it took a turn. What happened? Who knows. But whatever it was, it caused a struggle.
They took pieces of her nails to try to determine whether or not there was any DNA underneath of them. And that DNA came back to Josh.
So myself and Jason Grenell were tasked with preparing the case for trial. And as part of that, we met the Burleys.
It's a lot of pressure because at the end of the day, you have a family sitting behind you that has lost a child. And you want justice for them. But you never know what a jury's gonna do.
The entire courtroom was packed with people who loved Jenna and wanted justice for her.
The defense attorney said in his opening statement that Josh and Jenna were involved in some sexual encounter that got out of hand. and Jenna started to scream. And at that point, Josh's roommate came upstairs from his bedroom, struck Jenna, pushed her down the steps, and then stomped on her at the bottom of the steps.
The roommate testified at trial. so the jury could hear what he had to say. I questioned him. The defense attorney cross-examined him. And it was extensive.
The only thing the family left for, and not all of the family, just I think Jackie, was the pictures of Jenna's body in the container.
But her father sat through all of it.
We had done our job. The jury got it right.
Angel had become associated with a group that loosely operated out of a bookstore called the Mystic Moon. To the police, that opened a Pandora's box of, well, who did she meet there? January 2nd, 2008, there was a call to the Norfolk Police Department. There's a man that wants to talk about the Goyena case.
We met with him. The man very quickly indicates that he knew Angel. He knew her from the Mystic Moon. And he said he was part of that community where there were some people who were involved in vampirism. He also, disturbingly, implied to the detectives that he may know something about Angel's murder.
The knife was submitted to the lab. There was no DNA, blood trace, and the knife could not have made the injuries on the bodies. And so once we talked to him and knew that he was not close to the family, I didn't have a problem eliminating him.
We're talking about this guy, David Hoshaw.
When the forensic investigators were going through the house, one of the things that was of interest was a computer.
We got the search warrant for the computer, and once we got it to Forensic, that's when we found out.
On June 24, 2007, David Hoshaw, as the administrator for the computer, changed the password to For Amanda.
We knew he was roughly 80 miles away at 11 p.m. at night, and he was there at 6 in the morning. That is not physically impossible to drive to Norfolk two hours, commit a brutal homicide, and drive back, but it's unlikely behavior. When you're looking at individuals capable of committing a homicide, David Hoshaw does not jump off the pages.
But sometimes people that present that way are actually the most dangerous.
David Hoshaw became like a onion in the case. The more you peeled him back, the more strange information came out.
He then joined the United States Air Force and was transferred out to Spokane, Washington area.
Naomi had complained to the United States Air Force about domestic abuse. The 12-year-old girl and her parents cooperated with the United States Air Force. He pled guilty to both indecent acts and assault on the 12-year-old.
United States Air Force chose not to criminally prosecute him in a court martial, which could have sent him to prison, and administratively discharged him from the Air Force with an other than honorable discharge.
After Naomi, he got involved with his eventual second wife, who he was married to for a short time.
and he sees an older woman on the floor, on the rug, next to a phone that appears to have blood on it.
We're trying to see if there's a continuity of violence with Hoshaw.
David didn't seem to have jumped in getting the wedding preparations together.
She's bugging Hoshaw. Who do you want to invite? And he kept saying, yeah, yeah, I'll get them to you. And David Hoshaw's going back and forth to Michigan.
Her name was later determined to be Vanda Goina, and she was 74 years of age.
At the viewing at the funeral home, entire family shows up. Who doesn't show up? David Hoshaw.
I set up a meeting with the victim's family, and they were adamant that they knew it was David Hoshaw.
We got two letters that we have a killer taking credit for the double homicide. But we needed evidence that showed that Hoshaw was the only person that could have mailed the letter. This is the envelope of the first letter that was mailed on July 23rd from Curtis Collins processing station in Chicago. We had to try to find something that would put him around Chicago.
We started following the cell phone records of David Hoshaw.
There was a cell call that bounced off a tower within a few miles of where this letter would have had to have been mailed.
That was really key that we were able to put him between 2.1 and 12.6 miles from that post office.
August 15th. The second letter is dropped in the mailbox in Gaylord, Michigan. We knew that David Hoshaw took his new girlfriend, Amanda, on a little road trip
And David Hoshaw's credit card purchases throughout the trip opened a window because his purchase history was literally a roadmap. There were hotels.
There was the zoo. IHOP. Movie theaters. We followed all of it.
August 13th and 14th, he was consistently making purchases moving southward on the interstate to the point where he would go through Gaylord on August 15th.
David Halshaw stepped out. He was handcuffed and escorted out of the house.
He was transported to the state police barracks. When we walked into that interview room, I expected to get a confession. I was so pumped.
I know your heart is burdened right now, man. But I guarantee you, once you get it off your chest, you're going to feel a lot better. And then he broke my heart.
He lawyered up. And I knew he wanted to talk to Amanda, and Amanda had asked to talk to him.
This was in an interview room in which there was a camera that was discreetly placed. And the detective Malbin advised David Hoshaw of his legal rights.
She was later identified to be Angelique Guayena. She was 35 years old.
He had a right to remain silent. He didn't have to talk to Amanda, especially about the case. He didn't have to answer her.
Amanda started going off. She picked up the letter. Did they have this letter? So at that point, I knew I had the right person.
If he had never mailed the letters, there's a very good chance the evidence would never have developed to charge him
Come on, Wrexham! With an all-new season. We're going into a really tough division.
The case was set to be tried for a month. We had about 140 witnesses subpoenaed. We were ready to go. We produced a mannequin and we asked the medical examiner to use knitting needles to demonstrate all of the wounds. It not only shows just the incredible sheer number of stab wounds in this area, but it does clearly show that Angel sustained defensive wounds.
Angel and her mother, Vonda, were very close.
The doorframe around the front door had not been forced. They fingerprinted all the windows and found no blatant fingerprints on any of the exterior windows of the house, no signs of some sort of forced entry.
The family members confirm that David Hoshaw is a couple hours away on the Middle Peninsula in Virginia at a Boy Scout week-long camp.
So we talked to them, gave the alibi, denied committing the murder, and because there's nothing that points to him, he's allowed to leave.
You don't have a clue, do you? I met the pretty biatch at the beach a few days before I killed her. She had her mother with her. She told me she was getting married in September, but she wanted to have one last fling beforehand. It references Angel and her mother going to the beach.
About 12.30 or so, I got my knife and did the dirty deed. What a rush. I should have gagged her first because she screamed and woke up her mother. Don't bother checking for prints or DNA. I'm wearing a body suit and gloves. Clearly, it showed a killer that was reveling in what he had done. And then lo and behold, a second letter is received.
It's mailed from Gaylord, Michigan, which is a small community in the middle of Michigan.
Both letters and envelopes were forensically checked. No DNA on either of them. We have an extremely psychotic killer who is taking pleasure in taunting the police.
Nobody is perfect when they commit a murder. There is no such thing as the perfect murder.
I was going to do everything I possibly could to find that person.
Let's get Rick Maubin on this case. We'll work it together.
I knew that this case was going to be difficult. But deep down, I felt that this was a solvable case. It may have taken time, but it was going to be a solvable case.
Marlon is declared dead at the scene. When fire and rescue go into the room where the female is, she's still breathing. They call air rescue to take her to the closest hospital. They were able to identify her, however, at that time as Tim Juanita Lumpkins. In Miami-Dade County, the Miami-Dade Police Department Homicide Unit handles all homicides.
This was not a robbery. Somebody meant to kill the person.
Sergeant Tom Romani was on call, and he took it from there. When you went inside, it was clear that this has been a brutal, brutal homicide. The blood had spattered up to the ceiling, to the walls. There's wood splinters that appear to come from something that whoever it was hit Marlon over the head with. And also there was an unshot shotgun shell that was on the ground near the body.
It appeared to the police, based on their experience, this was not a robbery. Somebody meant to kill the person. Earl Little was questioned, and he tells them that he had lent Marlin the car, his truck, the night before. There was some party in Miami Beach, and he was coming to get his keys. And when he walked through the parking lot, he saw his truck, which was sort of leaning on its side.
The case was like all over the place. I mean, TV, radio, they were talking about the case.
They were good friends in high school. They played basketball a lot together, and they continued that friendship through till the 1990s.
They said, you all got the wrong person. I said, no, that's not little bitch. I hope they find who did this, and I hope they do. I hope justice prevails.
The first thing that was suggested was that they call all of the players and bring them in and explain what had happened and see if they knew anything.
One of the things that came up when talking to the team was that Tim Juanica had been the girlfriend of somebody by the name of LeBron Dennis.
That gave a direction to this case. So, Detective Romani was at the school, and then somebody told him that LeBron Dennis, whose name had come up when they met with the football players, had showed up at his office.
Detective Romani had a court reporter come in, and he took a statement from LeBron Dennis asking him, did he know anything about the deaths of these two people? He basically said, I didn't have anything to do with it. I lived with her. I loved her. We have a baby together.
He said that first he went to a bachelor party at like 1130 at night. Later on, he went down to the same party where Marlon and Tiwanika were. He doesn't see them there. He stays there a while, and then he comes home and goes to sleep.
So Detective Romani really had no legal basis to keep him based on what he knew. It became important to go around the area at Club Salvation. and see if there were anybody working that may have seen any of them there at that time.
He was just sitting in the car for hours. He was covering his face so you couldn't see his face. She did notice there was no tag on the back of the car, and she told him he had to leave. He did not leave, so she called the police, and they showed up, and he took off. And then the police left, and he came back again.
At some point, he started walking away, and she saw him go towards the Ford Explorer. When Marlon and Tim Juanica got into the tow truck and they loaded the car, she noticed that the guy in the gray Nissan at the same time left the area.
It became clear that the cars were an issue in this case and maybe would lead us to who was the person who had killed Marlon and Tim Juanica.
The gas station attendant in this case was a very helpful witness. The detectives showed her a picture of LeBron Dennis' car. And she said, no, that's not the car that was there.
As the investigation continued, the police learned that somebody had set a gray Nissan on fire. That was the same description as the gas station attendant had given them.
It turned out that it's registered to Watisha Wallace.
So Watisha Wallace, who's had her car burned, she turned out to be a girlfriend of LeBron Dennis. police became aware that Watisha had burned the car on purpose.
The police have a line that people can call in if they want to report something about any sort of crime. There was a person who reported to the tip line that LeBron Dennis was responsible for the murders of Tim Wanika and Marlon. And she'd said that we should be talking to Joseph Stewart. Joseph Stewart knew LeBron Dennis.
When they went to speak to Joseph Stewart, He said that he did not do anything to kill either one of those people. But he did give LeBron a shotgun that belonged to his mother.
He was able to show them where he threw them down in the sewers. So when the police got their divers to go down there, they found the gun and the duffel bag. That was huge in terms of moving forward with this investigation.
One of the most important pieces of evidence they found was an unshot shotgun shell that was on the ground near the body.
It started with Timonica. Came home late the day of Marlon's birthday. That was April 6th. And LeBron got angry with her and lost his temper, and then she moved out. She wasn't going to put up with his anger and how he treated her. And when she left, Marlon got all the boxes and stuff and was taking them to the grandmother, because the grandmother was taking care of the little one.
It's Marlon, Marlon, Marlon, and he's lost control of himself. He went to Salvation for that party. I think he waited for Marlon to come out. He just couldn't control himself. He slashed the tires. He followed the tow truck and he sees the car, sees the building they get into. So he brought that shotgun. He knew they were on the third floor.
When I did meet with Charlie, she was very, very upset. I told her, you know, we were gonna have the best lawyers, the best witnesses, but no matter what happens to him, Marlon is still gone.
On October 28, 1998, the jury came back with a vote of guilty on all charges. Because this was a homicide case where the state was seeking the death penalty, there was a second phase called a penalty phase.
The courtroom exploded.
He jumped up, he was furious, he was screaming. The corrections officers grabbed him.
The morning of April 13th in 1996, the police and Carl Gables received a call from one of the University of Miami students by the name of Earl Little. Earl Little lived with Marlon Barnes.
When John told us that he had met Jesus and James at the Home Depot, we brought them in just to confirm that John's story was correct.
You can see on the Home Depot video that they're driving a black Lincoln.
Do you know anything about that would help us in our investigation? Honestly, I've only worked with them for three weeks.
Once Jesus fled and we could not locate him, we needed the public's help.
We needed Jesus' face out there and let him know that he was a person of interest of killing Laura. If someone could provide us with information, that will help us in locating him.
Rowlett's a bedroom community, a lot of rooftops, a lot of people leave town during the day to work in the city.
Rollitt police released the house on Saturday. And John moved the family right back in the house. You got to remember, Laura's been killed in the kitchen. And the suspect is still at large. And so we found that odd that he never asked for any type of security detail.
One of the neighbors was there helping clean, and he said, hey, go get her toothbrush. and so they were using her toothbrush to scrub blood out of the grout.
Jim Holland is a legend here in Texas. He got dragged into something that he didn't know f***ing about. I know that. He is an expert at solving cold cases.
If someone could provide us with information to get him located and returned to Texas.
We got a radio call of an unconscious female.
Jesus had approached multiple people. He said, I'll pay you money if you drive me to kill my boss's wife. And the first and second person turned him down. So I believe that James was brought in at the last minute to drive Jesus to Laura's house to kill her.
James indicated that John was getting upset with Jesus because it's getting close to the wedding, and I need Laura to be killed before the wedding. Get it done.
James told us when they were leaving north out of Rowlett that Jesus was throwing his shoes out. He was throwing his hoodie out along the roads. We were able to find one shoe and one hoodie that was still out there flattened out in the grass.
When we arrived there, the fire department had made entry into the house. And they had backed out of the house because they located a shell casing. We've got one down, shell casing on the floor. We made entry into the house. And began clearing it. Clear.
Jesus had gone out and purchased a car for the sole reason for committing the murder. They brought the new car out, committed the murder, parked the car, got in their black sedan, and drove to the Home Depot. You can see on the Home Depot video that they're driving a black Lincoln.
The motive here was he wanted to control Laura. He wanted sole custody of the four-year-old daughter. And because he couldn't control Laura, he decided to just eliminate her.
We located a victim laying face down in the kitchen with a lot of blood around her head. I don't have her information yet.
After Laura was murdered and John was arrested, then the two older children were returned to their biological fathers.
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. It didn't look as far as burglary that was interrupted or anything like that. It just didn't look right to me. Can you confirm CID en route? CID is the Criminal Investigations Division, which houses all of our detectives.
I was pretty certain that this was going to be a major case, and I wanted to get those guys out there as soon as possible.
I thought I saw an entry wound in her forehead. There was a large police presence and first responder presence at the house. There were several neighbors that started coming out and wanting to know what's going on. As we were securing the scene, I was approached by a male who called me by my first name. In law enforcement, we call each other by last name.
okay come here come here come here come here but he called me by my first name and kind of took me by surprise and that's when i recognized john macros as the person that was calling me
John Makris was a volunteer with the police department in a program called VIPS, and I'd known him over maybe a two-year period. That is all I can tell you, and that's all I know right now. Once I realized it was John's house, that made me start thinking that it was Laura that was down inside the house.
Yeah. I did know Laura from volunteering, police, fire.
One victim. This was, in our opinion, it was a whodunit.
Okay. We determined that there was no forced entry into the house. So that kind of tightens our circle down a little bit.
So that throws up a red flag of, is he the suspect? Did he do this?
We had to look at Brian, but what we found is that he's deaf in one ear and hearing impaired in the other. And if he's laying on his good ear, then that was the reason why he didn't hear the gunshot. Pretty early on, we eliminated Brian as a suspect.
At Rowlett, we have a program called VIPS and it's Volunteers in Police Service. They wear a modified volunteer uniform and these are citizens of Rowlett. They help us a lot.
And I told John that I had confirmation that the deceased person was his fiancee, Laura.
He stated that it was him, the kids, his mother, and the victim's brother, but he never did say the victim's name.
That was a huge red flag because maybe he knew a lot more what was going on.
He told us that morning Laura left with the kids to take them to school. He left at that same time with his mom, and he drove to meet his two construction workers, Jesus and James, at a Home Depot in Dallas.
It cleared John at that point of the investigation. We knew that John had not committed the murder.
Self-service isn't fantastic out here either. Weather always seems to change, but crime never does. I'm Detective Sergeant Grohns of Lansing. On July 8th, I received a call to assist the Dane County Sheriff's Office with a search of the Halderson cabin. As an investigator, I was assigned a body camera, which was activated when we arrived at the property. What's your relation
Maybe we could just take a walk around and see. So at that point, we took a walk around the exterior of the property. We noticed that the grass and the weeds had not been kept up. In some places, it was waist or even chest high. Did it look like the cabin had been in use? It certainly didn't look like it had been used any time recently.
Was there a sense of urgency at this point? With the information we had and things not really making sense, our possibilities were dwindling. I was starting to just wonder what we were going to find next.
Whenever we go into an unknown space, that's something that we would do just in our own safety. So for an outsider, this is a dark, creepy space. You've got to be ready for anything. Absolutely. We're still in crawl space? Holy s***.
Nobody inside, and nothing looks like it's disturbed.
With the padlocks on the outside, it is something that we definitely considered.
I don't know a ton of details about everything that's going on. You're filming Mitchell. What are you hearing from him at this point? Mitchell seemed concerned, and I feel as we went further into the search and we weren't finding any signs of Bart and Krista, his concern became more and more greater as the search of the property continued.
This is definitely a mystery. We don't know who Bart and Krista are believed to be with. There are no signs of Bart and Krista being at this property. Really nowhere for us to even suggest looking next at this point. We didn't have anywhere to go. We didn't have a name. We didn't have a vehicle. We didn't have a location. Truly looking for a needle in a 900 square mile haystack.
Had the craziest phone call that I had in my law enforcement career. He said that our services were really no longer needed at that point and then said that he couldn't say much, but I should probably watch the news the next day.
So if you just want to have a seat right there. Perfect. Thank you so much.
I can't tell you what we know, but we know you're not telling us the truth.
Oh, there's a Pooh bear? All right, you can play with it if you want to.
Listen to me. This is the only chance you're going to have to tell us the truth, OK?
This is your chance to tell us why, OK? I'm not BSing you, OK?
Listen, I can't tell you what we know, but we know you're not telling us the truth. We know your parents are no longer with us, okay? And we know the reason why.
You need to tell the truth about what happened and just tell us why it happened. Okay, if something happened, if you were defending yourself or if you just got fed up with stuff, you need to tell us the truth, okay? This is your chance to tell us why, okay? I'm not BSing you, okay? So can we do that?
We know your parents are no longer with us. Okay, and we know the reason why.
This is a dark, creepy space. You've got to be ready for anything. Absolutely. The clock was ticking. We needed to find them. The steepest stairs I've ever seen.
Chandler Halderson did not murder his parents. He is not guilty of those crimes. And he lived peacefully in his parents' home. He was just a normal kid.
When someone is on trial, for a very, the most serious crime possible. And every little thing they do, every little lie they might have told is blown up and thrown against someone. That's when proof beyond a reasonable doubt matters.
You did diagnose Chandler Halderson with a mild concussion, right?
You didn't give him a set number of days to wear the collar, is that right?
He kind of had the craziest phone call that I had in my law enforcement career. He couldn't say much, but I should probably watch the news the next day. Holy . I don't really have words for it, to be honest.
What happens on that type of a call is the homicide unit gets a call, the guys come up here from the unit, as well as our technical investigators.
Yes, this is the train that comes through to Hatchipee. And we're pulling onto a Goodrick Drive now, which is the one way in and one way out.
It is. It absolutely is. That's why I believe that someone who was purposely had to come here or they were lost.
As they arrive here, this roll-up door, this large roll-up door, is open. Inside, there is a large work truck. Next to the truck, near the driver's door, there is Robert Lamont. And he's sort of propped up against the truck.
He'd been shot in the upper torso area and in the head.
When I arrived during the walkthrough, I observed he was laying next to a refrigerator. This photograph here is significant. We found that there was blood spatter on the side of the refrigerator door. There was blood starting to pool underneath his body. We did find an expended bullet that was on the ground just above Rob's head.
And they also found the office inside had been sort of ransacked. And they found drawers pulled from a desk. They found binders and shop manuals and things on the floor.
So as we begin looking at the crime scene itself and you're finding shot manuals pulled out onto the ground, it's very odd that you can't steal those and trade them. And generally people who commit crimes of murder and things like that are looking for fast money. And we sort of determined that, you know, this looked as though maybe it had been staged.
Yes. When detectives contacted Sabrina Limon and informed her that her husband had been, in fact, murdered, her actions and her demeanor was appropriate. I mean, she was crying.
We began interviewing his family and friends, and they said that he was a great guy. Everyone that we spoke with said that he was just a fantastic person, and he was sort of the husband that every woman would want. I think we got nothing but praise about him from family and friends.
The following day, during daylight hours, we came out and we began canvassing the area. And upon doing so, we found this video surveillance camera right here. And this is the camera that actually captures the only footage we had for that entire day of anyone within this complex.
This is the camera that captured the person walking through the complex with an exaggerated limp, walking towards the BNSF location where Rob was found dead.
We thought this would be great. There's the potential this is going to actually have footage of the person who committed this crime.
why no one had any reason to suspect or know of anyone that wanted robert lamone killed or dead he was well liked by everyone and no one could imagine any reason why someone would want to kill robert
Each and every single one of us had the overwhelming opinion that the office within this BNSF railroad complex appears that the crime scene had been staged.
When they asked her about her marriage with Rob, she said everything was great. She said there was no extramarital relationships that she was involved in or she was aware that Rob was involved in. And so at that point in time, she wasn't able to provide us any information with respect to who may have killed Rob.
We discovered that the gun used in this case was a larger caliber, probably a 44 Magnum or a 45 or possibly larger. So we were looking for, in all likelihood, a handgun of larger caliber.
We received a tip that someone went into a local gun store in Tatchby and requested that their firing pin be replaced.
Detectives were hopeful that this was possibly a great lead, and this could possibly be the gun that was actually used in Rob's murder.
We seized the gun in question, had it examined and had it compared to the bullet that was found at the scene, and we found that the two did not match.
So this is a photograph of the truck that Rob was driving that evening during a shift. We were hopeful initially that we might be able to get some video surveillance from, being that many of the trucks are equipped with cameras. But unfortunately, the cameras aren't running 24-7, and they're only recording when they're actually being operated.
We began canvassing the area. And upon doing so, we found this video surveillance camera right here.
We saw a subject. You couldn't really tell his age. The quality of the video is not the best. And you could see him walking with a limp through the complex. And then towards, once again, where... Down this way. Correct, where the BNSF rail business is located.
You could tell that it was a man. I think that was fair to say it was a man. But anything other than that, age, ethnicity, no.
It's a very high potential that it could have been.
The only video we released was the person in the industrial complex. Some of the tips we got led us to a local transient that people believed could have been potentially involved. And we were able to locate that person and ultimately eliminate them as the suspect.
We were back to square one without a whole lot of leads to follow up on.
Video surveillance footage did in fact show Rob Lamone driving on Goodrick Drive.
On the day in question, there was multiple vehicles that were on Goodrick Drive where Rob Lamone was located. We were able to identify each every person driving those vehicles on that day with the exception of a lone motorist on a motorcycle. The video surveillance captured a subject riding his motorcycle eastbound on Goodrick Drive, and then a short time later, he was leaving Goodrick westbound.
Robert Lamone's friend contacted us and told us that he received a very odd message left on his cellular phone from a subject whom identified as Jonathan Hearn. He thought what was very odd about the voice message is that Jonathan seemed very apologetic for Rob's death.
This is the first time during the investigation that we heard the name Jonathan Hearn.
Jason told us that Sabrina was possibly involved with a Redlands fireman by the name of Jonathan Hearn.
Jason Pernatine knew Jonathan Hearn due to they're both firefighters and that they used to work with one another, especially when Jonathan was a paramedic on an ambulance crew. So they ran calls together.
He knew that Jonathan Hearn actually had possibly a dating or romantic relationship with Sabrina Limon outside of Robert Limon. It was odd and suspicious in the fact that Jonathan called Jason and apologized to him for having this relationship with Sabrina outside of Rob's knowledge.
Rob's dead, and this is just odd. This is just very odd behavior from this person.
Jonathan Hearn was originally not on our radar whatsoever. When Jason came to us and told us about Sabrina and Jonathan's possible relationship, we immediately started looking into Jonathan to find out if we could make any sort of connection or a link to Rob.
So it was told to us that there was the potential that him and his wife had an open relationship, meaning the non-traditional marriage with other people within their small group of friends.
So it circled us all the way back around to Jonathan Hearn.
We learned that there was possible infatuation that Jonathan had with Sabrina. Jason Bernatine's wife, Kelly, actually called us and told us that Jonathan Hearn was spending quite a bit of time with Sabrina Limon at her home. And Kelly found this very odd.
And we began to do some follow-up investigation into this Jonathan Hearn and found that he had a motorcycle registered to him.
So from various convenience stores, we began pulling video surveillance footage. And we did find one at the pilot station at a place commonly referred to as Four Corners. Thank you.
She was just steadfast. I have no involvement in this. And she didn't really give us much.
Detectives in this case believe that Sabrina and Jonathan did conspire to kill Rob. We just had a little bit more work to do in order to allow the district attorney's office to provide us with a warrant to re-arrest Sabrina.
We received a phone call from the district attorney's office and said they were contacted by Clayton Campbell, indicating that Jonathan Hearn did in fact wish to testify and provide information.
The way she was acting towards us was, I can't believe this. Basically, how dare you? How dare you come and arrest me? I'm not involved in this. I didn't do anything.
This looked as though maybe it had been staged. Some drawers were pulled out. Other drawers were not pulled out. It screamed as being a staged crime scene.
Absolutely, and I think 12 people in the jury saw it the same.
The Tatchpee Loop was engineered to assist trains in not going too fast as they're coming down the mountains from Mojave into Tatchpee.
When they're stopped, it's not uncommon for someone to break into the trains and steal the contents of its cargo.
It's on Goodrich Drive, which is a one-way in and a one-way out street. So if you're going to go there, that's going to either be you have a destination or you're lost.
Then, a heart-stopping clue in a window at the back of the house. Sounds like something out of a movie. Absolutely. A horror movie.
It's a chilling call. Did you know anything about what you were about to face?
You're working the dispatch and you get that call.
The woman says she's calling from her abductor's phone.
He had fallen asleep at some point, and she was able to secure this phone.
Couldn't trace the call. This was a flip phone. It was not coming back to a location.
As Officer Dorsey heads to the scene, there's a problem. How to find her? The caller does not know her exact address, but she tells 911 she's being held captive in a house next to this laundromat. The problem for police is that there are two very similar houses in this area. There were two houses right here?
So how do you approach the house knowing that the captor is asleep?
As police conduct the search, there's a heart-stopping moment when the caller says she has awakened her abductor. You can hear the sheer terror in her voice when he wakes up. And then the line goes silent. It must have seemed like that.
You can hear her desperation for help. It's a chilling call. It's chilling.
A hand right on the window. That's pretty eerie. Sounds like something out of a movie.
It took 19 long minutes to get her out. What was it like when you finally hear Detective Dorsey?
What a relief. What was it like when you came face to face with the victim?
So now, police need to find out what happened in this house. This is the next phase in my therapeutic work.
It's 6.48 a.m. in September 2016. Emergency dispatchers receive a 911 call from a terrified woman. She's whispering that she's being held at a house near the laundromat and that her captor is asleep at her side.
With the terrified 911 caller safely in their custody, police turn their attention to her abductor, a 40-year-old man identified as Sean Great. The dramatic moment when he's apprehended is heard on that open line from the 911 call.
The victim, a 36-year-old woman, police identify as Jane Doe to protect her privacy. It's transported to the Ashland Police Department. Police are desperate for information, no easy task, as the woman was traumatized and still in shock. But Ashland police have a secret weapon. Enter Detective Kim Major.
I was the only female detective for the majority of my career. Is that good? Is that good?
Major balanced the demands of detective work with the responsibilities of being a mother to three. That morning, Detective Kim Major is in the shower getting ready for work, and she misses two phone calls from her captain at the Ashland Police Department.
And I called him back, and he said, well, he gruffed at me and said, two calls and a text. And he said, there's been a kidnapping. We've rescued the woman, and I need you to come in and interview her.
The victim was taken into my office at the end of this hallway, and that's where I spoke with her.
She had been tortured emotionally and physically.
the effects of the woman's harrowing ordeal were immediately apparent.
The first thing I noticed is her appearance, of course. I could see that she had been victimized. The second thing I noticed was that I could smell the scent of her perpetrator, his testosterone.
I learned that she had met Shawn Great. She eats her noon meal at what we call the Kroc Center. They provide free meals at noon. Jane Doe would eat there sometimes, and that's where she met Shawn Great.
This is a woman so strong in her Christian faith that no man's phone number's in her phone. Not one. No man crosses the threshold of her door.
At the same time Jane Doe and Sean Great were being interviewed at the station, Detective Brian Evans was part of a team sent back to search the house where Jane had been held captive.
So just how did Jane Doe end up a prisoner in this house of horrors? The pair had been out for one of their regular walks and ended up at the house where Shawn Great had been staying.
He told her that he had some clothes for her. She also had bagged up some food for him. And she said it was against her better judgment to walk through the door because it's unlike her. But she did.
So she sat down to read the Bible, and as she's reading, he began to pace. And then he charged towards her, grabbed the Bible from her hands, ripped it from her hands.
Jane Doe tells Detective Major that at that point, Sean Great attacked her.
Sexually assaulted her. Her words were every way imaginable.
The details were horrifying. But the interview takes a sudden turn when Jane Doe mentions the name of Elizabeth Griffith, one of two missing women police had been searching for.
Officer Curt Dorsey rushes to the scene, leaving his siren off so that it does not alert the abductor. So what were you doing when the call came in?
Police discover there's a vital link between Jane Doe, Sean Great, and Elizabeth Griffith. All three of them would frequent this community center where they'd get free meals. That connection sets off alarm bells. Was it possible that this man, unknown to law enforcement in Ashland, Sean Great, was also involved in the disappearance of Elizabeth Griffith?
When I stepped out of my office, my captain said, listen, I need you to go in and talk to him about what Jane Doe told you. Can you go in and see if you can nail down the facts regarding that, see if it parallels what he's saying happened. Hey, Sean. Hi. I'm Kim Major. Nice to meet you.
The last thing he said before I walked in was, and while you're in there, see if he knows anything about the missing girls.
Did you know anything about what you were about to face? What did you do?
Well, I walked down this hallway. I was told to go ahead and interview him, and this is where the interview room is. And when I came in, he was seated right here.
Yeah. Hey, Sean. Hi. I'm Kim Major. Nice to meet you.
Before you came in here, did you have any idea what you were in for?
I took the recorder and just dropped it down my top.
Yes, just a backup in case something happened. And in this case, it proved valuable.
Valuable indeed, because the video system stopped recording shortly after Detective Major began interviewing Great. That means her backup was the only recording of the interview while the system was down.
I need to drop all of those things that would inhibit somebody's ability to relax or feel comfortable.
In a city where law enforcement routinely interacts with the community, Sean Great was not known to police.
I had never heard his name. I had never had any tips about him. We didn't know him.
Sean Great had grown up in Marion, Ohio. That's about an hour from Ashland. He was a good looking kid, charming.
With Sean Great, people talk about his eyes, their piercing blue eyes. And women will talk about that. That's how they recall him, or his eyes.
Christina Hildreth dated Sean Great for five years.
While unknown to police in Ashland, Sean Grade had become a familiar face at the Kroc Center.
At first, he tried to present it as if she wanted him, like they were in a relationship, that she wanted the sexual piece of this.
Just as empathy had helped in speaking to Jane Doe, Major was using a similar approach, hoping to gain greats' trust. And slowly, he begins to open up, sharing details about his childhood.
Does he admit that something happened with Jane Doe?
Eventually, he begins to talk about what happened and admits in layers He admits that he had held her there captive, admits that he had tied her up. I mean, looking at this whole thing, you forced her to have sex. She didn't want to.
And there it was. Detective Major had the confession, but the confession itself only raised more questions.
As he spoke about what he did to Jane Doe and would use the words, kill, that he strangled her, you begin to realize this may be way more than Jane Doe. And earlier in my career, I probably would have stopped right at Jane Doe. Now, I realize it's a partial confession.
Ashland, Ohio. It's a small city between Columbus and Cleveland, home to more than 50 churches and a large Amish community.
Detective Major brings the conversation back to Elizabeth Griffith, that missing woman who Jane Doe said also knew Sean Great.
We can't find Elizabeth. We'll find her, but we can't right now. Hey, look at me. Look at me. I need your help. That goes on for just so long, long enough that he's acting like he has no idea what I'm talking about.
And then suddenly, Sean Great makes a shocking revelation. I might not be able to take you to her or maybe someone else.
Now, detectives knew Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley were missing. But now, Sean Great seems to be talking about even more women.
Then things take a bizarre and frightening turn.
At what point do you realize I might be dealing with a serial killer? You're in this very room alone with a serial killer.
The magnitude was becoming clearer to me. Whatever he did, I'm going to get it.
At one point, he told me it was probably a good thing I had him in custody. because there would be more.
A fellow inmate tells you that Sean Gray, that he wants to kill you?
Sean Great has confessed to his assault on Jane Doe, but what about those two missing women in Ashland? It's an urgent race to find out. Is he behind their disappearance and can they be saved? And as you continue interrogating Sean Great, time is of the essence.
Time is always of the essence. I feel like I'm against the clock to get him to say something before I say the wrong thing and cause them to stop talking at all.
And you're thinking he might have these two missing women and they could still be alive.
Absolutely. I start pressing him on where Elizabeth Griffith is. Can you take me to where she is? I can't. Why? Sean, look at me. Have I taken my little detective truck? Can you take me out?
So this is Ashland. What can you tell me about the town?
I'm looking for Elizabeth's body. Can you take me to it?
She's dead. But suddenly, Sean Grabe reveals shocking information that maybe he can bring Detective Major to somebody else.
How many are there? He says he might not be able to take me to her, meaning Elizabeth, but might take me to someone else and that there might be so many or there might be none. Possibly he's wanting to tell me something. Will you take me there? Where are you gonna put me in this? Where there's another girl?
Well, as you can see, it's rolling hills, scenic. A lot of community stuff going on. football games, the county fair, a lot of farm animals, a lot of competitions and shows for kids to get involved with.
He tells you there's someone else and that that woman is Candace Cunningham.
I did not know Candace. Candace hadn't been reported missing.
As her colleagues watching in the other room start looking for information on Candace Cunningham, Detective Major continues to question Sean for more information. After all, the two missing women in Ashland are still unaccounted for.
What was it about you that he connected with, felt comfortable with?
He told me that I had empathy, that he could see it. Who else?
So then Sean admits to you that Elizabeth's body is in the closet in that same house where he was holding Jane to.
Right in the same house. When he said that, I didn't know if she was alive or not.
One of the guys on scene said, there is no closet upstairs. That detective went directly to a particular room and looked up and realized there was a concealed closet.
Yes, it was very sad. Sean tells Detective Major that the night of Elizabeth's murder all began when he says she called him late at night because she couldn't sleep.
Typical small town where everyone knows everyone, right?
You're in this very room alone with a serial killer.
Yes. As it progressed, the magnitude was becoming clearer to me.
Kim Major has had 23 years of service as a detective in Ashland.
Sean Great has confessed to the kidnapping and rape of Jane Doe, the murder of Elizabeth Griffith, and knowledge of the disappearance of Candace Cunningham. But Stacy Stanley is still missing, and Detective Major has a hunch he knows more about her as well. As the hours tick by in this very same room, you got more and more out of him.
That's right. It just kept coming out in layers a little bit more and a little bit more. Are there any other girls in the house right now?
Down in the basement? What's her name? Stacy. He tells me that Stacy Stanley was in the basement of the home under a pile of trash.
Now remember, Stacy was that missing woman whose family had been searching for her after she was seen with a stranger changing her tire at that BP gas station. Sean says he was that stranger, and he tells Detective Major his version of what happened that night. She came home with me.
Then you get another disturbing call. There's another body in the basement.
Yeah. At the time of that terrifying 911 call, the community is already on edge. Just a week before, police discovered that a woman in town had simply vanished. Well, there was a missing person named Elizabeth Griffith.
It's bad enough what he did, but for some reason, thinking that he put her under trash makes it worse.
It does. For me, the day that cases don't impact me would be the day that I need to pack it in.
I want it to touch me. I mean, I don't want to be in an interview and lose control, but these ladies matter.
But Detective Major had to put aside her emotions. Sean Great had confessed to a third woman named Candace Cunningham.
Candace was a little, tiny, vibrant woman, lived in the next county over, Richland County. Candace had not been reported missing, and Candace had dated Sean Great.
On her Facebook page, Candace posts about Sean Great, including this picture, and later writing, I am back with Sean and love him. It was just one month before her murder. In the interrogation room, Sean describes strangling her in an abandoned house after an alleged altercation.
After I was done interviewing him, which went all day, I had asked him if he would take me to where Candace's body was.
I was hoping that he wouldn't shut down from just having the emotions of going back to that place. So this is the scene where the home was where Candace Cunningham was living with Sean Great. So there was a home here. He burned it down after he murdered her in the home.
Yes. Elizabeth was known in our town. I had had contact with her. I think we all had. A lot of the officers would have an eye on her.
Investigators took video of Sean that day as he led them to where he left Candace's body.
He's agreed to come out and show us where he put the body.
He killed her in a house that was here and then dragged her body toward the ravine.
Prior to burning that down, he carried her body wrapped up in a blanket. He carried her to the ravine.
He did. When we rolled up, I actually had to ask him, are you okay? You okay? And he said it was hard. It was hard.
What was it like to finally find this woman and give it some closure?
Like I wanted to go down to the ravine and rescue her, but she's gone.
frustrating that she hadn't been reported missing that no one even knew at all as the investigation continues sean performs another show and tell i just lost it and then i just turned her around More deadly secrets. During the interrogation, you asked Sean to show you his strangulation to me. He said, I'll just do it on you.
Those closest to Great were surprised to learn of his killing spree despite them having their own chilling experiences with him. His former girlfriend Christina Hildreth says Great once spied on her from inside her sofa.
And his friend Tim Dennis claims he had a text exchange with Sean that made his blood run cold.
Facing mental health challenges, 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith attended meetings at a peer support center called LifeWorks.
Two days after his arrest, you go interview him again now with Detective Evans?
Yes, I did. I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to get off his chest. Anything else you thought about that you haven't talked about? What's that?
He tells me that he had killed a woman in Marion County.
She had come to his mother's house to sell magazines.
He said he was in town and just happened to see her. So he said he made up a story that he had money back at his house.
Detective Major knows authorities will need to figure out who this Dana is, but they press on, probing Sean about key details of his other murders.
Detective Evans and I decided we might try to have him show us how he strangled the victims. So Brian Evans says, would you do this on a doll?
So I roll the camera. OK, this is Detective Major. Detective Evans in the room, Sean Great in the room. Then he kind of just gets behind Brian and does a hold on him. I look at Brian's eyes, and I'm thinking, this is not good.
So I'm you, and you're Sean. So what did he do?
Law enforcement is on the hunt to figure out just who is this unidentified woman Shawn Great has confessed to killing 10 years prior in neighboring Marion County.
Investigators reached out to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Detective Kim Major isn't just trying to crack the Shawn Grape case. She also has to juggle the full-time job of being a mom to three active kids.
I try to say that I am not overprotective of my kids, but I'm sure I am.
But could this case put Kim or her family in grave danger?
When the case was going on, our fare kicked off. I get a phone call, and it's a man. And he said, I have your daughter. On Friday night, my husband coaches football. I actually took my younger kids to the football game. And I sat there, which was also surreal, seeing all the things around me and the lights.
She was embraced not just by LifeWorks, but also by her church family.
They're happy, the crack of the helmets. The band watching my husband, hearing the whistles. Friday night lights. It's Friday Night Lights. That's small town America. I brought my kids home, put them to bed.
That's when Detective Major's oldest son, Corbin, who's preparing to enter the police academy, comes into the room.
He's like, what's going on, Mom? I said, Sean Gray builds forts all over the place. He's like MacGyver. He stays in these things. But there's one in particular he keeps talking about.
I said, what are you talking about? He said, yeah, there was a woman that died of an overdose, and they dumped her body there.
I said, honey, it's an overdose and a dumping. And he said, that's because of her lifestyle. And people assume it's that. He said he did it. You have to go talk to him. You have to do something. The next morning, went in to the jail, pulled Shawn Gray out. There's a case from out in the county, meaning that we found a girl.
And we're trying to see if you'll be honest, if that's something you have something to do with.
I had problems with her once. 31-year-old Rebecca Lacey's death had been ruled a drug overdose by the Ashland County coroner. But now, Sean Great shares what he says happened to her.
He said she had stolen a few dollars from him, and he said he had strangled her. He talks about borrowing a car and taking her body out and dumping her in my county.
March of 2015 her body was found and she had been here for a couple months.
Hard to believe that such a heinous crime could have happened here.
It should be a place of solitude, but instead it's a place where a woman's body was discarded like she didn't matter.
But Rebecca Lacy's case was public knowledge, and Detective Major needed proof that Sean was actually involved in her death. So she asked him about details from the crime scene. What did Sean tell you about the placement of that memorial?
Yes. He was right. Nobody would have known that.
With this new information, authorities reopened the Rebecca Lacy case, ruled her death a homicide, and later charged Shawn Great with her murder. Detective Major had formed a unique bond with Shawn Great. You spent 33 hours with Shawn Great.
Yeah, eight interviews, 33 hours over the course of over a month.
So much so that they've been compared to Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs.
It may have made me a little more hypersensitive. When the case was going on, our fare kicked off. I get a phone call, and it's a man. And he said, I have your daughter. I said, who is this? And he won't answer me. And then he hangs up. They contact a guy who made the phone call. It was just a coincidence. The case probably changed how I handled something like that.
A month after he's arrested, there's another chilling development. A fellow inmate tells you that Sean Great is targeting you, that he wants to kill you.
He said that Sean Great told him he was trying to find my gun on my body, that he thought it would be the ultimate to kill me.
This information did not lead to any additional charges against Gray, but future meetings between Detective Major and Sean Gray took place at the jail where no weapons are allowed. All along, do you think he was plotting to kill you?
I didn't know that initially. I went into a later interview with him. I said, are you still having that hunger that you talk about? Can I ask you something? Will you be honest? Do you still have thoughts?
Sean Great says he had a hunger to kill. But Jane Doe and the victims' families had a hunger for justice. And now in court, they come face to face with the man they say is a monster.
It's April 2018, and Sean Great goes on trial at this courthouse for crimes against three of his victims, Jane Doe, Elizabeth Griffith, and Stacey Stanley.
Jane Doe comes face to face with her abductor, bravely taking the stand against Sean Great, detailing her horrifying ordeal.
At the trial, they played the audio of your interview.
Yes. I entered the interview room to interview Sean Great. You can hear my heart beating at key times during the interview. Who was that that you were talking to on the phone? It made me realize that maybe it affects me physically more than I recognize.
But then Elizabeth's support team realizes no one has seen her in weeks.
Sean Great, guilty on two counts of aggravated murder, as well as rape and kidnapping. But justice is bittersweet.
The day of his sentencing, Sean Great addressed the court.
To have missing women in this town of Ashland is a big deal.
At the trial, you had justice for Stacy Balloons. Yeah. And Stanley Strong. And you released him when he got the death penalty.
In March 2019, Sean Great pleads guilty to the murders of Rebecca Lacey and Candace Cunningham in Richland County. But his first victim remained unidentified.
In June of 2018, the community of Ashland, Ohio gathered at the site of Jane Doe's frantic 911 call.
You were there when you saw the house on Covert Court destroyed, demolished.
It was a tangible piece that was destroyed, but the weight of the situation is still here.
One year later, another step forward. A new development in the search for the identity of Great's first known victim.
Sean Gray pleaded guilty to Dana Lowry's murder, so now there are six known victims, and only one of them survived, Jane Doe. What would you say to that woman if you were able to talk to her today, to Jane Doe?
Kim Major has retired from the Ashland Police Department, and she now works as the Safety Services Director at Ashland University. And she's written a book about the Sean Grade case.
I don't want to forget this case. I don't want anyone to forget it. These women could have been anyone.
Do you think there are other victims out there?
I don't think this is a closed book situation. I think more information may come out.
As for the Stanley family, they're still dealing with the tremendous pain of losing Stacey. You miss her still?
This is an area where I would often see Elizabeth Griffith walking. And just days before her disappearance, I stopped and chatted with her right up here.
It was baffling. We didn't know if she had taken off or did she meet somebody online and leave. We didn't know if it was suicide. We didn't know where she was.
Police began to investigate, speaking to Elizabeth's neighbors and friends and tracing her last known steps.
Before she disappeared, records showed that Elizabeth had taken the bus to go shopping. The last known images of Elizabeth Griffith were recorded while she was shopping inside this Walmart. There's video of her going through the aisles and then waiting for the bus.
Police in Ashland, Ohio, are searching for missing woman Elizabeth Griffith. And then they discover there's a second woman in town who also has mysteriously disappeared. 43-year-old Stacy Stanley, a divorced mom devoted to her sons, Curtis and Corey.
Corey likes simple pleasures, playing music, riding his motorcycle on the highways of Ohio, raising his baby daughter. For him, family is everything, and his bond with his mother, Stacy, has always been particularly tight.
The last known images of Elizabeth Griffith were recorded while she was shopping inside this Walmart.
So she was not afraid to get on stage and perform?
And Stacy was a new grandmother to Curtis's three-year-old daughter. She was a great grandmother. She would spoil the hell out of him for sure.
Stacy was not from our county. She was from a county that butts up to our county. And she had visited Ashland.
It was September 8, 2016, when she takes a fateful drive to Ashland to run some errands.
It's around 8.30 at night when Stacy calls her son Cory from this gas station. She's stranded here with a flat tire and needs help.
Not necessarily off the rip. It's just a flat tire, you're thinking. It's a flat tire, yeah. They're able to find a family friend to meet Stacy at the gas station. But it turns out a stranger has also shown up to help.
You told her, let him go. Tell him to leave. You've got help coming. Yeah. She wouldn't. But now, a phone call that would change everything. A third woman taken. There was a female, and that she had been held captive. Sounds like something out of a movie. Absolutely. A horror movie.
But the next day, Corey and Curtis don't receive the usual flurry of calls from their mom.
Within hours, Stacy's family spreads out across the streets of Ashland, trying to find any trace of her.
Detective Brian Evans is on patrol in Ashland when he spots the family.
So now it's not just Elizabeth Griffith who is missing in Ashland.
To have two missing women in this town of Ashland is a big deal.
It's a huge deal. Unusual? Very, very unusual for a county this size to have anyone missing, much less two women missing.
Sit and talk to me. I just want to talk about what happened that night. Absolutely. That way we can clear all this up, because I'm sure you know what I'm getting at, as far as Linda and all I'm saying.
Like I said, I just wanted to sit and holler at you about one nice thing, you know, to kind of quell everything. If I asked you to take a polygraph test, would you be willing to do so? Okay.
How long was that that it took it to progress to him calling a couple times a day?
I apologize. I have the detective on the phone.
Is Gabriel here? No. She's not here. Okay.
Okay, when was the last time that you saw Brian and Gabriel?
The attorney's number? Okay, I would like that, please. I can give it to the detective. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. And just to let the detective know, is Gabriel here? No. She's not here. Okay. They said that Gabriel's not here. That's all they're saying, that his son is here, but Gabriel's not. They're not talking.
Be respectful of everyone's property, please.
Abraham's cousin, Cedric Edom, reported him missing to our missing persons unit, and that's where the whole investigation started.
A lot of people said, well, I don't think he's missing. I think he took his money and wants to get away from all this.
and the mother of his child. Centoria, she received a text message saying he was going on vacation and leaving her for another woman.
That was one of the biggest hurdles we had in the beginning of the case was nailing down when the last time Not only was Abraham seen, but when someone physically and actually talked to him on the phone. So this case is such a mess that in the beginning, you don't even have a starting point. Every time we would talk to someone, they had heard something different.
It just seemed like every story was leading back to Didi Moore. And so we're just like, OK, we've got to talk to Didi Moore because This Lady Didi is associated to every story that we're being told.
Her statement was that she talks to him all the time. If we wanted to see him, she would make sure that she brought him to us. So she sends him a text message in front of us and is like, Abraham, call me. Please call me. We wait a little bit and nothing. And she's like, well, I'll call you in the morning. Soon as we hear from him, we'll set up a meeting. So we left.
I think we thought that was a real true possibility. Once we put him in, the national database is missing. We got calls from all over the United States, and some of them with super confidence that it was Abraham. It wasn't him, but we had to deal with a lot of that.
We certainly hope Abraham's alive and well, and he has successfully hidden himself away. But our investigation doesn't lead us to believe that at this time.
That was the problem, is that there was a lot of people that owed him money.
Michael Ford lost a lawsuit to him, claimed the winning lottery ticket was his, went all the way to a trial. He's probably pissed off.
We actually pulled his phone records to confirm where he was, and he was in Georgia. I mean, we looked at him that hard, but it was more of an elimination thing.
She was suspicious, didn't think it sounded like her son, but in the back of her mind, maybe he really does have a cold. Maybe he's really sick.
We had that 30-day location tracker on the phone, so we pulled it up and it's at the Lakeland Mall.
Abraham didn't have access to a penny of his money. Didi had not only taken over all of his banking accounts, she had transferred money out of the banking accounts.
Once we were going deep into the investigation, we tried to find out everything we could about Dee Dee. And we found out, you know, she wasn't who she portrayed herself to be.
We were really convinced that Didi definitely had more information. And we wanted to push some buttons with Didi.
Abraham's mother called me. And she's like, Detective Clark, Abraham called me and told me Merry Christmas and that he's OK. But she said, it didn't really sound like my son. And I said, what number did that call come from? And she's like, it said private.
And then in drives Dee Dee. It's like a gift from God dropped to us. Crazy. We watch her get out, meet with this guy, hand him a wad of cash.
They talk for a minute, she gets in her car, and she drives away to the north, and this car with this gentleman in it drives away to the south. So we get behind the car, we're following it, and we're like, let's stop it. We go to stop the car. So I just jump out.
I go to the guy and I go, you can either park your car, get in our car and come with us, or we're going to try to put you in prison the rest of your life. And he goes, well, I guess I'm coming with you.
As of this time, we don't know the whereabouts of Abraham Shakespeare.
We've got to talk to Dee Dee more because everybody is bringing her name up. Whatever story they had, everything just kept circling back.
They're saying that I took a gun and killed another human being.
Abraham Shakespeare won $31 million in the Florida lottery going from rags to riches.
Pretty simple trick, but it worked good, and it gave us a good recording of the car.
Yes, they did. Dee rules is expensive. We're listening as they're in the hotel.
So she's dressed in full hospital gown, gloves, face mask, hair so that while she's typing that none of her DNA gets on the paper or gets on the envelope or anything.
And we're down there laughing because Greg's like, no, maybe you should say bro instead of brother.
He puts it in the mailbox. He leaves. I take the letter out of the mailbox and put it in evidence.
So at one point, you ask the sheriff to hold a press conference.
As of this time, We don't know the whereabouts of Abraham Shakespeare.
He also names Dee Dee Moore as a person of interest. I must tell you, folks, that certainly it is fair to call Dee Dee Moore a person of interest.
So immediately, she calls Greg Smith. We've got to do something. Did you see what Sheriff Judd's saying about me?
We call a guy named Mike Smith. I mean, he's just a very large, intimidating fella, and one of the best undercover guys I've ever worked with.
So we tell Greg, we just want you to tell her that you have a cousin that's going to prison. If there happens to be something wrong with Abe, I bet for the right amount of money he'll take a murder rap.
She reacted way more than we expected. She immediately says, I want to meet him. I want to meet him as soon as possible.
The meeting is taking place in a undercover vehicle that we had equipped with listening devices and recording devices.
And then Mike tells her, wherever the body is, I want to move it because if I'm going to confess to this, I'm going to make it my own. And she brings up, there's a guy named Ronald, a drug dealer,
That's the biggest moment of the case. That's where we know 100% he's dead. I mean, for us, couldn't have been a bigger moment than that right there.
The next morning, Dee Dee calls Greg and says, we need to meet and make it quick.
He goes and meets Dee Dee, and Dee Dee hands him a towel. There's something wrapped in the towel, and she tells him, this is the gun that was used to kill Abraham.
She asked him to meet him back at the same spot later in the night. She would show him exactly where the body was.
They parked over in this house. We're just kind of on the side of the road with our lights off. She walks Greg right here. There was a 30-foot by 30-foot concrete slab. Concrete slab in the middle of a field. Yeah. And she takes a piece of angle iron and sticks it in the corner of the slab and sticks it down in there and says, dig.
And you're listening to this. You guys must be just going nuts at this point.
I think once we heard that, We both look at each other and go, wow, let's just hope this isn't another Dee Dee spin or scam on things.
I'm sure she's thinking that we're arresting Greg for the murder of Abraham. So she's composed and says she wants to come back and talk to us and let us know some things. OK, so you get her in here.
She first says, hey, I'm glad y'all got that guy Greg. I think that he's done something to Abraham.
And so I let her go on for a few minutes. And I said, look, Dee Dee, I got some bad news for you.
I think you know where I'm going with this, Dee Dee. The gig is up. OK? The gig is up. Listen, everything that you've told him, everything you've done, everything is recorded, Dee Dee. Everything is recorded.
We talk to him 10 times a day. We know every move you make. We know everything.
And here she goes into the whole Ronald, some random drug dealing guy.
Didi, you've said so many things, you can't even keep your head straight. Listen, listen. Who shot Abraham? No, no, no. Who shot Abraham? You know who shot him.
We've got a 30 by 30, nine inch thick concrete slab that we've got to bust up.
It was. I mean, every quadrant, everything, just so we didn't miss anything.
You didn't need DNA? I didn't need fingerprints. I didn't need DNA. I mean, of course we did that, but I looked, and there's Abraham.
They're saying that I took a gun, put it up, and killed another human being, and I would never, ever do that.
A lot of people said, well, I think he took his money and wants to get away from all this.
We got a lot of leads. Everybody was fielding phone calls for leads because you put something out like that, especially where the public is very interested, and you're going to get a lot of calls.
There were some previous incidences that were very odd.
The detective from Beverly Hills, California gave me a call and he was working a case that also involved people from the Jewish community and he thought it was worthwhile for him to give me a call to see if there might have been a connection.
We also looked into his wealth management job that he had briefly. That could be a great indicator as to a motive for it. If you're a multimillionaire and you end up losing millions of dollars, that could really flip a switch in somebody and want to get revenge on you.
It just didn't make sense to me. It just seemed too elaborate and too Hollywood, if you know. And Rusty's not the kind of guy that's going to get in any kind of trouble. No criminal history, no anything.
Looked over Rusty, and I said, I'm going to get the justice for you. Hopefully get your revenge.
There was another incident where Rusty was starting to leave his home to go about his day, and he saw somebody behind his air conditioner on the side of his house.
And he notices a gentleman laying down beside his house.
When he confronted the guy, the guy ran away down towards the end of the cul-de-sac.
Odd, sure, but a lot of people own guns, and so that's not a direct indicator that the person was looking to kill Rusty.
Do you know anybody that drives a silver minivan? No, I don't know anyone else that owns a silver minivan.
Has there been anybody recently, when I say recently, within the past year, that has expressed an interest in you? Yes. Who?
The van was the only solid evidence I had of the suspect. I looked at that video so many hours and so many days on my computer just trying to find the fingerprint on that van that'll make it stand out.
First I went to Ford. I went to Dodge. I went to Honda. The last one I went to, which was a recommendation from one of our patrol officers, was Kia. Oh, I hadn't thought about Kia. So I went to the Kia dealership.
There was right around 1,000 or so in the entire country.
And the first time I played it, the first time I saw this were two stickers on the front windshield that were offset from each other. That was my fingerprint. So now I had to figure out, what the hell are those stickers?
So it was this particular rental car company that had this specific vehicle in their fleet.
I asked my rental car company contact, hey, when you have this year make model vehicle come into any of your lots, let me know. He said, absolutely. And he gave me a call one day, hey, we have a vehicle that might be what you're looking for up in this lot in North Georgia.
Walked up, he turned around, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.
Hemi Newman. I think we found our guy. Don't know why yet, but we found our guy.
We were hot on the trail of Hemi Newman. We had to find him. We had to talk to him, see what he wanted to say.
It's like, hey, we have Hemi. We're going back to the precinct. Meet us there. Great. So I rushed back to the precinct. By the time I got back, the sergeant and lieutenant were already in the interview room talking to Hemi.
I want to get into the... The incident with Rusty on that day, November 18th.
Listen, I'm going to talk to you about the day of the shooting, but as everybody else, I'm going to read you your rights on it. Your Miranda rights. Do I have to worry? I don't think so. I'm not worried.
Do you need a lawyer? I don't know. This is what you need to ask yourself. These questions, do you feel like asking you questions about Rusty? No, not at all.
In the beginning, we wanted to see why he had the van.
I mean, this is not rocket science. You're a smart guy. You're not signing away your mortgage.
You're in the business world. You see papers all the time.
I want to know what happened on the 18th. I got to know him.
I think he was trying to find out what we knew as much as we were trying to find out what he knew.
You know why I'm calling you? For help. I know. That's why I called you back.
Hemi, this is what we got. We got that van on video that Dave Rusty shot. And I swear, the more I look at you, the more I see the person inside that van. I'm giving you every opportunity, man. I don't think things should have happened that way. You've got a heart and you've got a soul, man. You're not a criminal. Things just go wrong.
You're here because that van was there. We know it was over there where Rusty got shot. Listen, look at me and don't doubt me. I'm telling you what happened. You've got to admit to yourself what happened with that van. I'm telling you, you were there when Rusty got shot. Now, Hemi, you were there. I know you were. Hemi. How did you know I was there? Because it's on video. That van is on the video.
The van was there. I've got it on video. You're at the parking lot. You're there with Rusty. The question is, why'd you shoot him? Why did it have to get done that way?
Are you prepared to tell me now you're not the guy? Because you haven't said that yet. All afternoon, you have not said, I did not damn do it.
At that point, we had all the evidence we needed to place him in the minivan, say that nobody else drove the minivan. I went out and got the arrest warrant for Hemi Newman.
At the same time, while we were finishing the interview, we were confident we had our guy, and we had a whole lot more work to do.
He got shot for one of three reasons. Greed, revenge, or lust.
Jealousy gets in the heart. Envy takes over. The mind starts working, and that life looks a hell of a lot better than mine right now.
The murder trial for Hemi Newman, the man accused of murdering a father outside his child's daycare center in Dunwoody, is moving fast on this very first day.
At this point in time, the defense will have an opportunity to give you their opening statement.
We never did find the weapon that was used, but I guess we had the next best thing.
Mr. De Silva said he had sold a Bursa 40 caliber Thunder pistol. I showed him the lineup and he immediately identified Hemi Newman as the person he sold the gun to.
I asked him, do you still have the test fire casing that comes with the gun when they sell it to you?
What would have been about a week after he sold the gun to Hemi, Hemi came back up to the restaurant where Jan DeSilva was working as a valet.
The community was absolutely scared. Again, it's not something that happens normally. There's not a lot of violent crime in that area at all.
The murder trial for Hemi Newman is moving fast. The jury could have this case as early as tomorrow afternoon.
The shooting did happen at close range. There was no indication that Rusty was going to do anything or was trying to attack the person. It was a purely one-sided shooting and close range to me said it was personal.
I absolutely didn't believe at any point that it was a random shooting.
Yeah, witnesses had the shooter park over here. As Rusty came around this way, he came around the front of his car, and he turned to open the door. The shooter came across the parking lot and raised his arm. Pow, pow, pow, pow.
It was my first homicide. I didn't really know what to expect when I came up, but I just clicked right into professional mode and remembered all the steps that I needed to take that I learned back in the academy.
Yeah, after I got everybody where I thought they should be and got the base information, I came back over and I looked over Rusty and I said, I'm going to get the justice for you. I'm going to get this guy and hopefully get your revenge. I wanted to assure him that I was going to do the best that I could to bring the killer to justice. And I said, have faith. And I went and started doing my job.
That goes to Rusty's personality. Rusty would leave an indelible mark on people. He had a personality that always would bring you in.
The key point of evidence we had was the daycare has a camera there that overlooks the central parking lot. And that was the only visual that we had of the suspect's vehicle driving around once, then coming back around again.
It just didn't make sense to me. It just seemed too elaborate and too Hollywood.
Some people described it like an Abraham Lincoln beard.
You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain, John. That's a line used by a terrorist in the movie Speed.
The ransom note was a vital piece of evidence. Police need to figure out who wrote it and when.
And he just said, I have a name. I want you to write it down. And I did. And he said, that's where you start. All but one person on that list is innocent. Then you got your killer.
According to Arndt, neither John nor Patsy Ramsey seemed to mark it or freak out about it. She says later she found it curious that John Ramsey checked his mail in the kitchen in the middle of the crisis.
The grot that was used in JonBenet's murder also got the attention of investigators because of what it was made of.
And that was important, but Patsy lived in the house, so those could have been there anyway.
Though the police had spoken to John Ramsey after Jean Benet's body was found, what they really wanted to do was formally interrogate the couple.
Some people who believe Patsy killed her daughter believe it was over bedwetting and then staged it to look like an intruder. The bedwetting theory was a big theory at the time.
The suspect might be out there and be someone who's completely unknown, who has never been on anyone's radar.
Detective Lou Smith was like, whoa. He just said, I have a name. I want you to write it down. Here's the answer in the list he left behind.
Boather DA Alex Hunter brought Lou Smit out of retirement to help solve the Ramsey case.
Lou Smit was my father. He was just known as the detective that solved cases. When he got to a murder scene, he spent time dictating everything he saw, where the sun was in the sky, what the weather conditions were like, what the neighboring houses looked like.
When he started his investigation, he felt like everybody else did, that it was probably one of the two parents.
It was within a couple of days after my dad started on the investigation when he had a chance to review pictures, the evidence, that he was already saying, I think that they need to look the other way. He was already noting in his journal that he felt that they needed to look at an intruder.
The first thing that stood out to him was an open window in the basement. There was a suitcase propped up against it.
Also found in the basement by JonBenet's body, a shoe print, a high-tech brand that did not match any of the shoes in the Ramsey's house.
The counterargument is that footprint image could have been inadvertently left by police officers at the scene. But a more disturbing image in Lou Smith's investigation comes from two marks left on JonBenet's face and back.
Smith looked at other murders where a stun gun was known to have been used. He examined photos of a crime victim who had a known stun gun wound.
Patsy was feisty. She was combative, in stark contrast to John Ramsey, who was interrogated by Lou Smit.
It was very firm across her lips.
My dad's conclusions after that interview were just firmed up his belief that the Ramseys had nothing to do with this murder.
being slanted where no other evidence was coming in.
Smith so strongly disagrees with the prosecutor's focus on the Ramseys that he is resigning from the case, saying, the case tells me John and Patsy Ramsey did not kill their daughter.
He wrote a letter to Alex Hunter telling them that he couldn't be a part of the persecution of these people, is how he termed it.
My dad may have resigned from the district attorney's office, but he never stopped work on the case. He walked in JonBenet's shoes, and he owed it to her, he felt, to continue his investigation.
Grand jurors arrived at the Boulder County Justice Center this morning and were escorted into the courthouse by sheriff's deputies.
The second focus for the grand jury, according to Jonathan Webb, was the viability of the intruder theory.
The grand jury was looking at two specific accusations for the Ramseys. Child abuse resulting in death and accessory to a crime. The grand jury couldn't point the finger at Patsy or John specifically, but they were sure that one of them committed the crime and the other person helped to carry it out. This is 7 News at 5.
I think deciding not to prosecute the parents for homicide was the right decision. No matter what you believe about the case, it would have been very difficult to get a conviction. Thank you very much.
What became groundbreaking at the time was a thing called touch DNA. Essentially, when someone touches something, the skin cells they leave behind can be tested.
This revelation of this new unmatched DNA drove the district attorney to announce they're no longer looking at the family.
as he had in the past.
And how many victims is he going to have in the future?
When he got sick with cancer, he knew that his time was limited. And so during that time, he just talked to others about not letting this case die.
And he just said, I have a name. I want you to write it down. And I did. And he said, that's where you start. You know, we'd be glad to pay that. We don't have that electronic report, so we would need Boulder to send it. After my dad died, you know, a couple of us, our family, and then some of his old homicide partners, we just formed a team.
He wanted us to take the list that he had and try and keep the case alive.
That new Netflix documentary, Making News, details how just months after JonBenet's murder, a 12-year-old girl who lived less than two miles from the Ramseys was attacked as she slept in her bed.
In the search for the killer, investigators chased down countless leads, including a local transient.
And so investigators also eliminate Helgoth as a person of interest.
If we keep at it, hopefully we'll finally whittle it down to one person remaining on that list. Do you think you know who the killer is?
While DNA science has progressed significantly since the early years of the JonBenet investigation, and investigators can now work with smaller, mixed, and degraded samples, there are still significant hurdles.
According to the Boulder PD, investigators are utilizing outside labs and experts in the latest technology.
Patsy Ramsey called 911 at 5.52 a.m. and the first officer from the Boulder Police Department arrives three minutes later at 5.55.
And that was a mistake on my part. The reason I didn't is because these people were the Ramsey's support system. There was no information at all to indicate the family was involved at that point.
You will withdraw $118,000 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills.
Charles had never been violent with anybody. So you kind of start getting a bigger picture of this just doesn't feel right.
The odd part about it was just the complete lack of emotion. It was a very nonchalant. Lori had a big smile on her face. The case like this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. The case is just beginning.
Okay, so you hear the argument, you step out, what's the first thing that you see?
Well, Larry, while we've got everybody, it's not just you down here. Obviously, we're looking into the Robert Dorr situation. He was gunned down in his driveway. What's that got to do with him? Well, it has to do with everybody in the family. We're just trying to get everybody in here, see if there's just anything that can help us with this investigation.
Do you wish to talk to me without a lawyer present?
All we're trying to do is find out if you guys know anything that could help us find his killer.
My name is Mark Phillips, and I am lead counsel in the trial involving our client, Becky Fox Dorr.
You won't hear one piece of evidence that says they were lovers. That's speculation and supposition. There is no evidence that Becky Dorr knowingly or intentionally aided, induced, or caused Larry Richmond Sr. to commit the offense of murder. That evidence doesn't exist.
There was a phone conversation that you asked Becky about at some point, correct? Correct. And you allege it's with Larry Richmond Sr., right?
Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Yes. You have no idea what they talked about, do you?
In fact, in your investigation, you don't have any evidence that Becky Durr ever initiated a phone conversation of any kind with Larry Richmond Sr., correct?
Judge, I'm going to object to the form of the question. I object to the card for the same reasons I objected in previous hearings. I have a new objection based on his answer. Excuse me, I'm going to object. May we approach?
Your testimony is that your dad gets in a vehicle with a woman in March of 2018, within a matter of days of his release from prison. There's been testimony in this trial that Amanda Fillmore didn't meet your dad until May of 2018. OK.
If there's evidence in this trial that she didn't even live there in March of 2018, that put a dent in your story, wouldn't it?
You didn't know who she was before your dad got out of prison, correct? I may have had about time dates. Oh, I didn't ask you that. Is that your sworn testimony here today? Yes. In fact, Mr. Richman, would you agree with me it'd be awful hard for your dad to be kissing somebody two months before he met Amanda, wouldn't it? Correct. Probably be impossible, wouldn't it?
You know your mom was not a beneficiary for purposes of any financial benefit, correct?
If you were to learn that your mom had no financial interest as a result of Robbie's death, would that surprise you? I mean, she, no.
You're aware that your mom would frequently delete phone calls, correct?
They don't want you to listen to the truth. I felt like I just listened to a screenplay of a crime novel that was based entirely on fiction.
We fast forward to 2012. We're going over the evidence again. The fingerprint that they had found on the phone was in the suspect's blood, and it was still in viable condition to obtain a DNA profile from that. And we enter it into CODIS, and we think, that's going to give us a hit.
Right. There was no forced entry. So our speculation was that it was somebody that she knew or somebody that presented a position of authority that could have garnered that trust to get inside the apartment. All of these questions lasted for years and years. Yes. Yes.
In Kathy's case, we had DNA that was in CODIS, and we had not gotten a match. We'd exhausted the fingerprints, and these things which normally get us a hit did not. So I honestly felt like the genetic genealogy was our only chance for solving this case.
They said, we'll get you a lead back. We're not going to guarantee that it's the lead, but we'll get you a lead.
Mike got up around 5.30 in the morning for his job.
It was either it was someone that she knew or someone that presented themselves as an officer. It was almost like whispered in the hallways, it could be one of our own.
She was supposed to have plans with her sister and family for lunch. When she didn't respond by phone call, they went by her house and found that her car was still there. Got inside the house with a key.
Mike is so distressed, he immediately runs to a neighboring apartment because he can't bring himself to call the police. Mike does go back into the apartment to find her daughter.
There was a 12-year-old boy and his dad that were staying with some friends that were right next door to Catherine Edwards' townhome. He heard somebody run down the stairs and then a door slam. And a little while later, a car sped off with loud music. There were some other neighbors that heard some loud banging.
It kind of sent a panic through the community. You know, if this can happen to somebody in a really quiet part of town, could it happen to them kind of thing.
But when Brandon presented Othram to me right then and there, I'm like, let's make this happen.
The profilers really believed that whoever it was would return and return to her gravesite. And for years, that was part of our initial rookie training program was, this is Kathy Schwartz's gravesite. If you see somebody at that gravesite, you need to stop and identify them because they could be a prime suspect in the murder.
I remember sitting at the table one night and getting really frustrated trying to map all this out. And she's like, let me help.
I can remember dozing off one night and I wake up and she's got lines going here and lines going there.
And the first one we came across, he was the right age. He went to the same high school with our victim.
There were a lot of similarities in that case that mimicked Katherine Edwards' case. The victim's hands were bound behind her back. She was sexually assaulted.
Correct. They shipped that down here to me. And then once I went through it, I coordinated with our lab here in Texas to see what items would be best to test. And they compared it to the evidence that we had.
We theorize that the assault started in the kitchen because in the kitchen there was passive blood drops on the floor. And then the smearing goes up the stairway to the upstairs bedroom.
I'm not going to say anything. After he makes it outside, you know, that's when we execute the arrest warrant and arrested him.
We did and got to put them on him after we got through interviewing him.
We got the report back, and they believed it was a family that had lived in Three Rivers. The DNA was male, so this narrowed it down to four brothers. The youngest brother, Barry, and then there was the oldest was Sonny Waters, then John Waters, and then Robert Waters.
Robert Waters was married, had a couple of children, and had been living in Beaufort, South Carolina for quite some time. He was a local business owner and had a plumbing business.
Good, how are you? How can we help you? I'm Sam Smulkin from Three Rivers PD. This is Todd Peters from Michigan State Police. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Can we talk for just a couple minutes? Sure. All right.
And one of the issues we had run into is the Beaufort Police Department did not have the fingerprint live scan machine. So we had to use the traditional ink and paper.
So we rolled them a second time, sent those back.
He still just willingly, I guess, hung out with us.
All right. I wanted to tell you, we did submit the print that we did for me earlier. It did match to the one at the crime scene. So at this time, you are under arrest for the murder of Cassie Schwartz. OK? OK. It really surprised me. He did not really react. I feel like he knew when we showed up that morning that the game was up.
Well, let me ask you the obvious question. What about Rob Waters? He came there one time. He came there one time? One time. Okay, do you remember, like, was that close to December? I think so. He knew Robbie Waters had visited the apartment about a month before the murder. We hadn't seen him since grade school. Yeah. Okay, so he just somehow figured out that you guys were living in Riverside.
The plans were already in place. He had waived extradition, so he knew that he was going to be brought back to Michigan.
He had some material that they'd given him in the jail, and it was some devotionals, and the parts that he had ripped out talked about forgiveness and asking for forgiveness.
In the bedroom where Kathy was found is a phone on the bed. The phone cord was cut. but on the phone there was Kathy's fingerprints and then there was also an unknown fingerprint in blood. In 88, obviously, DNA was in its infancy.
You can know the case inside out, but until you see somebody testify and see the raw emotion that's going on, that was raw, raw emotion that they relived on the stand.
There was polygraph examinations that were done with. We were able to verify that he was at work in Sturgis all day long, and there was no way he could have came back to Three Rivers to do it.
So the police department actually rented the apartment for a month after the crime, just so that we could return and continue to look for clues and process. This is one of the first cases where they deployed alternative light sources.
They pick him up for questioning. Troy Schultes admitted that he was the one that wrote on the refrigerator and on the wall in the apartment, but he never admitted to writing it on her thigh.
You know, you look at that and you think, well, that's somebody leaving a calling card behind that they were there.
We had the fingerprints, but we also had a sample of blood that was left behind. We believe because Kathy fought back that whoever the killer was had sustained an injury, and Troy's blood type did not match.
We had fingerprinted and footprinted so many individuals that had been living in Three Rivers at that time, and none of them were a match.
We have an individual at the time that could almost identify almost any type of vehicle. He was a big car guy. He said it was a Ford Focus. Like, I like cars, but honestly, wow. We're kind of looking at this several different ways. Is he having problems with a customer with a white Ford Focus?
The bad news is that in St. Charles County, there are 1,300 Ford Focuses. In the state of Missouri, there are 5,000.
Why has he got Bob's business card? I hope this is it.
And we looked at that, seeing that they were connected. And in the course of that investigation, we were able to eliminate it from being a part of this case.
Police are knee deep in Bob Eidman's murder investigation. And they come upon a really interesting scene. It's an abandoned, crashed white car. And when they tracked down the owner, well, there's a couple of really eye-popping pieces of information.
He had bloody clothing on. And he also had one of Robert Eidman's business cards. Why does he have bloody clothing? Is it his blood? Is it Bob's blood? We have some questions we need to answer. This could be it.
Travis has what seems like a likely story about why there's blood on a shirt. He said that when he crashed his car, he got a bloody nose. Cops will check out his story, so they're not quite ready to clear him.
Now, police turn their attention closer to home, to Bob Eidman's widow, Diane. It is quite routine for police to look at the spouse of someone who's been murdered.
When Bob's wife, Diane, was advised that Bob had been murdered in his office, she didn't have a great reaction.
I don't want to say it didn't seem like a surprise to her, but she wasn't reacting in a manner that I thought a wife would react when they found her husband shot.
That struck me and I'm sure several detectives as unusual.
Is she in shock? Is she in denial? Is she involved in this?
Diane wants to go to Bob's parents' home so that she can break the terrible news to them. And during that ride, Diane talks about how she is the manager of the kitchen at the local hospital, and she also offers more information about her beloved husband. She says that there was financial problems.
Detective Kaiser continues talking with Diane, and she makes a note that Diane seems incredibly forgetful. She can't remember her own social security number. And then the detective asks her about any existing insurance policies. She was upfront that, yes, I have a life insurance policy through work.
Diane initially gave us an answer that she thought they had a couple of small policies, approximately $5,000. Not much, right? Not much.
His famous saying was, she's not the person you think she is, and I never knew what that meant.
And we're wondering if lightning had struck twice in the same place.
It was an improbable set of circumstances. And to throw into that, the garage door was open about a foot.
And the inside garage door leading it from the garage into the house is the only door in the house that did not have a deadbolt.
Well, the last note that was found at the scene said, this is for you, Pick, for what you did to me. You know, I made a canvas later on in the neighborhood. No one saw a black male in a black car dressed in all black.
Lenore Bolling was charged with the murder of her husband. She pled not guilty. And while she was awaiting trial, she moved in with Bob and Diane.
They did not believe that she did it. They believed her story.
During Diane's initial interview, she was asked if there was any insurance policies. Diane said that she thought there was one policy and she thought it was just a small policy, approximately $5,000.
I was contacted by an insurance company and told that there was additional policies for Robert Eidman that we were not made aware of that were quite substantial in size.
We did not know if Diane had forgotten to tell us about those policies. Did Diane know about those policies?
And as they start looking deeper into Bob Eidman, they make a mind-blowing discovery. This man was leading a double life.
And then the commander of the Major K Squad asked me a question that just kind of floored me. I had no idea.
How did he feel about you being a policeman? He made fun of me a lot. He did not like that. Wasn't big on police. He got in trouble growing up.
At his funeral, my mom was confined to a wheelchair. She was in very poor health. So she goes, how could somebody do this to my boy? I said, Mom, I don't know. I don't know why. She goes, well, I want you to find those people. I want you to kill them. And I said, that's not how this works. You know, I'm a police officer. I can't do something like that. But she was very devastated.
And literally three months after his death, she died. She has lost her will to live. It was kind of a rough year, for sure.
She never really said a whole lot. She really didn't say a lot about anything. She was pretty quiet.
At the time of Robert Eidman's funeral, we set up surveillance and we recorded video of the attendees at the funeral, as well as obtaining the guestbook for the services.
Police check out every name on the funeral registry. It takes them nowhere. Meanwhile, it's day four of the Major Crimes Task Force investigation. The clock is ticking, but still no good leads on who killed Bob Eidman.
We were striking out. There was no one that could really come up and say, Bob's having a problem with anyone.
You know, they put me in an interview room to ask me some questions. I said, you know, I have nothing to hide. You don't have to play these games. You know, ask me whatever you want. And he asked me a question that just kind of floored me. He said, we're trying to find out about your brother's alternative lifestyle. I said, what alternative? He goes, his affairs.
You know, I go, you think he's out picking up women? I mean, you know, that just ain't happening. And he said, your brother was gay. I had no idea. We had no idea. We did not know that.
While we were analyzing Bob's computers, it was discovered that he was visiting male-on-male websites that were sexual in nature, and he was making contact with some of these places. Sometimes in these murder investigations, as we dig into them, you find a lot about a person's life, their lifestyle.
Anytime somebody has a secret and somebody knows it and you're keeping it a secret for a reason, people can use that as leverage to get their way if they want to blackmail you or extort you.
They had an intimate relationship. They would rent a hotel room somewhere and visit each other. Automatically, a flag gets raised.
It was upsetting. You know, I guess I felt he should have been able to talk to somebody about that. He shouldn't have had to hide that life. He shouldn't have had to lie. Having a relationship and being gay, that's just part of life. And I wish he would have been able to share that with us.
Police bring in this secret lover for questioning. They can't help but wonder, would this man have a reason to murder Bob? And what about Diane? Could his existence have set her into a murderous rage?
Feelings can run wild with someone. If I can't have you, nobody's going to have you. It gives people motive.
It blew my mind when the results came back. It was the golden ticket. This is what we were looking for.
It absolutely crossed everybody's mind that this was kind of a copycat murder.
She had found out that he was having an affair with another man and that she was very angry about that. They'd had an argument about that.
This is one of those bizarre cases where all the evidence seems to be pointing in one direction. Then suddenly, the rug is pulled out from under you, stunning everyone.
I was sitting in the same room with the person that shot and killed my brother.
A man that loved life, always wanted to have fun, always wanted to enjoy himself. He had a great personality, very funny, you know, very intelligent.
Now we've got a whole team of officers from the St. Charles Police Department. They've converged on the scene of Bob Eidman's murder.
Robert Ivan's specialty in the insurance company was dealing with high-risk drivers, individuals that could not get insurance through traditional places.
This is a huge murder case in a very small town. And with more questions than answers, St. Charles PD needs help, and boy, do they get it. Enter the elite major case squad.
20 to 30 detectives will respond, and the only thing they will work on for the next five days is that situation they've been called out on.
One of the things that we were not able to recover or locate was Robert Eidman's wallet.
We just thought maybe a sample of skin cells could be found inside Bob's pocket.
In that video footage, we saw a Ford Focus. We were not able to get a license plate due to the angle of the camera, and we were not able to see who was in the vehicle.
Immediately I responded to the area, to the scene. Bob is laying on the floor between the two desks. He's laying on his back and there's a pool of blood around his head.
It is quite routine for police to look at the spouse of someone who's been murdered.
Bob Eidman had been leading a secret life. And a search of phone records reveals so much more.
We found several calls that were coming in and coming out pretty much the same time each day. We discovered that Bob was having an affair.
Bob Eidman was shot three times. The first shot was superficial. It was a grazing wound to his chin. The second shot was to his neck, shoulder area, which knocked him down.
While doing the search of his home, we located a box the size of a shoe box And it had cards from Bob. It had receipts from when they'd go to dinner or go to a hotel. He was saving it.
Feelings can run wild with someone. If I can't have you, nobody's going to have you. It gives people motive.
He was on video, and there were numerous people who said, yes, he was here this day. This is the time he clocked in.
I would definitely classify that third shot as being an execution.
This was an insurance office and it was a fairly open area. We collected bullet casings, bullets, bullet fragments. We would mark the position, set up little yellow tents called photo markers. We would photograph it. We dusted for fingerprints. You're hoping that maybe you will find one fingerprint that may lead to a particular suspect.
Diane Eidman voluntarily submitted to a polygraph and the results came back being inconclusive.
When it goes back to our police department at the time, it is frustrating knowing that you didn't solve this case and it just goes on to an active case file to be looked at as further investigative leads come in.
Bob Eidman was shot three times. That third shot has been an execution.
When my sergeant came up and asked if I would like to be assigned this investigation, I was overwhelmed. It's one of those things, am I ready to do this? You don't wanna say no, it's an opportunity. I wanted to see this investigation to the end.
Don had contacted me and said, I'm starting from scratch. I'm going to take this entire investigation. I'm going to do everything over again. What did that feel like to hear? Well, it was refreshing to, you know, I just felt like there wasn't a lot there.
In 2007, I had only been a detective for four years. I was the young guy in the squad.
I had got promoted. I was a police chief at the time, and I didn't want...
him to feel like there was pressure on him but he met with me a couple times and you know the one time that really struck home is he said hey you're like family and i am going to solve this what motivates me to keep going on this investigation is there's someone or someones who had killed bob eidman bob eidman needs someone to stand in his corner
I was off duty and then I was picking up a family member at the airport and Diane was walking my direction.
Shock. I believe at that point she thought she was going to be arrested.
But the surprise of a chance encounter pales in comparison to the shock investigators get when they receive a call from the crime lab. Remember that pocket police cut out of Bob Eidman's pants to send for DNA analysis?
It blew my mind when the results came back. It was the golden ticket. This is what we were looking for.
And if you don't have a suspect right away, then there's things that take time. So things slowed down, but things did not stop.
They had this famous lead about this car that went around the block, and they had it on video. But there were 22 detectives for five days, and they didn't find it.
And there's another lingering piece of evidence still out there. That touch DNA taken from Eidman's back pocket, it was sent to the St. Louis Major Crimes Lab.
Any time you submitted any kind of DNA information, DNA samples, it was going to be a year or more before you got an answer to it.
genetic analyzer that ultimately produces a dna profile but given the cold case backlog it takes several more months for the dna to be processed and when the results come back investigators get a major break that heats up this cold case i developed an unknown male profile
I knew once we obtained the DNA profile, the identity of the individual in Bob Eidman's pocket, I knew that was the golden ticket. I knew that was when we were going to be able to close this case.
The DNA doesn't match Bob's wife or his secret lover or anyone else the police had been looking into. Instead, it comes back to someone who was never on the investigator's radar.
I was very shocked. My mind was not on directing traffic at that time. What did you do then? I started researching Paul White.
having served 15 years in prison for robbery. When they got the DNA match, Don had contacted me and said, I'm going to solve this. And I truly believed him. I got to give him a lot of credit. You know, he did a lot of old fashioned work.
Paul White was incarcerated at the time when the DNA came back.
I wanted him to know right off the bat that we knew he was there. I wanted the truth I wanted to get a confession from Paul.
We came to the conclusion that those loud bangs that she heard was the gunshots in Bob's office.
What are you thinking when he does that? I'm thinking this is going to be a long interview.
That individual was in the Department of Corrections in Missouri.
There was numerous files on Bob's desk, and there was a file containing Paul White's name.
Police quickly worked to gather information about the victim. His name is Bob Eidman. He's 48 years old. He was married for a very long time, had no children, and worked in the insurance industry.
What was it doing? I think when Mr. Eidman had seen the car pull up and saw Paul White exiting the vehicle, he was grabbing Sherry's file to be ready so when he came in.
We get to the bottom of facts. This is where people have an opportunity to tell us about what they've done and tell us their story.
Paul, I believe, was in a little bit of shock. After all these years, two detectives showing up from St. Charles City, he did not expect that to happen that day.
I'm thinking to myself, the DNA itself is probably enough to get an arrest warrant, but I didn't want just an arrest warrant. I wanted the truth.
I think initially Paul White's attitude was very kicked back, relaxed.
I even put a picture down in front of him and asked him, do you know this individual?
Eventually he came back around and said, yeah, I thought that was his wife's insurance man.
I explained that we were working a homicide investigation, and I explained that his DNA was located in his back pocket.
At least 10 or 15 times. He kept saying, there is no way, repeatedly. He did not believe it.
with Paul White was I found out that a neighboring law enforcement agency had issued a ticket to Paul White after our homicide in a white Ford Focus.
That's right, a white Ford Focus. And remember, that's the very same vehicle make caught on a surveillance camera the day Bob Eidman was murdered.
Paul White was a pastor in that vehicle, and the driver was identified via tickets as Cleo Hines.
We later learned that Cleo Hines was living with Paul White, and his girlfriend was best friends with Paul White's wife.
I was sure of that. I had a couple other officers contact Cleo Hines, and they arrested Cleo Hines and brought him to the St. Charles City Police Department.
I was going to take the same approach with Cleo Hines as I did with Paul White. Are you the hardened criminal? Are you a guy that made a mistake? Let's talk about the robbery.
I told him we had a positive idea of his vehicle. We had a positive idea of a focus, a white four-door focus.
He knew he owned a white four-door Focus. He knew he was involved in this. There was no way that he could fight that.
It took a very short time, and Cleo just started talking and talking and talking.
A 9mm Glock. The same type of handgun investigators determined was used to murder Bob Eidman. But the question is, who pulled the trigger?
And Cleo wanted to give his side of the story to defend himself against whatever Paul might say he did.
It's hard to do an interview to get a confession from somebody for a murder. It's really hard to get a confession from somebody for a murder inside prison.
White is arrested the next day, and he's charged with robbery and murder and could be facing life in prison. Now, with the pressure turned up so high, will he finally change his story?
There was a lot of finger pointing at each other, trying to point the blame to someone else.
Paul White offers to help find the murder weapon riding along in handcuffs in the backseat of a squad car.
We took Paul White out of the St. Charles County Jail. and had him point out the area where he got rid of the gun. We searched an extensive area far the gun was never able to locate it.
Now we have two suspects and two confessions. And with both men pointing the finger at each other, prosecutors are gearing up to put both of them on trial.
I was sitting in the same room with the person that shot and killed my brother. And that was pretty hard to be calm. Will Bob Edmund's family finally learn who murdered him?
Local reporters have arrived on the scene as well. Those reporters notice that a woman pulls up, and it turns out that she is the now widow of Robert Eidman. Her name is Diane. And Diane approaches the reporters, asking them if they know what's happening. And the reporters are saying that they feel uncomfortable telling her about her husband, so they direct her to the police.
As far as any connection between the two men accused of killing Bob Eidman and Bob's widow, Diane, Paul White revealed to investigators that he didn't even know who she was.
I met Diane at her place of employment, and I said, Diane, this is over. We have the individuals, and we have the charges on them for killing your husband.
I don't believe she was angry at me. There was a lot of stress that just came off Diane. You could almost see it leaving her body as she was shaking and crying. She was very happy that this was over.
First up at trial, Paul White, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree robbery.
Really didn't know what to think when I came into trial because I was sitting in the same room with the person that shot and killed my brother. And that was pretty hard.
The trial for Paul White lasted three days, which is actually very short for a murder trial in this county.
The trial was swift, and so were the deliberations. The jury needed just two and a half hours before delivering a verdict. Paul White, guilty of murder and robbery in the first degree.
An Alford plea is a plea in the state of Missouri where an individual will not say, I did it, but there's enough evidence to say I did it.
With that plea, Hines is convicted of a lesser crime than White, second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. He received two life terms. But while Hines' sentence offers the possibility of parole, Paul White will never again see the light of day outside a prison.
Paul White was sentenced to life without parole in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Yes, we were. She said, I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life. You took my best friend. You took my husband away from me.
She told the court this in part, I looked over my shoulder for five years afraid, never knowing if the people who killed Bob were coming after me, or did the police really believe that I killed my husband?
I do feel like the system worked. The killers were caught. Science prevailed and overwhelmingly provided evidence that got them a conviction. Never again can he come to a Christmas dinner. Never again can we see him for a birthday party. Never again could he and my son talk and have a conversation or a relationship.
But Diane said that she hadn't heard from Bob all day, which was odd. And she kept trying to call him and he never answered the office phone. So when she shows up and seen all the police cars, she knew something had happened and she identified herself.
They only have five days, so the clock is ticking.
Police believe Eidman was working alone when someone walked inside his business, fatally shot him, then took off.
St. Charles averages about one and a half homicides a year.
Cold-blooded murder is not something St. Charles is known for, and the local cops will probably need some help with what looks like a big investigation. So they appealed to a special group for help.
A request was made to notify the Major Case Squad.
More than 30 detectives with the Major Case Squad are now looking for his killer.
This elite major case squad has a very high rate of success. 80% of their cases are solved. But with all this manpower, there's one catch. They only have five days to get the job done. So the clock is ticking.
There were numerous individuals who could have done something such as this.
How you doing? We're with the Major Case Squad and we're investigating a homicide that happened here Friday afternoon.
Every door was knocked on multiple times until we got contact.
Robert Ivan's specialty in the insurance company was dealing with high-risk drivers, individuals that could not get insurance through traditional places, people that had prior traffic violations.
He asked me a question that just kind of floored me. He said, we're trying to find out about your brother's lifestyle.
There was a drawer in Bob's desk that was locked, and you'd have to use a screwdriver to manipulate the lock to be able to open it.
From the top of the roof all through the grass, ditches, sewers, everywhere. We could not find the wallet. Wallet's going to be 90% of the time in a man's back pocket.
And to get that wallet out, you would have had the struggle between the wallet and the inside of the pants, which caused some friction. I recommended that we cut the pants pockets out and send them to the crime lab. We just thought maybe a sample of skin cells could be found inside Bob's pocket.
When we touch something or brush up against something, some of our DNA is transferred to the other object. If they're located, those skin cells can be broken down into DNA.
Yes, sir. It was the first time that I'd ever heard of anybody's pants pockets getting cut out.
While one team is feverishly working to gather physical evidence, another team is talking to anyone they can find, talking to family, friends, anything that will help them glean information about Bob Eidman.
How would you describe his relationship to authority growing up? Not good. He defied authority with regularity. He had to go to summer school every summer. In fact, my parents tried to bribe him and said, hey, if you can graduate from high school in four years, we'll give you a car. He's like, show me the car first.
He kept saying, you know, if I don't make this in the next couple months, I'm not sure. I might go under. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it.
Think about all that financial stress. At least one person thinks it was taking a terrible toll. I thought he committed suicide.
At 10.50 a.m., you see the vehicle drive past the front doors, And four minutes later, you see it drive past the front doors, I believe a little slower, and almost like creeping along, looking for something. Was this driver making sure the coast was clear? It wasn't the greatest picture, I remember that. It's always frustrating when you can't identify the people inside the vehicle.
One thing we can tell is a white four-door vehicle.
We were doing missing person flyers, talking to local media. We were trying to push this out there as much as we can.
We had to expand our investigation and look into everything about her life that was going on at that time.
East Alton Police Department, which is a separate police department from ours. So we were not aware of that at the time that Bonnie went missing. There was nothing 100% that told us that the two were linked. So at that point, we're having to do a dual investigation.
Our investigation revealed that around June 10th, Heather went with her teacher, that was Christine Scheffel, and Bonnie knew about this.
I wanted to get the history of how she became engaged with Heather's life. And then the number one question is, where is she now? She was last with you. Where is she at?
Bonnie Woodward got off around 3 PM that day. She was working at what was called Eunice Smith Nursing Home here in Dalton. It was a normal day of work for her.
In obtaining the reports, it was clear that Bonnie wanted to find her stepdaughter. And she was not getting the information she wanted from the teacher. And she was adamant that no matter what, she was going to find her.
There was nothing that we could really prove that she knew where Heather was. But clearly, I'm still skeptical. Are they telling the whole truth?
With her lack of intent on trying to find Heather, and if she was that much of a mentor to her, why wasn't she more concerned about Heather's whereabouts if she didn't know?
The East Salton Police Department received a call from the library that there's a person saying that she's Heather Woodward. With all the speculation going around, I wanted to hear what she had to say.
Physical condition for Heather was not of anything that was of a concern. There was no injury to her. Clearly, she had been being taken care of. OK.
I was taken back that how can she be actually 18 years of age.
Heather's thought of it was it wasn't that big of a deal that Bonnie had disappeared. It didn't come across to me that she had a lot of concern about where Bonnie was at the time. What do you think happened to her?
You know, I gave her the safe space to talk to me about situations in the home. And pretty much the extent of it was that she was being made to do chores and clean the house. You know, typical things that I think a lot of teenagers and youths do and should be doing.
From what she told multiple people, she was being physically and verbally and mentally abused. You know, it doesn't go beyond the realm of possibility that maybe she was embellishing more about that relationship between her and Bonnie to pull the heartstrings of people that, you know, were close to her, that could be of assistance to her.
There's maybe more to this than just taking care of Heather.
Nobody had seen her. This was very abnormal for Bonnie. She was always in communication with her family.
Both Monica and Roger were in the medical field, and their son Nathan was a typical 16-year-old high school student. There was no criminal history on record for them, no police involvement, no arrests or anything like that.
We obviously had to explore the avenue of, are they involved with Bonnie?
We went to their listed address in the Jersey County area. They're living in among 60 acres of property. It's just a lot of wooded, open land.
We towed the vehicle to our police department and ultimately processed this vehicle for any evidence related to our case.
They went down to Monica's parents in Goreville, Illinois on a small trip, just the four of them.
Her red Chevy Avalanche was still parked at the nursing home, had not moved from the previous date. Windows had been down even during the overnight hours. She loved that truck.
And detectives grow even more suspicious when Heather shares that Roger and his son Nathan returned home by themselves on the same day Bonnie disappeared.
Both Roger and Monica plead not guilty to this charge, but this turns out to be a helpful tool for investigators.
In getting those charges, we can also get fingerprints. We can get photographs.
At that point, it was clear that there was something wrong. and Gary reported her disappearance to our department the morning of the 26th. When we work on the missing person and we're dealing with an adult, you have to keep in mind the possibility if they just want to take a break. They want to get away from family and friends, and that's natural.
It was a needle in a haystack. We had 60 acres of property. We didn't know where to look, what to look for. Nathan, you agreed to walk us through a few areas that are of interest in our investigation. We got a hit on the prints.
She now is starting to put everything together and is fearing for her own life at the same time.
It was a needle in a haystack. We had 60 acres of property. We didn't know where to look, what to look for. Neighbors are stunned by the police operation.
Also, I have to look into what's usual and what's their history.
Oh, there was probably close to 30 firearms at this residence. Multiple crates of ammunition were also seen.
The cadaver dogs did alert on certain areas of the property, but subsequent digs of those areas revealed no results.
There's a third interview with Heather. Heather stays firm during this interview that she didn't have anything to do with it.
The police process Rogers Grace and Anne, but here's the thing. They don't find any fibers or DNA belonging to Bonnie or even her fingerprints. And they don't come up with much of the Carroll house either.
After the search in September, there was really no evidence found at the residence that 100% put Bonnie there at the Carroll property.
Family members and friends felt that he needed to be charged with murder. But based on it only being a circumstantial case at this point, that would have been quite a stretch for us.
Monica talked about conversations that she thought was odd about where specifically Bonnie worked, what type of work schedule she had.
She now is starting to put everything together and is fearing for her own life at the same time.
Pretty much. With the clock ticking, the Auden detectives start their missing person investigation where you'd expect, at the last place she was reportedly seen.
Something happened. Otherwise, I think you would have questioned it, your internal feelings.
And you're not aware of anything else in your history with Roger or, you know, with Nathan that he would be talking about other than Bonnie Woodward?
We knew that Monica was not there at that time. And we were also pretty confident that she didn't show up until a day later.
Yes, didn't miss any work at all, and certainly wouldn't miss without calling in.
Yeah, windows were rolled down. So you would have to imagine that she expected to come back to the vehicle.
No. At that time, there was no surveillance back here that we could rely on.
But the next detail may be the most disturbing of all. Nathan tells the grand jury that his dad had him light a fire in the backyard and testifies he watched as his father loaded Bonnie's body into a bucket loader, a tractor with a scoop on the front of it, and bring her to that burn pit.
Without any surveillance footage, officers are hopeful that Bonnie's car may actually give them some clues as to what may or may not have happened.
How can she be actually 18 years of age? And an even stranger story about her missing mother.
During our search in September of 2010, we had 60 acres that we had to worry about. Now we have a few hundred feet. Nathan, you've agreed to... Just walk us through a few areas that are of interest in our investigation involving your father and the investigation of missing person Bonnie Woodward.
Nathan points out the back corner of the residence where he found Bonnie's body and saw her, where the shot had come from.
The vehicle, there's no significant damage to it or anything like that that would cause us any alarm. And upon looking at the inside, there was no evidence of a struggle. So we ended up having this vehicle towed to our police department, secured until we could process it and also dust it for prints.
It was in that site that we did find a 9-millimeter cartridge, which was significant because Nathan had identified that Roger had used a 9-millimeter handgun ultimately that day in shooting Bonnie.
So we had a site number three for where this was dumped into the creek bed. Was that tractor with the bucket end on it? Correct.
In my years as a prosecutor, I did five cases where the victim's body wasn't found. And it's a gamble. So sometimes what you'll do in lieu of that is you have the person declared dead. It can, depending on the case, really help the jury.
In opening statements, the prosecution detailed what they say happened during Bonnie's kidnapping, including the fact that Roger Carroll's fingerprints were found on her car. They also brought in Roger Carroll's suicide attempt.
And so then we have to look at what other troubles that she may have in her life. We have to look at prior relationships. We have to look at Gary Wilmarth, her current boyfriend.
Heather Woodward, Bonnie's stepdaughter, takes the stand and tells jurors that she told Roger about Bonnie's whereabouts and her work schedule.
I have an old supervisor before I started my very first no body case, which I'll never forget. He said, always remember the jury can see the soul of your victim reflected in the eyes of those who love them.
Roger Carroll was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Something happened to her. She didn't just disappear on her own free will. So you knew something was really wrong? Pretty much.
And ultimately, he did end up doing a polygraph examination and passed it.
Nothing is out of the realm of possibility. How did she know this person?
We have to find out how Bonnie was during the day. Was she acting appropriate? Was she, you know, upset about anything? Okay, and so you went into this meeting. She was in the meeting. You got out around 3 o'clock, and you... What happened then?
Nathan, you can agree to walk us through a few areas. We're running out of time.
Turns out, Wanda is not the only coworker to have witnessed this strange sighting. Multiple people report to police seeing this mystery man sitting in a gray or silver sedan, similar to a Chevy Malibu, waiting for Bonnie to get out of her staff meeting.
So the gray Chevy Malibu was directly to the right of her vehicle.
Yeah. After the meeting, people would see her interacting with him outside both vehicles and ultimately got into the car with him.
The information regarding the person that people had seen on that parking lot was crucial.
So talking to the family and friends, did anybody like a past relationship match the description?
With Chester, it was a very rocky relationship that Bonnie had with him.
Chester McAdams was willing and cooperative with us. Ultimately, did not have direct access to a vehicle that was like that. And also, we checked in with his employer, and they confirmed that he was at work. So that was a dead end for us. The family of a missing Alton woman is now offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who can find her.
My name is Scott McGregor. In 2013, I was a detective for the Windsor Police Department. Mr. Troklos was found in a bedroom on the upper part of the house, in his bed. We found him that he had been shot three times.
You obviously start looking for evidence, and when you can't find spent shell casings, once again you go back to whoever did this, you know, took the time to retrieve those casings and not leave evidence behind. That kind of tells us that the person planned this out, knew to cover their steps, which ultimately makes our investigation harder.
When we start any murder investigation, we want to do a timeline. We want to start trying to find out who was with John,
We learned that John, the day before, the last person to see him was his grandson, Nathan Carman. We learned that through talking to Nathan, talking to We have to treat everyone as a possible suspect. Family, associates, people who worked in the office, neighbors, anything, anyone could have done this.
She was an acquaintance of John, who was going to the casino, staying overnight. The night of the homicide, she confirmed that she had talked to John, but she was kind of quickly dismissed as being involved.
He had had an alibi that night. It was confirmed. I think he was actually out of the state at the time. I think we found him in Rhode Island.
Windsor, Connecticut, a typical small town. Pretty nice community. You know, not a lot of crime.
In Delta. Uh-huh. And somebody tried to torch our car. So the car actually got torched in Delta?
You have no idea who would do this to you or Allen? No, not at all.
Do you know anyone that would have a problem with you?
Does Alan Jr. know where you guys live now? Yes, he's been there.
What was the relationship between Alan and Alan Jr. three to four months ago? Same. Same distance?
The place had been ransacked, but nothing seemed to have been taken.
He's been completely out of character drastically for the last, since January. It's odd for my dad. You've seen him change his character. And maybe not so much see him change his character, but through her, I can't even get to him.
I'm like, well, Dad, is your home phone hooked up? He's like, no. I'm like, well, how does anybody get a hold of you? Well, Mary doesn't want you to bother me.
I don't think he had a clue. But he said he couldn't even stand up. He was so dizzy.
She's being investigated for a homicide. You don't ever know that she doesn't have a gun. If she sees you and she's scared, knows what's going on, it's a real game out there at that point.
I was a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement here in the Jacksonville field office. I got a call from Asa County Sheriff's detectives, and they were investigating a homicide in Colorado.
They handcuffed her and set her right on the ground. She had a blank expression on her face, like a little bit angry looking almost.
He was much less involved in my life. He was much more distant. I called him, and when I didn't get to his phone, I called Miriam's phone.
Thank you for coming down and helping us get to the bottom of this. We appreciate it. It's Miriam, right?
What time is it now? I probably got there about 10, around 10.
Did he have any enemies, any problems with any of his contracting work going on, any disputes? Would he share that with you if he did?
Sure, so absolutely. The following day, during daylight hours, we came out and began canvassing the area. And upon doing so, we found this video surveillance camera right here. And this is the camera that actually captured the person walking through the complex with an exaggerated limp, walking towards the BNSF. where Rob was found dead.
Yeah, I think, I mean, again, for me, just as a human, as a daughter, as you know, aside from being a law enforcement officer, it's just like incomprehensible that somebody could do that to somebody, especially if it's your own son. And it's just so graphic. I don't really have words for it, to be honest.
Yeah. It's just, um, yeah, I don't know. It just is, um, I just don't know how somebody could do that to somebody else, especially if it's their parents, right? We go to homicides all the time. We go to murders all the time. And a lot of that stuff is in the heat of the moment, domestic related, what have you, gang related. This is just a whole nother level of emotion.
Right. It just doesn't make sense. My brain can't wrap around what would make somebody think that that's their option.
Call it a curse, I call it really playing with fire. Neither of the victims had anything in their background that would suggest that they would fall prey to such a crime.
It catered to celebrities and big money people in Los Angeles.
You're really rubbing elbows with the creme de la creme and you're in the fast lane.
It's got all the elements that you would want in a Hollywood script. It has jewels, greed, sex,
And Chris Monson did what best friends do. Christopher Monson is really the tragedy in this case in the sense that he wanted to be there to make sure nothing happened to his friend.
Let there be no mistake, this is a really brutal crime. And somebody knows what happened.
Michael Tardio, he's out in L.A., he's kind of living the fast life.
Chris Monson is running the family's business here. By all accounts, Tardio and Monson were close friends and hadn't been in trouble with the law.
It's not the kind of place that normally that you're going to find two people murdered on the street. And so the theory is that the two men were shot somewhere else. and then brought to that street where the car was later lit on fire.
She's one of the kind of the first wave of, you know, post-divorce Hugh Hefner women who are living at the mansion while he's single and sewing his elves.
Firefighters and cops descend on this normally sleepy neighborhood. And when the firefighters extinguished the blaze and they got a closer look, what they saw shocked them. Inside, two young men, their bodies riddled with bullets. When the detectives roll up to this, I mean, the first thing that pops into their minds is this is some kind of a gang killing or it's related to drugs somehow.
Mark Yagala has showered Sandy Bentley with millions of dollars worth of gifts, fur, car, jewelry. And it's that jewelry that becomes key to this case.
The victims were 35-year-old Michael Tardio, a doorman in a Hollywood nightclub. And he's doing modeling on the side. And 31-year-old Chris Monson. He was a loyal friend. And for that loyalty, he got repaid with a shower of bullets.
Well, I think that Dan Osborne felt that he probably owed the Macs some gratitude. He was an employee for the Mac family. Whether it's poor judgment or not, or whether it's fear or not, he chose to allow Darren to see his daughter. Based on Osborne's story, police rushed to Darren's condo.
As we looked around the property a little bit closer, we found three droplets of blood in the driveway near the garage door.
It refers to ending the problem, and then it also referred to certain weapons that he would need to fulfill those plans.
The shooter's vehicle pulled into the parking garage, drove up to the fifth floor. Moments later, the vehicle made a three-point turn and backed in so that the rear of the vehicle was facing the Mills Lane Justice Center. I think he knew what he set out to do on June 12, and he followed his plan piece by piece.
Well, I believe it was a calculated explosion of violence. We know that the judge was shot at about 11.05. The video surveillance camera shows the Ford Explorer's rear hatch being closed at 11.05, and the vehicle flees the parking garage immediately.
It would take some skill, but Darren Mack has an extensive history in hunting, and I believe for somebody with his firearms background, this would be a very reasonable shot.
The shooter entered the parking garage shortly after 10.30 on June 12th. That vehicle was captured on the video surveillance system inside of the parking garage, which is how we know what time the vehicle arrived and left.
They conducted several interviews and canvases. However, they were unable to ultimately determine if it was Darren Mack that was at that resort.
What prompted Darren Mack to surrender? The only thing that I can think is that he was obsessed with exposing what he believed were Judge Weller's injustices.
A pair of shoes with some blood spatter were in the suitcase. Some other clothing with what appeared to be blood stains were in the suitcase.
The DNA profile matches that of Sharla Mack.
We know that the judge was shot at about 11.05 and the vehicle flees the parking garage immediately.
The dispatch call came out of a sniper-style shooting at the courthouse shortly after 11-06.
Heavily armed police quickly made their way through nearby buildings. You're looking up, you're checking buildings. We could at least narrow down the area the shot came from because the bullet went through a glass window.
A few moments later, the dog came in covered in blood.
may have realized that that was going to be the last time he'd see his daughter, at least as a free man.
Are the calcium pills still at home? I'm thinking there's something more here than meets the eye. Would you mind if I followed you back to your home and collected those? No, that'd be great. Not at all? Okay.
He was sexually active with other partners throughout his marriage.
They tell each other they love each other. There are trips taken together. There are flowers sent.
A lot of the ladies of the church recalled Bob being on and off the phone.
Bradley was seven, and Bradley remembered Daddy being on the phone a lot then.
He came back to a woman named Mary Gipp. Did you go talk to Mary Gipp? We tried to talk to her, yes.
She was a smart aleck. I don't know why I did what I did. She was a bitch. Somebody shot?
And I hope they find the guy. My job was to keep an eye on him. Soon. To make sure that Mr. Frada didn't try to take off with the kids.
He said, hey, Larry. I said, Bob. And he goes, am I going to jail today? And I said, not today, Bob. Soon, but not today.
So Farrah got her hair done, pulled into her garage. It just so happened that when Farrah came home that night and backed into her garage, the neighbors that lived directly across from the garage saw her come home.
He was still a baby. We did not want to scar him for life.
It was horrible to have to have a child come into a courtroom and talk about it, much less see their dad, and he still loved his dad. It was horrible.
Remember how you felt? Relief. Relief that it's done, that it's over, that we did our job, and that the right thing happened.
Listen, when you're a prosecutor, you want to make dang sure you have the right person who's committed a crime. And when I'm convinced that I have and all the evidence points to that person being guilty, I will very aggressively, following the law and following the rules, do everything that I can to make that case strong enough to withstand a conviction and appeal. Yes, I'll do that.
No. How can you say that all the evidence against Bob Frotta is hearsay evidence when you have those phone records? You have that divorce motivation. You have all those people he solicited. You have the weapon. No, I don't agree.
Bob Frada was nowhere near the murder scene when Fara was shot. He had definite proof to say Bob wasn't there. Bob was at catechism with us.
How many people use church as their alibi and use their own children as their alibi? Who does that?
There was things that he liked to have performed that I don't know if CBS wants to air on prime time.
She was upset. She was crying. What did she tell you had happened? She was in bed, and a male came into her house, had a mask on, and stunned her with a stun gun. She was terrified.
I said, Bob, I know what you're up to. It's not going to work. You need to leave her alone.
I said, Bob, I told you to leave her alone. And he told me I didn't do anything.
Farah Frada, a very pretty lady, her story was pretty tragic once she married Bob. The marriage was in a lot of trouble. A divorce was pending. It was November the 9th, 1994. That was an evening where Farrah had stopped to get her hair cut with no idea about what was going to happen. At the time Farrah was getting her hair cut,
Well, $1,000 is not unusual. $1,000 in your glove box on the night that your wife is murdered surely raises a lot of suspicion.
Would believe that that may be money to pay off a hitman.
I asked him a question that still sticks out in my mind today, the way he answered it. I said, Bob, what should happen to somebody that kills somebody? He said, they should go to jail forever. I said, what should happen to somebody that has their wife killed? And he told me it depended on the circumstances. What did you make of that? I walked out and I said, he killed her.
Soon. He's just happy-go-lucky. He's cheesing to the camera. He gave all indications that he thought he was going to get away with this murder.
We find out where he goes. Anywhere he visits, we're going to visit.
Hey, you know anybody kill my wife? I'm trying to get my wife killed. What about some of these people you work with? Think they might be interested?
The shooter and the getaway driver were in a car together on the way to Farr's house, and the shooter was going to hide in the backyard. On that same evening, Bob had picked up all three of the kids. It was his night for visitation.
There were quite a few women that called in to tell us that they had information for us about Dr. Schwartz.
Dr. Brian Stidham was a man who came to Tucson from Texas, who brought his wife and family here. Dr. Stidham was an eye surgeon.
Some of the witnesses that came forward had told us that Dr. Schwartz had said that he would not have committed the murder himself, that he would have someone do it for him.
There was a feeling of fear among the other doctors.
What's so significant about this is that this store is across the street and just 400 feet north of the murder scene.
When we came here, we talked to a woman by the name of Jennifer Dainty. She was a clerk in the store at the time. And she described to us a man who had come in that night who was acting very agitated, who was moving very quickly. I was working that night. A gentleman came in wearing scrubs, walked around the store.
So when he was walking around the store looking over the things, you watch him and see what they're up to. Plus, he used a phone. Nobody ever uses a phone. She described this man as wearing light blue scrubs.
How did the scrubs work out? And that particular phrase became a very, very important part of this case.
Dr. Schwartz wanted to have an alibi at the time of the murder. Therefore, we wouldn't be able to pin it on him. So we needed to find Bruce.
And she immediately picked him out as being the man in scrubs that was in her store the night of the murder.
Yes. We are putting together a case where we're saying a doctor hired a hitman to kill another doctor.
This is the residence inn where Mr. Bigger stayed on the night of the murder.
So we had a lot of concerns about what is this man capable of? What is he willing to do to get out of this?
As I was driving to work one day, I received a phone call from a friend of mine. And she said, are you listening to the radio? They're talking about your case. You need to turn on KRQ.
There was a man by the name of Danny Lopez that Dr. Schwartz had approached.
The information in Danny Lopez's wallet told me that he had actually tried to hire somebody else to kill Dr. Stidham previous to October of 2004.
Putting acid in his eyes so that he couldn't see. That he'd be happy if he was six feet under. He said he wanted him dead.
It was very shocking to the Tucson community.
First of all, we need to know about the victim. We need to know who the victim is, what kind of lifestyle they led, any problems that they had with anybody.
What I knew was that Dr. Stidham had worked that evening, did not come home. At his regular time, his wife didn't know what had happened to him. And his vehicle, his 1992 Lexus, was missing.
I didn't do that. If just one of these women would have called the Sheriff's Department, then we could have potentially prevented Dr. Stidham's murder.
And he helped children. He was a family man. He was just this wonderful human being. His life was cut short.
She, according to the detectives there at the scene, she had already asked them prior to them even telling her that her husband was dead if he had been shot, if he had died. So that was kind of an unusual response.
She was looking over an estate planning document.
She told them that the only person she could think of, the only person that disliked her husband was a man by the name of Dr. Bradley Schwartz.
I thought, there's no way. There's no way a doctor is going to hold a grudge for two years and then seemingly out of the blue attack.
I think it was very, very fast. It didn't give him a moment to react. He wasn't able to fight back.
There was blood spatter on the exterior of the vehicle. There was blood spatter on the interior of the vehicle as well.
I received the call around 11 PM. I arrived at the scene at midnight, and there was a dead man lying in the parking lot over here. I'm Jill Murphy, and I was the lead investigator in the Stidham homicide. Dr. Stidham was stabbed 15 times. This was a very violent attack.
She told us that Dr. Schwartz had confided in her that he hated Dr. Stidham and that he wanted to see Dr. Stidham six feet under.
He was having marital issues. He was having affairs.
Dr. Schwartz was incensed. He was angry. He felt that Dr. Stidham was taking patients. And Dr. Schwartz, he was powerless to do anything about it because he was unable to practice.
It is shocking to find a doctor lying in a dark parking lot so brutally murdered.
Morale was affected. Every day we walked in and looked at those pictures and it affected every one of us differently every single day. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat.
Hours and hours and hours of good old-fashioned detective work.
And then we reviewed those tapes, looked at all of the license plate numbers, ran all those plates so that we knew who was out there on East Sprague.
We'd come out, initially we were out here two or three nights a week.
One of our jobs was, in fact, to get to know the women that worked the street and hopefully gain their trust.
This is basically the area that she was recovered. She had a hot tub cover placed over her.
you get close to those families and you watch what they go through and you start going through that too you don't give up frustrating as it already was the spokane serial killer case was about to get worse homicide detectives say the woman's head had been covered with a plastic bag
As the sheriff, I had to fight the policymakers in this community to make sure that our funding didn't get withdrawn for this investigation before it was done. We will solve this case when we run across the right person.
We didn't have probable cause to stop and search that car at that time. They might do that in Los Angeles. But the people in this county elected me to protect their constitutional rights.
They had nothing to lose. If we start putting information out about our case, who are we communicating with? We're communicating with our suspect.
Nine, ten women would still be alive. Isn't it easy to Monday morning quarterback We look back now at what we've done. We're not saying we didn't make mistakes. Did we cause some women to die as a result of that? I don't think so, and I don't think that's a fair statement.
This book is about one thing. It's about money. It's about monetary gain for Mr. Fuhrman. You read Mark Fuhrman's book.
You got a lot of markers. There are a lot of errors. Mark Furman is about Mark Furman.
To count six, premeditated murder in the first degree.
It was a whole learning experience for all of us, and many of us have been involved in homicide cases, but this was our first serial killer case.
Since the beginning of crime, it's been a cat and mouse game. We educate criminals. When we give them something, they learn how to fight what we do. When we come up with fingerprints, they learn to wear gloves. When we come up with DNA, they learn to wear a condom.
We took him off the street before he could create any new victims.
That would be ludicrous. All fairness to Mark Furman, I have all the respect for him that I do any other convicted felon in this community.
There was confirmatory tests. There were some spots found on the carpet for human blood.
This was the home of Ramona Croteen and Jeffrey Croteen. And this is the house where we believe Ramona Croteen was killed.
We have a trail of Ramona's blood from the master bedroom, down the stairs, through the laundry room, and into the garage.
Everything that Croteen felt that there was blood on, he got either rid of it or changed it, painted it, or threw it out.
What forensic scientists said, it came from a spontaneous hit where blood shot out.
Well, Mel Twining then should have said something because he never said nothing. Sue Ziegler's never said nothing. We at Brook Park never heard of that call. Was that Ramona Croteen? No, I believe Ramona Croteen was already dead at that time.
We just felt that was a straight-up robbery when it started.
At that point, we did believe there was a robbery. We did not believe that Ramona Crote arrived home.
The more we got to know Ramona Croteen's background, it made us more determined to find out who did this. Detective Timothy Robinson, case investigator for the Ramona Croteen death.
We started hearing the tidbits. We heard about the headboard, and I was like, wow, that's weird.
That's it. Basically, he refused to cooperate with the police. He never even asked us about his wife.
Never called us to see how the investigation's going.
Starting to alter things here. He's changing carpet. We had heard he painted the bedrooms. We're gonna check it out. We're curious now too.
We learned that when they went into that bedroom, there was a six foot section, four foot by six foot cut out and missing, carpet and padding.
Through the years, they focused on Tim Masters. The Hetrick Homicide was opened and closed, went cold. It was Lieutenant Broderick that reopened the case.
This was a single-minded investigation. There was one man after one suspect.
I was a policeman in Fort Collins when it happened.
She moved her hand and she heard it go zzzz. Und dann hat sie es zurückgezogen. Und dann hat sie es zurückgezogen. Und dann hat sie es zurückgezogen. Und dann hat sie es zurückgezogen. Und dann hat sie es zurückgezogen. Sie war so nah dran.
There was evidence at the crime scene that eliminated Tim Masters and it was not told to the jury.
Ich habe Broderick im Haus gesprochen, weil wir aus der Meister-Bedung geschaut haben.
Drawn to murder. Tonight's 48 Hours Mystery.
Als ich fand, dass sie ihn zerstören werden, habe ich es verloren.
Yes. I wanted to watch every one of the tapes seized. Because I thought she could have been there.
Er wurde von dem, was von Hetrick entfernt wurde, fotografiert.
in the parking lot. He had been wrapped in what appeared to be an electric blanket. And then outside of that was what appeared to be a blue plastic tarp.
You actually went down in the storm drain? It's an eight foot tall storm drain that's 15 feet below where we are standing right now. And I actually walked that 94 feet looking for any physical evidence. What I found was that this storm drain was clean. I didn't even find gravel or broken glass in here.
The tire tracks that backed up to this body were the same make, model, and size as the tires that were on the Penske truck that Tracy had rented.
Tracy had finally made the decision that she was just going to have to kill David. And she shot him while he was sleeping. Then she rented a moving truck and waited until the cover of night to move his body.
You use a furniture dolly. It would just be a matter of rolling him onto that dolly and strapping him down.
And she could just sweep him into that storm drain and he would just disappear forever.
See, now we're getting back into everybody's line that Tracy did. No, that's not what I'm saying.
Every item purchased by that woman was found in the home when we searched it.
I'd heard some innuendo from Tracy and her attorneys that somehow there was this large insurance policy. Everything checked out. There was never anything suspicious about Donna's behavior. Almost nothing Tracy told us checked out. Every trail led to Tracy.
I think it was money, and I think it was a sense of entitlement.
I think he could have been killed for $80 if it had suited Tracy.
Since David and Tracy lived together, she was our key witness. She was the one we wanted to talk to the most.
Once we met her, her demeanor was completely not what I expected or not what would be normal under those circumstances.
The first thing she asked was how did they identify him, which I thought was an extremely suspicious response.
This was a pretty brutal crime. Just cold, calculated murder.
So it's time to be honest. What happened today?
She could never tell the truth during that entire interview. She was evasive, and sometimes she just out and out lied.
We took PVC, acoustical tile, wire, glues, foams.
We thought it was unusual that he would have that, so we photographed it.
As a remembrance. Basically, don't forget. You get personally involved in it.
I think money had a lot to do with it.
I can't think of anything more horrific than a mother using her child. It's... I don't know.
Skyler had recruited a gang member from Long Beach named John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He's with a gang called Insane Crips.
Er ist fähig, Entscheidungen zu machen, Dinge über einen Zeitraum zu planen.
They were good, loyal friends and they loved each other. You could look up love in the dictionary and you'd see these two people there.
Sie wollten keinen Job, sie wollten andere Menschen Geld nehmen.
Ja, das war es. Sie lebten dort. Es ist fast so, als ob sie für einen kurzen Trip weggegangen wären und zurückgekommen wären. Alles ist in Ordnung, so wie es war, als sie daran lebten. Das ist das Hauptgebäude, wo Thomas und Jackie schliefen.
Thomas Hawkes wird dann aufgeführt, weil sie nicht zurückkehren.
Jackie hört zuerst eine Verbrechung in der Stadthalle. Und jetzt sieht sie Thomas Hawkes getötet von John Fitzgerald Kennedy und von Skyler de Leon.
Alonso weiß, dass er seinen Teil machen muss. Er beginnt, Jackie zu überwachen, indem er den Taser anzieht. Er überwacht diese arme Frau und legt sie in Hände. Skyler und John Fitzgerald Kennedy verletzten Thomas Hawks und hängten ihn an. Und dann kamen Jacky Hawks nach unten mit Thomas Hawks und sie standen auf ihrem Bett.
Skyler sagte Alonzo, dass er sich ein bisschen Datteln geben würde. Skyler instruierte ihn, Datteln über den Mund und die Augen zu geben. Und er machte das.
Die Papiere sind festgelegt, sie haben einen Inkblatt mitgebracht. Jackie weint natürlich immer noch. Sie kann sich nicht helfen und das ist verständlich. Sie entfernen einen Handtuch und ein wenig von der Tape, damit sie sehen kann, dass der Instruktor ihren Namen signiert. Sie rollen ihre Fingerprinte. Dann beginnt Skyler, verschiedene Fragen zu ihren Accounts zu stellen.
Tom and Jackie had so much fun on the boat, I'm jealous of what they were able to do with that thing. They got to swim with dolphins, whales, pull into ports of call, go to little bars where mariachi bands are playing. They truly had the dream life.
Und er verabschiedet sich von all dem Papier, rollt seine Fingerprinte und gibt ihm die Informationen, die er beantragt hat.
Skyler came up and punched in coordinates, which sent him out to Santa Catalina.
And these people were living a dream and Skyler just took it.
He hears that chain come, there's no doubt. Because when Skyler gets behind him and starts to, he actually hooks the anchor to the rope. So now this anchor is now attached to these two poor people.
Er wusste sein Bestand, und ich glaube, das ist der Grund, warum er das letzte Mal zurückgegriffen hat. Und er macht im Grunde einen Reverse-Mule-Kick mit seinem Bein und schießt Skyler. Er schießt ihn so stark, dass Skyler sich von seinen Beinen öffnet und auf seine Rückseite landet. John Fitzgerald Kennedy ist dort, wo du bist. Er sieht das, und JFK ist ein großer Mann.
Und er levelt ihn, er schießt ihn. Es schießt Thomas Hawks aus, weil der Schuss so stark und so violent ist.
Actually, the DeLeons were both listed in the initial missing person report.
Talking about this money that he had to launder, he was very at ease telling us this stuff.
We've got surveillance videos of her smiling ear to ear, you know, trying to basically steal these people's money.
Er hat mich einfach immer gefragt, mit wem ich verhaftet werde. Als ich ihm gesagt habe, dass es Geldlöschung war, konnte ich diesen Eindruck von Erleichterung sehen.
We found their video camera. The Hawks' video camera. Yes. We found Jackie's laptop computer and then the batteries to Thomas and Jackie's Sprint Nextel phones. On December 16th we get a call from San Miguel Village, Mexico, saying that the Hawks' vehicle is there.
Und dann haben wir herausgefunden, dass das Fahrzeug eine Woche vorher von Skyler verlassen wurde. Er folgte ihm in einem anderen Auto mit seiner Frau Jennifer.
Wir haben es aus dem Ballpark geschlagen, dass Matt Murphy unser DA ist.
Ich habe Matt angerufen und gesagt, ein Boot dieser Größe wird sicherlich zwei Anker haben. Geht mit den Jungs auf die Boote, zählt die Anker, die da sind.
He is the only one in this investigation that actually had a conscience. And it was that guilty conscience eating at him.
I was able to cuff Mrs. Hawkins, just so you know what's going on.
Skyler was looking for the anchor to push them over. Machain also told police about the muscle for the murder.
Es ist fast schwer, die Wahrheit zu erzählen. Nachdem ich zurückblicke, was er tun konnte, erschreckt er mich. Ich wache immer noch auf.
They tie him up, he called Jennifer. The time they were killed, he made a call to Jennifer. When they were turning back after throwing these poor people off a boat, he made a call to Jennifer.
Du kannst keinen Hollywood-Film machen. Das ist horrifisch.
Ich hoffe auf den Todspenalty. Wenn jemand einen Todspenalty verdient, ist es Skyler DeLeon.
Seitdem das Ganze angefangen hat, schaue ich jeden Tag in den Ozean und sage Hi zu Tom und Jackie. Jeden Tag. Ich mache einen Punkt, wo ich sage Hallo zu ihnen beide.
Zeit, dass ich auf dem Schiff bin und ich mag es nicht.
Ich habe die Hebe-Tubes auf diesem Boot. Ich fühle mich einfach nicht zufrieden. Man beginnt zu denken, nur versucht sich zu vorstellen, was sie erleben. Und es ist zu verrückt. Es ist. Die Boote sind unterwegs. Es ist Nachtzeit. Es ist kalt. Sie wissen nicht, was passiert.
Es macht mich verrückt. Es macht mich so wütend. Und wenn man darüber nachdenkt, muss man sich das aus dem Kopf nehmen, weil es so schrecklich ist.
It was a muddy day. It was raining. And there was no evidence of any type of a splash mark on the shoes. There was no mud on the shoes. And each one of the shoes were tied with the shoelaces tied on the outside of the shoe as if somebody had put the shoes on Mr. Dorotek.
I walked into the room and I had seen blood on the ceiling and I saw some blood across the comforter on the bed.
There was no evidence of any type of vehicle accident.
He had blood on his face. There was blood near the back of his head. And I could see that there was a rope around his neck. What did that say to you? It was obvious to me that it was a homicide.
How severely? He had extensive fractures to the skull, had lost a tremendous amount of blood, and strangulation was a contributing factor as to the cause of death as well as the bludgeoning.
There was only one person, in my opinion, that could have done this to Mr. Dorotek, and that was his wife, Jane Dorotek.
There was no question in our mind that this assault occurred in the master bedroom.
It appeared to be the exact same type of rope that was found around his neck.
And she had a very close relationship with them, didn't she?
Everyone had come off the plane and they had not located Piper, Tina, whoever would have been traveling under that name.
Got up around 4.30 the next morning. Didn't get much sleep that night? No, not at all.
We were interested in talking to Piper. Now, certainly we were not ignoring anything that would lead us in a different direction, but at that point, it was a pretty good place to begin.
Knocked on the door, rung the doorbell, looked in the garage. We can see the Jeep Liberty sitting in there. We were probably outside her house for a good 10 to 15 minutes, milling about, peeking in windows and knocking on the door, trying to get someone to come to the door. Never did.
We drove the whole half hour plus down to Tina's house.
She did. We got a call from Sergeant Ferguson, who was sitting outside her house. He saw her vehicle leaving the driveway. A vehicle like this one.
I met Piper and thought she was odd until I met her sister and realized that Piper was the least of the two.
And what turned out was she began to head south on the interstate. We were heading north on the interstate. At some point, we turned around and got in behind her. And the chase was on. We were certainly following her vehicle, hoping to be able to talk to her one-on-one when she stopped.
Absolutely. At one point she made kind of a last minute diversion from one off ramp, well back onto the interstate and of course we're doing the same little serpentine move. And yeah, I think she definitely knew.
She pulled into a parking spot. I got out of the car, approached hers and introduced myself, introduced the other people around me. She said, come on inside. And we walked into the open door.
There was also a female there, Tina Roundtree, Piper's sister.
Am I going to call them both nutty? Okay, they're both nutty.
I wanted to ask her, who do you think would have done something like this? And that was a good entree into getting her to talk to us.
And certainly anyone could understand that a mother concerned about her kids and the police were not putting her in touch with the kids. Anybody could understand that that would be an explanation for some of her behavior.
We had a conversation with her. She was fairly on target with where the kids, kids need to be with their mother, those sort of questions. She said, you bring the kids here or something to that effect and then we'll talk again. We ended up getting pretty much ejected from her house.
I think that neither one of them acted in the manner which we would expect family members would normally act when they've learned that a former loved one has been murdered.
She left a message for me saying that there were two people, a guy named Kevin O'Keefe and a lady named Cheryl Crider, who was a bartender at this volcano, that could put her in the volcano on that Friday night, which would be pretty good because she obviously couldn't be in Richmond at the same time she was there.
I think that neither one of them acted in the manner which we would expect family members would normally act when they've learned that a former loved one has been murdered. Both of them acted oddly, as far as I'm concerned.
And you've witnessed some of this abuse, either physically or emotionally?
In almost all cases, we never use just one sequencing of questions.
Well, it's definitely not your run-of-the-mill case. You have a suspect flying in from out of state, carrying the weapon with them. You have someone using a different identification. You have wigs and makeup and that sort of thing.
How often was she allowed to see her children?
And did you ever see the children once Fred got custody of them?
I said, it's Fred and he's dead. My pager went off at about 7.30 a.m. I was a man down at Hearth's Blow Lane, which is about three blocks from my home.
I was concerned about the children. I made inquiry. I said, well, has anyone checked on the children? Officer Harry Boyd's children were close friends with the Jablin children. And no one here at that point knew about any children. So I told them immediately there were three children somewhere.
All three children were asleep in their rooms. We got them out as quickly as possible through another door so they wouldn't come out into this area of the home, of course, and see Fred in the driveway.
It was tough for all of us. It was just a nightmare to have to do that. They were, of course, very upset. We explained to them that their father had been shot and that we were trying to find out who may have done that. and that they were going to be staying with me and my family until we could make arrangements to get their uncle and the rest of their family here.
We saw the person had come out here wearing a robe, wearing slippers.
I suspect that someone or something drew his attention back this direction as he was walking down to get the paper and that whatever confrontation took place probably happened right here in this area.
Are you speculating that perhaps Fred Javelin actually talked to this person?
I think, in my mind, I think so. We'll never be able to prove that. There was no one out here to hear anything like that, but I believe so.
And that would explain, yeah, the bullets entering through the back of the arm and out the forearm. and the other one entering his back and lodging inside his body.
We were trying to find out a little bit about the victim, talking to neighbors, talking to friends and family, and just try to find out if he had any enemies or anyone that would think to do something like this.
Well, I think initially maybe a student that hadn't done well in one of his classes. That comes to mind.
We were trying to get to his office and see if there's anything there that would give us a direction to go to.
I learned pretty early on that people said, I have no idea who would want to do this to Fred, but have you talked to his ex-wife?
In our conversations with some of the neighbors and people in the area, we knew that Piper did have a sister named Tina Roundtree.
We found that Southwest Airlines had a passenger on their manifest with the last name Roundtree. And, in fact, the name on the ticket was Tina Roundtree.
We did. And they got their people together. And it's getting closer to the point where the plane is going to land down there. So we were trying to explain to them a little bit about our situation and also get them to get to the airport where this plane was going to land to try to identify the person traveling under the ticket Tina Roundtree. So what happened in Houston?
Well, the detectives arrived down there, and they had a couple of detectives, a lieutenant that was down there, and several officers. And as they were approaching the gate, my understanding is that the plane was unloading.
He was a fairly precise individual. He taught at the University of Richmond. It was his regular pattern to get up, make some coffee, come outside, retrieve the newspaper. At 6.30, Fred Jablum went outside in his slippers to go get his newspaper, and he was gunned down in his driveway. My name's Kobe Kelly. I'm a homicide detective with the Henrico County Police.
They're definitely two peas out of the same pod. Tina and Piper are both the same type of person.
I just thought that's unbelievable. That's just, right away I'm thinking to myself, this is a bunch of crap.
There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that you're involved in the disappearance of John Altinger. No doubt in my mind at all, Mark. Why?
While waiting for the warrant, police began digging deeper into Mark's background. They were interested in speaking with anyone who had worked on House of Cards, enter Chris Huard, whose character meets an untimely bloody end in the film.
In that vehicle, we found a laptop computer. They pulled off the hard drive a deleted file titled SK Confessions.
One of the first lines, it says, I am not sure when I decided to become a serial killer, but it was a feeling of pure euphoria.
It was unbelievable. I just remember reading it all and just was fascinated by this document going, holy mackerel.
It just doesn't make sense. And when it doesn't make sense, where there's smoke, there's fire.
I believe your husband's got something to do with it, and it's quite possibly, you know, could be a homicide. I didn't really go into anything more, but I think that was enough. I mean, she was emotional.
They had been living in, basically sleeping in separate bedrooms. She was basically living on the main floor. He was living in the basement. So there was obviously troubles in paradise there. We knew that.
We found out that he was telling his wife he was going to work every day. He had no job. He was getting his friends to invest in his alleged movie-making business with his Hollywood connections. And basically, Mark Twitchell was living off their money.
It was basically almost like a movie script.
It's almost like at times Mark Twitchell lives in a fantasy world.
He thought he was way smarter than the police. One of the biggest mistakes I think that he made was he had no idea how we do our job. And that was a huge advantage to us.
When we got the word that the DNA matched, we briefed our tactical team, our arrest team, and we had officers ready to make the arrest.
We got an undercover operator to work the internet and pretend he was an investor. He was lured out on the promise to meet this guy at this coffee shop. And when he got about three blocks from his house, the tactical team swooped in on him and took him down. Tough guy Mark Twitchell peed his pants. He was so scared and it was a little taste of his own medicine, I guess.
As I told you that night, I knew that you were involved in the disappearance at that time of Johnny Altinger. That's changed slightly. I now know that you killed John Altinger.
No. Well, he knows not to say anything. Talking to his lawyers, he's not going to admit to anything.
We do believe as investigators that the account written by Mark Twitchell in that SK Confessions is exactly what he did to John Altinger.
It was just a huge piece of evidence because not only would it verify what was written in SK Confessions, it would also have a living witness. So it was paramount that we find this person.
I started tearing up while I was down on the ground. And he's deciding that I've got to do something or die. I mean, it's a life and death decision.
You know, one of the first things we did was check the police records, figuring hopefully someone called the police on this, and we have nothing.
One of the things they had found was a hockey mask. The SK Confessions talked about how Mark Twitchell had worn this mask when he attacked both victims, but we figured it was something the first victim would key on.
It was just an unbelievable interview. It had me on the edge of my seat. I'm sitting there going, well, it's like watching a movie on TV going, well, what's going to happen next?
How did he kill John? We know that he lured him to the garage in the same way he lured Gilles Tetreault. And then in this case, because he learned from Gilles that the taser didn't work, he hit him over the head with a lead pipe.
What was the most damning piece of evidence that you discovered? We had, you know, a luminol test done on the floor. Large amounts of blood had been spilled on the floor of the garage. Probably one of the biggest pieces, a piece of tooth that was found inside there.
Ultimately, Mark Twitchell drove around with it, according to the SK Confessions document. He even talked about driving around with them and pulling up beside people at red lights and looking at them and thinking that they don't know I have a dead body in the trunk of my car.
In any homicide investigation, you obviously want to bring closure to the family. So not only do you want to make that phone call saying, we got the guy that did this to your loved one, But in this case, we wanted to say to him, look, we found Johnny.
When you read all the experts' books about these type of individuals is they tend to like the media attention. So we thought, well, maybe if we drive him around and we'll put a camera on him, maybe we'll just take him to places. Because we had no idea where Johnny's remains were at that time.
So in order to finish the movie, we find the body, take it back to the people, family. Done.
And we first drove to his parents' house where he had been staying. We actually demanded that he tell us. He wouldn't.
Look familiar, Mark? Are we parked right on top of the sewer where you dumped the body? Next stop, the scene of the crime.
So here we are back at the killing garage, the Dexter garage. Bring back any memories? You want to tell us where the body is now? And get this over with?
So all these manhole covers were pulled off in this alley. So anytime I'd see one, I always had my flashlight with me and would get out and actually take a look.
Mark was willing to turn over something to the police. And right away, when I heard about it, I go, he's going to turn over Johnny.
They had three conditions, though. One was the police couldn't ask him any questions. The second one was no media could be present and no Bill Clark. So I kind of chuckled at that, so I thought I got to him.
just up here on the left. It's about a block south of his parents' house.
And he had marked an X. X marks the spot. It took us right to this sewer cover here. We could see what looked like pieces of human torso down there.
We felt it was just, like I say, without a doubt, the strongest case I've ever gone to court with. But you always go in with a jury trial going, you never know.
He watched his wife testify. He watched his girlfriend testify with just a blank stare on his face, no emotion.
Yet he's watching the video of me and he starts to puff up and starts to cry. And he turns around to me and he says to me, I'm sorry for lying to you. And then I put my hand up and said, whoa, Mark, you can't talk to me right now. And I just thought, oh, it was so phony. What did you say to Mark Twitchell in court?
If you believe Mark Twitchell in court, it was Stephen King. But everybody knows it means serial killer confessions.
He talks about how he was creating an urban legend and how he was going to lure Gilles in and Johnny in and there was never any intent to kill him and they were just going to be part of this urban legend and then... It would be about a guy who lured people to a garage and they got away and that was the whole plan.
He actually expected everyone to believe him in court. I had a tough time not getting out of my chair and just going, that's a bunch of crap, you know.
To me, he's a psychopathic killer that we've taken off the streets of this city. There's no doubt in my mind, or I think any in the investigative team, that he would have kept on killing. We caught him on his first one.
I think that ultimately his goal was to produce a movie on what he had done. He could sit back while he's producing it and just go, these guys are all acting this out, but in real life, I've actually done it.
To hear how everything happened, It's like you're watching the movies. You see this stuff happen. And you know it's a movie, but now we have it happening in real life.
So we talked about it and decided, obviously, our first priority was to try and find John. You know, his red Mazda was missing. He had taken his vehicle, it couldn't be found. So obviously that's what we're going to look for first. Easier to find a car than a person. Based on the emails and they talk about Costa Rica, the officers search all the parking lots at the airport. It's not found.
Well, John's friends were concerned. His friend even questioned him on the email. You know, be careful. And John said, yeah, well, here's the directions. And if anything happens to me, you'll know where to look.
He learned the garage is rented out to an individual named Mark Twitchell.
In early October 2008, Jill's Tetro was online on the plentyoffish.com website, which is a dating site.
He had gone to the garage and made some comments about a lock being changed. And, you know, based on what I'd been told, I'm going, okay, this sounds like someone else has been to this garage and tampered with it. Police pry the lock off and in they all went. They have a look around and they see some what looks like blood and Mark Twitchell's explaining, oh no, that's my movie prop.
We did a film about killing a guy in here and I filmed it all and I've been cleaning it up over the last couple weeks. There were some things that were, you know, raising your spidey sense in this one, going, yeah, this isn't right. Something going on here.
It's a missing persons case. We don't know what foul plays happened here. We don't have a body. We don't even know if we have a crime.
He looked pretty comfortable in the interview, and when it was done and I watched, I went, wow, that guy interviewed well.
Detective Murphy goes, you know, and meets him and talks to him and there's this huge revelation about, oh yeah, I bought a red car off a guy. It's like, I remember getting the phone call at the police station just thinking, holy crap.
So as you know, Mark, we're just here trying to find this John Altinger.
$3,000, that's a large amount of money, especially what's for her. I mean, she doesn't spend money like that. And it just didn't make sense.
Mr. Guidry was concerned about Stephanie being missing. Whenever we put forth the question, if Wayne Jr. did something to her in the wildlife management area, what would he have done with her? There was a pause and he said, you know, Wayne did mention this hole that he found out in the middle of the woods.
Yeah, sure did. He was obviously really concerned about Stephanie. He didn't know where she could be. Did you believe him? Yeah, I did.
Well, see, we know that that's not true. We knew that something had happened.
There were a lot of inconsistencies. You know what happened, so you need to tell us
Streaming on Paramount+. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery.
We're doctors and we're detectives.
We began discussing the alarm system for the house.
Solve the puzzle, save the patient.
I see two individuals show up to his front door.
It was crazy that we got that break.
Their bodies are the scene of the crime. Their symptoms and history are clues.
They're both to blame. Who took more action? It's Nick.
The more he talks, the less believable the story is.
Oh, I knew the case was strong. He had motive. He had opportunity. And he was providing us with our case.
Scott Davis had... Everything he wanted, all his life, and the one thing he lost, couldn't stand it.
One thing David Coffin loved supposedly was that Porsche.
Do I think Scott Davis went there with the intention of killing David Kaufman that night? No, I don't think so. I think he went there with the intention to scare him. Small struggling suit. Scott shot him.
A lot of physical evidence right there where that fire was at.
It was as if he was coming by us with a flashing sign saying, follow me.
The same person that killed David Coffin is going to be the same person that attacked Scott. He wanted to get his story while it was still fresh in his mind.
He was the only person there who had actually seen an assailant or actually had a conversation with an assailant.
He said, I didn't shoot him. I didn't shoot David. And what struck you about that statement? I didn't know how David Coffin had died. No one knew.
The whole story itself, once you started taking it apart, started falling apart, like a house of cards.
Whoever had done this had killed one person and burned a house. Why did he let Scott live? You're going to set a fire to try to burn somebody's house down? You're going to set it on their concrete patio?
We all know what's going to happen when someone gets with a baby. They get frustrated. Happens to everybody.
We think in this situation, the other babies are screaming, crying, whatever. You're taking care of them by yourself. You have Ben in your hands. He starts acting up. And you get mad at him and you throw him on the floor.
Yeah. Where did his head hit on the floor?
A lot of people might think I made that call.
That was really only the beginning.
It was just an amazing amount of material. One computer had, I believe, five hard drives in it.
I hate bullies. I always hated bullies. And criminals are bullies. My pager went off. The text message on the pager was that a police officer had been shot. You know, I knew I had to get to the scene right away. And I knew that responsibility was going to fall heavily on me to make sure that everything got done properly. And as I'm walking up, I'm seeing officers walking away from the scene.
Some are crying. And all have that, like, stunned look on their face because a police officer just got shot. I felt a lot of pressure. to not make any mistakes. I immediately assigned two detectives to process the crime scene. I needed to assign detectives to take care of those two small kids. I needed to make sure they get with somebody that's going to comfort them.
These little kids that were there, they were defenseless. Eugenia Stollis was defenseless.
I sent two detectives to St. Louis University Hospital to interview Nick and Isabella, if possible, so we can get some information, better descriptions or anything else that we can glean to help find these guys.
I got information that there was a potential suspect that was being admitted to Barnes with an injury to his hand and that he fit the description of one of the people involved in this crime.
Getting people convicted in court, somebody has to stand up and say, that's the one who did it. I saw him do it. It was very, very important that Nick or Isabella identified them because Rose and Ida Rask could not identify them.
Isabella's laying in bed. She has IVs attached to her. She has heart monitors attached to her. There's beeping and buzzing of the machines. I was just very, very nervous talking to her, because I admire so much what she did. I told Isabella that we're really confident that we had the people responsible. But I told her, hey, you know what you got to do. You got to point to the guy.
I could see your eyes start to well up with tears.
I show Isabella two sheets. Mario Coleman's on one. Liddell Nathan's on another one.
I think Isabel Lovedina is one of the bravest people I've ever known. It's like somebody jumping on a hand grenade. I mean, she was willing to sacrifice her life for all those people.
When you read it, it's kind of a no-brainer. The suspects are identified. These people did it, and now we've got to prove it.
If she's laying in bed, her head should be here, right? Right. There should be a void. There should be a spot. Where there's no blood? Where there's no blood.
You would think, you would see... at least some blood up in this general area up here toward the top of the nightgown.
She's standing away from the bed, and it's cast off to her.
If she truly was knocked unconscious for that period of time, she wouldn't have remembered anything.
This is our shot. We wanted to catch her cold. Are you nervous? Yeah, I'm nervous.
This is an upscale neighborhood, a very nice house. She's living a pretty good life here.
Everyone thought that Melinda Rash was a perfect person, a great neighbor, just doing everything right.
Steve and I both thought that she's probably going to say, hey, I left that back in Olathe, you're going to have to talk to my attorneys, something along those lines, but she didn't.
She says that she was awakened by these horrifying sounds of someone striking her husband. She sees a shadowy figure, and she runs to the bathroom.
This is definitely not the same story. What happened to the two black guys that broke in demanding bank keys? What happened to, I think you hit him too hard, you may have killed him? None of that.
I accused her. I said, I know you killed him. Either you killed him or he did. What did she say? Well, I assure you, it wasn't me.
She wanted to please us. She didn't want her neighbors to be talked to about this. I don't think she ever shared with anybody about what happened in 1982.
Absolutely. And she thought she could manipulate us to get us to go away.
She said they were friends at first, were friends. Well, later on, as their relationship blossomed, she said that there became an emotional bond between the two of them.
She told me that she got the impression he wanted her to get a divorce.
I just don't think she wanted to go there yet. She knew if she said that, then that would implicate her further.
This was a place where people felt that they could get away from the city, raise a family, and live a peaceful life. I think when this happened, it hit home. The people involved in this murder are members of the Nazarene Church and go to the college there. So this kind of rocked their community a lot. I'm Bill Wall. I'm a detective with the Olathe, Kansas Police Department.
But we just want to get a little deal here before we go forward.
There are a lot of murders, but this is intriguing. It's got a bit of a sex appeal to it. We got religion. We got a lover's triangle. We got money. And we felt that it was a case that could be solved. It was 19 years old when we opened it up. When I'm reading through this case file, I think that we got a shot. I mean, eventually, you got to go knock on the door.
And that was the turning point, obviously, in this case.
First time I heard about that case was maybe in the early 90s. Bill Wall was a young patrol officer at the time. It was always kind of a case that had never been solved, and it was kind of a legend throughout the department.
The crime lab came down, and they had some time, and they wanted to use their DNA expertise. You got any old cold cases? We had one. I'll grab this. You want that?
For us, this is uncharted territory. I mean, we really didn't have a lot of experience in opening up cold cases.
Blood splattered everywhere. It is on pillows, sheets. It is on a comforter, a carpet, the nightstand next to him. It's everywhere. I mean, I think this is a classic case of an overkill.
She's awakened by these sounds of someone beating her husband. And then all of a sudden, she's pulled out of bed and taken downstairs. She hears one intruder say to the next, I think you hit him too hard, you may have killed him.
I'm sure some of those detectives back then were thinking, hey, this is not right. There is something more here.
Some questions came up, and in particular, a question about this person, Mark Mangelsdorf.
There's a lot of people that remember this case that were members of the church, members of our community. They all thought that the suspects had been identified. Why aren't we moving forward?
She downs it. And was the point of taking it because the two of you were going to have sex? Probably, yeah.
It looked like there was a horrendous fight. Something awful happened here. Well, her body was a mess.
She had no blood on her face. But I've seen the pictures of her on the floor in the bathroom. There was definitely bruising and cuts and scrapes. When you saw her at eight o'clock in the morning, which is four hours earlier than when the paramedics arrived, there was no blood, no cuts, no scratches, no scrapes, no bruising on her face anywhere? On her arms, on her legs?
Somebody had beat this girl bad. We were interested in the boyfriend, Brian Rendoni.
So it's now 11.45. Now I'm freaking out. Now you're freaking out. And you're freaking out because?
But you weren't on the phone with payroll people in between the time that she didn't react to the hydrogen peroxide and you calling 911, were you?
It looked like the place might have been gone through and cleaned up, maybe. The dryer was actually cycling. Like someone was doing a load of laundry.
When we were searching inside, we found bed sheets and pillowcases that belonged to the king-size bed in the master bedroom.
Myself and the sheriff's belief, he dragged her by the hair because we found such big globs of hair in the bedroom.
Oh, absolutely, yes. She did not get in this condition by herself. There were dozens and dozens of wounds all over her body, her knees down to her feet, her elbows down to her hands. Solid, dark, purple bruising.
These parallel marks, they are wrapped around her legs. How does someone get a mark like this?
I think he was probably whipping her with some kind of instrument. If she bends her knee, these two patterns line up.
So you're saying that if she was, I'm going to get down and do this if I can, if she's in this defensive position like this and the leg goes down, that this would match up straight across. Correct. And you think this was whip, hanger?
Abrasions or lacerations on forehead, both eyes, bridge of the nose, upper lower lip, inside the lip, She had bit through her tongue, the right breast is lacerated, bruising on the left, and then really the most bizarre part of it were these double, these parallel lines that were all over her legs. It is an extraordinary amount of bruising and cuts. Would you not agree?
It seems almost impossible to believe that someone could inflict all of that on themselves.
Is it possible that, yes, there was an altercation, but she still did die of an overdose?
Yeah, I would consider that. But the thing that convinces me and that persuades me that this is a murder is the medical examiner who actually did the autopsy says that all the markers of smothering are present.
She did not get in this condition by herself.
We had our victim, we had our suspect, and we knew what happened.
515, I said get me an ambulance here. Sit.
I was a narcotics detective for 22 years. I saw a lot of overdoses. Never saw one where it was violent, where people threw themselves into a closet or where people thrashed themselves up. Never saw it.
They usually fall down right where they're at and, you know, massive heart attack or their heart just stops or they wake up in the morning not breathing and they're dead.
You didn't feel that the scratches and lacerations and bruises, et cetera, spoke to that?
What time did you arrive on the scene?
Absolutely. I was wondering, is this a fatal point in our case?
So the chaos was over, but the scene was still intact?
Right. It didn't look like it was ransacked like it looked like upstairs. Upstairs was a completely different story.
In my opinion, yes, I thought we had a slam-dunk case.
I was stunned. I was literally speechless. Actually, I said, okay, stop joking. Really, what did they say? No, not guilty, both counts.
And sometimes if you have a complex case, it's hard to explain that to 12 people and make them understand what happened.
When you came around this corner and just took a first glance at this bedroom, What was your impression?
When you first looked at those pictures, though, I mean, she is covered, literally head to toe.
There'd been a fight. And as I walked in the bedroom, oh my God, it looked like a bomb went off in the bedroom.
I think it's a travesty of justice. I firmly believe that he killed her.
The closet was broken. There were globs of hair on the floor. The bedding was all over the floor. There was a big wet spot on the bed.
Well, Jesus took that word you gave, and that's why I'm here today.
So this is an outline of where the bed was. Right.
This would have been where the king size bed is. And there was two large bloodstains, one near the head of the bed and one in the middle of the bed. The doors were off the rails. The center door was actually broken through. What we saw was blood, and there was hundreds of blood spots back and forth, and there were smears.
So you can tell that the person that was bleeding was moving in a crouched position back and forth against this wall.
She crawled in here to hide. I believe that he was trying to get her from this side. She'd move to that side. He'd come to this side. She'd move to this side.
As I walked into the bathroom, there was the victim laying on the floor. She was naked. She was laying on her back. Her eyes were open, and she was staring straight up.
This place will follow us for the rest of our lives.
When I walked in the room, I noticed the boyfriend, Mr. Rendoni, was sitting with his arms on his legs and he had his head down and he was just sitting very quiet, very still. The impression I got that he wasn't upset. There was no emotion. And my God, I mean, even if I had a dead stranger upstairs in my bathroom, I'd be very emotional. I just point blank asked him, what happened?
He looked up at me. He was not crying again, which I thought was a little strange. And he said, we both use GHB and we were having rough sex.
Did you tell a cop who was there that morning that the two of you were having rough sex?
Why would I lie about that? I have a clean, perfect record. I'm straight arrow. If it's true that they did have rough sex, if it's true that they were under the influence of GHB, sometime during this rough sex, he got too rough with her, and I firmly believe that this is a murder case, and he killed her.
I had read that you had committed to celibacy for a while.
And she had also had a raincoat pulled up over her face to protect her from the elements, very unlike the other cases.
She was found fully clothed. She was not a victim of any blunt force trauma.
She gets into the vehicle with him, expecting to head west. And we've got a certain number of hours where Jane's basically missing. In the early morning hours, March 21, 1969, Jane's body was discovered in the Denton Road Cemetery.
A homicide case is a homicide case. They're never closed.
We had no idea that this person even existed. I've never been involved in a case this encompassing. This is the turtleneck shirt that Jane Mixer was wearing. This is her jumper dress. This case got to me.
This case had kind of fallen through the cracks. I just didn't feel that we could give up on it. This was tied around her neck as a ligature.
Jane Mixer deserved to have some answers.
This is all the evidence that was collected during the investigation.
These are the pantyhose that were on her body. We took these to the lab. The forensic scientists took the cuttings from the areas that they located with the possible staining and did the DNA analysis.
It took about a year for the scientists to give me a call.
We decided to just go ahead and contact him directly.
It's a picture of the body lying inside the fenced area of the cemetery, covered with a yellow raincoat.
Jane's case was just too different. The fact that she was placed in that cemetery with her belongings, very unlike the other cases.
I certainly felt that someone had gotten away with murdering Jane.
When we arrived there, it was 10.30 in the morning and it was a cold, crisp morning.
We saw what appeared to be a body of a woman lying underneath some clothing on top of a grave. We first lifted off the uppermost piece of clothing, which was the raincoat. You could very quickly see that she'd been shot in the head. And then around her neck, we could see a nylon hose, so she'd been strangled also.
Well, it probably grabbed my attention because it was a singular round spot of blood dried. I didn't know what it meant, so I thought, well, we'll find out later.
How long can you have young women being killed before the pressures become so great because you as the police can't solve this?
One of the first women admitted to the University of Michigan Law School. Very promising future ahead of her, and her life was stolen.
The real hope was that there'd be some physical evidence. There'd be a fingerprint. There'd be something that we'd come up with that would match up with him. And that just didn't happen.
What's the word of the day, Tim?
What it really comes down to is I'm accountable to God and I'm accountable to Peggy Hetrick.
Well, I believe that I followed the evidence, okay? And the evidence pointed to Tim Masters.
Well, you can find DNA evidence, and it may have an innocent explanation.
That characterological trait of mine
of wanting to hang on to information not knowing its future use has helped tim masters because had i not done that it wouldn't have been able available to be tested peggy hetrick's clothes would have been destroyed everything everything would have been destroyed that may not mean much to tim masters struggling to put together a new life he's got some unlikely new friends
Hey, if there's evidence out there, let's see it, but there's nobody that's come to me, and I haven't seen yet anybody that can controvert all these facts that point to his guilt.
That's a position and a strategy they took without a doubt. And it wasn't? Oh, absolutely not. You know, there was no effort to pinpoint just Tim Masters on this case.
I made detailed, thorough notes, detailed, thorough police reports. My notes were represented inside those police reports.
Well, I mean, obviously the defense is free to make that argument.
There was no effort to pinpoint just Tim Masters on this case. It just doesn't add up that there was anything other than to just do the best job we could with a case that could have remained unsolved.
Everything was turned over to them.
Back in 1977, Tony Sirico was an upcoming actor and he knew some of the same people that Krista knew. We know that after Krista was killed, Tony Sirico was sent to her residence to check on the welfare and watch over her roommate for a few days and to make sure that she was okay. According to the roommate, Tony Sirico removed some tapes out of Krista's room never to be seen again.
Jack Nicholson, the Shah of Iran. We knew that she kept a diary.
That's Tony Sirico right there with the blood, but that's part of a film they were making.
Not exactly. Mr. Sirico told us at first that he didn't even remember the victim. He didn't really know Krista and that he didn't even remember that she had been killed. And then his memory got a little bit better that, yeah, I think I had heard about her being killed, but I didn't really know her that well. I just met her in passing.
We started getting to the point of where he was on that day and asked him those type of questions, and the interview was abruptly stopped by his attorney. And we explained to Mr. Sirico also that he was not, was not a suspect in this investigation. He was considered a witness and someone that we were trying to glean information from.
We don't know if there may have been extortion. A lot of people have told us that there's a diary that's missing.
We believe that he didn't want her reputation soiled, didn't want the information out there about her surreptitiously recording people or even her sexual activities.
This is another gentleman. We haven't been able to locate. Can't talk to him because he's dead.
She had a lifestyle that was provocative. She had a lot of upscale friends that were famous, some of them. And then she also had a lot of friends that were on the seedy side of life, if you will, street people.
If someone is violently murdered, you're never going to forget that.
It's very interesting to go back and talk to these people because people can't remember what their lies were. They can remember what the truth is.
The neighborhood that we responded to in 1977 was a pretty upscale neighborhood. I was the lead detective on the case. I think we came in from this direction. We drove in this way.
We know that she did have some tapes of famous people, sexually.
She had no identification. We don't know who is it.
We found out that she was a party girl. She had come from a party with a girlfriend. She was headed over to see her agent, Sandy Smith. The house looks the same now as it did then, doesn't it? Exactly. This is me right here.
Bringing back some memories? Well, yeah. Yeah. She was bleeding quite profusely there. You could see that she had numerous stab wounds in the chest. Our thoughts then, we had a rage killing, that somebody was really upset with this girl.
Well, the way she was attacked really sticks out. It was violent, a lot of passion involved. She was stabbed 22 times.
No. It would be more of somebody was very mad at her.
He was very flamboyant, very strange. He would do certain things like wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and a gun belt with a six gun on it. And that's the way he walked around the house.
He's a violent kind of guy. He's known to carry guns and knives. We spoke to his ex-wife, deathly afraid of him. Said that he would threaten her.
He was in that other circle of friends, what we call the dark side of her life, the street people, the drug dealers, that would come to these parties.
They did question Rudy, yes. They questioned him. He denied any involvement. Rudy was the kind of guy that would brag about things that maybe he didn't do just to get some notoriety and to boost his standing with people.
Was he serious? We don't know because the person he bragged to is deceased and so is Rudy, so we can't talk to either one of them anymore.
I don't know that we can actually eliminate anybody at this point.
We've identified people that she was involved with who had other girlfriends, and those girlfriends found out about Christa. There were a couple other females that we believe that she was involved with sexually that were upset because she would be with men.
We were told originally that they were boyfriend, girlfriend. Some come back and say maybe casual dating. Some come back and say, well, that they were a pretty heavy item. I believe that Debbie had a more serious commitment to Blair than Blair did to Debbie.
We interviewed Blair Aronson and he explained to us that he and Krista had spent the night together, were in bed and they got up, were sitting on the edge of the bed and happened to look over and saw Debbie looking through the window waving at him.
Blair and Krista were startled, obviously, by seeing her outside the window, but they laughed about it and she ran away.
And apparently she was very upset about it at that time. We don't know if she was removed by Frankie Crocker or by Krista herself.
I don't think I would characterize it as that. I think when somebody is in a violent rage, I think their gender doesn't matter.
It's obvious to us that she put up quite a fight. And a lot of times in that situation, you're going to find skin cells or blood or something from the other person under the fingernails.
Well, we are requesting from people that we interview, at times we're requesting oral swabs.
We did collect DNA from Debbie Danilo, and it was not her DNA that was under the fingernails.
Tom and I are in agreement. Debbie Danilo is much farther down on the scale as a person of interest in this case now.
Patty and Krista had a relationship, according to more than one person. They had a close sexual relationship and a professional relationship. At some point, they had a falling out with one another, it looks like, according to these people, and was it serious enough for a murder? We don't know that, but we'd like to talk to Patty about that.
Hopefully she's home. Hopefully we can get an interview and maybe collect a sample of her DNA.
She was in Southern California. We know that. But for some reason, she's denying ever being there in her life. I got a feeling we'll be back to talk to her again. I really do.
It's an ongoing process. We still have a lot of work to do.
Sal Mineo's killer is the same killer that killed Krista Helm. In my own mind, I'm so sure of that, I bet the deed to my house that he is A1 number one suspect.
The method of operation, the area of operation, was so similar to Sal Mineo's killing. It was almost identical.
I don't even know what he looked like. They never saw him. Never got the chance to talk to him.
I think this case has affected me personally more than any I worked. And you're not supposed to get involved. You're supposed to put everything behind and you're neutral. You're just doing a job. But with me anyway, I couldn't put this one to bed.
He has been in and out of jail since this occurred. He's been arrested for other crimes. We believe we have an idea where he is living. We believe that he's not that far away, and we're going to go talk to him.
The crime scene where Krista Helm was murdered in 1977, she had left a party in West Hollywood and she was attacked and stabbed numerous times. She was a very good looking girl.
Oh, you're doing fine. She was not against posing in seductive type photos.
Well, actually, you try and go back in time yourself. I mean, you try and go back and look at it the way it looked that night. When we're talking about is in the middle to late 70s. I know back then it was a lot of the free love, a lot of the... Sex. Sex, drugs. Drugs. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
She did have some tapes of famous people, sexually.
I don't think it would be fair to those folks at this point to do that.
We don't know if there may have been extortion or a thought of extortion. That scared me a lot.
Well, my question to you is, would you be willing to take a polygraph?
The only way that print could have got there, the only way that print could have got there was in the process of the crime. That is the only way. And it's yours.
You cannot deny this anymore, okay? Here's the deal. An altercation went down between you and Nona. Listen, listen to me. It went down because she's seen other guys. Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. You do know. No, I don't. You found out. No, I never found out. And there's an altercation.
Yeah. Did that register on you that you could go to the penitentiary for the rest of your life?
Do you remember touching that light bulb? No. To this day, I don't remember touching the light bulb. Was he guilty in your mind when you first sat down?
But do you know how strange that sounds, that... I mean, that you would take this cell phone because, by your own admission, you're a cheapskate? It's a little ghoulish, I guess.
Just to set aside my curiosity tonight, did you hurt her tonight? I wouldn't. to kill myself before I hurt her.
Give me a timeline of the events that happened last night going into today.
He's not burned. He's not injured. Well, I'd be breaking out windows. I'd be doing whatever I could to get to my loved one.
I think it was a very difficult case in our department. To have to point the finger at one of your own is very difficult.
His fellow officers felt the heat. To point the finger at one of your own is very difficult. His conviction stunned family and friends.
I'm sick of this bull . I've been dealing with this all week. Tell me who you are. Clark Rockefeller. No, you told me you are not Clark Rockefeller. Clark Rockefeller doesn't exist.
Did it ever open up doors for you? Plenty. Are you kidding? Everywhere.
Who are you? I can't tell you. Why? I can't tell you. Because you've done something that somebody's looking for you for, right?
They were very well known at the archives because they were there just about every afternoon. Very friendly, a lot of laughing. They were buddies.
People know that this lawyer is before this judge on a case. It's wrong. It's inappropriate. It's unethical.
This is the neighborhood that we took Freda to.
We'd meet her, wire her up, talk to her, prep her about what she's going to say when she goes in.
Coulter's in trouble. I can feel it. Of TV's number one show.
Coulter's in trouble. I can feel it. Of TV's number one show.
She was a tiger. She was protecting her cubs.
This is a digital recording device. This is the device that we use to give to Frida to have recorded conversations with Nissan Element at his warehouse.
It was ballsy of her to go in there. We pulled up and we watched her go in. And we really didn't know what was going on inside that warehouse.
Mr. Miller opened the door. I said, Mr. Miller, I said, we're here to talk to you about Daryl Willard. We have reason to believe that Ann and Darrell Willard have engaged in a relationship.
We need to get samples of everything in the house to find out where the arsenic came from.
Every shampoo, conditioner, soap, any fluid, everything out of the refrigerator, a sample was taken.
Her father was holding her up, and so she appeared to be very weak. She would sob, and she would break down.
I think Escondido Police Department acted within the scope of their responsibilities, absolutely.
What's your definition of crossing the line?
I think not being there. So I don't know what they were thinking. So I'm not going to guess.
on Richard Tewitt and the three boys. I think the pendulum can swing either way.
Some people just don't want to believe that 14- or 15-year-old kids are capable of killing.
He says, I'm looking for the girl. And I said, well, there's no girl here. You have no business here. You just need to get out of here.
If Michael were to stab her, what area would he utilize? What targets?
Why would you hypothesize about a situation like that, especially to a seasoned homicide investigator? Why would you do that?
Aaron is a very methodical young man. He knows what he says and why he says it, and he's very, very specific. Aaron tells you that Michael had said he really wants to kill his sister, and Aaron says, I'll help you do it.
I think Linda Opdijk knows more than what she's telling.
It's a beautiful love. In my opinion, it's legendary.
The blood on the walls, the blood on the carpet, it told a story of what took place.
I've never seen in my career a case that has as many twists and turns and mysteries as this case with Mark Stover.
His eyes went just crazy. He clenched his hands and fists, and he was just in a shaking rage.
The video starts expiring. These DVRs, it's a constant. You got to get this evidence before it disappears.
If we were just investing in Christy and Hilda's alone, very difficult.
Police have arrested three men in connection with the deaths of a model and her friend last month.
Kind of played with the rotation and it worked out exceedingly well.
Pierce says, I hope Ansbach's not up there telling them I gave them drugs and wine.
Got a call at home, apparent overdose. Christy, she was deceased. Hilda was still on life support at that time. I give as much information as I can to the detectives. Jan had put a number of things out on social media, and it spread like wildfire. People recognized this guy right away, and they were urged to call us.
Christy's lying on the couch. It looks like she's on her way to becoming unconscious.
So he got on his stand and he did his best to try to say everybody was wrong and he was right.
He was apparently the only one telling the truth at the entire trial.
So Osborne's role was to help get rid of the bodies, first and foremost. He helped carry the girls at first. He helped formulate the plan in terms of what they're going to tell the security guards.
For a fresh case, it's all on you. There's no... No one else is gonna solve this thing for you. It's you and your partner. That's it.
We get that guilty on the first one, and sigh of relief.
Hilda comes up, guilty again, another sigh of relief.
I don't think I breathed at all until I heard a guilty on every single one.
This must be adding up to something that sounds very sketchy to you. Very sketchy, but then you still have to figure out if an actual crime occurred.
They never give their names, never leave their phone numbers, license plates, anything like that.
You don't want to form an opinion prior to getting there, but you are kind of mulling over the evidence. You're thinking about it. You're thinking about what questions you want to ask.
There was a light on in the upstairs where the two men live. So I just went up, knocked on the door. Immediately, the lights go out. You identify yourself? Yes, completely. LAPD, open the door, and then just complete silence.
So I immediately get a lie. Do you leave? No, I interview Mr. Osborne.
He changes his stories numerous times. At first, there's no girls had been at that location whatsoever. I tell him on the interview, I listen, I know you're lying. It's extremely obvious. You're very nervous.
Two beds had been stripped. There was a washing machine that had been recently used. It was still wet. Is there anything else that stands out to you? There was a safe in his room with baggies, which was indicative of narcotics. He said they're for crafts, for arts and crafts.
Well, the first thing is, who did he sexually assault this time?
She was raped while she was unconscious.
He has a pattern. His first step is trying to find his victim. So that could be through a dating app, through online listings, or meeting them at bars or events. When he picks his victim, he goes to step two, which is bragging about himself.
He needed to introduce himself as a producer, as a doctor, all these different things. He's none of these things. I think he might have been an intern at the time or something at a production company.
After they take this drink, he goes to step four, which is the sexual assault.
This makes the case extremely hard. I told Jan early on that this was going to be a near impossible case to prove. Yeah, at first, it's a whodunit. It just became what actually happened. And that's what was the difficulty of this case.
The time of the window being opened was 4.27 that morning.
Following that was glass break activations. We believe that's when the bullets started breaking the glass in the house. That's when Ted died. That's when the shots were being fired.
We were going to do gunshot residue tests on their hands. We then separated them. And at that time, Jackie broke down hysterically. And what did you make of it? That was a major red flag for me. We knew there was something more to this at that point.
Once we get into the apartment, we're going through it. We're finding ammunition.
One of the shooters advances towards the master bedroom where Corey is.
We ultimately see cell phone usage in Austin on February 28th, which is just two days before Ted ends up getting killed.
And Jackie's response to the text message was, do they want 50K or not? And she says, we can't afford to pay half before.
Trying to get a hold of Spencer was kind of difficult.
There was also communication between Spencer and Nicholas, where Nicholas was trying to hire him to kill a family.
Spencer didn't want to go along with it, but Nick still pitched the idea.
I see two individuals show up to his front door.
And this woman still remembered his name. Sergeant, what are the odds of a hit like this on the identity?
It was crazy that we got that break.
I know why you're here. That kid who hired somebody to kill his jewelry store parents.
Theodore Shaughnessy was shot dead in his Austin area home by an intruder. Cory Shaughnessy shot back at the intruder and wasn't hurt.
Detective Moore and I interviewed him. He did admit that he had met Nick. He gave us a lot of good information.
Is she innocent? Absolutely not. No, she knew. She knew what he was trying to do. She could have stopped this at any time. I tried to stop him.
Off of the murder of you and Ted? Yes. I'm not defending her by any degree.
Who took more action? It's Nick. You take Nick out of this, you don't have the incident. You take Jackie out?
Our job ended at the arrest, and there's not a single step further that we can take it.
It looked as though there was a home invasion and a homeowner was killed.
He was shot in the head, the back, the thigh, and the buttocks.
So that told us that we had two shooters.
Somebody took the screen off, set it next to the window outside,
There's a .40 caliber gun box in that drawer. It's missing out of the box.
That information gets past me while I'm outside.
Nick comes over, and he's emotional.
Our goal was to just try to get as much information as possible.
She's the only person in the house, and we have her husband who has been shot to death. We know that she owns firearms, so it's obviously an option for us.
I tell him it looks like somebody came into the home and shot your dad to death. And how did he absorb that news? He asked me, did he suffer? Was that an odd question? It definitely struck me as odd, yes.
Nick and Jackie continuously tried to talk to the media. We asked them to stop and to stay in the scene.
him going to that side of the house to look specifically at that window, which you can't see from just the front of the house. So for him to know that that was even involved, he did not have that information.
This was early morning hours. Two shooters enter the Shaughnessy home. They quietly move through the home.
Sometimes people will get information from crosstalk with detectives or law enforcement. And so I didn't automatically
Please swear from the testimony you're about to give in the matter of minutes.
Detective, where are we right now? We're here at the Ferris farm.
They had gone ice fishing and had dinner at her house, and then he left her house around 8.30 that night.
She remembers hearing the gunshots, but she thought there was a good five or ten minutes after he'd left to when she heard the gunshots. So she didn't think he was anywhere near the area and didn't think twice about him potentially being involved in any way.
That night? Yes. We had a little bit, but there wasn't a lot to go on.
Little did we know that we'd get the phone call the next day.
A fourth incident occurred on February 6th. It's another residence. It was occupied, but nobody was hurt inside. There were five rounds that were shot into. It was occupied. Fortunately, nobody was hit. The residents were struck multiple times by gunfire. Nobody was injured. Patrol officers located one .45 caliber, located in multiple casings, .45 caliber.
Two incidents that happened in North Haven the night before and then earlier that morning.
.45 caliber shell casings were located at the scene.
The common denominator was the caliber of the gun that was used. It's 45 caliber casings that were located at all four of those scenes. And in the last two shootings, there was a description of a dark colored SUV.
There's a very good chance. the vehicle matched. And the items that were left behind at the Arby's restaurant, it included a .45 caliber handgun, and that matched the casings that were at the scene.
The first thing I want to know is who he is and if there's any connection between him and Kevin. I see that he has a Facebook page.
There was not much activity at all. His last post was back in 2016, and he had a few photos with some other students, but that was it.
Yes, that was the first time we got the connection between him and MIT. So I check his friends list to see if Kevin is in there.
Kevin is not listed, but I do notice that Zion Perry is listed.
Now we have a connection. I got in contact with her. She explained that they had met at MIT back in 2019, and they were more associates than friends.
No. She said that they never dated. They never had any romantic relationship. The last time she spoke with him was May of 2020. He reached out to her through Facebook Messenger to congratulate her on graduating. He asked to FaceTime with her, and she politely declined it.
She was, and that's when I told her that he was a person of interest in this. And she was completely shocked. He was barely a part of her life, and why he would have been involved with this in any way.
On February 6th at around 8.30 p.m., we get the report of a person shot at Lawrence and Nickel Street in New Haven. That person was later identified as Kevin Jong and was pronounced deceased on the scene. We located eight .45 caliber shell casings. There were a few 911 callers that saw a dark-colored SUV flee the area.
The last things that she had posted were the engagement between her and Kevin.
Yes. It did seem like there was a secret obsession of Pan's going on behind the scenes that Kevin wasn't aware of and that Zion wasn't aware of.
Yeah, he did his best to mislead us. And now we knew that, yes, this wasn't a random incident out there, that he was targeted.
Kevin's body, he was laying on his right side. His feet were on the stop line here, and his head was towards the first line of the crosswalk. And then we see the casings. There's a shell casing by the bottom of the S and a few feet from the P. And then there were six more spread out by the first crosswalk line. We could see gunshot wounds to his upper body and to his head.
There were some shots that were at close range.
Yes. We'll use Facebook as a tool to try and get a little background on an individual who they're friends with.
The patrol officers had already been out there canvassing the area. They were knocking on doors looking for anyone that might have seen anything or heard anything. The crime scene detectives were starting to locate all the shell casings.
His body was still on scene, covered in a white sheet.
What we could see were gunshot wounds to his upper body and to his head. And you could see stippling on the left side of his head.
About 100 feet down the street... There was a Prius just parked in the middle of the road with its hazards on.
There was an impression that was left on the back bumper that looked like a license plate holder.
When they look out, they see a Prius come to a stop and put its hazards on. They see a dark-colored SUV pull up behind it and then reverse back towards the intersection. They see the operator of the Prius walk out. and approached the SUV, most likely to see how they were, exchange insurance information.
When the operator gets to the black SUV, they hear a round of gunshots, and they see the muzzle flash from the gun from the driver's side of the SUV.
When she looks outside, she sees a subject wearing all black standing over another individual who's laying on the ground. She hears another round of gunshots, and she can see the muzzle flash from the gun as he's firing.
There's a little bit more to it. It seems a little bit more personal when you have someone that's laying on the ground and not moving. What would cause someone to continue firing at them?
It was located on the inside of a window facing outward.
We hear the collision between the two cars. And then that's when you see Kevin's Prius pull into frame and the SUV pulls up behind him and then reverses out of frame. You see Kevin exit his vehicle and then walk out of frame to approach the SUV. You then hear two gunshots, a scream, and then six more gunshots.
Unfortunately not. You could kind of get the idea of the potential make and model of it with the taillights, but you couldn't discern any identifying features.
We had detectives in the bureau looking into each of the incidents to see if there's any more of a connection to link them.
There didn't seem to be any connection between them.
When the casings are sent to the lab, they all came back as matches to the casings found at the homicide.
It could have been a road rage incident that turned a little too violent.
And if he was specifically targeted, what could have happened in his life to drive someone to do this?
You want to be direct and upfront and make it clear, as horrific as it is for them. So we explained to her that he was shot and killed in the area of Lawrence and Nickel Street in New Haven.
The first shooting occurs on December 11, 2020, at Huntington Street in New Haven. There's a report of five gunshots in the area. The residence was struck multiple times. The house was occupied, but nobody was hit. When police responded, they located multiple .45 caliber shell casings at the scene. There's a second shooting that occurs January 15th, 2021. The third shooting occurred February 5th.
She's absolutely devastated. She falls to the ground crying.
It was just the two of them, and he was actually supporting her. She told us that he was a grad student at Yale University and was in the Army National Guard.
So at that point, okay, is this a burglary, a robbery gone wrong?
So it was obviously like, we need to focus on this.
They found Mo inside the residence. It was a pretty grisly scene. She had been shot multiple times.
They see a black Jeep with the bike rack on the back of it. So at that point, we run the license plate and it comes back that it's registered to Caitlin Armstrong.
on the night of the murder, Caitlin Armstrong's phone was not connected to a cell network. In this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you're either the victim of a crime or you're probably committing one.
And within minutes of reaching out to him, he got back to me and he's like, yes, we're showing Christy Armstrong traveled out of Newark New Jersey International Airport on a one way flight to Costa Rica.
At this point, she kind of disappears. No one knows where she is.
She was the one who was found that morning.
They had it on a speakerphone, so Scott and Mary Kate, the daughter, were both heard on the 911 call.
I would describe him as emotionless. He never acted as though Suzanne was even his wife. He talked about what a good manager she was and how she kept their business flowing. But he never once mentioned that she was a good mother or that he loved her.
They were both there. There was a fight. There was a fight, and he killed his wife.
Yes, and he started stressing out and started sweating, and he became more defensive.
There was one in particular where she had some pretty strong words towards Scott.
She was making some kind of noise just from the compressions, but I think she was already dead.
Suzanne apparently was one of the few women who was involved in this forum. She kind of threw out that if Donald Trump won the presidential nomination that she would post a picture of her bare breasts.
Yes. If it's something that's building up in him, some kind of anger or jealousy about what his wife's doing online without him.
We get notified by our sergeant to come out to a house and begin a death investigation.
He wasn't able to collect because that death certificate was ruled as a homicide.
Every day that went by, he felt a little bit more at ease, I think.
They met through Facebook. He was infatuated with her.
I thought, I mean, I was shocked. This is a motive.
Well, as soon as you go into the front door, the stairwell was right off to your left. Suzanne was right there. She had a blanket covering her body.
We could see the other things laying around, like this stainless steel soup pot, a purse, an empty medication bottle.
Mary Catherine testified that she saw the dogs pulling at the scarf around her neck, and none of that came up during trial. the day we interviewed her the first time.
Well, I know that she was still close with her father.
And then the scarf was a little bit further down away from her. The deputy coroner, during her preliminary body exam of Suzanne, the injuries weren't consistent with somebody falling down the stairs.
I think the first day, there was mention of dogs maybe pulling on a scarf.
We didn't get the impression that it was any kind of violent pulling.
No, it wasn't just as clear cut as that.
He had plenty of time from when he applied pressure to Suzanne's neck till she died to stop what he was doing. He still did it. I was a little disappointed that it was a second degree
Shock is the word that comes to mind.
I'd like to think so. Probably all of us would like to think so, that we could just figure it out as soon as we walk in Sherlock Holmes style.
To us, he was a victim. We were going to a house where two kids and a husband just lost their wife and mother.
Is it a steep stairway? Yeah, it's pretty high. I believe it was 13 and a half feet from the floor to the top of the stairs.
At the time, it sounded believable.
Suzanne had injuries to pretty much her whole body. Her face was all bruised up. Her back was bruised up. Both arms and legs had bruising and abrasions.
They definitely stood out, especially that steel puck. It almost looked like it was placed there. It wasn't upside down or leaning against anything. We had to figure out why those things were there.
He was just kind of going with the flow. How cooperative was he? Oh, very. Everything we asked of him, he gave us. He signed a consent form that gave us permission to search his house.
Suzanne had a history of migraines. They were typically debilitating, requiring a dark room, quiet, and bed rest. And she had been suffering from a migraine that weekend.
Sometimes she carried around a bowl in order to have it near her bedside in case she threw up in the middle of the night.
According to Scott, everything was fine. They had a good relationship.
Saturday night, she was on the couch. Eric came down to see her, check on her, make sure she was okay.
It was Mary Catherine's idea for Suzanne to spend the night in that room. It was clean, according to Mary Catherine, and done up like a little hotel suite for Suzanne to convalesce in there.
The two windows, that's Eric's room.
And what did he tell you he heard? Well, he heard loud voices arguing, but he didn't describe hearing any physical confrontation.
Well, again, that's one more piece of data that we're going to collect. It doesn't mean one way or the other that it was a murder, but that's definitely an avenue that we would have to pursue.
It begins with a 911 call from the house.
It was a Sunday morning, November 13th, year 2016.
That was Mary Catherine's scarf. It was found in the same room as Suzanne's body. But the scarf wasn't on her body. When we arrived, it was not. Mary Catherine told us that she had to remove the scarf, and she did that not to impede mom's breathing.
Especially with the ligature mark across her neck, it just didn't make sense.
Could have caught on a banister. Sure, I suppose so, but we didn't have any evidence of that.
No, nobody described hearing a fall down the stairs or if Suzanne had been carrying that stainless steel pot. No one heard that bounce down the stairs or land on the tile floor. There was no evidence on the stairs of someone going down, like broken ballast or anything like that.
It was a warm day, even though it was November. But when we spoke with Scott and during the whole time we were in the house doing our investigation, he was wearing a beanie over his head. And he said that he slept with it because it was cold.
Tallaga was a new community. It's kind of considered a sleepy little town. Nice place to work, nice place to live.
We discovered that Scott had some injuries. He had a cut up here on his forehead. and on his arm he had a bruise.
Eric told us Dad didn't hurt himself.
No, he told us they came in the house together.
He didn't know where it came from. He was unaware of it.
It didn't really make sense. Why would Suzanne take the time to make the bed in the middle of the night?
Eric Scott Sills is a fertility doctor.
Once you arrest somebody, that starts processes that you can't stop. Besides the blood in the bedroom, we didn't really have enough evidence of a fight occurring. So at the end of the day, there wasn't enough probable cause legally to arrest him.
It's not something they want to rush into. It's not something they want to make a rash judgment on. The doctor wanted to examine the whole case more clearly.
None of their immediate neighbors knew anything about the family. Eventually we contacted whoever we could out of their contact list to try and find out more.
The mother of twins, a boy and a girl.
John Bonnet got up, and somebody in that house, legally, lawfully in that house, one of the three of you, also happens to be up, or gets up because she makes noise. There's some discussion or something happens. There's an accident. You're on down the wrong path, buddy. Somebody accidentally or somebody gets upset over bed wetting. That's one of the things that's been proposed.
That would be John Bonnet's room right here on the second level.
It wasn't uncommon for JonBenet and Burke to ride their bicycles around the alleyway.
Internally, John and Patsy are considered suspects.
Today's date is... Today's date is June 23rd, 1998. June 28th, 1998.
speculation by a lot of people that maybe you didn't know anything about the murder maybe questioning john is lou smith a homicide detective them working for the boulder da's office it's preposterous patsy loves both her children dearly but frankly she and john bonnet were
Extremely close. A Christmas morning photo of the kids.
If I told you right now that we have trace evidence that appears to link you to the death of John Bonnet,
And I'm not talking, you know, somebody's guess or some rumor or some story.
I'm talking about scientific evidence.
What have you heard about pineapple? Well, we were asked, you know, did JonBenet eat pineapple because apparently it was found in her system. I think part of the question was what did she eat when she got home. I'm sure she didn't because she was absolutely sound asleep.
Okay, but let's go back to your line of reasoning here. If they weren't, no...
If they're not yours and they're not John's, then they would be somebody else's. Right. But now I'm telling you they're not somebody else's. Those prints belong to one of the two of you.
You know, sometimes the simplest, most obscure little thing can be so significant.
Remember that? I remember that, but I'm not here to prove my innocence. I'm here to find a killer in my daughter.
I look at him and I'm like, you know, Russell, I don't want a child to find Aaron out there somewhere, come across something like that. I said, can you take us to Aaron? He didn't beat an eye. He's just like, yeah, I'll take you to him.
We load Russell up. He's actually sitting in the seat that you're sitting in now. OK. We got him handcuffed in front. He's basically telling us, okay, turn right, turn left.
And all of a sudden, Russell says, stop, stop right here.
Do you see the body right away? You could see the tarp. You couldn't see any portion of the body. Right here in this green tarp.
Ellie was in the marching band. Very bright, very intelligent.
He's like, I'm not gonna be a witness against Gavin.
His story was that Aaron had a rifle and was pointed at Gavin.
Exactly. You can sit in that chair over there.
He would go into these rants and making demands and stuff.
So this is a aluminum bat. This coloration, you can see it's red here. This is all blood.
And he demonstrated for us in the interview room how hard he swung it down on Aaron's head. I went over the shoulder the first time, and then I started going up above my head. I mean, there were five distinct blows to his head.
Absolutely. Time is always of the essence, you know. The only information I had was from the patrol officers and what Sierra was able to tell us on scene.
I fractured his skull, caved his skull into his brain. I'm really sorry.
We found several murder plans. And they actually had plan A, plan B. There were multiple plans. And I think, ultimately, they come up with the bat.
She's pushing it all. She wants to be with Gavin. She wants to be out from underneath the authority of her father.
She is very manipulative. From me watching that entire interview, she lied. Is it Ellie?
And what do you say to Gavin? I said I'm ready when you are. Okay, what did you mean by that?
We know at around 5.30 that Sierra heard the glass breaking.
I was certain she had heard the assault, but she hadn't realized that. Thank God she didn't walk out and interrupt this thing. I was very terrified. Based on what she had seen at the house, she knew somebody wasn't okay. She went over to the couch. She felt something wet, and when she pulled her hand up, it was covered in blood. I just was in like a state of shock.
We can't go to Aaron and ask Aaron, were you abusing your daughter? We may never know the truth. If she told her mom, did she tell her mom ahead of time?
Have you thought about having a conversation with your mom about that? No. I'm horrified to even talk about it. Who have you talked to about your dad masturbating?
Because I know this is hard to talk about. I know. Why me?
She actually only had good things to say about her father.
she had said that ellie had woken her up and she said she was leaving and that she was leaving because mom and dad were abusive before reynolds could say anything the eight-year-old gave her opinion on the matter and she told me my mom and dad were not abusive
Sierra could not locate her father, Aaron, and her teenage sister, Ellie. We treated it as a missing person serious assault until we know otherwise. Everyone was out looking. There was also a potential that this was what we could refer to as a no-body homicide. And those cases are always tough to work.
I think you got to look at it two ways. Maybe she thought she was pregnant, or maybe she's using that to influence Gavin to kill her dad.
She lied during that interview for no reason.
But with your wishing to remain silent, it's really difficult to kind of get to the bottom of all of that.
Yeah. I mean, there's no law against it. So we gave her breaks. There was times where she laid on the floor and slept.
He was saying that she needed to be sure to say that her dad was abusing her. And he was telling her, we're going to take this to a jury and we're gonna win the jury over. And the way to do that is to cry. Make sure you cry.
I don't, I wouldn't agree with that. Ellie is absolutely just as responsible as Gavin, except Gavin was the one that took and held the bat in his hands.
I go back and forth. The mastermind of it I initially thought was Ellie. Then reading the letters from Gavin that he wrote to Ellie, telling her what she needed to say, then I started to think maybe Gavin was the mastermind of all of this. I go back and forth.
Because without her, this wouldn't have happened. Without Gavin, this wouldn't have happened. I doubt without Russell it could have happened.
Erin's dead. Who's going to speak out for Erin?
It's mind-blowing that that little girl I interviewed is now a grown-up. The fact that she's joining the National Guard lets me know she didn't let this, you know, derail her life.
We didn't know at that particular time whether this was a missing person case or a kidnapping. We just didn't know.
In my mind, I automatically assumed that the 15-year-old daughter was the victim of a homicide.
Probably one of the most interesting, heinous crimes I've seen in my career.
Sierra wasn't, like, outright crying, but you could tell she was worried. Who was she worried about? Her dad and Ellie.
She heard her dad yell the F word. She heard dragging. She heard things being moved. After that, it was completely silent. Did she have any idea what was going on at the time? No. She was frightened enough to stay in her room until she felt like it was okay to come out.
She could see people walking back and forth.
Sierra insinuated this was a little bit of a forbidden love. Dad had forbade Ellie from seeing Gavin.
Once we have a name, Gavin McFarlane, now we got a picture. Now we know who we're looking for.
We probably had 70, 75 people out on the streets of Medford.
We started getting cell phone tower hits up in the East Medford area.
A patrol sergeant locates the car. That was huge.
We could see there was blood on the outside of the bumper that had been dripping down. When this trunk is opened up, there is large amounts of blood. I mean, it is soaked into the carpet.
We had tons of people up there driving around looking for them.
Plain sight. So now we know Ellie's safe.
We had Aaron out there either seriously injured or deceased.
That doesn't mean that Ellie's involved in something.
Ellie, Gavin, and Russell are separated, detained, and transported to the Medford Police Department for questioning.
And so everybody is really concerned because we actually don't know where your dad is right now.
So where did all the blood come from in your house?
He's a talker. Very, very talkative. So I kind of knew he would have a hard time keeping his mouth shut.
Just kind of smoking and joking is what we call it.
He told us that he was trying to help get Ellie out of a bad situation.
And the first thing that he tells us is he's not a good person.
So the next thing I tell him is, look, Russell, we got detectives out there right now pulling video from every house, the alleys. So if this ain't the truth, you need to be truthful with me right now. And he looks me square in the eyes and he says, well, 95% of it's the truth and there's 5% of it's a lie. So I'm thinking automatically, well, what's the lie here?
I learned that he was a good guy. He was a good dad.
I heard that pop, and I turned around, I knew it was a gunshot.
As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts.
No, I don't. I don't believe Reggie did that. My brother's not a murderer. He's not.
Do you remember seeing her when you did?
This call is not private. It will be recorded and may be monitored.
Do you think you got a fair trial? No, of course not. Of course not.
What do you got to tell us about your son?
Tell me what you remember about that night.
Did anybody come over? Did anybody leave? Everybody stayed home that night?
Everybody? Everybody stayed home that night?
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.
I just can't imagine what it's like as a six-year-old to have to sit there
We go in under the ruse of someone had left a purse in his car. So he came in voluntarily to talk about a purse that was in the car.
And we're asking you to visit with us about a crime that we're investigating, okay?
So the crime that we're looking at is the murder of Mary Catherine Edwards, and she was murdered in 1995. Yeah.
And we found a picture of a wedding picture that she and her sister, Allison, were actually in your wedding in 1982. Do you ever remember anyone ever coming to you about that crime? Were you aware of the crime even? No. You didn't know the crime occurred? No, sir. Okay.
You didn't know that Captain Edwards was murdered? No, sir, did not. Do you remember them from school? Do you remember the girls from school? Not really. They were freshmen. When you were a senior? Yes, sir. Okay. So on Mary Edwards, Mary Craft, Catherine Edwards, didn't know her well? Did you ever visit with her at all? No. Did you ever go in her house at all? Any house that she ever lived in?
He is denying. You know, in these DNA cases, when you, whether you're going to get a confession or not, you want to build up that background of, hey, did you know them? Number one. Did y'all have much acquaintance with them or was it just like a high school friend thing? How did you know him?
Did you ever go on a date? All the way up to, did you ever have sex with this person? Never, obviously, had sex with her. No. Never? Never. Did you go to college together? Did you do all? Everything was a no.
Do you understand DNA? And do you understand how DNA works? You understand you're made of DNA. He's made of DNA, I'm made of DNA. I think that Foreman knew enough about DNA that he thought he would have been caught already. He knew that he had never submitted his DNA. He had no clue that he was going to be arrested that day. Family label with you.
Right here and now, and I want you to hear me real close. That crime scene was processed really well. and your DNA was on Katherine's bed and was inside Katherine.
Okay. And that's by you putting it there. Okay. Do you understand that? Do you understand the implications of that? The day that you died, The night that she died, your DNA is in her, and your DNA is on her bedspread. Now, I don't want you to say anything right this second. I want you to think about the next words that come out of your mouth. I want you to think very hard about that, okay?
If there was no DNA in this case, if that evidence had not been properly maintained, nope, we'd have never got there. My name is Brandon Best, Sergeant, Texas Rangers, Company A Cold Case Team. The technology has changed so much since 1995. By the time we got to Catherine Edwards, there were a lot more of these resources that were available.
There's two people that know that story. You're one of them, and she's the other, and she can't talk. What I ask you is, now, to be honest with us completely, and tell us, how did that happen?
It's a grainy video, but you can probably see us grinning at each other. That he thinks he's walking out of here. He thinks he's fixing to leave here.
Very good. It's a moment I'll never forget. You feel like you got to do something for Catherine. you know, like physically got to do for her is take those cuffs that bound her when she was murdered and put them back on the guy that murdered her. It's, you know, it may seem small to some, but it was a really big deal to us and it felt good.
Is this someone that knew her? Is this someone that was a stranger? She had some, you know, ex-boyfriends. There was always the worry that it was a police officer. Some criminal is not going to have a pair of Smith & Wesson handcuffs.
I don't believe there is such a thing as closure, not on this earth.
70% of the time, you're not going to get that. And 100% of the time, you're not going to get the whole story anyway.
Did we believe it was someone she knew? Yeah.
The thing that really got me about the case was you don't expect to have this beautiful, young, single schoolteacher be murdered in her own home. She was such a great person, came from such a great family.
It was an unusual crime scene. She's over the bathtub and she's obviously been sexually assaulted and handcuffed behind her back.
Handcuffs have always been a key piece of this.
I wasn't there. It's not me.
Convincing someone to give their DNA up, to give a piece of themselves up to you in a homicide investigation can be very difficult. When we would sense anxiety in someone, Aaron would immediately tell them, hey, who do you want to play you in the movie? They would look at Aaron like he was crazy and say, what are you talking about? This guy's a Texas Ranger. Everything they do turns into a movie.
Who do you want to play your role in this movie? That calmed them down every time. And I, of course, do out there. Hey, I've already got Brad Pitt. So, you know, you can't you can't be Brad because Brad's playing me.
In every one of these cases that I've worked using DNA and genetic genealogy, you have at least one person, usually two or three that says, you know what? I had that weird Uncle Joe.
No, I did not. I would never do that.
We're not going anywhere until we get the facts here.
The reason that we were called in in this incident is because Ben's skull was fractured. What we need to know right now is if this was done by accident, Or did somebody intentionally hurt him?
We're talking a skull fracture. There's sometimes accidents happen and I mean, they're unavoidable.
Did you lose your patience and hit him?
Did you push him into a wall?
You didn't come to work that day with the intent of hurting anybody.
That story you're giving us is a load of .
There's no way, no way that that would have caused that traumatic of an injury. All you need to do is tell us the truth and we're done.
Show us how angry you were and show us what happened, and let's just get this over with and move on.
I'm going to tell you something right now. This is very specific. This is going to leave a specific mark.
We think in this situation the other babies are screaming, crying.
He starts acting up and you get mad at him and you throw him on the floor. You throw on the floor? Yeah.
Okay, well, we understand.
We're on the phone right now. We're trying to get this done as quickly as possible.
It's routine and protocol for us.
I have a good idea that you've seen what happened or you were involved with what happened because you were the only one in the room at the onset of this.
You're there. It's not like there were 50 people in that room with you.
We're not going anywhere until we get the facts here.
He starts acting up, and you get mad at him, and you throw him on the floor. You throw him on the floor?
See you later. The gas station is here in Troy. Yes. And the murder occurred here in Farmersville. Correct.
Do you and Leslie have a lot of problems? I would say no worse than any average couple.
I want you to dig down deeper and be as honest with me as you can, okay? Leslie is dead. What? Can you help me shed some light on this? How did she die? She was murdered. That's why we're here with you. You don't really believe that you're not involved in this. I'm not involved in anything.
You know where Farmersville, Illinois is? Farmersville. No, I can't say that I do. I've never been there. I've never heard of it.
I went to a buddy of mine's house. He left and left me some money out of his shop, and we'll pick it up.
Do you remember the time you came back? I wasn't that home. Maybe 630 or something like that.
You can talk to my daughter about me being home.
They drove up to a casino, spent a few hours there, and then arrived back home in the early morning hours. They were found Sunday afternoon, July 7.
Did you know anything about the death of Michael and Karen?
The killer made it downstairs, shot Karen Harkness multiple times, shot Mike Sisko multiple times. It's unnerving to think that somebody could sneak into a house and do this and leave quietly, and nobody knows about it until the next day. Whoever it was that did this hated these people. They wanted them dead, and they wanted to make sure they were dead.
There were some calls came to the phone, but none were picked up.
No, because the check wasn't taken from Karen Harkness's house where the murders occurred. The check was actually taken from Mike Sisco's house where the murders did not occur.
When officers talk to friends, family, coworkers, they all said the same thing. You guys should look at Dana Chandler.
Whoever it was that did this hated these people.
I got a radio call just after 2 o'clock on July 7, 2002.
I'm just curious, is everything all right with your dad and everything? Uh, yeah.
I think she became obsessed with the fact that Mike was moving on with his life. Mark Boots, Mike's brother-in-law. And then when Karen entered the picture, that's when things really started, I think, escalating.
She was willing to travel great distances to show up back in his life.
All this harassment and stalking had come to the point that Mike told me that he and Karen now feared for their lives. Mark says Mike made that clear to him on a fishing trip nine days before the murders. He turned to me and said, Mark, you're going to wake up and find me dead, and I want you to know who did it. Dana Chandler.
The victims were doing absolutely nothing and may not have seen it coming at all.
She said she'd been at home Saturday morning, that's July 6th, and then made a couple of errand stops.
Didn't have any visitors, no contact with anybody, and the next day got up and went for a drive in the mountains at 10 o'clock in the morning.
The particular person that I had view that tape, looked at every frame slowly.
What we found was there was a 27-hour window where her phone wasn't used.
We had collected DNA evidence at the autopsy, and we sent that to the crime lab. We'd gotten search warrants for phone records. We were in the process of getting that information back.
We were hoping it would record conversations or something from the day between the two of them.
Could have. It could have recorded Melissa screaming for help, yelling out his name. We didn't know what it would be.
We kept accusing him of things, and he never said, I didn't do it. He never said, you guys got the wrong person. He was just emotionless, and he wouldn't communicate. Not once in seven hours, not once did he get upset. Most people would have told us, I'm done. But he just sat and listened to us.
During that seven-hour interview, at one point, Matthew did say, I had no intentions of hurting Melissa.
Yes, because in our opinion, that means I hurt Melissa, but I didn't intend to do it.
We asked Chief Schultz if he would wear a listening device so that he would have a conversation with Matthew. We would be able to hear it and record it and try to gain some evidence that way.
When I arrived at the scene, I was told the victim was found laying on the floor in front of the stove. Melissa Lamish was a 27-year-old EMT. We're trying to figure out why there's a fire in the kitchen. We couldn't tell if it was intentional or accidental. There was all kinds of possibilities running through our heads, but we didn't know what happened to her.
It did reveal voices, but nothing that proved helpful for our case. It wasn't even on the day of the murder.
We got the results back saying that it was his DNA under her fingernails. Turn around. Hands behind your back.
All signs pointed toward Matthew Plody from the very beginning.
I believe from the very beginning, he was trying to set up a story that there was an accidental house fire, that she had been cooking something. I believe that was how he laid out the scene, which would explain why her body was found in the kitchen.
If you think about it logically, Thursday is Thanksgiving and Friday is her due date, his deadline. The only time to do this was Wednesday. So he took off work and completed his goal.
Matthew Plody later told investigators that he was at the house to see Melissa to talk about the baby.
I believe from the very beginning, he was trying to set up a story that there was an accidental house fire, that she had been cooking something, which would explain why her body was found in the kitchen.
Everything's covered in smoke. Ceilings, walls have fallen down, and everything's a mess.
We've noticed that she didn't have a whole lot of fire damage to her.
We learned from the family that he was a fireman.
Emotionless. Very soft-spoken. Matthew said he went to talk to Melissa. He wanted to talk about money, about being allowed at the hospital when she was set to be induced in two days, and that's why he was there.
We need to determine the cause of death. We don't know if Melissa had a medical episode or if somebody did something to her or if the carbon monoxide from the fire killed her. We don't know.
Samuel, how are you? I'm all right. My name is Cindy. I'm a detective here, and this is my partner.
I was looking and I found what I think are horseshoes and pants. I didn't touch anything. I made sure not to touch anything.
There's also like just a weird thing in the water, but I don't, it doesn't look like there's anything under it.
This was someone who simply walked up to them while they were bringing packages in from the store.
Did you see him bleeding anywhere at any time?
Where did he get the tape from? Don't know. Don't know?
You don't know if he had it on him or? No, I don't know. Or if he'd just seen it in their bedroom?
Do you recognize any of the six individuals as the person you saw commit the crime?
Number four? The victim is stating number four.
That's it. See, that's not how people disappear. Getting out of a car and walking away is not how people disappear. People disappear by getting picked up by somebody they've never met before. So what do you think happened to her?
So we're up here about Savannah. Did you know, you know Savannah? Yeah.
Today is Friday and from what we understand what happened was that she was scheduled to work Wednesday and she didn't show up Wednesday night for work. Did you work Wednesday night?
Okay, you were off Wednesday. And when's the last time you saw her?
This past weekend? Yeah. And you worked this weekend? Yeah. Okay, so the last time you saw her was here at work? Okay. And she was supposed to have shown up for work Wednesday. You weren't even in the parking lot? No. Wednesday? Okay.
I'm going to be honest with you. And your feelings in it, I don't really care about your feelings. What I care about is finding her. So where is she? I don't know where she is. Where is Savannah? I don't know. I need to know where Savannah is. I don't know where she is. You don't know because you had something done with her and you weren't involved in that part? I don't know. Tell me something.
What can I work with? I told you the last time. I'm sorry.
Do you remember? She just stopped moving.
Because you said when you were squeezing her, that's when you heard the pop. And then after that, she didn't move anymore.
You see that they have a long, skinny object in their hands. Initially, we really couldn't tell what it was. We had no idea. We just knew it was a long object, and it had kind of like a shoulder strap. You can sling it over your shoulder.
He's looking at all the video from the complex because we've dealt with this complex in the past. They've assisted us in the past, very cooperative with us in helping us with video from other cases. And we know that there are cameras all around that apartment complex. So once they start looking at the video, they see that
The three individuals, the three suspects that we see at the stairwell video, we see them walking into the community.
She didn't have a hoodie on like the other two. She didn't have a face mask on like the other two. She had like burgundy hair with one long strand of blonde hair. So that stood out in the video.
Most of our school resource officers, they create relationships with other students. A lot of times, they'll know a lot of the students just by seeing their face, they'll know their name. That resource officer, she was able to tell us right away, that's Christy Parisi.
In the detective world, that's one of our primary things, talking to people. doing interviews, you know, speaking with witnesses, speaking with suspects, speaking with victims.
So we knew Christy Parisian was someone we needed to talk to right away.
We pulled so many hours of video surveillance from that community, from a bunch of different cameras to capture every different angle from the entrance of the community all the way to where the crime scene was and back. The way it seemed was that maybe he was lured to the stairwell by Christy Parisian because the other two were waiting in the second floor.
When I became an officer and I started seeing crime scenes and I would see this, you know, when we would put up the crime scene tape and I would see the detective's response to the scene, I always wondered what it was like being on the other side of that yellow crime scene tape.
So we just knew right off the bat we need to Make contact with Christy Parisian and get the story from her and see what she says, because she's going to be the key to kind of opening this up and finding out what actually occurred.
This whole encounter with her was audio recorded. We had our audio recording device turned on and activated and we made contact with her at the apartment. She opened the door to us and we explained to her that we were detectives with the Miramar Police Department and wanted to talk to her about an incident we were investigating. We asked her if she would mind speaking to us. She was fine with it.
She actually asked us to come into her apartment. And she told us she was alone. So we said, OK, well, that's fine. Let's just go ahead and leave the door open and let's just talk here.
And I made it a point to try to do as much as I can and learn as much as I can so that one day I can get on the other side of that tape and do what I do now.
You could just tell right from the beginning as she's talking to us and telling us what had happened that day. You could tell that she knew more than she was actually saying. She was making a lot of different comments. Things were not lining up.
During that conversation, she tells us that her boyfriend, Andre Clements, had joked about murder via text with her.
So at that point, we knew, OK, Andre Clements is likely going to be the other suspect in this case. And we knew right off the bat that her phone contained evidence. So we needed to seize her cell phone in that moment, you know, pending a search warrant.
We seized her phone and then we asked her, okay, let's do this. Let's go ahead and come back to the police department just to kind of get the full story, get a full statement from you regarding what actually occurred. We called her mom. She didn't answer. And we left a voicemail for her.
Christy was able to tell her mom over the voicemail, I'm going to the police department because I'm a witness or they're asking me about a murder investigation.
From start to finish, this interview was somewhere around four to five hours. We spoke for a very long time. Her storyline kept changing every so often. You could just tell that she was lying about certain things. So it took a while to kind of get the full story.
She and Andre Clemens are in a relationship. Andre had cheated on her, so she wanted to get back at him. The way that she was going to get back at him was by having sex with Dwight Graham.
The city of Miramar, it can be a very, very pleasant place to live in. Just like any other city, you have crime that goes on. We have our bad areas, we have our good areas, and we have our great areas.
So at some point during the interview, we show her a snippet of video from the stairwell that shows her with the other two suspects. And it shows her with that long, narrow item in her hand that has the sling. So at that point, we ask her, you know, what is that? And she says, oh, I don't know.
She's talking about this, that, or the other, and then she goes, and then that's when I gave him the knife. Oh, what knife? What are you talking about? And that's when she goes, yeah, that long object is a knife.
During that interview, that's when she tells me that as she's walking back home from New Park Towers, she makes contact with her boyfriend, Andre Clements, and his friend, Jaslyn Smith.
They leave New Park Towers and they proceed over to Lake Vista, at which point they go to Jazlyn's apartment. Jazlyn decides that she wants to do a bonfire to burn some baby clothes. Now, as the interview continued, she eventually said it wasn't baby clothes. They were burning their actual clothes. They were taking off their clothes, burning it and getting dressed into something else.
So I asked her, OK, where did this bonfire occur? And she said directly behind Jazlyn's apartment building.
As Christy Parisian is telling me this in the interview, I now am communicating with other detectives to go out to that area and start to look for a burn site.
So at this point now we know, OK, Jasmine Smith is involved. We know Andre Clements is involved and we know Christy Parisian is involved.
We start to talk to Jazlyn and we wait for her mom to get to the house. When her mom arrives, we start to speak with her mom and we explain to her why we're there and what's going on.
Jaslyn's mom was the one that was talking to Jaslyn. And then Jaslyn was answering, and it's just she was answering in our presence. But we weren't necessarily directly asking Jaslyn questions in that moment.
We continued that form of interviewing for a few minutes just to see how much we can get because we had so much information already just based off of Christie's statement, just based off of the burn site that was behind Jasmine's apartment. And we decided, you know what, let's do this. Let's go and take an actual formal statement.
And we asked Jasmine's mom, we would like to get this statement from Jasmine. Really go into detail about everything that occurred. You could be present if you want. And she was okay with that. And we read her Miranda at that point because we just had a feeling that there was a chance that we may do the arrest. And we wanted to make sure that everything was done properly.
That video is going to show, you know, that body language. You see so much more of their intent and their feelings. That was key for me because that interview was honestly, for me, is where you can see evil.
Andre also made a comment to Christy when they got to Jaslyn's apartment saying, oh, I brought it with me and I sharpened it. That's also when Jaslyn saw the knife and it was a small dagger and the sword
Andre tells the victim, you know who I am, right? And then proceeds to tell him, you know, I have to kill you now, right?
At that point, Jazlyn helps to hold the victim as Andre proceeds to punch the victim several times in the face rapidly.
She tells us that at one point, the victim is now on the floor. He's already been stabbed on the neck, and I believe also in the abdomen, at which point the victim is in pain. And he basically tells the suspects, if you're going to kill me, just end it already. End it, because it hurts too much.
And that's when she's holding on to the victim, and Andre steps over him and drives the sword into his chest.
which was great for the case, but she was listing it all, and in my opinion, kind of just describing what she was having for breakfast that day. It was just no emotion. I don't know, no remorse, no nothing. It was just talking about it like it was another day.
They finally are done, and they start to... drag the victim's body out of the stairwell their plan was to possibly maybe throw him in the lake but it was too far and they were too tired so they are able to pull him out of the stairwell and that's when they throw his body over that railing which is why there was blood all over that railing
I just wanted to point this out because Jaslyn was saying, while she was giving her statement, that while they were putting his body in the bushes, you know, they were trying to figure out what the plan was, but they were too tired and they hadn't eaten yet, so they were hungry. And I was just looking at her like in my mind, I'm just thinking of myself. You just murdered somebody violently.
Her son was a good kid, never was the type to run away or do anything like that. So she called law enforcement and an officer responded.
And now you're talking about like, oh, we haven't eaten anything. For me, that was just a moment of pure evil. Like no, no care, no remorse, no, no heart.
So at that point, we had enough to do a search warrant for Andre's house. We did the house of the father, which is the address that was listed in his school records.
So at that point, while we're executing the warrant at the dad's house, detectives spot Andre at the mom's house in a car. They spot him getting into his mom's car with a couple other friends. We directed them to go ahead and pull the car over and detain Andre for purposes of executing the DNA warrant.
So we took Andre over to the Pembroke Pines Police Department. His mother came as well. And we attempted to interview him, but because of the fact that he was detained pending the DNA warrant, we read Miranda and he invoked his right to counsel.
What we mainly got from all the text messages were the conversation between Andre and Christy pre-murder, about a week before the murder, where he's telling Christy that murder is going to happen soon. And at that point, Christy pretty much tells him she's going to help him with it.
Based off the text messages between him and Christy, at one point after the murder occurred, he made a comment to Christy about, I should go throw out my trash. So I believe... I believe that he had the sword and the dagger with him and he threw it out in the dumpster of his community when he got home that night.
Once we were able to get those text messages and we saw that, we went back to the community to try to see if we can go into the dumpster to look for the sword. However, by that time, the trash had already been picked up and had already gone to the dump.
The sword itself had a brand on it. and it said Snake Eye Tactical. So based off of that and based off of the statement from Christie that Andre had purchased this sword several months prior from, he believes it was Amazon. So we did do a subpoena to Amazon to get all of Andre's purchase history, at which point we did find that he did purchase a couple months prior the Snake Eye Tactical sword.
By this point, Dwight Grant, he was already 18 years old, so he was officially an adult. The officer didn't enter him as missing at that moment because he was an adult. And, you know, if he wants to leave the house and just go out and maybe not come back right away, legally speaking, he can't.
And based off of the description and the fact that it was in his records, we believe that that was the sword that was used.
There was an anonymous student that provided a photograph of a sword and dagger collection that supposedly came from Andre's bedroom. So once that picture made it to law enforcement, I reviewed that picture and I noticed that the background of that photo matched Andre's bedroom from the search warrant that we had executed at his apartment.
So we charged them first-degree murder because of the premeditation that was planning involved in committing this murder.
Right from the beginning, it actually received national attention. I remember going online and I go on to Yahoo. As I scroll down, I see this case highlighted there. And I was shocked to see that this case was receiving national attention.
You don't see something so brutal and something for me, the best way that I can describe it and that I've had other people describe it to me is just evil. That word just has come up so many times in this investigation because of the callousness, the blatant disregard for life all over something so ridiculous.
Eventually, Christy and Jaslyn, they both pled out to, I believe it was 25 years with 10 years of probation. And then Andre recently pled out to 40 years with a lifetime probation.
Dwight, he was a very good-natured son. to Mageline and Neil and his father, Dwight Grant Sr. They raised a very, very good mannered kid. Was not a kid that was out in the streets doing drugs or breaking into cars or anything like that. Was just a good kid. Loved his schoolwork. Loved his friends at school.
The only thing that really stood out once I got involved really was just he's never done anything like this in the past. That starts to raise a red flag for me.
However, the next day on the 18th he didn't show up to school. So that's when alarm bells really started ringing. And his mother actually went to the school, tried to get as much information as possible, trying to find out if he was there, where he was at. And that's when another report was made to law enforcement. And at that point, he was entered in as missing.
Dwight's mom is still trying to figure out what's going on and where he's located. And she went over to her community's property manager's office and explained to them what was going on. She can't find her son and asked to review the cameras.
His apartment is at the end of the building, basically, and it's right next to the stairwell of the building. So there is a camera right outside of that building that faces the stairwell. Ms. Emil asked, can I just review the video? So they start to review the video and they see that Dwight Grant went to the stairwell with a female and he was attacked.
And once she sees that her son was attacked, she just picked up the phone and immediately called 911.
I think in that moment he saw how emotional she was and all those alarm bells started ringing in that officer's head. I need to go there and make sure that I investigate this fully instead of just making a phone call, reporting it and that's it. He knew that this was something serious.
He made contact with the staff over there and they explained to him. They reviewed the video. And in this stairwell, you see her son getting attacked. So he asked them, you know what? Take me to the stairwell. Take me to the stairwell so I can see it for myself. At that point, they walk him over to where the stairwell in question was located at.
And he starts looking around and it's pretty clear that something happened there.
He's like, okay, something definitely occurred here. And he gets the crime scene tape and starts to set up the crime scene tape all around that area. Now, the good thing here is that he didn't just put that crime scene tape around the stairwell. He actually opened it up, made it a nice big crime scene and started putting that tape all around that whole corner of the building.
He walks around this large set of bushes that's on the southeast corner of that building. And as he's putting up the crime scene tape, he looks down and he sees a body.
First thing I did was I looked at the stairwell, and I'm careful because there was so much smeared blood on the floor behind the actual stairs. But also in the hallway just outside of the stairwell, you could see smears of blood. I go further into the stairwell and I'm looking around and you can see the blood smears actually going up the wall a little bit towards the bottom part of the wall.
And you also see what looks like footprints in blood.
We walk outside and now we go towards the bushes where the body was found. Now the body was close to pushed up against the wall of the building on the backside of those bushes. He was on his back with his legs bent over his torso. If you're laying on your back and you bring your legs up and over your chest, That's how he was found.
His shirt, it was like a green sweater, was pulled up a little bit. And that's when you can see a fairly large hole in his chest. And his face was very swollen. So we knew that this was violent. It appeared that he had been beat a lot on his face because his face was very, very swollen.
I ask myself those questions all the time, but keep in mind, I'm in this job, right? So I'm constantly observing what's going on around me. But most people that are not in this line of work, your average person is walking down the hallway and they're not really paying attention to those smears that are on the floor.
We went in there and we spoke with Ms. Mew in her apartment and we told her that we are investigating this incident. We did find a body nearby, but we have not been able to identify that body yet.
It's very emotional in that moment because I'm thinking of this as a parent, because I am a parent myself, and I can't imagine my reaction to hearing something like that. It's such a horrible thing to have to tell a parent that their child might be deceased, but you try to treat it with as much compassion as possible, with as much respect as possible.
And we told her, we're working on this and we're going to do everything we can to figure out exactly what happened. And as soon as we have more information, we'll be able to update her.
We could see that there's a huge loss of blood. It seems like there's a lot of anger involved. When you have such a violent crime scene, it tells me that this came out of a place of anger.
So when I'm looking at this, I'm thinking the suspects must know each other in some way, shape or form to be able to develop so much anger towards the victim.
The only thing that they recognized, that anybody recognized, was the victim himself. You can see some of their face, but that video was not the best quality. So it's got to be, like, you have to know the person to be able to tell who it is.
So there were a total of three suspects. You can see first two suspects that are wearing all black, they walk into the stairwell and go up to the second floor. They remain between the second floor landing and the third floor landing.
All of a sudden, you see the two suspects that were between the second and third floor landing, they come down the stairs, they confront the victim, and now the victim tries to run away.
one of the worst parts of this video is when you see the victim running away he's running out of the stairwell and the suspects grab him by the waist and pull him in back to the stairwell you literally see the victim's hands are stretched out and his feet are trying to get out of the the stairwell opening and he's being dragged by his waist back into the stairwell out of the view of the camera at that point that was the last time that you see the victim alive
I'm just coming to you today. No polygraph or nothing, okay? It's just you and me. And overnight, I'm thinking and I'm thinking and I'm thinking... How do you get yourself in this situation?
I talked to the lead detective for that taxi cab thing.
And he told me that they had the dogs out, and the dogs, like, lost the scent at an abandoned house. Like, they were that close.
She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
So when she was killed in a wealthy neighborhood... She had been shot twice in the head and in the back behind the heart.
So when she was killed in a wealthy neighborhood... She had been shot twice in the head and in the back, behind the heart.
And I just really always wanted to be able to come back to you and say, all right, this is it. This is who did it. And there's going to be charges and your name will be officially cleared. And I just sort of wanted to say I'm sorry that I didn't get there.
I feel the same, Dan. Thank you so much.
You too, buddy. Take care.
This nail was part of that bomb. Every nail has a serial number. Like a gun. We traced it to the manufacturer. What hardware store it was sold to. A hardware store two blocks from your apartment. We have the receipt. You bought those nails.
You bought those nails. You knew I would find you. It was only a matter of time. Mickey talks about how I found him at a cheap hotel. He talks about how he ran. Like a rat into Gotham's sewers. He talks about trying to hide from one demon. Only to find another.
Solomon Grundy, one of Gotham's lost souls. Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday. Solomon Grundy would have pounded Mickey into a pulp. Solomon, I have no quarrel with you. Born on a Monday. I only came for the man who disturbed your privacy. That man.
Mickey talks about how Grundy would have hurt me. If I wasn't forced to hurt him first. Solomon Grundy was innocent of this whole affair. Reminding me how deep the Romans' roots have dug into this city.
I can't believe that. I won't believe that. And neither should you.
He's scared. Not of you. Not of me. But of someone very powerful. We've only begun to learn the truth.
The Roman's penthouse. He prepares Thanksgiving dinner with his son, Alberto. A little sugar.
Thanksgiving night in Gotham City. On last Halloween night, someone blew up Harvey and Gilda Dent's home. That someone is Mickey the Mink Sullivan. Mickey runs a small-time operation called The Irish. Donny Boy Sullivan, his older brother, Jimmy Slick, Dapper Kevin, Willie two times. We have all of them downstairs in a holding cell. Except Mickey. Harvey Dent is dead. We know you did it, Mickey.
Gotham City Police Department. The cell where we're holding the Irish.
We interrogate them all. Next, it's Jimmy Slick.
And Donny boy.
Five confessions, including Mickey. Rehearsed. Clean. Whatever the Roman is paying them, he's getting his money's worth. Bring Mickey back up.
Harvey was wrong. They made bail in less than an hour.
I watched from above as the Irish leave jail in a stretch limo. The Dents spend Thanksgiving together at Gotham City Memorial. Gilda Dent's still recovering from her burn wounds. It's okay, honey. Gordon went home late. Barbara and his baby James went to bed hours ago. Thanksgiving dinner is cold.
And in the Gotham sewers, I shared Thanksgiving with someone very special.
As I finished my patrol past the Astoria Towers Hotel, I couldn't help but wonder with the Roman's grip getting tighter on Gotham City. Will there be anything to be thankful for in the coming year? Little did I know that inside, a celebration was going to come to an abrupt end.
But we also know you're nothing but a little fish. And the only thing little fish are good for is catching bigger fish.
And just no problems at the store, everything's fine, right?
Police start asking about the private area in the back of the store, the little kitchenette where staff hang out on break, make coffee, that sort of thing.
Is there anybody talking to each other or like any signs of problems?
So, I mean, the purpose is like, if we do find anything, we're going to get your DNA so that way we can eliminate it. So we don't submit it to a national database.
I mean, so if it's there, we'll say, OK, it's not.
And I'll tell you why. I know this.
Yes, you did, yeah. It was self-inflicted. They're perfectly parallel. They're superficial scratches. Your pants were pulled down when this happened. The cuts don't match up with the cuts in your pants. It's obvious. It's a classic case of self-inflicted wounds. I know about the thefts. I know that Jaina found clothing in your bag. No, she didn't. And that you'd been suspected of stealing.
And that they were having bag checks.
Okay, then who did kill her? Because there were not two guys in there.
Was there someone else with you that forced you back into the store for whatever reason? No. Is that what happened?
That you were walking down to the metro and somebody accosted you and forced you into the store and forced you to call Jaina to get her back to rob him? No. Okay. Then who killed her?
No, there were not two guys in there.
No, there weren't. No, there were not.
And then you put the shoes back in there. I think that, like, you need help.
And I'm very, very concerned for you. I think you need help. These guys give you the keys... tell you to go move her car. Okay? A cop goes by and you don't flag him down. You get in the car and you drive off and park it and then come back so that they can kill you. Come on. Come on.
Yes, I did. No. Nobody in the world is going to believe this story. No one. He doesn't believe it. My boss doesn't believe it. When I tell your brother and your sister, they ain't going to believe it. And your mother and your father, they're going to say, bullshit. This did not happen. I'll tell you something else. Chris already doesn't believe it.
Remember when we were over the house on Mondays? And he said, I'm going to talk to you. And we went outside. You know what he told us? Or what he asked us? Why is this girl dead and my sister is still alive? What kind of sense does that make? I don't know. Okay. He knows that something's shaky.
When I talk to Chris and with Marissa and we start getting into your background, we're going to probably find out that there are some psychological or emotional problems. I don't have any problems. Well, you do now.
Why don't you then step by step by step walk me through it, okay? You go back to the store, okay? And were they standing by the front door waiting for you or in the back or what?
Okay, and what was said, what was done?
You're walking from the store. to the car, and you see a cop car going by, and you said that, like, you passed a couple of people.
Okay. And you got in the car and you drove off. Okay. People would probably ask, well, why didn't you just keep on going and not go back, you know?
Okay, well, if you were in the car and you were driving away,
Okay. But then couldn't you, like, go get a cop or something like that and tell them that these guys are in the store?
Did they say why they wanted you to move the car? I didn't say why. Because, I mean, it doesn't make sense.
Okay, well, let's try to get through it.
What about your forehead? Had that started bleeding yet, or did that happen after you got back to the store? It did. I had blood on my face. Okay. And how many people do you think that you passed?
When you were walking to the car or after you had parked the car, walking back? Okay. Did they kind of look at you funny or anything like that? You know, like, whoa, what's she doing all bloody? What did they say?
They took at you funny, like, again, you know, like, it is Bethesda, black girl with blood all over.
The other guy is yelling shut up? Yes. Okay. Okay.
Brittany, comes a point sometimes when We have to break down and get everything off of our chests, okay? I know this has really been rough for you as far as like, I'm sure that you have been going absolutely nuts for these past couple of days as far as what the cops have found out, what the cops have figured out.
Oh, I can only imagine. You know, you have got to be going absolutely nuts with worry, with fear. You got to be. You got to be. And you got to tell us what really happened.
Now, what you've done is you've concocted an incredible story that doesn't make any doggone sense.
Listen to me, okay? I've been doing this. I've been a cop for over 30 years. I've been working homicide for damn near 25 years. And I've seen a lot of stuff. And I've heard a lot of tales. And I've seen a lot of people, good and bad. And sometimes people get into situations way over their heads. And it's like, what the hell am I going to do now? You know, how do I explain this?
What the hell am I going to do now? I guess we can start off with the injuries that you have. They're self-inflicted. Yeah, they're self-inflicted. You did this to yourself.
James, are you okay? I mean, is there anything we should know about? Are you injured or anything other than some scrapes?
Anything? No, no.
Wir sind hier, um dir zu helfen.
Wir werden es so einfach wie möglich machen, wie wir es können. Okay. Und wir haben Wasser. Ja. Also, außer dem, brauchst du irgendwas? Äh. Oxygen.
Ja, was ist mit dem?
I do remember him crying when he started to shed some tears over the fact that how could anyone possibly think that he could hurt anyone, let alone his best friend, Ron Platt.
She was very, very calm, very determined, and stood there and gave it like it was. And we knew what she could say. We knew what she'd already told us. And it was a matter of her getting that out in court.
The foreman stands up and the clerk asks, you know, have you got to a verdict that you're all agreed on? Yes, we have.
And then it's like kind of everything's crossed and then the foreman says guilty and that's it. Yeah. You can't whoop and holler, can you? But you can inside. They all pretty stiff upper lip and all, isn't it? But yeah, we didn't get a party that night. We weren't going to let that go without a party.
When you think about it logically, how we've got from there to there is unbelievable. Unbelievable. And it truly is. If you really think about it, you just think, how did we do that? And I keep going on about luck, but, you know, yeah, everything we touched turned to gold.
Wow.
I think she'd seen the light, hadn't she? She'd been under his spell for so many years. Once that spell was broken and he was taken away from her... I think then she became aware of how wrong everything was and how manipulative he was. And yeah, I think she made that conscious decision to step out from him and say, look, this is it. This is the end of me being ruled by him.
We were all delighted with how she managed to stand up to it. Just the fact that she had the courage to stand up and fight against their father after what he put her through, I thought it was fabulous.
She was able to really display to the court the motive behind it, the fact that he saw this as an opportunity. She kind of explained to the jury, the court, how they benefited him. And the jury, I think, were able to see and form, yeah, that is a good motive to kind of, to get them out the country. And Ron couldn't explain to the court. And Elaine, she was able to speak on Ron's behalf.
and explain to the court exactly why Ron had to be disposed of, if you like. And it was quite compelling, yeah.
He's listening to this scenario all coming together, and he's probably thinking at that point, I really am in trouble here.
What do you think was the trigger that led you in this direction?
I know it's in your other statement too. Could you just briefly describe that again?
Okay, it's roughly two...
You had come in initially just to come today for the purpose of kind of just getting a little bit of background on
And since you were here, I thought it would be a good idea for me, since I wasn't involved, obviously, in the original statement, if I was in Ottawa, that I could just maybe just
I'm Detective Yarmuluk, badge number 813. We're in 55 Division in the interview room. And I am with, could you just state your name for the camera?
So then you're at Eastern Commerce. When did you meet up or have a relationship is the wrong word. When did you have dealings with Mr. Walker?
So now you had intercourse. How did that come about? Like, how did he... did he convince you at any time? Did you say stop? I want, I don't want to do with this.
Okay. Okay. So now you had, uh, the first time you had intercourse was in Belleville in the hotel room. Yes. Um, it was at one time there in Belleville.
Okay. So then obviously now you're the, the band trip is over or everybody comes back to Toronto. Okay. So when was the next time, uh, um, You had some kind of interaction with him?
This is being videotaped and audiotaped. Do you have no problem with that? No, not at all.
Okay.
You've come in today from Ottawa in relation to an occurrence. It's a historical sexual assault. Is that right?
Okay. Oh, you remember that?
Oh, really? Okay. Okay. So then you provided a statement, and I have reviewed that statement.
On the morning of the 31st, I came to work at Chelmsford, but I took a slight detour, quite a detour actually, and came this way, driving down from Danbury into Wood and Water to see if there was any sign of life at the house.
came up here. I think I turned into the lane, saw the car was on the drive and backed out again and looked for somewhere to sit and wait. The trees were bare and I got a reasonable view.
I saw a taxi going down the lane, going past them, and he went down and then came back and stopped somewhere between the two. From this angle, I couldn't see which house he'd stopped in front of. Couldn't see which house he'd actually gone to.
So I had to take a chance that he'd actually picked up at Little London Farmhouse rather than Little London House.
Lots of things were going through my mind at this point. Have I done the right thing? But having committed to it, you've got to see these things through.
At this point, I know there's a passenger in the taxi, but I can't see who it is. And I'm taking the chance that it is our man.
They said that the armed response vehicle was near, was making its way to me. I do remember pulling out of here sharply to stay close to them. You can lose them very quickly.
Do you remember me, Mr. Davis? Oh, yes. Yes, I remember you. I'm arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Ronald Platt.
I want to first get into, after our last press conference, we outlined why we had stopped the search on Green Lake and that while we might have stopped the search on Green Lake, that didn't stop our search continuing to look for rye. The day of our last press conference, November 8th, We attempted with a number of data points that we were left on his computer.
And what I'm saying is that day, we had the numbers that were given to us in trying to make contact with Ryan. Things like phone numbers, email address, we just did a blitz. And that day, the Brown County Sheriff's Office assisted us because of the circumstances that we had. And we were trying to get in contact with Ryan.
Through that weekend, we continued to try our communications with a female that spoke Russian. And on November 11th, We got in contact with Ryan through her. That was a big turning point. And our biggest concern that we had was if he was safe and well. We asked him a number of questions that pertained to him and his family that he would only know. And then we asked him for a video of himself.
And he furnished that, and I'm going to present that now Uh, to you folks.
There were a number of questions asked. that we asked them and talked about. And we told them what we were going to be doing next. And one of them was to find out who helped him get off the lake. And he decided in one of his communications that he was going to tell us how he did that. He stashed an e-bike near the boat launch. He paddled his kayak in a child-sized floating boat out into the lake.
He overturned the kayak and dumped his phone in the lake. He paddled the inflatable boat to shore and got on his e-bike and rode through the night to Madison. In Madison, he boarded a bus and went to Detroit and then the Canadian border. He continued on the bus to an airport and got on a plane.
Our communications are continuing to go on about that matter.
And we've talked about that. His biggest concern is how the community is going to react to him. And I can see that. He staged his death and Unfortunately, one of the things that he did say was he didn't expect us to go more than two weeks in searching for him. Well, I hate to tell you, he picked the wrong sheriff in the wrong department.
And one of the reasons why he picked Green Lake was because it was the deepest lake in Wisconsin. He did research, he did, and he thought his plan was going to pan out, but it didn't go the way he had planned. And so now we're trying to give him a different plan is to come back home.
One of the first words from the detective was, if she would have been in a place five minutes before or five minutes after, this would have never happened. It literally was a random act. That's what's so sickening.
DeAsia, like a lot of 18-year-old girls, she wanted to be independent, and that led to a lot of altercations at home as her home life was trying to balance her independence with her being a responsible young adult. And things got a little bit tumultuous with her mother, and eventually she left the house.
Jared grew up in this rural community of Fairburn, and he knew a lot of people in the area.
At some point, he entered military school, and he intended to go into the Coast Guard.
We ended up putting out a bolo for De'Asia.
DeAsia said she had just legitimately just asked for a ride from Ms. Abad.
I think Detective Jackson pretty quickly, summarily dismissed the plausibility of that version of events. He says, I'm gonna leave the room and I'm gonna come back and give you a second bite of the apple.
He came in to talk to the police proactively, and he just says, saw her on the news, don't know anything else. I'm not involved in this.
He denies essentially any involvement or even having seen her recently.
DeAsia told us, she was looking for a way out of living on the street and this repeated cycle of sleeping in the night watchman's car, spending all day at the shopping center, and then doing it all over again. Jared told her, you bring the car to me and I will take care of the rest.
DeAsia said that she pulled out an airsoft pistol that Jared had given her for the purpose of stealing a car or for protection.
Meanwhile, while this is going on, Jared has emerged from the wood line, and he smashed the driver's glass window. So while he beats the glass with a baseball bat, the victim crawls over the passenger seat and ends up outside the car.
She was begging and pleading for her life. She talked about Christmas just being a few days away and the fact that she had a young granddaughter, and she just wanted to make it to Christmas to see her.
They could have left her there. Maybe someone would have driven by and seen and been able to render aid. Instead, they put her body in the trunk of her own car.
He asked his dispatcher to try to contact the owner of the vehicle to see if perhaps the vehicle was stolen overnight and she just hadn't woken up to discover it yet.
We do believe that De'Asia, you know, actively participated in the violence that night and certainly helped load Tony Abad's body into the trunk of her own car. So she was more than just like a getaway driver.
Even if they intended to just carjack Miss Abad, the fact that they so egregiously and aggressively bludgeoned her, that speaks to a level of violence that leaves only one conclusion, that the moment that they arrived on that road, they intended to kill her.
The following day, a warrant is issued for Jared's arrest, and the police are looking for him.
We really can't go to trial solely alone on the accusation of a co-conspirator.
I think there's some variation in what De'Asia thought was going to happen and what Jared planned to do. But I do think that De'Asia was 100% along for the ride once that decision was made.
This was Christmas Eve, and once they located that address, the police went there and he was taken into custody without incident.
So it's interesting that he came in to talk to the police proactively, and then the day following, he's arrested, and now he's mum. He's got nothing to say to the police.
What we found was a significant amount of communication with DeAsia on December 21st, which was the night of the murder. They spoke somewhere between FaceTime calls and voice calls, somewhere in the neighborhood of six and a half hours on December 21st. So a significant amount of time.
So for Jared to come in after the fact and say, you know, this is just someone that I have a casual relationship with, I don't know her well, the phone records are telling a vastly different story.
Arguably the most important evidence that we found in Jared's phone was when we looked at the web history.
When I overlaid Jared's web search history with the Fulton County Police CAD record for the discovery of Ms. Abad's car, what we found was in the minutes that preceded the discovery of her body, he was searching for essentially a woman found in the trunk of a car in Fairburn.
My best analysis when it comes to motive of Jared Kemp and De'Asia Page in this murder I believe that DeAsia was an immature, impressionable young lady that was homeless and desperate. And she was doing partly what she wanted to do and part what others had convinced her to do.
I believe that when Jared was waiting in that wood line on Church Street after directing DeAsia to drive down that dirt road with a victim in a car, he was driven by a motivation to kill.
She had significant injuries to her head and her face, so she was severely beaten to death.
There was a significant amount of blood inside the trunk of the car to possibly suggest that she still could have been alive inside the trunk of that car before she was discovered.
We discovered her body in the trunk of the car.
It's just kind of an off-the-beaten-path type of roadway. And as you drive down that road, you kind of feel like you're driving towards a dead end or the middle of nowhere.
This is four days before Christmas. It's cold outside. This is the South Atlanta winter, and you have a young lady asking for help getting a ride. I'm sure when Toni walked out of her job that night, she really just saw the face of one of her children when they were 18, and they needed help.
The video surveillance showed this young lady pacing back and forth in front of the two entrances and exits to the supermarket.
The video surveillance showed this young lady pacing back and forth.
Even when you can't see, you know where the 9 and the 1 go on the telephone. That didn't make a lot of sense to me.
The medical examiner's report indicated that she was killed from a crushing blow to the throat, which crushed larynx. She can no longer breathe, swallow. She is gasping and choking. It's a horrible way to die.
So many times there's a family violence situation, a sudden rage, a fight, something happens and it turns into a homicide. And then the killer tries to set up the scene to match his story. We believe that Jack Gray possibly was involved in it. To obtain some of this evidence, I was required to write search warrants.
And in the search warrant, I was required to name a suspect and why we wanted the warrant. And in these affidavits, I named, of course, Jack Coswell.
Karen Koslow had a trust fund that was considerable, around $4 million.
They had at some point in time gone to some counseling.
It was going to be a considerable investment.
Paula and Christy and Salter came to the office with their attorney and we talked to them.
She had no idea about whether it would have been a robbery or something, but she suspected that because everybody loved her dad and her stepmom.
Brian and Christy were just members of the same social circle. They knew each other from young people that they hung out with and such.
There was never a point in time when we had decided to arrest Jack Koslow. There was never a point in time where anybody said, we need to arrest him, let's get a warrant to arrest him. He was a suspicious person that we had to clear.
He said, I really need to talk to you. I know what happened. I asked him where he was, and he gave me an address. And I said, I'll be right there. And I jumped in the car and drove out there and met him.
He sat there with me and told me about Jeffrey Dillingham, how this guy had come to him and confess to him.
Paul Carrillo gave us a backpack, which contained several items. We got Jack Koslow's wallet, which had his ID and business card, a bulletproof vest.
He had gone into the house with Brian Salter.
Jeffrey Dillingham, I was curious about his criminal history and found out very quickly he'd never been arrested for anything. Salter, that guy was so weak acting, I didn't think that guy could do anything to anybody.
They were supposed to kill both Karen and Jack Koslow. When I questioned him about how he hit Karen, as she was on the floor, she rolled over on her side, and at one point, he struck her in the throat with the crowbar, which is consistent with what the medical examiner's report showed.
At some point in time, Brian Salter then takes the knife they find and uses it to cut Jack's throat and Karen Koslow's throat so severely it almost severs your head. He talked about these things with seemingly no remorse.
I personally arrested both of them. I put Brian in the car with me and another detective transporting Christie from that location straight up to our homicide office.
I received a call about four o'clock in the morning and I was told that there was a Signal 11 stabbing.
She could draw out a map, which she did, of the interior of the residence, show them exactly where they slipped.
They were concerned that Jack had firearms there in the house that, according to Christy, kept them up there in the bedroom.
Jeffrey Dillingham has the pry bar, and he starts striking both Jack and Karen Koslow.
I went in and sat down with her and I told her, you need to tell me the truth, everything you know.
Christy Koslow admitted she hated Karen and came to hate her dad. She became tearful and stated that She resented Karen Koslow for taking her father away from her mother Paula.
During the course of the investigation, I had acquired a copy of Karen Koslow's will. Karen Koslow had expressly eliminated Christy Koslow from receiving any money in the event of her death. So this plan to kill and to murder her parents was really for nothing. Jack was both angry and sad about
He did say that Jack was articulate in talking to him and telling him. Some people came into the house, and I think Karen may be dead.
Christy being involved in this, he was furious that she could do something like this and arrange this and take his wife away and destroy his life like she had done.
We proceeded up the stairs to the master bedroom. The victim's body was the first thing that my eyes went to. She was partially clothed and lying face down on the floor at the foot of the bed.
He worked his way up to a management position and was very well liked.
Christy was in the care of Paula, but visited and stayed with Jack and Karen a lot. She grew into her teens. She went to a nice school, was paid for by Jack.
Jack was quite bloody. His face was covered in blood, his hair matted with blood, blood on his hands. He was swollen. He seemed very groggy, maybe somewhat even incoherent. He was transported to Terrace Hospital.
We noticed bloody handprints on the back of her t-shirt indicating that maybe she had been moved. Somebody with bloody hands had grabbed her and either rolled her over or drug her or moved her.
When the body was turned over, we could see this horrendous cut to the throat. Her throat was cut severely to the point that I remember thinking it almost decapitated her.
We saw a buck knife lying on the floor. It was open still, had a very ornate handle, and was covered in blood. We were obviously suspicious that that might be one of the murder weapons.
There was a rack in there that held several firearms. And drawers that were open, shotgun shells on the floor, blood everywhere in there. Obviously, somebody was going through and looking for something in this closet.
The gate had been pried open. It appeared to be a pry bar because you could see the points of the pry bar embedded into the wood. And there was a little piece of what looked like a latex glove that had been torn off. We saw that the back door had also been pried open using what looked like the same tool.
So there was more going on than just a robbery or home invasion. The entire crime scene was very confusing.
Jack had been talking, but he seemed to be in a confused state about what had happened. He seems very groggy and very confused.
hands were swollen. There were little angular marks that looked to me and everybody else remarkably like the night watch.
There were some that believed that this was a staged crime scene.
He went to bed, and then was later awakened back. What he described was noise downstairs.
Jack said these two men kicked open the door and That's when they ordered him down on the floor and carrying down on the floor.
They started beating him with a heavy object.
He checked on Karen and couldn't get her to wake up. He grabbed the phone. and was trying to dial 911, but because of all the blood in his eyes, he couldn't see.
There's a figure dressed all in black that runs very quickly up the driveway.
The murder happened at 2.30, and they realized that that fit into the timeline of when the van was gone, when the murder happened, and when the van returned to the workplace.
When they look at the footage, it's not Bridget that's leaving the building, it's Catherine who's leaving the building, and she's using Bridget's key card.
By tracking the pings, they know that she left work shortly after 1230.
During the confrontation call, Bridget expresses her great concern about the fact that the police think that she may have been in on this. And Catherine doesn't seem too concerned.
She's not there. The baby's not there.
Police called in the Arizona Department of Child Safety. They took custody of the little baby.
There's a figure dressed all in black that runs very quickly up the driveway.
Do you have the text messages still?
I'm thinking, and now you're deleting messages. So how do we know what's going on? Are you involved now?
We get the cell phone and notice that he had made several phone calls to this one number.
None of the GPS coordinates put him anywhere near where she lived.
We also learned that some of her text messages had been deleted, was a little suspicious at first.
The timeline and text messages that she was getting from him matched exactly with what she had told us.
We know that one of the last messages that were sent says he's with Tiffany. When we get the cell phone information from his cell phone carrier, we had noticed that he had made several phone calls to this one number, and that phone number came back to a Tiffany. We made contact with her and learned her side of the story.
We had asked her, you know, one of the last messages that were sent says he's with Tiffany. She's like, I don't really know why. It wasn't me that sent that message.
She actually lived down in Naples, a little far away, and none of the GPS coordinates put him anywhere near where Tiffany lived. There was no connection, we believe what she was saying, and we didn't have anything to say differently at this point.
following the breadcrumbs that they're leaving behind from the GPS locations. They lead us to this house.
That's when mom had told us about the girlfriend and gave us her information. Mom's talking and we're looking into both of them. I'm sending all this information to our analyst. Hey, start researching this person because this is his girlfriend and see what we can get on her.
As we're talking with Nathan's mom, I'm really intrigued by this area by the side of the house. It's a freshly dug dirt area. It just looked very awkward and very out of place. Now I'm like, okay, so now this is really involved. Now we've really got something here.
The most important evidence that we found in the house was the shovels and wheelbarrow that had dirt still on them.
The dirt on the shovels and the wheelbarrow matched the dirt that was found in the dug-up area and also the same dirt that was found inside Matthew's vehicle.
Nathan's mom calls him and says, I have two deputies here. They want to meet with you and talk to you. You're meeting with them tonight.
What'd you guys do when y'all hung out with him?
When was the last time you hung out with anybody?
Okay. And so did that night, did he just stop by or?
Aria kept saying because of her fear for herself and her unborn child and for Nathan's safety because this guy pulled the gun out and said, I'm going to kill you. She felt like this was the only safe thing that she could do.
I'm listening to her tell this story. There was no, like, sense of remorse or guilt whatsoever. I thought, there's no way that this is the true story.
Nathan pretty much gives us the same story to the details of the song being played. And then Matthew points the gun at him and he punches the gun out of his hand. And he said, like, all of a sudden, I just heard this, like, gunshot.
They said after they had killed him, they decided to dig this grave right next to the house, which is the area that I had noticed earlier. Where was everybody when you were digging the hole? His parents were sleeping. Was it too hard over there and that's why you didn't finish that?
It didn't really work out. It was, like, not deep enough, and it was very, very obvious. They ended up going back out there that next night, and then they decided, we need to move this.
It wasn't until like later we decided to burn him. Once they buried him, they were like searching how to get rid of the body. And so they decide, oh, well, it says burn the body. So a couple of days later, they go out there and unbury him again and light his body on fire.
They're sitting there realizing how bad burning flesh smells. So they ended up, you know, putting out the fire and then burying him again. At this point, we didn't know where Matthew was. So we'd asked Aria if she'd be willing to show us.
Right there? And that's where you guys dug out? And then you guys placed him in there? So you're saying that his body was burned a little bit?
Once we had booked her in, that's when they had made her do a pregnancy test and learned that she wasn't actually pregnant. She was never pregnant. I think it was just part of her story that she wanted to fabricate to make it seem like she was so scared for her life.
The gun was not found originally. They ended up interviewing Nate again later on after he'd already been sentenced to prison. And he told them they tossed the gun into the river and the dive team went out there and ended up finding the gun out there in the river. The attorney that we worked with for the state, you know, basically presented all this to Aria.
Aria got 40 years with possibility of parole.
Still to this day, try to ask myself, like, what really happened? I wish we had Matthew's side, but unfortunately we don't.
The lady that called in, she said basically she walks this same path every day. After several days of seeing the vehicle there, she thought maybe it was stolen. Deputies were sent to kind of figure out what was going on with it.
There's this hole in the windshield with some tape over it. After looking at it, they realize that there's a bullet hole in the windshield.
You could see blood all over inside the vehicle. There's a crime that's obviously occurred. Is it Matthew? Is he the victim or is he the suspect here? And who does all this blood belong to?
So at this point, they're doing fingerprints, photographing all over the vehicle, inside and outside of it. We noticed blood on the back bumper of the vehicle and drag marks on the back bumper. I'm like, okay, somebody's in there.
Do you have the text messages still?
What I could see on the bumper definitely shows that somebody had been placed in the vehicle or drug out of the vehicle.
We opened it just to make sure. However, Matthew was not located in the vehicle.
The blood that was located both inside the trunk area, inside the passenger compartment, and what I could see on the bumper definitely shows that somebody had been killed inside that vehicle.
You could see blood all over inside the vehicle. Somebody had been killed inside that vehicle. Who does all this blood belong to?
All right. How do you know Matt?
That's what we had, but it was an accident, and that was really all. I was pulled away for different investigations.
There was a small life insurance policy, I say small, like $25,000 or something, but nothing of any real major importance.
Murray said, as far as they were concerned, Elaine Whitty had went on an extended vacation. She was traveling alone and was going to the West Coast and making various stops in between. She had no schedule or anything like that. Nobody could pinpoint where she was.
I said, hello, Marie, remember me? I'm back. And she almost fainted.
It was Marie Witte that made the call and it went to Beverly Shores Police Department.
Skip Pierce came to me and said, we've got this lady. Her name's Malaine Whitty. She's missing. No one had seen her. No one had talked to her. No one knew where she was.
I began to realize that I had dealt with these people in the past and that these were the same people her son had tripped and shot her husband in the head. You know, I think we've got a problem.
It could have well been just an accidental shooting. But again, when the gun went off, it shot downward into the head, which made it really much more suspicious. If he had tripped, the bullet would have come in more of a direct angle.
I said, hello, Marie, remember me? I'm back. And she almost fainted. I said, Marie, I'm here about Elaine Puddy. We're trying to find her. And she's on a trip. And she stammered and stuttered. And I said, can we come in and sit down?
She just simply said, if I hear from her, I'll let you know. But my concern is Marie didn't have a clue where she was gone to. She's been gone two or three months here, and that's not normal.
I asked her where Marie was. Where's Marie staying now? She said, well, she and Butch are going out to California and see Eric.
My worst nightmares were coming true. From my standpoint as an investigator, there was no question in my mind that Elaine was not with us anymore, that she was gone.
Marcy appears to be a very nice older lady. What I want to do is put pressure on Marcy. You can tell that she knew more. I kept contact with her, and the more I talked to her, the more I could get from her. And I finally said, what's going on? And I said, I'll go after anyone who was involved in this whole thing, and I'll lock them up.
It was on a Friday. I called and talked to her and she said, Boyd, Elaine's dead. And I said, okay, I'll be right over.
I said, well, where's she at? Where's the body? She says, there is no body. She said, we've got rid of the body.
Paul had been apparently asleep on the couch when he was shot in the head.
Marie Witte's mother, Marcy O'Donnell, was saying Marie and Butch had got rid of the body, had cut it up and had dismembered it and got rid of the body.
Marcy O'Donnell told us that Marie was writing these checks and authoring the checks and copying Elaine's signature.
It is a mammoth landfill for the entire city of San Diego. And that's where all the refuse comes in.
That's when Butch confessed everything to me.
They had tried to kill her by first giving her drugs and keeping her in a room that was cold with the windows open, hoping that she would die naturally.
Elaine was on to the fact that Marie was forging her checks.
First, they started out giving him rat poison. He gets sick, and they go to hospital. Of course, he goes to hospital. He gets better. So then they went and got arsenic to bleed. That just made him have an awful headache, and he'd sleep on the couch.
She said, you got to do it now. Eric was given a choice, either strangle him or to shoot him.
He had to do it now because mom's going to really be mad now when she comes home and he didn't do it. And that's when he took the gun and shot his dad.
Essentially, Marie had told our investigator that her son Eric had a gun, had a .357 Magnum, and it had tripped. And it had went off and shot her husband in the head.
No one had seen her. No one had talked to her. No one knew where she was.
I began to realize that I had dealt with these people in the past. It went from a missing persons to something more serious.
It was not a well-kept house at all, by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn't impossible for what they said to have happened, someone tripping, so you keep an open mind.
It appeared he'd been shot in the top of the head, in sort of a downward angle. And if he had tripped, the bullet would have come in more of a direct angle as opposed to a downward angle. I didn't think it was an accident. I didn't know what it was yet.
Marie didn't want me talking to Eric. She said, I think we need an attorney. And I said, that's your priority. That's fine. People do that, but it's a little flag waving there that says this is not normal.
His dad was asleep on the couch. He came in the room and talked to his dad about the gun, how it worked. He said he had tripped on the rug and that he had fallen forward and this has happened. The gun accidentally went off and shot him in the head.
My question to him was, why are you taking a gun, loaded gun, to your dad? And he said that he wanted to see about the safety mechanism or something. I said, did you have the gun cocked? And he said he didn't think so. And that was a big red flag to me because it takes quite a bit of pull to be able to shoot a double action .357. There is a trigger pull to it.
But at that point in time, the attorney stopped me from questioning him.
She would answer a question if I asked her something, but other than that, she didn't volunteer anything. She tried to be very quiet around me. I told Marie and told the attorney, you'll see me again someday because he's getting by with this and he'll do it again. So trust me, you're going to see me again.
I said, well, where's she at? Where's the body? She says there is no body.
She just thought she was not going to be caught.
The next thing we know is one of the main suspects is dead.
Knowing her history, we need to look into this as a murder
The relationship was there to take advantage of Bud Phillips and take advantage of his finances.
We're three hours from Lubbock, Texas to the north, and to the south we got San Antonio.
We gathered not only the ice cream, but other items within the house that could contain strychnine.
Once it got closer to the property being sold, it kind of fell through because it was really not a way for her to prove up that she was the actual owner.
They had seen a subject come out of residence, screaming, yelling, and then shortly thereafter, the subject collapsed.
What they suspected is the relationship was there only to take advantage of Bud Phillips and take advantage of his finances. She tried to sell some property that didn't belong to her. So again, what they suspect is the money could have been the motive.
We basically have to prove that she was there at the residence prior to his death, link her to the strychnine, and link her to the ice cream.
Mr. Phillips' residence was at a corner of an intersection. One elderly lady across the street told me I happened to be looking in between 8 and 8.30.
We could place her at the scene of the crime within 20 to 30 minutes of the death. That was too much of a coincidence for us.
She realized that he had stopped breathing. At that point, we had dispatched medical personnel from the fire department to respond to the scene.
He was transported by ambulance to our trauma one hospital here in San Angelo.
They had seen a subject come out of residence screaming, yelling.
They've lived together for a period of time. They consider themselves husband and wife, but not legally married.
A male subject that age, it's highly likely that he could have had a heart attack or some other medical episode.
The next thing we know is one of the main suspects is dead.
They just didn't believe that was an authentic letter admitting to the crime and then the suicide afterwards.
Mr. Phillips and Purdy Clark lived together, and they considered each other husband and wife, but not legally married. They were more than a dating relationship.
Do you usually try to smell it, test it, something like that to see?
Just so you know, man, this room is audio and video recorded. Just so you know, I'm going to turn this on as a backup. And the reason why we do that is so I can't put any words in your mouth, okay?
So it was pretty good. I heard you went to Fordham University. Yes, sir. That's a pretty good school.
No? Okay. Do you take any drugs? Yes. What kind of drugs do you do? Weed? That's not so bad.
Today? What time? Four or five. Four or five? How are you feeling right now?
Still coming down? Do you know where you are right now?
I mean, I'm not a Wiccan, so I don't understand, so enlighten me.
Okay, so is this the same day that you found the computer and all that stuff?
Eric, I understand that you had a relationship with a woman within the last month. Can you give me her name, please?
Okay. Um, and tell me that you said there was no event and you guys just grew apart. Okay. But did you just continue to live together?
And did the two of you communicate during the time that you were in jail? Nope. She didn't come visit you or anything like that?
So you got out of jail the first or second week of December, and then what happened?
Before. Before Christmas. Alright, so for a week you tried to salvage the relationship?
Okay. When was the last time you texted with her?
Though Nate was adamant about this, the text messages suggested otherwise. So detectives pressed him. It made sense that he'd use a texting app to make these final plans if Nate was the reason for Ellie's disappearance.
Have you ever used a texting app? Again, you're not in any trouble. Here's what you gotta remember. I'm looking for this girl. Everyone's looking for this girl. You're looking for this girl. I'm looking for this girl. Y'all just got to remember that we do investigations before we come talking. Sure. So some of these questions I'm asking you, I kind of know the answers to. Yeah.
And I'm kind of trying to see if you're going to be honest with me.
Okay. So would it surprise you if I told you that you were using a text app at some point to communicate with her? Kick? Maybe text now? Do you have to have text now? I know you're going to text me, any of that. So you had no plans to meet up with her over the weekend before she went missing? No. Okay.
What I'm dealing with is I'm dealing with a lot of social media and a lot of apps that hide who people are with me. And I'm not quite sure that some of the stuff you're telling me is completely accurate at this point. I think you've had more contact with her text-wise. But, you know, I don't know that for a fact.
As the interview went on, detectives noticed that Nate seemed to be trying to steer the conversation. It seemed like he wanted to shift the blame onto someone else.
These text apps, if you will, they give you a number. So when we see them, they start popping up as numbers. You with me? Yeah. What do you think happened to her? I mean, you know her better than I do.
Were you guys ever more than friends? You ever slept with her? Because, I mean, there's nothing wrong with her. Yeah, no, no. There's a lot of indications that she was, you know, free with herself, which is fine.
So, this Michael Strauss guy was the next person to be hunted down. But in the meantime, the police plan to take Nate's phone in for evaluation. The next time they saw him, they had a search warrant in hand.
We get lied to all the time. We definitely know quite a bit about the iOS system as well. And we have resources to show us that if an app's been deleted or not. We have resources to show us deleted information from a phone. But is there any way we could arrange a time today to download certain information off of your phone within this timeframe to verify that what you're telling us is true?
Is that something that you would even consider? Sure. No, I understand. I understand. And that's well within your right. And I respect you for knowing your rights. What I would have to tell you, though, is that I do have a warrant to take your phone. But I've been totally upfront with you. I'm not lying to you. The reason that I gave you is totally honest. Someone is trying to use what I believe.
Someone is trying to use a number. Someone is trying to use a number associated with you?
Why is this cop trying to give away their game plan? Why is he acting like the suspect's defense attorney? I mean, I'm all for citizens having rights, but do we really need to handhold and spoon-feed suspects their only possible defense strategy? It's almost like he's saying, hey dummy, say that you didn't have your phone on you. Say you gave it to a buddy or something.
Despite these detectives seemingly really wanting to give the suspect some helpful legal tips during the interrogation, their actual job now required them to gather information on this new lead, Michael Strauss. To better understand him, they reached out to someone who had known Michael for years. his neighbor.
This kid, also in his early 20s, had grown up next to the Strauss family for over 15 years and was close friends with Michael's brother. But Michael? Not so much.
What the neighbor says next would become crucial information for detectives once they had Michael Strauss in an interrogation room.
New faces and old acquaintances. Some days, you barely know half the people you're with. You smoke, of course. You dance, you draw. And for a few hours, you let the music drown everything out. You're a free spirit. But eventually, the music fades, the lights go off, and you're back in your bedroom. feeling that ache of deep loneliness that you just can't shake.
This flashing incident wasn't just a strange rumor. It was a documented crime. Michael Strauss had been convicted of jerking off in a grocery store parking lot, an act that landed him a year of probation. To Michael's neighbor, it was just another odd chapter in his long history of strange behavior. But for detectives, it was something they'd tuck away in the back of their minds.
And yet, despite his oddities, Michael could come across as completely ordinary, at least on the surface.
When the time came to bring Michael in for questioning, they already knew what to expect. A man who couldn't resist spinning stories. Pretty quickly, though, detectives realized that Michael's neighbor had not been exaggerating.
The plan was just to let Michael talk. Detectives wanted to get to know this strange guy with long dreadlocks piled on top of his head. They wanted to make a false connection, making him feel like he could trust them. You can't. You can't, by the way. You can't trust cops. This was the same approach they took with everyone they interviewed in this case.
If they scared anyone away, they could lose a potential lead. And Ellie may never be found.
All right. All right. Do you guys believe that? Me neither.
And we've got this case of Ellie White, who's missing.
Your room is a mess, littered with sketches, collages, and little scraps of ideas that don't quite come together. You feel like an artist, but you live like a homeless person. The faint scent of weed lingers in the air, mingling with the smell of incense. Probably a few hints of patchouli as well. Gale, your gecko, is asleep in her tank. You write little reminders to love yourself and keep going.
This was a psychological chess match, and the detectives were the only ones who could see the board.
So according to Michael, following someone around with a camera is harassment. Got it. I wonder how Scarlett Johansson feels about that.
I always carry a camera, a seemingly innocent comment. But I'm sure by now you can see exactly what these detectives were doing. They weren't just making small talk. They were laying out the groundwork, connecting Michael's words to pieces of Ellie's case that we already know. The voyeuristic videos, the terrifying, intimate knowledge her stalker had of her life.
But while suspicion mounted against Michael, there was still another loose end to tie up. Nate Peters. Detectives had taken his phone in for evaluation, and now they were ready to return it, having learned some surprising information.
And then on, let's see, on May 28th, She texts you and says something, or excuse me, someone else is calling themselves Nate Peters and is texting me. It's confusing, LOL. And then you reply with surprise. I think you say WTF. And then she responds that the subject is sending her a phone reviews of another female. asking if it's her, meaning asking if it's Ellie.
So my question is, is that we know that not only did Ellie text you, but she also, I think, called you a few times. Was there a follow-up conversation or a follow-up phone call saying who that might have been? trying, purporting to be you. Do you remember that conversation, though? No, not at all.
I mean, somebody has to, even when you feel like you don't matter, which is becoming a more frequent occurrence. You scrawl big letters into a bullet journal, filling page after page after page.
Yeah, if you want to look at it, it's, so if you go to your text messages from her, You have to scroll him, obviously, all the way back to 2017, but you'll... Oh, from... Okay. Yeah, it's 2017. It's a while ago. When you guys were still kicking it.
So that's probably why... And that's why it's kind of important, because, man, if someone's trying to be you all the way back to 2017... We want to know who it is. We want to know who it is. What the... Crazy, I know, right? That's why I'm saying, man, it's kind of spooky stuff.
Ah, now I get it. He's tricking him. Wait, he tricked me. I take it back. This guy's really good. At this point, detectives were pretty certain Michael Strauss had been the one not only stalking Ellie using anonymous phone numbers, but also the one posing as Nate Peters. So they start by explaining Ellie's story to Michael.
They tell him about the night she received the creepy video of herself shot through the window.
She put it to probably some sort of therapy.
Not looking good, Michael. Not looking good.
This is just how things are. You try not to think about it, but it's there. This feeling that you're not worthy of happiness or love. That somehow everyone you meet will leave you in the end. Weird. I thought I was the only one who felt that. It starts in January. One cold night, you're mindlessly scrolling, checking messages. You're used to chatting with people you know.
It is spooky stuff, isn't it? We like spooky stuff around here, don't we? Sassholes. Hello! Happy Thursday! Welcome to your favorite podcast, Sword and Scale. Season 12, episode 295. The show that reveals that the worst monsters are real! Well, if you haven't checked out Zordon Scale TV, you know, I don't know what to tell you. We got one out right now that's pretty intense.
Either someone extraordinarily dedicated to the ruse was creeping on Michael, or you could live in reality and choose to believe that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. Michael's life had become a shadow of Ellie's, spent watching, waiting, and anonymously weaving himself into her world. Michael Strauss... And his doctor, Michael Strauss, had planned this whole thing.
random party friends, the guy from last week's smoke session, etc. But then a message comes in from someone new. A guy named Kun Joe. Who the hell is Kun Joe? You don't know him, but you're curious. So you accept his Facebook friend request and start chatting. At first, there's nothing out of the ordinary.
As the hours dragged on, it became painfully clear. Coaxing Michael Strauss into a single honest answer was like pulling teeth. Every lie they unraveled seemed to take an eternity and... They hadn't even broached the serious questions yet. The ones that could take this from an interrogation to a real confession.
You're used to people hitting you up out of nowhere like this, so you don't think much of it. A few days later, after some casual banter with this guy, he sends you another message. This one makes your heart skip a beat.
Detectives had spent hours dancing around Michael Strauss' lies, playing a slow game of psychological chess. Every question, every comment, every seemingly innocuous detail was meticulously designed to chip away at his defense. Despite the mounting suspicion, Ellie was still missing. For her friends and family, the clock was ticking.
The groundwork had been laid in his interrogation, and now it was time to confront the truth head on. Detectives started to introduce more and more of the damning evidence they had gathered. Ellie Weick went missing on July 29th, 2018, but her phone turned on for a brief moment on July 31st. It turned on just long enough to ping off a cell phone tower.
At this point, the conversation cools down, and the two detectives leave for a minute to grab some water. Michael is only alone for a short time, but as soon as the door closes, he's talking to himself.
When the detective comes back into the room, they propose that Michael take a polygraph test. They're still very cautious with their wording, and they reassure him that he's not a suspect. They even tell him confidentially that they know he'll pass the test, reassuring him. They just need to clear him. Get it out of the way, you know?
Of course, they want to push this investigation as far as possible before he fully realizes he's in deep shit and finally asks for a lawyer, like he should have done to begin with. Kind of shocking he hasn't realized it yet, right? But, like I always say, criminals are dumb. That's why they're criminals.
I need to know more about your, where your room is in your house.
After this message is a screenshot of your address, this person knows exactly where you live.
Back in January of the same year, a woman in Mason, Ohio, reported to police that a guy wearing a hoodie grabbed her from behind while she was jogging alone. She screamed and he let her go. Why would Michael be researching this specific case?
What does that mean? That's what you're thinking, at least. A few days go by and more messages come through.
Yeah, Michael, we already know you're a giant perv. The point they're trying to make is that you searched for information on this local jogger attack, and then you opened up a new tab and started masturbating to porn. Immediately afterwards. You get it?
Your stomach turns. He's included a photo. It's a collage of your own selfies overlaid with a sea of penises. Does this person know that you like to do collages? Is this their twisted way of turning something you enjoy into something disturbing? The next message isn't from Kunjo. It's from a random text me number.
And then I've taken a lot of classes on it.
I'm not a self-proclaimed behavioral analyst by any stretch, but I understand that people do stuff, and people do stuff for dumb reasons.
I don't think, once again, I don't think it's a good sign, but I don't think that's good at all.
I don't think it's a quantum leap to think that she's not alive.
Along with her driver's license and a lock of Ellie's hair, detectives found a small pink stone. All this was inside a little tin deep inside of a crate in Michael's basement bedroom. His super secret stash where nobody will ever find it, you know? It was sandwiched between old art portfolios. Ooh, I guess the cops will never find it there, huh, Michael? What an idiot.
As they looked over the case evidence, they noticed the same pink stone hanging around Ellie's neck in an old selfie. But they couldn't get him to admit to anything. Not wanting to scare him out of another interview... They took his phone for analysis, took his DNA, and told him that they'd talk to him again when he came to pick it up.
When the next day came, a cruiser showed up to Michael's house and arrested him for stalking.
Who could be doing this? And why? Could it be someone you knew at another time in your life? Could it be someone you've never met? They're obviously dedicated to the con because the creepy messages don't let up. It's April now and you're sitting at your dining room table with a big poster board laid out in front of you. As you meticulously glue and place each new image, you get another message.
Then Michael finally starts to open up. He explains that, get this, he makes porn movies in his free time. And that Ellie apparently wanted to star in one of his porn films for payment. That's what he says they plan to do the night they met up. You know, the night that she thought she'd be hanging out with Nate Peters.
Even just as it felt like they'd get a confession from him, it was just another dead end again. Michael claimed that when the police first came to his house to ask about Ellie, he had destroyed the SD card holding their quote-unquote consensual sex tape, complete with handcuffs, strangling, and, oh yeah, a bag over Ellie's head, according to Michael himself.
It's the same text me number. But this time, they've sent something new. Something much scarier. You don't want to look, but you can't help yourself, can you? The video opens, and your heart sinks. It's you right there, sitting at your dining room table. The camera is low, like the voyeur was crouched just outside the patio furniture, filming you through the window.
He describes this snuff torture porn video that he planned to sell and the details of what he admits he did to Ellie add to the case another dark coincidence, he says. After hours upon hours of painstaking interrogation, even without a full confession, Michael had revealed enough cracks in his story for detectives to piece together a detailed picture.
August 24th, 2018 was the date of Michael's last BCI interrogation, and on the same day, Ellie's body was located in a ditch near the corner of a farming field. She was found within a quarter of a mile of Michael's house. Her shallow grave was concealed by shrubbery, with a barbed wire fence dividing it from the rest of the field. A square shovel was discovered nearby.
Ellie's remains, mostly skeletonized, told a story that was heartbreaking. And horrifying. Wrapped in a bed sheet and a purple blanket, her arms and legs were bound with duct tape, and a bag had been tied over her head. The cord was also entangled with her body. The coroner determined her cause of death to be asphyxiation, so it's possible this was the murder weapon.
Though Michael hadn't spelled it out, he'd said enough. Enough to lead detectives to Ellie and charge him with her murder. Meanwhile, as law enforcement swarmed the field, gathering evidence and preparing for the removal of Ellie's body, a bright rainbow stretched across the sky. above the crime scene. Everyone noticed it. People cried and took photos.
29-year-old Michael Strauss eventually pleaded guilty to all his crimes. His sentencing brought to light the horrific reality of her final moments, something that her family had not understood up until that point. During his sentencing, Strauss appeared in court with two black eyes, the work of his fellow inmates.
The judge handed down a maximum sentence, 15 years to life for murder, plus an additional two and a half years for stalking and abuse of a corpse, with no possibility of parole for at least 17 and a half years. Strauss will spend the better part of his life behind bars. On the day Ellie's family laid her to rest, something remarkable happened.
As mourners gathered at the church to say their final goodbyes, a bright neon rainbow stretched across the sky. It was just like the one that appeared the day her body was found. For Ellie's family and friends, these rainbows became a symbol of light piercing through unimaginable darkness. Her mother described them as a sign, a reminder of Ellie's enduring presence, even in her absence.
Ellie's story is one of loss, but also of resilience. In her journal, she wrote about her struggles, her fears, her dreams. Though her life was cut tragically short, her words remain a testament to her spirit. Don't ignore your gut. Or red flags, she wrote. You can sense evil. Stay in tune with your senses.
It's a lesson for all of us to trust our instincts, to protect one another, and to remember even in the shadows of the darkest storm, you may find a rainbow. Well, that's AI Mike signing off. Can you believe some idiots online think this is AI? They think I'm AI? Like, how fucking dumb do you have to be? AI would never be allowed to say all the shit I say.
But, uh, there's no shortage of stupid in the world, so there's that. Speaking of stupid, go check out our stupid merch at store.swordandscale.com. And if you haven't signed up for Plus, well, it's how we pay for all this stuff. So if you like this stuff being around in the universe, then, you know, throw in a couple bucks and help support it. Otherwise, it may not be here tomorrow.
We could make money like every other podcast, but we don't want to push shitty products on you via advertising that you probably shouldn't be buying anyway. So we have to do some filtering around here and that, you know, lowers our revenue and that makes it hard for us to pay our employees and our bills.
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You feel your heart pounding in your throat as you replay the video again and again. You look at the angle and the way the camera dips slightly as if the person holding it was crouching. They were there. Right there. Only feet away from you. And you never even knew it. That's it. This isn't someone just being weird. This is dangerous. This is someone making unwanted contact.
You close the tab and click the phone icon, frantically punching in 911. You tell them everything. The messages, the video, how it feels like you're being hunted. They listen, and you file a report, but it doesn't make you feel much better, does it? So you grab your journal and you start writing.
These are the words of 23-year-old Ellie Weick.
She wrote it, but it wasn't enough. She still felt the weight of the anonymous voyeur pressing down on her every day.
For Ellie, the fear wasn't just in the messages or the video. It was in everything. The way she thought about herself. She felt like no one could help. She felt completely alone. And the truth was, she was alone. No one was taking her seriously.
The cop who filed the official statement was supposed to be in charge of Ellie's case, but he failed to log important evidence, and the whole thing was on a path to nowhere. Some cops are better than others, I guess. In the middle of this, Ellie was still looking for connection. Something to hold onto in the chaos. She was talking to a lot of people.
Some of them were guys she liked, but nothing was panning out the way she'd hoped. That's when Nate Peters texted her. Nate Peters wasn't a close friend, but they'd hung out before. They'd smoked together, they'd gone to a few of the same parties. He was familiar. And in this moment, familiar felt safe.
For Ellie, these conversations were a small escape. Over the next few weeks, they kept in touch, and by late July, they were making plans to meet up and rekindle their friendship.
And you might want to take a look if you're interested in the true crime genre. Because these things are... It takes a lot out of me to make one of these episodes. It really does. I mean... Wow. Wow. Imagine you're 23, living in a small town in godforsaken Ohio. Life here isn't exactly exciting, so you chase excitement wherever you can. Parties, festivals, raves. Do they still do raves?
In the early morning of July 28, 2018, when they both knew Ellie's mom wouldn't be around, Nate suggested they hang out. Ellie agreed.
Ellie left her house that night, unaware that everything was about to change. The streets were dark and empty, just like her life had felt for the last few months. It was late, and she was tired. Tired of being scared and tired of feeling alone. There, in the stillness of the air, she convinced herself that this was just another hangout. That Nate was just a friend.
The alarm bells in her head fell silent. She didn't know at the time that sometimes the familiar can hide the greatest danger. Sometimes trusting the wrong person can be a fatal mistake. At just 23 years old, Ellie Weick was a free-spirited soul, trying to navigate the loneliness and uncertainty of young adulthood in Westchester, Ohio. You know, the entertainment hub of the U.S. Just kidding.
Don't ever go to Ohio. It sucks. Anywho, Ellie longed for connection, filling her days with art, journaling, and fleeting friendships. But beneath her vibrant exterior was a growing sense of fear. For months, Ellie had been targeted by an anonymous stalker. Unsettling messages had escalated to invasive voyeuristic videos. Her world, once chaotic but manageable, was becoming dangerous.
Despite making a report to the police, Ellie's cries for help went unanswered. Her journal entries reveal the depth of her fear and isolation. Still, Ellie tried to move forward, clinging to hope that familiarity could bring comfort. When an old friend, Nate Peters, reached out, Ellie hoped she'd find that comfort. On July 28th, 2018, the two made plans to meet up.
After sending the text messages that arranged their meeting, Ellie was never heard from again. At first, her absence didn't raise alarms. It wasn't unusual for her to disappear for a day or two. She was, after all, a so-called free spirit and had a tendency to drift between friend groups.
But when Ellie's mom returned home on August 1st after spending a few days with her boyfriend, she couldn't reach her daughter. The house was eerily quiet. Ellie's car had not moved, and she wasn't answering the phone. That's when her mom made a call to the Westchester police. The investigation began slowly. Ellie's lifestyle made it hard to pin down where she might have gone.
And at first, the police treated her disappearance like a young adult who'd simply walked away. Apparently, none of the detectives working the case thought to connect the stalking report to her disappearance. But Ellie's friends reminded them, offering up text messages where Ellie had told them each separately about her stalker.
Police began pouring through Ellie's phone records and buried within them was a name. And now we're going to play a little game called Am I Smarter Than the Average Sasshole? Can you guess what name it was? I mean, we've only mentioned one and it wasn't Leroy Jenkins. It was Nate Peters. Nate had been in contact with Ellie just hours before she vanished. Naturally, he was the best place to start.
You go by Nate, by the way? Yeah. How'd you meet her? Everybody seems to meet this girl at concerts or camping.
Okay, so this happened in June. Yeah. You all had this argument. You wanted your stuff back. Yep. And she gave you the stuff back. She gave me the stuff back.
When you say messed up, what does that mean? She's drunk. She's intoxicated. Did she drink a bunch? Yeah, Sliv drinks a lot.
You willing to give us a DNA swab, you know, just a swab of your mouth? A swab of my mouth? Yeah, we just take a swab and take a sample. DNA sample. You willing to do that? Well, you want to prove that you're not involved in this anyway. No, I'm not involved. So if you're not involved in this, then you have to... I get them, so I'm not left... We call it exclusionary. Yeah.
It's exclusionary. That's basically all it is. Are you willing to do that? Yeah, I'll do it.
Well, we just want more detail about really that week, you know, your relationship with Antonio and also you knew the victim. Is that right?
Okay. When was the last time you talked with her?
Oh, the night she had the Christmas party. Yeah.
Okay. Well, I mean, he did say you pay for his apartment.
Celia came on board while y'all were dating or seeing each other or whatever?
Well, you don't seem like the jealous type. You don't seem like it to me, but I don't know. I mean, under different circumstances. You're not really looking to get something serious, are you?
What was their issue? Do you know their issue?
Not being faithful to her. Yeah. And did you ever know him? Did he ever say anything about hurting her in any way? No.
And we need you to be completely truthful with us. Okay. Do you know who killed Celina?
Do you have any knowledge of who killed Celina? No.
He had a mixture of his and yours, but they were able to separate it out to identify the person.
I mean, that you all had sex, and then, you know, he just basically cleaned up with that a little bit himself, and your DNA would be on there, too. It doesn't take much.
Do you realize how serious this is? I understand how serious this is. You really understand how serious this is? Yes.
And you had your phone with you the whole time?
And to get somebody in handcuffs, to get them arrested is, that means you have to have evidence. We have evidence. Okay, we have evidence that You didn't stay in his apartment the whole night. You were in the car, so that is car. We have evidence that you bought gas up in Stark, wearing that blue jacket that's on the search warrant. We have more than just that shot of just the back shot of you.
Honestly, I don't think you killed Selena. I didn't. Okay? Okay? But I believe Antonio told you what happened. And maybe it was an accident. I don't know what it was. Maybe he never intended her to die. That's fine.
And then you came over, and then, like, what you do for Antonio is everything.
Well, you're there for Antonio. You're there for Antonio, regardless of what you do and what you don't do. You're there for Antonio. And he asked you... Basically, he puts you in a really bad jam, in my opinion, of how it went down. I could be wrong, but based on our conversations, you know, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he puts you in a really bad spot.
Okay, then we can continue this conversation.
What, that Tony is down there? Yeah, I mean, if I don't see nothing... We can prove that he's down the hall. I'll bet you my paycheck on it.
Can you peek through the window? Do you want to see him in handcuffs? I don't want to see him. I know y'all got him.
You need me to throw more out here for you? We know you left with Tony. We know you went up there. We know you went to the convenience store. We know you bought the gas for $2. We know you were in the same car. We know you answered the telephone when Selena's new boyfriend called and said she's asleep. And then he said, he said, she'll call you tomorrow.
You didn't know what to do. You didn't know what to do.
So you drove the car and he sat in the passenger seat.
Throw the body over or throw the gasoline over?
He was trying to make you equally guilty. That way, protect him.
Did he light something else? Did you see him do this when he lit it?
All right, like I said, we'll have a deputy transport you. Where is he at? The deputy?
He can't see you. We're not going to let him see you. We're not going to go ahead and transport you. And he won't see you leave. He's in a whole other room. No, I said something. Am I...
It's a matter of degrees. You know what degrees is? It's a matter of if you intentionally hurt somebody or you don't intentionally, it just happened or it's accidental. That all plays a part in how things can happen. It is murder you're talking about. Well, it is.
How would she get her car keys? She don't have Silea's car keys.
She'd have to go in the apartment and get the car keys to drive it over to your house with the body in the trunk.
Mike, you're here on your own free will. You're here, you know, basically as a witness. We're investigating the death of Celia.
And we'd just like to know, you know, start from the beginning, where'd you meet her?
Were you pretty serious with one another or just dating?
When's the last time? And I'm going to ask you some personal questions. It's just the way it is. This is serious. When's the last time you all slept together?
Did she ever say anything about anybody else?
Hey, are you Aiden? Hey, I'm Detective Police Officer with the Sheriff's Office. We're trying to figure out where Christian's at. And I'm not trying to get you in trouble or anything like that. Obviously, I'm more concerned now about her safety and what she's doing and where she could be hanging out. You're telling him that there may be another path that he's maybe staying at? Or she's staying at?
So why did she do that, though? Was she, like... Were y'all talking about, like... She's a... Other classmates had mentioned this elusive 21, 22-year-old guy, too.
When you're done over there, bring the canines over to Leith Hall and North Durban to get a scent from over here. Yeah. Yeah, he's with me in the car. Okay, bye.
FaceTime. Girl. Making a FaceTime call to Dream Girl.
Hey. Don't say anything. Don't stop. Let me see your phone.
Take his phone for now. We're going to be holding on to your phones, all right, buddy?
Your message to Dream Girl says they took my phone. I'm using Siri and I love you. Bye. Ready to send it?
Your message to Dream Girl says, I'm talking through the glass, I cannot see your text. Ready to send it?
So obviously we're here because went missing. Um, and we're trying to figure out where she could be at. And I just want to ask you some questions about like the last time you had maybe seen her or, you know, what's been going on with her or anything like that. Um, from your knowledge, when was the last time you saw her talk?
Yeah, have you tried calling her or texting her or anything like that? Have you had any luck? Yeah, I've called her a few times, but it just gets straight to placement. Okay. Has this ever happened with her before that you're aware of? No. No? No. You've never heard of her sneaking out until today or? No. Okay.
Sam. Sam. Okay. Sam. Sam. What? Please just be honest with me. I don't think you're not being honest, but somebody just sent me a message, and it said that Lena didn't tell the police everything that she knows. Sam, does Lena know anything else? If she doesn't know anything, can you get it out of her?
You know, you don't speak until Andy comes. You don't have to speak in the cop car. You don't have to speak anywhere until your attorney comes, which is Andy.
So you did not have to speak in none of the cop cars. You had to speak anywhere until he was present. You just say, I'm not speaking to my attorneys here. That was it.
No, she's dead. That's why this is very important. It's all on you right now.
This is very serious, Aiden. You can't act like, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't know. You can't, and you can't say nothing.
Now we have people wanting to burn our house down and our car down. Because of that Snapchat thing you did. It's all over. You're all over the internet and everywhere.
Did you tell him anything different in the cop car that we don't want? You think she got picked up by him?
Like you think she got picked up after that? She just kept walking? Do you know if she turned the other direction or if she was just still walking behind you?
I didn't say anything. I understand. I was just asking when you told them.
This is no joke. This is your whole life. Your whole life. And ours. And ours. And your brother's and sister. Did she really grab you and you just really pushed her, or was that...? No, she did.
Okay. When she brought you inside, did she show you the jeans?
And... How did she show you the jeans, or did she say anything while she was showing you the jeans?
This is when they report you. Yes. Everything you said was recorded. The other room was not.
Yes. They're gonna search my house first. And if there's any kind of thing that links, I doubt he's going to go home, Jason.
You're right. You're right. I just don't want to get his hopes up.
So nothing out of, like, mess with your mind to do anything you were supposed to?
At some point in time, the defendant in our investigation, Aiden Fuji, was transported to the Duval County Jail, and he was placed somewhere in the vicinity of you, correct? Yes, sir. Okay, and where were you located at whenever Aiden Fuji was transported and housed in the Jacksonville County Jail? I mean, I've lost any information. Eye block segregation.
So if you could explain to me kind of how these cells are arranged or situated. Okay. That's it.
I have none of that. Okay. Before Aiden Fucci was transported and housed in the Jacksonville County Jail, did you have any knowledge of this case that we're investigating in St. Johns County? No, sir. Okay. So how did you become aware of this investigation that we're working in St. Johns County? Aiden Fucci told me.
And then you came back over here and that's when law enforcement started to show up, correct?
As Dick mentioned, we're here, you know, helping out with the investigation and trying to figure out what happened with Ms. Graber. What do you think happened to her?
That's what we've heard. We'd like her to just stop and leave. And when you say she's very routine, what do you know about her that would indicate that she's very routine?
Do you know of anybody out there that would have a serious gripe with Ms. Graber that may want to hurt her in some way?
No, not for just... If you smash a window and... If you go inside and start messing around, that could be an issue, but... For a high schooler, that's pretty... Yeah, that would look good. So tell me this. Is there any... Can you think of any reason why somebody might say you were involved? Uh, because we butt heads in class. Okay.
But like with a little bit more specifically, like anybody might say like, Hey, listen, I know for a fact he was involved. Not, I think he was.
I get why you came in here and you spent the first 45 minutes avoiding certain things, because they're very, very uncomfortable to talk with, okay? But even in this new version of it that you're telling me where you were out there and you actually saw Miss Graber. I saw her pull up. You saw her pull up and then you decided, oh, I don't want to be a part of this.
That doesn't, I don't buy that for a second. Not for a second. She pulled up and I knew. Here's why. Can I tell you why that doesn't shake out? Sure. Because for 45 minutes you were in here saying, no Chautauqua, barely any Germany, nowhere but my house. Then all of a sudden that confronts you with the fact of something that you already knew was true. And then your story changes, but not enough.
Okay, like I said, we have a lot of people working on this. I can tell in your eyes that you have regrets. Okay? But the lies and the falsehoods and half-truths don't show a person who's remorseful about what they did.
We're right back to where we started. You understand, Chayden, you understand how that doesn't shake out, okay? And as I told you, we have other people putting you a lot deeper involved in this than what you're explaining, okay? Basically, what we're trying to figure out is whether you're the ringleader...
With all the interviews being conducted and all the surveillance footage reviewed, there was one person who could either get Chayden off the hook or completely drown him.
I'm glad you're here because we certainly have a lot of things that we kind of need to hash out and whatnot. I've got some questions that I'd certainly like to discuss with Jeremy if possible. But because he's a minor, we need to go through you, okay? I'm sure at the conclusion of any questions that I have, I'm sure he'll have some questions for me.
But ultimately, that's completely up to the two of you whether you'd want to speak any further with me and hear what I have to say.
So at this point, and I'll be upfront and honest with you, at this point, human remains have been located. Okay? Those human remains have not been positively identified as this grave or But due to a lot of different circumstances, we feel this is a murder investigation.
I want to make sure you fully understand. Anytime there is a serious injury, we're there. And you're a lawyer, so I assume that you understand all the... You're here voluntarily, so for me to ask you questions about what happened tonight, I'm just trying to get enough information to determine what's going on.
Mark was the only source of information, and being a lawyer himself, the cops knew he wouldn't be talking with them unless he had nothing to do with this. I mean, why would he?
Mark's theory was that Sherry got out of the bath, slipped, fell, and hit her head.
All right. So no discussion with her about having more children? Absolutely not.
Try to relax and that way I can clearly understand what you're saying. It sounded like you said that she had concerns that he was going to kill her.
So she wanted a more stable life for the kids as far as school.
I believe she was killed in the master bathroom of her home. I believe that she received multiple injuries to her upper back and neck and head through a physical altercation. Also, her nose and upper lip were injured. I believe she succumbed to those injuries and her body was staged in the master bathroom for police to find.
Well, my theory, and if the prosecutors are okay with me giving my theory, is that the linear injuries on her back and upper neck and head were probably a result of being forcefully thrown against the tile ledge at the back of the bathtub. Okay. The blood that was visible to me on that night was diluted with water and appeared to me like maybe a head that was already bloody had been placed there.
I found out later that not only had he pushed the thought or tried to convey clearly the dangerous situation in the bathroom with the ledge and how he had pointed it out before and he knew that this ledge was going to hurt somebody at some point. He passed that along to other people as long as me.
I felt like when I found out that this was included in his conversations to almost everybody, that that was an indicator that there was more to the story than just slip and fall that he had portrayed for me. and hit her head on that ledge, the ledge would have caused the bleeding to start, but her head would already be gone. It would be down on the floor.
So that's why I would expect more blood on the floor than I was, I wouldn't even expect to see much or any blood on the ledge itself.
There was a lot of blood that just wasn't at the scene, and I did notice that, and I did make that statement in my first or second supplement to the case, is that there was just not enough blood on the floor to account for the stains and for the injuries. But I wasn't fully aware of the injuries at that point. You have to understand that I never saw the body until the autopsy.
And that was after the fact. So I gained more information and more suspicion and more knowledge about her injuries after the fact that let me know that this top where there was no blood visible should be checked or examined.
I found it odd that two people took a bath and their clothes were downstairs in the washer.
Yeah, the soap especially was odd because the soap container was found in a tipped-over position on the floor. And I think you probably got the gist from our experiment that if you... If you knocked over a bottle of soap, the soap would be emanating from the area where the container is.
The officers that were first on scene, and from my recollection, there was visible blue soap on top of the bath mat. throughout the throughout the scene that I don't believe it would have been possible for the soap to emanate from the area where the bottle was on top of the to get up onto the
And I don't think that the amount of soap that was missing is physically possible from turning that container over. So if you knock over a container of blue soap, it's only going to drain to the area where the lip of the spout is. It won't drain an inch and a half, two inches below that spout because gravity won't allow it to flow upwards and out of the bottle.
She immediately went to her. She was cold. She was not breathing. She was screaming for Lisa to come and help. Jan was able to get the phone and call 911. Lisa still was not coming. Of course, first responders, you know, the police officers were there first and then medics and realized, of course, at that point that Robin had been killed.
And one of the, she had asked something about, what about Lisa? You know, why, where is she? She didn't realize Lisa also had been killed.
Let me just make sure that I understand. You're currently in custody at the Lee County Jail for some allegations with your son, is that correct? Yes, ma'am. Okay. I am not here to talk with you at all about that. I would like to talk with you about a couple other cases that your name has come up in that you might have some information and might be able to help us with.
The reason that I ask about Lorraine or Lori is because you and she appeared to have a home not far from the hospital here in Cape Coral years back. I remember living in Cape Coral. This is the first time I've been here. You've got a couple of addresses here in the Cape.
Well, back in 1990, we had a pretty big case here in Cape Coral where somebody broke into an apartment. And I was hoping that you could maybe talk to me about what you remember about that apartment complex. If you saw anybody suspicious, if you were ever around there, if you could help me with that. Do you have a picture of the, does that look familiar to you at all? No. Nothing at all.
This is the backside of it. This is the front door.
And that's all old stuff, so I mean, it's not like, you know, and we're not in Illinois, so it's not like I'm going to charge you with it. I'm just asking kind of, you know, how your brain worked and how you did things.
I know that's what she keeps saying, and I'm sure that you do have some memory issues. I think that you're also trying to play that card right now.
Her name is Robin. She's not just a little girl. Her name is Robin. Okay. Robin was a sweet, wonderful girl. Alright.
This is an 11-year-old little girl. This is Robin.
I'm not implying anything. I'm telling you. I'm saying that you know Robin. I don't know Robin. You've seen her. You've met her. I don't know these girls.
Do you remember being swabbed by the detective that you had a long conversation with, that you told him what happened between you and your son? I'm not getting into that. But that you talked to him about what happened between you and your son, that you talked to him about your accident, the settlement, the house that you bought, all kinds of those details.
And you remember him swabbing with a big, long Q-tip the inside of your mouth?
Well, I guarantee you that that's exactly what happened.
Okay, because that is procedure. All right. Do you understand how DNA works? No. Do you know what DNA is?
You have no clue at all? No, ma'am. Okay, so DNA to you could mean really just about anything. Okay, just explain what DNA is. What is your understanding of DNA? I don't have any understanding of DNA. What is DNA? I don't know.
So when you were swapped, when they took your DNA, that went to a database. All right. And your DNA was found on my crime scene from a previous, you know, back in 1990. So this is the time, Joe, that I need for you to really take a nice deep breath and realize it's time for the lies to stop. It's time for the saying, I don't remember, I don't recall.
Okay, so then when you read the text messages, and I just want to understand, you felt sad, but what else did you feel when you saw her saying sweetie?
When I got inside, there didn't appear to be any ransacking in the living room area. We walked back into the hallway, which runs north and south between the garage and then the master bedroom, which was on the south side of the house. And I noticed lying in the hallway... in a supine or face up position was a white female victim who was bleeding.
Her head was closest to the entryway to the master bedroom and she was lying on the tiled floor between what would later be identified as a music room and then the bathroom. And then as I walked out toward the garage on the north side of that hallway, there was an African-American male who was lying on his right side against the refrigerator in that garage area.
So who knew you were going out this evening? I'm calling my fellow. All right, what I want to do is just take a tape statement, see if we can get all this transcribed and have a further report.
Do you know, have you seen the news or anything recently in the past week or so? You know what's going on in that area? Yeah. So then you know why I'm asking all these questions? I know. Are you familiar with the girl that went missing? I do not know anything. You don't know her? When you were over there working or anything, did you ever see her?
Some females passing out flyers. So nothing about her looks familiar. You don't know her? Not at all. You have no information as to her whereabouts or what happened to her? What's the next thing that you heard about what was going on over there?
Well, if I was to tell you that we found your DNA inside the house in the upstairs, would that surprise you? Probably through the kitchen, maybe. I can tell you that we didn't find your DNA in the kitchen. That's not the room that we found your DNA in. That's the reason I'm asking you if you went into any other part of the house. You know your DNA is on file. Yeah, yeah.
The kitchen isn't where we found it because there was nothing in the kitchen. The kitchen was empty. The dining room was where we found your DNA. Do you want to think about whether or not you were in that room at all? than how to explain your DNA and actually your print in the dining room.
Did you find anything in any of the other rooms that you guys took or touched?
Yeah, and I understand that. Getting back to her now, now that we've got the house down pat, you've never met her, you've never seen her before, you didn't recognize her when you saw the flyer?
She's not a friend of yours or somebody that you talked to on the street when you were working on the street?
Well, sure, she's a 14-year-old girl. I can understand that. So then my next question would be, can you explain how your DNA, your semen, would have ended up inside her? I don't know anything about that. You don't know anything about that?
Okay, you weren't over there. Then I've got to wonder how your semen could have ended up inside of her. So now we have your DNA inside the house. We have your fingerprints inside the house. And now, now we have your DNA inside of her.
there's going to be more things that are going to come up once they're finished testing it. So I'm asking you this now, you can get in front of this, straighten this out, tell your side of the story, or you can just let us assume whatever we want to. It's up to you, all right? You want to explain to us what happened?
How did you meet her? How did you get to talking to her? Did you see her before that day?
Never? Well, then how did you get talking to her? Tell us what happened.
So why don't you just tell us how you came upon Aliana, that's her name, how you came upon her, how you got to talking to her. How did that come about? What happened? It's crazy. What did you say? It's crazy.
So you're telling me there was more than just you there? Is that what you're saying, Chris?
What room of the house did you have sex with her in?
Well, you were there on Wednesday night. She wasn't picked up until Thursday morning.
And she was already inside the house, naked. In what room?
I'm just wondering if you had any conversation with her and if she talked to you at all? No, I never talked to her. Was she crying, emotional? No, she wasn't crying, no.
You gave the condom to somebody. Well, there's only two other guys there, so who did you give it to?
So your DNA on the condom wrapper that was in the living room would explain? It was on my hands. You touched it, you opened it, and then you handed the open condom to the other guy? I got to go because it's about time for me to go to work.
There's only one problem with your story, Chris. The footprints in the house. There's only one set. They're yours. There's only one set. There's only one set.
I'm not lying to you. I can show you the pictures. There's only one set of footprints in there.
I believe that you were high on drugs. I believe that you were out of your mind. I can believe that point. But I don't believe that two unknown strangers that you've never met before in your life bring you to this house that you've already been to a couple of times. Just decide to go to the same house that you've already been to. And then you leave.
And surprisingly, in a matter of 10 minutes, they find her, bring her into the house, get her naked, and then you return. It doesn't match up, Chris. So you're like halfway there. You're halfway to accepting responsibility, but you're still trying to blame other people.
No, you're trying to lessen your responsibility for what happened.
Don't do that. Please don't do that. The prints that you left behind were bloody prints. They could only have gotten bloody if she was bloody. Do you understand what I'm saying? You couldn't have just jacked off on her and then left and she was fine if you had bloody prints left in the dining room.
That's what I was trying to get at, get you to the church.
So the video from the church is going to show us all this?
Once you got inside to get hype, what happened? Did you get hype?
Did you have those tools with you when you went to the house? Was that something you were carrying around? No. Whose backpack is that?
Yeah, Chris, there's just one more question that we have for you as far as that's concerned because I can see this is uncomfortable for you. I appreciate you telling us what happened, but there's one thing that's not. I've got to get it out because I swear. After you dragged Aliana into that bedroom, there's evidence that you then did something to her before you left. Do you recall that?
I mean, I was... There's indications based on the condition of the room that you then cut her one more time, at least. Do you recall that?
The thought of, what if we had to do this again? I mean, that was too much to even think about. I said, he's going to do it again, and it's going to be worse.
Did you just say, no, I'm not going to park there. I'm going to drive up to your home. This really sounds bizarre.
Simple as that. Simple as that. Do you believe that Linda Updike is involved in this?
I believe that she knows more than what she's saying and what she's telling.
How would Michael Oakes know that Mark Stover always wore a hat and wore an overcoat driving a car? Through Linda.
Linda was his basis of information. Linda had knowledge. She had direct knowledge. You know, she was married to Mark. She knew him best.
She won't sit down and talk to you? She won't sit down and talk to us. She's lawyered up? She's lawyered up.
So what are you telling me? You shot Mark Stover in self-defense?
This is not a case of self-defense. This is a case of cold-blooded murder.
Did you set out on the morning of October 28th, 2009 to murder Mark Stover?
We were a small department, and we only have five detectives.
Michael Oakes says he walked right up the front door.
He knocks on the door. Mark Stover answers the door.
Mark Stover comes around the corner.
Where you're standing right there, right now. He says, Mark Stover came around the corner, fired one shot.
We have him on surveillance tape at a local Walmart store here in Mount Vernon at approximately 5.30 in the morning. What did he buy? Michael Oakes bought anchor line, anchor weights. He bought camo pants, camo sweatshirt, and a backpack.
Camouflage clothing. Camouflage, yes. Kind of an odd, eclectic bunch of stuff, isn't it? Yes.
I believe that he bought those items to dispose of Mark's body.
The reason he bought those is that he knew Mark Stover had his dog, Ding, and that Ding was trained as a protection dog.
Michael Oakes' car arrives in the area of Mark Stover's house sometime between 6.30 and 7 a.m. in the morning. It would still be dark.
I think he came up the right-hand side of this driveway right here. You can see the tree lines, fence lines. He could have easy concealment. It's dark out. I think as he's in the area of the kennels right here, the dogs are barking. They sense someone or something on the property. Mark was probably alerted to the dogs barking at the kennel, sensed something was wrong.
And I think the dog was shot right away. Ding starts to yelp. Mark hears Ding yelping. Mark comes out, probably on the carport door porch there, or maybe out in the driveway. where Michael Oakes encounters Mark Stover.
I believe Mark Stover was probably shot just right in this area where we're standing right here. It's the first time. I think he was shot several times. And the first time he was shot, he probably started to retreat back to his residence.
It's too unbelievable that he could get shot in the vest, lunge at Stover, grab his hand, twist it, and shoot Stover and take him down, he's gonna back up or he's going to grab his chest as a normal reaction of somebody being shot. But he doesn't even say that. He says he immediately goes into a defensive mode and grabs Mark Stover's hand and gun, twists, shoots, fires, Mark Stover falls.
What made you think it was Mark?
That was huge. They had no idea what was going on. They just happened to see two vehicles parked behind the Grange.
It's a rugged two-lane highway that leads through very rural areas of Okanagan and Skagit County.
Mark Stover's blood is in your vehicle. How did it get there?
It's a beautiful love. In my opinion, it's legendary.
I can only describe it as evil. something horrible, something terrible.
His eyes went just crazy. He clenched his hands and fists, and he was just in a shaking rage.
2016. Completing a missing persons report. Hi there.
Oh, okay.
Hi.
Hi. I'm here for a missing persons report. What's going on?
So before you even got down to the sardine can, he text you that she just stormed off south on Maple Street. What was she mad about?
Were you guys drinking?
Yeah.
OK.
Did you see her walking?
Is it normal for her to sleep off being angry at you somewhere else? Is that normal?
She told you where she was at, but she was definitely upset at that time, thinking maybe she saw you talking to somebody?
That she was upset with you?
Can I see the text? Why is she calling you abusive?
I know.
Well, you had two of them up there for a last-minute lunch date, right?
Well, I mean, you went up there. You're sitting with them. You have friends.
Oh, are you saying that you think maybe one of your friends would have done something like this?
I don't know. That's why you're here, and that's why we're talking.
Did he ever meet Danny?
Had Jeff ever been to your former house on Trescott?
Would he have any reason to go there?
Does he know where?
Or, you know, what, what was the most recent time from now? Um, the most recent pastime, that you had this discussion about the trials and tribulations of your ex-husband and so forth with Jeff? It was all the time. All the time. Okay.
Any further questions?
Is there any more questions, officer, detective?
So why did COF tell me hypoxic cardiac arrest?