Elizabeth Vargas

And you won't believe the man authorities say is behind the mask. I'm Elizabeth Vargas.

And he begins tonight with the words from an author who spent much of her life obsessed with this case.

What a survivor. We will continue to follow this incredible story. And that's 2024 Tonight. I'm Elizabeth Vargas.

One of the most notorious and elusive serial killers in American history.

Now, how an obsessed detective and his team and a tiny DNA sample almost forgotten in cold storage for four decades led to last week's arrest.

The first time that I heard about the incident that is portrayed in this video was from Cassie's lawsuit.

part of the reason why our reporting was so significant, because it did appear to corroborate some very disturbing allegations. Now, of course, her lawsuit was pages and pages, and this was far from the only incident. But for this incident, it corroborated not just a generality.

It corroborated every single detail of what she said about that 2016 incident, which therefore gave Cassie credibility and took away from Diddy's credibility because he had denied everything prior to that.

Then, in comes our reporting months later, and whoops, guess there wasn't a full denial.

With my journalist hat on, I knew exactly why he wasn't saying her name because of that settlement agreement. Within that settlement agreement, they are not allowed to talk about each other. So that is the reason why he didn't say her name. I have actually confirmed that with sources because so many people were asking.

If you are Sean Combs, you know that you are fighting a battle in court, but you're also fighting a battle in the court of public opinion. Your entire career is based off the court of public opinion because you can't sell tickets to a movie, you can't sell albums, you can't sell, you know, a tour if you don't have your fans. So, look, let's be honest.

I don't know if there was much he could have said in that video that would have helped him. But I don't think it would have been a bad thing if he mentioned her name with a more sincere approach.

We have a little girl here for adoption. She has dwarfism.

Something is off. She's just a little girl. You think she's faking it? She has adult teeth? There are signs of puberty?

I don't know what's going on. How old are you? You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl.

In a race against time, 38-year-old Thomas Bart Whitaker's final days are ticking down on Death Row. Now he awaits a destiny that seems all but assured, execution by lethal injection. His father Kent spends these final days in a desperate hunt for mercy. On this day, savoring what may be his last visit with his son in prison.

Sugar Land, one of the safest cities in America, has just been the scene of a horrific crime.

Too dead, too wounded. It looks like a horrific burglary gone bad. Or is it?

To Sergeant Marshall Slott, the signs of burglary didn't quite seem right.

Nor was the fact that the only thing missing from the house was Bart's cell phone.

It's the little details that can be the undoing of one who would devise the perfect crime. The first clues for police arise out of the Whitaker's last supper. It was a celebration of Bart's announcement that he had just graduated from Sam Houston State University.

A tiny imperfection in Bart's plot that became a big crack.

In Sergeant Slott's mind, Bart is now a person of interest. At the time that you're celebrating this, are you enrolled in college?

Bart lying to his parents about attending school when in fact he was hanging out in a townhouse that they had given him as a present.

Kent is blindsided by his son's lie.

He may be proven a liar, but there's still no proof that Bart is a scheming killer. But then a police officer raises a big red flag when he remembers a call to this house two years earlier.

Now on 2020, as a father begs for his son's life. Stunning news just last night.

Misunderstanding or not, in light of the murders, it is significant to Sergeant Slott.

and now a prior instance of an alleged plot by Bart Whitaker to kill his family.

They warn Bart's father, who refuses to believe that his son might be involved.

Indeed, Sergeant Slott has little more than a hunch about Bart and a lot of questions.

So Sergeant Slott returns to the Whitaker's home for a video reenactment of the murders with the two survivors in identical arm slings.

First with Kent and then Bart.

Then a huge break from a mystery man who walks into the police station one night. Adam Hipp, a bank teller who once went to high school with Bart.

Adam Hipp claims Bart tried to recruit him as a shooter in an earlier murder plot.

Sergeant Slott decides to hatch a plot of his own. He enlists Adam Hipp to trick his friend Bart on a tapped phone line.

On the phone tap, Bart agrees to pay Adam $20,000 in hush money. You say at least $20,000?

Using a courier service, he sends HIP a $250 down payment. But then he does something brazen, signing the way bill with the name of a murderer borrowed from a Hollywood movie.

Kaiser Soze, played by Kevin Spacey, is the criminal mastermind in the hit film The Usual Suspects.

Now the police know they must warn Kent about his son.

But to protect the investigation, Sergeant Slott gives no details to Kent Whitaker.

Despite the warning, Kent lets Bart move back home. And for the next several months, Bart spends every free moment with his father, playing the perfect son, studying the Bible.

In Texas, a state that executes more prisoners than any other in America, Kentz is a fierce battle against the odds. His love tested by a terrible twist of fate. The son he is defending plotted the murders of his wife and his other son.

Seven months after the murders, Bart's abandoned SUV is found engine running outside a Houston apartment complex.

But then a mystery man appears with evidence that would crack the case. Stay with us. Saralvo, Mexico, a tough little town about 50 miles south of the border. Legend has it mobster Al Capone once hid out here. And if it was good enough for Scarface, it was good enough for another American stranger who suddenly showed up here looking for work and a new identity.

Osvaldo Beneveres and his close friend Ubaldo Salinas quickly accept the likable man who says his name is Rudy Rios. He told me his name was Rudy.

Posing as Rudy Rios, Bart begins turning up at church and turning on the charm for a guitarist he meets there, Cindy Lou Salinas.

Mysterioso. She brings her new boyfriend home to meet her parents. He's an immediate hit. Her father, Omero, even hires him to work at the family's furniture store.

Cindy Liu knows nothing of her boyfriend's true identity, but one night she gets a terrifying glimpse. It's what he says while consoling her after she smashes her guitar during an argument with her mother.

But no one was laughing, certainly not back in Texas, where even Kent Whitaker was now beginning to believe the worst.

But investigators still had no physical evidence, no clue who fired the murder weapon, no idea what happened to Bart Whitaker.

The investigation is cold until a big break from two men who knew Bart while he was pretending to be a college student.

Now, Champagne was pouring out secrets about himself and Bart's roommate, back then named Chris Brashear, two aimless guys at the time who were ripe for a payday Bart promised them if they would pull off an outrageous scheme.

Champagne gives up the entire story of what happened on the night of December 10, 2003.

As the Whitakers unknowingly celebrate Bart's bogus college graduation at a popular Cajun restaurant, Steve Champagne watches from the parking lot. Meanwhile, Bart's roommate, Chris Brashear, hides in Bart's SUV outside the Whitaker home.

Unaware of Champagne's confession, Chris Brashear agrees to an interview, but quickly becomes very uncomfortable.

To Sergeant Slott, Steve Champagne's confession yields the one thing that links this trio to the crime. He mentions a key piece of evidence that only the police knew about, a single glove dropped by the shooter found beside Bart's SUV.

The Whitaker story began here in Sugar Land, Texas, where the sweet smell of success brought them everything they desired. It was the sugar industry that transformed this suburban backwater into one of the wealthiest towns in Texas.

But Sergeant Slott still has no physical evidence to link Bart to the murders, until now.

Down below, a dive team discovers a duffel bag. In the soggy bag, a treasure trove of decomposing evidence. It's a windfall for crime lab investigator Max Hunter, beginning with an innocuous-looking plastic water bottle.

Among the other items in the bag, a rare brand of ammunition identical to the fatal bullets. A glove that matches the one found at the crime scene. A pry tool that matches the marks on the Whitaker's safe. A badly damaged cell phone. A lab in England identifies Bart Whitaker as its owner. Finally, Sergeant Slott has the physical evidence he needs to link Bart to the murders.

But where is Bart Whitaker? Sergeant Slott obtains an arrest warrant, but he doesn't know that Bart, now known as Rudy Rios, is hiding in Mexico. And then the biggest break of all, a phone call from the real Rudy Rios when we come back.

How does a seemingly normal, fun-loving boy raised in a beautiful home by caring parents turn into a murderer who would ambush his own family and even take a bullet in the arm to make himself look like a victim?

A classic sociopath, says psychiatrist Dr. Edward Halliwell of the Halliwell Centers in New York and Boston.

That observation is confirmed in the confession of getaway driver Steve Champagne.

And it gets worse. Champagne says Bart also talked about wanting to finish the job and kill his father.

then I am what I am. Dr. Halliwell has never examined Bart Whitaker, but also sees a narcissistic personality.

Finally, in September 2005, the climax in a long string of unsolicited witnesses and hard police work, there is some good luck that comes in the form of a phone call.

A busboy at the country club where Bart worked, Rudy Rios, tells police he sold his identity to Bart and helped him escape to Mexico for a couple of thousand dollars. Now he's prepared to sell out his friend for a $10,000 reward from police.

You're back in line, you little nerd. The Whitaker family videos paint a warm picture of a loving, prosperous home.

Bart Whitaker is arrested in Mexico, and on the road back to Sugar Land, Sergeant Slott has only one unanswered question for his prisoner.

For that very son who plotted the murder of his entire family.

Tricia is a former teacher turned full-time mom.

Next, as the last 40 minutes of Bart's life tick down, yet another twist of fate. Stay with us.

With father and son both back in Texas, jailhouse phone calls confirm Ken's unwavering support of Bart as he awaits trial.

He believes his son has truly changed and repented and now feels genuine remorse.

Every moment seems picture perfect.

Two years after his arrest.

A jury convicts Bart Whitaker of the murders of his mother, Tricia, and his younger brother, Kevin, and sentences him to death.

Earlier this week, Kent took his fight to its final round, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The prosecutor unmoved.

Kent, who has now spent more than a decade making the weekly drive to death row, asked his son be given a life sentence with no chance of parole. The odds were stacked against him. Since 1982, there have been only three commutations so close to an execution.

A phone call to Kent's lawyer with news beyond his best hopes. A unanimous vote to recommend clemency.

But that controversial decision isn't the final word. Would Governor Greg Abbott accept the board's recommendation? Kent goes to the governor's office but isn't able to meet anyone in person.

For the longest time, Governor Abbott did nothing. Bart is a dead man walking. He is taken to the death house, prepped for execution. Bart speaks to a chaplain. A last meal is served, chicken enchiladas.

With barely 40 minutes to spare, for the first time in more than a decade, a condemned man gets clemency.

For this father who has endured so much, the long, bittersweet journey has come to a close.

The smallest gesture promising to turn their past into a future together.

But who could imagine that inside that adorable little boy was a ticking time bomb of rage. What was your relationship like with your parents?

We first met Bart Whitaker in 2009 when Bart spoke to former ABC News correspondent Mary Fulginiti about his strange and violent journey. Your family tried to love you.

Hey, Bart, drive down the street to the stop sign for me. Bart's bond with his father, Kent, was especially close. From the moment Bart learned to ride a two-wheeler, he and his father shared a passion for biking.

So how did the son of this loving family end up here on death row?

December 10th, 2003, a time for celebration at the Whitaker residence where Bart receives an extravagant college graduation gift, a Rolex watch.

As they celebrate his graduation, only Bart knows that an intruder has quietly entered their home. His deadly plot is about to begin.

As Kent snaps photos of his happy family, Bart poses with his favorite dessert, bread pudding, decorated to mark the occasion. Trisha smiling with her sons.

Bart smiles, and yet he knows that if everything goes as planned, in less than 30 minutes, his brother, his mother, and his father will all be dead.

Sergeant Marshall Slott is a homicide detective. On any ordinary day, not much business for him in this town.

But why would a kid who had it all try to kill both of his parents? Stay with us.

Texas death row. On the surface, Bart Whitaker seems intelligent and well-mannered, the son of an affluent family. So it seems inexplicable why this quiet young man awaits execution for an unthinkable crime.

A heinous crime committed on a whim, says prosecutor Fred Felchman.

On the night of his graduation dinner, Bart charmed his family, playing the role of the gracious man of the hour. Or was he? You're smiling in the photo.

It was just after eight when the Whitaker family leaves the restaurant and Bart's secret murder plot is unfolding as he expects, just as he and his unwitting family arrive home. The Whitaker family suspects nothing, but as they enter the house, Bart hangs back.

How could a son do that?

And how could a father do the nearly impossible, forgive him?

As shots ring out, a neighbor calls 911.

First on the scene, Sugarland police officer Phil Prevost finds 19-year-old Kevin Whitaker dead where he fell, a single bullet in his chest. Trisha Whitaker also dies of a single gunshot wound soon after she's airlifted to the hospital. Incredibly, Kent Whitaker survives the attack shot in the chest. Also wounded, Bart makes for a convincing fourth victim.

And it works like a charm.

Homicide Sergeant Marshall Slott thinks he's looking for a burglar with bad timing.

The dogs pick up a scent in the house and follow it outside to a dead end. Sergeant Slott scans the crime scene for anything that might lead him to the killer. He finds drawers pulled open as if by a burglar, a gun safe pried open, four spent shell casings and on the kitchen floor, a nine millimeter handgun with four bullets missing from its clip.

Investigators find no suspect fingerprints at the scene. They take the gun back to the crime lab for a closer look.

Investigator Max Hunter carefully tests the weapon and makes a hopeful discovery.

Tracking dogs identify the shooter's scent on the gun, but DNA analysis comes back negative. It seems the killer made a clean getaway.

Back to square one, Sergeant Slott and his partner, Detective Billy Baugh, go to the hospital to interview the survivors, Kent and Bart Whitaker.

Lying in his hospital bed, Kent Whitaker is torn between emotional extremes. He wants revenge, but he also prays, asking God to give him the strength to do the impossible, forgive whoever was responsible.

And I'm Elizabeth Vargas. And this is 2020.

The thought that it might be his own son he would need to forgive was the furthest thing from Kent Whitaker's mind.

All of Sugar Land seems stricken with grief and outrage. More than a thousand mourners, including Kent and Bart, attend the funeral for Trisha and Kevin. At the Whitaker home, it's a media circus. With the investigation hitting dead ends, Bart has good reason to believe he'd gotten away with murder. But when we come back, the huge secret he couldn't allow his family to discover.

Is there any way that you're blinded by your mother's love? I've been begging for a fair trial. Just give me a fair trial. Undercover Mother. I'm Elizabeth Vargas and this is 2020. Here's Nightline's Juju Chang.

Ich glaube an den Fall. Ich glaube, dass es gerecht und justiert wurde.

A mother who will never give up. And that's our program for tonight. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Elizabeth Vargas. For David Muir and all of us at ABC News in 2020, have a great night and a great weekend.

But it's not what you think. Tonight on 2020, how far would you go for your child? This far?

Or maybe borderline crazy. Cooking up an outrageous undercover sting for a year and a half. Trying to prove her son is innocent of murder.

So you believe the police arrested the wrong man? I know it. And to prove it, she's trying to take down the juror she says lied and helped put her son behind bars.

Losing 30 pounds, dying her hair to woo him. Low-cut blouses, push-up bra, high heels. Secretly recording, trying to catch him. And not just the juror putting the prosecutor in her crosshairs. I've never lost a homicide case. Oh, God. You know why? Because she's a cheater. Just weeks ago, a bombshell game changer for the mother who put her own life on hold to live a double life for her son.

Er hat mich manchmal als Wife genannt, dass ich mit ihm leben werde, bis ich sterbe.

A lot of them were made aware and they also did a lot of the teasing and a lot of the name calling.

He said if he couldn't have me, he'd kill himself. Anytime he threatened himself, he'd threaten my family.

Anytime that I wouldn't post for a few hours, he would go crazy and say that I was cheating on him, saying if he found out that I was with another boy, he'd kill them.

Sometimes I'd be threatening to kill himself or ending someone else's life if I didn't go. Did you feel trapped?

Ich habe mich wirklich schlecht über das Gehen gefühlt und ich wollte nicht weg. Aber ich wusste, wenn ich nicht weggegangen wäre, würde etwas passieren. Also bin ich zu den Schoneys gegangen. Um acht Uhr war er dort, er war spät. Ich habe eine Tasche auf dem Boden gelegt.

He told me to write that I was going to New York, that way it seemed like the police would go up there, he thought they were dumb, but they weren't.

But I wrote that I was going to New York City and I made it sound unbelievable. So they knew I was going the opposite way.

I just told Sarah that call the police if I'm not home by six.

I just wanted the police to be called because I knew once I got in that car, I wasn't getting out.

He immediately pulled the gun out. And you knew then...

I think we took 65 down.

Columbia's right here, I think. Mm-hmm. Er hat mich auf eine Brücke aufgenommen und auf sein Telefon auch. So konnte die Polizei uns nicht tracken. Und dann hat er den GPS durch einen Schraubendreher in der Klammer-Kompartie ausgedrückt. Und er hat den Fronten ausgedrückt. Und dann hat er das Radio ungehakt. Es war wie ein Kidnapping. Ich musste immer mit ihm im Auto bleiben.

In Decatur, ich bin mir sicher, standen wir bei diesem großen Hotel und es gab einen verlassenen Van. Und er nahm ihre Licenseplatte. Und dann begannen wir, in die Mississippi zu fahren.

Ja. Im Hotel war ich jeden Morgen im Schlafzimmer, weil ich mich jeden Morgen dreckig und furchtbar fühlte. Und er hat mir das nicht geholfen. Wenn du sagst, dass er dir das nicht geholfen hat, was meinst du? Die Dinge, die er dir machen würde. Es würde nicht helfen, so wie ich mich fühlte.

Und ich versuchte nur zu atmen, um von ihm wegzukommen, aber manchmal würde er mich nicht allein atmen lassen. Es musste in dem gleichen Raum sein, mit ihm am gleichen Zeitpunkt.

Er hat mich schlafen lassen. Und meine Kleidung würde irgendwo anders gepasst werden. Und er war ein leichter Schlafer, also wenn ich mich bewegte, wäre er wach. Und ich konnte nicht mal das Bad am Abend benutzen, ohne ihn dort zu stehen zu lassen.

Er war wirklich dumm und hat oft schmerzvolle Dinge gesagt. Er hat mich manchmal als Frau genannt. Und er hat gesagt, dass wir verheiratet werden werden. Und ich werde mit ihm leben, bis ich sterbe.

Ich konnte nicht Hamburger-Bunnen essen oder Dinge, die hohe Kalorien hatten oder etwas, was zu viel war. Ich konnte meistens Salat essen.

Weil ich klein bleibe. Er hat mir gesagt, dass er Skinny Girls liebt und ich habe das gegessen, was er mir gesagt hat, weil wenn ich es nicht gemacht hätte, würde ich es überhaupt nicht bekommen. Hast du jemals mehr als eine Nacht irgendwo geblieben? Also ich werde nur jeden Ort, wo wir die Nacht geblieben haben, bemerken. Ich weiß, dass wir drei Nachts in Colorado geblieben sind.

So I'm going to say right here, right here. I know we went to Aspen. And then Utah, that's where he started buying alcohol. He started buying alcohol? Yeah, for me, because I was having problems. And he was done dealing with them. Like, I don't want to do stuff with them anymore. I just didn't, I was just done.

Von jedem Staat, den ich nahm, hatte ich Steine. Und ich schrieb, welches Städte oder wo wir waren.

The waves were getting really bad. The boat would nearly go under. Were you scared? I was terrified. The boat kept going down. Stay with us.

He gave me a calendar and I used it to mark down where we were and where we were at and I used it every day.

I saw it on Fox News one time in the hotel. A manhunt is underway. I remember it was a girl announcing it. A nationwide ambler alert. I knew it was for me.

Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

Untertitelung. BR 2018

Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

Because I think it's time to. It's a year later.

Untertitelung. BR 2018

They think they know what happened. And they think that I'm a whore. They think that I like old men. And that's not the case.

Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

Yeah, you were. No, I was. Yeah, you were. Wasn't his name just... No!

Eine Familie zu haben und sie zu schützen. Sie zu machen, dass sie ein besseres Leben haben. Ich bin eine stärkere Person, als ich war. Und ich habe keine Angst.

We had a lot of stuff go on behind closed doors that shouldn't have.

Very.

Very.

Das erste, was sie gemacht hat, war, mich nackt zu nennen, als ich zur Schule kam. Ich meine, es sind nur Jungs, die dumm sind, aber ich habe mich einfach gehalten.

Ich meine, sie hatten alle ihre kleinen Klicks, man kann das nicht wirklich zerstören.

They talked about hiding bodies and killing other people.

Er hat so viele Menschen durch so viele Dinge geholfen.

He gave me a Bible and it was just something from him.

Ich stand da mit ein paar Freunden und dann sagten sie, bist du hungrig? Und ich sagte, ich habe keine Seele oder wenn ich sie hätte, wäre ich hungrig oder so etwas. Und dann kam er zu mir und er hat mich angezeigt und gesagt, meine Seele sieht deine Seele.

Er hat mich gefühlt, als hätte ich keinen anderen. Und niemand hat mich wirklich interessiert, wie er mich interessiert hat.

I was feeling real low and I was wanting to get on antidepressants and try to go to a therapist. And he told me no and not to do it because it changed who I was.

He can say all day long that the devil made him do it, but he is the devil. He himself made him do it.

Come to him.

He would describe it as he went in and he killed people and he saved people and he killed Bin Laden.

Yes. And I knew that it wasn't real.

Kind of like a guardian or a mentor.

They knew, and they know that they knew, and I really hope they feel guilty about it.

Most of them from him would be sexual text.

Yes, like sexting.

In his classroom? Yes.

No. Like I didn't want anyone to really know. I was scared of what would happen if anyone did know.

He'd open up the closet door and he'd look at me a certain way and I knew if I didn't go that he'd be upset. I was afraid to see him angry and I've seen him angry since then, but he doesn't take no well.

Is there any way that you're blinded by your mother's love? I've been begging for a fair trial. Just give me a fair trial. Undercover mother. I'm Elizabeth Vargas, and this is 2020. Here's Nightline's Juju Chang.

Hey.

This is safe. We take you back to a core trauma. Breathe in. Breathe out.

A mother who will never give up. And that's our program for tonight. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Elizabeth Vargas. For David Muir and all of us at ABC News in 2020, have a great night and a great weekend.

But it's not what you think. Tonight on 2020, how far would you go for your child?

Or maybe borderline crazy, cooking up an outrageous undercover sting for a year and a half, trying to prove her son is innocent of murder.

So you believe the police arrested the wrong man? I know it. And to prove it, she's trying to take down the juror she says lied and helped put her son behind bars.

Losing 30 pounds, dying her hair to woo him. Low-cut blouses, push-up bra, high heels. Secretly recording, trying to catch him. And not just the juror, putting the prosecutor in her crosshairs. I've never lost a homicide case. Oh, God. You know why? Because she's a cheater. Just weeks ago, a bombshell game changer for the mother who put her own life on hold to live a double life for her son.

It has been six months since the heinous double murder of Derek and Nancy Hasem rocked the rural community of Bedford County, Virginia. There have been no arrests, but the Hasem's youngest daughter, Elizabeth Hasem, and her German boyfriend, Jens Ziering, are under suspicion. With limited evidence, police are left to wait for Jens to voluntarily give his fingerprints and blood.

Jens says he'll go think about it, calls a few days later and says he will, in fact, submit.

But before the set appointment with Jens, a shocking setback.

And I'm Elizabeth Vargas, and this is 2020. Los Angeles, California. The Lemley Royal Theater. It's opening night. The movie? Right up Hollywood's alley. Two obsessed lovers, a grisly murder, sex, and betrayal. My parents died because Jens and I were obsessed with each other. But it turns out in the genre of You Can't Make This Up, Hollywood didn't.

Unbeknownst to Virginia investigators, the couple is 4,000 miles away in Europe, on their way on a jet-setting, globetrotting journey vagabonding across the world, keeping a journal of their exploits, along with maps and receipts for their international ports of call.

Yen's and Elizabeth's six-month life on the lam ended in this London Marks & Spencer department store.

Terry Wright and Kenneth Beaver were detectives with the London Police Department.

A store detective alerts an off-duty officer who stops the young couple. They said their names was Christopher Platt, no, and Tara Lucy, no. The off-duty officer arrests Jens and Elizabeth on suspicion they committed fraud. Their mugshots reveal their efforts to disguise themselves.

Jens then makes a decision, a fatal mistake, according to detectives, that will alter the course of his and Elizabeth's lives forever.

As fate would have it, the London flat was just off Baker Street, the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes.

But among the weary travellers' masks and veneers, detectives are about to uncover a bona fide bombshell.

Those steamy letters they had written to each other and a shared travel diary, pages of entries would reveal clues to a macabre secret. That correspondence all now locked up in a Bedford County evidence room. These are all the letters and things that were found in their room in London, right?

So you came here, saw where the attack began. Both Derek and Nancy's blood was on the floor here. The first thing in your mind was... What kind of gang came in here and did this?

In it, Elizabeth writes passages incriminating herself and Jens. Jens wipes fingerprints from room, passport photos done, parks at national airport, satellite parking, wipes car.

She goes on to write, we were told the case is about to be solved. Perhaps fingerprints on coffee mug used by Jens in Bedford interview gave him away.

As detectives read on, they learn Elizabeth has been harboring a deep hatred for her parents.

And the young couple's clumsy trail of breadcrumbs is about to lead right back to Bedford County, Virginia, because in yet another of the letters written by Yens, he mentions the name of two homicide detectives in the U.S.

Elementary, as Sherlock Holmes would say.

The movie, Killing for Love, is actually a documentary in theaters now, a deep dive into the real-life case of Yen Suring. Behind bars for nearly 32 years for a brutal crime he says he didn't commit.

Next, some court testimony that becomes must-see TV.

There's Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. But in the summer of 1986, there's something else in Britain getting attention. Yen Tzu-Ring and Elizabeth Hasem peering out from their mugshots. American sweethearts and UVA scholars on the run from cold-hearted murders back in Virginia. Former Scotland Yard detectives Ken Beaver and Terry Wright remember the pair, eager for their weekly court dates.

In love and in trouble. Virginia investigator Ricky Gardner finally has the captive couple right where he wants them. You flew to London.

He and the Scotland Yard detectives question Jens and Elizabeth about the so-called voodoo murder of her parents a little more than a year before.

A strangely compliant Jens waives his right to an attorney and starts talking. And he has no lawyer present.

In an extraordinary series of interviews, only some of which were recorded, Yens proceeds to take full responsibility for the killings, claiming that Elizabeth stayed behind in Washington, creating an alibi with double movie tickets and room service for two, while he drove down to the Hasems' home and killed them.

Jens' multi-decade crusade for freedom has now attracted a dream team of A-list supporters. That's screen legend Martin Sheen leading the Q&A at that L.A. screening.

There is one curious moment during his confession, one that will only become significant later, when detectives ask Jens about false confessions. The detectives do not pursue the point. In her interview, Elizabeth does Jens one better, adding incriminating details, telling the detectives Jens bought a knife before he left to go see her parents, and saying he returned covered in blood.

Those stunning confessions were enough to get Jens and Elizabeth indicted for murder back in Virginia, even while they were still in London.

Nearly a full year passes before Elizabeth Hasem makes her dramatic return to the U.S., landing in the twilight of a May evening in Roanoke, her hair pulled back in a braid, her hands cuffed in front.

Pam Windsor was a local TV reporter at the time.

Elizabeth pleads guilty as an accessory before the fact, admitting she helped plan the murders, but insisting Jens is the one who carried them out. He had a choice.

She is sentenced to 90 years in prison. Meanwhile, back in Britain, Jens is fighting extradition, hoping to be tried in Germany, where he faces a much lighter sentence.

But it is a losing battle. In 1990, he is also returned to Virginia.

There's also music mogul Jason Flom, the man responsible for launching Katy Perry's career. And a founding board member of the Innocence Project.

People pack the courtroom expecting drama, and Jens doesn't disappoint. In a stunning turnabout, he takes the stand to now swear he is innocent. Basically, Jens was in the position of saying, believe me now, don't believe that confession I gave a few years ago.

Jens now says Elizabeth is the one who drove down to her parents' house and murdered them while he stayed behind in Washington. He says Elizabeth, who was using heroin and other hard drugs at the time, came back and told him what she'd done.

He says his false confession in London was an attempt to take the blame for Elizabeth to save her from a death sentence.

Jens' decision to testify, however, opened him up to a ripsaw cross-examination by prosecutor Jim Updike.

The prosecutor trying to turn the jury against Yens produces a letter he wrote to Elizabeth in which he refers to local authorities as yokels.

The trial features a bitter reunion. Elizabeth arrives from prison, her long blonde hair now shorn, and commits the ultimate act of betrayal, according to Jens, blaming him for her crime. It suddenly became real. We were going to conspire and commit murder.

This was a time before DNA, when blood typing is the best science can do. So the prosecutor makes much of Type O blood found at the scene. Jens Ziering has type O, along with nearly 40% of the population. The prosecutor also shows the jury a bloody sock print that he said matches Jens' foot.

At the end of his three-week trial, the jury doesn't even need to sleep on it. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Jens is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He has spent nearly every day since fighting to free himself. And now he may be closer than ever.

Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel has advocated for Jens' release, but his two strongest advocates, ironically, aren't high-profile celebrities or hotshot defense attorneys. They're police officers.

Still ahead, in pursuit of truth and justice, what 21st century DNA might reveal. Stay with us.

July 2017, not long after the 27th anniversary of Yen Tzu-Ring's conviction.

An unlikely team of volunteers erring supporters meets in Richmond to review what they believe is important new information.

Chip Harding is a sheriff in Albemarle County, Virginia, moonlighting on the case, along with private investigator Richard Hudson. And then there's Jason Flom, the multimillionaire music executive, who, when he's not discovering multi-platinum artists, is giving a voice to the wrongfully convicted through the Innocence Project.

But the battle lines are drawn because in Bedford County, the original investigator, Ricky Gardner, continues to believe Zuring is guilty.

What is the physical evidence connecting Jens to this murder scene?

One is an investigator who originally worked on the case. Show me. The other, a current sheriff now reinvestigating it.

Police originally said that sock print roughly corresponded to a woman's size 7 foot, too small for Jens Ziering's size 8 1⁄2. They also point to mistakes Jens made when he confessed. He told police Nancy Hasem was wearing blue jeans. She was not. She was dressed in a housecoat.

In a petition for a pardon, Yen says long after the trial, he learned a significant piece of evidence had not been shared with his defense attorneys, an analysis of the crime by an FBI profiler. The FBI profiler was convinced of two things, that whoever killed Mr. and Mrs. Hasem was intimate with the family and was a woman.

The profiler says he was also struck by Nancy Hasem's outfit, that house coat. She would never receive strangers wearing a nightgown and her bathrobe. Exactly. Another thing, remember, Elizabeth and Jens' rental car had no trace of blood, even though there was a trail of bloody footprints leading towards the driveway. Which begs the question, there must have been another car.

Thank you.

Jens' story begins in 1984 at the University of Virginia. He's 18 years old, the son of a German diplomat, a freshman, and a Jefferson scholar with a full scholarship to UVA.

Amy Lemley wrote an extensive investigative magazine article about the case. What was Jens like?

He was also, by his own admission, sexually inexperienced.

But was it a gang or their very own daughter and her boyfriend on the run?

Elizabeth is two years older than Jens. Her father, Derek Hasem, was a Canadian steel mogul, and her mother, Nancy, the goddaughter of Lady Astor, a wealthy aristocrat and the first woman to take a seat in the British Parliament. But this power family seemed to have no power over their wild child daughter.

Elizabeth ran away from boarding school in England and spent five months in Europe using drugs. Nevertheless, she presented well to her classmates at UVA.

One thing apparently going on between the virginal freshman and his unlikely alluring companion was revealed in a series of X-rated letters they exchanged over several months.

These are just some of the ones we can actually read on television. I love you.

But only months into their relationship, in March 1985, tragedy strikes. Derek W.R. Hasem and his wife Nancy were stabbed to death in their home. Elizabeth's parents are found brutally murdered inside their rural retirement home in Boonesboro, Virginia.

Then rookie investigator Ricky Gardner is one of the first to arrive on the scene. This is your first real homicide, right?

Nothing appears to be missing. There is even Nancy Hasem's purse with money still in it.

Chuck Reed was a Bedford County investigator in 1985 and worked the case with Gardner for a year before leaving the sheriff's office. He took me inside the crime scene. You opened the door when you first came here.

Up against this corner here?

Derek Hasem had been stabbed 36 times. Nancy, six. Her body was found in the kitchen. Both were stabbed in the heart. Both nearly decapitated.

Whodunit theories are rampant. Word that Derek Hasem upset workers in the steel business fuels rumors of a mafia-style hit. But a clue in a rental car agreement is about to change the direction of the case.

Stay with us. Washington, D.C., it's the 1980s. Reagan... and the Redskins are in their heyday. And speaking of time warps, it's the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's become a staple here in Georgetown, the center of the nightlife.

And it's at one of those showings 200 miles away from the Hasems' home in Bedford County, Virginia, near Lynchburg, where Elizabeth Hasem says she was when her parents were murdered. An alibi with her boyfriend in tow.

And what do they do while they're in Washington, D.C.?

The films were stranger than paradise, and ironically, witness.

One of those room service deliveries, food for two, was right around the time police believe Elizabeth's parents were murdered. What did she say about her relationship with her parents?

But Elizabeth's uncle, Lou Benedict, Nancy Hasem's younger brother, says the relationship between mother and daughter wasn't as rosy as Elizabeth described it.

And Elizabeth's parents didn't appear to be happy with their daughter's new boyfriend, Jens Ziering.

As police continue their investigation into the Hasems' double murder, they find the agreement for the rental car Elizabeth says she and Jens used that weekend. This is the rental car agreement.

Even though this is long before the days of Waze... We're all set.

Investigators know from UVA's Charlottesville campus to Washington, D.C., the round trip is only 240 miles. 240 miles, and you had 669 miles.

It's quite a coincidence. So police question Elizabeth again.

That ring true to you?

Elizabeth is cooperating with police and agrees to give her fingerprints and blood. But it's a path of bloody footprints in the Hasem's front yard that has gotten investigators' attention. The prints were revealed by luminol, a chemical that tests for the presence of blood.

Just stop.

So clearly they got into something. But when investigator Reed examines Jens and Elizabeth's rental car, he comes up empty. When you sprayed the luminol inside the inside of Elizabeth and Jens' rental car. I got no reaction. Remember, it's 1985 and DNA testing is not yet in use in criminal courts.

So without a hit on the car, investigators are looking for a match to the type O blood found at the crime scene. It wasn't the victim, so they assume it must be the killer's.

Investigators are flummoxed again because Elizabeth has type B blood. Her fingerprints did show up on a vodka bottle at her parents' home, but that's not surprising. She visited often. But then someone from Elizabeth's own family points a finger of suspicion at her.

You say that Jens confessed to a crime he didn't commit out of... Misguided love, loyalty, lust for Elizabeth Hasem.

That's a pretty unbelievable, pretty shocking thing to say. Exactly. But it just happened to come at the time when you had nothing in this case except for this strange rental car agreement.

Remember, Elizabeth said she and Yen spent the weekend of the murders together in Washington, D.C. So investigators interview him next.

Audio tapes from that first police interview with Jens reveal a confident college freshman fending off suspicion, telling investigators he's the son of a German diplomat.

As investigators wait to meet with Yens, the phone rings, but it's not who they expect.

Next.