Maurice Shema

It's a woman named Karen Baker.

She's 20, and she's a mother of three young children.

And then over the next few months, they find a total of six bodies in this area of the desert.

Two of the victims are girls in middle school, and then their ages run up into their early 20s.

I know.

It's really – it's awful.

The detail that really stuck out to me was that they could identify the girl who'd been in eighth grade in part because they found her T-shirt where all the other kids had signed their names on the last day of school.

And it turns out that that girl's mother becomes a real leading force in this case.

And she pushes Johnny to see all of these murders as connected, first of all, and then to go talk to other middle school kids to try to get clues or tips from them about, you know, who might have done it.

El Paso is majority Hispanic, so this detail, a white guy, stood out to Johnny.

The kids say this guy was always around.

In old tapes from this investigation, you hear this name come up a lot, Skeeter.

Of course, we run his name.

The mechanics of how Skeeter and David Wood get linked are hazy.

In the recordings I listened to, most of the kids had no idea who Skeeter was.

And the ones who say Skeeter was David Wood, it's not clear if they put that together themselves or if they were repeating the connection that the cops made.

In any case, when Johnny learns more about David Wood's criminal record, he discovers a rap sheet that's long and egregious.

Multiple sexual crimes against girls, one as young as 12.

And the timeline tracks.

David Wood had been released from prison less than a month before the first of these victims disappeared.