Chapter 1: What tragic event sets the stage for this investigation?
In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.
I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.
For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Security video captures a little girl running around by herself clutching a pillow. Hair is just sticking up on my arms. It's giving me chills.
So we have this little girl in a parking lot, little three-year-old, and she has blood all over her feet. That's your mommy's car? Where's mommy? There's blood on the front seat of the car. Are you hurting, sweetheart? that the car belongs to a woman named Lintel Washington. Everybody was concerned, certainly for this teacher, this teacher of the year that just vanished.
It's just a huge area to cover. Pretty remote too. Very remote. Lentel did not have any luck with men. Hers was just jaw dropping. The thing is, it's a secret relationship. She asked, well, should I meet him face to face? And I told her yes. I said yes, and I should have said no. Lintel's daughter is in the backseat of the car while all of this is going on.
Solving this crime comes down to a three-year-old child, the only witness. Is she in danger too? I think the best way to describe Baton Rouge is that it's a smaller version of New Orleans. It's the capital of Louisiana. It gets that city vibe, but mostly it's just a very small town. It has the flavor, the culture, the people, and the history of a New Orleans, but it's on a much smaller scale.
Baton Rouge is right on the Mississippi River and it is a working port, one of the busiest in the country.
If you think of Baton Rouge, you think of Garth Brooks calling Baton Rouge. It's the motto of that city. Garth Brooks even posted about it on Facebook.
Ross Brooks played at Tiger Stadium to about 102,000 people. Putting on a booming of a show. Crowd got so loud, literally set off a seismograph. Caught it a Garth Quinn. But behind that good time vibe is a troubling problem for Baton Rouge. The man's body dump killing was brutal. A murdering rivaling that of much larger cities.
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Chapter 2: How does the three-year-old witness become crucial to the case?
And she's just walking around, a little three-year-old. And no one knows who she is and why is she alone? I mean, this is a little child. Someplace you wouldn't expect a little child walking around by themselves.
My name is Leslie Palms. In 2016, I was driving for a company called Family Care, which is medical transportation.
This good Samaritan sees her.
I noticed a young lady, little girl, talks about three years old. She was standing in the parking lot about right here.
He comes up to this child, and he starts to converse with her.
And he had asked that girl where her parents were. And she just kind of had this puzzled look on her face, and she was kind of teary-eyed and distraught. And I actually said, where's your mom? And she just kind of looked around. And I didn't see any adults out here with her, so I immediately called 911. This is Leslie. I'm over on New Castle. Boulevard here, right off of Sherwood.
I have a child holder, you sweetheart. She's three years old. She's in the parking lot standing here by herself with a pillow. No one's around. Can't find anyone. I need an officer.
My passion. is helping, and this child needed help, and I couldn't just pass by and feel comfortable not helping.
There was a lot of chatter in the newsroom. This police scanner picked up this call. Yeah, I don't feel comfortable. My name is Brett Buffington. I was a crime and breaking news reporter in Baton Rouge. There was a toddler walking around the parking lot in South Baton Rouge. It sounded frantic. Then you hear, and she's got blood on her.
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Chapter 3: What details emerge about Lintel Washington's life and relationships?
She has a little shirt that says cute on it. But she's dirty, and she hasn't been taken care of, and she's by herself. And I started asking her, well, where's mommy? Where's mommy's car? And she pointed to her mom's car, which her mom's car was on the other end of the parking lot, closer to the fire hydrant. Oh my gosh, there's blood on the front seat of the car.
Okay, stay on the phone with me, okay? What kind of vehicle is it? It's a Toyota Corolla. There's a lot of blood? It's a sizable amount of blood. Looks like somebody, something happened. That's the point when I walked to the car and saw the blood. Something was really, really, really wrong for that much blood to be in the car. God, I hope this is not bad. You want me to stay on the phone with you?
Okay, I'll stay on the phone. This baby here, she's terrified. I remember that 911 call vividly. I told them something bad has happened at this location, so they need to get some officers to speed up and get over here.
Yeah.
My name is Brittany Weiss. I am the two on your side reporter at WBRZ. I remember that day we got a phone call. It was from someone who said that they found a little girl wandering alone by herself in a parking lot. We went out there and we interviewed Leslie Parms that day, and he told us what he had found.
Just looking at the blood pool, I knew someone.
Something happened really bad to someone. It wasn't going to be good at all. It was hot. It was steamy. The type of heat that you would not want, you know, to leave a child in a car or abandoned. Did mommy bleed? Mommy was bleeding?
Yeah. Did you see where the blood was coming from? Where was it coming from?
The dash cam video, what's important in this particular thing is the audio. And you're hearing the same story from the three-year-old given to Mr. Palms and then given to the police officers who respond. Police check the registration on the car, and they find out that the car belongs to a woman named Lintel Washington, and she is the mother of the little girl that they have found.
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Chapter 4: How does Robert Marks's alibi unravel during the investigation?
This friend tells me Lintel Washington is passionate, knowledgeable, and trusting.
Lintel Washington, she was a teacher at a middle school. We talked to her friends. She was well-respected in the community.
Lintel Washington's nickname is Puffy. That was a name she had since her childhood. She was loyal, dedicated, and hardworking. Very funny, very passionate, very kind person. We didn't call ourselves friends, we called ourselves sisters. Her name was very, very important to her. She didn't want anything attached to her name that was negative, that was bad, and she wanted to be a great mother.
Lintel Washington has a twin sister named Sintel. She had a twin sister? Yes. Identical twin? I can tell them apart, but yeah, they're identical. Lintel's friends share that she has been married and divorced and eventually meets Darren Glasper. She meets Darren at a barbecue. And then he sees Cyntel. And so he says, oh, there are two of them. But he wanted Lintel.
What was it about Lintel that grabbed your attention?
Her presence just lit up the whole neighborhood.
Were they a solid couple? They were solid, yes. In the beginning, yes. Did she talk about family and wanting to have children?
When we first began dating, she told me she had surgery. And that they told her she was unable to conceive.
And so she didn't think that she could have kids.
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Chapter 5: What evidence points to Robert Marks as the primary suspect?
The thing is, it's a secret relationship. Somebody at school. She tells me that she's seeing him and she's not supposed to say anything.
Our team coverage continues. A three-year-old girl was found by a man, teary-eyed, carrying a pillow. The girl led palms to a car.
So we have this little girl in a parking lot, little three-year-old, and she has blood all over her feet. That's your mommy's car? Where's mommy? You just stick with me. We're going to be fine. Can I get the police over here?
Is that okay? Yes. We're live tonight in downtown Bradbuffington, WBRZ News 2. I remember going home, and I called my mom. And I just said, hey, I just want to tell you I love you. This is a tough story today. A little three-year-old girl, and it's not going to be good.
When we unfortunately had to bring her back to the house and bathe her, when we washed her, the color of the water changed a bit because of the fact that she had blood on her. And she kept making comments about her mom and what had happened to her mother.
Lintel has this identical twin named Sintel. She rushes to Baton Rouge to come get her niece.
When she walked through that door, I thought I was looking at a ghost. Did she look that much like her sister? So much like her sister that her daughter ran to her.
Instantaneously, this girl's like, my mommy's back. My mommy's back.
Mommy. She said, are you OK, mommy? And she was looking. You could tell she was checking to see if her mother, like physically checking to see if her mother was okay.
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Chapter 6: How do investigators use cell phone records to trace movements?
He's available. So... He's not moving like a married man. Was she in love? Yes, she was. I think she had her disappointments. And so now finally she gets someone who's Dr. Robert Marks. And he wants her. He's pursuing her. With her mom missing, that little girl, as you can hear on this police dash cam video, she soon begins to innocently reveal family secrets.
She was like, I got something to tell y'all. And I was like, what is it? She was like, I'm pregnant. Who learns that she's pregnant first? Does she reveal it to you? Oh yes, she did. I'm two months pregnant. My baby looks so beautiful in my womb. And I'm like, oh my goodness, what is he saying? And she tells me he's happy.
In Lintel's apartment, detectives will later find sonograms tracking her pregnancy, including one with an announcement on it. I'm a girl. She says, Dallin, that's the name. She said, oh, I love it. Then she tells it to Robert Marks. She texts me back and she says, girl, he loves the name. So he was excited about the name and he was excited about the pregnancy. So she was getting her family.
The week before she goes missing, Lintel finally reveals the relationship to her boss and friend, Jamisha. She said, this baby is for Robert Marks. She's pregnant with Robert Marks' baby. Right. I said, girl, stop playing, you know?
And she said, no, I'm serious. Jamesha Payne knew what was going on. Lintel Washington had apparently told her everything. She knew all the secrets.
The pieces of the puzzle start to become very clear. She was saying, I'm going to let his wife know what's going on. Today, I want to tell you about our friends at Miko. Miko has built an air purifier that works hard so you can breathe easy. It works powerfully and consistently to deliver top quality results, giving you cleaner air in any room of your home.
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Chapter 7: What role does the forensic interview of Lintel's daughter play in the trial?
She was upset. By the time Robert returns from his cruise on June 6th, he has got one angry Lintel Washington waiting for him, and he knows he's got a problem. She said, are you lying to me? Just tell me the truth. And so she texted that. Lintel sends a blunt text message to Marks, questioning whether he is committed to her and to their unborn baby girl. Just keep it 100 with me.
Do you really want me or are you quitting to run away from your responsibilities with me and our unborn daughter? It was like, you know, are you trying to skip town to avoid taking care of the baby? Are you trying to leave EBR and so forth and so on? At some point he suggested they get together or somebody wants to meet face to face. She says, do you think I should meet him face to face?
And I said, yes. Said, this way you'll know if he's lying. I said, look him in his face and see if he's lying. It was pretty clear cut that the last person who was with her was Robert Marks, and the last person who had seen her was Robert Marks. We have to find him, find out where she was the night before, and talk to him and figure out where this young lady is right now.
All right, Mr. Marks, I'm Detective Winner, and this is my sergeant.
Baton Rouge police take Robert Marks in for questioning. Robert, we're looking for Lintel. You know where she's at. I don't know where she is.
I tried to call her this morning, and I sent her a text. She didn't reply.
He tells police that he saw Lintel Washington last night, the night before, for about a half hour.
I see he holds his hands a lot towards his face, a clear sign he's lying.
And he explains that they just talked. He immediately admits to the affair.
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Chapter 8: What is the outcome of Robert Marks's trial and its implications?
One of our reporters got a tip. There was a large police presence on the other side of the river.
There's a massive 50-plus law enforcement officers in the air, on ATVs, with canines. There's this huge search effort. We've learned that they have searched a six-mile radius from that command post.
If a real parish is 575 square miles, you want to get rid of a body, this is a good place to go. Lintel Washington didn't show up to work, something she's never done before. You have a woman who is five months pregnant. She's missing. Washington's three-year-old daughter was found wandering around a parking lot. Her little girl is alone and abandoned. We're told blood was around the woman's car.
The immediate concern is something horrible has happened to Lintel Washington, and where is she? It was something that I was just in shock about because this was really happening, and it was really my friend that was missing. Police say Washington lives in this area off Sherwood Forest. Tonight, they're searching for her.
They were quick with putting clues together. Within a day, they knew where they needed to be searching.
Police are being guided in their search by cell phone records. Where Lintel appeared to have been that night, one of the areas is across the Mississippi from Baton Rouge. One of our reporters got a tip that there was a large police presence on the other side of the river. Friday around 10 a.m., Chief Investigator Chris Nakamoto got a tip BRPD's dive team was heading to Ramah to search waterways.
We're here in Iberville Parish where an active scene is unfolding as detectives search for Lintel Washington. There were people just scouring the scene about 25 miles west of Baton Rouge in an area called Iberville Parish right adjacent to the Atchafalaya Basin. We have detailed information that directed us to this location.
We have detailed information that pointed us to the Baker, Zachary, and St. Francisville areas.
If you leave Baton Rouge and drive west here, 30 miles here in Iberville Parish. It was a massive search effort. In the air, on ATVs, and on foot. It's remote, it's rural, it's farmland, it's sugarcane fields. You're not around civilization out there.
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