00:00:00
[Music] So, Captain, just where are we? What is this place? So, we're in the town of
00:00:17
Kingsbury at the bridge that goes over the canal on New Swamp Road. July 24th, 2005. Investigators are called out here.
00:00:24
What brought them out here? So, we had a report that a fisherman had been going by. He saw what he thought to
00:00:31
be a toolbox that goes in the back of a pickup truck floating. What did investigators find inside that toolbox?
00:00:37
Uh, they found a woman's body that was uh duct taped and handcuffed and wrapped in a comforter. It was terrible. It was
00:00:43
a terrible thing to see. [Music] In January of 1996, I just finished my first semester of college in upstate New
00:00:55
York. My ex-boyfriend Shawn Doyle and I had been broken up for approximately 4 months. My name is Cece Opinowski. My
00:01:04
mother was going away for the weekend, so I had this whole big house to myself. And my friend Shannon and I, we were
00:01:11
very close. I said, "Well, let's stay at my house cuz there's no one around." It
00:01:15
was just a girl's night. We just wanted to chill out. You know, it's winter. It's cold. We built a fire. My parents
00:01:21
had a great stereo system. So, you know, we put on some music and danced around and, you know, just did girl stuff. We
00:01:28
both went to Sage Junior College, B Al B. I'm really introvert. And she was very bubbly and happy and chipper and
00:01:37
she just she brought me out of my shell. When you were first meeting her, was Shawn Doyle around at the time? Yes. He
00:01:44
was obnoxious. She would argue with him a lot on the phone. And then in January is when this incident happens at
00:01:52
her house. We were having a good time. It was just the two of us. But he keeps calling. Mhm. Wanting to know what we
00:01:59
were doing, wanting to know if he can come over. She had a cell phone and I was like, "Just turn it off." Like,
00:02:05
she's like, "No, cuz if I turn it off, he's going to come here." We finally wake up and all we
00:02:11
wanted was coffee. I had the of the mindset. I'm like, "Oh, I can't go out in public looking like I'm a mess. Let
00:02:16
me go home and get dressed." So Shannon leaves and I get up and go around the house doing whatever, watching TV, you
00:02:24
know, being a lazy teenager and I get a knock at the door and I open it and it's
00:02:32
him and he said, "I just want to talk to you." And once he was inside, things got
00:02:37
much different. He pushed me onto the couch, started, you know, holding me down and restraining me and, you know,
00:02:43
yelling at me, and he picked me up and pushed me against the French doors and kept banging me against the French
00:02:52
doors. After I got done out of the shower and getting ready, I called. Nobody answered. My hair was in a
00:03:01
ponytail and he picked me up, held me up, and cut my hair off. Was gone. just all of
00:03:08
it. He had already been choking me and I thought he was going to stab me. I called her back a half an hour later.
00:03:14
She still didn't answer. And that's when my eyebrows kind of went up. I'm in complete shock. I can't believe it's
00:03:22
happening and I have to figure out how to get out of it. But during this time, the phone continues to ring.
00:03:28
I waited a couple minutes and I called her back. I explained to him, "If I don't answer
00:03:33
this phone, my mother will call the police." So, I do pick up the phone and it's Shannon. I said, "Hey, are you
00:03:41
okay?" And I don't know why I did this, but I started unloading the dishwasher and I'm saying to her, "No, no. Yeah,
00:03:48
everything's fine." "No, no." And no kept coming out of my mouth and he didn't pick up on it, but she sure did.
00:03:54
And that's when she said, "Is he there?" And I said, "Yes." And I hung up the phone that I called the cops.
00:04:04
Believe me, I do realize how lucky I am. Investigators are continuing to piece the case together now that they found
00:04:09
Lorie Leonard tagged and bound with duct tape in a pickup body was found floating
00:04:13
in a toolbox. I'm fortunate that it could have been much much worse. [Music] [Music]
00:05:02
I can tell you that I knew nothing was ever going to be the same and it was going to change the way
00:05:11
I looked and everything. For Cece Openowski, it has taken almost 30 years to talk about the day her former high
00:05:20
school boyfriend, Shawn Doyle, attacked her in her family's home in Hudson Falls, New York, and then used scissors
00:05:27
to cut off her ponytail. What was it like to have your hair cut off in this way? Demeaning.
00:05:33
Demeaning. Think that's why he did it? Probably. Just to make sure he could knock me down somewhere. On that day,
00:05:41
January 27th, 1996, as Doyle went in and out of violent rages, at one point holding the scissors to her throat, CeCe
00:05:52
says she wasn't sure she would make it out alive until she says her college roommate, Shannon McAuliff, called when
00:06:00
she finally picks up the phone. What did you hear in her voice? Fear. Shannon says she knew that Doyle had been
00:06:07
harassing Cece. So when CC told her Doyle was there, Shannon notified police and then rushed over to Cece's house. I
00:06:16
pulled onto her street and I parked and then I saw the the the police officers and everything, so I kind of
00:06:24
went in after the fact. She looked terrified and angry and sad. CeCe says she thought when police
00:06:35
arrived they would make her feel safe, but that's not exactly what happened. They do not put him in handcuffs and
00:06:43
they put us in the back of the same police car. Mind you, all of this time I've clearly look like I've been
00:06:50
assaulted. My hair is completely cut off. And when they arrived at the police station, I was like, why why are we
00:06:58
here? Why is he not why are we in the same room? CC says instead of separating them, police questioned them together
00:07:06
and they made it seem like it was some fight between two young kids that turned, you know, slightly dark. When 48
00:07:15
Hours reached out to the Hudson Falls Police Department, they acknowledged that law enforcement's response to
00:07:21
domestic violence has evolved over the past several decades to better work with and support victims. Police arrested
00:07:29
Doyle and charged him with menacing harassment and trespassing. Looking at it and you're saying, "Did this really
00:07:36
happen to me?" You know, how could this happen to me? CeCe Openski and Shawn Doyle grew up
00:07:47
in the small town of Hudson Falls, located in upstate New York. To protect Cece's privacy, we chose not
00:07:56
to show the actual house where she lived. He was nice to me. He was really nice. When Cece started dating Shawn
00:08:03
Doyle, she was just 15 years old, a sophomore in high school. Doyle was one year older. You know, we would go and do
00:08:11
lots of things together. You know, we just hung out all the time. Cece says Doyle had troubles at home. During his
00:08:18
junior year, Doyle told her his parents kicked him out. So Cece begged her parents to let him move in with them.
00:08:26
Did you feel sorry for him? Oh, definitely. Soon after he moved into Cece's family home, she says she saw a
00:08:33
change in Doyle's behavior. Cece says he became jealous and would secretly follow
00:08:39
her around. Something she says she didn't think at the time was a big deal. when you're a 16, 17 year old girl and
00:08:47
you know you're looking at oh jealousy, you know, he must love me so much and that's why he's doing that sort. He
00:08:54
followed me home. He's so worried about me. But is that really what the case is?
00:09:01
When you you look back as an adult and someone with experience, you know, you you think that's probably not not okay.
00:09:09
And Doyle showed even more possessive behavior that Cece found troubling. He at one point did get a tattoo. It was a
00:09:17
heart on his arm and it had my name in the middle. What did you say? Why would you do that? And his response, I love
00:09:24
you. Was it a red flag? Definitely. During his senior year, Cece says Doyle dropped out of high school and was
00:09:32
working odd jobs that he couldn't keep. And this is where things start to get darker. You know, he he doesn't have any
00:09:41
prospects. He knows that I'm getting ready to go away to school. And to him, his whole life is is about to completely
00:09:50
change. But Cece says she stuck by him, writing in her senior yearbook, I love you, Shawn. And in the summer of 1995,
00:10:00
when she left to attend what is now Russell Sage College in Albany, they agreed to stay together and see each
00:10:07
other on weekends. But at the end of September, things took a scary turn when Cece told
00:10:14
Doyle she would not be coming home every weekend to see him. Doyle showed up at her dorm. He stood outside basically
00:10:22
threatening that he was going to kill me. and now he's threatening not just you, but anyone around you. Basically,
00:10:28
anyone around me. So, he was arrested. Doyle was charged with harassment and trespassing. It was the final straw for
00:10:37
Cece, who says she broke it off with Doyle for good, and he moved out of her parents' house. Later that winter,
00:10:44
that's when Shawn Doyle showed up and viciously attacked her at her home. I know he threatened a lot, but did you
00:10:52
ever believe that Shawn Doyle would have physically hurt you? Not until that day.
00:10:58
Not in that way. After the attack, Cece returned to college and finished up her freshman year, but Shannon says her
00:11:06
friend had changed. I think it had a profound impact on her life. You know, I was always looking over my
00:11:15
shoulder. I bought myself a Swiss Army knife. I'm having night tears, you know, waking up crying, waking up screaming,
00:11:23
not being able to sleep. Awful. Awful. So, 8 months after the attack, when it was time to take the case to
00:11:32
trial, Cece, who was still just a teenager at 19 years old, told prosecutors she couldn't go through with
00:11:40
it. She says she was too traumatized and scared. I didn't want to have to face him in court. I didn't want to be going
00:11:47
over this over and over and over again. I really wanted it to go away. Doyle was offered a deal. He
00:11:55
pleaded guilty to menacing in the second degree and was sentenced to just 3 years
00:12:00
probation. CeCe transferred colleges and moved hours away from Hudson Falls, New
00:12:06
York. I needed peace and I didn't know how to get it. CeCe tried to forget her past, but she
00:12:13
says she was haunted by a conversation she had with the prosecutor. She said, "You know, based on what I see here, he
00:12:22
is going to do this again to another person." And that has for the past 28 years stuck in my head.
00:12:36
[Music] 9 years after CC Openowski left upstate New York for a new life far away from
00:12:54
Sha Doyle, 33-year-old Lorie Leonard disappeared. Say hi, Lorie. Say hi. Lorie Leonard was a single mom who lived
00:13:04
with her two sons, Austin, who was nine at the time, and Zachary, five, in Chinango, a small town outside Syracuse,
00:13:13
New York. She was a a very caring mother. The memories of her just us always being happy together, spending
00:13:21
time kind of always the three of us. Say hi. It was just a lot of love and affection.
00:13:28
Her dream was to have a home, a father figure for her kids and for them to be happy. She wanted the white picket
00:13:37
fence. Jennifer Leonard was Lorie's older sister. We were good friends, but I was a little bit of a bossy mother to
00:13:45
her. I had been through a lot of things already in my life, in my relationships,
00:13:51
and I was very, I would say, overprotective. In 2003, Lori met a man on a dating website,
00:13:59
cupcid.com. His name, Shaun Doyle. Online dating was new back then, so Jennifer was skeptical about him. He was
00:14:08
not charismatic. He was not social. He was like a piece of furniture that you just walked around. But she says Lorie
00:14:15
didn't agree. She only saw the good in people. She would say, you know, he's misunderstood or he's shy. Jennifer says
00:14:23
Lorie told her very little about Doyle except that he lived 3 hours away in Hudson Falls, New York, and worked at an
00:14:31
ice cream factory. She also mentioned that Doyle was on probation. She told me that he was a boxer, that he was
00:14:39
protecting a woman at a bar and was arrested because he used some of his professional boxing moves. Did you ever
00:14:47
see any sort of evidence of his professional boxing? I mean, did he do you think he was even a boxer? I didn't
00:14:53
buy the stories that he was selling her. It sounded like he was trying to be something that he was not. Jennifer says
00:15:01
after her sister met Doyle, Lorie became distant. I would talk to Lori three times a day. And then when Shawn came
00:15:08
into the picture, it was it was a little quiet and things only got worse. I had called her one night and he was over
00:15:17
there and all I could hear in the background was him yelling at her and that I was like, "What is this?" And
00:15:24
she's like, "You know, I'll call you back. It's not a big deal." But I think what scared me more than anything was
00:15:30
when he was caught yelling at her, it stopped. The kind of guys that, you know, don't want anyone else to see what
00:15:37
happens behind closed doors. He was sneaky. Soon after this incident, Lorie ended
00:15:42
her romantic relationship with Doyle. Lorie told Jennifer they agreed to be just friends and that he was fine with
00:15:49
it. And I was like, "No, he's not. Nope. People like that aren't just okay with being friends." Despite the breakup,
00:15:57
Doyle would still drive 3 hours from Hudson Falls to visit Lorie, oftentimes hanging out at the bar where she
00:16:05
waitressed late at night. Sean always called me and he he'd call me to get advice. Dorothy Tucker lived down the
00:16:14
street from Doyle in Hudson Falls and considered him a close friend. I saw a sweet guy who would bend over backwards
00:16:24
if I asked him to. However, after the relationship with Lorie ended, she says Doyle told her he had followed Lorie and
00:16:32
watched her as she went out on a date. I was like, "Sean, you can't do that. She
00:16:37
does not want to be with you." Were you starting to get concerned about him and his behavior at that point? No. No.
00:16:45
Because he agreed with me. I didn't see the monster that he really was. He hid it quite well. On Friday, April 29th,
00:16:55
2005, Lorie, who was living with Jennifer, moved to a new rental apartment. Usually, people are miserable
00:17:02
when they're moving. She was just happy. Lorie's nephew, Dustin Delator, who was
00:17:06
15 at the time, helped with the move. She wanted her own place. She saw her future in that day. Also helping with
00:17:14
the move was Shawn Doyle, who offered up use of his truck. She had asked a couple
00:17:20
other people before that, so he was a last resort. He was still playing the I'm your friend. What was Shawn like
00:17:26
that day? Standoffish, just I mean, quiet. Jennifer says the move went smoothly until Doyle decided to hang
00:17:35
around and stayed with Lorie in her new place for days. It was starting to get on her nerves. Now, 5 days after the
00:17:44
move, Jennifer says Lorie told her Doyle was finally leaving because Lorie had plans to go to Albany for the afternoon.
00:17:52
She was supposed to go pick up the tickets. Tickets to a Yankees game, a gift from someone she had met at work.
00:17:59
Were you concerned at all about her going to pick up tickets from a stranger? Yes, but that was how she was.
00:18:04
She was very trusting. On Wednesday, May 4th, Jennifer called Lorie in the afternoon, hoping to catch her while she
00:18:12
was heading to Albany. And it kept going straight to voicemail. Was that weird? Oh, her phone never went straight to
00:18:18
voicemail. It was never off. At first, Jennifer thought she may have gotten lost on the drive or that her phone
00:18:24
battery had died. It wasn't a thought at the time that that something bad happened, just that, you know, where is
00:18:32
she? 24 hours later, when Lorie never called or returned home, Jennifer notified the Chinangeno police. Patrol
00:18:40
started looking into her whereabouts at that time. Lead investigator Wade Irwin searched Lorie's rental apartment. She
00:18:48
had just moved into the home. There were still lots of boxes, items being unpacked. Didn't appear that there was
00:18:56
any signs of a breakin or a crime that occurred at the home, but her car was there. And he said there was something
00:19:03
else unsettling about the scene. And there was one shoe in the center of the bed. That was odd. Investigator Irwin
00:19:11
says he was determined to speak to one person. The last person that that we were able to determine that saw her was
00:19:21
Shawn Doyle. But before investigators could reach out to Doyle, Jennifer says she tracked down Doyle's number and
00:19:29
called him herself. Sean, have you talked to Lorie? And uh he goes, "No, I haven't talked to her in a couple of
00:19:35
days. Um wasn't she supposed to get tickets the other night?" And I'm like, "Yeah, she was, but we haven't heard
00:19:40
from her since." I'm like, "You know, if she calls you, let us know because the phone's off." off and he's like, "Oh
00:19:44
yeah, definitely let you know." When I hung up, I was like I had chills and I'm like, "He's full of it." He knows
00:19:53
something. [Music] [Music] As the days went by, Chinenango investigators reached out to everyone
00:20:12
who had contact with Lorie Leonard prior to her disappearance, including the man
00:20:16
she was supposed to get Yankees tickets from in Albany. He was an executive for a company. We were able to track him
00:20:23
down. He was interviewed. Detective Wade Irwin says the executive waited for Lorie in Albany and when she never
00:20:30
showed up, he called her and even left a message. who was calling with concern of
00:20:37
where she was. We're supposed to meet up. I got the tickets. I'm here. Are you okay? I hope an accident didn't happen.
00:20:43
His alibi checked out, but Lorie's phone records would reveal a lot more about another person who hadn't called. What
00:20:51
became concerning for myself as a person that cared about her supposedly, Shawn Doyle. Shawn Doyle never called, never
00:21:02
left a message. When Chidanango police went to interview Lor's former boyfriend, he told them that on the day
00:21:09
she disappeared, he left her apartment about 300 p.m. and then drove 3 hours home to Hudson Falls. He just always had
00:21:18
said all along that he left her and she was alive at the apartment. When they checked out his alibi, Detective Irwin
00:21:27
says they couldn't clear him. Yet Doyle was cooperative and even allowed investigators to search his truck and
00:21:34
take photos. When they searched Doyle's glove compartment, they found something curious. There was a key for the serial
00:21:43
number on it. As investigators kept an eye out on Doyle and continued to search for Lorie,
00:21:51
Jennifer says her family struggled to explain Lorie's disappearance to her two young sons. After
00:21:58
several days to several weeks, you know something's up. Your mother's not home. There's a question as we know, where is
00:22:03
she? What's what's she doing? We would say things like, "She got lost. You know, we'll get her. We'll find her." To
00:22:10
make matters worse, Austin and Zachary were now separated, staying with their fathers and only seeing each other on
00:22:17
weekends. We'd lived together our whole lives. That was obviously different, you
00:22:21
know, waking up every day with one, your mom's not there, uh, but two, now your brother isn't. We were suffering and
00:22:27
every day our family was doing something to find her. We were looking for her. We
00:22:33
were a welloiled machine. Jennifer suspected Shawn Doyle had something to do with her sister's disappearance. So
00:22:41
weeks after Lorie vanished, she headed to Hudson Falls and held a demonstration, hoping someone there
00:22:48
would know something about Doyle that could help investigators. We had posters, we had signs, we had Shawn's
00:22:55
name up on signs. If anybody will speak to us, Dorothy Tucker says when she heard Lorie's family was in town, she
00:23:04
immediately called Doyle. I was like, Sean, what's going on? You know, did you do something? I didn't do anything to
00:23:12
her. She's probably off on a beach somewhere with some guy. But you believe Sean at the time? Oh, definitely. Later
00:23:20
that day, when Dorothy passed Lor's family, rallying on the streets, she says she did something she has come to
00:23:27
deeply regret. Like an idiot, I yelled out the window, telling them to go home. Shawn didn't do anything and they needed
00:23:38
to leave. As months passed, with no sign of Lorie, the family's hopes began to dwindle. I made a promise to find a
00:23:49
resolution to this for them and give them the closure and answers that they needed. It was disheartening because
00:23:58
every night I'd call them and give them an update regardless of whether there was positive or negative information.
00:24:06
And then on July 24th, 2005, 3 months after Lorie went missing, we had a report that a fisherman had been going
00:24:15
by in this area here. Captain TonyLair is with the Washington County Sheriff's Office. He saw what he thought to be a
00:24:24
toolbox that goes in the back of a pickup truck floating. Thought it may be useful for him, so he grabbed onto it,
00:24:31
towed it with his boat about a mile and a half, and then they dragged it out of the water. there. The box was locked and
00:24:37
emitting a foul odor. So, police were called and when they broke open the lock, authorities discovered a body
00:24:45
inside and there was contents, pillows, bedding, purse, but right on top was Lorie's Ivy.
00:24:56
Also in the box was a photo of Lorie's two sons. She was handcuffed behind her back. There was duct tape around the
00:25:05
handcuffs. Her feet were bound together and duct taped. Her face from chin to forehead.
00:25:14
Um had duct tape and then once that duct tape was removed, there was a bandana tied in her mouth. The medical examiner
00:25:24
would rule that Lorie died of asphixxiation. I couldn't wrap my head around what they
00:25:29
were saying. What do you mean she was found in a toolbox in the water? I I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't
00:25:42
accept it. Detective Irwin says that's when Shawn Doyle went from a person of interest to a suspect in the case.
00:25:51
Everything started to come together real quickly. We got a search warrant within
00:25:54
hours to go to his residence. During their search, police found sand tubes in his garage that matched the sand tubes
00:26:03
inside the toolbox used to weigh it down. We were able to track down in the home similar handcuffs, bandanas, duct
00:26:11
tape, other means he used that matched what was used on Lorie. Remember the key investigators had discovered in Shawn
00:26:20
Doyle's truck? It matched the lock of the toolbox, tying Doyle directly to the crime. When investigators checked the
00:26:29
bridge near the canal where the toolbox was found, they discovered scratches on the bridge railing that match scratches
00:26:36
found on the bottom of the toolbox. Just tell me about what investigators think happened. What was the theory? The
00:26:43
theory is that he came here with his pickup truck, came to the bridge um somewhere in the center of the canal and
00:26:49
took the toolbox and basically just pushed it over the edge. And then as he did, it scraped across.
00:26:56
Just one day after the discovery of Lorie's body in the toolbox, investigators arrested Shawn
00:27:03
Doyle. What was that moment like for you? Overwhelming. Jennifer says it was time to break the
00:27:15
news to Lorie's two young sons. Zachary remembers the moment even though he was only 5 years old. I felt it as soon as I
00:27:25
walked into the room. And I think my dad was the one that said that she's not coming home. Just kind of fell into him
00:27:32
and just didn't know how to react. I watched a little boy break. He said not a word. Then it was
00:27:40
time to tell 9-year-old Austin. You know, I left out kind of like a shriek and and kind of just collapsed uh in my
00:27:48
dad. And that I can still kind of feel it. And he wailed. It wasn't a cry. It was it was a
00:27:59
pained gutter whale. I'll always have that sound in my head. Jennifer says she couldn't truly mourn
00:28:09
her sister because she had to prepare for Doyle's upcoming trial. I was going to make sure that he got what he
00:28:16
deserved. [Music] [Music] In late summer of 2005, Cece Opinowski received a phone call from her father.
00:28:40
Her exboyfriend Shawn Doyle had been arrested for murder. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I couldn't believe
00:28:48
it. You don't want it to be true, and it's terrible. When CC learned the victim was 33-year-old Lorie Leonard, a
00:28:55
single mom of two young boys, she said she was overwhelmed with extreme guilt. That was a breaking point for me. I felt
00:29:03
for her whole entire family and her two young children. CeCe says she was haunted by the choice
00:29:10
she made as a traumatized and scared teenager. And all I can think about is if I could go back, I would have done it
00:29:19
differently. I would have pressed my charges much further. So just weeks later, when
00:29:26
investigators reached out to Cece and asked if she would testify at Doyle's trial, she was determined to help. I
00:29:34
need to make sure that he is put away for for murdering Lorie. At this point now, I'm
00:29:43
angry. I'm not fearful. But Cece was not Doyle's only ex-girlfriend, who investigators hoped
00:29:51
would testify against him. 5 years after Doyle attacked Cece, he allegedly tried
00:29:57
to kill 23-year-old Sarah Walmer. When the investigators came a couple months ago and got me out of my work, 48 Hours
00:30:04
reached out to Walmer and received no response, but she did speak with the CBS affiliate in Albany about the attack in
00:30:12
2005. He had tied me up with shoelaces and um put the duct tape back over my mouth and then just began strangling me
00:30:20
until I passed out and then my mother walked in on it. Doyle was charged with unlawful imprisonment in the second
00:30:26
degree and assault in the third degree. But again, a deal was made. Doyle pleaded guilty only to the charge of
00:30:34
unlawful imprisonment. A judge sentenced him to three years probation. On January 23rd, 2006, Shawn
00:30:43
Doyle's trial began. It was a day that Lorie's sister, Jennifer, had waited for. I was going to be her advocate. I
00:30:51
was going to speak for her. I was going to speak for the boys. When Doyle entered the courtroom, Jennifer says she
00:30:57
was caught off guard because his appearance had changed. What do you look like? Choir boy. He'd grown his hair. He
00:31:05
had a sweater on. Kevin Courtright, now retired, had only been district attorney
00:31:10
for less than a month. He says key to his case was making sure Doyle's other victims, Cece and Sarah, would be
00:31:19
allowed to testify. Often times, judges do not allow a defendant's prior bad acts to be brought into trial. Why were
00:31:27
the women so crucial? It shows what he was capable of. He'd done it almost exactly the same in the past. It's his
00:31:36
modus operandi. It's strong proof. Despite the defense's objections, the judge ruled that CC and Sarah could
00:31:44
testify. But first, DA court presented the jury with all the pieces of physical evidence that pointed to Shawn Doyle,
00:31:53
like the items they found in Doyy's garage and home, the sandbags and handcuffs. And what about that bandana?
00:32:01
He wore a bandana 24 hours a day. He had bandanas in his bedroom. He had bandanas
00:32:06
in his truck. The bandana in Lor's mouth was the one I believe he was wearing that day. And then there was that
00:32:13
toolbox. Courtright called to the stand a clerk from a local AutoZone store who says she sold Doyle the toolbox just one
00:32:21
week before Lorie disappeared. She identified him perfectly. She even identified his shirt he was wearing. And
00:32:28
the most important piece of evidence, that key found in his glove compartment that tied Doyle directly to the box.
00:32:36
That was as strong as evidence as you could get. Retired journalist Don Leman covered the trial for the Postar
00:32:42
newspaper. The key to the toolbox was there was no way around that. Then Courtright called Dorothy Tucker,
00:32:49
Shaun's once close friend, to the stand. He says she was a major witness because
00:32:55
she provided information as to how they believe Doyle transported Lorie's body from Tinango. 3 hours over to Hudson
00:33:04
Falls after he murdered her. He just kept calling me. Dorothy told the jury that the day that Lorie disappeared,
00:33:12
Doyle stopped by her house. In the back of his truck, she says, was a very large
00:33:17
cardboard box. I said, "Sean, what do you got there?" He saw just garbage junk I had at
00:33:25
Lorie's. He said, "Take it to the dump." Da court believes Lorie's body was in the box and that at some point Doyle
00:33:34
transferred her body to the toolbox. Dorothy testified just days after his first visit. Doyle showed up at her
00:33:41
house again and the cardboard box had been replaced by a large tool box. I walk out and I said, "Hey Sean, what do
00:33:51
you need a toolbox for? You don't have any tools to put in it." And he laughed and yeah, yeah, you know. So then he
00:33:58
started saying about a friend he was going to meet him. They were going to go fishing. Dorothy said Doyle told her he
00:34:06
was going to fish by the Champlain Lock Canal area, a place he knew well and frequented often. Doyle had even taken
00:34:14
Cece there many times when they dated. Lori was in the box that day and he was taking her to dump her in the canal
00:34:21
where she was later found. District Attorney Courtright called Cece Openowski as his last witness. He always
00:34:29
put the best for the last. I was very, very nervous. CeCe told the jury about the attack and the longlasting mental
00:34:37
anguish Shawn Doyle caused her. What did you want Shawn Doyle to see? That I wasn't afraid. That you're not my scary
00:34:46
anything anymore. When it was the defense's turn, Lehman says they tried to poke holes in the prosecution's case.
00:34:53
There just was not not a lot of holes to poke. We reached out to Shawn Doyle and
00:34:59
members of Doyle's family, but they declined to be interviewed. After three long days of
00:35:07
testimony, the case went to the jury. Lorie Leonard's family members held their breath. I felt like I hadn't
00:35:15
exhaled in months, and that's what I needed. I needed to exhale. Despite all the evidence against
00:35:32
Shawn Doyle, retired journalist Don Leman says no one knew which way the jury would rule. But there have been
00:35:40
times that we've seen many cases where the jury does things that just kind of defy the evidence. On January 26th,
00:35:48
2006, after just 2 and 1/2 hours of deliberations, the jury came back with a verdict. Guilty of seconddegree murder.
00:35:59
When the guilty verdict was read, Lorie Leonard's family burst into cheers and sobs, but Shawn Doyle showed little
00:36:05
reaction. Guilty. Mhm. What went through your mind when you heard that word? Thank God.
00:36:13
Why does it still affect you? Because bad things happen to good people. I was relieved
00:36:23
and happy that he was going to be punished for what he did. For Cece, it was difficult to process the fact that a
00:36:31
person she once loved was convicted of murder. To me, it almost felt like there wasn't a man left inside of him, but
00:36:38
more like a monster. for your crimes to become worse as you go, to almost perfect
00:36:45
them, to think about them in that serial fashion. One month later, before Doyle was sentenced, a judge listened to
00:36:54
testimony and read over victim impact statements from Lorie's friends and family. Prison isn't even the right
00:37:00
place for someone like him. It's not punishment enough. It's a good picture. That's a good one.
00:37:08
Austin and Zachary. Lorie's sons were too young to attend trial, but both wrote letters to the judge. She let me
00:37:17
sleep with her when I was scared. And when I see something scary and hear something scary, we used to sing songs
00:37:22
we like the most together. I think my mom was the greatest mom in the world. My mom, my brother, and I had
00:37:33
really great times together. I'm also sad because I'll never see my mom anymore now because of what happened.
00:37:51
Shawn Doyle was sentenced to the maximum 25 years to life with the possibility of
00:37:58
parole. Was that enough? I didn't think so. You don't want him getting out? No. Mm-m. There's no forgiveness. No way,
00:38:07
man. No. None. He's a danger to society and I I hope he never gets out. Dorothy Tucker, who initially stood by
00:38:17
Doyle, says she feels betrayed by him. He lied straight to my face. And here is someone that I
00:38:28
trusted, thought I knew, never saw that side of him. Dorothy hopes Lorie's family will
00:38:36
forgive her for how she previously treated them when they came to rally against Doyle in Hudson Falls.
00:38:44
I wanted to tell them how sorry I was, and I still am. That was totally uncalled for, and it was unacceptable
00:38:52
behavior on my part. Don Leman, who has covered many domestic violence cases in his almost 30 years as a reporter, says
00:39:01
there are important lessons that can be learned from Cece and Sarah's attacks and Lorie's murder. Every case of
00:39:07
domestic violence is a potential homicide. They all have to be taken seriously. They all have to be handled
00:39:14
in a way to protect these victims. you know, as a young woman with two young kids. It's just mindboggling that these
00:39:21
kids lost their mom to a guy like this. Cece, who bravely came forward to tell her story, hopes that others can
00:39:34
learn from her. Be vigilant. Look at what's happening in front of you and make sure someone
00:39:46
knows. Don't keep it quiet. Pay attention. And when you have that feeling, that one that doesn't go away,
00:39:54
you know, the one that you try to push down, that's the one you should listen to the
00:40:00
most. She says she is ready to let go of the guilt she has felt for what happened
00:40:06
to Lorie. I've waited so long and I've had to live with it for all of these years.
00:40:17
It's not her fault. It's the system that failed. She did what she had to do. I don't blame her. I feel sad that she's
00:40:26
felt guilt all this time. How do you want your sister to be remembered? Glorianne.
00:40:36
She so fun, so funny, so loving. For Jennifer, she longs for the life she always thought she would have
00:40:46
with Lorie. We were supposed to be living in the same place and going out and raising our kids and
00:40:54
having parties. And that's what it was supposed to be. That's what we were supposed to have. And I'm it. Just me
00:41:01
and the kids trying to get along without her. [Music] What do you miss the most about Lori? In
00:41:20
moments where I'm really sad, where I'm like, I just need her to hold me. And she hasn't been able to do that in 20
00:41:28
years. The search for her killer went cold. Investigators took DNA evidence. They
00:41:44
could not find who it belonged to. Can a clue from the past? I can see a footprint in blood. Solve the crime.
00:41:49
These belong to the killer. The footprints defined the path of this case. 48 hours is all new. CBS next
00:41:56
Saturday 10:9 central and streaming on Paramount Plus.