00:00:11
Oh, pa. Spread the toes. Yes. Try and keep your chest lifted at quarter reach. >> Katherine had a wonderful ballet base.
00:00:23
She would take jazz class. She would take theater, dance class, any kind of dancing just to [music] be a dancer. I
00:00:29
remember being really interested in her right away. She was [music] dancing in one of the
00:00:35
studios. We started talking. The very next day, she called me. I was just like blown away. I'd never really had someone
00:00:42
be that kind of interested in me like that. >> I don't really know what to say. >> She came home on vacation for a few
00:00:49
weeks. I met her in the parking lot, spoke to her, and she just seemed real nice and I was like, "Wow, you know, I
00:00:54
never seen this girl before. You know, she's beautiful." We definitely liked each other. She accepted me for who I
00:01:00
was. >> She became my best friend. I told her everything. >> We were best friends.
00:01:04
>> She wanted to be friends with everybody. She needed people and she needed to be
00:01:08
around someone that she felt cared about her. >> I loved her deeply and I I would do
00:01:14
anything for her. I loved her. I would have did anything for her. [snorts] [music]
00:01:21
>> You have a young girl who comes from Ohio to New York. >> Welcome to 40 seconds for yourself.
00:01:26
a young girl trying to fulfill her dreams, trying to make it in New Big City. >> You have to pay the rent. You have to
00:01:33
work several hours a day, and then you have to dance several hours a day. It's grueling. It's tough. And not
00:01:40
everybody's going to make it. >> Things with her apartment and money and everything was really tight. [music]
00:01:46
>> Not a lot of people knew what she did to pay her rent. >> You get concerned for someone who feels
00:01:51
the need to do that. You could work one or two [music] days a week, make as much
00:01:55
as a person would make a normal week at a full job. >> She would hide some things from [music]
00:02:00
me because she would know that I wouldn't approve of them. She wouldn't want me to be ashamed of her.
00:02:06
>> She said [music] she was living with someone, an ex-boyfriend. She tried to kick him out several times.
00:02:11
>> I had moved out for a few weeks kind of to give us both space to clear our heads
00:02:15
and we both came to the conclusion that we could still live together. Their relationship was [music] strictly
00:02:21
platonic. They were friends. >> As far as I knew, you know, they were friends. >> We loved each other. We always were
00:02:28
thinking about each other. >> The day I met him, he actually had said that he had been seeing Catherine since
00:02:32
[music] August of the year before. >> I know from the conversation that I had with him, that it was the first time he
00:02:39
found out that we were intimate. >> I heard him out, but I told her and she denied it.
00:02:44
>> He called me up and he was like, "You better not see her anymore." remember a
00:02:48
few incidents where she was a little worried. I told Catherine to get a restraining order.
00:02:52
>> The news watch never [music] stops. An aspiring Broadway dancer found stabbed
00:02:57
to death. >> With 16 years as a police officer, never in my life have I ever seen anything so
00:03:01
[music] violent. My name is Detective Steven Gats and I was the lead investigator on the
00:03:09
Katherine Wood homicide. >> She was just such a beautiful person and I think that's why I fell in love with
00:03:16
her. I felt like she was my angel. >> David and Paul were our two main suspects.
00:03:28
>> Death of a dream. Every 7 [music] 8 9 10year-old that goes and sees a Broadway show, all they can
00:04:08
think about is, "Oh, I'm going to be up there someday." Some children never lose that fantasy.
00:04:15
>> Katherine Woods was one of them. >> It was her dream. It's what she wanted to do. She wasn't going to be happy
00:04:22
until she reached her goal, which was to dance on Broadway. She just looked like
00:04:28
a dancer, looked like a star. >> Katie Miller and Catherine met as children in a Columbus, Ohio dance
00:04:35
studio. With her big [music] smile and personality, Catherine was the image of the all-American Midwestern girl.
00:04:43
>> You can't take your eyes off her. And it comes through in her dancing and in her
00:04:48
personality. Were other girls that she would dance with a little jealous. >> I would say I was. Sometimes it'd be
00:04:54
like, well, wait a minute. I'm here, too. Catherine's father, John Woods, the well-known director of the Ohio State
00:05:04
University marching band and a music professor, had hoped his oldest child would follow him into music.
00:05:11
>> I would think in the Woods family, don't you have to play an instrument? >> Well, we like to see that. [laughter]
00:05:18
>> But Catherine made it clear all she wanted to do was dance. >> For some people, dancing is like
00:05:24
breathing. I mean, why would I do anything else? I want to I need to dance. >> She told me that if she didn't leave
00:05:32
now, she never would. She had these taken. >> In the summer [music] of 2002, when
00:05:38
Catherine was just 17, her father and mother, Donna, drove her to New York. They were filled with hope and anxiety.
00:05:47
>> She had never lived away from home. I mean, this was a true coming of age, going to the biggest city in the United
00:05:56
States and going to start putting a career together >> once you get upstairs. >> For the next 3 years, Catherine seemed
00:06:05
to thrive in New York, taking dance, voice, and acting lessons. And on a visit back home, Catherine found love.
00:06:14
>> Met her at a pool hall. David Han, then a 20-year-old rap musician, was selling
00:06:20
his CDs in a parking lot when he met Catherine. You started off as friends. >> Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:26
>> Did you ever think you'd end up dating her? >> I wasn't sure. I I I felt chemistry. We
00:06:31
definitely had liked each other. >> Weeks later, David moved to New York to be with her and pursue his career.
00:06:38
>> I think we fed off each other. I know I really fed off her. In many ways, they
00:06:44
were an unlikely couple. Catherine grew up in middlecl class comfort with her parents and two younger siblings. David
00:06:52
was raised in foster homes. Being with Catherine made you feel that you had a family again.
00:06:58
>> Yeah, she made me feel confident about myself. I looked up to her so much almost in a way as a parent.
00:07:06
>> How serious were you and Catherine? >> We're real serious. married as far as I'd say we thought about it.
00:07:12
>> But sometime in 2005, the relationship became strained. Catherine was paying David's bills and the money [music] was
00:07:20
tight. Finally, she broke it off with David. Although she allowed him to remain living in the apartment,
00:07:28
>> she told me she wanted him to move out, but she didn't want to kick him out cuz
00:07:33
she would feel bad. >> We still got along. We were still friends. We were best friends. When you
00:07:38
first started dating Catherine, did you know she was living with David? >> Um, no, not at first.
00:07:44
>> Catherine was 20 years old when she met 24year-old Paul Cortez, [music] a trainer at her gym.
00:07:52
>> By early 2005, Paul says they were dating. >> Do you think David knew you existed?
00:07:58
>> I I don't think so. I think, you know, in that situation when one is just breaking up with someone else and, you
00:08:07
know, and you're seeing someone new, I I don't think I I wouldn't think Catherine
00:08:12
would tell him about me. >> That summer, Paul unexpectedly [music] showed up at the apartment while David
00:08:20
was there and told David that he had been dating Catherine for almost a year. How did he react?
00:08:28
>> He was upset. He was surprised, >> but Paul got a surprise as well. >> Did you realize that David still thought
00:08:36
they were boyfriend girlfriend? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's what he told me. And I was like, "Okay, well that's not
00:08:42
good." >> Later, David called Paul. >> How would you describe the tone of that call?
00:08:47
>> Oh, he was definitely angry. He was upset. >> Did he threaten you at any point?
00:08:51
>> Yeah, he was like, "Don't see her again or else." >> And what was that or else?
00:08:55
>> I don't know. I don't know what the or else was. [music] For the next four months, Catherine
00:09:00
continued to live with David [music] and secretly date Paul. But according to Katie, Catherine was still searching for
00:09:08
true love. She'd say, "Why do I always get these guys? Why can't I find Mr. Wright who rides up on a on a horse and
00:09:17
comes and picks me up and we go riding off into sunset?" One week after Katie last spoke with Catherine,
00:09:27
Catherine was dead. [music] On the night of November 27th, 2005, Katherine Woods was getting ready to go
00:09:43
to work when David Han says he left their apartment to pick up his car. >> How long were you gone?
00:09:49
>> 20, 30 minutes. When he returned, David says he [music] made a chilling discovery. It
00:09:58
>> was a bad scene. There's blood everywhere. So, it was bad. My first instinct is to call 911.
00:10:08
>> Baby girl. Captain. Captain. Baby girl. Oh my goodness. I don't know what happened.
00:10:12
>> Is she there? >> Yeah. There's blood everywhere. I don't even know if she's alive. I'm scared to
00:10:16
look at her. Catherine was on the bedroom floor face down in blood. I didn't know if it was an accident or
00:10:33
what it was. I really didn't know. I just was really in shock. >> Catherine had been stabbed [music] 20
00:10:41
times, her throat cut twice. >> It was a brutal scene. The manner in which she was killed was absolutely
00:10:49
horrible. [music] >> Did you find any weapon? >> No. >> New York City police detective Steven
00:10:56
Gets led the investigation. >> To be honest with you, the first thing that I remember thinking to myself was,
00:11:01
"This girl is dead on her floor in her bedroom and she has a family out there and they don't even know that she's
00:11:08
dead." Catherine's mom and dad were 500 miles away at home in Columbus when three
00:11:18
police officers arrived. >> I [music] said, "How bad is it?" And he said, "It's bad." And I said, "Is she
00:11:25
dead?" And he said, "Yes." >> Once I heard [music] she was dead, I was in shock and have trouble remembering
00:11:32
some of that conversation. W's News Time 5:43. An aspiring Broadway dancer found stabbed to death, nearly
00:11:43
decapitated in her Upper East Side apartment last night. And police are interviewing the boyfriend who called
00:11:47
them to say he found her. >> At the precinct, police began grilling David Han. >> I really just couldn't believe it was
00:11:56
happening. I kept asking God in my head, you know, why is this happening? Detective Get says the killer left what
00:12:02
appeared to be a bloody handprint on a bedroom wall and several bloody bootprints in the apartment, including
00:12:09
one left on Catherine's back. >> What size of shoe left those prints? >> I believe it was estimated at a 10 and a
00:12:19
half. >> And what size of shoe does David H wear? >> 10 and a half. >> Did the police [music] at first accuse
00:12:26
you? I mean, did they say, "Come on, David." >> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> And what did you say to them?
00:12:32
>> I told them, "No, you have the wrong person. You have the wrong person. I would never never hit that girl.
00:12:39
Not at all. I loved her. I would have did anything for her." >> As the interrogation wore on, David
00:12:48
showed little emotion or grief. >> I couldn't even cry. Even afterwards, the detectives were asking me, "If you
00:12:54
love this girl so much, why are you not crying?" Look at him. I don't know. I really don't know.
00:13:02
>> Now to a murder investigation on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A 21-year-old woman found dead in her
00:13:07
apartment on East 86 Street. >> The brutal end to a beautiful young woman's life and dreams was the lead
00:13:13
story that morning. Iette Cortez heard it on the radio as she was getting ready for work. and they mention a dancer,
00:13:22
Katherine Woods. >> When Avette saw Catherine's picture in the paper, she recognized her instantly.
00:13:28
Her face was there. I bet [music] is Paul Cortez's mother. She knew her son had been seeing
00:13:45
Katherine Woods, which is why the rest of the story [music] sent her into a panic.
00:13:51
>> Wood's boyfriend is still here inside the 19th precinct station house where he's being questioned by police.
00:13:57
>> They just kept on mentioning the boyfriend being held and I didn't know what that meant.
00:14:02
>> Well, you didn't know whether they were referring to Paul >> exactly, but I tracked him down. He was
00:14:07
at work. He didn't even realize what was happening. Evette went to the health club where Paul was working to break the
00:14:13
news to him. >> She told me that um that Catherine was uh killed the night before.
00:14:23
Just like my I just buckled. I I I remember just kind of sitting on this stoop right almost outside of the club
00:14:31
and and um I just couldn't believe it. I was just in complete shock. Later that day, the police called Paul
00:14:41
and brought him in for questioning. [music] How would you describe Paul Cortez? >> Quiet. He came to the precinct with his
00:14:49
mother. He seemed like a very nice person. >> As police were questioning Paul Cortez
00:14:57
in one room of the precinct and David Han in another, they were learning something else about Catherine's life
00:15:03
that could have a bearing on her death. In the months before Katherine was murdered, she was working as a dancer in
00:15:10
a topless club. For the tabloid press, [music] it was suddenly a sensational story. For
00:15:19
investigators, [music] it opened up a whole other line of possible motives and suspects.
00:15:25
>> Probably the sweetest girl that's ever walked in here or the most innocent. Yeah, definitely. I think
00:15:32
>> Chloe hired and managed the dancers at a club called Privilege. >> I looked at her and I'm like, "What is
00:15:38
this girl doing here?" Because she looks like the girl next door. She needed to have money to live on.
00:15:47
>> Catherine, who worked under the name Ava, danced nights so she could audition
00:15:52
and attend classes during the day. She hid that part of her life from her parents.
00:15:57
>> Would you tell your parents if you were doing that? I mean, I certainly wouldn't
00:16:01
tell my parents, >> but Catherine did confide in friends from home like Katie Miller.
00:16:07
>> I just was like, you know, this isn't you. This isn't what she's like, I know.
00:16:11
I know. >> Was Catherine having trouble with one of the customers? If so, she never
00:16:19
mentioned it to anyone. Katie spoke with Catherine the week before she died. >> And did she seem worried about anything?
00:16:27
Not at all. Um, afraid of anyone? >> No. >> Six hours after Paul Cortez and his mother, Evette, arrived at the police
00:16:36
precinct, they were allowed to leave. >> They just let the two of you go. >> Mhm.
00:16:42
>> And did you think it was over then? >> Absolutely. >> It wasn't though. >> Nope.
00:16:51
>> Police discovered that Paul, like David, wears a 10 and a half size shoe. And
00:16:57
there's more. A serious [music] problem with a written statement Paul gave to police detailing what he did the day of
00:17:05
Catherine's murder. Where did Paul say he was at the time Catherine was murdered?
00:17:11
>> He said he was home in his apartment. >> According to Detective Gats, Paul told
00:17:16
police he was making calls at his apartment a mile and a half away from Catherine's. But when police set out to
00:17:22
verify his story, Paul's cell phone [music] records indicated something else. Paul called Catherine a dozen
00:17:29
times shortly before 6:00 [music] p.m. the evening she was killed. If he had been home, his calls would normally go
00:17:36
through a cell tower in his neighborhood. Instead, some of those calls were handled by a tower just two
00:17:44
blocks from Catherine's apartment. Did at any time Paul say to any officer that he was in [music] Katherine's
00:17:51
neighborhood when she was murdered? >> No. >> Paul always had goals and that ambition [music] to
00:18:09
strive for them. >> IC Cortez always believed her son Paul was going places. He's just does so much
00:18:16
with his life and [music] to live vicariously through all his accomplishments. >> Evette was a single mom when she was
00:18:23
raising her three children in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx. >> That's my poy.
00:18:29
>> Paul, her youngest, earned scholarships at some of New York's most prestigious
00:18:34
prep schools. >> I don't mean to ask a personal question, but could you have really afforded to
00:18:39
send him to these private schools on your own? >> Of course not. He actually had to win
00:18:43
those [music] spots. >> Absolutely. He worked really hard for everything that he has.
00:18:49
>> But it meant Paul had to rise before dawn each day for the 2-hour ride to school.
00:18:55
>> This tiny [music] little thing carrying a book bag that was probably twice his
00:18:59
weight in his little suit. >> He didn't just thrive academically. Paul also stood out on the stage,
00:19:08
starring in high school productions of Pippen. [music] and Westside Story. >> He has done such amazing pieces [music]
00:19:20
that it blows me away. >> Paul got a scholarship at Boston University where he majored in theater,
00:19:30
the first in his family to get a college [music] degree. He sounds like in some ways he was really kind of the future of
00:19:37
your family, the hope of your family. >> Absolutely. We always saw him that way.
00:19:43
>> At 24, Paul replaced show tunes with rock. >> He was the lead singer and lyricist for
00:19:52
a New York band, Monolith. [music] >> He's got a great voice. He's a fantastic singer
00:20:03
>> and he had lots of ideas. [music] Paul also had a day job. He worked as a trainer in the gym where he met
00:20:13
Katherine Woods. >> She was playful. That's what I liked about her. She's really like open
00:20:22
and you could see like a compassion in her eyes and I love that about her. >> Within a couple of months, Paul and
00:20:28
Catherine were dating. >> We would just talk to each other [music] all night for like hours on end. Just
00:20:34
about everything. aspirations, [music] you know, our our dreams, our, you know, how much we cared about each other. And
00:20:43
>> but when Paul learned [music] Catherine was dancing on the side in topless clubs, he insisted that she stop when
00:20:50
you told her you didn't want her dancing in these clubs, how did she react? >> Well, basically like, uh, you know, I
00:20:57
know what you're saying, but it really isn't any of your business, and I I'm going to be careful, and nothing's going
00:21:01
to happen [music] to me. But in April 2005, something did happen while Catherine was working at Privilege.
00:21:09
>> In the middle of the night, Catherine called me and she was crying and she was
00:21:16
like, "Please come, please come here." >> Paul went to the club to get her. >> I had never seen her like that, just
00:21:25
stumbling. And her eyes were just like pins. She She looked like she was on drugs or really drunk.
00:21:35
>> Catherine believed [music] a customer slipped drugs into her drink and that she might have been molested.
00:21:43
>> I told her, "I can't [music] have anything like that ever happen again." >> When she told him she planned to go back
00:21:49
to work, Paul went through her cell phone and found her father's telephone number.
00:21:54
>> It was in the morning, wasn't it? >> It may have been in the morning. Paul called Catherine's father and told him
00:22:00
where Catherine had been working and what had happened that night. >> Did you tell her you were going to call
00:22:05
her dad? >> No. >> When he told me as a father, I thought, "Wow, you know, thank you for this
00:22:09
information." And >> John took the next flight to New York to confront his daughter. But Catherine
00:22:15
told her father the story wasn't true. >> How did Catherine react to the fact you
00:22:21
called her parents? >> Oh my gosh, she was so mad. She was really mad. >> They broke up. Paul says, but not for
00:22:29
long. >> We realized that we loved each other. We always were thinking about each other
00:22:33
and and we got back together. >> But just how serious a relationship it was is in dispute.
00:22:42
>> Playing the best music on earth, monolith. >> Catherine did go to one of Paul's
00:22:46
performances that summer and he introduced her to his mom. >> He he did mention that he loved her.
00:22:55
Yet, apparently, Catherine never told her friends or family that she was even dating Paul.
00:23:00
>> If the two of you were in love with each other, why didn't she tell any of her
00:23:04
friends she was dating you? >> I don't know. I I thought she did. >> As for Catherine's other boyfriend,
00:23:13
David Han, P believed he was out of the picture. >> I had moved out for a few weeks. I went
00:23:18
to her friends. I met >> But in fact, David moved back in with Catherine not long before she was
00:23:23
killed. >> You didn't know that he had actually moved back in with her? >> No, I didn't.
00:23:27
>> She never told you. >> I believe that he loved her, but I do believe that there was [music] a certain
00:23:36
obsession there. Lead detective Steven Gets says Paul's obsession and jealousy is [music] plain to see in the journals
00:23:44
he wrote. And so is something else. The writings were very violent. Spoke about slashing people's throats.
00:23:55
>> Police point to some of the songs and poems Paul wrote as proof that he had a
00:23:59
deep-seated anger towards women [music] and Catherine in particular. At one point, Paul, you wrote, "She wipes clean
00:24:06
the shaft that cuts her throat and then Catherine's throat is cut. That's how she dies." It's a poem. I
00:24:14
mean, >> Paul says he wrote that poem 8 months before Catherine's murder after she told
00:24:19
him she had once been sexually assaulted at knife point. I >> mean, to say I was plowing this thing 8
00:24:25
months before, it's ridiculous. I didn't know what was going to happen to her that night.
00:24:33
You can take anything out of context and [music] make it sound the way you want it to fit and tailor it to your needs.
00:24:43
>> But the meaning of Paul's writings wouldn't have mattered at all if Paul could prove where he was when Catherine
00:24:49
was murdered. On the night that Catherine was killed, did you go to her apartment?
00:24:54
>> No. >> You love this woman. She had lied to you over those months. Did you in fact that night just snap and
00:25:04
kill her? >> No, I would never do that. >> Paul could have had [music] an alibi.
00:25:11
>> We had rehearsal scheduled for 6:00 p.m. that Sunday night and uh Paul didn't
00:25:17
show up. >> Alex RDE was one of Paul's bandmates in Monolith. >> Was that normal? Did he?
00:25:24
>> No, he usually showed up. >> So that night he just didn't show up at all. >> No. Alex says Paul's performances have
00:25:31
been getting erratic and he had planned to ask Paul to leave the band that night.
00:25:37
So, where was Paul? >> I called him around 8:00 and I asked him why he wasn't there and
00:25:43
he said that he had overslept. >> One of the few times you'd ever miss a practice happens to be at the time that
00:25:49
Katherine is killed. >> I didn't go to rehearsal because they were going to tell me, "You're [music]
00:25:54
not part of the band anymore." And I didn't want to have that whole conversation that night.
00:25:59
>> Are you troubled though by the fact he didn't [music] come to your rehearsal at
00:26:04
6:00 p.m. that very night? >> If he had come, then there would be no problem. [music] We would all vouch for
00:26:09
him. There would been no problem at all. It's like, no, he was with us. It's impossible.
00:26:13
>> He would have been 100 blocks away. We're convinced she knew this person and that this person knew her.
00:26:48
The two men who knew Kathern Woods best are both suspects. [music] But as days passed, Detective Steven
00:26:56
gets focused less on David Han and more on Paul Cortez. >> My feeling is if Paul Cortez had nothing
00:27:03
to do with this, then he had no reason to lie. >> Police say Paul hid from them the fact
00:27:10
that he was in Catherine's neighborhood at the time of the murder, leaving it out of his written statement.
00:27:17
in here. You never mentioned that you were right down in her neighborhood, just blocks from her house. Why not? I
00:27:23
>> I just remember that point just being a haze. Just I I was still in shock. I just found out that someone that I love
00:27:32
dearly was killed, that [music] I was a suspect for it as well. And I didn't know what to do or what what to think or
00:27:40
what to really put in. >> And then police got a big break. In the midst of this bloody crime scene,
00:27:49
they say they were able to isolate one single fingerprint. >> We were able to match that fingerprint
00:27:55
to Paul Cortez's fingerprint. >> Paul Cortez has been indicted [music] now on murder charges.
00:28:02
>> Paul Cortez was arrested and held [music] without bail. >> That person had nothing to do with the
00:28:08
Paul Cortez I know. >> Margarite Shannona had met Paul just a few months earlier on a yoga retreat. He
00:28:15
had been at my house a couple of weeks before Catherine was killed. And he was flirty. He was fun. He was warm.
00:28:23
>> She is so sure of Paul's innocence. She used her own money and borrowed thousands more to help pay for his
00:28:29
defense. >> Don't some of your friends say, "Margarite, why would you put yourself
00:28:34
out on the limb so much for this guy?" >> Yeah, some of my friends do say that. So, uh, they seem to fall into two
00:28:40
camps. The one camp thinks I'm crazy and the other camp thinks I'm a saint. Over
00:28:44
the next year, Margarite created a website to build support for Paul Cortez. >> Let's just go through like the DD5s
00:28:52
>> and helped hire lawyers. How confident are the two of you in this case that you'll be able to get Paul Cortez
00:28:59
acquitted? >> I'm confident. >> We believe we have somebody who's innocent. >> Defense attorneys Don Florio and Laura
00:29:05
Miranda. >> He has a very gentle, caring soul about him. I can't even imagine that somebody
00:29:11
like this could have committed um such a vicious crime. >> We really need to focus, you know,
00:29:17
because of her profession, she was exposed to so many people who could have done her harm.
00:29:22
>> They say there could be any number of other suspects that a customer from one of the topless
00:29:28
clubs could have killed Catherine. >> Catherine, baby girl. Catherine, baby girl. I'm scared to look at her.
00:29:35
>> They also believe police were too quick to clear David Han. David is the one who gave up his life.
00:29:42
He came from Ohio to live with this woman. Catherine [music] was kicking David out of the apartment. So, if
00:29:48
anyone had a motive, I'd say it was more David than Paul. Her reasoning, a neighbor testified
00:29:56
hearing [music] screams coming from Catherine's apartment about 20 minutes before David said he left the apartment.
00:30:03
But police investigated David's movements that night, and they believe he was out of the apartment for a much
00:30:10
longer time and couldn't have been there at the time of the murder. John Woods was the first person to take
00:30:22
the stand in his daughter, Catherine's murder trial. >> 14 months after Catherine's death, Paul
00:30:28
Cortez goes on trial for murder. The people's case is designed not to prove that Paul Cortez is the kind of person
00:30:35
who would have done this, but that in fact he was the person who did this. >> Manhattan Assistant District Attorney
00:30:42
Peter Castillo paints Paul Cortez as an obsessed boyfriend who didn't want to share Catherine with anyone else.
00:30:50
>> Failure in love often leads to anger and murder, and that's that's precisely what
00:30:56
happened here, ladies and gentlemen. Castillo says that after months of Catherine seeing other men, Paul was
00:31:03
like a volcano ready to erupt. And on that night, Paul waited outside the apartment,
00:31:11
watched David leave, and then slipped in to kill Catherine. >> It's the defendant's persistent use of
00:31:22
his cell phone that puts him in hot water. here. >> Castillo introduces the phone records
00:31:28
that prove Paul was in Catherine's neighborhood, calling her numerous times right before she was killed. And then
00:31:36
the phone calls stop. >> He never ever ever calls Katherine Woods again. Is that a
00:31:44
coincidence? Is that why he stops calling her? Or is it because he already knows she's
00:31:53
dead and there's nobody to answer the phone? >> How do you explain that? >> And there's nothing to explain. I I
00:32:02
called her many times and I left messages and >> that was before 6:00. >> Yeah. And I figured after I left the
00:32:10
last message of, "Hey, call me when you get out of work." I figured that was it.
00:32:14
>> Did Paul have any injuries after? >> None at all. >> None. Was there any DNA of Paul's found
00:32:20
underneath Katherine's fingernails? >> Absolutely none. >> No DNA found in the apartment
00:32:25
whatsoever. >> There is little physical evidence that connects [music] Paul to the murder, but
00:32:31
what does exist is incriminating. >> His fingerprint is in her blood put there at the time of the murder, and
00:32:37
there is no innocent explanation for that. >> But the defense attorneys say there is
00:32:43
other evidence that points to someone other than Paul. And look at his hair. Take down your hair.
00:32:49
>> Unidentified strands of hair found in Catherine's hand that didn't belong to Paul and were never tested by police.
00:32:57
>> Catherine had hair in her hand. And there were hairs that were never tested for DNA.
00:33:05
>> The last piece of really critical evidence are the footprints. The footprints are undoubtedly left by the
00:33:10
killer. Those bloody footprints in Catherine's apartment, say the prosecutor, were left by a man wearing
00:33:17
Sketcher boots, size 10 and a half. Do you own any Sketcher boots? >> No. >> And police never found any,
00:33:26
but they did find a surprise witness. His name is Spencer Liberowitz. He knew Paul from the gym. Spencer testified
00:33:35
that he saw Paul at this bar the night Catherine was murdered and that Paul was wearing Sketcher boots.
00:33:43
>> Why would Spence say that? >> I don't know. I don't know why he would say that. Honestly, I don't.
00:33:49
>> Surprising testimony because a year earlier Spencer told 48 Hours that he had no memory of what Paul was wearing.
00:33:58
>> Did you get a close look at Paul? >> No. >> How was he dressed? Do you remember?
00:34:04
>> No. >> Paul claims that he was wearing these Johnston and Murphy shoes. >> You're sure that that afternoon you were
00:34:12
wearing these Johnston and Murphy shoes? Shoes, not boots of any kind? >> And Paul's attorneys say they have video
00:34:21
that will prove it. This surveillance tape from a store that shows what Paul was wearing just [music] hours before
00:34:28
the murder. As the trial comes to an end, it's the evidence that the defense hopes will
00:34:36
convince the jurors that Paul Cortez is innocent of murder. Paul [music] Cortez stabbed Catherine 20
00:34:58
times. He slit her throat and then stabbed her larynx. [music] There is no doubt in my mind that he's a
00:35:07
monster. >> John and Donna Woods don't need to wait for the verdict. They are already
00:35:15
convinced Paul Cortez killed their daughter. >> Did you in fact kill Catherine Woods?
00:35:20
>> No, I didn't. >> But what will the jury think? I worry about everything that might give the
00:35:27
jurors [music] reason to doubt. >> For Paul's family, there's nothing but doubt. [music]
00:35:32
>> How can you have a crime scene with hair samples and not follow up on that? That
00:35:35
doesn't make sense to me. >> How could you brutally murder someone like that and walk away clean?
00:35:41
>> What do you think the verdict's going to be? [music] >> Not guilty. >> Not guilty.
00:35:44
>> Not guilty. >> Paul's lawyers are feeling confident, too. >> We think that there is no way that this
00:35:50
jury will be able to convict him. As one day of deliberations rolls into two, >> there could be a hung jewelry.
00:36:01
>> The pressure on everyone intensifies. >> I was very nervous. I couldn't concentrate.
00:36:06
>> I didn't really eat. I didn't really sleep. >> Anything and everything is a possibility
00:36:11
when it comes to the jurors. >> He's this creative person. He worked very hard with his life. He had no
00:36:17
history of violence. He had a loving family. >> [music] >> Behind closed doors, jurors were
00:36:22
fighting it out. >> I really thought he was innocent. >> Guilty. Especially with the fingerprint.
00:36:27
>> At the beginning, the majority believed Paul Cortez was guilty. >> It was seven guilty, five innocent.
00:36:34
>> Four jurors sat down with us. They asked not to be identified by name, but they
00:36:39
were willing to give us a rare look back at the drama that was unfolding inside the jury room.
00:36:45
>> The first time in my life I've ever cried in public. I think >> three of the women thought the cops may
00:36:50
have gotten the wrong guy. For them, David Han, Catherine's other boyfriend, was a much better suspect. [music]
00:36:57
>> At first, I thought he was guilty. >> Actually, I thought he could have done it. I thought he was more likely the
00:37:03
type of personnel to do it rather than the defendant. >> Still, almost everyone on the jury was
00:37:08
concerned that Paul gave police the impression he was at home the night Catherine was murdered. He was, in fact,
00:37:15
just blocks away. That was so gripping for me. [music] You know, everybody looked at that.
00:37:23
>> Yeah, he lied on there. Clearly, >> they were even more bothered by the fact that Paul had no alibi for the time
00:37:29
Catherine was killed and never tried calling her after that. >> If you're that worried about her, you
00:37:35
would call, but he didn't call. >> As the hours wore on, two jurors stubbornly refused to convict. If they
00:37:45
didn't change their minds, there was going to be a hung jury and Paul Cortez could go free. And then they decided to
00:37:53
look at one more piece of evidence. This video, the video that Paul's defense put
00:37:59
into evidence at the end of the trial. It's the surveillance tape from the appliance store PC Richards, where Paul
00:38:07
Cortez had gone shopping just hours before the murder. >> I watched that clip by clip by clip.
00:38:13
Paul's attorneys say the video proves Paul was wearing these shoes that day, not these boots, which are similar to
00:38:21
what the killer wore. >> To me, it looked like the Johnston Murphy shoes. That's why I put it in.
00:38:27
>> But what did the jurors see? >> It was very clearly boots. The boots. It was boots there.
00:38:33
>> Right there. That's boots. >> Look at the back leg. Look how thick that sole is right there. Yeah.
00:38:39
>> The bulk of the shoe on top. That's the first thing I noticed. >> Boots usually have a bigger front. This
00:38:48
clearly had a bigger front. >> For the holdouts, it was the tipping point. This grainy, blurred video made
00:38:55
everything crystal clear. They believed Paul was wearing the Sketcher boots. >> That really [music] convinced me.
00:39:02
>> I couldn't hold on to my position any longer. And if I hadn't changed, it would have been a hung jury. The [music]
00:39:10
defense really gave us something against him. >> In a bitter irony, the evidence that
00:39:16
sealed Paul Cortez's fate came from his own defense lawyers. Either they are dumb or they are very careless.
00:39:24
>> They were the ones to help him hang. >> This just in to the WCBS newsroom. >> It was [music] a guilty verdict.
00:39:32
>> Guilty for Paul Cortez. After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury finds
00:39:38
Paul Cortez guilty of seconddegree murder. >> You're heart drops to your stomach and
00:39:44
then you just it just kind of obliterates you. >> What did you think the jury was going to
00:39:56
do? >> I thought at least they they would not be able to decide. What if I told you
00:40:03
that two individuals >> who were on the fence who might have hung the jury changed their mind
00:40:12
>> based on that videotape. >> It would be the mistake of our lives and it's terrible. You know, I'd feel
00:40:17
responsible for him being convicted. >> The verdict changes [music] nothing for Paul's mother, Evette.
00:40:28
>> Paul will always be my baby. I'll always be there for him and his oldest family.
00:40:37
>> But for Catherine's parents, John and Donna, the verdict comes as a relief. Although it is no consolation. There's
00:40:44
no happy ending to this. It isn't like [music] anybody really wins. We've lost a daughter and the Cortez
00:40:52
family will have lost a son. >> But loss is no longer what John and Donna Woods want to focus on. They want
00:41:05
to remember how much their daughter Catherine lived in her very short life. >> She was 20 years [music] old,
00:41:14
independent and strong and going after her dream. >> [music] >> With a little luck, she might have made
00:41:25
it. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Acme is a very small community. Everybody knows each other.
00:42:35
>> Have a good day. See you. Take care. They go to the local diner. They have their breakfast, lunch, or
00:42:47
dinner. We're doing okay. >> And they shop at the general store. You have that feeling of safety.
00:42:56
Keep your doors unlocked. On November 24th, 1989, Mandy Stavic went out running with her dog.
00:43:15
The dog had returned, but she [music] hadn't. And when she didn't come back, I panicked. [music]
00:43:26
There was a massive hunt for her. Everybody was out [music] looking. >> It was 3 days later when we found her.
00:43:40
>> This is [music] the South Fork of the Noosack River. She was just floating lightly.
00:43:47
The only thing I could see were her tennis shoes and socks. When I rolled her over, it was kind of a a real shock
00:43:53
to me because she looked like my daughter. And people would say to me, "Oh, you're
00:44:01
so strong." Oh, yeah. Right. [music] You can't be strong through something like that. It just rips you to pieces.
00:44:16
Oh, we were in shock. [music] People were crying. They were um Whoa. There was a killer [music] out there
00:44:30
somewhere. The question is, was this [music] person going to strike again? Yeah. So much
00:44:36
unknown. For 25 years, we had no viable suspects in this case. You've got to keep working,
00:44:49
keep persisting, [music] keep going. Mandy's dead, but this case was not going to die. [music] No,
00:44:58
>> I absolutely did not think it would ever get solved. [music] >> Amazingly enough, it was two women
00:45:12
talking in a water park. They gave us the break in this case. >> One of the moms brought her name up. I
00:45:21
just kind of turned to Maril Lee and said, "Well, I am sure I know who killed her." And turned to her and I said, "Oh,
00:45:30
I do too. [music] >> [music] [music] >> So, take me back. It's November 27th, [music]
00:46:23
1989. Where are we right now? >> We're upstream from where I recovered her. >> This a solemn place for you, isn't it?
00:46:32
>> It is. It really does. Back then, Detective Ron Peterson led the search team [music] for Mandy Stavic, moving up
00:46:39
river in his Zodiac boat. >> We came around the corner and we got out of the main river and into the little
00:46:45
side channel and I could see pink, something pink. >> It was Mandy [music] wearing only her running shoes.
00:46:52
>> When you lifted her out of the water as a father, did you say anything to her?
00:47:03
You're the first person that asked that. I said, "I got you." Peterson and so many others in the small
00:47:16
community of Acme, Washington are still emotional even 30 years later. What was lost for you in this [music] community
00:47:26
with the death of Mandy Stavic? >> A sense of innocence, I think, more than anything.
00:47:32
>> Jim Freeman was Mandy's high [music] school basketball coach and gave the eulogy at her memorial service, [music]
00:47:39
attended by nearly a thousand people. >> You see her smiling back at you right at
00:47:46
your soul with eyes that say, "I love life." He had mentored her off the court as
00:47:53
well, becoming a father figure after Mandy's parents divorced. Mandy expressed her admiration for him [music]
00:48:00
in this card. >> For Mr. Freeman, the one person who has inspired and influenced me more than
00:48:09
anyone. Thank you. You're the greatest. Most sincerely, Mandy Stavic, class of 89,
00:48:17
number 13. Basketball player, cheerleader, top student, once [music] an aspiring
00:48:26
airline pilot, Mandy Stavic truly stood out, says her mother, Mary. >> She wanted to do everything.
00:48:37
She wanted to be very good to the best at everything she did. And she was >> Mandy's older sister, Molly Brighton.
00:48:51
>> Mandy, she was larger than life. >> She accomplished a lot in the short time that she was here.
00:49:01
>> All that promise [music] came to an abrupt end in 1989 when the college freshman came home [music] from Central
00:49:08
Washington University for Thanksgiving. The day after the big holiday meal at her house,
00:49:16
Mandy set out on the last jog of her life with her German Shepherd, Kyra. How many times you driven this road?
00:49:28
>> Oh jeez. Probably probably close to hundred over the over the 30 years of working on the case.
00:49:35
>> [music] >> Detective Kevin Bowie, who was just a rookie deputy back then, has pieced
00:49:40
together Mandy's route from the few people who briefly saw her that day. >> She always started from the house here
00:49:50
and then ran down westbound toward the west side of the Strand Road. >> The last [music] person to see Mandy
00:49:58
alive was a man in a pickup truck who pulled up right here. Mandy ran right in front of him, heading in that direction
00:50:07
to go around the bend to her home about an eighth of a mile from here. >> I would say to [music] that wooded area
00:50:15
ahead of us is where I believe [music] she was abducted. >> Bowie says her asalent had to be in a
00:50:24
vehicle. Mandy was too fast a runner [music] to catch on foot. How do you think she was abducted?
00:50:32
>> By weapon. That's what they used to gain to control her. I believe it was a gun.
00:50:36
>> And what? Points the gun at her and says, "Get in." >> Yeah. Points a gun at her. Get in. That
00:50:40
point she's compliant. >> Investigators believe the attacker had kicked the dog into a ditch before
00:50:47
abducting Mandy. He then sexually assaulted her about 3 and 1/2 miles away from where she was jogging. Afterward,
00:50:56
she tried to flee, a scenario suggested by the scratches on her arms and legs. >> I immediately went, "Oh my god, she was
00:51:04
running away, running through the blackberries." >> Blackberry bushes got thorns on them.
00:51:09
>> Big thorns. >> And that's what I thought. She was running away from whoever had her.
00:51:14
>> I believe whoever was chasing her caught her and hit her in the head, knocking
00:51:19
her out and then placed her in the river to make sure she drowned. It occurred to Ron Peterson that Mandy's
00:51:25
body may hold other important evidence. He had just recently been trained by the
00:51:31
FBI on recovering DNA. And based on the position that she was in the water, he knew he had to get her out to preserve
00:51:40
it. >> That was the biggest fear of mine is how to get her out without disturbing it.
00:51:45
>> His training paid off. So when they did the autopsy, they were able to recover
00:51:50
male DNA from Mandy. >> The male DNA was seaman, suggesting a sexual attack. >> What happened in terms of the
00:51:59
investigation from there? It was, you know, you always look for that person that's strange or odd that doesn't quite
00:52:05
fit into the community. >> Tips poured in and deputies [music] check them out. >> This is a standard road where Sushi was
00:52:13
observed. David [music] Succi was a local drifter seen in the area that day. Bowie says
00:52:20
>> they got a warrant and got his DNA and he was ruled out. >> Deputies interviewed various persons
00:52:28
[music] of interest, including Mandy's boyfriend, Rick Zender. >> They also looked at him [music] just to
00:52:35
rule him out. >> All dead ends. In all, some 30 local men gave DNA samples. None matched. The case
00:52:45
went cold and the murder hung like a dark cloud over this community for the next two decades.
00:52:52
>> It was like an assault on all of us. >> Then almost 25 years later, a new suspect emerged and he had lived right
00:53:02
in Mandy's neighborhood. >> His name wasn't even on the radar. [music] I don't know what it was about her. I'm
00:53:21
just an ordinary person. I don't know how I managed to have that child. >> Mary Stavic spent years [music] haunted
00:53:32
by the murder of her daughter, Mandy, and the lack of progress in the case. and I just really didn't have any hope.
00:53:40
That became more ingrained in me as the years went on. >> But Detective Kevin Bowie,
00:53:47
who attended the same high school as Mandy, had never given up. By 2009, [music] he was the lead
00:53:55
investigator on this unsolved case. >> We needed some answers. We needed to get to the bottom of it. He began scouring
00:54:03
the case file, pouring over old leads and old suspects. >> And I started going through who's been
00:54:10
interviewed, who's been talked to. >> Bowie noticed that a local drug dealer named John Wiznooki [music] had been
00:54:17
questioned because he told people he might know who murdered Mandy. Although his DNA [music] did not match the crime
00:54:24
scene, Bowie still wanted to talk to him again. And in 2010, he traveled all the
00:54:30
way to Cambodia, where Wiznooki [music] now lives, to question him. >> What did your gut tell you about this
00:54:36
man? >> I thought he was a good liar. Just kept reiterating. I don't know who did this.
00:54:42
>> You weren't believing him, though. >> I I didn't believe him. >> But a feeling wasn't evidence.
00:54:49
>> So, it's another dead end. >> Yes. But then three years later, the sheriff's office got a tip that sent
00:54:58
them in a new direction. Coming from, of all places, a pair of moms chatting at a
00:55:04
water park. It was June 2013. >> Where were you guys when you had this conversation?
00:55:12
>> Sitting on the grass right over there. >> Heather Backstrom and Marily Anderson
00:55:18
had both gone to Mount Baker High. and you were just watching your kids coming down the water slides and things.
00:55:25
>> Out of the blue, one of the other mothers brought up the name Mandy Stavic. >> Both Heather and Maril Lee, who barely
00:55:32
knew each other, held long suspicions about the same man. Marilie had never told anyone in law enforcement of her
00:55:41
suspicions. I really wasn't ready because we are in a small town and to accuse someone of something that we
00:55:48
don't know for sure is a little scary. >> Heather also never discussed her concerns with anyone in the area.
00:55:57
>> No friend or family in the community that I lived in because of the weight of
00:56:04
that. But talking to each other here in this water park decades later, they finally felt compelled to say his name
00:56:13
out loud. >> And I just said that I knew that it was Tim. That it was Tim Bass. >> Timothy Bass had gone to Mount Baker
00:56:22
High, too. Why did you say Tim Bass? >> I thought it was Tim Bass because of the
00:56:28
experiences that I had had with him in the past. >> Disturbing experience. >> Very disturbing. Yes. As it turns out,
00:56:34
both women had experienced creepy run-ins with him and began exchanging stories.
00:56:41
>> I'm probably 15 and he was in his 20s. >> It was after a softball game in the
00:56:47
summer of 1989, a few [music] months before Mandy's murder. >> We decided, a bunch of us, to go to
00:56:54
Dairy Queen. >> She says they all piled into a friend's truck, including Tim Bass, who was
00:57:01
sitting next to her. He would talk about my eyes, that my eyes were beautiful. Then he took like a pen out of the cup
00:57:09
holder and would like start rubbing it along my knees cuz I was wearing cut off sweatpants.
00:57:15
>> You must have been scared. You're 15 years old. >> Yeah, I was very nervous. >> Hearing Heather's story, Merrily told
00:57:22
her own, which was far more chilling. Back in July 1991, she was at home one night with her young son [music]
00:57:29
when she heard a knock on the door. So, I open the door and there's Tim Bass at the door and he asks if he can use
00:57:38
the phone because he had been hunting all day and wanted to use the phone to call his wife. When she handed him the
00:57:46
phone, he started dialing, but something wasn't right. >> I hear the the beep beep beep, we're
00:57:54
sorry, when you call and the phone's disconnected. So, I thought, okay, something's up. Then she says things got
00:58:01
scary. [music] >> So then he walks through the kitchen and back to my bedroom. He said that he used
00:58:08
to drive by our house and that he had always been in love with me and wanted to make love to me.
00:58:16
>> Right then and there. >> Yes. >> Marilisse says she demanded that Tim leave, but he refused.
00:58:24
>> And what are you feeling at this moment? >> Uh terrified. Eventually, after she
00:58:29
threatened to call the police, Tim left. Years later, the two women now realized
00:58:36
they had to speak up. Merrily contacted another Mount Baker High graduate, Detective [music] Ken Gates.
00:58:43
>> She had a gut feeling that Tim Bass was responsible for killing Mandy. >> Where did Tim Bass live?
00:58:48
>> He lived right in this house right here. >> A home less than 2 miles from Mandy's
00:58:55
house. right along her running route >> back in 1989 1990 did they go to the Bass household
00:59:06
and question people there looked at it like no it wouldn't be this family because they're wellliked in the
00:59:12
community and so I I think it was just overlooked >> Tim Bass along with his brother and
00:59:18
father had never been asked to give a DNA sample and for the past 25 years Tim had been living a quite quiet life in a
00:59:27
nearby community, married with three children and driving a delivery truck for a bakery.
00:59:34
>> Any criminal record? Anything that would have call attention to Tim Bass? >> No, he uh kept to himself and for the
00:59:41
most part worked and came home. >> But now police decided to pay Tim a visit at home.
00:59:49
>> Very non-threatening then your approach. >> Correct. When asked about Mandy, Bass
00:59:54
[music] pretended he didn't even remember her, at least not at first. >> So, he just looked up and was like,
01:00:01
"Mandy, Mandy, Mandy." Um, oh yeah, she was the girl that they found in the river. It was kind of like,
01:00:08
okay, I think we're being played here. He who could who could forget Mandy Stavic.
01:00:13
>> Police asked Bass for a saliva sample to get his DNA. And at that point he goes,
01:00:19
"Well, um, I don't want to give my DNA. I watch those crime shows. I see how many people go to prison because I've
01:00:27
given DNA." >> So, they tried a new plan. >> At this point, we decided we need to
01:00:32
[music] get a surveillance team on him and follow him on his route. They followed Tim Bass all night long on his
01:00:39
bakery delivery route. Police were hoping Bass would throw away an item with DNA on it, but no luck. The
01:00:48
investigation [music] stalled yet again until police received an unexpected helping hand.
01:00:56
>> I wasn't really going to take no for an answer. I'm going to find something. I'm
01:00:59
going to get you [music] something. 24 long years [music] had passed without an arrest and police finally had a prime
01:01:17
suspect. Back in 1989, Tim Bass lived down the road from Mandy Stavic and she often jogged [music] past his house on
01:01:26
her regular running route, which is how he fixated on her. Police believe >> if Tim Bass sitting in his home was
01:01:34
looking out the window, could he have seen Mandy running by? Easily. >> Investigators knew Mandy didn't jog by
01:01:41
the Bass house the day she disappeared. But Tim was in their crosshairs, so they
01:01:47
wanted to know more about him. They got some background from his younger brother, Tom. As kids, they piled around
01:01:55
together like most brothers. >> Very competitive. We had a lot of fun together playing, you know, different
01:02:02
sports. >> Tim had always been a loner, but as a teenager, he began to reveal deeper
01:02:09
issues. >> Social interactions never really been natural to him. >> Tom remembers a harrowing night after a
01:02:17
high school girlfriend had broken up with Tim. >> He was on the phone with her in his
01:02:22
bedroom and he apparently had a pistol with him. at some point said, "I'm gonna kill myself." He actually ended up
01:02:32
firing the gun. >> Tim had [music] fired into the air. From that night on, Tom says people close to
01:02:39
Tim noticed a change in him. >> It just the disgust, the disrespect towards women.
01:02:47
>> Robin, did you ever see this? >> Oh, yes. Mhm. >> Robin is Tom's wife. I think that he
01:02:55
really thinks that women are inferior to him. >> Tim got married young at 22, just 6
01:03:03
weeks after Mandy's murder. He married another Mount Baker [music] graduate, Gina Malone. She says it was hardly a
01:03:12
fairy tale romance. >> I married him basically to get away from home. Gina says throughout their nearly
01:03:21
30-year marriage, Tim was a controlling and emotionally abusive husband. >> I felt like his servant. Go get me a
01:03:29
drink. Go get make me food. >> I personally witnessed him tell Gina to shut up, you know, 8 million times.
01:03:36
>> It didn't feel like a marriage. I felt like I went into a prison, actually. >> But Gina stuck with Tim and had three
01:03:47
children with him. Why did you stay with him? >> Uh, I was scared and I did leave. I
01:03:52
actually I got a restraining order and left for 2 months. At that point, I had started divorce proceedings and he's
01:04:00
like, "I'm going to lie to the judge and get the kids taken away from you. Anything with my kids,
01:04:07
I'm just like, "Okay, I'm going to do whatever I have to do to not lose my kids." In Tim Bass, detectives [music]
01:04:14
believed they had their killer, but they wanted to cast a wider net of potential
01:04:19
suspects to be sure they were on the right path. >> We developed this list. [music] We
01:04:24
called it a DNA sweep. >> Investigators got DNA from three dozen more men in the area, but Tim Bass
01:04:33
wouldn't cooperate. So cops called the bakery where Tim worked and spoke with his boss, Kim Wagner.
01:04:42
>> The Tim Bass I knew, he was different. I don't know, he was weird. >> How was he weird, though?
01:04:48
>> You just never knew what Tim was going to be at work that day. The smallest thing would anger him and so you tend to
01:04:56
kind of stay away from people like that. >> And Kim says she experienced Tim's low
01:05:01
regard for women. He never called me Kim. He always called me woman. W woman. And um which, you know, whatever.
01:05:12
>> As Kim chatted with investigators, she realized they were [music] looking at the Mandy Stavic murder and figured out
01:05:20
what they were really after. >> Kim said, "Well, you guys want DNA, don't you?" And I said, "Well, yes." And
01:05:28
she says, "I can get it [music] for you." At this point, I'm thinking, I'm working with somebody that potentially
01:05:32
did this to Mandy, and I got to know. >> She kept an eye on Tim day after day, watching if he discarded anything that
01:05:43
might have his saliva on it. >> You'd empty the garbage [music] so it would be empty.
01:05:47
>> Yeah. >> In case he dropped a cup. >> Uhhuh. >> Or a bottle. >> Yeah. Well, a cup. Yeah.
01:05:53
It took [music] three long months and then finally she saw him throw away a plastic cup and later a Coke can
01:06:02
>> and I just stood there and went [gasps] it's game time and I'm like this is jackpot and so this time my heart was
01:06:10
like oh I was I was dying because there was a lot of people around. So I grabbed
01:06:16
it and then I was like I threw it in my desk drawer >> and then she gave it to police. My gut
01:06:22
said it was him. My heart said it wasn't because I just didn't really want to think that we were all betrayed.
01:06:29
>> So about 3 months later, we got the results from [music] the state crime lab and Katie from the crime lab says,
01:06:35
"Kevin, we've got a match." You hear those words. What was that moment like? You hear them, but you're
01:06:44
not sure. You're It's almost like I'm dreaming. I'm going to wake up at any [music] moment in time. I was just like,
01:06:49
"This is the biggest thing that's ever happened to me." A lot of tears. >> After [music] the DNA match, they paid
01:06:59
another visit to Tim as he was leaving work. I'm questioning him. I'm like, "Did you have any relationship with
01:07:05
her?" "No." "So, you didn't even kiss her or anything?" "No, never." "Then why would your DNA
01:07:11
be inside her?" He went from denial to, "Well, how did you get my DNA? What are you talking about?"
01:07:17
Right after that conversation on December 12th, 2017, 28 years after Mandy had been found
01:07:25
dead, police [music] arrested 50-year-old Tim Bass in the Bakery parking lot. They charged him with
01:07:32
kidnapping, rape, and murder. >> As my partner's cuffing him up, I say, "You are under arrest for the murder of
01:07:39
Mandy Stavic." >> Later that day, the sheriff came knocking on Mary's door. [music]
01:07:45
It also happened to be her birthday. >> And he says, "We've got him." That's all
01:07:51
he says. "We've got him." And I says, "Who?" [laughter] I really I really never dreamed. I really never dreamed
01:07:58
it. >> Mandy's sister Molly was overwhelmed, too. >> That's like, "Wow, what a present.
01:08:06
What a birthday present." >> Detective Bowie called Kim Wagner with the news. Her first thought was about
01:08:13
Mandy. And I asked if her family knew. >> What'd he say? >> That they knew. And so that's that's why I did it. I
01:08:26
just never forgot about Mandy. >> But it's a big leap between thinking you have your man and convicting him in a
01:08:33
court of law. >> Were you trying to get me to admit to something I didn't do? Is that what
01:08:37
you're trying to do right now? Tim says he's innocent and that he had a secret that explains everything.
01:08:46
>> He said, "I just wanted to let you know I slept with Mandy." I was like, "What?"
01:08:58
>> [music] >> For prosecutor Dave McKran, it's been a long road to justice. >> She was such a [music] good kid
01:09:12
and it just shouldn't have happened. Just shouldn't have happened at all. [music]
01:09:18
Mckran was 44 when Mandy Stavic was murdered. And now at 73, >> ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
01:09:29
>> he's come out of retirement and insisted he not be paid as he leads the prosecution team [music] in this deeply
01:09:37
personal case. >> In your heart as well as in your head, you wanted to finish this.
01:09:42
>> You bet. >> All right. After 30 years of heartache, fear, and frustration, the trial of Mandy's
01:09:50
accused killer finally begins. The state's case is simple. >> The defendant's DNA was inside her, and
01:09:58
we know that she was kidnapped. She was raped, and then she was killed. >> Case closed. No,
01:10:07
>> Tim Bass is not guilty, >> says defense attorney Steven Jackson. >> He didn't kidnap anyone. He didn't rape
01:10:14
anyone and he certainly didn't kill anyone. >> Jackson floats a theory to jurors that
01:10:20
if true would be shocking. The suggestion that Tim Bass and Mandy Stavic had consensual sex in the [music]
01:10:28
hours before her murder. >> There were no signs of a struggle. Evidence of sexual contact is not
01:10:34
evidence of rape. >> Everything I've said is the truth. In this interrogation after his arrest,
01:10:40
Bass claimed he had been having a secret affair with Mandy. >> It was more of a friendship type thing.
01:10:46
We just talked and and uh then it just kind of grew into more more of a physical thing and we
01:10:54
didn't even really do it that much. So, was more kissing and stuff. >> The DNA can only tell you that there was
01:11:00
contact. >> Stark Fis is one of Bass's defense attorneys. Mandy had come home for
01:11:06
Thanksgiving break. Are you saying that when she came home they met somewhere and had intimacy?
01:11:14
>> Uh that's exactly what I'm saying. >> And what do you say to those who say prove it that no one saw the two of them
01:11:22
together? There are no telephone calls made between the two of them. >> First of all, I don't have to prove it.
01:11:27
The burden of proof is on the state of Washington, not on the defense. Remember when Tim Bass was first
01:11:35
questioned in 2013? He said he barely remembered who Mandy was. Now [music] they were lovers.
01:11:43
>> Why would his story evolve like that in your opinion? >> Because he's making it up. He's trying
01:11:47
to cover himself. >> Good afternoon, Miss Wagner. Come on. Step right up here if you would.
01:11:52
>> Testifying for the prosecution is the woman who helped retrieve the DNA evidence that linked Bass to the crime
01:12:00
scene. I was terrified. >> But Kim Wagner knew she had one more job to do. >> If Tim was potentially involved in that
01:12:09
crime, I wanted to do the right thing for Mandy. >> But the defense is hoping science can
01:12:16
support Bass's account. They called Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, a forensic expert, to
01:12:22
the stand. She says the semen could have been deposited up to 2 days before Mandy's death. I would say most
01:12:31
consistent is hours to days and probably within up to 48 hours. >> The prosecution expert, the original
01:12:41
medical examiner from 30 years ago, Dr. Gary Goldfog disagrees. He says various indicators say it was much sooner.
01:12:51
>> She was raped and then was killed and deposited in the river and drowned in the river. Would your findings be
01:12:59
consistent in all regards with that hypothetical? >> Yes, they would. >> Now, it was time for a woman [music] to
01:13:07
testify who Bass knew very well. >> Please have a seat. You've been sworn. >> His now ex-wife, Gina.
01:13:16
>> She had divorced him after his arrest and his claims about his affair with Mandy.
01:13:22
>> I was so nervous and I was shaking. I don't even want to see his face. >> Gina testifies that she witnessed him
01:13:31
ask his mother to lie for him to point the finger at his own dad. >> He asked her, "Can we say dad did it?"
01:13:42
>> Bass's father had died more than a decade earlier. >> She put her hands over her face and like
01:13:50
this and and paused for a minute and then said no. [snorts] Tim Bass's [music] trial was turning
01:13:57
into a family reunion from hell. His brother Tomok [music] stand. >> As you're about to go take the stand,
01:14:05
what's what's going through your mind? Did you sleep the night before? >> Very little.
01:14:11
It was It was agonizing. As hard as it was, I I I knew I had to do it. I'd >> like to direct your attention to
01:14:19
February 24th, 2015. Tom recounted that when Tim was under investigation, he told Tom he had slept with Mandy decades
01:14:28
ago and then asked Tom to tell police he had also slept with her. >> I guess to make it look like she got
01:14:36
around. That would be my only, you know, that's probably why he said that. And then he asked me again, he
01:14:46
said, "You believe me, right?" And I mean, I was I didn't know what to say. >> And Tom describes another damning
01:14:55
incident after Tim was arrested. >> He said that the cops are lying. Everyone's out to get him. He said, "I
01:15:06
need a strong alibi or I'm going to prison." He said, "Mom, [sighs] maybe you can say
01:15:13
that we are Christmas shopping. Tom, do what you can." Despite that testimony, defense attorney Shashana
01:15:22
Page has an explanation for his behavior. >> Even innocent people, when they're under
01:15:27
that great weight of suspicion, can do things that can be interpreted as, "Well, only a guilty person would do
01:15:34
this." >> As the 9-day trial wraps up, both sides make [music] their final appeal to the
01:15:40
jury. >> It's easy to to make the assumption that this pretty young woman would never have
01:15:46
anything to do with Mr. But this is Mr. Bass circa of the late '80s. Just because somebody hadn't seen
01:15:54
them together doesn't mean that they hadn't been together at some point. This is an investigation that based on the
01:16:02
faulty assumption that this is a sexual assault and it may well not have been a sexual assault.
01:16:09
>> This was not a situation where there was consensual sex. There was no contact
01:16:14
between these people. She was abducted. She was raped and she was killed. Hold him accountable.
01:16:21
>> The DNA was at the heart of Tim Bass's trial. It would now be at the heart of
01:16:28
the jury's deliberation. >> One of them said, "Teenage girls can sneak out at night. Maybe there was a a
01:16:35
secret relationship. >> Madam clerk, issued the verdicts. 30 years of wandering, two weeks of
01:16:47
trial, five hours of deliberations. >> I was terrified. >> As the jury in the Mandy Stavic case
01:16:53
deliberated, the hours felt like an eternity. >> I was [panting] Every juror, please do
01:17:00
the right thing. Do the right thing. Do the right thing. >> They have to have 100% agreement. If one
01:17:05
person doesn't agree, they've got a hung jury and they have to start all over again. And I was praying that that would
01:17:12
not happen. Although no one testified to ever seeing Tim and Mandy together, juror Ed Bean
01:17:20
says they had a lot to discuss. >> When we go in and deliberate, we had to turn in to be investigators and
01:17:26
attorneys, too. And we went through everything. We had posters on the wall and maps and we went through everything
01:17:33
just like the attorneys did. Juror Jay van Msburgen. >> Maybe a quarter of the people tied up on
01:17:42
whether or not there might be reasonable doubt. >> Deliberations lasted a little over a
01:17:48
day. >> Madame clerk issued the verdicts. >> 29 years and [music] 6 months to the day
01:17:56
had passed since Mandy Stavic was killed. Would her family and friends finally get justice? We the jury find
01:18:05
the defendant Timothy Forest Bass guilty of >> guilty of murder, rape, and kidnapping.
01:18:15
>> It was such a relief. It was such a relief >> for you. That moment when you're seeing
01:18:21
the family embrace and the tears, >> did you think this is what justice looks like?
01:18:26
>> Yeah. At that point, I thought this is why we do what we do. >> The harm that this caused is
01:18:32
incalculable. He has finally received justice. And to me, it can't be enough time. He should
01:18:38
never get out. >> Six weeks later, it was [music] time for sentencing. >> My family will never be healed. Never be
01:18:47
be normal. [music] >> Mary and Molly were too emotional to speak. So Molly's husband, Mike
01:18:53
Brighton, [music] spoke for them. >> Timothy Forest Bass must never be allowed to walk the earth as a free
01:18:59
person. Never. Ever. The defendant's mother would like to address the court. >> Then it was the Bass family's [music]
01:19:07
turn to speak. Tim's mom, Sandra Bass, insisted that her son [music] never tried to blame his father for Mandy's
01:19:16
death. >> That is totally false. I do know my son is not guilty of this crime. >> Then, if you would like the opportunity,
01:19:24
now is the time. >> I will. convicted murderer Tim [music] Bass, whose DNA had sealed his fate, spoke in
01:19:33
court for the first time. >> I would first like to say that I'm 100% innocent of this crime. Furthermore, I
01:19:41
don't believe I received a fair trial. In saying that though, the better man in me says I should say very little today.
01:19:49
I give this day to the stabbing family. Unsuwayed, the judge sentenced Bass to the maximum sentence, nearly 27 years.
01:20:00
He couldn't get life because prosecutors did not charge him with premeditated murder. They were not sure they could
01:20:07
convict him of that charge. >> For 30 years, you have lived free from the responsibility for your acts. But
01:20:14
that life has been a lie. And tragically, it has caught your family, your mother, your brother, your ex-wife,
01:20:20
and your children in its web. >> Tim says he's an innocent man. What do you say?
01:20:28
>> Guilty as hell. I lived in prison for 28 years with him. And now it's his turn.
01:20:37
>> For Mary, who once thought she'd never see [music] justice, Bass's sentence gave her some solace.
01:20:45
Definitely closure, I feel. After all, they've got the guy that did it. He'll spend enough years in jail, so if he
01:20:53
ever does get out, his life will be practically over. >> Tom Bass now wonders if his brother
01:20:59
considered other killings, possibly even Heather or Maril Lee. >> I think potentially more could have been
01:21:07
his next victims. >> You sometimes think we're lucky to be alive. >> Yep. Heather and Maril Lee are proud of their
01:21:18
roles in putting Tim Bass away. >> In the end, three women's word or experiences
01:21:26
are what took him down. And I love that. >> Kim Wagner, part of that trio of women,
01:21:33
credits Mandy's hometown, Acme. >> It really took a village. It took a whole community. The sheriff's office
01:21:41
never gave up on Mandy. [snorts] We got the right guy. Sorry. [snorts] I guess the [music] community could feel
01:21:56
safe and and be whole again. And I'd hoped at [music] that point the family could heal
01:22:05
>> in some ways you could be whole again too, right? >> Yeah. 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime.
01:22:20
>> Were you at all prepared for [music] what happened in this case? [music] >> [music]
01:22:41
[music] [music] >> A key witness takes a stand in the trial of Patrick Frzy. >> Investigators believe Patrick Frzy
01:23:12
killed Kelsey Barth in her town home on Thanksgiving last year. [music] >> Day two of the murder trial for the man
01:23:19
who allegedly killed his fiance. >> Day seven of the trial. Investigators revealed the moments they found.
01:23:24
Surveillance video of Kelsey Barth and her one-year-old daughter at a Woodland Park supermarket is the last anyone seen
01:23:31
of the 29-year-old mother. >> If convicted, Frezy could face [music] life in prison.
01:23:35
>> We can certainly sense that we are in the final days of this trial and it is certainly
01:23:39
>> [ __ ] Creek is a small town. Teller County is a small county. >> We're up in like a minute.
01:23:45
>> They have never seen anything to this magnitude in [ __ ] Creek. Ashley Franco, KKTV 11 News. You've covered
01:23:53
every second of this trial. What has the feeling meant inside that courtroom? >> It's been cold. It's been very heavy and
01:24:00
chilling. During the first week, we learned about some of the evidence in the case. Crystal Lee, Patrick Frzy's
01:24:05
ex-girlfriend is set to be the prosecution's star witness. >> Okay, it's uh 11:15
01:24:13
again on the 21st December 2018. Um we're inside Kelsey's apartment with Crystal. You are seeing what the jury
01:24:21
saw. Remarkable evidence. The heart of the prosecution's case. >> When you came in,
01:24:30
what did you see? >> Um, when I first walked in, I saw um blood all over the floor. I saw blood up
01:24:43
the wall. >> Who is Crystal Lee? >> Crystal Lee is a rodeo queen from Idaho. She's very wellknown
01:24:50
and she's [music] Patrick Fzy's ex-girlfriend. They've had known each other for over a decade.
01:24:55
She's [music] the bread and butter to this case. That's Crystal Lee wearing a police jacket and hat. [clears throat]
01:25:02
>> Can you point to the area where you saw and clean blood up on the wall? >> She admits to cleaning up the crime
01:25:12
scene and tells the prosecution the whole entire story of what happened. The spray was
01:25:19
from here all the way. I'm sorry. >> She's the only person in the world that they have to possibly convict [music]
01:25:26
Patrick Crazy. >> We did a deal with the devil. There's just no ifands or buts about it in this
01:25:31
case. >> This one, >> but it's a deal that we made in order to move this case forward and to solve this
01:25:36
crime. Sometimes in order to solve a case or move a case forward, [music] we have to
01:25:43
give a deal to the devil. Uh, that's exactly what we did here. >> Did you say that you cleaned off some of
01:25:49
the appliances? >> I did. I wiped the There was blood on the front of the dishwasher. There was
01:25:54
blood on the front of the stove. >> Crystal Lee was obviously the star witness for the prosecution and she
01:26:00
testified to things that the prosecution needed her to say in order to establish
01:26:06
this case. I am Ya Gruber. I'm a professor of law at University of Colorado Law School. I think there were
01:26:12
doubts about Crystal Lee's testimony [music] coming into it. Crystal Lee has trafficked in lies.
01:26:19
Crystal Lee is saying he [music] has been planning on killing Kelsey and he had called me multiple times about it.
01:26:28
There's [music] poison coffee. There's a baseball bat, scented candles, a blindfold, phones that [music] are
01:26:35
pinging all over Colorado and and in Idaho. I got to tell you, it's one of the most [music] emotional trials I've
01:26:41
ever been through, and I've been through a lot of trials. Uh the roller coaster everybody was put on. There wasn't
01:26:47
anybody on this team that at some point didn't have tears running down their face. [music]
01:26:52
>> We just got word that a verdict has been reached in the case against Patrick Frzy.
01:26:57
>> Tell them try to take it. We're the f we're the only ones out here. >> There's always a little bit of
01:27:01
nervousness and question in the back of your mind. Just [music] hours ago, we were hearing closing statements. And
01:27:07
now, now we have a verdict. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Patrick Frzy sits [music] in this grim
01:27:57
[ __ ] Creek, Colorado jail, put here by his former girlfriend, Crystal Lee. There's blood on the wall here. There's
01:28:06
blood on the wall here. And there was blood right here. >> In disturbing evidence that you will see
01:28:12
throughout the program tonight. She tells her story about a crime scene cleanup.
01:28:18
>> I moved the couch. I wiped the couch off. Um there was blood behind the couch
01:28:23
down the wall. >> A plan to transport a body. >> We brought the tote here. Okay, we
01:28:29
unloaded the tote >> and her help in making sure there would be no trace of it left behind.
01:28:35
>> The things that were thrown into the fire by me were the um the belongings from Kelsey's house, the curtains, the
01:28:42
pillows, the stuffed animals. The tale begins when these haunting images were captured. A mother in the
01:28:52
grocery store shopping with her baby. Thanksgiving Day 2018. The last time Kelsey Barth was seen in public.
01:29:02
>> It's not the kind that runs off. This is completely out of character. >> It was Cheryl Barth who reported her
01:29:11
29-year-old daughter missing after trying to reach her for days. >> Kelsey, we just want you home.
01:29:20
Call us if you can and we won't quit looking. At that [music] time in early December,
01:29:27
Woodland Park police had not publicly named a suspect. >> We are treating Kelsey's disappearance
01:29:33
as a missing person's case at this time. [music] >> Can't eat and you can't sleep and the
01:29:38
stress won't end until we find her. >> Usually, it was us four all together all the time.
01:29:44
>> Ashley Cogburn, Amanda Smith, and Nicole Haywood had an unbreakable bond with
01:29:50
Kelsey. They grew up together in Moses Lake, Washington. >> From the pictures, she's gorgeous,
01:29:56
obviously, and very put together. And so, you might think that she's, you know, this prissy girl, but she was not.
01:30:01
She She was raised on a hay farm and very much a tomboy. >> Country girl. >> Yeah. She was out there driving tractors
01:30:06
and and bucking bales. >> In flying planes, she was a flight instructor. She a good pilot.
01:30:12
>> Oh, yeah. She was really good. She wasn't afraid to challenge the the typical boundaries.
01:30:20
>> [music] >> So, it wasn't a surprise when a Colorado cowboy named Patrick Frzy caught
01:30:25
Kelsey's eye on a dating website in [music] 2016. >> He was like a country boy and that's
01:30:33
what she was used to. That's what she liked. >> They started a long-distance relationship.
01:30:41
Patrick Frzy lived on a 35 acre ranch in rural Florison, Colorado. >> These are four dogs. be our dogs to
01:30:49
train this fall and winter. >> In this video, Patrick can be heard training cattle dogs.
01:30:55
>> Pepper. That'll do >> down. >> He also shoot horses and groom donkeys. >> The black and white one is uh Flash.
01:31:06
>> Clint Klene has known Patrick for seven years. >> Patrick is uh the frier for the donkeys.
01:31:13
People call them horshoers and all that, but our donkeys don't have shoes. So he
01:31:17
trims their feet. >> He trims their feet. It's he he gives them, as we call it, donkey manicures.
01:31:22
>> Klein says Patrick was quiet and dedicated to his work. >> He's kind of a laidback, you know, kind
01:31:29
of stays to himself. Uh he had his ranch to take care of. >> Eventually, Kelsey moved to Colorado
01:31:37
from Washington State to be closer to Patrick, and they were expecting a child. Her mother, Cheryl, says they
01:31:44
were engaged. Does she have a dress yet? >> No. I don't think she cared about the
01:31:49
big wedding kind of thing. It was between them and God. >> Even after their daughter Kaye was born
01:31:55
in October 2017, the couple still didn't live together, but shared parenting duties.
01:32:02
>> He never came to see her, but um she would like on her days off, she would go
01:32:07
back and be with him. Friends say Kelsey was struggling to balance the baby, her
01:32:13
job, and a long commute. Her relationship with Patrick seemed strained. >> She seemed to be kind of stressed out
01:32:22
from the whole thing that she couldn't make him happy. >> Was Patrick emotionally abusive?
01:32:31
Um, it appeared that way from uh what I saw and it seemed like it was just knocking her spirit down.
01:32:39
>> Did Kelsey ever say he was physically abusive? >> No. >> Ashley says Kelsey once mentioned there
01:32:45
may have been another woman in Patrick's life. >> I think Kelsey had mentioned one time
01:32:50
about an ex-girlfriend who still kind of wanted to be with Patrick. Kelsey wasn't
01:32:57
worried about it. I don't know if it's cuz she knew she lived far away. Kelsey didn't seem all that worried about it.
01:33:05
>> After Kelsey was reported missing, police talked to Patrick. He told them that the day before Thanksgiving,
01:33:12
[music] Kelsey said she wanted to end their relationship. KKTV reporter Ashley Franco.
01:33:20
>> He said that Kelsey wanted to go their separate ways and things weren't working
01:33:26
out between them. They wanted to split custody 50/50 and they were just not meshing anymore.
01:33:34
>> Patrick told police he and Kelsey met to exchange the baby on Thanksgiving Day.
01:33:39
He also returned Kelsey's belongings. >> A purse, um, keys to the car, keys to the town home, and then a gun that
01:33:46
Kelsey owned. >> It was a gun Patrick says he had once taken from Kelsey for her own
01:33:51
protection. Police say Patrick told them Kelsey struggled with depression, hinting that she may be suicidal.
01:33:58
>> When you hear that Patrick said Kelsey was unstable, that she was maybe suicidal.
01:34:03
>> No, >> no, not at all. >> It doesn't match up with Kelsey. >> Police searched Kelsey's home, but
01:34:09
turned up no signs of foul play. Then Cheryl and her son went to the house to check it [music] out.
01:34:18
There was a mat a a like a rug of some sort in the bathroom and it's gone. And she had also noticed that [music] the
01:34:25
refrigerator looked like it had been wiped down recently. You could see streaks.
01:34:31
Later, her son is in the bathroom and notices blood on the base of the toilet [music]
01:34:37
>> and the alarms go off in their minds. >> Alarms go off. Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, alerted
01:34:44
investigators who returned to the house. This time, they used chemicals to detect
01:34:49
the presence of blood. >> They found trace amounts of blood everywhere in the bathroom.
01:34:54
>> Do we know whose blood? >> DNA results showed it was Kelsey's. >> Investigators believed Kelsey had been
01:35:02
murdered, but they needed more evidence. A closer look at Kelsey and her fiance's
01:35:08
cell phone activity Thanksgiving weekend would lead them to her suspected killer.
01:35:29
>> [music] >> Patrick Frzy was taken into custody this morning in Florison, [music] Colorado,
01:35:35
just after 7:00 this morning, Mountain Standard Time. >> Nearly a month after Kelsey Barth
01:35:42
vanished. Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young made this grim [music] announcement.
01:35:48
Today we arrested Patrick Frzy on charges of first-degree murder of Kelsey Barth. As a reminder, Patrick Frzy is
01:35:56
presumed innocent until proven guilty. >> Patrick, what do you have to say? >> Despite the murder charge, Kelsey's body
01:36:04
had [music] not been found. >> As you can tell from the arrest, sadly, we do not believe Kelsey is still alive.
01:36:11
Kelsey's daughter, Kaylee, is in protective custody and will be re reunited with Kelsey's family.
01:36:18
Patrick Frzy entered a plea of not guilty. But from the beginning, investigators had questions about
01:36:25
Patrick's story. Starting with his initial claim that the day before Thanksgiving, Kelsey told him she wanted
01:36:32
to break up and quote, "Go their separate ways." So, this is Woodland Park. >> This is Woodland Park.
01:36:40
>> Yet, there she was shopping the next day for the family dinner. You see her grab
01:36:45
a cart and and put Kaye in the cart and then go off. And that's the last time publicly anyone had seen Kelsey Barth.
01:36:51
>> What does she buy here at Safeway? >> She buys ingredients for a sweet potato
01:36:56
casserole. >> Investigators wondered if Kelsey had broken up with Patrick. Why would she
01:37:02
send him this text? I bought some sweet potatoes in case you wanted sweet potato
01:37:08
casserole. Kelsey didn't tell her mother she and Patrick were breaking up when she spoke
01:37:13
with her Thanksgiving morning. >> Did she sound normal? Did she sound >> Definitely. She She sounded happy and
01:37:20
normal mom daughter talk. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Another big question investigators had
01:37:26
was when Patrick said he last saw Kelsey. >> Patrick told officers that he hadn't
01:37:31
seen her since Thanksgiving, November 22nd, when he exchanged their daughter, Kaye Barth.
01:37:37
In images from a neighbor security camera on that Thanksgiving day, Patrick and Kelsey are seen at her door with a
01:37:44
baby carrier after Kelsey returned from the store. You can see her holding a poinsettia. Later, Patrick is seen at
01:37:53
that same location alone. >> We don't know whether he's coming or going. He doesn't have Kaye. Um, and
01:38:00
he's not with Kelsey. And then that's it. University of Colorado law professor Ya Gruber has followed the case.
01:38:08
>> The critical question is what happened in between around 1:30, 1:45 and 3:30 when they get that picture of him.
01:38:18
>> Police say [music] this is likely when Patrick killed her. >> Investigators have recovered um a number
01:38:25
of items that make us suspicious that the crime did occur at Kelsey's residence.
01:38:30
Patrick told authorities he drove their daughter Kaye to his ranch for Thanksgiving dinner. He said Kelsey
01:38:36
wasn't with them. But investigators discovered that her cell phone was. >> They pulled cell phone records and found
01:38:45
that on Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd, all of a sudden Kelsey's phone and Patrick's phone started traveling
01:38:54
together, but Patrick and Kelsey were not together. Investigators say Patrick took Kelsey's
01:39:01
cell phone after he killed her as part of a scheme to cover his tracks. They believe he faked 19 calls between the
01:39:09
two phones over Thanksgiving weekend and was sending texts between them, including this one from Kelsey's phone.
01:39:17
I'm going running. I'll call you guys when I get home. His response, okay, be safe. The theory that the prosecution's
01:39:26
going to put forward is that that was Patrick [music] with her phone and he's texting
01:39:31
pretending to be Kelsey. 2 days after Thanksgiving, authorities believe Patrick concocted [music]
01:39:38
this conversation. Are you awake? Sorry, I didn't hear my phone. Going to jump in
01:39:44
the shower. I'll call you guys when I get out. Okay. Then investigators believe to keep up his ruse that Kelsey
01:39:52
wanted at the breakup, Patrick sent this message. If this is truly what you want,
01:39:57
I'll respect your wishes and give you space. On Sunday, 3 days after Thanksgiving,
01:40:04
there was a bizarre development that would send this case in a very different direction. Phone records show while
01:40:11
Patrick Cell stayed near his ranch, Kelsey's phone was on the move, heading west out of Colorado.
01:40:20
There was a text from Kelsey's phone to her supervisor at DOS Aviation saying, "I won't be at work." So, people had
01:40:28
thought maybe they heard from Kelsey. >> The next text from Kelsey's phone said,
01:40:32
"Do you even love me?" That text pinged off a cell phone tower 800 miles away. Reports are correct that Kelsey's phone
01:40:42
gave a location near Gooding, Idaho on November 25th. >> When that came out, I think everyone was
01:40:49
was just shocked. And where's Kelsey? And where's Kelsey? No one knows where Kelsey is.
01:40:57
>> So, how did her phone end up in Idaho? This woman may have the answer. >> [music]
01:41:21
[music] >> It was startling news when investigators revealed that 3 days after Kelsey Barth
01:41:37
was last seen, her cell phone had pinged in Gooding, Idaho, 800 miles from her home.
01:41:44
>> Tonight, we have new information about a 32-year-old Twin Falls woman that may
01:41:48
have helped Patrick Frzy cover up the disappearance and alleged murder of his fiance, Kelsey Barrett.
01:41:57
At the time of Kelsey's disappearance, phone records show that Patrick was in touch with this woman, Crystal Kenny
01:42:04
Lee. Crystal was a nurse and avid horsewoman who grew up here. >> This is Crystal's world.
01:42:11
>> KMVT news director and weekend cowboy, Cade Atwood. >> We work hard to be able to do this on
01:42:18
the weekends. Crystal and her family are a big part of the rodeo community, a very prominent
01:42:26
family. [music] >> Talk horses and that's you're speaking her love language, you know.
01:42:33
>> Michelle Stein is Crystal's best friend. >> Horses are her life. She loves horses.
01:42:41
>> Take a look at this. And in Idaho, where rodeo rules, Crystal was royalty. In
01:42:49
2008, she was crowned queen of the Magic Valley Rodeo. >> She was so loud. >> Laura Stzman has known Crystal since she
01:42:57
was a teenager. >> Crystal was so kind with everybody that it was just so difficult
01:43:06
to turn her down in any way. >> Crystal had a reputation of getting what she wanted. No, I wouldn't say it was a
01:43:12
reputation of getting what she wanted. Crystal worked so hard at everything she did to try to do everything completely
01:43:22
correct. >> Authorities believed that it was Crystal who traveled to Idaho with Kelsey's
01:43:29
phone. But when the FBI made their initial call to Crystal, she said she had no idea who Kelsey Barth was. She
01:43:38
also denied knowing Patrick Frzy. Then she changed her story. >> They asked her, "When was the last time
01:43:45
you talked to him?" And she said, "I don't know. I'd have to look at my phone." And then says, "Oh, in the last
01:43:50
month." And investigators are thinking, "Okay, but we already know that your phone has called his phone multiple
01:43:57
times in the last few weeks." She says, "I don't have a personal relationship with Patrick Frzy. I've gone to Colorado
01:44:04
and looked at a few of his horses and that's the extent of our relationship. >> She lies.
01:44:09
>> She lies. >> Turns out Crystal Lee and Patrick Frzy had a long history. They [music] met
01:44:15
after high school. Then 8 months before Kelsey disappeared. Crystal and Patrick's relationship heated up.
01:44:23
Crystal was recently divorced [music] with two children. >> She had been out here multiple times to
01:44:28
see him and it was type a type of affair. What did Crystal say about Patrick? Was she in love with him?
01:44:34
>> I think she was to a point. >> During the investigation, the FBI got a tip that Michelle had explosive
01:44:43
information about the case. She says [music] Crystal called and confided in her about a disturbing conversation she
01:44:50
and Patrick had a month before Kelsey disappeared. >> She was very, very upset, very
01:44:56
distraught. She had told me that he had asked her to take care of his baby mama.
01:45:04
>> And you took that to me or she took that to? >> So I was like, well, I was in shock at
01:45:10
first because people who says that nobody says that. So I was like, wait, what? And she said, yeah, he asked me if I
01:45:21
would kill the mother of his baby. >> I mean, what are you thinking at that point? I was just in shock and
01:45:28
disbelief. >> What was Crystal's tone when she was telling you this? >> She was balling. She was crying. She was
01:45:35
extremely upset and scared. >> Michelle says she asked Crystal why Patrick wanted to kill Kelsey.
01:45:43
>> He had told her it was because she wanted to take him back to court to get custody of the baby and he was in fear
01:45:52
that she was going to harm the baby. Investigators found no proof Kelsey had harmed her daughter, but did find
01:45:59
evidence that Patrick had planned to challenge Kelsey for custody and believe that may have been his motive for
01:46:06
murder. Michelle says she pushed Crystal to call the police. >> I kept telling her, "I think you need to
01:46:12
call and tell somebody." [music] See, you got to understand, I'm trusting her to do the right thing.
01:46:17
>> But I think Michelle, people watching will say, "Call the police. Say, you need to talk to my friend. Someone's
01:46:22
asking her to kill someone. >> You're right. Okay. Of course the viewers are going to think that.
01:46:27
>> But do you have regret? >> Of course I regret it. I regret it every day. Oh my god. I would do anything to
01:46:34
have stopped that somehow. >> Kelsey had been gone about a month before Michelle talked to the FBI. And
01:46:42
when the FBI went back at Crystal a second time, she too was ready to talk. I think at that point she kind of knows
01:46:50
I have to come [music] clean. >> But first, Crystal wanted a deal. In exchange for her testimony against
01:46:58
Patrick, she agreed to plead guilty to evidence tampering. She admitted to getting rid of the gun to tossing
01:47:04
[music] Kelsey's keys in a canyon and destroying her phone. It's a tampering with evidence charge, which is a minor
01:47:12
charge compared to murder or um you know accessory to murder or attempted murder.
01:47:20
>> She only faces at max 3 years in prison. >> This is a pretty good deal that she
01:47:26
gets. >> What Crystal revealed to investigators would become the center of the prosecution's case against [music]
01:47:34
Patrick Frzy. When I first walked in, I saw blood all over the floor. I saw blood up the wall.
01:47:51
When Crystal Lee finally started talking, she didn't stop for 4 and 1/2 hours. Her story was stunning. She
01:47:59
claimed Patrick tried to get her to kill Kelsey three different times. The first
01:48:05
idea was to get a caramel macchiato from Starbucks, Kelsey's favorite drink, and
01:48:12
put poison in it. >> Two months before Kelsey went missing, Crystal says she drove 12 hours from
01:48:19
Idaho to this Starbucks near Kelsey's home in Colorado. >> Hi, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get
01:48:26
started for you today? Crystal, a nurse, told investigators she suggested the perfect potion, a lethal dose of ambient
01:48:34
and Valium. >> This is the drink. >> That is the drink Crystal Lee had ordered to put poison in to give to
01:48:42
Kelsey Barth. [music] >> So Crystal brings this Starbucks caramel macchiato right here. waits in the
01:48:54
alleyway, walks up to Kelsey's door, knocks on the door, and [music] tells Kelsey opens it.
01:49:01
>> Kelsey opens it, tells Kelsey this elaborate story. She says, "I'm new to the neighborhood. Someone had told me
01:49:07
that you had helped get my dogs out of trouble." And Kelsey says, "No, I didn't do that."
01:49:12
>> Does Kelsey take the coffee? >> Allegedly, Kelsey takes the coffee inside and closes the door. And from
01:49:19
there, we don't we don't know what Kelsey does with the coffee. But Crystal says she couldn't do it. She didn't
01:49:25
poison the coffee. And when Patrick found out, he [music] was angry. >> He was furious. He was not happy that
01:49:36
she didn't go through with it. He would play head games with her a lot. >> Crystal's best friend, Michelle Stein.
01:49:45
>> He just had a way of manipulating her into doing things. After Crystal said she couldn't go through with the poison
01:49:52
plan, she told investigators Patrick came up with a different idea. >> He says, "Um, I have a dental pipe
01:50:01
that I'll leave outside my property that you can come pick up and I want you to go wait for Kelsey at her town home. And
01:50:10
when she comes, hit her on the back of the head." The way Crystal tells it, she drove to
01:50:18
Kelsey's house with that metal pipe, but didn't attack her and drove back to [music] Idaho. A week later, she says
01:50:25
Patrick called with a new murder plan. Once again, Crystal drove from Idaho to Kelsey's Colorado townhouse.
01:50:34
Crystal claims she waited for Kelsey outside her home, this time with an aluminum baseball bat. But just like her
01:50:41
earlier attempts, she says she chickenened out. It's just hard to believe these stories.
01:50:50
They seem outlandish and wild. Phone records show Patrick called Crystal in Idaho around 4:30 on
01:50:59
Thanksgiving Day. Crystal said he told her, "You need [music] to get out here now. You got a mess to clean up."
01:51:08
>> Crystal says that she can't come out that same day, um, but will come out a few days later. Um she's in Idaho, loads
01:51:16
up the car with cleaning supplies, bleach, [music] um hairetss, you know, gloves, trash bags.
01:51:25
She basically brought the equivalent of a hazmat suit and every sort of cleaning
01:51:31
product that one might see in one of those uh TV shows about how to clean up a crime scene.
01:51:37
Two days later, on Saturday morning, Crystal says she drove 800 miles to Patrick's ranch to pick up a set of
01:51:44
Kelsey's keys he left for her outside. Then she says she drove to Kelsey's home.
01:51:51
>> Crystal tells authorities she opens the door and the scene is horrific. There's
01:51:56
blood everywhere. According to Crystal, Kelsey's body was not inside >> and then spends, you know, 3 to four
01:52:05
hours cleaning and scrubbing the the murder scene. She takes some of the things that she couldn't clean and puts
01:52:10
them into trash bags and loads them in the back of the car she was driving. >> Crystal claims Patrick was back at his
01:52:17
ranch during the cleanup. There was a point in time when Patrick Frzy had told Crystal Lee, "When you go to clean up
01:52:24
her town home, there is possibly a tooth somewhere." Crystal said she found that
01:52:30
tooth and put it in a trash bag. Crystal told investigators after the cleanup, she met with Patrick. She
01:52:39
described to them how he said he lured Kelsey to her death. Crystal claims Patrick [music]
01:52:45
invited his fiance to play a guessing game with candles. >> She says that he takes a sweater from
01:52:54
Kelsey's room and blindfolds her with the sweater and has candles sitting out in front of Kelsey and is telling Kelsey
01:53:01
to guess the scent of each candle. During her interview with investigators, Crystal said Patrick told her while baby
01:53:10
Kaye was in another room. He took a baseball bat and quote, "He went to swinging."
01:53:17
After killing Kelsey with that baseball bat on Thanksgiving Day, Crystal says Patrick told her he put her body in a
01:53:25
black tote. This surveillance image shows Patrick at an ATM earlier that day with a black tote in his truck.
01:53:35
Crystal went with investigators to Patrick's ranch. She told them that she and Patrick went there together and she
01:53:43
watched him burn that tote. >> He poured gasoline in the bucket and pitched it into the fire.
01:53:50
>> I believe yesterday you said that you also collected wood and put into the burn pit.
01:53:55
>> Yes, I did. [music] >> Police later examined the spot where they believe Kelsey's body was burned.
01:54:03
>> [music] >> Crystal also went with investigators to Kelsey's home. She's wearing that police
01:54:09
jacket and hat. The floorboards had been removed for testing. >> And can you point if you remember where
01:54:17
the tooth was? >> Around the tooth. What was there? If anything, >> just blood. >> All right.
01:54:26
>> There was blood on the chairs. There was blood on this chair. There's blood on
01:54:30
the table. There's blood on the Hobby Lobby bag that was sitting there. >> She pointed out where she claims she
01:54:36
intentionally left blood for them to find. >> Right there. >> On December 21st, 2018, Patrick was
01:54:48
arrested at his ranch and charged with Kelsey's murder. >> This is a case without a body. Uh, this
01:54:57
is a case without a lot of physical evidence. So, what we mainly have connecting Patrick Frzy to an incredibly
01:55:06
brutal and violent crime is Crystal Lee's testimony. >> Crystal, who had cut that deal with
01:55:13
prosecutors, seemed shaken when she appeared [music] in court after she turned herself into authorities.
01:55:20
>> The Crystal I knew could do no wrong. But the crystal that has done the things that came out
01:55:29
of her mouth is somebody I don't know. And that leaves Laura Stzman with one question. Why?
01:55:51
Almost a year after Kelsey Barer's disappearance, there was a long line to get a seat in the courtroom at Patrick
01:55:58
Frzy's murder trial. >> Uh, I like a lot of people that knew Patrick. They don't think that the
01:56:04
candle story adds up. >> Frzy's friend, Clint Klene, was there almost every day. I don't know of any
01:56:13
guys that would have thought of going out and buying candles and having their girlfriend be blindfolded and then smell
01:56:20
the candles. >> You think that had to be a woman's idea? >> I think so. >> Freezy was driven from the jail in a
01:56:29
black SUV. He entered the courthouse through this white tent, out of sight from the media. Security was tight. No
01:56:38
cameras in the courtroom. District Attorney Dan May. I >> I gotta tell you, it's one of the most
01:56:43
emotional trials I've ever been through. And I've been through a lot of trials in
01:56:46
my career. >> Prosecutor Beth Reed painted a picture of Patrick Freezy. >> Very charming,
01:56:55
very manipulative and controlling. All traits consistent [music] with being a sociopath.
01:57:06
Ashley Franco summed up the defense case. No body, no murder weapon, and no clear motive.
01:57:13
>> They had said, you know, Patrick wasn't involved. There's no evidence to show he
01:57:17
was involved. And Crystal Lee had already lied to law enforcement, so she's the one to blame for this.
01:57:23
>> On day four, the prosecution star witness, Crystal Lee, took the stand. Her credibility was on the line. I don't
01:57:32
think we would have known what happened to Kelsey without Crystal Lee. >> I started picking up things that were
01:57:37
blood splattered. >> For two days, prosecutor Jennifer Veman asked Lee to describe Frezy's plan to
01:57:45
kill Kelsey Barth. They bolstered their case with surveillance videos and photos. This one shows the black tote in
01:57:53
the back of Frzy's [music] truck that Lee says he would use to dispose of her body. When you came in,
01:58:01
what did you see? >> Blood all over the floor. I saw blood up the wall. Saw blood on the roof wall.
01:58:09
>> Most disturbing, prosecutors played that video of Lee inside Kelsey's home, showing investigators how she cleaned up
01:58:17
the crime scene. >> Did you say, correct me if I'm wrong, did you say that you cleaned off some of
01:58:23
the appliances? >> I did. I wiped the There was blood on the front of the dishwasher. There was
01:58:28
blood on the front of the stove. Um there was um that cinnamon roll pan had blood on the um tinflow.
01:58:37
>> They had pulled up the floorboards where they found Kelsey's blood. They showed video of a hay barn where
01:58:46
Lee says Frezy hid Kelsey's body in that tote overnight. A cadaavver dog alerted
01:58:52
to the area. This is a surveillance image of Frezy at a gas [music] station. Lee says he was
01:58:59
buying gas to start a fire. >> We brought the tote here. Okay. >> We unloaded the tote.
01:59:06
>> Okay. >> Kelsey's body was moved to Frzy's ranch. >> Were you present when he started the
01:59:12
fire? >> Yes, I was. >> Okay. >> This is the video that shows how Lee says she helped Frezy burn Kelsey's body
01:59:20
in that black tote. What about the accelerant gas? >> Okay. >> And burned evidence, [music] including
01:59:28
Kayle's toys and Kelsey's bloodstained Bible. >> Do you remember what the books were by
01:59:34
just >> One of them was her um I would imagine it was a Bible. >> Experts say a human female tooth
01:59:43
fragment was recovered from Frzy's ranch near the burn site, but there wasn't enough DNA to determine a profile.
01:59:56
At the end of her testimony, she told the jury [music] Kelsey's chilling last words, "Please stop." But he didn't.
02:00:05
>> He keeps beating her and beating her and beating her. The jury needed to hear
02:00:09
that. They needed to hear how brutal this was, how uncaring he was, how senseless this was.
02:00:14
>> Why would Lee help Frzy? She claimed she feared for herself and her children. She
02:00:20
was in love with Patrick Frzy and had been for a long time. As the trial went on and and we saw that
02:00:28
dark side of Patrick Frzy that Crystal saw, that Kelsey saw, I think you can understand some of that fear.
02:00:37
I I don't know that we'll ever understand entirely why she did what she did. It's it's fairly inexplicable.
02:00:45
Perhaps the most shocking testimony came from a surprise prosecution witness. Your last witness, I think jaws dropped
02:00:52
when he started testifying. [music] Tell me about him. We didn't know about him.
02:00:57
>> Prosecutor Beth Reed says the surprise witness was an inmate at the same jail
02:01:01
where Patrick Frzy was being held. >> He actually had started calling our office while we were in the middle of
02:01:07
trial. >> The former inmate had watched a 48 hours episode on Kelsey Barth's murder.
02:01:15
Turns out he says Frezy gave him a hit list. Some of the names handwritten on paper towels he was instructed to flush.
02:01:25
Describe to me what was in the 16 notes passed between Patrick and the former inmate.
02:01:32
Well, they were requests that a certain number of witnesses needed to disappear, but it was very
02:01:39
specific as to Crystal Lee. Graphic descriptions of what needed to happen to Crystal Lee.
02:01:46
He described putting a bullet in her head. >> Also on Frzy's hit list, Crystal Lee's
02:01:52
best friend, Michelle Stein, and Kelsey's mother, Cheryl Barth. >> What does that say about Patrick Frzy?
02:02:01
It says that Patrick will do whatever he wants to get whatever he wants. >> The defense called no witnesses. Frezy
02:02:10
chose not to testify. The case went to the jury. After 3 and 1/2 hours of deliberations a
02:02:18
verdict. >> A verdict is in in this 11 breaking news alert. The jury says they unanimously
02:02:23
found Patrick Frzy guilty of first-degree murder. Frzy was found guilty of firstdegree murder, sentenced
02:02:31
to life in prison, plus 156 years. Do you think if Patrick hadn't involved Crystal, he would have gotten away with
02:02:39
Kelsey's murder? >> Yes, I do. I think it's very possible he would have gotten away with that.
02:02:44
Involving Crystal was that was a stupid plan. The whole plan was stupid, but he wanted Crystal Lee to pin it on. As for
02:02:53
Crystal Lee, she's facing a maximum of up to three years in prison. [music] >> I think a lot of our viewers are
02:03:02
probably thinking Crystal Lee, given what she's admitted to, >> got a really good deal.
02:03:09
>> She did. And um uh it's it's not right. And I'm not going to try to justify in
02:03:14
any way. Uh it's unfortunately a part of my profession that sometimes in order to
02:03:18
solve a case, we have to give a deal to the devil. Uh, that's exactly what we did here.
02:03:24
>> If you could sentence Crystal Lee, what would it be? >> Uh, heck of a lot more time than three
02:03:29
years. >> She could have saved Kelsey so many times over so many months, and it's
02:03:35
totally inexcusable. >> Is this justice for Kelsey and Kaye? Can there ever be justice?
02:03:43
>> Justice in this case, Kelsey be sitting here talking to you, not us. Excuse me. Um,
02:03:54
so we can s certainly seek a certain amount of justice, but not the justice that this case [music] deserves.
02:04:07
[music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> I've always been terrified, still am, of
02:05:00
uh of of water, dark water, sea water. Do you believe [music] Natalie Wood was murdered?
02:05:14
>> I think it's suspicious enough to make us think that something happened. >> Do you believe that Robert Wagner knows
02:05:22
a lot more about what happened to his wife than he's ever said? >> Well, I think he absolutely does because
02:05:26
he's the last one to see her. >> Would you like to live alone, Maggie? >> No. The Wagner Wood love story was one of
02:05:35
the great Hollywood love stories. >> Natalie Wood and Frank Sinatra were quite >> Natalie Wood was one of the biggest film
02:05:42
stars imaginable. >> My baby don't care. >> Robert Wagner in a way he was kind of
02:05:49
old Hollywood. >> He was this popular television star where he was astoundingly successful.
02:05:57
The story I wrote for Vanity Fair magazine was about Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood's tragic death at sea was
02:06:06
just one of the most stunning, staggering events in Hollywood. It was Thanksgiving weekend.
02:06:19
A call goes out from Robert Wagner saying that someone is missing from their boat.
02:06:28
6 hours later, the body of his wife, Natalie Wood, was found floating in the Pacific Ocean.
02:06:36
At the time of the incident, her death was ruled an accident. This new information is substantial
02:06:46
enough for us to want to take another look at the case. So over the last 6 years, have you been
02:06:52
able to get even more evidence that makes you question that this was an accident?
02:06:58
>> We have. >> There are witnesses who were nearby the Splender that evening. She got in the water somehow and I don't
02:07:10
think she got in the water by herself. It was cold, rainy, terrible, terrible weather conditions. I was the captain on
02:07:23
Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood's yacht. >> There was a tremendous [music] fight between them that night.
02:07:32
>> The fighting went back to the back of the boat and they just carried on and carried on and then it was quiet.
02:07:45
I went down below [music] and she wasn't there and the dinghy was gone and I looked around for her and I
02:07:53
couldn't I didn't know where she was. [music] >> I believed that Robert Wagner was with
02:07:58
her up until the moment she went into the water. >> We were so in love and we had everything
02:08:05
and in a second in a second it was gone. I wasn't there. I wasn't there for her.
02:08:19
>> There were a number of bruises that appeared to be fresh. She She slipped and hit the step and then rolled in.
02:08:26
That's what we think happened. >> She looked like the victim of an assault. >> When [music] this case was reopened,
02:08:34
Lieutenant Karina was asked, >> "Is Robert Wagner a suspect?" >> No. Has that changed?
02:08:55
[music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Natalie Wood was in life one of
02:09:43
Hollywood's most alluring actresses. In death, she still reigns, but now is one of its most enduring mysteries.
02:09:58
>> Actress Natalie Wood is dead at 43, the apparent victim of a drowning accident
02:10:02
off Santa Catalina Island in California. In 1981, Natalie Wood's death was quickly dismissed as an accidental
02:10:12
drowning, but rumors and allegations of foul play, fueled in great part by the boat's captain, Dennis Diver, have never
02:10:21
gone away. >> And I just didn't want my whole life to go by without having the truth come out.
02:10:29
So in 2011, 30 years after Wood's death, Diver and more than 700 others signed a
02:10:37
petition addressed to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department [music] outlining what they considered flaws in
02:10:44
the original investigation. >> It was already determined to be an actual drowning, but the information we
02:10:49
received made us want to take another look at the case. About nine months after the
02:10:55
investigation was reopened, another stunning announcement. The medical examiner's office changed
02:11:03
the manner of death from accident to undetermined, triggering an avalanche of news coverage and unleashing a flood of
02:11:12
new leads. >> Because of the press conferences we had, we found a lot more clues, a lot more
02:11:17
evidence, a lot more witnesses. For more than six years, veteran homicide detective Ralph Hernandez and
02:11:26
Lieutenant John Karina doggedly pursued [music] this case. >> Six years later, we've uh followed up on
02:11:31
all the clues. Over 150 clues we've got followed up on. Talked to a lot of people.
02:11:38
>> These detectives even traveled to Hawaii twice to comb the Wagner's yacht for
02:11:43
clues. It was docked there by its new owner. [music] 48 hours showed up in Hawaii, but
02:11:50
detectives wouldn't talk then and refused to [music] speak for six years and then for the first time they spoke
02:12:00
publicly about evidence they uncovered and there was a lot to tell. Does that evidence lead you to believe that
02:12:09
whatever happened to Natalie Wood was not an accident? >> Well, it does. It actually confirms my
02:12:14
suspicions even more that um what was originally reported isn't exactly what happened.
02:12:20
>> They point to the numerous bruises on Natalie Wood's body that were photographed and noted in the autopsy
02:12:26
report. It's [music] some of those bruises and where they were located that played a big part in convincing a
02:12:33
medical examiner to change the manner of death. Why are all these bruises suspicious to you? because she looked
02:12:41
like the victim of an assault. >> Another red flag, the story the three men on the boat, [music] Captain Dennis
02:12:49
Diver, actor Christopher Walkan, and Robert Wagner told the original investigators.
02:12:55
>> It didn't fit the smell test. You [music] know, it didn't make sense. >> All three told the police that they
02:13:01
assumed Natalie had left the Splendor [music] on the yacht's dinghy despite the late hour and stormy weather. That
02:13:09
didn't even make any sense to me. Why would Natalie Wood, this big movie star, try to go out in a dinghy in the middle
02:13:14
of the night in her socks, in her pajamas, at midnight, in rough seas? >> Is there any possibility that she would
02:13:22
get in that boat and leave? >> No. >> Not with a gun to her head. >> That story also makes no sense to
02:13:30
Natalie's younger sister, actress, and former Bond girl. >> Hi, I'm Plenty. >> Lana Wood. But of course you are
02:13:38
>> plenty too. >> Natalie reportedly had never operated the dinghy on her own and there was that
02:13:45
well doumented lifelong fear of dark water. >> I've always been terrified still am of
02:13:52
uh of of water dark water sea water. When I think of her in that [music] water, in the dark, in the cold, and the
02:14:02
one thing that she feared was water, and that's where she finishes her life. >> I know it's a cliche, but she really was
02:14:13
America's sweetheart. >> Vanity Fair magazine contributing editor Sam Cashner. >> America had grown up with her. She was
02:14:21
the little doubting girl in Miracle on 34th Street. Well, young lady, what's your name?
02:14:25
>> Susan Walker. What's yours? >> And then she was running with the sort of troubled pack in Rebel Without a
02:14:32
Cause. >> I'm not going back in that zoo. [music] >> I'm never going back. >> And then, of course, that incredible
02:14:39
performance in Splender in the Grass. She was in Westside Story and Gypsy. >> I am Gypsy Rose Lee.
02:14:49
>> And some of these great iconic films of the early 60s. By the time she was 18, Natalie had her
02:14:58
first of three [music] Academy Award nominations. She was so gifted. [music] >> In 2008, Robert Wagner, also known as
02:15:09
R.J., talked about Natalie on the CBS News broadcast Sunday morning. >> She was a very, very fine actress and
02:15:18
people loved her. You know, they adored her. He recalled their first date when Natalie was just 18 and R.J. was 26.
02:15:28
>> I started taking her out after that and it led one thing led to another and a
02:15:32
year later we were married. >> Was Natalie in love with R.J. when they first [music] got married?
02:15:40
>> Yes, she was madly in love with him. >> He was the perfect golden boy. But the
02:15:49
pressures of living under Hollywood's relentless scrutiny weighed [music] heavily on the marriage, says close
02:15:56
family friend Mark Crowley. >> They were hounded by the press. They were presented as the ideal couple, far
02:16:06
beyond what any normal human being could live up to. And now these investigators say they've
02:16:13
tracked down stunning new evidence that Wood and Wagner may have been more human
02:16:18
than anyone knew. Allegations that Natalie fled the couple's house one night in fear for her life. A new
02:16:26
witness, a former neighbor who says he was 12 years old at the time, remembers late one night being awakened by
02:16:34
somebody banging on the door. It was Natalie Wood. She was so afraid of him. She ran to a neighbor's house yelling
02:16:41
that day, "He's he's going to kill me and see and looking for help and looking for safety." And so a neighbor took her
02:16:46
in. [music] >> According to the witness, Natalie stayed the night and returned home the next
02:16:52
morning. But [music] so far, that's the only episode of alleged violence investigators have found.
02:17:04
After just 4 years, the couple's first marriage came to a bitter end, and Natalie began dating Hollywood
02:17:13
heartthrob Warren Batty. >> His career was on fire, and uh our relationship was gone, and why not? He
02:17:20
was in love with her. >> Wagner admitted that Natalie's stardom and his own insecurities probably tore
02:17:28
them apart. >> It was basically my inadequacy that didn't that didn't make it work. It made
02:17:33
me feel very sad and very brokenhearted and uh I felt that I had failed in the relationship
02:17:42
and I never thought that I'd ever get it back again. >> Both of them were besided with each
02:17:50
other after they got divorced. They [music] went on to other partners and had children.
02:17:59
But those marriages didn't work out and eventually [music] they found each other
02:18:04
again and got back together and got married a second time. >> How did you find out she was going back
02:18:11
with R.J.? >> Uh dinner party family only. R.J. was there in the living room and uh she
02:18:17
announced that you know R.J. and I are going to be remarried. I went wow. And all she did was she looked down and
02:18:25
she said, "Sometimes it's better to be with the devil you know than the devil you don't." Wagner
02:18:32
sees it differently. >> We felt that we had found something that was so precious to us and it was that um
02:18:42
we did everything in the world we could to protect it. >> They remarried, had a daughter named
02:18:48
Courtney, and were together for 9 years. until that final fatal voyage to Catalina Island.
02:19:04
On a miserable cold and rainy Friday in November, the splendor departed Marina Del Rey with Natalie Wood, Robert
02:19:12
Wagner, Captain Dennis Diver, and one [music] of Hollywood's hottest young actors,
02:19:18
Christopher Walkan. As soon as Chris Walkin walked up the gang plank [music] to the splendor in his pecode with the
02:19:26
collar turned up, Robert Wagner took an instant dislike to him. >> Chris was fresh off winning the Academy
02:19:34
Award for The Deer Hunter. >> God damn it. >> What is it? >> He was now shooting a film with Natalie.
02:19:40
>> It's me. [music] >> And there were rumors of an affair. >> You could see a little bit of jealousy
02:19:46
from Robert Wagner. It just kept getting more tense every minute of the of the day.
02:19:52
>> He felt that Natalie was paying way more attention to Christopher Walkin than she
02:19:55
was paying attention to him. >> When the splendor docked [music] at Catalina Island, Wood, Wagner, and
02:20:03
Walkan went ashore to the town of Avalon and began drinking heavily. We spoke to
02:20:09
Dennis Diver in 2011. The jealousy was under the surface until there was so much drinking that it
02:20:19
started to come out and it was obvious. Once back on this splendor, Diver says the tension escalated. And now for the
02:20:29
first time, investigators say they have a new witness corroborating Diver's account. That Friday, someone on a
02:20:37
nearby boat claims to have been close enough to see and hear a fight between the couple.
02:20:44
>> Natalie, to this witness, appeared to be the aggressor in the argument. Appeared
02:20:49
to be intoxicated. [music] Robert Wagner appeared to try and walk away from from the argument. At
02:20:56
the point that he's walking away, she actually fell down [music] to one knee. Deiver says the couple was fighting over
02:21:02
whether to move the Splendor to the other side of Catalina Island. >> He wanted to move the boat at night, but
02:21:09
she didn't want him driving the boat at night. It's kind of dangerous to do that, especially when it's so rough out
02:21:13
there and rainy. >> Natalie said she wasn't going to stand for this and would I take her to shore?
02:21:20
>> Natalie had Diver take her on the dinghy to Avalon where she desperately tried to
02:21:25
get off the island. She did indeed call me on Friday night. She said, "Um, can you come and get me?"
02:21:35
And I said, "What?" >> She couldn't get a boat or a flight out of there because of the weather and the
02:21:39
time of night. So, she had to spend the night there. >> Unwilling to return to the splendor that
02:21:45
night, Natalie got two hotel rooms, one for her, one for Diver, and then reportedly spent the night crying on
02:21:53
Diver's shoulder. She poured her heart out to him about how she was feeling and according to Dennis um about some of the
02:22:02
difficulties in their their marriage that it was becoming increasingly harder for her to deal with his professional
02:22:10
jealousy. >> And what did Dennis tell you about that? >> That she was furious. She was talking
02:22:16
about leaving him. >> Leaving him. >> Not just leaving for the weekend. >> No, leaving him. Divorcing. Leaving. He
02:22:23
felt that if she had not let gone back to mainland that night, she was so angry, she would have divorced uh Wagner
02:22:28
the next day. >> The next morning, Saturday, Natalie had a change of heart. >> She decided, well, hey, let's let's go
02:22:37
back to the boat. Let's let's see if we can smooth everything over here, and I'll make a nice breakfast.
02:22:43
>> Deiver says things did get better at first. Natalie even agreed to let Wagner
02:22:48
move the yacht to the other far more desolate side of the island. But by that evening, things were once again tense,
02:22:56
says Diver, when he and Wagner joined Walkan and Natalie, who had already gone ashore and were drinking at the bar.
02:23:04
When R.J. and I walked into the restaurant and he saw Natalie and Christopher sitting at the bar laughing
02:23:11
and having a wonderful time, he started to really really heat up. >> According to other people who were there
02:23:20
uh at the uh bar at the restaurant, they described him as irritated. He was tense
02:23:26
and [music] according to Deiver Natalie and Walkin were kind of ignoring him. They didn't really acknowledge him the
02:23:32
whole time and they were just kind of having a good time by themselves, partying and drinking.
02:23:37
>> Witnesses say all four were so drunk that when they left, the restaurant manager alerted the harbor master.
02:23:45
>> He calls the harbor master and says, "Hey, you know, Robert Wagner and Ally Wood are coming your way. They're really
02:23:50
intoxicated. Make sure they get back to their boat, okay?" >> They got back safely, but things were
02:23:58
about to turn ugly. Everything that I've [music] heard from Dennis know Natalie's temper was
02:24:06
surfacing. RJ's certainly was. It got out of hand in the worst way possible. [music]
02:24:32
For more than 38 years, the sea has kept her secrets about the night Natalie Wood
02:24:37
died. Secrets these investigators believe can be uncovered. But with all the shifting
02:24:44
stories, witnesses with failing memories, or long dead, Detective Hernandez knows time is running [music]
02:24:53
out. Why does a case that is now really more than 36 years old matter? >> Because somebody died. And no matter
02:25:03
what, ultimately that's our job to find the truth. >> Detective Hernandez and his partner
02:25:10
Kevin Low, now retired, brought their key witness, Dennis Diver, all the way to Hawaii where the boat was docked. And
02:25:18
there he reenacted his version of events. They spent a full day photographing, measuring, researching.
02:25:26
>> We wanted to take Dennis Diver there just to see what, you know, kind of jog his memory and see what details and
02:25:32
again get his perspective. >> Diver is a crucial but problematic witness. After initially telling police
02:25:40
one thing, he changed his story, sold it to tabloid magazines, and collaborated on a tell all book. But Diver claims he
02:25:50
was motivated by his conscience, not greed. >> I really don't just want money. What I
02:25:56
really wanted is to give Natalie a voice. >> You find him credible. >> I find his story in his version of
02:26:04
events when he talked to us. Everything fit makes more sense of what happened and is cooperated by other people.
02:26:12
Divert told investigators that problems between Robert Wagner and his wife building for two days exploded when they
02:26:20
returned to the splendor after dinner. Natalie by then in her flannel night gown and warm socks joined walkin de and
02:26:29
Wagner in the salon the living area of the boat. >> Natalie puts on the kettle to have a cup
02:26:35
of tea. I light a couple candles. I opened a bottle of wine. Natalie and Christopher
02:26:43
continued to giggle, just having fun. And then Robert Wagner out of the clear blue, picked up the bottle of wine
02:26:52
and smashed it. >> It breaks and goes everywhere and he yells at Walker, "What are you trying to
02:26:58
do? My wife?" Everything just kind of stops. >> Natalie, she said, "I cannot take this."
02:27:05
And she went into her room. According to Diver, Christopher Walkan also went to his room.
02:27:12
>> Then R.J. went into the room, Natalie and R.J.'s room, started arguing, yelling, things being thrown about.
02:27:23
>> At that point, Diver also leaves and goes up to the bridge at the top of the boat, says Lieutenant Karina.
02:27:29
>> He hears them arguing. The arguing is getting louder and he hears a lot of thumping. He says it sounds to him like
02:27:35
uh there's like a physical fight going on inside there to the point where he's so concerned he he uh walks back down
02:27:42
and he knocks on the door and Robert Wagner opens the door and he says he has this look crazy look on his
02:27:48
face and he says everything okay boss and he's like go away. He looks so angry. He says I was worried
02:27:55
about my own safety that I just I left. I went back up to the uh bridge. Diver told investigators that his line of
02:28:02
sight was blocked by the boat's rainshield, but he heard everything. >> Fighting continued and then to the back
02:28:10
of the boat. I I was concerned that something really bad was going down because the fighting, the arguing was so
02:28:18
intense. Until 2017, Diver was the only person to put both Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood outside on the back of the
02:28:27
boat, arguing Saturday night before she died. >> We have received information which we
02:28:33
felt was substantial. >> But after the press conference reopening the case, investigators got a huge
02:28:39
break. Two new witnesses told detectives they not only heard the fight, one of them says she saw it. saw figures on the
02:28:49
back of the Splender, male and a female, whose voices they recognize as being Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood arguing
02:28:57
in the back of the boat. [music] >> And how credible are these new witnesses? >> Oh, they're they're very credible. They
02:29:02
have no reason to lie and they and they their story matches what Dennis Diver says.
02:29:07
>> Like Diver, both witnesses say the argument stopped suddenly >> and then all of a sudden there was
02:29:13
nothing. Complete silence. Nothing but the sounds of a rough sea on a cold, dark November night, says
02:29:22
Lieutenant Karina. >> No one saw anybody go in the water. Nobody heard splash. Nobody heard
02:29:27
anything. They just heard the argument and then silence. >> There was one woman in the months
02:29:32
following Natalie's death who said publicly that she heard a woman calling for help. But Lieutenant Karina now
02:29:39
thinks she was mistaken. And Diver says 10 minutes after the fight ended, he [music] finally went back downstairs.
02:29:47
>> Robert Wagner is now in the state room and he says Robert Wagner is crying and
02:29:52
he says Natalie's gone. She's missing. >> Lieutenant Karina says Robert Wagner then tells Diver to go search the boat
02:30:00
for her. >> He can't find her anywhere. He comes back out and tells him, "I can't find
02:30:03
her." Robert Wagner tells him, "Oh, the dinghy is now missing as well." Karina and Hernandez [music] think it's
02:30:11
possible that someone could have untied the dinghy while Diver searched the boat.
02:30:16
>> I didn't untie it. Christopher didn't untie it. I don't think Natalie would have untied it.
02:30:22
>> Diver says Wagner refused to call for help. >> And Rod Wag tells her maybe she just
02:30:27
went into town, I think, to uh go to a bar or something. >> I said to Robert Wagner, "Maybe I should
02:30:32
turn on the search light." He said, "Don't do that." He says, "Well, maybe we should get on the radio and call
02:30:37
somebody." Robert Wagner says, "No, we don't want to call anybody. Let's just wait. See if she comes back."
02:30:44
>> According to the story Diver told investigators, Wagner then breaks out a bottle of scotch
02:30:52
and the two men sit drinking while more than an hour passes. >> Before you know it, we're oblivious and
02:31:00
it's time. We have to call somebody. She's gone. By Robert Wagner's own statement, he knew she was missing by
02:31:09
around midnight. But no call, no call for help is made till 1:30. >> Right. And when he did make that call
02:31:16
for help, it wasn't for, hey, uh, you need to search the water for her. He asked people in town to search for her
02:31:20
in town. And if they finally convinced Robert Wagner, hey, you need to call the Coast Guard. And, uh, kind of he almost
02:31:26
reluctantly said, "Okay, yeah, I guess we better call them." >> And what do you make of that? Well, if
02:31:31
your wife is missing and the dingy's missing, uh, I'm going to go look for her. I want to find her right away. I'm
02:31:36
going to be worried about her. Especially in seas like that, it's dark out, she doesn't like the water, she
02:31:41
doesn't like to swim. There's no reason for her to get in that dinghy to go anywhere. If she wanted to go somewhere,
02:31:46
she would ask Dennis Deiver to take her somewhere like she did the night before when she wanted to go into town. He did.
02:31:53
That's his job. It didn't make any sense [music] the story Robert Wagner was telling. And it still doesn't make any
02:31:59
sense to me to say that she would get in the dingy by herself and just and take off.
02:32:03
>> She didn't even know how to start it. >> She wouldn't do it [music] in a night
02:32:07
gown. She didn't get the mail in a night gown. >> My cash now or later >> after the Coast Guard was finally called
02:32:14
[music] about 3:30 a.m. over 3 hours after Natalie was reportedly last seen alive. [music]
02:32:20
The search went into high gear. Wagner's friend, Islander Doug Bombard, jumped in
02:32:27
his boat and joined in the hunt. At 7:44 a.m., he says he saw something red bobbing on top of the water.
02:32:36
>> It was about this far from shore uh where I found the body. The body was uh just basically hanging in that jacket.
02:32:44
That jacket was boying her up. She had a a cotton night gown on and her hair was
02:32:51
floating as you can imagine. >> When authorities arrived, Bombard headed to the splendor to break the news to his
02:33:00
friend. A moment Robert Wagner later recalled in [music] this audio recording of his 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart.
02:33:10
>> Doug pulled up and got out of his boat. Where is she? I asked him. Doug looked
02:33:17
at me. She's dead, R.J. My knees went out. Everything went away from me. I remember people coming on the boat
02:33:30
saying that they had found Natalie Wood floating and then she had drowned. Just couldn't believe it.
02:33:54
News of Natalie Wood's sudden death at the age of 43 quickly spread across the globe. Family [music] friend Mark Cwley
02:34:02
will never forget getting the call. >> When I picked up the phone, it was R.J. Okay. And he just screamed into the
02:34:11
phone, "She's gone." I just couldn't believe it. Things like that don't happen and they
02:34:24
don't happen to my sister, my family, and they don't happen to Natalie Wood. It's not real.
02:34:33
>> But it was all too real for Dennis Diver. [music] Soon after the movie star was found
02:34:38
floating face down in the waters off Blue Cavern Point, Robert Wagner and Christopher Walkan left the island in a
02:34:46
police helicopter, leaving Diver the grim task of identifying Natalie Wood's body.
02:34:53
>> Robert Wagner asked me if I would identify her body cuz he didn't want to. It was the eeriest feeling I've ever had
02:35:03
in my life to look at her laying there. >> Lifeless. It was so disturbing. >> You would think he want to stick around
02:35:13
and identify his wife and make sure her body was taken care of. That would be maybe what I would do. Maybe he's
02:35:20
different. Karina understands that grief can do strange things to people, but that
02:35:27
doesn't explain why. According to Diver, Wagner immediately came up with a story
02:35:33
and told the men on the boat to stick to it. >> Robert Wagner was very serious about
02:35:40
having the stories being the same. It was it was kind of like here we are. Okay, Dennis, Christopher, me, this is
02:35:51
what it is. Do you got it? That's what it is. Okay. If all the stories are the same,
02:36:00
there's there's really not too much to investigate. >> Diver says he now regrets going along
02:36:06
with it, but Lieutenant Karina says he understands how it could have happened. >> Diver back then, people mischaracterize
02:36:14
him as the captain of the boat. He's not the captain of the boat. He's a caretaker of the boat. Robert Wagner is
02:36:18
the guy who pays him and he's that's his meal ticket. If you look at Robert Wagner statement at the time, they
02:36:23
almost parried each other. >> All three men initially told Dwayne Razer, the original detective, that they
02:36:30
thought Natalie had taken the dinghy ashore. The detective told 48 hours in 2011 that he believed them.
02:36:38
>> I didn't doubt anything Robert Wagner told me at that time. Christopher Walin,
02:36:42
he basically told me the same story. It was pretty well confirmed. They assumed that she went ashore.
02:36:48
>> There was no mention of a fight. >> I saw the shattered glass in disarray and I questioned Robert Wagner about
02:36:55
that and says it happened sometime during their travels just due to the rough seas. I had no reason to question
02:37:01
him any further. >> Detective Razer, who has since died, only interviewed Wagner one more time.
02:37:08
It was the day after Natalie's funeral at the actor's bedside with his attorney present.
02:37:15
>> When I interviewed Robert Wagner, there was no indication of any jealousy, no
02:37:18
problems. There was no sign of foul play in my mind. >> It's a tragic accidental drowning.
02:37:24
>> Coroner Thomas Naguchi agreed. 2 weeks after the actress's death, the case was
02:37:31
officially [music] closed, but Dennis Deiver says his nightmare was just beginning. I felt like I was a prisoner.
02:37:39
>> Deiver says Wagner insisted he move into his guest house in Beverly Hills. >> I was to stay indoors at all times, not
02:37:48
communicate with anybody. I was in fear for my life because he never really knew
02:37:54
what could happen. >> Eventually, Diver left California for the East Coast, but was never able to
02:38:01
escape the past. >> I think he was in a way hunted down by his own conscience. He really seemed
02:38:07
like a hunted man. >> In the early 90s, Lana Wood says a tormented, seemingly inebriated [music]
02:38:14
Dennis Deiver started calling her. >> What specifically did he tell you? He [snorts] said it wasn't an accident. He
02:38:21
said it was ugly. >> Lana says she didn't want to believe it at first. >> I don't want to think that, but there
02:38:29
are so many things that are just facts. She has since become one of R.J. Wagner's harshest critics, going
02:38:38
so far as to publicly accuse him of foul play. >> Do you think she was pushed in the
02:38:45
water? >> Yes. You believe it was her husband, R.J. Wagner? >> Absolutely. Yes. >> [music]
02:38:55
>> Like Diver, Lana, who has a long bitter history with Wagner, has been accused of
02:39:00
exploiting Natalie's death for money and attention, something she denies. >> It's just time for the truth. It's time
02:39:10
to stop the lies and the deception and the fingerpointing. It's just not right. Do you think Robert
02:39:20
Wagner has ever told the truth of exactly what happened? I haven't seen it. I haven't seen him tell the details
02:39:26
that match all the other witnesses in this case. He's changed his story a little bit and his version of events
02:39:32
just don't add up to the evidence and the witnesses we found. >> Robert Wagner has never conceded that he
02:39:38
had a fight with Natalie on the boat that night. But in his memoir, he [music] did come clean about smashing
02:39:44
that wine bottle, the one he originally told the police broke in rough seas. >> Walking and I got into an argument. At
02:39:52
one point, I picked up a wine bottle, slammed it on the table, and broke it into pieces. Natalie was already below
02:39:59
decks at that point. >> In Wagner's version of the story, he didn't smash that bottle in a jealous
02:40:06
rage, as Diver claims, [music] but in an argument with Walkan over Natalie's career. In fact, he says she
02:40:14
wasn't even in the room. >> I looked below. I saw Natalie was doing something with her hair. She was going
02:40:20
to go to bed. And uh she shut the door and uh Chris and I were still talking. And when I went down below,
02:40:30
she wasn't there. She the the dinghy was gone. And I looked around for her and I
02:40:35
couldn't I didn't know where she was. >> Originally, he told the detective he thought Natalie had taken the dinghy and
02:40:42
gone ashore. But that, like so many other details, has changed [music] to what is now called the banging dinghy
02:40:51
theory. >> Natalie was in the master cabin and heard the dinghy banging against the
02:40:56
side. She got up to retie it. She slipped on the swimstep on the stern [music] and was either stunned or
02:41:04
knocked unconscious and rolled into the water. The loose dingy floated away. My theory fits the few facts we have. That
02:41:13
story is 100% false. The dinging really wasn't banging because it was tied off with two lines securely to the boat.
02:41:22
>> The reality is what's what does the evidence show? She wouldn't go back and that's not her that's not her job. She
02:41:27
would never go worry about the dingy. She's going to tell Dennis Dever, hey, can you go tie that dingy down? It's
02:41:31
making noise. That's his job. Six years of investigation, four new key witnesses, two determined investigators
02:41:41
with a lot of questions for Robert Wagner. >> As we've investigated the case over the
02:41:46
last 6 years, I think he's more of a person of interest. Now, >> we know now that he was the last person
02:41:52
to be with Natalie before she disappeared. >> [music] >> For the first time in the more than 36
02:42:09
years since Nallywood drowned off Catalina Island, investigators called her husband a
02:42:17
person of interest, but they stopped short of calling him a suspect. We have not been able to prove that this
02:42:28
was a homicide and we haven't been able to prove that this was an accident either. The
02:42:33
ultimate problem is we don't know how she ended up in the water. The statutes of limitations have run out
02:42:40
on all crimes except one, murder. And to prove murder, there has to be evidence that someone intentionally put
02:42:48
Natalie in the water. Falling in by accident wouldn't count. If people knew that Natalie Wood was in the water and
02:42:56
they didn't save her, they could have saved her and they didn't save her, would that be enough to bring charges in
02:43:02
this case? >> No, that's not. Believe it or not, there's no duty to act. >> Believe me, if she had called out or she
02:43:13
had made any uh noises or if we'd have heard anything, there were three of us there. We would have done something.
02:43:20
Nobody heard anything. Still, investigators remain troubled by the evidence they do have. The witnesses
02:43:28
who talk about a fight on the back of the boat and the number and locations of fresh bruises on Natalie's body.
02:43:36
>> I think I've been a cop long enough to see those appear to be assaultive in nature.
02:43:43
>> Could the [music] bruises have instead come from a drunken fall? perhaps. But
02:43:48
investigators think the circumstantial evidence, the fight, the alcohol, the [music] jealousy may suggest another
02:43:57
scenario. >> Someone can get so enraged they can't control their anger and like a crime of
02:44:01
passion. It just happens and they didn't mean for it to happen and then later on
02:44:05
they're sorry about it, but it's too late. >> For his part, Christopher Walkan has
02:44:10
remained largely silent through the years. >> We have to ask you about Natalie Wood
02:44:14
because as you know, they've reopened the case. You were there that night. What do you think happened, Christopher?
02:44:20
>> Well, you know, I stopped talking about that 30 years ago, and there's so much
02:44:25
information, books, and uh >> internet. Anything you want to know, just go look.
02:44:30
>> He did, however, interview with the new investigation. >> I'm not going to go into what
02:44:35
Christopher Walkin said, that what he told us was in confidence, at least for now.
02:44:39
>> Investigators did tell us that Wan is not a person of interest. Despite several attempts to reinter
02:44:47
Robert Wagner, including a trip to Aspen, where Wagner lives with his wife, actress Jill St. John, the investigators
02:44:54
say the actor has refused to speak with them. >> Robert Wagner, of course, we want to
02:44:59
talk to him and get his side of the story and try to clarify things. He's, you know, refused time and time again to
02:45:04
talk to us. [music] >> One part of Robert Wagner's story has never changed. He continues to insist
02:45:12
Natalie Wood's death was an accident, but there is a [music] part of him that blames himself.
02:45:19
>> When you're in love, you're responsible for the other one. She's responsible for
02:45:23
me and I was responsible for her. And you know, this accident that occurred, um, I wasn't there. I wasn't there for
02:45:33
her. And that's always within me. It really does pay me to this day to know that she is gone
02:45:48
when she really had whole life in front of her. >> I was 35 [music] when Natalie died and I
02:45:57
am now 71. Before my life is over, I would like to put Natalie's to rest by knowing the
02:46:04
[music] truth >> by speaking out. Lieutenant Karina [music] and Detective Hernandez are
02:46:11
hoping new witnesses will come forward. Either someone who saw something, heard something, or was told something.
02:46:20
Someone who will help answer the question once and for all. How did [music] Natalie Wood end up in the
02:46:27
water? Like any cold case, they intend to work it until it's solved. And [music]
02:46:34
>> we're not ever going to close it until we get to the truth. >> [music] [music]
02:46:55
[music] [music] [music]