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[Music] little small town Niles has this brutal Savage murder there are kids that grew up
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locking their doors and being scared when they went to bed at night just because of this
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case roxan wood in 1987 was married to Terry Wood roxan and Terry went to the bowling
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alley and arrived in separate cars roxan left earlier than Terry he just wanted to keep with the fun he was
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having and roxan wanted to get home and go to bed Terry arrives home and notices roxan
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laying in the kitchen he notices a pool of blood on the floor she was bleeding profusely from her neck pleas oh my God
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my wife has been murdered my wife has been murdered I answered the phone and I could tell something was bad wrong he
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just broke down he just said someone murdered your sister Rock being the rock of the family
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she didn't have an enemy out there who just randomly breaks in and does this to someone she was sexually assaulted the
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as salent left his DNA but in terms of the essential evidence based on what was there this went cold fairly quickly did
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it not based off on what they had to go on yeah the DNA technology wasn't there to really to follow up and go through on
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and there was absolutely not a lot more to go off how frustrating was it that no
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one had been arrested oh Beyond frustrating I was starting to lose hope Dr Ashlin Kirsten and I had been talking
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about involving the students at Western in a Cold Case project when we first got
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the file it was just an amazing amount of data it just looked overwhelming some of the documents are
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older than I am then we would have to sort through if it was relevant information or not hours upon hours to
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scan all this stuff they were able to organized that report where we were able to put a key word in and search across
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that entire document 3,500 Pages how important was that hugely important I was hopeful that we would be able to
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solve the case or move the case forward or that someone who came after us would the first thing that I did was I
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requested access to the case File it was very easy to read through quite quickly
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due to the work of the students Gabriella Vargas is a genetic genealogist probably one of the best in
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the country if not the world but I'm also a pink-haired tattooed mom from California who enjoys
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Woodworking and gardening describe the size of the DNA material that you had to work with it
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was 28 picr so small that you could never see it with the the naked eye just a speck of a speck of a speck very very
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SI small amount of DNA it was deemed unsolvable prior to my involvement roxand Wood's family was my
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motivation for working as hard and as fast as I did they never gave up hope that one day Justice would be served
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they have a Facebook page Janet Wood had made a post on the page one day Rock one
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day and I screamed out at the top of my lungs no today's your day Rock today's your day
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[Music] the [Music] [Music] Brad Woods remembers February 20th 1987 like it was yesterday he was just
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14 years old I was getting ready for school and I can remember my mom pounding on the bathroom door saying to
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hurry up she needed to talk to me hours earlier Brad's 30-year-old sister Rox known as rock had been nearby in her
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Niles Michigan home alone when she was viciously attacked her throat slashed when I came out you know she had told me
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that um she had gotten a call that U Rock had been killed devastated Rox San's family couldn't imagine why anyone
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would want to harm her she always made people think you were her best friend she just loved everyone hi School
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graduation Gorgeous Hair she definitely had the hair she was tall statuesque she
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dressed to the nines that was very important to her she was very classy Janet Wood could not help but admire her
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older sister their parents were divorced and roxan had taken on a maternal role with her siblings with divorced parents
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a lot of times you feel like you're being shuffled between you know house to house and the one thing that was always
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stable for me was was Rock she was being Mom to you yeah rock you know she was always there she was your rock she was
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she was Rock Sand's last name would eventually change from Woods to Wood and walks Terry and rock after meeting
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Future Husband Terry would shortly after she graduated from high school she was working at his father's company Terry
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was still in high school on the wrestling team and and he walks and he's in his wrestling shorts and whatever she
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said that was the nicest looking legs she ever saw and she was just Smitten by him
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right away roxan and Terry married in 1982 she said was the happiest day of her life 6 years later Janet would
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change her name from Woods to wood as well when she married Terry's brother ra both brothers wound up working for
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the family business for roxan and Terry it proved to be a bit too much togetherness they got dressed in the
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morning together and they rode to work together and they came home for lunch together and then they went back to work
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together rockand solution taking a job in nearby Southbend Indiana a little time apart seemed to help the marriage
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very very content happy looking forward to starting a family February 19th 1987 started out as a typical Thursday
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evening for the couple they met for dinner at a restaurant in downtown Niles after work and then went to a local
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bowling alley arriving in separate cars from the report you could tell when roxan entered that bowling alley all
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eyes were on her Michigan state police detective sargant John Moore there wasn't a whole lot of ladies there
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because this was the men's bowling league so she drew some attention as midnight approached roxan was ready to
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call it a night but Terry wanted to stay there's Witnesses where Terry and she said good night to each other hug kiss
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love you drive safe after roxan headed home Terry stayed behind and bowled another game he
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then headed home and arrived here about 45 minutes after his wife Terry entered the house through the garage and once
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inside He Came Upon a horrific sight she was laying on the floor she had her night gown on he said there was
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a lot of blood according to detective first lieutenant Chuck Christensen Terry said he rushed over to roxan he got
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behind her according to him and and picked her head up and held her head in his see if she was alive to see if she
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was alive yes finding no signs of Life Terry grabbed the phone and called the local police station she is good she has
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been cut Terry noticed that her panties were down around her knee SL ankle area her night gown was pulled up now listen
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to me okay at times Terry seemed to get belligerent with the person trying to help him I'm going to get some
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information from you I'm want to get a car started okay no start no they are started the dispatcher kept Terry on the
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phone don't scream into the phone because the phone distorts and I can't understand you that well okay a record
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no I'm trying to get some information from you okay yeah right Terry's aggressive demeanor on the phone quickly
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became a red flag according to investigators is that suspicious Behavior to you it's a bit suspicious
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typically they're in shock distraught but not normally do you hear that anger component in there to the
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level that it is in this one detective Sergeant Jason Bailey says a seed of Suspicion grew even more once police
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arrived at the home he definitely had fits of Rage I know at one point he was screaming they wanted a supervisor a
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sergeant there is he making himself a suspect by this kind of behavior everybody reacts differently but based
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on this abnormal reaction I believe he was making himself a suspect First Responders eventually had no choice but
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to subdue Terry by placing him in the back of a patrol car and when they drove him down to the police post for routine
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questioning Terry quickly asked for an attorney which set off more alarm bells for investigators the detective at that
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time told him within 5 to 10 minutes you you did this and I will not rest until I
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put you away forever an investigator said that to Terry Terry I believe you're I believe you're the Killer and I
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will not rest until you're behind [Music] bars as investigators began piecing together clues in roxan woods rape and
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murder the emerging picture offered up just one suspect her husband Terry there was no sign of any forc entry did that
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raise eyebrows absolutely but Terry told police they'd been having problems with the lock on
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the back door claiming it didn't work investigators however remain suspicious we have a sheath up here of
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filet knife located near the body that filet knife presumed to be the murder weapon had been taken from a kitchen
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drawer it was never found that would be odd that a killer would come to a house without a weapon
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Terry told police that he'd slipped in Rox San's blood as he lifted her head to check on her but there were no blood
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smears indicating he'd actually done that investigators thought they discovered a
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potential motive when they looked into roxan and Terry's past we did uncover a extramarital affair by both parties by
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both parties yeah and so when you have a murder like this and you learn there was
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some infidelity are you wondering could jealousy have been a motive absolutely I remember the detective
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saying it was rage only someone close to her would have this kind of Rage I never
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never bought that Janet firmly believed in Terry's innocence I just knew him too
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well so that just didn't fit with what I knew Terry wasn't a rageful guy he may have a sharp tongue occasionally but
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never a violent person despite strongly suspecting Terry investigators didn't believe there was enough evidence to
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charge him after just a few months the case went cold leaving a cloud of Suspicion
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hanging over Terry he declined our request for an interview I'd heard stories that at
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times he'd walk into a place and somebody would call him slash DNA was left at the crime scene a
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sample was preserved but given the limitations on technology back in 1987 not much could be done with it
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still Rock San's family never gave up I didn't lose hope ever I mean this guy just didn't do this and
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then lead a clean pristine life the rest of his life DNA technology evolved eventually allowing the sample to be
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uploaded to the criminal database codus in 1999 but no match was returned as disappointing as that was everyone was
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hopeful that the DNA would at least clear Terry when it was tested against his the result it wasn't Terry's de DNA
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so did that eliminate Terry as a person of interest as a suspect in this case no
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why not it's not his Sean just because you find Seaman in somebody doesn't necessarily mean that that person is the
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one that killed them after that the case offered no new leads until 2020 after more than three decades of
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compiling thousands of reports police were drowning in paper work that's when a professor and an Innovative group of
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students here at Western Michigan University figured out a way to speed up the investigation The Real World
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experience I think is is priceless see that Marine Dr Ashlin Kirsten teaches a criminal justice studies program for
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years she's been talking to detective Christensen about how her students might help on a Cold Case what a great
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partnership that would be if we could ever make something like that happen so the professor and the detective came up
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with a plan Dr Kirsten's students would process around 3,500 pages of documents accumulated
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since the day roxan was murdered into a single digitized database Samantha Rogers was one of several students who
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worked on the case the officers are able to search by name and see if they've already been interviewed if they needed
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a followup they can search locations things that they wouldn't be able to do just flipping through thousands of pages
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McKenzie stowman says that decades old files were a solemn reminder of how long some victims wait for justice it gave a
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sense of gravity to what we were doing that these cases have gone unsolved for that
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long around the same time the students began crunching data Christensen decided it was time for a hail marry pass
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Colleen Fitzpatrick is the president and founder of identif finders International
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a company that specializes in genetic genealogy it's been used in forensic cases to help identify um unidentified
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remains and violent offenders for violent crimes Christensen hired her genealogy company to examine the tiny
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amount of DNA left from Rox Sand's case we found out there was what I would call
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a Nat's brow of DNA left about 3% of what we normally use that was the lowest amount of DNA we've ever had to work
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with to solve a case identif finders spent about 10 months working with the data the sample produced but came up
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empty it really did feel impossible it really did then one day in April 2021 Colleen happened to be chatting with
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investigative genetic genealogist Gabrielle Vargas who worked as a consultant for identif finders and I
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said well why don't you let me look at it I concluded that I did not stand with the others I believed that this case was
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extremely solvable and I believe that I could solve it so Gabriella got to work incredibly she was able to generate a
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genetic profile from the Killer's trace DNA tells me where their ancestrial Origins come from are they Eastern
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European are they Mediterranean are they African American and what what was the race of this person Caucasian Gabriella
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then turned to an online DNA service when consumers use DNA sites like 23 inme and
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ancestry.com they can take their results and upload them to a broader database called Jed match in the hope of finding
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more relatives they can choose to opt into law enforcement matching if they do that I can see if they are a match to my
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suspect Gabriella was able to use Jed match and the genetic profile she developed to start to build the family
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tree of Rox San's killer how far back did you go in time uh one side of the tree the ancestor was
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1823 on the other side the top ancestor was 1796 seven essentially what we're looking for amongst these matches are
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where they connect to each other and it led me to a union couple a union couple is where two sides of the family tree
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meet this couple was born around 1920 based on that we can presume that they would have kids around 1940 maybe
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1950 it would have to be one of their children the couple she found had three sons she
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let the detectives know they did background checks and eliminated two of The Three Brothers as
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possibilities they were down to the last brother he's been involved in a lot of different things violent things violent
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things sexual deviant things you name it he's probably been involved in it and you connect the DNA with someone who has
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a history of violent behavior and you got yourself a suspect absolutely how do you feel about sharing your DNA
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search results with law enforcement join the conversation now on social [Music] media after 34 years and one last chance
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at solving this case with a speck of DNA too small to see with the human eye Detective Chuck christensen's daring bet
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paid off big and to know that we had come to this point was simply amazing Michigan State Police now believed they
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had finally Tracked Down rocks and woods killer we were confident now we were going to solve this and make an arrest
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you could now pinpoint who that individual was that had committed these awful crimes
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and who is that person that individual's Patrick Gillum Patrick Gillum a man who is
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living just a few miles from where he allegedly raped and murdered rockand wood and it turns out he had a troubled
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past had been a drinker is he into drugs he's into drugs just an individual that
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was lost in life and bad individual based on his background when detectives dug into
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gillum's criminal history they found a connection to another disturbing case 8 years before Rox Sand's attack my wife
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Moren was attacked by Patrick Gillum in 1979 Robert and Marine fck and their two
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young daughters lived in Gary Indiana back in September of 1979 we were just kind of blossoming into
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adulthood with the kids with our lifestyle with our jobs Robert was economic director for the city and Moren
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was an art teacher at the local Middle School what is it about Moren that you fell in love with wow I can't say one
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thing only she was very attractive which has caught my eye she was so nice people
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gravitated to her because of her warm personality one night while making his way home from a business trip Robert
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called Moren with a favor I said Moren I don't have my keys to the house so could
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you leave the side door open at around 11: at night Robert turned onto his street he'll never forget what he saw
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when I pull up I see the police cars Robert quickly found Moren who calmly told him she was in bed when she was
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startled awake by a noise downstairs Moren sees this guy going through her purse he got scared whatever and chased
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her Morin started going upstairs and he grabbed her at the bottom of the stairs and got on top of her and he tried his
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best to molest her he wasn't successful Moren told Robert the man then took her purse and
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fled throughout the attack Marine had stayed quiet she didn't want to awaken her two
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girls that takes an incredible amount of Courage she was willing to sacrifice herself there if need be to protect her
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one and three-year-old daughters Moren had a lot more than courage she had strength about a week later Gillum was
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pulled over in Gary for a traffic violation a police officer noticed credit cards on the seat next to him
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they were Marines police officer called me and said we picked the guy up we're bringing
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him into the station when he was interviewed by police he said all I remember is going into the house and I
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blacked out and woke up with my pants around my ankles Patrick Gillum was charged with
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burglary and unlawful deviate conduct he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years in Indiana State Prison how did
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you go on with life from that point we forgot about it we changed our house we changed our neighborhood she never told
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anybody because she felt that was a private issue Patrick Gillum served just 7 years
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of his 14-year sentence about 4 months after his release police believe Gillum assaulted rockand
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woodal criminals learn as they go and I believe he learned from that first crime
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he did that I better not leave this witness alive because I will be in prison for a long long time Moren died
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in 2018 from cancer not knowing anything about the rockand wood case now armed with their DNA evidence investigators
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were ready to move in on Patrick Gillum at this point we decide to get a serup ious sample to compare to the
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profile that we had from Brock sand wood from the scene and we do this through our undercover surveillance
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team I'm Ryan cotti and I uh am a trooper with the Michigan State Police and you do some undercover work from
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time to time I do I'm assigned with the Fugitive Recovery team for the fifth district in May 2021 cotti and his team
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surveilled Gillum in South Ben for days on end and picked up a crucial clue that
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would Aid them in collecting his DNA we noticed that he was a smoker and why does that help you just in the simple
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fact that uh you know when you're smoking it's a great source of DNA you have your lips directly on the butt of
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the cigarette and your saliva gets in the cigarette hot on gillum's tail the team
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witnessed their target flick a cigarette butt outside his truck window while driving and so oh boy you're rubbing
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your hands you're going this is going to be that final piece of the puzzle that you had talked about right yes but
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there's a Twist we sent that up to the lab right away a couple days later the lab
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director calls me and he said it's not a match [Music] DNA is DNA if it's not a match it's not
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a match detective Moore says investigators were shocked when the lab called to say the DNA sample from
00:27:42
Patrick gillum's cigarette butt did not match Rox Sand's killer we're scratching
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our heads I called the trooper that grabbed that cigarette butt and I said is there any way at all that you lost
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sight of that when it flipped out of his finger and he said a c drove by right then it
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was possible the cigarette butt tested was not gillums the only thing logically that we can do is go back and get
00:28:09
another one So Undercover Trooper Ryan cotti headed back to work once again tailing Gillum he pulled into this
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laundry mat which we saw as a window of opportunity that he would most likely be
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coming out to take a smoke break this time cotti was determined not to lose sight of gillum's discarded cigarette
00:28:29
butt for even a moment and instead of tailing him in a car cotti followed Gillum on foot I'm not a smoker and
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there was a gas station right over on the corner that I saw and I I was like well you know I need to go over and get
00:28:44
a pack of cigarettes and sit on the the curb next to the laundry man he came and
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took a seat uh probably about 6 to 8 ft away from me and we had a smoke together
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so how did you strike up a conversation with him I just tried to say hi to him made some small conversation he liked
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the Red Wings it wasn't long before Gillum finished his cigarette and went back inside I uh saw him throw his
00:29:07
cigarette uh which was right in about this area so it was great situation because the cigarette was by itself so I
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pull out a uh a glove and go over and I pick the cigarette up with my hand was it still smoking it was it was still
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warm yes it was so I wrapped it up inside that glove I stuck it in my pocket and and had it out investigators
00:29:29
held their breath until the results from gillum's cigarette butt came back it was
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a perfect match to the DNA left at the 1987 crime scene I was ecstatic I was very very happy but investigators were
00:29:44
not yet ready to make an arrest opting to bring Gillum in for an interview in July 2021 you're not in trouble you're
00:29:53
here voluntarily detective Bailey says they told Gillum they needed to question him about an old casee you know anybody
00:30:01
by the name of roxan he explains to us I know two roxan and he said one's a stripper one's a drug addict Gillum was
00:30:07
shown a picture of rockand wood that girl look familiar you ever met her before never met her maybe that's a
00:30:15
newer picture here's an older picture then Gillum was shown a second photo of rock
00:30:22
sand never seen her never met her don't know who she is and I said well we're here to talk to you about her this This
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Woman's been assaulted this is too much for me man you can see his body just tense up and almost to the point of
00:30:36
hyperventilation hands started shaking threw his hands you know back in the air I've never had a reaction out of
00:30:43
somebody like that in 23 years of doing this does he continue talking I got to talk to my lawyer at that time he
00:30:49
requested to speak to his attorney I got to talk to my lawyer man in February 2022 just days shy of the 35th Ann iary
00:30:58
of Rox San's murder Patrick Gillum was arrested at his Southbend Indiana home an answer a family has waited 35
00:31:08
years for Rox San's Brother Brad Woods it it didn't seem real it was nothing like I had ever played in my mind of how
00:31:18
I would be when they came to the door to say we've got them detective Christensen
00:31:23
then met face to face with the man who had lived for decades with cruel rumors and doubt Terry Wood I sat him down
00:31:32
explained he was no longer a person of interest and we knew he had nothing to do with it how did he react he was very
00:31:39
emotional he started crying of course was bewildered and in shock as a 35-year-old burden was lifted off Terry
00:31:50
the hammer was about to fall for Gillum you are under arrest okay investigators questioned him for five and a half hours
00:31:58
at a police station in South Bend with Gillum only asking for an attorney at the very end at times he spoke in
00:32:08
circles I can't believe I did if I did well you saying I did so went pressed on it he kept saying you guys are telling
00:32:15
me I did this and if I did this I'm a monster I'm a monster man if I did that that's a monster that's a monster man
00:32:25
only a monster would do this let me ask you this how do you think your DNA was found with her I have no clue how do you
00:32:34
think I have no clue man said that several times during the interview when he was confronted with the case facts he
00:32:42
kept saying I don't remember I don't remember I don't remember doing that but Janet says gillum's reaction when he was
00:32:50
questioned seven months prior proved he was lying now he visibly reacted shook like a leaf leaned back in his chair
00:33:01
pound in his chest I got to talk to my lawyer I think I need a lawyer you tell me he doesn't remember
00:33:08
what he did Gillum was charged with Rox Sand's murder but had a golden opportunity to apprehend him decades
00:33:17
earlier SLI through investigators fingers I truly believe that I would have been raped and
00:33:26
murdered see more of the evidence and timeline at 48 hours.com in the summer of 1987 just months after rockand wood was
00:33:40
murdered in her home her alleged killer crossed paths with yet another woman it was a hot night in South Bend Indiana
00:33:49
when Rose caparell went outside to her front lawn I was standing on there watering and all of a sudden I hear this
00:33:57
loud car coming down the street Rose standing alone says she noticed a blue El Camino similar to this one driven by
00:34:05
a stranger getting closer I looked and he had a tail light out on the car about 3 4 minutes later I hear the same car
00:34:14
coming back down this street now it had a bad Muffler right oh the muffler was loud I just got a feeling that something
00:34:22
just wasn't right and by the time I got halfway to my front door a man came came
00:34:27
around the corner of the house he had a stocking cap on and he had a full beard all you could basically see was his eyes
00:34:37
I just turned and ran screaming down the street have you ever run faster in your
00:34:41
life than that moment and I'm not a runner that I ran Rose says she ran to a neighbor's house and called local police
00:34:50
but the as salent had escaped what do you believe would have happened if that man had caught up to you my thought was
00:34:56
he was going to rape me a few days later while Rose and her family were driving to dinner her daughter Tina says she
00:35:03
spotted that same blue El Cino with a burned out tail light in a parking lot my mom says right away that's the car
00:35:12
stunned Rose and Tina say they went to call the police leaving Rose's husband Stan a retired Marine waiting for the
00:35:21
car's owner I came back to my dad holding a gun at the attacker sitting on the ground Tina says her father demanded
00:35:29
the man hand over his driver's license they say the name on that license Patrick Gillum we had never heard the
00:35:37
name before Rose says the police never arrived so Stan lowered his gun and let Gillum leave she says she later reported
00:35:47
the incident at the South Ben police station we didn't pursue it cuz we figured you know they would be doing
00:35:53
something with it no arrest was ever made decade later when Rose saw the report of Gillum being arrested for
00:36:01
roxan Wood's Murder She and Tina decided to tell their story to the Michigan police imagine if the police had come
00:36:11
they might have solved rockand Woods case just a few months after it had occurred possible yes an opportunity
00:36:19
lost yeah yeah it uh it could have went that way but in April 2022 gillum's day of Reckoning finally
00:36:29
came when he walked in I openly said piece of I didn't realize I was saying it as loudly as I did in a Michigan
00:36:38
courtroom he faced some of the people whose lives he had viciously altered and he made eye contact with me he sat down
00:36:47
and he looked up and he stared right in my face even though Gillum had insisted to
00:36:55
investigators that he didn't remember murdering roxan he later pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and now
00:37:03
everyone waited for his sentence to be handed down it was almost like being face to face with the devil I remember
00:37:11
being shaky and nervous and just I I just couldn't believe I'm sitting this close to the person that that did this
00:37:20
Brad and Janet finally got the chance to address the man who killed their sister
00:37:25
all those years ago Patrick Gillum is a very definition of a nightmare women fear our whole lives
00:37:32
Gillum appeared confused as though he'd seen a ghost when looking at Janet he wore headphones in order to hear Janet
00:37:41
does look a lot like rock he was probably in shock seeing her sitting there his actions gave all of us a life
00:37:48
sentence while he got to live most of his as a free man and we are here today to see him finally pay something for
00:37:56
what he's done which is likely the rest of his life in a cage like the vile animal that he is it seems people like
00:38:04
him tend to find Jesus in prison don't bother looking cuz the devil will be the only one greeting you
00:38:11
when it was his turn to speak Gillum offered an apology and a prayer I can't believe I did what I did and I pray for
00:38:20
them every night and I am so sorry I just hope that sometime in the future but God's help that they can said to
00:38:28
forgive me the judge sentenced Gillum who was 67 at the time to a minimum of 23 years in prison sitting in court
00:38:38
Terry Wood now Vindicated watched as his wife's real killer was led away Robert farig witnessed Terry's pain
00:38:48
firsthand I shook his hand he was you know shaking crying I felt more empathy for him than I could for any other
00:38:58
person I've met Terry was cleared and his wife's killer found thanks in large part to advances in technology genetic
00:39:08
genealogist Gabriella Vargas who solved a decades Long Cold Case in Just 4 days says she's eager to do it again as a
00:39:18
result of your work more and more law enforcement agencies will be coming to you more and more families hoping that
00:39:25
you can do your miracle work and solve their cold cases that's quite a burden for you isn't it oh absolutely not um
00:39:34
it's an honor it's an honor to be able to work these cases to bring Justice to these victims and and closure to these
00:39:42
families and I will never stop as the Wood family finally found some peace their Rock will always be with them
00:39:50
giving them the strength to move forward Janet remembers a dream she had about her
00:39:58
sister we were downtown n and she came up and grabbed me and she goes jam it and I was like rock oh my God and we're
00:40:08
walking and walking and walking and just laughing and all of a sudden I look up and it's dead silent and we're at the
00:40:16
gates of the cemetery and I said um I said oh I said do you have to go back and she goes yes
00:40:26
she goes but it's fine she goes I'm good she go I'm really good that was [Music]
00:40:46
it her home became a crime scene I knew my mom was in distress her mother's fiance
00:40:54
dead it was shock what really happened I didn't even know what to think what Angelina saw 48 hours Saturday on CBS
00:41:03
and streaming on Paramount [Music] plus when you think of the Phoenix desert you're definitely aren't thinking
00:41:28
of a [Music] waterfront the canal system goes right through the center of Phoenix the more people that were moving
00:41:43
to the area the more that the trails along there were being used for walking running
00:41:52
biking there are not many crimes that are like this one you had women riding bicycles along the
00:42:06
canal on a typical Phoenix evening ambushed stabbed multiple times police are looking for whoever killed
00:42:19
22-year-old Angela braso Angela braso dismembered decapitated police are looking at this
00:42:28
scene and thinking what on Earth happened and who did this 10 months later a 17-year-old
00:42:39
Junior at Arcadia High School Melanie bernes this is the high school that Steven Spielberg
00:42:46
attended Melanie Bernice's mother goes out to dinner and Melanie decides to go on a bike
00:42:54
ride and the following morning a woman is riding her bike right here there was just a big puddle it looked different as
00:43:02
I rode through it and all of a sudden I'm like that is blood so she called the police the
00:43:10
police saw a blood trail and they see Melanie Bernice's body at the bottom of the
00:43:19
canal my time in my life froze at that very moment the day we found out I made a promis to
00:43:28
myself I just never stopped talking about her these murders became widely known as
00:43:37
the Phoenix Canal murders my name is Clark schwarzkoff and I was assigned to the C case unit
00:43:46
investigating the canal murders I think there was over 600 Persons of Interest I said okay give me the
00:43:55
list in this mound of information of all these people and all these possible suspects I believed our killer was
00:44:04
listed eventually detective schwarzkoff found his prime suspect on that list and
00:44:11
discovered that the alleged Canal killer had a second identity a man who dressed
00:44:17
up like a comic book superhero and cruised The Valley in a decorated car dripping with fake blood the public knew
00:44:25
this man as the zombie hunter what was his life as the zombie hunter like what did he do he would go
00:44:34
to like parades and festivals and and show off this car and kind of be a part of the excitement if you
00:44:45
will your assignment was to find this guy and you have found him yeah he is accused of being a killer but here he is
00:44:53
posing with police officers before they discovered what he' [Music] done it was almost like a slap in the
00:45:01
face like I'm here but you don't know it it was like he was hiding and playing s
00:45:08
[Music] [Music] it's one of those cases that you just just don't forget you can't
00:45:59
unsee what happened to those girls you just can't long before the Man known as the zombie hunter became the prime
00:46:07
suspect in the canal murders Clark schwarzkoff was a detective with the Phoenix Police Department's cold Cas
00:46:14
Squad his mission was simple but pointed find the killer responsible for those vicious murders of two young women from
00:46:24
the early 1990s to this day I'm still not exactly sure about what happened on those bike paths the case
00:46:33
began on November 8th 1992 Angela braso a tech worker who had recently moved to Phoenix was taking
00:46:41
advantage of beautiful weather to get in a little exercise says Brianna Whitney the True Crime reporter for the CBS
00:46:50
affiliate kph in Phoenix each night she would go out for her evening bike ride just at Golden
00:46:58
hour at Sunset the best time to be riding out here Angela was only hours away from turning 22 years old and like
00:47:08
a lot of locals she liked to bike on the paths that ran alongside the city's distinctive canals says schwarzkoff a 48
00:47:16
Hours consultant are there places that are sort of natural Ambush sites if somebody
00:47:23
wants to attack someone yeah they are there's a lot of tunnels they go underneath the
00:47:28
interstate that November evening in 1992 Angela left her apartment around 700 p.m. her boyfriend Joe later told police
00:47:38
he said he stayed home to bake Angela a birthday cake and didn't expect her to be gone
00:47:44
long hours go by and Joe grows concerned Angela hasn't come home and that's not like her Joe told police he took his
00:47:54
bike out three times that night night frantically searching for Angela on the canal paths he spoke to her friends even
00:48:03
her mother back in Pennsylvania finally he reported Angela missing to police the next morning
00:48:11
Searchers Came Upon a horrific scene Angela bro's torso was found in a field next to the trail that she had been
00:48:21
riding her bike on Angela had been stabbed to death some 10 days after Angela's headless
00:48:30
body was discovered a man fishing along this section of the canal spotted her head stuck on a grate and from what we
00:48:39
have heard from Witnesses the head was in amazingly good condition especially considering this was days after the
00:48:51
murder I'm Morgan low and I'll take you Morgan low an investigative reporter who
00:48:56
who also works at kph and is a consultant for 48 hours has been working on the canal killer case for more than a
00:49:05
decade we've heard that the head looked like it had been preserved like it was a
00:49:12
momento for the killer Angela's purple mountain bike was also missing there were no solid leads and the case went
00:49:20
quiet until September of 1993 some 10 months after Angela's murder when the mother of 17-year-old Melanie bernus
00:49:30
returned from a dinner date to find her daughter had broken her curfew and was not home she then noticed that Melanie's
00:49:38
bicycle was missing Melanie decides to go on a bike ride by around 10:30 when Melanie did not return her mother
00:49:47
started calling her friends is Melanie there well my mom took the phone call said that Melanie's mom was frantic and
00:49:56
like nervous Rachel Shep maker was one of Melanie's close friends in high school
00:50:03
so initially when you hear it that her mother's looking for her you're not thinking something terrible has happened
00:50:07
to your friend definitely not I thought she was with a friend and just forgot to
00:50:13
communicate with her mom where she was early the next morning Charlotte pole a local resident happened to be
00:50:21
riding along the canal with her young daughter in a bicycle seat just as they came came out of one of those tunnels
00:50:28
that ran under the interstate she spotted a puddle there was just a big puddle of of something ended up riding
00:50:36
right through it and having it Splash over me Charlotte says something about the puddle bothered her so a few minutes
00:50:43
later she doubled back that's when she made that horrible realization I could tell that it was a puddle of red that it
00:50:52
was a puddle of blood and all of a sudden as I'm looking at it I noticed that there are some drag marks that went
00:50:59
along over here toward that tree towards that tree yes and then went around the tree and was drugged back you could see
00:51:07
the drag marks right here to the canal Charlotte went home and called police later that night the local news reported
00:51:16
that a woman's body had been found in the Canal close to where Angela bro's head had been located they found the
00:51:24
body in a teal body suit I was told by um some other friends that Melanie did not own that it can't
00:51:34
be her Rachel went to sleep convinced the body in the canal was not Melanie but the next day I'm at school my
00:51:44
friends just come up to me crying and saying it was [Music] Melanie detective strongly suspected
00:51:53
Melanie had been targeted and stabbed in the back by the same person who had killed
00:52:00
Angela police believe that somehow the killer got her off of her bike whether he knocked her off of her bike or
00:52:07
whether he asked her a question Clark says the evidence indicates the killer approached the women from behind both I
00:52:16
wounds were the exact same position investigators say the killer dragged Melanie's body off the canal
00:52:25
path removed her clothes and dressed her in that teal bodysuit similar to this one obtained by
00:52:34
police along with the stabbing and the dismemberment there was another component to these murders wasn't there
00:52:41
yeah both women were sexually assaulted and that meant investigators had a crucial piece of evidence
00:52:50
DNA when the DNA from melan scene was finally tested later it matched to Angeles scene so we knew for sure that
00:52:58
we were dealing with the same perpetrator investigators noted that the initial stab wounds to the backs of each
00:53:05
woman were fatal and so precise that detectives suspected the killer might be a surgeon the details about what
00:53:15
happened were the kinds of things that kept parents from letting their kids out when the sun went down
00:53:23
[Music] the murders of Angela braso and Melanie bernes in the early 1990s created fear
00:53:50
in Phoenix that lasted for a generation you know there's some guy out there and you don't know where he
00:53:59
is they watched the news and read the newspaper every day hoping that police would make an arrest and it just kept
00:54:08
going on and nothing and nothing and nothing investigators had collected matching male DNA from both the
00:54:19
victims but more than two decades passed and the canal murder cases went cold then science finally caught up with the
00:54:29
calendar it's in 2014 Phoenix police detectives are at a DNA conference and a forensic genealogist from California is
00:54:40
also at the conference calling Fitzpatrick founder of identif finders International was there to meet with law
00:54:47
enforcement and she goes up to these detectives and says hey I can take Y chromosomes and create these DNA
00:54:54
profiles and try to match with genealogy to help solve criminal cases Fitzpatrick's company had developed
00:55:02
software that could mine public genealogy databases searching for matches to Crime Scene DNA the
00:55:10
detectives heard her out and then several weeks later they sent me the y d profile from the crime scene for the
00:55:18
Phoenix Canal murders Fitzpatrick's company started crunching the data hoping to provide Phoenix detectives
00:55:25
with a name we entered the numbers from the forensic profile into our software and
00:55:32
that's where I came up with six matches to the name Miller while the genetic genealogy search produced the name
00:55:39
Miller it is also one of the most common last names detective schwarzkoff started
00:55:45
digging you check your files and what do you find I think there were a total of six Millers that were on what I called
00:55:50
my master list and I went down through the list got to Brian Patrick Miller but who was Brian Patrick Miller records
00:56:00
show he was 42 years old with a Phoenix address that name was just one of more than 600 Persons of Interest Who had
00:56:08
lived in those case files for years police at the time seemingly never pursued Miller we discovered his file
00:56:19
downstairs police learned Brian Miller had a record dating Back to Before the canal murders in May of 1989 when he was
00:56:28
just 16 years old Miller crossed paths with Celeste Bentley I was 24 and I was going to work
00:56:37
I had just noticed a young boy on the bus Celeste says she and the boy got off at the same stop moments later she felt
00:56:47
something in her back he had ran by me I thought he had just hit me I just yelled
00:56:52
at him I was like why'd you do that you know and then I reached back and touched
00:56:56
my back and realized that it was blood I had been stabbed with a single knife wound to her upper back Celeste screamed
00:57:04
and managed to make it to the store where she worked a coworker called for help about 30 minutes later when Celeste
00:57:12
was in the back of an ambulance the police came and said they found him and they wanted to bring him to the
00:57:19
ambulance to show him to me Celeste identified her as salent Brian Miller was charged with aggravated assault they
00:57:27
said that if he had held the blade the other way he would have gone straight through my ribs and I could have died
00:57:34
Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to juvenile detention until he turned 18
00:57:40
it was a far cry from where Miller's life had [Music] begun he was living in Hawaii for a
00:57:49
while as a kid with his mom and his dad but his dad died early on in a motorcycle accident
00:57:58
years later Miller and his mother Ellen moved to Phoenix so for most of his life
00:58:04
and early years it was Brian Miller and his mom while Miller was in juvie his mother made a disturbing Discovery Brian
00:58:13
Miller's mom was looking through his stuff and she found a note that he wrote the pages detailed a Sinister plan
00:58:23
kidnap the girl tie her up in the truck and cut her clothes off this note spelled out how he wanted to find abduct
00:58:35
rape murder and dismember a young woman and Brian's mom was so disturbed by this
00:58:44
piece of paper that she took it to Phoenix police it was Miller's 18th birthday and he had just been released
00:58:52
as an adult Chief fat out told police at the time she was really scared for her safety and that she was not going to
00:58:59
allow him to come home so after his release Miller ended up at this Phoenix halfway house when schwarzkoff read that
00:59:07
note in 2014 he was struck by something there was a lot of things in there that were
00:59:13
close or similar to what happened specifically to Angela including a description of decapitating
00:59:22
a victim and preserving the head Phoenix police wanted to locate Miller luckily he was very easy to
00:59:34
[Music] [Music] find in December 2014 Phoenix police continued digging into potential suspect
00:59:56
Brian Miller who they discovered was actually a local celebrity everybody at the time in the Phoenix area knew Brian
01:00:05
Patrick Miller as this character called the zombie hunter the zombie hunter like
01:00:10
a comic book character yeah like a comic book character like a good guy fighting
01:00:15
the bad guys Miller's Alter Ego was a costume figure who participated in parades and festivals around town
01:00:24
thousands of zombies taking over the streets of Downtown Phoenix he wore this long trench coat with these goggles and
01:00:34
helmet and had this large Gatling gun and if you're going to hunt zombies you need a way to get
01:00:42
around he bought an old police car and tricked it out wrote The Zombie Hunter on it and it had a full-size zombie
01:00:51
mannequin in the back and blood on the side friend Eric Braverman says Miller's zombie hunter Persona attracted a big
01:01:03
fan base including law enforcement officers who lined up to pose with him collected pictures of himself with the
01:01:12
cops like trophies they're all smiling big with him leaning on the car Eric says Miller's superhero
01:01:20
character was the opposite of what Brian was like when he wasn't in costume he seemed like a harmless marshmallow
01:01:28
that was immersed in this goofy lifestyle he's just that unassuming guy but could Miller be the canal
01:01:38
killer the only way to find out was to get his DNA investigators began to surveil Miller who worked at an Amazon
01:01:48
warehouse every day when he got there Miller parked the zombie Mobile in the same spot he would come out for his
01:01:55
15-minute break blast his music really loud lunchtime came out to the car same thing blast
01:02:00
this god- awful music Schwarz cough came up with an elaborate plan to get his DNA
01:02:08
I went up and introduced myself to mil he was in his car what did you introduce yourself introduced myself as a security
01:02:12
consultant schwarzkoff told Miller that thieves had been stealing goods from a warehouse across the way I said would
01:02:20
you be interested in working for me as a security officer watching the building while you're outside
01:02:26
his eyes light up yeah cuz it was a good paying job I said look I I'll pay you 20
01:02:30
bucks an hour on January 2nd 2015 Schwarz coff met Miller at this Chili's restaurant to
01:02:38
fill out a job application the Cold Case unit was behind the scenes ready to bag
01:02:44
anything that had Miller's DNA on it such as utensils or a glass they set a table for me and Mr Miller away from
01:02:54
everybody else and a part of the restaurant where nobody else is at Miller arrived with a surprised guest
01:03:02
his 15-year-old daughter Sarah Miller was a divorced single dad he was very gentle and caring about his daughter he
01:03:10
often brought his daughter with where he would be going the trio sat down and ordered hamburgers when the food arrived
01:03:18
he swallows his hamburger in like five bites won't take a drink of his water and I'm sit there going are you sure you
01:03:24
want someone else to drink cuz you just got water no no I'm good I'm good I'm good Schwarz started to worry this
01:03:29
operation would be a bust what does he finally do that makes this mission accomplished we finally
01:03:37
took a drink from the water glass that's when I knew that okay now we least got his DNA despite knowing about Miller's
01:03:43
juvenile record as their meal ended the veteran detective's gut told him Miller was not their man seeing him with his
01:03:53
daughter I just don't see this guy as being the monster in 1992 and '93 that would do this to these
01:04:00
women Miller gave Schwarz a quick tour of his Zombie Hunter mobile and the two parted ways with a detective saying he'd
01:04:09
be in touch the Cold Case unit sent Miller's water glass off to the crime lab 11 days later we got a call from the
01:04:18
lab and we're sitting there and we're like what is this all about and in this meeting these Phoenix detectives say as
01:04:24
a joke huh they must have solved the canal murders but detective schwarzkoff says it was no joke when the head of the
01:04:32
lab arrived she leans down to me she goes it's him and I go what she goes Brian Miller it's
01:04:43
him well the blood rushed from my head I kind of sat back and I went you've got to be kidding Brian Miller's DNA from
01:04:51
that water glass matched the DNA recovered from Angela Le braso and Melanie bernus more than 20 years
01:05:00
before Miller was arrested within hours during a police interview shortly after Miller was told why he'd been taken into
01:05:09
custody in connection with the canal murders we have DNA that links you to those two
01:05:17
ladies see how that's possible he just kind of went through it in his Dopey kind of I don't know what you're kind of
01:05:23
talking about would help you get it off your test did something like that I didn't kill anyone you didn't kill
01:05:29
anybody no investigators got a search warrant for Miller's house the home he shared with his teenage daughter and
01:05:38
just about everything he'd ever collected in his life I can remember like it was yesterday walking up to the
01:05:44
front door and everybody going you can't get in that way it's full of crap Brian Miller's house was like it
01:05:54
came from the sh show hoarders there was a little path where you could get to a bathroom in the kitchen and where the TV
01:06:01
was and that's it everything else is just stacked to the roof with garbage did you look around and go this is
01:06:08
madness not only Madness I go this is a nightmare Schwarz coff and his investigators would have to sift through
01:06:15
all of it looking for other possible evidence detective Schwarz cof also focused on a new source someone Miller
01:06:23
himself had ominously singled out in his interview it's the one person on face of
01:06:30
the earth I could probably honestly say I hate Miller's ex-wife Amy who would end
01:06:37
up revealing gruesome details from Miller's violent past he had told her about the murder of a young girl who'
01:06:44
come to his door accidentally [Music] what do you think motivated Brian Miller to dress up as the zombie hunter see
01:07:00
more of the case on Facebook at 48 hours in January 2015 more than 21 years after the canal murders Brian Miller was
01:07:22
charged with first-degree murder in both Angela bro and Melanie Bern's deaths Melanie's friend Rachel Shep
01:07:32
maker says she felt a wave of relief a very joyous moment of oh my gosh this is what we've been waiting for for decades
01:07:40
upon decades detective schwarzkoff wanted to talk to the one person who probably knew
01:07:47
Miller best his ex-wife Amy there had been married for8 years there was a divorce Amy told schwarzkoff that she
01:07:54
was just 19 when she met Miller in 1996 they married less than a year later and moved to Everett
01:08:03
Washington Amy had a shocking Revelation for the detective she told schwarzkoff Miller had revealed a gruesome secret to
01:08:11
her that he had killed a young girl in Phoenix years earlier before he'd ever met Amy Schwarz says Amy never reported
01:08:20
it to police before for a number of reasons she didn't know if it was true she was afraid of Miller and she said
01:08:28
she wanted to be a good wife you support your man no matter what detective schwarzkoff says Amy told him
01:08:37
what Miller had said that a young girl come to his door that he had grabbed this young
01:08:44
female pulled her in killed her immediately Amy said Miller told her he dismembered the girl and disposed of her
01:08:53
remains in trash left on the the curb although Amy claimed Miller never told her the child's name investigators
01:09:03
use the information Amy provided to piece together who Miller may have been talking about 13-year-old Brandy Meyers
01:09:12
was a little girl collecting money for a school book ofon in her North Phoenix neighborhood going door
01:09:19
too I was a tom boy and she was a girly girl bry's sister Kristen Dennis so she would try to learn how to climb
01:09:28
trees or jump fences because she wanted to play with me she was my best friend it was May 26th
01:09:35
1992 6 months prior to the murder of Angela braso Miller was living in the halfway
01:09:42
house following his time in juvenile detention for the aggravated assault of Celeste
01:09:49
Bentley this is one block from our school his home and then three blocks is is our house so every single day we
01:09:58
walked right by here Kristen says Brandy left home alone that evening never to return she was last seen two doors down
01:10:08
from Brian's walking in the direction of his house despite an extensive search bry's
01:10:16
body was never found schwarzkoff says even though Amy couldn't provide a name the clues in her account add up to just
01:10:25
one conclusion I believe that person is in fact Brandy Myers her sister believes that as well
01:10:34
Brandy went to the landfill like something of no importance even with Amy's account
01:10:43
investigators did not have enough evidence to charge Miller in bry's disappearance so the fact that she was
01:10:52
disposed of there's just nothing physical nothing forensically to grab on to 48 Hours contacted Miller who said he
01:11:00
had no involvement in bry's disappearance and never confessed to Amy that he had killed a young girl but
01:11:08
there is another case in Miller's past in 2002 a woman named Melissa Ruiz Ramirez is walking down the street in
01:11:20
Everett at night somebody pulls over it was Brian Miller Melissa would later tell police she'd
01:11:27
seen him before talking to a friend of hers Melissa said she got in Miller's car and told him she needed to make a
01:11:34
call and he drove her to his workplace so she could use the phone she tells police she's on the phone and from out
01:11:43
of the clear blue Brian Miller comes running out with a 12in serrated kitchen knife and stabs her in the back they
01:11:53
fight over the weapon Melissa said she escaped and contacted police they picked up Miller shortly
01:12:01
after he didn't deny stabbing Melissa but claimed it was self-defense he said he was at work when
01:12:09
Melissa walked in off the street and asked to make a call he said she goes to use a phone and
01:12:15
then all of a sudden now the clear blue she tries to rob him with a knife Miller
01:12:20
was arrested and charged with first-degree assault with a deadly weapon he was jailed from May 2002 until
01:12:28
his December trial the jury just didn't buy Melissa's story it was a he said she said and they
01:12:36
acquitted him of the charge Amy Says a chilling change followed Miller's return home she said it began with the letters
01:12:46
she'd received from her jailed husband while he awaited trial they first started out as
01:12:52
professing his innocence and then it would turn into sexual deviant like here's what I'm going to do when I get
01:12:59
out to you Amy told Schwarz coff that Miller followed up his words with action she said he came back with an
01:13:08
unbelievable ugly dark sexual deviant side that she'd never seen before there were times where there was
01:13:17
sex between him where he held a knife to her throat Amy told schwarzkoff that Miller
01:13:23
claimed something happened to him as a child something that would become the Cornerstone of his defense for murdering
01:13:30
Angela braso and Melanie bernes his unique defense call her first witness his mother had created a monster
01:13:49
[Music] at the start of Brian Miller's trial for the murders of Angela braso and Melanie
01:14:03
bernes in October 2022 his attorneys opened with a startling defense they admitted their
01:14:11
client was the canal killer they had to concede right off the bat that he is the
01:14:18
actual killer but that he was not guilty by reason of insanity his defense attorneys Miller was tortured by his
01:14:26
mother Ellen as a child and that led to his violent sexual behavior she died in 2010 if you imagine the making of a
01:14:38
monster this is kind of the household that Story begins in Miller told investigators after his arrest that the
01:14:46
beatings began when he was just 5 years old she was a detention officer discipline in their house house
01:14:56
was mental as well as physical she used her security belt so it was like a law enforcement belt and usually I got hit
01:15:04
by the buckles the defense opted for a bench trial which meant there would be no jury his lawyers told judge Suzanne
01:15:13
Cohen that Miller's mother also exposed her young son to violent sexual content he was exposed to her interests in
01:15:23
pornography and extremely violent films Miller's lawyer said his mother's abuse caused Miller to develop severe
01:15:34
mental health problems he feels like there are different TVs playing in his head psychologist Bethany bran testified
01:15:43
that Miller developed a condition known as dissociative Amnesia an inability to remember some traumatic events Morgan
01:15:52
low summed up the defense argument there were two Brians there's the one you see over there at the defense table
01:16:00
who's a fairly normal person who has friends who had a job who was a dad who was a a husband and then there's the
01:16:08
killer there's bad Brian and Miller claimed his attorneys had no memory none of the two murders he was charged with
01:16:18
prosecutors undermine the defense claim that Miller has no memory of the killings they point out that he does
01:16:25
remember details related to other stabbings remember Miller admitted stabbing Celeste Bentley when he was 16
01:16:34
years old and in 2002 he had also testified about the stabbing of Melissa Ruiz Ramirez in
01:16:43
Washington to show Miller's deviant side prosecutors called the only person in the world Miller said he despised his
01:16:53
ex-wife Amy the judge did not allow cameras to record her face under questioning by prosecutor
01:17:01
Elizabeth reamer Amy testified that later in their marriage Miller grew increasingly violent during
01:17:10
sex did you ever say anything to him about wanting it to stop because it was scary no why
01:17:21
not I was avoiding in confrontation with him at all at that point and wanted to be as compliant as possible so that I
01:17:36
would stay will he love me enough not to kill me did he ask permission prior to using
01:17:47
needles on you no did he ask permission prior to tying you up no what percentage
01:17:56
of your sex life after he got out of jail in Washington included bondage the pins or other uh things that
01:18:11
were not the normal sex you've been having early in your marriage probably at least
01:18:19
95% the trial continued and after 6 months and 36 Witnesses is the judge delivered her verdict as to count one
01:18:30
first-degree murder Angela braso as follows guilty as to count to first-degree murder victim Melanie bernes as follows
01:18:43
guilty how did Brian Miller react to the guilty verdict he didn't react he didn't
01:18:52
give any real emotion but Angela's mother who addressed the court remotely was emotional the
01:19:00
defendant broke my heart took all hope and light from me and my family the hole in my heart is so big
01:19:10
and empty Melanie's older sister Jill also spoke remotely about how painful it was
01:19:19
that Melanie's life ended violently at the age of 17 for 30 years now we've had to live
01:19:28
without Melanie because the defendant murdered her words cannot even begin to describe the level of excruciating pain
01:19:35
we experienced with the news of her horrific death Miller who didn't take the stand
01:19:41
during his trial was allowed to give a statement before he was sentenced I am now looking for sympathy today this time
01:19:50
is for the family and the friends of the victims I cannot imagine what pain they
01:19:56
have endured for all these years I know I am different I thought it had to do with what my mother did to me
01:20:04
defense counsel RJ Parker urged judge Cohen to show Mercy before she delivered her judgment on Miller's sentence life
01:20:13
in prison or death you do not have to kill Brian in order to see Justice Done judge Cohen agreed with the centerpiece
01:20:23
of the defense case the defendant's abuse as a child was proven but 8 months after the trial
01:20:32
began Miller's abuse at the hands of his mother did not dissuade judge Cohen from
01:20:38
handing down the ultimate sentence there is no question that what the defendant did deserves the death
01:20:47
penalty Mr Miller anything you wish to say to the court I gu thanks for listening to
01:20:54
everything that was said and giving us at least the opportunity to try and convince you
01:21:03
otherwise Justice was carried out in this case detective schwarzkoff hopes family
01:21:10
and friends of Angela and Melanie might finally find some [Music] peace people like Rachel Shep maker just
01:21:23
knowing that Jess was served it doesn't make anything easier how do you want your good friend
01:21:35
be remembered just so she's the All-American good kid I want her family to know that we haven't forgotten
01:21:48
her she changed us all for the better she was a gift [Music] [Music] a knock at the door by a clown an evil
01:22:14
clown the evil clowns you seen in the movies well it came to life who comes calling with balloons flowers and a gun
01:22:20
I heard bang I saw her fall this was an assassination who isn't afraid of a killer clown 48 hours Saturday on CDs
01:22:28
streaming on Paramount [Music] plus I'm Julia Cy retired FBI agent and Pro Filer and
01:22:55
former special agent forensic scientist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation this podcast is about
01:23:02
criminal profiling this is certainly an unusual case I've never seen anything quite like
01:23:09
this [Music] one with many serial killers it's the killing part that they enjoy and once
01:23:21
they've killed the person they're done not Mark twitchell action Mark twitchell was an aspiring
01:23:32
filmmaker I interviewed him for my book and we corresponded uh for a number of years he wrote me probably 30 or 35
01:23:40
different letters up to about 350 pages of letters in one letter Mark twitchell wrote wrote back to me and this is what
01:23:46
he said the fact is society in general has a deep and profound fascination with the Dark Side of human nature
01:23:58
I do think Mark twitchell was using the film making as an outlet to live out his
01:24:03
fantasies and It ultimately wasn't enough for him and that's why his fantasies crossed into
01:24:10
reality I think Mark twitchell believes that he is very smart very methodical very logical very levelheaded
01:24:19
much like the character of Dexter Morgan and so I think he got ideas from the show I think he was drawn to the
01:24:28
character because that's what he wanted to be there's significant links to Dexter he had a kill room set up with
01:24:38
plastic sheeting he had a table set up for his victims he had this kind of processing kit that was very similar to
01:24:44
which Dexter uses never once did it cross his mind it ever be caught they aren't going to
01:24:51
catch me I'm too smart nothing is going to lead him to me our job is to put together the pieces
01:24:59
of the puzzle and in this case we had a written document that there was this document titled SK confessions found in
01:25:07
a deleted form on Mark twitchell's laptop and it appeared to read like a diary this is the story of uh my
01:25:16
progression into becoming a serial killer and it documented luring people off the internet his first victim was a
01:25:23
man named named jel Tetro I saw this uh lady she had blonde hair she was about 5 six she she was
01:25:30
very attractive looking and what was her name her name is Sheena Sheena yeah I messaged her she messaged me back how
01:25:39
about we go to dinner in a movie I thought that was a great idea she wouldn't give me the uh house number but
01:25:44
she just sent me really really good directions on how to get there he thought right what's the worst that
01:25:50
could happen [Music] [Music] it would appear that I'm unique in the world there is no key no root cause
01:26:39
there's no school I really were capable of premeditated murder normal healthy well adjusted 30 Old Men I once heard
01:26:44
the legend of another worthy victim wonderful young children and great future I dealt with his remains in a
01:26:49
disrespectful manner that traumatized me forever Psychopathic serial killers compassion I quickly grew to resent and
01:26:55
hate this man these are the words of Mark twitchell written to author Steve lilibu it is what it is and I am what I
01:27:04
am for the first time on television lilb buan is revealing the contents of twitchell's letters it's a rare look
01:27:13
inside the mind of a killer nobody would side with Dexter Morgan if you went around slaughtering School teachers and
01:27:20
mail carriers on a whim police say what was fascinated by the fictional character in the hit
01:27:28
Showtime series Dexter I need to kill him twitchell's been dubbed the Dexter killer because of the numerous links
01:27:38
between the television series and the real life crimes so how did this young Canadian filmmaker end up accused of
01:27:46
horrific acts The Story begins in October 2008 to hear how everything happened it was like you watching the
01:27:55
movies Edmonton police detective it's hard to say I mean Bill Clark but now we have it happening in real
01:28:03
life Jill's Tetro was online on the plenty of fish.com website which is a a dating site Tetro who was 33 at the time
01:28:13
was excited to meet the woman who called herself Sheena I was actually late so I
01:28:19
was driving quite fast to get there she said I'll just leave the garage door open for you and then you just go in go
01:28:26
through the garage I don't think he ever imagined in a million years what would happen to him in that garage it was dark
01:28:33
then I I kind of looked around for the door she told me to go through and that's when somebody came out and
01:28:41
attacked me from behind finally look back and that's when I see this man with this painted up hockey mask I
01:28:52
just chill down my back wow this is no date he's about like 6 foot and and has this black and gold hockey mask all
01:29:03
painted up on his face the hockey maske wearing man had ordered him to the ground at gunpoint and he tore a piece
01:29:11
of tape and he covered my eyes with it I start hearing different things like a jingling noise and stuff like that in my
01:29:21
head is just racing like it's like thinking what's going going on what is he going to do is he taking another
01:29:25
weapon out Jill decided he wasn't waiting to find out I can't do this I got to fight back so I got up and uh
01:29:34
ripped the tape off my eyes he was stunned that I got up and he started yelling at me to get back down on the
01:29:41
ground instead he grabbed the attacker's gun when I grabbed the gun I felt the gun was plastic this is the greatest
01:29:48
feeling I ever felt in my life because then I knew I had a fighting chance to get away that's when I I I was ready to
01:29:54
fight I punched him and I felt really weak I'm like wow why was my punch so weak what J didn't realize was that he
01:30:03
had been weakened by the effects of the stunned baton and then he starts punching me on
01:30:09
the side of the head just about then he came up with a plan he grabbed my jacket I jerked
01:30:18
forward to make sure he had a good hold on it I thought that's a perfect time that was part of your plan you're
01:30:22
thinking okay he grabs my jacket yeah and I can get free so that's when I slipped out of the jacket rolled
01:30:30
underneath the garage door and then got up and it worked and I tried to run and all sudden my legs wouldn't work and I
01:30:37
just fell boom right on the gravel driveway that's when he grabbed my legs and he started pulling me back to the
01:30:47
garage so I'm like oh no what am I going to do now I'm dead Gio was thrown back in the garage
01:30:54
but he surprised himself by rolling out again this time Jill managed to get into
01:31:01
his truck I stuck the key in the ignition and then I just sped away when Jill got home he discovered
01:31:09
the profile on the dating site had been deleted and he did his best to erase his
01:31:14
own memory why didn't you go to the police immediately at first I was in shock I said I told myself I'll do it
01:31:22
tomorrow and tomorrow came and I was um I felt so ashamed that I got duped embarrassed and Confused jeal convinced
01:31:33
himself that perhaps it wasn't as serious as he first thought I really thought it was a mugging at the time but
01:31:40
just one week later another man Johnny altinger would answer a similar dating ad and
01:31:50
disappear where is he what's going on he wouldn't do this to us Gary altinger Johnny's older brother says the last
01:31:58
time anyone heard from him was on October 10th 2008 when the 38-year-old left for a date with a woman named
01:32:09
Jen not a message nothing and then not showing up for work totally out of character John was very very very
01:32:19
responsible and when did you grow concerned when I received that email and this email was completely out
01:32:29
of character what did it say I've met a woman named Jen and I'm going away with her to Costa Rica and I'll call you at
01:32:37
Christmas time I just thought right away after I had read this that's got to be the weirdest message I've ever received
01:32:46
that identical strange message had gone out to all of Johnny's friends as well desperate for some answers John
01:32:53
Johnny's friends broke into his apartment they found his passport and they found dirty dishes and they found
01:33:01
everything just like as if he were going to return an hour or two later and with
01:33:07
that information then they went to the police and they said Hey listen you've got to do something you know he was his
01:33:14
red Mazda was missing he had taken his vehicle and couldn't be found so obviously that's what we're going to
01:33:19
look for first easier to find a car than than a person based on the uh emails and
01:33:24
they talk about Costa Rica the officers search all the parking lots at the airport it's not found everything's
01:33:31
turning up negative but there was one clue that would give police their first big break in the
01:33:37
case on the day he disappeared Johnny altinger had forwarded the directions of where he was going to
01:33:45
friends well John's friends were concerned and his friend even questioned M mail you know be careful and John said
01:33:52
yeah well here's the directions and if anything happens to me you'll know where to look armed with the directions police
01:33:58
were led directly to that garage they learned the garage is rented out to an individual named Mark
01:34:05
twitchell action twitchell then 29 years old a married man with a young daughter
01:34:11
had used the garage as a set for a recent movie Project I'm glad I got the chance to work with you all and I hope
01:34:19
you I see you all in the industry Mark denied knowing anything about a missing man or a red Mazda and he had no problem
01:34:28
with the police wanting to search the garage they have a look around and they see some what looks like blood and Mark
01:34:35
twitchell's explaining oh no that's my movie prop we did a film about killing a guy in here and I filmed it all and I've
01:34:41
been cleaning it up over the last couple weeks there were some things that were you know raising your spidey sense in
01:34:48
this one going n this isn't right something going on here [Music] for detectives in the Edmonton Police
01:35:11
Department The Disappearance of Johnny altinger was a mystery in more ways than one it's a missing person's case we
01:35:19
don't know what foul plays happened here we we don't have a body uh we don't even
01:35:24
know if we have a crime their only lead was Mark twitchell's film set garage voluntarily the amateur filmmaker came
01:35:33
down to the Edmonton Police Station to speak with detectives aler does that name a ring of bell to
01:35:40
you or mean anything to you no never heard it before no Mark appeared to be eager to help he had no History of
01:35:50
Violence and was hardly a suspect action in fact he seemed guilty of nothing more
01:35:56
than wanting to brag about his film career I'm working on a comedy right now which is a it's actually a full-blown
01:36:04
feature that's actually going to have a decent budget in the neighborhood of about 3 and A2
01:36:08
million Mark twitchell's first film Project a Star Wars fan film had received some media buzz back in 2007
01:36:17
word has gotten around that I'm making a $100 million movie for 60 Grand and uh some production directing jobs have
01:36:24
already come my way but the police were more interested in Mark's latest production a suspense thriller called
01:36:32
House of Cards where a hockey Mass serial killer lowers a man to a garage via the
01:36:40
Internet and kills him I mean it's kind of odd that you're filming that kind of thing and we end up growing to that
01:36:47
garage because of a missing person who supposedly went there that's really freaky too and as soon as they called me
01:36:54
on the phone I this weird chill he looked pretty comfortable in the interview and when it was done and I
01:37:00
watched I went wow that guy interviewed well hours later Mark twitchell even agreed to let officers back into the
01:37:07
garage where he had filmed House of Cards little did they know the case was about to take an unusual turn detective
01:37:16
Murphy goes you know and meets him and talks to him and there's this huge Revelation about oh yeah I bought a red
01:37:23
car off a guy it's like I remember getting the phone call at the police station just thinking holy crap that's
01:37:30
because police were still looking for Johnny alger's red Mazda so investigators called Mark again and
01:37:38
again he voluntarily agreed to answer more questions this time Bill Clark conducted
01:37:46
the interview so as you know Mark we're just here trying to find this John F John alinger mhm Clark listen while Mark
01:37:54
told him how he came into possession of a red car a detail he failed to mention when he spoke with police earlier this
01:38:02
guy uh Taps on my window you know hey buddy do you want to buy a car I have shacked up with this really rich lady
01:38:10
and she's going to buy me a new car so I'm just looking to unload buy how much do you have on you and Mark claimed he
01:38:17
bought the red Mazda for just $40 and that was parted at a friend's house so what are you thinking when you
01:38:24
hear that that he purchased a car for $40 I just thought that's unbelievable that's just right away I'm thinking to
01:38:32
myself this is a bunch of crap the strange story about the red car the serial killer movie being filmed for
01:38:40
Clark It could only mean one thing there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that you're involved in The
01:38:47
Disappearance of John altinger no doubt in my mind at all mark why but it was only a hunch Clark had no
01:38:58
hard evidence against Mark police began digging deeper into his background they were interested in speaking with anyone
01:39:06
who had worked on House of Cards where actor Chris Huber's character meets an untimely bloody end in the film my
01:39:15
character was killed with the samurai sword they said they would have a mannequin or a dummy to run the sword
01:39:20
through and when I got there there was none I looked at the the weapons that was my first time when I saw that
01:39:25
they're real I thought this is off I'm think why didn't I tell somebody where I am hu left the garage film set unharmed
01:39:32
but rattled and his unease only escalated when police asked him about that allegedly fake movie Blood they
01:39:40
spotted in the garage how much of the blood splatter on the wall was from your filming then I said none of the blood
01:39:46
splatter was from up and then in a search of twitch's belongings police found his laptop
01:39:54
they pulled off a hard drive a deleted file titled SK confessions SK confessions police believed SK was
01:40:02
shorthand for serial killer one of the first lines it says I not sure when I decided become a serial
01:40:10
killer but it was a feeling of pure Euphoria SK confessions told the story of a man who was lured to a garage and
01:40:17
stand to death a plot strikingly similar to House of Cards I plunged the knife deep into his neck it was unbelievable I
01:40:27
just remember reading it all and just was fascinated by this document going holy mackel but was the document a
01:40:35
screenplay or was it in fact Mark twitchell's confession of murder [Music] [Music]
01:41:00
it just doesn't make sense where there's smoke there's Fire 2 weeks after The Disappearance of Johnny
01:41:08
altinger at a garage film set police had sharpened their focus on filmmaker Mark
01:41:14
twitchell police cameras were rolling as the forensics team processed twitchell's
01:41:20
family car and the garage he rented and a few miles away detectives have been at the twitchell hall where they
01:41:28
found just twitchell Mark's unsuspecting wife of two years what I said was we're
01:41:34
investigating a missing person I believe your husband's got something to do with
01:41:37
it and it's quite possibly uh you know could be a homicide I didn't really go into anything more but I think that was
01:41:44
enough I mean she was emotional police soon discovered that the twitchel marriage was already
01:41:52
fractured they had been living in basically sleeping in separate bedrooms She was basically living on the main
01:41:57
floor he was living in the basement so there was obviously troubles in Paradise there we knew
01:42:03
that twitchell had been having an affair with an old girlfriend and lying to his
01:42:08
wife about having a job he found out that he was telling his wife he was going to work every day he had no job he
01:42:15
was getting his friends to invest in his alleged movie making business with his Hollywood Connections and basically Mark
01:42:22
twitchell was living off their money interestingly the document police had found in twitchell's laptop titled SK
01:42:29
confessions also referenced a crumbling marriage and secrets it read and went through Great Lengths to bring my wife
01:42:37
over to the comfortable belief I wasn't cheating on her it was a basically a almost like a movie script but what was
01:42:46
real and what was fiction the closer police look the more the Lines Blurred police discovered twitchel spent
01:42:55
countless hours making elaborate Halloween costumes it's almost like a times Mark twitchell lives in a fantasy
01:43:02
world but it was twitchell's Facebook page comparing himself to TV's fictional Serial Killer Dexter Morgan that really
01:43:10
raised eyebrows Mark has way too much in common with Dexter Morgan read twitchel
01:43:17
status he talked a lot about uh how he loved the show Dexter I need to kill him twitchel even posed
01:43:27
as Dexter Morgan on Facebook we all have a dark side some darker than others and
01:43:33
you're not the only one to relate to Dexter it sometimes scares me how much I relate I mean look at this profile that
01:43:40
profile had caught the attention of a woman named Renee from Cleveland Ohio I a huge fan of the Showtime show Dexter
01:43:49
so I thought oh well you know I'll be friends with him even eventually twitchell revealed his true identity he
01:43:56
was uh a filmmaker we are rolling and he was working on a a new thing called House of Cards camera's rolling Renee
01:44:07
was intrigued after all she was an aspiring writer and her friendship with a Movie Maker could open doors I thought
01:44:15
it was going to be like a working relationship a working friendship um you know we had a lot in common I mean you
01:44:21
spoke to him a couple of times a day online a couple of times a day was it flirtatious oh yeah absolutely their
01:44:28
email exchanges soon became dark it was shortly before Johnny altinger disappeared we talked about you know
01:44:37
serial killers and you know the psychology behind a serial killer at the time Renee was upset with her
01:44:45
ex-husband's new wife and I wanted her dead at the time but I said I couldn't do it and hypothetically how would you
01:44:52
get away away with it how do you get away with it he said you cut her up in little
01:44:57
pieces you put her in trash bags like Dexter and since I was close to the lake you run a boat and uh dump out in the
01:45:07
middle of Lake Erie but then she began to wonder he said over the weekend he did something
01:45:17
and he liked it I crossed the line and I did something and I like it and what did you
01:45:24
take that to me that he killed somebody what other line is there to cross something inside my head just gave
01:45:34
me red flags and said he did it and her suspicions kept growing with another email he sent there's an
01:45:43
enormous missing person possible homicide investigation going on centralized around a location I've been
01:45:49
renting for film work so of course the police have tossed my house and impounded my car not fun considering
01:45:57
they won't find anything but twitchell had underestimated the police he thought he was way smarter than the police uh
01:46:05
one of the biggest mistakes I think that he made was he had no idea how we do our
01:46:09
job and that was a huge advantage to us adding to their circumstantial case twitchel possessing altinger car the SK
01:46:18
confessions document and his Dexter Obsession investigators finally had hard evidence they found alger's blood in
01:46:27
twitchell's trunk when we got the word that uh the DNA match we briefed our Tactical Team our our arrest team and we
01:46:35
had officers ready to make the arrest on Halloween morning 2008 while twitchell was putting the finishing touches on his
01:46:43
Halloween costume at his parents home police were busy laying a trap we got an undercover operator to work the internet
01:46:51
and pretend he was going to ENT investor he was lured out on the promise to meet
01:46:56
this guy at this coffee shop and when he got about three blocks from his house Tactical Team swooped in on him and took
01:47:02
him down tough guy Mark twitchell peed his pants he was so scared and it was a little uh Taste of his own medicine I
01:47:15
guess back at the station detective Clark and twitchell came face to face in the interrogation room once again
01:47:23
as I told you that night I knew that you were involved in The Disappearance at that time of Johnny
01:47:28
altinger that's changed slightly I now know that you killed John altinger 3 weeks after alger's disappearance police
01:47:38
charged twitchell with first-degree murder the once talkative movie director barely uttered a
01:47:46
line you didn't get much of a reaction did you no he's uh well he knows not the to say anything talking to his lawyers
01:47:54
he's not going to admit to anything he didn't have to es confessions which police had been dissecting word by word
01:48:01
spoke volumes they were now convinced it was no screenplay but rather a diary of
01:48:08
Murder One passage about a knife r i thrust it into his gut his reaction was pure Hollywood we do believe as
01:48:17
investigators that the account written by Mark twitchell in that SK confessions is exactly what he did to John
01:48:26
altinger by now Renee had called the police as authorities began building their case there was one crucial part of
01:48:33
SK confessions they wanted to verify about a victim who had survived it was just a huge piece of evidence CU Not
01:48:42
only would it verify what was written in SK confessions it would also have a living witness so it was Paramount that
01:48:51
we find this person detective Bill Clark knew his next move was finding the alleged victim who had
01:49:16
escaped from Mark twitchell's garage you know one of the first things we did was
01:49:21
check the police records figuring hopefully someone called the police on this and we have nothing but police had
01:49:27
found a helpful clue during the search of twitchell's home one of the things they had found was a hockey mask the SK
01:49:36
confessions talked about how Mark twitchell had worn this mask when he attacked both victims but we figured it
01:49:42
was something the first victim would key on police soon took to the airwaves we have some details on this male victim
01:49:48
who was attacked and we would like him to come forward Jil Tetro was at home oblivious to the horror he had escaped
01:49:55
when a friend told him to watch the news to date we do not know who this victim is I believe the victim entered the
01:50:02
garage and was attacked by another male who was wearing a hockey mask and it's the same hockey mask that I
01:50:07
saw wow yeah this is this is the guy this is what happened to me it's the same mask everything what Jill heard
01:50:14
next came as an even greater shock another man had been lured to the same garage and met a gruesome man we have
01:50:23
not found John alger's body and what were you thinking when when you heard this I couldn't believe it once you find
01:50:30
out the whole story I knew at that point it was not just a mugging it was actually he was probably going to kill
01:50:37
me I'm like wow I I have to go for it now I have to come forward exactly 1 month after he was attacked Jill Tetro
01:50:47
walked into the Evington police department and told police his incredible story I was all off balance I
01:50:54
couldn't run I fell down on the the gravel driveway and uh basically crawling so he dag to me back to the
01:51:01
garage Jill's story matched nearly word for word what was in SK confessions I grabbed him by the leg as if to drag him
01:51:10
back into the garage caveman style so I know that this diary we have is true after this all happened I realized how
01:51:18
lucky it was 7 days after xil was attacked police say twitchell wasn't going to make the same mistake
01:51:27
twice how did he kill uh John we know that he lured him to the garage in the same way he lured jills Tetro and then
01:51:36
in this case because he learned from jills that the taser didn't work he hit him over the head with a lead pipe
01:51:43
following the narrative police believe altinger was then stabbed and dismembered on a makeshift autopsy table
01:51:51
what was the most damning piece of evidence that you discover we had uh you know luminol test done on the floor
01:51:57
large amounts of blood had been spilled on the floor of the garage probably one of the biggest pieces a piece of tooth
01:52:03
that was found inside there that piece of tooth uh matched up to our victim according to SK confessions the killer
01:52:11
then broke into alger's apartment and sent out those emails about taking an exotic vacation the killer then
01:52:18
attempted to burn the remains in a barrel but failed he next tried to dump them into the river but was afraid of
01:52:26
being seen ultimately Mark twitchell drove around with it according to the SK confessions document he even talked
01:52:33
about driving around with them and pulling up beside people at red lights and looking them and thinking that they
01:52:37
don't know I have a dead body in the trunk of my car but where was Johnny alger's body SK confessions describe the
01:52:45
killer finally choosing a sewer to dump the remains but that's where the pages stopped it was a story without an ending
01:52:54
in any homicide investigation you obviously want to bring closure to the family so not only do you want to make
01:53:00
that phone call saying we got the guy that did this to your loved one but in this case we wanted to say to him look
01:53:05
we found Johnny detective Clark hoped twitchell would provide the Final Chapter I'm
01:53:12
going to get the car ready we're going to take a drive you guys were driving around and there was a camera trained on
01:53:18
him in the back of the police car tell me about that when you you read all the experts books about these type of
01:53:24
individuals is they tend to like the media attention so we thought well maybe if we drive him around and we'll put a
01:53:29
camera on him maybe he'll just we'll just take him to places cuz we had no idea where where uh Johnny's remains
01:53:35
were at that time so in order to finish the movie we find the body take it back to the
01:53:41
people family done movie's over you can write it all down detective Clark was relentless taking twitchel on a tour of
01:53:51
his old neighborhood and we first drove to his parents house where he had been staying we actually
01:53:56
demanded that he tell us he wouldn't look familiar Mark are we parked right on top of the sewer where you dumped the
01:54:04
body next stop the scene of the crime so here we are back at the killing garage the Dexter
01:54:13
garage bring back any memories you want to tell us where the body is now we get this over with but switch will remain
01:54:21
silent so police kept searching on their own looking in sewer after sewer so all
01:54:27
these manhole covers were pulled off in this alley so anytime I'd see one I always had my flashlight with me and
01:54:32
would get out and actually take a look weeks then months passed and still no luck then a year and a half after
01:54:41
Johnny alting her disappeared twitcher while awaiting trial broke his silence and gave the police a
01:54:50
map just up here on the left it's about a block south of his parents house investigators followed it to an Alleyway
01:54:59
just a half block away from where they had stopped the search and he had marked an x x marks a spot it took it stra to
01:55:07
this uh sewer cover here we could see what looked like pieces of human torso uh down
01:55:14
[Music] there in Mar March of 2011 Mark twitchell went on trial for the murder of Johnny altinger prosecutors called
01:55:28
Jil Tetro to testify and to prove that what twitchell described in SK confessions was not a work of fiction
01:55:37
but an account of what had actually happened I wasn't really afraid of him at that time I knew he couldn't hurt me
01:55:44
anymore the only witness the defense called was Mark twitchell and he had one unbelievable tale to tell Steve libuan a
01:55:54
college professor and an investigative journalist was covering the trial for the Edmonton Journal and went on to
01:56:01
write a book The Devil Cinema about the case Mark twitchel testified that this was all a big misunder understanding and
01:56:10
he had killed Johnny in self-defense twitchell claimed that alger's death was nothing more than a publicity stunk
01:56:17
onone horribly AR he said he intended to let both men go so they would create a buzz for his film by telling people that
01:56:27
this had actually happened to them but he claimed altinger became enraged at being tricked and he accidentally killed
01:56:34
him in self-defense he blames Johnny saying it was Johnny's reaction to his attempt at this promotion is what
01:56:41
happened in the end the jury took just 5 hours to find Mark twitchell guilty he was sentenced to 25 years to life but
01:56:51
for lilibu and there were still so many questions so the motive is the mystery though why did he do this what is Mark
01:56:59
twitchell psyche what led to this happening questions Lil bu and hop might be answered when he got a call out of
01:57:08
the blue from Mark twitchell himself he just said straight out if you're going to be writing a book about me you might
01:57:14
as well come straight to the source what do you think Mark twitchell's motiv was see the evidence
01:57:23
presented at trial and more at 48 [Music] hours.com the first time I met him he actually had me laughing he's very
01:57:39
charismatic Mark twitchell was nothing like author Steve little buan expected has very much that salesman slick
01:57:48
Behavior he knows how to put it on to get people to like him twitchell began writing to libuan before
01:57:55
he was even convicted in 2011 over the course of almost three years they exchanged dozens of letters I
01:58:05
learned really quickly that he preferred to talk through writing these weren't ramblings of a crazy man there was
01:58:12
actually some substance in these letters yes absolutely so he's not he's not crazy he is he is lucid at first lilan
01:58:22
didn't want to push twitchell away with too many probing questions about his crimes I asked him a lot of softball
01:58:29
questions just about who he was his family his upbringing all that kind of background detail he was newly married
01:58:35
and a new father so he was just a typical local guy who had dreams of making it big in Hollywood and really no
01:58:45
red flags no warning signs that something like this was on the horizon in letters twitchel clung to his
01:58:53
defense that he had no choice but to kill Johnny altinger and then dismember him he writes I killed Johnny altinger
01:59:03
in a horrific accident of self-defense after curly shoving aside my human sensibilities I dealt with his
01:59:11
remains in a disrespectful manner that traumatized me forever he still is adamant that this was not a planned and
01:59:18
deliberate murder and to be frank he's he's wrong lilan points to SK confessions where twitchel describes how
01:59:27
he turned that garage into a kill room set up a makeshift autopsy table had plastic sheeting and a processing kit
01:59:37
similar to the one Dexter Morgan used Mark twitchell wrote to me quite extensively about his interest in Dexter
01:59:45
Dexter on his mind twitchell drew this portrait of Michael C Hall the actor who plays him and to Lil buan surprise even
01:59:55
Behind Bars twitchell was able to feed his obsessions previously on Dexter Mark twitchel had actually been granted
02:00:04
access to finish watching the series while he was incarcerated in 2012 Dexter star Michael
02:00:12
SE Hall was asked about Mark twitchell on a Canadian radio program it's horrifying to
02:00:20
entertain the notion that something you did inspired that twitchell's response to Hall's
02:00:27
comments was to downplay his fascination with the Dexter character so he wrote to
02:00:34
me as you're aware Dexter has almost nothing to do with my case throughout their correspondence
02:00:41
lilan continued to Grapple with what drove ttel and then twitchel told him there is
02:00:51
no key no root cause there's no school bully or impressional gory movies or Showtime
02:00:57
television series to point the finger at it is what it is and I am what I am he's
02:01:03
a depraved individual and he knows that retired FBI criminal profiler Julia Calli didn't work on this case but she
02:01:12
spoke with Detective Clark and reviewed Mark twitchell's writings and letters for 48 hours she thinks she knows what
02:01:19
made twitchel Teck I think he identified with Dexter to some degree I think he's
02:01:26
different than Dexter he's not killing bad guys he's killing very innocent good people living productive lives and while
02:01:33
he's technically not a serial killer he was headed in that direction if they hadn't have caught
02:01:39
him Cali believes twitchell took pleasure in planning and executing his crimes as if they were romantic
02:01:49
trrs I think the primary motivation was sexual sexual yes he's targeting men that perhaps he would be interested in
02:01:59
having a date with It's a combination of sexual motive and a thrill killing he's pretending to
02:02:07
be a woman he writes extensively about what he's going to wear the weapon that he chooses he sort of describes it in
02:02:17
seductive language he said I wanted the weapon used for the deed itself to be simple elegant and
02:02:24
beautiful and in a strange twist twitchell's been able to feed that Obsession too in
02:02:32
2017 he was allowed to join an online dating website for inmates which you know I find quite surprising considering
02:02:41
the way he ended up in prison I believe it's been taken down since then the man who was tricked into that very bad date
02:02:48
in twitchell's garage GI Tetro con continues to be haunted by the experience we caught up with him
02:02:57
recently I still think about the painted up hockey mask I still think about the stun gun and the fight for my
02:03:11
life in 2023 twitchel will be eligible to apply for early parole experts say it's a long shot but it worries jail I'm
02:03:21
scared that he might want to finish what he started and come after me Mark twitchell cannot be
02:03:29
rehabilitated this is who he is action and for Mark twitchell the aspiring filmmaker there may be one
02:03:38
final plot twist author Steve Lilian sold the rights to his book The Devil Cinema to a film company twitchell's
02:03:48
story may be coming to the big screen an Olympic Horseman he was a legend a falling out with a student she attacked
02:04:03
him on social media oper he says she drove him to do it the verdict 48 Hours next on CBS