00:00:00
[Music] [Applause] I have visible holes in my memory from when I was a kid. You know,
00:00:19
trauma and it's a different kind of trauma because there's a monster involved. It's 30 years later. I can't
00:00:32
imagine many things that are as terribly lifechanging. I was 2 weeks away from my
00:00:39
17th birthday. What could I have done? And what could I have done? Okay, I've got the command on the phone. They're
00:00:49
expect a week ago today, uh Sarah Wood, a 12year-old, left this church and was traveling a short distance about a mile
00:00:57
to her home. She made it about halfway and uh we found her bicycle at around 4:30 that afternoon.
00:01:06
I am Dusty Wood. I am Sarah's older brother. I was 16 when she was abducted in 1993.
00:01:16
We need to know where Sarah is. Please help us find her. When I got a call from my sergeant that there was a
00:01:25
missing girl, he didn't say runaway. He said, "Missing child," which was unusual. So, I immediately drove up
00:01:30
there. This is a church uh that Sarah's father was pastor at at the time. The day that this happened, she was here
00:01:37
doing school work. Tell me where she rode. She would have gone right out out here and right down this road. So, this
00:01:44
is where she took a turn. Yep. Her her house is not too far up here on the left. This is the area where the bicycle
00:01:50
was found. I remember that moment. I'm standing next to my mother and that's when you know it's all
00:01:57
over. It's all over. [Music] We set up a station there. We could do everything out of that church. This end
00:02:14
right up in here. There were troopers from all over state. All of the state there. Days went by,
00:02:19
weeks, months, right? Would either one of you have ever guessed the turn this case would take on January 7th, 1994?
00:02:28
No. And this was still back in the day of where teletypes would come across. One came over about an abduction or
00:02:35
attempted abduction in Massachusetts. 12-year-old uh Rebecca Savarice. She's simply walking to school. She's
00:02:42
approached by a stranger who puts a gun to her and that broke the entire case. She's the key. She's the lynch pin.
00:02:49
She's what made it all happen. She got away. Okay, that's what put us on to Louis Lent. Lewis Lent came across as
00:02:56
just kind of an ordinary guy. He was a handyman. I don't think anybody would have ever conceived that he was doing
00:03:05
what he was doing. I'm Julia Cowie, retired FBI agent and profiler. He was prepared with duct
00:03:14
tape. He had a gun with him. He had a knife with him. He had rope with him. So he was always ready. He's a child
00:03:23
predator. You he enjoyed going out and driving around and in his words hunting for children.
00:03:30
He killed Sarah Emwood. He did confess to it. But we don't have Sarah's body. Finding the body is important because
00:03:41
then my mother could know where she is. Do you think Louisis Lint will give that
00:03:49
up? I don't know. If he does, it won't be out of the goodness of his heart. He does have a lot to hide.
00:03:57
[Music] [Music] My sister's life ended and I couldn't stop that. Someone hurt her and took her
00:04:59
life. I know at the time I felt like I could have done something, but I couldn't.
00:05:06
She was an exuberant person. She was excited to be alive. It's been a little over three decades since his 12-year-old
00:05:15
little sister disappeared. But for Dusty Wood, memories of Sarah have not faded with time. Morning, Sarah. What? Good
00:05:24
morning. Good morning. You ready to eat? No, I want to stay here and play video games. Every picture you see of her,
00:05:33
it's like a big beaming smile, those bright blue eyes. Dusty says the two of them had a lot in common.
00:05:43
I'm an extrovert. She's pretty extroverted. She's not a person in the background. She stuck out. Hey, Dad.
00:05:52
Dad, over here. [Music] She was funny. I imagine she would be funny now. On August 18th,
00:06:03
1993, Dusty, then just 16 years old, was enjoying a lazy summer day with his family in Sequoat, a small town in
00:06:12
central New York. That day, we had gone shopping. Uh we had come home. We just hung around the
00:06:19
house. We lived in the country, so there wasn't a lot of stuff to do. Sarah had made plans to ride her bike to
00:06:28
vacation Bible school at the church where her father was a pastor. It was just about a mile down the road.
00:06:37
The last time I saw her, she was singing Dolly Parton. Do you remember what song
00:06:42
she was singing? Working 9 to5. Yeah. She and I were at the front door. And so I was listening to her as she's working
00:06:50
925. And then she uh got on her bike and was like, "See you later." When Sarah didn't return home later that
00:07:00
afternoon, Dusty and Sarah's parents began to worry. So I remember getting a phone call from my parents at my
00:07:09
friend's house. Hey, did you see Sarah? And me being like, no. And so at that point, we rode our bikes and came
00:07:18
home. Didn't see her. Soon after, that's when a neighbor came across Sarah's bike
00:07:23
hidden in the bushes on the side of the road less than a half mile from the family's home. Police were called around
00:07:32
6:00 p.m. New York State Police Trooper Timothy Blae, who is now retired, arrived at the scene. So, Tim, where was
00:07:41
her bicycle found? It was off the grassy area. It was in where the shrubs are. And there was also some school paperwork
00:07:48
that was around. Some papers were blowing around. And at the time, did anyone remember seeing a truck or or a
00:07:55
child being grabbed or anything? I mean, she just vanished. Yeah. Well, as you can see, I mean, there's nobody here
00:08:00
really to see anything, you know. By early evening, the massive search for Sarah began.
00:08:09
We'd be out in the woods searching for her at midnight, 1:00 in the morning, hoping that we find her in maybe a hole
00:08:17
or a she fell down in something. 48 hours was invited by Sarah and Dusty's parents, Bob and Francis Wood, to
00:08:26
witness those early days of the investigation in hopes that the media attention would help find Sarah. Hold
00:08:35
for an hour, sir, and I'll be right with you. It would become one of the largest
00:08:39
searches for a missing child during that time. The first day was the worst first night.
00:08:49
We're uh just checking to see if anybody had any information on the Sarah Woods case. First night, of course, you know,
00:08:54
I was up on the road all night, out in the woods all night. Second day, I was on the road all night watching. Pioneer
00:09:02
one command post. Bob Wood's tiny church was turned into a state police command post.
00:09:09
Command post surrounded. The more people we can reach early on while the thing is
00:09:13
still fresh in their minds, the better chance we stand of maybe turning something up that that'll help us.
00:09:19
The big thing as far as the uniform troopers are concerned is the door to door. Anything out of the ordinary in
00:09:25
the past week or so? No. Can that be done with the chopper? The thing that keeps everybody going is
00:09:32
the uncertainty. not knowing whether she's dead, whether she's alive, whether she's a mile away, or whether she's 120
00:09:38
miles away. So now all I'm doing is praying and encouraging people because they're doing all the work. We've
00:09:45
expanded the search operation. We're probably into the area of 600 square miles.
00:09:53
I'm getting in fresh crews. I got more crews coming in from different parts of the state. And we're going to be
00:09:58
crawling on our hands and knees. It's really thick once we get down in there. Let's find that guy, bud. Let's go. When
00:10:03
you're dealing with a child, if it hits you personally, it hits me personally, you tend to devote 110%.
00:10:10
Let's go try. I hope we find this girl. Thank you, Lord, for this day. And we thank you now for the good food that we
00:10:17
have. We do ask that you would uh be with Sarah, nourish her, protect her. Please bring her home to us tonight.
00:10:25
How's it going, guys? Sarah's father doing a good job out there. That's like, you know, I'm on a precipice and there's
00:10:31
a there's a deep dark cliff there. Hi. How you doing, hun? I'm glad you're here. I really am. And if I step over
00:10:39
and and and self-pity and start to go down there, I may not be able to get back up. How you doing? I'm doing just
00:10:44
fine. Francis is strengthening daily. She's in the Bible a lot. Dusty, he's strong. He's real strong. Tell me about
00:10:52
yourself. Oh, myself. Yeah. Uh I don't know. What we need is a break, a good solid
00:11:08
lead that we can take and finish this case up with. And Bob believed police were going to
00:11:13
get that break. We're doing the state of Texas. If enough people could see his daughter's face, somebody stops one of
00:11:21
these stores and gasses up 10 minutes later to see my daughter, they could make the phone call we need to get. You
00:11:26
see this little person here? This is my baby. Whatever I have to do, I'm going to do to find this little girl here.
00:11:31
Sarah's mother, Francis, made a public plea. Whoever be behind this, you know, I hate
00:11:38
you. I don't hate you. I just want my daughter back. That's all. I just want her here with us. Investigators were
00:11:46
determined to find out what happened to Sarah. And they did not shy away from looking anywhere or at anyone. Our
00:11:55
entire family was focused on getting Sarah back. So, you want to investigate me? I'm okay with that. Sarah's got to
00:12:04
come home. We'll do whatever it takes. Period. When this happened, people realized this
00:12:23
could happen to anybody. It could be their children. Retired New York State police detectives
00:12:30
Ree Train and John Fallon were state troopers when Sarah Wood disappeared in 1993.
00:12:37
My daughter was only 5 miles from there when this happened at her grandparents house at 3 years old. It's home.
00:12:45
T and Fallon were part of the army of investigators from around the state. Thank you for your help. Assigned to
00:12:51
search for Sarah. We had no vehicle. She didn't just go into thin air. They would
00:12:57
join Frank Lawrence, one of the lead detectives. Something or someone had to have taken her. There it is right there.
00:13:06
Sarah, channel 2. Yet, despite the weeks of media attention that Sarah's case received, Lawrence, now retired from the
00:13:14
New York State Police, says law enforcement still had very little to go on. Somebody took her. We didn't know.
00:13:21
So when you don't know, you have to eliminate everything, every possibility, and you start local. And that included
00:13:29
questioning the people closest to Sarah, her brother, and her parents. You had to
00:13:35
look at the woods. The woods were looked at. It wasn't that tough though. It's very It's always difficult to do that,
00:13:41
you know, especially in this case because they're such good parents. Bob Wood was there every day. I'm glad
00:13:48
you're here though. You're helping out a lot. every day. Investigation isn't over. Uh, this is one fast. I had a hard
00:13:56
time going there every day. Once the woods were eliminated, Lawrence says they turned their attention to
00:14:02
investigating known and suspected sex offenders. Each and every one of them had to be spoken with and
00:14:11
eliminated. And we did. We did. And they still had nothing. We got this section done. Oh, despite the long hours and
00:14:22
heavy manpower until a bitterly cold day in January 1994, 5 months after Sarah disappeared, officer Timothy Blae was
00:14:35
working in the command center when a message came in via teletype, a device that police departments used at the time
00:14:44
to share information. One came over that about an abduction or attempted abduction in Massachusetts that I handed
00:14:50
off to Frank. Another 12-year-old girl named Becky Savarice was almost abducted as she walked to school in Pittsville,
00:14:59
Massachusetts, 100 miles away. Becky didn't respond to 48 hours most recent request for an interview, but back in
00:15:09
1994, she did speak with me and told me her remarkable story. I was coming up here. It was 7:10 in the morning on
00:15:18
January 7th at one of the busiest intersections in town. I was listening to my music. He He was on the side of
00:15:25
me. He like where I am. Yeah. He was saying stuff before. I didn't know what he was saying. So, I took my earphones
00:15:32
out to um hear what he was saying. And then he said, "Do you see the gun I have?" I was like, "Yes, I I see the gun
00:15:38
you have." He's like, "Just do everything I say. Everything would be perfectly okay." I was like, "All
00:15:44
right." He had it up against you. He had He had about maybe an inch away from me.
00:15:49
Were you scared? No, you weren't scared. I wasn't scared. We turned down here to
00:15:54
where his truck was parked. Now he wants you to go in the truck that's over there, right? You're not intending to go
00:16:01
into that truck. No, it if I got away, I didn't care if he shot me. I I just knew
00:16:07
I was not going to get into that truck. Why? Why did you know that? Was that something someone had told you or? I I
00:16:14
just felt it inside me. I knew I was not going to get into that truck. That's when Becky came up with an idea that
00:16:20
possibly saved her life. She faked an asthma attack. I started to fake that. I was like losing breath. When I was
00:16:27
trying to take my backpack off, uh when I he tried to grab from me, he got my backpack instead and I just ran. Becky
00:16:36
ran into a man clearing snow off a sidewalk who called the police. At about the same time, a witness called in with
00:16:44
three digits from the truck's license plate. Investigators began searching for the vehicle. I remember it well because
00:16:52
it was a blizzard. Despite the snowstorm, a Pittsfield officer spotted a truck with those three digits in its
00:17:00
license plate sitting in a driveway in a residential area. The officer quickly called for backup and they knocked on
00:17:09
the door and said, "Yeah, who was driving this truck earlier?" The homeowner told the officers a friend
00:17:15
named Lewis Lent had borrowed the truck and he just happened to be sitting in the kitchen. When police entered the
00:17:23
house to question Lent, he denied knowing about Becky, but willingly agreed to come down to the police
00:17:30
station. Had Lewis Lent, that name Lewis Lent, ever come up before? No, not in our investigation. Had he ever been
00:17:40
connected to a disappearance of a child? No, but he had a criminal history. Yeah,
00:17:45
some minor things like bad checks and forg checks, things like that, but nothing that approaches this. And when
00:17:52
investigators searched Lent's vehicle, they knew they had the right man. They found Rebecca's backpack. They found the
00:18:00
gun. They found duct tape and clothesline rope, basically his his kidnapping abduction kit. Although the
00:18:07
attempted abduction was 100 miles away in Pittsville, Massachusetts, everyone wondered if Lent
00:18:15
could have also taken Sarah. I got a call from the lieutenant. He says, "Well, go home and pack a bag and you're
00:18:21
going to Pittsfield. [Music] Almost 12 hours after the attempted abduction of 12-year-old Becky
00:18:42
Savarice, New York State Police Detective Frank Lawrence struggled through a snowstorm and finally arrived
00:18:49
at Pittsville, Massachusetts, eager to speak to Lewis Lent. But he would have to wait his turn. There's similarities,
00:18:57
but it's a Pittsfield case. Okay. They would talk to him then and we'd get him in between. And he was willing to talk
00:19:03
to you. Yeah. He talked to us. And during their conversations, Lawrence says he and two other New York
00:19:10
investigators made sure Lewis Lent understood why they were there. I actually showed him this poster and I
00:19:18
said to him, "Lou, this is who I'm here to talk to you about." So, he knew that eventually we're going to be talking
00:19:24
about this. Okay. How did he react? Did he He He was He was He was flat. Flat. Yeah. He was flat through the whole
00:19:31
thing. Did that make you think he had no idea who she was? I I didn't really care. I was going to find out. That's
00:19:38
what we were there for. But getting Lewis Lent to admit anything was not going to be easy. Although Becky
00:19:45
Savarice and a witness picked him out of a lineup, it took Lent until the next morning to admit he had tried to take
00:19:54
her. Lewis Lent was arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. But New York
00:20:01
investigators were not done with Lent. They started to ask him questions about other missing kids. We talked to him. We
00:20:09
spent a lot of time with him. And that's when Lawrence says he and New York investigators came up with a strategy.
00:20:16
We found out that he was religious. So he says they brought a Bible into the interview room. That Bible sat on the
00:20:25
table in front of him. Anytime he would wander, okay, we would use the Bible and
00:20:32
we go, Lou, you got to tell the truth and this comes from the heart. You got to tell us the truth. We would go back
00:20:38
to the Bible. And Lawrence says the strategy appeared to be working because as the hours went by, Lent started to
00:20:47
reveal things about himself and some very disturbing plans for the future that involve kidnapping young victims.
00:20:56
He told us about his master plan. Once he found the acceptable vulnerable individuals, he was going to bring them
00:21:04
back to his house and put them in like a few like I describe it as a coffin, but
00:21:10
keep them alive so he could use them and have them whenever he he wanted them. Investigators would later find the
00:21:17
beginning of his horrifying construction project when they searched Len's bedroom
00:21:23
and found this wooden partition wall. And things only got worse. He wanted to talk about Jimmy Bernardo.
00:21:33
Jimmy Bernardo was a 12year-old boy who had gone missing three years earlier in Pittsfield,
00:21:39
Massachusetts. A month later, hunters would find his body. The case had stumped local investigators for years,
00:21:47
but now Lent was about to tell everyone what had happened to Jimmy. He was riding his bike through a strip
00:21:56
mall in uh Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Lewis Lent was a janitor at the cinema center there in Pittsfield. When Jimmy
00:22:05
stopped in front of the cinema to wake for a friend, that's when Len said he offered him money to help him clean the
00:22:12
movie theater. Jimmy agreed. And then once Len got him inside, he overpowered him and kidnapped him. Lent told
00:22:20
investigators he drove Jimmy 200 miles to a rural and isolated area near his hometown of Reynoldsville, New York.
00:22:29
Then he said he strangled Jimmy to death and left him there. He had details that
00:22:35
only the killer and the police knew. As horrific as that revelation was, investigators kept pressing him about
00:22:43
Sarah Wood. The more we talked about Sarah, we're probing. He's responding. And then five months after she went
00:22:52
missing, Lewis Lent finally confessed. Lent admitted that he had kidnapped, raped, and then murdered
00:23:00
Sarah M. Wood. She was vulnerable. He was hunting and he found the victim. And just like Jimmy
00:23:09
Bernardo, Detective Lawrence says Lent's account matched details only known to investigators. Lent knew specifics about
00:23:18
what Sarah had been wearing and details about her bike that had not been made public. He knew that the chain on the
00:23:26
bike was broken. And he also said that the bike was a little bit big for her. I didn't know that. I found out
00:23:34
later that it was. Then Lawrence says Lent drew them a map showing where he said he buried Sarah's body. This is
00:23:42
just a copy obviously, right? But this is actually what Louisis Lent did. He drew that. I handed him a piece of paper
00:23:50
and this is what he drew. And where did he say he put her? Al Route 28 up by Blue Mountain Lake. Blue Mountain Lake
00:23:58
is located in a remote woody area near Racket Lake in New York's Aderandac Mountains. And within hours, police from
00:24:07
all over New York State were dispatched and searched the area. Bob Wood was there along with Dusty who
00:24:15
was a senior in high school. It was very cold. It was ridiculous and it was tons
00:24:22
of snow. Remember a lot of helping? A lot of people. How you guys doing for t up here? Was that a time when you
00:24:29
thought you might be able to bring Sarah home? Yeah. For over 50 days they searched for Sarah in the aderondex.
00:24:38
It was 30 below zero. We could only stay outside for 20 minutes at a time. We were in waist high snow. We had shovels.
00:24:46
We're digging. We're looking for any evidence at all having anything to do with Sarah. And we were hoping we
00:24:51
somebody would come up with something that had something to do with her. It just didn't happen. As investigators
00:24:58
continued to look for Sarah's body, Lent would face murder charges in both Massachusetts and New York. It was a
00:25:07
rare occasion where everyone was laser focused on one event which was find Sarah, bring him to justice.
00:25:18
[Music] Before Lewis Lent could be tried for Sarah Wood's murder in New York, he
00:25:33
first had to face charges in Massachusetts. In 1995, Lewis went on trial and was ultimately convicted for
00:25:43
Becky Savarese's attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to 17 to 20 years. Almost one and a half years later, after
00:25:53
taking a plea, he was given a life sentence for murdering Jimmy Bernardo. Television, radio, and
00:26:00
newspaper outlets. And then on June 6th, 1996, Lewis Land arrived at Herkimer, New York to a media frenzy. And the
00:26:11
district attorney wanted justice for Sarah Anne Wood and her family. Jeffrey Carpenter is Herkimer County's district
00:26:18
attorney. He wasn't in office when Sarah Wood was murdered, but he has studied Lewis Lent's case files. He says the
00:26:26
DA's office thought Lewis Lent was going to plead guilty to killing Sarah, but without warning, Lent changed his mind.
00:26:35
But it's my understanding that when he entered the courtroom and he saw certain members of the public, especially I
00:26:41
think her family, he decided on that day he did not want to enter a plea. Days later, Lent would change his mind again
00:26:49
and finally enter a guilty plea. What do you remember of him sitting there? I couldn't believe how small a man, you
00:26:57
know, I couldn't believe it. Not imposing. Almost 4 years after Sarah Wood was abducted and murdered. Lewis Lent was
00:27:05
sentenced to 25 years to life. He was sent back to Massachusetts to serve the rest of his life in prison. He will
00:27:15
never cause harm to anyone else. But it was not over for the Wood family and New
00:27:20
York State Police investigators. They still needed to find Sarah. He changes his story so often,
00:27:28
it's hard to hard to tell what's the truth and what's fiction. In fact, Detective T says Len's original story
00:27:36
that he buried her in the Racket Lake area turned out to be a lie. He cashed a check on August 18th in Pittsfield at
00:27:46
6:18 p.m. So, he did not physically have time to abduct Sarah at around 2:30 p.m.
00:27:53
and then drive to the Aderondex, dig a grave, bury her, and then drive back to Pittsfield to cash a check. So
00:28:01
investigators continued to visit Lent in prison, hoping that over time he would reveal where he buried Sarah and perhaps
00:28:10
even disclosed the murders of other victims. Detectives Fallon and T say they visited Landon prison about 20
00:28:21
times. Isn't it difficult at times so for the two of you not to just jump across the table and grab him? No. One
00:28:28
of the things you have to do is you have to leave hate outside of the room when you go in. They didn't push him, but
00:28:34
during their conversations, Lent revealed that he often suffered from blackouts and claimed he had an evil
00:28:42
alter ego that he called Steven. He has this dichotomy is the word he used. He has a really good side that studies the
00:28:50
Bible and actually was a traveling minister. Then he has this evil side and he has these uh uncontrollable
00:28:57
compulsions. This is the way he put it to do terrible things that he could not stop. Somehow Lent managed to hide that
00:29:05
evil side from nearly everyone he knew. Lewis Lent spent the last year back in 1994. 48 hours correspondent Richard
00:29:14
Slesinger interviewed some of Lent's friends. This sidewall here, it was caving right in. Right. And uh he helped
00:29:23
you with that too, huh? Oh, yes. To Phil Shalley's who is legally blind, Lent was
00:29:29
a good Samaritan. Just came over and said, "Well, I'd be glad to give you a hand. I hear you're
00:29:35
doing uh work on your foundation." He said, "I'd be glad to help you out." We built a border all the way around. We
00:29:42
put in probably hundreds of hours working together in that salary. It was definitely hard work. He And he did that
00:29:49
all out of the goodness of his heart. Yes, he did. To Frank Colette, the dean of students at a Bible school that Lent
00:29:56
attended, he was a gentleman. He was intelligent. He was unassuming. He was quiet. Uh, one thing about Louie that
00:30:04
everyone remembered was he always had his hand out to to shake your hand when you were meeting one. And if you didn't
00:30:09
watch out, he'd give you a big bear hug. He had a lot of children with him, young
00:30:14
kids. The kids would play video games, and then they would come in, go to the movies, and he would bring them home. to
00:30:18
Richard Bowman who employed him. Lent seemed like a mentor to children. They called him the big brother. They did.
00:30:26
Oh, yeah. The kids. Yes. Bowman owned the movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor for six years. And he thought he
00:30:35
knew Lent very well. I I hired him. I worked side by side with him. What's What's
00:30:53
Tell me what's going on. I just feel as though I may have missed something that he might have said or done that would
00:31:02
have keep me that would have let you know. Just give me a clue that there was something wrong with this guy. People
00:31:08
have trouble understanding that you can have this very religious, god-fearing, nice, polite man in
00:31:17
contrast that to his other side where he is hunting and praying on and killing children. Those can exist in one person.
00:31:29
Julia Callie is a retired FBI agent and profiler who worked on cases like the Golden State Killer. She now hosts a
00:31:37
true crime podcast called the consult real FBI profilers. This podcast is about criminal profiling. Callie has
00:31:47
never met Lewis Lent, but at our request, she reviewed his background and studied his confessions. She says that
00:31:56
what appeared to be Lent's desire to help people could actually have served a selfish purpose. by helping all these
00:32:04
people. This is a way to maybe hide who he really is, to gain people's trust. When you do that, you can manipulate
00:32:14
them. You can control them. It's strategically motivated as opposed to being motivated by true emotion. Just
00:32:21
like other serial killers she has studied, Cowi says Lent is completely self-centered. His needs come before
00:32:30
anybody else's. Obviously, he had no regard for his victims. He has no regard for victim's families. Something Reese
00:32:38
Tr says he has seen firsthand. He knows what emotions are that other people have, but he doesn't feel them himself.
00:32:46
One of the things that he said in the past that is that the murders ruined his life. He's remorseful that he got
00:32:54
caught, that it ruined his life, but he doesn't think in terms of it ruined anybody else's life. He just doesn't
00:33:00
think that way. Lewis L so quickly admits to kidnapping and and killing Sarah Wood. Why not tell it all? Why not
00:33:11
give all the details? It's just a secret he wants to hold on to. It's his. It's the only thing he has that's his own
00:33:18
that he can control. And a bit of sadism. Knowing that family members want answers. continuing to hurt them is
00:33:27
something I think that he feeds off of. It's it's there's some enjoyment in there. Most killers don't tell us
00:33:34
everything. They rarely give the full story. Instead, Lent reveals what he wants when he wants on his own
00:33:43
timetable. And in 2013, he revealed something new. I've described it as speaking directly to the
00:33:52
devil. He really is the devil. [Music] [Music] As detectives Fallon and Train continued
00:34:14
to question Lewis Len about Sarah Wood and other possible victims, in 2013, he made yet another confession. He ended up
00:34:24
admitting to uh killing Jamie Lusher. Nine months before Sarah was abducted, Jaime Lusher, a 16-year-old teen with
00:34:34
disabilities, disappeared in Westfield, Massachusetts, just 40 miles from the Pittsfield area.
00:34:43
Again, he was riding his bike um through a parking lot of a friendly restaurant.
00:34:49
His bicycle was later found in a wooded area close by. Len told investigators that after he kidnapped and murdered
00:34:57
Jaime, he discarded the teenager's remains in Greenwater Pond in Beckett, Massachusetts.
00:35:06
We had divers go actually with the Massachusetts State Police divers and they all dove the pond and uh nothing
00:35:13
was found. As he has done many times before, Lent would later recant his confession. Authorities decided not to
00:35:22
charge Lewis Lent with Jaime's murder, hoping that one day he will lead them to his body. At this point, we're not
00:35:30
interested in further prosecution. He's not going anywhere. At a press conference shortly after the confession,
00:35:36
Jaime's sister talked about the grief she endured since her brother went missing. Anybody that knows me knows I
00:35:43
talk about this. I think about this every day. It's this searing heartache in part that
00:35:51
keeps authorities motivated to find the missing. So soon after Lent confessed to
00:35:56
killing Jamie, DA Jeffrey Carpenter got permission to take Lent, who was serving
00:36:03
his life sentence in Massachusetts, out of prison and back to New York. This time they drove him
00:36:11
around hoping he would reveal anything that would help them find Sarah. So really, what did we have to lose? We had
00:36:20
to do it. We drove to the Massachusetts border. We drove to the Vermont border. He took us to where she was abducted. He
00:36:27
took us to where he claimed he murdered her. But after three long days and over 600 miles of driving, Carpenter says New
00:36:36
York authorities ended the operation. The consensus was he absolutely knew where she was. He just was not going to
00:36:44
tell us. Before Carpenter sent Lent back to Massachusetts, he recorded this conversation with him.
00:36:53
You know, we spent some time here last couple of days. Hope you feel you were treated with respect. All the way. Yeah.
00:37:00
Treated well. Yeah. Well, that was our end of the bargain, right? No. Right. Yep. What was your end of the bargain?
00:37:07
Do the very best I can to find Sarah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that what we've done? That's what we've done. I would say that
00:37:16
uh but I tried. I was absolutely sure that I knew the route, but when it came down to it, I
00:37:27
could only get partial of what I what I actually where I actually what was going through your
00:37:33
head when you're talking to him. Anger. He does not forget details. He recalls details. He recalls many things
00:37:43
until he wants to pretend he doesn't remember. A decade after that fruitless search in
00:37:52
November of 2023, investigators were back out looking again. This time at the Green
00:37:59
Mountain National Forest in Vermont after Detective T identified an area with landmarks that Lent had talked
00:38:07
about during their many conversations. Just too many things matched up. A lot of a lot of a lot of boxes were checked.
00:38:16
What's more, search and rescue dogs taken to the area had alerted to a possible body there. So, we were
00:38:24
hopeful, optimistic that we would find something there, and we we never found anything. But authorities kept looking.
00:38:32
Earlier this year, detectives went back to the cellar that Lent worked in with Phil Shalley's to see if they missed
00:38:39
something in 1994. The search turned up. No new evidence. Do you feel in a way that you might be
00:38:48
running out of time? Lewis Lent is in his 70s. It's a concern, but that's one of the things we can't control.
00:38:56
Regardless of the challenges, authorities say they will never stop looking for Sarah Wood and Jamie
00:39:05
Lusher. Dusty Wood says he chooses not to think about Lewis Lent. And every day I'm less angry because I devote my
00:39:15
energy to positive things. Every year, Dusty and some family members participate in the Ride for Missing
00:39:23
Children. Ready? Rolling. A 78 mile bike ride that was created in Sarah's honor by Bob Wood. The writers
00:39:36
wore jerseys that were turquoise and pink, the colors that Sarah wore when she was
00:39:42
[Applause] abducted. Riders stop at schools along the [Music] way to talk about abduction prevention.
00:39:55
The most important thing for us as a family is to protect kids and make sure that if there's anything that can be
00:40:02
done to protect them from monsters like Lewis Lent, that it be done. Riders pay silent tribute to those
00:40:12
children whose families hold out hope that they will be found alive and to children who went missing
00:40:22
and are never coming home. like Sarah M. Wood. Dusty says he and his family are grateful to their community who have
00:40:32
supported them since the beginning. There will be never a way to repay the kindness of
00:40:42
strangers that opened up the possibility of giving the best chance to my sister.
00:40:51
He's not sure if they will ever find his sister's body, but he is at peace. I'm waiting for the day I see Sarah in
00:41:02
heaven, and I know that day is coming, and that makes me feel good. [Music] [Music]
00:41:28
[Music] New CBS next. A wife terrified of her aranged husband. I don't want him anywhere near me. is found shot to
00:41:38
death. Lady down. Lady down. The hunt was on. You leave no rock unturned. But could her murder have been prevented? I
00:41:45
knew this was going to happen. 48 hours is all new CBS next in streaming on Paramount Plus.
00:41:52
[Music] I don't want her to be a cold case. Please get some water. Hydrate. [Music]
00:42:14
Are you ever overwhelmed as you look around at this wide open space? No. We're going to find her. You got to keep
00:42:21
searching. This one and this one, right? I want her to be found. I want to bring her home to her kids, to
00:42:31
our families. How often do you think about your sister? All the time. I still can't believe it's like she just
00:42:37
vanished. My impression of Maya was that she had a beautiful home life. She was an
00:42:45
accomplished career woman. She was a superm mom. What was she like as a friend? Kind,
00:42:54
funny, witty. Her voice, oh my god, she could sing. She could play the guitar. She's very
00:43:03
talented. She could do martial arts, a jeeping, off-roading. There's my adventurous little girl. It's so pretty.
00:43:12
She loved the outdoors. When did you notice something was wrong? She's planning for her daughter's
00:43:22
birthday and we haven't heard anything from her. This is not her at all. When we walked in, the house was a mess.
00:43:29
Boxes everywhere. I right away knew there's something really wrong here. Did you ever think in that moment in that
00:43:37
house that Larry did something to Maya? Yeah. Larry was the last person that saw her.
00:43:46
What was his demeanor when you showed up and started asking questions? Calm. He hadn't slept much. It didn't look like
00:43:53
he was unconcerned about his wife being gone. He said this wasn't all that unusual for her.
00:44:01
I didn't have the answers at that point, but I was very suspicious. So, I needed
00:44:05
to gather more evidence. The family was well aware this marriage was not working
00:44:10
out. He went on the internet, found a website that does witchcraft, cast spells. He bought one of the spells. I
00:44:19
don't even know how to make this out. So, I I I need your help. This is the spell that he casts on Maya. That's
00:44:27
blood that's on there. He created the witchcraft altar and he puts down the picture of himself and Maya.
00:44:35
He wrote, "Can you hex to have her hurt enough that she will have to depend on me? Maybe an accident or broken bone."
00:44:46
That's really hard to hear. What kind of person do you believe Larry is? Very damaged person. Do you think Maya left
00:44:55
that house on her own? No. No. [Music] Sorry. It's been really hard. It is our family.
00:45:08
We're still asking the public, please help us bring my sister home. [Music] [Music]
00:46:07
More than a year has gone by since 39-year-old Maya May Millettee, mother of three young children, vanished in
00:46:15
Chula Vista, California. I still have hope. I still had that hope that we'll find her alive.
00:46:27
Maya's sister, Mary Chris, and her husband, Richard Giulier, have fought hard so Maya's disappearance doesn't
00:46:35
become a cold case. It's been a really, really tough year with the whole family. We still don't have answers yet.
00:46:46
[Music] Maya was 13 years old when she immigrated to the United States from the Philippines with her parents and five
00:46:54
siblings in 1995. Mary Chris says her sister thrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the family
00:47:02
settled to build a new life. She's always been, you know, the smart one and uh she's very active at school.
00:47:08
Education is very important to the family. I've always been so proud of her. Maya met her future husband, Larry
00:47:16
Millettee, when they were both working at a fast food restaurant in Honolulu. Larry's family had also immigrated from
00:47:23
the Philippines. When Larry turned 18 and joined the Navy, the couple decided to get married. They were so young.
00:47:31
Yeah. Teenagers. Yeah. She's the first one to get married. So, it was a shock for everyone, but we respected her
00:47:40
decision. Maya and Larry moved to Southern California and built their careers working for the Navy. Larry was
00:47:48
an optician at the Naval Medical Center and Maya worked as a supervisor contract
00:47:53
specialist at this naval station in San Diego. She was my mentor from day one. She was like this little tiny person,
00:48:02
but she was a big personality. Claudia Hulo and Allison Alexander worked with Maya at the base and became
00:48:11
friends. We actually negotiate contracts for the US Navy and she was very good at
00:48:18
it. I used to, you know, joke around with her and, you know, because she had a photographic memory. I had a lot of
00:48:26
respect for her. She was a very strong and confident leader. A lot of the women in the office really looked up to her.
00:48:33
There was no glass ceiling. We could get wherever we wanted. Didn't matter where
00:48:37
we came from. Maya and Larry decided to wait 10 years before starting a family. The couple eventually welcomed two
00:48:46
daughters and a son. It's a joy to see them, you know, that they have their own family, too. We're always out camping.
00:48:54
We're always outdoors. It's so pretty. Larry was a good dad. Always attentive to the kids, like great parents. What
00:49:05
kind of mother was she? Very caring, loving mother. She hands on. She's um always
00:49:12
teaching them something especially, you know, music. She has some videos with her son singing
00:49:24
with her word by word. Yeah. Word by word. Brings us to tears every time we watch
00:49:33
it. Her kids were everything. She enjoyed her kids. In early January 2021, Maya was focused
00:49:46
on planning a ski trip to Big Bear for her daughter's birthday. But her family grew concerned when she suddenly stopped
00:49:54
communicating on January 7th. for her not to tell us what's going to happen for her daughter's birthday. You
00:50:02
know, that was a big deal. Mary Chris says when their brother Jr. drove over to check on Maya the next day, her
00:50:10
husband Larry told him Maya had been in the bedroom for several hours. Jr. knocked on the door but got no response.
00:50:18
We kind of just thinks, "Okay, maybe she just maybe she's sleeping." Larry did say that they had an argument. He left
00:50:24
it at that. We believed Larry. They had an argument and she just she just want to be left alone. The following day,
00:50:32
when there was still no news from Maya, Mary, Chris, and Richard drove over to the Millettee house. When we walked in,
00:50:40
the house was a mess, which I've never seen their house messy. And it was cold. It was January
00:50:46
and he had the AC running, which was really odd. This time, Larry told them Maya was out. So Larry says, "My husband
00:50:56
where?" Hiking. She went hiking. Suspicious that something wasn't right, Mary Chris reported her sister missing
00:51:04
to the Chula Vista Police Department that night. How did the police react? They sent uh three officers, went
00:51:14
through the house, and they questioned us. Mary, Chris, and Richard were upset with
00:51:20
what they say was a lack of concern from the police. It seemed like there was no
00:51:25
urgency for the police department to investigate it properly. By January 10th, Maya had now been missing for 3
00:51:32
days. Her family gathered at her home to celebrate her daughter's birthday, hoping against hope. We're all like
00:51:40
looking at the door hoping she'll walk in on her daughter's birthday. She never did. I feel so
00:51:56
bad. After that, she said, "Mommy didn't show up for my birthday. I didn't know how to comfort
00:52:11
[Music] her. As Maya's family tried to keep some normaly for the sake of the children,
00:52:20
Richard was watching Larry during the party. Just laid back wearing his navy sweats on a Sunday, no shoes. And Larry
00:52:30
had no concern whatsoever on his face for his missing wife. not even for his daughter's birthday.
00:52:38
That night, Claudia got the distressing news that Maya was missing and drove over to the Millettee house. By now, the
00:52:47
birthday party had turned into a search party. So, they were outside with babies
00:52:54
and blankets trying to look for their sister, their daughter. Her parents are elderly. The brothers and the
00:53:04
brother-in-law were out knocking on doors, giving out flyers. He had no interest in helping.
00:53:12
As word spread that Maya was nowhere to be found, more friends stepped in trying
00:53:18
to help. My wife Lou was working at the 32nd Street Naval Base. Said that a friend of hers went missing. The family
00:53:27
is concerned. Would you help them? Somebody asked for help, you just do it, right? So, if she was still alive, I
00:53:35
needed to get to her quickly. That's why I went straight to where the last place
00:53:38
she was seen, which was that house. I had no idea that it would turn into what it was.
00:54:01
on January 11th, 2021, 4 days after Maya Millettee was last heard from. I knew what had to be
00:54:09
done. Uh, and I did it. Attorney Billy Little, a former criminal defense investigator for the US Navy, decided to
00:54:17
step into the missing person's case. I went straight to where the last place she was seen, which was that house.
00:54:23
Little wanted to talk to Larry Millettee. Amongst other things, he had found it odd that Maya's husband wasn't
00:54:31
the one who initially called the Chula Vista Police Department. In fact, when the family wanted to call 911, he
00:54:39
discouraged it. Were there police around also investigating at this point? No. No. According to the family, the police
00:54:46
had come. He had given them, I guess, the same story. In news reports at the time, a Chula Vista police spokesperson
00:54:54
stated that Larry was being cooperative. They were treating it as a missing person's case and had found no
00:55:01
indication of foul play. Little says after he showed Larry his naval civilian ID, he let him in. I started looking for
00:55:10
things that I thought might be suspicious in the house. Just like Mary, Chris, and Richard, he noticed something
00:55:17
strange. Most of the windows in the house were open. It was clear he was trying to air the house out. Little knew
00:55:25
from Maya's family that the couple had had a fight on the day she was last heard from. I was looking to see if
00:55:32
there's any damage in the house. It would indicate some domestic violence. I'm also looking for defensive wounds on
00:55:38
his hands, which I don't see. But Little says he did see something outside the Milliete bedroom. We went upstairs where
00:55:47
her bedroom was. The first thing I noticed was the hole in the door right next to the handle cuz it's right in the
00:55:54
area where if you need access to a locked room, you're going to punch right through there. And I touched the patch
00:56:00
and it felt new. It felt wet. I made a comment to Larry about, "Hey, what's this?" and he says, "Oh, yeah. Uh, might
00:56:08
have punched a hole in the door there." Inside the bedroom, Little says he noticed another hole on the wall that
00:56:15
also appeared to have been recently repaired. That would have been too high for Maya to punch cuz she was small,
00:56:22
right? And I said, "Larry, what about this hole?" And he said, "Oh, yeah. She uh got mad punched that, too."
00:56:31
Larry's creating a picture here of a woman who is violent. Is this adding up to you? No. None of this story is adding
00:56:40
up. When you left the house that day after collecting those puzzle pieces, what were you thinking? I thought Larry
00:56:49
killed her and we need to find out what he did and what he did with the body. But I wasn't ready to tell Mary Chris
00:56:56
yet cuz I didn't know, right? I could be wrong. Little began canvasing the neighborhood
00:57:02
and knocking on doors to track down home security footage to see if anything suspicious was caught on camera around
00:57:10
the Millettee house. So, I knew we had to get that uh quickly and preserve it quickly. Time was of the essence. Oh,
00:57:18
God. Yes. What Little found was a treasure trove of clues. He says a camera from a neighboring house recorded
00:57:26
the voices of the Millettee children playing in the yard at 10:30 p.m. on the night their mother was last heard from
00:57:39
on a school night and it's cold outside and the weather I believe it was in the high 40s that night. Another camera
00:57:46
recorded Larry backing their Lexus into the garage at 5:58 a.m. the next morning. So, you can't see what's going
00:57:55
on, but you can see it going in the garage. Larry then leaves the house at 6:45 a.m. and doesn't return home for
00:58:04
almost 11 and 1/2 hours. You could have moved on. Why did you stay on this case and take matters into
00:58:13
your own hands? In my mind, my job wasn't nearly complete. It was just beginning. It was just beginning. When I
00:58:19
see Mary Chris and I see her crying, I'm just like, I got to figure this out. So,
00:58:30
as Billy Little continued investigating, it's just not in me to quit, so I don't.
00:58:37
Mary, Chris, and Richard turned to local media and organized the first search for
00:58:43
Maya on the hiking trails behind her house. We're desperate for answers. We wanted action. We wanted to
00:58:50
do something. Staying at home, sitting down wasn't going to bring us answers. Bring her home.
00:58:57
Her sister goes on television and is begging the public for help. Help me find my missing sister. And that really
00:59:05
moved people. Alita Vaughn, an attorney and true crime author, saw Maya's case on the news and started following it
00:59:13
closely. You realize that this was somebody that was very vibrant that was really out there living her life. And
00:59:20
that is part of why it's all so shocking that she's missing. It shocks your conscious.
00:59:26
As the case gathered steam in the media on January 23rd, 2021, two weeks after Maya's disappearance, the Chula Vista
00:59:36
Police Department searched the Millettee house. And what they did find was that Larry had a lot of firearms. They seized
00:59:44
two Glock handguns, a rifle, and a shotgun. And they found that he was in possession of an illegal assault weapon.
00:59:51
Investigators also downloaded images from Larry's phone. Three days later, the police were back. On January 26th,
01:00:00
they served another search warrant, and the police take the navigation system, the GPS, from Larry's Lexus. Meanwhile,
01:00:08
Maya's friends had been revealing details about the couple's relationship. I would say March or so of
01:00:17
2020, the obsession became obvious. Larry's behavior had grown alarming before his wife went missing. He would
01:00:28
do subliminal messages for her to be that perfect spouse. And it was everywhere she walked at different times
01:00:36
they would turn on. That is insane. It sounds like from a movie. She didn't just walk out. That's
01:01:00
something she would never do. About a month after Maya's disappearance, her husband, Larry Millettee, hired a lawyer
01:01:08
and stopped cooperating with investigators. I believe that he did something to her.
01:01:15
Billy Little was told by Maya's friends and family that troubling signs in the marriage began emerging the year before.
01:01:23
And it started back in January of 2020 when they started having marital problems. Larry would call every single
01:01:29
one of us trying to ask for help to intervene, you know, into the marriage. Larry was complaining
01:01:37
that Maya was having a midlife crisis. and he's like, "Well, she's been going out with her friends more often and she
01:01:43
has a lot of single friends." But my sister is saying, you know, it's not me, it's it's Larry. Maya's friend Claudia
01:01:50
spent time with the couple socially. His relationship was very kind of to the side and just very watchful. From what
01:01:58
my observation of him, he always had to be in control. Claudia recalls an instance when Larry couldn't get a hold
01:02:06
of Maya at work. You know when somebody might be agitated or you overhear their voice. I did hear where are you? It
01:02:14
takes you this long to get from your car to your office. Who were you talking to?
01:02:18
He wants her to be submissive for her to comply to him to be the same person as you know she used to. But Maya's loved
01:02:29
ones say that Maya was changing. She was growing into someone new. A strong woman
01:02:35
for sure. As the months passed in 2020, Larry's grip on Maya tightened. He's now
01:02:43
tracking her spending habits. He's gotten into all of her social media accounts. She doesn't have any privacy.
01:02:49
And he suspected that she was straying. Larry accused her of having affairs with
01:02:54
several men at work, wrote emails to her boss at work. He knows that if he tells
01:03:00
the boss that she's having an affair with somebody at work, that she will get fired. He tells all of Maya's family,
01:03:06
"She's cheating. She's sinful. Help me get her back on the Christian religious way." And starts forcing her to go to
01:03:13
church. These are texts that Larry sent to Maya's family. And he's quoting the Bible. And it says, "For the lips of the
01:03:22
adulterous woman drip honey, her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to the grave." He's talking about Maya.
01:03:29
In his own words, he said that he was getting desperate and he felt that the devil was tempting him. At some point,
01:03:36
Maya's family says they told her they were concerned about what was unfolding. At that time, we knew that my sister is
01:03:45
ready to move on. We told her, "Whatever your decision is, we're here to support
01:03:50
you." By the fall of 2020, Billy Little says Larry was growing increasingly desperate to hold on to Maya. And so
01:03:59
what does he do? He goes to uh witchcraft. There are people on the internet that will sell you for five
01:04:05
bucks, you know, how to make a spell that will get her to be attracted to you to bind your marriage in
01:04:14
blood. And that's what he tried to do. Does a little witchcraft blood altar. That is the picture that he took of the
01:04:21
altar, an old photo of them with blood thrown on it. Little says Larry contacted numerous spellcasters and even
01:04:30
wrote a review for one. And he writes of this spellcaster, "She is kind, professional, and courteous. My casting
01:04:39
has not yet manifested, but I'm really hoping and counting on it." Leaving a review like one would leave on Yelp for
01:04:46
a food order. Like it's an Uber ride. He's like, "Ah, five stars. Good job, Spellcaster." So, he's not quite as
01:04:53
smart as he thinks he is. He doesn't realize that all of that stuff is pointing the finger at him. By December
01:04:58
of 2020, Maya and Larry were sleeping in separate rooms. Little says Maya found speakers in her room and confronted
01:05:07
Larry. He admitted he had been playing subliminal messages while she slept. Maya messaged a friend and said her
01:05:15
marriage was definitely over. What was that message that was coming out of those speakers under the bed? It's right
01:05:22
there. No more men. No more men. No more men. On New Year's weekend, Maya told her
01:05:28
family her decision. She's ready for divorce. She's finally made up her mind. I just told her, "Just be
01:05:36
careful. Just be careful." On January 7th, the last day she was heard from, Maya filled out this form and made an
01:05:45
appointment with a divorce attorney. I think she told him that she was going to file for divorce. He snapped when he
01:05:53
found out that he was finally losing her. What had happened in the house that night. Little thinks he knows after a
01:06:01
neighbor reached out with some information. The neighbors do they say, "Oh yeah, we heard gunshots." Yeah. Not
01:06:07
only did they tell me that they've got gunshots, but they've got the audio. A home surveillance system from the
01:06:14
neighbor captured these loud bangs around 1000 p.m. that night. Little also believes they are gunshots.
01:06:26
It's coming from Larry and Maya's house. Remember, Billy Little had tracked down
01:06:33
that other home security footage that police agreed captured audio of the Millettee kids playing in the backyard
01:06:41
at 10:30 p.m. The picture is becoming more and more clear. He's got to clean up and
01:06:51
he's got to move the body. So, he needs to send those kids outside in the school
01:06:54
night at 10:30. Do you try to speak to law enforcement? I did and I told them what I found and time and time again
01:07:05
there was just no follow up by the police. The Chula Vista Police Department declined our request for an
01:07:11
interview but in April 2021 they told local media that it had been an active investigation since mid January and they
01:07:19
were keeping their cards close to the vest. It's tough. There was very minimal details and that was part of our
01:07:27
frustration working with the police department. The family now is having various rallies in front of the Chula
01:07:34
Vista Police Department basically demanding answers, but the police are not going to release a lot of
01:07:41
information to the family. This is potentially a murder investigation. In May of 2021, the police served Larry
01:07:50
Mallettee with a gun violence restraining order. Among the reasons, investigators had found this image on
01:07:57
Larry's phone. Another photo, which had been redacted, featured the couple's four-year-old son surrounded by
01:08:05
weapons. Authorities retrieved more firearms from the Millia Day house. I think that was a smart move by the
01:08:12
police. It protects the children while they try to buy a little bit of time, but it also protects them if they have
01:08:18
to go in and arrest him. In the summer of 2021, investigators named Larry Millete
01:08:25
a person of interest in his wife's case. You keep wondering, is this going to be
01:08:30
the time that they're going to arrest Larry? On October 19th, 9 months after the disappearance of Maya, investigators
01:08:39
did just that. Today at 11:42 a.m., the Chula Vista Police Department SWAT team arrested Larry Mallete for the murder of
01:08:48
his wife. And with that, even more evidence came to light. [Music] [Music] Maya's family and friends anticipated
01:09:15
the news of an arrest for months. I understand that there is a case that needs to be built. There's only one
01:09:22
shot, but it just seemed like it was too long. Yet, when Maya's husband, Larry Millettee, was arrested for her murder
01:09:32
in October 2021, it was still a mixed range of emotions. Claudia, what was your reaction? Relieved, yet at the same
01:09:41
time sad. And so although you keep that hope up, now it became real. Okay, we had different
01:09:51
reactions. I said, "Finally." She started crying. He's been with us for 20 years. My sister did love him.
01:10:05
She gave him three kiss. She just can't let go. In a press conference, San Diego County
01:10:18
District Attorney Summer Stefen laid out some of the details of the monthslong law enforcement investigation. In
01:10:25
homicide cases, there is often a triggering event. In this case, the last call recorded that May made was to a
01:10:34
divorce attorney. That call was at 3:48 p.m. Home security cameras captured her arriving at her house at 4:42 p.m. There
01:10:45
were no images of her leaving. Investigators had also turned up more evidence of Larry trying to keep Maya in
01:10:54
the marriage through the supernatural before she went missing. I've never had a case where that was involved.
01:11:04
But the spells they discovered went beyond more than asking Maya to be attracted to him. According to the
01:11:10
arrest warrant, Larry now wanted Maya to be harmed. Before Maya went missing, Larry sent this message to a website
01:11:19
that claims to cast spells. Please punish May and incapacitate her enough so she can't leave the house. It's time
01:11:27
to take the gloves off. It was evidence, they say, of his unbalanced mindset and
01:11:33
homicidal ideiation. The day Maya went missing, Larry sent countless emails to spellcasters. I think she wants me to
01:11:41
snap. I'm shaking inside, ready to snap. What's more, according to the arrest warrant, Larry had allegedly snapped
01:11:49
before. One of Maya's friends said that Maya told her Larry choked her to the point where she was unconscious. I just
01:11:59
heard that. Oh, I was mad. How could he do that? Maya had never shared that with
01:12:06
Mary Chris. She didn't share what she's going through cuz she didn't want the family to worry about her. She was also
01:12:13
protecting Larry and she was protecting the children. Were you aware of any physical abuse?
01:12:21
No. No. She would say little things here and there, but not always to the same person. They were already incidents that
01:12:32
were huge red flags that if we all knew it at the same time, it would have been a bigger
01:12:40
picture. I feel guilty at the, you know, after the fact once she went missing. It
01:12:45
was a very harsh reality for me. I wasn't able to help her and I will forever live with
01:12:53
that. Nobody had the full picture, right? Besides the two of them. Evelyn Rodriguez is an associate professor of
01:13:06
sociology who teaches on topics of race and identity at the University of San Francisco. She reviewed the case for 48
01:13:14
hours. The signs of domestic abuse can be so hard to identify because we as a society are unable to distinguish the
01:13:24
line that divides that kind of like zealous, passionate love from controlling behavior. Larry Millettee
01:13:31
checks all the boxes for domestic partner abuse. He knew what Maya's pressure points
01:13:40
were. And so he weaponized her work. He weaponized her children, her family, her
01:13:48
religion before he got desperate enough to try these other means of controlling her and keeping her in that marriage.
01:13:57
Rodriguez suggests when Larry turned to spellcasting as another method to control Maya, he may have been inspired
01:14:06
by an oldworld form of folk magic in the Philippines. And this is stuff of like the old world to our parents. Even
01:14:16
somehow that has evolved into what I think Larry was able to find. But Rodriguez points out that it is
01:14:24
important not to lose sight of what the issue is here. Really, the story here is
01:14:30
that this was an abusive partner regardless of his culture who was exhibiting every single sign of domestic
01:14:43
abuse. This one and this one, right? This is where we're going to be staying. With Maya's alleged killer
01:14:51
behind bars, her family knew their work was not done. Don't go too far. They were more determined than ever to find
01:14:59
her. Energized with new information that had come out after Larry's arrest. Elena
01:15:05
Vaughn was part of that search. The thing that this case really needed was to be able to know where to search. That
01:15:13
was the problem here. You can't just search the entire world. Where are we right now? It's a hot spot
01:15:20
that Larry could have brought Miles's body out here. Like Billy Little, investigators obtained footage that
01:15:27
showed Larry leaving the house in the couple's Lexus for almost 11 and 1/2 hours the day after his wife was last
01:15:35
heard from. They analyzed the car's navigation system. According to the information that we have now, he was
01:15:42
about 2 and 1 half hours out from his house when he put his address in. Somewhere two and a half hours away from
01:15:49
his house, Larry had entered his address to find his way back home. That information was enough to center the
01:15:57
searches on places Larry was familiar with, like this desert area where he and Maya had gone hiking.
01:16:06
What are you specifically looking for as you comb this area? At this point, unfortunately, I hate to say, but we're
01:16:13
probably just looking for clothing or bones. [Music] Over the months, droves of volunteers
01:16:21
have responded to her family's calls to the community and have joined team Maya.
01:16:26
We're just so thankful and blessed to have everybody here. Three together. I'm San Diego City retired firefighter. I
01:16:33
got a team and we go out and we systematically cover areas where someone could possibly hide a body. And it's,
01:16:38
you know, it's very sad to even talk about, but you have to do it. And it's the the proverbial needle in a
01:16:44
haststack. Why are you here today? Uh really just to support a family. Hopefully we can bring peace to the
01:16:49
family. Always make sure you've got eyes on somebody. What drives you to do this
01:16:54
for a total stranger? Somebody you didn't even know. I I felt that it should be a community effort. You just
01:16:59
want closure for this family so much. And that's why we're out here. It's why we keep coming. They deserve it. Maya
01:17:06
deserves it. As the search for Maya continues in the vast lands of eastern San Diego, the quest for justice is just
01:17:15
beginning in the halls of the San Diego court system. The problem with this case
01:17:20
is you don't have a body. [Music] Mr. Millete, you have the right to have a preliminary examination hearing within
01:17:42
10 count days no later than 60 calendar days. His ego was so damaged by the fact his
01:17:50
wife didn't want to be with him anymore and he couldn't handle it so he killed her. Larry Millettee has been
01:17:56
behind bars since his arrest in October 2021 awaiting trial. and at this time would like to enter a plea of not
01:18:04
guilty. He pled not guilty to charges of murder and illegal possession of an assault weapon. If convicted, Larry
01:18:11
could face up to 25 years to life in prison. So, we're just going to do 14. Then, although there is still hope Maya
01:18:20
could be found any day, a victim's body is not required to convict someone of murder. And this is one of the strongest
01:18:27
circumstantial cases I've ever seen. You don't have a body, so what? You don't get to get away with murder because
01:18:33
you're good at disposing of bodies. But Larry maintains Maya left on her own. His defense attorney, Bonita Martinez,
01:18:42
turned down our request for an interview, but spoke with reporters after a hearing where Larry was denied
01:18:48
bail. His wife was used to leaving the house in the past, and you cannot rule out that she's alive. Larry maintains
01:18:57
that Maya voluntarily left him left the children to start her own new life. Do you believe that? No. Nope. Not at all.
01:19:06
Never believe that. Never. Maya love her kids. There's no way she would have up and left. The best argument for the
01:19:15
defense here is Maya is not dead. They don't have a body. She's alive and well. Attorney Ala Vaughn says a nobody
01:19:24
defense has worked before in other cases. She says without a body, the prosecution may be at a disadvantage.
01:19:34
They need strong evidence. And the question is, what do they have? Do they have something that they're going to
01:19:39
bring out in a courtroom that definitely ties Larry to murder? Those loud bangs recorded on the
01:19:49
neighboring security camera may not be proof of anything. An FBI analysis was inconclusive. They couldn't definitively
01:19:58
say those were gunshots because the sound quality was not good enough. In November 2021, Larry's attorney filed
01:20:06
documents with the San Diego Superior Court with more allegations about Maya. They believe that she had this wild
01:20:15
lifestyle, that she was out there having affairs, she's dating different men off
01:20:19
the internet, that she's drinking excessively, that she's become this completely different person. And so
01:20:26
they're pointing to third party culpability, if she's harmed, it was somebody else.
01:20:33
Larry and his parents claim in court documents that Maya was essentially a party girl. Definitely not.
01:20:41
The Maya that I know who was a devoted mother. Not long after Maya's disappearance, Mary, Chris, and Richard
01:20:49
say Larry cut off contact between the children and Maya's side of the family. We're just trying to see them. Going
01:20:57
from hanging out, hugging them, jumping on my back, seeing them at least once or
01:21:02
twice a month at least to not seeing them at all for 9 months. The Milliete children are still living
01:21:11
at home in the care of Larry's parents. But after months of not seeing them, Maya's family was granted visitation
01:21:19
rights in November 2021. But the fight is not over. Mary Chris has filed a petition for
01:21:26
guardianship of her sister's children. Just show them that the whole entire family are waiting for them and, you
01:21:33
know, are eager to be with them again. Glory be to the father and to the son. What those children will go through, all
01:21:40
those moments in life when they need their mom and she's not going to be there. It breaks my heart. In January
01:21:47
2022, Maya's family and friends held a vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.
01:21:55
There's somebody out there that knows something, that's seen something. They should come forward. Have it in your
01:22:02
heart to help us bring it home. You said tomorrow I'll be gone. Tomorrow I'll be gone
01:22:19
away from here. She will forever be my hero. That's what I'm going to take with me.
01:22:29
It's a bright shining star of a woman that gave every other woman, regardless of what she was going through, an
01:22:36
inspiration to be whoever they wanted. That's who Maya is. [Music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode.
01:23:02
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I have lived 44 years with his face etched in my brain.
01:23:54
It was everything that you pray to God never happens to anyone. For me, it's really tough. I'm
01:24:03
I'm I'm struggling. I'm struggling to do the interview at all. We were at our grandparents house
01:24:17
and Keith, our first cousin, came over, asked us if we would come to his house to help him clean. So, we went to his
01:24:25
house and when we were done, he needed gas. So, we stopped at the 7-Eleven and as we pulled
01:24:35
up, there was a um a man standing there. He said, "Well, can you give me a ride?"
01:24:46
Instantly, we knew something wasn't right, but Keith told him he would give him a
01:24:55
ride. I think we just cut off circulation in each other's hands. We were squeezing our hands so tight
01:25:01
because you just have a gut feeling that this is not good. He was telling us the directions on
01:25:11
where to go, which took us to Little California Road. He told us to get out of the car.
01:25:20
He opens the trunk and he puts Keith in the trunk. At that point, he tell us to take
01:25:28
off our clothes. [Music] Did you plan to tell anybody what happened? No. Why? Because we were
01:25:42
afraid he would come back and kill us. [Music] When did the twins actually go to the
01:25:47
police? I think it was about 2 weeks later. A little bit more than 2 weeks. You said the man was black. Yes. Yes.
01:25:55
Did they ever give you a ride? No. Did you ever meet them at a gas station? No. Never. I didn't rape Karen and Sharon
01:26:04
sadness. I don't know these people. When I saw him in that lineup, I didn't have to think twice. When I looked at
01:26:15
him, I knew him. He got convicted and received two 50-year consecutive sentences.
01:26:23
That's insane. It's horrible. It disgusted me. There's no hairs, no fibers, no blood, no sweat, no semen.
01:26:32
There's nothing. Vincent Simmons is an innocent man who was railroaded by a racist system. Is it possible that you
01:26:42
picked the wrong man? No. No. When I close my [Music] eyes, there's no other face that I see.
01:26:52
Stop it. Stop it. When are we going to talk about the facts? Why did we pick him? Why? It was Mr. Simmons because it
01:27:02
was Mr. Simmons. [Music] [Music] Every time I talk about it, makes me feel like I'm 14 again. For identical
01:27:56
twins Karen and Sharon Sanders, life is broken into two parts. Before May 1977 and after, they say what happened one
01:28:06
night that May changed everything. The limitations it put on our life like with the anxiety, depression, panic attacks,
01:28:17
it's crippling really. is taken a lot from us. Back in 1977, the 14-year-old twins were
01:28:26
living with their grandparents in the quiet small town of Marxville, Louisiana. And for the most part, they
01:28:32
say they were happy there, staying busy and enjoying the little things in life. I was all about makeup and perfume and
01:28:42
being prissy, and Karen was more uh outside playing in the dirt. This is true. Life was simple
01:28:51
until it wasn't. What makes it so difficult for you, Karen, 44 years later to even talk about?
01:29:03
Well, it's a lot happened that night. The twins say it all began May 9th, 1977 when their cousin Keith Labour
01:29:13
picked him up so that they could help him clean his house. By the time they finished cleaning, it was just beginning
01:29:20
to get dark. Keith was driving them home, and that's when they say he stopped at that gas station and
01:29:26
encountered a black man. He walked up to the car and told Keith that he almost hit
01:29:34
him. And Keith, you know, did not. And Keith was telling him he didn't want to fight. And he said, "I don't fight. I
01:29:43
shoot." The man said this. Yes, this man said it instantly. Karen went inside to
01:29:48
pay for the gas and me and Keith were talking to this man and we exchanged names and he said his name was
01:30:02
Simmons. The twins say any tension between Keith and the man soon lifted and that's why
01:30:08
they say Keith agreed to give the man a ride. We were like, "Keith, you know, don't." And he's like, "It'll be okay.
01:30:16
It'll be okay." But they say they knew it wasn't okay when the man directed them to that desolate area of Little
01:30:24
California Road and threatened them. He told us that before we could get a gun, he would shoot us. Mhm. Which we
01:30:35
did not have a gun, so we knew he had a gun. They say the man ordered them out of the
01:30:42
vehicle and forced Keith into the trunk. Keith's how old? 18. So he got in the trunk. Yes, he did. He told us to take
01:30:52
off our clothes. Karen started to run at that point and I yelled and she stopped. He said, "This
01:31:03
one's going to give me trouble." And so he opened the trunk and he put me in the
01:31:08
trunk with Keith and he had Sharon. I took off my clothes. He told me to get in the back
01:31:15
seat and I did and he told me how to lay and I did. I can hear Sharon crying and of course I can't take it. So, I'm
01:31:33
banging on the trunk and I'm banging and I'm screaming, "Take me. Take me. Leave
01:31:38
her alone. Take me. Take me." Karen was back there making all kinds of commotion
01:31:47
and things didn't work out for him with me. Sorry. And he was very frustrated. You could see it and feel it. and he got
01:31:59
very aggravated and told me to put my clothes back on. And when you say things didn't
01:32:05
work out for him, what do you mean? He tried to penetrate and was unsuccessful. But at the time I was 14. I did not know
01:32:17
he was unsuccessful. I really thought you had lost your virginity. I had lost my virginity. I had no clue.
01:32:28
Afterwards, Sharon says she was put in the trunk with Karen and Keith and then the man started driving. We just found
01:32:37
each other's hands and began to pray and then the car stopped and he said, "You out and pointed at you, Karen."
01:32:49
Yes. He told me to lay in the back seat. He uh he raped me. Then with Sharon and Keith still in the
01:33:02
trunk, Karen says the man just wanted to talk. He was like nothing had happened that we were like
01:33:10
best friends that we were just hanging out. And you went along with it just talking. Absolutely. To keep him calm.
01:33:17
And how long did this go on for? To me, a lifetime. He told me he came from a large family about where he had lived
01:33:26
and all this and he had just gotten back from Texas. She says when they stopped talking, the man raped her again
01:33:33
multiple times. I remember like laying in that back seat and his chest I mean the heaviness on my chest and the sweat
01:33:44
and it was just disgusting. She says he then drove them to a local cemetery where he got out of the car. He
01:33:55
opens the trunk and he lets them out. He's going to let us go. And he told us, "If you tell anyone, I know where y'all
01:34:04
live. I've got friends." He said, "And I will come back." And we all swore to each other that we would not tell a
01:34:14
soul. They say just the fear of what might happen if they told kept them silent for
01:34:20
two weeks until Karen says she couldn't keep it in anymore. She says she confided in Keith's sister. And I said,
01:34:28
"But please, please don't tell anyone. Please don't tell anyone." She said, "I'm not going to tell
01:34:35
anyone." And it just unraveled from there. The next day, Keith's parents found out.
01:34:43
And soon Karen, Sharon, and Keith all ended up at the sheriff's office. Karen and Sharon each gave statements
01:34:51
reporting that they had been raped. And less than 24 hours later, on the morning of May 23rd,
01:34:59
1977, 25-year-old Vincent Simmons was taken into custody as he was walking down the street. Did you know Karen and
01:35:08
Sharon Sanders? Never seen them before in my life. [Music] [Music] It was May 23rd, 1977 when Vincent
01:35:36
Simmons was brought to the sheriff's office, which used to be here on the second floor of the Aoyals Parish
01:35:42
Courthouse in Marxville. And they took me and put me in a lineup. Karen, Sharon, and Keith were all there
01:35:55
to see if they could identify a suspect. We're all three in the room, but we're not all walking up to the window at the
01:36:03
same time. Keith goes first. Keith writes the number down on a pad. I walk up, I look at him, and I go to
01:36:15
the pad. I write his number down, and then Sharon goes up to the window, looks out
01:36:22
and writes her number down. What number did you all write? Four. And then they said, you remember that? Oh my gosh.
01:36:30
Yeah. Of course. Then they said to us, "Y'all have all picked the same man." That man they identified was 25-year-old
01:36:41
Vincent Simmons. He was from a big family in the next town over from Marxville. And this wasn't the first
01:36:48
time he found himself in the sheriff's office. I didn't have a daddy, you know. So
01:36:55
basically, I grew up on my own looking out for my little sisters. I was doing wrong. and I was
01:37:04
going in the stores just to get food to feed them. Vincent was convicted of a home burglary at the age of 18. While
01:37:12
incarcerated, he escaped from the jail in Marsville. He lived on the run in Texas for nearly 6 years until he came
01:37:20
back to town shortly before that lineup. And when I walked up to the window and I
01:37:25
looked, I had no second doubt. I know exactly who raped me that night. After Sharon, Karen, and Keith IDed
01:37:35
Vincent, he says he was brought upstairs to the jail where he waited while an officer was writing something down. I'm
01:37:42
sitting on the chair in a handcuff when he gets to. He said, "I want you to sign." I said, "What is that?" He said,
01:37:49
"This is a confession saying that you uh committed this crime." I said, "What crime?" You know, he said, "Rap of those
01:37:57
two white girls." said, "I don't even know these white girls." Vincent says when he refused to sign the confession,
01:38:03
the officer knocked him down and as they struggled, another officer shot him. Boom! I was burning through my chest,
01:38:14
you know, and I fell on the floor. When I woke up, I'm in the hospital. Now, the two officers involved tell a
01:38:22
very different story. They say Vincent grabbed one officer's gun and was pointing it at both of them when the
01:38:29
second officer shot Vincent in the shoulder in self-defense. Whatever the truth,
01:38:35
Vincent was never prosecuted for that incident. Instead, less than 2 months after he was shot, he was brought to
01:38:43
court to face Karen and Sharon. Less than 60 days after he was arrested, Vincent went on trial. Is that a pretty
01:38:50
rapid time? in 1977. I would say for major cases, they went to court quickly. Charles Riddle was not the district
01:38:59
attorney back then, but he is now, and he's very familiar with the details of the case. What was the evidence against
01:39:06
him? The testimony of the witnesses, the victims. Karen, Sharon, and Keith all took the
01:39:14
stand. walk into a courtroom, your parents, everybody that loves you is sitting there and seeing him for the very first
01:39:26
time. We have not seen him since the lineup and then seeing him face to face was really hard. Of course, I had to put
01:39:37
my hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, which is all I had anyway.
01:39:44
They all testified that on the night of the rape, Vincent had told them his last
01:39:48
name. Believe it or not, all night long, we called him Simmons. He told us to call him Simmons.
01:39:58
At trial, they all say Simmons. Simmons. The man told us his name was Simmons. What' you think then? I thought they
01:40:04
were crazy. I actually thought they were crazy. You mean to tell me I'm going to
01:40:11
do something to y'all and let y'all know my name? I'm going to tell you who I am.
01:40:15
No, that don't make sense, man. The jury got to see Keith's car and a photo that police had taken of Karen,
01:40:23
Sharon, and Keith reenacting how they fit in the trunk. When it was the defense's turn, Vincent took the stand.
01:40:32
I told the jury that I was innocent. I didn't rape nobody. Vincent's lawyers also called three
01:40:39
alibi witnesses who claimed that Vincent was at a bar on the night of the alleged
01:40:44
crime. The bar owner said Vincent was there all night. He got into a fight and police were called. But the prosecution
01:40:51
called a police officer who said the bar fight was on another night. After a two-day trial, I don't
01:40:58
think they had much of a defense. The jury sided with Karen, Sharon, and Keith. Vincent Semons was found guilty
01:41:06
of two counts of attempted aggravated rape. I was shot. Guilty. I ain't did nothing.
01:41:15
When the verdict came back, guilty unanimously. How did that feel? Sigh of relief. We knew we were free.
01:41:27
Vincent was sentenced to two consecutive 50year terms, 100 years behind bars. We
01:41:35
thought we'd never have to face him again. But Vincent refused to give up hope. I
01:41:42
wanted to prove that I'm innocent. Man, I never knew these people. More than four decades later, Justin Bonis, a
01:41:51
newly minted lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, would become involved in Vincent's defense and was immediately skeptical of
01:41:58
the prosecution's case. I looked at the discovery. I was like, "Well, everything
01:42:02
they said at trial is a lie. It's all a lie. There's nothing that supports what they say.
01:42:09
[Music] [Music] Generations of men have labored in the fields at Louisiana State
01:42:34
Penitentiary. It is the country's largest maximum security prison built on the site of a former slave plantation
01:42:42
called Angola. You know, we had to work seven days a week till it get dark. That's our end goal. It
01:42:53
was since the day that cell door closed behind him, Vincent Simmons has been working to overturn his
01:43:01
conviction. In 1993, 16 years after that guilty verdict, he finally succeeded in
01:43:07
getting a copy of the prosecution's case file. mailman came and he gave me this big old
01:43:15
envelope. When I opened it up, I man, I was in shock. Inside that envelope were items that Vincent had never seen
01:43:24
before, including copies of the initial statements that Karen, Keith, and Sharon
01:43:29
gave to police. Remember how all three testified at trial that they knew their attacker's name? He told us to call him
01:43:37
Simmons. But as it turns out, when they first spoke to the investigators, they didn't say that. Defense attorney Justin
01:43:45
Bonis has since reviewed those statements. When the girls initially went to police, they didn't say the name
01:43:50
Simmons. No. What name did they say? They didn't give a name. And Bonus noticed something else in those
01:43:58
statements. Sharon used the n-word to refer to her attacker and said, quote, "All blacks look alike to me," which she
01:44:06
does not deny saying. So, what did you say when they asked you to identify the man? I said, "All blacks look alike."
01:44:12
But still, Karen, Keith, and Sharon all picked Vincent out of that lineup. And Bonis says he may know why. This photo
01:44:21
that was in the file appears to show the lineup. Look at Vincent. He's the only one in handcuffs. When you saw that line
01:44:28
of photo, what did you think? What? I said, "This is crazy." Nuts. Highly suggested. When you put the cuffs on
01:44:36
him, you're telling them that's who we want you to pick. But Charles Riddle, the current district attorney, says that
01:44:42
photo was taken after the twins IDed Vincent. They call it the lineup. It was a photo of the lineup after he was
01:44:50
identified and placed in cuffs. But how do you know it was after? Because the girls told me that. So when you picked
01:44:57
him out of the lineup, was he wearing handcuffs? No, he was not. Not at all. And Karen says they
01:45:04
initially didn't tell police the name Simmons out of fear. I mean, we were scared of him. And see, I don't know why
01:45:11
I didn't. I mean, I think fear. We We're afraid of him. And there's another item
01:45:18
in that file that Bonus says is critical and was never seen at the trial. It's this report from a doctor who also
01:45:25
happened to be the local coroner. He examined the girls 2 weeks after the reported rape and he did not document
01:45:32
any signs of sexual assault. How big a deal do you think the coroner's report plays in this story? Massive. And Bonus
01:45:40
says that report suggests Sharon was still a virgin. The doctor wrote that herman was intact. But Charles Riddle
01:45:48
says the report does not prove that the twins were not raped because the definition of rape is slightest
01:45:54
penetration. And the part about no sign of sexual assault after 2 weeks, it's very probable that there would be no
01:46:01
sign of sexual assault. Bonus thinks the jury should have had the chance to consider all of that at
01:46:08
trial. His attorneys, they had nothing. They went in there flying blind with their arms tied behind their back in a
01:46:16
boxing match. That's that's literally what it was. So, you're telling me the original statements that the girls and
01:46:21
Keith gave to police where they could not identify this individual, right? That was never heard by the jury.
01:46:26
Absolutely not. And the medical report from the coroner was never heard by the jury. Right. And the lineup photo not
01:46:34
seen by the jury? No. If the statements from the girls had been presented at trial, right? If the
01:46:42
coroner's report had been known and presented at trial, do you think Vincent still would have been found guilty? No,
01:46:48
absolutely not. Back in 1993, when Vincent first got his hands on that evidence, he made it his
01:46:55
mission to get his case in front of a judge. He filed numerous pleadings over multiple years, but no court ever ruled
01:47:02
in his favor. And not a single judge felt like there was enough evidence. not the appellet courts, federal courts,
01:47:08
state courts, Supreme Court. Vincent was hoping that the parole board at the prison might have more sympathy.
01:47:17
So, in 1997, 20 years into his 100-year sentence, he had his first hearing with them. And it was all filmed as part of a
01:47:25
documentary called The Farm, which profiled inmates at Angola. Vincent showed them the evidence that his
01:47:32
defense did not have a trial. We didn't have none of this evidence. None of this
01:47:36
evidence was presented before the jury. You were the only one handcuffed in the lineup. I'm the only one.
01:47:45
Okay. Uh, would y'all step out? We'll discuss the case. Vincent hoped the board would rule in
01:47:51
his favor. Yeah. I come up with something. Oh, yes. He did. But they would not. Mr. Simmons, after
01:48:02
uh listening to his testimony, going over the reports, the board has voted at this time to deny your request for pro.
01:48:12
I was hopeless, but I know the truth. And no matter how many times they knock you down, keep getting up.
01:48:23
Almost 20 years later, Justin Bonis watched the farm documentary with his wife. and we were shocked and she told
01:48:30
me, you know, you should take this case. She basically said, "You need to write him." And it wasn't really a
01:48:36
suggestion. It was write him. And that's what I did. It was [Music] You're a Brooklyn guy. You go down to
01:49:07
Marksville. I felt like my cousin Vinnie. I mean, it was like country. Okay. By early 2020, Justin Bonus had become
01:49:17
Vincent Simmons lawyer. He had just a year of experience under his belt and was warned that the odds were against
01:49:24
him. it's over. Like he doesn't have any more appeals. I was like, nah, that's not true. It's never true. Absolutely
01:49:32
not. Vincent had been fighting unsuccessfully for decades to overturn his conviction. All the while, Karen and
01:49:39
Sharon remained firm about his guilt. We have no reason to lie. Why would we lie?
01:49:44
Why would we let someone spend their life in prison if we even had the slightest doubt that it wasn't him? Not
01:49:52
long after Vincent's ill- fated parole hearing, documentary cameras were rolling again in the late '9s when he
01:49:58
and the twins agreed to a reconciliation meeting. It's where victims and offenders come together to try and heal.
01:50:05
We came today not to free you from your prison, but to free us from our prison. Today, I am closing the door to
01:50:14
my pain. I'm letting go. When the time came for Vincent to speak, he had questions. My question is going to be
01:50:23
directly based on your statement that you got. No, we're not going there. And that's when the meeting unraveled. What
01:50:30
are you doing here then? Since you're innocent, what are you doing here? Y'all putting me here. We did. No, a choice
01:50:36
that you chose to make put you here. Okay. I think we're I think we've had enough. I think I think it's kind of
01:50:43
going sour, maybe one day you can get out of your pain of your misery. They didn't let him speak cuz they don't
01:50:53
view him as a human being. Bonus wanted to put a spotlight on the case and really dig deeper, but he needed some
01:51:00
help. So, he turned to Jason Flom, a recording industry executive known for launching the careers of Katy Perry,
01:51:07
Matchbox 20, and Lord, among others. Flam is also a criminal justice advocate and he hosts a podcast called Wrongful
01:51:16
Conviction which has featured bigname guests like Kim Kardashian. When I heard about Vincent's case, I was just like
01:51:22
this is another level. Had to do something about it. Flam featured Vincent's case on his podcast. How could
01:51:28
anyone get convicted on the basis of this? This is a man whose life was stolen away from him. And he gave Justin
01:51:37
bonus money to go out and hire a private investigator in Louisiana named Brian Andrews. Justin actually asked me to be
01:51:46
the boots on the ground, take statements, gather information. [Music] Andrews tracked down Diane Prader, the
01:51:53
lone surviving juror from Vincent's trial and the only African-Amean on the jury. Turns out she says she never
01:52:01
wanted to convict Vincent. Prader was in her 20s at the time of trial and says she still remembers her reaction to the
01:52:07
twins testimony. When they told a story, I'm like, ain't no way in the world that
01:52:13
happened like that. Put a black man in your car that time. You didn't believe it because at that period in history,
01:52:21
you just couldn't see white people giving a ride to black people. Correct. Was there a lot of racism in Marchville?
01:52:28
Yes, it was. It was in Morgville. It was everywhere. And she says the jury foreman told her her vote wouldn't
01:52:35
matter. In 1977, Louisiana juries could convict a defendant with only 10 out of 12 voting guilty. So I was saying to
01:52:43
myself, "Well, it ain't going to do me no good to say nothing, but I never never never believe Vincent was guilty."
01:52:51
The private investigator also tried to talk to relatives of Karen, Sharon, and Keith with me right now that I'm
01:52:57
speaking with. He ended up conducting a videotaped interview with Keith's cousin, Dana Bruette, and she told him a
01:53:04
shocking story. Dana said that Keith told her in a bar long after the trial that Vincent Simmons was never with them
01:53:12
on Little California Road that night. He came out and told me there was never a black man.
01:53:21
Instead, in a sworn affidavit, Dana says that Keith told her he had consensual sex with one of the girls and locked the
01:53:29
other in the trunk. He had gone down Little California Road and he locked Sharon in the trunk.
01:53:38
And he said the sex between him and Karen was consensual. He said, "But the other one
01:53:44
was a little Hellcat." That's the one they put scratches on his neck. In the affidavit, Dana said that Keith had
01:53:51
scratches on his neck. She told the private investigator that she believes Keith and the twins made up the story
01:53:58
about a black man. To explain away those scratches, blew my mind the things that she said.
01:54:06
Had Dana ever told anyone that? To my knowledge, I I don't think she had. They should have come forward a long time
01:54:13
ago. I really did think the man got released. And Dana's allegations didn't stop there. She also gave the private
01:54:21
investigator a copy of a Facebook message exchange that she says she had with Karen in October 2020. Karen and
01:54:28
Dana were talking about how Keith had allegedly made sexual advances toward female relatives. We asked Karen about
01:54:35
that. You said, "I didn't realize how sick he was. I thought it was only me." I don't remember saying that. Yeah, cuz
01:54:43
that's the message from you. So, what did you mean by that? Okay, we need to cut right now. Cut
01:54:52
this. Can we cut for a second? Yeah. Yeah. Right then, Karen said she was not ready
01:55:00
to talk about that exchange with Dana. But two weeks later, in a follow-up interview with both her and Sharon, she
01:55:07
admitted that years before she says they were attacked, when she was a child and
01:55:12
Keith was a teenager, something happened. Did you have consensual sex with Keith Leort?
01:55:19
Okay, let's put it like this. We were kids. Yes, ma'am. We experimented. So, yes. How old were you
01:55:27
when it happened? I have I could not honestly I don't know. 9 10 maybe. And is this the first time you're saying
01:55:36
this publicly? Yes, it is. But that has nothing to do with what Vincent did. That's two separate incidents. David,
01:55:46
think about it. If me and Keith have had consensual sex way, way before now, why
01:55:53
is he locking us in the trunk of a car? Why is he taking us down a dirt road? But Bonus believes they wanted to cover
01:56:00
up what happened that night. It gives motive for why they would lie. It shows that Karen always was hiding something
01:56:07
from day one. Keith was 18. Karen was 14. So what do they do? They blame a black man.
01:56:15
To be clear, was Keith the perpetrator that night? No. He was a victim also? Keith was a victim. He was not. He was a
01:56:24
victim. Mhm. He stayed in that trunk the whole time. I went to Keith Labort's house to speak
01:56:34
with him about all of this. No one answered the door, so later I called him. Hello, Keith.
01:56:57
[Music] Hello Keith, this is David Begno with CBS News. When reached by phone, Keith,
01:57:05
now 63 years old, denied ever having sex with his cousin Karen. He said they had
01:57:11
just quote played around like children end quote. And he also insisted that whatever had happened between him and
01:57:19
Karen had nothing to do with what Vincent Simmons did that night. That goddamn is guilty. I don't give and yet
01:57:26
he's a goddamn and you can put that on TV. I ain't scared of him. Despite the allegations concerning Karen
01:57:35
and Keith, District Attorney Charles Riddle says he believes the right man was convicted. I'm firmly convinced that
01:57:43
he's guilty. I don't believe that their cousin was the one. But Bonis was more determined than ever to see Vincent walk
01:57:50
free. And in April 2021, the district attorney made an offer that would allow for just that. Riddle said he felt like
01:57:58
Vincent had done enough time. Vincent could have walked right out the door. But there was a catch. Vincent would
01:58:04
have had to been a sex offender, though. Vincent turned that down and said, "I'm
01:58:09
not a sex offender. I didn't do this. I am innocent. I'm not a sex offender." What' you think when you hung up the
01:58:14
phone? I mean, that's it. We're going to war. Bonus kept fighting. And in February
01:58:20
2022, he finally got a hearing where a judge would decide Vincent's fate once and for
01:58:27
all. The day of the hearing, as Karen and Sharon made their way into the courthouse, they paused to pray. Vinc.
01:58:35
[Music] When Vincent Simmons arrived in a prison van, he was carrying a Bible. A group of
01:58:42
supporters greeted him. They were cheering. [Music] Vincent, how are you feeling today?
01:58:50
Really? Positive. Something good going to happen. Cameras were not allowed in the
01:59:00
courtroom as Judge William Bennett delivered his decision. What did the judge decide? He decided to
01:59:07
give Vincent a new trial because of the constitutional violation that he didn't receive a fair trial. Vincent's
01:59:11
conviction was thrown out due to the evidence that he himself had obtained almost 30 years earlier and the fact
01:59:20
that his defense team didn't even have it back in 1977. Judge Bennett made it clear though
01:59:26
that he did not place fault on anyone for that. Instead, he found that the speediness with which the case went to
01:59:33
trial made it likely that the original district attorney on the case, Eddie Null, didn't even have all the evidence
01:59:39
himself at the time. So, just to be clear, you believe that in 1977, the police didn't turn over key evidence to
01:59:47
the district attorney. That's the only explanation feasible and logical after studying everything that I did. That's
01:59:55
it. Are you blaming the police? No, I don't believe anybody intentionally hid anything. It's just the way it happened
02:00:02
because it was fast. In a court affidavit, the original DA, Eddie Null, said he did not hide or deny Simmons any
02:00:10
evidence, nor did he prosecute him because of bias. And he continues to believe that Vincent is guilty. And he's
02:00:18
not the only one that feels that way. Current District Attorney Charles Riddle. Do you believe a man who was
02:00:25
convicted at a trial that was not fair should have ever served a day in prison? Illegally. Legally. Okay. Legally, no.
02:00:35
But he did. Yes. Decided that. Okay. Let me tell you, he deserved to serve the 44 years.
02:00:43
Why? Because he's guilty. Judge Bennett was careful to say he has no opinion on the guilt or innocence of
02:00:52
Vincent Simmons. With his decision, it was now up to District Attorney Riddle to decide whether he wanted to retry the
02:01:00
case. You stood up and said what? I said that he served enough time and that we're not going to prosecute him again.
02:01:08
In the eyes of the people and the Constitution, he is presumed innocent. And when Charles Riddle dismissed that
02:01:14
case, that presumption of innocence carries. Free. You free. You free. You done. So
02:01:22
happy to see you. I am so happy to see you. God is good to you. Let me get a picture.
02:01:32
Vincent is a free man, but for Karen and Sharon, nothing has changed. He went in
02:01:39
guilty. He's guilty now. And guess what? He will die guilty. So, I'm I'm happy. I got 44 years. Let's
02:01:50
go. The twins say they accept the judge's decision. But they are still hurt by it. The legal system didn't just
02:01:58
fail him, it failed us in many ways also. While Vincent has his freedom, they say they still don't have theirs.
02:02:07
It's frustrating because no one sees our bars. They don't see our prison. We still have our anxiety. We still have
02:02:16
our depressions. We still have our fears. Our bars are real. And if you look deep
02:02:23
enough, you can see them. Judge Bennett is sympathetic toward the women, but he is confident in his
02:02:32
decision. The case holds extra meaning for him because his father, now deceased, was one of the many judges who
02:02:40
denied motions filed by Vincent over the past years. But that was before Vincent
02:02:46
had gained access to the prosecution's file. He and I had talked about the Vincent Simmons case years ago, and uh I
02:02:54
know if he would be here, he today would have done what I did. What's on your heart? cuz I can see
02:03:02
the emotion. I did the right thing. The freedom just hours after the judge delivered his
02:03:17
decision and right before the sun set, Vincent Simmons walked out of Angola. Yeah. He went in when he was
02:03:25
just 25 years old and was released 3 days before his 70th birthday. Love you, Dad.
02:03:37
Later that night, he shared a celebratory meal with his family and friends. Let's go to freedom. Freedom.
02:03:44
What's it like being out of prison? Oh man, this it's a joy that is unexplainable
02:03:53
really. But with that joy comes challenge. It's going to take me a while. Got a phone.
02:04:00
Adjusting to life outside prison walls has proven to be difficult. So much has changed since 1977.
02:04:11
Man, new technology. I'm just like a little baby. You got to learn. What are the simple things that you
02:04:20
enjoy now? Breathing the free air, walking outside. Basically, it's freedom to just
02:04:33
enjoy the [Music] moment. 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime. Were you at all prepared for what
02:04:46
happened in this case? [Music] [Music] I don't think the grieving ever ends. It evolves. We've been wanting to tell
02:05:43
Amy's story and just felt like we weren't ready before, but now we feel like we can do
02:05:50
it. I was so proud of her and what she's accomplished. [Music] Oh my goodness. Fire eater,
02:06:00
dancer, photographer, model, therapist. She wanted to fix people. You might want to speak to this woman, Dr.
02:06:13
Amy Harwick. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I see all kinds of different things. Anxiety, depression,
02:06:19
change of life stuff, breakups, moves, things like that. Amy helped me so much. I had gone to see
02:06:26
Amy because I had dealt with a relationship that got very out of control and turned into a very serious
02:06:35
stalking case. Jealousy can become dangerous and even lead to violence. It can lead to death.
02:06:44
I want to see 434. Yeah, somebody just attacked my roommate. Please get a cop here.
02:06:50
I just was woken up by screaming, like blood curdling scream. And then I realized that the screaming wasn't
02:06:59
stopping or slowing down. And I yelled up, you know, Amy. And I heard choking right after that. I knew we were in
02:07:07
trouble. This is for real. This is really happening. I knew we needed help. Like, I'm going to have to make a break
02:07:13
for it. When the first responders first got that call, where did they go? They came right
02:07:22
here to this house. Hey, sir. Hi. How can I help you? My roommate was attacked. I know it. I heard I heard it.
02:07:29
She's screaming. She was thrown to the ground. Okay, hold on. Okay. Michael Herman was out here. He's frantic. He's
02:07:35
nervous. They didn't know what to think of this guy. Right. Right. They had no idea of who he was, why he was involved
02:07:42
in all this. They knew he was rambling on. They had some doubts about him originally. I think there's Okay, sir.
02:07:48
Do me a favor. Do me a favor. Calm down. Calm down. Other than your roommate, is
02:07:51
there anybody else inside the house? I don't know. I don't know. Thanks. And I'm walking them around to the back of
02:07:57
the house. And it's dark back there. There's some light, but it's pretty dark back
02:08:04
there. And when they get around to the back now, they can see a body on the on the ground.
02:08:10
Sir, sir, come here. I remember not knowing what I was seeing, you know, after realizing it was Amy.
02:08:20
Really, what hit me was the way that she was killed. So heartbreaking that her of
02:08:26
all people had to be taken in the way that she was. I said, "I know who did it." I just
02:08:33
knew it. I was the only person she was afraid of. It's the only one she was ever afraid of.
02:08:42
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Take a seat. Take a seat. Oh my god. Hey, we we need to we need to have this.
02:09:32
What happened to you? In the early morning darkness of February 15, 2020, police body cameras were recording as
02:09:40
Amy Harwick, barely clinging to life outside of her Hollywood Hills home, was taken to a hospital. If she says
02:09:48
anything in the hospital, want you to know that? As EMTs tried to save Amy, officers from the Los Angeles
02:09:56
Police Department tried to make sense of the scene. Amy's roommate, Michael Herman, appeared to be the only witness.
02:10:04
He told officers an intruder had attacked Amy. I swear to you, that was a struggle by her. But is there any sign
02:10:13
of the intruder? There wasn't. There wasn't. Scott Masterson was the lead detective.
02:10:19
All we knew when we showed up was that a female was found on the ground in the back of the house. We're wide open to
02:10:28
what really went on. Even open to the possibility that this wasn't foul play at all. When officers searched the
02:10:36
threestory house, they found Amy's purse, jacket, and broken necklace on the floor. Not exactly telltale signs of
02:10:44
a crime. And a discovery on Amy's balcony made them wonder if this could have been an accident or even suicide.
02:10:54
On the deck of the balcony, we found a medium size syringe and it was loaded with a yellowish brown substance. Yeah,
02:11:03
it's heroin. When the officers first saw that, they thought, "What was this? Some
02:11:07
kind of drug dealer?" Exact. Exactly. Or maybe she was using drugs and fell over.
02:11:14
They They didn't know. Sir, do you know her history of drug use? No, she's sober. She doesn't drink it. She didn't
02:11:19
even drink. She doesn't drink. She doesn't even drink. She's sober. And when I first saw it, I said, "That's not
02:11:24
heroin." Not heroin. But he didn't know what it was. But what did you think? Wasn't that odd? Very odd. Very strange.
02:11:34
And very strange to investigators, says Mastersonson. Was that Michael had blood
02:11:40
on his shirt? And although he said he was a roommate, he didn't have his keys to the house when first responders
02:11:47
arrived. They don't know if he's part of the problem, part of the solution. He might be.
02:11:54
So, you know, they're thinking, was he in a fight with her? That was not true. Michael Herman is
02:12:01
telling his story publicly for the first time about the events on the night of Valentine's Day 2020 and into the early
02:12:10
hours of the next day. The word nightmare isn't even a big enough word, is it? No. No. Amy had gone out with
02:12:17
friends and Michael was in his downstairs bedroom. I'd been mostly nodding on and off. I remember what
02:12:25
sounded like a plate drop and being woken up by it. Thinking it was Amy's cat, he says he
02:12:32
fell back asleep. He later woke up to Amy returning home and that blood curdling scream. He then heard what
02:12:40
sounded like Amy being thrown to the floor and later choked. sound made you feel that there was someone up with I
02:12:48
knew I knew for a fact there was somebody up there after that trying to listen. You don't know for sure what's
02:12:54
going on. Was he acting alone? Was there more than one person? I start rushing to
02:12:59
look for my phone. But Michael says he couldn't find his phone. He then started yelling to scare
02:13:06
the intruder. I remember thinking like this is so much worse than any horror movie I've ever seen. you're realizing
02:13:12
that to save her, like you've got to make the decision to leave her. It was such a hard decision.
02:13:20
Michael fled the house to get help, but when he got to the front gate, it was locked. He climbed over a fence, cutting
02:13:28
himself on spiked rods. Frantically, he ran to the next door neighbor's house. That neighbor's surveillance camera
02:13:36
shows Michael knocking on the door, but no one answers. I just kind of panicked,
02:13:42
you know, feeling like a a lot of time had already passed. He then ran into someone on the street and used their
02:13:49
phone to call 911. You guys need to get a a cop here quick. Sir, the officers are on the way.
02:13:57
After spending hours at the scene, investigators found something in the light of day that they had missed
02:14:05
before. a broken window from a French door on the ground floor with blood nearby. And so as soon as we saw that,
02:14:14
okay, this is our point of entry. We have a crime here. Somebody broke into this house and did this. So this was the
02:14:21
first piece of evidence that said to you, Mike Herman might be telling you the truth. Correct. Correct.
02:14:28
Later at the Hollywood Police Station, Michael told Masterson about the person he believed was responsible. told them
02:14:35
she had an ex-boyfriend that she had had a restraining order against um that had
02:14:40
expired. I don't know his name, but Robert would know his name. Robert is Robert Koshlin, one of Amy's
02:14:47
closest friends. We first spoke to Robert in 2020. He told us what he told police. They were like, you know, do you
02:14:56
know who might have, you know, could have done this? And I was like, yeah, Gareth.
02:15:02
Gareth Pur House, an old boyfriend who Amy had had a troubled relationship with when they dated almost 10 years earlier.
02:15:10
I was like, "You need to go find this guy right away." Masterson then broke the news to Robert
02:15:17
and Michael. Amy had died at the hospital. She was 38 years old. How difficult was it to hear that Amy didn't
02:15:25
make it? It's still difficult to hear. As investigators worked to find Amy's ex-boyfriend, they also tried to find
02:15:35
Amy's parents, Penny and Tom Harwick, in Pennsylvania. The Harwicks remember getting ready for bed when there was a
02:15:44
knock at the door. It was the local police and he said, "Amy's been murdered." It it's it's a blur right now. I I don't
02:16:01
know how to describe it. Just devastated. Penny and Tom's life with Amy began when
02:16:09
they adopted her as an 11-month-old baby. Do you remember the first time you saw your little girl? Oh, I absolutely
02:16:18
remember. Kind of like a fairy tale. It's like here's this beautiful little girl sitting there. she's going to come
02:16:24
home with us and and be our daughter. It was wonderful. And believe it or not, she had a headful of curls. And her hair
02:16:32
was honey colored. By the time she was four, it was so dark. Around that same time, the Harwicks adopted their son,
02:16:39
Chris. And she was okay with it for a couple of weeks and then she said, "Well, when is he going
02:16:47
back?" And I said, "Well, he's not. He's your brother. He's going to be here forever.
02:16:53
How would you describe your sister? Amy was a very interesting uh character. She was into heavy metal, into rock
02:17:01
music, going to concerts. And Amy got her parents in on the action, too. She turned Penny and I into metal heads or
02:17:09
headers. Seriously. Seriously. She would always manage to get either backstage or to
02:17:16
meet the performers. That's just who she was. After high school, Amy met Tommy Decker,
02:17:25
a drummer from LA, at a local concert. The two began dating long distance. And then she said, "I want to move out
02:17:32
there. I want to move out to LA." In 2001, she headed west. She was 20 years old. She needed to find out who she was.
02:17:43
She needed to do that for herself. Soon, the couple tied the knot. But after a three-year marriage, Tommy
02:17:50
and Amy divorced. It wasn't until 2009 that Amy would go on to meet Gareth Purouse, the
02:17:59
man police suspected had killed her and whom they were now searching for. Heartbreak for a local neighborhood
02:18:17
after a well-known therapist was killed at her Hollywood Hills home. People have left flowers here for
02:18:25
Amy Harwick and her friends and family are hoping for justice. I was very confident that, you know,
02:18:33
Gareth Pur House was our guy. Within 13 hours of Amy Harwick's death on February 15th, 2020, police descended
02:18:42
on Gareth Purous's beachside neighborhood to arrest him. You could tell he was playing the old
02:18:51
What's this about? Why do you want to talk? Who? Uh oh, yeah, I know Amy. Sure. Yeah. He basically was saying,
02:18:57
I've been at home. Detectives weren't buying that story or the explanation PC house gave for what
02:19:06
appeared to be a fresh black eye. He blamed a home renovation. I said, "I think you better get a contractor. If
02:19:14
you get a hold of a power tool, you're going to be in real trouble." Purels was charged with Amy's murder on
02:19:20
February 19th, 2020. and detectives were learning about his troubled past, beginning not long after he and Amy
02:19:28
began dating in 2009. They seemed like a pretty fun couple and kind of nice to see, you know, friends get together.
02:19:36
When we first spoke to Rudy Torres in 2020, he talked about how the couple met. Amy, then working as a model and
02:19:44
dancer, would often run into Pur House, an events photographer, at flashy LA parties. If you would meet him, you
02:19:51
would think he's charming, little goofy, kind of dorky. He wasn't a musician like
02:19:58
she normally dated. No. No. And she was trying to break that habit. Hurst house was also a computer expert and an
02:20:06
aspiring comedian. Here he is one more time for Gareth. Everybody, come on. Bad news for the entertainers over there.
02:20:12
The best day of your career is going to be the days after you die. But oddly says Amy's mother, Penny, her daughter
02:20:19
didn't share much else about him. And why do you think that is? Well, maybe she was already feeling like he wasn't
02:20:29
who she thought he was. And Penny says her daughter never shared how volatile the 2-year relationship had
02:20:37
become. She had gone through quite a bit with Gareth. There was there was a number of police reports that were made.
02:20:44
Detectives learned that Amy had called police to report several violent incidents over the years. She said that
02:20:51
on multiple occasions, Gareth Purouse had choked, suffocated, and punched her with a closed fist. And she even
02:21:00
documented her injuries with these photos. But Amy's father, Tom, says Amy didn't share just how bad things had
02:21:10
gotten. She didn't go into details. Do you think she just wanted to protect the two of you? Yes. After Amy ended the
02:21:18
relationship, she took steps to protect herself, obtaining a restraining order against Pers in 2012. But while she was
02:21:28
trying to distance herself from him, Rudy says Pers could not let her go. He always wanted to get a hold of her. And
02:21:37
I used to tell him that he should just leave her alone. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. and then he cut me off.
02:21:45
In the years after their breakup, Amy told her parents that her home was broken into. On one occasion, strangely,
02:21:52
the only things taken were personal photos. And on another, her computer was wiped clean. And did she think it was
02:22:01
Gareth? She did. Oh, yes. But no way of proving No way of proving anything. Of course, we were worried, but then we
02:22:08
also felt like, well, she's done with him, it's over, and it was never over. And Penny says Amy was thriving, getting
02:22:20
a degree to become a licensed therapist. Hi, this is Dr. Amy Harwick, licensed marriage and family therapist. Amy
02:22:26
posted therapy videos on her social media. You can seek therapy to address an issue like depression, anxiety, a
02:22:34
breakup. You can also seek therapy to be a better you. But even as Amy focused on
02:22:40
helping others, she couldn't quite shake the shadows from her past. She lost a job as a youth counselor, Penny says
02:22:48
after a prospective employer was anonymously sent nude photos of her. Amy believed Pers was behind it. She was
02:22:57
really upset about it and then she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Despite that obstacle, Amy studied for a
02:23:04
PhD in human sexuality, earning the title doctor. She took a special interest in marginalized groups, sex
02:23:14
workers, and vulnerable women. And she doesn't stop. She just she bounced right back. I wrote a book called The New Sex
02:23:21
Bible for Women. No, she didn't stop. She would work with these groups of people that she felt were under
02:23:26
reppresented and needed help. What was Dr. Harwick's reputation. Dr. Amy Harwick had an amazing reputation. I had
02:23:36
a lot of mutual friends that had seen her. Emily Sears, a model who's graced the cover of Maxim magazine, first
02:23:44
started seeing Dr. Amy Harwick in 2017, in part to help her overcome anxiety she had around dating and
02:23:53
intimacy. I felt that she was relatable, but I didn't know just exactly how relatable it was. Even when she opened
02:24:01
up to Amy about an abusive ex-boyfriend who had stalked her, Emily says Amy never told her about her own similar
02:24:10
experience. And that still is something that I am struggling to process knowing that I was
02:24:17
sitting across from her and she had been through so much that was similar. As Amy
02:24:23
was helping Emily work through her issues around dating, Amy was taking a chance on a new man in her own life.
02:24:31
Happy Valentine's Day. Drew Carey, comedian and host of The Price is Right on CBS. She was obviously really
02:24:39
beautiful. She was really smart. She just wanted to help people, especially women. We spoke to Carrie in 2022.
02:24:47
He said it wasn't long after meeting Amy at a party that he decided she was the one. And I said, "If this keeps going
02:24:55
the way it's going, I'm going to marry her." And what happened? What happened was he ended up taking her to Paris on
02:25:01
New Year's Eve and proposing to her and she accepted. Drew and Amy shared the news on his show soon after. I'd like to
02:25:09
introduce you to my brand new lovely fiance, Amy. How you doing, Amy? But instead of spending the rest of
02:25:17
their lives together, later that year, the couple split up. How did she take the breakup? She was devastated. I mean,
02:25:26
she broke it off. And I think that's because all fame was getting in the way. That's because, says Penny, Amy feared
02:25:34
that with the added public attention she was getting while on the arm of a celebrity, she could be putting herself
02:25:42
in danger. You know who was watching and it made her [Music] worry. It hit home a lot after Amy
02:26:15
passed in the way that she did. How dangerous it really is for women. Emily Sears, one of Amy Harwick's
02:26:24
therapy clients, was shaken by the news of her death. The reality is we're not safe. Nobody is in dealing with some
02:26:32
domestic violence because this was a bit different because the way Gareth Pers acted in this case was more methodical.
02:26:39
When deputy district attorney Victor Ava took on the case, he was particularly troubled by evidence that Pur House had
02:26:46
broken into Amy's house, hoping to catch her off guard when she arrived home. And
02:26:52
that's at the point that we decided to charge not only the murder charge, but also the special circumstance of lying
02:26:57
and wait. These are the crime scene notes. Avala along with his co-consel, Deputy District Attorney Katherine
02:27:04
Mariano, reviewed surveillance and body camera video, interviews with Amy's family and friends, and compiled a
02:27:12
timeline of the events leading up to the murder. It became very clear to me that
02:27:17
his obsession drove his intent to kill her. They believe that Pur House's obsession
02:27:26
with Amy was ignited when he saw her at this award show about a month before her
02:27:31
murder. It was a chance encounter. Pur House working the gig as a photographer. Amy smiling for the cameras enjoying the
02:27:40
limelight. But moments earlier, off camera, witnesses say an angry purse house confronted her. Penny Harwick
02:27:48
recalls Amy telling her she hadn't seen him in almost a decade. He called her a and he told her
02:27:56
she ruined his life and she just told me how afraid she was because he was crying
02:28:01
and causing a huge scene and she said, "Mom, I went into therapist mode. I just tried to calm him." After talking to
02:28:12
Gareth for almost an hour, Amy left the event very worried. What's your reaction, Penny? When she
02:28:20
was telling you this, that's when we talked about security and she said she was going to get pepper spray. We
02:28:26
decided to start sharing location so I could track where she was. Her close friend, Robert Klin, says that sharing
02:28:32
her phone's location was one of the few things Amy felt she could do to feel safe. The restraining order against Pur
02:28:40
House had long expired and because Pur House hadn't expressly threatened her. Robert says she didn't think going to
02:28:48
police would help. Still, he says Amy was very concerned. That's when she said, "Look, if something happens to me,
02:28:58
he did it." She actually said that. She literally said that. She's thinking that
02:29:02
he can cause me harm. And the very next day, he finds her phone on the internet and starts texting her. Gareth sent Amy
02:29:09
a series of texts and later left her a tearfilled voicemail. I have so much I need to
02:29:18
say. Please give me a chance to just say it. Please, please. That's when prosecutors
02:29:26
say Amy decided to block his number. I believe up until that point he was trying to manipulate his way back into
02:29:33
her life at the point that she made the decision to block him. That was her choice and she had that right to do
02:29:38
that. Prosecutors say PCL started to plan to kill Amy on Valentine's Day. Was that just a random date? Absolutely not.
02:29:48
I think he wanted to make a statement by killing her on Valentine's Day. On February 14th, 2020, Amy went out
02:29:56
with a group of friends around 700 p.m. 2 hours later say prosecutors surveillance cameras from her nextdoor
02:30:03
neighbors property were activated. You get those ring cameras that show a person that looks just like Gareth
02:30:10
Purouse with gloves. When he first comes into view, he covers the camera and when
02:30:16
the camera senses no more motion, it shuts off and then he hops over the fence into Amy's yard. Soon after,
02:30:24
around 900 p.m., they believe Pile broke through that French door. And that's consistent with Michael Herman. He heard
02:30:33
something breaking upstairs early in the evening. And I think he just got into the house, cut himself. I don't think he
02:30:39
even realized he cut himself. leaving that blood police later found nearby. DNA testing would confirm it belonged to
02:30:48
Pur [Music] House. And Detective Mastersonson says where Pur House went next was revealed
02:30:56
by Amy's unmade bed. I think he climbed in her bed. He was there waiting for her
02:31:02
for quite a while. How creepy is that? Crazy creepy. [Music] That's where Mastersonson believes Amy
02:31:11
found him 4 hours later when she arrived home a little after 1:00 a.m. She walks
02:31:17
into her bedroom and I think she just froze in shock and fear and the one thing that was on the bed was her phone.
02:31:24
So I think she actually threw her phone at him and turned and started to run out
02:31:29
of the bedroom. And she's screaming and they're fighting and they're wrestling. How hard did Amy fight for her life? I
02:31:37
think she fought with everything she had. He had something that appeared to look like a bite mark on his bicep. And
02:31:43
Pers also had that black eye. To us, it was indicative of Amy fighting for her life, but she was obviously up against a
02:31:51
much bigger, stronger opponent. Prosecutors believe Pur House started choking Amy and that's when Michael
02:31:58
Herman yelled. They believe catching Pur House by surprise. And I think that plan
02:32:04
was definitely thwarted by the unbeknownsted presence of Michael Herman there. I just don't believe that he even
02:32:11
knew that somebody was home. In his panic, they believe Pur House dropped that syringe police found on the
02:32:17
balcony. It was months before lab tests revealed what it contained. Liquid nicotine. A toxic poison that if
02:32:27
injected into someone, it would kill them. Why kill her that way? I mean, with that lethal dose of nicotine,
02:32:32
people may not know what killed her. It may not be detected. With his original plan interrupted,
02:32:40
prosecutors believe that Pur House carried Amy, barely conscious after being strangled to the thirdstory
02:32:48
balcony. He lifts her right over the rail and then drops her to kill her. Gareth Purels is caught on the
02:32:54
neighbor's camera popping back over the fence. With their suspect and theory of the
02:33:03
crime, the prosecutors were ready for trial. But they were surprised by Gareth Purous's defense, blaming Amy for what
02:33:13
happened that night. [Music] [Music] In August 2023, more than three years after Amy Harwick's death, her accused
02:33:34
killer, Gareth Purouse, went on trial. I almost didn't recognize him. Right. In their opening statements, prosecutors
02:33:44
Victor Avala and Katherine Mariano told jurors why and how they believe Pur House ended Amy's life in the early
02:33:53
morning of February 15th, 2020. Dr. Amy Harwick was murdered by defendant Ger House because he was obsessed with her.
02:34:05
He strangled her, lifted her up over the balcony, and dropped her to her death. I
02:34:10
just pray that Amy was unconscious when she was when she went over the balcony. Tom and Penny sat through every second
02:34:20
of the trial, even the most graphic moments. I need to know what happened to my daughter. And we wanted to be there
02:34:27
for Amy. Yeah. Through the whole ordeal. But the Harwicks were not alone. Also in
02:34:33
the courtroom, a small army of Amy's friends, including Rudy Torres. This is the last thing I could ever do for her.
02:34:42
Although fortified by her friends, nothing could prepare the Harwicks to hear for the first time ever. Gareth
02:34:50
Purous's explanation about what happened the night Amy died. Defense attorney Evan Franzel claims
02:34:59
that running into Amy in January 2020 at that award show had sent Pur House into
02:35:06
quote a deep debilitating depression unquote. And the only way out of it was to talk to Amy on Valentine's Day 2020.
02:35:17
His only intention that night was to speak to her. What was your reaction to that?
02:35:22
bull. To put it bluntly, they're making up stories because they have no defense.
02:35:28
And as for that nicotine filled syringe found at the crime scene, Pur House's defense attorney says it wasn't for Amy.
02:35:37
He brought it intending to kill himself. Why didn't he? No, he was on a mission to kill her. He was wearing gloves when
02:35:44
he went there. He covered up the cameras. What's the purpose in doing all that if you're going to kill yourself
02:35:49
there in front of her? In this trial, the defense tells the jurors they will hear from an accident reconstructionist
02:35:56
who will show that Amy fell on her own. Defense attorney Franzel then shows the jury two images. A screenshot of the
02:36:05
reconstruction showing an animated figure hanging from the balcony and an undated photo of Amy posing on top of a
02:36:14
balcony railing. You'll see that she had a certain comfort level with the balcony
02:36:20
rail. Beautiful young lady, wasn't she? She looked glorious. What was your reaction? Ridiculous.
02:36:29
I couldn't take it seriously. It was just so far-fetched to me. She's been strangled. She's debilitated.
02:36:36
So, for her to then walk, climb over a 3-FFT rail, do all that, it doesn't seem reasonable. It seems actually
02:36:43
unreasonable. The defense's opening concludes with this damning admission. Yes, Gareth Burst House was waiting in
02:36:51
her home. He broke into her home. Had he not been there, she wouldn't have died that night. That is not in dispute. He
02:37:01
set a chain of actions into motion that led to her death, but the evidence will show that he never
02:37:11
intended on killing her. Over the course of 10 days, the prosecution presented its evidence to
02:37:20
prove that Gareth Pers did intend to kill Amy Harwick. Dozens of witnesses testify for the state, including
02:37:28
Detective Masterson, now retired, Robert Klin, call Michael Herman to stand, and
02:37:36
of course, Amy's roommate, Michael Herman, the man who heard it all. Michael described for the jury how after
02:37:44
that incident on the red carpet, Amy had been concerned about those French doors
02:37:50
that Pur House would later use to break into her home. Amy had met with a handyman. I remember uh they were over
02:38:00
by the the glass doors and Amy was pointing it out and telling him, "We need to secure this."
02:38:07
Prosecutors also play for the jury this tape jail conversation between Pur House
02:38:12
and his friends after his arrest. I guess I'm officially a bad boy now, right? I've always been kind of just a
02:38:20
couple of weeks after he's been arrested for murder. He's laughing with his friends. You never hear any moment of
02:38:26
concern for Amy during that call. Yeah. So, it's not great. I'm not getting out of here. Why
02:38:33
was that important? I think that's one piece of evidence to show a consciousness of guilt so he knows
02:38:39
what's coming because the evidence shows what he did. It proves what he did. When
02:38:44
it was the defense's turn to present its case and call its expert witness to show
02:38:49
how Amy's fall from the balcony was an accident, the defense suddenly rested without calling a single witness. Didn't
02:38:59
that hurt the defense? I am sure some jurors were wondering what happened. So, I don't think that helps. During closing
02:39:06
arguments, defense attorney Robin Bernstein Lev presented a new theory of what happened that night. That Amy may
02:39:14
have attacked Pur House. We don't know who initiated the physical confrontation.
02:39:24
It is just as likely, if not likelier, she preemptively attacked Gareth Bur's house in order to subdue him because she
02:39:34
was afraid of him. You see that all the time, don't you? A 115 lb lady picking a
02:39:40
fight with a 230 lb 6'4 man. Just preposterous on its face. Did that make you mad? Oh, took all my willpower to
02:39:49
stay in that seat to keep my mouth shut. During the state's closing arguments, it's Amy Harwick who has the last word.
02:39:58
With prosecutor Mariano reading from an email Amy wrote to herself hours after her January 2020 encounter with Pers.
02:40:09
Night. I felt very scared. Derrick came up behind me and started screaming. I'm pretty nervous that I'm more on his
02:40:15
radar now. It terrifies me that he's obsessed with me for 9 years. Thinks about me every day. He's focused on
02:40:22
harming me. That's the closest we've ever had to to a victim testifying in their murder. I
02:40:28
thought it was extremely devastating. Jurors had three choices. Murder in the first degree, murder in the second, or
02:40:38
the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. When it came time for deliberation, I think we all thought it
02:40:45
would be rather quick. Day one went by, nothing. I started getting a little worried and thinking what could they
02:40:51
be debating about? [Music] I felt nervous. Yeah, cuz you never know. As jurors met for a second day to decide
02:41:18
Gareth Purouse's fate, the waiting for a verdict began to weigh heavily on the prosecution. It's incredibly
02:41:25
nerve-wracking. The weight is the worst part. And on Amy Harwick's friends and family, and all you hear is just like a
02:41:33
symphony of of anxious bellies just so everybody's nervous. But as court was about to adjourn, we were
02:41:42
walking out of the courthouse and Rudy called down and said, "Everybody get up here. There's a verdict."
02:41:49
Is it correct that the jury has a verdict? You can have the verdict formed over the bail, please. We the jury
02:41:55
entitled action fighting defendant Gareth Pile guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. Gareth
02:42:01
Pile's guilty of firstdegree murder with a special circumstance of lying in weight. What did you feel at that
02:42:10
moment? A huge relief. Huge relief. I I just started crying and I couldn't stop. It was
02:42:18
like finally after all this time, he's going to be held accountable for what he did.
02:42:25
Two months later, Pers was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He didn't say a word.
02:42:39
Amy's friend, Robert Koshlin. Justice was rendered and that's good, but we shouldn't be here at all. This should
02:42:48
never have happened to begin with. The hole in our lives remains. He's impacted so many people with his actions. So many
02:42:55
people. He devastated our family. [Music] A family that has grown. After the verdict, Tom gathered Amy's friends, the
02:43:08
ones who have stood by them every step of this journey. I said, "Uh, you are not our friends. You're
02:43:15
family. You You really have become our family. Could you have gotten through this
02:43:22
without them?" No, I don't think so. It's a testament to the amazing life and community Amy Harwick created. She was
02:43:33
really happy. She was really happy that she had really gotten her life together. Man, we were all happy.
02:43:46
Michael Herman says he still keeps replaying that night. She's gone and I'm still here. You want a second chance.
02:43:55
I'm still trying to save her. Michael Herman has a lot of survivors guilt. Oh my goodness. He did the exact right
02:44:02
thing. He made all the right decisions. Do you feel your sister got justice? I feel I feel she did. Amy's brother,
02:44:11
Chris. We wish that she still could be here to to continue to help people cuz that's what she was all about.
02:44:20
We lost a friend, but so many other people lost a healer. I think of Amy every day because she she helped me so
02:44:32
much. Emily Sears says she's struggling without Amy's guidance. It's just so hard to feel safe when this is the
02:44:39
reality of what happened to her and what happens to so many people. Amy's loved ones are hoping to change
02:44:47
that reality. After her death, a petition was created to rewrite California domestic violence laws,
02:44:55
including a statute preventing restraining orders from expiring. And our biggest disappointment was it lost
02:45:03
all its impact when CO shut everything down. Prosecutor Katherine Mariano acknowledges that there are limits to
02:45:10
the legal system. By the time it gets to our table, we're in a position to act reactively rather than proactively. But
02:45:18
as a society, I think we can always do better, right? After the trial, Amy's parents headed
02:45:24
home to Pennsylvania, the place where they first became a family with their little girl, and watched her grow into
02:45:31
the woman admired and now missed by so many. What's the hardest part? Just the the
02:45:42
absence, the quiet. One huge void. One huge void. And I miss our adventures. Adventures remembered when they visit
02:45:54
Amy's grave. And I couldn't get a brighter orange. I know orange was your favorite
02:46:01
color, but this is the closest I could get. We're not the same people we were before, but we keep trying to be. We
02:46:09
miss you, Amy. Every day we think of you. anything you wish you had been able to say to
02:46:16
her? Just to tell her one more time that I love her. I know she knew it, but I wanted to be able to say it.
02:46:26
[Music] [Music] New CBS next. A young teenager is strangled and buried alive. Absolutely
02:46:51
coldblooded. 20 years later, her family battles to keep her killers behind bars.
02:46:56
We're fighting for her. That's why we're here. She doesn't have a voice. So, we're her voice. 48 hours is all new.
02:47:03
CBS Next and streaming on Paramount Plus. [Music] July 1997. Versace. [Music] There's something inherently sexy in a
02:47:38
Versace design. There is a flamboyance that is contained and [Music] controlled. The clothes we wear send a
02:47:54
message about how the world perceives us. This is a real wow factor. I'm Tim Gun and I am the mentor on Project
02:48:03
Runway. The Versace customer was not faint of heart. One of the most iconic Versace pieces was the gown that he made
02:48:12
for Elizabeth Hurley. Two stars were born with that dress. Princess Diana wanted a whole new look for the
02:48:20
world. And Courtney loved it also. I mean, he took her from trashy to sophisticated. Versace helped put Miami
02:48:27
on the international map. My name is Tara Solomon and I am the Miami Herald's former nightlife
02:48:36
correspondent. Versace brought his entire world of fabulosity. And while he may have had
02:48:45
homes all around the world, he came to Miami Beach to relax. Do you remember where you were when you
02:48:54
heard that Versace had been murdered? Oh, I remember profoundly. I opened up my computer and it flashed before me
02:49:02
that Johnny Versace had been murdered. I was stunned. When Versace was killed, there was pure
02:49:10
pandemonium. On that particular morning, Johnny Versace decided to go over to the news
02:49:18
cafe and it was on his return home approaching the door. He was he was shot and killed and all of a sudden we hear
02:49:27
bang bang. Two shots. 116. Yes. Please immediately please. Do you remember where roughly he was? He was
02:49:35
right right here. And there was obviously blood. Yes. Plenty of blood. And if you mention Johnny Versace, um
02:49:45
people still don't remember those names of the first few people that were killed.
02:49:52
There was uh the homicide of Jeff Trail and David Matson. There was the murder of Lee
02:50:00
Miglin. Then there was the murder of William Reese. We have what we typically call a
02:50:09
spree killer. [Music] This wasn't a haphazard crime. Mr. Versace was targeted. [Music]
02:50:27
[Music] World famous fashion designer Johnny Versace fatally shot, gunned down outside his mansion in Miami Beach,
02:50:51
Florida, turned into a gruesome crime scene early this morning. 5 days before he was murdered, Johnny
02:51:02
Versace and his partner Antonio Demo had arrived at Kasa Kazarina, their lavish Miami Beach retreat. They'd been in
02:51:11
Paris and New York. Versace could not have known it, but his killer was already in town.
02:51:21
Ocean Drive. The 911 call came in about 8:45 the morning of July 15th, 1997, just as Carlos Noriega, then a
02:51:32
lieutenant with the Miami Beach Police Department, was heading to work. [Music] I drove over to the scene and
02:51:42
encountered an area just flooded with police officers. There was uh evidence at the
02:51:48
front steps. There was blood. There was uh clothing. Giani Versace was an icon. You
02:51:58
have a worldrenowned fashion designer, celebrity who was tragically killed. This was all hands- on deck. Yeah. You
02:52:04
don't want to screw this case up. Exactly. It all happened in broad daylight. Versace had gone out alone to a local
02:52:14
cafe to buy magazines and then he walked home as he was putting the key in the door lock and he was shot twice. Once in
02:52:25
the face point black ridge and the other one was behind the left ear in the neck
02:52:30
and that was a through and through shot. Nora believes the gunman approached Versace from behind or from the side.
02:52:39
I believe he was shadowing him. It was a very strategically timed, strategically
02:52:45
placed attack uh to to kill Giani Versace. The question was who would want to kill him?
02:52:52
One of the first motives that we felt was a possibility was that it was a contract hit organized crime mafia if
02:52:59
you will uh because there was a dead bird found next to the body. Is that a sign that to to us that's a sign of a
02:53:07
mafia hit? But the bird, it turned out, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hit by a fragment from a bullet
02:53:14
that killed Versace. And that left police with not much to go on. But not for long. They got a break
02:53:24
from Lazero Quintana, who was a friend of Versace. He used to call me Lazaretta. Lazero was at the mansion
02:53:32
that morning. He was in the dining room with Antonio when he heard the shots. Antonio got up and he went to the window
02:53:41
that faces the gate to enter the mansion and he yelled out, "No, no." And I ran out. You came here? I
02:53:50
came here. Johnny was right here. Versace was already dead on the front steps. And then Antonio came and he was
02:53:59
he's crying and he was destroyed. He was destroyed and he's he's who did this? Who did this? And there was there was a
02:54:08
lady standing here and she's pointing but she couldn't speak and Jonah said, "Go get him." So I went after him.
02:54:17
Lazero followed the gunman. We're talking this pace real fast. I yelled, "You bastard. Why did you do this? Why
02:54:24
did you do this?" He makes a left turn. As he makes the left turn, yes, he makes
02:54:29
the left turn. And we're still going. We're still going all the way through. He turns over to the right and car's
02:54:35
coming so I couldn't get across. Car stops. Uhhuh. And they yell, "He's got a gun." He stops right across here. Yeah.
02:54:42
At the alley. And that's when he's pointing the gun at me. Show me how he pointed the gun at you if I'm you.
02:54:49
So he didn't even look at you. No. Never looked at me. You never saw his face. I
02:54:52
never saw his face. But you saw his clothes. Yes. The shooter cut through this alley while
02:54:58
Lazero raced around the corner. He remembered seeing a police officer there earlier. I reached him and I said to
02:55:05
him, "Mr. Versace has just been shot." Were you calm? Were or were you? No. No. No. A friend of mine was just shot. Nor
02:55:13
was I calm. I was nervous. I was upset. You came down this street with the police officer. I did. Luckily, he came
02:55:21
upon some men in front of this building and asked them if they saw a man running
02:55:26
and they pointed they pointed to the garage. He said he went in here. He went in here. So, that's when I told the
02:55:31
officer, I said, "He's in there. Go get him. Go get him." And then we heard over
02:55:35
the radio the commotion and and Okay, now there is a manh hunt. When police searched the 13th Street
02:55:43
garage, they discovered a pile of clothes, a gray t-shirt, and black shorts, just what Lazero had seen the
02:55:52
shooter wearing. He had obviously changed clothes. When he walked out of this garage just shortly after the
02:56:00
murder, nobody knew who the shooter was. Nobody knew what he looked like. Nobody
02:56:04
knew what he was wearing. He was able to just vanish. But he left a mountain of evidence for investigators. Next to that
02:56:12
pile of clothes was a truck that had been reported stolen in New Jersey. And inside the truck were documents with a
02:56:21
name. I mean, he left his identification in the truck. That's correct. He had his
02:56:25
passport, um, ID, a whole lot of items that connected him right away. 51. By 12 noon, some 3 hours after Johnny Versace
02:56:36
was murdered, police had a suspect. His name, Andrew Kunanan. And as it turned out, the Miami
02:56:46
Beach Police Department was not the only one looking for him. [Music] [Applause]
02:57:10
In Milan, Italy today, those who knew and admired Johnny Versace said goodbye to the murdered fashion designer.
02:57:21
One week after Johnny Versace was murdered, celebrities and friends from around the world gathered inside this
02:57:28
Gothic cathedral in Milan, Italy for his funeral. I saw Versace's funeral on television and I cried. It was It was
02:57:38
hard. It was tough. Princess Diana was there at the funeral. Sting Trudy Elton [Music]
02:57:50
In Miami, not far from where he was murdered, there was a small intimate service to celebrate the designer's
02:57:58
life. [Music] The flowers left on the steps of Versace's opulent mansion served as one
02:58:09
somber reminder of what had happened. that we consider Andrew Kuninad to be armed and to be extremely
02:58:17
dangerous. The police activity was another. They were tracking every lead they could, hunting for Johnny Versace's
02:58:27
suspected killer, 27-year-old Andrew Kunanan. You had a very good suspect. Michael Band was the prosecutor assigned
02:58:36
to this case. And our first step was to go out into community with pictures of Canadan and start beating the bushes and
02:58:45
looking for this guy, looking to figure out, is this the guy? Authorities were starting to learn
02:58:54
all about Andrew Kunanan. 3 months before Versace's murder, Kunanan was living in San Diego and his
02:59:03
life was, to say the least, complicated. I thought he'd be a very successful businessman or maybe in, you know, the
02:59:11
fashion industry or something star quality like. Back in the 80s, Robert Erenss remembers his seventh grade
02:59:19
classmate Andrew Kunanan as a good-looking kid with a keen fashion sense. I remember Andrew would put dimes
02:59:27
in his penny loafers. It was always that little extra something that made him sort of stand out and get noticed.
02:59:33
Andrew sort of had this air about him that I thought was kind of beyond his years at that
02:59:39
time. According to Erands, Andrew Kunanan grew up in a workingclass San Diego suburb and did not share much
02:59:48
about his home life. I had no idea who his mom was, his dad, whether he had brothers or sisters. I had no idea he
02:59:56
was half Filipino. Andrew's father, Modesto, was a former Navy man turned stockbroker. He
03:00:04
and Andrew's mother, Maryanne, raised four children together. But Andrew stood out. He had a genius IQ. So he enrolled
03:00:15
in the pricey and prestigious Bishop School in the Tony Beach enclave of La Hoya. When I heard that he was going to
03:00:24
La Hoya and transferring to bishops, I thought, well, you've got to have money. That's a private school.
03:00:29
[Music] The class of 1987 mentioned Andrew Kunanan as most likely to be remembered. He chose a quote from King
03:00:40
Louis X 15th to accompany his senior photo. A premo deluge after me. The deluge. Turns out those words could have
03:00:51
been an omen. A year after Andrew's high school graduation, his father was facing
03:00:58
embezzlement charges. He fled the country, leaving his family abandoned and broke.
03:01:05
[Music] He was openly gay in high school and very flamboyant. When 48 Hours first
03:01:12
spoke to Nicole Murray Ramirez back in 1997, he knew Andrew Kunanan. Today, he still remembers Kunanan as the young man
03:01:22
who didn't have a job but was a big spender and an even bigger talker. Andrew Kanan was basically known in the
03:01:31
gay community's night life and the bar scene. He would walk in with entourage and
03:01:38
always pay for the bill. He wanted the illusion that it was his money. He tried to brag that he came from a Filipino
03:01:44
family and he knew the Mald Marcos. Michael Williams owned a local restaurant and knew Andrew Kunanan. He
03:01:54
also knew where Kunanann really got all that money. He had a very wealthy older partner who really provided for him. How
03:02:04
much older? I would say probably by 40 years. What did you make of that relationship?
03:02:11
I stopped trying to figure that out. I was like, you know, here's this young, attractive, good-looking
03:02:17
guy with this extremely older man. I mean, I can't imagine what the connection was
03:02:28
there. I would imagine that you had an idea what the connection was there. I did. You know, Michael Williams was
03:02:36
introduced to Andrew through their mutual friend, a young enson named Jeff Trail. Andrew was very
03:02:44
pretentious, loud, you know, always had to be the center of the the party. Jeff was opposite of that. Jeff
03:02:53
was pretty conservative and quiet, always helping people. Trail was an Annapapolis graduate and a
03:03:03
Gulf War veteran living in San Diego. He was also gay as out as was possible. Tonight on 48
03:03:13
hours, the battle over homosexuals in the military. In 1993, when he appeared in Silhouette for a 48 hours interview,
03:03:21
he talked to us about issues affecting gay people in the military. We're not here to be feared. We just want to do
03:03:28
our jobs. That's all we're asking for. While Trail and Kunanan were friends, to the best of anybody's knowledge, that is
03:03:37
all they were. Jeff was always had the contagious personality that where you just wanted to be around him. And I
03:03:44
think that, you know, in a way, Andrew wanted that in his life. So surrounding himself around Jeff, he always seemed
03:03:53
very happy and and up. You did not like Andrew. No. For reasons known only to Cananan, he
03:04:01
sometimes used the name Andrew Dilva. That's how Michael Williams knew him. And he would soon learn a lot more about
03:04:10
Andrew. Who he was and what he would do would change the life of Michael Williams and end the lives of five
03:04:20
innocent victims. Tracing Andrew Kunanan's blood soaked path to Johnny Versace's front
03:04:35
door means following a series of unexplainable events punctuated with unfathomable
03:04:44
viciousness. None of the dots are easily connected except in the mind of the murderer.
03:04:51
[Music] The road begins with Jeff Trail. He just had that charisma about him. It was Trail who befriended Andrew
03:05:03
Kunanan. And Michael Williams believes his friend knew Cananan had lived a dangerous life. Andrew had a past of
03:05:11
dealing drugs. He had a past of prostitution. And I really think that Jeff was trying to pull him out of that.
03:05:21
Williams says Jeff Trail had left the Navy and was training to join the California Highway Patrol. And then
03:05:29
suddenly, and with no explanation, in the fall of 1996, Trail moved to Minneapolis. The
03:05:38
day that he got in the car to leave, I said, "Please be safe." And he reached under the seat and he he pulled out his
03:05:46
handgun and he said, "I'm going to be safe. I've got this Around that same time, Jeff Trail's
03:05:54
friend Andrew Kunanan was struggling. According to Nicole Murray Ramirez, he was not good-looking anymore. He had to
03:06:02
have looked in the mirror and saw what I saw, which was a a six going down to a four. What was left for his life?
03:06:11
Kunanan had gained weight and given away much of his expensive designer wardrobe.
03:06:17
He had dabbled into drugs. He was now an older young man with average looks. On top of that, his older wealthy
03:06:26
partner broke up with him. I surmise that Andrew one day woke up after his older boyfriend broke up the
03:06:36
relationship and what's next? How was he going to live? He lost the money, the mansion, and all
03:06:45
that went with it. He lived off other people. He also was someone who was revengeful.
03:06:51
Former FBI profiler Mary Elano Tulle. This is not someone that you break up with easily because when you're
03:06:58
grandiose and you're the center of the world, people don't break up with you. And then for reasons Kunanan never fully
03:07:08
explained, on Friday, April 25th, 1997, he went to Minneapolis. He flew from San Diego on a one-way ticket. Do
03:07:19
you think that he went up to Minneapolis with murder on his mind? Yes, I think that he did.
03:07:28
Kunana knew people in Minneapolis. Jeff Trail was there and Michael Williams thinks something happened between the
03:07:36
two of them. I called to check on Jeff and he was just really depressed. It alarmed me.
03:07:45
We've never had a conversation like that. I uh I asked him, "Have you spoken to Andrew?" And he
03:08:01
said, "Uh, no, and I'll never speak to him again." That's odd. Kunanan knew somebody else in
03:08:12
Minneapolis, a 33-year-old architect named David Madson. Kunanan and Madson had had a relationship. He loved to
03:08:21
laugh. I just got a little lunch. Okay. And he always had big energy. Julie Hland was David Madson's friend and
03:08:30
coworker. He liked problem solving. We talked about world issues. He was a downto- earthth person.
03:08:40
Did David ever mention Andrew Cananan? Um, yes, he did. I think he had a fling with Andrew. Um, I don't think it was
03:08:50
anything serious because there were other people in his life that he cared about more. He didn't care about Andrew
03:08:56
um that much really. But according to Kunanan's friends, Andrew believed David was the love of
03:09:04
his life. Julie Havlin didn't talk to David Madson over the weekend. On Monday, she was
03:09:12
surprised when he didn't show up at work. And by Tuesday, everyone was worried. I called them, went to voice
03:09:21
messaging, and um a couple of my co-workers went to his house over lunch hour on Tuesday. Um heard his dog
03:09:31
barking in the apartment. She didn't know it, but Kunanan's killing spree had already started. It was noticeable as
03:09:42
soon as you open the door and walk in. Nobody made any effort to try and conceal it or hide it.
03:09:48
When retired Minneapolis homicide detective Dale Bars arrived at Madson's apartment, what he saw was gruesome.
03:09:56
There was a bloody body wrapped in a rug. I thought he was dead that day. I pretty much cried the whole night
03:10:10
and then later we found out that um it wasn't David's body in the the carpet. How did you feel when you heard that?
03:10:21
Um shocked. But then oh, what happened? The body in David Madson's apartment. was Jeff Trail. He had been beaten to
03:10:33
death with a hammer. And not far from the body, police found a duffel bag with a name on it, Andrew Kunanan. This is
03:10:42
the travel bag that we believe uh Andrew Kunanan brought to Minneapolis on uh April 25th.
03:10:50
But where was Andrew Kunanan and where was David Madson? The trail stayed cold for just 4 days. And then on Saturday
03:10:59
morning, two fishermen found the body of a young man on the shores of East Rush Lake about an hour north of Minneapolis.
03:11:07
It was David Madson. He'd been shot in the head. We learned that David died pretty soon
03:11:16
after Jeff Trail. Oh my gosh. you know, to be in the situation that David's in with this
03:11:26
crazy person, you know, and how scary for him. I'm sure he tried to calm Andrew down, you know. I I mean, I'm
03:11:35
sure there was survival mode going on, like how do you diffuse the situation? But he obviously failed at
03:11:44
that. Um, and he lost his life because of that. Ballistic tests showed the bullets used
03:11:53
to kill Madson came from a 40 caliber gun like the one Jeff Trail had taken to Minneapolis. Police believe Kunanan took
03:12:02
that gun. Presumably, when you were able to link Madson's death to Trail's death,
03:12:09
that changed the whole investigation. Yeah. Now we're down to Where's Andrew? There were tire tracks near Madson's
03:12:16
body and his car, a red Jeep, was missing. But it would not stay missing for long. 72-year-old Lee Miglin was
03:12:25
found tortured and stabbed to death in the garage of his mansion on Chicago's Gold Coast.
03:12:32
On the morning of May 3rd, 1997, Steven and Barbara Byer found the body of their
03:12:38
neighbor, Lee Migglin. He was a wealthy real estate developer. I can still picture it today. I could see the points
03:12:46
of his shoes and I said, "It is right there." I mean, it was absolutely um chilling.
03:12:57
Inside Lee Miglin's townhouse, there was some money and other things missing, and
03:13:02
there was evidence the killer had stayed a while. Police photos show he had shaved and taken a bath. debris in the
03:13:10
kitchen sink. Uh melted ice cream coming out of their containers. Then in uh Lee's library, finding this uh large ham
03:13:20
uh sliced sitting on his desk. That was plenty to recognize that uh something very, very bad had gone on.
03:13:29
Around the corner from the murder scene, police would discover David Madson's red
03:13:34
Jeep. But now Lee Migllin's green Lexus was missing. To this day, police do not know what, if any, connection Kunanan
03:13:43
had to Migglin, but they feared Kunannan would strike again. [Applause] [Music] I do know it's not a random act of
03:14:06
violence. A nationwide manhunt is still underway for Kunan after Andrew Kunanan murdered Jeff Trail, David Madson, and
03:14:15
Lee Miglin. The gay community was terrified, especially in San Diego. I think everybody was in a state of shock.
03:14:24
I think some people were in a state of fear. People didn't answer their doors. People that knew him the most stayed
03:14:35
other places. Michael Williams relocated to Scottdale, Arizona. Everybody was on very high
03:14:43
alert cuz he didn't know where he was going to strike again. Yeah. Just 6 days after he killed Miglin, while Kunanan
03:14:52
was on the run in Migllin's green Lexus, police believe he realized the FBI was tracking the car phone's signal and he
03:15:02
needed a new vehicle. He's believed to have struck here in Pensville Friday afternoon at the remote
03:15:09
Fins Point Cemetery at Fort M Park. FBI is going to work it concurrently with the New Jersey State Police. The Lexus
03:15:16
was found at this cemetery in southern New Jersey. Inside the office lay victim number four. He was 45year-old William
03:15:26
Reese. He'd been shot in the head and his red pickup was gone. Yeah. He all he was is a caretaker at a
03:15:36
cemetery. Minneapolis detective Dale Bars says William Reese was killed simply for his truck. You know, he just
03:15:44
was a very honorable man in the wrong place. Absolutely. At the wrong time and alone.
03:15:52
You're in scon somewhere in Scottdale. He's last heard of in New Jersey. Can you relax? No.
03:16:02
Until he's caught, you don't relax. As Johnny Versace was in Europe working on what would be his final
03:16:10
collection, Andrew Kunanan was the focus of a nationwide manhunt. He was featured
03:16:16
on America's Most Wanted. Police say Kunanan may be wearing glasses and earned a spot on the FBI's 10 most
03:16:24
wanted list. You think he enjoyed the the attention that he got? Oh, I absolutely do. Former FBI profiler Mary
03:16:32
Elano Tulle. He basically held the United States hostage because we were looking for him everywhere. We didn't
03:16:38
know where he was. Otul says having murdered four men in three states over 12 days, Kunanan was now considered a
03:16:48
spree killer. A spree killer continues and continues and continues and does not go back into their normal life. Life as
03:16:56
they know it. It's done. So Otul believes Kunanan knew he had nothing to lose. There's no way to undo
03:17:05
what he's done now. Absolutely no way. So he's really boxed himself into a corner. From a behavioral standpoint
03:17:12
that makes him more dangerous. But then for 2 months there was no sign of Kunanan until July 15th,
03:17:22
1997 when he struck again. This time was different because this time his victim was Johnny
03:17:35
Versace. When you heard that he had done it again, do you remember how you felt?
03:17:41
Every time there was another killing, it was almost like you're being stabbed. You know, it it's that rush of pain and
03:17:51
you're just automatically, oh my god, why can't they catch him? There's no question that he knew that we were hot
03:17:58
in this trail. Carlos Noriega remembers that within hours, hundreds of police officers piled onto Miami Beach. We all
03:18:07
but locked down uh the causeways and the ways in and out of the city. And I believe that created that bottleneck
03:18:13
where he felt uncomfortable trying to leave the city. Crimes Stoppers with all the attention on this case every day
03:18:22
brought a flood of tips. How long ago? The tips that were coming in were overwhelming at times, especially since
03:18:29
this was detective Gus Sanchez's first homicide investigation. Were you nervous at all? Of course I was. Yeah. We know
03:18:38
already that he had killed numerous people. I remember going to different locations, knocking on doors. It always
03:18:44
crosses your mind that Kunan can be in there armed and he can shoot through the door. Detectives soon learned Kunanan
03:18:50
had been in Miami Beach for about 2 months. He was sort of hiding in plain sight. Exactly. The police had missed
03:18:57
several opportunities to get him. About a week before he killed Versace, Kunanan
03:19:04
pawned a gold coin stolen from Lee Miglin. How'd the pawn shop know it was him? He told them on the coin about a
03:19:13
week before the homicide and used his own name. Used his own name. What's more, Kunanan's name was on a form the
03:19:20
pawn shop was required to send to the Miami Beach Police Department. It arrived 5 days before the murder. We did
03:19:29
not have an automated system at the time. It was just one of many forms and unfortunately nobody looked at it. Did
03:19:37
you think why didn't we know about this before Johnny Versace was killed? That thought went through my mind several
03:19:44
times because apparently he was on the beach for a period of time. Kunanan listed his address as the Normandy Plaza
03:19:51
Hotel. It was a dump. You and I wouldn't stay in that hotel. He'd registered under his own name. Must drive you nuts
03:20:00
to know that this guy was walking around free as a bird, right? I I mean, just the fact that this guy was being looked
03:20:08
for speaks to the fact that he was able to blend in and change his appearance and successfully just stay one step
03:20:16
ahead that way. Things might have turned out differently if police had a little more luck. 4 days
03:20:24
before Versace was killed, someone at this sub shop recognized Kunanan from the America's Most Wanted story. He
03:20:32
called the police, but they arrived too late. I was disappointed. I was frustrated. It's just unfortunate that
03:20:40
we didn't catch him before it happened. After Versace's murder, with Kunanan on the loose, anxiety grew. Let me assure
03:20:48
you that Miami Beach and Dade County are safe. I was afraid. Remember, Versace's
03:20:57
friend, Lazaro Quintana, had chased Kunanan. So I told the officer, "Go get him. He's in there. Go get him." He knew
03:21:04
who I was, but I didn't know who he was. How did you behave when you were out? Scared, cautious, looking over my
03:21:12
shoulder a lot. Literally. I mean, absolutely. Oh, yeah. I was Yeah. I mean, I got goosebumps on it.
03:21:18
Absolutely. This man had a gun. This man knew what he was doing. The longer Kunanan dodged police, the
03:21:27
more intense the hunt became. I think the police were getting anxious. Where could he be? What kind of resources did
03:21:36
he have? Former prosecutor Michael Band. That's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of pressure on law enforcement. The
03:21:43
whole world's watching, but we don't want anybody else dead. There was a sense that maybe we lost him by some
03:21:50
people. I just thought that he was hiding out. Yeah. Go ahead, Tom. And then the tip came in that would change
03:21:58
everything. Here we go, guys. Here we go. I get a call. Michael, I think we found him.
03:22:05
[Music] What's your emergency? Got and shooting. I heard over the police radio that there
03:22:24
had been a shot fired, that they were surrounding a housebo. You think what? We got him.
03:22:34
After a 9-day manhunt, Miami Beach detective Gus Sanchez believed Andrew Kunanan was finally cornered on a
03:22:42
housebo just 40 blocks from where he had shot down Johnny Versace. When Sanchez arrived, it was a standoff.
03:22:55
At this point, nobody's seen Kunanan on the housebo. No, there's no confirmation
03:22:59
at this point. The houseboat's caretaker saw signs of a breakin, and when he went
03:23:04
inside, a shot was fired. Police quickly surrounded the housebo. They are communicating by bullhorn with the
03:23:12
housebo. After a 4hour siege, the SWAT team fired tear gas. and went on [Music] [Laughter]
03:23:27
board. When it was safe, prosecutor Michael Band followed them. It was a mess. It was just a mess.
03:23:38
In an upstairs bedroom, they found a body. I just recall an individual lying on the bed
03:23:48
looking up. He had a bullet wound in his head. There's a gun next to him. When you looked at that face, what did your
03:23:55
gut tell you? My gut told me it's him. But that wasn't enough. I wanted his fingerprints. As band waited, an expert
03:24:07
at the scene compared fingerprints from the corpse with Kunanannins. He looks up
03:24:13
and he says, "It's him." The reign of terror brought upon us by Andrew Kunanan is over. It turned out Kunanan shot
03:24:23
himself with the same gun he used to kill Johnny Versace, William Ree, and David Madson. It was the gun he had
03:24:31
taken from his friend and first victim, Jeff Trail. There's a sense of relief, but this was not the outcome Michael
03:24:41
Williams hoped for. I didn't want him to do anything but go to jail and rot. Andrew Kunanan's
03:24:49
suicide left the world with a pile of questions. Was there any connection between Johnny Versace and Andrew
03:24:57
Kunanan? There have always been rumors. There is no hard evidence. Do you think they knew each other? I I think there's
03:25:05
a strong possibility that they they crossed paths before. And that plays into his motive. I I think so. I think
03:25:12
they knew each other or he wanted to be in his circle and maybe he was rejected and this this is all speculation. There
03:25:18
is some sense it's not complete. Why did he do it? What was the folks in Minnesota? Why Chicago? Why New Jersey?
03:25:28
Why Versace? Was there a connection there? Was this just some sort of serendipitous unfortunate occasion where
03:25:37
just two lives intersected at the wrong time? And we'll never know. We'll never know.
03:25:45
20 years after Versace's death, Tim Gun says Versace's influence still lives. Sexy, alluring, gorgeous red carpet
03:25:55
gowns. It's all attributable to Johnny Versace. [Music] Singer Bruno Mars not only wears
03:26:04
Versace, he mentions Versace in one of his songs. If guys like Bruno Mars are singing
03:26:15
about Johnny Versace 20 years after his death, what in your mind does that say about Johnny Versace? That he's fully
03:26:22
embedded in our society and culture and has a has a profound legacy. I feel his presence uh when I'm designing. Lyanna
03:26:31
Aguilar, a Project Runway contestant, was just a teenager when Versace was killed. There Versace elements in what
03:26:39
you're wearing today, right? Yes. Tim Gun saw this and he said, "This looks like Versace." And I was like, "Yes,
03:26:45
mission accomplished." Of course, the memories are infinitely more personal for Michael Williams who
03:26:53
lost his best friend. And two decades later, it still hurts. This hasn't left you. I'm better. It's taken me
03:27:03
years. You know, if it was just Jeff being killed would be one thing, but then you got David and Lee Miglin and
03:27:11
William Reece and Johnny Versace, five people that you're now connected to. It is a connection no one would ever
03:27:28
seek. The world lost an icon, but five families lost loved ones. Friends, lost friends. All for a reason we'll never
03:27:38
know if there ever was one. [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] James Brown and Papa don't take no mess
03:28:44
part one. This is Casey Casem in Hollywood on American Top 40. And number eight, if you grew up in the 70s, the
03:28:51
80s, or the '90s, you knew that voice as Michael Jackson threatens to take over the top spot. Casey Kasem was everywhere
03:28:59
counting down the hits. Here's a tune that reached the top 10 a few weeks ago, got as high as number nine. And if
03:29:05
you're too young to remember that, how about this? [Music] Casey was the voice of Shaggy from
03:29:12
Scooby-Doo. Here it comes. I love that man so much. I would have died for [Music]
03:29:25
him. Casey and I were married here. There were 500 people here. We had our friends and family.
03:29:35
It was the most incredible day of my life. In 2014, Casey Kasem was dying of a Parkinson's-like disease. He was about
03:29:48
to leave behind an enormous estate worth between 80 and $100 million. His family
03:29:56
went to war over that money against each other. Jean killed my father. And when you say killed, do you mean murder?
03:30:05
What she did led to his death. That's a lie. It's a flatout lie. Team Casey. He was perhaps the most famous person
03:30:18
ever known for counting backwards. Radio legend Casey Kasem died today at the age
03:30:23
of 82. I ran back in the room and I picked him up in my arms and I held him so tight
03:30:31
and I said, "I have never loved anybody like I have loved you." She isolated him and tortured him.
03:30:41
My dad was left to die in a facility. They chemically restrained him. They removed his
03:30:50
hydration, his nutrition, and all proactive medical care. Not one decision was made by me.
03:30:58
My dad was dying. And I looked at her and I said, "Dad's not going to be here for very long. You should get to the
03:31:04
hospital." And she said, she, "Oh, she wouldn't talk to me." That's what she did. Always.
03:31:14
If you were going to count down the American top 40 family feuds, this battle would be number one. In the honor
03:31:23
of King David, I am meat to you. What person in their right mind throws frozen meat at you screaming? Biblical verses.
03:31:32
To the dogs. To the dogs. There are always rabid dogs. It's so crazy and so weird. Your court ordered to be here
03:31:41
today. They lie. They cheat. Abuse is abuse and they think that they can get away with it. Why does she hate us so
03:31:49
much? Shame on these children. Shame. We have been stalked, tracked, bullied. It's not none of what she says is ever
03:31:59
true. So they killed my husband. They killed their father. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
03:32:42
And there you are. I'm Casey Kasem. Till then, keep your feet in the ground and keep reaching for the
03:32:48
[Music] stars. His family says Kasem's wife, Jean, illegally moved him from a facility where the 82-year-old was
03:32:57
receiving treatment. He's very ill. He shouldn't be moved. There's never been a Hollywood drama
03:33:06
quite like the family feud between the second wife of Casey Kasem. I am the owner of the house and his children. She
03:33:14
unplugged my dad from his feeding tube. Involving intrigue, money, and ultimately his
03:33:20
death. It was May 7th, 2014. And you could say the mystery started right here. And imagine this. It was 2:30 in
03:33:31
the morning. [Music] That move that night was to get him out of the drama and to keep him safe and
03:33:43
secure. We had had enough. Jeannie Kasem, Casey's wife of 34 years, says she was convinced her husband's
03:33:56
life was in danger. Jean Kasem told her story of Casey Kasem's drama for the first time to 48
03:34:08
hours. What were you thinking, Jeanie? I was thinking that it was time to protect my
03:34:17
husband. The legendary radio host who suffers from dementia was checked out of an
03:34:23
assisted living facility by his wife. It's a drama that really started all the way back in 1979 when Casey, then a
03:34:32
divorced father of three, met Jeannie Thompson. She was a secretary at his agent's office. Casey fell for her. They
03:34:41
were married exactly one year later at one of LA's most luxurious hotels. So, where are we right now? Well, right
03:34:51
now we're where it all began, which is where Casey and I got married. There were about 500 people
03:34:59
here. It was an amazing day. The Reverend Jesse Jackson married the couple. It was a dream come true.
03:35:09
Spectacular. Jeannie Thompson was 22 years younger than Casey. She grew up listening to
03:35:16
him. I'm Casey Kasem. Now we're up to our longdistance dedication. I was growing up on Guam at the time and we
03:35:25
only had armed forces radio over there and I heard uh this DJ come on and he announced this record and I went, "Oh my
03:35:35
god, who is this guy?" Then he went, "I'm Casey Kase. We're going to miss the bus. Keep your
03:35:43
pants on. This will only take 5 minutes." She is a former actress best known for her role on Cheers.
03:35:51
She's uh got away with colors and a flare for design. And the happy couple eventually moved into this mansion in
03:36:00
one of the sheicst LA neighborhoods, Belair. Just a hop away from the famous Playboy Mansion.
03:36:08
Welcome to the Kasem House. Back then, Kasem was on top of the world. Mr. countdown himself. Casey Kasem Casey,
03:36:16
come on. Number seven is a favorite of anyone who's ever been in love. Here it is. And that voice, that voice. He
03:36:26
didn't think it was so good. Really? He said, "I'm just the guy next door." Hardly. He had launched American Top 40.
03:36:33
This is Casey Kasem and we'd like to welcome you to American Top 40. Heard on more than 1,000 radio stations around
03:36:40
the world. Scooby-Doo. He made hundreds of voiceovers. Scooby-Doo, where are you? And that signature voice of
03:36:48
Scooby-Doo's pal, Shaggy. This night stick should do it. Casey was much more than a voice to his three kids from his
03:36:57
first marriage, Carrie, Mike, and Julie. He was their loving father. My father imparted so much wisdom on all of us
03:37:07
when we were children. Education, education, education. Julie Kasem became a physician's
03:37:14
assistant. My dad imparted us to be humble, to treat people with kindness, to love those around you. So, this is
03:37:25
the studios and my father still has a studio here. It's changed a little bit. His oldest daughter, Carrie Kasem,
03:37:32
helped out on his radio show. This is where he did American Top 40 and American Top 20. He would sit
03:37:39
here and he'd always have his water and his apple and rock candy for his voice. He had Carrie went into modeling,
03:37:48
acting, and broadcasting. Radio personality and television host Carrie Kasem. His son
03:37:55
Mike has a radio show in Singapore. A song from one of America's top 10. And here they are. Casey's children claim
03:38:03
everything changed once their father and Jeanie became engaged. Was there an arangement? There was. Basically, they
03:38:13
were upset with their father and angry with their father because he married me and they were angry with me because I
03:38:21
married their father. [Music] Casey and Jeanie would have their own daughter, Liberty. And as his success
03:38:31
grew, they lived a full life. Casey and Jenny threw themselves into philanthropy. You realize it really is
03:38:39
important to give something back and to help repair the world because that's got
03:38:43
to be my legacy. I know everything from environmental issues to animal rights to
03:38:49
progressive politics. We believed in a lot of charity. In 2007, at the age of 75, Casey Kasem
03:39:00
was diagnosed with a Parkinson's-like disease called Louis body dementia. It slows them down. They can either get
03:39:09
rigid or shaking. It may uh sometimes affect their speech. In 2009, he gave up his beloved radio show and signed off
03:39:21
for the last time. Now, one more time, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
03:39:30
Casey would have no financial worries with an estate valued between 80 and $100 million. But around that time,
03:39:38
Jeanie claims his children became focused on one thing. It was all about the money. We became
03:39:46
the Bank of Kumm, the personal ATM machine. Around 2012, according to Jeanie, Casey
03:39:54
was fed up and cut them off financially. Jeanie says the kids were furious. But instead of getting mad,
03:40:02
Jeanie claims Carrie and the others did something almost unimaginable. I believe that Carrie Kasem did kill my
03:40:14
husband. That it was a long-term premeditated plan and he's gone. It's just lie after lie after lie without any
03:40:30
[Music] evidence. The children of legendary DJ Casey Kasem are demanding to know where
03:40:41
is Kasem. Those adult children had put targets on our backs. Do you believe that your husband Casey Kasem feared his
03:40:55
children? Yes. And feared that they could do what? What they did, which was kill him. That's ridiculous. That's just
03:41:04
That's ridiculous. There is no more evil in this world than Jean Thompson Kasem.
03:41:16
Let me show you something. Jean says the alleged plot started in this very room behind me on a lonely stretch of
03:41:23
Hollywood Boulevard back in 2007. She says that Casey's children lured their disoriented father from his Bair mansion
03:41:31
to this very store to sign a very important document. He was taken to a UPS store and he was
03:41:40
asked to sign his life away while he was on medications. He had sutures in his head. He did not
03:41:49
have his glasses on and he was out of it. Uh, does that mean the UPS store? This video shot by Carrie shows Casey
03:41:59
filling out a document that would give his children and not Jeanie the authority to be in charge of his future
03:42:06
healthcare. It's video that Jeanie claimed shows that Casey is obviously impaired. That's Casey's daughter,
03:42:14
Julie. 5419 Sweet C. You know what I mean? Put the address. But you and this is the
03:42:20
document Casey signed laying the groundwork Jeannie claims that would lead to medical decisions that would
03:42:27
kill Casey. Starting in 2013, as Casey's health declined, there were legal squables. Jeanie was trying to control
03:42:37
when and where people could see Casey, including his own children. I was in tears. I was speechless. I called my
03:42:46
sister balling and I said, "I just want to see dad and she won't let me." Jeanie
03:42:51
also says she and her daughter Liberty became targets of a harassment campaign. Were you living in fear? Pretty much.
03:43:01
Were you ever personally threatened by someone? Was a phone call that came in. I believe it was um early in the morning
03:43:08
and it there was a loud bang on the phone and I I held my ear. I said, "Oh my god, it sounds What is that?" And
03:43:18
then I heard it again and I recognized it as a gunshot. And did you report this to the police?
03:43:25
Reported it to our lawyer, reported a lot of the incidences to the police. Jeannie alleges someone smashed her
03:43:34
front gate, her mail was stolen, and more. I believe that there's another surveillance van. There he is. Right
03:43:42
there. There he is. Go. It was around this time that Jeie claims Casey's children asked police and adult
03:43:51
protective services to check up on Casey. They were called by Carrie, Julie, whomever.
03:43:59
Los Angeles police found no evidence of abuse or neglect. Jeanie claims that the
03:44:07
harassment continued. She points to this demonstration right outside her home. Carrie and some supporters were
03:44:15
demanding to see Casey. After 3 months of no communication, we finally said enough's enough.
03:44:25
Finally, here at a rehab facility in Santa Monica, the mysterious last days of Casey Kasem's life took a dramic
03:44:33
turn. Casey was very sick. He'd been in and out of hospitals for months. And there had been endless legal fights,
03:44:42
mostly over visitation. I was thinking that it was time to protect my husband and leave the drama for all of us
03:44:52
behind. Jeanie says she was keeping Casey at the rehab center under a fake name, but
03:45:00
somehow his adult children found out. Then a few days later on May 6th, Jeanie says Carrie and Julie gained access into
03:45:10
the facility and even got into Casey's room. She says she was terrified and furious.
03:45:18
It was about the money. Casey no longer was of any use to them. It was all about
03:45:26
the money. It turns out that the adult children's power of attorney for medical decisions
03:45:33
had never taken effect. Carrie and Julie decided they needed to go to court to try to get custody of their dad. We had
03:45:41
not seen him since February. Now this is May. But Jean was having none of it. The
03:45:48
day she found out they were headed to court, she made a dramatic move. At 2:30 in the morning, doctors say Jeanie
03:45:55
ordered Casey's surgically implanted nutrition tube and IV disconnected and checked him out of the rehab facility.
03:46:04
The doctor in charge of Casey's care later wrote the following letter to police. Quote, "She was informed of the
03:46:12
risks of doing so and was told she was placing Mr. Quasem in great bodily harm or possible demise. He's saying that you
03:46:21
could have killed him. That is not true. Casey was loaded into a black SUV and disappeared into the darkness.
03:46:33
You know he's ill. Kasem's daughter doesn't know where he is. Dad once told me, "Don't ever go up against
03:46:41
Jean. You don't know what she's capable of. [Music] The children of legendary DJ Casey Kasem
03:47:02
are demanding to know where. It was May 2014 when Casey Kasem vanished. This is Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in
03:47:13
Hollywood. That iconic voice in the world was nowhere to be heard and his case was making big news. Casey Kasem's
03:47:22
children have been saying that their stepmother has been isolating her. Nobody knew where my dad was.
03:47:30
Nobody know. I don't want to speak specifically. His children went on national television. We want him back.
03:47:37
He knows that we're his children and pleading directly to Jeannie Kasem. We've told Jean, "Take it all. Take
03:47:45
everything. Keep it. Just give us our dad back." They were not only outraged that Jeanie had taken their father, but
03:47:52
about how she had done it. Jean Kasem pulled my dad out at 2:30 in the morning out of a convolescent center, unhooked
03:47:59
his G tube, unhooked his IV. He was supposed to be transported with an ambulance on a certain kind of
03:48:09
mattress. No, she threw him in the back of an SUV that she didn't even get into herself with no pain meds, no food, no
03:48:21
water, no [Music] nothing. And we were devastated. We knew this was the beginning of the end, but
03:48:33
there would be no end to the family feud that had begun years earlier in that UPS
03:48:39
store. Carrie and Julie insist they didn't trick their dad into signing that document, the one they hoped gave them
03:48:47
control over his medical care. Jean claims that Casey has no memory of ever signing that document. Watch the tape.
03:48:56
Put the address. Put UPS store. You'll see my dad knew what he was doing, knew what he was signing. 5419. Now, estate
03:49:03
planning is normally done in a lawyer's office. You're at a UPS store. He was terrified that Jean would find out. Let
03:49:09
me give you Jean's interpretation of what she told me. And this is you. Yep. And this is your father. Yes. Now,
03:49:17
there's a circle here because he supposedly had had a medical procedure and had sutures in his head. Is that
03:49:23
true? To my knowledge, that is falsified information. In my opinion, Jean Kasem is a liar.
03:49:30
100% pathological liar. 48 hours has confirmed that Casey had a procedure, but it was a minor one. 10
03:49:39
days before the signing, he had a small hair transplant. Just like that story, just
03:49:47
about everything both sides told us is in dispute. Remember, ever since Casey married Jeanie, the relationship between
03:49:56
the children from Casey's first marriage and their stepmother has been toxic. For example, take the arguments over
03:50:05
money. The only thing she ever wanted from my dad is money. That's it. They live.
03:50:11
She says the same thing to me about you that I work. Listen to the actual I'm very proud of who I am. I'm very proud
03:50:19
of how hard I've worked. I've been on air for 21 years. You know, working multiple jobs
03:50:24
sometimes to pay the bills. I own my own home. My dad didn't buy that for me. The
03:50:30
feud intensified after Casey's health deteriorated. She had a plan to move him out of the house and cut us all off.
03:50:40
Starting in 2012 is when I felt that the isolation began. I'm told by my sister,
03:50:47
hey, I can't get a hold of dad. I can't get a hold of dad. My father was isolated and we were
03:50:53
not allowed to see him anymore. Remember that demonstration outside Casey's house?
03:51:00
That day, Jeanie even called the cops. My dad's very ill and he loves us. Do you know why she's not allowing you guys
03:51:07
to see? There's many reasons, but none of them are true. [Music] The whole drama climaxed in midmay 2014.
03:51:17
That's when Jeie disappeared into the night with Casey. Desperate to find her dad, Carrie made this emotional appeal
03:51:26
on TV. If you've seen anything, please call the police, please. Days after that, the battlefield in the War of the
03:51:34
Quase shifted to Las Vegas. That's where a private eye working for Carrie discovered the
03:51:45
couple. Jeanie had taken Casey to a posh resort there, but not for long. Next, she put him on a charter
03:51:54
flight. That private jet carrying a frail Casey Kasem flew northwest from Vegas, landing
03:52:03
in Seattle. He was brought to a place not far from where I'm standing right now, miles from his hospital bed in
03:52:12
Santa Monica. And you wanted to get away from the madness in Los Angeles. We were being photographed and followed
03:52:29
to supermarkets and tortured. Just tortured. Casey ended up in a place called Silverdale, a small town in Western
03:52:40
Washington. For the first time since those final days, we brought Jeanie back. Hi. It's so good to see you. How are
03:52:56
you? Better now that I see you. Yes. Shasta Bartleheim grew up with Jeanie and they both hoped Casey would spend
03:53:04
some quiet, peaceful days in her parents' home. Can you show me the bedroom where he was? Is that okay? Yes,
03:53:13
absolutely. This is where Casey was. Um, his hospital bed was here. Very comfortable. My mother has a lot of
03:53:20
Snoopy. She's an avid Snoopy collector. So Casey was in in his hospital bed with
03:53:26
all these Snoopies around him here. And we had all of his medical supplies. Some were here, some were in
03:53:34
another room. Was he in pain? No. No, he was not in any pain in this house ever.
03:53:41
Acting on a tip, Washington Adult Protective Service and Kitap County Sheriff's deputies came by to check on
03:53:49
Casey. Mr. But Casey and his wife are here visiting. We did check on his welfare. He seems to be doing fine. He
03:53:55
was upright. He could communicate. But Casey's stay here was about to come to an end. Carrie won a new court order.
03:54:05
She was coming from LA to get Casey and take him to a hospital. And things were about to get weird. In the order of King
03:54:14
David. Very weird. To the dogs. To the dogs. [Music] [Music] In late May 2014, Casey Kasem was
03:54:37
counting down his days in Silverdale, Washington. In this home, tended to by a doctor, his family, and close friends.
03:54:47
He was content. He was very happy. He smiled, shook our hands. It was just it it was nice. Shasta
03:54:56
Bartleheim, a nurse's assistant, has known Casey since 1980. She helped care for him. Was he still able to converse,
03:55:06
answer questions? Yes, he would speak. It was a whisper, kind of a a sound when he talked. He wasn't grimacing in any
03:55:14
pain. On June 1st, 2014, when Carrie Kasem, armed with a court order, came to pick
03:55:22
up her father and take him to the hospital, Jeanie was waiting. Carrie arrives as usual with
03:55:30
media in tow, her attorney. We pull up and then fire trucks show up. Another ambulance shows up because Jean has
03:55:39
caused a fit as seen in this broadcast on NBC News. I saw geriatric Harley-Davidson riders that were forming
03:55:48
a line to not let me in. It's so crazy and so weird. That line of bikers was led by Shasta's brother. Casey started
03:55:59
yelling, "I don't want to go. I don't want to leave. No, no, no." He was frightened. His eyes were big. He didn't
03:56:06
want to leave. No, he didn't want to leave. Acting on that court order, EMTs removed Casey. So, show me where they
03:56:14
took him. Down this hallway here. Headed for the door. Headed out. And what was out here? Out in the street. The
03:56:20
ambulance was there. There were a couple of ambulance. Terrified, Jeanie called her lawyer. I
03:56:28
dropped the phone and I turned around to look for something and there was meat in
03:56:33
the kitchen and I It was frozen hamburger. I grabbed the meat and I came out here and then um I started walking
03:56:42
this way with the meat in my hand. So in the order of King David, go ahead and take me. Then she took aim. I am
03:56:52
here. Meat to you to the dog. Jean throws a piece of frozen meat at me screaming nonsense. I am meat to you.
03:57:01
Why meat though? Why grab meat to me? They were treating my husband, an American treasure, Casey Kasem, like a
03:57:09
piece of meat. Insane. Crazy. You saw the real Jean Thompson Kasem. So, if I may ask you,
03:57:20
are you crazy, Genie? No, I'm not. To the dogs. To the dogs. Carrie dodged the meat attack, then
03:57:30
jumped in the ambulance with her dad and sped away to a local hospital where a doctor was standing by. The first thing
03:57:39
he said to me right when I got him in the hospital, "Your dad may not live very long. I'm just going to let you
03:57:45
know." When Casey arrived here at St. Anony's Hospital, his diagnosis was grim. He
03:57:54
had, according to hospital records, a urinary tract infection and a stage three ulcer of his back. That's an open
03:58:02
wound going almost to the bone. Within days, doctors would also diagnose septic shock, respiratory failure, a lung
03:58:11
infection, and a host of other ailments. The change was so drastic, it was maddening. He was extremely thin. His
03:58:23
face was sunken in. Shasta says Casey, who was taken out of the house that day, was nowhere near death. Oh, no. No.
03:58:32
Heavens no. Not at all. The next day, Jeanie tried to get Casey out of the hospital.
03:58:41
On June 2nd, we had an emergency court hearing and the judge ordered that he could return home. Once his personal
03:58:49
physician spoke with the attending physician at the hospital. Just before 10:00 that night, Gene
03:58:57
arrived here at the hospital along with Chasta and her attorney. They claimed that the physician treating Casey had
03:59:04
told them to come and pick him up. And he said his overnight observation has concluded and he's discharged. But
03:59:14
when she arrived, the doctor wouldn't release him, saying Casey was in pain. He wasn't in any pain. They wanted him
03:59:24
to be in pain. Jeanie refused to leave without Casey. She started screaming. They had to call the police to get her
03:59:32
out of the facility. And 3 days later, we had three doctors come in and say, "This is feudal. Your father's dying.
03:59:41
His organs are shutting down. He can no longer digest food. Carrie and her siblings now faced a wrenching decision.
03:59:49
They say they followed a doctor's recommendation to stop Casey's hydration and nutrition.
03:59:56
I couldn't hear it. I got upset. I said, "Isn't there something we can do? What if we try this? What if we try that?"
04:00:03
Because I was the fighter. I wasn't going to let him go. On June 6th, the Kasem children alerted
04:00:10
Jeanie. Julie called my lawyer and said to my lawyer that we're losing him. She should
04:00:20
come to the hospital right away. Jeanie and Liberty rushed to the hospital, but claimed they were only permitted to see
04:00:27
Casey for a few minutes. We were given five minutes to say goodbye to a man that I was married to
04:00:36
for 34 and a half years. He looked at me and he was scared to death. I went to the bed. I held his hand. He grabbed my
04:00:48
arm. Did Casey say anything to you? He said that he loved me and I told him that I loved him.
04:01:06
Jeannie was desperate to get Casey's life support restored. My first and foremost thing was to save
04:01:14
my husband's life. Every second counted. She flew back to California hoping to get the court to order
04:01:23
it. Over the next few days, there would be several motions filed. The doctors said,
04:01:35
"Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can do to keep your father alive." That was the hardest thing to
04:01:42
hear. That's our dad. [Music] On June 15th, 2014, Casey Kasem, the beloved radio icon, passed away. He was
04:01:55
82. We were all surrounding him on the bed with our hands on him. Every single one of us was touching
04:02:02
him. As he took his last breath, we were all there, all of us. And who was missing? His wife and
04:02:12
Liberty. It was 100% their choice not to be there. This court order says you can
04:02:19
visit him at any time. No one can stop you. And what Carrie is saying is that you chose not to see Casey anymore in
04:02:28
the hospital. That's not true. That is not true at all. We were afraid to go to the hospital. In death, the war of the
04:02:38
quase grew even more fierce. He did not die of natural causes. They planned it and they killed
04:02:47
him. Jean killed my father. Whether it was premeditated or whether it was just by her careless
04:02:55
actions. If someone killed your father, wouldn't you want justice? [Music] In June 2014, Casey Kasem's death was
04:03:19
felt across the globe. And there was one guy on the radio I used to listen to all
04:03:24
the time who passed away today. And so we want to dedicate this song to Casey Kasem. Travel safely my angel.
04:03:33
And travel he would. Casey's body was taken from Silverdale to SeaTac airport where it was flown to Montreal.
04:03:43
And why Montreal? He was there for a time because his burial was being obstructed. Casey's body remained in
04:03:53
Canada on ice for weeks. As his widow, Jeanie had full control over his burial. Casey and I had spoken about this, about
04:04:03
where he would like to be buried, and it was in Israel. But Casey's children thought that was
04:04:11
crazy. My dad's as American as apple pie. He lived in Los Angeles for 58 years. He wanted to be buried in Los
04:04:19
Angeles. Casey's body took flight again, this time to, of all places, Norway. [Music]
04:04:32
where Jeie orchestrated a burial fit for a king. Only she and Liberty were at Casey's grave
04:04:41
site. But they did bring their own camera crew. Why Norway of all places? There are concrete reasons for that, but
04:04:52
because I'm in litigation, I can't share that with you. My dad's never been to Norway. She's not
04:04:59
Norwegian. What is going on here? When you tell so many lies, you get caught up in them.
04:05:07
After Casey's death, the battle between the Quasems went nuclear. Both sides in this epic family feud sued the other for
04:05:16
wrongful death. What she did to my dad was elder abuse. Straight and simple. That trip is what cost my dad his life.
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He could have had two or three more years. She took him from us. You want to call it murder? You want to say she
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killed him? He's dead because of her. Casey's children accused Jeanie of a pattern of neglect where she secretly
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moved Casey from one care center to the next. and she used the hospitals and the
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facilities as a babysitter so she didn't have to take care of him. I say that that's a flatout
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lie. I was there. I was in touch with the doctors. Jean Kasem accuses the children of hastening his death by
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pulling the plug on Casey. They chemically restrained him. They removed his hydration, his nutrition, and all
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proactive medical care. It was the equivalent of leaving Casey Kasem in the desert to
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die. I really, really don't feel well. It's been a neverending drama. Even when Car's lawyers finally deposed Jean court
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ordered to be here today, she fainted, blaming the episode on medication. And besides accusing each other of
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killing Casey, there's that battle royale over his fortune. As seen in this 2017 Inside
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Edition video, the mansion has become the latest battleground. The house hasn't been taken care of. The taxes
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aren't paid. Uh they've destroyed everything. They've killed everything. There's no electricity on. There's no
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running water. At the request of Casey's children, a court-appointed trustee attempted to remove and store some of
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Casey's memorabilia. How's it feel to go through Casey Kasem's belongings after he was murdered? Meanwhile, the fight
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over Casey's assets, lawyers say, could take years. Today, you are fighting for damages and access to your father's. I
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am fighting for justice. That is what I'm fighting for. My father's wife, Jean Thompson Kasem,
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didn't want us at the house. Wouldn't pass phone calls along. In 2014, Carrie started a foundation to help pass
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legislation to protect the visitation rights of children. I was doing everything I possibly could to see my
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dad. And the law didn't help me in in California. To date, 12 states have passed a visitation bill, including
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California. It passed a year after he died, but I kept fighting till I won. Despite Car's claims of elder abuse and
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negligence, the Los Angeles District Attorney declined to prosecute Jeannie Kasem, citing insufficient evidence. The
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police and the DA won't do a damn thing. That is why we're fighting. Take the money. Take it all. I want her in jail.
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In November 2018, Washington's Gig Harbor Police Department concluded an investigation into Casey's death. They
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found his older children were authorized to make medical decisions on his behalf,
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and there was no evidence of homicide. While the legal wheels grind ahead, this American icon with his own star on
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Hollywood Boulevard is buried in an unmarked grave in Oslo, Norway. I'm going to bring my father back to the
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United States of America where he belongs. I'm Casey Casem. And just as Casey Kasem's legendary voice is certain
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to carry on, till then, keep your feet in the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
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His family is determined to keep fighting. I'm not going to quit. I'm the daughter of a
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Marine. My father is right here with me right now and every single day of my life. She can never take him away from
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me again. [Music] [Music]