00:00:00
[Music] [Applause] tle h Hey Joe hi hey it's Al Joseph so you said uh took her purse
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with her right yeah um phone you have phones do you want it it's here police officers first made contact with Joe
00:00:46
ellich on October 10th 2019 Joe ellich said that on October 8th he'd gone to sleep with Mony at about
00:00:56
11: 11:30 or so and then he woke up the next morning and then he noticed that mon she was gone
00:01:05
vanished her phone and her her wedding ring we're both um we're both just left on that table I can't unlock her phone
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it's locked and I don't know the password at the time that munchie G disappeared she was a young married
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mother she had a child who was 1 years old you sa lady I think it's easy to see that Joe
00:01:29
would have been attracted to munchie for her personality in terms of how caring she was we all know that she's a very
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successful young engineer and she's really good at being a mom and she had hopes for a brighter
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future and this marriage in Joseph Al the first blush Facebook postings you know Instagram you would see what
00:01:55
appeared to be a happy family these young people got married had a child and circumstances
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changed then arguments happened we talk too much you you need to know you don't listen enough you need to know when to
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listen so there was a total of 14 hours of audio recorded between the couple right now what's happening is just more
00:02:19
of what I don't want communication lack of it he actually discovered that she was involved in an
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online relationship and he knew that there were some of these sexually explicit photos being sent back and
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forth correct I actually found this earlier it's like a journal and it talks about
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her having some secret love I think he's in China right now did she ever express
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an interest in a future with this man that perhaps she'd move back to China there were discussions about a future we
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we checked into whether or not there was maybe any contact with Uber cab companies had she bought an airline
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ticket we were looking for any evidence of an electronic footprint I know she was talking to somebody else um on the
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side and whatever she's doing I just hope she's safe I would have loved nothing more for her to just appear out
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of nowhere alive so she could take care of her daughter but I knew that wasn't going to be the
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case we have these boots that were found and then we have five Jun needles that are caked into the
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boots and these needles where did they come from we had three needles that came from that tree right
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[Music] there who would have ever thought it DNA from these juniper trees help solve this
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crime I've never heard of anything like this before in my entire career at 48 hours
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[Music] [Music] said you have a seat right there right there on October 15th 2019 Joseph ellig walked into the
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Columbia Missouri Police Department without a lawyer all right to tell detectives about the mysterious
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disappearance of his 28-year-old wife mshi G 6 days earlier we didn't have any big fights I think the last big fight
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was actually the week before it wasn't really a big fight um the 23-year-old described his wife as tense and
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withdrawn the night before she disappeared so he gave her a massage I was doing it kind of slow I was trying
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to drag it out because I wanted to extend the amount of time that we were together doing something according to
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Joe mongi eventually went to sleep saying she had to be somewhere in the morning I asked her about three times
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who is she mean and her answer was just quote me she wouldn't tell me who she was meeting or or where she was going
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what she was doing the next morning Joe says he woke up alone his wife was gone he was claiming she had just
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disappeared that she had left her little girl behind um her phone was left behind
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her car her car keys were left behind from the beginning then Boone County prosecuting attorney Dan Knight had
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doubts about Joe's story we were trying our best to leave no Stones unturned but there were a lot of
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stones Joe told investigators that after his wife disappeared he found journal entries on her computer where she'd
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written about an online emotional affair she was having with a man living in China and last paragraph said like it's
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sad though that I have no interest in my husband the day Joe spoke with detectives he also did an exclusive
00:06:39
interview with our local CBS affiliate krcg and implied that his wife may have left him for another man I hope that
00:06:47
she's with at least with somebody who who cares for her you know enough to keep her safe Joe and his family hired
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attorney Scott Rosen Bloom who points out there were in intimate text between Moni G and the man she was communicating
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with sexual in nature very sexual text like this one where she wrote I want you so much right now and did she ever
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express love for him in any of these communications she did the question was had M she run off to be with that man
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who lived in China where she was born M she was born during China's one child policy Amy salad is the G family's
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attorney But Ken munchie's mother would say that we only ever wanted one child we wanted to give all of our love to
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this child mchi is like the the kid all the parents would want Yao Lee is a Chinese immigrant and an assistant
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prosecutor in Boon County who helped Dan Knight communicate with M's parents they are really really proud of her and
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I know how hard it is to get into a top university in Shanghai and Beijing the competition is really intense and she
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did that and then she came to the University of Missouri in 2012 where she finished up her
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undergraduate studies and then she also obtained her master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering
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this was a brilliant woman correct absolutely one of her professors hired her right out of school at his
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biomaterials company nanova where Joe also worked Joe grew up in Kansas City he then came to the University of
00:08:43
Missouri and he studied engineering and he met Moni at noova biomaterials my understanding is is that she was his
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supervisor the two quickly fell in love and a year and 7 months into their relationship Joe proposed he took a knee
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on a trail in Rockbridge Memorial state park called The Devil's ice box two weeks later they were married well I
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believe there was a rush to get married because M's uh Visa was about ready to expire it's a really foreign concept for
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American citizens to understand the stress that a immigrant is facing she's fully capable to support herself
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financially but she cannot get this screen card so this really changes the power
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dynamics of a marriage nearly five months into the marriage mshi was offered a big job and then she found out
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she's pregnant mshi and Joe decided she should turn down the job to be a full-time mom even though at the time
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she was the sole income earner Joe had quit working to finish school in October 2018 their baby was
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borned so that's the dynamic of this marriage mon was completely isolated from all the support system that she can
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have the little baby is the only thing she has her one Lifeline was a daily call with her mother in China it was
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their ritual so when mongi didn't call on October 9th 2019 her parents sent a friend living nearby to check on her you
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know I told him everything that happened I told him that she hasn't been here for
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a couple days and it was only after that visit the day after he said his wife vanished that a seemingly unconcerned
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Joe ellig finally called police to report her missing uh I need to um follow a missing person report but he
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didn't call 911 Joe called the non-emergency 311 do you find that suspicious absolutely absolutely it would be
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natural for him to have reported this immediately instead Joe would tell police that the day he woke up and found
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his wife missing he went on two long leisurely drives in her car with their baby in the back seat looking for new
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hiking trails there's just this big area that's all that's all green on the Google Maps and so I wanted to go and
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see if there were walking cows back there naturally that raised eyebrows you door when you left the apartment yeah if
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she comes home how's she going to get back in you've got her keys and her car her phones in the house she can't even
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call anybody yeah I don't know detectives and Dan Knight suspected Foul Play but there
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was no physical evidence no blood no weapon no Witnesses no body there was also no evidence that mshi took off with
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that man in China and then also uh it became a apparent early on that monshi would not have abandoned her child her
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one-year-old daughter she was a great mother during his interview with detectives Joe gave them access to his
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phone and on it they found something stunning 10 hours of secretly recorded conversations with his wife like this
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one I'd like to discuss our relationship and I am kind of ready to discuss the end of it as well Joe told Mony that he
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wanted to divorce her I don't like being married to you I don't like living with
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you it's been a terrible relationship I'm eager to end it he was asking her whether or not she was going to
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basically cooperate and if not he was going to tell the judge that she had been abusive to him should I mention in
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court that you're abusive to me should I ask them to deport you but that was nothing says dan Knight
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compared to the nearly 4 and 1 half hours of secretly recorded audio they found on Mong she's phone and what was
00:13:11
on those conversations of significance unvarnished Jo if you keep acting this way I've told
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you before it ain't going to be pretty [Music] what are you trying to do are you trying
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to make me go crazy so that you can call the police on me and take my baby away from me it was October 29th 2018 about a
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year before mshi G would disappear when she secretly recorded her husband Joe going ballistic for nearly an hour you
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want me to break you want me to hurt somebody it all started weeks earlier after mongi
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gave birth and her parents flew in from China to stay with them it is Chinese custom for grandparents to stay and help
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for 100 days a custom that infuriated Joe I don't want your mom here your mom is causing problems your mom should
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leave what really infuriated Joe was that Mony was standing up to him and saying that she needed her mother if I
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don't take care of my own body my own Heth it's not responsible for me or their family I agree she's helping me to
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do that and I know it I don't like that woman and I don't think you should either the tension was
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just to the breaking point and there's yelling there's cursing and Yao Lee says Joe really despised it when mongi and
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her mother K Ren spoke Chinese in his presence that's a stressor for him because everything that he doesn't
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understand end he would assume the worst when mong's father returned to China Joe decided to take back control
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says Amy salad munchie's mother was making Chinese dumplings fantastic dumplings she's
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making them for his birthday and he doesn't like how she's using The Cutting Board I called it The Cutting Board
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incident prosecutor Dan Knight says it's an incident that seems Petty but it led
00:15:30
to an explosive argument don't do my cutting board like that I'm telling you cutting board doesn't like that he was
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demanding that his mother-in-law leave the residence immediately and permanently never to return did mong's
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Mother stand up to him would she stand up to him and could that have triggered this cutting board incident M's mother
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like Moni wanted Harmony more than anything else there was no standing up to Joe there's going to be some problems
00:16:04
if she tries saying I'm going to make go away the problem you bet your on that it
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was a one-way Street it was Joe's way or the highway you're not the god you're I
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am God I say mom don't stay here she don't stay here mongi pleaded with Joe to let her mother stay he responded with
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insults and profanity what the is the matter with you brainless he told her that she was
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incapable because she was a woman you think you're so empowered because of this Society your still is a woman it
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was a calculated effort on his part to Gaslight her to try to brainwash her to bring her under his
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control Joe was also threatening explaining how he conquers nature a cryptic comment that Dan Knight believes
00:16:56
was a metaphor for wanting to hurt M you know how I conquer nature I kill it I grab its head and break his
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neck that's how you conquer nature M's mother of course was in shock it's just really difficult for her to understand
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why this young man is so mad and so angry at her at everything M she felt so helpless that she called Joe's mother
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Jean garinger who drove two 2 hours to try and mediate I know T I had to call you I'm sorry he's going to come back
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and just I don't know I'm predicable things going to happen M she recorded that meeting as well I'm not here to choose
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sides I'm here to try to be neutral and just give advice even in his mom's presence Joe was not shy about
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expressing hateful even violent thoughts about his mother-in-law do I just smack
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her do I just beat her down you wanted to I have that craving yes I'm not going to though go there the evidence that we
00:18:07
had was that he was making his mother-in-law Karen kneel to him and bow to him Joe would eventually apologize to
00:18:18
his mother-in-law but he still forced her to leave before the 100 days were up she thought that apology was
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sincere or otherwise she wouldn't have left and then believing that things might get better Yao Lee translated
00:18:35
mong's journals for the prosecutor's office and says things didn't get better but mongi couldn't walk away and even
00:18:44
she is confused of why I just cannot get out of this relationship that's her constant a question to herself Dan
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Knight thinks mongi felt trapped by her immigration status in just 5 months she was set to have
00:19:02
another interview where she would be applying to get her permanent green card a little over 2 weeks after Mong XI
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vanished the Columbia Police Department announced it was opening a criminal investigation into her
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disappearance that same day police showed up at Joe's Apartment he's with his mother the detectives at the scene
00:19:27
are asking her where is munchie do you know where she is Joe was arrested but not in
00:19:34
connection with his wife's disappearance but on suspicion that he had physically
00:19:39
abused their daughter we have become aware that um there was some bruising so do you know what we're talking about y
00:19:48
this is through Ken her mother Moni had told her that she'd observe bruising on the buttocks and Karen suggested that
00:19:57
monk she confront Joe about this Joe then admitted that he had done this to the little girl tell me exactly what
00:20:05
happened she was crying a lot one night I think I just pinched her butt a little
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bit to me that was a a ruse to get him incarcerated Joe's defense attorney Scott Rosen Bloom he was a young parent
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maybe he made a mistake but there was no other indication that he was abusive towards his daughter none
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whatsoever Jo was held on a $500,000 Bond his mother took custody of his daughter and Dan Knight set about
00:20:36
proving his theory about what happened to mongi I thought from pretty much the very beginning this eventually was going
00:20:44
to wind up being a murder case things just had to develop so you're telling me that these
00:20:51
trees that we are standing among right now helped solve this case absolutely what do you think happened to mshi g
00:21:02
chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and [Music] Twitter on October 25th 2019 police executed a search warrant
00:21:22
over at Joe ell's and Monk's apartment that was the same day Joe ell was arrested on suspicion of child abuse M
00:21:32
shei had been missing for a little over 2 weeks these officers they were on the ball they were able to find some things
00:21:39
that were great evidence in this case prosecutor Dan Knight police collected from his backpack writings different
00:21:48
writings notes Joe had apparently written to himself about how to respond to questions from reporters and
00:21:56
investigators one of those I labeled as being a script with what to tell the police another thing that he had written
00:22:04
was that he was to speak about Moni in the present tense rather than the past tense she's a very dedicated person uh
00:22:11
she's a hard worker and I really like that that's important to me why would a man who was claiming his wife had walked
00:22:18
away have to remind himself to not speak about her in the past tense because he killed
00:22:26
her detectives looked for possible evidence in every corner of the apartment and on a hunch also took this
00:22:34
muddy pair of Joe's boots into evidence just in case down the road they might be
00:22:40
relevant something was a Miss yes and they they sensed it and they took them the search for mshi became a hunt for
00:22:49
her remains starting by retracing the long leisurely drives that Joe said he took with his baby in the back seat
00:22:58
while only he knew that his wife was missing we just went driving and um it was a MTH day and so I just I just
00:23:05
wanted to go out but every lead was just another dead end so Dan Knight made a bold move I decided to go ahead and file
00:23:14
charges murder in the first degree without a body charges were filed while Joe was
00:23:22
still in jail on abuse charges meanwhile Dan Knight stepped up the search for M's
00:23:28
body these are the cell tower records that we had in this case this is his cell phone then Jo cell
00:23:36
phone according to Joe's cell phone records he had spent 30 minutes by the lamine river the day he claimed M she
00:23:45
disappeared something he had not told police convinced her body was here authorities searched for months there
00:23:56
was even a memorial on the the river attended by mong's Mother by March of 2020 we had really given up we needed to
00:24:05
do something to be able to say [Music] goodbye then a year later with Joe ellich still awaiting trial a hiker was
00:24:16
making his way through this wooded area the very Park where Joe had proposed to mshi a flash of color in the dirt caught
00:24:25
his eye it was a purse he had this walking stick and he kind of flipped that purse around just a little bit he
00:24:33
noticed that there were these shoes and then he saw something that looked like with maybe a a skull and in fact it was
00:24:40
a skull monky skull she had Finly been found that's right that's right it was it was a
00:24:52
miracle I think that's that's the worst moment for a parent Lee had a video conference with mong's
00:25:01
parents who were both back in China they didn't see anything all you see is their
00:25:11
tears they now knew their daughter was dead but how and why we still a mystery sadly even the medical examiner's office
00:25:21
couldn't say what killed mongi was there damage to her bone structure that unnatural natural damage that yes there
00:25:29
was four ribs were broken all the way through do you believe that those broken ribs are evidence of physical abuse of
00:25:39
of a physical attack of a massive catastrophic blow to her back all the way these through and through
00:25:47
breaks that she would have been in agonizing pain Dan Knight was building a theory of
00:25:54
what happened to mshi and items collected about a year and a half earlier were about to become key for one
00:26:01
thing Joe's cell phone records put him near M's burial site the day he reported her missing what were the weather
00:26:10
conditions like that day unfortunately for Joe unfortunately for justice it was raining Dan had those muddy boots and a
00:26:20
hunch was about to pay off as you can see right here there is soil that is caked onto these boots and gravel on the
00:26:29
soles of Joe's boots were set out for analysis along with foliage stuck in the mud so we've got 12 different types of
00:26:38
vegetation in these boots Dan Knight decided to send Joe's boots to a lab at the Missouri Botanical
00:26:47
Garden where juniper tree needles were carefully removed from the soles for DNA testing plants have DNA just like people
00:26:56
absolutely yeah every organism M every living organism on the planet has DNA Christine Edwards is a plant population
00:27:04
geneticist who never dreamed she become a CSI investigator in a murder case and they wanted to see if there was some way
00:27:11
that we could match the vegetation and the boots to the the site where a woman's remains were
00:27:18
found these are two samples that were collected from the the left boot right here once we knew that we could get
00:27:26
usable DNA out of of the the forensic samples that we took from the boots then we needed to match them to the the trees
00:27:34
at the site Christine's colleague Alex lenan was tasked with collecting sample needles from the juniper trees
00:27:42
surrounding mong's grave site how do you do it pick it up off the ground or go up
00:27:47
to the trees so we have to go all the way up to the trees and this involved a ladder and a 10 15t long pole pruner so
00:27:54
that we could make sure that the needles that we were getting came from the exact
00:27:58
tree that it was so we couldn't just get it from the ground it had to be from the
00:28:01
tree each sample was stored and numbered and back at the lab they were compared to the needles found on Joe's boots
00:28:10
these two lines here are the genotype of one of the samples from the boot and this one is from the tree that is
00:28:17
overhanging the grave site and as you can see the lines match up and that moment for you when you realized you had
00:28:24
a match yeah it was really exciting we got him him he was there no doubt he was there no doubt in my mind
00:28:32
he was there scientifically confirmed yes just like a fingerprint just like DNA blood DNA that is presented in trial
00:28:40
this is just as reliable exactly exactly the same technology even so what you're
00:28:44
telling me is these trees that are all around us here played a role in solving a murder absolutely yes Dan Knight says
00:28:54
it's only the second murder case he knows of where tree DNA has been used as evidence the walls are closing in on Joe
00:29:04
so I expected at trial for there to be another defense besides oh mshi must have just run off and gone to China do
00:29:13
you solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and Dan Knight was right [Music]
00:29:32
on November 1st 2021 Joe ell went on trial for the murder of his wife M XI G the question is what happened in that
00:29:44
apartment and Joe's attorney Scott Rosenblum pivoted to a new explanation about what happened to mongi Joe didn't
00:29:53
mean to kill his wife what happened was a tragic accident thanks to this juniper tree and
00:30:02
its DNA Joe could no longer claim that mshi had run away he now had to admit that he buried his wife in a shallow
00:30:11
grave he had no intent not certainly not murder that's not even close Joe did have something to do with mong's death
00:30:22
said Rosen Bloom but it was not murder he took jurors back to October 8th 2019 the day M she died and as they go into
00:30:32
the evening hours he asks her if he if she wants a massage tries to initiate sex she rebuffs him she says
00:30:40
no Joe now admits he knew about his wife's online affair with that man in China Rosen Bloom said and on this night
00:30:49
he confronted her he's upset he's hurt and he wants to take his daughter for a walk she lunges towards him and pushes
00:30:57
him and he pushes her pushes her into the countertop Joe claims that's when mshi broke her ribs
00:31:06
the defense called Dr Keith Norton the pathologist who conducted M's autopsy and he said it was possible yes but it
00:31:17
would have to be a very forcible push does Joe maintain that she initiated this physical encounter 100% she came
00:31:25
after him well I mean she wanted to prevent him from from leaving with their daughter he claimed in his news story
00:31:34
that she attacked him do you buy any of that look at the size difference of course not he's twice as big as her and
00:31:41
again she lunges at him and he pushes her away and she falls this time on her back and he hears the thud of her head
00:31:49
hitting the ground Joe claims mongi was knocked nearly unconscious and then got up and went to bed in the morning when
00:31:59
the baby started crying Mong shei didn't wake up and he's sort of violently shaking her are you all right are you
00:32:07
all right and it is abundantly clear at that point in time that his wife is dead
00:32:13
why did Joe lie he SC he was scared he made a choice an erratic irrational choice is that
00:32:22
someone who's in a panic state or is that a killer who's trying to to cover up his crime I believe it was evidence
00:32:31
of extreme Panic that story was very clever but it wasn't what happened prosecutor Dan Knight says all
00:32:42
the proof he needs that Joe's story is made up are those four broken ribs you know how painful it is to break a single
00:32:50
rib she would have had to have been to a hospital right oh sure there's no doubt
00:32:54
about it Knight says he keeps going back to to Joe's story about giving monshi a
00:33:00
massage that night and believes that's when he killed her I don't know if he put his hands around her neck and he
00:33:08
strangled the life out of her I don't know if he maybe forced her face into a pillow but I know one thing for
00:33:15
sure that murder was horrific a premeditated murder says Knight fueled by months of growing anger
00:33:25
he hated Moni with everything he had I'll find a happier life this I ain't I ain't happy here Joe took the stand in
00:33:34
his own defense body y'all may be seated and insisted that he loved his wife even
00:33:40
though there was tension in the marriage you would have these arguments you both thought you were misunderstand
00:33:46
and there would be a Reconciliation and you would love each other that's right the defense tried to get jurors to
00:33:52
relate to the sometimes stormy nature of Joe and M's marriage moments of arguing
00:33:59
common with many couples Joe claimed his wife was responsible for much of the tension uh she would raise her voice uh
00:34:09
yell and she wouldn't uh listen to me very well they wanted to paint her as the aggressor they wanted people to feel
00:34:18
like it was her fault Amy salad and Yao Lee were in the courtroom regularly texting updates to M's mother who was
00:34:27
unable to travel she didn't believe a bit of it and um that was very emotional for her
00:34:36
when Dan Knight finally had his chance to question Joe eleg he point blank asked Joe how he killed the mother of
00:34:44
his child did you maybe stand up on top of her and jump on top of her back no did
00:34:52
you suffocate her no after nearly 2 weeks of testimony detailing the audio recordings digital
00:35:01
evidence cell tower data and the tree DNA linking Joe to M's burial site both sides delivered their closing arguments
00:35:12
Rosen Bloom asked for manslaughter return to WR murder and Dan Knight asked for first-degree murder she deserves
00:35:23
Justice ladies and gentlemen M she deserves Justice we were all nervous and we hoped that
00:35:30
the jury would see the case the way that we saw it see more evidence in the case at 48
00:35:47
hours.com we've all come to know [Music] munchie and so I think we all felt that
00:35:54
connection to her and we hoped that that Justice would be served all right Mr eleg would you please stand to
00:36:07
receive the verdict it was 700 p.m. on November 11th 2021 and after deliberating for nearly 7
00:36:16
hours the jury had its verdict we the jury find the defendant Joseph Dwayne eleg guilty of murder in the second
00:36:25
degree guilty of second degree murder the jury believed that Joe killed mongi but not with
00:36:33
premeditation Yao Lee says mong's parents were very pleased they weren't nervous about the conviction at all they
00:36:41
believe this is a fair system but the day wasn't over yet the jury would now hear testimony in the
00:36:50
penalty phase I had to turn around very quickly late that night and start presenting evidence Dan Knight
00:37:00
wanted life in prison the defense asked for 10 years I feel very s and uh I feel
00:37:10
angry the state called several of M she's friends who spoke about the impact of her death that hurt us that make us
00:37:21
huge pain and huge sorrow the defense called only one witness to plead for Mercy Joe's mother Jean garinger it's
00:37:32
very disturbing it's heartbreaking because it's so out of his character it was midnight when the jury
00:37:41
got the case again a little over an hour later we the jury declare the punishment
00:37:47
for a term of 28 years Dan Knight believes the jury gave Joe one year for every year of mong's
00:37:58
short life yai informed mong's parents I don't think the numbers matter to them I
00:38:06
think the truth matters the most that's what is frustrating I don't think they will ever ever know the whole truth of
00:38:15
what actually happened all they can hope for now is to be able to raise their granddaughter in
00:38:24
China says family attorney Amy salad her future is undetermined at this point M's
00:38:32
daughter now lives with Joe's mother but M's parents are seeking shared custody of the now
00:38:40
4-year-old I hope that she can be raised to know her mother's Chinese culture and
00:38:46
to know her mother's family Scott Rosen Bloom says that while the baby will always know her Chinese grandparents she
00:38:54
is in good hands with Joe's mother Jean and her husband are great parents she makes it her business to include the
00:39:04
maternal grandparents in the baby's life Dan Knight would not discuss the custody
00:39:10
case but did say this about the trauma already suffered by M's daughter number one she was in the apartment at the time
00:39:21
that Joe killed mshi her mother one of these days she's going to find out about that
00:39:28
second thing is when Joe drove around the next day Moni was in the trunk and their little girl was strapped into a
00:39:38
car seat but the thing that she's also going to find out about is that Joe would have been just fine with her going
00:39:46
the rest of her life thinking that her mother abandoned her [Music] I want her daughter to know that she was
00:40:01
a great mother she was dedicated she loved her with all of her heart I want her to be remembered for
00:40:10
her smile and how friendly and outgoing she was mongi G's Legacy of accomplishment dedication and love lives
00:40:20
on in her baby girl and in the hearts of those whose lives she touched everybody
00:40:27
sees the goodness in her that's why everybody is so connected with her [Music] a one-time Texas lawyer with a past
00:41:06
she's like I just wanted to let you know I seriously consider killing you but I decided not to why did five men in her
00:41:12
life end up dead I've never killed anybody I'm a little nervous one journalist's yearslong game of cat and
00:41:19
mouse 48 hours Saturday on CBS [Music] I really like to solve puzzles and genealogy kind of is like that it offers
00:41:43
you this endless stream of blanks to fill in my name is Chelsea rustad and in 2013
00:41:53
I began my search for my own family history and it took me down lots of unexpected
00:42:01
paths along the way in 2015 I saw on Ancestry Facebook page they were running a contest and uh
00:42:11
two winners would receive An ancestry DNA kit they contacted me and said Chelsea you're one of the
00:42:17
winners the ancestry DNA kit arrived you just kind of spit in a tube and seal it
00:42:24
up and then it was on its way did you have any idea just what kind of story your DNA would tell I really
00:42:36
didn't I was a genealogy hobbyist like millions of other people in the United States I kind of accidentally fell into
00:42:44
it I'm CC Moore and I'm an investigative genetic genealogist and that means I use
00:42:50
DNA to try to help law enforcement find violent criminals when the Golden State killer suspect was identified through
00:42:58
investigative genetic genealogy there were many people who said this wasn't a tool that would be used commonly in law
00:43:04
enforcement and I wanted to prove them wrong and genetic genealogy has exposed a lot of secrets that people at hoped
00:43:13
would remain secret yes often times it's someone's deepest darkest secret all I'm thinking is oh it's it's
00:43:22
going to confirm my ethnic background and maybe I'll get to connect with some cousins I was excited I was just really
00:43:30
optimistic about like maybe it will uncover something cool a young Canadian couple takes a
00:43:36
road trip from Vancouver Island to Seattle in November 1987 18-year-old Tanya van kenborg and
00:43:45
her 20-year-old boyfriend J disappeared during a round trip from VI county has the first half of this puzzling case in
00:43:54
May of 2018 I got knock on the door and it was two investigators from scet County and I was so confused what are
00:44:05
they investigating the murder of 18-year-old Tanya van kenborg her body was found in a ditch near the town of
00:44:11
boyfriend J cook de sh his body found near Monroe a few days strangled with some kind of ligature they've let me
00:44:19
know that they are investigating a family member of mine for murder a double homicide from 1987 this was a
00:44:26
person who was in my family tree did that name appear on any of the suspects list no that name had never
00:44:37
been across my desk ever without genetic genealogy would we know who killed Tanya
00:44:46
and Jay no I know that my DNA played a big part of that it's been a learning curve this was all brand new it's the
00:44:55
web of matches it's putting those puzzle pieces together little by little [Music]
00:45:36
[Music] I have a problem that I'm Relentless and I don't give up there may be no more dogged
00:45:55
investigator than SN homish County Cold Case detective Jim Sharp especially when it came to the
00:46:02
murders of Tanya van kenborg and Jay cook it was probably the most horrendous unsolved case that we had Tanya van
00:46:14
kenborg was an 18-year-old girl she just graduated from high school she was in a
00:46:20
new relationship with Jay cook on November 18th 1987 the young couple left British Columbia in Jay's parents van
00:46:31
heading for Seattle Washington Jay was going to go to Jen's coheating in Seattle to pick up some
00:46:41
furnace parts for his dad they planed to sleep in the van near the store and drive back to Canada the next day so
00:46:50
when they didn't show up that evening the families became concerned we just had no idea where
00:46:56
where they might be or what might have transpired Tanya's Big Brother John was at College when he got a call from his
00:47:03
worried Father John would your sister ever just go off and not call your parents no that didn't I don't think
00:47:11
that had ever happen if the plans had changed and she was going to spend another night she
00:47:17
would have called my parents after T and Jay were reported missing law enforcement began looking for them
00:47:25
desperate for answers John and his father joined the search in Seattle something was Gravely wrong I
00:47:32
mean the obvious things in terms of them being in hospital or something or just simply with a flat tire somewhere all
00:47:38
those more innocent explanations were pretty much Vanishing on November 24th 6 days after
00:47:47
the couple disappeared John's worst fears were confirmed Tanya's body was found at the bottom of a ditch in Ru
00:47:56
scad count County some 80 M north of Seattle she wasn't wearing any pants or panties and her bra was pushed up over
00:48:07
her breast so it obviously looked like a rape murder Tanya had been shot in the head at close range she rolled down the
00:48:17
hill it was a quick execution later that evening John had to identify his sister's body
00:48:28
such a a crushing feeling that all of a sudden you see her lying there it's definitely horrific but we had no idea
00:48:37
still about where where was Jay where was the van how did this happen why did it
00:48:42
happen the next day T's wallet the keys to the van some bullets and a number of other items turned up 16 miles away in
00:48:52
Bellingham they had been discarded under the porch of a Local Tavern next to the
00:48:57
Greyhound bus station police located the van in a nearby parking lot but Jay was still
00:49:09
missing the following day Jay's body was found here underneath Highbridge he was about 70 Mi south of
00:49:19
where T had been found it was a horrible scene her 20-year-old boyfriend had been
00:49:28
strangled a pack of cigarettes stuffed down his throat what did most investigators think about this killer I
00:49:36
mean who does something like this right that was the big question this was a person who was a real predator and it
00:49:45
was believed at the time that it was probably a serial killer or an ex-convict but finding that Predator
00:49:52
would be challenging investigators and forensic science ssts had four crime scenes scattered over Three Counties but
00:50:01
few Clues a bullet casing found on the hillside near Tanya's body matched those bullets collected at the tavern in
00:50:09
Bellingham but a gun was never found this surgical glove was discovered under the porch investigators believe
00:50:18
the killer wore it to avoid leaving fingerprints but he may have been careless there was a palm print on the
00:50:26
back of the van that they believed hopefully belong to the suspect inside the van they found what would ultimately
00:50:35
be the most important piece of evidence the black pants T had been wearing they found that there was seen on Tanya's
00:50:44
pants and when they examined the semen they learned that it couldn't be left from J the sample matched the DNA found
00:50:54
inside tenya's body and with later be known as individual a but the only evidence that connected all four crime
00:51:03
scenes these plastic zip ties found near T and Jay's bodies under the porch and inside the van according to detective
00:51:13
sharp they were part of the Killer's rape murder kit this was a predator that was hunting for a victim that he wanted
00:51:22
to rape and maybe in his mind he decided that he was going to kill him too they were two mild-mannered
00:51:32
softspoken kids they weren't out to pick a fight with anyone I mean both families
00:51:38
were just so devastated hoping to find the killer tenya's family offered a $50,000 reward
00:51:45
for information tips came in but none panned out the police to their credit were
00:51:55
trying to chase down every sort of the over the years the theories and false leads would grow and more than 200
00:52:05
names would fill the case File some were convicted felons and then there was Charles
00:52:12
Sinclair he was believed to be a serial killer Across the Western United States there was also an anonymous writer who
00:52:21
sent threatening letters to Jay and Tanya's families claiming to be the Killer yeah it's just unfathomable to
00:52:28
think that you know somebody not only had done these murders but then was going to continue taunting the families
00:52:33
with these letters but every suspect's DNA was compared to individual A's profile and none matched the goal was to
00:52:42
try to figure out who did this Seaman sample belong to Lisa Collins a forensic scientist
00:52:51
with the Washington State Patrol uploaded individual A's profile to cotus the FBI's National offender database as
00:53:00
the years went by just complete silence it's disheartening you just um are afraid that this might be one of those
00:53:08
cases that's never going to be solved and then more than 30 years after T and Jay were killed there's a break in the
00:53:17
case I was skeptical I was hopeful but I was skeptical and I I'm a Believer now [Music]
00:53:37
[Music] we had those original seen samples from the pants and then from Tanya's body
00:53:49
trying to figure out who this sample May belong to that was the tedious and hard
00:53:55
part the man police believe killed T van kenborg and Jay cook left behind a forensic calling card says Leisa Collins
00:54:05
but still managed to elude capture for years and then in 2017 detective Jim Sharp heard about an
00:54:20
Innovative tool developed by parabon nanolabs that uses DNA evidence to predict the genetic traits of an unknown
00:54:30
suspect it's called snapshot phenotyping they gather all that information and they end up making a
00:54:39
snapshot of what an individual with all those traits might look similar too parabal was hired to use individual A's
00:54:48
DNA to create this composite sketch which gave sharp some Clues as to what the suspect could look like like at the
00:54:57
ages of 25 45 and 65 but he still didn't have a name investigators in California
00:55:05
say DNA evidence LED them to one of the country's most notorious serial killers and then in
00:55:12
2018 a stunning arrest in California opened new doors for law enforcement the SoCal Golden State killer the man
00:55:22
responsible for numerous rapes and murders was finally apprehended after 43 years using genetic
00:55:31
genealogy did a little light bulb go over your head at that moment oh yeah big light bulb the Golden State killer
00:55:39
DNA had been uploaded to Jed match a genetic database that allows users of various consumer test kits to share and
00:55:48
compare their DNA this is fantastic I need to get on this parabon agreed to upload individual
00:55:58
A's DNA to Jed match and called in genetic genealogist CC Moore she's known for her work on the PBS show Finding
00:56:07
Your Roots so then what did you do DNA DNA so all we have his DNA we're going to turn and she's Fame for skills at
00:56:16
mapping family trees but this was her first criminal case I had had a lot of doubts whether this was the right thing
00:56:24
for me to do and I finally made the decision okay I'm I'm going to do this but a lot was writing on that
00:56:33
case it was a case she had been following for years and felt a personal connection to Moore's parents were from
00:56:41
the Pacific Northwest and she was the same age as T van kenborg she was killed right when I was
00:56:49
graduating in high school and going on to college and my life was just really beginning and hers ended so tragically
00:56:57
and so I think it always stuck with me on Friday April 27th 2018 individual A's DNA file was
00:57:06
uploaded to Jed match it's compared against everyone that's participating in that database and so what they're
00:57:14
looking for are long segments of identical DNA between two people sometimes the match list will show up
00:57:21
right away and sometimes it takes a couple days so I stayed up really late that Friday FR night I kept checking
00:57:27
there was no matches the next morning Moore logged on to see if there was a list and there was and so we're hoping
00:57:36
for at least a second cousin or closer at the top of that list and we used to call that being struck by lightning were
00:57:42
you struck by lightning in this case twice we were stuck struck by lightning twice on the list were two people who
00:57:51
shared enough DNA with individual a to be his second cousins and what was that what was that feeling
00:57:59
like it was pretty exciting and scary in this case the cousin shared DNA with individual a but not with each
00:58:08
other which meant they're related to him on different branches of his family tree
00:58:15
but to figure out who he was Mo first had to find out who they were now fortunately one of the people
00:58:24
at the top of that list had a really unique name and what was her name Chelsea rustad remember Chelsea rustad had taken
00:58:33
that ancestry DNA test and then went a step further you can download your RW DNA file to your computer and then
00:58:43
upload it to Jed match I just had no inkling at all that there were secret relatives I didn't know about or
00:58:51
Mysteries to uncover neither did the other second cousin whom Moore was also able to identify but has chosen to
00:59:00
remain anonymous and then I built the family trees of those top two matches and surprisingly quickly I discovered
00:59:09
how they converged it only took me two hours to come to the identification of who I believed to be Tanya and J's
00:59:21
killer this is a person who had eluded capture investigation for 31 years and you were
00:59:30
able to identify this person in 2 hours that's the power of genetic genealogy yeah but how how sure were you I was
00:59:40
very sure but isn't that scary CCE because your work might end up with this person in prison right and at that
00:59:51
moment I'm the only person in the world who knows that he's probably guilty of this crime
00:59:58
other than him of course and so it is a super heavy burden Monday morning April 30th detective Jim Sharp got the
01:00:07
news we've got it narrowed down to one guy and I'm thinking I don't believe this and my first thought is who's the
01:00:17
guy [Music] 30 plus years dozens of dead ends hundreds of false leads and then in April 2018 CC Moore
01:00:43
got on a computer and out of the billions of people on Earth identified through genetic genealogy the one man
01:00:51
she believed killed Jay cook and T van kenborg who was the person you identified
01:00:59
William Earl talbet II William Earl talbet II when detective Jim Sharp heard the name he ran it
01:01:09
through the system and was surprised to learn that talbet had no felony convictions it was a new name that we
01:01:17
had never heard of before but it was sure nice when we found out that he only lived 7 miles from the bridge where
01:01:25
Jay's body was found sharf also learned that in 1987 talet 24 at the time worked as a
01:01:33
delivery driver and made stops near where Jay and Tanya were headed to pick up that furnace part and says that talet
01:01:41
was fired a few months before the murders so it makes sense that he was down in that area prowling around and
01:01:50
probably ran into Jay and T but sharf needed more than old work records and genetic
01:01:58
genealogy it's really just a tip it's an investigative lead to make an arrest sharf needed to
01:02:06
be sure that the DNA left at the crime scene by the man they knew only as individual a match William Talbots so
01:02:15
somehow sharf had to obtain a fresh DNA sample from talet himself we were going to follow him until he dropped or threw
01:02:26
away anything that had touched his mouth cuz we wanted his saliva on it as the best type of DNA
01:02:34
Source investigators learned talbet now drove a semi and they began tailing his truck one day about a week later they
01:02:45
watched as talbet stopped at a red light and opened the truck door the light changes to Green he slams the door and
01:02:53
drives away and there's a white paper cup laying on the street it's blowing around in the wind so they jump out they
01:03:03
go over and they collect the cup and they call me sharf rushed the paper cup to forensic scientist Lisa Collins with
01:03:10
the Washington State Patrol they wanted me to test this cup and just see if I could get a DNA profile from it sharf
01:03:20
left the cup at the lab to await the results CC Moore had already begun searching for Tabit online and quickly
01:03:28
found his sisters and father on social media I couldn't find hardly anything about him you know no marriages I could
01:03:36
find very little footprint online at all and that was a little unusual years earlier someone else who
01:03:45
knew nothing about the investigation had made a similar search Chelsea rustad in
01:03:52
2013 long before she submitted her DNA to any websites Chelsea Googled her grandpa's sister blanch and found a lot
01:04:01
of information online her daughter was uh Patty tbet and Patty had three daughters and one son and the son was
01:04:10
William Earl tbot the second these were Chelsea's second cousins the Talbots Chelsea friended two of the sisters on
01:04:19
Facebook but their brother William was a mystery this guy was just kind of question mark Off the
01:04:27
Grid Chelsea figured William was estranged from his family but didn't give it much thought even after she
01:04:34
uploaded her DNA to ancestry.com and then Jed match so she was stunned that Day in
01:04:41
2018 when those investigators showed up on her doorstep and asked to see her research and I'm just kind of like wait
01:04:51
one of you're saying one of my family members is connected to a murder and they're saying you know yeah it's uh
01:04:58
from 1987 and the person of interest is William Earl talbet and I'm just kind of grasping the
01:05:07
scope of this and you know sickened thinking about it the investigators wanted to know her impression of William
01:05:15
Talbot I told them my theory that I think he's a stranged detective sharf got more details from Talbot's friends
01:05:23
and family he had a history of anger and violence when he was younger he was a really angry kid in audio taped
01:05:32
interviews with Talbert sisters sharf learned William's troubles began when he was 11 and his father was seriously hurt
01:05:40
in a motorcycle accident the sisters say William began to lash out he beat me up
01:05:48
uh broke my telepone and I had to go to the hospital another sister says William
01:05:53
Hurt her too still she said she didn't think he was capable of murder yeah he'd be a bonee head but not to the point of
01:06:05
attacking or killing somebody no but would the DNA on the paper cup tell a different story that was on
01:06:15
detective Sharp's mind when he returned to the Police lab and Lisa cins shared the results of her testing I said the
01:06:24
profile from the cup matches individual [Music] a it was just an amazing moment yeah
01:06:33
what did that feel like Jim I got tears in my eyes I'm like I can't believe it it's so
01:06:40
emotional and then I'm like yeah we got him and so on May 17th 2018 nearly 31 years after two Carefree
01:06:53
teenagers set out on a road trip and never returned detective sharp arrested William talbet and he says John we've
01:07:02
got him sharf called Tanya's brother John right away saying that at long last individual a was in
01:07:11
handcuffs yeah I mean that's when it really sent a chill down my spine it was pretty overwhelming to think that it had
01:07:17
all culminated in that moment right there now 31 years later the next day William talbet was
01:07:24
charged with Tanya's murder murder charges for Jay's murder soon followed Jay's sister spoke at a press conference
01:07:32
it's hard to put in towards this feeling of relief of joy of of great sorrow that this arrest brings Jay's mom
01:07:43
said the moment was bittersweet on one hand we're close to closure and on the other we're still at
01:07:51
a loss and I don't have my only son J detective sharf told the group he was grateful for breakthroughs in DNA
01:08:02
technology if it hadn't been for genetic genealogy we wouldn't be standing here today but would evidence obtained
01:08:10
through genetic genealogy be allowed in court [Music] [Music] okay let's go more than three decades
01:08:37
had passed since those dark November days in 1987 when Jay and Tanya were found murdered William Earl Talbot is now
01:08:45
accused of killing both now with William Talbot's arrest T's brother John Van kenborg was finally able to face the man
01:08:54
suspected of his sister's murder and what did you think the first time you saw him you just reviled I mean it it's hard
01:09:04
to control your emotions talbet pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and so
01:09:12
in June of 2019 his trial began in the snow homage County Superior Court it was the first
01:09:20
case ever to go to a jury trial where the suspect had been identified through inves ative genetic genealogy although
01:09:27
the Golden State killer had been identified first Talbot's trial would be held before his and CC Moore was acutely
01:09:36
aware of how much was writing on the outcome we didn't know at that point how genetic genealogy was going to be
01:09:42
treated in court because there was no precedence the prosecution was hoping to make it a non-issue I was going to
01:09:50
minimize the exposure by kind of downplaying the importance of the genetic genealogy knowing full well that
01:09:56
was the part of the case that was perhaps most intriguing to people Chief criminal Deputy Matthew Baldock was the
01:10:03
lead prosecutor on Talbot's case did you he approached the defense with a proposal they would stipulate to the
01:10:11
jury that the DNA from Individual a had come from William talbet as an agreed upon fact much to my surprise they
01:10:20
agreed it was a major victory for the prosecution the use of genetic genealogy to locate a suspect would not be
01:10:29
contested in court that was a huge relief really it was the best possible outcome so you admit that that is
01:10:36
William Talbot's DNA am I correct you're correct that was a stipulation Talbot's
01:10:42
attorneys John Scott and Rachel Ford would argue that there's actually an innocent explanation for that DNA every
01:10:51
indication of the DNA found from my client indicated consensual sex yes they admit that talbet had sex with t but
01:11:01
they deny he raped or killed her or J cook they point out that t and Jay were missing for several days before their
01:11:10
bodies were found implying that the couple must have encountered their killer later on tell me what you think
01:11:18
then happened to T and J we don't know what happened these kids were off to an Adventure whether they went to a bar a
01:11:27
restaurant uh some sort of Club to meet people I don't know tabit's lawyers say it's understandable that Tabet might not
01:11:36
remember meeting Tanya or even where he was 30 years ago but it's significant they say that investigators were unable
01:11:45
to link talbet to the type of gun that killed T the pack of cigarettes or the materials used to strangle Jay
01:11:55
so William tablet's defense is basically that he had sex with Tanya and then somehow somebody else killed her that's
01:12:03
not William Talbot's defense William tas's defense is that there is insufficient evidence to prove him
01:12:09
guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt but prosecutors say they do have sufficient evidence there's tet's DNA from Tanya's
01:12:17
body and her pants the fact that he lived just 7 miles from where Jay's body was found and the part print on the van
01:12:26
that police say was a match to talet then there are the zip ties found at all four crime scenes balock says
01:12:36
they prove the connection between Jay's murder and Tanya's and the van what do you believe the zip ties were used for I
01:12:45
believe that Mr talbet had Jay and T in the van for some period of time after he
01:12:51
abducted or kidnapped them and I believe that he used zip ties to restrain them as part of his investigation detective
01:12:59
sharf had hoped to obtain a usable DNA profile from any of the zip ties there had been a mixture of DNA on one of the
01:13:10
zip ties that was found in Jay's van and they weren't able to discern who all the
01:13:16
profiles belong to but mid-trial forensic scientist Lisa Collins had decided to run that DNA mixture into a
01:13:25
new software program to see if she could find a match and to her surprise she did
01:13:32
when I compared William Talbot's DNA profile to the mixture obtained from the zip tie that was found in the victim's
01:13:41
van he was included as a possible contributor but because her Discovery came during trial prosecutors felt it
01:13:51
was too late to present to the jury fearing it would delay the trial talbet elected not to take the stand and his
01:14:00
lawyers were hopeful that the jury would agree there was not enough evidence to prove him
01:14:05
guilty in their closing arguments the defense told the jury that police were unreasonably focused on the
01:14:14
DNA they never stopped to consider that perhaps the person who left the DNA was not the
01:14:22
murderer attorney Ford argued ued that detective Jim Sharp had tunnel vision is it at all possible that yes that was
01:14:32
William Talbot's DNA but he didn't kill either one of them is that possible sure
01:14:39
is it reasonable no she was found without her pants or underwear so just practically speaking is the claim that
01:14:47
Mr talbet had consensual sex with her and then she got dressed and the person who ultimately killed her undressed her
01:14:54
B says the only reasonable theory is that talbet had overpowered the couple with a plan of raping T and then killed
01:15:03
them both he had zip ties he had gloves he had a firearm he had ammunition after a
01:15:11
two weekl long trial the jury began to deliberate but they didn't come back that first day or the second you realize
01:15:21
this is really going to be the moment of truth [Music] on that third day of deliberations the
01:15:48
families of Jay cook and T van kenborg finally got news there was a verdict [Music]
01:15:58
we the jury find the defendant William Earl P II guilty of the grme of Mur guilty William Talbot had been found
01:16:08
guilty of the aggravated murder of Tanya van kenborg and guilty of the aggravated
01:16:14
murder of Jay cook just to hear the foreman of the jury say guilty was surreal CeCe Moore wasn't in the
01:16:23
courtroom but she later saw video of Tanya's brother John's reaction it was as if I could see a physical burden left
01:16:31
off his shoulders he had told me how he had carried this burden for years you know he was the only sibling he was her
01:16:40
older brother and so that was incredible to see Chelsea rustad had never spoken to
01:16:50
either Jay or Tanya's family but with their blessing she decided to attend talbat sentencing where she first met
01:17:04
John I was really nervous he looked a little bit nervous as well she's effectively a family member
01:17:17
of the murderer so I think it was Brave of her to take that risk thank you for for coming today
01:17:25
at the sentencing Jay Cook's mother told the judge about the grief she has carried all these years some of us
01:17:32
wanted a shirt or a sweater you wear them you could put them to your nose and smell
01:17:39
him I still have that old sweater in my dresser drawer the sentence was mandatory thank you the Court's only
01:17:47
possible sentence on each count is to impose a sentence of life without possibility of release two life terms in
01:17:54
in prison without parole Chelsea says her sympathy is for Jay and Tanya's families despite her genetic ties to
01:18:04
talit all right his dad wasn't there his sisters weren't there he had a family member in the audience and I was there
01:18:12
supporting the victims Chelsea rustad is proud that her DNA helped bring a killer
01:18:17
to justice but there are some who have concerns about this new frontier in police work
01:18:25
kill you it might be that you're not the Golden State killer but it also might be
01:18:30
that you don't want law enforcement scrutinizing your entire family law professor Andrea Roth is head of the UC
01:18:39
Berkeley Center for Law and technology and says one of the problems she sees is that the DNA used for genetic genealogy
01:18:48
can be very revealing this is DNA testing that tells you a lot about a person's very sensitive information their medical
01:18:57
history information about familial lines that the families themselves don't even
01:19:02
know Professor Roth does agree that in cases like this genetic genealogy Could Be an Effective tool for the public good
01:19:12
but she cautions that Most states have no restrictions on its use there's the concern that the
01:19:19
government could use your DNA for some reason other than a criminal investigation that it shouldn't be using
01:19:25
it for giving it to insurance companies or using DNA to find out who was at a protest meeting we don't have evidence
01:19:33
right now of the government doing that but um those are are reasons that somebody might want to think about
01:19:40
before they decide to upload their DNA because of this lack of legal oversight Roth has deep reservations about sharing
01:19:48
DNA on public genealogy websites would you not upload your DNA I would not but it may already be too
01:19:59
late for Professor Roth or many other Americans to truly opt out experts estimate that today more than 90% of
01:20:08
white Americans can be identified using genetic genealogy and that's because says CC
01:20:15
Moore those of European descent are well represented on websites like Jed match we have enough DNA we can identify if y
01:20:25
almost anyone of Northwest European ancestry even if it takes hours dozens of hours hundreds of hours we'll get
01:20:35
there but in this case after more than 30 years with no solid leads Moore was able to use Chelsea rustads DNA to help
01:20:44
locate a viable suspect in Just 2 hours was this the fastest you've ever found a suspect it was to this day
01:20:55
three and a half years later hundreds of cases later this was the most straightforward case I've ever worked
01:21:01
and that is amazing detective sharf believes that this case changed the face of Cold Case
01:21:08
investigations forever genetic genealogy is the best tool that's come around since DNA you don't need a codus
01:21:17
database to get your match for Jay and tenas families it means they finally have some answers and
01:21:28
a measure of Peace on T's grave her parents inscribed the final line from a poem she wrote when she was
01:21:37
17 there is a place that I know of where up above there flies a dove and slowly as it turns to Dawn she Parts her wings
01:21:48
and then she's gone she was growing up and and maturing and spreading her wings and getting her feet
01:22:00
under her and and then she was gone you miss her still don't you yeah and [Music]
01:22:23
definitely 48 hours to miss it will be a crime were you at all prepared for what
01:22:29
happened in this case [Music] it's a small Seaside town uh just about at the end of cape
01:23:25
[Music] Cod and in the winter time it's a really quiet place the people that live here year
01:23:33
round us everyone pretty much knows one another I never wanted to live anywhere else it's just a beautiful place to hang
01:23:40
out unless something really awful happens police are trying to solve the first murder in a small Cape Cod town in
01:23:48
more than 30 years the victim a local writer named Christal Worthington was found inside this house in t on
01:23:56
Sunday Christ Worton was found stabbed once through the left chest missing the heart piercing the lung and the knife uh
01:24:04
made an exit wound uh uh in her back and went into the kitchen floor below her worthington's 2-year-old daughter
01:24:14
was also at the house on Sunday and witnessed the attack but she was not hurt the details that we heard about
01:24:21
apparently AA attempting to clean her mother's body and finding a child's broom with blood on it
01:24:27
and and things like that that was really really hard to take the horror that came
01:24:32
into this quiet house in the winter time at the end of the world and just blew up
01:24:38
these little wonderful lives my name is Eric Williams I'm a reporter with the Cape Cod
01:24:48
Times and I've covered this case from the beginning I'd say she had a very easy smile she had a wide eyed wonderment
01:24:57
about the world she was a mom she was a great mom her whole being lit up just by
01:25:03
being with her daughter Ava she was a flirt and you know I could tell that that was that was an
01:25:13
attraction I'm Tony jacket I had an affair with cryistal Worthington and we had a child together AA
01:25:21
woron it wasn't solved right away [Music] it is a murder mystery that continues to
01:25:29
haunt Cape CA I think people were spooked who is this person that did it where are they I mean are they a local
01:25:38
people around here are getting very anxious and time went on and a sort of rotating cast of potential suspects were
01:25:46
Tred it out we got Tony jacket the father of Ava it's um disturbing to be murder suspect Tony son-in-law Keith
01:25:55
Amato was a person whose name came up dude don't film it the guy who found the body Tim Arnold cryistal was an easy
01:26:03
person to love and sometimes a difficult person to be around I think there was the feeling like we're never going to
01:26:09
know whether this was your next door neighbor and arrest in the murder of chista Worthington I mean that was a
01:26:15
shock that was out of the blue they they arrested a guy I mean could you believe
01:26:18
it [Music] [Music] this was a a great [Music] mystery How could a single mom be executed in her kitchen in January in
01:27:20
Cape Cod [Music] yeah I wasn't no winner time because it is quiet and you have uh and I like the
01:27:35
cold weather in the winter time Cape Cod can feel like the end of the world it's a
01:27:42
real challenge being out on the water you know mentally and physically really a real independent way of life
01:27:49
it's the only World Fishing Warden Tony jacket ever really has known I feel fortunate and blessed that I was born
01:27:58
and raised here Tony is like he's like a Nature Boy and that according to reporter Eric
01:28:04
Williams is pretty much how everybody in the town of churo saw him hi Nancy he's
01:28:10
a great guy a gregarious smart uh you know really a pleasant fellow uh you know uh who likes the ladies you
01:28:21
know in 1997 a new lady came to town a glamorous former fashion writer from New York she had a bungalow right
01:28:31
next to the harb master Shack and this is the Harbor Master Shack this pink one that was hers she's sitting on the porch
01:28:39
and I'm right [Music] there and jacket married with six kids nonetheless went for her hookline and
01:28:49
sinker she was someone very different from the people that I knew she was mysterious enigmatic somewhat of a loner
01:28:57
her name was Christa Worthington a 40-year-old Vasser grad she lived what seemed a Life in the Fast
01:29:08
Lane covering the runways of New York London and Paris for top fashion magazines scoring an interview with
01:29:17
fashion Superstar Eve saleron when she was just 26 that was her building when she moved
01:29:26
back from um Europe but Steve radlauer who dated Christopher two years in New York says she never felt part of the
01:29:36
Glamorous world she covered I think she was feeling a little burned out after her European women's wear uh
01:29:47
years her prominent New England family owned a slew of properties in tro owned by John W Wasington Sena including this
01:29:56
one where she moved a few months later it seemed like the perfect Retreat and the perfect place to have a child she
01:30:05
had this having a baby thing in mind and I think she felt that this would be a good place to do that the complication
01:30:11
was that she was not married didn't have a boyfriend she uh was I think intrigued
01:30:17
with the local color local color including you yeah I could tell that that was that was
01:30:25
an attraction you know ultimately I ended up over a house having a cup of tea and one thing leads to another and
01:30:32
for about a year off and on they had an affair I had become a slave to my ego and for the beautiful writer who
01:30:38
desperately wanted a child and the local fishermen who already had six one thing did lead to another so she
01:30:48
comes to you at some point and says I'm pregnant right this is a surprise this is a total surprise a surprise he
01:30:57
didn't share with his wife of 26 years even when Christa gave birth to a daughter Ava in May of
01:31:06
1999 the day she got pregnant she was ecstatic I was dumbfounded friends insist Christa had been told she
01:31:15
couldn't have a baby but jacket always has felt she set him up how do I explain this I'm like
01:31:25
all of a sudden I'm I realized that I'm uh in in fact she had gone on the Lisa show the year before to talk about women
01:31:33
who choose to be single parents trying to figure out how to be the best parent to your child given that there is no
01:31:41
father she was very real she was exactly who she was Eva became the Sater of Christ's
01:31:49
Universe says Linda schlecter who babysat a few times a week a very devoted mother and she would
01:31:56
always have AA on her lap and they would always be playing or laughing now I'm just still in a lot of disbelief about
01:32:05
what's happened it seems so unreal unreal indeed I walked into The Newsroom here on Cape Cod and we had just gotten
01:32:14
word from the police uh that there had been a murder the first homicide in Truro in 30 years sent reporter Eric
01:32:23
Williams into to high gear finding sources working the phones it was Sunday January 6 2002
01:32:33
surprisingly you know I knew the guy who found the body and next thing I know I'm calling him
01:32:40
and talking to him about it he was calling Tim Arnold another former boyfriend of Christa's who lived just
01:32:46
through the woods from her house Arnold's story was that he had simply dropped by the house at 4:30 :30
01:32:54
that afternoon to return a flashlight and instead got the shock of his life sees Christa lying on the floor in a
01:33:04
sort of a kitchen hallway area and he sees AA near uh her mother's body Arnold later told police little Ava was trying
01:33:13
to nurse he said he scooped her up and ran outside he called 911 911 this L recorded what your
01:33:21
emergency of please send over to 50 de Road okay what's the problem it's Crystal worthy I don't know what
01:33:29
happened I think she fell down something I'm sure she's dead Christa Worthington
01:33:34
was dead lying in a hallway off the kitchen she was uh bruised up it looked like there had been some kind of
01:33:42
altercation that she had been in she was half naked and stabbed once through the left
01:33:49
lung the blade went through the body and into the kitchen floor beneath her body the front door was
01:33:56
smashed there were drag marks on the ground outside and several personal items scattered in the drive some socks were
01:34:05
found outside maybe a Barret a pair of reading glasses the disarray continued inside shocked EMTs carelessly grabbed a
01:34:13
blanket from the house to cover Christa's body soon all of Truro knew what had happened we got just a phone
01:34:22
call that Chris got murdered what was your reaction when you got this phone call just disbelief I mean like why it
01:34:28
seems so senseless with all the elements of a classic mystery Sensational reports of
01:34:36
the murder on Cape Cod topped the news around the country it was a murder that rocked the world of high fashion leaving
01:34:43
Christa's nervous neighbors with no reason to suspect that it would take police literally years to solve this
01:34:51
crime not that they didn't have plenty of suspects and it became some kind of some kind of awful parlor game uh you
01:34:58
know in living rooms on the Outer Cape and maybe even Beyond as you'd sit around and once again go through it and
01:35:04
try to figure out could it have been Tim could it have been Tony how did it go down by the spring of
01:35:09
2005 Town's people were starting to think police never would figure out who killed Christa Worthington this was just
01:35:19
a random awfulness that just came screaming out of the woods of Truro and festered for three
01:35:27
[Music] [Music] years now i s my ABCs next time I you sing me [Music] cryistal worthington's Savage murder in
01:35:57
January of 2002 left 2-year-old Ava without a mother and it left the town's people of
01:36:06
Truro edgy nervous and silently wondering if the killer might be one of them who else would come down to the end
01:36:16
of the world and January and do this you think it's got to be someone who is here
01:36:22
cuz no one no one comes here in January the best potential lead to the murderer's
01:36:30
identity DNA found on Christa's body it's DNA of an unknown male that's consistent with someone having had
01:36:40
sexual relations with uh the victim and it's that DNA that we seek to match so says district attorney Michael
01:36:50
O'Keefe investigators first zeroed in on her immediate circle especially past boyfriends you look at the people who
01:37:00
are in the immediate orbit of the victim's life while they waited for the crime lab to find a DNA match they took
01:37:07
a hard look first there was the neighbor and former boyfriend Tim Arnold not only had he found the body
01:37:16
but his seamen would turn up on the blanket thrown over Christa then again they'd live together for a Time in the
01:37:24
house Tim Arnold was one of the few men under the age of 70 in Truro year round Christa's friend Steve radlauer says her
01:37:35
relationship with Arnold at times contentious apparently was over I don't think that she ever entertained the idea
01:37:44
that this was going to develop into a long-term relationship that they were going to get married or anything like
01:37:48
that she know he may have he may have from what I understand he was he was more serious about that as a long-term
01:37:54
possibility than she was Arnold emphatically denied to police that he had anything to do with the crime have
01:38:01
some quick questions about what your memories of Christa are otherwise he refused to discuss Christa
01:38:08
Worthington these days Arnold struggles with health problems mainly affecting his vision but he says memories of what
01:38:16
happened in 2002 never are far from his thoughts I think about it alone I think about it just about every
01:38:28
day sometimes writes about Christa the Christa I knew was a person of contradictions she was by turns bright
01:38:39
talented and ambitious and then a homebody who wanted nothing more than to spend time with her
01:38:47
[Music] child while Tim Arnold may have been at the the top of the suspect list I was
01:38:55
interviewed a lot early on aa's Father Tony jacket wasn't far behind you can certainly understand why the police
01:39:03
would think that you had a motive to kill her well had is no motive what was the motive
01:39:09
Eva wow according to Christa's friends jacket had little time for the baby at first and eventually Christa demanded
01:39:18
that he at least pay child support she also demanded that he tell his wife Susan you didn't have a clue
01:39:28
no he said I had an affair and he said there's a child and I said um you're kidding then to Tony's total shock she
01:39:40
forgave him take a walk on the beach it's been too many years and he's a nice man people make mistakes he's only human
01:39:48
look at it isn't it lovely I don't want this anger in me I just want to make this all
01:39:55
work and by the time of the murder the jackets claim it was more or less working the three of them had a
01:40:03
relationship of sorts with Ava at its Center Tony they say had no reason to kill Christa we had her over for dinner
01:40:12
and it was a little uncomfortable the first time but the more I got to know her I I liked her I thought she was a
01:40:19
nice person Susan says Tony was at home home with her when Christa was killed but
01:40:26
police refused to rule anyone out and the suspect list was expanding to Agatha chrisy size proportions at times even
01:40:35
including Tony's then son-in-law Keith Amato who' taken an outside shower or two at Christa's house near the beach
01:40:43
even Christa's elderly father was drawn into the investigation through his 29-year-old
01:40:50
girlfriend love taking pictures of me don't you former heroin addict upon whom Christa thought he was spending far too
01:40:57
much money meanwhile the State Crime Lab was hopelessly backed up months passed with
01:41:05
no word on the DNA taken from Christa's body the police went to the FBI for a profile of the killer but nobody seemed
01:41:13
a fit then finally a year after the murder the crime lab at last produced results disappointing results because
01:41:22
the DNA from Chris didn't match Tony jacket or Tim Arnold or any other suspect the police
01:41:33
had you have this ever widening Circle if you will of Investigation going on first group of people are looked at very
01:41:43
very intensely nothing is developing you widen that Circle the widen Circle brought in DNA from repair men Trashmen
01:41:54
delivery men with pressure mounting Dao Keef took an unprecedented step asking for DNA from every single man in Truro
01:42:05
State Police investigators were actually in Truro today asking men outside the post office outside coffee shops for
01:42:12
saliva samples for at that point like what are you crazy I mean this is such a needle in a Hy stack how many people
01:42:18
have been tested so far um I'm not going to say specifically but dozens of people
01:42:24
dozens and dozens these guys are throwing darts at an elephant you know I mean they got no chance it's just
01:42:31
crazy but Chance is a strange thing in the three years police were searching for Christa worthington's
01:42:52
killer an uneasy piece settled over Cape Cod somebody that knows still no arrests in
01:42:59
this case no one's been ruled out either as the investigation dragged on you know
01:43:03
it just makes you think you know no one has been named a suspect only the random
01:43:07
DNA Roundup got much public attention it did seem to smack of some desperation meanwhile whole books were
01:43:17
being written about this unsolved murder investigators under intense pressure still would rule pull no one out
01:43:24
including Tony jacket I'm left in limbo if they don't solve it and it's it's it's not right little Ava his daughter
01:43:32
with Christa was sent to live with a friend Amira Chase whom Christa had named Ava's Guardian in her will jacket
01:43:40
was allowed to see his daughter only one afternoon a week who loves you daddy that's right d he loves you yeah you
01:43:49
know that's my daughter you know that chases enough listen to this little girl he fought for custody Worthington
01:43:58
jacket matters 02 w006 b r but lost to Christa's friend and Tony thinks he knows
01:44:10
why well being a suspect definitely cost me custody more than anything else a custody of my my
01:44:17
[Music] daughter by 2005 Jack was getting used to another reality was just kind to live
01:44:26
with the fact that um the perception of my being a suspect is going to stay but then on April 7th investigators caught a
01:44:37
stunning break the crime lab had a hit we have a brief statement to make a match for DNA found outside and inside
01:44:47
Christa's body it just was a bombshell huge bombshell because we were just like electrified couldn't believe that they
01:44:55
had come up with a match suddenly a match a suspect and an arrest all announced to the World by da Michael
01:45:03
O'Keefe three and a half years after the crime last night at approximately 7:15 p.m. detectives from the massachusett
01:45:11
state police arrested Christopher a Macwan for the 2002 murder of Christa a Worthington which had a lot of people in
01:45:21
town asking Christopher who I would have figured it would have been the garbage man that's right Christopher mwan had
01:45:28
been Christa worthington's garbage man tro was astonished and relieved it seemed like a done deal the results were
01:45:38
were in the quadrillions so you're talking about as absolute as one could possibly get well you know pretty much
01:45:45
police picked up a dosel maowen at his rooming house lying on the bed watching cartoons marijuana and an open bottle of
01:45:53
prescription painkillers were on the table nearby incredibly he'd been right under
01:45:59
their noses from the start did you kill Christa interviewed twice both times he had denied knowing Christa Worthington
01:46:08
he'd given police's DNA voluntarily more than a year earlier the laboratory could
01:46:15
not get you results as quickly as we would have liked them well a year right right
01:46:23
when detectives took him in for questioning maowen waved his right to a lawyer they say he again denied knowing
01:46:31
Christa and then he's presented with what I would suggest is a relatively strong piece of evidence that
01:46:40
he's lying DNA correct police say that's when his story changed he admits that yes he went there
01:46:49
on Friday night yes he had sex with her and yes he beat her but he doesn't want to bring himself
01:47:03
to admit that he killed her so he blames the worst part of it on someone else the
01:47:11
somebody else was macau's friend Jeremy Frasier who'd been with him the night of
01:47:16
the murder but Frasier's DNA wasn't found anywhere on Christa's body was there an operating assump that the last
01:47:23
person who' had sex with Christal worlington had killed her yes from the beginning yes and you believe that to be
01:47:30
the case yes Christopher macau's interview at the police barracks lasted about six hours and for whatever reason
01:47:37
he declined to have it recorded so the only record of this crucial interview is a report some 20 pages long that the
01:47:45
detectives wrote from their notes about a week later in it maowen is sometimes confused
01:47:52
confused and comes up with at least half a dozen different versions of what really happened the night police say
01:47:59
Christa Worthington died Chris mcau didn't commit this crime and the police know it attorney Bob
01:48:07
George took macau's case after the police interrogation and says they jumped to conclusions from the start
01:48:14
noting that the DA's website listed this murder as solved almost from the moment
01:48:19
of macau's arrest a person of Chris coms race class and limited capacities was an
01:48:27
easy target an especially easy target he says because Christopher maowen literally wasn't smart enough to defend
01:48:36
himself this is a person with a 76 to a 78 IQ on his best day meaning on a day where he's not using drugs and alcohol
01:48:44
uh not under pressure under pressure and Under the Influence he was using Percocet that day he was using marijuana
01:48:52
that that day George says his client was putty in the hands of the police this is
01:48:58
a false confession and I don't accept it I don't know how much of it is actually
01:49:04
coming from Chris mccowan's mouth or how much of it is coming from the police investigation I don't
01:49:09
know as for the DNA the Lynch pin of the prosecution's case the significance of that George says is all in how you look
01:49:19
at this crime what's now in session please be seated and the police he's about to tell the
01:49:25
jury are looking at it all wrong the forensics in the case could very well said Chris maccau and free that
01:49:33
person who killed Christal worington was white they had footprints that were unidentified they had palm prints that
01:49:41
were unidentified and they had unknown male DNA from three individuals under her finger nails
01:49:52
[Music] down the cape today the infamous Crystal worlington murder case has gone from a
01:50:01
who done it to a courtroom drama all right Kamal of Massachusetts versus Christopher M macowan prosecutors go
01:50:10
into Christopher mccowan's trial confident that the jury will accept their Simple Theory of Christa
01:50:16
worthington's murder that he went to this location for the purpose of having sex with this
01:50:24
person that that was denied to him and in a rage he raped her and killed [Music]
01:50:33
her the case against Christa's alleged killer district attorney Michael O'Keefe concedes depends on two vital pieces of
01:50:42
evidence the DNA and the statement together were the two major pillars of the case first the DNA We performed DNA
01:50:53
analysis on 23 samples the state's experts says it proves Beyond doubt that maowen had sex with Christa Worthington
01:51:01
Christopher McAn matched the major profile in the mixture then the statement can you tell us your name for
01:51:06
the record please my name is Christopher Mason with Christa's father and other family members looking on employed as a
01:51:12
trooper with the massachusett state police Trooper Christopher Mason tells the court that although maowen didn't
01:51:18
actually confess he did admit to police that he beat Christa and watched her die
01:51:25
Mr maowen stated I never meant for that lady to get killed it's a nightmare after Nightmare and not a day goes by
01:51:31
that I don't think about it he went up there looking for sex Crystal Worthington confronted him and it got
01:51:36
very ugly in the prosecution scenario Macwan was drinking heavily that night he joined friends at a local Club they
01:51:45
were videotaped by an onlooker while taking part in a rap contest this person wanted the company of a
01:51:54
woman after partying and drinking all night so O'Keefe continues at around 1:30 a.m. Macwan drove to Christa's
01:52:04
house in Truro where he killed her and he was alone he was alone and he didn't have any prior relationship with
01:52:15
her other than his familiarity with who she was where she lived and the fact that she lived
01:52:24
alone that is where macau's attorney Bob George insists prosecutors have it all wrong now when they found the DNA for 39
01:52:33
months you will hear they were looking to speak to Christa's last Lover he wants to convince the jury there is
01:52:40
reasonable doubt about everything in this case suddenly Christa's last lover was a rapist for starters George claims
01:52:50
his client and Christa may have been involved Chris macowan could have reasonably had a consensual sexual
01:52:57
relationship with Christal Worthington and anyone who doesn't believe it is someone who just refuses to accept it
01:53:03
and that's the defense's explanation for the damning DNA evidence that Christa Worthington voluntarily had sex with
01:53:11
Macwan probably that Thursday his day for picking up the trash and that later someone else came along and killed her
01:53:19
you don't have macau's fingerprints at that scene you didn't have macau's hair at that scene you got M's DNA at that
01:53:25
scene consensual sexual episode on Thursday but George says getting the jury to believe that could be a problem
01:53:33
because his client is being tried in Lily white Cape Cod if you had the same body of evidence and Johnny whitebred
01:53:41
was home for the holidays it was from some affluent family on the C the same body of evidence he wouldn't have been
01:53:48
charged but miles away in New York Christa worthington's former boyfriend Steve radlauer says race has nothing at
01:53:56
all to do with his doubts let's hear about that consensual relationship how long had that been going on I saw
01:54:02
Christa two weeks before she was murdered roughly uh it wasn't going on then because we would have heard about
01:54:08
it that would have been her top story top of the Christa news would have been I'm having an affair with my local
01:54:14
Trashmen M you won't believe story back in court the defense also must deal with its other big problem
01:54:22
problem that statement and when he walked into that police station on April 14th 2005 the police had to get a
01:54:29
statement out of him so they intimidated him George argues in a six-hour interrogation much as they' done with
01:54:38
other suspects like Tim Arnold and when you told them that you did not kill Christa Worthington what was said to you
01:54:46
but oh yes I had was like getting worked over you know like physically getting beaten up
01:54:53
another one-time suspect Keith Amato described a similar experience Trooper M slammed his hand down on the table and
01:55:02
said this is a murder investigation and if we so choose we will turn your life inside out they did exactly the same
01:55:10
thing to them that they did to maowen except that they were smart enough and they had the wherewithal in the
01:55:16
background to know when to say stop cut it out I'm not doing this anymore I want
01:55:21
a lawyer as far as IQs go what is uh what What's the score for someone who's mentally [ __ ] George's witness
01:55:27
forensic psychologist Eric Brown claims that with an IQ of about 76 Christopher Macwan simply couldn't understand the
01:55:36
police's questions in 69 is mentally [ __ ] yes and he's 76 on his best day yes rubbish says the prosecution maowen
01:55:46
seemed smart enough when Brown gave him an intelligence test for relativity he indicated Einstein and for Gandhi he
01:55:54
wrote spiritual leader of India and for Koran he wrote Muslim bible that's correct correct and he was clever enough
01:56:01
the state argues to concoct a story blaming someone else to be the truth the whole truth his friend Jeremy Frasier
01:56:10
who appeared uncomfortable the moment he took the stand did you drive up uh to Crystal worton's house with Christopher
01:56:17
maau no I didn't did you have anything at all to do with her deaths no I didn't but Bob George wants the jury to believe
01:56:25
Frasier could have what were you drinking a couple bears at the party did you tell the police it was like six
01:56:30
Coronas I don't recall certainly Frasier and maowen were together that night the
01:56:36
videotaped Rap Contest shows Frasier listening to music with maowen nearby but Frasier supplied an alibi he later
01:56:46
was seen at another party then slept at a friend's house and his DNA doesn't doesn't show up anywhere at the crime
01:56:54
scene he was a convenient py for the defendant to blame as nothing to do with this murder no Bob George also argues
01:57:04
that police bungled the whole investigation there were fibers hairs DNA that never made it to a lab and a
01:57:12
crime scene contaminated by careless EMT they had all kinds of evidence at that scene that was either mishandled ignored
01:57:21
or Dr away Christopher maowen never testifies betting that his attorney has created
01:57:29
enough doubt in this case to set him free it's based on an assumption a false assumption that a Vasser educated
01:57:40
wealthy ays could not possibly have had consensual sex with a black uneducated troubled garbage man
01:58:02
[Music] while the jury in the Christa Worthington murder trial deliberates there's always that question as to
01:58:09
what's the truth what isn't the truth the case is still being tried in the court of public opinion we have been
01:58:15
following the trial and everyone in towns got an opinion I think the preponderance of evidence indicates that
01:58:23
he's guilty I think he deserves every bit of a reasonable doubt if it's there I wouldn't be surprised if the guy gets
01:58:31
off days go by the clock ticks on without a verdict it's always good when they're out a long time Christopher
01:58:38
macau's lawyer Bob George is taking an optimistic view insisting that time and the evidence are on his
01:58:47
side if you can't trust what you find at the crime scene because the scene has been
01:58:52
corrupted if you can't trust the statement because it's unreliable and if the DNA doesn't mean
01:58:58
anything because the defendant could have been involved in a consensual relationship with the victim then what
01:59:04
happened for five agonizing days the jury including two African-Americans debates that very question they said
01:59:14
they were hopelessly deadlocked then on day six right for the jury a shocker the judge announces he is thrown
01:59:22
in one juror off the panel a white woman whose boyfriend was arrested in an unrelated crime in a phone call with him
01:59:30
she was taped criticizing the police and there's concern about bias you are to be
01:59:37
discharged from word began circulating around 11:30 this morning that this jury had finally
01:59:44
come to a verdict who is now in session please be seated two days after a new juror is seated are we ready for the
01:59:50
jury The Log Jam breaks what say you Mr Foreman Christopher mowan learns his fate we the jury returned the following
02:00:01
verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree he was devastated by the verdict
02:00:06
anyone with eyes could see that he was terribly uh hurt by what happened hours later before he's
02:00:18
sentenced he addresses the court for the first time this case here is a very horrendous case
02:00:26
I feel sorry for the Pilgrim's family her daughter and her and they're meant for this to never
02:00:35
take place but he still claims he had nothing to do with Christal worthington's death
02:00:43
but you want all I can say is that I'm I'm an innocent man in this case and and that's that's all I got to
02:00:53
say the court doesn't buy it the court hereby send you to be in prison at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution
02:01:01
at Cedar Junction for and during the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole on indictment
02:01:08
number 05-19 02 the jury having found you guilty and arated Chris did I want to not guilty of course
02:01:19
I wanted to not guilty you know my belief in mccowan's innocence is what drove me I believed he was innocent and
02:01:26
still believe he's innocent and we believe he's not guilty uh until the day I die you want me to stand at the podium
02:01:32
even after the verdict Bob George refuses to give up he's a little suspicious about what really happened to
02:01:39
get that juror removed you've got a juror receiving phone calls on her cell phone from someone who's incarcerated in
02:01:46
a deliberating deadlock jury in a major murder case from the jail you don't have
02:01:50
to be all over W homes to figure out there something strange about that we'll find out what
02:01:55
happened I think there's a lot of conspiracy theory types that you know will never be satisfied Eric Williams
02:02:02
who's covered the case from day one says while replacing the juror confused things in the end he has confidence in
02:02:09
the jury's decision there was enough evidence it seemed to push them to unanimously agree and I think for most
02:02:16
Cape cotters that's good enough [Music] well this case changed my life it's radically it's not something that you
02:02:32
ever imagine you're going to have to deal with kind of like being in a dark tunnel I wonder if you'll ever see light
02:02:37
[Music] again are you glad that this is finally all over now officially cleared as a
02:02:45
suspect in Christa's murder Tony jacket is relieved at the verdict you know the jury deliberated and car carefully
02:02:52
looked at all the evidence although remarkably he isn't sure the jury got it right I felt there was Reasonable Doubt
02:03:00
all over the place I think about the trial I think about what it did to me and and and I
02:03:09
think about her Tim Arnold too is happy it's finally over but to this day he is haunted by
02:03:17
what happened sometimes the weight of events forces to look back whether you want to or not just something that's
02:03:25
always there these happen to be a few snapshots I took of Ava and Christa when they were
02:03:33
here only a couple of weeks before she was killed Ava lives still with her legal
02:03:38
Guardians and by all accounts she is doing well one pretty little girl yeah she was really sweet when you look at
02:03:46
this today what goes through your mind well you know I I mean basically I think she was really happy she was a great
02:03:53
person we miss her a lot Ava never will remember those happy times but Christa's friends are
02:04:01
determined that one day she will know how much her mother loved her how would you want to tell her about the
02:04:11
past um a little bit at a time yeah is that good Ava won't have her that's yeah this just the enduring tragedy the
02:04:24
whole [Music] thing for nearly 16 years 48 Hours has covered the aftermath of Christa
02:04:38
worthington's murder and Christopher mowen's trial of guilty of murder in the first degree soon after his
02:04:48
conviction the verdict was called into question when several jurors made allegations of racial bias during their
02:04:57
deliberations that prompted the trial judge to take the unusual step of calling all 12 jurors back to court to
02:05:05
be questioned their testimony revealed there was racial tension in the Jury Room and macau's attorney Bob George
02:05:17
thought it was sufficient grounds for a retrial well in my opinion it's enough to establish that the statements were
02:05:23
made and that the bias statements were made now it's up to the judge to determine whether or not there's going
02:05:27
to be a new trial but the judge ruled against maowen upholding his conviction in 2010 the
02:05:35
state Supreme Judicial Court agreed maowen from the moment he was sentenced all I can say is that I'm an innocent
02:05:44
man has refused to give up the fight Mr Macau do you deserve a new trial he now has a new legal team and they have filed
02:05:52
another motion for a new [Music] trial but for those closest to Christa Worthington life has moved on Tony
02:06:05
jacket maintains a warm relationship with his daughter Ava who now is in college and continuing to thrive
02:06:14
[Music] I was knocked in conscious I couldn't protect her 1978 a team murdered who
02:06:41
would want to kill her and why 1984 another team murdered same Beach multiple suspects but one of them worked
02:06:50
for the police 48 Hours Crime Time double feature continues next on CBS [Music]