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[Music] Part of the naivity and the beauty of youth is you you're invincible. You know, at 20, you don't think
00:00:21
anything's going to bring harm to you. In 1989, Tiffany Sessions was a 20-year-old college student at the
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University of Florida. >> She was really warm and friendly. Always had a smile on her face. Fun. She was, I
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would say, a really fun, loving girl. >> My name is Kathleen Fresa, and I was Tiffany's roommate.
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>> Short outfit for college. >> When she came back from Christmas break, she had started exercising. She's like,
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"I've been walking. I've been losing weight. I'm feeling really good. She's like, "Come with me." So, at certain
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times, I would go with her. On February 9th, I did not go with Tiffany. She left around 4:45.
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5:40 rolls around, the sun's going down, Tiffany's still not back. It was very unlike her.
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I went out, I got in the car, I drove around the route to see, I don't know, maybe she fell down and she hurt
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herself, but nothing. I never heard from her again. >> She's a a smart kid. She's resourceful,
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and if she's in trouble, she's going to be doing everything she can to get out of it. And I just hope that if anybody's
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got her, they know that we're willing to do anything to get her back. >> What would you say to her if you could
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know? >> I love her. How long will you look for her? Oh, >> I I think till the day I die. I mean,
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how do you not look for your kid? Can't stop. >> I began my investigation into the
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disappearance of Tiffany Sessions in January of 2013. There had been many leads over the years, but none of them
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had panned out. I learned three years after the disappearance of Tiffany Sessions,
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another 20-year-old college student was found less than a mile away. Her name was Beth Foster.
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I started to wonder if the killer of Beth Foster could be the killer of Tiffany Sessions.
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This was uh Beth Foster's head and this was her feet. First question I had is, well, did anyone check the surrounding
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area for other graves? Kevin, how easy would it be to hide a body? >> Oh, very easy.
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>> I thought we would find her in 24 hours and then 24 days and then 24 months. I
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never thought 24 years we'd still be here. I think we're very close. I think there's a good chance she's there.
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[Music] >> I'm Tracy Smith. Tonight on 48 Hours. The Lost Daughter. [Music] [Music]
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[Music] Hey, can we go around? >> Come on, guys. >> Heavenly Father, we got a simple prayer.
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It's really simple. Help us find Tiffany. We know without your grace, without your blessing, it won't happen.
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Amen. >> Amen. Amen. >> Let's go. Do it. For 25 years, Pat and Hillary Sessions have been searching for their daughter,
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Tiffany. And in January 2014, in this forest in Gainesville, Florida, just over a mile
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from where Tiffany disappeared. >> There was another girl in 1992 who was actually found here on the site.
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>> They hope they may finally find her. >> I am extremely optimistic. What are you feeling going into this
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excavation? Are you nervous? >> I'm a lot more nervous than I thought I would be.
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>> I've done other searches. And this one I'm a lot more nervous about because it
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may not be true, but it sort of feels like a final harrah. You know, I pushed and pushed so many people for so long
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that I don't know how long I'll do it. Sorry. >> Do you think the emotion comes because
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maybe it's the end or maybe it's not? >> Yeah. I don't know. [Music] >> It needs to end. Everybody needs closure
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on this. [Music] In 1989, Tiffany Sessions was a junior studying finance at the University of
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Florida in Gainesville. She had dreams of running a company one day. >> She knew what she wanted to do. She knew
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where she was going to go. >> She was determined to make something out of herself.
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>> Tiffany had a good role model. Pat Sessions was a well-known marketing executive for a giant real estate
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company in South Florida. He oversaw the creation of Weston, one of the biggest building projects in the United States.
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She kind of wanted to be like dad, follow in your footsteps. >> I've been told that by by her friends.
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>> Pat and Hillary divorced when Tiffany was just 8 months old. Hillary was in the US Air Force, and as she traveled
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around the country, she brought Tiffany with her. I was the mom. I was the dad. I was the disciplinarian, the provider.
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There wasn't anything that we didn't do together. And we worked as a team. >> You called her your masterpiece.
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>> I did because I only had one. I worked really hard on making sure that she was
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as nice on the inside as she was on the outside. [Music] Growing up, Tiffany didn't see a lot of
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her father, but in her teens, they reconnected. Pat was in his late 30s. A bachelor
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living in an oceanfront home in Miami's affluent Coconut Grove. >> The summers were the times that we spent
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together and holidays. >> Tiffany also got to know her halfbrother, Jason. >> My father is always a very active fun
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guy. So when we came together for those different times, we were always doing neat experiences, going on the boat, you
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know, the beach, different activities like that. So yeah, that's where we really got to know each other. Both of
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them were single kids, so they didn't have anybody else. They bonded together very quickly.
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>> But for Pat, missing out on so much of his daughter's childhood had taken its
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toll. >> It was a lot of catchup, you know, and overcoming a lot of bad history between
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her mother and I. >> Tiffany was very close to both her parents. Kathleen Fresa, Tiffany's
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college roommate. >> She loved her mom and they they had a very special relationship. She spoke
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with her frequently, almost daily, I would say, on the phone with her dad because she was able to
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renew that relationship with him. That was really um very touching for her. >> And when Pat bought his daughter a Rolex
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watch, Kathleen says Tiffany never took it off. >> She just loved it. partly because it was
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a Rolex, partly because it was from her dad. So, you know, it held a really special um emotional tie for her.
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>> In fact, Kathleen has never forgotten one of the last conversations she had with Tiffany just before she went out
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for that final walk. Before she walked out, Tiffany said, "I'm going to take off my jewelry." She
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says, "I'm keeping my watch on. If somebody comes after me, they're gonna have to fight me for the watch.
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>> Tiffany never returned to her apartment while on an evening walk. >> When Tiffany did not come back, I still
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had hope at that time. >> I just really am still pretty hopeful and continue to believe that she will
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return safely. There were people in the apartment, outside the apartment, milling around,
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trying to figure out what we needed to do. >> The day after Tiffany went missing, Pat
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and Hillary arrived in Gainesville. >> I got here, I didn't even rent a car. I did a cab because I assumed all this was
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going to be over relatively quickly and Tiffany would give me a ride back to the
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airport. But Pat knew the situation was serious when he learned that Tiffany had left
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the apartment with only her watch and her Walkman. >> She didn't have her wallet, her driver's
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license, her car was there and that was the scary part. You know, all that stuff
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was there and we were all starting to get nervous as the day went on. I think there was a sense of urgency here.
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>> Jim Eert was one of the lead investigators on the case. >> This young woman didn't have any, I
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guess, baggage, as it were. It wasn't like we had a boyfriend or some strained relationship. She was a good student.
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She was pretty much always on the mark. So, for her not to have shown up was was
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pretty unusual. >> She's a smart kid. She's resourceful and if she's in trouble, she's going to be
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doing everything she can to get out of it. >> Pat sprang into action. He put his
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marketing skills to work and organized one of the largest missing person searches in Florida history.
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>> I need your help. I need the work to get out on Tiffany. From day one, he was so
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driven. He ran like a business. He really did. >> We're attempting to find Tiffany and uh
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we're just investigating every lead. >> Pat brought in Wayne Black, a private investigator who specialized in
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recovering missing children. >> Pat had within I think 24 hours Tiffany's picture on the inside of every
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pizza box being delivered uh in Elatcha County. >> If you see anything or talk to anyone or
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hear anything, please give us a call. Volunteers blanketed the state with flyers, put Tiffany's face on
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billboards, and answered a 1-800 hotline. Jason Sessions, just 17, also helped to get
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the word out. >> She left the house without keys, without jewelry, without makeup, and that's not
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Tiffany. >> It was amazing to me how small South Florida became and understanding who
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Tiffany Sessions was and what the what we were doing and and that and what we were going through.
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>> All right. I really appreciate you calling and probably somebody will be calling you back from the FBI or
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somebody just to kind >> My goal was very simple. It was to make sure that everybody that I could knew
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what she looked like to try and get as many people out there looking for her as I could.
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>> I'm curious whether that helped you with the emotional side of things to be able
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to look at this from a business marketing >> point of view. >> Yes, because I felt useful.
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because I felt in control. >> For every 50 people that pass out a flyer, one story that you all can run
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does 100 times that. >> Pat set up press conferences and recruited his famous friends like
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football legend Dan Marino. >> What I'm going to try to do to help this team is is to to try to call on all my
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friends throughout the NFL. >> Today, you can push a button and you reach a million people on Facebook. used
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to try to get some nationwide coverage for Tiffany to try to help her. >> In those days, TV was my Facebook.
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>> Politician Jeb Bush also helped out. And so did America's Most Wanted host John
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Walsh, whose son Adam was abducted and killed in 1981. >> I know the nightmare firsthand of having
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a missing child and what he's going through. We can only assume that she is alive and that she is somewhere and we
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just hope that there will be some type of word and that you will spread the word. So
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>> people are committed because of Pat because he just asked them come help me and you know he's irresistible in that
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regard. [Music] >> There is a massive investigation going on. What they want from us is
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information leads to physical clues. Just one week after Tiffany disappeared, over 700 people showed up to search the
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area around Tiffany's walking route, hoping to find any clues as to what happened to her.
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>> There's something out there somewhere. We just haven't turned it up yet. >> It was freezing cold that day. It was
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terrible day. It was drizzling. It was cold. >> When you find any evidence, just stay
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away from it. Let me know. I'll come take a look at it. We'll get >> We had bus loads of troops that came in
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to help us with the search. We had Dolphins players, all of our friends and family from South Florida who were up
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here. Start down there by that fence. >> All coming. >> We went real hard at the area where she
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walked, trying to find the walkman, trying to find her watch, trying to find anything.
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>> And it turns up >> zero. Absolute zero. Not a thing. That was the longest drive home because
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I was so euphoric that well, we're going to find something. I think the hardest part was
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what do I do now? in your trying to solve the case. I would imagine you went up and down and
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up and down this road a lot. An awful lot. >> A lot. >> Former detective Jim Eert still
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remembers every step of the walking route he thinks Tiffany Sessions took the night she disappeared.
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>> This was all thick woods, >> so it would have been fairly easy to snatch. >> It was what you'd call a private place.
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This was a huge construction site with a lot of people coming and going. >> He always wondered if Tiffany's abductor
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could have worked here at Hunter Run. >> We talked to certainly as many as we could
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>> and nothing. >> Nothing. >> The hotline was receiving as many as 600 calls per day. But in 1989, technology
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was so primitive, detectives were quickly overwhelmed. We were using DOS systems and sticking big discs in
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computers and most cops didn't even know how to do that. You know, we didn't have
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a fax machine. >> They didn't have a fax machine. >> So, I bought him one. >> How many leads came in?
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>> Too many. I've always worried that there was so much that it got lost in the shuffle.
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>> Something fell through the cracks. Weeks turned to months. >> First month or two, still had a lot of
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hope. Every day that goes by, the odds drop astronomically and I knew that things were not looking good.
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>> And then detectives received a promising lead. An anonymous inmate wrote that Michael
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Nickerbacher, a convicted serial rapist and murderer serving five life sentences, confessed to killing Tiffany
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Sessions. >> You went and talked to her. >> Sure. >> He was a spooky guy. you got bad vibes
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off of him, you know, like, well, did you do this? No. Um, but here's how I would have done it.
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>> Michael Nickerbucker never confessed to detectives that he killed Tiffany, but
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he did confess that he was the one who wrote the letter as a mean joke. >> These guys do that. I mean, I can show
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you 50 letters that I've got from guys in jail. I realized early on that I was dealing with a whole subculture of
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people that were just subhuman. When the Nickerbacher lead fell apart, Pat offered a cash reward, hoping someone
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would come forward with information about his daughter. When you put out a reward, it happens in every case. You
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get every nut job. >> But one lead seemed credible. >> You get your hopes up. You think maybe
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this is it. >> It was from a man who said he knew where Tiffany was and that she was sick and in
00:16:51
need of medical attention. >> Just don't hang out. The caller sent Pat on a wild car chase all over Miami.
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>> He says, "You hang up. I'm going to kill her." >> But the caller turned out to be a
00:17:03
professional con artist. He was caught by the FBI and sent away to prison for a little over 6 years.
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>> I was emotionally up to here. I really thought this guy might really know something.
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>> And as the reward climbed to $250,000, Pat endured two more extortion attempts.
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And then one year after Tiffany went missing, when Pat thought the news couldn't get much worse,
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>> the two women found murdered Sunday afternoon were UF students. >> Within 4 days, five students were
00:17:35
murdered in Gainesville. Detectives had a serial killer on their hands. >> Did you think Tiffany could have been
00:17:44
connected to that? >> Oh, of course. The first day you wondered. Yes. I thought that maybe it
00:17:50
was the same person. [Music] Weeks later, an ex-con named Danny Rowling was arrested. He later confessed
00:18:02
to the five Gainesville student murders, but he never confessed to killing Tiffany.
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Detectives dropped Rowling as a possible suspect when they learned he was in Shreveport, Louisiana the evening
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Tiffany disappeared. [Music] The biggest challenge always in a case like this is to keep everyone motivated.
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>> When the leads dried up, private investigator Wayne Black tried to keep the momentum of the investigation going.
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>> The case got cold, so you have to remind them it's still a kidnapping. It's obviously a homicide and let's work it.
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>> And Pat and his team kept working it for 25 years. [Music] Was there ever a time that you wanted to
00:18:50
give up? >> Yeah, I could lie about that. I mean, there was times early on when I was just
00:18:56
so overwhelmed and didn't, you know, and the frustration of not knowing what to do. And the good news was even when I'd
00:19:01
started to slow down, everybody else pushed me. >> And no one pushed Pat more than this
00:19:06
woman. In 2006, Sadie Darnell became the first woman elected sheriff in Elatchua
00:19:12
County. She was just a young cop in 1989 when Tiffany disappeared. And that memory stayed with her.
00:19:20
>> It was very jarring and very scary and very haunting to think that that could
00:19:25
happen in our midst. And then this many years later, still having it unsolved >> throughout the years, even though she
00:19:32
was never actually assigned to the case, Sadi would mail and fax Pat words of encouragement.
00:19:38
>> September 15th, 1995. Patrick, I know this must be difficult for you to maintain a constant struggle
00:19:45
for Tiffany's case. I have always believed it can and will be solved. I have loyalty to you. The overall goal is
00:19:51
for you to have Tiffany back and in sometime in the future peace. >> Call me anytime to vent, strategize,
00:19:58
coordinate, kick butt, etc., >> etc. Always Satie. >> So, when Sadi became sheriff, one of her
00:20:06
main goals was to set up a cold case unit and find out what happened to Tiffany Sessions.
00:20:13
In January 2013, Sheriff Darnell hired Detective Kevin Allen to do just that. >> He's one of the best I've ever seen. In
00:20:22
fact, I kept asking, "Where has he been all my career? This is the kind of guy that gets the cold case stuff. That's
00:20:29
the kind of person that you need on this." >> She told me very matterof factly, "I
00:20:33
want this case solved during my tenure here." And Sheriff Darnell told Detective Allen
00:20:39
that she wanted him to focus on one man, a convict by the name of Paul Rolls. >> I've been in that case for a couple
00:20:46
weeks. I'd never read the name, never heard the name. She said, "Get down and talk to him. Talk to him right away.
00:20:52
Time is of the essence. [Music] I have an 18-year-old daughter. My daughter is the light of my life.
00:21:14
>> It's that personal to you. >> Yes. >> When Kevin Allen joined the Elatchua County Cold Case Unit early in 2013, he
00:21:24
knew working on the Tiffany Sessions case would be difficult for him. Just being a parent and just the thought of
00:21:31
something happening to your child. I have a picture of Tiffany Sessions I keep at my desk. I go to bed thinking
00:21:39
about the case and I wake up thinking about that case. >> We look at all the cold cases. We can't
00:21:44
forget the past and we can't can't just let it go. >> Sheriff Satie Darnell made the Tiffany
00:21:49
Sessions case a priority. >> You need to lift up every rock, peel back every layer. She started by giving
00:21:57
detective Allen that lead to look into convicted murderer Paul Rolls. >> What I found was that Paul Rolls was a
00:22:05
psychopath, a serial killer. He had sadistic tendencies, sadistic fantasies. >> And Detective Allen would soon learn
00:22:18
that Paul Rolls had a long and violent past that lasted over 20 years. In 1972, he killed his first victim,
00:22:29
former beauty queen Linda Fida. At the time, Rolls was a newly married 23-year-old architecture student.
00:22:37
>> Linda Fida was a neighbor of his. They lived in an apartment complex in North
00:22:41
Miami. Paul was a stalker. I mean, he would plan and watch his prey. He saw her through the peepphole in his door to his
00:22:53
apartment and that's how we watched her. >> When Linda Fido went to do her laundry,
00:22:58
Paul Rolls snuck into her apartment and when she returned, he tried to rape her.
00:23:03
She fought back and he strangled her. >> This was a nude young girl in the bathtub.
00:23:09
>> Detective Marshall Frank, now retired, rushed to the crime scene. One of the things that we found that was different
00:23:15
on this crime scene than other crime scenes was uh a couple of band-aids. >> Detectives were able to get toe prints
00:23:22
off those band-aids. Then a day after the murder, when they knocked on neighbor Paul Roll's door,
00:23:31
they immediately noticed band-aids on his toes. >> So, they went and took a toe print from
00:23:37
him, compared against the print that they had at the scene. They had their guy After his arrest, Detective Frank was
00:23:45
shocked when Rolls quickly confessed. >> There was no voices raised. There was no
00:23:51
uh hate or anger. Just kind of like matterofactly going over something that just happened.
00:23:57
>> Detective Frank says Rolls told him he had sexual urges that he couldn't control.
00:24:03
>> I just asked him, "How long have you had these kinds of feelings?" And he said,
00:24:06
"For a while now." My thought process was this man has a severe problem. Detective Frank believes Paul Rolls was
00:24:14
the most dangerous type of killer. >> When you met him at that time, he met a nice guy anybody would trust.
00:24:22
Have him over for dinner. You'd never know. You'd never know. >> Rolls was sentenced to life in prison
00:24:30
for the murder of Linda Fida. But in 1985, Roll's life sentence was abruptly cut short when he was suddenly
00:24:40
released and out on parole. >> I thought, "Oh my god, that's not good." >> That was the deal back then through u
00:24:47
prison overcrowding and lots of crime in the state of Florida. The average sentence for life in prison was 15
00:24:54
years. >> Rolls only had to serve 13 years of his life sentence. >> This is the kind of guy who should not
00:25:01
be released in prison. I mean, he committed a heinous crime without any guilt at all.
00:25:08
>> In 1988, Rolls settled in Gainesville, where he worked as a pizza delivery man.
00:25:14
He also had another job putting up scaffolding on that apartment complex, Hunter Run, located right on Tiffany's
00:25:22
walking route. >> He always stayed under the radar. When I interviewed his boss at Pizza Hut, he
00:25:28
said it was as if Paul didn't want to be seen. He just maintained an extremely low profile as many serial killers do.
00:25:37
>> In 1989, just one year after Paul Rolls moved to Gainesville, Tiffany Sessions
00:25:44
disappeared. >> How could somebody just totally disappear off the face of this earth
00:25:51
with no evidence? >> And it turns out Rolls did not show up for his pizza delivery job on the day
00:25:58
Tiffany vanished. And then in 1992, just three years after Tiffany went missing, Beth Foster, that
00:26:06
other college student, was found murdered just one mile from where Tiffany went walking.
00:26:12
>> Every time something happened up here in Gainesville, I was concerned. >> Tiffany's mom, Hillary, immediately
00:26:19
thought that the two cases could be related. >> You thought back then, back in 92, that
00:26:26
this could be a serial killer. >> Absolutely. The same guy who murdered Elizabeth Foster could have taken
00:26:31
Tiffany. >> Yep. And um I've said that all this time, but nobody wanted to listen to me.
00:26:39
>> Private investigator Wayne Black says at the time police couldn't link rolls to
00:26:44
either crime. >> Remember, we didn't have the forensics that we have today. We were really in
00:26:49
the dark ages. And even though rolls by then 43 was an ex-con living in the area, police never
00:26:59
questioned him. And just 2 months after Beth Foster's murder, he quietly left town.
00:27:06
>> Paul Rolls had lived in Gainesville for about 4 years and I think the heat was
00:27:11
on basically at that point. So he got out of town >> and in 1994 Rolls struck again. this
00:27:18
time in Jacksonville when he raped and attempted to kill a 15-year-old girl. She was able to escape and identified
00:27:26
Rolls as her attacker. Rolls was convicted and this time he was sent to prison for good.
00:27:33
>> He was confronted soon after the crime and gave a full confession >> to that crime.
00:27:38
>> Yes. >> To the young girl? >> Yes. >> But what about to the other crimes? Elizabeth Foster, Tiffany Sessions. He
00:27:46
wasn't interviewed about either of those cases in a timely fashion. The dots had not been connected. Over
00:27:55
the next few years, as DNA technology advanced, detectives submitted Roll's DNA to the FBI database to see if he
00:28:02
could have possibly killed others. And although it took 18 years, finally in 2012, there was a match to
00:28:11
Elizabeth Foster. How big of a development was that linking Elizabeth Foster's death to Paul
00:28:22
Rules? >> It was huge. Years go on, decades go on, and nothing's happening. No one new
00:28:28
information. So, it was energizing. It was wonderful. >> Sheriff Darnell knew that if Paul Rolls,
00:28:34
who was now 64, had killed Beth Foster, he could also have killed Tiffany Sessions. She was a young white female.
00:28:44
They lived in the same quadrant of our county. Paul Rolls didn't show up for work the day that she went missing.
00:28:53
You got to look at him. You got to look at him. >> Detective Allen couldn't wait to
00:28:58
confront Rolls, hoping he would cave and confess to Tiffany's abduction. But when
00:29:03
the detective went to question him in December of 2013, Rolls was in a coma and dying of lung
00:29:11
cancer. >> Did you hope that maybe he'd wake up? >> Oh, sure. And with a last twingech of
00:29:17
conscience, you know, could, would should say, I did it and this is where she is. But that didn't happen.
00:29:27
Paul Rolls died almost two weeks later, but Sheriff Darnell was not giving up. >> I sent an email to Kevin Allen saying,
00:29:36
"Crap, crap, crap. Get down there and get his personal belongings as soon as possible."
00:29:42
>> Something in her gut told her to get a hold of Paul Roll's personal property.
00:29:47
>> And what Paul Rolls left behind changed the entire investigation. And I got chills when Kevin showed it to me.
00:30:00
[Music] When Detective Allen went to retrieve serial killer Paul Roll's personal
00:30:14
belongings from jail, it was 24 years after Tiffany Sessions disappeared. It was just one box.
00:30:23
>> He didn't think he would find much >> and it's just a lot of letters and loose
00:30:28
writings and stuff. >> But then he came across Roll's address book. >> Said, "I should copy this. This might be
00:30:34
relevant." And there in the dead center of the book is a date 2989. >> I went, "Oh my gosh, cuz that's the date
00:30:47
Tiffy disappeared." Then he saw what Rolls wrote next to the date. >> Then number two, I knew Linda Fida was
00:30:55
his first victim and chronologically Tiffany Sessions would have been his second victim. I almost fell down when
00:31:03
when I saw it. >> What was going through your head? >> We have a possible link to the Tiffany
00:31:08
Sessions disappearance from Paul Roll's personal property. >> That's a huge break.
00:31:13
>> Lucky. Really lucky. And that's not all that was in the address book. Rolls had also written
00:31:21
down the names of all of his other victims. Linda Fida, Elizabeth Foster, and the 15-year-old girl Rolls raped and
00:31:33
attempted to kill in Jacksonville, a minor whose name we won't disclose. >> Some serial killers like to keep a
00:31:42
diary. Some keep artifacts. Some like to write down what they've done. A feeling
00:31:48
of accomplishment. Look what I did. I've got two, three, four. >> I said, "Can I see it?" This could be
00:31:54
the smoking gun piece of evidence Sheriff Darnell has been looking for all these years.
00:32:00
>> I was literally shaking holding it to see it and to see the depth of what that
00:32:07
meant. After all these many years, there's a possibility. just a possibility that this case could be
00:32:15
solved. >> Once he discovered the address book, Detective Allen ordered up cadaavver
00:32:24
dogs to search the site where rolls buried Elizabeth Foster. >> They all alert about 20 ft from where
00:32:32
Beth Foster was buried. >> So, what did that say to you? >> There's human remains here.
00:32:36
>> And it could be Tiffany. >> It could be Tiffany Sessions. He obviously was in a comfort zone
00:32:43
there. He left Beth Foster there for a reason. So he may have left multiple bodies there.
00:32:49
>> So on January 13th, 2014, just one month away from the 25th anniversary of Tiffany's disappearance, Pat Sessions
00:32:59
and Detective Allen have gathered a team of people to help at the excavation. >> 25 years ago, we started. I hope we're
00:33:07
going to finish. I want to be there for the end of this if it if it is. >> Some members of the team have been
00:33:12
searching for Tiffany since she went missing. >> I've probably been on over 20 searches
00:33:20
for Tiffany. >> Dr. Michael Warren is a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, an expert in
00:33:26
identifying human bones. >> I've had Tiffany Sessions master file on my desk for 21 years.
00:33:32
>> He's been actively involved in the search for Tiffany since 1991. She's just been uh one of the one of the
00:33:38
cases that I would really like to resolve. >> And he knows it is not going to be an
00:33:43
easy task. >> It's very hard to go out and do an organized search over such a large area.
00:33:48
So, we've got to be pretty aggressive. >> And if they find any bones, Dr. Warren
00:33:59
will know if they are Tiffany's. >> I've memorized her dental pattern and her dental chart. They'll know if it's
00:34:05
her or not. to find her would just be a remarkable feeling. >> Their plan to dig for 5 days.
00:34:14
>> I feel good about the operation. I feel good about the people on the ground. So,
00:34:18
we're all thumbs up. Trying to stay positive. >> After clearing the trees, they now begin
00:34:24
the tedious job of sifting through every bit of dirt, looking for pieces of human
00:34:29
bone. And in the afternoon, they do find a bone. But it's not human. It's a deer
00:34:37
bone. [Music] >> Pat is disappointed, but he knows they have a lot more ground to dig.
00:34:48
>> We've waited this long, worked this hard to get here. It's amazing the commitment
00:34:53
from everybody. >> And if they don't find Tiffany here, Jason will never stop looking for his
00:35:00
sister. I don't have any doubt if I drop dead tomorrow, you know, that he'll just
00:35:04
keep on going. And I hope he doesn't have to. Maybe we'll get lucky. [Music] >> Yeah, I'll continue looking forever. As
00:35:14
long as there's a lead to follow, we're going to continue looking. >> With just 3 days left to dig, Tiffany's
00:35:23
mother, Hillary, is adamant the search will be over. This is definitely the one. You know why? The pieces are
00:35:32
fitting. Everything is fitting in place. This is it. Is it hard to imagine that Tiffany might
00:36:00
be in that spot? >> I don't know what's worse. Having absolutely no idea what happened to her
00:36:06
or having someone as bad as Paul Rolls having done it. Believing serial killer Paul Rolls
00:36:17
murdered his daughter makes it even harder for Pat Sessions to understand how after receiving a life sentence in
00:36:24
1976, he was ever released from prison. >> That makes me sick. Tiffany would probably be alive today if they hadn't
00:36:33
let that guy out. [Music] On day three of the excavation, >> we're really moving some dirt. There
00:36:44
isn't a chance we're missing anything. >> Pat starts to wonder if rolls may have
00:36:48
buried Tiffany someplace else. >> Am I losing optimism that we're going to find Tiffany this goround? It's hard not
00:36:56
to. Later that day, Pat's fears come true when excavators finish digging in the areas where the cadaavver dogs alerted
00:37:05
and find nothing. >> Certainly, dogs are very good at finding the recently dead who are giving off
00:37:10
these these human specific uh scents. >> Forensic anthropologist Dr. Michael Warren says cadaavver dogs sometimes can
00:37:18
be unreliable when trying to solve cold cases. >> Skeletons are a different thing. They
00:37:23
just don't have any odor uh you know associated with them. [Music] >> And with no focus on where to dig by the
00:37:35
end of the week, the excavation comes to an end. >> We have not found Tiffany Sessions.
00:37:42
>> Was it disappointing? Yeah. Really disappointing. But we're never going to find out if we don't keep trying.
00:37:51
Good morning everyone and thank you for being here. This is uh been a long journey.
00:37:56
>> And then just three weeks after the dig, Sheriff Darnell goes public about Paul
00:38:02
Rolls. >> He was in this community. He murdered in this community. He had made comments
00:38:08
about this site being a dump site. >> Darnell hopes that someone will know something that leads them to Tiffany's
00:38:15
remains. If you had any involvement with him, if you know of anyone who had involvement with him, bring it forward.
00:38:22
There's >> for Pat and Hillary, there's a sense of finality to this moment. They think they
00:38:26
have their man, even if they don't have their little girl. And above all, they're grateful.
00:38:33
>> I want to thank the people who have come over the last 25 years. >> They're especially thankful to Detective
00:38:41
Kevin Allen. >> This is the guy that's made everybody work. He's the one who gave Pat and
00:38:46
Hillary the answers they've been longing for. >> I think he solved the case. I think we
00:38:51
found who took Tiffany. I believe that. >> I think anyone who has children is touched by the case of Tiffany Sessions,
00:39:00
especially myself. I know the sheriff, too. >> Thank you so much. >> Oh, yeah. You take care.
00:39:04
>> It was an emotional day for all of us. rest when you can. >> Tiffany's case is still officially open,
00:39:09
but over the years, Pat and Hillary have tried to bring closure to other parents
00:39:14
of missing children. Hillary has worked with advocates on child protection legislation and Pat works directly with
00:39:21
families. >> You know, you try to find something, as corny as it sounds, try to make some
00:39:26
meaning out of something, try and do something positive out of a terrible thing. And I think that's the best thing
00:39:31
I could do. You know, somebody calls me, I'm there. [Music] My cute little Missy.
00:39:44
I'm very comfortable here in her room. On bad days, like sometimes her birthday, I come and sleep here in the
00:39:53
room because I just feel very close to her at that time. [Music] I honestly do think that if Tiffany were
00:40:03
here, she'd say, "Get over it." I don't think she'd want me to be spending my entire life, having already spent 25
00:40:10
years of this, trying to do something that isn't going to bring her back. >> So, if you imagine that she would tell
00:40:20
you, "Knock it off, Dad. Move on." Why do you keep doing it? >> For my own benefit.
00:40:30
to try and to do what I think I should have done. I I don't want to ever if she walked in the door tomorrow, you know, I
00:40:39
want to be always be able to say that I did the best I could do. It's all anybody can do.
00:40:48
[Music] I love his smile. He has a beautiful smile. And look at his eyes. They just sparkle. My name is
00:41:43
Sharon Kranik and I'm Jim's wife. I've been his wife for 23 years. These were beautiful, happy days before
00:41:53
this whole nightmare started. >> Nearly 40 years have passed since Brighton resident Kathleen Krosenac was
00:42:00
found murdered in her own home. Now, prosecutors say Kroene's then husband committed the crime.
00:42:07
>> That's Jim as a young man. >> So, this is Jim's first wife, Kathy. >> Yes, it is. You can see Jim and Kathy.
00:42:15
So, obviously love one another. It was one of the most horrific crimes that we've seen in Rochester.
00:42:22
>> It does not appear that she ever saw this coming, that she ever woke up. >> The case is known as the Brain Axe
00:42:27
murder. This is the axe that was found in Kathy's head. >> Her three and a half-year-old daughter
00:42:33
was there throughout the day with her mom dead in the bed. >> How soon did Jim Krowzik become the
00:42:40
suspect in his wife's murder? >> Oh, I think within 24 hours. >> They felt that there just wasn't enough
00:42:45
evidence to charge him at that point. They went through the years thinking, "We're gonna get something."
00:42:50
>> It just went cold. >> James Krack will stand trial later this year for the murder of his wife in their
00:42:57
Brighton home nearly 40 years ago. >> No other physical evidence at the scene points to anyone other than James
00:43:04
Kranik. >> Basically, it became who else could it be? >> If Jim Krownik did not kill his wife,
00:43:11
who did? >> Larby. Early on, police learned about this fellow who was living not far from
00:43:17
the crime scene. >> This evil, evil, evil man that lived so close to Kathy and Jim.
00:43:23
>> Well, he was a one-man crime wave. He was a psychopath. >> They ignored him. >> I have absolutely no doubt that James
00:43:32
Krack killed Kathy Krauss that morning. So, you're saying that this man who had never shown any sign of violence before
00:43:40
and never shows any violence after snaps one night, one night in his life and puts an axe in his wife's head.
00:43:48
>> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Jim is a decent, loving human being. There is no way Jim would ever ever have
00:43:57
done anything like that. >> James Kick just doesn't look like an axe murderer. No, but Ted Bundy didn't look
00:44:03
like a serial killer. >> I did not murder Kathy. [Music] On a wintry night near Rochester, New
00:44:23
York, retired detective Mark Liberator is showing us how he helped bring one of the coldest cases in America to trial.
00:44:33
On February 19th, 1982, police officers arrived at this home. Which direction was her bedroom? It's
00:44:42
>> right over here to the right. and encountered a horrific scene. >> Their bed was on this wall.
00:44:49
>> The body of a 29year-old mother, Kathy Krownik, dead in bed with an axe lodged in her head.
00:44:58
>> It was a single blow to the head and she died instantly. According to the medical
00:45:02
examiner, >> Jim Krazik told police he arrived home from work and found his wife's body.
00:45:10
His three and a halfyear-old daughter Sarah was there and unharmed. Minutes later, he showed up at his
00:45:17
neighbor's house, seemingly traumatized with Sarah in his arms. The neighbor called 911.
00:45:24
>> Her husband's here and he can't even talk. >> Kraznik, a Kodak company economist, said
00:45:30
he'd left for work that morning at the usual time around 6:30 and was gone all day. Kathy had planned to stay home to
00:45:38
take care of Sarah. >> You know, the murder in and of itself is baffling and hard to believe.
00:45:45
>> Gary Craig reports for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. >> You had this element where
00:45:52
Kathy's daughter has been left in the house with her murdered mother. It's inconceivable that somebody could
00:45:59
do that. Police spoke with three and a half-year-old Sarah, but she didn't seem to grasp what she had seen. Mark
00:46:08
Liberator and his partner Steve Hunt of Brighton PD say investigators at the scene found no significant forensic
00:46:16
clues like fibers or fingerprints. And in 1982, DNA had not yet become an investigative tool. But it looked like
00:46:26
someone had pushed the pause button on a burglary. And there was a door leading into the house that had a pane of glass
00:46:33
broken out. And there was a mall, which is like a heavier axe on the ground leaning up against the wall. Right next
00:46:39
to that, the axe found at the door and the one in Cathy's head both belonged to the crow's necks. In the dining room,
00:46:48
there were valuable items scattered. >> And on the floor was Kathy's purse with the contents strewn about.
00:46:56
>> There was a tea set on the floor, too. Everything was standing straight up like
00:47:00
it was set there neatly >> and a black garbage bag next to it. Inside was a faint shoe print as if
00:47:08
someone had stepped in it to hold it open. But despite many apparent signs of a burglary, police say nothing was
00:47:16
taken. >> There's an officer involved in this case from the 1980s who hits the nail on the
00:47:22
head. We in Brighton do not handle a lot of homicides. We do handle a lot of burglaries and this was not a burglary.
00:47:32
[Music] [Music] Investigators suspected the burglary at the Kraznik home was staged to cover up
00:48:16
Kathy's murder. And they began to focus on her husband. >> Let's face it. I mean, more often than
00:48:23
not, it's the husband. >> But could Jib Krauss have committed such a brutal murder and left his baby
00:48:30
daughter alone in that house? We spoke to friends and family who said the couple had seemed happy.
00:48:40
Kathy and Jim had grown up in the same small town in Michigan. They met in high school, began dating in college, married
00:48:49
after graduation, and had Sarah in 1978. She was just so excited about her daughter. Just so excited about her.
00:48:58
Kathy Krauss's friend Kathy Beehey, >> and you can tell how beautiful she is, >> says she was a warm soul who lived for
00:49:06
love, but remembers feeling that the last time they saw each other, just 6 months before the murder, something just
00:49:15
didn't seem right. >> Not the vivacious Kathy that I remembered. What was the next thing you
00:49:21
heard? I got a call from my sister and she told me about Kathy being murdered. If Kathy and Jim were having trouble,
00:49:30
they kept it to themselves. But police discovered a pamphlet in the couple's car that offered services
00:49:38
including marriage counseling. And when they went to Kodak, they learned that Jim Krowac had gotten his job under
00:49:46
false pretenses, claiming to have a PhD when he had never actually completed the
00:49:52
program. There was also Kraznik's behavior. Initially, he was cooperative. >> He was willing early on to give
00:50:01
statements. >> Krowzac had spoken to investigators that night and the next morning, even
00:50:06
agreeing to another meeting that afternoon. But when the time came, >> he was gone.
00:50:13
>> Less than 24 hours after he found his wife murdered. >> Yes. >> Krazick's parents had driven from
00:50:21
Michigan and returned there with Jim and Sarah. When Rochester authorities followed them to Michigan, Krownik
00:50:29
continued answering their questions and even provided hair and blood samples. 10 days after the murder, he hired a
00:50:37
lawyer. Police had a suspect, but they needed to establish exactly when the murder had happened.
00:50:46
>> Back in 1982, the time of death gave a a very broad range. The science was that
00:50:52
you really could not pinpoint. Autopsy findings reportedly narrowed the time of death to between 4:30 a.m. and
00:51:00
as late as 7:30 a.m., an hour after Krownik claimed to have left the house. With no direct evidence against him, nor
00:51:09
any clear motive, authorities didn't want to try their luck with a jury. No one was ever charged with a crime.
00:51:17
Krownik and Sarah eventually moved out west. He would briefly wed twice more. And in 1997, he ran into Sharon James,
00:51:28
an old friend, when sparks flew. >> And he asked me out, and from then on, for two years, we dated.
00:51:36
>> Sharon says he told her about Kathy's 1982 murder, but didn't offer details. >> And I didn't want to cry because he
00:51:44
would start getting emotional. What was it that made you fall in love with him? >> Jim is so honest. He's so loving. I
00:51:56
wanted to be a part of his family. They married in 1999 and lived in Seattle. Sharon had no idea that more
00:52:05
than 2,000 miles away in Rochester, New York, someone else would set her sights on Jim Krownik.
00:52:14
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Dorley. Kathy really needed to have justice.
00:52:21
>> In 2015, the FBI provided resources to help Brighton police with their investigation.
00:52:29
>> I mean, you look at all those boxes of paperwork and evidence. It's It's daunting.
00:52:35
>> Detectives Mark Liberator and Steve Hunt of the Brighton PD took the lead and
00:52:41
they too became convinced that the evidence pointed to Jim Krownik. So on April 16th, 2016,
00:52:50
>> we were just having a lazy Saturday morning and then all a sudden the doorbell rang.
00:52:54
>> Hi, Mark Latitar. >> How are you? >> You wanted to surprise him? >> Absolutely. Probably a little bit
00:53:01
surprised while we're here. >> Did Jim at that point think maybe I better call a lawyer?
00:53:08
>> No. No, not at all. Um, on the contrary, she says her husband welcomed them in.
00:53:14
>> Hopefully you get some good news. we just want to kind of revamp everything, go through everything again with you.
00:53:19
>> They said, "We think we know who killed Kathy and we need your help in in in that type of a tone."
00:53:25
>> I'm sure you think about this, who could possibly for a long time, but >> but then Sharon says, "Detectives
00:53:33
Liberator and Hunt suddenly turned up the heat." >> Did you have anything to do with this?
00:53:38
>> I didn't kill Kathy. >> I disagree. >> Well, >> I think you did. And you could see his
00:53:43
heart pounding through his shirt. >> I know. I know he did not murder his wife. >> Sharon, how can you be so sure? You only
00:53:53
have Jim's word for it. >> No. When you're married to a man, you know his heart and you know his soul. Jim
00:54:02
could never, Aaron, never in this world do something so horrific. But the detectives still hope to find
00:54:12
what investigators 40 years ago were never able to find. A smoking gun that tied Jim Krowzic to the Brighton Axe
00:54:21
murder. >> Now, you have to remember back in 1982, there was no such thing as DNA testing.
00:54:26
So, my first thought was, you know, what can we test? >> We sent the evidence from 82 back to the
00:54:33
FBI lab. The results, there was no DNA evidence that directly tied Krownik to the crime, but none tying anyone else to
00:54:43
the murder either. >> The most important thing was finding the absence of someone else's DNA within
00:54:48
that home. >> But to charge Jim Krownik, they wanted to prove his wife had died before he had
00:54:54
gone to work. >> We need a definitive time of death. [Music] In order to prove Jim Krow killed his
00:55:13
wife Kathy, authorities needed to be able to pinpoint what time she died. Back in 1982, the medical examiner was
00:55:21
only able to say that Kathy was killed sometime between 4:30 and 7:30 a.m. And since then, other experts have agreed
00:55:31
with her. In 2018, prosecutors then turned to Dr. Michael Boden. Boden, a forensic pathologist,
00:55:40
has been hired to work on a who's who of who done it cases. from OJ Simpson to the assassination of JFK to the reported
00:55:50
suicide of disgraced finance seer Jeffrey Epstein. Using the same file from 1982, Boden
00:55:58
said it appeared Kathy died at about 3:30 a.m. hours before Jim Krowix said he left for work. He's the only medical
00:56:08
examiner to reach that conclusion. You know, some people may say that we're looking for an opinion,
00:56:14
>> but if in fact Dr. Boden had agreed with the other medical examiners, would you
00:56:19
have hired him? >> Absolutely not. >> Prosecutors went before a grand jury and Krauss was indicted on November 1st,
00:56:28
2019. >> Do you have any doubt about Jim Kraznik's guilt in his wife's murder? >> I have absolutely no doubt.
00:56:38
Attorneys Bill East and Michael Wolfford both believe Jim Krowzik had zero motive
00:56:44
for murder. >> They had a wonderful relationship. They had a wonderful family. >> Jim Krownick went to work. Someone came
00:56:52
in and killed Kathy Krownik. We think that someone was Ed Larabe. >> Ed Larabe, a monster just down the road.
00:57:03
He was just a violent son of a gun and terrible, terrible human being. >> Larabe hunted women. He was a
00:57:11
psychopath. >> Before dying in prison, Larabe was locked up for a total of 32 years on
00:57:18
charges that ultimately included attempted murder, robbery, and his sixth specialty, rape.
00:57:27
In 2014, Ed Larabby, who was suffering from ALS, contacted the FBI claiming he was a serial killer and one of the
00:57:37
victims he listed was Kathy Krauss. >> Larabe lived very close by and she was someone that uh he was going to pray on.
00:57:47
>> The idea that decades earlier Ed Larabe might have murdered Kathy doesn't come
00:57:52
as a surprise to investigators. Everybody from back in that time frame is familiar with Ed.
00:57:57
>> Police went to question him shortly after Cathy's murder, but Ed Larby wasn't talking back then. They filed
00:58:04
their report and then backed off. And is it fair to say the police dropped the ball in that case? Because you've got a
00:58:13
sexual predator within minutes of the house and they they don't do anything more than visit him once. Oh, I think
00:58:21
it's very fair to say that to have apparently ignored Ed Larby in 1982, whether he did or didn't do it is
00:58:31
clearly was just a major lapse in the investigation. >> I don't know that I'd use the phrase
00:58:37
drop the ball. And unfortunately, the officer and the sergeant who approved that report are both deceased.
00:58:44
Still, the FBI and detectives Liberator and Hunt don't believe Ed Larby murdered
00:58:50
Kathy. This is a guy who has a long history of hurting women and he's confessing to killing Kathy Kra.
00:58:59
>> Yeah, but was way off base. >> Why are you so sure it's not Edward Larby? >> Because his confession didn't match up
00:59:08
to the facts. As simple as that. Larabe said Kathy had dark hair when in fact she was blonde. That she was heavy set
00:59:17
when she wasn't. Authorities were convinced that Jim Krownik, not Ed Larabe, wielded that
00:59:26
bloody ax, but the case could hinge on mere minutes and prosecutors proving that Krazik was
00:59:34
at home when Kathy was killed. You look at the evidence, it's clear she was killed in her sleep.
00:59:52
[Music] An opening statements today for the James Krauss trial 19. >> The stage was set for a gruesome drama
01:00:03
in search of its final act. >> Really? How would you describe the last 40 years on your family?
01:00:10
>> This been a terrible It's just god awful. And >> Kathy's cousin Susie Jakamovich
01:00:16
witnessed the shift in Kathy's father, Bob Schlloer, who today believes Kraznik is a killer, but for years was certain
01:00:25
his son-in-law was innocent. >> I just don't think that he would that he would do such a thing.
01:00:31
>> I mean, had there ever been a real serious problem in their marriage that anybody had heard of? Not that I knew
01:00:36
of. >> But investigators believe the marriage was secretly crumbling. >> He snapped is what we believe. He just
01:00:45
snapped. >> People look at Jim Krownneck. He just doesn't look like an axe murderer.
01:00:52
>> What's the axe murder look like? >> Bob says that over time, Krowzik began separating Sarah from her mother's
01:00:59
family. >> We didn't see Sarah anymore. Not only was Kathy taken away, Sarah was taken
01:01:06
away. >> Sarah's a grown woman now, firmly standing by her dad, as sure that he's
01:01:12
innocent as prosecutors Constance Patterson and Patrick Gallagher are certain he's Cathy's killer.
01:01:21
>> No doubt at all. >> Absolutely no doubt in my mind. >> Time itself had been a daunting
01:01:26
challenge in this case. So investigators pursued evidence that didn't rely on the
01:01:32
frailties of memory, like the physical crime scene. >> I wanted to not only prove that that
01:01:39
Kathy was clearly killed in the early morning hours, but also prove that it was a stage burglary.
01:01:45
>> Authorities argued the scene was staged by someone who had no idea what a burglary looked like.
01:01:52
>> Uh the house wasn't ransacked. In fact, there was cash on the dresser in the room where Kathy was killed that wasn't
01:01:58
taken. >> The broken glass, the placement of that mall. >> They wanted us to believe that the mall
01:02:05
was used to break that pane of glass. >> That silver tea set barely disturbed. >> And when you looked at the pieces that
01:02:13
don't fit, the reason they don't fit is because it was a stage burglary. >> Then there was that faint shoe print
01:02:20
investigators found inside this garbage bag. The only way that gets in there is when the the bag is being opened, when
01:02:26
items are being placed in that bag, >> and somebody is putting their foot on there so they can hold it open.
01:02:32
>> So, you're stepping on the edge of that bag, holding one edge, and you're placing that silver in the bag.
01:02:37
>> Investigators say the print was from a boat shoe. >> There's a picture in that bedroom where
01:02:43
you can see next to the bed, you can see these boat shoes. And >> and whose shoes are those?
01:02:49
>> And those are James Krauss shoes. But the shoes Krazac wore back then were not
01:02:54
tested to see if they were a match. And his lawyers say it's not just the wrong theory. It's the wrong man.
01:03:03
They say it's Ed Larabe, that career criminal who before he died had confessed to killing Kathy.
01:03:11
>> He lives four-minute walk away. >> But there's the problem of Larabe's MO. Remember, he was a repeat sex offender.
01:03:20
Was there any sign that Kathy had been sexually assaulted? >> None whatsoever. >> Do you believe that there was tunnel
01:03:30
vision in this investigation? >> I think there was this overwhelming urge and desire to solve the crime and
01:03:39
it had to be Jim Krownik. >> Cameras were allowed into the courtroom as lawyers made their final pleas. The
01:03:48
mystery of Kathy Krownik's death remains to this day and we submit it has not been resolved by this trial. Common
01:03:58
sense tells you this was a stage burglary. Those are the only reasonable inferences that can be drawn from this
01:04:04
case. There are no eyewitnesses. There are no ear witnesses. There is no direct evidence. That was the case 40
01:04:15
years ago. and that's the case now. >> But Gallagher reminded the jury that pathologist Michael Boden put Kathy's
01:04:23
possible time of death at 3:30 a.m. >> Common sense tells you she died early that morning.
01:04:31
>> As we said at the outset, there was no new evidence, simply a new opinion by Dr. Boden. We don't think that cuts it.
01:04:40
>> The case would now go to a jury. Jim Krowzix's fate will now be determined by 12 strangers.
01:05:04
Altogether, it takes the jury less than 10 hours of deliberations. >> The four person, please rise.
01:05:10
>> To reach a verdict. guilty. >> Jim Kraznik is guilty of secondderee murder. >> I remember standing up and I saw this
01:05:22
one deputy across from me and I said, "Oh, please let me hug my husband." He said, "No, no, I I can't.
01:05:35
>> We got our justice for 40 years. Thank God we got it. The jurors we spoke to insisted they
01:05:47
decided this case on the evidence. Evidence they admit had divided them at the start.
01:05:53
>> I just kept thinking someone else really could have done this. >> The forensics did not point to anybody
01:06:00
else. >> The most important thing to me was the stage burglary scene. They said that the
01:06:07
stage scene was a critical clue and there was something else they seemed to agree on that it was impossible to say
01:06:14
exactly when Kathy died. >> We threw out all of that testimony. We it it meant nothing to us.
01:06:23
>> But their verdict means everything to Kraznik's heartbroken daughter Sarah who
01:06:29
spoke on her father's behalf at sentencing. I've been blessed with the most extraordinary parents. Sadly, they have
01:06:38
both been taken from my life. My mother's killer got away with her murder, and my father's life has been
01:06:44
taken by a failed justice system that convicted him of a crime he did not commit.
01:06:49
>> But Sarah's grandfather, Kathy's father, has a different message for Jim. >> And Jim, I hope you live to be 100 years
01:06:58
old and enjoy your new home. And finally, it's up to Jim Krownik himself to take one last opportunity to
01:07:07
address the court. >> I did not murder Kathy. >> I love Kathy with all my heart and with
01:07:15
all my soul. >> The judge is unmoved, giving this 71-year-old Kraznik 25 years to life
01:07:24
behind bars. >> You're going to stand by him no matter what. Oh, absolutely. >> But 6 months after Jim Krowac was
01:07:35
sentenced, he died of cancer in prison. Sharon, Sarah, and Jim's legal team are appealing the verdict, hoping to clear
01:07:44
his name. Line up for a new season of 48 Hours. Two important cases, two all new
01:08:02
episodes. 48 Hours, Saturday, September 16th on CBS. [Music] [Applause] I have visible
01:08:26
holes in my memory from when I was a kid. You know, trauma and it's a different kind of trauma
01:08:36
because there's a monster involved. It's 30 years later. I can't imagine many things that are as terribly
01:08:50
lifechanging. I was two weeks away from my 17th birthday. What could I have done? What could I
01:08:57
have done? >> Okay, I've got the command on the phone down there. >> A week ago today, uh Sarah Wood, a
01:09:07
12-year-old, left this church and was traveling a short distance about a mile to her home. She made it about halfway
01:09:14
and uh we found her bicycle at around 4:30 that afternoon. I am Dusty Wood. I am Sarah's older
01:09:23
brother. >> I was 16 when she was abducted in 1993. >> We need to know where Sarah is.
01:09:33
Please help us find her. >> When I got a call from my sergeant that there was a missing girl, they didn't
01:09:40
say runaway. He said missing child, which was unusual. So, I immediately drove up there. This is a church uh that
01:09:46
Sarah's father was pastor at at the time. The day that this happened, she was here doing school work.
01:09:52
>> Tell me where she rode. >> She would have gone right out out here and right down this road.
01:09:57
>> So, this is where she took a turn. >> Yep. Her her house is not too far up here on the left. This is the area where
01:10:03
the bicycle was found. >> I remember that moment. I'm standing next to my mother and that's when you
01:10:09
know it's all over. It's all over. [Music] [Music] >> We set up a station there. We could do
01:10:26
everything out of that church. >> Descend right up in here. >> There were troopers from all over the
01:10:29
state. >> All over the state there. >> Days went by, weeks, months, >> right? Would either one of you have ever
01:10:37
guessed the turn this case would take on January 7th, 1994? >> No. >> And this was still back in the day of
01:10:44
where telet types would come across. >> One came over about an abduction or attempted abduction in Massachusetts.
01:10:51
>> 12-year-old uh Rebecca Saves. She's simply walking to school. She's approached by a stranger who puts a gun
01:10:59
to her and that broke the entire case. >> She's the key. She's the lynch pin. She
01:11:03
what she's what made it all happen. He got away. Okay, that's what put us out to Louiswis Lent.
01:11:08
>> Lewis Lent came across as just kind of an ordinary guy. He was a handyman. I don't think anybody would have ever
01:11:16
conceived that he was doing what he was doing. I'm Julia Cowie, retired FBI agent and
01:11:25
profiler. He was prepared with duct tape. He had a gun with him. He had a knife with him. He had rope with him. So
01:11:33
he was always ready. He's a child predator. You he enjoyed going out and driving around and in his words hunting
01:11:42
for children. >> He killed Sarah Enwood. He did confess to it. But we don't have Sarah's body.
01:11:51
>> Finding the body is important because then my mother could know where she is.
01:12:01
Do you think Lewis Lent will give that up? >> I don't know. If he does, it won't be
01:12:06
out of the goodness of his heart. He does have a lot to hide. [Music] Heat. [Music]
01:12:46
Heat. [Music] My sister's life ended and I couldn't stop that. Someone hurt her and took her life.
01:13:13
I know at the time I felt like I could have done something, but I couldn't. She was an exuberant person. She was
01:13:22
excited to be alive. >> It's been a little over three decades since his 12-year-old little sister
01:13:29
disappeared. But for Dusty Wood, memories of Sarah have not faded with time. >> Morning, Sarah.
01:13:36
>> What? >> Good morning. >> Good morning. You >> ready to eat? >> No, I want to stay here and play a video
01:13:43
game. Every picture you see of her, it's like a big beaming smile, those bright blue eyes.
01:13:50
>> Dusty says the two of them had a lot in common. >> I'm an extrovert. She's pretty
01:13:58
extroverted. She's not a person in the background. She stuck out. >> Hey, Dad. Dad, over here.
01:14:10
>> She was funny. I imagine she would be funny now. On August 18th, 1993, Dusty, then just 16 years old, was
01:14:20
enjoying a lazy summer day with his family in Sequoia, a small town in central New York.
01:14:28
>> That day, we had gone shopping. Uh we had come home. We just hung around the house. We lived in the country, so there
01:14:34
wasn't a lot of stuff to do. Sarah had made plans to ride her bike to vacation Bible school at the church
01:14:43
where her father was a pastor. It was just about a mile down the road. >> The last time I saw her, she was singing
01:14:52
Dolly Parton. >> Do you remember what song she was singing? >> Working 9 to5. Yeah. She and I were at
01:14:58
the front door. And so I was listening to her as she's working 925. And then she uh got on her bike and was like,
01:15:07
"See you later." >> When Sarah didn't return home later that afternoon, Dusty and Sarah's parents
01:15:16
began to worry. >> So, I remember getting a phone call from my parents at my friend's house. Hey,
01:15:23
did you see Sarah? And me being like, "No." And so at that point, we rode our bikes and came home.
01:15:31
Didn't see her. Soon after, that's when a neighbor came across Sarah's bike hidden in the bushes on the side of the
01:15:38
road, less than a half mile from the family's home. Police were called around 6:00 p.m. New York State Police Trooper
01:15:48
Timothy Blae, who is now retired, arrived at the scene. So, Tim, where was her bicycle found?
01:15:56
>> It was off the grassy area. It was in where the shrubs are. And there was also
01:16:00
some school paperwork that was around. Some papers were blowing around. >> And at the time, did anyone remember
01:16:06
seeing a truck or or a child being grabbed or anything? I mean, she just vanished.
01:16:11
>> Yeah. Well, as you can see, I mean, there's nobody here really to see anything, you know.
01:16:15
>> By early evening, the massive search for Sarah began. We'd be out in the woods searching for
01:16:25
her at midnight, 1:00 in the morning, hoping that we find her in maybe a hole or a she fell down in something.
01:16:33
>> 48 Hours was invited by Sarah and Dusty's parents, Bob and Francis Wood, to witness those early days of the
01:16:42
investigation in hopes that the media attention would help find Sarah. >> Hold for an officer and I'll be right
01:16:49
with you. It would become one of the largest searches for a missing child during that time.
01:16:56
>> The first day was the worst first night. >> We're uh just checking to see if anybody
01:17:04
had any information on the Sarah Woods case. >> First night, of course, you know, I was
01:17:07
up on the road all night, out in the woods all night. Second day, I was on the road all night watching.
01:17:15
>> Swiggle pioneered command post. Bob Wood's tiny church was turned into a state police command post.
01:17:22
>> Command post around. >> The more people we can reach early on while the thing is still fresh in their
01:17:27
minds, the better chance we stand of maybe turning something up that that'll help us.
01:17:32
>> The big thing as far as the uniform troopers are concerned is the door to door.
01:17:36
>> Anything out of the ordinary in the past week or so? >> No. Can that be done with the chopper?
01:17:43
>> The thing that keeps everybody going is the uncertainty. not knowing whether she's dead, whether she's alive, whether
01:17:49
she's a mile away, or whether she's 120 miles away. >> So now all I'm doing is praying and
01:17:54
encouraging people cuz they're doing all the work. >> We've expanded the search operation.
01:18:00
We're probably into the area of 600 square miles. I'm getting in fresh crews. I got more
01:18:08
crews coming in from different parts of the state. >> And we're going to be crawling on our
01:18:11
hands and knees. It's really thick once we get down in there. >> Let's find that guy, bud. Let's go. When
01:18:16
you're dealing with a child, if it hits you personally, it hits me personally, you tend to devote 110%. Let's go try
01:18:24
one. I hope we find this girl. >> Thank you, Lord, for this day. And we thank you now for the good food that we
01:18:30
have. We do ask that you would uh be with Sarah, nourish her, protect her. Please bring her home to us tonight.
01:18:38
>> How's it going, guys? Sarah's father doing a good job out there. That's like,
01:18:42
you know, I'm on a precipice and there's a there's a deep dark cliff there. >> Hi. How you doing, hun? Good.
01:18:48
>> I'm glad you're here. >> I really am. And if I step over and and in self-pity and start to go down there,
01:18:55
I may not be able to get back up. >> How you doing? >> I'm doing just fine. >> Francis is strengthening daily. She's in
01:19:01
the Bible a lot. Dusty, he's strong. He's real strong. >> Tell me about yourself.
01:19:06
>> Oh, myself. Yeah. Uh >> I don't know. What we need is a break, a good solid lead that we can take and finish this
01:19:22
case up with. >> And Bob believed police were going to get that break. >> We're doing the state of Texas.
01:19:29
>> If enough people could see his daughter's face, >> somebody stops one of these stores and
01:19:34
gases up 10 minutes later to see my daughter, they could make the phone call we need to get. You see this little
01:19:40
person here? This is my baby. Whatever I have to do, I'm going to do to find this
01:19:43
little girl here. >> Sarah's mother, Francis, made a public plea. >> Whoever behind this, I don't hate you. I don't
01:19:52
hate you. I just want my daughter back. That's enough. I just want her here. Right here with us.
01:19:58
>> Investigators were determined to find out what happened to Sarah. And they did
01:20:03
not shy away from looking anywhere or at anyone. Our entire family was focused on
01:20:10
getting Sarah back. So, you want to investigate me? I'm okay with that. Sarah's got to come home. We'll do
01:20:18
whatever it takes. Period. [Music] When this happened, people realized this could happen to anybody. It could be
01:20:37
their children. >> Retired New York State police detectives Reese Train and John Fallon were state
01:20:45
troopers when Sarah Wood disappeared in 1993. >> My daughter was only 5 miles from there
01:20:52
when this happened at her grandparents house at 3 years old. It's home. >> T and Fallon were part of the army of
01:21:00
investigators from around the state. Thank you for your help. >> Assigned to search for Sarah. We had no
01:21:06
vehicle. She didn't just go into thin air. >> They would join Frank Lawrence, one of
01:21:12
the lead detectives. >> Something or someone had to have taken her. >> There he is right there, Sarah. Channel
01:21:19
2. >> Yet, despite the weeks of media attention that Sarah's case received, Lawrence, now retired from the New York
01:21:27
State Police, says law enforcement still had very little to go on. >> Somebody took her. We didn't know. So
01:21:34
when you don't know, you have to eliminate everything, every possibility, and you start local.
01:21:40
>> And that included questioning the people closest to Sarah, her brother, and her
01:21:46
parents. >> You had to look at the woods. >> The woods were looked at. >> I mean, it wasn't that tough, though.
01:21:52
>> It's very It's always difficult to do that, you know, especially in this case
01:21:56
because they're such good parents. >> Bob Wood was there every day. >> I'm glad you're here, though. You're
01:22:02
helping out a lot. every day. >> Investigation isn't over. Uh, this is one facet.
01:22:08
>> I had a hard time going to every day. >> Once the woods were eliminated, Lawrence
01:22:13
says they turned their attention to investigating known and suspected sex offenders.
01:22:19
>> Each and every one of them had to be spoken with and eliminated. And we did. We did.
01:22:28
>> And they still had nothing. >> We got this section done. Oh, >> despite the long hours and heavy
01:22:36
manpower until a bitterly cold day in January 1994, 5 months after Sarah disappeared,
01:22:46
officer Timothy Blae was working in the command center when a message came in via teletype, a device that police
01:22:54
departments used at the time to share information. One came over that about an abduction or attempted abduction in
01:23:01
Massachusetts that I handed off to Frank. >> Another 12-year-old girl named Becky
01:23:07
Savarice was almost abducted as she walked to school in Pittsville, Massachusetts,
01:23:13
100 miles away. Becky didn't respond to 48 hours most recent request for an interview, but back in 1994, she did
01:23:23
speak with me and told me her remarkable story. I was coming up here. >> It was 7:10 in the morning on January
01:23:32
7th at one of the busiest intersections in town. >> I was listening to my music. He He was
01:23:37
on the side of me. He >> like where I am. >> Yeah. He was saying stuff before. I
01:23:42
didn't know what he was saying. So, I took my earphones out to um hear what he was saying. And then he said, "Do you
01:23:48
see the gun I have?" I was like, "Yes, I I see the gun you have." He's like, "Just do everything I say. Everything
01:23:54
would be perfectly okay." I was like, "All right." >> He had it up against you. >> He had He had about maybe an inch away
01:24:01
from me. >> Were you scared? >> No, >> you weren't scared. >> I wasn't scared. We turned down here to
01:24:07
where his truck was parked. >> Now he wants you to go in the truck that's over there,
01:24:12
>> right? >> You're not intending to go into that truck. >> No, it if I got away, I didn't care if
01:24:18
you shot me. I I just knew I was not going to get into that truck. >> Why? Why did you know that? Was that
01:24:24
something someone had told you or? >> I I just felt it inside me. I knew I was not going to get into that truck.
01:24:30
>> That's when Becky came up with an idea that possibly saved her life. She faked
01:24:35
an asthma attack. >> I started to fake that. I was like losing breath when I was trying to take
01:24:40
my backpack off. Uh when I he tried to grab for me, he got my backpack and said and I just ran. Becky ran into a man
01:24:49
clearing snow off a sidewalk who called the police. At about the same time, a witness called in with three digits from
01:24:58
the truck's license plate. Investigators began searching for the vehicle. >> I remember it well because it was a
01:25:05
blizzard. Despite the snowstorm, a Pittsfield officer spotted a truck with those three digits in its license plate
01:25:14
sitting in a driveway in a residential area. The officer quickly called for backup
01:25:20
>> and they knocked on the door and said, "Yeah, who was driving this truck earlier?"
01:25:25
>> The homeowner told the officers a friend named Lewis Lent had borrowed the truck
01:25:31
and he just happened to be sitting in the kitchen. When police entered the house to question Lent, he denied
01:25:39
knowing about Becky, but willingly agreed to come down to the police station. Had Lewis Lent, that name Lewis
01:25:46
Lent, ever come up before? >> No, not in our investigation. >> Had he ever been connected to a
01:25:53
disappearance of a child? >> No. >> But he had a criminal history. >> Yeah, some minor things like bad checks
01:26:00
and forged checks, things like that, but nothing that approaches this. And when investigators searched Lent's vehicle,
01:26:07
they knew they had the right man. >> They found Rebecca's backpack. They found the gun. They found duct tape and
01:26:15
clothesline rope. Basically, his his kidnapping abduction kit. >> Although the attempted abduction was 100
01:26:22
miles away in Pittsville, Massachusetts. Everyone wondered if Lent could have also taken Sarah.
01:26:30
>> Got a call from the lieutenant. He says, 'Well, go home and pack a bag and you're
01:26:34
going to Pittsfield. [Music] Almost 12 hours after the attempted abduction of 12-year-old Becky Savarice,
01:26:55
New York State Police Detective Frank Lawrence struggled through a snowstorm and finally arrived at Pittsville,
01:27:02
Massachusetts, eager to speak to Lewis Lent, but he would have to wait his turn.
01:27:08
>> There's similarities, but it's a Pittsfield case. Okay. They would talk to him then and we get him in between.
01:27:14
>> And he was willing to talk to you? >> Yeah, he talked to us. And during their
01:27:18
conversations, Lawrence says he and two other New York investigators made sure Lewis Lent understood why they were
01:27:26
there. >> I actually showed him this poster and I said to him, "Lou, this is who I'm here
01:27:32
to talk to you about." So, he knew that eventually we're going to be talking about this. Okay.
01:27:37
>> How did he react? Did he >> He He was He was He was flat. >> Flat. >> Yeah. He was flat through the whole
01:27:44
thing. Did that make you think he had no idea who she was? >> I I didn't really care. I was going to
01:27:49
find out. That's what we were there for. >> But getting Lewis Lent to admit anything
01:27:54
was not going to be easy. Although Becky Saves and a witness picked him out of a
01:28:00
lineup, it took Lent until the next morning to admit he had tried to take her. Lewis Lent was arrested and charged
01:28:09
with kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. But New York investigators were not done with Lent.
01:28:17
They started to ask him questions about other missing kids. >> We talked to him. We spent a lot of time
01:28:22
with him. >> And that's when Lawrence says he and New York investigators came up with a
01:28:27
strategy. >> We found out that he was religious. >> So he says they brought a Bible into the
01:28:34
interview room. >> That Bible sat on the table in front of him. anytime he would wander, okay, we
01:28:42
would use the Bible and we go, Lou, you got to tell the truth and this comes from the heart. You got to tell us the
01:28:48
truth. We would go back to the Bible. And Lawrence says the strategy appeared to be working because as the hours went
01:28:57
by, Lent started to reveal things about himself and some very disturbing plans for the future that involve kidnapping
01:29:07
young victims. >> He told us about his master plan. Once he found the acceptable vulnerable
01:29:14
individuals, he was going to bring them back to his house and put them in like a ceue like I
01:29:20
describe it as a coffin, but keep them alive so he could use them and have them whenever he he wanted them.
01:29:27
>> Investigators would later find the beginning of his horrifying construction project when they searched Len's bedroom
01:29:35
and found this wooden partition wall. And things only got worse. He wanted to talk about Jim Bernardo.
01:29:45
>> Jimmy Bernardo was a 12year-old boy who had gone missing three years earlier in
01:29:50
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A month later, hunters would find his body. The case had stumped local
01:29:57
investigators for years, but now Lent was about to tell everyone what had happened to Jimmy.
01:30:06
He was riding his bike through a strip mall in uh Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Lewis Lent was a janitor at the cinema
01:30:14
center there in Pittsfield. >> When Jimmy stopped in front of the cinema to wake for a friend, that's when
01:30:21
Len said he offered him money to help him clean the movie theater. Jimmy agreed.
01:30:27
>> And then once Len got him inside, he overpowered him and kidnapped him. Lent told investigators he drove Jimmy 200
01:30:35
miles to a rural and isolated area near his hometown of Reynoldsville, New York.
01:30:41
Then he said he strangled Jimmy to death and left him there. >> He had details that only the killer and
01:30:48
the police knew. >> As horrific as that revelation was, investigators kept pressing him about
01:30:55
Sarah Wood. >> The more we talked about Sarah, we're probing. He's responding. >> And then five months after she went
01:31:04
missing, Lewis Lent finally confessed. Lent admitted that he had kidnapped, raped, and then murdered Sarah M. Wood.
01:31:14
>> She was vulnerable. He was hunting and he found the victim. >> And just like Jimmy Bernardo, Detective
01:31:23
Lawrence says Lent's account matched details only known to investigators. Lent knew specifics about what Sarah had
01:31:31
been wearing and details about her bike that had not been made public. >> He knew that the chain on the bike was
01:31:38
broken. And he also said that the bike was a little bit big for her. >> I didn't know that. I found out later
01:31:46
that it was. >> Then Lawrence says Lent drew them a map showing where he said he buried Sarah's
01:31:53
body. >> This is just a copy obviously, >> right? that this is actually what Louis
01:31:58
did. >> He drew that. I handed him a piece of paper and this is what he drew. >> And where did he say he put her?
01:32:06
>> Al Route 28 up by Blue Mountain Lake. >> Blue Mountain Lake is located in a remote woody area near Racket Lake in
01:32:14
New York's Aderandac Mountains. And within hours, police from all over New York State were dispatched and
01:32:23
searched the area. Bob Wood was there along with Dusty who was a senior in high school.
01:32:30
>> It was very cold. It was ridiculous and it was tons of snow. Remember a lot of
01:32:37
helping? A lot of people. >> How you guys doing for tariffs up here? >> Was that a time when you thought you
01:32:42
might be able to bring Sarah home? >> Yeah. >> For over 50 days they searched for Sarah
01:32:49
in the aderondex. >> It was 30 below zero. We could only stay outside for 20 minutes at a time. We
01:32:55
were in waist high snow. We had shovels. We're digging. We're looking for any evidence at all having anything to do
01:33:02
with Sarah. And we were hoping we somebody would come up with something that had something to do with her. It
01:33:07
just didn't happen. >> As investigators continued to look for Sarah's body, Lent would face murder
01:33:14
charges in both Massachusetts and New York. It was a rare occasion where everyone was laser focused on one event,
01:33:24
which was find Sarah, bring him to justice. [Music] Before Lewis L could be tried for Sarah
01:33:42
Wood's murder in New York, he first had to face charges in Massachusetts. In 1995, Lewis went on trial and was
01:33:53
ultimately convicted for Becky Savarese's attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to 17 to 20 years.
01:34:02
Almost 1 and a half years later, after taking a plea, he was given a life sentence for murdering Jimmy Bernardo.
01:34:11
>> Television, radio, and newspaper outlets. Then on June 6th, 1996, Lewis Land arrived at Herkimer, New York
01:34:20
to a media frenzy. >> And the district attorney wanted justice for Sarah Anne Wood and her family.
01:34:27
>> Jeffrey Carpenter is Herkimer County's district attorney. He wasn't in office
01:34:32
when Sarah Wood was murdered, but he has studied Lewis Lent's case files. He says
01:34:38
the DA's office thought Lewis Lent was going to plead guilty to killing Sarah, but without warning, Lent changed his
01:34:46
mind. >> But it's my understanding that when he entered the courtroom and he saw certain
01:34:50
members of the public, especially I think her family, he decided on that day he did not want to enter a plea.
01:34:57
>> Days later, Lent would change his mind again and finally entered a guilty plea.
01:35:04
>> What do you remember of him sitting there? I couldn't believe how small a man, you know, I couldn't believe it.
01:35:10
Not imposing. >> Almost 4 years after Sarah Wood was abducted and murdered, Lewis Lent was
01:35:17
sentenced to 25 years to life. He was sent back to Massachusetts to serve the rest of his life in prison.
01:35:26
>> He will never cause harm to anyone else. >> But it was not over for the Wood family
01:35:32
and New York State Police investigators. They still needed to find Sarah. >> He changes his story so often, it's hard
01:35:40
to hard to tell what's the truth and what's fiction. >> In fact, Detective T says Len's original
01:35:47
story that he buried her in the Racket Lake area turned out to be a lie. He cashed a check on August 18th in
01:35:57
Pittsfield at 6:18 p.m. So, he did not physically have time to abduct Sarah at around 2:30 p.m. and then drive to the
01:36:05
Aderondex, dig a grave, bury her, and then drive back to Pittsfield to cash a check. So investigators continued to
01:36:14
visit Lent in prison, hoping that over time he would reveal where he buried Sarah and perhaps even disclosed the
01:36:24
murders of other victims. Detectives Fallon and T say they visited Landon prison about 20 times. Isn't it
01:36:34
difficult at times though for the two of you not to just jump across the table and grab him?
01:36:39
>> No. One of the things you have to do is you have to leave hate outside of the
01:36:43
room when you go in. >> They didn't push him, but during their conversations, Lent revealed that he
01:36:49
often suffered from blackouts and claimed he had an evil alter ego that he called Steven.
01:36:57
>> He has this dichotomy. This is the word he used. He has a really good side that
01:37:01
studies the Bible and actually was a traveling minister. Then he has this evil side and he has these uh
01:37:08
uncontrollable compulsions. This is the way he put it to do terrible things that
01:37:13
he could not stop. Somehow Lent managed to hide that evil side from nearly everyone he knew.
01:37:20
>> Lewis Lent spent the last year. >> Back in 1994, 48 hours correspondent Richard Slesinger
01:37:27
interviewed some of Lent's friends. >> This sidewall here, it was caving right in.
01:37:33
>> Right. And uh >> he helped you with that too, huh? >> Oh, yes. >> To Phil Shalies, who is legally blind,
01:37:40
Lent was a good Samaritan. >> Just came over and said, "Well, I'd be glad to give you a hand. I hear you're
01:37:47
doing uh work on your foundation." He said, "I'd be glad to help you out." We built a border all the way around. We
01:37:54
put in probably hundreds of hours working together in that salary. It was definitely hard work. He
01:38:00
>> And he did that all out of the goodness of his heart. And yes, I did. >> To Frank Colette, the dean of students
01:38:06
at a Bible school that Lent attended, he was a gentleman. >> He was intelligent. He was unassuming.
01:38:13
He was quiet. Uh, one thing about Louie that everyone remembered was he always had his hand out to to shake your hand
01:38:19
when you were meeting one. And if you didn't watch out, he give you a big bear hug.
01:38:24
>> He had a lot of children with him, young kids. The kids would play video games,
01:38:27
and then they would come in, go to the movies, and he would bring them home. to Richard Bowman who employed him. Lent
01:38:33
seemed like a mentor to children. >> They called him the big brother. >> They did.
01:38:38
>> Oh, yeah. >> The kids. >> Yes. >> Bowman owned the movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor for six years.
01:38:46
And he thought he knew Lent very well. >> I I hired him. I worked side by side with him.
01:39:01
What's What's >> Tell me what's going on. >> I just feel as though I may have missed
01:39:10
something that he might have said or done that would have keep me >> that would have let
01:39:16
>> just just give me a clue that there was something wrong with this guy. People
01:39:20
have trouble understanding that you can have this very religious, god-fearing, nice, polite man in contrast that to his
01:39:31
other side where he is hunting and praying on and killing children. Those can exist in one person. Julia Cowie is
01:39:42
a retired FBI agent and profiler who worked on cases like the Golden State Killer. She now hosts a true crime
01:39:50
podcast called The Consult, Real FBI Profilers. >> This podcast is about criminal
01:39:58
profiling. >> Callie has never met Lewis Lent, but at our request, she reviewed his background
01:40:04
and studied his confessions. She says that what appeared to be Lent's desire to help people could actually have
01:40:12
served a selfish purpose. by helping all these people. This is a way to maybe hide who he really is to gain people's
01:40:23
trust. When you do that, you can manipulate them. You can control them. It's strategically motivated as opposed
01:40:30
to being motivated by true emotion. >> Just like other serial killers she has studied, Cowi says Lent is completely
01:40:39
selfcentered. >> His needs come before anybody else's. Obviously, he had no regard for his
01:40:45
victims. He has no regard for victim's families. >> Something Reese Tr says he has seen
01:40:51
firsthand. >> He knows what emotions are that other people have, but he doesn't feel them
01:40:57
himself. One of the things that he said in the past that is that the murders ruined his life. He's remorseful that he
01:41:06
got caught, that it ruined his life, but he doesn't think in terms of it ruined anybody else's life. He just doesn't
01:41:12
think that way. >> Lewis L so quickly admits to kidnapping and and killing Sarah Wood. Why not tell
01:41:22
it all? Why not give all the details? >> It's just a secret he wants to hold on to. It's his. It's the only thing he has
01:41:29
that's his own that he can control. And a bit of sadism. Knowing that family members want answers. continuing to hurt
01:41:37
them is something I think that he feeds off of. It's it's there's some enjoyment
01:41:43
in there. Most killers don't tell us everything. They rarely give the full story.
01:41:50
>> Instead, Lent reveals what he wants when he wants on his own timetable. And in
01:41:57
2013, he revealed something new. >> I've described it as speaking directly to the devil. He really is the devil.
01:42:07
[Music] As detectives Fallon and Train continued to question Lewis Len about Sarah Wood
01:42:27
and other possible victims, in 2013, he made yet another confession. >> He ended up admitting to uh killing
01:42:37
Jamie Lusher. Nine months before Sarah was abducted, Jaime Lusher, a 16-year-old teen with disabilities,
01:42:45
disappeared in Westfield, Massachusetts, just 40 miles from the Pittsfield area.
01:42:54
>> Again, he was riding his bike um through a parking lot of a friendly restaurant.
01:42:59
>> His bicycle was later found in a wooded area close by. Len told investigators
01:43:05
that after he kidnapped and murdered Jaime, he discarded the teenager's remains in Greenwater Pond in Beckett,
01:43:14
Massachusetts. >> We had divers go actually with the Massachusetts State Police divers and
01:43:21
they all dove the pond and uh nothing was found. >> As he has done many times before, Lent
01:43:28
would later recant his confession. Authorities decided not to charge Lewis Lent with Jaime's murder, hoping that
01:43:36
one day he will lead them to his body. >> At this point, we're not interested in
01:43:41
further prosecution. He's not going anywhere. >> At a press conference shortly after the
01:43:45
confession, Jaime's sister talked about the grief she endured since her brother went missing.
01:43:52
>> Anybody that knows me knows I talk about this. I think about this every day. It's this searing heartache in part that
01:44:01
keeps authorities motivated to find the missing. So soon after Lent confessed to
01:44:07
killing Jamie, DA Jeffrey Carpenter got permission to take Lent, who was serving his life
01:44:15
sentence in Massachusetts, out of prison and back to New York. This time they drove him around hoping he
01:44:23
would reveal anything that would help them find Sarah. >> So really, what did we have to lose? We
01:44:30
had to do it. We drove to the Massachusetts border. We drove to the Vermont border. He took us to where she
01:44:36
was abducted. He took us to where he claimed he murdered her. But after three long days and over 600 miles of driving,
01:44:45
Carpenter says New York authorities ended the operation. >> The consensus was he absolutely knew
01:44:53
where she was. He just was not going to tell us >> before Carpenter sent Lent back to
01:44:58
Massachusetts. He recorded this conversation with him. >> You know, we spent some time here last
01:45:06
couple of days. Hope you feel you were treated with respect. All the way. >> Yeah. Treated well.
01:45:11
>> Yeah. >> Well, that was our end of the bargain, right? >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Yep.
01:45:15
>> What was your end of the bargain? >> Do the very best I can to find Sarah. >> Yeah.
01:45:21
>> Yeah. >> Is that what we've done? >> That's what we've done. I would say that
01:45:26
uh I tried. I was absolutely sure that I knew the route, but when it came down to it, I
01:45:37
could only get partial of what I what I actually where I actually >> what was going through your head when
01:45:44
you're talking to him. >> Anger. He does not forget details. He recalls details. He recalls many things
01:45:54
until he wants to pretend he doesn't remember. A decade after that fruitless search in
01:46:02
November of 2023, investigators were back out looking again. This time at the Green Mountain
01:46:10
National Forest in Vermont after Detective T identified an area with landmarks that Lent had talked about
01:46:18
during their many conversations. >> Just too many things matched up. A lot of a lot of a lot of boxes were checked.
01:46:26
What's more, search and rescue dogs taken to the area had alerted to a possible body there.
01:46:34
>> So, we were hopeful, optimistic that we would find something there, and we we
01:46:38
never found anything. >> But authorities kept looking. Earlier this year, detectives went back to the
01:46:45
seller that Lent worked in with Phil Shalley's to see if they missed something in 1994.
01:46:52
The search turned up. No new evidence. Do you feel in a way that you might be running out of time? Lewis Lent is in
01:47:02
his 70s. >> It's a concern, but that's one of the things we can't control. >> Regardless of the challenges,
01:47:08
authorities say they will never stop looking for Sarah Wood and Jamie Lusher. Dusty Wood says he chooses not to think
01:47:19
about Lewis Lent. And every day I'm less angry because I devote my energy to positive things.
01:47:29
>> Every year Dusty and some family members participate in the Ride for Missing Children. Ready?
01:47:36
>> Rolling. >> A 78 mile bike ride that was created in Sarah's honor by Bob Wood. The writers
01:47:46
wore jerseys that were turquoise and pink, the colors that Sarah wore when she was abducted.
01:47:56
Riders stop at schools along the way to talk about abduction prevention. The most important thing for us as a family
01:48:08
is to protect kids and make sure that if there's anything that can be done to protect them from monsters like Lewis
01:48:15
Lent, that it be done. Riders pay silent tribute to those children whose families hold out hope
01:48:25
that they will be found alive. and to children who went missing and are never coming home like Sarah M. Wood.
01:48:38
Dusty says he and his family are grateful to their community who have supported them since the beginning.
01:48:46
There will be never a way to repay the kindness of strangers. That opened up the possibility of giving the
01:49:00
best chance to my sister. >> He's not sure if they will ever find his sister's body, but he is at peace.
01:49:09
I'm waiting for the day I see Sarah in heaven. And I know that day is coming. And that
01:49:16
makes me feel good. [Music] [Music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode. [Music]