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[music] >> Do you remember the case of Crystal Champagne? Yes. I in my business, most of the time
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you're doing autopsies on bad guys. But doing autopsies on children is something that
00:00:34
quite often will stay with you. My name is Fraser McKenzie. I'm a forensic pathologist. And in 1996, I was
00:00:44
doing autopsies for the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office. Crystal Champagne was a 14-year-old
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loving, caring child that would help anybody. She loved sports. She loved animals.
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And she wouldn't hurt anybody. Just somebody I miss very much. I am Dawn Champagne and I'm Crystal
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Champagne's mother. Everything would seem like it was just a regular day going on. When I say she
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left my house about 5:15 and went to the store. She went to go get her some noodles. She liked her
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Chinese noodles. And that was the last time I seen her. I was asking people if they seen her
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and I couldn't find her. I called the police. >> I need to get a cop to my house. My
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14-year-old daughter's been missing for the last 2 and 1/2 hours and can't find her nowhere. She's been missing? Yes.
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Okay, what's your daughter's name, ma'am? Crystal. C R Y S That's the hardest night of my life.
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Champagne? [snorts] Uh-huh. Just standing up waiting for her to come knock at the door.
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14-year-old white female had reported missing approximately 24 hours prior to her discovery.
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Deputies found the Champagne's oldest daughter under the Huey P. Long Bridge last night. She was found unresponsive.
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A ligature was found around her neck. Manner of death is considered to be homicide.
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Authorities believe she may have also been sexually assaulted. Damon Thibodeaux was a 22-year-old
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drifter who came to town recently as a cousin of the family. I got a job here as a deckhand. Thibodeaux was someone
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the family trusted. Police were questioning Damon when news came of Crystal being found dead. By the end of
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the questioning, Damon confessed [music] to the rape and murder of Crystal Champagne. Wrapped the wire around her
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neck twice. Yes. You tell them you did do it. Yeah. You confess. Mhm. I was in shock.
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>> [snorts] >> You don't just say that you murdered her. You say you raped her. >> Mhm.
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It was surprising to hear that that he confessed to doing it. My name is Damon Thibodeaux.
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Until someone is in the position that I was put in, they will never understand why someone confesses to a crime they
00:03:15
didn't commit. Like so many places along the banks of the Mississippi, Westwego, Louisiana,
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attracts strangers in search of work on boats and barges. It is why 22-year-old Damon Thibodeaux,
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who had come to town for a family wedding, stayed. He had been in town for only a month
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when Crystal Champagne was killed. In these very high-profile cases, there's a great deal of pressure to get
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the case solved and ease the worried mind of the public. Attorney Danny Leblanc remembers the day in July 1996
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when Damon was arrested for murder. >> His picture was in the paper the next day. We got the guy that killed the
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girl. The Champagne family had befriended Damon when he first arrived at the New
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Orleans suburb. He was a distant cousin whom they barely knew, says Crystal's mother, Dawn. He just seemed to be an
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ordinary person. Was he ever inappropriate with your daughter? Not that I ever noticed. I mean, did you
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consider them as part of your family? Yeah. Damon was with the Champagnes on the hot
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Friday afternoon when Crystal said she was going to walk to the store. Had she asked you for a ride?
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>> Yes. And you said no? >> no. When she didn't return and her mother panicked and called police
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>> What's your daughter's name, ma'am? Crystal. Damon joined family and friends in a search
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all through the night. We checked the park where she plays softball at. We checked the shopping
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center right around the neighborhood, you know, just looking for 24 hours after Crystal went missing,
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police brought in Damon and others for questioning. He was still there when the case became a homicide.
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This people come walked over here a minute ago and they found a little girl dead by the river.
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Crystal's body was found by a family friend near the levee in Bridge City, about 5 miles from her home. It's now a
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murder investigation. It's no longer missing persons. And the conversation, he says, got
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rough. I was increasingly under the impression that I was not going to be able to leave.
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Because they thought you had done it. Around 1:00 a.m., Damon agreed to take a polygraph. And what did they tell you?
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Did you pass it? No, they said I failed it. That's the point where I realized I was
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never going to walk out of there. Damon says he felt doomed as the grilling continued for another 3 hours.
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>> They kept asking the same questions over and over and over and over and over and over again.
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Finally, he says, he was too exhausted to take anymore. What did you tell them? Whatever they wanted to hear.
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Damon told investigators that he had found Crystal at the store and drove her to the levee. When she resisted having
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sex with him, he said he killed her. When you left, how was she laying? But you're confessing to a rape and
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murder. They were not going to let me go until I did it. Hours later, when Damon met with an
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attorney, he denied having anything to do with Crystal's death. But he had already been arrested and charged with
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rape and murder. Help me out with this a little bit, Damon, because I can't imagine in my wildest dreams admitting
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to a horrific crime, including giving some grizzly details, if I didn't do it? At first I thought so, too.
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But after not sleeping, not eating, I'm thinking, well, okay, I'll give them what they want to hear,
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and the evidence will come out, and it'll show I didn't do it, and people will see that.
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In fact, almost nothing Damon said matched the evidence, says attorney Danny LeBoeuf. They could have known
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within 24 hours that the confession was really stinky. That it almost couldn't be true.
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At first glance, it did appear that Crystal had been raped. Her shorts and her underpants were down about her
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knees. But when Dr. Fraser McKenzie conducted the autopsy, he found no sign of sexual assault.
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>> She didn't have those kind of injuries. >> No. >> [music] >> Nor did he find any seminal fluid.
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Damon also told investigators that he choked Crystal with his hands. Not likely, says Dr. McKenzie. There's
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no kind of injury that would be associated with using your hands. >> Correct. Instead, the neck injury was caused by
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red industrial wire. Police found its source hanging on a nearby tree. I had a wire or something.
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They ask him, "Where'd you get the wire?" And he said, "From the trunk of my car." They say, "What color is the
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wire?" And he said, "It was clear, like speaker wire." I've got black wires and gray wires. Black car,
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also. And when the interrogator finally says, "Did you have any red wire?" Come on.
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You wrapped the wire around her neck twice? Yes. We did believe that we had the right
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guy. We did believe that it was a um a good case, and we believed that he was the the perpetrator. Paul Connick became
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the Jefferson Parish District Attorney six months after the murder. >> It's hard to believe that anyone would
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confess to such a terrible crime if they didn't commit it. When Damon Thibodeaux went on trial in
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1997, he was confident that facts would show that he had falsely confessed. [music]
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>> I'm thinking, well, this is all going to come out in the courtroom and this jury is going to see, well, this
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guy didn't do this and that'll be the end of it. There was no physical evidence tying him
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to the crime. >> They had 84 pieces of physical evidence in this case and not one
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went back to Damon Thibodeaux. But a detective explained the lack of evidence of rape by suggesting that
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insects had consumed all the fluids, a theory that he never discussed with the state pathologist.
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>> You're actually laughing. Is it is his explanation laughable? In my opinion, but I'm knowledgeable.
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For a jury, they're not knowledgeable. But could that have destroyed any evidence of sexual assault?
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>> No. No. The jurors also heard from two women who claimed seeing someone who looked like
00:10:49
Damon on the levee the day of the murder. Damon did not take the stand, [music] so he did not explain why he admitted to
00:10:57
the crime before recanting. His incriminating words echoed in the courtroom. [music]
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Everything you said do you swear is true to the best of your knowledge? Yes. What went through your [music] mind as
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you're listening to these? Why couldn't I be a little stronger? What was it like seeing Damon in the
00:11:29
courtroom? It hurt. I just wanted to ask him why. Dawn Champagne was convinced that Damon
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Thibodeaux killed her daughter. These are people you consider family and they think
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you killed Krystal. What was that like? It was weird. I mean, what what what do you tell someone in a situation
00:11:56
like that? Jurors took just 1 hour to reach their verdict. You get the sinking feeling
00:12:03
that this isn't going to go right and then here it comes. What do you remember hearing? Guilty.
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Guilty. Damon was convicted of the rape and murder of Krystal Champagne. I was glad because it meant that they
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had who did it. His sentence, death by lethal injection. And then in October 1997,
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Damon Thibodeaux was sent to Louisiana's notorious Angola prison. He began to despair.
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You get to a point where you don't want to be in that cell anymore and that's the only way out.
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Execution? >> That's the only way out of that cell. What made you change your mind then?
00:12:53
Denny. Denny, as in Denny LeBoeuf. She walks in one day. She said, "Look, I read your
00:13:00
case. She's an anti-death penalty attorney who fights to get inmates off of death row, no matter what they did to
00:13:08
get there. I mean, you make no bones about it. Most of your clients are guilty. >> Absolutely. And the work that I do, I
00:13:14
want to do on behalf of people who have tragically committed a homicide. That ain't Damon.
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LeBoeuf was convinced that Damon Thibodeaux was innocent. She immediately appealed the verdict, but 2 years after
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Damon stood trial, the State Supreme Court reaffirmed his conviction. A major victory for Jefferson Parish
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District Attorney Paul Connick. Do you still feel it's a good verdict? >> Absolutely. We had the confession, we
00:13:43
had two witnesses who put him on the scene of the murder around the time of the murder.
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Dannie LeBouef couldn't give up, but she was overwhelmed. She sought help and found it in a place 1,200 miles away, in
00:14:01
Minneapolis. And here's where the body was found. Down in here. Steve Kaplan was a partner
00:14:10
at Fredrikson & Byron, a well-heeled civil law firm that takes on a few select criminal cases pro bono.
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>> As soon as I met him, it completely changed the stakes for me. It was not clinical. It was deeply personal.
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It was in the look he gave me as he was saying goodbye that I remember. Will always remember.
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His life is in your hands. >> Correct. How big a difference did it make when you got help from Minneapolis?
00:14:39
Everything. Right away, the attorneys took another look at the witnesses who said they saw
00:14:46
a man who looked like Damon on the levee. But they then said, "And you know, the police tape was around and the
00:14:52
police were here." Well, that was the night they found her, not the night she was killed. They also reached out to the
00:14:58
now retired state pathologist, Dr. Fraser McKenzie. When he testified at the trial, he didn't know the details of
00:15:07
the case. >> All I know was there was a confession. I have no knowledge whatsoever of what
00:15:14
is contained in that confession. None. And when you find out? Then I'm really upset. The confession does not match the
00:15:22
physical evidence. When you heard that he was convicted of rape, what did you think?
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>> I was just aghast because at my examination, there was no evidence of a rape. McKenzie signed an affidavit for
00:15:35
the defense outlining the serious discrepancies he found in Damon's story. >> I want the truth to come out and and for
00:15:43
it to be known. What's more, McKenzie was able to help establish the time of Crystal's death
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sometime before darkness fell at 7:50 p.m. about 2 and 1/2 hours after she left her home.
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That's crucial because Damon Thibodeau was with Crystal's family for most of that time.
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>> There was absolutely no time within which Damon could have possibly committed the crime.
00:16:12
The defense contends that Damon was only on his own for about a half hour to 45 minutes. I sat in the parking lot in my
00:16:21
car. And how long were you gone? Uh just long enough to smoke a joint. It's 10 minutes from the apartment to
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the crime scene. Another 10 to come back. That's 20 minutes. And it would have left no time for him
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to have done the murder, cleaned up, disposed of all the incriminating evidence, cleaned his car, and gotten
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back to the Champagnes, presumably fully composed and ready to rejoin the search.
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Was there anything about Damon that made him more likely to be manipulated? I think so.
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He was only 22. He had never been through anything like this in his life. And his background made him even more
00:17:09
vulnerable, Kaplan says. I'm not asking any specifics, but you were abused as a child, weren't you?
00:17:16
Yeah. Yeah. Dropped out of school? Yes. Damon had a childhood that was very, very tough and that produced a guy who
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would just rather walk away from a fight. After spending nearly a decade in the most hopeless place there is, by 2005,
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Damon had dozens of legal professionals, all volunteers, >> [music] >> fighting to get his case heard and
00:17:43
overturned. I said, "Well, these people are going to fight to prove I didn't do this, I'm going to
00:17:50
fight with them." Also on his side, attorney Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project based in New
00:17:56
York. >> Well, this was a no-brainer for us. You could see that this confession was
00:18:03
quite problematic from the start. Scheck says that while 25% of the country's exonerated inmates had confessed to
00:18:10
crimes they didn't commit, the hard fact is no court is likely to release a man who admitted to such a brutal murder.
00:18:20
So, he came up with a novel and controversial idea. Instead of fighting lengthy court
00:18:27
battles that were iffy at best, why not take Damon's case directly to their adversary?
00:18:34
>> We believed that we could persuade the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office that they were dealing with an
00:18:41
innocent man. But, that would mean showing the D.A. everything they had. >> There's always the danger that all of a
00:18:49
sudden you'll come up with some horrible evidence of guilt. That can happen. If you don't get Damon out, he's going
00:18:56
to die. I have been in the death house at midnight when they kill my client and watch that and I know
00:19:04
how real it is. >> [music] >> 450 miles away from Angola prison in the rural town of Hanceville, Alabama,
00:19:24
a 14-year-old boy got a shocking letter from a death row inmate. I was like, "What
00:19:32
Who is this?" It was a birthday card from the father he had never known. I hope this card finds you well. You have
00:19:40
questions and I want to answer them. I want to know you, so please write. How did you sign your letter?
00:19:46
Damon. Not Dad. No, I didn't think I had earned the title Dad, you know, because I was never there.
00:19:55
Damon Thibodeaux was 17 when his son Josh was born. Damon lost contact with him when he broke up with Josh's mom.
00:20:04
I wanted to be part of his life, but I was just I was a stranger to him. I wrote him back and um
00:20:10
I pretty much asked him who he was. I wanted Josh to know that I wasn't a murderer. At that time, I didn't know if
00:20:17
he was guilty of it or not. After many letters over several years, Josh began to believe in his father.
00:20:29
I wanted to meet him. I wanted to meet my dad, and he didn't want me to do that.
00:20:36
Did I want to see him? Yes, very badly. But I wanted to be able to talk to him without having chains on my feet.
00:20:49
Hug him without having chains on my feet. But fighting a case post-conviction takes time, lots of time. So in May
00:20:59
2007, having already spent nearly 10 long years on death row, Damon agreed to allow Barry Scheck and
00:21:08
his other lawyers to show the district attorney all the evidence they had gathered. There was some skepticism.
00:21:15
>> [laughter] >> The [snorts] man is on death row. He's on death row. It's a horrible murder.
00:21:23
And surprisingly, Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick was willing to hear them out. He
00:21:31
came in along with his team. I had all of my chiefs in the room. The easy thing to do would be to rely on
00:21:38
the conviction. You know, this is going to be politically a hot potato here. Why
00:21:41
are we going to reopen this case? Let's just leave this lie and let the courts decide. I bet there are people in your
00:21:46
office who said that. >> They're thinking, "Hey, this is good conviction. Why Why are we going down
00:21:49
this road?" But certainly there was enough presented to me whereas I sat there, I'm thinking,
00:21:56
"I got to look at this." Connick was troubled enough by what he saw that he agreed to open an
00:22:01
investigation, not just working alongside the defense team, but also splitting costs. They would re-examine
00:22:10
the physical evidence. This was a bloody crime scene and a bloody struggle. There
00:22:14
would have to be some transfer of trace evidence on the person who committed this crime. So, let's take another look
00:22:20
at what was already tested using today's technology. This is a very scary thing.
00:22:28
The risk haunted Danny LeBouef, who feared Damon's DNA could have innocently ended up on Crystal.
00:22:35
They're going to test his clothing and his car for hairs. And she lived in the house where he slept on the sofa. She'd
00:22:46
ridden in his car. It would stop this case cold, I believe, if one little bit of forensic evidence
00:22:53
matched Damon. But there was little choice. So, every bit of the clothing that Damon
00:23:00
and Crystal had worn was scrutinized for any speck of telltale DNA. In all, the testing took another 2
00:23:08
years. Was any DNA from Damon Thibodeaux found on any of the evidence? >> No. No. Was anything from Crystal found on
00:23:18
anything belonging to Damon Thibodeaux? >> No. Was there anything that connected Damon
00:23:24
Thibodeaux to the to the crime scene? >> No. I was expecting those results. But you
00:23:30
had to be thrilled. >> Oh, yeah, definitely I was thrilled. Cuz now I have something tangible to
00:23:35
stick in front of the DA and say, "Look, you got the wrong guy." But Konic saw other problems with the
00:23:42
case, like the defense claim that Damon didn't have enough time to kill Crystal.
00:23:47
Was that true? It all hinged on Crystal's mother, Dawn. She first told police Damon was back at
00:23:55
her home when she called 911. Our 14-year-old daughter said that she was there 2 and 1/2 hours. But later at
00:24:02
trial, she said he wasn't. When we questioned her about her trial testimony, she went back and forth and
00:24:08
finally said, "Whatever I told the police is my best recollection." If that's right and Damon was with the
00:24:17
family by then, it was virtually impossible for him to have driven Crystal to Bridge City.
00:24:24
Yet, since he confessed so soon after Crystal's body was found, the police never looked into who else might have
00:24:33
taken her there. There was never a wide-ranging investigation as there should have been after a homicide.
00:24:41
LeBoeuf says there were plenty of people to question, like the friend who said he
00:24:46
spoke with Crystal on the phone just hours before she disappeared, or the relative with an arrest record
00:24:53
for violent crimes who lived close to where her body was found. And Crystal did have friends in Bridge
00:25:01
City, including one now serving life for aggravated rape of a juvenile. I can't tell you if any one of those men did the
00:25:10
murder or or knows anything about the murder. I can't tell you sitting here. What I can tell you is that any decent
00:25:16
investigation would have asked them. And what about that family friend who found Crystal's body hidden deeply in
00:25:23
the brush along Mississippi River? People walked over here a minute ago and they found a little girl dead by the
00:25:29
river. Just how did he manage to do that? What made you go look that one other spot?
00:25:37
Because of the dream. That's all I can say. Because of the dream. You have to look at the case and say,
00:26:02
let's start with the oddities, the things that really don't add up. And what really doesn't add up, says private
00:26:08
eye Jen Victory, is how and where 14-year-old Crystal Champagne was found. This is the Huey P. Long Bridge and at
00:26:17
the foot of the bridge here comes into a community called Bridge City. Victory, who was part of Damon
00:26:23
Thibodeaux's post-conviction defense team, is a CBS News consultant. When we walk down and we see where she was
00:26:30
found. Crystal's body was discovered deep in the brush around 5 miles from where the teenager had disappeared alone
00:26:39
on foot. >> Everybody in the entire police department is looking for her in Westwego, which is 50 minutes away.
00:26:45
So how did this man, John Tomlinson, happen to find her in the very first place he looked. It's something about
00:26:53
me. See, there's weird things that people don't understand about me. I can have a
00:26:58
dream and it'll actually come true. And it scares me. A dream, Tomlinson said, now claims led
00:27:06
him to the body. Although back in 1996, he told police it was his intuition. What did you actually dream?
00:27:16
All I in my dream was remembered just staring up and being standing right underneath the Huey P. Long Bridge.
00:27:25
We tracked down Tomlinson to Ball, Louisiana, where he was working as an auto mechanic.
00:27:32
Back in 1996, he was a 30-year-old tugboat deckhand living in the same Westwego apartment
00:27:40
complex as Crystal's family. It I It haunts me every day that I found her body. It kills me every day.
00:27:52
>> [snorts] >> What do you mean, Tommy? She's a good kid. She didn't deserve it.
00:27:58
She had a lot of life to go. Tomlinson had been dating a close friend of Crystal's mom, Stacy Melanson.
00:28:07
Crystal often babysat for Stacy and was at her home just hours before she disappeared.
00:28:14
Tomlinson insists he was on a tugboat asleep when Stacy called to tell him that Crystal was missing. I I
00:28:22
never really run my mind that she would run away. You know what I mean? She was too good of a kid. She was too happy.
00:28:30
The next evening, he says, Stacy picked him up at the dock and they handed out flyers in the neighboring Bridge City,
00:28:37
even though they were far from Crystal's home. At a convenience store, he says, a woman
00:28:43
told them she had seen a girl who looked like Crystal walking alone on the levee
00:28:48
about a mile from the bridge. So, I said, "Okay, Stacy, let's go take a little trip."
00:28:55
But, Tomlinson didn't search the area where Crystal was reportedly seen. Instead, he drove on for about a mile,
00:29:03
stopped the car, and told Stacy to stay behind. That dream is what drove me there.
00:29:10
Then, without hesitation, he says, he followed a path into the woods. Well, there's a little trail here, you know.
00:29:19
And I walked in and God love, there she was. Where was she? Dead under the Huey P.
00:29:25
Long Bridge. When I looked up, I was looking at the same thing that I was looking at in my
00:29:31
dream that I when I was standing on the tugboat. I mean, how did you know that that's
00:29:38
where you would find Crystal's body? A hunch. Just a hunch. Based on the dream, just a
00:29:46
hunch. That story obviously didn't go down well with investigators who took Tomlinson in
00:29:54
for questioning. I walked in about 10 ft and found the body. What made you go there?
00:30:01
Intuition. I went through 9 and 1/2 hours of intense interrogation. It was the same thing over and over and
00:30:10
over. I really felt like they were trying to make me say that I did it. That is, until Damon Thibodeaux, going
00:30:18
through his own interrogation down the hall, told police that he did it. Police then lost interest in Tomlinson,
00:30:27
especially since his alibi, >> [music] >> claiming that he was on a tugboat that
00:30:32
was far downriver on the night Crystal was killed, appeared to be backed up by the boat's logs. I proved while I was on
00:30:41
that boat that there's no way that I could do it. But how airtight was that alibi?
00:30:48
Today, Tomlinson concedes that crew members covered for each other all the time. Now, at the time though, you told
00:30:55
him it was impossible to get off the boat. >> Well, sure, you know, I mean, no, it's
00:31:00
not. It never is, you know. But I always let my boss know when I was getting off
00:31:05
that boat. But you could get off and nobody would have to know. Sure. And you could get right back on. Sure.
00:31:12
You can get off and get right back on. It's no problem. You know, and I mean, it's a boat.
00:31:20
But some nights you would sneak off there and go see Stacy when you were Sure. >> supposed to be sleeping in the bed. And
00:31:26
I was sleeping at home. You didn't meet up with Stacy on that Friday night. No. What's [music] more troubling is that
00:31:34
Tomlinson was convicted of a sex offense two years before Crystal disappeared. His crime? Indecent behavior with a
00:31:43
juvenile. Here's how he explains it. I had pick up a 14-year-old girl, thought she was 18
00:31:51
at least, at a bar. And got in trouble for it. Paid my dues and done my time. And you
00:31:59
never were inappropriate with Crystal? Never. That's the wrong thing, you know, I was raised the right way.
00:32:06
You never try to hurt a child. Crystal was also 14. But Tomlinson denies having anything to do with her
00:32:14
murder. You had nothing to do with her death. On my mother's soul, I never touched her.
00:32:20
He blames the crime on the man who once said he did it, Damon Thibodeaux. He admitted to what he did wrong. He should
00:32:27
be punished. That confession is, no doubt, the biggest obstacle [music] to Damon's
00:32:33
freedom. Especially for the man who agreed to take a new look at the case, District Attorney Paul Connick. After
00:32:41
all is said and done, you still had this thing like, why would somebody confess?
00:32:45
>> Why? I'm not going to take the boilerplate explanation for false confessions.
00:32:50
Connick was skeptical that the interrogation tactics were to blame. So, we turned to this man, I don't believe
00:32:57
there exists evidence of any false confession in which a person confessed falsely to murder because he didn't get
00:33:03
a meal. Dr. Michael Welner, a tough forensic psychiatrist who often sides with the police.
00:33:10
>> I needed to know, can I rely on this confession? Cuz that's all I have. False
00:33:15
confessions are extremely rare. I trust him. I trust him. I really do. Dr. Welner insisted on talking to Damon
00:33:23
Thibodeaux by himself, no lawyer present. >> Yes. That had to drive the defense crazy. And
00:33:30
we knew it. With his life riding on this interview, Damon Thibodeaux agreed to meet with Dr.
00:33:37
Welner alone. I was afraid that he would paint Damon as a different person than he is.
00:33:44
Was Damon the person you were expecting to meet? [music] From the background that was presented
00:33:50
to me, I anticipated meeting somebody who would have been crushed, crumpled, and spit out. And the person that I met
00:33:56
was composed, self-possessed. [music] I was shocked. What was going through my mind is did we
00:34:05
make a big mistake? But everything you said to me was true. Yes. Was Damon Thibodeaux coerced by the
00:34:20
police >> [music] >> into giving a false confession? In my professional opinion, he was not.
00:34:26
Forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner does not believe that Damon was forced into confessing.
00:34:33
But he does believe that if Thibodeau had committed the crime, there would [music] be some physical evidence. It
00:34:40
was a bloody event. It was a physical event that required restraint, that required contact. Still, Wellner says
00:34:48
that Damon did blame himself, believing that if he had given Crystal a ride to the store on that fateful afternoon, she
00:34:56
might still be alive. Had she asked you for a ride? >> Yes. >> [sighs] >> And you said no?
00:35:02
>> I said no. On top of that guilt was Damon's failed polygraph. To some people,
00:35:10
failing a polygraph is powerful evidence. You might be better off confessing. What's more, he says,
00:35:17
"Guilty suspects try to minimize their involvement in crimes. Damon was admitting to a rape that
00:35:24
didn't happen." As you sit here today, do you believe that Damon Thibodeau falsely confess? I do.
00:35:31
There are many things about this case that I can't answer, but one thing that I can say is that I believe this to be a
00:35:36
false confession. And now, so does the man who once put Damon Thibodeau on death row. We relied
00:35:45
too much on the confession in the beginning. You know, we should have gone further.
00:35:50
Five [music] years after that first meeting with Damon's team, District Attorney Paul Connick makes an
00:35:56
extraordinary decision. He will not fight Damon's bid for freedom. There's no way I can keep this
00:36:03
man in jail. There's no way. The defense and Connick file a joint motion in court.
00:36:09
That same day, a judge orders the conviction vacated, adding in a handwritten note that Damon should be
00:36:17
immediately released. In September 2012, 16 years after Damon's arrest, his legal
00:36:27
team gathers anxiously at the gates of Angola. Danny, have you ever come here then and watch someone walk out of here?
00:36:35
Is this the first time? >> This is the first time ever that you've ever watched someone walk out alive out
00:36:41
of Angola. >> It is. First time. Good luck. I hope I never see y'all again. >> [laughter]
00:36:49
>> Don't take it the wrong way. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God bless. How does it feel to finally be free?
00:36:59
It's good. Good. Seems like you're overwhelmed. No words. Yes, I am in the car driving away from
00:37:12
the gate. Starting to feel free. 5 hours later to say free. Damon is in New Orleans.
00:37:27
>> Yeah. Reunited with his family. His son Josh finally gets to meet his father in
00:37:34
person. When you first saw him and you realized that was your son, what were you feeling?
00:37:40
Relief. I finally got to meet him. It's indescribable. Well, I love the water. Oh, yeah, it's great. They spent 3 days
00:37:50
trying to catch up on all the lost years. And what did the two of you do today? We We walked. We talked.
00:37:58
We got to know each other a little better. The grounds on death row are kept like a mansion's grounds.
00:38:04
So, what do you think of your son? I'm proud. I mean, he's he's a great guy. He's a
00:38:10
good man. You know, and I'm glad that I'm alive to see it. I think one of the great things of this
00:38:19
is the opportunity now for father and son to to have a a real relationship with each other. That's just
00:38:27
unbelievably special. You got it all? Got it all. Attorney Steve Kaplan's commitment to Damon isn't over yet.
00:38:35
Damon is moving in with him until he gets settled. >> We're we're coming up on Huey Long
00:38:40
Bridge and And so, they embark on the 1,200 mile journey to Minneapolis. >> We're headed north.
00:38:48
And I get to sit in the front seat. There you go. No chains. No chains. No No, I'm not in
00:38:54
the back seat and I don't have bars on the windows. I'm shaking the chains off. And I'm starting over.
00:39:02
This is a man that your office convicted? >> Right. Put on death row? >> Right. And then
00:39:09
15 years later to turn around and say, "I've got to let him go." Wasn't that a very tough decision? The process was
00:39:15
tough. But in the end, it's what should have been done. In my heart, I knew what I
00:39:20
did was the right decision. And the fact that so much time now has passed to start taking a new look at this case,
00:39:28
isn't it going to make it very difficult to find the real killer? It is. Again, what's the alternative? We can't
00:39:35
We can't stop. That's what we do. It's our job. The murder of Crystal Champagne is now an open case. So,
00:39:43
Connick cannot talk about specifics, but the state is actively reinvestigating. That's sure to mean taking a fresh look
00:39:52
at several people, including John Tomlinson. Don Champagne can only [music] hope that
00:40:01
the renewed investigation will pay off. >> There's a lot of things I don't understand.
00:40:06
A lot of things I don't know. All she wants is justice for her daughter, who [music] went out to a
00:40:13
store and never made it home. Because whoever did it, they walk in free and she didn't have a chance to
00:40:20
live. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama.
00:41:20
>> [music] [music] >> You fell in love with a guitar playing [music] gentle soul. What I thought was, yeah.
00:41:34
Jim was intelligent and he could provoke my thoughts [music] and and make me think beyond superficial things.
00:41:45
Jim Huden and her were a whirlwind for sure. He was very [music] charismatic and she was very charismatic and I think
00:41:53
the two of them together were everything she probably wanted at the time. I've known Peggy Sue for 15-20 years. She was
00:42:01
my best friend, my confidant. She was sexy, she was stunning and was a beauty queen. Miss Washington, [music] Peggy
00:42:10
Thomas. Yeah! Jim led two lives. I only [music] knew of the one he led with me. I fell in love with the wrong man.
00:42:32
>> [music] >> It's dark, secluded, dead-end road, not a lot of traffic. It's a good spot for a murder.
00:42:43
My name is Mark Plumber, the lead investigator in the Russell Douglas homicide investigation.
00:42:49
The car was in a dark driveway, door open, Russell was inside the vehicle. [music]
00:42:56
Jim Huten is the one that met him and was able to put a gun right between his eyes and shoot him once in the head.
00:43:05
>> [music] >> I could not believe that someone I loved and allowed into my house could [music] kill someone.
00:43:13
I'm convinced she is involved. I believe that her and Jim were on this fairy-tale roller-coaster romance and it
00:43:21
was all drinking and drugs and alcohol. And I think [music] that they thought that they were going to get something.
00:43:28
I have no reason to want anybody dead. I believe she knows a lot more than she has told us. I am telling the
00:43:36
truth. I have no reason to lie. >> [music] >> It is all so bizarre. It's something
00:43:45
that you see in the movies, something that some writer dreamt up. There's nothing about this other than
00:43:53
just a cold-blooded killing. >> [music] >> Believe none of what you hear and half
00:44:04
of what you see. I'm Peter Van Sant. Tonight on 48 Hours, Dangerous Beauty. >> [music]
00:44:46
>> This is Whidbey Island, where I grew up from birth until I was 8 years old. Go
00:44:52
get it. The hard memories outweigh the good memories because I'm accused of a crime I didn't commit.
00:45:05
Though she didn't pull the trigger, investigators are convinced Peggy Sue Thomas helped set the stage for Russell
00:45:13
Douglas's murder on the island she knew so well. How does a former beauty queen end up at
00:45:22
the heart of a murder case? I don't even know how to answer. I don't know how I ended up here.
00:45:29
But before she was a murder suspect, 48-year-old Peggy Sue Thomas had already lived a full life. Next, we welcome
00:45:38
[music] Peggy Thomas. Sure, she's a former beauty queen, but Peggy wasn't born with a pageant sash
00:45:46
across her chest. I'm all about proving myself in a man's world. Peggy was a trailblazer. In the Navy, a
00:45:55
very different-looking Peggy served as an aircraft mechanic during Operation Desert Storm. Do you see yourself as a
00:46:03
patriot? I'm very patriotic, yes. Along the way, Peggy married and divorced three times, raising two
00:46:11
beautiful daughters, Taylor and Mariah. My kids are my proudest accomplishment. But in the late '90s, with her second
00:46:19
marriage on the rocks, Peggy physically transformed herself from this to this. It was amazing. She started working out
00:46:30
and the weight just fell off. Vicki Boyer was once Peggy's good friend. To me, I was like, you go, girl. And then
00:46:38
someone had approached her about maybe being Mrs. Washington. And I was down and little heartbroken and she said,
00:46:47
"Do something crazy." So, I did. Contestant number two, Peggy Thomas. I ended up winning. They have
00:46:55
chosen as Mrs. Washington International Pageant Physical Fitness Award winner, Peggy Thomas.
00:47:03
>> [music] [applause] >> I'd rather wear jeans and boots and jump on a Harley than be a beauty queen.
00:47:10
It's kind of nice to look back when times were more normal. In her home, however, Peggy's pageant memorabilia
00:47:18
holds a special place of honor. I think it meant everything to her. Everything she needed came from that pageant.
00:47:27
By 2003, Peggy Sue was living in Las Vegas, where she worked as a glamorous limousine driver to high rollers. I
00:47:36
spoiled my clients and my tips were often in the thousands for one night. It was probably my
00:47:44
all-time favorite job ever. To understand how this beauty queen made yet another transformation
00:47:52
to murder suspect, you have to go back to a cold, dark night on Whidbey Island in December 2003.
00:48:00
Tonight, Island County detectives have a murder mystery on their hands. They're looking for the person or persons
00:48:04
responsible for the shooting death of 32-year-old Russell Douglas. >> We're in front of the the driveway where
00:48:11
Russell Douglas was discovered. About 30 yards in is a >> Right down here. Right. Detective Mark
00:48:16
Plumberg of the Island County Sheriff's Department was called to the scene that night. It was a
00:48:23
massively traumatic wound. Russell was the estranged husband of Brenna Douglas, one of Peggy Sue
00:48:30
Thomas's good friends. After we had confirmed the identity of the man in the vehicle as being Russell Douglas, we
00:48:38
decided to go and speak with the wife, Brenna Douglas. [snorts] It was after 10:00 p.m., pitch black,
00:48:49
when Plumberg and a colleague came calling. Came out and crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe
00:48:56
and said, "May I help you?" She didn't say, "What's happened? Why are you here?"
00:49:02
It's It was suspicious behavior, especially after they told Brenna that her husband had been murdered. Almost no
00:49:10
reaction. I would expect at least a slew of questions. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. And did
00:49:17
Brenna ask those questions? >> Not one. And Brenna had even bad-mouthed her dead
00:49:22
husband. She mentioned that he had had some affairs. She mentioned that he could be
00:49:28
uh emotionally abusive. She alluded to some physical abuse. Brenna said their marriage was in
00:49:35
trouble. They had separated, but Russ was staying with her and their two children over Christmas. We know from
00:49:42
experience that the spouse in a murder is often uh the perpetrator. Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks. There was
00:49:50
no one else that the police could find that had a reason uh to murder Russ and Brenna was the prime suspect. Just
00:49:59
weeks into the investigation, cops discovered a possible motive. Money. Brenna, who owned a hair salon, was in
00:50:07
debt and with Russell's death, she would receive a six-figure payout. There were
00:50:13
at least two life insurance policies and that money, 400,000, we've heard 500, that would have cleaned the decks for
00:50:20
Brenna. You would think so, yeah. Brenna was not arrested. Investigators couldn't link her to the
00:50:29
shooting. Detective Plumberg then checked Russell's phone records and discovered
00:50:35
calls from a Las Vegas number. They came from Peggy Sue Thomas. She had called Russ several times in the days
00:50:44
leading up to his murder. Those phone calls were on the 23rd of December in which
00:50:51
we were playing phone tag. Peggy explained to cops she was back on Whidbey Island for the holidays. She was
00:50:59
calling Russ to give him a Christmas present for her friend Brenna. She was very open, answered all my questions.
00:51:06
Nothing about her reaction made me second-guess anything. For the next 7 months, the case consumed
00:51:13
Detective Plumberg. Not one person could tell me a bad thing about Russell Douglas.
00:51:19
Certainly not anything that would make me think that's why somebody wanted him dead. But
00:51:24
a mysterious caller was about to unlock all the secrets of this murder. A world away from Whidbey Island,
00:51:48
Washington, it's happy hour in a small town on the west coast of Florida. Someone on this stage is Detective Mark
00:51:56
Plumberg's mysterious caller. When the informant called, he told us that he played in a band called Buck Naked and
00:52:03
the Exhibitionists. After Googling the band's name, Detective Plumberg zeroed in on this man, the bass player. His
00:52:11
name was Bill Hill. Lived in Florida in a town called Punta Gorda. Hill said a band member, the lead guitarist Jim
00:52:19
Huden, had confided in him during a late-night drive to a gig just 1 month after the murder of Russell Douglas. He
00:52:28
needed to tell me something. I [snorts] said, "Okay." I didn't know if he was going to tell me he was gay or
00:52:32
something. Instead, Jim Huden told Bill he'd been abused by his stepfather as a child.
00:52:39
>> Yeah, I could sense that it was something that was really deep. What Huden said next was bizarre, that
00:52:46
he wanted to seek revenge for his stepfather's abuse by killing another abuser. He says, "So, I started looking
00:52:54
for somebody that met that MO." Jim Huden thought he'd found that abuser, Hill said, in Russell Douglas.
00:53:02
He says, "I shot him." I said, "What?" He says, "Yeah, got a gun and shot him in the head."
00:53:14
Yeah, my brother's getting crazy. Hill agonized over that secret, waiting [music] 6 months before he made the call
00:53:23
to turn in his good friend, Jim Huden. Jim Huden, what do you know about this guy?
00:53:29
We knew nothing. Hill said that Huden began naming his accomplices. The first, his own
00:53:36
girlfriend, Peggy Sue Thomas. It was a huge break in the case. Peggy Thomas, the woman I had spoken to, works in Las
00:53:44
Vegas as a limousine driver. And I said, "Well, so far I can confirm his story. Let's go from here."
00:53:51
Hill then revealed the name of the second accomplice, Brenna Douglas, the victim's wife. Bill
00:53:58
Hill felt that the widow had knowledge, though not necessarily any active part. Meanwhile, Plumberg was learning more
00:54:06
about the relationship between Jim and Peggy. They'd had a long history together, both
00:54:12
growing up on Whidbey Island. I had a childhood crush on him. But in the early 2000s, Peggy had moved
00:54:20
on, eventually settling in Las Vegas. Jim and Peggy lived separate lives until June of 2002, when she reconnected with
00:54:30
Jim at a funeral on Whidbey Island. Jim and I spoke, connected on this level of losing someone we both loved. Things
00:54:40
got hot and heavy right away. He had really strong feelings for her. But there was a little problem. Jim
00:54:47
Huden was married and living in Punta Gorda, Florida, with his wife, Jean. At the time this was going on, did you
00:54:55
have any idea? Not at the beginning. I was so in love with him and and so clueless. The man she loved was a
00:55:02
successful software developer. Jim had even sold a program to Microsoft. When he sold this to Microsoft, he made
00:55:09
several million dollars. >> Uh yes, or or close to a million, but he did very well for himself. While Jean
00:55:15
ran their business, Jim focused more on his band. You're married to a rock star now. Yes, or want-to-be rock star. But
00:55:24
Jean says she started to notice a troubling change in her husband after that funeral.
00:55:31
He was just never the same. He started to get very depressed and dark and started drinking heavily and doing drugs
00:55:38
and it just wasn't Jim anymore. But Jim was finding comfort in his long-distance
00:55:43
relationship with Peggy. Were you in love with Jim? I was. What'd you love about him?
00:55:50
His mind, believe it or not. So that's when the the double life began. Las Vegas became Jim Hewden's home away from
00:55:59
home. He'd lie to Jean, telling her he was coming here looking for gigs when he was really meeting Peggy. The beauty
00:56:07
queen was now making a good living driving that limo. You're having an affair with a married man? Yep. Are you
00:56:14
a bit of a femme fatale? No. Are you trouble, Peggy? Far from it. Actually. Among the friends who visited
00:56:24
Peggy and Jim in Las Vegas Brenna Douglas, who partied with them just 3 months before her husband was
00:56:31
murdered on Whidbey Island. Did Brenna ever say to you, you know, "I wish he was dead"?
00:56:38
Not No, not that. You paused though. Did she say something close to that? At one
00:56:44
time she did say something. "She's worth more to me dead than alive." That's a bit ominous.
00:56:51
It was Brenna spoke, I guess, to a lot of people about hers and Russ's marriage. As Peggy and Jim's fling
00:56:59
progressed, she began flying to Florida. Reading Jim's emails, Jean discovered the affair and confronted him. Jim swore
00:57:09
it was all over. Then in April 2003, there was a knock at Jean's front door. I open the door and there's Peggy on my
00:57:17
doorstep. You, the mistress, wants to get together with the wife to confront the husband. Yeah, cuz he was lying to
00:57:25
both of us and we were both believing him. What'd he say? Said he loved two women. And I told him
00:57:32
to make a choice. I was like, you need to decide who you want to be with. He said he wanted to be with me. And
00:57:39
>> And how did Peggy react? >> Oh, she was furious. But Peggy's anger didn't last long. The two lovers
00:57:45
couldn't stay away from each other. And in December 2003, Jim told his wife he was going to spend the holidays with his
00:57:53
family back on Whidbey Island. But it was just another chance for a romantic rendezvous with Peggy. I don't think of
00:58:01
myself as a stupid person, but when it came to Jim Houden, I was a complete On the morning of December 26th, the day
00:58:10
Russell Douglas was murdered, Peggy and Jim were at a house on Whidbey Island. He said he wanted to go [music] out and
00:58:16
get some cigarettes. What time of day was this? Late morning. Between 10:00 and 11:00.
00:58:23
Just around the time investigators believe Russell Douglas was murdered. Tell me about the Jim that comes back
00:58:32
into the house. What do you see? The Jim I always saw. Did he have a handgun with him?
00:58:38
>> I did not see a gun. No tears, no strange behavior, no sweat coming out of his forehead? Not that Not that I
00:58:45
remember, no. And you're telling me the truth, right? I'm absolutely telling you the truth.
00:58:51
But Plumberg had an entirely different take. You believe in one way or another Peggy Sue Thomas was involved in this
00:58:58
plan to murder Russell Douglas. Absolutely. >> [music] >> His theory, Peggy lured Russell to that
00:59:04
secluded area on Whidbey Island to exchange a gift for Breanna. It was here that Jim Houden lay in wait
00:59:13
with a gun. Did you encourage Jim to murder Russ? Absolutely not. >> Did you Did you tell him, "Look, he's
00:59:20
he's a child abuser." >> No. You did not participate in any way conspire to kill him? I swear on the love for my
00:59:29
children. I swear on my life. >> [music] >> By August 4th, 2004, detective Mark Plumberg had traveled to Punta Gorda,
00:59:55
Florida to confront the man he believed murdered [music] Russell Douglas. I looked him in the face and I said,
01:00:03
"Mr. Huden, I know you're the man that pulled the trigger and killed Russell Douglas."
01:00:11
Later that afternoon, Jim agreed to be questioned at the local police department, where he denied shooting
01:00:18
Russell. I'm a son of a but I I'm no killer, but I'm a son of a It's quite a frightening experience.
01:00:26
What is it that you're scared of? That you guys are reaching here or here. At the same time, cops had just raided
01:00:35
Peggy Sue Thomas's home in Las Vegas. I had at least three police officers with guns to my head.
01:00:43
Telling me to freeze, freeze, freeze, and they take my car keys and put me in handcuffs, shove me in a dark laundry
01:00:51
room. Peggy says her house was ransacked with police taking computers, photographs, beauty pageant videos, but
01:01:00
leaving her Miss Washington sash behind. They then proceeded to grill her about the death of Russell Douglas. Detective
01:01:08
Wallace said, "If you don't start confessing now, we'll make sure that you get the death penalty and your
01:01:18
kids are going to watch you die." How did it come your lover, Jim Hutton, shot Russ Douglas in the head unless you
01:01:28
put him up to it? Well, I thought he didn't know him. I don't believe I could have said or did say
01:01:35
anything to him to make him go psycho like he did. Investigators had a strong circumstantial case against Peggy
01:01:47
and Jim. Remember those insurance >> policies? I believe there was over 500,000 in insurance premiums. Jim told
01:01:55
Bill Hill how the money would be divided. Peggy was supposed to get a certain amount and Jim was supposed to
01:02:01
get 50,000 for pulling the trigger. Absolutely not true. Money's not that important to me. Did Brenna,
01:02:10
Russell Douglas's wife, did she know that her husband was about to be assassinated?
01:02:16
According to Jim, the answer would be yes. You know what you told Bill. He's your best friend in the whole world. Who
01:02:23
you told that you killed this guy on Whidbey Island. That's not true. Detective Plumberg
01:02:30
presses Jim [music] to see if he'll now implicate Peggy Sue Thomas or the victim's wife, Brenna
01:02:36
Douglas. I think the plot for this didn't come from you. I don't think the scheme for this came
01:02:41
from you. Investigators have Jim right where they want him, but he shuts down. You got played, Jim.
01:02:49
It's time to uh It's attorney time. With no hard evidence against them, both Jim and Peggy were free to go. At that
01:02:59
point, they had nothing to hold him on. They had no warrant, no indictment, so they brought him home.
01:03:05
Jim had told his wife everything about the murder, including that Peggy and Brenna were involved, but Jean refused
01:03:14
to betray the man she loved. I thought maybe some warped way that this would bring us
01:03:20
closer together, you know, if we shared this horrible secret that Brenna and Peggy and he had planned to kill Russell
01:03:28
Douglas. Jean says after his interrogation, Jim became frantic. At that point, he is
01:03:37
just tripping out cuz he knows it's only a matter of time. Also tripping out was
01:03:41
Bill Hill, who couldn't believe investigators had told Jim that he was the informant. I felt
01:03:49
totally afraid. I slept on the couch with 357 underneath my pillow. In an effort to generate new leads in
01:04:03
the case, Island County investigators went to the media. Eight months of investigation have now led officials to
01:04:09
two persons of interest. And announced that Jim Huden and Peggy Sue Thomas were their prime suspects.
01:04:18
They were hoping a tip might lead them to the gun used to murder Russell Douglas. I assumed the murder weapon
01:04:25
would be at the bottom of Puget Sound. And we would never see it again. But luck was on Plumberg's side when he
01:04:32
received an unbelievable tip. We got a phone call from an investigator in New Mexico who said
01:04:40
he had talked to someone who thinks they might have the murder weapon in the Russell Douglas homicide.
01:04:46
It was this .380 Bersa. A friend of Jim Huden's told police Jim gave it to him at Peggy's house in Vegas.
01:04:55
>> And I took it immediately to our state laboratory who was within hours able to confirm
01:05:02
this fired that shell casing and it fired the bullet that we pulled from Russell's head. It was almost too good
01:05:07
to be true. With this new evidence, Island County investigators flew to Vegas. Can I see
01:05:13
your name, please? Peggy Thomas. Where Peggy agreed to answer their new questions. They showed
01:05:21
me a picture of a gun and asked if I'd ever seen it. So, prior to February, you never saw
01:05:26
Jim in possession of a gun like that? No. And I said, "No." They said, "Well, it's the murder weapon and we've matched
01:05:34
it with the ballistics." After the interview, Peggy called Jim to confront him. And I said, "The police told me
01:05:42
they have a murder weapon. What's going on?" And he said, "I did it. I killed Russ."
01:05:50
And he said, "I'm sorry I got you involved. Just know that I love you and you'll
01:05:54
never see me again." And he hung up the phone. Peggy claims she was in shock from Jim's confession. I broke.
01:06:03
I broke. I could not believe that someone I loved and allowed into my house could kill someone.
01:06:14
I was hysterical that day. Jean Houden says Jim became unstable, threatening to commit suicide, but she
01:06:23
had a better idea. I was like, "Run, do something, you know, give it a chance. It's not over yet."
01:06:30
Right. Jim caught a lucky break when Hurricane Charley hit the west coast of Florida.
01:06:39
The murder suspect was now gone with the wind. August 2004. In the chaos following Hurricane
01:06:58
Charley, Jim Houden blew out of town. Jim disappeared. He just falls off the face of the earth. He just disappears.
01:07:09
While investigators here on Whidbey Island were left scratching their heads, wondering where Jim Huden had gone,
01:07:16
little did they know that he was more than 2,000 mi away here in Veracruz, Mexico.
01:07:24
>> [music] >> Jim loved this place. He would come and sit here for hours, drink beer, look at
01:07:33
the people go by, listen to the music. Jorge Mabarac was a close friend of Jim Huden in Veracruz,
01:07:40
but he knew him by a different name. Jim Martin. Everybody knew him as Jim Martin.
01:07:46
>> [music] >> Jorge is a famous jazz pianist [music] in Mexico. He often played on stage with Jim.
01:07:57
He had emotional insight on people. Everybody liked him. He likes everybody. Never had any problem.
01:08:05
He was a blues player. Definitely he was a blues man. >> [music] >> Jorge remembers this concert in Veracruz
01:08:13
where Jim was one of the featured performers. Jorge, a CBS News consultant, says this
01:08:21
fugitive from justice had a soft side. If you look at the videos of him, he looks really mean on the stage, [music]
01:08:28
but he was not. He was a very soft guy, very tender, very understanding, and there was never any any sign of violence
01:08:37
or any attitude an aggressive attitude, never. But Jim wasn't comfortable talking about
01:08:45
his past. He told me, "There are things about me that I'm not going to tell you,
01:08:50
so don't ask." While reporting this story, 48 Hours learned about one of Huden's old
01:08:56
hangouts, and we got a tip he may have left behind some belongings. >> These two cabinets. An old friend of
01:09:03
Huden's gave us permission to look. This hasn't been opened in more than 2 years.
01:09:10
Let's see what's inside. This one's empty. There's nothing. But, we did find something else.
01:09:24
Jim Huden's birth certificate from the state of Washington. This is Jim Huden's Florida driver's license. This is his
01:09:31
border crossing paperwork, September 10th, 2004. This is when Jim Huden first began his life on the run in Mexico.
01:09:39
And it turns out Huden had help getting to Mexico and staying out of sight for more than 6 years.
01:09:46
>> I got Jim out of the country. I supported him for years. I went to Mexico to see him. Jean Huden admits she
01:09:53
lied to investigators about Jim's whereabouts for years. It was definitely the wrong thing to do.
01:10:00
Meanwhile, the other woman in Jim's life, Peggy Sue Thomas, continued to drive limos in Las Vegas.
01:10:08
Despite being a murder suspect, she hit the jackpot when she met this man in 2007.
01:10:16
First time I met Peggy was through a limo service. They asked, "Would you want a guy or the ex-Mrs. Washington?"
01:10:24
I said, "Well, we'll take the ex-Mrs. Washington." >> Mark Allen is a multi-millionaire oil
01:10:29
man and thoroughbred horse owner. And this one was the winner of the 2009 Kentucky
01:10:37
Derby. SPECTACULAR UPSET! MINE THAT BIRD HAS WON THE KENTUCKY DERBY. AN IMPOSSIBLE RESULT HERE.
01:10:44
>> HONESTLY, did you marry him for his money? I married Mark cuz I loved him deeply.
01:10:51
Mark was madly in love with Peggy. Head over heels. And Peggy he madly in love with his bank account. Head over heels.
01:10:59
Vicki Boyer worked with Peggy and Mark on their ranch in New Mexico. He was a good man and he
01:11:07
did everything she asked him to. Vicki had always believed in Peggy's innocence in the murder of Russell.
01:11:14
That is until [music] one night in a bar, a drunken Peggy allegedly joked about taking care of a problem for a
01:11:22
friend and mentioned that she could use her gun. And she looked at me and she said, "Well, at least this time I'll
01:11:29
know to throw it in the water." I went home and I literally just fell apart. I mean, I just like I just started
01:11:37
shaking. I was crying. Peggy has denied that conversation ever took place, but for Vicki, the episode
01:11:46
led to a startling realization. >> That she did it. That her and Jim did this. The murder of Russell Douglas.
01:11:55
>> Yes. I mean, I was sure of it. And Vicki wasn't the only person having problems
01:12:01
with Peggy. Yeah, it started out good and uh the more controlling she got, the uh
01:12:07
less responsive I got, you know, I I won't be controlled not by anybody. After just 7 months of marriage, Mark
01:12:18
was separated from both Peggy >> [music] >> and a sizable chunk of change. You did get $700,000 and a houseboat.
01:12:26
Yes, I did. But I can tell you if I was the true definition of a gold digger, we had a pre-nup
01:12:35
and it entitled me to way more than $700,000 and a boat. Meanwhile, back in Florida, Jeannie
01:12:44
Hudon's life had fallen apart by 2011. She'd become [music] a drug addict, arrested multiple times on charges
01:12:54
ranging from possession to forgery to theft. It got to a point where I couldn't do it anymore. I'm tired of
01:13:02
paying for Jim's mistake. Facing serious jail time for multiple felonies, Gene decided to cooperate with investigators.
01:13:12
I had to finally tell them where he was. And that's when [music] investigators got the break they needed. Jim Huden was
01:13:20
arrested in Vera Cruz, [music] Mexico and returned to Whidbey Island nearly 8 years after Russell Douglas was
01:13:27
murdered. One month later, authorities came for Peggy Sue Thomas. When the detective
01:13:34
came up, he said, "You're in some pretty big trouble." And what was that moment like
01:13:40
for you? Scary. My life became a tabloid story with headlines about [music] Drop Dead
01:13:48
Gorgeous. I knew I had a battle on my hands. Ms. Washington, Peggy Thomas. From a beauty queen strut
01:14:13
Peggy Sue Thomas looked away from the cameras as she was led into court this afternoon in shackles. To a perp walk at
01:14:19
the Island County [music] Courthouse on Whidbey Island, Washington. In the summer of 2011, Peggy Sue Thomas
01:14:26
is formally charged with the murder of Russell Douglas. These accusations that I'm involved in
01:14:33
this crime have been a lie since the beginning. First up for trial is Peggy's former
01:14:39
lover and alleged trigger man, Jim Huden. Prosecutor Greg Banks says there may have been several motives for
01:14:47
murder, insurance money, or that Huden was out to avenge the abuse he claims he was subjected to as a child. He had
01:14:56
experienced abuse, and so he was going to wipe the slate clean somehow by killing an abuser.
01:15:02
Yeah, I think that's that's what in the warped alcohol-pickled, drug-altered mind of Jim Huden was the
01:15:12
thing that was making sense to him. Cops say they never found any evidence that Russell Douglas physically abused
01:15:19
anyone. At the trial, the star witness against Huden would be Bill Hill, who says Jim
01:15:26
confessed to him about killing Russell Douglas. What was that like to testify? It was a scary situation. I could not
01:15:34
look at him the whole time I was on the stand. Bill Hill was really a hero in this case. I probably could have rested
01:15:41
the case after Bill testified. Jim Huden never took the stand, leaving unanswered
01:15:48
what the real motive might have been. After an 8-day trial and 20 witnesses, the jury took less than 4 hours to reach
01:16:00
a verdict. Guilty as charged, and Island County fugitive now faces years behind bars. Jim Huden was sentenced to 80
01:16:08
years in prison. Six months later, it was Peggy Sue Thomas's turn to face justice. And Banks
01:16:20
had a witness who was ready to implicate her, Jim Huden's wife, Jean. Peggy herself told me she was involved in this
01:16:29
murder. So, I mean, it doesn't get much clearer than that. Should Jean Huden be believed? No, absolutely not. There are
01:16:39
so many problems with Jean Huden's testimony. It actually boggles my mind to know where to begin. Dynamic defense
01:16:46
attorney Craig Platt will represent Peggy. He says Jean Hufton is a liability for prosecutors because she
01:16:54
changed her story time and time again. It's a road map of inconsistencies. When Jean Hufton originally talked to
01:17:02
detectives back in 2004, she said, and I quote, "Jim never told her that Peggy knew."
01:17:10
Now, 7 years later, "Oh, I remember. Peggy's involved. The one that stole my man. The one that ruined my life. Yeah,
01:17:18
she did it." Even Jean admits her memory is a bit shaky. Couldn't it be that what you said to
01:17:26
Detective Plumberg this was the truth? >> [snorts] >> That Jim told you Peggy wasn't involved
01:17:32
in this case. Cuz your story didn't change for years. It's possible. It is possible. I just To
01:17:42
be honest, I don't I honestly don't remember saying that. And we know that's not right. Platt says Jean Hufton's
01:17:48
changing story demonstrates how desperate the prosecution is to make a case without credible witnesses or
01:17:56
evidence. This is about a confederacy of dunces. This is about misinformation being allowed to grow and be perpetuated
01:18:05
and used against an innocent woman to try to convict her for a crime she didn't commit. Would you like to get
01:18:12
Jean Hufton up on the stand with an opportunity to cross-examine her? That would be so much fun.
01:18:17
That's almost too much fun for a defense attorney like me, to be honest. That was
01:18:21
a big problem for us. Uh I did not want to walk away from Peggy Thomas empty-handed.
01:18:26
Uh and the case really hinged on Jean. >> [snorts] >> State versus Peggy Thomas. Uh good
01:18:31
morning, thank you, Your Honor. Just a week before the trial is about to start, prosecutor Banks folds his hand and
01:18:38
offers Peggy a plea deal. Four years in prison on a reduced charge of rendering criminal assistance.
01:18:46
Peggy accepts. So, what innocent person accepts a plea deal where you're going to end up in prison
01:18:53
for 4 years? A person that's smart enough to realize that in this tiny little community of people who have been
01:19:01
fed and fed and fed a story that isn't true. That I wasn't going to get a fair trial.
01:19:11
And remember the first suspect in this case, the victim's wife, Brenna Douglas? Investigators found no evidence that
01:19:19
money ever changed hands [music] between Brenna, Jim Huden, and Peggy Sue Thomas.
01:19:25
But prosecutor Banks says Brenna remains on his radar. I mean, she remains a suspect in my mind
01:19:34
to this day. To this day. After she ignored repeated requests to speak with 48 Hours, Hey Brenna.
01:19:42
Peter Van Sant with CBS News. We finally came face-to-face with Brenna. After all this time, investigators still
01:19:50
believe you were involved in the murder of your husband. What do you have to say
01:19:55
to that? I have to say that you're harassing me and I already filed a police complaint for you guys following
01:20:00
me. So, I want you to leave. >> I've not followed you. These are questions you should talk
01:20:04
about. Peggy says that you once said to her that Russ was worth more to you dead
01:20:12
than alive. Yes. Brenna, talk to us. I'll ask you two questions and we'll go away.
01:20:23
Peggy, with this plea deal, did you get away with murder? Absolutely not. I don't want to minimize Russ's death in
01:20:31
any way because I grieve for his family, but I'm also a victim in this. I'm actually giving up 4 years of my
01:20:40
life for something I didn't do. But for Greg [music] Banks, the real victim in this case has been largely
01:20:48
forgotten. You know, this case is about getting justice for Russ Douglas. I mean,
01:20:54
what did Russ do? He was trying to do the right thing by his wife, trying to get back together.
01:21:01
Uh and for that he got a blow in the head. Just a few days before going to prison,
01:21:12
Peggy shared some final moments together with her daughters. See for my girls. Oh.
01:21:19
I figure there must be a greater plan at the end of all of this for me. There's something wonderful on the other
01:21:26
side of this and I don't know what the lesson is yet, but there's got to be one.
01:21:42
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Say goodbye to Emily and Alicia.
01:22:28
Bye. What did your baby say? What happened is something that I don't really remember. Give your baby a kiss.
01:22:39
There were definitely times where I wish that I could just remember anything that
01:22:44
would help. Anything at all. What's your name? My name is Emily Widner and when I was 2
01:22:52
my mother, Amy, was murdered. I wonder what Amy would be like now. Would she have gone to college? What
01:23:00
would she have done with with her life? I imagine that Amy and I would probably be friends, not just mom and daughter,
01:23:08
but friends. My daughter, Amy, was intelligent and she smiled all the time. She was kind to people. She made people
01:23:19
feel good because she would make them important. I got upstairs and found Amy. No parent
01:23:31
should ever find their child. She was terrified. That's how she died. Terrified.
01:23:39
On the day that Amy died Emily was there with her. She was in bed with her. Maymie, have a kiss.
01:23:47
And she called Amy Maymie and she told me she tried to pick Maymie up, but she was
01:23:52
just too heavy. She tried to pick her up. You have 24 years of always wondering why this happened. Why did they not find
01:24:05
anyone? Is he still out there? Amy's little girl. I thought they're going to see we're a good family, they'll figure
01:24:11
this out. And then you go through periods of you think it's it's never going to be resolved.
01:24:18
This is the original case file for the Amy Widner murder. I'm William Carter, I'm the detective sergeant with the
01:24:24
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. I'm just a civil type police officer.
01:24:29
I wasn't a homicide detective for anybody that ever investigated a homicide. The detective that was
01:24:34
assigned to Amy's case didn't know how to print from Facebook. And he approached me originally and
01:24:40
asked me, "How do you print from Facebook?" That's how I got involved in the case.
01:24:45
I spoke to Gloria Widener. She had lost all hope and it just kind of made it personal thing for me.
01:24:53
Did you have faith that he could solve this? Well, we really didn't know. No one else
01:24:57
had. We expected to hear a name that we did not know. Not someone that we knew. >> [music]
01:25:15
[music] >> I just remember feeling mostly sad. And mostly sad for my [music] family.
01:25:47
Because I was so young. There is not one day of my life that I do [snorts] not think about my
01:25:55
daughter. For more than 24 years, Gloria Widener has been mourning her daughter Amy, who
01:26:01
at age 16, was brutally murdered in their Indianapolis home. She loved school. She loved education.
01:26:09
I always thought that um someday she would probably have been a teacher. She kind of was our leader as far as
01:26:18
doing our chores and making dinner. Cassie, the youngest of the four Widener children, was just 12 when Amy was
01:26:26
killed. Despite the decades that have gone by, the Widener siblings, Tanya, 1 year
01:26:32
younger than Amy, and JP, 1 year older, have vivid recollections of their sister.
01:26:38
What are some of your favorite memories of her? My ninth birthday cake. She baked that? Mhm.
01:26:44
We would play make-believe. Karen and Bebe were our names, and she always made me be Bebe.
01:26:52
Just playing. And being a kid. How about you, JP? Just how much she looked up to me.
01:27:00
The thing is, I had good kids. Gloria, a divorced mother, was raising four children by herself, which came with
01:27:07
challenges, especially when she learned Amy was 5 and 1/2 months pregnant. I was
01:27:12
overwhelmed. I just couldn't even believe it. I thought that was the worst thing in the
01:27:16
world that could happen. But you know, I found out worse things can happen. I mean, how did she hide her
01:27:22
pregnancy from you for 5 and 1/2 months? Well, she did they wore the the the sweatshirts. You had no suspicions? No.
01:27:31
No one did. That was until Amy could keep her secret no longer. And she just started crying, and she
01:27:38
said, "Mommy, I don't want you to hate me." And I said, "I would never hate any of my children."
01:27:45
I really didn't do anything. It helped that Amy's teachers, like Jody George, were supportive.
01:27:52
And I just remember asking her, "Amy, are you pregnant?" And then she said, "That's why I'm coming in every day
01:27:57
early. I want to be sure that I'm as caught up as I can possibly be when I have to miss school."
01:28:04
Of course, I just said, "Well, you let me know. I'll do whatever I can to help you." Gloria made it clear to her
01:28:09
daughter that school would remain a priority, and told Amy she didn't want her involved with the baby's father,
01:28:15
17-year-old Tony Abercrombie, a friend of JP's that Amy had been quietly seeing. I was angry. I'm not going to
01:28:22
tell you anything. Given I felt betrayed by a young man that was I would say my son's best friend.
01:28:31
In October of 1987, Amy gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Emily. I believe she missed 6 days of
01:28:38
school. Not many grown women can do that. She was just a very strong student. I think
01:28:43
the most important thing about her was her work ethic. She had everyone to help her and she was more
01:28:50
than capable. Okay, this is sleepy girl. Time to go to bed. We called her hours.
01:28:55
That means my family. Motherhood seemed to agree with Amy. Jody George noticed a new found
01:29:01
confidence in her student. She used to talk to me about my daughter Molly, asking me questions. I'd ask her
01:29:08
about Emily and she would say, "Now, you know what you should do. You need to get Molly a coat this year."
01:29:13
Or something like that. She was just giving me little bits and pieces of advice.
01:29:18
Still, Amy enjoyed teenage life, spending time with high school friends Angie Moore and Amy Summers. Angie had a
01:29:26
Halloween party. It was hilarious. Amy was the Jolly Green Giant and Emily was Sprout. But then later on, Gloria came
01:29:34
by and picked up Emily. But she would, you know, allow her to have some time cuz she did still want
01:29:40
her to be a teenager. Happy birthday. In the Widener home, there were celebrations as well, especially on
01:29:47
Emily's birthdays. Blow candles. Blow. But on November 13th, 1989, 1 month after celebrating Emily's second
01:29:57
birthday, >> [music] >> the Widener home was changed forever. She told me her throat was hurting and I
01:30:03
said, "Well, okay." And she's I said, "Do you want me to take Emily to the babysitter?" And she said, "No, leave
01:30:10
her home with me today." And I cannot remember exactly what time I started calling. But I'm going to say probably
01:30:15
around 9:30. And she didn't answer the phone. And so when I called back and she still didn't answer, I called my
01:30:21
neighbor. I said, "Would you please go check, knock on the door?" So, she knocked on the door, she came back and
01:30:25
called me and said, "Nobody's answering." Gloria immediately left work to return home
01:30:31
and to a scene in Amy's bedroom that will always haunt her. Her daughter was beaten, strangled, and dead.
01:30:39
She was laying on the bed. You really don't know what to do. You just kind of you panic. You don't know what to do.
01:30:46
And I don't remember now if I called 911 first or I got Emily out of the house. Emily was there with her. You knew right
01:30:54
away that she had been murdered? I didn't know what had happened. I felt like somebody had done something to her.
01:30:59
So, the word murder is just really a [sighs] hard word. The other thing I had a problem with for a very long time
01:31:06
when I talked about her, I'd say, "Well, before Amy died." "After Amy died." >> [clears throat]
01:31:12
>> But the truth was, she didn't just die. Another human being did this. >> [music]
01:31:35
>> I'm sure that there were moments when I was angry, but I think I felt more confused. Like, why did that have to
01:31:43
happen? On November 13th, 1989, family and friends of Amy Widener were learning the
01:31:50
unthinkable. That the 16-year-old's life suddenly ended. Despite the years that have gone
01:31:56
by, emotions remain raw. First thing you think of with teenagers is suicide. An after school reporter was there.
01:32:06
And I remember stopping and saying, "Well, she didn't get an A from me this time. She got a B."
01:32:13
And thinking, "Was it because of French grade?" And she said, "No. It's a homicide."
01:32:25
She had lacerations to her upper head, unclothed. It was a scene that you don't forget.
01:32:31
Captain Jack Gilker, now with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, was at the time
01:32:36
of Amy's murder one of the first to arrive at the Widener home from the Indianapolis Police Department. There
01:32:42
was blood prints, and you could tell that it was a violent scene. Police believed Amy's murder was a result of a
01:32:48
robbery gone wrong. Stereo equipment and cash were missing. The theory was that the assailant entered through an open
01:32:56
back door. Amy surprised him, and a struggle ensued. During which she was raped, beaten, [music] and strangled.
01:33:04
When you see that this young mother is murdered, and the baby was there, was wandering the same floor, it's
01:33:12
something you don't really don't see too much in your career, thank God. Emily no
01:33:16
longer has a memory of those events, not even of how she learned Amy was murdered.
01:33:22
I don't even remember when a serious conversation was had about it. I feel like from that point on, they would say,
01:33:33
"Here's you know, Amy is gone." Emily talked about the crime. Uh there was a a police
01:33:40
officer uh that actually interviewed uh victims, and he used finger puppets to talk to her about the crime. She would
01:33:49
show me how she ran back and forth from her bedroom and Amy's bedroom to my bedroom. Back then, Gloria said Emily
01:33:57
shared a few details about what happened to Amy. Mayme have a kiss? Or Mayme, as
01:34:03
Emily called her. She also told me that Mayme was mean. And meaning that she fought.
01:34:11
At first, the family hoped the crime would be quickly solved. Whoever killed Amy had left behind a key clue. They had
01:34:18
a hand print. They took parts of my wall. They took all the bedding. They took clothes. Police also conducted
01:34:26
interviews with people like Amy's classmate Angie. They obviously wanted to know who she'd been around.
01:34:34
Who she's been dating. What she's been doing. Where she been. Even Amy's brother JP was questioned. How old were
01:34:41
you? Uh 17 at the time. What kind of questions did they ask you? Really, I don't remember all the
01:34:48
questions they asked, but they were accusing me of doing it. And that was pretty tough. When I talked
01:34:53
with him, you've got to consider everybody in a situation like that. As police investigated, the news of Amy's murder
01:35:01
spread. The room was full of students who needed help cope. But nobody teaches you
01:35:16
how how to help kids cope with tragedy. At school, Jody George wrote a letter to
01:35:27
help Amy's classmates. We have all suffered deeply because of Amy's death. How can we accept it?
01:35:34
Why does sorrow have to be a part of our lives? It was unfortunately my first funeral. I
01:35:41
remember being so overwhelmed with sadness that I almost couldn't feel. Attending the funeral were not just
01:35:49
those close to Amy, but also detectives. We went to the cemetery and to the funeral home the night before just to
01:35:56
watch people. With the leads that we'd had, the names that we'd been given, you got to go there and you got to study
01:36:02
what's there. One of the names they were given was Tony Abercrombie, the friend who got Amy
01:36:07
pregnant, seen here in a news report a day after Amy's murder. Great girl. There wasn't really too many out there
01:36:14
like her. I mean, she was very, very smart. Pretty. I actually called him at work.
01:36:22
Joy Haney was friends with Tony Abercrombie and Amy, living across the street from the Widners at the time of
01:36:28
the murder. I just said, "Hey, you need to come home. There's something's wrong." I had to leave work because I
01:36:33
was just tore up. I mean, hit me pretty hard. Abercrombie had an alibi, so eyes turned
01:36:40
to another friend, Troy Jackson, who lived in a house behind the Widners, and who police say knew about the stereo
01:36:47
equipment stolen on the day of the murder. DNA testing was in early stages, so police photographed Jackson's hands,
01:36:55
which did not show bruises from a struggle. Jackson also submitted hair samples, which did not match any found
01:37:02
in Amy's room, and he passed a polygraph test. So, detectives continued their investigation into other suspects. We're
01:37:11
not closed by any stretch of the imagination. Weeks went by, then months, and still no arrest. As family and
01:37:18
friends wondered, was there a killer in their midst? We didn't know who it was. You're leery
01:37:25
of everyone. It's just constantly in the back of your head wondering who. It's a sad thought knowing the family
01:37:39
you could have been growing up with versus the family that just fell apart. And they didn't really know how to put
01:37:48
the pieces back together. to become that family that they were before Amy died. We became a family that really didn't
01:37:57
talk for a long time. It was you didn't know what to say. My children didn't even come home from school
01:38:03
uh for a while until they knew I was home. It was difficult. This house holds a lot of memories, some
01:38:11
of them painful. Yes. Why did you decide to stay? I had no money. I had four other children.
01:38:21
Where am I going to move to? Gloria did her best to keep life normal for her family. She legally adopted
01:38:28
Emily. The little girl who had been a granddaughter and a niece became daughter and sister. I was raised knowing Cassie
01:38:36
and Tanya as my sisters and Jean-Paul as my brother. And Mom, Gloria, as Mom. I understand that Amy is my biological
01:38:46
mother, but Gloria has raised me. You got that, I hope. She's absolutely my mom.
01:38:54
Family and friends kept Amy's memory alive with stories for Emily. As did teachers like Jody George, who
01:39:02
had both Amy and Emily in her French classes. I said, "I just remember so many things about your mother and about
01:39:10
how your mother felt about you. And when it was time for her to graduate, we talked a little bit and I just said to
01:39:14
her, I know your mother would be so proud of you right now." Well, Emily only recalls life following
01:39:21
Amy's death. She says when watching home movies, she can see a before and after.
01:39:27
>> [cheering] [applause] >> Birthdays one and two, family is great, they're all happy.
01:39:33
And after that, it sort of changes. You can feel the difference in their personalities.
01:39:41
It was tough going for everyone. Police believed Amy had been murdered by an acquaintance.
01:39:48
And with no arrest, fear and suspicion spread. When I come home and I know one of my children were supposed to be home
01:39:58
and they're not answering me and I have to walk up those same stairs to find out if they're in their room,
01:40:05
it's terror because you don't know what you're going to see. I was absolutely terrified.
01:40:12
I asked my dad to put nails in my windows and then when you go few weeks, months, years
01:40:22
and you're thinking I could be standing at the grocery store next to this person
01:40:26
and I'd have no idea because >> unbelievable cuz you think there's a print on the wall and we can't figure
01:40:32
out who it is. But police could not find a match for that promising [music] lead, the hand
01:40:37
print. And the investigation grew cold. Years would go by without contact from the police.
01:40:46
Sometimes you get to the point or I got to the point that um maybe I I didn't want them to solve it.
01:40:53
I wanted them just to go away and leave us alone. But you certainly wanted justice for your daughter.
01:40:58
>> Yes. And it's not that I didn't want it solved. Truth is I wanted it all to go away
01:41:04
because every time they come back with something else, it bring you start all over again.
01:41:11
Like in 2002 when police thought they had a promising lead. This call came in about a person
01:41:19
wanting to talk about an old murder. 12 years after Amy's murder, Roger Spurgeon was heading the Indianapolis
01:41:25
Metropolitan Police Department's new cold case unit. He was telling me that he had had some
01:41:31
dreams about this murder that happened um, ultimately back in 1989 and that he from this dream, uh, believed he knew
01:41:40
who the suspect was. Lieutenant Spurgeon was not familiar with Amy Widner's murder. It was in a pile of 800 cold
01:41:47
cases, but the caller seemed to know all about it. A lot of information did match
01:41:53
up, um, but there was really not a lot of what he had spoken of that could not have
01:41:59
been gleaned from news reports of the time. It was determined the caller was not a
01:42:03
legitimate source, but it raised Spurgeon's interest. Did this look like a case that could be
01:42:09
solved? Well, I believe that all cases potentially could be solved. What were the challenges with this particular
01:42:17
case, though? It was really difficult to kind of figure out who the suspects might most likely be. You know, is this
01:42:23
somebody that simply was committing a burglary, and it was a burglary that went bad? Uh, is this somebody that had
01:42:30
some sort of a relationship with Amy? Still, Spurgeon had persons of interest. He spoke again to several people
01:42:38
previously investigated. And then a few years passed after I've done everything I can do, I move on to another, um,
01:42:45
job. The case remained with the cold case unit with no new leads. Then in 2011, in response to a newspaper
01:42:55
article about unsolved cases, friends created a Remembering Amy Widner Facebook page.
01:43:02
The cold case detectives [music] were not familiar with Facebook, but knew someone who was.
01:43:07
All kinds of information on a carjacking. Detective Sergeant William Carter, a nuisance abatement officer.
01:43:13
This is a a typical Saturday night detail. Uh, we'll we'll hit their forum. Okay. We'll hit we'll hit their forum.
01:43:18
We'll be looking at the nightclubs. They'll be looking for, uh, liquor law violations. The fire marshal's going to
01:43:24
be looking for overcapacity. Concerned with quality of life issues like underage drinking and overcrowding.
01:43:33
Carter uses Facebook to try to find events being promoted, not solve murders. I really knew nothing about the
01:43:39
case. My job was to print this Facebook memorial page out. I looked at it and then eventually I
01:43:46
read the case file, the the case notes. It's something that I dove into and I just couldn't put it down.
01:43:53
But no one asked you to read the file, did they? No. So, what prompted you to just pick up the file and take it home
01:43:59
and and read 65 pages? Why were you intrigued? I think it was the the photo we always
01:44:04
saw of Amy. In the file was um the original palm print that was recovered from the scene. On his own
01:44:12
time, Carter continued working the case, looking at everything that had been collected over two decades. Evidence at
01:44:18
the crime scene, school attendance records from the day Amy was killed, even the list of people attending the
01:44:24
funeral. Older files, of course, um were all typewritten. Carter entered it all into a database and soon realized the
01:44:33
other investigators had overlooked some obvious leads. There was tons of friends
01:44:37
of of her brothers that they they'd never even talked to. And then never got DNA from. Once I saw a lot of
01:44:44
those things, I guess it became uh a mission of mine to say, "Hey, we're going to fix this."
01:44:49
>> What did you have to work with to solve this crime? I had the original palm print. Um it was a full palm print that
01:44:55
was left on the lawn Amy's blood. And I had some partial DNA. Uh not enough DNA to put into the national
01:45:03
database. Carter started contacting the Wideners' family and friends, asking for names of
01:45:10
people who might remember anything. And began collecting DNA from individuals police had ruled out.
01:45:17
Did you canvas this neighborhood when you started investigating? Uh luckily in 1989 when they canvassed the
01:45:22
neighborhood, they wrote down and took notes of everybody who lived in the neighborhood. and took those notes
01:45:26
and went to those homes to see if those people still live there and for the most
01:45:30
part most of them did not. So Carter tracked down old neighbors like Joy Haney, Amy's friend who had lived across
01:45:37
the street. He just mainly was asking me to kind of recall the day and if there was anybody that you know
01:45:46
um stuck out in my mind or just give him names of you know people that hung out with us.
01:45:53
Most of the people Joy mentioned were ones Carter was already familiar with and had been cleared of wrongdoing. But
01:45:59
one name was new, a name that Carter hoped could solve a 22-year-old mystery. We probably all turned pale. It was
01:46:08
disbelief. It would come in uh waves. There would be times where I was very hopeful and I thought yes, certainly.
01:46:35
Certainly this could be solved. For more than two decades Emily Widener had been waiting for justice.
01:46:43
And then there were times where so many years had gone by that I didn't know. I didn't know anymore.
01:46:51
But in 2012 with the cold case unit's approval Detective Sergeant Bill [music] Carter was on the case and asking lots
01:46:58
of questions. I reached out to one of the former neighbors and she gave me the name of Rodney Dink not as a suspect
01:47:06
just talked to Rodney and see if he actually knew anything. But Rodney Dink was a new name that I hadn't heard. But
01:47:12
the Wideners were very familiar with him. I hadn't seen him in a long time but I would just consider him to be a good
01:47:19
friend. What kinds of things did you do with Rodney? Just normal things that kids do. Run
01:47:25
around. Being teenagers, riding bikes, fishing. When Detective Carter asked me about
01:47:31
Rodney, I said, "No." I said, "Rodney was quiet, kept to himself." There wasn't a
01:47:37
suspicion of Rodney. Still, Carter went to Denk's Indianapolis home. Long divorced from a
01:47:45
woman with whom he had a son, Denk lived with his mother, but was at work at an auto shop when Carter came by.
01:47:52
So, he left his card with Denk's mother. He did call the office, and left me a message. I immediately called him back,
01:47:58
and asked him if he would meet me. I needed to talk to him about this case. And um I told him Amy Widner, and
01:48:05
that was it. Denk agreed to meet at his house, but when Carter arrived, he was nowhere to
01:48:11
be found. Now, Carter was suspicious, and ran Denk's name to see if he had prior
01:48:17
arrests. He found a 1991 battery, and a 1997 larceny. With his interest raised, Carter took
01:48:25
the prints from Denk's last arrest to the forensic unit to compare to the palm print from Amy's bedroom wall. My goal
01:48:32
was kind of, "Hey, I'll submit the print. If it doesn't match, we'll just move on. Just wanted to clear him as a
01:48:36
suspect." Later that day, Carter checked back with forensics to see if he could cross Denk
01:48:42
off his list. Instead, he received stunning news. Rodney Denk's print was a match.
01:48:50
22 years of waiting were over. Finally, there was a real suspect for the murder of Amy Widner.
01:48:58
I was kind of shocked. I really, you know, didn't expect it really to be that easy.
01:49:04
While it had been a year since Carter had been asked to look at Amy's Facebook page, it was only in the past 2 weeks
01:49:10
that he began questioning potential suspects. And now he felt he He his man. But Dank had disappeared. We contacted
01:49:19
our fugitive task force unit to try to track him down. He had used his credit card to rent a car that's equipped with
01:49:27
OnStar. With the help of the OnStar tracking device in the rental car, detectives
01:49:32
went in search of Dank. Meanwhile, Carter let the Widners know they had identified a suspect, but did not give a
01:49:39
name. He felt a wave of relief. No, almost fear. Why fear? Cuz who is it? A few hours later, they would have their
01:49:52
answer. Dank's rental car was found in Indianapolis, where he was visiting a friend. As Dank was about to get into
01:49:59
his car, police approached him, and he pulled out a knife. He made a statement something to the effect of I didn't do
01:50:06
it, and he had a knife that he cut his wrist with, but they were able to bring him into custody without any further
01:50:14
injury to himself or any other officers. Anything you say can be used as evidence
01:50:19
against you in court. Do you understand that? Yeah. While Dank was taken to a hospital to
01:50:25
treat his wounds, the Widners wondered why their former friend would betray them. To comprehend that this person
01:50:32
that you knew did this. It's um it's just impossible to wrap your mind around it. I think the four of us just
01:50:42
stood there looking at each other and shock. I found out through Cassie. And then my next thought was, "Oh my
01:50:50
gosh, he was at the funeral with us. How could you commit this murder, this brutal,
01:50:58
to someone you know, and two days later sit with us at the funeral, and mourn with us?"
01:51:06
Dank had even signed the visitors book at Amy's funeral. And that wasn't the only place Carter
01:51:12
found Dank's name. Dank was overlooked and his name was given to a detective to somebody talked to and
01:51:18
Did they talk to him? They didn't talk to him at all. Had you heard of the name Rodney Dank before Sergeant Carter came
01:51:24
to you? No. Never heard that name. However, Dank's name appeared in this 2003 statement from Tony Abercrombie,
01:51:33
Emily's birth father, as someone who spent time at the Widener home. A statement taken by Spurgeon when he led
01:51:40
the cold case unit. If the name Rodney Dank ever came up in the course of my investigation or
01:51:46
re-looking through the files, that was one of literally dozens upon dozens of names
01:51:53
that I may simply have not had the opportunity to look at during my years of the investigation. I simply don't
01:52:00
recall seeing that name. What I don't understand is how did you recognize the mistakes that were made
01:52:07
in this investigation that seasoned detectives overlooked? I respected those people
01:52:13
because I assumed, "Hey, you know, I've never done this job. I'm just a more of a civil type police officer, but
01:52:20
I don't know why no one ever looked at Rodney Dank. I really don't." For some reason, Detective Carter found
01:52:26
it in his heart and who he is to have this determination to find who Amy's killer was. When you
01:52:36
walked into homicide, were you met with wild applause? Um I don't know. I really don't know.
01:52:42
Um I always felt like I was stepping out of where I belonged. Still, Carter found himself an unlikely
01:52:50
hero at the center of a press conference. It's been a long time coming for the family, I will say that.
01:52:56
And I'm just happy that we do have somebody in custody and we can offer some closure to the family.
01:53:02
It was emotional for me to think that, you know, all these years, after all these years, you know, it was somebody
01:53:07
that was there. It wasn't the boogeyman. It was somebody that was a friend of their families. Do you feel like you can
01:53:14
tell us and finally put this to bed what you carried for 22 years? With Dank now under arrest and in the
01:53:23
hospital, investigators got some long overdue answers about his motive. It was, as suspected, a robbery gone
01:53:31
terribly wrong. I didn't know she was in there. I was in the general office room.
01:53:37
Take the radio. She came around the corner. I hit her in the head. Over the course of 48 hours, police
01:53:47
questioned Dank on videotape, who admitted to raping and hitting Amy with an object, but kept changing his story
01:53:53
about whether he acted alone. I had one dude that was like staying at the house. Mhm.
01:54:01
But his name was like Bucky or Buck or something like that. Maybe it wasn't Buck. Maybe it was the
01:54:12
other guy. I don't remember. I don't remember a whole lot about that day. Can I just say it was me, I did
01:54:21
everything, and One thing Dank seemed certain about was that he never saw Emily. Where was
01:54:28
Emily? I don't know. Did you ever see the baby at all? Did you ever hear the baby cry?
01:54:37
I don't remember seeing or hearing a baby in there. And the time that you spoke to him, what were your impressions
01:54:42
of Rodney Dank? Was never upset, never screamed, never hollered. Uh was pleasant with us.
01:54:48
Um not what I would think that would be a killer. Rodney, did you have anything to do with
01:54:52
Amy's death? Dank provided a DNA sample, which, as expected, matched semen taken
01:54:58
in 1989 from Amy's sheet and blanket. Do you have anything you wish to say, however?
01:55:03
>> [music] >> There was something unexpected that police discovered during their
01:55:06
investigation about Rodney Denk's son, Dylan. I always tried to be a good person, but
01:55:26
I guess I know deep down that I'm not a good person. With Rodney [music] Denk in custody for
01:55:31
the murder of Amy Widener, detectives were learning more about their suspect, including something shocking about
01:55:38
Denk's son, Dylan. It was very odd to me that father and son about the same age committed two
01:55:43
terrible acts, horrible acts. This is probably best described as just a bizarre coincidence.
01:55:50
In 2009, Dylan Denk was charged with murdering his mother, Mary McHenry, beating her to death with a baseball
01:55:57
bat. The circumstances stand out to Commonwealth Attorney, Bruce Keegel. I think it's the brutality of the crime,
01:56:05
the fact that he is so young. He was 16 years old at the time, almost 17. In fact, during that week, he turned 17.
01:56:14
One year younger than his father, Rodney, was at the time of Amy's murder. This one involved just a brutal act
01:56:23
by a son against his mother. A mother who, according to court testimony, had a history of abusing
01:56:29
Dylan. Rodney Denk had little contact with his son or ex-wife for years, but he did
01:56:35
attend some of Dylan's hearings, prompting a social worker to recommend Dylan be released to his father, who no
01:56:41
one knew was living with his own secret. However, the judge ruled against releasing Dylan.
01:56:47
Sir, I wanted to uh apologize. In a plea deal, Dylan Denk was sentenced to 20 years. Meanwhile, his father was
01:56:58
looking at spending the rest of his life in prison for the murder of Amy Widener.
01:57:03
You were prepared to stare down evil. You were preparing to go to trial. Mhm, and worried to death about it. I didn't
01:57:10
want my girls and my son to have to hear or see any of the things that I saw when I
01:57:19
found her. Gloria Widener was set to go to trial, as was Marion County Prosecutor Denise
01:57:27
Robinson. Attempts at a plea deal had been stalled until Dent told the prosecutor no one else was involved in
01:57:35
Amy's murder. Before you offered him this plea agreement, he had to make certain admissions to you. Yes, he told
01:57:42
us that he acted alone, which was something that we had felt confident in after we had intercepted some jail calls
01:57:48
that he had made to his mother. We wanted to be able to tell the family that there wasn't another suspect out
01:57:52
there that we should be looking for. In June of 2012, just 10 days before the trial was scheduled to start, Dent pled
01:58:00
guilty to the murder and rape of Amy Widener. He would be sentenced to 65 years.
01:58:06
Despite Dent finally admitting to acting alone, family members and police are not completely convinced.
01:58:13
Was he really the only one? Was there other people that knew he did it? That's something we're not going to know unless
01:58:20
Rodney tells us those things. I just can't definitively say that with the arrest of Rodney Dent, the case is
01:58:27
absolutely closed and he's the only one that will ever be held accountable for it.
01:58:32
Without a trial, the Wideners would not hear testimony about what may have occurred, but at hearings and
01:58:38
sentencing, they faced the man who changed all their lives. I had prepared myself to feel this anger
01:58:47
and overwhelming rage. And when they brought him in, all I saw was Rodney. For the Widners, having Denk behind bars
01:59:00
has brought some resolution, but the impact of Amy's murder still haunts them. They still know that Amy is not coming
01:59:08
back. So, relief, yes, but there's definitely still sadness there. I miss her. And the thing is, the older I get, the
01:59:18
more I miss her. Cuz they're all grown. And they have their families. And they have their
01:59:28
their lives. And she's not here. What triggers the pain? Just Emily's birthdays, Emily's
01:59:38
accomplishments, her her graduations. I always feel like it should be Amy here enjoying these.
01:59:48
Gloria tries as best she can to focus on the present. Amy's old bedroom, the site
01:59:54
of the murder and a place she once feared, is now used for happier times. It's for my grandchildren now. When they
02:00:02
come to stay, they have a room. The only thing that's in here that was here when Amy was here was is the hat
02:00:08
that's on the door. It's [snorts] not Amy's room anymore. Amy's in me. She'll always be with me.
02:00:19
You're still in our hearts. Those touched by Amy have found through the years different ways to cope with their
02:00:24
sorrow. Does it feel like it's over to you? No, not really. Me neither. For Angie Moore and Amy Summers, visits
02:00:33
to their friend's grave help. As does reading that letter from long ago that teacher Jody George gave
02:00:40
students, which Amy still keeps nearby. My advice to you, be kind to others, always, even if it hurts. I wish you
02:00:50
peace and comfort now and always. You go through life and you wonder I'm really introverted. I wonder why? Or
02:01:02
I get really angry at certain things. Maybe it's because of what happened. But I I don't know.
02:01:10
Emily felt a change of scenery might provide some answers. A year after graduating college, she left
02:01:16
Indianapolis for California. I couldn't be who I thought I was supposed to be in Indiana.
02:01:24
And I'm I don't know that I'm necessarily the person I'm supposed to be yet, but
02:01:28
I'm getting closer in California. Emily visits when she can. 48 hours brought her to Indianapolis to
02:01:37
be part of a celebration decades [music] in the making. We're calling this a Midwest open house.
02:01:43
>> [laughter] >> It was an opportunity to share memories of Amy. Oh, Amy would have loved this.
02:01:49
She's here. Believe me, she's here. As well as [music] to honor the man who did what others could not.
02:01:56
On behalf of everyone here, I say thank you [music] from the bottom of our hearts.
02:02:03
It's nice for me to hear so many people who adore this girl. And she was a girl. She was 16. [music]
02:02:15
She had like impact. Like she was there and she had a purpose. >> We're going to release 24 balloons. I
02:02:23
like [music] that cuz it makes me think that was my mom. One for every year that we've been
02:02:29
without Amy. >> [music] >> That was Yeah, I'd like to be like that. Give it love.
02:02:36
Give it love. Okay. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.