00:00:09
It was really pretty. Lots of palm trees, I like that. It was always hot. We always hung out in the street
00:00:18
corners, went to the beach, dyed our hair blonde. We also partied a lot. >> Kids uh partying, kids over at the park,
00:00:33
kids with beer in the car. I mean, there wasn't very much going on here in 1977.
00:00:38
We didn't have a a lot of violent crimes. >> I'm Bob Vernon, I'm a retired Coral
00:00:43
Springs police detective. I worked on the Jeff Clee case. >> He was really tall and handsome. He was
00:00:52
[music] funny and smart, warm and kind, [music] and he would do anything for anybody.
00:00:59
I am Jenny Clee. In 1977, I dated Jeff Clee. >> He was the firstborn. [music] He got along with most everybody.
00:01:09
>> I'm Flossie Clee, and I'm Jeff Clee's mother. Jeff disappeared on June 21st, 1977.
00:01:19
>> It was on a Monday night. He went to the Crown uh Lounge with a group of friends.
00:01:25
They apparently left about 2:00 in the morning. >> It was a an average Joe kind of bar,
00:01:31
where everybody kind of hung out. >> When we woke up the next morning, and Jeff wasn't in his bedroom, Jeff's van
00:01:40
wasn't there. We called around, and we couldn't locate him. >> Was that unusual?
00:01:47
>> Yeah. He'd never done it before. And so we called and reported it to the police, and they said, "Well, you know,
00:01:54
he's 18, and you know, he probably just took off. Uh When your child goes missing like that,
00:02:02
you you you don't know. How could this happen? >> I wonder where he is. I hope he's well.
00:02:10
Well, he has a special place in my heart. He always has. >> [music] >> A lot of people overlooked the case
00:02:19
because it was just another kid who didn't come home, >> [music] >> and he's off someplace else.
00:02:25
>> It was just like the earth just opened up and swallowed him. >> Somewhere in between the Crown Lounge
00:02:32
and his house, something happened. >> It took 31 years for the case to be solved.
00:02:42
>> Deep Secret, tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. >> [music] [music] >> Back in the '70s, how were you treated
00:03:24
as a mom? >> Well, they ignored me. [music] They said I was hysterical. >> When Flossie Cleve reported her
00:03:30
18-year-old son, [music] Jeff, missing on a June day in 1977, she was frustrated that police didn't
00:03:38
take her seriously. >> I said, "Well, [music] when was I hysterical?" Cuz I I I I never I never
00:03:47
screamed or hollered or cried or any did any of that. I mean, I was just concerned. Where is my son?
00:03:53
He isn't home. Where What are you going to do about it? >> They didn't do much. >> They said, well, [music] you know, he's
00:03:59
18 and we can't really do anything. You just sort of have to wait and he'll come
00:04:04
up. He'll show up. >> Even if police have begun a serious search, it wasn't so easy to track down
00:04:10
a missing teen back in the late 1970s. There weren't surveillance cameras like this everywhere as there are now, no
00:04:19
ATMs on every corner, cell phones, electronic tolls, or vast computer networks. It wasn't so difficult to virtually
00:04:30
disappear. Back in the 1970s, drinking laws were more relaxed, too. [music] It was perfectly legal in Florida for
00:04:40
18-year-olds to drink at bars. Nickel beer night at the Crown Lounge [music] was a big hit with Jeff Lee and
00:04:49
his friends. >> Jeff was He was a lot of fun. He was a party maker. >> [music] >> Alan Carpenter was one of those close
00:04:58
friends. >> He just enjoyed having a good time. >> Jenny Healey was Jeff's [music]
00:05:02
girlfriend. >> He was strong and I thought he was handsome. Like a man's man. Didn't mean even at 18.
00:05:13
It's like he knew who he was. >> You loved him? >> Mhm. Absolutely. >> And here's his birthday.
00:05:22
>> As the oldest of four children, Jeff was also close to his mother and three younger sisters. Didi was 11.
00:05:30
>> And I remember sitting in the front yard for hours cuz I was waiting for him to
00:05:34
come home. And she's like, okay, you know, it's time to come in, Didi. I'm like, but he's not home yet.
00:05:39
>> Cindy, now a Coral Springs cop, was 15. >> He'd give you the shirt off his back to
00:05:45
anybody, even his sisters, believe it or not. >> Laurel, only a year younger than Jeff,
00:05:50
was closest to him. >> [music] >> She hung out with him and his friends, especially his best friend, David
00:05:56
[music] Cusinelli. >> They did everything together. He was like a big brother to me.
00:06:01
He and Jeff, they were just [music] almost inseparable. >> Both David and Alan worked for Jeff's
00:06:07
dad, Bucky, who ran a landscaping business. Bucky had a commanding presence and expected his son to someday run the
00:06:15
company. >> My husband had given him half of the business and uh he had a brand new van.
00:06:22
>> Did he like working in his father's business? Was that something he enjoyed doing?
00:06:27
>> I think he did, but I also think that he um he'd get a little resentful only because
00:06:33
he worked so much. >> How did your husband [music] deal with Jeff's disappearance? How
00:06:40
would you describe what he was going through? >> This was this was [music] his boy, you
00:06:45
know, and and it left a big void with him in his life, I think. >> Do you remember the last time you saw
00:06:52
Jeff? >> Mhm. Yep. He was in my family room and he was [music] going out and I can see him
00:07:01
and we were all laughing in the in the family room doing something and I remember him saying to me, "Mom, I
00:07:08
love you." And that was the last time I remember that. >> Jeff, from what I understand, left the
00:07:19
Crown Lounge and then he went to take David Cusinelli home and never returned home himself.
00:07:29
>> What I recall is Cusinelli telling me that Jeff had disappeared and his mother was looking
00:07:35
for him [music] and have you seen him? And I said, "No, and I haven't heard from him."
00:07:42
>> [music] >> So, what did you think? >> He always mentioned that everyone here go off daydreaming that he would move to
00:07:48
California. And I thought he went. >> A lot of people thought Jeff, you know, went off in his own.
00:07:57
Find a place down in the Keys. He had a scuba license. He loved the water. >> As time wore on, there was still no sign
00:08:04
of Jeff. >> [music] >> As part of procedure, police took a closer look at his family and learned
00:08:11
that Bucky Clee was a gambler. >> [music] >> My husband knew a lot of people and not
00:08:16
not all of them were wonderful people. >> Little shady? >> Oh, yeah, kind of. And Bucky did like to gamble.
00:08:26
He knew bookies. >> Any possibility of your husband having a debt that could have something to do with your son's
00:08:34
disappearance? >> No. >> The police also learned [music] that the Clees had taken out a $100,000
00:08:43
life insurance policy on [music] Jeff. And wasn't that a pretty large insurance policy on an 18-year-old?
00:08:52
>> Well, probably. My girls also had uh large uh policies on them, too. And this was just something we did.
00:09:01
>> Flossie refused to believe her son was dead. >> The first year she she brought a ton of
00:09:08
Christmas presents for him and I'm sitting there kind of like looking at he's not here. Well, he he'll have
00:09:13
something to open up when he comes out in, you know, through the front door. >> Jeff's sisters began to wonder if the
00:09:21
friend who last saw their brother might be hiding something. He had stopped working for their father right after
00:09:28
Jeff disappeared. >> Did you continue to see David Kusenelli? >> I did from time to time, but I really
00:09:34
thought that he knew something. But I didn't know what. >> Did you ever ask David like what
00:09:39
happened to my brother? >> Yes, I asked him and he just said he didn't know. >> But if David [music] seemed reluctant to
00:09:48
talk, someone else they knew was not. >> [music] >> In 1981, four years after Jeff
00:09:54
disappeared, suddenly there was news. >> And a friend of his is saying Jeff's alive.
00:10:00
>> Yeah. And he asked me not to say anything to anybody because if they ever find Jeff, Jeff
00:10:07
would be in trouble. >> So the the three little ones [music] little and he's all handsome.
00:10:29
>> That's me? And that's Cindy and Jeff. >> Look, he's got his arm around both of
00:10:33
you. >> Mhm. >> Old faded photographs are all Laurel [music] Cleese left of the older brother
00:10:39
who vanished in June of 1977. She heard nothing [music] until four years later when by chance
00:10:47
she ran into someone she knew from high school. >> It was just a bizarre conversation.
00:10:53
>> Michael Collister told Laurel that Jeff was alive but in hiding living under an
00:10:59
alias after a drug deal went bad. >> Mike Collister is telling you that when Jeff disappeared in 1977,
00:11:08
he had actually gone somewhere, changed his name, and was on the run? >> Yes. >> But he refused to tell Laurel where.
00:11:15
>> And he said that he had a nice girl, they were living somewhere and uh he was set for life. It didn't
00:11:21
sound like Jeff, but I you know I didn't know. >> Laurel, who at first kept quiet, later
00:11:28
confided in her mother. >> I just didn't believe this. I said that this is just not something Jeff would
00:11:35
do." >> When investigators eventually tracked down Collister, he denied telling Laurel
00:11:43
that her brother was alive. >> If I had a conversation with her about Jeff, it was only to
00:11:50
try to ease her pain to some degree and tell >> A dead end, says Detective Bob Vernon.
00:11:56
>> I discounted it right from the start. It just >> Vernon took charge of Jeff Clee's case
00:12:00
in 1982, 5 years after he went missing. Vernon was shocked by how thin the case file was.
00:12:10
>> Did Jeff Clee's disappearance kind of fall through the cracks? >> Yes. It was listed a missing person on
00:12:15
the face sheet. It was a basically an empty folder. >> Vernon wondered how Jeff and his van
00:12:25
could simply disappear without a trace. >> It never showed up in 5 years. I mean,
00:12:32
not in a chop shop, the license plate didn't show up, it didn't end up on some used car lot.
00:12:38
>> His gut told him that Jeff was dead. >> [music] >> And back in 1977, when Coral Springs was an undeveloped
00:12:48
maze of canals and levees, there were plenty of places to dump bodies and vans. >> There was a lot of empty fields. I mean,
00:12:56
[music] there was a lot of possibilities. >> While Detective Vernon [music] was beginning his search, Jeff Clee's mom,
00:13:05
Flossie, had never stopped hers. >> I think I chased every black van in Broward County.
00:13:13
I hate to admit it, I went to at least five different psychics trying to find out. I would just come away shaking my
00:13:19
head thinking, "This just that's not him. They don't know him." >> Through all the false leads, Flossie
00:13:27
held out hope. >> I never changed my phone number thinking that if something did happen to him,
00:13:33
he'd have he'd know the phone number. >> Like Jeff's family, Detective Vernon thought that Jeff's friends had to know
00:13:40
more than they were saying. >> Jeff Klee had been out with friends. They'd been drinking here at the Crown
00:13:46
Lounge. >> According to police reports, the last friend to see Jeff was David Cousineau.
00:13:56
So, Vernon began dropping by his workplace. >> After half a dozen or more visits,
00:14:02
the same questions come up. Do you can you think about anything else? Do you remember anything else that night?
00:14:07
>> David told Vernon what he told police in 1977. That Jeff [music] dropped him and his
00:14:15
brother Carl off at their house at around 2:00 a.m. They never saw or heard from Jeff again.
00:14:24
Vernon felt the best clue to the mystery was something Jeff's sister Laurel had mentioned offhandedly.
00:14:31
>> She said, um, >> [clears throat] >> "A few years ago, I got a letter from Attica State Prison."
00:14:40
>> The letter, Laurel says, came from a New York State prison official who stated
00:14:45
that an inmate wanted to write to her. [music] An inmate by the name of Scott Rango.
00:14:53
>> I was 17. My mom asked me if I knew him, and I said, "No, I don't know who it
00:14:56
is." >> Why did he want to write you? >> I had no idea. >> Scott Rango was serving a life sentence
00:15:03
for murder. >> I just didn't want my daughter involved with that. And so, that was the end of that.
00:15:10
>> How would he get the address to write to the Klee family? >> What were you thinking?
00:15:15
>> At that particular point, I tell you, I just, you know, it was like pulling on a
00:15:19
string. You know, I'm going to pull wherever I can to see whatever it is and you know
00:15:24
>> Rango had robbed and killed a psychiatrist in New York and was a suspect in as many as 17 other crimes,
00:15:32
[music] many violent. >> He would meet people out, become friends, drink [music] in bars, stuff
00:15:37
like that, later rob them or try to kill them. >> More significantly, back in 1977,
00:15:44
Rango was here living in Florida in the Coral Springs area and he just happened to wash dishes at a restaurant
00:15:54
near the Crown Lounge, the same club where Jeff hung out with his friends on the night he disappeared.
00:16:04
And how close is the restaurant where Scott Rango worked? >> Right across the street. I would say
00:16:08
probably 500 yards. >> That one right there on the corner. >> That was known as the clock restaurant
00:16:13
then. I putting the pieces together, I'm thinking well, you know he comes across the street
00:16:19
he meets Jeff, he asks for a ride home. I was thinking he's probably killed him,
00:16:24
took his van at that time and went to New York. >> Vernon was sure he was onto something.
00:16:31
But it was too late to talk to Scott Rango himself. Shortly after Rango reached out to Laura Klee he hanged
00:16:40
himself in his [music] cell. Was the case pretty much though closed believing that Scott Rango
00:16:47
was the one who killed Jeff Klee? >> In my mind, yes, it was. >> Nearly 9 years after Jeff Klee went
00:16:53
missing and at the insistence of the insurance company, the Klees finally asked to have him declared dead.
00:17:01
>> I said I can't do it. I don't want to do it. I you know, I he might walk through
00:17:06
that door tomorrow. >> Detective Vernon testified [music] how he believed Jeff Klee died at the
00:17:15
hands of Scott Rango and the judge made it official. >> Tough. >> Tough. Having to walk away from that
00:17:26
>> [music] >> judges chambers in silence. Not talking about it on on the way home.
00:17:30
>> one has talked. We just walked out real quiet. >> I would have go to my grave believing
00:17:38
that Scott Rango was responsible for the disappearance of Jeff Kline. >> But today you feel differently, don't
00:17:43
you? >> I feel entirely different. Yes, absolutely. I was wrong. >> Totally? >> Totally.
00:17:55
>> Three decades after Jeff Kline disappeared, Coral Springs is a thriving community. Busy bridges now span the
00:18:03
city's canals. >> Was any of this here back then, like any of these homes? >> No, this was
00:18:10
these were cow fields back here and this bridge wasn't built until 1989. >> The Kline case had been passed to
00:18:20
detective Dave Weisman, only 5 years old [music] in 1977. >> I wanted to give the Klines more
00:18:28
answers. [music] >> He was reviewing the case in March 2008 when he heard his colleagues were
00:18:34
dredging the C-14 [music] canal. >> For stolen vehicles possibly involved in insurance fraud.
00:18:40
>> They fished out more than 30 vehicles here. And [music] then a discovery no one
00:18:48
expected. Remnants of a black van [music] that had been submerged for a very long time.
00:19:07
>> When I put the van down on the concrete it actually fell apart. So it had to be
00:19:11
in a canal for several years because it totally deteriorated once it hit the ground.
00:19:19
>> His scuba license floated [music] to the top of the canal and license plate was
00:19:24
still on the van. >> One by one, clues [music] to a 30-year mystery emerged. >> We found eight-track tapes, we found
00:19:34
cologne, a comb. >> [music] >> And Jeff Klee's bones. His mother's agonizing search had come to [music] an
00:19:43
end. >> I was just so astonished. I really was. I I just I had to go by and see the van.
00:19:52
>> Jeff had never been far from home. >> It's incredible to think that probably about 3 and 1/2 4 miles from our house
00:20:01
this is where my son's resting place was. And how many times have I driven over that bridge [music] after it was
00:20:08
made? How many times have all of us driven over that bridge? >> Jeff's father, Buggy, died in 2004
00:20:16
never knowing what [music] happened to his only son. >> They found the van on my dad's birthday.
00:20:24
You think that's coincidence? >> I said it was a gift [music] from Daddy. >> What was your reaction when this was
00:20:30
actually pulled up? What do you think even when you [music] look at this now? >> I just can't believe that
00:20:36
Jeff was stuck in this van for 31 years. It's just hard to believe. >> The timing was uncanny because the van
00:20:45
wasn't the only new evidence to surface. Remarkably, just 2 weeks earlier, the police heard from a new witness.
00:20:54
>> Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so you got?
00:20:57
>> I swear. >> Dana Holmes, who was only 1 year old when Jeff Klee went missing,
00:21:02
came to police out of the blue to report an event that happened in the year 2000.
00:21:09
Back then, she met a man at a Coral Springs bar. >> He was drinking very much. He was
00:21:16
wasted. >> She and the man ended up alone that night. >> He was coming on to me.
00:21:21
And I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." >> Instead of getting intimate, she says, they shared secrets.
00:21:27
>> He started crying and he explained that he killed his best friend. His words.
00:21:33
And my heart dropped. And And then he continued to say, "But it was an accident."
00:21:40
>> Dana was very disturbed by the story, but she was married to another man at the time, so she kept the story to
00:21:47
herself. >> I did I figured, well, who am I going to tell? What am I going to do? Call Coral
00:21:53
Springs PD and say, "Oh, this guy I met one night, he told me he killed his best friend. I
00:22:00
don't know his best friend." I mean, it's one heck of a story. I didn't know if anyone would believe that.
00:22:07
>> As Dana went on with her life, she says, she buried the memory of that night until 7 years later in 2007,
00:22:16
when her memory got a jolt. She was in a bar again. This time, she overheard a woman telling a chilling story about her
00:22:24
missing brother. That woman was Coral Springs Police Sergeant Cindy Clee. >> Her brother had disappeared
00:22:35
30 years earlier. She strongly believes that her brother's best friend had something to do with it. And I listened
00:22:42
and I thought, "Oh my god, I know this story." >> Did you say something to Cindy?
00:22:48
>> No, I didn't. I didn't do anything and it did work on me. >> What do you mean worked on you?
00:22:53
>> I because now the victim had a name. >> It was 6 months after that, in March 2008, when Dana Holmes finally went to
00:23:03
the police. >> He was very emotional, and he was very, very detailed. And he said it was about when he was 17
00:23:11
or 18. >> And she gave them a sworn tape statement. >> He said that him and his best friend
00:23:17
were fighting, and there was some type of girl involved. And he said that he accidentally had
00:23:23
killed him, and that he hid a body, and that he didn't want to go to the cops. >> Dana knew the man only by his first
00:23:30
name, Dave. But when shown a photo lineup, >> That is David. >> she picked out David Cusenelli, Jeff
00:23:40
Cleese's high school friend. >> That's him. That's the man that told me he killed
00:23:45
his best friend. >> I It was just like God said, "Okay, they We've We've had enough of this. Let's
00:23:51
get this thing settled once and for all." >> Detective Wiseman was now convinced that
00:23:56
David was responsible for Jeff's death. >> How do you know he didn't just kind of
00:24:00
get lost and drive into the canal? >> That wouldn't be possible. There were no roads back then. There wasn't a bridge.
00:24:08
And when we found the van, um, it was found in neutral, which raised our suspicions that someone
00:24:15
had pushed the van into that canal. >> Dana Holmes continued to remember details of the story David Cusenelli
00:24:23
told her 8 years earlier. >> There was something that had to do with a rock. >> This time, she was under hypnosis.
00:24:31
>> It's an investigative tool. That's all it is. It's not admissible in court. >> I don't know if he fell
00:24:39
and hit his head on a rock, or he hit him in the head with a rock. I know that he killed him.
00:24:46
>> Wiseman also interviewed Jenny Healey Spence, Jeff's high school girlfriend, who revealed to police for the first
00:24:53
time that she had cheated on Jeff. >> You had spent some time with David Cusanelli.
00:24:59
>> Yeah. Yeah, on his birthday. >> On David's birthday. >> Yeah. >> And how did Jeff react?
00:25:06
>> Well, he was pretty mad, so we broke up. >> There's our motive. Jeff, that gave Jeff uh the reason to
00:25:14
confront David. >> You feel responsible in some ways? >> Yes. >> David was still in the area. He had
00:25:24
never married, but making [music] a case against him was not going to be easy. Nothing in Jeff's van or the condition
00:25:32
[music] of his body answered the biggest question, how did he die? >> We may have the why now, but how?
00:25:40
>> It was time for the detectives to confront David Cusanelli. Four months after Jeff Kline's body was
00:25:53
found, yet another surprising development. The man police suspect of pushing Jeff
00:26:01
and his van into the C-14 Canal agrees to talk to detective David Weisman. >> Nobody thought he would come in, and
00:26:09
then we got the call that there was somebody down in the lobby. Uh all the investigators were stunned.
00:26:15
>> Hey, Dave. >> Hey, how are you doing? How are you? >> David Cusanelli, now 50, arrives without
00:26:21
an attorney. >> It was extremely important because there was no physical evidence.
00:26:26
And we needed David's confession. >> But if David knows what happened to Jeff, he's not telling the team of
00:26:34
detectives who question him. >> So, tell me about that night. Do you remember what time you
00:26:40
left? >> I'd have to be >> And what time did you arrive, and who drove, and just set up the situation.
00:26:46
>> Well, Jeff drove, and my brother Carl went with him. Dropped me and my brother off at the
00:26:51
house, my parents house, and I said that was it. >> It's the same story he has always told,
00:26:58
except for one crucial difference. For the very first time, David admits that he and Jeff had argued that night about
00:27:06
Jenny, Jeff's girlfriend. >> He was upset. >> David admitted that Jeff was upset
00:27:14
because he had found out that [music] Jenny and him slept together. >> Were you scared Jeff was going to hurt
00:27:20
you that night? >> No. >> When he found out about it? >> No. No. >> While police continue to press David in
00:27:27
one room, what David doesn't know is that in another room, his older brother Carl,
00:27:34
who also agreed to talk, is being interrogated. Police are hoping to find inconsistencies in the brothers'
00:27:42
stories. >> When you went down to the Crown Lounge that night, how did you get down there?
00:27:49
Did you drive? >> David is confronted with Dana Holm's statement [music] that he had confessed
00:27:54
to her that he had killed his best friend. >> Rock. There was something that had to do
00:27:59
with the rock. >> Why would she say something like that? >> I have no idea. And I never told her anything. I never
00:28:06
told her that I killed Jeff Kling. I did not hit him with no rock. I did nothing like that.
00:28:12
>> David sticks to his story, even as he is egged on for hours. >> Cuz you know, accidents do happen.
00:28:19
>> I understand that, but I don't know what happened to him. He dropped me off at my parents' house
00:28:26
and drove away. >> Were you nervous questioning him? >> Uh I [clears throat] was I was a little
00:28:31
nervous. >> Finally, both brothers begin to waver on whether Carl had really been at the
00:28:37
Crown Lounge the night Jeff disappeared. >> I thought he was in the van. Maybe it
00:28:41
was another night he was in the van. >> Well, where were you? >> Um I don't remember.
00:28:47
I thought I went to the bar with the two of them and that was it. >> So, that's when we went in the room and
00:28:54
I spoke with Carl. >> This is a detective wasting He's been speaking to your brother.
00:28:59
>> After 3 and 1/2 hours, Carl appears to [music] break. >> I asked him if there was any malicious
00:29:06
intent with Jeff's disappearance. >> An accident is an accident, okay? As long as you can tell me
00:29:14
that there was no malicious intent, then I'll be fine with that. I really will be.
00:29:24
>> There was no malicious intent. >> Thank you. And at that point, I can see that we
00:29:29
were getting somewhere. >> David called me up and told me that there was a problem.
00:29:34
I guess I went out and met him. I must have helped [music] him dispose of the the vehicle.
00:29:42
I helped him push it in. >> Carl does not give any details and he insists he never saw Jeff's body in the
00:29:50
van. >> Carl, what did he tell you happened to Jeff? >> I don't know. I Yeah, vaguely come up with
00:29:59
pushing the van into the canal and I'm not even I wouldn't swear up and down that
00:30:08
>> Carl. Come on. >> I I don't I can't think of anything else. >> When police push him for more,
00:30:19
>> Come on. >> I'm not going to make something up. I don't know. >> Carl suddenly ends the interview.
00:30:28
>> Do I need to get a lawyer at this point? Is that where we're at? >> Are you requesting a lawyer?
00:30:36
>> You know, I I can't give you guys the answers you want. You know. >> But Carl has given the cops the
00:30:42
ammunition they need to press David. >> The police something. It's important that you see this.
00:30:49
>> They show David portions of his brother's interview. >> David called me up and told me that
00:30:55
there was a problem. I got up and went out and met him. I must help him. This was in the the vehicle.
00:31:05
>> He goes into more detail. >> What the police talking about? >> When we brought the video
00:31:12
in the actual room of Carl confessing, uh David started to freak out a little bit.
00:31:19
>> I did not do it. >> David, why your brother's on a mission? He helped you. >> No freaking way.
00:31:28
No freaking way. >> You saw it. >> I No way. >> It's your blood. >> I understand that. No, I
00:31:36
>> It's your blood. >> I did not kill Jeff. I did not. >> Then, David changes his story. He begins
00:31:44
to tell police how Jeff might have gotten hurt. >> He said the only thing that could have
00:31:48
happened is he was chasing me around the van. He tripped, fell, and hit his head.
00:31:56
>> In your mind, he really finally broke when he saw Carl. >> I believe so. Absolutely.
00:32:02
Seeing his own brother confessing uh to something they probably um we're going to keep a secret
00:32:12
amongst themselves their entire lives. >> What's the possibility that you grabbed
00:32:16
something and threw it at him? Hm? >> I >> Does that sound more reasonable? >> at him, maybe.
00:32:26
>> Does that seem more reasonable? >> It's possible, but I don't know. >> remember if that rock hit him in the
00:32:32
head? >> No, I don't. >> Or did he trip and fall? >> know if the rock hit him in the head or
00:32:35
if it caused him to trip and fall and it him in the body and then he tripped and fell.
00:32:40
>> Where did you see an injury? Forehead. >> I would think it was on his forehead.
00:32:45
>> How big of an injury? >> I think it was split wide open. >> The detectives finally feel they're
00:32:51
getting somewhere as David begins to reluctantly talk about that night. But David is never clear about how Jeff died
00:33:00
or how he and Carl put the van in the water. >> Did he jump back in the van with you and
00:33:05
go down there or did he would have followed you because it's kind of a long >> would have followed me in his car.
00:33:11
>> It's hard to watch him talk about our brother like it was just his life didn't matter.
00:33:18
>> We showed Jeff Clee's mother and sisters some of David's taped interview. >> I mean, if he was breathing, I wouldn't
00:33:25
have put him in the canal. >> Okay. >> No way. >> All right. Did you think that there was a chance
00:33:32
that he could have been brought to a hospital? >> If I thought there was, I would have.
00:33:37
>> Do you think it's possible that Jeff wasn't dead when he was put in the canal?
00:33:41
>> That was one of the first questions I had. How did they know he was dead? He could have been unconscious, totally
00:33:48
unconscious. >> And then drowned. >> I mean, these are two guys. I mean, they aren't paramedics.
00:33:55
>> Right. >> I said I thought it was a bad dream. So I woke up the next morning I was like, nah, no way did that happen,
00:34:01
no way. >> Would you actually describe what David [music] said as a confession? >> I believe so.
00:34:09
>> Oh God, what did I do? >> More than 9 and 1/2 hours after he arrived, >> My God.
00:34:17
>> David [music] goes home. Why wasn't he arrested? >> We wanted to review the case with the
00:34:22
state attorney. Make sure we had all our ducks in a row. >> What were you hoping he could be charged
00:34:28
with? >> Homicide. >> He was a good looking fellow and uh, he loved to be [music] dressed nicely.
00:34:53
>> Do you remember what Jeff was wearing when he disappeared? >> I remember he had this shirt on with
00:34:58
little tiny roses. >> I don't remember anything [clears throat] about his shirt.
00:35:01
>> tiny ones like this and it was uh, he he he really did like that shirt. >> Okay, Mom.
00:35:09
>> [laughter] >> We do miss him. We do miss him and what he could have been, I think all
00:35:17
>> It's not just losing a son and brother that is so difficult for Flossie Clee and her daughters. They are still
00:35:24
reeling from learning that Jeff's best friend may be responsible. >> Maybe it was an accident, but why did
00:35:31
they have to cover it up then? We might never know. So, there's always going to be a question in all of our
00:35:38
minds. >> What do you think of David Cusenelli today? >> I think that uh, he and his brother both are cowards.
00:35:45
They knew where Jeff was for 31 years and they chose to remain silent. >> Immediately after David and his brother
00:35:52
Carl gave their taped statements to police, they hired an attorney, Mitch Pole. The Cusenellis wouldn't talk with
00:36:00
us, but their lawyer did. The police called David Cusenelli's statement a confession.
00:36:07
>> Do you agree with that? >> No. >> What do you call it? >> I call it something that's coerced. I
00:36:12
call it something that's manufactured. >> Now, do you recall him chasing you? >> Pole says police fed David information
00:36:19
and pressured him into admitting he was there the night Jeff died. >> These pieces of the story don't
00:36:27
initially come from David. Here, >> this does not come from the police when he says, "Do you see an injury on the
00:36:34
forehead?" >> Where did you see an injury? >> Forehead. >> That came from David. David is the one
00:36:40
who said it was split wide open. >> How big of an injury? >> I think it was split wide open.
00:36:45
>> David is the one who says it's a couple of inches of a gash. >> How long do you think the gash was? 2 3
00:36:50
6 inches? His whole forehead like this? >> maybe a couple inches. >> That wasn't fed by the police. That
00:36:56
sounds like real details, doesn't it? >> But you have to take a step back before
00:37:01
he answered that way with some specificity. Who brought up the fact that he tripped
00:37:08
and fell first? It was the police. >> I don't have it right here in the top of my head.
00:37:14
>> And Carl's attorney says got the same treatment. >> Every time he would say, "I didn't have
00:37:20
any type of involvement. I don't remember." The police would say, "That's not a good enough answer for us. That's
00:37:25
not good enough. We could help you along." >> And you're saying that neither David
00:37:29
Cusanelli or Carl Cusanelli had anything to do with it? >> I'm not saying that they didn't have
00:37:34
anything to do with it. I'm saying that they both denied had it having anything to do with it and I
00:37:41
don't think that these so-called confessions confirm it anything. >> The Cleese hoped a criminal court would
00:37:51
settle the matter, but then a development that no one expected. [music] Today, what charges are pending against
00:38:00
David Cusanelli or Carl Cusanelli? >> No charges are pending against them. You heard it. The Cusanelli [music]
00:38:08
brothers will face no charges at all. >> Assistant State's Attorney Sherry Tate Jenkins.
00:38:15
>> We don't have any evidence to suggest homicide because it could have been accidental.
00:38:20
>> There is simply not enough evidence to prove premeditated murder, she says. The
00:38:26
main problem is that no one can even say how Jeff died. His skeletal remains, meticulously
00:38:33
examined, reveal nothing. >> You can't tell whether he drowned? >> No. >> You can't tell whether he was stabbed?
00:38:41
>> No. >> Or shot? >> No. >> Or even hit in the head with a rock? >> No. No. >> But what about Dana Holmes? Didn't she
00:38:49
say David confessed to her? >> If you took that alleged statement as factual, um
00:38:56
that indicated an accidental death and really gave no details whatsoever of that.
00:39:01
>> As for David's own admissions, >> I don't think I could describe it as a confession. He doesn't say um
00:39:09
definitively, "I hit him." In fact, he many times stresses the opposite. >> What about Carl Kessinger? Would you
00:39:17
describe his statement as a confession? >> He places himself there, um only to help his brother do something with
00:39:27
the van. He claims no knowledge of uh Jeff Kling being there. >> If it was an accident, what about
00:39:34
manslaughter charges against the brothers? Well, that's out, too. >> You have to apply the law that existed
00:39:40
in 1977. >> The law in Florida has since changed, but back in 1977, there was only a 3-year statute of
00:39:49
limitations on manslaughter, meaning that the state could only bring charges 3 years after a death. Obviously, by
00:39:57
2008, the clock had long run out, not only on manslaughter, but on lesser charges like concealing a body.
00:40:06
But no one even knew Jeff Kling was dead. >> No. No. But that was the law at the time, in
00:40:11
1977. >> They'll never pay for the crime, which is frustrating to the police department, frustrating for the Klee
00:40:20
family. >> We are burdened by knowing that someone who we believe put our brother in his
00:40:25
van and pushed him into the canal will not be held legally accountable. >> With no case pending,
00:40:32
Jeff's belongings are returned to the Klees. >> There were a few things that we we just
00:40:38
my family decided to keep, but um they're strictly for their own personal remembrances.
00:40:45
>> This is his dive card. This is what floated to the top. >> The hair. >> Proof positive who it was.
00:40:54
>> Flossie finds a tiny threadbare piece of cloth with a faint, but familiar pattern. It's the shirt she has
00:41:01
remembered all these years. >> See, here's the rose, right here. >> She allows the [music] remnants of
00:41:13
Jeff's van to be towed away and junked. In 1977, Jeff Klee left in that vehicle [music]
00:41:24
intending to spend a night out with his friends. His family feels he has finally
00:41:30
come home. >> It's over with. >> [music] >> Uh we know the people involved. Are they going to go get justice? They
00:41:39
probably won't. But they have [music] to live with themselves. As far as I'm concerned, that's the end
00:41:45
of the story. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]