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[Music] do you know why you're here today to talk about what happened this morning I have a question do I really
00:00:25
have to talk about what happened this morning again because I've told people and I told people and it just crushes me
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every say it so I can't I can't really talk about that again 911 what is your emergency um
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there was a shoot out in my house and I don't know is dead and I'm scared after death I was 10 when all this
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happened I was so young and so little is there anybody else in the house with you no I'm I think I'm the
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only one alive I don't know but I'm scared I want my mom I lived with my mother that's
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Michelle Conrad I lived with my stepfather Brian Conrad and then my older brother Zach Don I had a dog named
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Molly and my stepdad Brian was a farmer and then my mom was also 6 months pregnant I so hope my mom not
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dead that night I was having a nightmare and I remember like hearing the gunshots
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in my dream but like when I woke up it didn't end the gunshots were actually going off in my
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house my mother started screaming screaming and screaming and screaming my I jumped out of my bed and
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I'd went and crouched down by my door that's when IID heard footsteps it was very loud he was
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stomping I just remember popping up as fast as I could and just taking two leaps back into my bed and just
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freezing he fired two rounds off at me I had one of them graze my left leg and my
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left arm he returned to my brother's room and I just remember gunshots going off and my brother
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[Music] moaning I played dead for 2 and a half [Music] hours I was just like I can't just lay
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here I need to do something so I just proceeded out the door and started dialing 91 one can you somebody's coming
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somebody's coming I just couldn't get there fast enough I'm cold I'm very cold I could
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not get there fast enough I heard my mom scream what in the world could have taken place and why is she the only one
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on the phone I want my mom my Robin's home in Pampa Texas is literally in the middle of nowhere so
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you have to wonder why this family why this Farmhouse whoever the shooter was whatever his reason for gunting down an
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innocent family in Cold Blood he probably didn't count on one thing he left behind a
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[Music] witness [Music] it's on Highway 70 it's about 13.3 M out from the bowan alley I have a purple
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shirt on I had purple pants on it felt so long before they got there okay they're coming they're coming
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they're coming I just kept looking and looking and looking and hoping to see you know someone coming to my rescue all
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I want right now is my blanket and my pillow I'll never forget when I turn down the driveway way oh I see him I see
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him this child on a phone about a shooting she ran straight to me I hugged her as distraught as she was she's very
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articulate just telling me in in absolute detail what was going on and what she heard and and everything he
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told me everything was going to be okay they were going to figure it out we're obviously not going in the house with
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her I got to secure her somehow out here in the middle of nowhere so I put her in
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my patrol car and locked it all the cops had their guns drawn and they were going to clear out the house
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to make sure no one was in there and to go see who was alive and who was not alive any crime scene that you go into
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you know it's the ultimate who done [Music] it one comment we made when we first got
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there is this is like the old American Family everything everything was in place the coffee was set to come on the
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next morning Mom Dad children getting ready for the birth of a child the East door to the residence had
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been kicked in and whoever entered that Residence at that time immediately went to
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[Music] shooting Brian had been shot three times and Michelle had been shot six times and
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the dog had been shot twice I guess I kept playing games with myself in my head when is my mom going to walk
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out of there when is Brian going to walk out of there where's Molly I wanted all of my family to walk
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out of there okay just like I did how that bullet missed Robin I do not know it struck a little drawer next
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to her bed Zach had been shot three times laying in his bed appeared Zach never woke up
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and Zach never knew what hit him I would never ask the question who's still alive I I wouldn't do it like I just I
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just wouldn't do [Music] it Chief Deputy looked at me and we looked at each other and he said go be
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with that little girl and uh I just wanted to take care of her best I could I said is is there anything
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I can do for you Robin and she said I want to feed my animals and I said I've fed animals before let's go feed
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[Music] animals maybe it's just pure survival you know coming from one situation
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that's just so traumatic to a diversion I just remember him helping me feed I laughed at the amount of alphalpha hay
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he tried to give my goats because he it was like in a large amount and I said no
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no she just blew me away she completely flipped a switch and was absolutely bragging about her animal got first or
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second in this and her brother got first and second with his animal once we leave
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the crows and that moment's over the switch flipped again and it was right back to reality and and and she's
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immediately back to crying and cold and she grabbed my forearm finally like I kind of got the courage to
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just come right out and say Mom and Brian aren't aren't going to walk out of there are
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they broke the law enforcement people's hearts when they had to tell me no that they weren't walking out of there I was
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the only one that could walk out of there still alive Zach never woke up and he never he never knew what was
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going on so I'm thankful that he didn't have a chance to hurt I'm really thankful for
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[Music] that right after it all had taken place I went to my great grandma's house it
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was just family after family after friends after people and everybody was crying and you know people were yelling
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at the top of their L saying what's going on what's going on what's going on and I couldn't answer questions because
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I was just scared I really don't want to go to sleep anymore okay it makes me to
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where I'm too scared I really don't want to go to sleep okay so [Music] okay I got put in a room with one of The
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Advocates at the bridge there was a microphone in the room and there was a camera in the room he shot in my room
00:09:57
and missed me okay and so I had pretend like I was stand for two whole hours everything was videotaped to make sure
00:10:07
that they had it for evidence and stuff like that did anybody say anything could
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you hear anybody talking nobody talked they asked me what do you remember can you describe what he looked like I don't
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know this for sure but I thought I saw a white white white eyes white faced okay
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know my question to the other investigators was I need to know if she heard shots and if so approximately how
00:10:34
many shots did she hear and when he shot I saw flash she never hesitated in her answer of 15
00:10:43
shots and through the course of the crime scene investigation 15 fired rounds were found inside the home
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something that you'd hope no 10y old getting woke up at 3:00 in the morning would have indelibly burned into their
00:10:58
memory I can't talk about it it's it's too heartbreaking one of the things that our
00:11:11
officers were very concerned about was the safety of [Music] Robin because you have to remember at
00:11:20
this point we had no idea who had done this why it had happened or where those people might possibly be
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they put us in a shelter kind of thing it was my biological dad my stepmom at the time my step sister at the time and
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myself you had to be buzzed in there was cameras all outside of it I understood that it was for my own safety I was not
00:11:48
allowed to leave except to go to the [Music] funeral we knew knew there would be an
00:11:59
outpouring of the community at the service and indeed there was everyone loved the conrades they
00:12:10
were what we would call in the Panhandle salt of the earth kind of people they were real people that we loved and cared
00:12:17
about and they cared about others I just remember sitting there and I would just look at one casket and I'd
00:12:27
look at the second casket and then I would turn I'd look at the third casket and I would do it all over
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[Music] again it wasn't fair to sit there and look at that I was at the funeral we did have
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surveillance set up at the church just looking for suspicious people no leads were developed through
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the funeral services the anxiety and fear among the community went through the roof people were afraid
00:13:06
that there was somebody on the loose that could actually come into their home and do the very same thing so people
00:13:13
were certainly making sure their doors were locked people who kept guns in their homes were making sure they were
00:13:19
close by we're trying to let the evidence speak to us we had the showcasing we have a lot of blood
00:13:27
evidence we found several shoe prints there were some tire tracks that we located on the
00:13:34
property what investigators didn't have was any DNA or fingerprints they knew it
00:13:40
wasn't a burglary so they had to look for another motive there was one theory that it was
00:13:48
a drug hit that uh had got the wrong house all the leads were were hitting dead ends there was no Rhyme or Reason reason
00:13:59
for why this may have happened we all sat around and wondered wow who did [Music]
00:14:27
this [Music] we had no clue who this was there was no reason for it who would do this to this
00:14:47
[Music] family I received a call from a family member trying to reach out to my mother but was
00:15:04
unable to do so so I I I called the house and my mother's cell phone uh didn't get an
00:15:12
answer but wasn't alarmed at first around lunchtime that day I decided to leave work and drive to the house to see
00:15:22
if I could find them once I get to the house a relative is standing outside and he tells me that
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my mother and grandfather had been murdered my mom was a very loving and caring mother and was my best
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friend and my grandfather was always supportive always there for me had just recently lost my father as
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well you definitely feel like you've lost everyone in your life orley M and Don M were the two victims
00:16:06
in the house a relative found ory M lying in the floor with wood and once I stepped
00:16:14
in I found a bullet casing and saw a shell lying on the floor and saw Miss mol downstairs the shell casings that were
00:16:25
there were of a strange I believe like a russan ammunition and it wasn't something you
00:16:33
buy at Walmart or somewhere like that it was a different kind of ammo we were looking at the ammo the shell casings
00:16:41
and one of the other deputies there that does a lot of the crime scenes and said
00:16:44
I just took a burglar report from the night before from uh Scott King just lives down the road Mr King had reported
00:16:51
that his son Levi come into the house while he was gone and broke into his gun safe and stole several guns
00:16:59
and some of the ammo was the same kind once investigators had recognized those shell casings they had their
00:17:08
suspect 23-year-old Levi King law enforcement knew Levi King well he had been in prison for burglarizing a
00:17:17
neighbor's home and then burning it down he was sentenced to 14 years in prison but he served less than three before he
00:17:25
was sent to a halfway house he disapp appeared from that halfway house and was on the Run just a week before the bodies
00:17:33
of the muls were found so we started trying to piece stuff together one of the family members
00:17:42
also said that the orley and Dawn mul's pickup uh Dodge Dakota pickup was gone so it was entered into the computer
00:17:49
system Nationwide is stolen we had a warrant signed for Levi at I want to say like 11:00 that night
00:17:59
and that warrant was issued in the computer for Nationwide pickup none of us knew why this had
00:18:08
happened it it did feel completely random law enforcement kept us AB breast of the situation and had informed us
00:18:15
that they had identified Levi King as a suspect he needed a way to um you know excape the area and so I uh they believe
00:18:25
that he had targeted my grandfather's house as well as the the truck for transportation Levi King was found in
00:18:42
the truck by the border patrol in El Paso he admitted having guns in the back well that Drew their attention they ran
00:18:51
the tags found out they was a stolen truck with a possible suspect from a murderer inside so they detained him
00:18:56
there at Al Paso PD um and actually interviewed him so El Paso Police held in question Levi King until the Missouri
00:19:06
investigators could arrive just 15 minutes into that interview Levi King calmly confessed to killing orle MC and
00:19:16
his daughter-in-law Dawn but he couldn't fully explain why before I uh even realized that I mean I
00:19:27
just Point Adam and fire how many times did you fire just once he he spun and fell over you walk
00:19:42
by to the door and you see this woman why um explain to me why you shot at her I was scared I was I mean I didn't
00:19:52
know what was going to happen to me you know I was panicking [Music] we get to El Paso PD we are met by the
00:20:09
detectives that are working the case I observed Levi standing there knew him said his name he knew who I was we
00:20:17
both acknowledge each other we loaded him up and the pickup up and headed back towards
00:20:25
Missouri during a conversation with Levi he just described that even hours later
00:20:30
he could still smell the Gunpowder the sweat and the blood describing it as a feeling that was
00:20:39
probably better than any drugs he'd ever [Music] done I want to say within the next week
00:20:50
or two I had been told by a couple of the uh Detention officers there in the jail that that Levi asked to see me and
00:20:59
speak with me we got him out of the cell took him to the outdoor exercise yard and somewhere in that conversation
00:21:09
within the next few minutes Levi made the statement you know there's four more in
00:21:16
[Music] Texas at a point time Levi King says you know there's four more in Texas I didn't know whether to believe
00:21:36
him to not believe him he'd been in our jail for approximately two weeks and nobody was hunting him nobody was
00:21:45
questioning him so I don't know why he made that statement describing the location of the
00:21:54
murders he he talked about the big cross in TAS Texas I knew exactly where he was
00:22:03
talking about there's only couple that are that big it stand out like that so don Ruby reached out to
00:22:12
investigators near that cross in the Texas Panhandle to see if there were any open
00:22:18
homicides there were the murder of Robin's family it didn't take long to piece everything together after killing
00:22:26
the muls and driving 500 Miles Levi King decided it was time to kill again the phone call that we received
00:22:42
from the Pineville sheriff's office in Missouri blew open the case for us we find out that Levi had gone in and
00:22:53
killed orley and Don M and taken their vehicle and driven down through Oklahoma to
00:23:02
Interstate 40 at some point in time Levi decides that he's going to exit the interstate
00:23:12
and looks over and sees The Farmhouse belonging to The Conrads and pulls in kills Brian and Michelle and Zach and
00:23:23
shoots at Robin thinking he's killed Robin if there was ever a case where a man deserved to die it was Levi
00:23:40
King but first Levi king would have to face Justice in Missouri for the mol murders there he took a plea deal to
00:23:50
avoid execution he agreed to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of Parole in Texas he also
00:23:59
took a guilty plea but the da refused to take the death penalty off the table the purpose of this trial was only
00:24:15
to see what sentence he was going to get it was about whether he was going to be executed or whether he was going to
00:24:24
go back to Missouri and spend the rest of his life in prison I was 14 about to turn 15 when trial was
00:24:32
taking place I understood that we were in court for the death penalty you know I told
00:24:39
them okay he did this to my family so yeah okay go for it always in death penalty cases what
00:24:52
you don't want the jury to be stuck with is this picture of a person as as a killing entity an evil entity the first
00:25:02
thing we we had to figure out how to do was to turn Levi from a monster into a human being are you Levi Alexis King yes
00:25:12
sir I am Levi had been bipolar at least since adolescence at varying times he had um other diagnosis for depression
00:25:21
for uh bipolar with with some amount of psychosis and then I believe it at some points in time he he had a schizophrenia
00:25:30
uh diagnosis Levi King was one of seven children early on he showed signs of serious antisocial Behavior setting
00:25:41
fires and killing animals and drug use in his home was rampant his father introduced him to hard liquor and
00:25:50
marijuana and by his teens Levi King had moved on to meth and heroin and the place he called home you'd have to see
00:26:00
it to believe it the environment which he grew up in and just the overwhelming poverty and
00:26:11
despair until we went up there and actually walked around in it you just could not get a feel for it it it was
00:26:18
truly frightening the first thing you noticed was just filth the insulation was just
00:26:26
black and melted there was one wall that just had this this massive display of ceremonial knives and swords there was
00:26:35
lots of guns and knives and you know regardless of whether they had food or not there they had money for
00:26:41
ammunition the defense did um a very good job to paint Levi as this poor pathetic
00:26:53
mistreated sad little person there's a whole lot of other people out there in this world that have
00:27:01
grown up in the same type of environment that Levi did or even worse than Levi did and they don't go on Killing
00:27:12
Spree Levi King kills people because he likes the smell of blood he kills people because he likes
00:27:23
that smell of gunm smoke he doesn't care I was going to be sitting in front of a murderer who had killed my loved
00:27:35
ones and to testify I didn't want to but I knew that I needed to for my family's
00:27:46
[Music] sake I was the only one that got to walk out of the house they didn't and they needed a
00:27:54
voice too before she goes in to testify she's absolutely scared to death I just look
00:28:02
at her and I said Robin we've got you back go do what you need to do tell the truth and just realize we're right
00:28:10
outside this door he will never get to [Music] you I tried to avoid looking at Levi
00:28:19
King as long as I possibly could and finally I couldn't resist the urge anymore because I wanted to see who had
00:28:25
actually done this and so I looked at him and the stare that I got back was the worst
00:28:32
feeling of my entire life he is very cold he's very blank and essentially it just felt like
00:28:42
he was staring a hole right through me when Robin testified sorry the hard part about Robin
00:29:03
testifying was to see the pain that that precious little girl had to go through and endure and
00:29:11
then to see her say I've endured this but you're not taking my life away from me I am not giving you that kind of
00:29:25
control I don't want to live with being bitter and being angry all the time for what had
00:29:35
happened I did forgive Levi King because me forgiving Levi King it was my sense of
00:29:45
peace and it was my sense of this is how I was raised and this is my family coming
00:29:56
out we present the evidence the defense has their time to present their case and
00:30:02
we asked 12 people to make a very very difficult decision to either take or not take a man's
00:30:17
[Music] life you asked the question why and that's the question that sometimes haunts you
00:30:33
forever why why this family why this day why this time we may never know probably
00:30:41
the hardest part for people to deal with on these types of crimes the randomness of it the lack of
00:30:53
motive is to understand that there truly are people out there there who are just
00:30:59
plain evil Levi King is one of those people I'm asking 12 people to sentence this man to death this was a horrible
00:31:13
crime and we knew we had to be honest with the jury we tried to get to him and say look
00:31:21
he will never walk as a free man ever that that is punishment and will never harm anyone else
00:31:30
again for years I lived and breathed this case and despite your best efforts you don't always get it
00:31:43
right the jury deliberated for approximately 7 to 8 hours and they came back and said that they wanted to give
00:31:54
him life without parole one of them wanted to give him life without parole the rest of them wanted him to
00:32:02
have the death penalty I credit that with giving the the eventual one hold out enough
00:32:08
strength to to hold out I don't think we ever believe we get a life verdict I thought the best we
00:32:15
would get would be a a hung jury just a look on Lynn's face that almost looked like that she had failed
00:32:24
us but she really didn't ly Switzer fought for my family and that's something I will never be able to thank
00:32:31
her enough and all the law enforcement that was involved and sat on the stand either way ultimately I'd still
00:32:39
won and my family had still won Levi king would be extradited back to Missouri to serve that sentence so I
00:32:48
was fine with him being in Missouri because Texas is my state I don't want you back in my state you've already done
00:32:54
your damage here Pampa is home it's where my mom and Brian and my dad all raised me so to
00:33:04
leave I felt like I was being a coward and I was running from my problems and running from what happened it's not
00:33:09
saying that I want to stay there forever cuz I don't Robin tries very hard to not be a victim but occasionally
00:33:21
I see glimpses of that scared little girl in Robin I really don't want to go to sleep anymore okay it makes me to
00:33:29
where I'm too scared I really don't want to go to sleep the fear is still there and it's still very
00:33:36
real I really hate being alone because I feel like that's when my mind wanders the most and I think the worst thoughts
00:33:45
of what if I could have done this or what if I could have done that should I have gone and woke up
00:33:52
Zach I think it impacts her every day Robin has to deal with um nightmares still she has to deal with repetitive
00:34:07
memory of what happened to her she told me all the time she remembered her mom screaming there were times when she'd
00:34:17
text me at night and say you know I hear things going on and she was very very scared whenever um noises would happen
00:34:26
and just because she doesn't show it on the outside I think that she obviously has to deal with it on the inside I am
00:34:35
very superstitious I guess the day that everything happened I had on socks and I
00:34:41
had on long sleeves and long pants I will not sleep in long sleeves long pants or socks now I will not sleep with
00:34:48
my door open because I feel like there's a figure of a person standing in my doorway I'm scared of the dark when I
00:34:55
walk into the house and I know that I'm I'm there by myself I will go through every single nook and cranny in the
00:35:01
house to make sure that there's no one in there the dates that are really hard are
00:35:09
birthdays Zach's birthday mom's birthday Brian's birthday even my birthday is hard because I don't like celebrating it
00:35:16
without them I just have those days where I want my mommy or want my stepdad or want my brother and want things to go
00:35:24
back to being normal and you just can't help but burst out into tears Robin is 21 years old she's lived
00:35:33
off and on with her biological father and an aunt and now lives with friends no place has felt like home
00:35:42
since the day Levi King walked into her life Robin briefly tried counseling but she didn't find it
00:35:50
helpful I felt like I didn't need to talk to someone if I wanted to talk to someone I'll talk to my family or put a
00:35:56
law enforcement person in front of me I'll talk to you but a psychiatrist no thanks I don't
00:36:03
need someone to Pat me on the back and tell them you know ask me oh how do you feel I don't need
00:36:13
that I don't expect you to pity me and I don't want you to because that's not how
00:36:18
I am I want to be just like everybody else so how does Robin move past the memories of that horrible day there's a
00:36:29
group of people determined to help her maybe the only people who really understand what she's been
00:36:37
[Music] through the heroic things that Robin did to survive that day and to survive that
00:36:59
incident will always stick in my mind when that investigation was through we weren't through the law enforcement
00:37:09
Community surrounded Robin we wanted to give her a mechanism of people that she could go to if she had questions if she
00:37:16
had issues if she just wanted to talk everybody in the law enforcement field got together and and raised funds
00:37:26
to to start a scholarship program for her I'm thrilled to death every time that phone rings and I see Robin's name
00:37:33
on it it's always with a sense of Joy because uh she has a special place in my heart and she always
00:37:41
[Music] will they treated her like their little sister they just have big hearts they
00:37:50
carry big guns but they have big hearts when you go through things as traumatic as this experience was you
00:38:00
have a bond and I I connected with her we did keep in contact and later on when she turned 16
00:38:17
Robin invited me to her birthday party you know I revisit that place and I've always had this hesitation is
00:38:26
seeing me a happy day or a tragic day I have had a really good relationship with
00:38:33
Chad when I hug him every time I see him it's that same hug I got the day that he
00:38:38
came and he was the first one to me and it's just the most heartwarming it's like a safe
00:38:46
[Music] place I don't let what happened keep me down no no sorry that's not me that'll
00:38:57
never be me I played basketball I played volleyball I played softball ran track I
00:39:05
was a cheerleader I like being a leader okay bye we have had a lot of moments Robin
00:39:15
and I that we have been together for prom she came and got ready at my house I was of course there for
00:39:24
her graduation just think that I know that she's going to need a mom for she says that her mom won't be there for her
00:39:32
wedding and I just want to be there for her I call Denise my adopted mom I Look to Denise for everything whether it be
00:39:42
homework a new boyfriend oh my gosh I don't know what to wear today to school every little thing to every major thing
00:39:50
that's when I look to Denise she has this positive outlook on life she has one of the most Caring Hearts that
00:39:58
anyone could ever see and I believe that Robin needs to be in a field with caring
00:40:03
and helping people I made the statement many times back then and I still make it
00:40:08
today and I hope the good Lord keeps me around long enough to see why he kept Robin Don on this Earth because it's got
00:40:15
to be an incredible special reason and I hope I get to witness that I could honestly not tell you why I
00:40:26
was left why I was the only one that survived I couldn't tell you whether it be I'm able to tell people there's
00:40:35
nothing that you can't get through maybe if I get married one day and have kids if it's to help my kids get through life
00:40:42
or help other people in the world I I I don't know I don't know what my purpose is
00:40:49
but it's going to be great when it when it comes 48 hours to miss it would be a [Music]
00:41:25
crime [Music] I don't like to go back and think of her at the bottom of the stairs who in
00:41:46
Marty's life who would have done this she was found in a pool of blood who has done I had no idea who he could have
00:41:54
done it could it have been somebody at work whoever did it was still out there she's such a good person who would do
00:42:01
that to somebody how could anyone do this to my daughter my daughter [Music] Marty I think that day will stay with me
00:42:15
forever September 8th 2010 was a normal day at the office then there was a 10:00
00:42:21
production meeting and Marty wasn't in it that was extremely usual Marty is very dependable and
00:42:32
reliable Marty is a big bunch of dynamite in a little bitty package she might weigh 97 PBS soak and wet but she
00:42:41
gets stuff done she is a genuine good-hearted outgoing fun person she is a hard worker and she's
00:42:54
always trying to make everything better we work for an apparel company it's a small manufacturing facility it's a
00:43:01
tight-knit group the meeting was over and I asked where's Marty and somebody said we don't
00:43:09
know I sent her a quick text maybe something and come up no reply to the text I called her a few times she never
00:43:16
phoned me back that's why I knew that something was wrong because she would not just miss
00:43:25
work there was a real sense of concern tears what do we do what should we do about 11:30 I decided to drive by her
00:43:38
house when I arrived there her car was sitting in the driveway I walked up rang the doorbell
00:43:46
no answer knocked on the door no answer so I went back to my car on my cell phone and I called the office and said
00:43:54
the house seems eerily empty I think perhaps you should call the police the neighborhood is a very quiet
00:44:05
residential neighborhood we don't get many calls in that area I went up to the front door I
00:44:15
noticed that the door was closed and not locked I opened up the door and said it's the police department Marty are you
00:44:26
home I said that over and over again I do notice what appears to be a woman's purse uh sitting on a table in the
00:44:34
kitchen or dining area seeing the purse there told me that you know I'm married and I have you know my wife doesn't go
00:44:43
anywhere without her purse so at that point I was kind of thinking well maybe she is here somewhere
00:44:50
then I saw no clues upstairs that would indicate any kind of struggle and then I
00:44:57
started walking down the stairs to the basement when I got to about two or three steps from the very bottom I
00:45:07
noticed that there was a person laying on the floor kind of in a fetal position covered head to toe in Blood and there
00:45:15
was a large amount of blood surrounding this person on the floor Marty was breathing it seemed like
00:45:28
it was somewhat labored I knelt down next to her and I asked her over and over again who did
00:45:37
this who did this to you Marty who did this to you I wanted to get I guess what could have been a dying declaration if
00:45:45
if that was what that was going to [Music] be [Music] when I walked in they had just wheeled
00:46:18
her in I could not tell if it was a man or a woman couldn't tell if she was young or old couldn't tell what race she
00:46:27
was it was what appeared to be a lifeless form with dried blood in this swollen head my first thing was to assess to see
00:46:39
if they brought me a live person or not what we found was the major veins skin muscle of the left neck had been
00:46:51
completely cut through and the major artery actually had a couple of scrapes on it so it's literally millimeters away
00:46:59
from having been cut through for the next hour and a half we just meticulously cleaned and put back
00:47:11
together all of those injuries I remained still very concerned about her head in addition to the cut
00:47:22
she had all these bruises and swelling to her face and head injury to me is something that
00:47:28
I take very seriously concussions which is essentially what she had can lead to swelling and they can look fine
00:47:34
initially and then die 24 sometimes 72 hours later some of the nurses were starting
00:47:43
to get very quiet and tears so welling up and then in the back of my mind I'm going wait a minute this happened in my
00:47:53
neighborhood let me get a call into my wife wife let me find out where my kids are it starts slowly hitting you in
00:48:00
waves the enormity of what really had happened my grandma picked me up and went to the hospital and they took me
00:48:14
straight back to the ICU I had no idea how serious it was because I wasn't getting a lot of
00:48:21
information I didn't even know what happened I saw my mom and I just I started balling I
00:48:29
didn't I didn't recognize her her eyes were swollen shut her arms her legs her hands were the only thing that I could
00:48:40
recognize I don't know how to describe it other than you just have knots in your stomach and you're in
00:48:50
disbelief Marty's head was swollen like three times the size of her normal head it was just unbelievable you're kind of
00:49:00
in shock that this is your daughter laying [Music] there my brother I just know my brother
00:49:12
was very angry because it's his M it's our mom but no one can do that to his mom like that just really got him worked
00:49:21
up the fact that both of us the fact that somebody could just hurt our mom like you can't just try and take our mom
00:49:26
away from us as a teenager of course I'd been sassy with my mom and we gotten in
00:49:35
arguments seeing her in that state just made me feel so bad for everything that I had said ever any little teenager
00:49:44
thing I just wish I could take it all back I got really close to her and I said I will never be mean to you ever
00:49:54
again when we got to the hospital some key things that I noticed was that her clothes appeared to be intact her bra
00:50:03
appeared to be intact and there was no signs of a sexual assault every step of the process you're looking for some sort
00:50:11
of motive at that time I was advised her mother had arrived at the hospital and I
00:50:19
went to speak with her to obtain any information we could to assist us with this investigation they were asking me
00:50:26
if I could think of anyone who might have done this to Marty Marty's mother tells us that she has an
00:50:34
ex-husband by the name of Steve Hill uh she advises us that Marty and Steve they
00:50:40
communicate regularly her mother also had told us she was a workaholic she very rarely left the house to her
00:50:46
knowledge she wasn't dating anybody and if she was not working she was typically
00:50:50
at home Marty was still unable to communicate with us we had very limited information as to who she might have
00:50:59
been with who she may have had recent communication with and naturally your first thought is U possibly the
00:51:07
ex-husband might be responsible the detectives asked me about my parents I kept asking like do
00:51:16
your parents get along I remember being really defensive like my dad would never
00:51:20
do this and no one that I know would we go to Marty's ex-husband's house Steve Hill to interview him that
00:51:31
night he was very Cooperative invited us in the house he gave us the full account
00:51:36
of what he had done that day and told us about his history with Marty and that they had had some rough times together
00:51:42
but he loved her and he would never hurt her he wanted to know who did this just
00:51:46
as bad as we did and that's where it became very difficult for us we were stuck with the information of Mr Hill
00:51:53
was not a suspect and very limited after that me and my dad had a lot of conversations trying to
00:52:01
get to the bottom and think of who would have done it someone had broken into my
00:52:06
grandma's house a few days before maybe it was the same person and maybe someone
00:52:10
was after our family they had bandages over her Cuts in her neck so we really couldn't see
00:52:22
them but we could see the blood coming from her eyes it was just kind of Tears with
00:52:30
blood dripping down her eyes at that point we still weren't sure what was going to happen we knew she was
00:52:40
fighting to stay alive I just remember I started crying and saying all I want to do is talk to
00:52:51
my mom like the only thing I wanted to do is be able to talk to my mom [Music] [Music]
00:53:12
[Music] there was quite a fear really among the office could somebody else be a Target you're looking over your shoulder
00:53:25
even at the office and when you're leaving the office and Everywhere You Go wondering who has done this to
00:53:31
Marty and if you know them Prairie Village detectives came to the office obviously they're just trying
00:53:40
to get a sense of Marty's routine just looking for any ideas that perhaps would would give them a direction in which to
00:53:48
turn Marty's mother told us that there was a company by the name of B&J construction who had recently done work
00:53:55
at at her house who she had actually referred to Marty she told me that the supervisor of
00:54:00
that construction company was named Brian and that he seemed to be a nice guy I thought Brian was a hard
00:54:11
worker and a family man and he did good work actually that is why Marty decided to go ahead and use him because he did
00:54:22
some stucking inside my house and he did a really good job when I initially called Brian I
00:54:31
didn't even know his last name he called me back and told me that his last name was Pennington he was 26 years old lived
00:54:40
in Leon Missouri approximately an hour and a half from the Kansas City metro area we decided that we wanted to just
00:54:48
ask him some basic [Music] questions we arrived at Brian's house a little after 9:00 p.m. when we initially pulled
00:55:02
up it was a very dark house that's kind of secluded when we knocked on the door we
00:55:07
were invited in the house my partner and I followed Brian into the kitchen he was very polite
00:55:15
Cooperative how long did you work at house um i' say 3 or four days what did you think when you heard that Mar got
00:55:23
attacked I really didn't know what think she's a really really decent lady have you heard what happened to her at all no
00:55:30
my mother-in-law was looking on the news channel earlier and showed pictures of her house and stuff I really didn't know
00:55:36
what to that during this conversation I noticed that Brian had several scratches on the left side of
00:55:45
his face what are the scratches from on your face that big dog sitting outside what
00:55:52
kind of dog you have cool when did those happen uh yesterday she just jumps all over me and when I bent
00:56:00
down yesterday to unhook chain she jumped up and caught me in the side of the face when I looked at the scratches
00:56:06
they didn't appear to be consistent with what a dog would do I felt like he was hiding something from me I asked him if
00:56:14
he had attacked Marty he told me that he had not he kept stressing to us that he was
00:56:20
having financial difficulties and there was no way he could drive to Kansas City
00:56:23
to commit this crime due to the fact he didn't have enough money for gas I talked to Brian's wife Jessica in
00:56:30
the living room of the house has Brian been here all this week I asked her if Brian had been home on
00:56:37
the morning of the attack he finished that job last month and he's been here with me for two weeks okay at night
00:56:45
night and day night and day yeah he ain't going nowhere in the night I can't sleep at night if he's not here she said
00:56:52
there is no way that he could have done this attack because he had been with her
00:56:55
the entire time I also asked Jessica about the scratches on Brian's face you know I got those they're from a dog I
00:57:04
swear I did not believe Jessica she seemed like she was very naive she was very young I think she was 20 years old
00:57:11
at the time of this she had two young children and I thought she would say anything possible to help protect her
00:57:18
husband and to have him around we have no doubt that we're going to find the person that's responsible for this Brian
00:57:25
doesn't have a heart for that I I hope so believe me I hope you're right um I'm just scared I've never been in this kind
00:57:34
of situation yeah and if you're telling me the truth you don't have a thing in the world to worry about besides my kids
00:57:39
I know he did work on that house um that's what I'm scared about and then I asked Brian if he happened to have any
00:57:46
clothes that had blood on him in his house he immediately told me that he didn't I asked him if I could look
00:57:52
through his clothing his dirty clothing and he told me that I could I saw a hamper in the corner of
00:57:59
the bathroom when I started pulling cloth out I found a pair of jeans near the bottom of the hamper when I pulled the
00:58:07
jeans out I immediately saw they were covered in a red stain most of the stain was towards the
00:58:14
knees and down towards the bottom portion of the pant leg you know what this stuff is on the bottom Grease
00:58:21
Grease something I don't know not blood though right now okay when I saw the red stains it was
00:58:28
definitely a moment of we might have something I tried to remain calm and friendly with Brian and asked him if he
00:58:41
would give me consent to take the jeans from his house Brian signed a written consent
00:58:46
form that I could take jeans shoes DNA swabs and also pictures of the scratches on his face I guess the best word we
00:58:54
were surprised that we were getting this sort of cooperation with the recovery of
00:58:58
these items I think Brian Pennington thought we would not follow up we would not do any other investigation that we
00:59:04
would just believe what he said and believe what his wife was telling us my partner and I drove directly to
00:59:12
the crime lab I think we got there around 11:00 at night actually within 30 minutes of
00:59:19
being at the crime lab we were told that the stains on the jeans tested positive
00:59:24
for human blood we did not know who the blood belonged to it could have been anybody's blood at that point and we
00:59:30
would have to wait a couple more days to determine who the blood belong to we did not tell anybody about this we
00:59:37
were told that Marty would be able to talk to us eventually we did not want to interfere with the investigation and
00:59:43
have them give Marty ideas we wanted anything that Marty would say to come directly from Marty and nothing we gave
00:59:49
her thoughts or suspicions about so we were kind of in a holding pattern waiting to get Marty's side of the story
00:59:54
story and in fact on that Saturday morning the morning after leaving Mr Pennington's house we were contacted
01:00:02
that Marty was talking at the [Music] hospital I don't remember those first days
01:00:26
I don't remember feeling any pain I do remember feeling like I had too much medicine in
01:00:37
me I didn't feel good I believe it was the third day when I started speaking suddenly it all kind of flooded
01:00:49
back what had happened there was no questions I knew who it was and what he had [Music]
01:01:06
done I remember the day that Marty said her first word my daughter Monica and I were
01:01:15
walking in and the doctor said she just spoke as soon as we got in there we asked her if she could remember who did
01:01:28
this and she said Brian I had gotten up early I heard a knock at the door looking out the window I saw that it was
01:01:44
Brian Pennington the man that I had hired to do some work on the house I couldn't
01:01:51
really understand for sure why he would be there it was odd that he was there that early it was odd that he didn't
01:01:56
call first I went to the door let him in and I remember it just being a fairly brief
01:02:05
conversation he mentioned that he remembered something that was in the basement that he thought I should have
01:02:12
done so we started walking to the basement I was leading um I I do remember talking but I
01:02:21
also felt like he was being quiet like he would at least say huh what huh okay I was getting an odd feeling as
01:02:29
we're going down the stairs and then just Two Steps from the bottom of the stairs he grabbed my
01:02:38
throat it was very tight and very strong I kept saying what are you doing it was just silence he never said
01:02:47
a word my voice kept getting lower softer and suddenly my voice I couldn't speak
01:02:56
my voice couldn't come out and I passed [Music] out we received a call from the crime
01:03:12
lab the blood found on the jeans was in fact Marty Hill's blood we knew we had enough for an
01:03:19
arrest warrant at that time on Monday September mber 13th 5 days after the attack we go to Brian's
01:03:29
house in Leon Missouri we find Brian driving down the road he was laid back in the front
01:03:37
passenger seat it appeared his wife was driving he was taken into custody at that
01:03:43
time he showed no signs of being upset he showed no signs of any anger there was absolutely no
01:03:52
emotion when my mom got the call and and they told her that they had arrested Brian Pennington she almost fell
01:04:00
over it was extremely emotional for my mom because she actually referred Brian to Marty she had actually worked with
01:04:08
Brian for two years prior to that knew his wife knew his kids and felt that Brian was a safe person so hearing that
01:04:17
they actually had enough evidence to arrest him made it real that it was really him and that he really did this
01:04:24
and this was a person that she knew I believe that Mr Pennington is a an evil person one of the theories we
01:04:33
have in this investigation is not only did Mr Pennington strangle Marty initially it's our belief that he then
01:04:41
beat her head into the concrete floor which caused multiple facial fractures and if that was not enough he
01:04:50
then slit her throat three to four times leaving her to die in her basement that
01:04:57
morning I believe that Mr Payton was surprised when we arrived at his door and told him that Marty Hill was still
01:05:05
alive I don't believe Mr Pennington thought that he would be caught we always have a little saying
01:05:14
that the trauma surgeons saved these patients lives but we have the opportunity to get them back to living
01:05:20
their [Music] lives the first time I met Marty she had been in the hospital for about a
01:05:29
week her brain was stunned and in shock she could walk but it wasn't pretty her feet were very far apart she couldn't
01:05:39
put her feet together and stand still without falling over she had some issues with her vision she had difficulty with
01:05:46
her hearing um difficulty with her memory difficulty with processing things um she would
01:05:54
change topics at the speed of light the attack was very difficult for both Steven and McKenzie Marty's kids
01:06:04
Steven is very protective over his mother he lives in Houston and he flew up that same evening and he he took it
01:06:13
very hard he actually cleaned the blood off of the floor of Marty's house he wouldn't let anybody in the house he
01:06:21
didn't want anybody to see her blood all over the house I grew up a lot through the whole
01:06:31
thing I spent my 16th birthday in the hospital and I remember her giving me a card and her handwriting on the card was
01:06:39
something that really like really made it real for me her handwriting just didn't look like her handwriting it was
01:06:47
almost like she had to start over like being a kid again and build up to where she is
01:06:53
now Marty's daughter McKenzie played a huge role in Marty's recovery I feel that McKenzie's biggest
01:07:04
role was Marty could feel like a mother I have a responsibility I have things that I need to get done for my
01:07:16
daughter what comes after you start feeling better physically is the Unseen trauma the tion of realizing what
01:07:26
happened to you so after she had left the hospital and gone home to my mom's it became more about the emotional
01:07:36
trauma that had to start healing at that point I was still just processing it how someone that
01:07:50
seems perfectly fine perfectly normal could be that could could be that violent Brian Pennington had been
01:08:00
arrested for attempted first-degree murder my goal was to put Mr Pennington in prison for as long as our legal
01:08:10
system would allow the most important thing that we had was the DNA evidence on Mr
01:08:16
Pennington's genes we also had facial scratches on his cheeks that he advised were from a pit
01:08:24
they were strong evidence for us but defense attorneys can always find ways to try to cause reasonable
01:08:33
doubts the frustrating part about this investigation is that we absolutely have no motive that we are aware of there was
01:08:40
no theft that occurred for Marty's house she had money laying out her purse was laying out he did not take it there was
01:08:46
no sexual assault there was no history that they had spoken since the work had been conducted at her house in late a
01:08:56
August while preparing to go to court we did more background investigation on Brian I checked our computer database
01:09:03
and noticed that Mr Pennington had a prior police record I believe he had over 60 contacts
01:09:10
with law enforcement officers that he was involved in several domestic violence incidents where injuries
01:09:16
occurred to wives to girlfriends battering women was nothing new to him Jessica Pennington was a key witness to
01:09:26
this case she provided her husband an alibi at the time of the initial interview by the detectives she told the
01:09:35
detectives that her husband was home during the entire time frame of the attack that was going to be hard to get
01:09:43
around in front of a [Music] jury the night before the preliminary hearing Marty was very nervous about seeing
01:10:04
Brian Pennington she was also very nervous about what she was going to say what the
01:10:11
attorneys what questions they were going to ask the pressure was tremendous because
01:10:17
in our opinion Brian was and is a very dangerous individual and if we failed at the preliminary
01:10:27
hearing he would be released he would be [Music] free I was very concerned about Marty's
01:10:37
physical health when I first met her she was struggling just to walk and sit down
01:10:42
in a chair and one of my concerns was even as aggressive of a prosecution that we were going to have I didn't want to
01:10:49
cause her more emotional harm or physical harm the other concern was her memory we knew that if she could
01:11:00
identify Mr Pennington as her attacker in the courtroom that we could get a conviction the problem was with all of
01:11:08
the injuries to her we didn't know if she would be able to do that we were in the courtroom and they
01:11:18
brought Brian in and they seated him to the far right of our family it it was very
01:11:32
emotional and unbelievable it just made you want to cry so it was very hard to see
01:11:43
him Brian Pennington had no one on his side of courtroom not even his mother okay
01:11:54
he always stared straight at the wall and he never looked around until Marty walked in the
01:12:02
door the only time he moved his head from straight forward was when she walked in the room and I saw his eyes go
01:12:09
like this almost like he saw a ghost I will always remember that I could see it and feel it that he
01:12:19
couldn't believe she was walking down that aisle going to go up and speak when Marty first walked into the
01:12:27
courtroom she was very slow she was a little bit hunched over and I was concerned if she was going to be able to
01:12:33
make it through this I've always told her just to focus on me you and I are going to have a
01:12:40
conversation block everybody else out it's it's going to be you and me we can do this I remember while I was speaking
01:12:48
I that I could out of the corner of my eyes kind of see him glancing at me something about the basement
01:12:54
it was still hard to process because I'm seeing this person that had come to work
01:12:59
for me and I thought he was fine he showed no emotion I felt he was very detached from
01:13:09
the situation and it didn't bother him that he had almost killed a woman the defendants that detach and
01:13:20
show no emotion are the ones that frighten us the most it's still too hard to understand
01:13:25
someone that you felt like you knew was capable of something like that I held my breath until she
01:13:36
identified Brian as the person that attacked her because I was very concerned with the traumatic brain
01:13:42
injury with everything she'd been through if she was going to be able to do that and she did it I felt that it
01:13:49
was important that I got up there and could do what they needed me to do I smiled at her I wanted her to know she
01:13:56
did a great job one of the other keys to the case was Jessica Pennington I thought that she would be a
01:14:08
very hostile witness and would testify in his behalf say he was home that entire time frame we were able to get
01:14:16
her alone with the detectives and tell her how important it was to tell the truth I think the key factor with
01:14:24
Jessica was learning how severely beaten Marty was and how close Marty came to dying and I think Jessica the human side
01:14:33
of her understood that and realized it was more important to tell the truth than to protect
01:14:40
Brian and Jessica Pennington broke down and at that time admitted to us that she had lied and that in fact her
01:14:49
husband Mr Pennington was not at home with her during the time of the attack I learned from Jessica that Brian had
01:14:56
attacked her on numerous occasions assaulted and threatened her in the end Jessica became one of our best Witnesses
01:15:05
against Brian at the end of the preliminary hearing the judge ruled there was enough
01:15:13
evidence to take the case to trial it didn't appear that Brian had a lot of fight left when it came to the
01:15:22
case and and it was made clear to us through his defense Council that he wanted to work out a deal the issue with
01:15:30
the deal was how long would he serve in the Kansas state prison system we could go through the jury
01:15:38
trial and get 38 years or we could work out a plea and get less than that a key factor in the evaluation was Marty we
01:15:48
knew that she still had physical issues mental issues and I believe that Marty wanted to work out a
01:15:56
deal there was a day when she called me and said it's hard enough for 12 people to decide where to go to lunch let alone
01:16:04
decide what how to convict someone it took several months but we finally agreed on 28 and A2
01:16:16
years because that was going to end it for Marty she wouldn't have to testify and also I thought it was important for
01:16:24
her children to have closure on this [Music] too the sentencing we expected it to be
01:16:36
brief and short to the point and for him to be convicted and sentenced I walked into the sentencing
01:16:46
hearing I looked at Brian Pennington I looked at the defense Council and I knew something was
01:17:17
wrong at the sentencing hearing Brian and his defense Council were not speaking with one another Brian looked
01:17:24
angry so I knew that there was an issue we were told that Brian wanted to withdraw his plea he wanted to go to
01:17:36
trial it was my perception that Brian had six weeks since the plea date to think about serving 28 years in prison
01:17:45
keep in mind he had not been alive for 28 years so I don't think he could get his head around the fact that he would
01:17:53
serve more time in prison than he had been on this Earth my initial thought was I had told Marty it was going to be
01:17:59
over today and that may not happen the courtroom was filled with tension many of Marty's family members
01:18:10
were very upset everyone who had traveled from miles and miles and spent a lot of money on plane tickets was like
01:18:17
oh my gosh you know he's going to change his plea right here it was decided that we would go in
01:18:24
court and that Brian would tell the judge the reasons why he wanted to withdraw his
01:18:30
plea Brian simply told him it was the pressure and that it was too much time the judge tells him that those are not
01:18:39
sufficient reasons to withdraw his plea we then moved on to the victims statements and their family
01:18:48
members I was almost excited to be able to talk to him I will never understand why you did this to my mom you put my
01:18:55
entire family through something that no family should ever have to go through and you put me through something that a
01:19:00
15-year-old especially should never have to go through I looked at him straight in the face the entire time I was
01:19:08
talking I got to tell him how strong our family was and even though he pretended
01:19:13
like he wasn't listening he wouldn't look at me I knew that he heard what I was saying I finally felt powerful towards
01:19:21
him the most powerful part to me was when Marty stood up and faced the man that tried to kill her she said to Brian I
01:19:33
was nothing but nice to you and asking him why did you do this to me and he just sat there no
01:19:42
response the judge asked Brian if he had anything to say before he gave him his sentence the attorneys came back and
01:19:49
said he that he had nothing to say that he has has the right to say nothing is very hard it feels like he should at
01:19:57
least owe us an explanation hopefully one day he'll communicate why he did it I think it would help us all understand
01:20:07
that it wasn't just a random event that there was some motive behind it some reason why it
01:20:14
happened the judge followed the plea agreement and sentenced Brian to 28 and A2 years in the Kansas prison system
01:20:22
[Music] I felt like we had a big team working together that made things right great detectives great
01:20:37
attorney great family support great friends I'm so proud of my mom I need to become more like her and the person that
01:20:49
she is I need to have her work ethic and her personality and just to be a likable
01:20:54
person so that if anything like that happened to me that I would be able to make it through it like she
01:21:03
[Music] did I'm so thankful for the people at my mom's work that stepped up it wasn't just like someone is
01:21:14
missing from work it was that one of their friends hadn't shown up and they were wondering why I think that the
01:21:20
co-workers were definitely like my mom's angels I don't think any of us consider
01:21:27
ourselves heroes in this it's Marty's the hero she could have decided this thing can beat me and it it's made her
01:21:36
an amazing person I think the kickboxing it initially started as just something to push myself a little
01:21:52
further working out I knew that that was going to be a key role in getting back to my regular
01:22:01
life I do have scars I have all across my neck still I tend to probably pull my hair forward covered up I still have
01:22:11
tingling down the left side my face feels like a mannequin from here on and my ears very tight so it's always a
01:22:19
reminder for sure I think she's still dealing with the emotional part of it that it's never
01:22:27
going to be something that we can just put in the past even though it's over with and he's in jail and everything
01:22:34
that it's still there I think about the attack and the event a lot how is someone 26 and how do they
01:22:50
get to a level that they could could be that vicious and and be capable of doing those
01:23:02
things if I could ask Pennington anything it would be why or what what were you doing I
01:23:12
and yes just why [Music] [Applause] in January of 1978 I was 20 years old I lived in the
01:24:11
kega sority house on the FSU campus in [Music] Tallahassee I was happy I was with my
01:24:20
other friends and Florida state was just a safe place to be when I moved into the sorority house
01:24:30
my roommate was Karen Chandler when I was at FSU it was very laid-back it was just a great
01:24:40
time classes had been going on for about a week and everyone was moved in to the
01:24:47
house Saturday January 14th I walked home home and I got in this sity and there were kids talking about you know
01:24:56
where they're going tonight what are they doing who they're dating what party and then I saw my book sitting on the
01:25:03
trunk and I said you know I have a test on Monday I'm going to go ahead and stay
01:25:07
home and study tonight my roommate Karen came in at the same time and she had a sewing project
01:25:18
she had to do so she sat in her bed next to mine and we talked for a little while
01:25:25
and then Kathy was tired so I just went ahead and decided to go to bed it was maybe around midnight maybe a little bit
01:25:32
before midnight that night I heard our bedroom door slam open I was opening my eyes a
01:25:44
little bit because it kind of brought me into Consciousness and I'm awake enough
01:25:50
to know someone's there there as I'm opening my eyes more and focusing he raised his arm and he had something in
01:25:59
his hand I thought it was a pipe or a stick I didn't know what it was he came down and hit me in the
01:26:10
face it just felt like pins and needles and knives in my face my roommate Karen was now
01:26:18
stirring and he went over and hit her I'm still awake and I'm moving so he came back to my side of the bed and as I
01:26:29
see him raise his arm up this bright light Shone into our room and this light was a car from one
01:26:40
of the sorority sisters coming home from a late date he got spooked and he left the
01:26:48
room the next thing I remember is the feeling like I was being being lifted downstairs and I remember
01:26:56
asking if Kathy was okay and them saying she's going to be okay you need to worry
01:27:02
about yourself our detectives tried to track a man who slipped into a s most coeds here terrified they put me on the
01:27:09
stretcher and there was all this noise there were the um lights from the police cars and the ambulance police say he
01:27:17
simply walked in through an unlocked door people talking and the radio squawking
01:27:22
they say he was armed with a heavy Oak L and I thought I was at a carnival because my mind went to
01:27:31
somewhere I could understand my name is Kathy Kleiner and I was attacked by Ted [Music]
01:27:51
Bundy [Music] [Music] the early morning hours of January the 15th 1978 I got a call and the call
01:28:39
basically said Sheriff uh there's multiple murders and assaults uh on girls uh they told me it was at the kega
01:28:48
house I was stunned [Music] before I could get myself settled into criminal investigator Ken casares as my
01:29:04
role as Sheriff I I I had to get over my personal thoughts about these could be my own
01:29:11
daughters I was there before Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler were brought out on gurns I said prayers for both of
01:29:19
them as they passed me I didn't know if they were alive I were deceased at the time they told me two were definitely
01:29:26
deceased inside I knew I woke up in intensive care I didn't have any idea for sure why
01:29:37
I was there but I knew something bad had happened I had at least one skull fracture I think every bone in my face
01:29:44
was broken and my jaw was broken um I had a broken arm and I had a couple of fingers on on my hand that were um
01:29:54
crushed maybe I had been in my room for a day or two and my parents were afraid of what
01:30:03
was going to be on the TV so my dad said before we turn on the TV I need to tell
01:30:09
you something and he told me about Lisa and Margaret Margaret Bowman 21 and Lisa
01:30:18
Levy 20 had been killed just down the fall from Karen and Cathy's room in the sorority house they had both been
01:30:26
strangled beaten and sexually assaulted I can't imagine how horrible that was for hurt their parents
01:30:36
and it was very hard because I really couldn't express my grief and my sorrow to their
01:30:44
families my jaw was broken in three places here here and here um it was hanging on this joint the jaw um what they did
01:30:55
was put my jaw back together and wire it shut in the hospital Cathy could remember nothing about the attack she
01:31:03
says those memories have slowly come back to her over the years I remember the detectives were in
01:31:11
my room first off before my family even showed up asking me questions but I was not able at all to help the detectives
01:31:20
it was just a big blur a big blur to me but it turned out the Kaio Mega house had not been the only crime scene that
01:31:30
night we were outside uh that evening when all of a sudden I get a radio communication from the sheriff's office
01:31:39
that there is something going on at a duplex a young lady who lived there alone uh and the next door neighbor
01:31:48
hearing some beating some sounds this is going on less than six blocks away I sent an investigator
01:31:58
there and found Cheryl Thomas on the floor in Blood and had been beaten badly Cheryl Thomas was a dance major at FSU
01:32:08
like the kai Omega victims she suffered severe head injuries and was taken to the hospital in a
01:32:15
coma I thought could this be the same individual and I said how we've got such a police presence how could that person
01:32:25
go just a few blocks and strike again it was inconceivable I got a call from Colorado
01:32:36
about an escaped uh criminal named Ted Bundy I was familiar with the name they said do you know Ted Bundy I said I've
01:32:43
heard of him Theodore Bundy a suspect in the raped murder cases of at least 36 young women rapes and murders most in
01:32:51
the west over a 7-year period they said we don't know where he is Bundy was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list and I
01:32:58
wrote his name down on a legal pad in my car Ted Bundy it was the first name associated with the murders in
01:33:06
Tallahassee Ted Bundy was known to lure women away with his charm and then abduct them or pick them up at a bus
01:33:15
stop and say can I give you a ride I did not think that the method of operation of this case was anything near similar
01:33:25
except for an attack on girls so I did not take that at that time as serious when I woke up in the
01:33:34
Tallahassee hospital I I couldn't really tell you who I was or what where I was I know I had head pain and um my
01:33:49
face was very swollen my mom and dad had to tell me what had happened because I I
01:33:57
really did not know I couldn't remember what happen and they had to slowly break
01:34:01
the news to me Cheryl you were attacked Cheryl's jaw was broken in two places her shoulder dislocated and she had five
01:34:10
skull fractures leaving her permanently deaf in her left ear I felt very grateful because obviously if I had not
01:34:20
had the two neighbors next door to call that night when they heard me crying and
01:34:27
a a beating kind of sound I know I wouldn't I would not have survived as the news sunk in across the
01:34:35
FSU Community Sherl remained in the hospital Karen recovered at her parents home nearby and Kathy went home to South
01:34:44
Florida I was flown down to Miami with my family my parents took me to an oral surgeon and had to rebre my
01:34:57
jaw because it was not going to be lined up correctly so now I had to be wired shut
01:35:04
for additional 9 weeks it was so depressing when you have your mouth wired shut you have to always wear nail
01:35:13
clippers on a necklace around your neck because if you ever start choking or anything you have to be able
01:35:22
to cut the wires and be able to breathe as Cathy and her fellow survivors healed
01:35:27
Sheriff kasaris looked for ways to put the person who did this to them away searching for
01:35:34
clues in untraditional places I did a personal examination of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy when I examined both of
01:35:43
the bodies I found what I think was the most significant piece of evidence and that was a bite mark and that bite would
01:35:50
potentially be able to be compared to whoever we found to me it was almost like he was leaving whoever it was a
01:36:00
[Music] [Music] [Music] signature I think before tassey and FSU was a cocoon but that was sort of the shutting
01:36:30
of a door in a way that was the end of we are safe that type of evil that encompassed
01:36:43
me that night I couldn't wrap my head around it it just seemed surreal it didn't seem like it was possible
01:36:53
the Innocence at Florida State was gone the university had asked the fraternities for volunteers and if a
01:37:03
lady needed to go to the library or to campus or anywhere one of us would go and escort her to wherever she was
01:37:13
going men started sleeping in the lobbies of the dormitories they were police patrolling all the time for that
01:37:21
month no one knew if they were sitting next to the person that had committed the crime I mean if they couldn't tell
01:37:29
you who did it how could they tell you who didn't do it as January 1978 stretched on police
01:37:38
were stumped although they had bitemark evidence they had no one to match it to within a few weeks after the sorority
01:37:47
sisters were murdered we had information that a 12-year-old Kimberly leech disappeared from her
01:37:54
school so we thought could it be possible but this was a 12-year-old girl we're dealing with college students in a
01:38:05
sorority Kimberly leech disappeared from Lake City over an hour away her body later found by a nearby park fear of the
01:38:14
unknown attacker pervaded the area until news broke of an arrest in Pensacola there was something on TV when the news
01:38:27
came on police arrested this 31-year-old man after a high-speed chase Wednesday morning in Pensacola Florida he claimed
01:38:33
to be a Florida State University law student Pensacola Police had pulled over a Volkswagen Beetle that was driving
01:38:40
slowly and the mysterious driver refused to give his name came to find out of course that the vehicle was stolen from
01:38:49
a location nearby to the sorority house in that Volkswagen they found dozens of IDs and credit cards that had been
01:38:58
stolen from around Tallahassee in the weeks before then the identification came back it was Ted
01:39:08
Bundy the moment I heard Ted Bundy I had the flashbacks of course of the phone call and that's exactly what we had we
01:39:16
had Ted Bundy who came to our town if those who him with dozens of sex slings are right Theodore Robert Bundy
01:39:25
is one of the most Savage killers in history Mr Bundy had been a very prolific serial killer for many many
01:39:34
years it is very unusual for Mr Bundy to leave a Survivor Ted Bundy's murder spree out
01:39:43
west ended when he went to prison in 1976 but at the end of 1977 he had escaped and made his way to
01:39:53
Florida immediately after his arrest he became a suspect in both the FSU and Kimberly leech attacks we know that he
01:40:02
got here somewhere in the vicinity of January the 8th he rented a boarding room in a boarding house adjacent to the
01:40:11
Florida State University campus Bundy was at home on a college campus around the time of his crimes out west Bundy
01:40:18
had attended college and even law school when Mr Bunny was in school he took jobs
01:40:25
working for political campaigns and apparently did an extraordinarily good job there was absolutely no indication
01:40:34
that he was the serial killer that he ultimately turned out to be his charm his wit no fo his
01:40:43
intelligence his Charisma everything about him made him different than all the other Cal
01:40:53
Killers the first photo I saw of Ted Bundy after they arrested him he didn't look like a serial
01:41:01
killer he looked normal the survivors learned more about who Ted Bundy was and the brutality of
01:41:10
the crimes he was suspected of committing his history was a shock I think when I learned about those
01:41:19
women it's just an immense sadness there are all these families that are devastated in the months after the
01:41:28
attacks while the Florida authorities were building their case the survivors slowly began to move forward with their
01:41:37
lives for Karen Chandler that surprisingly meant moving back into the Kaio mea house when I came back they
01:41:46
gave me space they didn't it wasn't like they treated me as a special china doll
01:41:51
that they couldn't talk to I felt like everyone treated me pretty much like they had treated me
01:41:56
before so life just sort of continued on like I had never left Cheryl the former dance student was
01:42:05
now suffering from balance issues and didn't know what her future would look like I knew I couldn't hear again but I
01:42:12
asked the neurologist would I ever be able to dance again he said that's totally up to you so then I knew that I
01:42:20
had had an option of train my body all over again or I won't dance again I made my decision I was going to
01:42:29
go back and get my degree Cheryl moved to Texas and studied ballet at another University but for Kathy life took a
01:42:38
different turn life totally changed for me I did not go back to college I was married 6 months after the attack my
01:42:50
parents thought thought I needed someone to take care of me and to be sure that nobody came in the middle of the night
01:42:56
and attacked me again and um I was okay with that but as much as they wanted to they couldn't put
01:43:06
Bundy behind them to bring him to Justice they needed to come face to face with their
01:43:13
attacker we wanted more than anything to make sure if this was the guy that did it we want him locked up that he never
01:43:22
has the opportunity to hurt another [Music] woman FBI agents and Florida police are
01:43:49
questioning a man by the name of Theodore Robert bundai with every passing day the media grew increasingly
01:43:56
fascinated with alleged serial killer Ted Bundy he will remain in Pensacola under tight security until authorities
01:44:02
can determine if he will be charged with the Florida State University murders I feel like they were so focused on Ted
01:44:09
Bundy which I'm sure Ted Bundy enjoyed the media that they forgot about the women as Florida authorities
01:44:19
investigated bu they first questioned why his method of attack would have changed he typically was organized he
01:44:28
would plot pick up and then abduct the young lady and here it was obvious that he had gotten
01:44:38
disorganized they developed a theory that Bundy had originally stocked and targeted Cheryl Thomas there had been a
01:44:46
guy that I'd seen ride his bicycle by my house Ted Bundy looks similar so I sometimes wonder if maybe
01:44:53
that was him he had no doubt case that place out and we believed that Mr Bundy went to
01:45:03
Cheryl Thomas's residence and when he got there apparently there was a car that had broken down right in front and
01:45:12
there was a man there working on the car he found that kind of got spooked he then went to the Kyle Mega house
01:45:21
and when his attack at the sorority was interrupted Bundy returned to Cheryl's you know I compared Ted Bundy to a
01:45:29
killing machine like a shark because the shark is just feeding in a frenzy off of whatever is available
01:45:39
just like the shark has the need to eat he had the need to murder their case intensified with an
01:45:48
eyewitness who put Bundy at the sority house one of the um kega sisters Nita ner came home that night after being out
01:45:57
on a date she came in through the back door of the sorority house and she saw a man coming from the upstairs area down
01:46:05
the stairway that would have been unusual for Nita to see a man because no men were allowed upstairs in the Shorty
01:46:14
house she did not see him full face on but she saw a profile of him he opened the front door and immediately exited
01:46:22
the uh sorority house Neri identified Bundy from a lineup and as the case came together investigators still had that
01:46:31
key piece of evidence to analyze we crafted a search warrant to use to search Mr Bundy's mouth and obtain uh
01:46:42
models of his teeth to compare against the bite mark impression that was left the search warrant for his mouth
01:46:52
probably was the first in the nation's history so I went to his cell one evening I told him he's coming with me
01:46:59
and he went with me to my dentist's office the doors opened up he saw that we were in a dental office he
01:47:09
immediately started screaming where's my attorney I want my attorney you can't do
01:47:15
this he knew exactly what we were going to be doing once we read him the search warrant for his mouth he realized that
01:47:24
we could use Force he sat down in the dental chair he opened his mouth said do what you have to do Ken you know I'm not
01:47:32
a violent person the state asked four Dental experts to compare Bundy's molds to the
01:47:39
marks all four of them concluded that Mr Bundy was the one that left the bite mark we were confident going to the
01:47:48
grand jury with the evidence that we had there was an indictment last night in the aftermath of a brutal crime in
01:47:57
Tallahassee Florida and what was unusual about the indictment was how it was delivered I have copies of the
01:48:03
indictment to give each of you we had Print [Music] Media Radio media television media step
01:48:11
out Mr Bundy and they they were able to view the indictment reading that night what do we have here Ken let's see oh an
01:48:20
indictment all right why don't you read it to me let's read it let's go Theodore
01:48:26
Robert Bundy you are charged indictment two counts burglary in the uh two counts
01:48:32
murder in the first degree three counts attempted murder in the first degree he was obviously not very happy I did not
01:48:40
let it deter me said Theodore Robert Bundy did make an assault upon Karen Chandler and or Kathy cliner not
01:48:47
surprisingly the former law student took an active role role in his defense Mr Bundy took depositions from
01:48:55
the Witnesses in the case himself it's very unusual but Mr Bundy did have legal training I think he was acting as the
01:49:04
lawyer that he always wanted to be since I didn't remember anything about the attack I think that was helpful but my
01:49:11
feeling at that time was I don't want to show him any fear because I don't want him to think anything about him bothers
01:49:18
me is under my skin scares me he was sitting there um looking at me and I looked at him and I didn't take my eyes
01:49:30
off of him and he had this smirk on his face it kind of made my stomach sick but
01:49:36
also I knew I was walking out and he wasn't and that gave me some Power I felt like I had done my job I had
01:49:44
answered his questions and I hope I gave him absolutely no satisfaction months passed as the case wound its way
01:49:56
toward trial down in Miami Kathy Kleiner struggled to put herself back out in the
01:50:04
world after I got attacked I was afraid of men it was something that I didn't want to have control me and I went to
01:50:14
work at a lumber yard because I figured that's where I'm going to see the most men and worked that experience helped me
01:50:22
a lot Kathy would soon need that Newfound confidence the survivors were set to testify against Bundy but this
01:50:30
time his life was in their hands to know I was going to have to testify um I think I just needed to
01:50:39
build up my resolve and know that this was going to happen and be prepared as much as I could for it we locked eyes
01:50:47
once again and I stared at him why do you think people are so fascinated with Ted Bundy for more on
01:50:57
the case go to Facebook at 48 [Music] hours I think I always knew that I was going to have to test toy
01:51:16
court if it went to trial what camer going on the fourth Flo get away from here you know you're not
01:51:27
supposed to be here excuse me there was a total media circus we'll be standing by prosecuting
01:51:35
attorney Larry and it was the first major case that actually was broadcast live evaluating it as it was actually
01:51:44
going down in the courtroom only one camera fixed on a tripod tapes the courtroom proceedings his 20 television
01:51:51
Crews from around the country have been covering the trial get a front row seeg you can get
01:51:56
it all there I think Mr Bundy was playing to the cameras Robert my name's Ted bu he got a real kick out of
01:52:06
it at trial Bundy again took an active role on his defense team Z it's on this motion by participating in
01:52:16
his own defense Bundy and his attorneys hope to convince the jury that he was intelligent articulate and innocent a
01:52:22
victim of circumstances Bundy had a lot of interaction with the judge he argued his own motions as good as a lawyer
01:52:30
could I [Music] think young women pack the courtroom every day to see the star defendant
01:52:38
every time he turns around I kind of get that feeling no no you know he's going to get me
01:52:44
next as lead prosecutor Larry Simpson felt pressure at or near the calls of to make sure Bundy was put away forever
01:52:53
the cases out west were not particularly strong cases by majority we know we needed to finish the job in
01:53:02
Florida the survivors felt that pressure too as Cheryl Karen and Kathy each took
01:53:10
the stand I felt it was important for the jury to see a real person who had been
01:53:18
subjected to what head Bundy did I had um five skull fractures and multiple contusions in my
01:53:27
head it was just my mission to tell my story and I just really didn't want to look at him didn't want to talk to him
01:53:34
didn't want anything to do with him the defense asked is this the man you saw attack you that night in your
01:53:44
room at Kai Omega and I had to say I don't know because I never saw his face I wanted to help put the nail in
01:53:55
that coffin to put him away to help the other girls who couldn't do it I couldn't help and she was weaving in
01:54:04
though the survivors couldn't identify Bundy from that night someone else could sorority sister
01:54:12
need a near do you recall the man that you saw at the door of kle Mega house on the
01:54:19
morning on January 15 1978 yes I do would you point him out for us please man in the dark suit with a red
01:54:33
TI perhaps the prosecution's most damning evidence was that bite mark left on one of the victims this is a
01:54:42
photograph of the bite mark and as you can see there's a ruler in place and this is what the forensic dentist did in
01:54:50
court they made the marks you can actually place this model right on the photograph and you've
01:54:56
got it coming in like this laying down and then he turned his head slightly and did it
01:55:05
again it fits like a glove but bite mark analysis was a new and relatively uncertain science and the ever smiling
01:55:15
Bundy seemed confident as the trial came to a close of course I was worried when it went to
01:55:23
the jury but I knew in my heart and by the evidence that was there that he's the
01:55:30
one that actually murdered my friends the jury was out a little less than 7 hours and returned to verdict AG
01:55:44
the jury I'm the defendant guilty is charged the verdict that was guilty as charged chared on all
01:55:50
counts he was convicted and now whatever sentence he got couldn't be bad enough as far as I was concerned it is ironic
01:56:00
that he ended up in Florida because we were a very active death penalty state is hereby imposed the death penalty he
01:56:08
was sentenced to death on my birthday I don't believe the death penalty should be a willy-nilly kind of
01:56:15
thing but if he had gotten out there were women that were going to die I have no doubt in my
01:56:22
mind following the FSU trial Bundy was also found guilty of murdering 12-year-old Kimberly leech and received
01:56:31
another death sentence after the trial was over I felt that it was just going to be all over and no more in the news
01:56:40
or or anything but that didn't happen it was probably just crazy for me to think that
01:56:51
as Bundy sat on death row his notoriety only grew books and TV programs came out
01:56:58
focusing on his good looks and charm instead of rejecting it Kathy decided to embrace it I read as much as
01:57:06
I could about Ted Bundy watched all his movies because I think by learning about
01:57:13
him it has helped me move forward because I wanted to just dis associate myself so that he wasn't part of me
01:57:24
anymore in 1981 3 years after the attacks Kathy had a son Michael I didn't want him to know
01:57:34
that I had been scared that I had been attacked I just wanted to be a normal mom with a normal
01:57:41
kid one night I was putting him to bed and he looked up at me and he touched my face and he he said Mommy what happened
01:57:50
to your face right there and I told him that a bad man came into my house one night and had hurt me you just don't
01:58:00
grasp that at a young age you don't really get it but you kind of do and you just feel like you know I'm not going to
01:58:07
let anybody hurt [Music] you I felt that it was important to keep her safe she was such a loving person
01:58:20
How could somebody do that to sorry and I think in his mind he he always carried that that it could happen
01:58:32
again and would I be there you know to help my [Music] mom how do you deal with traumatic
01:58:41
events for more of Kathy Kleiner Story of Survival go to 48 hours.com [Music] for most of the 1980s Ted Bundy sat on
01:59:03
Florida's death row appealing his convictions in that time Kathy Kleiner went through a divorce and focused on
01:59:16
her young son Michael I was a single mom for 5 years and he and I grew up together we're very very close growing
01:59:26
up my mom was the most loving caring affectionate happy person she never let what happened to her get to
01:59:40
her Kathy had grown accustomed to projecting a tough exterior but that softened in 1987 when
01:59:48
an old high school friend came back into her life over the years I thought about
01:59:54
Kathy now and then Kathy's very special and you could tell she was very special back then so I
02:00:01
called him and um he came over one day for lunch on a weekend and basically never left I
02:00:11
mean I felt energy from Kathy right away when we first saw each other it was just
02:00:17
her smile and she really looked in your eyes and but happy eyes all that together just was like
02:00:27
boom when Kathy told me a little bit about the attack by Ted Bundy it just kind of blew me away she would cry about
02:00:35
it I wanted to take away all her pain and you couldn't take away this pain in her family Kathy found happiness
02:00:46
and she leaned on them for support as Bundy appeals finally ran out at the end he was bargaining for his
02:00:55
life he started confessing to murders he confessed to 30 murders and now he was trying to give information but it was
02:01:04
vague I'll tell you where more women are buried please don't kill me and I can imagine those being the last words that
02:01:12
he heard from his victims please don't kill me serial killer Ted bun scheduled to
02:01:20
die in Florida's electric chair at 7:00 there was the atmosphere of a public hanging as hundreds of singing chanting
02:01:25
death penalty [Music] supporters when it happened we got a call we had TV on and at that point we
02:01:40
saw the white flag that they hold and wave when someone has been electrocuted [Applause]
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[Music] Scott and I were sitting on our little sofa in my condo and I cried and I
02:02:05
cried and I cried for all the victims that could not see [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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this long after surviving Ted Bundy Cathy is speaking publicly about her experiences
02:02:28
hoping it might help others I think by telling my story it has helped to heal me but I feel that it
02:02:37
also helps people to hear that I have been through something so horrific and I've come out the other side I want
02:02:45
people to know no matter what they've gone through that um they too can do it there's no one way to heal from
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trauma Karen and Cheryl feel like they've talked about Ted Bundy enough I was a victim until I walked out of that
02:03:02
hospital I was a Survivor until he was executed we got to come up with something that's after that it's not
02:03:10
part of me anymore I want to be more than Cheryl Thomas that was attacked by Bundy I want to just be Cheryl Thomas I
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got got married and I had two wonderful children I got my Master's at galludet University and worked with the hearing
02:03:26
impaired in dance I've had a 40-year marriage I have two wonderful self- sustaining children I have three
02:03:36
wonderful grandchildren I really don't think about Bundy anymore Cathy's Journey takes her back
02:03:44
to Tallahassee for the first time in over 40 years she's come in part to thank former
02:03:52
Sheriff Ken kasaris Kathy he's someone I've thought about over the years and someone who has a
02:04:02
good memory you're here yeah I'm seeing you again I can't believe it but thank you so much don't I'm looking forward to
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doing this this is something I needed to do together Kathy and Ken return to the
02:04:18
Kyo Mega house totally different it's weird the swery house looks so different it doesn't bother me like I thought it
02:04:27
would and your room was on the back side that's right it's okay to be here I'm okay and I'm with Ken so he's given me
02:04:34
strength well thank you through everything life goes on you have to keep it going this case is about probably over a
02:04:47
hundred victims that lost their lives because of Mr Bundy as time moves forward the hope is
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that it will be the women not Bundy who are remembered he's not to be glorified he's to be
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damned they were important people they were people just like me living breathing people that had Futures
02:05:16
and they're gone and we only remember this inhuman thing for Cathy and Karen the sorority
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sisters they lost are always with them I think about them occasionally when I'm with my grandchildren or when I had
02:05:37
children I wonder what their lives would have been like what they would have done I feel that because I survived Ted
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Bundy and there were so many victims that didn't I don't want to take that that opportunity I was given and not do
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good with it I want to be sure that I keep going for them Ted Bundy confessed to at least 30
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murders but it is believed he may have killed over a hundred women in at least six
02:06:10
[Music] states did a couple's massive home renovation Project Lead to murder did
02:06:18
you guys is going to do an argument is it possible that without this house Shanti might still be alive I think
02:06:24
that's completely true 48 Hours next on [Music] CBS