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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And the story I have for you today is
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one of the St. Louis Abyspo Sheriff's Office most enduring [music] mysteries. And it's not the one that you're
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probably thinking of. I mean, for most crime junkies, when you hear St. Louis Abyspo, one thing comes to mind.
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>> Yeah. Kristen Smart. >> Exactly. But her case now solved was never the most baffling one. Far from
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it. The strangest case that the sheriff's office is tasked with [music] solving is from 16 years before Kristen
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Smart went missing [music] when two little girls vanished off the street in broad daylight in the middle of San
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Miguel, a town with only 800ish residents. Everyone is a suspect and every theory is still on the table even
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after their bodies were discovered and there were plenty of strange clues [music] and physical evidence.
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The only reason you don't know about this case is because it's never been told in full before, not until today.
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And this is one that you're going to want to pay attention to because even though this case is 45 years old, big
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things are about to happen. The current lead detective on this case literally came out of retirement just to solve it
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and he just so happens to be the same guy who solved Kristen Smart's [music] case in 2022. and he has fresh leads and
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DNA on his side now for this case. [music] And it's closer than ever before to being solved. But now it's a race
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against time to make sure that justice comes while the girls families are still alive [music] to witness it. This is the
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story of Teresa Flores and Martha Mezo. Saturday, May 17th, 1980 would be the start to a mystery that has endured for
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the St. Louis Abyspo Sheriff's Office for 45 years. That is the day that 4-year-old Martha Mezo and 5-year-old
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Terresa Flores, known to their families as Marty and Terry, just vanished off the face of the earth. And I know people
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say that a lot when it comes to missing person cases, but this time it is not an
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exaggeration. It's really the only way to describe it. Over the course of the investigation, sheriff's deputies put
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together a detailed timeline of Marty and Terry's movements that morning. Basically, a minute-by-minute record of
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what they did, where they were, who they were with up until around 11:30 a.m. when then all of a sudden they're just
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gone. So, here's what we know. According to Detective Clint Cole, the current detective on the case, the night before
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both girls had a sleepover at Terry's house. And then the next morning at around 10:45 a.m., Terry's aunt Virginia
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took them into town to run some errands. Now, Marty and Terry had a birthday party to go to later that day. So, they
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wanted to go to the market, pick up some flowers, a card, a gift. And when I say
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like go into town, I really mean like Mission Street, this one block in San Miguel where everything is. We're
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talking about kind of an unincorporate, not kind of, it is an unincorporated community with one main road, one
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school, one post office. Everything is pretty much within walking distance. So Virginia, Terry, and Marty walk to
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Mission Street. But before the market, Virginia has to stop at the post office, which, as you can imagine, the
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kindergarteners were like not exactly thrilled about, right? >> They have plans to do in the post office
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is boring AF. So Marty and Terry ask if they can go ahead to the market by themselves. It's like just a few doors
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down. Virginia agrees. Says she'll meet them there. And by about 11ish, she finishes up there and finds the girls
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outside of the store candy. they bought in hand. They're like already done at the market and certainly did not want to
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stay while Virginia did her shopping for the day. >> Again, the boring things. >> Yeah. So, they ask if they can walk to
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Marty's house since her mom was going to take [music] them to lunch at noon. And
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again, Virginia says yes. >> And just to confirm, they're four and five. >> They are, which is like almost my
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daughter's age. >> But this is nearly half a century ago, remember? Like I know that feels foreign
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to us now, especially for crime junkies who are on high alert for everything. But it was a way different time then.
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Our reporter Nicole Kagan spoke to Terry's older sister Christina and she said that it wasn't unusual at all. She
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said San Miguel was a small community. I said at the top of the episode like 800
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people small and not like where everybody knew everybody here. Everybody did. No, everybody. The little kids
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would go places by themselves once in a while if there was somewhere they needed
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to be and no one available to take them there. So the last Virginia saw the girls. They were headed down Mission
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Street [music] to Marty's, which was also, by the way, on Mission Street, like just beyond the stores. But on the
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way there, Detective Cole says that they made a little pit stop and popped into the local bar called the Elorn, which
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Christina said was pretty normal, too. I call it a bar, but the Elorn was really
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more of a hangout. People would regularly bring their kids in there. Now, kids wouldn't have been able to sit
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at the bar, but they could go get a soda or chips, or in true 1980s vintage fashion, buy a pack of cigarettes for
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their parents. Now, the local hangout spot is where everyone in the community got to know each other. So, the girls go
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in, they get a Coke, but according to witnesses, they didn't have enough money. So, one of the patrons offered to
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buy it for them, chatted with them for a little bit, and then the girls left. When they stepped outside, they ran into
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Terry's uncle on the sidewalk with some friends. They speak for a bit and then they set off telling him that they're
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going to go head to Marty's. That was the girl's last known interaction. As they walked off in the direction of
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Marty's house, somehow on this busy main road at 11:30 in the morning with witnesses everywhere, they just vanish.
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And the fact that it happened that way so quietly and unnoticed, that resulted in a delay of them being reported
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missing. Cuz when the girls didn't show up at Marty's, her mom, whose name is Sunday, she just assumed that they were
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still over at Terry's. But when she drove over there, Terry's family says they thought the girls were with her,
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>> right? And even then, everyone's first thought is that Marty and Terry might have been lost. So both families begin
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trying to retrace [music] their steps. They drove to Mission Street, to the store, to the Elorn. Everybody seemed to
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be saying the same thing, like, "Yes, we saw them earlier. Yes, we saw them, but
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they left. Yes, but and the family is going to the school, the park, the old grainery building, vacant properties.
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They even drove to the nearby Selenus Riverbed because that's where the girl's older siblings had gone to play earlier
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in the day. and they knew that Terry and Marty were apparently upset that they weren't allowed to join them, but
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they're not there either. They searched for hours before finally deciding to call the sheriff's office. Within a
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couple of hours, about 20 officers are in San Miguel. The sheriff's office borrows agents from a neighboring police
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department and highway patrol. They set up a command post at the girls school and they get the whole town searching
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for Marty and Terry. Everyone knows them and anyone who is available is lending a
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hand. And I assume at their age they weren't known for like running off before or anything.
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>> No, I mean they're just your typical happy little kindergarteners. Like their
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families were two of the only three Hispanic families in San Miguel at the time. So they sort of gravitated towards
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each other. They liked candy. They liked roller skating playing. Life was simple
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for them. And Christina, who was eight at the time, said she wasn't even worried because she was so sure that her
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sister Terry was going to come home. In fact, her main thought at the time was how much trouble Terry was going to be
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in with their parents when she did come home. But when the sun goes down that [music] first night after police had
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been searching for hours, Terry still wasn't home. And that's when the fear began to creep in. And with no sign of
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the girls anywhere, detectives decide to double down. The next day, there are 150
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people searching, including members of the National Guard from a nearby army base called Camp Roberts, [snorts] plus
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multiple helicopters and people on horseback. They're searching the riverbed across the freeway in
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surrounding towns. I mean, they turned San Miguel upside down. Detective Cole told our reporter that investigators
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were doing things that wouldn't even be allowed today, like searching people's homes without warrants. This was a huge
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operation and they were basically like a bulldozer running through this town doing anything and everything they could
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to find these two girls. And what's so interesting is that Terry's cousin Angie Gomez said that there was typically no
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police presence in San Miguel. She said the example she gave was that in less than 24 hours, a town where she said you
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could walk around with a shotgun in your hand and nobody would say anything became then the command center for a
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massive police operation. But even with this colossal effort, another day goes by without so much as a new sighting of
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the girls, and investigators begin to lose hope that they're going to find them, or at least find them alive. And
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they're pretty public about their concerns. On May 19th, Sergeant Joe Little tells the Santa Maria Times that
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they've searched the whole town three times over, and without any sign of either girl, everything is pointing to
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the assumption that their disappearance was not accidental. So, while searching continues intermittently, now with
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cadaavver dogs, the strategy essentially changes from looking for the girls to looking for suspects. Early on,
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investigators actually set their sights on Terry's dad, Michael. He'd been estranged from the Flores family. They
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actually moved to San Miguel to get away from him because he'd been abusive to Terry's mom, Yolanda. But the reason
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they suspect him is mainly just because they can't find him. He doesn't have any
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listed address or phone number and no relatives seem to know where he is. So, investigators are thinking, okay, maybe
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this is a parental abduction. And I don't even know if they had the statistics for this back then, but like
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that would have been the most likely. We know that now. >> However, they do eventually find him 10
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days into the investigation. And he not only has a strong alibi in a [music] different city at the time the girls
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went missing, but he passes multiple polygraphs. And if there was any doubt left for investigators about whether or
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not he had the girls, that was completely wiped out 2 [music] days later on May 29th. That's when deputies
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get a call from some men on the Camp Roberts Army base. They said they'd been taking their break parked down by a
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bridge near the Selenus Riverbed. And [music] when I say riverbed, this is more of like a shallow sandy bank than
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like a full flowing river. Most of the people from San Miguel go there to just like hang out. They like take their
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breaks [music] there all the time, whatever. But on this day, something was different. [music] There was this
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unusual number of flies buzzing around and this weird smell coming from under the bridge. And when they follow it to
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try and see where this smell is coming from, they see what looks like a small hand sticking out of the sand.
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Now, everyone in this town knows that Marty and Terry are missing, including [music] these guys. So, they say that
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once they saw the hand, they backed off and made the call to the sheriff's office right away. [music] And when
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investigators get to the scene and start brushing away the sand, they find the girls two small bodies surface buried,
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meaning like no hole had been dug. They were just sort of laid on top of each other and then sand was pushed over to
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like cover them. They're unclothed. Both have liatures around their necks. And though investigators can't know the
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exact timing for sure, the level of decomposition that they see makes them believe that these girls have been dead
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the entire time that they'd been looking for them. I thought the Selena's riverbed had been covered during the
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massive search operation. >> It had with cadaavver dogs and people on foot and helicopters. So, Detective Cole
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said that even an untrained dog would have smelled surface burial there after like four to five days like with decomp
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especially in that May weather which is when the dogs would have been out there like a couple of days later. So, this
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tells investigators that whoever killed Terry and Marty likely killed them early
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on and then held on to their bodies for at least a couple of days before then taking them to the riverbed. Now, there
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isn't much else found near the girls except for an empty wine bottle, which is like slightly under one of the girls'
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necks, and a rock about the size of someone's hand or maybe a little bit bigger. They collect both because
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according to the autopsy, both could be relevant. Detective Cole says it's determined that neither girl had any
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defensive wounds and both died from asphixxiation due to strangulation from those liatures around their neck. And
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those were pieces of maroon colored cloth, though they don't know like what from. Now, at least one of the girls
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also had severe head trauma and one was sexually assaulted, but out of respect for the victims and their families,
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we're not going to attribute those particular injuries to either girl by name. >> So, with the head trauma, they're
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thinking that rock they collected might be related to it. >> Well, so that's what they thought at
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first because of the head trauma. It was like something that was visible while they were there and collecting stuff.
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They just wanted to make sure. But the rock didn't actually have any blood on it. And at the end of the day, like when
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all is said and done, they don't think that that was actually used. So, they collected it, but it ends up not being
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relevant. Now, the wine bottle becomes very interesting to investigators for a time after they get to talk results
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back. Now, the corner tried to do toxins on both girls, but given the state of decomposition, only one was possible.
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But the one that came back had a blood alcohol content of 0.07, 07, which for years investigators [music] took to mean
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that the girls must have been given something when they were kidnapped, which like I said got them excited at
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first when they had this wine bottle. But they end up getting that bottle tested and they realize the bottle is
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totally unrelated to the crime. It was just trash that happened to be in the same area. And as it would turn out, the
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girls probably weren't given any alcohol at all. Because decades later, when Detective Cole presented this case to an
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expert pathologist, he learned that the BAC doesn't necessarily mean that the girl was drinking cuz in some cases
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during decomposition, natural chemical processes can actually produce alcohol internally, which I know we've come
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across in other cases. >> Yeah. But does that rule out them being given alcohol completely though?
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>> In this case, no. But one detail that Detective Cole told our reporter kind of
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sticks out to me. I guess the girl that they did the talk screen on still had a piece of chewing gum in her mouth during
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the autopsy, which it doesn't negate her drinking or anything, but I don't know.
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I think the I just think demp is probably more likely. And even if it was alcohol, it doesn't really change
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anything or give investigators anymore to go on. >> Right. Really, when all is said and
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done, pretty much all they have to work with are those liatures until [music] the next day. That's when one of the
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crime scene techs decides to head back out to the riverbed to do a perimeter grid search, hoping maybe they missed
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something the first time around. And about 50 yards away from the dump site, [music] hidden in some bushes, he
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realizes they did. The tech finds what looks like a green trash bag. And inside are the shoes and clothing that Marty
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and Terry were last seen in, plus some other weird things that definitely didn't belong to the two girls.
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[music] I am popping on to start a conversation about a case. I cannot get it out of my
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head. A true mind bender. A huge [music] twist your way. You gut check all your assumptions cuz this is a case that
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starts like so many before. >> Hi frying junkies. [cheering] Inside the bag along with the girls
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things, there is a potted plant, a paper grocery bag, a blue towel with hairs and
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a blood stain on it, and a pair of black thonglike underwear from Frederick's of
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Hollywood with this like silver dragon emblem. And as you can imagine, it's the [music] items that didn't belong to the
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girls that are most interesting to investigators. >> Yeah, there could be some connection to
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whoever owned these items. and the person who killed the girls if they aren't just like one
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>> right now. DNA testing obviously doesn't exist yet and when they test the items
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for fingerprints they don't get anything conclusive back. But that doesn't mean that the items don't tell [music] them
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something. Firstly, they were found on a military base. Remember, >> wouldn't that narrow down the list of
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suspects pretty quickly? >> Technically, no. So, it's publicly accessible this area and people like
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actually live along this riverbed. anyone could have gotten there. So, naturally, investigators try to get a
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list of people who would have been on the base from May 17th to the 29th. But Camp Roberts doesn't cooperate.
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Basically, they say this list doesn't exist or they don't have a way to get said list. Early on though, even without
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the Camp Roberts list, it's not a lack of suspects that plagues investigators. It's that there were way too many.
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Because here's the thing about San Miguel. It was a lowerincome neighborhood with a handful of
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residential paroleles and according to detective Cole a quote astonishing number of documented sex offenders
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[music] who committed crimes against minors. Christina and Angie both told Nicole it felt like the town was
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infested. They said that they used to get harassed all the time and when they would walk home they'd get harassed.
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Cars would like slow roll beside them. Guys would lean out of their windows yelling things sometimes like banging on
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their car doors. And they had a name for these guys. They called them the sidewalk commandos. [music] And the ones
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who came and went from Camp Roberts, they had a name for them, too. Army dogs. So this 800 person town was just
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what, like a magnet for sex offenders? Kind of, but I think out of proximity. See, just 20 minutes south of San Miguel
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is a city called Atascadero, which houses the Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum security facility for sex
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offenders with mental health conditions. And when those individuals get out, there are only so many places for them
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to go. According to Detective Cole, not only were they known to frequent San Miguel, but specifically they were known
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to frequent Elhorn Bar on Mission Street. Well, yeah. It sounds like it's kind of the only place around like too
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frequent, >> right? So, investigators have a big list to say the least. And not just the sex
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offenders, they also get a list of all the people living in and around San Miguel who had a subscription to the
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Fredericks of Hollywood magazine, that brand of underwear that they found. And then they have all the people who knew
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the girls, the people who interacted with them on Mission Street that day. So, for time's sake, it is not even
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possible to touch on everyone they talk to and vet, but I am going to take you through the people who I think seem the
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most suspicious. And first up is Greg Hickey. He's a 16-year-old who lives near Terry and sometimes babysat for
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both girls. Now, he's the one who took their older siblings to the riverbed the morning of the 17th. [music] And
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apparently, Greg is a very hot-tempered person. He's like known to fight. And actually,
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according to Detective Cole, the reason he's in San Miguel is because he'd gotten into some trouble in Washington.
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And he was supposed to either go to juvenile jail or a boarding school. But this deal was arranged for him to avoid
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both if he were to move in with his older sister, who I'm going to call Megan, and her husband, who I'll call
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Isaac, and they live in San Miguel. >> Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by trouble? Uh it was mostly like
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substance use related like arrest. Nothing violent, but I mean he is known as a volatile guy. He's actually known
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around San Miguel as Crazy Greg. I mean that's a a quote. And even that morning at the riverbed, he apparently told the
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girl siblings [music] not to get wet or something. And then so when they like jumped in some puddles, he like like is
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just sent off. And according to Detective Cole, he started screaming and cursing. [music]
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And the girls ended up running home to tell their parents. And when they go back to Terry's, her mom's new
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boyfriend, Frank, who, by the way, this is like small town, but Frank also happens to be Marty's half brother and a
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close friend of Greg's. >> Oh, yeah. That's some that's some small town. >> Yeah. So, Frank ends up getting into an
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argument with Greg and even a brief fist fight before Greg finally takes back off
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to his house down the road. >> Can we pause for a second? Why is a 16-year-old kid friends with an adult
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man? So Frank is is technically an adult. Like you're not wrong. But he is only four years older than Greg.
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>> Okay. >> He's he's 20. >> Got it. But the most important part of the story is Greg has connections to
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both girls and was already like >> short fuse running hot that morning. >> Right. And actually even though Terry's
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dad was police's first suspect, Greg was who Marty's dad was looking squarely at.
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Like pretty early on. Even when they were still just missing, Marty's dad was so certain that Greg was involved
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somehow that he actually went to Greg's sister's house, [music] kicked the door down looking for him.
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So, if Greg is such bad news, why did both families let him watch their kids? I think they just needed help. I mean,
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Marty was one of eight children, [music] and Yolanda was a 24-year-old single mom
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raising Terry and her sister in a mobile home after fleeing an abusive relationship. Greg lived in the area. He
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was free. He was willing. Plus, he was friends with Frank, but obviously things are different now. And for detectives,
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like you're suggesting, he is a pretty strong [music] suspect. Now, when they interview Greg, he admits that he was
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drinking and using drugs the morning that the girls went missing, and that he definitely had a fight with Frank, but
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he denies having anything to do with Marty and Tererry's disappearance or murder. And he says that he has an alibi
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for the time that they were taken. He says that after he left the riverbed that morning and then he got into the
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fight with Frank, he and his friend Cal Owens went up to the wrecking yard where
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Cal works. And Cal vouches for Greg, but like side eye like your friend's word only goes so far. And according to
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Detective Cole, they only grow more suspicious when a couple of weeks later, Cal Owens car burns to the ground on the
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side of the freeway while he and Greg were supposedly together. Now, he says they're just driving along
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when like poof, car mysteriously catches fire out of nowhere. They pull over, they get out, and then the car is just
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like incinerated right there. And I assume police hadn't looked at Cal's car for evidence.
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Well, they did. So, when they when they found out Greg was hanging out with Cal,
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they looked at Cal's car, but Cal had two cars, and they only impounded one, which is obviously not the one that
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ended up getting burned, >> right? But the one that they had, they searched and didn't find anything.
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>> Okay, [laughter] that makes the fire even more sus to me. Like impounding the first car could have
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>> tipped them off that police were eventually going to get to the second one. And then oh darn, now it's gone.
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>> Yeah. And after that, Greg gets arrested on some unrelated charges. He ends up
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having to spend a couple of weeks in juvenile hall during which time his sister actually tells the court that she
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wouldn't be surprised if Greg was involved in Marty and Terry's case. But even though there is all of this literal
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and figurative smoke around Greg, there is no fire and not enough to charge him with anything. I mean, do they [music]
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ever search his house? Well, as it turns out, Greg's sister's house where he lives is known to be this quote unquote
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party house. According to Detective Cole, he said that there were always a lot of people coming and going from it.
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Substances are in the mix, possibly sex work and even sex trafficking, though there never any official arrests or
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charges around that. And that's the house that was supposed to be keeping Greg out of trouble.
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>> I know. So, the lead investigator at the time, that's Sergeant Larry Hobson, he
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does he goes to that house. He asks Greg's sister Megan what color her linens were
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>> because of the blue towels. >> Yes. So, they're not searching the house, but he's like, "Hey, do you like
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what color are your legs?" >> Curiosity. >> Hers are blue. And I feel like if I were
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the investigator and I got that answer, I would probably ask to see them >> or like then get a warrant to search
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this house or >> maybe ask any follow-up questions at all. But if he does, there is nothing in
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the file to show that. And it seems like he just moves on. >> Why even bother asking the question if
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there's not going to be like a follow-up plan for when she says, "Yeah, my towels
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are blue." >> Listen, today, Detective Cole is just as baffled by this as you are. But even
00:25:11
though this thing should have prompted more of an investigation into Greg, it seems to have done quite the opposite.
00:25:16
Greg's name just seems to slowly disappear from future reports as [music] they focus on other people. Other people
00:25:23
like Mario Escalante. He is a frequent flyer at the Elorn with multiple arrests for public
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intoxication. And according to Detective Cole, many people say he is the guy who
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bought the girls the Coca-Cola that they drank in the bar the morning of their disappearance.
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But strangely enough, when interviewed by investigators back then, Mario adamantly denies even buying the girls
00:25:50
the soda. And they actually interview him multiple times, and every time he says that it never happened, and that he
00:25:56
had never seen Marty or Terry before. >> I mean, try to distance yourself much. >> It's It's strange not to want to admit
00:26:03
that. >> Yeah. >> And Detective Cole seems to believe he definitely did buy them the soda. He
00:26:08
told us that he confirmed it with the bartender. Now, the only excuse that I could see perhaps is like, okay, this
00:26:18
guy has arrest for public intoxication. Is he already drunk at 11:00 a.m. and like didn't remember?
00:26:24
>> But is he saying he doesn't remember or he's saying he remembers that it didn't
00:26:28
happen? >> Yeah. So, the latter. I can't even make excuses for the guy. Like, it's
00:26:33
>> it's weird for sure. >> Mhm. because he would be one of the last people that they interacted with. But
00:26:40
that is the only thing that makes him stand out. He's not on their sex offender list or their Fredericks of
00:26:46
Hollywood list. He has no history of violence. And it would be a pretty severe escalation to go from public
00:26:53
intoxication to kidnapping, aggravated assault, and murder. So they put him aside and [music] they keep making their
00:27:01
way through the lists and they hit another regular at the Elorn named Eugene Capers who is former military and
00:27:09
he apparently lived in the house just behind the Mezos. >> Interesting. >> Now he's not on lists either, but his
00:27:17
name comes up because of what some considered strange behavior when the girls were found. Detective Cole says
00:27:23
that Eugene was just like beside himself. Like he was seen sobbing and crying and going to the mission by
00:27:32
himself to pray. And people are kind of like, "No, yeah, this is a terrible thing." But also, did you even know
00:27:41
them? Like, why are you having this overly emotional response? Like, what does he say when he's interviewed?
00:27:47
>> Well, here's the thing. We really don't know. So Eugene gets interviewed by one
00:27:53
of the sheriff's investigators who Detective Cole says was an army guy. Like Eugene, he used to be in the
00:27:58
military. And apparently that guy ends up independently clearing Eugene. And so after that, the sheriff's detectives
00:28:07
move on to a man named Roy Hash. >> Not move on. That's it. Like who is this Army guy investigator?
00:28:15
>> No idea. Uh, Detective Cole says that the interview of Eugene in the files isn't thorough at all because in his
00:28:21
opinion, that investigator sort of gave Eugene a quote little military pass, like kind of good old military boy
00:28:29
thing," unquote. How is that allowed? It just was. Um, again, how is a lot of the
00:28:36
stuff in this case happening? I don't know. But anyways, Army Buddy clears him. That works for them. On to Roy
00:28:42
[music] Hash. He is a San Miguel resident who lives near the Flores, owns a van, knew the girls, and was also
00:28:50
known to have driven them from place to place on occasion. >> So, they could have jumped in his car,
00:28:55
no questions asked. >> Yes, probably. And he is on one of their lists. He is a known child predator with
00:29:02
sexual assault accusations from his own family members, according to Detective Cole. So, he becomes a strong person of
00:29:09
interest, but he also seems to just be super elusive. Like, Detective Cole says that if this guy came up today, he would
00:29:19
be trying everything to get in front of him for an interview. But at the time, Detective Cole says they quote kept
00:29:25
missing him. And when one detective finally does catch him, the interview is super brief. Like, there is one
00:29:33
paragraph in the files about talking to this guy. And Roy basically says he knew
00:29:37
the girls, loved the girls, and would never have hurt the girls. And with that, as has become routine in this
00:29:45
case, investigators drop it. Are they just expecting the killer to be honest with them about it and confess to
00:29:57
everything when they ask him the first time? Like, what is going on here? I don't know what they were expecting for
00:30:02
the 3 years that this went on, but if a confession [music] is what they were waiting for, then come 1983,
00:30:11
that is exactly what they get. Let's play a little game. I'm going to set the stage.
00:30:18
>> Okay, >> you guess who confessed. It's 1983 and the sheriff's office hears about a
00:30:24
serial killer who says that he Henry Lucas. >> You [laughter] are correct. >> 1983 commission. Yeah. Do you want to
00:30:31
set the stage for the newbies? >> Sure. So, Henry Lee Lucas is a murderer from Virginia who is convicted of
00:30:38
killing 11 people, including his own mother. And then when he went to prison in Texas, and was ultimately put on
00:30:44
death row, that's when he basically started confessing to >> pretty much every unsolved murder in
00:30:51
America. Like, no joke, hundreds of cases, men, women, kids. And at first, investigators from all over are like
00:30:58
clamoring to get their case in front of this guy. And when they do, [music] they start closing unsolved homicides
00:31:04
like left and right. But everyone was >> wait before you keep going. So a little
00:31:09
eager, >> right? So, okay, you guys know who Henry Lee Lucas is now. Let me jump back in
00:31:13
for a second. So, in 1983, Henry tells Texas authorities that he assaulted [music] and killed a little girl just
00:31:19
north of Paso Robels, which is where San Miguel is. But just one girl. >> Yeah. So, from the jump, things aren't
00:31:26
adding up. But Sergeant Hopson schedules a time to go down to Texas and talk to Henry himself. And when I say schedules
00:31:33
a time, I mean it literally because like you kind of insinuated, Henry's schedule
00:31:37
is packed to the gills with meetings. >> He's a busy dude. >> Yeah. I mean, investigators from all
00:31:42
over the country want to speak to this guy about their cold cases. So when it is finally Hobson's turn, [music]
00:31:48
he's briefed by Texas Rangers on how to approach this meeting. And according to the San Francisco Examiner, there are
00:31:55
like all these rules. Like they tell him, you know, don't approach the meeting like a cop. Like try not to
00:32:01
argue with Henry. You know, basically let Henry [music] conduct the interview. And they tell him to start by showing
00:32:07
Henry photos because though he doesn't deliberately claim homicides that aren't his, like he's just committed so many
00:32:14
murders, they all kind of blur together. >> Yeah. So they suggest keeping [music]
00:32:17
him supplied with cigarettes and coffee. And please do not call him a liar. So >> okay,
00:32:25
>> Hopson comes equipped with maps and photos and sketches and >> cigarettes evidently
00:32:30
>> probably. And Henry is apparently unable to pick Terry or Marty out of a lineup.
00:32:36
But using the map, he does point out the area by the Selenus Riverbed as the crime scene. Problem is, he says the
00:32:44
girl he assaulted was 15. Now, when Hobson reminds him that the victims in his case are much younger, [music]
00:32:52
that's when Henry apparently ends the interview. Again, don't call him a liar, but like also don't point out that he's
00:32:57
wrong. >> Yeah. So some months later, all of a sudden, Hobson gets a call from Henry,
00:33:03
who basically says, "You know, I've been thinking a lot about the case, and I do
00:33:07
have the details figured out now." And that's when the decision is made to bring Henry out to San Miguel to walk
00:33:14
Hobson through his crime. This visit, by the way, is just one stop on a tour of nearly three dozen other California
00:33:22
crime scenes. >> Yeah. I mean, he was basically a celebrity at the time. He was getting
00:33:26
flown like all this was basically like a tour for him, right? >> When he was like gonna be on death row,
00:33:32
like >> he was getting flown all over the country to meet with different enforcement agencies, go on ride alongs,
00:33:37
to like his crime scenes, like >> wonder why he was confessing. >> Yeah. But his story goes [music] that
00:33:44
while in San Miguel, all these memories start flooding back to Henry and he ends
00:33:49
up describing in vivid detail what he and his partner did to Marty and Terry and how they kidnapped them from Mission
00:33:56
Street and took them to the riverbed. I mean, he is giving details down to the length of the liatures, which on its
00:34:04
face, like oh wow. Mhm. >> But Marty and Terry's murders had been covered extensively in the news. And
00:34:12
also, Detective Cole says that during Hopson's initial interview with Henry, he'd shown him all of these photos from
00:34:18
the case file that would have given Henry loads of information. >> Right. Memories question mark.
00:34:24
>> Right now, our reporter Nicole spoke to Hobson, who retired in 2005, and he says
00:34:29
that he doesn't recall ever giving Henry like that much credence. But a report that he filed with the DA's office in
00:34:35
1984 makes me feel like that's not quite the case. And I actually got a copy of it.
00:34:40
So in his report, he says, quote, "After watching and listening to Henry Lucas's
00:34:47
confession in San Miguel and at the Bridge area, there is no doubt in my mind that he is responsible for the
00:34:54
death of Terry Flores and Martha Mezo. I request that a criminal complaint be filed against Henry Lee Lucas and that a
00:35:02
warrant be issued charging him with murder, kidnap, and child molest." End quote. That sounds like credence.
00:35:10
>> Yeah. The only problem is at this point when he's like wanting this, there is a
00:35:16
whole task force looking into Henry Lee Lucas, which is I think where I interrupted your story if you [laughter]
00:35:22
want to finish. >> Yeah. So basically, all these different agencies start comparing notes, and it
00:35:28
becomes clear pretty quickly that the timelines don't add up. Henry had confessed to crimes that happened
00:35:34
hundreds of miles away from each other, but happened on the same day. And the more they dig into his stories, the more
00:35:40
it appears like he just made everything up. So basically he went from being potentially one of the most prolific
00:35:48
serial killers in history to basically a fraudster that we now know as the confession killer.
00:35:54
>> Right. And how you know him like in 2 seconds when I say two things. >> Yeah. Exactly.
00:35:59
>> And really so all of that I mean that was his undoing here. The timeline of his movements were based mostly on
00:36:05
signed receipts [music] from his scrap metal business which brought him all over the country. And what they found
00:36:11
for this case specifically is that Henry had signed a receipt in Jacksonville, Florida on the 19th and 20th of May,
00:36:19
1980. [music] >> And the girls were abducted on May 17th. >> 17th, right? And their bodies are
00:36:25
disposed of, we know after that the drive from San Miguel to Jacksonville, like straight through without stopping
00:36:31
on the roads available at the time in 1980, would have taken at least 3740 hours. So, it is physically impossible
00:36:39
for Henry to have killed them, dumped them, and then made it to Jacksonville in time to sign that work receipt.
00:36:44
There's also no information at all to support that Henry was ever in San Miguel at the time. And that is why the
00:36:52
DA takes a look at everything and immediately rejects the request to file charges. What's so wild to me though is
00:37:00
that Terry's family said because of all this Henry Lee Lucas noise, loads of people in and around San Miguel believed
00:37:07
for years that Marty and Terry's case had been solved. I mean, there were headlines like case closed in San Miguel
00:37:14
slaying and SLO investigators say Lucas their man. [music] And looking back today, Detective Cole can't help but
00:37:21
wonder about the headway investigators could have been making if it weren't for this nearly 2yearong distraction. I'm
00:37:27
sorry. They spent 2 years on this >> pretty much. But as is routine with this case, as soon as one suspect door
00:37:35
closes, another one does open. And when the Henry Lee Lucas jig is up, investigators quickly move on to another
00:37:43
man, [music] Richard Benson. Richard is a serial child molester from Selenus, which is about 90 miles from San Miguel.
00:37:52
And he had been arrested multiple times for his offenses. He'd get convicted, go
00:37:58
to prison, get released, offend again, then get sent right back. Why did they keep letting him out? [music] That's the
00:38:05
question. I mean, according to Detective Cole, at least once, he literally broke
00:38:10
into someone's home, took their child, and left. He was caught later driving him around while drunk. And while out in
00:38:17
1986, he breaks into the home of a mother and her three young children. They are 1, three, and four years old in
00:38:23
a town just south of San Miguel. He holds them captive for several days and then kills all of them, setting the
00:38:30
house on fire and fleeing on foot. >> Oh my god, that was finally the end of the line for him. He ends up getting the
00:38:37
death penalty for those crimes. But when these charges are announced, given the victimology and the proximity to San
00:38:44
Miguel, that's when investigators go full steam ahead on Richard. There is a problem, though. No matter how hard they
00:38:52
try, detectives cannot place him in San Miguel. He is in and out of the surrounding towns, but never San Miguel
00:39:00
itself. Right. >> According to retired Sergeant Larry Hopson, they first interviewed Benson
00:39:06
right after the girls went missing on May 20th, and he gave an alibi. And though Hobson said it turned out to be a
00:39:12
load of garbage, it looks like, guess what? Investigators kind of moved on. >> Wow. until until he came back on the
00:39:20
radar in 1986, of course, when he commits those like that horrible quadruple murder. According to Detective
00:39:26
Cole, after that, investigators try to interview Benson again, but the DA won't let them because they don't want it to
00:39:31
interfere with their investigation or somehow jeopardize the death penalty case that they're working on. And it's
00:39:38
still being adjudicated at that point when like our investigators in San Miguel learn about him. And then by the
00:39:43
time his other case is like all said and done, I don't know, nobody circles back
00:39:47
around. And normally, like in our story, this would be the point where I was I would say, you know, like there's just
00:39:53
so many dead ends. They were out of options. But I mean, you've been listening to the
00:39:58
same story. >> It's they aren't dead ends. They just stopped walking down streets,
00:40:02
>> right? There were things that I think could have been done, but two investigators then they would say that
00:40:10
there wasn't much more they could do. By that point, both the Flores and the Mezo
00:40:14
families had left San Miguel. The media is no longer covering the girls' cases, and new tips weren't coming in. So, by
00:40:22
1987, Terry and Marty's case officially goes cold. In 2005, [music] we know Larry Hobson retires, and he
00:40:31
retires firmly believing that Richard Benson was responsible for the crime, but that they just didn't have enough to
00:40:36
charge him. And it would take nearly 20 years for new investigators to realize that this [music] case had a whole lot
00:40:45
more potential for being solved, not by more interviews or door-nocking, but through new science. And what they find
00:40:53
changes everything. From 2006 to 2009, an investigator begins sending off evidence that they do have. The liatures
00:41:03
come back with minor DNA, but too little to work with. They have slightly better
00:41:08
luck with the sexual assault kit swabs. Those do contain a trace amount of DNA, but again, so little that it's not even
00:41:15
suitable to create a profile for direct comparison, let alone enter into any database at the time. The blue towel
00:41:22
that had been found near the scene did have enough blood on it that they could pull a working profile from it, and the
00:41:29
blood turned out to belong to one of the victims. But the hairs on the towel do not. The science just wasn't available
00:41:35
to do full DNA testing on them. All they can say for sure is that the hairs don't
00:41:40
belong to either Marty or Terry. But the black thonglike underwear that is found to have traces of semen on
00:41:49
it. And this time, investigators finally get the break that they've been desperate for, a full DNA profile, one
00:41:56
that is even suitable for Cotus. Now, off the bat, this sample clears a bunch of suspects who have criminal records
00:42:03
because there are no hits of any existing profiles in Cotus, but a whole bunch of the people who were looked at
00:42:11
back in the 80s were never swabbed, which means now investigators have to trace those men back down. [music] the
00:42:18
Elorn regulars, the sex offender registrants who aren't in COTUS, and all of the people who had been cleared for
00:42:24
one reason or another, or at least that's what it should have meant. But at this time, this 2006 to 2009,
00:42:33
because the case is technically still cold, there's no lead detective assigned to it. The investigator who decided to
00:42:39
send off the evidence for testing was only looking at cases like in his spare time, thinking like, okay, maybe
00:42:44
evidence could lead to a quick, easy solve. someone's enotus or whatever, but this would neither be quick nor easy.
00:42:50
[music] So, even though all the right pieces were there, it is not until almost a decade later in 2018 that
00:42:58
anyone goes back to the original suspect list. That is when Detective Cole gets assigned to the case. And when he does,
00:43:05
Detective Cole is determined to leave no stone unturned. From 2018 to 2020 with the help of his partner, Jeff
00:43:14
Roashadotti, he swabs everybody he can that is mentioned in the case files. He swabs some of Marty and Terry's family
00:43:22
members. No matches. He goes to prison and swabs Richard Benson, the serial child molester on death row. Not his
00:43:30
DNA. >> Did he actually talk to him this time, too? [music] >> He did. And this was the first time that
00:43:35
Benson is spoken to since the girls bodies were discovered in 1980. He tells Detective Cole that he doesn't know
00:43:42
anything about the girls. And given that he could still not even be placed anywhere near San Miguel and it's not
00:43:48
his DNA, Cole clears him. He also swabs Mario Escalante, the man who said that he didn't buy the girls the Coke, but
00:43:55
probably did buy the Yeah. He swabs Greg Hickey, the teenager who got into a fight with Terry's mom's boyfriend. and
00:44:02
a different serial child predator on death row. No matches to any of them. He even gets samples from San Miguel sex
00:44:10
offender Roy Hash's sons because Roy Hash had died and had been cremated. Not connected to them either. The only
00:44:19
people Detective Cole says that he doesn't get DNA from are Eugene Capers, that former military man who was overly
00:44:26
emotional, and Cal Owens, Greg Hickeyy's friend. and he doesn't because both men
00:44:33
had died by the time he goes looking [music] and there wasn't enough evidence to justify exuming them to get their
00:44:39
DNA. Detective Cole also tries again to get a list of names from the Camp Roberts military base, which is still
00:44:46
there in San Miguel, by the way, because actually one of the things that he focuses on, it wasn't like a big deal
00:44:52
back in the day, but when he's looking at the case file, I told you that the girls clothes were found in that green
00:44:56
trash bag. >> They weren't just like shoved in a garbage bag. They were really neatly
00:45:01
folded and like one of the notes they make is like oh you know it's the way like a woman I mean it's like very
00:45:07
stereotypical 198 a woman would fold the clothes or somebody who's like in the military like
00:45:12
>> that like rigidity and like straight lines like very tidy. >> Yes. So he's like, "Okay, should I be
00:45:17
looking at the military as I'm taking a second look at this and knowing all these DNA profiles are getting ruled
00:45:22
out?" But in trying to get this list, like they just kind of give him the same goaround that they did in like 1980,
00:45:29
>> which like that's all interesting, but is he really leaning towards this being
00:45:33
a military guy or is he like looking at any other new angle too? >> He's keeping an open mind. I mean like
00:45:39
military is a possibility also because in addition to the clothes, the fact that they're found on a base,
00:45:44
>> the proximity, >> right? He said the liatures, the the the maroon cord that was around their neck,
00:45:50
to him it resembled military rip cord. >> Oh. >> So again, a lot of reasons to look that
00:45:57
way, but the truth is he's not leaning away from anything else. He definitely thinks the crime involved somebody who
00:46:04
knew the girls or at least someone who was familiar enough with San Miguel to know about the Selenus Riverbed as a
00:46:10
hangout spot, but all he's focused on now is just not getting tunnel vision. And is Detect getting any new
00:46:17
information when he's tracking down all of these people? >> Well, most people's stories are the same
00:46:22
as they were in the 80s. There is one interesting thing that happens after Greg Hickey gets interviewed in 2020.
00:46:30
So, [snorts] Greg is living in Bakersfield when detectives Cole and Robashadotti pay him a visit. Cole says
00:46:35
that he'd aged quite a bit, couldn't really get around well, and he seemed generally a bit out of it. The first
00:46:42
thing he says to them is, "Am I a suspect again?" And Cole explains that he's just trying to cover all of their
00:46:48
bases. And Greg volunteers his DNA. But when Cole asks him who he thinks is responsible for Marty and Tererry's
00:46:56
deaths, he points to his sister's husband, Isaac. Greg says that Isaac never treated his sister well, and he
00:47:04
always hated him for it. So, if it was going to be anyone that Greg knew. His guess is Isaac.
00:47:10
>> Was Isaac ever questioned back then? >> He was in the 80s and again by Detective
00:47:15
Cole. And Cole says that he has a crummy alibi. And we know, right, Megan is asked about the color of her linens, but
00:47:21
then like that was the extent of it. And though Greg is cleared from the DNA on the underwear, Detective Cole says that
00:47:27
he's not totally convinced that he wasn't involved in some way. See, in a bizarre turn of events, Greg ends up
00:47:35
passing away from natural causes shortly after the interview with detectives. And
00:47:40
a couple of weeks after that, Detective Cole gets this really strange phone call
00:47:45
from Greg's girlfriend. This woman tells Cole that she doesn't think Greg was being totally honest with
00:47:55
him because after their 2020 interview, when the detectives left, Greg told her that back in 1980, someone asked him to
00:48:04
get rid of some bloody carpet for them. So, he and Cal Owens drove to an overpass and threw it over.
00:48:13
>> Follow-up question for Greg's girlfriend. Who who told them to get rid of this bloody carpet?
00:48:19
>> If Greg ever told her who, she doesn't remember or doesn't say, and they never
00:48:25
found a bloody carpet back then. [music] >> And Cal's car is the one that mysteriously
00:48:30
caught flame and burned up, right? M. So, even though there's not really any way to verify this whole bloody carpet
00:48:37
story, this phone call really gets Detective Cole thinking that maybe Marty and Terry's disappearance and assault
00:48:44
and murder involves multiple people. When he first started reading the case, given everything he knew about San
00:48:50
Miguel, he thought that the girls had just happened to cross paths with a child molester that morning who took
00:48:56
advantage of them being alone. But the more work that he's been doing, the more he's starting to believe that there's
00:49:04
more to it than that. He comes up with this theory that somebody who knew the girls might have taken them as some kind
00:49:11
of twisted way to scare the Flores and Messo families and not like taken them with the intention to harm them. But
00:49:19
then when this massive search operation came into town with helicopters and horses and search dogs, they freaked
00:49:25
out, >> spooked, >> and that's when things went sideways. Okay, but how does an innocent prank is
00:49:33
the wrong word, but how does that as a prank at least escalate to sexual assault and murder? I don't know. You'd
00:49:41
have to ask the killer. But in this scenario, there's multiple people involved. Basically, when the person or
00:49:48
persons who took Marty and Terry panicked, they could have leaned on someone else to help them handle the
00:49:52
situation. And any number of people in this small town could have been called on to cover the tracks.
00:49:58
>> Like getting rid of a bloody carpet. >> Exactly. >> Okay. I feel like this is a jump. So
00:50:05
what does Detective Cole know that he's not sharing? >> It's just a theory. Like he over the
00:50:11
years has played out dozens of scenarios like this in his head and right now he's
00:50:15
like this is just the one that seems to connect the most dots, >> right? But there's still there's still
00:50:22
dots that don't connect, right? Like that's most the dots, not all of them. >> Yeah. And I mean, I think one of like
00:50:29
the this isn't like a dot you can connect. It just like kind of helps explain the unconnected ones. Like in
00:50:33
his eyes, if there were multiple people involved, the DNA from the adult underwear might not even necessarily
00:50:38
belong to the killer, >> right? >> But he does believe that whoever it belonged to could lead him to the
00:50:45
killer. And this I can clearly see like how he got there. And honestly, the first time I heard from Detective Cole
00:50:51
about where Greg was living and about the underwear, I was like, "Oh, you you have possible sex [music] work. You have
00:50:56
possible trafficking happening out of this house." Like underwear was seaman probably around, right? Like it could be
00:51:02
anyone's, but like could it connect to that house? But again, because we're like, but but
00:51:09
because of all those reasons, >> he's not ruling anyone off the list, even if their DNA didn't necessarily
00:51:13
match, [music] except except for Henry Lee Lucas and Richard Benson, who he say that investigators never should have
00:51:20
wasted a minute on in the first place. >> So with a full profile in Cotus, my mind
00:51:25
just jumps to I mean, obviously genealogology work. Can they do like more testing?
00:51:31
>> So Detective Cole's mind goes there, too. The first thing he learns from genealogy work that he starts getting
00:51:38
done is that the DNA belongs to a man who is 75% black. Does that match any of the men that we've talked about in this
00:51:46
episode? >> There is one black suspect, Eugene Capers. [music] And remember, his DNA
00:51:53
was never collected before he died. >> Okay. Did he have kids? I mean, how can we find out? What are we doing? I feel
00:51:59
like we need to do something. We're doing things or Detective Cole is doing things with genealogy
00:52:04
>> person who needs to be doing things right. >> But I'm telling you like the answers
00:52:07
like you can feel it. They're within reach. But this is what I was saying at the top of the episode like things are
00:52:12
going to happen soon. He's still working on it. The problem is he's been having a
00:52:16
lot of difficulty getting people to give reference samples to build out a family
00:52:21
tree from the [music] underwear DNA profile. So like the point that he's at right now, he's hit a bit of a
00:52:27
roadblock. But never count this man out. He solved the Christian Smart case after
00:52:31
over 25 years and like I said literally came out of retirement to see this thing
00:52:35
through. But are you ready for the curveball? >> Sure. I think >> so. Eugene, to answer your question, did
00:52:42
have two kids. He had a son and a daughter. But all the IGG work that Cole has had done so far,
00:52:51
none of it is pointing back at Eugene or anyone even close to him. >> What? So, we're looking for someone who
00:52:59
wasn't even on their radar. >> Could be. Again, the underwrit not the person. >> Now, according to Angie, there were only
00:53:12
two black families living in San Miguel at the time. But you have to remember, people were constantly coming and going
00:53:18
from that military base and coming and going from Greg's house for that matter, according to Detective Cole. But the
00:53:26
good news is that underwear profile is not the only DNA that Detective Cole has to work with. Now, in 2020, he also
00:53:33
retested the liatures and Marty and Tererry's clothing, [music] and he found unknown DNA on those items.
00:53:41
Now, that unknown DNA wasn't suitable for Cotus, but it was suitable for direct comparison.
00:53:47
>> And did it match the profile from the semen? >> It did not. And this DNA obviously to me is like way
00:53:54
more important. [music] This is like a onetoone tie to the crime. >> So it's suitable for one-on-one
00:53:59
comparison. It's not what was in the underwear. But through one-on- ons, he is able to rule out some of the same
00:54:06
[music] people again. Richard Benson out, Mario Escalante out, a handful of sex offenders and the girl's family
00:54:13
members. Now, Greg's comparison came back saying it quote cannot be included or excluded.
00:54:23
End quote. But that's not enough for Detective Cole to jump to any conclusions. And unfortunately, he couldn't compare
00:54:31
Roy Hash's son's DNA because there wasn't enough in the unidentified sample to be suitable for a comparison with a
00:54:38
relative. [music] >> Okay, >> so let's look at what else we have. Remember the unknown hairs from the blue
00:54:44
towel found at the crime scene? So, when they were tested in 2006, they were determined, we know, not to belong to
00:54:49
the girls. But at the time, >> pretty much it. >> Yeah. At the time, they couldn't tell
00:54:52
anything else. >> So, when Detective Cole takes on the case and he's reading through all of the
00:54:56
lab reports from the Department of Justice, he's like, "Hm, I wonder if we can send these hairs off again." Like,
00:55:03
especially, could we compare the semen sample or the DNA on the liatures or even if it belonged to someone else, but
00:55:09
it's like someone else in Cotus? like they're one step closer. >> But he and his partner turn their
00:55:15
evidence room upside down looking for the hairs and they cannot find them. >> So they call the lab to ask them to
00:55:22
check if they still have them. And the lab basically swears up and down that they do not. They're like, "We return
00:55:27
those to you after the testing in 2006." But God bless Detective Robotti. He refuses to accept that answer. He keeps
00:55:35
going back to the lab and putting pressure on them until finally in April of 2025. They call him and they're like,
00:55:42
"You know what? >> Crazy thing happened." >> Guess what we just found? We actually do
00:55:46
have those hairs and they've been sitting here for 19 years. >> How does that even happen?
00:55:53
>> I feel like this happens way more often than it should with cold cases. >> Yes, but I feel the same way every
00:55:58
single time. >> I know. Detective Cole said that the evidence report clearly stated that the
00:56:03
hairs were going to be sent to Virginia to be stored at the Richmond DOJ facility. So, I guess the lab just like
00:56:10
made a mistake on their end or they didn't look thoroughly enough. Like the police's paperwork was right. And this
00:56:16
is my PSA to law enforcement. You guys got push. Always push. I mean, you remember the James Rails case? The
00:56:24
evidence that got him exonerated, they said for years was lost. But it was there. You guys, it is busy humans who
00:56:33
have bad days who are looking for this stuff. It is okay to check, to recheck, to triple check, to push on people. So,
00:56:44
they now have the hairs and Detective Cole sent them off to be retested >> and and he is currently waiting on
00:56:53
results as of this recording, but literally he said it could be any day now. He also I mean again, this man is
00:57:01
like not quit. He's like, "Okay, while I'm waiting for that, I'm also going to retest the black underwear to see if
00:57:07
there's any additional non-sperm DNA because it's very possible the person who wore them isn't the person who left
00:57:13
the sperm." I feel like there is actually so much work with like this case started as a real downer, but
00:57:21
>> it was like everything was going like it was >> everything went wrong. It felt like a
00:57:24
terrible investigation. >> Yeah, it wasn't happening. But this this doesn't happen often in the cases we
00:57:30
cover. keep my like my faith is being restored. >> I know. Detective, listen, I'm going to
00:57:36
wait until we get the solve, but Detective Cole might make the hero wall. Like, things are definitely moving. And
00:57:42
he says this case is his highest priority, and there is very little he won't try. He has presented it at cold
00:57:48
case conferences across the country. He sent the entire file to the Sacramento DA's office. And actually, it was
00:57:55
Detective Cole who reached out to us, which is not usually how this happens. >> No. I mean, you guys hear how often we
00:58:01
say like, "We reached out and they didn't call us back." >> Yeah. >> He was at basically was at this training
00:58:08
for the International Homicide Investigators Association earlier this year. He just so happened to sit next to
00:58:13
a detective named Lauren Gonzalez, whose name people might recognize if they listen to The Deck. And it was Detective
00:58:20
Gonzalez who suggested partnering with us to get Marty and Terry's story out there to all the crime junkies, which
00:58:26
is, by the way, a big [music] deal because Marty and Terry's case has not gotten any real coverage since 1986.
00:58:33
[music] And Terry's sister Christina and Terry's cousin Angie said that they have been
00:58:38
trying for years [music] to get more attention. They have been reaching out to loads of true crime shows, even talk
00:58:44
shows, but nobody ever followed up. And in 2021, Christina was able to get a billboard put up for the girls near the
00:58:51
San Miguel Fire Department, but she wants to get word out even beyond San Miguel. So, she is currently trying to
00:58:58
raise $10,000 for a billboard on Highway 101 and $25,000 to create a reward for information. So, if any of our listeners
00:59:07
want to help her out with that, we're going to put a link in the show notes to that GoFundMe that she's put up. Since
00:59:13
the start, Detective Cole has worked this case from every angle he could think of, and he is not planning on
00:59:19
slowing down anytime soon. But recently, this case has taken on a new sense of urgency because Detective Cole found out
00:59:26
that Christina was diagnosed with a terminal illness. And actually, when our reporter met with her, it was during
00:59:32
Christina's [music] visit back to San Miguel to make arrangements for her own burial at the San Miguel District
00:59:37
Cemetery, right next to her little sister, Terry. She hates that her mother and both of Marty's parents died before
00:59:43
they ever got answers about what happened. And so her hope is that no one will be able to say the same about her.
00:59:49
So if you have any information about the 1980 murders of 5-year-old Teresa Terry
00:59:54
Flores [music] and 4-year-old Martha Marty Mezo in San Miguel, California, please [music] speak
00:59:59
up. You can reach Detective Clint Cole directly at 805781-4940 or at his email cco.sl. [music]
01:00:09
slot.ca.us. You can find all the source material for this [music] episode on our website
01:00:16
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