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Good morning. It's the start of another workday here at Dateline. Okay, why don't we get started?
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Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. They got DNA from him, right?
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Witnesses are hard to find. It's been so many years. That pretty much says this is the guy.
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Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's October 23rd, and here's what's on our docket.
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In Philadelphia, tough questions for the police and prosecutors. After a 23-year-old woman is found dead in the woods, could her death have been prevented?
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Fear could have been the driving factor. In Dateline Roundup, a surprising development in the case of a former Major League Baseball pitcher and convicted killer, Dan Serafini.
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A verdict in the retrial of Paul Zumot, the hookah lounge owner accused of strangling his girlfriend and setting their house on fire.
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and a sentencing for Nicholas Rossi, the man who faked his own death to escape justice.
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His two victims told the judge that they were still afraid of him. Plus, how one police department is turning to an unusual tool to crack cold cases, making documentaries.
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It's a good way to get the message out to the public. But before all that, we're off to Coffey County, Georgia,
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for the latest in a murder case that went cold for years, involving a mother of three, her husband, and their live-in nanny.
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At a press conference on May 23rd, Special Agent Jason Sechrist from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced a breakthrough in a case that had been hanging over the small city of Douglas, Georgia for nearly two decades.
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Sometimes slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.
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In 2006, 39-year-old Doris Worrell was shot and killed at a local amusement park owned by the Worrell family.
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Her husband, John, was the one who found her body. He called 911, then fell to the ground in tears.
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But 19 years later, Agent Seacrest announced John was in custody, accused of masterminding his wife's murder.
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And he said the key to John's arrest was testimony from a woman who lived with the family as a young teenager,
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taken care of their children, and later became John's lover. John Worrell has pleaded not guilty, and since his arrest,
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His defense team has filed several motions challenging the case against him. Dateline producer Dorothy Newell is here to get us up to speed on the nearly 20-year investigation
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and what lies ahead. Dorothy, thanks for coming on the podcast. Happy to be here.
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Okay, so Dorothy, to start, what can you tell us about the relationship between Doris and John Worrell?
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So they met in college. Doris was just one of those lovely, generous people. She was a good teacher, a devout Christian, and he was, by all counts, a really fun guy.
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After they got married, they settled in his hometown. She quit her job as an elementary school teacher to be a stay-at-home mom with her three kids,
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and he took over management of a small amusement park called John's Sports Park.
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What do we know about this amusement park? Very interesting, where Doris was killed.
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So it was kind of the center of this community. It had a big arcade, a driving range, batting cages, and a go-kart track.
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It had a really big roller skating rink inside. It was the place to be for kids in the area.
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How was Doris killed? She had gone into the park that morning in September of 2006 to just clean up a bed.
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and somebody came in and shot her. Do investigators know why she would be shot in these early moments of this case?
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There was a couple of theories. One, that it was a random robbery gone wrong. Another possibility is that John had chased some people out of the park the week before
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and apparently they were angry. So one of the leading theories early on is that she was shot in retaliation.
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Okay, but those theories go nowhere and a new theory emerges. Well, they're just hearing a lot about John and his relationship with a girl who's living with them. And her name was Paula Yarbury. She came into the home when she was about 14 years old. She was essentially a homeless, undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. The church found out about her. And so Doris and John offered to take care of her.
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So they brought her into their home as one of their kids almost. So she lived with them for quite a while.
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She started helping out the family by taking care of the kids, which is how she's sort of become known as the nanny.
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Investigators allege that Paula and John started having an inappropriate relationship sometime in the following years.
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Are they saying this was possibly a motive for John to murder Doris? Yes. The one thing that they will say and that they have said is that John wanted out of the marriage.
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and he was afraid that if he divorced Doris, he would lose custody of the kids. But we know that
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John was not at the park at the time of the shooting. So they start to think, well, if he
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wasn't there, then he got someone to do it, possibly. This really came to fruition two years
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after the murder. They charged two men with the shooting? Yep. So we know that one man who was a
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park employee and another man were arrested and charged with a conspiracy to kill Doris.
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But investigators decided there wasn't enough evidence at that time to convict either man,
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so the charges were dropped. What happened to John then? Was he arrested? Okay, so this is where the story gets crazy. So Doris is murdered in September 2006. By May of
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2007 police arrest Paula As I mentioned she was an undocumented immigrant and they deport her to Venezuela so she gone So what happens with John So John then in August of 2008 he packs up the kids and
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moves to Costa Rica. Paula then moves from Venezuela to Costa Rica, and they proceed to
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raise the children as husband and wife. For whatever reason, they break up down in Costa Rica,
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and John moves back to the United States. He goes to Missouri with his three children.
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Meanwhile, Paul is still in Costa Rica. And within the last couple of years, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation decides to go down to Costa Rica and talk to her and see if they can get her to give them some information. And she does. And that resulted in them coming back up to the United States and arresting John in Missouri.
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For murder? For murder, yep. So you don't even know exactly what Paula said, right? It's not been made public yet?
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John denied having a relationship with Paula when he was in Costa Rica and since his arrest has
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pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His defense has filed several motions,
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but the big one was asking for a change of venue for his upcoming trial. First of all, it's a really small area. So they're making the point that with all the publicity that
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has been burning around this case, it's fairly hard to find anybody who doesn't have an opinion,
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according to the defense, about John's guilt. There's been all kinds of social media, as you
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can imagine. So this motion for a change of venue, it singles out one TikTok account in particular.
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It's from a former Park employee who's been pointing the finger at John even before his arrest.
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We need answers. It is not fair. Justice for Doris. We know who's guilty now. I'm old enough
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to realize this. So, Dorothy, during the press conference, Doris's sister made an emotional plea
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to John and Doris' three children. She said that she hadn't seen them in 19 years.
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Do we know where the kids are now? So we do know that all three of his children were his bond hearing,
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where his oldest daughter spoke on his behalf and the other two just sort of sat quietly.
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We think that two of Doris' children have moved back to Georgia and one of them is in Canada.
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It's tough, you know, and I know the family's really upset that they have not seen these kids, the children of their beloved Doris,
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that they have not seen them in that long. All right. Thank you so much for bringing us details on this case, Dorothy.
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We'll keep watching and have you back on to tell us when we get more details on a possible trial.
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My pleasure, Andrea. Good to talk to you. Coming up in Philadelphia, the TikTok video at the center of a death investigation.
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October 4th started as a routine Saturday for 23-year-old Kata Scott. The Penn State graduate got dinner with friends before she borrowed her mom's car
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and left for an overnight shift at an assisted living facility in Philadelphia. But Kata never made it home the next morning.
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Kata's family filed a missing persons report and soon a desperate search began. If we got to drive from a thousand billion trillion miles to come find you, we're going to find you.
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Nobody's giving up. Police canines, helicopters and drones scoured the area around Kada's workplace.
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This past weekend, Kada's body was found buried in a shallow grave. And what began as a search to bring her home has become a painful search for answers.
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Her community wants to know why the man now accused of kidnapping her was walking free
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and whether the justice system failed to protect Kada. Here to tell us more is Brian Sheehan, a general assignment reporter for NBC10, our station in Philadelphia.
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Thanks for having me, Andrea. So, Brian, you've been covering this from day one. First of all, tell us what you've learned about Cata.
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So those who knew Cata described her as charismatic and kind with an infectious smile.
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We also learned she loved fashion and designed clothing. She recently started participating in pageants as well and had interest in competing in the Miss USA pageant.
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We mentioned that Kata was working on the night she disappeared. Give us a sense of the timeline of her last movements.
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So we know from her co-workers that Kata arrived at her place of work around 10 o'clock on October 4th.
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She appeared to be acting herself, but not long after she arrived that night, she vanished.
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She never returned to work. Police found the car that she was driving in the employee parking lot at her work. Her keys, her phone, her iPad and her Apple Watch were nowhere to be found.
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The police investigation seemed to stall for a few days. And then at a press conference, they asked the community for help.
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What's troubling about this case is, number one, you have a 23-year-old young lady who has completely disappeared.
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We have no cell phone activity or social media activity, and she's not reached out to family or friends.
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Yeah, this was really the first time most people became aware of Kata Scott and her story.
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It's also the first time that we found out that she reported someone was harassing her on her phone in the days leading up to her disappearance.
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It definitely gave this case an added layer of urgency since it seemed like she may not have disappeared on her own.
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On October 15th, there was a big break in the case, an arrest. Who was it and what's the connection to Keita?
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Yeah, authorities announced 21-year-old Keon King turned himself into police. He was charged with kidnapping Keita. We learned that Keita and Keon King knew each other in some capacity, but the nature of their relationship was unclear then, and it remains unclear now, at least to the public.
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After announcing King arrest tips started flooding in about where to start looking for clues in particular an abandoned middle school So shortly after that news conference things started developing very rapidly Police said someone watching that day gave them a tip to check a vacant middle school
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Sources told me that once Cruz arrived at that vacant middle school, they found Kada's phone
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case and a card with her name on it, but they did not find Kada. Brian, a few days later,
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another tip led them to the woods behind the school? Yeah, so police described that tip as
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very specific. It was, go back, she's there, look again. And as an officer is patrolling the area,
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the officer realizes that a particular piece of ground is softer. And that is when they
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ultimately make the discovery that Kata had been buried in a shallow grave. That is so sad. So, Brian, while investigators were still looking for Kata, a stunning piece of information was revealed.
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A viral video circulating on social media is giving us a new look at the man accused of kidnapping, 23-year-old Kata Scott.
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So earlier this year, King was actually charged in another kidnapping. The alleged victim in that case actually recorded a man she identified as King,
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hopping a fence in her backyard, coming up to her window and peering inside of her home.
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Go away, b****. Don't come over here. So the woman eventually stops recording and goes outside.
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And that is when its alleged King shoves her into his car, kidnaps her, even bites her.
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That woman was able to get out of King's vehicle at some point, get to safety, call police, and eventually charges were filed in that case.
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So what happened? How was he free to allegedly kill Kada? Yeah. So months after that incident, the charges were withdrawn when the woman and an eyewitness did not show up to court.
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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner says fear could have been the driving factor of why she did not show up that day since King was out on bail.
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That victim is more likely to walk in the door of the courthouse and testify if that victim knows that the defendant can't walk out right behind.
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After King's arrest last week, charges were refiled against King in that earlier alleged
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kidnapping, and he was hit with additional charges in Cata's case, including conspiracy.
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That suggests he did not act alone, although nobody else has yet been identified in connection
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to the case. King is scheduled to appear before a judge next month, and that is when he could
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enter a plea. You can't help but just feel so horrible for this family. How are they handling this?
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After Cato's body was located, they did release a statement and they said Cato was deeply loved and told everyone that her light, kindness and beautiful spirit will forever remain in their hearts.
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And this is also a case that has really affected the city of Philadelphia. Everyone is paying attention to this case and has been affected by it in some way or another.
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Thank you so much, Brian. for sharing with us what you've learned. And thank you for shining a light on Kata and her story.
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And we have a quick update for you. After I taped that conversation with Brian, the medical examiner in Philadelphia
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ruled Kata Scott's death a homicide and Keon King was charged with her murder. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup,
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a courtroom win for the former Major League Baseball pitcher and convicted killer Dan Serafini,
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a second verdict for accused killer Paul Zumat, and Nicholas Rossi learns his fate.
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Plus, how police are using documentaries to solve cold cases. Welcome back. Joining me for this week's roundup is Dateline producer Brittany Tom.
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Thanks for joining us, Brittany. Thanks, Andrea. So first up, we're off to Santa Clara, California,
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for an update on a story we first talked about a few weeks ago. And this is the trial of hookah bar owner Boulos Paul Zumat.
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Brittany, this is the second time Zumat has stood trial for the murder of his girlfriend.
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Give us a quick recap. Back in October of 2009, Paul Zumat said he had found his house up in flames.
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And once inside, first responders discovered the body of his girlfriend, Jennifer Skipsy.
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A medical examiner determined Jennifer hadn't died from the fire. She'd actually been strangled before he was even set.
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Investigators smelled gasoline at the scene and concluded the fire was set up to cover up Jennifer's murder.
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They learned Jennifer and Zumot's relationship was pretty tumultuous. There were various restraining orders and domestic violence reports.
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One friend even told investigators that Jennifer said she was afraid for her life.
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In another claimed, he saw texts from Zumot to Jennifer saying, I hope you die. So Paul Zumot was arrested and his first trial was back in 2011.
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A jury found him guilty of both arson and murder, sentenced him to 33 years, but he ended up getting a new trial.
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That's right. In 2020, a judge granted him a new trial based on claims the prosecution had misrepresented some of the evidence, and his defense hadn't done a good job challenging the prosecution.
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Okay, so after a two-month trial, Brittany, the jury finally got the case. What happened?
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Yeah, the jury deliberated for about two days before once finding again Paul Zumont guilty of murder and arson.
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And coincidentally, they delivered their verdict on the 16th anniversary of Jennifer's murder.
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That is incredible timing. Wow. So when will Zumont be sentenced? His sentencing is scheduled for November 21st and he faces life in prison okay we staying in California for our next update in the case of former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini That case seemed like it was coming to an end over
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the summer, Brittany, but there have been a few surprises. First, just give us a reminder of what
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the case is about. Yeah, so back in July, Dan Serafini was convicted for the murder of his
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father-in-law, Gary Spore, and the attempted murder of his mother-in-law, Wendy Wood,
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at their home in 2021. His sentencing was scheduled for a few weeks later, only for it to be stopped in its tracks by a last-minute motion from his appellate lawyers.
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They actually requested a new trial. Based on what? What were their arguments? They said Serafini had received ineffective assistance from his defense attorney at trial
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and called out what they said was juror misconduct, specifically the way the jurors
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had analyzed security camera video in the trial. The jury foreperson explained their process in an
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interview with our affiliate, KCRA. We looked at those videos over and over. We were taking stills.
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We were creating side by sides. We were really analyzing, like, could the person in this video
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match who we knew was Daniel Serafini? What they're implying is that those screenshots
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helped them during deliberations because they couldn't play the video evidence side by side
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for comparison. We expected the judge to rule on that motion regarding juror misconduct this week
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and then proceed to sentencing, but on Monday, he pressed pause again, granting the defense more
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time to seek a new trial. Serafini's new sentencing date is now scheduled for February 20th,
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2026. Interesting twist. This case has divided the Spore family. Aaron Spore, Dan Serafini's
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estranged wife still stands by him, but her sister Adrienne says it's time Serafini goes to prison.
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In a letter to the court, Adrienne claimed that the defense's tactics now are just an attempt to
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delay justice and that Dan Serafini has shown no remorse. So we'll certainly be watching to see when
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and if this sentencing will take place. And finally, we're back in Utah for an update in
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a case I know very well, the case of Nicholas Rossi, also known as Nicholas Aliverdian.
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And he is the man accused of faking his own death and fleeing to Scotland to evade sexual assault allegations.
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I asked him about those allegations in one of the most memorable interviews of my career.
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Did you sexually assault anyone? Did you kidnap anyone? Did you defraud anyone? What? No, no, no. No.
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So, Brittany, let's just remind everyone what happened over the summer. Rossi had been extradited back to Utah and was convicted in two rape trials.
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That's right. In August, Rossi was found guilty by a Salt Lake City jury of raping his former
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fiancé. At the second trial a few weeks later, he was convicted of raping an ex-girlfriend.
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All right, and there is news this week. Rossi actually appeared in court for sentencing on the first case. His defense asked for time
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served. His two victims gave statements in court and told the judge that they were still afraid of
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him and what he might do if he got out of prison. Then Rossi addressed the court. He said, quote,
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I am not guilty of this and went on to say these women are lying and in due course, we will lodge an appeal.
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The judge sentenced Rossi to no less than five years and up to life in prison. A parole board will ultimately decide how much time he serves and he'll face sentencing on the second charge next month.
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Brittany, thank you so much for bringing us Roundup this week. No problem. On the afternoon of May 17, 2022, a man and a woman were fishing on the marshy banks of the Grand River in Dunville, Ontario, when one of them spotted something unusual in the water.
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Upon closer look, they made a horrifying discovery. It was a child's body. The Ontario Provincial Police assigned Detective Inspector Sean Glassford to the case.
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My mind is going in different places. How do we start this investigation? how to deliver the news to the community.
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The grieving Dunville community wanted answers, but with no missing children's reports in the area and no DNA matches,
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Detective Inspector Glassford struggled to provide them. So he and his team turned to a rather unusual investigative tool,
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one you don't normally associate with the police. They made a documentary. There could be a number of different reasons why this child was placed in the water,
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and we want to know why. We've said it before, but we want to give this child her name back.
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Detective Inspector Glassford is here today to tell us what he learned making the film and how he hopes it can crack the case.
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And you may remember him from Josh's episode, Evil Walks Through the Door, about two murders in Toronto that used investigative genetic genealogy in those cases.
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And Josh took a train way up north, very far from California. Detective Inspector Glassford, thank you for joining us.
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Hello, Andrea, and thank you very much for this opportunity to talk about this important case.
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So this case, we should just, just to give a geographical perspective to people, this is about less than an hour from the Niagara Falls-New York border?
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That's right. Yeah, it's, the town of Dunville is a small community, approximately 6,000 people.
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I know, Detective, that this case has really haunted you. It's really bothered you that you haven't been able to identify this girl.
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You've had such a strong reaction to it. What about the community? Absolutely. The community came together within days and had a vigil with candles and there were songs
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and whatnot just down by right near where the body was found. How old do you think the child was?
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What was your best guess? The doctors that have examined her body believe that she's anywhere between 10 and a half months and three years of age. She may not have been born in Canada. That's another thing that we have to consider too is where did she come from?
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And you were able to narrow that down, right? That's right. One half came from the South China area.
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The other came from North Africa, possibly Libya, Egypt. That's where her ancestry is.
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We don't know her story. And that's one of the major things we want to learn is what is her story?
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There's no report of this little girl going missing. We've had lots of tips over the last couple of years.
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I think it's probably around 50, which we've all followed up on every one of them.
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Did anything seem credible or give you hope that maybe you would figure this out?
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Yeah, a couple were really good. We released a facial reconstruction that we did on what she would have looked like in life.
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And we had some tips from the United States from your missing persons databases that were very similar to the description.
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So we followed that up Unfortunately it didn pan out for us Such a mystery You keep hitting these roadblocks And so you and your team decide to do something
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that is, to me, very unique. You made a documentary about the case. What inspired you to do that?
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We have a series of videos on YouTube, the Unsolved series. We've had some success with
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those. It's a good way to get the message out to the public. It shows us talking about it.
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It shows the facial reconstruction and talks about the reward, $50,000 for information.
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And it's the Ontario Provincial Police YouTube channel. And it's called the Grand River Baby Unsolved.
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And so what's interesting is that you produce this video in-house and you have your own video production unit.
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Yeah, they're very, very talented people. They put out a professional grade product.
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It looks good. It's to the point and very effective. What has the reception been to your documentaries Very good That about 110 views for the baby case That incredible Where does the Grand River baby case stand now Still unsolved Hopefully this will renew an interest We have a tip line that people can call
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if they have information, and that number is 1-844-677-9403. That number works in Canada,
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the United States. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing this story with us. And, you know,
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I hope that this not only helps with the case, but it inspires perhaps other police agencies to think
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about doing their own videos. Well, thank you, Andrea, for agreeing to do this. It's so important
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to get the message out. And we all want to see this child get her name back. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. To get ad-free listening for all
00:26:51
our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. And remember, if you have any questions for us
00:26:56
about stories or about Dateline you can reach us at our voicemail at 212 Coming up this Friday on Dateline Dennis has an all new episode on the Florida grandmother convicted of
00:27:10
masterminding a murder plot. Who in Dan Markell's life would hate him enough to hire a professional
00:27:18
killer? Watch deadly mischief this Friday at nine, eight central. Thanks for listening.
00:27:24
Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Carson Cummins and Brittany Morris Our associate producer is Caroline Casey
00:27:31
Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kurloff Production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadir and Kiani Reed
00:27:38
Veronica Mazzaka is our digital producer Rick Kwan is our sound designer Original music by Jesse McGinty
00:27:45
Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline
00:27:50
Josh, nice having you as a special guest on the story meeting I didn't realize it was light out at this hour.