Finding Venus

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Venus was my friend, my co-worker. She was family. It just makes you sick thinking about it.

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It's like, you want to know where she is, but at the same time, you do not want to know.

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It's the dramatic new ending to an eight-year mystery. She was a good mom. She was a real good mom.

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The case was never closed. It was consuming all of us. The young mom who walked out the front door and was never seen again.

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This woman had gone out to get the mail and disappeared in her pajamas. We might have a crime scene here.

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The hair in the back of my neck stood up. It's a stunner of a case. And the plot, right out of the movies.

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The individual was wearing a baseball cap, hoodie with the hood pulled up, and large mirrored sunglasses.

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I'm like, no dude, I can't do this. It was like a game. He was a part of this game.

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What happened? The day Venus vanished. That's the missing piece to the case. You believe she's alive?

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I've got to believe she's alive. Tonight, a chilling new discovery solves the mystery at last.

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We were done with the games. We were done hurting. It needs to stop. It needed to stop.

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I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Dennis Murphy with Finding Venus. Michigan snow blankets, fields, and woodland with silent beauty.

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Sometimes encasing ugly secrets hidden beneath never meant to be disturbed until finally they're revealed and all is made clear.

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I know a lot of people say, well, you wanted to find her. Yeah, I wanted to find her, but then it was going to become so real to me that...

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Maybe you don't want to find her. Right, right. It's both things in a way. Yeah, yeah.

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Start with a mother of two who vanished as she stepped outside her door to pick up man.

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She wasn't there, and I was walking back into the house. There was limestone gravel all over the sidewalk.

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And there were bare spots right down to the dirt in the driveway, and it looked like a struggle had taken place.

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An awful confrontation that she herself had predicted. She had a conversation with my dad.

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the day before the night it happened. And she says, I think he's going to come kill me.

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This is the night before? The night before. She just felt it. I mean, I don't know if you have an idea somehow

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when you know when your time's up. She said, Dad, when I'm done gone, you remember this conversation.

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The next day she was gone. It was a mystery, a disappearance, that would take two investigators years to finally unravel.

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I think it becomes kind of personal. It's just how we do business. We don't leave those little pieces unturned.

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A fiendishly complicated crime set in rural western Michigan kept the rumor mill churning for eight years.

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Where was she? This victim of a murderous scheme in which an Xbox Live gamer had detectives seeing double.

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It's country out here. Cornfields everywhere. Two-lane roads. And it's where a cheerful kid named Venus was growing up with her family.

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the youngest child of Larry and Therese, Venus, a goddess to her mom, even before she was born.

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I dreamed about this beautiful little girl with big dark eyes. And when she came out, when I looked at her, I said, there's Venus.

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I can't even tell you how much I loved her. I can't even describe the love. But was Venus a little more trusting than she should have been?

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It was her naivete that always troubled her parents. She came home one day and told us that she'd met this guy and that he had secretly confided in her that he was mafioso.

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Well, then later we found out he worked at McDonald's and he was just embarrassed to tell her that.

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But she believed him. In 2002, Venus was 24 and ready to go out into the world. A soon-to-be college graduate with a degree in criminal justice.

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She wanted to be an officer of the law. Then she found out that she doesn't like guns.

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so that didn't work. What did work and instantly was her attraction to a guy named Doug Stewart.

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Venus had a friend from work, Jamie Hess, who knew that Venus had a soft spot for guys in uniform

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and Jamie's brother Doug was a Marine. We set up the first date there was probably three or four

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of us couples. We went out to a movie. They hit it off really well. So well that soon after Hello

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My Name Is the two had become inseparable. What did you see in her Doug? She was smart.

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She was articulate. She was beautiful. Some people, I guess, would call it love at first sight.

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And four days later, we were married. Pretty fast. Pretty fast. A lot of people would go on a second date before getting hitched.

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I think we made it to her a second. That's about it. So I think the third date was marriage.

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To say that Venus' parents were a little surprised by the turn of events is an understatement.

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She showed up, and she was married, and we were dumbfounded. All very sudden, but Dustin Jasper, Venus's older brother, got along okay with his new brother-in-law.

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They both liked outdoorsy stuff. We went hunting together, fishing together, and we've always had a pretty good relationship.

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It was a year after their quickie wedding that Doug left the Marines to keep his bride happy.

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I was looking at deployments and other different things, and she had this fear that something was going to happen to me.

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So she wanted me to get out of the military in 2003. So in 2003, Venus and Doug began civilian life together. They moved into this house

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in Schoolcraft, Michigan, not far from where they both grew up. Venus worked in a bank and Doug at Applebee and Pizza Hut A year later a daughter came along Then in 2006 a second baby Venus hoped and prayed for two little girls I hoped and prayed for two healthy babies and we both got our wish

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So did Venus like being a mom? Oh, she loved being a mom. That was like her number one priority.

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But stay-at-home mom wasn't in the picture for Venus, not right away. They were too reliant on her check from the bank,

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since she was the family's bigger breadwinner. So you became Mr. Mom. Absolutely.

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And it was the best years of my life. When he kicked back, Mr. Mom enjoyed his Xbox.

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Thanks to the game's live feature, he would talk in real time to other first-person shooters far and wide.

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They blew up stuff together and became fast friends. He spent so many hours wandering the virtual world, he stopped looking for work in the real one.

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The marriage began to crack. Arguments led to timeouts, separations, and shared custody arrangements.

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He was very immature. And Venus just, she wanted to be a mom. Then Venus had an idea for a fresh start.

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She wanted to move to Williamsburg, Virginia, Miami, Florida, or Houston, Texas.

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Why did she want to go to such far-flung places? She said, well, Florida, there's Disney World.

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And Houston, there is SeaWorld and Six Flags. And Williamsburg, there's U.S. Bush Gardens.

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Sorry, Mom. End video. Give me a smile. Bye, Mom. Bye, Mom. And Newport News turned out to be the place.

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That was it. Newport News put us smack dab in the middle of everything that we wanted.

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So she's thinking about the kids, huh? Specifically about the kids. She said, if I want our kids to grow up, don't you think that we should give them excitement and fun every day?

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And you said? I can't argue with that because I would love nothing more. Wow, this place is gorgeous, isn't it?

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There's the carousel, I told you. If the home videos from 2009 are to be believed,

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the move from Michigan to Virginia was working. Language, okay. Yes. That's place on earth.

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Doug had found a job as a truck driver, and home was an apartment on the ninth floor of this building.

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She wanted to live in a skyscraper. It's been a dream of hers. So things were okay if you look back at May 2009.

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Things were better than okay. They were better than it was the best year of our marriage, the best year of our life.

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But Doug and Venus' problems ran deeper than anything an amusement park ride could paper over.

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And before long, there were screaming arguments again. And a year after making the move, Venus had had enough

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and suddenly bolted with the kids to her parents' place in Colon Township, Michigan.

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Doug was left alone in Virginia, more than 700 miles away. Big surprise to you. Very big surprise.

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Two months later, April 26, 2010, a chilly Monday morning started like any day at Venus' parents' house.

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Her mom went off to work. Her dad was sleeping, and Venus and the kids were slowly getting up.

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Then, about 8 a.m., Venus' dad, also a truck driver, was groggy from a late shift on the road.

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He was startled awake. I heard the girls being really loud out in the front room, and I thought, why isn't Venus quieting them down?

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She knows I'm in here asleep. He got up to see what was going on. Venus wasn't in the house, but her cell phone keys and purse were.

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He immediately called 911. She's just not there? Yeah. Is there a vehicle missing or anything?

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No. Now I'm scared. And I'm outside to look for her. She wasn't there either. Venus, wearing nothing but her thin pajamas, had vanished.

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Where had she gone? When we come back, the search for Venus begins. That's frantic.

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I just kept calling over and over. Where is Venus? Signs of a struggle and signs of trouble.

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We might have a crime scene here. I think the hair in the back of my neck stood up.

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This woman had gone out and disappeared in her pajamas. The disappearance of Venus Stewart, the mother of two, in April 2010,

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was the first big story that reporter Danny Carlson covered for NBC's affiliate in Western Michigan, Wood TV.

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Left her purse, left her phone, left all of her identification, left everything.

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Venus's father, Larry McComb, made the 911 call that morning. The vehicle is here, her kids are here, and she is gone.

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Okay. Have you tried calling her or anything? Yeah, we can't get hold of her. Larry also called his wife, Therese, who was already at her restaurant job.

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Her co-workers tried to calm her down. And they said, oh, she probably just went around the block.

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And I just looked at everybody and said, get a grip. My daughter doesn't do that stuff.

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And I said, I'm out of here. And I ran out the door, and I was shaking the whole way home.

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By then, Trooper Aaron Steensbaugh of the Michigan State Police was on scene. Whenever a young adult goes missing, police customarily ask the family to wait 24 to 48

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hours for things to shake out. But right away, the officer suspected this might not be someone who had taken a hike of her own volition.

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I didn't know exactly what we had. You know, after speaking in the McCombs and just what I saw, it's like, we might have a crime scene here.

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So that's why we cordoned it off and got additional units. Venus's dad showed Trooper Steensma the patch of his gravel driveway that was scuffed up.

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The father also pointed out a pink hair tie on the ground and something else he hadn't spotted earlier.

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It was a tarp cover, a piece of plastic wrapping with a barcode on it. I didn realize what it was or anything I just told him that out of place And so he put a rock on it so the wind wouldn blow it away and uh they have people i guess they crime scene specialists that gather evidence

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crime scene techs were able to lift what they believed was a fingerprint off the plastic wrapper

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that wrapper was for a tarp sold at walmart but officer steensma was most troubled by what he

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heard from Venus's parents. Just a week prior, their daughter won custody of her two daughters.

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I think the hair on the back of my neck stood up like, you know, after speaking in the McCombs.

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By this time, Mike Scott, one of Western Michigan's top detectives, had been brought up to speed by Officer Steensma about the marriage on the rocks.

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And as he put it, it didn't look good. And there was a history between them, wasn't there? Yes,

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there was. So you certainly want to talk to this husband, Doug. The first thing we want to do is

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find him. Where was he right now? You knew that he was living in Virginia? Yes, Newport News.

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The day Venus went missing, Mike Scott and Venus's mother repeatedly dialed Doug's cell phone.

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That's frantic. I just kept calling him over and over again to say, Doug, where is Venus?

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Finally, Detective Scott reached him that night. What did he say to you? That he had been in

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Virginia all day. You're in Virginia receiving this call, huh? Yeah, so I'm about 20 minutes

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away from my apartment. And he goes, Doug, your wife's missing. And my first reaction is,

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is my wife pulling something? And I said, well, by missing, are you saying that she,

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is she just missing from the house or is she missing? What's going on? Fill me in. He goes,

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well, I can't do that at this time. Where were you today? He gave me a couple of locations where

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he was to support that he was in Virginia. One of those being at his lawyer's office in Newport

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News Virginia. And he said, okay, well, can your lawyer verify? I go, no, my lawyer wasn't there.

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When I went in, it was just the two secretaries. Detective Scott asked the local FBI to run down

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Doug's story and agents did. It checked out. Two women on the lawyer's staff confirmed it.

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They said they saw him come in that day. A bit shocking when they said, well, we've checked it

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out and he has an alibi. So what were the investigators to do? The parents were adamant

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in their belief that Doug had come and snatched Venus away. To corroborate their theory, they described for investigators

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the fights aplenty their daughter had had with her husband, Doug. But eyewitnesses were putting him in Newport News, Virginia,

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more than 700 miles away. And there was surveillance camera video in his apartment building,

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in his garage, and of his car to back up his story. How could Doug be in two places at once?

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That wasn't possible, was it? Coming up, a mysterious man by the lake. You're getting citizen calls.

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Yes. People saying I saw a funny looking guy over at the lake the other day. Yes.

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And had Venus gone missing before? Came home. She wasn't there. My kids weren't there.

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I didn't know what to do. When Dateline continues. The year before Venus Stewart went missing, she'd found religion.

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Every day a brand new chance to say, Jesus, you are the only way. Her brother Dustin was the devout one in the family, and he was thrilled when Venus was baptized in 2009 at the age of 30.

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In the first days after her disappearance, Dustin would need his faith to believe she'd be found soon and alive.

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but he also still had hope in his own theory that Doug was holding her hostage. I figure it was another desperate attempt of his to try to get her back

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since she wasn't having contact with him and stuff and he probably wanted to try to manipulate her and coax her into coming back to him.

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So we just stay on the fence. But police feared the worst and began looking for a body.

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They searched miles of rolling farm country and thick wooded areas throughout western Michigan.

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Helicopters came out. Yeah, yeah, the helicopter came out. Yeah, yeah. And they were searching.

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Dogs. You get a lot of water around here. We live around the river, so, you know, it's all that's around us is lakes.

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Immediately after her disappearance, lead detective Mike Scott had zeroed in on the obvious, the husband.

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But when FBI agents verified Doug's story that he'd been in Virginia, Scott had to start thinking bigger picture.

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A woman goes out the front door in her pajamas and is never seen again. Someone would be rightfully fearful is there somebody crazy on the loose, abducting people.

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Absolutely. And you're getting citizen calls. Yes. People saying, I saw a funny looking guy over at the lake the other day.

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Yes. Now police are looking for this man. Two witnesses spotted him at nearby Adams Lake the night before Stewart disappeared.

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He was wet and approached the witnesses for a cigarette. I mean, right now with this case, we have so few clues to go on, we're not going to discount anything.

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Police dredged that chilly lake after reports of the soaking wet man by the water's edge.

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They worked around the clock, but found nothing. It was miserable conditions. I didn't hear anybody complain once.

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Doug Stewart was not involved in any of the searches. When Detective Scott reached him that Monday night, April 26th, he was in Virginia, and he remained there.

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A weekend, he gave a reporter from Wood TV a telephone interview. Now that the timeline has gone so far, I am getting very worried and very concerned.

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Despite their ceaseless marital battles, Doug insisted he still cared about her.

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I don't know what is next, to be honest with you. I'll just keep watching the news and pray and hope for the best.

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But he was also still bitter about losing his kids in that custody showdown just two weeks before.

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so his take on her disappearance was a unique one he wasn upset he said because he believed Venus was a runaway mom My theory my wife pulled another fast one She ran off couldn handle the commitment of the situation she was in with the children by herself

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The way Doug saw it, this was no different than that time two months earlier, when Venus had suddenly and surprisingly bolted with the kids.

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I came home, she wasn't there. My kids weren't there. My dog wasn't there. I didn't know what to do.

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Doug says he thought Venus had disappeared that day, too. It started getting a little dark. I started getting worried.

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I kept calling her cell phone, but she didn't respond or pick up the phone. And I got very worried. I called the police and said,

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Hey, I'm very worried my wife isn't home. This isn't like her. I don't know what to do.

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Newport News Detective Todd Filer. Doug tried to file a missing persons report. But police told Doug not to bother.

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Venus had been to the station herself earlier that day to file a complaint against it.

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When police refused to look into it, she decided to take off from Michigan with the kids and the dog, effectively ending the marriage.

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The police officer informed him that she was not missing, that we knew where her whereabouts were, and that she was not coming home.

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Now it was early May, and her parents and Michigan authorities were certain Venus was really missing this time and in serious danger or worse.

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And even though Doug had an alibi, Michigan police went down to Newport News to talk to him.

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So we just went down there to investigate the disappearance of Venus Stewart. We didn't know what we were going to find.

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Shane Krieger, a detective with the Michigan State Police, rolled in with his own forensics team.

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They met up with Todd Filer, the detective from Newport News. Together, they all went to Doug's apartment.

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We did not disclose to him at that time that we were from Michigan. Michigan police didn't want Doug to clam up or lawyer up,

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so they let Filer, the local cop, do the talking. He didn't seem overly concerned about the disappearance.

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He felt like she had simply run away and this was some sort of stunt that she was pulling.

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Filer said he didn't jump to any conclusions. I hadn't made a decision one way or the other whether she had simply run away or she had been abducted.

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With a search warrant in hand, Detective Feiler and the Michigan officers listened to Doug's story, searched the apartment, and seized his computers.

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He was very cooperative. He told us about all the computers that were in the house.

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The Michigan cops, who knew all about the bad blood between Doug and Venus, were looking for any trace of her, dead or alive.

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What were you expecting to do and hoping to find there? We knew we wanted to search his apartment for her clothes because that's the last thing she was seen in.

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We wanted to try to find her clothes if possible. Any signs of Venus being around that apartment?

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No, nothing. But the forensic investigators kept looking. Then they went outside to search Doug's truck, still hoping to find a sign of Venus or any other helpful lead.

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The truck was an absolute mess, the debris from a disordered life. But there, amidst the french fries, plastic lid, and bits of crumpled up paper, was an unexpected clue.

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Once it was analyzed, the investigation would shift into another gear. Coming up, when he called me, he said, are you sitting down?

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A tiny piece of paper is about to provide a very big break. 10 days into the investigation, the search for Venus Stewart and whoever abducted her

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was now heating up in two states, Michigan and Virginia. In Michigan, police were trying to develop the few clues they'd found outside her parents' house.

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The fingerprint they'd lifted at the scene was still waiting for analysis at the state crime lab.

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And then the plastic wrapper for a tarp that police believed had been used in Venus' abduction.

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Detectives were running down its barcode, looking for where the tarp came from and who bought it.

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It looks like it had been recently purchased from Walmart, but we didn't know which Walmart.

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That wrapping ends up at what you believe is the murder scene. Yes. Yeah, I think that's the best place, too, that north side.

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Venus's two daughters stayed with their grandparents in Michigan while friends and family searched for the girl's mother. She's around this area somewhere.

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Venus's Aunt Mary organized the search groups and even when she wasn't out looking she kept a shovel in her car so she could rush over to help dig anywhere

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anytime. You look for anything that's out of place if if the ground has been dug up even a year ago you're gonna be able to tell. More than 700 miles southeast

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in Newport News, Virginia, investigators were also searching. After nothing had jumped out at them in

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Doug's apartment, the special forensic unit began combing through his truck. The truck looked like

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a stye. The truck was in disarray, yes. It had not been cleaned. Scraps of papers, old french fries,

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and crumpled up receipts. It looked like leftovers from a college road trip. But all this dirt was

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about to become pay dirt. One smudged receipt suddenly got the forensic team's attention.

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They were able to locate a receipt in there for the purchase of a tarp, a shovel, gloves, and a hat.

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They couldn't believe their eyes or their luck. We thought they were joking, because who leaves that in their truck?

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But inevitably, they weren't kidding. They had the receipt. Maybe your biggest single piece of evidence, this crumpled, tossed-away receipt.

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Yes. An investigator on the forensic team immediately called Detective Scott back in Michigan.

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When he called me, he said, are you sitting down? And in all the garbage, there's this receipt, huh?

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Yes. A hat, some gloves, a shovel, and an 8x10 tarp. And that was the item that we were looking for because.

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The rapper founded the Macomb residence was for an 8x10 tarp. And where was the receipt from?

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It was from a Walmart. Specifically, the Walmart in Van Wert, Ohio, about two hours southeast from where Venus disappeared.

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But not one of the Walmart's Michigan investigators had checked out. I doubt we would have found that purchase had we not had the receipt.

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The date on the receipt itself was smudged. We didn't know when these items were purchased.

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So the investigators began contacting the Van Wert Walmart store to try to determine the date.

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And we learned right away that those items were purchased the evening before Venus Stewart went missing.

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Now, Van Wert, Ohio is not near Michigan. It's not near Newport News. What's going on with a Walmart in the state of Ohio?

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It's in direct route between Newport News and Michigan. But the feds had proof Doug had been in Virginia when Venus disappeared.

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So how did the Ohio receipt get there? Detective Scott and prosecutors John McDonough and Chuck Herman meeting in their war room

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suspected someone else was involved. But if that was true, they had no idea how.

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That didn't matter to McDonough, then the youngest elected prosecutor in Michigan,

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who was itching to arrest Doug right now. I said, all right, we got him. Let's go. Let's charge him now.

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It didn't happen. Cooler heads prevailed. I had to listen to Chuck and Detective Scott telling me, calm down, let's get everything ready to go.

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Fact was, the investigation was still missing key evidence, not least a body, a major hole, maybe even a case buster for any would-be prosecution.

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Do you say, let's go slow, nobody's going anywhere, let's see where this takes us?

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Right. I still felt there was more to be done to tie up any loose ends and put this case together better.

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Mike Scott, working his last case before retirement, knew the biggest loose end was discrediting Doug's I was in Virginia alibi.

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So he asked the detective from Newport News to keep digging. This case became a top priority for me.

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Todd Filer, who'd kept an open mind when he first interviewed Doug in his apartment, was now skeptical.

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It's lucky for us that that receipt was not in some landfill somewhere between here and the state of Michigan.

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So Filer went back to the law office where Doug had been spotted the day Venus disappeared.

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The local lawman had some follow-up questions to ask, ones the FBI had left off their list.

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Coming up. The individual is wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie, and large mirrored aviation-type sunglasses, almost disguising their appearance.

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Doug in disguise to visit his lawyer? That seemed downright strange. When Dateline continues.

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One month after Venus went missing, her father, a truck driver, had a heartbreaking journey to make.

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By then, Doug had moved out of the couple's Newport News apartment and returned to Michigan.

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So Larry McCone headed south. The people that ran the apartment complex where she lived called us and they said,

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there's all kinds of stuff like the kids' toys, pictures. Would you be interested in sending them to you?

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I said, I'll come and get them. And I went down and got all the girls' toys. I got all the pictures that I could find.

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It was very painful. He found comfort, though, from Venus' neighbors. I saw where my daughter lived, and everybody in the complex was so supportive.

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Nobody liked Doug, but everybody loved Venus and the girls. And back in Michigan, there was a court proceeding taking place,

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but not the kind that Venus' family wanted. Come on, Doug, where is she? I give her a disgrace to the Marines, but...

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The preliminary hearing today, as Doug Stewart works to get custody of his two young daughters.

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Strange as it seems, the court is still going ahead with this whole custody issue.

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Yeah, and Doug's dragging us into court, trying to get his girls back. And there was no way he was getting custody of those girls.

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Doug's claim was that he's the father, he's around, but the mother isn't. So he should have custody of his children, not Venus' parents.

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Hanging over the hearing, of course, was the strong suspicion by the family and protesters

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that Doug was the reason why his children were motherless. Venus' father didn't pull any punches.

00:28:49

I asked him if he'd murdered anybody lately, and it was just something that popped out of my mouth.

00:28:55

The judge scheduled another hearing for three weeks later, but in the meantime denied Doug custody and even visitation rights with his young daughters.

00:29:03

Relieved. I feel real relieved. That's about all I have to say. While the court was delaying a final decision on the children,

00:29:10

detectives in Michigan and Virginia were stepping up their investigation. In Newport News, Detective Todd Filer now suspected Doug's alibi was part of some ruse.

00:29:21

What with the Walmart receipt in his truck saying Ohio, as in area code 419, when Doug had been telling everyone Virginia.

00:29:28

Michigan State Police told us Doug had gone to his lawyer's office to make a payment on the pending child custody dispute.

00:29:38

They stated that the FBI had gone out to the lawyer's office and confirmed that he had showed up and made a payment to them the morning that she disappeared.

00:29:48

But Detective Feiler now had his own follow-ups for the secretaries in what he was beginning to think looked like one pretty outlandish scheme He had two theories One that the secretaries could have possibly had some sort of relationship with him and may have been lying to the FBI to cover his tracks

00:30:07

or that somebody posing as Doug had come to the law office and made a payment, and indeed it

00:30:14

wasn't Doug. So the women described again the man they had seen that day, but this time in greater

00:30:19

detail. The individual is wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie with the hood pulled up, and large

00:30:27

mirrored aviation type sunglasses. Generally, people don't come in with, you know, hoods up and

00:30:34

large glasses disguising their appearance, you know, unless they're up to, you know, something

00:30:41

of questionable activity. So Detective Feiler asked them if they were positive it was Doug Stewart,

00:30:47

And he got an important admission. Neither one of them said that they were 100% sure it was Doug.

00:30:53

As they now recalled it, even though the man in the pulled-up hoodie and dark glasses made a payment as Doug,

00:30:59

he never looked them in the eye. And there was no small talk. Then he rushed off instead of waiting for his receipt.

00:31:06

Filer called lead detective Scott in Michigan with his take. I don't think it was him at the lawyer's office.

00:31:11

He said, that's great. Now we're one step closer to solving the case. A complicated, maybe even clever scheme was now coming into sharper focus for investigators,

00:31:22

centering around Doug Stewart and some mystery man in Virginia. These points all represent cell phone towers that...

00:31:28

Back in Michigan, Detective Krieger was checking Doug's cell phone records, hoping to come up with some answers.

00:31:34

What jumped out at you? Anything obvious? The biggest part was three or four days just prior to Venus' disappearance.

00:31:39

There were numerous calls, between 7 and 15 calls per day, to and from Doug from one particular number.

00:31:48

A constant phone made, but the detectives also noticed a gap. The day before Venus went missing, the cell phone was turned off.

00:31:56

Didn't go back on until the next night. And then all of a sudden the calls start coming back to and from this same number.

00:32:03

So the question becomes, who's at the other end of this phone call, huh? Right. It was quick work finding out who the phone pal was.

00:32:10

The calls were traced to the small town of Bear, Delaware, to a young man named Ricky Spencer.

00:32:16

Ricky was a college kid living in suburbia with his parents. You're checking to see if he's got any offense reports, if there's a sheet on him.

00:32:23

Sure. He's coming up clean. Yep. His dad has his own veterinary clinic. They're well-to-do. The mother and father are both extremely caring.

00:32:30

He has siblings. It didn't make sense. Why would a college kid from Delaware have anything to do with an older ex-military man from Michigan and Virginia?

00:32:41

In mid-June, eight weeks since Venus went missing, Michigan Detective Krieger and his lieutenant Chuck Christensen decided to find out.

00:32:49

They got in the car and headed east. Destination, Bear, Delaware. Would the man on all those phone logs hold the key to what happened to Venus Stewart?

00:32:59

Coming up. We've got a guy who I believe is of interest. We did not want him to know we were coming.

00:33:05

Police pay a surprise visit to this mystery caller, and he's got a head-spinning surprise of his own.

00:33:14

How do you know Doug Stewart? Venus Stewart. behind it. His once-solid alibi that he'd been elsewhere was now on shaky ground. Cops theorized

00:33:52

that he maybe had a stand-in in Virginia so he could sneak off to Michigan. But could they prove

00:33:57

it? To find out, Detective Shane Krieger and Chuck Christensen drove from Michigan to an upscale

00:34:03

neighborhood in Bear, Delaware to question a college kid named Ricky Spencer. We've got a guy

00:34:08

who I believe is of interest. He's making a lot of calls to Doug. He looks a lot like Doug. He could

00:34:13

pass for Doug. On June 21, 2010, the detectives made an unannounced visit to this house where

00:34:22

Ricky lived with his parents. We did not want him to know we were coming. Just knock, knock,

00:34:26

knock? Correct. Ricky's sister and mother came to the door. I explained to them we needed to talk

00:34:31

to Ricky. We thought he might have some information to help us out on a case that we were working

00:34:35

over in Michigan. At the barracks in an interview room, the two cops appraised Ricky. 20 years old,

00:34:42

polite, clean cut. How do you know Doug Stewart? Through Xbox Live. Through Xbox Live.

00:34:49

He told the detectives they'd been friends in the virtual world, playing shoot-em-ups and talking long distance for a year and a half.

00:34:57

Then they met face-to-face for the first time during Ricky's spring break from college on April 1st, 2010, April Fool's Day.

00:35:06

Ricky said he was invited by Doug, a man 10 years his senior, to stay at his place in Newport News.

00:35:11

Ricky was there for a week. my spring break uh it might be in the beginning of april okay but the detective suspected that

00:35:52

wasn true by then they stitch together a solid timeline of the ricky doug communications based on cell phone logs On April 25th the morning before Venus disappeared Ricky cell phone

00:36:05

pinged in Bear Delaware. The last call he made before shutting off his phone was

00:36:10

to Doug Stewart. Then they both turned off their phones, except Ricky briefly turned his back on. Good for the investigation, bad for Ricky. His phone

00:36:20

hit off a tower just north of Doug's apartment later that morning. So he's not of Delaware. He's all the way down in coastal Virginia. Correct. Ricky then told the detectives

00:36:29

that he'd recently learned from Doug that something happened to his wife. He was like,

00:36:33

Ricky, she's missing, like, what, dude? Because he was telling me, like, she does weird stuff, like weird stunts. Was Ricky still covering up for both Doug and himself?

00:36:46

Lieutenant Christensen thought so. He tried to shake him up, taking a turn as the bad cop.

00:36:51

I'll be blunt. Doug Stewart abducted and killed his wife. Okay. We also know that somebody went into a legal office down there in Newport News, Virginia to pay a legal bill for him.

00:37:09

We also know that you were down in that apartment. Yeah, I was. Wait, for what? On the 25th of April?

00:37:20

On the 26th? Of April? No, I was only known as from Grace. He was reluctant to admit the truth,

00:37:28

but he was starting to distance himself from Doug bit by bit. I googled his name again, and I saw some weird s***.

00:37:36

They found a receipt or something from a different state close to Michigan. And I was like, what the f***?

00:37:45

And at that point, I was like, I'm not talking to this guy. It's weird. So Detective Krieger put on his good cop hat.

00:37:53

Soothing, supporting, sympathetic. You're probably thinking, wow, am I going to get in trouble for this?

00:37:58

What am I going to do? I didn't know any of this was going to happen. You know what I'm saying?

00:38:02

That's a ****. It is. I know. And I don't think you were involved in the planning of that.

00:38:06

I think it was more him. And you just kind of got caught up in something. You realize after the fact, well, this is way over my head.

00:38:13

I don't want any part of him doing this anymore. You got a couple sisters, right?

00:38:16

Okay. What if this happened to your sister? You close with them? Yeah, I'm pretty close with them.

00:38:22

What if somebody took your sister? You'd be upset. You'd be upset, wouldn't you?

00:38:28

Yeah. This is what's going on with Venus' family. They're right now going, we need closure to this.

00:38:33

We really do. You need to help us with that. Because you are part of this game now, but not our main concern whatsoever.

00:38:43

The detective sensed Ricky was ready to come clean. And like Shane said, if we thought that you were a main player in this,

00:38:52

do you really think we'd be dealing with you like this? Absolutely not. So my first question to you is, did he tell you he was going to kill her

00:39:00

before this happened, before you went down there? What did he say? He didn't take care of business in Michigan.

00:39:08

Finally, Ricky sighed and started to unspool his story. A spellbinding thriller involving doubles and deception with Doug Stewart as its mastermind.

00:39:20

Coming up, Mike's reaction was something to the effect of, holy cow. Ricky Spencer's story brings a dramatic break in the case.

00:39:29

Were you surprised? Absolutely. When Dateline continues. Returning to our story Young mom Venus Stewart went out to get the mail one morning and vanished

00:39:44

This woman disappeared in her pajamas We might have a crime scene here Police zeroed in on her husband Doug

00:39:50

But he was seen on surveillance cameras thousands of miles away A baseball cap, a hoodie with the hood pulled up and sunglasses

00:39:59

Or was he? I don't think it was him at the lawyer's office This would be a case like no other

00:40:05

We've got a guy who I believe is of interest He looks a lot like Doug, he could pass for Doug

00:40:09

Stunning revelations spill out in court There was a scream, a drop of blood came from her nose

00:40:16

And now, a whole new chapter in this eight year story This is going to be a big, big moment

00:40:21

Correct Detectives are about to solve the final mystery at last You want to know, you want to know where she is

00:40:28

But at the same time, you do not want to know Here again, Dennis Murphy. The investigators hit Pader with this kid, Ricky,

00:40:41

who summed up the endgame that Doug had recruited him to play a crucial role in.

00:40:45

What was the business he said he needed to take care of? The ghosting of the wife.

00:40:52

Okay, did he say what? The hider. The hider? To get rid of her. Lieutenant Christensen called Detective Scott back in Michigan.

00:41:06

They'd broken it. He's our guy, and Mike's reaction was something to the effect of, holy cow.

00:41:13

Mike Scott, who'd preached patience with the prosecutor before, immediately dispatched officers to apprehend Doug Stewart.

00:41:21

Trooper Aaron Steensma was part of the team that tailed him to this convenience store.

00:41:26

We just walked in, and said, Douglas Stewart, you're under arrest, and he turned around and placed the handcuffs on him.

00:41:31

Were you surprised? Absolutely. Absolutely. I thought it was a mistake and I'd get an apology.

00:41:37

Doug had told police from the beginning he thought Venus skipped out on him and the kids.

00:41:43

After his arrest, he said it again to Detective Scott. I got very upset. I told him, I said, I've worked with you from day one.

00:41:51

I do not know where my wife is. Teresa how did you learn that Doug had been arrested The state police came to the house and told us The same day they told us Venus was deceased Police had declared her dead even without finding her body and prosecutors were

00:42:08

preparing to file a first-degree murder charge. But as Doug Stewart got ready to stand trial for

00:42:14

murder, Venus's family trials were far from over. February 2011, a courtroom in Centerville,

00:42:21

Michigan in St. Joseph County. People of the state of Michigan versus Douglas Stewart. It had been

00:42:27

nearly a year since Venus Stewart disappeared in her pajamas. Her husband Doug was now on trial for

00:42:34

her murder, even though the body was never found, a fundamental fact of the defense's case. Doug

00:42:40

pleaded not guilty and said he was surprised he was even arrested. This is my opening statement.

00:42:45

The responsibility for prosecuting Doug Stewart fell to baby-faced John McDonough. Douglas Stewart

00:42:51

caused the death of Venus Stewart. Seated at the defense table, Doug Stewart, wearing casual guy sweaters and sweater vets.

00:43:00

Courtroom demeanor, what did you see, John? He was very good at kind of presenting himself

00:43:03

as kind of the all-American guy. It was very bizarre, because we would go into chambers.

00:43:08

He would talk out loud like he was one of the guys. You're on trial for murdering your wife,

00:43:14

and none of this seemed to affect him one bit. As the prosecutor began his case,

00:43:20

his opening witnesses focused on April 26, 2010, the day Venus vanished. State Trooper Aaron Steensma, first on the scene,

00:43:29

testified that he believed he was looking at a crime as soon as he talked to Venus' parents.

00:43:34

I pulled in the driveway and I was met by a female who was hysterical and crying.

00:43:40

And what did you do next? She told me that he took her, he took her, he took her.

00:43:45

Early on, McDonough wanted the jury to meet Venus' parents to see them as the stable, decent, and loving people they were.

00:43:53

Venus wasn't some kind of wild child bad mother. Was it odd that your daughter would have left her children alone?

00:44:02

It was more than odd. It was something that would not happen. After sketching out the last day that things might ever be normal for Venus' parents,

00:44:10

the prosecutor turned the clock back 24 hours and moved the scene from Michigan to northwest Ohio.

00:44:18

April 25th had been a chilly night in Van Wert, Ohio, and the man who walked in the front door of the Walmart was easy to remember,

00:44:25

according to the Walmart security officer. Despite the weather, he was wearing a loud shirt and flowery Hawaiian shorts.

00:44:32

That's the customer entering right here, the strike shirt. And there he is right here.

00:44:38

What is this a clip of? This is associate Rebecca Hill with the customer following her.

00:44:45

Jurors watched intently as the video showed Doug marching through the aisles. At the defendant's table, the accused knew what was coming next,

00:44:54

an inventory of the items he bought that night. He picked up a shovel, gloves, a tarp, and a hat.

00:45:02

Can you tell what's in his hand? This appears to be a shovel and the tarp in his left hand.

00:45:08

The clerks at Walmart had no trouble remembering the customer. Most people weren't wearing shorts at that time.

00:45:15

Donna Stifler, a cashier in the lawn and garden section, remembered approaching the customer who looked like he was going to a luau.

00:45:22

I said, welcome to Walmart, can I help you? And the first thing I think he asked for was lime.

00:45:30

Why would he ask for lime? You throw lime on anything that's decaying, it almost acts like baking soda wood to absorb boaters.

00:45:38

Donna told the shopper, sorry, they didn't sell lime. She said he grunted and kept on moving.

00:45:44

Minutes later, he was back at her register to check out. Do you remember what that person bought?

00:45:50

A tarp, shiny shovel, silver. Duct tape and gloves. Do you see that person in the courtroom today?

00:46:04

Yeah. What was that? Yes. Could you point him out and describe what he's wearing?

00:46:11

I'm so nervous. Um, what's over there? What is he wearing? Um, a white vest. I remember his eyes more than anything else.

00:46:28

You could tell that she was just terrified of this guy. My God, you know, I sold this guy these things that helped him kill his wife.

00:46:38

And there was something else that Tripp dug up, a credit card blunder. Before he went to Michigan, Doug bought a throwaway cell phone called a track phone that normally assures anonymity.

00:46:48

Except, as you can see Doug swiping here, he's just bought it with a credit card that created an electronic receipt revealing the phone's unique ID.

00:46:58

That made the phone and Doug's movements easily traceable. He didn't think we would find these track phones that he had.

00:47:04

Master criminals don't save receipts in buying credit cards. Absolutely not. Krieger could then follow the path of that particular track phone through GPS technology,

00:47:13

just as if it were a personal cell phone. Using the phones, how close can you get him to his wife's driveway?

00:47:19

Pretty close, within five to seven miles. But by now, something else put him even closer.

00:47:27

Old-fashioned forensics. Remember the smudge on the plastic tarp wrapper found outside Venus' parents' house?

00:47:34

It was a fingerprint, turned out Doug Stewart's fingerprint. placing him at the scene of Venus's disappearance.

00:47:41

Prosecutors believed it was damning evidence. You swear to tell the truth? Yeah, I swear.

00:47:46

But to close the deal, they'd have to put on the stand the college kid imposter with a head-spinning tale to tell.

00:47:52

Would it be too incredible to be believed? Coming up. This is where I want you to come in, Ricky.

00:48:00

I want you to be my alibi. Ricky Spencer lays it all out. A plan to murder. It was like a game.

00:48:09

He was a part of this game. And the rest of the evidence that you hear... Chief Prosecutor John McDuck called on his star witness,

00:48:28

who in the course of two days would tell one of the most mind-boggling stories ever heard

00:48:33

in the St. Joseph County, Michigan courtroom. Please call your next witness and we'll have him sworn in.

00:48:38

Let's call Ricky Spencer. Ricky, now 21, seemed like a young boy in a grown-up world.

00:48:44

His dress shirt, not his customary tee, ran big in the sleeves. How do you know Mr. Stewart?

00:48:50

I met him on Xbox Live December of 2008. How often did you play Xbox Live with Mr. Stewart?

00:48:57

anywhere from six to ten hours a day yeah on a daily basis this was his life some people might

00:49:06

sit and read and he played xbox even though he'd never met him ricky told the jury he felt a strong

00:49:12

tie to the former marine would you say he was your best friend uh yes he called us uh brothers

00:49:18

from another mother would you brothers from another mother this was his idol probably one

00:49:24

of the very few people he had social contact with. Doug and Ricky met in person on April Fool's Day

00:49:30

in 2010, nearly a month before Venus disappeared. Doug was living alone and had invited Ricky down

00:49:36

for spring break. Surveillance camera footage showed Ricky in Virginia. We can party, you can

00:49:42

drink, and I can help you with your papers. Ricky testified that for the first three days they went

00:49:47

to the Busch Gardens Amusement Park, played Xbox Live, and drank. They hung out like frat brothers.

00:49:54

On day four, the prosecution asserts that Doug got down to business. He's like, hey, Ricky, I want to tell you something.

00:50:00

It's really important. Let me finish before you interrupt me. Ricky testified that Doug began to vent on his estranged wife, Venus.

00:50:09

Ricky said Doug was portraying Venus as an abusive, even dangerous mother to his two girls.

00:50:15

That wasn't true, but Ricky didn't know that. Doug then told Ricky he needed to do something desperate.

00:50:21

He was telling me that he was going to go kill his wife. When he was telling you this, what were you thinking?

00:50:29

I was just shocked. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Okay. He said, this is where I want you to come in, Ricky.

00:50:36

I want you to be my alibi. Just pretend to be me and live in my apartment. Ricky's immediate reaction was an emphatic no.

00:50:45

I was like, no, dude, I don't want to hear anything about this. and he didn't talk about it for the rest of the day.

00:50:54

But Doug kept at it over the next two days. Despite everyone else's portrait of Venus as Mom of the Year,

00:51:00

Doug pushed negative Venus stuff on Ricky, telling him how she smacked around their older daughter.

00:51:06

How did that make you feel? I felt bad for him. He was saying, like, if only, you know, someone could be my alibi.

00:51:14

I'm like, no, dude, I can't do this. Doug kept ratcheting up his stories of abuse, concluding with the most graphic one.

00:51:23

Venus had tried to choke one of the girls. Ricky, if I wasn't there at that moment, my kid might have died.

00:51:30

He again asked you to help him kill his wife? Yes. And what did you say? I said, okay, dude, I'll be your alibi.

00:51:39

Ricky caved, and according to the prosecution, Doug had a plan ready to go. He took his recruit to a nearby park for a crash course in how to get away with murder.

00:51:49

He asked me, like, Ricky, if you're trying to kill someone and you don't want any evidence, what do you use?

00:51:55

And I told him, well, not a gun because it leaves evidence. And he says, right, not a gun, so what is it?

00:52:02

Not a knife because that leaves evidence. And he says, right, not a knife, so what is it?

00:52:06

Doug said, you choke somebody. And right there in the park, Doug demonstrated on Ricky his military chokehold.

00:52:14

He gets me in that headlock, two seconds, and he puts me down, and I'm like out of breath.

00:52:20

He says that if you do that to somebody for 10 seconds, you know, they pass out,

00:52:24

you do it for over 30 seconds, they're no longer alive. Doug coached Ricky to be aware of surveillance cams.

00:52:30

To pull off this double vision ruse, Ricky would need to wear sunglasses, a cap, and a hoodie pulled up and over.

00:52:38

Ricky returned to Delaware to wait for Doug's signal. It came on April 15, 2010.

00:52:44

Doug drove up from Virginia, Ricky from Delaware, and they met at a gas station in Bethesda, Maryland, outside the nation's capital.

00:52:51

That's where Ricky said Doug gave him the things he needed to turn into Doug. His clothing, cell phones, keys to his car and apartment, and a credit card.

00:53:00

What's that a photograph of? This is the parking space area where I met with Doug Stewart.

00:53:06

Where did you go? I went, I drove to Virginia. Where did Doug tell you he was going?

00:53:12

To Michigan. What was he going to do there? He didn't say kill his wife, but he said to take care of business up in Michigan.

00:53:24

I knew what he meant. Sure enough, surveillance cam pictures taken April 15th show Ricky easing into Doug's life in Newport News.

00:53:33

He parked in Doug's garage as instructed and hung out in Doug's apartment. This is a lobby in Virginia.

00:53:39

This is between 10 and 11. Here's me with the hoodie, piece of paper, sticking in my pocket, the Wendy's bag.

00:53:47

With Doug's credit card, Ricky had bought a double cheeseburger and fries at Wendy's.

00:53:52

Why did he want you to use the credit card there? To make it look like he was in Virginia Somewhere deep down prosecutors wondered did Ricky a little slow on the uptake think that this was all pretend

00:54:05

Act like you're me. Don't look at the camera. Keep your head down. You know, wear this sweatshirt.

00:54:10

It was like a game. He was a part of this game. This was Ricky's little mission.

00:54:15

But the mission, mortal mission one in game box speak, had gone amiss. Doug had to hit the reset button.

00:54:22

On his way to Michigan, he'd been pulled over in the wee hours by a state trooper in Ohio who said he was weaving lanes.

00:54:29

The traffic stop was irrefutable proof that he wasn't in Virginia. I got a phone call from him that said, you know, the plan's off, and I was relieved to hear it.

00:54:38

But Doug wasn't ready to call it quits after one bump in the road. He kept on talking.

00:54:43

Hey, Ricky, I want to try doing this again. I told him I didn't want to. It was like a one-time deal, and I didn't even want to do it the first time.

00:54:49

But then, according to Ricky, Doug upped the pressure. He told Ricky if he didn't get on board with the original plan, he was going to wipe out everyone.

00:54:58

A massacre. Instead of just making it look like she disappeared, he was talking about going in there and killing anyone that was inside the house.

00:55:07

Besides his kids. So what did you do next? I told him, okay dude, we'll do it again. I'll be your alibi again.

00:55:14

There would be a mortal mission too. Coming up. A drop of blood came from her nose.

00:55:24

A virtual world turned suddenly, violently real. And a spellbound courtroom hears the most harrowing part of the story.

00:55:32

Because he was going to go to barrier. When Dateline continues. do you recognize the person that photographed doug stewart was on trial for murder but his sister

00:55:52

jamie couldn't bring herself to be in the courtroom i don't know what to believe if i did

00:55:57

that's the hard thing and you just don't know what to believe and and i really don't want to

00:56:05

that my brother did anything terrible. But Dustin Jasper, the victim's brother, was there on most days,

00:56:11

grabbing a bench seat within good stare down range of the accused, Doug Stewart.

00:56:16

He never made eye contact with me. I think he's too ashamed. But on the stand, shame didn't seem to figure into the bold as brass story about Doug

00:56:25

that Ricky Spencer was telling the jury. How after the first run to Michigan was a bust, Doug called Ricky again.

00:56:32

again. He said, hey dude, it's done. I killed her and her dad. I was like, wait, what? And he says,

00:56:39

no, I'm just kidding. I told him that wasn't funny. So he said he was kidding and you told

00:56:44

him it wasn't funny? Yeah. Ricky's second day on the stand as the star witness. Prosecutor McDonough

00:56:51

picked up his questioning with Ricky's description of mission number two, the assault on Venus Stewart.

00:56:56

Did you attempt it again? Yes, we did. It was deja vu all over again, this time Sunday, April 25th.

00:57:05

I went down to Virginia. He was heading up back up to Michigan. Later that day, Ricky said he made a call to Doug's boss, pretending to be Doug under the weather.

00:57:15

I said in a sick voice, like, hey, Bobby, this is me, Doug. I'm feeling like **** you. I can't get into work.

00:57:22

He said, all right. So Doug didn't have to come to work on Monday. Monday would be Venus's last day alive, as Ricky would explain in his chilling story of duplicity and death.

00:57:33

It began, the prosecutor said, with Doug in a field across from Venus's parents' house.

00:57:38

He parked there with his truck, kind of watching things, I'd say probably 500 yards from Venus's parents' house.

00:57:46

Doug called Ricky at 7 a.m. from a track phone and gave him his instructions. Ricky, I want you to leave anywhere from 8 to 8.15.

00:57:56

Nothing later. Doug then sneaked up close to the house, police said, hiding behind this woodpile.

00:58:03

Back in Virginia, Ricky was establishing the alibi. Do you recognize that photograph?

00:58:09

It's me leaving the apartment on the 26th. His next instructions were to wait for Doug's call that came just before 9 a.m.

00:58:17

And what did he say? He said, okay, dude, it's done. I was kind of shocked to hear that.

00:58:24

I said, what happened? He said that he called Venus' parents' house in Michigan and said that he was the mailman.

00:58:32

He had a package for her, and she came outside. Just like that, Ricky's virtual world had turned real.

00:58:40

Game over. He was displaying emotion on the stand for the first time. Doug was showing nothing.

00:58:46

And he jumped out and he said that there was a scream, she screamed once, and that he tried putting up a fight, but he was able to get in that headlock and a drop of blood came from her nose.

00:59:07

and uh that was it um i asked him if it was worth it and he said it was to uh protect his kids and give them some type of future

00:59:22

and uh he told me that he told me that uh he was gonna call me later because he was gonna go uh

00:59:37

It's a barrier. Did he understand the consequences Ricky I think when it was over it finally hit him This really was a homicide Someone actually died here It not on the Xbox It not somebody blowing up cartoon figure

01:00:09

It was a real person. Later Monday, Ricky continued in a supporting actor role. He went

01:00:15

to Doug's lawyer's office dressed in a hat, hoodie, and sunglasses. Doug told him to make

01:00:20

a payment to one particular secretary. He said that she's not all there in the head.

01:00:25

and that just hand her the envelope, say who you are, and tell them that you're in a hurry,

01:00:31

and tell them to mail you the receipt. Did you do that? Yes. Later that day, Ricky and Doug drove to their meeting spot in Maryland

01:00:41

to exchange clothing, cell phones, keys, and the credit card. They talked briefly.

01:00:47

Ricky piped up to express a newfound fear. I was asking him, hey, dude, are you going to kill me?

01:00:53

And he said, you know, no. I said, good, because if you did, that would suck. And then he asked, why did I ask that?

01:01:02

And I says, because I know what you did. That was the first thing that came to my mind.

01:01:06

Why in the heck didn't Doug kill this kid? Why did he leave this witness out there for somebody to find?

01:01:14

The prosecutors fully expected their case with the jury would rise or fall on the shoulders of Ricky Spencer.

01:01:21

and yet you've got to worry on cross-examination whether the defense is going to rattle his cage and undo him.

01:01:26

That's always a worry. He probably could hold his own, but we didn't know. Coming up...

01:01:31

Quite honestly, his testimony was just so bizarre. Was his a true tale or a tall one?

01:01:37

Ricky Spencer's story under scrutiny. What evidence do you have that Venus Stewart is dead?

01:01:51

Guesswork. If you think about anything in this case, I want you to think about the word guesswork.

01:02:09

In its opening argument, the defense asked jurors to pay close attention to a prosecution case that had no victim's body

01:02:15

and no eyewitness who saw the defendant in Michigan, much less killing his wife.

01:02:20

I believe at the end of this case, the prosecutor is going to ask you to guess. After Ricky Spencer's riveting testimony, anticipation was building.

01:02:32

Would the defense be able to rock the wild story from the so-called double? The defense lawyers, Jeff and Kimberly Schroeder, the married and highly regarded team,

01:02:41

were poised to attack more than Ricky's testimony. they were going after his character too,

01:02:47

and the deal they claimed he'd made for leniency with the prosecution. My defense, my story, had to do with Ricky evading life in prison,

01:02:57

Ricky being an accomplished liar. Cross-examination strategy number one was to muss up the clean-cut young man image he projected from the stand.

01:03:06

They started with the X-rated screen name, the tag he'd pick for himself when he played Xbox Live.

01:03:13

Ricky, your gamer tag is dark boot ****, isn't it? Um, yes, that's correct. What's a boot ****?

01:03:22

It means a bunch of guys. Ricky explained to the jury the overt and very explicit sexual connotations of his online name.

01:03:30

The defense wanted the jury to look at Ricky as an unsavory young man without a moral compass.

01:03:35

And if you believe his testimony, he decided to help commit murder rather than deciding to call the authorities.

01:03:45

Of course, you don't want the jury to believe that story, but there is a moral issue that hangs over the testimony here.

01:03:50

Right. This guy could have thrown a wrench in the works and stopped it. He could have.

01:03:53

He could have done the right thing, but elected not to. If you believe his testimony, and I think that's one of the reasons why his testimony is not believable.

01:04:00

Evidence that Ricky could be shifty with the truth? He'd already admitted in direct testimony that he'd lied to his parents about what he was doing over spring break.

01:04:09

Did you want them to know that you were going to visit Mr. Stewart? No. Why? Because it seemed kind of strange to go meet up with somebody that you played Xbox Live with who's a lot older than you.

01:04:21

But the defense took a mostly hands-off approach with challenging Ricky on all those very detailed recollections of his story.

01:04:29

What he did which day in Virginia, what he bought with a credit card, which security cams he played to.

01:04:35

The defense stance was, jurors allotted detail here, but it's all a fantasy from a young man trying to save his own skin.

01:04:43

Thank you. That's all I have here. After only 20 minutes of less than explosive cross-examination, they got him off the stand.

01:04:50

Quite honestly, his testimony was just so bizarre. It's a strange story, isn't it?

01:04:55

It's a very strange story. A story spun, says the defense, so Ricky could cut a sweetheart deal with the prosecutor.

01:05:01

In return for his testimony, Ricky would not be charged with conspiracy to commit murder,

01:05:07

but he would enter a plea to a lesser charge. I think that he was coached many, many times to give the testimony in the way that he gave it.

01:05:17

He was taught to become a good witness, you think? I think so. I think that he had to do a good job.

01:05:22

You know, if he didn't bring the case home for the prosecutor, it's my belief that he thought he would be facing those charges.

01:05:31

The defense called no witnesses. Doug Stewart didn't take the stand, but he did sit down with Dateline for an interview.

01:05:41

After hearing everything that I've heard, everything that I've seen, I still haven't seen anything showing me that my wife is hurt.

01:05:47

She's harmed. So what did he make of the star witness the sensational testimony of Ricky Spencer his young Xbox buddy I don understand any of his testimony on the stand I mean he got locations right as far as he came down He was on spring break Why does Ricky come down

01:06:05

He mentioned to me, well, I got spring break coming up from college. And I'm coming down there with Busch Gardens with some friends.

01:06:11

April 1st, I got a phone call. And he goes, well, I'm almost there. I said, almost where? And he goes, I'm almost to your apartment. He just showed up.

01:06:17

Now the guy's in your apartment and you're the host and he's sort of the uninvited guest. Is that what's happening?

01:06:23

I felt comfortable enough with him that I was like, OK, I guess, yeah, you can stay here.

01:06:28

So the story that he would tell authorities and then testify under oath to in the court, almost like a spy movie plot.

01:06:34

None of that stuff is true. The whole idea of hurting my wife or doing any of that stuff is very strange and very weird.

01:06:40

None of that is true. In his closing statement, Jeff Schroeder hoped he could convince at least one juror that without a body, there was reasonable doubt.

01:06:48

What evidence of that kind in this case do you have to demonstrate to you that Venus Stewart is dead?

01:06:59

So what about all those purchases at Walmart? Doug Stewart seen walking the aisles in loud floral shorts.

01:07:07

They asked rhetorically, would a man about to commit a murder be so dumb as to call that kind of attention to himself?

01:07:13

Is he trying to hide things? He's wearing Hawaiian shorts. asking people where things are.

01:07:22

Does that sound like somebody who's going to use it in a crime? And he bought a shovel, the defense attorney noted.

01:07:28

So what? What evidence have they shown you that a shovel was used in the killing of Venus Stewart?

01:07:40

They haven't. Schroeder summed it up for the jury. He claimed the prosecutor had an illusion of evidence.

01:07:48

A circumstantial case woven together with Ricky Spencer's tall tale. They've tried to make you think they have all this evidence, but they don't.

01:07:57

And they haven't proved their case. And you have a duty to do. And that's to find Doug Stewart not guilty.

01:08:09

Coming up... Do you believe she's alive? I've got to believe she's alive. What would the jury do?

01:08:15

The clerk will read the verdict. A verdict. And a whole new chapter in the mystery.

01:08:21

He showed up to the door. He said that it was part of the case. The case was never closed.

01:08:27

That's the missing piece. When Dateline continues. March 11, 2011, the jury had been deliberating.

01:08:45

was Doug Stewart responsible for the murder of his wife Venus? I dream about her a lot, thinking that she's still alive,

01:08:53

and then I'm hugging her, you know, and then I wake up and reality hits me. You believe she's alive or not?

01:08:59

I've got to believe she's alive. If she's not, I don't think I can handle it. I don't think my kids can handle it.

01:09:07

If she's alive, it would be incredibly cruel what she's doing. I could never forgive her.

01:09:12

On the record, the people versus Stewart, the jurors indicate they've reached a verdict.

01:09:16

The moment had arrived. Venus's brother and mother knew a guilty verdict would be small consolation,

01:09:23

but they wanted to hear it anyway. A few feet away stood the accused, eyes blinking, face twitching.

01:09:29

The clerk will read the verdict. Members of the jury, find Douglas, Harry, Stewart, as to count one,

01:09:39

guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. Guilty. Jurors clearly believe the star witness Ricky Spencer's story

01:09:47

of being the alibi and the double. But they also determined that Doug's fingerprint

01:09:52

found at the crime scene on the plastic wrapper was powerful evidence. It's a scheme. It's a conspiracy.

01:09:58

There's only one other person that knows what's going on, and that's Ricky. Is he lucky to be alive, in your opinion?

01:10:03

Yes. He made the case for us. And if Doug had killed him, It'd be very difficult to prove this case without Ricky.

01:10:13

Outside the courtroom, the young prosecutor, John McDonough, hugged Venus' mother.

01:10:18

I was so happy to be able to reach out and say to her, you know, we got him. We promised you we would do it, and we did it.

01:10:26

What difference does it make? My daughter's not here. That's all I could think about. Venus isn't here.

01:10:34

Sweater vest gone, shackled at the legs and hands, Doug wasn't giving an inch. I'm innocent. I did not do these crimes.

01:10:42

His story, rejected out of hand by a jury that needed only three hours to convict him,

01:10:47

was nothing if not consistent. Dateline found that out in our interview the month after the verdict at the St. Joseph County Jail.

01:10:54

You're saying you didn't do it and you don't know where she is? Absolutely not. The judge saw it differently.

01:11:00

I'm sentencing the defendant to life in the Michigan Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole.

01:11:06

Doug Stewart was sentenced to life without parole. And Ricky, after testimony that swayed the jury, was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge,

01:11:15

a conspiracy to commit manslaughter, and was sentenced to one year in county jail.

01:11:20

Venus' family didn't think that was enough, not by a long shot. He could have saved my sister.

01:11:26

He could have let the authorities know they could have been waiting for him at my parents' house and it had been over.

01:11:32

The killer was put away for life. But for two detectives in Michigan, the story of Venus Stewart wouldn't be case closed until they found Venus's remains.

01:11:42

But where to look? Maybe do we want to split up and have a group on this side and have a group on this side?

01:11:47

The search picked right up back again in this vast countryside of woods, fields, and farms.

01:11:53

Two lawmen driven. So why pursue it? Yeah, I mean, the case was never closed. Yeah.

01:12:00

In part, yes, but because her body was never located, that's the missing piece to the case was that we were never able to locate her.

01:12:07

And Venus's family waiting and hoping for closure. It's not too late for Doug to do the right thing.

01:12:14

He can repent for his wrongdoing. Tell us where my sister's body is. Four years after the trial, Lieutenant Christensen and Detective Peterson of the state police decided to call on Doug in prison.

01:12:26

Maybe he'd be willing to tell them more now. Our first strategy when we went to the prison was to simply go and talk to him and see if anything had changed.

01:12:37

That was back in 2015. And I know we both felt after our meeting that he was hostile.

01:12:46

He was still hanging on to the fact that he had nothing to do with it. He was still trying to cast blame.

01:12:51

Wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted. Somebody else did it. I'm not your guy.

01:12:54

He's still holding on to that. He's holding on to that so much so that when we walked out of the room, we both had the conversation that I don't think he's ever going to give it up.

01:13:03

Doug was no help. So detectives decided to reinvestigate an old rumor, one that had buzzed through the community for years.

01:13:11

It had to do with a barn owned by Doug's sister, Jamie, the same sister who'd introduced Doug and Venus years ago.

01:13:18

Jamie had poured a new concrete floor in her barn right after Venus had gone missing.

01:13:23

And what was the question you had for her, Doug? I told her that there was a tip that Venus had been buried and was underneath the concrete in her barn.

01:13:31

She immediately knew what I was talking about. She was aware of those rumors that were in the community, and she was real emotional about it

01:13:38

because it always kind of weighed on her mind if, what if, he could have actually done it.

01:13:42

Do you remember that? Were you expecting any one? No. No, not really. He showed up to the door.

01:13:50

I knew he was there for Doug. he wanted excuse me he wanted to go over the concrete he said that it was part of the case

01:14:00

investigators had chased this lead before but now they were armed with new technology

01:14:05

a ground penetrating radar that could see through concrete these rumors are going on for years

01:14:10

aren't they oh yeah sister's got venus buried under her barn and and we're gonna follow dad

01:14:14

in the pickup truck they're sure he was gonna he was gonna dig her up and move her and you know

01:14:20

Yeah, it was hard. She knew full well there was nothing in that barn but compacted soil.

01:14:25

And sure enough, the radar revealed nothing. But that didn't mean Jamie believed her brother was innocent.

01:14:31

I had an old employer that I had that I ran into grocery shopping. She goes, do you think you did it?

01:14:39

I just kind of, you know, and she's like, in your heart. Do you think you did it?

01:14:46

Yeah, I do. A heart that was also heavy with guilt The responsibility she felt for introducing her brother Doug to Venus back then That does go through your mind You know thinking geez if I never introduced him this would have never happened You know but we also wouldn have You beat yourself up for that

01:15:04

Oh, for years. So the day the detective showed up at her doorstep, it was as though she'd been waiting all these years for just this kind of visit.

01:15:13

She wanted to show the detective some rumpled pages of writing. She mentioned to me that she'd had this letter in her purse,

01:15:18

and she pulls it out, and it's, I mean, obviously you could tell that it had been there for seven years, and it was two.

01:15:24

Venus' mother, Therese. And never delivered? Never delivered. She said she didn't, just couldn't get herself to deliver it.

01:15:31

She was afraid of the rejection. But now, by reaching out, making the first move,

01:15:36

the convicted killer's sister would set in motion a sequence of events leading to the unraveling of the last mystery in the case.

01:15:43

The sister and the victim's mother would unite and work together to find Venus. Coming up.

01:15:51

I wanted her to have Venus back. I wanted everyone to stop hurting. Where was Venus?

01:15:56

After all these years, would they finally learn the truth? You want to know. You want to know where she is.

01:16:03

But at the same time, you do not want to know. Pummeled with guilt that just wouldn't go away,

01:16:21

Jamie, Doug's sister, wrote two letters, one for her two nieces, one for Venus's mom.

01:16:26

What was the message, Jamie? I just told her how terrible we felt, you know, what Doug had done.

01:16:33

And that, you know, Venus was my friend. She was my co-worker. She was family. And basically, I just wanted to be a family again,

01:16:42

missing out on those last eight years of these girls growing up. And I missed that.

01:16:47

I missed eight years. So when Detective Peterson knocked on her door that day, Jamie asked him for help in reconnecting with Venus's mom, Therese.

01:16:55

He set up a meeting at his office. Does this begin with words or kind of wary glances at one another?

01:17:01

I was just a blabber and blubber and fool. I mean, I just sat there and just cried profusely.

01:17:08

And I was there to tell her I was sorry for what my brother had done. And here she comes across the room and gives me a big hug

01:17:14

and tells me she's sorry for what my brother did to our family, Where were you coming from, philosophically at that point?

01:17:20

Was this about forgiveness? She didn't do nothing to be forgiven for. You've never done anything to be forgiven for.

01:17:28

The building of family bridges was too late for Venus' dad, Larry. Cancer had taken him six months earlier.

01:17:35

But the two families, at odds for years, were now talking again, doing their best to reconnect and heal.

01:17:41

Doug in the meanwhile was sitting in his cell still insisting he had done nothing wrong you know

01:17:47

he complains about being in there and how terrible it is but guess what we're all we're all out here

01:17:52

living it his sister had had enough and she told him so I wanted her to have Venus back I wanted everyone to stop hurting And that the approach that it took It took going to Doug and telling him we done We exhausted

01:18:06

Once he found out that we were talking and we're friends, then the jig was sort of up because he lied to her, he lied to me.

01:18:15

With his appeals exhausted and his family applying pressure to reveal where the remains were,

01:18:20

detectives went back to see Doug. Seven years after the trial now, his stance had changed.

01:18:26

I didn't sense the anger that was there from our prior meeting. We spoke in hypotheticals about, if you work with us, can you bring us to the location of where she's buried?

01:18:40

A few months and a couple of visits later, Doug, a lifelong gamer, was ready to play.

01:18:46

He made demands for his cooperation. When we spoke to him, though, he had a specific list that he gave to us in terms of what he would like for consideration.

01:18:58

So I will take you guys to the body, but I want this stuff on my list? Hypothetically, I could take you to the body, but I would like to have these items for me.

01:19:11

On his list, Doug wanted to teach in prison, join the canine program, and be permitted to attend his parents' funerals when their time came.

01:19:19

And one more request for his unit, a gaming console. And not just any, he wanted no substitutes and Xbox.

01:19:28

You're kidding, that's where this whole thing started. The Xbox game? Yes. He wanted one for inside.

01:19:34

Specifically mentioned Xbox, because they were being used throughout the country in some of the other prisons.

01:19:40

The Michigan Department of Correction said yes to most of his requests. An Xbox for the unit was already in the works anyway.

01:19:47

Detectives went to see Doug again. They delivered. Would he? I told him specifically, this is the time right now.

01:19:55

If you want to do this, we're going to do it. If you not want to do it, we're out.

01:20:00

We're done. Detectives say he took a long pause and then. He started out, I believe, by saying, you know I didn't kill her at home.

01:20:08

That's kind of where the narration started. where he described getting to the house and calling her from the house that morning,

01:20:14

that when she came out is where he attacked her and began to put her in like a chokehold.

01:20:20

Doug says she passed out, and he put her in the bed of his truck. He then drove to a wooded clearing he remembered from his teenage years.

01:20:28

There, he said, Venus revived, and they argued before he stabbed her. Detectives weren't sure they believed the details of his story,

01:20:36

but were struck by the fact that Doug showed no signs of remorse as he laid out the grisly details.

01:20:42

I didn't see a whole lot of feeling there. There's a little bit of emotion right at that moment where he describes where he takes her life.

01:20:50

Next Doug needed to reveal the site where he buried the body eight years before He quickly zoomed in on and pointed to a spot on a Google map It a dirt road in the southern portion of Kalamazoo County right at the entrance off of

01:21:05

this dirt road to a soybean field, very wooded. So Doug, you got him here in shackles and you're

01:21:11

walking through the site? Yes. How certain was he that this was where he had disposed of the body?

01:21:18

Positive. He knew it. This was positive. No doubt in his mind. This police video, shot in October 2018, shows Doug in shackles leading the detectives through the thick brush.

01:21:30

But this was the biggest open area. Without hesitation, he pointed to the place where they should dig to find his wife's remains.

01:21:38

I walked right in through here and everything. There was so many stumps, tree and debris.

01:21:41

Like where she's standing, there was so much debris that this was the open spot.

01:21:46

Then you started to dig. Yes. What's he doing the whole time that you're digging?

01:21:50

Because it takes you an hour or so to recover the remains. We talked to him up here in the clearing there and had him away from it.

01:21:57

I think you could tell he really didn't want to be near it where it was actually taking place,

01:22:02

but he knew that we had to keep him here just to confirm that we were in the right spot until that point.

01:22:09

And it was the right spot. After about an hour and a half of digging and sifting, the years-long search was over.

01:22:16

The remains were positively ID'd, and detectives reached out to Venus' mom and Doug's sister, whose rediscovered friendship had led to this moment.

01:22:25

You want to know. You want to know. You want to know where she is. You want to know what he did, but at the same time, you do not want to know. You don't.

01:22:33

I don't want to know the particulars. I never do. I'll never want to know that. The family had a burial service for Venus in December 2018.

01:22:43

The bond between the two families, once sundered, has been growing stronger every day.

01:22:49

How do you describe your relationship? I think she's like my daughter. Yeah. Jamie, you agree?

01:22:54

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. We can be a family and we enjoy each other's company.

01:22:59

We go. She loves the girl so much. And the kids have a joint family. Now that's the important thing to raise her, right?

01:23:05

Yes. Yes. Several cold winters later, the mystery of the missing Venus Stewart has finally been put to rest.

01:23:12

But memories of a loving mother, a daughter, and a friend will be kept alive by those who hold the story of Venus close to their hearts.

01:23:20

She was my best friend. I never went on a date without talking to her. Never. The girls missed out on a really good mom.

01:23:30

Is she alive in their memory? Oh, yeah. I talk about her all the time. We all do.

01:23:35

Yeah. As for Doug Stewart, the gamer, his decision to finally confess and give it up changes nothing in his sentence.

01:23:43

He and his new Xbox will be in prison for the remainder of his life. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

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