00:00:04
Ivan, step out here. Got a warrant for arrest. Yeah. Uh, so it's uh for murder charges.
00:00:18
This is 60-year-old Gowen. She is briefly seen here leaving this apartment complex with a briefcase.
00:00:26
This is the last time she would ever be seen alive. 911 emergency. So, we're driving down the road to go
00:00:38
shooting and there is a dead body on the side of the road. Elen's body would be found 13 days after
00:00:47
the last time she was seen on CCTV. Police believe she was entangled in a deadly love triangle prior to her
00:00:54
murder. But over the course of the next several months, this cold case would turn out to be far more complicated
00:01:01
[music] and even more disturbing than they could have ever imagined. Me and her broke up. She moved in with a
00:01:08
guy and he tried to mess with her. And all I know was his first name was Sam. They said we told her it was a bad
00:01:14
deal with him cuz he's telling me if the cops get behind him, he's going to run into
00:01:22
166 advice. It's their grandfather in the car and he called him saying that he's possibly going to try to crash the
00:01:29
car. On February 13th, 2023, Elene Gowen was seen leaving her longtime job at Sugar's
00:01:42
Diner. She had just told her daughter over a text message that she was on her way to pick up some things from her
00:01:48
friend Mike, who she had recently moved in with after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend Sam Bremer only a week
00:01:55
earlier. Strangely, she would specify that her coworker at Sugar's Diner would be the one to drive her there. However,
00:02:04
as Elen left her workplace, no coworker would show up. instead. Strangely, her ex-boyfriend Sam would be the one to
00:02:14
pick her up. Hours would go by, but Elene would never show back up to Sugars. The owner of the restaurant,
00:02:21
Megan, would begin worrying as to where Elene could have gone and started frantically sending her messages asking
00:02:29
for her whereabouts. But oddly, she would receive a single message back saying, "Leave me alone. I'm done.
00:02:39
This was very strange coming from Elene as she almost never texted, usually resorting to phone calls and was often
00:02:47
extremely responsible. Something strange was going on. The day would go by and Elene would
00:02:55
never be seen. The following day, Elen's daughter would file a missing person's report for Elene to the Council of
00:03:02
Bluffs Police Department and an investigation began. Detectives would begin collecting CCTV footage from
00:03:08
everywhere in the town to try and fully document where Elene went the day of her
00:03:13
disappearance. But this would be quite the lengthy process. So without anything to go by, police would start asking her
00:03:21
family and friends. Apparently, after leaving her ex-boyfriend Sam Bremer a week earlier,
00:03:28
she had stayed with her new friend Mike Brockman, a man her family claimed had likely assaulted her the night before
00:03:37
she disappeared. This shined a suspicious light on both of the men she was involved with. So, police would
00:03:44
bring in both Sam and Mike for interrogation and see if they could find any leads. Mike was a friend of Alen's
00:03:51
who met her at Sugars and became very close over time. It was still unclear to officers what happened to Alene. At this
00:03:58
point, for all they know, she could have just gone MIA and taken a break from her
00:04:03
stressful life. However, if anyone would have the clues as to where she went, it
00:04:08
would be Mike. So basically um I mean as you know I talked to you on Monday or Wednesday I guess was the first day I
00:04:19
talked to you. I'd received information from some of the family that you and Eileen were possibly in a relationship
00:04:27
or kind of sorish. She may have lived with you for a few days or a week or so. But if you could just kind of go before
00:04:36
Monday, just kind of tell us how you guys know each other, how she ended up out there in your place, that kind of
00:04:41
thing, and then we'll kind of move from there. She was a wafers at Sugars and I knew
00:04:45
her from in there and I talked to her before and stuff like that. Mhm. And then she told me, [snorts]
00:04:53
I don't know, it was like on a Tuesday or Wednesday [music] night that she got kicked out and she needed a place to
00:05:00
stay. That's the way you would stay at my place for a couple days. I think it was Friday.
00:05:07
She called me and she said, "I won't be coming back." She says, "We're getting back together." Her and her boyfriend.
00:05:14
Mhm. And all I know is his first name, Sam. I don't know anything else about him.
00:05:19
Okay. And so I didn't see her. And then she called me crying on that Saturday night.
00:05:27
And she says, "Oh, we got into can I come out for a date?" I said, "You can come back out, but I want you got to be
00:05:35
gone Monday because I can't have this. I'm single. I don't want anything like this going on." Two initial thoughts can
00:05:44
be made upon hearing Mike's story. On one hand, it seems like Sam was back together with Elen, so Sam would be a
00:05:51
much stronger person of interest, as he'd likely been the last person to see her. On the other hand, Mike may have
00:05:58
had a deep connection with Elene, meaning if he learned she got back with her ex-boyfriend just days after moving
00:06:04
in with him, he could have played a sinister role in her disappearance. But detectives plan to let Mike tell his
00:06:11
side of the story before confronting him about the suspicious relationship. So, I took her to work Monday morning,
00:06:17
then a week ago, yesterday. dropped her off at 5:00 a.m. and she was supposed to get off at I
00:06:26
don't know, she said 7 or 8. Her daughter was going to pick her up. She's going to go to her mom's and get her
00:06:32
safe and take to her daughters and then she was supposed to come back to work at
00:06:37
2:00 in the afternoon. Well, then I get a phone call from the bar saying, "Hey, have you seen
00:06:44
her?" And I said, "I haven't seen her. I haven't talked to her. Nothing." Well, she didn't show up for work. She didn't
00:06:51
show up. I said, "I haven't heard anything." And I tried to contact her and couldn't get a hold of her. So, I
00:06:59
sent her a text message and I says, "All your stuff that's bagged up is going to
00:07:04
be second behind the bar. You got to get it. I want it out of here. I don't want
00:07:09
to mess with any more of this." And I never since 5:00 that Monday morning, I'd never had any contact with
00:07:18
her phone, text, or anything. And then I didn't know anything till right before you called me that she'd come up
00:07:28
missing. Okay. Mike would go on to claim that he never had any sexual relationship with Helen
00:07:34
and that she stayed in a completely different room to him while living in his house. However, detectives know more
00:07:40
about Mike than he thinks, and with some information Elen's close friends shared
00:07:45
with them, they don't believe he and Alene were just friends. Did you Has anybody said anything to you
00:07:53
that uh Eileene was saying anything about you? Did have you heard anything about her making any statements about
00:08:00
you and your uh behavior while she lived or was staying with you out there? No. So, did you you haven't heard that she
00:08:10
may have made a statement that you possibly assaulted her while she was up there?
00:08:16
No. Okay. Um, that statement was made to a couple people that um you uh supposedly laid
00:08:27
down in on her bed with her um and spooned her from behind. Is that No. Can you tell me is that any of that
00:08:38
accurate? Any of those statements? I would not do that because like I said, she was a loose cannon and she's scared.
00:08:47
I mean, I guess here here's the deal. You're a grown man. She's a grown woman. You know, if there was any type of
00:08:53
whatever contact between you that was consensual, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
00:08:57
I mean, she was crying that first night, she'd come out and hide up here. Okay. But
00:09:05
there was no relationship, no asking for it or anything. This information is well concerning
00:09:16
considering it would be unlike Elaine to make up blatant lies of this magnitude.
00:09:21
However, with little to no evidence other than a few rumors coming from her friends, police can't harp over these
00:09:27
allegations and decide to wrap Mike's questioning up. At this point, Mike is still considered to have potential
00:09:34
involvement in Elen's disappearance. But with a lack of leads, they direct their
00:09:39
attention to the only other potential suspect, Elen's ex-boyfriend, Sam Bremer. You already met Detective Dyer.
00:09:47
You get first names, but yeah, this is Detective Dyer. I'm the sergeant you talked to on the phone. My
00:09:53
name's Ted Roberts. I'm a sergeant. You know, you got on the phone with you. I was the last person I've seen her
00:09:58
alive. Well, I didn't say that. Yeah, I didn't say that. I I sure did. Yes, you sure did.
00:10:03
I said you were the last person that saw her before she went missing. Sam wasted no time adding more suspicion
00:10:10
onto his name. The phone recording shows that the detective never mentioned Sam being the last to see Elen alive. Elen
00:10:17
has been missing for less than 48 hours at this point, so the fact that he's already alluding to the idea that she's
00:10:23
dead is awfully disturbing. But this would only mark the beginning of Sam's unsettling choice of words during the
00:10:31
interview. I was going to arrest you so I can have a lawyer. [laughter] No. Yeah, that's a I think you misheard
00:10:42
me there. I got it recorded. I'll have to go back and listen to it. But uh but yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not what I
00:10:47
said. But uh I mean basically we got a you know a crazy deal here where you know Eileen is evidently her family and
00:10:56
everything else she's never done this kind of thing before. She's never just you know took off and gone. They all
00:11:04
know she what she does is she comes to me and she moves him she's moved him with me four
00:11:08
or five times. But usually when she moves him with me she stays away from home. Yeah. Cuz they said they talk every day.
00:11:15
the daughter and her talking. If they need something, they need a phone or whatever. She's Yeah. If they need
00:11:21
something, then they'll get hold of her. Okay. Just like when she got arrested for a
00:11:25
DWI, she went to jail. They finally d her off. What did they do? They took her and dropped her off at the bar.
00:11:30
Okay. And she was homeless. Okay. Let's If you could, I just need to know what went on Monday morning. What
00:11:40
happened Monday morning with you? She texted me. Okay. and wanted to know if I would come
00:11:46
and get her because one of her friends supposedly was supposed to come and get her and supposedly ran out of gas. So,
00:11:55
did she tell you the friend's name or Mhm. Okay. So, I got there and I said, "I'll be
00:12:00
there in a minute." She goes, "Don't come inside. I don't want Megan to know that we're back or you're with me." I
00:12:05
said, "Okay." And uh I pulled up. She gets in the truck. [snorts] We take off, run up to this supposedly
00:12:14
the one that tried to do [snorts] something with her and uh dropped her off there.
00:12:21
Then I left and then wasn't too long after that is when she called me. I think she was at
00:12:29
my house knocking. See, you can't get in my apartment building unless you have a
00:12:32
key to get in. But I think she was knocking on my window. I didn't look. I didn't care. I
00:12:37
just wanted to lay down, take a nap. That's when she texted me wanting to know if I could talk to Emmy about
00:12:43
letting her move back in because this guy uh Okay. Now, if that's true when that night,
00:12:52
the night before Monday. The night before Monday. Yeah. Okay. And I don't know if that was true or
00:12:56
not. I don't know if she was just saying that to get me to take her back or what.
00:13:00
I don't know. Okay. This statement adds more weight to Alen's allegations towards Mike. If Mike
00:13:08
did do these things to Alene, then moving out and staying with Sam would be completely logical. On top of his
00:13:14
statement, what Sam is about to reveal to detectives will make the allegations much harder to dismiss and place all the
00:13:21
suspicion back on Mike. And she says, "Uh, please talk to Emmy. See if I can come back home. He me last
00:13:28
night. Sam, I love you. I promise I'll quit drinking. Please give me another chance." And she
00:13:34
says, "I'm hanging out with her." And then this was it. at 122. What does it say?
00:13:39
And it says, "Here, I'm hanging out with a friend. I will get a hold of you later. I'm not going to work. Uh, I'm
00:13:46
not back at back at 2, right? I think 2 or 3." Yeah. Okay. I can't remember. Okay.
00:13:53
And then, uh, you go to work, go back there, they treat me like [ __ ] and then she
00:14:01
says, "You've seen it." They have. I mean, but I can't say nothing. Mhm. And then uh I said, "Why are you telling
00:14:08
me why didn't you tell me this earlier when I was talking to you? You're drunk. You're drunk. Ain't be honest. That's
00:14:16
why I can't do this no more. Please do not call me no more. Text me no more. All of your friends with you at work."
00:14:24
And that's where she got pissed off. [snorts] Mhm. Said you. Based on these texts, it
00:14:30
really seems like Alen's disappearance was just a way for her to take a break from her traumatic life. If this
00:14:36
allegations are true, and her ex-boyfriend refused to give her a place to stay, well, then running away for the
00:14:43
time being is completely reasonable. Sam's story seems solid so far, but there's one tiny detail that just
00:14:51
doesn't quite add up, and this detective has just picked up on it. But you said you dropped her off in front of Mike's
00:14:58
house. Yeah. And you watched her walk into the All she did is she got out and she
00:15:03
walked in front of the truck and she walked in front of the truck. I wouldn't have turned around and that's when I
00:15:07
left. Okay. So you didn't see her get into the house, anything like that? Mhm. So if she had walked away from there,
00:15:15
I mean that's quite a ways away from your apartment complex. I wonder how she would have gotten to you.
00:15:20
I told you it's her friend was supposed to come and pick her up. Sam claims the day of Elen's
00:15:26
disappearance, he drove her from her workplace at Sugar's Diner over to Mike's house to get her belongings.
00:15:33
After that, he drove off, assuming she was to be picked up by one of her friends. Fortunately, police can easily
00:15:40
cross reference these claims using surveillance footage. At [music] this point, the majority of the CCTV camera
00:15:45
footage has been obtained from the day of Alen's disappearance, so detectives quickly wrapped up Sam's interview so
00:15:51
that they could further investigate his claims. Additionally, the detective would apologize for assuming Sam's
00:15:57
earlier word choice was suspicious. After nearly 48 hours of compiling the surveillance footage from around the
00:16:03
town, officers managed to put together a complete timeline of Sam and Alen's car
00:16:08
ride. At 8:30 a.m. on February 13th, Elene would patiently wait at her work, Sugars, for Sam to pick her up. Elaine
00:16:19
needed a ride to go and purchase a new apartment since Mike had kicked her out. She would tell her boss and daughter
00:16:25
that a friend was picking her up because she didn't want anyone to know her and Sam were back together. Elen and Sam
00:16:30
would first drive to her mother's apartment, Dudley Courts. She would be seen carrying a suitcase-like object out
00:16:36
from her mother's apartment, then leaving with it. This would turn out to be a safe containing $1,200,
00:16:43
which she had planned to use as a down payment for an apartment. At 9:30 a.m., they would drive directly to the
00:16:50
Sherwood apartment complex to purchase the apartment. However, the complex happened to be closed, so they were
00:16:56
unable to purchase anything. This is where the timeline starts to deter from Sam's claims in the interrogation room.
00:17:03
From 9:45 to 10:30 a.m., Sam's car can be seen driving all across town. He went in multiple circles and even made a
00:17:10
quick stop to Burger King at 10:30. However, he never drove Elene to Mike's house like he had claimed. In fact,
00:17:18
Sam's car can be seen driving in the opposite direction to Mike's house the entire morning. This is concerning, but
00:17:26
it would only get worse. For the next 2 hours, Sam's truck goes off the grid. It's completely unknown
00:17:34
where he went, and no CCTV [clears throat] cameras had managed to capture his location. Luckily, [music]
00:17:40
at 1:00 p.m., his truck would appear back on the same streets he circled on for hours that morning, and eventually
00:17:46
he would make his way back to his own home at the Cottonwood apartment complex. But things were different in
00:17:54
all the recordings past 100 p.m. Elaine was no longer with Sam. [music] Cameras had clearly captured that Sam
00:18:02
was nowhere near Mike's house the entire day, so why would he feel the need to lie about where he dropped Alen off?
00:18:10
This footage paints Sam out to look awfully suspicious. And while both Sam and Mike have some
00:18:16
strong dirt to their name, Sam's clear lies convince officers to bring him back to the station the very next day. This
00:18:23
time to confront him on his false alibis. Unbeknownst to detectives, this very interview would spark a month's
00:18:31
long game of cat-and- mouse involving a high-speed pursuit, unsettling clues, and a chilling discovery. But before we
00:18:39
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00:19:45
back to Sam Bremer, who had just been brought back to the interrogation room to explain the inconsistencies in his
00:19:52
alibi. the other day when we were in here, you told me that you got a phone call from her and you went to pick her
00:19:59
up from her. So, if you can do me a favor and just kind of go through that timeline again.
00:20:04
We know uh that it was somewhere right around 8:30. So, if you can just kind of go through that timeline again as far as
00:20:10
I'm not too sure on the time. Okay. But anyway, she text me that [music] morning
00:20:17
and I didn't text her back. I called her and she wouldn't know if I would come and get her because some girl was
00:20:23
supposed to pick her up and she ran out of gas. So I went and picked her up and she got in a truck. I left and
00:20:32
she wanted to talk to me about helping her get in the apartment because she lived in the same apartment
00:20:38
building and I did but she didn't pay her rent so she got kicked out. Mhm. So but she didn't want to go home right
00:20:43
away. So me and her just went right down Broadway and then she wanted to stop at
00:20:48
her mom's house. I stopped at her mom's house and she was in there for I don't know five or 10 minutes. She come out
00:20:55
there, got back in and then was going back down Broadway just talking some more and she promised me she wanted me
00:21:02
to drop her her back off at his house but she made me made a promise I wouldn't do nothing to him when I told
00:21:09
her I promise. Uh, as a matter of fact, when I get there and you just get out, you walk in front of truck, I'll go turn
00:21:14
around and I'll leave. And she says, "Okay." Okay. So, you went up there, you dropped
00:21:19
her off. Then what'd you do? As soon as I I pulled up and she didn't want to go in the driveway in case he
00:21:24
was there. Okay. And uh she got out of the truck. When she got out of the truck, she walked in
00:21:28
front of her truck. And that's when I went straight, turned around, and came back.
00:21:31
Okay. And I straight home. So, you went back down to the highway, went back down to Kville.
00:21:35
You left her there, huh? You left her her there or you No, she got a truck. She didn't want to
00:21:41
come in. She a second ago. You said she went in, grabbed clothes, came back out to your
00:21:45
truck, and you guys left again. [snorts] No, no, no, no, no. That was it. Uh her
00:21:49
mom her mom's house. Clearly Sam is lying about where he was the day of Alen's disappearance. The
00:21:57
detectives know it, and it seems like Sam is starting to realize he won't be able to keep up his fake story for much
00:22:04
longer. Even after being told that cameras show him nowhere near Mike's house the entire
00:22:10
day, Sam insists on his story that he did in fact drop Elene off at Mike's house. With this, the detectives would
00:22:17
take a brief break from the room to watch the footage over again, just to triple check that Sam is 100% lying. And
00:22:25
to nobody's surprise, the footage showed Sam on the opposite side of town during
00:22:30
the time he claims to have been at Mike's. So, when the detectives return to the interview room, they'll use this
00:22:36
information to try and get Sam to own up to his lies. We got a small little snap here. I need
00:22:43
we need to talk to you about Okay. So, you said after you dropped her off out there off of Highway 191 at that
00:22:50
[snorts] residence, you headed back to your apartment. We checked some of our cameras. Okay. And
00:22:56
we have a camera at 36th and Broadway. And we have your truck going westbound at 9:28 a.m. going to Omaha. Okay. You
00:23:03
passed 36 and Broadway heading west. Uh, so you didn't go home. You went over to
00:23:11
Omaha, it looks like. Do you remember what you did or you I don't remember going home.
00:23:15
Where'd [snorts] you go? I told you I went straight home. I don't remember going home.
00:23:20
Well, camera doesn't lie. It's your truck and it's your license plate number. Right. Okay. [clears throat] at at 36
00:23:27
the Broadway at 9:28 a.m. uh going west toward 480 and then 1 hour later you're coming back
00:23:37
from Omaha and you're going eastbound back coming back into Council Plaz 1 hour later
00:23:44
where you go home. Sam is stuck at this point. No matter what information detectives reveal, he
00:23:53
will not admit to anything. At this point in the interview, all Sam has left to simply reject everything the
00:24:00
detectives tell him. They know Sam isn't telling the truth. But why he's not telling the truth is what remains to be
00:24:06
seen. However, with Sam seemingly uncooperative, all detectives can do is end the interview and let Sam back onto
00:24:14
the streets until more concrete evidence can prove he had more to do with Alen's
00:24:18
disappearance than he claims. But fortunately, letting Sam back onto the streets would lead them to the exact
00:24:25
evidence that they were looking for. While law enforcement was working away at this case, another investigative
00:24:33
group would be working in the dark. Elen's family. Everyone held hope that Alene was still alive. But with time
00:24:40
passing, her family was demanding answers. Sam and Alen had a long history of arguments, physical assault, and much
00:24:47
more that the family was well aware of. They knew Sam had more information about
00:24:52
Elen's whereabouts than he had told them. So, to figure this out for themselves,
00:24:57
Elen's son, Jack, would show up to Sam's door that same night, and he would pound
00:25:02
on the door, and upon opening, Jack would ask the simple question, "What the hell did you do to my mom?" In Jack's
00:25:11
words, Sam stared at him as if he had seen a ghost and then shut the door in his face. Sam panicked. Whatever he did
00:25:20
to Alen, people were starting to catch on. Later that night, Sam would talk to his
00:25:27
granddaughter, Emily, and would claim that he was going to harm himself so that he could go visit her deceased
00:25:33
grandmother. This shocked Emily as in her eyes, Elene was still alive. Quickly, she would call 911 to report
00:25:41
everything Sam had just told her. And shortly thereafter, police would locate a drunken Sam at his local bar.
00:25:48
Hi, sir. How are you? Pretty good. Is this your vehicle? Yes. Hey, can I talk to you real quick?
00:25:55
Yeah. Do you have any weapons or anything on here? No. Okay. Hey, um, we were called to check your
00:26:07
welfare. Okay. I think you talked to your granddaughter earlier and she was concerned about you. Some of the
00:26:12
statements that you made to her. I'm here for you, man. Tell me what's going on. Why? Why? Why you Why are you
00:26:18
feeling the way you're feeling? My [clears throat] girlfriend, it was like a week ago.
00:26:25
Me and her broke up and she moved in with a guy and apparently he supposedly he raped
00:26:31
her. What's his name? Uh, only thing I know, he goes by Mike. Me and her broke up. She didn't have a
00:26:36
place to go. She moved in with him. She told me Friday he tried to mess with her.
00:26:42
So I called my son and see if she can move back in because he kicked us out. So I called my son and see if she can
00:26:49
move back in with her. Are you clear? And then uh I went to his house, got her stuff, took
00:26:54
her to my son's and then the next morning we went to work and then she went right back to him. So I don't know.
00:27:01
So what comments did you make to your granddaughter that would would be concerning this evening? I just told her
00:27:06
I'm going to go out and have a couple drinks and that I love her. That's it. Okay. Did you mention something about
00:27:13
seeing grandma tonight? What's that? Did you mention something about seeing grandma tonight?
00:27:17
No. Huh? I would like for you to talk to somebody tonight. I would like for you to talk to
00:27:22
a medical professional. Okay. I don't want to have to drag you up to the hospital, but I most certainly will. I
00:27:28
think based off of what the granddaughter has told us tonight and kind of the or she call you.
00:27:33
Yeah. Oh [ __ ] No. Yeah. So, she was she was crying when we went and talked to her. I mean, that's she's
00:27:41
Yes. She was very emotional. Her best friend and aunt are currently at the apartment because of what you
00:27:46
said. Wow. Based off of what they have told me tonight, I'm going to give you one of
00:27:51
two options. You can go up willingly and talk to a medical professional tonight.
00:27:55
Okay. Or I can take you up there and you'll stay there for 72 hours. Okay. I can't have my granddaughter come get
00:28:01
me. No. based off of what you've told us and what's going on in your life right now.
00:28:05
Yeah. You need to talk to somebody. I don't think that we will be doing our due diligence to do our job to make sure
00:28:12
that you're not going to hurt yourself based off of what's going on in with you and your girlfriend,
00:28:18
right? Okay. I you you need to talk to somebody tonight. Okay. And so the best course of
00:28:24
action is to go up to the hospital, your choice, to go to talk to somebody about
00:28:28
it tonight. Sam's mental state was clearly deteriorating. Whatever happened to Alen, regardless of his involvement, was
00:28:36
really getting to him. Following this, Sam would be placed in a psychiatric facility for the next 2 days where he
00:28:43
would undergo therapy and psychiatric care. During these two days, detectives would
00:28:50
aim to gather more intel on the case. This time by interviewing the family of Elen and Sam. They'd bring in both
00:28:57
Justin Brammer, Sam's son, and Nicole Shipper, Elen's daughter, and both of them would reveal significant details
00:29:06
crucial to solving the case. This is Detective Zack Milner. I just want to get as much history as
00:29:14
you can tell me or talk to me about when it comes to your mom. What was their relationship like over there?
00:29:21
Not a healthy one. Okay. What do you mean by that? He didn't like her drinking. He thought he
00:29:28
could change her from slow get her to stop drinking. I told him that he can't cuz she won't change for a kid.
00:29:36
She's not going to change for a man. And he seemed that to think that he could change her. So he
00:29:46
kept trying with her. But there was things on his part and her part that were not healthy. They both
00:29:53
had jealousy issues. They both had [snorts] he has a very short temper, very short temper. And littlest things
00:30:03
will set him off and it's just it's like ridiculous. Um, when [snorts] they are good, they were
00:30:13
good. But when it was not, it was I was constantly in the middle of it because she was my mom and that's his my
00:30:24
boyfriend's dad. They were good when they weren't drinking, especially [snorts] when she wasn't
00:30:29
drinking. Um [sighs and gasps] she she'd bick her, she'd argue, they start arguing.
00:30:42
It just escalate. Next day they were fine. It just they go to bed angry. Mhm. Did
00:30:50
you ever see get physical? No, never seen a physical. He told me she grabbed he she grabbed
00:30:57
him by her neck a couple times, but that was about it. Okay. Why would he grab her by the neck?
00:31:02
She grabbed him by the neck. Oh, okay. It seemed like Sam and Alen had a rocky relationship, but it rarely escalated to
00:31:10
the point of violence. And if the fights did turn violent, it was Alen doing the
00:31:14
physical harm to Sam. The week prior to last Monday, what was going on? They were separated.
00:31:24
Um, she called me before she went missing telling me how she don't want to be back
00:31:33
get back with him because she's tired of him throwing her out for little reasons
00:31:38
and she's sick of not being able to be have a stable home because he just gets so mad at the smallest things and just
00:31:46
kicks her out. Did Emily want her to go or was it your dad wanting to go? Was it Sam? My dad.
00:31:53
Okay. He [snorts] take her back. He kick her back out. He bring her back. Kick her bag out. Told
00:32:00
you he need to stop. I mean, you guys need to separate separate ways. [snorts] Sam's family strongly suggests that
00:32:07
Alene was in fact the troubled one in the relationship, and Sam tried over and over to cut her out of his life. This
00:32:15
only perplex detectives and simply doesn't explain why Sam's been acting so strangely following Elen's
00:32:22
disappearance. 2 days after these interviews, Sam would be released from the psychiatric
00:32:27
facility. Fortunately for Sam, no new leads had come out regarding Elen's death, meaning he could finally have
00:32:34
some peace for the first time in the last week. Or so it would seem. Because on February 21st, the same day Sam was
00:32:42
released, he would go to Walmart to restock on alcohol. However, right as Sam was about to get in his truck and
00:32:49
leave, an offduty officer spotted him and decided to ask some questions related to a lean. Hesitantly, Sam asked
00:32:56
to move his truck and then he would talk to the officer. But the moment he got into his car, Sam would slam on the
00:33:02
pedal, nearly hitting the officer and floor his truck down the road, flying past pedestrians. The cop would jump in
00:33:09
his car and begin chasing Sam, who would only pick up speed as he ramped up to over 100 mph down the peaceful roads of
00:33:16
Rexburg, Idaho. Turning westbound on eastbound on a white line up. The chase continued for multiple
00:33:36
minutes, but it became clear to officers that Sam had no plans of slowing down. So, the chief officer radioed in to call
00:33:42
the chase off. Sam had just successfully run from the police. And while he was having the time
00:33:55
of his life, this chase obviously made things much, much worse for Sam. Not only was he now highly suspected of
00:34:05
murder, but is also wanted for evading arrest and reckless driving. A couple hours after his escape, he would simply
00:34:12
return back to his apartment as if nothing had ever happened. Ironically, this would actually postpone Sam's
00:34:19
arrest as more officers assumed he would be hiding in a more clever place and searched around the town instead of
00:34:25
checking the Cottonwood apartments. In fact, the entire day would go by and officers had no trace of where Sam could
00:34:33
have gone. But the fun would only last for a day and the pressure must have gotten to Sam
00:34:40
as the next morning he would turn himself in to police. Sam would be charged with eluding and reckless
00:34:47
driving and would be placed in the Podawati County Jail. However, Sam would only spend one night in the county jail
00:34:53
after being bailed out by Emily. So, by the grace of a miracle, yet again, Sam Bremer was back on the streets.
00:35:04
During this time, Sam would go to the bank and hand them a large stack of cash to deposit into his account. This watt
00:35:11
of cash would come out to be approximately $1,200, the exact amount found in a lean safe
00:35:18
that she had the day of her disappearance. Additionally, Sam would drive his truck over to the scrapyard.
00:35:23
He would ask to fully dispose of it, crushing it to pieces and even shredding it after. To make sure this got done,
00:35:30
Sam would meticulously watch the entire hour-long process, ensuring his car was turned to dust.
00:35:38
It couldn't be more obvious that Sam had something to do with Elen's disappearance. the lies to detectives,
00:35:46
the disturbing comments to Emily, running from the cuffs, cashing in and lean safe money, and now shredding the
00:35:52
only potential piece of evidence he had left. On top of all of that, detectives had looked into the claims involving
00:35:59
Mike Brockman, and discovered that Mike was at work all day at Omaha, Nebraska, nowhere near Sugar's Diner, where Elene
00:36:08
was last seen. All of that leaves Ivan Sam Bremer as the final suspect. But with no direct evidence, all law
00:36:17
enforcement could do is wait until new clues came their way. [music] 911. What's the address for your
00:36:29
emergency? Um, I don't really have an address. We're off the exit of Iowa over by a
00:36:35
public shooting area. What's What's going on? So, we're driving down the road to go um
00:36:41
shooting or whatever and there is a dead body on the side of the road. Male or female?
00:36:48
It's female for sure. On February 26th, Eileen's body was found underneath a bridge just miles
00:36:57
away from Sam's apartment. The body was unrecognizable, but the clothes matched the exact outfit Elene was wearing the
00:37:07
day she had disappeared. Someone had killed her. Medics would pronounce Elene dead on the scene, and she would [music]
00:37:15
be taken to the hospital to get an autopsy done to determine her cause of death, but her results would come back
00:37:21
strange. Elen had eight blunt force impacts to her head and a fractured front tooth.
00:37:29
While gruesome, none of these injuries were sufficient to cause her to die, so her cause of death would be ruled as
00:37:38
undetermined. Unfortunately for police, this meant they wouldn't be able to immediately
00:37:45
charge Sam with murder. However, with all the sufficient evidence they'd gathered throughout the course of the
00:37:50
investigation, they had enough to charge him with abuse of a corpse. Quickly, they'd receive an arrest warrant. And
00:37:57
for the fourth time that month, officers would arrive at Sam's apartment. This time, to finally seal his fate. Hello.
00:38:06
Morning. We're looking for your grandfather. Is he here? Okay, just one second. Just
00:38:14
go Sam, right? He goes by Sam. Okay. Is there anybody else in there? No, just him. He's sleeping.
00:38:24
Okay. Is he got any guns or anything like that? Okay. Well, he's got a warrant, so we
00:38:30
need to talk to him. Just let that officer in. I'll be right there. [snorts] Ivan.
00:38:44
Step out here. Show us your hand. No. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Okay. Come here. You got a warrant for arrest.
00:38:54
I'll let you smoke that if you just let me put it there. No. Oh, you can smoke it. All right.
00:39:02
All right. Get my shoes. Yeah, we'll get them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get them.
00:39:11
arrest for. Huh? What do you want to arrest for? I'll explain it here in a minute. All right.
00:39:21
What the [ __ ] Okay. He'll be P County will be able to call you in a little bit. Thank you.
00:39:29
Sam's games had finally come to an end. Sam would eventually go to court for the
00:39:34
murder of Elen Gowen. Forensic pathologists would spend weeks investigating Elen's death, and
00:39:40
eventually they would discover zipper marks on the neck of Elen, signifying that she was strangled [music] to death,
00:39:47
likely by Bremer.