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August 11 1990 Brandon Mississippi a
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woman on her way home from work stops to
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buy cinnamon rolls for her children at
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the gas
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station she hears a noise from the back
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of her van she looks up into the
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rearview mirror and sees a dark shadow
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coming forward a man emerges from the
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back of her van holding a knife multiple
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times he said that if I looked at him he
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would kill me he looked more like a
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monster to
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me she's taken to a secluded wooded area
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and brutally raped at knife point then
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her attacker vanishes into the
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night the Brandon PD launches an
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immediate investigation into the brutal
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attack
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months go by and the case goes cold this
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is the story of a serial rapist who
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terrorizes his victims across multiple
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States and how advances in forensic
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science blow open what seemed to be an
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unsolvable case I'm Nancy Grace this is
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bloodline Detectives
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[Music]
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Brandon Mississippi a peaceful community
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in Ranken County it's located a short
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drive from the state capital Jackson
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summer 1990 this quiet community shaken
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by a brutal kidnap and rape and it takes
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place right on the Main Street the
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victim Benji kirkbride a mother of
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5 I went to work at my job around uh
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5:00 in the afternoon and I think we
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worked till about 10:00 that night my
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husband and I had a custom green Dodge
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van she had taken the family van to work
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that day and some people were looking at
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it when she came out from work one of
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her friends that she worked with was
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interested in buying the van and so
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after her shift she went out and they
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looked at the van law enforcement
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Flowood pulls up at some point just to
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check on them they say oh yeah we're
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great so we all kind of wrapped up and
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went home and one of the ladies that
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actually lived in John's Mississippi was
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kind of behind me when we got off at the
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exit 56 and Brandon and I went to the
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Texico gas station there was a man
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standing on the right hand side of the
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building at a phone booth as I got out
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on my van the lady that was behind me
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Debbie she blew her horn and I stopped
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and turned around and waved at her and
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she waved and then I went on into the
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store she goes in she makes a purchase
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and she's not in there you know maybe 5
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or 10 minutes I got my van put my seat
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belt on and kind of drove out of the
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parking lot and turn left that
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was not not even a tenth of a mile to
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turn down the street that I lived
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on suddenly the van starts to shake Beni
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kirkbride realizes she's not alone I
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felt the vehicle shift when I looked up
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in the rear view mirror I just saw this
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dark
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shadow coming towards the front of my
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vehicle she looks into the rearview
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mirror and sees a person coming with a
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knife from the back of the van toward
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her he puts the knife to her neck tells
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her to keep driving for a moment then
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tells her to put the van in park and do
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not look at him she's so shocked she
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says that he actually reaches up and
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puts the van in park and tells her he
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just needs to borrow the van and that he
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won't hurt her and he forces her to the
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floorboard and held the knife at my
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throat as I was in the
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floorboard and he took over driving
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he takes her out to a wooded areaa she
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notices kind of the it's bumpy like
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where they could fire Lanes into the
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woods he pulls back and forth back and
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forth till he finally
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stops said don't look at me don't open
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your eyes don't look at me and he kept
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pushing me CU he said if I looked at him
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he would kill me he then proceeded to
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forcibly rape her at knife
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Point occasionally he asked me a
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question do you have children do you
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have a husband and I would answer I told
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him yes I have five children children
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they're waiting for me he pulled up onto
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the on ramp to the interstate just past
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the on ramp pulled over into the
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emergency
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Lane and he told me to stay there for 10
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minutes don't move don't look out the
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windows or anything and got out of the
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van and he said I know where you live if
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you go to the police I will come back
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and kill you and your
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family once he did this he slithered off
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and there she was was left naked and rap
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I waited for a few minutes and I reached
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up and hit the power lock on the door
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and I felt around and I found my
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shirt and I put it on and started to
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drive I got
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home I ran
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inside and just grabbed the phone and
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called 911 I said I've been
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raped brandom police quickly respond to
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the emergency call
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all they take Benji by ambulance to the
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hospital here in Brandon they get her
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inside and one of the doctors that was
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working in the emergency room there
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performed what we call a sexual assault
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kit an examination it was just very
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embarrassing to go through that after
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being raped to go through being stripped
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completely naked unfortunately it's very
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invasive but it's a very necessary part
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if we're going to catch the person that
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did the rape very often the bad best
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info for detectives is also the hardest
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to ask for Brandon PD look to the victim
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Benji kirkbride for exactly the kind of
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valuable evidence only she can provide
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La Enforcement wants to preserve the
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victims's dignity best they can they
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don't want to
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a rapist on the loose a quiet community
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on edge are there enough leads to ID a
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suspect we find out next on bloodline
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[Music]
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detectives August 11 1990 Brandon
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Mississippi this tightnit small
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community stunned by the kidnap and rape
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of a local woman a mother Benji
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kirkbride Benji on her way home after
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working the late shift at a local Diner
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when her attacker drives her at knife
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point to a secluded wooded area he rapes
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her brutally before Vanishing into the
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night Benji was interviewed where she
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had been where she was going did she
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know who had done this to her asked her
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to describe exactly you know what things
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felt like smelt like looked like if he
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said anything if she knew where he'd
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gone after he exited her
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van bji kirkbrides husband Neil comes
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home from work and he's told about the
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kidnap and rape of his
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wife my neighbor she went and picked him
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up he was very upset about it the next
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day he went and bought a gun which we
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had never had a gun in our home before
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inv vators focus on anyone in the area
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with previous convictions for similar
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sex crimes there was an individual in
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the late ' 80s that had been arrested
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for a sexual assault in Brandon and so
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immediately police think could this have
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been our person um could he have done
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this again they're looking into anyone
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in Benji's life trying to figure out was
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it someone she knew was it a stranger
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was it someone that lives in the area
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they contacted the rocic which is the
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regional organized crime information
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center and they put out a buletin about
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a knife welding man they sent it all
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across the southeast and they got
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numerous hits the lady victim Benji
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kirkbride has been very brave she
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provides police with a rape kit now her
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courage is tested again police bring her
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all the way to a prison in Louisiana to
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try to see if she can identify her
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rapist there was a whole lot of men
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standing there they had them all say if
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you call the police I'll kill you but I
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didn't recognize anybody's voice
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there mother of five Benji Kirk bride
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and her whole family try their best to
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move on from the traumatic rape but
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husband Neil still struggles with the
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events of that terrible
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night he started drinking a little more
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excessively and he had gotten involved
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with some drugs with his friends and
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stuff and he wound up signing himself
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into a rehab facility for drugs and
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alcohol he was supposed to stay for like
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14 days and he wound up staying 10 and
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signed himself
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out when he got home he had taken 14
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adab ban and drank a pine of Jack
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Daniels and then he wound up shooting
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himself in the head and he ended up
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being for lack of a better words in a
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vegetative state the doctor said if
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there was a clock on the wall he didn't
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know it was a clock on the wall her
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mother-in-law came down to Mississippi
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from up North and tried to have Benji
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charge with shooting him she felt like
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she was the one that was responsible for
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shooting him and Benji actually was
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subjected to a gunshot residue testing
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of her hands to make sure that she was
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not the one that had fired the gun so
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after about a year I let his mother have
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custody of
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him and they moved him to Wisconsin he
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lived four years before he died from a
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rupture from a feeding tube in his
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intestine the ripple effect of this
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Savage rape continues to affect the Kurt
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bride family but then 1991 there's a
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possible breakthrough because of a
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confession that's written from behind
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Prison
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Walls the case was just kind
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of kind of dead and then an individual
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that was in prison said that he
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committed the crime Reuben weeks was a
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gentleman that was from the state of
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Mississippi at the time he was serving
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life in the state of Missouri for rape
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and kidnapping of a young girl there
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January 4th 1991 Ruben weeks was in
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interviewed by Brandon Police Department
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his blood was taken and preserved as
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part of a what they called a sexual
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assault examination to be tested against
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the DNA the biological evidence that was
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found on Benji's skirt they could
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exclude him on part of the DNA but not
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all the DNA so he wasn't all the way
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ruled out but they didn't feel like he
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did
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it years go by the case remains unsolved
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Benji kirkbride never gives up hope her
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attacker will face Justice and she
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follows the investigation very
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closely the chief of police at the time
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when bji stopped by one day he just told
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her he said you know you've got to put
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this behind you you've got to keep
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living you just got to go on and live
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your life for you and for your
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children I didn't go around there
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anymore I Ed up getting a job that kept
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me very busy and with the five children
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my life was very busy the unsolved crime
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haunts the community and Brandon police
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are no no closer to catching the
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perpetrator between when Ruben week's
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census confession letters in 1993 and
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2004 the case is cold no new suspects no
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new science that had been implied in the
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case really no breaks at
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all the investigation stalls but one
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investigator Still Remains optimistic
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justice will
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prevail in 2004 I was contacted by a an
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investigator with the Ranken County
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Sheriff's Department Co case unit and
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made me aware again that Ruben weeks was
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confessing to this crime and I opened it
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back up and I saw the statements from
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Ruben weeks and I called the
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investigator back and I said there's no
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way that Ruben weeks could have done
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this there just too many major
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inconsistencies does evidence from that
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original rape kit negate Ruben weeks's
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confession once and for all
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I wanted to completely rule Ruben weeks
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out he kept confessing and kept
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confessing I went and looked into the
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evidence room and was able to locate the
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actual evidence contacted the state
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crime lab and talked to Miss Dedra
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Hughes out there she's a DNA expert so I
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submitted the evidence to the crime lab
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DNA testing was done on the case in 2005
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and also in 2006 first it was the 13
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codus corosi and then additional three
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lowside were done in 2006 on the
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case and she contacted me at a later
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date and said she was successful in
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getting a full DNA profile once it came
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back to our laboratory we reviewed it
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and uploaded into codas for comparison
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to any samples in the DNA database there
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were no positive associations that were
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as a result of searches and codas I was
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hoping for a person that was was already
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in the system I just felt like that this
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man had raped many women before so I was
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really disheartened when I didn't get an
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immediate
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hit the cot's result fails to make a
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match but it definitely rules out Reuben
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weeks as a
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suspect those tests excluded Reuben
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weeks it said he is not your
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suspect we just sat and sat and sat and
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wait
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and that's all we could do at the
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time it's two steps forward and one step
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back for this investigation detectives
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have a DNA profile of the suspect but
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can they get a name that matches the
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genetic sample that's next on bloodline
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[Music]
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detectives 2006 ranking County Brandon
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Mississippi the kidnap and rape of Benji
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kirkbride in 1990 still unsolved Benji
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was returning home from work August that
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year when she's kidnapped at knife Point
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by a man who emerges from the back seat
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of her van in 2004 the per DNA uploaded
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to cotus the FBI's DNA database of
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convicted felons but sadly no match is
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is
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found at that time we did not have a
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match so what that means is it's been
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stored in the system just as an unknown
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person identified by the DNA
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profile the case stays cold until
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2017 investigators get news of a match
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to a case in Memphis Tennessee in this
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particular match we reached out to the
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agency in Tennessee and to see if their
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case was solved if they had a suspect
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unfortunately their case was also
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unsolved so we had two forensic unknowns
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with the same genetic profile in codas
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that matched each other but did not have
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a suspect 30 days after our rape in
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Brandon on September
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12th 1990 another lady had been abducted
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outside a convenience store in Memphis
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which is just a few hours up the road
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from Brandon right up the interstate the
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same man that did the rape in Memphis
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also raped
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Benji this is the first breakthrough in
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the case detectives have now linked two
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sex assaults the second attack September
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1990 the victim a young nurse Lisa
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Chappelle and her attack is extremely
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similar to the rape of Benji
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kirkbride Lisa was driving an SUV at the
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time she walks out of the gas station
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gets into her
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vehicle close the door kind of threw the
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candy bar over in the passenger
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seat this hand just come out of the back
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seat and a knife so I'm grabbing the
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knife and that's when he cut me across
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here he told me get in the passenger
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side so I put it in part I slid over he
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got over and he said whatever you do
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don't look at me first thing you do is
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look so I turn around and he just shove
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my face up against the
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window and he like don't look at me I
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told you not to look at me he goes I
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know where you live and I will kill you
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if you look at
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me tells the same light about just
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needing her car but of course he doesn't
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do that he takes her to a rule area when
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AC cross the interstate he took a lift
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and that's when he stopped got me
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out took my clothes off and that's when
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he raped me and that's when it was like
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I was in a
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tree with a guardian angel watching what
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was happening but it was a disconnect
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that actually what I was going
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through he then took her keys threw them
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on the side of the interstate and ran
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off F but the rapist then vanishes into
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the
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night after the attack I was on the
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interstate naked and I'm kind of like
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flagging people down ended up two women
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truck drivers from Utah stop they're
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like okay we're going to get you get you
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in the truck we'll carry you to the
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hospital Lisa Chappelle is brought right
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back to the very same hospital at which
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she was just working but before the rape
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I think it was Shelby County that came
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and kind of took
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a I guess wrot everything down and then
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I got my face sewn up and the inside of
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my mouth sewn up and that's when we had
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to go to the Rape Crisis
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Center rape victim Lisa Chappelle
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undergos a rape kit examination samples
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collected during that exam hopefully can
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be used as evidence it was after
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midnight the lady come in she was less
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than happy about being there and it's
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like I hate to ruin your night but this
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wasn't exactly what I had in mind either
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Lisa's case went unsolved and relatively
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uninvestigated because they did not have
00:20:49
a known suspect at the time Lisa also
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had to have reconstructive surgery on
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her face and so in the midst of dealing
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with this invasive and intrusive sexual
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assault examination Lisa is also having
00:21:02
to deal with being disfigured by this
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knife welding man in the
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darkness then two months after the sex
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assault on Lisa Chappelle something very
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strange happens the rape hit which is a
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crucial piece of evidence
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disappears they sent her sexual assault
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kit off to evidence it doesn't look like
00:21:28
it was actually sent to their Tennessee
00:21:31
crime lab until 2016 when they got a
00:21:34
grant and started uploading all their
00:21:35
cold cases investigators now know their
00:21:39
suspect is a serial rapist who has
00:21:41
attacked other women still with no
00:21:44
matches on codas the case remains
00:21:49
cold sometimes an investigation moves
00:21:52
forward because of sheer luck and that's
00:21:54
what happened here a chance encounter
00:21:57
between Det Ive David Ruth and district
00:22:00
attorney Ryan Barry leads to a series of
00:22:04
events which will crack this case wide
00:22:08
open David told me about this case he
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told me about the codus hit of what he
00:22:14
thought was a serial rapist and he kind
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of thought it was a trucker that might
00:22:18
have been involved but we really didn't
00:22:19
know we had been talking about uh some
00:22:22
cases here I had worked another case
00:22:24
using some genealogical DNA testing so
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he took interest into this case and he
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said let's let's look into it I
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contacted deer Hughes with the
00:22:35
Mississippi crime lab and I said
00:22:37
deer please help us you know we want to
00:22:39
do this investigative genealogy but we
00:22:41
know nothing about it who do we talk to
00:22:43
who's someone we talk to and she
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immediately put us up with bod Ryan told
00:22:49
me it was uh two cases linked together
00:22:51
two sexual assault cases they explained
00:22:53
their case what had been done to date
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and asked if we thought it was a good
00:22:57
candidate for Gen ology testing there
00:22:59
was all these ifs that we had to go
00:23:01
through you know find the swap was it
00:23:03
reliable was it still intact could they
00:23:06
find anybody had anybody been gracious
00:23:08
enough to submit their DNA to one of
00:23:10
these
00:23:11
sites they go to the local district
00:23:13
attorney for
00:23:15
help once we got the cost which you know
00:23:18
was close to $10,000 which is no small
00:23:21
sum of money for our office I approached
00:23:24
our district attorney uh Bubba bramlet
00:23:26
and I said boss this is something that
00:23:29
we need to do I think we can solve this
00:23:32
case we have a serial rapist from the
00:23:34
90s we know he did two within 30 days
00:23:38
there's no telling how many more he's
00:23:39
done basically when he got through
00:23:41
talking to me I surmised that we had on
00:23:46
one hand a DNA profile from a vaginal
00:23:50
swab from a rape kit in
00:23:53
1990 and then we had this science in
00:23:57
2021 called investigative genetic
00:23:59
genealogy and that we needed to marry
00:24:03
those two and solve this crime he gave
00:24:07
me the go he said Ryan there's no price
00:24:09
tag on
00:24:10
Justice investigative genetic genealogy
00:24:14
is an exciting new scientific technique
00:24:17
and it is producing remarkable results
00:24:21
including with cold
00:24:23
cases forensic genetic genealogy is the
00:24:26
use of DNA testing and advanced methods
00:24:30
and combining that with genetic
00:24:32
genealogy so using DNA to trace back
00:24:36
your ancestry to figure out your family
00:24:39
tree and who else you might be related
00:24:41
to we generate a different type of
00:24:43
profile and it's called a single
00:24:45
nucleotide polymorphism and what we call
00:24:48
for short a snip profile this profile is
00:24:51
tested acrossed over 600,000 locations
00:24:55
on the DNA and it generates this profile
00:24:57
that we're able to put into these
00:25:00
different genealogy databases and that
00:25:02
allows us to connect with individuals
00:25:05
that are related to this particular DNA
00:25:08
sample June 2022 the team gets the news
00:25:12
from bod Labs the news they've been
00:25:15
waiting for they had a list of relatives
00:25:20
and they had some pretty high hits on
00:25:22
the relatives and they felt like they
00:25:24
were going to get a suspect and so what
00:25:27
we were told is you've got this relative
00:25:30
that's close but we can't find anything
00:25:34
about their family tree like red a dead
00:25:36
end and so we need you to contact this
00:25:39
relative out west and see if you can
00:25:43
find out about their family tree I
00:25:46
decided I said you know this is across
00:25:48
state lines we've got a rape in Memphis
00:25:50
we've got a rape in Mississippi two
00:25:51
different states let's contact the
00:25:54
FBI investigators then travel West to
00:25:58
the relative of the alleged
00:26:01
per they assigned us an agent to help
00:26:04
named Britney Dykeman and she was
00:26:06
assigned to help us with the case and
00:26:08
she met with the relative of our
00:26:11
suspect and they were so gracious and so
00:26:15
helpful and told us all about the family
00:26:18
tree the details we needed to
00:26:21
know so who are the skags brothers and
00:26:25
which one is the prime rape suspect will
00:26:28
two innocent women attacked 33 years ago
00:26:33
finally get Justice I'm talking with bod
00:26:37
and they tell me he said Ryan you're
00:26:39
going to have to do targeted DNA testing
00:26:42
we are so close we've got these
00:26:43
relatives I contact the cooperating
00:26:46
family member and I talk her into giving
00:26:49
us more of her DNA matches that she's
00:26:52
learned
00:26:53
about then January 31 2023 gen ology
00:26:58
investigators narrowed down their search
00:27:01
to a list of names I'm in this courtroom
00:27:05
and I remember stepping out she gives me
00:27:08
three names of people who are suspect
00:27:11
she said Ryan it's one of these three
00:27:14
people and it was three skags Brothers
00:27:18
the investigation is now closing in on
00:27:21
the scags brothers will Justice finally
00:27:24
catch up with a serial rapist who prayed
00:27:27
on in ENT women 33 years ago the answer
00:27:32
next on bloodline
00:27:35
[Music]
00:27:42
detectives 20203 Brandon Mississippi the
00:27:46
net is closing in on the brutal rapist
00:27:49
who sex assaulted Benji Kirk bride
00:27:53
August 1990 and Lisa Chappelle just one
00:27:57
month later later in Memphis Tennessee
00:28:00
now genetic genealogists from bod Labs
00:28:03
provide a list of three names the scags
00:28:07
brothers one of the brothers is deceased
00:28:10
but investigators zero in on the
00:28:12
criminal record of another brother
00:28:16
Daniel Ray
00:28:18
skags there's a couple of things on his
00:28:20
criminal history that really stood out
00:28:22
he had a case in Dallas in 1977 and he
00:28:25
had a little blip on the radar in n in
00:28:28
Georgia in 1991 we contact n in Georgia
00:28:32
the police department there and there
00:28:33
was an officer who actually arrested the
00:28:36
suspect uh in September of
00:28:39
1991 a State Trooper saw a van and when
00:28:43
he pulls over to check on the vehicle a
00:28:46
female jumps out of the passenger side
00:28:49
of the vehicle and he could tell
00:28:51
something was going on and all she could
00:28:54
say was knife knife at some point the
00:28:57
van then crashes into some bushes and
00:28:59
he's able to detain the suspect by the
00:29:03
time that the trial came around though
00:29:06
the lady he held at knife Point had gone
00:29:08
back to Germany and so the only charges
00:29:10
that were pursued was the assault on law
00:29:12
enforcement and unfortunately suspect
00:29:14
was acquitted of those
00:29:17
charges who is Daniel Ray skags and how
00:29:20
did he escape detection for so
00:29:24
long in 1977 in the Dallas area Daniel
00:29:28
Ray gags went through the apartments
00:29:31
pulling on handles looking for somebody
00:29:33
to rape is what he put in his statement
00:29:36
and he broke in and sat in the kitchen
00:29:40
until the young woman arrives from
00:29:43
downstairs and he surprises her and he
00:29:46
has a knife in his hand he forces her
00:29:48
upstairs where he forcibly rapes her and
00:29:51
he does this to four ladies in the area
00:29:55
he was sentenced to approximately 10
00:29:57
years to serve in the Texas Department
00:29:59
of Corrections he did about eight years
00:30:02
where he was pared to Arkansas and began
00:30:06
his
00:30:06
life now we've got an individual who has
00:30:11
non sex crimes in Texas Mississippi
00:30:16
Tennessee and Georgia everything's
00:30:19
starting to come together we know we've
00:30:21
got a serial rapist
00:30:23
now the Cold Case team needs to collect
00:30:26
a confirmation DNA sample they contact
00:30:30
law enforcement in Oklahoma to help
00:30:32
gather that evidence if successful
00:30:35
Daniel race scags will face rape armed
00:30:39
robbery and kidnap
00:30:42
charges February of 2023 our office
00:30:46
contacts the state of Oklahoma the
00:30:48
Bureau of Investigations and we say we
00:30:51
believe we have this serial rapist
00:30:53
that's living in your state and we think
00:30:55
that he's living at this particular
00:30:56
dress in Oklahoma they put us in touch
00:30:58
with Josh Dean who is with the uh
00:31:01
Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation and
00:31:04
from the second we talked to Josh Dean
00:31:07
he owned this case Josh Dean calls our
00:31:11
office says hey I'm going to go out to
00:31:13
your guys house tonight so Josh and one
00:31:16
of his Partners go out and surveil the
00:31:19
house of the
00:31:21
suspect we needed some
00:31:24
DNA and they did some trash pulls
00:31:28
and I believe the third bag of trash
00:31:30
they pulled there was an oxygen mask in
00:31:33
there that Josh said had some debris on
00:31:37
it the DNA evidence collected from
00:31:39
Daniel Ray scags Trash is now compared
00:31:43
to the genetic DNA
00:31:46
report Josh Dean two days later sends it
00:31:49
to Bod for comparison and on March 2nd I
00:31:53
get a call from Teresa veland on my way
00:31:56
to work and he said what was the name of
00:31:58
the person again and we're we're talking
00:32:00
dny SC he said oh it's him and I said
00:32:03
wait what wait tell tell me again it's
00:32:06
him she said yes it it's
00:32:08
gags investigators have a plan to arrest
00:32:12
and extradite Daniel Ray scags to face
00:32:15
trial back in Mississippi that's next on
00:32:18
bloodline Detectives
00:32:21
[Music]
00:32:29
2023 Brandon Mississippi investigators
00:32:32
about to arrest an Oklahoma man Daniel
00:32:35
Ray scags for the brutal sex assaults of
00:32:38
not one but two women in 1990 before
00:32:42
confronting the suspect investigators
00:32:44
and prosecutor finalize the
00:32:48
plans immediately we have a planning
00:32:51
meeting of all the attorneys in our
00:32:54
office we come and sit the ground our
00:32:56
conference room
00:32:58
Ryan Barry contacts Benji Kirk bride to
00:33:01
tell her about the Breakthrough in the
00:33:03
case and the evidence against Daniel Ray
00:33:07
skags I wasn't sure exactly why he was
00:33:10
calling and then I talked to my
00:33:12
daughters my oldest daughter and my
00:33:14
youngest daughter and I said uh I'm not
00:33:16
sure but there's something going on I
00:33:18
think it has to do with the rape case
00:33:21
but they're coming
00:33:22
tomorrow and my oldest daughter and her
00:33:25
husband drove 9 hours to Mississippi to
00:33:29
be
00:33:29
there Ryan Barry myself and Leslie Owens
00:33:33
our victim's assistance coordinator plan
00:33:35
to go and tell Benji in person and tell
00:33:38
her hey this is what's been happening in
00:33:40
your case and by the way we know who he
00:33:43
is they get to Georgia and they don't
00:33:48
have a car we continueed to call
00:33:50
multiple places trying to get a rental
00:33:52
car I call him and say do you have
00:33:54
anything that's got three seats and he
00:33:56
says I do and I said we'll be there
00:33:58
shortly and so we rented a 16t box truck
00:34:02
U-Haul they came and they pulled up in
00:34:04
the drive with the U-Haul and it was
00:34:08
pretty funny but they came to let me
00:34:11
know what was going on I'm trying to get
00:34:13
it out what I'm trying to tell her and
00:34:14
she says can I just stop you right there
00:34:17
you do know somebody's confessed to this
00:34:20
right and my heart just broke for her
00:34:23
because nobody had ever told her that
00:34:27
Ruben weeks had been eliminated as a
00:34:31
suspect the investigation now turned
00:34:33
over to the Ranken County Sheriff's to
00:34:36
head up the arrest and questioning of
00:34:38
Daniel Ray
00:34:40
skags I had arrest mors issued for
00:34:43
Daniel Ray scags drove day to Oklahoma
00:34:46
had met with Oklahoma beer
00:34:47
investigations Ryan as well as some of
00:34:49
our deputies John Bert and others from
00:34:51
the sheriff's department were there when
00:34:54
the suspect was taken into custody they
00:34:57
pulled in the drive driveway got out of
00:34:58
their vehicles tactically approached the
00:35:01
mobile home some went around back
00:35:02
someone around front cover all areas
00:35:04
they actually had a pistol a little
00:35:06
revolver sitting next to him he didn't
00:35:08
have time to really do anything they
00:35:09
went in there and pulled him out and
00:35:11
brought him out on the front porch my
00:35:12
name is John Bird I'm investigator with
00:35:13
rank County Sheriff's Department
00:35:15
Mississippi you're who John Bird I'm an
00:35:17
investigator with the ranking County
00:35:18
Sheriff's Department out of Mississippi
00:35:21
Mississippi yes sir I'm going to talk to
00:35:22
you here in a little while I drove a
00:35:24
long way to just to meet you
00:35:29
we charged him with
00:35:32
kidnapping rape and armed robbery for
00:35:35
use of a weapon and taking belongings
00:35:38
from
00:35:39
her from that point we took him to the
00:35:41
simol Oklahoma Police Department where
00:35:43
he was
00:35:44
interviewed he agreed to talk to us he
00:35:46
wanted to know what was going on I was
00:35:48
like look I'm involved in a cold case
00:35:50
from back in 1990 that happened in rank
00:35:52
County Mississippi you have been
00:35:53
identified as a suspect and he said I
00:35:56
don't remember that I said well I'll
00:35:59
tell you what I got your DNA I said it's
00:36:00
100% you and I pushed the paper over to
00:36:03
him explained the markers and how it
00:36:06
worked and he let him read the
00:36:09
statement there's only one in 660
00:36:12
quintilian chance that this DNA belongs
00:36:14
to anybody but Daniel Ray gags and he
00:36:17
just pushed the paper to the side and
00:36:19
said y'all made that
00:36:20
up Daniel Ray scags finally in custody
00:36:24
but also in very poor health
00:36:26
investigators push for a speedy trial
00:36:30
after he was arrested he was then taken
00:36:32
to the hospital there in Oklahoma he was
00:36:35
diagnosed with flu and pneumonia we've
00:36:37
got the original confirmation of DNA
00:36:39
from bod but we don't have the
00:36:42
confirmation hit from our Mississippi
00:36:44
crime lab so Bert goes to the hospital
00:36:46
and he gets a bual swab and sends it to
00:36:49
our crime lab Brit also confirms that
00:36:51
Daniel Ray skags is the rapist and so
00:36:54
now we have two DNA tests confirming it
00:36:56
we take it to the ranking County grand
00:36:58
jury where he's indicted by the ranking
00:37:00
County grand jury for rape arm robbery
00:37:03
and kidnapping and we asked the judge
00:37:05
for an expedited setting for trial it
00:37:09
was originally set in front of Judge
00:37:11
rackliff our senior judge it was going
00:37:14
to be a certain time before judge
00:37:16
rackliff got back here but he assigned
00:37:20
the case to another judge judge Arthur
00:37:22
Who agreed to take it and we were able
00:37:25
to try him in June
00:37:27
to be in the room the seal rapists that
00:37:30
have done that kind of things you know
00:37:32
the nerves the excitement that normally
00:37:35
go along with a trial is just amped up
00:37:37
that much more we made
00:37:39
it to trial it was hard
00:37:44
to testify I was scared and nervous at
00:37:49
first but once I went in there and I saw
00:37:52
him at the defense table and my family
00:37:55
sitting on the first row so I could see
00:37:57
them directly in front of the witness
00:37:59
chair I somehow managed to pull my
00:38:04
strength and I told
00:38:06
them everything that I remembered in the
00:38:10
state of Mississippi we have what's
00:38:12
called 404b evidence which means that
00:38:15
victims that have had similar crimes
00:38:17
committed by the same defendant can come
00:38:19
and testify to the jury about what
00:38:21
happened for them so we felt like Lisa
00:38:23
would also be able to testify you need
00:38:25
to put these people away
00:38:28
you need to do what's right more people
00:38:31
need to stand up against their
00:38:35
abusers jury got the case and it took
00:38:38
them an hour and a half to reach a
00:38:40
verdict they've unanimously reached
00:38:43
their verdicts judge reads them we the
00:38:46
jury find the defendant Daniel Ray
00:38:51
guilty of
00:38:52
rap we the jury find the defendant
00:38:56
Daniel racek guilty of
00:38:59
kidnapping and then the judge Dewey
00:39:02
Arthur immediately proceeded with
00:39:04
sentencing and he sentenced him to two
00:39:06
consecutive life
00:39:08
sentences Benji actually stood up she
00:39:12
was strong she told about what had
00:39:14
happened to her what he had done to her
00:39:16
but basically that he had not broken her
00:39:18
she did look at him and say I forgive
00:39:20
you I don't understand why you did this
00:39:22
but I forgive
00:39:23
you August 2023 another twist in the
00:39:27
face news from the prison where Daniel
00:39:29
Ray scags is
00:39:32
incarcerated David Ruth texted me and
00:39:35
told me that Daniel Ray skags had died I
00:39:39
was not really
00:39:42
surprised because I knew he was sick
00:39:45
it's a Bittersweet moment for the two
00:39:49
survivors for Lisa it was frustrating
00:39:52
because she did not actually get to have
00:39:54
her case presented to a grand jury or
00:39:57
trial we feel like our verdict was for
00:40:00
both Lisa and Benji because Lisa was
00:40:03
able to testify he deserves everything
00:40:06
in hell that he's probably going through
00:40:09
now I feel like Lisa and I got
00:40:12
him we got him and with Ryan and Kathy
00:40:17
and David and everybody that was
00:40:19
involved Bubba all of them they got it
00:40:23
done Daniel race gags was caught and he
00:40:26
was help held accountable for his
00:40:28
actions for raping those
00:40:31
women Daniel Ray skags may have died
00:40:34
behind bars but for the two women he
00:40:37
brutally raped Justice is served their
00:40:41
courage in coming forward and helping
00:40:44
police instrumental in finding and
00:40:48
arresting a predator along with the
00:40:52
amazing science of investigative genetic
00:40:55
genealogy
00:40:57
I'm Nancy Grace and I want to thank you
00:40:59
for being with us here on bloodline
00:41:02
detectives
00:41:04
[Music]
00:41:14
[Music]
00:41:34
[Music]
00:41:35
for
00:41:36
[Music]
