00:00:09
There were many eyes on Lana Long as she
00:00:12
walked out on stage for her nightly
00:00:14
routine.
00:00:18
[Music]
00:00:22
She was a popular performer at the Sly
00:00:24
Fox Lounge, a club well known for
00:00:27
beautiful exotic dances.
00:00:37
Sometime after the performance, Lana
00:00:40
Long had an unexpected encounter.
00:00:49
The crime committed that night might
00:00:51
have gone unsolved had it not been for a
00:00:54
common thread.
00:00:57
Yeah.
00:00:59
[Music]
00:01:23
It's going to be great. One Sunday
00:01:25
afternoon, two boys were playing
00:01:27
together on an abandoned highway.
00:01:30
>> Ready? 3 2 1.
00:01:34
[Music]
00:01:39
>> As they ran through a field chasing a
00:01:41
parachute, they discovered a horrible
00:01:44
sight.
00:01:48
The nude, decomposed body of a young
00:01:50
woman. She was lying face down with her
00:01:54
hands bound behind her back. A cord was
00:01:57
wrapped three times around her neck like
00:01:59
a leash. Under her body lay a white silk
00:02:03
scarf tied in a knot.
00:02:05
>> This killer was trying to make a
00:02:07
statement. He could have killed this
00:02:08
woman with a lot less trauma.
00:02:11
But the uh the deepness of this bruise
00:02:14
uh the the the prominence of this bruise
00:02:18
uh indicated that uh that he applied a
00:02:22
lot more force than it was necessary to
00:02:24
end this woman's life. He was violent.
00:02:28
>> The victim was identified as 20-year-old
00:02:31
Lana Long, an exotic dancer who worked
00:02:34
at the Sly Fox Lounge in Tampa.
00:02:37
Detectives found some faint tire tracks
00:02:39
near the body, but little else. Homicide
00:02:43
investigators interviewed Lana Long's
00:02:45
boyfriend, John Corkran. Cochran hadn't
00:02:48
reported Long missing, even though they
00:02:50
lived together, and he hadn't seen her
00:02:52
for 3 days.
00:02:54
>> He had an explanation of why he didn't
00:02:56
report her missing. It was kind of
00:02:58
vague. We were concerned about that.
00:03:00
Cochran admitted that he argued with
00:03:03
Long on the day of her disappearance
00:03:05
about the number of men who were calling
00:03:07
her at home, asking her out on dates.
00:03:11
Two weeks later, a second body was
00:03:14
discovered in a deserted location. I can
00:03:17
vividly recall getting in the car,
00:03:19
driving to the crime scene, saying to
00:03:20
myself, "Please don't let her be bound.
00:03:23
Please don't let her be tied up."
00:03:26
It felt like a ton of bricks had just
00:03:27
fallen upon me cuz here we go from
00:03:29
rarely having a victim bound
00:03:32
to now two within two weeks of each
00:03:34
other.
00:03:35
>> The victim was identified as 22-year-old
00:03:38
Michelle Sims, a former beauty
00:03:41
contestant who had turned to
00:03:43
prostitution to support a drug habit.
00:03:47
Neared the body, police discovered some
00:03:50
fresh tire prints in the soft sand. But
00:03:52
there was something unusual about the
00:03:54
tire impressions. The vehicle had three
00:03:58
different tires.
00:04:01
Detectives made plaster molds of the
00:04:03
tire impressions for analysis, hoping
00:04:06
they would provide some clue to the
00:04:08
identity of the murderer.
00:04:12
Because of the similarities in these two
00:04:14
cases, investigators believed that both
00:04:17
murders were committed by the same
00:04:19
person. This time, however, John Cochran
00:04:23
had an alibi and was no longer
00:04:25
considered a suspect. In the forensics
00:04:28
lab, when Michelle Sims clothing was
00:04:31
analyzed, they discovered a tiny clue, a
00:04:35
mysterious red fiber. It was similar to
00:04:39
a red fiber discovered at the Lana Long
00:04:41
crime scene on the white silk scarf
00:04:44
found under Long's body. On September
00:04:48
18th, 1984, the nude body of a third
00:04:52
woman was discovered. The victim,
00:04:54
18-year-old Chanel Williams, who had a
00:04:57
prior arrest for prostitution.
00:05:01
This particular case, it was a black
00:05:03
female.
00:05:04
Her body had been dumped on the
00:05:06
roadside. She was completely nude. She
00:05:09
was not bound in any way. Uh there was
00:05:12
some clothing found next to her tied in
00:05:14
a knot.
00:05:16
She had suffered a gunshot wound to the
00:05:18
back of the head.
00:05:20
So when you look at this case, it it's
00:05:22
totally different than the other cases.
00:05:24
Or is it? The forensics lab found the
00:05:28
answer. Tiny red fibers were discovered
00:05:31
on William's clothing. Fibers similar to
00:05:34
those found on the other two victims.
00:05:37
While detectives launched a full-scale
00:05:40
investigation, they hoped that these
00:05:43
mysterious red fibers would lead them to
00:05:46
their serial killer before he struck
00:05:50
again.
00:05:54
The Hillsboro County Sheriff's
00:05:55
Department wanted to know all they could
00:05:57
about the mysterious red fibers found on
00:06:01
the three murdered women.
00:06:03
Each of the tiny fibers was
00:06:06
microscopically analyzed and compared
00:06:10
under a scanning electron microscope
00:06:13
magnified more than 1,000 times.
00:06:16
Scientists noticed an unusual size and
00:06:20
shape to the fibers. Instead of being
00:06:22
round or square, the fiber looks more or
00:06:26
less triangular, but like a triangle.
00:06:28
It's been pinched so that you see the
00:06:30
three legs sticking out from the core of
00:06:32
the fiber. The fibers from the three
00:06:35
women were all triangular or trilobyl.
00:06:39
The next task was to identify whether
00:06:42
the fibers were natural or man-made.
00:06:46
Since man-made fibers are made from
00:06:48
chemicals, scientists use what is called
00:06:51
a melting point apparatus to determine
00:06:54
the temperature at which the fiber would
00:06:56
break down. The results revealed that
00:06:59
the red fibers were nylon. And by
00:07:02
microscopically measuring the light
00:07:05
reflected through the fibers, scientists
00:07:07
determined that all three trillobal
00:07:10
nylon fibers were dyed the exact same
00:07:13
color and were from the same dot. The
00:07:16
conclusion, the red nylon trilobyl
00:07:19
fibers found on the three victims were
00:07:22
all from the same source. Nylon trilobyl
00:07:26
fiber is used mostly in carpet, high
00:07:29
durability, inexpensive carpet. Since
00:07:32
this fiber masks dirt, it's often used
00:07:35
in automobiles and hotels. Next,
00:07:38
homicide detectives turned their
00:07:40
attention to the tire impressions found
00:07:43
near the bodies. Tire tread experts
00:07:46
noticed that there were three different
00:07:48
tires on the vehicle. The impression of
00:07:51
the front tire was simple to identify.
00:07:54
It was an extremely common model made by
00:07:56
the Goodyear Tire Company. The right
00:07:58
rear tire was manufactured by the
00:08:01
Goodyear company as well. It was a
00:08:03
lowpriced model called the Viva. But
00:08:06
there was something unusual about the
00:08:08
tread. It was a white wall tire and was
00:08:12
on the rim with the white wall side
00:08:15
facing inward.
00:08:17
The left rear tire could not immediately
00:08:20
be identified since it was not among the
00:08:22
thousands of known tire treads in the
00:08:25
FBI's computer database. So
00:08:27
investigators sent the tire impression
00:08:30
to the Goodyear Tire Company in Akran,
00:08:32
Ohio to see if they could help identify
00:08:35
it. Goodyear's tire expert recognized
00:08:38
that it was a specialty tire and a very
00:08:41
expensive one, not sold in retail
00:08:44
stores. It was a model called the Vogue,
00:08:47
made by the Vogue Tire and Rubber
00:08:49
Company and was used exclusively on
00:08:52
Cadillacs. The tire impression showed
00:08:55
that it too was a white wall tire which
00:08:58
was placed on the vehicle with the white
00:09:00
wall side facing inward. If the
00:09:03
detectives could find the vehicle with
00:09:06
this unusual combination of tire treads,
00:09:09
they would have the vehicle which left
00:09:11
the tire tracks at two of the murder
00:09:14
scenes. They also suspected that this
00:09:17
vehicle would have red nylon trillobal
00:09:20
carpet. Gary Terry decided not to
00:09:23
release this important information to
00:09:26
the press.
00:09:26
>> Serial killers watch the news, read the
00:09:29
newspaper just like anybody else. We
00:09:31
were aware of the experience up in
00:09:33
Atlanta, Georgia with the Wayne Williams
00:09:34
case. I had personally talked with the
00:09:36
investigators up there. He changed his
00:09:39
pattern after he saw it described in the
00:09:41
newspaper.
00:09:43
He began reading about trace evidence.
00:09:45
So he began dumping the bodies in the
00:09:47
rivers to wash the bodies and destroy
00:09:49
latent or trace evidence. Deputies
00:09:52
believed that the killer was cruising
00:09:54
for victims along Nebraska Avenue, where
00:09:58
prostitutes usually congregate.
00:10:01
Female police decoys walked the strip
00:10:03
dressed as prostitutes in an attempt to
00:10:06
lure the killer. The number of patrol
00:10:08
cars in the area also was increased.
00:10:12
Author Anna Flowers described the search
00:10:15
for the killer in her book, Bound to
00:10:17
Die. I've talked to a lot of uh uh
00:10:21
officers who say, "I have to think like
00:10:25
the killer in order to catch him. I
00:10:28
worry what it what would it take for me
00:10:31
to become the killer?" Interesting
00:10:34
thought.
00:10:35
>> Despite police efforts, a fourth nude
00:10:39
body was discovered in a deserted area.
00:10:41
The victim, 28-year-old Karen Den's
00:10:45
friend, who had turned to prostitution
00:10:47
to support a drug habit. Deputies knew
00:10:51
that the serial murderer had struck
00:10:53
again when they found red nylon trilobyl
00:10:57
fibers in Din's friend's clothing. The
00:11:00
pattern that we saw here, uh, the way
00:11:02
that these bodies
00:11:05
were left, uh, the way that they were
00:11:08
strangled, uh, the way that they were
00:11:10
tied indicated that we had a serial
00:11:12
killer.
00:11:13
>> Despite leaving behind the fiber and
00:11:15
tire track evidence, the killer was
00:11:18
smart, but his next target, a
00:11:21
17-year-old girl, outsmarted him.
00:11:29
2:30 a.m. After working the night shift
00:11:32
at this doughnut shop in Tampa, Florida,
00:11:35
17-year-old Lisa McVey rode her bicycle
00:11:39
home along a dark, deserted street.
00:11:44
Suddenly, a man jumped from behind a
00:11:46
parked van, knocked Lisa off her
00:11:48
bicycle, grabbed her by the hair, and
00:11:51
forced her into his car.
00:11:53
>> God, help me. I was thinking I was going
00:11:56
to be killed. Oh my god. Just just just
00:11:58
help me.
00:12:00
>> He drove McVey to an apartment.
00:12:04
Over the next 24 hours, she was
00:12:07
repeatedly raped and sodomized,
00:12:10
blindfolded, petrified, and convinced
00:12:14
she would die. Lisa McVey made an
00:12:17
important decision.
00:12:19
>> I had the life of God in me. I wanted I
00:12:23
had the willingness to live, to survive.
00:12:25
That's it. the survival part. Um, when
00:12:28
you're in something like that, you would
00:12:30
be surprised yourself what you're
00:12:33
capable of.
00:12:35
>> While still blindfolded, McVey was
00:12:38
permitted to use the bathroom. She left
00:12:41
her fingerprints everywhere she could
00:12:43
under the toilet seat, around the sink,
00:12:46
on the haird dryer.
00:12:48
If I had died, if I was killed, I want
00:12:51
them as far as the police or whoever
00:12:53
found me to know that I was there and I
00:12:56
tried. Lisa was a very sharp young lady.
00:13:00
I personally feel what saved her life
00:13:02
was her actions. And those actions were
00:13:03
to say yes sir and no sir to every
00:13:06
demand that the suspect made of her. At
00:13:09
3 in the morning, after 24 hours of
00:13:12
captivity, Lisa, still blindfolded, was
00:13:15
forced back into the car at gunpoint.
00:13:18
She was very street smart. Although she
00:13:21
had been blindfolded, she could see
00:13:24
under the blindfold enough to give
00:13:26
police very important data.
00:13:29
>> I was trying to get a good clue idea of
00:13:31
what area I was in. I wanted to know
00:13:33
where I was coming from. And I remember
00:13:36
leaning back in the chair. I can see in
00:13:37
the blindfold that I saw two hotels side
00:13:41
by side each other practically I then
00:13:43
the 275 goes in between them and said
00:13:46
Howard Johnson equality in
00:13:48
>> Lisa noticed the word magnum on the
00:13:51
dashboard
00:13:53
saw that the seats were white and that
00:13:55
the car had red carpet.
00:14:00
Her abductor stopped the car for a few
00:14:03
minutes and Lisa heard a familiar sound.
00:14:06
[Music]
00:14:09
a 24-hour bank teller machine.
00:14:12
>> I heard the sounds of the keys of the
00:14:14
buttons on the machine.
00:14:22
A short drive later, he stopped the car,
00:14:26
opened the door, put Lisa on the street
00:14:30
along with her clothes, warned her not
00:14:33
to remove the blindfold for another 5
00:14:36
minutes, and drove away.
00:14:54
freedom.
00:14:56
Wow, I'm alive. I'm here. What do I do
00:14:59
now?
00:15:01
I looked both ways and I fell to my
00:15:04
knees and I started crying.
00:15:06
>> Lisa McVey was taken to the hospital and
00:15:08
her clothing sent to the forensic lab
00:15:10
for analysis.
00:15:12
But before it could be analyzed,
00:15:15
detectives were called to another
00:15:18
homicide.
00:15:20
Another nude body found near a highway
00:15:23
overpass.
00:15:24
>> And you could tell it was him. There
00:15:26
were actually no liatures on the body,
00:15:28
but you could see ligature marks where
00:15:30
he had removed the liatures.
00:15:32
>> When the forensic lab analyzed the
00:15:35
clothing from Kim Swan and Lisa McVey,
00:15:38
they discovered a shocking piece of
00:15:41
information.
00:15:42
Kim Swan's clothing contained the same
00:15:46
red nylon trilobyl fibers as the other
00:15:50
victims and the same red fibers were
00:15:53
found on Lisa McVeyy's clothing.
00:15:57
>> It was disbelief.
00:15:59
We couldn't believe that we have for
00:16:02
some reason the killer has not killed
00:16:04
he's let a victim survive.
00:16:07
Lisa McVeyy's courage and determination
00:16:10
made her the first known survivor of the
00:16:13
serial killer. Could she provide enough
00:16:17
information to find him?
00:16:23
When police realized that Lisa McVeyy's
00:16:25
rapist was the serial killer, the clue
00:16:28
she provided took on a new importance.
00:16:33
She saw the word magnum on the dashboard
00:16:36
of his car. Only one car had the word
00:16:39
magnum on the dashboard. The 1978 Dodge
00:16:43
Magnum. A computer search of Dodge
00:16:46
Magnum owners in the area revealed a
00:16:48
list of 486 names. McVey also told
00:16:53
investigators that her abductor used a
00:16:56
24-hour bank teller machine shortly
00:16:59
before she was released. When the
00:17:01
records of all bank machine transactions
00:17:04
for November 4th were compared with the
00:17:07
list of Dodge Magnum owners, only one
00:17:10
name was on both lists. Robert Long.
00:17:15
Robert Bobby Joe Long was a 31-year-old
00:17:19
part-time X-ray technician.
00:17:22
Separated from his wife, he was the
00:17:24
father of two children. Since Lisa McVey
00:17:27
was blindfolded during most of her
00:17:29
captivity, she could not positively
00:17:32
identify him from photographs.
00:17:35
So, Bobby Joe Long was immediately
00:17:37
placed under 24-hour surveillance.
00:17:41
Long was followed to this movie theater,
00:17:43
and when he went inside, deputies
00:17:46
inspected the tires on his car. On the
00:17:49
right rear side was a Goodyear Viva. on
00:17:53
the left rear side, the expensive
00:17:55
specialty tire, the Vogue. Both tires
00:17:59
were inverted with the white wall side
00:18:01
facing inwards. They were the same tires
00:18:05
and in the same position as the tire
00:18:08
impressions found at two of the murder
00:18:10
sites. When Long walked out of the movie
00:18:14
theater, deputies immediately arrested
00:18:16
him and confiscated his car for further
00:18:19
analysis. The tire treads matched the
00:18:22
plaster impressions taken from two of
00:18:25
the crime scenes. Long's blood type
00:18:29
matched a seaman stain found on one of
00:18:31
the victims. But it was the carpet
00:18:35
inside the dodge magnum that linked long
00:18:39
to all of these crimes.
00:18:42
The red nylon trilobyl carpet fibers
00:18:45
inside Long's Dodge Magnum matched the
00:18:48
fibers found on the murdered women and
00:18:52
they also matched the red fibers on Lisa
00:18:55
McVeyy's clothing. How was he getting so
00:18:58
much fiber evidence on this the clothing
00:19:00
of the victims? Well, he was stripping
00:19:03
his victims down in the car and he was
00:19:05
throwing the clothes in the floorboard
00:19:07
of his vehicle and the victim was
00:19:08
kicking the clothing kicking it kicking.
00:19:10
It was picking up the fiber evidence out
00:19:12
of the floorboard of his vehicle. Fiber
00:19:14
evidence is often referred to as a
00:19:16
silent witness. It doesn't say a thing,
00:19:19
but it just speaks volumes.
00:19:21
>> When told of this evidence against him,
00:19:23
Bobby Joe Long confessed to the rape and
00:19:26
abduction of Lisa McVey as well as the
00:19:29
murders.
00:19:31
He also confessed to two additional
00:19:34
murders the police knew nothing about
00:19:37
and led them to the bodies.
00:19:40
In all, he confessed to 10 murders.
00:19:45
>> It's sad what happened to him
00:19:49
and that I could do something like that
00:19:51
to somebody.
00:19:53
All the victims. All of them. You know,
00:19:56
and you're talking about a lot of them.
00:19:57
A lot.
00:20:02
A lot of lives just gone right down to
00:20:04
twos because of me,
00:20:06
you know, in one way or another. And
00:20:09
it's not a good feeling. It's not a
00:20:10
pleasant feeling. I'm not proud of
00:20:11
anything I've done.
00:20:14
And the worst thing is I don't
00:20:15
understand why. I don't understand why.
00:20:19
>> Yes, it was bad. Yes, it's very
00:20:20
traumatic to my life, but it's made me
00:20:23
who I am today. the challenges in my
00:20:26
life, the weaknesses that I had then has
00:20:28
made me stronger and better person
00:20:29
today.
00:20:31
And that's how I'm able to survive.
00:20:35
>> I'm a firm believer that this is not all
00:20:37
the homicides Bobby Joe Long did. You
00:20:40
don't start killing the way Bobby Joe
00:20:42
Long started killing. Have we found all
00:20:44
the victims? No. Are we going to find
00:20:46
all the victims? I doubt it. Not unless
00:20:49
someday he decides to give us the rest
00:20:52
of the information and the rest of the
00:20:54
story.
00:20:56
[Music]
00:21:08
[Music]
00:21:18
[Music]
00:21:31
Heat. Heat.
00:21:35
[Music]
