00:00:04
[music playing]
00:00:09
NARRATOR: On a cold
December night in 1993,
00:00:13
Rose Larner left the
convenience store on her way
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to a boyfriend's house.
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But she was never seen
or heard from again.
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Rose Larner's disappearance
remained a mystery
00:00:29
until a tiny clue found years
later uncovered a tragic tale
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of drugs, romance, and revenge.
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[music playing]
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Rose Larner was
the second of three
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children in a broken family.
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She was a highly intelligent,
but very difficult teenager.
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Rose Larner was an 18-year-old
girl who liked to spend a lot
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of time out at night with her
friends away from her family,
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a family that dubbed her
the vampire because they--
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they only saw her
in the daytime.
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NARRATOR: Rose's best
friend, Bill Brown,
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was a boy she had known
since second grade.
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They remained friends
even after high school.
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First girl I ever
got a kiss from.
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Her and two other girls
came down our house
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and they chased me
through the woods
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and my brothers held me
down and she gave me a kiss.
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And we was just
basically friends.
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We had crushes on each
other, but nothing serious,
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and we were just kids.
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NARRATOR: After high school,
Rose worked at a pizza shop
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in her hometown of
Lansing, Michigan
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and started dating a friend of
Bill Brown's, John Ortiz-Kehoe.
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He came on quite polite.
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He was a local star, rap star.
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I mean, everyone thought
he was just it, you know?
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This was John Kehoe.
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And when I first met him,
I thought he was a nice.
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I thought he was all right.
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NARRATOR: Rose, John
Kehoe, and Bill Brown
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were inseparable, spending their
days and most of their nights
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together.
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For a time, Rose and John
Kehoe lived together,
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but the relationship
didn't last.
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Kehoe moved out, and
Rose was devastated.
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John, at some
point, decided that he
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wasn't interested in Rose
and tried to break it off.
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Rose wasn't real
keen on that idea.
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NARRATOR: On the night
Rose disappeared,
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she stopped in to visit
her mother, who was working
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at the convenience store.
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Rose said she was headed to
the home of her friend, Keith,
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who lived nearby.
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She walked up to
my work and told me
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she was walking over to a
boyfriend she had at the time.
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Her and John were split up.
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And-- and I asked her not to.
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I told her I had a bad
feeling about tonight,
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go back and get to bed, but
she didn't want to do that.
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NARRATOR: Rose preferred to walk
that night instead of driving
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and did not return home.
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The next day, Rose Markey called
her daughter's friend, Keith,
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who said that Rose
never showed up.
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Rose didn't show up for
work that day either.
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Rose ran on the wild side.
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She was independent,
rebellious, and it would not
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have been out of the-- out
of the realm of possibility
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for her to have
simply left the area
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and gone looked for
another lifestyle.
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NARRATOR: Rose Larner made
approximately 1,500 telephone
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calls every month,
but no one heard
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from her after she disappeared.
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Nobody heard from Rosie.
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And the detective
that was assigned
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to the case, that was
his sign that there
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was something wrong there.
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Because he said
that someone just
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doesn't break a habit like that.
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NARRATOR: Rose Larner's
mother still hoped
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for her daughter's safe return.
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Perhaps something in
Rose's phone records
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would provide a clue.
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After two weeks went by with
no word from Rose Larner,
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Lansing police began one of the
most intensive searches ever
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undertaken in central Michigan.
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They dragged area rivers,
coordinated search teams
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to look for clues in the
surrounding neighborhoods,
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and investigated every lead.
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DONALD MARTIN: The
persistent rumors,
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Rose is in so an
so's backyard, Rose
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is in so and so's
basement, and I'll admit,
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we dug up a few basements
and drained a few gravel pits
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looking for Rose with nothing.
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Came up dry every time.
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Nothing.
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NARRATOR: Police learned
that Rose Larner spoke
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with her ex-boyfriend,
John Ortiz-Kehoe,
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on the night she disappeared.
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Kehoe had an alibi
for that night.
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He was on a date
with another woman.
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Bill Brown was with
Kehoe and his date
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on the night Rose disappeared
and corroborated Kehoe's alibi.
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For the next 2 and 1/2
years, police could
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find no trace of Rose Larner.
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You're simply stymied.
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You're stalled.
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That was where the
police were at--
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at that time, 2 and 1/2
years after she disappeared.
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NARRATOR: The state police
began their investigation
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with a fresh look at Rose's
ex-boyfriend, John Ortiz-Kehoe.
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They quickly discovered
that Kehoe and Rose Larner
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had an unusual relationship,
one that continued
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even after they broke up.
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In one incident, Rose followed
Kehoe to this fraternity house
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near Michigan State University.
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Kehoe was on a date
with another woman.
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In a fit of anger,
Rose drove a van
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into the side of Kehoe's truck.
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BILL BROWN: She was smashing
her mother's van into his truck,
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breaking out his windows.
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We'd come out my
parents' house and she'd
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be hiding behind trees.
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NARRATOR: Police also learned
that Kehoe and Bill Brown were
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in business together,
the drug business,
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and had customers
all over Michigan.
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DONALD BROOKS: We, as a task
force, put a lot of pressure
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on Bill Brown I mean, we were
talking to family members,
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we were talking to friends,
we were talking to neighbors,
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we were talking to
all kinds of people
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had been approached before.
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NARRATOR: Brown and
Kehoe were together
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on the night Rose
Larner disappeared,
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but police did not
believe that Brown
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had told them everything about
their activities that night.
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BILL BROWN: I knew it was gonna
be very hard, very, very hard
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for them to be
able to get a case.
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I knew the only way would be
is if people started talking.
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NARRATOR: Bill Brown originally
said he knew nothing about Rose
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Larner's disappearance.
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But 2 and 1/2 years later,
under constant police pressure,
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he changed his story,
and it was a story so
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shocking few believed him.
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When Bill Brown was
sitting there in the office,
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we were hearing things that
we had never heard before.
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It was an eye-opener.
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After listening
to his whole story
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about what happened
to Rose Larner,
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I literally went home
and told my wife that I
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felt like I just met Satan.
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You know, I almost
stopped on the way home
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and went into a church
that I didn't belong to.
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It's-- it was-- it was
the most unsettling
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thing that I've ever been
through, to listen to that.
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NARRATOR: And police
needed science
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to determine whether Brown
was telling the truth.
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After 2 and 1/2 years of
searching for Rose Larner,
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Bill Brown finally
revealed what happened
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on the night she disappeared.
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Brown said that
on December 7, he
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unexpectedly ran
into Rose Larner
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near the convenience store.
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Rose told Brown she
wanted to see John Kehoe.
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Rose was begging me to face
John, and so I finally do.
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I page John, and she asked me
to ask John to come pick her up.
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John says the only way he'll
agree to that is if she agrees
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to have sex with both of us.
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NARRATOR: Brown
said Rose agreed.
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They drove to John
Kehoe's grandparents' home
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because they were
away on vacation.
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Rose changed her mind
about the threesome.
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When she did, Brown
said Kehoe murdered her
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and dismembered her body.
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Brown said they cleaned every
square foot of the house,
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removing all of the
blood, bone, and debris.
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Later, they drove to a cabin
owned by Bill Brown's parents
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where they burned Rose's body.
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Afterwards, they spread Rose's
ashes along miles of highway
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throughout Michigan.
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Brown said he
didn't come forward
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sooner because he was afraid
Kehoe would murder him as well.
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All I wanted to do
was get away from him.
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I just wanted to
get away from him.
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And after that, he basically
kind of kept me hostage.
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I mean, he wouldn't let
me out of his sight.
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NARRATOR: After 2 and
1/2 years, police finally
00:09:45
had the break they
were hoping for,
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but they needed to know if
Brown was telling the truth.
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He'd been involved
in the drug scene,
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that he ran with this
group that would fight.
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Violence was a part
of their world.
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He was-- he ran
with a rough crowd.
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NARRATOR: Brown said Rose
was murdered in the bathroom.
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Police sprayed the area with
luminol, a chemical which
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can reveal trace
amounts of blood
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even after it's been removed
with water and detergent,
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but they found nothing.
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On a hallway carpet,
the luminol revealed
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what appeared to be the
imprint of a bloody bucket,
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but after 2 and 1/2 years,
there was not enough blood
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to perform DNA testing.
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Investigators feared they
were at a dead end, until they
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noticed a small spot
on the wallpaper
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just outside the bathroom.
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It had the color
consistent with blood,
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and it had kind of
the configuration
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of what you would suspect
if a blood droplet was
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falling down a wall.
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NARRATOR: The spot looked like
part of the wallpaper pattern.
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To see if it was blood,
scientists performed
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a phenolphthalein test.
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A wet Q-tip was rubbed
over the spot, then,
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phenolphthalein and hydrogen
peroxide were applied.
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The Q-tip turned pink, a
positive presumptive test
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for the presence of blood.
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Of course, we didn't
know whose blood it was.
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Keep in mind, just because we
find a drop of blood, I mean,
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it could be the grandparents, it
could be anybody's blood that--
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we didn't know for sure.
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You know, in my
mind, I'm thinking,
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you know, could this be a
blood drop of Rose Larner?
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And this point, you know, of
course, I got very excited
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and thought, you know, what if?
00:11:40
This could actually
be from our victim.
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NARRATOR: Scientists were
able to extract enough blood
00:11:45
from the wallpaper
for DNA analysis,
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but they have nothing
to compare it to.
00:11:50
In Rose Larner's
case file, police
00:11:53
learned that she had been
involved in a sexual assault
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four years earlier.
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After the assault, a
sample of her blood
00:12:01
was taken and still
existed in police custody.
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The DNA profile from the
blood on the wallpaper
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matched the DNA from Rose
Larner's blood sample.
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The odds of the blood
belonging to anyone else
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were 1 in 747 million.
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Identifying it as Rose
Larner's is what's remarkable.
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That tells us that Rose Larner
was in that house at that time.
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That corroborates what
Bill Brown told us.
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That was crucial.
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NARRATOR: Brown also
revealed that they
00:12:34
both rinsed rags soaked
with Rose's blood
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in the basement sump pump.
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Forensic scientists
gathered all of the debris
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from the bottom of the drain.
00:12:44
They also excavated
the fire pit near Bill
00:12:46
Brown's parents'
cabin, where Rose's
00:12:48
body had allegedly been burned.
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The search resembled
an archeological dig.
00:12:54
My job at that site was
to excavate the fire pit
00:12:59
and collect any remains, any
evidence in that fire pit
00:13:02
that might be
relevant to the case.
00:13:03
Specifically, I was
looking for evidence
00:13:05
for human bone, human material.
00:13:08
NARRATOR: The
fragments were analyzed
00:13:10
with an ultraviolet
light in order
00:13:12
to determine whether
they were bone.
00:13:15
Under ultraviolet
light, bone will glow.
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MAY MICHAUD: The fragments
that I did end up finding
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were very, very small.
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Probably none of them were
larger than the size of a pea.
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So, initially, when all the
dirt and debris was in there,
00:13:30
it was very difficult
to tell what we had.
00:13:33
NARRATOR: The bone chips
were too damaged and degraded
00:13:35
for DNA analysis.
00:13:37
But they were analyzed to
determine if they were human.
00:13:40
Magnified 100 times, human
bone is circular in structure,
00:13:45
while animal bone, seen
here, is more linear.
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The bones found in both
sites were clearly human.
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The number of circular
structures in the bones,
00:13:57
are osteons, increases with age.
00:14:00
They were relatively few
osteons in the bone chips
00:14:02
found in the debris.
00:14:04
We were able to determine that
the remains were clearly human,
00:14:08
and, in some cases,
they probably
00:14:10
represented somebody who was a
teenager or in their early 20s.
00:14:16
People just don't find bone
fragments in their house.
00:14:19
And it collaborated
with the bone fragments
00:14:22
that we found in northern
Michigan at the site
00:14:25
where Bill Brown's
property, where they took
00:14:27
her and burned her remains.
00:14:29
NARRATOR: The blood
and the bone chips
00:14:31
were exactly where Bill
Brown said they'd be.
00:14:34
Police were now convinced that
Rose Larner had been murdered.
00:14:42
According to Bill
Brown's confession
00:14:45
and the forensic
evidence, prosecutors
00:14:48
now knew what happened to Rose
Larner on her last night alive.
00:14:54
Shortly after
visiting her mother
00:14:55
at the convenience store,
Rose ran into her childhood
00:14:59
friend, Bill Brown.
00:15:03
BILL BROWN: Hi, Rose.
00:15:04
Hi, Billy.
00:15:05
Let's go get John.
00:15:07
BILL BROWN: Fine.
00:15:11
NARRATOR: At Rose's
suggestion, they picked up
00:15:13
her ex-boyfriend, John Kehoe.
00:15:17
I'm gonna go inside
and grab some stuff
00:15:19
for the night's festivities.
00:15:21
NARRATOR: John Kehoe bought
some supplies for the evening,
00:15:24
including a hatchet, a knife,
and some lighter fluid.
00:15:31
Brown said he was not
aware of the specific items
00:15:34
Kehoe purchased until
later that night.
00:15:43
Once at Kehoe's
grandparents' home,
00:15:46
all three took a
shower together.
00:15:49
Kehoe again tried to initiate
the sexual threesome,
00:15:53
but Rose refused.
00:16:02
At the sink, without
warning, Kehoe strangled her.
00:16:18
In the shower stall,
Kehoe slit her throat
00:16:22
and dismembered her body
using the knife and hatchet
00:16:25
he purchased at the store.
00:16:30
Brown and Kehoe spent the
next two days cleaning
00:16:33
the blood, bone, and debris.
00:16:36
A bloody bucket left
the stain on the carpet
00:16:39
found years later
with the luminol.
00:16:45
Rags soaked with
blood and bone were
00:16:47
rinsed in the basement sump
pump, where tiny pieces of bone
00:16:52
were also discovered.
00:16:57
And a blood spot on the
wall was identified as Rose
00:17:01
Larner's through DNA testing.
00:17:09
Her body was burned in
an outdoor fire pit.
00:17:16
After the cremation,
the ashes were
00:17:19
dumped out of the car
window as Kehoe and Brown
00:17:22
drove back to Lansing.
00:17:25
BILL BROWN: I did say a
prayer for right afterwards.
00:17:27
And I'm not a religious person,
but I did pray for her soul.
00:17:30
And-- and-- that--
that night-- night--
00:17:34
many nights after, that's about
all the thought I put into it.
00:17:36
All the other thought
was in saving my--
00:17:38
saving my butt.
00:17:41
NARRATOR: The bones
in the sump pump,
00:17:43
the luminol impression
of the bloody bucket,
00:17:45
the tiny speck of
blood on the wallpaper,
00:17:48
and the bone fragments
in the fire pit
00:17:50
all confirmed Brown's story.
00:17:53
Before police could
question John Kehoe,
00:17:56
he fled the country.
00:17:57
After a six-month
international manhunt,
00:18:00
Kehoe was finally located.
00:18:02
DONALD BROOKS: When I saw him
for the first time in Mexico,
00:18:05
he was drinking a beer in a bar.
00:18:08
Four minutes later,
he's sitting in US
00:18:10
Customs, ends up on the
other side of the bridge.
00:18:12
It was like slam, bam, and he
was out of there right now.
00:18:16
I don't think he
knew what happened.
00:18:18
NARRATOR: At the trial,
Kehoe had a ready defense.
00:18:22
He claimed that
it was Bill Brown
00:18:25
who had murdered Rose Larner.
00:18:27
John Kehoe was gonna
point the finger at him
00:18:29
and say, well, gee,
I didn't do it.
00:18:30
I was just there, and
he killed my girlfriend.
00:18:33
He went nuts on coke and
killed my girlfriend.
00:18:35
We knew that was coming.
00:18:37
NARRATOR: But prosecutors
argued that Bill Brown had
00:18:40
no motive to kill Rose Larner.
00:18:43
John Kehoe did.
00:18:45
DOUG BARRETT: His motive was the
problems that Rose Larner was
00:18:49
causing for him in
the days and weeks
00:18:51
prior to her disappearance.
00:18:53
She was embarrassing him.
00:18:55
She smashed his truck.
00:18:58
It was typical for Rose not
to be intimidated by this guy
00:19:02
and to simply get into
arguments with him
00:19:06
and call him names,
not back down.
00:19:09
That was Rose Larner.
00:19:10
And this, I think, was
something new for John Kehoe,
00:19:15
and it angered him.
00:19:17
It really angered him.
00:19:19
NARRATOR: Although the crime
occurred 2 and 1/2 years
00:19:22
earlier, Rose Larner was still
able to speak to the jury
00:19:26
through the power
of forensic science.
00:19:30
In this case, you know,
I don't take the position
00:19:32
that we didn't have a body.
00:19:33
I think we did, we just had
very small pieces of it.
00:19:37
So, I mean, they
basically gave us a body.
00:19:41
NARRATOR: The jury
deliberated just over an hour.
00:19:44
JURY FOREMAN: We, the
jury, find the defendant,
00:19:45
John Ortiz-Kehoe,
guilty of first degree
00:19:48
premeditated murder.
00:19:50
NARRATOR: Kehoe
received Michigan's
00:19:52
maximum sentence, life in prison
without possibility of parole.
00:20:00
Rose Larner's grave is empty.
00:20:03
All that remains of her body
are the tiny bone fragments,
00:20:07
which are still in evidence.
00:20:10
ROSE MARKEY: I hope John Kehoe
lives a long time in prison,
00:20:14
and I hope he thinks of Rosie
every day that he's in prison.
00:20:19
I feel a person like
that would rather
00:20:23
die than to be in prison
the rest of his life,
00:20:25
so I feel that that's
a just punishment.
00:20:30
But if he were to die,
I hope it's brutal.
00:20:34
NARRATOR: Bill Brown was
sentenced to one year in prison
00:20:38
for helping cover up the murder.
00:20:40
He is now out on parole.
00:20:42
If I were to know it was
gonna take place, like I said,
00:20:45
I wouldn't have been there.
00:20:46
She wouldn't have been.
00:20:47
Never would've happened.
00:20:48
The way I feel about it is
that by convicting John Kehoe,
00:20:51
I just saved other people's
lives, other young girls lives.
00:20:55
Because I just feel
that it was his nature
00:21:01
and that he enjoyed killing
Rose Larner and that
00:21:04
he would do it again.
00:21:06
[music playing]
