00:00:07
she was a maale order bride lured to the
00:00:09
United States with the promise of a
00:00:11
better life just a few years after she
00:00:14
was married she
00:00:16
disappeared the clue to this mystery
00:00:19
came from an unlikely
00:00:21
Source a second forensic look at the
00:00:24
suspicious death of another woman 16
00:00:27
years earlier
00:00:29
[Music]
00:00:39
[Music]
00:00:43
[Applause]
00:00:45
[Music]
00:00:56
emilita de Reeves was 26 years old her
00:00:59
husband Jack was a 52-year-old former
00:01:02
Army Sergeant now working as a painter
00:01:05
together the couple had a 3-year-old son
00:01:08
whom we'll call Theo emalita had an
00:01:12
interesting past when emilita was 18 she
00:01:16
had been her family's passport out of
00:01:19
poverty 11 of her family members lived
00:01:22
in a two- room Hut in SIU city in the
00:01:26
Philippines she was a beauty queen in
00:01:28
her community and she was a lovely girl
00:01:31
she wanted to go to school but her
00:01:33
family had convinced her that that's how
00:01:35
they could have a better life if she
00:01:37
married a rich
00:01:38
American at her family's request emilita
00:01:42
put her picture in cherry blossoms a
00:01:44
subscription service for maale order
00:01:46
brides in 1987 Jack Reeves flew to the
00:01:50
Philippines to meet her there were two
00:01:53
other American men that were there to
00:01:55
meet her and he pretty well bulldozed
00:01:58
his way into the house house offered her
00:02:01
father more money than the other men had
00:02:03
offered and her father chose Jack to be
00:02:06
Emil's
00:02:08
[Music]
00:02:10
husband once emilita arrived in Texas
00:02:13
Jack Reeves kept his promise and started
00:02:15
sending Emil's family $250 a month a
00:02:19
small fortune compared to the $3 a month
00:02:23
Emil's father was
00:02:26
earning on October 11th 1994
00:02:30
Emily Dees went to lunch with some
00:02:32
friends at the Lotus restaurant in
00:02:34
Arlington
00:02:35
Texas during lunch emilita confided to
00:02:39
her friends that she was no longer in
00:02:41
love with her husband instead she was in
00:02:44
love with someone else another woman and
00:02:47
was anxious to start a new life after
00:02:50
lunch emilita went shopping but never
00:02:54
returned
00:02:57
home later when her friends couldn't get
00:02:59
in in touch with her either on her cell
00:03:01
phone or her pager they called
00:03:05
police when questioned Jack Reeves told
00:03:08
police he wasn't particularly concerned
00:03:10
about his wife's
00:03:11
disappearance he said his wife may have
00:03:14
run off with her female
00:03:15
lover Jack was into all this pornography
00:03:18
and he was into watching videos of women
00:03:21
together men and women in the ACT sexual
00:03:24
acts uh but he drew the line at Emily to
00:03:27
going out with any other men and if he
00:03:29
ever found out that she had close male
00:03:31
friends that she went out with then he
00:03:33
became very
00:03:35
angry and Reeves was convinced his wife
00:03:38
would return matter of fact he was very
00:03:41
nonchalant telling the officers that she
00:03:44
would return as she always does police
00:03:47
located Emil's lover Mona Lisa Pate Mona
00:03:51
Lisa Pate admitted to us that she and uh
00:03:57
emilita were in fact engaged in a
00:04:01
relationship she also admitted she was
00:04:04
with emilita until 8:00 p.m. on the
00:04:06
night of her disappearance but she
00:04:08
didn't know where emilita went
00:04:12
afterwards 2 Days Later Emil's abandoned
00:04:15
car was found in a supermarket parking
00:04:18
lot just a few miles from her home
00:04:21
police interviewed her husband once
00:04:23
again initially he said she had just run
00:04:25
off but then he decided he was going to
00:04:28
start helping so he bring brings in to
00:04:31
Tom Leno's office something that he
00:04:33
believes will help track emilita even
00:04:36
with emilita sent search dogs were
00:04:41
unsuccessful in another attempt to help
00:04:43
the investigation Jack Reeves offered a
00:04:47
$25,000 reward for information leading
00:04:49
to his wife's safe
00:04:51
return but police got their first break
00:04:54
in the case when a detailed search of
00:04:57
amita's abandoned vehicle gave
00:04:58
investigators
00:05:00
some important insight into her last
00:05:05
[Music]
00:05:16
ride police in Texas were starting to
00:05:19
believe that there was Foul Play
00:05:22
involved in emilita Reeves
00:05:25
disappearance when police inspected
00:05:27
emal's abandoned car they noticed
00:05:29
something
00:05:31
suspicious when the vehicle was
00:05:33
found the seat was consistent with
00:05:36
someone much taller than emilita who was
00:05:38
a very short person the steering wheel
00:05:41
was not locked as emilita always locked
00:05:43
it and the alarm was not set on the
00:05:46
vehicle which emilita always did and
00:05:49
suspicions mounted when police learned
00:05:52
that none of emal's clothing was missing
00:05:55
from her home they also learned that
00:05:58
emilita was not not in love with her
00:06:01
husband emilita also told friends Jack
00:06:04
once asked her to have sex with one of
00:06:06
his sons from an earlier marriage
00:06:09
emilita refused police asked Jack Reeves
00:06:12
to come to Police Headquarters to
00:06:14
retrieve amita's
00:06:17
car jack had apparently left town he had
00:06:21
taken his young son and left for nearby
00:06:23
Lake Whitney where he frequently
00:06:27
camped and police also learned the Jack
00:06:30
Reeves had recently offered emilita a
00:06:33
substantial sum of money $30,000 if she
00:06:36
agreed not to leave him in speaking with
00:06:40
Emil's friends they reflected several
00:06:44
conversations that emilita had had with
00:06:46
them where she
00:06:48
expressed um a tremendous fear that Jack
00:06:52
would in fact kill her in her words as
00:06:56
he had killed his other wives
00:07:00
Jack Reeves had been married three other
00:07:02
times and his second and third wives
00:07:04
both died under mysterious
00:07:08
circumstances Jack married his first
00:07:10
wife amarillis when she was only 15
00:07:12
years old her mother later had the
00:07:15
marriage
00:07:16
anal in 1961 Jack married his second
00:07:20
wife Sharon together the couple had two
00:07:23
sons while Jack was in South Korea with
00:07:26
the US Army Sharon filed for divorce
00:07:30
Reeves immediately flew home to try to
00:07:33
save the marriage a few days later
00:07:37
Sharon died from a shotgun wound to her
00:07:39
chest her death had been ruled a
00:07:43
suicide after Sharon's death Jack
00:07:46
returned to Korea where he met wife
00:07:48
number three mang hoi
00:07:52
Chong 6 years later while vacationing at
00:07:56
Lake Whitney mang was on a raft in the
00:07:59
lake while Jack was away Gathering fish
00:08:02
[Applause]
00:08:06
bait and when he came back he claims
00:08:09
that that's when he found mang had
00:08:11
fallen off of the raft and had
00:08:17
drowned her sister um attended the
00:08:20
funeral and found bruises on her arms
00:08:23
and scrapes she contended from the very
00:08:26
beginning when she learned of mang's
00:08:28
death that Jack could killed her I
00:08:31
talked to the sister and I said what is
00:08:33
this about meang you know we're all kind
00:08:35
of wondering about it and she said well
00:08:38
I wondered not only because of the nails
00:08:40
but because of the scratches on Jack's
00:08:41
hands and I thought well like he was
00:08:44
scratched up by brush when he pulled her
00:08:46
out of the water and she said no no no
00:08:48
long parallel scratches on his hands and
00:08:51
it made me think you know were those
00:08:53
from her
00:08:55
fingernails after the funeral Jack had
00:08:58
mang's body
00:09:00
cremated despite her family's concerns
00:09:03
there was no
00:09:05
investigation after learning of Jack's
00:09:07
past detective Lenor was convinced
00:09:10
emilita Reeves had been the victim of
00:09:13
Foul Play and set a trap to test his
00:09:17
hypothesis he spoke once again to Jack
00:09:19
Reeves and this time bragged about the
00:09:22
latest advances in DNA
00:09:26
testing I went into this dis ation which
00:09:30
was completely fictitious and made up on
00:09:32
the spot about when an individual
00:09:37
dies cells on the body immediately die
00:09:40
DNA falls from the body and in fact
00:09:43
would fall and embed itself into his
00:09:46
carpet to where you can shampoo it
00:09:49
vacuum it do whatever you want you're
00:09:51
not going to get rid of it the only
00:09:52
thing you have to do is get rid of the
00:09:56
carpet the next day as under cover
00:09:59
police watched from across the street
00:10:02
Jack Reeves did just
00:10:05
that he replaced the carpet in his
00:10:09
home he had taken the
00:10:12
bait there was absolutely no reason for
00:10:15
him to take that particular activity at
00:10:17
that particular
00:10:19
time but police still had no forensic
00:10:23
evidence against Jack Reeves and they
00:10:26
still could not find emilita
00:10:31
[Music]
00:10:37
Arlington police detective Tom Lenor
00:10:39
believed his best chance of solving The
00:10:42
Disappearance of Emily de Reeves was to
00:10:44
investigate the sudden and unusual
00:10:47
circumstances surrounding the deaths of
00:10:49
Jack's other
00:10:52
wives Jack's third wife mang Reeves had
00:10:55
drowned in 10 ft of water in Lake
00:10:57
Whitney after falling off a raft
00:11:00
at the time of the accident the local
00:11:02
game warden reported that mang's raft
00:11:04
was undamaged and had a full Air Supply
00:11:08
he thought it was unlikely that an adult
00:11:11
could fall off and not be able to
00:11:13
retrieve it and the drowning occurred in
00:11:16
10 ft of
00:11:18
water if mang indeed slipped off a raft
00:11:21
investigators couldn't understand why
00:11:24
she was unable to swim just a short
00:11:26
distance to where she could have stood
00:11:28
in the lake
00:11:30
unfortunately there had been no criminal
00:11:33
investigation and no autopsy was
00:11:35
performed young Reeves had been
00:11:39
cremated Jack's second wife Sharon
00:11:41
Reeves was found dead in her bedroom
00:11:44
from what was believed to be a
00:11:45
self-inflicted gunshot wound to her
00:11:48
chest since it was presumed to be
00:11:51
suicide there had been no autopsy
00:11:55
performed and only one photograph of the
00:11:58
accident scene
00:12:00
remained Arlington Police sent the
00:12:02
photograph to the internationally known
00:12:04
blood spatter expert Tom
00:12:07
Beville at the time of the accident Jack
00:12:10
told police that he believed Sharon was
00:12:12
sitting on the bed and pushed the
00:12:14
trigger with her
00:12:19
toe but an analysis of the blood spatter
00:12:22
evidence revealed that Sharon had been
00:12:24
standing at the time the gun went off
00:12:29
[Music]
00:12:31
blood on Sharon's thigh was in an
00:12:34
L-shaped pattern indicating that Sharon
00:12:37
was standing when blood first ripped
00:12:39
down her thigh from the wound then after
00:12:42
she fell backwards the blood changed
00:12:46
Direction had the Sharon Reeves been
00:12:49
sitting the blood spatter as well as the
00:12:51
blood flows would have looked entirely
00:12:53
different in fact it would have been a
00:12:56
reverse and with Sharon in a standing
00:12:59
position she would have been physically
00:13:01
unable to discharge the gun I would say
00:13:05
that is it's not absolutely
00:13:07
impossible uh but highly improbable that
00:13:10
uh that would be the case detective
00:13:13
Lenor now had probable cause to exume
00:13:16
the body of Sharon Reeves 16 years after
00:13:21
her
00:13:23
death the autopsy was conducted by
00:13:26
Dallas County Medical Examiner Dr
00:13:28
Jeffrey B ared she had a shotgun wound
00:13:31
of the chest and the entrance wound was
00:13:33
in the front of the chest and had a very
00:13:35
sharp uh right to left trajectory so the
00:13:39
the shotgun uh entrance was really in
00:13:41
the front but very sharply went to the
00:13:44
left lateral
00:13:46
chest and the angle of the shot was
00:13:48
slightly
00:13:50
downward with that very acute trajectory
00:13:53
with her being in an upright position
00:13:55
how she would have to uh hold the weapon
00:13:58
would pre vent her from the ability to
00:14:01
reach the trigger and to discharge it
00:14:03
herself which makes it not possible for
00:14:05
her to have done with a trajectory that
00:14:07
was a very sharp trajectory ending up
00:14:10
with her shot dead on the bed and then
00:14:13
the shotgun standing perfectly vertical
00:14:15
between her legs just uh made that a
00:14:17
very unlikely
00:14:19
scenario I had uh no doubt whatsoever
00:14:22
that this was not the case of a
00:14:23
self-inflicted gunshot
00:14:25
one Sharon ree's death was officially
00:14:28
ruled
00:14:29
undetermined suggestive of a
00:14:33
homicide Jack Reeves was in the house
00:14:36
when the shooting occurred there was
00:14:38
nobody else in the house at the time so
00:14:41
that made it by process of elimination
00:14:43
if Sharon didn't pull the trigger Jack
00:14:44
had
00:14:46
to according to Patricia Springer's book
00:14:49
male order murder after amita's
00:14:52
disappearance Jack Reeves was desperate
00:14:55
for female
00:14:57
companionship so desperate
00:14:59
he called Emil's 21-year-old sister
00:15:02
asking her to come live with him when
00:15:06
that failed Jack renewed his
00:15:08
subscription to cherry blossoms magazine
00:15:11
and through the personal ads found wife
00:15:14
number five emalia who was also in the
00:15:19
Philippines but before the two could
00:15:21
meet Jack Reeves was
00:15:24
arrested we picked him up put him in the
00:15:27
car handcuffed and all Jack looks at
00:15:29
Ranger Cummings and said you know what's
00:15:31
the deal what's going on here and Fred
00:15:33
said you're under arrest for murdering
00:15:36
your wife and Jack said which
00:15:39
one and we all just kind of looked at
00:15:41
each other and said well that's probably
00:15:43
a fair
00:15:46
[Music]
00:15:53
question 5 months after The
00:15:55
Disappearance of emilita Reeves her
00:15:58
husband Jack was arrested for murder
00:16:01
when he was
00:16:02
arrested he
00:16:04
repeatedly told me that he had not
00:16:08
killed emilita and that he should not be
00:16:11
arrested and that's when I explained to
00:16:13
him that he was being arrested for the
00:16:15
murder of Sharon
00:16:17
Reeves and the look on his face and the
00:16:21
shock and the complete and total
00:16:24
devastation that it took on him was was
00:16:26
very
00:16:27
remarkable Sharon was Jack's second wife
00:16:30
who died of a gunshot wound 16 years
00:16:33
earlier this re any comment I'm not
00:16:38
guilty police had tried to build a case
00:16:41
against Rees for the murder of his
00:16:42
fourth wife emilita but they lacked
00:16:45
evidence in the trial of Sharon Reed's
00:16:48
death the case hinged on blood spatter
00:16:51
evidence and a shooting
00:16:53
reenactment the Reconstruction of the
00:16:56
shotgun blast challenged Jack story that
00:16:59
Sharon was sitting on the bed and pushed
00:17:02
the trigger with her
00:17:05
toe the female police officer assisting
00:17:08
in the
00:17:09
recreation could not maneuver her toe
00:17:12
into the trigger guard of the
00:17:14
gun the jury was really entranced by
00:17:17
that they were into it and they had to
00:17:20
be because this was a case where first
00:17:22
of all we had to show she couldn't have
00:17:24
pulled the trigger second of all we had
00:17:26
to show that there was nobody else
00:17:27
available to pull the trigger except for
00:17:30
Jack and that by process of elimination
00:17:33
he had to have been the one that
00:17:34
committed the
00:17:38
Murder Jack Reeves was found guilty of
00:17:41
Sharon's murder and was sentenced to 35
00:17:44
years in
00:17:47
prison on October 1st
00:17:50
1995 nearly one year to the date of her
00:17:53
disappearance deer hunters at Lake
00:17:55
Whitney stumbled upon a shallow grave
00:18:03
The Remains were sent to the medical
00:18:04
examiner's office in Fort Worth Texas
00:18:08
deputy chief medical examiner Mark
00:18:10
Krauss was able to identify The Remains
00:18:13
by comparing Emil's dental records to
00:18:16
the recovered jaw it was a
00:18:20
match emilita was found without clothing
00:18:23
jewelry or personal items which was not
00:18:27
consistent with someone ran away Dr
00:18:30
Krauss hoped that the bones would tell
00:18:33
how emalita was
00:18:36
killed but there was no bone trauma no
00:18:39
bullet holes no knife wounds and
00:18:42
unfortunately the hyid bone was
00:18:46
missing if it's fractured and if it's
00:18:48
fractured in a certain way we can assume
00:18:51
that a strangulation has occurred that
00:18:53
the person has been strangled to the
00:18:55
point that that bone was damaged and it
00:18:56
was likely to be fatal
00:18:59
but Dr Krauss made an important
00:19:01
Discovery in the soil around emal's
00:19:05
lungs were tiny single celled organisms
00:19:08
called
00:19:09
datom this was an important
00:19:12
finding why diatoms live in water by
00:19:18
finding a relatively high density of
00:19:21
these little microscopic creatures
00:19:23
skeletons in the in the area where the
00:19:26
lungs had once resided when the body was
00:19:29
placed in the grave and by finding very
00:19:33
low concentrations or low numbers of
00:19:36
diom Elsewhere the inference could be
00:19:39
made that she was drowned that she had
00:19:41
inhaled water containing diom and when
00:19:44
her body decomposed this material was
00:19:46
deposited in the
00:19:47
grave the manner of death was ruled a
00:19:51
homicide she was murdered and her body
00:19:55
was buried not well apparently somewhat
00:19:58
hastily
00:20:00
and I'm more than more certain than not
00:20:03
that she was drowned in a homicidal
00:20:04
manner that she was killed by
00:20:09
Drowning later police visited Lake
00:20:11
Whitney with the Reeves young son Theo
00:20:15
who told police to watch out for the big
00:20:18
hole as he pointed in the direction of
00:20:20
his mother's grave he also said his
00:20:23
mother was hurt in the bathtub by his
00:20:27
father there there was a likelihood
00:20:30
quite frankly a probability that Jack
00:20:33
actually had his son with him at the
00:20:36
time emalita was buried the child made a
00:20:39
remarkable
00:20:41
comment that Illustrated he was familiar
00:20:46
with that particular geography he was
00:20:49
able to actually pinpoint specific areas
00:20:52
where emilita was buried that supported
00:20:55
our
00:20:56
suspicion that he actually watched and
00:20:59
saw his mother get
00:21:01
buried Jack Reeves stood trial again
00:21:04
this time for Emil's murder you didn't
00:21:08
kill emita no I did
00:21:09
[Music]
00:21:11
not he was convicted of her murder as
00:21:15
well when he heard the dword meaning
00:21:18
divorce from any of his wives he
00:21:20
considered it to be death and he killed
00:21:22
them Jack Reeves was sentenced to 99
00:21:26
years in prison he will not be eligible
00:21:30
for parole until the age of
00:21:33
106 Jack Reeves is probably one of the
00:21:36
most manipulative man I've ever met uh
00:21:39
he's a sociopath he has absolutely no
00:21:41
remorse for what he's done he wants to
00:21:44
manipulate you into trying to believe
00:21:46
that he's innocent and then help him
00:21:48
prove it Jack Reeves probably has
00:21:51
absolutely no redeeming quality about
00:21:54
him I've interviewed several killers in
00:21:56
my life and Jack is probably the most
00:21:59
cold blooded I've ever met Jack Reeves
00:22:01
is definitely where he deserves to be
00:22:04
and that's in prison for the remainder
00:22:06
of his life the forensics made the case
00:22:10
without them nothing would have happened
00:22:12
in either case there would have been no
00:22:14
identification there would have been no
00:22:16
means of death there would have been no
00:22:19
[Music]
00:22:27
conviction w
00:22:29
[Music]
00:22:35
[Music]
00:22:44
[Music]
