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when a small child disappeared in alaska
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investigators were initially unsure
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whether the cause was a grizzly bear or
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an abduction
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the discovery of a fiber a piece of
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molten steel and a chip of yellow glossy
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paint pointed police in the direction of
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a human
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but others weren't so sure
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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as the alaskan summer drew to a close in
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1991
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children in the small town of taslina
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spent as much time outside as possible
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they knew that in just a few short weeks
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school would start and along with it the
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cold alaskan winter
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the lemaire family enjoyed life in the
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alaska wilderness with hunting fishing
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and riding four-wheel vehicles
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eleven-year-old mandy lemaire was the
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oldest child
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she was a real interesting mix between
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a tomboy
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and a pretty little girl she could be
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just as comfortable and i freely dress
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at a
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at a social event as she could and hit
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boots
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standing on the river fishing
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[Music]
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the town of taslina has only 241
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residents so the homes are situated some
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distance apart
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mandy and her best friend april often
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walked a mile or more to meet their
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friends to play
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that was the plan
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on august 22 1991.
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mandy and i took off we got about down
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to the wheel barrel down there i had a
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big fanny pack on and i had tripped
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and skinned up my leg i came back up
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here to the store they helped me out i
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got all cleaned up mandy was supposed to
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wait for me
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but mandy may have grown impatient
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i ran back down didn't find mandy
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mandy always played pranks and so we
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thought she was hiding in the bushes
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going to come out and scare us or
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something
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she never did
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two hours later mandy's father called
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police
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within hours 75 friends and neighbors
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passed out flyers and searched the
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heavily wooded area from the ground and
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from the air
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[Music]
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i knew that there was something wrong
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and that there was no way that she could
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have got lost
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alaskan state trooper jim mccann drove
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five hours from fairbanks to join the
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search
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i came down here with the opinion that
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there's more to this than uh
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than certainly a grizzly attack or a
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child lost in the woods just from what i
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read in the paper and from what i've
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been told over the telephone
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this is the poster they hung out
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when they found out mandy was missing
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that says missing mandy lemaire long
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blonde hair straight
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five foot weighs 105 110 pounds age 11.
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i wrote she was my best friend
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the search lasted for days
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search dogs were used but they weren't
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able to track mandy's scent
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i've never seen such community action
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i've i've been in on and headed up a lot
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of searches
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this community was just marvelous
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everybody from the valley got together
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tragically
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ten days after she disappeared
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searchers found her body
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she had been shot to death
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she was found about a mile from her home
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off of taslina terrace road back a side
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road in a new subdivision there her body
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was found off that road that went down
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to the river from that area
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without you
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have living something like this
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you probably will never have a clue
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and i don't know that i can describe it
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my wife at the time she ultimately
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couldn't handle it
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i don't think no matter what you do
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you always feel some kind of guilt
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and that was the big thing
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if i hadn't tripped what would have
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happened
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and i remember asking my mom that
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what would it what would have happened
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if i hadn't dripped
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complicating matters there had been
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heavy rains a few days before the body
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was discovered washing away possible
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trace evidence as well as foot and tire
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impressions
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it was clear to us that
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she'd been alive when she was down in
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that wash
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and had been struggling to climb back up
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out of that wash
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her little fingernails were broken and
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and filled with dirt
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police knew they'd have to work harder
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than usual to find
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necessary clues
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mandy lemire's autopsy revealed
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she had been shot twice at close range
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with the 22-caliber rifle
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there were signs of sexual assault
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in a search for suspects an informant
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told police that construction worker
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david deforest showed an unusual
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interest in the case and spoke of it
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constantly at work
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twenty years earlier deforest was
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convicted of a car theft in new york
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state and had some recent brushes with
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the law
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he had been in some trouble recently
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when he went out of state
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and he was a suspect in a death out of
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state
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too deforest denied any involvement in
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mandy's murder his employer confirmed he
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was at work on the day mandy disappeared
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so he wasn't considered a suspect
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but deforest had some
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information of his own
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he saw another local man charlie
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smithhart driving his pickup truck on
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the road where mandy was last seen
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[Music]
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he was described as a good guy to the
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kids
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that all the copper center kids would
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come to his shop and he would
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fix their bicycles give them candy
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certainly interesting to us
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61 year old smithhart was a retired
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steel worker had been divorced twice and
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lived in a makeshift workshop behind his
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mother's home
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coincidentally
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smithhart had assisted in the search for
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mandy
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he never put his name down on the search
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roster at the fire station
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to say that i am a member of this search
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team i will search but he would show up
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there and stand around
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and then he would go off on his own
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[Music]
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we found that strange
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smithhart denied deforest's claim that
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he was near the crime scene on the day
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mandy disappeared and said he had an
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alibi
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he said he was watching television with
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his mother and alibaia's mother
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confirmed
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god knows he didn't do it
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and the person who committed this crime
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knows
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that charles didn't do it
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in a town the size of taslina checking
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an alibi is easier than in most larger
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towns
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and it helped investigators get their
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first break
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they learned that smithhart's mother
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lucille had gone shopping at the copper
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river cash grocery store on the day of
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mandy's disappearance and paid for the
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items with the check
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the time and date on the register tape
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was the same and the time was 3 17
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when lucy said that she was home with
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her son she wasn't home she was at the
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grocery store buying groceries at that
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time
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suddenly that blew a hole in charlie's
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alibi because it meant that his mother
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was at the grocery store at 3 17 that
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she was not at home when smith art said
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she was at home to bolster his alibi and
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that frankly he had no alibi for the two
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hours
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when mandy disappeared
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200 miles away in anchorage criminalists
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used a gel adhesive tape to gather any
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trace evidence left behind
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by the killer
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the tape lifts the evidence but the
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adhesive isn't so strong that the trace
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elements can't be removed for later
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analysis
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investigators noticed what was perhaps
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their first clue
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and i looked at him and he looked at me
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and i said
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did you see that there's something shiny
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something and we kept moving around at
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different angles until we could see
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something
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the spheres were no larger than the head
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of a pin
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under a fiber optic microscope the
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spheres looked like metal
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they also found several red and blue
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fibers and a yellow paint chip
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could these few microscopic items help
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investigators find
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a killer
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this is an 11 year old girl who had her
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life savagely taken from her brutally
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killed and her body was left in the
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woods for animals to find
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i think that made it hard on everybody
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that dealt with this case
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and myself included
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in the weeks following mandela mayor's
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murder investigators had a very
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promising lead
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a witness placed charlie smithart near
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mandy's home on the day of the abduction
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[Music]
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and some young girls in town had even
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more damaging information to report
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[Music]
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in the weeks before mandy's
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disappearance charlie smith a 60 year
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old man had been
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seen offering rides to other young
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girls who bore a striking resemblance to
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mandy lemare such that one of the young
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girls
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when her mother saw the sketch in the
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newspaper of mandy mandy was missing the
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chief shot
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she thought she was looking at a
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at a sketch of her own daughter
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armed with a search warrant
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investigators confiscated smith hart's
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pickup truck for forensic analysis
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with the gel adhesive criminalists
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lifted microscopic particles from the
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truck's interior
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during questioning investigators noticed
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something else about smith heart
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i couldn't take my eyes off his shirt
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because
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he had little sparkly things on his
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shirt and i finally asked him what are
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those little sparkly things on your
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shirt charlie
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he says i don't know brass aluminum i'm
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i'm grinding stuff all the time
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that clue
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led investigators to the workshop behind
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smith hart's mother's home
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there criminalists collected paint
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samples hair fibers and all of the metal
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fragments they could find
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they also confiscated a pair of smith
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hearts overalls
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all of the evidence was shipped to
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chicago illinois to skip palanik a
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research microscopist
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palanek began by looking at the small
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yellow paint chip found on mandy's
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clothing
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using x-ray spectroscopy palanik noticed
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something unique
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glossy layers
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with no other layers behind it in a
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variety of colors that's quite unusual
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and children's bicycles of course are
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painted with single layers of glossy
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paint
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in the samples collected from
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smithhart's workshop
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palanik found a paint chip identical in
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elemental and polymer composition to the
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paint chip on mandy's clothing
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we found one paint ship where the paint
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chip was in every aspect we could
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measure was the same as as one of the
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yellow paint ships from his uh workshop
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next were the red and blue fibers
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again
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palanek found they too were unusual
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it turns out these fibers had a very
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unusual cross section the fibers were
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also very brittle
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they were brittle because of degradation
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due to age and exposure
00:13:06
the fibers were triangular in shape or
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trilobal
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using an infrared spectrometer palinic
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discovered the fibers were polypropylene
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a synthetic manufactured by the philips
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fiber company for carpeting
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palanek then analyzed the fibers
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gathered from smithhart's truck and
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clothing
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we find in smithart's environment
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exactly the same kinds of fibers not
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only do they have the same
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cross-sectional shape the same size they
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have the same pigments that are used to
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color them everything is there
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the fibers in smithhart's truck were
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manufactured by the same company and had
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the same degree of environmental damage
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as those found on mandy's clothing
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finally
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palanek examined the most unusual
00:13:56
evidence the metallic spheres found all
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over mandy's skin and clothing
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the scanning electron microscope
00:14:06
identified the spheres as carbon steel
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[Music]
00:14:12
from his experience palanek knew
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precisely what had shaped the metal in
00:14:17
this way
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[Music]
00:14:22
using a high speed cutting tool to cut
00:14:24
through
00:14:25
steel
00:14:26
you'll produce these little spheres
00:14:28
metal particle is raised to a high
00:14:30
enough temperature that actually melts
00:14:31
and assumes a spherical form
00:14:34
the metal spheres from mandy's clothing
00:14:37
were compared to metal fragments found
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on the seat of smithart's truck
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these particles on mandy's body were
00:14:44
consistent in all respects with having
00:14:46
originated from mr smithart's
00:14:47
environment based on my knowledge of the
00:14:49
particles is that it would be extremely
00:14:52
unlikely to have all those particles
00:14:55
come together just by chance somewhere
00:14:57
else
00:14:58
now armed with forensic evidence
00:15:00
investigators wanted to learn as much as
00:15:03
they could about smithart's background
00:15:05
so they flew to california to interview
00:15:08
one of his daughters
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there they found evidence that mandy
00:15:14
lemayer
00:15:15
wasn't his first victim
00:15:17
we walked around out in her front yard
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and down her road for a couple of hours
00:15:23
until she trusted me and with tears in
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her eyes
00:15:27
said
00:15:28
that her her father had started
00:15:30
molesting her
00:15:31
interestingly at the age of 11 the same
00:15:34
age as mandy lemare was when she was
00:15:35
murdered
00:15:37
and that all her sisters had also been
00:15:40
molested
00:15:41
after a three-month investigation
00:15:44
charlie smithheart was arrested for the
00:15:46
kidnapping sexual assault and murder of
00:15:49
mandy lemayer
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it wasn't soon enough for mandy's family
00:15:55
i can tell you
00:15:57
the temptation was strong
00:15:59
to take matters in my own hands
00:16:02
i will lie to you
00:16:04
[Music]
00:16:07
but i had told myself
00:16:09
[Music]
00:16:13
that i could never explain it to two
00:16:14
boys
00:16:16
[Music]
00:16:19
many residents of teslina found it
00:16:22
difficult to believe that a neighbor
00:16:24
could commit such a heinous crime
00:16:28
the community was very split up there
00:16:30
it's a very
00:16:32
half-native half-white community
00:16:35
and mandy was white and charlie was
00:16:37
native
00:16:38
and he had the split down the center
00:16:40
essentially
00:16:41
that the white community felt that he
00:16:43
was involved and the native community
00:16:44
felt that he was not involved
00:16:47
charlie smithhart's trial began in 1993
00:16:50
two years after the crime
00:16:53
mandy's parents and her two little
00:16:55
brothers sat in the first row
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every day of the trial
00:17:00
smithheart insisted he was innocent
00:17:04
mr smith
00:17:05
you're going to have to be quiet at this
00:17:06
point
00:17:08
you're going to throw me in jail
00:17:10
i've been in jail 20 months falsely
00:17:13
arrested for a crime i did not commit mr
00:17:16
smith i'm going to have to have you
00:17:17
removed from the courtroom that's fine i
00:17:19
want to do that throw me in jail
00:17:22
i've been in here for 20 months supposed
00:17:24
to be a business for a crime i did not
00:17:26
commit
00:17:28
prosecutors believe that molten steel
00:17:30
from smithhart's metalwork formed the
00:17:33
tiny spheres that were attached to his
00:17:35
shirt
00:17:38
smithhart was wearing that same shirt
00:17:41
when he saw mandy walking to meet her
00:17:44
friends
00:17:45
it's unclear whether mandy accepted
00:17:47
smithart's offer of a ride or whether he
00:17:50
forced her into his vehicle
00:17:56
the forensic evidence suggests the tiny
00:17:59
metal spheres attached to smith hart's
00:18:01
shirt were transferred onto the seat of
00:18:04
his truck
00:18:05
and later onto mandy's clothing during
00:18:08
the abduction
00:18:10
the same red and blue synthetic trilobal
00:18:13
carpet fibers were in the truck and on
00:18:16
mandy's clothing
00:18:19
a single yellow speck of glossy paint
00:18:21
from smithhart's workshop was also found
00:18:24
on mandi lemare
00:18:27
even after two weeks in the woods and
00:18:30
after heavy rains trace elements were
00:18:32
still there
00:18:35
the murder weapon was never recovered
00:18:38
prosecutors believe smith hart may have
00:18:40
dumped it in the taslina river
00:18:44
this type of killer
00:18:45
will do this again
00:18:48
and hopefully i'll still be locked up
00:18:50
and then what are you people going to
00:18:52
say
00:18:53
if it happens my to my way of thinking
00:18:57
you're an accessory to him you're an
00:18:59
accessory to him and the troopers that
00:19:01
investigated this case because i know
00:19:04
i'm innocent
00:19:05
skip palanik's testimony was
00:19:08
particularly persuasive
00:19:10
my role is to come in and report
00:19:12
factually on what i found and then be an
00:19:14
advocate not for one side or the other
00:19:16
for my opinion and i stated my opinion
00:19:19
in court and then hopefully gave the
00:19:21
jury something useful
00:19:23
to base their
00:19:25
deliberations on and finally their
00:19:26
verdict i felt like they did a really
00:19:28
good job of explaining it
00:19:30
i'd ask our oldest son what he heard and
00:19:34
he could explain it
00:19:35
adults should be able to understand it
00:19:38
charles smithhart was found guilty of
00:19:40
murder kidnapping and sexual assault
00:19:44
and he was sentenced to 114 years in
00:19:47
prison
00:19:48
mr the mayor introduced me to his son
00:19:52
who he said was someone interested in
00:19:54
forensic science and what he handed me
00:19:56
is a courtroom sketch he had made
00:19:57
hand-drawn picture with the
00:20:00
words written on it thank you for
00:20:02
helping catch my sister's killer that
00:20:04
kind of thing does tug at your
00:20:06
heartstrings
00:20:09
this crime affected everyone in taslina
00:20:13
in different ways
00:20:15
now that i live in her old house it
00:20:18
it haunts me my memories come back
00:20:20
certain smells bring back memories
00:20:23
um my son sleeps in her old bedroom
00:20:26
and there's a sticker on the window that
00:20:28
she and i had stuck there we were little
00:20:30
girls
00:20:31
some people think it ought to be over
00:20:35
it's never over
00:20:38
i went through
00:20:41
awful days
00:20:43
leading up to when mandy's graduation
00:20:46
would have been
00:20:47
for years prior i couldn't go to
00:20:49
graduations
00:20:52
i
00:20:55
then
00:20:56
several years after that
00:20:59
when girls that would have been men
00:21:01
whose age were being married
00:21:04
were getting married i couldn't go to
00:21:05
those
00:21:07
it's a whole
00:21:09
life long
00:21:12
she's not here
00:21:14
she i'm missing this time of her life
00:21:18
six years later alaska's supreme court
00:21:21
overturned smithhart's conviction
00:21:23
because some evidence the defense team
00:21:25
had planned to introduce had been denied
00:21:29
smithhart died of lung cancer in an
00:21:32
alaska prison while awaiting a retrial
00:21:37
[Music]
00:21:44
[Music]
00:21:58
[Music]
00:22:07
you
