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february 5th 1974 missoula montana a
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five-year-old child reported missing
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it's every parent's worst nightmare what
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happened to siobhan mcginnis she was
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last seen with the neighbor who
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literally said goodbye to her like a
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half block away from her house
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her little body is found violated left
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in the snow her murderer leaving the
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community in shock
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it rocked the community and changed the
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way people acted with their children or
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let them roam about
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an investigation that will last decades
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is launched
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detectives review the evidence hoping to
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bring siobhan's killer to justice
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this is 40 years of dog and police
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investigation of following up every lead
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looking everywhere
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even though they didn't have dna at that
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time they were still wise enough to
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collect that evidence
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knowing that down the road that might be
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something important
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but when a cold case team decides to use
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forensic genealogy they finally get the
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break they've been waiting for
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it has unlocked the ability to use dna
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as an investigative tool and that's the
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game changer
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this is the tragic story of siobhan
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mcginnis how her murder was never
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forgotten and how the bloodline
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detectives solve her case after four and
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a half decades i'm nancy grace this is
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bloodline detectives
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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february 5th 1974 police in missoula
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montana
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get an emergency call from a woman her
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five-year-old little girl siobhan
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mcginnis
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never came home
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on tuesday afternoon siobhan mcginnis
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went to go play with some friends of
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hers who lived near the elementary
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school which was right in her
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neighborhood
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around 6 30 her mother called and said
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it was time to come home because they
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were going to go out to dinner
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and so they began searching the
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neighborhood kind of the family and
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friends looking for her and they
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couldn't find any side of her so then
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her mother contacted the police
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police immediately start looking for
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siobhan mcginnis she's only five and it
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is well below zero degrees outside
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it was clear but cold i mean it's
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montana in february and there was some
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urgency because it was cold they thought
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perhaps with any lost child she had
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wandered into a shed or a
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parked car and couldn't get out so they
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started searching kind of the
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neighborhood contacting knocking on
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doors saying could you look in your out
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buildings and they looked at all the
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different cars and they couldn't find
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her anywhere
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her house where she lived and then where
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her friend's house was
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was maybe two blocks and and it's local
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blocks it's not you know like new york
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city blocks so you know it's not that
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far away from her home
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she
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lived on the north side of town
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some of the hippie counter cultural
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community gravitated to that
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neighborhood
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which was a large part of missoula
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missoula is a very diverse community
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it's a liberal arts college
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drew a lot of artistic types of folks
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1974
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at that time you felt okay to just walk
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home from your friend's house you didn't
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think there was a danger
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it just
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was a place that you always
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felt safe
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as police searched for little siobhan
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they learned from neighbors she's well
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known in the community for her big
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personality
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they hope she's just visiting a friend
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and maybe lost track of time
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talking to people she wasn't wanting to
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sit in her room and and play with her
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dolls she was out playing at the parks
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playing with friends
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she was
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vivacious outgoing sassy was what people
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had said and she was just always happy
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and loved people
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because she was an only child
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with two parents very involved in the
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arts
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she often attended things like gallery
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openings or poetry readings
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and was the only child present
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in many instances and there are many
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people still in missoula that remember
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her being at a poetry reading and she
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had collected all this all the plastic
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spoons for the coffee
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and she was selling them to people for a
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nickel a piece
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so they could stir their coffee
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just silly little things like that but
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she was very much an extrovert
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um not not really scared to interact or
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talk to him to too many people
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you know in the summertime she wouldn't
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have shoes on she'd be out walking the
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neighborhood and and just doing what she
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wanted to do just having fun and and
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playing like most kids should be able to
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do
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by now police have a snapshot of siobhan
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she may just be five years old but this
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little girl has a big smile she's
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confident around adults and very
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independent
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but hours go by with no sign of siobhan
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police talk to mommy again they want to
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learn about her family situation
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she was interviewed and her home was
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searched by local law enforcement and
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she was very cooperative
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there was a lot of people that came and
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left from her residence
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and some people she knew some people she
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didn't
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and so there was a lot of that kind of
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activity the early 70s you know where
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people would crash at your house and you
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might not know who they were
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siobhan's father was notified and his
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wife at the time
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and it was just hard for everybody
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because it was two different families
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it was a different time
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[Music]
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the search picks up pace when it becomes
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apparent five-year-old siobhan mcginnis
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is really missing
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everybody was involved neighbors family
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members
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law enforcement
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strangers just trying to help
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when you have a young child missing i
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know that even now all hands are on deck
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you know if i'm sitting at my desk and
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if i hear that go out we're going to get
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in a car and go
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and start looking
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um time is of the essence when anybody
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is missing especially a young child
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the search expanded beyond the north
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side
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obviously there's a concern with the
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interstate being right there that she
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could have been abducted and traveled
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along the interstate to who knows where
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as word spreads that siobhan is missing
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two people come forward with information
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on her way home she passed one neighbor
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and she said she asked him um would you
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walk me home and he said well i'm
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walking to the store
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and then he went into the store and then
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another person had come out of the store
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and another adult woman and she walked
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with her
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back towards her house
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and she was about a block and a half
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away from her home
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and the woman had to go the opposite
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direction and so she left her at that
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street corner and told her just to go
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home and siobhan walked down this alley
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and then was not seen again after that
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police also get a disturbing call from a
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woman whose child has been assaulted
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there was a mother a few blocks away who
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contacted the police and said her
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daughter had told her that previous day
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that tuesday around 3 p.m her young
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daughter who was about 7 or 8
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had been molested by a teenage
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boy a younger boy older than her
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obviously
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had
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taken her into a local park bathroom
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area
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and he had sexually assaulted her
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this was two blocks from where siobhan
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was last seen and what four hours before
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so he became kind of the prime suspect
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he was known to law enforcement so they
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knew where he lived he lived with his
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mother
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and they went to
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interview him and search his room and
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let his mother know what was going on
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and why they were interviewing him
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he was brought into the police station
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and during that time one of the methods
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of questioning was to give you know a
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truth serum whether it's sodium
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pentathol or different type of drug but
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he was administered that that's in the
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record it's in the newspaper
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he admitted to molesting the other
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little girl but said he had nothing to
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do with siobhan's case or siobhan's
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disappearance
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and they found no evidence to
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support that he was involved with
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siobhan at all he did admit to the other
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little girl in the bathroom in the park
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but there was no connection for him at
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that time involving him with siobhan's
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disappearance
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[Music]
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the local newspaper in missoula
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publishes a story that siobhan is
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missing
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the thursday morning paper the
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missoulian published an article about
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siobhan missing and that newspaper went
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out kind of community-wide so instead of
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just that neighborhood knowing about it
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now everybody in the town was aware
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missoula police and the entire community
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on edge
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what happened to little siobhan mcginnis
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their worry turns to fear when a
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missoula roads worker contacts police
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he's made a heartbreaking discovery next
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on bloodline detectives
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[Music]
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thursday february 7 1974
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missoula montana police investigating
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the mysterious disappearance of a
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five-year-old little girl siobhan
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mcginnis
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this outgoing child with a big smile
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missing two days when they get a call
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from a montana roads worker named vern
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he was driving home and when he came
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down the off ramp
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there was a vehicle parked on the side
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of the the off ramp and he thought it
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was odd because it would look to him and
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he described it as a a cadillac that was
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green that had new york license plates
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on it
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was parked in an area where they had had
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trouble before with people doing illegal
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dumping so he saw this he pulled over
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and he was watching the car to see what
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this person was doing and what he said
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he saw was a single kind of middle-aged
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adult man about six feet tall just
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standing by the rear of the car
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and he looked like he had snow around
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maybe like
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um leftover snow on the on his boots
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that he had been in the snow standing by
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the trunk of the car fiddling with a few
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things then he got in the car and drove
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away and so he vern didn't see him do
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anything but as after he drove away vern
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pulled up to where the car had been
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parked kind of looked around saw nothing
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and decided okay that it was just
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somebody had pulled over before getting
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on the freeway to you know adjust
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something and so vern went home that
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night
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vern read that article in the morning
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paper that siobhan had gone missing and
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it's just something kind of twinged
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saying
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what if you know it's kind of the worst
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thought the worst nightmare what if that
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was somehow related so that morning on
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his way to work vern stopped there at
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the spot and went kind of exploring went
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over the berm and down into the snow and
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that's where he saw the body of a child
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siobhan was found just east of missoula
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her body was found in all respects just
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somewhat abandoned
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police gather what evidence they can and
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siobhan's body moved for autopsy
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they took photographs they collected
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everything they possibly could they
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collected samples of blood that they
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found in the snow
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and all those turned out to be siobhan's
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blood
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they went out with metal detectors
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to be able to look for if there was any
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sort of evidence there was a deputy
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coroner there that was also there from
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the sheriff's office examining things
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before you know the body was taken into
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custody and then taken to the lab for
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testing
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siobhan's body is found by an interstate
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by the missoula city limits
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it's a major freeway that essentially
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goes coast to coast along the northern
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reaches of the united states so he could
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have gone to washington state or all the
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way to new york it kind of would go
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state to state but the way he left had
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to be heading into the town of tura
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which is a small town near missoula in
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missoula county or he was going
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westbound towards the state of
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washington and idaho
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detectives are present when the autopsy
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on siobhan is performed the medical
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examiner discovered there was
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numerous stab wounds to the chest with a
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small knife two of those had pierced the
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heart
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javon had been struck on the head
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there was a wound on her head indicating
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kind of the impact of a of an unknown
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you know maybe it was a tire iron hammer
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and also they did discover that there
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was some
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semen on her abdomen that was also
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collected by the investigators at that
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time
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siobhan's condition
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is shocking for police on the case
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it's made even worse because now
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officers have to do what they find
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the hardest
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tell a family
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their beautiful child is dead
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i can't imagine
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hearing those words that not only that
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your
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your child is
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dead but how that happened and imagining
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of suffering
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and how you
00:15:01
move forward in life how you
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don't think about that every day
00:15:08
the montana rhodes worker named vern is
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able to give police a description of the
00:15:13
suspect and his vehicle police then
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create a sketch of the suspect and put
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out a bolo
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be on the lookout
00:15:24
the description of the man was somewhat
00:15:26
generic he was white he was six feet
00:15:28
tall he was middle-aged um he was
00:15:30
wearing a cap
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sort of that description could fit just
00:15:33
about anybody but the key point was he
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saw a car with new york plates he
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described it as like a 1958 59 1960
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cadillac
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the vehicle was really the key so that's
00:15:45
where the bolo which is the be on the
00:15:47
lookout was put out to all law
00:15:48
enforcement across the state
00:15:51
there were a number of leads that came
00:15:53
in were cars that were stopped that
00:15:54
might fit the description but those
00:15:56
people were discounted either they were
00:15:58
not in montana at that time or they were
00:16:01
traveling in a different direction
00:16:02
everybody none of those leads turned
00:16:04
into something that was really
00:16:07
worth anything
00:16:09
police get hundreds of leads most of
00:16:11
them go nowhere except for two tips
00:16:14
about the same person
00:16:18
people were looking at each other you
00:16:20
know quite frankly and and wayne nance
00:16:22
was an odd enough guy making some
00:16:25
pretty bizarre statements
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it was a red flag
00:16:28
two different tips came in saying you
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really should look at him you know he's
00:16:32
into
00:16:33
devil worship and he was overheard by
00:16:35
one person saying he should have hid the
00:16:37
body better
00:16:39
he was the weird kid who carved a
00:16:41
pentagram on his arm
00:16:44
was it shock value it's like people
00:16:46
you know who try to say things or do
00:16:48
things to get attention or to deflect
00:16:51
attention and so it was considered he
00:16:53
was just the weird kid and then after
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graduation
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he joined the navy and he left town
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by the mid-70s detectives exhaust all
00:17:04
leads
00:17:06
it was
00:17:07
months
00:17:08
to years that they finally you know had
00:17:10
no further leads to work with but the
00:17:12
case remained open it was just closed
00:17:15
until further leads were obtained
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[Music]
00:17:20
in 2004 investigators retrieve a semen
00:17:24
sample from siobhan's autopsy and send
00:17:26
it away for analysis they're hoping
00:17:29
against hope that new forensic science
00:17:31
may
00:17:32
give them a break
00:17:36
we were able to submit the dna through
00:17:38
the crime lab
00:17:39
and get the dna type the suspect dna
00:17:41
from the semen that was recovered from
00:17:43
her body in 1974
00:17:46
it was a male profile and that was put
00:17:48
into codis and so knowing that that dna
00:17:52
sample is in codis if there's another
00:17:53
crime that is committed
00:17:55
and that sample gets put into codis
00:17:57
there would have been a match so if
00:17:59
there were any other crimes anywhere in
00:18:00
the nation that occurred with that same
00:18:02
dna profile there would have been that
00:18:04
notification
00:18:07
investigators are disappointed
00:18:09
no direct hits emerge on codis the
00:18:12
national dna data bank
00:18:14
but as we see next the bloodline
00:18:17
detectives look to a new forensic weapon
00:18:19
called genetic genealogy and it's about
00:18:23
to provide a breakthrough in the
00:18:24
investigation
00:18:28
[Music]
00:18:36
it's been more than 25 years after the
00:18:40
brutal savage murder of a five-year-old
00:18:44
little girl siobhan mcginnis in 1974.
00:18:48
now missoula montana police are using a
00:18:50
dna sample to try and crack the case
00:18:55
there was no hits on that dna sample but
00:18:57
it was entered into the database so if
00:18:59
something did come into that database
00:19:02
it would then
00:19:04
ring an alarm and we would be notified
00:19:05
that there was a possible hit
00:19:08
thanks to knee forensic science
00:19:10
investigators look again at an old
00:19:12
suspect wayne nance he's been questioned
00:19:16
before in 1974
00:19:19
through the dna process
00:19:21
in the examination of that we were able
00:19:22
to determine that the semen that was
00:19:24
found on her body did not belong to him
00:19:28
we now know nance has committed a number
00:19:30
of crimes and
00:19:32
murders in missoula books have been
00:19:34
written about him
00:19:38
1986 wayne nance was killed during a
00:19:40
home invasion attempt where he was it
00:19:43
was an attempted murder of the husband
00:19:45
and the wife was upstairs tied to the
00:19:47
bed but the husband was able to kill
00:19:49
nance before he made it upstairs
00:19:53
he did have some friends that he
00:19:55
kind of ran ran over and ran through and
00:19:57
he was kind of the the leader of that
00:19:59
group
00:20:01
there's a lot of people who knew him in
00:20:03
high school and he scared the
00:20:05
socks off of him
00:20:06
just the things he said and did and so
00:20:08
if you're friends with this guy who is
00:20:10
weird and talking violent thoughts and
00:20:12
you stay friends with him
00:20:14
to me that kind of puts you in the
00:20:16
suspect pool so we kind of wanted to
00:20:18
track if if nance's dna wasn't a match
00:20:21
did that necessarily mean he wasn't
00:20:22
there maybe it was his friend's dna so
00:20:25
that was kind of
00:20:26
theory one and theory two was you know
00:20:29
let's check to see what the children
00:20:30
might know we were just tracking down
00:20:32
any theory we could to try to find a
00:20:34
fresh lead on the suspect
00:20:36
his best friend was referenced and the
00:20:38
name was always a little bit of a
00:20:39
variation so we dug through all the
00:20:41
yearbooks to try to identify anyone with
00:20:44
that similar name
00:20:46
we ended up with two potential people
00:20:48
one had been killed in a car crash in
00:20:51
the 90s
00:20:52
in washington state and the other was in
00:20:54
town so we contacted him and said you
00:20:56
know long shot would you mind if we
00:20:58
collect your dna
00:21:01
and we collected his dna wasn't a match
00:21:05
with no match on codis the case goes
00:21:08
unsolved for years
00:21:10
in a cold case like this there was one
00:21:13
last resort for investigators don't give
00:21:15
up
00:21:16
detective dean christensen would not he
00:21:20
uses the media for any information that
00:21:23
could give him a break
00:21:28
part of the cold case investigation
00:21:29
every now and then they would put out a
00:21:32
press release and talk about the case
00:21:34
and bring it back and people would come
00:21:35
forward and say
00:21:36
during that time in the 1970s i was
00:21:39
being abused by my uncle or my father or
00:21:42
a neighbor
00:21:44
so many people wanted to come forward
00:21:46
and help and it was difficult for some
00:21:48
of them because they were sexually
00:21:50
assaulted by people they were
00:21:53
wanting to still help even though
00:21:55
it brought up some terrible memories for
00:21:56
them
00:21:59
we had childhood friends of siobhan that
00:22:01
came forward who are now adults and
00:22:03
wanted to talk to us about it because
00:22:04
they remember clearly the children she
00:22:07
was playing with the day she went
00:22:08
missing you know obviously it's it
00:22:10
struck them hard all these years
00:22:13
and so it's a fine dynamic you know you
00:22:15
have to get the case done and you have
00:22:16
to be thorough but you also had the
00:22:18
dynamic of where you had to take their
00:22:20
um their feelings into consideration
00:22:23
that you did the investigation
00:22:25
[Music]
00:22:27
over 40 years after siobhan mcginnis's
00:22:30
murder a cold case unit is created by
00:22:34
missoula county one of the first cases
00:22:36
they investigate is the brutal murder of
00:22:39
the little girl with the big smile
00:22:45
the missoula county cold case unit was
00:22:47
stood up by a group of retired
00:22:48
volunteers one of the cases that they
00:22:51
took on was the siobhan mcginnis case
00:22:54
this is a missoula city police
00:22:55
department case but they requested our
00:22:57
unit take a look at it and see if there
00:22:59
was any investigative leads they could
00:23:01
develop or any new technology that would
00:23:03
be beneficial in the investigation
00:23:06
the chief of police at the time for
00:23:07
missoula police department
00:23:09
was preparing to retire and this is one
00:23:11
of the cases that had really bothered
00:23:13
him because of you know siobhan's age
00:23:15
being a young
00:23:16
young child at five years old when she
00:23:18
was raped and murdered really you know
00:23:20
obviously stuck with him and gave me the
00:23:22
opportunity to work with some senior
00:23:24
detectives who were mentors of mine
00:23:27
to help see if we could do anything with
00:23:29
the case with the changes in science
00:23:32
the team flies to california to meet
00:23:35
with the fbi forensic genetic genealogy
00:23:38
team leading experts with the technique
00:23:45
talked with the fbi's forensic genetic
00:23:47
genealogy team which was kind of the
00:23:49
forefront and talk to them about how do
00:23:52
you do it what's the policy we want to
00:23:53
make sure
00:23:54
we did it by the book
00:23:56
and make sure that we did it
00:23:58
correctly
00:24:00
siobhan mcginnis case when i first heard
00:24:02
about it i was just heartbroken i mean
00:24:06
the the
00:24:07
it's every parent's worst nightmare what
00:24:09
happened to siobhan mcginnis
00:24:11
and i heard about it through
00:24:12
a
00:24:13
contact at the behavioral analysis unit
00:24:15
at quantico
00:24:17
when i heard the facts of the siobhan
00:24:20
mcguinness case it just broke my heart
00:24:22
and
00:24:23
i want to help solve every one of these
00:24:24
cases and so of course we said yes we
00:24:26
would do anything we could in order to
00:24:27
help them
00:24:29
make the case and use genealogy to
00:24:31
figure out who did this
00:24:33
forensic genetic genealogy is a process
00:24:36
that came onto the map in 2018 after the
00:24:39
golden state killer case was solved and
00:24:41
it's a process where you take the
00:24:44
suspect's dna from a crime scene from a
00:24:46
rape kit from blood that was left at the
00:24:48
scene and you develop a profile a
00:24:50
special profile that's called a snip
00:24:52
profile
00:24:53
you take that profile and you upload it
00:24:55
into commercial genealogy databases like
00:24:57
ged match or family tree dna and from
00:25:00
that you're able to determine who the
00:25:02
relatives are of the person whose dna
00:25:05
that is and by taking those relatives
00:25:08
information their public record
00:25:09
information you can build family trees
00:25:12
and you're able to reverse engineer who
00:25:14
the person is that contributed that dna
00:25:19
one of the other big hurdles for
00:25:20
departments with these cases especially
00:25:22
these cold cases is funding you know
00:25:25
where are they going to get money in
00:25:26
order to pay for this because you know a
00:25:28
snip profile if you're if you're using a
00:25:30
micro array on average it might cost a
00:25:32
thousand dollars to fifteen hundred
00:25:34
dollars depending on where you go to get
00:25:35
it if you're going to use sequencing to
00:25:37
get your
00:25:38
snip that could be a little bit more
00:25:40
three thousand four thousand dollars
00:25:41
depending on where you go so initially
00:25:43
the department didn't have any money and
00:25:45
so i told sue and diana i said hey
00:25:48
there's a grant opportunity the sexual
00:25:50
assault kit initiative the sake grant as
00:25:52
it's known in the industry you might be
00:25:54
able to get funding through sake if you
00:25:56
guys aren't able to to fund it through
00:25:58
your department or it's also possible
00:25:59
that the fbi could pay for it so we had
00:26:01
to work out initially you know now that
00:26:03
we know we have suspect dna where are we
00:26:04
going to get the funding in order to pay
00:26:06
for this
00:26:08
in 2019 the missoula city police
00:26:10
department received funding from the
00:26:12
montana sexual assault kit initiative to
00:26:15
have
00:26:16
whole genome testing done on the
00:26:19
dna that was collected or the stains
00:26:21
that were collected from siobhan's
00:26:24
clothing our cold case unit sent that
00:26:26
sample which resulted in developing a
00:26:29
whole genome sequence dna profile
00:26:33
to do forensic genetic genealogy you
00:26:35
need what's called a snip sample it has
00:26:37
hundreds of thousands of markers and you
00:26:40
take for dna amplification you take the
00:26:42
sample and there's an entire process
00:26:44
that starts to amplify to build out
00:26:46
these dna profiles
00:26:48
and in this case the
00:26:50
degrading introduces a little bit of
00:26:53
bacteria so what you kind of end up
00:26:55
amplifying can also be the dna of the
00:26:57
bacteria so in this particular case
00:27:00
using the normal snip process it created
00:27:03
a dna sample that was not
00:27:07
able to be used for a forensic genetic
00:27:10
genealogy it was degraded slash
00:27:12
contaminated
00:27:14
this sample is not going to be useful
00:27:16
for a forensic genetic genealogy
00:27:18
investigation
00:27:22
a dna sample that cannot be used and
00:27:25
once again
00:27:26
a disappointment for investigators
00:27:28
they've got one final option
00:27:31
that's next on bloodline detectives
00:27:35
[Music]
00:27:43
2020 missoula montana the missoula
00:27:46
county cold case unit trying to use the
00:27:49
latest forensic science to crack open
00:27:52
the 1974 case of five-year-old siobhan
00:27:56
mcginnis
00:27:58
it's important to understand that
00:28:00
suspect dna is finite
00:28:02
meaning if you have five nanograms of
00:28:04
suspect dna once you use a portion of
00:28:07
that to try to get a profile that dna is
00:28:09
gone you can't get it back you consume
00:28:12
the dna in the process of trying to get
00:28:14
the snip
00:28:15
dna is typically measured in nanograms
00:28:18
well what is a nanogram well a nanogram
00:28:21
is one
00:28:22
billionth of a gram okay one billionth
00:28:25
meaning 10 to the negative ninth power
00:28:28
that's that's nine zeros okay one
00:28:30
billionth of a gram so i always ask
00:28:32
myself well what is a gram what's a
00:28:34
common thing that weighs a gram well in
00:28:37
the united states a dollar bill weighs
00:28:40
about a gram
00:28:42
you were able to determine
00:28:43
that there was not adequate quantity or
00:28:46
quality of dna in the siobhan mcguinness
00:28:48
case in order to get a profile by using
00:28:51
a microarray and so we then turned to
00:28:54
another lab
00:28:56
othram laboratories which is in the
00:28:57
woodlands texas
00:28:59
and we called it and said hey is this
00:29:00
something you guys think that you can
00:29:02
get a profile off of this and if my
00:29:04
recollection is right the amount of dna
00:29:07
was under a half a nanogram i think it
00:29:10
was somewhere in the in the 350 to 400
00:29:13
picograms range which a picogram is 1
00:29:16
1000 of a nanogram which is even more
00:29:19
insane how small of an amount of dna
00:29:21
that was
00:29:23
in june 2020 the dna profile is uploaded
00:29:27
to ancestry databases
00:29:31
it was uploaded into two different
00:29:33
databases where consumers have uploaded
00:29:36
their own dna with the
00:29:38
with an opt-in to share with law
00:29:40
enforcement it's not ancestry it's not
00:29:42
23andme it's an actual database where
00:29:45
people know that they're sharing this to
00:29:47
share that's that's the goal they've
00:29:49
said i want to help law enforcement
00:29:51
solve these so
00:29:52
we first looked at ged match and we
00:29:55
looked at family tree
00:29:57
from one data set we found a very good
00:30:00
match it was actually the fbi said it
00:30:02
was one of the best matches that they've
00:30:03
seen and so we started building out the
00:30:05
family tree of that person and then just
00:30:08
to kind of be on the safe side we also
00:30:10
started building out like the top 10
00:30:12
matches with the idea we'd be able to
00:30:15
layer them over to to help us hone in
00:30:17
[Music]
00:30:19
they were able to track that down to a
00:30:20
close relative which was our first major
00:30:23
breakthrough in leading the case
00:30:27
[Applause]
00:30:28
[Music]
00:30:29
he contacted the fbi in missouri and
00:30:32
they go interview this person and just
00:30:34
ask him voluntarily you know hey we we'd
00:30:36
like to rule you out as a suspect in a
00:30:38
case that happened back in 1974
00:30:41
and he was cooperative one thing that's
00:30:44
helpful with that was we're then able
00:30:46
with his consent to use his dna to see
00:30:48
how closely or distantly he is related
00:30:51
to the suspect and so that narrowed the
00:30:52
pool uh even further with his dna and
00:30:56
that's where we started to focus on uh
00:30:58
richard william davis as really a a
00:31:01
potential suspect in this case
00:31:04
after all these years after all these
00:31:07
leads do the bloodline detectives
00:31:10
finally have the killer of five-year-old
00:31:12
siobhan mcginnis we find out next
00:31:18
[Music]
00:31:26
september 2020 the missoula cold case
00:31:29
team and the fbi identified richard
00:31:32
william davis as the likely suspect in
00:31:35
the murder of five-year-old siobhan
00:31:38
mcginnis back in 1974
00:31:41
investigators using a forensic technique
00:31:43
called genetic genealogy to match the
00:31:46
suspect to the killing
00:31:48
and now the bloodline detectives begin
00:31:51
to realize little siobhan may not be
00:31:54
richard william davis's only victim
00:32:00
the genetic markers were pretty clearly
00:32:02
pointing at richard william davis but we
00:32:04
looked at his geography and he did not
00:32:07
have any geographical connection to
00:32:09
missoula
00:32:11
investigators know the attack on siobhan
00:32:14
is not likely to be richard william
00:32:17
davis's only crime
00:32:19
we identified richard and then built
00:32:21
back a timeline the best we could to try
00:32:23
to determine
00:32:24
where he'd been where he'd been living
00:32:26
where he'd been working cars that he had
00:32:30
people he associated with
00:32:32
and in in so doing potentially
00:32:36
linking him to other crimes
00:32:39
certainly of a concern was that he was
00:32:41
working in these different jobs where he
00:32:43
did have access to
00:32:44
vulnerable populations um the little
00:32:47
rock school of the deaf and blind
00:32:48
particular
00:32:50
you know certainly that would be a
00:32:52
vulnerable population
00:32:54
he worked in ministries with
00:32:56
disadvantaged
00:32:58
people who were down on their luck
00:33:00
worked with youth so he certainly had
00:33:03
various access to
00:33:05
to kids and and vulnerable adults even
00:33:09
a couple red flags that popped up in
00:33:11
richard william davis's background
00:33:14
the first of which was an instant an
00:33:16
incident in 1973 when he was in bath new
00:33:20
york
00:33:21
in june 1973 there was a physical police
00:33:24
log where a woman had come in in june of
00:33:27
1973 saying that her daughter her
00:33:29
eight-year-old daughter had been walking
00:33:31
through town through bath on the way to
00:33:33
the store and a man parked in a truck
00:33:36
had tried to lure her into the truck to
00:33:38
come into the truck and you know give
00:33:40
her a ride home give her candy whatever
00:33:42
it was he was trying to lure her in and
00:33:44
so the woman brought her out of the
00:33:45
police department and said that guy is
00:33:47
still parked there he's parked in front
00:33:49
of hatfields
00:33:50
um and so the police log says i went
00:33:52
down i got this guy i asked him to come
00:33:54
to police station so we could clear this
00:33:56
up he came in and it was richard william
00:33:58
davis
00:34:00
what was really
00:34:02
scary i guess is his statement to the
00:34:05
police was there was nothing untoward
00:34:07
about what he was doing he it was hot he
00:34:10
was offering he arrived and he often
00:34:14
offered children rides home
00:34:16
and that
00:34:17
was
00:34:18
chilling
00:34:20
investigators decide to speak with
00:34:22
davis's family to learn more about him
00:34:25
and to see if he could have been in
00:34:27
missoula at the time siobhan was
00:34:29
murdered
00:34:31
at that point the decision was made that
00:34:34
somebody was going to have to go to
00:34:36
arkansas and figure out
00:34:39
you know if his family members would
00:34:41
cooperate
00:34:42
richard william davis was dead he had
00:34:44
been dead for
00:34:45
for many years and he was not buried he
00:34:48
was cremated
00:34:50
you have to compare the suspect's dna to
00:34:52
the crime scene dna and it must match in
00:34:55
order for you to confirm that he is your
00:34:57
guy in this case that wasn't an option
00:34:59
okay so the secondary option that you
00:35:02
have is to find family members close
00:35:04
family members of this person and you
00:35:06
can do what we would basically refer to
00:35:08
as reverse paternity testing we prepared
00:35:11
to travel to arkansas
00:35:14
to interview his various family members
00:35:16
including his children his ex-wife
00:35:18
anybody we could surface
00:35:20
um as it was it turned out richard kept
00:35:22
to himself he didn't have many friends
00:35:24
we know he was working in in jobs where
00:35:26
he was traveling and had the ability to
00:35:29
pick people up in in different vehicles
00:35:31
he had a number of different vehicles
00:35:33
over the years he would take trips
00:35:35
randomly leaving his family at home and
00:35:38
bath and travel the country apparently
00:35:40
looking for work
00:35:44
at the conclusion of any interview
00:35:46
you always ask the question is there
00:35:48
anything that i haven't asked you about
00:35:49
that you think might be relevant to this
00:35:51
investigation because even the best
00:35:53
interviewers and interrogators don't
00:35:54
always ask every question every correct
00:35:56
question and so at the end of this
00:35:58
interview i asked that question i said
00:36:00
is there anything
00:36:01
anything else that i'm not asking you
00:36:03
about that you think might be relevant
00:36:04
to this investigation and that's when
00:36:05
they said well
00:36:07
you know there is this letter that we
00:36:09
have that our
00:36:10
you know that our father wrote
00:36:13
years before probably a decade before um
00:36:16
her father had sent out a letter kind of
00:36:19
a testimony he became a born-again
00:36:20
christian and he
00:36:22
um sent out a letter and in that letter
00:36:24
he said he had committed a number of
00:36:26
crimes
00:36:30
he wrote it and then he photocopied it
00:36:32
because we
00:36:33
obtained the same letter from a couple
00:36:35
different sources and it's identical
00:36:38
but at some point in his life he clearly
00:36:40
was reflecting on his past
00:36:44
in his own writing he had written
00:36:46
letters to his daughters and he had
00:36:48
written a journal at one point that his
00:36:50
then wife had seen
00:36:52
where he said he would never be forgiven
00:36:55
and then he also wrote some notes to his
00:36:57
daughters that indicated that he has
00:36:59
done many terrible things to people
00:37:02
adultery rape
00:37:05
drug abuse
00:37:06
and other crimes i'm too ashamed to
00:37:09
admit
00:37:10
and again that was one of those things
00:37:12
if you're admitting to
00:37:14
rape
00:37:15
um and adultery the other crimes you're
00:37:18
too ashamed to admit
00:37:20
that was again one of those moments
00:37:21
where like yeah
00:37:24
it didn't say that you know he killed
00:37:26
siobhan mcginnis but it did have some
00:37:27
admissions to some very
00:37:29
dark uh things that he was involved with
00:37:32
and once we once we saw that letter and
00:37:35
read that letter it was it was obvious
00:37:37
to us that
00:37:38
he was the person that did this
00:37:43
i felt bad for the family in this
00:37:45
instance because you know i'm showing up
00:37:47
and i'm asking them some very very hard
00:37:48
questions and to their credit they were
00:37:51
very cooperative and they wanted to see
00:37:53
justice they wanted to see this horrible
00:37:56
case solved they agreed voluntarily to
00:37:59
give their dna over even though they
00:38:02
realized and we were very upfront with
00:38:04
them
00:38:05
this is your father your husband your
00:38:08
grandpa that we're focusing on and no
00:38:10
one wants to think that their family
00:38:12
member is capable of something as
00:38:14
horrible as what happened to siobhan
00:38:16
mcginnis but nonetheless they they
00:38:18
cooperated and they helped and it was
00:38:20
their dna
00:38:21
ultimately that allowed us to
00:38:24
uh to determine that richard william
00:38:25
davis was in fact the the perpetrator
00:38:31
investigators call siobhan's family with
00:38:33
the news
00:38:35
my father was just so amazed that it had
00:38:37
been solved he just
00:38:40
it was just so unbelievable to finally
00:38:42
see a photo
00:38:44
of the person that took your child away
00:38:49
and just for him to know that it was
00:38:51
nobody in the community not one of
00:38:54
a friend of a friend of a friend or
00:38:56
somebody that lived in the neighborhood
00:38:58
just to know
00:38:59
just to actually physically
00:39:01
lay eyes on an image of the person
00:39:05
you know somehow even despite the fact
00:39:07
that he will never face justice
00:39:10
there's so much peace and just knowing
00:39:15
what happened
00:39:16
you know
00:39:19
it definitely tore
00:39:21
a lot of people apart for years
00:39:24
richard william davis would never have
00:39:27
been identified
00:39:29
but for forensic genetic genealogy
00:39:34
the fact that we can bring closure to
00:39:36
cases like siobhan's
00:39:38
is so important
00:39:40
and to also shine a light on richard
00:39:42
davis he may have committed other crimes
00:39:46
and if we could solve other unsolved
00:39:48
cases
00:39:49
because of the work that was done on
00:39:50
this case you know i think that that's
00:39:52
icing on the cake of obviously a
00:39:54
difficult situation
00:39:57
javon mcginnis didn't get to live the
00:39:58
rest of her life she didn't have the
00:40:00
ability to be free that was taken from
00:40:02
her and to know that we got to the end
00:40:03
of that and we figured out who did it
00:40:05
and although he wasn't able to be held
00:40:07
accountable it still feels good to know
00:40:09
that you can bring justice and closure
00:40:10
to a family like that
00:40:14
closure we hear that word all the time
00:40:17
especially when we talk about these
00:40:19
horrific and unsolved crimes but what
00:40:22
does closure really mean
00:40:24
for the family of siobhan mcginnis
00:40:27
it means the riddle of who would be so
00:40:30
cruel to such a beautiful wonderful
00:40:33
child
00:40:34
is solved to the bloodline detectives it
00:40:37
means their unrelenting efforts
00:40:40
and their science can be used again and
00:40:43
again to help solve the unsolvable
00:40:47
crimes
00:40:49
most of all closure in this case could
00:40:51
simply mean
00:40:52
the memory of the little girl with the
00:40:55
big smile
00:40:57
stays alive on a cold montana day
00:41:01
i'm nancy grace
00:41:03
thanks for being with us on bloodline
00:41:05
detectives
00:41:08
[Music]
00:41:18
[Music]
00:41:19
[Applause]
00:41:21
[Music]
00:41:38
[Music]
00:41:46
you
