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in 1976 orange county california a young
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woman found dead just outside a military
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base
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they discovered her body laid out like
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she had been dragged out of a car she
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was nude
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there was no reason she would even gone
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out to that area so they could only
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assume that she somebody picked her up
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there is no clear suspect the case goes
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cold
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they had nothing to go on fingerprints
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didn't help them this case went cold
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but police begin to utilize a
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revolutionary new form of investigative
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science
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genetic genealogy in this case was huge
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it solved the case i mean
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you can't see anything more definitive
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than that i mean no one suspected this
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guy he wasn't on anyone's radar
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this is the story of leslie penrod
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harris and how an investigation that
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goes cold for 40 years finally heats up
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and is solved thanks to forensic
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genealogy 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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orange county california located between
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l.a and san diego it's a very popular
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tourist stop the home of disneyland but
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it's also home to people of very diverse
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backgrounds
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a lot of people's perception of orange
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county is disneyland
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and the beaches and the great weather
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which we all have but orange county is
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much more than disneyland
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i would say we have a
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large variety of people that live in
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orange county
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i would say for the most part you know
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they're working professionals
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probably
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upper blue-collar professional type
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individuals
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orange county was a very unique
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cosmopolitan center
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in santa ana
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and in newport beach but the rest of the
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county
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was farmers and farmland
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so it was farmer
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it was cow man
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and it was cosmopolitan it was a mix of
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people
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americana at its very best
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on may 17 1976 costa mesa police are
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contacted by john harris he says his
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wife leslie penrod harris is missing
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leslie was married to john harris
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leslie was 29 years old at the time i
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believe john was 32 or 33.
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for the last several years prior to 76
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they had been living in
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honolulu hawaii
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and because of various problems a job
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transfer
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the harris has moved from hawaii and
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we're going to relocate here in southern
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california and apparently according to
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mr harris a brunt of the problems in
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their marriage recently had been
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arguments stemming from their move from
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hawaii to california
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and a purchase of a condominium in the
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area that seemed to be some type of
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animosity between the two
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and so it was just john and leslie
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staying at the at a hotel in irvine
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on may 17th of 1976 about
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8 30 9 pm they went to a restaurant
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at present-day south coast plaza
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apparently they had an argument at some
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point
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during their dinner
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and she got up and left the husband
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waited
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at the table for her and after some time
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she didn't come back he asked the
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restaurant staff if they'd checked the
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bathroom for her they did she wasn't in
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the bathroom they couldn't find her in
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the restaurant and after a couple of
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hours he eventually went home and then
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eventually made a police report that
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evening to the costa mesa police
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department that
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his wife had gone missing
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the search for leslie penrod harris does
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not last long
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at 4 30 a.m the very next morning
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leslie's found dead near the marine
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corps air station at el toro
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just north of san diego
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military police find leslie completely
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naked her body lying on a roadway just
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outside the base perimeter
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they discovered her body laid out like
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she'd been dragged out of a car she was
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nude
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and uh her hair appeared to be wet and
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she was just left on a sidewalk like
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that some patrol deputies
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went to the scene confirmed the
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situation a decedent
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and they had called the sheriff's
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homicide investigators
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she did have a couple minor injuries and
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it appeared that
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she had some wounds to her ankles from
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her body being dragged to the location
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where it was finally found
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the crime scene photos just show a uh
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the nude body of a female supine she's
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lying on her back
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there's no there's no blood at the scene
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police immediately began to collect
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evidence as best as they could
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obviously you know they're going to you
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know take fingerprints from any items
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that were you know found at the crime
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scene in this case there really wasn't
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anything other than her body uh at that
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time in 1976 it was very difficult and
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it might have been even non-existent to
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get fingerprints off of
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a body
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obviously they would have done a sexual
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assault kit but they didn't have dna at
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that point in time the most they could
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do was some type of
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blood analysis on the semen if the
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person secreted blood
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when she was her body was disposed of
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there was no per no clothing no personal
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property no wallet nothing like that at
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that point
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they were to stand still
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the area where she left south coast
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plaza to where she was found is about 20
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miles away
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john harris had their car
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so she either took some
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sort of transportation she obviously
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didn't walk
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it's probably too late for the bus
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there was no reason she would even gone
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out to that area
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so the question was who would have
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picked her up and why did they kill and
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take her out to
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the marine corps area
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so now they knew that they need to
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talk to the people at the airport or inn
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where they were staying
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talk to the people who were at the
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riviera
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restaurant which is the last place that
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she was seen
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and most of all talk to the husband
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when a spouse especially a wife goes
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missing police immediately focus on the
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husband
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as the very first person of interest
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detectives hone in on john
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harris in this case they had no other
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suspects
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the police are obviously going to
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interrogate the husband and make sure
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his
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statements make sense make sure they're
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consistent
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in particular
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i think he admitted
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that they had an argument at the
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restaurant uh and you know that would be
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one of the first clues that maybe
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something wasn't right in their
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relationship
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and you know did he follow up and find
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her back at you know their house and do
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something to her i mean that would have
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been the thought process i would guess
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that the detectives had gone through and
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then she dumps her body you know far
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away from you know the crime scene
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they interviewed
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the waiter and he confirmed the story
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that
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john harris said that you know they had
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an argument she left he checked the
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bathroom
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saw a taxi cab leave thought maybe she
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might have been on that he couldn't
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really tell
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none of the adjacent businesses could
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say that she was in there and they
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looked around the parking lot they ended
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up checking with the cab company and
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there was no record of anyone picking
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her up at that time
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it was just he and leslie at a table
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some type of argument
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they could tell there was a little bit
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of tension at the table leslie leaves
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never comes back everybody's stories
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match to what john harris is
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the
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report john made with costa mesa police
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department match his story and the
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waiter story so his alibi was
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essentially clean as far as he didn't
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leave with leslie she never came back
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leslie was found 15 miles away at el
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toro air station
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there was no time in any of this
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timeline for john to have gone
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anywhere near el toro air station and
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come back his whereabouts were accounted
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for the police were really at a dead end
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investigators hope leslie's autopsy will
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reveal new clues
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they found a ligature on one of her legs
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ligature mark indicating that maybe her
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legs have been tied together at one
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point but there was no rope or anything
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found at the scene and then she had some
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bruising on the right side of her body
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uh indicating some sort of trauma
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and then they recovered they did vaginal
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swabs
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pretty routine in an autopsy and they
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discovered the seam and they preserved
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it but at the time they they didn't have
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any the forensic
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scientology back then was just not to
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the level it is now so
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but luckily they preserved it
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today law enforcement we're very spoiled
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we have cell phones laptops
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ring cameras surveillance cameras
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everywhere license plate readers
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dna is huge
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back then they had a witness
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and or a fingerprint
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but
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kudos to all the staff and all the crime
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lab
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folks who worked on this case back in
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the day because they had the wherewithal
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to collect
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swabs from leslie
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at the autopsy in 1976.
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el toro is a huge military facility and
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since leslie penrod harris is found so
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close to it police naturally suspect a
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u.s marine could be involved for someone
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to get onto el toro marine air station
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they had to have either a pass there had
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to be an employee or they had to have
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peculiar knowledge of how to sneak onto
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the base with someone not seeing them in
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other words somebody who was very
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familiar with the surrounding areas
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this individual
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that murdered her was probably a marine
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a woman savagely murdered near a
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military base 15 miles from her own home
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her husband seems to have an alibi
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so detectives begin to look more closely
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at just who was leslie penrod harris
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that's next on bloodline detectives
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[Music]
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may 1976 orange county california police
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investigating the murder of leslie
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penrod harris her body found completely
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naked on a roadway near the el toro
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marine corps air station
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now police want to know more about
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leslie
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she was
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a recent
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orange county
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resident having moved with her husband
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from hawaii and she'd been here in
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orange county for just a couple of weeks
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i think and she had been living
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at a hotel
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with her husband in orange county
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she was
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a girl who was looking for
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a new beginning a new future
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a new
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area in orange county which really it
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was boomtown orange county in 1976 was a
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boom town she was coming to the mecca
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where you could make a good living
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and that's what she wanted and that's
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the kind of gal she was
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very easy going her friend said she was
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very admirable a great friend
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wouldn't hurt anybody was married living
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in hawaii had a job moved back and was
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going to start a new life on the west
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coast her and her husband put a deposit
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on a condominium and then lake el toro
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lake forest to now begin the second
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chapter of their life
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apparently
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leslie wanted to buy
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a home either a home or condominium here
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in southern california
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and john was a little reluctant about
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wanting to spend money on a property so
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an argument ensued
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i think she just wasn't happy in her
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marriage either and she didn't want to
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leave hawaii which can't blame her
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come back here you know she's just
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typical 30 year old woman she just wants
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to live her nice life and i think that
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she wasn't getting along with her
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husband and uh
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and one thing led to another and
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unfortunately
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you don't think back then a woman would
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be uh
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at risk just leaving a restaurant
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but uh
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things happened even back then
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police still don't have much evidence to
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go on they make sure all the obvious
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bases in their investigation are covered
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the police did their job when this
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murder investigation first started they
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interviewed all the witnesses who they
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were supposed to they checked blood
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types to see whether or not john was
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involved it didn't look like john was
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involved
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i know they thought that the husband was
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the suspect they interviewed him several
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times his story was consistent
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i know they
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suspected him but at some point they
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actually had nowhere else to go i mean
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they just
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exhausted all evidence leads at that
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point now police begin to focus on the
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el toro marine air station for any
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possible leads the majority of where my
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victim's body was found
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near el toro marine base
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is very desolate the only thing out
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there literally was the marine base
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itself there was no public housing the
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huge puzzle was how did leslie get from
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the parking lot of south coast plaza
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to where she was eventually discovered
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behind the marine base again middle of
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the night she was found about 4 20 a.m
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literally five hours later she's now
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dead totally nude
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strangled and dumped on a roadway behind
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a marine base so again the focus was on
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why was she left where she was
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somebody probably had something to do
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with the marine corps we know today and
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particularly at the fbi and from
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the fbi's behavioral analysis unit we
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know that killers generally
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dump their bodies leave their bodies at
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areas that they're familiar with
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particularly
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when it's one of their first crimes so
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we always look for that
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you know me being a former marine myself
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given the location of where leslie's
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body was found it had to have been
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somebody that was familiar with that
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installation and the areas
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in and out of that base
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whether he was working there
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visiting that area or living in that
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location
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so our thoughts were marine
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with some type of costa mesa california
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connections
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needs of leslie penrod harris's death
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rattles the whole community
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back in the 70s you had
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unfortunately a lot of serial killers
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going around you had william bonin
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you had randy craft
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and one of the methods of transportation
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back in the day was hitchhiking you saw
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a lot of people with their thumbs out
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sitting on the side of the roadway
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hitchhiking
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and so you were taking a big chance that
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the truck the van especially a van
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the car you were getting into was this
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a friend a foe
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or potentially going to be harmful to me
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so i'm sure back in the day when you
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have a girl that left
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south coast plaza a very affluent
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shopping mall
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and then is found naked and deceased
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behind the marine base i'm sure there
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were some shock waves going around in
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the community
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finally police exhaust all leads
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leslie's case goes cold
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they had nothing to go on fingerprints
00:17:02
didn't help them this case went cold
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until 1998.
00:17:09
orange county crime lab criminalist
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reopened the case
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she re re-examined the swabs from the
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autopsy
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and she was able to find semen
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and was able to extract some now
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possible human dna
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so because of that
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they believed they could create a dna
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profile which they in fact were able to
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it's now 23 years later
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now with the advent of dna there were so
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many cases where all that you could do
00:17:43
was try to match the old rape kit with a
00:17:48
new dna profile and the police set out
00:17:52
to do that
00:17:54
and they submitted that into the law
00:17:56
enforcement databases that existed back
00:17:59
in the day to see if there was any hits
00:18:01
and there wasn't
00:18:03
we were at a loss of what to do
00:18:05
so the case went cold again
00:18:09
the investigation into the murder of a
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beautiful young woman leslie penrod
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harris
00:18:15
seemingly advances in 20-year cycles
00:18:19
20 years after leslie's naked body is
00:18:23
discovered detectives try to reopen a
00:18:26
cold file but as we see next on
00:18:29
bloodline detectives it will take
00:18:31
another 20 years and some amazing
00:18:35
science for a real break
00:18:37
to come their way
00:18:40
[Music]
00:18:47
1998 orange county california the orange
00:18:51
county sheriff's cold case team reopens
00:18:53
the investigation into the brutal murder
00:18:56
of leslie penrod harris
00:18:59
they decide to visit her husband john
00:19:02
and ask for a dna sample
00:19:05
it was brand new detectives who were on
00:19:08
the case in 1998
00:19:10
but just like the old detectives the
00:19:12
husband is always the prime suspect you
00:19:15
always round up the usual suspects it's
00:19:18
been that way since the start of
00:19:20
criminal investigation
00:19:22
they wanted to know is it the husband's
00:19:25
dna which is prime piece of evidence in
00:19:29
this case
00:19:30
we knocked on his door
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we had no prior contact with him just
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knocked on his door identified ourselves
00:19:36
and
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asked him for a voluntary swab
00:19:39
and uh he was uh
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very reluctant i mean he was
00:19:44
uncooperative he told us to go away
00:19:47
and he just wanted to move on with his
00:19:49
life and forget it he said it happened a
00:19:50
long time ago and
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he refused
00:19:55
you would think after being contacted
00:19:58
all these years
00:19:59
so you're looking at 12 years later
00:20:01
sheriff's detectives contact you saying
00:20:04
they're still working on your wife's
00:20:05
mother you would think you would be
00:20:07
absolutely thrilled that your wife's
00:20:10
case just wasn't collecting dust on a
00:20:12
shelf
00:20:14
it was almost the opposite
00:20:16
it had been 23 years since leslie had
00:20:19
disappeared
00:20:20
and now they're coming after him
00:20:23
i think anyone would be frightened john
00:20:26
was frightened
00:20:28
leslie's disappearance had destroyed him
00:20:31
mentally had destroyed him in in his
00:20:35
foundation of his life
00:20:37
he was not in a good place and to
00:20:39
revisit it 23 years later just brought
00:20:42
all the worst memories he said no
00:20:46
we told him we're going to get a search
00:20:48
warrant come back we're not going away
00:20:50
but he still refused and we just thought
00:20:51
it was odd
00:20:53
and
00:20:53
to me it just indicated that he might be
00:20:56
good for this crime
00:20:58
anyway we went back a few weeks later
00:20:59
with a search warrant and he was the
00:21:02
same way he was uncooperative but he
00:21:04
complied with the the search warrant we
00:21:05
got an oral swab
00:21:07
and then
00:21:08
i photo to maria glonsky our forensic
00:21:11
scientist
00:21:12
and she did her magic where she breaks
00:21:14
it down compares it and a couple weeks
00:21:17
later she called us back and said it
00:21:18
wasn't him and we were shocked because
00:21:19
we thought this is going to be the guy
00:21:22
and the way he acted but he wasn't a
00:21:24
match for the semen and recovered from
00:21:26
his uh
00:21:27
murdered wife
00:21:28
in 2018
00:21:30
the orange county sheriff's cold case
00:21:32
team decides to try genetic genealogy
00:21:35
after they learn how it played a major
00:21:37
role in catching the notorious golden
00:21:40
state killer
00:21:42
in 2018
00:21:44
once the arrest was made of joseph
00:21:46
deangelo for the golden state killer
00:21:48
case a couple of the fbi uh personnel
00:21:50
that were directly involved in solving
00:21:52
that steve bush and steve kramer
00:21:55
gave a presentation at the sheriff's
00:21:57
department for any interested parties
00:21:59
that wanted to hear about
00:22:01
how this was solved and this forensic
00:22:03
genealogy that was used so i followed up
00:22:07
on that and asked to meet with him
00:22:09
and one of the cases i presented was the
00:22:11
leslie harris case to see can we use the
00:22:14
dna i had
00:22:16
upload it in the genealogy databases to
00:22:18
see if we can get some type of person of
00:22:21
interest
00:22:22
so dan came over to the fbi office in
00:22:25
orange county and sat down with myself
00:22:27
and steve bush and our team dan salcedo
00:22:30
came in with a tiny little folder and he
00:22:32
said this is the case file the case file
00:22:34
on the leslie penrod harris case was
00:22:36
roughly a quarter of an inch thick there
00:22:38
was just nothing to go off of now for us
00:22:40
it doesn't really matter because the
00:22:42
suspect's dna is the investigative tool
00:22:45
that we're going to use that's the lead
00:22:47
that we're going to follow up on and in
00:22:48
this case we were lucky enough to have
00:22:50
the suspect's dna forensic genealogy
00:22:53
doesn't work if you don't have the
00:22:55
suspect's dna you have to have the
00:22:56
suspect's dna
00:22:58
genetic genealogy is
00:23:00
amazing
00:23:02
it is an incredible forensic tool that
00:23:06
allows investigators to build a
00:23:09
genealogical profile so homicide
00:23:12
investigators with the help of the fbi
00:23:15
can identify a subject
00:23:18
they
00:23:19
first said you have to make sure there's
00:23:21
enough dna
00:23:23
that's been preserved to
00:23:25
upload into the genealogy databases
00:23:28
i confirmed with my crime lab that there
00:23:30
was
00:23:31
and we took the next step now we sent it
00:23:34
out
00:23:34
to this company and they create a dna
00:23:37
profile to be submitted for ancestry
00:23:40
that was accomplished in early of 2019
00:23:45
and off we went and we now i now work
00:23:48
with the
00:23:49
fbi genealogy genetic team
00:23:52
to start building a a tree
00:23:54
based on
00:23:56
my suspect dna
00:23:58
to see if we can now
00:24:00
go back go way back in time to see if we
00:24:02
can start building a tree
00:24:04
based on that
00:24:06
dna sample that was uploaded
00:24:09
one of the unique things about genetic
00:24:10
genealogy it can also give you
00:24:13
your ancestry and ethnicity and first
00:24:15
thing we determined once we got the dna
00:24:18
back is that our suspect had african
00:24:20
ancestry so he was likely an
00:24:22
african-american and when we looked at
00:24:24
the matches that seemed to make sense
00:24:25
because they started coming back to
00:24:27
african-american families in particular
00:24:29
uh into the southern southeastern united
00:24:32
states uh louisiana alabama area so uh
00:24:37
we started focusing on those particular
00:24:40
families we were very confident that he
00:24:42
he was in the military again
00:24:44
from the location of where the body was
00:24:46
found so we started focusing on anybody
00:24:49
in the family that had military
00:24:51
backgrounds and
00:24:54
once we identified some of the relatives
00:24:56
in the particular case
00:24:57
that had military backgrounds being with
00:25:00
the fbi uh we have unique access with
00:25:03
the military we can make requests uh to
00:25:06
the military to get military records and
00:25:08
so we were able to obtain military
00:25:10
records from several relatives that had
00:25:12
been in
00:25:13
the military including the marines
00:25:15
in this particular case and then when
00:25:17
you get the military records again it's
00:25:18
stacks of documents that you have to go
00:25:20
through
00:25:21
fortunately the military records like a
00:25:23
lot of government background checks you
00:25:25
have to identify relatives
00:25:27
in this particular case
00:25:29
we had a fbi special agent who was new
00:25:32
to our team but she was fantastic
00:25:34
and we started handing out different
00:25:36
military records to people to go through
00:25:38
and i remember she
00:25:40
took home uh over the easter holiday she
00:25:43
took home a stack of military records
00:25:46
and
00:25:47
uh i think it was easter sunday about 1
00:25:50
am she was going through
00:25:52
some of the military records on one of
00:25:53
the individuals and discovered a
00:25:55
relative
00:25:56
that had worked at el toro in 1976
00:26:00
and
00:26:01
the next day i remember she called us
00:26:03
all excited about it and it was it was a
00:26:05
phenomenal find you know there was
00:26:07
literally the needle in the haystack in
00:26:08
this pile of documents she found the
00:26:10
name of an individual
00:26:12
a relative who did not have on our
00:26:13
family tree yet
00:26:15
who
00:26:16
was in the military
00:26:19
stationed at el toro at the same time
00:26:21
was a crime the name of the individual
00:26:23
was eddie lee anderson uh and he
00:26:27
was a marine stationed at el toro in
00:26:30
1976 and when we did a little bit
00:26:33
further background on him and pulled his
00:26:34
records from the military
00:26:36
we found out that he lived in costa mesa
00:26:38
less than a mile from where
00:26:40
leslie harris had been abducted after 40
00:26:43
long years police finally have a suspect
00:26:47
and a name to go with it eddie lee
00:26:51
anderson but now they've got to find him
00:26:54
that's next on bloodline
00:26:58
[Music]
00:27:04
detectives orange county california 2019
00:27:08
the sheriff's department cold case team
00:27:11
identifies the man suspected of the
00:27:14
murder of a beautiful young woman
00:27:17
leslie penrod harris
00:27:19
his name
00:27:20
eddie lee anderson at the time of the
00:27:23
murder anderson was a soldier at the el
00:27:26
toro marine air base where
00:27:28
leslie's naked body was discovered
00:27:32
what immediately stood out was
00:27:35
he was a marine stationed at el toro
00:27:37
which
00:27:38
fit the suspicions that we had that it
00:27:40
had to be somebody familiar with the
00:27:41
area or associated with the military
00:27:44
the other thing that was
00:27:47
telling in this case is that mr anderson
00:27:49
lived relatively close to the south
00:27:51
coast plaza where leslie was last seen
00:27:54
so
00:27:55
he was definitely a person of interest
00:27:57
in this case and some of those initial
00:28:00
jigsaw puzzle pieces were fitting into
00:28:02
place
00:28:04
based on
00:28:05
eddie lee anderson's proximity to orange
00:28:08
county he actually lived here 76 and was
00:28:11
a marine
00:28:12
and was an african-american
00:28:15
when i got that phone call i extremely
00:28:17
excited to get that news from the fbi
00:28:20
and they said okay what we do next is
00:28:23
you start working on that name
00:28:26
background
00:28:27
it's now my job from that point on to
00:28:29
put the case together so that's what i
00:28:31
started with
00:28:32
police continue to investigate eddie lee
00:28:35
anderson's background
00:28:37
he's now living in louisiana river ridge
00:28:40
louisiana he's now buried remarried he
00:28:44
had been married twice before
00:28:46
a couple kids
00:28:48
get hold of the law enforcement
00:28:50
officials out in
00:28:51
that part of louisiana
00:28:53
they are extremely helpful to me they
00:28:56
confirm that eddie's still alive lives
00:29:00
in this particular house they do
00:29:01
surveillance
00:29:03
male older male black lives there
00:29:05
they run him out no criminal record so
00:29:08
we know at least he's not still involved
00:29:10
in something
00:29:12
no dna on file
00:29:15
so
00:29:15
i start pulling arrest reports i find
00:29:18
out that eddie lee's been arrested a
00:29:19
couple times 1974
00:29:22
for a kidnapping out of a law
00:29:24
he removed a female at knifepoint from a
00:29:27
laundromat in the city of tustin
00:29:29
i'm able to get that police report
00:29:32
i found out he actually assaulted his
00:29:35
then wife
00:29:37
outside of her workplace in santa ana in
00:29:39
1976 september of 76 i get that report
00:29:44
i'm able to access military records and
00:29:47
further confirm his age
00:29:50
where he was stationed el toro
00:29:53
and the biggest break i got was based on
00:29:56
the 1976 arrest report
00:29:59
confirms again
00:30:01
marine
00:30:02
married
00:30:04
and i saw where he was living he put
00:30:06
down that he was living on a street
00:30:08
called sunflower
00:30:10
in costa mesa
00:30:11
which i almost dropped to my knees
00:30:14
because when i found that out
00:30:16
i knew that sunflower is the same street
00:30:19
that is that faces south coast plaza
00:30:23
and from where the apartment he listed
00:30:25
in 1976
00:30:27
and to where leslie went missing is
00:30:29
about a mile away
00:30:31
to me that was i think the
00:30:34
groundbreaking moment of i think we got
00:30:36
our guy
00:30:38
investigators must
00:30:40
somehow acquire a dna sample from eddie
00:30:44
lee anderson in order to try and match
00:30:47
it with semen found on leslie's body
00:30:50
circumstantially everything's looking
00:30:52
really really good for me
00:30:54
but i had to
00:30:56
somehow get eddie's dna to match to
00:31:00
the autopsy
00:31:01
extraction dna
00:31:04
they could find no dna sample or match
00:31:08
with eddie lee anderson but they had the
00:31:11
proximity the time the means the
00:31:14
opportunity they didn't have a motive
00:31:17
but they did know now where eddie lee
00:31:20
anderson lived and they were going to go
00:31:22
and see if they could get one
00:31:23
so they went to louisiana where he was a
00:31:26
truck driver they needed to get a dna
00:31:29
sample surreptitiously
00:31:32
lo and behold they looked through his
00:31:34
garbage and they found needles
00:31:36
oh my goodness the man was a diabetic he
00:31:39
was injecting himself with insulin and
00:31:42
in those needles there would be blood
00:31:45
traces
00:31:46
they took those blood traces and they
00:31:49
sent them to the fbi
00:31:51
and when it came back
00:31:53
there was a match
00:31:56
investigators are using their very best
00:31:58
forensic weapon to solve a 40-year-old
00:32:01
murder case they've got a suspect
00:32:04
they've got a dna match
00:32:05
but can they catch the killer
00:32:08
that's next on bloodline detectives
00:32:12
[Music]
00:32:21
2019 river ridge louisiana detectives
00:32:25
all the way from california visit the
00:32:27
home of ex-marine eddie lee anderson to
00:32:31
interview him about a 40-year-old murder
00:32:37
basically
00:32:38
said we're here from california we'd
00:32:40
like like to talk to you about an old
00:32:41
case and he was cooperative he came
00:32:44
outside and agreed to talk to us
00:32:46
during the
00:32:48
initial
00:32:49
part of the interview he was very
00:32:51
forthcoming he was very open about
00:32:55
his time in california his time in the
00:32:57
marine corps
00:32:58
uh
00:32:59
however when it came time to
00:33:00
acknowledging uh how his dna came in
00:33:04
contact with miss harris he denied
00:33:06
knowing her having a relationship her
00:33:08
any sexual contact with her with the dna
00:33:11
evidence collected from eddie lee
00:33:13
anderson police
00:33:15
finally make an arrest
00:33:18
they arrested him when he was with his
00:33:20
wife
00:33:21
she had no idea that he had been
00:33:24
involved in any kind of criminal
00:33:26
activity
00:33:27
eddie lee anderson seemed to be a
00:33:30
changed man
00:33:31
he had found god he had
00:33:34
married raised children he had a good
00:33:37
job of
00:33:38
being a truck driver
00:33:40
no one
00:33:42
no one thought that he had been a
00:33:45
criminal in his past life
00:33:48
i think when they came and
00:33:50
arrested him and showed him the photo
00:33:52
i think he knew
00:33:54
they got me and he was probably inside
00:33:57
he was just
00:33:59
you know he couldn't believe it he was
00:34:00
in shock but i mean he knew he was good
00:34:02
for the crime you don't forget stuff
00:34:03
like that
00:34:05
i arrest eddie lee anderson in may of uh
00:34:09
2019
00:34:10
i now start to do all my follow-up okay
00:34:13
i work backwards trying to find eddie
00:34:15
lee now i'm working forward to find out
00:34:17
everything about eddie lee after 76
00:34:20
so i make contact i'm able to find his
00:34:22
first wife that he was married to for
00:34:24
several years
00:34:25
so
00:34:26
in talking to
00:34:28
eddie's first wife she confirmed that he
00:34:30
was physically abusive
00:34:32
part of that was he would choke her
00:34:34
jokered sometime to the point of
00:34:36
unconsciousness
00:34:38
and there were times after she regained
00:34:41
the consciousness
00:34:42
that eddie was
00:34:44
putting her head underwater
00:34:46
well one of the mysteries was leslie was
00:34:48
found completely nude it was the in may
00:34:52
you know there was it wasn't raining it
00:34:54
wasn't damp there was no fog but
00:34:56
leslie's hair seemed to be wet
00:34:59
so once i got that information from
00:35:01
eddie's first wife i think i figured out
00:35:03
why
00:35:04
leslie's hair was wet
00:35:06
eddie
00:35:08
when he after the process of either
00:35:10
choking her or renting her unconscious
00:35:13
or even after he actually killed her he
00:35:15
tried to revive her by putting her head
00:35:18
underwater
00:35:20
eddie lee anderson's arrest came 43
00:35:23
years after the crime
00:35:26
a lifetime
00:35:28
he had married he had children he had a
00:35:31
completely different life
00:35:33
and my goodness gracious
00:35:36
to think that something 43 years in the
00:35:40
past would come back to haunt him
00:35:43
it was shocking it was shocking not only
00:35:46
to the perpetrator anderson but to
00:35:49
everyone who was involved how after all
00:35:52
this time
00:35:53
dang good police work that's what it was
00:35:57
eddie lee anderson is under arrest and
00:36:00
now detectives want to find leslie
00:36:02
penrod harris's only remaining relative
00:36:06
a daughter she gave up for adoption when
00:36:09
leslie herself was just a teenager
00:36:12
amazingly the discovery that leslie had
00:36:16
a biological daughter was only uncovered
00:36:18
because of this investigation
00:36:22
no one knew leslie harris had a daughter
00:36:25
her friends didn't know
00:36:27
even her own husband didn't know she had
00:36:28
a daughter come to find out during the
00:36:30
course of my investigation
00:36:32
leslie gave up a child to adoption
00:36:37
i did search for my parents
00:36:39
and that was when i discovered my mother
00:36:42
had passed away she was deceased
00:36:44
and the cause of death was listed as
00:36:46
strangulation
00:36:49
i reconnected with
00:36:51
that daughter during the course of my
00:36:54
investigation
00:36:55
and one of the first phone calls i made
00:36:57
was to leslie's daughter to say i
00:36:59
arrested somebody for your your mom's
00:37:02
murder
00:37:03
dan had emailed me
00:37:06
two to three days prior to the arrest
00:37:10
asking
00:37:11
for my phone number in case there were
00:37:14
any new developments so i suspected that
00:37:16
there might be something going on
00:37:19
and i was i was in florida with visiting
00:37:22
my daughter and granddaughters when i
00:37:23
received that email so i responded right
00:37:26
away and
00:37:27
i just was hoping that something that i
00:37:30
would hear from him soon and i was
00:37:33
driving through louisiana the day that
00:37:35
he was arrested
00:37:37
then i got home
00:37:38
back here to texas and
00:37:40
maybe an hour and a half to two hours
00:37:42
later i received a phone call from dan
00:37:44
salcido telling me that
00:37:46
they'd made an arrest
00:37:49
i was um
00:37:52
i just i started crying i
00:37:54
felt
00:37:56
relief
00:37:57
[Music]
00:37:59
i
00:38:01
i was shocked but i was happy
00:38:05
that they'd made an arrest
00:38:08
in prison awaiting trial eddie lee
00:38:11
anderson falls victim to a new virus
00:38:14
raging across the world
00:38:17
it's now 2020 when he's in the orange
00:38:20
county jail
00:38:22
and what do we have taking place not
00:38:25
only in the jail but in hospitals and
00:38:28
medical centers and everywhere
00:38:31
throughout the country the covet
00:38:33
epidemic the covet pandemic the virus is
00:38:37
rampant
00:38:38
haley anderson was
00:38:40
66 years old
00:38:43
and he was susceptible to the covet
00:38:45
virus and the orange county jail was a
00:38:48
place which started to become impacted
00:38:51
by this he was the first inmate to have
00:38:55
contracted the covid virus
00:38:59
and seven days later
00:39:01
he was dead
00:39:03
we had never had a preliminary hearing
00:39:05
we didn't have a court date set
00:39:08
nothing had taken place since his arrest
00:39:10
other than the extradition
00:39:12
so um
00:39:14
kind of bittersweet for me because
00:39:17
you know
00:39:18
was justice truly served i wanted him to
00:39:20
go to trial i wanted to be there for the
00:39:22
trial
00:39:24
but
00:39:26
um
00:39:27
not to say at the same time
00:39:32
i
00:39:34
i'd hoped that he
00:39:37
struggled to breathe the same way my
00:39:39
mother
00:39:40
struggled when he was strangling her
00:39:43
for yolanda sanders it's a bittersweet
00:39:46
end to a long investigation
00:39:49
for bloodline detectives and the science
00:39:52
of genetic genealogy
00:39:54
it is a remarkable end to a case that
00:39:57
looked
00:39:58
as if it would never be solved
00:40:01
genetic genealogy in this case was huge
00:40:04
aside from the
00:40:06
the swabs that were collected autopsy
00:40:09
moving forward 42 years
00:40:12
you know i wouldn't have probably got to
00:40:14
eddie lee anderson
00:40:15
if it wasn't for the fbi genealogy team
00:40:18
those people are outstanding top in
00:40:20
their field
00:40:22
i couldn't give them enough kudos of
00:40:25
what they did for this case
00:40:27
it was very important without it
00:40:29
um
00:40:32
i still i don't believe my mother's
00:40:34
murder would have ever been solved
00:40:37
it's almost impossible to believe the
00:40:39
science of genetic genealogy can reach
00:40:42
back 40 long years to bring back answers
00:40:47
for victims relatives even investigators
00:40:52
the incredible work of bloodline
00:40:54
detectives goes on and because of that
00:40:57
work there is finally justice
00:41:00
for crime victims like leslie penrod
00:41:03
harris and her daughter
00:41:06
i'm nancy grace
00:41:08
thanks so much for joining us here on
00:41:10
bloodline detectives
00:41:13
[Music]
00:41:22
[Music]
00:41:24
[Applause]
00:41:26
[Music]
00:41:42
[Music]
00:41:54
you
