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tonight on unsolved mysteries
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two seemingly unrelated cases lay
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dormant for years
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until two veteran california
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criminalists employ the latest in dna
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profiling technology to prove an
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unidentified serial rapist and an
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unknown serial killer are one and the
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same
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authorities now need your help to catch
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a notorious murderer
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who has prayed on california since at
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least 1976.
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donna baldio finds a threatening note
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outside the bank where she works
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demanding money
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the author of the note threatens violent
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retaliation if donna does not heed the
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warning
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five weeks later a deadly fire erupts
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outside of her apartment
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coincidence or was donna baldio the
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target of a vicious extortionist
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an alarming number of children in a
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rural western town are diagnosed with
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leukemia
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two have already lost their lives what
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is happening in fallon nevada to create
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what doctors call a
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cancer cluster
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a well-known colorado family man
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responded to a call for help
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and never came back could the stranded
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motorists who place the distress call
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have had anything to do with the
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disappearance of dale williams
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join me perhaps you may be able to help
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solve a mystery
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or perhaps you may encounter one that
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simply cannot be explained
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[Music]
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october 1976 an affluent suburb outside
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sacramento california
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[Music]
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i remember waking up with a flashlight
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shining in my face
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[Music]
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and i was looking down the barrel of the
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gun
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and he said uh don't move
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don't make a sound or i will kill you
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and within a moment's notice my life
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was all of a sudden in the control of
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somebody else
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the rape victim whose identity we're not
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revealing at her request is one of more
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than 40 women believed to have been
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assaulted by a man who terrorized the
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sacramento area during the 1970s
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the mysterious attacker known to police
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as the east area rapist was never
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identified
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incredibly more than 20 years later
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dramatic advances in law enforcement
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technology determined that the same man
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was responsible
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for a series of murders in the 1980s
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authorities seek your help in tracking
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down a suspect who's eluded police for
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nearly 30 years
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during the 1970s the man who would defy
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detection for decades established
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himself as a unique offender with
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unusual signature habits
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including boldly lingering in victims
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homes for hours
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i know that at some point he was out in
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the living room smoking
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and the police felt that he maybe had
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gotten into my refrigerator
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i think he was in the house anywhere
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from two and a half to three hours
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i lay there for what seemed like a long
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period of time
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with no noise and then all of a sudden
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did you miss me i couldn't see i
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couldn't move
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and i couldn't yell and i remember
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wondering is this it is this the way i'm
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going to die
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eventually after sexually assaulting his
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victim the rapist would quietly sneak
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away
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can you tell me maybe a little of what
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he looked like detective carol daly
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interviewed many of the rapists victims
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a mask the east area rapist
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very definitely did a psychological rape
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along with the physical rape in the
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manner in which he would threaten the
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victims
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the length of time that he stayed in the
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home richard
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his crime was different and unique
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did you find anything for lieutenant
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richard shelby
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this would become one of the most
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demanding cases of his career
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it was a high priority it had a lot of
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publicity he had a lot of victims the
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guy's dangerous
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our office and city police both had
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special teams working it give me an
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evidence back
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evidence recovered near two crime scenes
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indicated the rapist had spied on his
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victims before he struck
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well it casts all of this too proud to
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hear you he knew it well
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sit right here and look right in her
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window
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[Music]
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some of the cases he knew the victims he
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knew their time their schedule
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they knew that of the neighbors and some
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were crime of opportunity they weren't
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supposed to be there there they were
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so he took advantage of it
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the first 15 attacks occurred in homes
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only inhabited by women and children
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but then the rapist became even more
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brazen he targeted homes in which a man
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was also
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present when the rapist would come in
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he would at gunpoint order the female
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to tie up the the male in the house
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and then he would remove the female to
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the other part of the house
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where he would also tie her up
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and then he would put dishes on the
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husband
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if i hear one plate rattle i'll kill
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everyone in the house
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while he was in the other room occupied
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with the sexual assault
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he could hear whether or not the male
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was trying to get free
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i can't think of any other rapes that i
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worked other than this one
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where a suspect was willing to go in and
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do the types of things that the east
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area rapist did when there were other
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people in the house
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there was so much fear in the community
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and there were so many rumors out there
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about what the east area rapist was
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doing so we were holding town hall
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meetings
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we understand your concern they were
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incensed to think
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that a man could have been in the home
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when these rapes occurred
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and not have done anything about it
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in this particular meeting a gentleman
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got up and said
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i don't believe that could happen but if
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he ever comes into my house
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i'm going to be ready that man and his
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wife would later become
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victims it led me to believe that the
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rapist was in the audience that night
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and probably followed this couple home
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i think that he liked the excitement
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of the game i think it was as much a
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game
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with the investigators as it was for
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what he was doing to the victims
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the sadistic game being played by the
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rapist often extended beyond the attack
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itself
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hello several victims reported receiving
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disturbing phone calls from the rapist
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years later who is this i
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felt by what he said to me that he had
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been still
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watching me and stalking me
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i felt absolutely terrified i think
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the phone calls were just his way of
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saying
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you're still my hostage even though i'm
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not in your house
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psychologically you're still my hostage
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by the late 1970s the east area rapists
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have moved west to communities in contra
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costa county 50 miles from sacramento
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authorities traced five more sexual
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assaults to him there
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before the attacks abruptly stopped
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everybody speculated on where this guy
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might have gone and why
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he went why he might have stopped and
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there was nowhere to go with it we had
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no real physical description
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[Music]
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years passed the trail grew colder than
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400 miles south at the orange county
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california sheriff's department
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forensic scientist mary hong compared
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semen samples from several unsolved rape
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murders in the southern california area
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and linked the crimes to the same
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perpetrator
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meanwhile back in contra costa county
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sheriff's department criminalist paul
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holes ran dna profiles on semen
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recovered from the east area rapist
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assaults in his county
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then in 2001 paul holes contacted mary
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hong
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let me grab that file independently he
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was thinking that
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this guy has to be committing these
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crimes somewhere else so he
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actually was calling these agencies and
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finding out if they had any cases that
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fit his profile
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okay i've got d3 1516. i had him read me
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the profile that he had on this case
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okay and i compared that to the profile
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that i had in our cases and they matched
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all the way across
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wow looks like we've got a match at that
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point we knew that we had
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just connected the series of sexual
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assaults in northern california
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with a series of homicides down in
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southern california
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we felt before he left sacramento that
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he was ready to kill his behavior was
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becoming
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more and more bizarre and the threats
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that he was making to the victims
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were more severe his just his demeanor
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was changing the east area rapist had
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become a southern california killer
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leaving a trail of desks in his wake
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charlene and lyman smith of ventura
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newly was keith and patty harrington of
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laguna niguel
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with hune of irvine
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five years later the next murder took
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place on may 5th 1986.
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janelle cruz also lived in irvine like
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the others she had been tied up
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sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to
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death in her home
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larry poole of the orange county
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sheriff's department has headed up the
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southern california investigation
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we don't have anything that we've linked
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to him after may
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5th of 1986. doesn't mean that it
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doesn't exist doesn't mean that it's not
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out there for us to acquire
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we're just not aware of it however based
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on the killer's ammo
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larry poole has come to believe that the
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man he's pursuing also murdered two
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couples in santa barbara before and
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after the string of cases connected by
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dna began
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i don't know of anyone like him he's a
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very unique offender
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50 rapes that we're aware of 10 murders
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that we're aware of
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we suspect that he's probably
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responsible for more
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rapes and murders and crimes outside of
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what we've identified
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with a biological link to the northern
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california rapes confirmed
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investigators now had 50 additional
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cases to comb through in search of new
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clues to the serial killer's identity
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the east area rapist mo of stacking
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plates on the victim's partner during
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the assault
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is believed to be particularly unique
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[Music]
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it's a signature aspect of our offender
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is it possible that someone abused him
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and treated him the same way terrorizing
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him perhaps
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as a boy when he grew up it's it's
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possible
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if the old police adage of serial
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killers do not stop unless they're
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caught is true
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how is it possible this one hasn't been
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heard from since 1986.
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he could be dead he could be disabled
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and
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is no longer capable of doing what he
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once did
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as a serial killer he could have moved
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to another state
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changed his mo somewhat and
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has committed multiple offenses that
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he's been identified for and
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we've just yet to link him up
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larry poole believes there's another
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possibility
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that this serial killer could be
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incarcerated perhaps on death row for an
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unrelated murder
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pool advocates dna testing of every
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death row inmate
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however in california investigators are
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blocked by an injunction that prohibits
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the extraction of blood from any
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prisoner on death row
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against his will
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[Music]
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there are approximately 600 men
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who are among california's most heinous
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notorious criminals
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who do not have dna profiles compared
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against the data bank
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i think that we need to do whatever we
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possibly can
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to identify him
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and to miss that opportunity i i think
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is is
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is criminal please somebody out there
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has to know something about this person
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and if the information could come
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forward
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will it ever bring closure to the
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victims only
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that they would feel safe that he is not
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out there to attack again
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i don't want to end my career without
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having solved this and if it's not
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solved by the time i retire
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i'll think about it till the day i die
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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the chateau dijon apartments houston 3
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30 a.m
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on february 1 2002 curtis ford awoke to
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a series of strange sounds in the
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stairwell outside his apartment
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the banging that i heard sounded like a
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herd of elephants running up the stairs
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and then i heard which was like a knock
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at the door
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and then i heard the same right down the
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stairs
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[Applause]
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so i looked up and this wall of fire
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just shot out my side balcony window
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just
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shot straight up and out looks like my
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whole apartment lit up
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i couldn't believe that the amount of
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force that this thing had
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curtis escaped the fire unscathed three
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of his neighbors would not be so lucky
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[Music]
00:15:13
the fire of the chateau dijo apartments
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was quickly ruled arson
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few details have been released to
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exactly how the blaze started
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but authorities say may not have been a
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random act that the arsonist was
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possibly trying to harm a specific
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resident of the building
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that person was donna baldw
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donna baldio lived a quiet life with her
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22 year old son
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jai l lewis and eight-year-old daughter
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bunny sue terry
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by all accounts a family was close and
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had no enemies
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but several weeks prior to the fire a
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disturbing incident may have given
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someone motive to attack donna
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donna baldio had worked at wells fargo
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bank for 10 years
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she was currently a manager at a
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drive-through branch located outside of
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houston
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on december 22nd donna was the first to
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arrive at work
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she immediately noticed an odd piece of
00:16:10
paper lying in front of the bank's
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entrance
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encased in a protective plastic sheath
00:16:15
was a note
00:16:17
it demanded all the money from the bank
00:16:20
and if anyone called the police they
00:16:21
would face dire consequences
00:16:24
it was a well-crafted note well
00:16:27
verbalized and specifically threatened
00:16:29
employees if they didn't cooperate
00:16:30
in turning over all the banks money that
00:16:32
day that they would be retaliated
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against
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donna retreated to her car
00:16:41
five minutes later another employee
00:16:43
showed up
00:16:47
don't stop just follow me they drove to
00:16:49
a nearby convenience store and contacted
00:16:51
the supervisor who called police
00:16:56
i pulled up like normal uh parked the
00:16:58
car donna had done exactly what the note
00:17:00
had explicitly instructed her
00:17:02
not to do authorities found no
00:17:05
fingerprints on the note
00:17:06
nor were there any clues as to who the
00:17:08
author might be
00:17:10
the investigation never turned up a
00:17:12
suspect
00:17:15
while investigators had no evidence that
00:17:17
pointed directly at the suspects leaving
00:17:19
this note
00:17:20
for donna baldio personally she is the
00:17:22
person who found it
00:17:24
and in this instance donna baldio did
00:17:27
not comply
00:17:30
five weeks later the blaze erupted in
00:17:32
the stairwell at donna's apartment
00:17:34
building
00:17:35
donna's unit was one of two located on
00:17:37
the second floor
00:17:38
two more units were downstairs
00:17:44
authorities speculate that donna's
00:17:45
daughter bunny was awakened by the
00:17:47
mysterious knock
00:17:50
unaware of the inferno outside she
00:17:52
opened the door
00:17:53
buddy stop no
00:17:57
donna and her son jai then ran into the
00:17:59
flames desperate to rescue
00:18:03
curtis ford donna's downstairs neighbor
00:18:05
witnessed the unfolding nightmare
00:18:10
jai's laying there on the landing and i
00:18:13
saw him burning and i just grabbed his
00:18:14
ankle and pulled him down you know
00:18:17
and he was just like screaming at the
00:18:18
top of his lungs like my sister's dead i
00:18:20
mean he just couldn't
00:18:21
believe the fact of this going on i mean
00:18:24
it was just horrible horrible horrible
00:18:29
curtis saw donna repeatedly enter the
00:18:31
flames horrifying screams for her
00:18:33
youngest child went unanswered
00:18:36
the look on her face just would break
00:18:39
any person i mean i couldn't sleep for
00:18:41
the next two months
00:18:42
because of it emergency workers arrived
00:18:46
at the apartment complex within minutes
00:18:49
donna and her children were the only
00:18:51
victims of the fire
00:18:54
donna and jai had been critically burned
00:18:56
over their entire bodies
00:18:58
they barely clung to life hysterical
00:19:00
over bunny's fate
00:19:03
when the smoke finally cleared the
00:19:05
eight-year-old was found dead
00:19:07
in the stairwell this was
00:19:10
absolutely one of the most horrible
00:19:12
events i've seen in my 30 years
00:19:15
in the fire department because they were
00:19:18
literally burned alive there
00:19:22
donna and jai were rushed to the
00:19:23
hospital friends and family gathered
00:19:26
around their bedsides hoping for a
00:19:28
miraculous recovery
00:19:30
you couldn't even recognize him you
00:19:32
couldn't even recognize
00:19:33
john you couldn't even recognize donna
00:19:36
and so we came out we were just
00:19:38
devastated
00:19:40
jai was pronounced dead at 10 30 that
00:19:42
morning
00:19:43
donna followed her son one half hour
00:19:45
later an entire family was gone
00:19:50
who would have committed such an
00:19:52
appalling crime and why
00:19:54
was this the reprisal threatened by the
00:19:56
extortionist
00:19:57
or perhaps there is another equally
00:19:59
tragic explanation
00:20:01
it has been reported that over the past
00:20:03
three years fifteen
00:20:04
fires are broken out of the chateau
00:20:06
dijon apartment complex
00:20:09
her death and her children's death could
00:20:11
be related to the series of arsons
00:20:13
in that same apartment complex including
00:20:15
one that happened on the same stairwell
00:20:17
just a year before when the dust settles
00:20:20
on this
00:20:21
it's it's probably gonna be somebody
00:20:24
that she knew and i just got that
00:20:26
feeling about that that this
00:20:28
is more somebody got mad at her
00:20:32
for whatever reason no one knows why
00:20:53
[Music]
00:21:01
fallon nevada population 8 000
00:21:04
for those who moved here it seemed like
00:21:06
the perfect place to escape the urban
00:21:08
sprawl
00:21:08
and raise a family
00:21:16
but there is something terrible
00:21:18
happening to the children of fallon
00:21:21
you go it all began
00:21:24
with dustin gross honey where'd you get
00:21:26
this
00:21:27
bruise i fell off of my back
00:21:30
when i was giving him a bath i noticed
00:21:32
bruises on his back
00:21:33
in his arms and i asked him what was he
00:21:36
doing
00:21:37
um why did he have these bruises and he
00:21:39
told me he was playing
00:21:41
with his friend on the big wheels and i
00:21:43
thought okay that makes sense that's
00:21:45
where the bruises come from
00:21:47
honey what are you doing well he's been
00:21:49
tired all day
00:21:50
but then the next day my husband had
00:21:52
noticed a lot more bruises and brought
00:21:54
it up to my attention
00:21:56
i saw he had bruises all over his body
00:21:58
his arms his legs his stomach
00:22:00
his back and little red blood specks
00:22:04
on the surface of his skin and i knew
00:22:07
that
00:22:08
something was wrong at that point you're
00:22:11
going to feel all
00:22:12
better brenda took dustin to the local
00:22:14
hospital
00:22:15
and he was immediately transferred to
00:22:16
the uc davis medical center
00:22:20
blood was drawn a diagnosis was made
00:22:24
the doctor told us that dustin had
00:22:26
leukemia
00:22:28
i knew what leukemia was i knew it was a
00:22:30
cancer but i didn't
00:22:31
actually realize how severe
00:22:35
brenda soon learned the seriousness of
00:22:37
dustin's condition
00:22:39
acute lymphoblastic leukemia strikes
00:22:41
children usually between the ages of two
00:22:43
and nine
00:22:45
it causes the production of millions of
00:22:47
defective white blood cells
00:22:49
destroying the immune system and can be
00:22:52
fatal
00:22:54
dustin immediately underwent aggressive
00:22:56
chemotherapy
00:22:58
you wanna take your pills i've never
00:23:01
went through anything like that before
00:23:02
in my life
00:23:03
um not knowing good what to expect
00:23:08
what my child's going through um seeing
00:23:11
him lie there
00:23:13
so lethargic and so lifeless
00:23:17
i think that that's probably the hardest
00:23:19
thing that i've ever had to deal with
00:23:22
it was not easy
00:23:27
dustin gross was not alone over the next
00:23:31
two years
00:23:32
14 more children contracted childhood
00:23:34
leukemia in the fallon area
00:23:36
an astronomical number in a community so
00:23:39
small
00:23:40
two have lost their lives authorities
00:23:43
are now convinced that the outbreak is
00:23:44
not a coincidence
00:23:46
parents are in a state of panic
00:23:49
desperate to find
00:23:50
answers before more children become ill
00:23:52
and possibly die
00:23:57
within weeks of dustin gross's diagnosis
00:24:00
two more children came down with
00:24:01
childhood leukemia
00:24:05
the cancer treatment facility at the
00:24:07
local hospital run by rn barbara de
00:24:09
braga
00:24:10
was overwhelmed even at that point i was
00:24:13
just thinking
00:24:15
it's just coincidence it's just a
00:24:17
terrible coincidence but it's a
00:24:19
coincidence
00:24:21
but then shortly after the third then we
00:24:23
got a referral for a fourth
00:24:27
barbara de braga feared that she was
00:24:29
looking at an abnormally high occurrence
00:24:31
of the disease
00:24:32
known as a cancer cluster
00:24:35
she contacted the state assembly person
00:24:37
for the fallon area
00:24:38
and an official investigation was
00:24:40
launched
00:24:43
a state epidemiologist dr randall todd
00:24:46
prepared an all-out inquiry
00:24:49
the devastating disease threatened a
00:24:50
spin out of control
00:24:52
striking victims number five and six
00:24:56
a couple of days after there was a
00:24:58
seventh case diagnosed
00:25:00
and so this started to to kind of make
00:25:03
the hair on the back of my neck stand up
00:25:05
a little bit it was
00:25:06
it was a frightening time we have a
00:25:08
series of questions we want to go over
00:25:09
with you and we're going to use this
00:25:10
office right here okay that's okay
00:25:12
an alarm dr todd immediately sought a
00:25:14
common denominator shared by all the
00:25:16
victims that might explain the epidemic
00:25:20
could it be an environmental toxin
00:25:23
and uh how is the water supply to that
00:25:26
house is it
00:25:27
it's a well okay
00:25:30
so interviews with parents however
00:25:32
produced no answers
00:25:33
and dr todd watched helplessly as new
00:25:36
cases continued to appear
00:25:39
zach beersley was a ninth child
00:25:41
diagnosed with childhood leukemia
00:25:45
when i heard i was number nine in a
00:25:48
cancer cluster
00:25:51
at that time my child was so ill that
00:25:54
all i could think about was how do i get
00:25:56
out of this mess with a healthy child
00:25:58
after i found my feet if you will i
00:26:01
realized that it was important to get
00:26:03
involved in the
00:26:04
investigation and that's when i found
00:26:07
the strength and rolled my sleeves up
00:26:09
and said well what can i do
00:26:11
and then you start to fight and you
00:26:13
don't look back
00:26:14
you know
00:26:14
[Music]
00:26:18
tammy beersley readily opened her house
00:26:20
to a phalanx of scientists
00:26:24
search for the common denominator
00:26:25
continued what did all these children
00:26:28
share that might explain their illness
00:26:30
[Music]
00:26:34
there was a team of
00:26:37
people that came into our home and
00:26:39
vacuumed took dust samples
00:26:42
air quality samples water samples
00:26:44
[Music]
00:26:46
biological testing scraped our mouths
00:26:50
blood tests
00:26:53
but these tests were inconclusive
00:26:57
perhaps the problem was not in the
00:26:59
children's homes but in the surrounding
00:27:01
environment
00:27:02
was there something unique about fallon
00:27:04
that could explain why a cancer
00:27:06
cluster appeared here researchers began
00:27:08
with the water
00:27:13
the one thing that that makes
00:27:16
this community sort of stand out is that
00:27:18
they have one of the
00:27:20
highest rates of naturally occurring
00:27:22
arsenic
00:27:23
in their water supply of any place in
00:27:26
the nation
00:27:29
researchers also found mercury in a
00:27:31
nearby lake and several irrigation
00:27:32
canals
00:27:34
places where the children were known to
00:27:36
play
00:27:37
[Music]
00:27:38
and there was another unusual feature
00:27:40
about fallon that raised red flags
00:27:43
residential homes are freely intermixed
00:27:45
with farmland
00:27:48
they have to to treat these fields with
00:27:52
pesticides and fertilizer and this type
00:27:55
of thing so
00:27:56
you're now having that very close to the
00:27:59
living community rather than maybe in a
00:28:01
normal farming community
00:28:03
where it starts on the outskirts of town
00:28:07
radioactivity was also a possibility
00:28:10
underground atomic tests were conducted
00:28:12
near fallon during the 1960s
00:28:15
[Music]
00:28:17
arsenic mercury pesticides
00:28:21
there seemed to be no shortage of toxins
00:28:23
in the environment
00:28:26
incredibly sad as it so far failed to
00:28:28
link any of them to the outbreak
00:28:31
in fact no studies have ever
00:28:33
demonstrated that these contaminants
00:28:35
play a role in contracting
00:28:36
childhood leukemia working on this
00:28:40
really is like trying to do
00:28:41
a gigantic jigsaw puzzle what we can say
00:28:44
is that in fact we likely will not have
00:28:48
the complete puzzle put together at the
00:28:50
end of this investigation
00:28:52
there was one final possibility
00:28:56
fallon is located 10 miles from a major
00:28:58
naval air station used to train fighter
00:29:00
pilots
00:29:04
the jet fuel contains benzene a known
00:29:07
carcinogen
00:29:10
there is a pipeline which transports jet
00:29:12
fuel the pipe
00:29:13
comes right through and underneath
00:29:15
fallon and winds up at the fallon naval
00:29:17
air station
00:29:19
we wondered was there
00:29:22
fuel getting into the water supply but
00:29:25
we didn't find any evidence that the
00:29:27
water had been contaminated with jet
00:29:29
fuel
00:29:32
perhaps the residents of fallon were
00:29:33
inhaling the jet fuel
00:29:36
this theory is currently being tested on
00:29:38
laboratory mice at the university of
00:29:40
arizona
00:29:43
human trials may take place in the near
00:29:46
future
00:29:47
we can actually measure on a person's
00:29:49
expired breath
00:29:51
remnants of of jet fuel exposure
00:29:55
that that technology has been developed
00:29:57
over the last five years
00:30:01
while authorities search for answers the
00:30:04
parents of the children suffering from
00:30:05
leukemia in fallon
00:30:07
try to remain optimistic
00:30:09
[Music]
00:30:12
zach beersley has been undergoing
00:30:13
chemotherapy for the past 17 months
00:30:17
although he is responding well it is
00:30:19
still too soon to know if he'll beat the
00:30:21
disease
00:30:23
there's a a fear inside of me
00:30:26
i have two other children and one on the
00:30:28
way
00:30:30
and i'd like to find out what's making
00:30:32
children
00:30:34
become diagnosed with leukemia here
00:30:36
before i bring another child into the
00:30:37
world
00:30:40
[Music]
00:30:43
after two years of intensive
00:30:45
chemotherapy dustin gross recently had
00:30:47
an
00:30:48
end of treatment party his cancer is
00:30:51
currently in remission
00:30:52
but there is always a fear that it may
00:30:54
one day return
00:30:56
i am worried for my family and my other
00:30:59
children
00:31:00
and for dustin still i will never give
00:31:03
up on pushing
00:31:04
the research to find what has caused
00:31:06
childhood leukemia
00:31:08
and a cluster in this community
00:31:10
obviously the more research
00:31:12
and continued research is going to get
00:31:14
us closer and closer
00:31:15
and i feel that we will find it but we
00:31:18
cannot let up
00:31:33
[Music]
00:31:51
[Music]
00:31:56
sunday july 4th a family swimming at the
00:31:59
confluence of the san miguel and dolores
00:32:01
rivers in western colorado made a grim
00:32:03
discovery
00:32:05
submerged in the muddy waters was a
00:32:06
pickup truck
00:32:08
the montrose county sheriff's department
00:32:10
responded to the scene
00:32:12
and it quickly became apparent that this
00:32:14
would be more than a simple vehicle
00:32:15
recovery operation
00:32:20
investigators realize this might be the
00:32:22
break they desperately needed in a case
00:32:24
that had captured the attention of
00:32:25
surrounding communities
00:32:27
a truck belonged to a man who suddenly
00:32:29
vanished six weeks before
00:32:31
hopes however were quickly dashed when
00:32:33
no other signs of the missing man were
00:32:35
recovered
00:32:36
authorities need your help to solve this
00:32:39
baffling mystery
00:32:42
the recovered pickup truck was
00:32:43
registered to 42 year old dale williams
00:32:46
the longtime area resident was a devoted
00:32:48
husband and daughting father of two
00:32:50
teenage daughters
00:32:54
day alone and operated an auto body shop
00:32:56
in the nearby town of nukla
00:33:00
on the evening of may 27th dale failed
00:33:02
to make it home for dinner
00:33:04
his wife diana assumed he was
00:33:05
preoccupied with a job at the body shop
00:33:08
and lost track of time
00:33:12
by bedtime however diana was concerned
00:33:15
hi
00:33:15
dale it's me i called the shop a couple
00:33:18
of times
00:33:20
no answer okay give me a call as soon as
00:33:21
you get in bye
00:33:25
so i thought well maybe he just didn't
00:33:26
hear the phone cause using air ratchets
00:33:28
or something
00:33:31
you know i went to bed about 10 and i
00:33:33
laid there and i felt like something's
00:33:35
wrong
00:33:36
i tossed and turned all night woke up
00:33:38
several times and he still wasn't home
00:33:41
[Music]
00:33:45
diana looked at dawn and was horrified
00:33:47
to discover dale had not made it home
00:33:49
all night
00:33:52
as soon as she got her kids off to
00:33:54
school diana drove straight to dale's
00:33:56
garage
00:33:57
[Music]
00:34:05
when i first walked in the shop the door
00:34:07
was unlocked
00:34:10
the hood was still up on the van his
00:34:12
tools were they were just laying around
00:34:13
the
00:34:14
vehicle like you just walked away from
00:34:17
it for a few minutes
00:34:23
went over to my mother-in-law's and she
00:34:26
hadn't heard from him the day before or
00:34:28
that morning dale often shopped at
00:34:30
junkyards looking for spare parts to use
00:34:33
at the body shop
00:34:34
when was the last time diana and her
00:34:36
mother-in-law thought that would be a
00:34:37
good place to start their search
00:34:40
when we didn't find him at the junkyard
00:34:43
we thought we'd probably find him along
00:34:44
the way
00:34:45
the road somewhere where he'd maybe ran
00:34:48
off the road
00:34:49
we felt like that something had happened
00:34:51
to him for sure but we felt like we
00:34:53
would find him
00:34:54
but as it happened we didn't find him
00:35:01
within a few hours dianna williams
00:35:02
notified police and word of dale
00:35:04
william's strange disappearance spread
00:35:06
through nuclear
00:35:07
investigators began piecing together
00:35:09
dale williams day
00:35:12
they learned dale made a brief stop at
00:35:14
tammy lawrence's office about 12 15 that
00:35:17
afternoon
00:35:19
i had a windshield that i needed
00:35:21
repaired on a truck of ours
00:35:24
hey joe what's up listen i stopped by to
00:35:26
let you know that i can't do your
00:35:27
windshield until next wednesday
00:35:29
that's okay i thought it was strange
00:35:32
that dale stopped in because he didn't
00:35:33
have to stop and tell me he could have
00:35:35
called me
00:35:36
dale was in a hurry he told tammy he was
00:35:38
on his way to help a stranded motorist
00:35:41
maybe he felt uneasy about who he was
00:35:43
gonna go give a toe
00:35:46
i really don't know all right see you
00:35:48
later bye
00:35:52
that was the last time that i saw dale
00:35:56
williams
00:35:57
[Music]
00:36:00
the investigator determined that dale's
00:36:01
friend tom ross had been with him just
00:36:03
before tammy saw him
00:36:06
tom and his young son has stopped by the
00:36:08
body shop late that morning
00:36:10
just getting close to the noon hour and
00:36:12
he said i'm real busy today got a full
00:36:14
shot but he said i got time for one game
00:36:16
of darts if you want to
00:36:17
if you got time i said yeah sure hey
00:36:20
nice job nice job hold on a second
00:36:24
uh phone call come in hello and they
00:36:27
were broke down they said about
00:36:28
three quarters of a mile east of the
00:36:30
bedrock colorado store just a little
00:36:32
country store
00:36:34
yeah yeah i think i know where that is i
00:36:36
was under the impression that it might
00:36:37
have been a lady that
00:36:38
called nothing that was actually said it
00:36:41
was just the way he talked and stuff
00:36:43
yeah i know it's the other road it's the
00:36:44
only way to go dale's shop hit auto body
00:36:47
repair
00:36:48
he was not a mechanic so it was unusual
00:36:50
for him to receive a call for roadside
00:36:52
help
00:36:53
i did feel odd that
00:36:57
they called dale for assistance sorry
00:37:00
you guys uh
00:37:00
i'm gonna have to take off
00:37:04
at the same time dale was one that was
00:37:06
willing to go and help somebody if they
00:37:08
were broke down
00:37:10
we said our goodbyes at the shop door
00:37:12
that's the last time i ever saw dale
00:37:14
[Music]
00:37:15
the citizens of nuclear responded to the
00:37:17
emergency situation
00:37:19
missing posters were printed up and
00:37:20
distributed by dale's friends and family
00:37:25
makes me feel really great to know i'm
00:37:28
in a small town
00:37:29
and everybody cares
00:37:30
[Music]
00:37:32
however diana would soon come to
00:37:34
understand that not everyone in her
00:37:35
small town
00:37:36
did care
00:37:37
[Music]
00:37:42
we had missing posters up and and i
00:37:44
noticed i put some in the post office
00:37:46
and about two days later they're all
00:37:48
gone
00:37:49
so i put some more in there they just
00:37:51
two or three days they disappear
00:37:54
that ultimately resulted in us
00:37:56
installing a
00:37:58
hidden camera in the post office in new
00:38:01
club
00:38:02
and that led to us being able to
00:38:05
determine who was responsible
00:38:07
for the disappearance of those flyers
00:38:11
within a few weeks the camera hidden by
00:38:13
police captured images of this man
00:38:15
tearing down the flyers incredibly he
00:38:18
was ultimately identified as a former
00:38:20
long-time family friend of dale and
00:38:22
diana williams
00:38:24
the individual depicted in the
00:38:25
photographs was questioned
00:38:28
and he denied any involvement
00:38:32
in dale's disappearance he also was able
00:38:36
to
00:38:37
give us an alibi for the 27th of may
00:38:40
1999 and for the most part that alibi
00:38:46
is consistent and has been confirmed
00:38:51
could dale's disappearance have had
00:38:52
anything to do with some bad blood
00:38:54
between the two men
00:38:56
twelve months before dale vanished diana
00:38:58
and dale helped move the mystery man's
00:39:00
ex-wife to another state without his
00:39:02
knowledge
00:39:03
he was angry at dale for helping his
00:39:06
ex-wife move
00:39:07
and get clear out of the area and then
00:39:10
we wouldn't tell him where she was at or
00:39:12
anything like that
00:39:13
and i feel like he was really angry with
00:39:17
dale for that
00:39:18
[Music]
00:39:20
a month after helping the man's ex-wife
00:39:22
move dale found some disturbing items
00:39:25
outside his auto body shop
00:39:27
he went to work he noticed some pictures
00:39:29
torn up there
00:39:30
just laying all over the ground the torn
00:39:33
photographs had been stolen from his
00:39:35
shop
00:39:36
they depicted dale and diana with her
00:39:38
now divorced friends and happier times
00:39:40
several 22 caliber bullets were also
00:39:43
scattered across the ground
00:39:44
[Music]
00:39:48
several days after that diana made a
00:39:50
strange discovery in the night drop box
00:39:52
at the video rental store she ran
00:39:54
a 22-caliber revolver diana and dale
00:39:58
later discovered the gun
00:40:00
like the torn photos had also been
00:40:02
stolen from dale's auto body shop
00:40:06
i was really nervous because i didn't
00:40:07
know what to think
00:40:09
and dale just told me to not worry about
00:40:12
it things would be okay and
00:40:13
things will settle down whatever
00:40:16
happened it was more to
00:40:17
scare him he felt like than anything
00:40:21
police interviewed dale's former friend
00:40:23
about the burglaries but he denied any
00:40:25
involvement in the break-in
00:40:28
dale's life seemed to return to normal
00:40:31
then 11 months after his body shop was
00:40:33
burglarized
00:40:34
dale williams suddenly disappeared
00:40:40
six weeks later dale's truck was
00:40:42
recovered from the river
00:40:44
an analysis of the vehicle in its
00:40:46
recovery site provided more clues
00:40:48
the truck's ignition was turned on the
00:40:51
vehicle was in
00:40:52
gear and the angle between the highway
00:40:54
and the river was extremely sharp
00:40:56
each detail seemed to indicate that
00:40:58
someone had deliberately steered dale
00:41:00
williams truck
00:41:01
into the water
00:41:08
once diana viewed photographs of dale's
00:41:10
truck she was certain someone other than
00:41:12
her husband last drove the vehicle
00:41:14
she took particular note of the
00:41:16
partially open driver's side window
00:41:19
dale usually drove with the driver's
00:41:21
window all the way down
00:41:22
but never halfway always down or up
00:41:27
somebody put it in there to get rid of
00:41:30
it
00:41:31
somebody who knew the river
00:41:41
generating further speculation police
00:41:43
have not located the stranded motorist
00:41:45
dale williams went to help
00:41:47
was a mystery caller a woman as dale's
00:41:49
friend surmised
00:41:50
and why has that person never come
00:41:52
forward go there
00:41:54
investigators may already have that
00:41:56
answer the purported distress call was
00:41:59
placed from a stolen cell phone
00:42:03
[Music]
00:42:06
dale williams loved ones must also face
00:42:08
yet another perplexing scenario
00:42:12
there are those who claim that dale's
00:42:13
truck was parked in this normal spot at
00:42:15
his body
00:42:16
shop by 1 30 pm the day he vanished
00:42:20
if true dale or someone else drove his
00:42:23
truck back into town within 90 minutes
00:42:25
of his responding to the distress call
00:42:27
outside of town
00:42:31
there were even reports from witnesses
00:42:33
who claimed to have seen dale williams
00:42:34
early that evening
00:42:35
at a market in the neighboring town of
00:42:37
natarita
00:42:38
i do believe that the people who saw
00:42:40
dale williams between five and six
00:42:42
o'clock
00:42:43
at the local grocery store did in fact
00:42:45
see dale
00:42:46
and that they are people in the
00:42:47
community that their word can be trusted
00:42:53
so what happened to dale williams and
00:42:55
where is he now
00:42:58
i believe dale either seen something he
00:43:01
shouldn't have
00:43:03
or knew something he shouldn't have and
00:43:04
somebody was looking to shut him up
00:43:07
maybe he was ready to go to the cops and
00:43:09
tell what he knew
00:43:11
and that was their way of shutting him
00:43:12
up dale williams has not been seen since
00:43:15
may 27
00:43:16
1999. he stands 5 foot 7 inches tall and
00:43:21
has light sandy hair and blue eyes
00:43:27
[Music]
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join us next time on unsolved mysteries
00:43:41
[Music]
00:43:49
[Music]
00:44:11
[Applause]
00:44:12
[Music]
00:44:12
[Applause]
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[Music]
00:44:23
you
