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[Music] up next a woman mysteriously disappears we called her thursday we called her friday
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no answer she vanished out of nowhere detectives check her apartment but someone's been there before them
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obviously someone's been watching csi he knew we were coming he knew what he was doing a suspect
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emerges but he isn't talking he was hiding out to sustain himself and if police can't find the victim
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they'll have a hard time proving murder [Music] [Applause] sunday services at the golden gate
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church in fort worth texas were an important part of glenda ferch's life my mother has attended the same church
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since she was born her grandmother attended that church her mother's mother is a generation
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church so it's very important so when glenda didn't show up for services one sunday morning
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family and church members suspected something was wrong her pastor said that even if she didn't
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go to church on a sunday she would call him to apologize for not going to church
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we had been calling her and calling her no answer so one of glenda's daughters went to her
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apartment the first thing she noticed was that her mother's car was missing the apartment door was locked glenda
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wasn't there but the apartment was stiflingly hot the ac had been turned off or turned
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down so it was very very hot in there and that was not like mom did not have any air on an
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apartment glenda's daughter assumed her mother had gone somewhere for a few days
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so she locked the door and left [Music] the next day when glenda didn't show up for work
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her family called police to report her missing when police arrived they noticed the air
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conditioning had now been turned on and they found unmistakable signs of foul play
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there's a very large bleach stain on her carpet next to her bed in her master bedroom
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glenda's daughter told police she didn't smell bleach the day before there had been some extensive cleaning
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done and there were some items missing from the apartment such as the vacuum cleaner
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the trash cans forensic testing of the stain on the bedroom carpet turned up nothing except bleach we
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never found any positive signs of any signs of blood and someone had also wiped down the
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doorknobs light switches and water faucets to remove fingerprints but where was glenn deferch
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we were still holding that hope yeah you don't give up you don't you don't lose the hope glenda's
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employer general motor said she was at work on thursday night and left the factory around midnight
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and records showed glenda used her credit card to buy gas a short time later at 12 24 a.m we know that she
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went and purchased gas because that was the last transaction of her on her credit card
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but no one saw or heard from her after that and no one could tell police anything about glenda's
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personal life she kept her personal life very private no one in her family could give us the
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name of who if anyone she might be dating but a check of police records showed glenda called 9-1-1 a few weeks earlier
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saying she felt threatened [Music] by lighting these candles in unity we are sharing hope
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51 year old glenda ferch was missing and fort worth investigators feared she had been the victim
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of foul play this is a woman just going home from work who had never really done anything
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wrong she'd never been engaged in questionable activity and she vanished out of nowhere glenda's
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life revolved around her job at general motors her two daughters and her grandchildren she liked to do a
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little traveling i loved being with the grandchildren church and shopping like most ladies and
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being with her family that was very important to her in a search for suspects investigators learned
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that glenda ferch called police several weeks before her disappearance to report
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some criminal activity i just wanted to report last week this guy knocked on my door
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when i asked who was it he just went to rambling off about something he had to show me
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i said no i'm not interested and he said oh just give me a chance just give me a
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chance you know he just stood there begging for me to open my door at the time there
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were a number of home invasions in the city of fort worth where robbers would knock on doors or
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just kick them down but none of the homes were cleaned after they were robbed so investigators concluded there was no
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connection between the robberies and glenda's disappearance that's when glenda's neighbors gave
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police some key information we found two young men who were moving into a nearby apartment
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right across from hers that earlier that morning monday morning at about two in the morning had seen a black male
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coming back and forth from the direction of her apartment to a car parked right across
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from her apartment that car fit the description of glenda's gold-colored mazda another neighbor described the same man
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repeatedly driving a gold mazda in and out of the parking lot on sunday night and early monday morning yet another
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neighbor saw a man fitting the same description leaving glenda's apartment this witness
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told investigators that the individual that they'd seen coming in and out of the
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apartment may have been going to the dumpster for him to be able to come and go for several days for even for a length
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of time like he did i think that can suggest that he was not only familiar with the area
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he may have possibly lived there at some time evidence technicians emptied the dumpster
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and went through the contents of dozens of bags five of the bags contained items taken
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from glenda's apartment if the family had to wait until tuesday instead of monday to call us
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and the dumpster would have was emptied tuesday morning early and there goes all of our evidence in
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one bag was the receipt for the gas glenda purchased on thursday night after work
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this proved glenda was home for at least part of thursday evening we all felt like we
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hid the mother lode of evidence when we got all the things out of the dumpster that we did
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the bag also held empty drink cans and cleaning products including an empty gallon container of
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bleach another bag contained one of glenda's blouses slit all the way up the back
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when you see the clothing cut you start thinking possibly sexual assault one of the lieutenants on the case
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initially said darla we don't know what this is but it's going to be very bad also in the garbage investigators found
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another clue we found duct tape used duct tape as well as duct tape still on a roll
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and we found some electrical cords that had been wrapped up tied up into knots and other items that
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looked like they had been involved in a crime it looked as if someone had used the duct tape and cords
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to restrain glenda our worst fears were being realized the only fingerprints found in glenda's
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apartment were clenders her prints were on file with the police department when she filed an application for a gun
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permit that gun was missing from her apartment veteran detectives were surprised at how
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much effort had gone into cleaning glenda's apartment it appeared to have been wiped down
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on your mirrors in your bathrooms those are great places to get fingerprints there was not even a
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smudge mark obviously someone's been watching csi they vacuumed thoroughly i assumed to
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try to collect any hair or fibers that might be present and apparently whoever used the vacuum
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cleaner took it with him we just need to know what happened so if anybody knows anything which is pleading to the
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community to today it's me tomorrow could be you five days after glenda's disappearance
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someone called police to report a fire at a car wash 30 miles from glenda's apartment
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[Music] fire officials arrived to find a gold-colored mazda engulfed in flames accelerants had been used the fire had
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been deliberately set when the vehicle fire was extinguished investigators found
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no one inside the license plates had been removed but the vehicle identification number
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was still intact it was glenda ferch's car while they were doing their investigation i guess we were doing our
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own little investigation trying to find out what happened we were putting out flyers in neighborhoods we
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were talking to media people then a citizen reported finding a female body wrapped in a blue floral
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comforter tied with electrical cords along the railroad tracks within the arlington city limits at that moment
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there was no doubt in my mind that we had recovered glenda's body but it was not to be a forensic
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odontologist compared glenda's dental records to the unknown female and it wasn't glenda that news
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was rather shocking how many black females tied with electrical cord wrapped in blue floral comforters can
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there be the answer to that was obviously more than one so the search continued one month after glenda ferch's
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disappearance dallas police noticed a man getting items out of the trunk of a car
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that had been reported stolen as police moved in the suspect took off and led them on a
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high-speed chase he drove the vehicle through a couple of stop lights had a couple of narrow
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misses and then he got on the freeways and the officers told us that he got that vehicle traveling
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faster than they ever thought a ford probe could move a very lengthy pursuit ensued
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and the car wrecked out and they took a young man into custody for fleeing from the police and for
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driving a stolen car the carjacker was 40-year-old rodney owens an unemployed career criminal rodney had a
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dishonorable discharge from the military he had assaulted his commanding officer
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which is not a good thing a background check revealed owens had numerous warrants out for his
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arrest for aggravated assault charges involving his ex-girlfriend owen's ex-girlfriend told police owens
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had threatened to kill her he told her that he could come up behind her and put a plastic bag over her head
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and watch her die she also said owens had recently been stalking her and she and her co-workers saw him
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driving a gold-colored mazda similar to glenda's car around the time of glenda's disappearance
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investigators also learned that owens once lived in glenda ferch's apartment complex
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with his mother the front of her apartment looked right out directly at miss ferch's apartment
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then investigators noticed something else when police searched the car owens was driving in the high-speed
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chase they found a bag containing a roll of tape it brand duct tape this isn't a common brand
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it's sold only in a handful of stores in the fort worth area but it was the same brand duct tape used
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to bind glenda ferch it also contained a handgun a hunting knife some electrical cord
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that had been tied in knots investigators wondered if any of the other items in owen's bag
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matched items found in the dumpster outside glenda's apartment so they sent all of the evidence to the
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forensic lab there scientists noticed a similarity in the electrical cord found in owen's
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car the same type of knots in the same type of cord that were found in the dumpster outside
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glenda first apartment they sent us a number of different items including swabs that were reportedly
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from cans as well as cuttings from towels and scrapings from clothing the swabs from the drink cans were found to
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contain saliva also on one of the cans was a partial fingerprint using super glue fuming and ninhydran
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they found another partial print on the cardboard spool of the used duct tape found in the
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trash after the print is developed with an anhydrous and the super glue then those prints can be
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photographed the print that was photographed off the roll of duct tape i had an enlargement of an enhanced
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version and i compared it to an enlarged photograph of mr owens prince that print on the roll of duct tape was
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made by mr owens they also found what appeared to be biological evidence on a bath towel that looked like the
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towels in glenda's apartment the biological evidence was semen the dna profile from the bath towel and
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saliva from the drink were compared to rodney owens there was no surprise the profiles from the soda cans were
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identical to the profile i obtained from rodney owens the profile i obtained from the sperm
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fraction of the towel was identical to the profile i obtained from rodney owens rodney owens was arrested and charged
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with glenda ferch's murder but would owens reveal what he did with glenda's body
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[Music] while in custody awaiting trial for glenda ferch's murder rodney owens fell victim to boredom
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and let his guard down in a conversation with another prisoner the suspect told another inmate in jail
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that he knew that this lady lived alone that she worked at gm and worked a late shift
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he knew she drove a nice car and he was pretty certain she would have money prosecutors know that rodney owens was
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living in an apartment across from glenda ferch's and he knew glenda's work schedule and
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habits on the night of the crime as glenda pulled into the parking lot prosecutors think owens used a weapon to
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force glenda into her apartment the evidence shows he used duct tape and electrical cords
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to bind her and then he sexually assaulted her and killed her he stole whatever cash and valuables he could
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find he then wrapped glenda's body in bed sheets and placed it in her car where he took her body no one knows
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glenda's daughter stopped in to check on her mother on sunday owens returned on sunday night
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and spent hours cleaning the apartment wiping away the fingerprints and using the vacuum cleaner to remove
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hair and fibers he later took the vacuum with him owens threw away most of the items he
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used in the crime in the dumpster but he left partial prints on a piece of duct tape
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and a drink can he also left his dna on the drink can and biological evidence on a bath towel
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later found by investigators in the days after the murder owen's ex-girlfriend said
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he was driving a car identical to glenda's and even used it to stop by her workplace
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by the time owens set fire to glenda's car he'd already left plenty of evidence of
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his involvement in the dumpster outside glenda's apartment we still don't know exactly how glenda first died
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but that one fingerprint the few specimens of blood and semen put this case together
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it was enough to know that something bad had happened something sexual happened in that
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apartment but i can't substantiate a sexual assault you've taken away a mother a grandmother
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somebody's child and it's not fair the defense hung its case on the fact that there was
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no body that they still couldn't prove that glenda ferch was dead but witness after witness testified
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that glenda ferch would never just leave her family her church and her job and owens had a very simple motive
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he needed money he had a non-violent criminal past but after he had nowhere to live and no body to
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support him he escalated into violence and would you rise and read that verdict please sir
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one year after glenda first disappeared rodney owens was convicted of her murder
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and sentenced to life in prison he was offered a lighter sentence in return for disclosing where he took
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glenda's remains but he refused the most difficult part is the unknown not known exactly not knowing
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so still today we don't know and it's the unknown so it's still very difficult it was
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a web you had the items that were found in the dumpster his dna combined with purchase items
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it was a very intricate intricate web that would never could have been put together
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without the forensics in this case i wasn't familiar with forensic science i knew a little bit you
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know you watch tv you know but i wasn't real familiar with it but learning going through this process
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with the with the d.a with the detectives and i've learned a lot more that forensic science is incredible
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you