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when a young woman walked outside her home to investigate a strange noise she was abducted at gunpoint
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but the victim knew something about forensic evidence and she was determined to prove she had
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been inside the assailant's truck the clue she left behind and her recollection of detail led police
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straight to the criminal's front door [Music] [Music] jackson township is just north of canton
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ohio home to the pro football hall of fame [Music] it's an upscale bedroom community
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much of the area is undeveloped especially along the old erie canal we have even areas where there's cows
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and we get calls for cows and livestock in the roadway the mckernon family lived just two
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blocks from the canal eighteen-year-old stephanie mckernan shared the home with her husband jamie
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and his 18 year old sister whom we'll call megan [Music] on saturday night may 6 2000
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stephanie and megan were outside when two men in a pickup truck stopped to talk asked us both we were single and how old
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we were and we both said that we were not available the men were polite and when rebuffed
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drove off a few hours later after the women returned home they heard a noise outside
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megan grabbed a flashlight stephanie picked up a can of spray paint and both went outside to investigate
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[Music] hey girl they were met by a man with a rifle he claimed to be a police officer and
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ordered the girls to get into his truck and we were like no so we put the gun in
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both of our faces numerous times and asked us do you want to die do you want to die do you want to die you want to
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die in the scuffle the assailant hit stephanie with his rifle [Music] megan hit the man in the face with the
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flashlight [Music] he then grabbed megan dragged her down a hill to his pickup truck and drove off
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when stephanie regained consciousness she called police [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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[Music] when police arrived stephanie was hysterical and she was unable to provide
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much detail about the crime police were skeptical since the mckernan boys had numerous prior run-ins with
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police they're always running their motorcycles through the yards up and down the street
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they're always having a party they're always doing something we're always down
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here for something there's got to definitely be more to this than what's
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than what we know but there was evidence at the scene to corroborate stephanie's story
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[Music] officers found megan's sweatshirt and sandals along with the cover for the scope of a
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rifle [Music] there were shoe prints leading in the direction the assailant was headed
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[Music] at the bottom of the driveway police found tire impressions and near the road was a purple glove and
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an ice scraper my concern was i knew megan i knew her family i feared for the worst i feared
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that we were going to find her floating somewhere and if we didn't act fast that you know my fears might become a
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reality over the next few hours megan's family and the police searched the streets and parking lots of jackson
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county but she was nowhere to be found eighteen-year-old megan mckernan was kidnapped at gunpoint from the backyard
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of her home evidence left at the scene showed signs of a struggle but revealed little about
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the kidnapper's identity this was obviously someone that megan had no knowledge of that they were not
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familiar with and that this was actually a legitimate thing that had happened to
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megan while investigators interviewed megan's family and friends a police officer kept
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watch at the crime scene [Music] suddenly the officer saw a woman running towards
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him it was megan mckernan her first words was i have been raped although battered megan was fortunate to
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have survived her two-hour ordeal an hour before we're looking for her in a ditch so to see her come running
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towards me was [Music] definitely a happy moment police rushed megan to a nearby hospital
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which had a special unit to treat rape victims and preserve crucial forensic evidence
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nurses carefully collected and documented all of the evidence they could find and also preserved her
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blood-stained clothing police photographed scratches on megan's face and other injuries including cuts
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and scrapes to her back and arms she did what she needed to do to get through the situation and that is the
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success in itself is to make it out alive megan told police the assailant drove her to boyd's corner a remote location
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about five miles from her home and assaulted her in his truck i was trying to push him off of me but
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he had my hands above my head with one arm and then he was holding like himself up on the seat with the other
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he said he'd like to have a girl like me like to get married to a girl like me that i am so
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pretty and that he is so sorry for beating me up megan pleaded with the man to let her
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walk home he told me that he wouldn't let me walk because i didn't have no shoes on and it
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was pretty far distance from my house instead he offered to drive her she actually gave him better directions
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to get her back home there were two ways to get there and she actually talked to
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him about don't go this way go this way it's faster he dropped her off a block from her home
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macon was able to recall many important details about her assailant and his truck
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she said the truck was a chevy s10 blue with a dark cap there was an air freshener with the
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tweety bird cartoon character hanging from the rear view mirror the interior was muddy with holes in the
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bench seat megan remembered grabbing the truck frame in a desperate attempt to resist
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her attacker she definitely wanted to leave some type of sign or some type of calling card if
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you will that this that she was there that this had taken place just in case she didn't make it out alive she also
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said the back end of the truck may have been dented because when we went down the boyd's
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corner and he turned around he backed up the guard round he hit the guardrail pretty hard
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megan described her assailant as a stocky blonde man with facial hair about six feet tall with piercing blue eyes
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between his eyes was a crescent-shaped cut caused when megan struck him with the flashlight
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she kept her eyes open and she looked at his face and his body so she was able to
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just you know describe portions of the man that a reasonable stranger wouldn't know
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actually [Music] forensic scientists measured and photographed the shoe and tire
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impressions outside the mckernan's home several of the shoe impressions belonged
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to megan's family but there were a number of unidentified shoe impressions presumably those of the
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assailant at boyd's corner where the assault took place police found more tire impressions and
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scuff marks on a guard rail boyd's corner is an isolated area on an abandoned road leading to a cul-de-sac
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because it was a gathering spot for teenagers police assumed the assailant was a local man familiar with the area
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the use of a weapon also suggested this wasn't his first crime we wanted to make sure that the person
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who did this to her wasn't out there hunting someone else so we wanted to make sure the community was aware of the
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information police appealed to the community for help a newspaper article appeared three days
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after megan's assault asking if anyone recognized the description of the assailant or his truck
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that same day police received an anonymous telephone call [Music] jackson police department how may i help
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you an anonymous caller told police where they could find a truck similar to the
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one they were looking for in the megan mckernan assault case we go to the address that was given to
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us by the anonymous caller there's the suspect vehicle it matches perfectly it's a blue chevy truck with a black cap
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[Music] the truck was owned by douglas bailey thomas this is detective green the police immediately ran into two
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problems bayley didn't match the victim's physical description you want to die sat in my chair and he
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didn't have the cut on his forehead made by megan's flashlight is that your truck in the driveway
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yes sir i'll be taking a peek on the way out but then police saw the tweety bird air freshener
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the same one megan had described hanging from the rear view mirror and behind the front seat was a rifle
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similar to the one the girls described [Music] criminalists dusted the truck for
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fingerprints they discovered prints on the frame by the passenger door by using a special adhesive strip
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they lifted those prints for analysis they were found next to the passenger's
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door and were in a smeared condition which would in my opinion indicate that that someone had been
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forced into the vehicle or attempted to be forced into the vehicle floria then compared those prints to
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megan's looking specifically for individual ridge characteristics no two different people have ever been
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found to have the same fingerprints that's based upon the individual ridge characteristics the bifurcations
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the ridge endings the enclosures the short ridges which we find in a known fingerprint
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megan's fingerprints had the same ridge characteristics and spacing as the fingerprints on the truck
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those fingerprint impressions were made by the right index finger the right middle finger
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the right ring finger and the right little finger of megan mckernan with a search warrant
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police confiscated a pair of boots from the bailey home to see if they matched footwear impressions found at the crime
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scene they can be like a fingerprint insofar as they can be individualized uh as having been made by a specific
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shoe to the exclusion of all others [Music] floria says shoe souls develop tiny cuts
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from stepping on objects such as glass or stones these accidental characteristics are
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unique to each shoe using fingerprint dusting powder floria covered the sole then used a sheet of adhesive tape and a
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roller to create a copy of that sole [Music] next floria compared the size shape and
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accidental characteristics to the footwear impressions lifted from the crime scene
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they were a match tires also have accidental characteristics like footwear when the tire impressions from the crime
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scene were compared to the bailey's pickup truck tires they were found to be consistent
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[Music] there was a glove that was left at the scene the other match was inside the the
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vehicle itself the truck belonged to douglas bailey but the shoes did not they belonged to
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his 28 year old son craig who had recently been released from prison after serving seven years of a 25-year
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sentence for burglary doug bailey wasn't surprised to hear his son might again be in trouble
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[Music] craig bailey was attending alcohol abuse recovery meetings at this local
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treatment center they came out to the detectives and said by the way craig's done at uh
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an alcohol recovery service and if you want to go get him that's where he's at
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and that's just where the police found him without saying a word he turned around
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put his hands behind his back we handcuffed him and took him out to the car he never said a word and never
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questioned us as to why we were there to take him into custody to me that was a sure sign of someone who had committed
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the crime or certainly was guilty of something and it wasn't long before police discovered that the anonymous
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callers were craig's father doug and his girlfriend [Music] suspected 28-year-old craig bailey a
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career criminal was the man who kidnapped and assaulted 18-year-old megan mckernan
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megan's description of her assailant fit craig bailey perfectly even the crescent
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shape cut between his eyes megan selected craig bailey out of a photo lineup of six people
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she did not hesitate when she selected the person that did this crime to her doug bailey told police that he and
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craig were on their way to a movie when craig stopped to speak with megan and her sister-in-law stephanie
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later that night craig dropped his father off at home and said he was going out to meet some friends his father had
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no idea his plan was to return to the girl's house despite overwhelming forensic evidence
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against him craig bailey refused to accept a plea bargain and pleaded not guilty at the preliminary hearing
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[Music] meanwhile investigators worked to strengthen their case against him forensic scientist jennifer blank
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analyzed megan's rape test kit with a chemical called brenteman's reagent
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if i get a nice bright purple color change reaction then i know that i possibly have semen on that swab
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[Music] which is what she found blink also tested the samples with theta-based tablets which react when
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coming into contact with amylase a digestive enzyme found in saliva what a fatabas tablet is is basically a
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starch that is chemically connected to a dye the test turned deep blue meaning saliva was present
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[Music] those samples were subjected to a dq alpha dna test test strips analyze six specific
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locations on the dna strand craig bailey's dna matched the semen and saliva samples from the rape test kit
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only one person out of 3 000 people would have the dna profile that we detected from the semen on the thigh if all of
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those individuals happen to be caucasian and finally a blood stain found in the pickup truck
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matched megan's dna there was a literal mountain of evidence to suggest and to prove that he in fact
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did commit the crimes of felonious assault rape and kidnapping megan's blood inside the truck and her
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fingerprints positioned in a way that clearly demonstrated she was forced into the vehicle all proved these points to
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the jury the forensics to this case put the icing on the cake it allowed us to to conclusively link the suspect to the
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scene and to the victim herself craig bailey was convicted of first degree kidnapping and rape and two
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counts of felonious assault [Music] he was sentenced to 46 years in prison since bayley was on parole when he
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committed the crime the judge reinstated the 18 years remaining on bailey's previous sentence
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he didn't show any anger he didn't show any remorse he didn't show any
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incredulity i believe by the time he would get out would be approximately 81 years old
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if it wasn't for megan we might not have had a conviction there could have been a
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dynamic attorney in there that would have um maybe confused or polluted the the issue of was it you know a real
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crime you know these these girls asked him to come back or just enough to put a little bit of reasonable doubt
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into the mind of the jury so it was megan and her articulation and her conviction and her willingness to
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survive and make it through that made the case hey girl investigators say everyone can learn from megan mckernan's
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quick thinking and amazing recall leave pieces and parts of whatever you can behind rip clothing you know hair
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fingernails dig in have at it don't don't don't go away and leave us nothing
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because what we might find will be just what's left over of you [Music] [Music]
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[Music] you