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in 1995 carolyn killeby of vancouver washington got into a heated argument with her
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husband she then went to a local bar alone no one has seen or heard from her since
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but some saliva from an envelope and a speck of blood on a wristwatch helps solve the mystery of her disappearance
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in 1990 carolyn and dan kilby were married each for the second time
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dan managed the furniture store carolyn was a medical technician employed by the u.s military
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carolyn and dan each had a daughter from their previous marriages and they moved into this home in
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vancouver washington my mom was basically the backbone of my whole family i mean she was very
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strong-willed and she just like she held everybody together she was the problem solver she was the supporters she was
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the happiness the joy she was just like everything you could ask for [Music] on saturday night november 11 1995
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carolyn and dan got into an argument she'd been in a fight with her husband because her husband had decided instead
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of doing something with her that night that she'd counted on they were going to
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go out he was going to go out with his brother and have some food and drink and she objected significantly to that and i
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don't know whether she stomped out of the house and drove over there or how that transpired but she ended up at
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omar's and she was doing some serious drinking there a waitress said carolyn was dancing but
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was there alone and was obviously intoxicated the other indication was that she was
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alone at the table and that her head was down and that she had her head on the table and was basically passed
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out at the table not functioning not talking to anyone very very clear to everyone in the bar
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that she was highly intoxicated that night around 11 o'clock witnesses said they saw carolyn leave the bar
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and she was never seen again i came home sunday morning and she was gone the next day dan killaby called police
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to report carolyn missing family members friends and volunteers searched the surrounding area without
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success i knew that she would not leave unless somebody made her there was no way she would have left us
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[Music] she is the really the light of the family her personality her uh her kindness
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[Music] sorry carolyn's car was found in the bar's parking lot the killerby family hired their own
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search dogs the dogs tracked carolyn's scent from the bar directly back to her home
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the police believed this might be evidence that carolyn returned home from the bar before she disappeared
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no one else was home that night dan and the two girls spent saturday night elsewhere
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they were concerned about whether or not dan's alibi that he was out drinking with his brother was solid
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and i think that they stayed out real late and got real drunk and so the police were not 100 percent
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convinced that that could have been the case creating further suspicions was the fact that
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carolyn had a 230 000 life insurance policy payable to her husband i always stood behind dan
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there was no doubt that he had i could never conceive the idea that he had actually done something like this
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dan kilby denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance but police discovered there were problems in the
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marriage we found out that it wasn't the uh perfect marriage by any stretch of the
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imagination i think we figured that there were some difficulties and some strains in the
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marriage two hours after carolyn left the bar the police received two calls from
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people who said they heard a woman screaming for help in a field about a mile from omar's lounge
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police searched the area using night vision goggles but they found nothing with no solid leads
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the killerby family offered a ten thousand dollar reward for any information on carolyn's whereabouts
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and then a bombshell a customer at omar's lounge said he saw dan kilby with carolyn in the parking
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lot on the night she disappeared [Music] when 34 year old carolyn killeby didn't
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return home after spending a night drinking at a local bar her husband dan was an immediate suspect
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prosecutor david seeley says there's an old saying in missing persons cases before you look at outlaws you have to
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look at the in-laws one of the things they look at to begin with is a husband um
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in a missing person case like this because i think a large percentage of the crimes are committed by family
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members police found no evidence of foul play in the killerby home but in carolyn's bedroom they found some
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potent pain killers vicotin my sister was having some problems with prescription drug medication
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and i had confronted her and talked to her about that she had to acknowledge the problem and was
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working on that we were the whole family was being supportive of that my understanding of the mixture of
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alcohol and vicodin is it makes you comatose and that's exactly what happened to
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carolyn when she was in the bar witnesses at omar's lounge say that carolyn passed out at her table
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one of the regular customers dennis smith helped her to her car what smith told police
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was disturbing [Music] he said that he and carolyn left the bar and engaged in consensual sex in his
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truck [Music] as he walked her to her car a man approached them hit smith with a bat
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called carolyn a [ __ ] and forced her to leave with him [Music] when shown a photographic lineup
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smith identified carolyn's husband dan as the culprit dan killerby angrily denied this he
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offered to take a lie detector test and passed dan kiloby said he and his brother were
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out drinking together that night in a bar which the bartender there confirmed when police looked closer into dennis
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smith's background they discovered that smith had been convicted for the murder of his sister
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patricia ann johnson in 1982. smith served 10 years of that sentence and had recently been released on parole
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and the witness told police that she saw mud on smith's truck on the night carolyn disappeared
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he came to a shell station and clark county his truck was all dirty he asked the attendant there who was a
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friend whether or not he could go to her parents house and wash his car the employee also thought she saw a
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blood smear on smith's shirt with this new information smith's truck was confiscated
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and police noticed that the inside of the truck had been wiped clean no fingerprints hairs or fibers even though
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smith said carolyn had been in the truck for consensual sex investigators did find
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a tiny speck of blood on the steering wheel and there was evidence of a recent fire
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smith said a cigarette butt accidentally ignited the upholstery an alert homicide investigator also
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confiscated smith's wristwatch in the forensics lab scientists found a tiny speck of what appeared to be blood
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in the crevice of the wristband tests indicated it was human but whose was it since we get half of our dna from our
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mother and half from our father scientists could identify whether it was carolyn's blood in the truck by
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analyzing dna samples from carolyn's parents but carolyn's mother delivered some
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shocking news despite raising carolyn as his own the man carolyn called dad wasn't her
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biological father a fact withheld from carolyn during her upbringing carolyn's biological father had died
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years earlier this made the blood stain analysis much more difficult we didn't have any solid dna we didn't
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have a a piece of skin or a blood sample from her from her body that we could compare to the blood stain so we are a
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little up in the air about what to do without a body scientists would have to improvise
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when dennis smith learned that he was a suspect in carol and killaby's disappearance he fled and the nationwide
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manhunt was underway we didn't know who she'd left with we had the thought that maybe she was in a
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hotel and angry and then we found out that she had been seen leaving with this guy dennis and so
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we didn't know what that meant and then we found out that he was a murderer that
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had been out on parole and so that took away some hope while the fbi searched for smith
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forensic scientists analyzed his truck arson experts discovered hydrocarbons on the upholstery of smith's truck
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hydrocarbons are present when an accelerant or flammable liquid is used to start a fire
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a clue that the fire was intentionally set the damage was extensive and smith's
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story didn't match the evidence we got a similar car seat we tried to recreate the fire in three
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or four different ways and each time we couldn't come up with that type of damage that we saw in his
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car in a small crack in the steering wheel a phenolphthalein test identified a tiny
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stain as blood and on dennis smith's wristband scientists found another speck of blood
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but without carolyn's body scientists had no dna sample for comparison so detectives searched for a sample of
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carolyn's dna and they found it in alaska ten years earlier carolyn mailed a letter to her
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girlfriend in alaska and her friend had never thrown it away on the envelope flap and stamps was
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carolyn's saliva still a rich source of dna even after 10 years the samples were too badly degraded for
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traditional dna testing so scientists used a newer and less exact dna test called mitochondrial dna
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traditional dna testing analyzes the nucleus of the cell but outside the cell nucleus are what
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are known as mitochondria cells that can be identified although not as precisely as in traditional dna
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testing mitochondrial dna is inherited from a mother to her children and therefore if
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you want to make a match between a sample of evidence from a missing person as as was in this case blood stains from
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someone whose body was not available you need only go to a maternal relative the dna from the envelope flap and
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stamps matched the dna from the blood found in smith's truck and with dna samples from carolyn
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killeby's mother and daughter dr melton concluded that the mitochondrial dna in dennis smith's
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truck was that of carolyn kiloby it was a dna profile that existed in only one out of two hundred 000
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caucasians because there was no body found in this case and i believe the remains of miss
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kilby are still missing it was very important to place her in the presence of mr smith and of
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course a blood stain on his watch band that comes back to her would be very powerful evidence
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on the one year anniversary of carolyn's disappearance friends and relatives gathered for a
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candlelight vigil outside of omar's lounge the last place she was seen alive
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then i'm glad they're here and i'm glad they want to show that they cared too
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for over a year dennis smith had been on the run then the television series unsolved
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mysteries profiled the case asking viewers for help in bringing smith to justice
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four days later an anonymous tip revealed smith was living in florida the trick now
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was to find him and i turned to drugs and my stepdad turned to alcohol and my sister turned away from all of us
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and my whole family just fell apart everything that i'd known for 15 almost 16 years
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in one night was all unraveled for 15 months carolyn's family waited for some word on the search for dennis
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smith law enforcement searched all over the country and an informant said smith was
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living in florida police there stopped the vehicle on the suspicion it was stolen
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the man driving the car was dennis smith smith tried to get away there was a fight and smith was shot in
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the scuffle i was hoping that he was in a lot of pain i wanted him to hurt i crossed my fingers though that he
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didn't die as much as i hate him and do not want him in this world if he were to die there was really no
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hope of finding my mom's body or for him having to suffer in prison smith survived the gunshot wound and
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returned to washington state to stand trial for kidnapping rape and the murder of carolyn killeby
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even though police still hadn't found her body smith pleaded not guilty and stood by his story that he was
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attacked by carolyn's husband in the parking lot of the bar and that carolyn
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left with her husband the defense reminded the jury that smith identified dan kiloby from a
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photographic lineup but prosecutors said smith probably recognized dan kilby from television
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news reports about his wife's disappearance and it's just amazed me and i see other
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i mean on tv on court shows on anything real or not how the defense always tries to twist
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the victims into this horrible person when they never did anything to ask for what they got
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and they didn't deserve it prosecutors believe that carolyn killeby was inebriated in omar's lounge and that
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smith offered to drive her home somewhere along the way smith raped and murdered carolyn killeby
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in the cab of his truck her blood spattered onto the steering wheel smith's watch and probably on the
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upholstery prosecutors suspect that smith buried carolyn's body somewhere near
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larch mountain a few hours later a gas station attendant said she saw a blood stain on
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smith's shirt and that his truck was full of mud smith attempted to remove the blood
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inside his truck with detergents and when he couldn't remove it all from the upholstery
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he set it on fire but he missed a tiny speck of blood on his wristband and a tiny speck of blood on the
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steering wheel proof that carol and killiby had been bleeding inside his truck some of his friends happen to be
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nurses he went into a great detail with his nurse friends about what is dna how do you get rid of dna i used pine sol
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and lysol and other cleaning agents in my car is that going to get rid of dna and the nurses said hey i don't think so
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prosecutors also discovered that when smith was in prison for killing his sister he told his cellmate how he would
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get away with murder the next time mr smith told an inmate that if he would ever committed another murder he would
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dispose of the body by digging a hole placing the body in it recovering the hole and planting a tree on top of it so
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that no one would know that a body is under there and wherever she is it's out
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in most likely a dark cold place where we can't go and visit her physically where
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her remains are he also told the inmate that he would dispose of the other evidence by burning it
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the only scientific evidence in this case was the mitochondrial dna taken from two
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tiny specks of blood dennis smith was found guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced to life
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in prison without parole after his conviction dennis smith offered to disclose the
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location of carolyn's body in return for some taco bell burritos and ten thousand dollars in cash
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we obviously all know that he knows where the body is and now he's trying to
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get something for him when he should do the right thing and give up carolyn's body to to
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give closure to this family i think it's pathetic what he's trying to do now
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he's not he's not getting any money he already has more things in prison that we have i
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mean he has free cable he has free pay-per-view i mean i have to pay for my cable i have to go rent movies and then
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he wants extra spending money i mean he just there's no way that i would give him a cent i wouldn't
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give him a penny [Music] the killabee family may never recover carolyn's body for a
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proper burial but they've purchased a burial plot with a headstone anyway for carolyn's daughter gina
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not a day goes by when she doesn't think of her mother she has this beautiful new granddaughter
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that she never got the chance to meet and be a grandmother too but that her granddaughter
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her granddaughter will always know who she is and that she will always be a part of
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this family and that we love her and miss her very very much [Music] [Music] [Music]
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you