00:00:00
[GRIM MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Chandler,
Arizona, November 9, 1991. Police respond to
an urgent 911 call.
00:00:19
They find a young woman
brutally sex assaulted. BRIANA WHITNEY: This man was so
confident in what he was doing
00:00:29
and so sick in wanting to
watch it happen that he had the audacity to videotape it.
00:00:38
NANCY GRACE: Eventually,
every lead to identify the suspect dries up. 2002, investigators
reopen the 1991 case
00:00:49
when they learn of a similar
attack that took place in 1992. DONALD NEWCOMER: The biological
evidence is critical.
00:00:59
It gave us a match
to Chandler PD, which is how we got
involved, but it didn't
00:01:04
tell us who the suspect was. NANCY GRACE: The rape suspect
continues to evade police,
00:01:10
leaving his victim to
live in constant fear. The early use of DNA matching
cannot crack the case.
00:01:19
Investigators must wait for the
arrival of a new and powerful forensic tool. Genetic genealogy was
a perfect opportunity
00:01:29
to break this case wide open. This is a story of a victim,
a victim of a brutal rape,
00:01:37
who lives in fear for years. She must wait for three decades
until new forensic science
00:01:46
brings her attacker,
her rapist, to justice. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
00:01:56
[THEME MUSIC] [SOMBER MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: 1991, Chandler,
Arizona, a suburb in the Phoenix
00:02:25
Metropolitan area. The Chandler community is shaken
the night of November 9, 1991.
00:02:35
Chandler Police
Department got a call from a neighbor saying
that his neighbor had just been assaulted.
00:02:40
[SIRENS WAILING] BRENDAN BUSSE: Officer
Tyndall was the officer that responded to the scene.
00:02:46
He contacted the
victim on the stairway that leads up to the apartment. NANCY GRACE: The
brutalized victim
00:02:57
tells police about the horrible
ordeal she has just survived. She heard a knock on
her door, and she decided
00:03:07
to check to see who was there. She was expecting a
package that night. And as she cracked the
door slightly open,
00:03:13
she was faced with a man
standing in front of her who had a silver revolver
and had pointed it at her
00:03:19
and forced his way
into the apartment. The suspect came
into her apartment and held that gun to her back.
00:03:26
And at that point, he
proceeded to pull bindings out of a blue metal case
that he carried with him,
00:03:32
and he was able to bind
her hands behind her back and then force her
into her bedroom.
00:03:37
So once he got her
into her bedroom, he used more bindings to bind
her to the bedposts of her bed.
00:03:46
And then he proceeded to cut
her clothing from her body and then sexually assaulted her.
00:03:53
This man was so confident
in what he was doing and so sick in wanting to
watch it happen that he had
00:04:01
the audacity to videotape it. ASHLEY NOLAN: Officers obtained
that initial statement and then
00:04:09
requested transportation to have
the victim go to the hospital for a rape examination.
00:04:17
BRIANA WHITNEY: Once the
victim is at the hospital, a nurse gives her a
sexual assault exam.
00:04:22
It's called a SANE exam. And this is
traumatic for victims because they have to take
specimens from the victim
00:04:30
to send that to the lab. But to get that, it's a very
intrusive and invasive exam.
00:04:36
And victims have described it
almost feeling like they're getting raped again.
00:04:40
And that's why some victims
don't ever go through with it. NANCY GRACE: As the victim
of a brutal rape recovers,
00:04:50
she agrees to be
interviewed by detectives. ASHLEY NOLAN: The victim told
detectives that the suspect had
00:04:58
a very, very strong body
odor that kind of emanated off of him as he assaulted her.
00:05:05
We were able to
obtain a really good description of the suspect, as
well as that composite sketch.
00:05:13
BRENDAN BUSSE: The victim
described the suspect as a white male
with dark hair, a
00:05:20
brown, neatly-trimmed mustache. She thought he was about 6
foot tall, 140, 150 pounds.
00:05:29
She said he wore a dark in
color baseball cap that said "Security" on it, had
a blue button-down,
00:05:40
short-sleeved shirt that
was consistent with, like, a paramedic or ambulance
driver-type shirt at the time.
00:05:49
ASHLEY NOLAN: What was
interesting in this case is, as the victim was participating
in the composite sketch,
00:05:54
she actually stepped back,
and the detective at the time noted that there was just a look
of fear in her eyes, that she--
00:06:01
the recreation of
the composite sketch was a near-match to what she-- to the individual that came
into her apartment that night.
00:06:10
NANCY GRACE: This young
victim, who amazingly survived, is still in shock. But she very slowly
begins to provide
00:06:20
more information to police. She points crime
scene investigators to the sort of evidence
they need to collect
00:06:27
inside her apartment. ASHLEY NOLAN: She noted
that the suspect, when he was inside the
apartment, had a runny nose
00:06:35
and was constantly
using tissues, that he would blow his nose and
then discard in the apartment.
00:06:42
In this case, detectives, when
they went back to the scene, they were able to locate
a number of tissues
00:06:48
that they believe were
discarded by the suspect. They were able to
locate the duct tape
00:06:52
that they believed was
part of the bindings to bind her to the bed. And they located a
pair of scissors.
00:07:00
The victim had talked about
having her clothes cut from her body,
and the detectives
00:07:05
had collected that
pair of scissors for processing later on. So we would look for
possible DNA evidence.
00:07:13
We might pull out a
forensic light source, maybe look for semen. We're going to look
for hairs and fibers.
00:07:18
If we would consider
a trace evidence case, we would do that
before anything else.
00:07:23
If we have a pillowcase
covered in hair, for example, we would collect what
we could of the hair in
00:07:29
order not to lose any evidence. But if it's general bedding,
if we're looking for things
00:07:34
like pillowcases,
sheets, blankets, we're going to photograph
them and collect
00:07:37
them and preserve them that
way for further examination. ASHLEY NOLAN: What was
somewhat unique in this case is
00:07:45
the victim talked
about the suspect being in the apartment
for a couple hours and had helped himself
to a Sprite bottle that
00:07:54
was in her refrigerator and
actually had drank from it as well, and then at some point,
had spit into her sink,
00:08:02
discarding a large
amount of saliva that detectives were
later able to collect. NANCY GRACE: As the forensic
evidence is being analyzed,
00:08:12
investigators search
for a physical match to the perp, that match
based upon sketches
00:08:19
made of the suspect. Tips are also
coming in to police. One Chandler detective
has a suspicion
00:08:27
about a particular individual. ASHLEY NOLAN: The detective
did believe at one point
00:08:34
that maybe the
victim's boyfriend could have been associated with
the incident on some level.
00:08:39
And he thought that
because there was just this level of possessiveness
that the boyfriend
00:08:44
had over the victim. He was very inquisitive
into the investigation, and he did have some
prior criminal history,
00:08:51
so there was a theory that maybe
there was an association there. But there were no
particular theories outside
00:09:00
of really focusing on the
description that was given based on the clothing that was worn.
00:09:05
So both detectives
in the case thought there could have been an
association with law enforcement
00:09:10
or the fire department. There were a number of
investigative leads established. Our sex offender
listings were looked at,
00:09:21
and sex offenders in
the area were contacted and individually ruled out. NANCY GRACE:
Detectives are dealing
00:09:31
with a very cagey offender. He erased his fingerprints
at the crime scene. Over time, new
leads all run dry.
00:09:43
BRENDAN BUSSE: Very shortly
after this assault, the victim left Chandler. She left Arizona and
returned to her home state
00:09:53
and never came back to Chandler. In 2001, the case
is reopened when a similar sex assault in 1992
is shared by a neighboring
00:10:07
police department. Are detectives any closer
to finding a suspect? We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:10:16
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Chandler, Arizona,
2001, cold case detectives
00:10:28
investigating the brutal
sex assault of a young woman in November 1991. DNA forensic science
has advanced.
00:10:38
The cold case team
believes a suspect has struck more than once. ASHLEY NOLAN: So in
this particular case,
00:10:45
we had a detective
that submitted 15 items for DNA testing. But in this case, they only
tested two of the items.
00:10:54
And the reason that labs
will do that is they look at all the items of
evidence, and they look,
00:10:58
what is going to be the most
probative type of evidence in this particular case?
00:11:02
So of those 15 items, they
tested specifically two items, and that was the
victim's underwear
00:11:08
and the swab from the sink. NANCY GRACE: The DNA evidence
found in the 1991 case
00:11:14
is submitted to the
CODIS national database to determine if it matches DNA
from any other unsolved attacks.
00:11:25
CODIS is the Combined
DNA Index System, and that's used
by law enforcement all over the country
where, when they get
00:11:32
a profile for a suspect,
somebody who's incarcerated, they upload it to that database.
00:11:37
And then law enforcement
agencies across the United States can see that
and see if it links
00:11:42
to any of their unsolved crimes
that they have in their systems. It's a way to try
to catch people
00:11:47
who may not have been caught for
other crimes in other places. ASHLEY NOLAN: On August 13,
2002, we get a DNA result back,
00:12:00
and that is when Chandler
is notified that there was a match of our case
and our perpetrator
00:12:06
to an incident that
occurred in Phoenix in 1992. DONALD NEWCOMER: She was a
student, a 15-year-old female.
00:12:16
There was a alleyway that she
was walking through on her way home from the bus stop.
00:12:22
That was about 4:15. She remembers the time because
she looked at her watch as she was walking
in the alleyway.
00:12:28
And she saw a man
standing in the alleyway, looking down at the ground. As she approached,
he looked up at her
00:12:38
and said that he was a
private investigator working for the police department,
looking for kids that were
00:12:45
setting fires in the alley. She was nervous, so she
wanted to get away from him,
00:12:51
and she started to
walk the other way. And that's when he
ran up behind her,
00:12:55
put his hands over her mouth,
and pulled her backwards to where he was standing.
00:13:01
And she tried to get away. He was-- put the
ball in her mouth, and then he went
and duct taped her
00:13:07
and threw her in the
hatchback, took her to a house. She also saw something
yellow around the house.
00:13:15
She didn't know if
it was an object or if it was a
part of the house. She just didn't
have that ability.
00:13:21
And the reason she was able
to get limited information was because when he
first abducted her,
00:13:29
he left her alone for a second. She was able to push up
the right part of her eye
00:13:36
on the tape so she could
see out a little bit. ASHLEY NOLAN: Once the
suspect gets the victim
00:13:42
into the bedroom, he
puts her on the bed, and this victim just fought. She fought and
fought and fought,
00:13:49
trying to stop this attack. And every time she fought,
the suspect would strike her.
00:13:56
And he at one point
used a kitchen utensil to beat her into submission. And the more she
fought, the more
00:14:04
she feared that it
was going to get worse and she could potentially
die from this.
00:14:09
So she eventually complied
with the suspect's demands. The whole assault was no
more than an hour in time.
00:14:19
And between the time
she was picked up in the alley to the time
she was taken to the house,
00:14:24
to the time she was released
into a different alley, she estimated no
more than an hour.
00:14:30
DONALD NEWCOMER: There was grass
stains that were on her jeans. And the grass was important
because as she tried to get away
00:14:38
from the man, he tackled
her and pushed her down into the grass, which is where
she collected the grass stains.
00:14:45
It tells us that we are
looking for an alleyway with the grass in it. And it-- to piece
her story together.
00:14:55
BRENDAN BUSSE: She
gave a fairly detailed description of the suspect-- dark hair, brown mustache, very
strong, offensive body odor that
00:15:07
was covered up with cologne. She thought he was about
maybe 6 foot tall, 180 pounds.
00:15:18
ASHLEY NOLAN: Both
agencies inputted their DNA into the CODIS database to
see if there were any matches,
00:15:24
and neither agency had
received a match in that case. And so both cases
were actually closed
00:15:29
for another period
of time until it was once again reopened in 2009. Detective Newcomer and Detective
Busse went back to the area
00:15:40
of 25th Street and
Hubbell, and they would-- they tried to retrace
those steps back to that
00:15:44
house based on the
direction of travel that the victim had given. They were looking at the
sex offender registry,
00:15:51
and even 18 years later,
that database has grown. And so they would be looking to
match any type of motives that
00:15:57
seem similar from
the offender database to these particular crimes. Detectives went through the
neighborhoods, up and down
00:16:07
different streets, just really
trying to find that house that the victim had described.
00:16:13
In 2009, when Detective
Newcomer and Detective Busse took over the case,
that was a key component
00:16:20
in their investigation to reopen
this case and try to solve. We identified a
number of homes that
00:16:28
were strong candidates, and
then we did historical research of those homes to try
to find any connection
00:16:38
between the people that lived
in those homes and these cases. DONALD NEWCOMER: We actually
drove a couple of times
00:16:48
through that area trying
to look for this house. We spent a lot of time
looking for that house.
00:16:54
We found nothing. NANCY GRACE: Phoenix
detectives cannot precisely locate a legitimate
crime scene where
00:17:02
a second sex assault occurs. Therefore, they will
not have enough evidence to conclusively link this second
attack to the original attack
00:17:14
in Chandler. It is a bitter disappointment,
but it's by no means a dead end for the
Chandler investigation.
00:17:24
Police now have a brand
new forensic tool-- familial DNA searching. But will it lead to the
identity of a brutal rapist?
00:17:35
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:17:49
NANCY GRACE: 2018,
cold case detectives from the Phoenix and Chandler,
Arizona Police Departments team
00:17:55
up. They reopen an investigation
into the sexual assault of a young woman in 1991.
00:18:02
They also think, but
cannot prove, the same perp may have struck more than once.
00:18:13
BRENDAN BUSSE: In
all likelihoods, there are other victims
that haven't come forward.
00:18:17
But in these two
cases, it appears that he was attracted to very
small-framed, dark-haired women.
00:18:24
The case went cold for
both Detective Newcomer and Detective Busse in 2018. NANCY GRACE: Detectives try
another way to unmask a killer.
00:18:35
This time, they launch
a familial DNA search in that CODIS national database. ASHLEY NOLAN: So
familial DNA is a way
00:18:45
to utilize the CODIS
database to try to match, potentially, family
members to a perpetrator.
00:18:53
COLLEEN FITZPATRICK:
Normally, CODIS looks for a one-to-one match
between crime scene DNA
00:18:57
and a convicted offender
in that database. There's 12 states that allow a
partial match or a near match,
00:19:05
which usually indicates a
family member in the database. That gives them an investigative
lead to find the real guy.
00:19:13
NANCY GRACE: The familial
DNA search does not produce any matches in
CODIS, so investigators
00:19:20
try other forensic
tools to ID a rapist. One of those tools-- investigative genetic genealogy.
00:19:30
ASHLEY NOLAN: Forensic genetic
genealogy looks at ancestry. And so you're looking at
placing a unknown profile
00:19:39
into a genealogy database to
try to look for family matches. For many years,
genealogists were using
00:19:47
DNA to do adoption searches. So an adoptee would take a
direct-to-consumer DNA test.
00:19:54
And then, based on what we call
"DNA cousins" that came up, you could try and puzzle out
who that person was based
00:20:02
on these cousins and the
network that the cousins found themselves in. We have the list of DNA cousins.
00:20:11
And we don't know who they
are at first, but we find out. And then we start and we
build trees for each--
00:20:17
let's say we have 10. We build different
family trees for each 10. But because they're related
to each other somehow,
00:20:25
those trees start to connect
through common ancestors. And if we do our job, we
actually come up with two trees.
00:20:33
One is for the mother's side,
and one is for the father side. So in a perfect
case, there'd be five
00:20:39
trees that all connect here,
five trees that connect them. And then our job is to find
one person in one group
00:20:46
married one person
in the other group, and those are the parents. And we're looking for
one of their children,
00:20:52
because the children connect to
the parents, to the two groups, to all of those matches
we started out with.
00:20:59
NANCY GRACE: Good news
for investigators-- the suspect's DNA
profile is being scanned
00:21:04
through various
genealogy databases, and hits start pouring in
from distant relatives.
00:21:13
COLLEEN FITZPATRICK: And this
case was really interesting because we had a
couple of matches,
00:21:18
I'd say nothing to write
home about, but not too bad. The top match was the
second to third cousin.
00:21:25
Our genealogists normally
just build the trees out, and we connect and connect. And it turned out that most
of the people we were coming
00:21:34
up with were from Canada. If they weren't
from Canada, they were from Minnesota, Michigan,
kind of the colder areas
00:21:40
and the northern part
of the United States. And following those families
down to the present,
00:21:46
we stumbled on a
family from Arizona, and that was the Young family. ASHLEY NOLAN: So for me, for an
investigator, especially having
00:21:59
experience with
genetic genealogy, that's what I was looking for. I was looking for an
investigative lead based on DNA.
00:22:08
You know, DNA is accurate,
and it doesn't lie. And so if you can make the links
and connections through DNA,
00:22:15
then you know you're
on the right track, especially as an investigator. On June 3, 2020, I got
a magical phone call
00:22:23
from Colleen Fitzpatrick,
and she told me that they think they had
identified a lead in the case
00:22:30
and that I needed to
look at the individual known as Gary Robert Young. COLLEEN FITZPATRICK: From that
point on, the detectives have
00:22:41
to look into his background,
his criminal record, you know, anything else that
might-- they know that might
00:22:47
put him in that time. Did he own a hatchback? Did he own a van? Was it within distance
of the crime scene,
00:22:57
put him in the right
place at the right time? ASHLEY NOLAN: I
immediately started
00:23:01
digging into Gary Robert Young. Who was this person? Where did he live? And was he the one responsible
for these horrific assaults?
00:23:10
And I found a lot of
information on Gary. And he had lived in Phoenix,
and he was still at the same
00:23:17
location the day that I was
looking into him near that 40th Street and McDowell area.
00:23:23
And he had been living
there in 1991 and 1992. He had two vehicles
associated with him,
00:23:30
and those vehicles
were described as a 1985 two-door
Toyota Celica hatchback and a 1984 Dodge Caravan.
00:23:38
And when you look
at those vehicles, they were a match to
what the victim had described in the Phoenix case.
00:23:46
He's had a number
of run-ins with law enforcement over the years. He's spent time off
and on in state prison.
00:23:54
He apparently was very
sexually motivated a number of different ways. ASHLEY NOLAN: He had been
married three different times
00:24:04
and was divorced twice and had
children with different wives. And there were a number of
reports that came in for drug
00:24:13
issues, domestic violence. One of his wives had actually
reported being raped by Gary
00:24:19
and that it was
investigated, but they didn't have enough
evidence to file charges.
00:24:26
So as I'm looking at
Gary Robert Young, everything is just starting
to fall into place.
00:24:31
I have the genealogy
that's matching. I have the vehicles
that are matching.
00:24:35
I have the handgun
that is matching. I have the residence
that he lived at that's
00:24:40
matching at least
to the area that was in close proximity
to the abduction site in the Phoenix case.
00:24:47
I also located a hit-and-run
report out of Chandler in 1993. So that told me he had some
association to Chandler, Arizona
00:24:56
at the time. Detectives begin the
process of tracking down Gary Robert Young. They need to obtain a
DNA sample from him.
00:25:08
Are they this close to
capturing an elusive predator? We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:25:16
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Cold
case detectives so close to arresting a primary
suspect in the 1991 rape
00:25:33
of a Chandler, Arizona, woman. His name-- Gary Robert Young. DNA from the original crime
scene links Young to the rape.
00:25:44
Now, detectives must obtain
a DNA sample from him, Young, to prove he is, in
fact, the assailant.
00:25:54
In a case like this, we
would be looking at conducting surveillance on Gary. I asked Sergeant
Rowton and his team
00:26:01
to surveil Gary and follow him,
looking for a discarded piece, an item or an object,
that he discarded
00:26:08
that may have his DNA on it. He had also recently
helped me in a prior case where we obtained a sample
that was pretty successful.
00:26:19
PETE ROWTON: She provided
us enough information upfront in this case to locate
where he lived at that time.
00:26:25
And then we just backed
that information up by doing our own research. We conducted static
surveillance initially,
00:26:32
meaning we would park in
the area of the neighborhood that he lived in and then just
try to get eyes on that person,
00:26:39
identify him positively as
being the person that lived at that house, or at least
one of the people that
00:26:44
lived at that house. We operate in unmarked vehicles. We were driving a
mix of-- most of us
00:26:51
drive a mix of pickup trucks. We really wanted to
see when he left, how he left, where
he went, how many
00:27:00
opportunities was
he going to provide for us to obtain that DNA. It could have been a
glass he used to drink
00:27:07
or a cup he used to
drink or a straw he used. If he stopped in
a restaurant, it could have been silverware
or something that he used
00:27:13
or a cup that he used in there. The cigarette butt was
just an opportunity. We knew that he smoked
because we'd seen him come out
00:27:20
and smoke in the front yard. At that point in
time, we'd probably been to the house
two to three times,
00:27:25
two to three different
days, just watching. He left the house in his car,
so it was relatively quick.
00:27:36
And as soon as he got out onto
40th, going to the intersection, he reached out the window and
threw the cigarette butt out.
00:27:44
So we knew he was the
only person in the car. We positively identified
him as leaving in the car,
00:27:49
so it was obviously his. The problem at that point was
it was a major intersection.
00:27:55
And we were just-- we had two vehicles behind him
and then my vehicle back behind.
00:28:02
And letting him
leave and then being able to obtain
that cigarette butt without losing it in traffic--
00:28:08
either, you know, a car
running over it or something-- and not letting him
see us doing it--
00:28:14
so it was a very
quick opportunity. The light turned green. He moved ahead in
the intersection,
00:28:23
gave us enough room. I stopped back, blocked
traffic in that lane. Detective Engler saw
it, saw where it was,
00:28:33
and was able to stop
traffic in the next lane, get out of his car,
and pick it up.
00:28:37
And then as soon as we
could, we moved down the road into an area where we could
repackage it better than it was.
00:28:44
We were super excited
because he was quick. We didn't really think it
would happen that fast.
00:28:49
We've had cases where we've done
DNA work where it's taken days or weeks in order
to find a sample,
00:28:56
and then to make that sample,
you know, a sole source and make it-- hopefully,
it's a good sample.
00:29:04
ASHLEY NOLAN: I learned that
Gary Robert Young had discarded a cigarette out
his driver window
00:29:09
and that detectives with the
Criminal Apprehension Unit had collected that
cigarette for me
00:29:13
and brought it to the
police station, where I could then submit it
for comparison testing.
00:29:20
The results confirmed that
the DNA profile obtained from the cigarette
was, in fact, a match
00:29:25
to the DNA profile
obtained in the rape kit from the Phoenix case,
and also the saliva
00:29:31
sample that was obtained
from the victim's sink in the Chandler case. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
now have a DNA
00:29:38
sample from Gary
Robert Young, and it confirms their suspicions. Young is their prime
suspect, and they
00:29:47
move swiftly to make an arrest. PETE ROWTON: We were basically
going to be the thing to set it
00:29:53
off by when he came
out, we were going to apprehend him, if possible. And he did came out into his
front yard to smoke a cigarette.
00:30:01
So at that point in time, we
moved up on him, arrested him-- no incident at that point.
00:30:05
He was very surprised. ASHLEY NOLAN: Gary was
charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault,
sexual assault,
00:30:15
kidnapping, and burglary. I think he felt he was going
to get away with this, but--
00:30:22
and he had never
really considered to have to deal with the
repercussions of what he did.
00:30:28
NANCY GRACE: Gary Robert
Young finally in custody. Now detectives want
to inform his victim,
00:30:36
he's finally behind bars. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:30:42
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] NANCY GRACE: Chandler,
Arizona, 2020, police finally arrest a suspect in a
brutal 1991 sex assault.
00:31:01
The perp's name? Gary Robert Young. He's now 65 years old. Investigators moved to contact
the victim, who has lived
00:31:11
in fear for nearly 30 years. We don't ever want to
unnecessarily contact the victim
00:31:20
and dredge up bad
memories at all. If we can avoid it, we
will avoid it at all costs.
00:31:30
Finally making that
contact with the victim and advising the victim that the
perpetrator has been positively
00:31:39
identified and
taken into custody, that's payday for investigators. That's-- that's
the accomplishment
00:31:52
that we want to have. But it's got to be extremely
difficult for the victim,
00:31:59
especially if 10, 20
years have gone by. The victim has moved on. The victim more than likely
has repressed from all memories
00:32:14
this event. And then to be contacted out
of the blue and the incident comes flooding back, I'm sure.
00:32:29
DONALD NEWCOMER: It's like
ripping a Band-Aid off of a wound when you call
somebody 30 years later
00:32:34
and say, look, we have
your suspect identified. Would you like to assist us
in prosecution in this case?
00:32:41
That, to me, is a
very traumatizing call because it makes her-- that
person relive everything
00:32:51
that happened 30 years earlier. To have endured something like
this and to have survived it,
00:32:58
they're survivors, not victims. And they're amazing people
to be able to, you know,
00:33:03
go through life and try
to live a normal life and know that, you know, even
being contacted 30 years later,
00:33:10
they were going to
help any way that they can to make sure that this
guy didn't hurt anybody else.
00:33:17
NANCY GRACE: Detective Ashley
Nolan conducts the interrogation of Gary Robert Young.
00:33:24
Gary was-- you could tell,
was somewhat physically ill. He had reported that
he had major back pain.
00:33:32
And so he struggled when he was
sitting in the interview room that he was just--
00:33:36
he wasn't quite awake, and he
needed his coffee before he could even have a conversation.
00:33:42
And so that was provided to him. And then I came in and sat down
and started talking to Gary
00:33:48
about who he was and why we were
sitting here at the Chandler Police Department.
00:35:57
ASHLEY NOLAN: It came to a point
where I kept pushing Gary to try to obtain some sort of
statement or admission
00:36:04
that he was involved
in these crimes. And he kept denying it, said
he was not involved in any way.
00:36:11
And then at some point, he
invoked his right to counsel, and he didn't want to talk
about these incidents anymore.
00:36:17
So I got up, and
I left the room. But we have detectives
standing by. And it's a monitored interview
room, and they're listening.
00:36:23
And as I left the room, the
detective listening pulled me aside and said, you
know, he made a comment
00:36:28
after you left the room. And I said, OK, what did he say? And he said to himself,
what have I done?
00:36:36
Prosecutors indict Gary
Robert Young for a brutal rape back in November 1991. But just before
the trial begins,
00:36:48
Young's defense lawyers
make a surprising move. They change his plea to guilty.
00:36:57
PETE ROWTON: I don't know
that I was surprised. I think he realized that
the evidence against him
00:37:02
was pretty insurmountable,
that he was going to do time either way, and at his age, it
was probably better giving him
00:37:10
a chance to finally get out
of prison possibly, as opposed to fighting it and
getting more time.
00:37:17
NANCY GRACE: The court confirms
Gary Robert Young's guilty plea. His sentence is much
harsher than he expected.
00:37:26
ASHLEY NOLAN: Because of
Gary's criminal history, there were pending
drug charges that
00:37:30
were going to account for
additional charges and time in prison. So I don't think Gary will
ever be getting out of prison.
00:37:39
I am just elated
that it was solved. And it's one of many that I left
and was wondering if it was ever
00:37:47
going to be solved, when
it was going to be solved, because it just takes motivation
and the right personnel
00:37:54
to go out there
and solve the case. BRIANA WHITNEY: I hope that
now it's easier for the victims
00:38:01
to move forward. There's never an
easy point in moving forward after you're a victim
of something like this.
00:38:08
But to have the answer of who
did this and for that person to be held accountable,
I hope that these victims
00:38:14
can feel better
about that aspect, heal, and be able to
live their lives now. NANCY GRACE: The arrest
of Gary Robert Young
00:38:23
is a victory for
forensic science and a victory for
dedicated police work. It proves even the toughest
cold cases can be solved.
00:38:38
Phoenix Police Department,
the Chandler Police Department, they're really forward-thinking,
and they're top notch,
00:38:43
so I'm not surprised that
they preserved that evidence, knowing that the future was in
front of them and that there was
00:38:49
a lot of developments going
on, and that evidence was going to be important in the future.
00:38:55
BRENDAN BUSSE: There
have been many battles with property and
evidence facilities
00:39:00
across the country in
every police department about retaining
physical evidence.
00:39:08
And in these two
cases, it's very clear that the arguments to
retain the physical evidence
00:39:15
as long as possible paid off. Without their assistance
and giving that information
00:39:23
that they gave back in the
time, like in 1991 and 1992, without that
information, we would
00:39:30
not have been able to proceed
as far as we did 30 years later. I think our agency
does a really good job,
00:39:36
and our detectives
are fantastic. And our forensic
unit is really good. I really-- this is not
me drinking the Kool-Aid.
00:39:45
I really think Chandler is
a great agency to work for, and I think we do
a really good job.
00:39:51
ASHLEY NOLAN: After having
discovered genetic genealogy and knowing we have this
advancement in technology,
00:39:58
I hope that I can continue
to look at other cases and hopefully solve them
with that same technology.
00:40:05
And so having the
success in other cases, having the success
in this case, I think is just paving the way
for all of those older cases
00:40:13
to someday be solved. The 30-year terror that a
monster like Gary Robert Young inflicts upon an innocent victim
is really too much to imagine,
00:40:29
living night after night
in fear he will return. After her assault,
she lives in fear,
00:40:39
knowing he's still out there. Her pain will never go away. But it's softened, knowing her
attacker will never strike her
00:40:52
or anyone else again. Victory. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:03
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