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August 11 1990 Brandon Mississippi a woman on her way home from work stops to buy cinnamon rolls for her children at
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the gas station she hears a noise from the back of her van she looks up into the
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rearview mirror and sees a dark shadow coming forward a man emerges from the back of her van holding a knife multiple
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times he said that if I looked at him he would kill me he looked more like a monster to
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me she's taken to a secluded wooded area and brutally raped at knife point then
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her attacker vanishes into the night the Brandon PD launches an immediate investigation into the brutal
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attack months go by and the case goes cold this is the story of a serial rapist who
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terrorizes his victims across multiple States and how advances in forensic science blow open what seemed to be an
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unsolvable case I'm Nancy Grace this is bloodline Detectives [Music] Brandon Mississippi a peaceful community
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in Ranken County it's located a short drive from the state capital Jackson summer 1990 this quiet community shaken
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by a brutal kidnap and rape and it takes place right on the Main Street the victim Benji kirkbride a mother of
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5 I went to work at my job around uh 5:00 in the afternoon and I think we worked till about 10:00 that night my
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husband and I had a custom green Dodge van she had taken the family van to work that day and some people were looking at
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it when she came out from work one of her friends that she worked with was interested in buying the van and so
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after her shift she went out and they looked at the van law enforcement Flowood pulls up at some point just to
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check on them they say oh yeah we're great so we all kind of wrapped up and went home and one of the ladies that
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actually lived in John's Mississippi was kind of behind me when we got off at the
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exit 56 and Brandon and I went to the Texico gas station there was a man standing on the right hand side of the
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building at a phone booth as I got out on my van the lady that was behind me Debbie she blew her horn and I stopped
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and turned around and waved at her and she waved and then I went on into the store she goes in she makes a purchase
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and she's not in there you know maybe 5 or 10 minutes I got my van put my seat
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belt on and kind of drove out of the parking lot and turn left that was not not even a tenth of a mile to
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turn down the street that I lived on suddenly the van starts to shake Beni kirkbride realizes she's not alone I
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felt the vehicle shift when I looked up in the rear view mirror I just saw this dark
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shadow coming towards the front of my vehicle she looks into the rearview mirror and sees a person coming with a
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knife from the back of the van toward her he puts the knife to her neck tells her to keep driving for a moment then
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tells her to put the van in park and do not look at him she's so shocked she
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says that he actually reaches up and puts the van in park and tells her he just needs to borrow the van and that he
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won't hurt her and he forces her to the floorboard and held the knife at my throat as I was in the
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floorboard and he took over driving he takes her out to a wooded areaa she notices kind of the it's bumpy like
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where they could fire Lanes into the woods he pulls back and forth back and forth till he finally
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stops said don't look at me don't open your eyes don't look at me and he kept
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pushing me CU he said if I looked at him he would kill me he then proceeded to forcibly rape her at knife
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Point occasionally he asked me a question do you have children do you have a husband and I would answer I told
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him yes I have five children children they're waiting for me he pulled up onto
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the on ramp to the interstate just past the on ramp pulled over into the emergency
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Lane and he told me to stay there for 10 minutes don't move don't look out the
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windows or anything and got out of the van and he said I know where you live if you go to the police I will come back
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and kill you and your family once he did this he slithered off and there she was was left naked and rap
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I waited for a few minutes and I reached up and hit the power lock on the door and I felt around and I found my
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shirt and I put it on and started to drive I got home I ran inside and just grabbed the phone and
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called 911 I said I've been raped brandom police quickly respond to the emergency call
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all they take Benji by ambulance to the hospital here in Brandon they get her inside and one of the doctors that was
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working in the emergency room there performed what we call a sexual assault kit an examination it was just very
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embarrassing to go through that after being raped to go through being stripped completely naked unfortunately it's very
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invasive but it's a very necessary part if we're going to catch the person that
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did the rape very often the bad best info for detectives is also the hardest to ask for Brandon PD look to the victim
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Benji kirkbride for exactly the kind of valuable evidence only she can provide La Enforcement wants to preserve the
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victims's dignity best they can they don't want to a rapist on the loose a quiet community
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on edge are there enough leads to ID a suspect we find out next on bloodline [Music]
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detectives August 11 1990 Brandon Mississippi this tightnit small community stunned by the kidnap and rape
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of a local woman a mother Benji kirkbride Benji on her way home after working the late shift at a local Diner
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when her attacker drives her at knife point to a secluded wooded area he rapes her brutally before Vanishing into the
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night Benji was interviewed where she had been where she was going did she know who had done this to her asked her
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to describe exactly you know what things felt like smelt like looked like if he said anything if she knew where he'd
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gone after he exited her van bji kirkbrides husband Neil comes home from work and he's told about the
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kidnap and rape of his wife my neighbor she went and picked him up he was very upset about it the next
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day he went and bought a gun which we had never had a gun in our home before inv vators focus on anyone in the area
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with previous convictions for similar sex crimes there was an individual in the late ' 80s that had been arrested
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for a sexual assault in Brandon and so immediately police think could this have been our person um could he have done
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this again they're looking into anyone in Benji's life trying to figure out was
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it someone she knew was it a stranger was it someone that lives in the area they contacted the rocic which is the
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regional organized crime information center and they put out a buletin about a knife welding man they sent it all
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across the southeast and they got numerous hits the lady victim Benji kirkbride has been very brave she
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provides police with a rape kit now her courage is tested again police bring her
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all the way to a prison in Louisiana to try to see if she can identify her rapist there was a whole lot of men
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standing there they had them all say if you call the police I'll kill you but I
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didn't recognize anybody's voice there mother of five Benji Kirk bride and her whole family try their best to
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move on from the traumatic rape but husband Neil still struggles with the events of that terrible
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night he started drinking a little more excessively and he had gotten involved with some drugs with his friends and
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stuff and he wound up signing himself into a rehab facility for drugs and alcohol he was supposed to stay for like
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14 days and he wound up staying 10 and signed himself out when he got home he had taken 14
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adab ban and drank a pine of Jack Daniels and then he wound up shooting himself in the head and he ended up
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being for lack of a better words in a vegetative state the doctor said if there was a clock on the wall he didn't
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know it was a clock on the wall her mother-in-law came down to Mississippi from up North and tried to have Benji
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charge with shooting him she felt like she was the one that was responsible for shooting him and Benji actually was
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subjected to a gunshot residue testing of her hands to make sure that she was not the one that had fired the gun so
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after about a year I let his mother have custody of him and they moved him to Wisconsin he
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lived four years before he died from a rupture from a feeding tube in his intestine the ripple effect of this
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Savage rape continues to affect the Kurt bride family but then 1991 there's a
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possible breakthrough because of a confession that's written from behind Prison
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Walls the case was just kind of kind of dead and then an individual that was in prison said that he
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committed the crime Reuben weeks was a gentleman that was from the state of Mississippi at the time he was serving
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life in the state of Missouri for rape and kidnapping of a young girl there January 4th 1991 Ruben weeks was in
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interviewed by Brandon Police Department his blood was taken and preserved as part of a what they called a sexual
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assault examination to be tested against the DNA the biological evidence that was
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found on Benji's skirt they could exclude him on part of the DNA but not all the DNA so he wasn't all the way
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ruled out but they didn't feel like he did it years go by the case remains unsolved
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Benji kirkbride never gives up hope her attacker will face Justice and she follows the investigation very
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closely the chief of police at the time when bji stopped by one day he just told
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her he said you know you've got to put this behind you you've got to keep
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living you just got to go on and live your life for you and for your children I didn't go around there
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anymore I Ed up getting a job that kept me very busy and with the five children my life was very busy the unsolved crime
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haunts the community and Brandon police are no no closer to catching the perpetrator between when Ruben week's
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census confession letters in 1993 and 2004 the case is cold no new suspects no new science that had been implied in the
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case really no breaks at all the investigation stalls but one investigator Still Remains optimistic
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justice will prevail in 2004 I was contacted by a an investigator with the Ranken County
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Sheriff's Department Co case unit and made me aware again that Ruben weeks was
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confessing to this crime and I opened it back up and I saw the statements from Ruben weeks and I called the
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investigator back and I said there's no way that Ruben weeks could have done
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this there just too many major inconsistencies does evidence from that original rape kit negate Ruben weeks's
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confession once and for all I wanted to completely rule Ruben weeks out he kept confessing and kept
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confessing I went and looked into the evidence room and was able to locate the actual evidence contacted the state
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crime lab and talked to Miss Dedra Hughes out there she's a DNA expert so I submitted the evidence to the crime lab
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DNA testing was done on the case in 2005 and also in 2006 first it was the 13 codus corosi and then additional three
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lowside were done in 2006 on the case and she contacted me at a later date and said she was successful in
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getting a full DNA profile once it came back to our laboratory we reviewed it and uploaded into codas for comparison
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to any samples in the DNA database there were no positive associations that were
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as a result of searches and codas I was hoping for a person that was was already
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in the system I just felt like that this man had raped many women before so I was
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really disheartened when I didn't get an immediate hit the cot's result fails to make a
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match but it definitely rules out Reuben weeks as a suspect those tests excluded Reuben
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weeks it said he is not your suspect we just sat and sat and sat and wait and that's all we could do at the
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time it's two steps forward and one step back for this investigation detectives
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have a DNA profile of the suspect but can they get a name that matches the genetic sample that's next on bloodline
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[Music] detectives 2006 ranking County Brandon Mississippi the kidnap and rape of Benji
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kirkbride in 1990 still unsolved Benji was returning home from work August that year when she's kidnapped at knife Point
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by a man who emerges from the back seat of her van in 2004 the per DNA uploaded to cotus the FBI's DNA database of
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convicted felons but sadly no match is is found at that time we did not have a match so what that means is it's been
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stored in the system just as an unknown person identified by the DNA profile the case stays cold until
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2017 investigators get news of a match to a case in Memphis Tennessee in this particular match we reached out to the
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agency in Tennessee and to see if their case was solved if they had a suspect unfortunately their case was also
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unsolved so we had two forensic unknowns with the same genetic profile in codas that matched each other but did not have
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a suspect 30 days after our rape in Brandon on September 12th 1990 another lady had been abducted
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outside a convenience store in Memphis which is just a few hours up the road from Brandon right up the interstate the
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same man that did the rape in Memphis also raped Benji this is the first breakthrough in
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the case detectives have now linked two sex assaults the second attack September
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1990 the victim a young nurse Lisa Chappelle and her attack is extremely similar to the rape of Benji
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kirkbride Lisa was driving an SUV at the time she walks out of the gas station gets into her
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vehicle close the door kind of threw the candy bar over in the passenger seat this hand just come out of the back
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seat and a knife so I'm grabbing the knife and that's when he cut me across
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here he told me get in the passenger side so I put it in part I slid over he got over and he said whatever you do
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don't look at me first thing you do is look so I turn around and he just shove
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my face up against the window and he like don't look at me I told you not to look at me he goes I
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know where you live and I will kill you if you look at me tells the same light about just
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needing her car but of course he doesn't do that he takes her to a rule area when
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AC cross the interstate he took a lift and that's when he stopped got me out took my clothes off and that's when
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he raped me and that's when it was like I was in a tree with a guardian angel watching what
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was happening but it was a disconnect that actually what I was going through he then took her keys threw them
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on the side of the interstate and ran off F but the rapist then vanishes into the
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night after the attack I was on the interstate naked and I'm kind of like flagging people down ended up two women
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truck drivers from Utah stop they're like okay we're going to get you get you
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in the truck we'll carry you to the hospital Lisa Chappelle is brought right
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back to the very same hospital at which she was just working but before the rape
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I think it was Shelby County that came and kind of took a I guess wrot everything down and then
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I got my face sewn up and the inside of my mouth sewn up and that's when we had
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to go to the Rape Crisis Center rape victim Lisa Chappelle undergos a rape kit examination samples
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collected during that exam hopefully can be used as evidence it was after midnight the lady come in she was less
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than happy about being there and it's like I hate to ruin your night but this
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wasn't exactly what I had in mind either Lisa's case went unsolved and relatively
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uninvestigated because they did not have a known suspect at the time Lisa also had to have reconstructive surgery on
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her face and so in the midst of dealing with this invasive and intrusive sexual assault examination Lisa is also having
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to deal with being disfigured by this knife welding man in the darkness then two months after the sex
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assault on Lisa Chappelle something very strange happens the rape hit which is a
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crucial piece of evidence disappears they sent her sexual assault kit off to evidence it doesn't look like
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it was actually sent to their Tennessee crime lab until 2016 when they got a grant and started uploading all their
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cold cases investigators now know their suspect is a serial rapist who has attacked other women still with no
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matches on codas the case remains cold sometimes an investigation moves forward because of sheer luck and that's
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what happened here a chance encounter between Det Ive David Ruth and district attorney Ryan Barry leads to a series of
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events which will crack this case wide open David told me about this case he told me about the codus hit of what he
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thought was a serial rapist and he kind of thought it was a trucker that might have been involved but we really didn't
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know we had been talking about uh some cases here I had worked another case using some genealogical DNA testing so
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he took interest into this case and he said let's let's look into it I contacted deer Hughes with the
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Mississippi crime lab and I said deer please help us you know we want to do this investigative genealogy but we
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know nothing about it who do we talk to who's someone we talk to and she immediately put us up with bod Ryan told
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me it was uh two cases linked together two sexual assault cases they explained their case what had been done to date
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and asked if we thought it was a good candidate for Gen ology testing there was all these ifs that we had to go
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through you know find the swap was it reliable was it still intact could they find anybody had anybody been gracious
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enough to submit their DNA to one of these sites they go to the local district attorney for
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help once we got the cost which you know was close to $10,000 which is no small sum of money for our office I approached
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our district attorney uh Bubba bramlet and I said boss this is something that we need to do I think we can solve this
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case we have a serial rapist from the 90s we know he did two within 30 days there's no telling how many more he's
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done basically when he got through talking to me I surmised that we had on one hand a DNA profile from a vaginal
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swab from a rape kit in 1990 and then we had this science in 2021 called investigative genetic
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genealogy and that we needed to marry those two and solve this crime he gave me the go he said Ryan there's no price
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tag on Justice investigative genetic genealogy is an exciting new scientific technique
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and it is producing remarkable results including with cold cases forensic genetic genealogy is the
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use of DNA testing and advanced methods and combining that with genetic genealogy so using DNA to trace back
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your ancestry to figure out your family tree and who else you might be related to we generate a different type of
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profile and it's called a single nucleotide polymorphism and what we call for short a snip profile this profile is
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tested acrossed over 600,000 locations on the DNA and it generates this profile that we're able to put into these
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different genealogy databases and that allows us to connect with individuals that are related to this particular DNA
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sample June 2022 the team gets the news from bod Labs the news they've been waiting for they had a list of relatives
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and they had some pretty high hits on the relatives and they felt like they were going to get a suspect and so what
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we were told is you've got this relative that's close but we can't find anything
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about their family tree like red a dead end and so we need you to contact this relative out west and see if you can
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find out about their family tree I decided I said you know this is across state lines we've got a rape in Memphis
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we've got a rape in Mississippi two different states let's contact the FBI investigators then travel West to
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the relative of the alleged per they assigned us an agent to help named Britney Dykeman and she was
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assigned to help us with the case and she met with the relative of our suspect and they were so gracious and so
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helpful and told us all about the family tree the details we needed to know so who are the skags brothers and
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which one is the prime rape suspect will two innocent women attacked 33 years ago
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finally get Justice I'm talking with bod and they tell me he said Ryan you're
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going to have to do targeted DNA testing we are so close we've got these relatives I contact the cooperating
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family member and I talk her into giving us more of her DNA matches that she's
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learned about then January 31 2023 gen ology investigators narrowed down their search
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to a list of names I'm in this courtroom and I remember stepping out she gives me
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three names of people who are suspect she said Ryan it's one of these three people and it was three skags Brothers
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the investigation is now closing in on the scags brothers will Justice finally catch up with a serial rapist who prayed
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on in ENT women 33 years ago the answer next on bloodline [Music] detectives 20203 Brandon Mississippi the
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net is closing in on the brutal rapist who sex assaulted Benji Kirk bride August 1990 and Lisa Chappelle just one
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month later later in Memphis Tennessee now genetic genealogists from bod Labs provide a list of three names the scags
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brothers one of the brothers is deceased but investigators zero in on the criminal record of another brother
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Daniel Ray skags there's a couple of things on his criminal history that really stood out
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he had a case in Dallas in 1977 and he had a little blip on the radar in n in Georgia in 1991 we contact n in Georgia
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the police department there and there was an officer who actually arrested the suspect uh in September of
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1991 a State Trooper saw a van and when he pulls over to check on the vehicle a female jumps out of the passenger side
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of the vehicle and he could tell something was going on and all she could say was knife knife at some point the
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van then crashes into some bushes and he's able to detain the suspect by the
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time that the trial came around though the lady he held at knife Point had gone back to Germany and so the only charges
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that were pursued was the assault on law enforcement and unfortunately suspect was acquitted of those
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charges who is Daniel Ray skags and how did he escape detection for so long in 1977 in the Dallas area Daniel
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Ray gags went through the apartments pulling on handles looking for somebody to rape is what he put in his statement
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and he broke in and sat in the kitchen until the young woman arrives from downstairs and he surprises her and he
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has a knife in his hand he forces her upstairs where he forcibly rapes her and he does this to four ladies in the area
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he was sentenced to approximately 10 years to serve in the Texas Department of Corrections he did about eight years
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where he was pared to Arkansas and began his life now we've got an individual who has
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non sex crimes in Texas Mississippi Tennessee and Georgia everything's starting to come together we know we've
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got a serial rapist now the Cold Case team needs to collect a confirmation DNA sample they contact
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law enforcement in Oklahoma to help gather that evidence if successful Daniel race scags will face rape armed
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robbery and kidnap charges February of 2023 our office contacts the state of Oklahoma the
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Bureau of Investigations and we say we believe we have this serial rapist that's living in your state and we think
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that he's living at this particular dress in Oklahoma they put us in touch with Josh Dean who is with the uh
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Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation and from the second we talked to Josh Dean he owned this case Josh Dean calls our
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office says hey I'm going to go out to your guys house tonight so Josh and one
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of his Partners go out and surveil the house of the suspect we needed some DNA and they did some trash pulls
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and I believe the third bag of trash they pulled there was an oxygen mask in there that Josh said had some debris on
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it the DNA evidence collected from Daniel Ray scags Trash is now compared to the genetic DNA
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report Josh Dean two days later sends it to Bod for comparison and on March 2nd I
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get a call from Teresa veland on my way to work and he said what was the name of
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the person again and we're we're talking dny SC he said oh it's him and I said
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wait what wait tell tell me again it's him she said yes it it's gags investigators have a plan to arrest
00:32:12
and extradite Daniel Ray scags to face trial back in Mississippi that's next on
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bloodline Detectives [Music] 2023 Brandon Mississippi investigators about to arrest an Oklahoma man Daniel
00:32:35
Ray scags for the brutal sex assaults of not one but two women in 1990 before confronting the suspect investigators
00:32:44
and prosecutor finalize the plans immediately we have a planning meeting of all the attorneys in our
00:32:54
office we come and sit the ground our conference room Ryan Barry contacts Benji Kirk bride to
00:33:01
tell her about the Breakthrough in the case and the evidence against Daniel Ray skags I wasn't sure exactly why he was
00:33:10
calling and then I talked to my daughters my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter and I said uh I'm not
00:33:16
sure but there's something going on I think it has to do with the rape case but they're coming
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tomorrow and my oldest daughter and her husband drove 9 hours to Mississippi to be
00:33:29
there Ryan Barry myself and Leslie Owens our victim's assistance coordinator plan
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to go and tell Benji in person and tell her hey this is what's been happening in
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your case and by the way we know who he is they get to Georgia and they don't
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have a car we continueed to call multiple places trying to get a rental car I call him and say do you have
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anything that's got three seats and he says I do and I said we'll be there
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shortly and so we rented a 16t box truck U-Haul they came and they pulled up in the drive with the U-Haul and it was
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pretty funny but they came to let me know what was going on I'm trying to get
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it out what I'm trying to tell her and she says can I just stop you right there
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you do know somebody's confessed to this right and my heart just broke for her
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because nobody had ever told her that Ruben weeks had been eliminated as a suspect the investigation now turned
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over to the Ranken County Sheriff's to head up the arrest and questioning of
00:34:38
Daniel Ray skags I had arrest mors issued for Daniel Ray scags drove day to Oklahoma
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had met with Oklahoma beer investigations Ryan as well as some of our deputies John Bert and others from
00:34:51
the sheriff's department were there when the suspect was taken into custody they
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pulled in the drive driveway got out of their vehicles tactically approached the
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mobile home some went around back someone around front cover all areas they actually had a pistol a little
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revolver sitting next to him he didn't have time to really do anything they went in there and pulled him out and
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brought him out on the front porch my name is John Bird I'm investigator with
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rank County Sheriff's Department Mississippi you're who John Bird I'm an
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investigator with the ranking County Sheriff's Department out of Mississippi
00:35:21
Mississippi yes sir I'm going to talk to you here in a little while I drove a
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long way to just to meet you we charged him with kidnapping rape and armed robbery for
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use of a weapon and taking belongings from her from that point we took him to the
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simol Oklahoma Police Department where he was interviewed he agreed to talk to us he
00:35:46
wanted to know what was going on I was like look I'm involved in a cold case
00:35:50
from back in 1990 that happened in rank County Mississippi you have been identified as a suspect and he said I
00:35:56
don't remember that I said well I'll tell you what I got your DNA I said it's
00:36:00
100% you and I pushed the paper over to him explained the markers and how it worked and he let him read the
00:36:09
statement there's only one in 660 quintilian chance that this DNA belongs to anybody but Daniel Ray gags and he
00:36:17
just pushed the paper to the side and said y'all made that up Daniel Ray scags finally in custody
00:36:24
but also in very poor health investigators push for a speedy trial after he was arrested he was then taken
00:36:32
to the hospital there in Oklahoma he was diagnosed with flu and pneumonia we've
00:36:37
got the original confirmation of DNA from bod but we don't have the confirmation hit from our Mississippi
00:36:44
crime lab so Bert goes to the hospital and he gets a bual swab and sends it to our crime lab Brit also confirms that
00:36:51
Daniel Ray skags is the rapist and so now we have two DNA tests confirming it we take it to the ranking County grand
00:36:58
jury where he's indicted by the ranking County grand jury for rape arm robbery
00:37:03
and kidnapping and we asked the judge for an expedited setting for trial it was originally set in front of Judge
00:37:11
rackliff our senior judge it was going to be a certain time before judge rackliff got back here but he assigned
00:37:20
the case to another judge judge Arthur Who agreed to take it and we were able to try him in June
00:37:27
to be in the room the seal rapists that have done that kind of things you know the nerves the excitement that normally
00:37:35
go along with a trial is just amped up that much more we made it to trial it was hard
00:37:44
to testify I was scared and nervous at first but once I went in there and I saw him at the defense table and my family
00:37:55
sitting on the first row so I could see them directly in front of the witness chair I somehow managed to pull my
00:38:04
strength and I told them everything that I remembered in the state of Mississippi we have what's
00:38:12
called 404b evidence which means that victims that have had similar crimes committed by the same defendant can come
00:38:19
and testify to the jury about what happened for them so we felt like Lisa would also be able to testify you need
00:38:25
to put these people away you need to do what's right more people need to stand up against their
00:38:35
abusers jury got the case and it took them an hour and a half to reach a verdict they've unanimously reached
00:38:43
their verdicts judge reads them we the jury find the defendant Daniel Ray guilty of
00:38:52
rap we the jury find the defendant Daniel racek guilty of kidnapping and then the judge Dewey
00:39:02
Arthur immediately proceeded with sentencing and he sentenced him to two consecutive life
00:39:08
sentences Benji actually stood up she was strong she told about what had happened to her what he had done to her
00:39:16
but basically that he had not broken her she did look at him and say I forgive you I don't understand why you did this
00:39:22
but I forgive you August 2023 another twist in the face news from the prison where Daniel
00:39:29
Ray scags is incarcerated David Ruth texted me and told me that Daniel Ray skags had died I
00:39:39
was not really surprised because I knew he was sick it's a Bittersweet moment for the two
00:39:49
survivors for Lisa it was frustrating because she did not actually get to have her case presented to a grand jury or
00:39:57
trial we feel like our verdict was for both Lisa and Benji because Lisa was able to testify he deserves everything
00:40:06
in hell that he's probably going through now I feel like Lisa and I got him we got him and with Ryan and Kathy
00:40:17
and David and everybody that was involved Bubba all of them they got it done Daniel race gags was caught and he
00:40:26
was help held accountable for his actions for raping those women Daniel Ray skags may have died
00:40:34
behind bars but for the two women he brutally raped Justice is served their courage in coming forward and helping
00:40:44
police instrumental in finding and arresting a predator along with the amazing science of investigative genetic
00:40:55
genealogy I'm Nancy Grace and I want to thank you for being with us here on bloodline
00:41:02
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