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[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Huntsville, Ohio, 1993, a 19-year-old young woman, kidnapped and sex-assaulted
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on her way to work. PHIL BAILEY: Probably the most violent sexual assault case I've ever worked.
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JEFF ANSPACH: Placed his arms around her like in a bear hug, and then took a knife and slit her throat.
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NANCY GRACE: The investigation begins detectives then discover similar sex attacks
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in neighboring counties. TOM WATSON: Suspect descriptions are very consistent. ERIC STEWART: They felt they had a serial rapist on their hand,
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and they were trying desperately to find who was doing this. NANCY GRACE: Investigators working
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overtime to find the offender. But before they can catch him, decades will pass.
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We still didn't have any suspects. PHIL BAILEY: I finally got to a point where there's no more testing that the crime lab could do.
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NANCY GRACE: This is the story of survivors-- survivors of a violent sex predator, his brutal attacks,
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and how the very latest developments in forensic science help investigators catch a serial rapist.
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I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] July 31, 1993, Huntsville, Ohio.
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Police get a call. A woman's been kidnapped and stabbed in the neck, but miraculously, she's still alive.
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JEFF ANSPACH: When I arrived at the scene, the medics were already at the scene.
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RANDALL DODDS: We did observe that she was bleeding about the neck, and thought it was
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about a 3-inch-long, maybe close to 1/2 of an inch, cut in her throat. NANCY GRACE: The survivor, who we call Anita,
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recounts her story of the attack. I was working at a plastics factory called [INAUDIBLE] I worked third shift, so I would--
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slept during the day. I always went to the little Tastee Freez in Degraff, and would get a pop out of the pop machine.
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It was the cheapest place to get a pop. So I always went and got my Mountain Dew.
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They were working on a bridge at the time, so they had-- the road that I normally take, I couldn't get through it.
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But I could go around and catch it at the end of it, and go on to work. I headed back towards Quincy onto 35
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to hit the side road that would get me out and around the bridge that was closed.
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From a distance, I could see somebody else turning off on that little road. I got to 47, which is the next road, and stopped,
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and this person was right behind me. Their lights were blinding. I crossed over 47 and went to the next stop sign,
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and that's when this truck passed me, and stopped in front of me, and blocked the road.
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So I had to stop. This guy gets out, and he comes walking back, and I see the barrel of this gun in the crack of my window.
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And he tried to open my door, but I had the doors locked. And told me to open it.
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It's like, I'm on my way to work. I really don't-- I don't have time for this, and that's what
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I said, you know. And he said, well, you will, or I'll put a hold on you. ERIC STEWART: She jumps over into the next seat.
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He gets in the car, he pulls her car off to the side of the road, and then he orders her to get out
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at gunpoint, get in his truck. He tosses her keys to her car into the grass, and then he takes her from there.
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ANITA: He made me keep my head down and proceeded to drive, and we ended up stopping.
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It was back in a wooded area. He told me to take-- take my clothes off, and so I didn't want to die, you know.
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I did what he told me to do. I wasn't doing it fast enough, so he told me to hurry up.
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He got out and come around to the passenger side and got in, pulled his pants down, and made
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me perform oral sex on him. When it was over, I motioned to the door so I could spit,
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and he seemed, you know, upset by that. It's just kind of like he was all, you know.
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But I opened up the door and I spit. I remember wiping my mouth with my shirt. I'm sitting up at this point, you know.
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I don't have to get back on the ground or the floor of the truck. When we went to the end of that road,
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I realized where I was at. My mom always would say, you know, if somebody tried to get you, don't worry.
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They'd bring you back. Well, I am thinking, he's takin' me back to my car. He drove and drove and drove, and next thing I know,
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we're stopped beside a cemetery in Huntsville, waiting to cross over Interstate 33.
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And that's when I realized, he wasn't taking me back to my car. And he kept driving, kept driving,
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and finally, he pulled over to-- pulled off the side of the road, and he said he needed to use the bathroom.
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He got out, and then he came around to my side and opened up a truck door, and told me to get out.
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And he said, you're not going to tell. And he put his arms, like, around me from behind,
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and pulled me down to the ground, and cut my throat, and rolled me over, and kind of pushed me out of the way
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and drove off. ERIC STEWART: He must have thought she was dead or dying, because he got back in his truck,
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and he left the area. Anita, you know, her survival instincts had kicked in. She knew she was severely wounded,
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but she had the wherewithal to play dead and pretend that she was dead, and so he left.
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Something told me, you know, this was not-- this was not supposed to be how my life was going to end.
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I got up and started to go down the road the opposite way of what he went. And I noticed, you know, lights coming back.
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So I just turned right into the woods, you know, to hide until he went back by. And I seen-- after I seen the truck go by,
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I got back out on the road, and I started running. And I thought to myself, well, you dingbat, the more you run,
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the faster everything was going to pump. And so I slowed down, and I thought, I can't--
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I can't walk through here. You know, there's nothing out there. It's dark. There's no lights.
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It's just summer sounds, crickets. And my mom was an EMT, paramedic, and I used to help her study for tests.
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And I think that's what made me remember, you know, to put pressure on it. So I took my shirt off, and I tied it around my neck,
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and I took off, took off running. NANCY GRACE: After the brutal attack, Anita runs to the nearest house, seeking help.
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I went to-- stopped at a house first. It was-- nobody was there. Nobody was home.
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The next one on up, they had a porch light. And when I got there, and I'm knocking on the door,
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and I hear a dog barking. So I told myself, that dog's not going to quit barking until I
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quit knocking, and I'm not quitting knocking until somebody, you know, comes to the door.
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I see this lady and her husband. They opened the door just a little bit, and they're leery,
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and I was like, I need help. Can you call someone? And they just still were like, you know, what is going on?
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And finally, I just let my shirt down, and I was like, I need help. I need you to call someone.
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ERIC STEWART: So she let her in, she took care of her, she got her a towel to put up to her neck, she called for help.
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I mean, she was just a tremendous help. NANCY GRACE: Emergency medical services rush Anita to the hospital.
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JEFF ANSPACH: When I got to the hospital, she was back in one of the emergency rooms.
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She was being treated at that time, and the doctor was treating the wound that was on her neck,
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and it was a sizable cut on the side of her neck. If this would have been just a hair deeper,
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you know, it would have been a-- would have been fatal to her. ERIC STEWART: The doctor said the knife had cut
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through the skin tissue, had cut through the muscle tissue, had exposed the carotid artery, and had come
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millimeters from cutting that. And if that carotid artery had been hit, she would have died at the scene.
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NANCY GRACE: The victim Anita undergoes an invasive rape kit exam. I can't really put myself in their shoes.
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I really sympathize with them. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but it is critical for us
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in gathering evidence. ANITA: It was just one more thing that evening, you know.
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NANCY GRACE: While Anita receives the medical attention she desperately needs, investigators
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wait to speak with her again. JEFF ANSPACH: To do the violent act to an individual
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is just a very, very sick individual. Find him. Something. You know, fix it. Find him.
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Fix it. Those are the pleas of victims violently assaulted. As we see next, those very words drive the bloodline detectives
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to never give up. The survivor of a violent rape stabbing is, believe it or not,
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alive and stable. Investigators from Ohio's Logan County Sheriff's Office continue to collect evidence.
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They speak with the victim about the details of her attacker. RANDALL DODDS: They would have followed up with the victim
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at the hospital. They would have gotten a report. They would have taken any clothing that they
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had that she may have had on. He did ejaculate, and she spit it out, and it was on his clothing, so they took those items.
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She also gave a description of the suspect, and ended up doing a composite drawing
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for the police department. I give 'em the description of the man I saw. He was wearing a ball cap.
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He had dark hair, mustache. He was wearing a T-shirt and some ball shorts, and some tennis shoes.
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Gave 'em a description of the truck. On the dash, it said XLT Lariat, you know. There was something hanging from the rearview mirror that
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had the word, river, on it. I did-- I did the best I could do. Anita had said the first two digits of the plate were NM.
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TOM WATSON: At that time, many pickup trucks had the first two digits, Nora Mary, or NM, at the time.
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RANDALL DODDS: She did a very good job of keeping and paying attention to detail.
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The trauma that she was going through and the description she was able to give was more than we would probably get from most locations.
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'Cause you would have a tendency to think that they're going to block these things out.
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But she was remarkable in what she came up for us to at least a description of the vehicle.
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NANCY GRACE: A full on investigation now underway, investigators send the survivor's
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clothes for forensic testing. ERIC STEWART: Clothing was put in evidence. They submitted it to the crime lab.
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They were also able to find semen on her shirt. But back then, the DNA technology just wasn't there.
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They actually had sent samples from the shirt to some private DNA companies, and they
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were able to do a little bit with it, but just not-- still weren't able to develop a full DNA profile.
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And one of the problems was that it was a mixture, a mixture of her DNA and the suspect's DNA.
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NANCY GRACE: Investigators also issue appeals to the public for information. ERIC STEWART: There were press releases.
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There were posters that were made of the composite sketch. Posters were made of description of the person they were
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looking for and the vehicle. And there were a number of tips that came in. They looked at 'em, but nothing really viable at the time.
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NANCY GRACE: Many, many tips, but no solid leads or suspects. Fear spreads through the community.
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JEFF ANSPACH: It is a very small community, and this is very unusual for something like this
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to happen in our community. I think in the small village that the victim lived in, yeah,
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I think there was some concern. This isn't something that would happen every day back then.
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This is something that really shook the community, and would have made people fearful
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and think twice about where they were going. They contacted the state patrol to help
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them in their investigation. I think at one point, they may have even contacted the FBI.
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So often in these investigations, detectives must look back in order to move forward.
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In this case, investigators start looking at similar attacks in neighboring counties,
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and they find one in 1992, just 20 miles away in Sidney County. ERIC STEWART: It was a 21-year-old girl
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who had just gotten off work at Lee's Chinese Restaurant there in Sidney. And she lived there in the city.
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She was on her way home. She was walking home. TOM WATSON: She went on her way, Ohio Street to Court Street,
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crossed over a bridge of a river and approached an alley way behind what was then a business
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called [INAUDIBLE] Sports. And in this alleyway, it's not very well-lit at the time.
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But it's a quicker way to where she was living. And as she started down the alley,
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a vehicle came up behind her at a high rate of speed. And so the vehicle actually splashed her as it drove
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by, and cut in front of her. She thought that the person had stopped to apologize.
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But unfortunately, it was a male suspect, exited his vehicle, brandished a revolver, and ordered her
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into the trunk of his vehicle. She's scared to death. She doesn't know what to do, so she complies.
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She gets in the trunk. He shuts the trunk, and then he takes off. TOM WATSON: And she was able to describe where she thought
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that she ended up-- north of Sidney, but south of Mason Road, along a very rural part of the county,
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along a set of railroad tracks on a dirt road. ERIC STEWART: She believes they probably
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drove around for about 30 minutes before he finally stopped, gets out. He helps her out of the trunk.
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She described the area as kind of near some railroad tracks, out-- farm field area.
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And then, he sexually assaulted her. After she was sexually assaulted, the suspect went to leave the area with her
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still in the vehicle, and ended up getting stuck on a set of railroad tracks. During that time, a train passed by,
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and the conductor actually saw this vehicle stuck on the tracks. The conductor of this train later provided a statement
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to the detectives in Sidney, and the statement described what he saw as an Oldsmobile vehicle, and he
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thought, possibly a Delta 88. ERIC STEWART: He let her back in the car. He did not put her back in the trunk.
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And she asked for a cigarette, and he let her have a cigarette, which, again, she described
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as a Marlboro Light cigarette. TOM WATSON: That was a critical piece for us, as we saw that, or one that we saw, because our victim also
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described that the suspect smoked a cigarette that they believed to be a light cigarette, possibly
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a Marlboro Light. ERIC STEWART: Then he drove her back to Sidney, and he actually let her out, let her go.
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She went to family and friends, and they were the ones that had contacted the police to let
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them know what had happened. They took her story. They found where they believed the crime happened,
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out by the railroad tracks, because there were some ruts in the ground. They had the victim go to the local hospital there.
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A rape kit was done. They collected her clothing, and that was all submitted to the lab for testing.
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DNA technology was just starting to become known to law enforcement agencies. They did-- they did do some work.
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They found semen on her shirt, which was important, but they weren't able to fully develop a profile,
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a DNA profile as we use today. NANCY GRACE: Investigators are confident they have
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now discovered a serial rapist. Now, the Logan County sheriffs searches for other attacks.
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These are both violent sexual assaults. I find it kind of hard that they stopped.
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Now that they know a serial rapist is on the loose, bloodline detectives search for similar cases to help them catch a sex predator.
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That's next. July 31, 1993, Logan County Ohio Sheriff's officers investigating the brutal rape and stabbing
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of a 19-year-old young woman. The survivor has given a description. Officers have now linked her perpetrator
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to another violent rape in Sidney, the neighboring county. Then, detectives become aware of an attempted
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sex assault that occurred just days before the Logan rape. TOM WATSON: So this young 16-year-old lady
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was sitting in her car at Tawawa Park, which is a quiet part that's heavily used there
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in the City of Sidney, when a red, full-sized Ford pickup truck, as she describes, with a black cover over the bed,
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pulls up behind her vehicle. A male suspect exits the vehicle and brandishes a revolver.
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ERIC STEWART: And he said very similar things, that I will put a hole in you, and threatened her,
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ordered her to get into his truck. This 16-year-old victim, though, she decided to run.
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TOM WATSON: As she ran from the scene of where this attempted abduction was occurring, there was a pool just down the way,
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that she started yelling and drew enough attention, that the suspect just fled the scene.
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NANCY GRACE: Investigators are working hard to build new leads, but still, the rapist
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continues to evade detection. Then, May 24, 1995, another attack reported right there in Sidney County.
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She was a 22-year-old female, and a similar type thing had happened to her. A man had pulled up in a white Mustang with a black top.
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TOM WATSON: The male exits the vehicle, brandishes a revolver, and orders her out of her vehicle
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and into his vehicle's passenger side. He then gets into the vehicle and goes to leave with her.
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She actually asks him if he's going to sexually assault her, and he says, yes. She then starts to struggle over the gun.
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He regains control of the gun. She again struggles over the steering wheel. So at this time of day, as he's moving,
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there's a car that happens to be behind him. He ends up just pulling over and telling her to get out.
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The vehicle behind her sees the struggle that was going on inside the vehicle, pulls over with her,
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picks her up, and gets her to law enforcement and to get her help. ERIC STEWART: This is the Sidney Police Department.
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They've had three of these incidents now-- one that was successful and two that were unsuccessful.
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But they felt they had a serial rapist on their hand, and they were trying desperately to find who was doing this,
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but they weren't able to develop any suspects. NANCY GRACE: In these types of investigations,
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it's inevitable. Detectives must continually review the cases, but still may come up without a suspect.
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Their biggest ally becomes time and new science. 20 long years after the very first attack,
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Detective Phil Bailey pushes for more modern forensic testing. ERIC STEWART: He would ask them, is
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there anything new we can try? Is there any new developments in technology? And they had tried in 2014 to develop a DNA
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profile from the evidence that they had, and they were unsuccessful. But they told him there was a new kit
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coming online the next year. We'll try again next year. In 2015, they did, and they were successful.
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They were finally able to get the DNA profile of the suspect. And once they did that, then they
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could upload it into the state crime databases and see if there were any hits with any known offenders.
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TOM WATSON: That was submitted to CODIS. So it's a nationwide database of known offenders
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that have had their DNA submitted to it. And they found no suspect that matched.
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So that told us our suspect, his DNA had not been put into that database. The one benefit that we got from that 2015 test is that they
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were able to tell us that the DNA from our suspect was a match for the DNA from the suspect in Sidney in 1992
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who was sexually assaulted. NANCY GRACE: Investigators can now confirm the Sidney and Logan County rapes were
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committed by the same perp. But once again, they hit a dead end. TOM WATSON: So now, we concretely knew
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that our two suspects, from their crime in 1992 and ours in 1993, were one and the same.
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PHIL BAILEY: I finally got to a point where there's no more testing that the crime lab could do.
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And at that time, you know, I knew my victim was still alive in the area somewhere, so I went to the sheriff
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and asked him for some money. RANDALL DODDS: There was this new thing out called
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familial DNA testing. We think we'd like to do that. Because we know we have the same DNA
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in our county and same DNA from issues in Shelby and Sidney-- Shelby County or Sidney, Ohio.
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But the catch is, [INAUDIBLE] it costs $6,000. And I said, we'll spend $6,000. Let's do it.
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Once they develop an appropriate profile-- 'cause the DNA profile they use is actually different from what
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we use in criminal work. They're trying to cast a much wider net to find who might
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be related to the suspect, upload it to some public genealogy websites, and look for people that might share
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some DNA with our suspect. And once they do that, then they start building out family
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trees, looking for, particularly, family trees or family persons that might live in the area
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where the crime occurred. And that's what happened in this case. They started building family trees,
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and they found a family that lived in the area where these crimes occurred. Amanda Reno with Advance DNA, she had called the Sheriff's
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Office and let them know, you might want to look at this family that lives down in the southern part
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of our county. Goes by the name of Bortree. There are three brothers. Investigators are recharged when
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they hear the name Bortree, and there's a good reason. Well, law enforcement, they immediately--
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they knew this name. They were familiar with this family. RANDALL DODDS: I can tell you that Jeff Bortree, who
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is a resident of Logan County, is in prison today because of a brutal, brutal, brutal abduction, rape of a female
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that he accosted in Cincinnati, Ohio, and brought her to Logan County, Ohio, and just did things
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that are-- I've seen lots of traumatic scenes over the years. I've seen lots of things.
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But the video that he did-- what he did to this lady-- as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Bortree
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shouldn't be alive today. NANCY GRACE: Investigators close in on a possible suspect
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by first eliminating two of the three brothers. The incarcerated brother, Jeff Bortree,
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committed a previous rape at his brother Walter's home. Therefore, detectives already have both Jeff
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and Walter Bortree's DNA. That leaves just one brother to make a forensic match to the serial rapist.
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That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." 2019, Logan County Sheriff's officers believe they finally identify a violent serial rapist
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whose crimes go back 25 years. The forensic science called genetic genealogy leads finally to a suspect--
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Ralph Bortree. TOM WATSON: Ralph Bortree was somebody that just wasn't familiar to us, had a very
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limited criminal history-- many, many, many, years ago, for a theft offense, and that's it.
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Wasn't known to us. But as we started to do some research, he was married, living here in our county, had a house,
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had a job. We were able to determine a place of employment that he had worked at in Shelby County.
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NANCY GRACE: Detectives carry out surveillance to learn Ralph Bortree's habits, and then gather his DNA.
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PHIL BAILEY: Detective division, they found out where he was working. They watched to learn some of his habits.
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They knew where he smoked, so they knew he was a smoker. So the detectives watched him.
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One night, they went and cleaned the ashtray that he uses. We put lining down. And then, that day, they just watched him smoke.
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And then, when he left from work, it was a public property, so we were able to go on, and detectives
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collected cigarette butts. I submitted them to the crime lab the following morning,
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and the following day, we got a hit, saying it was Ralph Bortree. RANDALL DODDS: Revelation.
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We got him. We got him. We discussed, well, what more evidence could we collect in this case?
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And we were looking for, potentially, a weapon that was used or maybe any souvenirs or keepsakes
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that he might have kept. So the Sheriff's Office, they drafted a search warrant for his house.
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They drafted a search warrant also to collect his saliva, in-person collection of his DNA,
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took it to a judge, judge reviewed it, signed off on it, and then they immediately went out.
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NANCY GRACE: Police head to Ralph Bortree's home to arrest him and to find the evidence that will link
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him to the brutal sex attacks. PHIL BAILEY: We executed a search warrant at his house
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the same day. We collected lots and lots of pictures, and we were able to go through the pictures
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and match some of the cars in the pictures to some of the descriptions that were given.
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That was part of the sheriff's investigation, was to look for vehicles that matched
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the vehicle descriptions given by the victims. And surprisingly, they were able to find
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a Ford F-150 registration-- came back to him. They found a white Mustang convertible that was registered
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to his wife at the time. And they also found a Delta 88 that was registered to, I believe, his wife at the time.
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NANCY GRACE: Investigators began interviewing Ralph Bortree, but he denies any and all involvement.
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ERIC STEWART: Put him in the interview room. They conducted a recorded interview with him,
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and they started-- they would confront him with, hey, do you do know this girl? And they'd show him pictures of these victims
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from the '92, '93 cases, and asked him if he knew these women. And he denied. He said, no, I didn't--
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I don't know these people. Don't know these women. And then, they confronted him with the fact, well,
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your DNA was found. These are rape victims, and your DNA was recovered. And he still denied it, said it wasn't him,
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said they'd gotten the wrong guy. His emotions were just blank. There was no signs of emotion.
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There was no sign of guilt, no sign of remorse. PHIL BAILEY: He denied having any involvement in it.
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His DNA was one in a trillion, and he said he was the trillion, and it was not him.
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NANCY GRACE: Despite his denials, forensic science identifies Ralph Bortree as the attacker.
00:32:24
But now, bloodline detectives have a new and bigger problem-- Ohio's statute of limitations.
00:32:33
It's hard to believe, but according to the law, it looks like Ralph Bortree cannot be prosecuted for crimes
00:32:39
he clearly committed. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." Logan County, Ohio, 2019, 26 years
00:32:59
after a suspect's DNA is clearly linked to a series of sex attacks, investigators
00:33:06
facing a huge dilemma-- Ohio's statute of limitation might just let this suspect get away.
00:33:16
We were also concerned about a statute of limitations on the crime, you know, on rape.
00:33:22
At that time, it was way past when our victim had it, where he tried to kill her, cut her throat,
00:33:28
and attempted murder. We charged him with attempted aggravated murder of Anita. I think there should be no statute of limitations
00:33:41
on certain crimes like that. I did a lot more time than he has. NANCY GRACE: Ralph Bortree cannot be tried for the alleged
00:33:57
rapes and assaults. Still, Eric Stewart fights to have evidence from those crimes
00:34:04
allowed in court. This was him. His identity had been confirmed not just in Logan County,
00:34:11
but also in Shelby County. The judge allowed us to use one of the cases from Sidney.
00:34:19
He would not allow us to use the other cases, but the one from Sidney, where his DNA matched, he allowed us
00:34:27
to use, because it helped show that two different police departments working separate cases and two completely
00:34:35
independent labs came up with the same result. We've never done a genealogist before, so trying to figure out
00:34:42
how to present that to a jury in a way that would make sense to them and that they would understand
00:34:47
how they solved this case-- that was a challenge. While so much of this case now revolves around the statute
00:34:56
of limitations and forensic science, there is still one uniquely human factor for this jury to consider--
00:35:03
the words of a victim. That courtroom falls silent when Anita testifies, describing
00:35:10
the horrific details of her attack and the stabbing in her neck. ERIC STEWART: So it was very quiet.
00:35:19
Everyone wanted to hear what she had to say. She has a very vivid memory of what happened to her.
00:35:29
I mean, that's ingrained. And she recalled those details, and she told the jury what had happened to her.
00:35:37
I didn't want him to get to sit there and watch again, more or less, get the satisfaction of hearing me talk about it,
00:35:54
and he not have to say anything. It was not easy for her to talk about, but she described it.
00:36:02
You know, she's had to tell nurses and doctors what happened. She had to tell law enforcement what happened multiple times,
00:36:08
and she had to meet with prosecutors and tell them what happened. But it still wasn't easy to talk about.
00:36:16
NANCY GRACE: The defense tries to poke holes in the prosecution's case, but the DNA
00:36:20
evidence is damning. ERIC STEWART: Their strategy appeared to be just to challenge the state's evidence,
00:36:28
and that seemed to be their strategy, is just to try and throw some doubt in there--
00:36:33
was the case worked properly? NANCY GRACE: After just one hour of deliberations,
00:36:39
the jury hands down a verdict. Um, they found him guilty. ERIC STEWART: I felt relieved, very relieved.
00:36:50
You know, we got the guy, and justice had been done. ANITA: I would like to have seen that all four of the women--
00:37:06
they didn't get-- they didn't get anything, as far as what everyone considers justice.
00:37:14
I mean, yes, I'm glad that they found him. I'm glad he's in jail. But I thought we were going by the laws
00:37:24
back then, so 25 years was better to me. To me, that was my safety net, you know.
00:37:33
I knew that, OK, I'm not ever going to have to worry about him again. And then, two days before sentencing,
00:37:41
they called me in to tell me, well, that's not the case anymore. 3 to 11. And it's just like a smack in the face.
00:37:54
ERIC STEWART: Back in 1993, the penalties for attempted aggravated murder, the judge would have picked
00:38:01
a minimum sentence between 5 and 10 years, and then there would have been an indefinite sentence
00:38:06
also added on up to 25 years. So he really could have got punished and sent away for a long time.
00:38:13
Unfortunately, the law changed, really, just a few years ago, and the Ohio Supreme Court handed down a decision saying
00:38:24
that if the legislature had changed the penalty, then we also have to go by the newer penalty.
00:38:30
And now, the penalty for attempted aggravated murder is only 11 years. NANCY GRACE: Shocked by the sentence,
00:38:41
can there be any closure for Anita? No. That-- what-- what is that word? What does that word mean?
00:38:56
Because one of these days, I'm going to be in the grocery store, and he's going to walk right by me,
00:39:03
and that's got to be OK. There's nothing I can do about it. It's like a ticking clock for me.
00:39:13
RANDALL DODDS: There's closure in the fact that we brought justice. ERIC STEWART: Everyone wishes that there
00:39:18
was more punishment for this, but we now know who did it. There's some closure just to have that knowledge.
00:39:27
But I still think everyone wishes a little more justice could have been done. I think a guy like that should be castrated.
00:39:36
And I don't even know he has the right to live today, for what he did to her. But at least he's held accountable.
00:39:44
Whether you agree with what the court did with him or not, he's held accountable, and that's
00:39:48
the way our system works. NANCY GRACE: Ralph Bortree evades capture for 20 years.
00:40:01
For bloodline detectives, genetic genealogy was the tool that finally brought justice
00:40:07
to Ralph Bortree's victims. ERIC STEWART: Amanda Reno, she was the genealogist in this case.
00:40:13
She's the hero. A case that had gone unsolved for 25, 26 years, she solved in less than 24 hours.
00:40:22
It was just amazing. RANDALL DODDS: It is a game changer. It truly is. It's another tool for law enforcement
00:40:29
to have under their belt. Justice is not always perfect. We know that. For the victims, their relatives,
00:40:36
and for investigators who fight so hard to obtain it, this is one of those cases.
00:40:43
But for Anita and the bloodline detectives, the truth still won. Thanks to their spirit, their determination,
00:40:52
and to spectacular advances in forensic science, justice is finally served. I'm Nancy Grace.
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Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC]