00:00:19
- [Ciolino] Your body's
gonna respond, stress is screaming at you and making you do crazy stuff.
00:00:23
- [Vivica] Observing the signs. - [Vivica] Detecting
changing stories. - If you go ahead and take
00:00:32
a polygraph test
and you don't do well, well, now we're really gonna be
all over you.
00:00:36
- [Vivica] Spotting
when to hold back. - He's starting to feel like, "I've got this, he believes me."
00:00:41
- [Vivica] And when to close in. - I started informing him of what other detectives
were doing.
00:00:47
- The suspect is on his knees,
in figurative terms. - And then you just start
hitting them with hammers: bam!
00:00:52
Bam! Bam! - I'm Vivica A. Fox. As an award-winning actress,
I know how to play a part
00:01:00
and convince audiences
I'm someone else. I can spot the signs
when someone is playing a role
00:01:06
and not being honest. We'll expose the lies
and uncover the shocking truth on our journey to uncover
00:01:14
the secrets
of the interrogation room. (suspenseful music) - [Vivica]
Springfield, Missouri.
00:01:40
- [Vivica]
At police headquarters, 65-year-old retiree Jay Rothe has asked to see Detective
Neil McAmis.
00:01:56
- [Vivica] Rothe is
worried about his friend, 53-year-old Linda Riley. He just learned that
she's been reported missing.
00:02:03
The previous day,
a neighbor became worried when she could hear
Linda's phone
00:02:07
repeatedly ringing. Upon entering
the unlocked property, there was no sign of Linda.
00:02:14
She called the police, who were concerned upon arrival because of what they found.
00:02:20
- [Ciolino] Her purse is here,
her phone's here. It looks like there's been
a struggle of some sort,
00:02:23
and they agreed with her, right? I mean, what woman
leaves the house without a phone anymore,
00:02:28
or without her purse
or without both? Somebody who's pretty endangered is most policemen's guess.
00:02:34
- [Vivica] Linda Riley
is described by her family as a kind, fun-loving person
00:02:39
who loved animals
and was devoted to her dogs. As someone always determined
to see the good in people,
00:02:45
it meant that she could also
be very trusting of strangers. This further alarms the
Springfield Police Department,
00:02:52
and they issue a missing
endangered person alert and begin an investigation
into her disappearance.
00:03:00
- The response by the police happening so quickly was simply because of
the evidence at the crime scene.
00:03:09
Nobody can get a hold of her,
speak with her. It was apparent that we needed
to move as quickly as we could
00:03:14
with the investigation. - [Parm] She'd left her dogs, and everybody who knew her,
00:03:21
her neighbor
who actually reported her, said she would never
leave the dogs behind.
00:03:25
Was she taken by force?
Who took her, who saw her? So straightaway, those questions
are gonna be paramount
00:03:30
in the detectives' heads. - It's obviously very stressful, especially in a disappearance
case like this,
00:03:38
where, essentially,
your victim is just gone. There's multiple aspects
with it.
00:03:42
Of course, you have the family
that wants answers, but also you have
the public concern too,
00:03:47
of who did this, what happened, do we need to be in fear? You know, it's very difficult.
00:03:56
- Jay Rothe was with Linda Riley
two nights ago. Since then,
he's been out of town, fishing.
00:04:02
Given their close friendship
and recent contact, could Jay be the key
to helping detectives
00:04:08
in their attempt to locate her? - [Robyn] The fact that Rothe
was the last person
00:04:28
to have been with Linda
before she went missing, definitely makes him
a person of interest
00:04:33
in this investigation. I don't know if I would
label him as suspect, but he will be
a person of interest.
00:04:55
- [Neil] He deeply cared
for Linda, and it really seemed like
he was there doing everything he could
00:05:00
to try to help locate Linda and to try to, you know, help police in the investigation
00:05:06
and trying to figure out
what had gone on. - He's doing
a voluntary interview,
00:05:10
so he's not under arrest. You know, he doesn't
have to be there. He's free to leave at any time.
00:05:15
So that's the first thing
that struck me, that, you know, he seems
this really affable guy
00:05:19
who's just there to help. Nice and easy-going, you know, breathing rate normal. No signs of any anxiety.
00:05:27
So, just a guy that
just wants to help. - Jay Rothe's attendance
at the police station
00:05:32
as a volunteer is commendable. At the end of the day,
he is trying to find out where his partner, girlfriend,
where she's gone.
00:05:42
He's seen as being
the good Samaritan in this piece. - [Vivica] As a close friend
of Linda's,
00:06:00
Jay's knowledge of
her life, habits, friends and acquaintances could give the police
the lead they desperately need.
00:06:08
- [Parm] You know, did he
see anybody hanging about, was there anything untoward?
00:06:11
Was Linda worried
about anything? - Rothe's demeanor
led me to believe that he was being open
and honest with the detectives
00:07:32
and truly trying to help them in trying to find Linda. - [Parm] You have to
listen to him
00:07:38
because he may actually
be that helpful person who's really concerned
about Linda,
00:07:43
who wants to help
and wants her found quickly. And missing people,
if they're found quickly,
00:07:48
within the first
24 hours or so, they're more likely
to be found alive. The longer it takes
to find that person,
00:07:54
the more chances are that that person is going to be
unwell or dead. - [Vivica] The police are
all but certain
00:08:01
53-year-old Linda Riley
was met with foul play. However, she's only been missing
for a little over 24 hours.
00:08:09
There is still a chance
Linda can be found alive. - The initial hope is that she just got into it
with somebody.
00:08:16
Maybe she's at somebody's home. - [Vivica] They need a lead
in order to progress this case.
00:08:23
And it could be information
provided by friend Jay Rothe will show them the way forward.
00:08:33
- Will the 65-year-old retiree's
information be enough to save Linda? Coming up, Detective McAmis
narrows his focus.
00:08:41
- [Ciolino] Your super secret
police antenna should shoot right up
when you hear that statement.
00:08:49
- [Vivica] Rothe is put to
the ultimate test. - So he has to take the gamble. - [Vivica] 53-year-old divorcee
Linda Riley
00:09:03
has been reported missing. She hasn't been seen
in a little over 24 hours. The Springfield police
are convinced
00:09:11
someone is responsible
for her disappearance. - Her friend Rothe has
asked to see detectives
00:09:23
to assist with search efforts. He is concerned about some of the company
Linda has been keeping.
00:09:30
Detective McAmis
wants to know more. - Initially, the detective
needs to focus
00:09:51
on the individuals that
he has in front of him. And if the investigation
progresses,
00:09:56
he can start looking at those
and widening the search. But initially,
he does need to look at
00:10:01
what's right under his nose. - [Vivica] At this point, Detective McAmis
surprises Rothe
00:10:06
by suggesting any concern
around Linda's disappearance could be an overreaction.
00:10:12
- [Neil] Do you think
that she maybe just left? - [Vivica] This leads Rothe
into arguing the case,
00:10:19
and offering additional reasons
to be concerned about Linda. What he says is compelling.
00:10:25
But he inadvertently alerts
Detective McAmis's suspicions. - When he made the statement,
00:10:41
"She would not leave her dogs," that definitely stood out to me. - How would he know that
the dogs were still there?
00:10:55
There was no way for him to have
that information, at that point. - [Ciolino] Now, that could be
a problem for him,
00:11:09
because how does he know
the dogs were left? How does he know she didn't ask
a neighbor to watch the dogs,
00:11:14
she didn't drop the dogs off
at a friend's house,
whatever, right? But he immediately said,
00:11:18
"Oh, no, she wouldn't
leave the dogs there," which, you know, your
super secret police antenna
00:11:23
should shoot right up
when you hear that statement. - [Vivica] For Detective McAmis,
00:11:27
Jay Rothe has just changed from
a concerned friend to a person of interest. And the interview
00:11:33
is now an interrogation. (ominous music) - [Robyn] When detectives ask
direct questions to people:
00:12:53
do you think she's dead? Do you know
what happened to her? They're also wanting to
see the response,
00:13:00
the nonverbal cues
or the verbal cues that a suspect
or person of interest gives back to them.
00:13:07
Very often, a suspect
will evade discussing that because they don't want to
talk about it,
00:13:14
especially if they're involved. So, the "Uh, I don't know." There'll be a more of
a vague answer to the question.
00:13:23
These are things that are
very important to a detective when questioning somebody.
00:13:27
- [Vivica] Having spent
nearly two hours helping cops
with their investigation,
00:13:31
Jay Rothe returns home. 24 hours later, there is
still no trace of Linda Riley.
00:13:38
Hopes that she will be
found alive are fading fast. - [Neil] There is that hope
that she is alive.
00:13:44
But obviously,
the longer time goes on and nobody hears from her, there's no
financial transactions
00:13:51
being made from her account, then, obviously,
as time goes on, it becomes more evident
00:13:58
that we're gonna be dealing with
a homicide situation. - [Vivica] Then,
at police headquarters,
00:14:03
Jay Rothe reappears,
without warning. He has new information to offer. - [Parm] He almost comes across
as he's gone home,
00:14:13
thought about the answers that
he's given the day before, and decided to elaborate
on some of them.
00:14:42
- He starts mentioning
her ex-husband. He starts mentioning people
that she's hanging around with.
00:14:48
It's almost like
he's volunteering suspects to Detective Amis. And as I'm listening to it,
I'm thinking,
00:14:56
well, are you trying to detract
from yourself being a suspect or are you actually
being helpful?
00:15:01
- It was a scatter-gun approach. He was trying his hardest to drag other people
into the investigation.
00:15:22
- [Parm] It's almost like
he's got an agenda. He's going to tell the detective
what he wants him to hear.
00:15:28
And he's going through
this list, almost manically, trying to give
a lot of information
00:15:33
in a very short period of time. He seems quite agitated and quite excitable
about it all.
00:15:49
- [Vivica] Rothe also wants to
make an adjustment to something he said yesterday.
00:16:23
- [Ciolino] She had
filed a complaint, but he had forgotten that, and went, "Oh, uh-oh.
00:16:29
"I better go try and explain
that one away." So once again,
down to the police station
00:16:33
with diarrhea of the mouth, not helping his cause at all. - [Parm] Linda reported Rothe
for assaulting her
00:16:41
because she wouldn't
have sex with him. And she said that he had
punched her in her face
00:16:45
and his fist was in her mouth. - At the point of her refusing,
he takes his fist
00:16:51
and he tries to forcibly
ram it into her mouth. I mean, that's
an extremely violent act.
00:16:57
- [Parm] Unfortunately domestic
violence does escalate, and it can. And quite often
it does result in a death,
00:17:03
because that violence
would become worse and worse over time. So the fact that
there was this report
00:17:09
would have been quite worrying. - If Rothe thinks
he can paper over his past violence toward Linda,
00:17:16
he is wrong. The cops have been
investigating, and alarm bells are ringing. - In my second interview
with Jay,
00:18:27
he still was very helpful,
very cooperative. So at that point, I just was
trying to keep him on board
00:18:32
to try to keep him talking, try to maintain that
good relationship with him that we had
so that it would help me
00:18:40
if I did need to speak with him
on a future occasion, which, of course, happened.
00:18:51
- [Robyn] Jay has now
had two interviews with Detective McAmis. They've both been friendly,
they've been cordial.
00:18:58
Detective McAmis has
a really nice disposition. He has a really great way
of connecting with people.
00:19:03
He develops great rapport with
those people he interviews. And Jay's feeling
more confident.
00:19:10
He's now walked out
of an interview room with Detective McAmis twice. He's starting to feel like,
"I've got this, I'm okay."
00:19:17
Like, "He believes me." - [Vivica] This is exactly what
McAmis wants Jay Rothe to feel.
00:19:22
In reality,
he's become more certain that Rothe is responsible
for Linda's disappearance.
00:19:28
- I think there is
a point with him where he felt like
he could trust me, as odd as that may sound.
00:19:34
And therefore it
was just able to, you know, chip away at him
just a little bit at a time
00:19:39
from one interview to the next, from one day to the next. - [Vivica] But with Linda
still missing,
00:19:45
McAmis needs to speed things up and find a way through
Jay's helpful facade. - [Neil] During
my interviews with Jay,
00:19:52
there were so many
stumbling blocks that just kept coming up. And it was hard to get him to
00:19:58
go further down
the path of questioning that I was taking him. So I tried to come up with
a new tactic,
00:20:06
and that was the polygraph. - [Ciolino] Polygraph's
an investigative tool. And there will be people
that will tell you
00:20:13
a polygraph is worthless, it's no good science-wise, no court allows its submission
in cases.
00:20:20
But I'll tell you,
the CIA and FBI will fire you
if you fail a polygraph, if you're a 20-year employee
even, right? You're gone.
00:20:27
- [Vivica] A suspect
cannot be forced to take a polygraph test. But it's the fact
they have a choice
00:20:32
that makes them so useful
to an investigation. - If a polygraph is suggested
to an individual
00:20:38
who's trying to be helpful,
trying to be friendly, and trying to locate
their friend who is missing
00:20:44
and they're really
concerned about them, that person is likely to say,
"Yes, I'll do it."
00:20:49
- If you refuse to take
the polygraph test, it definitely sends off alarm
bells in a detective's mind.
00:20:57
Why would you
not want to take a test? - I think it's fair to say
that Rothe is a simple soul.
00:21:05
He wouldn't know
the intricacies of the law. He wouldn't understand the balances placed in
00:21:11
undertaking a polygraph test
or not. But he would be thinking, "If I don't assist
the authorities,
00:21:18
"they're gonna start
to draw inference "on my lack of support." - [Vivica] Three days later,
00:21:25
Rothe agrees to take
the polygraph test. But after arriving
at police headquarters,
00:21:30
He's deflated and withdrawn. Even this could be
a useful clue. - [Parm] Throughout
the first two interviews,
00:21:38
Rothe does come across
as being quite relaxed. He sits back in his chair,
he's quite an animated,
00:21:44
he's quite friendly and he's got
a lot of information that he wants to share. He's been helpful.
00:21:49
He's been helping police
with their inquiries. Now it's HE'S
being investigated.
00:21:53
HE'S being looked at
as a suspect. And I think that probably
has dawned on him by now.
00:21:58
(knocking) - [Ciolino] Jay is now
feeling the heat. He's starting to figure out,
00:22:18
"I'm their number-one suspect
with a bullet, "and I got a problem." So your body's gonna respond
to this stuff. Stress, right?
00:22:25
Stress is the great
internal thing that's just screaming at you
and making you do crazy stuff.
00:22:55
- So the fact that you're
willing to take a polygraph test is usually, you know,
a plus in your column.
00:23:01
But if you go ahead and take it
and you don't do well, well, now we're really gonna be
all over you.
00:23:06
It's almost over with
at that point, for you. - [Vivica] Jay Rothe claims
he is just trying to help,
00:23:19
and his willingness to go
through with a polygraph test proves it. But it's the results that count.
00:23:25
Either they'll clear his name, or they'll put him
firmly in the frame, not only for
Linda Riley's disappearance,
00:23:32
but also her probable murder. Coming up, the results are in. - [Vivica] And Detective McAmis
turns up the heat.
00:23:49
- You just start hitting them
with hammers: bam! Bam! Bam! - At police headquarters
in Springfield, Missouri,
00:24:00
it's a pivotal moment for the investigation into
missing 53-year-old Linda Riley.
00:24:06
- I tried to come up with
a new tactic and that was the polygraph. I felt like that was an angle
that I could really go down
00:24:13
to try to pursue with him. - [Vivica]
Will a lie detector test confirm Detective McAmis's
suspicions?
00:24:19
Or will it
blow the case wide open? While the polygraph examiner
prepares his results,
00:24:26
Rothe waits nervously
in the interrogation room. - [Darren]
Now, someone's response
00:24:32
to being told
they've failed a polygraph will be linked to their belief in how,
sort of, valid it is.
00:24:51
- [Parm] He tells Rothe
he's failed it, and that they both
expected him to fail it.
00:24:56
And it's almost... you could see
the visible change in Rothe because he does become dejected.
00:25:01
It's like almost like the life
has come out of his body. - [Parm] You know, you see him
sag in that interview room,
00:25:14
and it's almost like,
"Well, that's it, "I'm at the end of it.
What do I do now? He knows."
00:25:19
And it is that realization. "Detective McAmis knows I lied." - So, clearly, Rothe believed
the polygraph
00:25:28
was, basically, you know,
undeniably yes or no. So, that went some way in that being
the catalyst, really,
00:25:36
for him beginning to unravel. - [Neil] I decided that it
was kind of gonna be a turning point of
my interview with Jay,
00:25:49
where I was gonna kind of... turn up the tension
a little bit more with him. Another big chip off of Jay
00:26:21
was when I started informing him of what other detectives
were doing, that search warrants were
being conducted on his van
00:26:29
and at his residence. And you could just see
the look on his face, it was noticeable, in terms of
it went from nervous
00:26:38
to straight being scared. - So Jay gets hit
with the first thing, "Hey, you failed a polygraph.
I know you did this.
00:26:56
"And, oh ,by the way, Jay,
we're tearing that
little trailer of yours, "that double wide, we're
tearing it apart piece by piece
00:27:02
"and we're gonna
find the evidence." And this is overwhelming.
They do this on purpose, right?
00:27:06
Hit 'em with
all the bad news at once. It was really a competent move
by the detective.
00:27:11
You know, you build up,
build up, build up, and then you just start
hitting them with hammers: bam!
00:27:16
Bam! Bam! - [Vivica] McAmis slams on
more pressure by letting Rothe know
his adult son, Jason,
00:27:23
is now aware of
the case against him. - [Robyn] This, for me,
was Jay's breaking point,
00:27:47
and Detective McAmis knew this. I could see that
Detective McAmis picked up on this,
00:27:52
because he did not let it go. He kept on, he kept on pushing. "Your son knows, Jay.
Do this for your son.
00:27:57
"Your son's a good boy. "He knows you're
not a bad person." - [Robyn] Jay was just nodding
his head and agreeing
00:28:14
and you could see that
Detective McAmis knew that he now had his in. He was almost there.
00:28:42
- [Robyn] You will always see
a detective use the strategy of trying to minimize
a suspect's culpability
00:28:48
in a homicide. It's much harder for somebody to admit killing somebody
in cold blood
00:28:58
than it is
to blame the victim as well. "Oh, well, the victim
had something to do with it."
00:29:04
- [Ciolino] So he starts hitting
him with, you know, "I know you're a nice guy,
things got outta hand,
00:29:08
"these things happen." - [Ciolino] What's the goal?
Get an admission. We don't care
how we get the admission,
00:29:26
but get some sort of admission. We'll build on
a little admission into the big admission.
00:29:44
- [Robyn] Once Detective McAmis
has picked up on his in now, and that he's almost
at the confession,
00:29:49
he, like, moves his body in, he actually uses
his rolling chair and puts himself
right into Jay's space.
00:29:57
"Look at me,
I'm right up in your face. "I don't believe
you're a bad person."
00:30:11
- [Parm] What the detective
does do is, at this point, he starts having
a lot longer silences.
00:30:16
And those silences
are worth a huge amount in any investigation, because it's inviting him
00:30:23
to fill that silence
with the story, with an account
of what happened. - [Darren]
And it goes back again
00:30:29
to this cognitive overload. That was the point
in his unconscious that he just couldn't
carry on with it anymore.
00:30:35
The pressure was just too much. - The suspect is on his knees,
in figurative terms.
00:30:48
- And Jay breaks down,
and, at that point, admits to it being
a freak accident.
00:31:02
- [Ciolino] Jay is now drowning, and we have this detective
who's, like, offering his hand.
00:31:08
"Jay, come on, you and I will
get through this together. "It's not as bad as it seems."
00:31:13
When, in fact, it's horrible. - [Maleary] The empathetic way that the officer deals with
the suspect is really good.
00:31:49
He's giving the suspect the
opportunity to unload on him and share his burden. Rothe hasn't got anybody
to confide in,
00:31:56
I don't think he's got
any real friends. The officer is probably
the closest relationship
00:32:01
that he's had
in talking to somebody for some considerable time. - [Neil] When Jay
finally confessed,
00:33:10
it really is...
it's difficult to describe the array of emotions
that take place.
00:33:15
My interviews with him
lasted several days over just numerous,
numerous hours. But when the confession happens,
00:33:24
you go from being
mentally and physically just drained beyond imagining to you get this adrenaline rush
00:33:29
that is hard to describe. - Jay Rothe has confessed
to killing Linda Riley in his trailer home
00:33:38
after a heated argument. But for Detective McAmis, the investigation
has only just begun.
00:33:47
- You got a statement,
you got a confession, great. Now we need something to
really lock this thing down.
00:33:51
And this is important,
because you don't want, in four, five, six, seven years, appellate court going,
00:33:57
"This guy's claiming
it was a false confession "made under duress." So you wanna get
some physical evidence
00:34:02
that he leads you to that's gonna
lock this thing down. - In order to get a conviction,
00:34:09
the police must first show that a murder has in fact
taken place. The best way to prove it
00:34:15
is to find the victim's body. - [Parm] Where's Linda? Linda still has to be found.
00:34:21
So he has to carry on
with that rapport. It's not over just because
Rothe has said, "I killed her."
00:34:27
- [Vivica] Coming up, Detective Neil McAmis
starts to piece together what really happened to
Linda Riley.
00:34:34
- I was not expecting
anything like that. And so it was shocking to me
at that point.
00:34:59
- [Vivica] Detective McAmis has
extracted a murder confession from 65-year-old Jay Rothe.
00:35:04
But Rothe is yet to disclose what he did
with Linda Riley's body. Can McAmis get the answers
00:35:12
that Linda's family
so desperately needs? - [Ciolino] Everybody knows
this poor woman is dead, okay?
00:35:17
But for our purposes, we want the kind of closure that's gonna lock him
in the penitentiary
00:35:22
for the next 1,000 years, okay? And in this particular case, she's missing,
there's still no body.
00:35:28
Jay, what happened to the body? - [Parm] When Rothe
actually admits killing Linda
00:36:03
and burning her body, I think at first the detective
is quite incredulous, because he said,
"You buried her?"
00:36:12
And then when Rothe says,
"No, I burned her," I think there is a little,
slight bit of shock there,
00:36:18
because that's not normal. - I was not expecting
anything like that. And so it was shocking to me
at that point,
00:36:26
and I was surprised
when he clarified and said,
"No, no, I burned her." - [Darren] The way in which
00:37:27
people that commit murder
dispose of remains is significant. Someone that's
just been discarded
00:37:32
and set on fire, that just basically
goes a long way to tell us that, really, Rothe didn't
have that much respect for her.
00:37:42
You know, it's almost a complete
desecration of the person. - [Parm] All through
the interviews,
all of the interviews,
00:37:53
Rothe talks about his love,
his admiration, how he was looking after Linda. But there was a part of it
00:38:00
that was almost that control
and coercive behavior. And when he's killed her, the worst thing
he could have done
00:38:07
was to desecrate her body, and he did that. He burnt her so that
there's no sign of her left.
00:38:14
You don't do that to people
that you love and care about. That is inexcusable,
absolutely inexcusable.
00:38:23
- [Neil] The confession was
so critical in this case. Without the confession, we would've never come to
00:38:28
any type of closure
with the case, as to what happened and the manner of which
she was disposed,
00:38:34
it just would've been impossible to have ever had
any resolution for that. - [Darren] Police interviews
can last a few hours,
00:39:41
can last days. So when somebody
finally confesses, suddenly it's like
a massive burden's been lifted.
00:39:48
You know, it's almost like
carrying a heavy weight. And when that weight's
taken off that person,
00:39:53
you know, that's the effect that
happens on his psychology, the fact he just literally
is exhausted, you know?
00:39:59
That's what finally caused Rothe
to start crying and just basically
collapse onto the desk.
00:40:09
- [Neil] After Jay confessed, and when he started to give the appearance of
becoming emotional,
00:40:16
I'd like to think that maybe there was some
sense of remorse there, realizing what had happened.
00:40:22
I think it was more knowing that he's gonna go to jail
for the rest of his life for what he has done.
00:40:29
- [Vivica] On March 4th of 2012, six days after Linda Riley
went missing, Jay Rothe accompanied police
00:40:36
to the location
where he burned her body. Rothe was charged with
felonious restraint,
00:40:43
kidnapping,
and second-degree murder. - [Robyn] The reason why
it's a murder second charge
00:40:51
is because there is the absence
of a premeditated murder. And, therefore, does not
fit the elements of the crime
00:40:59
for murder in the first. - [Vivica] Despite having
confessed to the crime, as time went on, it became
unclear how Jay would plead.
00:41:10
- [Neil] It was drawn out
right to the last minute. I thought we were
gonna go to trial.
00:41:14
I thought that
he was going to fight it. Then, right at the last minute, Jay decided to
take the plea deal
00:41:20
and pled to
second-degree murder. - [Ciolino] Jay is
an older guy, right? And he's hoping to
get out prison someday.
00:41:29
So with second-degree,
he is eligible for probation. There is light
at the end of the tunnel.
00:41:34
His best bet
is to plea bargain it. The state saves
a whole bunch of money. The family's happy 'cause
they don't have to sit in court
00:41:42
and look at this mope
every day for several weeks. And so a deal's cut that perhaps you will get out
on probation one day.
00:41:50
Chances are slim
that he does not. - [Vivica] During sentencing, Rothe's attorney argued that
00:41:57
a maximum penalty
of only 10 years should apply because of his client's age
and ill health.
00:42:04
But the circuit court judge
firmly disagreed, saying Rothe was a danger
to women and children.
00:42:11
- [Parm] In July, 2013, Rothe was sentenced to
life imprisonment in Missouri, which means 30 years.
00:42:19
He must serve
40% of that sentence, which means he's going to be 78
before he's eligible for parole.
00:42:27
- To the relief of Linda's
family and friends, it seems unlikely that Rothe
will live long enough
00:42:34
to ever taste freedom again. (dramatic music)