00:00:00
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: December 1988,
nine days before Christmas, a woman's body discovered
beside Interstate 59,
00:00:19
Dade County, Georgia. It's a murder that will
become an extremely difficult challenge for detectives.
00:00:29
They searched her pockets. It looked like there may have
been a cellophane wrapper
00:00:34
of some sort and $4. Just didn't tell us very much. NANCY GRACE: Years pass, and
the mystery of the victim's
00:00:41
identity goes unsolved. KRISTEN MITTELMAN:
I've met investigators. And their white
whale, it's something
00:00:48
that they can't go to
sleep without thinking about every single night. Their family suffers.
00:00:54
It truly is a
blast radius that's bigger than you can imagine. NANCY GRACE: One detective
team never gives up
00:01:01
finding the truth about
her life and giving her dignity in death. I don't ever give
up on these cases.
00:01:09
Because nobody speaks for
the victim if it's not us. NANCY GRACE: Time
can be the enemy
00:01:15
of so many investigations. But in this case, time
may be the savior. JOE MONTGOMERY: We had such
good biological evidence.
00:01:24
I knew that as soon
as science changed, we'd be able to catch up. NANCY GRACE: The
real breakthrough
00:01:29
comes with the arrival
of a unique forensic tool that seems to unlock
impossible cases--
00:01:37
Investigative Genetic Genealogy. MICHAEL VOGEN: I
like to make sure that detectives know that there
is a new technology out there.
00:01:45
We can relook at cases and let
us see what evidence is there. We may be able to be
that one missing piece
00:01:50
to moving the case forward. NANCY GRACE: Can science
combined with a family tree
00:01:56
reveal the secrets in this case? I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
00:02:04
[THEME MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Dade County
in the Northwestern corner of Georgia in the
1980s, a quiet community
00:02:34
far from the big city. It's a very rural town,
very family oriented. Good place to live
and raise a family.
00:02:44
TIM MCKAIG: I grew up
on Lookout Mountain. Everybody was kin
to everybody else. We all knew one another.
00:02:52
Everybody was generous. If somebody had a problem,
everybody come to help. Everybody was your friend.
00:03:01
It's pretty quiet around here. The way we like it. NANCY GRACE: Dade County's
peace and quiet ends
00:03:09
abruptly December 16, 1988. A group of road workers
see what they believe is a body next to
northbound I-59,
00:03:19
just five miles from Georgia's
state line with Alabama. The body was found
by a Georgia Department
00:03:27
of Transportation worker. They were fixing to cut
that side of the median and the side of the road.
00:03:34
And they noticed a
body down at the bottom of a hill of an entrance ramp,
about five and a half miles
00:03:39
from the Alabama-Georgia line. TIM MCKAIG: One of
them left the scene and come to Trenton, which
is probably seven miles.
00:03:48
And, uh, he found a Sheriff's
deputy in the parking lot of the Red Food store
and told him that they
00:03:57
had just found a body. So, of course, the
deputy proceeded immediately out to the scene.
00:04:06
EVAN STONE: When we got
to call, Sandra Gray and I were on the ambulance. Sergeant Smith, one of the
first officers on the scene,
00:04:13
he had already
assessed the body. And the body was
deceased and, you know, that it was no doubt
in a form of decay.
00:04:19
But we assessed
the body ourselves. TIM MCKAIG: Don Hicks was
the detective back then.
00:04:28
He went to the scene. And Jim White was
another detective, he went to the scene.
00:04:33
I know they did a lot of video
and a lot of still photographs. JOE MONTGOMERY: Their job
was to basically rope it off.
00:04:41
And they went down both
sides of the highway to look for any other
clues that they might have.
00:04:47
They would send them to
the closest local business to see if they
knew of anyone that
00:04:51
had been around several
days that might be missing. She was 5' 7". She had reddish hair.
00:04:59
She was wearing a
sweatshirt and blue jeans. TIM MCKAIG: They specified
Calvin Klein jeans.
00:05:06
She had on a pair of
shoes, but no socks. And she had on a, uh-- a blouse,
like a thermal-type blouse.
00:05:16
But her blouse was pulled up
over the top of her breasts. JOE MONTGOMERY: Her hands
were underneath her.
00:05:24
They were in fairly
good condition. Her body, her face was, uh-- had a good bit of
decomposition because of the,
00:05:32
uh-- the temperature and
the injuries that she had. EVAN STONE: Because December,
it would freeze at night.
00:05:39
And it would warm up in
the daytime above freezing. So knowing how long the body
had been out there was-- was--
00:05:46
I know was a problem
with the investigators. JOE MONTGOMERY: The
body had a gold chain
00:05:51
around its neck and
then, like, a pinky ring on one of the fingers. TIM MCKAIG: And they
searched her pockets.
00:05:57
It looked like
there may have been a partial cigarette box,
a cellophane wrapper
00:06:02
of some sort, and $4. Just didn't tell us very much. RAY CROSS: We had
very little technology
00:06:10
back then, fingerprinting
and blood typing and stuff like that. But as far as any kind of
DNA testing or anything
00:06:17
like that, it was not-- not available back then. NANCY GRACE: The
investigation begins
00:06:23
with a series of questions. Who is this? How did she die? How did her body end
up on Interstate 59?
00:06:32
BRIAN OXMAN: One of
the telling signs was this young lady
had no underwear on. Now, to an old-time crime
investigator, that's ominous.
00:06:44
Why? Because it tells the
old-time investigators she was sexually
assaulted somewhere else,
00:06:53
and then told to get dressed
and put on her clothes, put into a vehicle, and
transport it to this location.
00:07:03
And in my mind, she was
killed at this location and then her body was
rolled down the embankment.
00:07:12
NANCY GRACE: The body is
sent to the local coroner. And it is hoped an autopsy
will reveal the cause of death.
00:07:21
JOE MONTGOMERY: The
manner and cause of the death from the autopsy
was manual strangulation.
00:07:25
Her hyoid bone had been crushed. You could see the pressure
that was put on her neck
00:07:30
for the manual strangulation. TIM MCKAIG: When
GBI went and viewed the body at the hospital,
they did collect
00:07:40
some hairs from the body. Of course, those have to
be analyzed at the lab. And then when the medical
examiner conducted the autopsy,
00:07:49
the medical examiner collected
pubic hairs from the body. BRIAN OXMAN: They found semen,
which means that this was
00:08:00
a violent sexual assault.
They weren't able to exactly identify how old
she was, which is
00:08:08
really very critical
when you are dealing with missing persons. Investigators have no
witnesses and no time of death.
00:08:20
They reach out to the National
Crime Information Center where data on missing
people is held.
00:08:27
Maybe, just maybe if they
can determine someone missing around the same time Jane
Doe's body is discovered,
00:08:37
they can ultimately
identify her. In 1988, the biggest
thing they would do was put out bulletins
on the NCIC computer
00:08:48
to agencies in the
surrounding area. Because we were so close
to Alabama and Tennessee,
00:08:54
it would have been
like a tri-state area. Because they would
have tried to make sure
00:08:58
it was somebody local
first before they expanded the search out farther. We checked with all the
other surrounding agencies
00:09:05
if they had missing persons
and kind of went from there. We ended up doing a composite
drawing and released that.
00:09:16
We would use the media
as much as we could. We would let them know we
had an unidentified person.
00:09:22
We would go to the
local businesses around. Hey, have you seen
anybody that, you know,
00:09:27
that you've not seen before
that might be missing? NANCY GRACE: Detectives
are confident once they've
00:09:36
got a name, just a name, it
will lead to crucial clues. Jane Doe, who became
known as Rising Fawn Jane
00:09:47
Doe because the Rising Fawn
off ramp to the Interstate 59 was just south of
where she was found.
00:09:57
NANCY GRACE: Rising Fawn
Jane Doe's real name is still unknown to detectives. But they are getting a clearer
picture of her facial features.
00:10:08
It was all in an
attempt to identify who she is so we could
have someplace to go
00:10:13
with this investigation. Can Georgia detectives
uncover new clues to reveal Jane Doe's
identity and, ultimately,
00:10:23
that of her killer? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:10:39
NANCY GRACE: December
1988, a woman's body discovered next to Interstate
59, Dade County, Georgia.
00:10:46
Detectives cannot
identify the woman who they name Rising Fawn Jane Doe. They turn to experts who use
her skull to create a clay
00:10:58
model of what Jane looks like. They circulated it to the
population, hoping somebody
00:11:06
would identify, somebody
would recognize. It didn't happen here. By 1990, advances in DNA
sequencing offer Dade County
00:11:19
detectives renewed hope that
they may be able to identify Rising Fawn Jane Doe. They extract DNA
from her remains.
00:11:30
And that sample
is sent to the FBI in Washington DC in the
hopes of finding a match.
00:11:36
Meanwhile, the body of
the unidentified woman remains in a morgue,
unclaimed by anyone.
00:11:46
This was somebody's daughter. We still didn't
know who she was. We needed to do something.
00:11:50
So the community came together. At that time, Ronnie
Moore was the director. And we actually had
a-- we had a funeral.
00:11:59
If you think about
a community that does a funeral for somebody they
don't even know and had such
00:12:07
a great turnout, I
mean, that just speaks volumes about the community. TIM MCKAIG: There
was a sign-in log.
00:12:15
People signed the register. EVAN STONE: We all signed
our names, you know, saying, hey, we
were here, you know?
00:12:22
Because at some point in time,
we were hopeful that the family could get some type of closure.
00:12:28
And I sure do hope
that the family was able to realize that this
community cared enough to give
00:12:34
her a proper burial. She had a formal resting
place here in Dade County, waiting to find
out her identity.
00:12:46
The DNA sample,
unfortunately, does not advance the case at all. There's not a match.
00:12:54
10 long years pass. And then in the early
2000s, cold case detectives from the GBI, Georgia
Bureau of Investigation,
00:13:03
take another look. At the time, I was the cold
case consultant for the office. So I took an
interest in the case
00:13:12
and just started
reading the case. I knew a little
bit about the case and was trying to, you
know, see what we could
00:13:19
do to bring it to a resolution. NANCY GRACE: A brand new look
by cold-case investigators
00:13:25
and the creation in
2003 of the National Missing Persons Task Force might
provide a break in the case.
00:13:35
Back in the early 2000s,
we had been getting tips from some of the websites
of unidentified persons
00:13:43
that this body that we had
in Dade was this person. And we would get calls
from other agencies, hey,
00:13:50
this is our person. NANCY GRACE: But none
of the new tips received are the key to identifying
Rising Fawn Jane Doe.
00:13:59
Cold-case detectives
now turn their attention to the possibility
the killer may be a truck driver who crosses
the busy interstates every day.
00:14:12
JOE MONTGOMERY: The
way that she was assaulted, the way that she was
beaten, where she was found--
00:14:16
that's a very
popular truck route between Chattanooga
and Birmingham, Nashville and Birmingham.
00:14:23
So we always felt
like the method of the murder and the route was
more of a serial truck driver
00:14:30
killer. There were 12,
12 brutal murders, rapes of women with
bodies being dumped.
00:14:38
And they looked into seeing
whether there was an MO, modus operandi, that they
could connect to these murders
00:14:49
and, in the 1980s,
whether there was a blood type which could connect
this murder to these other 12
00:14:58
unsolved crimes. That turned out
to be a big blank. They could not connect it
to any of those 12 murders.
00:15:08
They even eliminated a
couple known serial killers from being the suspect. And that was actually done
before the FBI was involved.
00:15:16
One of those serial killers-- Samuel Little, one of America's
most notorious serial killers.
00:15:25
After he's captured, Samuel
Little confesses to 93 murders, making him the most prolific
serial killer in US history.
00:15:36
But is he also the killer
of Rising Fawn Jane Doe? We had one murder in Dade
County from Sam Little.
00:15:45
And the working
theory at that time is he might possibly
be involved because he had been in this area.
00:15:51
He'd been in Chattanooga. He had taken a girl from
a bar in Chattanooga, killed her in Dade County,
and then dumped her body off.
00:15:59
And some of the
similarities in his methods were similar with
this young lady. I had sent an agent to
Texas to interview Sam.
00:16:14
And he had talked about all the
cases in Georgia he had done, plus the case that he had
done here in Dade County.
00:16:20
So we pretty much,
from that point on, realized that it was not
going to be Sam Little.
00:16:25
To identify Rising
Fawn Jane Doe, detectives will need a more
powerful investigative tool.
00:16:33
We see what that is next
on "Bloodline Detectives." [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:16:46
NANCY GRACE: December
1988, a woman's body discovered
beside Interstate 59, Dade County, Georgia.
00:16:53
27 years later, detectives
still cannot identify the woman they name Rising Fawn Jane Doe.
00:17:03
JOE MONTGOMERY: We had realized
back in 2005 that we still had evidence at
the FBI crime lab
00:17:09
that had never been processed. So once we got that
evidence processed, we got a DNA profile developed.
00:17:15
We placed that in
the CODIS system and in the missing
persons CODIS database, waiting for some type
of results from that.
00:17:23
The mainstay testing
technique for DNA in forensics is CODIS testing. So this is premised on a
piece of equipment that
00:17:33
was introduced 30 years ago. And it allows you to collect
about 20 markers in the DNA.
00:17:40
And that information
can be used to exclude you from a crime scene. It can be used to do exact
matches into this national law
00:17:48
enforcement database. 2018, the case hits
another dead end. But still Rising Fawn
Jane Doe is not forgotten.
00:18:00
Detectives hear about a new
technological breakthrough, a breakthrough that's cracking
seemingly impossible cases,
00:18:09
including one
high-profile murder investigation in California. JOE MONTGOMERY: I had two
agents who had gone to a seminar
00:18:17
and had met with the detectives
from the Golden State Killer. And they were
discussing how that they
00:18:23
had done the genealogy DNA. So we looked at that
as a possibility. At the time, the FBI, the
violent crimes group in Atlanta
00:18:32
was using that to
help solve cases. I was able to get a
meeting with Georgia Bureau
00:18:38
of Investigation and met
with SAC Joe Montgomery and basically asked if
they had any cases that
00:18:43
might have genealogy potential. And this was the one that
was most on their radar.
00:18:49
And they thought there was
good potential for genealogy. We had such good
biological evidence,
00:18:55
both DNA from the victim
and from the suspect. So I knew that as soon
as science changed,
00:19:01
we'd be able to catch up. NANCY GRACE: The science of
investigative genetic genealogy
00:19:07
gives a new generation
of investigators an advantage in
solving cold cases. JOE MONTGOMERY: The genealogy
DNA is very complicated.
00:19:16
And I look at it like a
tree that you go outwards and then you work
your way back in.
00:19:23
It's a technique that we
use on mainly cold cases, but cases that otherwise
couldn't be solved
00:19:30
using conventional techniques. So we obtain a SNP profile
from a private lab. The FBI works with
multiple private labs.
00:19:39
We obtain that profile. We upload it to databases that
work with law enforcement.
00:19:45
And we find genetic relatives. From that point, we conduct
the genealogy process,
00:19:52
build family trees, all in
order to sort of triangulate who that contributor is,
whether it's a victim of a case
00:19:58
or the subject of a case. The FBI did the
genealogy on this case. Tim Burke worked on
it with his team.
00:20:08
Tim Burke is the agent that
approached us and wanted to know if Othram
can help identify
00:20:15
this victim whose remains were
found on the side of the road. NANCY GRACE: For investigative
genetic genealogy
00:20:21
to deliver a name,
the scientists need quality DNA samples. This case is old,
dating back to 1988.
00:20:30
So "Bloodline Detectives"
have their fingers crossed. Forensic genetic
genealogy can't be performed
00:20:37
without having high performing
DNA in a profile that you can upload to these genealogical
databases and get good
00:20:46
matches for, get clean matches
that's not missing people's information because
you don't really
00:20:51
have all the DNA letters there. And that's what we
have developed, which is the scientific methods
necessary in order
00:20:59
to build a profile
that can be used for forensic genetic genealogy. DAVID MITTELMAN: There's a lot
of groundwork that's been done,
00:21:06
exceptional investigative work. And all they're looking for
is a little bit of technology
00:21:11
to push them over that
barrier so they can generate an investigative lead. And then we're able to get a
little bit more information
00:21:18
from the crime scene that
enables them to produce an investigative lead that takes
the case to a positive outcome.
00:21:23
And doing that for both
the victim and the suspect was just really special. We were thrilled and honored
to be trusted with the case
00:21:30
and to have the
opportunity to assist. We built a DNA profile
using forensic-grade genome
00:21:36
sequencing. And we delivered that profile
back to the investigative team at the bureau.
00:21:42
I was involved in
delivering the leads back to law enforcement and working
with their genealogists that
00:21:47
were working to build
out family trees. David and I were on calls
with the GBI and local law
00:21:53
enforcement, basically
handing over information that our team was finding
and collaborating with them
00:21:59
towards an identification. There's always
excitement when we get to start the
genealogy process,
00:22:04
where we identify
genetic relatives and ultimately narrow it down to
figuring out who the victim is.
00:22:12
The profile was
actually quite good. We were able to get matches. NANCY GRACE: The match
is to a young woman who
00:22:20
was missing not long
before the discovery of the body on Interstate 59. TIM BURKE: From the time we
obtained a SNP from Othram,
00:22:29
it was approximately three
months until we identified who we believed the victim was.
00:22:34
And that was Stacey
Lyn Chahorski. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] We knew we still had some work.
00:22:41
Even when the genealogy pointed
to Stacey Lyn being our victim, we still knew we had some work.
00:22:46
And that involved
flying to Michigan to interview family members. Stacey's family members
were able to provide us
00:22:53
a fingerprint card
that Stacey had filled out during Career Day
at school when she was younger.
00:22:58
There were partial
prints obtained from Stacey at the crime scene. And Georgia Bureau
of Investigation
00:23:04
was able to do an
analysis, a comparison. And then we also
did follow on DNA. Finally, Rising Fawn Jane
Doe's true name revealed.
00:23:14
She's Stacey Lyn Chahorski,
a young woman whose mom lives in Norton Shores, Michigan.
00:23:22
Investigators travel north
to interview her family. TIM BURKE: People never forget.
00:23:28
It had been almost 35 years. And Stacey still had people that
loved her and cared for her.
00:23:34
And you kind of know that
going into these cases, that there's going to be people
you're gonna find that have
00:23:39
wondered what happened
to them and that care and that still love them. And that was
reinforced when I got
00:23:44
to-- to meet Stacey's family. Stacey's mother had reported
her missing early 1989, so just
00:23:53
approximately a month from when
she was found to when she was reported missing in Michigan.
00:23:58
She had last spoken with
her mother approximately September 1988 and that she, in
that phone call, told her mom,
00:24:07
I believe, she was
in Knoxville area of Tennessee, which actually is
not that far from Dade County.
00:24:12
NANCY GRACE: To confirm,
the body is, in fact, that of Stacey Lyn
Chahorski, close family
00:24:18
members agree to give
DNA samples for testing. As soon as those
results come back,
00:24:24
detectives deliver
the bittersweet news to Stacey's family. JOE MONTGOMERY: It was such a
relief and such a great feeling
00:24:35
to be able to tell her
we've located your daughter. And we're gonna return
her home to you.
00:24:41
So that was very satisfying
and just a great relief after all this time. Stacey's mother was very upset.
00:24:50
She was very relieved. She started crying. I started crying. So she had really believed
that she would never be found
00:24:59
and never be returned home. And it was just such
a relief to her. And it was a great relief to me
to bring that closure to her.
00:25:14
TIM BURKE: All those years
later, she remembered the necklace, specifically. That was just kind of
a small piece of Stacey
00:25:20
that we could give back to the
family all these years later. NANCY GRACE: The name
alone allows one question
00:25:27
to be answered, a
question that puzzled detectives for decades-- who is Rising Fawn Jane Doe?
00:25:35
But now who is
Stacey Lyn Chahorski? TIM BURKE: From talking
to family members, she was adventurous.
00:25:42
She was optimistic, you know? She was young. From talking to her mom,
she was very independent.
00:25:48
And she was loved. She was a sister, a friend. Just a carefree,
happy-go-lucky person,
00:25:56
enjoying life. KRISTEN MITTELMAN: Her
whole life was ahead of her. And she was on an adventure
to figure herself out
00:26:04
and ended up in tragedy. Once that we got
the victim identified, we felt like that was
a better starting point
00:26:14
for us to find the killer. TIM BURKE: First thing we
did was we talked to family.
00:26:19
And once we confirmed
that it was Stacey, there was a theory that
it was likely a trucker,
00:26:23
hitchhiker-type situation. But we didn't know that. So maybe there was somebody the
family could point us towards.
00:26:28
So we did a thorough
interview with the family member of known associates with
a focus on male associates.
00:26:33
And that did not turn
up any actionable leads. So then we turned to
what we knew we had was
00:26:40
the DNA from the crime scene. So the next step for us
was to go back to Othram and have them do the genealogy
DNA profile on our perpetrator.
00:26:53
We were remarkably
surprised to find out that after her identification,
they had also mentioned to us
00:26:59
that they had recovered DNA
from the scene that belonged to an unknown male, which might
point to who might have been
00:27:06
in contact with
her last before she died and could
even be the person responsible for her death.
00:27:11
And so we were then offered--
this was kind of unique because we usually
work the identity
00:27:15
of a suspect or a victim. In this case, it was both. And so months later, they
came back to us and said,
00:27:21
we know that there's
an unknown profile. And at the time, the agency
didn't have the resources.
00:27:26
They didn't have the
funding to pay for this. Investigative
genetic genealogy is a process that utilizes
high-tech laboratories.
00:27:35
The technology and man hours
involved are very expensive. And the process ends
up being very costly.
00:27:43
Both local and federal
law enforcement will often look
for financial help from outside the government.
00:27:50
In the case of
Stacey Lyn Chahorski the FBI got support from a
crowd-funding organization
00:27:57
called DNA Solves. DNA Solves is a
initiative that we-- that we started back in 2020.
00:28:07
We built our own
site that encouraged philanthropy crowdfunding and-- and other sorts of support
to help smaller agencies that
00:28:17
don't yet have the budgets
for these kind of cases through community support. One of the things that is
still missing is the funding.
00:28:25
This is new technology. It takes a long time
for federal government to fund new technologies.
00:28:32
It takes a long time
for state governments to adopt and fund
these new technologies.
00:28:36
Investigators now
move quickly to create the killer's DNA profile. Who is he? Is he still alive?
00:28:44
And can he be
brought to justice? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:28:53
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: May
2022, over 30 years since a young woman's body
found beside Interstate
00:29:05
59, Dade County, Georgia. Detectives using investigative
genetic genealogy finally have her name.
00:29:14
Stacey Lyn Chahorski. But now they go public
to find the last piece of the puzzle, the identity
of Stacey's killer.
00:29:27
Ms. Chahorski was buried up
here in Dade County since 1989 in an unmarked grave,
known only as Jane Doe.
00:29:35
She'll be reunited with her
family as soon as we can. Today marks the day where
we hunt for the killer now.
00:29:46
NANCY GRACE: Even though this
murder dates back to 1988, "Bloodline Detectives"
have a viable DNA
00:29:53
sample from the man they
believe is Stacey's killer. Law enforcement
said, we want to use
00:30:00
the same technology to try
to identify the perpetrator. Can you help us? And so again we did that
feasibility analysis to measure
00:30:09
the properties of that DNA. It was also
contaminated because it was found outside on her pants.
00:30:14
And there was obviously much
less DNA from the perpetrator than there is the victim.
00:30:21
When they finally
got to a good point, they came up with
the name of Wise. So we then began,
from that point,
00:30:30
trying to find
relatives of Mr. Wise to do DNA comparison with that. They had numerous
leads that went
00:30:37
out throughout the country. They had some that went to
North Carolina, some that
00:30:41
went to Baltimore, some that
went to Detroit, some that went to other parts of Michigan.
00:30:45
We had two agents
go to the relatives and approach them and
explain what they were doing
00:30:52
and tell them what
they were trying to do and if they would permit
us to get DNA from them
00:30:58
in order to make sure that
we had the right person for this murder. David started out explaining
why they were there,
00:31:06
that they'd had an old homicide
investigation they were trying to clear and that they
had some DNA evidence they
00:31:12
were trying to compare it with. When you meet with
families and tell them that their loved one
has done a murder,
00:31:17
there's a lot-- well, they-- they always defend them and say
no, they would never do this.
00:31:21
They are not that
type of person. It didn't happen in this case. NANCY GRACE: It's a huge moment.
00:31:28
After over 30 years, detectives
finally have a name-- Henry Wise. I'd interviewed and
collected consensual DNA sample
00:31:38
from a living family member. And that sample confirmed
that it was Henry Wise. NANCY GRACE: But what more
is known about Henry Wise?
00:31:49
He was, at the
time, 34 years old. He was employed by
a trucking company who would do his route between
Birmingham and Chattanooga.
00:32:02
JOE MONTGOMERY: And he
was a very large man. He had the nickname of
Hoss, from the character
00:32:07
in the bonanza series
Hoss Cartwright. He was a very, very big man. He was very mean.
00:32:15
And things didn't go his way,
he always resorted to violence. He had a violent temper.
00:32:21
And he had multiple violent
confrontations with women, to including women close to him.
00:32:27
His criminal history
went back to the '80s. It was kind of hard to
find all these records.
00:32:31
But there were multiple
arrests in Florida. And we actually found
that he had been arrested
00:32:36
in South Georgia in 1988, which
was interesting before we kind of confirmed that it was him.
00:32:41
Because that places
him in the state during the approximate
time that Stacey was found.
00:32:46
NANCY GRACE: Wise is a
truck driver on weekdays. Weekends he drives stunt cars. It was 1999.
00:32:55
He was a stunt driver at
Myrtle Beach Speedway. And he died in a
crash, burned to death.
00:33:03
TIM BURKE: It would
have been more rewarding if he had been alive. But we can't control that.
00:33:07
And I think it's not the-- the only case we've had
where we've identified a subject who's deceased.
00:33:13
These cases are real old. We know as we build, as
we use this technique that that may be the case.
00:33:20
We may be dealing with
someone that's deceased. I believe that the good Lord
has justice for everybody.
00:33:26
Sometimes it's a little
bit more in your face than it normally is. And I think that Henry
Wise got a prerequisite
00:33:35
to where he's going. That was a fitting end
for the crimes he committed. Henry Wise dies in a
crash 11 years after he
00:33:49
murdered Stacey Lyn Chahorski. But "Bloodline Detectives"
are able to piece together
00:33:54
some of the details, gruesome
as they are, of Stacey's murder. And that is next.
00:34:03
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: May 2022,
Dade County, Georgia,
00:34:16
"Bloodline Detectives"
have solved the 1988 murder of Stacey Lyn
Chahorski who went
00:34:23
unidentified over 30 years. Her killer-- a truck
driver named Henry Wise who investigators believe picked
up Stacey along Interstate 59
00:34:35
before murdering her. Then Wise dies 11 years later. But detectives firmly
believe they can now
00:34:44
figure out some of the
details of what turns out to be a horrific crime. The working theory
that I have is she
00:34:53
was picked up either in
a truck stop somewhere either in Nashville or in
Trenton or Chattanooga.
00:35:03
It could have been
sporadic, you know? He could have just seen
her at the truck stop
00:35:05
and picked her up or walking
along the road or whatever. But there was some, even a
small bit of premeditation
00:35:13
probably involved. BRIAN OXMAN: He
picked Stacey up. He took her to a
different location
00:35:21
where he raped and beat her up. And after the
violent assault, he then made her get
dressed again and put
00:35:29
her back into his truck. And he drove her north
on Interstate 59. And while he was doing that, he
formed the intent to kill her.
00:35:42
He stopped just north of Rising
Fawn off ramp on Interstate 59. That's the place
that he killed her.
00:35:52
And that's the
place that he dumped her body over the embankment. JOE MONTGOMERY:
What stood out to me
00:35:59
most was the manual
strangulation. Because that takes a
good deal of force. It's very personal.
00:36:06
It shows a tremendous amount
of anger and a lot of force in overpowering a
person to do that.
00:36:12
Things did not go the
way he wanted them to. So he just basically took
Stacey and took her life.
00:36:19
Just brutal. Just absolutely brutal. NANCY GRACE: In the end, Stacey
Lyn Chahorski's loved ones
00:36:27
and family finally get the
answers they so desperately sought over 30 years. EVAN STONE: I was
tickled for the family,
00:36:38
not in a jokable
sense, but a sense of relief that the family would
actually know what happened.
00:36:45
Because I just can't
imagine myself, you know, number
one, of not knowing. And you don't know
where your daughter's at
00:36:52
or you don't know
where your son's at. It's just really hard. So I'm glad they got closure.
00:36:57
And I'm glad that the
authorities never gave up. I don't believe in closure. I don't believe that
you can take away
00:37:02
what happened to one
of these families, losing their loved
one or these victims.
00:37:08
But I do believe that
justice is necessary for them to be able to move on. Justice is not
for me to determine.
00:37:18
My task is to gather facts
and present it to the people who make those determinations.
00:37:24
And in this case, god will
make that determination. NANCY GRACE: When it comes
to solving cold cases,
00:37:31
heartless, brutal
killers like Henry Wise are no longer able to
hide from their own DNA.
00:37:41
TIM BURKE: Multiple law
enforcement agencies worked really hard for a lot of years.
00:37:45
It was actually led by
a couple FBI personnel in Baltimore, Maryland. So it wasn't just a local case.
00:37:52
It was really a national case. I can't say enough
about what a great job the Sheriff's Office
in Dade County
00:37:58
did in preserving the evidence. Because that's what got
us to where we were. And there's not a
lot of places anymore
00:38:05
that preserve evidence for that
long and take such great care. But I think that's
what an impact
00:38:11
that Stacey made on them. Because they wanted to
save this evidence in case we were able someday
to bring leads where
00:38:19
we could solve that crime. So I think that was
paramount in what they did in saving that evidence.
00:38:25
I think some people
were surprised that we had held on to it this long. But really GBI is the
one that held on to it.
00:38:35
They've got the
resources of the state. And, man, I'm telling you,
they're just here to help.
00:38:41
I have seen them out here
all night long, and just not quitting, never quitting.
00:38:49
They had a lot of cold leads. But as technology advanced
and the GBI's, you can see we're here today because
they never gave up, you know?
00:39:00
And 38 years later, a
mother's been able to bury her child in Michigan. Forensic genetic
genealogy has become
00:39:13
a marvelous tool to
identify criminal victims and perpetrators. In this case, which
was the very first time
00:39:23
that both the perpetrator
and the victim were identified
in the same crime. These answers are necessary
for the right story to be told
00:39:37
and for people to move
on with their lives. And there's a ripple effect. I've met investigators.
00:39:44
And it's their white whale. It's something that they can't
go to sleep without thinking
00:39:48
about every single night. Their family suffers. It truly is a
blast radius that's
00:39:54
bigger than you can imagine. Each one of these answers
helps hundreds of people.
00:39:58
And I can't imagine
doing anything more meaningful or more impactful. JOE MONTGOMERY: I don't
ever give up on these cases.
00:40:08
We've had four of
these cold cases solved in the last four years. And it's because of the
diligence of the agents
00:40:14
in that office, not
me, that they're willing to keep pushing to
keep thinking of new ways
00:40:20
to do things, to research and
to find out where we can use science to solve these cases.
00:40:29
After 34 long years,
the "Bloodline Detectives" and the remarkable science of
investigative genetic genealogy
00:40:39
combined to not only
track down the identity of a vicious killer,
but to give back
00:40:47
a name and in fact an identity
to a lady victim and her family who waited so long for answers.
00:40:57
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives." [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:41:10
[THEME MUSIC]