00:00:04
JOE BRUCIA: Here it
is January 4, 1997, and Carlie just got here. Hi, Carlie! - Hi, Papa.
00:00:11
[LAUGHTER] [CHUCKLES] JOE BRUCIA: Hello, there. - [LAUGHS] [EMOTIONAL MUSIC] JEANNE BRUCIA: This is
a picture of Carlie.
00:00:30
She is missing one
of her front teeth, and she just looks adorable. Carlie is more like a little
sister to me than my niece.
00:00:41
We were only eight years
apart, so it was like having a little sister around. - The head.
00:00:48
Pedal, push. - Here we have a video
of my brother teaching Carlie how to ride her
new bike outside.
00:00:55
There's a lot of snow on the
ground 'cause it was March. - Jeanne! - [CHUCKLES] She's
calling out for me.
00:01:01
[LAUGHS] Her
calling out for me. You know, it was-- the love went both ways. CHERI LANGWORTHY:
Everybody loved her.
00:01:13
She loved people. When she walked into a room,
her energy, you just felt it. She would have been
something special.
00:01:20
I know that because she
was, she was special. [OMINOUS MUSIC] [PHONE RINGING] - A child was reported
missing Sunday evening
00:01:44
during the Super Bowl. CRAIG SCHAEFFER: Carlie
was an 11-year-old girl. Everybody in the community
was very concerned.
00:01:51
JEANNE BRUCIA: I
turned on the news and there is my brother
being interviewed about Carlie's disappearance.
00:01:59
- I'd like to say
to the man who abducted her, you've done a considerable
amount of damage.
00:02:05
Please stop. Release my daughter. JEANNE BRUCIA:
Reality sets in very quickly that this is really
happening, and it's terrifying.
00:02:15
- The second that video came
into our possession, this case took a whole new turn.
00:02:21
- When you see
the video, you know in your pit of your stomach
that it's probably
00:02:26
not going to end well. DR. BRYANNA FOX: This is
a broad daylight interaction. Carlie was in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
00:02:34
And that's everybody's worst
nightmare, especially a parent. DET. TOBY DAVIS: We had
this great piece of evidence
00:02:41
that showed this crime having
occurred, but we were stumped. We simply had no
suspects to work with.
00:02:49
JEANNE BRUCIA: Watching my
brother navigate through grief and loss, it's excruciating.
00:02:57
It changes you forever. This bright future
that we had for Carlie, all those hopes
and dreams, you realize
00:03:05
they're never going to happen. It's just gone in a second. Yeah, he took
that away from us.
00:03:26
[SOFT PIANO MUSIC] This has to be my most
favorite picture of Carlie. I love that it was taken
here in my backyard.
00:03:58
We all have so many memories of
pushing each other on the swing and she just looked so happy.
00:04:06
[CHATTER] JOE BRUCIA: Come on.
I can't hear you. - When my sister
and I found out
00:04:11
that we were going
to have a niece, we couldn't wait
for her to be born. I was eight years
old at the time.
00:04:17
My sister was around 11. We were just beyond excited. Carlie was born
on March 16, 1992.
00:04:29
She arrived several
weeks early. She was perfectly healthy. It was just so exciting
to be able to hold her.
00:04:37
Carlie was the cutest. She had these big
electric blue eyes, this beautiful blonde hair,
and she was always smiling.
00:04:47
- [LAUGHS] Smile! JEANNE BRUCIA: My brother Joe
was just the greatest dad. He was so excited
to have a baby girl
00:04:55
and to share her
with our family. - But what do you have? JOE BRUCIA: Hmm? - What do you have?
00:05:08
JEANNE BRUCIA: Yeah, this must
have been the video [SOBS] right before she
left for Florida.
00:05:13
She was probably
leaving the next day. - Well, you know,
Carlie's going to Florida.
00:05:17
She's taking a big, big trip. Mm-hmm. MAN: Are you going
to Florida with Mommy? Are you going
to miss your daddy?
00:05:24
- Yeah. I do miss my daddy. JOE BRUCIA: Yes,
and we're all going to miss our little Carlie.
00:05:33
JEANNE BRUCIA: Carlie was about
two when I found out my brother Joe and his wife, Carlie's
mom, were separating,
00:05:41
and she was going to be
moving to Florida. We were devastated. I remember
my parents telling us
00:05:50
that we would see
Carlie over the summer and we would see her again
over the Christmas break.
00:05:56
My sister and I were
very upset about the fact that we would only
see her twice a year.
00:06:02
We were so used to having
her in our everyday life. But my brother
and Carlie, they just
00:06:09
had a wonderful
relationship and even though she was
living in Florida, they were in contact
all the time.
00:06:15
So they maintained
a close connection. [GENTLE MUSIC] - My daughter's name is
Mandy, and her and Mandy were
00:06:33
just like two peas in a pod. Carlie is
in kindergarten and her and my daughter were
in the same class.
00:06:43
When they first met, they
didn't like each other. They used to fight
[LAUGHS] and they
00:06:48
ended up being best friends. Sarasota has changed a lot. But back then, it was much
smaller and very laid back.
00:06:56
It was very like
a quaint kind of a town. You could play outside
until dark and not worry.
00:07:02
You could ride your bicycle
around town and not worry. Carlie was just
a typical five-year-old.
00:07:09
She was always at my house. We'd have dinner at her house,
she'd have dinner at our house,
00:07:15
and we'd go grocery
shopping together. We were more like family
than we were friends.
00:07:23
[SOFT MUSIC] [WIND BLOWING] She loved going to visit her
father, and she loved her aunt.
00:07:34
- Carlie's last visit to New
York, she was 11 years old, and she was really,
you know, and
00:07:43
turning more into like
a teenager than a little girl. CHERI LANGWORTHY:
She was growing up
00:07:49
and she was starting
to find her own way. I think she would have
done well in life,
00:07:55
I really do, if she would
have had the chance. JEANNE BRUCIA: Our last
conversation that we had,
00:08:01
I remember being in her
room at my brother's house. We were always upset when
we had to leave each other.
00:08:07
We talked about big plans
of her coming back to New York when she was 16, finishing
up high school in New York.
00:08:16
I look back on that
conversation. So thankful that I have that
memory and that moment with her
00:08:21
because that was our goodbye. [OMINOUS MUSIC] [PHONE RINGING] - It was February 1,
2004, Super Bowl Sunday.
00:09:12
- Detectives responded
out to her house and took the report
from the mother. - Even though she's
a child, she was still 11.
00:09:22
And she was responsible
kid, by all accounts, that everybody I spoke to. - Carlie's mom was living
a pretty good life.
00:09:30
She was a blue collar worker,
was a good mother to Carlie. DR. BRYANNA FOX: Carlie left
her friend's house around 6:15.
00:09:39
She was walking along
a relatively busy road. There were fast food
restaurants, coffee shops,
00:09:45
but there aren't
a lot of people out. - We were sitting at the dinner
table and the news came on.
00:09:58
It was like a news break
thing that she was missing. And my daughter Mandy
screamed, Carlie,
00:10:05
and we turned the TV off. None of us could believe it. I mean, it was shocking. - The only thing
that I was told
00:10:12
was that Carlie is missing. That's all that I knew. I was 19 at the time. My family may have known
more information that they
00:10:21
were shielding me from. The gravity,
and the seriousness wasn't something that
entered my mind right away.
00:10:31
I was like, OK, well,
we're going to find her. It's just we have to find her. But it was shortly thereafter
that the panic did set in.
00:10:41
CHERI LANGWORTHY:
I got on the phone and I called her mom,
Sue, and she was in tears.
00:10:46
Everybody went out looking. It was just surreal. It didn't seem real. It was like a nightmare.
00:10:54
DET. TOBY DAVIS: Detectives
got a list of Carlie's friends. They got a list of other places
that she could possibly be.
00:11:01
And they searched
throughout the night into the early morning hours,
but could not find Carlie.
00:11:07
JEANNE BRUCIA: My brother
Joe flew down to Florida right away to help with
the efforts to find her.
00:11:17
[INTRIGUING MUSIC] - In my job, you're kind
of jaded in many respects. You see horrible,
horrible things.
00:11:28
You relate to it, you
empathize with the parents who are missing their child,
and you don't
00:11:32
know where that child is. And I had kids, so it's
really hard to just turn off being a father or a citizen.
00:11:42
DET. TOBY DAVIS: It
is not a common thing for children of that age
to be missing overnight.
00:11:50
And so when she didn't come
back home that evening, we recognized that this
is an unusual case.
00:12:10
We contacted the Sarasota
County Canine Rescue, which is a group
of volunteers who
00:12:16
have bloodhound tracking dogs. In this case, Carlie
had spent the night at a friend's
on Bee Ridge Road,
00:12:23
and so we started a track
from her friend's house. CRAIG SCHAEFFER:
The police took bloodhounds
00:12:29
from the friend's
house and they tracked her four or five blocks away. It makes sense that she
would walk on Bee Ridge Road.
00:12:37
It's a main road, but the path
of the bloodhounds showed that she went behind
the car wash facility
00:12:43
and then the bloodhounds
scent stops. DET. TOBY DAVIS:
The owner of the business
00:12:48
came out and questioned,
what was going on? The detectives
told them that we had a missing girl in the area,
and that we had done this track
00:12:57
to the middle of the car wash. The owner said,
well, I have just installed a video camera
system and he would go check
00:13:06
to see if he saw anything. And that's kind of where
this story took a turn. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:13:17
It is immediately shocking. CRAIG SCHAEFFER: You
see Carlie walking in the back of the car wash.
00:13:23
And you see a man
walking right up to her, and you see him
say something, and you see him grab
her above the wrist,
00:13:30
and then they walk together
out of the video's view. It's a tough video to watch.
00:13:39
- When I watched
their surveillance video, I could tell by her
body language that she was kind
of taken aback,
00:13:47
and she looked kind
of frozen and like she didn't know what to do. I mean, she was
only 11 years old.
00:13:54
And then he pulled her away and
he pulled her off the screen and never saw her again.
00:14:01
- She was smart. And I was shocked that-- you know, it's like, why
is she going with him?
00:14:12
Did he have a weapon? It's like, uh-oh. And also thinking she's
got to be terrified.
00:14:19
I can't even imagine what
that poor child went through. - There was still hope by law
enforcement in our office
00:14:27
that we would find her,
but it's a scary video. JEANNE BRUCIA:
The feeling that you
00:14:33
get when you watch
that video, you know, you just want
to yell at your TV. Don't go!
00:14:39
Don't go with him! I wish that last
time Carlie and I saw each other that we had
talked about stranger safety.
00:14:49
But it's not something that
you typically talk about with your friends or your
little sister or your niece,
00:14:55
but I wish that I did. [SOMBER MUSIC] CHERI LANGWORTHY: Law
enforcement couldn't identify
00:15:11
the man at that point. They didn't know who he was. He wasn't related
to the family.
00:15:15
When they checked with
the family members. DET. TOBY DAVIS:
The video revealed that we were looking
for a white male,
00:15:21
somewhere between
the ages of 25 and 40. CHERI LANGWORTHY: He
was wearing a darker
00:15:25
blue mechanics uniform. He had a name tag
there, but we couldn't make that out from the video.
00:15:30
He walks with
a distinctive gait. DET. TOBY DAVIS: You
could tell by the way he walked up to Carlie
that he wasn't very tall.
00:15:39
He had short
cropped black hair, what appeared
to be tattoos, and was wearing some work shoes.
00:15:46
DR. BRYANNA FOX:
Police are immediately trying to do
everything they can, especially in a case where it
seems like a child is abducted
00:15:53
by somebody who's a stranger,
but at the same time, they're also very
aware that they
00:15:59
don't want to do something that
is going to spook that offender and make them cover their
tracks by harming that child.
00:16:06
So there's a fine
line that police walk. DET. TOBY DAVIS: We
weren't close to finding
00:16:12
who this person was. And so that night, in time
for the 11 o'clock news, we released the video to the
newspapers and the TV stations.
00:16:27
REPORTER (ON TV):
An AMBER Alert is in effect for Carlie Brucia. She was seen
on this surveillance
00:16:32
tape being approached
by a man and then led away. JEANNE BRUCIA: My mom told
us, don't listen to the radio.
00:16:38
Don't listen to anything. Because she's afraid that we
would hear something that we
00:16:43
shouldn't hear over the radio. [INTRIGUING MUSIC] DET. TOBY DAVIS: We were
immediately inundated
00:16:48
with information and tips. And the problem
with it is everyone who saw that film believed
that they knew that person.
00:16:59
Everyone thought their kind
of creepy neighbor was that person. Hey, my mechanic
is that person.
00:17:06
And so these tips just
started pouring in. [OMINOUS MUSIC] CHERI LANGWORTHY: One
person called in and
00:17:18
said based on his
gait, the way he looked, his
haircut, the uniform that looks like Joseph Smith.
00:17:29
- Smith at the time of this
event was 37 years old. He had a few run-ins
with the law already.
00:17:36
He had served time. He was on probation
for a drug offenses. This was a man who wasn't
exactly an upstanding citizen.
00:17:48
DET. TOBY DAVIS: When we
looked into Joseph Smith, we found out that
he was employed
00:17:52
as a mechanic at that time. His employer identified him
by his walk, by his haircut,
00:17:59
by his tattoos, and just
his general appearance. DR. BRYANNA FOX:
The former co-worker
00:18:04
of Joseph Smith said
to police, that's the way he grabbed the girl,
actually looked like the way
00:18:11
that Joseph Smith
would grab tools. Police wanted to talk
to Joseph Smith immediately.
00:18:20
DET. TOBY DAVIS: I
responded to this residence and we were there for quite
a while, banging on the door.
00:18:25
After about 30 minutes or so,
Joseph Smith came to the door, and we sat down
on his front porch
00:18:32
and we talked about
Super Bowl Sunday and what he had been doing. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:18:39
He said that he was watching
the Super Bowl at the house, that he had basically
been with people,
00:18:47
and I could check his alibi. In front of this house
was a vehicle that Joe identified as his own.
00:18:54
At that point, the probation
parole officer arrived and searched the vehicle. Drug paraphernalia
was found and
00:19:03
Joseph Smith was arrested
for violation of probation and taken to jail. While that is occurring,
a white female pulls up driving
00:19:13
a yellow station wagon. She identifies herself
as Joseph's roommate and that she and her husband
lived there together with Joe.
00:19:22
I took the roommate aside and I
asked about Joe's whereabouts on Super Bowl Sunday.
00:19:29
The roommate told me that
Joe was home the whole day, that she actually
saw him in the house,
00:19:34
and that they had
watched pretty much the whole Super Bowl. At that point, I eliminated
Joseph Smith as being
00:19:43
a suspect in this case. We're at a loss
as to what to do. [INTRIGUING MUSIC] JEANNE BRUCIA: I
would go to bed
00:19:56
at night just worried
about her, thinking, where could she be. Is she alone? Is she uncomfortable?
00:20:04
Is someone hurting her? I definitely played
scenarios in my head that she could
still be with us.
00:20:12
Could just be someone
took her somewhere and they're holding
her for a ransom? Anything but to think that
she's no longer with us.
00:20:22
CHERI LANGWORTHY: The entire
community stepped up to try to find this 11-year-old girl.
00:20:27
There was people
in my own family that were out searching
dumpsters and looking for her.
00:20:32
There was a lot of prayers
trying to find her alive, but the first 24
hours after somebody
00:20:37
goes missing,
the longer it takes, the harder it is to find
the person as a survivor.
00:20:50
DET. TOBY DAVIS:
Later on that evening, the front desk officer
at the Sheriff's Office
00:20:54
contacted me and said that
a man was at the front desk and that they were
dropping off a car
00:21:01
because the car was involved
in the Carlie Brucia abduction. And the front desk
officer told me
00:21:08
that it was
the husband and wife, roommates of Joseph Smith. The husband stated that
his wife had simply lied.
00:21:20
When I interviewed
the wife again, she had no explanation
for why she ever had said that Joseph
Smith was at the house
00:21:28
during the Super Bowl. According to them
both now, Joseph Smith had stolen their yellow station
wagon the previous Saturday
00:21:37
and had been missing
the entire weekend. Joseph Smith's alibi
completely fell apart.
00:21:43
Not only was it
not substantiated, it was a false alibi. - At that point, the car is
seized as potential evidence
00:21:49
in the case. A search warrant is conducted. You have a forensic
unit scouring the car for trace evidence.
00:21:57
Fibers, dirt, blood,
anything that would connect Carlie to the car. Ultimately, it did
find little threads
00:22:08
of pinkish, reddish cotton
in the back seat of the station wagon, consistent with
the shirt that Carlie had on,
00:22:16
which let everybody
know that she was basically in that back
portion of that vehicle
00:22:22
at some point. [OMINOUS MUSIC] DET. TOBY DAVIS: When it's
time to re-interview him,
00:22:45
Joseph Smith refused answering. And he requested his
rights to remain silent. But with his identification
and with the presence
00:23:21
of this vehicle, and with
now the roommate's help, we're able to start building
the case against Joseph Smith.
00:23:30
[INTRIGUING MUSIC] The first thing we do is we
go back to the videotape. When we discover other
cameras at the car wash,
00:23:40
showed views of the parking
lot, showed views of the car wash bays, and showed
views of the west bound
00:23:49
traffic on Bee Ridge Road. CRAIG SCHAEFFER: It
turns out that vehicle is seen in the videos
in the front of the car wash,
00:23:58
right before
Carlie is abducted. You see the station wagon
that was lent to Joseph Smith
00:24:05
that Sunday, driving in the
parking lot, doing a loop, circling back out onto Bee
Ridge Road, the main road.
00:24:12
Then you see it on Bee
Ridge Road heading west. And ultimately, we know
based on connecting the dots,
00:24:20
he came on the west, parked on
the west side of the car wash, abducts Carlie and takes
her into the car.
00:24:27
And that's why the bloodhound
scent ends right there, at that property line. DET. TOBY DAVIS:
It definitively
00:24:33
put Joseph Smith
in the Bee Ridge area, driving that yellow vehicle
in the area of the car wash.
00:24:40
I knew that we had
caught Carlie's abductor, that Joseph Smith had
committed this crime,
00:24:46
but Carlie's been
gone 72 hours, and she's not with the guy
that she's on the film with.
00:24:53
We need to find Carlie. [EMOTIONAL MUSIC] JEANNE BRUCIA: Carlie,
being a Florida girl,
00:25:07
loved the beach and the ocean. When Carlie would
visit in the summer, we would typically
have a couple
00:25:19
of days of vacation planned
where we went to the beach. We build fires on the beach.
00:25:28
We went out
to dinner and it was just one of those
special vacations that you never forget.
00:25:39
There's definitely
a feeling of dread when someone that you love
has been missing for days,
00:25:45
and you know that someone
purposely took her. There's a feeling
of helplessness.
00:25:52
You're just sitting around
waiting to find out what has happened to your loved one.
00:26:01
[OMINOUS MUSIC] DR. BRYANNA FOX: Joseph
Smith asked police if he could talk with his brother.
00:26:10
This was something that the
police were a little hesitant to allow, so they said
that only if it would
00:26:17
be approved by his lawyer. Interestingly, Joseph
Smith's public defender approved the meeting, and a few
days after the conversation
00:26:28
that John and Joseph
had, and this is after Carlie had been
missing for several days,
00:26:33
John alerts the police
that there may be information that he has. John was sort of, I would
say, torn on whether to go
00:26:58
to the police. It wasn't until he kind
of thought it over and then decided, OK, I have
to share this information
00:27:11
with law enforcement. Which is ultimately
what he did. DET. TOBY DAVIS:
Joseph Smith's brother
00:28:15
stated that he could get Joe
to tell us where Carlie was. CRAIG SCHAEFFER:
Law enforcement
00:28:21
assisted having
Joseph Smith meet with his brother John
Smith and his mother to talk about things privately.
00:28:29
DR. BRYANNA FOX: He
told his brother, oh, I thought she was older. I thought she was 16 or 17.
00:28:35
He wanted to see if that helped
to minimize his culpability and made him look less bad.
00:28:41
He said it was an accident. To me, every single thing
that Joseph said to his mother
00:28:48
and to his brother
was like pilot testing what he was ultimately going
to tell police and jurors,
00:28:55
and he wanted to see if they
were willing to believe it. If his family
didn't believe it,
00:28:59
why would a stranger
who's on a jury? JEANNE BRUCIA: My biggest
fears were that they were going
00:29:07
to find her body somewhere. But I still had some
hope that maybe she was just being held somewhere.
00:29:14
All those hopes were
distinguished pretty quickly. [SOMBER MUSIC] DET. TOBY DAVIS: Joseph's
brother and mother
00:29:30
contacted the Sheriff's
Office and said Joseph had confessed
to killing Carlie and had described
to his brother
00:29:39
where Carlie's body was. We were going to put
Joseph on a phone and Joseph was
going to describe
00:29:48
where he had taken Carlie
and where he had dumped her. Myself and two other agents
went to the brother's house.
00:29:57
We picked him up. The brother sat next to me
in the passenger seat and a phone was provided
to Joseph in the jail.
00:30:06
Joseph stated that he
had dumped her body at the first church
on Proctor Road, and that Carlie's body would
be found along a fence line.
00:30:16
We pull into the parking
lot, and I can see that there is
a fence line along the backside
00:30:23
of this church. I knew at that point that
we were in the right area. I knew that Carlie's
body was out there,
00:30:31
but I also knew that,
evidence-wise, I wanted the first
person to see that body to be a forensic
tech, because that
00:30:40
was going to enable
us to collect the best evidence possible. - The body of a beautiful
11-year-old girl,
00:30:49
Carlie Brucia, has been found. Joseph Smith is under
arrest for the abduction and murder of Carlie.
00:31:04
DR. BRYANNA FOX: When
police found Carlie's body, she was naked from
the waist down.
00:31:10
It was pretty clear that
she was sexually assaulted, and she had very obvious this
ligature marks on her neck,
00:31:18
meaning it was very clear
this little girl was strangled to death. CRAIG SCHAEFFER: It was tough.
00:31:25
It was a somber day
in our community. I knew tons
of friends and family that were out
searching for her.
00:31:31
I mean, an 11-year-old
girl was brutally murdered for no reason whatsoever. I wanted to bring
him to justice,
00:31:37
and it was just a sad day. [MELANCHOLY MUSIC] - I walked
in the front door and I can see my extended
family being
00:31:56
in the house, my aunts,
uncles, my parents, and it was just like a blur. But I just remember
my mom hugging us and
00:32:06
telling us that they found her,
and she was no longer with us. Our lives were never
going to be the same.
00:32:17
CHERI LANGWORTHY: I
went to Sue's house every day to help
'cause she was just really having a hard time.
00:32:25
The night that the sheriff
came by, I had this feeling. When I went home, I just knew.
00:32:30
I just-- something told me
that they had found her. Just as I pulled up
in front of the house,
00:32:36
the sheriff knocked
on the door and he told her. She dropped to her knees
and she let out this--
00:32:48
[SIGHS] this bellow I've
never heard in my life. When he told her that she
was dead, it was horrible.
00:33:16
JEANNE BRUCIA:
When we found out who had committed
this crime, it was a bit shocking
to know that it was
00:33:23
a father of three daughters. Words can't describe
the anger that someone has towards someone
who abducts,
00:33:32
assaults and murders
a young girl. DR. BRYANNA FOX:
A lot of people mistakenly assume that because
somebody is a child abductor,
00:33:42
rapist and murderer, that
they are just horrible and evil throughout every single
aspect of their entire life,
00:33:50
that they are a terrible
parent, that they are terrible at their jobs. That's not often the case.
00:33:57
In fact, usually the people
that are really vile and commit such despicable
acts tend to live
00:34:05
relatively normal lives. They blend in, they have
children of their own. They have a family.
00:34:12
They have a job. [EMOTIONAL MUSIC] JEANNE BRUCIA: We
were lucky enough to have our own funeral service
here in New York for Carlie.
00:34:38
It was definitely
a difficult day. We had it in a local church
and our neighbor is a deacon
00:34:48
and he knew Carlie,
so he talked about memories of seeing Carlie
swinging on the tree swing
00:34:54
and just having a great
time in the yard. The church was packed. Friends and family.
00:35:00
Friends I haven't
seen in years. Everyone just wanted to come
out to support us that day.
00:35:13
- Once you find
a little girl's body, you want to bring
him to justice. You know, frankly,
you want to give him
00:35:18
the death penalty right then. That's the human side of it. But there's a process,
and you have
00:35:23
to build the case properly. As a parent, you
feel for the family, you feel for the community,
but for him,
00:35:30
you want to bring him to
justice as swiftly as possible. [OMINOUS MUSIC] Joseph Smith was charged
with first degree murder,
00:35:47
with kidnapping
of a child under 12, and then sexual battery
on a child under 12.
00:35:53
DET. TOBY DAVIS:
The videotape was an amazing piece of evidence. And you have a picture of--
of at least the beginnings
00:35:59
of that crime. CRAIG SCHAEFFER:
John Smith, he had to testify against
his brother in a case
00:36:04
where we're seeking
the death penalty. And he did the right thing. JEANNE BRUCIA: Watching my
brother navigate through grief
00:36:12
and loss, and I have to go
and sit through a trial where they used to go
through every single step
00:36:18
of what happened to your loved
one, it's excruciating. In a way, focusing on making
sure that justice was served,
00:36:28
was a distraction from
the grief and the loss that we had all experienced. DET. TOBY DAVIS: We know what's
about to happen to Carlie.
00:36:36
That's what makes that
video so shocking. And you just want
to reach through there
00:36:42
and you want to stop her,
you want to stop him. You want Carlie to scream,
you want her to shout.
00:36:48
A bad guy has
grabbed her, and you can't fathom the trouble she's
in, and you can't stop it.
00:36:56
CRAIG SCHAEFFER:
The forensic lab ultimately testified in trial that
those pinkish reddish cotton
00:37:01
fibers found in the car were
consistent with the pink shirt that Carlie had
on when she was found.
00:37:10
JEANNE BRUCIA:
As a child went on, evidence showed that she
put up quite a big fight.
00:37:15
But you know, how
can an 11-year-old overpower a 38-year-old man? The fear that she must have
felt, she was all alone.
00:37:25
Just such a horrible thought
to have to think about an 11-year-old girl
being all by herself when
00:37:30
this was happening to her. Really no words can
describe the feeling that I get when I think
about her last few moments.
00:37:39
She must have been so scared. [SOMBER MUSIC] CRAIG SCHAEFFER:
The evidence was strong.
00:37:55
There was no doubt the jury
was going to find him guilty. JEANNE BRUCIA: What
we were all worried
00:38:00
about was his sentencing. Our minds went right
to the next thing. Let's get him
the death penalty.
00:38:06
That was our focus. If Carlie didn't get
to live, why-- why should he get the chance to live?
00:38:17
DET. TOBY DAVIS: We went
into a penalty phase, which talked about the atrociousness
of these crimes,
00:38:24
about the cruelty
of the crimes, and about the heinousness
of the crimes. And then the state
asks the same jurors
00:38:32
to pass a sentence
of death on Joseph Smith, and he, by attended
to margin, was found guilty
00:38:41
and was sentenced to death. JEANNE BRUCIA: There was
another sigh of relief from me and my family.
00:38:48
We were all happy for this
very small victory. What we didn't know was
that it wasn't over yet.
00:39:00
[INTRIGUING MUSIC] CRAIG SCHAEFFER:
There is a case that came out of the US Supreme
Court on the death penalty.
00:39:09
And unfortunately,
the Florida Supreme Court looks at that case,
interprets that anything
00:39:15
that was not unanimous, was
being reversed for sentencing, a new sentencing. He would still have
life in prison.
00:39:20
There was no question he
would have life in prison. The question is, do we
get the death penalty?
00:39:25
In my eyes, my boss's eyes,
law enforcement's eyes and the victim's family's
eyes, you can't do what
00:39:31
he did to an 11-year-old
girl and not receive the death penalty. So we were gearing up
to do a resentencing, which
00:39:38
means you have to bring
everybody back in, the medical examiners, present
all the evidence to a new jury
00:39:44
to seek the death
penalty again. JEANNE BRUCIA: While we were
waiting for that to happen,
00:39:50
I got a phone call from
my mom to let me know that Joseph Smith was dead. CRAIG SCHAEFFER: Joseph Smith
died in prison of liver cancer,
00:40:00
and I was happy. And I think most
people, when I told them the news felt the same.
00:40:07
JEANNE BRUCIA: It was
surprisingly very emotional. I broke down
and started crying.
00:40:13
It was finally over. It was just a moment of,
like, a sigh of relief that this is really over now.
00:40:22
This battle has ended. CRAIG SCHAEFFER: Carlie's
mom was a devoted mom and wanted justice
for her daughter.
00:40:32
Unfortunately, she died
before Joseph Smith died. And she didn't
actually get to learn
00:40:37
he had passed away in prison. DR. BRYANNA FOX: Carlie's
mother died of a drug overdose.
00:40:44
It seemed like this was just
her only coping mechanism. It didn't matter
that Joseph Smith
00:40:50
received a death sentence,
or probably even that he died. There was nothing
that was going
00:40:55
to fill the void that
Carlie's loss caused, and the family was just never
going to be the same again.
00:41:01
CHERI LANGWORTHY: Life wasn't
the same when she lost Carly. He destroyed that family.
00:41:09
The whole family just-- it destroyed them. [EMOTIONAL MUSIC] JEANNE BRUCIA: I did go to
Florida, probably within a year
00:41:24
after Carlie's death. It felt special to go
and visit Carlie's school, where she spent so much
time and made friends.
00:41:39
CHERI LANGWORTHY: The church
where they found her body, they made a garden
there for Carlie.
00:41:44
I go down to the garden
on her birthdays, holidays or whatever. I talked to her.
00:41:49
Just tell her what's going
on and tell her we miss her and tell her we love her,
that we won't forget her.
00:42:02
JEANNE BRUCIA: Not only did
this horrible tragedy affect my immediate family,
but it affected
00:42:08
my extended family as well. I have a cousin, Matt. When Matt found
out about Carlie,
00:42:14
he had the same
feeling of helplessness that we all did and it really
impacted him and he just wanted
00:42:23
to do something to help. MATTHEW BARBIS: Nothing was
going to bring Carlie back,
00:42:27
but I wanted to make sure
that it never happened to anyone else's family. And that inspired me
to create the Rose
00:42:33
Bush Educational Foundation. [INSPIRING MUSIC] Carlie is our image
of our foundation,
00:42:41
and we do everything
in memory of Carlie, but the motivation for naming
it after my grandmother
00:42:46
was so that I would never
exploit Carlie's name. I just wanted to go
to my local elementary school
00:42:52
and talk to the kids in my
neighborhood and tell them, these are the things that
you need to do to stay safe.
00:42:59
The program is in 92
countries across the globe. I'll always do this
because of Carlie's memory
00:43:07
and in honor of Carlie. So for me, it's
the rest of my life. [EMOTIONAL MUSIC] JEANNE BRUCIA: I think
about Carly every day.
00:43:21
She wanted to be
the life of the party. She loved being
around other kids, be involved in what
everyone else was doing.
00:43:29
She just wanted
to be part of it. WOMAN: Merry Christmas.
- Merry Christmas! - Hi!
00:43:32
CHERI LANGWORTHY: She would
have been somebody's special. You could see it. She was somebody special.
00:43:39
I think she should be
remembered like sunshine. JEANNE BRUCIA: Butterflies
kind of became the symbol
00:43:48
of her still being with us. My brother often sees
butterflies and thinks of her.
00:43:55
He has a garden and-- on his deck and his backyard
yard, and a lot of the plants
00:44:00
that he has kind of draw
in the butterflies, and it's just something
that reminds us of her.
00:44:17
[THEME MUSIC] [AUDIO LOGO]