09x02 - In My Heart, I Knew

[bunniefuu]

[ominous music playing]

We received a call from dispatch

that a sixteen-year-old
girl was missing.

I knew that it was more tha

a teenager not coming home.

We went through all of her
social media accounts.

She was vulnerable.

She was a child.

The men who used these websites

are potentially predators.

[telephone ringing]

[dispatcher speaking]

[man speaking]

[dramatic music playing]

[mellow music playing]

[narrator] Sixteen-year-old
Diamond Bradley

is the life and soul
of every family party.

Woo, let's get
this party started, guys!

- Come on!
- [cheering]

She's 16,

she always had something to say,

and always made people laugh,

and she was fun...
she was fun to be around.

[narrator] Today
is mom Doris' birthday,

the perfect excuse
for some family time.

Their relationship
was wonderful.

I mean, whenever
my mom would be upset,

she'd go talk to Diamond.

Wouldn't even...
wouldn't even call me.

Um, they were really close.

-[cheers and applause] -Okay.
Guys, guys, get around mom.

- I wanna grab a picture.
- [Doris] All right. Okay.

Do a silly one.

Family to Diamond
was very important.

She used to be my babysitter.

She'd be like, "Oh,
mom, I'll watch the kids."

She loved her siblings.

And she always said, "Well, mom,

if you ever get old,
I'll take care of you.

Don't nobody else is
gonna take care of you."

[cheers and applause]

I saw she had potential,
because I told her

she can do anything
she set her mind to doing.

So, how are your courses going?

- They're going good.
- [man] Mmm-hmm.

Diamond was enrolling
into a GED program.

She wanted to get
into, like, nursing.

She's big on, like,
helping people.

To see somebody so young

have that type of, you know,
drive to wanna be better,

I was really proud of her.

I have faith in her that
she was gonna do it.

And I knew she can do it.

- Okay, come on. We gotta get back.
- Oh, no. Gosh.

We have to take pictures.

We just celebrated that day.

All my family was there.

It just made me feel
great, I felt great about it.

I was happy that day.

[dramatic music playing]

[Doris] Come on, everybody.
You're gonna be late!

When I woke up
that morning as usual,

I get up to make sure

the other kids were up,
to get ready for school.

Hello?

So I went up the stairs and...

Diamond.

She wasn't in her room

and I'm like, "Okay.

Where would
Diamond get up and go

at the cr*ck of dawn
in the morning?"

She'll usually go
to the gas station.

It was, like, right across

from where we lived, and
then got a cup of coffee,

and come back home.

[line rings]

I kept trying to call her phone,

but it just kept going,
like, straight to voicemail.

[operator] Please leave
a message after the tone.

And I'm like, "This
is not like Diamond."

[line rings]

You know, she wasn't
answering phone calls,

text messages, nothing.

[line ringing]

So I started asking
all of her friends like,

"Hey, you know, you
heard from Diamond?

Are you with her?"

And nobody heard
or seen anything,

so it's kinda...

I was starting to get
a little shooken up.

Okay. If she shows up, can
you tell her to call me, please?

- I'm gonna go look for her.
- [Doris] Okay.

- Call me if anything happens.
- [Doris] Just please

keep me in touch, okay?

I tried to figure out
where she could be.

I mean, uh, there was only
a few places that I knew.

Like the...

Like, middle of the day,

like, 2:00, 3:00

is when I really
started getting worried,

because she usually
texts me by then.

And I haven't, like,

heard nothing from her.

I was like, "Well, I'm just
gonna call the police."

[line rings]

[dispatcher speaking]

We received a call from dispatch

that Doris Bradley
had called to report

her 16-year old daughter,

Diamond Bradley, was missing.

And I responded to
the Bradley residence.

And when was the last
time you've seen Diamond?

[Sgt. Kinkin] To her
mom's knowledge,

she wouldn't have had any money.

She also didn't have
access to a vehicle,

so, uh, it was unknown

how she could've
gotten very far.

And did she take her cell phone?

She took one of them with her.

[Doris] Diamond had two phones.

Like a regular cell phone
and she had a phone

that she used when
she text people off of.

So I had found that
phone in her room.

Here you go.

I assumed that that phone

was being used for purposes

of doing things
that she didn't want,

Doris as her mother,

to be aware that she may
be doing or participating in.

[eerie music playing]

The phone was locked, so
we didn't have the passcode

so we weren't able to see

all the information
on the phone.

However, there were,
like, popup notifications

and I could read
small bits of content

of messages that Diamond
had been receiving.

There were many people

who had talked with Diamond

about meeting up

who I assumed
were different men.

Any of these people
look familiar to you?

No. I don't know them.

The text messages
automatically put me

at a higher level of alert.

I felt that something bad
could have happened.

[narrator] Sgt. Kinkin
takes the phone away

for analysis.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] While
Officer Pellegrini

starts canvassing
the neighborhood.

When you first find that, um

a sixteen-year-old
female is missing,

you're immediately
talking to the neighbors,

talking to potential witnesses,

looking through CCTV
surveillance videos

in that immediate area.

CCTV is so important,

most of the times that's
whe you solve all your crimes.

Doris had explained to me

that Diamond would wake up early

and she'd walked to
the gas station for coffee.

I walked into the
building and only noticed

that they had inside cameras,

not outside cameras.

However, the inside
camera facing the doorway

did catch a little glimpse

of the outside of the building.

[ominous music playing]

Can you show me the
footage from 6:30 this morning?

Yeah.

We're looking for
her to see if she went

to any gas stations
or if she was walking,

um, down the street, or
anywhere near the apartment.

[tense music playing]

We were hoping
that we saw Diamond,

so that we could
solve this case,

and find out where Diamond was.

Can you rewind on that?

I observed what I thought

was to be a black Jeep
pull into the parking lot.

Can you freeze it there?

However, we could not
determine the license plate.

Okay. Keep playing.

All of a sudden, you
see a male appear

that comes in from
the same general area

from where the Jeep is.

Do you have an angle
that's behind the counter?

[Chief Adam] He's in
there for a couple minutes,

purchases something,

and leaves.

You are looking at anything

that sticks out as odd.

Unfortunately, we did not se

Diamond Bradley
leave with anybody

or did not see her

inside the Marathon
station at that time.

Thank you.

[tense music playing]

The next morning,

the chief of police contacted me

and informed me that Doris

and Diamond's sister Jasmine

were at the police department.

Jasmine had a
lot of information.

I think it was probably easier

for Diamond to share
certain information

with her sister as
opposed to sharing

that information with her mom.

There's something
that I need to tell you.

[tense music playing]

Jasmine was aware

that Diamond had been using

an advertising website.

Diamond would place ads

on these websites

and she would agree to meet men.

When Doris found out,

she was understandably
very upset,

very surprised.

[Doris] Why didn't you tell me?

I'm sorry, mama.

It just... It just hurt

to know that she was doing that

and I never knew, and
certain people knew

and nobody never told me.

Yes, that hurts a lot.

That being my family
and all that, I'm sorry.

[dramatic music playing]

She was just, like,
in a dark place at...

For that moment, and she
tried to blame herself for it,

and say, you know...

she wasn't being a good mom.

I mean, my mom
is an excellent mom.

Diamond, she was 16 years old.

She was vulnerable.
She was a child.

The men who use these websites

are potentially predators.

It's just an incredibly
dangerous position to be in.

[narrator] Officer Kinkin turns

her attention to
Diamond's second phone.

Jasmine and Doris did not have

physical possession
of that second phone.

But Jasmine was aware
of the phone number

and she was also
aware of the carrier.

Cell phones in
general are very useful

in a missing persons case.

You're looking at call logs

you're looking at text messages,

you're looking at location data.

[narrator] Even
without the phone itself,

investigators can
use cell tower data

to track its location.

Chief Curran was able
to determine the path

from her residence
that the phone traveled

through town and
then out of town.

This gave us not only a pat

to check for CCTV,

but it gave us time frames.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Officers begin
sourcing surveillance video

along the route.

Her cell phone
data showed us that

one of the major intersections
that Diamond crossed over

was St. Paul and
Spalding Street.

There was a local bar
there it's called Valley Pub,

that I knew there was a camera

that face the intersection.

Hey, here's the
footage from the pub.

Take us to about 6:40 a.m.

We know she's in a vehicle.

I was looking for one,
a license plate, or two,

actually seeing Diamond
pass in a vehicle.

Okay. Stop.

Can you zoom in?

I can't make it out.

We're unable to
determine a license plate

of any vehicle.

It's like looking for a
needle in a haystack.

[narrator] Cell phone
data puts Diamond

at this intersection,

so investigators keep
studying the footage.

I literally watched
the video over,

and over, and over.

You have to stop,
pause it, try to zoom in,

try to see if you can
obtain any other information.

Officers were able to determine

that they were 13 vehicles

that came through
the intersection

during the time that
Diamond went missing.

[narrator] The next morning

officers decide to stake
ou the intersection.

Uh, we actually
set up a squad car

that face southbound
on that intersection...

to see what common traffic

travels on that road every day.

After going back
and viewing an hour

and a half of footage
two days in a row...

we determined that eleven

out of the thirteen vehicles...

went through that
intersection every day

There were two
vehicles that were outliers

that did not go

with that normal
traffic pattern.

Can you pull up the
Valley Pub camera again?

One was a red Chevy


and the other one
was a black Jeep.

I was thinking to
myself that this could be

a possible break in our case.

[eerie music playing]

We were able to narrow it down

the vehicles to a
red pickup truck...

and a dark-colored Jeep.

We were all very excited
to have a solid lead.

Our next course
of action was to see

if those vehicles passed by
the next surveillance camera

that we located.

[narrator] Along the route,
Diamond's phone traveled,

police obtained footage
from a home security system

facing the street.

Let's go to 6:50 a.m.

[eerie music playing]

There's the Jeep.

Rewind and play it again.

We've picked up
the black Jeep again,

traveling southbound,
passe the intersection.

This is... This is good.

There's no sign of the pickup.

So we moved all of our attention

towards the black Jeep.

I felt like we were getting
somewhere with the case.

But we still did not
have a license plate.

We still have not seen Diamond

and we were only going off

where her cell phone
was pinging at that time.

Her cell phone pinged again

showing that she was moving

southbound towards the bridge.

Next camera footage
was from the top

of Route 89 which is...

We call it Toedter Oil hill.

Okay. Let's see the
camera at Toedter Oil.



Okay. Go back.

There. Freeze it.

Around 6:55 a.m...

we saw the Jeep
passed Toedter hill

and then go out of camera view.

[narrator] Police
tracked Diamond's phone

into neighboring Putnam County.

Its last known
location is somewhere

on a remote road.

We know from the cameras
that this Jeep traveled

the same direction traveled
as Diamond's cell phone.

We all wanted to find Diamond.

We all wanted to
bring Diamond home.

We had to find the
owner of the black Jeep

[phone rings]

[dispatcher speaking]

[man speaking]

[dispatch speaking]

[man speaking]

[dispatch speaks]

[man speaking]

[dispatch speaking]

[man speaking]

When we arrived on scene...

I immediately recognized
it to be Diamond.

She had multiple
wounds that indicated

a homicide had taken place.

We were angry that
someone did this

to a young girl
from our community.

We were angry for
what the family is going

to have to go through.

Everyone's resolve
became even stronger

that we're gonna
find who did this.

We're gonna hold them
accountable and we can...

We'll do everything in our power

to get this figured out.

[dramatic music playing]

[knocks on door]

[Sgt. Kinkin] Hi,
Doris. Can we come in?

When they came to the house...

I just... I don't know.

I just felt it in my heart

that I already knew.

No, no.

No.

It hurt when they told me

they found her not alive,

but dead.

[sobs]

My mind immediately
went blank...

freaked out.

I just was trying
to breathe and...

went outside and...

It was... It was
really, really hard.

I had two other
little kids who...

That needed me so...

It took a minute...

but I just...

did it for them.

Like, I knew this is something
Diamond would want.

She wouldn't want me to...

To just give up like that,

and I never gave up.

[tense music playing]

[narrator] Chief Curran
analyzes Diamond's

cell phone records and hones in

on her last text exchange.

Diamond had been
hanging around a male

that lives in Spring
Valley that they called Jay.

[man] Have a seat.

This led us to speaking with Jay

and seeing what he knew.

He showed us some text messages

that he had received
from Diamond

on the morning that she
was reported missing.

The first message he received...

it was Diamond asking him
if he wanted to go to IHOP.

She wrote back, "Oops, my bad."

Basically, indicating
she may have texted

the wrong person.

A short while later,
he received a message

from Diamond...

that said, "I'm dying."

That was the last message
that he received from her.

The text messages could hav
been taken one of two ways.

One, she said she's
dying of hunger.

She wanted to go to IHOP

or on the flip side of that,

it was a message that
she could have sent

to him when she was dying.

But there was nothing
with Jay that would indicat

that he was
involved with anything

that could have
happened with Diamond.

Beyond the text messages
that he received from her,

he had no further information.

Jay was not a suspect.

[eerie music playing]

The strongest lead we
had was that black Jeep,

and now we needed
to find that person,

and we needed to find
him as soon as possible.

I knew that it was gonna
be a very difficult process,

sorting through
all of the potential

dark-colored Jeeps.

We had... I mean, we
had stacks of papers

of all these Jeeps

and their addresses
and the owners.

[narrator] Officers reach out

to a specialist Jeep
body shop for advice.

Our team was able
to find an expert

to analyze the video.

Yeah. That's a Wrangler.

Oh, okay.

It was a Jeep Wrangler,

and he was able to say

with confidence that it was made

within a two-year window.

It narrowed it down to a much
more manageable number.

And now, we felt like
we were zeroing in

on the suspect.

[tense music playing]

We divided the Jeeps
up by geographic area

and teams went
out to those areas.

It was boots on the ground,

talking to people,
finding Jeeps.

First Jeep that we checked on,

it was a different year
than we needed it to be.

The next Jeep on
our list belonged

to a male named
Richard Henderson.

The female who
lived at that house

said he hadn't lived
there in quite some time.

She didn't know
what kind of vehicle

he was driving at this point

- Okay.
- [man] Thank you very much for your time.

He had moved nearby
to the town of Standard.

So the other investigator
and I, we went to Standard.

As we pulled into town...

we turned, and the black Jeep.

[knocks on door]

Right away, a male
came to the door.

He identified
himself as Richard.

Is that your Jeep?

He seemed very cooperative

and willing to speak with us.

[narrator] Richard Henderso

is brought in for questioning.

And Officer Pellegrini
gets his first look

at the suspect.

So before they
interviewed him...

I got to see his
face, obviously.

I went back to the
Marathon gas station video.

You can observe the black Jeep

pull into the parking lot.

I then see a male subject..

Who exited the vehicle

and walked in the front door

That is definitely a
positive match there.

It was Henderson.

He was in that
area at that time,

approximately 75 feet away

from Diamond's residence.

That was a big
piece of the puzzle.

I relayed that message
to the investigators

that were gonna be
interviewing Henderson

at the time.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaks]

Through our conversation,

Richard explained that
he was in Spring Valley

on the morning that
Diamond had disappeared.

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

He said he went to
the gas station that...

He bought a pack of cigarettes.

He admitted he went
through the St. Paul

and Spalding Street
intersection which again

was verified by the
surveillance footage there.

He admitted he drove past

the gas station out of town

as he drove into Putnam County.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

- [man speaking]
- [Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaks]

Where his story started

to just completely unravel

is when he told us

his route that he took
when he left Spring Valley,

he said he turned left by a
factory called Color Point.

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

The fact that he
hesitated, that to me,

it was... It was
out of character.

I think that is what
first made us both think

at the same time, there's
something to this guy.

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[narrator] Richard
claims he was trying to buy

the drug MDMA, known
as ecstasy or Molly.

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

My first thought
was, "This is it."

And he just admitted
to being with Diamond.

This is our guy.

You feel your heart
jump out of your chest.

You feel your stomach sink.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

- [man speaking]
- [Richard speaks]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

One of the lies that he told us

was that they went to a
trailer park and Diamond

was going to buy dr*gs for him.

The trailer park is in
the opposite directio

of where Diamond's
cell phone traveled.

So we know that
this is not true,

because that's not
where her cell phone went.

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaks]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaks]
- [man speaks]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

He didn't appear
nervous still at this point.

He did not...

He wasn't upset,

he wasn't confrontational.

He just fortunately
kept talking.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

At this point,

he took a ride with them
to show his route of travel.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaks]

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

He showed them behind
a local convenience store

where he picked up Diamond.

They drove the route we
knew that the phone went.

[man speaking]

- [Richard speaking]
- [man speaking]

He drove over a bridge
into Putnam County.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

- [man speaking]
- [Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

Along that route
where Diamond's body

had been recovered,

friends and family of hers

had set up a memorial.

There were flowers,
there were stuffed animals,

there were signs people made

When they got him to that area,

his demeanor
changed substantially.

[Richard crying]

[man speaking]

He would not look
at the memorial.

He turns his head, he
wouldn't make eye contact,

and he started to cry.

[man speaking]

At this point, it was just
getting him to confess,

just to tell the truth.

[Richard crying]

This was one of
the turning points

in the interview.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man 1 speaking]

[man 2 speaking]

[Richard speaking]

- [man] Okay.
- [Richard speaking]

How he described
it is that even though

she had been
stabbed in the stomach,

she kept on coming
after him with the Kn*fe.

He got the Kn*fe away
from her and stabbed her

a couple times.

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[man speaking]

[Richard speaking]

From how Richard described

his account of the events,

to me, it didn't make sense.

The fact that

he was significantly bigger

and stronger than she was,

to me, it just
simply didn't add up.

[narrator] Richard
Henderso is brought back in

for further questioning.

[Sgt. Kinkin speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[Sgt. Kinkin speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[Sgt. Kinkin speaking]

[Richard speaking]

[narrator] Henderson
is take into custody

in Putnam County.

There, he volunteers
more information.

He admitted that
the Kn*fe, he threw it

at his place of employment

in a wooded area.

So we went to the spot

and we began with
shovels and rakes,

digging through a massive amount

of debris from the factory.

I was looking through the debris

that was falling out, I
just happened to see

something shiny.

I checked, and sure
enough that was the Kn*fe.

It really tied
everything together.

[narrator] Investigators
now form a theory

of the events that
lead to Diamond's death

Richard and Diamond
connected online and agreed

to meet in person.

He picked her up
at the gas station

and drove out of town.

A fight broke out and Richar
brutally stabbed Diamond.

I believe that the
Kn*fe was Richard's,

I believe that he
brought it with him.

It was clear from
the amount of wounds

that she had...

and the places where
the wounds were located

on her body.

This was not an accident.

He tried to say that the
reason Diamond d*ed

was because of self-defense

the evidence proved otherwise.

In my opinion,

any person who could do that

to a sixteen-year-old
girl is a monster.

[narrator] Richard
Henderso is charged

with the m*rder of
Diamond Bradley.

He pleads guilty
and is sentenced

to 53 years without parole.

Henderson's motivation
remains a mystery.

Each clip of the
video, in isolation,

is not a case-breaker.

But putting pieces together

to build the puzzle,

and the cell phone data...

we were able to nail Henderson.

[dramatic music playing]

With Diamond
passing, it's just...

It's sad, but it brought
everybody closer.

Anybody who truly knew her,

knew like she was
an awesome person.

She lit my life up, she
lit my mom's life up.

She was a bright person.

[Tracey] Not a day
that goe by I don't think

about my daughter.

It's like...

It would never be the same
because she's not there.

The 16 years I spend with her,

I love them all, I don't regret.

None of them.

Just spending time together

She always,
um, was a beautiful person

and that she loves me.

It's just... I'm sorry.

[dramatic music playing]