04x11 - Haunting Vision

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: on september , , dianne keidel met a

Boyfriend for a drink at a local night spot.

After leaving the bar, she disappeared.

Officials weren't sure whether she ran away from the

Responsibilities facing a single mother with four young children

Or perhaps had been the victim of foul play.

That question was answered years later, when her daughter

Came forward with a fantastic tale of something she saw when

She was years old.

In , -year-old dianne kidder went to work in

Her father's grocery store in peoria, illinois.

She needed the money, since she was recently divorced and was

Raising her -year-old daughter, suzie.

And it was in that store one day where she met a bachelor from

Town, gene keidel.

Gene wasn't the best looking guy in the world, but he is a

Good talker.

He's a very good talker, and he was able to woo her.

Narrator: the couple dated for a year, fell in love, and

Eventually married.

They moved to phoenix, arizona, where gene found work in the

Growing construction industry.

Together, gene and dianne had three more children -- greg,

Kelly, and lori.

My siblings and I were really close, yeah.

There was a lot of great childhood memories.

Narrator: over time, dianne and gene decided that it was

Best for all concerned if they divorced.

On september th, the couple met for dinner at a nearby

Restaurant to discuss the final details of the property

Settlement and visitation.

By all accounts, the meeting went well.

Afterwards, dianne dropped gene off at his apartment.

From there, dianne drove to the amber inn, where she met

Bob marlin, a man she had been casually dating since her

Separation.

A few hours later, gene keidel called dianne at the house, and

When the children said she still wasn't home, he went over to

Babysit and fell asleep on the sofa.

The next morning, gene said he found his wife's car in the

Driveway, but there was no sign of her.

Gene called the police department and reported her

Missing.

I know she arrived home -- her car was there, her purse was

In the house, her keys were in the house, on the table in the

Kitchen.

Dianne did not take any clothes with her that we learned of, and

There was no reason for her to run away.

There was no motive there.

Narrator: missing-persons investigators couldn't

Understand why dianne would have left town without her children.

Her neighbors, her mother, and her brother all indicated

That mrs. Keidel would never leave her children for any

Length of time.

They described her as an excellent mother, very

Concerned about her children.

Narrator: when police went to interview bob marlin, the man

Dianne was with at the bar, they were told an incredible piece of

News -- bob marlin suffered a heart att*ck and d*ed the day

After his date with dianne.

Whatever marlin might have known about dianne's disappearance

Went with him to his grave.

Narrator: two days after dianne keidel's mysterious

Disappearance, gene keidel moved back into the family home to

Look after the four children.

My father's explanation to not only his children, but to

Neighbors and anybody that would inquire about my mother's sudden

Disappearance, was that my mother had run off with a

Boyfriend.

Narrator: gene provided police with a list of men he

Said dianne had been dating since the separation, but they

All were dead ends.

Over time, the keidel children adjusted to life without their

Mother, although they all hoped that someday she would return.

[ Siren wails ] narrator: but four months

Later, tragedy struck once again.

Around : at night, while gene was at a nearby laundromat, a

Fire broke out in the keidel's home.

The blaze quickly engulfed the entire house, and the four

Children were trapped in their bedrooms.

Lori, lori, come on!

Come on, wake up!

Wake up, lori!

Come on, there's a fire!

Narrator: suzie, the oldest, led the others around the

Flames...

Wait, I forgot my doll!

Narrator: but lori ran back into her bedroom for her winnie

The pooh stuffed animal.

[ Screams ] I fell on the floor.

I was burnt, I was crying, I wanted my mother...

And my older sister suzie came in.

The house was ablaze around us, and so she laid on top of me.

She said that "they're coming for us now, lori.

They'll help us."

She said, "I love you."

And she said, "I'll never, ever leave you."

I love you, and I'll never, ever let you go, I promise.

[ Crying ] shh.

And, at that point, we d*ed, and she held me.

Narrator: suzie gave her life protecting lori from the

Flames, although lori suffered third-degree burns over % of

Her body.

I was continually loved by my sister, as she held me and d*ed

Protecting me.

The trauma, the nightmares, the horror of it -- that doesn't go

Away.

I just try to overcome that with knowing that I was loved -- that

I was valuable enough...

To die for.

What can you say?

I mean, when you see that, it takes your breath away.

I mean, you realize that person made the ultimate sacrifice.

Narrator: -year-old kelly also d*ed in the fire.

-Year-old greg survived.

Gene keidel arrived at the scene just as firemen were pulling

The children from the blaze.

Investigators found a melted pot on the stove-top burner -- the

Knob was in the "on" position.

As a result, the fire was ruled "accidental."

After spending four months in a hospital burn unit, lori went

Back to live in the family home her father had rebuilt after the

Fire, but one year later, there was an incident that helped lori

Realize the terrible truth of what happened to her mother.

It happened when lori and her father went to a friend's

Funeral.

His name was michael -- a boy from the neighborhood who was

k*lled in the vietnam w*r.

Daddy, when is he going to wake up?

He's not -- he's dead.

They're going to bury him today.

Wake him up!

Wake him up!

And I began to cry, and I threw a very large

Distraction -- a very large fit, trying to make people understand

That we needed to wake michael up, that I wasn't going to

Permit them to bury michael in the ground.

I was the only living person that now knew the secret of my

Mother.

Narrator: but it took another years for lori to reveal the

Deep, dark family secret she had been harboring.

Narrator: in , after dianne keidel had been missing

For years, her only surviving daughter, lori, walked into the

Phoenix police department with a written statement.

It described a terrible secret she had been too afraid to

Reveal.

"To whom it may concern: I need to convey to authorities

What I witnessed as a child.

First, I must greatly impress the fear I have of my father's

Violent retaliation.

I was often told when I was a child, by my father, 'i brought

You into this world -- I can take you out.'"

Narrator: the letter went on to say that as a -year-old

Child, lori saw her father b*at her mother to death and then

Bury her in the backyard.

At first, lori thought her mother was sleeping, as

Hibernating animals do.

She said she once asked her father if she could dig a hole

In the backyard to feed her mother.

As a -year-old, I thought my mother was sleeping.

I thought that my father made my mother go to sleep, and I

Thought he buried my sleeping mother in the hole in the

Backyard.

I wasn't confused on where she was.

I wasn't confused on who did it.

I was confused between sleeping and death.

Narrator: only after she went to her friend's funeral did she

Realize that her mother would never wake up.

Detective ed reynolds at first wasn't sure what to think.

I've been lied to by some pretty good liars and have been

Fooled by a lot of people, and when that happens, you tell

Yourself, "I'm not going to fall hook, line, and sinker for every

Story that comes down the pike."

And in this case, though, she did seem very believable, very

Truthful, very sincere in what she said, but I wanted more than

Just a story.

I wanted proof.

Narrator: lori said that her father poured a concrete patio

Over her mother's grave the day after he buried her.

The home had long since been sold by her father, who was now

Remarried and living across town.

Reynolds was hesitant to ask the new owners for permission to dig

Up their concrete patio without more evidence than a -year

Recollection.

I became very frustrated.

I became angry.

I thought that possibly the officials didn't believe me.

I was terrified that my father would find out that I had

Confessed.

Narrator: reynolds looked all over the country for the

Technology that could look underneath the concrete patio

Without damaging it.

The search took almost a year and led to a nonprofit agency in

Colorado called "necrosearch," which brings applied sciences to

Law enforcement.

In this case, necrosearch recommended a ground-penetrating

Radar system.

To look within the ground and to see if it's disturbed --

That's what we do in geophysics.

Just because we find a disturbance -- it could be

Caused by many things.

The proof is going to have to be a careful excavation.

Narrator: when the radar was pulled across the cement

Decking, it revealed a ground disturbance six feet long by two

Feet wide in the corner of the patio.

The very spot on the concrete where lori romaneck had taken me

To earlier, when we had walked through the backyard, where she

Suspected the body of her mother was buried.

Narrator: when police removed the concrete, they had to dig

Only inches before making a grizzly discovery -- a piece of

Human skull.

Within hours, they uncovered the rest of the remains in the

Shallow, two-foot grave.

They also discovered a bra and a girdle.

Around the skeleton's neck were women's stockings.

Lori romaneck was not at all surprised.

No, I don't need any medical detectives to prove to me that

That's my mother.

Narrator: there was no identification on the remains,

And bacteria in the shallow grave eliminated the possibility

Of dna testing.

Even the teeth were too badly damaged by bacteria to analyze

The tooth pulp -- usually a rich, protected source of dna.

So detectives had to use other means to identify the skeleton.

The first clue was a tree root from a neighbor's mulberry tree

That had grown through the skull.

The root was sent to dr. Thomas harlan, a

Dendrochronologist at the university of arizona.

By studying the age of the tree root and the manner in which it

Penetrated the skull, harlan was convinced that the body was

Placed in the ground before the tree root.

Since the root was years old, the body was placed in the grave

Before .

This will tell us the age of the tree root growing over the

Body means that the body had to be there before the tree root

Was there, otherwise it would have been cut, disturbed --

Would not have gone across.

This gives a minimum age for the body to be in that position.

Narrator: forensic anthropologist

Dr. Laura fulginiti analyzed the skeletal remains and

Determined it was a caucasian woman between '" and '" in

Height.

The pelvic bones indicated that the woman had given birth to at

Least two children and was between and years of age.

All were consistent with dianne keidel.

Dental x-rays are commonly used for identification.

Unfortunately, dianne keidel's dentist was no longer in

Practice, and her dental x-rays had been destroyed.

As a last-ditch effort to identify the remains,

Dr. Fulginiti decided to try a technique called

"Skull-photograph superimposition."

What you basically are doing is taking a picture of the

Person in life and superimposing it onto the skull of the person

That you think it might have been.

Narrator: dr. Fulginiti photographed the skull in the

Same position and size as the photograph of diane keidel taken

Shortly before she disappeared.

A canine tooth that was slightly ajar -- it just stuck

Out slightly from her mouth -- and we were able to line that

Tooth up with the tooth in the photograph.

I have no questions.

I'm sure that it's her.

Narrator: police immediately arrested -year-old gene keidel

And charged him with m*rder.

Lori romaneck was now ready to tell a judge and jury what

Really happened on the night her mother disappeared.

Narrator: for years, gene keidel told family and

Friends that his wife dianne abandoned her children and ran

Off with a boyfriend, but lori romaneck told a very

Different story about what happened to her mother on the

Night of september , .

Lori said her mother was wearing her blue double-breasted dress

When she left to meet her father for dinner at a local

Restaurant.

After dinner, dianne drove gene home to his apartment.

Later, witnesses saw dianne at the amber inn, having drinks

With a boyfriend.

Around : p.m., Gene called the house to speak with dianne,

And when he learned that she wasn't there, went over to the

House to wait for her.

When dianne returned home around midnight, the couple fought,

Waking -year-old lori and her older sister, suzie.

The two girls went to investigate.

Stop it!

Go away!

Just get out of this house right now.

I own this house -- I'll stay here!

When she saw her children, she took her defense down, and

It was at that point that my father delivered her last blow,

And she whipped back and hit her head and slid to the floor.

Narrator: gene saw the girls run from the hallway, and they

Hid in the closet.

When the children eventually came out of hiding, they saw

Their mother's lifeless body on the pool deck, and they saw

Their father digging a hole in the backyard.

The next day, gene keidel poured a fresh layer of concrete over

His wife's grave for what he thought would be an eternity.

Lori describes her father as an

Alcoholic, cruel, and violent.

We're talking about the fact that my father would b*at my

Mother...

Violently.

My father would attempt to b*at his children -- my siblings and

I.

And when my mother was alive, she would intervene, and she

Would not permit my father to b*at his children.

She was very strong on that issue.

Narrator: lori also says that her father threatened to k*ll

Her if she ever revealed details of her mother's death.

This was something that lori

Says that she never forgot.

And she had just been terrified for her whole childhood and then

Adult life, of her father, even after she got married and left

The house -- and they barely had a relationship at some points.

She remembered the thing the

Whole way through, and I don't think there's anyone that really

Could exactly describe what was going on in that head of hers

All those years.

Narrator: in ,

Gene keidel was convicted for the m*rder of his wife dianne...

And was sentenced to life in prison.

I think it says that the memory of a -year-old, even

Though it's some years later, is sufficient to convict.

Remember, the one unanswerable question was -- if what she saw

Wasn't what she saw, how could she have led us to the body?

And she did.

My father single-handedly m*rder*d my mother, m*rder*d my

Two siblings, and attempted a m*rder on me and a m*rder on my

Brother.

I think that my father will more meet his calling upon his death.

I pray for my father.

I think that this judicial system will have nothing in the

Comparison of the wrath of god, and that I'm sorry for.

My father will have to answer and be held accountable.

What does a man tell our creator, god, when god says,

"What did you do to that beautiful wife and lovely

Children I gave you?" And my father will reply, "I

b*at them.

I m*rder*d them.

I b*rned them up in a horrible

Fire."

What will be my father's

Punishment?

I'm sorry -- that causes me the

Grief that I feel today for him.