06x30 - Shopping Spree

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Narrator: they were a beautiful family,

A striking raven-haired couple

With their delightful little girl.

I'm going to take devon to the store for a little while.

I'll be back in a few.

Narrator: in ,

Mother and daughter left home for a shopping trip

And were never seen again.

The search for answers would lead investigators

Into a world of evil, fantasy, and perversion.

Into a world of evil, fantasy, and perversion.

Into a world of evil, fantasy, and perversion.

Narrator: peace and quiet.

That's what attracts many to limerick, pennsylvania,

A small town an hour's drive from philadelphia.

People who live in limerick say

It's a wonderful place to raise a family.

Jimmy and lisa manderach lived here

With their -month-old daughter devon.

Since jimmy and lisa both worked full-time,

Weekends were an important time

To relax, have fun, and enjoy one another.

On a sunday afternoon in september of ,

Lisa told her husband

That she and devon were going shopping.

I'll be back in a few. I don't need this.

She said she wouldn't be gone long.

Jimmy stayed home watching football.

By dinnertime, lisa and the baby hadn't come home.

Man: jimmy said that his wife had handed him the diaper bag

And said, "I'll be right back."

In other words,

"I won't be long enough to need a diaper."

When she wasn't back that fast, he started panicking.

And no one else could understand why he was panicking.

Well, I thought he was overreacting.

When we hung up, I realized it was a sunday, and I thought,

"Where could she have possibly went, being this late?"

So I did call the police.

Narrator: family and friends told police

That the manderachs were happily married.

Manderach: jimmy and lisa had this relationship

Where if one was gone for an hour or so,

They'd call each other--

"I'm here; I'm on my way; we went to here."

Narrator: to see if lisa may have run off with the baby,

Police checked to see

If her luggage or toiletries were missing,

But they were not.

Jimmy told police his wife said

She was going to a shopping center

About miles from their home.

When police arrived,

They found lisa's car in the parking lot.

There were no signs of foul play.

Lisa and devon were nowhere in sight.

The grocery store was the only one still open,

And family members searched through the entire store.

Cynthia: and I said to the girl,

"Please page lisa manderach," and when she didn't come,

I knew right away something was wrong.

I ran out, and I said to my sister,

"She's not in there."

Narrator: later that afternoon,

Police received some terrible news.

Some hikers in nearby valley forge national park

Found the body of a baby girl.

Man: they were walking along a trail

At the base of an embankment.

The embankment was approximately

Yards up to one of the access roads.

So the baby's body was between

The top of the embankment at the road

And the walking trail.

Narrator: the child appeared to have been

Tossed from the road above.

She was fully clothed,

But bruises were clearly visible.

Jimmy manderach's brother positively identified the body.

Cynthia: I kept saying,

"It can't be devon because where's lisa?"

My husband said to me, "it's devon."

I was pretty much not sure, and I said--

My first words were, "how did she die?"

Narrator: an autopsy revealed

That devon had been manually strangled to death.

But investigators found

No forensic evidence on the body,

Not a single clothing fiber or hair.

Man: I have a little -month-old daughter,

And I can't even imagine.

I can't even come close to imagining.

Narrator: the news stunned family members

And everyone in the little town of limerick.

Man: well, ordinarily,

Young children are victims of a parent or a paramour,

Something like that,

And it's a heat-of-passion thing,

Or the baby cried too much, something like that.

I have to admit in this case,

I found it very unusual that jimmy was not able

To go in and look at his daughter.

And I admit that that intensified my suspicion

That perhaps jimmy was involved in devon's death.

Narrator: despite the suspicions,

Jimmy manderach denied any involvement

With his daughter's death

Or his wife's disappearance.

As night fell,

Police feared they would never find lisa manderach alive.

Narrator: jimmy manderach

Said he was at home alone watching football

On the day his daughter was m*rder*d

And his wife disappeared.

Woman: they were his everything to him.

I think that it would have been harder for him

To wake up any day and imagine them not being there.

When they weren't, it really like

Literally ripped his heart out.

Narrator: jimmy said he gave devon a cookie and some pretzels

Before she left with lisa for the store.

Man: at first, there was some question, naturally,

What we could do to verify his story.

When we found her car,

The cookie and the pretzel rod were in the car.

It may not be of any scientific value,

But it helps verify the story.

Narrator: and one of the neighbors said

That jimmy's car was at home all afternoon,

Which confirmed his alibi.

Investigators looked into other leads.

Castor: the fact that the car is parked there

Leads us to believe that devon and lisa reached the parking lot.

Now, were they abducted at that point?

Did they go in, and were they abducted on the way out?

[Motor starts]

Narrator: they learned that a local motorcycle g*ng

Met that day near the shopping center

And wondered if lisa and devon

Might have had some sort of contact with them.

Jimmy's beautiful young wife

Would have been an easy target.

Cynthia: lisa was gorgeous--very pretty.

She was like snow white.

She had black hair, very fair skin--

She was just very pretty.

Narrator: an intense search for lisa began

In valley forge national park,

The day after devon's body was discovered there.

Helicopters, bloodhounds, and a cadaver dog

Combed the ,-acre site.

Manderach: no one should go through a day

That my brother went through that day--no one.

I can't tell you what it was like for him,

But I know what it was like to be with him, and it was awful.

Narrator: at the shopping center,

Police asked employees and customers

If they had seen anything suspicious the day before.

No one recalled seeing devon, lisa,

Or any members of the motorcycle g*ng.

There were children's stores at the shopping center.

Employees at annie sez did not recognize lisa or devon

As customers from the day before.

But a shopper at your kidz & mine

Said she remembered seeing them

Inside that store around : on sunday

As she was paying for her items.

Fallon: we were able to track down that transaction

Off the journal tape in the cash register.

In fact, that was the last entry

On the cash register journal tape for that day.

So we were able to say

Exactly what time that woman made her purchase

And knew that devon and lisa were alive in that store.

Narrator: your kidz and mine

Was owned by a woman named ruth fairley.

Her -year-old son caleb

Had been working alone in the store that sunday.

Police contacted caleb fairley by telephone.

He told them he hadn't seen anyone

Resembling lisa and devon in the store,

But he agreed to meet with detectives

To look at photographs.

When he arrived at police headquarters,

Investigators noticed that he was wearing makeup.

Peffall: I went and got a wet paper towel

And asked him if he would wipe the makeup off his face.

Detective: wipe some of that off.

Peffall: it literally made my hair stand on end

Because you could see that they were perfect scratches

From fingernails coming across his face.

Fairley told police he had been out

Mosh dancing the night before

And that someone had accidentally scratched him.

Mosh dancing was a popular fad at the time

Which involved a crowd of dancers

Slamming into one another.

Investigators discovered

That fairley had told friends something different.

Man: he initially said,

"Oh, I had to break up a fight at work."

You know, "I took the trash out the back,

"And there was a fight in the alley, and I had to break it up.

You know, guys on one. I had to break it up."

You know, it was very like,

"Oh, that's kind of a chivalrous, nice thing to do--

You know, helping somebody out from trouble."

Narrator: a background check revealed

That caleb fairley was a former high school choirboy

With no past history of criminal v*olence.

But in , he had been accused of sexual harassment.

Man: there was a female jogging along the road,

Where caleb pulled up next to her

And then made lewd remarks to her

As to some things that he would like to do to her.

Narrator: friends described fairley as peculiar.

He lived with his parents, was a loner,

And was fascinated with vampires.

Castor: this is a very scary guy.

We ultimately served a search warrant on his home,

And we found out that he was a real pervert,

Had all kinds of strange sexual devices

And various other perverted stuff.

Narrator: he spent most of his time reading pornography

And playing fantasy games like dungeons and dragons.

Fallon: we have encountered numerous people,

Particularly people in somewhat unusual murders like this,

Who are either

Devotees or dabblers in the dungeons and dragons game.

There may be some connection

Between that type of role-playing game

That need to live in a fantasy world.

The reason we game is because we want to be heroic.

Not everyone can be a fireman or policeman.

Not everyone can be a soldier.

Not everyone can be indiana jones.

So for the rest of us, we read books.

We play games. We daydream.

Narrator: friends say fairley

Would often dress up as a vampire

In order to live out a fantasy

Depicted on one of his t-shirts--

A vampire ravishing a woman

Who bore a striking resemblance to lisa manderach.

Friend: he had a thing for women of a certain appearance.

In a number of the game products,

That particular appearance is idealized.

It had to do with very pale skin,

People who were very thin.

Quite often, they'd have darker hair.

The fact that that particular

Physical stereotype was in vogue,

It would show up on all the artwork.

Narrator: fairley denied any involvement

In devon's m*rder and lisa's disappearance.

Was it possible that fairley had more to hide than scratches?

Narrator: there were no signs of a struggle

Inside the clothing store

Where lisa manderach was last seen,

But detectives did find some clues.

A shopper said she saw someone vacuuming in the store

Late sunday afternoon, just minutes before it closed,

And a local news crew reported seeing the same thing

Early the next morning.

In the store's vacuum cleaner,

Police found several strands of long brunette hair,

Which had been forcibly removed.

Without a body,

It was impossible to tell whether it was lisa's.

To analyze the carpet,

Investigators used an ultraviolet light,

Which causes certain substances

Like bodily fluids to fluoresce.

In the back part of the store,

The ultraviolet light revealed several suspicious stains.

The stains were saliva,

Which tests showed was from little devon manderach.

And there were other stains nearby,

Which turned out to be semen.

A blood sample taken from caleb fairley

Matched the semen found on the carpet of the store.

Although this was certainly an unusual piece of evidence

To find in a clothing store,

It wasn't proof of a sexual crime.

And police could find no physical evidence

That lisa manderach had been inside the store.

If we didn't find lisa, all we would have

Is a weird guy with scratches on his face

Who lies a little bit,

And you didn't have anything to tie him to the crime.

So finding her body was of utmost importance.

Narrator: police confronted fairley

With the potentially incriminating evidence

Found in the store.

Then a shocking revelation:

Fairley said he knew where lisa was

And offered to lead police to her--

But only if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty

If lisa was found to have been m*rder*d.

Castor: the only mistake that he makes

Is agreeing to lead us to the body.

That turns out to be a mistake, but at the time,

Given the information that he had,

That was the right logical decision

For he and his lawyer to make.

Turns out they were wrong,

But their error was to our benefit.

Narrator: prosecutors accepted the terms,

And fairley led police

To an industrial area near the store.

In an overgrown, wooded lot

Next to the health club fairley belonged to,

Police found lisa's body in heavy brush.

Lisa was naked

Except for a black lace top

Pulled up around her neck.

The body was posed

In a sexually suggestive position

With her hair covering her face.

It's not unusual to have someone

Try to cover the face of their victim,

Almost as if they're trying to hide

From the gaze of their dead victim.

Narrator: and lisa's hands showed signs of trauma.

Some of her fingernails were broken.

Others had been completely ripped off.

Castor: she was found in a sexually suggestive way.

He's a pervert; that fits.

He's the last one to see them alive.

He has scratches on his face, and he lies about it.

That's enough to arrest him.

It's a double homicide:

The little kid and the mother.

The society feels so unease.

The family need the answer.

Narrator: the autopsy revealed

That lisa had been manually strangled.

Her body was badly bruised;

Her ribs, broken.

Tests also showed that lisa

May have been sexually assaulted.

Scientists discovered some foreign fibers on lisa's blouse.

They were microscopically similar

To fibers from the shirt fairley was seen wearing

On the day of the crime.

The hair found in the store's vacuum cleaner

Was compared to lisa's hair

And was also found to be microscopically similar.

Finally, investigators subjected the biological material

Found under lisa's fingernails to a dna test.

Lee: any type of case,

You should look at a victim's fingernail.

And when people have a physical contact--

May have transferred.

That transfer may leave the suspect's blood tissue

In the victim's fingernail.

Narrator: that test revealed

The skin under lisa's fingernails

Belonged to caleb fairley.

Narrator: caleb fairley was arrested

And charged with counts of m*rder.

Aggravated as*ault, theft, and abuse of a corpse.

Prosecutors believed that fairley lived in a fantasy world

And that lisa manderach matched his image of the perfect woman.

Thank you.

Have a good day.you, too.

Narrator: when fairley saw lisa

And realized that she and devon

Were the only shoppers left in the store,

He locked the door.

The forensic evidence shows that fairley att*cked lisa

Behind some high clothing racks out of street view.

But fairley underestimated lisa's strength.

She fought desperately for her life

And that of her daughter,

Scratching and clawing at fairley's face.

During the struggle, lisa's ribs were broken

And her body badly bruised

Before she was strangled to death.

Afterwards, fairley strangled the baby.

Saliva from the baby leaked onto the carpet,

And fibers from fairley's shirt

Were transferred onto lisa's blouse.

There is evidence that fairley sexually assaulted her.

Fairley washed and vacuumed the carpet that night

And again the next morning.

He carried the bodies out the back door.

He drove to valley forge national park

And dropped devon's body there.

Then he drove to the industrial park

Where he elaborately posed lisa's body.

Fairley's cleanup attempts weren't able to hide

The forensic evidence of the struggle

And the biological evidence under lisa's fingernails.

Caleb fairley pled guilty to the charges

But claimed the murders were not premeditated.

The jury didn't agree.

Castor: it takes a very long time

To strangle somebody to death.

You have to cut off

The blood flow to the brain for minutes.

That's a long time.

Narrator: fairley was convicted

Of counts of first-degree m*rder

And sentenced to consecutive life terms.

Castor: caleb fairley is an evil man,

And evil people have evil thoughts.

So this fantasy woman walked into the store,

And his evilness drove him to commit these terrible crimes.

To this day, the manderach family

Is still haunted by the cruel and senseless murders.

Saville: why devon?

Devon doesn't make sense to me.

You can almost picture

As to what occurred between caleb and lisa,

But devon was less than years old.

I'd like to buy him a weekend furlough,

Give him to my brother jimmy.

That's all I think of him.

Narrator: the saliva, the hair, and the dna evidence

Told the story that lisa and devon manderach could not.

Castor: if we did not have the forensic evidence

That we got from lisa manderach's body,

Caleb fairley would almost certainly

Be walking around out there free right now.

I keep the mugshot photograph of caleb fairley

With those scratches across his face

In my top desk drawer.

And it's just as a constant reminder

Of the evil that's out in this world.