Up next, a family's
life is upended in an instant.
We were all in shock.
Everything just changed,
just in a blink of an eye.
The dead woman
is an unlikely victim.
Investigators didn't have a lot
to work with at the time.
The police do
what police always do.
They start kind of inwards
and then work their way out.
And that
ultimately leads them to a man
who lived outside
the law for years.
Everybody has some
kind of a secret,
and there's a lot of
predators out there
that have this secret
that nobody is aware of.
Snohomish County,
Washington, was,
and in many spots still is,
a place of
small-town fruit stands,
children riding bikes
in cul-de-sacs,
and the simple pleasures
of a country summer.
Snohomish County in 1972
was significantly different
than it is today.
Back then,
it was a very rural area
with pastures and forest land.
The Loomis family called
it home and loved the area.
It was open.
Lots of fields to play.
Everybody seemed to
know each other.
It was very nice.
You wouldn't even recognize
the pictures from '72 to now.
Jana, who was 12 in 1972,
shared a house with her parents,
her 20-year-old sister, Jody,
and Jody's soon-to-be husband, Jim.
Jody was about to start
a job as a nurse,
but her passion was horses.
Jody was involved with
the horses and showing the horses,
and she was
an athletic club princess.
On an August afternoon, Jody
went off to ride her horse,
which was housed in a stable
about six miles from her home.
Normally, her mother
drove her over.
But this time,
for the first time,
Jody insisted on using
her 10-speed bicycle.
A few hours later,
as the sun started to set,
there was no sign of her.
The one rule in our house
was to be back before dark,
and so we knew
something was wrong.
As her family tried
to track her down,
a couple driving in nearby woods
ran into what seemed
a minor problem.
There was a log
that was blocking the road.
When they got out to
move the log,
what they found
was a young woman
who was wearing her underwear
and her boots.
She was gasping for breath,
and it was apparent
she had blood all around her.
The young woman had a
b*llet hole over her right ear.
The couple rushed her
to a nearby hospital,
where she later d*ed.
I just kind of remembered
through the night sensing,
"Uh-oh," you know,
"if they're looking for Jody,
something is wrong."
And time was going by,
and then finally,
some officers came to the door.
Jody's mother and father had to
live every parent's
worst nightmare.
They were called on
to identify their child's body.
Later, Jody's sister
was told what happened.
I don't remember much
after that.
It's like,
everything went black.
This was kind of
shocking to people.
This was not an individual
who led a high-risk lifestyle.
This could have been
anyone's daughter,
and the community was quite a
bit shocked by the whole thing.
Jody's autopsy
showed she'd been r*ped
and sh*t at close range.
The medical examiner
described this
as sort of
an execution-style wound,
and that's based upon the fact
that there were no defensive
wounds on Jody's body.
Police questioned Walter Morris,
the man who drove Jody
to the hospital.
He happened to be in the area
with a young woman named Cathy.
He told police she was
his children's Nanny.
Cathy and Walter were gonna
go out to this wooded area
where she was located
and do some target sh**ting.
Walter was in his 30s.
Cathy was 18,
and police soon discovered
she wasn't what he said she was.
Walter was involved with Cathy,
and Cathy was not his wife.
He was having an affair.
But even
skeptical police had to admit
that if Walter was trying
to keep this affair secret,
he'd likely not
draw attention to himself
by driving the victim
to the hospital.
He and all the other immediate
possible suspects,
including Jody's fiancee,
were tentatively ruled out.
They ran out of viable suspects,
or even people of interest,
relatively early in the process.
Frustrated detectives faced
the worst kind of case...
a possible random m*rder
with no previous connection
between the k*ller
and his victim.
Jody Loomis was k*lled
about three miles from her house,
about halfway
to her destination,
the stable where
she kept her horse.
The police
found blood on the ground.
When they searched further,
they found Jody's bicycle.
It was only 100 yards
into the woods.
One working theory
was that Jody's k*ller
might have gotten her
to stop her bike
by making it appear
he needed help.
People who knew her said
this ruse would work.
She was just that type
of personality that,
if something's hurt, you help.
Investigators theorized her
k*ller used the g*n
to force her into the woods,
where he r*ped her.
She was later found
with boots on, but no pants.
That indicated to the police
that she was getting dressed
as quickly as she could...
because once the boots
would have been on,
it would have been
difficult for her
to get her blue jeans
over those boots.
So she could and would have
gotten on her feet
and run as quickly as she could
after getting those boots tied,
but she was sh*t
before that happened.
The m*rder w*apon
was a small-caliber p*stol.
Two b*llet fragments recovered
at Jody's autopsy
underwent
a ballistics examination.
When a b*llet flies
through the chamber of a g*n,
it will leave small impressions
called lands and grooves
on the b*llet itself.
Those lands and grooves
are specific to a manufacturer.
They can also be specific
to a type of g*n.
It had six lands and
grooves with a right twist,
but it didn't have
good enough markings
to be able to compare it
to the rifling in a g*n.
The b*llet fragments
had sustained so much damage,
analysts could only speculate
about the m*rder w*apon,
but thought it was probably
a .22 caliber,
and this led to
a possible break in the case.
It centered around
a local biker g*ng
called the Reapers Roadmen.
There was an informant who
had notified the police
that a member of a local
motorcycle g*ng had been
bragging about having r*ped
and m*rder*d a young woman.
Police wanted to get
more information from this informant,
but that was not to be.
The informant d*ed
in a motor vehicle accident
shortly after giving
the information to the police,
so all they had was this kind
of unsubstantiated claim.
Part of that
information from the now-dead tipster
was that the biker used
a .22 caliber.
Detectives tracked him down.
He actually had
a .22 caliber p*stol on him.
So, investigators, if they
have both the b*llet
as well as the g*n,
are able to match those up
under a microscope
and be able to tell conclusively
whether or not a b*llet
could have been fired
from a specific w*apon.
But ballistic analysts
determined there was
no connection
between the biker's p*stol
and the fatal b*llet.
Investigators were able
to determine
that the b*llet
that was found in Jody Loomis
could not have been fired
by the g*n
that it was compared to
by the biker g*ng.
With the Loomis family
deep in grief
and a community desperate
for an arrest,
investigators had to face
the uncomfortable prospect
they might never find
Jody's k*ller.
Years passed.
It can be extremely
frustrating for investigators
to know
that a crime has happened,
to know that the evidence
could be there,
to know that they could have the
answers that they are seeking,
but not be able
to do anything with that,
and for it to just sit there
without any answers.
Investigators went to unusual
lengths to keep the case alive.
They commissioned
a unique deck of cards.
We had cold case
playing cards that we put out
featuring 52 unsolved cold cases
in Snohomish County,
and Jody Loomis was featured
on one of those cards.
The cold case card
decks were distributed
in area prisons in the hope
memories would be jogged.
Jody Loomis
was the 10 of hearts.
Her case ultimately
became the oldest cold case
in the deck.
There was
precious little evidence
at the scene
of Jody Loomis's m*rder.
But at her autopsy,
doctors retrieved
a potentially vital clue.
A r*pe kit produced
a semen sample.
These days, that could be
enough to solve a case...
not so at the time
of Jody's m*rder.
Back in 1972, forensic sciences,
particularly as far as bodily
fluids go, was pretty primitive.
There was no DNA science
to speak of.
But the intervening years
had seen huge advances in DNA,
which was good news
for investigators
on this and other cases.
The evidence that was collected
from the homicide of Jody Loomis
sat at the sheriff's office
in a secure evidence vault,
and it waited for forensics
to catch up to the crime itself
so that we would be able
to figure out
who it was that did this.
In 2008,
Jody's case was re-opened.
Investigators went back to
Jody's evidence file
and were shocked
by what they found...
or didn't find.
The vaginal swabs and the slides
from those swabs...
we were never able to track them
after they were examined
by the pathologist
on the 25th of August of 1972.
We don't know
what happened to them.
This was a devastating setback,
made even worse by the simple
passage of so much time.
We don't know where
the various witnesses are.
Are they even still alive?
A large number of the people
that could tell us
when Jody left her home and
what she was going to do,
they were dead.
They weren't available to us.
And it became very apparent
that we needed
to kind of get this thing going
or we were going to lose
even more witnesses.
But some evidence
in the case remained,
and investigators
had all of it re-examined.
Among the items still in storage
were the boots Jody wore
on the day she was k*lled.
Forensic analysts searched
for any bodily fluids.
For semen, we actually
can't see most semen stains.
They're typically invisible
to the naked eye.
And we have a couple
of different ways
to screen evidence for that.
We turn to a technique
called alternative light source,
or ALS.
Under certain
lighting conditions
and with proper filtration,
many bodily fluids
will glow or fluoresce.
Every inch of the boots
was examined.
Perhaps the k*ller's blood
or his semen might be present.
Another analyst saw something
not illuminated
by the light source
that might be a bodily fluid.
The analyst looking at it
noticed a stain
that appeared out of place
on the boot,
decided to swab it and test that
with a presumptive test
for semen,
and found he got
a positive result on that.
A partial DNA profile
was generated.
This took a case frozen in time
since 1972
and catapulted it
into the 21st century.
Oh, it was a very big deal.
We never thought we would ever
find semen on a boot,
but we were looking
at everything to see if
we could find something of value
that would link a perpetrator
to this crime.
The new DNA profile
was entered into Codis,
the FBI's national DNA database.
There were no matches.
It was tested against any male
who had even a remote connection
to the case.
Again, no matches.
Investigators were baffled.
They had the k*ller's
partial genetic profile,
but had no idea
who it belonged to.
It's certainly frustrating
for the family to know
that they have
this profile there
and it belongs to somebody,
but they're not able
to conclusively say who it is.
Everyone involved
with the case was crestfallen.
After more than 30 years,
after overcoming all variety
of setbacks,
it still appeared
as if Jody Loomis's m*rder
would remain unsolved.
That is, until a new way to use
DNA became available.
It's a great tool,
and I can't believe that
there aren't multiple agencies
across the country
that aren't doing
exactly the same thing.
In 2006,
millions of regular consumers
using sites like Ancestry.com
and 23andme started using DNA
to explore
their family histories.
This resulted in huge
and ever-growing DNA databases.
These people that
put their DNA in there
put it in there voluntarily.
And now, with the consent
that law enforcement can use it,
it's beneficial
to the entire public
for anybody to upload
their DNA to GEDmatch.
GEDmatch is
the public DNA database
containing the genetic material
of over a million consumers.
Analysts investigating
Jody Loomis's cold case
put the DNA recovered
from her boots into the system.
It's like playing the lottery.
You don't know if you're gonna
get a match to a brother
or a first cousin
or a fourth cousin.
With this information,
genealogists searched
through all variety
of publicly available information,
looking for any familial
connection to the DNA
from Jody's boot.
Genealogists are some of the
best detectives in this country.
In this case, the
genealogist was then able to use
that information to come forward
and basically ended up at
a family from the
Edmonds, Washington, area,
less than 10 miles from where
Jody Loomis
had actually been k*lled.
The DNA profile that
came from the semen stain
was likely a son of
Jaquita and Albert Miller.
So the police started doing
some research upon that family
and found that there were
six boys in the family.
And one of those
six boys had a violent past,
including an alleged
sexual as*ault
when he was in his mid-30s.
His name was Terrence Miller,
a married father of three.
He was 30 years old
at the time of Jody's m*rder.
In 1976, Mr. Miller
had been contacted
by law enforcement
for a r*pe and an incest charge.
He had entered
what was called then
a pre-prosecution diversion
where he took some classes,
went through some counseling,
and that way was able to avoid
being prosecuted criminally
for the sex act
that had occurred.
But he was later
found to be in possession
of a .22-caliber handgun,
and he did have a connection
to the site of the m*rder.
He was working construction
and he was living in the area,
and actually
talked about the fact
that he frequently
traveled the area
where it was
that Jody Loomis was found.
Without identifying themselves,
investigators visited a ceramics
shop Miller ran with his wife
and found something
intriguing...
a newspaper article about
a local case solved with DNA.
It appeared to detectives
that Terrence Miller
was certainly interested in
and sort of keeping track of
the various cases
that were solved
with the advancement
in DNA technology.
The pieces were falling
into place, but one was missing.
Detectives needed
a fresh DNA sample
to conclusively tie
Miller to Jody's m*rder.
They followed him up
to a local casino.
He ended up drinking some coffee
and finishing that
and then dumping the cup
into a trash receptacle.
The resulting DNA test
exposed Miller as Jody's k*ller.
In 2019, he was arrested.
To make absolutely sure
they had their man,
analysts took Miller's DNA
and tested it against the
DNA profile found on the boot.
If I took a random person
at large
from the U.S. population,
it would be
a one-in-980-million chance
that they would have
the same profile
that would match
that semen profile.
Miller maintained his innocence
and insisted on a trial.
However, while in custody,
Miller had a phone conversation
with his wife.
It was recorded as part
of standard procedure.
Terry told his wife that it was
a strong case against him,
that it was a DNA case,
and that he was gonna be
going to prison.
And he apologized to her.
Then, as the jury deliberated,
there was
a shocking development.
I was in Craig Matheson's office
when the detective walked in
and let us know
that Terrence Miller
had just taken his own life.
Despite Miller's
su1c1de, deliberations proceeded,
and he was found guilty
of Jody Loomis's m*rder.
Her family doesn't
focus on her k*ller.
Instead, they remember Jody.
She had a lot to live for.
And I... I want that to be
remembered and that her case...
if there's anything
that can help other cases,
she would want that.
To this day,
no one can say for certain
how Miller got Jody
into the woods.
Investigators say the g*n
was decisive
and she couldn't get away.
Miller sexually assaulted her.
It looks as if Jody waited for
her chance to make a run for it
and got her boots on
as fast as she could.
But Miller, knowing
he could be identified,
sh*t her
and then fled the scene.
What he could not have known
in 1972
was that a tiny speck of
genetic material on Jody's boot
would expose him as her k*ller
almost 50 years later.
To be able to go
that far back into history
and to bring the witnesses
and the evidence
in front of a jury in 2020
and have them be able to
come to a proper verdict,
that was...
that's kind of cool.
Science is cool.
It's good that
the boots did help.
And the gratefulness
to the detectives,
the prosecutors,
all of the scientists,
everybody involved
in this... wow.
Thank you, science.