01x03 - Team Tina vs. The Prosecution

[bunniefuu]

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[ Christina sobbing ]

[ Sighs ]

-Okay...
[ Exhales ]

♫♫

Since she was convicted,
she has been through

nine parole denials.

To have to go through that year
after year after year.

It´s just sheer horror.

-This is a cruel paradox
for wrongfully convicted people.

Christina has maintained her
innocence for all these years,

but it hasn´t made a difference.

If anything, it´s gotten
in the way because in order

to get parole,
you need to admit guilt.

She´s making
a principled decision

that she might spend
the rest of her life in prison

because she´s not going to admit
she did something she didn´t do.

I mean, that takes
such strength.

-Christina´s been in prison
for over 30 years

for a m*rder that took place
when she was somewhere else.

She has an alibi
witness for that.

From the way law enforcement
investigated,

the way prosecutors
are prosecuted,

the way her lawyers
have represented her,

the entire criminal justice
system has failed Christina.

-She took an Alford plea
and is now stuck in

a system that
she can´t get out of.

-This is not an easy process.
I think pressure breaks pipes

and that´s what we need
to create for Christina.

Enough is enough, let
Christina Boyer go free.

♫♫

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-If I have to answer
the question

whether I´m obsessive or not,
yeah, I think --

I think I probably have to admit
that I am obsessive.

So, that´s the archive.

Christina´s situation
has taken over my life.

I think by now we´ve exchanged
like 1,300 emails.

But what struck me was that
she was curious about me,

about my life.

I have not been very obedient.

I haven´t.
But I appreciate you --

[ Laughs ]

And I thought, what?

You have enough
on your own plate,

why would you care

about anything
that happens in my life?

So that intrigued me.

And I started to write about it
on social media.

I think she hadn´t had a visitor
for five or six years

when -- when I showed up.

And after four years
working on this case,

suddenly she got these
postcards,

emails, letters from Holland,
from Spain,

from Ireland,

from Portugal, from Uganda,

from Bangladesh.

Actually, I think that must
have been a weird experience.

[ Chuckles ]
Well, we cry together, right?

It has become a very close
relationship.

And how would you respond if
a really good friend of yours

is treated so unjustly?

I´m going to try everything
to get her out of prison.

I held lectures
and I did the book,

and it attracted
people´s attention.

-Christina Boyer, who´s been
incarcerated for 28 years.

-It´s fascinating.
It´s horrifying.

-She would become
the center of

a heartbreaking m*rder case,

which even now divides opinion.

-Suddenly, she was no longer
a forgotten person.

-I´m more hopeful now, actually,
because there´s

so many more people
all around that are involved.

I´ve sat here for years
with very few people

really knowing what had happened
and caring.

So I have more hope now that,

if there´s anything
that could be done,

somebody will find it.

-Team Christina is definitely
eclectic and kooky,

but everybody is smart
and dedicated and committed.

-Team Tina
is comprised of people

from all around the world,

from all walks of life,
all working together,

trying to fight for my innocence

and fight for my freedom
from prison.

It´s very humbling.

Grace, Lizzie and Sarah
are three amazing women.

[ Laughter ]

-We love you.

Thank you, Christina.

-They have stayed involved
with me and my case

and are still actively working.

They´re taking time out of their
lives to set aside time for me.

-Sometimes the quiet role
doesn´t achieve justice.

-Mark and Marty have good ideas
and good resources,

and Marty´s been where I am,

it´s a lot different
when you´ve been here

and you know how desperate
you can feel at times.

-The only way to achieve justice
if there´s outside eyes

looking in closely
and people are talking.

[ Boyer ]

-Michele is my amazing
baby sister.

Since November of 2019, we have
built an extremely strong bond.

-You´re so funny.

I love you, too.

-Phone, it´s got...

-Jeannie has filled the role

that nobody else
in the team has.

She´s been more like
a mother figure

because she has
known me the longest.

-I´ve loved you all these years
as my family.

-Team Christina is committed

to ensuring that this woman

has the opportunity
to leave Pulaski State Prison.

♫♫

-This is one of the most bizarre
group of people

that follow a defendant.

And it boggles the imagination

that people would would be

this convinced
that she didn´t do it.

-I didn´t m*rder my daughter.

♫♫

-Christina is very manipulative,

and Christina has that ability
to come across one way

and then behave completely
differently in private.

Obviously, you have to be
manipulative to convince people

you have telekinetic powers.

-What I´ll say about
these people online,

and I had read
just one article,

and I didn´t even read
all of it,

it was such bull crap.

Oh, maybe I shouldn´t say that,

but they don´t have a clue
what they´re talking about.

-They´re listening to her side,

and that´s the only side
they know.

-If we could put this
whole case file back together

and set them down,

I guarantee you I could
change their mind.

-David had a full trial

and David
had the opportunity

to have witnesses testify
to his character.

Christina never had
that opportunity.

Christina needed a fiercer legal
advocate at the time for her.

-You know, it´s pretty easy
to sit up there

in a little white tower and say,

"Oh, that lawyer
shouldn´t have done that."

Bring your a*s
down here to Georgia

and sit in front of a jury

and try to keep somebody alive.

Do that.

-Something that I learned
through our trip in Georgia

is that it is not easy work.

-Like, I think we definitely
made the most

of the time that we had,
but it was just like...

-We maybe would have been able
to get some answers to questions

that we just weren´t
really able to dig into.

-And I would obviously love
to have more time.

-Going back to Georgia,
that would be top of the list.

It´s a real shame that Christina

wasn´t able to present
her side of the story.

They want Christina
to have her day in court.

-Christina Boyer,
she looks like this sweet,

innocent little person
that´s been railroaded.

And, you know,
if you buy into that, fine.

But you´ve also chosen to ignore
a whole body of evidence

that shows
the other side of her.

The case was strong against
Christina Boyer --

very strong.

They look at the charges against
Christina Boyer and think,

"Well, you throw the book at her
hoping you would get a plea,"

and nothing could be further
from the truth.

We had all this evidence.

It was overwhelming.

♫♫

-Okay.
These are from the coroner.

So these are going to be...

Those are at the hospital.

-30 years later,
and I can still see the child.

-Like it was yesterday.

I´ve never seen a child
beaten like this.

And it just, uh...

It just rips
your soul apart.

-This was your idea
for a demonstrative evidence,

and it was a great idea.

-I thought the jury
could understand it better.

-Pins stuck in that mannequin

where everywhere
she had a bruise or a cut.

-Her body was the evidence...

and it was a lot of evidence.

-Over the course of my 32 years
as a forensic pathologist,

I´ve performed
around 7,700 autopsies.

When I first saw her, I was
actually a little taken aback

at the number

of injuries
that were obvious,

particularly in the region
of her head and her face.

So much so that,
when you gave me her name?

Oh, yeah, I remember that one.

-Amber dying shook that town.

-There was a lot of media
attention on this case.

And so they charged
both individuals

because everyone was really
wanting to make sure

that there was some justice,

regardless of the circumstances
of what happened to Amber.

-The whole community of
Carrollton has been mobilized.

They´re all very angry.

-It´s struck me a little
on the personal side as well,

because I had a daughter
who at that time

was just a little older
than Amber was.

-With Amber, it was maybe
a lot more difficult for me

because, you know, Amber was
three years old at that time

and my daughter
was three years old.

-I´m often asked, you know,
how do I separate myself

emotionally from the
professional aspect

of this case.

And you have to get emotional.

I mean, these cases have
an emotional impact on you.

-It´s horrible.

-People in north Georgia are
the salt of the earth,

and they, you know, they don´t
like to put up with

this kind of stuff.

-Say hi!

-They would have been harder
on her

just because of
the circumstances

of the death of this child,

a pretty little child.

But those things, juries give
the death penalty

pretty quickly.

-The energy around there,

everybody had some
kind of opinion about it.

We showed up
at the county clerk´s office.

I said, "Oh, we´re looking for
case number blah, blah, blah."

And she was like,
"Ah, Christina Boyer."

And we were like, "Yes,"
and she said, like,

"I think hell´s too good
a place for Christina,

for what she did to that child."

-As much physical abuse
as this child went through,

you really can´t
pinpoint down what --

what actually k*lled her.

-I can´t tell you which one
of them cause the trauma

to her head that caused
her death.

They didn´t try to get her any
aid, either,

or so they were guilty either
way, in my opinion.

-The fact that they said
that whether or not Christina

struck the fatal blow
or David struck the fatal blow.

Yeah, none of us know that.

But it was your job
to investigate that

and determine who was telling
the truth and who was lying.

♫♫

-I´m not a lawyer.

My job is not
to point fingers at anyone.

My job is to examine
the deceased individual

and tell them why
this person is deceased.

Presuming that Amber was in the
sole custody of one individual

for six hours,

her fatal injury happened
sometime during those six hours.

-In my opinion, it is unlikely
that Amber spent

three hours perfectly normal,

and then began deteriorating

to the point of her
eventual death

without some traumatic incident
having happened.

-The medical testimony
from David´s trial

didn´t corroborate the idea
that a perfectly healthy,

normal three year old
would just go to sleep and die.

Something more happened.

The only option that I have
is to believe

that David is not telling
the truth

about what happened in those
six hours

before -- before Amber died.

-What I really want to get
is a better understanding

of the timeline --
having someone who is neutral,

who can say,
"Based on the facts,

this is what happened to Amber
in those six hours."

That´s what really is -- what
we need to get to the bottom of.

♫♫

-Carol Terry.
-Nice to meet you.

-We reviewed
Dunton´s testimony

and it´s our impression

that the injury that ultimately
k*lled Amber took place

in the hours
when Christina was not at home.

-Just based on my experience
and review of the photographs,

yes, it would be my impression
that Christina was not present

at the time she received the
injuries that k*lled her.

Because looking at what
I consider to be

the most significant
constellation of injuries

is the head trauma.

That´s not something that
has taken days to accumulate.

The symptoms are noticeable
immediately.

And it´s my understanding

Dr. Dutton is of
a similar opinion as well.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

We were wondering if,

in your capacity
as a medical examiner,

if you would be willing to write

in support of the timeline
that we discussed.

-Based on what I´ve had
to review,

yes, I´d be willing to,
to write that --

that those are my --
my opinions and findings.

-Well, thank you.
I mean, we´re excited

to have someone kind of
lay it out so -- so clearly.

-We can´t say that the head
injury was committed in

those six hours --
all those injuries,

a lot of them were committed
outside that six hour period.

-I spoke with David,
and his defense basically

was going to be that, um,

that he didn´t --
didn´t strike the child.

It was Christina
that struck the child

and that the injuries
that caused the death

occurred prior to the time
that he was there.

-Again, I point to the fact,
this is not a beating

that occurred on one day.

And both of those people
are responsible

for that child being dead today.

If you want to have
tunnel vision, you do that.

That´s your job.
It´s not my job.

[ Ringtone playing ]

-This is a free call from:
-Christina Boyer.

-Hi, Christina,
it´s Lizzie and Grace.

How are you?

-We´re doing --
we´re doing pretty well.

-Um, not nervous,

because we´ve found some
inconsistencies with the way

that he approached your case
and David´s case.

And we´re basically
going to confront him

and ask him about
those inconsistencies.

-"This abuse was exclusively
at the hands

of the child´s mother,
Christina Boyer."

This is different
from what Skandalakis says,

like a year earlier
in this.

That´s what I think is probably
the most interesting

is the contrary.
-"There´s plenty of

ample evidence where a jury
could conclude that

Mr. Herrin was the one that

maliciously inflicted
these injuries."

And he says the exact
opposite thing in this letter.

-I had my case here, and that
evidence was never used.

So, you know, whether or not
a bunch of students

at Georgetown University
think it´s unfair,

that doesn´t faze me at all.

I don´t care what they think.

♫♫

It really is a pleasure
meeting y´all,

I´ve been looking forward
to this,

and I´d like to hear
what you all have discovered,

what you all think,
and then we can go from there.

-Yeah, so 1992 is when
you became the D.A.?

-Correct.
-You´re handed these two cases,

and you have two people
contradicting one another.

And your job is to prove
both of those cases --

-Correct.
-Beyond a reasonable doubt.

-Correct.
-How do you handle

that contradiction?
-What I know for a fact is,

over a three-
or four-day period,

that little baby
was beat to death.

And clearly Christina knew
what was happening to that baby.

And do y´all see -- do y´all see
where I´m coming from on that?

Because Grace is givin´ me
a look like, "I don´t..."

-I mean, I think -- I think
the point of saying

what k*lled Amber took place
over a three-to-four-day period,

in our understanding,
that isn´t the case.

-No, I think -- I think
you´re correct.

What k*lled Amber was
the -- the blow to the head,

which was that bleed
of the brain,

that k*lled Amber.

-I mean, we have your letters
to the parole board,

and it says Amber is dead
because Boyer,

over a four-day period,
brutally and repeatedly

beat this child about the head,
face, stomach and body.

But that seems to contradict
just the statement that,

like -- I mean,
this is from David´s trial.

-"There´s plenty of ample
evidence where a jury

could conclude
that Mr. Herrin was the one

that maliciously
inflicted these injuries."

And so we´re reading
these two statements

and saying to ourselves,
how can both of these be true?

How could we square this?

-I don´t know what happened
to that child in that house

during that three-
or four-day period.

I don´t know; I do know they´re
both equally responsible.

-It doesn´t feel like
equal responsibility, though,

if one -- if one person --

-I understand
what you´re saying.

-There is a lot at stake

in terms of who struck that
fatal blow.

She´s the one
who´s still in prison.

-In all probability,
the one that was the most

physical with that child
was probably Christina.

-But why is it not important
to know who struck that blow?

-Because I´ll never know that.

-Yeah. Have we changed your mind
at all?

-No, you haven´t changed
my mind.

But you definitely
make me think about things.

My policy, the way I try cases,
is keep it simple.

Deal with what you know.

I had my case here.

We had witnesses who would have
testified that Christina

had been a*usive to that child.

-"We uncovered over 30 specific
documented incidents

of physical and verbal abuse
by Christina Boyer."

Mike Thomas and Mike Bradley

recorded all of their interviews
on cassette tapes.

-Christina admitted
to spanking Amber.

That was a thing that happened;

Christina had been spanked
as a child.

It was how she had been taught
to discipline a child.

-I had suffered a significant
amount of abuse in my childhood.

And there´s a big difference
between spanking your child

and beating your child --

and, no, I´ve never beat
my child,

and I´ve never left
a mark on my child.

-Tina was a loving mother.

She also had to discipline Amber

because Amber was a very
challenging child to be around.

If they saw her discipline.
Amber, I can believe that.

Did they see her discipline her

in a way
that I would call a*usive?

I don´t believe that.

-Well, that´s evil.

-Half these people that were
witnesses against me,

I didn´t even know these people,
I´d never met them.

So how do you prove that
what they´re saying is a lie

when you don´t even know them?

-I didn´t know any of the people
that they had statements from.

David was a homeboy,

so of course David
was going to be defended

because he was one of us.

-The two people who were
the primary investigators

on this case knew David´s mom.

She was part of the community
and they knew the Herrins

and everybody went to school
together

and all this other stuff.

-I didn´t --
I didn´t know him personally,

I don´t think I´d ever --

I knew some family.

-I knew his brother and his
brother´s wife real well.

But that has nothing to do
with the case.

-Anybody that´s lived
in a small town

will know
what I´m talking about.

Everybody knows everybody.

So if someone comes
from out of town,

especially out
of Yankee territory,

well, they´re definitely
treated like an outsider.

-I knew Dave and his family
so long,

I just still to this day say,
"No way. No way."

From his upbringing
in the family

and just a good all --
just a good guy.

-David Herrin was high school
classmate of mine,

played football together.

I would have never said
anything bad or cross or harsh

about him or his family.

They were all around good
people, they really were.

-I´m often asked about
the fairness of this verdict

that here you have
Christina Boyer,

who obviously is held
to a higher standard

because she´s the mother,
serving life in prison;

David Herrin
gets convicted of cruelty

and does 20 years in prison.

And, "How is that fair?"

You know, my answer to that is,
you know, I don´t know.

After the jury acquitted him,

I remember the jurors
filing through the courtroom.

When I asked, how did y´all find
him not guilty of felony m*rder,

but you found him guilty
of cruelty to children?

And she looked me
straight in the eye

and she said,
it wasn´t his child.

-She was this outsider who had
a supposed paranormal past,

was a single mom.

-Was she a good mother?
Was she not?

It´s still sideshow
from what happened.

-I wonder if Team Christina
bothered to see

what the witnesses say

and then have the same opinion
of Christina Boyer.

Christina had involvement with

Ohio Department of Children
and Family Services

before she came to Georgia,

so her file
was transferred down here.

-We looked into those reports,

those Child Protective Services
reports.

-We found that there were only
three actual investigations

into Christina´s
alleged mistreatment of Amber,

and all cases,
the claim was unsubstantiated.

-It really didn´t take
that much effort comparatively.

I mean, none of us have
law degrees

and none of us are police, like,

but we still managed to get
our hands on these reports

from Franklin County.

The whole point is that even
if all of this stuff happened,

hitting a child is bad,
slapping child is bad,

all of those things are bad --

but it´s not m*rder.

-Right.

-You are supposed to be innocent
until proven guilty.

She was found guilty
in the public eye.

Through her behavior.

That really didn´t
prove anything.

Part of
the character assassination

of Christina Boyer
also involved a tape.

♫♫

-These are Jim Sacondi videos.
Sex tapes.

♫♫

-I don´t know what these girls
were gaining,

I don´t know if it was dope or
money or what he was giving them

to do this,
but he was kind of a funny man.

He always kept cameras running
in his house 24 hours a day.

Jim Sacondi would videotape
all sorts of p*rn*graphy.

Some of it involved
Christina Boyer.

It´s the most disgusting type
of debauchery.

-It was bad.
-With -- with Christina there

engaging in sex,

and Amber there as well.
-Right.

-What kind of mother brings her
child to a house

where these pornographic films
are being made,

and then allows her child
to be in that room?

Who -- who does that?

-From the way Christina
tells that story,

"What the hell
was I supposed to do?

I can´t afford to buy groceries.

I can´t afford
to pay a babysitter.

I´m going to bring my kid along
because this is the only place

I know I can get money
from right now."

♫♫

-I would have slept
with Satan himself

if I had to, to have money
to support her

to keep from putting her
in a foster home.

You don´t have the money
to pay a babysitter,

how the hell are you
gonna go find a job?

I mean, it´s like once you get
caught in that cycle,

it´s very hard to get out of it.

-And, of course,
Christina´s whole defense

with these Sacondi tapes

is she would do anything
to feed her child.

-Well, she did anything,
that´s for sure.

-Yeah.
-Men can get away with

a whole
lot more than women can.

A man can do the video
and be the one to do the paying,

and yet the woman´s
going to be the one

that´s going to be punished.

I say, put yourself
in her shoes.

-Do I fault her for engaging
in survival sex work?

No.
Does that mean she k*lled Amber?

No, it didn´t mean it then,
it doesn´t mean it now.

-Instead of seeing that moment
of Christina´s desperate desire

to do everything that she could
to take care of her daughter,

they´d used that against
Christina and said,

well, she´s a bad mother
because she did that.

-Don´t try to tell me

that Christina
did this for her child.

I don´t buy that.

I know plenty of single mothers

who work their butts off
to provide,

and they don´t do it in a manner
that Christina Boyer did.

I´m com-- I´m coming across
as a hardass, aren´t I?

That´s all right.
I just --

This woman is just something
else, all right?

-Did Skandalakis built
a good case against Christina?

Um...pfft,
I don´t think he did, no.

And he was responsible for
asking the death penalty.

-Daisy, you wanna --
you gon´ play with it.

-I find that unacceptable.
-You´re so cute, you´re so cute.

-But he does
what he´s supposed to do,

which is try to get
people behind bars.

But I think that
there are reasons

to really criticize Jimmy Berry,

Christina´s pro bono lawyer.

He didn´t investigate things,
I mean,

we got three young students
from Georgetown University,

and we´ve got somebody
from Holland here

who has to do the job


That was actually
Jimmy Berry´s job.

That´s what he should have done.

-I´ve been involved in more than


I have only had three people

that have gotten
the death penalty.

So when you take
on a death penalty,

you take on a life of somebody,

and it just raises the stakes.

When I looked at the facts
of Christina´s case,

it wasn´t surprising at all
that they would ask for

the death penalty.

-The worst plea that I´ve ever
heard of,

to willingly take that plea
and not go to trial

when she had
a very strong alibi,

and to get life plus 20 years
is just unthinkable.

-When we went down
to Carrollton,

we pulled out the box
with all of Christina´s files.

September 9th, Berry says

we´re going to set this case
for trial.

Next page is literally just like
she´s accepting a plea.

Something we did find
that we hadn´t seen before

was a receipt
for Jimmy Berry´s billing,

and he had worked


on a death penalty case,
and I remember looking at that

and being like, Oh, my God.

We had already
spent 8 hours that day

working on Christina´s case.

-That´s not an accurate
number of hours.

So, you know, if anybody
is looking at that, saying,

"Oh, well, we spent any hours
on it," that´s not true.

And, you know,
sometimes you wake up

in the middle of the night
thinking about it,

and you don´t put that down
and get paid for it.

So, you know, I spent certainly
an adequate amount of time.

-I just don´t know how any
lawyer in America

could convince somebody
in Christina´s situation

that this was a good deal.

It´s just crazy.

It´s ludicrous.

-She was disposable, you know?

It was just, "I got to
get her off death row."

He did that, you know?

-I don´t understand
how that lawyer

can sleep at night, Honestly.

-I´ve read a couple of things
where lawyers,

and other places --
I´m sure academia --

say she shouldn´t have
entered a plea.

I would ask them, how long have
you been practicing?

How many death penalties
have you tried?

How many cases have you tried?

Come on down here,
give it a shot.

See what you think.

I never forced her
to do anything.

I did twist her arm, I didn´t
beat her over the head.

I didn´t do anything --
I told her what the facts were,

and she agreed to do this plea.

You know,
what else can you do?

-I´m fine with Christina serving
the remaining part

of her life in prison.

I know that sounds cold.

But I still have recollection
of that baby.

The crime was so egregious,
so heinous,

people that have no compassion
in their heart

should be locked up forever.

-He´s sitting here saying, like,
"She´s not remorseful,

she showed no remorse,
we should show her no remorse."

Like... Like, she --

-She -- she´s she knows.
-Yeah.

-The guilt that I feel
for the death of my daughter,

I´m to blame for all of that,
And I accept that.

But I´m not guilty
of my daughter´s m*rder.

I don´t know whether or not
to believe that she actually

had an accident,
that she died from her accident

or she died from something that
he did to her.

But either way it goes,

it´s still my fault
for not...

not...
making sure.

The parole board does not seem
inclined to believe anything

that I have to say
or release me from prison.

So I made the decision to try
to convince the current D.A.

in my town to modify my sentence
and let me go home.

♫♫

-Come on in.
-Thank you.

-Thank you, how are you doin´?
-I´m Grace.

-I´m Herb.
-Nice to meet you.

-Lizzy.
-Herb, nice to meet y´all.

-Nice to meet you.
-Thank you.

-I´m a big believer in case
by case analysis and review.

You got to assess each thing
on the facts.

So, if you all want to go ahead
and explain your perspective

on the case, feel free.

-I think the biggest thing,

in terms of Christina´s case,

she accepted in Alford plea.

And so this is where
we kind of get into,

like, why we came to you today

in terms of what her options
are under resentencing.

-Is that something that your
office takes into consideration?

-I don´t dismiss things
out of hand.

-Yeah, we appreciate that.

-That´s not appropriate.

So, what do we know about
the specific injuries

that shed light
on whether Christina

could have caused them?

-So what we know from
the medical examiner

at the time, Dr. Dunton,

is that the injuries
that Amber sustained

on the day she died
are the ones that

more likely
than not k*lled her.

Everyone´s in agreement --
David, Christina and the state,

that Christina wasn´t there
during those hours

that Amber sustained

the injuries
that ultimately k*lled her.

-But how do we know
the fatal injuries

weren´t already in place
when Christina left?

-Amber would have
exhibited symptoms

within 15 to 30 minutes
of receiving that blow.

-And that´s the medical
examiner´s assessment,

that it would be about
a 30 minute window.

-No more than 30.
-We spoke with another

medical examiner and she said
she´d be willing

to put into writing her
assessment of the autopsy.

-We want to understand
what type of legal options

she might have

under resentencing
or modification of sentence.

-And I will say,
in a case like this,

you´d be asking me to do
essentially what

the parole board has been able
to do for some number of years.

-Yeah.
-And so I would be

asking myself,
am I in a better position

to make that judgment
in their place?

-It´s our understanding that
the parole board takes

two, three minutes to review
files like Christina´s.

And as you can tell,
there´s a lot in this file.

We´ve got --
-Two other binders

bigger than these.

-Would your office consider
taking longer than two minutes

to review the muck and see
if there´s something here?

-I think mainly this is a
fact-driven request

from what
I´m gathering from y´all.

So, you know,
yeah, I can do that.

I think that´s a duty of mine.

So, you know, I´ll engage
in the thorough review.

-You´ll be hearing from us.
-Yeah.

-And so, thank you
for taking a look at this.

-This is a free call from:
-Christina Boyer.

-Okay, so we do have
some exciting news.

The current day D.A. --
D.A. Herb is willing

to review your file.

-We have Sarah Jackmaugh,

Grace Perret,
Lizzy Porterfield.

It´s incredible the commitment
that you have to Christina,

basically three years straight.

-It was incredibly emotionally
exhausting for us then,

and it still is;
we really had to sit down

and say, like, are we ready
to commit not only a semester,

but I mean, years of our lives?

I think the most frustrating
thing is how many times

things could have been
different for her.

-Whoa, a ghost!

-I didn´t know Christina
when she was 14,

but I know the trauma
was happening at the same time

that the parapsychological
stuff started happening.

Do I know whether she was
somehow unconsciously doing this

as a reaction
to being assaulted?

I -- I ac-- I don´t know.
I couldn´t say.

But I do know that kids
cope in different ways.

Whether she did things
purposefully for attention

or unconsciously,
it doesn´t matter.

She was a hurting kid,
and the people around her,

their solution was to stick
things on her temples

and bring priests in

and bring journalists
into her home and say,

"Hey, kid,
we´re going to fix you."

And of course, she latched on
to whoever was around.

It´s just sucks that she was

objectified in that way
as a kid --

you saw that happen
when Christina was 14,

you saw it happen again
when she was 22, 23.

-Even if she´s an unsympathetic
figure, she deserves justice.

That´s what our system
is grounded in,

and it´s clear that that did not
happen in Christina´s case.

-Christina is my sister.

And I love her very much.

We´re working to make
a little bit of noise

and get Christina released
so she can come home.

Right now it´s just a playroom
for the grandbaby.

And she will have her
new furniture set up in here,

as well as all the new clothes

and shoes that we have bought
her to have when she comes home.

-Are you as nervous as I am?

-Yes.
-We´re so excited!

-I am too.

I knew I have family out there

and I loved you long before
I ever knew you.

But this is my dream come true.

Oh, God. Okay.
All right. I love you.

-I love you, love you.

Imagine 42 years of searching,
and now the moment has arrived.

I am going to meet my sister
Tina for the first time.

-Meeting my sister Michele
after all this time,

it kind of made me
feel complete.

I felt relaxed with her
and at home.

Like I finally belong somewhere.

♫♫

-Been a long time
talking on the phone.

I´m very grateful that Jan
was able to help Christina

locate her biological sister.

-Growing up,
I really didn´t have a family.

-Everybody´s got
a Team Tina shirt!

-And now I have so many people
that care about me.

[ Speaking Dutch ]

-I label this project
as "art-ivisim."

That means that the exhibition
and the book are not meant

to be the final result.

I intend to use them as tender
weapons in the struggle

for Christina´s release.

-Hello, this is
a free call from:

-Christina Boyer.
-The floor is all yours,

Christina.

[ Applause ]

-At the end of all of this,
yes, I want out of prison.

But the main thing is
that people know

that Amber was alive.

She was here.

Her birthday is
a week from today.

[ On camera ]
All right! Big girl!

[ Telephone ] And she would have
been 34 years old.

I´ve missed everything.

[ Sobbing ]

To everybody in Team Tina,
I want to thank them

for helping me to stay alive.

We´ve made, like,
a strange little family

and it makes me feel like
I can´t give up now.

You know, for a kid that´s never
really mattered to anybody,

it´s nothing short of amazing.

I believe that they are
going to be the key to

getting me out, because I know
without a shadow of a doubt

that they will never stop

until I´m free
from these prison walls.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫