♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
REPORTER: The case of
Juanita Wofford is now over.
Charles Vines admitted
before a judge he is guilty.
BRETT: He is not just a
m*rder*r, he´s a r*pist.
That´s been proven.
MAN: You failed a polygraph.
Oh, I know, I´ve failed
all sorts of polygraphs.
BRETT: I know
for a fact he had
a red truck with a white camper
because I used to drive by it.
ROB: Charlie
Vines had admitted
that... that he had
actually, uh, done
the Morgan Nick abduction.
You were looking at somebody
that has some serious
issues going on.
We can change that
children wouldn´t be taken
and that predators
get jail sentences
that don´t allow
them to get out again
and... and commit these crimes.
PATTY: All these kids
who are out there...
They just don´t
vanish into thin air.
They do go somewhere, and
someone took our kids.
MAN: We are about
ready to find out
exactly what happened
to Jacob Wetterling,
and we´re about ready to hear
it from the man who did it.
♫♫
♫♫
PATTY: I know about children,
and I know that if he could
come home, we could heal.
I had visions of us on the...
[ laughs ] French Riviera
or someplace outside of
Saint Joseph, Minnesota,
building new memories.
♫♫
I planned for it.
I thought about
that instead of the,
"What if it´s... What if...
What if it´s this," you know?
♫♫
And that was my survival.
I don´t know that it´s smart,
but it was all I could do.
♫♫
You know, I was running
all over the country
doing presentations and
talking to law enforcement
and keeping his story alive.
And I didn´t... I
didn´t know what to do.
I... I don´t want
a 25th anniversary.
And I-I... "No offense, Sheriff,
but you´ve had this
case for 25 years.
Where´s the team?
Where´s our state
crime bureau, our BCA,
our Tri-County Major
Crime Unit, the FBI,
all of the people who were
here at the beginning?
We need a fresh look.
Bring ´em back."
And, uh, so he did... He
pulled together a meeting,
and he had everybody in
the... the... they call it
the Jacob Wetterling
Investigation Room.
And so he called them
all in, and he said,
"Patty´s upset.
Go ahead, Patty.
And I said, you know, "I do
trainings for law enforcement.
I hear how cases are solved.
And they´re almost always solved
by going back to the beginning.
And you reset, and
you... You look at it.
Often, the names come
up at the beginning.
We need fresh eyes,
because if you´re...
You´re seeing it
for the 700th time,
you´re not seeing what
you´re not seeing.
♫♫
One by one, they
went around the table
and... and tried to explain
what they were doing.
And then the FBI said,
"Well, we could bring
in the CARD Team."
And I was like, "Yes!"
♫♫
CHRIS: The year that I was
off at graduate school,
I was working, uh,
on a railroad crew
in, uh, northern Missouri
and down into Texas,
and that´s when
Jacob was abducted.
And I had gone to
college at Saint John´s,
which is five miles from
where Jacob was abducted.
So I was really
aware of the case,
and I had seen, uh, his father,
Jerry Wetterling´s billboards
along the freeway going
back and forth to class.
And so I knew the name.
And so, while I was
on that railroad crew
in the caboose of the
train, I said, uh, you know,
"I really want to get
into law enforcement
and work these types
of investigations."
And so that´s why I
went and I pursued
not only local law enforcement,
but I wanted to get in
the FBI because I knew
that they were involved
in cases such as Jacob´s.
♫♫
And I knew about them
because, around the country,
they were... They
were solving cases,
but they have to work in
coordination with the locals.
So I was so happy.
I... It´s like this was
a gift that we needed.
CHRIS: The cold-case
review that we did,
it wasn´t a flurry of activity.
Uh, there wasn´t, uh, a bunch
of things up on the boards,
and it was almost like
a library setting.
You get in, and you
read, and you read,
and, uh, you bounce
ideas off here and then,
but, uh, the
personalities in there,
they weren´t brash or loud...
That can tend to dominate
some of these task forces.
It was very quiet and
I would say thoughtful.
We had a lot to work with
as far as information
on what the previous
investigations in 1990 had done.
We didn´t go out and
interview anybody new
or find new evidence.
PATTY: There was a blogger
who started writing
Jacob´s story,
and she had incredible
detail, really fact-based,
really, really good.
And she met through her blog...
Some of the victims
started calling her.
♫♫
♫♫
And Jared... We knew
Jared had been a victim
of probably the
same man in January,
like 10 months earlier.
So Jared and Joy Baker
started going out
into Paynesville,
and they met all these victims.
So now you got a lot of
people who were with the guy
telling you more information.
CHRIS: In 1990, Danny
Heinrich had been identified
as a potential
suspect in a abduction
of a local, uh, 12-year-old
in Cold Spring, Minnesota,
which is about 15 miles
from Saint Joseph,
where Jacob Wetterling
was abducted.
In particular, one of
the things that stood out
in the cold-case review
is reading the initial
report from Cold Spring,
where the Cold Spring victim
had described his abductor,
and he had spent 30
minutes or more with him.
He gave a very detailed physical
description of his abductor.
Uh, the officer that
responded that night
did an extraordinarily good job
of getting that information.
The victim´s mother had
told the officer that, uh,
"My son keeps wiping his
mouth with his sleeve."
And the officer recorded
that in the report.
Uh, that was pre-DNA.
And I think... He just did an...
It was a master class
in police report writing
that the officer did,
which then led to being
able to actually figure out
where to potentially take
DNA from that sleeve.
♫♫
There was a... A report
from the state lab
which indicated
that... That the DNA
that was on the Cold Spring
victim´s sweatshirt sleeve...
There was DNA in there,
but it didn´t match
any known offenders.
It wasn´t in the CODIS system,
which could mean many things.
One is that he...
That that offender
hadn´t been arrested
and provided DNA
or, also, you don´t really know
that that´s actually going
to be the offender´s DNA.
In the evidence room at
Stearns County, there was...
Heinrich had had about 25
hairs pulled back in 1990
by the original investigators,
and they were still in
evidence, along with the shoes,
along with the, uh, plaster
cast from the drive...
The driveway where
the abduction occurred
and, uh, the tire tracks.
Uh, in those 25 hairs,
the state crime lab
diligently looked at them,
uh, but there wasn´t
DNA on the hairs.
A Stearns County
investigator went in
and found a slide that...
A hair that was preserved
in some laboratory slides
and submitted that.
And there was a... A
ball that contained DNA,
and they were able
to extract some DNA.
And in July of 2015,
a report came back
that the DNA from the sleeve
of the Cold Spring victim
matched the DNA that was
provided of Danny Heinrich.
It was like this whirlwind
of new... renewed energy,
new eyes, new attention,
new people coming in,
and new re... new
technology, new resources.
And it was... it was
amazing to... to experience,
´cause there was an
energy that we felt
that we hadn´t felt in years.
And... And we were all committed
to finding who took Jacob.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
SAM: What makes me
mad... I mean, I´m gonna
throw out my frustrations
here if that´s okay...
Is, if somebody told you
they k*lled somebody,
why are you gonna wait 20 years
to tell somebody about it?
MAN: Yeah.
I get so crappin´ mad about it.
Just like this guy here.
I said, "When did
this guy tell you?"
"Oh, it was about
six years ago."
I said, "Where in the hell
were you at six years ago?"
"Well, I just didn´t know
if I should tell anybody
about it or not."
♫♫
BRETT: Part of what
we´re doing right now
with going back to June the 9th
is looking at that
particular day,
the witness statements
from that day.
In doing that, there
were some questions
over a couple of
locations that we have.
So I started calling witnesses
and reaching out to witnesses.
The next thing I know,
the individual that I´m
trying to contact...
His dad shows up in the lobby.
He was actually a little
bit irritated and frustrated
because he had shared
this information before.
He immediately tells me that,
"I-I´m the one with the
information that you need,"
and starts talking to me,
uh, about an individual
that he believes could be
responsible for Morgan.
♫♫
So this was an individual
that I was not familiar with.
After he left, um,
Special Agent Bass with the
State Police pulled a file.
We sit down, and he´s
reading this file.
We pulled the lead, started
reviewing the lead, uh,
and learned that, uh,
this subject was
actually, uh, involved
in an attempted abduction
in Van Buren, uh,
about two and a half
months after Morgan.
♫♫
♫♫
When you look and you
start lining up pieces, uh,
they give you a pretty
clear direction,
and... and this person jumped
number one to our list.
♫♫
♫♫
KEVIN: Kevin Johnson... I
began my law-enforcement career
at Van Buren Police
Department in 1983,
and I retired in 1999.
I had, uh, first met Billy
Jack Lincks, uh, in 1983
after I had just come on
with the police department.
He was my first DWI arrest,
and, uh, so I knew of him and
knew him, uh, in the area.
He was a local, uh,
elder man in our area.
I don´t know that I ever got
back into contact with him
until like 1995 on this case
here that we´re talking about.
♫♫
BRETT: So the Van Buren
Police were dispatched
to, uh, the Sonic in their city
in reference to, I guess,
an attempted abduction.
There was a young girl
who had some brothers
with her and a friend.
KEVIN: They´d gotten them
a Coke and some fries,
and they´d gone around the back,
and they´d gone around there
to eat their fries and drink
their Coke and everything.
And at that time, what
apparently happened
was Mr. Lincks had
pulled up in his pickup
and wanted to speak
with all of them,
but, yet, his main
interest was with the girl.
He tried to get, um,
uh, the boys to leave.
He tried to give
them, uh, some money,
a dollar or... apiece to,
like, go get something to eat
or go get something
else to drink
so he could speak
with the young girl,
who was, at the
time, about age 11.
♫♫
BRETT: He actually was able
to coax these children two
blocks away from the Sonic
where they originally
made their first contact.
He offers her money, more money,
and offers this money to her
for her to go home with him.
She, uh, naturally tells him no.
And then he has a very
indecent conversation with her.
And during their conversations,
uh, he was very sexual in
nature with his conversation
and stuff like that,
and that... that scared her.
She says she´s going
to call the police.
He knocks over a drink, drops
a cigarette outside the truck,
tries to get her to come back
and pick the cigarette up.
Uh, she hollers at the
boys to go to Sonic...
She´s calling the police.
They take off running to Sonic.
He takes off in the
truck and crashes,
and they hear him crash.
And he subsequently from
that fled the scene.
♫♫
KEVIN: I was called
in the next day
to, uh, investi...
Get a search warrant,
investigate it with
other officers, as well,
not just myself.
The case pretty much
was handed over to me.
♫♫
BRETT: Following this
attempted abduction,
this naturally makes the news.
It´s very soon after Morgan.
There´s a gentleman that,
uh, saw the news report,
and when he saw it,
he came forward to the Van
Buren Police Department
and advised them
that he was at a bank
which is across the street
from where, um, Mr. Lincks
was talking to these children.
And he observes, uh, a
red truck talking to kids.
Naturally, that had been
an early on description
of Morgan´s case.
It appears to be okay to him,
but he... He basically
tells himself,
"I probably need to get
this tag off this truck."
Found it to be, uh, the... the
vehicle of Billy Jack Lincks.
We obtained a search warrant,
uh, to search his vehicle,
to search his house
for the described items
that she, the
girl, had given us,
in which time we
did find those items
in his... in his possession.
BRETT: When they drove to
the address, they observed
a red truck sitting on
the driveway with damage,
damage that, for
them, was consistent
with what had occurred
in the accident,
in the hit-and-run accident.
And we found his
pickup, uh, with damage.
And we found the
pole with damage
that was down at
Um, upon searching his house,
we found the hat
that she described,
the wallet she described,
some money in his wallet.
Um, we took him into custody.
And then, that evening, I did
the interview with Mr. Lincks
and, uh, tried to get
him to admit to...
Uh, ´cause he was
very cooperative...
I tried to get him to
admit to what he´d done,
but he chose not to do that.
Even though he remembered
a lot of things,
he chose to forget that
part of what he remembered.
That investigation, that
arrest, that conviction...
Since it was so close
to that, we went ahead
and notified state
police to come in,
FBI to come in and get some
other agencies involved
that maybe, uh, had
a little bit more.
Uh, they were continuing
to work the case,
whereas we weren´t really
continuing to work it.
♫♫
After, uh, he was arrested
and placed in, uh, the jail,
I went and... And
got him in the jail
and did an interview in
our interview office.
And, uh, he was very,
very cooperative.
I read him his Miranda rights.
He waived his right to
counsel, waived his right...
He wanted to participate.
He wanted to share
what he thought he knew
or what he knew.
He knew quite a bit
about the evening
and knew he had been drinking,
knew he had talked to some kid,
knew he had given some money.
But then, that´s
basically all he knew.
It was like, all of a sudden,
his... his memory stopped,
and then, the next
thing you know,
he arrives at home,
and he wakes up
the next morning.
And that´s kind of where
I was questioning him...
"How come you remember
all these things,
but then, all of a
sudden, your memory stops
and then you wake up?"
And so we had the paint
match on the pole,
as well as the
damage to the truck,
as well as the...
The wood, uh, fibers
on the pickup itself.
And so that´s why we
took the... The truck.
BRETT: When this
happened, Van Buren...
Uh, what´s obvious
from us going back
and looking at the...
The case files...
That it did reach
Alma, naturally...
It´s 10 minutes down the road.
Um, a Special Agent
with the FBI...
At least one of them
was involved in this.
Um, a couple of agents for
the Arkansas State Police
were involved in it.
Uh.
♫♫
They did interviews.
They were a part of, um,
some of the evidentiary things
going on with that
case at that time.
And what we were able
to tell from that...
♫♫
Is that it was
very apparent to us
this person looked
very interesting,
then, in Morgan´s case, as well.
We got pictures of the pole.
We got pictures of
the parking lot.
No picture of the
truck... none. Uh.
ROB: All the reports...
Every report says red pickup.
MAN: Yeah.
ROB: You know, when he
goes to cross the bridge
to get liquor in
´95, August ´95,
he comes back,
and there´s a girl the right
age and some... some boys.
And it seems awful
careless, right?
His whole behavior
is really careless.
But he´s drunk as can be.
If it´s the same guy,
then we´re... we´re
thinking behaviorally,
you know, if it´s the same
guy as, uh, Alma in June,
if he´s sitting there
watching ballgames,
he´s probably not as
drunk or as lit...
He´s more cautious.
And could it be the same guy?
Because the guy in
the witness statements
in even the successful
abduction in Alma
doesn´t give the indicators
of someone drunk.
When she starts to
walk away at the end,
he drops a cigarette
on the ground
and tries to get her to
come pick the cigarette up.
She´s able to give a
description of the cigarette,
but she says, at that point,
that´s when she turns
around and runs off,
and he crashes.
And I´m thinking he
knew at that point
they´re calling the police.
I´m thinking he panicked,
and that´s when he hit the pole.
And his testimony is, you know,
"I-I don´t know why...
Why would a drunk do that?
Why would a drunk go out and...
And go talk to these kids
and give them each a dollar?"
He denies everything that
has to do with the behavior
that he´s going
to victimize her.
And he remembers a
few other things.
So...
I look at our different
circumstances,
and you´ve got somebody
driving around,
doing the same thing with kids.
All the way around, I
mean, it´s the same thing.
♫♫
I actually find
some things to me
that bring him in
a little bit more.
♫♫
ROB: I´m... I´m...
I agree with you.
I look through this...
The different stuff,
and I don´t see anything
that disqualifies him.
You know, kids are
gonna... You know,
when... when you ask a
kid to describe someone,
if they´re... If
it´s an old person,
they can´t delineate real
accurately between 40 and 70.
If someone is old,
they´re old to them,
and everyone to a
kid looks to be tall.
So they´re going to
describe a person as tall.
Each... Each witness
is just going to have
a different thing that they
just personally focus on
when they look at a
person. [ sniffles ]
And there´s nothing about
any of the witness statements
that say... that direct
us away from this guy.
BRETT: No.
- Or that say
we... we... we need to
look at other stuff.
Square headlights...
That´s the same as ours.
Square taillights.
♫♫
JESSICA: I remember him
having some facial hair,
but other than that,
I really don´t...
There was no...
specific thing about him
that really, you
know, super stood out.
Maybe at that... That
time it might have,
but as... as long as it´s been,
I just... There
was nothing really,
you know, major that I
would have noticed...
If there was tattoos on
his face or anything.
There was nothing that I
noticed that stuck out to me.
Which... I mean, we were
running right by him, you know?
We´d... You don´t... You
don´t think anything of it.
He´s just another
adult, you know? So...
I just remember it being red and
having a camper and being older.
I felt like it would look
more like a Chevy would,
like an old Chevy,
like a square light.
At the time, I
remember thinking,
´cause we had a Chevy
truck, it kind of was...
It reminded me of that...
Just the way it was shaped...
The squareness,
the boxiness of it.
BRETT: This is the one
thing that I found today
that interested me.
♫♫
So, our truck is reported
to have a dent on
the passenger side.
And one of these kids reports
this truck has got a dent on
the passenger side, as well.
So it´s one more thing for
me that maybe it´s a...
Maybe it´s a possibility.
We have descriptions of, uh,
the suspect from Van Buren
that, in different ways,
line up with our witnesses
that gave us descriptions.
And, also, this subject
in Van Buren, uh,
had a red pickup truck.
We know from reading
that investigation
that there was a witness
that puts a white camper
shell on that truck.
And so that witness tells
the state police investigator
that, up until a
couple of months ago,
that truck had a
white camper on it.
At the time, we´re...
We´re looking
first part of September of ´95.
That´s on the timeframe of
right after Morgan was abducted.
What really tweaked
our interest in this...
The truck itself for one
portion of the processing
actually was sent to the
Arkansas State Crime Lab
in Little Rock.
That´s unprecedented
in this case.
It´s never happened since
that time with a vehicle.
So that, for us, was a key to
tell us how serious they were
and how hard they were looking
at this in the beginning.
Where we are 25 years later
is, unfortunately, not able to
put our hands on those items.
♫♫
♫♫
BRETT: They took steps
in the beginning of this,
even though it was Van Buren,
because it ran so much
in line with Morgan,
the State Police and the
FBI got involved in it,
and they were actually involved
in his ´95 case in Van Buren.
But the lead just stopped.
And what it looks like is that
he was given a polygraph exam,
uh, apparently
passed his polygraph,
and that was the end of
the lead being ran on him.
So we have got one report
that says this truck
went to the crime lab and
the crime lab processed it.
There´s a report in here
that Hyden, Hoffman,
Lonetree, Risley,
and Kevin Johnson
processed this truck at
Van Buren Street Department
in a garage.
ROB: And I believe they did.
And then I´ll bet that they
sent it to the lab after that.
MAN: Yeah.
They did an initial
on 9/1 of this truck.
On 9/5, Hyden had it
towed to the crime lab...
♫♫
Where they did
further processing.
It looks like
maybe that is where
they cut the bench
seat on the blood.
It just says they located
the following items...
An evidence bag
containing a cutting
from the front bench
seat in the pickup.
According to a preliminary
test conducted by Parsons,
her findings were
this... That this piece
contained a spot of human blood.
BRETT: In 1995, they were able
to process this and tell us,
"Hey, this is blood."
But DNA in 1995 was not
anything to where it is today.
The only thing in this that
we were able to... to recover,
uh, was some original documents
that pertain to this case.
And aside from that,
we´ve not been able to
find any of this evidence.
It is... uh, "frustrating"
doesn´t begin to cover
how you feel when
you´re running into this
because you´re looking at
this and understanding that,
today, with DNA in this age,
it could potentially, uh,
bring closure to a family
and solve a case
that´s 25 years old.
It´s beyond frustrating.
If we had that today...
To be able to test that blood
or to have that hair examined
and see if it
matches our case...
♫♫
Would have been a miracle.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
DANNY: They didn´t
find anything.
I didn´t have anything
for them to find, so...
PAM: And do you
remember back...
What they all talked to you
back... back in the day or...?
I´d rather not go over it.
I... You know, I-I-I´ve got
bitter feelings over it.
And...
But you do know you´re
not under arrest.
You can leave whenever you want.
- Well... PAM: We do
have the search...
We have a warrant, which
I´ll give you a copy,
so we have the right to be
here, so let´s just try to...
I´ll try to make you most
comfortable and answer
- any questions you want...
- Yeah.
And not put any
pressure on you, okay?
CHRIS: We believed that
Heinrich may have been, uh,
taking things from his victim.
He had kept, uh,
the Cold Spring
victim´s underwear,
and he had cut hair
from one of the
Paynesville, uh, kids
that had been groped.
And so, at that time,
we also didn´t know
where Jacob was at.
And we had... And we had great
clothing descriptors of Jacob,
but we didn´t know where
his clothes might have been.
So we were able to,
uh, write a warrant
in which we were seeking to go
potentially find those things,
as well as that that
person would likely have...
Potentially have child
p*rn*graphy in his residence.
They´re gonna come in,
and then I´ll tell you
what they´re gonna do...
They´re gonna take pictures,
and then they´re
gonna have a large...
Gonna have about eight guys here
so we can get in and out quick.
They´re gonna go in through
the rooms in the house,
and they´re gonna
go into the garage,
then we´ll be out of your
hair. Right, right, right.
You can do what you want
to do at that point, okay?
I was searching his bedroom.
His house was
interesting in that, uh,
Heinrich was a
lifelong bachelor.
Um, within his residence,
uh, he had swords on the
wall, a samurai sword.
Uh, he had an
extensive collection
of movies and television
series, videos.
In the downstairs area,
there was a... a...
a... An older computer,
but a computer.
And you could see
that he was very proud
of his military, uh, service
when he was in the
National Guard.
He was a very neat,
uh, housekeeper,
although the bed wasn´t made.
That seemed to be the
only... The only thing
that wasn´t very neat and
orderly within his home.
You´re going to find
some things in that house
that look pretty
damn... Damning to me.
Okay. There are...
Son of a b*tch.
I recall, early
on, that, um, uh,
someone had located
child p*rn*graphy
in a closet in...
in the residence,
and then let
everybody know that.
He had cut out from
school yearbooks
pictures of kids that
he had probably...
Boys that he had likely
gone to school with,
and he had pasted them on
nude images of other children.
He had, uh, again, not
a large collection,
but definitely child p*rn*graphy
and child erotica there.
It seemed to predominantly be
of, uh, boys around
the age of Jacob,
the Cold Spring victim,
and the kids that
were in Paynesville.
They told us they
were going to...
Well, they told us we
needed to come into
the Law Enforcement Center.
And when we went downstairs,
usually, we met with
the sheriff and Pam
upstairs in their offices.
But this time, Pam
said, "We´re down here."
And we saw all of the people
who´d been at that
earlier meeting
were... were back.
It was incredibly frightening.
This was different.
Never, never in our journey
had they sat us down
and thought that...
That they had the guy.
And they had a
PowerPoint presentation.
And it was then... and this
was the first time I saw it...
Where they had the footprint.
We´d seen the footprint
of Jake, you know,
at the abduction
site many times.
But, then, I didn´t know
that they´d had Danny´s
shoes all this time,
and they had a picture of
the bottom of his shoe,
and they had the
thing in the ground,
and that... and they...
superimposed one on
top of the other.
And it was, like... chilling.
And they did the same
thing with the tires.
And so we thought for sure,
but they said, "It´s forensic.
It... It´s a match to
your visual eye and mind.
But it wasn´t... There
was no unique factor,
no tear in the shoe, no
rock that was in the tire
that would only
be in that tire...
Not, you know, nothing that
made it different for him
than anybody else who
wore that same size shoe
or bought their tires at Sears.
You know, it was...
It was not enough.
And I... like everybody else,
I thought, "How can
this not be enough?"
We left pretty devastated.
T-This was it, we knew.
[ voice breaking ]
Makes me cry now.
It was like nearly 27 years
of searching and
carrying that hope.
And it was like, it´s
him. I knew it was him.
And I think they arrested
him like the next day.
REPORTER: This is Daniel
Heinrich´s mug shot from 1990,
just four months after Jacob
Wetterling was abducted.
More than 25 years later,
Heinrich is in custody again...
This time, investigators say
they aren´t letting him go.
After us, they brought
Jared in, and they told us
they were going to show
him the same slide.
And [ sniffles ] in about
an hour and a half later,
I got a-a call on my
cellphone... it´s Jared.
It´s like, "Can
I? I need a hug."
So he came over.
We knew we were all
in this together,
and the guy couldn´t be
charged in Jared´s case,
´cause the statute of
limitations had run out.
So poor Jared would
never get justice.
He would never have that man
have to face him in court.
And, you know, it was... It
was devastating for him, too.
But I felt... And he knew it´s
because of his continued effort
and his willingness to share
about his victimization
and get others to share...
That was a huge part
of getting answers.
ROB: Who did you say
said something about, uh,
the concrete poured
recently after...?
BRETT: He´s the one
that walked in here
and gave up the information
on this in the first place
and kicked this off. Okay.
And he said they´d
poured... He said
he didn´t just pour the
pad three days after...
He turned around and built
a building on the pad.
And he was pissed
because he apparently shared
this information early on
because he was pissed off,
because when they ran
the search warrant
off the ´95 attempted,
they never touched the pad.
He said they didn´t even...
They didn´t look at it.
And he acted like...
And this is August.
This is only three months after.
Right, right, but he acted like
he had passed that
information on.
And when they ran
the search warrant,
they didn´t even look
at it... He was pissed.
BRETT: You know,
my goal in this
is to not cast bad
light on anybody.
And the reason being is this...
I´m where I am in
this case today
because it´s on the backs
of the men and women
that came before me that
did this investigation.
So I don´t want to draw
any disrespect to them.
You know, what I
can probably explain
is that there are obstacles
to where things that
occurred 25 years ago
aren´t necessarily
maintained by other agencies.
Uh, their... their thought
doesn´t go in the direction
of the Alma Police Department
or necessarily Morgan´s case.
They deal with
things their own way.
♫♫
ROB: ASP did a search
of the truck in ´95
for the attempted abduction
and possibly other crimes.
Sometime after that is when
law enforcement goes back...
We think, from those checks,
it´s probably 2005...
Five years after he´s dead, so
more information comes forward.
They end up on the property.
There´s some digging around.
Um, Chief Russell´s there.
You know, they debated it.
And then the decision was
not to dig under any concrete
or go any further, which...
Sidebar for a second?
Well, the guy´s
five years´ dead,
and they´re doing
their diligence...
They´re looking back at
reports of someone saying,
"Well, he passed
the polygraph."
BRETT: Yeah. ROB: Right?
Do we want to throw resources...
Do we want to spend money
on this? Yeah. Yeah.
I´m not making
excuses for people,
but trying to get the...
Trying to underst...
The reasoning in
what we´re saying.
So then, they´re... they´re...
They don´t do that property.
For me personally, a... A
polygraph exam is a tool.
It is not anything that, uh,
I´m going to be confident
basing a decision
to eliminate a person
as a suspect in a case
on a polygraph alone.
That´s not a
consideration for me.
I-I don´t have, um, that
kind of faith in them.
Obviously, uh, we
will be doing a dig,
and we will be, uh,
busting the slab up
and, um, exploring that
to find out whether or not, uh,
there´s any legitimacy
to that information.
MAN: We have the ERT truck,
so we´ll have all its equipment,
um, three of the
main ERT personnel.
That´s a very small area.
The owner of the property lives
just up that road. Yeah.
So that road´s a narrow
dirt road, a steep entrance.
It´s going to be very limited
access and... and crowded, so...
Oh, yeah. We´ll
need to condense
somewhat as we go down in there.
It shows two slabs... 8 x
and a patio slab... 8 x 8.
T-That is part of the process
that we´re going
through right now,
is to establish whether or not
the building that
is on this property
is the actual building
that was there at ´95,
that was built at that time.
There´s a couple
of different slabs.
So we´re in the
process of looking, uh,
and trying to determine
which slab it was actually...
If... if he pour it
three days after Morgan,
which slab it was.
If we can´t be certain,
we´ll take them all.
♫♫
[ light clattering ]
COLLEEN: Hey. What
are you doing?
You should have called
them weeks ago, probably.
Well, um, I just
want to let you know
that, uh, there´s
gonna be a dig today.
And...
Yeah.
But it´s in Crawford County,
and, um, I really...
I don´t know much beyond that.
They just feel like
that it´s going to be
in a populated enough area
that the media will
probably pick it up.
And so, you know, I didn´t
want you all to be blindsided.
[ woman speaking indistinctly ]
Yeah. I mean, I´ll let you
know when I know something,
but you know how it
is... It´ll take all day,
probably, so...
Okay. All right.
I love you, too.
Bye.
Oh, and now she´s crying.
[ voice breaking ] It always
upsets everybody because...
I mean, that´s what a dig means,
you know, is that they´re
looking for a body.
So...
Mnh.
Just really emotional.
[ vehicle rumbling ]
[ rumbling continues ]
[ rumbling continues ]
BRETT: That´s a thick damn
pad to put down for that.
[ rumbling continues ]
MAN: Come to see how far
deep... That´s pretty deep.
BRETT: Hold up. Hold up.
Those people put about
four inches above it.
MAN: Holy cow. BRETT: Yeah.
That´s... Is that two?
[ breathes deeply ]
[ rumbling continues ]
♫♫
MAN: Hold on. WOMAN: Crazy.
That´s what it looks like.
WOMAN: It´s two layers.
MAN: It´s two layers.
MAN #2: What is that?
Yeah, it is.
Come down beside that again.
Okay.
Come down another
six inches or so.
Let´s see what it does.
MAN: Look down to your right.
Look at where you can
still see that concrete.
Is it still concrete?
That´s thick as sh*t.
That´s a... That´s a foot.
Come down another foot, Rick.
MAN: Yeah.
Hey. Come down another foot.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
MAN: There it
is. MAN #2: Yeah.
♫♫
BRETT: Alright,
hang on, buddy.
♫♫
♫♫
[ metal scraping ]
MAN: 8 to 10 inches.
About a 10-inch slab.
♫♫
Do you need that fence down to
get under the corner of that?
Yeah.
[ breathes deeply ]
Rob... Where´s Rob?
Can we lay this fence
down right here?
Can you lift that
up with your bucket?
I´ll try to get in.
♫♫
So there have been a... a... A
handful of digs over the years
that have been really hard
because it felt like
the lead information was...
[ breathes deeply ]
a... a little different, a
little more maybe spot on.
Um, and this is
one of those for me
where...
the actual lead itself...
[ breathes deeply ]
um...
you know, causes
me to believe that
there´s a... A
strong possibility
that they could find something.
[ sniffles ]
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
If they spend the day and
they don´t find anything...
♫♫
Then what do we do with
that at the end of the day?
Because this is still
a... A really good lead.
It´s just maybe a
wrong spot, you know?
And so...
♫♫
It´s... I don´t know.
Ah, I don´t know.
♫♫
[ vehicle rumbling ]
BRETT: Looks like it´s
got a footing under it
when he lifts it up.
That goes underneath that shed.
♫♫
So there´s no way in
hell that shed was there
and then he poured that slab.
Yeah. See? That thing´s
under that shed.
RICK: We´re not going to
try to save this, are we?
No, we´re not gonna
try to save it.
And then the other...? Yeah.
Go to the other side, and
let´s pull that one out.
And then, when you dig,
we´re going to put the dirt
on top of the slabs, okay?
♫♫
COLLEEN: I remember hearing
about this lead when it happened
and, um, i-i-it got worked.
I mean, there´s a... it´s got
a pretty good-sized case file
that goes with it, but...
that it, you know, got put
aside for whatever reasons.
Um, it´s hard to know that...
That, possibly, if
this is the person,
that we´ve known this
for a really long time,
since two months after
Morgan was taken.
I think the part that
bothers me the most
is that the perpetrator
is deceased...
♫♫
Which means, at the
end of the day...
At the end of the day, it
means there´s no justice.
♫♫
[ sniffles ]
[ voice breaking ] That, um,
no one is held accountable.
[ crying ]
No one has to stand...
and, uh...
face us...
[ sniffles ]
for what they did.
That there´s just no
justice for Morgan in this.
♫♫
And that´s something
I´m having...
a really hard time
getting my head around.
[ sniffles ] You know, I think
the world should be outraged
that there´s not
justice sometimes.
[ breathes sharply ]
♫♫
[ vehicle rumbling ]
RICK: What do you want to do?
Keep going till we
hit... Till we hit solid.
Solid? Yep.
♫♫
SAM: I really think this...
This... this guy here...
Huh? I think he is.
I think he´s... Yeah,
I do, too. I do, too.
I´m not seeing anybody
any better for it
than he is. No.
And I think he got
his courage with her,
and that´s why he
did what he did in...
[ vehicle rumbling ]
If the little girl would have
gotten in the car
with him at Sonic
and he´d have left with her,
do you think he´d have
went and dropped her off
when he was finished
playin´ with her?
No. Hell no.
No. So he...
He had it in him.
Yeah, he did.
And I´m telling you right now,
when he tried to get her
to come back to the truck
and put that cigarette
butt up, that was his in.
That´s when he would have
put her in the truck.
He was gonna grab her.
♫♫
That´s... That´s somebody
pretty damn calm under pressure
to be in a parking
lot and snatch her
right next to her mom´s car,
put her in the truck,
and drive out... calm.
That´s somebody that´s
got some experience.
What do you think?
ROB: They´re gonna
keep going in this...
You know, we´ve kind of
pulled it onto the front edge.
Yeah. Just clean it out.
I want them to go just...
Yeah, clean out that front edge
and... and there´s rocky and
there´s red clay as we can,
and then they´re going
to start rolling up
under the shed that way.
Okay.
[ man speaks indistinctly ]
So, if...
What do y´all think on this?
Because...
if that´s... if that´s
been here all these years,
I don´t see the point.
I don´t see a reason to
do that, but... Anybody?
WOMAN: Do we know how
long the shed´s been here?
WOMAN #2: Yeah, do we know for sure
it´s been this... No, we don´t.
Because I asked the
owner, and the owner said,
he can´t tell us
that that shed..
REUBEN: The picture looks
like it was there in 1990.
In ´90? Yeah.
He said he can´t tell us that
that´s the exact shed, but...
EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM: But more
than likely, there was a shed.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It would´ve been ideal if they
would´ve seen him placing it.
But that looks like
there´s a shed right there.
So, this is the house.
MAN: In ´90, we got trouble.
- Yeah.
- See, that´s the driveway.
- Yes. Yeah.
That looks like a shed there.
So I don´t see a point,
even if it was different.
So here´s the... So
here´s the only part
of the lead, okay? Mm-hmm.
So what he told
me is that they...
That he poured a slab
and he built a building
on top of the slab.
- That was the lead, right?
- Right. Right.
We´ve busted the slab.
There is no slab that
building´s sitting on.
Right.
MAN: But if the
floor´s cut up...
Anybody... Anybody see a reason
to go underneath that shed?
MAN: I don´t think so.
Chief? I don´t.
MAN: Absolutely.
[ vehicle rumbling ]
♫♫
COLLEEN: Hello?
Hi there. Hi.
Hey, I just wanted
to catch you up.
Um, okay.
So, we´re pretty much done.
Uh, yes.
Uh, the slab was moved.
Uh, we dug down to rock,
and it doesn´t appear that
the dirt was disturbed.
[ breathes deeply ]
Uh, the shed itself
doesn´t appear that, uh...
From what we can tell, it
was probably here in 1990,
um, and the slab was
poured up next to it.
So it was here when
the slab was poured.
So, uh... So we´re not
going to move the building.
Um, so everyone´s
pretty comfortable
that... that we´re done.
So we´re putting...
Putting things back now.
Yeah.
I´m sorry.
I know.
♫♫
No. Okay.
Alright.
Alright, you´re welcome.
Alright, bye-bye.
♫♫
♫♫
COLLEEN: And, you know,
that´s the only reason
I really agreed to do
the interview today.
[ breathes deeply ]
There´s no one to
hold responsible.
♫♫
[ sniffles ]
[ crying ] And
there´s no justice.
♫♫
No, I... [ sniffles ]
I want the world
to be outraged...
♫♫
That there´s no justice.
Because Morgan deserves...
♫♫
Better than this.
[ sighs ]
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
ROB: I-I showed him
the old interview
´cause... ´cause I
asked him... I said, uh,
"What do you remember
about, you know,
this guy back in the day?"
He goes, "Rob, I don´t
remember anything."
And I said, "Nothing at all?"
He goes, "It seems like
the guy had a two-tone
red-and-white vehicle
´cause that´s just
what comes to my mind."
So I showed him the
and he read through
it, and he goes...
And I said, "So, if... You
know, would you say that...
That, if this is what
you saw back in the day,
that this would be
true and accurate now?"
He goes, "Yeah, ´cause
if that´s what I said,
that´s... That´s
true and accurate."
And... And he goes... he goes,
"It says red truck. I
thought red and white."
I said, "Well, did
you notice in there
you also said it had a camper
a few months before you´re
interviewed in August?
You´re saying a
few months earlier
it had a camper shell on it."
And he said, "Yeah."
And I said, "So, what would
that camper shell be?"
And he goes, "Well,
I´m thinking it´s...
If I keep seeing in my mind
red and white, two-tone,
then it had to have
been a white camper."
MAN: Okay.
- Does that make sense?
MAN: Yeah.
- And I said I said, uh...
I said, "Okay, would it
have gone over the cab,
or would it have
been a shell?"
He goes, "No." He goes, "I
pay attention to campers."
He... He even had
an RV at his house
while we´re talking
or... or a gooseneck.
And he´s like, you know, "I´m
into camping and campers,"
goes, "I-I have always been."
So he goes, "I-I
would have noticed
if it had been a big camper
that goes over the cab...
It was just a shell
over the... the bed,"
as best as he can remember.
And then he´s like, "It
had to have been white,"
because he keeps seeing
the vehicle in his mind
as a two-tone red-and-white.
♫♫
And so, I got to looking at
these pictures I sent to you.
If I can find the
ones that, uh...
♫♫
Look. Look at this truck.
♫♫
♫♫
ROB: We need to get that truck
before the guy gets a wild hair
and either sells it or
takes it to a scrapyard.
And then to... if we need
to interview the ex-wife
before she...
Because of her age.
Yeah, I´m thinking we need
to up our game time wise.
Yeah. And... And... And
so, with that thought,
I was going to... if you...
I don´t want to, um,
step in anybody´s way,
but my thought is, if
we could get permission
from the vehicle owner,
I could see about
getting a bay set aside
in Little Rock, in our office,
to where our ERT says,
"This bay is for this
truck. It´s coming in."
We get it sent to Little Rock,
and an ERT can take
all the time they want
to go through that truck
and see if there´s
any part of it
that can be exploited.
Before we... the... The
two things we risk losing
is the truck and... Right.
The ex-wife is...
With the age.
Interview the wife.
Can one of us kind of
tag-team with one of y´all?
We run over there one day
and just see if she´s home.
If we could call and
either talk to her
or someone who can say that
she´ll be there that day.
The ´92... Is that... Is
that in y´all´s stuff?
What´s that?
The ´92 case... is that... Do
you guys have a copy of that?
ROB: I´m... I´m reading
some of it here.
So, there were multiple
victims in that
that the granddaughter
identified
and came out through
that process.
I don´t find where
anybody ever went back
and worked a case on them.
So, I mean, it´s... It´s
not just a one-time shot,
obviously, with him.
So here´s the question...
Bouncing real quick.
Wife tells in court she leaves
every time he gets drunk
´cause she didn´t want to be
around him when he´s drunk.
She even flat-out says,
"I don´t even like him."
But she stayed with him...
She didn´t divorce him
after this guy r*pes
her own granddaughter.
MAN: She filed, I
think, right after...
I want to say she filed
in ´92, right after the...
So, Grandma... Then
you tell Grandma...
Grandma sees granddaughter
whispering to him,
and she says,
"Tell me about it."
And then she calls Mom,
and Mom actually goes
to the sheriff´s office
and files a report.
- MAN: Yeah.
- Yeah.
When did he get out
from the ´92 arrest?
Never went.
MAN: Yeah, he went
on parole, probation.
He didn´t do any time at
all? Dude, they gave him...
They gave him a 10-year S.I.S.
♫♫
Um, okay, so...
He... He r*pes an
and gets a 10-year S.I.S.
With other victims...
With other victims that
nobody picked up on.
Yeah. Yeah.
So let´s just set that
heartbreaking sh*t aside.
[ chuckles ] Yeah.
Um, the worst-case scenario
is we find something
and we have to cut
up part of the seat,
and we´re going to owe you
a new seat in this truck.
Yeah. You know, that´s...
That´s really the... All
that we´re looking at there.
We´re just going to take
it from them for a while.
Push for consent first,
and if they play hardball,
then we´ll get a warrant for it.
Okay. They´ll process
under the dash,
the whole nine yards, right?
Whatever we want to do,
we´ll put that in
a written request.
We´ll make a... a list...
A laundry list for
ERT, ´cause then...
Who´s running lead on the truck?
Who´s going to take that?
I´ll go, uh...
I´ll make sure I get out there
no later than tomorrow evening
to talk to the family
and start getting...
Getting it worked out to get
the truck in our possession.
Okay.
And once it´s in our possession,
then we´ll come
up with everything
you want done or we want done,
and we´ll specifically list it,
and then we´ll challenge our ERT
to even think of stuff
we didn´t think of.
Okay. All right.
And if it means they
take the dash apart,
if that means they
disassemble the truck,
they disassemble
the truck, and if,
and at the end of this, we
have to compensate the owner,
we compensate the
owner... We just...
That way, we... we know
there´s nothing left to do
on this truck. Right.
As long as we´re all
cumulatively confident
that this truck
deserves that effort,
which, at this point, I
think we´re all in agreement.
Um, yeah. Yeah.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
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01x03 - A Fresh Look
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Follows a re-examination of the kidnapping of Morgan, a young girl, near her family home almost three decades ago.
Follows a re-examination of the kidnapping of Morgan, a young girl, near her family home almost three decades ago.