02x06 - There's More Than One Scumbag Out There

[bunniefuu]

-[phone ringing]
-[♪ tense music playing]

[narrator] 18-year-old Brittany Clardy
loves to be in touch

and is always seeking connection.

She always had her phone.
Talking about all of her feelings.

-[phone alert sounds]
-But looking back, I appreciate it.

-[sirens wailing]
-[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] That's because
on one cold February day,

she goes missing.

I said, "I don't know. Something's wrong."

[narrator]
Over a week goes by,

her loved ones disconnected
and in the dark.

They weren't giving me information.

No one was telling me anything.

[narrator] Then, the race to find her
reveals an astounding truth.

Brittany kinda had a secret life,

and tied to that secret life
was this secret phone.

[narrator] But will the phone
ultimately connect Brittany...

-[sirens blaring]
-[dog barking]

...to her k*ller?

[♪ theme music playing]

[speaker 1] She solved her own m*rder
from beyond the grave.

[speaker 2]
The fitness app on the phone.

[speaker 3]
It was overwhelming evidence.

♪ I've been haunted by the visions ♪

♪ That I've seen with my own eyes ♪

♪ And the only way to find you ♪

♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪

[speaker 4]
She did help catch this k*ller.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] February 11, 2013.
St. Paul, Minnesota.

Like everyone her age,


phone is her lifeline.

[phone ringing]

Something her mom is thankful for
in the snowy Minnesota winter.

♪ I feel your cold skin ♪

♪ Sink in my mind ♪

It's a Monday,

and we just had
a snowstorm the day before.

My name's Marquita Clardy.

Brittany is my daughter.

♪♪

Brittany and I were standing at the top
of the stairs, talking about the day,

and she said, "I'm gonna leave."

And I said, "Well, where are you going?"

You know, "I want you to stay here.

"Stay here, rest.
If there's ice on the road,

you're not able to stop at all."

And she said, "No, I gotta go.
I'll be right back.

I won't be gone long."

And then, when I turned
around and looked at her, it--

I wanted to grab her,

but I didn't grab her.

It's like, "Why am I wanting to grab her?"

It's engraved in my mind to this day.

[sniffles]

♪♪

[narrator] But hours go by,
and no word from Brittany.

[Marquita Clardy]
I had a bad feeling,

but I couldn't pinpoint
what that was about.

-[phone ringing]
-I started calling her

around 1:30, two o'clock.

"Are you back at home?
'Cause I'm on my way to work

'cause you need to get
your brother off the bus."

So, I'm starting to call her,

-and she's not answering.
-[phone ringing]

♪♪

[narrator] Other family members
feel something is off as well.

[Lakeisha Lee]
My name is Lakeisha Lee,

and I'm Brittany Clardy's older sister.

-[muffled clap]
-[♪ intense music playing]

She always had her phone.

She was always paying
attention to her phone,

so we knew something was
wrong with her not answering.

[narrator] This is totally
out of Brittany's character.

She's a people person,

a point of connection between
so many different types of personalities.

Surely, someone knows where she is.

♪♪

Brittany was very popular in school,

had a lot of friends.

The teachers loved her.

♪ Oh... ♪

She was a caretaker.
She loved working with little ones.

Her first job was at a rec center,

working with the kids
in the community at 14,

and she never left that job.

She loved the children.

She was a nurturer from Jump Street.

[narrator] And Brittany
has just made a connection

she'd always dreamed of.

A love connection.

But, it's complicated.

He was 23.

[♪ tense music playing]

The age difference, to me, was huge.

[Lakeisha] I'm like, "What do you
want with my sister?"

She's a kid, still.

I just know that he wasn't right for her,

and I told her that.
I voiced that to him, even.

[♪ R&B music playing]

♪ Don't let it show ♪

Brittany cared about him a lot

because we would ask,

or if she would even talk about him,

she would get defensive

'cause sometimes things didn't add up.

She never wanted him to
look like the bad guy to us.

She cared so much about him.

[♪ mysterious music playing]

[narrator] So maybe this is the reason
they can't reach her.

She's with her boyfriend
and knows her family doesn't approve.

But even still,

Brittany would never
want her mother to worry.

So, as time passes and the snow piles up,

her family's concern grows more and more.

-[♪ intense music playing]
-[Lakeisha] This is...

February... in Minnesota.

[Marquita] Something in the back
of my mind or my gut

was saying something's wrong with her.

Is she in her car? Slid into a ditch?

[narrator] Brittany's mom continues
to call, hoping for an answer.

And then, something disturbing happens.

She got a-a pocket pickup,
it sounded like.

And they hung up.

[off-hook dial tone]

[narrator]
This doesn’t seem right.

It makes no sense.

They need help.

My mom called the police.
Like, something's wrong.

[Marquita]
So, they said, "Call tomorrow.

"She's 18. Legally, she can leave the home

and doesn't have to tell
you where she's going."

And I said, "I don't know.
Something is not right."

[narrator]
Marquita and Lakeisha continue to wait.

-Concerned, calling, trying to connect.
-[phone dialing]

♪♪

[Lakeisha]
Through the night, the anxiety

and the fear increased

because she just would not answer.

And then, of course, the next morning,

I got up and called the police again

and said, "Okay, I called you yesterday.

I need to make a report
'cause she's still not back."

[♪ tense music playing]

[narrator]
But the authorities are cautious.

[Mike Lapham]
I'm retired Detective Mike Lapham

with the Anoka County Sheriff's Office.

The St. Paul police took a report,

entered her as being a missing person.

Nothing unusual there either.

♪♪

[narrator]
But, Marquita is insistent.

[Marquita]
They sent out two investigators

from the missing persons unit

to talk to me about Brittany,

and why she possibly wasn't home.

♪♪

They were like,
"Oh, she just turned 18 recently?

Well, maybe she just ran away."

Like, no! We just seen her!

You know, we were
the experts on our family.

[clicking]

[narrator] Brittany's family knows
that she didn't just run away,

and Marquita shares the first
suspect that comes to mind.

And that's when I told them
about Brittany's boyfriend.

-[♪ tense music playing]
-[wind blowing]

Everybody is, you know,

"You gotta check out the boyfriend.

He is just wrong. He's bad."

He's this, he's that.
He's gotta be involved.

♪♪

[narrator]
Marquita immediately springs into action.

[Marquita] I took the police
to where I thought he lived.

They knocked, but nobody answered.

[police radio chatter]

And they called the number.

He answered first,

and then he hung up on the police.

[♪ dramatic sting]

Then shut the phone off.

So, I knew something was really wrong.

♪♪

[narrator] Investigators continue
looking into Brittany's boyfriend,

but after four days of her being missing,

that's not enough for her family.

I think you go into
your investigative mode

and start trying to piece things together.

We started passing
these flyers out everywhere.

We organized with friends and family,

sharing out the flyer en masse.

[Marquita]
We drove up and down highways, looking,

see if she had went in a ditch.

[narrator]
Then, on February 21st,

Marquita finally gets a lead.

A call.

-[phone ringing]
-[Marquita] I got a phone call

from the credit union she had got
a car loan from for her car,

that the car was impounded and towed

to a tow yard in Columbia Heights.

[narrator]
She immediately notifies the authorities.

♪♪

[Mike]
So, Marquita met the officers

at the impound lot.

[Marquita]
And then they took the key,

and I stayed in the waiting area.

And the tow company
directed the officers

to where the car was at.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

And I didn't know my worst nightmare...

was happening.

[narrator] Because what turns up
inside of Brittany's backseat

is sheer horror,

and a disturbing warning sign
of what's to come.

[sirens blare]

♪♪

[echoing scream]

[♪ tense electronic music playing]

[narrator] For 10 excruciating days,
Brittany Clardy has been missing.

The girl who is constantly
connected, posting, calling,

disturbingly disconnected.

♪♪

And investigators can find
no answers for her loved ones.

Until February 21st,

when they arrive at an impound lot

where Brittany's car has been towed.

I heard some employees starting to talk
and kinda mumble

about they found something in the vehicle.

I don't think they realized
I was in the waiting area.

[narrator]
And what Marquita overhears

shatters her to her core.

[Mike]
In the back of that car,

underneath a whole bunch
of junk in the backseat,

we found a frozen, dead body.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[Marquita]
By the time the detectives came back,

I had lost it.

I was screaming in the waiting area.

[inaudible]

[narrator] Although tragic,
investigators can't assume

whose body it is.

Is it Brittany, or somebody else?

They don't want Marquita coming out there
and rushing out,

to find her daughter dead in the backseat.

So they said, "You know what?

"This car is snowed and iced,

"and we can't get into it now.

"We're on it, we're here, we got the car.

We'll take care of it,
and we'll let you know."

♪ What on Earth is this? ♪

They wouldn't tell me what was going on.

They just said I needed to go home.

That they would call me. [sniffles]

♪ Wake me now ♪

♪ Wake me now ♪

I don't remember how I got home.

[sniffles]

I just remember calling... [sniffles]

my husband... [sniffles]

[voice breaking]
telling him to get to where I was,

but I didn't know where I was.

[deep sigh]

[♪ tense sting]

[narrator] Detective Lapham
is soon on the scene.

So, I get there, and they
take me out to the car.

The body was in the back
passenger side of the car.

The weather being that, you know,

we were below freezing temperatures,

she was solid.

[narrator] Detective Lapham
notices something peculiar.

[Mike] Every belonging in the car
was packed on the backseat.

Cigarette butts, receipts,
all sorts of stuff.

[narrator] Was this an attempt
to hide the body in plain sight?

[♪ dramatic sting]

With a cluttered crime scene
to sift through,

investigators need to get
the car somewhere secluded

so they can get to work,

and other authorities are notified
and brought into the mix.

♪♪

[Wade Kish] My name is Wade Kish.
I was the Assistant Anoka County Attorney.

What they actually did was,

no pun intended,
froze the scene, took the car,

towed it to
the Anoka County Sheriff's Office

where they have a garage

that's used for forensically
examining automobiles,

with her still in there.

The time can be very important
as far as when a body is discovered,

so that was important to get
on as quickly as possible.

[narrator]
It could be hours or even days

before the medical examiner can
fully identify if this woman is Brittany.

[Mike] It came time to remove
the body from the car.

The one thing I'll never
forget is the sound

when we set her on the floor.

I mean, it was like a rock on the floor.

A body shouldn't do that.

[narrator]
But one detail does stick out.

The only thing that we could visibly see

was one tattoo on one of her thighs

of the name "Tristan."

-[♪ dramatic music playing]
-[wind blowing]

[narrator]
With this identifier,

Detective Lapham goes
back to Brittany's family.

[echoing knocking]

[Marquita]
It took, probably, about 12 hours

before detectives showed up at my door

in the middle of the night.

♪♪

He asked did we know of any
distinctive tattoos on her.

And we said, "Yes, on her arm."

He said, "Well, there's
possibly another tattoo."

I said, "Does the name 'Tristan'

mean anything to you?"

And that's when they both
had said, "Well, yeah.

That was Brittany's first boyfriend."

♪♪

And then I lost it.

♪ In a word, every piece of ♪

♪ All the things I left behind ♪

[narrator] For Brittany's family,
there's no longer any doubt in their mind.

Their beloved daughter and sister is dead.

And I remember falling to the floor,

and I kept saying, "No."

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I didn't want to accept...

that that was reality, in that moment.

[♪ R&B vocalizing]

Everything from there is a whirlwind.

♪♪

[narrator]
In St. Paul,

news of a frozen body in the backseat
of a car spreads quickly

and ignites a media frenzy.

[reporter]
February 2013.

In a Columbia Heights impound lot,

a vehicle with a woman's body inside.

She's so important.

[reporter] The woman was
Lakeisha Lee's younger sister, Brittany.

Our family home,
we couldn't get into our family home

without all of this media,

all over the lawn.

♪♪

[narrator]
In life, Brittany was always connecting.

And now in death, she's still
bringing people together.

But the toll on Brittany's
family is immense.

They want justice and answers,

and so do the authorities

who need to find out how did she die,

and if it was a m*rder,

how can they catch her k*ller?

♪♪

Then, after seven long days
of waiting for Brittany's body to thaw,

the autopsy results are in

and it's disturbing.

It did appear that there was
some ligature around her neck,

that she might have been
choked at some point,

but it also showed multiple blows

from an impact weapon to her head.

Her report indicated that Brittany
was struck in the back of the head

with that blunt instrument


Also, the medical
examiner couldn't rule out

the fact that she could've
been put in there

alive but unconscious,
and froze to death.

♪♪

[narrator]
The findings are unimaginable,

especially to those who knew
and loved Brittany the most.

♪ As the rain begins to fall ♪

-Why?
-♪ It's to the heavens ♪

Tell me why.

Why her?

I was so mad.

The anger that I had was like...

boiling inside of me.

I was so mad.

[narrator] But the Clardys
already have their own theory

about who's responsible
for this heinous crime.

I'm thinking, "Did her boyfriend
do something to her?"

But I could not confirm

because I-I didn't know his whereabouts.

I didn't know his surroundings.

[narrator]
Investigators need answers.

And after an exhaustive search,

they uncover unsettling news.

[Mike] St. Paul Police were able
to identify the boyfriend,

and he had warrants out for his arrest,

and they were related to domestic battery.

Made my eyebrows go up.

[siren blaring]

[narrator]
Now, all they have to do is find him.

Or so they think,
as there's so much more to this story

than any of them can imagine.

[♪ dramatic crescendo]

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator]


thrived on being connected to people.

And three days since her frozen body
was discovered at an impound lot,

abandoned in the backseat of her own car,

there's one connection that may lead
the investigators to catch her k*ller.

Her boyfriend.

We knew about the boyfriend,

that he had warrants for domestic battery.

I was really scared that
he did something to her.

All kind of scenarios involving him

were definitely going on
in my mind at that time.

[narrator] However, St. Paul Police
have one major problem.

We didn't know where he was at.

[narrator] Hitting the pavement,
the authorities search high and low,

and finally get a break,

seven days after
Brittany’s body was found.

They were able to locate
Brittany's boyfriend

-and get him arrested.
-[police radio chatter]

And I went down to where he was in jail

and interviewed him at length.

[narrator] Brittany's boyfriend
denies any wrongdoing,

but Detective Lapham isn't
gonna take his word for it.

His team does a thorough
check into his whereabouts

the night Brittany went missing.

[♪ curious music playing]

My guys were able to
come to me and say, "Look,

"this guy, using this phone,

"was on the other side of
the Twin Cities metro area

"on the dates that you're talking about.

"So there is no way
he was in any proximity

"of where she was at,

where her phone was registering."

♪♪

[narrator]
It sounds like Brittany's boyfriend

is nothing more than
a bad guy with an alibi.

[♪ tense music playing]

Lakeisha can't accept this news,

so she digs in even deeper,

and she makes a second discovery.

♪♪

Me and my mother were
exchanging information,

and we were comparing notes,

when we realized we had
two different phone numbers for Brittany.

[Wade]
And law enforcement discovers

that in one of the phone numbers,

it's associated with
a TracFone or a burner phone.

You can go out and just buy a phone

and use it up and throw it away.

We knew from the phone number
that Marquita provided

that it also matched to a local website,

and Brittany's picture appeared on there.

[narrator] And this latest discovery
leaves her family stunned and confused.

[♪ tense music playing]

Brittany had been posting
ads on escort-type websites.

[narrator]
Her family is in total disbelief.

I had no idea.

That wasn't even part of her character.

She was very naive to the world.

I was... I was taken aback.

That wasn't my sister.

She looked not healthy.

She wasn't the regular Brit that I knew.

-That wasn't her.
-[♪ tense music playing]

[narrator] How did Brittany get caught
up in this world, and why?

Her family can only
come up with one theory.

Her desire to be deeply
connected and find true love.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[inaudible]

I believe that the older boyfriend

that my sister was
involved with at that time

had pressured her to do these things,

to earn money fast.

He told her if
she didn't get things for him,

he would find another
b*tch that would do it.

♪♪

[Lakeisha] He took advantage
of her feelings for him,

to manipulate her to do these things.

[narrator]
Despite the family's deep feelings,

investigators are unable to find

any evidence to support this theory.

What investigators do know

is that there's much more to the story
they'll have to unravel

in order to catch her k*ller.

And their hunch,

based on what they've
learned about Brittany,

is to take a closer look
at the burner phone.

♪♪

[Mike]
We need those burner phone records,

but we had to get subpoenas,

and then we have to send them off.

♪♪

[narrator]
Several days later,

as her family reels
from the recent discovery

and police wait for records
from Brittany's burner phone,

they get a surprising new lead

from another close connection to Brittany.

♪♪

[Mike]
We interviewed one of Brittany's friends.

It came up in the conversation

that-that we had found her car

in an apartment lot in Brooklyn Park.

♪♪

And she brought up to us
that Brittany used to buy her marijuana

from a person named Artie Stennis

in a Brooklyn Park apartment.

-[♪ tense music playing]
-[siren blaring]

[narrator]
Artie's apartment is just

a few feet away from where
Brittany's car was found.

[Mike] We got a dead body
in a car in his parking lot.

We've got a witness saying

that Brittany used to buy
her marijuana from this guy

at that Brooklyn Park apartment.

Didn't take any special language there
to convince a judge

that we need to go look at this guy.

[narrator]
It's time for them to move,

and this time with the K9 unit
to detect any foul play.

♪♪

We couldn't get a warrant fast enough
for Artie's apartment,

and down we went.

[sirens blaring]

We got in front of Artie's door.

[dog barking]

The K9 got a hit.

[narrator]
What did the dog pick up on?

And is this the break they've been chasing
to crack the case,

catch the k*ller,

and find out what really
happened to Brittany?

♪♪

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] It’s been a week since
Brittany’s body was discovered,

And one of her friends has connected
investigators to an apartment

not too far from where her body
was tragically found,

only seven days ago.

♪♪

But even though the K9 unit
picks up on something suspicious,

what they find inside
is not what they expect.

We were looking for a bloody crime scene.

We didn't find a drop of blood
or any evidence.

No bed sheet that matched.

They found some indications of drug usage,

but nothing there that we
were gonna get anything from.

By the time the crime
scene guys went through it,

we were all convinced

that this apartment was
not the scene of our crime.

♪♪

They very quickly ruled Mr. Stennis out.

[♪ somber vocalizing]

[narrator]
Once again, after a glimmer of hope,

they still can't connect all the pieces
to solve Brittany's m*rder.

A devastating blow for her family

as they prepare to
finally lay her to rest.

♪ Here we go again ♪

[Marquita]
Her memorial service

was at a church in the neighborhood,

about a half a block away from us.

[♪ soft indistinct singing]

Teachers and her principal did the eulogy.

Kids got up and spoke, friends and family.

It was a packed house.

♪ It's all I ever wanted ♪

♪ How could I run from it?
If only... ♪

This is where Brittany
worked with the kids

as a, um, rec coordinator,
after-school program.

The staff and the booster club

and the kids wanted
to do something in recognition

for her contribution to North Dale,

so they erected the plaque, 2015.

We dedicated this also in her memory.

♪ All I ever wanted was you ♪

I just remember, it was very, very sad.

Very dark times.

[♪ dark music playing]

But from here, we're seeing news articles

and our local newspaper posted her picture

on the front page, very big.

Underneath, it wrote "prost*tute."

[♪ dramatic sting]

This was so...

humiliating,
and that was not my sister.

How dare you?

[♪ somber music playing]

[Mike]
We all felt that in the investigation,

that nobody deserves what
happened to Brittany,

to happen to anyone.

She was a victim,

and we weren't gonna brush it aside.

[♪ curious music playing]

[narrator] It's been 11 days
since Brittany's body was discovered.

Investigators need a break,

and they hope the records
from Brittany's burner phone

is the final piece they need,

so that Brittany and her family
can have some peace.

The phone records are coming in.

The guys, they come running to me,
saying they had this phone number.

We find that that phone
has been contacting Brittany,

you know, from February 8th,
intermittently,

up until the afternoon
she's suspected to have died.

♪♪

About half hour, 45 minutes

after she leaves home in St. Paul,

over in Brooklyn Park,
there's the last phone contact,

and it's with that same number again.

So, just like we had done
with Brittany's phone,

to get the search warrants
and administrative subpoenas

to find out account holder information

and messaging history and phone history,
we take this odd number,

and the investigators do
the same thing for that phone number.

♪♪

[Mike] And they gave us
the records on that phone,

and it belonged to an Alberto Palmer.

[narrator] Much like Brittany's
problematic boyfriend,

Alberto has a dark past of his own.

[Mike]
He had a series of arrests,

and he had a current warrant
out for his arrest

out of the state of Georgia.

So, we get on the phone
with Chamblee, Georgia,

where this warrant is out of.

And I said, "What's your warrant for?"

[narrator]


has been high on Georgia's
most wanted list for months.

He's suspected of hiring a sex worker,

beating her up, and putting her
into the trunk of a car.

[echoing thud]

Well, she was able to free herself,

get out, go report this to the police.

We're all pretty amped up
at this point, going,

"Oh, this has gotta be our guy."

We've got a name, we've got date of birth,

we've got warrants out for his arrest.

We need to find him.

♪♪

[narrator]
But once again,

locating Alberto threatens
to halt the investigation.

[Mike]
He's got no real permanent address.

He's on the run from Georgia.

[narrator] Detective Lapham
has to think outside of the box.

[Wade]
So, Detective Lapham goes through

the phone records from
this Georgia number,

and one of the things he discovers
after looking through all these numbers

and really putting his nose
to the grindstone

is that a pizza had been
ordered from this phone number.

[narrator] And this pizza place
is in the Twin Cities,

not far from where Brittany's car
was discovered.

Detectives ran over there and said,

"You got a delivery on February 13th

from this phone number."

[Wade] Lo and behold,
they still have the receipt

from the pizza that was delivered.

Good pizza place,
they had ever-- all the records.

Pizza driver took the detective

and pointed out the house.

That address was within blocks

of the apartment where the car was dumped.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

So, we sat on that address,
we're watching it.

[narrator]
They think they have it,

but as they wait, they get another lead.

A food delivery on
the other side of the city.

Further away this time.

[Wade] Detective Lapham continues looking
through those phone records,

and again, we come up with more pizza.

It turns out Alberto's phone number
had ordered a pizza

from a Domino's location in Woodbury,


Didn't take us too long

to figure out that we're
gonna go to the pizza guy.

And they, too, had all the records,

receipts, address, and the whole bit.

It's in a townhouse complex in Woodbury.

♪♪

So, we've got two search
warrants ready to go.

I'm coordinating SWAT teams
in two different counties.

We wanna do these
warrants simultaneous.

[sirens blaring]

This is all happening
in a matter of hours.

♪♪

This is our Super Bowl
of this investigation.

We are at the Quarry Ridge Townhouses
here in Woodbury.

[door clicks]

[♪ tense music playing]

Okay, here's where we were.

This is the complex right here.

We all waited at the entrance,

and we all just came in,

and we must have had a dozen vehicles.

[narrator] Thirteen days after
Brittany’s body was found,

SWAT teams are ready to move
on two potential crime scenes.

It's tense.

One mistake could alert Alberto

that investigators are hot on his trail.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[Mike]
The SWAT teams did their entries,

and us detectives,

they usually don't wanna get in
their way, so we stay out,

and we wait for an all-clear.

[police radio chatter]

[narrator] But when detectives manage
to get inside the first location,

to their shock and disappointment,

there's no Alberto.

At Brooklyn Park,
they found one female in the apartment.

When they questioned her,
she happened to be

Alberto's sister-in-law.

Mr. Palmer had been at
that address in Brooklyn Park

for about the last month.

My partner in Brooklyn Park,
they started pointing at things

like the blood spatter on the wall

and the blood that looked like it had been
kinda cleaned up in the carpet.

The sister-in-law says, "Well, yeah.

"Alberto said he had spilled juice,

"and he was trying to clean it all up.

And my daughter actually came home
and helped him clean up."

♪♪

Also, she said there was
a car parked in her garage

and she said, "What's that car?"

And Alberto had explained to her that,

"Well, it belonged to a friend,

and he was gonna come back and get it,
but he didn't."

So she made him get rid of the car.

Well, he drives off in that car,

comes home later that night.

[narrator] Have detectives
finally uncovered the crime scene?

And what's the real tale
behind Brittany Clardy's brutal m*rder?

In Alberto's apartment,
they spot a telling sign

that might be their first big break.

♪♪

[♪ tense music playing]

[narrator]
It's March 6th.

Twenty-three days since
Brittany Clardy went missing

and was eventually discovered m*rder*d.

Investigators have been
hunting for Alberto Palmer,

their prime suspect.

They haven't found him yet,

but after breaching the first
of two stakeout locations,

they have what they think
is a critical piece of evidence.

[Mike] The detective found
a set of sheets that belongs

to that sheet that was covering Brittany
in the back of the car,

in the dresser.

[♪ tense music playing]

Investigators also found
an old rusty hammer.

[Mike]
It had traces of blood on it.

He says, "Mike, this is our crime scene.

This is where Brittany was m*rder*d."

[sirens blaring]

[♪ tense music playing]

[narrator]
Back in Woodbury...

[siren blaring]

...the SWAT team breaks through the door.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

And there he is.

[echoing thud]

Alberto Palmer.

We've got him.

[♪ somber music playing]

I went up to Alberto, and I said,

"Alberto, my name's Mike.
I'm a detective,

and I'd sure love to talk with you."

[narrator]
But in order to make the arrest,

Detective Lapham has to
connect Alberto's phone

to the number that had been calling
Brittany's burner phone

right before her disappearance.

[Mike]
And I said, "Is that your phone?"

"No, that's not my phone."

And, uh, I asked one of my partners,
"Would you dial that phone?"

My partner dialed the phone...

[phone ringing]

...and I held it up and showed it,
and I says,

"Well, that clears that up."

[narrator]
Brittany's secret burner phone

has led investigators
directly to their suspect.

He had a backpack
sitting right next to him.

As we're looking through the backpack,
there is Brittany's iPhone,

and there is her burner phone.

[narrator]
A final connection.

And I said, "Well, you're under arrest."

♪♪

I had to go--
didn't care how late it was,

had to go to Marquita's.

[♪ gentle music playing]

Detective Lapham, Mike, came to our home

and he came, and he walked in and said,
"We got him."

♪ I just wanna love you ♪

And I thought it was...

that guy that she was seeing.

But, no. I guess there's more
than one scumbag out there.

I thought I was feeling
some sense of relief

when they said that he was arrested,

but I just was more angry

because I had questions.

♪ I could tear your skin ♪

♪ Heart screams out ♪

♪ As your lungs cave in, in ♪

[narrator]
And so did the investigators.

They wanna hear what Alberto has to say
when confronted with the evidence.

Okay, alright.

We started talking about Brittany.

♪♪

[Mike]
They disagreed over the money,

but he couldn't remember specifics
and this and that.

He first provided some
preliminary information,

wasn't willing to jump all the way
into confessing what he had done.

[narrator]
Then, Alberto makes a special request.

[sobbing]

-[emotional mumbling]
-[indistinct phone chatter]

[narrator] He's been caught,
so now he fills in the details.

♪♪

Brittany was placed
in the back of the car,

and then ultimately froze to death,

and died as a result of her injuries.

[indistinct chatter]

[narrator] But sadly,
there is another chapter to this story.

[Wade] I remember this very clearly.
I was making dinner,

and I hear on 6 o'clock news,
this is in May,

um, "Body recovered in trunk."

Police have identified the woman
whose body was found in a car

that was towed from
a Brooklyn Park grocery store.

She is 24-year-old Klaressa Cook

from Gainesville, Georgia.

That m*rder was determined
to have occurred before Brittany's,

by the same person. Alberto.

We probably got
a serial k*ller off the street.

♪♪

[narrator]
The hunt for Brittany's k*ller is over.

Time passes.

It's December 2014,

almost two years since Brittany

walked out of her mother's house
on that snowy February day,

but there's still no closure and no peace.

[Lakeisha]
Sitting in the courtroom,

watching the person who
did this to my sister,

felt like an out-of-body experience.

♪ Wanna be your friend ♪

Mr. Palmer pled guilty to a first-degree
m*rder in Hennepin County.

Then, after that case was sentenced,

he pled guilty to a second-degree
intentional m*rder in Anoka County.

So, it's, in all likelihood,

Mr. Palmer will never see
the outside of a prison again.

♪ The sun will meet with the moon ♪

[Lakeisha] He's not allowed
to do this to no other families.

He's not allowed to take away

that love from anyone else.

And if he thinks about it,
he'll remember her name.

[narrator]
He'll remember Brittany's name

because it was her, her phone,
and her actions

that ultimately took
Alberto off the streets.

Brittany kinda had a secret life,

and tied to that secret life
was this secret phone.

But, in the end, it was
the use of the secret phone

that Brittany was able
to catch who k*lled her.

[narrator]
And Brittany's spirit of caring for

and connecting with others

has resonated far beyond her death.

We've created
the Brittany Clardy Foundation,

and that is specific to
supporting women and girls

who are in domestic violence

or exploitative situations.

♪ Think about it, then fire ♪

♪ I'm waiting on the other side ♪

And recently,
the Brittany Clardy Act was introduced

to build an office on a federal level

to collaborate across the nation,

to share data with law enforcement

together

to work on saving more
Black women and girls.

♪ Now, is that too much to ask for? ♪

♪ I just wanna love that,
girls like me ♪

When Black women and girls
are safe, everyone is safe.

Yep.

That I miss her. [sniffles]

I'm proud of her...

[sniffles]

and that she's doing a good job.

♪ I don't know where my head is lately ♪

♪ Have I lost my mind? ♪

[♪ slow, eerie music playing]

♪ But I know that I have a secret ♪

♪ And it's only mine ♪

♪ And the only way to find me ♪

♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪

[♪ music ends]