07x04 - Headlights and Fire

[bunniefuu]

[line ringing]

[dispatcher over phone]

[narrator] A gruesome discovery.

[woman over phone]

It's horrific, and it's disturbing.

[narrator] Two mysteries that must be solved.

Who did it and who is our victim?

We knew right from the beginning

that this was going to be extremely difficult.

Oh, my God.

[narrator] Until a trail of terrifying surveillance video...

What is that?

I was hoping that it captured what had happened.

[narrator] ...has the potential to reveal the truth.

This is probably the most important piece of evidence we have.

This gives me an idea.

[narrator] And catch a brutal k*ller...

...before they strike again.

We knew that this was a dangerous person.

And we needed to find them as soon as we could.

[theme music playing]

[line ringing]

[dispatcher over phone]

[woman over phone]

[police sirens wailing]

[narrator] Pierce County officers raced to the scene.

I'm processing what the dispatch had told me

and trying to think ahead,

trying to come up with a plan.

It was not on a main arterial.

It was a bit secluded, a rural area,

not really populated.

I approached the body.

It appeared to be a female, light-skinned African American.

It appeared that her clothing

was burned and melted in attempt to set her on fire.

Our victim had a quilted fabric over her face,

so we really couldn't identify her easily.

I could see trauma to the neck,

looked like there were stab wounds

on the left side of the neck.

And there was also some maybe blunt force trauma to the head.

Our victim didn't have any identifying documentation.

No wallet. They didn't have a cell phone.

They didn't have a driver's license.

It's so important to identify our victims as soon as we can,

because most often homicide victims

are by someone that they know.

[Det. Kevin Johnson] One of the initial things

that were able to do was to, um, try and match

the description of the body that we're looking at

up with any missing people that have been reported.

Can you run a missing persons check for me?

We knew right from the beginning

that this was going to be extremely difficult

without even knowing who the victim was.

Nothing?

All right.

The fire appeared to have been intentionally set

in an effort to conceal the body.

My impression was that an accelerant was used,

and it probably only burned for the life of the accelerant,

which means the body didn't actually burn,

only the clothing.

We were looking for items

that may have been strewn along the road.

There was a broken kind of clear green,

uh, cigarette lighter on the ground.

I focused in on the lighter, obviously,

because it appeared the body

had been burned and accelerants used.

And if our suspect used that lighter,

it's quite possible that their DNA would be on that.

Hello, ma'am.

I'd like to ask you a couple questions.

The 911 caller told me that she went

to her friend's house. As she drove down the road,

she didn't notice anything unusual.

She left that friend's house about two hours later,

and as she approached the intersection,

she thought what she saw was maybe a tree.

She hit the high beams on her car

so that she could see it better,

and she saw what she thought was an arm.

She was afraid to approach it.

She drove home.

She then returned with her boyfriend.

And they both confirmed then that it was a body.

[Johnson] We were fairly confident after speaking with her,

the body had been dumped

somewhere between the hours

of 1:00 and 3:30 in the morning.

[Laliberte] It's odd that a body would be dumped

in the middle of a roadway like that.

Um, you know, typically, people try to hide a homicide victim.

And this wasn't the case,

so to me it spoke that they were in a hurry.

They weren't concerned with where they put it.

They just wanna get rid of it.

[narrator] A neighborhood canvass immediately gets underway.

We knock on doors.

Anyone that could have information.

We try to, you know, see what they know

and if they can help us out.

I'll ask, "Is there anything unusual or different

than what normally happens in the neighborhood?

Did you see any people that don't belong?"

It was kind of a smaller little neighborhood,

so we were able to pretty much knock

on all of the houses that were nearby.

Hi.

Some of our deputies that work up in that area

were familiar with, you know, a squatters' house.

It was not uncommon for cars to be coming

out of that house at all hours at night,

so we were not sure if that house had anything

to do with this body or not.

The squatters all gave an account of what they had been up to,

and there wasn't any reason to believe that they were involved.

[Johnson] One of the main things that we're looking for

when canvassing neighborhoods

is to see if any of the neighbors have cameras

that might have captured anything.

[Laliberte] One of my detectives came up to me and said

that he saw a surveillance camera

on the corner of a house

which was also at the corner of the intersection.

I think we can get some footage from that.

The camera pointed at the street

where the body was first discovered.

We were really hopeful that this was gonna

give us something that we could work with.

[narrator] Investigators download the footage

and take it back to the department to view.

[Laliberte] Maybe we can capture a vehicle.

Maybe we can see the victim alive.

Maybe we can capture the suspect

and we can figure out exactly how this happened.

[Johnson] The 911 caller was able to give us

some kind of a time frame to go on.

Take it to start after 1:00 a.m.

We were really hoping to see who dumped the body.

[Laliberte] My concern with the video was that it was partially obstructed

both by a carport roof

and trees and foliage in the area.

So it wasn't the best shot, but it was all we had at the time.

There weren't any street lights to illuminate that area,

and it appeared that infrared was the only light source

for that surveillance camera.

Stop it there.

Play that again.

Around 1:27 a.m., we see headlights approach,

and it appeared to be a pickup truck

speeding down the roadway where we found our victim.

All we can tell is that it's dark color.

The video quality wasn't good enough

to be able to read a license plate.

Let it play.

A small dark sedan follows after the pickup

and enters the intersection where we found the body.

[Johnson] It appears to stop right where the body was discovered.

It's in the timeframe that we were given by the 911 caller.

You then see headlights coming back from down the road

toward the intersection and toward

where the sedan is parked.

At that point we're thinking,

that there are clearly two people involved in this.

They appear to be together.

Zoom in.

We can't see anybody.

We can't see what they're doing.

Okay, let it play.

[narrator] One of the vehicles then leaves.

Freeze it there.

[narrator] It's the same pickup that passed by minutes earlier.

[Johnson] It appears that it probably had to go down the road and turn around

and then come back before stopping next to the car.

The dark pickup truck leaves the direction

that it originally came from.

The car stays there for a while.

Play, play it again.

Zoom in.

As the dark sedan started to make a turn

to go back out the way it came in.

I could see a reflection in the side of the door.

See if it's there when the pickup leaves.

[narrator] Detectives compare footage of the two vehicles leaving.

Nothing.

[narrator] They focus again on the sedan.

We had to watch it several times because it's not very clear.

We see what appears to be

the flickering of some light in the roadway.

[Laliberte] The lighting was very dim in that area,

but that was, it was pretty apparent

that that was flame that we were looking at.

And that confirmed for us that, in fact,

that the body was on fire.

It's horrific and it's disturbing,

but it is almost something else to realize

that you're watching that...

You realize that that's happening to a human being.

[narrator] The footage proves the body was set on fire

by the suspect in the sedan.

[Laliberte] We weren't able to see any license plates,

but at least we had a starting point.

We had a timeline, and we knew that we were looking for

at least a pickup truck and a small sedan,

and that's better than we had three hours prior to that.

My plan was to put out a bulletin to law enforcement

and ask if anybody has any information on one of these vehicles.

[narrator] Meanwhile, officers canvass for any other cameras

that may have captured the vehicles.

There was a fairly busy intersection nearby,

which had a convenience store, a church on one corner,

and also a marine shop, or a boat and sails outfit

right there on the corner.

[narrator] Above the door of the marine shop,

is a camera that points at the intersection.

[Laliberte] I was hoping that we could get a clear video

so that maybe we can identify the vehicles.

Can you play from around 1:20 a.m. last night?

[narrator] The road leading to the crime scene

is visible on the top left of frame.

Pause it there.

Can you play that back again, please?

Okay, let's keep playing.

[Johnson] The dark pickup truck goes by and then shortly after,

the sedan drives past as well.

They make a turn down the road

toward where we found the victim.

Because of the distance,

the lighting and the pixelation of the camera,

we weren't able to decipher any license plates

to identify the vehicles.

[narrator] The officer continues watching

for ten minutes to see if the vehicles return.

We saw the sedan come back out to the intersection.

[narrator] The pickup never appears again.

[Johnson] After we believe the body was dumped,

the pickup truck and the car, they go separate directions,

so they're no longer together.

The medical examiner noted, somewhere in the area

of 35 stab wounds to her head and to her neck.

There was blunt force trauma,

which means her head was impacted significantly.

And he also determined that probably the primary cause of death was strangulation.

[Johnson] It certainly appeared this was a struggle,

a pretty significant fight

before the victim was actually k*lled.

[Laliberte] Part of the post mortem examination

was to lift her fingerprints

and try to identify her that way.

Our forensics officer also took a photo of her face

and attempted to use facial recognition software to identify her.

[narrator] Neither method works

and detectives still don't know the identity of the victim.

[phone buzzes]

Yeah, speaking.

[Johnson] The Auburn Police Department

found a vehicle that had been abandoned.

From where our victim's body had been dumped

to where they located the car

was about two to two and a half miles away.

They ran the license plate

and, uh, that produced the register owner,



I compared that licensing photo to our victim.

It's definitely her.

[Johnson] Once we were able to identify Linda Sweezer,

we were able to talk to Linda's friends.

Why would somebody do that to her?

Why, why, why, why, you know, it just didn't make any sense.

[narrator] Originally from Michigan,

Linda moved to Washington in the late 1970s,

eventually settling in the city of Kent.

She was interested in doing

not social work, but volunteered in that arena.

So Linda was a caring person.

So her passing was a blow to the whole organization.

[narrator] Linda worked as a community organizer,

helping with food drives for the needy

and events honoring Black culture.

[Richard] For Linda, community organizing was instinctual.

I don't think she had to think about it.

It was just who Linda was.

This is Gwen,

and my friend Linda here, and we're talking about planning

a Juneteenth celebration

right here in the city of Kent.

Linda, tell us how you feel about that.

I feel that's terrific.

And it's something that's gonna bring

a natural awareness to our people

and also to the people in our community

who would like to know some things about us

that, in their eyes, is a mystery,

but all it is is history.

[laughs] Love it, love it.

[Laliberte] Linda Sweezer led a life of devotion

and sacrifice for her family.

She didn't have a criminal history.

She's was a law-abiding citizen.

-See you then. -All right.

-Bye. -Bye.

Now that we've identified Linda Sweezer,

we have her address.

Hello.

I got a phone call from the Department of Social and Human Services.

They told me that Linda

possibly had custody of her granddaughter.

On my way.

And my heart sank.

I was hoping to God

that we weren't going to find a baby in the house,

and if we did, I was really hoping it would be alive.

In the downstairs area, it was pretty obvious

right away that there had been a struggle.

There was a stroller that was overturned.

We could see blood spatter on the carpet

and in the linoleum on the kitchen floor.

We were pretty certain that the m*rder occurred in her house.

The home was a split level,

so there were several floors that we had to cover.

I checked the left bedroom.

My lieutenant checked the right bedroom.

Come quick. You need to see this.

Oh, my God.

And my heart sank.

[man over radio]

[woman over radio]

[man over radio]

Finding the baby alive

was just a little light of hope in this whole case.

We were pretty certain Linda's been k*lled in the house.

We couldn't understand

why the baby was left upstairs unattended.

My first thought was that whoever the suspects were

didn't know that that baby was upstairs in a closed room.

We believe Linda was doing everything

that she could to try and protect that baby.

So we'll see you in two weeks. Okay?

[phone buzzes]

Oh, I better take this.

[narrator] Linda's sister Vercy is a nurse living in Michigan.

[Vercy] I was at work when I found the news out.

My cousin Della, she said, "Vercy..."

She said, "Oh, my God, I am so sorry."

Sorry?

And she said, "You don't even know, do you?"

I said, "Know what?"

And she didn't tell me, She said, "I'm going to send you a link

and I want you to just look at it."

And she sent me the link and I clicked on it and...

[screams]

...I let out a horrible scream.

Everybody came running into the break room

and saying, "Are you okay? Are you okay?"

I said, "Linda's been m*rder*d."

On October the sixth,

Linda sent me a picture of her and the baby together,

and she wrote on there,

"See you all at the next family reunion."

You know, she was m*rder*d, like, two weeks later,

almost after that date right there.

[narrator] At Linda's home,

investigators searched for any clues

that may reveal the k*ller's identity.

[Laliberte] We could see areas of the office

that look to have been rummaged through.

Uh, maybe in a burglary type scenario,

we still weren't sure.

We did not find anything suspicious

nor that would lead us to a suspect.

[narrator] Detectives turn their attention

to Linda's abandoned car.

[Laliberte] We're looking for any evidence

that will either tell us

what happened or who our suspects are.

So part of that would be taking fingerprints,

taking DNA swabs and try and identify

who was in Linda's vehicle.

We're looking for high touch surfaces

like the steering wheel, the gear shift,

uh, the rear view mirror.

While processing Linda's vehicle,

we opened the trunk.

We could see large amount of blood on the carpeting.

Linda's car was clearly taken from her home

with her in the trunk.

Her car was then driven to the point

where she was taken out of the vehicle and set on fire.

You want to know who was driving that car.

There is at least one,

we believe probably two people that are dangerous,

that are still running around out there

and we have no idea who they are.

[phone ringing]

Yep. Speaking.

Thanks. We'll want to follow this one up.

We were notified that a victim

in the city of Auburn, Dixie Reynolds,

someone burglarized her home

and stole her vehicle.

That burglary was very close to the location

where Linda Sweezer's vehicle had been abandoned.

If our suspect was trying to get out of the area,

it would make sense that he would steal a vehicle to do that.

[narrator] The victim agrees to have her statement taped.

So I woke up this morning to... I found a clock ticking

and my garage door open.

Um, and no one, it's just me and my daughter in my home,

and I called for her.

She was still sleeping

and I saw her light was off.

So I got out of my bed and then I heard, um,

something shuffling in my living room

and I heard my car keys were grabbed.

As soon as I came down,

uh, they had gotten into the car,

was pulling out and out of the driveway.

[Laliberte] It was possible that the burglary and m*rder weren't linked,

but we had to investigate every possibility.

I was told that the neighbor directly next her house

had a video camera.

We were able to go to that neighbor

and get the footage from him.

This is probably the most important piece of evidence we have.

The existence of the surveillance camera

gave me a lot of hope.

Let's go to 04:30 a.m.

[narrator] Detectives scroll to the time

Dixie Reynolds says her car was stolen.

At about 04:34 a.m.,

um, an individual enters the screen on the sidewalk.

He's wearing a traffic or worker's reflective vest.

See if we can ID him.

[narrator] The man appears to be African-American

in a hat with mid length hair.

What's he up to?

[Laliberte] And he was just pacing back and forth on the sidewalk

like he was waiting for somebody.

I thought it was odd that our subject

was wearing a reflective vest.

[Johnson] There are a fair number

of construction sites nearby this,

so it actually appeared to me

like he was kind of trying

to look like he belonged there.

[Laliberte] Subject paces back and forth

for about 20 minutes.

Then he, kind of, disappears out of the camera

in the area of Dixie Reynolds' home.

Pull up the other angle.

[narrator] Detectives switch to the camera angle

covering part of Dixie's driveway.

[Laliberte] We see Dixie's car

back out of her driveway and stop.

My subject got out of the car,

went and closed the garage door, it would appear.

Got back in the car and left the neighborhood.

I still don't know for sure that this is the person

that k*lled Linda Sweezer,

but it's awfully suspicious

that the car was stolen

so close to where Linda's car was dumped.

[narrator] At the hospital, Linda's baby granddaughter

shows signs of improvement.

[Vercy] He is a survivor.

This baby is a miracle.

Linda, she was getting

um, adoption proceedings on.

She had just a week to go before her death.

[baby cooing]

Linda's death would not be in vain,

because I know that Linda

fought tooth and nail with that m*rder*r

to protect the baby, and that baby is a miracle.

And that baby is alive,

I honestly believe, because of Linda.

[sniffles]

[narrator] Officers have found surveillance footage

from the street where Linda's car was abandoned.

We're very excited to find out

that we had a doorbell camera

pointing right in the direction

of where Linda's car was dumped.

What we're really hoping for

is that not only do we get

a good picture of our suspect,

but that we can tie him to Linda's vehicle,

either driving it or around it.

[narrator] The camera is motion activated,

allowing investigators to instantly locate

a recording made on October 24tn at 01:50 a.m.

[Benton] The timing is particularly important

because it's less than 15 minutes

from the video surveillance

showing where Linda's body was burned.

Okay, hit play.

I can see our suspect walk up to the doorbell camera

and, kind of... It looks like

he's peering into the house.

Play that again.

It almost looks like he identifies the doorbell camera,

and he turns quickly

and starts to walk away from it

back toward Linda's car.

[Johnson] We were all pretty excited

because this was the first footage that we saw

you could actually see the man's face.

See his whole body, see what he was wearing.

Pull up the camera from the other house.

[narrator] They compare the suspect

with the one captured on Dixie's neighbor's camera.

That's him.

[Laliberte] It's our suspect in both of them.

But he's changed his appearance.

He started wearing the reflective vest

at the point when he took Dixie's car.

This is probably the most important piece of evidence we have.

It not only identifies our suspect,

but it puts him in relation to Linda's car,

and everything is starting to fall into place.

[narrator] Investigators are convinced

they're looking at one of Linda's K*llers.

Now they have to find him.

[Laliberte] My team was continuing to canvass

and talk to witnesses,

and they encountered a young man

who said that he might have

information on Linda's car.

Could you tell us what happened

in the early hours of October 24th?

Um, I was driving home

from my girlfriend's house,

and then I saw this guy.

[man] Hey, you. You all right?

Thin, hair tied to the back of his head.

[Laliberte] Our suspect approached him

and he said he saw the car there,

and the suspect asked him

if he could give him a ride out of the area.

And he said no. And he says...

Well, could you get me some gas?

Yeah. Yeah, sure.

Thanks.

[Laliberte] So our suspect took empty gas cans

off the trunk and gave it to him.

Our witness drove by himself

to a gas station, filled it with gas

and brought it back to our suspect.

Our suspect then put the gas in the car.

He tried to start it.

[engine stalling]

After the car wouldn't start,

our suspect asked the witness

if he could borrow his cell phone

to make a couple of calls.

And he did. He called two numbers.

He's leaving a trace.

It's like leaving bread crumbs.

[phone ringing]

Can we have a look at your phone, please.

Yeah.

[Laliberte] Running the phone numbers

through the law enforcement database

we're able to come up with two names.

One is Laura Saloi

and the other one is Jason Jordan.

[narrator] Laura and Jason are mother and son.

So while searching through the law enforcement database

on Laura Saloi, we discover

that she also has a 25 year old son named Lance Rougeau.

[narrator] A background check reveals

that the 25-year-old Rougeau is an ex con

with a string of burglary offenses.

[Johnson] I'm able to compare that booking photo

with the video surveillance,

and it was pretty clear that it was the same person.

Now our focus is to find Lance

and get him into custody.

We knew that this was a dangerous person

and we needed to find him as soon as we could.

[siren wailing]

I now have a name to this guy

who m*rder*d Linda Sweezer.

[Benton] We found out Lance's mother

lived at a particular address in Kent,

which was less than a mile away

from where Linda Sweezer lived.

[Johnson] When the police arrived there,

they actually saw our suspect

standing on his mother's balcony.

During the search, we find a backpack

belonging to Dixie Reynolds' daughter

and looking inside the backpack,

we found two sets of keys,

one for Linda Sweezer's car

and one for Dixie Reynolds' silver car.

Now we have Lance Rougeau in custody,

and we want answers.

[Laliberte] He was very dismissive.

He's kind of lethargic, not real focused.

[Laliberte] He denied having any involvement

of Linda Sweezer's death.

My overall feeling at this point

is that Lance wasn't working alone,

that someone else was involved

either at Linda's residence

or helping dump her body.

Lance decided not to talk with us.

It was very frustrating.

We just wanted to know what happened.

[narrator] One month after Linda's brutal m*rder,

the forensic results are in.

Lance Rougeau's DNA is in Linda's Sweezer's car.

[narrator] It's enough evidence to charge him.

Along with Lance Rougeau's DNA,

there was also an unidentified female's DNA

in the mix with that.

Was there someone else in the car with him?

That DNA is run through a database.

[narrator] Detectives get a hit.

The DNA belongs to Sharia Doolling Rodin.

We have to locate and interview her.

[Johnson] Sharia tells us that she was at a casino

and met Lance Rougeau.

[Johnson] So she got in the car.

At that point, she doesn't even know

that Linda Sweezer's body is in the trunk.

Um, but she does tell us that she gets

a weird feeling from Lance.

While they're driving, she actually calls a friend

to come pick her up.

[Johnson] Her friend agrees to pick her up,

drives up into the area

where Linda Sweezer was found.

[Benton] That was the truck

that we see on that first video,

that goes past the intersection,

comes back and stops where the sedan is.

It's at that time that Sharia gets out of the car,

she gets into the truck and they leave.

[narrator] Linda's body is then set alight,

which is why the reflection of the fire

was only seen on the black sedan.

All right. Thank you very much.

[Laliberte] We figured out through the investigation

that she was an unknown participant in this.

[narrator] Investigators confirm Sharia's story,

and she is not charged.

Lance Rougeau's mother and brother

are also cleared from any knowledge or involvement.

Police now know Rougeau was the sole participant in Linda's m*rder.

In February 2020,

Lance Rougeau stands trial.

The prosecution lays out

what happened that night.

[Benton] Linda Sweezer, who lived in her home with her granddaughter.

And on that particular night,

her home was burglarized.

[clanging]

[narrator] Prolific burglar Rougeau

was in need of cash

and chose Linda's house to break into.

She interrupted that burglary.

[Linda] Get out of my house! Get out of my house!

[Benton] She was fighting not only for herself,

she was fighting for her granddaughter as well.

She was brutally m*rder*d in her home.

Her body's put in her car.

She was driven around.

Could have been for many hours,

even as much as a couple days.

She was removed from the trunk of that car

and she was set on fire.

Linda Sweezer's car didn't work for him anymore.

He needed a way out of that neighborhood

and he found Dixie Reynolds' home.

He burglarized the home. He took her car.

[Laliberte] Lance Rougeau was convicted

of felony first degree m*rder,

felony first degree burglary

and vehicle motor theft.

[narrator] Rougeau is sentenced to 45 years.

Linda is such a great loss to our family,

not only to our family

but the entire city of Flint.

Our whole family is still grieving.

We renamed our Junteenth festival in Linda's honor.

From now on, it will be known as the Linda Sweezer Memorial

Juneteenth Festival and Celebration.

She told my wife and I

that we were like family to her,

and she often called me her big brother.

[sighs]

That's... That's why I was so

frustrated that I couldn't protect her.

[sniffing]