02x04 - Answers

[bunniefuu]

[ Calls ]

Narrator: Secrets in the wild.

Brutal murders.

Beautiful
yet treacherous places.

These are the stories
of the investigators

who solve crimes
in the wilderness.

[ Roars ]

It was incredible
to finally have it confirmed

who exactly she was.

Patricia Hicks Dahlstrom.

Patty was a young woman looking
for a purpose in her life.

The hardest part about this
whole thing is who k*lled her.

It seemed like she was involved
in a cult.

♪♪

People would talk
about these sexual rituals

that they had to perform.

I´ve prosecuted several people
that were purely evil,

and he was one of them.

Is it possible another suspect
k*lled her? Absolutely.

She took one carefree day
and went down the wrong road.

♪♪

[ Animal growls ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Animal calls ]

♪♪

♪♪

Coelho: When I learned more
about Patty Dahlstrom,

I found out her identification,

my feeling about the case
didn´t change.

The one thing that did change

was the sadness of actually
seeing what she looked like.

♪♪

...really putting a face
to a human being.

All of a sudden,
Patty became real.

I mean, we were both
pretty excited to think,

"Oh, my God.
After all these years,

how remarkable the science was

that they could pinpoint it
to one person

out of all the people
on this planet.

It is really remarkable.

♪♪

My first goal
in taking this case over

was to identify who she was.

♪♪

Once I had a name
for the victim,

Patricia Dahlstrom,

that´s when I really started
trying to learn

as much as I could
about Patricia --

where she was from,

who her family is,

and trying to figure out
how she got to Yosemite

and what happened.

I really tried to learn
as much as I could about her.

And there wasn´t a whole lot.

The only record we have

is she´s mentioned
as a surviving daughter

in her mother´s obituary.

And they listed her relatives.

Her older sister was alive,

and her nieces and nephews
are still alive,

and they´re all adults.

♪♪

So I just start calling them

one by one.
[ Ringing ]

No one´s answering the phone.
I´m leaving voicemails.

"Hello. My name´s Cullen Tucker.

I´m a special agent
for the National Park Service.

Can you please call me back?"

[ Ringing ]

None of them answered the phone.

I waited about an hour.

And it´s, like, burning me
now inside.

So I leave them all voicemails
again,

and they don´t answer.

I start calling them again.
[ Ringing ]

And, eventually, one of them
answers the phone,

and I was like, "Does the name
Patricia Dahlstrom

mean anything to you?"

And then she gasps.

"That´s my aunt.

We haven´t seen her
in 40 years."

♪♪

And the hairs on my arm´s
really standing up,

like, talking about it.

And I go, "We need to talk."

♪♪

I fly in mid-April of 2021

and interview the family.

♪♪

Sitting there with the family
in their house

and, like, explaining to them
everything,

and I´m like, "Hey," you know,

"I´m conducting
a homicide investigation

that started
in Yosemite National Park

in 1983.

It was skeletal remains
when we found the victim,

and, you know,
through some advanced DNA work,

like two days ago,
we got your aunt´s name,

and...

I have to tell you

that she´s a victim
of a homicide

and the victim of a homicide
probably from a serial k*ller

named Henry Lee Lucas."

♪♪

It was just crushing.

They were devastated.

♪♪

I am certain that every day
somebody thought,

"I wonder if she´ll call.

I wonder where she is."

But then to finally be told,
just suddenly one day,

"She´s been dead
this whole time"

would have been heartbreaking.

Her family told me,

"Patty moved to California, and
she was kind of in this cult."

♪♪

"She kind of stopped
communicating with us."

The last contact
they ever got from Patty

was a picture she sent her
from the beach

from September of 1982.

♪♪

That´s the last contact

between Patty and her sister

ever.

♪♪

Patricia Dahlstrom
was a real person.

She was a woman and a sister
and an aunt,

and she had friends.

♪♪

[ Animal calling ]

♪♪

Hello, pretty lady.

Hello, there.

Oh, it´s so nice to see you.

Here.
Let me put this down.

Okay.

Mm.

[ Bird calling ]

Go on in.

I brought some annuals.

Oh, boy!

Looks like there are some
pictures there, too.

Yes, I brought pictures.

This is the 1970.

So it was our first year
at Rogers.

Yeah.

I´m looking for Patty.

There she is.
Aw, look at that cute picture.

[ Chuckles ]

♪♪

I first met Patty Hicks

when we were in 6th grade.

In 8th grade,

that´s when we became
best friends.

The first thing
that attracted me to Patty

was she was loud and boisterous
and she cussed.

[ Laughs ]

And I so admired her.

We loved just walking along,
talking.

We had a wonderful time
entertaining one another.

In the summertime,

Patty and I would walk over
to Hillyard Pool,

and she loved roller skating.

She was really
quite a good roller skater.

I have a whole lot of very good
memories that warm my heart,

and I just thought
she was great.

Uh-oh. Who´s that?

Oh, my gosh. That´s me!

[ Laughs ]
And I´m going

for the same hairstyle now.

[ Laughs ]

Show me your picture.

Oh, no.

So there you are.

♪♪

I met Patty
at Shaw Junior High School

in 7th grade, about 1966.

God, that´s a long time ago.

♪♪

Patty was a very cute girl --
very cute girl.

♪♪

Patty and I -- we kind of had
a crush on each other.

♪♪

Here.

Oh, Patty.
Isn´t that a pretty picture?

Oh, it´s a beautiful picture
of her.

Lavrakas: I loved Patty.

She was really my very first
close, close girlfriend.

In my teen years,

I was closer to her than anyone.

♪♪

[ Train whistle blows ]

Her family life was not
as smooth as could be.

Her dad drank a lot.

Her mother
was quite protective of her.

Patty had one sister
and one brother,

and her brother, Ed,
was in the Coast Guard

and stationed
in the Seattle area.

Patty adored her brother.

She worshiped him.

[ Telephone rings ]

It was 1971,

and I believe we were juniors
in high school.

Patty showed up on my doorstep.

She was in tears.
She was hysterical.

And she charged in the house,

and she said,
"My brother is dead."

And she said,

"We just got notified
by the Coast Guard

that they found him
with a g*nsh*t wound in his head

and they´re saying
that he committed suicide."

♪♪

Patty changed significantly
after Ed died.

♪♪

It had a traumatic effect
on her.

♪♪

♪♪

Lavrakas:
After her brother, Ed, died,

I think that was

the point of change for Patty.

Patty just didn´t have

that zest for life anymore.

It was gone.

She went inward.

Prior to his death,

she was interested
in reading spiritual books,

and when he died,

she just immersed herself

in that sort of reading.

I think she just so desperately
wanted to understand

why in the world
he would commit suicide.

It just didn´t make sense
that he would k*ll himself.

♪♪

Patty and I graduated
from high school in 1972.

Once school was over,

my family went
on a cross-country trip,

so I didn´t see Patty again

for the rest of the summer,

but she did mention that
she was seeing Ed Dahlstrom.

There´s Eddie,
right at the top of the page.

Oh, let me see.

Oh, yes. He looks like
he still has his baby look

in this picture.
Yeah. Big Eddie.

Cooper: I met Ed Dahlstrom
in band class,

and we became pretty close
friends for a long time.

Eddie was a character.

He and I had a lot of fun
together.

When I returned to Spokane,
I heard through other friends

that Patty and Ed
had gotten married.

Cooper: I was, uh, shocked
to hear that they got married.

Eddie was a fun-loving guy,
and that might be what she saw.

Having the crush on Patty
that I did,

when I found out
that he had married her,

of course I´d be
a little jealous,

but I was also happy for them.

I didn´t really get to see them
together too much,

but Pete´s Coney King

was right across from the
gas station I used to work from.

I went over to get a sausage
that I liked from there.

I saw them together in there
talking.

♪♪

I felt a-a weird vibe,

and I just knew I came in
in the middle of something

and that I should get out,
you know?

And so I-I did.

♪♪

I heard Patty filed for divorce
in 1974.

♪♪

Lavrakas: Patty never told me
why she divorced Ed.

I didn´t really see Patty
during her marriage.

We just didn´t really have
much in common anymore.

The closeness
wasn´t there anymore.

Look how cute and young
you guys are.

I think we were about

♪♪

I also think it was the last
time that I saw Patty.

Oh, really?

The last time I saw Patty,

I was visiting my family
in Spokane.

She came and picked me up

and took me to her apartment,

which was very sparse.

Her bed was in the living room,

and it was just a little mat
on the floor

with some blankets,

and the only other thing
in the living room

was a little altar
that had an 8x10 of --

I call him the maharishi.

I don´t know who he was.

♪♪

Patty talked about the people
she was involved with.

They did yoga.

She did lots of meditation.

♪♪

The man who led this group

told her that she was vain
about her hair.

♪♪

And so to do away with vanity,

she shaved her head.

He also told her
that her mother was the Devil.

♪♪

I really didn´t know
what to make of all this.

It seemed like she was involved
in a cult.

♪♪

When I walked out of her house,

it really felt like...

goodbye --

goodbye for a long time.

♪♪

At this point,
I had resigned myself to

"She was involved in a cult."

She was lost,

and...

[Sighs]

I wish I had grabbed her

and taken her
back to Alaska with me.

♪♪

Benscoter:
What´s dangerous about a cult

is that it robs you
of your identity.

You trade in your autonomy,

the truest part of who you are,

for easy answers.

I think one of the most
important things

to understand about cults

is that what happens

is psychological manipulation.

♪♪

I´m Diane Benscoter,

and I joined a religious cult

when I was 17 years old.

I was in that group
for five years.

♪♪

After five years, my family
had me deprogrammed...

and then I became
a deprogrammer.

People often ask me if anyone
can fall prey to this,

and I think it´s more a certain
situation in a person´s life.

♪♪

It sounds like Patty´s losing
her brother to suicide

was probably superhard for her.

♪♪

It´s so normal and natural,

when you feel lost
in your world,

to look for comfort

and to look for a way
to feel safer

and a way to feel like
you belong.

♪♪

Lavrakas: Two years went by,

and I called Patty´s mom,

and the phone was disconnected.

So I looked up her sister,

and she told me
that her mom had died

and said,
"I have not talked to Patty

in a couple of years,

and I don´t know if she even
knows our mother is dead."

After I had that conversation,

I pretty much gave up

on ever getting in touch
with her again.

♪♪

That was in 1983.

♪♪

You know, as close
as you guys were,

that shocked me that there
wouldn´t be any communications.

Yeah. Patty went south,
and I went north.

She went to California...
Oh, okay.

...and I went to Alaska.

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

Cullen:
From what her family told me,

they remember her bringing
this guy to their house

and she stayed with him
for a little bit,

and then Patty eventually moved
to California with him.

The nephew was like,

"Well, have you ever heard
of a town called Merced?

She was living in Merced."

You know, at that point,

you could have pushed me over
with a feather.

♪♪

Merced to Yosemite
is 75 miles away.

♪♪

Coelho: Merced is a small,
agricultural,

working-class town,

and it´s one
of the main access points

from the Central Valley
to come up to Yosemite.

♪♪

Cullen: Come back home,

and I started looking
at public records

for Patty´s last known address.

I found it,

and I´m like,
"Well, who lives there now?"

♪♪

I was able to do
a public-records search online

through the county records...

♪♪

...and the same woman
who lives there today

had lived in that house

in 1983.

♪♪

And we ended up learning
that was Patty´s roommate,

Patty´s friend,

and I´m like, "Oh, my God."

♪♪

And so call her up.

[ Ringing ]

She answers the phone
immediately,

and I kind of do the same thing.

"I´m from the Park Service.
I´m a special agent.

And do you know
Patricia Dahlstrom?"

She doesn´t know that Patty´s
been k*lled, either.

♪♪

So I tell her.

Of course, it´s very emotional.

She´s like,
"We were in a cult together."

And at that point, that´s when
I learn the name Donald Gibson.

♪♪

There´s a whole nother part
to Patty´s life

that starts when Donald Gibson
enters her life.

♪♪

My name is Jennifer Randol,

and Donald Gibson
is my ex-brother-in-law.

♪♪

I remember Donald Gibson

as a scrawny little guy

with oversized glasses

and very short hair

and a squeaky voice.

Donald had a horrific childhood.

The father
was a staunch disciplinarian

and quite violent
in the rearing of his children

and with his wife.

The four kids --

James, David,
Michael, and Judy --

all turned to heroin.

Well, Donald turned
to Eastern religion.

I saw it as their ways of coping

with their father´s violence.

♪♪

My name is Monica Gibson.

My name is Nina Gibson.

And Donald Gibson
is our uncle.

My dad is the oldest --

David Gibson.

Our whole lives growing up,

our mom would tell us stories
about our uncle Donald.

I know she
didn´t really care much,

you know, to be around him.

She just felt wary of him.

A little -- Even sometimes
a little scared,

at times, because of
the things he would.
Yeah.

She said that when he lived
with my grandparents,

his room was in the back

and she would see

women and men
go back there.

She just knew
that it wasn´t normal.

She knew that it was off,
was wrong.

She was scared of him.

♪♪

Donald had a very charismatic,
magnetic kind of personality,

and he seemed to zero in

on what people needed
in their lives

or what they needed to hear,

and it worked.

♪♪

I call up Patty´s friend,

you know, like,
a couple days later,

and...I start asking her
about the cult in Merced.

She refuses to tell me
the name of the cult

and that she didn´t want
to talk to me

and she wanted an attorney.

So, from a police standpoint,

that door just got shut hard.

♪♪

I try to talk
to the other people in the cult,

but they wouldn´t talk to me.

♪♪

O´Toole:
It´s interesting that people

who were a part of this cult
many years ago

would still be afraid today,

and that would suggest to me

the...power Gibson had over them

and maybe the potential
that they saw in him

to harm them

or incite his followers
to do so.

♪♪

I called Patty´s friend
about three months later

and left her a voicemail,
asking,

"Hey, if you change your mind,
can I come talk to you?"

Never called me back.

And when I tried
to go investigate,

the sheriff´s office
didn´t have any records.

The Merced Police Department
didn´t have any records.

The district attorney´s office
didn´t have any records.

That´s it.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Woman: It was a great shock

when the man from
the Park Service called me.

I was emotionally ragged
and raw.

It has taken me many years

to heal and gain insight
into those years.

I had to throw out
most of what I believed

and accepted to be true

about myself, God,
and my personal salvation.

Finding some peace of heart
and peace of mind

has been a long, hard struggle.

♪♪

Donald brought Patty to Merced
from Spokane,

and I believe I met her in 1978.

Donald asked me
if I would take her in.

I loved her
from the first time I met her.

I was raising two boys alone
and working,

had no social life,

and it was nice having
another woman in the house.

I feel Patty
was my saving grace.

♪♪

These photographs

are from Patty´s friend

in Merced, California.

Oh, wait
till you see this.

Oh!

I love that picture.
I want a copy of that one.
I do, too. I do, too.

♪♪

♪♪

Randol:
Patty was a young woman

looking for a purpose
in her life.

I never understood

how Donald could attract

intelligent, beautiful women
to follow him.

I never could figure
that one out.

♪♪

But Donald attracted young males
with sex and drugs.

♪♪

I remember a lot
of attractive young men,

all with a kind of
glazed expression.

I think they were mainly
lost people

looking for a place to fit in,
a place to belong.

♪♪

Donald saw me as some sort
of a potential cult member

and said we would be wise
to get in there while we could.

But we had zero interest
and never joined.

Cullen: A lot of stuff happened
in that cult.

♪♪

And some of that stuff
was not good.

♪♪

My name is John Carlisle.

I´m a retired probation officer.

I worked in Merced County
Probation for 35 years.

♪♪

At the time,
cults were not common.

The community itself
was not supportive

of Mr. Gibson or his followers.

They thought those people
were particularly strange

and maybe dangerous.

♪♪

I first heard the name
Donald Gibson

when I was working

at Merced County
Department of Mental Health.

There were four people
that worked there alongside me

that were involved
with this cult.

I remember
the mental health workers

saying their paychecks
were going to Donald.

And this cult
had obtained three houses,

and the one on Alexander

was supposed to be
the main place

where they would meet.

♪♪

Also, people would talk
about some of the rituals

that they had to perform.

They were forced
into arranged marriages,

and then they had to perform
these sexual rituals.

I just remember
being appalled by that.

♪♪

Johnson: I was made aware
of Donald Gibson

by meetings
with the sheriff´s department

in Merced County.

They were conducting
an investigation

of a person who was providing
LSD to minors

and taking advantage
of the same minors sexually.

There were three boys
who came forward

to explain about
what was happening to them.

One of the victims

described meeting Donald Gibson

in a park.

And he said that he felt like
he was in a trance.

He described
losing consciousness.

♪♪

And when he came back
to his senses...

♪♪

he found that he was being
orally copulated

by Mr. Gibson.

♪♪

And that was explained to him

as a need to take his seed

for a religious purpose.

♪♪

And that happened
innumerable times.

♪♪

We prepared search warrants

based on affidavits
from the minors

authorizing the search
of the premises

maintained by the cult.

Man: Your location again?

Two cars.

Woman #2: 83-60.

Woman: I made a cobbler
at the Alexander Avenue house

and walked to Pecan House,
where most of the men lived.

♪♪

Suddenly, I was grabbed
by the police.

♪♪

They threatened
to take my kids away.

The police were in the house,
tearing everything apart.

♪♪

Patty saw someone with a g*n
and freaked out

and jumped out the window.

♪♪

She was out front on the ground,
being arrested.

♪♪

And, later,
Donald turned himself in.

♪♪

During the search,
the investigators found evidence

of bizarre sexual practices.

They found evidence
of a lot of money

that these cult members
were supplying

to this organization,

thereby Mr. Gibson.

And, also,
they did find evidence

that he had been supplying LSD

to young people

and that there was some evidence

of sexual abuse happening here.

Johnson:
We issued a complaint,

including furnishing LSD
to minors,

and specific acts of sodomy
and oral copulation...

♪♪

...between the minors
and Donald Gibson.

♪♪

Then I was assigned the case
for trial.

♪♪

Until Donald was arrested
and charged,

I had no idea

of the sexual abuse
that was occurring

on those young cult members.

I was stunned when the charges
were first read.

♪♪

Tammie:
I-I think my jaw dropped.

I was surprised
about a lot of things

that I wasn´t aware of.

It was a shock, I know,
to all of us.

♪♪

Johnson:
At the start of the trial,

I personally came to believe

that Donald Gibson
had some power.

♪♪

I can understand why a young man

would sense power in Gibson,

´cause I felt it.

♪♪

Patton: During the trial,

we really got a look
at how this cult operated...

♪♪

...and the amount of power
that Mr. Gibson had

over his followers.

Some people described him
as a predator,

other people described him
as manipulative,

that he´s a person that could
take advantage of people,

and other people didn´t really
see him as a threat.

Johnson:
Most of the people in the cult

remained obedient to Gibson.

But points during the trial
when he was very angry

that their testimony
was not stronger than it was.

♪♪

I think that Gibson was capable

of k*lling someone

that he felt had failed him,

including Patty Dahlstrom.

♪♪

Patton:
Donald Gibson was found guilty

on two counts of oral copulation
with minors

and two counts of sodomy
with minors --

total of four counts.

♪♪

Johnson: After the jury
found Gibson guilty,

I requested that the court
take him into custody.

♪♪

And that´s
what should have happened.

But he was out of custody.

I don´t think Gibson was stupid.

He was aware that he was soon
going to go into custody.

He figured it was time
to vamoose.

♪♪

Gibson failed to appear
for his sentencing

in November of 1981,

and that was the last
he was heard from.

♪♪

Coelho: The one thing
that really surprised me was,

during Donald Gibson´s trial,

nobody knew till years later

that Cary Stayner was one
of the spectators in that trial.

Patton: This was 1981.


Cary Stayner k*lled four people

in and around
Yosemite National Park.

♪♪

The Stayner family and the
Gibson family were friends.

The Stayner family would watch
the kids of the Gibson family

and vice versa,

and even sometimes
the Stayner grandparents

would also watch the kids.

O´Toole: If Cary Stayner
were in the courtroom

when Patty was testifying,

there could have been
an innocent reason for it --

he knew the Gibson family,

and he wanted to show support.

But here´s what´s important.

That would have been
the opportunity

for him to come into contact
with Patty,

who ultimately goes on
to become a homicide victim.

And you know
that Cary Stayner went on

to become a serial k*ller.

That becomes an important piece
of information

that you have to resolve
somehow.

Randol:
Knowing that Cary Stayner

was at Donald´s trial

makes me wonder,

was there more of a connection
there than we knew about?

♪♪

[ Bird cawing ]

♪♪

Woman: Patty told me,

after Donald was gone
for about a month,

that she felt
like there was nothing left

in Merced for her.

Patty was wearing
a blue down coat.

The weather was turning cooler,
getting cold.

When I took her
to the bus station,

she wouldn´t tell me
what the destination was.

I saw her leave
through the back door.

I can only assume
she got on the bus to Yosemite.

♪♪

I grieved for her
in a mighty way after she left.

I was hurt and angry.

It was like my rudder was broken

and I was going around

in endless, futile circles.

I never gave up hope

of Patty someday showing up
at my front door.

♪♪

Lavrakas:
Oh, there she is.

I wish she was sitting
right here with us...

Oh, gosh.
...reminiscing about old times.

I do, too.

♪♪

Lavrakas:
As the years have gone by,

I started looking for Patty.

Once the Internet
was established,

I started searching
for "Patty Hicks,"

"Patty Dahlstrom" in California.

And there´s a whole lot
of Patty Hickses

[Chuckles] but not the one
I was looking for.

♪♪

In 2022,
I got a message on my phone

from a woman
who was doing a documentary

that involved someone
I went to high school with.

♪♪

[ Laughter ]

And [Sniffs] I knew
it was about Patty.

And I felt a tinge of dread,

making the call,

but I called and found out
that Patty had died

and that it had been
a long time ago

and that she was m*rder*d.

[ Sighs ]

♪♪

When I first heard
what happened to Patty...

♪♪

...I was -- I was shocked.

I started crying.

♪♪

I cared a lot for her,

and she, uh --

she, uh --

she was a sweetheart and did not
deserve to be treated --

Nobody deserves to be treated
like this.

It´s just -- It´s just wrong.

Woman #3: [ Whispering ]
I´m sorry.

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

♪♪

Lavrakas:
Patty was vulnerable,

and she...

slipped into trusting

and friendships with people

that didn´t have
her best interest.

♪♪

I think that ultimately cost her
her life.

♪♪

♪♪

Cullen: The hardest part
about this whole story

is we have concrete facts

about Patty...

♪♪

and the DNA work.

We can´t dispute
that it´s Patty.

The hardest part about this
whole thing is who k*lled her.

[ Bird cawing ]

♪♪

Kim and I had Henry Lucas´
confession,

but once our victim
was identified,

that opened the possibility
of more suspects.

♪♪

Randol:
It´s all kind of surreal now,

thinking back
and wondering who´s responsible

for the m*rder

of Patty Hicks Dahlstrom.

Was it Gibson?

Or perhaps he called
his old friend Cary Stayner.

♪♪

Coelho:
When Cullen informed me

about our victim´s
identification

and that she had been living
in Merced,

I did start wondering
if it´s possible

that Cary Stayner could have had
something to do with it.

♪♪

I´ve thought about that a lot.

♪♪

He is from Merced.

Our victim was living in Merced.

I believe she´d been to Yosemite
a number of times prior.

He had been to Yosemite
a number of times.

I was curious,
and I´m still curious.

O´Toole:
I think it is possible

that Cary Stayner did commit
other murders

before the four murders
he was convicted of.

But I would not elevate him
to the status of suspect

until we have physical evidence
or eyewitness evidence

that says he was there.

He has to be ruled out.

Sullivan:
We just found no link to him

that we could work on.

I´m not gonna say
we didn´t miss something,

but we never found anything

to link him
to the Dahlstrom m*rder.

♪♪

Johnson:
I believe that Mr. Gibson

was capable
of virtually any crime.

I´ve prosecuted several people

that I thought were purely evil,

and he was one of them.

♪♪

Randol:
The Donald Gibson I remember

I don´t think had it in him

to put hands on Patty
and k*ll her.

I do think he had it in him

to tell his followers
to k*ll her.

♪♪

I tried to investigate Gibson
as much as I could,

but there was essentially
no leads

or any whereabouts where he was.

I contacted law enforcement
in Merced County.

They had no records of him

besides being a fugitive
after his trial,

and that was it.

So we didn´t have any facts
to go off of

to further direct
our investigation.

♪♪

Is it possible
that Gibson k*lled her?

Yes, it´s possible.

♪♪

Is it possible
that Cary Stayner k*lled her?

Absolutely.

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

[ Rustling ]

Well...

this is...

how it all began.

♪♪

Kim: So, these are photos
taken at the crime scene

at Summit Meadow.

♪♪

So there´s the beer cans.
There´s the beer cans.

What´s that?
The beer cans and stuff.

♪♪

"Some lawmen still skeptical."

♪♪

One of the ways to evaluate

the self-reported information
that came from Henry Lee Lucas

is to develop a very detailed

what we call victimology
of Patty.

♪♪

Who is Patty?

What kinds of behaviors
did Patty engage in?

Getting the victimology

means going to a variety
of sources for information,

from family members,

from friends,

from other people that knew her
as she grew up,

maybe the fellow members
of the cult.

♪♪

Woman: When I heard

about Henry Lee Lucas´
encounter with Patty,

I felt like he was talking
about someone else.

♪♪

The Patty I knew was faithful
in her walk with God.

She was a lacto-vegetarian,
chaste,

and would never drink alcohol.

She wouldn´t have abandoned

everything she believed in
and practiced for years

for a couple of beers,
fried chicken,

and a roll in the sack.

That´s not Patty.

♪♪

O´Toole: Back in the ´80s,

if a prosecutor took this case
to court,

I believe that they would have
had a difficult time

getting a conviction

based on
a self-reported confession

and based on the physical
evidence that was available.

♪♪

So, unfortunately,
all these years later,

it´s very doubtful

that this case
is going to be resolved

definitively.

My feeling is
I am generally confident

that Henry Lucas
m*rder*d our victim

in Yosemite National Park.

Absent any other evidence
that would contravene that,

I will continue to think that.

We didn´t have good scientific
proof that Henry did it,

but, I mean, nobody else

could have described the spot
the way he did

unless they had been there
and done that.

♪♪

There´s always gonna be
inconsistencies

with Henry Lee Lucas´ statement.

I do feel,

after examining the facts
we know about the crime scene,

based on the evidence
we have now,

I think that Henry k*lled her.

♪♪

He knew
where the crime scene was.

He described the beer cans and
chicken bones being out there.

He also pointed out on a map
where this homicide occurred,

and there´s no way
he could have known that stuff.

♪♪

Moore:
This case was very difficult.

It was extremely difficult,

but I am very proud

that at least her family knows
she didn´t desert them.

She had no choice in the matter.

There had been
so much effort and care

put into this case over decades

that it was incredible
to finally have it confirmed

who exactly she was.

♪♪

Patricia Hicks Dahlstrom.

♪♪

[ Bird cawing ]

Coelho:
"Humbling´s" not the right word.

"Satisfying´s"
not the right word.

I don´t know if I can apply
a word to it.

It´s about perseverance
and science.

I´m just in awe that,
finally, after all that,

how science made it happen

and how the son

of one of the original
investigators that started this

finished the case, to me,
is just heartwarming.

I mean, I get teared up
just thinking about it,

um, and how proud
that Kim has to be of her son.

♪♪

My greatest satisfaction
about this case

is that the victim
was identified.

Been a lot of time,
a lot of miles.

I´m Cullen´s mother, so, of
course, I´m very proud of him.

I wish that his father
had lived to see this happen.

♪♪

Patricia Dahlstrom was m*rder*d,
or she died somehow,

and then her story just sat
at idle for 40 years.

We just had to wait for
the science to -- to catch up

to actually identify Patty.

And it took us 40 years
to do it.

But we did it --

Right? --
when we didn´t have to.

There was no one telling us
we had to do that.

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

♪♪

And the Summit Meadow case

was foundational to

the Park Service
Criminal Investigation Program.

This case validates

why we have to have
criminal investigators

in the Park Service.

It´s probably the most
worthwhile, meaningful thing

I´ve done so far
in the Park Service.

♪♪

She missed out on a lot.

We were friends
during our formative years,

and she´s a big part
of who I am today.

[ Laughter ]

A big part of who Ruth is

is Patty.

♪♪

[ Sighs ]

And...it´s really difficult

to think about someone
as gentle and kind as Patty

coming to a violent death.

♪♪

The violence
is hard to think about.

♪♪

She took one carefree day...

and went down the wrong road.

♪♪

I miss you, Patty.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪