01x01 - Run Sarah Run

[bunniefuu]

[wind whistling]

[Rashel] Rockville is
a maximum security facility.

You got a very tall fence with razor wire,
rows and rows of razor wire.

There are towers,

and there's another guard that's armed
that drives around the perimeter.

[radio crackles]

[Plank] There's around about


whether it was because it was all women,

they just didn't cause any problems.

[inmate panting]

[indistinct chatter]

[Rashel] On August the 4th, 2008,

an ordinary day, you just wake up
and everybody has their own routine.

[Plank] They run at least
three visual body counts a day.

You had to be on your bunk

and show skin for the count.

[Rashel] We got counted.

And then the count ran over, not abnormal.

And they counted us again.

And that's when, you know,
you really start to think,

"What is going on that they can't count,
or where would somebody be?"

[walkie-talkie beeps]

[officer] The count was bad.

We had two bad counts
to verify all the empty beds.

[Plank] At four o'clock,
they had one missing.

Very, very unusual.

[officer] Try to verify
where the offenders are,

where they should be.

These sergeants, the bigwigs,

they come in, start counting,
stomping around, huffy-puffy.

They were mad.

[officer] Go up to room I,
check around the offender's bed area

and see if perhaps she might be hiding
in a locker.

And then about a half an hour goes by,

and you could just, like,
hear the whispers across the dorm.

[indistinct chatter]

[officer] We're unable to locate her
on the facility grounds.

Somebody said, "Sarah's not in her bed."

And I just… [sighs]

…got a little twinge of excitement
in my stomach,

and I said, "She did it."

She got out of here.

[Plank] Sarah Pender just vanished.

You know, we gotta get her back.

She's already k*lled two people,
who knows what she's gonna do next.

Tonight, a convicted k*ller
is on the loose.

[anchor 1] A woman escaped
from the Rockville Correctional Facility.

[anchor 2] A Marion County jury
convicted Sarah Pender

in the year 2000 in a double m*rder.

[anchor 1] Along with her then-boyfriend
Richard Hull,

she helped k*ll a man and a woman and
then stashed their bodies in a dumpster.

She has a Charles Manson-like ability to
manipulate people, then committing crimes.

[man] She looked like
a sweet little innocent girl,

but within, there's a deep, evil demon.

Hi. My name is Sarah Pender.

[laughs]

[director] Stop, cut.

Okay, wait a minute.
My name is Sarah Pender.

People have called me a manip--

People have called me all sorts of names.

They've said that I'm a manipulator,
that I'm psychologically…

I'm a psychopath.

Stop looking at me.

This is gonna be it.

People call me a manipulator,
pathological…

Every inmate thinks about escaping prison,

especially when you have a lot of time.

I was sent to prison for 110 years
for two murders that I did not commit.

I knew that I was going to die in prison.

And then one day,

I thought, "I bet I can get out of here."

I knew that I would need help.

Even if I made it past the guards
or through the fence,

I would need someone there to pick me up.

So, I definitely needed a partner
to help me out.

And then I found one.

Once the gate was open,

I remember walking across the pavement
and it being so hot.

I was so excited.

I was never going back.

This is what I've been waiting for,
so don't flake out now.

I remember looking
and seeing cows in the pasture,

driving through small towns,

looking at all the buildings
and small structures,

wondering what all those little people
were doing in their little lives

and how they had no idea
what was happening.

I felt completely refreshed.

And I remember
hitting the dashboard and just…

Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah!

And I was like, "I'm free!"

[phone ringing]

[Prosser] I was down in Florida,

and I get a phone call.

And it was Sarah.

And then it dawned on me.

Well, normally when she would call me
from prison, the operator comes on,

and that didn't come on,
and it was Sarah's voice.

And I was like,

"Whoa, where are you calling me from?"

"I'm on a cell phone,
and I'm on the road."

And that just threw me for a total loop.

I was standing there
with my mouth open like,

"Did she just tell me
she walked out of prison?"

[Roland] I'm living out on the West Coast.

[phone rings]

The phone rings
and it's Bonnie, Sarah's mom,

and Sarah had escaped, and she was gone.


that's what the judge sentenced Sarah to.

Sarah was 21 when she was arrested.

She had her whole life in front of her.

Growing up, she was a joyful child,

her and her sister Jennifer.

We were living in Greenfield.

It's a small town east of Indianapolis.

She was kind and considerate,

intelligent.

[Prosser] She just amazed me
at how quickly that she just learned.

It was like she was two grades higher
than what she was.

[Roland] Years later and, you know,
now Sarah graduated from high school

and they got the news
we had been accepted at Purdue.

It was a joyous time.

She went straight
into biophysics, biochemistry,

trigonometry and calculus.

[Sarah] I was lucky that my father
was very interested in my education.

Because he knew that education
was one of the number one things

that would help create success in life.

[Roland] She hadn't even really
gotten started in her life.

And now,
"Your daughter's on the run from the law"?

Yeah, well, how can this be?
It just doesn't make any sense.

I can't believe she's sitting next to me
in this vehicle and we're driving away.

Things were just right,

from movements that particular day,

to who was on the gate that day.

[Sarah] I met Jamie in county jail.

What started as a sexual relationship
became a deep friendship between us.

And now Jamie had already been
out of jail for quite some time.

She already had this free life
that she was risking for me,

but I trusted that she would be there
whenever I got out.

One of the things that made me
fall in love with Jamie was,

she was very defiant,

and I admired her guts.

[laughter]

Jamie was down for anything.

She liked risks.

And she liked me.

You know what,
I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you.

I told her, "Don't look back."
I loved her enough to let her go.

[interviewer]
You want her to stay out free?

Yeah. [bleep] yeah, I do.

-You want her to be free forever?
-[bleep] yeah, I do.

[laughs]

Run, Sarah, run.

[reporter 1] Now, Sarah Pender
is described as a white female,

5'8", weighing about 200 pounds
with brown hair and blue eyes.

[reporter 2]
Police say they are tracking Pender,

and she should be considered dangerous.

Jamie dropped me off at the safe house

and left to get me clean clothes
and hair dye,

a new cell phone, my money.

We are gonna use every resource
to hunt her down and find her.

[radio crackles]

-There were a lot out physically looking.
-[siren wailing]

The entire Department of Corrections,
Homeland Security.

We didn't know what she was gonna do.

It's concerning because we don't know
where this woman is, you know,

we don't know what she's capable of.

I live about seven miles south,

and there's woods all around there,
so that's always been a concern.

[Plank] We didn't have any evidence
of how she got out.

She didn't breach the perimeter.
She didn't go over the fence or anything.

There's only one conclusion,
that she went out through a gate.

To do that, she had to have an accomplice,

a correctional officer.

They reviewed a lot of tapes,
and they'd come up with a primary suspect,

Scott Spitler, a correctional officer.

Because he went out about the time
that she had gotten out.

I know this Spitler guy has to be
the one that did it.

I said, "I want to see him."

I got him in an interview room.

I asked him if he would take
a voice stress test, and he said yes.

It's a lie detector of sorts.

[chuckles] I mean, he was nervous,
he was stuttering

and guilt was pouring out of him.

And he failed it badly, real bad.

And finally he confessed.

He told us everything
about how he helped her get out.

[Sarah] Planning my escape
took several months.

I knew that I would need money
once I got out.

So, I began to watch and pay attention,

consider and look for opportunities.

I identified Scott Spitler,

and I befriended him.

I would pay him to bring in contraband,

cell phones, tobacco, Benadryl.

I sent the money that I made
to my friend Jamie.

Jamie held the money aside so that
I would have it whenever I got out.

And at this point,

Scott saw an opportunity
to make even more money

because he knew how to get me out.

He asked me for $15,000 in order for him
to drive me to the parking lot.

And I agreed.

[dog barking]

But as time went on,
Scott wanted to have sex with me.

It's not like I have a choice.

And so he… I did what I had to do.

[Plank] Scott Spitler told me
about utilizing a van

and went through the back gates
and let her out in the front parking lot,

where Jamie, a longtime friend of Sarah's,
picked her up.

[Sarah] I saw Scott as a means to an end.

Before I got out of the van,

I said, "Scott, I love you,
and I will text you later."

And Scott said, "You better."

[Plank] She never called.

And I told him, I said, "It looks
pretty obvious to me. You got took."

She had this ability
to bring people into her.

I've never seen an inmate
like that before.

[reporter] 41-year-old Scott Spitler,
he is now in jail facing seven charges

including assisting a criminal,
official misconduct and sexual misconduct.

[Buss] I have no idea what he was
thinking of. He was manipulated.

She is-- should be considered dangerous.

[Plank] When we got Jamie's name
out of Spitler,

immediately we go
to the visitation records.

We saw Jamie Long's name everywhere.

We looked to see how many times
she'd been there, what her last visit was,

-what her address was.
-[siren wailing]

So, we got an emergency response team
to Jamie's house.

-[siren continues]
-[radio chatter]

So, we had a very brief interview
with Jamie.

And she didn't give up any information.

[phone chimes]

[Sarah] I looked at my phone.

Jamie texted me,
an officer had talked to her.

She was afraid to come to the house

because she didn't want
to lead them to me.

I needed my money to move on.

I don't know what to do.
What do I do? What do I do?

[siren wailing]

[Plank] And, you know,
we didn't waste any time.

And the commissioner called
a US Marshals Task Force.

[engine starts]

So, you're gonna get caught,
you're gonna come back,

and nobody's gonna care about you anymore.

[tires squealing]

[reporter] Sarah Pender was the first
inmate to ever escape from this prison,

and they hope she's the last.

[Harmon] Over my three years
working with US Marshals,

I caught hundreds of murderers.
Not dozens, hundreds.

We're professionals.

Every 24 hours, I get a phone call.

I was accustomed to getting
the next bad guy or the next bad girl.

Typically we catch them pretty quick.

Department of Corrections,
they said that we had a female breakout.

It wasn't like,
"Oh, this is an interesting case.

You mean she escaped from prison?"

I don't get that, like,
emotional towards it.

It's just another f*cking fugitive.

[reporter] She was driven
outside the gates

by correctional officer, Scott Spitler.

But also,
it wasn't that she robbed a bank.

She k*lled two people
and put them in a dumpster.

She's a risk to the public.

Would she k*ll again? Probably.

Would she want to go back? Probably not.

It's a pretty high-level danger situation.

There's no better thrill
than the hunting of mankind.

You know, the intellectual being who
can think, who's trying to outthink you.

Now, is that thrilling?
You better f*cking believe it's thrilling.

[reporter] Twenty-nine-year-old
Sarah Pender is still on the run

after breaking out
of the Rockville Correctional Facility.

She's certainly a dangerous individual,

has the ability
and the capability of k*lling.

The news came on and they said
that Sarah Pender had escaped.

My heart sank.

The first time I met Sarah
was in the Marion County Jail.

She was coming in there
for a double m*rder.

So I'm thinking
some crazy-looking lady's gonna come in,

and she came in,
and she was just a normal person.

She was young. She was really nervous.

And I helped her, you know,
get settled in.

She was like a daughter.

She's a good person that… She didn't do
anything that she's accused of.

She wouldn't hurt anybody.

Oh, Lord. [sniffles]

She wouldn't hurt a fly.

No.

She called me.

I just knew in my heart
that I had to help her.

Whatever I could do, I had to help her.

[Sarah] When I got into Peggy's car,

I think that the first thing
that she said to me was…

"Oh, my God, I can't believe you're out."

[Sarah] I knew that she would help me
get the money from Jamie

to do whatever I needed to do.

[Harmon] When the Department
of Corrections shared with me

that Jamie Long had helped her,

you know that's a hell of a lead.

Grabbed our gear, our radios,
our tac vests.

I needed to be talking to her.

Jamie was more scared than I was,

so she decided to deliver the money
undercover in a McDonald's.

It was a risk.

But without that,
I knew that I was in trouble.

Even though the police
were on Jamie's tail,

we had already committed that far.

So, what's one more step?

I was hoping that the police
had not connected Peggy to me yet,

even if they were following Jamie.

However, I can't just be sitting
in the back of Peggy's car.

[chuckles]

And so I climbed into her trunk.

I remember feeling jumper cables
digging into my back.

And it was so hot and stuffy.

But it was what I had to do.

Having that money is essential
to the rest of the plan.

I'm driving, and I'm just,
you know, checking all my mirrors,

thinking, "Oh, my God," you know,
"are the police following me?"

I could have went back to prison.

I was nervous.

Told Jamie that I'd meet her
in the bathroom at a certain time.

[Sarah] I felt the car stop.

The engine shut off.

The door open and close.

I walked in, and I looked
all around, you know.

Scoping out the people
that was in the restaurant.

-[patrons chattering]
-[baby crying]

I got to the bathroom.
I seen some feet underneath the stall.

And I said, "Jamie."

She said, "Yeah."

I said, "Okay, I'm Peggy," you know.

So I went in the next stall beside her
and she handed me the money

underneath
the little partition wall there.

And then when I came out of the bathroom,
went up to the counter,

and then that's when I seen Jamie come out
of the bathroom and leave the McDonald's.

[Sarah] Jamie went home.

Peggy got in the car
and we backed out of the parking space.

[Darlington] So, I took her
to the Motel 8 on Shadeland.

When I gave Sarah the money,
I think she was a little bit disappointed.

Jamie only gave me $350.

I was expecting about $3,500.

Jamie was afraid to bring the full amount.

She was really worried about,
you know, getting caught.

And now I just had to wait.

Hoping that she would give me
the rest of the money at a later date.

But my gut emotion was fear.

I knew that the possibility was there
for her to be arrested.

[dog barking]

[Harmon] I went straight to Jamie's house.

And when she came to the door,
you could see that she was concerned.

I identified myself with the US Marshals.

She was, "I have nothing to say,"
basically out of the box.

She wasn't cooperative.

I was very open and honest with Jamie.
"Hey, Jamie, you know you're in trouble.

And you know you're gonna…

You know, Spitler is already arrested,
but it's gonna happen.

You know it's gonna happen."

But she told me… She goes,
"I don't know where she's at.

She's somewhere
on the east side of Indianapolis.

I can call her for you."

Did that surprise me?

It did, but I was rolling with it.

[phone ringing]

[Sarah] The phone rang.

And it was Jamie.

[Harmon] She answered.

I knew something was off immediately.

Jamie sounded panicked.

She had a lot more to lose than I did.

[Harmon] Now, the conversation
was not free-flowing.

Jamie was like, "What's up, Sarah?
How are you doing?"

She said that she needed to meet me in
the parking lot where she dropped me off.

I knew that she hadn't dropped me off
in the parking lot,

so I told her, "Okay.
Well, I'm already out at the farm."

[Harmon] And Sarah was like,
"Well, I'm waking up at the farmhouse

and it's nice to have breakfast
with the farmer out in the country."

It was weird stuff.

Right away I thought,
"They're playing games."

I knew that either the police were there
or they were listening in.

-[Harmon] But then Sarah hung up.
-[phone beeps]

It was very quick.

My profile of her started formulating
that she's not stupid.

She's very smart.

And that she's controlling
her communications now.

And she's not sloppy with this.
This is gonna be a challenge.

-[air hissing]
-[machinery beeping]

It was frustrating because, you know,
Jamie here was still not cooperative.

So, how do I get her to cooperate with me?

I want her to really grasp on to,
you know, "I'm f*cked."

She had a husband with her inside,
a very old, frail man.

His name was Larry.

You could tell that he was on his last
weeks of life and she was caring for him.

He had oxygen and medicines everywhere.

But that was good.

Because I knew that she was his caregiver.

-[air hissing]
-[machinery beeping]

And I told him, I said,
"Jamie will get charged.

Understand that.

But I won't lock her up right now
if you can get her to help me."

And he was nervous.

He was like, "Yeah,
but she's not gonna cooperate with you."

I said, "Well, you need to talk
some f*cking sense into her.

I mean, she's your caregiver.

I mean, you don't want to lose
your caregiver, do you?"

He goes, "No." And he cried.

And then Jamie had
a different tone with me.

She was very, very scared.

She's like, "Follow me upstairs."

I went upstairs in her room,
and she gave me a shoebox.

And the shoebox had all the money in there

that Sarah wanted to get.

That was a huge thing to give to me
because right away that kept…

You know, we took off her means.

We got something she really needed.

Means she was choked.

Who's she gonna turn to?

I mean, now what?

[reporter] Deputy prosecutor Larry Sells
once called Sarah Jo Pender

the female Charles Manson.

[Sarah] When I was in the hotel,
I changed phones.

I broke the old phone
and started up the new.

I cut my hair significantly shorter.

And dyed it a darker color.

And that's when I started thinking
about all the things

that I wish I had done differently.

All the choices that I made that I regret.

Once I went off to college,
I did not spend enough time on my studies.

And so my grades suffered.

I had failed enough
to where I decided not to go back.

I felt ashamed
that I could not complete college.

I did not have an excuse
because I knew that I was smart enough.

But despite the fact
I was academically talented,

I did not feel a great sense
of self-worth from it.

My self-worth really came
from making other people happy.

I think that started after my mom left.

[Prosser] When Sarah was six,

Roland and I sat there
and tried to explain

that I wasn't going to be there.

We were going to divorce.

I didn't have anything
to offer him at the time.

And so, I let him have the children…

until I could better myself.

Sarah never got in trouble growing up,
but I think it was difficult,

it was very difficult on her.

And there wasn't
much of anything available

in the way of any kind of support.

They didn't understand why I wasn't there.

My mother leaving
created a sense of abandonment.

And so, by the time I was 20,
I was afraid of being alone.

I wanted someone to be there to help me
navigate life and also to love me.

That was certainly the case
at the time that I met Rick.

[reporter 1] Pender was serving time
for a double m*rder

in Marion County back in 2000.

[reporter 2] Police came to believe
that 22-year-old Richard Hull

was the likely m*rder*r.

[reporter 3] Hull eventually was sentenced
to 90 years in prison.

Investigators thought she was
the brains behind the k*lling.

If I could go back
to the very first time that I met Sarah,

I would just leave.

I mean, it cost me my family,
being with her.

So, no, yeah, there's…
Yeah, I would definitely leave.

We could always play the what-if game.

What if I would've turned left
instead of turning right?

You know, I could do that all day.

And beat myself up all day.

But I actually, at one point in time,
I could say that I did love her.

What attracted me to Sarah
was her personality that she had.

She was fun. She had a good heart then.
I mean, we…

We had a good relationship, I guess.

I mean, it was…

Things kind of-- It was a blur
and happened so fast.

[Sarah] When I met Rick,
he was both manly and sensitive.

Rick put his arm around me,

and he said, "Stick with me, kid,
and I'll take care of you."

And it felt so good.

Sarah told me, "Well, I have a boyfriend."

And I said, "Oh?"

I said, "Where'd the boyfriend come from?
Is he from Purdue too?"

And she goes, "No."
She told me his name was Richard Hull.

I said, "Is he good to you?"
She said, "Yes, Mom.

And he loves me, and he's my protector."

In the beginning, Rick told me that
he worked at a carpet cleaning business.

It wasn't long after that that I found out
that his real job was dealing drugs.

When she first met me,
she knew I was into the, you know,

business… in the drug business.

So it wasn't, like,
a huge surprise to her.

You know, I mean, that's what we were out
there doing, was having a big old party.

[Sarah] I was very smitten.

And I felt like it was an adventure.

After a few weeks together,

Rick told me that his friend Drew
and Drew's girlfriend, Trish,

were traveling from Nevada

and needed a place to stay
for a little while.

Rick made it clear that the less
that I knew, the better off that I was.

They looked like
any two normal hippie couple.

We found a house on South Meikel Street.

We all moved in together.

I had no frame of reference
for what might happen.

All I knew was that I wanted to be loved

and to stay in that loving relationship.

I really had this vision
that we would move to the suburbs

and get a small house,
a picket fence, a dog.

You know, start living the American dream
just like anyone else.

But it was like two different worlds.

I would party with Rick on the weekends,
and then sober up on Sunday

and go to work on Monday.

While I went to work
at a construction company,

Drew and Rick would deal drugs.

[Hull] We actually used to drive around
Indianapolis and throughout Noblesville.

And if you've ever seen that movie

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
with Johnny Depp,

when they're carrying around
a little suitcase full of drugs, you know,

a briefcase full of drugs, that was us.

You know, I used to tell people,
"Man, we've got uppers, downers,

inners, outers, and all-arounders.

Whatever you want, it's there,"
you know. [laughs]

[Prosser] I didn't get good vibes.

I thought, "Okay. They're dealing drugs."

It frightened me a little.

I just had this tremendous urge

to put her in the car, take off.

When you have that overwhelming feeling,

"I need to get her out of here."

But it didn't turn out that way.

[siren wailing]

[reporter 1] The victims,
a white man and woman,

were discovered last night in a dumpster

behind the Teamsters Hall
in the 800 block of South Meridian.

Twenty-five-year-old Andrew Cataldi,

he and his girlfriend,
26-year-old Tricia Nordman,

had been shot to death.

Investigators knew to search their house
on South Meikel Street.

Police think that's where the couple died.

[reporter 2] Two hours ago,
a US Marshal-led task force

apprehended Indiana's
second-most-wanted suspect,

the alleged person who drove the getaway
car for a twice-convicted k*ller.

[reporter 3] Ma'am, anything you want
to say about your situation?

Did you drive Sarah Pender from prison?

[reporter 2] The marshals arrested
42-year-old Jamie Long

on a charge of aiding an escape.

[Harmon] Jamie knew the consequences.

That loyalty and obedience
is mind-blowing, is bizarre.

But she was that madly in love with her.

I'm not the first person who said
that Sarah Pender is a manipulator.

But there was a common theme.

She gets people to do things
that aren't normal.

She gets people to do things
that land them in prison.

I needed intelligence.

There was one piece of evidence
that was given to me very early on,

is they gave me the phone number

of the phone that she had
while she was in prison.

I got the cell phone records.

I saw the name, Peggy.

She was up there in the top ten.

Peggy's address came back
to a house in Indianapolis.

You know, you live in a neighborhood
all your life, you know your neighbors.

There was a strange truck
parked down the street.

And then me and my daughter left.

And I noticed that truck was following us.

Me and my daughter
pulled up at my sister's house.

The truck pulled up behind us
in the driveway.

And then when I actually
got out of the car,

I looked and I seen
the street was full of cop cars.

-[siren wails]
-[Harmon] Freeze!

[Darlington] And then the marshal…

They all had their g*ns out.

[Harmon] Put your hands up.

[Darlington] I was frightened.

I told my daughter to get in the house,
don't stop.

And they tried… They yelled at her,
told her to stop.

And I told her,
"No, you get in the house."

[Harmon] You know why?

That's what they paid me to do.
You can't be a p*ssy and do this.

Get on the ground.

Because you can't handle these people
with soft kid gloves, you can't.

US Marshal Ryan Harmon.

He just portrayed hisself to be

just like a big bad guy.

Like, you know, "I'm gonna
get your friend no matter what."

They went in and searched upstairs
and downstairs looking for Sarah.

They didn't look like they were too happy
that they couldn't find her there.

They asked me if I knew
where Sarah Pender was.

[radio chatter]

I was a nervous wreck.

Because I didn't know…

I didn't know what to say or really do.

[Harmon] Peggy was a…

a very wiry, nervous,
"Oh, sh*t," kind of a person.

Oh…

[Harmon] Which was good.
Just do what's right.

Wow, this brings up a lot of memories.

And she did.

[Sarah] I was laying on the bed.

And I was thinking that
I had to get out of that motel room.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

[knocking on door]

My heart dropped to the floor.

Nobody would be knocking on the door.

I don't want to go back to prison.

I thought, "Holy sh*t."