13x19 - Seedy Intentions

[bunniefuu]

Up next, a
little girl goes missing.

- Kids don't just disappear.

Her name is Cynthia, and
she's nine years old.

Searchers
spend weeks looking her.

They did a search, basically,

on their hands and knees
looking for evidence.

But a psychic
told them where to go.

I don't know
any other way to explain it,

but she described it as
having a vision, some sort

of religious experience,
where she saw something

or in her mind.

Some dead plants give
investigators a vital clue,

but will it be enough
to find the k*ller?

- It's difficult to conceive
of an individual who would

do that to a nine-year-old girl.

It was a normal 4th of July,

as residents of
Lakewood, Washington

celebrated with the
usual parade and picnics.

For Rhonda Hebison, it was
time to spend with her three

daughters, Brittany,
Ashley, and Cindy.

Cindy, basically,

was in and out the
house all day, playing.

And I was doing chores
around the house.

And thought maybe
later on that day

we would go down
by the waterfront

and watch the fireworks.

But
nine-year-old Cindy

didn't come home at
dinnertime as she usually did.

So I started walking

around the neighborhood, asking
people if they had seen her.

And they hadn't seen her.

As night
fell, hundreds of people

gathered for the
fireworks display.

That's when Cindy's
mother called

the Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's deputies
searched the neighborhood

and found no trace of her.

By morning,
it had become quite serious.

She still had not
returned and there

had been no phone calls
by her or anyone else.

Over 100 volunteers
helped in the search.

You've got brushy areas.

And in this part
of the country, you

have these blackberry
bushes with these, just,

nasty thorns on them.

So these searchers, they were
going through these weeds

and these bramble bush, and they
were coming out just scratched

and bleeding.

- I'm sorry amazed
how many people

have been coming
together and helping

me out, and praying for Cindy.


police focus their attention

on Cindy's parents,
who were divorced.

Cindy's father had an
alibi for the afternoon

of her disappearance.

But during the call to
reporter Cindy missing,

investigators thought
her mother sounded vague.

She didn't

about her daughter
being missing.

She didn't seem concerned
or very worried.

Police interrogated
Rhonda for hours.

They brought her in there

on night about 9:00 PM,
and they kept her there

until 6:00 in the
morning the next day.

- That was really horrible.

It was, uh, it was a nightmare.

I thought I was
going to go to jail.

Rhonda denied
involvement in her daughter's

disappearance, but she
failed a polygraph test.

During the mother's polygraph,

she was asked questions
about whether she had

any knowledge of
Cindy's whereabouts.

And that was the
question that she failed.

She had said she did not.

I hadn't been sleeping,
I hadn't been eating.

I was a mess.

Neighbors prayers
for the child's safe return

went unanswered.

Even the promise of a $5,000
reward didn't produce results.

- Have you guys heard about
the missing little girl?

Her name is Cynthia and
she's nine years old.

Two weeks passed.

Then police received a call from
a member of Rhonda's church.

She said she saw
something in a dream.

She described
it as having a vision,

like some sort of
religious experience,

where she saw
something in her mind.

The woman said, she
had a vision of a young girl

lying in a field, who was
either asleep or dead.

She even drew a map
of where the body was.

The spot was a half
mile from Cindy's home,

an area volunteers
had already searched.

They did a search, basically,

on their hands and knees
looking for evidence

and they didn't find
her the first time.

But this time, they
found Cindy Allinger's body.

She was under a water heater
and wrapped in some carpet.

- It will never be the
way it was, all the kids.

It won't.

You see them walking
in twos now, still.

And I think it'll stay that
way, because the kids now

know that it could
happen to anybody.

Police now faced
an unusual situation,

a mother who failed
a polygraph test

and a psychic who
mysteriously knew

the location of Cindy's body.

I thought this
was so bizarre, that they

would have found
the body this way.

Nine-year-old
Cindy Allinger

was buried amid a
community stunned

by the brutality of her death.

Her autopsy revealed
she had been

sexually assaulted and beaten.

- I think it was just
shocking and scary to imagine

what's out there.

Cindy's body was
found next to an abandoned

house in a large field.

The body was wrapped in four
layers of thick shag carpet.

- This neighborhood
was known to be

the highest g*ng
area in our city.

There were approximately


registered in that area.

So the area was pretty well
saturated with sex offenders.

Before police
could interview them,

they needed to know
when Cindy was m*rder*d.

For that, they looked at
insect activity on her body.

After death, insects
will, in fact, find the body

and then begin to exploit
the body as a source of food.

But in
this case, Dr. Goff

needed to know if the carpet
that covered Cindy's body

hindered the insect activity.

So Dr. Goff wrapped
a dead animal

in several layers of carpet
and placed it outside.

Then he monitored
the insect activity.

You work backwards, and then you

determine approximately
when the egg was laid.

And this is going
to be an estimate

of the minimum period
of time since death.

The test showed that
the carpet prevented insects

from getting to the
body for a full day.

This proved that Cindy was
m*rder*d on or about the day

she went missing, July 4.

Police interviewed all 64
sex offenders in the area

to ascertain their whereabouts
for the 4th of July.

All had alibis.

- I didn't know that
there was that many sex

offenders in that area.

When I heard about that I
was like, I... I'm moving.

It was Cindy's sister,
Ashley, who was seven years old

at the time, who provided
an important clue.

I do remember
we were playing together.

And then she told me she was
going down to Ras' house.

I know she liked going
down there a lot.

Ras was a guy that
lived down the street

from us, an older man.

Ras was Guy Rasmussen,
a 30-year-old musician.

- I
- actually went over

there with her a few times.

She just played
with his dog and go

and, he had a drum
set in his shed,

and she would go in there
with him and play the drums.

- Guy Rasmussen stood
out in the neighborhood,

because he looked like a
hippie with his tie-dye shirts.

And he seemed out
of his time zone.

Cindy's mother originally

thought Ras was the same
age as her children.

When she learned he was an
adult, she put her foot down.

- I thought it was a kid.

And then she said it was a man.

And I said, well, you can't
go over to this man's house.

I don't know him, and
you're not supposed

to play with grown men.

When police
questioned Rasmussen,

he denied Cindy had been
to his home on July 4.

He also claimed
to have an alibi.

Guy Rasmussen
told us that he was picked up

from the store by his
friend at approximately 4:15

that afternoon.

And then they went to a rock
festival in Thurston County.

Pay phone records
confirmed this 4:15 call.

Cindy's mother said she
last saw Cindy at 4:30.

If she had
last seen her at 4:30,

then Guy Rasmussen would
have had an air-tight alibi.

But like Cindy's mother,

Rasmussen also failed
a polygraph test.

- It is probably the
most frustrating

case of anyone's career.

But in Rasmussen's trash,

police found a torn
drawing of Rasmussen's dog

that Cindy had given to
him several weeks earlier.

It was interesting

that he had torn
up this picture.

And this was after he
knew that she was missing.

But did this mean anything?

Cindy Allinger's mother, Rhonda,
and a neighbor, Guy Rasmussen,

both failed polygraph
examinations

when questioned
about Cindy's m*rder.

But then a new suspect
emerged, Rhonda's boyfriend,

Chris Doyle.

He had a
history of domestic v*olence.

He had hit Rhonda.

It was not clear whether
or not he had physically

assaulted the kids, but
he did have a temper.

During police interrogation,

Doyle admitted he once
threw Cindy off of the porch

during an argument, but
denied any involvement

in Cindy's m*rder.

When he was questioned,

there were things that he
didn't want me to know about,

that he admitted
to hurting Cindy.

See, I didn't know about that.

I thought it was an
accident the whole time.

The mother's boyfriend

was given a polygraph
exam, as well.

And he did pass
that polygraph exam.

Police also
questioned the psychic

who had led police
to Cindy's body.

She you would
never go on the record,

in terms of agreeing
to an interview.

But we spoke on the phone.

But the psychic had an alibi

and was eliminated
as a suspecting.

So police turned their
attention back to Guy Rasmussen.

A background check revealed
Rasmussen served six years

in prison for raping a
teenager and assaulting

a 10-year-old girl.

He had have also been a suspect
in two previous murders,

although wasn't charged
because of a lack of evidence.

- He had been polygraphed in both
those homicides and had failed.

In Cindy's case, Rasmussen

claimed to have an alibi
for the time of her m*rder.

He had called
his friend at approximately


to come pick him up.

And telephone
records confirmed it.

Cindy's mother told police
she last saw her daughter

at 4:30 on the
afternoon of July 4th.

But investigators replayed the


to police and discovered
a discrepancy.

We were able
to determine that, basically,

Rhonda's sense of
what happened that day

was simply not accurate.

Cindy's mother
said, it was a simple mistake.

This information provided a
window from about 3:00 to 4:15,

when Rasmussen could
have committed the crime.

Armed with this new
information, investigators

searched Rasmussen's home
and confiscated the clothes

he was wearing on July 4,
the clothes his friends said

Rasmussen was wearing
at the concert.

- Guy Rasmussen had been
keeping his unwashed clothing

in the bathtub in the home.

And so it was just
all strewn in there.

Of particular
interest were tiny bits

of plant material on
his shoes and socks.

So police sent the samples
to forensic botanist

Dr. Le Rea Dennis Johnston.

Her first task was to
identify the different plants

on Rasmussen's clothes
to see whether they were

the same as those
at the crime scene.

- The samples were mostly
seeds, very small.

I checked them out
with my hand lens.

Ended up putting them
under a microscope.

There were a couple of
species of broom grass, Holcus

lanatus, which is velvet grass.

More than a dozen plant species

were identified on
Rasmussen's clothes.

They weren't only the same
species as those found

at the crime scene,
they were also

at the exact same
stage of development.

This led to only one conclusion.

If he said he wasn't there

and the plants are showing
that he was, then they can say,

he was there.

But Rasmussen continued

to maintain his innocence
during a radio interview.

He told the audience
he met Cindy only once.

What Rasmussen
said was one thing.

But something scientists found
on his shirt was quite another.

The chief suspect in
Cindy Allinger's m*rder

was Guy Rasmussen, who had a
history of sexual v*olence.

His credibility was shattered
when police learned he had lied

about his relationship
with Cindy.

Guy Rasmussen
told investigators,

and he told me that he
had only met Cindy once.

But later it came
out that he had

actually met her a few times.

- We learned from
the younger sister,

Ashley, that Guy Rasmussen had
given them a stuffed animal.

A rabbit with a carrot
is what he gave her.

But the only evidence
linking him to the crime

was some kind of
material on his clothing.

But then investigators
found something

else... a stain on
Rasmussen's shirt.

- When we initially collected
the items from Guy Rasmussen's

home, we didn't realize,
right away, what we had.

The clothing was
dirty, unwashed,

and the shirts
were multicolored,

so it was hard to
see what was on it.

A preliminary test confirmed

the stain was human blood.

But DNA tests found not one,
but two genetic profiles.

- They confirmed that
the stain on his shirts

was the blood from
Cindy Allinger.

And the semen, Guy Rasmussen's.

And they were a mixed stain.

It was DNA positive that he
had committed this crime.

- Well, I can't
describe how disgusted

I am when I think about him.

Rasmussen was
arrested while on stage

playing a concert
at a local club.

He wasn't on the county
sex offender list,

because his last conviction
came before the law

went into effect.

- Charging the defendant
with aggravated m*rder,

first-degree kidnapping and
first-degree child r*pe.

Guy Rasmussen is a monster.

It's difficult to conceive
of an individual who

would do that to a
nine-year-old girl.

The man who appeared in court

was a far cry from the
long-haired musician

of just a few days earlier.

But prosecutors painted a
different picture of Rasmussen

for the jury.

They said that on July 4,
Cindy went to Rasmussen's home,

as she often did.

- Hey, Cindy.

You know, I'm going to
go buy a new place soon.

You want to come
check it out with me?

But this time,
Rasmussen somehow lured her

into an abandoned house
several blocks away,

possibly telling
her he was thinking

about buying it to fix it up.

Once there, he r*ped and
m*rder*d the little girl.

Then he wrapped her body
with a carpet from the house.

He left her in the field,
picking up the plant

material on his shoes and socks.

Then he walked to a nearby
pay phone and called a friend,

in order to create an alibi.

The insect activity established
an estimated time of death.

And the plant material
on his shoes and socks

proved he was in the field.

But his clothes stained with
Cindy's blood left no doubt,

he was the k*ller.

- We needed science to guide us.

We needed things
like the botanist

and the entomology studies,
and the DNA especially,

to get us in the
right direction.

During his
trial, Rasmussen's lawyers

claimed the forensic entomology
report was incorrect.

And that Rasmussen was innocent,
because the crime occurred

during the time he had an alibi.

That argument failed
to impress the jury.

We, the jury,

guilty of premeditated m*rder...

Rasmussen was convicted

of first-degree m*rder, and
sentenced to life in prison

without parole.

- I'd like to see
him get ex*cuted.

He don't deserve to live.

He k*lled my daughter.

She was only nine
years old, she didn't

have very much of a life.

- It was important
to show the jury how

painstakingly the
police built the case.

That it wasn't a rush to
judgment, anything this sort.

That it was done
very professionally

and deliberately.

It's kind of like losing

everything you've got.

Like somebody just takes
everything away from

you, like, including
your insides.

It's just like your
heart's been ripped out.

If I could talk to her,

I would just tell her I
love her, very, very much.

And that she was a real
sweet, loving little girl.

Many believe Rasmussen would

have continued on
his crime spree.

But a combination of evidence...
Bugs, plants, and DNA...

Ensured he would never
again prey on little girls.

If they
didn't have forensic science,

it would be kind of hard
to pinpoint the K*llers.

But it's amazing what they're
able to do these days with just

the tiniest little
things, a piece of grass.

- You have to remain
scientifically objective

and neutral.

You can't adopt, let's get
the bad guys, mentality.

You can't take sides.

In all instances, you
have remain impartial.

About the only thing science

couldn't explain
was how the psychic

knew the location of her body.

The searchers didn't find her.

But for the tip
from the psychic,

it may well have been a long
time before she was found.