Blood in the Sand | Full Episode | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] is a beautiful piece of nature in Southern California what's beautiful
about a beach is also what's dangerous about it there's a very different vibe of what it feels like to be there in the
middle of the day versus 10 at night there is a little feeling of you don't know exactly what's out there
1978 barbaranante and Jamal decided to go on a camping trip to the beach at Torrey Pines stole my heart to MSR you
know it's that feeling everyone gets you know when you when you find that person
that fits they were really good together they loved each other they had so much fun
together and you could see it Barbara she was outspoken very popular funny gym great personality he was the life of the
party my sister was like that too Barbara and Jim set up their sleeping bags on the beach itself and it was
sometime in the night after they had fallen asleep that they were attacked Jim alt had been beaten and was very
severely injured I was knocked unconscious I couldn't protect her I couldn't defend myself my dad looked at
me and said your sister has been murdered I didn't find out until years later how bad it really was I'm going to
say the body was around this position here somewhere they found her lying here nude and she also had some
some cut marks on one of her breasts who would want to kill her when and why six years later in 1984 another young
woman Claire Huff who was 14 was found murdered on Torrey Pines nearly The Identical location I just said don't go
down there alone I think about her just about every day she was my best friend you get to this crime scene look at the
body and see what again there was a mutilation of the breast my first thought was hey this is very similar to
the one that happened six years ago how much evidence was there how many memes not any at all really
I just remember going crazy in my mind is there something I'm not remembering is there something I saw
I want to put a face to this crime because it's been faceless for almost 37 years
there really was no big break until 2012 when police finally got hits on the DNA
evidence that they had from the crime scene San Diego Police have identified a former San Diego Police criminalist as
one of two suspects in the 1984 murder of 14 year old Claire Huff who was a big surprise that of all people in the world
you could find as the suspect that it would be somebody who had actually worked for the police department he had
a nickname in the crime lab right you know what that was his nickname was kinky he liked strip clubs he liked
taking pictures of women my husband didn't do it he didn't go after teenagers I knew they were wrong
this has multiple suspects there are a variety of motives as a murder mystery this has everything you would want
[Music] [Music] [Music] foreign for the last 37 years Jim alt wakes up terrified thinking that it's 1978.
that he's just been brutally attacked on Torrey Pines beach when I become aware that I'm awake I do not open my eyes
I put my hands on the bed and I feel for that sheet or I feel for sandova Beach you still do
that yes sir I before my eyes are open I want to know where I'm at it wasn't always this way the beach used to be
Jim's second home a safe place a fun place and you're a big Surfer absolutely there's not a feeling on earth like
surfing it's just there's a big rush in inside your body Rick selga has felt that Rush he was one
of Jim's good friends back then who is the better Surfer between the two probably he was
do you remember what he was like back then he was a big strong funny happy guy he
was probably the the guy that everybody looked up to and this is probably one reason why Jim was featured in a wetsuit
ad in Surfer magazine we were rock stars all of us in there when that out when that magazine that issue came out we we
autographed quite a few and he had a lot of girls that liked him but he didn't see anybody else but her
Jim alt only had eyes for 15 year old Barbara Nantes they were the All-American couple Jim the surfer had
been dating Barbara the cheerleader for nine months man just a beautiful girl brown hair brown eyes oh yeah I was in
love with the men I saw her they were introduced by Barbara's sister Sue she was outspoken really stubborn and
set in her ways we had lots of arguments and fights and disagreements as sisters
do Barbara's parents Ralph and Judy Nantes knew they had their work cut out for them pretty early on so she wasn't
just another pretty face no she wasn't she was tough as Nails she was a popular defiant beautiful
pain in the ass wonderful daughter you know God gave her to me to keep me humble and
it worked on the weekend of August 12 1978 Ralph and Judy Nantes left town to visit some
friends a family friend was looking after Barbara and her three siblings before leaving Ralph Nantes took Jim alt
aside what did you tell him take care of my girl okay and make sure that she's safe I told her father and mother you
know that we would stay put and um again that that you know I've said it before it's the biggest mistake or the
biggest lie I've ever told in my life almost as soon as Barbara's parents left she and Jim hopped into a station wagon
with Rick selga and his girlfriend and they all drove off to the beach I remember as they pulled off they were
just saying you guys better be careful you know and they're kind of like yeah haha my sister's like
see ya the four friends eventually ended up at Torrey Pines beach parking lot was
filled with people it was like a big party around 9 30 p.m the friends called it a night Rick and his girlfriend
decided to sleep in the station wagon and Jim and Barbara went down to the beach for some privacy I zipped the
sleeping bags together and we we crawl in them and uh and went to sleep she was in my arms that's the last thing I
remember the next morning Jim woke up cold and alone and wet he was covered in blood I'm freezing I'm
feeling for Barbara don't know where she is I don't know anything I can't see anything don't hear anything he was
blinded and disoriented so Jim had to feel his way along a fence up the Sandy Hill to the parking lot where his
friends were sleeping in the car Jim came up here and he he was down low like this
and he wrapped on the window and what did he look like then his face was swollen blood all over his blonde
hair you know and uh his head was probably about that big Jim had been savagely beaten with a rock
and a log from a fire pit on the beach did he say anything to you he goes go find Barb so I ran down to the beach
looking for her and she was there Barbara's nude lifeless body lay on the beach I was thinking about
what do I do I think that I just yelled at some people to call the Police Homicide officers ate what started out
as an evening with friends turned out to be a night of death Paul iberando was a
sergeant for the San Diego Police Department he was one of the first investigators on the scene when we
uncovered the body it was covered with sand she has some very severe looking wounds on her head it
looked like she'd probably been struck with something perhaps the rocks that we found nearby Barbara's murder had been
vicious there was sand in her mouth and the killer left a gruesome mark it appeared that somebody had taken a sharp
instrument and cut around the areola of her breast and also around the nipple of
the breast so she'd been sort of mutilated mutilated later on it was determined that she had been raped and
sodomized soon after Barbara's parents were notified and I just started screaming no
no no no I must have said it 50 times it was like somebody took a sledgehammer and hit me in the head because we didn't
even know that the kids were down there we had no idea Jim alt had been rushed to the hospital
he had suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma for days when he awoke
he had no memory of the attack I've got titanium in the cranium stainless steel I've got that that plate that runs right
about there and this was a serious life-threatening yes attack yes sir I almost did not make it
Jim was briefly investigated but ruled out as a suspect his injuries were too severe Paul iberando and other
investigators Tracked Down other leads but police could not find the killer the bloody attack and murder haunted
everyone for years they're just kids you know that stuff didn't happen but a few years later Claire Huff's body
was found on Torrey Pines beach she was murdered identically to Barbara foreign in the years after Barbara nantes's
murder her family struggled with the overwhelming loss and pain there was situations you know where I'd wake up in
a cold sweat crying just the sadness at losing this child that you loved when you're the mom you just carry that I
felt like I was a complete failure as a mother Barbara's parents were both sad and angry at their daughter for lying to
them but Ralph Nantes was especially furious at Jim alt I didn't want to see him and
I didn't want to talk to him that's exactly what I felt you didn't keep my little girl safe
and I was very very upset it hurts I didn't bring their daughter home six years later Claire Huff's loved ones
faced the same pain that originated in the same place she was like barbanantes a year younger just 14 smart and
spirited and she loved the beach she just had a inner light a Joy about her it's hard to explain unless you've
met her Kim jamer was Claire Hoff's best friend very gentle funny kind Claire's parents Sam and Penny Huff were
and are immensely proud of her she was the class mediator kids who got into arguments would ask Claire to adjudicate
a couple of times she got in trouble in school because the teacher had accused someone wrongly and Claire wouldn't put
up with it she fought back Claire learned to love the ocean early on she grew up on the coast of Rhode
Island and spent as much time as she could walking along the shore with Kim we grew up looking for treasures and
bringing her mom pretty things home from the ocean sea glass and pretty shells Claire had also spent a lot of time on
San Diego's beaches her grandparents lived just a few blocks away from Torrey Pines beach one of the first pictures of
Claire was taken there she was still small enough to be carried this may be her first introduction to real ocean
surf the Huffs had always considered it a safe place and in the summer of 1984 they sent Claire and her brother out to
California for a visit with their grandparents Kim jamer went along too we could just be silly and nobody knew us
and it didn't matter how goofy we died and it was just really fun the night before Kim was supposed to
head home Claire convinced her to sneak out of her grandparents house and go to the beach after dark but once they got
there and settled near their favorite spot by the bridge Kim almost immediately had a panic attack
it was just an awful feeling I knew how freaked out I was how somebody could just walk right up
and buy you without you even knowing they were there you asked Claire to make you a promise when you were back I asked
what was the promise I just didn't want her sneaking out by herself again two days later after Kim went back to Rhode
Island Claire broke that promise and on August 24 1984 Claire Huff's body was found by a Beachcomber near the bridge
retired detective Paul iberando also worked on this case and was interviewed by our CBS local station back then we
are evaluating all the evidence we recovered at the scene Claire had been found just a few hundred yards from
where Barbara Nantes had been killed to me it was a lot of similarities there like barbaranantes Claire Huff also had
been beaten strangled and sexually assaulted it was determined that the autopsy that this girl had a lot of and
packed in her mouth and larynx area our other victim had sand in her mouth but perhaps most chilling like Barbara's
Claire's breast had also been mutilated we either have a serial killer or a Repeat Performance by the person that
probably did the first case it didn't take long to find a promising suspect as soon as they heard about their
daughter's death Sam and Penny Huff went to Torrey Pine State beach before long they were approached by a man named
Wallace wheeler he was the Beachcomber who had found Claire's body he said I'm Wally wheeler I'm a psychic
with his handout I'm sorry so what did you make of Wally wheeler the psychic he was strange
so then we called the police to tell him tell them that the police encouraged Claire's parents to keep communicating
with wheeler thinking he might confess or at least give them some useful information wheeler wrote long and
rambling letters to the Huffs one of them saying Claire was coming to him in visions
that was why she let me see her smiling face and her eyes were radiant this is a guy who found a bloody
mutilated body and he's talking about smiling face and radiant eyes the letters were odd very odd the police
questioned wheeler but he never confessed to anything and the letters eventually stopped what was the last
thing you heard about Wallace wheeler that he had killed himself threw himself off the top of a building
13-story building and died investigators would later tell the Huffs that they had ruled wheeler out as a
suspect but the Huffs were convinced for years that wheeler was their daughter's
killer you thought he was involved somehow oh yeah yeah we assumed that wheeler that he had that that he had
done it for all the Intrigue surrounding Wallace wheeler the loved ones of the first victim barbaranantes had never
even heard of him at the time in fact the families did not even know about each other
but around 2008 the San Diego Police Department posted the cases on its website and for the first time said
publicly that the police believed Claire huff and Barbara Nantes had likely been
murdered by the same killer I was mad that that it happened to Claire and that we
weren't informed but who may have been responsible would remain a mystery for four more years
until Advanced DNA testing revealed two suspects and one of them was one of their own
[Music] for decades after the murders of Barbara Nantes and Claire Huff the San Diego
Police Department kept investigating sporadically but nothing had ever materialized
Claire's friend Kim jamer kept waiting for some news did you think about this case a lot all the time I mean you know
nothing's going to bring your friend back and you just hope that no one is out there hurting other people
2012 there was finally a promising development the cases were reopened investigators hoping Advanced DNA
technology would change the course of things it was encouraging for Barbara's parents Judy and Ralph Nantes
I was cautiously optimistic they would be disappointed the new DNA test would find nothing useful on their
daughter but Claire Huff's friend Kim would soon get a visit from a detective he brought several pictures did you see
any of these people during your trip I didn't recognize anything Kim was given few details but she had a feeling that
investigators were finally on to something I was like finally somebody's really looking into this
48 Hours obtained the San Diego Police Department's case affidavits and search warrants and here's what Kim jamer
didn't know police had found two DNA hits on Claire Huff blood on her jeans was linked to a convicted rapist named
Ronald Tatro the other DNA a tiny microscopic amount reportedly found inside Claire
was linked to a man named Kevin Brown police knew Kevin Brown he was a former criminalist in their lab I was getting
ready for work and there was the knock and two detectives were there Rebecca Brown a Catholic school teacher had been
married to 61 year old Kevin Brown for more than 20 years Kevin retired from the San Diego Police Department in 2002.
so I thought okay they're talking about some case that he worked on Rebecca and Kevin met in 1992 through the old school
version of online dating the classifieds and a few months later they married he was so
sweet he would open the car door for me and he loved animals like I did he loved
cats he was a sweetheart the Browns had led a quiet life for evolving Around Church travel and their pets before that
visit by investigators in January of 2014. did you listen to what they were saying
to him I started and I thought well that's kind of going odd what's with this the detective showed Brown a
picture of Ronald Tatro and asked if he knew him what did he say he said I've never seen
this man I don't know him journalist James vlahos wrote about the case in October 2015 for the Atlantic
magazine he is a CBS News consultant did the police go and talk to Ronald Tatro when they found his DNA in Claire Huff's
body they would have liked to have done that but Ronald Tetro was already dead Tatro had drowned in what was ruled a
boating accident in Tennessee in 2011. but to this day there is suspicion it was a suicide
his wallet had been placed on the seat his glasses had been placed on the seat and they said it looked as if he
intended to go into the water another thing that certainly raised his eyebrows is that his death took place on the
anniversary of Claire Huff's murder Kevin Brown the retired criminalist was now the only living suspect police
showed him a picture of Claire Huff what did he say oh sure I remember her the detectives told Brown that his DNA
had been found in the evidence they didn't tell him where how they found it the police maintained that it
was Kevin who first mentioned the possibility of it being found on a vaginal swab the investigation ramped up
quickly that same afternoon investigators served a search warrant on his property looking for any evidence
related to the murders of both Claire huff and Barbara Nantes because they were so similar
I said you've got to clear this up this is crazy and he said I tried telling them I don't know what they're talking
about I never killed anybody in my life you know that and I do know that in my deep core I know he never kills anybody
but investigators believed Kevin Brown had a dark side at the time of Claire Huff's murder Kevin was a bachelor in
his 30s and had a Randy reputation at the crime lab he had a nickname kinky Kevin Brown that was because we knew
that he frequented uh strip clubs they called him kinky Kevin yeah we call it his nickname was kinky
retired criminalist Jim Stamm and John darena worked with Kevin in the lab for years did he brag about going to the
strip clubs I mean did he make any secret of him early on I don't think he kept it a secret but he did have friends
that would go with him to either a movie or uh strip club I believe he would go to what dirty movies I believe it was a
a porn movie yes darina and Stam never saw any inappropriate behavior by Brown in the lab but he made some female
colleagues uncomfortable there was a criminalist who worked with Kevin Brown and she describes how Kevin
took a report of a violent rape and when she was alone in the lab with him read it aloud to her and made a remark along
the lines of isn't that funny after that she never felt comfortable being alone with him in the lab again as they dug
into Brown's background investigators learned more about his Hobbies he enjoyed photography and in the 80s he
went to lingerie and Boudoir shoots advertised in a local magazine photographer Rocky Ferguson took photos
of aspiring models with Kevin so they posed for the photographer and in return they get a free picture yes
but Rocky says that sometimes certain photographers would make arrangements for private sessions that were more racy
and and Kevin did that Kevin did his own thing if he likes somebody he'll hire his own models in these private sessions
what would happen adult type stuff adult stuff naughty stuff yes explicit photos
Kevin Brown's pastimes as a bachelor may have raised detective's eyebrows but his
statements during the investigation made them even more suspicious although he initially denied having actually met
Claire Huff Brown later seemed to make a startling admission he had done some thinking and that he
now did recall having met someone named Claire in the 1980s and possibly having sex with her
and then he got himself into even deeper trouble according to the affidavit Kevin
Brown volunteered to take a lie detector test he failed and after the polygraph an investigator talked to him about
Claire Huff saying I don't believe for a second that you thought she was 14. Brown reportedly responded I had no idea
then police learned Kevin Brown had called a friend and told him allegedly the police are looking at me as a
suspect this girl I photographed on the beach ended up dead [Music] [Music] ever since investigators got that DNA
hit on Claire Huff in 2012 they had been quietly trying to build a case against Kevin Brown
but his wife Rebecca Brown stood by him I never thought he was a killer never never this is a man who didn't have a
mean bone in his body well you know all those things that people are saying about he was going to strip clubs and uh
photographs of naked women he'd shown me some and majority were just like just cutesy poses Glamor Shots did the fact
that some of those photo shoots went farther than others bother you about him no it didn't make me I
he had a normal male sex drive and that was back when he was single and he would
have thought wow this is a great if everybody whoever looked at a photo of a scantily clad woman or if everybody who
ever went to a strip club is likely to be a serial killer I'm afraid we're going to have to build quite a few more
prisons we do not convict people on their character hired on the police procedure attorneys Gene Iredale and
Gretchen Von Helms represent the Browns this was a violent sadistic choking killing
the scope of what happened to these poor young women who were brutally sexually assaulted and murdered is quite
different from going to a strip club or going into a porn shop or reading an off
color story The Lawyers argue that there is almost no case against Kevin Brown for starters they say investigators
could never say if or when or how Kevin Brown the mild-mannered criminalist Met Ronald Tatro the violent convicted
rapist zero evidence that they had ever seen each other met at any time zero they say there are perfectly innocent
explanations for Kevin Brown's actions and statements like the one he made when detectives showed him a picture of
Claire Huff he said at one point oh I remember her why did he say that it was a well-known case and that
photograph that they showed him had been one that had been in the newspaper but Brown also said he may have met someone
named Claire in the 80s and that he might have had sex with her Iredale says Brown was just being honest I think that
he said he had met a Claire but declare that he was talking about was a woman who was 30 years old even the
investigators seemed to acknowledge in the affidavit that this woman did not sound like Claire Huff but remember
Brown had allegedly also told a friend that he photographed a girl who was found dead on the beach
the man to whom this statement is attributed says he never said such a thing Gretchen Von Helms argues investigators
had tunnel vision and interpreted everything Kevin Brown said as evidence of his guilt she says that's what
happened when Brown told the detective he had no idea Claire was 14. they immediately think the the suspicious
guilty version of that versus oh my God you're telling me this awful crime a normal citizen when they're told about
this awful crime and say oh my gosh this poor child was 14 how awful this is the attorneys admit Kevin Brown's
personality did little to help him during the investigation he was one of the worst public speakers
let's say in the history of the San Diego Police Department lab he was kind of like a nervous Nelly retired
criminalist John dorina and Jim Stam say Kevin Brown was at best a shaky witness
for the police in court cases whenever he got confronted he got very nervous and very upset he wanted to agree he
wanted to please them I think that his personality is set up so that I could almost convince him to say anything you
know he could you can bully him it's easy to bully him but Kevin Brown's shyness or awkwardness cannot explain
his DNA on that swab several swabs were taken from inside Claire during the autopsy the medical examiner tested one
of them in 1984 and found nothing another swab was sent to the San Diego Police Department lab
and that's where the lawyers say the trouble began it was not kept in a way that would ensure the Integrity of the
evidence it was the early 80s before much was known about DNA and the procedures now used to prevent
contamination did not exist how different were the procedures back then a lot we didn't wear masks for sure
Kevin Brown did not work on the Claire Huff case but he worked near the criminalist who processed the evidence
including that swab where a minute amount of Brown's DNA was later found the swab itself was put to dry in the
open air without a cap on a table near where Mr Brown worked everything that was able to be airborne could have gone
and touched that swab the the problem though with this case is seems to me that the allegation is that this isn't
sweat or spit it's a semen how how would his human get on a swab you can still have cross-contamination of semen
because they had to have fresh samples of semen in the San Diego lab at the time of Claire Huff's murder
criminalists would often bring their own seminal fluid to the lab and use it to ensure the chemicals used to detect
semen were working correctly darena and Stan believe that all the criminalists in the lab did it I I think
Kevin was doing that same thing the San Diego Police Department however insists that contamination was not possible but
the retired criminalists know what they saw most likely Kevin's Siemens standard
was in that lab and several analysts may have even had it it may have been even used on that particular on this Huff's
case we didn't switch gloves back then either so let's say the analyst took Kevin's semen sample we're in the same
gloves and then handled the deep vaginal swab there's a logical explanation for the contamination
cross-contamination does happen there have been cases of lab technicians DNA ending up on evidence documented in
several States and at least four other countries so given the lab procedures in effect at
the time and the lack of other solid evidence Kevin Brown was assured the case against
him was weak and I believed that they lacked the evidence necessary to charge Mr Kevin
Brown with these murders but by mid-2014 the stress of the investigation which was dragging on
was making Kevin Brown very anxious I said call him and get it straightened out and he said they just said you know you
killed her and you may as well confess and he hung up the phone and he said I didn't even say anything back to him bet
because I didn't know what else to say at this point he said I didn't do it and you're not going to ever believe me
Rebecca hoped their nightmare would soon end but it would not end in a way that anyone expected
[Music] on the morning of October 20th 2014 Rebecca Brown came home from work and
found her husband's Bible sitting on the table in it he had underlined a Psalm about being wrongfully accused his watch
was there and his cell phone was there and so I asked my mother where is Kevin and she had just said he went somewhere
he went out he was cleaned up he'd shaved he'd showered looked nice and said I have things to do
Kevin didn't come home that night and the following day Rebecca got the news she feared most I was just sitting there
waiting and then there was the door knock and it was the detective and he said we've found your husband
and he's gone a ranger at a state park near where the Browns had a vacation cabin had found Kevin hanging from a
tree were you surprised even after everything that he'd been we've tried to spirits up you thought you had kept him
safe oh my God yeah Rebecca Brown is adamant that her husband's suicide was not an admission
of guilt I totally understand why he did it he knew there would be people who would think even if he went to court
and was found not guilty that would believe it this was going to tarnish his reputation that he prided
himself in he didn't Escape that of course after he died the police held a news conference
yeah three days after his death the San Diego Police Department publicly named Kevin
Brown as one of two suspects in Claire Huff's murder we were able to establish a very strong case that Ronald Tatro and
Kevin Brown were the suspects in the murder of Claire huff and also an arrest for brown would be forthcoming you never
had enough to arrest him in his lifetime and now that he's gone you're going to just say he did it case solved it's done
why do you think they did that because this can be very tidy for them Rebecca has answered the police charges
with charges of her own she's filed suit against two San Diego police detectives
for misconduct and wrongful death he was not a rapist and a killer he was a quiet good man and I'm hoping the
legal system will help set things right the San Diego Police Department refused our request for an interview but Penny
and Sam Huff Claire's parents have the answers they need we're confident in the San Diego Police Department and their
discoveries the Huff family says after 30 years the details surrounding their daughter's death are not as important to
them as remembering her life we've learned to live with her death we've learned to live without her
physical presence in our family to us what's important is what Claire was and what Claire
meant to us and and to the people around her and this is sort of a still life that's a ninth grade Claire left her
mother and father with a lot of memories well it looks like all her favorite rock
groups and at 14 she had the foresight to leave a will telling her family and friends that she loved them and not to
be sad you've made me realize how precious and beautiful life is thank you I wish I could list all the wonderful
things you've done but everyone would fall asleep [Music] I love you both what did it mean to you that she had
done this and she had written this it's always a puzzle why she did it but it is also a treasure
[Music] but the family of Barbara Nantes the first victim in this case still has as
many questions about her murder as they did in 1978. reality what happened to her
it's just so hard I want to know where I was I want to know what she would have done police now say Barbara and Claire's
cases are not connected I would like a viable suspect but we don't have one Ronald tatra was
in prison for rape at the time of Barbara's murder and Kevin Brown was attending college in Sacramento 500
miles away Barbara's boyfriend Jim Alt what has it done to you over the years especially with the developments in
Claire's case to see this case still remain open it's devastating we want answers we want
to know what they're doing to solve this even today Jim alt says he's suffering from survivor's guilt it has stayed with
him even though Barbara's father Ralph sent him a letter long ago apologizing for having blamed him for
her death I want you to know that I don't hold you responsible for Barbara's death when I
was grieving over her death I needed to blame someone and since she was with you
I lashed out at you Jim you were trying to be alone with Barbara is probably what every red-blooded American Boy
dreams of unfortunately the time you spent together turned out to be a disaster but the chance of that
happening was probably one in a million years truly Ralph fantas it still is hard for you to read that
without choking up yes sir he's absolving you in a way does that help you when I first read it
it did but you can't hide what what happened because of a decision Barbara and I made
she never came home so I owned part of that decision and I'll take that the grade with me
[Music] [Music] thank you

Two teens killed on the same California beach six years apart. DNA on one of the victims leads to two suspects — one of them worked for the police. "48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger investigates. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

The episode covers the murders of Barbara Nantes and Claire Huff, exploring the investigations and suspects involved in both cases.

Key points

The Tragic Beach Attack. In 1978, a camping trip turns deadly when Barbara Nantes is brutally murdered.
A Chilling Pattern. Six years later, Claire Huff is found murdered in a similar manner to Barbara.
The Psychic Connection. Wallace Wheeler, a psychic, claims to have visions of Claire after her murder.
DNA Breakthrough. In 2012, advanced DNA testing leads to new suspects in the decades-old cases.
The Dark Side of Kevin Brown. Kevin Brown, a former police criminalist, becomes a prime suspect in the murders.
Kevin Brown's Dark Past. Investigators uncover troubling details about Kevin Brown's photography hobby and its implications.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I couldn't protect her. I couldn't defend myself.

Jim Alt reflecting on the attack.

1:21WatchAug 30, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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