Captivating Cases | "48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[Music] It is a case that has haunted the public for more than 13 years and many feared
that the Gilgo Beach murders may never be solved. The officer located a body. It seemed to
be wrapped in burlap, which didn't make any sense. The crime scene gets expanded. I'm called and chief, we found
another set of remains. They find another one and another one. We were dealing with a serial killer. Well,
they're available. They're vulnerable and very petite. This killer has a type, right? Does he want the petite body
because he wants to feel more empowered and more in control? I want the world to
know like my sister mattered. I want answers. I just want answers. An arrest more than a decade in the
making in a serial killer case that's baffled law enforcement and the public. 59-year-old Rex Herman plead not guilty.
I dropped my phone. I couldn't believe it. So, just who is Rex Herman? An architect who ran a company called RH
Consultants and Associates. Rex. Hello. How you doing? Good to see you. When a job that should have been routine
suddenly becomes not routine. Yeah. I get the phone call. Rex Herman is a mystery man. Rex is capable of
presenting himself one way to one person, one way to another person. My first memory of Rex was that he was very
big, imposing, scary, angry. He was bullied. He was bigger than everyone else. The kids would gang
up on him. And Rex was very smart, too. He's a smart person. Very smart. He liked to shock people. He was interested
in power games. Rex loved hunting and he loved guns. Going out, shooting, hunting. That was
his passion. All petite, all bound in burlap bags. The burlap on the bodies that's points right at a hunter. It was
DNA collected from a pizza slice he tossed in a Manhattan trash can that came back as a match with hair found on
the victims. That's where we obtained, you know, his full profile from from the pizza crust left in the box. In terms of
speaking to my client, the only thing I can tell you that he did say as he was in tears was, "I didn't do this."
Everyone's just trying to put the pieces together. I want to know what I missed.
I think we all want to know what we missed. [Music] [Music] Not far from this quiet stretch of Gilgo
Beach on Long Island, New York, investigators uncovered the hidden remains of four young
women. The mystery of who they were and how they got here might have stayed a secret if not for a woman named Shannon
Gilbert. [Music] In the early morning hours of May 1st, 2010, 23-year-old Shannon working as an
escort called 911. State police. Yeah, there's somebody after me. The call came from a neighborhood not
far from Gilgo Beach. These people are flying to kill me. Shannon starts running, knocking on doors.
Where are you, Shannon? She screams and then nothing. Shannon was gone. Hello. Hello.
[Applause] K9 searched the area exhaustively for Shawn and Gilbert. Dominic Veron was
chief of detectives at the Suffach County Police Department. Months passed without a sign of the missing woman. And
then in December of 2010, near Gilgo Beach, a police officer and his K-9 named Blue found human remains.
Everyone assumed it was Shannon Gilbert. But it wasn't Shannon. Stunned searchers
would go on to discover the remains of four other women. The women were identified as Moren Brainer Barnes,
Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. Like Shannon, all were in their 20s. All were online escorts.
All petite. Three of the four were wrapped in burlap, the kind you can find in hunting stores. They became known as
the Gilgo 4. It's really, really hard cuz I miss her so much. 48 Hours has reported on this
case since 2010. Over the years, we've secured exclusive interviews with the family and friends of the Gilgo 4. Missy
K will never forget the wintry day when she got the devastating news. The detectives came to my house and just
said that Moren has been positively identified as one of the victims on the Ocean
Parkway. Her sister, Maren Brainer Barnes, a mother of two, was the first to disappear on July 9th, 2007. She was
very smart and very creative. She liked being a mom. She loved being a mom. But life as
a single mom living in Norwich, Connecticut was difficult. Missy didn't know it. But Moren had turned to escort
work and that July went to New York City for a weekend to make [Applause] money. On her way home, she called Missy
from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. Attention, please. I could hear the commotion from the train station. From
the time that she called me, it was poof. She was gone. She reported Moren missing. Eventually,
officers would tell Missy that after her sister's disappearance, someone had used
Morin's cell phone to make a call from Long Island. It wasn't known then, but those
two locations, Long Island and Midtown Manhattan, would become important clues in the hunt for a serial killer.
Nearly 2 years to the day that Meen vanished, 24year-old Melissa Bartholomew went missing in July of
2009. Also from Midtown Manhattan. Lyn Bartholomew is Melissa's mother. How often do you think about Melissa? Every
single minute of the day. It just didn't happen to the girls. I mean, it destroyed all of our families. Melissa
moved from Buffalo to New York City to work as a hairdresser. At some point, she also began working as an escort and
then disappeared. About a week after she went missing, Melissa's then 15-year-old
sister, Amanda, started getting calls from Melissa's phone. We agreed not to show Amanda's face. And she answers, you
know, Melissa, where have you been? and this voice is saying, "Oh, this isn't Melissa." Steven Cohen was the
family's lawyer at the time. He was taunting Amanda and he said, "Do you know what I did to your sister? I killed
Melissa." All I can say is he's sick and he's going to make a mistake and we're going
to catch him. Those calls from Melissa's own phone may very well have been that mistake. When police traced them, the
calls placed the person they believed to be Melissa's killer in Midtown Manhattan. The following year, Megan
Waterman, the mother of a three-year-old girl, disappeared from a hotel on Long Island.
Part of you is like missing or it's just like something's always off. We spoke with Megan's
daughter, Liliana, in 2020. I would do anything to bring her back, but I can't and it just like frustrates me so bad.
Megan's family says the 22-year-old was a creative but troubled young woman who loved fashion and was devoted to her
daughter. What would you say to your mom if you could? I would just want to tell
her that like I love her. I just want her to know like she has a special place in my heart. No one can ever replace
her. Like the other two women, Megan disappeared in the summer on June 6th, 2010. She was working as an escort on
Long Island. No matter what her job was, she was a person and she needs justice.
This haunting video from a Holiday in Express is the last time she was seen alive moments before she went to meet a
client. Cell phone records later placed her phone in a Long Island neighborhood called Masipiqua
Park. Amber Costella was the last of the Gilgo fort to disappear. She lived here
just 7 and a half miles from Masipiqua Park. She used to say she was 411, but she wasn't. She was like 4'9, you know?
I mean, she was small. Amber's friend and former roommate, Dave Showler, spoke with us in 2011.
She was an amazing person. She really was. He says Amber was addicted to drugs and used sex work to support her habit.
But as amazing as she was, was as tormented as she was. After Amber disappeared, police say Shaller told
them about her clients. He described one of them as looking like an ogre and having a first generation Chevrolet
Avalanche. On the night she went missing, Shaller says a client offered Amber $1,500 for the night, six times
her hourly rate. This guy was so relentless. He called several times. He was on the phone with her for quite a
while. each time. He says the client got Amber, an experienced escort, to do something she never did, leave without
her purse or cell phone and meet him in his car. I walked out the front door with her. She She gave me a hug. She's
like, "I love you." And she left. It was nearly midnight. Shaller says that when Amber left this house, she
walked down the street and he never saw her again. Shaller told us that he didn't see the
client's face that night, but suspects he had seen him before. So, this is a guy you might have seen.
Yeah, this is somebody that I seen. I might be the one of the only people who knows who he is. It would be more than a
decade before Shallor's description would lead to a break in the case and a prime suspect.
[Music] The shocking developments in a murder case gone cold. My coworker called me
and she said, "Did you hear what happened to Rex?" And I'm like, "No." A husband, a father, an architect stood
before a judge charged as a serial killer. She says it's Rex. I said, "No way." This house was a main focus and
they brought out a lot of evidence. I just didn't think it was real. A Long Island community is still a crime scene
tonight. I even thought to myself, it's crazy that there's two Rex Hermans out there.
Mary Shell and Muriel Henriquez worked with Rex Huerman and couldn't wrap their heads around the news. We never thought
he would be that kind of person. It's shocking. In July of 2023, nearly 13 years after
the Gilgo 4 were discovered, Suffach County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison made the announcement.
Authorities believe Rex Huerman is the Long Island serial killer. Rex Sherman is a demon that walks among
us, a predator that ruined families. The man he calls a demon is a 6'4 architect.
He's charged with killing Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and is the prime suspect in
the death of Moren Brainer Barnes. What has my client told me? He told me he didn't do this.
Huerman was living about 20 minutes from Gilgo Beach in Masipa Park, the very same town where Megan's phone last
connected with the cell tower. And Huerman worked here at his architectural firm in Midtown Manhattan, just blocks
from where Moren disappeared, the same area where several of the threatening calls to Melissa's little sister were
made. The cause of death with regard to the three victims is homicidal violence.
A married man, Huerman, lived in this run-down house and has a daughter and stepson with his second wife, Assa.
Assa, who was born in Iceland, would take the children to see her family there in the summers. It was
during these trips and others, police believe, that Humeman killed the women. You never got any kind of hint of
another life. No. two to Muriel Henriquez worked at Huerman's company RH Consultants and Associates and spoke
exclusively to 48 hours. She says she saw nothing alarming about the Rex Huerman she saw daily. A little bit of a
nerd in a way. He liked to talk about himself, what he knew. I mean, not a narcissist, but a little bit of a, you
know, I know everything kind of guy. Pompus. Pompus. She remembers him running to and from job sites, eating
fast food on the run. Pizza, that was his number one thing. Police say they found nearly 300 guns in a basement
vault. When she heard that police had recovered almost 300 firearms from a vault in Huerman's basement, she was
surprised only by the number. She knew him as an avid hunter. Going out, shooting, hunting, that was his passion.
What was it about hunting he liked? I don't know. I guess he liked the idea of having a prize. Stalking prey. Stalking
prey and winning. He liked to win, you know. And while she says it never occurred to her that
Huerman could be dangerous, she does remember a time when his tracking skills unnerved her. It was her 40th birthday
and she had booked a cruise vacation. Where are you going? I'm going to, you know, I'm going to be in the middle of
the ocean. You're not going to find me in the middle of the ocean. He said, "Oh, yes, I can."
Muriel didn't think much of the comment until the second day of her trip. There was a white envelope under my door. It
was a note from him. The note said, "I told you I could find you anywhere." He had photos from hunting trips. Mary
Shell worked with Huerman in the summer of 2010. It was the same summer that both Amber Costello and Megan Waterman
vanished. He would talk about, you know, the meat in particular that bear meat could keep in the freezer for months.
Hearing authorities now say that some of the victims were wrapped in a burlap that hunters often use was chilling. The
burlap really got to me. Since Huerman's arrest, Mary has written about her experience with him. She's also talked
to other former female employees who said they weren't always treated with respect. He would have one of them uh
clean the toilet if he thought the cleaning person hadn't done a good enough job. A woman in the office. Yes.
He more than once commented on women's bodies. If someone perhaps had gained some weight, you know, that kind of that
kind of thing. John Perezy grew up with Herman. He says Herman was bullied as a child. I
remember meeting Rex when I was in first and second grade. He was a loner, not many friends. The children
were super mean to him. made fun of him and teased him. But John says he never saw Humman fight back. He was big enough
that if he got upset and started swinging, he would hurt somebody, but he never did.
As Humean got older, John points out things didn't get much better. He was rejected by many girls. We all go
through that awkward stage growing up and it seemed like that awkward stage stayed with him longer than usual.
Still, he says many in the community find it hard to believe that Huerman is the notorious serial killer living a
double life for more than a decade. People were saying, "Oh my god, I can't believe we have a serial killer in our
town and we grew up with and we walked amongst the killer." Another classmate of humor men's, actor Billy Baldwin,
took to social media when the news broke, tweeting, "It was mindboggling." Rex, hello. How you doing? The awkward
Long Island teenager grew up to be a confident and seemingly successful architect. Antoine Amira met and
interviewed him in 2022. Born and raised on Long Island. Okay. Been working in Manhattan since 1987.
There's nothing in my interview that made me think that this person in front of me uh is a dangerous person.
Anwine is a hotel food and beverage manager in New York who loves real estate. He has a YouTube interview show
where he handpicks guests whom he thinks are interesting and accomplished. I'm an
architect. I'm an architectural consultant. I'm a troubleshooter. Antoine says Huerman was well known for
his skill at helping companies and individuals get building permits. When a job that should have been routine
suddenly becomes not routine, Yeah. I get the phone call. Gotcha. Correct. What really stood out for me was he was
very very very smart and known says Antoine for his ability to find loopholes in the rules. He was
pleased when he was doing it that he could that he that he could outwit the the system. That's it folks. That was
Rex. But Antoine says he remembers it was hard to get Huerman to crack a smile. It's selfie time. Selfie time.
Not even during the signature sunglasses selfies he takes with every guest. Two.
Three. Can you smile? That is If police are right, Rex Yur was able to hide a life as a serial killer.
And if he did, his habit of eating pizza on the go would turn out to be his undoing.
[Applause] [Music] For more than a decade after the discovery of the Gilgo 4, Rex Humeman's
name never appeared on a suspect list until a new task force was formed with Suffach County Police Commissioner
Rodney Harrison and Suffach County DA Ray Tyranny. In February of 2022, we formed the task
force and then a mere 6 weeks later, Rex Herman was identified for the first time.
A suspect in six weeks. So, how did they do it? It turns out that buried in the original case files were a number of
critical clues that the new task force was finally able to connect. Remember Amber's roommate, Dave Shaller? She's
like, "I love you." You know, she gave me a hug and she left. He had told police about one of Amber's clients and
his vehicle, just a large built man and that he was driving this this first generation Chevy
Avalanche. A first generation Chevy Avalanche with a description of an ogre-like man and the make and model of
his truck. Police took a closer look at Amber's phone records from 2010. Shaller had told them that before
Amber disappeared, there was one particular client calling incessantly. He called several times. He was on the
phone with her for quite a while each time. Police back then knew the client was using a burner phone. That's a
prepaid phone that anyone can buy and use anonymously. and they knew that Moren, Melissa, and Megan had all been
in contact with burner numbers right before they disappeared. In 2012, with the help of
the FBI, they determined that most of those calls connected to cell towers inside a small area of Masipiqua Park.
They called it the box. So, how large an area is that box? It's, you know, a couple of blocks within within Masipua
Park. The new task force began the search for a large built man who also lived in that
small area and owned a Chevy Avalanche at the time of the disappearances. Was there a aha moment
when all of a sudden his name came up? Once we were able to attach the avalanche inside of that massipa box
which then attached to Rex Herman, that was a moment where we said, "Okay, there's something here." The task force
now had a prime suspect. And when they looked at Humeman's personal cell phone records, they found that his phone was
in the same area as those burner phones when they were used to contact a victim in Masipiqua
Park or in Midtown Manhattan. It was always consistent. Tyranny says this was also true for
those awful calls Melissa's family got from that man using her phone back in 2009. He said, "Do you know what I did
to your sister?" And he said, "Well, I killed Melissa." The task force says that it confirmed
that Huerman does in fact use burner phones. Investigators say he had two different burner numbers in 2022. and
they say they watched and put money on one of those accounts here. And according to court papers, the team also
documented three email accounts using fake names, including John Springfield, Thomas Hawk, and Hunter
1903. And all linked to those burner numbers. And prosecutors say that Huerman was using a burner phone to send
these selfies to solicit and arrange for sexual activity. One of those accounts linked
to Huerman, prosecutors wrote, was used to conduct quote thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic torture
related pornography, and child pornography. There was a lot of uh torture, uh porn,
and depictions of women uh being abused, uh being raped, and being killed. Investigators also say that while they
were busy watching Humen, Huerman was trying to watch them, conducting searches on the task force and the Gilgo
victims. not only pictures of the victims, pictures of their relatives, their their their sisters, their
children. Uh and he was trying to locate those individuals. The circumstantial evidence was building, but investigators
also had physical evidence from the Gilgo 4, including one male hair that was found in the burlap used to quote
restrain and transport Megan Waterman's body. and they wanted to see if they could link it to
Huerman. Police tailed Huerman and when he threw out this pizza box in this trash can here in Midtown Manhattan,
they pounced the pizza, which was, you know, obviously very significant. Tierney says that Huerman's DNA that was
found on that pizza crust was consistent with a DNA profile from the hair found with Megan Waterman's body. And that DNA
profile is only found in 0.04% of the population. That was a remarkable day. It was, you know, the
weekend and, you know, you read, you get the report and you read it and then you
read it again and then you read it a third time and then you read it a fourth time. Uh, and then you start making
calls. With the DNA, the search histories, and the burner phone evidence, the team felt it was time.
When we decided to take down the case, we, you know, it was a sudden decision. We did see him contacting a number of
sex workers using a burner phone, which obviously is concerning. Playing clothes, officers arrested him
around the corner from his office. I don't think he had any clue. I don't think he had any clue that
we were going to him. Police spent 12 days looking through Herman's home, pulling those guns out of
the basement and digging in the backyard. They say it will take some time to comb through what they have now.
And they were tight lipped about what they found. Has the search been fruitful? Great question. And the answer is yes.
Can you elaborate on fruitful? You said yes, it's fruitful. There have been items that we have taken
into our possession. That makes it fruitful. And one more big piece of evidence taken into possession. A first
generation Chevy Avalanche Herman once used and it was sitting on property he owns in South Carolina when they
recovered it. We were able to seize that Chevy Avalanche pursuant to a search warrant and we're certainly going to
analyze that. But there were female hairs found on some of the victim's bodies that don't belong to the
[Music] victims. So who do they belong to? [Music] After Rex Herman's arrest, his quiet
neighborhood in Masipeka Park was overrun by investigators and media, focusing intense scrutiny on the
ramshackle home and its remaining residents, his stepson Christopher Sheridan, daughter Victoria Herman, and
his wife of more than 25 years, Assa. Ellerup. Their life going forward is always going to be the wife or the
children of suspected serial killer. That's what it's going to be from now on. Attorney Bob Macedonio represents
Assa Erup who has since filed for divorce from Hurman. He says she was as stunned as anyone by the accusations.
She had no idea any of this was going on. The allegations are shocking. Nobody wants to think that they've been living
with sleeping next to a serial killer for the past 25 years. As it turns out, Assa may have inadvertently helped focus
the investigation on her husband. Investigators say they've identified strands of female hair that were found
on two of the victims. One hair on Waterman comes back to his wife or the DNA profiles are consistent and then the
DNA profile from Costello is consistent with the wife. Although prosecutors have
evidence that Osa was out of town when those murders occurred, they will have to explain how those hairs got on the
victims. Suffach County DA Ray Tierney says it could be as simple as transfer. You live at home with a spouse. A little
bit of your hair falls on your shoulder as well as as your spouse's. Then you go
out and you interact with a third party and that hair gets on them. Assa Erup has not been charged or named a suspect
in any of the murders. You don't believe that Rex Humeman's wife was involved in
this in any way? There's no evidence to indicate that? No. Along with the public
scrutiny of Assa, there's also been support from people that perhaps know all too well what she's going through.
Carrie Rosson, the daughter of serial killer Dennis Rder, who named himself BTK, tweeted, "Asa and her kids are also
victims. I can tell that they are going through hell." And from Melissa Moore, the daughter of Keith Jesperson, a
serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer, for taunting authorities with letters signed with a happy face. She
reached out immediately to myself and we put her in contact with Assa. At a press
conference, Macedonia announced more set up a GoFundMe page for Assa, which raised over
$50,000. Money he says will largely go to medical bills. Assa is battling breast and skin cancer. And because Rex
Huerman was a sole provider for the family, Macedonio says she will soon lose her health insurance. Assa would
like me to express her thanks for the support she's received. Um, she's going through a very difficult time. Assa's
children have also paid a heavy price. Her daughter Victoria, who worked for her father at the architectural
consulting firm, and her son Christopher are both now unemployed. Assa struggles
to support them, says Macedonio, while she's also trying to figure out how to start over. How is she getting through
every day? Honestly, yeah. Minute by minute, she has no one else to turn to. At this time, family and friends have
been hesitant to have her come over because they don't want the media attention. She gets followed wherever
she goes. For the moment, she and her children continue to live in the house in Masipiqua Park, which the family says
was excessively damaged during the police search seen in these photos provided by Osa's attorney. It's a daily
reminder of the unimaginable crimes her estranged husband is charged with and the investigation that continues into
what else he may have done. [Music] Rex Huerman awaiting trial is locked inside a Suffach County jail in a 60s
square foot cell. He denies killing Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber
Costello. Their voices now silent as the sand where they have been ruthlessly discarded.
How sure are you as you're sitting here now that Rexerman is the Long Island serial killer? So, we're just at the
beginning stages of this case, but we would not have brought this indictment if we weren't confident in our case. He
took away somebody's mother, somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, and not just one person, multiple
individuals. Huerman is currently the prime suspect for the murder of Moren Brainer Barnes. And for investigators,
an obvious question still hangs heavy. If Huerman is a killer, are there other victims?
I mean, isn't there a real concern that there may be other victims out there? Always. Who's to say that there's not
more bodies out there that we need to investigate? In 2011, police did find other bodies
along Ocean Parkway. After finding the Gilgo 4, there is victim number five, Jessica Taylor, an escort who went
missing in 2003. Another set of remains police called Jane do number six is now identified as
Valerie Mack, also working as an escort. Number seven, to investigators surprise, they found a toddler
girl. Number eight, an Asian male dressed in women's clothing. Number nine, a female skull belonging to
Karen Vada, an escort who disappeared in 1996. Number 10, female remains from a victim cops nicknamed Peaches because of
a tattoo on her torso. Although her remains were found six miles away, police say DNA confirms Peaches is the
mother of that toddler. None of those victims has been linked to Huermen. Is it that you can't connect
him yet or you believe he probably isn't the person who killed these other other
individuals? I don't know. Investigations also spread to Las Vegas in South Carolina where Huerman owns
property with detectives there taking a fresh look at cases of missing women. And then there's Nikki Brass. I
remembered him because one, he's massive and how many massive like 6'5 architects work in Manhattan, live in
Masipa. You're going from brown and blonde. Now a hairdresser, Nikki claims she may be one that got away. She told
us she used to work as an escort. And while we cannot substantiate her story, Nikki claims she can't shake her memory
of the night she says she was solicited for sex by Rex Herman and says she fled the restaurant where they met. I had
never gone anywhere and like felt fear. My gut was telling me I needed to get away and I've never had that before.
Nikki says what she found most disturbing is that Huerman himself brought up those bodies bound in burlap
by Gilgo Beach. He wanted to like really get into it. Like he asked me how I thought they could get rid of the bodies
without being caught in that area. And I said, "I've never been over there. I've
never even seen Gilgo Beach." And his response was, "Well, it's really dark and desolate.
I'm John Ray and I'm the lawyer. Nikki is now represented by John Ray, an attorney who is also representing
Shannon Gilbert's [Music] family. In December of 2011, investigators finally found Shannon here
in the marsh, not far from Gilgo Beach. But they don't believe she was murdered.
It's an unfortunate incident, but right now we believe that she just ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned. A
former investigator told us that he believes Shannon was high on drugs that night and says her death was an
accident, something John Ray just can't believe. While he doesn't think Shannon was a victim of humor, he does believe
she was murdered and points to that 911 call. It absolutely makes no sense that she's
found where she is except that someone else put her there or killed her there. While questions remain about Shannon's
last hours, there's no question she's the reason so many families may finally be getting answers they have long waited
for. We spoke to her sister Sheree in 2011. If my sister, you know, didn't make that
911 call, I don't think that these other women would have been recovered either.
Now, investigators hope that with an arrest, they can give the victim's families who stood with them a sense of
justice and of peace. I've gotten to know the families and I'm inspired by them and I'm
impressed by their patience. [Music] A local legend has it that this place, Gilgo Beach, was named for a skilled
fisherman called Gil. These silver gray waters, once his secret hunting ground. Today, this beach area is better known
for a relentless hunter of human prey, a serial killer whose chilling presence can still be felt in the ocean air.
[Music] [Music] a 35year-old case. His father was indicted for killing his mother. Whoever
did this hated this woman. Their entire case is circumstantial. But can he find the truth? I want to know what happened.
48 hours is all new. CBS next in streaming on Paramount [Music] Plus. I think Forest wanted to become a
legend and I actually think he succeeded. He was described as a modern-day Indiana
Jones. Forest came up with the idea to hide a bronze chest filled with gold somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.
I bought this beautiful little treasure chest and I started filling it up with wonderful things. There's 265 gold
coins, hundreds and hundreds of gold nuggets. He wrote a 24line poem guiding people to
the location of the treasure. Yeah, that's exactly it. He created effectively a treasure map in the form
of that poem. I'm going to read the poem. So, here it goes. As I have gone alone in there and with my treasures
bold, I can keep my secret wear and hint of riches new and old. There'll be no paddle up your creek, just heavy loads
and water high. So hear me all and listen good. Your effort will be worth the cold. If you've been brave and in
the wood, I give you title to the gold. And I read that poem and oh god, it was like a hook. No place for the meek. The
bug got in me and I couldn't let it go. I tried to climb up into that cave there. I couldn't sleep. I thought it
was the coolest thing I'd ever heard. How much was that treasure worth? I I think that 1 million is a pretty good
mark to use. [Music] I made at least 85 trips. I didn't find the treasure yet. We had
so much fun. It was crazy. Since there's a mountain lion in the area, we don't want to take any chances.
So, we're bringing our gun. I have spent over 2,000 hours. This is where I ran into my rattlesnake.
Searching for forest fence treasure. Well, I made it hard deliberately. If it was easy, anyone could do it.
For at least five people, the search for Fen's treasure was the last thing they ever did. Yes. Unfortunately, you know,
this treasure hunt did claim at least five lives. Randy Bill was the first. Paris
Wallace also died in the Rio Grand River. Eric Ashby died in the Arkansas River. There was a
gentleman who was hiking in Yellowstone and ended up falling off of a cliff. Two men who went out with
snowmobiles. I've got him in sight still. One of them froze to death and the other one was
hospitalized. Of course, Finn was a bad person. He could have stopped this madness before it became what it
became. It wasn't worth it. How does Forest Fen respond to that? By to some degree digging in his heels. He
didn't like the idea that anyone would tell him to bring his hunt to an end because of a few deaths.
And he said that if somebody was murdered because of the hunt, that would probably be too much.
[Music] [Music] [Music] High at top a ridge near Dinosaur National Monument, 53-year-old Mike
Sexon froze to death. This is the last known photo of him taken in March 2020 as he hiked in that remote area. Days
later, Mike's body was airlifted off the mountaintop. Okay, he's coming up. All right, he's about halfway. Mike became
the fifth person to die while searching for Forest Fen's hidden treasure. Mike was full of life. Mike was an adventurer
and always smiling, always laughing, a big deep chuckle. Friend Liz Keyi struggles to reconcile Mike's love of
adventure with his terrible loss. I'm glad that he took this adventure. I am very sad that he's gone. I miss Mike
every day. I miss his hugs when I'm stressed. I miss his support. I miss his voice, his laughter.
Beth Van Oz today is forced to cope without her longtime boyfriend. Mike had been her rock after she suffered a brain
injury. He was more than just my partner. He was in some ways my caretaker. After Mike's death, Liz felt
compelled to send Forest Fen an anguished email. How many people have to die before your game is done? I had
received an email back and and he just gave his condolences to Beth. First, Fen was a very complicated
person. Dan Barbaresi explores Fen's complexities in his new book, Chasing the Thrill, Obsession, Death, and Glory
in America's Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt. He believed in stories that were bigger than just your run-of-the-mill
standard tale. And he dreamed big. He believed in big things. And Fen had lived a big life, beginning
with his days in the Air Force when he was shot down twice in Vietnam and later as the owner of a well-known
southwestern art gallery. How did a retired fighter pilot reinvent himself in Santa Fe, New Mexico with not just an
art gallery, but one of the most famous art galleries in America? I think he would tell you it's about the show you
can put on. And there's no question that Fen put on a good show. His gallery attracted
celebrities like Jacqueline Kennedy Onasses, Steve Martin, and Ralph Lauren. But there were recurring
whispers that Fen may have built his impressive collection by plundering ancient Native American PBLO. There were
certainly some questions about how he came in possession of some of those artifacts over time. In 2009, long after
Fen had sold his gallery, his home was raided by federal agents from the Bureau of Land Management. And it ultimately
turned out that Fen was not charged with anything in that case. The next year, Fen self-published his
memoir, The Thrill of the Chase. To get families into the great outdoors, Fen put a little incentive
inside his memoir, that distinctive 24line poem. He claimed it contained clues that would lead one clever person
to the 10 by 10 inch chest of gold he'd hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.
If you can follow the clues in the poem to the treasure chest, you're going to be amazed at what you find.
Then launched a modern-day treasure hunt, but it was slowgoing at first. It felt like a small little treasure hunt
for a few people who knew about it. When did that change and why? It got noticed
by the larger media. There were a few big pieces. One in Hemispheres magazine, one in
Newsweek. I think the name of that reporter was the same as my name. Whatever it was was a very hard name to
pronounce, but I'm pretty sure it was Tony. That much I've got. It's pronounced Dopal, by the way. It really
started to raise the profile of it in a significant way. It wasn't long before tens of thousands
of people were on the hunt. In 2015, months before any of the searchers died, Ben spoke to CBS News about the
likelihood of anyone finding his treasure. It isn't impossible, but you're not going to stumble over it. You
have to deliberately go to it. Fen said the spot he chose was so beautiful he could imagine it as his
final resting place. An original version of the poem actually talked about his bones being there next to the treasure
chest itself. Fen dropped that idea. The searchers had their own reasons for going on the hunt and it became clear
that many were seeking more than a box of gold. I think a lot of people really wanted to be part of something bigger
than themselves. Maybe there was something missing in their lives and for others it was that they felt that people
hadn't believed in them to the extent that they should have. Searchers shared their passion and began
to compare so-called solves, their interpretation of the clues in the poem. It was all online until some got the
idea to meet in real life. And so of that was born Fenbury. Exactly what it sounds like. It's a Forest Fen Jamboree.
Each summer, Fen's fans flocked to Santa Fe where Forest Fen was her star attraction. The guy described it as as
meeting a beetle. You know, it was that kind of thing. Everybody just lined up literally to get their their brief
moment with Forest Fen. People use the word eccentric, but I don't think that's the right word for him. He was just his
own man. Sasha Dent was living in Albuquerque when she took up the chase. I probably searched for Forest Fence
Treasure about 300 times. She became an insider. Forest was such a a major part of my life. And Sasha saw firsthand the
good that came from Fen's game. There was account after account of families who were brought together because of
Forest Fence treasure hunt. There were relationships built on the treasure hunt and marriages and that includes her own
marriage. Brea out. [Music] Another of Fen's favorites was Katya Luc, a singer songwriter who knew Fan in
the9s before he wrote his memoir. When she later came across Finn's book, well, gold fever struck that very night.
I couldn't sleep all night long. I'm either Google Earth, Googling, reading the book again, underlining,
highlighting. She estimates she spent $75,000 over 7 years of searching. It was a great time, she says, even during
some dangerous moments. I had a very close encounter while I was searching for the treasure with a
cougar and I just froze. But then I lifted up my hoodie really tall and made myself
bigger. I went marching really strong and did like a pseudo chant really loud. Hey.
[Music] Katya came away unscathed, but others were not so lucky. This is not some disnified hunt where at
the end of it everything turns out okay. The reality is if you don't take this thing seriously, it will get you.
Look just to the right of that tree off in the distance. You see it? That's where we're going. For 5 years, no one
could find the location of Ben's treasure. But the searchers had become a tight community. If it's snow covered,
it's pointless. I think we were like a support group for each other. You're among people who get that it's not just
about the money. He says it cannot be stumbled upon. It's about being the one who cracked the code. I have looked and
I have looked and I have looked and the other people they get it. I know at least probably 30 places where it's not.
You would talk about your solve, as they called it, but you never gave the exact
location. I told you we're not going to be in Yellowstone. The distances didn't work
out really well for me. Toby Ununis hosted a popular YouTube show about the hunt. Everybody believed they were going
to find their treasure. There was no acceptance of the idea that someone else would find the treasure.
[Music] And divorced grandfather Randy Bill was convinced he had as good a chance as
anyone. I met Randy a couple times at some of the Fen gatherings. Randy was always my protector.
Randy grew up on Long Island, New York, and his sister Kathy Leebold remembers he loves sports and animals. Randy
learned of Fen's treasure in 2013 and started searching the next year. I think he was excited about the adventure of
the hunt and um he thought if he found the treasure that he would use the money to help his family. And if you knew
Randy, you knew Leo, his long-haired Jack Russell. Leo was his best buddy and he took him everywhere. Randy and Leo
moved to Colorado to be closer to the search area. And at the beginning, Kathy says he was good about letting his
family know when he was going out on the trail, but later that changed. I think he thought he was getting really
really close to it and um he just wanted to, you know, excite us all with the news that he had found it. On January
5th, 2016, Randy and Leo headed out to the Rio Grand northwest of Santa Fe with a small raft. Temperatures hovered
around freezing. He was gone for 10 days before he was reported missing. I had a sinking
feeling that something was really very wrong. Flight nurse Aaron Johnson was part of a medical helicopter crew sent
out to look for Randy. On the initial search, they found nothing and headed back up river.
And that's actually when we found his raft. That's a raft. It's uh blue. They landed on a sandy bank of the river and
were in for a surprise. There was a small dog that was there and barking at us. He had a sweater on which was pretty
dirty, but I'm quite certain that that sweater saved his life. There were three of us on the ground the whole time.
Aside from the raft and his dog, we could find really nothing else. No backpack, nothing.
Leo seemed frightened, but Aaron eventually coaxed him to eat a cliff bar the pilot had on board. And at the point
where we had to leave, I had a big thick jacket and I just threw it over him and
scooped him up and brought him on the helicopter. Kathy saw the heartbreaking news on TV. Only Leo had been rescued.
It was uh probably one of the worst days of my life. The treasure hunting community got word
of this and many of these people wanted to help. Determined to find Ry's body, drone
pilots shot hours of footage that was posted online so the treasure hunt community could go through it frame by
frame looking for signs of Randy. Other searchers put boots on the ground. It was rugged. I mean, it was
harder than any treasure searching any of us had done. It was rough. We searched very very hard every day for
over a month. Forest Fen rode in a helicopter to look for Randy. Fen also met with Kathy when she came to Santa
Fe. Fen was sympathetic, but told her he wasn't willing to call off the treasure
hunt. I think a lot of people could argue that his priorities are perhaps not what they should be. That instead of
the people or the human cost, he cared a lot more potentially about his treasure
hunt. And the treasure hunt was everything to fend. Even though it put his family at risk. Forest was harassed
over the years. His family was harassed. There's a man who's done prison for stalking Forest's granddaughter.
Get on your knees. Get on your knees. And this man, Robert Miller, was arrested for burglary in 2018 at Fen's
Santa Fe home. So, what the hell is going on? I thought the poem directed me into here. I thought it said poem. Yeah,
the the treasure map, the treasure hunt, you know. So, you came on the property because of the poem? Are you serious?
Yeah. What did his family think about all this? Uh, I think his family had a hard time with it, honestly. Even with
all of that, Forest saw how much good his treasure hunt did for how many people, and he know that the good far
outweighed the bad. The search for the treasure continued as did the search for Randy. 6
months after he went missing, his body was found on the riverbank. Obviously, we were devastated that he
wasn't alive. He was a great father, grandfather, and uncle to my son. With Randy gone, Leo was adopted by none
other than Aaron Johnson. Leo, the nurse who rescued him. Good boy. In the five years with his new family, the ultimate
rescue dog has even learned some new tricks. Okay, turn around. Kathy is happy he's found a new home. Good boy.
But she thinks about her brother every day. I wished he'd been more careful. I wished he hadn't gone out that day, but
you know, he was enjoying what he was doing. Randy was not the last to die searching for Fen's
[Music] gold. The next year, the hunt claimed three more lives. He had become obsessed by Ven's
treasure, and that was the only thing that mattered to him. In June 2017, a year and a half after
Randy Billu died, three more men lost their lives in a matter of weeks. Jeff Murphy was searching in Yellowstone
National Park, very tragically just misststepped and ended up falling off of a cliff and passing away.
Around the same time, writer Dan Barbaresi went on his first search with his treasure hunting partner Jay Rener.
What was it like going from 4 months of research on a computer to being out there in the wilderness? The first thing
that stood out to me, how much bigger a point on a map is in real life. You know, you look on a map, oh, this isn't
that big. I can cross this area with just my finger alone. Once you're actually out in the wild, you see how
big those distances are and how much land there actually is out there pretty quickly. It really hits you in the face
pretty fast. Reality wasn't the only thing hitting Dan and Jay in the face. We're out there thinking that we're, you
know, adventurers, explorers, and all of a sudden it starts hailing. And we very
quickly realize that we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. Days later, in that same exact area, a Colorado
pastor named Paris Wallace set off to search the Rio Grand near the Tal Junction Bridge. As you move through
life, there are those points where you have to seek God to find out what he wants you to do. And he crossed the
river by himself, and it was high waters. Then Paris's body was recovered 4 days later
a few miles down river. His death spurred the New Mexico State Police Chief to ask Fen to call off the hunt.
Fen refused. There was a huge amount of anger at Fen over this. I mean, you can understand
why. I mean, this is a treasure hunt. It doesn't need to exist. And yet, he wouldn't stop it even after multiple
people had died. That's a pretty hard stance to take. Fen justified continuing the hunt by
pointing out that any outdoor activity came with risks. In the summertime, we jump in a swimming pool. But if somebody
drowns in the swim pool, should should we drain the pool or should we teach people to swim? That's the way I feel
about it. And the treasure community rallied around Fen in support of the hunt. Here I go.
99.9% of people who go out looking for his treasure make it home safely with tons of memories and new experiences to
treasure. And Fan did keep warning searchers to be safe, be more careful, be more mindful. He constantly reminded
everyone to not go anywhere a 79 or 80-year-old man couldn't go. Many searchers, Dan says, set off on the
treasure trail with great excitement, but sometimes were unprepared for how wild the wilderness can be. Searchers
like Eric Ashby understood the risks and were willing to take them. Fear was not part of his game. He didn't
know how to be afraid. Paul Ashby raised his son Eric as a single father in the mountains of
Tennessee. Eric grew up playing sports, riding motorcycles, and was taken by the
quest at the center of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Eric was a great kid. Everybody who knew him loved him. In
2016, Eric moved to Colorado. He told his dad he was headed west to take part in his own quest. Fen's thrill of the
chase. He became obsessed. Dad, I can do this. Was he motivated by the money the treasure represented or by
the recognition solving it? Oh, sincerely the recognition. The money to him was totally irrelevant.
Eric told his father he was going out to search the Arkansas River outside Canyon
City, Colorado. More than a week later, Paul got a phone call from a woman who said her name was Becca.
She told me on the phone, "Mr. Ashby, your son is drowned." And she says, "I'm sorry, Mr. Ashby, your son is dead." And
she hung up. Becca turned out to be Rebecca Ny, who had worked with Eric. She and three men were with Eric at the
river and they had drawn up this contract outlining exactly how they had split the treasure. She later told
police what happened that day. He said he had swam the river that we were about to cross 10 times before. And so, you
know, we we figured though we should be fine. Becca said they'd bought a twoperson
raft, but Eric got in alone and had no life preserver. So, he just um jumped out. It looked like he had made it to
the rock, but then we didn't see him anymore. And that was right where the rapids, you know, would have taken him.
Becca told police two of the men went down river to look for Eric, where they saw a photographer who told them he
called 911. The photographer also captured this photo of Eric's empty raft. Hearing someone had called police,
Becca and the others went back to their car and went home. A decision Becca tried to explain. I want to know why why
no one stayed there to tell us this information because again now I'm easily harm to see what we should
have done. But in the moment, we never been involved with things like that. Eric stepped into a situation that was
impossible. Nobody could have done it. The thing that makes it worse is that nobody stopped him and that
it was just a case of oh well. Eric was worth so much more to me than oh well. After Eric's body was recovered, Paul
traveled to the river to see where his son had died. I took the excursion train that comes down the gorge and one of the
company managers was on the train with me and he went into the bar, the lounge car, and come back with
a beer. He says, "This is for you and your son, and we shared our last beer right
there." Paul says he never heard from Forest Finn. If you had been able to reach Forest Fen, what would you say to
him? Say, "Mr. Finn, is this something one day you're going to have to go to whoever our maker is and say, "Yes,
these people were drowning or dying, falling off cliffs, whatever." And I could have stopped it, and I chose not
to. I was honestly surprised that it didn't end in that summer of 2017. But the hunt did not
end. And in March 2020, a fifth man died. About 2:00 in the morning, I looked up, the stars were out. I looked
over, you know, to my left, and there was Mike. It was like, "Oh, I I I remember telling myself, "Oh, no, Mike."
What do you think of Forest Fen's decision to continue the treasure hunt? Learn more about the search for the
treasure at 48 hours.com. [Music] Mike was the kind of guy that walked into a room smiling and made everybody
feel better just by coming around. Beth Van O says her longtime boyfriend Mike Sexon knew about Randy, Jeff, Paris, and
Eric, the others who died while searching for Fen's treasure. I think Mike knew of the dangers. He just maybe
ignored a little bit of it or thought he could get around it. It had been nearly 3 years since any
searchers had died. I think people thought that maybe they had gotten past that point where people aren't going to
die anymore looking for this. Mike was convinced he knew where the treasure was along the Colorado Utah
border in Dinosaur National Monument. He made nearly a dozen trips there, but he
needed someone with a four-wheel drive truck to help. That's how his poker buddy, Steven Enloow, got involved with
the hunts. I was very excited to be with Mike on these trips. I just enjoyed traveling with him.
This is the first time Steven has spoken publicly about their ordeal that began in late February 2020. The men rented
snowmobiles in Denver and set off for Mike's spot. The snowmobiles proved to be too heavy for the depth of snow that
we had. Mike and Steven got stuck, but managed to call 911. Is anybody injured? No. No, we're not injured. Just stuck.
Looks like I've got a pretty good location on you. I'm going to get you some help headed your way. Okay.
They were rescued, but the close call didn't deter the pair from going back out just a few weeks later on March
17th, 2020. Days into the COVID pandemic, Mike was adamant that he wanted to make another trip before the
quarantine started. Mike and Steven drove to Salt Lake City where they rented snowmobiles they
thought would be better on the terrain. On the second day in the wilderness, they left their truck 5 miles from the
main road and headed off for a day trip on the snowmobiles. We left a lot of our
provisions back in the truck thinking we were just going to be gone three or four
hours. We take off from the snowmobiles and we're on the south side of the mountain this time and we ran out snow.
It became dry. They left even more supplies on the snowmobiles and set off on foot with a
sled to carry home the treasure, which Mike believed was close. We had some some candy bars, a couple of energy
bars, and uh maybe a gallon and a half of water between the two of us. It didn't look that far away, but it proved
to be uh ridge over ridge over ridge that took a a lot longer than I thought it was going to take. By 6:00 on
Wednesday, I was kind of nervous. I hadn't heard from him. When the men hadn't returned the
snowmobiles Wednesday night, the rental company called the police who called Beth and Steven's wife. Not
knowing was just the worst. Just the most awful thing. Mike tried to hike to higher ground to
get a cell signal, but hours later returned unsuccessful. At that point, both men
were so exhausted, all they could do was lay where they were. The next day, it began to
snow. They had no more water. I remember my hands and knees eating the snow crystals and blood was
dripping from my mouth, staining the snow. I cried for help. I asked God. I asked Jesus. Just anyone call 911. We
need help. Desperate for hydration, Steven began drinking his own urine and felt warmth
spread throughout his body. And I I could just feel that was a moment that I'm going to live. And I told Mike he's
got to quit eating the snow when he was shivering and told him what he needed to
do. And he said he'd rather die. On Friday, we could hear helicopters on the other side of the
mountain side and we knew they were out searching for us. And so that gave us hope, but we never saw the helicopter.
That night, I woke up about 2:00 in the morning and Mike was about 6 feet away from
me. He was on his hands and knees with his arms cupped around his head, his head flat on the ground, and he had no
shirt on. And so I knew he had died and I knew why. Hypothermia. [Music] People suffering from extreme cold can
feel hot in the moments just before they die. I I remember telling myself, "Oh no, Mike." Later that Saturday, Steven
heard the helicopters again, louder this time, and saw them down in the canyon below. With all the strength he could
muster, he grabbed the orange sled and he waved it toward the helicopter. And then just like in the movies, the
helicopter rose up above the cliff and I knew I was saved and I passed out. Next
thing I knew, two guys were picking me up, asking me if I could walk. I couldn't even stand. And I I just
remember whispering, "Goodbye, Mike." Mike was later taken off the mountain in a body bag. Beth got the devastating
news that afternoon. I mean, you can say I love you, but until somebody's really
gone and you can't say it anymore, you just don't realize you have more than that to say.
A year later, Beth and Mike's friend Liz Key finds solace in that last photo. His
grand smile, the look in his eye of yes, this is where I want to be. I am very sad that he's
gone, but I'm glad that he he did what he loved to do. Mike was the fifth person to die
seeking Fen's treasure. He was also the last because only 3 months later, Forest
Fen made a stunning announcement. The message was very short and simple. It said, "The treasure has been found.
[Applause] Early last summer, just as thousands of treasure hunters were about to begin
looking yet again for Forest Fen's chest of gold, they got a piece of news that left
them reeling. My heart stopped, honestly. I was like, "Oh my god." Uh, I cannot believe this has actually
happened. Did somebody really find it or you know and if so who? The news broke on June 6th, 2020 when
Fen made the stunning announcement in a brief post he sent to a blog used by the
searcher community. Fen wrote, "The treasure has been found and had not moved from the
spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago. I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to
the precise spot. Overnight, the gold rush that had sustained the searchers was over and many were left feeling a bit
cheated. We didn't have a name. We didn't have where it had been found. We didn't have any other any other
information other than it had been found where he had left it. And is it really really really true that they found it? I
want to see, you know. So the guy did send pictures. For the first time, searchers could see Forest pouring over
the contents of his famous treasure chest. It looked pretty authentic to me, you know, very authentic.
But like everyone else, Katya yearned to know the finder's solve. How had he deciphered those clues in the poem? The
finder wouldn't say, but a month later, Fen revealed the treasure had been found
in Wyoming. Then two months later on September 7th, 2020, Forest Fen died at his home where
he had just turned 90 years old. I find myself thinking of Forest often and um I
miss our conversations very much. The Finder may have remained anonymous forever, except for a lawsuit that
required the Fen family to reveal his name. The Finder knew it was only a matter of time. So, he came out to Dan
Barbaresi, who wrote an article for Outside magazine. Who did find the treasure? A man named Jack Stew found
the treasure. and he was uh you know a medical student who had gotten obsessed with this chase uh around 2018. He you
know was very very committed to his sol. Hey guys, this is Jack in this online message to other searchers. Our
challenge is to try not to make guesses. Jack Steuf had shared his approach to cracking fence poem. It is simple and
clear and straightforward. You need simplicity in yourself. Dan says Jack had been searching for at least two
years. And then one day in a Wyoming forest, Jack says he uncovered the chest. It had almost been covered by
leaves and debris, but Jack said the lid was still visible. He became very paranoid that somebody was going to
stumble upon him in that moment. Jack says he hightailed it to Santa Fe where these photos were taken. They seemed to
back up Jack's story, but fan watcher Toby Eunis was skeptical. Here is my theory. The hunt was moving forward.
Forest was aging. The family, Forest's family, was frustrated with the state of the search.
Their houses had been broken into. Their children had been threatened with kidnapping. They were never lovers
of the Forest Fen treasure hunt. Toby has no evidence, but believes that Fen, knowing he had only months to live,
looked around for someone who was close to finding the treasure. Toby believes Fen reached out to Jack. I imagine this
is how it went. I want you to know that I'm dying. I want you to know that I don't want to leave this treasure hunt
to my family and I'm going to ask you for a favor. Forest had a a saying that he used often. There's an old saying,
two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Jack refused our request for an interview, but denied he had any
help from Fen. As he wrote online, "I am not and was never employed by Forest, nor did he pick me in any way to
retrieve the treasure. I was a stranger to him and found the treasure as he designed it to be found."
I do not believe it is part of a conspiracy engineered by Fen to give Jack the treasure or anything else of
that sort. Dan is in a unique position because he's the only journalist who has interviewed Jack. Jack even allowed Dan
to examine the treasure. These photos have rarely been seen. You were able to actually hold the treasure, to touch it,
to see it in person. Yes. You know, I have seen and touched and felt and gone through the chest. It was kind of an
incredible moment. Honestly, Jack told Dan he will not reveal the exact spot where he found the chest because he
fears it would become a tourist attraction that would ruin the area's serenity and natural beauty.
I think we will never find out truly where it was found. And there could be another
reason. Fen's original intent to lay down and die at the very spot where he hid his treasure.
I don't want to be buried. If I had my way, I'd lay down under a tree and go and
uh just like a big old buffalo lays down and dies. Go back to nature. Become become part of the earth again.
Jack says he offered to put Fen's ashes in that special spot, but will not say if the family accepted his offer. Dan
says he doesn't know what Jack intends to do with the treasure, whether he will sell it peace meal or as one, or perhaps
lease it for display. What is in the end the legacy of Forest Fen? I think the legacy of Forest Fen is extremely
complicated. I think that there were a lot of good things that happened because of it. There are also some really bad
things that happened because of it. But if you're Paul Ashb who lost his only son Eric to the hunt, one of the five
men to die chasing the thrill, Fen's legacy is not complicated at all. He was reckless. He was willing to
ignore the fact that people were dying because all these other people worshiped him.
A lot of people still do look up to Forest Fen and maybe that's not so surprising when you feel a dream you
know live your dream out follow your heart and okay so I didn't find the treasure but I found many treasures this
in itself is the biggest treasure of all that I found so many magical wonderful things I could never replace um without
that treasure hunt. I'm so grateful for Forest. Thank you. Thank you, Forest. [Music]
CBS next Saturday. 48 Hours brings you backtoback episodes all summer long. This week, killer contestants. He is the
serial killer that we always suspected him to be. You just want to wake up and have it not be real. 48 hours prime time
double feature next Saturday 98 central on CBS and streaming on Paramount [Music]
Plus. Hi, this is Conrad Rug and I'm going to talk to you about social anxiety. social anxiety, depression,
it's controlling me. There's people that love me. I have a great mom, great dad, but I'm so
depressed. We spent the day walking the beach and we had a conversation and I asked him about school and he's like,
"Um, I'm not sure what I'm going to do." And I said, you know, don't worry about
it. Everything is going to be okay. It was a nice day out with the family. Nothing to give any hint of what was to
come later in the day. There was no indication anything was going on. I've created a monster out of
myself past few years because of my depression. Racing thoughts, suicidal thoughts.
Do you remember when is the last time you saw your brother? He was like going at the door. I thought he was just going
to his friend's house. You got up in the morning and how did you know he hadn't come home? He wasn't there and we just
like couldn't find him. This is not like Conrad not to come home. Then they found his body
and around 5:30 in the afternoon and he died in his truck. carbon monoxide poisoning. I will live with this
forever. Um the pain. Right away we heard from investigators that medical examiner found that it was
a suicide. It wasn't until they started looking at his phone that they realized that there was something else going on
here because on that phone were hundreds and hundreds of texts from Michelle Carter to Conrad Roy urging him to end
his life. You can't think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were going to do it. Like, I don't get why
you aren't. And Michelle Carter admittedly said, "Do it." She was kind of making fun of him for for not taking
his own life. I thought you really wanted to die, but apparently you don't. I feel played and just stupid. You're
going to have to prove me wrong because I just don't think you really want this.
And she kept pressuring him to do it. You're ready. and prepared. All you have to do is turn the generator on and you
be free and happy. No more pushing it off. No more waiting. There was one point where he
actually got out of the truck. Mhm. And changed his mind. Yeah. He was scared and she told him to go back in the
truck. Yes. Carter charged with involuntary manslaughter. She faces up to 20 years
in prison. This is totally out of left field. I coached Michelle. I know her as a good kid. I don't believe that she has
a conscience. She knew exactly what she was doing and what she said. Hang yourself, jump off a building, stab
yourself, I don't know. There's a lot of ways. And it's the texts that become the
weapon. How could she cause a death when she was 35 m away? In these circumstances, this is almost akin to
loading the gun and handing it over. Who knows? Who knows when you have your hand
in the trigger when you're sending a text? [Music] [Music] [Music] It's not realistic what what's going in my head
that keeps on piling and piling and piling. One month before 18-year-old Conrad Roy
took his own life, when the minds of many teens wandered to carefree summer days, Conrad's thoughts were more
serious, introspective. I need to be comfortable with my skin. Sitting at his computer and his home in
Fair Haven, Massachusetts, Conrad recorded his thoughts on coping with his depression. I need
to relax. I really do. He wanted to excel. He was just wanted to be this like great person. But in my eyes,
Conrad's mother, Lynn, explains that her son could be his own toughest critic. It
was rough on himself. He really really struggled with um just disappointing I think myself and his
dad. The sooner I like myself, the better I'm going to be. Lenroy thought her son was getting
better. I I do have a lot going for me. He was getting professional help and on an anti-depressant, Selexa. He had been
licensed to be a tugboat captain like his dad. That's a huge accomplishment to be a captain. had just
graduated high school and college with a scholarship was on the horizon and he was doing everything that was positive
that was, you know, looking towards his future. But on July 12th, 2014, Conrad drove to a parking lot and
using a gasoline powered water pump, sat in his pickup truck as it filled with carbon monoxide, knowingly inhaling the
deadly fumes, killing himself. All the while, his friend Michelle Carter, then 17, was
encouraging Conrad from more than 30 miles away on her phone to take his own life. I don't understand why you would
want someone that was so beautiful inside and out, that had so much that was such a kind
person to die. How do you describe what this young woman did? I cannot only only she she can. The
intersection of the lives of Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy has left a trail of heartbreak and questions about the
circumstances that led to such a tragic death. He's one of the kindest persons. He grew up very sensitive, very humble
and kind, happy child. Very happy. Many pictures of him smiling, laughing until he became a teenager. And I don't know
if it was the hormones, he just, you know, became anxious. Conrad was the oldest child in the family with two
sisters, Morgan and Camden. Lynn and Conrad's father separated when Conrad was 16, and their divorce hit him
especially hard. I think he was just more worried about me. That's what boys do. They worry about their moms um a
lot. Conrad would confide in his friend Ariana Taylor as they spent hours walking along the water. He didn't
really wasn't able to explain it to me in a way that I could understand. So, he kind of just described it as a darkness
and how there would be times where he just kind of wanted to isolate himself from everybody. Conrad's anxiety and
self-doubt had troubled Lynn since he was 16. He started uh having trouble sleeping and we got him treated and then
he had his first uh suicide attempt a year after the age of 17. Conrad had overdosed on acetaminophen.
I worked in a psychiatric hospital and I never imagined that one of my children would um have those feelings. Do you
think he really intended to kill himself at that point? He did contact a friend.
That friend was Ariana. He told me that he was really sick and that his mom had just left and that he wanted her to come
back. Ariana immediately got in touch with Conrad's parents who brought him to the hospital. He told me, "Mom, I will
never do that again." He was sorry, and I was sorry as well that he felt that way. The fact
that he wanted you to call his mother, what does that say to you? It just says that he was calling out for help, that
he didn't actually mean what he was doing, but he really needed help and that this was the only way he kind of
thought that he would really get help. And that help seemed to be working. He actually was getting a lot better. He
told me about how he was going out and he was going to like, you know, the high school parties and just hanging out with
everybody. I was like, "That's amazing." Michelle Carter was another friend of Conrads. They met in 2012 while both
were vacationing in Florida. Conrad and his sisters were visiting relatives who happened to know Michelle. How would you
describe Michelle? Friendly. Yeah, she's really friendly. She always made Conrad
laugh. As it turned out, Michelle lived just a few towns over from the Roy in Massachusetts. And the relationship
continued after the vacation. But while Michelle called Conrad her boyfriend, his family says the two
rarely saw each other. And like so many teens, their interactions were mostly over text messages.
Had your son ever mentioned Michelle Carter? Yes. After they met in Florida? I met her 2013 at his baseball game and
that was the only time I ever met her. Second time was at his week. Michelle and Conrad shared something in common
that Lynn did not know. Michelle had her own struggles, including an eating disorder, and both teens at times took
anti-depressants. You know, probably the interaction was they both had their issues. Softball
coach Ed McFarland has known Michelle Carter and her family for a decade. The Michelle he knows is an ideal teammate.
I've never seen her do a mean thing. I've never seen her be mean. Michelle's high school yearbook paints a
picture of an active, well-liked student, one voted class clown, and most likely to brighten your day. But that
would not be how her actions would be described on the last day of Conrad's life. That day started out seemingly
happy for Conrad, spending time with his family. That morning on the 12th, what was his mood like? It was
fine. He wanted to, you know, go to the beach with the girls. While there, Camden at one point noticed her brother
sitting alone texting. Did you know who he was texting with? No. Now you think he was texting with Michelle Carter?
Yeah. But you didn't know that at the time. And what was his demeanor? I don't know. He I don't know. He kind of seemed
like anxious like when he was like texting. Conrad then took his sisters out for ice cream where his mood seemed
to lift. I mean, when you think back on that, would you have ever guessed there was anything wrong that afternoon?
After going home, Conrad left at about 6:00 p.m. telling his mother he was going to see a friend. And I asked him
if he was going to be back for dinner, and he said he didn't think so. And that was the last words that he spoke to me.
It was July 12th, 2014, the heart of summer in New England. Conrad Roy had headed out in his pickup truck around
6:00 p.m. As the evening passed, Lynn checked to see when he'd be home. And I texted him, I don't know, before I went
to bed, maybe around 10:30, 11. And then I texted him again in the middle of the
night. Conrad didn't respond. Still, Lynn figured everything was okay. She believed he had beaten back much of his
anxieties. That night, Conrad's sister, Camden, unexpectedly heard from Michelle
Carter, that 17-year-old who had battled her own mental health issues and lived about an hour away. How surprised were
you that you suddenly got a text from Michelle? And I thought she was just like just like his friend. And but in
the text she said like we're boyfriend and girlfriend now. And I was just like I looked at my mom I was like they are
whether teenage love or something else. Michelle was sending out the word. Had anyone heard from Conrad Roy? And what
did she text you exactly? She was like um hey Camden like do you know where your brother is? Was that unusual for
him not to come home? Oh yeah, absolutely. That was not like him at all. It was sunrise and still not a
word. So in the morning I went to by Ariana's house and he wasn't there. And so that's when I began to
search where is he? What happened? We went by dad's house. There's no sign of him. Maybe an hour later, I felt like
like this um rush go through my body that I've never felt in my life. And I felt at that point that he wasn't with
me. On the afternoon of July 13th, police found him inside his pickup truck parked at the local Kmart, his cell
phone right next to him. And he died in his truck. Carbon monoxide poisoning. like got in the car and my mom was just
like crying like the most I ever seen her cry and she was like, "He's gone." And like she was just like, "Your
brother's gone." It still hurts just as much as it did then, doesn't it? I will live with this forever. Um the
pain. I don't get why it happened. Why did it happen? Why did it happen to him? And
Michelle seemed to take Conrad's death as hard as anyone. Once again, a text was her choice of communication. This
time to Lynn. I am so very sorry. Conrad meant so much to me. No one questioned the suicide until cops got a hold of
Conrad Royy's phone. It would prove to be an investigation like no other. No gun, no knife, no crucial DNA in this
case. Only this, a trail of words starting with those on the cell phone. Messages with Michelle Carter. And once
investigators found this dialogue, they knew that there was something else up and they wanted to get
to the bottom of it. Former Boston Herald legal columnist and 48 Hours consultant Bob McGovern. And so this
thing turned from a suicide investigation into a homicide investigation. Michelle seemed to be
encouraging Conrad not to live, but to die. Text flew between the two of them for more than a week, right up to the
moment he took his own life. I'm determined. I'm happy to hear that. When you get back from the beach, you got to
do it. No more thinking. Yes. No more thinking. you need to just do it. But now with Conrad Roy dead, Michelle
seemed devastated, acting as if his death was a total surprise. When it came to the funeral, she sat up close to kind
of where the family area was. I always described her seen as the grieving widow. She was just
um constantly like sobbing. And two months later, Michelle even held a fundraiser to honor Conrad in her town
of Planeville. That fall, investigators interviewed Michelle Carter at her high school. Did you do you think you had
contact with him that day? I think so. But Michelle's story was riddled with holes and police weren't buying it. They
poured through her cell phone. Her texts ranged from urgent to ominous. Like one
sent to her friend Samantha Boardman on July 12th at 8:02 p.m. Just minutes after police believe Conrad killed
himself. He just called me. I heard moaning like someone was in pain and he wouldn't answer when I said his name.
That text was followed by another. I think he just killed himself. Michelle was texting her
friend, but what she wasn't doing was calling for help. And there was at least one more text found on Conrad's phone
that now seems telling. Only moments before he died, Michelle asked him this. Did you delete the messages? Police
would extract more than a thousand deleted text messages between Conrad and Michelle. Some showed his fear and
reluctance to take his life on the very day he died. I don't know. I'm freaking out again. I do want to, but like I'm
freaking out for my family. But even as Conrad panicked and considered abandoning his plan to die,
Michelle egged him on. She described it to her friend Samantha that September in
this text. Sam, his death is my fault. Like honestly, I could have stopped him. I was on the phone with him and he got
out of the car because it was working and he got scared and I effing told him to get back in.
The road to justice would be complicated. Massachusetts has no law against encouraging or assisting
suicide. And Michelle was miles away when Conrad died. People don't realize in our generation texting does a lot.
It's like having the person right there in front of you when you're texting somebody. And the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts seems to agree. In the summer of 2016, the court ruled that even though Michelle was an hour away
when Conrad Roy died, she had a virtual presence that night in that pickup truck. It's a controversial legal theory
born out of a digital world. And so nearly 3 years later, Michelle Carter will stay on trial in this courtroom for
involuntary manslaughter. Michelle's attorneys, fearing how the text would play, advised her to wave her
right to a jury trial. She put her fate in the hands of a veteran judge, Lawrence Monz. Are you doing that of
your own free will, known only involuntarily? Yes. See more of Michelle Carter's texts to
Conrad Roy on Facebook at 48 hours. [Music] [Music] She assisted and devised and advised and
planned his suicide. Inside this Massachusetts courtroom, Michelle Carter, now 20 years old, looks more
like a prep school student than a criminal defendant. And on July 12th, 2014, as his truck was filling
with carbon monoxide, he was scared. He got out. It was the defendant on the other end of the phone who ordered him
back in, then listened for 20 minutes as he cried in pain, took his last breath,
and died. The alleged weapon in this case, Michelle Carter's own words. What she did in theory, according to
prosecutors, is she recklessly caused Conrad Royy's death. The state's case revolves around Michelle's chilling text
messages to Conrad as he was apparently having second thoughts the day he took his life. The defendant texted Conrad,
"You can't think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were going to do
it. I don't get why you aren't." And then there was this. 10 days before he died, Michelle sent him this text
message assuring him not to worry about his family's feelings. Yeah, they'll probably blame themselves for a while,
but they will get over it and learn to accept it. A notion that baffles and upsets Conrad's mother. I think she
needs to be uh held responsible for her actions cuz she knew exactly what she was doing. Linroy testified that on the
last day of his life, Conrad was in a good frame of mind. He was eating tortilla chips and guacamole on the way
to the beach. In um July of 2014, did he ever mention he wanted to harm himself?
No. I knew he was a little depressed, but I thought he was he was doing great. But prosecutors contend
that Michelle and her incessant texting had immense influence over Conrad. Even though Michelle was more than 30 miles
away from him when he took his life, that her virtual presence caused him to do it. She helped him devise a plan to
kill himself using a combustion engine to poison himself with carbon monoxide gas. Michelle sent Conrad this text
message. I'm not going to sleep until you are in the car with a generator on. Your honor, this case is a suicide case.
It is not a homicide. But defense attorney Joseph Cataldo painted a very different picture. The evidence of the
texting is overwhelming that Conrad Roy was on this path to take his own life for years. Michelle Kata was not
present. Michelle Kata had been texting with him. She did not physically see this individual for over one year. The
defense brings up Conrad's acetaminophen overdose when he was 17 and claims he had been suicidal for years, in part
because of his parents' divorce and he had a contentious relationship with his father. And if the judge is considering
Michelle's text messages, he should look at all the messages between the teenagers. Even up to a month before
Conrad's death, Michelle seemed like a concerned friend, trying to help a socially awkward and emotionally fragile
Conrad. On June 19th, Michelle texts Conrad, "Are you 100% positive you're never going to commit suicide? Be honest
with me. Do you think about doing it?" "No, I'm not." In other messages, she talks about wanting to take him to a
therapist or a mental health hospital. But on July 1st, 11 days before his suicide, text between Michelle and
Conrad took a sinister turn. Prosecutors let the words tell the story. She talked
him out of his doubts point by point. She assured him that his family would understand why he did it. She researched
logistics. Michelle had been sending Conrad suggestions on how to kill himself for weeks. Hanging is painless
and takes like a second if you do it right. But what would drive anyone to send a text like that? Prosecutors say
Michelle was desperate for friends and attention. And she got it when she talked about her suicidal boyfriend.
Just days before he died, she sent texts to girls she wanted to be close with in
an effort to get their attention and sympathy. Lexi Elyn, please. Pretending Conrad was missing. Do you remember
getting a message about Conrad being missing? Yes, he's missing like they don't know where he is. Prosecutors say
Conrad still being alive presented a problem for Michelle. She could be exposed as a liar. So, it was important
he kill himself. On July 12th, the night he did take his life, Conrad drove to a Kmart parking
lot and texted Michelle, "Leaving now. Okay, you can do this. Okay, I'm almost there." That was the last text Conrad
ever sent to anyone. But there was also a 46-inute phone call. Michelle called him. She was
the last person to speak with him. After that call ended, Michelle texted her friend Samantha. I'm going to ask
you to read that text message, please, aloud. Sam, he just called me and there was a loud noise, like a motor, and I
heard moaning like some was in pain and he wouldn't answer when I said his name.
I stayed on the phone for like 20 minutes and that's all I heard. Then 27 minutes later, Michelle sent Samantha
another text message. I think he just killed himself. Prosecutors say Michelle within hours
began building a virtual alibi. Knowing that he was likely dead, she began acting like a concerned friend, sending
Conrad this text message. I'm scared. Are you okay? I love you. Please answer. Michelle showed little emotion
at the trial. Her defense relies on this psychiatrist, Peter Ban, to explain her
behavior, even though he was not treating Michelle at the time. He testifies that she was involuntarily
intoxicated by an anti-depressant drug she started taking 3 months earlier. Selea, she was imshed in a delusion
where she's thinking that it's a good thing to help him die. But prosecutors completely dismiss that theory. She does
not tell the Roy family about being on the phone with Conrad the night before, does she? His dead body is in a car 24
hours, and she withholds that information. Inexplicably, Michelle sent more than 80
texts to Conrad after he died. In some, she even apologizes for not saving him. But it wasn't just Conrad she texted.
The prosecution is hoping the judge pays particular attention to this text that she sent to her friend Samantha a week
after Conrad's body was discovered. They have to go through his phone and see if anyone encouraged him
to do it on texts and stuff. They read my messages with him. I'm done. His family will hate me and I could go to
jail. [Music] Her actions, your honor, on July 12th, 2014 caused the death of Conrad
Roy. They were reckless, and she knew it. According to the prosecution, Michelle Carter helped put Conrad Roy in
his grave. It was a felony and she caused serious bodily harm. According to the defense, she didn't know what she
was doing. Good morning. She was psychotic, delusional, involuntarily intoxicated from taking the
anti-depressant Selexa. Michelle Carta underwent an involuntary intoxication in June and July to prominent child and
adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Harold Coplowitz. That makes no sense at all. Though not a witness in this case, he
says those drugs called SSRI are remarkably safe. They don't make you delusional. They don't make you
psychotic. And they don't make you intoxicated. They don't make you drunk. Dr. Coplowitz believes the act of
texting was more mindaltering than any drug. And the problem with text is that it separates you. It makes you feel less
responsible. But no amount of distance can explain her behavior, especially the prosecution's contention that Michelle
ordered Conrad back into the truck, says the doctor. It's very hard to understand
where the man says to a friend, listen, I'm feeling pain. I don't want to do this. I'm going to get out of the car.
There there's no way to seem to make sense of the fact that someone then says a friend says get back in the car and
kill yourself. This really has a vicious and a very very malicious quality to it.
No matter how malicious, Dr. Copit says Michelle really couldn't have convinced Conrad to kill himself if he hadn't
already been suicidal. So while Michelle could not force Conrad to kill himself, she could enhance his
risk of killing himself. She could encourage him to complete the act because he was already on his way. And
simultaneously, she could have screamed out for help, which might have prevented
this deadly outcome. I want to recover from this, and I feel like I haven't recovered from it yet. I feel like I
still have a long way to go. Clearly, these heartbreaking videos now posted on YouTube show a young man looking for
that different outcome, says Dr. Coplowitz. You expose yourself like this. It says, "Please help me. I've
created a monster out of myself past few years because of my depression." Sadly, Conrad Roy is not alone.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we lose approximately 4600 young people between
the ages of 10 and 24 to suicide each year. One reason is that teenagers are simply more prone to depression. Another
reason, they're more susceptible to peer pressure. which is why the Netflix show
13 Reasons Why has caused such an uproar. In the show, a teenage girl dies by suicide and leaves 13 recordings to
other teens whom she blames. I think it's one of the most dangerous programs on the air right now for the simple
reason that it glamorizes suicide. Unfortunately, suicide's very contagious. We know that teenagers who
watch these kind of TV programs are more likely to think about suicide, are more
likely to attempt suicide, are more likely to commit suicide. It appears that Michelle Carter may have
been one of those teens influenced by what she saw on TV. Not 13 Reasons Why, but perhaps an episode of Glee. When an
actor on Glee died of an overdose in real life, the show wrote his death into the script. Listen to the similarities
between what the character Rachel says about the loss of her boyfriend and what Michelle later says about losing Conrad.
I had it all planned out and we would live happily ever after. It's a good plan.
[Music] Did you tell him? I didn't have to. He knew. Michelle's text to a friend after
Conrad's death is almost word for word. I had it all planned out. He knew, too. I didn't have to tell him. He was my
person. Michelle writes the exact same line. He was my person. Poor her. Her boyfriend died. They were going to get
married one day, and now she's the grieving girlfriend. According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it all
boiled down to that starring role as the grieving girlfriend. The Commonwealth's
position, your honor, is that she wanted attention. After six days of testimony, closing arguments begin.
The defense is up first. The evidence actually establishes that Conrad Roy caused his own death.
Joe Cataldo reminds the judge that Conrad had attempted suicide before and points to a text Conrad wrote to
Michelle. There's nothing anyone can do for me that's going to make me want to live.
It's very bad to hear, but I want to let you know that truthfully. The decision to die was Conrad's, not
Michelle's, says Cataldo. He created this situation, your honor. Most importantly, Michelle was nowhere near
Conrad when he killed himself. There's no evidence that Michelle Carter has any physical actions whatsoever in this case
with Conrad Royy's decision. It was all of his physical activity. But prosecutor
Katie Rburn gets the last word. Although she wasn't physically present, she was in his ear. She was in his mind.
She was on the phone and she was telling to him to get back in the car even though she knew he was going to die. She
absolutely knew it was wrong. And she absolutely caused the death of this 18-year-old boy. And I ask you to find
her guilty. [Music] Three days after Judge Monz began his deliberations, two families prepared
themselves for his verdict. Mr. Roy. For the Carter family, freedom is at stake.
For the Roy, it's about justice for their son. She instructs Mr. Roy to get back into
the truck. Well knowing of all of the feelings that he has exchanged with her, his ambiguities, his
fears, his concerns. The judge said Carter caused a dangerous environment. And under Massachusetts
law, she had a duty to save him. She called no one. She did not issue a simple additional instruction. Get out
of the truck. Miss Carter, please stand. This court, having reviewed the evidence and
applied the law there too, now finds you guilty on the indictment charging you with the involuntary manslaughter of the
person Conrad Roy III. Guilty. This court comes a verdict that is groundbreaking in terms of recognizing
the deadly power of words, but one that leaves no winners, just heartbreak. I know we all wish that he had the
opportunity to grow up into adulthood to become a tugboat captain and to enjoy his future.
Nearly seven weeks after being convicted, Michelle Carter, who is out on bail, arrives for sentencing.
Where hostile words greet her. She could face 20 years in prison. Please remain standing for one moment
while US one. First, Conrad's father and sister recall a life cut short. Not a day goes by with without him being
my first thought waking up and my last thought going to bed. Michelle Carter exploited my son's
weaknesses and used him as a pawn in her own well-being. She has not shown any remorse. Where was her humanity? The
prosecutor reads a statement from Conrad's mother, Lynn, who found it too difficult to speak. I do not know where
to begin. I pray that his death will save lives someday. Lynn wants to make it a crime to encourage suicide. I pray
that a law comes so forth so that another mother does not have to endure what I am. I do not believe that another
can go on to encourage someone to take their life and it can be okay. The prosecution asks that Carter serve 7 to
12 years behind bars. She has shown no remorse and in fact after Conrad's death she sought
attention and sympathy for herself. All she had to do was say get out of the car. Michelle Carter does not speak at
sentencing, but her attorney does and ask for probation. Miss Carter does regret what happened. She also sent a
letter to the probation department where she accepts uh responsibility. This is a
terrible, terrible tragedy and uh she very much regrets this and praise your honest judgment of leniency. Then
Michelle Carter learns her fate. Miss Carter, please stand. He sentences Michelle Carter to 15 months behind
bars. A sentence that does not please the defense who appealed the conviction. We're asking you, your honor, to stay
the jail sentence until we can have our day in court. The judge takes the request seriously, recognizing the
significance of this case. The conviction may be reversible, but the time spent in prison is not. and then
makes a stunning announcement that a grant of a stay through the Massachusetts court system
only is warranted. A stay meaning Michelle Carter would be out on probation, not in jail, while her appeal
made its way through the Massachusetts courts. It was a decision that disappointed Lyn Roy and her daughters.
We're just going to honor his life um and do it in the most best way we can. We want him to be proud of us. All
right. In February of 2019, Michelle Carter's conviction was upheld. Miss Carter will now be taken into custody
and she began serving her 15-month sentence. Her lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court. The court declined to
hear that appeal. In response, her lawyers issued the following statement. We are deeply disappointed that the
Supreme Court has decided not to review Michelle Carter's wrongful conviction. Lyn Royy's focus now is on
changing laws. What would you like there to be? What kind of law? I would love one in honor of him. Uh his name
Conrad's Law. There's people that love me. I have a great mom. My son mattered. He matters. Will always
matter. Someone that had a family and future and mom and dad. I will never get over him.
[Music] a beautiful ballerina. A troubled marriage, a deadly confrontation. She tells the neighbor, "I shot Doug in
self-defense." Was she genuinely afraid or just trying to get her way? Underneath those white feathers, she's
an evil woman. She's the black swan. 48 Hours, Saturday at 10:9 central on CBS.

“48 Hours" reports on cases that made headlines and inspired quests for the truth. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "The Gilgo Beach Serial Killings," "The Fenn Treasure" and "Death by Text."

00:00 The Gilgo Beach Serial Killings 41:50 The Fenn Treasure 1:23:51 Death by Text

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.

For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Brief Summary

The episode details the Gilgo Beach murders, Rex Huerman's arrest, and the victims' families' quest for justice.

Key points

The Discovery of the Gilgo 4. Investigators uncover the remains of four young women, leading to a chilling investigation.
Rex Herman Arrested. After more than a decade, Rex Herman is arrested and charged as a serial killer.
The Arrest of Rex Huerman. Rex Huerman was arrested after DNA evidence linked him to the murders of several women.
The Mystery of the Victims. Investigators are left questioning if there are more victims linked to Huerman.
Sasha Dent's Treasure Hunt. Sasha Dent shares her life-changing experience searching for Forest Fen's treasure.
Randy Bill's Tragic Search. Randy Bill went missing while searching for treasure, leading to a desperate search.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I love you.

Amber's last words to her friend before disappearing.

11:55WatchApr 26, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from 48 Hours

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.