Eventual Justice | 48 Hours Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[music] >> Do you remember the case of Crystal Champagne? Yes. I in my business, most of the time
you're doing autopsies on bad guys. But doing autopsies on children is something that
quite often will stay with you. My name is Fraser McKenzie. I'm a forensic pathologist. And in 1996, I was
doing autopsies for the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office. Crystal Champagne was a 14-year-old
loving, caring child that would help anybody. She loved sports. She loved animals.
And she wouldn't hurt anybody. Just somebody I miss very much. I am Dawn Champagne and I'm Crystal
Champagne's mother. Everything would seem like it was just a regular day going on. When I say she
left my house about 5:15 and went to the store. She went to go get her some noodles. She liked her
Chinese noodles. And that was the last time I seen her. I was asking people if they seen her
and I couldn't find her. I called the police. >> I need to get a cop to my house. My
14-year-old daughter's been missing for the last 2 and 1/2 hours and can't find her nowhere. She's been missing? Yes.
Okay, what's your daughter's name, ma'am? Crystal. C R Y S That's the hardest night of my life.
Champagne? [snorts] Uh-huh. Just standing up waiting for her to come knock at the door.
14-year-old white female had reported missing approximately 24 hours prior to her discovery.
Deputies found the Champagne's oldest daughter under the Huey P. Long Bridge last night. She was found unresponsive.
A ligature was found around her neck. Manner of death is considered to be homicide.
Authorities believe she may have also been sexually assaulted. Damon Thibodeaux was a 22-year-old
drifter who came to town recently as a cousin of the family. I got a job here as a deckhand. Thibodeaux was someone
the family trusted. Police were questioning Damon when news came of Crystal being found dead. By the end of
the questioning, Damon confessed [music] to the rape and murder of Crystal Champagne. Wrapped the wire around her
neck twice. Yes. You tell them you did do it. Yeah. You confess. Mhm. I was in shock.
>> [snorts] >> You don't just say that you murdered her. You say you raped her. >> Mhm.
It was surprising to hear that that he confessed to doing it. My name is Damon Thibodeaux.
Until someone is in the position that I was put in, they will never understand why someone confesses to a crime they
didn't commit. Like so many places along the banks of the Mississippi, Westwego, Louisiana,
attracts strangers in search of work on boats and barges. It is why 22-year-old Damon Thibodeaux,
who had come to town for a family wedding, stayed. He had been in town for only a month
when Crystal Champagne was killed. In these very high-profile cases, there's a great deal of pressure to get
the case solved and ease the worried mind of the public. Attorney Danny Leblanc remembers the day in July 1996
when Damon was arrested for murder. >> His picture was in the paper the next day. We got the guy that killed the
girl. The Champagne family had befriended Damon when he first arrived at the New
Orleans suburb. He was a distant cousin whom they barely knew, says Crystal's mother, Dawn. He just seemed to be an
ordinary person. Was he ever inappropriate with your daughter? Not that I ever noticed. I mean, did you
consider them as part of your family? Yeah. Damon was with the Champagnes on the hot
Friday afternoon when Crystal said she was going to walk to the store. Had she asked you for a ride?
>> Yes. And you said no? >> no. When she didn't return and her mother panicked and called police
>> What's your daughter's name, ma'am? Crystal. Damon joined family and friends in a search
all through the night. We checked the park where she plays softball at. We checked the shopping
center right around the neighborhood, you know, just looking for 24 hours after Crystal went missing,
police brought in Damon and others for questioning. He was still there when the case became a homicide.
This people come walked over here a minute ago and they found a little girl dead by the river.
Crystal's body was found by a family friend near the levee in Bridge City, about 5 miles from her home. It's now a
murder investigation. It's no longer missing persons. And the conversation, he says, got
rough. I was increasingly under the impression that I was not going to be able to leave.
Because they thought you had done it. Around 1:00 a.m., Damon agreed to take a polygraph. And what did they tell you?
Did you pass it? No, they said I failed it. That's the point where I realized I was
never going to walk out of there. Damon says he felt doomed as the grilling continued for another 3 hours.
>> They kept asking the same questions over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Finally, he says, he was too exhausted to take anymore. What did you tell them? Whatever they wanted to hear.
Damon told investigators that he had found Crystal at the store and drove her to the levee. When she resisted having
sex with him, he said he killed her. When you left, how was she laying? But you're confessing to a rape and
murder. They were not going to let me go until I did it. Hours later, when Damon met with an
attorney, he denied having anything to do with Crystal's death. But he had already been arrested and charged with
rape and murder. Help me out with this a little bit, Damon, because I can't imagine in my wildest dreams admitting
to a horrific crime, including giving some grizzly details, if I didn't do it? At first I thought so, too.
But after not sleeping, not eating, I'm thinking, well, okay, I'll give them what they want to hear,
and the evidence will come out, and it'll show I didn't do it, and people will see that.
In fact, almost nothing Damon said matched the evidence, says attorney Danny LeBoeuf. They could have known
within 24 hours that the confession was really stinky. That it almost couldn't be true.
At first glance, it did appear that Crystal had been raped. Her shorts and her underpants were down about her
knees. But when Dr. Fraser McKenzie conducted the autopsy, he found no sign of sexual assault.
>> She didn't have those kind of injuries. >> No. >> [music] >> Nor did he find any seminal fluid.
Damon also told investigators that he choked Crystal with his hands. Not likely, says Dr. McKenzie. There's
no kind of injury that would be associated with using your hands. >> Correct. Instead, the neck injury was caused by
red industrial wire. Police found its source hanging on a nearby tree. I had a wire or something.
They ask him, "Where'd you get the wire?" And he said, "From the trunk of my car." They say, "What color is the
wire?" And he said, "It was clear, like speaker wire." I've got black wires and gray wires. Black car,
also. And when the interrogator finally says, "Did you have any red wire?" Come on.
You wrapped the wire around her neck twice? Yes. We did believe that we had the right
guy. We did believe that it was a um a good case, and we believed that he was the the perpetrator. Paul Connick became
the Jefferson Parish District Attorney six months after the murder. >> It's hard to believe that anyone would
confess to such a terrible crime if they didn't commit it. When Damon Thibodeaux went on trial in
1997, he was confident that facts would show that he had falsely confessed. [music]
>> I'm thinking, well, this is all going to come out in the courtroom and this jury is going to see, well, this
guy didn't do this and that'll be the end of it. There was no physical evidence tying him
to the crime. >> They had 84 pieces of physical evidence in this case and not one
went back to Damon Thibodeaux. But a detective explained the lack of evidence of rape by suggesting that
insects had consumed all the fluids, a theory that he never discussed with the state pathologist.
>> You're actually laughing. Is it is his explanation laughable? In my opinion, but I'm knowledgeable.
For a jury, they're not knowledgeable. But could that have destroyed any evidence of sexual assault?
>> No. No. The jurors also heard from two women who claimed seeing someone who looked like
Damon on the levee the day of the murder. Damon did not take the stand, [music] so he did not explain why he admitted to
the crime before recanting. His incriminating words echoed in the courtroom. [music]
Everything you said do you swear is true to the best of your knowledge? Yes. What went through your [music] mind as
you're listening to these? Why couldn't I be a little stronger? What was it like seeing Damon in the
courtroom? It hurt. I just wanted to ask him why. Dawn Champagne was convinced that Damon
Thibodeaux killed her daughter. These are people you consider family and they think
you killed Krystal. What was that like? It was weird. I mean, what what what do you tell someone in a situation
like that? Jurors took just 1 hour to reach their verdict. You get the sinking feeling
that this isn't going to go right and then here it comes. What do you remember hearing? Guilty.
Guilty. Damon was convicted of the rape and murder of Krystal Champagne. I was glad because it meant that they
had who did it. His sentence, death by lethal injection. And then in October 1997,
Damon Thibodeaux was sent to Louisiana's notorious Angola prison. He began to despair.
You get to a point where you don't want to be in that cell anymore and that's the only way out.
Execution? >> That's the only way out of that cell. What made you change your mind then?
Denny. Denny, as in Denny LeBoeuf. She walks in one day. She said, "Look, I read your
case. She's an anti-death penalty attorney who fights to get inmates off of death row, no matter what they did to
get there. I mean, you make no bones about it. Most of your clients are guilty. >> Absolutely. And the work that I do, I
want to do on behalf of people who have tragically committed a homicide. That ain't Damon.
LeBoeuf was convinced that Damon Thibodeaux was innocent. She immediately appealed the verdict, but 2 years after
Damon stood trial, the State Supreme Court reaffirmed his conviction. A major victory for Jefferson Parish
District Attorney Paul Connick. Do you still feel it's a good verdict? >> Absolutely. We had the confession, we
had two witnesses who put him on the scene of the murder around the time of the murder.
Dannie LeBouef couldn't give up, but she was overwhelmed. She sought help and found it in a place 1,200 miles away, in
Minneapolis. And here's where the body was found. Down in here. Steve Kaplan was a partner
at Fredrikson & Byron, a well-heeled civil law firm that takes on a few select criminal cases pro bono.
>> As soon as I met him, it completely changed the stakes for me. It was not clinical. It was deeply personal.
It was in the look he gave me as he was saying goodbye that I remember. Will always remember.
His life is in your hands. >> Correct. How big a difference did it make when you got help from Minneapolis?
Everything. Right away, the attorneys took another look at the witnesses who said they saw
a man who looked like Damon on the levee. But they then said, "And you know, the police tape was around and the
police were here." Well, that was the night they found her, not the night she was killed. They also reached out to the
now retired state pathologist, Dr. Fraser McKenzie. When he testified at the trial, he didn't know the details of
the case. >> All I know was there was a confession. I have no knowledge whatsoever of what
is contained in that confession. None. And when you find out? Then I'm really upset. The confession does not match the
physical evidence. When you heard that he was convicted of rape, what did you think?
>> I was just aghast because at my examination, there was no evidence of a rape. McKenzie signed an affidavit for
the defense outlining the serious discrepancies he found in Damon's story. >> I want the truth to come out and and for
it to be known. What's more, McKenzie was able to help establish the time of Crystal's death
sometime before darkness fell at 7:50 p.m. about 2 and 1/2 hours after she left her home.
That's crucial because Damon Thibodeau was with Crystal's family for most of that time.
>> There was absolutely no time within which Damon could have possibly committed the crime.
The defense contends that Damon was only on his own for about a half hour to 45 minutes. I sat in the parking lot in my
car. And how long were you gone? Uh just long enough to smoke a joint. It's 10 minutes from the apartment to
the crime scene. Another 10 to come back. That's 20 minutes. And it would have left no time for him
to have done the murder, cleaned up, disposed of all the incriminating evidence, cleaned his car, and gotten
back to the Champagnes, presumably fully composed and ready to rejoin the search.
Was there anything about Damon that made him more likely to be manipulated? I think so.
He was only 22. He had never been through anything like this in his life. And his background made him even more
vulnerable, Kaplan says. I'm not asking any specifics, but you were abused as a child, weren't you?
Yeah. Yeah. Dropped out of school? Yes. Damon had a childhood that was very, very tough and that produced a guy who
would just rather walk away from a fight. After spending nearly a decade in the most hopeless place there is, by 2005,
Damon had dozens of legal professionals, all volunteers, >> [music] >> fighting to get his case heard and
overturned. I said, "Well, these people are going to fight to prove I didn't do this, I'm going to
fight with them." Also on his side, attorney Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project based in New
York. >> Well, this was a no-brainer for us. You could see that this confession was
quite problematic from the start. Scheck says that while 25% of the country's exonerated inmates had confessed to
crimes they didn't commit, the hard fact is no court is likely to release a man who admitted to such a brutal murder.
So, he came up with a novel and controversial idea. Instead of fighting lengthy court
battles that were iffy at best, why not take Damon's case directly to their adversary?
>> We believed that we could persuade the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office that they were dealing with an
innocent man. But, that would mean showing the D.A. everything they had. >> There's always the danger that all of a
sudden you'll come up with some horrible evidence of guilt. That can happen. If you don't get Damon out, he's going
to die. I have been in the death house at midnight when they kill my client and watch that and I know
how real it is. >> [music] >> 450 miles away from Angola prison in the rural town of Hanceville, Alabama,
a 14-year-old boy got a shocking letter from a death row inmate. I was like, "What
Who is this?" It was a birthday card from the father he had never known. I hope this card finds you well. You have
questions and I want to answer them. I want to know you, so please write. How did you sign your letter?
Damon. Not Dad. No, I didn't think I had earned the title Dad, you know, because I was never there.
Damon Thibodeaux was 17 when his son Josh was born. Damon lost contact with him when he broke up with Josh's mom.
I wanted to be part of his life, but I was just I was a stranger to him. I wrote him back and um
I pretty much asked him who he was. I wanted Josh to know that I wasn't a murderer. At that time, I didn't know if
he was guilty of it or not. After many letters over several years, Josh began to believe in his father.
I wanted to meet him. I wanted to meet my dad, and he didn't want me to do that.
Did I want to see him? Yes, very badly. But I wanted to be able to talk to him without having chains on my feet.
Hug him without having chains on my feet. But fighting a case post-conviction takes time, lots of time. So in May
2007, having already spent nearly 10 long years on death row, Damon agreed to allow Barry Scheck and
his other lawyers to show the district attorney all the evidence they had gathered. There was some skepticism.
>> [laughter] >> The [snorts] man is on death row. He's on death row. It's a horrible murder.
And surprisingly, Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick was willing to hear them out. He
came in along with his team. I had all of my chiefs in the room. The easy thing to do would be to rely on
the conviction. You know, this is going to be politically a hot potato here. Why
are we going to reopen this case? Let's just leave this lie and let the courts decide. I bet there are people in your
office who said that. >> They're thinking, "Hey, this is good conviction. Why Why are we going down
this road?" But certainly there was enough presented to me whereas I sat there, I'm thinking,
"I got to look at this." Connick was troubled enough by what he saw that he agreed to open an
investigation, not just working alongside the defense team, but also splitting costs. They would re-examine
the physical evidence. This was a bloody crime scene and a bloody struggle. There
would have to be some transfer of trace evidence on the person who committed this crime. So, let's take another look
at what was already tested using today's technology. This is a very scary thing.
The risk haunted Danny LeBouef, who feared Damon's DNA could have innocently ended up on Crystal.
They're going to test his clothing and his car for hairs. And she lived in the house where he slept on the sofa. She'd
ridden in his car. It would stop this case cold, I believe, if one little bit of forensic evidence
matched Damon. But there was little choice. So, every bit of the clothing that Damon
and Crystal had worn was scrutinized for any speck of telltale DNA. In all, the testing took another 2
years. Was any DNA from Damon Thibodeaux found on any of the evidence? >> No. No. Was anything from Crystal found on
anything belonging to Damon Thibodeaux? >> No. Was there anything that connected Damon
Thibodeaux to the to the crime scene? >> No. I was expecting those results. But you
had to be thrilled. >> Oh, yeah, definitely I was thrilled. Cuz now I have something tangible to
stick in front of the DA and say, "Look, you got the wrong guy." But Konic saw other problems with the
case, like the defense claim that Damon didn't have enough time to kill Crystal.
Was that true? It all hinged on Crystal's mother, Dawn. She first told police Damon was back at
her home when she called 911. Our 14-year-old daughter said that she was there 2 and 1/2 hours. But later at
trial, she said he wasn't. When we questioned her about her trial testimony, she went back and forth and
finally said, "Whatever I told the police is my best recollection." If that's right and Damon was with the
family by then, it was virtually impossible for him to have driven Crystal to Bridge City.
Yet, since he confessed so soon after Crystal's body was found, the police never looked into who else might have
taken her there. There was never a wide-ranging investigation as there should have been after a homicide.
LeBoeuf says there were plenty of people to question, like the friend who said he
spoke with Crystal on the phone just hours before she disappeared, or the relative with an arrest record
for violent crimes who lived close to where her body was found. And Crystal did have friends in Bridge
City, including one now serving life for aggravated rape of a juvenile. I can't tell you if any one of those men did the
murder or or knows anything about the murder. I can't tell you sitting here. What I can tell you is that any decent
investigation would have asked them. And what about that family friend who found Crystal's body hidden deeply in
the brush along Mississippi River? People walked over here a minute ago and they found a little girl dead by the
river. Just how did he manage to do that? What made you go look that one other spot?
Because of the dream. That's all I can say. Because of the dream. You have to look at the case and say,
let's start with the oddities, the things that really don't add up. And what really doesn't add up, says private
eye Jen Victory, is how and where 14-year-old Crystal Champagne was found. This is the Huey P. Long Bridge and at
the foot of the bridge here comes into a community called Bridge City. Victory, who was part of Damon
Thibodeaux's post-conviction defense team, is a CBS News consultant. When we walk down and we see where she was
found. Crystal's body was discovered deep in the brush around 5 miles from where the teenager had disappeared alone
on foot. >> Everybody in the entire police department is looking for her in Westwego, which is 50 minutes away.
So how did this man, John Tomlinson, happen to find her in the very first place he looked. It's something about
me. See, there's weird things that people don't understand about me. I can have a
dream and it'll actually come true. And it scares me. A dream, Tomlinson said, now claims led
him to the body. Although back in 1996, he told police it was his intuition. What did you actually dream?
All I in my dream was remembered just staring up and being standing right underneath the Huey P. Long Bridge.
We tracked down Tomlinson to Ball, Louisiana, where he was working as an auto mechanic.
Back in 1996, he was a 30-year-old tugboat deckhand living in the same Westwego apartment
complex as Crystal's family. It I It haunts me every day that I found her body. It kills me every day.
>> [snorts] >> What do you mean, Tommy? She's a good kid. She didn't deserve it.
She had a lot of life to go. Tomlinson had been dating a close friend of Crystal's mom, Stacy Melanson.
Crystal often babysat for Stacy and was at her home just hours before she disappeared.
Tomlinson insists he was on a tugboat asleep when Stacy called to tell him that Crystal was missing. I I
never really run my mind that she would run away. You know what I mean? She was too good of a kid. She was too happy.
The next evening, he says, Stacy picked him up at the dock and they handed out flyers in the neighboring Bridge City,
even though they were far from Crystal's home. At a convenience store, he says, a woman
told them she had seen a girl who looked like Crystal walking alone on the levee
about a mile from the bridge. So, I said, "Okay, Stacy, let's go take a little trip."
But, Tomlinson didn't search the area where Crystal was reportedly seen. Instead, he drove on for about a mile,
stopped the car, and told Stacy to stay behind. That dream is what drove me there.
Then, without hesitation, he says, he followed a path into the woods. Well, there's a little trail here, you know.
And I walked in and God love, there she was. Where was she? Dead under the Huey P.
Long Bridge. When I looked up, I was looking at the same thing that I was looking at in my
dream that I when I was standing on the tugboat. I mean, how did you know that that's
where you would find Crystal's body? A hunch. Just a hunch. Based on the dream, just a
hunch. That story obviously didn't go down well with investigators who took Tomlinson in
for questioning. I walked in about 10 ft and found the body. What made you go there?
Intuition. I went through 9 and 1/2 hours of intense interrogation. It was the same thing over and over and
over. I really felt like they were trying to make me say that I did it. That is, until Damon Thibodeaux, going
through his own interrogation down the hall, told police that he did it. Police then lost interest in Tomlinson,
especially since his alibi, >> [music] >> claiming that he was on a tugboat that
was far downriver on the night Crystal was killed, appeared to be backed up by the boat's logs. I proved while I was on
that boat that there's no way that I could do it. But how airtight was that alibi?
Today, Tomlinson concedes that crew members covered for each other all the time. Now, at the time though, you told
him it was impossible to get off the boat. >> Well, sure, you know, I mean, no, it's
not. It never is, you know. But I always let my boss know when I was getting off
that boat. But you could get off and nobody would have to know. Sure. And you could get right back on. Sure.
You can get off and get right back on. It's no problem. You know, and I mean, it's a boat.
But some nights you would sneak off there and go see Stacy when you were Sure. >> supposed to be sleeping in the bed. And
I was sleeping at home. You didn't meet up with Stacy on that Friday night. No. What's [music] more troubling is that
Tomlinson was convicted of a sex offense two years before Crystal disappeared. His crime? Indecent behavior with a
juvenile. Here's how he explains it. I had pick up a 14-year-old girl, thought she was 18
at least, at a bar. And got in trouble for it. Paid my dues and done my time. And you
never were inappropriate with Crystal? Never. That's the wrong thing, you know, I was raised the right way.
You never try to hurt a child. Crystal was also 14. But Tomlinson denies having anything to do with her
murder. You had nothing to do with her death. On my mother's soul, I never touched her.
He blames the crime on the man who once said he did it, Damon Thibodeaux. He admitted to what he did wrong. He should
be punished. That confession is, no doubt, the biggest obstacle [music] to Damon's
freedom. Especially for the man who agreed to take a new look at the case, District Attorney Paul Connick. After
all is said and done, you still had this thing like, why would somebody confess?
>> Why? I'm not going to take the boilerplate explanation for false confessions.
Connick was skeptical that the interrogation tactics were to blame. So, we turned to this man, I don't believe
there exists evidence of any false confession in which a person confessed falsely to murder because he didn't get
a meal. Dr. Michael Welner, a tough forensic psychiatrist who often sides with the police.
>> I needed to know, can I rely on this confession? Cuz that's all I have. False
confessions are extremely rare. I trust him. I trust him. I really do. Dr. Welner insisted on talking to Damon
Thibodeaux by himself, no lawyer present. >> Yes. That had to drive the defense crazy. And
we knew it. With his life riding on this interview, Damon Thibodeaux agreed to meet with Dr.
Welner alone. I was afraid that he would paint Damon as a different person than he is.
Was Damon the person you were expecting to meet? [music] From the background that was presented
to me, I anticipated meeting somebody who would have been crushed, crumpled, and spit out. And the person that I met
was composed, self-possessed. [music] I was shocked. What was going through my mind is did we
make a big mistake? But everything you said to me was true. Yes. Was Damon Thibodeaux coerced by the
police >> [music] >> into giving a false confession? In my professional opinion, he was not.
Forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner does not believe that Damon was forced into confessing.
But he does believe that if Thibodeau had committed the crime, there would [music] be some physical evidence. It
was a bloody event. It was a physical event that required restraint, that required contact. Still, Wellner says
that Damon did blame himself, believing that if he had given Crystal a ride to the store on that fateful afternoon, she
might still be alive. Had she asked you for a ride? >> Yes. >> [sighs] >> And you said no?
>> I said no. On top of that guilt was Damon's failed polygraph. To some people,
failing a polygraph is powerful evidence. You might be better off confessing. What's more, he says,
"Guilty suspects try to minimize their involvement in crimes. Damon was admitting to a rape that
didn't happen." As you sit here today, do you believe that Damon Thibodeau falsely confess? I do.
There are many things about this case that I can't answer, but one thing that I can say is that I believe this to be a
false confession. And now, so does the man who once put Damon Thibodeau on death row. We relied
too much on the confession in the beginning. You know, we should have gone further.
Five [music] years after that first meeting with Damon's team, District Attorney Paul Connick makes an
extraordinary decision. He will not fight Damon's bid for freedom. There's no way I can keep this
man in jail. There's no way. The defense and Connick file a joint motion in court.
That same day, a judge orders the conviction vacated, adding in a handwritten note that Damon should be
immediately released. In September 2012, 16 years after Damon's arrest, his legal
team gathers anxiously at the gates of Angola. Danny, have you ever come here then and watch someone walk out of here?
Is this the first time? >> This is the first time ever that you've ever watched someone walk out alive out
of Angola. >> It is. First time. Good luck. I hope I never see y'all again. >> [laughter]
>> Don't take it the wrong way. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God bless. How does it feel to finally be free?
It's good. Good. Seems like you're overwhelmed. No words. Yes, I am in the car driving away from
the gate. Starting to feel free. 5 hours later to say free. Damon is in New Orleans.
>> Yeah. Reunited with his family. His son Josh finally gets to meet his father in
person. When you first saw him and you realized that was your son, what were you feeling?
Relief. I finally got to meet him. It's indescribable. Well, I love the water. Oh, yeah, it's great. They spent 3 days
trying to catch up on all the lost years. And what did the two of you do today? We We walked. We talked.
We got to know each other a little better. The grounds on death row are kept like a mansion's grounds.
So, what do you think of your son? I'm proud. I mean, he's he's a great guy. He's a
good man. You know, and I'm glad that I'm alive to see it. I think one of the great things of this
is the opportunity now for father and son to to have a a real relationship with each other. That's just
unbelievably special. You got it all? Got it all. Attorney Steve Kaplan's commitment to Damon isn't over yet.
Damon is moving in with him until he gets settled. >> We're we're coming up on Huey Long
Bridge and And so, they embark on the 1,200 mile journey to Minneapolis. >> We're headed north.
And I get to sit in the front seat. There you go. No chains. No chains. No No, I'm not in
the back seat and I don't have bars on the windows. I'm shaking the chains off. And I'm starting over.
This is a man that your office convicted? >> Right. Put on death row? >> Right. And then
15 years later to turn around and say, "I've got to let him go." Wasn't that a very tough decision? The process was
tough. But in the end, it's what should have been done. In my heart, I knew what I
did was the right decision. And the fact that so much time now has passed to start taking a new look at this case,
isn't it going to make it very difficult to find the real killer? It is. Again, what's the alternative? We can't
We can't stop. That's what we do. It's our job. The murder of Crystal Champagne is now an open case. So,
Connick cannot talk about specifics, but the state is actively reinvestigating. That's sure to mean taking a fresh look
at several people, including John Tomlinson. Don Champagne can only [music] hope that
the renewed investigation will pay off. >> There's a lot of things I don't understand.
A lot of things I don't know. All she wants is justice for her daughter, who [music] went out to a
store and never made it home. Because whoever did it, they walk in free and she didn't have a chance to
live. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama.
>> [music] [music] >> You fell in love with a guitar playing [music] gentle soul. What I thought was, yeah.
Jim was intelligent and he could provoke my thoughts [music] and and make me think beyond superficial things.
Jim Huden and her were a whirlwind for sure. He was very [music] charismatic and she was very charismatic and I think
the two of them together were everything she probably wanted at the time. I've known Peggy Sue for 15-20 years. She was
my best friend, my confidant. She was sexy, she was stunning and was a beauty queen. Miss Washington, [music] Peggy
Thomas. Yeah! Jim led two lives. I only [music] knew of the one he led with me. I fell in love with the wrong man.
>> [music] >> It's dark, secluded, dead-end road, not a lot of traffic. It's a good spot for a murder.
My name is Mark Plumber, the lead investigator in the Russell Douglas homicide investigation.
The car was in a dark driveway, door open, Russell was inside the vehicle. [music]
Jim Huten is the one that met him and was able to put a gun right between his eyes and shoot him once in the head.
>> [music] >> I could not believe that someone I loved and allowed into my house could [music] kill someone.
I'm convinced she is involved. I believe that her and Jim were on this fairy-tale roller-coaster romance and it
was all drinking and drugs and alcohol. And I think [music] that they thought that they were going to get something.
I have no reason to want anybody dead. I believe she knows a lot more than she has told us. I am telling the
truth. I have no reason to lie. >> [music] >> It is all so bizarre. It's something
that you see in the movies, something that some writer dreamt up. There's nothing about this other than
just a cold-blooded killing. >> [music] >> Believe none of what you hear and half
of what you see. I'm Peter Van Sant. Tonight on 48 Hours, Dangerous Beauty. >> [music]
>> This is Whidbey Island, where I grew up from birth until I was 8 years old. Go
get it. The hard memories outweigh the good memories because I'm accused of a crime I didn't commit.
Though she didn't pull the trigger, investigators are convinced Peggy Sue Thomas helped set the stage for Russell
Douglas's murder on the island she knew so well. How does a former beauty queen end up at
the heart of a murder case? I don't even know how to answer. I don't know how I ended up here.
But before she was a murder suspect, 48-year-old Peggy Sue Thomas had already lived a full life. Next, we welcome
[music] Peggy Thomas. Sure, she's a former beauty queen, but Peggy wasn't born with a pageant sash
across her chest. I'm all about proving myself in a man's world. Peggy was a trailblazer. In the Navy, a
very different-looking Peggy served as an aircraft mechanic during Operation Desert Storm. Do you see yourself as a
patriot? I'm very patriotic, yes. Along the way, Peggy married and divorced three times, raising two
beautiful daughters, Taylor and Mariah. My kids are my proudest accomplishment. But in the late '90s, with her second
marriage on the rocks, Peggy physically transformed herself from this to this. It was amazing. She started working out
and the weight just fell off. Vicki Boyer was once Peggy's good friend. To me, I was like, you go, girl. And then
someone had approached her about maybe being Mrs. Washington. And I was down and little heartbroken and she said,
"Do something crazy." So, I did. Contestant number two, Peggy Thomas. I ended up winning. They have
chosen as Mrs. Washington International Pageant Physical Fitness Award winner, Peggy Thomas.
>> [music] [applause] >> I'd rather wear jeans and boots and jump on a Harley than be a beauty queen.
It's kind of nice to look back when times were more normal. In her home, however, Peggy's pageant memorabilia
holds a special place of honor. I think it meant everything to her. Everything she needed came from that pageant.
By 2003, Peggy Sue was living in Las Vegas, where she worked as a glamorous limousine driver to high rollers. I
spoiled my clients and my tips were often in the thousands for one night. It was probably my
all-time favorite job ever. To understand how this beauty queen made yet another transformation
to murder suspect, you have to go back to a cold, dark night on Whidbey Island in December 2003.
Tonight, Island County detectives have a murder mystery on their hands. They're looking for the person or persons
responsible for the shooting death of 32-year-old Russell Douglas. >> We're in front of the the driveway where
Russell Douglas was discovered. About 30 yards in is a >> Right down here. Right. Detective Mark
Plumberg of the Island County Sheriff's Department was called to the scene that night. It was a
massively traumatic wound. Russell was the estranged husband of Brenna Douglas, one of Peggy Sue
Thomas's good friends. After we had confirmed the identity of the man in the vehicle as being Russell Douglas, we
decided to go and speak with the wife, Brenna Douglas. [snorts] It was after 10:00 p.m., pitch black,
when Plumberg and a colleague came calling. Came out and crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe
and said, "May I help you?" She didn't say, "What's happened? Why are you here?"
It's It was suspicious behavior, especially after they told Brenna that her husband had been murdered. Almost no
reaction. I would expect at least a slew of questions. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. And did
Brenna ask those questions? >> Not one. And Brenna had even bad-mouthed her dead
husband. She mentioned that he had had some affairs. She mentioned that he could be
uh emotionally abusive. She alluded to some physical abuse. Brenna said their marriage was in
trouble. They had separated, but Russ was staying with her and their two children over Christmas. We know from
experience that the spouse in a murder is often uh the perpetrator. Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks. There was
no one else that the police could find that had a reason uh to murder Russ and Brenna was the prime suspect. Just
weeks into the investigation, cops discovered a possible motive. Money. Brenna, who owned a hair salon, was in
debt and with Russell's death, she would receive a six-figure payout. There were
at least two life insurance policies and that money, 400,000, we've heard 500, that would have cleaned the decks for
Brenna. You would think so, yeah. Brenna was not arrested. Investigators couldn't link her to the
shooting. Detective Plumberg then checked Russell's phone records and discovered
calls from a Las Vegas number. They came from Peggy Sue Thomas. She had called Russ several times in the days
leading up to his murder. Those phone calls were on the 23rd of December in which
we were playing phone tag. Peggy explained to cops she was back on Whidbey Island for the holidays. She was
calling Russ to give him a Christmas present for her friend Brenna. She was very open, answered all my questions.
Nothing about her reaction made me second-guess anything. For the next 7 months, the case consumed
Detective Plumberg. Not one person could tell me a bad thing about Russell Douglas.
Certainly not anything that would make me think that's why somebody wanted him dead. But
a mysterious caller was about to unlock all the secrets of this murder. A world away from Whidbey Island,
Washington, it's happy hour in a small town on the west coast of Florida. Someone on this stage is Detective Mark
Plumberg's mysterious caller. When the informant called, he told us that he played in a band called Buck Naked and
the Exhibitionists. After Googling the band's name, Detective Plumberg zeroed in on this man, the bass player. His
name was Bill Hill. Lived in Florida in a town called Punta Gorda. Hill said a band member, the lead guitarist Jim
Huden, had confided in him during a late-night drive to a gig just 1 month after the murder of Russell Douglas. He
needed to tell me something. I [snorts] said, "Okay." I didn't know if he was going to tell me he was gay or
something. Instead, Jim Huden told Bill he'd been abused by his stepfather as a child.
>> Yeah, I could sense that it was something that was really deep. What Huden said next was bizarre, that
he wanted to seek revenge for his stepfather's abuse by killing another abuser. He says, "So, I started looking
for somebody that met that MO." Jim Huden thought he'd found that abuser, Hill said, in Russell Douglas.
He says, "I shot him." I said, "What?" He says, "Yeah, got a gun and shot him in the head."
Yeah, my brother's getting crazy. Hill agonized over that secret, waiting [music] 6 months before he made the call
to turn in his good friend, Jim Huden. Jim Huden, what do you know about this guy?
We knew nothing. Hill said that Huden began naming his accomplices. The first, his own
girlfriend, Peggy Sue Thomas. It was a huge break in the case. Peggy Thomas, the woman I had spoken to, works in Las
Vegas as a limousine driver. And I said, "Well, so far I can confirm his story. Let's go from here."
Hill then revealed the name of the second accomplice, Brenna Douglas, the victim's wife. Bill
Hill felt that the widow had knowledge, though not necessarily any active part. Meanwhile, Plumberg was learning more
about the relationship between Jim and Peggy. They'd had a long history together, both
growing up on Whidbey Island. I had a childhood crush on him. But in the early 2000s, Peggy had moved
on, eventually settling in Las Vegas. Jim and Peggy lived separate lives until June of 2002, when she reconnected with
Jim at a funeral on Whidbey Island. Jim and I spoke, connected on this level of losing someone we both loved. Things
got hot and heavy right away. He had really strong feelings for her. But there was a little problem. Jim
Huden was married and living in Punta Gorda, Florida, with his wife, Jean. At the time this was going on, did you
have any idea? Not at the beginning. I was so in love with him and and so clueless. The man she loved was a
successful software developer. Jim had even sold a program to Microsoft. When he sold this to Microsoft, he made
several million dollars. >> Uh yes, or or close to a million, but he did very well for himself. While Jean
ran their business, Jim focused more on his band. You're married to a rock star now. Yes, or want-to-be rock star. But
Jean says she started to notice a troubling change in her husband after that funeral.
He was just never the same. He started to get very depressed and dark and started drinking heavily and doing drugs
and it just wasn't Jim anymore. But Jim was finding comfort in his long-distance
relationship with Peggy. Were you in love with Jim? I was. What'd you love about him?
His mind, believe it or not. So that's when the the double life began. Las Vegas became Jim Hewden's home away from
home. He'd lie to Jean, telling her he was coming here looking for gigs when he was really meeting Peggy. The beauty
queen was now making a good living driving that limo. You're having an affair with a married man? Yep. Are you
a bit of a femme fatale? No. Are you trouble, Peggy? Far from it. Actually. Among the friends who visited
Peggy and Jim in Las Vegas Brenna Douglas, who partied with them just 3 months before her husband was
murdered on Whidbey Island. Did Brenna ever say to you, you know, "I wish he was dead"?
Not No, not that. You paused though. Did she say something close to that? At one
time she did say something. "She's worth more to me dead than alive." That's a bit ominous.
It was Brenna spoke, I guess, to a lot of people about hers and Russ's marriage. As Peggy and Jim's fling
progressed, she began flying to Florida. Reading Jim's emails, Jean discovered the affair and confronted him. Jim swore
it was all over. Then in April 2003, there was a knock at Jean's front door. I open the door and there's Peggy on my
doorstep. You, the mistress, wants to get together with the wife to confront the husband. Yeah, cuz he was lying to
both of us and we were both believing him. What'd he say? Said he loved two women. And I told him
to make a choice. I was like, you need to decide who you want to be with. He said he wanted to be with me. And
>> And how did Peggy react? >> Oh, she was furious. But Peggy's anger didn't last long. The two lovers
couldn't stay away from each other. And in December 2003, Jim told his wife he was going to spend the holidays with his
family back on Whidbey Island. But it was just another chance for a romantic rendezvous with Peggy. I don't think of
myself as a stupid person, but when it came to Jim Houden, I was a complete On the morning of December 26th, the day
Russell Douglas was murdered, Peggy and Jim were at a house on Whidbey Island. He said he wanted to go [music] out and
get some cigarettes. What time of day was this? Late morning. Between 10:00 and 11:00.
Just around the time investigators believe Russell Douglas was murdered. Tell me about the Jim that comes back
into the house. What do you see? The Jim I always saw. Did he have a handgun with him?
>> I did not see a gun. No tears, no strange behavior, no sweat coming out of his forehead? Not that Not that I
remember, no. And you're telling me the truth, right? I'm absolutely telling you the truth.
But Plumberg had an entirely different take. You believe in one way or another Peggy Sue Thomas was involved in this
plan to murder Russell Douglas. Absolutely. >> [music] >> His theory, Peggy lured Russell to that
secluded area on Whidbey Island to exchange a gift for Breanna. It was here that Jim Houden lay in wait
with a gun. Did you encourage Jim to murder Russ? Absolutely not. >> Did you Did you tell him, "Look, he's
he's a child abuser." >> No. You did not participate in any way conspire to kill him? I swear on the love for my
children. I swear on my life. >> [music] >> By August 4th, 2004, detective Mark Plumberg had traveled to Punta Gorda,
Florida to confront the man he believed murdered [music] Russell Douglas. I looked him in the face and I said,
"Mr. Huden, I know you're the man that pulled the trigger and killed Russell Douglas."
Later that afternoon, Jim agreed to be questioned at the local police department, where he denied shooting
Russell. I'm a son of a but I I'm no killer, but I'm a son of a It's quite a frightening experience.
What is it that you're scared of? That you guys are reaching here or here. At the same time, cops had just raided
Peggy Sue Thomas's home in Las Vegas. I had at least three police officers with guns to my head.
Telling me to freeze, freeze, freeze, and they take my car keys and put me in handcuffs, shove me in a dark laundry
room. Peggy says her house was ransacked with police taking computers, photographs, beauty pageant videos, but
leaving her Miss Washington sash behind. They then proceeded to grill her about the death of Russell Douglas. Detective
Wallace said, "If you don't start confessing now, we'll make sure that you get the death penalty and your
kids are going to watch you die." How did it come your lover, Jim Hutton, shot Russ Douglas in the head unless you
put him up to it? Well, I thought he didn't know him. I don't believe I could have said or did say
anything to him to make him go psycho like he did. Investigators had a strong circumstantial case against Peggy
and Jim. Remember those insurance >> policies? I believe there was over 500,000 in insurance premiums. Jim told
Bill Hill how the money would be divided. Peggy was supposed to get a certain amount and Jim was supposed to
get 50,000 for pulling the trigger. Absolutely not true. Money's not that important to me. Did Brenna,
Russell Douglas's wife, did she know that her husband was about to be assassinated?
According to Jim, the answer would be yes. You know what you told Bill. He's your best friend in the whole world. Who
you told that you killed this guy on Whidbey Island. That's not true. Detective Plumberg
presses Jim [music] to see if he'll now implicate Peggy Sue Thomas or the victim's wife, Brenna
Douglas. I think the plot for this didn't come from you. I don't think the scheme for this came
from you. Investigators have Jim right where they want him, but he shuts down. You got played, Jim.
It's time to uh It's attorney time. With no hard evidence against them, both Jim and Peggy were free to go. At that
point, they had nothing to hold him on. They had no warrant, no indictment, so they brought him home.
Jim had told his wife everything about the murder, including that Peggy and Brenna were involved, but Jean refused
to betray the man she loved. I thought maybe some warped way that this would bring us
closer together, you know, if we shared this horrible secret that Brenna and Peggy and he had planned to kill Russell
Douglas. Jean says after his interrogation, Jim became frantic. At that point, he is
just tripping out cuz he knows it's only a matter of time. Also tripping out was
Bill Hill, who couldn't believe investigators had told Jim that he was the informant. I felt
totally afraid. I slept on the couch with 357 underneath my pillow. In an effort to generate new leads in
the case, Island County investigators went to the media. Eight months of investigation have now led officials to
two persons of interest. And announced that Jim Huden and Peggy Sue Thomas were their prime suspects.
They were hoping a tip might lead them to the gun used to murder Russell Douglas. I assumed the murder weapon
would be at the bottom of Puget Sound. And we would never see it again. But luck was on Plumberg's side when he
received an unbelievable tip. We got a phone call from an investigator in New Mexico who said
he had talked to someone who thinks they might have the murder weapon in the Russell Douglas homicide.
It was this .380 Bersa. A friend of Jim Huden's told police Jim gave it to him at Peggy's house in Vegas.
>> And I took it immediately to our state laboratory who was within hours able to confirm
this fired that shell casing and it fired the bullet that we pulled from Russell's head. It was almost too good
to be true. With this new evidence, Island County investigators flew to Vegas. Can I see
your name, please? Peggy Thomas. Where Peggy agreed to answer their new questions. They showed
me a picture of a gun and asked if I'd ever seen it. So, prior to February, you never saw
Jim in possession of a gun like that? No. And I said, "No." They said, "Well, it's the murder weapon and we've matched
it with the ballistics." After the interview, Peggy called Jim to confront him. And I said, "The police told me
they have a murder weapon. What's going on?" And he said, "I did it. I killed Russ."
And he said, "I'm sorry I got you involved. Just know that I love you and you'll
never see me again." And he hung up the phone. Peggy claims she was in shock from Jim's confession. I broke.
I broke. I could not believe that someone I loved and allowed into my house could kill someone.
I was hysterical that day. Jean Houden says Jim became unstable, threatening to commit suicide, but she
had a better idea. I was like, "Run, do something, you know, give it a chance. It's not over yet."
Right. Jim caught a lucky break when Hurricane Charley hit the west coast of Florida.
The murder suspect was now gone with the wind. August 2004. In the chaos following Hurricane
Charley, Jim Houden blew out of town. Jim disappeared. He just falls off the face of the earth. He just disappears.
While investigators here on Whidbey Island were left scratching their heads, wondering where Jim Huden had gone,
little did they know that he was more than 2,000 mi away here in Veracruz, Mexico.
>> [music] >> Jim loved this place. He would come and sit here for hours, drink beer, look at
the people go by, listen to the music. Jorge Mabarac was a close friend of Jim Huden in Veracruz,
but he knew him by a different name. Jim Martin. Everybody knew him as Jim Martin.
>> [music] >> Jorge is a famous jazz pianist [music] in Mexico. He often played on stage with Jim.
He had emotional insight on people. Everybody liked him. He likes everybody. Never had any problem.
He was a blues player. Definitely he was a blues man. >> [music] >> Jorge remembers this concert in Veracruz
where Jim was one of the featured performers. Jorge, a CBS News consultant, says this
fugitive from justice had a soft side. If you look at the videos of him, he looks really mean on the stage, [music]
but he was not. He was a very soft guy, very tender, very understanding, and there was never any any sign of violence
or any attitude an aggressive attitude, never. But Jim wasn't comfortable talking about
his past. He told me, "There are things about me that I'm not going to tell you,
so don't ask." While reporting this story, 48 Hours learned about one of Huden's old
hangouts, and we got a tip he may have left behind some belongings. >> These two cabinets. An old friend of
Huden's gave us permission to look. This hasn't been opened in more than 2 years.
Let's see what's inside. This one's empty. There's nothing. But, we did find something else.
Jim Huden's birth certificate from the state of Washington. This is Jim Huden's Florida driver's license. This is his
border crossing paperwork, September 10th, 2004. This is when Jim Huden first began his life on the run in Mexico.
And it turns out Huden had help getting to Mexico and staying out of sight for more than 6 years.
>> I got Jim out of the country. I supported him for years. I went to Mexico to see him. Jean Huden admits she
lied to investigators about Jim's whereabouts for years. It was definitely the wrong thing to do.
Meanwhile, the other woman in Jim's life, Peggy Sue Thomas, continued to drive limos in Las Vegas.
Despite being a murder suspect, she hit the jackpot when she met this man in 2007.
First time I met Peggy was through a limo service. They asked, "Would you want a guy or the ex-Mrs. Washington?"
I said, "Well, we'll take the ex-Mrs. Washington." >> Mark Allen is a multi-millionaire oil
man and thoroughbred horse owner. And this one was the winner of the 2009 Kentucky
Derby. SPECTACULAR UPSET! MINE THAT BIRD HAS WON THE KENTUCKY DERBY. AN IMPOSSIBLE RESULT HERE.
>> HONESTLY, did you marry him for his money? I married Mark cuz I loved him deeply.
Mark was madly in love with Peggy. Head over heels. And Peggy he madly in love with his bank account. Head over heels.
Vicki Boyer worked with Peggy and Mark on their ranch in New Mexico. He was a good man and he
did everything she asked him to. Vicki had always believed in Peggy's innocence in the murder of Russell.
That is until [music] one night in a bar, a drunken Peggy allegedly joked about taking care of a problem for a
friend and mentioned that she could use her gun. And she looked at me and she said, "Well, at least this time I'll
know to throw it in the water." I went home and I literally just fell apart. I mean, I just like I just started
shaking. I was crying. Peggy has denied that conversation ever took place, but for Vicki, the episode
led to a startling realization. >> That she did it. That her and Jim did this. The murder of Russell Douglas.
>> Yes. I mean, I was sure of it. And Vicki wasn't the only person having problems
with Peggy. Yeah, it started out good and uh the more controlling she got, the uh
less responsive I got, you know, I I won't be controlled not by anybody. After just 7 months of marriage, Mark
was separated from both Peggy >> [music] >> and a sizable chunk of change. You did get $700,000 and a houseboat.
Yes, I did. But I can tell you if I was the true definition of a gold digger, we had a pre-nup
and it entitled me to way more than $700,000 and a boat. Meanwhile, back in Florida, Jeannie
Hudon's life had fallen apart by 2011. She'd become [music] a drug addict, arrested multiple times on charges
ranging from possession to forgery to theft. It got to a point where I couldn't do it anymore. I'm tired of
paying for Jim's mistake. Facing serious jail time for multiple felonies, Gene decided to cooperate with investigators.
I had to finally tell them where he was. And that's when [music] investigators got the break they needed. Jim Huden was
arrested in Vera Cruz, [music] Mexico and returned to Whidbey Island nearly 8 years after Russell Douglas was
murdered. One month later, authorities came for Peggy Sue Thomas. When the detective
came up, he said, "You're in some pretty big trouble." And what was that moment like
for you? Scary. My life became a tabloid story with headlines about [music] Drop Dead
Gorgeous. I knew I had a battle on my hands. Ms. Washington, Peggy Thomas. From a beauty queen strut
Peggy Sue Thomas looked away from the cameras as she was led into court this afternoon in shackles. To a perp walk at
the Island County [music] Courthouse on Whidbey Island, Washington. In the summer of 2011, Peggy Sue Thomas
is formally charged with the murder of Russell Douglas. These accusations that I'm involved in
this crime have been a lie since the beginning. First up for trial is Peggy's former
lover and alleged trigger man, Jim Huden. Prosecutor Greg Banks says there may have been several motives for
murder, insurance money, or that Huden was out to avenge the abuse he claims he was subjected to as a child. He had
experienced abuse, and so he was going to wipe the slate clean somehow by killing an abuser.
Yeah, I think that's that's what in the warped alcohol-pickled, drug-altered mind of Jim Huden was the
thing that was making sense to him. Cops say they never found any evidence that Russell Douglas physically abused
anyone. At the trial, the star witness against Huden would be Bill Hill, who says Jim
confessed to him about killing Russell Douglas. What was that like to testify? It was a scary situation. I could not
look at him the whole time I was on the stand. Bill Hill was really a hero in this case. I probably could have rested
the case after Bill testified. Jim Huden never took the stand, leaving unanswered
what the real motive might have been. After an 8-day trial and 20 witnesses, the jury took less than 4 hours to reach
a verdict. Guilty as charged, and Island County fugitive now faces years behind bars. Jim Huden was sentenced to 80
years in prison. Six months later, it was Peggy Sue Thomas's turn to face justice. And Banks
had a witness who was ready to implicate her, Jim Huden's wife, Jean. Peggy herself told me she was involved in this
murder. So, I mean, it doesn't get much clearer than that. Should Jean Huden be believed? No, absolutely not. There are
so many problems with Jean Huden's testimony. It actually boggles my mind to know where to begin. Dynamic defense
attorney Craig Platt will represent Peggy. He says Jean Hufton is a liability for prosecutors because she
changed her story time and time again. It's a road map of inconsistencies. When Jean Hufton originally talked to
detectives back in 2004, she said, and I quote, "Jim never told her that Peggy knew."
Now, 7 years later, "Oh, I remember. Peggy's involved. The one that stole my man. The one that ruined my life. Yeah,
she did it." Even Jean admits her memory is a bit shaky. Couldn't it be that what you said to
Detective Plumberg this was the truth? >> [snorts] >> That Jim told you Peggy wasn't involved
in this case. Cuz your story didn't change for years. It's possible. It is possible. I just To
be honest, I don't I honestly don't remember saying that. And we know that's not right. Platt says Jean Hufton's
changing story demonstrates how desperate the prosecution is to make a case without credible witnesses or
evidence. This is about a confederacy of dunces. This is about misinformation being allowed to grow and be perpetuated
and used against an innocent woman to try to convict her for a crime she didn't commit. Would you like to get
Jean Hufton up on the stand with an opportunity to cross-examine her? That would be so much fun.
That's almost too much fun for a defense attorney like me, to be honest. That was
a big problem for us. Uh I did not want to walk away from Peggy Thomas empty-handed.
Uh and the case really hinged on Jean. >> [snorts] >> State versus Peggy Thomas. Uh good
morning, thank you, Your Honor. Just a week before the trial is about to start, prosecutor Banks folds his hand and
offers Peggy a plea deal. Four years in prison on a reduced charge of rendering criminal assistance.
Peggy accepts. So, what innocent person accepts a plea deal where you're going to end up in prison
for 4 years? A person that's smart enough to realize that in this tiny little community of people who have been
fed and fed and fed a story that isn't true. That I wasn't going to get a fair trial.
And remember the first suspect in this case, the victim's wife, Brenna Douglas? Investigators found no evidence that
money ever changed hands [music] between Brenna, Jim Huden, and Peggy Sue Thomas.
But prosecutor Banks says Brenna remains on his radar. I mean, she remains a suspect in my mind
to this day. To this day. After she ignored repeated requests to speak with 48 Hours, Hey Brenna.
Peter Van Sant with CBS News. We finally came face-to-face with Brenna. After all this time, investigators still
believe you were involved in the murder of your husband. What do you have to say
to that? I have to say that you're harassing me and I already filed a police complaint for you guys following
me. So, I want you to leave. >> I've not followed you. These are questions you should talk
about. Peggy says that you once said to her that Russ was worth more to you dead
than alive. Yes. Brenna, talk to us. I'll ask you two questions and we'll go away.
Peggy, with this plea deal, did you get away with murder? Absolutely not. I don't want to minimize Russ's death in
any way because I grieve for his family, but I'm also a victim in this. I'm actually giving up 4 years of my
life for something I didn't do. But for Greg [music] Banks, the real victim in this case has been largely
forgotten. You know, this case is about getting justice for Russ Douglas. I mean,
what did Russ do? He was trying to do the right thing by his wife, trying to get back together.
Uh and for that he got a blow in the head. Just a few days before going to prison,
Peggy shared some final moments together with her daughters. See for my girls. Oh.
I figure there must be a greater plan at the end of all of this for me. There's something wonderful on the other
side of this and I don't know what the lesson is yet, but there's got to be one.
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Say goodbye to Emily and Alicia.
Bye. What did your baby say? What happened is something that I don't really remember. Give your baby a kiss.
There were definitely times where I wish that I could just remember anything that
would help. Anything at all. What's your name? My name is Emily Widner and when I was 2
my mother, Amy, was murdered. I wonder what Amy would be like now. Would she have gone to college? What
would she have done with with her life? I imagine that Amy and I would probably be friends, not just mom and daughter,
but friends. My daughter, Amy, was intelligent and she smiled all the time. She was kind to people. She made people
feel good because she would make them important. I got upstairs and found Amy. No parent
should ever find their child. She was terrified. That's how she died. Terrified.
On the day that Amy died Emily was there with her. She was in bed with her. Maymie, have a kiss.
And she called Amy Maymie and she told me she tried to pick Maymie up, but she was
just too heavy. She tried to pick her up. You have 24 years of always wondering why this happened. Why did they not find
anyone? Is he still out there? Amy's little girl. I thought they're going to see we're a good family, they'll figure
this out. And then you go through periods of you think it's it's never going to be resolved.
This is the original case file for the Amy Widner murder. I'm William Carter, I'm the detective sergeant with the
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. I'm just a civil type police officer.
I wasn't a homicide detective for anybody that ever investigated a homicide. The detective that was
assigned to Amy's case didn't know how to print from Facebook. And he approached me originally and
asked me, "How do you print from Facebook?" That's how I got involved in the case.
I spoke to Gloria Widener. She had lost all hope and it just kind of made it personal thing for me.
Did you have faith that he could solve this? Well, we really didn't know. No one else
had. We expected to hear a name that we did not know. Not someone that we knew. >> [music]
[music] >> I just remember feeling mostly sad. And mostly sad for my [music] family.
Because I was so young. There is not one day of my life that I do [snorts] not think about my
daughter. For more than 24 years, Gloria Widener has been mourning her daughter Amy, who
at age 16, was brutally murdered in their Indianapolis home. She loved school. She loved education.
I always thought that um someday she would probably have been a teacher. She kind of was our leader as far as
doing our chores and making dinner. Cassie, the youngest of the four Widener children, was just 12 when Amy was
killed. Despite the decades that have gone by, the Widener siblings, Tanya, 1 year
younger than Amy, and JP, 1 year older, have vivid recollections of their sister.
What are some of your favorite memories of her? My ninth birthday cake. She baked that? Mhm.
We would play make-believe. Karen and Bebe were our names, and she always made me be Bebe.
Just playing. And being a kid. How about you, JP? Just how much she looked up to me.
The thing is, I had good kids. Gloria, a divorced mother, was raising four children by herself, which came with
challenges, especially when she learned Amy was 5 and 1/2 months pregnant. I was
overwhelmed. I just couldn't even believe it. I thought that was the worst thing in the
world that could happen. But you know, I found out worse things can happen. I mean, how did she hide her
pregnancy from you for 5 and 1/2 months? Well, she did they wore the the the sweatshirts. You had no suspicions? No.
No one did. That was until Amy could keep her secret no longer. And she just started crying, and she
said, "Mommy, I don't want you to hate me." And I said, "I would never hate any of my children."
I really didn't do anything. It helped that Amy's teachers, like Jody George, were supportive.
And I just remember asking her, "Amy, are you pregnant?" And then she said, "That's why I'm coming in every day
early. I want to be sure that I'm as caught up as I can possibly be when I have to miss school."
Of course, I just said, "Well, you let me know. I'll do whatever I can to help you." Gloria made it clear to her
daughter that school would remain a priority, and told Amy she didn't want her involved with the baby's father,
17-year-old Tony Abercrombie, a friend of JP's that Amy had been quietly seeing. I was angry. I'm not going to
tell you anything. Given I felt betrayed by a young man that was I would say my son's best friend.
In October of 1987, Amy gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Emily. I believe she missed 6 days of
school. Not many grown women can do that. She was just a very strong student. I think
the most important thing about her was her work ethic. She had everyone to help her and she was more
than capable. Okay, this is sleepy girl. Time to go to bed. We called her hours.
That means my family. Motherhood seemed to agree with Amy. Jody George noticed a new found
confidence in her student. She used to talk to me about my daughter Molly, asking me questions. I'd ask her
about Emily and she would say, "Now, you know what you should do. You need to get Molly a coat this year."
Or something like that. She was just giving me little bits and pieces of advice.
Still, Amy enjoyed teenage life, spending time with high school friends Angie Moore and Amy Summers. Angie had a
Halloween party. It was hilarious. Amy was the Jolly Green Giant and Emily was Sprout. But then later on, Gloria came
by and picked up Emily. But she would, you know, allow her to have some time cuz she did still want
her to be a teenager. Happy birthday. In the Widener home, there were celebrations as well, especially on
Emily's birthdays. Blow candles. Blow. But on November 13th, 1989, 1 month after celebrating Emily's second
birthday, >> [music] >> the Widener home was changed forever. She told me her throat was hurting and I
said, "Well, okay." And she's I said, "Do you want me to take Emily to the babysitter?" And she said, "No, leave
her home with me today." And I cannot remember exactly what time I started calling. But I'm going to say probably
around 9:30. And she didn't answer the phone. And so when I called back and she still didn't answer, I called my
neighbor. I said, "Would you please go check, knock on the door?" So, she knocked on the door, she came back and
called me and said, "Nobody's answering." Gloria immediately left work to return home
and to a scene in Amy's bedroom that will always haunt her. Her daughter was beaten, strangled, and dead.
She was laying on the bed. You really don't know what to do. You just kind of you panic. You don't know what to do.
And I don't remember now if I called 911 first or I got Emily out of the house. Emily was there with her. You knew right
away that she had been murdered? I didn't know what had happened. I felt like somebody had done something to her.
So, the word murder is just really a [sighs] hard word. The other thing I had a problem with for a very long time
when I talked about her, I'd say, "Well, before Amy died." "After Amy died." >> [clears throat]
>> But the truth was, she didn't just die. Another human being did this. >> [music]
>> I'm sure that there were moments when I was angry, but I think I felt more confused. Like, why did that have to
happen? On November 13th, 1989, family and friends of Amy Widener were learning the
unthinkable. That the 16-year-old's life suddenly ended. Despite the years that have gone
by, emotions remain raw. First thing you think of with teenagers is suicide. An after school reporter was there.
And I remember stopping and saying, "Well, she didn't get an A from me this time. She got a B."
And thinking, "Was it because of French grade?" And she said, "No. It's a homicide."
She had lacerations to her upper head, unclothed. It was a scene that you don't forget.
Captain Jack Gilker, now with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, was at the time
of Amy's murder one of the first to arrive at the Widener home from the Indianapolis Police Department. There
was blood prints, and you could tell that it was a violent scene. Police believed Amy's murder was a result of a
robbery gone wrong. Stereo equipment and cash were missing. The theory was that the assailant entered through an open
back door. Amy surprised him, and a struggle ensued. During which she was raped, beaten, [music] and strangled.
When you see that this young mother is murdered, and the baby was there, was wandering the same floor, it's
something you don't really don't see too much in your career, thank God. Emily no
longer has a memory of those events, not even of how she learned Amy was murdered.
I don't even remember when a serious conversation was had about it. I feel like from that point on, they would say,
"Here's you know, Amy is gone." Emily talked about the crime. Uh there was a a police
officer uh that actually interviewed uh victims, and he used finger puppets to talk to her about the crime. She would
show me how she ran back and forth from her bedroom and Amy's bedroom to my bedroom. Back then, Gloria said Emily
shared a few details about what happened to Amy. Mayme have a kiss? Or Mayme, as
Emily called her. She also told me that Mayme was mean. And meaning that she fought.
At first, the family hoped the crime would be quickly solved. Whoever killed Amy had left behind a key clue. They had
a hand print. They took parts of my wall. They took all the bedding. They took clothes. Police also conducted
interviews with people like Amy's classmate Angie. They obviously wanted to know who she'd been around.
Who she's been dating. What she's been doing. Where she been. Even Amy's brother JP was questioned. How old were
you? Uh 17 at the time. What kind of questions did they ask you? Really, I don't remember all the
questions they asked, but they were accusing me of doing it. And that was pretty tough. When I talked
with him, you've got to consider everybody in a situation like that. As police investigated, the news of Amy's murder
spread. The room was full of students who needed help cope. But nobody teaches you
how how to help kids cope with tragedy. At school, Jody George wrote a letter to
help Amy's classmates. We have all suffered deeply because of Amy's death. How can we accept it?
Why does sorrow have to be a part of our lives? It was unfortunately my first funeral. I
remember being so overwhelmed with sadness that I almost couldn't feel. Attending the funeral were not just
those close to Amy, but also detectives. We went to the cemetery and to the funeral home the night before just to
watch people. With the leads that we'd had, the names that we'd been given, you got to go there and you got to study
what's there. One of the names they were given was Tony Abercrombie, the friend who got Amy
pregnant, seen here in a news report a day after Amy's murder. Great girl. There wasn't really too many out there
like her. I mean, she was very, very smart. Pretty. I actually called him at work.
Joy Haney was friends with Tony Abercrombie and Amy, living across the street from the Widners at the time of
the murder. I just said, "Hey, you need to come home. There's something's wrong." I had to leave work because I
was just tore up. I mean, hit me pretty hard. Abercrombie had an alibi, so eyes turned
to another friend, Troy Jackson, who lived in a house behind the Widners, and who police say knew about the stereo
equipment stolen on the day of the murder. DNA testing was in early stages, so police photographed Jackson's hands,
which did not show bruises from a struggle. Jackson also submitted hair samples, which did not match any found
in Amy's room, and he passed a polygraph test. So, detectives continued their investigation into other suspects. We're
not closed by any stretch of the imagination. Weeks went by, then months, and still no arrest. As family and
friends wondered, was there a killer in their midst? We didn't know who it was. You're leery
of everyone. It's just constantly in the back of your head wondering who. It's a sad thought knowing the family
you could have been growing up with versus the family that just fell apart. And they didn't really know how to put
the pieces back together. to become that family that they were before Amy died. We became a family that really didn't
talk for a long time. It was you didn't know what to say. My children didn't even come home from school
uh for a while until they knew I was home. It was difficult. This house holds a lot of memories, some
of them painful. Yes. Why did you decide to stay? I had no money. I had four other children.
Where am I going to move to? Gloria did her best to keep life normal for her family. She legally adopted
Emily. The little girl who had been a granddaughter and a niece became daughter and sister. I was raised knowing Cassie
and Tanya as my sisters and Jean-Paul as my brother. And Mom, Gloria, as Mom. I understand that Amy is my biological
mother, but Gloria has raised me. You got that, I hope. She's absolutely my mom.
Family and friends kept Amy's memory alive with stories for Emily. As did teachers like Jody George, who
had both Amy and Emily in her French classes. I said, "I just remember so many things about your mother and about
how your mother felt about you. And when it was time for her to graduate, we talked a little bit and I just said to
her, I know your mother would be so proud of you right now." Well, Emily only recalls life following
Amy's death. She says when watching home movies, she can see a before and after.
>> [cheering] [applause] >> Birthdays one and two, family is great, they're all happy.
And after that, it sort of changes. You can feel the difference in their personalities.
It was tough going for everyone. Police believed Amy had been murdered by an acquaintance.
And with no arrest, fear and suspicion spread. When I come home and I know one of my children were supposed to be home
and they're not answering me and I have to walk up those same stairs to find out if they're in their room,
it's terror because you don't know what you're going to see. I was absolutely terrified.
I asked my dad to put nails in my windows and then when you go few weeks, months, years
and you're thinking I could be standing at the grocery store next to this person
and I'd have no idea because >> unbelievable cuz you think there's a print on the wall and we can't figure
out who it is. But police could not find a match for that promising [music] lead, the hand
print. And the investigation grew cold. Years would go by without contact from the police.
Sometimes you get to the point or I got to the point that um maybe I I didn't want them to solve it.
I wanted them just to go away and leave us alone. But you certainly wanted justice for your daughter.
>> Yes. And it's not that I didn't want it solved. Truth is I wanted it all to go away
because every time they come back with something else, it bring you start all over again.
Like in 2002 when police thought they had a promising lead. This call came in about a person
wanting to talk about an old murder. 12 years after Amy's murder, Roger Spurgeon was heading the Indianapolis
Metropolitan Police Department's new cold case unit. He was telling me that he had had some
dreams about this murder that happened um, ultimately back in 1989 and that he from this dream, uh, believed he knew
who the suspect was. Lieutenant Spurgeon was not familiar with Amy Widner's murder. It was in a pile of 800 cold
cases, but the caller seemed to know all about it. A lot of information did match
up, um, but there was really not a lot of what he had spoken of that could not have
been gleaned from news reports of the time. It was determined the caller was not a
legitimate source, but it raised Spurgeon's interest. Did this look like a case that could be
solved? Well, I believe that all cases potentially could be solved. What were the challenges with this particular
case, though? It was really difficult to kind of figure out who the suspects might most likely be. You know, is this
somebody that simply was committing a burglary, and it was a burglary that went bad? Uh, is this somebody that had
some sort of a relationship with Amy? Still, Spurgeon had persons of interest. He spoke again to several people
previously investigated. And then a few years passed after I've done everything I can do, I move on to another, um,
job. The case remained with the cold case unit with no new leads. Then in 2011, in response to a newspaper
article about unsolved cases, friends created a Remembering Amy Widner Facebook page.
The cold case detectives [music] were not familiar with Facebook, but knew someone who was.
All kinds of information on a carjacking. Detective Sergeant William Carter, a nuisance abatement officer.
This is a a typical Saturday night detail. Uh, we'll we'll hit their forum. Okay. We'll hit we'll hit their forum.
We'll be looking at the nightclubs. They'll be looking for, uh, liquor law violations. The fire marshal's going to
be looking for overcapacity. Concerned with quality of life issues like underage drinking and overcrowding.
Carter uses Facebook to try to find events being promoted, not solve murders. I really knew nothing about the
case. My job was to print this Facebook memorial page out. I looked at it and then eventually I
read the case file, the the case notes. It's something that I dove into and I just couldn't put it down.
But no one asked you to read the file, did they? No. So, what prompted you to just pick up the file and take it home
and and read 65 pages? Why were you intrigued? I think it was the the photo we always
saw of Amy. In the file was um the original palm print that was recovered from the scene. On his own
time, Carter continued working the case, looking at everything that had been collected over two decades. Evidence at
the crime scene, school attendance records from the day Amy was killed, even the list of people attending the
funeral. Older files, of course, um were all typewritten. Carter entered it all into a database and soon realized the
other investigators had overlooked some obvious leads. There was tons of friends
of of her brothers that they they'd never even talked to. And then never got DNA from. Once I saw a lot of
those things, I guess it became uh a mission of mine to say, "Hey, we're going to fix this."
>> What did you have to work with to solve this crime? I had the original palm print. Um it was a full palm print that
was left on the lawn Amy's blood. And I had some partial DNA. Uh not enough DNA to put into the national
database. Carter started contacting the Wideners' family and friends, asking for names of
people who might remember anything. And began collecting DNA from individuals police had ruled out.
Did you canvas this neighborhood when you started investigating? Uh luckily in 1989 when they canvassed the
neighborhood, they wrote down and took notes of everybody who lived in the neighborhood. and took those notes
and went to those homes to see if those people still live there and for the most
part most of them did not. So Carter tracked down old neighbors like Joy Haney, Amy's friend who had lived across
the street. He just mainly was asking me to kind of recall the day and if there was anybody that you know
um stuck out in my mind or just give him names of you know people that hung out with us.
Most of the people Joy mentioned were ones Carter was already familiar with and had been cleared of wrongdoing. But
one name was new, a name that Carter hoped could solve a 22-year-old mystery. We probably all turned pale. It was
disbelief. It would come in uh waves. There would be times where I was very hopeful and I thought yes, certainly.
Certainly this could be solved. For more than two decades Emily Widener had been waiting for justice.
And then there were times where so many years had gone by that I didn't know. I didn't know anymore.
But in 2012 with the cold case unit's approval Detective Sergeant Bill [music] Carter was on the case and asking lots
of questions. I reached out to one of the former neighbors and she gave me the name of Rodney Dink not as a suspect
just talked to Rodney and see if he actually knew anything. But Rodney Dink was a new name that I hadn't heard. But
the Wideners were very familiar with him. I hadn't seen him in a long time but I would just consider him to be a good
friend. What kinds of things did you do with Rodney? Just normal things that kids do. Run
around. Being teenagers, riding bikes, fishing. When Detective Carter asked me about
Rodney, I said, "No." I said, "Rodney was quiet, kept to himself." There wasn't a
suspicion of Rodney. Still, Carter went to Denk's Indianapolis home. Long divorced from a
woman with whom he had a son, Denk lived with his mother, but was at work at an auto shop when Carter came by.
So, he left his card with Denk's mother. He did call the office, and left me a message. I immediately called him back,
and asked him if he would meet me. I needed to talk to him about this case. And um I told him Amy Widner, and
that was it. Denk agreed to meet at his house, but when Carter arrived, he was nowhere to
be found. Now, Carter was suspicious, and ran Denk's name to see if he had prior
arrests. He found a 1991 battery, and a 1997 larceny. With his interest raised, Carter took
the prints from Denk's last arrest to the forensic unit to compare to the palm print from Amy's bedroom wall. My goal
was kind of, "Hey, I'll submit the print. If it doesn't match, we'll just move on. Just wanted to clear him as a
suspect." Later that day, Carter checked back with forensics to see if he could cross Denk
off his list. Instead, he received stunning news. Rodney Denk's print was a match.
22 years of waiting were over. Finally, there was a real suspect for the murder of Amy Widner.
I was kind of shocked. I really, you know, didn't expect it really to be that easy.
While it had been a year since Carter had been asked to look at Amy's Facebook page, it was only in the past 2 weeks
that he began questioning potential suspects. And now he felt he He his man. But Dank had disappeared. We contacted
our fugitive task force unit to try to track him down. He had used his credit card to rent a car that's equipped with
OnStar. With the help of the OnStar tracking device in the rental car, detectives
went in search of Dank. Meanwhile, Carter let the Widners know they had identified a suspect, but did not give a
name. He felt a wave of relief. No, almost fear. Why fear? Cuz who is it? A few hours later, they would have their
answer. Dank's rental car was found in Indianapolis, where he was visiting a friend. As Dank was about to get into
his car, police approached him, and he pulled out a knife. He made a statement something to the effect of I didn't do
it, and he had a knife that he cut his wrist with, but they were able to bring him into custody without any further
injury to himself or any other officers. Anything you say can be used as evidence
against you in court. Do you understand that? Yeah. While Dank was taken to a hospital to
treat his wounds, the Widners wondered why their former friend would betray them. To comprehend that this person
that you knew did this. It's um it's just impossible to wrap your mind around it. I think the four of us just
stood there looking at each other and shock. I found out through Cassie. And then my next thought was, "Oh my
gosh, he was at the funeral with us. How could you commit this murder, this brutal,
to someone you know, and two days later sit with us at the funeral, and mourn with us?"
Dank had even signed the visitors book at Amy's funeral. And that wasn't the only place Carter
found Dank's name. Dank was overlooked and his name was given to a detective to somebody talked to and
Did they talk to him? They didn't talk to him at all. Had you heard of the name Rodney Dank before Sergeant Carter came
to you? No. Never heard that name. However, Dank's name appeared in this 2003 statement from Tony Abercrombie,
Emily's birth father, as someone who spent time at the Widener home. A statement taken by Spurgeon when he led
the cold case unit. If the name Rodney Dank ever came up in the course of my investigation or
re-looking through the files, that was one of literally dozens upon dozens of names
that I may simply have not had the opportunity to look at during my years of the investigation. I simply don't
recall seeing that name. What I don't understand is how did you recognize the mistakes that were made
in this investigation that seasoned detectives overlooked? I respected those people
because I assumed, "Hey, you know, I've never done this job. I'm just a more of a civil type police officer, but
I don't know why no one ever looked at Rodney Dank. I really don't." For some reason, Detective Carter found
it in his heart and who he is to have this determination to find who Amy's killer was. When you
walked into homicide, were you met with wild applause? Um I don't know. I really don't know.
Um I always felt like I was stepping out of where I belonged. Still, Carter found himself an unlikely
hero at the center of a press conference. It's been a long time coming for the family, I will say that.
And I'm just happy that we do have somebody in custody and we can offer some closure to the family.
It was emotional for me to think that, you know, all these years, after all these years, you know, it was somebody
that was there. It wasn't the boogeyman. It was somebody that was a friend of their families. Do you feel like you can
tell us and finally put this to bed what you carried for 22 years? With Dank now under arrest and in the
hospital, investigators got some long overdue answers about his motive. It was, as suspected, a robbery gone
terribly wrong. I didn't know she was in there. I was in the general office room.
Take the radio. She came around the corner. I hit her in the head. Over the course of 48 hours, police
questioned Dank on videotape, who admitted to raping and hitting Amy with an object, but kept changing his story
about whether he acted alone. I had one dude that was like staying at the house. Mhm.
But his name was like Bucky or Buck or something like that. Maybe it wasn't Buck. Maybe it was the
other guy. I don't remember. I don't remember a whole lot about that day. Can I just say it was me, I did
everything, and One thing Dank seemed certain about was that he never saw Emily. Where was
Emily? I don't know. Did you ever see the baby at all? Did you ever hear the baby cry?
I don't remember seeing or hearing a baby in there. And the time that you spoke to him, what were your impressions
of Rodney Dank? Was never upset, never screamed, never hollered. Uh was pleasant with us.
Um not what I would think that would be a killer. Rodney, did you have anything to do with
Amy's death? Dank provided a DNA sample, which, as expected, matched semen taken
in 1989 from Amy's sheet and blanket. Do you have anything you wish to say, however?
>> [music] >> There was something unexpected that police discovered during their
investigation about Rodney Denk's son, Dylan. I always tried to be a good person, but
I guess I know deep down that I'm not a good person. With Rodney [music] Denk in custody for
the murder of Amy Widener, detectives were learning more about their suspect, including something shocking about
Denk's son, Dylan. It was very odd to me that father and son about the same age committed two
terrible acts, horrible acts. This is probably best described as just a bizarre coincidence.
In 2009, Dylan Denk was charged with murdering his mother, Mary McHenry, beating her to death with a baseball
bat. The circumstances stand out to Commonwealth Attorney, Bruce Keegel. I think it's the brutality of the crime,
the fact that he is so young. He was 16 years old at the time, almost 17. In fact, during that week, he turned 17.
One year younger than his father, Rodney, was at the time of Amy's murder. This one involved just a brutal act
by a son against his mother. A mother who, according to court testimony, had a history of abusing
Dylan. Rodney Denk had little contact with his son or ex-wife for years, but he did
attend some of Dylan's hearings, prompting a social worker to recommend Dylan be released to his father, who no
one knew was living with his own secret. However, the judge ruled against releasing Dylan.
Sir, I wanted to uh apologize. In a plea deal, Dylan Denk was sentenced to 20 years. Meanwhile, his father was
looking at spending the rest of his life in prison for the murder of Amy Widener.
You were prepared to stare down evil. You were preparing to go to trial. Mhm, and worried to death about it. I didn't
want my girls and my son to have to hear or see any of the things that I saw when I
found her. Gloria Widener was set to go to trial, as was Marion County Prosecutor Denise
Robinson. Attempts at a plea deal had been stalled until Dent told the prosecutor no one else was involved in
Amy's murder. Before you offered him this plea agreement, he had to make certain admissions to you. Yes, he told
us that he acted alone, which was something that we had felt confident in after we had intercepted some jail calls
that he had made to his mother. We wanted to be able to tell the family that there wasn't another suspect out
there that we should be looking for. In June of 2012, just 10 days before the trial was scheduled to start, Dent pled
guilty to the murder and rape of Amy Widener. He would be sentenced to 65 years.
Despite Dent finally admitting to acting alone, family members and police are not completely convinced.
Was he really the only one? Was there other people that knew he did it? That's something we're not going to know unless
Rodney tells us those things. I just can't definitively say that with the arrest of Rodney Dent, the case is
absolutely closed and he's the only one that will ever be held accountable for it.
Without a trial, the Wideners would not hear testimony about what may have occurred, but at hearings and
sentencing, they faced the man who changed all their lives. I had prepared myself to feel this anger
and overwhelming rage. And when they brought him in, all I saw was Rodney. For the Widners, having Denk behind bars
has brought some resolution, but the impact of Amy's murder still haunts them. They still know that Amy is not coming
back. So, relief, yes, but there's definitely still sadness there. I miss her. And the thing is, the older I get, the
more I miss her. Cuz they're all grown. And they have their families. And they have their
their lives. And she's not here. What triggers the pain? Just Emily's birthdays, Emily's
accomplishments, her her graduations. I always feel like it should be Amy here enjoying these.
Gloria tries as best she can to focus on the present. Amy's old bedroom, the site
of the murder and a place she once feared, is now used for happier times. It's for my grandchildren now. When they
come to stay, they have a room. The only thing that's in here that was here when Amy was here was is the hat
that's on the door. It's [snorts] not Amy's room anymore. Amy's in me. She'll always be with me.
You're still in our hearts. Those touched by Amy have found through the years different ways to cope with their
sorrow. Does it feel like it's over to you? No, not really. Me neither. For Angie Moore and Amy Summers, visits
to their friend's grave help. As does reading that letter from long ago that teacher Jody George gave
students, which Amy still keeps nearby. My advice to you, be kind to others, always, even if it hurts. I wish you
peace and comfort now and always. You go through life and you wonder I'm really introverted. I wonder why? Or
I get really angry at certain things. Maybe it's because of what happened. But I I don't know.
Emily felt a change of scenery might provide some answers. A year after graduating college, she left
Indianapolis for California. I couldn't be who I thought I was supposed to be in Indiana.
And I'm I don't know that I'm necessarily the person I'm supposed to be yet, but
I'm getting closer in California. Emily visits when she can. 48 hours brought her to Indianapolis to
be part of a celebration decades [music] in the making. We're calling this a Midwest open house.
>> [laughter] >> It was an opportunity to share memories of Amy. Oh, Amy would have loved this.
She's here. Believe me, she's here. As well as [music] to honor the man who did what others could not.
On behalf of everyone here, I say thank you [music] from the bottom of our hearts.
It's nice for me to hear so many people who adore this girl. And she was a girl. She was 16. [music]
She had like impact. Like she was there and she had a purpose. >> We're going to release 24 balloons. I
like [music] that cuz it makes me think that was my mom. One for every year that we've been
without Amy. >> [music] >> That was Yeah, I'd like to be like that. Give it love.
Give it love. Okay. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.

48 Hours investigates these true-crime stories that took a long time to solve. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Last Chance," "Decades of Deceit" and "Dangerous Beauty."

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.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the wrongful conviction of Damon Thibodeaux for the murder of Crystal Champagne and his eventual exoneration after years on death row.

Key points

Damon Thibodeaux's Confession. Under pressure, Damon confesses to a crime he didn't commit, claiming he killed Crystal.
The Fight for Innocence. Damon's legal team works tirelessly to prove his innocence after his wrongful conviction.
The Discovery of Crystal's Body. John Tomlinson claims a dream led him to find Crystal's body.
Damon's Release. After years of wrongful imprisonment, Damon Thibodeaux is finally released.
The Mysterious Caller. Detective Plumberg receives a tip from a band member about Jim Huden's past.
Murder Suspect's Confession. Jim Huden confesses to killing Russell Douglas, shocking his accomplice Peggy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was glad because it meant that they had who did it.

Dawn Champagne reflects on Damon's conviction.

12:14WatchMar 14, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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