Ex-Disneyland Employee Turned Serial Killer | World’s Most Evil Killers | Forensic Files

on March the 14th 2014 workers at a recycling plant in Anaheim California would a gust when they discovered
something that stopped them in their tracks they thought they saw a mannequin on one of the conveyor belts and upon
closer inspection they realized this was a human body the victim was identified as
21-year-old Jer e a sex worker from Modesto California I think that this was a person who probably sadly wrong place at
the wrong time because of the nature of her work as police link The Killing to The Disappearance of another three
missing women Steven Dean Gordon a convicted pedophile was named as the prime suspect Steven Gordon is one dangerous
individual he's molested children he's an abductor he's an allround Predator Gordon had formed a dangerous
friendship with another sex offender and the pair had been on a deadly Rampage I believe he's evil because he
looked these women in the eyes he saw them take their last breath and still that didn't make him feel guilty enough
to stop doing that Steven Dean Gordon had been unveiled as one of the world's most evil
[Music] killers in February 2017 Steven Dean Gordon was sentenced to death for the
Mur murder of four sex workers in California his crimes had begun 25 years earlier when Gordon had been working at
a family amusement park but beneath the facad he was hiding a ghastly secret it was his own sister who went to the
police accusing the 23-year-old of molesting her son he's convicted he's given 15 months
in jail and is a registered child molester over two decades on from his initial conviction detectives
investigating the murder of 21-year-old sex worker jeray Eep had linked Gordon to her
death it was a huge story and the media was all out there I can remember getting
the call a body's been found on a conveyor belt at a trash recycling facility Gordon realizes that the net is
beginning to close around him and he decides to leg it and cuts off his GPS tracker device
again and gets on a bicycle and leaves where he's working officers needed to act fast to
prevent any more women being murdered at the hands of Steven Dean Gordon this killer Story begins on the
third of February 1969 on the west coast of the United States of America Steven Dean Gordon was born in 1969 in
Lynwood California and moved when he was a small child with his family to Norwalk
California both in Southern California it was a pretty itinerant childhood originally they were in one
count County and then they moved to another Santa feake is a very suburban area south of Los Angeles very middle
class workingclass area he went to high school there it seems that he was quite a sickly
child he seemed to have a lot of health problems it said that he was bullied at school because of
that doesn't sound like he's ever really made any real connections never really had a good circle of friends who he
could count on for support and just really had low self-esteem as a result Gordon's ongoing health issues
also had a detrimental effect on his academic life he missed an entire year of school
due to illness and when he graduated from high school he chose not to go any further in terms of
Education when Gordon finished high school he went to work as a handyman at a large amusement park in the
area while Gordon was working at this amusement park he developed a relationship with one of his
co-workers the park was a world famous attraction and a popular destination for families with
children Gordon had been working there for 4 years before he faced a runin with the law in the early '90s his sister
accused him of sexually assaulting her child at first Gordon admitted to the crime against his own nephew but then he
went on to say he was actually innocent he claimed that his girlfriend had been the one to force him to
actually even plead guilty when he didn't do anything at all after that he threatened his
sister's life for uh filing those charges against him Gordon was 23 years old at the
time it was a strange thing to do but if he was sexually attracted to Children it
may have been difficult for him to get access to any children other than members of of his own family so maybe he
had a rapport you know the child knew him he was able to maybe threaten the child to keep
quiet Gordon was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison the 23-year-old was also
registered as a child molester when he was released he tried to live as somewhat normal or
law-abiding life despite blaming his girlfriend for making him admit to the crime in 1995
the couple went on to get married by 1997 they have a daughter and um 2 years later in the late '90s they moved to
Riverside California there were a lot of problems in their marriage and just in his life
in general he was becoming more and more irritable as the days went on because of
variety of Financial and domestic issues his wife is trying to keep him going he's threatening to kill himself
or hire a hitman of all unlikely things to kill him so that she can get the insurance money it's it's it's Slightly
bizarre I think this shows how out of control he felt in life how powerless to influence things certainly to his own
advantage everything was a drama a catastrophe for him things slowly started to unravel in
their marriage his wife noticed that he had a terrible uh problem with anger the
smallest thing would get him upset and she'd had enough by 2001 she took their daughter she left them and she fed for
divorce when the divorce proceeding started there was an order in place that he was not to have contact with his wife
or daughter Gordon violated that order in August 2001 by turning up where he knew they
would be when they go to church he temps the daughter into his car which is repainted and put new false number
plates on and essentially he abducts them fairly terrifying in every way Gordon lured his daughter in with
sweets then threatened and his ex with a stun gun forcing her to get into his car he ties the wife up and subjects to
some kind of ordeal he let his guard down at one point and he allowed his wife to make a
call she called her parents and they of course called police it doesn't take long for the
police to arrive and indeed Gordon is charged with two counts of kidnapping wife and daughter
Steven Dean Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison he would
go on to spend eight of those years behind bars and in February 2010 he was released the 41-year-old headed to
Orange County California an area with high rates of homelessness and poverty Anaheim and Santa Ana are the
two most populated cities in Orange County in 2013 three women completely disappear off the streets of Santa
Ana the first one disappears about 20 days later another woman disappears about 20 days after that
another woman disappears they're all from Santa Ana they all worked as prostitutes no one certain that
anything's happened to them they could just have decided to give up or go to another state or do something
different the first woman to be reported missing was 20-year-old Kiana Jackson she was originally from Willets
California in the northern California area she did uh go to college After High School but after one semester she
decided she wanted something a little more exciting and she moved to Las Vegas whilst living in Las Vegas Kiana
had started earning money by becoming a sex worker in October 2013 K Jackson and
took a bus from Las Vegas to the Anaheim area so that she could attend a court date for a previous prostitution
charge she checks into a hotel on her way to court she never gets to court she disappears literally Into Thin
Air her mom at the time said she didn't know her daughter was working as a prostitute she filed a missing person's
Report with police but police said to her that she's an adult so really our hands are tied there's not much that we
can do the lifestyle of a sex worker is transient by Nature they often move around and they don't have any records
and they don't sign a lease for an apartment they often live on the street and it's very difficult to know whether
one of these missing women has just gone on the run or whether some harm has come
to them 17 days after Kiana Jackson went missing on October the 23rd 2013 another
sex worker disappeared from the streets of Santa Anna 34-year-old mother of three
Josephine Monique vas she had just attended birthday party of a family member and then said she was
going to walk to the store to pick up some items but they never saw her again initially her husband thought that
she was still with her family and then her family thought she was with her husband so there was a little bit of a
delay before reporting that she was missing the family of Josephine Vargas got out
there on the street they had missing persons Flyers with Josephine's face on it and they were putting these flowers
up all around the neighborhood she's disappeared they realize and police acknowledge that there's been no
activity on her credit card or on her bank card she's just gone fellow sex worker 27-year-old
Martha annah had seemingly known the missing woman 10 years on Martha's eldest daughter Melody recalls that
time she did mention to me one of my friends is missing I believe that friend might have
been um Josephine Monique Vargas because it was around the time that you know that she had gone
missing I was 12 years old my sister was four about to turn five my mom was very close in age to me
she's only 15 years older than me so I feel like we would be able to joke around a lot she's like a best
friend 20 days after Josephine went missing on the 12th of November 2013 Melody's mother Martha sent a text
message to her boyfriend before going out to work that day her family were unaware of what Martha was doing for
work we grew up in sanana I mean sana's known to be like not the greatest City in Orange
County I would say that back then Harbor uh was known to have a lot of prostitution Harbor Boulevard in Santa
Ana was where many sex workers would wait for business Martha anniah was one of these
women and felt safe being on the streets there at night one time me and my mother
were walking it was around like 8:00 at night and I was like you don't ever get scared walking alone at night and she
was like no because I know how to fight she wasn't scared of anything when Martha didn't turn up the
day after she'd messaged her boyfriend about going to work her family knew something was
wrong Martha would message her mother Linda regularly throughout the day Linda then had a tough decision to make
how to tell her 12-year-old granddaughter that something was wrong I had gotten home and my grandma was
sitting at the table and she was crying and I was like why is she crying finally she told me I haven't
heard from your mom all day [Music] Martha was last seen in Santa Ana as well it was really sad because the
family had just had a very typical day with her before they were running errands everything seemed normal but she
left her home without her belongings and was never found again Martha and Nia's family started
posting Flyers around the area in the space of 5 weeks three sex workers had disappeared from the streets of Santa
Anna none of them had been found it's very stressful to not know what it happened to your loved ones
especially to your mom who you're used to seeing every day we did have that mind that you know there was a
possibility that she wasn't with us anymore but we did have hope on March the 14th 2014 in Anaheim
the neighboring City to Santa Ana workers at a recycling plant were shocked to discover something unusual on
one of the conveyor belts it's an extraordinary thing to happen but it's clearly a body it's
clearly a woman and she's clearly met a an untimely end local reporter Eileen fur remembers
finding out about the discovery that was big news that was big attention uh because it's not often you have a body
dump in Anaheim so I think that's what gathered the attention investigators struggled to
identify who the woman was the body didn't belong to any of the three missing sex workers a tattoo on her neck
was checked against a database held by police it wasn't until the detectives started investigating and doing really
good police work uh to make that connection and identify the body as being that of Dre
Eep Dre Eep 21 originally from adesto California was living in Anaheim and she had a previous prostitution arrest in
Oklahoma Jer was somebody who also frequented the Southern California area and was known for her sex crimes and was
actually well known to the police for this reason jeray Eep was now the fourth sex
worker known to have gone missing from the area in 5 months the four cases were now thought
to be linked now the police are looking at something more than simply isolated incidents in this
area although only one body was found the fate of the other three women seemed clear it wasn't long after that police
were piecing together that there was a serial killer involved and then then it blew out up you know everybody was
covering it now that the police think they have a murderer of sex workers the natural
investigative Avenue is to go back and look at other male sex offenders that are living or frequently living
frequenting or working in those areas where these sex workers have gone missing with the exact locations the
women were picked up unknown officers would struggle to narrow down whether any particular sex offenders were
involved a breakthrough in the investigation gave them a much needed lead police exam ined some of the
rubbish that was found around jer's body on that conveyor belt investigators also found a tube of
cocking with fingerprints on it they ran the fingerprints it came back belonging
to a window installer they brought them in for questioning and he said you know after finishing a job he would often
throw the waste in a trash bin in Anaheim right next to a paint and auto body shop when police looked at which
registered sex offend ERS had frequented that location a name immediately came up
Frank Carlo Frank Carno was born in 1986 in California he had ecma and Asthma as a
child rather sickly the family are not rich they moved to a trailer park in 1994 they're not conventional
Suburban Frank cono was also a convicted child predator a convicted pedophile something is going on in
carno's mind and believe it or not in 2006 at the age of 20 he molests his 9-year-old
niece when the police arrived canol told police that he molested his niece because he was sexually frustrated he
was a virgin and he was unpopular with girls Frank Carno had pleaded guilty to one count of child sexual abuse and
received a 2-year sentence after being in prison for 16 months Caro was released on parole in
October 2009 now in April 2014 4 and a half years after his release for the child
abuse conviction Carno had been linked to the body found on the conveyor belt at the recycling
plant he had been in the area of the that trash bin and he had also been in the area where Jer eep's cell phone last
pinged the last call that she made investigators wanted more evidence that Caro was involved before they could
bring him in for questioning they have cono under surveillance and they also get the
permission to wiretap his cell phone so they can listen to the calls they can look at his text messages and what the
police say they discover is just chilling the text messages found on Frank carno's
phone showed that he hadn't been acting alone in the 4 and a half years since his release from prison Caro had struck
up a bond with another sex offender and what they had done together in that time
was truly horrific when the police did their analysis they realized that Frank Canó
was in the same area as each of the four missing women when they went missing text messages uncovered on
carno's phone revealed that if he was the killer he wasn't acting alone the conversations between him and another
man many many conversations texts and the text messages detail their hunt their hunt for
women investigators were able to identify the second man he was another convicted sex affair Defender
45-year-old Steven Dean Gordon Steven Gordon is one dangerous individual he's not even um like a
single offense Predator he's molested children he's an abductor he's an allround
Predator but how had these two sex offenders become friends 12 years before Jer eastep's body was
found and Caro had been identified as a suspect Steven Dean Gordon had been sent
to jail for kidnapping his wife and daughter after serving 8 years of his sentence Gordon was released from prison
in February of 2010 Gordon is released from prison on parole with several restrictions one that he can't go near
his family um two that he must wear a ankle monitoring bracelet and three that he can't be present anywhere where
children gather and also he had to register as an official sex offender he was on the sexual predators
registry he had to wear a GPS tracker he clearly had to check in multiple times with his parole officer a
month it's very hard for registered sex offenders to find a place to live to find work because they're very limited
on where they can be so he manages to get odd job jobs at this paint and auto body shop in
Anaheim he lived as a transient really he had no place to live the people uh at that paint not Body Shop allowed him to
uh sleep in his vehicle out in the back of the business it was while working at the
auto shop that Steven Dean Gordon met 23-year-old Frank Carno cono was also a registered child
molester and he too had to wear a Je PPS ankle monitor here you have two men one much
older one 17 years older than the other they strike up what will become an absolutely extraordinary
[Music] friendship I think they bonded a lot over their childhood difficulties cono also suffered from
multiple health issues as a child and was also extensively bullied they were both outside they both didn't feel like
they were part of a community and I think even more so than their possibly shared perversion for sexual predator
behaviors Gordon was living in a car at the back of the auto shop where he worked and with Carno struggling to find
accommodation Gordon invited him to live in the vehicle with him they both had problems building a
stable life for themselves they were both borderline homeless the nature of their offending I mean they were
ostracized from their family networks they shared this you know feeling that the world was against
them cono and Gordon lived in a car together for quite a bit of time on the one hand that could really
stress a relationship even if you really like the person but on the other hand it's also a certain type of bonding
their close relationship LED them to make a risky decision together Gordon and cono is so close and
they obviously identify with one another with the given their track records but they also want freedom and
in 2010 they both cut off their GPS tracking devices and leave for Alabama those ankle bracelets give
almost an immediate notification when they're cut off and so they didn't last long on the run and ultimately were
apprehended by federal agents in Alabama they got caught of course they were brought back they did some
time Gordon and Carno were both sent back to prison for five months for breaking the terms of their parole but
that didn't make them change their ways and in 2012 2 years after fleeing for Alabama they repeated the same
technique Gordon and Cano do the same thing they do it again they remove their ankle bracelets and they take
off this time they escaped to a very family themed hotel in Vegas and basically partied it up
there they were ultimately found at a casino in Las Vegas that kind of um specializes in attracting families and
children unlike most of the other hotels in casinos in Vegas it's not a coincidence that these two sex offended
ended up the one hotel in Vegas that's known to have a bunch of children running
around being that they both have a history of molesting and um being a predator to
Children it was probably a place that they both felt very stimulated by because there were so many children
around and families around and this is another person for each of them that could share that perversion with and
could understand you and wouldn't judge you it was two weeks before the authorities
finally tracked the two sex offenders down on this occasion on the 8th of May 2012 both
Gordon and Carno were arrested for breaking the conditions of their parole they're both sentenced to P in
jail Carno gets 10 months and Gordon gets eight one in state prison one in Federal in a way that's they're
cementing this extraordinary intense relationship between these two men Caro and Gordon were back on the
streets in early 2013 and the criminal pair were quickly reunited they hook up and start spending
much more time together and they start traveling around together they're back out they're still
wearing GPS ankle bracelets to be monitored in Gordon's case he was being monitored by federal probation and in
con's case he was being monitored by state parole agents as part of their parole
restrictions both men were ordered to stay away from other sex offenders including each
other but as their GPS devices were being monitored by different agencies Gordon and conno constantly being in the
same location as each other wasn't blacked cono and Gordon were basically living their own altered reality because
they were spending almost all of their time exclusively with one another and they really bounced off of one another
in terms of their ideas and their beliefs and here's this person basically justifying that what you're thinking and
what you're planning is okay and maybe even welcomed which is really scary because they found some kind of
community with one another now after the discovery of jeray E body carno's text conversations with
Gordon provided the police with an insight into the relationship between the two Predators they examine the phone
records between the two men and in particular they come up with the chilling remark that Gordon sends to
Carno in the wake of the Estep killing this is the best one yet in the text messages Gordon and Caro
referred to the women as cats or kitties Gordon thought jeray was beautiful he said cat is beautiful in
one of his texts uh he didn't want to kill her the text messages between the two are just chilling as they decide
whether she's going to live or die I think in some ways cono and Gordon referring to the women that they hunted
and killed as kitties it was that sort of feeling of predator and prey so a kitty being an innocent prey and again
that feeling of establishing dominance and power over these women also I think just points again to the fact that they
very much did not really view these women as human beings they did not have any respect for them so almost treated
them like animals it was clear the two men may have been praying on women together
before raping and murdering them police needed to act fast they apprehended Frank Carno and then
tried to find Steven Dean Gordon but Gordon seemed to know they were coming for him police are closing in on the body
shop where Gordon Works Gordon senses this removes his ankle bracelet hops on his bike and takes off fleeing from the
police a dangerous sexual predator was on the run from the law Steven Dean Gordon had a history of removing his GPS
ankle Monitor and fleeing to other states the police needed to locate their suspect before he disappeared for good
the police catch up with him less than a quar mile away where he tries to jump off the
bike he doesn't make a very far he flies over the handlebars and they arrest him Gordon was taken to the station for
questioning fellow suspect Frank Carno was waiting for a lawyer and therefore not talking to the police
investigators may have expected the same reluctance to answer questions from Gordon after initially saying I don't
want to talk he embarks on what is amounts to the most extraordinary confession 13 and 1 half hours of
conversation in which he goes into the most elaborate detail of what he and Cara have done to their victims
they started to hunt down women in particular prostitutes they would be cruising up and down Beach Boulevard in
Orange County and looking for the victims Gordon tells police how he would pick up the woman in his car while Canó
was hidden in the back seat once they were in the car Canó would come up from the back seat and overpower the
women they would then take the car and drive the women in the car behind the auto body shop with they were kind of
camping out where the women would then be raped by the two of them Gordon described how Canó would
strangle the women and he would punch them in the stomach to make sure the air got out quicker so that they would die
quicker they kidnapped them they raped them they killed them and they threw their bodies
out during the interrogation Gordon seemed to Revel in sharing the details of the four
murders there were times where he would get frustrated with the police for asking him questions about the victims
out of order and he would actually physically rearrange the photographs of the women that they laid out for him so
that they were in the order in which he abducted and murdered them he was actually showing almost a
sick pride in what he had done by correcting them and getting it right cuz he knew he wanted them to get it right
there was another shock in store for investigators when Gordon revealed some unexpected
information he also during that time brought up a fifth victim he said you're missing
one the Anaheim Police detective said you know she didn't want to show shock but she was shocked everyone was shocked
because they didn't know that there was another person missing no one knows who that was or
where it was there's no evidence and again there's no body only one body had been found but
with Gordon's confessions investigators were sure that all four missing women had been
killed Frank Carno and Steven Dean Gordon were both charged with four counts of murder Melody annah remembers being
given news about her mother Martha as soon as I found out how my mom was murdered I couldn't help but to picture
like her last moments it just made me very angry I had read about how she was the one that
fought the most for her life and it the flashbacks of her telling me I know how to fight like I'm okay like nothing's
going to happen to me came into my head and it made me think like wow you never really think this kind of stuff is going
to happen to you but there's always that chance one of the hardest things Linda had to do do was to tell Martha's
5-year-old daughter the truth [Music] Gordon's trial commenced on November the 16th
2016 the 47-year-old decided to represent himself in court but this time his story changes he
says no no Carno was responsible for planning this I was merely following on I had nothing to do with it I wasn't the
initiator this is like the ultimate control for Gordon he's in control of the courtroom everybody's listening to
what he has to say everybody's watching him he can call who he wants to the stand to me it seemed like he relished
in the moment during his trial Gordon blamed his probation officers for not keeping a
closer eye on him and tracking him he believe that they should be monitoring me more
carefully they both knew that they shouldn't be consorting with each other they both knew that was a violation of
their parole and they kept doing it it anyway for him to confess to having murdered all these women and then try to
blame all these other people for it is a little disingenuous Melody anayah who was now
15 years old was living out of the country during Gordon's trial I really wish I would have
attended I I had a lot to say he watched women die so I would have just wanted to
express to him like how it affected me just to let him hear it I would have just wanted to let that
out and let him know you know I don't have my mom anymore my little sister doesn't have her mom
[Music] anymore on December the 15th 2016 the jury returned their [Music] verdict it took jurors just about an
hour before coming back with a decision on Steven Gordon before the jurors came in he
laughed a little the jury don't hesitate in confirming Gordon's guilt and in a most
remarkable Outburst he then says to the court and I quote if you kill people like this in
Cold Blood you deserve to die I believe that and went on my actions are evil and
horrible and you're going to get your Justice very shortly on February the 3rd 2017 Steven Dean Gordon was sentenced to
death he doesn't complain at all when he sentenced to death in fact he accepts it
he's sent to death row in s Quentin in California Gordon he got the death penalty but obviously to me and the
other families that's not fair like you know we're never going to get our loved ones back and it'll never really be
fair Frank Carno was tried separately and in 2022 he was handed his punishment Caro finally pleads guilty to
the four rapes and murders but he's done a deal with the district attorney that if he confesses and pleads
guilty they won't ask for the death penalty so he's effectively saying whole life in
prison Justice may have been served in the eyes of the law but the families were left with unanswered
questions the only body that was ever found was J the bodies of the three other women were
never found they are believed to be in the Brea landfill and in fact Martha annia's family that's where they held a
memorial for was at the landfill that was the last known place where they believe she is
kava during his police interview Gordon had confessed to an additional murder the fifth victim was identified as sable
picket 19 years old from Compton which is located in Los Angeles County her body was never found
either people like Gordon are evil they're just they're kill machines they spend their whole lives doing this until
they're caught that's kind of the easiest way to think of these people they just evil
personify five women lost their lives at the hands of Steven Dean Gordon if he hadn't been caught when he
was there may have been more victims I believe he's evil because you know he looked these women in the eyes
he saw them take their last breath and still that didn't make him feel guilty enough to stop doing
[Music] that I'm glad this isn't going to happen to any other women the only thing as
selfish as it is like I wish it wouldn't have been my mom the person that I needed more than anything in this
world Steven Dean Gordon sexually molested a child and then formed a bond with another child predator working
together the they acted out their sick perversions resulting in abduction rape and the murder of five innocent women
Steven Dean Gordon will forever be known as one of the world's most evil killers
[Music] [Music]

Along with his accomplice, Frank Cano, Steven Dean Gordon murdered at least four sex workers in California between 2012 and 2013. The body of Gordon’s fourth victim was found in a pile of trash on a conveyor belt at a recycling center.

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Brief Summary

Steven Dean Gordon and Frank Carno murdered five women, with chilling confessions revealing their horrific crimes against sex workers.

Key points

Discovery of a Body. Workers at a recycling plant in Anaheim discover a body on the conveyor belt.
Linking the Murders. Police connect the murders of four sex workers to Steven Dean Gordon.
The Missing Women. Three sex workers disappear from Santa Ana, raising alarms.
The Chilling Texts. Police uncover chilling text messages revealing a bond between two sex offenders.
The Friendship of Predators. Steven Dean Gordon and Frank Carno form a dangerous friendship after their releases.
Gordon's Chilling Confession. Gordon provides a detailed confession about the murders he committed with Carno.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He saw them take their last breath.

Description of Steven Dean Gordon's actions

1:18WatchJun 25, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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