Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 19 - Seedy Intentions - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a little girl goes missing our kids just don't disappear her name's cynthia and
she's nine years old searchers spend weeks looking for her they did a search basically on their hands and knees
looking for evidence but a psychic told them where to go i don't know any other way to explain it
but she described as having a vision some sort of religious experience where she saw something in her in her mind
some dead plants give investigators a vital clue but will it be enough to find the killer it's difficult to conceive of
an individual who would do that to a nine-year-old girl it was a normal 4th of july as residents
of lakewood washington celebrated with the usual parade and picnics for rhonda heberson it was time to spend
with her three daughters brittany ashley and cindy [Music] cindy basically was in and out of the
house all day playing and i was doing chores around the house and thought maybe later on that day we would go down
by the waterfront and watch the fireworks but nine-year-old cindy didn't come home
at dinnertime as she usually did so i started walking around the neighborhood asking people if they had
seen her they hadn't seen her as night fell hundreds of people gathered for the fireworks display
that's when cindy's mother called the sheriff's department yes my daughter is missing she came home yet where was she
going when you last started she was going over to a friend's house and she's not there
sheriff's deputies searched the neighborhood and found no trace of her by morning it had become quite serious
she still had not returned and there had been no phone calls by her or anyone else
over 100 volunteers helped in the search you've got brushy areas and in this part
of the country you have these blackberry bushes with these just nasty thorns on them so these searchers they were going
through these weeds in these bramble bush and they were coming out just scratched and bleeding i'm just really
amazed how many people have been coming together and helping me out and praying for cindy
48 hours passed and police focused their attention on cindy's parents who were divorced
cindy's father had an alibi for the afternoon of her disappearance but during the call to report cindy
missing investigators thought her mother sounded vague she didn't seem to show a lot of emotion
about her daughter being missing she didn't seem concerned or very worried police interrogated ronda for hours
they brought her in there one night about 9 00 pm and they kept her there until six in the morning the next day
that was really horrible that was uh it was a nightmare i thought i was gonna go to jail
rhonda denied involvement in her daughter's disappearance but she failed a polygraph test
during the mother's polygraph she was asked questions about whether she had any knowledge of cindy's whereabouts
and that was the question that she failed she had said she did not i hadn't been sleeping i had been eating
i was a mess neighbor's prayers for the child's safe return went unanswered [Music]
even the promise of a five thousand dollar reward didn't produce results [Music]
her name's cynthia and she's nine years old [Music] two weeks passed then police received a call from a
member of ronda's church she said she saw something in a dream [Music] she described it as having a vision
some sort of religious experience where she saw something in her in her mind the woman said she had a vision of a
young girl lying in a field who was either asleep or dead she even drew a map of where the body was
the spot was a half mile from cindy's home an area volunteers had already searched
they did a search basically on their hands and knees looking for evidence and they didn't find her
the first time but this time they found cindy allenger's body she was under a water heater
and wrapped in some carpet it'll never be the way it was all the kids it won't you see them walking in twos
now still and i think it'll stay that way because the kids now know that it could happen
to anybody police now faced an unusual situation a mother who failed a polygraph test and
a psychic who mysteriously knew the location of cindy's body i thought this was so bizarre
that they would have found the body this way [Music] nine-year-old cindy allenger was buried
amid a community stunned by the brutality of her death [Music] her autopsy revealed she had been
sexually assaulted and beaten i think it was just shocking and scary to imagine what's out there
cindy's body was found next to an abandoned house in a large field the body was wrapped in four layers of
thick shag carpet this neighborhood was known to be the highest gang area in our city
there were approximately 64 sex offenders registered in that area so the area was pretty well saturated with sex
offenders before police could interview them they needed to know when cindy was murdered
for that they looked at insect activity on her body after death insects will in fact find the body and then
begin to exploit the body as a source of food but in this case dr goff needed to know if the carpet
that covered cindy's body hindered the insect activity so dr goff wrapped a dead animal in
several layers of carpet and placed it outside then he monitored the insect activity
he worked backwards and then you determine approximately when the egg was laid and this is going to be an estimate
of the minimum period of time since death the test showed that the carpet prevented insects from getting to the
body for a full day this proved that cindy was murdered on her about the day she went missing
july 4th [Music] police interviewed all 64 sex offenders in the area to ascertain their
whereabouts for the 4th of july all at alibis i didn't know that there was that many
sex offenders in that area i heard about that i was like i'm moving [Music] it was cindy's sister ashley who was
seven years old at the time who provided an important clue i do remember we were playing together
and then she told me she was going down to raz's house i know she liked going down there a lot
razz was a guy that lived down the street from us an older man [Music] rez was guy rasmussen
a 30 year old musician i actually went over there with her a few times she just played with his dog
and go and he had a drum set in his shed and she'd go in there with him and play the
drums guy rasmussen stood out in the neighborhood because he looked like a hippie with his tie-dye shirts and he
seemed out of his time zone cindy's mother originally thought raz was the same age as her children when
she learned he was an adult she put her foot down i thought it was a kid and then she said it was a man and i
said well you can't go over to this man's house he i don't know him and you're not supposed to play with grown
men when police questioned rasmussen he denied cindy had been to his home on july 4. he also claimed to have an
guy rasmussen told us that he was picked up from the store by his friend at approximately 4 15 that afternoon and
then they went to rock festival in thurston county pay phone records confirmed this 415
call cindy's mother said she last saw cindy at 4 30. if she had last seen her at 4 30 then
guy rasmussen would have had an airtight alibi but like cindy's mother rasmussen also failed a polygraph test
it is probably the most frustrating case of anyone's career but in rasmussen's trash
police found a torn drawing of rasmussen's dog that cindy had given to him several weeks earlier
it was interesting that he had torn up this picture and this was after he knew that
she was missing but did this mean anything cindy allenger's mother rhonda and the
neighbor guy rasmussen both failed polygraph examinations when questioned about cindy's murder
but then a new suspect emerged ronda's boyfriend chris doyle he had a history of domestic violence he
had hit ronda it was not clear whether or not he had you know physically assaulted the kids
but he but he did have a temper during police interrogation doyle admitted he once threw cindy off of the
porch during an argument but denied any involvement in cindy's murder when he was questioned there were things
that he didn't want me to know about that he admitted to hurting cindy i didn't know about that i thought it
was an accident the whole time the mother's boyfriend was given a polygraph exam as well and he did pass
that polygraph exam police also questioned the psychic who had led police to cindy's body she would
never go on the record in terms of you know going agreeing to an interview we spoke on the phone
but the psychic had an alibi and was eliminated as a suspect so police turned their attention back to
guy rasmussen a background check revealed rasmussen served six years in prison for raping a
teenager and assaulting a ten-year-old girl he had also been a suspect in two previous murders although wasn't charged
because of a lack of evidence he had been polygraphing both those homicides and had failed
in cindy's case rasmussen claimed to have an alibi for the time of her murder he had called his friend at
approximately 4 15 on the pay phone to come pick him up and telephone records confirmed it
cindy's mother told police she last saw her daughter at 4 30 on the afternoon of
july 4th but investigators replayed the 911 call cindy's mother made to police and
discovered a discrepancy how long ago was it that you'd lastina i saw her last about three o'clock we were
able to determine that basically rhonda's sense of what happened that day was simply
not accurate cindy's mother said it was a simple mistake this information provided a window
from about three o'clock to 4 15 when rasmussen could have committed the crime armed with this new information
investigators searched rasmussen's home and confiscated the clothes he was wearing on july 4th the clothes his
friend said rasmussen was wearing at the concert guy rasmussen had been keeping his
unwashed clothing in the bathtub in the home and so it was just all strewn in there
of particular interest were tiny bits of plant material on his shoes and socks so police sent the samples to forensic
botanist dr larry dennis johnston her first task was to identify the different plants on rasmussen's clothes
to see whether they were the same as those at the crime scene the samples were mostly
seeds very small i checked them out with my hand lens ended up putting them under a microscope
there were a couple of species of brome grass hocus lonatis which is velvet grass
more than a dozen plant species were identified on rasmussen's clothes they weren't only the same species as
those found at the crime scene they were also at the exact same stage of development
this led to only one conclusion if he said he wasn't there and the plants are showing that he was then
they can say he was there but rasmussen continued to maintain his innocence during a radio interview
he told the audience he met cindy only once animals i didn't know her really you know
and i didn't know her parents or anything when she come over me and my girlfriend
said you need to go home and tell you about where you're at what rasmussen said was one thing
but something scientists found on his shirt was quite another [Music] the chief suspect in cindy allenger's
murder was guy rasmussen who had a history of sexual violence his credibility was shattered when
police learned he had lied about his relationship with cindy guy rasmussen told investigators and he told me
that he'd only met cindy once but later it came out that he'd actually met her a few times
we learned from the younger sister ashley that guy rasmussen had given them a stuffed animal
a rabbit with a carrot is what he gave her but the only evidence linking him to the
crime was some plant material on his clothing but then investigators found something
else a stain on rasmussen's shirt when we initially collected the items from guy rasmussen's home we didn't
realize right away what we had the clothing was dirty unwashed and the shirts were multi-colored so it
was hard to see what was on it a preliminary test confirmed the stain was human blood
a dna test found not one but two genetic profiles they confirmed that the stain on his shorts was the
blood from cindy allenger and the semen guy rasmussen and they were a mixed stain
it was dna positive that he had committed this crime i can't describe how disgusted i am when i think about
him rasmussen was arrested while on stage playing a concert at a local club he wasn't on the county sex offender
list because his last conviction came before the law went into effect charging the defendant with aggravated
murder first degree kidnapping and first degree child rape guy rasmussen is a monster
it's difficult to conceive of an individual who would do that to a nine-year-old girl
the man who appeared in court was a far cry from the long-haired musician of just a few days earlier
but prosecutors painted a different picture of rasmussen for the jury they said that on july 4th
cindy went to rasmussen's home as she often did hey sandy yeah i'm gonna go buy a new place soon you want to come
check it out with me but this time rasmussen somehow lured her to an abandoned house several blocks away
possibly telling her he was thinking about buying it to fix it up once there he raped and murdered the little girl
then he wrapped her body with a carpet from the house he left her in the field picking up the
plant material on his shoes and socks then he walked to a nearby pay phone and called a friend in order to create an
alibi [Music] the insect activity established an estimated time of death and the plant material on his shoes and
socks proved he was in the field but his clothes stained with cindy's blood left no doubt
he was a killer we needed science to guide us we needed things like the botanist and the
entomology studies and the dna especially to get us in the right direction during his trial
rasmussen's lawyers claimed the forensic etymology report was incorrect and that
rasmussen was innocent because the crime occurred during the time he had an alibi
that argument failed to impress the jury [Music] we the jury having found the defendant
guilty of premeditated murder rasmussen was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to
life in prison without parole i like to see him get executed he don't deserve to live
he killed my daughter she was only nine years old she didn't have very much of a life
it was important to show the jury how painstakingly the police built the case that it wasn't a rush to
judgment anything of the sort that it was done very professionally and deliberately
it's kind of like losing everything you got somebody just takes everything away from you like including your insight
it's just like your heart's been ripped out if i could talk to her i just tell her i
love her very very much and that she was a real sweet loving little girl many believe
rasmussen would have continued on his crime spree but a combination of evidence bugs
plants and dna ensured he would never again prey on little girls if they didn't have forensic science
it would be kind of hard to pinpoint the killers it's amazing what they're able to do
these days with just the tiniest little things piece of grass you have to remain scientifically
objective and neutral you can't adopt let's get the bad guys mentality you can't take sides in all instances
you have to remain impartial about the only thing science couldn't explain was how the psychic knew the
location of her body the searchers didn't find her but for the tip from the psychic it may well have been a long
time before she was found [Music] you

When a nine-year-old girl goes missing, police and volunteers spend weeks searching for her. A psychic's vision leads to a field where her body is discovered, along with what investigators hope is enough evidence to help them to also find her killer.

Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Cynthia Allenger and the investigation that led to the arrest of Guy Rasmussen.

Key points

The Disappearance of Cindy Allenger. Nine-year-old Cindy goes missing on July 4th, sparking a massive search effort.
The Psychic's Vision. A psychic claims to have seen Cindy's location, leading to a shocking discovery.
The Arrest of Guy Rasmussen. Evidence mounts against Guy Rasmussen, leading to his arrest for Cindy's murder.
The Trial and Conviction. Rasmussen is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It'll never be the way it was.

Reflecting on the impact of Cindy's death.

5:04WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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