Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 13 - A Daughter's Journey - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her mother, a young woman set out
on a personal quest for answers. 20 years after the initial investigation, in some old bones, she found evidence of a deep, dark family
secret, a hint of what really happened to her mother. [theme music] Verona, Kentucky, population 500.
The center of town features a four-way stop, a one room city hall, and Mr. Herb's, a popular restaurant where the locals
gather for its famous fried fish. In a town this size, word spread quickly when 25-year-old Marlene Major, the mother of two young children,
was reported missing. Her husband, Bill, said she just got into our car and drove away.
BRUCE GRAHAM: He admitted they had an argument Saturday evening, and she was mad at him. He acted all upset.
Said he had spent the whole night driving here and there, looking for Marlene. NARRATOR: Bill and Marlene Major had
been married for nine years. They appeared to be a traditional couple, but their marriage wasn't the least bit conventional.
Bill wasn't Marlene's only love interest. She was having an affair with Glenn St. Hilaire, a man who
work for Marlene's husband and lived in a trailer on their property. BRUCE GRAHAM: As time went on, Glenn and the Bill's wife,
Marlene, became closer friends and actually a romance started between the-- the two of them.
NARRATOR: Bill not only knew about the affair, he encouraged it. BRUCE GRAHAM: I felt that Bill was actually
using Glenn to get close to Marlene. Because I don't think Bill's interest was in Marlene at all.
NARRATOR: And there were rumors that Bill also had a girlfriend on the side. When questioned by police, both her husband Bill and Glen St.
Hillaire denied any involvement in Marlene's disappearance and said they didn't know where she went.
Marlene's children, eight-year-old Donald and four-year-old LaLana were in bed when Marlene left,
and they heard nothing out of the ordinary. Marlene's car was missing too, but she
left without taking any personal items. LALANA BRAMBLE: She went to the doctor like the week
before and had gotten a prescription allergy medication. That was there. All of her jewelry was there.
She didn't have her driver's license, her Social Security card. She had nothing with her.
NARRATOR: Police found no evidence of a struggle either in Marlene's home or in Glenn St. Hillaire's trailer.
LALANA BRAMBLE: It was literally like she had just completely dropped off the face of the earth, gone, poof.
BRUCE GRAHAM: Maybe she decided to heck with the whole thing. I'll go start a new life someplace else.
NARRATOR: Bill told the children their mother had abandoned them. LALANA BRAMBLE: He just basically
said that she was a drug addict. She was an alcoholic. She was a prostitute, that she did not care about us.
And that she had ran off and left with another man. That's what we thought had happened.
You know, I mean, what else were we to believe? NARRATOR: Officials in Kentucky searched
diligently for the missing woman. LINDA TALLY SMITH: Her dental records were faxed all over the United States.
Any time there was a woman of her approximate build and approximate age who was found,
I'd say they were probably faxed at least 25 different times. NARRATOR: But their efforts were fruitless.
Eventually Bill Major and his two children moved from Kentucky to Rhode Island, where his parents lived.
And one year after Marlene's disappearance, Bill remarried. Glenn St. Hillaire stayed in Verona
and took a job at a local factory. For the next 20 years, no one heard from Marlene Major, not
her children, her family, or her friends. But something in Marlene's diary hinted at a deep, dark family
secret that shed new light on a very cold case. LaLana and her brother Donald grew up
believing their mother had abandoned them. Making things worse, their father became increasingly abusive.
-I've seen him beat my brother to the point Donald could not pick himself up off the floor.
You know, you would miss school because you had bruises. Finally, when the children could take it no longer,
they confided to their new stepmother that their father was sexually abusing both of them
and had also threatened them. -To keep me and my brother in line when we were kids,
it was if you don't do what I tell you to, if you don't cooperate, I will kill your brother.
You know, and would turn around and tell my brother, if you don't do what I tell you to, if you don't cooperate,
I will kill your sister. NARRATOR: Bill's new wife called police and had him arrested
for first-degree sexual assault. We're peaking around the corner, and he looked down the hallway at us.
And I mean, just look in his eyes. And just sat there. And I said to myself, I hope they keep him.
I pray to God that the keep him. Because if they don't keep him, we're as good as dead.
NARRATOR: Bill Major was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Nine-year-old LaLana and 13-year-old Donald
moved back to Kentucky to live with their maternal grandmother. And by now, LaLana was old enough to ask her grandmother
about something that had always haunted her. LALANA BRAMBLE: We were sitting in the parking
lot in front of a department store. And I said, well, do you know where my mother is?
You know, have you seen? Have you heard from her? It was just like 10 seconds of absolute silence.
And she looked at me. She said, honey. She said, your mother's dead. She said, she's been dead.
She said your father killed her. NARRATOR: But LaLana's grandmother had no proof, only suspicion.
So LaLana decided to investigate her mother's disappearance on her own. LALANA BRAMBLE: I watched things, you know, on old murder
investigations and scientific documentary shows on Court TV, and, you know-- I watched all that stuff out
of interest to see what I could pick up to see what I could learn. NARRATOR: When LaLana turned 20, she was given access
to your mother's cold case file. And in her mother's diary, she found a clue. There was a notation that implied her mother knew what
her father was doing to her brother Donald. MARLENE MAJOR (VOICEOVER): for school and caught Bill with him.
He tried to hide what they were doing, but I know what I saw. I guess I died inside.
I told him not to touch me ever again. And if he ever touched Donald, I'll kill him.
He wants me to help him, and I don't know what to do. LINDA TALLY SMITH: Marlene couldn't even
tell that horrific secret to her own family. But she did record it in her diary, not in specific detail,
but enough that you know what she's talking about. NARRATOR: LaLana also found evidence
that her mother was considering divorce. MARLENE MAJOR (VOICEOVER): I have something on him.
He'll sign the papers and won't open his mouth. If he doesn't I'd go to his mom.
Just take my word for it, he won't. He'd die before he'd let his mom find out what I have on him.
Did he murder someone? No, worse. Let's put it this way-- I could be the biggest whore that ever
walked the streets of Verona and no judge in the country would give him custody of my kids over me.
LALANA BRAMBLE: He knew that if she left, she would tell someone eventually, and he would end up going to prison for it,
you know? Which, obviously, he did not want. NARRATOR: To find out more, LaLana interviewed everyone
she could find who had known her mother. LALANA BRAMBLE: I got a composition notebook.
Cost me like $0.99 at Walmart. And if I talked to somebody, I wrote the date, the time,
and what the conversation was over. NARRATOR: And everyone said the same thing, including Glenn St.
Helaire, her mother's boyfriend. LALANA BRAMBLE: Glenn told me about something my father had said.
And he made the statement that if my mother had ever tried to leave him and take us that he would kill her,
and that he knew how to commit the perfect crime. -He told several people that he would cut her head off, cut
her-- knock he teeth out with the butt of the gun after he shot her in the head.
And then he would remove her jaw. He'd cut her up in little pieces and spread her throughout the state.
NARRATOR: And LaLana discovered something else. One year after her mother's disappearance,
a hunter had found a human skull in a rural tract of land just a mile from her home.
The bone was too badly degraded for DNA analysis. And there were no teeth or jaw, so dental comparisons
were impossible too. But LaLana was convinced this was her mother's skull. BRUCE GRAHAM: It's one thing having a murder case where you
have no suspect, and you just have to let it go. But when you feel 100% sure you know who murdered your victim,
and you just can't do anything about it, it's a hopeless feeling. NARRATOR: Almost 20 years later, LaLana searched the area
herself, going so far as to dig in nearby sinkholes. She too was unsuccessful. LALANA BRAMBLE: I was really, really, really, really
hoping to find something, because I was like, if I could find something, if I could-- you know,
that would be something more than we have now. If I could find the rest of her body.
But at the same time, you know, it was constant terror that I would find something.
NARRATOR: Despite her frustration, LaLana soon learned that new forensic testing might
be able to identify the mysterious skull, which for the past 20 years has been kept
in the medical examiner's office. LALANA BRAMBLE: This is our hope. This is our chance.
NARRATOR: Marlene Major's daughter LaLana strongly suspected that a skull found in 1981 was her mother's.
EMILY CRAIG: There was no face. There was no jaw. It was just the top of the skull that
had a distinct bullet hole right in the to of it. NARRATOR: The medical examiner determined
that the fatal bullet entered her face and came up through the top of her skull.
Three types of weapons could have caused an injury this size. One was a 9-millimeter pistol, the same type
of weapon Bill Major carried. A forensic anthropologist concluded the skull was that of a Caucasian female
approximately 30 years old. EMILY CRAIG: The female characteristics on the skull that we can see were the lack of a brow ridge.
Most males have a heavy ridge right here across their brow. And this particular skull did not.
NARRATOR: And there was evidence that someone deliberately tried to prevent an identification.
EMILY CRAIG: At the base of the skull, where the jaw inserted, there were small cut marks where it appeared as if that someone
had deliberately tried to sever the ligaments that attached the jaw to the rest of this skull.
NARRATOR: But 20 years had passed since Marlene Major disappeared. And during that time, scientists found a way
to extract DNA from fossils tens of thousands of years old. It wasn't DNA from the cell's nucleus,
of the mitochondria that live outside the nucleus, which are more plentiful and easier to analyze.
But mitochondrial DNA is passed to children only from the mother, so it limits the amount of information.
Marlene Major's relatives were willing to pay for this new DNA test themselves, at the time almost $20,000.
-One of the hardest things that I ever heard was that one of the sisters of Marlene Major
actually was tying to cash in her own retirement to see if she would be able to pay for this DNA testing.
-When my aunt told me that she was going to pay for the DNA test, I'm like, they can't do DNA.
And she's like, yes, they can. There is some kind of test that they can do. So I went on the internet and started looking up on DNA
and found out about the mitochondrial DNA. NARRATOR: Officials in Kentucky eventually rethought
their position and decided to pay for this new DNA test available through LabCorp in North Carolina.
A tiny bone fragment was frozen with liquid nitrogen, crushed into a fine powder and placed
into a vile with the DNA concentration buffer. The sample was then amplified, creating millions of copies
of the DNA so there was a sufficient amount to be tested. Technicians then used a computer to compare to mitochondrial
DNA sequences of the skull to that found in LaLana's s saliva. SHAWN WEISS: We're looking at 700 bases,
and it would be hard for the human eye to line up all 700 bases. So the majority of the interpretation
on the sequencing is done by computers. NARRATOR: Since mitochondrial DNA is passed maternally,
Marlene Major and her two children would all have the same mitochondrial DNA profile.
When the DNA from the skull was compared to LaLana's DNA, it was an exact match.
LALANA BRAMBLE: I felt like taking out a full page ad in the Garrett County newspapers and saying,
OK, look. DNA test back positive. Marlene-- Marlene Oaks is dead. OK, she didn't walk out and leave her kids.
She's dead. You know, she was murdered. NARRATOR: 20 years after Marlene Major's skull was found,
science proved her identity. Her diaries had suggested motive, and Marlene's the daughter LaLana was determined
to bring her father to justice. Prosecutors believed Marlene Major discovered the truth
about her husband, that he was sexually abusing his own children. In her diary, Marlene said she was considering divorce
and would use this information against him if he stood in her way. For this reason, and based on the forensic evidence,
prosecutors concluded Marlene's murder was premeditated. They believe Bill killed Marlene with his handgun.
[gunshot] Then dismembered her body to remove all traces of identification. Prosecutors think he buried Marlene's remains
in several nearby sinkholes, disposed of the gun and pushed her car into the Ohio River.
This way he could say, Marlene simply drove off. TIM CARNAHAN: It's ironic, because 20 years ago when
he committed this murder, he removed the teeth. He removed the jaw. He went through all these-- all these lengths
to cover up the crime. And back then, nobody had any idea that, you know, 20 years later we would be able to solve it with just a very
small piece of material from that skull. NARRATOR: Bill's own father put the last piece
of the puzzle in place. He said, Bill confessed to the murder during a conversation the two of them had five years earlier.
TIM CARNAHAN: For a man to kill his wife, to him, was appalling. And from that day forward, he pretty well disowned his son.
He didn't want anything to do with him. NARRATOR: Bill's father gave police this information at the time.
But without any hard evidence, the information was useless. LINDA TALLY SMITH: In Kentucky, we
have a rule that says that a defendant's statements are not enough. You have to have something to corroborate
a defendant's statements. And, you know, from '96 until 2001, all we had was the statement.
NARRATOR: Bill's father, once again, offered to help in any way he could. TODD KENNER: I asked him if he would mind us coming up
to Nova Scotia, put a recorder on his phone, and then he would contact his son in Massachusetts.
And he agreed to. NARRATOR: Sure enough, Bill incriminated himself. BILL'S FATHER (ON THE PHONE): I keep calls from LaLana.
And she wants to know where her mother is so that she can get the bones and put them in a casket and have closure.
BILL (ON THE PHONE): Yeah, and put me in jail for life. BILL'S FATHER (ON THE PHONE): You have
pulled the perfect crime, haven't you? BILL (ON THE PHONE): No, I wouldn't call it perfect.
BILL'S FATHER (ON THE PHONE): No. BILL (ON THE PHONE): 'Cause if the crime was perfect,
nobody would ever know about it. NARRATOR: Bill Major was arrested and charged with Marlene's murder.
During extradition to Kentucky, he confessed to the local sheriff. TIM CARNAHAN: He said, killing that girl meant nothing to me.
It'd be like me getting up every morning, tying my shoes. That's what it meant to me.
-She would have been taking his-- toys, I guess is how you would phrase it, or-- because his children were more than children to him.
-Ultimately, she died to protect us. You know, she was trying to get away from him
and to get us out of that situation. OK. She was trying to protect her children.
NARRATOR: Major admitted pushing his wife's car into the Ohio River and burying her body in a sinkhole.
But neither the car nor the rest of her remains have ever been recovered. TIM CARNAHAN: We dug out the sinkhole.
The sinkhole just seemed to be endless. We dug out as far as we could with a backhoe,
but nothing was found. And again, the river, with the flooding and the speed of the river during times, there's
no telling where that car's out. LINDA TALLY SMITH: Current is so strong and the years were so many that the chances of finding that car
was like looking for a needle in a haystack. NARRATOR: It took the jury only 43 minutes
to find Bill Major guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
TIM CARNAHAN: LaLana had been driven for a long time to bring closure to this and to bring her father to justice.
I mean, it was obvious, just you could see the passion for this in her eyes, the way she talked.
She had a deep hatred for her father, and she really-- even though she didn't really know her mother
that well-- she was just a child when all this occurred-- she had a lot of love for her mother.
NARRATOR: Bill's incriminating statements and the scientific proof the skull was
in fact Marlene's were all investigators needed. LALANA BRAMBLE: And I thought, if anything is going
to be our friend and who's going to help us, it's going to be the science. You know, because that was not something he was counting on.
EMILY CRAIG: The ability to identify partial human remains after that length of time is totally amazing.
And if it were not for the advances in DNA science, this still would be impossible.
TIM CARNAHAN: Science is definitely smarter than our criminals. Criminals today may know what we can do with science,
but nobody knows what we're going to do tomorrow. [theme music]

Haunted by the disappearance of her mother, a young woman undertook an investigation of her own. Her mother's diary was in the cold case file; there, she discovered a dark family secret, which might have been the reason her mother vanished.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

Marlene Major's disappearance leads to her daughter's investigation, revealing dark family secrets and ultimately proving Bill Major's guilt in her murder.

Key points

Marlene Major's Mysterious Disappearance. A young woman embarks on a quest to uncover the truth behind her mother's disappearance.
The Dark Secrets of the Major Family. Years later, shocking revelations about Marlene's life and her husband's betrayal emerge.
The Truth Comes to Light. After years of searching, LaLana discovers the truth about her mother's fate through DNA evidence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

DNA test back positive. Marlene-- Marlene Oaks is dead.

LaLana's reaction to the confirmation of her mother's death through DNA testing.

15:03WatchJan 1, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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