Full Moon | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] it was a stunning Summer Night the moon was out beautiful full moon I'm still
afraid during full moons not really afraid of the moon but just that something bad could happen during a full
moon on August 28th 1996 I went out on a date with my Zach it was the very first time he'd
asked me out on a date and a part of me just thought why would I go on a date with you you're my Zach you're my friend
but then I thought absolutely we just started driving up the canyon I remember feeling that little twinge of excitement
when you realize you really have a crush on someone and that they have a crush on
on you Zach snar made me laugh and that connected us from the very beginning in high school we just it
seemed like we had every class together and he'd always have some smart elic remark to make when I walked in the
classroom and I think I started to look forward to those comments to see well what would he say about me today
while we're driving I remember thinking I'm going to get a kiss tonight Zach's going to kiss me
tonight Zach turned into this parking the lot and he said well I've got a surprise for
you and then he pulled out his photography equipment and Zach was going to teach me
how to take pictures he loved black and white pictures and we were going to get pictures of this full
moon tonight we went down a cement pathway probably 100 yards and I think it was about that time
that a white truck pulled up and in Utah at 9: 8:30 at night cars pull up in the mountain
you don't think anything at [Music] all the man in the truck started walking toward
us and he asks me do you know where this path goes and I answered back saying something that oh I don't know we've
never been here or I'm not sure and that's when I turned my back and I don't know if Zach turned his head
too but I hope that Zach turned away because that's when the man pulled out a gun and just open
[Music] fired he aimed at us and let every single bullet out of his gun [Music] [Music]
I screamed a loud shriek bright bright lights pungent acidy smell in the air and my ears just started
ringing I don't know where the first bullet hit me but my body just fell down then it's silent for a
minute and then I remember thinking this is over now this is over and it turns out that the man is
reloading his gun and he's getting bullets out of his pocket and putting them in his
gun when then three or four more shots and they feel really close and I can feel the speed and almost just wind
brushing by then he stops finally I don't dare move at that point all I could think of in my mind
was hearing my dad saying if a Grizzly ever attacks you you need to hold still and play
dead and so I held my breath and I didn't close my eyes and I stayed as still as I could and when he moved my
body I just let it move with him because I needed to be dead for [Music] him when he touched me here on my hips
that was the first time I was really afraid that's when I thought well he's going to rape
me and that terrified me much more than what he had just done to us because I didn't have a concept of what being shot
was but everybody's afraid to be [Music] raped but he didn't instead he was looking for money
I assume and he reached in all my pockets his face is this close to me and he's breathing on
me and then the man ran up the mountain and I know he's gone for sure when I hear Zach's car start
up I yelled Zach's name and it was so quiet and I yelled again Zach and it was the worst silence that I've
ever heard in my whole life well I couldn't walk I couldn't stand but my arms were moving and my
left leg was moving and I realized the closest way to get to the road was up the mountain
[Music] side it it felt so vertical that I just felt like I kept climbing up and then I'd fall back
down I could feel cars driving by I could feel the wind brushing against my face I knew I
was so close to the road but I have no idea how I got to the top and I kneeled on the side of the road and
waved my arms like this to the first car and it didn't [Music] stop our plan was to get there in time
to watch the moonrise all of a sudden in that headlights in front of us crawled out
from the side of the brush this woman covered in blood it was like a horror movie but
much worse because it's real she was in shock but she was able to hold a conversation the victim told me her name
was IET Roder and um that she and her friend had been shot I wanted to help the person below
but I was afraid to go down [Music] there at this point it was getting a little scary because we didn't know if
the person who had shot her was still lurking in the area she was in and out of Consciousness and every once in a while
she kept saying when is the help coming and uh we just kept saying they're they're coming they're
[Music] coming I remember getting in the helicopter on the gurnie you know facing straight
up to the sky and one of the first things this paramedic in the helicopter says is well
you know this is a beautiful night and we've got a pretty short flight so let's just enjoy this
[Music] and it was a beautiful night and I do remember looking out at the sky and being up in the air and feeling
safe and it's probably the last moment of peace I felt for a long time [Music] [Music]
I was shot at least four times and then several bullets grazed my head [Music] one of the bullets came and hit this
shoulder and just dug a chunk of skin out one of them came to my side and actually did expand and open up this
entire left side then one came in behind it up higher and came all the way through my
torso to my inner thigh and that's where it got lodged and the fourth came right across
my head after the surgery a social worker came in and she asked me for Zach's parents
number we were all in bed it's qu to 1 in the morning and our doorbell rang my daughter uh got up and answered
the door and she came in the bedroom and she said there's two detectives here and
they want to talk to you guys and I sat straight up in bed and I said Zach's not
home and it's like it hit me Zach's not home so I think I at that instant I knew
something was wrong I went in there and I first thing I said was what's happened to my
son and they said well your son was involved in a shooting tonight I was in such shock I was
hearing what they were saying but it just wasn't registering and and I remember finally saying are you telling
me my son's dead and they just kind of looked at me like you know it just was not real to me
[Music] and I just said I have to go to the hospital I have to go see vet I remember her leaning
in and just hugging me and feeling her arms around me and I'm pretty positive the first
thing out of s's mouth was we are so glad you lived and that's still hard to think about
because I felt horrible at that moment that I had lived and I would have given anything to
switch and to let Zach be there and let them be hugging their own son [Music] it was a couple days after Zach was
murdered that we were sitting out I remember sitting out on the [Music] porch and my dad came out and said they
caught him they caught him and we all ran inside and the News was on after allegedly shooting and leaving the two
young people for dead at little Dell Reservoir there were all these reporters and these flashes going off 15-year-old
murder suspect was taken off to jail here's Jorge Ben venudo total stranger I remember just looking at him
thinking who who is this you know why why investigators say George Ben venuto had developed a fascination with death
in recent weeks Jorge Ben Veno was an immigrant from Uruguay from what we've learned about
him he was just a loner it took the police a couple of days to find him they knew immediately who it was
because he had taken my brother's car and left his car behind he also had my brother's wallet they believe he
abandoned his truck at the scene and took snar Ford Bronco the afternoon that they caught him Ben venudo had gone to a
gas station and was buying cookies with the last of Zach's money the gas station
attendant recognized him because his picture had been all over the news the police arrested him just behind the
gas station he was sitting eating the cookies he just looked like this normal kid you know this young kid and I just
would stare at his picture for hours the policemen told us that he was 19 years old they told us he had come
from Uruguay he was living he lived in New York for a while and then moved out to
Utah and that he had bought a gun a couple of weeks before and um apparently somebody had robbed his house that made
him very [Music] angry on the way to the interview I was trying to understand what type of
individual I would be talking [Music] with during my conversation with Ben n he began offering his reason for
shooting these two young people and part of his explanation was that he was tired
of living himself that he wanted to do something so bad that he would have the courage to then kill
himself but he said that in fact he' lost his nerve after he had shot both of these
individuals he had a real power trip with the firearm this made him feel powerful and
somehow uh in control of things when I described to Ben venuto that he had only completed killing one
of the two individuals the surprise was visible on his face uh he was almost um disappointed that this gun that he
treasured and thought so highly of let him down [Music] he had told them I just wanted to watch
someone die I want to see what it feels like to kill someone I mean they could have taken a
knife and run it through my body I don't think it would have been as painful because that's when we realized how it
was a Thrill Kill it was a totally random Thrill Kill I remember he was smiling and just
looking into the camera just made you sick it just made me sick just to see him in a way I wish they
would have just shot him right then in there I remember the next morning waking up in in my room and it was a beautiful
morning and I remember the sun coming in through my window and the house was just
silent and I remember thinking oh it was it was a dream what a horrible horrible
nightmare and then my bedroom door opened and my friend came in and she was just balling and I that's when I knew
that oh my word this really happened and it just seemed so impossible the could be gone because
honestly Zach was just bigger than life he had he had such a light about him that
there was just no way that anyone could have taken him from [Music] us the funeral I remember being in our church
just the amount of people there was staggering I mean just there it was standing room only it was a beautiful
tribute for Zach IET was there and I remember she could barely walk she got out of the
hospital just long enough for the funeral and then she had to go back but she was very weak and I remember just
just she felt so bad she felt so guilty and here we are we we just looked at her
and she was such a beautiful miracle for us we were so grateful that she had survived walking out afterward behind
his casket was painful was really when I just wanted to crawl up in a ball and hide from everybody and just
not be the girl that lived I didn't want to be that person right then I just wanted to hide and be
Zach's [Music] friend our house was so full of people and one day all of a sudden
people quit coming and it hit me so hard one day he's really not coming home and I found out through experience there
is such a thing as a broken heart you know you hear of a broken heart but it is a physical pain I never realized that
it hurt me to [Music] breathe and I would look around and see all these people getting on with their
lives and I would think how can they walk how can they do what they're doing and how can they laugh and how can they
be happy because for me life was basically over I felt like it was over before the shooting I would say I was a
very trusting person I was someone who really thought everyone else in this world was kind and generous and
giving and after the shooting I was terrified of everyone didn't trust I didn't want to
socialize didn't want to leave my house my mom made sure that someone was with me 24 hours a day in my room I was so
afraid that this man was going to come and finish the [Music] job I remember one night just feeling so
desperate for help and I went and I just became so angry all sudden Ben venudo had the power to make me who I've always
been a happy person I I couldn't even smile and I remember I went and I kicked a hole in my wall in my apartment
because I was just so angry I think I really hated Jorge Ben venudo when it was like a cancer spreading
through my whole body I wanted to hurt him I wanted to hurt him like he had hurt Zach
well it was pretty obvious that the snars thought the appropriate sentence was the death
penalty and they made that very clear to us Bob st came in our home and I just looked at him and I said kill
him we understood that and we told them of course that that's what our goal was our object was to seek the most
appropriate punishment we certainly felt that the death penalty would be an appropriate punishment and we were going
after that I always knew I would have to testify at some point and it scared me to get ready for
it but there's no way you can really prepare to be in the same room as the man who shot you
[Music] I will never ever forget that day in court just knowing I was going to see
Jorge Ben Veno for the the first time scared me to [Music] death at the beginning of the
case we had a preliminary hearing which is like a mini trial and that's where I had to
testify the courtroom was packed when they brought him into the courtroom I just felt like he sucked the air right
out of there kind of it's like I'm looking at the person who who murdered my son he didn't look at us and I was like
look at me you know look at me this this boy had a mother this this boy had a family who loved
him and he just didn't even look at us when when I saw him in the courtroom I realized he has no
[Music] soul and he stood there and pleaded not [Music] guilty I don't remember actually walking
to the stand but I do remember sitting there and having to point him out and lifting my finger and I remember
watching my finger and it just shook while I'm pointing at him that this is the man who did
[Laughter] it she looked so afraid and she was trying so hard to be brave I was amazed that she could get up
there and look at him after what he had done to her but she did it she did it I imagined a lot what Zach would have
done and he would have been so strong and so brave during it and so I just tried to be as strong as Zach would have
been afterwards she just fell and she was just sobbing [Music] I wanted him to get the death
penalty like he didn't have the right to live we were ready to go to trial we were ready to ask for the de pen we had
a good case this is the kind of case that we would have won but on on the other hand it's a very
difficult process we have to convince the jury Beyond A Reasonable Doubt 12 jurors even if one
disagrees the death penalty is not given and there will be countless appeals countless habus corpuses they'll
have to appear at different hearings they'll see it in the newspaper they'll see it on
television Ben venudo said he shot them because he wanted to see what it felt like to watch them die and it won't be
over for another 20 to 25 [Music] years or did not want to die so that is why Jorge benano decided to to ask for a
plea bargain he would accept a a sentence of life without possibility of parole if he was not given the death
penalty in a trial my family was very torn about it would it be giving up on Zach if we
if we took this plea bargain at the time there was an execution going on in Texas and I remember the the crime had
happened 20 years before but these protesters were protesting the fact that they were going
to you know end his life and that he had changed his life and that he was truly [Music]
sorry and I remember just thinking I don't want that to happen to Zach I don't want 20 years from now protesters
out there talking about what a great person Jorge B venudo is I I couldn't stomach the thought and so that's why we
as a family decided to take the plea bargain I know a lot of people were really shocked the fact that we plea
bargained um it was on talk radio we had phone calls the media why would you do this I said I do not want my son's trial
turned into a freak Show he deserves more dignity than that having him just spend the rest of
his life in prison is fine with me and I can just know he's there in prison forever
high drama in a Utah courtroom today as a killer is sent to prison for life without parole George Ben Bono killed a
teenage boy and injured his friend before it's like finally it was really [Music]
over when we walked out of the courtroom the day the man that shot us the day he
was sentenced I was sure I was never going to see him again I was never going to
have to be in the same room as him again and then the man that shot us filed an appeal that said he was depressed when
he made that deal and because he was depressed when he made that deal he should get out of
it I remember thinking of all the people to claim you're depressed and you should
get out of consequences how dare you [Music] [Music] the good thing about the appeal is I got
to make a victim statement and I wanted Jorge Ben Veno to hear me I wanted him to know what he had done to
us and I turned right to him and looked at him and I said Jorge what was it like
watching someone die and I just stopped and waited and he looked up at me for one brief second and then dropped his
head again that is the only time he's looked at me and then I said was it worth it I didn't get an answer surprise
[Music] surprise it like being kicked in the stomach so hard it's just Indescribable
how that felt I could not believe that he could do that to us [Music] again I know the name of the man who
shot me and who killed Zach but I don't say it out loud I refuse to give him that power or respect and I've never
said his name out loud and I never will [Music] I've had five operations total it took about 3 years for me to
officially be out of hospitals the most painful part has actually been the nerve damage to not
have sensation on the right side of my body can be really painful [Music] sometimes I would much rather have
a surgery every other week then have to feel the survivor's guilt I would go over to the cemetery
and there would be the sweetest notes and little things on Zach's grave from evet and and you could read her pain
that she felt so guilty for having survived I didn't want to intrude I didn't want to force her to be part of
our Lives I thought maybe it was too painful for her her but I really wanted her in my life and our whole my whole
family felt this Bond towards her whenever I'm with her I think you were with my son and he was
happy that night with [Music] you and the danai is the most consistently loving person that I could ever ask for in my
life and she's a person that knows how I feel I feel selfish about it but I really value when she tells me that
she's happy that I'm here I don't deserve it but I appreciate it a [Music] lot I tried for so long to be that girl
I was when I was 18 and it was actually my mom who finally one day said you know you're
going to just need to mourn the evet you were she's gone and you won't ever be her again but you
have the chance to be someone a lot different and a lot better we hold those speaking of baseball speaking of
baseball I went to college to be a news anchor are still recording and I thought
that was going to be my happy ever after that okay but after the shooting and going through the court process I
realized that the law is where a lot of good can happen for people and I decided
to go to law school and am now able to help people in the law side of the Criminal Justice
System I work entirely with victims of crime and while I don't tell my story with them and they don't know what's
happened to me I do feel like I'm able to give them a sense of compassion that maybe other
people can't and that means the world to me what's your favorite part on a horse I'm
32 years old I have a darling 7-year-old daughter I was married at one point and
my ex-husband and I tried really hard to have that work and and it didn't unfortunately but he is the father of my
daughter and together I think we're raising a pretty good kid so I feel really lucky in my
life I miss Zach and I I think about him all the time like all the time but I don't dwell on his death anymore I dwell
on his life I have three children my oldest is Zachary Taylor Davis I wanted to name
him after Zach sometimes it just brings tears to my eyes cuz you know not only is he named after him but I think he
looks a lot like him every time I look at the Moon I think of Zachary he's the man in the
moon to me and I can never look at the full moon without thinking of that night that he saw the beauty in that full
[Music] moon it's been 14 years since I was with Zach last and I think of him every single
day I can imagine his [Music] laugh I would love to see him again and just run to him and hug
him and it's interesting I think I'll I I want to say wasn't that night so scary and have him look at me and say
yeah it was and he would know what I was talking about [Music] he [Music]

A first date turns deadly and only one survives. Yvette Rodier tells her story. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "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

IET Roder recounts surviving a shooting that killed her friend Zach Snar, detailing trauma, court battles, and her path to healing.

Key points

A Date Under the Full Moon. A romantic evening turns into a nightmare when a gunman attacks.
The Attack. A sudden and violent encounter leaves the narrator in fear for her life.
The Aftermath. A mother learns of her son's tragic fate after a shooting incident.
The Funeral. A community gathers to mourn the loss of a vibrant young life.
The Plea Bargain. The family grapples with the decision to accept a plea deal for the shooter.
Survivor's Guilt. Navigating the emotional weight of surviving while others did not.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was going to get a kiss tonight, Zach's going to kiss me.

Anticipating a romantic moment on a date.

2:02WatchAug 26, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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