Kassanndra's Secret | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] [Music] Cass is a rare person she didn't care what you thought of her she didn't care
if you liked her she didn't care if she was too loud or too in your face she just was she was your best friend right
yeah yeah for years I got a pair of new shorts this t-shirt two essy nail polishes she got into these things
called haul videos where you would go shopping I will show you what I got and then I'll tell you how much everything
cost kind of spread the word about deals 99 $7.99 $8.99 $3.50 she never really left home I got
this for my mom I got this for my mom to go with the slippers I also got this for
her she was always there so we were really good friends on August 25th 2020 Cassandra's
mom Marie Smith got up she left for work everything was fine when I came home it was clear that
she had used the master bathroom to get ready to go all of her makeup was in there and then I didn't hear from
her I knew she had a shopping day planned and her friend Alexandra was going to be meeting with her the next
day [Music] I remember I was late by about 15 minutes I texted her hey where are you
hey I'm sorry I'm late I got no response I left panicked messages until her voicemail box was full she
never just went dark like that before the morning of the 27th I had text from Marie that said to Cass spend
the night with you is she at your place are you with her she's not with you I thought she was
with you and that's when I realized there was something wrong when did you call the
police I called them later that day get started out like uh any other adult missing person case the majority
of those calls are resolved with no nefarious activity maybe she's out there the world
is so wired with cameras there is just no way that somebody didn't see something we're able to see the white
car Cassandra's car Cassandra's car you can see a subject getting out of the vehicle and start walking away that's
damning evidence that's incredibly valuable evidence for us you can see him walking across the street he's dressed
in all black black shoes black pants black T-shirt blue surgical gloves and a black
fedora he knew something he was involved but there was something going on there we didn't know about yeah she was
Keeping a Secret she didn't want to tell me [Music] [Music] this is Ruby I called everybody anybody
I could think of this is going to be a complete Pet haul only and nobody had heard from her this I got for $8 and
change it was $9 and change $5.98 I was hoping that she might be alive somewhere for Marie Smith the
realization that her daughter Cassandra canell had been missing for more more than 2 days was almost more than she
could take I never thought that I'd be the person sitting here talking about my [Music]
daughter I wanted her found I don't even know how to explain how wrenching it is Marie's close friend
Christy Sinclair says it was Agony this can't be happening this isn't real she lost her phone she lost her car
she had no money I don't know anything but what you don't want to think about anything but that I'll show you this I
made it this was only $5 as Cassandra's family and friends grappled with her disappearance police got to work Pierce
County Sheriff's detective France helmy was assigned to the case his first step talk to those who knew Cassandra best
how did Marie describe Cassandra normal I got her these pajamas they're to cute responsible yeah responsible she would
you know call let her know you know where she was going detective helmy learned Cassandra was close with her
family and good about staying in touch they're selling me for $15 she enjoyed making those YouTube shopping videos and
love being on stage she'd even joined a local production of the rocky horror pictures show where people act alongside
the movieam Marie says it was a perfect fit for her daughter she was with a group of
people who were a little wacky like her she was good and she was adorable Sher Mueller the show's producer recalls
Cassandra's natural Talent she was playing a character by the name of Janet Weiss she also learned the character of
Colombia by all accounts at the time of her disappearance Cassandra was a happy 33-year-old and not someone who would
run off this wasn't the the typical missing person that was going to come home in a in a couple days detective
helmy canvased the area around where Marie and Cassandra lived and found on a neighbor security camera a clip of
Cassandra's white Mazda on the morning of August 25th it was seen leaving the neighborhood did you see any video of
the car coming back no as the hours ticked by with no sign of Cassandra her family and friends
tried to remain hopeful it was particularly difficult for Sandra's twin brother Rob growing up the two were
inseparable and would stay up late at night to watch scary movies she was never scared of that stuff no wow we
laughed at most of it okay she's tough girl then yeah as they got older their shared passion for movies evolved into
collecting memorabilia they even dreamed of opening their own collectible shop Half Price $2 it was only five bucks but
as close as they were Rob couldn't imagine where his sister went and he was filled with remorse about their last
conversation we were having an argument she wanted to actually come over on the 25th but I ignored her the 25th of
August 2020 the day Cassandra went missing that's a big regret I imagine still for you yeah cuz then she probably
would have told me what she was doing that day and I would have at least known where she had
gone Cassandra's family and friends organized searches I can't imagine what that must feel like like to be out there
searching and and knowing what you could possibly be looking for you put it in the back you don't think about that it's
just help me find a clue help me find a clue and then 3 days after Cassandra vanished police found her white Mazda
unlocked with the keys still inside it was almost underneath Interstate 705 which goes into the heart of the
downtown Tacoma it's an industrial area where groups of homeless people off in Camp her cars in the area did something
happen down here strange place for a young woman to park a car and then go missing yeah our alarm Bells going off
then yeah increasingly she had clearly gotten ready to go somewhere where did she go
who did she go to see detective heli had ordered an emergency trace on Cassandra's cell phone to try and find
her last known location and he discovered her phone last last pinged about 2 miles south of a tower on Bashon
island in the Puget Sound one of the first things I did was just get on Google Earth and strike an arc from that
Tower to see where it lands and it showed his landing around this Shoreline at Owen Beach or Point Defiance Park and
when you're seeing this huge body of water you thinking we're just never going to be able to find this yeah
[Music] [Music] [Music] investigators chasing that last ping from Cassandra's cell phone knew it was
somewhere here in the vast Waters of the Puget Sound which is nearly 100 m long what's the next step about trying to
recover that we debated about that because it's a needle and a hay stack it's a huge body of water this is the
vicinity that it showed up as it being at but detective helmy had a starting point he knew someone likely had tossed
the phone into the water from Owen Beach finding it was a long shot but Detective
seant Brent van djk was up for the challenge he brought the Pierce County Metro dive team out to the beach on a
summer day we got lucky with the tides that day the tide was extremely low so it made our search area a little less
van djk had a plan to dramatically reduce the area where the phone might be first he asked members of his team to
throw stones from the beach to simulate how far someone could throw a cell phone
if you picture throwing something from here it limits the distance that I would have to search for what he threw the
dive team then formed a line essentially creating an underwater draget we had a boat out in the water and a line of
people on snorkel that day just looking down they were told that Cassandra's phone had a case decorated with glitter
this is the actual underwater footage the dive team was in the water for little more than an hour when
incredibly one of the guys on the line said hey I think I got it they saw a sparkle I think I got the phone and it
was the phone the phone was sent to a specialist to determine if any information could be
recovered the hunt to find Cassandra was intensifying as detectives learned more
about her she felt like she could tell you pretty much everything about what was going on in her life right yes even
her deepest darkest secrets she would tell you first yep and a month before she disappeared
Cassandra confided a secret to her best friend she texted me a positive pregnancy test and said I think I might
be prar and the day she was supposed to meet Alexandra but never showed up it was going to be her first
ultrasound for detective France helmy learning Cassandra had been pregnant at the time of her disappearance changed
everything this is what is now peing my my interest normally in a situation where a pregnant woman disappears you
look at who the partner is first correct Cassandra had also told her mother she was pregnant but didn't provide details
I asked Maria did she tell you who the father was and she says well was some guy she met online or through a dating
app she told me it was not somebody that she was actually seeing and that he didn't even live in the area it was no
secret Cassandra was actively dating using apps like Tinder and Marie told detectives about
an old boyfriend Cassandra was still in touch with Colin Dudley the two had dated back in 2006 while in The Rocky
Horror acting group the show's producer Sher Mueller Colin played a character called the
criminologist on stage outside of the stage when he wasn't performing he was the head head of Tech and he kind of ran
the cast but after dating for several months Colin and Cassandra broke up Colin started a relationship with
another cast member Rebecca fiser and the two eventually moved in together Steve Ammon hung out at their
home regularly to play a game called Dungeons and Dragons explain what Dungeons and
Dragons is it's not a board game right no not a traditional board game uh it's more of a theater of the Mind type
gameplay doing things that you wouldn't normally do in real life role play a wizard a rogue a
fighter the game always took place in Colin's basement Colin was kind of the dungeon master of it the one who ran the
show and Steve liked being around him Colin was quick to help if someone needed money he says and he still
remembers the meals Colin cooked for game nights he was a chef by profession so it was nice food in 2014 after
Colin's father died he rekindled a friendship with Cassandra she assured me you know that she was just there to be a
friend she's like he's got a girlfriend according to Marie Cassandra and Colin would sometimes watch movies
or grab a bite to eat at some point Alexandra says even though Colin was living with Rebecca his
relationship with Cassandra once again turned romantic and Cassandra told Alexandra
that Colin was the father of her baby she was very excited she talked about you know names and games she wanted at
the baby shower she had she had a Amazon registry already made Cassandra's only hesitation whether she should tell Colin
he was with Rebecca and had mentioned he didn't want to have kids but but Alexandra says Cassandra did tell Colin
she was pregnant and he was okay with it she called me and uh she said well I told him and it went better than
expected he was calm and said not to worry about it and that they would talk detective helmy wondered if Colin
knew where Cassandra was we're just trying to follow up with people who knew Cassandra you know places she likes to
go that we could maybe look Colin sat and talked with Detective helmy on his front porch and the
conversation was recorded this is a recorded statement we're going to be taking from Colin Patrick Dudley so you
know we just kind of begin with just simple hey tell us about you and Cassandra how did you meet I met her at
The Rocky Horror Picture Show we were in a relationship for a couple of months and then we broke up in 2006 I then
started kind of running some of these things by him that that people were telling me talking to other people
talking to to Cassandra's family and some other friends they reported that she was about 10 weeks pregnant and what
we've been hearing is that she's been telling people that you are the father no way no hell no Colin was adamant he and
Cassandra were not in a relationship and he was most definitely not the father of her child I asked him are you
sure you know no one night stands no you know hookups after the fact or anything
like that no absolutely not he says in fact Colin insisted he hadn't seen or spoken to Cassandra since they broke up
back in 2006 except once when he ran into her at the mall you haven't any no contact with no messages or no Facebook
or anything no helmy believed Colin was lying but could he prove it it turned out a clue
to finding the answer was in Marie's [Music] paperwork detective helmy believed Colin
Dudley was lying when he said he had not seen or spoken to Cassandra for years but it was Cassandra's mother
Marie Who provided some proof she had been combing through Cassandra's old phone bills where she noticed a mystery
number that kept reappearing we didn't know whose it was cuz it didn't have a name attached to it
going back how far in the past oh we looked back months and months you know as far back as we could see this number
kept popping up and the last time it popped up Marie told detective helmy was the morning
Cassandra disappeared I said so okay so what what's that number and she tells me
I immediately know it's colins humy wanted forensic investigators to take a closer look at
Dudley's phone which detective helmy had taken when they had met on Dudley's front porch I told him you know I have a
warrant to seize your phone I read him the warrant grabbed the phone and we left
investigators later obtained the phone records for both Cassandra and colins's phones they were turned over to
Detective Ryan salmon the cell phone forensics analyst for the sheriff's department salmon noticed something
curious the name Cassandra never appeared in Colin's phone what name was he using right for Cassandra he had it
under Velma why Velma we learned later through Cassandra's mother that she had gone as Velma from
Scooby-Doo as a Halloween costume and it's likely sammon said that Colin Dudley did not want his living
girlfriend to know he was still in touch with Cassandra even without the information from her waterlogged phone
salmon was able to see when and where she and Colin interacted simply by having those phone records it's
extremely helpful in determining where somebody was during a critical time frame people have a cell phone with them
almost all day every day the phone records showed Cassandra's white Mazda driving to the spot where it
was found but had Cassandra or someone else parked it there detective helmy knew the city's light rail system was
nearby and asked their security people if they could find any footage of Cassandra's car what they found proved
Cru crucial we have the video you want you need to get down here and look at it these videos have never been shown
publicly in this video from a moving Light Rail train taken the late morning of August 25th helmy could see a man in
a black hat walking away from where Cassandra's car was parked then a different camera shows that same man
from a much closer angle he'll cross right in front of this camera so he comes walking across and you can see
all black the blue gloves in the Fedora and he just sits down at the stop the time was 1150 a.m. the man sits for 4
minutes and then keeps walking now he gets up and continues walking his face covered by some type of
mask is hard to see but based on his build and gate helmy suspected that Colin Dudley was the man wearing that
fedora the detective had been told that Colin often had asked demanded even that
people call him hat or hatman was he always wearing a hat he would put it on and switch into his
Persona of the hatman and preferred to be called the hatman Alexandra McCary had heard all about it from
Cassandra the Persona was basically the main character from Clockwork Orange hi hi hi there little droogies
very dark uh intentionally so morally dubious did you see the security video at all of the man in the Hat I did get
to see it and did you look at it and say that's Colin well who else would it be in that video from the light rail
system the man in the Hat keeps walking right into the Tacoma Dome station parking garage only blocks away from
where Cassandra's car was found helkey asked security Personnel at the garage if they had any
footage the answer was a resounding yes they find him walking into the parking garage to a truck you can see
him using a remote control opener gets into the truck and then as he exits the parking garage you can see pretty
clearly in the video the license plate which comes back to Mr Dudley that was Colin Chevy TR
proving the detective said that the man in the video and Colin Dudley were one and the
same detective helmy was convinced that Colin had done something to Cassandra and he wanted to get into Dudley's house
immediately we don't have a body we don't have any true evidence that Cassandra is dead we're still hoping
maybe she is tied up in the basement 6 days after Cassandra kentell vanished a SWAT team burst into Colin Dudley's
house what do you think is the strongest piece of evidence connecting Colin Dudley to Cassandra's disappearance chat
now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X authorities were out in force after
they raided Colin Dudley's house house but they found no sign of Cassandra Cassandra was not found inside but Colin
was detained temporarily for us to do the fingerprints and DNA investigators seized several items from the house
including Colin's Chevy Colorado truck and a black fedora I don't know if it's the same one he's wearing in the video
or not there were numerous areas that they identified in the basement where there was possible DNA blood evidence
they said that the Cav Dogs showed particular interest in the basement specifically a brown sofa in the
basement detective helmy believed something terrible had happened to Cassandra dadley had stopped talking to
investigators but his living girlfriend Rebecca fiser a carpenter agreed to sit down for an interview do you think he
would be capable of hurting Cassandra after a 13c pause physics would say yes he's got size and
strength on her MH I don't think he would no he would not and investigators could not prove
otherwise Dudley was free to go why can't you arrest him well he's guilty of something but what is he
guilty of detective helmy wanted to know every move Dudley made on August 25th the day Cassandra went missing and he he
said it became clear that Dudley had hatched a wellth thought out plot to get rid of Cassandra he had planned this and
probably was pretty meticulous in his planning in his police interview Dudley said that early on the morning Cassandra
disappeared he visited Costco so the first stop he makes is at a Costco gas station then he went to a second Costco
to pick up supplies for what he had told detectives was a spring cleaning investigators subpoenaed receipts and
the store provided video here surveillance cameras pick up Dudley in the store around 7 a.m. this is where he
said he stopped cuz he needed supplies for his spring cleaning correct yes the video is so Crystal Clear we think that
probably the garbage sacks store records show that Dudley purchased a box of heavyduty trash bags goes back to his
house right detectiv say then Dudley dropped off the supplies at home and drove to the Tacoma Dome station parking
garage arriving at 887 a.m. we have surveillance video for that too which shows that truck again now in the back
you'll see a bike and then you'll see him get out and put on a helmet and get on a bike and ride it
away Dudley left his truck in the garage and began pedling home it's about a 20-minute ride investigators believe he
wanted to be home by 9:00 a.m. because as it turns out he and Cassandra had made plans at his house sure enough text
records show that Cassandra was outside Colin's house at 8:49 a.m. she said I'm a bit early that okay and he says he
says yep come on down and those two messages were both deleted out of his phone and so the two phones are then
pinpointed in that same location at the house for a couple of hours right for a little more than two hours neither phone
showed any movement and it was during this period of time investigators believe Colin Dudley likely killed
Cassandra Cantrell shows you the amount of premeditation that went into planning
this right it appears investigators say that around 11:48 a.m. Dudley turned off
his cell phone as Cassandra's phone shows it moving away from the house detective salmon says that's because
Dudley had her phone with him as he drove her car to the spot where he abandoned it near the Light Rail station
he turns his cell phone off mhm but doesn't turn her cell phone off and is driving around with it what was he
thinking apparently he wasn't he wasn't thinking well enough not as smart as he thought he was you'll see Cassandra's
car is that it right there yep that white one coming down and then you see Dudley in the Hat
walking away from her car remember how he paused for a few moments and sat down detective salmon
believes he was gathering himself after murdering Cassandra I think he's just physically
tired because of probably how violent the incident was detectives say Dudley then retrieved his truck from the garage
where he had stashed it earlier that day drove to Owen Beach and tossed Cassandra's phone into the Puget
Sound and what time roughly was that last ping it was around 12:45 p.m. but while investigators had
discovered her phone in the water they still hadn't found Cassandra they had no idea what Dudley had done with her but
they did have his Chevy Colorado truck and helmy had an idea as an investigator been exposed to
different Technologies and we knew cars had electronic evidence contained in them
almost every car or truck has reams of data that can be extracted as Illustrated
here so this is where the major break in the case came through you can turn your cell phone off and not
necessarily be able to track but you can't turn your car's Black Box off exactly Hy got a warrant to remove the
truck's Black Box essentially a computer that tracks and Records nearly every move a vehicle makes he reviewed the
data which confirmed much of what they already knew from the phone records but there was something new that caught
everyone's attention the Black Box had a record of Colin Dudley's movements on August
26th the day after Cassandra visited his house and this is the next morning correct so now we're at 6 a.m. and then
of course we noticed where the vehicle stops that there's a large wooded Ravine on September 22nd 2020 detective
Sergeant Brent Van Dyke rushed to that Ravine which is 8 Miles from Dudley's house it was nearly a month since
Cassandra had gone missing I uh got there first and looked over the Hillside and uh you could
clearly see that there was a garbage can halfway down the hill you could see that the garbage can
had a a bag liner and uh some ropes around it he also spotted blood so you clearly at this point knew you had
remains oh absolutely helmy also at the scene wanted to make a quick identification and he knew that
Cassandra had a distinctive tattoo I asked them to take a picture of it so they took a picture and came walking up
the hill helmy recognized the tattoo immediately Cassandra Cantrell was dead Helm's heart sank when he thought about
calling Cassandra's mother so I called Marie and and uh told her that I had information uh that I
needed to share with her my first question was is she okay and he said you don't no I'm
sorry she's not Cassandra's twin brother Rob overheard that phone call the second I
heard her screaming I knew that they had found her Colin Dudley was arrested that night and
later charged with first-degree murder investigators felt they had built a strong case so strong that they
decided not to try and retrieve the information on Cassandra's waterlogged phone the case barreled toward trial for
2 years and then Cassandra's friends and family heard that prosecutors were considering ing making a plea deal with
Dudley they could not believe it it was premeditated it was literally coldblooded I have no
words a lot of anger though a lot see more evidence of how the case against Colin Dudley came together at 48
hours.com [Music] [Music] she was an optimist she never lost that even up until the end I believe
that she entered his house hopeful hopeful that Colin Dudley was getting comfortable with her pregnancy
instead investigators believe he brutally murdered her an autopsy revealed exactly how brutal the
were fractures major fractures to her skull so hit over the head yeah yeah cause of death was a blunt force
trauma investigators say they were never able to identify a murder weapon but they did find those traces of blood
likely Cassandra's in Dudley's basement basement floor walls a stainless steel table and the laundry room
sink police suspect Colin cleaned cleaned the basement multiple times after killing Cassandra and kept her
body there overnight before dumping her in that Ravine the next morning and they
believe Colin's living girlfriend Rebecca was home during some of that time and thinking about you know
Rebecca's there in the house too that was my next question yeah was there any thought that she had to have been
involved there was no I mean some people thought that investigators confronted Rebecca
did you have anything to do with The Disappearance of Cassandra on any level nope we did not find any information
that she knew that it went on that she had anything to do with it they kept separate areas of the house and so I
could see you know her doing her own thing and not going down the basement yeah but Rebecca did confirm to police
that Colin never wanted to be a father he does not want to be a dad Pierce County Deputy prosecutors Brian
won carry and Patrick Vincent went to work on proving Collins's guilt I thought this was a very strong case at
least circumstantially I mean oddly it's not one in which we had a great deal of
physical evidence it was a case that relied on essentially digital records like that video of Colin leaving
Cassandra's car those phone records placing Cassandra at colins's house the morning she disappeared
and the data showing Colin's truck where Cassandra's remains were eventually found for the prosecutors it seemed like
a lot but they were concerned about convincing a jury at trial we don't have an eyewitness we
don't have a murder weapon we don't have a confession so when the defense offered
to accept a plea deal the prosecutors negotiated eventually Colin Dudley agreed to plead guilty to murder in the
first degree for killing Cassandra the prosecutors brought the deal to Cassandra's family they were
Furious but on November 14th 2022 Colin Dudley formally entered his guilty plea with regard to the charge murdering the
[Music] first he was sentenced to 26 years in prison I I I have no words that would
even Encompass the frustration anger sadness heartache Cassandra's family and friends
had wanted a trial where the full story was told they're also obset that someone
guilty of murdering a pregnant woman would only get 26 years in prison you think the system is broken very broken
in this case how is it that somebody can do what he did and not have to spend his
life in prison it was a sentiment Steve Ammon shared he felt betrayed by his one-time friend and had even written a
letter to the judge saying he should not be out at all he won't learn from this Colin Dudley likely will get out
and with good behavior he could be free again as early as 2044 you should never see the light of
di again because when he gets out he could be in his early 60s yeah and he's still got all that time to
live Cassandra's family wants to make sure that no one else suffers the way they say they have they would like a law
in Washington state that if someone is guilty of knowingly killing a pregnant woman they would automatically get a
life sentence no possibility parole you die in jail until there's any sort of resemblance of Justice I'm not letting
this go and while the family wages that fight Cassandra's twin brother is trying to
honor his sister in other ways she would have loved you did though finally open that dream that you had together your
own store yes and I got a big mural of her hanging in the window and then photos throughout the store of her it's
a living tribute to her the store is not far from Cassandra's grave where he and his mom
go to visit her you know say hi keep her headstone clean bring your flowers do you think what life could be
like with her now if she had had the chance to live her life and be a mom yeah I think about it a lot because she
had all of these plans you know she had all of these sweet plants Marie says her daughter lived
life to the fullest immortalized by that distinctive tattoo she had of her favorite quote we don't stop playing
because we grow old we grow old because we stop playing she always had something up her
sleeve she spring little surprises on me and that's what I miss most it's just a happy presence
[Music] a loving mother of two fatally shot in her home but how I knew something was
wrong with this case from the start there were so many things that were not done a father's Relentless pursuit of
the truth he just led us for 9 years still leading us 48 Hours next on CVS streaming on Paramount Plus
[Music] [Music] [Applause] I'm anarie green and welcome to 48 Hours postmortem whether you're new to 48
hours or you're a longtime fan like I am the team at 48 hours is answering your biggest questions from our latest
episode It's called Cassandra's secret joining me today correspondent Natalie Morales and producer Betsy Schuler who
reported on and produced the episode thanks so much for being here good to be with you good to be with you too before
we get started Let's Play a clip from the episode on August 26 2020 33-year-old Cassandra Cantrell was supposed to meet
her best friend Alexandra McNary but she never showed up I texted her hey where are you I got no response Cassandra had
vanished 2 Days Later police found her car in an industrial area near downtown Tacoma
but why was it there Pierce County Sheriff's detective fron helmy knew the city's light rail system was nearby and
discovered they had footage of Cassandra's car you can see a subject getting out of the vehicle and start
walking away he's dressed in all black blue surgical gloves and a black fedora who was the man in the Hat Alexandra
says when she saw the video she immediately knew who it was Colin Dudley Cassandra met him in
2006 was he always wearing a hat he would put it on and switch into his Persona of the hatman and preferred to
be called the hatman humpy confronted Colin but Colin insisted he hadn't seen Cassandra in years Hy suspected Colin
was lying and there was something else Cassandra had a secret and so if you've watched the
episode then you know Cassandra's secret is that she was pregnant and not just that she was
pregnant the father of the child was a friend of hers who was in a relationship with someone else had a girlfriend and
that girlfriend told police he never wanted children right so this is Colin and he turns out to be the prime suspect
and is now behind bars for her murder all right so I have to ask I'm very curious to know what was the most asked
question that you got about this case I think first and foremost is you know people were asking how did Colin Dudley
only end up getting 26 years after all cass Sandra was pregnant and you know it certainly wasn't what her family wanted
they wanted this case to go to trial but in fact Colin Dudley ended up taking a plea deal and that's why he ended up
with 26 years I think it people will be surprised to know and it sounds crazy that the typical sentence in Washington
state for crime which is first-degree murder is only about 20 to 26.7 years so in the end his plea deal
was basically what prosecutors told us he would have ended up getting had they gone to trial who approached who about a
plea deal the prosecutors um told us that the defense approached them initially the initial offer was much
lower than 26 years so that kicked off some negotiations but once you know once the defense indicated Colin was was you
know willing to agree to the 26 years that's when they accepted it and I just want to say the family yes they're happy
he's Behind Bars he's convicted but they really wanted a trial they felt cheated
by not having a trial but there was a ton of evidence right why not take it to trial well look this wasn't about the
prosecutors not thinking they had enough evidence they did and the police did an
unbelievable job in this case I think the concern from the prosecutors was that there was so much data evidence
that assuming they could get it all admitted to trial which they were concerned about that it would be hard to
get the average person to understand what this data meant yeah and while they had data and all of that I would just
add though um you know they have a a guilty confession here you know he's pleading guilty had it gone to trial I
mean there is no guarantee what would have happened with the jury so um there's always that in the back of the
prosecutor's mind is even though you have a mountain of physical evidence you have to connect the dots and the one
thing we don't know is how this murder happened there's there's nobody who witnessed this murder you know when it
comes to creating Reasonable Doubt the defense could have gone down a road which could have led the jury in a
completely different direction one thing about this story is that there was all this video and so the video just didn't
help you tell the story it helped detectives figure out what happened and so it brings me to Colin when we see him
in the surveillance video right after he Parks her car and he's walking to the train station he's got the gloves on
he's got the mask on he's got the Hat on can you talk to me about the hatman Persona well the hatman Persona goes
back to um Clockwork Orange you know the Fedora wearing character with the eyelashes so that kind of tells you it's
it's a little bit of a a creepy role he created this whole sort of alter ego and
when he was on stage in The Rocky Horror Picture Show he mandated that everybody
in that production call him hatman did he act differently did he speak differently you know from what people
told us I think he did it was this Persona that allowed him to have a different Heir about him maybe allowed
him to get away with some things not murder obviously but um allowed him to maybe treat people in a certain way that
he wanted to that may not have been the right way to do things so I do think that it was um a Persona that he adopted
and more than just oh I like where fedoras the video from the train this sort of blurry video and he has such a
distinctive shape with that hat you just know it's him right away right because you have video from the train station
you a video from the parking garage but that doesn't necessarily tie to Cassandra's car what tied to Cassandra's
car is just what you said from the moving train it's just the luck that the train passed at that moment is yeah you
know he Parks the car in an area that you know it's known for homeless people and I thought to myself he's trying to
pin this on a homeless person I think he leaves the keys on the dashboard he does
all this stuff that really makes it seem like it's really clearly planned out and
then he leaves her cell phone on Natalie asked the detective that right to his face I as I asked and they
were like well clearly he wasn't thinking clearly enough you know and what they said is perhaps in all the
chaos I mean let's remember this guy just committed murder and we don't know how brutal or violent but you can only
assume it was a very violent murder because Cassandra died from uh head wounds so in all of that there was a lot
of chaos so he knew that okay I could turn my cell phone off but I guess he forgot to turn her cell phone off which
then allowed them to have a digital footprint of his you know it allow them to continue to follow where that phone
ended up they were able to track the detectives tracked it to the last ping being off of Bashan island in the Puget
Sound and I thought there's no way they're finding this thing and they found it talk about luck Beyond luck I
mean look it is a testament to the Pierce County uh Sheriff's dive team and their work but it there was a lot of
luck involved yeah Natalie I don't know about you but standing there like when we looked out at the water it was really
like it's one thing to say oh it's this many miles of water but then you're you know we're standing there and we're
going oh my goodness it's even worse than finding a needle in a hay stack okay I want to play a little sound
Natalie here's a clip from the episode of you and detective van djk who explains just how they managed to zero
in on the location vany had a plan to dramatically reduce the area where the phone might be
first he asked members of his team to throw stones from the beach to simulate how far someone could throw a cell phone
if you picture throwing something from here it limits the distance that I would have to search for what he threw the
dive team then formed a line essentially creating an underwater drag net we had a
boat out in the water and a line of people on snorkel that day just looking down they were told that Cassandra's
phone had a case decorated with glitter this is the actual underwater footage the dive team was in the water
for little more than an hour when incredibly one of the guys on the line said hey I think I got it they saw
Sparkle I think I got the phone and it was the phone and so there you have it they find
the phone and it turns out that they didn't actually need the phone because there was so much other digital and
technological evidence that really mapped out his movements but before we get to that I first want to talk about
the other woman in Colin's life he's living with his girlfriend her name is Rebecca and police bring her in to
question her and there's this bizarre moment in the questioning where she is asked whether or not she thinks that her
boyfriend is capable of murder let's take a listen to this clip from the episode do you think he would be capable
of hurting Cassandra after a 13-second pause physics would say yes he's got size and
strength on her mhm I don't think he would no he would not I mean what is that you know what
they're asking they're not asking literally is HE capable of doing that of course that is one of the most bizarre
answers I have ever heard in a police interview you know what was fascinating is not just her response physics would
say uh but there was that long pause before she answered so certainly it it to me indicates she was really thinking
really hard like what do I say here and how do I say this it it's it was a very suspicious sort of way to answer the
question did you try to talk to Rebecca we did um our team reached out to her for over a year um calling sending
letters and she didn't want to talk to her so coming up we're going to talk about
the huge break in the case the black box from Colin's truck and just how investigators were able to find
Cassandra we're also going to talk about the wrongful death suit Cassandra's family filed against Colin and what that
means for the Hat man we'll be right [Music] back welcome back you know there were
sort of three elements to this case that really stood out there was great investigation the detective work there
was certainly good luck and then there was the technology that led to the conclusion of this case so investigators
believe that Cassandra was killed in Colin's house but you know they they didn't have a body and as as I'm
watching the hour unfold you know I think to myself that's going to be the real challenge but they use this
surveillance information that I didn't even know you know was available which is his truck's Black Box I kept on
thinking to myself there's no way to be anonymous in this current no technological age you know um you can
turn off tracking devices you can turn off whatever you want on your phone man if people want to find you they can find
you so they're able to figure out where her body might be based on the truck data was that sort of new to you or have
you seen that before used no that was new to me um Natalie was that new to you it was new to me I mean of course those
of us who have more technologically savvy cars these days I mean you can assume that through your vehicle's
navigation systems the cameras that we have in our cars that those things can track US well you know this was a bit of
an older model truck but it was interesting his truck did have an OnStar system and that's how the detectives
were able to track and pinpoint his movements the next morning on August 26th and they pinpoint and attracted to
a nearby Ravine and uh one of the detectives knew that area and suspected if you're going to get rid of a body
this is what you would do this is where you a huge break in the case I want to play another clip from the episode
here's detective van djk describing where they found Cassandra's remains I uh got there first and looked
over the Hillside and uh you could clearly see that there was a garbage can halfway down the
hill you could see that the garbage can had a a bag liner and uh some ropes around it he also spotted blood so you
clearly at this point knew you had remains oh absolutely so this is you know the part
of the hour where I just thought no like oh man um and they go down the Ravine and they want a very verify that it's
actually her and so he asks for a picture of her tattoo can we talk about her tattoo yeah I mean it's it such an
identifying Mark but it also it it captures her Persona perfectly it's a George Bernard Shaw quote which reads we
don't stop playing because we grow old we grow old because we stop playing and that's who she was Cassandra
loved fantasy she her twin brother wanted to have a collectible store with a bunch of fantasy items in it she loved
going to Disney dressing in costume she was very Whimsical and playful in nature
and her mom Marie Smith said that was exactly who she was that quote encapsulates Cassandra perfectly it's
how she lived her life she was playful she was Whimsical and you know sadly she she
will not grow old and and this is you know the tragedy of this case is this is when they knew they were able to
identify Cassandra's body MH yeah and I think you know the family to a certain degree still had some hope up until that
point and it was it was almost a month later um if I remember correctly when they found her body and you know her mom
remembers getting the phone call and asking if she was okay the detectiv like we found you know we found Cassandra
and Marie asked if if she was okay and it's it's just heartbreaking often when it comes to
victims uh you're left with a handful of pictures and then you sort of lean into
their loved ones to bring them to life but you had Cassandra completely you know it was she was
everywhere there were dozens and dozens of YouTube videos where she did these clothing hauls she talked about her dog
you got to see her dog I mean you know I don't know what's more real than that and we just felt very fortunate to have
that and I think um and Betsy can add to this as well that when you produce these
kinds of stories it's hard sometimes knowing that you know the victim is dead to kind of get a sense of who they were
in life and those videos really tell her story she was vibrant charismatic loved
a good deal like so many people loved to shop and I think that really translates when
you see you know all that video and how how much she looked forward to helping her friends out when it came to uh
getting a good bargain somewhere right yeah I mean it sounds so obvious TV is is visual so on the one hand to have
someone describe her but on the other hand to get to see it and you really really feel it and she and she comes to
life through those videos you know Natalie when you were describing her um I thought thought to myself you know I
kind of see what is similar about Cassandra and Colin right but it's like almost
like the opposite sides of a coin here is a woman who is playful who enjoys role playing who is tapped into sort of
everything that's great about um that child like imagination and here's a guy who's
tapped into the same thing but but a much darker side the hatman can anyone explain why she was attracted to him she
had dated him before and they kind of rekindled a friendship that clearly was more than a friendship I'm wondering if
people that loved her her friends her twin brother her mom could they explain this relationship so her best friend
explained it that um it wasn't what Cassandra saw in him it's what she didn't see in herself I believe was the
quote um but they clearly were into the same things I mean that's so interesting
the way you put it and you know back when they met in Rocky Horror I mean at that age you see someone on stage and
and playing these different characters I mean there is some allord to that that I
can see MH it's a bit of that narcissistic personality you know the man who wears the hat and demands that
the whole cast and crew call him hatman and you know of course he's playing this
role but at the same time there's a power that comes with that and perhaps she was attracted to a bit of that power
and that Authority that he exuded Marie said the first time that um colins stood
on her front porch she knew he was bad news Natalie correct me if I'm wrong I think she chose not to try to break them
up because she felt if she tried to break them up it would make her want to be with him more at that age um
but she took one look at him and knew it was bad news well I think when they rekindled their relationship that's also
part of the secret that Cassandra was keeping was that she didn't tell her mom that she was back on with Colin Marie
knew that Cassandra and Colin were meeting up and going to the movies and and having you know lunch together but
she didn't know how far that relationship had gone at this point and she was telling her mom um and her
brother I believe that was only a friendship um and at some point she told at least the friend we talked to that it
changed into something more romantic cuz she told her mom the father of the child
was just somebody on a dating website that she had met cuz she was scared what her mom was going to say initially if
she found out it was Colin I know you've done stories before where the victim has been
pregnant and this is often a very crucial time for women when they are in unhealthy toxic relationships we don't
know the nature of this relationship prior to this but we know that his girlfriend said he didn't want a kid
multiple people said he had said he didn't want a kid can we talk about how often pregnant women are victims in
cases like this yeah you know we do we see that pregnant women are often victims in pregnancy it tends to be you
know a very pivotal point in relationships where somebody is in a vulnerable situation um um According to
some articles and statistics women in the US are more likely to be murdered during pregnancy or soon after child
birth than to die from medical issues even leading to maternal mortality so it's a time where it can be very toxic
if a relationship is already um you know at a Breaking Point it can be a very difficult time for for relationships so
you cover you know cases like this all the time murder cases kidnapping stalking cases all the time does it take
an emotional toll on you uh Natalie you know any case I think especially when you consider that somebody has lost
their life is very hard to cover and in this case a young pregnant woman um who had so many sweet plans as her mom told
us you know she even had a a baby registry set up so when you see you know this woman who was really
celebrating all that she had to live for and in fact celebrating the new life she
was creating inside of her um you know that was I think most particularly sad in my case thinking
about this young woman in the prime of her life like just really figuring out who she was and so excited to become a
mom and that that got me a couple of times I was pretty you know hard to keep the emotions in check when you're doing
the interviews I cried um what you know watching Marie's interview and and cried with Marie and you know
asked if I could give her a big hug afterwards I mean we're reporters producers we have a job to do but we're
humans too and these you know these stories are sad um and the more you hear about the people and the more real they
become and you hear the emotions from the family they lost someone they love tragically it's just really sad mhm
Cassandra's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Colin the Civil Trial was delayed and it's scheduled to
go to trial in February of 2024 um so how does this differ from the original case and what does it mean for
Colin's plea deal does it mean anything at all I mean will colins plea deal actually sort of help them in terms of
their wrongful death case uh I don't think it will help them um you know the the civil case focuses more on you know
compensatory damages but but also the way the family sees it is as an opportunity to have a trial um
so for them I would speculate it's less about what they can actually get and more about um one of the things they
wanted which was for this to go to trial and more information to come out and more people to know about Cassandra
here's a woman that they loved completely in life and they deserve to know you know what her last few moments
were like and and why more than anything they deserve to know why what will you two take away from covering this case
you know I think for me is thank goodness we do live in such a wired world that it's almost impossible to get
away with murder you know if Colin thought he had a plan and meticulously you know thought of the details leading
up to the crime he didn't think of everything and he certainly wasn't counting on there being surveillance
video practically at every turn of his and tracking devices that would eventually unfold what was the actual
crime that he murdered Cassandra yeah I think that's a really good point um and you know yes the sentence is low um but
he is behind bars the bad guy is behind bars and I think that that um is always something that you can take away from
this and I think her family wants to make sure that that memory is kept alive and also to ensure that people
understand the shortcomings of our our Criminal Justice System you know it may not exactly be the result they wanted
but in this case Colin Dudley is locked up for a long time 26 years not as long as they would have wanted but you know
he is locked up so I've had the pleasure of working with the amazing team at 48 Hours um and it's always remarkable to
me how well you weave together the stories what does it take to put together a good 48 hour story what are
you looking for um it's got to have several components it's got to have people who are willing to talk to us we
want to hear from the people directly involved the victim's families the perpetrators or the perpetrator family
the detectives involved the lawyers so we definitely need people who are willing to talk to us um a compelling
investigation good police work always helps it was Stellar in this case this case had a lot of really good evidence a
lot of video evidence which television is visual interviews with people confessions stuff like that you know the
clip with Rebecca you know I think the personal element at least for me I find that I connect with the victims even if
it's someone I never met or with the family what they're going through so that's what it takes to sort of have an
episode and you know there's definitely other people that work on it there's great editors I mean one of my editors
Dorene she took all that Youtube footage of Cassandra and brought her to life like I mean it it was magical what she
did with all that footage you know we also spend a lot of time as a team just talking about the story right what's
interesting about the story and then you structure it and and the structure changes we changed the structure on this
Almost Up Until the End um just to find what works and that's all part of the process how best to tell it so that it's
a compelling story but also for the audience to understand it well it was a fantastic hour as usual um that's 48
Hours postmortem uh for us this week Betsy Natalie thank you so much thank you for having us thank you be sure to
join us next Tuesday for another postmortem watch 48 hours Saturdays 109 Central on CBS and streaming on
Paramount plus and be sure to follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast you can also listen ad free on the Amazon
music or wry app [Music]

Investigators learn that a woman who vanished and a man captured in eerie surveillance video are linked by a secret.

Watch "Kassanndra's Secret" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondent Natalie Morales and producer Betsy Shuller on "Post Mortem" as they take you inside their reporting on the disappearance of Kassanndra Cantrell. Hear about the technological evidence used to charge the suspected killer, “The Hat Man,” and go behind the scenes with the "48 Hours" team as they discuss how investigators were able to find Kassanndra's remains.

00:00 Kassanndra's Secret 40:53 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://apple.co/3YQjw6J

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

Cassandra Cantrell went missing, leading to Colin Dudley's arrest for her murder after digital evidence linked him to her disappearance.

Key points

The Search Begins. As the search for Cassandra intensifies, police uncover crucial evidence.
A Shocking Revelation. Detectives learn Cassandra was pregnant at the time of her disappearance, changing the investigation's focus.
Colin's Denial. Colin Dudley denies being involved with Cassandra, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
The Man in the Hat. Security footage reveals a suspicious man near Cassandra's car, raising alarms.
Plea Deal Controversy. Cassandra's family was furious when prosecutors considered a plea deal with Dudley.
Cassandra's Brutal Murder. An autopsy revealed Cassandra suffered major fractures to her skull, indicating a brutal murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This can't be happening, this isn't real.

A friend's reaction to Cassandra's disappearance.

4:54WatchNov 29, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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