One Big Break Murder Mysteries | 48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] tle h Hey Joe hi hey it's Al Joseph so you said uh took her purse
with her right yeah um phone you have phones do you want it it's here police officers first made contact with Joe
ellich on October 10th 2019 Joe ellich said that on October 8th he'd gone to sleep with Mony at about
11: 11:30 or so and then he woke up the next morning and then he noticed that mon she was gone
vanished her phone and her her wedding ring we're both um we're both just left on that table I can't unlock her phone
it's locked and I don't know the password at the time that munchie G disappeared she was a young married
mother she had a child who was 1 years old you sa lady I think it's easy to see that Joe
would have been attracted to munchie for her personality in terms of how caring she was we all know that she's a very
successful young engineer and she's really good at being a mom and she had hopes for a brighter
future and this marriage in Joseph Al the first blush Facebook postings you know Instagram you would see what
appeared to be a happy family these young people got married had a child and circumstances
changed then arguments happened we talk too much you you need to know you don't listen enough you need to know when to
listen so there was a total of 14 hours of audio recorded between the couple right now what's happening is just more
of what I don't want communication lack of it he actually discovered that she was involved in an
online relationship and he knew that there were some of these sexually explicit photos being sent back and
forth correct I actually found this earlier it's like a journal and it talks about
her having some secret love I think he's in China right now did she ever express
an interest in a future with this man that perhaps she'd move back to China there were discussions about a future we
we checked into whether or not there was maybe any contact with Uber cab companies had she bought an airline
ticket we were looking for any evidence of an electronic footprint I know she was talking to somebody else um on the
side and whatever she's doing I just hope she's safe I would have loved nothing more for her to just appear out
of nowhere alive so she could take care of her daughter but I knew that wasn't going to be the
case we have these boots that were found and then we have five Jun needles that are caked into the
boots and these needles where did they come from we had three needles that came from that tree right
[Music] there who would have ever thought it DNA from these juniper trees help solve this
crime I've never heard of anything like this before in my entire career at 48 hours
[Music] [Music] said you have a seat right there right there on October 15th 2019 Joseph ellig walked into the
Columbia Missouri Police Department without a lawyer all right to tell detectives about the mysterious
disappearance of his 28-year-old wife mshi G 6 days earlier we didn't have any big fights I think the last big fight
was actually the week before it wasn't really a big fight um the 23-year-old described his wife as tense and
withdrawn the night before she disappeared so he gave her a massage I was doing it kind of slow I was trying
to drag it out because I wanted to extend the amount of time that we were together doing something according to
Joe mongi eventually went to sleep saying she had to be somewhere in the morning I asked her about three times
who is she mean and her answer was just quote me she wouldn't tell me who she was meeting or or where she was going
what she was doing the next morning Joe says he woke up alone his wife was gone he was claiming she had just
disappeared that she had left her little girl behind um her phone was left behind
her car her car keys were left behind from the beginning then Boone County prosecuting attorney Dan Knight had
doubts about Joe's story we were trying our best to leave no Stones unturned but there were a lot of
stones Joe told investigators that after his wife disappeared he found journal entries on her computer where she'd
written about an online emotional affair she was having with a man living in China and last paragraph said like it's
sad though that I have no interest in my husband the day Joe spoke with detectives he also did an exclusive
interview with our local CBS affiliate krcg and implied that his wife may have left him for another man I hope that
she's with at least with somebody who who cares for her you know enough to keep her safe Joe and his family hired
attorney Scott Rosen Bloom who points out there were in intimate text between Moni G and the man she was communicating
with sexual in nature very sexual text like this one where she wrote I want you so much right now and did she ever
express love for him in any of these communications she did the question was had M she run off to be with that man
who lived in China where she was born M she was born during China's one child policy Amy salad is the G family's
attorney But Ken munchie's mother would say that we only ever wanted one child we wanted to give all of our love to
this child mchi is like the the kid all the parents would want Yao Lee is a Chinese immigrant and an assistant
prosecutor in Boon County who helped Dan Knight communicate with M's parents they are really really proud of her and
I know how hard it is to get into a top university in Shanghai and Beijing the competition is really intense and she
did that and then she came to the University of Missouri in 2012 where she finished up her
undergraduate studies and then she also obtained her master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering
this was a brilliant woman correct absolutely one of her professors hired her right out of school at his
biomaterials company nanova where Joe also worked Joe grew up in Kansas City he then came to the University of
Missouri and he studied engineering and he met Moni at noova biomaterials my understanding is is that she was his
supervisor the two quickly fell in love and a year and 7 months into their relationship Joe proposed he took a knee
on a trail in Rockbridge Memorial state park called The Devil's ice box two weeks later they were married well I
believe there was a rush to get married because M's uh Visa was about ready to expire it's a really foreign concept for
American citizens to understand the stress that a immigrant is facing she's fully capable to support herself
financially but she cannot get this screen card so this really changes the power
dynamics of a marriage nearly five months into the marriage mshi was offered a big job and then she found out
she's pregnant mshi and Joe decided she should turn down the job to be a full-time mom even though at the time
she was the sole income earner Joe had quit working to finish school in October 2018 their baby was
borned so that's the dynamic of this marriage mon was completely isolated from all the support system that she can
have the little baby is the only thing she has her one Lifeline was a daily call with her mother in China it was
their ritual so when mongi didn't call on October 9th 2019 her parents sent a friend living nearby to check on her you
know I told him everything that happened I told him that she hasn't been here for
a couple days and it was only after that visit the day after he said his wife vanished that a seemingly unconcerned
Joe ellig finally called police to report her missing uh I need to um follow a missing person report but he
didn't call 911 Joe called the non-emergency 311 do you find that suspicious absolutely absolutely it would be
natural for him to have reported this immediately instead Joe would tell police that the day he woke up and found
his wife missing he went on two long leisurely drives in her car with their baby in the back seat looking for new
hiking trails there's just this big area that's all that's all green on the Google Maps and so I wanted to go and
see if there were walking cows back there naturally that raised eyebrows you door when you left the apartment yeah if
she comes home how's she going to get back in you've got her keys and her car her phones in the house she can't even
call anybody yeah I don't know detectives and Dan Knight suspected Foul Play but there
was no physical evidence no blood no weapon no Witnesses no body there was also no evidence that mshi took off with
that man in China and then also uh it became a apparent early on that monshi would not have abandoned her child her
one-year-old daughter she was a great mother during his interview with detectives Joe gave them access to his
phone and on it they found something stunning 10 hours of secretly recorded conversations with his wife like this
one I'd like to discuss our relationship and I am kind of ready to discuss the end of it as well Joe told Mony that he
wanted to divorce her I don't like being married to you I don't like living with
you it's been a terrible relationship I'm eager to end it he was asking her whether or not she was going to
basically cooperate and if not he was going to tell the judge that she had been abusive to him should I mention in
court that you're abusive to me should I ask them to deport you but that was nothing says dan Knight
compared to the nearly 4 and 1 half hours of secretly recorded audio they found on Mong she's phone and what was
on those conversations of significance unvarnished Jo if you keep acting this way I've told
you before it ain't going to be pretty [Music] what are you trying to do are you trying
to make me go crazy so that you can call the police on me and take my baby away from me it was October 29th 2018 about a
year before mshi G would disappear when she secretly recorded her husband Joe going ballistic for nearly an hour you
want me to break you want me to hurt somebody it all started weeks earlier after mongi
gave birth and her parents flew in from China to stay with them it is Chinese custom for grandparents to stay and help
for 100 days a custom that infuriated Joe I don't want your mom here your mom is causing problems your mom should
leave what really infuriated Joe was that Mony was standing up to him and saying that she needed her mother if I
don't take care of my own body my own Heth it's not responsible for me or their family I agree she's helping me to
do that and I know it I don't like that woman and I don't think you should either the tension was
just to the breaking point and there's yelling there's cursing and Yao Lee says Joe really despised it when mongi and
her mother K Ren spoke Chinese in his presence that's a stressor for him because everything that he doesn't
understand end he would assume the worst when mong's father returned to China Joe decided to take back control
says Amy salad munchie's mother was making Chinese dumplings fantastic dumplings she's
making them for his birthday and he doesn't like how she's using The Cutting Board I called it The Cutting Board
incident prosecutor Dan Knight says it's an incident that seems Petty but it led
to an explosive argument don't do my cutting board like that I'm telling you cutting board doesn't like that he was
demanding that his mother-in-law leave the residence immediately and permanently never to return did mong's
Mother stand up to him would she stand up to him and could that have triggered this cutting board incident M's mother
like Moni wanted Harmony more than anything else there was no standing up to Joe there's going to be some problems
if she tries saying I'm going to make go away the problem you bet your on that it
was a one-way Street it was Joe's way or the highway you're not the god you're I
am God I say mom don't stay here she don't stay here mongi pleaded with Joe to let her mother stay he responded with
insults and profanity what the is the matter with you brainless he told her that she was
incapable because she was a woman you think you're so empowered because of this Society your still is a woman it
was a calculated effort on his part to Gaslight her to try to brainwash her to bring her under his
control Joe was also threatening explaining how he conquers nature a cryptic comment that Dan Knight believes
was a metaphor for wanting to hurt M you know how I conquer nature I kill it I grab its head and break his
neck that's how you conquer nature M's mother of course was in shock it's just really difficult for her to understand
why this young man is so mad and so angry at her at everything M she felt so helpless that she called Joe's mother
Jean garinger who drove two 2 hours to try and mediate I know T I had to call you I'm sorry he's going to come back
and just I don't know I'm predicable things going to happen M she recorded that meeting as well I'm not here to choose
sides I'm here to try to be neutral and just give advice even in his mom's presence Joe was not shy about
expressing hateful even violent thoughts about his mother-in-law do I just smack
her do I just beat her down you wanted to I have that craving yes I'm not going to though go there the evidence that we
had was that he was making his mother-in-law Karen kneel to him and bow to him Joe would eventually apologize to
his mother-in-law but he still forced her to leave before the 100 days were up she thought that apology was
sincere or otherwise she wouldn't have left and then believing that things might get better Yao Lee translated
mong's journals for the prosecutor's office and says things didn't get better but mongi couldn't walk away and even
she is confused of why I just cannot get out of this relationship that's her constant a question to herself Dan
Knight thinks mongi felt trapped by her immigration status in just 5 months she was set to have
another interview where she would be applying to get her permanent green card a little over 2 weeks after Mong XI
vanished the Columbia Police Department announced it was opening a criminal investigation into her
disappearance that same day police showed up at Joe's Apartment he's with his mother the detectives at the scene
are asking her where is munchie do you know where she is Joe was arrested but not in
connection with his wife's disappearance but on suspicion that he had physically
abused their daughter we have become aware that um there was some bruising so do you know what we're talking about y
this is through Ken her mother Moni had told her that she'd observe bruising on the buttocks and Karen suggested that
monk she confront Joe about this Joe then admitted that he had done this to the little girl tell me exactly what
happened she was crying a lot one night I think I just pinched her butt a little
bit to me that was a a ruse to get him incarcerated Joe's defense attorney Scott Rosen Bloom he was a young parent
maybe he made a mistake but there was no other indication that he was abusive towards his daughter none
whatsoever Jo was held on a $500,000 Bond his mother took custody of his daughter and Dan Knight set about
proving his theory about what happened to mongi I thought from pretty much the very beginning this eventually was going
to wind up being a murder case things just had to develop so you're telling me that these
trees that we are standing among right now helped solve this case absolutely what do you think happened to mshi g
chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and [Music] Twitter on October 25th 2019 police executed a search warrant
over at Joe ell's and Monk's apartment that was the same day Joe ell was arrested on suspicion of child abuse M
shei had been missing for a little over 2 weeks these officers they were on the ball they were able to find some things
that were great evidence in this case prosecutor Dan Knight police collected from his backpack writings different
writings notes Joe had apparently written to himself about how to respond to questions from reporters and
investigators one of those I labeled as being a script with what to tell the police another thing that he had written
was that he was to speak about Moni in the present tense rather than the past tense she's a very dedicated person uh
she's a hard worker and I really like that that's important to me why would a man who was claiming his wife had walked
away have to remind himself to not speak about her in the past tense because he killed
her detectives looked for possible evidence in every corner of the apartment and on a hunch also took this
muddy pair of Joe's boots into evidence just in case down the road they might be
relevant something was a Miss yes and they they sensed it and they took them the search for mshi became a hunt for
her remains starting by retracing the long leisurely drives that Joe said he took with his baby in the back seat
while only he knew that his wife was missing we just went driving and um it was a MTH day and so I just I just
wanted to go out but every lead was just another dead end so Dan Knight made a bold move I decided to go ahead and file
charges murder in the first degree without a body charges were filed while Joe was
still in jail on abuse charges meanwhile Dan Knight stepped up the search for M's
body these are the cell tower records that we had in this case this is his cell phone then Jo cell
phone according to Joe's cell phone records he had spent 30 minutes by the lamine river the day he claimed M she
disappeared something he had not told police convinced her body was here authorities searched for months there
was even a memorial on the the river attended by mong's Mother by March of 2020 we had really given up we needed to
do something to be able to say [Music] goodbye then a year later with Joe ellich still awaiting trial a hiker was
making his way through this wooded area the very Park where Joe had proposed to mshi a flash of color in the dirt caught
his eye it was a purse he had this walking stick and he kind of flipped that purse around just a little bit he
noticed that there were these shoes and then he saw something that looked like with maybe a a skull and in fact it was
a skull monky skull she had Finly been found that's right that's right it was it was a
miracle I think that's that's the worst moment for a parent Lee had a video conference with mong's
parents who were both back in China they didn't see anything all you see is their
tears they now knew their daughter was dead but how and why we still a mystery sadly even the medical examiner's office
couldn't say what killed mongi was there damage to her bone structure that unnatural natural damage that yes there
was four ribs were broken all the way through do you believe that those broken ribs are evidence of physical abuse of
of a physical attack of a massive catastrophic blow to her back all the way these through and through
breaks that she would have been in agonizing pain Dan Knight was building a theory of
what happened to mshi and items collected about a year and a half earlier were about to become key for one
thing Joe's cell phone records put him near M's burial site the day he reported her missing what were the weather
conditions like that day unfortunately for Joe unfortunately for justice it was raining Dan had those muddy boots and a
hunch was about to pay off as you can see right here there is soil that is caked onto these boots and gravel on the
soles of Joe's boots were set out for analysis along with foliage stuck in the mud so we've got 12 different types of
vegetation in these boots Dan Knight decided to send Joe's boots to a lab at the Missouri Botanical
Garden where juniper tree needles were carefully removed from the soles for DNA testing plants have DNA just like people
absolutely yeah every organism M every living organism on the planet has DNA Christine Edwards is a plant population
geneticist who never dreamed she become a CSI investigator in a murder case and they wanted to see if there was some way
that we could match the vegetation and the boots to the the site where a woman's remains were
found these are two samples that were collected from the the left boot right here once we knew that we could get
usable DNA out of of the the forensic samples that we took from the boots then we needed to match them to the the trees
at the site Christine's colleague Alex lenan was tasked with collecting sample needles from the juniper trees
surrounding mong's grave site how do you do it pick it up off the ground or go up
to the trees so we have to go all the way up to the trees and this involved a ladder and a 10 15t long pole pruner so
that we could make sure that the needles that we were getting came from the exact
tree that it was so we couldn't just get it from the ground it had to be from the
tree each sample was stored and numbered and back at the lab they were compared to the needles found on Joe's boots
these two lines here are the genotype of one of the samples from the boot and this one is from the tree that is
overhanging the grave site and as you can see the lines match up and that moment for you when you realized you had
a match yeah it was really exciting we got him him he was there no doubt he was there no doubt in my mind
he was there scientifically confirmed yes just like a fingerprint just like DNA blood DNA that is presented in trial
this is just as reliable exactly exactly the same technology even so what you're
telling me is these trees that are all around us here played a role in solving a murder absolutely yes Dan Knight says
it's only the second murder case he knows of where tree DNA has been used as evidence the walls are closing in on Joe
so I expected at trial for there to be another defense besides oh mshi must have just run off and gone to China do
you solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and Dan Knight was right [Music]
on November 1st 2021 Joe ell went on trial for the murder of his wife M XI G the question is what happened in that
apartment and Joe's attorney Scott Rosenblum pivoted to a new explanation about what happened to mongi Joe didn't
mean to kill his wife what happened was a tragic accident thanks to this juniper tree and
its DNA Joe could no longer claim that mshi had run away he now had to admit that he buried his wife in a shallow
grave he had no intent not certainly not murder that's not even close Joe did have something to do with mong's death
said Rosen Bloom but it was not murder he took jurors back to October 8th 2019 the day M she died and as they go into
the evening hours he asks her if he if she wants a massage tries to initiate sex she rebuffs him she says
no Joe now admits he knew about his wife's online affair with that man in China Rosen Bloom said and on this night
he confronted her he's upset he's hurt and he wants to take his daughter for a walk she lunges towards him and pushes
him and he pushes her pushes her into the countertop Joe claims that's when mshi broke her ribs
the defense called Dr Keith Norton the pathologist who conducted M's autopsy and he said it was possible yes but it
would have to be a very forcible push does Joe maintain that she initiated this physical encounter 100% she came
after him well I mean she wanted to prevent him from from leaving with their daughter he claimed in his news story
that she attacked him do you buy any of that look at the size difference of course not he's twice as big as her and
again she lunges at him and he pushes her away and she falls this time on her back and he hears the thud of her head
hitting the ground Joe claims mongi was knocked nearly unconscious and then got up and went to bed in the morning when
the baby started crying Mong shei didn't wake up and he's sort of violently shaking her are you all right are you
all right and it is abundantly clear at that point in time that his wife is dead
why did Joe lie he SC he was scared he made a choice an erratic irrational choice is that
someone who's in a panic state or is that a killer who's trying to to cover up his crime I believe it was evidence
of extreme Panic that story was very clever but it wasn't what happened prosecutor Dan Knight says all
the proof he needs that Joe's story is made up are those four broken ribs you know how painful it is to break a single
rib she would have had to have been to a hospital right oh sure there's no doubt
about it Knight says he keeps going back to to Joe's story about giving monshi a
massage that night and believes that's when he killed her I don't know if he put his hands around her neck and he
strangled the life out of her I don't know if he maybe forced her face into a pillow but I know one thing for
sure that murder was horrific a premeditated murder says Knight fueled by months of growing anger
he hated Moni with everything he had I'll find a happier life this I ain't I ain't happy here Joe took the stand in
his own defense body y'all may be seated and insisted that he loved his wife even
though there was tension in the marriage you would have these arguments you both thought you were misunderstand
and there would be a Reconciliation and you would love each other that's right the defense tried to get jurors to
relate to the sometimes stormy nature of Joe and M's marriage moments of arguing
common with many couples Joe claimed his wife was responsible for much of the tension uh she would raise her voice uh
yell and she wouldn't uh listen to me very well they wanted to paint her as the aggressor they wanted people to feel
like it was her fault Amy salad and Yao Lee were in the courtroom regularly texting updates to M's mother who was
unable to travel she didn't believe a bit of it and um that was very emotional for her
when Dan Knight finally had his chance to question Joe eleg he point blank asked Joe how he killed the mother of
his child did you maybe stand up on top of her and jump on top of her back no did
you suffocate her no after nearly 2 weeks of testimony detailing the audio recordings digital
evidence cell tower data and the tree DNA linking Joe to M's burial site both sides delivered their closing arguments
Rosen Bloom asked for manslaughter return to WR murder and Dan Knight asked for first-degree murder she deserves
Justice ladies and gentlemen M she deserves Justice we were all nervous and we hoped that
the jury would see the case the way that we saw it see more evidence in the case at 48
hours.com we've all come to know [Music] munchie and so I think we all felt that
connection to her and we hoped that that Justice would be served all right Mr eleg would you please stand to
receive the verdict it was 700 p.m. on November 11th 2021 and after deliberating for nearly 7
hours the jury had its verdict we the jury find the defendant Joseph Dwayne eleg guilty of murder in the second
degree guilty of second degree murder the jury believed that Joe killed mongi but not with
premeditation Yao Lee says mong's parents were very pleased they weren't nervous about the conviction at all they
believe this is a fair system but the day wasn't over yet the jury would now hear testimony in the
penalty phase I had to turn around very quickly late that night and start presenting evidence Dan Knight
wanted life in prison the defense asked for 10 years I feel very s and uh I feel
angry the state called several of M she's friends who spoke about the impact of her death that hurt us that make us
huge pain and huge sorrow the defense called only one witness to plead for Mercy Joe's mother Jean garinger it's
very disturbing it's heartbreaking because it's so out of his character it was midnight when the jury
got the case again a little over an hour later we the jury declare the punishment
for a term of 28 years Dan Knight believes the jury gave Joe one year for every year of mong's
short life yai informed mong's parents I don't think the numbers matter to them I
think the truth matters the most that's what is frustrating I don't think they will ever ever know the whole truth of
what actually happened all they can hope for now is to be able to raise their granddaughter in
China says family attorney Amy salad her future is undetermined at this point M's
daughter now lives with Joe's mother but M's parents are seeking shared custody of the now
4-year-old I hope that she can be raised to know her mother's Chinese culture and
to know her mother's family Scott Rosen Bloom says that while the baby will always know her Chinese grandparents she
is in good hands with Joe's mother Jean and her husband are great parents she makes it her business to include the
maternal grandparents in the baby's life Dan Knight would not discuss the custody
case but did say this about the trauma already suffered by M's daughter number one she was in the apartment at the time
that Joe killed mshi her mother one of these days she's going to find out about that
second thing is when Joe drove around the next day Moni was in the trunk and their little girl was strapped into a
car seat but the thing that she's also going to find out about is that Joe would have been just fine with her going
the rest of her life thinking that her mother abandoned her [Music] I want her daughter to know that she was
a great mother she was dedicated she loved her with all of her heart I want her to be remembered for
her smile and how friendly and outgoing she was mongi G's Legacy of accomplishment dedication and love lives
on in her baby girl and in the hearts of those whose lives she touched everybody
sees the goodness in her that's why everybody is so connected with her [Music] a one-time Texas lawyer with a past
she's like I just wanted to let you know I seriously consider killing you but I decided not to why did five men in her
life end up dead I've never killed anybody I'm a little nervous one journalist's yearslong game of cat and
mouse 48 hours Saturday on CBS [Music] I really like to solve puzzles and genealogy kind of is like that it offers
you this endless stream of blanks to fill in my name is Chelsea rustad and in 2013
I began my search for my own family history and it took me down lots of unexpected
paths along the way in 2015 I saw on Ancestry Facebook page they were running a contest and uh
two winners would receive An ancestry DNA kit they contacted me and said Chelsea you're one of the
winners the ancestry DNA kit arrived you just kind of spit in a tube and seal it
up and then it was on its way did you have any idea just what kind of story your DNA would tell I really
didn't I was a genealogy hobbyist like millions of other people in the United States I kind of accidentally fell into
it I'm CC Moore and I'm an investigative genetic genealogist and that means I use
DNA to try to help law enforcement find violent criminals when the Golden State killer suspect was identified through
investigative genetic genealogy there were many people who said this wasn't a tool that would be used commonly in law
enforcement and I wanted to prove them wrong and genetic genealogy has exposed a lot of secrets that people at hoped
would remain secret yes often times it's someone's deepest darkest secret all I'm thinking is oh it's it's
going to confirm my ethnic background and maybe I'll get to connect with some cousins I was excited I was just really
optimistic about like maybe it will uncover something cool a young Canadian couple takes a
road trip from Vancouver Island to Seattle in November 1987 18-year-old Tanya van kenborg and
her 20-year-old boyfriend J disappeared during a round trip from VI county has the first half of this puzzling case in
May of 2018 I got knock on the door and it was two investigators from scet County and I was so confused what are
they investigating the murder of 18-year-old Tanya van kenborg her body was found in a ditch near the town of
boyfriend J cook de sh his body found near Monroe a few days strangled with some kind of ligature they've let me
know that they are investigating a family member of mine for murder a double homicide from 1987 this was a
person who was in my family tree did that name appear on any of the suspects list no that name had never
been across my desk ever without genetic genealogy would we know who killed Tanya
and Jay no I know that my DNA played a big part of that it's been a learning curve this was all brand new it's the
web of matches it's putting those puzzle pieces together little by little [Music]
[Music] I have a problem that I'm Relentless and I don't give up there may be no more dogged
investigator than SN homish County Cold Case detective Jim Sharp especially when it came to the
murders of Tanya van kenborg and Jay cook it was probably the most horrendous unsolved case that we had Tanya van
kenborg was an 18-year-old girl she just graduated from high school she was in a
new relationship with Jay cook on November 18th 1987 the young couple left British Columbia in Jay's parents van
heading for Seattle Washington Jay was going to go to Jen's coheating in Seattle to pick up some
furnace parts for his dad they planed to sleep in the van near the store and drive back to Canada the next day so
when they didn't show up that evening the families became concerned we just had no idea where
where they might be or what might have transpired Tanya's Big Brother John was at College when he got a call from his
worried Father John would your sister ever just go off and not call your parents no that didn't I don't think
that had ever happen if the plans had changed and she was going to spend another night she
would have called my parents after T and Jay were reported missing law enforcement began looking for them
desperate for answers John and his father joined the search in Seattle something was Gravely wrong I
mean the obvious things in terms of them being in hospital or something or just simply with a flat tire somewhere all
those more innocent explanations were pretty much Vanishing on November 24th 6 days after
the couple disappeared John's worst fears were confirmed Tanya's body was found at the bottom of a ditch in Ru
scad count County some 80 M north of Seattle she wasn't wearing any pants or panties and her bra was pushed up over
her breast so it obviously looked like a rape murder Tanya had been shot in the head at close range she rolled down the
hill it was a quick execution later that evening John had to identify his sister's body
such a a crushing feeling that all of a sudden you see her lying there it's definitely horrific but we had no idea
still about where where was Jay where was the van how did this happen why did it
happen the next day T's wallet the keys to the van some bullets and a number of other items turned up 16 miles away in
Bellingham they had been discarded under the porch of a Local Tavern next to the
Greyhound bus station police located the van in a nearby parking lot but Jay was still
missing the following day Jay's body was found here underneath Highbridge he was about 70 Mi south of
where T had been found it was a horrible scene her 20-year-old boyfriend had been
strangled a pack of cigarettes stuffed down his throat what did most investigators think about this killer I
mean who does something like this right that was the big question this was a person who was a real predator and it
was believed at the time that it was probably a serial killer or an ex-convict but finding that Predator
would be challenging investigators and forensic science ssts had four crime scenes scattered over Three Counties but
few Clues a bullet casing found on the hillside near Tanya's body matched those bullets collected at the tavern in
Bellingham but a gun was never found this surgical glove was discovered under the porch investigators believe
the killer wore it to avoid leaving fingerprints but he may have been careless there was a palm print on the
back of the van that they believed hopefully belong to the suspect inside the van they found what would ultimately
be the most important piece of evidence the black pants T had been wearing they found that there was seen on Tanya's
pants and when they examined the semen they learned that it couldn't be left from J the sample matched the DNA found
inside tenya's body and with later be known as individual a but the only evidence that connected all four crime
scenes these plastic zip ties found near T and Jay's bodies under the porch and inside the van according to detective
sharp they were part of the Killer's rape murder kit this was a predator that was hunting for a victim that he wanted
to rape and maybe in his mind he decided that he was going to kill him too they were two mild-mannered
softspoken kids they weren't out to pick a fight with anyone I mean both families
were just so devastated hoping to find the killer tenya's family offered a $50,000 reward
for information tips came in but none panned out the police to their credit were
trying to chase down every sort of the over the years the theories and false leads would grow and more than 200
names would fill the case File some were convicted felons and then there was Charles
Sinclair he was believed to be a serial killer Across the Western United States there was also an anonymous writer who
sent threatening letters to Jay and Tanya's families claiming to be the Killer yeah it's just unfathomable to
think that you know somebody not only had done these murders but then was going to continue taunting the families
with these letters but every suspect's DNA was compared to individual A's profile and none matched the goal was to
try to figure out who did this Seaman sample belong to Lisa Collins a forensic scientist
with the Washington State Patrol uploaded individual A's profile to cotus the FBI's National offender database as
the years went by just complete silence it's disheartening you just um are afraid that this might be one of those
cases that's never going to be solved and then more than 30 years after T and Jay were killed there's a break in the
case I was skeptical I was hopeful but I was skeptical and I I'm a Believer now [Music]
[Music] we had those original seen samples from the pants and then from Tanya's body
trying to figure out who this sample May belong to that was the tedious and hard
part the man police believe killed T van kenborg and Jay cook left behind a forensic calling card says Leisa Collins
but still managed to elude capture for years and then in 2017 detective Jim Sharp heard about an
Innovative tool developed by parabon nanolabs that uses DNA evidence to predict the genetic traits of an unknown
suspect it's called snapshot phenotyping they gather all that information and they end up making a
snapshot of what an individual with all those traits might look similar too parabal was hired to use individual A's
DNA to create this composite sketch which gave sharp some Clues as to what the suspect could look like like at the
ages of 25 45 and 65 but he still didn't have a name investigators in California
say DNA evidence LED them to one of the country's most notorious serial killers and then in
2018 a stunning arrest in California opened new doors for law enforcement the SoCal Golden State killer the man
responsible for numerous rapes and murders was finally apprehended after 43 years using genetic
genealogy did a little light bulb go over your head at that moment oh yeah big light bulb the Golden State killer
DNA had been uploaded to Jed match a genetic database that allows users of various consumer test kits to share and
compare their DNA this is fantastic I need to get on this parabon agreed to upload individual
A's DNA to Jed match and called in genetic genealogist CC Moore she's known for her work on the PBS show Finding
Your Roots so then what did you do DNA DNA so all we have his DNA we're going to turn and she's Fame for skills at
mapping family trees but this was her first criminal case I had had a lot of doubts whether this was the right thing
for me to do and I finally made the decision okay I'm I'm going to do this but a lot was writing on that
case it was a case she had been following for years and felt a personal connection to Moore's parents were from
the Pacific Northwest and she was the same age as T van kenborg she was killed right when I was
graduating in high school and going on to college and my life was just really beginning and hers ended so tragically
and so I think it always stuck with me on Friday April 27th 2018 individual A's DNA file was
uploaded to Jed match it's compared against everyone that's participating in that database and so what they're
looking for are long segments of identical DNA between two people sometimes the match list will show up
right away and sometimes it takes a couple days so I stayed up really late that Friday FR night I kept checking
there was no matches the next morning Moore logged on to see if there was a list and there was and so we're hoping
for at least a second cousin or closer at the top of that list and we used to call that being struck by lightning were
you struck by lightning in this case twice we were stuck struck by lightning twice on the list were two people who
shared enough DNA with individual a to be his second cousins and what was that what was that feeling
like it was pretty exciting and scary in this case the cousin shared DNA with individual a but not with each
other which meant they're related to him on different branches of his family tree
but to figure out who he was Mo first had to find out who they were now fortunately one of the people
at the top of that list had a really unique name and what was her name Chelsea rustad remember Chelsea rustad had taken
that ancestry DNA test and then went a step further you can download your RW DNA file to your computer and then
upload it to Jed match I just had no inkling at all that there were secret relatives I didn't know about or
Mysteries to uncover neither did the other second cousin whom Moore was also able to identify but has chosen to
remain anonymous and then I built the family trees of those top two matches and surprisingly quickly I discovered
how they converged it only took me two hours to come to the identification of who I believed to be Tanya and J's
killer this is a person who had eluded capture investigation for 31 years and you were
able to identify this person in 2 hours that's the power of genetic genealogy yeah but how how sure were you I was
very sure but isn't that scary CCE because your work might end up with this person in prison right and at that
moment I'm the only person in the world who knows that he's probably guilty of this crime
other than him of course and so it is a super heavy burden Monday morning April 30th detective Jim Sharp got the
news we've got it narrowed down to one guy and I'm thinking I don't believe this and my first thought is who's the
guy [Music] 30 plus years dozens of dead ends hundreds of false leads and then in April 2018 CC Moore
got on a computer and out of the billions of people on Earth identified through genetic genealogy the one man
she believed killed Jay cook and T van kenborg who was the person you identified
William Earl talbet II William Earl talbet II when detective Jim Sharp heard the name he ran it
through the system and was surprised to learn that talbet had no felony convictions it was a new name that we
had never heard of before but it was sure nice when we found out that he only lived 7 miles from the bridge where
Jay's body was found sharf also learned that in 1987 talet 24 at the time worked as a
delivery driver and made stops near where Jay and Tanya were headed to pick up that furnace part and says that talet
was fired a few months before the murders so it makes sense that he was down in that area prowling around and
probably ran into Jay and T but sharf needed more than old work records and genetic
genealogy it's really just a tip it's an investigative lead to make an arrest sharf needed to
be sure that the DNA left at the crime scene by the man they knew only as individual a match William Talbots so
somehow sharf had to obtain a fresh DNA sample from talet himself we were going to follow him until he dropped or threw
away anything that had touched his mouth cuz we wanted his saliva on it as the best type of DNA
Source investigators learned talbet now drove a semi and they began tailing his truck one day about a week later they
watched as talbet stopped at a red light and opened the truck door the light changes to Green he slams the door and
drives away and there's a white paper cup laying on the street it's blowing around in the wind so they jump out they
go over and they collect the cup and they call me sharf rushed the paper cup to forensic scientist Lisa Collins with
the Washington State Patrol they wanted me to test this cup and just see if I could get a DNA profile from it sharf
left the cup at the lab to await the results CC Moore had already begun searching for Tabit online and quickly
found his sisters and father on social media I couldn't find hardly anything about him you know no marriages I could
find very little footprint online at all and that was a little unusual years earlier someone else who
knew nothing about the investigation had made a similar search Chelsea rustad in
2013 long before she submitted her DNA to any websites Chelsea Googled her grandpa's sister blanch and found a lot
of information online her daughter was uh Patty tbet and Patty had three daughters and one son and the son was
William Earl tbot the second these were Chelsea's second cousins the Talbots Chelsea friended two of the sisters on
Facebook but their brother William was a mystery this guy was just kind of question mark Off the
Grid Chelsea figured William was estranged from his family but didn't give it much thought even after she
uploaded her DNA to ancestry.com and then Jed match so she was stunned that Day in
2018 when those investigators showed up on her doorstep and asked to see her research and I'm just kind of like wait
one of you're saying one of my family members is connected to a murder and they're saying you know yeah it's uh
from 1987 and the person of interest is William Earl talbet and I'm just kind of grasping the
scope of this and you know sickened thinking about it the investigators wanted to know her impression of William
Talbot I told them my theory that I think he's a stranged detective sharf got more details from Talbot's friends
and family he had a history of anger and violence when he was younger he was a really angry kid in audio taped
interviews with Talbert sisters sharf learned William's troubles began when he was 11 and his father was seriously hurt
in a motorcycle accident the sisters say William began to lash out he beat me up
uh broke my telepone and I had to go to the hospital another sister says William
Hurt her too still she said she didn't think he was capable of murder yeah he'd be a bonee head but not to the point of
attacking or killing somebody no but would the DNA on the paper cup tell a different story that was on
detective Sharp's mind when he returned to the Police lab and Lisa cins shared the results of her testing I said the
profile from the cup matches individual [Music] a it was just an amazing moment yeah
what did that feel like Jim I got tears in my eyes I'm like I can't believe it it's so
emotional and then I'm like yeah we got him and so on May 17th 2018 nearly 31 years after two Carefree
teenagers set out on a road trip and never returned detective sharp arrested William talbet and he says John we've
got him sharf called Tanya's brother John right away saying that at long last individual a was in
handcuffs yeah I mean that's when it really sent a chill down my spine it was pretty overwhelming to think that it had
all culminated in that moment right there now 31 years later the next day William talbet was
charged with Tanya's murder murder charges for Jay's murder soon followed Jay's sister spoke at a press conference
it's hard to put in towards this feeling of relief of joy of of great sorrow that this arrest brings Jay's mom
said the moment was bittersweet on one hand we're close to closure and on the other we're still at
a loss and I don't have my only son J detective sharf told the group he was grateful for breakthroughs in DNA
technology if it hadn't been for genetic genealogy we wouldn't be standing here today but would evidence obtained
through genetic genealogy be allowed in court [Music] [Music] okay let's go more than three decades
had passed since those dark November days in 1987 when Jay and Tanya were found murdered William Earl Talbot is now
accused of killing both now with William Talbot's arrest T's brother John Van kenborg was finally able to face the man
suspected of his sister's murder and what did you think the first time you saw him you just reviled I mean it it's hard
to control your emotions talbet pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and so
in June of 2019 his trial began in the snow homage County Superior Court it was the first
case ever to go to a jury trial where the suspect had been identified through inves ative genetic genealogy although
the Golden State killer had been identified first Talbot's trial would be held before his and CC Moore was acutely
aware of how much was writing on the outcome we didn't know at that point how genetic genealogy was going to be
treated in court because there was no precedence the prosecution was hoping to make it a non-issue I was going to
minimize the exposure by kind of downplaying the importance of the genetic genealogy knowing full well that
was the part of the case that was perhaps most intriguing to people Chief criminal Deputy Matthew Baldock was the
lead prosecutor on Talbot's case did you he approached the defense with a proposal they would stipulate to the
jury that the DNA from Individual a had come from William talbet as an agreed upon fact much to my surprise they
agreed it was a major victory for the prosecution the use of genetic genealogy to locate a suspect would not be
contested in court that was a huge relief really it was the best possible outcome so you admit that that is
William Talbot's DNA am I correct you're correct that was a stipulation Talbot's
attorneys John Scott and Rachel Ford would argue that there's actually an innocent explanation for that DNA every
indication of the DNA found from my client indicated consensual sex yes they admit that talbet had sex with t but
they deny he raped or killed her or J cook they point out that t and Jay were missing for several days before their
bodies were found implying that the couple must have encountered their killer later on tell me what you think
then happened to T and J we don't know what happened these kids were off to an Adventure whether they went to a bar a
restaurant uh some sort of Club to meet people I don't know tabit's lawyers say it's understandable that Tabet might not
remember meeting Tanya or even where he was 30 years ago but it's significant they say that investigators were unable
to link talbet to the type of gun that killed T the pack of cigarettes or the materials used to strangle Jay
so William tablet's defense is basically that he had sex with Tanya and then somehow somebody else killed her that's
not William Talbot's defense William tas's defense is that there is insufficient evidence to prove him
guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt but prosecutors say they do have sufficient evidence there's tet's DNA from Tanya's
body and her pants the fact that he lived just 7 miles from where Jay's body was found and the part print on the van
that police say was a match to talet then there are the zip ties found at all four crime scenes balock says
they prove the connection between Jay's murder and Tanya's and the van what do you believe the zip ties were used for I
believe that Mr talbet had Jay and T in the van for some period of time after he
abducted or kidnapped them and I believe that he used zip ties to restrain them as part of his investigation detective
sharf had hoped to obtain a usable DNA profile from any of the zip ties there had been a mixture of DNA on one of the
zip ties that was found in Jay's van and they weren't able to discern who all the
profiles belong to but mid-trial forensic scientist Lisa Collins had decided to run that DNA mixture into a
new software program to see if she could find a match and to her surprise she did
when I compared William Talbot's DNA profile to the mixture obtained from the zip tie that was found in the victim's
van he was included as a possible contributor but because her Discovery came during trial prosecutors felt it
was too late to present to the jury fearing it would delay the trial talbet elected not to take the stand and his
lawyers were hopeful that the jury would agree there was not enough evidence to prove him
guilty in their closing arguments the defense told the jury that police were unreasonably focused on the
DNA they never stopped to consider that perhaps the person who left the DNA was not the
murderer attorney Ford argued ued that detective Jim Sharp had tunnel vision is it at all possible that yes that was
William Talbot's DNA but he didn't kill either one of them is that possible sure
is it reasonable no she was found without her pants or underwear so just practically speaking is the claim that
Mr talbet had consensual sex with her and then she got dressed and the person who ultimately killed her undressed her
B says the only reasonable theory is that talbet had overpowered the couple with a plan of raping T and then killed
them both he had zip ties he had gloves he had a firearm he had ammunition after a
two weekl long trial the jury began to deliberate but they didn't come back that first day or the second you realize
this is really going to be the moment of truth [Music] on that third day of deliberations the
families of Jay cook and T van kenborg finally got news there was a verdict [Music]
we the jury find the defendant William Earl P II guilty of the grme of Mur guilty William Talbot had been found
guilty of the aggravated murder of Tanya van kenborg and guilty of the aggravated
murder of Jay cook just to hear the foreman of the jury say guilty was surreal CeCe Moore wasn't in the
courtroom but she later saw video of Tanya's brother John's reaction it was as if I could see a physical burden left
off his shoulders he had told me how he had carried this burden for years you know he was the only sibling he was her
older brother and so that was incredible to see Chelsea rustad had never spoken to
either Jay or Tanya's family but with their blessing she decided to attend talbat sentencing where she first met
John I was really nervous he looked a little bit nervous as well she's effectively a family member
of the murderer so I think it was Brave of her to take that risk thank you for for coming today
at the sentencing Jay Cook's mother told the judge about the grief she has carried all these years some of us
wanted a shirt or a sweater you wear them you could put them to your nose and smell
him I still have that old sweater in my dresser drawer the sentence was mandatory thank you the Court's only
possible sentence on each count is to impose a sentence of life without possibility of release two life terms in
in prison without parole Chelsea says her sympathy is for Jay and Tanya's families despite her genetic ties to
talit all right his dad wasn't there his sisters weren't there he had a family member in the audience and I was there
supporting the victims Chelsea rustad is proud that her DNA helped bring a killer
to justice but there are some who have concerns about this new frontier in police work
kill you it might be that you're not the Golden State killer but it also might be
that you don't want law enforcement scrutinizing your entire family law professor Andrea Roth is head of the UC
Berkeley Center for Law and technology and says one of the problems she sees is that the DNA used for genetic genealogy
can be very revealing this is DNA testing that tells you a lot about a person's very sensitive information their medical
history information about familial lines that the families themselves don't even
know Professor Roth does agree that in cases like this genetic genealogy Could Be an Effective tool for the public good
but she cautions that Most states have no restrictions on its use there's the concern that the
government could use your DNA for some reason other than a criminal investigation that it shouldn't be using
it for giving it to insurance companies or using DNA to find out who was at a protest meeting we don't have evidence
right now of the government doing that but um those are are reasons that somebody might want to think about
before they decide to upload their DNA because of this lack of legal oversight Roth has deep reservations about sharing
DNA on public genealogy websites would you not upload your DNA I would not but it may already be too
late for Professor Roth or many other Americans to truly opt out experts estimate that today more than 90% of
white Americans can be identified using genetic genealogy and that's because says CC
Moore those of European descent are well represented on websites like Jed match we have enough DNA we can identify if y
almost anyone of Northwest European ancestry even if it takes hours dozens of hours hundreds of hours we'll get
there but in this case after more than 30 years with no solid leads Moore was able to use Chelsea rustads DNA to help
locate a viable suspect in Just 2 hours was this the fastest you've ever found a suspect it was to this day
three and a half years later hundreds of cases later this was the most straightforward case I've ever worked
and that is amazing detective sharf believes that this case changed the face of Cold Case
investigations forever genetic genealogy is the best tool that's come around since DNA you don't need a codus
database to get your match for Jay and tenas families it means they finally have some answers and
a measure of Peace on T's grave her parents inscribed the final line from a poem she wrote when she was
17 there is a place that I know of where up above there flies a dove and slowly as it turns to Dawn she Parts her wings
and then she's gone she was growing up and and maturing and spreading her wings and getting her feet
under her and and then she was gone you miss her still don't you yeah and [Music]
definitely 48 hours to miss it will be a crime were you at all prepared for what
happened in this case [Music] it's a small Seaside town uh just about at the end of cape
[Music] Cod and in the winter time it's a really quiet place the people that live here year
round us everyone pretty much knows one another I never wanted to live anywhere else it's just a beautiful place to hang
out unless something really awful happens police are trying to solve the first murder in a small Cape Cod town in
more than 30 years the victim a local writer named Christal Worthington was found inside this house in t on
Sunday Christ Worton was found stabbed once through the left chest missing the heart piercing the lung and the knife uh
made an exit wound uh uh in her back and went into the kitchen floor below her worthington's 2-year-old daughter
was also at the house on Sunday and witnessed the attack but she was not hurt the details that we heard about
apparently AA attempting to clean her mother's body and finding a child's broom with blood on it
and and things like that that was really really hard to take the horror that came
into this quiet house in the winter time at the end of the world and just blew up
these little wonderful lives my name is Eric Williams I'm a reporter with the Cape Cod
Times and I've covered this case from the beginning I'd say she had a very easy smile she had a wide eyed wonderment
about the world she was a mom she was a great mom her whole being lit up just by
being with her daughter Ava she was a flirt and you know I could tell that that was that was an
attraction I'm Tony jacket I had an affair with cryistal Worthington and we had a child together AA
woron it wasn't solved right away [Music] it is a murder mystery that continues to
haunt Cape CA I think people were spooked who is this person that did it where are they I mean are they a local
people around here are getting very anxious and time went on and a sort of rotating cast of potential suspects were
Tred it out we got Tony jacket the father of Ava it's um disturbing to be murder suspect Tony son-in-law Keith
Amato was a person whose name came up dude don't film it the guy who found the body Tim Arnold cryistal was an easy
person to love and sometimes a difficult person to be around I think there was the feeling like we're never going to
know whether this was your next door neighbor and arrest in the murder of chista Worthington I mean that was a
shock that was out of the blue they they arrested a guy I mean could you believe
it [Music] [Music] this was a a great [Music] mystery How could a single mom be executed in her kitchen in January in
Cape Cod [Music] yeah I wasn't no winner time because it is quiet and you have uh and I like the
cold weather in the winter time Cape Cod can feel like the end of the world it's a
real challenge being out on the water you know mentally and physically really a real independent way of life
it's the only World Fishing Warden Tony jacket ever really has known I feel fortunate and blessed that I was born
and raised here Tony is like he's like a Nature Boy and that according to reporter Eric
Williams is pretty much how everybody in the town of churo saw him hi Nancy he's
a great guy a gregarious smart uh you know really a pleasant fellow uh you know uh who likes the ladies you
know in 1997 a new lady came to town a glamorous former fashion writer from New York she had a bungalow right
next to the harb master Shack and this is the Harbor Master Shack this pink one that was hers she's sitting on the porch
and I'm right [Music] there and jacket married with six kids nonetheless went for her hookline and
sinker she was someone very different from the people that I knew she was mysterious enigmatic somewhat of a loner
her name was Christa Worthington a 40-year-old Vasser grad she lived what seemed a Life in the Fast
Lane covering the runways of New York London and Paris for top fashion magazines scoring an interview with
fashion Superstar Eve saleron when she was just 26 that was her building when she moved
back from um Europe but Steve radlauer who dated Christopher two years in New York says she never felt part of the
Glamorous world she covered I think she was feeling a little burned out after her European women's wear uh
years her prominent New England family owned a slew of properties in tro owned by John W Wasington Sena including this
one where she moved a few months later it seemed like the perfect Retreat and the perfect place to have a child she
had this having a baby thing in mind and I think she felt that this would be a good place to do that the complication
was that she was not married didn't have a boyfriend she uh was I think intrigued
with the local color local color including you yeah I could tell that that was that was
an attraction you know ultimately I ended up over a house having a cup of tea and one thing leads to another and
for about a year off and on they had an affair I had become a slave to my ego and for the beautiful writer who
desperately wanted a child and the local fishermen who already had six one thing did lead to another so she
comes to you at some point and says I'm pregnant right this is a surprise this is a total surprise a surprise he
didn't share with his wife of 26 years even when Christa gave birth to a daughter Ava in May of
1999 the day she got pregnant she was ecstatic I was dumbfounded friends insist Christa had been told she
couldn't have a baby but jacket always has felt she set him up how do I explain this I'm like
all of a sudden I'm I realized that I'm uh in in fact she had gone on the Lisa show the year before to talk about women
who choose to be single parents trying to figure out how to be the best parent to your child given that there is no
father she was very real she was exactly who she was Eva became the Sater of Christ's
Universe says Linda schlecter who babysat a few times a week a very devoted mother and she would
always have AA on her lap and they would always be playing or laughing now I'm just still in a lot of disbelief about
what's happened it seems so unreal unreal indeed I walked into The Newsroom here on Cape Cod and we had just gotten
word from the police uh that there had been a murder the first homicide in Truro in 30 years sent reporter Eric
Williams into to high gear finding sources working the phones it was Sunday January 6 2002
surprisingly you know I knew the guy who found the body and next thing I know I'm calling him
and talking to him about it he was calling Tim Arnold another former boyfriend of Christa's who lived just
through the woods from her house Arnold's story was that he had simply dropped by the house at 4:30 :30
that afternoon to return a flashlight and instead got the shock of his life sees Christa lying on the floor in a
sort of a kitchen hallway area and he sees AA near uh her mother's body Arnold later told police little Ava was trying
to nurse he said he scooped her up and ran outside he called 911 911 this L recorded what your
emergency of please send over to 50 de Road okay what's the problem it's Crystal worthy I don't know what
happened I think she fell down something I'm sure she's dead Christa Worthington
was dead lying in a hallway off the kitchen she was uh bruised up it looked like there had been some kind of
altercation that she had been in she was half naked and stabbed once through the left
lung the blade went through the body and into the kitchen floor beneath her body the front door was
smashed there were drag marks on the ground outside and several personal items scattered in the drive some socks were
found outside maybe a Barret a pair of reading glasses the disarray continued inside shocked EMTs carelessly grabbed a
blanket from the house to cover Christa's body soon all of Truro knew what had happened we got just a phone
call that Chris got murdered what was your reaction when you got this phone call just disbelief I mean like why it
seems so senseless with all the elements of a classic mystery Sensational reports of
the murder on Cape Cod topped the news around the country it was a murder that rocked the world of high fashion leaving
Christa's nervous neighbors with no reason to suspect that it would take police literally years to solve this
crime not that they didn't have plenty of suspects and it became some kind of some kind of awful parlor game uh you
know in living rooms on the Outer Cape and maybe even Beyond as you'd sit around and once again go through it and
try to figure out could it have been Tim could it have been Tony how did it go down by the spring of
2005 Town's people were starting to think police never would figure out who killed Christa Worthington this was just
a random awfulness that just came screaming out of the woods of Truro and festered for three
[Music] [Music] years now i s my ABCs next time I you sing me [Music] cryistal worthington's Savage murder in
January of 2002 left 2-year-old Ava without a mother and it left the town's people of
Truro edgy nervous and silently wondering if the killer might be one of them who else would come down to the end
of the world and January and do this you think it's got to be someone who is here
cuz no one no one comes here in January the best potential lead to the murderer's
identity DNA found on Christa's body it's DNA of an unknown male that's consistent with someone having had
sexual relations with uh the victim and it's that DNA that we seek to match so says district attorney Michael
O'Keefe investigators first zeroed in on her immediate circle especially past boyfriends you look at the people who
are in the immediate orbit of the victim's life while they waited for the crime lab to find a DNA match they took
a hard look first there was the neighbor and former boyfriend Tim Arnold not only had he found the body
but his seamen would turn up on the blanket thrown over Christa then again they'd live together for a Time in the
house Tim Arnold was one of the few men under the age of 70 in Truro year round Christa's friend Steve radlauer says her
relationship with Arnold at times contentious apparently was over I don't think that she ever entertained the idea
that this was going to develop into a long-term relationship that they were going to get married or anything like
that she know he may have he may have from what I understand he was he was more serious about that as a long-term
possibility than she was Arnold emphatically denied to police that he had anything to do with the crime have
some quick questions about what your memories of Christa are otherwise he refused to discuss Christa
Worthington these days Arnold struggles with health problems mainly affecting his vision but he says memories of what
happened in 2002 never are far from his thoughts I think about it alone I think about it just about every
day sometimes writes about Christa the Christa I knew was a person of contradictions she was by turns bright
talented and ambitious and then a homebody who wanted nothing more than to spend time with her
[Music] child while Tim Arnold may have been at the the top of the suspect list I was
interviewed a lot early on aa's Father Tony jacket wasn't far behind you can certainly understand why the police
would think that you had a motive to kill her well had is no motive what was the motive
Eva wow according to Christa's friends jacket had little time for the baby at first and eventually Christa demanded
that he at least pay child support she also demanded that he tell his wife Susan you didn't have a clue
no he said I had an affair and he said there's a child and I said um you're kidding then to Tony's total shock she
forgave him take a walk on the beach it's been too many years and he's a nice man people make mistakes he's only human
look at it isn't it lovely I don't want this anger in me I just want to make this all
work and by the time of the murder the jackets claim it was more or less working the three of them had a
relationship of sorts with Ava at its Center Tony they say had no reason to kill Christa we had her over for dinner
and it was a little uncomfortable the first time but the more I got to know her I I liked her I thought she was a
nice person Susan says Tony was at home home with her when Christa was killed but
police refused to rule anyone out and the suspect list was expanding to Agatha chrisy size proportions at times even
including Tony's then son-in-law Keith Amato who' taken an outside shower or two at Christa's house near the beach
even Christa's elderly father was drawn into the investigation through his 29-year-old
girlfriend love taking pictures of me don't you former heroin addict upon whom Christa thought he was spending far too
much money meanwhile the State Crime Lab was hopelessly backed up months passed with
no word on the DNA taken from Christa's body the police went to the FBI for a profile of the killer but nobody seemed
a fit then finally a year after the murder the crime lab at last produced results disappointing results because
the DNA from Chris didn't match Tony jacket or Tim Arnold or any other suspect the police
had you have this ever widening Circle if you will of Investigation going on first group of people are looked at very
very intensely nothing is developing you widen that Circle the widen Circle brought in DNA from repair men Trashmen
delivery men with pressure mounting Dao Keef took an unprecedented step asking for DNA from every single man in Truro
State Police investigators were actually in Truro today asking men outside the post office outside coffee shops for
saliva samples for at that point like what are you crazy I mean this is such a needle in a Hy stack how many people
have been tested so far um I'm not going to say specifically but dozens of people
dozens and dozens these guys are throwing darts at an elephant you know I mean they got no chance it's just
crazy but Chance is a strange thing in the three years police were searching for Christa worthington's
killer an uneasy piece settled over Cape Cod somebody that knows still no arrests in
this case no one's been ruled out either as the investigation dragged on you know
it just makes you think you know no one has been named a suspect only the random
DNA Roundup got much public attention it did seem to smack of some desperation meanwhile whole books were
being written about this unsolved murder investigators under intense pressure still would rule pull no one out
including Tony jacket I'm left in limbo if they don't solve it and it's it's it's not right little Ava his daughter
with Christa was sent to live with a friend Amira Chase whom Christa had named Ava's Guardian in her will jacket
was allowed to see his daughter only one afternoon a week who loves you daddy that's right d he loves you yeah you
know that's my daughter you know that chases enough listen to this little girl he fought for custody Worthington
jacket matters 02 w006 b r but lost to Christa's friend and Tony thinks he knows
why well being a suspect definitely cost me custody more than anything else a custody of my my
[Music] daughter by 2005 Jack was getting used to another reality was just kind to live
with the fact that um the perception of my being a suspect is going to stay but then on April 7th investigators caught a
stunning break the crime lab had a hit we have a brief statement to make a match for DNA found outside and inside
Christa's body it just was a bombshell huge bombshell because we were just like electrified couldn't believe that they
had come up with a match suddenly a match a suspect and an arrest all announced to the World by da Michael
O'Keefe three and a half years after the crime last night at approximately 7:15 p.m. detectives from the massachusett
state police arrested Christopher a Macwan for the 2002 murder of Christa a Worthington which had a lot of people in
town asking Christopher who I would have figured it would have been the garbage man that's right Christopher mwan had
been Christa worthington's garbage man tro was astonished and relieved it seemed like a done deal the results were
were in the quadrillions so you're talking about as absolute as one could possibly get well you know pretty much
police picked up a dosel maowen at his rooming house lying on the bed watching cartoons marijuana and an open bottle of
prescription painkillers were on the table nearby incredibly he'd been right under
their noses from the start did you kill Christa interviewed twice both times he had denied knowing Christa Worthington
he'd given police's DNA voluntarily more than a year earlier the laboratory could
not get you results as quickly as we would have liked them well a year right right
when detectives took him in for questioning maowen waved his right to a lawyer they say he again denied knowing
Christa and then he's presented with what I would suggest is a relatively strong piece of evidence that
he's lying DNA correct police say that's when his story changed he admits that yes he went there
on Friday night yes he had sex with her and yes he beat her but he doesn't want to bring himself
to admit that he killed her so he blames the worst part of it on someone else the
somebody else was macau's friend Jeremy Frasier who'd been with him the night of
the murder but Frasier's DNA wasn't found anywhere on Christa's body was there an operating assump that the last
person who' had sex with Christal worlington had killed her yes from the beginning yes and you believe that to be
the case yes Christopher macau's interview at the police barracks lasted about six hours and for whatever reason
he declined to have it recorded so the only record of this crucial interview is a report some 20 pages long that the
detectives wrote from their notes about a week later in it maowen is sometimes confused
confused and comes up with at least half a dozen different versions of what really happened the night police say
Christa Worthington died Chris mcau didn't commit this crime and the police know it attorney Bob
George took macau's case after the police interrogation and says they jumped to conclusions from the start
noting that the DA's website listed this murder as solved almost from the moment
of macau's arrest a person of Chris coms race class and limited capacities was an
easy target an especially easy target he says because Christopher maowen literally wasn't smart enough to defend
himself this is a person with a 76 to a 78 IQ on his best day meaning on a day where he's not using drugs and alcohol
uh not under pressure under pressure and Under the Influence he was using Percocet that day he was using marijuana
that that day George says his client was putty in the hands of the police this is
a false confession and I don't accept it I don't know how much of it is actually
coming from Chris mccowan's mouth or how much of it is coming from the police investigation I don't
know as for the DNA the Lynch pin of the prosecution's case the significance of that George says is all in how you look
at this crime what's now in session please be seated and the police he's about to tell the
jury are looking at it all wrong the forensics in the case could very well said Chris maccau and free that
person who killed Christal worington was white they had footprints that were unidentified they had palm prints that
were unidentified and they had unknown male DNA from three individuals under her finger nails
[Music] down the cape today the infamous Crystal worlington murder case has gone from a
who done it to a courtroom drama all right Kamal of Massachusetts versus Christopher M macowan prosecutors go
into Christopher mccowan's trial confident that the jury will accept their Simple Theory of Christa
worthington's murder that he went to this location for the purpose of having sex with this
person that that was denied to him and in a rage he raped her and killed [Music]
her the case against Christa's alleged killer district attorney Michael O'Keefe concedes depends on two vital pieces of
evidence the DNA and the statement together were the two major pillars of the case first the DNA We performed DNA
analysis on 23 samples the state's experts says it proves Beyond doubt that maowen had sex with Christa Worthington
Christopher McAn matched the major profile in the mixture then the statement can you tell us your name for
the record please my name is Christopher Mason with Christa's father and other family members looking on employed as a
trooper with the massachusett state police Trooper Christopher Mason tells the court that although maowen didn't
actually confess he did admit to police that he beat Christa and watched her die
Mr maowen stated I never meant for that lady to get killed it's a nightmare after Nightmare and not a day goes by
that I don't think about it he went up there looking for sex Crystal Worthington confronted him and it got
very ugly in the prosecution scenario Macwan was drinking heavily that night he joined friends at a local Club they
were videotaped by an onlooker while taking part in a rap contest this person wanted the company of a
woman after partying and drinking all night so O'Keefe continues at around 1:30 a.m. Macwan drove to Christa's
house in Truro where he killed her and he was alone he was alone and he didn't have any prior relationship with
her other than his familiarity with who she was where she lived and the fact that she lived
alone that is where macau's attorney Bob George insists prosecutors have it all wrong now when they found the DNA for 39
months you will hear they were looking to speak to Christa's last Lover he wants to convince the jury there is
reasonable doubt about everything in this case suddenly Christa's last lover was a rapist for starters George claims
his client and Christa may have been involved Chris macowan could have reasonably had a consensual sexual
relationship with Christal Worthington and anyone who doesn't believe it is someone who just refuses to accept it
and that's the defense's explanation for the damning DNA evidence that Christa Worthington voluntarily had sex with
Macwan probably that Thursday his day for picking up the trash and that later someone else came along and killed her
you don't have macau's fingerprints at that scene you didn't have macau's hair at that scene you got M's DNA at that
scene consensual sexual episode on Thursday but George says getting the jury to believe that could be a problem
because his client is being tried in Lily white Cape Cod if you had the same body of evidence and Johnny whitebred
was home for the holidays it was from some affluent family on the C the same body of evidence he wouldn't have been
charged but miles away in New York Christa worthington's former boyfriend Steve radlauer says race has nothing at
all to do with his doubts let's hear about that consensual relationship how long had that been going on I saw
Christa two weeks before she was murdered roughly uh it wasn't going on then because we would have heard about
it that would have been her top story top of the Christa news would have been I'm having an affair with my local
Trashmen M you won't believe story back in court the defense also must deal with its other big problem
problem that statement and when he walked into that police station on April 14th 2005 the police had to get a
statement out of him so they intimidated him George argues in a six-hour interrogation much as they' done with
other suspects like Tim Arnold and when you told them that you did not kill Christa Worthington what was said to you
but oh yes I had was like getting worked over you know like physically getting beaten up
another one-time suspect Keith Amato described a similar experience Trooper M slammed his hand down on the table and
said this is a murder investigation and if we so choose we will turn your life inside out they did exactly the same
thing to them that they did to maowen except that they were smart enough and they had the wherewithal in the
background to know when to say stop cut it out I'm not doing this anymore I want
a lawyer as far as IQs go what is uh what What's the score for someone who's mentally [ __ ] George's witness
forensic psychologist Eric Brown claims that with an IQ of about 76 Christopher Macwan simply couldn't understand the
police's questions in 69 is mentally [ __ ] yes and he's 76 on his best day yes rubbish says the prosecution maowen
seemed smart enough when Brown gave him an intelligence test for relativity he indicated Einstein and for Gandhi he
wrote spiritual leader of India and for Koran he wrote Muslim bible that's correct correct and he was clever enough
the state argues to concoct a story blaming someone else to be the truth the whole truth his friend Jeremy Frasier
who appeared uncomfortable the moment he took the stand did you drive up uh to Crystal worton's house with Christopher
maau no I didn't did you have anything at all to do with her deaths no I didn't but Bob George wants the jury to believe
Frasier could have what were you drinking a couple bears at the party did you tell the police it was like six
Coronas I don't recall certainly Frasier and maowen were together that night the
videotaped Rap Contest shows Frasier listening to music with maowen nearby but Frasier supplied an alibi he later
was seen at another party then slept at a friend's house and his DNA doesn't doesn't show up anywhere at the crime
scene he was a convenient py for the defendant to blame as nothing to do with this murder no Bob George also argues
that police bungled the whole investigation there were fibers hairs DNA that never made it to a lab and a
crime scene contaminated by careless EMT they had all kinds of evidence at that scene that was either mishandled ignored
or Dr away Christopher maowen never testifies betting that his attorney has created
enough doubt in this case to set him free it's based on an assumption a false assumption that a Vasser educated
wealthy ays could not possibly have had consensual sex with a black uneducated troubled garbage man
[Music] while the jury in the Christa Worthington murder trial deliberates there's always that question as to
what's the truth what isn't the truth the case is still being tried in the court of public opinion we have been
following the trial and everyone in towns got an opinion I think the preponderance of evidence indicates that
he's guilty I think he deserves every bit of a reasonable doubt if it's there I wouldn't be surprised if the guy gets
off days go by the clock ticks on without a verdict it's always good when they're out a long time Christopher
macau's lawyer Bob George is taking an optimistic view insisting that time and the evidence are on his
side if you can't trust what you find at the crime scene because the scene has been
corrupted if you can't trust the statement because it's unreliable and if the DNA doesn't mean
anything because the defendant could have been involved in a consensual relationship with the victim then what
happened for five agonizing days the jury including two African-Americans debates that very question they said
they were hopelessly deadlocked then on day six right for the jury a shocker the judge announces he is thrown
in one juror off the panel a white woman whose boyfriend was arrested in an unrelated crime in a phone call with him
she was taped criticizing the police and there's concern about bias you are to be
discharged from word began circulating around 11:30 this morning that this jury had finally
come to a verdict who is now in session please be seated two days after a new juror is seated are we ready for the
jury The Log Jam breaks what say you Mr Foreman Christopher mowan learns his fate we the jury returned the following
verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree he was devastated by the verdict
anyone with eyes could see that he was terribly uh hurt by what happened hours later before he's
sentenced he addresses the court for the first time this case here is a very horrendous case
I feel sorry for the Pilgrim's family her daughter and her and they're meant for this to never
take place but he still claims he had nothing to do with Christal worthington's death
but you want all I can say is that I'm I'm an innocent man in this case and and that's that's all I got to
say the court doesn't buy it the court hereby send you to be in prison at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution
at Cedar Junction for and during the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole on indictment
number 05-19 02 the jury having found you guilty and arated Chris did I want to not guilty of course
I wanted to not guilty you know my belief in mccowan's innocence is what drove me I believed he was innocent and
still believe he's innocent and we believe he's not guilty uh until the day I die you want me to stand at the podium
even after the verdict Bob George refuses to give up he's a little suspicious about what really happened to
get that juror removed you've got a juror receiving phone calls on her cell phone from someone who's incarcerated in
a deliberating deadlock jury in a major murder case from the jail you don't have
to be all over W homes to figure out there something strange about that we'll find out what
happened I think there's a lot of conspiracy theory types that you know will never be satisfied Eric Williams
who's covered the case from day one says while replacing the juror confused things in the end he has confidence in
the jury's decision there was enough evidence it seemed to push them to unanimously agree and I think for most
Cape cotters that's good enough [Music] well this case changed my life it's radically it's not something that you
ever imagine you're going to have to deal with kind of like being in a dark tunnel I wonder if you'll ever see light
[Music] again are you glad that this is finally all over now officially cleared as a
suspect in Christa's murder Tony jacket is relieved at the verdict you know the jury deliberated and car carefully
looked at all the evidence although remarkably he isn't sure the jury got it right I felt there was Reasonable Doubt
all over the place I think about the trial I think about what it did to me and and and I
think about her Tim Arnold too is happy it's finally over but to this day he is haunted by
what happened sometimes the weight of events forces to look back whether you want to or not just something that's
always there these happen to be a few snapshots I took of Ava and Christa when they were
here only a couple of weeks before she was killed Ava lives still with her legal
Guardians and by all accounts she is doing well one pretty little girl yeah she was really sweet when you look at
this today what goes through your mind well you know I I mean basically I think she was really happy she was a great
person we miss her a lot Ava never will remember those happy times but Christa's friends are
determined that one day she will know how much her mother loved her how would you want to tell her about the
past um a little bit at a time yeah is that good Ava won't have her that's yeah this just the enduring tragedy the
whole [Music] thing for nearly 16 years 48 Hours has covered the aftermath of Christa
worthington's murder and Christopher mowen's trial of guilty of murder in the first degree soon after his
conviction the verdict was called into question when several jurors made allegations of racial bias during their
deliberations that prompted the trial judge to take the unusual step of calling all 12 jurors back to court to
be questioned their testimony revealed there was racial tension in the Jury Room and macau's attorney Bob George
thought it was sufficient grounds for a retrial well in my opinion it's enough to establish that the statements were
made and that the bias statements were made now it's up to the judge to determine whether or not there's going
to be a new trial but the judge ruled against maowen upholding his conviction in 2010 the
state Supreme Judicial Court agreed maowen from the moment he was sentenced all I can say is that I'm an innocent
man has refused to give up the fight Mr Macau do you deserve a new trial he now has a new legal team and they have filed
another motion for a new [Music] trial but for those closest to Christa Worthington life has moved on Tony
jacket maintains a warm relationship with his daughter Ava who now is in college and continuing to thrive
[Music] I was knocked in conscious I couldn't protect her 1978 a team murdered who
would want to kill her and why 1984 another team murdered same Beach multiple suspects but one of them worked
for the police 48 Hours Crime Time double feature continues next on CBS [Music]

“48 Hours" reports on cases that took investigators on a hunt for key pieces of evidence in this YouTube mini-marathon. Binge-watch the full episodes, featuring "The Tree that Helped Solve a Murder," "A Killer in the Family Tree" and "Murder on the Cape."

00:00 The Tree that Helped Solve a Murder 41:23 A Killer in the Family Tree 1:23:05 Murder on the Cape

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "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

Joseph Ellich was convicted of second-degree murder in the disappearance and death of his wife Mony G after a troubled marriage and key DNA evidence emerged.

Key points

Mysterious Disappearance. Mony vanishes without a trace, leaving behind her phone and wedding ring.
Secrets Uncovered. Joe's recordings reveal troubling truths about his relationship with Mony.
A Shocking Discovery. A hiker finds Mony's remains in a park, leading to devastating revelations.
Sentencing Phase. The jury hears testimonies about the impact of M's death before deciding Joe's sentence.
Breakthrough in the Case. More than 30 years after the murders, a breakthrough occurs in the investigation.
The Power of Genetic Genealogy. CC Moore identifies the killer using genetic genealogy, revolutionizing the investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I don't like being married to you.

Joe's recorded confession about his feelings towards Mony.

12:35WatchOct 12, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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