Secrets and Lies in Death Investigations | "48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] I have visible holes in my memory from when I was a kid. You know,
trauma and it's a different kind of trauma because there's a monster involved. It's 30 years later. I can't
imagine many things that are as terribly lifechanging. I was 2 weeks away from my
17th birthday. What could I have done? And what could I have done? Okay, I've got the command on the phone. They're
expect a week ago today, uh Sarah Wood, a 12year-old, left this church and was traveling a short distance about a mile
to her home. She made it about halfway and uh we found her bicycle at around 4:30 that afternoon.
I am Dusty Wood. I am Sarah's older brother. I was 16 when she was abducted in 1993.
We need to know where Sarah is. Please help us find her. When I got a call from my sergeant that there was a
missing girl, he didn't say runaway. He said, "Missing child," which was unusual. So, I immediately drove up
there. This is a church uh that Sarah's father was pastor at at the time. The day that this happened, she was here
doing school work. Tell me where she rode. She would have gone right out out here and right down this road. So, this
is where she took a turn. Yep. Her her house is not too far up here on the left. This is the area where the bicycle
was found. I remember that moment. I'm standing next to my mother and that's when you know it's all
over. It's all over. [Music] We set up a station there. We could do everything out of that church. This end
right up in here. There were troopers from all over state. All of the state there. Days went by,
weeks, months, right? Would either one of you have ever guessed the turn this case would take on January 7th, 1994?
No. And this was still back in the day of where teletypes would come across. One came over about an abduction or
attempted abduction in Massachusetts. 12-year-old uh Rebecca Savarice. She's simply walking to school. She's
approached by a stranger who puts a gun to her and that broke the entire case. She's the key. She's the lynch pin.
She's what made it all happen. She got away. Okay, that's what put us on to Louis Lent. Lewis Lent came across as
just kind of an ordinary guy. He was a handyman. I don't think anybody would have ever conceived that he was doing
what he was doing. I'm Julia Cowie, retired FBI agent and profiler. He was prepared with duct
tape. He had a gun with him. He had a knife with him. He had rope with him. So he was always ready. He's a child
predator. You he enjoyed going out and driving around and in his words hunting for children.
He killed Sarah Emwood. He did confess to it. But we don't have Sarah's body. Finding the body is important because
then my mother could know where she is. Do you think Louisis Lint will give that
up? I don't know. If he does, it won't be out of the goodness of his heart. He does have a lot to hide.
[Music] [Music] My sister's life ended and I couldn't stop that. Someone hurt her and took her
life. I know at the time I felt like I could have done something, but I couldn't.
She was an exuberant person. She was excited to be alive. It's been a little over three decades since his 12-year-old
little sister disappeared. But for Dusty Wood, memories of Sarah have not faded with time. Morning, Sarah. What? Good
morning. Good morning. You ready to eat? No, I want to stay here and play video games. Every picture you see of her,
it's like a big beaming smile, those bright blue eyes. Dusty says the two of them had a lot in common.
I'm an extrovert. She's pretty extroverted. She's not a person in the background. She stuck out. Hey, Dad.
Dad, over here. [Music] She was funny. I imagine she would be funny now. On August 18th,
1993, Dusty, then just 16 years old, was enjoying a lazy summer day with his family in Sequoat, a small town in
central New York. That day, we had gone shopping. Uh we had come home. We just hung around the
house. We lived in the country, so there wasn't a lot of stuff to do. Sarah had made plans to ride her bike to
vacation Bible school at the church where her father was a pastor. It was just about a mile down the road.
The last time I saw her, she was singing Dolly Parton. Do you remember what song
she was singing? Working 9 to5. Yeah. She and I were at the front door. And so I was listening to her as she's working
925. And then she uh got on her bike and was like, "See you later." When Sarah didn't return home later that
afternoon, Dusty and Sarah's parents began to worry. So I remember getting a phone call from my parents at my
friend's house. Hey, did you see Sarah? And me being like, no. And so at that point, we rode our bikes and came
home. Didn't see her. Soon after, that's when a neighbor came across Sarah's bike
hidden in the bushes on the side of the road less than a half mile from the family's home. Police were called around
6:00 p.m. New York State Police Trooper Timothy Blae, who is now retired, arrived at the scene. So, Tim, where was
her bicycle found? It was off the grassy area. It was in where the shrubs are. And there was also some school paperwork
that was around. Some papers were blowing around. And at the time, did anyone remember seeing a truck or or a
child being grabbed or anything? I mean, she just vanished. Yeah. Well, as you can see, I mean, there's nobody here
really to see anything, you know. By early evening, the massive search for Sarah began.
We'd be out in the woods searching for her at midnight, 1:00 in the morning, hoping that we find her in maybe a hole
or a she fell down in something. 48 hours was invited by Sarah and Dusty's parents, Bob and Francis Wood, to
witness those early days of the investigation in hopes that the media attention would help find Sarah. Hold
for an hour, sir, and I'll be right with you. It would become one of the largest
searches for a missing child during that time. The first day was the worst first night.
We're uh just checking to see if anybody had any information on the Sarah Woods case. First night, of course, you know,
I was up on the road all night, out in the woods all night. Second day, I was on the road all night watching. Pioneer
one command post. Bob Wood's tiny church was turned into a state police command post.
Command post surrounded. The more people we can reach early on while the thing is
still fresh in their minds, the better chance we stand of maybe turning something up that that'll help us.
The big thing as far as the uniform troopers are concerned is the door to door. Anything out of the ordinary in
the past week or so? No. Can that be done with the chopper? The thing that keeps everybody going is
the uncertainty. not knowing whether she's dead, whether she's alive, whether she's a mile away, or whether she's 120
miles away. So now all I'm doing is praying and encouraging people because they're doing all the work. We've
expanded the search operation. We're probably into the area of 600 square miles.
I'm getting in fresh crews. I got more crews coming in from different parts of the state. And we're going to be
crawling on our hands and knees. It's really thick once we get down in there. Let's find that guy, bud. Let's go. When
you're dealing with a child, if it hits you personally, it hits me personally, you tend to devote 110%.
Let's go try. I hope we find this girl. Thank you, Lord, for this day. And we thank you now for the good food that we
have. We do ask that you would uh be with Sarah, nourish her, protect her. Please bring her home to us tonight.
How's it going, guys? Sarah's father doing a good job out there. That's like, you know, I'm on a precipice and there's
a there's a deep dark cliff there. Hi. How you doing, hun? I'm glad you're here. I really am. And if I step over
and and and self-pity and start to go down there, I may not be able to get back up. How you doing? I'm doing just
fine. Francis is strengthening daily. She's in the Bible a lot. Dusty, he's strong. He's real strong. Tell me about
yourself. Oh, myself. Yeah. Uh I don't know. What we need is a break, a good solid
lead that we can take and finish this case up with. And Bob believed police were going to
get that break. We're doing the state of Texas. If enough people could see his daughter's face, somebody stops one of
these stores and gasses up 10 minutes later to see my daughter, they could make the phone call we need to get. You
see this little person here? This is my baby. Whatever I have to do, I'm going to do to find this little girl here.
Sarah's mother, Francis, made a public plea. Whoever be behind this, you know, I hate
you. I don't hate you. I just want my daughter back. That's all. I just want her here with us. Investigators were
determined to find out what happened to Sarah. And they did not shy away from looking anywhere or at anyone. Our
entire family was focused on getting Sarah back. So, you want to investigate me? I'm okay with that. Sarah's got to
come home. We'll do whatever it takes. Period. When this happened, people realized this
could happen to anybody. It could be their children. Retired New York State police detectives
Ree Train and John Fallon were state troopers when Sarah Wood disappeared in 1993.
My daughter was only 5 miles from there when this happened at her grandparents house at 3 years old. It's home.
T and Fallon were part of the army of investigators from around the state. Thank you for your help. Assigned to
search for Sarah. We had no vehicle. She didn't just go into thin air. They would
join Frank Lawrence, one of the lead detectives. Something or someone had to have taken her. There it is right there.
Sarah, channel 2. Yet, despite the weeks of media attention that Sarah's case received, Lawrence, now retired from the
New York State Police, says law enforcement still had very little to go on. Somebody took her. We didn't know.
So when you don't know, you have to eliminate everything, every possibility, and you start local. And that included
questioning the people closest to Sarah, her brother, and her parents. You had to
look at the woods. The woods were looked at. It wasn't that tough though. It's very It's always difficult to do that,
you know, especially in this case because they're such good parents. Bob Wood was there every day. I'm glad
you're here though. You're helping out a lot. every day. Investigation isn't over. Uh, this is one fast. I had a hard
time going there every day. Once the woods were eliminated, Lawrence says they turned their attention to
investigating known and suspected sex offenders. Each and every one of them had to be spoken with and
eliminated. And we did. We did. And they still had nothing. We got this section done. Oh, despite the long hours and
heavy manpower until a bitterly cold day in January 1994, 5 months after Sarah disappeared, officer Timothy Blae was
working in the command center when a message came in via teletype, a device that police departments used at the time
to share information. One came over that about an abduction or attempted abduction in Massachusetts that I handed
off to Frank. Another 12-year-old girl named Becky Savarice was almost abducted as she walked to school in Pittsville,
Massachusetts, 100 miles away. Becky didn't respond to 48 hours most recent request for an interview, but back in
1994, she did speak with me and told me her remarkable story. I was coming up here. It was 7:10 in the morning on
January 7th at one of the busiest intersections in town. I was listening to my music. He He was on the side of
me. He like where I am. Yeah. He was saying stuff before. I didn't know what he was saying. So, I took my earphones
out to um hear what he was saying. And then he said, "Do you see the gun I have?" I was like, "Yes, I I see the gun
you have." He's like, "Just do everything I say. Everything would be perfectly okay." I was like, "All
right." He had it up against you. He had He had about maybe an inch away from me.
Were you scared? No, you weren't scared. I wasn't scared. We turned down here to
where his truck was parked. Now he wants you to go in the truck that's over there, right? You're not intending to go
into that truck. No, it if I got away, I didn't care if he shot me. I I just knew
I was not going to get into that truck. Why? Why did you know that? Was that something someone had told you or? I I
just felt it inside me. I knew I was not going to get into that truck. That's when Becky came up with an idea that
possibly saved her life. She faked an asthma attack. I started to fake that. I was like losing breath. When I was
trying to take my backpack off, uh when I he tried to grab from me, he got my backpack instead and I just ran. Becky
ran into a man clearing snow off a sidewalk who called the police. At about the same time, a witness called in with
three digits from the truck's license plate. Investigators began searching for the vehicle. I remember it well because
it was a blizzard. Despite the snowstorm, a Pittsfield officer spotted a truck with those three digits in its
license plate sitting in a driveway in a residential area. The officer quickly called for backup and they knocked on
the door and said, "Yeah, who was driving this truck earlier?" The homeowner told the officers a friend
named Lewis Lent had borrowed the truck and he just happened to be sitting in the kitchen. When police entered the
house to question Lent, he denied knowing about Becky, but willingly agreed to come down to the police
station. Had Lewis Lent, that name Lewis Lent, ever come up before? No, not in our investigation. Had he ever been
connected to a disappearance of a child? No, but he had a criminal history. Yeah,
some minor things like bad checks and forg checks, things like that, but nothing that approaches this. And when
investigators searched Lent's vehicle, they knew they had the right man. They found Rebecca's backpack. They found the
gun. They found duct tape and clothesline rope, basically his his kidnapping abduction kit. Although the
attempted abduction was 100 miles away in Pittsville, Massachusetts, everyone wondered if Lent
could have also taken Sarah. I got a call from the lieutenant. He says, "Well, go home and pack a bag and you're
going to Pittsfield. [Music] Almost 12 hours after the attempted abduction of 12-year-old Becky
Savarice, New York State Police Detective Frank Lawrence struggled through a snowstorm and finally arrived
at Pittsville, Massachusetts, eager to speak to Lewis Lent. But he would have to wait his turn. There's similarities,
but it's a Pittsfield case. Okay. They would talk to him then and we'd get him in between. And he was willing to talk
to you. Yeah. He talked to us. And during their conversations, Lawrence says he and two other New York
investigators made sure Lewis Lent understood why they were there. I actually showed him this poster and I
said to him, "Lou, this is who I'm here to talk to you about." So, he knew that eventually we're going to be talking
about this. Okay. How did he react? Did he He He was He was He was flat. Flat. Yeah. He was flat through the whole
thing. Did that make you think he had no idea who she was? I I didn't really care. I was going to find out. That's
what we were there for. But getting Lewis Lent to admit anything was not going to be easy. Although Becky
Savarice and a witness picked him out of a lineup, it took Lent until the next morning to admit he had tried to take
her. Lewis Lent was arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. But New York
investigators were not done with Lent. They started to ask him questions about other missing kids. We talked to him. We
spent a lot of time with him. And that's when Lawrence says he and New York investigators came up with a strategy.
We found out that he was religious. So he says they brought a Bible into the interview room. That Bible sat on the
table in front of him. Anytime he would wander, okay, we would use the Bible and
we go, Lou, you got to tell the truth and this comes from the heart. You got to tell us the truth. We would go back
to the Bible. And Lawrence says the strategy appeared to be working because as the hours went by, Lent started to
reveal things about himself and some very disturbing plans for the future that involve kidnapping young victims.
He told us about his master plan. Once he found the acceptable vulnerable individuals, he was going to bring them
back to his house and put them in like a few like I describe it as a coffin, but
keep them alive so he could use them and have them whenever he he wanted them. Investigators would later find the
beginning of his horrifying construction project when they searched Len's bedroom
and found this wooden partition wall. And things only got worse. He wanted to talk about Jimmy Bernardo.
Jimmy Bernardo was a 12year-old boy who had gone missing three years earlier in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts. A month later, hunters would find his body. The case had stumped local investigators for years,
but now Lent was about to tell everyone what had happened to Jimmy. He was riding his bike through a strip
mall in uh Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Lewis Lent was a janitor at the cinema center there in Pittsfield. When Jimmy
stopped in front of the cinema to wake for a friend, that's when Len said he offered him money to help him clean the
movie theater. Jimmy agreed. And then once Len got him inside, he overpowered him and kidnapped him. Lent told
investigators he drove Jimmy 200 miles to a rural and isolated area near his hometown of Reynoldsville, New York.
Then he said he strangled Jimmy to death and left him there. He had details that
only the killer and the police knew. As horrific as that revelation was, investigators kept pressing him about
Sarah Wood. The more we talked about Sarah, we're probing. He's responding. And then five months after she went
missing, Lewis Lent finally confessed. Lent admitted that he had kidnapped, raped, and then murdered
Sarah M. Wood. She was vulnerable. He was hunting and he found the victim. And just like Jimmy
Bernardo, Detective Lawrence says Lent's account matched details only known to investigators. Lent knew specifics about
what Sarah had been wearing and details about her bike that had not been made public. He knew that the chain on the
bike was broken. And he also said that the bike was a little bit big for her. I didn't know that. I found out
later that it was. Then Lawrence says Lent drew them a map showing where he said he buried Sarah's body. This is
just a copy obviously, right? But this is actually what Louisis Lent did. He drew that. I handed him a piece of paper
and this is what he drew. And where did he say he put her? Al Route 28 up by Blue Mountain Lake. Blue Mountain Lake
is located in a remote woody area near Racket Lake in New York's Aderandac Mountains. And within hours, police from
all over New York State were dispatched and searched the area. Bob Wood was there along with Dusty who
was a senior in high school. It was very cold. It was ridiculous and it was tons
of snow. Remember a lot of helping? A lot of people. How you guys doing for t up here? Was that a time when you
thought you might be able to bring Sarah home? Yeah. For over 50 days they searched for Sarah in the aderondex.
It was 30 below zero. We could only stay outside for 20 minutes at a time. We were in waist high snow. We had shovels.
We're digging. We're looking for any evidence at all having anything to do with Sarah. And we were hoping we
somebody would come up with something that had something to do with her. It just didn't happen. As investigators
continued to look for Sarah's body, Lent would face murder charges in both Massachusetts and New York. It was a
rare occasion where everyone was laser focused on one event which was find Sarah, bring him to justice.
[Music] Before Lewis Lent could be tried for Sarah Wood's murder in New York, he
first had to face charges in Massachusetts. In 1995, Lewis went on trial and was ultimately convicted for
Becky Savarese's attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to 17 to 20 years. Almost one and a half years later, after
taking a plea, he was given a life sentence for murdering Jimmy Bernardo. Television, radio, and
newspaper outlets. And then on June 6th, 1996, Lewis Land arrived at Herkimer, New York to a media frenzy. And the
district attorney wanted justice for Sarah Anne Wood and her family. Jeffrey Carpenter is Herkimer County's district
attorney. He wasn't in office when Sarah Wood was murdered, but he has studied Lewis Lent's case files. He says the
DA's office thought Lewis Lent was going to plead guilty to killing Sarah, but without warning, Lent changed his mind.
But it's my understanding that when he entered the courtroom and he saw certain members of the public, especially I
think her family, he decided on that day he did not want to enter a plea. Days later, Lent would change his mind again
and finally enter a guilty plea. What do you remember of him sitting there? I couldn't believe how small a man, you
know, I couldn't believe it. Not imposing. Almost 4 years after Sarah Wood was abducted and murdered. Lewis Lent was
sentenced to 25 years to life. He was sent back to Massachusetts to serve the rest of his life in prison. He will
never cause harm to anyone else. But it was not over for the Wood family and New
York State Police investigators. They still needed to find Sarah. He changes his story so often,
it's hard to hard to tell what's the truth and what's fiction. In fact, Detective T says Len's original story
that he buried her in the Racket Lake area turned out to be a lie. He cashed a check on August 18th in Pittsfield at
6:18 p.m. So, he did not physically have time to abduct Sarah at around 2:30 p.m.
and then drive to the Aderondex, dig a grave, bury her, and then drive back to Pittsfield to cash a check. So
investigators continued to visit Lent in prison, hoping that over time he would reveal where he buried Sarah and perhaps
even disclosed the murders of other victims. Detectives Fallon and T say they visited Landon prison about 20
times. Isn't it difficult at times so for the two of you not to just jump across the table and grab him? No. One
of the things you have to do is you have to leave hate outside of the room when you go in. They didn't push him, but
during their conversations, Lent revealed that he often suffered from blackouts and claimed he had an evil
alter ego that he called Steven. He has this dichotomy is the word he used. He has a really good side that studies the
Bible and actually was a traveling minister. Then he has this evil side and he has these uh uncontrollable
compulsions. This is the way he put it to do terrible things that he could not stop. Somehow Lent managed to hide that
evil side from nearly everyone he knew. Lewis Lent spent the last year back in 1994. 48 hours correspondent Richard
Slesinger interviewed some of Lent's friends. This sidewall here, it was caving right in. Right. And uh he helped
you with that too, huh? Oh, yes. To Phil Shalley's who is legally blind, Lent was
a good Samaritan. Just came over and said, "Well, I'd be glad to give you a hand. I hear you're
doing uh work on your foundation." He said, "I'd be glad to help you out." We built a border all the way around. We
put in probably hundreds of hours working together in that salary. It was definitely hard work. He And he did that
all out of the goodness of his heart. Yes, he did. To Frank Colette, the dean of students at a Bible school that Lent
attended, he was a gentleman. He was intelligent. He was unassuming. He was quiet. Uh, one thing about Louie that
everyone remembered was he always had his hand out to to shake your hand when you were meeting one. And if you didn't
watch out, he'd give you a big bear hug. He had a lot of children with him, young
kids. The kids would play video games, and then they would come in, go to the movies, and he would bring them home. to
Richard Bowman who employed him. Lent seemed like a mentor to children. They called him the big brother. They did.
Oh, yeah. The kids. Yes. Bowman owned the movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor for six years. And he thought he
knew Lent very well. I I hired him. I worked side by side with him. What's What's
Tell me what's going on. I just feel as though I may have missed something that he might have said or done that would
have keep me that would have let you know. Just give me a clue that there was something wrong with this guy. People
have trouble understanding that you can have this very religious, god-fearing, nice, polite man in
contrast that to his other side where he is hunting and praying on and killing children. Those can exist in one person.
Julia Callie is a retired FBI agent and profiler who worked on cases like the Golden State Killer. She now hosts a
true crime podcast called the consult real FBI profilers. This podcast is about criminal profiling. Callie has
never met Lewis Lent, but at our request, she reviewed his background and studied his confessions. She says that
what appeared to be Lent's desire to help people could actually have served a selfish purpose. by helping all these
people. This is a way to maybe hide who he really is, to gain people's trust. When you do that, you can manipulate
them. You can control them. It's strategically motivated as opposed to being motivated by true emotion. Just
like other serial killers she has studied, Cowi says Lent is completely self-centered. His needs come before
anybody else's. Obviously, he had no regard for his victims. He has no regard for victim's families. Something Reese
Tr says he has seen firsthand. He knows what emotions are that other people have, but he doesn't feel them himself.
One of the things that he said in the past that is that the murders ruined his life. He's remorseful that he got
caught, that it ruined his life, but he doesn't think in terms of it ruined anybody else's life. He just doesn't
think that way. Lewis L so quickly admits to kidnapping and and killing Sarah Wood. Why not tell it all? Why not
give all the details? It's just a secret he wants to hold on to. It's his. It's the only thing he has that's his own
that he can control. And a bit of sadism. Knowing that family members want answers. continuing to hurt them is
something I think that he feeds off of. It's it's there's some enjoyment in there. Most killers don't tell us
everything. They rarely give the full story. Instead, Lent reveals what he wants when he wants on his own
timetable. And in 2013, he revealed something new. I've described it as speaking directly to the
devil. He really is the devil. [Music] [Music] As detectives Fallon and Train continued
to question Lewis Len about Sarah Wood and other possible victims, in 2013, he made yet another confession. He ended up
admitting to uh killing Jamie Lusher. Nine months before Sarah was abducted, Jaime Lusher, a 16-year-old teen with
disabilities, disappeared in Westfield, Massachusetts, just 40 miles from the Pittsfield area.
Again, he was riding his bike um through a parking lot of a friendly restaurant.
His bicycle was later found in a wooded area close by. Len told investigators that after he kidnapped and murdered
Jaime, he discarded the teenager's remains in Greenwater Pond in Beckett, Massachusetts.
We had divers go actually with the Massachusetts State Police divers and they all dove the pond and uh nothing
was found. As he has done many times before, Lent would later recant his confession. Authorities decided not to
charge Lewis Lent with Jaime's murder, hoping that one day he will lead them to his body. At this point, we're not
interested in further prosecution. He's not going anywhere. At a press conference shortly after the confession,
Jaime's sister talked about the grief she endured since her brother went missing. Anybody that knows me knows I
talk about this. I think about this every day. It's this searing heartache in part that
keeps authorities motivated to find the missing. So soon after Lent confessed to
killing Jamie, DA Jeffrey Carpenter got permission to take Lent, who was serving
his life sentence in Massachusetts, out of prison and back to New York. This time they drove him
around hoping he would reveal anything that would help them find Sarah. So really, what did we have to lose? We had
to do it. We drove to the Massachusetts border. We drove to the Vermont border. He took us to where she was abducted. He
took us to where he claimed he murdered her. But after three long days and over 600 miles of driving, Carpenter says New
York authorities ended the operation. The consensus was he absolutely knew where she was. He just was not going to
tell us. Before Carpenter sent Lent back to Massachusetts, he recorded this conversation with him.
You know, we spent some time here last couple of days. Hope you feel you were treated with respect. All the way. Yeah.
Treated well. Yeah. Well, that was our end of the bargain, right? No. Right. Yep. What was your end of the bargain?
Do the very best I can to find Sarah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that what we've done? That's what we've done. I would say that
uh but I tried. I was absolutely sure that I knew the route, but when it came down to it, I
could only get partial of what I what I actually where I actually what was going through your
head when you're talking to him. Anger. He does not forget details. He recalls details. He recalls many things
until he wants to pretend he doesn't remember. A decade after that fruitless search in
November of 2023, investigators were back out looking again. This time at the Green
Mountain National Forest in Vermont after Detective T identified an area with landmarks that Lent had talked
about during their many conversations. Just too many things matched up. A lot of a lot of a lot of boxes were checked.
What's more, search and rescue dogs taken to the area had alerted to a possible body there. So, we were
hopeful, optimistic that we would find something there, and we we never found anything. But authorities kept looking.
Earlier this year, detectives went back to the cellar that Lent worked in with Phil Shalley's to see if they missed
something in 1994. The search turned up. No new evidence. Do you feel in a way that you might be
running out of time? Lewis Lent is in his 70s. It's a concern, but that's one of the things we can't control.
Regardless of the challenges, authorities say they will never stop looking for Sarah Wood and Jamie
Lusher. Dusty Wood says he chooses not to think about Lewis Lent. And every day I'm less angry because I devote my
energy to positive things. Every year, Dusty and some family members participate in the Ride for Missing
Children. Ready? Rolling. A 78 mile bike ride that was created in Sarah's honor by Bob Wood. The writers
wore jerseys that were turquoise and pink, the colors that Sarah wore when she was
[Applause] abducted. Riders stop at schools along the [Music] way to talk about abduction prevention.
The most important thing for us as a family is to protect kids and make sure that if there's anything that can be
done to protect them from monsters like Lewis Lent, that it be done. Riders pay silent tribute to those
children whose families hold out hope that they will be found alive and to children who went missing
and are never coming home. like Sarah M. Wood. Dusty says he and his family are grateful to their community who have
supported them since the beginning. There will be never a way to repay the kindness of
strangers that opened up the possibility of giving the best chance to my sister.
He's not sure if they will ever find his sister's body, but he is at peace. I'm waiting for the day I see Sarah in
heaven, and I know that day is coming, and that makes me feel good. [Music] [Music]
[Music] New CBS next. A wife terrified of her aranged husband. I don't want him anywhere near me. is found shot to
death. Lady down. Lady down. The hunt was on. You leave no rock unturned. But could her murder have been prevented? I
knew this was going to happen. 48 hours is all new CBS next in streaming on Paramount Plus.
[Music] I don't want her to be a cold case. Please get some water. Hydrate. [Music]
Are you ever overwhelmed as you look around at this wide open space? No. We're going to find her. You got to keep
searching. This one and this one, right? I want her to be found. I want to bring her home to her kids, to
our families. How often do you think about your sister? All the time. I still can't believe it's like she just
vanished. My impression of Maya was that she had a beautiful home life. She was an
accomplished career woman. She was a superm mom. What was she like as a friend? Kind,
funny, witty. Her voice, oh my god, she could sing. She could play the guitar. She's very
talented. She could do martial arts, a jeeping, off-roading. There's my adventurous little girl. It's so pretty.
She loved the outdoors. When did you notice something was wrong? She's planning for her daughter's
birthday and we haven't heard anything from her. This is not her at all. When we walked in, the house was a mess.
Boxes everywhere. I right away knew there's something really wrong here. Did you ever think in that moment in that
house that Larry did something to Maya? Yeah. Larry was the last person that saw her.
What was his demeanor when you showed up and started asking questions? Calm. He hadn't slept much. It didn't look like
he was unconcerned about his wife being gone. He said this wasn't all that unusual for her.
I didn't have the answers at that point, but I was very suspicious. So, I needed
to gather more evidence. The family was well aware this marriage was not working
out. He went on the internet, found a website that does witchcraft, cast spells. He bought one of the spells. I
don't even know how to make this out. So, I I I need your help. This is the spell that he casts on Maya. That's
blood that's on there. He created the witchcraft altar and he puts down the picture of himself and Maya.
He wrote, "Can you hex to have her hurt enough that she will have to depend on me? Maybe an accident or broken bone."
That's really hard to hear. What kind of person do you believe Larry is? Very damaged person. Do you think Maya left
that house on her own? No. No. [Music] Sorry. It's been really hard. It is our family.
We're still asking the public, please help us bring my sister home. [Music] [Music]
More than a year has gone by since 39-year-old Maya May Millettee, mother of three young children, vanished in
Chula Vista, California. I still have hope. I still had that hope that we'll find her alive.
Maya's sister, Mary Chris, and her husband, Richard Giulier, have fought hard so Maya's disappearance doesn't
become a cold case. It's been a really, really tough year with the whole family. We still don't have answers yet.
[Music] Maya was 13 years old when she immigrated to the United States from the Philippines with her parents and five
siblings in 1995. Mary Chris says her sister thrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the family
settled to build a new life. She's always been, you know, the smart one and uh she's very active at school.
Education is very important to the family. I've always been so proud of her. Maya met her future husband, Larry
Millettee, when they were both working at a fast food restaurant in Honolulu. Larry's family had also immigrated from
the Philippines. When Larry turned 18 and joined the Navy, the couple decided to get married. They were so young.
Yeah. Teenagers. Yeah. She's the first one to get married. So, it was a shock for everyone, but we respected her
decision. Maya and Larry moved to Southern California and built their careers working for the Navy. Larry was
an optician at the Naval Medical Center and Maya worked as a supervisor contract
specialist at this naval station in San Diego. She was my mentor from day one. She was like this little tiny person,
but she was a big personality. Claudia Hulo and Allison Alexander worked with Maya at the base and became
friends. We actually negotiate contracts for the US Navy and she was very good at
it. I used to, you know, joke around with her and, you know, because she had a photographic memory. I had a lot of
respect for her. She was a very strong and confident leader. A lot of the women in the office really looked up to her.
There was no glass ceiling. We could get wherever we wanted. Didn't matter where
we came from. Maya and Larry decided to wait 10 years before starting a family. The couple eventually welcomed two
daughters and a son. It's a joy to see them, you know, that they have their own family, too. We're always out camping.
We're always outdoors. It's so pretty. Larry was a good dad. Always attentive to the kids, like great parents. What
kind of mother was she? Very caring, loving mother. She hands on. She's um always
teaching them something especially, you know, music. She has some videos with her son singing
with her word by word. Yeah. Word by word. Brings us to tears every time we watch
it. Her kids were everything. She enjoyed her kids. In early January 2021, Maya was focused
on planning a ski trip to Big Bear for her daughter's birthday. But her family grew concerned when she suddenly stopped
communicating on January 7th. for her not to tell us what's going to happen for her daughter's birthday. You
know, that was a big deal. Mary Chris says when their brother Jr. drove over to check on Maya the next day, her
husband Larry told him Maya had been in the bedroom for several hours. Jr. knocked on the door but got no response.
We kind of just thinks, "Okay, maybe she just maybe she's sleeping." Larry did say that they had an argument. He left
it at that. We believed Larry. They had an argument and she just she just want to be left alone. The following day,
when there was still no news from Maya, Mary, Chris, and Richard drove over to the Millettee house. When we walked in,
the house was a mess, which I've never seen their house messy. And it was cold. It was January
and he had the AC running, which was really odd. This time, Larry told them Maya was out. So Larry says, "My husband
where?" Hiking. She went hiking. Suspicious that something wasn't right, Mary Chris reported her sister missing
to the Chula Vista Police Department that night. How did the police react? They sent uh three officers, went
through the house, and they questioned us. Mary, Chris, and Richard were upset with
what they say was a lack of concern from the police. It seemed like there was no
urgency for the police department to investigate it properly. By January 10th, Maya had now been missing for 3
days. Her family gathered at her home to celebrate her daughter's birthday, hoping against hope. We're all like
looking at the door hoping she'll walk in on her daughter's birthday. She never did. I feel so
bad. After that, she said, "Mommy didn't show up for my birthday. I didn't know how to comfort
[Music] her. As Maya's family tried to keep some normaly for the sake of the children,
Richard was watching Larry during the party. Just laid back wearing his navy sweats on a Sunday, no shoes. And Larry
had no concern whatsoever on his face for his missing wife. not even for his daughter's birthday.
That night, Claudia got the distressing news that Maya was missing and drove over to the Millettee house. By now, the
birthday party had turned into a search party. So, they were outside with babies
and blankets trying to look for their sister, their daughter. Her parents are elderly. The brothers and the
brother-in-law were out knocking on doors, giving out flyers. He had no interest in helping.
As word spread that Maya was nowhere to be found, more friends stepped in trying
to help. My wife Lou was working at the 32nd Street Naval Base. Said that a friend of hers went missing. The family
is concerned. Would you help them? Somebody asked for help, you just do it, right? So, if she was still alive, I
needed to get to her quickly. That's why I went straight to where the last place
she was seen, which was that house. I had no idea that it would turn into what it was.
on January 11th, 2021, 4 days after Maya Millettee was last heard from. I knew what had to be
done. Uh, and I did it. Attorney Billy Little, a former criminal defense investigator for the US Navy, decided to
step into the missing person's case. I went straight to where the last place she was seen, which was that house.
Little wanted to talk to Larry Millettee. Amongst other things, he had found it odd that Maya's husband wasn't
the one who initially called the Chula Vista Police Department. In fact, when the family wanted to call 911, he
discouraged it. Were there police around also investigating at this point? No. No. According to the family, the police
had come. He had given them, I guess, the same story. In news reports at the time, a Chula Vista police spokesperson
stated that Larry was being cooperative. They were treating it as a missing person's case and had found no
indication of foul play. Little says after he showed Larry his naval civilian ID, he let him in. I started looking for
things that I thought might be suspicious in the house. Just like Mary, Chris, and Richard, he noticed something
strange. Most of the windows in the house were open. It was clear he was trying to air the house out. Little knew
from Maya's family that the couple had had a fight on the day she was last heard from. I was looking to see if
there's any damage in the house. It would indicate some domestic violence. I'm also looking for defensive wounds on
his hands, which I don't see. But Little says he did see something outside the Milliete bedroom. We went upstairs where
her bedroom was. The first thing I noticed was the hole in the door right next to the handle cuz it's right in the
area where if you need access to a locked room, you're going to punch right through there. And I touched the patch
and it felt new. It felt wet. I made a comment to Larry about, "Hey, what's this?" and he says, "Oh, yeah. Uh, might
have punched a hole in the door there." Inside the bedroom, Little says he noticed another hole on the wall that
also appeared to have been recently repaired. That would have been too high for Maya to punch cuz she was small,
right? And I said, "Larry, what about this hole?" And he said, "Oh, yeah. She uh got mad punched that, too."
Larry's creating a picture here of a woman who is violent. Is this adding up to you? No. None of this story is adding
up. When you left the house that day after collecting those puzzle pieces, what were you thinking? I thought Larry
killed her and we need to find out what he did and what he did with the body. But I wasn't ready to tell Mary Chris
yet cuz I didn't know, right? I could be wrong. Little began canvasing the neighborhood
and knocking on doors to track down home security footage to see if anything suspicious was caught on camera around
the Millettee house. So, I knew we had to get that uh quickly and preserve it quickly. Time was of the essence. Oh,
God. Yes. What Little found was a treasure trove of clues. He says a camera from a neighboring house recorded
the voices of the Millettee children playing in the yard at 10:30 p.m. on the night their mother was last heard from
on a school night and it's cold outside and the weather I believe it was in the high 40s that night. Another camera
recorded Larry backing their Lexus into the garage at 5:58 a.m. the next morning. So, you can't see what's going
on, but you can see it going in the garage. Larry then leaves the house at 6:45 a.m. and doesn't return home for
almost 11 and 1/2 hours. You could have moved on. Why did you stay on this case and take matters into
your own hands? In my mind, my job wasn't nearly complete. It was just beginning. It was just beginning. When I
see Mary Chris and I see her crying, I'm just like, I got to figure this out. So,
as Billy Little continued investigating, it's just not in me to quit, so I don't.
Mary, Chris, and Richard turned to local media and organized the first search for
Maya on the hiking trails behind her house. We're desperate for answers. We wanted action. We wanted to
do something. Staying at home, sitting down wasn't going to bring us answers. Bring her home.
Her sister goes on television and is begging the public for help. Help me find my missing sister. And that really
moved people. Alita Vaughn, an attorney and true crime author, saw Maya's case on the news and started following it
closely. You realize that this was somebody that was very vibrant that was really out there living her life. And
that is part of why it's all so shocking that she's missing. It shocks your conscious.
As the case gathered steam in the media on January 23rd, 2021, two weeks after Maya's disappearance, the Chula Vista
Police Department searched the Millettee house. And what they did find was that Larry had a lot of firearms. They seized
two Glock handguns, a rifle, and a shotgun. And they found that he was in possession of an illegal assault weapon.
Investigators also downloaded images from Larry's phone. Three days later, the police were back. On January 26th,
they served another search warrant, and the police take the navigation system, the GPS, from Larry's Lexus. Meanwhile,
Maya's friends had been revealing details about the couple's relationship. I would say March or so of
2020, the obsession became obvious. Larry's behavior had grown alarming before his wife went missing. He would
do subliminal messages for her to be that perfect spouse. And it was everywhere she walked at different times
they would turn on. That is insane. It sounds like from a movie. She didn't just walk out. That's
something she would never do. About a month after Maya's disappearance, her husband, Larry Millettee, hired a lawyer
and stopped cooperating with investigators. I believe that he did something to her.
Billy Little was told by Maya's friends and family that troubling signs in the marriage began emerging the year before.
And it started back in January of 2020 when they started having marital problems. Larry would call every single
one of us trying to ask for help to intervene, you know, into the marriage. Larry was complaining
that Maya was having a midlife crisis. and he's like, "Well, she's been going out with her friends more often and she
has a lot of single friends." But my sister is saying, you know, it's not me, it's it's Larry. Maya's friend Claudia
spent time with the couple socially. His relationship was very kind of to the side and just very watchful. From what
my observation of him, he always had to be in control. Claudia recalls an instance when Larry couldn't get a hold
of Maya at work. You know when somebody might be agitated or you overhear their voice. I did hear where are you? It
takes you this long to get from your car to your office. Who were you talking to?
He wants her to be submissive for her to comply to him to be the same person as you know she used to. But Maya's loved
ones say that Maya was changing. She was growing into someone new. A strong woman
for sure. As the months passed in 2020, Larry's grip on Maya tightened. He's now
tracking her spending habits. He's gotten into all of her social media accounts. She doesn't have any privacy.
And he suspected that she was straying. Larry accused her of having affairs with
several men at work, wrote emails to her boss at work. He knows that if he tells
the boss that she's having an affair with somebody at work, that she will get fired. He tells all of Maya's family,
"She's cheating. She's sinful. Help me get her back on the Christian religious way." And starts forcing her to go to
church. These are texts that Larry sent to Maya's family. And he's quoting the Bible. And it says, "For the lips of the
adulterous woman drip honey, her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to the grave." He's talking about Maya.
In his own words, he said that he was getting desperate and he felt that the devil was tempting him. At some point,
Maya's family says they told her they were concerned about what was unfolding. At that time, we knew that my sister is
ready to move on. We told her, "Whatever your decision is, we're here to support
you." By the fall of 2020, Billy Little says Larry was growing increasingly desperate to hold on to Maya. And so
what does he do? He goes to uh witchcraft. There are people on the internet that will sell you for five
bucks, you know, how to make a spell that will get her to be attracted to you to bind your marriage in
blood. And that's what he tried to do. Does a little witchcraft blood altar. That is the picture that he took of the
altar, an old photo of them with blood thrown on it. Little says Larry contacted numerous spellcasters and even
wrote a review for one. And he writes of this spellcaster, "She is kind, professional, and courteous. My casting
has not yet manifested, but I'm really hoping and counting on it." Leaving a review like one would leave on Yelp for
a food order. Like it's an Uber ride. He's like, "Ah, five stars. Good job, Spellcaster." So, he's not quite as
smart as he thinks he is. He doesn't realize that all of that stuff is pointing the finger at him. By December
of 2020, Maya and Larry were sleeping in separate rooms. Little says Maya found speakers in her room and confronted
Larry. He admitted he had been playing subliminal messages while she slept. Maya messaged a friend and said her
marriage was definitely over. What was that message that was coming out of those speakers under the bed? It's right
there. No more men. No more men. No more men. On New Year's weekend, Maya told her
family her decision. She's ready for divorce. She's finally made up her mind. I just told her, "Just be
careful. Just be careful." On January 7th, the last day she was heard from, Maya filled out this form and made an
appointment with a divorce attorney. I think she told him that she was going to file for divorce. He snapped when he
found out that he was finally losing her. What had happened in the house that night. Little thinks he knows after a
neighbor reached out with some information. The neighbors do they say, "Oh yeah, we heard gunshots." Yeah. Not
only did they tell me that they've got gunshots, but they've got the audio. A home surveillance system from the
neighbor captured these loud bangs around 1000 p.m. that night. Little also believes they are gunshots.
It's coming from Larry and Maya's house. Remember, Billy Little had tracked down
that other home security footage that police agreed captured audio of the Millettee kids playing in the backyard
at 10:30 p.m. The picture is becoming more and more clear. He's got to clean up and
he's got to move the body. So, he needs to send those kids outside in the school
night at 10:30. Do you try to speak to law enforcement? I did and I told them what I found and time and time again
there was just no follow up by the police. The Chula Vista Police Department declined our request for an
interview but in April 2021 they told local media that it had been an active investigation since mid January and they
were keeping their cards close to the vest. It's tough. There was very minimal details and that was part of our
frustration working with the police department. The family now is having various rallies in front of the Chula
Vista Police Department basically demanding answers, but the police are not going to release a lot of
information to the family. This is potentially a murder investigation. In May of 2021, the police served Larry
Mallettee with a gun violence restraining order. Among the reasons, investigators had found this image on
Larry's phone. Another photo, which had been redacted, featured the couple's four-year-old son surrounded by
weapons. Authorities retrieved more firearms from the Millia Day house. I think that was a smart move by the
police. It protects the children while they try to buy a little bit of time, but it also protects them if they have
to go in and arrest him. In the summer of 2021, investigators named Larry Millete
a person of interest in his wife's case. You keep wondering, is this going to be
the time that they're going to arrest Larry? On October 19th, 9 months after the disappearance of Maya, investigators
did just that. Today at 11:42 a.m., the Chula Vista Police Department SWAT team arrested Larry Mallete for the murder of
his wife. And with that, even more evidence came to light. [Music] [Music] Maya's family and friends anticipated
the news of an arrest for months. I understand that there is a case that needs to be built. There's only one
shot, but it just seemed like it was too long. Yet, when Maya's husband, Larry Millettee, was arrested for her murder
in October 2021, it was still a mixed range of emotions. Claudia, what was your reaction? Relieved, yet at the same
time sad. And so although you keep that hope up, now it became real. Okay, we had different
reactions. I said, "Finally." She started crying. He's been with us for 20 years. My sister did love him.
She gave him three kiss. She just can't let go. In a press conference, San Diego County
District Attorney Summer Stefen laid out some of the details of the monthslong law enforcement investigation. In
homicide cases, there is often a triggering event. In this case, the last call recorded that May made was to a
divorce attorney. That call was at 3:48 p.m. Home security cameras captured her arriving at her house at 4:42 p.m. There
were no images of her leaving. Investigators had also turned up more evidence of Larry trying to keep Maya in
the marriage through the supernatural before she went missing. I've never had a case where that was involved.
But the spells they discovered went beyond more than asking Maya to be attracted to him. According to the
arrest warrant, Larry now wanted Maya to be harmed. Before Maya went missing, Larry sent this message to a website
that claims to cast spells. Please punish May and incapacitate her enough so she can't leave the house. It's time
to take the gloves off. It was evidence, they say, of his unbalanced mindset and
homicidal ideiation. The day Maya went missing, Larry sent countless emails to spellcasters. I think she wants me to
snap. I'm shaking inside, ready to snap. What's more, according to the arrest warrant, Larry had allegedly snapped
before. One of Maya's friends said that Maya told her Larry choked her to the point where she was unconscious. I just
heard that. Oh, I was mad. How could he do that? Maya had never shared that with
Mary Chris. She didn't share what she's going through cuz she didn't want the family to worry about her. She was also
protecting Larry and she was protecting the children. Were you aware of any physical abuse?
No. No. She would say little things here and there, but not always to the same person. They were already incidents that
were huge red flags that if we all knew it at the same time, it would have been a bigger
picture. I feel guilty at the, you know, after the fact once she went missing. It
was a very harsh reality for me. I wasn't able to help her and I will forever live with
that. Nobody had the full picture, right? Besides the two of them. Evelyn Rodriguez is an associate professor of
sociology who teaches on topics of race and identity at the University of San Francisco. She reviewed the case for 48
hours. The signs of domestic abuse can be so hard to identify because we as a society are unable to distinguish the
line that divides that kind of like zealous, passionate love from controlling behavior. Larry Millettee
checks all the boxes for domestic partner abuse. He knew what Maya's pressure points
were. And so he weaponized her work. He weaponized her children, her family, her
religion before he got desperate enough to try these other means of controlling her and keeping her in that marriage.
Rodriguez suggests when Larry turned to spellcasting as another method to control Maya, he may have been inspired
by an oldworld form of folk magic in the Philippines. And this is stuff of like the old world to our parents. Even
somehow that has evolved into what I think Larry was able to find. But Rodriguez points out that it is
important not to lose sight of what the issue is here. Really, the story here is
that this was an abusive partner regardless of his culture who was exhibiting every single sign of domestic
abuse. This one and this one, right? This is where we're going to be staying. With Maya's alleged killer
behind bars, her family knew their work was not done. Don't go too far. They were more determined than ever to find
her. Energized with new information that had come out after Larry's arrest. Elena
Vaughn was part of that search. The thing that this case really needed was to be able to know where to search. That
was the problem here. You can't just search the entire world. Where are we right now? It's a hot spot
that Larry could have brought Miles's body out here. Like Billy Little, investigators obtained footage that
showed Larry leaving the house in the couple's Lexus for almost 11 and 1/2 hours the day after his wife was last
heard from. They analyzed the car's navigation system. According to the information that we have now, he was
about 2 and 1 half hours out from his house when he put his address in. Somewhere two and a half hours away from
his house, Larry had entered his address to find his way back home. That information was enough to center the
searches on places Larry was familiar with, like this desert area where he and Maya had gone hiking.
What are you specifically looking for as you comb this area? At this point, unfortunately, I hate to say, but we're
probably just looking for clothing or bones. [Music] Over the months, droves of volunteers
have responded to her family's calls to the community and have joined team Maya.
We're just so thankful and blessed to have everybody here. Three together. I'm San Diego City retired firefighter. I
got a team and we go out and we systematically cover areas where someone could possibly hide a body. And it's,
you know, it's very sad to even talk about, but you have to do it. And it's the the proverbial needle in a
haststack. Why are you here today? Uh really just to support a family. Hopefully we can bring peace to the
family. Always make sure you've got eyes on somebody. What drives you to do this
for a total stranger? Somebody you didn't even know. I I felt that it should be a community effort. You just
want closure for this family so much. And that's why we're out here. It's why we keep coming. They deserve it. Maya
deserves it. As the search for Maya continues in the vast lands of eastern San Diego, the quest for justice is just
beginning in the halls of the San Diego court system. The problem with this case
is you don't have a body. [Music] Mr. Millete, you have the right to have a preliminary examination hearing within
10 count days no later than 60 calendar days. His ego was so damaged by the fact his
wife didn't want to be with him anymore and he couldn't handle it so he killed her. Larry Millettee has been
behind bars since his arrest in October 2021 awaiting trial. and at this time would like to enter a plea of not
guilty. He pled not guilty to charges of murder and illegal possession of an assault weapon. If convicted, Larry
could face up to 25 years to life in prison. So, we're just going to do 14. Then, although there is still hope Maya
could be found any day, a victim's body is not required to convict someone of murder. And this is one of the strongest
circumstantial cases I've ever seen. You don't have a body, so what? You don't get to get away with murder because
you're good at disposing of bodies. But Larry maintains Maya left on her own. His defense attorney, Bonita Martinez,
turned down our request for an interview, but spoke with reporters after a hearing where Larry was denied
bail. His wife was used to leaving the house in the past, and you cannot rule out that she's alive. Larry maintains
that Maya voluntarily left him left the children to start her own new life. Do you believe that? No. Nope. Not at all.
Never believe that. Never. Maya love her kids. There's no way she would have up and left. The best argument for the
defense here is Maya is not dead. They don't have a body. She's alive and well. Attorney Ala Vaughn says a nobody
defense has worked before in other cases. She says without a body, the prosecution may be at a disadvantage.
They need strong evidence. And the question is, what do they have? Do they have something that they're going to
bring out in a courtroom that definitely ties Larry to murder? Those loud bangs recorded on the
neighboring security camera may not be proof of anything. An FBI analysis was inconclusive. They couldn't definitively
say those were gunshots because the sound quality was not good enough. In November 2021, Larry's attorney filed
documents with the San Diego Superior Court with more allegations about Maya. They believe that she had this wild
lifestyle, that she was out there having affairs, she's dating different men off
the internet, that she's drinking excessively, that she's become this completely different person. And so
they're pointing to third party culpability, if she's harmed, it was somebody else.
Larry and his parents claim in court documents that Maya was essentially a party girl. Definitely not.
The Maya that I know who was a devoted mother. Not long after Maya's disappearance, Mary, Chris, and Richard
say Larry cut off contact between the children and Maya's side of the family. We're just trying to see them. Going
from hanging out, hugging them, jumping on my back, seeing them at least once or
twice a month at least to not seeing them at all for 9 months. The Milliete children are still living
at home in the care of Larry's parents. But after months of not seeing them, Maya's family was granted visitation
rights in November 2021. But the fight is not over. Mary Chris has filed a petition for
guardianship of her sister's children. Just show them that the whole entire family are waiting for them and, you
know, are eager to be with them again. Glory be to the father and to the son. What those children will go through, all
those moments in life when they need their mom and she's not going to be there. It breaks my heart. In January
2022, Maya's family and friends held a vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.
There's somebody out there that knows something, that's seen something. They should come forward. Have it in your
heart to help us bring it home. You said tomorrow I'll be gone. Tomorrow I'll be gone
away from here. She will forever be my hero. That's what I'm going to take with me.
It's a bright shining star of a woman that gave every other woman, regardless of what she was going through, an
inspiration to be whoever they wanted. That's who Maya is. [Music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode.
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I have lived 44 years with his face etched in my brain.
It was everything that you pray to God never happens to anyone. For me, it's really tough. I'm
I'm I'm struggling. I'm struggling to do the interview at all. We were at our grandparents house
and Keith, our first cousin, came over, asked us if we would come to his house to help him clean. So, we went to his
house and when we were done, he needed gas. So, we stopped at the 7-Eleven and as we pulled
up, there was a um a man standing there. He said, "Well, can you give me a ride?"
Instantly, we knew something wasn't right, but Keith told him he would give him a
ride. I think we just cut off circulation in each other's hands. We were squeezing our hands so tight
because you just have a gut feeling that this is not good. He was telling us the directions on
where to go, which took us to Little California Road. He told us to get out of the car.
He opens the trunk and he puts Keith in the trunk. At that point, he tell us to take
off our clothes. [Music] Did you plan to tell anybody what happened? No. Why? Because we were
afraid he would come back and kill us. [Music] When did the twins actually go to the
police? I think it was about 2 weeks later. A little bit more than 2 weeks. You said the man was black. Yes. Yes.
Did they ever give you a ride? No. Did you ever meet them at a gas station? No. Never. I didn't rape Karen and Sharon
sadness. I don't know these people. When I saw him in that lineup, I didn't have to think twice. When I looked at
him, I knew him. He got convicted and received two 50-year consecutive sentences.
That's insane. It's horrible. It disgusted me. There's no hairs, no fibers, no blood, no sweat, no semen.
There's nothing. Vincent Simmons is an innocent man who was railroaded by a racist system. Is it possible that you
picked the wrong man? No. No. When I close my [Music] eyes, there's no other face that I see.
Stop it. Stop it. When are we going to talk about the facts? Why did we pick him? Why? It was Mr. Simmons because it
was Mr. Simmons. [Music] [Music] Every time I talk about it, makes me feel like I'm 14 again. For identical
twins Karen and Sharon Sanders, life is broken into two parts. Before May 1977 and after, they say what happened one
night that May changed everything. The limitations it put on our life like with the anxiety, depression, panic attacks,
it's crippling really. is taken a lot from us. Back in 1977, the 14-year-old twins were
living with their grandparents in the quiet small town of Marxville, Louisiana. And for the most part, they
say they were happy there, staying busy and enjoying the little things in life. I was all about makeup and perfume and
being prissy, and Karen was more uh outside playing in the dirt. This is true. Life was simple
until it wasn't. What makes it so difficult for you, Karen, 44 years later to even talk about?
Well, it's a lot happened that night. The twins say it all began May 9th, 1977 when their cousin Keith Labour
picked him up so that they could help him clean his house. By the time they finished cleaning, it was just beginning
to get dark. Keith was driving them home, and that's when they say he stopped at that gas station and
encountered a black man. He walked up to the car and told Keith that he almost hit
him. And Keith, you know, did not. And Keith was telling him he didn't want to fight. And he said, "I don't fight. I
shoot." The man said this. Yes, this man said it instantly. Karen went inside to
pay for the gas and me and Keith were talking to this man and we exchanged names and he said his name was
Simmons. The twins say any tension between Keith and the man soon lifted and that's why
they say Keith agreed to give the man a ride. We were like, "Keith, you know, don't." And he's like, "It'll be okay.
It'll be okay." But they say they knew it wasn't okay when the man directed them to that desolate area of Little
California Road and threatened them. He told us that before we could get a gun, he would shoot us. Mhm. Which we
did not have a gun, so we knew he had a gun. They say the man ordered them out of the
vehicle and forced Keith into the trunk. Keith's how old? 18. So he got in the trunk. Yes, he did. He told us to take
off our clothes. Karen started to run at that point and I yelled and she stopped. He said, "This
one's going to give me trouble." And so he opened the trunk and he put me in the
trunk with Keith and he had Sharon. I took off my clothes. He told me to get in the back
seat and I did and he told me how to lay and I did. I can hear Sharon crying and of course I can't take it. So, I'm
banging on the trunk and I'm banging and I'm screaming, "Take me. Take me. Leave
her alone. Take me. Take me." Karen was back there making all kinds of commotion
and things didn't work out for him with me. Sorry. And he was very frustrated. You could see it and feel it. and he got
very aggravated and told me to put my clothes back on. And when you say things didn't
work out for him, what do you mean? He tried to penetrate and was unsuccessful. But at the time I was 14. I did not know
he was unsuccessful. I really thought you had lost your virginity. I had lost my virginity. I had no clue.
Afterwards, Sharon says she was put in the trunk with Karen and Keith and then the man started driving. We just found
each other's hands and began to pray and then the car stopped and he said, "You out and pointed at you, Karen."
Yes. He told me to lay in the back seat. He uh he raped me. Then with Sharon and Keith still in the
trunk, Karen says the man just wanted to talk. He was like nothing had happened that we were like
best friends that we were just hanging out. And you went along with it just talking. Absolutely. To keep him calm.
And how long did this go on for? To me, a lifetime. He told me he came from a large family about where he had lived
and all this and he had just gotten back from Texas. She says when they stopped talking, the man raped her again
multiple times. I remember like laying in that back seat and his chest I mean the heaviness on my chest and the sweat
and it was just disgusting. She says he then drove them to a local cemetery where he got out of the car. He
opens the trunk and he lets them out. He's going to let us go. And he told us, "If you tell anyone, I know where y'all
live. I've got friends." He said, "And I will come back." And we all swore to each other that we would not tell a
soul. They say just the fear of what might happen if they told kept them silent for
two weeks until Karen says she couldn't keep it in anymore. She says she confided in Keith's sister. And I said,
"But please, please don't tell anyone. Please don't tell anyone." She said, "I'm not going to tell
anyone." And it just unraveled from there. The next day, Keith's parents found out.
And soon Karen, Sharon, and Keith all ended up at the sheriff's office. Karen and Sharon each gave statements
reporting that they had been raped. And less than 24 hours later, on the morning of May 23rd,
1977, 25-year-old Vincent Simmons was taken into custody as he was walking down the street. Did you know Karen and
Sharon Sanders? Never seen them before in my life. [Music] [Music] It was May 23rd, 1977 when Vincent
Simmons was brought to the sheriff's office, which used to be here on the second floor of the Aoyals Parish
Courthouse in Marxville. And they took me and put me in a lineup. Karen, Sharon, and Keith were all there
to see if they could identify a suspect. We're all three in the room, but we're not all walking up to the window at the
same time. Keith goes first. Keith writes the number down on a pad. I walk up, I look at him, and I go to
the pad. I write his number down, and then Sharon goes up to the window, looks out
and writes her number down. What number did you all write? Four. And then they said, you remember that? Oh my gosh.
Yeah. Of course. Then they said to us, "Y'all have all picked the same man." That man they identified was 25-year-old
Vincent Simmons. He was from a big family in the next town over from Marxville. And this wasn't the first
time he found himself in the sheriff's office. I didn't have a daddy, you know. So
basically, I grew up on my own looking out for my little sisters. I was doing wrong. and I was
going in the stores just to get food to feed them. Vincent was convicted of a home burglary at the age of 18. While
incarcerated, he escaped from the jail in Marsville. He lived on the run in Texas for nearly 6 years until he came
back to town shortly before that lineup. And when I walked up to the window and I
looked, I had no second doubt. I know exactly who raped me that night. After Sharon, Karen, and Keith IDed
Vincent, he says he was brought upstairs to the jail where he waited while an officer was writing something down. I'm
sitting on the chair in a handcuff when he gets to. He said, "I want you to sign." I said, "What is that?" He said,
"This is a confession saying that you uh committed this crime." I said, "What crime?" You know, he said, "Rap of those
two white girls." said, "I don't even know these white girls." Vincent says when he refused to sign the confession,
the officer knocked him down and as they struggled, another officer shot him. Boom! I was burning through my chest,
you know, and I fell on the floor. When I woke up, I'm in the hospital. Now, the two officers involved tell a
very different story. They say Vincent grabbed one officer's gun and was pointing it at both of them when the
second officer shot Vincent in the shoulder in self-defense. Whatever the truth,
Vincent was never prosecuted for that incident. Instead, less than 2 months after he was shot, he was brought to
court to face Karen and Sharon. Less than 60 days after he was arrested, Vincent went on trial. Is that a pretty
rapid time? in 1977. I would say for major cases, they went to court quickly. Charles Riddle was not the district
attorney back then, but he is now, and he's very familiar with the details of the case. What was the evidence against
him? The testimony of the witnesses, the victims. Karen, Sharon, and Keith all took the
stand. walk into a courtroom, your parents, everybody that loves you is sitting there and seeing him for the very first
time. We have not seen him since the lineup and then seeing him face to face was really hard. Of course, I had to put
my hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, which is all I had anyway.
They all testified that on the night of the rape, Vincent had told them his last
name. Believe it or not, all night long, we called him Simmons. He told us to call him Simmons.
At trial, they all say Simmons. Simmons. The man told us his name was Simmons. What' you think then? I thought they
were crazy. I actually thought they were crazy. You mean to tell me I'm going to
do something to y'all and let y'all know my name? I'm going to tell you who I am.
No, that don't make sense, man. The jury got to see Keith's car and a photo that police had taken of Karen,
Sharon, and Keith reenacting how they fit in the trunk. When it was the defense's turn, Vincent took the stand.
I told the jury that I was innocent. I didn't rape nobody. Vincent's lawyers also called three
alibi witnesses who claimed that Vincent was at a bar on the night of the alleged
crime. The bar owner said Vincent was there all night. He got into a fight and police were called. But the prosecution
called a police officer who said the bar fight was on another night. After a two-day trial, I don't
think they had much of a defense. The jury sided with Karen, Sharon, and Keith. Vincent Semons was found guilty
of two counts of attempted aggravated rape. I was shot. Guilty. I ain't did nothing.
When the verdict came back, guilty unanimously. How did that feel? Sigh of relief. We knew we were free.
Vincent was sentenced to two consecutive 50year terms, 100 years behind bars. We
thought we'd never have to face him again. But Vincent refused to give up hope. I
wanted to prove that I'm innocent. Man, I never knew these people. More than four decades later, Justin Bonis, a
newly minted lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, would become involved in Vincent's defense and was immediately skeptical of
the prosecution's case. I looked at the discovery. I was like, "Well, everything
they said at trial is a lie. It's all a lie. There's nothing that supports what they say.
[Music] [Music] Generations of men have labored in the fields at Louisiana State
Penitentiary. It is the country's largest maximum security prison built on the site of a former slave plantation
called Angola. You know, we had to work seven days a week till it get dark. That's our end goal. It
was since the day that cell door closed behind him, Vincent Simmons has been working to overturn his
conviction. In 1993, 16 years after that guilty verdict, he finally succeeded in
getting a copy of the prosecution's case file. mailman came and he gave me this big old
envelope. When I opened it up, I man, I was in shock. Inside that envelope were items that Vincent had never seen
before, including copies of the initial statements that Karen, Keith, and Sharon
gave to police. Remember how all three testified at trial that they knew their attacker's name? He told us to call him
Simmons. But as it turns out, when they first spoke to the investigators, they didn't say that. Defense attorney Justin
Bonis has since reviewed those statements. When the girls initially went to police, they didn't say the name
Simmons. No. What name did they say? They didn't give a name. And Bonus noticed something else in those
statements. Sharon used the n-word to refer to her attacker and said, quote, "All blacks look alike to me," which she
does not deny saying. So, what did you say when they asked you to identify the man? I said, "All blacks look alike."
But still, Karen, Keith, and Sharon all picked Vincent out of that lineup. And Bonis says he may know why. This photo
that was in the file appears to show the lineup. Look at Vincent. He's the only one in handcuffs. When you saw that line
of photo, what did you think? What? I said, "This is crazy." Nuts. Highly suggested. When you put the cuffs on
him, you're telling them that's who we want you to pick. But Charles Riddle, the current district attorney, says that
photo was taken after the twins IDed Vincent. They call it the lineup. It was a photo of the lineup after he was
identified and placed in cuffs. But how do you know it was after? Because the girls told me that. So when you picked
him out of the lineup, was he wearing handcuffs? No, he was not. Not at all. And Karen says they
initially didn't tell police the name Simmons out of fear. I mean, we were scared of him. And see, I don't know why
I didn't. I mean, I think fear. We We're afraid of him. And there's another item
in that file that Bonus says is critical and was never seen at the trial. It's this report from a doctor who also
happened to be the local coroner. He examined the girls 2 weeks after the reported rape and he did not document
any signs of sexual assault. How big a deal do you think the coroner's report plays in this story? Massive. And Bonus
says that report suggests Sharon was still a virgin. The doctor wrote that herman was intact. But Charles Riddle
says the report does not prove that the twins were not raped because the definition of rape is slightest
penetration. And the part about no sign of sexual assault after 2 weeks, it's very probable that there would be no
sign of sexual assault. Bonus thinks the jury should have had the chance to consider all of that at
trial. His attorneys, they had nothing. They went in there flying blind with their arms tied behind their back in a
boxing match. That's that's literally what it was. So, you're telling me the original statements that the girls and
Keith gave to police where they could not identify this individual, right? That was never heard by the jury.
Absolutely not. And the medical report from the coroner was never heard by the jury. Right. And the lineup photo not
seen by the jury? No. If the statements from the girls had been presented at trial, right? If the
coroner's report had been known and presented at trial, do you think Vincent still would have been found guilty? No,
absolutely not. Back in 1993, when Vincent first got his hands on that evidence, he made it his
mission to get his case in front of a judge. He filed numerous pleadings over multiple years, but no court ever ruled
in his favor. And not a single judge felt like there was enough evidence. not the appellet courts, federal courts,
state courts, Supreme Court. Vincent was hoping that the parole board at the prison might have more sympathy.
So, in 1997, 20 years into his 100-year sentence, he had his first hearing with them. And it was all filmed as part of a
documentary called The Farm, which profiled inmates at Angola. Vincent showed them the evidence that his
defense did not have a trial. We didn't have none of this evidence. None of this
evidence was presented before the jury. You were the only one handcuffed in the lineup. I'm the only one.
Okay. Uh, would y'all step out? We'll discuss the case. Vincent hoped the board would rule in
his favor. Yeah. I come up with something. Oh, yes. He did. But they would not. Mr. Simmons, after
uh listening to his testimony, going over the reports, the board has voted at this time to deny your request for pro.
I was hopeless, but I know the truth. And no matter how many times they knock you down, keep getting up.
Almost 20 years later, Justin Bonis watched the farm documentary with his wife. and we were shocked and she told
me, you know, you should take this case. She basically said, "You need to write him." And it wasn't really a
suggestion. It was write him. And that's what I did. It was [Music] You're a Brooklyn guy. You go down to
Marksville. I felt like my cousin Vinnie. I mean, it was like country. Okay. By early 2020, Justin Bonus had become
Vincent Simmons lawyer. He had just a year of experience under his belt and was warned that the odds were against
him. it's over. Like he doesn't have any more appeals. I was like, nah, that's not true. It's never true. Absolutely
not. Vincent had been fighting unsuccessfully for decades to overturn his conviction. All the while, Karen and
Sharon remained firm about his guilt. We have no reason to lie. Why would we lie?
Why would we let someone spend their life in prison if we even had the slightest doubt that it wasn't him? Not
long after Vincent's ill- fated parole hearing, documentary cameras were rolling again in the late '9s when he
and the twins agreed to a reconciliation meeting. It's where victims and offenders come together to try and heal.
We came today not to free you from your prison, but to free us from our prison. Today, I am closing the door to
my pain. I'm letting go. When the time came for Vincent to speak, he had questions. My question is going to be
directly based on your statement that you got. No, we're not going there. And that's when the meeting unraveled. What
are you doing here then? Since you're innocent, what are you doing here? Y'all putting me here. We did. No, a choice
that you chose to make put you here. Okay. I think we're I think we've had enough. I think I think it's kind of
going sour, maybe one day you can get out of your pain of your misery. They didn't let him speak cuz they don't
view him as a human being. Bonus wanted to put a spotlight on the case and really dig deeper, but he needed some
help. So, he turned to Jason Flom, a recording industry executive known for launching the careers of Katy Perry,
Matchbox 20, and Lord, among others. Flam is also a criminal justice advocate and he hosts a podcast called Wrongful
Conviction which has featured bigname guests like Kim Kardashian. When I heard about Vincent's case, I was just like
this is another level. Had to do something about it. Flam featured Vincent's case on his podcast. How could
anyone get convicted on the basis of this? This is a man whose life was stolen away from him. And he gave Justin
bonus money to go out and hire a private investigator in Louisiana named Brian Andrews. Justin actually asked me to be
the boots on the ground, take statements, gather information. [Music] Andrews tracked down Diane Prader, the
lone surviving juror from Vincent's trial and the only African-Amean on the jury. Turns out she says she never
wanted to convict Vincent. Prader was in her 20s at the time of trial and says she still remembers her reaction to the
twins testimony. When they told a story, I'm like, ain't no way in the world that
happened like that. Put a black man in your car that time. You didn't believe it because at that period in history,
you just couldn't see white people giving a ride to black people. Correct. Was there a lot of racism in Marchville?
Yes, it was. It was in Morgville. It was everywhere. And she says the jury foreman told her her vote wouldn't
matter. In 1977, Louisiana juries could convict a defendant with only 10 out of 12 voting guilty. So I was saying to
myself, "Well, it ain't going to do me no good to say nothing, but I never never never believe Vincent was guilty."
The private investigator also tried to talk to relatives of Karen, Sharon, and Keith with me right now that I'm
speaking with. He ended up conducting a videotaped interview with Keith's cousin, Dana Bruette, and she told him a
shocking story. Dana said that Keith told her in a bar long after the trial that Vincent Simmons was never with them
on Little California Road that night. He came out and told me there was never a black man.
Instead, in a sworn affidavit, Dana says that Keith told her he had consensual sex with one of the girls and locked the
other in the trunk. He had gone down Little California Road and he locked Sharon in the trunk.
And he said the sex between him and Karen was consensual. He said, "But the other one
was a little Hellcat." That's the one they put scratches on his neck. In the affidavit, Dana said that Keith had
scratches on his neck. She told the private investigator that she believes Keith and the twins made up the story
about a black man. To explain away those scratches, blew my mind the things that she said.
Had Dana ever told anyone that? To my knowledge, I I don't think she had. They should have come forward a long time
ago. I really did think the man got released. And Dana's allegations didn't stop there. She also gave the private
investigator a copy of a Facebook message exchange that she says she had with Karen in October 2020. Karen and
Dana were talking about how Keith had allegedly made sexual advances toward female relatives. We asked Karen about
that. You said, "I didn't realize how sick he was. I thought it was only me." I don't remember saying that. Yeah, cuz
that's the message from you. So, what did you mean by that? Okay, we need to cut right now. Cut
this. Can we cut for a second? Yeah. Yeah. Right then, Karen said she was not ready
to talk about that exchange with Dana. But two weeks later, in a follow-up interview with both her and Sharon, she
admitted that years before she says they were attacked, when she was a child and
Keith was a teenager, something happened. Did you have consensual sex with Keith Leort?
Okay, let's put it like this. We were kids. Yes, ma'am. We experimented. So, yes. How old were you
when it happened? I have I could not honestly I don't know. 9 10 maybe. And is this the first time you're saying
this publicly? Yes, it is. But that has nothing to do with what Vincent did. That's two separate incidents. David,
think about it. If me and Keith have had consensual sex way, way before now, why
is he locking us in the trunk of a car? Why is he taking us down a dirt road? But Bonus believes they wanted to cover
up what happened that night. It gives motive for why they would lie. It shows that Karen always was hiding something
from day one. Keith was 18. Karen was 14. So what do they do? They blame a black man.
To be clear, was Keith the perpetrator that night? No. He was a victim also? Keith was a victim. He was not. He was a
victim. Mhm. He stayed in that trunk the whole time. I went to Keith Labort's house to speak
with him about all of this. No one answered the door, so later I called him. Hello, Keith.
[Music] Hello Keith, this is David Begno with CBS News. When reached by phone, Keith,
now 63 years old, denied ever having sex with his cousin Karen. He said they had
just quote played around like children end quote. And he also insisted that whatever had happened between him and
Karen had nothing to do with what Vincent Simmons did that night. That goddamn is guilty. I don't give and yet
he's a goddamn and you can put that on TV. I ain't scared of him. Despite the allegations concerning Karen
and Keith, District Attorney Charles Riddle says he believes the right man was convicted. I'm firmly convinced that
he's guilty. I don't believe that their cousin was the one. But Bonis was more determined than ever to see Vincent walk
free. And in April 2021, the district attorney made an offer that would allow for just that. Riddle said he felt like
Vincent had done enough time. Vincent could have walked right out the door. But there was a catch. Vincent would
have had to been a sex offender, though. Vincent turned that down and said, "I'm
not a sex offender. I didn't do this. I am innocent. I'm not a sex offender." What' you think when you hung up the
phone? I mean, that's it. We're going to war. Bonus kept fighting. And in February
2022, he finally got a hearing where a judge would decide Vincent's fate once and for
all. The day of the hearing, as Karen and Sharon made their way into the courthouse, they paused to pray. Vinc.
[Music] When Vincent Simmons arrived in a prison van, he was carrying a Bible. A group of
supporters greeted him. They were cheering. [Music] Vincent, how are you feeling today?
Really? Positive. Something good going to happen. Cameras were not allowed in the
courtroom as Judge William Bennett delivered his decision. What did the judge decide? He decided to
give Vincent a new trial because of the constitutional violation that he didn't receive a fair trial. Vincent's
conviction was thrown out due to the evidence that he himself had obtained almost 30 years earlier and the fact
that his defense team didn't even have it back in 1977. Judge Bennett made it clear though
that he did not place fault on anyone for that. Instead, he found that the speediness with which the case went to
trial made it likely that the original district attorney on the case, Eddie Null, didn't even have all the evidence
himself at the time. So, just to be clear, you believe that in 1977, the police didn't turn over key evidence to
the district attorney. That's the only explanation feasible and logical after studying everything that I did. That's
it. Are you blaming the police? No, I don't believe anybody intentionally hid anything. It's just the way it happened
because it was fast. In a court affidavit, the original DA, Eddie Null, said he did not hide or deny Simmons any
evidence, nor did he prosecute him because of bias. And he continues to believe that Vincent is guilty. And he's
not the only one that feels that way. Current District Attorney Charles Riddle. Do you believe a man who was
convicted at a trial that was not fair should have ever served a day in prison? Illegally. Legally. Okay. Legally, no.
But he did. Yes. Decided that. Okay. Let me tell you, he deserved to serve the 44 years.
Why? Because he's guilty. Judge Bennett was careful to say he has no opinion on the guilt or innocence of
Vincent Simmons. With his decision, it was now up to District Attorney Riddle to decide whether he wanted to retry the
case. You stood up and said what? I said that he served enough time and that we're not going to prosecute him again.
In the eyes of the people and the Constitution, he is presumed innocent. And when Charles Riddle dismissed that
case, that presumption of innocence carries. Free. You free. You free. You done. So
happy to see you. I am so happy to see you. God is good to you. Let me get a picture.
Vincent is a free man, but for Karen and Sharon, nothing has changed. He went in
guilty. He's guilty now. And guess what? He will die guilty. So, I'm I'm happy. I got 44 years. Let's
go. The twins say they accept the judge's decision. But they are still hurt by it. The legal system didn't just
fail him, it failed us in many ways also. While Vincent has his freedom, they say they still don't have theirs.
It's frustrating because no one sees our bars. They don't see our prison. We still have our anxiety. We still have
our depressions. We still have our fears. Our bars are real. And if you look deep
enough, you can see them. Judge Bennett is sympathetic toward the women, but he is confident in his
decision. The case holds extra meaning for him because his father, now deceased, was one of the many judges who
denied motions filed by Vincent over the past years. But that was before Vincent
had gained access to the prosecution's file. He and I had talked about the Vincent Simmons case years ago, and uh I
know if he would be here, he today would have done what I did. What's on your heart? cuz I can see
the emotion. I did the right thing. The freedom just hours after the judge delivered his
decision and right before the sun set, Vincent Simmons walked out of Angola. Yeah. He went in when he was
just 25 years old and was released 3 days before his 70th birthday. Love you, Dad.
Later that night, he shared a celebratory meal with his family and friends. Let's go to freedom. Freedom.
What's it like being out of prison? Oh man, this it's a joy that is unexplainable
really. But with that joy comes challenge. It's going to take me a while. Got a phone.
Adjusting to life outside prison walls has proven to be difficult. So much has changed since 1977.
Man, new technology. I'm just like a little baby. You got to learn. What are the simple things that you
enjoy now? Breathing the free air, walking outside. Basically, it's freedom to just
enjoy the [Music] moment. 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime. Were you at all prepared for what
happened in this case? [Music] [Music] I don't think the grieving ever ends. It evolves. We've been wanting to tell
Amy's story and just felt like we weren't ready before, but now we feel like we can do
it. I was so proud of her and what she's accomplished. [Music] Oh my goodness. Fire eater,
dancer, photographer, model, therapist. She wanted to fix people. You might want to speak to this woman, Dr.
Amy Harwick. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I see all kinds of different things. Anxiety, depression,
change of life stuff, breakups, moves, things like that. Amy helped me so much. I had gone to see
Amy because I had dealt with a relationship that got very out of control and turned into a very serious
stalking case. Jealousy can become dangerous and even lead to violence. It can lead to death.
I want to see 434. Yeah, somebody just attacked my roommate. Please get a cop here.
I just was woken up by screaming, like blood curdling scream. And then I realized that the screaming wasn't
stopping or slowing down. And I yelled up, you know, Amy. And I heard choking right after that. I knew we were in
trouble. This is for real. This is really happening. I knew we needed help. Like, I'm going to have to make a break
for it. When the first responders first got that call, where did they go? They came right
here to this house. Hey, sir. Hi. How can I help you? My roommate was attacked. I know it. I heard I heard it.
She's screaming. She was thrown to the ground. Okay, hold on. Okay. Michael Herman was out here. He's frantic. He's
nervous. They didn't know what to think of this guy. Right. Right. They had no idea of who he was, why he was involved
in all this. They knew he was rambling on. They had some doubts about him originally. I think there's Okay, sir.
Do me a favor. Do me a favor. Calm down. Calm down. Other than your roommate, is
there anybody else inside the house? I don't know. I don't know. Thanks. And I'm walking them around to the back of
the house. And it's dark back there. There's some light, but it's pretty dark back
there. And when they get around to the back now, they can see a body on the on the ground.
Sir, sir, come here. I remember not knowing what I was seeing, you know, after realizing it was Amy.
Really, what hit me was the way that she was killed. So heartbreaking that her of
all people had to be taken in the way that she was. I said, "I know who did it." I just
knew it. I was the only person she was afraid of. It's the only one she was ever afraid of.
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Take a seat. Take a seat. Oh my god. Hey, we we need to we need to have this.
What happened to you? In the early morning darkness of February 15, 2020, police body cameras were recording as
Amy Harwick, barely clinging to life outside of her Hollywood Hills home, was taken to a hospital. If she says
anything in the hospital, want you to know that? As EMTs tried to save Amy, officers from the Los Angeles
Police Department tried to make sense of the scene. Amy's roommate, Michael Herman, appeared to be the only witness.
He told officers an intruder had attacked Amy. I swear to you, that was a struggle by her. But is there any sign
of the intruder? There wasn't. There wasn't. Scott Masterson was the lead detective.
All we knew when we showed up was that a female was found on the ground in the back of the house. We're wide open to
what really went on. Even open to the possibility that this wasn't foul play at all. When officers searched the
threestory house, they found Amy's purse, jacket, and broken necklace on the floor. Not exactly telltale signs of
a crime. And a discovery on Amy's balcony made them wonder if this could have been an accident or even suicide.
On the deck of the balcony, we found a medium size syringe and it was loaded with a yellowish brown substance. Yeah,
it's heroin. When the officers first saw that, they thought, "What was this? Some
kind of drug dealer?" Exact. Exactly. Or maybe she was using drugs and fell over.
They They didn't know. Sir, do you know her history of drug use? No, she's sober. She doesn't drink it. She didn't
even drink. She doesn't drink. She doesn't even drink. She's sober. And when I first saw it, I said, "That's not
heroin." Not heroin. But he didn't know what it was. But what did you think? Wasn't that odd? Very odd. Very strange.
And very strange to investigators, says Mastersonson. Was that Michael had blood
on his shirt? And although he said he was a roommate, he didn't have his keys to the house when first responders
arrived. They don't know if he's part of the problem, part of the solution. He might be.
So, you know, they're thinking, was he in a fight with her? That was not true. Michael Herman is
telling his story publicly for the first time about the events on the night of Valentine's Day 2020 and into the early
hours of the next day. The word nightmare isn't even a big enough word, is it? No. No. Amy had gone out with
friends and Michael was in his downstairs bedroom. I'd been mostly nodding on and off. I remember what
sounded like a plate drop and being woken up by it. Thinking it was Amy's cat, he says he
fell back asleep. He later woke up to Amy returning home and that blood curdling scream. He then heard what
sounded like Amy being thrown to the floor and later choked. sound made you feel that there was someone up with I
knew I knew for a fact there was somebody up there after that trying to listen. You don't know for sure what's
going on. Was he acting alone? Was there more than one person? I start rushing to
look for my phone. But Michael says he couldn't find his phone. He then started yelling to scare
the intruder. I remember thinking like this is so much worse than any horror movie I've ever seen. you're realizing
that to save her, like you've got to make the decision to leave her. It was such a hard decision.
Michael fled the house to get help, but when he got to the front gate, it was locked. He climbed over a fence, cutting
himself on spiked rods. Frantically, he ran to the next door neighbor's house. That neighbor's surveillance camera
shows Michael knocking on the door, but no one answers. I just kind of panicked,
you know, feeling like a a lot of time had already passed. He then ran into someone on the street and used their
phone to call 911. You guys need to get a a cop here quick. Sir, the officers are on the way.
After spending hours at the scene, investigators found something in the light of day that they had missed
before. a broken window from a French door on the ground floor with blood nearby. And so as soon as we saw that,
okay, this is our point of entry. We have a crime here. Somebody broke into this house and did this. So this was the
first piece of evidence that said to you, Mike Herman might be telling you the truth. Correct. Correct.
Later at the Hollywood Police Station, Michael told Masterson about the person he believed was responsible. told them
she had an ex-boyfriend that she had had a restraining order against um that had
expired. I don't know his name, but Robert would know his name. Robert is Robert Koshlin, one of Amy's
closest friends. We first spoke to Robert in 2020. He told us what he told police. They were like, you know, do you
know who might have, you know, could have done this? And I was like, yeah, Gareth.
Gareth Pur House, an old boyfriend who Amy had had a troubled relationship with when they dated almost 10 years earlier.
I was like, "You need to go find this guy right away." Masterson then broke the news to Robert
and Michael. Amy had died at the hospital. She was 38 years old. How difficult was it to hear that Amy didn't
make it? It's still difficult to hear. As investigators worked to find Amy's ex-boyfriend, they also tried to find
Amy's parents, Penny and Tom Harwick, in Pennsylvania. The Harwicks remember getting ready for bed when there was a
knock at the door. It was the local police and he said, "Amy's been murdered." It it's it's a blur right now. I I don't
know how to describe it. Just devastated. Penny and Tom's life with Amy began when
they adopted her as an 11-month-old baby. Do you remember the first time you saw your little girl? Oh, I absolutely
remember. Kind of like a fairy tale. It's like here's this beautiful little girl sitting there. she's going to come
home with us and and be our daughter. It was wonderful. And believe it or not, she had a headful of curls. And her hair
was honey colored. By the time she was four, it was so dark. Around that same time, the Harwicks adopted their son,
Chris. And she was okay with it for a couple of weeks and then she said, "Well, when is he going
back?" And I said, "Well, he's not. He's your brother. He's going to be here forever.
How would you describe your sister? Amy was a very interesting uh character. She was into heavy metal, into rock
music, going to concerts. And Amy got her parents in on the action, too. She turned Penny and I into metal heads or
headers. Seriously. Seriously. She would always manage to get either backstage or to
meet the performers. That's just who she was. After high school, Amy met Tommy Decker,
a drummer from LA, at a local concert. The two began dating long distance. And then she said, "I want to move out
there. I want to move out to LA." In 2001, she headed west. She was 20 years old. She needed to find out who she was.
She needed to do that for herself. Soon, the couple tied the knot. But after a three-year marriage, Tommy
and Amy divorced. It wasn't until 2009 that Amy would go on to meet Gareth Purouse, the
man police suspected had killed her and whom they were now searching for. Heartbreak for a local neighborhood
after a well-known therapist was killed at her Hollywood Hills home. People have left flowers here for
Amy Harwick and her friends and family are hoping for justice. I was very confident that, you know,
Gareth Pur House was our guy. Within 13 hours of Amy Harwick's death on February 15th, 2020, police descended
on Gareth Purous's beachside neighborhood to arrest him. You could tell he was playing the old
What's this about? Why do you want to talk? Who? Uh oh, yeah, I know Amy. Sure. Yeah. He basically was saying,
I've been at home. Detectives weren't buying that story or the explanation PC house gave for what
appeared to be a fresh black eye. He blamed a home renovation. I said, "I think you better get a contractor. If
you get a hold of a power tool, you're going to be in real trouble." Purels was charged with Amy's murder on
February 19th, 2020. and detectives were learning about his troubled past, beginning not long after he and Amy
began dating in 2009. They seemed like a pretty fun couple and kind of nice to see, you know, friends get together.
When we first spoke to Rudy Torres in 2020, he talked about how the couple met. Amy, then working as a model and
dancer, would often run into Pur House, an events photographer, at flashy LA parties. If you would meet him, you
would think he's charming, little goofy, kind of dorky. He wasn't a musician like
she normally dated. No. No. And she was trying to break that habit. Hurst house was also a computer expert and an
aspiring comedian. Here he is one more time for Gareth. Everybody, come on. Bad news for the entertainers over there.
The best day of your career is going to be the days after you die. But oddly says Amy's mother, Penny, her daughter
didn't share much else about him. And why do you think that is? Well, maybe she was already feeling like he wasn't
who she thought he was. And Penny says her daughter never shared how volatile the 2-year relationship had
become. She had gone through quite a bit with Gareth. There was there was a number of police reports that were made.
Detectives learned that Amy had called police to report several violent incidents over the years. She said that
on multiple occasions, Gareth Purouse had choked, suffocated, and punched her with a closed fist. And she even
documented her injuries with these photos. But Amy's father, Tom, says Amy didn't share just how bad things had
gotten. She didn't go into details. Do you think she just wanted to protect the two of you? Yes. After Amy ended the
relationship, she took steps to protect herself, obtaining a restraining order against Pers in 2012. But while she was
trying to distance herself from him, Rudy says Pers could not let her go. He always wanted to get a hold of her. And
I used to tell him that he should just leave her alone. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. and then he cut me off.
In the years after their breakup, Amy told her parents that her home was broken into. On one occasion, strangely,
the only things taken were personal photos. And on another, her computer was wiped clean. And did she think it was
Gareth? She did. Oh, yes. But no way of proving No way of proving anything. Of course, we were worried, but then we
also felt like, well, she's done with him, it's over, and it was never over. And Penny says Amy was thriving, getting
a degree to become a licensed therapist. Hi, this is Dr. Amy Harwick, licensed marriage and family therapist. Amy
posted therapy videos on her social media. You can seek therapy to address an issue like depression, anxiety, a
breakup. You can also seek therapy to be a better you. But even as Amy focused on
helping others, she couldn't quite shake the shadows from her past. She lost a job as a youth counselor, Penny says
after a prospective employer was anonymously sent nude photos of her. Amy believed Pers was behind it. She was
really upset about it and then she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Despite that obstacle, Amy studied for a
PhD in human sexuality, earning the title doctor. She took a special interest in marginalized groups, sex
workers, and vulnerable women. And she doesn't stop. She just she bounced right back. I wrote a book called The New Sex
Bible for Women. No, she didn't stop. She would work with these groups of people that she felt were under
reppresented and needed help. What was Dr. Harwick's reputation. Dr. Amy Harwick had an amazing reputation. I had
a lot of mutual friends that had seen her. Emily Sears, a model who's graced the cover of Maxim magazine, first
started seeing Dr. Amy Harwick in 2017, in part to help her overcome anxiety she had around dating and
intimacy. I felt that she was relatable, but I didn't know just exactly how relatable it was. Even when she opened
up to Amy about an abusive ex-boyfriend who had stalked her, Emily says Amy never told her about her own similar
experience. And that still is something that I am struggling to process knowing that I was
sitting across from her and she had been through so much that was similar. As Amy
was helping Emily work through her issues around dating, Amy was taking a chance on a new man in her own life.
Happy Valentine's Day. Drew Carey, comedian and host of The Price is Right on CBS. She was obviously really
beautiful. She was really smart. She just wanted to help people, especially women. We spoke to Carrie in 2022.
He said it wasn't long after meeting Amy at a party that he decided she was the one. And I said, "If this keeps going
the way it's going, I'm going to marry her." And what happened? What happened was he ended up taking her to Paris on
New Year's Eve and proposing to her and she accepted. Drew and Amy shared the news on his show soon after. I'd like to
introduce you to my brand new lovely fiance, Amy. How you doing, Amy? But instead of spending the rest of
their lives together, later that year, the couple split up. How did she take the breakup? She was devastated. I mean,
she broke it off. And I think that's because all fame was getting in the way. That's because, says Penny, Amy feared
that with the added public attention she was getting while on the arm of a celebrity, she could be putting herself
in danger. You know who was watching and it made her [Music] worry. It hit home a lot after Amy
passed in the way that she did. How dangerous it really is for women. Emily Sears, one of Amy Harwick's
therapy clients, was shaken by the news of her death. The reality is we're not safe. Nobody is in dealing with some
domestic violence because this was a bit different because the way Gareth Pers acted in this case was more methodical.
When deputy district attorney Victor Ava took on the case, he was particularly troubled by evidence that Pur House had
broken into Amy's house, hoping to catch her off guard when she arrived home. And
that's at the point that we decided to charge not only the murder charge, but also the special circumstance of lying
and wait. These are the crime scene notes. Avala along with his co-consel, Deputy District Attorney Katherine
Mariano, reviewed surveillance and body camera video, interviews with Amy's family and friends, and compiled a
timeline of the events leading up to the murder. It became very clear to me that
his obsession drove his intent to kill her. They believe that Pur House's obsession
with Amy was ignited when he saw her at this award show about a month before her
murder. It was a chance encounter. Pur House working the gig as a photographer. Amy smiling for the cameras enjoying the
limelight. But moments earlier, off camera, witnesses say an angry purse house confronted her. Penny Harwick
recalls Amy telling her she hadn't seen him in almost a decade. He called her a and he told her
she ruined his life and she just told me how afraid she was because he was crying
and causing a huge scene and she said, "Mom, I went into therapist mode. I just tried to calm him." After talking to
Gareth for almost an hour, Amy left the event very worried. What's your reaction, Penny? When she
was telling you this, that's when we talked about security and she said she was going to get pepper spray. We
decided to start sharing location so I could track where she was. Her close friend, Robert Klin, says that sharing
her phone's location was one of the few things Amy felt she could do to feel safe. The restraining order against Pur
House had long expired and because Pur House hadn't expressly threatened her. Robert says she didn't think going to
police would help. Still, he says Amy was very concerned. That's when she said, "Look, if something happens to me,
he did it." She actually said that. She literally said that. She's thinking that
he can cause me harm. And the very next day, he finds her phone on the internet and starts texting her. Gareth sent Amy
a series of texts and later left her a tearfilled voicemail. I have so much I need to
say. Please give me a chance to just say it. Please, please. That's when prosecutors
say Amy decided to block his number. I believe up until that point he was trying to manipulate his way back into
her life at the point that she made the decision to block him. That was her choice and she had that right to do
that. Prosecutors say PCL started to plan to kill Amy on Valentine's Day. Was that just a random date? Absolutely not.
I think he wanted to make a statement by killing her on Valentine's Day. On February 14th, 2020, Amy went out
with a group of friends around 700 p.m. 2 hours later say prosecutors surveillance cameras from her nextdoor
neighbors property were activated. You get those ring cameras that show a person that looks just like Gareth
Purouse with gloves. When he first comes into view, he covers the camera and when
the camera senses no more motion, it shuts off and then he hops over the fence into Amy's yard. Soon after,
around 900 p.m., they believe Pile broke through that French door. And that's consistent with Michael Herman. He heard
something breaking upstairs early in the evening. And I think he just got into the house, cut himself. I don't think he
even realized he cut himself. leaving that blood police later found nearby. DNA testing would confirm it belonged to
Pur [Music] House. And Detective Mastersonson says where Pur House went next was revealed
by Amy's unmade bed. I think he climbed in her bed. He was there waiting for her
for quite a while. How creepy is that? Crazy creepy. [Music] That's where Mastersonson believes Amy
found him 4 hours later when she arrived home a little after 1:00 a.m. She walks
into her bedroom and I think she just froze in shock and fear and the one thing that was on the bed was her phone.
So I think she actually threw her phone at him and turned and started to run out
of the bedroom. And she's screaming and they're fighting and they're wrestling. How hard did Amy fight for her life? I
think she fought with everything she had. He had something that appeared to look like a bite mark on his bicep. And
Pers also had that black eye. To us, it was indicative of Amy fighting for her life, but she was obviously up against a
much bigger, stronger opponent. Prosecutors believe Pur House started choking Amy and that's when Michael
Herman yelled. They believe catching Pur House by surprise. And I think that plan
was definitely thwarted by the unbeknownsted presence of Michael Herman there. I just don't believe that he even
knew that somebody was home. In his panic, they believe Pur House dropped that syringe police found on the
balcony. It was months before lab tests revealed what it contained. Liquid nicotine. A toxic poison that if
injected into someone, it would kill them. Why kill her that way? I mean, with that lethal dose of nicotine,
people may not know what killed her. It may not be detected. With his original plan interrupted,
prosecutors believe that Pur House carried Amy, barely conscious after being strangled to the thirdstory
balcony. He lifts her right over the rail and then drops her to kill her. Gareth Purels is caught on the
neighbor's camera popping back over the fence. With their suspect and theory of the
crime, the prosecutors were ready for trial. But they were surprised by Gareth Purous's defense, blaming Amy for what
happened that night. [Music] [Music] In August 2023, more than three years after Amy Harwick's death, her accused
killer, Gareth Purouse, went on trial. I almost didn't recognize him. Right. In their opening statements, prosecutors
Victor Avala and Katherine Mariano told jurors why and how they believe Pur House ended Amy's life in the early
morning of February 15th, 2020. Dr. Amy Harwick was murdered by defendant Ger House because he was obsessed with her.
He strangled her, lifted her up over the balcony, and dropped her to her death. I
just pray that Amy was unconscious when she was when she went over the balcony. Tom and Penny sat through every second
of the trial, even the most graphic moments. I need to know what happened to my daughter. And we wanted to be there
for Amy. Yeah. Through the whole ordeal. But the Harwicks were not alone. Also in
the courtroom, a small army of Amy's friends, including Rudy Torres. This is the last thing I could ever do for her.
Although fortified by her friends, nothing could prepare the Harwicks to hear for the first time ever. Gareth
Purous's explanation about what happened the night Amy died. Defense attorney Evan Franzel claims
that running into Amy in January 2020 at that award show had sent Pur House into
quote a deep debilitating depression unquote. And the only way out of it was to talk to Amy on Valentine's Day 2020.
His only intention that night was to speak to her. What was your reaction to that?
bull. To put it bluntly, they're making up stories because they have no defense.
And as for that nicotine filled syringe found at the crime scene, Pur House's defense attorney says it wasn't for Amy.
He brought it intending to kill himself. Why didn't he? No, he was on a mission to kill her. He was wearing gloves when
he went there. He covered up the cameras. What's the purpose in doing all that if you're going to kill yourself
there in front of her? In this trial, the defense tells the jurors they will hear from an accident reconstructionist
who will show that Amy fell on her own. Defense attorney Franzel then shows the jury two images. A screenshot of the
reconstruction showing an animated figure hanging from the balcony and an undated photo of Amy posing on top of a
balcony railing. You'll see that she had a certain comfort level with the balcony
rail. Beautiful young lady, wasn't she? She looked glorious. What was your reaction? Ridiculous.
I couldn't take it seriously. It was just so far-fetched to me. She's been strangled. She's debilitated.
So, for her to then walk, climb over a 3-FFT rail, do all that, it doesn't seem reasonable. It seems actually
unreasonable. The defense's opening concludes with this damning admission. Yes, Gareth Burst House was waiting in
her home. He broke into her home. Had he not been there, she wouldn't have died that night. That is not in dispute. He
set a chain of actions into motion that led to her death, but the evidence will show that he never
intended on killing her. Over the course of 10 days, the prosecution presented its evidence to
prove that Gareth Pers did intend to kill Amy Harwick. Dozens of witnesses testify for the state, including
Detective Masterson, now retired, Robert Klin, call Michael Herman to stand, and
of course, Amy's roommate, Michael Herman, the man who heard it all. Michael described for the jury how after
that incident on the red carpet, Amy had been concerned about those French doors
that Pur House would later use to break into her home. Amy had met with a handyman. I remember uh they were over
by the the glass doors and Amy was pointing it out and telling him, "We need to secure this."
Prosecutors also play for the jury this tape jail conversation between Pur House
and his friends after his arrest. I guess I'm officially a bad boy now, right? I've always been kind of just a
couple of weeks after he's been arrested for murder. He's laughing with his friends. You never hear any moment of
concern for Amy during that call. Yeah. So, it's not great. I'm not getting out of here. Why
was that important? I think that's one piece of evidence to show a consciousness of guilt so he knows
what's coming because the evidence shows what he did. It proves what he did. When
it was the defense's turn to present its case and call its expert witness to show
how Amy's fall from the balcony was an accident, the defense suddenly rested without calling a single witness. Didn't
that hurt the defense? I am sure some jurors were wondering what happened. So, I don't think that helps. During closing
arguments, defense attorney Robin Bernstein Lev presented a new theory of what happened that night. That Amy may
have attacked Pur House. We don't know who initiated the physical confrontation.
It is just as likely, if not likelier, she preemptively attacked Gareth Bur's house in order to subdue him because she
was afraid of him. You see that all the time, don't you? A 115 lb lady picking a
fight with a 230 lb 6'4 man. Just preposterous on its face. Did that make you mad? Oh, took all my willpower to
stay in that seat to keep my mouth shut. During the state's closing arguments, it's Amy Harwick who has the last word.
With prosecutor Mariano reading from an email Amy wrote to herself hours after her January 2020 encounter with Pers.
Night. I felt very scared. Derrick came up behind me and started screaming. I'm pretty nervous that I'm more on his
radar now. It terrifies me that he's obsessed with me for 9 years. Thinks about me every day. He's focused on
harming me. That's the closest we've ever had to to a victim testifying in their murder. I
thought it was extremely devastating. Jurors had three choices. Murder in the first degree, murder in the second, or
the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. When it came time for deliberation, I think we all thought it
would be rather quick. Day one went by, nothing. I started getting a little worried and thinking what could they
be debating about? [Music] I felt nervous. Yeah, cuz you never know. As jurors met for a second day to decide
Gareth Purouse's fate, the waiting for a verdict began to weigh heavily on the prosecution. It's incredibly
nerve-wracking. The weight is the worst part. And on Amy Harwick's friends and family, and all you hear is just like a
symphony of of anxious bellies just so everybody's nervous. But as court was about to adjourn, we were
walking out of the courthouse and Rudy called down and said, "Everybody get up here. There's a verdict."
Is it correct that the jury has a verdict? You can have the verdict formed over the bail, please. We the jury
entitled action fighting defendant Gareth Pile guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. Gareth
Pile's guilty of firstdegree murder with a special circumstance of lying in weight. What did you feel at that
moment? A huge relief. Huge relief. I I just started crying and I couldn't stop. It was
like finally after all this time, he's going to be held accountable for what he did.
Two months later, Pers was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He didn't say a word.
Amy's friend, Robert Koshlin. Justice was rendered and that's good, but we shouldn't be here at all. This should
never have happened to begin with. The hole in our lives remains. He's impacted so many people with his actions. So many
people. He devastated our family. [Music] A family that has grown. After the verdict, Tom gathered Amy's friends, the
ones who have stood by them every step of this journey. I said, "Uh, you are not our friends. You're
family. You You really have become our family. Could you have gotten through this
without them?" No, I don't think so. It's a testament to the amazing life and community Amy Harwick created. She was
really happy. She was really happy that she had really gotten her life together. Man, we were all happy.
Michael Herman says he still keeps replaying that night. She's gone and I'm still here. You want a second chance.
I'm still trying to save her. Michael Herman has a lot of survivors guilt. Oh my goodness. He did the exact right
thing. He made all the right decisions. Do you feel your sister got justice? I feel I feel she did. Amy's brother,
Chris. We wish that she still could be here to to continue to help people cuz that's what she was all about.
We lost a friend, but so many other people lost a healer. I think of Amy every day because she she helped me so
much. Emily Sears says she's struggling without Amy's guidance. It's just so hard to feel safe when this is the
reality of what happened to her and what happens to so many people. Amy's loved ones are hoping to change
that reality. After her death, a petition was created to rewrite California domestic violence laws,
including a statute preventing restraining orders from expiring. And our biggest disappointment was it lost
all its impact when CO shut everything down. Prosecutor Katherine Mariano acknowledges that there are limits to
the legal system. By the time it gets to our table, we're in a position to act reactively rather than proactively. But
as a society, I think we can always do better, right? After the trial, Amy's parents headed
home to Pennsylvania, the place where they first became a family with their little girl, and watched her grow into
the woman admired and now missed by so many. What's the hardest part? Just the the
absence, the quiet. One huge void. One huge void. And I miss our adventures. Adventures remembered when they visit
Amy's grave. And I couldn't get a brighter orange. I know orange was your favorite
color, but this is the closest I could get. We're not the same people we were before, but we keep trying to be. We
miss you, Amy. Every day we think of you. anything you wish you had been able to say to
her? Just to tell her one more time that I love her. I know she knew it, but I wanted to be able to say it.
[Music] [Music] New CBS next. A young teenager is strangled and buried alive. Absolutely
coldblooded. 20 years later, her family battles to keep her killers behind bars.
We're fighting for her. That's why we're here. She doesn't have a voice. So, we're her voice. 48 hours is all new.
CBS Next and streaming on Paramount Plus. [Music] July 1997. Versace. [Music] There's something inherently sexy in a
Versace design. There is a flamboyance that is contained and [Music] controlled. The clothes we wear send a
message about how the world perceives us. This is a real wow factor. I'm Tim Gun and I am the mentor on Project
Runway. The Versace customer was not faint of heart. One of the most iconic Versace pieces was the gown that he made
for Elizabeth Hurley. Two stars were born with that dress. Princess Diana wanted a whole new look for the
world. And Courtney loved it also. I mean, he took her from trashy to sophisticated. Versace helped put Miami
on the international map. My name is Tara Solomon and I am the Miami Herald's former nightlife
correspondent. Versace brought his entire world of fabulosity. And while he may have had
homes all around the world, he came to Miami Beach to relax. Do you remember where you were when you
heard that Versace had been murdered? Oh, I remember profoundly. I opened up my computer and it flashed before me
that Johnny Versace had been murdered. I was stunned. When Versace was killed, there was pure
pandemonium. On that particular morning, Johnny Versace decided to go over to the news
cafe and it was on his return home approaching the door. He was he was shot and killed and all of a sudden we hear
bang bang. Two shots. 116. Yes. Please immediately please. Do you remember where roughly he was? He was
right right here. And there was obviously blood. Yes. Plenty of blood. And if you mention Johnny Versace, um
people still don't remember those names of the first few people that were killed.
There was uh the homicide of Jeff Trail and David Matson. There was the murder of Lee
Miglin. Then there was the murder of William Reese. We have what we typically call a
spree killer. [Music] This wasn't a haphazard crime. Mr. Versace was targeted. [Music]
[Music] World famous fashion designer Johnny Versace fatally shot, gunned down outside his mansion in Miami Beach,
Florida, turned into a gruesome crime scene early this morning. 5 days before he was murdered, Johnny
Versace and his partner Antonio Demo had arrived at Kasa Kazarina, their lavish Miami Beach retreat. They'd been in
Paris and New York. Versace could not have known it, but his killer was already in town.
Ocean Drive. The 911 call came in about 8:45 the morning of July 15th, 1997, just as Carlos Noriega, then a
lieutenant with the Miami Beach Police Department, was heading to work. [Music] I drove over to the scene and
encountered an area just flooded with police officers. There was uh evidence at the
front steps. There was blood. There was uh clothing. Giani Versace was an icon. You
have a worldrenowned fashion designer, celebrity who was tragically killed. This was all hands- on deck. Yeah. You
don't want to screw this case up. Exactly. It all happened in broad daylight. Versace had gone out alone to a local
cafe to buy magazines and then he walked home as he was putting the key in the door lock and he was shot twice. Once in
the face point black ridge and the other one was behind the left ear in the neck
and that was a through and through shot. Nora believes the gunman approached Versace from behind or from the side.
I believe he was shadowing him. It was a very strategically timed, strategically
placed attack uh to to kill Giani Versace. The question was who would want to kill him?
One of the first motives that we felt was a possibility was that it was a contract hit organized crime mafia if
you will uh because there was a dead bird found next to the body. Is that a sign that to to us that's a sign of a
mafia hit? But the bird, it turned out, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hit by a fragment from a bullet
that killed Versace. And that left police with not much to go on. But not for long. They got a break
from Lazero Quintana, who was a friend of Versace. He used to call me Lazaretta. Lazero was at the mansion
that morning. He was in the dining room with Antonio when he heard the shots. Antonio got up and he went to the window
that faces the gate to enter the mansion and he yelled out, "No, no." And I ran out. You came here? I
came here. Johnny was right here. Versace was already dead on the front steps. And then Antonio came and he was
he's crying and he was destroyed. He was destroyed and he's he's who did this? Who did this? And there was there was a
lady standing here and she's pointing but she couldn't speak and Jonah said, "Go get him." So I went after him.
Lazero followed the gunman. We're talking this pace real fast. I yelled, "You bastard. Why did you do this? Why
did you do this?" He makes a left turn. As he makes the left turn, yes, he makes
the left turn. And we're still going. We're still going all the way through. He turns over to the right and car's
coming so I couldn't get across. Car stops. Uhhuh. And they yell, "He's got a gun." He stops right across here. Yeah.
At the alley. And that's when he's pointing the gun at me. Show me how he pointed the gun at you if I'm you.
So he didn't even look at you. No. Never looked at me. You never saw his face. I
never saw his face. But you saw his clothes. Yes. The shooter cut through this alley while
Lazero raced around the corner. He remembered seeing a police officer there earlier. I reached him and I said to
him, "Mr. Versace has just been shot." Were you calm? Were or were you? No. No. No. A friend of mine was just shot. Nor
was I calm. I was nervous. I was upset. You came down this street with the police officer. I did. Luckily, he came
upon some men in front of this building and asked them if they saw a man running
and they pointed they pointed to the garage. He said he went in here. He went in here. So, that's when I told the
officer, I said, "He's in there. Go get him. Go get him." And then we heard over
the radio the commotion and and Okay, now there is a manh hunt. When police searched the 13th Street
garage, they discovered a pile of clothes, a gray t-shirt, and black shorts, just what Lazero had seen the
shooter wearing. He had obviously changed clothes. When he walked out of this garage just shortly after the
murder, nobody knew who the shooter was. Nobody knew what he looked like. Nobody
knew what he was wearing. He was able to just vanish. But he left a mountain of evidence for investigators. Next to that
pile of clothes was a truck that had been reported stolen in New Jersey. And inside the truck were documents with a
name. I mean, he left his identification in the truck. That's correct. He had his
passport, um, ID, a whole lot of items that connected him right away. 51. By 12 noon, some 3 hours after Johnny Versace
was murdered, police had a suspect. His name, Andrew Kunanan. And as it turned out, the Miami
Beach Police Department was not the only one looking for him. [Music] [Applause]
In Milan, Italy today, those who knew and admired Johnny Versace said goodbye to the murdered fashion designer.
One week after Johnny Versace was murdered, celebrities and friends from around the world gathered inside this
Gothic cathedral in Milan, Italy for his funeral. I saw Versace's funeral on television and I cried. It was It was
hard. It was tough. Princess Diana was there at the funeral. Sting Trudy Elton [Music]
In Miami, not far from where he was murdered, there was a small intimate service to celebrate the designer's
life. [Music] The flowers left on the steps of Versace's opulent mansion served as one
somber reminder of what had happened. that we consider Andrew Kuninad to be armed and to be extremely
dangerous. The police activity was another. They were tracking every lead they could, hunting for Johnny Versace's
suspected killer, 27-year-old Andrew Kunanan. You had a very good suspect. Michael Band was the prosecutor assigned
to this case. And our first step was to go out into community with pictures of Canadan and start beating the bushes and
looking for this guy, looking to figure out, is this the guy? Authorities were starting to learn
all about Andrew Kunanan. 3 months before Versace's murder, Kunanan was living in San Diego and his
life was, to say the least, complicated. I thought he'd be a very successful businessman or maybe in, you know, the
fashion industry or something star quality like. Back in the 80s, Robert Erenss remembers his seventh grade
classmate Andrew Kunanan as a good-looking kid with a keen fashion sense. I remember Andrew would put dimes
in his penny loafers. It was always that little extra something that made him sort of stand out and get noticed.
Andrew sort of had this air about him that I thought was kind of beyond his years at that
time. According to Erands, Andrew Kunanan grew up in a workingclass San Diego suburb and did not share much
about his home life. I had no idea who his mom was, his dad, whether he had brothers or sisters. I had no idea he
was half Filipino. Andrew's father, Modesto, was a former Navy man turned stockbroker. He
and Andrew's mother, Maryanne, raised four children together. But Andrew stood out. He had a genius IQ. So he enrolled
in the pricey and prestigious Bishop School in the Tony Beach enclave of La Hoya. When I heard that he was going to
La Hoya and transferring to bishops, I thought, well, you've got to have money. That's a private school.
[Music] The class of 1987 mentioned Andrew Kunanan as most likely to be remembered. He chose a quote from King
Louis X 15th to accompany his senior photo. A premo deluge after me. The deluge. Turns out those words could have
been an omen. A year after Andrew's high school graduation, his father was facing
embezzlement charges. He fled the country, leaving his family abandoned and broke.
[Music] He was openly gay in high school and very flamboyant. When 48 Hours first
spoke to Nicole Murray Ramirez back in 1997, he knew Andrew Kunanan. Today, he still remembers Kunanan as the young man
who didn't have a job but was a big spender and an even bigger talker. Andrew Kanan was basically known in the
gay community's night life and the bar scene. He would walk in with entourage and
always pay for the bill. He wanted the illusion that it was his money. He tried to brag that he came from a Filipino
family and he knew the Mald Marcos. Michael Williams owned a local restaurant and knew Andrew Kunanan. He
also knew where Kunanann really got all that money. He had a very wealthy older partner who really provided for him. How
much older? I would say probably by 40 years. What did you make of that relationship?
I stopped trying to figure that out. I was like, you know, here's this young, attractive, good-looking
guy with this extremely older man. I mean, I can't imagine what the connection was
there. I would imagine that you had an idea what the connection was there. I did. You know, Michael Williams was
introduced to Andrew through their mutual friend, a young enson named Jeff Trail. Andrew was very
pretentious, loud, you know, always had to be the center of the the party. Jeff was opposite of that. Jeff
was pretty conservative and quiet, always helping people. Trail was an Annapapolis graduate and a
Gulf War veteran living in San Diego. He was also gay as out as was possible. Tonight on 48
hours, the battle over homosexuals in the military. In 1993, when he appeared in Silhouette for a 48 hours interview,
he talked to us about issues affecting gay people in the military. We're not here to be feared. We just want to do
our jobs. That's all we're asking for. While Trail and Kunanan were friends, to the best of anybody's knowledge, that is
all they were. Jeff was always had the contagious personality that where you just wanted to be around him. And I
think that, you know, in a way, Andrew wanted that in his life. So surrounding himself around Jeff, he always seemed
very happy and and up. You did not like Andrew. No. For reasons known only to Cananan, he
sometimes used the name Andrew Dilva. That's how Michael Williams knew him. And he would soon learn a lot more about
Andrew. Who he was and what he would do would change the life of Michael Williams and end the lives of five
innocent victims. Tracing Andrew Kunanan's blood soaked path to Johnny Versace's front
door means following a series of unexplainable events punctuated with unfathomable
viciousness. None of the dots are easily connected except in the mind of the murderer.
[Music] The road begins with Jeff Trail. He just had that charisma about him. It was Trail who befriended Andrew
Kunanan. And Michael Williams believes his friend knew Cananan had lived a dangerous life. Andrew had a past of
dealing drugs. He had a past of prostitution. And I really think that Jeff was trying to pull him out of that.
Williams says Jeff Trail had left the Navy and was training to join the California Highway Patrol. And then
suddenly, and with no explanation, in the fall of 1996, Trail moved to Minneapolis. The
day that he got in the car to leave, I said, "Please be safe." And he reached under the seat and he he pulled out his
handgun and he said, "I'm going to be safe. I've got this Around that same time, Jeff Trail's
friend Andrew Kunanan was struggling. According to Nicole Murray Ramirez, he was not good-looking anymore. He had to
have looked in the mirror and saw what I saw, which was a a six going down to a four. What was left for his life?
Kunanan had gained weight and given away much of his expensive designer wardrobe.
He had dabbled into drugs. He was now an older young man with average looks. On top of that, his older wealthy
partner broke up with him. I surmise that Andrew one day woke up after his older boyfriend broke up the
relationship and what's next? How was he going to live? He lost the money, the mansion, and all
that went with it. He lived off other people. He also was someone who was revengeful.
Former FBI profiler Mary Elano Tulle. This is not someone that you break up with easily because when you're
grandiose and you're the center of the world, people don't break up with you. And then for reasons Kunanan never fully
explained, on Friday, April 25th, 1997, he went to Minneapolis. He flew from San Diego on a one-way ticket. Do
you think that he went up to Minneapolis with murder on his mind? Yes, I think that he did.
Kunana knew people in Minneapolis. Jeff Trail was there and Michael Williams thinks something happened between the
two of them. I called to check on Jeff and he was just really depressed. It alarmed me.
We've never had a conversation like that. I uh I asked him, "Have you spoken to Andrew?" And he
said, "Uh, no, and I'll never speak to him again." That's odd. Kunanan knew somebody else in
Minneapolis, a 33-year-old architect named David Madson. Kunanan and Madson had had a relationship. He loved to
laugh. I just got a little lunch. Okay. And he always had big energy. Julie Hland was David Madson's friend and
coworker. He liked problem solving. We talked about world issues. He was a downto- earthth person.
Did David ever mention Andrew Cananan? Um, yes, he did. I think he had a fling with Andrew. Um, I don't think it was
anything serious because there were other people in his life that he cared about more. He didn't care about Andrew
um that much really. But according to Kunanan's friends, Andrew believed David was the love of
his life. Julie Havlin didn't talk to David Madson over the weekend. On Monday, she was
surprised when he didn't show up at work. And by Tuesday, everyone was worried. I called them, went to voice
messaging, and um a couple of my co-workers went to his house over lunch hour on Tuesday. Um heard his dog
barking in the apartment. She didn't know it, but Kunanan's killing spree had already started. It was noticeable as
soon as you open the door and walk in. Nobody made any effort to try and conceal it or hide it.
When retired Minneapolis homicide detective Dale Bars arrived at Madson's apartment, what he saw was gruesome.
There was a bloody body wrapped in a rug. I thought he was dead that day. I pretty much cried the whole night
and then later we found out that um it wasn't David's body in the the carpet. How did you feel when you heard that?
Um shocked. But then oh, what happened? The body in David Madson's apartment. was Jeff Trail. He had been beaten to
death with a hammer. And not far from the body, police found a duffel bag with a name on it, Andrew Kunanan. This is
the travel bag that we believe uh Andrew Kunanan brought to Minneapolis on uh April 25th.
But where was Andrew Kunanan and where was David Madson? The trail stayed cold for just 4 days. And then on Saturday
morning, two fishermen found the body of a young man on the shores of East Rush Lake about an hour north of Minneapolis.
It was David Madson. He'd been shot in the head. We learned that David died pretty soon
after Jeff Trail. Oh my gosh. you know, to be in the situation that David's in with this
crazy person, you know, and how scary for him. I'm sure he tried to calm Andrew down, you know. I I mean, I'm
sure there was survival mode going on, like how do you diffuse the situation? But he obviously failed at
that. Um, and he lost his life because of that. Ballistic tests showed the bullets used
to kill Madson came from a 40 caliber gun like the one Jeff Trail had taken to Minneapolis. Police believe Kunanan took
that gun. Presumably, when you were able to link Madson's death to Trail's death,
that changed the whole investigation. Yeah. Now we're down to Where's Andrew? There were tire tracks near Madson's
body and his car, a red Jeep, was missing. But it would not stay missing for long. 72-year-old Lee Miglin was
found tortured and stabbed to death in the garage of his mansion on Chicago's Gold Coast.
On the morning of May 3rd, 1997, Steven and Barbara Byer found the body of their
neighbor, Lee Migglin. He was a wealthy real estate developer. I can still picture it today. I could see the points
of his shoes and I said, "It is right there." I mean, it was absolutely um chilling.
Inside Lee Miglin's townhouse, there was some money and other things missing, and
there was evidence the killer had stayed a while. Police photos show he had shaved and taken a bath. debris in the
kitchen sink. Uh melted ice cream coming out of their containers. Then in uh Lee's library, finding this uh large ham
uh sliced sitting on his desk. That was plenty to recognize that uh something very, very bad had gone on.
Around the corner from the murder scene, police would discover David Madson's red
Jeep. But now Lee Migllin's green Lexus was missing. To this day, police do not know what, if any, connection Kunanan
had to Migglin, but they feared Kunannan would strike again. [Applause] [Music] I do know it's not a random act of
violence. A nationwide manhunt is still underway for Kunan after Andrew Kunanan murdered Jeff Trail, David Madson, and
Lee Miglin. The gay community was terrified, especially in San Diego. I think everybody was in a state of shock.
I think some people were in a state of fear. People didn't answer their doors. People that knew him the most stayed
other places. Michael Williams relocated to Scottdale, Arizona. Everybody was on very high
alert cuz he didn't know where he was going to strike again. Yeah. Just 6 days after he killed Miglin, while Kunanan
was on the run in Migllin's green Lexus, police believe he realized the FBI was tracking the car phone's signal and he
needed a new vehicle. He's believed to have struck here in Pensville Friday afternoon at the remote
Fins Point Cemetery at Fort M Park. FBI is going to work it concurrently with the New Jersey State Police. The Lexus
was found at this cemetery in southern New Jersey. Inside the office lay victim number four. He was 45year-old William
Reese. He'd been shot in the head and his red pickup was gone. Yeah. He all he was is a caretaker at a
cemetery. Minneapolis detective Dale Bars says William Reese was killed simply for his truck. You know, he just
was a very honorable man in the wrong place. Absolutely. At the wrong time and alone.
You're in scon somewhere in Scottdale. He's last heard of in New Jersey. Can you relax? No.
Until he's caught, you don't relax. As Johnny Versace was in Europe working on what would be his final
collection, Andrew Kunanan was the focus of a nationwide manhunt. He was featured
on America's Most Wanted. Police say Kunanan may be wearing glasses and earned a spot on the FBI's 10 most
wanted list. You think he enjoyed the the attention that he got? Oh, I absolutely do. Former FBI profiler Mary
Elano Tulle. He basically held the United States hostage because we were looking for him everywhere. We didn't
know where he was. Otul says having murdered four men in three states over 12 days, Kunanan was now considered a
spree killer. A spree killer continues and continues and continues and does not go back into their normal life. Life as
they know it. It's done. So Otul believes Kunanan knew he had nothing to lose. There's no way to undo
what he's done now. Absolutely no way. So he's really boxed himself into a corner. From a behavioral standpoint
that makes him more dangerous. But then for 2 months there was no sign of Kunanan until July 15th,
1997 when he struck again. This time was different because this time his victim was Johnny
Versace. When you heard that he had done it again, do you remember how you felt?
Every time there was another killing, it was almost like you're being stabbed. You know, it it's that rush of pain and
you're just automatically, oh my god, why can't they catch him? There's no question that he knew that we were hot
in this trail. Carlos Noriega remembers that within hours, hundreds of police officers piled onto Miami Beach. We all
but locked down uh the causeways and the ways in and out of the city. And I believe that created that bottleneck
where he felt uncomfortable trying to leave the city. Crimes Stoppers with all the attention on this case every day
brought a flood of tips. How long ago? The tips that were coming in were overwhelming at times, especially since
this was detective Gus Sanchez's first homicide investigation. Were you nervous at all? Of course I was. Yeah. We know
already that he had killed numerous people. I remember going to different locations, knocking on doors. It always
crosses your mind that Kunan can be in there armed and he can shoot through the door. Detectives soon learned Kunanan
had been in Miami Beach for about 2 months. He was sort of hiding in plain sight. Exactly. The police had missed
several opportunities to get him. About a week before he killed Versace, Kunanan
pawned a gold coin stolen from Lee Miglin. How'd the pawn shop know it was him? He told them on the coin about a
week before the homicide and used his own name. Used his own name. What's more, Kunanan's name was on a form the
pawn shop was required to send to the Miami Beach Police Department. It arrived 5 days before the murder. We did
not have an automated system at the time. It was just one of many forms and unfortunately nobody looked at it. Did
you think why didn't we know about this before Johnny Versace was killed? That thought went through my mind several
times because apparently he was on the beach for a period of time. Kunanan listed his address as the Normandy Plaza
Hotel. It was a dump. You and I wouldn't stay in that hotel. He'd registered under his own name. Must drive you nuts
to know that this guy was walking around free as a bird, right? I I mean, just the fact that this guy was being looked
for speaks to the fact that he was able to blend in and change his appearance and successfully just stay one step
ahead that way. Things might have turned out differently if police had a little more luck. 4 days
before Versace was killed, someone at this sub shop recognized Kunanan from the America's Most Wanted story. He
called the police, but they arrived too late. I was disappointed. I was frustrated. It's just unfortunate that
we didn't catch him before it happened. After Versace's murder, with Kunanan on the loose, anxiety grew. Let me assure
you that Miami Beach and Dade County are safe. I was afraid. Remember, Versace's
friend, Lazaro Quintana, had chased Kunanan. So I told the officer, "Go get him. He's in there. Go get him." He knew
who I was, but I didn't know who he was. How did you behave when you were out? Scared, cautious, looking over my
shoulder a lot. Literally. I mean, absolutely. Oh, yeah. I was Yeah. I mean, I got goosebumps on it.
Absolutely. This man had a gun. This man knew what he was doing. The longer Kunanan dodged police, the
more intense the hunt became. I think the police were getting anxious. Where could he be? What kind of resources did
he have? Former prosecutor Michael Band. That's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of pressure on law enforcement. The
whole world's watching, but we don't want anybody else dead. There was a sense that maybe we lost him by some
people. I just thought that he was hiding out. Yeah. Go ahead, Tom. And then the tip came in that would change
everything. Here we go, guys. Here we go. I get a call. Michael, I think we found him.
[Music] What's your emergency? Got and shooting. I heard over the police radio that there
had been a shot fired, that they were surrounding a housebo. You think what? We got him.
After a 9-day manhunt, Miami Beach detective Gus Sanchez believed Andrew Kunanan was finally cornered on a
housebo just 40 blocks from where he had shot down Johnny Versace. When Sanchez arrived, it was a standoff.
At this point, nobody's seen Kunanan on the housebo. No, there's no confirmation
at this point. The houseboat's caretaker saw signs of a breakin, and when he went
inside, a shot was fired. Police quickly surrounded the housebo. They are communicating by bullhorn with the
housebo. After a 4hour siege, the SWAT team fired tear gas. and went on [Music] [Laughter]
board. When it was safe, prosecutor Michael Band followed them. It was a mess. It was just a mess.
In an upstairs bedroom, they found a body. I just recall an individual lying on the bed
looking up. He had a bullet wound in his head. There's a gun next to him. When you looked at that face, what did your
gut tell you? My gut told me it's him. But that wasn't enough. I wanted his fingerprints. As band waited, an expert
at the scene compared fingerprints from the corpse with Kunanannins. He looks up
and he says, "It's him." The reign of terror brought upon us by Andrew Kunanan is over. It turned out Kunanan shot
himself with the same gun he used to kill Johnny Versace, William Ree, and David Madson. It was the gun he had
taken from his friend and first victim, Jeff Trail. There's a sense of relief, but this was not the outcome Michael
Williams hoped for. I didn't want him to do anything but go to jail and rot. Andrew Kunanan's
suicide left the world with a pile of questions. Was there any connection between Johnny Versace and Andrew
Kunanan? There have always been rumors. There is no hard evidence. Do you think they knew each other? I I think there's
a strong possibility that they they crossed paths before. And that plays into his motive. I I think so. I think
they knew each other or he wanted to be in his circle and maybe he was rejected and this this is all speculation. There
is some sense it's not complete. Why did he do it? What was the folks in Minnesota? Why Chicago? Why New Jersey?
Why Versace? Was there a connection there? Was this just some sort of serendipitous unfortunate occasion where
just two lives intersected at the wrong time? And we'll never know. We'll never know.
20 years after Versace's death, Tim Gun says Versace's influence still lives. Sexy, alluring, gorgeous red carpet
gowns. It's all attributable to Johnny Versace. [Music] Singer Bruno Mars not only wears
Versace, he mentions Versace in one of his songs. If guys like Bruno Mars are singing
about Johnny Versace 20 years after his death, what in your mind does that say about Johnny Versace? That he's fully
embedded in our society and culture and has a has a profound legacy. I feel his presence uh when I'm designing. Lyanna
Aguilar, a Project Runway contestant, was just a teenager when Versace was killed. There Versace elements in what
you're wearing today, right? Yes. Tim Gun saw this and he said, "This looks like Versace." And I was like, "Yes,
mission accomplished." Of course, the memories are infinitely more personal for Michael Williams who
lost his best friend. And two decades later, it still hurts. This hasn't left you. I'm better. It's taken me
years. You know, if it was just Jeff being killed would be one thing, but then you got David and Lee Miglin and
William Reece and Johnny Versace, five people that you're now connected to. It is a connection no one would ever
seek. The world lost an icon, but five families lost loved ones. Friends, lost friends. All for a reason we'll never
know if there ever was one. [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] James Brown and Papa don't take no mess
part one. This is Casey Casem in Hollywood on American Top 40. And number eight, if you grew up in the 70s, the
80s, or the '90s, you knew that voice as Michael Jackson threatens to take over the top spot. Casey Kasem was everywhere
counting down the hits. Here's a tune that reached the top 10 a few weeks ago, got as high as number nine. And if
you're too young to remember that, how about this? [Music] Casey was the voice of Shaggy from
Scooby-Doo. Here it comes. I love that man so much. I would have died for [Music]
him. Casey and I were married here. There were 500 people here. We had our friends and family.
It was the most incredible day of my life. In 2014, Casey Kasem was dying of a Parkinson's-like disease. He was about
to leave behind an enormous estate worth between 80 and $100 million. His family
went to war over that money against each other. Jean killed my father. And when you say killed, do you mean murder?
What she did led to his death. That's a lie. It's a flatout lie. Team Casey. He was perhaps the most famous person
ever known for counting backwards. Radio legend Casey Kasem died today at the age
of 82. I ran back in the room and I picked him up in my arms and I held him so tight
and I said, "I have never loved anybody like I have loved you." She isolated him and tortured him.
My dad was left to die in a facility. They chemically restrained him. They removed his
hydration, his nutrition, and all proactive medical care. Not one decision was made by me.
My dad was dying. And I looked at her and I said, "Dad's not going to be here for very long. You should get to the
hospital." And she said, she, "Oh, she wouldn't talk to me." That's what she did. Always.
If you were going to count down the American top 40 family feuds, this battle would be number one. In the honor
of King David, I am meat to you. What person in their right mind throws frozen meat at you screaming? Biblical verses.
To the dogs. To the dogs. There are always rabid dogs. It's so crazy and so weird. Your court ordered to be here
today. They lie. They cheat. Abuse is abuse and they think that they can get away with it. Why does she hate us so
much? Shame on these children. Shame. We have been stalked, tracked, bullied. It's not none of what she says is ever
true. So they killed my husband. They killed their father. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
And there you are. I'm Casey Kasem. Till then, keep your feet in the ground and keep reaching for the
[Music] stars. His family says Kasem's wife, Jean, illegally moved him from a facility where the 82-year-old was
receiving treatment. He's very ill. He shouldn't be moved. There's never been a Hollywood drama
quite like the family feud between the second wife of Casey Kasem. I am the owner of the house and his children. She
unplugged my dad from his feeding tube. Involving intrigue, money, and ultimately his
death. It was May 7th, 2014. And you could say the mystery started right here. And imagine this. It was 2:30 in
the morning. [Music] That move that night was to get him out of the drama and to keep him safe and
secure. We had had enough. Jeannie Kasem, Casey's wife of 34 years, says she was convinced her husband's
life was in danger. Jean Kasem told her story of Casey Kasem's drama for the first time to 48
hours. What were you thinking, Jeanie? I was thinking that it was time to protect my
husband. The legendary radio host who suffers from dementia was checked out of an
assisted living facility by his wife. It's a drama that really started all the way back in 1979 when Casey, then a
divorced father of three, met Jeannie Thompson. She was a secretary at his agent's office. Casey fell for her. They
were married exactly one year later at one of LA's most luxurious hotels. So, where are we right now? Well, right
now we're where it all began, which is where Casey and I got married. There were about 500 people
here. It was an amazing day. The Reverend Jesse Jackson married the couple. It was a dream come true.
Spectacular. Jeannie Thompson was 22 years younger than Casey. She grew up listening to
him. I'm Casey Kasem. Now we're up to our longdistance dedication. I was growing up on Guam at the time and we
only had armed forces radio over there and I heard uh this DJ come on and he announced this record and I went, "Oh my
god, who is this guy?" Then he went, "I'm Casey Kase. We're going to miss the bus. Keep your
pants on. This will only take 5 minutes." She is a former actress best known for her role on Cheers.
She's uh got away with colors and a flare for design. And the happy couple eventually moved into this mansion in
one of the sheicst LA neighborhoods, Belair. Just a hop away from the famous Playboy Mansion.
Welcome to the Kasem House. Back then, Kasem was on top of the world. Mr. countdown himself. Casey Kasem Casey,
come on. Number seven is a favorite of anyone who's ever been in love. Here it is. And that voice, that voice. He
didn't think it was so good. Really? He said, "I'm just the guy next door." Hardly. He had launched American Top 40.
This is Casey Kasem and we'd like to welcome you to American Top 40. Heard on more than 1,000 radio stations around
the world. Scooby-Doo. He made hundreds of voiceovers. Scooby-Doo, where are you? And that signature voice of
Scooby-Doo's pal, Shaggy. This night stick should do it. Casey was much more than a voice to his three kids from his
first marriage, Carrie, Mike, and Julie. He was their loving father. My father imparted so much wisdom on all of us
when we were children. Education, education, education. Julie Kasem became a physician's
assistant. My dad imparted us to be humble, to treat people with kindness, to love those around you. So, this is
the studios and my father still has a studio here. It's changed a little bit. His oldest daughter, Carrie Kasem,
helped out on his radio show. This is where he did American Top 40 and American Top 20. He would sit
here and he'd always have his water and his apple and rock candy for his voice. He had Carrie went into modeling,
acting, and broadcasting. Radio personality and television host Carrie Kasem. His son
Mike has a radio show in Singapore. A song from one of America's top 10. And here they are. Casey's children claim
everything changed once their father and Jeanie became engaged. Was there an arangement? There was. Basically, they
were upset with their father and angry with their father because he married me and they were angry with me because I
married their father. [Music] Casey and Jeanie would have their own daughter, Liberty. And as his success
grew, they lived a full life. Casey and Jenny threw themselves into philanthropy. You realize it really is
important to give something back and to help repair the world because that's got
to be my legacy. I know everything from environmental issues to animal rights to
progressive politics. We believed in a lot of charity. In 2007, at the age of 75, Casey Kasem
was diagnosed with a Parkinson's-like disease called Louis body dementia. It slows them down. They can either get
rigid or shaking. It may uh sometimes affect their speech. In 2009, he gave up his beloved radio show and signed off
for the last time. Now, one more time, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
Casey would have no financial worries with an estate valued between 80 and $100 million. But around that time,
Jeanie claims his children became focused on one thing. It was all about the money. We became
the Bank of Kumm, the personal ATM machine. Around 2012, according to Jeanie, Casey
was fed up and cut them off financially. Jeanie says the kids were furious. But instead of getting mad,
Jeanie claims Carrie and the others did something almost unimaginable. I believe that Carrie Kasem did kill my
husband. That it was a long-term premeditated plan and he's gone. It's just lie after lie after lie without any
[Music] evidence. The children of legendary DJ Casey Kasem are demanding to know where
is Kasem. Those adult children had put targets on our backs. Do you believe that your husband Casey Kasem feared his
children? Yes. And feared that they could do what? What they did, which was kill him. That's ridiculous. That's just
That's ridiculous. There is no more evil in this world than Jean Thompson Kasem.
Let me show you something. Jean says the alleged plot started in this very room behind me on a lonely stretch of
Hollywood Boulevard back in 2007. She says that Casey's children lured their disoriented father from his Bair mansion
to this very store to sign a very important document. He was taken to a UPS store and he was
asked to sign his life away while he was on medications. He had sutures in his head. He did not
have his glasses on and he was out of it. Uh, does that mean the UPS store? This video shot by Carrie shows Casey
filling out a document that would give his children and not Jeanie the authority to be in charge of his future
healthcare. It's video that Jeanie claimed shows that Casey is obviously impaired. That's Casey's daughter,
Julie. 5419 Sweet C. You know what I mean? Put the address. But you and this is the
document Casey signed laying the groundwork Jeannie claims that would lead to medical decisions that would
kill Casey. Starting in 2013, as Casey's health declined, there were legal squables. Jeanie was trying to control
when and where people could see Casey, including his own children. I was in tears. I was speechless. I called my
sister balling and I said, "I just want to see dad and she won't let me." Jeanie
also says she and her daughter Liberty became targets of a harassment campaign. Were you living in fear? Pretty much.
Were you ever personally threatened by someone? Was a phone call that came in. I believe it was um early in the morning
and it there was a loud bang on the phone and I I held my ear. I said, "Oh my god, it sounds What is that?" And
then I heard it again and I recognized it as a gunshot. And did you report this to the police?
Reported it to our lawyer, reported a lot of the incidences to the police. Jeannie alleges someone smashed her
front gate, her mail was stolen, and more. I believe that there's another surveillance van. There he is. Right
there. There he is. Go. It was around this time that Jeie claims Casey's children asked police and adult
protective services to check up on Casey. They were called by Carrie, Julie, whomever.
Los Angeles police found no evidence of abuse or neglect. Jeanie claims that the
harassment continued. She points to this demonstration right outside her home. Carrie and some supporters were
demanding to see Casey. After 3 months of no communication, we finally said enough's enough.
Finally, here at a rehab facility in Santa Monica, the mysterious last days of Casey Kasem's life took a dramic
turn. Casey was very sick. He'd been in and out of hospitals for months. And there had been endless legal fights,
mostly over visitation. I was thinking that it was time to protect my husband and leave the drama for all of us
behind. Jeanie says she was keeping Casey at the rehab center under a fake name, but
somehow his adult children found out. Then a few days later on May 6th, Jeanie says Carrie and Julie gained access into
the facility and even got into Casey's room. She says she was terrified and furious.
It was about the money. Casey no longer was of any use to them. It was all about
the money. It turns out that the adult children's power of attorney for medical decisions
had never taken effect. Carrie and Julie decided they needed to go to court to try to get custody of their dad. We had
not seen him since February. Now this is May. But Jean was having none of it. The
day she found out they were headed to court, she made a dramatic move. At 2:30 in the morning, doctors say Jeanie
ordered Casey's surgically implanted nutrition tube and IV disconnected and checked him out of the rehab facility.
The doctor in charge of Casey's care later wrote the following letter to police. Quote, "She was informed of the
risks of doing so and was told she was placing Mr. Quasem in great bodily harm or possible demise. He's saying that you
could have killed him. That is not true. Casey was loaded into a black SUV and disappeared into the darkness.
You know he's ill. Kasem's daughter doesn't know where he is. Dad once told me, "Don't ever go up against
Jean. You don't know what she's capable of. [Music] The children of legendary DJ Casey Kasem
are demanding to know where. It was May 2014 when Casey Kasem vanished. This is Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in
Hollywood. That iconic voice in the world was nowhere to be heard and his case was making big news. Casey Kasem's
children have been saying that their stepmother has been isolating her. Nobody knew where my dad was.
Nobody know. I don't want to speak specifically. His children went on national television. We want him back.
He knows that we're his children and pleading directly to Jeannie Kasem. We've told Jean, "Take it all. Take
everything. Keep it. Just give us our dad back." They were not only outraged that Jeanie had taken their father, but
about how she had done it. Jean Kasem pulled my dad out at 2:30 in the morning out of a convolescent center, unhooked
his G tube, unhooked his IV. He was supposed to be transported with an ambulance on a certain kind of
mattress. No, she threw him in the back of an SUV that she didn't even get into herself with no pain meds, no food, no
water, no [Music] nothing. And we were devastated. We knew this was the beginning of the end, but
there would be no end to the family feud that had begun years earlier in that UPS
store. Carrie and Julie insist they didn't trick their dad into signing that document, the one they hoped gave them
control over his medical care. Jean claims that Casey has no memory of ever signing that document. Watch the tape.
Put the address. Put UPS store. You'll see my dad knew what he was doing, knew what he was signing. 5419. Now, estate
planning is normally done in a lawyer's office. You're at a UPS store. He was terrified that Jean would find out. Let
me give you Jean's interpretation of what she told me. And this is you. Yep. And this is your father. Yes. Now,
there's a circle here because he supposedly had had a medical procedure and had sutures in his head. Is that
true? To my knowledge, that is falsified information. In my opinion, Jean Kasem is a liar.
100% pathological liar. 48 hours has confirmed that Casey had a procedure, but it was a minor one. 10
days before the signing, he had a small hair transplant. Just like that story, just
about everything both sides told us is in dispute. Remember, ever since Casey married Jeanie, the relationship between
the children from Casey's first marriage and their stepmother has been toxic. For example, take the arguments over
money. The only thing she ever wanted from my dad is money. That's it. They live.
She says the same thing to me about you that I work. Listen to the actual I'm very proud of who I am. I'm very proud
of how hard I've worked. I've been on air for 21 years. You know, working multiple jobs
sometimes to pay the bills. I own my own home. My dad didn't buy that for me. The
feud intensified after Casey's health deteriorated. She had a plan to move him out of the house and cut us all off.
Starting in 2012 is when I felt that the isolation began. I'm told by my sister,
hey, I can't get a hold of dad. I can't get a hold of dad. My father was isolated and we were
not allowed to see him anymore. Remember that demonstration outside Casey's house?
That day, Jeanie even called the cops. My dad's very ill and he loves us. Do you know why she's not allowing you guys
to see? There's many reasons, but none of them are true. [Music] The whole drama climaxed in midmay 2014.
That's when Jeie disappeared into the night with Casey. Desperate to find her dad, Carrie made this emotional appeal
on TV. If you've seen anything, please call the police, please. Days after that, the battlefield in the War of the
Quase shifted to Las Vegas. That's where a private eye working for Carrie discovered the
couple. Jeanie had taken Casey to a posh resort there, but not for long. Next, she put him on a charter
flight. That private jet carrying a frail Casey Kasem flew northwest from Vegas, landing
in Seattle. He was brought to a place not far from where I'm standing right now, miles from his hospital bed in
Santa Monica. And you wanted to get away from the madness in Los Angeles. We were being photographed and followed
to supermarkets and tortured. Just tortured. Casey ended up in a place called Silverdale, a small town in Western
Washington. For the first time since those final days, we brought Jeanie back. Hi. It's so good to see you. How are
you? Better now that I see you. Yes. Shasta Bartleheim grew up with Jeanie and they both hoped Casey would spend
some quiet, peaceful days in her parents' home. Can you show me the bedroom where he was? Is that okay? Yes,
absolutely. This is where Casey was. Um, his hospital bed was here. Very comfortable. My mother has a lot of
Snoopy. She's an avid Snoopy collector. So Casey was in in his hospital bed with
all these Snoopies around him here. And we had all of his medical supplies. Some were here, some were in
another room. Was he in pain? No. No, he was not in any pain in this house ever.
Acting on a tip, Washington Adult Protective Service and Kitap County Sheriff's deputies came by to check on
Casey. Mr. But Casey and his wife are here visiting. We did check on his welfare. He seems to be doing fine. He
was upright. He could communicate. But Casey's stay here was about to come to an end. Carrie won a new court order.
She was coming from LA to get Casey and take him to a hospital. And things were about to get weird. In the order of King
David. Very weird. To the dogs. To the dogs. [Music] [Music] In late May 2014, Casey Kasem was
counting down his days in Silverdale, Washington. In this home, tended to by a doctor, his family, and close friends.
He was content. He was very happy. He smiled, shook our hands. It was just it it was nice. Shasta
Bartleheim, a nurse's assistant, has known Casey since 1980. She helped care for him. Was he still able to converse,
answer questions? Yes, he would speak. It was a whisper, kind of a a sound when he talked. He wasn't grimacing in any
pain. On June 1st, 2014, when Carrie Kasem, armed with a court order, came to pick
up her father and take him to the hospital, Jeanie was waiting. Carrie arrives as usual with
media in tow, her attorney. We pull up and then fire trucks show up. Another ambulance shows up because Jean has
caused a fit as seen in this broadcast on NBC News. I saw geriatric Harley-Davidson riders that were forming
a line to not let me in. It's so crazy and so weird. That line of bikers was led by Shasta's brother. Casey started
yelling, "I don't want to go. I don't want to leave. No, no, no." He was frightened. His eyes were big. He didn't
want to leave. No, he didn't want to leave. Acting on that court order, EMTs removed Casey. So, show me where they
took him. Down this hallway here. Headed for the door. Headed out. And what was out here? Out in the street. The
ambulance was there. There were a couple of ambulance. Terrified, Jeanie called her lawyer. I
dropped the phone and I turned around to look for something and there was meat in
the kitchen and I It was frozen hamburger. I grabbed the meat and I came out here and then um I started walking
this way with the meat in my hand. So in the order of King David, go ahead and take me. Then she took aim. I am
here. Meat to you to the dog. Jean throws a piece of frozen meat at me screaming nonsense. I am meat to you.
Why meat though? Why grab meat to me? They were treating my husband, an American treasure, Casey Kasem, like a
piece of meat. Insane. Crazy. You saw the real Jean Thompson Kasem. So, if I may ask you,
are you crazy, Genie? No, I'm not. To the dogs. To the dogs. Carrie dodged the meat attack, then
jumped in the ambulance with her dad and sped away to a local hospital where a doctor was standing by. The first thing
he said to me right when I got him in the hospital, "Your dad may not live very long. I'm just going to let you
know." When Casey arrived here at St. Anony's Hospital, his diagnosis was grim. He
had, according to hospital records, a urinary tract infection and a stage three ulcer of his back. That's an open
wound going almost to the bone. Within days, doctors would also diagnose septic shock, respiratory failure, a lung
infection, and a host of other ailments. The change was so drastic, it was maddening. He was extremely thin. His
face was sunken in. Shasta says Casey, who was taken out of the house that day, was nowhere near death. Oh, no. No.
Heavens no. Not at all. The next day, Jeanie tried to get Casey out of the hospital.
On June 2nd, we had an emergency court hearing and the judge ordered that he could return home. Once his personal
physician spoke with the attending physician at the hospital. Just before 10:00 that night, Gene
arrived here at the hospital along with Chasta and her attorney. They claimed that the physician treating Casey had
told them to come and pick him up. And he said his overnight observation has concluded and he's discharged. But
when she arrived, the doctor wouldn't release him, saying Casey was in pain. He wasn't in any pain. They wanted him
to be in pain. Jeanie refused to leave without Casey. She started screaming. They had to call the police to get her
out of the facility. And 3 days later, we had three doctors come in and say, "This is feudal. Your father's dying.
His organs are shutting down. He can no longer digest food. Carrie and her siblings now faced a wrenching decision.
They say they followed a doctor's recommendation to stop Casey's hydration and nutrition.
I couldn't hear it. I got upset. I said, "Isn't there something we can do? What if we try this? What if we try that?"
Because I was the fighter. I wasn't going to let him go. On June 6th, the Kasem children alerted
Jeanie. Julie called my lawyer and said to my lawyer that we're losing him. She should
come to the hospital right away. Jeanie and Liberty rushed to the hospital, but claimed they were only permitted to see
Casey for a few minutes. We were given five minutes to say goodbye to a man that I was married to
for 34 and a half years. He looked at me and he was scared to death. I went to the bed. I held his hand. He grabbed my
arm. Did Casey say anything to you? He said that he loved me and I told him that I loved him.
Jeannie was desperate to get Casey's life support restored. My first and foremost thing was to save
my husband's life. Every second counted. She flew back to California hoping to get the court to order
it. Over the next few days, there would be several motions filed. The doctors said,
"Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can do to keep your father alive." That was the hardest thing to
hear. That's our dad. [Music] On June 15th, 2014, Casey Kasem, the beloved radio icon, passed away. He was
82. We were all surrounding him on the bed with our hands on him. Every single one of us was touching
him. As he took his last breath, we were all there, all of us. And who was missing? His wife and
Liberty. It was 100% their choice not to be there. This court order says you can
visit him at any time. No one can stop you. And what Carrie is saying is that you chose not to see Casey anymore in
the hospital. That's not true. That is not true at all. We were afraid to go to the hospital. In death, the war of the
quase grew even more fierce. He did not die of natural causes. They planned it and they killed
him. Jean killed my father. Whether it was premeditated or whether it was just by her careless
actions. If someone killed your father, wouldn't you want justice? [Music] In June 2014, Casey Kasem's death was
felt across the globe. And there was one guy on the radio I used to listen to all
the time who passed away today. And so we want to dedicate this song to Casey Kasem. Travel safely my angel.
And travel he would. Casey's body was taken from Silverdale to SeaTac airport where it was flown to Montreal.
And why Montreal? He was there for a time because his burial was being obstructed. Casey's body remained in
Canada on ice for weeks. As his widow, Jeanie had full control over his burial. Casey and I had spoken about this, about
where he would like to be buried, and it was in Israel. But Casey's children thought that was
crazy. My dad's as American as apple pie. He lived in Los Angeles for 58 years. He wanted to be buried in Los
Angeles. Casey's body took flight again, this time to, of all places, Norway. [Music]
where Jeie orchestrated a burial fit for a king. Only she and Liberty were at Casey's grave
site. But they did bring their own camera crew. Why Norway of all places? There are concrete reasons for that, but
because I'm in litigation, I can't share that with you. My dad's never been to Norway. She's not
Norwegian. What is going on here? When you tell so many lies, you get caught up in them.
After Casey's death, the battle between the Quasems went nuclear. Both sides in this epic family feud sued the other for
wrongful death. What she did to my dad was elder abuse. Straight and simple. That trip is what cost my dad his life.
He could have had two or three more years. She took him from us. You want to call it murder? You want to say she
killed him? He's dead because of her. Casey's children accused Jeanie of a pattern of neglect where she secretly
moved Casey from one care center to the next. and she used the hospitals and the
facilities as a babysitter so she didn't have to take care of him. I say that that's a flatout
lie. I was there. I was in touch with the doctors. Jean Kasem accuses the children of hastening his death by
pulling the plug on Casey. They chemically restrained him. They removed his hydration, his nutrition, and all
proactive medical care. It was the equivalent of leaving Casey Kasem in the desert to
die. I really, really don't feel well. It's been a neverending drama. Even when Car's lawyers finally deposed Jean court
ordered to be here today, she fainted, blaming the episode on medication. And besides accusing each other of
killing Casey, there's that battle royale over his fortune. As seen in this 2017 Inside
Edition video, the mansion has become the latest battleground. The house hasn't been taken care of. The taxes
aren't paid. Uh they've destroyed everything. They've killed everything. There's no electricity on. There's no
running water. At the request of Casey's children, a court-appointed trustee attempted to remove and store some of
Casey's memorabilia. How's it feel to go through Casey Kasem's belongings after he was murdered? Meanwhile, the fight
over Casey's assets, lawyers say, could take years. Today, you are fighting for damages and access to your father's. I
am fighting for justice. That is what I'm fighting for. My father's wife, Jean Thompson Kasem,
didn't want us at the house. Wouldn't pass phone calls along. In 2014, Carrie started a foundation to help pass
legislation to protect the visitation rights of children. I was doing everything I possibly could to see my
dad. And the law didn't help me in in California. To date, 12 states have passed a visitation bill, including
California. It passed a year after he died, but I kept fighting till I won. Despite Car's claims of elder abuse and
negligence, the Los Angeles District Attorney declined to prosecute Jeannie Kasem, citing insufficient evidence. The
police and the DA won't do a damn thing. That is why we're fighting. Take the money. Take it all. I want her in jail.
In November 2018, Washington's Gig Harbor Police Department concluded an investigation into Casey's death. They
found his older children were authorized to make medical decisions on his behalf,
and there was no evidence of homicide. While the legal wheels grind ahead, this American icon with his own star on
Hollywood Boulevard is buried in an unmarked grave in Oslo, Norway. I'm going to bring my father back to the
United States of America where he belongs. I'm Casey Casem. And just as Casey Kasem's legendary voice is certain
to carry on, till then, keep your feet in the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
His family is determined to keep fighting. I'm not going to quit. I'm the daughter of a
Marine. My father is right here with me right now and every single day of my life. She can never take him away from
me again. [Music] [Music]

“48 Hours" reports on secrets and lies haunting several death and missing persons investigations. Watch the YouTube super marathon, which includes "The Unending Search for Sara Anne Wood," "Searching for Maya Millete," "Please Don't Tell," "Justice for Amie Harwick'," "Murder by Design" and "The Mysterious Death of Casey Kasem."

00:00 The Unending Search for Sara Anne Wood 41:58 Searching for Maya Millete 1:23:31 "Please Don't Tell" 2:05:22 Justice for Amie Harwick 2:47:12 Murder by Design 3:28:27 The Mysterious Death of Casey Kasem

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.

For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Brief Summary

Amy Harwick, a therapist, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Gareth Pursehouse, highlighting domestic violence issues and the fight for justice.

Key points

The Key to the Case. A near-abduction in Massachusetts leads investigators to suspect Lewis Lent.
Lewis Lent's Confession. In 2013, Lewis Lent admitted to killing Jamie Lusher, revealing more about his dark past.
Larry's Odd Behavior. Larry's lack of concern during his daughter's birthday raises suspicions among Maya's family.
Signs of Domestic Abuse. Maya's friends reveal troubling signs of abuse in her marriage to Larry.
Trial and Testimony. Witnesses recount their harrowing experiences during the trial against Vincent Simmons.
Vincent's Plea for Justice. Vincent refuses a plea deal that labels him a sex offender, insisting on his innocence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just want my daughter back. That's all.

Sarah's mother, Francis, makes a heartfelt plea for her daughter's return.

11:35WatchMay 2, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from 48 Hours

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.