Thanksgiving Mysteries | "48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

Oh, pa. Spread the toes. Yes. Try and keep your chest lifted at quarter reach. >> Katherine had a wonderful ballet base.
She would take jazz class. She would take theater, dance class, any kind of dancing just to [music] be a dancer. I
remember being really interested in her right away. She was [music] dancing in one of the
studios. We started talking. The very next day, she called me. I was just like blown away. I'd never really had someone
be that kind of interested in me like that. >> I don't really know what to say. >> She came home on vacation for a few
weeks. I met her in the parking lot, spoke to her, and she just seemed real nice and I was like, "Wow, you know, I
never seen this girl before. You know, she's beautiful." We definitely liked each other. She accepted me for who I
was. >> She became my best friend. I told her everything. >> We were best friends.
>> She wanted to be friends with everybody. She needed people and she needed to be
around someone that she felt cared about her. >> I loved her deeply and I I would do
anything for her. I loved her. I would have did anything for her. [snorts] [music]
>> You have a young girl who comes from Ohio to New York. >> Welcome to 40 seconds for yourself.
a young girl trying to fulfill her dreams, trying to make it in New Big City. >> You have to pay the rent. You have to
work several hours a day, and then you have to dance several hours a day. It's grueling. It's tough. And not
everybody's going to make it. >> Things with her apartment and money and everything was really tight. [music]
>> Not a lot of people knew what she did to pay her rent. >> You get concerned for someone who feels
the need to do that. You could work one or two [music] days a week, make as much
as a person would make a normal week at a full job. >> She would hide some things from [music]
me because she would know that I wouldn't approve of them. She wouldn't want me to be ashamed of her.
>> She said [music] she was living with someone, an ex-boyfriend. She tried to kick him out several times.
>> I had moved out for a few weeks kind of to give us both space to clear our heads
and we both came to the conclusion that we could still live together. Their relationship was [music] strictly
platonic. They were friends. >> As far as I knew, you know, they were friends. >> We loved each other. We always were
thinking about each other. >> The day I met him, he actually had said that he had been seeing Catherine since
[music] August of the year before. >> I know from the conversation that I had with him, that it was the first time he
found out that we were intimate. >> I heard him out, but I told her and she denied it.
>> He called me up and he was like, "You better not see her anymore." remember a
few incidents where she was a little worried. I told Catherine to get a restraining order.
>> The news watch never [music] stops. An aspiring Broadway dancer found stabbed
to death. >> With 16 years as a police officer, never in my life have I ever seen anything so
[music] violent. My name is Detective Steven Gats and I was the lead investigator on the
Katherine Wood homicide. >> She was just such a beautiful person and I think that's why I fell in love with
her. I felt like she was my angel. >> David and Paul were our two main suspects.
>> Death of a dream. Every 7 [music] 8 9 10year-old that goes and sees a Broadway show, all they can
think about is, "Oh, I'm going to be up there someday." Some children never lose that fantasy.
>> Katherine Woods was one of them. >> It was her dream. It's what she wanted to do. She wasn't going to be happy
until she reached her goal, which was to dance on Broadway. She just looked like
a dancer, looked like a star. >> Katie Miller and Catherine met as children in a Columbus, Ohio dance
studio. With her big [music] smile and personality, Catherine was the image of the all-American Midwestern girl.
>> You can't take your eyes off her. And it comes through in her dancing and in her
personality. Were other girls that she would dance with a little jealous. >> I would say I was. Sometimes it'd be
like, well, wait a minute. I'm here, too. Catherine's father, John Woods, the well-known director of the Ohio State
University marching band and a music professor, had hoped his oldest child would follow him into music.
>> I would think in the Woods family, don't you have to play an instrument? >> Well, we like to see that. [laughter]
>> But Catherine made it clear all she wanted to do was dance. >> For some people, dancing is like
breathing. I mean, why would I do anything else? I want to I need to dance. >> She told me that if she didn't leave
now, she never would. She had these taken. >> In the summer [music] of 2002, when
Catherine was just 17, her father and mother, Donna, drove her to New York. They were filled with hope and anxiety.
>> She had never lived away from home. I mean, this was a true coming of age, going to the biggest city in the United
States and going to start putting a career together >> once you get upstairs. >> For the next 3 years, Catherine seemed
to thrive in New York, taking dance, voice, and acting lessons. And on a visit back home, Catherine found love.
>> Met her at a pool hall. David Han, then a 20-year-old rap musician, was selling
his CDs in a parking lot when he met Catherine. You started off as friends. >> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Did you ever think you'd end up dating her? >> I wasn't sure. I I I felt chemistry. We
definitely had liked each other. >> Weeks later, David moved to New York to be with her and pursue his career.
>> I think we fed off each other. I know I really fed off her. In many ways, they
were an unlikely couple. Catherine grew up in middlecl class comfort with her parents and two younger siblings. David
was raised in foster homes. Being with Catherine made you feel that you had a family again.
>> Yeah, she made me feel confident about myself. I looked up to her so much almost in a way as a parent.
>> How serious were you and Catherine? >> We're real serious. married as far as I'd say we thought about it.
>> But sometime in 2005, the relationship became strained. Catherine was paying David's bills and the money [music] was
tight. Finally, she broke it off with David. Although she allowed him to remain living in the apartment,
>> she told me she wanted him to move out, but she didn't want to kick him out cuz
she would feel bad. >> We still got along. We were still friends. We were best friends. When you
first started dating Catherine, did you know she was living with David? >> Um, no, not at first.
>> Catherine was 20 years old when she met 24year-old Paul Cortez, [music] a trainer at her gym.
>> By early 2005, Paul says they were dating. >> Do you think David knew you existed?
>> I I don't think so. I think, you know, in that situation when one is just breaking up with someone else and, you
know, and you're seeing someone new, I I don't think I I wouldn't think Catherine
would tell him about me. >> That summer, Paul unexpectedly [music] showed up at the apartment while David
was there and told David that he had been dating Catherine for almost a year. How did he react?
>> He was upset. He was surprised, >> but Paul got a surprise as well. >> Did you realize that David still thought
they were boyfriend girlfriend? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's what he told me. And I was like, "Okay, well that's not
good." >> Later, David called Paul. >> How would you describe the tone of that call?
>> Oh, he was definitely angry. He was upset. >> Did he threaten you at any point?
>> Yeah, he was like, "Don't see her again or else." >> And what was that or else?
>> I don't know. I don't know what the or else was. [music] For the next four months, Catherine
continued to live with David [music] and secretly date Paul. But according to Katie, Catherine was still searching for
true love. She'd say, "Why do I always get these guys? Why can't I find Mr. Wright who rides up on a on a horse and
comes and picks me up and we go riding off into sunset?" One week after Katie last spoke with Catherine,
Catherine was dead. [music] On the night of November 27th, 2005, Katherine Woods was getting ready to go
to work when David Han says he left their apartment to pick up his car. >> How long were you gone?
>> 20, 30 minutes. When he returned, David says he [music] made a chilling discovery. It
>> was a bad scene. There's blood everywhere. So, it was bad. My first instinct is to call 911.
>> Baby girl. Captain. Captain. Baby girl. Oh my goodness. I don't know what happened.
>> Is she there? >> Yeah. There's blood everywhere. I don't even know if she's alive. I'm scared to
look at her. Catherine was on the bedroom floor face down in blood. I didn't know if it was an accident or
what it was. I really didn't know. I just was really in shock. >> Catherine had been stabbed [music] 20
times, her throat cut twice. >> It was a brutal scene. The manner in which she was killed was absolutely
horrible. [music] >> Did you find any weapon? >> No. >> New York City police detective Steven
Gets led the investigation. >> To be honest with you, the first thing that I remember thinking to myself was,
"This girl is dead on her floor in her bedroom and she has a family out there and they don't even know that she's
dead." Catherine's mom and dad were 500 miles away at home in Columbus when three
police officers arrived. >> I [music] said, "How bad is it?" And he said, "It's bad." And I said, "Is she
dead?" And he said, "Yes." >> Once I heard [music] she was dead, I was in shock and have trouble remembering
some of that conversation. W's News Time 5:43. An aspiring Broadway dancer found stabbed to death, nearly
decapitated in her Upper East Side apartment last night. And police are interviewing the boyfriend who called
them to say he found her. >> At the precinct, police began grilling David Han. >> I really just couldn't believe it was
happening. I kept asking God in my head, you know, why is this happening? Detective Get says the killer left what
appeared to be a bloody handprint on a bedroom wall and several bloody bootprints in the apartment, including
one left on Catherine's back. >> What size of shoe left those prints? >> I believe it was estimated at a 10 and a
half. >> And what size of shoe does David H wear? >> 10 and a half. >> Did the police [music] at first accuse
you? I mean, did they say, "Come on, David." >> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> And what did you say to them?
>> I told them, "No, you have the wrong person. You have the wrong person. I would never never hit that girl.
Not at all. I loved her. I would have did anything for her." >> As the interrogation wore on, David
showed little emotion or grief. >> I couldn't even cry. Even afterwards, the detectives were asking me, "If you
love this girl so much, why are you not crying?" Look at him. I don't know. I really don't know.
>> Now to a murder investigation on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A 21-year-old woman found dead in her
apartment on East 86 Street. >> The brutal end to a beautiful young woman's life and dreams was the lead
story that morning. Iette Cortez heard it on the radio as she was getting ready for work. and they mention a dancer,
Katherine Woods. >> When Avette saw Catherine's picture in the paper, she recognized her instantly.
Her face was there. I bet [music] is Paul Cortez's mother. She knew her son had been seeing
Katherine Woods, which is why the rest of the story [music] sent her into a panic.
>> Wood's boyfriend is still here inside the 19th precinct station house where he's being questioned by police.
>> They just kept on mentioning the boyfriend being held and I didn't know what that meant.
>> Well, you didn't know whether they were referring to Paul >> exactly, but I tracked him down. He was
at work. He didn't even realize what was happening. Evette went to the health club where Paul was working to break the
news to him. >> She told me that um that Catherine was uh killed the night before.
Just like my I just buckled. I I I remember just kind of sitting on this stoop right almost outside of the club
and and um I just couldn't believe it. I was just in complete shock. Later that day, the police called Paul
and brought him in for questioning. [music] How would you describe Paul Cortez? >> Quiet. He came to the precinct with his
mother. He seemed like a very nice person. >> As police were questioning Paul Cortez
in one room of the precinct and David Han in another, they were learning something else about Catherine's life
that could have a bearing on her death. In the months before Katherine was murdered, she was working as a dancer in
a topless club. For the tabloid press, [music] it was suddenly a sensational story. For
investigators, [music] it opened up a whole other line of possible motives and suspects.
>> Probably the sweetest girl that's ever walked in here or the most innocent. Yeah, definitely. I think
>> Chloe hired and managed the dancers at a club called Privilege. >> I looked at her and I'm like, "What is
this girl doing here?" Because she looks like the girl next door. She needed to have money to live on.
>> Catherine, who worked under the name Ava, danced nights so she could audition
and attend classes during the day. She hid that part of her life from her parents.
>> Would you tell your parents if you were doing that? I mean, I certainly wouldn't
tell my parents, >> but Catherine did confide in friends from home like Katie Miller.
>> I just was like, you know, this isn't you. This isn't what she's like, I know.
I know. >> Was Catherine having trouble with one of the customers? If so, she never
mentioned it to anyone. Katie spoke with Catherine the week before she died. >> And did she seem worried about anything?
Not at all. Um, afraid of anyone? >> No. >> Six hours after Paul Cortez and his mother, Evette, arrived at the police
precinct, they were allowed to leave. >> They just let the two of you go. >> Mhm.
>> And did you think it was over then? >> Absolutely. >> It wasn't though. >> Nope.
>> Police discovered that Paul, like David, wears a 10 and a half size shoe. And
there's more. A serious [music] problem with a written statement Paul gave to police detailing what he did the day of
Catherine's murder. Where did Paul say he was at the time Catherine was murdered?
>> He said he was home in his apartment. >> According to Detective Gats, Paul told
police he was making calls at his apartment a mile and a half away from Catherine's. But when police set out to
verify his story, Paul's cell phone [music] records indicated something else. Paul called Catherine a dozen
times shortly before 6:00 [music] p.m. the evening she was killed. If he had been home, his calls would normally go
through a cell tower in his neighborhood. Instead, some of those calls were handled by a tower just two
blocks from Catherine's apartment. Did at any time Paul say to any officer that he was in [music] Katherine's
neighborhood when she was murdered? >> No. >> Paul always had goals and that ambition [music] to
strive for them. >> IC Cortez always believed her son Paul was going places. He's just does so much
with his life and [music] to live vicariously through all his accomplishments. >> Evette was a single mom when she was
raising her three children in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx. >> That's my poy.
>> Paul, her youngest, earned scholarships at some of New York's most prestigious
prep schools. >> I don't mean to ask a personal question, but could you have really afforded to
send him to these private schools on your own? >> Of course not. He actually had to win
those [music] spots. >> Absolutely. He worked really hard for everything that he has.
>> But it meant Paul had to rise before dawn each day for the 2-hour ride to school.
>> This tiny [music] little thing carrying a book bag that was probably twice his
weight in his little suit. >> He didn't just thrive academically. Paul also stood out on the stage,
starring in high school productions of Pippen. [music] and Westside Story. >> He has done such amazing pieces [music]
that it blows me away. >> Paul got a scholarship at Boston University where he majored in theater,
the first in his family to get a college [music] degree. He sounds like in some ways he was really kind of the future of
your family, the hope of your family. >> Absolutely. We always saw him that way.
>> At 24, Paul replaced show tunes with rock. >> He was the lead singer and lyricist for
a New York band, Monolith. [music] >> He's got a great voice. He's a fantastic singer
>> and he had lots of ideas. [music] Paul also had a day job. He worked as a trainer in the gym where he met
Katherine Woods. >> She was playful. That's what I liked about her. She's really like open
and you could see like a compassion in her eyes and I love that about her. >> Within a couple of months, Paul and
Catherine were dating. >> We would just talk to each other [music] all night for like hours on end. Just
about everything. aspirations, [music] you know, our our dreams, our, you know, how much we cared about each other. And
>> but when Paul learned [music] Catherine was dancing on the side in topless clubs, he insisted that she stop when
you told her you didn't want her dancing in these clubs, how did she react? >> Well, basically like, uh, you know, I
know what you're saying, but it really isn't any of your business, and I I'm going to be careful, and nothing's going
to happen [music] to me. But in April 2005, something did happen while Catherine was working at Privilege.
>> In the middle of the night, Catherine called me and she was crying and she was
like, "Please come, please come here." >> Paul went to the club to get her. >> I had never seen her like that, just
stumbling. And her eyes were just like pins. She She looked like she was on drugs or really drunk.
>> Catherine believed [music] a customer slipped drugs into her drink and that she might have been molested.
>> I told her, "I can't [music] have anything like that ever happen again." >> When she told him she planned to go back
to work, Paul went through her cell phone and found her father's telephone number.
>> It was in the morning, wasn't it? >> It may have been in the morning. Paul called Catherine's father and told him
where Catherine had been working and what had happened that night. >> Did you tell her you were going to call
her dad? >> No. >> When he told me as a father, I thought, "Wow, you know, thank you for this
information." And >> John took the next flight to New York to confront his daughter. But Catherine
told her father the story wasn't true. >> How did Catherine react to the fact you
called her parents? >> Oh my gosh, she was so mad. She was really mad. >> They broke up. Paul says, but not for
long. >> We realized that we loved each other. We always were thinking about each other
and and we got back together. >> But just how serious a relationship it was is in dispute.
>> Playing the best music on earth, monolith. >> Catherine did go to one of Paul's
performances that summer and he introduced her to his mom. >> He he did mention that he loved her.
Yet, apparently, Catherine never told her friends or family that she was even dating Paul.
>> If the two of you were in love with each other, why didn't she tell any of her
friends she was dating you? >> I don't know. I I thought she did. >> As for Catherine's other boyfriend,
David Han, P believed he was out of the picture. >> I had moved out for a few weeks. I went
to her friends. I met >> But in fact, David moved back in with Catherine not long before she was
killed. >> You didn't know that he had actually moved back in with her? >> No, I didn't.
>> She never told you. >> I believe that he loved her, but I do believe that there was [music] a certain
obsession there. Lead detective Steven Gets says Paul's obsession and jealousy is [music] plain to see in the journals
he wrote. And so is something else. The writings were very violent. Spoke about slashing people's throats.
>> Police point to some of the songs and poems Paul wrote as proof that he had a
deep-seated anger towards women [music] and Catherine in particular. At one point, Paul, you wrote, "She wipes clean
the shaft that cuts her throat and then Catherine's throat is cut. That's how she dies." It's a poem. I
mean, >> Paul says he wrote that poem 8 months before Catherine's murder after she told
him she had once been sexually assaulted at knife point. I >> mean, to say I was plowing this thing 8
months before, it's ridiculous. I didn't know what was going to happen to her that night.
You can take anything out of context and [music] make it sound the way you want it to fit and tailor it to your needs.
>> But the meaning of Paul's writings wouldn't have mattered at all if Paul could prove where he was when Catherine
was murdered. On the night that Catherine was killed, did you go to her apartment?
>> No. >> You love this woman. She had lied to you over those months. Did you in fact that night just snap and
kill her? >> No, I would never do that. >> Paul could have had [music] an alibi.
>> We had rehearsal scheduled for 6:00 p.m. that Sunday night and uh Paul didn't
show up. >> Alex RDE was one of Paul's bandmates in Monolith. >> Was that normal? Did he?
>> No, he usually showed up. >> So that night he just didn't show up at all. >> No. Alex says Paul's performances have
been getting erratic and he had planned to ask Paul to leave the band that night.
So, where was Paul? >> I called him around 8:00 and I asked him why he wasn't there and
he said that he had overslept. >> One of the few times you'd ever miss a practice happens to be at the time that
Katherine is killed. >> I didn't go to rehearsal because they were going to tell me, "You're [music]
not part of the band anymore." And I didn't want to have that whole conversation that night.
>> Are you troubled though by the fact he didn't [music] come to your rehearsal at
6:00 p.m. that very night? >> If he had come, then there would be no problem. [music] We would all vouch for
him. There would been no problem at all. It's like, no, he was with us. It's impossible.
>> He would have been 100 blocks away. We're convinced she knew this person and that this person knew her.
The two men who knew Kathern Woods best are both suspects. [music] But as days passed, Detective Steven
gets focused less on David Han and more on Paul Cortez. >> My feeling is if Paul Cortez had nothing
to do with this, then he had no reason to lie. >> Police say Paul hid from them the fact
that he was in Catherine's neighborhood at the time of the murder, leaving it out of his written statement.
in here. You never mentioned that you were right down in her neighborhood, just blocks from her house. Why not? I
>> I just remember that point just being a haze. Just I I was still in shock. I just found out that someone that I love
dearly was killed, that [music] I was a suspect for it as well. And I didn't know what to do or what what to think or
what to really put in. >> And then police got a big break. In the midst of this bloody crime scene,
they say they were able to isolate one single fingerprint. >> We were able to match that fingerprint
to Paul Cortez's fingerprint. >> Paul Cortez has been indicted [music] now on murder charges.
>> Paul Cortez was arrested and held [music] without bail. >> That person had nothing to do with the
Paul Cortez I know. >> Margarite Shannona had met Paul just a few months earlier on a yoga retreat. He
had been at my house a couple of weeks before Catherine was killed. And he was flirty. He was fun. He was warm.
>> She is so sure of Paul's innocence. She used her own money and borrowed thousands more to help pay for his
defense. >> Don't some of your friends say, "Margarite, why would you put yourself
out on the limb so much for this guy?" >> Yeah, some of my friends do say that. So, uh, they seem to fall into two
camps. The one camp thinks I'm crazy and the other camp thinks I'm a saint. Over
the next year, Margarite created a website to build support for Paul Cortez. >> Let's just go through like the DD5s
>> and helped hire lawyers. How confident are the two of you in this case that you'll be able to get Paul Cortez
acquitted? >> I'm confident. >> We believe we have somebody who's innocent. >> Defense attorneys Don Florio and Laura
Miranda. >> He has a very gentle, caring soul about him. I can't even imagine that somebody
like this could have committed um such a vicious crime. >> We really need to focus, you know,
because of her profession, she was exposed to so many people who could have done her harm.
>> They say there could be any number of other suspects that a customer from one of the topless
clubs could have killed Catherine. >> Catherine, baby girl. Catherine, baby girl. I'm scared to look at her.
>> They also believe police were too quick to clear David Han. David is the one who gave up his life.
He came from Ohio to live with this woman. Catherine [music] was kicking David out of the apartment. So, if
anyone had a motive, I'd say it was more David than Paul. Her reasoning, a neighbor testified
hearing [music] screams coming from Catherine's apartment about 20 minutes before David said he left the apartment.
But police investigated David's movements that night, and they believe he was out of the apartment for a much
longer time and couldn't have been there at the time of the murder. John Woods was the first person to take
the stand in his daughter, Catherine's murder trial. >> 14 months after Catherine's death, Paul
Cortez goes on trial for murder. The people's case is designed not to prove that Paul Cortez is the kind of person
who would have done this, but that in fact he was the person who did this. >> Manhattan Assistant District Attorney
Peter Castillo paints Paul Cortez as an obsessed boyfriend who didn't want to share Catherine with anyone else.
>> Failure in love often leads to anger and murder, and that's that's precisely what
happened here, ladies and gentlemen. Castillo says that after months of Catherine seeing other men, Paul was
like a volcano ready to erupt. And on that night, Paul waited outside the apartment,
watched David leave, and then slipped in to kill Catherine. >> It's the defendant's persistent use of
his cell phone that puts him in hot water. here. >> Castillo introduces the phone records
that prove Paul was in Catherine's neighborhood, calling her numerous times right before she was killed. And then
the phone calls stop. >> He never ever ever calls Katherine Woods again. Is that a
coincidence? Is that why he stops calling her? Or is it because he already knows she's
dead and there's nobody to answer the phone? >> How do you explain that? >> And there's nothing to explain. I I
called her many times and I left messages and >> that was before 6:00. >> Yeah. And I figured after I left the
last message of, "Hey, call me when you get out of work." I figured that was it.
>> Did Paul have any injuries after? >> None at all. >> None. Was there any DNA of Paul's found
underneath Katherine's fingernails? >> Absolutely none. >> No DNA found in the apartment
whatsoever. >> There is little physical evidence that connects [music] Paul to the murder, but
what does exist is incriminating. >> His fingerprint is in her blood put there at the time of the murder, and
there is no innocent explanation for that. >> But the defense attorneys say there is
other evidence that points to someone other than Paul. And look at his hair. Take down your hair.
>> Unidentified strands of hair found in Catherine's hand that didn't belong to Paul and were never tested by police.
>> Catherine had hair in her hand. And there were hairs that were never tested for DNA.
>> The last piece of really critical evidence are the footprints. The footprints are undoubtedly left by the
killer. Those bloody footprints in Catherine's apartment, say the prosecutor, were left by a man wearing
Sketcher boots, size 10 and a half. Do you own any Sketcher boots? >> No. >> And police never found any,
but they did find a surprise witness. His name is Spencer Liberowitz. He knew Paul from the gym. Spencer testified
that he saw Paul at this bar the night Catherine was murdered and that Paul was wearing Sketcher boots.
>> Why would Spence say that? >> I don't know. I don't know why he would say that. Honestly, I don't.
>> Surprising testimony because a year earlier Spencer told 48 Hours that he had no memory of what Paul was wearing.
>> Did you get a close look at Paul? >> No. >> How was he dressed? Do you remember?
>> No. >> Paul claims that he was wearing these Johnston and Murphy shoes. >> You're sure that that afternoon you were
wearing these Johnston and Murphy shoes? Shoes, not boots of any kind? >> And Paul's attorneys say they have video
that will prove it. This surveillance tape from a store that shows what Paul was wearing just [music] hours before
the murder. As the trial comes to an end, it's the evidence that the defense hopes will
convince the jurors that Paul Cortez is innocent of murder. Paul [music] Cortez stabbed Catherine 20
times. He slit her throat and then stabbed her larynx. [music] There is no doubt in my mind that he's a
monster. >> John and Donna Woods don't need to wait for the verdict. They are already
convinced Paul Cortez killed their daughter. >> Did you in fact kill Catherine Woods?
>> No, I didn't. >> But what will the jury think? I worry about everything that might give the
jurors [music] reason to doubt. >> For Paul's family, there's nothing but doubt. [music]
>> How can you have a crime scene with hair samples and not follow up on that? That
doesn't make sense to me. >> How could you brutally murder someone like that and walk away clean?
>> What do you think the verdict's going to be? [music] >> Not guilty. >> Not guilty.
>> Not guilty. >> Paul's lawyers are feeling confident, too. >> We think that there is no way that this
jury will be able to convict him. As one day of deliberations rolls into two, >> there could be a hung jewelry.
>> The pressure on everyone intensifies. >> I was very nervous. I couldn't concentrate.
>> I didn't really eat. I didn't really sleep. >> Anything and everything is a possibility
when it comes to the jurors. >> He's this creative person. He worked very hard with his life. He had no
history of violence. He had a loving family. >> [music] >> Behind closed doors, jurors were
fighting it out. >> I really thought he was innocent. >> Guilty. Especially with the fingerprint.
>> At the beginning, the majority believed Paul Cortez was guilty. >> It was seven guilty, five innocent.
>> Four jurors sat down with us. They asked not to be identified by name, but they
were willing to give us a rare look back at the drama that was unfolding inside the jury room.
>> The first time in my life I've ever cried in public. I think >> three of the women thought the cops may
have gotten the wrong guy. For them, David Han, Catherine's other boyfriend, was a much better suspect. [music]
>> At first, I thought he was guilty. >> Actually, I thought he could have done it. I thought he was more likely the
type of personnel to do it rather than the defendant. >> Still, almost everyone on the jury was
concerned that Paul gave police the impression he was at home the night Catherine was murdered. He was, in fact,
just blocks away. That was so gripping for me. [music] You know, everybody looked at that.
>> Yeah, he lied on there. Clearly, >> they were even more bothered by the fact that Paul had no alibi for the time
Catherine was killed and never tried calling her after that. >> If you're that worried about her, you
would call, but he didn't call. >> As the hours wore on, two jurors stubbornly refused to convict. If they
didn't change their minds, there was going to be a hung jury and Paul Cortez could go free. And then they decided to
look at one more piece of evidence. This video, the video that Paul's defense put
into evidence at the end of the trial. It's the surveillance tape from the appliance store PC Richards, where Paul
Cortez had gone shopping just hours before the murder. >> I watched that clip by clip by clip.
Paul's attorneys say the video proves Paul was wearing these shoes that day, not these boots, which are similar to
what the killer wore. >> To me, it looked like the Johnston Murphy shoes. That's why I put it in.
>> But what did the jurors see? >> It was very clearly boots. The boots. It was boots there.
>> Right there. That's boots. >> Look at the back leg. Look how thick that sole is right there. Yeah.
>> The bulk of the shoe on top. That's the first thing I noticed. >> Boots usually have a bigger front. This
clearly had a bigger front. >> For the holdouts, it was the tipping point. This grainy, blurred video made
everything crystal clear. They believed Paul was wearing the Sketcher boots. >> That really [music] convinced me.
>> I couldn't hold on to my position any longer. And if I hadn't changed, it would have been a hung jury. The [music]
defense really gave us something against him. >> In a bitter irony, the evidence that
sealed Paul Cortez's fate came from his own defense lawyers. Either they are dumb or they are very careless.
>> They were the ones to help him hang. >> This just in to the WCBS newsroom. >> It was [music] a guilty verdict.
>> Guilty for Paul Cortez. After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury finds
Paul Cortez guilty of seconddegree murder. >> You're heart drops to your stomach and
then you just it just kind of obliterates you. >> What did you think the jury was going to
do? >> I thought at least they they would not be able to decide. What if I told you
that two individuals >> who were on the fence who might have hung the jury changed their mind
>> based on that videotape. >> It would be the mistake of our lives and it's terrible. You know, I'd feel
responsible for him being convicted. >> The verdict changes [music] nothing for Paul's mother, Evette.
>> Paul will always be my baby. I'll always be there for him and his oldest family.
>> But for Catherine's parents, John and Donna, the verdict comes as a relief. Although it is no consolation. There's
no happy ending to this. It isn't like [music] anybody really wins. We've lost a daughter and the Cortez
family will have lost a son. >> But loss is no longer what John and Donna Woods want to focus on. They want
to remember how much their daughter Catherine lived in her very short life. >> She was 20 years [music] old,
independent and strong and going after her dream. >> [music] >> With a little luck, she might have made
it. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Acme is a very small community. Everybody knows each other.
>> Have a good day. See you. Take care. They go to the local diner. They have their breakfast, lunch, or
dinner. We're doing okay. >> And they shop at the general store. You have that feeling of safety.
Keep your doors unlocked. On November 24th, 1989, Mandy Stavic went out running with her dog.
The dog had returned, but she [music] hadn't. And when she didn't come back, I panicked. [music]
There was a massive hunt for her. Everybody was out [music] looking. >> It was 3 days later when we found her.
>> This is [music] the South Fork of the Noosack River. She was just floating lightly.
The only thing I could see were her tennis shoes and socks. When I rolled her over, it was kind of a a real shock
to me because she looked like my daughter. And people would say to me, "Oh, you're
so strong." Oh, yeah. Right. [music] You can't be strong through something like that. It just rips you to pieces.
Oh, we were in shock. [music] People were crying. They were um Whoa. There was a killer [music] out there
somewhere. The question is, was this [music] person going to strike again? Yeah. So much
unknown. For 25 years, we had no viable suspects in this case. You've got to keep working,
keep persisting, [music] keep going. Mandy's dead, but this case was not going to die. [music] No,
>> I absolutely did not think it would ever get solved. [music] >> Amazingly enough, it was two women
talking in a water park. They gave us the break in this case. >> One of the moms brought her name up. I
just kind of turned to Maril Lee and said, "Well, I am sure I know who killed her." And turned to her and I said, "Oh,
I do too. [music] >> [music] [music] >> So, take me back. It's November 27th, [music]
1989. Where are we right now? >> We're upstream from where I recovered her. >> This a solemn place for you, isn't it?
>> It is. It really does. Back then, Detective Ron Peterson led the search team [music] for Mandy Stavic, moving up
river in his Zodiac boat. >> We came around the corner and we got out of the main river and into the little
side channel and I could see pink, something pink. >> It was Mandy [music] wearing only her running shoes.
>> When you lifted her out of the water as a father, did you say anything to her?
You're the first person that asked that. I said, "I got you." Peterson and so many others in the small
community of Acme, Washington are still emotional even 30 years later. What was lost for you in this [music] community
with the death of Mandy Stavic? >> A sense of innocence, I think, more than anything.
>> Jim Freeman was Mandy's high [music] school basketball coach and gave the eulogy at her memorial service, [music]
attended by nearly a thousand people. >> You see her smiling back at you right at
your soul with eyes that say, "I love life." He had mentored her off the court as
well, becoming a father figure after Mandy's parents divorced. Mandy expressed her admiration for him [music]
in this card. >> For Mr. Freeman, the one person who has inspired and influenced me more than
anyone. Thank you. You're the greatest. Most sincerely, Mandy Stavic, class of 89,
number 13. Basketball player, cheerleader, top student, once [music] an aspiring
airline pilot, Mandy Stavic truly stood out, says her mother, Mary. >> She wanted to do everything.
She wanted to be very good to the best at everything she did. And she was >> Mandy's older sister, Molly Brighton.
>> Mandy, she was larger than life. >> She accomplished a lot in the short time that she was here.
>> All that promise [music] came to an abrupt end in 1989 when the college freshman came home [music] from Central
Washington University for Thanksgiving. The day after the big holiday meal at her house,
Mandy set out on the last jog of her life with her German Shepherd, Kyra. How many times you driven this road?
>> Oh jeez. Probably probably close to hundred over the over the 30 years of working on the case.
>> [music] >> Detective Kevin Bowie, who was just a rookie deputy back then, has pieced
together Mandy's route from the few people who briefly saw her that day. >> She always started from the house here
and then ran down westbound toward the west side of the Strand Road. >> The last [music] person to see Mandy
alive was a man in a pickup truck who pulled up right here. Mandy ran right in front of him, heading in that direction
to go around the bend to her home about an eighth of a mile from here. >> I would say to [music] that wooded area
ahead of us is where I believe [music] she was abducted. >> Bowie says her asalent had to be in a
vehicle. Mandy was too fast a runner [music] to catch on foot. How do you think she was abducted?
>> By weapon. That's what they used to gain to control her. I believe it was a gun.
>> And what? Points the gun at her and says, "Get in." >> Yeah. Points a gun at her. Get in. That
point she's compliant. >> Investigators believe the attacker had kicked the dog into a ditch before
abducting Mandy. He then sexually assaulted her about 3 and 1/2 miles away from where she was jogging. Afterward,
she tried to flee, a scenario suggested by the scratches on her arms and legs. >> I immediately went, "Oh my god, she was
running away, running through the blackberries." >> Blackberry bushes got thorns on them.
>> Big thorns. >> And that's what I thought. She was running away from whoever had her.
>> I believe whoever was chasing her caught her and hit her in the head, knocking
her out and then placed her in the river to make sure she drowned. It occurred to Ron Peterson that Mandy's
body may hold other important evidence. He had just recently been trained by the
FBI on recovering DNA. And based on the position that she was in the water, he knew he had to get her out to preserve
it. >> That was the biggest fear of mine is how to get her out without disturbing it.
>> His training paid off. So when they did the autopsy, they were able to recover
male DNA from Mandy. >> The male DNA was seaman, suggesting a sexual attack. >> What happened in terms of the
investigation from there? It was, you know, you always look for that person that's strange or odd that doesn't quite
fit into the community. >> Tips poured in and deputies [music] check them out. >> This is a standard road where Sushi was
observed. David [music] Succi was a local drifter seen in the area that day. Bowie says
>> they got a warrant and got his DNA and he was ruled out. >> Deputies interviewed various persons
[music] of interest, including Mandy's boyfriend, Rick Zender. >> They also looked at him [music] just to
rule him out. >> All dead ends. In all, some 30 local men gave DNA samples. None matched. The case
went cold and the murder hung like a dark cloud over this community for the next two decades.
>> It was like an assault on all of us. >> Then almost 25 years later, a new suspect emerged and he had lived right
in Mandy's neighborhood. >> His name wasn't even on the radar. [music] I don't know what it was about her. I'm
just an ordinary person. I don't know how I managed to have that child. >> Mary Stavic spent years [music] haunted
by the murder of her daughter, Mandy, and the lack of progress in the case. and I just really didn't have any hope.
That became more ingrained in me as the years went on. >> But Detective Kevin Bowie,
who attended the same high school as Mandy, had never given up. By 2009, [music] he was the lead
investigator on this unsolved case. >> We needed some answers. We needed to get to the bottom of it. He began scouring
the case file, pouring over old leads and old suspects. >> And I started going through who's been
interviewed, who's been talked to. >> Bowie noticed that a local drug dealer named John Wiznooki [music] had been
questioned because he told people he might know who murdered Mandy. Although his DNA [music] did not match the crime
scene, Bowie still wanted to talk to him again. And in 2010, he traveled all the
way to Cambodia, where Wiznooki [music] now lives, to question him. >> What did your gut tell you about this
man? >> I thought he was a good liar. Just kept reiterating. I don't know who did this.
>> You weren't believing him, though. >> I I didn't believe him. >> But a feeling wasn't evidence.
>> So, it's another dead end. >> Yes. But then three years later, the sheriff's office got a tip that sent
them in a new direction. Coming from, of all places, a pair of moms chatting at a
water park. It was June 2013. >> Where were you guys when you had this conversation?
>> Sitting on the grass right over there. >> Heather Backstrom and Marily Anderson
had both gone to Mount Baker High. and you were just watching your kids coming down the water slides and things.
>> Out of the blue, one of the other mothers brought up the name Mandy Stavic. >> Both Heather and Maril Lee, who barely
knew each other, held long suspicions about the same man. Marilie had never told anyone in law enforcement of her
suspicions. I really wasn't ready because we are in a small town and to accuse someone of something that we
don't know for sure is a little scary. >> Heather also never discussed her concerns with anyone in the area.
>> No friend or family in the community that I lived in because of the weight of
that. But talking to each other here in this water park decades later, they finally felt compelled to say his name
out loud. >> And I just said that I knew that it was Tim. That it was Tim Bass. >> Timothy Bass had gone to Mount Baker
High, too. Why did you say Tim Bass? >> I thought it was Tim Bass because of the
experiences that I had had with him in the past. >> Disturbing experience. >> Very disturbing. Yes. As it turns out,
both women had experienced creepy run-ins with him and began exchanging stories.
>> I'm probably 15 and he was in his 20s. >> It was after a softball game in the
summer of 1989, a few [music] months before Mandy's murder. >> We decided, a bunch of us, to go to
Dairy Queen. >> She says they all piled into a friend's truck, including Tim Bass, who was
sitting next to her. He would talk about my eyes, that my eyes were beautiful. Then he took like a pen out of the cup
holder and would like start rubbing it along my knees cuz I was wearing cut off sweatpants.
>> You must have been scared. You're 15 years old. >> Yeah, I was very nervous. >> Hearing Heather's story, Merrily told
her own, which was far more chilling. Back in July 1991, she was at home one night with her young son [music]
when she heard a knock on the door. So, I open the door and there's Tim Bass at the door and he asks if he can use
the phone because he had been hunting all day and wanted to use the phone to call his wife. When she handed him the
phone, he started dialing, but something wasn't right. >> I hear the the beep beep beep, we're
sorry, when you call and the phone's disconnected. So, I thought, okay, something's up. Then she says things got
scary. [music] >> So then he walks through the kitchen and back to my bedroom. He said that he used
to drive by our house and that he had always been in love with me and wanted to make love to me.
>> Right then and there. >> Yes. >> Marilisse says she demanded that Tim leave, but he refused.
>> And what are you feeling at this moment? >> Uh terrified. Eventually, after she
threatened to call the police, Tim left. Years later, the two women now realized
they had to speak up. Merrily contacted another Mount Baker High graduate, Detective [music] Ken Gates.
>> She had a gut feeling that Tim Bass was responsible for killing Mandy. >> Where did Tim Bass live?
>> He lived right in this house right here. >> A home less than 2 miles from Mandy's
house. right along her running route >> back in 1989 1990 did they go to the Bass household
and question people there looked at it like no it wouldn't be this family because they're wellliked in the
community and so I I think it was just overlooked >> Tim Bass along with his brother and
father had never been asked to give a DNA sample and for the past 25 years Tim had been living a quite quiet life in a
nearby community, married with three children and driving a delivery truck for a bakery.
>> Any criminal record? Anything that would have call attention to Tim Bass? >> No, he uh kept to himself and for the
most part worked and came home. >> But now police decided to pay Tim a visit at home.
>> Very non-threatening then your approach. >> Correct. When asked about Mandy, Bass
[music] pretended he didn't even remember her, at least not at first. >> So, he just looked up and was like,
"Mandy, Mandy, Mandy." Um, oh yeah, she was the girl that they found in the river. It was kind of like,
okay, I think we're being played here. He who could who could forget Mandy Stavic.
>> Police asked Bass for a saliva sample to get his DNA. And at that point he goes,
"Well, um, I don't want to give my DNA. I watch those crime shows. I see how many people go to prison because I've
given DNA." >> So, they tried a new plan. >> At this point, we decided we need to
[music] get a surveillance team on him and follow him on his route. They followed Tim Bass all night long on his
bakery delivery route. Police were hoping Bass would throw away an item with DNA on it, but no luck. The
investigation [music] stalled yet again until police received an unexpected helping hand.
>> I wasn't really going to take no for an answer. I'm going to find something. I'm
going to get you [music] something. 24 long years [music] had passed without an arrest and police finally had a prime
suspect. Back in 1989, Tim Bass lived down the road from Mandy Stavic and she often jogged [music] past his house on
her regular running route, which is how he fixated on her. Police believe >> if Tim Bass sitting in his home was
looking out the window, could he have seen Mandy running by? Easily. >> Investigators knew Mandy didn't jog by
the Bass house the day she disappeared. But Tim was in their crosshairs, so they
wanted to know more about him. They got some background from his younger brother, Tom. As kids, they piled around
together like most brothers. >> Very competitive. We had a lot of fun together playing, you know, different
sports. >> Tim had always been a loner, but as a teenager, he began to reveal deeper
issues. >> Social interactions never really been natural to him. >> Tom remembers a harrowing night after a
high school girlfriend had broken up with Tim. >> He was on the phone with her in his
bedroom and he apparently had a pistol with him. at some point said, "I'm gonna kill myself." He actually ended up
firing the gun. >> Tim had [music] fired into the air. From that night on, Tom says people close to
Tim noticed a change in him. >> It just the disgust, the disrespect towards women.
>> Robin, did you ever see this? >> Oh, yes. Mhm. >> Robin is Tom's wife. I think that he
really thinks that women are inferior to him. >> Tim got married young at 22, just 6
weeks after Mandy's murder. He married another Mount Baker [music] graduate, Gina Malone. She says it was hardly a
fairy tale romance. >> I married him basically to get away from home. Gina says throughout their nearly
30-year marriage, Tim was a controlling and emotionally abusive husband. >> I felt like his servant. Go get me a
drink. Go get make me food. >> I personally witnessed him tell Gina to shut up, you know, 8 million times.
>> It didn't feel like a marriage. I felt like I went into a prison, actually. >> But Gina stuck with Tim and had three
children with him. Why did you stay with him? >> Uh, I was scared and I did leave. I
actually I got a restraining order and left for 2 months. At that point, I had started divorce proceedings and he's
like, "I'm going to lie to the judge and get the kids taken away from you. Anything with my kids,
I'm just like, "Okay, I'm going to do whatever I have to do to not lose my kids." In Tim Bass, detectives [music]
believed they had their killer, but they wanted to cast a wider net of potential
suspects to be sure they were on the right path. >> We developed this list. [music] We
called it a DNA sweep. >> Investigators got DNA from three dozen more men in the area, but Tim Bass
wouldn't cooperate. So cops called the bakery where Tim worked and spoke with his boss, Kim Wagner.
>> The Tim Bass I knew, he was different. I don't know, he was weird. >> How was he weird, though?
>> You just never knew what Tim was going to be at work that day. The smallest thing would anger him and so you tend to
kind of stay away from people like that. >> And Kim says she experienced Tim's low
regard for women. He never called me Kim. He always called me woman. W woman. And um which, you know, whatever.
>> As Kim chatted with investigators, she realized they were [music] looking at the Mandy Stavic murder and figured out
what they were really after. >> Kim said, "Well, you guys want DNA, don't you?" And I said, "Well, yes." And
she says, "I can get it [music] for you." At this point, I'm thinking, I'm working with somebody that potentially
did this to Mandy, and I got to know. >> She kept an eye on Tim day after day, watching if he discarded anything that
might have his saliva on it. >> You'd empty the garbage [music] so it would be empty.
>> Yeah. >> In case he dropped a cup. >> Uhhuh. >> Or a bottle. >> Yeah. Well, a cup. Yeah.
It took [music] three long months and then finally she saw him throw away a plastic cup and later a Coke can
>> and I just stood there and went [gasps] it's game time and I'm like this is jackpot and so this time my heart was
like oh I was I was dying because there was a lot of people around. So I grabbed
it and then I was like I threw it in my desk drawer >> and then she gave it to police. My gut
said it was him. My heart said it wasn't because I just didn't really want to think that we were all betrayed.
>> So about 3 months later, we got the results from [music] the state crime lab and Katie from the crime lab says,
"Kevin, we've got a match." You hear those words. What was that moment like? You hear them, but you're
not sure. You're It's almost like I'm dreaming. I'm going to wake up at any [music] moment in time. I was just like,
"This is the biggest thing that's ever happened to me." A lot of tears. >> After [music] the DNA match, they paid
another visit to Tim as he was leaving work. I'm questioning him. I'm like, "Did you have any relationship with
her?" "No." "So, you didn't even kiss her or anything?" "No, never." "Then why would your DNA
be inside her?" He went from denial to, "Well, how did you get my DNA? What are you talking about?"
Right after that conversation on December 12th, 2017, 28 years after Mandy had been found
dead, police [music] arrested 50-year-old Tim Bass in the Bakery parking lot. They charged him with
kidnapping, rape, and murder. >> As my partner's cuffing him up, I say, "You are under arrest for the murder of
Mandy Stavic." >> Later that day, the sheriff came knocking on Mary's door. [music]
It also happened to be her birthday. >> And he says, "We've got him." That's all
he says. "We've got him." And I says, "Who?" [laughter] I really I really never dreamed. I really never dreamed
it. >> Mandy's sister Molly was overwhelmed, too. >> That's like, "Wow, what a present.
What a birthday present." >> Detective Bowie called Kim Wagner with the news. Her first thought was about
Mandy. And I asked if her family knew. >> What'd he say? >> That they knew. And so that's that's why I did it. I
just never forgot about Mandy. >> But it's a big leap between thinking you have your man and convicting him in a
court of law. >> Were you trying to get me to admit to something I didn't do? Is that what
you're trying to do right now? Tim says he's innocent and that he had a secret that explains everything.
>> He said, "I just wanted to let you know I slept with Mandy." I was like, "What?"
>> [music] >> For prosecutor Dave McKran, it's been a long road to justice. >> She was such a [music] good kid
and it just shouldn't have happened. Just shouldn't have happened at all. [music]
Mckran was 44 when Mandy Stavic was murdered. And now at 73, >> ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
>> he's come out of retirement and insisted he not be paid as he leads the prosecution team [music] in this deeply
personal case. >> In your heart as well as in your head, you wanted to finish this.
>> You bet. >> All right. After 30 years of heartache, fear, and frustration, the trial of Mandy's
accused killer finally begins. The state's case is simple. >> The defendant's DNA was inside her, and
we know that she was kidnapped. She was raped, and then she was killed. >> Case closed. No,
>> Tim Bass is not guilty, >> says defense attorney Steven Jackson. >> He didn't kidnap anyone. He didn't rape
anyone and he certainly didn't kill anyone. >> Jackson floats a theory to jurors that
if true would be shocking. The suggestion that Tim Bass and Mandy Stavic had consensual sex in the [music]
hours before her murder. >> There were no signs of a struggle. Evidence of sexual contact is not
evidence of rape. >> Everything I've said is the truth. In this interrogation after his arrest,
Bass claimed he had been having a secret affair with Mandy. >> It was more of a friendship type thing.
We just talked and and uh then it just kind of grew into more more of a physical thing and we
didn't even really do it that much. So, was more kissing and stuff. >> The DNA can only tell you that there was
contact. >> Stark Fis is one of Bass's defense attorneys. Mandy had come home for
Thanksgiving break. Are you saying that when she came home they met somewhere and had intimacy?
>> Uh that's exactly what I'm saying. >> And what do you say to those who say prove it that no one saw the two of them
together? There are no telephone calls made between the two of them. >> First of all, I don't have to prove it.
The burden of proof is on the state of Washington, not on the defense. Remember when Tim Bass was first
questioned in 2013? He said he barely remembered who Mandy was. Now [music] they were lovers.
>> Why would his story evolve like that in your opinion? >> Because he's making it up. He's trying
to cover himself. >> Good afternoon, Miss Wagner. Come on. Step right up here if you would.
>> Testifying for the prosecution is the woman who helped retrieve the DNA evidence that linked Bass to the crime
scene. I was terrified. >> But Kim Wagner knew she had one more job to do. >> If Tim was potentially involved in that
crime, I wanted to do the right thing for Mandy. >> But the defense is hoping science can
support Bass's account. They called Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, a forensic expert, to
the stand. She says the semen could have been deposited up to 2 days before Mandy's death. I would say most
consistent is hours to days and probably within up to 48 hours. >> The prosecution expert, the original
medical examiner from 30 years ago, Dr. Gary Goldfog disagrees. He says various indicators say it was much sooner.
>> She was raped and then was killed and deposited in the river and drowned in the river. Would your findings be
consistent in all regards with that hypothetical? >> Yes, they would. >> Now, it was time for a woman [music] to
testify who Bass knew very well. >> Please have a seat. You've been sworn. >> His now ex-wife, Gina.
>> She had divorced him after his arrest and his claims about his affair with Mandy.
>> I was so nervous and I was shaking. I don't even want to see his face. >> Gina testifies that she witnessed him
ask his mother to lie for him to point the finger at his own dad. >> He asked her, "Can we say dad did it?"
>> Bass's father had died more than a decade earlier. >> She put her hands over her face and like
this and and paused for a minute and then said no. [snorts] Tim Bass's [music] trial was turning
into a family reunion from hell. His brother Tomok [music] stand. >> As you're about to go take the stand,
what's what's going through your mind? Did you sleep the night before? >> Very little.
It was It was agonizing. As hard as it was, I I I knew I had to do it. I'd >> like to direct your attention to
February 24th, 2015. Tom recounted that when Tim was under investigation, he told Tom he had slept with Mandy decades
ago and then asked Tom to tell police he had also slept with her. >> I guess to make it look like she got
around. That would be my only, you know, that's probably why he said that. And then he asked me again, he
said, "You believe me, right?" And I mean, I was I didn't know what to say. >> And Tom describes another damning
incident after Tim was arrested. >> He said that the cops are lying. Everyone's out to get him. He said, "I
need a strong alibi or I'm going to prison." He said, "Mom, [sighs] maybe you can say
that we are Christmas shopping. Tom, do what you can." Despite that testimony, defense attorney Shashana
Page has an explanation for his behavior. >> Even innocent people, when they're under
that great weight of suspicion, can do things that can be interpreted as, "Well, only a guilty person would do
this." >> As the 9-day trial wraps up, both sides make [music] their final appeal to the
jury. >> It's easy to to make the assumption that this pretty young woman would never have
anything to do with Mr. But this is Mr. Bass circa of the late '80s. Just because somebody hadn't seen
them together doesn't mean that they hadn't been together at some point. This is an investigation that based on the
faulty assumption that this is a sexual assault and it may well not have been a sexual assault.
>> This was not a situation where there was consensual sex. There was no contact
between these people. She was abducted. She was raped and she was killed. Hold him accountable.
>> The DNA was at the heart of Tim Bass's trial. It would now be at the heart of
the jury's deliberation. >> One of them said, "Teenage girls can sneak out at night. Maybe there was a a
secret relationship. >> Madam clerk, issued the verdicts. 30 years of wandering, two weeks of
trial, five hours of deliberations. >> I was terrified. >> As the jury in the Mandy Stavic case
deliberated, the hours felt like an eternity. >> I was [panting] Every juror, please do
the right thing. Do the right thing. Do the right thing. >> They have to have 100% agreement. If one
person doesn't agree, they've got a hung jury and they have to start all over again. And I was praying that that would
not happen. Although no one testified to ever seeing Tim and Mandy together, juror Ed Bean
says they had a lot to discuss. >> When we go in and deliberate, we had to turn in to be investigators and
attorneys, too. And we went through everything. We had posters on the wall and maps and we went through everything
just like the attorneys did. Juror Jay van Msburgen. >> Maybe a quarter of the people tied up on
whether or not there might be reasonable doubt. >> Deliberations lasted a little over a
day. >> Madame clerk issued the verdicts. >> 29 years and [music] 6 months to the day
had passed since Mandy Stavic was killed. Would her family and friends finally get justice? We the jury find
the defendant Timothy Forest Bass guilty of >> guilty of murder, rape, and kidnapping.
>> It was such a relief. It was such a relief >> for you. That moment when you're seeing
the family embrace and the tears, >> did you think this is what justice looks like?
>> Yeah. At that point, I thought this is why we do what we do. >> The harm that this caused is
incalculable. He has finally received justice. And to me, it can't be enough time. He should
never get out. >> Six weeks later, it was [music] time for sentencing. >> My family will never be healed. Never be
be normal. [music] >> Mary and Molly were too emotional to speak. So Molly's husband, Mike
Brighton, [music] spoke for them. >> Timothy Forest Bass must never be allowed to walk the earth as a free
person. Never. Ever. The defendant's mother would like to address the court. >> Then it was the Bass family's [music]
turn to speak. Tim's mom, Sandra Bass, insisted that her son [music] never tried to blame his father for Mandy's
death. >> That is totally false. I do know my son is not guilty of this crime. >> Then, if you would like the opportunity,
now is the time. >> I will. convicted murderer Tim [music] Bass, whose DNA had sealed his fate, spoke in
court for the first time. >> I would first like to say that I'm 100% innocent of this crime. Furthermore, I
don't believe I received a fair trial. In saying that though, the better man in me says I should say very little today.
I give this day to the stabbing family. Unsuwayed, the judge sentenced Bass to the maximum sentence, nearly 27 years.
He couldn't get life because prosecutors did not charge him with premeditated murder. They were not sure they could
convict him of that charge. >> For 30 years, you have lived free from the responsibility for your acts. But
that life has been a lie. And tragically, it has caught your family, your mother, your brother, your ex-wife,
and your children in its web. >> Tim says he's an innocent man. What do you say?
>> Guilty as hell. I lived in prison for 28 years with him. And now it's his turn.
>> For Mary, who once thought she'd never see [music] justice, Bass's sentence gave her some solace.
Definitely closure, I feel. After all, they've got the guy that did it. He'll spend enough years in jail, so if he
ever does get out, his life will be practically over. >> Tom Bass now wonders if his brother
considered other killings, possibly even Heather or Maril Lee. >> I think potentially more could have been
his next victims. >> You sometimes think we're lucky to be alive. >> Yep. Heather and Maril Lee are proud of their
roles in putting Tim Bass away. >> In the end, three women's word or experiences
are what took him down. And I love that. >> Kim Wagner, part of that trio of women,
credits Mandy's hometown, Acme. >> It really took a village. It took a whole community. The sheriff's office
never gave up on Mandy. [snorts] We got the right guy. Sorry. [snorts] I guess the [music] community could feel
safe and and be whole again. And I'd hoped at [music] that point the family could heal
>> in some ways you could be whole again too, right? >> Yeah. 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime.
>> Were you at all prepared for [music] what happened in this case? [music] >> [music]
[music] [music] >> A key witness takes a stand in the trial of Patrick Frzy. >> Investigators believe Patrick Frzy
killed Kelsey Barth in her town home on Thanksgiving last year. [music] >> Day two of the murder trial for the man
who allegedly killed his fiance. >> Day seven of the trial. Investigators revealed the moments they found.
Surveillance video of Kelsey Barth and her one-year-old daughter at a Woodland Park supermarket is the last anyone seen
of the 29-year-old mother. >> If convicted, Frezy could face [music] life in prison.
>> We can certainly sense that we are in the final days of this trial and it is certainly
>> [ __ ] Creek is a small town. Teller County is a small county. >> We're up in like a minute.
>> They have never seen anything to this magnitude in [ __ ] Creek. Ashley Franco, KKTV 11 News. You've covered
every second of this trial. What has the feeling meant inside that courtroom? >> It's been cold. It's been very heavy and
chilling. During the first week, we learned about some of the evidence in the case. Crystal Lee, Patrick Frzy's
ex-girlfriend is set to be the prosecution's star witness. >> Okay, it's uh 11:15
again on the 21st December 2018. Um we're inside Kelsey's apartment with Crystal. You are seeing what the jury
saw. Remarkable evidence. The heart of the prosecution's case. >> When you came in,
what did you see? >> Um, when I first walked in, I saw um blood all over the floor. I saw blood up
the wall. >> Who is Crystal Lee? >> Crystal Lee is a rodeo queen from Idaho. She's very wellknown
and she's [music] Patrick Fzy's ex-girlfriend. They've had known each other for over a decade.
She's [music] the bread and butter to this case. That's Crystal Lee wearing a police jacket and hat. [clears throat]
>> Can you point to the area where you saw and clean blood up on the wall? >> She admits to cleaning up the crime
scene and tells the prosecution the whole entire story of what happened. The spray was
from here all the way. I'm sorry. >> She's the only person in the world that they have to possibly convict [music]
Patrick Crazy. >> We did a deal with the devil. There's just no ifands or buts about it in this
case. >> This one, >> but it's a deal that we made in order to move this case forward and to solve this
crime. Sometimes in order to solve a case or move a case forward, [music] we have to
give a deal to the devil. Uh, that's exactly what we did here. >> Did you say that you cleaned off some of
the appliances? >> I did. I wiped the There was blood on the front of the dishwasher. There was
blood on the front of the stove. >> Crystal Lee was obviously the star witness for the prosecution and she
testified to things that the prosecution needed her to say in order to establish
this case. I am Ya Gruber. I'm a professor of law at University of Colorado Law School. I think there were
doubts about Crystal Lee's testimony [music] coming into it. Crystal Lee has trafficked in lies.
Crystal Lee is saying he [music] has been planning on killing Kelsey and he had called me multiple times about it.
There's [music] poison coffee. There's a baseball bat, scented candles, a blindfold, phones that [music] are
pinging all over Colorado and and in Idaho. I got to tell you, it's one of the most [music] emotional trials I've
ever been through, and I've been through a lot of trials. Uh the roller coaster everybody was put on. There wasn't
anybody on this team that at some point didn't have tears running down their face. [music]
>> We just got word that a verdict has been reached in the case against Patrick Frzy.
>> Tell them try to take it. We're the f we're the only ones out here. >> There's always a little bit of
nervousness and question in the back of your mind. Just [music] hours ago, we were hearing closing statements. And
now, now we have a verdict. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Patrick Frzy sits [music] in this grim
[ __ ] Creek, Colorado jail, put here by his former girlfriend, Crystal Lee. There's blood on the wall here. There's
blood on the wall here. And there was blood right here. >> In disturbing evidence that you will see
throughout the program tonight. She tells her story about a crime scene cleanup.
>> I moved the couch. I wiped the couch off. Um there was blood behind the couch
down the wall. >> A plan to transport a body. >> We brought the tote here. Okay, we
unloaded the tote >> and her help in making sure there would be no trace of it left behind.
>> The things that were thrown into the fire by me were the um the belongings from Kelsey's house, the curtains, the
pillows, the stuffed animals. The tale begins when these haunting images were captured. A mother in the
grocery store shopping with her baby. Thanksgiving Day 2018. The last time Kelsey Barth was seen in public.
>> It's not the kind that runs off. This is completely out of character. >> It was Cheryl Barth who reported her
29-year-old daughter missing after trying to reach her for days. >> Kelsey, we just want you home.
Call us if you can and we won't quit looking. At that [music] time in early December,
Woodland Park police had not publicly named a suspect. >> We are treating Kelsey's disappearance
as a missing person's case at this time. [music] >> Can't eat and you can't sleep and the
stress won't end until we find her. >> Usually, it was us four all together all the time.
>> Ashley Cogburn, Amanda Smith, and Nicole Haywood had an unbreakable bond with
Kelsey. They grew up together in Moses Lake, Washington. >> From the pictures, she's gorgeous,
obviously, and very put together. And so, you might think that she's, you know, this prissy girl, but she was not.
She She was raised on a hay farm and very much a tomboy. >> Country girl. >> Yeah. She was out there driving tractors
and and bucking bales. >> In flying planes, she was a flight instructor. She a good pilot.
>> Oh, yeah. She was really good. She wasn't afraid to challenge the the typical boundaries.
>> [music] >> So, it wasn't a surprise when a Colorado cowboy named Patrick Frzy caught
Kelsey's eye on a dating website in [music] 2016. >> He was like a country boy and that's
what she was used to. That's what she liked. >> They started a long-distance relationship.
Patrick Frzy lived on a 35 acre ranch in rural Florison, Colorado. >> These are four dogs. be our dogs to
train this fall and winter. >> In this video, Patrick can be heard training cattle dogs.
>> Pepper. That'll do >> down. >> He also shoot horses and groom donkeys. >> The black and white one is uh Flash.
>> Clint Klene has known Patrick for seven years. >> Patrick is uh the frier for the donkeys.
People call them horshoers and all that, but our donkeys don't have shoes. So he
trims their feet. >> He trims their feet. It's he he gives them, as we call it, donkey manicures.
>> Klein says Patrick was quiet and dedicated to his work. >> He's kind of a laidback, you know, kind
of stays to himself. Uh he had his ranch to take care of. >> Eventually, Kelsey moved to Colorado
from Washington State to be closer to Patrick, and they were expecting a child. Her mother, Cheryl, says they
were engaged. Does she have a dress yet? >> No. I don't think she cared about the
big wedding kind of thing. It was between them and God. >> Even after their daughter Kaye was born
in October 2017, the couple still didn't live together, but shared parenting duties.
>> He never came to see her, but um she would like on her days off, she would go
back and be with him. Friends say Kelsey was struggling to balance the baby, her
job, and a long commute. Her relationship with Patrick seemed strained. >> She seemed to be kind of stressed out
from the whole thing that she couldn't make him happy. >> Was Patrick emotionally abusive?
Um, it appeared that way from uh what I saw and it seemed like it was just knocking her spirit down.
>> Did Kelsey ever say he was physically abusive? >> No. >> Ashley says Kelsey once mentioned there
may have been another woman in Patrick's life. >> I think Kelsey had mentioned one time
about an ex-girlfriend who still kind of wanted to be with Patrick. Kelsey wasn't
worried about it. I don't know if it's cuz she knew she lived far away. Kelsey didn't seem all that worried about it.
>> After Kelsey was reported missing, police talked to Patrick. He told them that the day before Thanksgiving,
[music] Kelsey said she wanted to end their relationship. KKTV reporter Ashley Franco.
>> He said that Kelsey wanted to go their separate ways and things weren't working
out between them. They wanted to split custody 50/50 and they were just not meshing anymore.
>> Patrick told police he and Kelsey met to exchange the baby on Thanksgiving Day.
He also returned Kelsey's belongings. >> A purse, um, keys to the car, keys to the town home, and then a gun that
Kelsey owned. >> It was a gun Patrick says he had once taken from Kelsey for her own
protection. Police say Patrick told them Kelsey struggled with depression, hinting that she may be suicidal.
>> When you hear that Patrick said Kelsey was unstable, that she was maybe suicidal.
>> No, >> no, not at all. >> It doesn't match up with Kelsey. >> Police searched Kelsey's home, but
turned up no signs of foul play. Then Cheryl and her son went to the house to check it [music] out.
There was a mat a a like a rug of some sort in the bathroom and it's gone. And she had also noticed that [music] the
refrigerator looked like it had been wiped down recently. You could see streaks.
Later, her son is in the bathroom and notices blood on the base of the toilet [music]
>> and the alarms go off in their minds. >> Alarms go off. Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, alerted
investigators who returned to the house. This time, they used chemicals to detect
the presence of blood. >> They found trace amounts of blood everywhere in the bathroom.
>> Do we know whose blood? >> DNA results showed it was Kelsey's. >> Investigators believed Kelsey had been
murdered, but they needed more evidence. A closer look at Kelsey and her fiance's
cell phone activity Thanksgiving weekend would lead them to her suspected killer.
>> [music] >> Patrick Frzy was taken into custody this morning in Florison, [music] Colorado,
just after 7:00 this morning, Mountain Standard Time. >> Nearly a month after Kelsey Barth
vanished. Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young made this grim [music] announcement.
Today we arrested Patrick Frzy on charges of first-degree murder of Kelsey Barth. As a reminder, Patrick Frzy is
presumed innocent until proven guilty. >> Patrick, what do you have to say? >> Despite the murder charge, Kelsey's body
had [music] not been found. >> As you can tell from the arrest, sadly, we do not believe Kelsey is still alive.
Kelsey's daughter, Kaylee, is in protective custody and will be re reunited with Kelsey's family.
Patrick Frzy entered a plea of not guilty. But from the beginning, investigators had questions about
Patrick's story. Starting with his initial claim that the day before Thanksgiving, Kelsey told him she wanted
to break up and quote, "Go their separate ways." So, this is Woodland Park. >> This is Woodland Park.
>> Yet, there she was shopping the next day for the family dinner. You see her grab
a cart and and put Kaye in the cart and then go off. And that's the last time publicly anyone had seen Kelsey Barth.
>> What does she buy here at Safeway? >> She buys ingredients for a sweet potato
casserole. >> Investigators wondered if Kelsey had broken up with Patrick. Why would she
send him this text? I bought some sweet potatoes in case you wanted sweet potato
casserole. Kelsey didn't tell her mother she and Patrick were breaking up when she spoke
with her Thanksgiving morning. >> Did she sound normal? Did she sound >> Definitely. She She sounded happy and
normal mom daughter talk. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Another big question investigators had
was when Patrick said he last saw Kelsey. >> Patrick told officers that he hadn't
seen her since Thanksgiving, November 22nd, when he exchanged their daughter, Kaye Barth.
In images from a neighbor security camera on that Thanksgiving day, Patrick and Kelsey are seen at her door with a
baby carrier after Kelsey returned from the store. You can see her holding a poinsettia. Later, Patrick is seen at
that same location alone. >> We don't know whether he's coming or going. He doesn't have Kaye. Um, and
he's not with Kelsey. And then that's it. University of Colorado law professor Ya Gruber has followed the case.
>> The critical question is what happened in between around 1:30, 1:45 and 3:30 when they get that picture of him.
>> Police say [music] this is likely when Patrick killed her. >> Investigators have recovered um a number
of items that make us suspicious that the crime did occur at Kelsey's residence.
Patrick told authorities he drove their daughter Kaye to his ranch for Thanksgiving dinner. He said Kelsey
wasn't with them. But investigators discovered that her cell phone was. >> They pulled cell phone records and found
that on Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd, all of a sudden Kelsey's phone and Patrick's phone started traveling
together, but Patrick and Kelsey were not together. Investigators say Patrick took Kelsey's
cell phone after he killed her as part of a scheme to cover his tracks. They believe he faked 19 calls between the
two phones over Thanksgiving weekend and was sending texts between them, including this one from Kelsey's phone.
I'm going running. I'll call you guys when I get home. His response, okay, be safe. The theory that the prosecution's
going to put forward is that that was Patrick [music] with her phone and he's texting
pretending to be Kelsey. 2 days after Thanksgiving, authorities believe Patrick concocted [music]
this conversation. Are you awake? Sorry, I didn't hear my phone. Going to jump in
the shower. I'll call you guys when I get out. Okay. Then investigators believe to keep up his ruse that Kelsey
wanted at the breakup, Patrick sent this message. If this is truly what you want,
I'll respect your wishes and give you space. On Sunday, 3 days after Thanksgiving,
there was a bizarre development that would send this case in a very different direction. Phone records show while
Patrick Cell stayed near his ranch, Kelsey's phone was on the move, heading west out of Colorado.
There was a text from Kelsey's phone to her supervisor at DOS Aviation saying, "I won't be at work." So, people had
thought maybe they heard from Kelsey. >> The next text from Kelsey's phone said,
"Do you even love me?" That text pinged off a cell phone tower 800 miles away. Reports are correct that Kelsey's phone
gave a location near Gooding, Idaho on November 25th. >> When that came out, I think everyone was
was just shocked. And where's Kelsey? And where's Kelsey? No one knows where Kelsey is.
>> So, how did her phone end up in Idaho? This woman may have the answer. >> [music]
[music] >> It was startling news when investigators revealed that 3 days after Kelsey Barth
was last seen, her cell phone had pinged in Gooding, Idaho, 800 miles from her home.
>> Tonight, we have new information about a 32-year-old Twin Falls woman that may
have helped Patrick Frzy cover up the disappearance and alleged murder of his fiance, Kelsey Barrett.
At the time of Kelsey's disappearance, phone records show that Patrick was in touch with this woman, Crystal Kenny
Lee. Crystal was a nurse and avid horsewoman who grew up here. >> This is Crystal's world.
>> KMVT news director and weekend cowboy, Cade Atwood. >> We work hard to be able to do this on
the weekends. Crystal and her family are a big part of the rodeo community, a very prominent
family. [music] >> Talk horses and that's you're speaking her love language, you know.
>> Michelle Stein is Crystal's best friend. >> Horses are her life. She loves horses.
>> Take a look at this. And in Idaho, where rodeo rules, Crystal was royalty. In
2008, she was crowned queen of the Magic Valley Rodeo. >> She was so loud. >> Laura Stzman has known Crystal since she
was a teenager. >> Crystal was so kind with everybody that it was just so difficult
to turn her down in any way. >> Crystal had a reputation of getting what she wanted. No, I wouldn't say it was a
reputation of getting what she wanted. Crystal worked so hard at everything she did to try to do everything completely
correct. >> Authorities believed that it was Crystal who traveled to Idaho with Kelsey's
phone. But when the FBI made their initial call to Crystal, she said she had no idea who Kelsey Barth was. She
also denied knowing Patrick Frzy. Then she changed her story. >> They asked her, "When was the last time
you talked to him?" And she said, "I don't know. I'd have to look at my phone." And then says, "Oh, in the last
month." And investigators are thinking, "Okay, but we already know that your phone has called his phone multiple
times in the last few weeks." She says, "I don't have a personal relationship with Patrick Frzy. I've gone to Colorado
and looked at a few of his horses and that's the extent of our relationship. >> She lies.
>> She lies. >> Turns out Crystal Lee and Patrick Frzy had a long history. They [music] met
after high school. Then 8 months before Kelsey disappeared. Crystal and Patrick's relationship heated up.
Crystal was recently divorced [music] with two children. >> She had been out here multiple times to
see him and it was type a type of affair. What did Crystal say about Patrick? Was she in love with him?
>> I think she was to a point. >> During the investigation, the FBI got a tip that Michelle had explosive
information about the case. She says [music] Crystal called and confided in her about a disturbing conversation she
and Patrick had a month before Kelsey disappeared. >> She was very, very upset, very
distraught. She had told me that he had asked her to take care of his baby mama.
>> And you took that to me or she took that to? >> So I was like, well, I was in shock at
first because people who says that nobody says that. So I was like, wait, what? And she said, yeah, he asked me if I
would kill the mother of his baby. >> I mean, what are you thinking at that point? I was just in shock and
disbelief. >> What was Crystal's tone when she was telling you this? >> She was balling. She was crying. She was
extremely upset and scared. >> Michelle says she asked Crystal why Patrick wanted to kill Kelsey.
>> He had told her it was because she wanted to take him back to court to get custody of the baby and he was in fear
that she was going to harm the baby. Investigators found no proof Kelsey had harmed her daughter, but did find
evidence that Patrick had planned to challenge Kelsey for custody and believe that may have been his motive for
murder. Michelle says she pushed Crystal to call the police. >> I kept telling her, "I think you need to
call and tell somebody." [music] See, you got to understand, I'm trusting her to do the right thing.
>> But I think Michelle, people watching will say, "Call the police. Say, you need to talk to my friend. Someone's
asking her to kill someone. >> You're right. Okay. Of course the viewers are going to think that.
>> But do you have regret? >> Of course I regret it. I regret it every day. Oh my god. I would do anything to
have stopped that somehow. >> Kelsey had been gone about a month before Michelle talked to the FBI. And
when the FBI went back at Crystal a second time, she too was ready to talk. I think at that point she kind of knows
I have to come [music] clean. >> But first, Crystal wanted a deal. In exchange for her testimony against
Patrick, she agreed to plead guilty to evidence tampering. She admitted to getting rid of the gun to tossing
[music] Kelsey's keys in a canyon and destroying her phone. It's a tampering with evidence charge, which is a minor
charge compared to murder or um you know accessory to murder or attempted murder.
>> She only faces at max 3 years in prison. >> This is a pretty good deal that she
gets. >> What Crystal revealed to investigators would become the center of the prosecution's case against [music]
Patrick Frzy. When I first walked in, I saw blood all over the floor. I saw blood up the wall.
When Crystal Lee finally started talking, she didn't stop for 4 and 1/2 hours. Her story was stunning. She
claimed Patrick tried to get her to kill Kelsey three different times. The first
idea was to get a caramel macchiato from Starbucks, Kelsey's favorite drink, and
put poison in it. >> Two months before Kelsey went missing, Crystal says she drove 12 hours from
Idaho to this Starbucks near Kelsey's home in Colorado. >> Hi, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get
started for you today? Crystal, a nurse, told investigators she suggested the perfect potion, a lethal dose of ambient
and Valium. >> This is the drink. >> That is the drink Crystal Lee had ordered to put poison in to give to
Kelsey Barth. [music] >> So Crystal brings this Starbucks caramel macchiato right here. waits in the
alleyway, walks up to Kelsey's door, knocks on the door, and [music] tells Kelsey opens it.
>> Kelsey opens it, tells Kelsey this elaborate story. She says, "I'm new to the neighborhood. Someone had told me
that you had helped get my dogs out of trouble." And Kelsey says, "No, I didn't do that."
>> Does Kelsey take the coffee? >> Allegedly, Kelsey takes the coffee inside and closes the door. And from
there, we don't we don't know what Kelsey does with the coffee. But Crystal says she couldn't do it. She didn't
poison the coffee. And when Patrick found out, he [music] was angry. >> He was furious. He was not happy that
she didn't go through with it. He would play head games with her a lot. >> Crystal's best friend, Michelle Stein.
>> He just had a way of manipulating her into doing things. After Crystal said she couldn't go through with the poison
plan, she told investigators Patrick came up with a different idea. >> He says, "Um, I have a dental pipe
that I'll leave outside my property that you can come pick up and I want you to go wait for Kelsey at her town home. And
when she comes, hit her on the back of the head." The way Crystal tells it, she drove to
Kelsey's house with that metal pipe, but didn't attack her and drove back to [music] Idaho. A week later, she says
Patrick called with a new murder plan. Once again, Crystal drove from Idaho to Kelsey's Colorado townhouse.
Crystal claims she waited for Kelsey outside her home, this time with an aluminum baseball bat. But just like her
earlier attempts, she says she chickenened out. It's just hard to believe these stories.
They seem outlandish and wild. Phone records show Patrick called Crystal in Idaho around 4:30 on
Thanksgiving Day. Crystal said he told her, "You need [music] to get out here now. You got a mess to clean up."
>> Crystal says that she can't come out that same day, um, but will come out a few days later. Um she's in Idaho, loads
up the car with cleaning supplies, bleach, [music] um hairetss, you know, gloves, trash bags.
She basically brought the equivalent of a hazmat suit and every sort of cleaning
product that one might see in one of those uh TV shows about how to clean up a crime scene.
Two days later, on Saturday morning, Crystal says she drove 800 miles to Patrick's ranch to pick up a set of
Kelsey's keys he left for her outside. Then she says she drove to Kelsey's home.
>> Crystal tells authorities she opens the door and the scene is horrific. There's
blood everywhere. According to Crystal, Kelsey's body was not inside >> and then spends, you know, 3 to four
hours cleaning and scrubbing the the murder scene. She takes some of the things that she couldn't clean and puts
them into trash bags and loads them in the back of the car she was driving. >> Crystal claims Patrick was back at his
ranch during the cleanup. There was a point in time when Patrick Frzy had told Crystal Lee, "When you go to clean up
her town home, there is possibly a tooth somewhere." Crystal said she found that
tooth and put it in a trash bag. Crystal told investigators after the cleanup, she met with Patrick. She
described to them how he said he lured Kelsey to her death. Crystal claims Patrick [music]
invited his fiance to play a guessing game with candles. >> She says that he takes a sweater from
Kelsey's room and blindfolds her with the sweater and has candles sitting out in front of Kelsey and is telling Kelsey
to guess the scent of each candle. During her interview with investigators, Crystal said Patrick told her while baby
Kaye was in another room. He took a baseball bat and quote, "He went to swinging."
After killing Kelsey with that baseball bat on Thanksgiving Day, Crystal says Patrick told her he put her body in a
black tote. This surveillance image shows Patrick at an ATM earlier that day with a black tote in his truck.
Crystal went with investigators to Patrick's ranch. She told them that she and Patrick went there together and she
watched him burn that tote. >> He poured gasoline in the bucket and pitched it into the fire.
>> I believe yesterday you said that you also collected wood and put into the burn pit.
>> Yes, I did. [music] >> Police later examined the spot where they believe Kelsey's body was burned.
>> [music] >> Crystal also went with investigators to Kelsey's home. She's wearing that police
jacket and hat. The floorboards had been removed for testing. >> And can you point if you remember where
the tooth was? >> Around the tooth. What was there? If anything, >> just blood. >> All right.
>> There was blood on the chairs. There was blood on this chair. There's blood on
the table. There's blood on the Hobby Lobby bag that was sitting there. >> She pointed out where she claims she
intentionally left blood for them to find. >> Right there. >> On December 21st, 2018, Patrick was
arrested at his ranch and charged with Kelsey's murder. >> This is a case without a body. Uh, this
is a case without a lot of physical evidence. So, what we mainly have connecting Patrick Frzy to an incredibly
brutal and violent crime is Crystal Lee's testimony. >> Crystal, who had cut that deal with
prosecutors, seemed shaken when she appeared [music] in court after she turned herself into authorities.
>> The Crystal I knew could do no wrong. But the crystal that has done the things that came out
of her mouth is somebody I don't know. And that leaves Laura Stzman with one question. Why?
Almost a year after Kelsey Barer's disappearance, there was a long line to get a seat in the courtroom at Patrick
Frzy's murder trial. >> Uh, I like a lot of people that knew Patrick. They don't think that the
candle story adds up. >> Frzy's friend, Clint Klene, was there almost every day. I don't know of any
guys that would have thought of going out and buying candles and having their girlfriend be blindfolded and then smell
the candles. >> You think that had to be a woman's idea? >> I think so. >> Freezy was driven from the jail in a
black SUV. He entered the courthouse through this white tent, out of sight from the media. Security was tight. No
cameras in the courtroom. District Attorney Dan May. I >> I gotta tell you, it's one of the most
emotional trials I've ever been through. And I've been through a lot of trials in
my career. >> Prosecutor Beth Reed painted a picture of Patrick Freezy. >> Very charming,
very manipulative and controlling. All traits consistent [music] with being a sociopath.
Ashley Franco summed up the defense case. No body, no murder weapon, and no clear motive.
>> They had said, you know, Patrick wasn't involved. There's no evidence to show he
was involved. And Crystal Lee had already lied to law enforcement, so she's the one to blame for this.
>> On day four, the prosecution star witness, Crystal Lee, took the stand. Her credibility was on the line. I don't
think we would have known what happened to Kelsey without Crystal Lee. >> I started picking up things that were
blood splattered. >> For two days, prosecutor Jennifer Veman asked Lee to describe Frezy's plan to
kill Kelsey Barth. They bolstered their case with surveillance videos and photos. This one shows the black tote in
the back of Frzy's [music] truck that Lee says he would use to dispose of her body. When you came in,
what did you see? >> Blood all over the floor. I saw blood up the wall. Saw blood on the roof wall.
>> Most disturbing, prosecutors played that video of Lee inside Kelsey's home, showing investigators how she cleaned up
the crime scene. >> Did you say, correct me if I'm wrong, did you say that you cleaned off some of
the appliances? >> I did. I wiped the There was blood on the front of the dishwasher. There was
blood on the front of the stove. Um there was um that cinnamon roll pan had blood on the um tinflow.
>> They had pulled up the floorboards where they found Kelsey's blood. They showed video of a hay barn where
Lee says Frezy hid Kelsey's body in that tote overnight. A cadaavver dog alerted
to the area. This is a surveillance image of Frezy at a gas [music] station. Lee says he was
buying gas to start a fire. >> We brought the tote here. Okay. >> We unloaded the tote.
>> Okay. >> Kelsey's body was moved to Frzy's ranch. >> Were you present when he started the
fire? >> Yes, I was. >> Okay. >> This is the video that shows how Lee says she helped Frezy burn Kelsey's body
in that black tote. What about the accelerant gas? >> Okay. >> And burned evidence, [music] including
Kayle's toys and Kelsey's bloodstained Bible. >> Do you remember what the books were by
just >> One of them was her um I would imagine it was a Bible. >> Experts say a human female tooth
fragment was recovered from Frzy's ranch near the burn site, but there wasn't enough DNA to determine a profile.
At the end of her testimony, she told the jury [music] Kelsey's chilling last words, "Please stop." But he didn't.
>> He keeps beating her and beating her and beating her. The jury needed to hear
that. They needed to hear how brutal this was, how uncaring he was, how senseless this was.
>> Why would Lee help Frzy? She claimed she feared for herself and her children. She
was in love with Patrick Frzy and had been for a long time. As the trial went on and and we saw that
dark side of Patrick Frzy that Crystal saw, that Kelsey saw, I think you can understand some of that fear.
I I don't know that we'll ever understand entirely why she did what she did. It's it's fairly inexplicable.
Perhaps the most shocking testimony came from a surprise prosecution witness. Your last witness, I think jaws dropped
when he started testifying. [music] Tell me about him. We didn't know about him.
>> Prosecutor Beth Reed says the surprise witness was an inmate at the same jail
where Patrick Frzy was being held. >> He actually had started calling our office while we were in the middle of
trial. >> The former inmate had watched a 48 hours episode on Kelsey Barth's murder.
Turns out he says Frezy gave him a hit list. Some of the names handwritten on paper towels he was instructed to flush.
Describe to me what was in the 16 notes passed between Patrick and the former inmate.
Well, they were requests that a certain number of witnesses needed to disappear, but it was very
specific as to Crystal Lee. Graphic descriptions of what needed to happen to Crystal Lee.
He described putting a bullet in her head. >> Also on Frzy's hit list, Crystal Lee's
best friend, Michelle Stein, and Kelsey's mother, Cheryl Barth. >> What does that say about Patrick Frzy?
It says that Patrick will do whatever he wants to get whatever he wants. >> The defense called no witnesses. Frezy
chose not to testify. The case went to the jury. After 3 and 1/2 hours of deliberations a
verdict. >> A verdict is in in this 11 breaking news alert. The jury says they unanimously
found Patrick Frzy guilty of first-degree murder. Frzy was found guilty of firstdegree murder, sentenced
to life in prison, plus 156 years. Do you think if Patrick hadn't involved Crystal, he would have gotten away with
Kelsey's murder? >> Yes, I do. I think it's very possible he would have gotten away with that.
Involving Crystal was that was a stupid plan. The whole plan was stupid, but he wanted Crystal Lee to pin it on. As for
Crystal Lee, she's facing a maximum of up to three years in prison. [music] >> I think a lot of our viewers are
probably thinking Crystal Lee, given what she's admitted to, >> got a really good deal.
>> She did. And um uh it's it's not right. And I'm not going to try to justify in
any way. Uh it's unfortunately a part of my profession that sometimes in order to
solve a case, we have to give a deal to the devil. Uh, that's exactly what we did here.
>> If you could sentence Crystal Lee, what would it be? >> Uh, heck of a lot more time than three
years. >> She could have saved Kelsey so many times over so many months, and it's
totally inexcusable. >> Is this justice for Kelsey and Kaye? Can there ever be justice?
>> Justice in this case, Kelsey be sitting here talking to you, not us. Excuse me. Um,
so we can s certainly seek a certain amount of justice, but not the justice that this case [music] deserves.
[music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> I've always been terrified, still am, of
uh of of water, dark water, sea water. Do you believe [music] Natalie Wood was murdered?
>> I think it's suspicious enough to make us think that something happened. >> Do you believe that Robert Wagner knows
a lot more about what happened to his wife than he's ever said? >> Well, I think he absolutely does because
he's the last one to see her. >> Would you like to live alone, Maggie? >> No. The Wagner Wood love story was one of
the great Hollywood love stories. >> Natalie Wood and Frank Sinatra were quite >> Natalie Wood was one of the biggest film
stars imaginable. >> My baby don't care. >> Robert Wagner in a way he was kind of
old Hollywood. >> He was this popular television star where he was astoundingly successful.
The story I wrote for Vanity Fair magazine was about Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood's tragic death at sea was
just one of the most stunning, staggering events in Hollywood. It was Thanksgiving weekend.
A call goes out from Robert Wagner saying that someone is missing from their boat.
6 hours later, the body of his wife, Natalie Wood, was found floating in the Pacific Ocean.
At the time of the incident, her death was ruled an accident. This new information is substantial
enough for us to want to take another look at the case. So over the last 6 years, have you been
able to get even more evidence that makes you question that this was an accident?
>> We have. >> There are witnesses who were nearby the Splender that evening. She got in the water somehow and I don't
think she got in the water by herself. It was cold, rainy, terrible, terrible weather conditions. I was the captain on
Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood's yacht. >> There was a tremendous [music] fight between them that night.
>> The fighting went back to the back of the boat and they just carried on and carried on and then it was quiet.
I went down below [music] and she wasn't there and the dinghy was gone and I looked around for her and I
couldn't I didn't know where she was. [music] >> I believed that Robert Wagner was with
her up until the moment she went into the water. >> We were so in love and we had everything
and in a second in a second it was gone. I wasn't there. I wasn't there for her.
>> There were a number of bruises that appeared to be fresh. She She slipped and hit the step and then rolled in.
That's what we think happened. >> She looked like the victim of an assault. >> When [music] this case was reopened,
Lieutenant Karina was asked, >> "Is Robert Wagner a suspect?" >> No. Has that changed?
[music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Natalie Wood was in life one of
Hollywood's most alluring actresses. In death, she still reigns, but now is one of its most enduring mysteries.
>> Actress Natalie Wood is dead at 43, the apparent victim of a drowning accident
off Santa Catalina Island in California. In 1981, Natalie Wood's death was quickly dismissed as an accidental
drowning, but rumors and allegations of foul play, fueled in great part by the boat's captain, Dennis Diver, have never
gone away. >> And I just didn't want my whole life to go by without having the truth come out.
So in 2011, 30 years after Wood's death, Diver and more than 700 others signed a
petition addressed to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department [music] outlining what they considered flaws in
the original investigation. >> It was already determined to be an actual drowning, but the information we
received made us want to take another look at the case. About nine months after the
investigation was reopened, another stunning announcement. The medical examiner's office changed
the manner of death from accident to undetermined, triggering an avalanche of news coverage and unleashing a flood of
new leads. >> Because of the press conferences we had, we found a lot more clues, a lot more
evidence, a lot more witnesses. For more than six years, veteran homicide detective Ralph Hernandez and
Lieutenant John Karina doggedly pursued [music] this case. >> Six years later, we've uh followed up on
all the clues. Over 150 clues we've got followed up on. Talked to a lot of people.
>> These detectives even traveled to Hawaii twice to comb the Wagner's yacht for
clues. It was docked there by its new owner. [music] 48 hours showed up in Hawaii, but
detectives wouldn't talk then and refused to [music] speak for six years and then for the first time they spoke
publicly about evidence they uncovered and there was a lot to tell. Does that evidence lead you to believe that
whatever happened to Natalie Wood was not an accident? >> Well, it does. It actually confirms my
suspicions even more that um what was originally reported isn't exactly what happened.
>> They point to the numerous bruises on Natalie Wood's body that were photographed and noted in the autopsy
report. It's [music] some of those bruises and where they were located that played a big part in convincing a
medical examiner to change the manner of death. Why are all these bruises suspicious to you? because she looked
like the victim of an assault. >> Another red flag, the story the three men on the boat, [music] Captain Dennis
Diver, actor Christopher Walkan, and Robert Wagner told the original investigators.
>> It didn't fit the smell test. You [music] know, it didn't make sense. >> All three told the police that they
assumed Natalie had left the Splendor [music] on the yacht's dinghy despite the late hour and stormy weather. That
didn't even make any sense to me. Why would Natalie Wood, this big movie star, try to go out in a dinghy in the middle
of the night in her socks, in her pajamas, at midnight, in rough seas? >> Is there any possibility that she would
get in that boat and leave? >> No. >> Not with a gun to her head. >> That story also makes no sense to
Natalie's younger sister, actress, and former Bond girl. >> Hi, I'm Plenty. >> Lana Wood. But of course you are
>> plenty too. >> Natalie reportedly had never operated the dinghy on her own and there was that
well doumented lifelong fear of dark water. >> I've always been terrified still am of
uh of of water dark water sea water. When I think of her in that [music] water, in the dark, in the cold, and the
one thing that she feared was water, and that's where she finishes her life. >> I know it's a cliche, but she really was
America's sweetheart. >> Vanity Fair magazine contributing editor Sam Cashner. >> America had grown up with her. She was
the little doubting girl in Miracle on 34th Street. Well, young lady, what's your name?
>> Susan Walker. What's yours? >> And then she was running with the sort of troubled pack in Rebel Without a
Cause. >> I'm not going back in that zoo. [music] >> I'm never going back. >> And then, of course, that incredible
performance in Splender in the Grass. She was in Westside Story and Gypsy. >> I am Gypsy Rose Lee.
>> And some of these great iconic films of the early 60s. By the time she was 18, Natalie had her
first of three [music] Academy Award nominations. She was so gifted. [music] >> In 2008, Robert Wagner, also known as
R.J., talked about Natalie on the CBS News broadcast Sunday morning. >> She was a very, very fine actress and
people loved her. You know, they adored her. He recalled their first date when Natalie was just 18 and R.J. was 26.
>> I started taking her out after that and it led one thing led to another and a
year later we were married. >> Was Natalie in love with R.J. when they first [music] got married?
>> Yes, she was madly in love with him. >> He was the perfect golden boy. But the
pressures of living under Hollywood's relentless scrutiny weighed [music] heavily on the marriage, says close
family friend Mark Crowley. >> They were hounded by the press. They were presented as the ideal couple, far
beyond what any normal human being could live up to. And now these investigators say they've
tracked down stunning new evidence that Wood and Wagner may have been more human
than anyone knew. Allegations that Natalie fled the couple's house one night in fear for her life. A new
witness, a former neighbor who says he was 12 years old at the time, remembers late one night being awakened by
somebody banging on the door. It was Natalie Wood. She was so afraid of him. She ran to a neighbor's house yelling
that day, "He's he's going to kill me and see and looking for help and looking for safety." And so a neighbor took her
in. [music] >> According to the witness, Natalie stayed the night and returned home the next
morning. But [music] so far, that's the only episode of alleged violence investigators have found.
After just 4 years, the couple's first marriage came to a bitter end, and Natalie began dating Hollywood
heartthrob Warren Batty. >> His career was on fire, and uh our relationship was gone, and why not? He
was in love with her. >> Wagner admitted that Natalie's stardom and his own insecurities probably tore
them apart. >> It was basically my inadequacy that didn't that didn't make it work. It made
me feel very sad and very brokenhearted and uh I felt that I had failed in the relationship
and I never thought that I'd ever get it back again. >> Both of them were besided with each
other after they got divorced. They [music] went on to other partners and had children.
But those marriages didn't work out and eventually [music] they found each other
again and got back together and got married a second time. >> How did you find out she was going back
with R.J.? >> Uh dinner party family only. R.J. was there in the living room and uh she
announced that you know R.J. and I are going to be remarried. I went wow. And all she did was she looked down and
she said, "Sometimes it's better to be with the devil you know than the devil you don't." Wagner
sees it differently. >> We felt that we had found something that was so precious to us and it was that um
we did everything in the world we could to protect it. >> They remarried, had a daughter named
Courtney, and were together for 9 years. until that final fatal voyage to Catalina Island.
On a miserable cold and rainy Friday in November, the splendor departed Marina Del Rey with Natalie Wood, Robert
Wagner, Captain Dennis Diver, and one [music] of Hollywood's hottest young actors,
Christopher Walkan. As soon as Chris Walkin walked up the gang plank [music] to the splendor in his pecode with the
collar turned up, Robert Wagner took an instant dislike to him. >> Chris was fresh off winning the Academy
Award for The Deer Hunter. >> God damn it. >> What is it? >> He was now shooting a film with Natalie.
>> It's me. [music] >> And there were rumors of an affair. >> You could see a little bit of jealousy
from Robert Wagner. It just kept getting more tense every minute of the of the day.
>> He felt that Natalie was paying way more attention to Christopher Walkin than she
was paying attention to him. >> When the splendor docked [music] at Catalina Island, Wood, Wagner, and
Walkan went ashore to the town of Avalon and began drinking heavily. We spoke to
Dennis Diver in 2011. The jealousy was under the surface until there was so much drinking that it
started to come out and it was obvious. Once back on this splendor, Diver says the tension escalated. And now for the
first time, investigators say they have a new witness corroborating Diver's account. That Friday, someone on a
nearby boat claims to have been close enough to see and hear a fight between the couple.
>> Natalie, to this witness, appeared to be the aggressor in the argument. Appeared
to be intoxicated. [music] Robert Wagner appeared to try and walk away from from the argument. At
the point that he's walking away, she actually fell down [music] to one knee. Deiver says the couple was fighting over
whether to move the Splendor to the other side of Catalina Island. >> He wanted to move the boat at night, but
she didn't want him driving the boat at night. It's kind of dangerous to do that, especially when it's so rough out
there and rainy. >> Natalie said she wasn't going to stand for this and would I take her to shore?
>> Natalie had Diver take her on the dinghy to Avalon where she desperately tried to
get off the island. She did indeed call me on Friday night. She said, "Um, can you come and get me?"
And I said, "What?" >> She couldn't get a boat or a flight out of there because of the weather and the
time of night. So, she had to spend the night there. >> Unwilling to return to the splendor that
night, Natalie got two hotel rooms, one for her, one for Diver, and then reportedly spent the night crying on
Diver's shoulder. She poured her heart out to him about how she was feeling and according to Dennis um about some of the
difficulties in their their marriage that it was becoming increasingly harder for her to deal with his professional
jealousy. >> And what did Dennis tell you about that? >> That she was furious. She was talking
about leaving him. >> Leaving him. >> Not just leaving for the weekend. >> No, leaving him. Divorcing. Leaving. He
felt that if she had not let gone back to mainland that night, she was so angry, she would have divorced uh Wagner
the next day. >> The next morning, Saturday, Natalie had a change of heart. >> She decided, well, hey, let's let's go
back to the boat. Let's let's see if we can smooth everything over here, and I'll make a nice breakfast.
>> Deiver says things did get better at first. Natalie even agreed to let Wagner
move the yacht to the other far more desolate side of the island. But by that evening, things were once again tense,
says Diver, when he and Wagner joined Walkan and Natalie, who had already gone ashore and were drinking at the bar.
When R.J. and I walked into the restaurant and he saw Natalie and Christopher sitting at the bar laughing
and having a wonderful time, he started to really really heat up. >> According to other people who were there
uh at the uh bar at the restaurant, they described him as irritated. He was tense
and [music] according to Deiver Natalie and Walkin were kind of ignoring him. They didn't really acknowledge him the
whole time and they were just kind of having a good time by themselves, partying and drinking.
>> Witnesses say all four were so drunk that when they left, the restaurant manager alerted the harbor master.
>> He calls the harbor master and says, "Hey, you know, Robert Wagner and Ally Wood are coming your way. They're really
intoxicated. Make sure they get back to their boat, okay?" >> They got back safely, but things were
about to turn ugly. Everything that I've [music] heard from Dennis know Natalie's temper was
surfacing. RJ's certainly was. It got out of hand in the worst way possible. [music]
For more than 38 years, the sea has kept her secrets about the night Natalie Wood
died. Secrets these investigators believe can be uncovered. But with all the shifting
stories, witnesses with failing memories, or long dead, Detective Hernandez knows time is running [music]
out. Why does a case that is now really more than 36 years old matter? >> Because somebody died. And no matter
what, ultimately that's our job to find the truth. >> Detective Hernandez and his partner
Kevin Low, now retired, brought their key witness, Dennis Diver, all the way to Hawaii where the boat was docked. And
there he reenacted his version of events. They spent a full day photographing, measuring, researching.
>> We wanted to take Dennis Diver there just to see what, you know, kind of jog his memory and see what details and
again get his perspective. >> Diver is a crucial but problematic witness. After initially telling police
one thing, he changed his story, sold it to tabloid magazines, and collaborated on a tell all book. But Diver claims he
was motivated by his conscience, not greed. >> I really don't just want money. What I
really wanted is to give Natalie a voice. >> You find him credible. >> I find his story in his version of
events when he talked to us. Everything fit makes more sense of what happened and is cooperated by other people.
Divert told investigators that problems between Robert Wagner and his wife building for two days exploded when they
returned to the splendor after dinner. Natalie by then in her flannel night gown and warm socks joined walkin de and
Wagner in the salon the living area of the boat. >> Natalie puts on the kettle to have a cup
of tea. I light a couple candles. I opened a bottle of wine. Natalie and Christopher
continued to giggle, just having fun. And then Robert Wagner out of the clear blue, picked up the bottle of wine
and smashed it. >> It breaks and goes everywhere and he yells at Walker, "What are you trying to
do? My wife?" Everything just kind of stops. >> Natalie, she said, "I cannot take this."
And she went into her room. According to Diver, Christopher Walkan also went to his room.
>> Then R.J. went into the room, Natalie and R.J.'s room, started arguing, yelling, things being thrown about.
>> At that point, Diver also leaves and goes up to the bridge at the top of the boat, says Lieutenant Karina.
>> He hears them arguing. The arguing is getting louder and he hears a lot of thumping. He says it sounds to him like
uh there's like a physical fight going on inside there to the point where he's so concerned he he uh walks back down
and he knocks on the door and Robert Wagner opens the door and he says he has this look crazy look on his
face and he says everything okay boss and he's like go away. He looks so angry. He says I was worried
about my own safety that I just I left. I went back up to the uh bridge. Diver told investigators that his line of
sight was blocked by the boat's rainshield, but he heard everything. >> Fighting continued and then to the back
of the boat. I I was concerned that something really bad was going down because the fighting, the arguing was so
intense. Until 2017, Diver was the only person to put both Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood outside on the back of the
boat, arguing Saturday night before she died. >> We have received information which we
felt was substantial. >> But after the press conference reopening the case, investigators got a huge
break. Two new witnesses told detectives they not only heard the fight, one of them says she saw it. saw figures on the
back of the Splender, male and a female, whose voices they recognize as being Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood arguing
in the back of the boat. [music] >> And how credible are these new witnesses? >> Oh, they're they're very credible. They
have no reason to lie and they and they their story matches what Dennis Diver says.
>> Like Diver, both witnesses say the argument stopped suddenly >> and then all of a sudden there was
nothing. Complete silence. Nothing but the sounds of a rough sea on a cold, dark November night, says
Lieutenant Karina. >> No one saw anybody go in the water. Nobody heard splash. Nobody heard
anything. They just heard the argument and then silence. >> There was one woman in the months
following Natalie's death who said publicly that she heard a woman calling for help. But Lieutenant Karina now
thinks she was mistaken. And Diver says 10 minutes after the fight ended, he [music] finally went back downstairs.
>> Robert Wagner is now in the state room and he says Robert Wagner is crying and
he says Natalie's gone. She's missing. >> Lieutenant Karina says Robert Wagner then tells Diver to go search the boat
for her. >> He can't find her anywhere. He comes back out and tells him, "I can't find
her." Robert Wagner tells him, "Oh, the dinghy is now missing as well." Karina and Hernandez [music] think it's
possible that someone could have untied the dinghy while Diver searched the boat.
>> I didn't untie it. Christopher didn't untie it. I don't think Natalie would have untied it.
>> Diver says Wagner refused to call for help. >> And Rod Wag tells her maybe she just
went into town, I think, to uh go to a bar or something. >> I said to Robert Wagner, "Maybe I should
turn on the search light." He said, "Don't do that." He says, "Well, maybe we should get on the radio and call
somebody." Robert Wagner says, "No, we don't want to call anybody. Let's just wait. See if she comes back."
>> According to the story Diver told investigators, Wagner then breaks out a bottle of scotch
and the two men sit drinking while more than an hour passes. >> Before you know it, we're oblivious and
it's time. We have to call somebody. She's gone. By Robert Wagner's own statement, he knew she was missing by
around midnight. But no call, no call for help is made till 1:30. >> Right. And when he did make that call
for help, it wasn't for, hey, uh, you need to search the water for her. He asked people in town to search for her
in town. And if they finally convinced Robert Wagner, hey, you need to call the Coast Guard. And, uh, kind of he almost
reluctantly said, "Okay, yeah, I guess we better call them." >> And what do you make of that? Well, if
your wife is missing and the dingy's missing, uh, I'm going to go look for her. I want to find her right away. I'm
going to be worried about her. Especially in seas like that, it's dark out, she doesn't like the water, she
doesn't like to swim. There's no reason for her to get in that dinghy to go anywhere. If she wanted to go somewhere,
she would ask Dennis Deiver to take her somewhere like she did the night before when she wanted to go into town. He did.
That's his job. It didn't make any sense [music] the story Robert Wagner was telling. And it still doesn't make any
sense to me to say that she would get in the dingy by herself and just and take off.
>> She didn't even know how to start it. >> She wouldn't do it [music] in a night
gown. She didn't get the mail in a night gown. >> My cash now or later >> after the Coast Guard was finally called
[music] about 3:30 a.m. over 3 hours after Natalie was reportedly last seen alive. [music]
The search went into high gear. Wagner's friend, Islander Doug Bombard, jumped in
his boat and joined in the hunt. At 7:44 a.m., he says he saw something red bobbing on top of the water.
>> It was about this far from shore uh where I found the body. The body was uh just basically hanging in that jacket.
That jacket was boying her up. She had a a cotton night gown on and her hair was
floating as you can imagine. >> When authorities arrived, Bombard headed to the splendor to break the news to his
friend. A moment Robert Wagner later recalled in [music] this audio recording of his 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart.
>> Doug pulled up and got out of his boat. Where is she? I asked him. Doug looked
at me. She's dead, R.J. My knees went out. Everything went away from me. I remember people coming on the boat
saying that they had found Natalie Wood floating and then she had drowned. Just couldn't believe it.
News of Natalie Wood's sudden death at the age of 43 quickly spread across the globe. Family [music] friend Mark Cwley
will never forget getting the call. >> When I picked up the phone, it was R.J. Okay. And he just screamed into the
phone, "She's gone." I just couldn't believe it. Things like that don't happen and they
don't happen to my sister, my family, and they don't happen to Natalie Wood. It's not real.
>> But it was all too real for Dennis Diver. [music] Soon after the movie star was found
floating face down in the waters off Blue Cavern Point, Robert Wagner and Christopher Walkan left the island in a
police helicopter, leaving Diver the grim task of identifying Natalie Wood's body.
>> Robert Wagner asked me if I would identify her body cuz he didn't want to. It was the eeriest feeling I've ever had
in my life to look at her laying there. >> Lifeless. It was so disturbing. >> You would think he want to stick around
and identify his wife and make sure her body was taken care of. That would be maybe what I would do. Maybe he's
different. Karina understands that grief can do strange things to people, but that
doesn't explain why. According to Diver, Wagner immediately came up with a story
and told the men on the boat to stick to it. >> Robert Wagner was very serious about
having the stories being the same. It was it was kind of like here we are. Okay, Dennis, Christopher, me, this is
what it is. Do you got it? That's what it is. Okay. If all the stories are the same,
there's there's really not too much to investigate. >> Diver says he now regrets going along
with it, but Lieutenant Karina says he understands how it could have happened. >> Diver back then, people mischaracterize
him as the captain of the boat. He's not the captain of the boat. He's a caretaker of the boat. Robert Wagner is
the guy who pays him and he's that's his meal ticket. If you look at Robert Wagner statement at the time, they
almost parried each other. >> All three men initially told Dwayne Razer, the original detective, that they
thought Natalie had taken the dinghy ashore. The detective told 48 hours in 2011 that he believed them.
>> I didn't doubt anything Robert Wagner told me at that time. Christopher Walin,
he basically told me the same story. It was pretty well confirmed. They assumed that she went ashore.
>> There was no mention of a fight. >> I saw the shattered glass in disarray and I questioned Robert Wagner about
that and says it happened sometime during their travels just due to the rough seas. I had no reason to question
him any further. >> Detective Razer, who has since died, only interviewed Wagner one more time.
It was the day after Natalie's funeral at the actor's bedside with his attorney present.
>> When I interviewed Robert Wagner, there was no indication of any jealousy, no
problems. There was no sign of foul play in my mind. >> It's a tragic accidental drowning.
>> Coroner Thomas Naguchi agreed. 2 weeks after the actress's death, the case was
officially [music] closed, but Dennis Deiver says his nightmare was just beginning. I felt like I was a prisoner.
>> Deiver says Wagner insisted he move into his guest house in Beverly Hills. >> I was to stay indoors at all times, not
communicate with anybody. I was in fear for my life because he never really knew
what could happen. >> Eventually, Diver left California for the East Coast, but was never able to
escape the past. >> I think he was in a way hunted down by his own conscience. He really seemed
like a hunted man. >> In the early 90s, Lana Wood says a tormented, seemingly inebriated [music]
Dennis Deiver started calling her. >> What specifically did he tell you? He [snorts] said it wasn't an accident. He
said it was ugly. >> Lana says she didn't want to believe it at first. >> I don't want to think that, but there
are so many things that are just facts. She has since become one of R.J. Wagner's harshest critics, going
so far as to publicly accuse him of foul play. >> Do you think she was pushed in the
water? >> Yes. You believe it was her husband, R.J. Wagner? >> Absolutely. Yes. >> [music]
>> Like Diver, Lana, who has a long bitter history with Wagner, has been accused of
exploiting Natalie's death for money and attention, something she denies. >> It's just time for the truth. It's time
to stop the lies and the deception and the fingerpointing. It's just not right. Do you think Robert
Wagner has ever told the truth of exactly what happened? I haven't seen it. I haven't seen him tell the details
that match all the other witnesses in this case. He's changed his story a little bit and his version of events
just don't add up to the evidence and the witnesses we found. >> Robert Wagner has never conceded that he
had a fight with Natalie on the boat that night. But in his memoir, he [music] did come clean about smashing
that wine bottle, the one he originally told the police broke in rough seas. >> Walking and I got into an argument. At
one point, I picked up a wine bottle, slammed it on the table, and broke it into pieces. Natalie was already below
decks at that point. >> In Wagner's version of the story, he didn't smash that bottle in a jealous
rage, as Diver claims, [music] but in an argument with Walkan over Natalie's career. In fact, he says she
wasn't even in the room. >> I looked below. I saw Natalie was doing something with her hair. She was going
to go to bed. And uh she shut the door and uh Chris and I were still talking. And when I went down below,
she wasn't there. She the the dinghy was gone. And I looked around for her and I
couldn't I didn't know where she was. >> Originally, he told the detective he thought Natalie had taken the dinghy and
gone ashore. But that, like so many other details, has changed [music] to what is now called the banging dinghy
theory. >> Natalie was in the master cabin and heard the dinghy banging against the
side. She got up to retie it. She slipped on the swimstep on the stern [music] and was either stunned or
knocked unconscious and rolled into the water. The loose dingy floated away. My theory fits the few facts we have. That
story is 100% false. The dinging really wasn't banging because it was tied off with two lines securely to the boat.
>> The reality is what's what does the evidence show? She wouldn't go back and that's not her that's not her job. She
would never go worry about the dingy. She's going to tell Dennis Dever, hey, can you go tie that dingy down? It's
making noise. That's his job. Six years of investigation, four new key witnesses, two determined investigators
with a lot of questions for Robert Wagner. >> As we've investigated the case over the
last 6 years, I think he's more of a person of interest. Now, >> we know now that he was the last person
to be with Natalie before she disappeared. >> [music] >> For the first time in the more than 36
years since Nallywood drowned off Catalina Island, investigators called her husband a
person of interest, but they stopped short of calling him a suspect. We have not been able to prove that this
was a homicide and we haven't been able to prove that this was an accident either. The
ultimate problem is we don't know how she ended up in the water. The statutes of limitations have run out
on all crimes except one, murder. And to prove murder, there has to be evidence that someone intentionally put
Natalie in the water. Falling in by accident wouldn't count. If people knew that Natalie Wood was in the water and
they didn't save her, they could have saved her and they didn't save her, would that be enough to bring charges in
this case? >> No, that's not. Believe it or not, there's no duty to act. >> Believe me, if she had called out or she
had made any uh noises or if we'd have heard anything, there were three of us there. We would have done something.
Nobody heard anything. Still, investigators remain troubled by the evidence they do have. The witnesses
who talk about a fight on the back of the boat and the number and locations of fresh bruises on Natalie's body.
>> I think I've been a cop long enough to see those appear to be assaultive in nature.
>> Could the [music] bruises have instead come from a drunken fall? perhaps. But
investigators think the circumstantial evidence, the fight, the alcohol, the [music] jealousy may suggest another
scenario. >> Someone can get so enraged they can't control their anger and like a crime of
passion. It just happens and they didn't mean for it to happen and then later on
they're sorry about it, but it's too late. >> For his part, Christopher Walkan has
remained largely silent through the years. >> We have to ask you about Natalie Wood
because as you know, they've reopened the case. You were there that night. What do you think happened, Christopher?
>> Well, you know, I stopped talking about that 30 years ago, and there's so much
information, books, and uh >> internet. Anything you want to know, just go look.
>> He did, however, interview with the new investigation. >> I'm not going to go into what
Christopher Walkin said, that what he told us was in confidence, at least for now.
>> Investigators did tell us that Wan is not a person of interest. Despite several attempts to reinter
Robert Wagner, including a trip to Aspen, where Wagner lives with his wife, actress Jill St. John, the investigators
say the actor has refused to speak with them. >> Robert Wagner, of course, we want to
talk to him and get his side of the story and try to clarify things. He's, you know, refused time and time again to
talk to us. [music] >> One part of Robert Wagner's story has never changed. He continues to insist
Natalie Wood's death was an accident, but there is a [music] part of him that blames himself.
>> When you're in love, you're responsible for the other one. She's responsible for
me and I was responsible for her. And you know, this accident that occurred, um, I wasn't there. I wasn't there for
her. And that's always within me. It really does pay me to this day to know that she is gone
when she really had whole life in front of her. >> I was 35 [music] when Natalie died and I
am now 71. Before my life is over, I would like to put Natalie's to rest by knowing the
[music] truth >> by speaking out. Lieutenant Karina [music] and Detective Hernandez are
hoping new witnesses will come forward. Either someone who saw something, heard something, or was told something.
Someone who will help answer the question once and for all. How did [music] Natalie Wood end up in the
water? Like any cold case, they intend to work it until it's solved. And [music]
>> we're not ever going to close it until we get to the truth. >> [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music]

"48 Hours" investigates true-crime cases that occurred around Thanksgiving. Watch the YouTube super marathon, which includes "Death of a Dream," "Mandy Stavik: The Case No One Could Forget," "Justice for Kelsey Berreth" and "Natalie Wood: Death in Dark Water."

00:00 Death of a Dream 42:17 Mandy Stavik: The Case No One Could Forget 01:23:00 Justice for Kelsey Berreth 02:04:57 Natalie Wood: Death in Dark Water

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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