The Lies of Lee Rodarte | The Interrogation Room hosted by Vivica A. Fox | Forensic Files

- [Vivica] Observing the signs. - [Darren] He adopts this posture again, and he looked down.
The emotion's beginning to swell. - [Robyn] His heart is probably beating out of his chest.
- [Vivica] Detecting changing stories. - This is where now we're not your buddies no more.
This is BS, what you've been telling us. - [Vivica] Spotting when to hold back.
- [Robyn] She's not paying any attention to him. She's letting him know that I have no time for you.
- [Vivica] And when to close in. - [Detective Surleak] You didn't do anything, but she was in your car.
She never got out of your car. - I'm Vivica A. Fox. As an award-winning actress, I know how to play a part
and convince audiences that I'm someone else. I can spot the signs when someone is playing a role
and not being honest. We'll expose the lies and uncover the shocking truth on our journey to discover
the secrets of the interrogation room. [Dr Ross] Whatever tactic that's in your playbook,
you can pull it out and play it. - This is a life and death situation. (dramatic theme music)
(tense music) - [Vivica] Jacksonville, Florida. Head chef Lee Rodarte is helping police with a missing persons case.
One of his staff, 21-year-old Savannah Gold, didn't show up for work and has disappeared.
But her car has been found, abandoned in the restaurant parking lot. Three days earlier on August 2, 2017,
worried Sharon Gold called 911 to report her daughter missing. (tense music) - [911 Operator] What's her name?
(soft tense music) - Although Savannah had never arrived for her shift at Bonefish Grill,
at this stage, she'd only been missing for two hours. - [Ciolino] The fact is is that there's so many missing people
in the United States. Any large city has that problem. So unless it's a young child
or a really old person who has maybe dementia or some physical problems that's missing,
the police are not gonna respond to a healthy 21-year-old who's just missing for a couple of hours.
- [Vivica] But even though she had only been missing for a short while, it was a text message
that Savannah had sent to her father that alarmed the Gold family. - [Daniel] Totally out of character for her.
And there's a few real red flags. For me, that is saying that something unusual has happened here
and more likely than not, she is at risk. - [Vivica] Even more concerning was that one of Savannah's car tires
was found slashed where it was located at Bonefish Grill. Jacksonville police detectives are assigned to the case.
- [Ciolino] Missing person cases are difficult because the person's missing. You don't know where they're at.
First thing you do is try and track their phone, call their known acquaintances,
friends, et cetera, where they work at. That'll tell us what's been going on in Savannah's life
the previous 48, 72 hours, or a week or so. These are all things you have to check out quickly,
because time is of essence, and if somebody's missing, they're in extreme danger
if they did not leave on their own accord. - [Vivica] Because her car was found
in the Bonefish Grill parking lot, police interviewed Savannah's work colleagues.
They're hoping that someone saw something in the minutes before her shift was due to start.
- [Daniel] If you put this into context, the police will be going out and speaking to everyone that knows Savannah,
to try to establish if they know where she's been, if they've had communication
and almost trying to build a timeline on where Savannah has been and when was the last time she was seen or heard from.
(tense music) - [Detective Reeves] How'd it look tonight? - [Employee 1] We were busy.
- [Vivica] But none of the worried wait staff at Bonefish can offer anything new.
Nor can their boss, head chef, Lee Rodarte, even though he has made himself available to the police
for an interview. (tense music) - [Ciolino] You're still trying to locate this young girl,
and that is really the main focus. We have no idea what happened after she left that parking lot.
They're trying to determine if this girl's alive, and if she is, where is she so we can recover her.
- So the assumption must be, at this stage, that she is alive, and possibly at risk of serious harm.
So this is what we call a crime in action. This is a life and death situation.
- It's now three days since Savannah Gold was last seen or heard from. Although still officially a missing person's case,
evidence is mounting that Savannah did not disappear of her own free will. The race is now on to find her alive.
Coming up... Head Chef Lee Rodarte changes his story. - I didn't tell you the truth when we talked at Bonefish.
- [Vivica] And he reveals what he witnessed the night Savannah disappeared. - Ford pickup, green.
- [Detective Reeves] Okay. - Drove past me and around, and she got in. - [Vivica] On August 2, 2017,
21-year-old waitress Savannah Gold was reported missing when she failed to show up
for her shift at Bonefish Grill and suspicious texts started coming in from her phone.
Police interviewed the restaurant staff. Some inconsistencies have been found in the information provided by the manager,
28 year old Lee Rodarte. Detectives have taken Rodarte back to their headquarters
to try to clear things up. (tense music) - [Robyn] At the beginning of this interview,
you'll notice the detectives leave Lee Rodarte in the interview room for 90 minutes
before they enter. - This is a great psychological ploy. He's not interacting with anyone.
All he's got is his own thoughts. Am I in trouble? Am I gonna get accused of doing something?
- [Robyn] His anxiety levels are going up and up and up. The longer he's waiting, the more nervous he's getting.
- [Dr Ross] You're also losing energy. You're getting tired. You're emotionally pitched to deliver certain utterances
at a certain point in time, so it throws off your timing. - When somebody comes back,
guess what the person wants to do who's sitting in there for 90 minutes by themself?
They wanna talk. - [Vivica] Even when Jacksonville detectives Reeves and Surleak finally enter the room,
Rodarte is kept in a holding pattern for a little while longer. - Hey. - How you doing?
- Good, good. Do you remember me from the other day? Detective Reeves? - Uh, please.
- [Robyn] While Lee's left alone with a detective, and she's not paying any attention to him,
he keeps on looking up at her, and it's definitely causing him some discomfort.
I believe that the reason that she's doing it is she's letting him know that "I have no time for you.
"I'm in a position of authority over you "and I really don't care very much about you."
- [Ciolino] And Lee's very curious about this whole thing. He keeps looking at her
and he's waiting for her to say something or talk to him. I think Lee's probably going, "Why isn't she talking to me?
"You know, I'm not a bad guy." - [Vivica] Lead Detective Reeves returns. The quest to find Savannah Gold resumes.
- [Detective Reeves] So let's get just a couple... Just make sure I've got your basic information.
It's Lee, and tell me how you pronounce your last name. - Rodar-tee. - Rodarte. Okay.
And that's R-O-D-A-R-T-E? - Yeah. - Right. And what's your approximate weight? - It's been a while since I weighed myself,
but probably about 163, something like that. - [Detective Reeves] 163? Okay. And what color eyes you got?
- Brown. - Brown? - Hair is? - Brown. - [Darren] So, in terms of establishing a baseline,
the officers obviously need to have that information with Rodarte in terms of his personal details -
name, address, date of birth, cell phone number. If they're trained in these techniques,
which most American police are, then that's also killing two birds with one stone
because they need the information and it's a way to see him when he's not stressed,
when he's quite relaxed. What's his normal voice tone like? What's his normal gestures like?
- [Detective Reeves] I wanted to talk to you about Savannah. So, I just had a couple of things that came up
that I wanted to ask you about specifically that didn't seem to line up so I wanted to...
- Yes, sir. - Come down and talk to you. Okay? All right? - Yep. - [Vivica] With fears for Savannah's safety
growing by the hour, Lee wants to clear something up with the police. - I didn't tell you the truth when we talked at Bonefish.
- Last time I saw her was Wednesday afternoon. - [Detective Reeves] Okay. - I heard that she has been
basically telling a lot of people at work that we hooked up a bunch, like, couple days before that,
and that she was going to, like, tell about the whole situation, you know, try to get me fired.
- [Detective Reeves] And why would that get you fired? - Well I'm a manager and she's an employee, so...
- Okay, so you guys aren't supposed to fraternize? - Yeah. - Okay, I gotcha. - [Ciolino] This is a critical moment,
because now Lee's back on his heels and we have him lying, and he knows he's caught lying,
and he tries to minimize the damage by admitting to lying. So what's everybody else thinking in there
is, well, if you lied about that, what else are you lying about? - I met her in the parking lot at Bonefish.
- When was this? - Wednesday afternoon. - [Detective Reeves] Okay. Do you know what time, or about?
- It was about 5:30. - Okay. - [Detective Surleak] When did you say you met her,
was she meeting you too or...? Um... - I didn't... I didn't call her. I just drove up there to see if maybe she was working.
I was gonna, you know, talk to her. And... - [Detective Reeves] Did you know she was working that night?
- I did. - Okay, you knew she was working that night? - Yeah. - [Detective Reeves] Okay.
- So I drove up there and was hoping to get a chance to talk to her. - [Ciolino] So what's established with this line
is the meeting's not pre-planned, he's basically stalking her. He's surveiling, waiting for her to show up.
He knew her schedule, he's the manager. He knows when she's working, he knows when she's gonna be at work.
So he's sitting in a parking lot and now he's on the hook for it. - I pulled in the parking lot,
she pulled in a little bit after me. I parked, I was like, "I heard you've been saying some things about me and you
"continuing to hang out, "and that we're boyfriend and girlfriend." She asked me, she said,
"Can I come sit in the car "because I just did some heroin and I'm a little paranoid."
- I said, "Why are you doing that? "You know, you're doing really well. "You shouldn't been doing that." - [Detective Reeves] Okay.
- And so she came and sat in the car and I explained to her the situation. I told her that servers at Bonefish
were coming to me and telling me that you're telling people we're having sex and we're boyfriend and girlfriend.
And I said, "I would appreciate," you know, "I need you to stop, because for one, it's jeopardizing my job.
"We agreed to, you know, split." And she said, "I'm gonna do what I want." - [Daniel] As the interview progresses,
he continues to build himself almost up as this a affable, friendly, totally reasonable person.
He's the peacekeeper. I mean, he does it actually quite subtly, demonizing, bringing her down in sort of standing
and bringing himself up in standing as well. So he's talking about her unacceptable behavior.
He talks about how she takes drugs. - [Vivica] Rodarte claims his job was at risk
because Savannah was going public about their affair. But he was also worried because his girlfriend Chelsea was getting upset.
- I told her, I said, "The girl that you were out with "told Chelsea "that we were still having sex
"and that you were just at my house, like, yesterday, "hanging out." And I told her that she needs to stop.
At that point, I got out and I punctured the hole in the tire. - [Detective Reeves] Okay.
- She just said, "Why'd you do that?" I said, "Well, I'm upset," you know? I apologized after, I told her I would get her a new tire.
And she said, "(bleep) you," you know? "You're a piece of (bleep)." And she said she's gonna keep talking, you know,
telling the lies and stuff about me, and everything like that. And I said, "Don't do it again,
"or next time it's gonna be worse. "It's gonna be your windows." (tense music)
- [Daniel] This completely unreasonable threat that he made to her, that if she carries on telling people that they're dating,
that he's gonna put her windows in, he's gonna put a brick through her car window.
Completely at odds to everything he's trying to display about himself as being the peacekeeper, the communicator.
As the officers are hearing this, these red flags will be firing off. But actually, it's really important
for them not to show that at this stage in the interview. Because if they react, or they judge him at this point,
then that could shut him down. Good interviewers will just acknowledge it. "You slashed her tire? Okay."
No judgement whatsoever. Just acknowledge that that's what he said he's done, almost without probing too deep with this point,
and then move on and then, "What did you do then?" Because you've got him talking, and you've got him talking about
a really, really important piece of information. - [Vivica] Lee explains that their argument in the parking lot came to an end,
and then Savannah left him sitting alone in his car. - She had her phone in her hand,
she got outta the car and walked towards the main entrance from San Jose, and I would say an older model Ford pickup, green...
- [Detective Reeves] Okay. - ...drove past me, and around, and she got in. - [Detective Surleak] Lee, why didn't you mention this before,
since we've been looking for this girl? I mean, don't you think that information is important? - I mean, it definitely does.
And I regret, obviously, not saying anything. - [Vivica] Lee seeing Savannah getting into a green pickup truck
is new information. Could this be the lead Detectives Reeves and Surleak need to find Savannah?
- Shopping centers have nothing but cameras in 'em. They've got 'em on light posts,
on the edges of the buildings, from the building, shooting out into the parking lot,
the parking lot shooting in. I mean, everyone in the world's got a camera going.
And guess what? Well, the police know one thing for sure, there's no damn green pickup truck anywhere.
No one got in any pickup truck. - [Vivica] Lee doesn't realize the detectives have already reviewed the CCTV footage.
They know Savannah doesn't leave in a green pickup truck. In fact, she never set foot
out of Lee Rodarte's car. - [Robyn] In this case, the detective makes sure to lock Lee into the story
of Savannah getting out of the car. He knows Savannah never got out of the car,
but by Lee locking himself into that story will enable him to come back, with evidence,
later on in the interview, that he can use to throw Lee's story off. - [Dr Ross] So the more you talk,
the more they have to bounce back and forth on what is factual or what is correct
and what is not correct. And the more statements you say that they know are counter to their knowledge,
or counter to the evidence, the more and more they realize that you are basically lying.
And if you tell one lie, you typically have to tell another lie to cover up that lie.
And a lot of people, no matter how bright they are, cannot keep it with all the lies that they tell.
- Lee Rodarte has been caught telling multiple lies. He's also admitted to arguing with Savannah in his car,
and slashing her tire. The detectives are convinced he knows where Savannah is.
With the life of a 21-year-old woman at stake, it's time to turn up the heat. (dramatic music)
Coming up... Things get personal in the interrogation room. - [Detective Surleak] I mean, I look at that little girl and I think of my little girl.
My little girl who's her age. (emotionally) That's who I think about. - [Vivica] And the floodgates open.
- [Darren] At some point, you know, begins to kind of cry, his eyes water. (Lee sniffles)
(tense music) - Investigators are desperate to locate missing 21-year-old Savannah Gold alive.
According to Lee Rodarte, she got out of his car and was then picked up by someone driving a green pickup truck.
After reviewing CCTV footage, the police know this is a lie. Savannah never got out of Lee's car.
- [Ciolino] The green pickup truck lie triggers the interrogation part. This is where now we're not your buddies no more.
I'm not your friend. This is BS, what you've been telling us. And now we've switched from
this is an information gathering interview type to a confrontational interview,
where it's you've been lying to us, we think you know a lot more than you're telling us
and now it's time we get down to the truth. Now the police, the detectives. are really heated up.
- [Detective Reeves] So, where's Savannah right now? - I don't know. - Where would I find her? - I don't know.
- [Detective Reeves] That's my prime objective, is to find her. - Definitely.
- [Detective Reeves] I think time's running out on her. - I should have said something to you when I talked. - Oh, yeah, yeah.
- I should have said something on Thursday when it was brought to everybody's attention.
- So tell me how I go from nice guy, never met you, you seem like a nice guy. I come up and talk to you again,
and you... didn't tell me this story. I'm not gonna say the truth, 'cause I think there's holes in this story, too.
So, where's Savannah? - I don't know. - [Detective] I need to know where Savannah is...
- I don't know where she is. - ...so I can let her family know. - [Ciolino] Lee has now figured out,
well, they're not gonna be happy until they figure out where Savannah is, and I've got a problem.
Psychologically, it's wearing on him. And this is all over his face, this is all over his body language.
The detectives know this and they're keying on it, because he's got nowhere to hide or run to now.
- [Vivica] Now, after almost 45 minutes of being interviewed, the detectives decide to switch things up.
For the first time, Detective Surleak speaks up. - [Detective Surleak] I mean I look at that little girl and I think of my little girl.
My little girl who's her age. That's who I think about. If that was my little girl, I couldn't imagine.
I don't care what she said about you or whatever, but my little girl is that age.
- Maybe... - [Dr Ross] The female detective makes a very emotional appeal. And yes, there is a point during the interview
where she appears to be in tears and she literally beseeches him, repeatedly, in hopes that she can strike a chord
of sympathy or empathy with him. I thought them working together was very effective.
Whatever tactic that's in your playbook, you can pull it out and play it. - You're not telling the truth.
- Maybe something gets outta hand in the car? - I didn't do anything. - [Detective] Okay, you didn't do anything.
But she was in your car. She never got outta your car. She never got out of your car, Lee.
- [Detective Reeves] We're not saying that you did anything. I'm trying to find her.
I didn't say you did anything. - I don't know where she is. - [Detective Surleak] Well, we can prove
that you left with her in the car. So please, do everybody a favor and just tell us.
- [Detective Reeves] Where is she? - [Robyn] The word 'proof' has a powerful impact.
There's a very definite reaction that Lee has. His foot's starting to shake, his eyes are blinking faster.
He definitely appears to be under a lot of stress. His mouth is getting dry, he needs to have a sip of water.
His heart is probably beating out of his chest at this point in time. - I know that she's in that car with you.
I have proof of all of... - Okay, I'm gonna ask you, Lee. You can tell us now, if you're being an honest man.
Are you being honest? - Yes. - [Detective Surleak] Okay, well let's start being honest.
She never got out of your back seat, Lee. Video cameras don't lie. - Lee. - How do you know...
How do you think I know this information, Lee? I wasn't there, but a video camera caught it.
I'm glad that you said you got in the backseat with her. All that lines up. Walking over to her car,
puncturing her tire, everything lines up. You come back to your car and going back to her car.
Everything lines up. But you know what doesn't line up? She never gets out of that car.
There is no green truck. And that's not right to her. We're fact finders, Lee. I don't have anything personal against you.
- No, no, not at all. I mean it's over. - We're just fact finders. - Just tell us what happened.
Where is she? - We're just doing our job. - [Daniel] The strength the second interviewer has in this interview
is that she somewhat teases him with facts. She does introduce it slowly, and she uses it almost as a rebuttal.
And then she introduces fact after fact after fact. He can replay that in his mind like a video
and he knows absolutely that is true. That strong layer of evidence, continually point out the facts to him,
contributes massively to this situational futility. - [Darren] In psychology, we call it the law of reversal effect.
The more that you ask a question, the more likely it is that someone will respond.
So they just nudge him, nudging him every time they ask. - [Detective Surleak] Where did you go with her, Lee?
Be human, you're a human. You're a man. Where did you go with her? I know you're not that cruel inside.
Seriously, where did you go with her? - Maybe you... - Please. - Maybe you don't know where she is now. Where did you go?
- Please. I'm begging you, Lee. Please. Please tell us. Please don't make us waste any more of our time.
Just tell us. - So what the female detective does in the interview with Rodarte
is she goes to town on humanizing Savannah. She'll say she's got a family, she's got a mother.
You know, I know you don't have kids, but if you did, think about how you would be feeling.
So she tries to really bring it into the forefront of his mind. At one point where she uses the words,
"I'm begging you, please tell me what you've done with her. "You know you want to be honest.
"We know you're not a bad guy, you know, "but we just need to know." - That's why I'm so passionate about this.
This is someone's child. You might not have kids, but dammit, she's someone's kid.
It's not fair to her mom... - I understand that. - All she wants to know is where her daughter is,
but I have this man sitting over here... - [Darren] Some key things with Rodarte is
he adopts this posture again and he looks down. So that means he's accessing his internal feelings more.
The emotion's beginning to swell, you know? So she is having a dramatic effect.
I'm sure she had feelings, you know, being a parent, I'm sure they were genuine.
But in terms of the robustness of why she did it, I think that was strategy. - [Detective Surleak]
- [Vivica] Finally, the penny drops for Lee. He realizes that he's got nowhere to go.
CCTV across the street from Bonefish Grill proves Savannah was still in his car
when he drove it out of the parking lot. Seamlessly, he changes his story. - [Detective Surleak] Okay.
I wasn't... - He's getting boxed in in a big way. Now he's put himself right into it.
- I mean she was upset. - Yeah? - She tried to slap me. I slapped her. She went to get out.
I grabbed her around her waist and said, "Where you going? "Why are you hitting me?"
And she tried to slap me again. She calmed down... ...and we left. - I mean, we've had arguments plenty of times
where she says she doesn't care what happened or anything like that. - [Detective Surleak]
- [Daniel] He's almost building up that hero role again, taking him back to where he wants to be,
the person with the higher values, the hero that did the right thing in the end.
That, alongside the evidence, proved to be effective. - And at some point, you know,
he begins to kind of cry, his eyes water. And he hesitates. It's on the tip of tongue.
And then that's it, the flood gates are open. - [Detective Reeves] Okay. - She had... - [Detective Surleak] She had?
- [Detective Reeves] Okay. - [Ciolino] He's hearing what he needs to hear from an adult authority figure.
"You're not a bad person. "You don't want to go out remembered "as such a rotten person."
And Lee buys into it, and what does he say? Well, something happened, but it was an accident.
Which has probably been said in a thousand homicides over the years. "Yeah, it was all a big misunderstanding.
"It was an accident. I didn't mean to do this." - You thought you had her up here?
- Okay, you heard a pop sound? - Yeah, and she just... - And you had both hands like this, around,
like, around this part of her neck? Could you feel a pop? - Yeah. (tense music)
- The investigators have worked together to finally get an admission. Lee Rodarte killed Savannah Gold in the back seat of his car.
But this interrogation is far from over. Once he murdered Savannah, what did Lee do next?
And where is her body? Coming up... The full horror of Savannah's fate is finally revealed.
- [Vivica] And reality sets in. - [Ciolino] He's about as remorseful as someone who's stepped on a cockroach.
(sobbing) (mumbles indistinctly) - [Vivica] After an hour of intense police interrogation,
Lee Rodarte has admitted to the murder of 21-year-old Savannah Gold. - Rodarte feared that his girlfriend would discover
his secret on-and-off relationship with Savannah. Savannah lost her life simply for telling people about their affair.
- So one of the nasty realities of dating violence is intimate partner homicide.
Sometimes resolving conflict or love triangles can lead to very violent outcomes, and even death.
And because there's this notion of jealousy that's involved, that notion of assumed duress,
that in order to do something about this to resolve the conflict, what does that do to someone's psyche
to act on behalf of some pressure from outside? (tense music) - [Darren] For some reason,
she'd become the center of his world. She'd been going around allegedly telling people all about him
and making him look bad and that seemed to be a real massive problem for him. Rather than turning the other cheek,
as most people probably would, you know, the situation literally got out of hand
to the extreme. - [Vivica] For Detectives Reeves and Surleak, the interrogation is far from over.
Despite Rodarte's confession, they now need him to tell them where Savannah's body is,
and what state it was in when he left it. - [Ciolino] The detectives are working hard.
They're working this thing hard, the sheriff's department is working hard. There's a lot of resources, time, effort, money.
Emotional, you know, states are occurring. Now the really tough questions, the grueling stuff's gonna happen.
And as Lee sits there, he's gotta really get down into the weeds and tell them what happened to her.
Where's her body? What did I do with that body? This is where it really gets bad for him,
and it's tough on the detectives, because they gotta draw this stuff out, because the case isn't finished
till they recover that body. It really isn't. No matter how terrible, gruesome, horrible it may be,
this is the job. (sniffles) (sighs) - Okay. - Okay. Was she just put in the firepit,
or did you burn her, or what? - Okay. - [Ciolino] You wanna reach across that table
and strangle this cat. That's what you wanna do. Put him out of his misery. Summary execution.
Forget all this five years of trial and plea bargain stuff. You have no interest in being nice.
But the effective method here is be nice, be kind, say whatever you have to say to get what you need.
And they did that and they should be commended for it, 'cause it was a great job.
(emotional music) (Lee sobbing) - It's okay. - No, it's okay. You're doing the right thing now. You are.
- So you moved her Friday? - [Vivica] Lee Rodarte explains that while the police
were searching frantically for Savannah, in the hope she might be found alive,
he was busy trying to dispose of her body. First, he burned her body in a fire pit at the back of his house.
He then dumped her burnt remains in a swampy pond on the outskirts of town. (tense music)
- [Detective Surleak] - [Lee] - [Detective Reeves] - [Detective Reeves] Okay. - [Vivica] Thinking back to what sparked this investigation,
the detectives are curious to know what Lee was thinking when he messaged Savannah's father and brother.
- Let me ask you, let me ask you one other thing. (sighs) What was up with the texts to her family?
- I just freaked out. - Okay. - I got... I got scared. - Sure. Who'd you send the texts to?
- Her dad. - Okay. Anybody else? - And her brother. - All right. Give me a few minutes to get some stuff together.
I'll convey what you've said to me, okay? - Thank you. - [Detective Surleak] Thank you for being honest.
- I do wanna to tell you thank you for being honest. I know. Give me a few minutes, okay?
- [Vivica] When the interview is finally over, Lee Rodarte seems physically and mentally crushed.
- [Ciolino] They leave him. They leave the room and they go out. And now the Oscar-winning performance of Lee starts.
He starts hitting himself in the head. He's crying. He's yelling at himself. He's cussing.
He is acting for the cameras, and for maybe a judge or a jury who might watch this one day.
He's about as remorseful as someone who's stepped on a cockroach. This is all acting.
The time to be remorseful is not in the interrogation room after you confess. I think it was all an act.
I don't believe one word of it. Alligator tears. Hopefully, nobody bought that nonsense.
(sobbing) I would've liked to have been in that interview, 'cause my belief is that there were no tears.
Because this is a man that cold-bloodedly murdered the victim over nothing. He has set fire to her.
He has then desecrated her body. And he even has the audacity to text the victim's family
to make it appear that she's okay, and to give them hope that she's still alive.
This is a man has no remorse. I don't think he's got a remorseful bone in his body.
[Robyn] - Lee Rodarte was charged with murder in the second, tampering with evidence
and abuse of a dead body. The reason why he was charged with abuse of a dead body
is his attempt to burn the body after he killed her. - [Vivica] Although Lee Rodarte
confessed to strangling Savannah, he would continue to claim that it was in self-defense.
That had he not strangled Savannah in the car, she would've harmed him. - [Robyn] Lee filed a motion to dismiss the charges
based on the stand your ground laws. The stand your ground law allows for somebody
to use deadly force against another person when they believe that there is an imminent threat
to their own safety. His motion was denied because it was very clear that Savannah,
and her small, slight frame was of no threat to Lee. - [Vivica] The coroner's report stated
that no drugs were ever found in Savannah's body. In the end, Lee Rodarte entered into a plea deal
to avoid the death penalty, and pled guilty to second-degree murder. On February 15, 2021,
in Duval County's Circuit Court, he was sentenced to 40 years in jail. (soft tense music)
- [Ciolino] Every cop out there doing this sort of work, they wanna be able to tell a victim's family,
"This is what happened." It may be ugly, it may be terrible, but they deserve to know what happened
to their 21-year-old daughter. They really do. And I would tell you, anyone who's ever lost a child,
nothing helps. The fact that you lost a child, there is no closure. You're never gonna get through that.
But as cops, as professionals and prosecutors, et cetera, you wanna solve the case.
Murder cases have to be solved. There has to be justice of some sort. Otherwise, what are we doing?
(dramatic theme music)

In 2017, when Savannah Gold fails to show up for her shift at the Bonefish Grill, her parents are immediately troubled by bizarre text messages sent from Savannah’s phone. When Savannah’s co-worker Lee Rodarte’s story doesn’t match up with the evidence, he becomes law enforcement’s number one suspect. Hosted by Vivica A. Fox, THE INTERROGATION ROOM is a brand new true crime series that brings viewers behind the scenes, where real-life murderers and detectives play cat and mouse. Behind every shocking crime is a detective racing to uncover the truth, and it all comes down to the wire inside the interrogation room. #truecrime #documentaries #interrogation #police #footage #hiddencamera #suspects #behindthescenes #interrogationroom #vivicaafox #interrogationpsychology #filmrise #filmrisetruecrime #truecrimedocumentary #raw #shocking #shockingconfession #savannahgold #leerodarte

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Brief Summary

Savannah Gold's disappearance leads to Lee Rodarte's confession of murder during intense police interrogation.

Key points

Savannah Gold Goes Missing. 21-year-old Savannah Gold disappears after failing to show up for work, raising alarms.
Emotional Appeal in Interrogation. Detective Surleak connects emotionally, sharing thoughts of his own daughter to elicit a response from Lee.
Detectives Turn Up the Heat. Detectives confront Lee Rodarte about inconsistencies in his story regarding Savannah's disappearance.
Lee Rodarte's Confession. After intense interrogation, Lee Rodarte admits to murdering Savannah Gold.
The Horrific Aftermath. Lee reveals he burned Savannah's body and disposed of her remains in a pond.
The Final Sentencing. Lee Rodarte pleads guilty to second-degree murder and is sentenced to 40 years in jail.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a life and death situation.

1:06WatchJun 8, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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