The Shocking Murder of Janet Stallcup | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove, Orange County, California, 1976.
19-year-old Janet Stallcup goes missing on her way to a party. Eight days later, Janet Stallcup's body
found in her car. The young woman, the victim of rape and strangulation. She was inside the car, lying on her back.
Her head was against the inside portion of the door. It was apparent due to her position
that she had been sexually assaulted. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police will learn of a very similar
attack in the same area. As soon as I ran outside, I was grabbed and a gun pointed to my temple.
It happened so fast. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Years will pass, and both cases go cold.
This is the story of two sex assault victims. One is a survivor, the other, tragically murdered.
Their cases go unsolved 45 years until science and determined police work bring answers.
I'm Nancy Grace, this is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove,
California, a small city located in Orange County just south of LA. [GENTLE PIANO MUSIC]
December 19, 1976, Janet Stallcup leaves her apartment to go to a party. The 19-year-old nursing student never gets there.
Her roommate becomes worried when Janet doesn't come home. The roommate calls Janet's family, 2:30 AM.
DAVE DIERKING: On Sunday, December 19 at approximately 8:30, the friend was on the phone at the time,
watched Janet actually leave their upstairs apartment carrying a paper sack with an unopened bottle of wine.
And her intention-- Janet was, was to walk to her car in the parking lot and go to that party.
And that car was a white 1962 Ford Falcon and it was parked in the parking lot there.
LEE NEIL: Apparently, at some point, she stopped off either to get gas, or to get some gum, or something to drink or something,
and that was it. She was just gone. [TENSE MUSIC] It was so out of character for her not to be responsible.
So immediately, we kind of thought, oh, this is not good, but of course, always hopeful that it would just turn out
to be a mistake or a lack of communication somewhere along the line. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove Police begin searching
for Janet Stallcup and her car. DAVE DIERKING: There was a grid search that was completed in a police Explorer,
looking for her and her car. Found her deceased in the parking lot of Franciscan Garden
Apartments, and that was located at 13161 Yockey Street in Garden Grove. It's a large complex, there's 150 apartments,
and it was approximately 2.5 miles from her apartment on Dale. And that would have been eight days
after she walked out that door. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police immediately look
for evidence, hoping to establish how the teen nursing student died. DAVE DIERKING: He would call the coroner's office, who would have
a investigator come out, who would examine the scene and take possession of the body.
And then you would start documenting uh, any potential evidence that you're going to take.
You'd fingerprint the car, which they did there. And then they also secured the car, impounded it,
and did a further investigation in the lab later. She was inside the car, lying on her back.
Her head was against the inside portion of the door, which was locked. She was covered up with her own gray fur-lined jacket.
Her pants and her underwear had been pulled down. Her left sandal was still on her foot.
Her right sandal was off and it was found on the driver's floorboard. Her earrings were no longer in her ears.
She had what appeared to be bruises and possibly a bite mark. Her top was torn. The keys for the car were found near the front seat.
There was a gum wrapper that was found in the car, along with a newspaper, a business card,
and body fluids were found in the front seat. It was apparent due to her position
that she had been sexually assaulted. And it was noted that her watch and her purse were missing.
[FOREBODING MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Janet Stallcup's body is brought for autopsy.
DAVE DIERKING: What they found is a piece of gum that was in her throat. They took fingernail scrapings.
They took tissue samples from her, hair samples, and they collected what's called a rape kit, where they swab
and collect any potential evidence that she'd been sexually assaulted, which it certainly
appeared to be the case here. The doctor, Dr. Fisher, determined that she did die due to a C3 cervical fracture
to the neck with spinal cord compression. And basically the decedent's neck was fractured by the assailant.
Garden Grove detectives, now faced with the difficult task of breaking the terrible news
to Janet Stallcup's family. LEE NEIL: I had a front bedroom so I could see when they got out of the car
and came up to the house. And you could just tell this was not going to be good.
I've never seen two more devastated people in my life. You could just tell they were devastated.
She was a genuinely nice person, generally wanted to make people happy, wanted to help.
You really couldn't say anything bad about her. She was-- she was quiet, wasn't real socially outgoing.
But she had a group of very close friends that she stayed in touch with, and they'd
been friends since elementary school, so everybody kind of looked out for everybody
else, which made the whole thing that much more shocking. Because it's like, wait a minute,
this can't be happening here. DAVE DIERKING: Well, I found an article and I think it sums it up.
And it starts by saying, "outraged by the brutal and senseless slaying of pretty 19-year-old Janet Aline Stallcup
of Garden Grove, people everywhere were calling in possible leads to the Garden Grove Police Department,
according to Chief Frank Kessler." I think that sums up what everybody thought of that particular crime.
You would have tried to time stamp at least 24 hours of her life, try to determine, if you can,
where she was captured. It appeared, I think, to everybody, that she had been kidnapped, most likely from the apartment
complex, but they weren't sure. So they actually canvassed all the liquor stores.
They did tests on the car. They determined the car was functioning, how much to gas.
The area that she was found in was a natural progression or direction that she would take if-- if she
was going to Santa Ana. Although, based on the evidence, it's pretty clear to everybody
that the capture, the original kidnapping took place at the apartment complex. You would also go ahead and process and compare prints.
If you have anything that is of print quality, you'd want it compared to any potential suspects.
And then you'd want to do blood typing on the rape kit. Typically, DNA samples are collected
using a swabbing technique, using a sterile cotton-tipped swab. Sometimes, other collection techniques
are used, such as cutting out from the substrate, in the case of something such as blood on a T-shirt
or the mouth end of a cigarette butt, you can cut that directly and use that in your DNA testing.
It just depends on the sample type. But typically, swabbing is what's used. The practices that you use to avoid contamination,
such as wearing personal protective equipment, or gloves, or a face mask, to avoid your own DNA
getting onto a forensic sample, was not done, um, back in the 1970s. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Detectives
now focus on finding Janet Stallcup's killer as quickly as possible. They soon learn of another kidnap and sex assault that
occurred before Janet's murder. Are these cases linked? We find out next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[TENSE INTERLUDE] [TENSE INTERLUDE] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove, California, 1976.
A 19-year-old nursing student, Janet Stallcup, leaves her apartment to go to a party, but she never arrives.
Instead, Janet is found horribly raped and strangled dead. During their investigation, police
learn about a crime with striking similarities to Janet's. It's also a sex assault, it's also a kidnap,
and it happened very near Janet Stallcup own apartment. But this time, the victim survives.
This particular case, on November 17, there was a brutal kidnapping, armed kidnapping, involving
two suspects and a female that lived very close to where Janet lived. Janet was my next door neighbor.
I didn't know her well enough to realize that something was amiss. It just wasn't on my radar.
And we had, um, neighbors. It was a father/son, and they were carpenters, and left really early
in the morning to go to work. And the night it happened, my car's battery had died.
And I also was cognizant of this father and son, where they were-- where their car would be parked,
it would be hard for them to get out and not hit me. Wasn't sleeping well, and I was worried about these guys,
and I don't know what time it was in the morning, but I heard what I would have swore
was them coming out talking. And so I put on my robe and was going to run outside
to tell them, [INHALES SHARPLY] yeah, this is my car, this is what's going on. But as soon as I ran outside, I was grabbed,
and a gun pointed to my temple. It was, yeah, it happened so fast. He pulls me. And I was barefooted.
It was-- it was cold. But, you know, and threw me in the car. And there was another guy sitting in the front seat.
And he turned around and said, What's going on? So he had no, no clue. He raped me and then guy in the-- in the front seat
was like, dude, don't do this, don't do this. What's going on? And his-- the way he was sitting,
this hand is over the seat and he's got a wedding ring on. He tells him he's gotta do the same thing.
And he's like, no, dude. And then he points the gun at him. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] And so-- it was weird.
Instead of going out the door, he climbs over the seat to the front, and this guy in the back.
And I could tell by the expression on his face that he was, you know, he was not comfortable with this.
And I said to him, (HUSHED) "What would your wife say?" And if looks could have killed, I mean,
he just-- he just melted, but then had the gun on him, and told him he had to do the same.
And then when it was done, and drove away, and the guy opened up the door, and said, "Get out."
So I just kind of rolled out, and just kind of landed. And we were still in the parking lot, so I hid behind a car,
'cause all I thought is, he's going to stop and come back and try to get me. And I thought, if I can hide under a car.
And he just took off. So that guy, and I don't remember his name, if it wasn't for him, I would have been their next victim.
It seemed like only a couple of minutes, and then my husband, all of a sudden, I could hear him.
And he had been-- it was a big apartment complex. And he had been running all around, shouting my name,
and his roommate too. And they had gotten, we had some other friends. They were out looking for me too.
Never once did I hear anybody calling my name. I'm thankful that they didn't come upon us because many people
could have been hurt. [MUSIC INTENSIFIES] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Cindie Riley tries to deal with the horrible ordeal she's just been through.
I was ashamed, I was embarrassed, I was shaking. Um, I had a-- a kidney infection.
I had started my period in amongst all of this, so I'm just a mess. But the police were there almost immediately.
Garden Grove is a very small little town. [MOURNFUL ORCHESTRAL MUSIC] They were wonderful.
There were-- there were no women. It was just men. And they were very, very wonderful.
I hid for a couple of weeks, because the trauma, because of what I looked like. I just had to move forward.
And my husband was amazing. I mean, he's still with me. And they moved-- the, um, Garden Grove Police Department said,
we don't want you living here because he knows where you are. And that wasn't my apartment.
I lived in-- I lived on the other side of the complex with a roommate. And so we found a little apartment complex in Costa
Mesa, real close to the beach. And the Garden Grove Police came out and vetted the apartment.
They talked to the Costa Mesa Police Department to let them know what was going on.
And, you know, life-- life moved on. [CHUCKLES] We got married and [LAUGHS]. So, and then we moved out here.
But I have always, always, always looked over my shoulder. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove
investigators still can't find a suspect and the case goes cold. Decades later, a brand new forensic science
emerges to help detectives. But will this groundbreaking weapon track down Janet and Cindie's attacker?
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE INTERLUDE] [TENSE INTERLUDE] [GENTLE MUSIC]
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove, California, 2002. Investigators study brand new advancements
in forensic science. Will these advancements help them catch a man who kidnaps and rapes two women 26 years before?
One of the women, a teen girl, Janet Stallcup, murdered in the attack. The other victim, Cindie Riley, amazingly survives.
It was periodically looked at throughout the years, every time that there would be some new investigative tool.
You know, to have a DNA profile in 1997, that was on the forefront, so obviously,
that was one of the first cases that they wanted to be examined for DNA, and it was.
And then 2002, they uploaded it to CODIS. ANNA DADHANIA: CODIS is the Combined DNA
Index System run by the FBI. It is a network of local, state, and national DNA databases
where local crime labs in the United States will upload their unknown crime scene profiles in hopes
of getting a match to the database to a convicted offender or an arrestee. CODIS has its limitations because it's
limited to STR profiles, Short Tandem Repeat profiles. The network that is CODIS is what is also
used for familial searching. That is limited to either a direct comparison, so a direct one-to-one match between a unknown DNA profile
and a convicted offender already in the database. Or if you do familial searching, it is limited to a first degree
relative, like a parent or child, or a sibling. But there was never any hit up through August of 2020,
when they turned to this new investigative tool that I was fortunate to be a part of.
So I worked one of my assignments here at the DA's office. It was the DNA unit at the time.
It's now called The Science and Technology, and I was a rapid instrument operator, one of the first here.
And IGG came about when I was not in the unit. And it had to do with the desire by the office
here to create a unit, because, uh, they had, uh, observed the Golden State Killer investigation, where there was
four sexual assaults and murders here in Orange County, have a successful prosecution only because of IGG
and the fact that identified this unknown killer for all these years. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): So what exactly is Investigative Genetic
Genealogy? Whatever it is, it's revolutionizing how cold cases are solved. Investigative Genetic Genealogy is the use of advanced
DNA techniques and direct-to-consumer genetic genealogy bases by investigators to help identify
a suspect of a crime or help identify unidentified human remains. This is done by sending a DNA sample
from the crime to a private DNA company to test them for SNPs. SNP stands for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism.
In all humans, over 99% of their DNA is shared. However, scientists have discovered locations
within the genome, singular locations called nucleotides, that are known to have variation from person to person,
also known as being polymorphic. And that is what a Single Nucleotide polymorphism or a SNP
is. Once that sample is tested, we receive back SNP DNA results that are then uploaded to direct-to-consumer
genetic genealogy databases that allow for law enforcement searching. About 24 hours later, we'll get a match list, which
is filled with relatives or potential relatives of the unidentified DNA sample. When we obtain a match list, we also
get a number called a centimorgan that helps us determine the possibilities of relatedness.
This number tells us how much DNA is shared between the two individuals. The higher that number, the closer the relationship may be.
[GENTLE MUSIC] We're looking for matches that are in the second cousin range or higher,
hopefully, to help solve a case. Those cases are typically easier to solve. Once the numbers get lower and you get to a third cousin
or fourth cousin range, then the cases typically become harder and harder to solve.
When we get this match list, we'll identify the top matches, identify who is related within those matches,
and then determine if there's any other DNA-related information that could help us in our case.
Once we identify the top matches, we'll start building family trees back in time
from each of the top matches and see if we can find any common ancestors between these matches.
If we can, then we can start building the family trees forward in time to help identify the suspect.
We'll look for a suspect that's within the suspect age range that we've determined for the case,
or within the correct location, in this case, Orange County, and other factors that would
help us identify the suspect. This is the best case scenario, but it doesn't happen in every case.
It's the best case scenario to actually solve a case using genetic genealogy. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Investigative
Genetic Genealogy, a remarkable breakthrough in forensic science. But it, all on its own, cannot solve cases.
It must be combined with the expertise and the painstaking work of genealogists and investigators
who make it work. We had relatively very low matches. We had third cousin levels.
Now, for me, this was one of my first cases, and we built this tree with 36 different matches, and built
it out to over 5,800 people. And we did not have any direct link to Orange County
where we could say, hey, let's-- let's look at someone like this. So what our thought was, is the bottom-up approach.
So we sought out any potential surnames for the Y. And we were able to get a surname
search done using the Y-STR. ANNA DADHANIA: A Y-STR profile is a set of markers that
are tested along the Y chromosome, that results in a DNA profile. The Y chromosome is passed mostly unchanged
between a father and a son, so along the paternal line, they will have the same Y-STR profile.
So it is not identifying, but it identifies a paternal lineage. And we were given the name of Hawkins.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Investigators are convinced they are just one step behind a sadistic killer.
Will he strike again? Investigators now have a family name, Hawkins. But will they be able to catch the man who sex assaulted
and murdered Janet Stallcup? That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE INTERLUDE]
[TENSE INTERLUDE] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove, California, 2021. 44 years after the rape and murder
of a nursing student, Janet Stallcup, police are finally closing in on a killer.
Orange County investigators are using Investigative Genetic Genealogy to narrow down a suspect list.
One family name emerges, Hawkins. We went our tree, and we had Hawkins in there.
We also had 12 MRCAs, most recent common ancestors, but those most recent, the most recent was 1870.
The most distance was, like, 1620. So everybody sort of related together. But we did have Hawkins in there,
but then again, nothing ever came down. So what we did after building the tree, looking at the Y surname, is we decided--
we had talked about it and it was very apparent this wasn't a first crime for whoever did this.
So we started looking at newspaper articles and fortunately, was able to find two separate newspaper
articles about a Terry Dean Hawkins, after being arrested on July 4 for just being drunk in public
in Newport Beach. And what was significant about that is that he, at least in the newspaper articles,
they listed his address. I believe it was 9811 Russell in the city of Garden Grove, which,
if you plug it in, you find that it's about a mile and a half from where Janet Stallcup was found.
ROBERT TAFT: Investigator Dierking said that they were working a cold case trying to solve,
I believe it was a rape/homicide. And they had identified a-- what they believe to be a possible suspect.
And in doing some research on that individual, he had mentioned that this person had been previously
arrested by the Orange County Sheriff's Department for homicide, of all things, back in 1975.
On April 28 of 1975, at about 1:30 in the afternoon, a couple of land surveyors were working in what is
now Laguna Hills, California. Back then, it was very rural, and I believe they were doing some excavation
for a possible new roadway. And as part of the surveying process, they came upon a creek,
uh, in what was referred to as The Old Veith Ranch. And when they stopped and looked down into the creek,
they noticed the body of a young woman face-down in the creek bed. Her name was Guadalupe McClelland.
She was really kind-hearted. We lived in Mexico for a while before I was five. When I was going to start school, we moved here.
Um, she would help. Like, there would be some kids that come by asking for food,
and she would set them down at the table and feed them, and then give them a little pot full of food
to take home to their grandma, 'cause I guess they lived with their grandma. Every time they came, she'd be like, sit down,
eat till you're full, till you're completely full, and then take this home to your grandma.
So she was, you know, she was kindhearted. She was a good person. I was not ever allowed to spend the night at anybody's house.
And I had a best friend that lived at the corner of our apartments. And I always begged, "Please, let me."
And my mom would say, no, you cannot spend the night. And that night, for some reason, she told me,
you can go spend the night at Marie's house. And I thought-- well, I was little,
so I thought, OK, my mom said I could spend the night. Oh, OK, great. Yeah, so then I went and spent the night,
and then I never seen her again. She left that night, and then she never came back.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Terry Dean Hawkins goes unnoticed by detectives investigating
Guadalupe McClellan's murder. It turns out that her husband Robert noticed that she was
missing, and went to the Orange County Coroner's Office when they had heard that the body of a young woman
had been recovered. So what they actually did at that time was, they went and viewed the body.
And Mr. McClelland went down and identified the young woman as his wife, Guadalupe.
Once they identified who she was, then they were able to backtrack as to what she had done
in the days prior to her death. And it turns out that she was last seen at a bar called
JJ's in Santa Ana, California. So the investigators went and talked to a number of the employees, a number of the patrons
at the bar. And they relayed to the investigators that they had seen her leave anywhere between 12:30 and 2:00 AM on the morning
of the 28th, with a young man they described as a male, white, possibly 25 years old, blond hair,
and kind of a stocky build. When they subsequently followed up on that, in talking to those individuals, they
learned of a possible employer where this gentleman worked. And when they went and contacted that employee
and provided them the physical description of who that subject may be, the employer immediately identified
the person as Terry Hawkins. So investigators went, contacted him, conducted an interview,
and he admitted to being at the bar that night, and to talking with Guadalupe. His story was, she had asked him for a ride to Tijuana.
He says, I can't take you to Tijuana. I can take you as far as El Toro. And his story was that he dropped her off at the Kenyatta
off-ramp off the Interstate 5 freeway at about 1:00 to 2:00 in the morning, and that
was the last time he saw her. The investigators pressed him a little bit more and said, OK,
can you show us the area where you dropped her off at? And he agreed to accompany the officers to that location.
While they were driving to that location, they conducted additional interview of him.
And during the course of that interview, his story changed. Initially, he said that he had not
had any sexual contact with Guadalupe when they first approached him. During the second interview, he admitted
that they had, uh, sexual relations in the parking lot of the bar prior to leaving, and that he dropped
her off at that location. And again, his story stayed the same as, "Once I dropped her
off, I hadn't seen her again," but now he alluded to the fact that, "Yes, we had sex
prior to us going down there." [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Unfortunately, investigators
do not have enough evidence against Terry Dean Hawkins to prosecute him for Guadalupe McClellan's murder.
He was actually charged. He was arrested and booked into Orange County Jail for murder.
And the case was packaged together and presented to the District Attorney. And-- and unfortunately, the District Attorney decided not
to file charges against him. And I can speculate as to, in my review of the records,
that it was primarily circumstantial type case. So my belief is that the District Attorney
just didn't think he could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. ANNEMARIE KARINA LEON: It was a little devastating
that he initially was put away for what had happened to my grandmother, and then let go, which
allowed him to take another person's life and affect another family. I see how it affected my mom, and that was her mother.
So I can't imagine losing my mother, or my sister, or my own son. I could not imagine that.
I don't think that I could bear that. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Detective Dave Dierking
is determined to give answers to families of both teen girl Janet Stallcup and murdered Guadalupe McClelland.
But he must match Terry Dean Hawkins' DNA to DNA collected from Janet Stallcup's rape
kit all the way back in 1976. I had to write a search warrant for those histology blocks.
And, um, they did have them. They, uh, were able to-- actually, the forensic scientist at the Orange County Crime Lab
was able to painstakingly go through and process, um, these histology blocks, which are basically
tissue samples within wax. And just by the nature of it being so long, you have degradation that takes place to these tissue samples.
But Bobby Benz was the forensic scientist, and he did a tremendous job and was able to get a profile
that we could compare. And it matched the actual crime scene suspect profile that
was taken from the car seat semen that matched the semen taken from Janet's body.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The "Bloodline Detectives" get the match they need. Terry Dean Hawkins is, in fact, the man
responsible for teen girl Janet Stallcup's rape and murder. Investigators focus on his personal background now.
That's next, on "Bloodline Detectives." NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Garden Grove, California, 2020.
Detectives identify the man who raped and killed nursing student Janet Stallcup all the way back in 1976.
His name, Terry Dean Hawkins. But now, detectives must focus on the motives for the heinous crimes.
Wouldn't call person a monster, but he, he certainly came pretty close to that. I mean, his arrest record, his first arrest was,
was 20 years old for indecent exposure. And he had arrests in Orange County for possessing handguns.
He had a shotgun, drugs. He had just a wide variety of different arrests. Yet, it just didn't seem like there was any accountability.
Investigators pore over records to locate Terry Hawkins, but they won't find him alive.
Terry Dean Hawkins was a drug addict, and he died shortly after he murdered teen girl Janet Stallcup.
ROBERT TAFT: He died in 1977 in Orange County Jail from an overdose. And that was one of my questions,
was like, I wanted to know what had happened to him. I didn't feel it fair that he kept on living his life
when he took my mom's life. Then when I found out that he had passed away, then I was OK with that, so that now I can deal
with everything else, you know? I would have been really mad if he, like, like nobody's
business, just kept on living his life after he took my mom's life and made such an effect on my life.
So yeah, that's brought some closure to me, which is great, you know? Being alive and doing life in jail
would have been too good for him, you know, because my mom didn't do anything to him.
I didn't do anything to him. And he changed my life. And I feel like, who-- how dare he?
Who is he to change my life, you know? It's unfair, but I don't understand those kind of people,
so I don't know. You know, maybe he had a hard child-- I don't know. CINDIE RILEY: I would have liked to have seen him go to trial.
And I wanted to face him myself. I think that would have been something that-- 'cause, you know, you can write things out, you can practice,
but in the heat of the moment, and when you're-- you're locking eyes with, with evil incarnate.
In fact, I may not even have said anything, just, you know? Yeah, just, just to-- to put eyes on him and say,
you didn't get me, dude. I'm here. You know, to put it all into place and to put you behind bars.
And now he's gone, and there are people out there that would really like to have their own retribution.
But again, that's out of our hands. And it's probably just as well, in most cases,
so the universe kind of works itself out, I think, in very weird, painful ways, but works itself out.
That was one of the first things I wanted to do when I found out was to go tell her, "You can rest in peace.
He's been found." And I told that to her mother, too. It's over. And, you know, even though there's no vin--
nothing going through the courts, he got his comeuppance, probably better than if it
had gone through the courts. SONIA R. LEON: It felt really good. It felt like I was finally able to get some closure.
If I-- there was a person who did it, so then I said, OK, and I know what happened to him.
So then that was the end of my mom's story. I could get-- finally get closure. OK, this is what happened to my mom.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Janet Stallcup's 45-year-old case could never have been solved if investigators had not
preserved DNA evidence from the original crime scene years before. You go through the motions, and you
know what you have to do. And it's just, every time that we ask for someone to help in this case, they never denied it.
They never-- you know, we had so much help. You know, the US Marshal teams, the sheriffs, the, the--
it just, every-- everybody. I mean, the foundation was laid, you know, when they collected the evidence from the scene, you know,
48 years ago. [GENTLE VIOLIN MUSIC] You have the unsung heroes that that kept that evidence, you know, in the property room,
that never get a shout-out. But they had to keep it. They had to keep it in the refrigerator.
They had to bag it. They had to log it. You know, things get lost, displaced. And that is one of the big issues with older cases, is
things get lost, misplaced, they're not, you know, refrigerated properly, can't get a profile.
And this was one where they're truly a team effort. I was only a small little part of, of it.
It happened to be the closing chapter, but, absolutely a testament to how everybody
works together and should. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Janet Stallcup's case sends a strong message to families of victims
and to perpetrators who have not yet been caught. We hope that families still have hope in their cases being
solved, because, whether it's DNA or some other type of investigative technique, science and investigations is
continually improving so that there could be techniques in the future that can be used to solve a case,
whether it's DNA, IGG, or some other investigative technique. DAVE DIERKING: If there's good DNA evidence, there's no
reason that you can't-- can't explore Investigated Genetic Genealogy. It was bad, but out of this has come good, because genealogy
solved this case. And otherwise, I would have gone to my grave, you know, not knowing.
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Of course, Terry Dean Hawkins' death in 1977 means he could never be tried for the crimes
investigators are certain he committed. Janet Stallcup's family, however, is still able to get some relief knowing Hawkins
is the perpetrator who raped and murdered their beloved teen girl, Janet. Investigators are certain this guy, Terry Dean Hawkins,
is also responsible for the murder of Guadalupe McClelland back in 1975. Those same detectives and the surviving victim, Cindie Riley,
are convinced Hawkins is responsible for Cindie's sex assault in 1976. Case closed.
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE INTERLUDE]
[TENSE INTERLUDE] [INTENSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

The murder of 19-year-old Janet Stallcup in Orange County in 1976 stumps police for decades, until cutting-edge technology links it to two other cases and blows the case wide open.

Now in its fifth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

Brief Summary

The episode reveals how DNA technology identified Terry Dean Hawkins as the killer of Janet Stallcup, solving a 45-year-old cold case.

Key points

The Tragic Case of Janet Stallcup. 19-year-old Janet Stallcup goes missing and is later found murdered, sparking a cold case.
Cindie Riley's Narrow Escape. Cindie Riley survives a brutal kidnapping and assault, providing a chilling account of her experience.
Breakthrough in Forensic Science. New advancements in forensic science may finally help solve the cold cases of Janet and Cindie.
The Search for Terry Dean Hawkins. Investigators uncover a chilling connection between Hawkins and two murders.
Closure for Janet Stallcup's Family. After decades, the family learns the truth about their loved one's murder.
The Role of DNA in Solving Cold Cases. Advancements in forensic science lead to breakthroughs in unsolved crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the story of two sex assault victims.

Nancy Grace introduces the cases of Janet Stallcup and a survivor.

1:02WatchMay 12, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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