True-Crime Podcasters | “48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[Music] I have lived 44 years with his face etched in my brain. It was everything that you pray
to God never happens to anyone. For me, it's really tough. I'm I'm I'm struggling. I'm struggling to do the
interview at all. We were at our grandparents house and Keith, our first cousin, came over,
asked us if we would come to his house to help him clean. So, we went to his house and when we were done, he needed
gas. So, we stopped at the 7-Eleven. And as we pulled up, there was a um a man standing there. He said, "Well, can
you give me a ride?" Instantly, we knew something wasn't right, but Keith told him he would give him a
ride. I think we just cut off circulation in each other's hands. We were squeezing our hands so tight
because you just have a gut feeling that this is not good. He was telling us the directions on
where to go, which took us to Little California Road. He told us to get out of the car.
He opens the trunk and he puts Keith in the trunk. At that point, he tell us to take
off our clothes. [Music] Did you plan to tell anybody what happened? No. Why? Because we were
afraid he would come back and kill us. [Music] When did the twins actually go to the
police? I think it was about 2 weeks later. A little bit more than 2 weeks. You said the man was black? Yes. Yes.
Did they ever give you a ride? No. Did you ever meet them at a gas station? No. Never. I didn't rape Karen and Sharon
Sadness. I don't know these people. When I saw him in that lineup, I didn't have to think twice. When I looked at
him, I knew him. He got convicted and received two 50-year consecutive sentences.
That's insane. It's horrible. It disgusted me. There's no hairs, no fibers, no blood, no sweat, no semen.
There's nothing. Vincent Simmons is an innocent man who was railroaded by a racist system. Is it possible that you
picked the wrong man? No. No. When I close my [Music] eyes, there's no other face that I see.
Stop it. Stop it. When are we going to talk about the facts? Why did we pick him? Why it was Mr. Simmons? because it
was Mr. Simmons. [Music] [Music] Every time I talk about it Makes me feel like I'm 14 again. For identical twins
Karen and Sharon Sanders, life is broken into two parts. Before May 1977 and after, they say what happened one night
that May changed everything. The limitations it put on our life like with the anxiety, depression, panic attacks,
it's crippling really. It's taken a lot from us. Back in 1977, the 14-year-old twins were
living with their grandparents in the quiet small town of Marxville, Louisiana. And for the most part, they
say they were happy there, staying busy and enjoying the little things in life. I was all about makeup and perfume and
being prissy, and Karen was more uh outside playing in the dirt. This is true. Life was simple.
until it wasn't. What makes it so difficult for you, Karen, 44 years later to even talk about?
Well, it's a lot happened that night. The twins say it all began May 9th, 1977 when their cousin Keith Leort
picked him up so that they could help him clean his house. By the time they finished cleaning, it was just beginning
to get dark. Keith was driving them home, and that's when they say he stopped at that gas station and
encountered a black man. He walked up to the car and told Keith that he almost hit
him and Keith, you know, did not. And Keith was telling him he didn't want to fight. And he said, "I don't fight. I
shoot." The man said this. Yeah. The man said it instantly. Karen went inside to
pay for the gas and me and Keith were talking to this man and we exchanged names and he said his name was
Simmons. The twins say any tension between Keith and the man soon lifted. And that's why
they say Keith agreed to give the man a ride. We were like, "Keith, you know, don't." And he's like, "It'll be okay.
It'll be okay." But they say they knew it wasn't okay when the man directed them to that desolate area of Little
California Road and threatened them. He told us that before we could get a gun, he would shoot us. Mhm. Which we
did not have a gun, so we knew we had a gun. They say the man ordered them out of the
vehicle and forced Keith into the trunk. Keith's how old? 18. So he got in the trunk. Yes, he did. He told us to take
off our clothes. Karen started to run at that point and I yelled and she stopped. He said, "This
one's going to give me trouble." And so he opened the trunk and he put me in the
trunk with Keith and he had Sharon. I took off my clothes. He told me to get in the back
seat and I did. And he told me how to lay and I did. I can hear Sharon crying. And of course I can't take it. So, I'm
banging on the trunk and I'm banging and I'm screaming, "Take me. Take me. Leave
her alone. Take me. Take me." Karen was back there making all kinds of commotion
and things didn't work out for him with me. And he was very frustrated. You could see it and feel it. and he got
very aggravated and told me to put my clothes back on. And when you say things didn't
work out for him, what do you mean? He tried to penetrate and was unsuccessful. But at the time I was 14. I did not know
he was unsuccessful. I really thought you had lost your virginity. I had lost my virginity. I had no clue.
Afterwards, Sharon says she was put in the trunk with Karen and Keith and then the man started driving. We just found
each other's hands and began to pray and then the car stopped and he said, "You out and pointed at you, Karen?"
Yes. He told me to lay in the back seat. He uh he raped me. Then with Sharon and Keith still in the
trunk, Karen says the man just wanted to talk. He was like nothing had happened that we were like
best friends that we were just hanging out. And you went along with it just talking. Absolutely. To keep him calm.
And how long did this go on for? To me, a lifetime. He told me he came from a large family about where he had lived
and all this and he had just gotten back from Texas. She says when they stopped talking, the man raped her again
multiple times. I remember like laying in that back seat and his chest I mean the heav his heaviness on my chest and
the sweat and it was just disgusting. She says he then drove them to a local cemetery where he got out of the car. He
opens the trunk and he lets them out. He's going to let us go. And he told us, "If you tell anyone, I know where y'all
live. I've got friends." He said, "And I will come back." And we all swore to each other that we would not tell a
soul. They say just the fear of what might happen if they told kept them silent for
two weeks until Karen says she couldn't keep it in anymore. She says she confided in Keith's sister. And I said,
"But please, please don't tell anyone. Please don't tell anyone." She said, "I'm not going to tell
anyone." And it just unraveled from there. The next day, Keith's parents found out.
And soon Karen, Sharon, and Keith all ended up at the sheriff's office. Karen and Sharon each gave statements
reporting that they had been raped. And less than 24 hours later, on the morning of May 23rd,
1977, 25-year-old Vincent Simmons was taken into custody as he was walking down the street. Did you know Karen and
Sharon Sanders? Never seen them before in my life. [Music] [Music] It was May 23rd, 1977 when Vincent
Simmons was brought to the sheriff's office, which used to be here on the second floor of the Aoyals Parish
courthouse in Marxville and they took me and put me in a lineup. Karen, Sharon, and Keith were all there
to see if they could identify a suspect. We're all three in the room, but we're not all walking up to the window at the
same time. Keith goes first. Keith writes the number down on a pad. I walk up, I look at him, and I go to
the pad. I write his number down, and then Sharon goes up to the window, looks out,
and writes her number down. What number did you all write? Four. And then they said, you remember that? Oh my gosh.
Yeah. Of course. Then they said to us, "Y'all have all picked the same man." That man they identified was 25-year-old
Vincent Simmons. He was from a big family in the next town over from Marsville. And this wasn't the first
time he found himself in the sheriff's office. I didn't have a daddy, you know. So
basically, I grew up on my own looking out for my little sisters. I was doing wrong. and I was
going in the stores just to get food to feed them. Vincent was convicted of a home burglary at the age of 18. While
incarcerated, he escaped from the jail in Marxville. He lived on the run in Texas for nearly 6 years until he came
back to town shortly before that lineup. And when I walked up to the window and I
looked, I had no second doubt. I know exactly who raped me that night. After Sharon, Karen, and Keith IDed
Vincent, he says he was brought upstairs to the jail where he waited while an officer was writing something down. I'm
sitting on the chair in a handcuff when he gets to. He said, "I want you to sign." I said, "What is that?" He said,
"This is a confessor saying that you uh committed this crime." I said, "What crime?" You know, he said, "Rap of those
two white girls." Said, "I don't even know these white girls." Vincent says when he refused to sign the confession,
the officer knocked him down. And as they struggled, another officer shot him. Boom. I burn it through my chest, you
know, and I fell on the floor. When I woke up, I'm in the hospital. Now, the two officers involved tell a
very different story. They say Vincent grabbed one officer's gun and was pointing it at both of them when the
second officer shot Vincent in the shoulder in self-defense. Whatever the truth,
Vincent was never prosecuted for that incident. Instead, less than 2 months after he was shot, he was brought to
court to face Karen and Sharon. Less than 60 days after he was arrested, Vincent went on trial. Is that a pretty
rapid time? in 1977. I would say for major cases, they went to court quickly. Charles Riddle was not the district
attorney back then, but he is now, and he's very familiar with the details of the case. What was the evidence against
him? The testimony of the witnesses, the victims. Karen, Sharon, and Keith all took the
stand. walk into a courtroom, your parents, everybody that loves you is sitting there and seeing him for the very first
time. We have not seen him since the lineup. And then seeing him face to face was really hard. Of course, I had to put
my hand on the Bible, swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, which is all I had anyway.
They all testified that on the night of the rape, Vincent had told them his last
name. Believe it or not, all night long we called him Simmons. He told us to call him Simmons.
At trial, they all say Simmons. Simmons. The man told us his name was Simmons. What' you think then? I thought they
were crazy. I actually thought they were crazy. You mean to tell me I'm going to
do something to y'all and let y'all know my name? I'mma tell you who I am. No, that don't make sense, man.
The jury got to see Keith's car and a photo that police had taken of Karen, Sharon, and Keith reenacting how they
fit in the trunk. When it was the defense's turn, Vincent took the stand. I told the jury that I was innocent. I
didn't rape nobody. Vincent's lawyers also called three alibi witnesses who claimed that Vincent
was at a bar on the night of the alleged crime. The bar owner said Vincent was there all night. He got into a fight and
police were called. But the prosecution called a police officer who said the bar
fight was on another night. After a two-day trial, I don't think they had much of a defense.
The jury sided with Karen, Sharon, and Keith. Vincent Simmons was found guilty of two counts of attempted aggravated
rape. I was shot. Guilty. I ain't did nothing. When the verdict came back, guilty
unanimously. How did that feel? Sigh of relief. We knew we were free. Vincent was sentenced to two consecutive
50-year terms, 100 years behind bars. We thought we'd never have to face him again.
But Vincent refused to give up hope. I wanted to prove that I'm innocent. Man, I never know these people. More than
four decades later, Justin Bonis, a newly mended lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, would become involved in Vincent's
defense and was immediately skeptical of the prosecution's case. I looked at the
discovery. I was like, "Well, everything they said at trial is a lie. It's all a
lie. There's nothing that supports what they say. [Music] [Music] Generations of men have labored in the
fields at Louisiana State Penitentiary. It is the country's largest maximum security prison built on
the site of a former slave plantation called Angola. You know, we had to work seven days a week till it get dark.
That's how Angola was. Since the day that cell door closed behind him, Vincent Simmons has been
working to overturn his conviction. In 1993, 16 years after that guilty verdict, he finally succeeded in getting
a copy of the prosecution's case file. Male man came and he gave me this big old
envelope. When I opened it up, I man, I was in shock. Inside that envelope were items that Vincent had never seen
before, including copies of the initial statements that Karen, Keith, and Sharon
gave to police. Remember how all three testified at trial that they knew their attacker's name? He told us to call him
Simmons. But as it turns out, when they first spoke to the investigators, they didn't say that. Defense attorney Justin
Bonis has since reviewed those statements. When the girls initially went to police, they didn't say the name
Simmons. No. What name did they say? They didn't give a name. And Bonus noticed something else in those
statements. Sharon used the N-word to refer to her attacker and said, quote, "All blacks look alike to me," which she
does not deny saying. So, what did you say when they asked you to identify the man? I said, "All blacks look alike."
But still, Karen, Keith, and Sharon all picked Vincent out of that lineup. And Bonus says he may know why. This photo
that was in the file appears to show the lineup. Look at Vincent. He's the only one in handcuffs. When you saw that
lineup photo, what did you think? What? I said, "This is crazy. Nuts." Highly suggested. When you put the cuffs on
him, you're telling them that's who we want you to pick. But Charles Riddle, the current district attorney, says that
photo was taken after the twins IDed Vincent. They call it the lineup. It was a photo of the lineup after he was
identified and placed in cuffs. But how do you know it was after? Because the girls told me that. So when you picked
him out of the lineup, was he wearing handcuffs? No, he was not. Not at all. And Karen says they
initially didn't tell police the name Simmons out of fear. I mean, we were scared of him. And see, I don't know why
I didn't. I mean, I think fear we we're afraid of him. And there's another item in that file that Bonus says is critical
and was never seen at the trial. It's this report from a doctor who also happened to be the local coroner. He
examined the girls 2 weeks after the reported rape, and he did not document any signs of sexual assault. How big a
deal do you think the coroner's report plays in this story? Massive. And Bonus says that report suggests Sharon was
still a virgin. The doctor wrote that her highman was intact. But Charles Riddle says the report does not prove
that the twins were not raped. Because the definition of rape is slightest penetration. And the part about no sign
of sexual assault after 2 weeks, it's very probable that there would be no sign of sexual assault.
Bonus thinks the jury should have had the chance to consider all of that at trial. His attorneys, they had nothing.
They went in there flying blind with their arms tied behind their back in a boxing match. That's that's literally
what it was. So, you're telling me the original statements that the girls and Keith gave to police where they could
not identify this individual, right? That was never heard by the jury. Absolutely not. And the medical report
from the coroner was never heard by the jury. Right. and the lineup photo not seen by the jury? No.
If the statements from the girls had been presented at trial, right? If the coroner's report had been known and
presented at trial, do you think Vincent still would have been found guilty? No.
Absolutely not. Back in 1993, when Vincent first got his hands on that evidence, he made it his
mission to get his case in front of a judge. He filed numerous pleadings over multiple years, but no court ever ruled
in his favor. And not a single judge felt like there was enough evidence. Not the appellet courts, federal courts,
state courts, Supreme Court. Vincent was hoping that the parole board at the prison might have more sympathy.
So in 1997, 20 years into his 100year sentence, he had his first hearing with them. And it was all filmed as part of a
documentary called The Farm, which profiled inmates at Angola. Vincent showed them the evidence that his
defense did not have a trial. We didn't have none of this evidence. None of this
evidence was presented before the jury. You were the only one handcuffed in the lineup. I'm the only one.
Okay. Uh, would y'all step out? We'll discuss the case. Vincent hoped the board would rule in
his favor. Yeah. 20 years. I come up with something. Oh yeah, he did. Ain't no doubt.
But they would not. Mr. Simmons, after uh listening to his testimony, going over the reports, the board has voted at
this time to deny your request for pro. I was hopeless, but I know the truth. And no matter how many times they
knock you down, keep getting up. Almost 20 years later, Justin Bonis watched the farm documentary with his
wife. We were shocked and she told me, you know, you should take this case. She basically said, you need to write him.
And it wasn't really a suggestion. It was write him. And that's what I did. [Music]
You're a Brooklyn guy. You go down to Marksville. I felt like my cousin Vinnie. I mean, it was like country.
Okay. By early 2020, Justin Bonis had become Vincent Simmons lawyer. He had just a
year of experience under his belt and was warned that the odds were against him. It's over. Like, he doesn't have
any more appeals. I was like, "Nah, that's not true. It's never true. Absolutely not." Vincent had been
fighting unsuccessfully for decades to overturn his conviction. All the while, Karen and Sharon remained firm about his
guilt. We have no reason to lie. Why would we lie? Why would we let someone spend their life in prison if we even
had the slightest doubt that it wasn't him? Not long after Vincent's ill- fated parole hearing, documentary cameras were
rolling again in the late '9s when he and the twins agreed to a reconciliation meeting. It's where victims and
offenders come together to try and heal. We came today not to free you from your
prison, but to free us from our prison. Today I am closing the door to my pain. I'm letting go. When the time came for
Vincent to speak, he had questions. My question is going to be directly based on your statement that
you No, we're not going there. And that's when the meeting unraveled. What are you doing here then since you're
innocent? What are you doing here? Y'all putting me here. We did. No. A choice that you chose to make put you here.
Okay. I think I think we've had enough. I think I think think it's kind of going
source. Maybe one day you can get out of your pain if you're misery. They didn't let him speak cuz they don't
view him as a human being. Bonus wanted to put a spotlight on the case and really dig deeper, but he needed some
help. So, he turned to Jason Flam, a recording industry executive known for launching the careers of Katy Perry,
Matchbox 20, and Lord, among others. Flam is also a criminal justice advocate and he hosts a podcast called Wrongful
Conviction which has featured bigname guests like Kim Kardashian. When I heard about Vincent's case, I was just like,
this is another level. I had to do something about it. Flam featured Vincent's case on his podcast. How could
anyone get convicted on the basis of this? This is a man whose life was stolen away from him. And he gave Justin
bonus money to go out and hire a private investigator in Louisiana named Brian Andrews. Justin actually asked me to be
the boots on the ground, take statements, gather information. [Music] Andrews tracked down Diane Prader, the
lone surviving juror from Vincent's trial and the only African-Amean on the jury. Turns out she says she never
wanted to convict Vincent. Prader was in her 20s at the time of trial and says she still remembers her reaction to the
twins testimony. When they told a story, I'm like, ain't no way in the world that
happened like that. Put a black man in your car that time. You didn't believe it because at that period in history,
you just couldn't see white people giving a ride to black people. Correct. Was there a lot of racism in Marchville?
Yes, it was. It was in Marsville. It was everywhere. And she says the jury foreman told her her vote wouldn't
matter. In 1977, Louisiana juries could convict a defendant with only 10 out of 12 voting guilty. Just so said to
myself, well, it ain't going to do me no good to say none, but I never never never believe Vincent was guilty.
The private investigator also tried to talk to relatives of Karen, Sharon, and Keith with me right now that I'm
speaking with. He ended up conducting a videotaped interview with Keith's cousin, Dana Bruette, and she told him a
shocking story. Dana said that Keith told her in a bar long after the trial that Vincent Simmons was never with them
on Little California Road that night. He came out and told me there was never a black man.
Instead, in a sworn affidavit, Dana says that Keith told her he had consensual sex with one of the girls and locked the
other in the trunk. He had gone down Little California Road and he locked Sharon in the trunk.
And he said the sex between him and Karen was consensual. He said, "But the other one
was a little hellcat." That's the one they put scratches on his neck. In the affidavit, Dana said that Keith
had scratches on his neck. She told the private investigator that she believes Keith and the twins made up the story
about a black man. To explain away those scratches, blew my mind the things that she said.
Had Dana ever told anyone that? To my knowledge, I I don't think she had. They should have come forward a long time
ago. I really did think the man got released. And Dana's allegations didn't stop there. She also gave the private
investigator a copy of a Facebook message exchange that she says she had with Karen in October 2020. Karen and
Dana were talking about how Keith had allegedly made sexual advances toward female relatives. We asked Karen about
that. You said, "I didn't realize how sick he was. I thought it was only me." I don't remember saying that. Yeah, cuz
that's the message from you. So, what did you mean by that? Okay, we need to cut right now. Cut
this. Can we cut for a second? Yeah. Yeah. Right then, Karen said she was not ready
to talk about that exchange with Dana. But two weeks later, in a follow-up interview with both her and Sharon, she
admitted that years before she says they were attacked, when she was a child and
Keith was a teenager, something happened. Did you have consensual sex with Keith Leort?
Okay, let's put it like this. We were kids. Yes, ma'am. We experimented. So, yes. How old were you
when it happened? I have I could not honestly I don't know. 9 10 maybe. And is this the first time you're saying
this publicly? Yes, it is. But that has nothing to do with what Vincent did. That's two separate incidents. David,
think about it. If me and Keith have had consensual sex way, way before now, why
is he locking us in the trunk of a car? Why is he taking us down a dirt road? But Bonus believes they wanted to cover
up what happened that night. It gives motive for why they would lie. It shows that Karen always was hiding something
from day one. Keith was 18. Karen was 14. So what do they do? They blame a black man.
To be clear, was Keith the perpetrator that night? No. He was a victim also. Keith was a victim. He was not. He was a
victim. Mhm. He stayed in that trunk the whole time. I went to Keith Leort's house to speak
with him about all of this. No one answered the door, so later I called him. Hello, Keith.
[Music] Hello, Keith. This is David Begno with CBS News. When reached by phone, Keith,
now 63 years old, denied ever having sex with his cousin Karen. He said they had
just quote played around like children, end quote. And he also insisted that whatever had happened between him and
Karen had nothing to do with what Vincent Simmons did that night. That goddamn is guilty. I don't give and yet
he's a goddamn and you can put that on TV. I ain't scared of him. Despite the allegations concerning Karen
and Keith, District Attorney Charles Riddle says he believes the right man was convicted. I'm firmly convinced that
he's guilty. I don't believe that their cousin was the one. But Bonus was more determined than ever to see Vincent walk
free. And in April 2021, the district attorney made an offer that would allow for just that. Riddle said he felt like
Vincent had done enough time. Vincent could have walked right out the door. But there was a catch. Vincent would
have had to been a sex offender, though. Vincent turned that down and said, "I'm
not a sex offender. I didn't do this. I am innocent. I'm not a sex offender." What do you think when you hung up the
phone? I mean, that's it. We're going to war. Bonus kept fighting. And in February
2022, he finally got a hearing where a judge would decide Vincent's fate once and for
all. The day of the hearing, as Karen and Sharon made their way into the courthouse, they paused to pray. Vinc.
[Music] When Vincent Simmons arrived in a prison van, he was carrying a Bible. A group of
supporters greeted him. They were cheering. [Music] Vincent, how are you feeling today?
Really? How's it going? Something good going to happen. Cameras were not allowed in the
courtroom as Judge William Bennett delivered his decision. What did the judge decide? He decided to
give Vincent a new trial because of the constitutional violation that he didn't receive a fair trial. Vincent's
conviction was thrown out due to the evidence that he himself had obtained almost 30 years earlier and the fact
that his defense team didn't even have it back in 1977. Judge Bennett made it clear though
that he did not place fault on anyone for that. Instead, he found that the speediness with which the case went to
trial, made it likely that the original district attorney on the case, Eddie Null, didn't even have all the evidence
himself at the time. So, just to be clear, you believe that in 1977, the police didn't turn over key evidence to
the district attorney. That's the only explanation feasible and logical after studying everything that I did. That's
it. Are you blaming the police? No, I don't believe anybody intentionally hid anything. It's just the way it happened
because it was fast. In a court affidavit, the original DA Eddie Null said he did not hide or deny Simmons any
evidence, nor did he prosecute him because of bias. And he continues to believe that Vincent is guilty. And he's
not the only one that feels that way. Current District Attorney Charles Riddle. Do you believe a man who was
convicted at a trial that was not fair should have ever served a day in prison? Illegally. Legally. Okay. Legally? No.
But he did? Yes. Decided that. Okay. Let me tell you, he deserved to serve the 44 years.
Why? Because he's guilty. Judge Bennett was careful to say he has no opinion on the guilt or innocence of
Vincent Simmons. With his decision, it was now up to District Attorney Riddle to decide whether he wanted to retry the
case. You stood up and said what? I said that he served enough time and that we're not going to prosecute him again.
In the eyes of the people and the Constitution, he is presumed innocent. And when Charles Riddle dismissed that
case, that presumption of innocence carries. Free. You free. You free. You done. So
happy to see you. I am so happy to see you. God is good to you. Let me get a picture.
Vincent is a free man, but for Karen and Sharon, nothing has changed. He went in
guilty. He's guilty now. And guess what? He he will die guilty. So, I'm I'm happy. I got 44 years. All
right, let's go. The twins say they accept the judge's decision. But they are still hurt by it. The legal system
didn't just fail him, it failed us in many ways also. While Vincent has his freedom, they say they still don't have
theirs. It's frustrating because no one sees our bars. They don't see our prison. We still have our anxiety. We
still have our depressions. We still have our fears. Our bars are real. And if you look deep
enough, you can see them. Judge Bennett is sympathetic toward the women, but he is confident in his
decision. The case holds extra meaning for him because his father, now deceased, was one of the many judges who
denied motions filed by Vincent over the past years. But that was before Vincent
had gained access to the prosecution's file. He and I had talked about the Vincent Simmons case years ago, and uh I
know if he would be here, he today would have done what I did. What's on your heart? cuz I can see
the emotion. I did the right thing. Freedom just hours after the judge delivered his
decision. And right before the sun set, Vincent Simmons walked out of Angola. Yeah. Yeah. He went in when he was just
25 years old and was released 3 days before his 70th birthday. Love you, man. Later that night, he shared a
celebratory meal with his family and friends. Let's go to freedom. Freedom. What's it like being out of prison? Oh
man, this it's a joy that is unexplainable really. But with that joy comes challenge. It's
going to take me a while. Got a phone. Adjusting to life outside prison walls has proven to be difficult. So much has
changed since 1977. Man, new technology. I'm just like a little baby. had to learn.
What are the simple things that you enjoy now? Breathing the free air, walking outside. Basically, it's freedom to just
enjoy the [Music] moment. 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime. Were you at all prepared for what
happened in this case? [Music] 19-year-old Kristen Smart disappeared on Memorial Day weekend of 1996.
For more than two decades, her family, friends, and supporters searched for answers and for justice. In October
2022, the man long suspected in her disappearance was found guilty of murder. His father, charged with being
an accessory after the fact, was found not guilty. We take you back to their arrest and how the saga began.
It's a landmark day in this very highprofile case. appearance of Christianiso County Sheriff's Office is
set to release details about the latest developments in Today is a day that many
had hoped for, wished for, and prayed for. This is where it all began on the campus of Kalpali
University, the last place that Kristen Smart was seen alive. It's my hope that we're able to take the first step toward
justice for the Smart family. [Music] I grew up not far from where Kristen disappeared. The billboard in a Royal
Grande is visible. It's got Kristen's photo on it. Driving past that billboard was a periodic reminder that oh yeah,
they still haven't found that girl. I'm Chris Lambert. I created the podcast your own backyard which focused on the
disappearance of Kristen Smart. Investigators say Smart and two other students left the party that night and
walked back to their onampus dormatory buildings. We're here surrounded by dorms and yet nobody saw anything. It
was a very dead holiday weekend. A lot of people had gone home. In the amount of time that they were alone and
whatever happened that her life ended, I think there was plenty of opportunity to
hide her body without anybody noticing. My sister turned 19 in February. She disappeared in
May. When she disappeared, I was about to graduate to 8th grade, but my parents did a really good job of shielding us.
Stan and Denise, um, they're wonderful parents. Um, a very large group of of friends went down to Calpali to help
search for her. Stan was there. Denise stayed back and I stayed back with her in case Kristen
came home. never would have dreamed in a million years that she would not return.
And Kalpoli is a safe place. You do not think of this happening. This is one of my favorites
of her with this great smile that she has. I just love that. It's just to me that's just that captures her. Remember
her wanting to like travel the world and be an architect. I really miss her. She
should be here. Originally, when we first took the case, I was determined I would be able
to find her in 6 months. If you've ever been on one of these searches, you walk up a canyon here in San Los Aispo
County, and then there's another canyon off that. You get to the end of that one, there's another canyon. There's
billions of places to hide a body. It's important to explain here that Kristen's case has never been declared
cold. A case is only considered cold when law enforcement decides that they've exhausted all of their
[Music] leads. But what makes it interesting to me is that they've had a suspect since
pretty much day one. Hi Paul. Good morning. I'm Jonathan Vigliotti with CBS News. Were you involved in the
disappearance of Kristen Smart? Paul, can you tell us what happened that night between you and Kristen?
It's important that there's an arrest made. You got to move and you've got to do it now. I'm here this afternoon to
announce the arrest of Paul Flores for the murder of Kristen Smart. [Music] [Music]
After almost 25 years of suspicion, on April 13th, 2021, St. Louis Abyispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson announced
the arrest of Paul Flores in the disappearance of Kristen Smart. It's been a puzzle and it's a very slow uh
process to find each of those little pieces. Some of that information came to light through the podcast that many of
you are familiar with. In the crowd, taking it all in was that podcaster, Chris Lambert. It's hard to take too
much credit, but I was one piece of the puzzle that helped to make this all come
together when it did. Lambert was just 8 years old when Christian Smart vanished
on her way home from a college party in St. Louis Abyspo, California. I remember
seeing it on the news. Kristen is a freshman at Calpali, but hasn't been to class since before the Memorial Day
weekend. And Kristen Smart left a party on the Calpali campus. It was something scary and they were talking about it
pretty regularly. But 22 years later, when he couldn't find any recent stories about the case, he decided to do
[Music] something. It's a cold and cloudy winter afternoon in St. in Louis Abyispo and
I'm retracing missing Calpali student Kristen Smart's last known steps. Even though he'd never investigated
anything before, Lambert quit his job to create a podcast. At least once a day, I
asked myself, "What are you doing?" Lambert began looking into what happened to Kristen, collecting articles and
documents, chasing down leads, and tracking down anyone with information. I didn't know the scale. I didn't know how
many people were going to listen, but I knew that I could try to do a small part. I Googled Kristen Smart's name
every few years. He never expected it would be a hit, but his podcast caught the attention of millions of listeners
and sparked new interest in this decades old unsolved case. Back in May 1996, Christian Smart
was finishing her freshman year at California Polytenic State University, better known as Calpali. Her younger
sister, Lindsay, says their mother urged Kristen to go there. You should go to Calpali. They're known for being a
really safe school. And it was only 250 miles from Stockton, California, where she grew up with Lindsay and their
brother Matt. Her parents, Denise and Stan, were both educators who encouraged their kids' passions.
She was who she was because of her parents, for sure. An Marie Christian became friends with Kristen in
elementary school. Her parents reminded me of my parents. Just very involved with their children. A very close-knit
family. Kristen loved swimming and skiing, but Lindsay says her sister was happiest when she was traveling. She had
traveled the world before she even made it to college by herself, which is pretty amazing. She spent a summer in
London, was an exchange student in Venezuela, and a lifeguard at a camp in Hawaii. She definitely like took
advantage of life, seized the day. She was super ambitious and was determined, you know, to find the next adventure, to
find the next challenge. That turned out to be college. Like so many freshmen, Kristen
struggled. Classes were difficult. She was trying to fit in, and she missed her family.
Kristen broke down, begging her mother to let her drop out and go somewhere else. But every Sunday when she called
her parents, they encouraged her to stick it out. Longtime family friend Denise Pierce.
Things were going to get better and you know and and they did. Friday, May 24th,
1996 was the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Most students had taken off, but Kristen had stayed on campus. So had
Margarita Campos, who lived in the next room in your hall. They had become close
friends. despite their differences. I was a little bit more um introverted and inhibited and she was like, "No, we have
to go out and we have to go like live life." And she was growing as an individual. She was pushing herself out
of her comfort zone and I was like, "No." So, when they were invited to a party that Friday night, Kristen was excited
to go. Kristen was like, "Come on, let's go. let's go. And I was like, nah, I have to study. And so she pulled me into
this sort of like, oh, come on, let's socialize. And these girls are inviting us out. Let's go. And I was like, okay,
fine. But when we got to the house, it was pretty dead, too. It was a really, it was like a couple roommates hanging
out playing video games. And Kristen was like, oh gosh, there has to be something
better than this. The two girls walked to an area off campus where there were fraternities, sorarities, and
residential housing for students. Margarita soon decided she'd had enough. You wanted to go home and you were
trying to find the way to break it to your friend. That's exactly right. They got to the parking lot of this apartment
complex. I was like, Kristen, I'm going to go back home. I'm going to go back to the
dorms. You can go. And she's like, "Please come with me. Please come with me." I told her I didn't I didn't want
to go. Kristen did not have a purse, money, her ID, or even her keys. So before leaving,
Margarita handed over her keys to get back into Mure Hall. She was absolutely sober when I left her. I'll never forget
her shadow against the building, this apartment complex, just standing like kind of crossarm with a long leg, and
she was just kind of like looking at me like, "You're really walking away now. Like you're really you're leaving."
The next morning, Margarita waited to hear from Kristen. I was expecting her to knock on my door and be like, "Oh,
Margarita, you missed a rager." And here's your key. I knocked on her door and I thought she
was just sleeping or she went out and about, you know. It wasn't until Kristen's roommate returned to their
dorm room that Margarita realized Kristen never came home. How did you know she hadn't been back? Uh, nothing
had moved. All of Kristen's personal belongings, including her purse, her money, her ID, were in the room exactly
where she had left them. I mean, she was gone. She was gone. By the time they called the Cowpali campus police,
Kristen had been missing for more than 48 hours. But Margarita says the police did not seem concerned. The campus
police, they were like, "Are you sure she didn't go out of town? It's like, she has nothing on her. How could you
have gone out of town? They thought she was off possibly having fun. Oh yeah. But they could not have been more wrong
to this day. Like I was like, why why did I just let her go by herself? I did have
guilt about that. But uh you have to understand she's a really independent, free spirit.
[Music] Kristen's mother, Denise SM, spent Memorial Day weekend at a swim meet with
her two younger kids. She was looking forward to hearing from Kristen that Sunday.
And that phone call never comes. The phone call never comes. Instead, on Monday, May 27th, Denise Pierce says the
Smarts got a call from Cowpali's campus police asking if Kristen was with them. Kristen hasn't come home and we're not
sure where she is. We don't know anything. That's when Denise Smart learned her daughter had not been seen
all weekend and all her belongings were still in her dorm room. She was becoming
more and more alarmed. You know, she was she was frantic. I don't understand this. You know, what's going on? It is
every parent's worst nightmare. The Smarts say they tried to file a missing person's report with the local police,
but were told it was too early. And the FBI told them Calpali police were in charge. But as Chris Lambert learned,
the campus police did not act right away. At that point, I don't think they had ever dealt with a missing person, a
possibly murdered person. By the time the Calpali police began investigating, Kristen had been gone for 4 days. As
they soon learned, she had ended up at a party at this house. It's mostly frat guys from the Capakai fraternity. I
don't know if Kristen knew anybody there. Chris Lambert, who worked as a CBS News consultant, pieced together
what he learned from people who were there that night. Kristen became incredibly intoxicated, whether she was
drugged or whether she just had a lot to drink in a short amount of time. She ends up passed out on the lawn
next door. Lambert says Kristen could not stand on her own. So, fellow student Cheryl
Anderson, who was also at the party, began helping her back to campus. They were soon joined by another partygoer,
Paul Flores. As they describe it, Paul Flores just sort of appears out of nowhere and
offers to help. He gets his arm around her torso and her arm around his neck and he's helping her walk.
Paul keeps stopping along the way and letting Cheryl Anderson know, "You can go on ahead. I've got her. It's fine."
She didn't think that was okay, so she slowed down and walked with them. When they reached the turnoff to Cheryl's
dorm, she says Flores tried to hug and kiss her. She left them only after he promised to take Kristen back to her
dorm. I don't think she ever imagined that Kristen would end up dead by the end of the night. Paul and Kristen then
make their way here. What happens next? So, if you believe Paul's story, he goes
into his dorm room here and he leaves her to walk up this walkway. Her dorm entrance is right over here. I
personally think that wherever Kristen went, Paul was there with her. I don't think that she went back to her dorm at
all. Whatever happened in those early hours, one thing is indisputable. Christian Smart has never been seen
again. She had just 40 yards to go and yet she vanished. That's the upsetting part about it, isn't it? The
investigation seemed to be hampered from the start by a series of missteps by campus police, beginning with their
assumption that Kristen was off having fun and ignoring worried friends who said she was missing.
So much was lost in those first few days where if that very first phone call was
taken seriously, answers might have been uncovered the first week. They also did
not focus on Paul Flores immediately, waiting 6 days to formally interview him. Even worse, they never sealed his
dorm room. There was a lot of evidence that could have been gathered that wasn't. Why? I wish I knew why. They did
an interview with the Calpali Mustang Daily and explained that they didn't think there was any evidence that a
crime had taken place. By the time they inspected Flores's room, Kristen had been gone for 16 days. School was over,
so campus police found an empty room that had been sanitized by the university's cleaning crew. Any evidence
that might have been there was long gone. The investigation was completely botched by the campus police. There's no
question about it. And while they did not rush to investigate Flores, Kristen's family says campus police were
very quick to judge her. Just days after she disappeared, an incident report seemed to imply that Kristen's behavior
contributed to her disappearance. There was a lot of focus on how Kristen was drinking. what sounded a lot like
victim shaming, right? 100% that was happening. The report said does not have any close friends at Calpali. Smart
appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. Smart was talking with and socializing with
several different males at the party. But while campus police weren't doing much, Kristen's parents were doing
whatever they could to find their daughter. Kristen's father would come down and hike every trail he could find
on the central coast. He'd go anywhere. He'd go through tunnels under bridges looking for his daughter and expecting
best case scenario, he's going to find her body, which is awful for a parent. Early on, a small group of volunteers
also looked for Kristen, but a massive search did not happen until she'd been gone for more than a month. That's when
the campus police finally handed the investigation over to the St. Louis Abyspo Sheriff's Office, but they did
not find [Music] Kristen. 4 months after that feudal search, Paul Flores was brought before a
grand jury. Little is known since the proceedings are kept secret, but no charges were ever filed. Just weeks
later, Kristen's frustrated parents contacted James Murphy, a local civil attorney. It was just a sad phone call
to have somebody say, "Our daughter disappeared and we think she's the victim of foul play and we'd like to
pursue the guy that we think is responsible." Murphy and his wife Garen Sinclair
agreed to take the case pro bono, promising to go after Paul Flores and put pressure on the sheriff's office.
Murphy immediately filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Flores in civil court. And it says wrongful death and
then I put murder. Putting murder on the lawsuit was sending a message to Paul Flores and his family, that we believe
that he killed Kristen and that we're coming for him. But trying to get him hasn't been easy. It just amazes me the
amount of evidence that's available. Yet nothing has happened. The day after my sister
disappeared, Paul Flores had a black eye and scratches on him. [Music] [Music] You look at Kristen Smart every day.
every day. The Smarts attorney, James Murphy, and his wife and office manager, Garren Sinclair, have had Kristen's
billboard in their front yard since late 1997. It's just a motivator for me. I will go
outside at nighttime and I'll look up at the full moon and I'll think that that kid's buried somewhere, real close.
Murphy and Sinclair promised the Smarts the billboard will stay until their daughter is found. I'd love to do
anything to end their suffering. And that weighs on you. Yep. Is there any doubt in your mind
that Paul Flores is responsible for the disappearance of Kristen Smart? No. No. And Murphy and Sinclair believe they can
prove it. They were not able to proceed with this civil case. While there was an
ongoing criminal investigation, but that did not stop them from following every lead and preparing for an eventual
trial. There has been no other suspect. Every piece of evidence points directly at
Paul Flores. like his black eye. You can see it faintly in this mug shot taken by the
Aoyo Grande police just by chance 2 days after Kristen vanished. At the time, they did not know about a missing
college student. They were after Paul Flores for an outstanding DUI warrant. Having a black eye doesn't make you
guilty of anything, but if the person you were with disappeared from the planet, that's physical evidence. Chris
Lambert says 2 days after that when Flores was interviewed by campus police, they asked how he got his black eye as
well as scratches on his hands and knees. He says he got a black eye playing basketball with his friends. But
one of those friends told police Flores already had the black eye when he arrived. He told those friends he just
woke up with the black eye. When authorities later confronted him with the two stories, Flores admitted lying
and offered a new explanation. He actually hid his eye on his steering wheel in the middle of the night while
changing his stereo. So now you've got three different stories about how he got that black eye. He lied to the police
about everything. Flores claimed after walking Christian back from the party, he went to his room in Santa Lucia Hall
while she walked alone to her dorm. But cadaavver dogs told a different story. Just days after taking over the
investigation, the St. Louis Abyspo Sheriff's Office brought several dogs like these trained to detect human
remains to the Calpali dorms. They brought in the first dog and they had the dog go through the dorms. There was
no reaction until the dog reached Paul Flores's room. They let the dog in. The dog makes a beline to the bed of Paul
Flores. Remember, Flores's room had been emptied and thoroughly cleaned. But remarkably,
the same thing happened with three more dogs. [Music] That suggests that something bad
happened in Paul Flores's dorm room. The sheriff's office still wasn't convinced
they had enough evidence against Flores, but Murphy says there were other incidents that should have raised alarm
bells about him with law enforcement from the very beginning. Paul Flores had a reputation amongst the girls that knew
him at Calpali as being a creeper that he was always trying to hit on women. In fact, Cheryl Anderson, who trusted
Flores to walk Kristen back to her dorm alone, told police that her friends called him Chester the molester because
he was known for groping girls. So, with Cheryl's account alone, we have an unsettling picture of Paul.
Just 5 months before Kristen disappeared, St. Louis Abyspo police received a call from a student living
off campus. There was a man climbing her trellles and trying to get inside her balcony, very intoxicated and refusing
to leave. When they showed up, it was Paul Flores. No charges were filed, but Lambert discovered Flores's troubles
started at a young age. In high school, he was known as a loner. Chris Lambert spoke with some women who knew Flores
back then. They asked him not to use their names. Well, his nickname was scary Paul. You wouldn't want to be
alone in a room with him. He wouldn't let any of her friends be drunk around him. Those were kind of unspoken things.
And they told Lambert they weren't surprised when they heard about Flores's connection to Kristen's disappearance. I
wasn't surprised, but there's also that shock value of kind of, oh my god, I knew it. Although suspicions surrounded
Flores almost from the beginning, any hopes for an arrest were dashed in May 1997 when then Sheriff Ed Williams made
an admission to the St. Louis Abyspo Telegraph. Quote, "We need Paul Flores to tell us what happened to Christen
Smart. So absent something from Mr. Flores, I don't see us completing this case." How significant was that? I think
that might have been the biggest misstep that investigators have made to this day
to declare to the public, if you stay quiet, you will get away with this. And 6 months later, when Flores was deposed
by James Murphy for the Smarts civil suit, he kept quiet. Would you state your full name for the record, please?
Paul Ruben Flores. The only thing he would confirm on tape is that his name is Paul Flores. What is your present
resident's address? On the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer that question based on the fifth amendment of
the United States Constitution. Everything else, he took the fifth amendment. He wouldn't answer a single
thing. In May of 96, were you a student at Calpaly? On the advice of my attorney, he invoked
the fifth 27 times. What is the name of your father? On the advice of my And it worked. You just don't talk and you get
away with it. Flores wasn't talking, but was there evidence possibly placing Kristen Smart
at his mother's home? Somebody found an earring that they say was Kristen Smart's jewelry in the driveway.
An earring that appeared to match the necklace Kristen is wearing on this billboard.
[Applause] When Christristen Smart disappeared, Paul Flores's parents, Susan and Reuben,
were separated and living apart. 4 months later, while attempting to reconcile, Susan rented out her house in
a Royal Grande. A young couple moves into it with their kid. The mother is washing her car in the driveway at one
point. Something shiny catches her eye next to the front driver's side tire. A single woman's earring. That mother,
Mary Lacader, described it to Chris Lambert. It was like a red thing and it was like a smudge like fingerprinted
look on the back just red like maroon like old looking and a smudge that it was like a half a fingerprint. It was
turned over to a detective with the St. Louis Abyspo Sheriff's Office. But Garrett Sinclair says the Smarts never
knew it existed until the Lacers were deposed in January 1997. He never once turned to the Smart family and said,
"Hey, we have an earring. We'd like to show it to you to see if it matches any of your daughter's jewelry."
The Smarts then demanded to see it. And that's when they're told that earring has been misplaced. Misplaced. It was
never marked as evidence apparently. But Mary Lacer says the earring matched the
necklace Kristen is seen wearing on this billboard. If it was in fact a piece of jewelry
that matched Kristen's jewelry, it would have been blockbuster evidence and might
have connected Kristen to Susan Flores's house, says James Murphy. There's no way
to get evidence back once you've lost it. Another frustration for the Smarts. At
the time Kristen disappeared, investigators weren't aware that Paul Flores's parents were separated and
living apart. So, they did not immediately get a warrant to search Susan Flores's
home. Even more difficult to understand was why they waited two months to search
this house, the family home where Paul Flores was living with his father, Reuben. And when they did, they didn't
bring cadaabver dogs with them. They didn't bring a forensics team. They didn't look at the Flores family's
vehicles. They might have found evidence in those vehicles. Paul Flores did not have a car
on campus. So Murphy surmises he had to have had help. And it's 2:30 and 3:00 in
the morning at Calpali. This is not a location from which Paul alone could easily move a body without a vehicle.
But further investigation of the Flores's two trucks seemed impossible. In the months after Kristine's
disappearance, one truck was traded in. The other was reported stolen. But it's Susan Flores's concrete
backyard that initially received a lot of attention. It had been the focus of widespread speculation for more than two
decades, especially her planter boxes. Around the time Kristen disappeared, they cut out planter boxes in the
backyard. So, they cut out big chunks of concrete and filled it in with soil. In
one of Paul's police interviews, he mentioned that he wanted to be let out of the interview because he needed to
help clean up concrete at his mom's house. So, what was being done in Susan Flores's backyard in the weeks after
Kristen went missing? Susan's house was finally searched in March 1997, 9 months after Kristen
disappeared, but nothing was found. It would be three more years before the property was searched again.
At 8:00 a.m. on June 19th, 2000, a team of sheriff's investigators knocks on the
front door of Susan Flores's East Branch Street home. With them is a group of FBI
evidence response team members and a search warrant. That warrant allowed them to dig up the backyard, but
deputies chose not to excavate. Denise Pierce says that was a crushing blow for the Smart family. to be almost there to
think that you know you're going to finally get some resolution and then you know it doesn't happen the way it's
supposed to. Devastating. And there would be more disappointment in 2007 after the Smarts legal team searched a
small portion of Susan Flores's backyard with ground penetrating radar and did not find any evidence. They just have
never given up and are never going to give up on their daughter. Ruben Flores and his aranged wife Susan have always
denied any role in Kristen Smart's disappearance. And do you have any information as to where Kristen Smart's
body is located? Of course not. Does your husband have any information as to where Kristen
Smart's body is located? No. When they were deposed by James Murphy, they also insisted their son was not involved.
Does your son have any information as to where Kristen Smart's body is located? Nope. Has your son ever told you that he
did not kill Kristen Smart? We never asked that question. We just think about it. He says no.
Through the years, the Smarts have kept pressure on the Flores family. But the Flores's have fought back, suing the
Smarts for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Like the Smarts civil case, theirs was also on
hold. In the meantime, Paul Flores moved to Southern California, where he's bounced from job to job. But as Chris
Lambert learned, Flores's pattern of behavior with women didn't stop. A couple times I would take a moment and
he would just, "Oh, come on. Just give me a kiss. Just give me a kiss." Paul Flores may have wanted a
fresh start in Southern California, but Chris Lambert says he could not seem to break old habits.
Paul worked with a number of women that he made incredibly uncomfortable. Girls who he tried to make a pass at sexually.
Um, girls that he tried to force to kiss him. Some of those women who did not want their real names used told Lambert
about their encounters with him. So, I walk him up to his sister's apartment. All of a sudden, he just like picked me
up, carried me inside, turned around, he shut the apartment door, and locked it.
So I said, "You better turn some lights on right now and let me out or I'm going
to scream." So eventually he unlocked, you know, the apartment door and and I left. Lambert also interviewed a woman
who dated Flores until she says he became physically and verbally abusive. And he had like a butter knife and he
like held it to my neck and I was screaming and my roommate actually kicked down the door to make him stop.
But Paul Flores was never charged with any of these incidents. Back in St. Louis, Abyspo,
the Smarts, feeling ignored by the sheriff's office, continued a relentless campaign to get them to do more to find
their daughter. What toll over time did this have on your parents? I think they're like carrying boulders on their
back. Then in 2011, Ian Parkinson was elected sheriff. If you were making a film about a new
law enforcer who's coming to a small town to save the day, you'd probably cast Parkinson.
He promised the Smarts that solving Kristen's case would be a priority. I committed to them that I was going to go
back to the beginning and re-examine every piece of evidence that we had. But Parkinson acknowledges it hasn't been
easy. There was early mistakes made that you can't recover from. when you're missing those vital pieces. Is this a
case that takes a miracle to solve? I hope not. Since Parkinson came on the scene, investigators have dug up
hillsides, searched the homes and properties of all the Flores, collected evidence, seized Paul
Flores's computers, monitored his cell phone and text messages, and found new witnesses, some with the help of Chris
Lambert. I brought them a number of witnesses that they were very interested in. I also brought them witnesses that
they had no interest in whatsoever. And then months and months later, they'd reach back out and say, "Can you get us
in touch with this person again?" In April 2021, investigators finally put the pieces of the puzzle together and
decided they had enough to charge the then 44year-old Paul Flores with Kristen's murder and his then
80-year-old father as being an accessory after the fact. The allegation against Reuben is that he helped to conceal
Kristen's body after the murder was committed. St. Louis Abyspo County District Attorney Dan Dao. We don't have
uh evidence sufficient to charge anyone else at this time, but the investigation
is ongoing. And for the first time, clues about what may have happened to Kristen Smart. Forensic physical
evidence was located. And yes, we believe it's it's linked to Kristen. Um, and yes, we did find physical evidence
at at least two homes, like what may have been discovered in March 2021 when investigators searched Ruben Flores's
house using cadaavver dogs and ground penetrating radar. They did a significant amount of digging underneath
the house. They took in soil, I assume, for some kind of analysis. According to a county probation bail report obtained
by the St. Louis Abyspo Tribune. Biological evidence was found under Reubin's deck. The question for decades
was, well, where did the body go? Murphy has filed an additional civil suit against Ruben Flores and others for the
intentional infliction of emotional distress. And the complaint has some claims about what led investigators to
focus under Ruben's deck in the first place. The podcast is out. People are watching Ruben Flores and Susan Flores
and Paul Flores. Suddenly, major pieces of evidence came forward. An important tip came in after a February 2020 search
of Paul, Susan, and Reuben's properties. Murphy alleges four nights later, strange activity was seen at Reubin's
house. An eyewitness actually documented the fact that throughout the night there
was activity in the area of the underside of that deck. I'm not at liberty to describe how it was
documented, but I've seen it. That witness initially came forward to Chris Lambert, who passed the
information to the sheriff's office and Murphy. In his complaint, Murphy alleges
along with Reuben, there were two other unnamed individuals, but he says they are Reubin's ex-wife Susan and her
boyfriend. So why would Susan Flores, her boyfriend, and and Reuben Flores be up all night long working under that
deck? The lawsuit claims they were moving Kristen's remains. The location where all this activity occurred is
where they found the biological materials and the body's not there now. And there are more horrifying
allegations about what may have happened to Kristen after she was last seen with
Paul Flores. It is alleged that Mr. Flores caused the death of Kristen Smart while in the commission of or attempted
rape. Because of the statute of limitations, Dao says Paul Flores cannot be charged with rape, but the allegation
that he was committing or attempting to commit a rape when he killed her is the basis for which we are able to file
first-degree felony murder charges. Authorities made clear that they plan to use Flores's alleged predatory behavior
against him. We intend to use evidence of other sexual crimes in this prosecution to prove uh the facts
necessary for the attempted rape in this case. And according to that probation report, dozens of women have recounted
Paul Flores's sexual assaults and predatory behavior that document his 25 years as a serial rapist. He has not
been charged in those incidents. We have evidence that we do believe there are other people that are not yet identified
that have had a some kind of a criminal act perpetrated on them by Mr. Flores. 48 Hours has learned these suspicions
center around evidence found during that 2020 search of Paul Flores's home. Sources tell us investigators discovered
photographs and videos on Flores's computer showing him engaged in sexual activity with at least 10 different
women. apparently in various states of consciousness. Paul Flores and his father both pleaded not guilty to all
charges at their arraignment. Reubin's attorney, Harold Messik, dismissed the evidence against his client as quote,
"So minimal as to shock the conscience." He later argued that the biological evidence found under the deck was not
conclusively human blood and DNA evidence could not be found linking any other evidence to Christristen. Susan
Flores and her boyfriend were never charged in the case. Ruben Flores was released on $50,000 bail to his ex-wife.
He was required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, but Paul Flores remained behind bars without bail. To see them in
custody was a feeling of great joy for me. My job was to hunt them and that's what I've been doing for
a long long time along with a lot of other people. Well, that's been our goal. It is also what the smarts have
been waiting for for more than a quarter of a century. Chris Lampbert says they're cautiously
optimistic. They're hopeful, but they've also been let down so many times before.
I think they are just waiting to see what the outcome is going to be. They're interested in seeing Paul Flores get
convicted and Ruben Flores get held accountable. Most importantly, they want to find
their daughter. [Music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode. Heat. Heat. [Music] here with the fabulous Mo Wilson. You
are like ready. I'm ready. Yeah. I'm so excited to be here. Um, feels like the first big race of the year. So, um,
yeah, I'm ready to kick it off. I'm still getting better. I'm still learning. It's an exciting time. There's
still so much for me to learn. Her name was Mariah, but everybody called her Mo.
My name is Polar Melendez, and I am a senior reporter with the Daily Beast. Funny and friendly and smart and
driven. Mo was a rising star. She graduated from Dartmouth in engineering. Everyone thought she was
about to make her big break in cycling. I have always relied on other people to push myself.
What happened to Mo was a tragedy. They found Mo inside the residence. It was pretty grizzly scene. She had been
shot multiple times. At first, detectives thought it was a robbery. You're looking into this possibility of
a robbery or a burglary, but parallel to that, there is this name Colin Strickland. Sure.
My name is Colin Strickland. I am a bicycle racer. [Music] Colin Strickland was a top biker and he
was also friends with Mo. I mean, Colin, you know, he was an interesting character, had a lot of
like, you know, cool qualities about him. Motorcycles, professional athlete. I mean, Colin had dated like a few girls
in the cycling scene, you know, girlfriends here and there, but, you know, pretty standard
stuff. Colin's relationship with Mo like was like they were both bike racers. They had like a romantic relationship.
There had definitely been something romantic between them. Colin said they had broken
up. The situation was complicated. There was another woman in Colin's life. Her name was Caitlyn
Armstrong. Caitlyn, you know, first impressions, she was really nice, globe hopping
around the world, was, you know, really interested in yoga, like very attractive
person, uh, both inside and out. At least the Caitlyn I, you know, initially knew.
[Music] Homicide detectives were very interested in talking to Caitlyn Armstrong. He's
starting to get this sense that there could be some jealousy to it. She has a gun. Few things like that start to paint
a picture of like it could definitely be her. We were still trying to figure out,
are they gonna have enough information to sit down and scratch out a war? At this point, she kind of
disappears. No one knows where she is. [Music] Caitlyn Armstrong vanished, seemingly in
a thin air, sparking what would become an international manhunt. First leading authorities across the United States and
then eventually here to the beaches of Costa Rica. Along the way, she used multiple identities and changed her
appearance, even getting plastic surgery. How smart was Caitlyn Armstrong? She did some pretty
intelligent things. The thing that people don't know is you don't have to be just smarter than one, two, three, or
four of us cuz there's a team of 20 plus people. You have to be smarter than a lot of people to get away with it. It
almost worked. It almost [Music] worked. Heat [Music] [Music] [Laughter] up here.
[Music] Hello. I'm here with the fabulous Mo Wilson. You are like ready. I'm ready.
Yeah. Hey, in March of 2022, up and cominging progravel bike racer, 25-year-old Anna Mariah Wilson, known as
Mo to some, appeared on the pre-ride show, an online program about cycling. So excited to be here. Um, feels like
the first big race of the year. So, um, yeah, I'm ready to kick it off. Just two months later, Mariah was found
murdered. The news shocking the cycling community. I don't think anybody could really
believe it at first. You know, why would anybody want to hurt or harm or kill this lovely, talented young woman? Lisa
Goslin Lynn is the editor of Vermont Sports Magazine and Vermont Ski and Ride magazine. She's also a CBS News
consultant. Mariah Wilson right there coming in. Lynn had been following Mariah Wilson's career for many months
before her tragic death. It is all Mariah Wilson as she is snaking through into the finish of Mariah was pretty
much winning every race that she entered. Mariah Wilson, the winner of round one of winning or finishing in the
top two. And the races that she entered were top tier. First place, Mo Wilson. Mariah had the potential to be one of
the top bike racers definitely in the country and probably in the world. Mo phenomenal race. Remarkably, Lynn says
that Mariah was new to the pro cycling world. Her first passion had been downhill ski racing, a love shared by
her close-knit family. She was born into a family of really great athletes. Her father, Eric, had been on the US ski
team, and Mariah's aunt actually was a two-time Olympic Nordic ski racer. And it's no surprise that Mariah was drawn
to outdoor endurance sports. She was raised in Northern Vermont next to Kingdom Trails, a mecca for skiers and
mountain bikers, and that was her playground. Mariah attended Burke Mountain Academy, an
elite ski school that produced Olympic greats like twotime gold medalist Michaela Shiffren. Mariah had hoped to
make the US ski team, but knee injuries eventually ended her skiing career. That's when she switched sports. She had
used cycling as a way for rehabbing and kind of building back her strength. What
was fascinating to me was she then went on to Dartmouth. She got an engineering degree. And after doing that, she went
to her mother and said, "Hey, mom, I think I want to be a professional cyclist."
And Mariah told the podcast we got to hang out that she wanted to do much more than just win races.
How can I inspire people? How can I give back to the cycling community? How can I
bring more people into the sport? How can I make it more inclusive? Like I want to find meaning and purpose in
cycling that goes like far beyond the the results. Mariah eventually moved to San Francisco
where she focused on cycling and quickly rose to the top of the sport. Mariah was
forging her own path. She knew what she wanted to do and she was working hard to
pursue it. [Music] On May 10th, 2022, just one week before her 26th birthday, Mariah arrived in
Austin, Texas to prepare for the Gravel Locos bike race, a race she was favored to
win. Mariah stayed with a close friend in this Austin apartment. But the next evening, just
before 1000 p.m., the friend returned home and discovered Mariah, who had been shot multiple times. She called 911.
She's laying on the bathroom floor and there's blood everywhere. Mariah's friend tried CPR, but it was too late.
It sound like started off near the door and went backwards like she was trying to get away or there was some sort of
struggle or Austin police officers Mark McCloud and Jonathan Riley worked the case from the beginning. Whoever shot
her at that point stood over top of her and shot her at least once. Charlie 7, you're in 13. Investigators wondered who
could have murdered this promising young athlete. As they canvased the immediate
area, police discovered a possible clue. I located the bike. Mariah's expensive racing bicycle had been discarded in the
bushes. So, at that point, okay, is this a burglary, a robbery gone wrong? But that theory was quickly dismissed
because there was no sign of a break-in. Then police learned that just hours before Mariah was found murdered at
around 8:30 p.m. she had been dropped off by another professional bike racer named Colin Strickland. So obviously the
focus would be who's this Colin Strickland. Colin Strickland was a very good grapple
racer. He was at the top echelon. Colin Strickland who was 35 was considered a pioneer in the sport. He had won some of
the most prestigious races and was sponsored by the industry's top brands like Red Bull. My name is Colin
Strickland. I am a bicycle racer and general entertainer. In 2020, he appeared in an online video
called Wahoo Frontiers about his long and successful career. Pretty early on, I looked up to Colin when I was coming
up in the scene. Please welcome Chris Tally. Chris Taly is friends with Colin Stricklin. They met on the racetrack. He
was the one to beat. He loved to kind of create a show around bike racing. Uh kind of selling bike racing. He was
really passionate about it. And Tali said although his friend had been popular with women, he eventually
became serious with a woman named Caitlyn Armstrong. However, in a social media post after the crime, Strickland
wrote that about 6 months before Mariah's murder during a short breakup with Armstrong, he did have a brief
romantic relationship with Mariah that spanned a week or so. He said that it ended and their relationship had turned
into a platonic and professional one. He just wanted to be friends with like someone who was going to do great things
in cycling. The day after Mariah's murder, police visited and spoke to Colin Strickland at
his home. My personal take was he was being very cooperative, being very forthcoming. Um, obviously he was in
shock. Being very transparent at times, very transparent. Yeah. And investigators say when he agreed to go
down to the police station to be interviewed, he didn't seem to hold back when telling them about the day he spent
with Mariah, a day that would end up being her last. That day in May, it was hot in the 80s. And this story started
with a swim right here. It's a famous old outdoor pool. And Colin Strickland told detectives he took the victim, Mo
Wilson, on the back of his motorcycle here to cool off. They went swimming, then they got food. Mariah and
Strickland are seen here on the restaurant's security camera. I know he's being transparent at this point
during this questioning, but what he's saying is starting to sound a lot like a date. Oh, yeah. 100%.
Investigators had a lot of questions, and their prior visit to Strickland's home had raised even more. On the night
of Mariah's murder, police discovered an important clue on video from a neighbor's security camera. The video
was taken just 1 minute after Mariah was dropped off. There's a video from a Ring
doorbell camera that clearly shows like a black SUV with a bike rack. Can't see the license plate because of the bike
rack on it. So, it was obviously like we need to focus on this. And a vehicle that fit that description was outside
Strickland's house. Who was driving the black Jeep SUV with the bike rack? The answer would lead directly to
another woman. The day after Mariah Wilson's murder, investigators quickly had an answer to
who could have been driving that black Jeep that was seen on security cameras shortly before her death.
Investigators had spotted a similar looking Jeep in Colin Strickland's driveway when they spoke to him. They
see a black Jeep with the bike rack on the back of it. So at that point, we run the license plate and it comes back that
it's registered to Caitlyn Armstrong. Caitlyn Armstrong, Colin Strickland's girlfriend. Chris Tally says he knew her
very well. You know, we connected pretty early on. Caitlyn and I became friends.
They were both from the Midwest. So, we kind of had a similar uh like upbringing
and so I think that kind of uh you know helped us become like even better friends. She'd come over to parties I
would have. Armstrong had a background in finance and loved yoga. She had a really strong you know kind of uh you
know love for travel love you know she spent time pretty much you know globe hopping around the world really you know
kind of interesting person. Armstrong got certified as a yoga instructor in Bali. After she met Colin Strickland in
2019, she also started getting into cycling. He was very willing to kind of show her, you know, what his passions
were and how passionate he was for cycling and, you know, get her involved with it. And she also became, you know,
kind of addicted to cycling along with Colin. Armstrong even started racing on an amateur level. At the end of the day,
like I feel like they had a pretty like normal relationship. They both ride bikes together. They would you know do
fun stuff and you know then 2020 happened and the pandemic started so everyone was kind of you know forced
with uh you know close quarters with their significant others. The couple eventually moved in together. The moment
I I saw the relationship become more serious is you know they talked about uh that they purchased a house recently uh
together which I thought you know was a pretty big indication that it's you know
a serious relationship. They also started a business together restoring classic trailers. I think she was
helping with the finance side of things. Colin was doing a lot of the operations.
Their relationship went from, you know, just a normal couple to also owning a business together. But things got bumpy
in late 2021. The breakup, I personally didn't know like they were split up at the time. Neither of them mentioned
anything to me. It was during this time that Colin Strickland and Mariah Wilson had briefly dated. Although Strickland
had said they had broken it off, Mariah seemed confused in the aftermath. Polar Melendez covered the
case for the Daily Beast. Around this time, I think Mo was pretty confused about her the status of her relationship
with Colin. And she literally wrote, "This weekend was strange for me. If you just want to be friends, that's cool."
Honestly, my mind has been going in circles. It sounds like someone who's in her early 20s who just wants to know the
status of a relationship with someone that's confusing her, and it seems totally reasonable that she might be
confused. Strickland had a lot to say about his relationship with Caitlyn Armstrong. He
starts to portray her as being the jealous type, even saying things like, "I can't keep people in my phone. like
Mo's not in my phone as Mo. Strickland told investigators he kept Mariah's phone number under an alias in his
contacts. And on that evening after he'd been out with Mariah at the pool, he texted Armstrong that he'd been running
an errand and that his phone had died. That was not true. Investigators say there were other
clues pointing toward Caitlyn Armstrong. On the night of the murder, Caitlyn Armstrong's phone was not connected to a
cell network. Not connected. Correct. So whether she powered it off, whether she
put it in airplane mode, uh there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cell phone
towers. Do you think this was on purpose? Absolutely. In this day and age, if your phone is off and not
connected to a network, you're either the victim of a crime or you're probably committing one. A silent phone speaks
louder in some cases than actions. Oh, absolutely. Strickland also shared that he had
bought handguns for Armstrong and himself for personal security. He talks about how they purchased guns and that
there are these two guns and that she has a gun. um they've taken lessons and that the these guns are back at the
house. And so few things like that start to paint a picture of like this could it
could definitely be her. Police worked quickly. That same day, investigators picked Caitlyn Armstrong up on an old
warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment. She's just kind of sitting there and she's not showing very much
emotion at all. What were you doing yesterday? I would like to leave. I think typically when we see some
interviews going on and if you didn't do it, this is your like you're going to be
like, you know, not me, not it. I want out of this room. What do you want to know so you don't come back looking for
me? And there was none of that. Is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there? I would
like to leave. She was almost completely disinterested in in hearing what the detectives had to say. So, it sounds
like this is a big red flag immediately. Oh. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But investigators had to let Armstrong go.
There was a problem. Armstrong's birth date did not match the date on the warrant. So, the warrant wasn't valid,
and police didn't have enough to charge her with anything else. 2 days after that interview,
police got an unexpected call. It was from a friend of Caitlyn Armstrong. Police say the caller told them that
Armstrong was so angry about Strickland's relationship with Mariah that she wanted to kill her. It was yet
another indication that they were on the right track. A few days later, an arrest
warrant was issued. But when police went looking for Caitlyn Armstrong, she was [Music]
gone. After Caitlyn Armstrong vanished, US Marshalss got the job of tracking her
down. Plain and simply, the Marshals are manhunters. Chris Godsick hosts and produces a podcast with the US Marshall
Service. I'm Chris Godsick and this is Chasing Evil. His podcast tells the stories of some of the US Marshals's
biggest cases, including the hunt for Caitlyn Armstrong. Nobody thought Caitlyn Armstrong was
going to run and she surprised them all. She disappeared. Caitlyn Armstrong ran from a murder charge, but the US
Marshals Lonear Fugitive Task Force had a different plan. So, take me through this. Where do you
begin when you're looking for somebody that does not want to be found? You know, it depends on the case. Honestly,
we look for friends. Sometimes we look for family. One of the things that I did was collect as many photos as I could.
Damen Fernandez and Amir Perez are deputy US Marshals. They joined Austin police officers Jonathan Riley inside
the res and Mark Mloud on the case. The team based in Texas is known as the Lonear Fugitive Task Force. With no sign
of Caitlyn Armstrong, the task force suspected Armstrong may have left town, headed for her sister Christiey's place
in upstate New York. We were thinking maybe she's driving cross country. We didn't know.
Their instincts were right. In upstate New York, another deputy marshal managed to track down Armstrong's sister. What
did the sister say? The sister ultimately said that her sister had come to visit her, had stayed with her a
couple of days, but that she had dropped her off at the airport in New York and uh last she heard she was going to board
a flight back to Austin, but then called her back later and said that she decided
that she was going to drive back, which made absolutely no sense to any of us that you would just drive
back. When the task force checked outbound flights at Newark airport, no reservations had been made in Caitlyn
Armstrong's name. We never got a hit on Caitlyn Armstrong's passport. But the team had a hunch unaware of because
Christy told the deputy marshall in New York that she didn't know where her passport was. So they checked with her
contact at Homeland Security. And within minutes of reaching out to him, he got back to me and he's like, "Yeah, we're
showing uh Christy Armstrong traveled out of Newark, New Jersey International Airport on a one-way flight to Costa
Rica." You knew it. And I said, "There's no way that the sister left and we're looking for him. We can't find Caitlyn."
No, that's Caitlyn. The marshall suspected that Caitlyn Armstrong had used her sister's passport
to flee. Christy Armstrong later emphasized to authorities she did not give her sister the passport. She has
never been charged with any crime related to this case. And this is where Caitlyn
Armstrong landed. Costa Rica, gem of Central America, home to mountains, tropical rainforests, and white sand
beaches as far as the eye can see. But she didn't spend much time here in San Jose. Shortly after arriving,
Caitlyn Armstrong disappeared again, and she had a huge lead on the US Marshalss.
Marshalss Amir Perez and Damen Fernandez arrived in Costa Rica a month after Armstrong.
This is you guys now on the hunt. How intense is it once you touch down in Costa Rica? What happens? You're on a
timeline. I hear timeline and I hear the pressurees on. Pressure's on. I know we
were sitting in the plane and we're talking what's the game plan? Although they would have help from the
Costa Rican authorities and US State Department officers on the ground, they knew finding Armstrong was going to be a
big challenge. We had other intelligence indicating that she was staying in hostiles in Costa Rica. And I don't know
if you know anything about Costa Rica, but Costa Rica has a lot of hostiles. A lot. An unbelievable amount of hostiles.
The Marshals wouldn't tell us exactly how their intelligence gathering worked, but their team back in the States had
managed to track down the phone number for an American businessman they believed had connected with Caitlyn
Armstrong at some point. We didn't know what city he was in, so we decided, hey,
let's just cold call him. So, we call him and we're on the conference room and he answers and we're like, hey, it's the
US Marshalss. My name is Mark. And he goes, I don't want any click. Just hangs up like it's a like a telemarketer.
Telemarker I am call. Yeah. After three or four call attempts, the businessman finally stayed on the line to answer the
marshall's questions. And we actually end up sending a picture of Caitlyn while we're on the phone with him. He
looks at it and he goes, "Yes, but she doesn't look like that." And she not using that name. And did he tell you her
new name? He did. It was Beth. She was born by Beth. And the businessman said Armstrong no longer looked like this.
She had cut her hair and changed its color. Brown instead of red. She dyed her hair. The businessman told the
marshals he had no idea that the woman who called herself Beth was actually Caitlyn Armstrong. But he did tell them
where they might find her. He's like, "Well, I met her at a yoga studio in Hakaco."
This is Hakaco, a popular tourist destination known for its nightife and its beaches and the perfect place to
hide. It was the marshall's first real tip, so they rushed out here. They canvased the area, combed
through hours of surveillance video, but could not find a single sign of Caitlyn
Armstrong anywhere. It was a bust. But the marshals have one more solid lead and that takes them to a beautiful
touristy beach town, a one street town called Santa Teresa. [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] One month after Caitlyn Armstrong disappeared, the US marshals were in hot
pursuit of her and another area of Costa Rica. A source had suggested she might have gone to a small village on the
Pacific coast. The marshals took a ferry like this one to reach a remote peninsula. Once there, they drove by car
through those mountains to the tiny town of Santa Teresa. But when they finally arrived, they ran into an unexpected
problem. Get to Santa Teresa. Was it easy to identify her there from the other people that were there? I think
from the get- go, we were told, "You're going to be in for a surprise cuz a lot of the women in Santa Teresa look just
like Caitlyn." A lot of them. And it turns out that advice was right. The town was full of foreign
tourists. Deputy marshals Fernandez and Perez arrived in Santa Teresa after dark. So we get there and he starts
walking down a main strip that's there uh like down the street. There's only one road on on that town and he sees
main road. He sees a girl and he says, you know, that looks just like her. Well, couple of minutes later, we see
another one and it's late at night and we're like, well, oh man, that's two. And then there's another one.
As the marshals tried to find Armstrong, they even had one of their female operatives start going to yoga classes
to see if they could spot her. She actually did three different classes for us. And they tapped into local
contacts. Oh, yeah. We made friends with people there that would send us pictures. Oh,
look. I I think I saw her at this restaurant yesterday, and she's in the back in the background of a photo that I
took. Stuff like that. In fact, people had seen Caitlyn Armstrong at local spots in Santa
Teresa, but they didn't realize who she was. Armstrong was hiding in plain sight, using different names.
She had like multiple names. Yeah. Um, she came in Beth. Um, Beth. It wasn't Beth. Ari. Ari. Ari. Ari. Right. So, she
came in as Ari. Greg Habber is an American from the New York area who owns a restaurant called Cooks Smokehouse and
Bar here in Santa Teresa. Ari, what did Ari look like? Did she stand out to you? Pretty came in,
introduced herself as a yoga teacher, which is basically anybody else down here. Hey, I moved here teaching yoga
down the street and that was it. What was her general vibe like? She definitely seemed like she was trying to
establish roots here, like this was going to be her new home. And Haber says one day he noticed something different
about her. I saw her on the beach. I walk my dog on the beach every night for sunset and you're walking through and
you see the bandage on her face. It's like, "Ah, what happened?" She like, "A surfboard hit me in the face." It's
like, "Well, happens to everybody, right? At least once." So, you wouldn't even question that story here. Like, you see
people all the time. Turns out that bandage would later prove to be an important part of this story and one of
the reasons the marshals say Armstrong was so hard to find. So you're this close to giving up? Yes. Yeah. Finally,
they decided on one last tactic. They turned to a local Facebook page. We decided we were going to put an ad out
for a yoga instructor and see what would happen. So this is the equivalent of Craigslist. Yes. Correct. Right. Pretty
much. and a little bit more lively, but yes, and just saying, "Hey, we're this hostel. We're looking for a yoga
instructor as soon as the possible. Please contact us at this number." But after almost a week of hunting, even
that didn't seem to be working. Sunday, we decided we haven't gotten any response back from anything. We're so
Sunday, we're like, "Okay, we're done. None of them have panned out. So, we're going back to San Jose." Now back in San
Jose, the marshals were getting ready to head home when suddenly we got a bite. Somebody that identified
herself as a yoga instructor and said that wanted to meet with us at a particular hostel and we said this is
this is our chance. Deputy Marshals Perez and Fernandez rushed back to Santa Teresa just ahead of a tropical storm.
Tourism Police Lieutenant Juan Carlos Solanos's team helped the marshals in their search for Caitlyn Armstrong. They
did surveillance on a hostel called Don John's where the yoga instructor, the one who answered the online ad, was
believed to be. So there is this massive international manhunt and of all places
in the world, it ends in this very discreet hostel. It was now time for the marshals to make
their move. So, I walked up and I got in. They decided that Deputy Marshall Perez would approach the woman alone.
They didn't want to scare her off. He would pretend to be a tourist and try to get a really good look at her face. And
I saw two individuals sitting there at a table off to the left uh as soon as I walked in. He says one was a woman. She
looked like Caitlyn, but not 100%. So, I thought, well, how can I approach her or
get close enough where I start asking questions where she doesn't suspect something? So, I decided that I was
going to speak to her in Spanish. So, I spoke to her in nothing but Spanish. So,
you're communicating. She goes to use her phone for Google Translate. And then, so I got a little closer cuz I saw
that she was trying to get to Google Translate on her phone. and she'd raised it up to me and I got even closer and I
noticed that she had a bandage on her nose and possibly her lips were swollen and I saw her eyes. The eyes are the
exact same ones that I saw in the picture and this is her 100%. He gets in the car and he's like, "That's her.
She's in there." Local police moved in to make the actual arrest. And soon the marshals discovered
why Armstrong had been so hard to find. She had been getting plastic surgery when they first arrived in Santa Teresa.
At the hostel, they found a receipt. The receipt for surgery. Plastic surgery. Plastic surgery. In
these sidebyside photos, you can see that Armstrong changed the shape of her nose.
The deputy marshal said their female operative, the woman they sent to yoga classes to try to find Armstrong, told
them Armstrong's new look, would have tricked her. And she told me, "I think if I would have run into her at the yoga
studio, I don't think I would have recognized her." Wow. It almost worked. It almost worked.
The marshals took Armstrong back to Texas where she was charged and held in jail. But just weeks before she was due
to stand trial for the murder of Mariah Wilson, Caitlyn Armstrong escaped again.
Almost 3 weeks before her trial, former fugitive Caitlyn Armstrong somehow managed to escape from custody. She was
at a doctor's appointment and tried to escape as they were walking out. Parendes from the Daily Beast says
Armstrong didn't get far before deputies caught her. It was pretty astonishing that she did that given the fact that
she had tried to escape prosecution prior. This was just more evidence of her guilt. Joseé Garza is Travis
County's district attorney. He says his team of prosecutors, Ricky Jones and GMO
Gonzalez, were more than ready to try the case. When we learned that um she had tried to escape, um it just added to
our confidence level in the facts of this case that we would be able to secure justice for Mariah and her
family. On November 1st, 2023, Armstrong's trial began. The last thing Mo did on this
verdict was scream in terror. In opening statements, Jones told the jury about chilling audio from a security camera
that captured the last moments of Mariah's life. No screams are followed by two gunshots. Kayen
Armstrong stood over Mo Wilson and put a third shot right in Mo Wilson's home. Prosecutors said Armstrong had been
tracking Mariah Wilson using a sports app. Caitlyn, prior to the murder, had been following Mo on a Strava app, which
is basically an app that athletes use to track their miles, running, biking, and
she knew exactly where she was. And they said that Armstrong on the night of the murder was most likely
tracking Colin Strickland as well. She did have the ability to monitor his communications. She had access to all of
his password, so she had access to um his Instagram account. I believe that when Mo sent Colin a text letting him
know the address where she was, I believe that Caitlin Armstrong was at home on Colin Strickland's laptop. She
saw that message. After murdering Mariah and before leaving the scene, Jones told
the jury that Armstrong took Mariah's bike and discarded it in the bushes just yards away from where her Jeep was
parked. Our belief is that she maybe staged it to look like a robbery or something. Or another theory is Mo
Wilson's bike is a tool of her trade. It might have been like the bullet shot in the
heart. I'm going to shoot you in the heart. I'm going to throw away your bike. But they said Armstrong made one
big mistake. She left her DNA behind on the handlebars and seat of Mariah's bike. And that's not all the evidence
prosecutors had against Armstrong. There was that receipt that showed Armstrong had received plastic surgery while
hiding out in Costa Rica. Everything she does, it's all consistent with trying to
evade the authorities. But when it was the defense's turn, attorney Jeffrey Purrier told the jury there was no
direct evidence, including security footage that actually showed Armstrong was at the scene of the crime. Not one
witness saw Caitlyn Armstrong allegedly commit this murder. Then why would Armstrong flee and hide from the
authorities? Defense attorney Rick Kofur pointed the finger at Colin Strickland.
Was she scared? What do you think? Do you think that she may have been concerned a little bit that her
boyfriend had killed someone? Fear results in fight or flight. And it was flight. But Jones said there was a big
problem with this theory because Strickland had nothing to do with the murder of Mariah Wilson.
In fact, at the time of the murder, he was actually on the phone speaking with someone. It wasn't counter stricken.
Armstrong's defense team did not respond to our request for an interview. After a twoe trial, the
defendant will please rise. It took the jury around 2 hours to decide Armstrong's fate. We, the jury, found
the defendant, Caitlyn Armstrong, guilty of the offense of murder. As a prosecutor, the first row right
behind you is the family and you begin to feel their pain and their desire for a just outcome for their loved ones.
One day after her conviction, Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years behind bars. You may be seated.
But before the case came to an end, Judge Brenda Kennedy allowed Caitlyn Cash, Mariah's close friend, whose
apartment she'd been staying at and who had found Mariah's body, to take the stand and speak directly to Armstrong.
So many people in this room have lost so much. I'm angry at you, at the utter utter tragic
nature, at the senselessness, at not being able to hear Mo's voice again. I feel deep sadness for the road
ahead. Then it was Mariah's mother's turn. I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter. It was very selfish and
cowardly. that violent act on May 91. It was cowardly because he never chose to face
her woman to woman in a civil conversation. She would have listened. She was an amazing
listener. She would have cared about your feelings. But despite the pain, Karen Wilson
closed with words of love and optimism because she said that's how Mariah would have wanted it. You killed her earthly
body, but her spirit is so very much alive and you can never change that. Today in Kingdom Trails in Northern
Vermont, a place that was sacred to Mariah, a trail was built in her honor. It's called Mariah's Ascent.
Mariah was a verter. She was giving. She was hardworking. She was honest. She was
caring. And she came from a wonderful family. And that family really wants that legacy and all of her good
qualities to inspire [Music] others. 48 hours. Don't miss an [Music] episode. [Music]
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“48 Hours" reports on cases that intrigued true-crime podcasters. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Please Don’t Tell," "The Disappearance of Kristin Smart" and "Capturing Moriah Wilson's Killer."

00:00 “Please Don’t Tell” 41:52 The Disappearance of Kristin Smart 1:25:25 Capturing Moriah Wilson's Killer

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

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Brief Summary

Twins recount their 1977 abduction, leading to wrongful conviction of Vincent Simmons, who was exonerated decades later.

Key points

The Night That Changed Everything. For twins Karen and Sharon Sanders, May 9, 1977, marked a traumatic turning point in their lives.
The Shocking Confession. Vincent Simmons claims he was shot by police while being coerced into signing a confession.
Vincent's Emotional Release. Vincent expresses his desire to let go of pain during a reconciliation meeting.
Vincent's Freedom. After 44 years, Vincent Simmons walks out of prison a free man.
Police Missteps. The campus police's initial response to Kristen's disappearance raises serious concerns.
Kristen's Disappearance. Kristen Smart goes missing after a night out, leaving her friends and family in despair.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I wanted to prove that I'm innocent. Man, I never know these people.

18:08WatchMar 29, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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