Latest / FBI Files / She Won $5,000 at Blackjack. A Maroon Beretta Was Waiting in the Driveway.

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She Won $5,000 at Blackjack. A Maroon Beretta Was Waiting in the Driveway. · FBI Files

0:03
Speaker 1: In Memphis, Tennessee, a horrible crime terrified local residents. Most
0:09
Speaker 1: never heard the young mother's screams, but they felt the loss.
0:15
Speaker 1: As local authorities searched for the perpetrator, they found many
0:20
Speaker 1: who had motive. Investigators were forced to consider whether this
0:24
Speaker 1: was a random act of violence or a crime of
0:28
Speaker 1: deliberate calculation.
1:01
Speaker 2: When a wealthy young woman was abducted in front of
1:04
Speaker 2: her in-law's home, the police had no shortage of suspects.
1:08
Speaker 2: The 25-year-old victim left behind a tumultuous marriage, an ex-husband,
1:13
Speaker 2: and old boyfriends. All were on the FBI's shot list.
1:17
Speaker 2: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
1:21
Speaker 2: As suspects were interviewed, the case grew no clearer. To
1:24
Speaker 2: find the woman and her abductor, investigators would have to
1:28
Speaker 2: first determine the motive.
1:38
Speaker 1: Tunica County, Mississippi, just south of Memphis, Tennessee, is America's
1:43
Speaker 1: third largest gambling destination. 25-year-old Shannon Sanderson had recently become
1:52
Speaker 1: one of the regulars. On April 19, 1996, the housewife
1:58
Speaker 1: from nearby Memphis, Tennessee, visited her favorite casino. Shannon was
2:07
Speaker 1: having a good night. She managed to turn $ 500 into $ 5, 000
2:11
Speaker 1: at the high-stakes blackjack table. At 3.30 a.m., she cashed
2:20
Speaker 1: out and headed home. When players win big, most casinos
2:26
Speaker 1: provide a security escort to protect customers from theft. This
2:31
Speaker 1: casino was no exception. Upon Shannon's request, a guard followed
2:37
Speaker 1: her to the parking area. It was an hour's drive
2:42
Speaker 1: to Shannon's home in Memphis, through secluded roads. She knew
2:47
Speaker 1: the route well. She loved to win, but could afford
2:51
Speaker 1: to lose. Less than a year earlier, she'd married her boss,
2:59
Speaker 1: a multi-millionaire who was 33 years her senior. Earlier that evening,
3:08
Speaker 1: she had dropped off her three young children from her
3:11
Speaker 1: previous marriage at the home of their grandparents in Northeast Memphis.
3:18
Speaker 1: It was about 4.45 a.m. when Shannon pulled into the
3:21
Speaker 1: grandparents' driveway to pick up her children. She needed to
3:27
Speaker 1: get them off to school on time in the morning.
3:33
Speaker 3: Did you hear that?
3:36
Speaker 1: Inside the house. Shannon's former in-laws were awakened by a
3:39
Speaker 1: piercing scream. Her former father-in-law rushed to the window to
3:44
Speaker 1: see Shannon struggling with someone in a baseball cap. He
3:50
Speaker 1: raced to assist her. Neighbors also heard the commotion and
3:57
Speaker 1: witnessed the crime. Within seconds, the mother of three had
4:03
Speaker 1: been abducted less than 50 feet from the front door.
4:14
Speaker 1: The distraught grandfather called 911. Memphis police were immediately dispatched.
4:24
Speaker 1: In kidnapping cases, a quick response can mean the difference
4:27
Speaker 1: between life and death. Police arrived within minutes and interviewed
4:33
Speaker 1: Shannon's former father. Memphis police captain Richard David Wilson, a
4:41
Speaker 1: sergeant at the time, recalls that the shaken man did
4:44
Speaker 1: his best to recall what he had seen.
4:47
Speaker 4: Her ex-father-in-law heard a commotion and observed a car driving away.
4:54
Speaker 4: At the same time, some other neighbors on the street
4:57
Speaker 4: heard the commotion and also looked out and saw a
5:01
Speaker 4: car drive away and gave a description of the driver
5:04
Speaker 4: and description of the car.
5:07
Speaker 1: Despite the dim light, witnesses agreed that the driver had
5:10
Speaker 1: worn a red baseball cap. but their descriptions of the
5:14
Speaker 1: vehicle varied. Some described it vaguely as dark-colored and sporty.
5:21
Speaker 1: Another witness was certain that it was a maroon Chevy Beretta.
5:27
Speaker 1: None of them could describe the driver's face. On the
5:34
Speaker 1: driveway close to the street, police found two metal buttons
5:37
Speaker 1: assumed to have been torn from Shannon's clothing. Close by,
5:45
Speaker 1: they recovered a single artificial fingernail. The victim's car was searched,
5:52
Speaker 1: but police found nothing to suggest the identity of her
5:55
Speaker 1: abductor or Shannon's whereabouts. Her ex-father-in-law had seen Shannon earlier
6:03
Speaker 1: that evening when she had dropped off her children. He
6:11
Speaker 1: and his wife had agreed to babysit their grandchildren while
6:14
Speaker 1: Shannon celebrated her new husband's birthday at the casino. Their
6:22
Speaker 1: former daughter-in-law had divorced their son less than a year before. Still,
6:29
Speaker 1: their relationship with her remained amicable, and she visited regularly
6:33
Speaker 1: with the children. Shannon's former father-in-law told police the name
6:40
Speaker 1: of the casino where Shannon and her new husband liked
6:43
Speaker 1: to play. The casino confirmed she'd been there and won $ 5, 000,
6:48
Speaker 1: but no one could say if she was with anyone
6:50
Speaker 1: in particular. Later that day, news that the mother of
6:57
Speaker 1: three was abducted just steps from where her children slept
7:00
Speaker 1: horrified local residents, according to Memphis District Attorney Jerry Kitchens.
7:06
Speaker 5: She appeared to be a person who was very conscious
7:10
Speaker 5: about the upbringing of her children because she had returned
7:16
Speaker 5: back to Memphis to pick her children up to make
7:18
Speaker 5: sure that they got to school.
7:22
Speaker 1: Memphis police questioned Shannon's ex-husband, who was the father of
7:25
Speaker 1: her three children.
7:26
Speaker 5: Is anybody here with you after 11 o'clock?
7:28
Speaker 3: No, sir.
7:28
Speaker 6: Okay.
7:29
Speaker 5: Thank you very much. Come in a gentleman a minute.
7:32
Speaker 1: Thanks, sweetie. He was at work when the abduction occurred
7:37
Speaker 1: in front of his parents' home. Though his relationship with
7:41
Speaker 1: Shannon had been stormy, they remained married for almost eight years.
7:47
Speaker 1: They finally divorced after Shannon fell in love with her
7:50
Speaker 1: present husband. Memphis police were reluctant to eliminate him as
7:56
Speaker 1: a suspect so early in the investigation, though Shannon's ex-husband's
8:00
Speaker 1: alibi was solid.
8:02
Speaker 4: Who knows the reason why People get a divorce, but
8:05
Speaker 4: there's always got, I've never heard of a good divorce.
8:08
Speaker 4: She still made him pay alimony, even though she was
8:11
Speaker 4: married to a wealthy person.
8:16
Speaker 1: Police look to her present husband to learn more. Since
8:21
Speaker 1: he was a multimillionaire, they considered the possibility that Shannon
8:25
Speaker 1: may have been kidnapped for ransom.
8:28
Speaker 4: He owned a large security company here in Memphis, and
8:33
Speaker 4: he was well known Everybody wanted to help him because
8:36
Speaker 4: they knew him or knew of him. And being that
8:39
Speaker 4: he was wealthy, she would be a prime target to
8:43
Speaker 4: be kidnapped for money.
8:46
Speaker 1: So far, he'd received no ransom call or letter. He'd
8:51
Speaker 1: been distraught since being woken at 5 a.m. with the
8:54
Speaker 1: news of his wife's abduction. Regrettably, the last time they'd
8:59
Speaker 1: spoken that night, they'd had a fight. It was his
9:07
Speaker 1: 58th birthday, and his teenage daughters from a previous marriage
9:10
Speaker 1: had stopped by to celebrate. That same evening, his wife
9:17
Speaker 1: Shannon had planned to take him to the casino. Hello? Hi, sweetie.
9:28
Speaker 1: After dropping off her children, she called to say that
9:31
Speaker 1: she was on the way to pick him up.
9:32
Speaker 4: He told her.
9:34
Speaker 1: He wasn't ready. His daughters were there, and he wanted
9:37
Speaker 1: to spend more time with them before going out.
9:41
Speaker 3: No.
9:42
Speaker 1: Shannon became angry. According to her husband, she felt he
9:46
Speaker 1: was putting his children ahead of their plans. He told
9:49
Speaker 1: her he could be ready in a half hour, but
9:52
Speaker 1: she hung up on him. He expected that she'd cool
9:57
Speaker 1: down and pick him up. But when he tried to
10:01
Speaker 1: call later, she did not answer. I guess there's just
10:08
Speaker 1: such a difference. Police asked if he knew anyone who
10:10
Speaker 1: might want to harm Shannon.
10:13
Speaker 4: The last thing I said, she said.
10:15
Speaker 1: The husband mentioned an ex-boyfriend against whom Shannon had filed
10:19
Speaker 1: charges of harassment a year earlier. He believed the ex-boyfriend
10:25
Speaker 1: drove a Chevy Beretta. At headquarters, police checked with DMV,
10:34
Speaker 1: but found no records that her ex-boyfriend or any of
10:37
Speaker 1: his family owned a Beretta. A criminal background check did
10:42
Speaker 1: confirm that a judge had ordered her ex-lover to have
10:44
Speaker 1: no contact with Shannon over the past year. Investigators went
10:51
Speaker 1: to question Shannon's ex-boyfriend, but he was not at home,
10:54
Speaker 1: nor had he shown up for work. His sister lived
11:02
Speaker 1: in the same neighborhood, a few blocks from where Shannon
11:04
Speaker 1: had been abducted. I don't know that... She reported that
11:09
Speaker 1: she had seen a suspicious car drive past her house
11:12
Speaker 1: on the night of the crime. She was out on
11:16
Speaker 1: the porch around the time of the abduction when a
11:19
Speaker 1: maroon Chevy Beretta sped by, heading out of the neighborhood.
11:26
Speaker 1: She said she didn't recognize the driver at first. But
11:30
Speaker 1: when she saw a photo of Shannon's wealthy husband in
11:33
Speaker 1: a news report, she was sure it was him. Though
11:39
Speaker 1: Memphis police had first considered the possibility that Shannon had
11:42
Speaker 1: been abducted for ransom, they now began to consider another possibility.
11:49
Speaker 4: Always in the back of your mind, due to her
11:51
Speaker 4: being married to a wealthy person and the difference in
11:56
Speaker 4: her age is that something could have happened to her
12:01
Speaker 4: to get rid of her. We just didn't know, so
12:05
Speaker 4: we tried to cover every angle that we could.
12:09
Speaker 1: Memphis police asked Shannon's husband to provide a formal statement.
12:15
Speaker 1: With his lawyer present, he filled in detectives about his
12:18
Speaker 1: relationship with Shannon. Police knew that he had met Shannon
12:24
Speaker 1: while she was still married, working at the security company
12:27
Speaker 1: he owned. She worked for him, but soon their relationship
12:33
Speaker 1: took a personal turn. Their romance led to marriage, but
12:40
Speaker 1: the magic didn't last long. Nine months later, they began
12:48
Speaker 1: negotiating a post-nuptial agreement, outlining terms in the event the
12:51
Speaker 1: troubled union broke. Both had previous marriages that ended in divorce,
12:58
Speaker 1: and Shannon needed to feel certain that she would retain
13:00
Speaker 1: custody of her children. They'd filed it just ten days
13:05
Speaker 1: before Shannon's abduction. feeling sufficiently well to come to. Shannon's
13:12
Speaker 1: husband emphasized that it was his wife who wanted the agreement.
13:16
Speaker 1: He claimed money was not the issue since they kept
13:19
Speaker 1: separate bank accounts. When police asked, the husband agreed to
13:26
Speaker 1: reinforce his statement with a polygraph. To cover all possibilities,
13:33
Speaker 1: police checked local morgues, jails, and hospitals. But after a week,
13:39
Speaker 1: investigators had no solid leads to Shannon's whereabouts. Police in
13:46
Speaker 1: Memphis received dozens of calls from local residents. Most were well-intentioned,
13:52
Speaker 1: but unproductive.
13:54
Speaker 2: Uh-huh. And your name again?
13:56
Speaker 1: All had to be checked.
13:57
Speaker 7: Yes, ma'am, and thanks for the call.
13:59
Speaker 1: One was from a woman named Sharon Powers in nearby Clarksdale, Mississippi,
14:03
Speaker 1: 80 miles south of Memphis. Good evening.
14:07
Speaker 4: Abduction was reported in the paper and on the news,
14:10
Speaker 4: and the description of the car was given. She had
14:13
Speaker 4: contacted the Memphis Police Department saying that she thought that
14:16
Speaker 4: maybe her husband was involved because of the description of
14:22
Speaker 4: the car.
14:24
Speaker 1: She told Mississippi police that she believed her husband, Lee,
14:27
Speaker 1: may fit the suspect description. The day after the crime
14:32
Speaker 1: was reported... He had worn a red cap and left
14:35
Speaker 1: town in their red Chevy Beretta to see his mother.
14:40
Speaker 1: The woman said that she and her husband had been fighting.
14:45
Speaker 1: Police asked her to have him call when he returned.
14:49
Speaker 1: They weren't optimistic. Her report sounded like a possible domestic
14:54
Speaker 1: dispute unrelated to the crime. On May 3rd, 1996, police
15:01
Speaker 1: responded to another call from a concerned citizen trying to help.
15:05
Speaker 1: At a casino in Tunica County, Mississippi, a witness believed
15:09
Speaker 1: he had spotted Shannon Sanderson dressed as a casino employee.
15:16
Speaker 1: But when an officer approached her, he realized that it
15:19
Speaker 1: was a case of mistaken identity. It was one more
15:24
Speaker 1: call among hundreds of false leads that frustrated the investigation.
15:31
Speaker 1: After two weeks of searching, local investigators were no closer
15:34
Speaker 1: to finding the missing mother of three. Her family was
15:41
Speaker 1: left only with the hope that she was still alive.
15:48
Speaker 1: In the spring of 1996, Memphis police continued their search
15:53
Speaker 1: for 25-year-old Shannon Sanderson, who had been abducted from the
15:56
Speaker 1: front of her former in-law's home. Investigators had questioned her
16:03
Speaker 1: wealthy husband, past lovers, and area residents, but none offered
16:07
Speaker 1: clues to her whereabouts. In any investigation, authorities try first
16:14
Speaker 1: to eliminate those people closest to the victim. After more
16:20
Speaker 1: than two weeks of searching, Memphis Police Captain Richard David
16:23
Speaker 1: Rolson feared that time was running out.
16:27
Speaker 4: Due to her past boyfriends and lovers, We just didn't
16:31
Speaker 4: know what happened, but as the days went by, the
16:35
Speaker 4: chances of finding her alive were slimmer and slimmer.
16:39
Speaker 1: On May 6th, Shannon's ex-boyfriend finally came in for questioning.
16:44
Speaker 1: He had only recently completed his year-long probation of harassment
16:48
Speaker 1: charges against Shannon. He claimed to be asleep in his
16:52
Speaker 1: mother's house at the time of her abduction. According to
16:56
Speaker 1: the ex-boyfriend, he avoided Shannon as his probation required, But
17:01
Speaker 1: Shannon continued to call him, complaining that she wasn't happy
17:04
Speaker 1: with her new marriage. He added that he would have
17:07
Speaker 1: to talk to his lawyer before agreeing to take a polygraph.
17:15
Speaker 1: He remained a potential suspect. But as with Shannon's husband,
17:20
Speaker 1: no hard evidence existed to prove nor disprove his involvement. Then,
17:26
Speaker 1: on May 9th, 1996, 40 miles south from where Shannon
17:30
Speaker 1: had been abducted, sheriffs in DeSoto County, Mississippi, were called
17:34
Speaker 1: to a rural plot of land in the town of Eudora.
17:44
Speaker 1: Two people had been inspecting their new property when they
17:47
Speaker 1: noticed a strong odor. Then they discovered a woman's decomposing body.
18:09
Speaker 1: The DeSoto County crime scene technicians set up a grid
18:11
Speaker 1: around the immediate area. They conducted a line search, looking
18:17
Speaker 1: for anything that might be a clue. They labeled and
18:21
Speaker 1: recorded every item they came across as they drew closer
18:23
Speaker 1: to the body. 15 feet away, they found a woman's
18:28
Speaker 1: high-heeled shoe. Closer to the body, they marked the location
18:42
Speaker 1: of another. DeSoto sheriffs checked their records, but found no
18:47
Speaker 1: women reported missing locally. They broadened their search to include
18:53
Speaker 1: larger towns and cities in the region. When they contacted
18:58
Speaker 1: Memphis authorities, police there told them that a 25-year-old mother
19:02
Speaker 1: of three named Shannon Sanderson had been missing for more
19:05
Speaker 1: than two weeks. DeSoto deputies learned that she was blonde,
19:13
Speaker 1: approximately 5'5, 130 pounds, had a small tattoo, and was
19:17
Speaker 1: last seen wearing a dress, high heels, a jacket with
19:21
Speaker 1: metal buttons, and pink artificial fingernails. Looks good so far.
19:28
Speaker 1: That description fit the body, but they needed an autopsy
19:31
Speaker 1: to confirm her identity and cause of death. This is
19:35
Speaker 1: the start of the autopsy. The medical examiner determined that
19:40
Speaker 1: the victim had been killed by a single. 25 caliber
19:42
Speaker 1: bullet to the right temple.
19:46
Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
19:48
Speaker 1: Date and time. The victim's clothes were removed and preserved
19:53
Speaker 1: to check for trace evidence that might lead to the killer.
19:59
Speaker 1: The body, dead an estimated two to three weeks, was
20:02
Speaker 1: too decomposed to recognize. But over her left breast, examiners
20:06
Speaker 1: found a small tattoo that was still visible. It said,
20:12
Speaker 1: I love you, Robert. Shannon Sanderson had such a tattoo.
20:20
Speaker 1: The medical examiner compared her dental records to x-rays from
20:23
Speaker 1: the body. They confirmed the ID. This was Shannon Sanderson's body.
20:33
Speaker 1: The abduction was now officially a homicide. In Memphis, Assistant
20:40
Speaker 1: District Attorney Jerry Kitchen was called in. His first task
20:45
Speaker 1: would be to somehow narrow the suspect list the police
20:48
Speaker 1: had developed over the past three weeks.
20:51
Speaker 5: Here in Memphis, it's somewhat unusual in that we have
20:54
Speaker 5: relatively few murder cases that we would classify as mystery
20:58
Speaker 5: homicides where someone's not either developed as a suspect rather
21:03
Speaker 5: quickly or arrested soon after the incident. But in this
21:10
Speaker 5: particular case, it was a mystery homicide with numerous suspects
21:15
Speaker 5: that were listed as potentially being involved in the abduction
21:19
Speaker 5: and killing of the victim.
21:23
Speaker 1: The assistant district attorney first called the Tennessee Bureau of
21:26
Speaker 1: Investigation to conduct polygraph examinations to help eliminate potential suspects.
21:33
Speaker 1: He also contacted the FBI, since Shannon's body was found
21:36
Speaker 1: across the Tennessee state line. Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Aiken
21:43
Speaker 1: from the FBI's Memphis field office was assigned as case agent.
21:49
Speaker 3: They felt they needed some additional resources. The case was
21:53
Speaker 3: a very difficult case across jurisdictions, and they wanted the
21:57
Speaker 3: FBI to be involved as part of the team working
22:01
Speaker 3: towards a solution, because it was not an easy case.
22:08
Speaker 1: Memphis authorities hoped that Agent Aiken's experience would help unravel
22:12
Speaker 1: the complexities of this case. Local residents were fearful that
22:18
Speaker 1: Shannon's killer was still out there, not knowing if or
22:21
Speaker 1: when he would strike.
22:27
Speaker 5: Again.
22:29
Speaker 1: In the spring of 1996, the body of 25-year-old Shannon Sanderson,
22:34
Speaker 1: a mother of three, was found in Eudora, Mississippi, 40
22:38
Speaker 1: miles from her Memphis, Tennessee home. The FBI, together with
22:42
Speaker 1: state and local investigators, needed to shorten the lengthy suspect
22:46
Speaker 1: list that included Shannon's husband and past lovers. Assistant District
22:54
Speaker 1: Attorney Jerry Kitchen hoped polygraph examinations could help focus their search.
23:00
Speaker 5: This investigation was difficult in that there were a lot
23:04
Speaker 5: of suspects in this particular case. Throughout the victim's life,
23:07
Speaker 5: she had, of course, been divorced. And naturally, in any
23:11
Speaker 5: type of murder case, you do focus in and you
23:16
Speaker 5: do look at relatives or acquaintances or husbands, any type
23:20
Speaker 5: of relationship that the victim may have been involved in
23:24
Speaker 5: that could lead back to some type of dispute or
23:29
Speaker 5: domestic conflict.
23:31
Speaker 1: Tennessee state authorities tested several of Shannon's ex-lovers. They asked
23:38
Speaker 1: them their whereabouts on the night of the abduction. They
23:42
Speaker 1: asked directly if they had abducted or killed Shannon. All
23:47
Speaker 1: denied any involvement. The tests revealed no deceptions. Investigators corroborated
23:58
Speaker 1: their alibis and eliminated them as potential suspects. They also
24:04
Speaker 1: polygraphed the witness who claimed to have seen Shannon's current
24:07
Speaker 1: husband driving a maroon Chevy Beretta in the neighborhood moments
24:11
Speaker 1: before the abduction occurred. It was the same type of
24:15
Speaker 1: vehicle other witnesses had described that Shannon was forced into.
24:21
Speaker 1: But the woman was found to be deceptive. Though police
24:26
Speaker 1: now believed her claim was false, that she had seen
24:29
Speaker 1: Shannon's husband driving the getaway vehicle, they also knew that
24:32
Speaker 1: Shannon's brief marriage with her wealthy husband had been rocky.
24:38
Speaker 1: They wanted to confirm once and for all that he
24:40
Speaker 1: had not been involved in any way.
24:47
Speaker 5: This crime occurred at 4 o'clock in the morning. The
24:50
Speaker 5: victim's husband had indicated that he went to bed and
24:52
Speaker 5: that there was no one else that he was with.
24:55
Speaker 5: And so he really had no alibi. And so that
24:58
Speaker 5: was an area that was difficult for us to get
25:01
Speaker 5: over because we could not lock down exactly where he
25:04
Speaker 5: was and what he was doing other than what he
25:07
Speaker 5: was telling us.
25:09
Speaker 1: Investigators contacted Shannon's husband to be polygraphed. Though he had
25:15
Speaker 1: previously agreed to do so, on advice from his lawyer,
25:18
Speaker 1: he declined. Heart medication that he was taking may have
25:24
Speaker 1: induced a false reading, according to his lawyer. Are you feeling.
25:30
Speaker 1: For Captain Rolson, the husband's refusal didn't alleviate the suspicions
25:34
Speaker 1: that surrounded him.
25:37
Speaker 4: You couldn't understand if he didn't have anything to do
25:40
Speaker 4: with it why he wouldn't be wanting to cooperate. And
25:45
Speaker 4: being a homicide detective, you're suspicious and.
25:51
Speaker 4: It just made him that more suspicious.
25:55
Speaker 1: In terms of incriminating evidence, the investigation was at a standstill.
26:01
Speaker 1: Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Aiken hoped to refocus the investigation
26:05
Speaker 1: by examining leads that may have been overlooked.
26:09
Speaker 3: We have to look at all of the possibilities and
26:13
Speaker 3: that's part of the battle in the beginning is not
26:15
Speaker 3: to get too far down the road in speculating about
26:19
Speaker 3: what kind of of guy this could be and what,
26:24
Speaker 3: you know, what his relationship or, you know, non-relationship would
26:30
Speaker 3: be to the victim. What we did then is identify
26:33
Speaker 3: what else, what other possibilities do we still need to explore.
26:46
Speaker 1: One possibility, though not a promising one, was Sharon Powers,
26:50
Speaker 1: who earlier reported that her husband may have matched the
26:53
Speaker 1: vague description of the suspect. But now she wasn't so
26:59
Speaker 1: sure about her previous claim. She told police she'd overreacted,
27:08
Speaker 1: reinforcing their belief that she'd only been trying to get
27:10
Speaker 1: back at her husband for leaving her.
27:15
Speaker 3: She said that her husband had left town, that they
27:17
Speaker 3: had had some, you know, marital disputes. They felt that
27:22
Speaker 3: perhaps this report was really just sort of sour grapes
27:26
Speaker 3: and that she was trying to get her husband, maybe
27:29
Speaker 3: estranged husband, into trouble of some kind. So they really
27:33
Speaker 3: just simply did not know how much weight to give
27:38
Speaker 3: this rather conflicting and kind of half-hearted story that she
27:43
Speaker 3: was telling.
27:45
Speaker 1: Though her husband wasn't a serious suspect, police wanted to
27:48
Speaker 1: talk with A bulletin for Gerald Lee Powers was issued
27:53
Speaker 1: that he was wanted for questioning in Tennessee. FBI agents
27:59
Speaker 1: and Tennessee investigators met to review the casino surveillance tape
28:03
Speaker 1: of the blackjack table where Shannon had won the now
28:05
Speaker 1: missing $ 5, 000. Her growing pile of chips would certainly make
28:13
Speaker 1: her an attractive target. They viewed the tape to see
28:18
Speaker 1: if a stalker could be seen. But if that was
28:23
Speaker 1: the killer's intention, Agent Aiken questioned why he would wait
28:27
Speaker 1: so long to make his move.
28:31
Speaker 3: Clearly, she had been winning for a while. She was
28:33
Speaker 3: there late at night. There were a number of factors
28:36
Speaker 3: that made her visit to that casino rather high risk.
28:40
Speaker 3: And yet we had this abduction occurring almost an hour
28:44
Speaker 3: to an.
28:44
Speaker 1: Hour and a half after she left that environment.
28:46
Speaker 3: So first we had to determine, did it have anything
28:50
Speaker 3: or nothing to do with her visit to that casino?
28:54
Speaker 1: The tape showed Shannon, but was inadequate to reveal whether
28:57
Speaker 1: she was being stalked. Investigators were no closer to finding
29:03
Speaker 1: the truth. As they contemplated what to do next, the
29:08
Speaker 1: investigation veered in an unexpected direction. On May 22, 1996,
29:14
Speaker 1: near Hebronville, Texas, 750 miles from where Shannon was seen
29:20
Speaker 1: forced into a car described as a Chevy Beretta, a
29:23
Speaker 1: vehicle fitting that description erratically swerved away from a border checkpoint.
29:29
Speaker 1: The vehicle had Mississippi plates. One of the patrol guards
29:34
Speaker 1: raced after it, believing the driver to be a potential
29:37
Speaker 1: border jumper or smuggler. In May of 1996, as the
29:47
Speaker 1: investigation continued into the kidnapping and murder of a young
29:50
Speaker 1: Tennessee mother, US Border Patrol agents chased down a fleeing
29:55
Speaker 1: maroon Chevy Beretta with Mississippi plates. The type of car
29:58
Speaker 1: described by witnesses in the abduction. Caught at a dead end,
30:07
Speaker 1: the suspect resisted. Drop it, drop the knife, up against
30:10
Speaker 1: the car, up against the car. Then backed down and
30:13
Speaker 1: confronted by the agent's gun. Give me the other hand,
30:21
Speaker 1: give me the other hand. he had 14 $ 100 bills
30:29
Speaker 1: in his pocket. The driver said his name was Gerald
30:33
Speaker 1: Lee Powers, but held no driver's license to prove it.
30:39
Speaker 1: The cursory search of the car revealed no illegal drugs
30:42
Speaker 1: or aliens. But in the trunk, border agents recovered a
30:49
Speaker 1: stolen weapon registered in Arkansas. The car was locked and
30:55
Speaker 1: remained in that spot under armed guard until FBI agents
30:58
Speaker 1: could conduct a more thorough search. Special Agent Evan Ray
31:04
Speaker 1: from the FBI field office in Laredo, Texas, was contacted
31:07
Speaker 1: since assaulting a Border Patrol officer is a federal offense.
31:13
Speaker 1: Agent Ray confirmed the identity of the driver when he
31:16
Speaker 1: learned that Gerald Lee Powers had been involved in another
31:19
Speaker 1: altercation at the Mexican border. I spoke to U.S.
31:24
Speaker 6: Custom Service officials who had indicated that they had had
31:27
Speaker 6: an incident that day as well in which an individual
31:30
Speaker 6: had fled and had left several pieces of identification behind
31:34
Speaker 6: on the counter when they fled. And so we were
31:37
Speaker 6: then in possession of several pieces of identification of Mr. Powers.
31:44
Speaker 1: A license plate check revealed that the vehicle was registered
31:47
Speaker 1: to his wife Sharon in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Agent Ray also
31:52
Speaker 1: discovered that Gerald Lee Powers had a violent past and
31:55
Speaker 1: was currently wanted for questioning in the abduction and murder
31:58
Speaker 1: of Shannon Sanderson. After contacting Memphis authorities, he traveled to
32:07
Speaker 1: Hebronville to process Powers' car on site. The Chevy Beretta
32:13
Speaker 1: matched the vehicle witnesses had described at the abduction. Agents
32:22
Speaker 1: hoped something inside would link the vehicle and powers to
32:25
Speaker 1: the murder of Shannon Sanderson. A sheet and pillowcase, along
32:31
Speaker 1: with the trunk liner, were bundled into evidence bags. All right,
32:36
Speaker 1: let's tape this stuff up.
32:37
Speaker 2: We'll get it back to headquarters.
32:39
Speaker 3: We're done.
32:41
Speaker 6: When you're retrieving evidence like that, you have no idea
32:44
Speaker 6: what the results of the laboratory examinations are going to
32:46
Speaker 6: be in the end. You just try to get the
32:50
Speaker 6: best and the most evidence that you can and let
32:53
Speaker 6: the lab do their job.
32:55
Speaker 1: Agents were less hopeful they'd find something in the car's
32:58
Speaker 1: interior since it appeared to have been recently cleaned and vacuumed.
33:05
Speaker 1: Hundreds of miles from the nearest evidence response team, Agent
33:08
Speaker 1: Ray improvised with the tools he had at hand.
33:12
Speaker 6: One item that we needed to search for were hairs
33:17
Speaker 6: and fibers in the back seat area. We didn't have
33:20
Speaker 6: the specialized equipment that the evidence response team would have,
33:23
Speaker 6: and so I used an unopened lint roller that I
33:27
Speaker 6: had at the office of the type one might use
33:30
Speaker 6: on a suit as an adhesive lift.
33:36
Speaker 1: Initially obscured by the front seat, the agent found a
33:39
Speaker 1: pink artificial fingernail on the floor, It was similar to
33:44
Speaker 1: those the victim had worn at the time of her abduction.
33:50
Speaker 1: Memphis prosecutor Jerry Kitchen believed this could be the clue
33:53
Speaker 1: that could definitely place Shannon Sanderson in Power's car.
33:59
Speaker 5: Agent Ray had called us and told us that he
34:00
Speaker 5: had found a fingernail in the back seat area of
34:04
Speaker 5: the floorboard of this vehicle, which is where we had
34:07
Speaker 5: felt that, based upon the witness's testimony, information they had
34:11
Speaker 5: given us that the victim had been placed in the
34:14
Speaker 5: back seat of the vehicle that took her away.
34:19
Speaker 1: Memphis authorities came to Laredo to question Gerald Lee Powers
34:23
Speaker 1: about the murder. Powers told them that he knew nothing
34:29
Speaker 1: more than what he'd heard on the news. He admitted
34:33
Speaker 1: to being at the casino that night, but had left
34:35
Speaker 1: early to check on his terminally ill neighbor. And While
34:40
Speaker 1: the interview continued, investigators spoke to his neighbor in Clarksdale, Mississippi,
34:44
Speaker 1: who denied that Powers had been there at that time.
34:50
Speaker 5: We weren't 100% convinced Gerald Powers was our suspect. We
34:53
Speaker 5: just felt it was kind of suspicious that he was
34:56
Speaker 5: trying to give a false alibi and that, of course,
34:59
Speaker 5: the neighbor was very ill and could have been mistaken
35:02
Speaker 5: because he had been there at different times.
35:05
Speaker 1: Investigators hope that Powers' wife, Sharon, might be able to
35:08
Speaker 1: corroborate the neighbor's statement She had initially told police her
35:14
Speaker 1: husband fit the description of the suspect who witnesses glimpsed
35:17
Speaker 1: at the abduction, a man who wore a red baseball cap.
35:23
Speaker 1: Now she added that he made frequent trips to the
35:26
Speaker 1: casino where the victim had spent her last night. Still,
35:31
Speaker 1: she did not know if he had visited their neighbor
35:33
Speaker 1: that night and denied that her husband had anything to
35:36
Speaker 1: do with the abduction and murder of Shannon Sanderson. Investigators
35:42
Speaker 1: feared they might just be wasting their time, but FBI
35:46
Speaker 1: Special Agent Jennifer Aiken wasn't so sure.
35:50
Speaker 3: We sensed her ambivalence. We knew that she had come forward,
35:55
Speaker 3: even with her kind of half-hearted story, we knew she'd
35:59
Speaker 3: come forward for a reason and that there was more
36:01
Speaker 3: she needed to tell.
36:02
Speaker 1: Seconds later, Gerald Lee Powers... Agent Aiken realized that she
36:06
Speaker 1: would need to invest a great deal of time to
36:09
Speaker 1: develop the trust of Sharon Powers. As the dialogue with
36:14
Speaker 1: Sharon Powers continued over several weeks, the FBI contacted Tom Scott,
36:19
Speaker 1: director of surveillance of the casino where the victim had
36:22
Speaker 1: gambled prior to her abduction. Scott was asked to confirm
36:27
Speaker 1: if Gerald Lee Powers had been recorded that same night
36:29
Speaker 1: on any of the 600 cameras in the 95,000 square
36:33
Speaker 1: foot casino.
36:36
Speaker 7: Jennifer Aiken from the FBI gave us a basic description
36:40
Speaker 7: of what the suspect possibly was wearing on the night
36:43
Speaker 7: in question. and that's what we went with as a
36:47
Speaker 7: general description from color shoes to jeans to a certain
36:51
Speaker 7: type jacket and possibly a ball cap. Any given day,
36:55
Speaker 7: you can have approximately 3,000 to 10,000 people within a casino.
37:01
Speaker 1: Scott and his team searched hundreds of hours of footage
37:04
Speaker 1: looking for a man in a red baseball cap and
37:06
Speaker 1: yellow shirt. Their main focus was the blackjack table where
37:11
Speaker 1: Shannon spent most of the night.
37:15
Speaker 7: If the suspect was stationary, it's pretty easy. But in
37:20
Speaker 7: a casino, it's quite an exciting place to be in,
37:22
Speaker 7: and everybody kind of wanders around. They go to slot
37:25
Speaker 7: machine to slot machine or restaurants or table games. We
37:29
Speaker 7: could not locate the individual.
37:31
Speaker 1: Investigators looked to Sharon Powers for more detail about her
37:35
Speaker 1: husband's activities that night. They did what they could to
37:39
Speaker 1: make her feel comfortable. One of her neighbors, a police officer...
37:44
Speaker 1: provided her with reassurance and support. She was a woman
37:49
Speaker 1: torn between her empathy for the victim and her feelings
37:52
Speaker 1: towards her husband.
37:54
Speaker 3: She was in love with this man. I think it
37:57
Speaker 3: was difficult for Sharon to accept the fact that the
38:02
Speaker 3: victim had been a mother of three young children. She
38:06
Speaker 3: herself was a mother of three children and very much
38:10
Speaker 3: related to the victims.
38:14
Speaker 1: Slowly, Sharon Powers worked through her internal conflict. She began
38:22
Speaker 1: to open up, revealing what her home life was like
38:25
Speaker 1: with her husband, Gerald Lee Powers. She said he ruled
38:31
Speaker 1: the house. Her three kids from previous marriages were afraid
38:35
Speaker 1: of him. Sharon admitted that she was too. He kept
38:41
Speaker 1: a bell on his chair. When he rang, Sharon came running.
38:47
Speaker 1: Despite his controlling temper, her feelings for him were deep.
38:51
Speaker 3: This is a woman who had really kind of lived
38:56
Speaker 3: under the thumb of Gerald Lee Powers for a number
39:01
Speaker 3: of years. I believe by then they had been married
39:04
Speaker 3: four or five years. And she.
39:09
Speaker 3: I don't want to say liked it that way, but
39:11
Speaker 3: that was what she was used to. That was familiar.
39:15
Speaker 3: It was not familiar to her to be breaking with him,
39:21
Speaker 3: to be disloyal.
39:24
Speaker 1: Despite her fear, Sharon continued to open up to investigators.
39:28
Speaker 1: Shut up! 19th, the day Shannon Sanderson was abducted, Gerald
39:33
Speaker 1: came home acting nervous. Sharon was angry because she thought
39:39
Speaker 1: he'd spent the night with another woman. She noticed blood
39:44
Speaker 1: on his shirt and a cut on his arm. He
39:49
Speaker 1: claimed he'd fallen down at a casino he'd been visiting.
39:53
Speaker 6: Do you remember what color the shirt was?
39:55
Speaker 1: Sharon didn't believe what he told her, but she didn't
39:58
Speaker 1: press it. For now, Sharon refused to say any more,
40:03
Speaker 1: and neither would her husband. Without something stronger, Prosecutor Jerry
40:08
Speaker 1: Kitchen would be unable to press charges on Gerald Lee Powers.
40:13
Speaker 5: We still didn't have anything concrete that he had been
40:16
Speaker 5: involved in. It was just instinct. I think that was
40:21
Speaker 5: leading us at this point that he was our man,
40:24
Speaker 5: but at the time we did not have the results
40:27
Speaker 5: back from the lab.
40:29
Speaker 1: Investigators hoped the FBI would reinforce their hunch that Gerald
40:33
Speaker 1: Lee Powers was responsible for leaving Shannon Sanderson's children motherless.
40:42
Speaker 1: In the summer of 1996, after Gerald Reed Powers was
40:46
Speaker 1: indicted for assaulting a Border Patrol officer in Texas, the
40:50
Speaker 1: FBI and Memphis investigators suspected he was also responsible for
40:53
Speaker 1: the murder of a 25-year-old mother of three. But lacking
40:59
Speaker 1: physical evidence, Memphis prosecutor Jerry Kitchen was unable to charge
41:03
Speaker 1: Powers for his involvement or to know for certain if
41:06
Speaker 1: one of the victim's former lovers had hired him to
41:08
Speaker 1: commit the crime. There was always that possibility.
41:13
Speaker 5: The way she was killed and the manner in which
41:15
Speaker 5: she was abducted, that it appeared like it wasn't just
41:17
Speaker 5: something random, that it had been something planned. All the
41:20
Speaker 5: other suspects that appeared to have a motive or possibly
41:25
Speaker 5: emotional reasons why someone would want to have someone killed,
41:28
Speaker 5: like jealousy or rage or other factors.
41:35
Speaker 1: Investigators hoped the suspect's wife, Sharon Powers, could tell them more.
41:41
Speaker 1: Though reluctant at first, after many meetings over several weeks,
41:45
Speaker 1: Sharon grew more comfortable. She finally opened up to FBI
41:50
Speaker 1: Special Agent Jennifer Aiken.
41:53
Speaker 3: When she finally told the story in its entirety, what
41:59
Speaker 3: we heard was really a chilling tale of his stalking
42:04
Speaker 3: of the victim and the abduction of the victim and
42:08
Speaker 3: then taking her to this rural area and robbing her
42:13
Speaker 3: of not only the $ 5, 000 that she had won that night,
42:17
Speaker 3: but also of the jewelry that she was wearing.
42:21
Speaker 1: Sharon's story was strong, but without corroborating evidence, it would
42:25
Speaker 1: not be enough to convict or even indict Gerald Lee
42:27
Speaker 1: Powers for murder. Trying to help, she told investigators that
42:32
Speaker 1: her husband had thrown the murder weapon, a handgun, into
42:35
Speaker 1: an abandoned canal near the casino in Mississippi. Memphis Police
42:40
Speaker 1: Captain Richard Rolson accompanied local divers to help search for
42:43
Speaker 1: the handgun.
42:46
Speaker 4: Sheriff's Department's divers dove into this hole and crawled inch
42:52
Speaker 4: by inch searching for this pistol. We never did locate it.
42:57
Speaker 4: And then that's when Ms. Powers told us that he
43:01
Speaker 4: had thrown it into the river, which was about 100
43:04
Speaker 4: yards away. The current at that location was too swift
43:08
Speaker 4: for anybody to dive in.
43:10
Speaker 1: The Mississippi River. It left investigators with more doubt and
43:14
Speaker 1: no corroboration that Sharon Powers was telling them the truth.
43:23
Speaker 1: The suspect's wife also told them about a school bus
43:25
Speaker 1: driver from Mississippi whom her husband believed had seen him
43:29
Speaker 1: close to where he dumped Shannon's body. Did you happen
43:32
Speaker 1: to notice the driver?
43:33
Speaker 3: No, I didn't notice him.
43:34
Speaker 1: Police tracked down the driver who confirmed Sharon's story. At
43:41
Speaker 1: 7 a.m., about two hours after Shannon Sanderson had been abducted,
43:46
Speaker 1: the driver noticed a maroon Chevy Beretta backing down the
43:49
Speaker 1: dirt roadway of the vacant property where the victim's body
43:52
Speaker 1: was later found. The bus driver remembered it because the
43:58
Speaker 1: property had been vacant for so long. Okay, that's what
44:02
Speaker 1: we need to know. But the driver didn't see who
44:04
Speaker 1: was in the car and didn't get the license plate.
44:07
Speaker 1: But I did notice them. Searching for further corroboration, investigators
44:13
Speaker 1: turned to Tom Scott, director of surveillance of the casino.
44:18
Speaker 1: This time, Sharon Powers provided them locations of where to
44:22
Speaker 1: look for her husband in the 95,000 square foot casino.
44:27
Speaker 7: We did a recreation and did a walkthrough on where,
44:30
Speaker 7: if we were the suspect, where we would have gone
44:33
Speaker 7: through certain areas. And we pulled some tapes. Eventually, we
44:37
Speaker 7: were able to identify... just from his shoes, in a
44:41
Speaker 7: particular location where the suspect was standing. We pulled a
44:44
Speaker 7: bunch more shots, connected the shoes, we finally put some
44:48
Speaker 7: legs to the shoes, and were able to identify a
44:52
Speaker 7: person in a distant shot walking through the casino from
44:55
Speaker 7: the upstairs looking down towards the suspect. We then connected
45:01
Speaker 7: more shots and followed the suspect down an escalator, walking
45:06
Speaker 7: past the table where this victim was playing and followed
45:13
Speaker 7: the suspect out through our front door on videotape.
45:19
Speaker 1: The video was compelling and confirmed Gerald Lee Powers was
45:22
Speaker 1: in the casino that night, but it didn't prove that
45:25
Speaker 1: he had abducted or murdered Shannon Sanderson. Hoping for physical
45:32
Speaker 1: evidence that would connect Powers to the victim, Investigators searched
45:35
Speaker 1: behind a tavern in Mississippi where Powers' wife claimed he
45:38
Speaker 1: had buried the victim's jewelry. The suspect had told her
45:43
Speaker 1: they were wrapped in tinfoil under a couch in the back.
45:51
Speaker 1: Just as Mrs. Powers described, investigators located a small bundle
45:55
Speaker 1: of foil. Inside, they found pink plastic wrap. holding rings
46:02
Speaker 1: identified by the victim's husband as belonging to Shannon. Now
46:07
Speaker 1: they needed to prove forensically that Gerald Lee Powers had
46:10
Speaker 1: in fact been the one who wrapped them. Investigators went
46:14
Speaker 1: to Powers' home to search for the source of that plastic.
46:19
Speaker 1: In the kitchen, they found a roll of pink wrap.
46:25
Speaker 1: They forwarded the roll along with the bundled rings to
46:27
Speaker 1: the lab for comparison. While they waited for the results,
46:34
Speaker 1: investigators turned their attention to the pink artificial nail found
46:37
Speaker 1: inside Power's car after he was arrested in Texas. From
46:45
Speaker 1: autopsy photos, investigators found at least two nails were missing
46:48
Speaker 1: from the victim's hand. If the nail from the car
46:52
Speaker 1: matched those remaining on the victim's hand, it would prove
46:56
Speaker 1: that Shannon had been in Power's car that night. But
47:00
Speaker 1: there was a problem. Shannon had already been buried, and
47:04
Speaker 1: her husband was against exhuming her remains.
47:08
Speaker 5: She had already been interred, and so we had a
47:13
Speaker 5: hearing in court to have her disinterred and to have
47:18
Speaker 5: the ability to examine these fingernails to see if they
47:22
Speaker 5: were in fact her fingernails or not.
47:25
Speaker 1: Against her husband's wishes, the judge ordered the body exhumed.
47:30
Speaker 1: In early July, Three months after the murder, investigators retrieved
47:34
Speaker 1: the body of Shannon Sanderson. The remaining artificial nails were
47:40
Speaker 1: removed and sent to the lab for comparison with the others.
47:47
Speaker 1: The results were negative. The nail in the car wasn't hers.
47:57
Speaker 1: Investigators hoped the other evidence at the FBI lab in Washington, D.C.
48:01
Speaker 1: would provide more promising results. Inside the tinfoil ball recovered
48:07
Speaker 1: in Mississippi, examiners removed the pink plastic wrap wound tightly
48:11
Speaker 1: around some rings. The FBI needed to connect the rings
48:16
Speaker 1: physically to Gerald Lee Powers. To do so, examiners compared
48:21
Speaker 1: the plastic they were wrapped in to the sample retrieved
48:23
Speaker 1: from Powers' home.
48:26
Speaker 5: The FBI agent who examined it indicated that it wasn't
48:32
Speaker 5: the exact piece that was torn off, but that it
48:35
Speaker 5: matched that roll exactly as far as the polymers and
48:39
Speaker 5: the dye and all that, which showed that this was
48:42
Speaker 5: the source that the material had come from that was
48:45
Speaker 5: wrapped around the rings.
48:47
Speaker 1: It was the first piece of forensic evidence linking Powers
48:50
Speaker 1: to the victim. But the case was by no means complete.
48:57
Speaker 1: More compelling proof came from a single fiber among several
49:01
Speaker 1: found in Power's otherwise immaculate car.
49:05
Speaker 3: We have dress fiber that was found in the vehicle
49:10
Speaker 3: that he was driving that night that matches the fiber
49:13
Speaker 3: from the dress that the victim was wearing, and that
49:17
Speaker 3: was very significant as well.
49:20
Speaker 1: Authorities were convinced that Gerald Lee Powers had murdered Shannon Sanderson,
49:25
Speaker 1: but they weren't convinced he'd acted alone. They believed it
49:28
Speaker 1: was possible that others from her past could claim a
49:31
Speaker 1: motive for wanting Shannon dead. Memphis prosecutor Jerry Kitchen decided
49:37
Speaker 1: to confirm it with Powers himself.
49:41
Speaker 5: So we went to Laredo to interview the defendant before
49:46
Speaker 5: we charged him with this murder. And there was the possibility,
49:52
Speaker 5: if he cooperated and was able to prove to us
49:55
Speaker 5: that someone else was involved, that we would withdraw seeking
49:59
Speaker 5: the death penalty. But there was nothing that he was
50:03
Speaker 5: able to provide us with, so we were convinced then
50:07
Speaker 5: at that point that no one else had been involved
50:10
Speaker 5: in her abduction and murder and proceeded with charging him alone.
50:17
Speaker 1: Powers had plenty of time to contemplate this murder. He
50:22
Speaker 1: watched her for several hours in the casino, then followed
50:27
Speaker 1: her for another hour back to Memphis. He had ample
50:31
Speaker 1: time to change his mind. Instead, he hardened his resolve.
50:44
Speaker 1: Get out of there! He abducted a mother of three,
50:47
Speaker 1: robbed her, then shot her at point blank.
50:49
Speaker 5: Get in.
50:52
Speaker 3: There!
50:55
Speaker 1: The criminal court in Tennessee didn't need much time to
50:57
Speaker 1: decide Powers' fate. After deliberating only 15 minutes, the jury
51:03
Speaker 1: recommended death for the murder of Shannon Sanderson. Gerald Lee
51:09
Speaker 1: Powers awaits execution. at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee.
51:19
Speaker 3: Music Thank you.