Latest / This is monsters / She had a second chance at life_ but the DEVIL had other plans

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She had a second chance at life_ but the DEVIL had other plans · This is monsters

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One night in December of 2009, a man dug through
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a pile of papers and photo albums inside of an
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: RV that was parked in Texas. The man had recently
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: bought this trailer after its previous owner had died. And
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: so now he was finding it was full of junk
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: that he was trying to sort through. And as he
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: rifled through the documents, he stumbled on a stack of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: old notebooks. He opened one and he began reading it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And as he did, he felt his heartbeat pick up
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: because the notebooks were actually diaries. And they were full
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of handwritten rantings about demons and monsters and a deal
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: with the devil. But that wasn't what scared him. What
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: really scared the guy was this writer's horrifying confession. But
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: before we get into today's story, if you're a fan
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place because that's all
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we do and we upload two, three, even four times
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a week. So if that's of interest to you, please
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: replace the like button shampoo with motor oil. Also, please
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's get
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: into today's story. On the night of July 24th, 1987,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: 30-year-old Susan Woods stood at the entrance to a local
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: fair in a little city called Hico, located in Central Texas,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: along with her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: And the three of them were standing there trying to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: decide if they wanted to continue to stay here or leave. Now,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: as they're standing there, they can hear people having fun
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: on all the rides. There's kids laughing and they're screaming.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a Friday night. They had chosen to
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: come here. This was the activity. But, you know, so
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: far the night had really not been that great. So
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Susan's best friend, whose name was Cindy Hallmark, and her boyfriend,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: whose name was Roy Hayes, had convinced Susan to come
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: out with them and come to this fair because Susan's
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: life of late had been really quite bad. She was
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in the middle of this very ugly divorce and the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: new guy that she was dating, it sort of wound
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: up being very pushy when it came to physical intimacy.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: And so she had recently dumped him too. And so
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: You know, Susan's life, certainly her relationships anyways, were sort
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: of in rough shape. And so Cindy and Roy had
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: convinced Susan to come out with them and just at
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: least for one night, come enjoy this fair. Just forget
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: about everything else and just come have some fun. And
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: so Susan had agreed to go. However, sort of ironically,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: once they actually got to the fair and the three
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of them were walking around and playing games and going
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: into the haunted house and doing all the things you
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: do at the fair, it had been Cindy... not Susan,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: who had ultimately said that they weren't really having a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: good time, that they were feeling kind of bad. Cindy
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: said that she just had this really intense feeling that
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: something bad was about to happen. It was like this
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: constant anxiety and she couldn't shake it. And it was
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: making it really hard to enjoy the night. And so
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that was why the trio is, you know, standing at
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the gate, wondering if it's even worth staying here any longer.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: And ultimately Roy finally just said, you know what, why
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: don't we just leave and head back to Stephenville? That's
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: where they all lived. It's where they grew up too.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: And he said, why don't we go back to Stephenville
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and we'll just drive around for a bit and eventually
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: we'll go to the Dairy Queen restaurant and we'll get
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: some ice cream. And when Roy suggested this, both Susan
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and Cindy thought that was a great idea. And so
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: they left, they hopped in Roy's truck and they began
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the drive back to Stephenville. About an hour and a
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: half later, Susan, Cindy and Roy walked into the Stephenville
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Dairy Queen. They ordered ice cream sundaes and then sat
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: down at a booth. By this point, Cindy's feeling of dread,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you know, that something bad was going to happen had
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: mostly gone away. And so the mood was much lighter.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And Susan especially was actually having kind of a great night.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know, the first in a long time, it felt like.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: The last six months or so had been some of
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the worst in Susan's entire life. Her ex-husband, Michael Woods,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: who she had been with since she was in her
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: early 20s, had effectively abandoned her back in February. taking
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: her car and also some expensive crystals that she had collected.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And he had left behind a viciously mean tape recording
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of all the things he hated about her, along with
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: dozens of cruel notes with insults on them hidden all
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: over the place. And so Susan had filed for divorce.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And then instead of trying to get her car back
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: from her husband, who was long gone, she just began
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: doing a ton of overtime at the sandpaper factory in
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: order to afford another car. And so in these few
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: months immediately following the breakup with her ex and all
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: this extra work she was doing, Susan had really fallen
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: into a deep depression. But it had been Cindy and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Roy who had helped kind of pull herself back together.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Susan was naturally very shy and she did not have
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: a big social circle. But Cindy, on the other hand,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: was very extroverted, had a ton of friends and a
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: lot of close cousins. And so she had persuaded Susan
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to begin coming to their regular meetups with all her
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: friends and cousins. The core group that typically attended these
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: meetups was Cindy, Roy, Cindy's cousins, Regina and Scott Hatley,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and then maybe one or two others. And collectively, they
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: referred to themselves as the members of the roundtable, because
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: often these meetups consisted of just spending the whole night
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: sitting around Cindy's round kitchen table, talking and drinking. The
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: first time Susan had gone, it had seemed like such
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: a tight-knit group that she really just kind of felt
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: like a third wheel and did not belong. But everyone
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: had really treated her like she did belong. And these days,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: she did not miss a meetup because this was like
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: her new community. It really made her happy. And so
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: slowly but surely, Susan had begun to feel better, largely
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: because of these meetups. And so now, as she looked
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: across the table at Cindy jokingly trying to force feed
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Roy all this ice cream, you know, Susan just smiled.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Roy was this big guy, but he was losing the fight.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And he had chocolate sauce all over his chin. They
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: were just kind of goofing around. She just thought to herself,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you know what? Tonight was a great night. My life,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: it's turning around. And suddenly, she had an idea. Susan
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: stood up from the table and without saying anything, she
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: walked up to the counter and she promptly ordered a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: second hot fudge sundae. And when she carried it back
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: over to the table with a big grin on her face,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Cindy and Roy kind of looked at her surprised, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and were kind of impressed even. Which was exactly the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: reaction that Susan was hoping for. Normally, Susan was very
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: conscious of her weight and wouldn't even finish one sundae.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: But tonight, she just felt like, you know what? I
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: have been set free. I'm just going to have fun.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately for Susan, the ice cream Sundays were really
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the last fun thing she got to enjoy that entire weekend.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Because she spent all day Saturday on the line at
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the sandpaper factory where she worked. And then all day Sunday,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: she was grocery shopping, doing laundry, and straightening up the house.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: By about 8 p.m. Sunday night, she had put away
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: all of her laundry, she had made the bed, and
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: picked up the last few items off the bedroom floor.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Her house was small, but it was finally starting to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: feel like hers again. When her ex-husband, Michael, had first left,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: even though he had gone a thousand miles away to Indiana,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: she had felt afraid in her house, like he might
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: suddenly come back. And so she'd actually had Cindy sleep
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: over her house for a while to help her feel safe,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: and also she asked Roy to literally nail all her
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: windows shut. But despite fortifying her living space, what Susan
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't escape from were all these awful little notes that
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Michael had left behind and hidden all over the house.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: All these awful messages just basically telling Susan all these
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: terrible things about her and how much he hated her.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: She kept finding them all the time. But as of
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: right now, the house was neat and tidy. And Susan,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: by this point, believed she had found, you know, almost
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: every note or certainly close to every note. So to celebrate,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Susan headed over to the couch and sat down and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: turned on the TV. Her plan was just to watch
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a couple of shows and just enjoy the peace and quiet,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and then go to bed, because tomorrow she would have
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to get up early for work. As she was sitting there,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: flipping through the channels, trying to figure out what she
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: wanted to watch, she heard a knock on the front door.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Two days later, at 6 p.m. on the afternoon of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: July 28th, Susan's father, Joe Atkins, was at home when
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: his phone rang. And when he picked it up, it
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: was Susan's manager at the sandpaper factory, which was weird.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: The manager told him that he was calling because Susan
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: had not shown up to work for the past two
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: days and nobody could get a hold of her. And
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: so he was wondering if Joe knew where she was.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Joe frowned and said no, he didn't know, but he
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: would go find out. He hung up, and he immediately
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: dialed Susan's number. And when she didn't answer, he didn't
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: think twice. He just put the phone down, grabbed his keys,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: hurried out to his truck, and started driving towards Susan's place.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: A half an hour later, Joe pulled up outside of
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Susan's house, and he went up to her front door.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And when he knocked, nobody answered. But he could hear
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the TV on inside. And when he tried the doorknob,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: he found the door was unlocked. He opened the door
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: up a little bit and he poked his head inside
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and he called his daughter's name, but he didn't get
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a response. So he stepped all the way inside. The
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: house was basically clean, except there were snacks out on
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the coffee table and the TV was still on and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: it was on pretty loud. But also there were some
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: cigarettes that had been burned out in an ashtray on
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the coffee table and Joe knew his daughter didn't smoke.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And so at this point, everything told him something is wrong.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: So Joe walked through the living room and into his
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: daughter's bedroom. And his daughter was not in there, but
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the bed was a mess. The sheets and the bedding
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had all been ripped off and were sitting in a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: heap on the floor, and the mattress itself was hanging
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: off the box spring. Joe was about to leave and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: search the rest of the house when he noticed the
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: bathroom door in the bedroom was open. Joe forced himself
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: to step toward the door, and as he did, his
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: heart began to hammer in his chest. And then, when
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: he leaned around the door and looked inside the bathroom,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: he just froze. For what felt like a very long time,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: but was very likely only a few seconds, Joe didn't
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: move or breathe. Then, It's like he broke out of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: his fog, he stumbled backwards, he ran to the living room,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: grabbed the phone, and he called 911. Sergeant Donnie Hensley
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of the Stephenville Police Department had just gotten home after
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: a pretty long shift when he got a call from
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: dispatch to head back out again. A homicide had just
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: been called in, and every available officer had to head
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: to the scene right away. The dispatcher did not have
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: many details, but they did know that the victim was
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: a young woman and that she had been found by
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: her father inside of her home. When Hensley got to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the address, he found there was an ambulance there and
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: a couple of fire trucks and police cars and a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of police officers that were already out and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: about stringing up crime scene tape. But he also saw
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: someone that he was not expecting to see. It was
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a friend of his, a guy he knew who volunteered
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: at the town's golf course. His name was Joe Atkins.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: So he walked over and he asked Joe, like, hey,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: what are you doing here? But the instant he asked
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that question and when Joe turned around to look at him,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Hensley understood why he was here. He suddenly remembered that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Joe had a daughter, and based on the look on
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Joe's face, clearly his daughter was the murder victim. Joe
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: had found her. Hensley was a hardened detective who had
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: been to plenty of crime scenes by this point, and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: he had seen some terrible things. But the pure grief
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on his friend's face was too much for him to bear.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: He knew there was nothing he could do to take
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Joe's pain away. So instead, without saying anything, Hensley took
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Joe's hands and the two men just stood there and prayed.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: And then after a few minutes, he let go of
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Joe's hands and then he turned and walked up Susan's
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: front steps to begin the search for her killer. The
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: crime scene unit was already inside of Susan's home, hard
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: at work, by the time Detective Hensley walked through the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: front door. A supervisor walked over and brought Hensley up
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to speed. They told him that Susan's body was in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the bathroom and from the looks of it, she'd been
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: dead for a while. The front door had been unlocked
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and there was no sign of forced entry, which suggested
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that Susan may have let her killer inside. Detectives were
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: now dividing up the house into quadrants to examine each
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: part of the crime scene and Hensley would be working
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: primarily in the bedroom. But the supervisor warned Hensley that
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the crime itself was incredibly brutal, likely bordering on torture,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and he should just mentally prepare himself. Ensley nodded, and
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: for a moment, he just stood there and collected himself
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and took stock of the scene. He looked over at
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the coffee table in the living room, and he saw
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: it was covered with snacks, including a bag of potato chips,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: a pack of Twinkies, and an open Coke can. And
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: there was an ashtray with six cigarette butts inside of it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It looked like more food and more cigarettes than one
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: person would reasonably consume, and so maybe Susan had had company.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: But otherwise, the house was clean and pretty unremarkable. Except
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: for one thing. It took Hensley a minute to notice.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: And what it was is all the windows were nailed
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: shut from the inside. Susan clearly must have been scared
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of somebody breaking in. And so naturally, Hensley wondered if
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: maybe the person she was scared of breaking in was
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the same person who wound up killing her. But if
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: that was the case, why had she apparently opened the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: door for this person? At this point, Hensley moved into
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the bedroom. And as soon as he did, He could
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: tell there had to have been a struggle in here
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: because the mattress was hanging off the box spring, the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: sheets had been pulled off, and they were heaped up
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: on the floor, and there were all these scuff marks
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: on the floor that suggested the bed very likely had
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: been moved, dragged around inside of the room. There was
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: also a white extension cord lying on the mattress, and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: also there was this pillow that had all these strange
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: black smudges on it. Hensley walked over and looked at
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: this pillowcase, trying to figure out what the smudges could be,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and then he realized it was mascara. The pillow must
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: have been held over Susan's face to suffocate her. But
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: when Hensley walked into the bathroom and saw what was
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: in there, despite the warning he was given about how
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: brutal it was, he still was taken aback and found
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: himself gasping. Susan's body was draped over the side of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the tub, with her head still in the water. At
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: first glance, it was obvious Susan was dead, because her
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: head and shoulders that were underwater... were severely decomposed from
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: being in the water. And so at this point, Hensley
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: realized that whoever murdered Susan had likely sexually assaulted her,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: strangled her, smothered her, and then held her body underwater.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, this had been a savage attack committed by
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: a monster. However, Hensley also realized that this monster, whoever
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: had done this, had made at least one mistake because
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: one of the crime scene techs that was in the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: bathroom was pointing at the tub with excitement. And when
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Hensley looked at what they were pointing at, you could
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: see perfectly clearly there was a set of palm prints
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: almost certainly left behind by the killer. The following morning
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: at around 10 a.m., Sergeant Hensley walked into the Stephenville
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: police station and promptly filled up a paper cup from
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the bullpen water cooler and drank it down. It was
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: over 90 degrees outside, and he had just spent all
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: morning and a lot of the previous night canvassing the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: neighborhood where Susan had been murdered. But despite all their efforts,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: they really hadn't gotten much. Susan had been found on Tuesday,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: but nobody had reported seeing her on Tuesday or the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Monday before or the Sunday before, which left a window
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: of three days for this murder to have taken place.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: One of Susan's neighbors did remember seeing a, quote, large
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: framed man park his truck near Susan's house on Sunday night,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but that described a lot of the men in Stephenville,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: so that didn't really narrow anything down. Now, the police
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: chief had not yet assigned a lead investigator to Susan's case,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: but because Sergeant Hensley knew Susan's father personally, he was
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: hoping to stay involved. So after drinking a second cup
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: full of water, Hensley headed down the hall to the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: chief's office, where he asked to see Susan's autopsy report.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: The chief's secretary handed it over, and Hensley quickly began
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: to thumb through the pages. But he quickly realized there
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: really was almost nothing here that he didn't already know.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: The report confirmed that Susan had been sexually assaulted. But
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: her body was so decomposed, it was impossible to determine
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: exactly how or when she had died. Although the coroner
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: estimated she'd been in the tub for roughly two days.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: But right at that moment, another investigator named Lieutenant Ken
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Maltby walked up and grabbed the report right out of
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Hensley's hands. And before Hensley could protest, Maltby walked back
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: to the bullpen and wrapped his knuckles on a doorframe
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: to get everybody's attention. Then Maltby announced that he would
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: be taking over Susan's case so everybody else, Hensley included,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: should back off. And Hensley did not like this, not
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: only because, you know, he had this closeness with Susan's father,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: but also because he had a feeling that Maltby was
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: only interested in this case because he thought it would
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: help his career. However, Maltby outranked Hensley, and Hensley already
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: had a full caseload of work, so there really was
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: very little he could do here. So, with a resigned sigh,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: he headed back to his desk. Two days later, around
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: 2 p.m. on July 31st, Sergeant Hensley stood in the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: back of a small crowd, sweating through his suit, as
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Susan's casket was lowered into the ground. Hensley was at
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: this funeral really to support Susan's father, Joe, because he
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: was not really a part of the investigation. However, he
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: couldn't help, you know, scanning the mourners, you know, through
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: a detective's lens to see if anybody seemed suspicious. There
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: was a group of people in their 20s and 30s
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that were standing towards the front, and Hensley assumed they
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: must be Susan's friends. He remembered what one of Susan's
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: neighbors had said about a large framed man, and he
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: looked at all the men taking note of their size.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: At the center of the group There was a blonde
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: woman who was sobbing, and Hensley recognized her as Susan's
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: best friend, Cindy Hallmark, who was leaning on her boyfriend,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Roy Hayes. The two of them had actually come to
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the crime scene by coincidence on the day Susan's body
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: was found, and they had totally broken down when they
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: realized what had happened. But now, Hensley was suddenly noticing
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: just how physically enormous Roy was. And so in that moment,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Hensley thought to himself, if he was in charge of
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: this case, he knew Roy would be somebody he'd take
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: a close look at. But that was not his decision.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: But then Hensley noticed that there was actually one person
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: who was conspicuously absent from this funeral. And that was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Susan's ex-husband, Michael Woods. From what Hensley had heard around
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the station, nearly all of Susan's friends and family were
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: convinced that it was Michael who was the killer. But
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: there was a problem with this theory. Michael lived a
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: miles away in Indianapolis. And word around the police station
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: was that during that window of time where Susan was
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: murdered over those three days, Michael was in Indianapolis and
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: he was around loads of people who would vouch for
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: him being in Indianapolis. Which meant that as far as
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Hensley knew, there really was no way for Michael to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: be the killer. And so Hensley just hoped that Lieutenant
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Maltby had another better suspect in mind. For the next
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: few weeks, Sergeant Hensley focused on his own cases, while
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: still keeping tabs on Susan's. Every couple of days, her
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: dad would call him up and ask why Michael hadn't
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: been arrested yet, and Hensley would always tell him that
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the case was in good hands and they're working on it.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: But as the weeks passed by with no arrests, Hensley
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: started to wonder, like, what was going on here? Something
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: needs to happen. Why is nothing happening? Then one day
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: in early October, so roughly two months after Susan's murder,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Hensley walked into the bullpen to find Maltby celebrating. Not
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: because of any progress in the case, though, but to
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: celebrate his big promotion. Maltby was going to be the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: lead of a new narcotics unit, and his open cases
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: that he had been working on were just going to be,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: you know, given to other investigators or filed away altogether.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And so as Maltby accepted congratulations from other officers and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: just made a whole scene, all Sergeant Hensley could think was, well,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: what's going to happen to Susan's case? It could easily
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: fall through the cracks here. And so without even talking
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to Maltby, Hensley walked straight to the chief's office and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: asked to take the case over. The chief shrugged and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: just said, sure, you're welcome to try. So long as
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: this case does not get in the way of his
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: other work. Hensley agreed and then went to get Susan's file.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: And then after he had it in hand, he hurried
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: back to his desk and began rifling through the pages.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And he was stunned to find that there was almost
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: nothing in there besides the original autopsy report. And that's
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: when Hensley remembered that Lieutenant Maltby claimed to have this
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: photographic memory, and so he almost never took notes. And
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: so Hensley was basically going to have to start all
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: over from square one. At 9 a.m. the next morning,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Hensley sat down in the kitchen of Susan's best friend,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Cindy Hallmark, as Cindy poured them both a cup of coffee,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and then Cindy started talking. And she had a lot
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to say. She was absolutely convinced that Susan's ex-husband, Michael Woods,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was the killer, and she just could not understand why
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: it was taking detectives so long to arrest him. Cindy said,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you know, for most of Susan and Michael's relationship, Michael
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: was just kind of a loser. He couldn't keep a job,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and he'd just lift weights and play guitar shirtless in
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the front yard. However, when they had broken up, Michael
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: had recorded this totally unhinged audio recording about how awful
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Susan was and left it for Susan, along with all
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: these notes he had hid all around the house and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the property, which also just said terrible things about Susan.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: And this behavior by Michael had scared Susan so much
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that she had asked Cindy and Cindy's boyfriend, Roy, to
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: help nail all her windows shut, specifically to prevent Michael
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: from coming into the house. Hensley listened and wrote everything
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Cindy said down, but he really wasn't as sold on
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the Michael Woods theory as everybody else in Stephenville seemed
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: to be. And that was primarily because the police in
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Indianapolis had spoken to Michael, and apparently he had given
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: them a rock-solid alibi. And so realistically, it didn't make
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: sense for him to be the killer. That said, Hensley
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: was pretty confident that the killer had to be somebody
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Susan knew. The lack of forced entry... coupled with all
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the snacks and the Coke can and cigarettes on her
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: coffee table, suggested that Susan might have entertained her murderer
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: before they killed her. And so at this point, Hensley
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: was much more interested in learning if there were other
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: romantic interests in Susan's life, you know, besides Michael. And
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: when he asked Cindy that question, she said, yeah, there
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: was one other guy. She said right before Susan was killed,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: she was seeing this bartender named J.C. Baumann. However, they'd
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: only gone on a few dates. Cindy said that JC
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: had put a lot of pressure on Susan to sleep
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: with him. And so she had just broken up with him.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: And when Hensley heard this, he felt like this was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: really promising. And so when Cindy finished telling her JC story,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: he asked her if she knew where he could find JC.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: And she said, yeah. And she gave him the address
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of the bar where he worked. 45 minutes later, Sergeant
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Hensley pulled up in front of the bar. It was
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: still too early for business, but there was a delivery
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: truck out front and there were a few men who
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: were unloading kegs and bringing them inside. And so Hensley
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: walked up to these guys and he asked if any
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: of them knew a J.C. Bauman. And this tall, bearded
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: man raised his hand and said, actually, that was him.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: A few minutes later, Hensley and J.C. were sitting at
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the empty bar. Hensley watched J.C. 's face very closely
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: as he explained to him that he was here to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: talk about Susan. J.C. nodded and ran his fingers through
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: his hair like he was nervous. And then he said
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: his throat was dry and asked Sergeant Hensley if he
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: wanted something to drink. Sergeant Hensley said he was okay.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: But J.C., he got up, went behind the bar, and
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: then came back with a can of Coke. And after
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: sitting down and opening the drink up and taking a sip, J.C.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: also lit up a cigarette. And so immediately, Hensley thought
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of the Coke can that was on Susan's coffee table
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and as well as the ashtray full of cigarettes, despite
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the fact that Susan was not a smoker. And so
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the interview had barely even started, and Hensley was already
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: very suspicious of J.C. So he decided to push pretty
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: early and see how J.C. reacted under some serious pressure.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: And so right out the gate, he asked J.C. where
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: he was on Sunday, July 26th, which was the day
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: investigators at this point believe Susan was murdered, based primarily
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: on the autopsy report. And when J.C. was asked that,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: he swallowed and said he couldn't remember, which was possible.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, the murder happened two months earlier, but it
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: didn't make J.C. look that good. So Hensley asked J.C.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: if it was true that he and Susan broke up
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: ultimately because he, J.C., had pressured her for sex. J.C.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: turned beet red and said he had never pressured Susan.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: He said they had been intimate, but just once in
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Susan's bathtub. And when Hensley heard this, he nearly dropped
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: his pen. it seemed extremely suspicious that JC was claiming
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: to have been intimate with Susan in the same bathtub
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: where she was found dead. And so Hensley wondered if
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: he was maybe trying to get ahead of the fact
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: that his fingerprints would be found on or in that bathtub. Now,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: legally Hensley knew he could not compel JC to offer
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: up his fingerprints without charging him first, but he took
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a chance and just asked anyway. And to his surprise, J.C. said, yes,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: you can have my fingerprints. And he almost seemed relieved.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: He said, you know, whatever you need to help solve
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Susan's murder, I'll do it. Two hours later, Sergeant Hensley
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: was back at his desk in the Stephenville police station
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: looking at a card that had J.C. 's finger and
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: palm prints on it. And as he looked at it,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: he began thinking about those palm prints on Susan's bathtub.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: In 1987, fingerprints and palm prints were just much slower
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to process than they are today. And the closest lab
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: that analyzed these prints was an hour and a half
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: away in Fort Worth. And Hensley knew they were always
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: working with a backlog, so his results could easily take months.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: But Hensley was not going to just sit around and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: wait because he had one more suspect he wanted to
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: talk to. The following afternoon, Sergeant Hensley walked into an
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: interrogation room at the police station and and sat down
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: across from Roy Hayes, who was Susan's best friend, Cindy's boyfriend.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Hensley wanted to speak to Roy for two reasons. One,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: he matched the physical description of the large man seen
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: near Susan's house around the time of her murder. And two,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: there just weren't that many people who were close to Susan.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: And Roy saw her when she was both with Cindy
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and also when she would attend those members of the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: roundtable get-togethers. Now, that was not that incriminating. But Hensley
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: knew that catching the killer was as much about ruling
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: suspects out as it was about ruling them in. So
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: that was really all he was trying to do here
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: with Roy, is just maybe find a way to say, nope,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: not him. But before Hensley could even begin asking Roy questions,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Roy just started talking. He told Hensley that he had
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: been thinking about Susan's case nonstop. He said that his
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: mind had been running wild with all the possible ways
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the killer could have gotten inside. And so now Roy
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was eager to share his theories. After all, he said
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: he was the one who nailed those windows shut, so
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: he knew where the weaknesses in her house were. And
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: so Hensley said, okay, let's hear your theories. And Roy
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: began listing all the ways a person might be able
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: to get inside of Susan's house, including what Roy said
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: was the most promising, which was a six-inch crack in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the window above the kitchen sink. And as Roy did this,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he was at the top of
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Hensley's suspect list. And when Roy was done rattling off
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: all the ways he would break into Susan's house, Hensley
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: asked him, where were you on the evening of Sunday,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: July 26th? And Hensley watched as Roy's expression changed from
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: very intense to surprised, as he realized he was now
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: being asked for his own alibi. Roy started stumbling over
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: another very long, rambly answer and What he had to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: say ultimately just made him look even more guilty, because
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Roy told the Hensley that on the night Susan was killed,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: he had been over at a friend's house playing a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: game called Dungeons and Dragons. So today, people know Dungeons
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: and Dragons as a harmless fantasy role-playing game. But at
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: this time in 1987, it was viewed very differently. In
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the late 1980s in America, there was this huge fear
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: that certain games, books, and heavy metal songs were all
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: linked to devil worship. The TV news ran regular stories
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: across the country about how Dungeons & Dragons specifically encouraged
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: players to cast spells and practice witchcraft. And the local
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: paper in Stephenville had carried a full-page ad calling the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: game satanic. So when Roy told Hensley he had been
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: playing Dungeons and Dragons on the night Susan was killed,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Hensley immediately thought back to the horrible brutality of the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: crime scene. And he wondered if maybe Susan's murder could
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: have been tied to some kind of dark ritual. And
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: so Hensley looks at Roy and says, OK, well, are
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you prepared to give us your fingerprints? And Roy said, yeah.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: A half an hour later, a very disappointed Sergeant Hensley
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: watched Roy walk away from the station. Just like with JC,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Roy had seemed incredibly suspicious at the start of the interview,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: but then he'd easily offered up his fingerprints like he
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't concerned at all about whether they'd matched the killers.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So Hensley was not sure what to expect in terms
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: of results here, but he still sent Roy's prints off
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: to the outside lab to be added to the queue
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: behind JC's. Hensley was contemplating his next move when the
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: station receptionist walked over and said that someone from the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was on the line for him.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: They were following up on the inquiry he had made
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: a few days earlier to double-check the alibi of Susan's ex-husband,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Michael Woods. Hensley eagerly ran to the phone, and when
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: he heard what the officer had to say, he practically
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: jumped out of his chair. Because according to the Indianapolis
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: police officer, it was true that Michael said he had
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: an alibi with lots of witnesses, but he had promised
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to provide the names and contact information for all those witnesses,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and he had never done it. which meant Michael's alibi,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the same one Stephenville police used to rule him out
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: as a suspect, or more specifically, they used the idea
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of his alibi, the belief that his alibi existed, that's
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: what they used to rule him out, well, clearly, it
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: was totally unverified. Lieutenant Ken Maltby, who was in charge
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: of the case when this decision was made, had just
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: completely dropped the ball. Somebody had to check Michael's alibi.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: On a bright morning in April of 1988, Sergeant Hensley
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: walked out of the Indianapolis International Airport with a single
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: duffel bag of luggage slung over his shoulder. He was
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: here to try to collect the fingerprints of Susan's ex-husband,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Michael Woods, who was now Hensley's primary suspect. Hensley had
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: been trying to coordinate the investigation into Michael from Stephenville, Texas,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: but it had proven to be kind of cumbersome, and
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: so he decided to just take matters into his own
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: hands and actually go to Indianapolis. He knew Michael did
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: not have to submit to fingerprinting unless he was charged
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: with a crime, so Hensley had come up with a plan.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: He was going to put Michael under surveillance and wait
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: for him to do something illegal. Maybe he gets into
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: a fight or an altercation or he buys some marijuana
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: or even jaywalked, anything. Hensley would use it as an
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: excuse to arrest him and get his prints. For days,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Hensley sat in an unmarked van outside the house where
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Michael lived and watching the front door through a telephoto
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: camera lens. But Michael and his roommates seemed pretty boring.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: They barely even left the house. Hensley was beginning to
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: think that his big plan to catch Michael doing something
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: illegal was a huge waste of time. It just was
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: not going to happen. But then one morning, he noticed
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: some unusual activity in Michael's front yard. Michael and his
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: roommates were laying out furniture and clothing on their front lawn,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: clearly getting ready for a yard sale. Sergeant Hensley was
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: snapping photos of everything they were bringing out, and at
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: one point, he saw something that gave him a rush
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: of excitement. Because through his lens, he spotted these crystal
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: figurines that appeared to be the exact same type of
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: crystal figurines that Michael had allegedly stolen from Susan's house
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: in Stephenville when their marriage had ended and he had
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: left to go to Indianapolis. Hensley practically laughed out loud.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, this was too easy. This was his chance.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: So he called the local police. They stormed the yard
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: sale and they arrested Michael for theft. Two weeks later,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: now back in Stephenville, Sergeant Hensley walked into the police
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: station to start a shift and he found a manila
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: envelope waiting for him. It had a return address that
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: said it was from the Texas DPS crime lab in
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Fort Worth, Texas, where he had sent all of the
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: suspect's fingerprints. Hensley ripped open the envelope and dumped the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: contents onto the table. And as he began looking through them,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: he realized the lab had already analyzed all three sets
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: of prints that he had sent in. They were Susan's ex-boyfriend, J.C. Bauman,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: her best friend's boyfriend, Roy Hayes, and her ex-husband, Michael Woods. Now,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: at this point, if Hensley had had to guess who
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the killer was, he would have guessed Michael, because Michael
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: is this estranged ex-husband who had left behind these terrible
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: recordings and notes, and he had spooked Susan so badly
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: at the end of their relationship, she had nailed her
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: windows shut to keep him out. And then also, his
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: alibi was sort of up in the air. They didn't
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: really know if he had one or not. They hadn't
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: been able to actually verify it or not yet. JC
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: also had basically no alibi. He drank coke and he
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: smoked cigarettes, just like the killer had left in Susan's
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: living room, or is believed to have been the killer
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: who left those behind. And Roy, in virtue of playing
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons, could potentially be involved in Satanism. And also,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he seemed way too eager to talk about how he
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: might break into Susan's house. However, for Hensley, he felt
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: like one of these three men is the killer. He's
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: about to get his answer. But as he read through
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: each of these reports, he went from exhilaration to confusion.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: And finally, just total disbelief. Because none of these prints
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: that he'd submitted matched the ones from Susan's tub. Hensley
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: wanted so badly to solve this case, to give Susan's
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: father Joe, his friend, some closure. But now... He felt
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: like he was totally out of ideas. Susan's case ultimately
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: went completely cold. Sergeant Hensley retired, and 19 years passed by.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And then one day in early 2006, Lieutenant Don Miller
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of the Stephenville Police Department took a box labeled Susan
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Woods down from a shelf in evidence storage, carried it
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: back to his office, sat down at his desk, and
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: began to look through its contents. Miller had recently been
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: tasked with reviewing the department's unsolved cases, including Susan's. He
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: read all of Sergeant Hensley's notes, he studied the crime
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: scene photos, and he reviewed all the witness statements. None
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: of it looked very promising. In fact, it looked like
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: all the suspects had basically been ruled out. But then
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: he saw those palm prints that had been lifted from
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Susan's bathtub, which had never been matched to anyone, and
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: he had an idea. Back in 1987, there had been
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: no centralized database of fingerprints. This meant that unless you
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: had a specific suspect to compare an unknown prints against,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: the unknown print was effectively useless. And that's really what
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: had happened in Susan's case. None of the suspects had
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: matched this unknown print. So the case was put on
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: a shelf. But in 2006, the FBI now had a
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: national database of all the fingerprints of everybody in America
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: who had ever been arrested and fingerprinted. And this meant
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: that if Susan's killer had ever been arrested for any
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: crime anywhere, their fingerprints would likely be in that database. Now,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Miller did not have the budget or the time
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: for a full-blown reinvestigation here. But he certainly had the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: time and money to just submit those prints into this
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: FBI database to just see if there was a hit.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: So he submitted them and then put her case file
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: back in storage. And sure enough, a few days later,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Miller was at his desk when his phone rang, and
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: it was the FBI, and they told him they had
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: found a match. But when the FBI agent told Miller
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the name of the person whose prints these matched, it
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: meant nothing to Miller. He didn't think he'd actually even
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: heard the name before, and the person had been arrested
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: for robbery in Nevada, not Texas. Miller thanked the agent,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: and he quickly began digging through this person's history, and
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: he also went and got the Susan Woods case files.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: And slowly but surely, it all began to come together.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: And as Miller read through in her file all the
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: names of the people that Susan spent her time with,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: he noticed something. And finally, it all just clicked. Lieutenant
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Miller had found the killer. Based on evidence collected at
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: the crime scene and the killer's written confession, The following
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Susan
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Woods on the evening of Sunday, July 26, 1987. Stephenville's
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Main Street was busy as the killer drove through town
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: in their brown pickup. sipping a mixture of soda, vodka,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: and cough syrup. They stared out their window at all
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the happy people in the restaurants and the storefronts, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: as they stared at these people, a darkness stirred inside
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the killer. This darkness had been there for years, telling
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: the killer they were no good and they would never
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: be close to anyone. Alcohol was the only thing that
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: seemed to make this darkness go away. So the killer
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: stayed half-drunk most of the time. But sometimes, even the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: alcohol wasn't enough. A few years back, when the TV
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: news had been running non-stop with talk about devil-worshipping, the
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: killer had been sort of inspired, and they thought they
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: might try that. And so, they had lit a bunch
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: of candles and set them around their room in the
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: shape of a pentagram... And then the killer stripped off
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: their clothes, they stretched out on the floor, and they
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: offered up their soul to the devil in exchange for
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: freedom from this darkness. But unfortunately, the darkness remained. And
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: so now the killer, feeling very riled up, took another
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: drink and thought of Susan and the way she'd smiled
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: at them the last time they had seen each other.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: The killer had not had the courage to make a
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: move back then, but now, you know, with this buzz
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: that they had from their drink, they really couldn't see
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a good reason not to make a pass at Susan.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: So they turned off the main road and they drove
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: the short distance to Susan's house. In a matter of minutes,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: the killer was at her door, knocking. Susan opened the
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: door and surprise flashed across her face. But then it
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: softened into a smile and she told them to come
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: on in. Susan told them to get comfortable and as
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: they sat down on the couch, she went to the
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: kitchen to get the killer a Coke and some snacks.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Then she brought them back and She sat down on
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: the couch next to the killer to talk and catch up.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: And that was when the killer made their move. They
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: leaned in to kiss her. But Susan immediately pulled back.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Suddenly angry, the killer grabbed her. And Susan slapped them
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: across the face. And right then, the killer exploded. It
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: would take almost 20 years, but that single action of
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: the killer placing their hands on the bathtub did eventually
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: give Lieutenant Miller the killer's identity. He was the younger
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: cousin of Susan's best friend, Cindy Hallmark. And he was
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: one of the members of that roundtable group who supported
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Susan through her divorce. He had also been at Susan's
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: funeral and helped her friends through the aftermath of her death.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: The killer's name was Scott Hatley. And just a week
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: before he killed her, he had been hanging out with
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: the members of the roundtable and Susan was there. And Susan,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: who was this, you know, very shy, gentle person, had
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: sort of opened up around this group. You know, she
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: was feeling happier and happier, largely because this group of friends,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: including Scott, had been so supportive. You know, she really
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: felt like she belonged here and was safe here. And
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: during that meeting amongst the members of the roundtable, just
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: sort of inexplicably, Susan had looked over at Scott and
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: simply smiled at him. And for that reason, pretty much alone, Scott,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: a week later, had shown up on her doorstep and
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: murdered her. By the time Lieutenant Miller put all of
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: this together, Hatley was 41 years old and was still
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: a free man. And so on June 7th, 2006, Miller
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: had him arrested and charged him with Susan's murder. He
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: would ultimately take a plea deal and was sentenced to
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: 30 years in prison, but would only serve 11 years
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: before he was released for good behavior. However, three years
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: after Hatley got out of prison, he was found dead
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: inside of his RV from cancer complications. And among his things,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: investigators would find this handwritten diary where he confessed to
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Susan's murder. The pages were also filled with references to
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Satan and demons, and Hatley specifically wrote that some kind
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: of outside presence had been responsible for pushing him to
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: ultimately assault and kill Susan. Thank you so much for watching.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the comments, And remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.