Latest / FBI Files / Hunting Darren D. ONeill_ Robin Smith Mount Rainier and a Survivor

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Hunting Darren D. ONeill_ Robin Smith Mount Rainier and a Survivor · FBI Files

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: In the Pacific Northwest, tragedy would forever bind three women
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: who would never meet. One disappeared just months before her wedding.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Another vanished, leaving two children behind. A third survived her
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: night of terror and spoke for the others she never knew.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: The hunt for a serial killer led FBI agents cross
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: country as they followed his deadly trail.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: The disappearance of young women triggered a search that spanned
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the Pacific Northwest. Even a massive media campaign failed to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: locate the drifter who first charmed, then killed them. As
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: investigators followed his trail, he always stayed one step ahead.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: In a case that landed on the FBI's 10 Most
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Wanted list, agents hoped that the one victim the killer
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: spared would help put him behind bars.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: March 28th, 1987. Leron Crouston left a party in the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: suburbs of Tacoma, Washington at four in the morning. He
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: was looking forward to a day of fishing. Leron's fiance,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: 22-year-old Robin Smith, decided to stay. She was having a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: good time. Robin assured Laurent she'd be fine.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: I love you.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: I love you too.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: She would just get a ride home from someone she'd
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: met at the party. After fishing all day Saturday, Laurent
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: fell asleep, exhausted. He didn't wake up until early Sunday afternoon.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Robin!
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: He hadn't seen his fiancée, Robin, since the party two
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: days earlier. Robin! Concerned, the young man called Robin's mother.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Hello?
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Edna Smith had assumed her daughter was with Leron. Let
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: me check, just a minute. Robin? She checked to see
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: if Robin was in her old bedroom. Robin?
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: No, I haven't seen her.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Perhaps she had come in late without being heard. Leron
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: told Edna not to worry.
• 3:06
  Speaker 7: Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe Robin had decided to spend the rest of the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: weekend at their friend's house.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: Hello?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: About an hour later, Leron and Robin's brother arrived at
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the apartment. No one's there. I don't guess they have
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: any choice. With no sign of Robin, her family decided
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to call police. Leron joined the Smiths at their house
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: to wait for detectives from the Pierce County Sheriff's Office.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: They were all worried. Robin had never done anything like
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: this before. They described Robin as a happy young woman,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: though quiet. She worked long hours as a waitress, saving
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: most of her money to help pay for her upcoming weddings.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Detective Terry Wilson and his partner initiated an investigation.
• 4:06
  Speaker 8: Important information we received from her mother, Ms. Smith, it
• 4:14
  Speaker 8: was unlike Robin to have just walked up and taken off.
• 4:18
  Speaker 8: She was engaged to get married. She was close to
• 4:21
  Speaker 8: her family. And if she ever went anyplace, her family
• 4:24
  Speaker 8: usually told them where she was going to be at.
• 4:26
  Speaker 8: And so this was unlike her.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Laurent Crouston told detectives about the last night he'd seen Robin.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Early in the morning of March 28th, Robin and Laurent
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: hung out at a bar until it closed at 2 a.m.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Some people they had met during the evening invited them
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to an after-hours party at their nearby apartment. The place
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: was rented by Elizabeth Glynn and Darren D. O'Neill. Leron
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and Robin were having such a good time, they didn't
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: want it to end. The last place Leron had seen
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Robin was at the party. Detective Wilson went to the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: duplex where the party had been held. He found Elizabeth
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Glynn at home. She corroborated Laurent's story and told the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: detective that she had intended to drive Robin home. But
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: as the night wore on, her plans changed. Darren seemed
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: more interested in Robin, so Elizabeth remained in the kitchen
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and flirted with a man named Mike Prohoda. Elizabeth told
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the detective that she and Prohoda had made plans to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: meet later at his apartment where they could be alone.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Rehota left the party first to avoid arousing Darren's suspicions.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: By daybreak, Darren D. O'Neill hardly seemed to notice. He
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: was wrapped up telling Robin about his favorite author, Louis L'amour,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: who wrote stories about the Wild West. O'Neill was unemployed
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and talked about living off the land like the outdoorsman
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in L'amour's books. Elizabeth had heard it all before. At
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: about 8 a.m., she left the apartment to meet Prahoda.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: She told O'Neal and Robin she was going out to
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: buy more beer. When she returned 24 hours later, O'Neal
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and Robin were gone. Elizabeth pointed out that she found
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: several items missing from the apartment.
• 7:11
  Speaker 8: In searching the apartment, we found that there was a
• 7:14
  Speaker 8: television that had been pulled out and the television electrical
• 7:17
  Speaker 8: cord had been removed. There was a couple of lamps
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: from his girlfriend had told us that had extension cords
• 7:24
  Speaker 8: on it. These were missing. A lot of his clothes
• 7:27
  Speaker 8: were gone. And she specifically mentioned that there was a
• 7:30
  Speaker 8: blanket that also was missing from the house.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Is this yours? In a file box, Wilson also found
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: social security cards with several different aliases. They included the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: unusual name of Zebulon McCranahan. When Detective Wilson told his
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: partner what he'd learned, Detective Walt Stout immediately suspected foul play.
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: Robin was left alone with Darren O'Neill, and something happened
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: at that residence after that. It would be speculation that
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: maybe Darren tried to come on to her physically or sexually.
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: She may have rejected that, or there was something that
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: happened there, and I believe she was probably assaulted in
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: that house.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Detective's next question, Dennis Morrison, O'Neill's friend and former employer.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Morrison said O'Neill had worked for him as a carpenter.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: When's the last.
• 8:29
  Speaker 9: Time you saw him?
• 8:31
  Speaker 8: It was last night.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: He asked if we were alone. He said he had
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: seen O'Neal just a few days earlier. It was Saturday afternoon,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the day after the all-night party. O'Neal stopped by to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: ask for traveling money. He said he was heading east
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: over the Cascade Mountains. Morrison had no cash to give him.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: O'Neal was about to leave when Morrison realized he could
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: write him a check. He went to O'Neal's car to
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: make the offer. His friend seemed nervous and anxious to leave.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Then a movement in the back of the car caught
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Morrison's eye. It looked like something was pushing against the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: back seat from inside the trunk. O'Neal told him it
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: was his dog. He put it there to punish it.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Until Morrison could say another word, O'Neal pulled away. Morrison
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: described the car as a tan Chrysler with Montana tags.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Authorities knew they were three days behind O'Neal. By now,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: he could be anywhere. Detectives continued to pursue the handful
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: of O'Neal's known contacts in the area. They called Gary Skinner,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the owner of another cabinet shop where O'Neal had worked part-time.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: He told detectives he'd been looking for Darren O'Neal since
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: his last day at work.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: When Darren left, he apparently took a hammer with him
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: from the shop because it was missing, and Mr. Skinner
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: couldn't account for it having been taken in any other way.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: With no leads pointing to his whereabouts, Pierce County detectives
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: hoped O'Neill's past would provide some answers. A background check
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: revealed that the suspect was no stranger to trouble.
• 10:43
  Speaker 8: He had worn South Army. He had been in trouble
• 10:46
  Speaker 8: in Colorado.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: He had been.
• 10:50
  Speaker 8: Accused of sexual assault, physical assault. All of his victims
• 10:55
  Speaker 8: that we were aware of had been females. So a
• 10:59
  Speaker 8: profile of him was starting to form that we were
• 11:01
  Speaker 8: looking for a person who is possibly predatory in nature,
• 11:05
  Speaker 8: but violent for sure.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Pierce County deputies entered everything they knew about Darren D.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: O'Neill into the National Crime Information Database, the NCIC, a
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: listing of criminals and victims nationwide. They included his physical characteristics,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a description of his tattoos, and the make and model
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of his car. If O'Neill were picked up by any
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: police department in the country, Pierce County would be notified immediately.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Detectives also helped Robin's family launch a media campaign to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: locate the missing woman. Robin's picture was posted all over
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the Tacoma, Washington area, along with O'Neal's. The campaign began
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to generate leads. O'Neal was spotted entering a local hospital
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: alone on March 29th.
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: There was no security at the hospital, but the ER
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: nurses were nervous at this man's presence. So they did
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: call a couple of male employees of the hospital, and
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: Darren ultimately left without receiving any treatment for some scratches
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: that were visible.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Investigators believed Robin had inflicted the scratches on O'Neill's face
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: when he attacked her. The hospital staff told police that
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the scruffy man bore a teardrop tattoo at the corner
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of one eye. The letters J-U-N-E were tattooed across the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: knuckles of one hand. Detectives learned that June was the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: name of O'Neal's ex-wife. The media campaign continued to generate leads.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: A highway flagman had seen O'Neal in his car at
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: two different locations on March 30th, two days after Robin's disappearance.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: The first sighting was on a highway construction site east
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of Tacoma. O'Neal was heading south when the flagman waved
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: him through. He also saw O'Neal a few hours later
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: at a gas station off the same highway. He called
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: police when he recognized the man's face from the newspaper.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: To be sure, the detective showed the flagman a photo lineup.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: It included a mugshot of O'Neal alongside five others. The
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: flagman picked out O'Neal immediately. As investigators continued the hunt,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: a Washington State trooper spotted a tan Chrysler with Montana
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: tags on the afternoon of March 30th. the same day
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the flagman had seen O'Neal. It had been abandoned on
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the side of Interstate 5, about 50 miles north of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Pierce County, two days after Robin's disappearance. Unaware of the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: ongoing investigation, the officer found nothing suspicious about the car.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: He followed proper procedure by calling in the license plate
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and vehicle description. A communications officer entered the tag number
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: into a database. The information should have triggered the NCIC
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: listing on O'Neill and his vehicle. It did not. She
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: had mistakenly typed the abbreviation MO for the state of
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Missouri instead of MT for Montana. The trooper on Highway
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: 5 was still unaware that this was the very car
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Darren D. O'Neill had been driving following Robin Smith's disappearance.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Investigator's best clue was about to be towed to the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: impound lot. On March 30th, 1987, a Washington State trooper
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: found a tan Chrysler with Montana tags 50 miles east
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: of Tacoma. Misinformed by his communications officer, the trooper was
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: unaware that Darren D. O'Neill, the man wanted in connection
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: with the disappearance of Robin Smith, had abandoned the car.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: The vehicle was towed to an impound lot for future sale.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: A few days later, the local paper ran an article
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: about Robin Smith's abduction. The story described O'Neill's car. It
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: sounded similar to a Chrysler the tow truck operator had
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: recently impounded. He checked the make, model, and license plate.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: They matched. He quickly notified police. Detectives ran a check
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of the Chrysler's vehicle ID number. A man calling himself
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Zebulon McCranahan was reported to have stolen it from an
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Idaho residence in 1986. Wilson immediately remembered the peculiar name
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: from an ID card he'd found at O'Neil's home. It
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: was one of the suspect's aliases. At the Pierce County
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: West Precinct garage, detectives and evidence technicians process the Chrysler.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: They hope to find some trace evidence linking O'Neal or
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Robin to the car. While technicians search the interior, the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: detectives move to the trunk. They found a large quantity
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: of dried blood. Detectives also found a blood-stained lavender jacket. Mrs.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Smith later identified the garment as Robin's. They also recovered teeth,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: bone chips, and a clump of hair. O'Neill's fingerprints on
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: empty beer cans pointed to his involvement. If Detective Wilson
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: had held out some slim hope that Robin was still alive,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: it was now gone.
• 18:10
  Speaker 8: We felt now that we probably had a homicide on
• 18:12
  Speaker 8: our hands by the way the type of blood that
• 18:14
  Speaker 8: was found in the trunk and the amount of blood
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: that was found. And so we started focusing on Darren
• 18:19
  Speaker 8: as a homicide suspect. At this point in time, the
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: whole tone of the investigation started changing.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: But to charge O'Neal with murder... Examiners at the Washington
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: State Forensics Lab first needed to confirm that the hair
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and bone fragments belonged to Robin Smith. Pierce County sheriffs
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: requested Robin's dental records and blood type sent to the lab.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But there was a problem. Robin had not been to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the dentist since childhood. She also had never documented her
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: blood type. Since a definitive match with known samples could
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: not be made, murder charges could not be filed. As
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the hunt for suspected killer Darren D. O'Neill ground to
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: an abrupt halt, 120 miles to the north, Detective Carlotta
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Jarrett of the Bellingham Washington Police Department was working on
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: a similar case. Wendy Aughie, a 28 year old single
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: mother was reported missing when she failed to pick up
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: her daughter Wendy had a date the evening of April 24th, 1987.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: She left her daughter with the child's grandmother. When Wendy
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: failed to return a call, the grandmother drove over to
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: her house to find the little girl's favorite pillow. On
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Wendy's bed, she found bloodstains and called the police. Detective
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Jarrett obtained a warrant to search the house. Wendy's car,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a red Ford Torino, was missing. The front door to
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Wendy's house had been left unlocked. Her wallet and keys
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: were missing. In the bedroom, Detective Jarrett found evidence of
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: a brutal attack.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: There was bodily fluids in the bed, and there was
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: a great amount of pooled blood underneath that pillow, which
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: had seeped to the mattress below. There was low to
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: medium impact velocity blood spatters on a wall, and there
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: were also blood smears on the wall.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Bellingham police retrieved the entire bit as evidence. On the headboard,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: they found more of Wendy's blood, along with two blonde
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: hairs that did not belong to the missing woman. Police
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: also recovered an acrylic fingernail. Wendy's friends told police that
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: she had worn acrylic nails on her date with a
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: man named Michael Johnson. Wendy had met Johnson earlier that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: afternoon on her lunch break He was the new bartender
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: at La Paloma Restaurant. Detective Jarrett checked the restaurant for leads.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I contacted the owner to see if she'd filled out
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: an employment application for Mr. Johnson, and the only thing
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: she had was a placemat that he had written some
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: information on. She gave that placemat to me, and we
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: did process it for fingerprints.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: While the detective waited for results, he visited a local
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: mission which the bartender had listed on the placemat as
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: his residence. Detective Jarrett spoke to the desk clerk at
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the mission, who remembered the day Johnson checked out.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: He had seen Mr. Johnson at the mission at 7.30
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: in the morning on the day after that Wendy Ahe
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: had a date with him. And at that time he
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: was wearing black slacks, a vest, a white shirt and
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: a tie and told him he was going to work.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: He also said he had met a lady and he
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: was going to move in with her. This person also
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: said that Mr. Johnson was driving a red Torino and
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: drove away in it. Previous to this point, he'd had
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: no vehicle.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: On May 4, 1987, Jarrett received a phone call from
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: police in Eugene, Oregon. They had found Wendy's car, a
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: red Ford Torino, abandoned in the parking lot of a tavern. Inside,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: police recovered fingerprints that matched the fingerprints found on the placemat.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: A check through the automated fingerprint identification system revealed that
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the prints belonged to Darren D. O'Neill, the man wanted
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: for the suspected murder of Robin Smith. Detective Jarrett contacted
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: authorities in Pierce County, 120 miles south of Bellingham. They
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: quickly realized there were striking similarities in both cases.
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: Since we were convinced that Darren O'Neill was responsible for
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: Robin Smith's death, and we also felt that he was
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: responsible for Wendy Ahe's disappearance and possible death, we felt
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: that the rest of the people in the country were
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: also at great risk from Darren O'Neill.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Pierce County deputies called in the FBI to assist in
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the hunt. Former Special Agent Del Oros of the FBI's
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Tacoma Resident Agency was assigned the case.
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: At that point, we knew we were dealing with an
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: individual who was extremely mobile and extremely dangerous. He had
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: the history of a violent sexual predator, and now he
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: had the current tag or label of a murderer.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Since Wendy and Robin's bodies were still missing, formal murder
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: charges were not filed. Sexual assault charges against O'Neal were
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: still pending in Colorado. The FBI opened a federal case
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: against the fugitive for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Still,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: O'Neal managed to stay one step ahead. No one knew
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: where the suspected serial killer fled after he left Oregon.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and authorities still had no murder case unless they found
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the bodies of the missing women. In May 1987, evidence
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: pointed to the brutal slaying of two innocent women in
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Washington State. The FBI and local police launched a media
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: campaign to flush out suspected killer Darren D. O'Neill. Dozens
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of agents fanned out to investigate sightings all over the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Pacific Northwest. O'Neill was spotted hitchhiking at truck stops north
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and south of Seattle. One trucker gave O'Neill a ride
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: on May 23rd. He claimed his passengers thanked him for
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the ride because the cops were after him. The trucker
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: pulled off the highway a short time later and left
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: O'Neill just a few miles outside the city. Special Agent
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Del Oros recalled that even as leads came in, the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: hunt for the elusive killer did not get any easier.
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: The months immediately following the disappearance of Robin Smith and
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: Wendy Ahe were extremely frustrating. Because of O'Neill's change in
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: facial appearance, a change in weight, people were consistently telling
• 26:17
  Speaker 6: us that the pictures that we were showing of O'Neill
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: were actually two different people. Well, they weren't.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: The FBI focused on places the drifter might blend in.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Because O'Neill was constantly on the move, Agents questioned travelers
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: at local bus and train stations. They hoped someone had
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: spotted O'Neal and would remember his distinctive tattoos. Even when
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: they found people who had seen the fugitive, it was
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: always too late. O'Neal was comfortable in the ever-changing world
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of transients and drifters, where people could easily disappear forever.
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: It wasn't as though we were going to find Darren
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: O'Neill at the local Ramada Inn. It forced us to
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: take a hard look at the reality of having to
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: search for him in places where he would blend in very,
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: very easily. By way of example, we looked in bus stops,
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: homeless shelters, day labor camps. He was certainly not anyone
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: who was going to be holding a 9-to-5 job, which
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: really did increase the difficulty in trying to find him.
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: as the pursuit went on through the subsequent months.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: While agents and detectives continued to pursue hundreds of mostly
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: false sightings, detectives were called to the rural area surrounding
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Crystal Mounter, just east of Washington State's Mount Rainier. Hikers
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: had reported finding what appeared to be human remains. The
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: location was close to where a flagman had seen O'Neill's
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: car about a month earlier, not long after Robin Smith's disappearance.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Just inside the wood line, officers spotted a jawbone and
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: a skull. Each item was carefully flagged before it was retrieved.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: As Stout and Wilson surveyed the crime scene, they wondered
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: whether the remains were Robin's Investigators also found other bones
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: scattered in the vicinity. Folded clothing was found hidden in
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the base of a nearby tree. It matched the description
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of the outfit Robin had worn to the party. They
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: also recovered a wallet. Inside, they found Robin Smith's driver's license.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Investigators fanned out to cover a wide area. Their persistence
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: paid off. They found a claw hammer with markings similar
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to the one reported missing by one of O'Neal's former employers.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Detectives also suspected it was the murder weapon. The Pierce
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner agreed. A careful examination of the remains
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: revealed that Robin had probably died as the result of
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: blunt force trauma to the head. Darren D. O'Neill was
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: charged with first-degree murder.
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: Once the remains of Robin Smith were found, we certainly
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: had the confirmation that a murder had occurred. And by
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: virtue of that murder, the Washington federal authorities then issued
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: their own separate and second investigation. They issued another unlawful
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: flight to avoid prosecution warrant for him.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: The FBI was more determined than ever to get their
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: hands on the man responsible for this heinous crime. By
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: June of 1987, the FBI had issued two federal warrants
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: for the arrest of suspected serial killer Darren D. O'Neill,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: still on the loose in the Pacific Northwest. The remains
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: of one woman had been recovered close to Mount Rainier.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: The second woman was still missing and presumed dead. Since
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: O'Neill was last known to be in Eugene, Oregon, Special
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Agent Michael Elsie of the FBI's Portland field office was
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: called in.
• 30:59
  Speaker 9: Knowing that he was a sexual predator. I went and
• 31:01
  Speaker 9: checked with the local police agencies with some of their
• 31:04
  Speaker 9: sexual assault cases to see if his M.O. fit any of,
• 31:09
  Speaker 9: or description or anything, fit any of their pending cases.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Special Agent O'Donnell, Detective Smith.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: It meant hundreds of man hours, but agents refused to
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: simply wait for another sighting or another victim. Dozens of
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: agents met with detectives in districts across the region to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: try to link O'Neill to outstanding sexual assault cases. The
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: search was complicated by the fact that O'Neill looked very
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: different in each of his mug shots. Most often, the
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: agents left empty-handed. Frustrated and out of leads, agents continued
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to wade through hundreds of old case files. With a
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: dangerous predator on the prowl, agents had to exhaust every possibility.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: An agent met with police detective Bill Carter in Portland.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: As he had done a dozen times before, the agent
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: compared O'Neal's picture to sketches of sexual predators. One sketch
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: stood out. It bore a strong resemblance to the fugitive.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: A 14-year-old girl named Heidi Lang had provided the drawing
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: five months earlier when she filed rape charges against her
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: unknown attacker. From the police report, her description of the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: crime sounded eerily similar to O'Neill's other assaults.
• 32:46
  Speaker 9: I'm looking at the photos of Mr. O'Neill, especially when
• 32:52
  Speaker 9: he had a beard and the glasses. I saw that
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: there was quite a bit of resemblance between the two
• 32:58
  Speaker 9: and the method and... M.O. were similar as well. Luckily,
• 33:03
  Speaker 9: he did not kill Ms. Lang as he had other subjects.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Agent Elsie wanted to speak with Heidi Lang as soon
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: as possible. Detective Carter arranged a meeting between the young
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: girl and the FBI. With her mother by her side,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: she told the story from the beginning. At around midnight
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: on January 17th, 1987, two months before Robin Smith disappeared,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Heidi broke her mother's curfew and walked to the nearby
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: convenience store to get a soda. It was a tough
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: part of town. The young girl had walked it many
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: times before, but never this late at night. As she
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: crossed an overpass leading to the store, a trucker called
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: to her from his parked rig. She ignored him and
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: walked on. It only took her a few minutes to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: get the soda. Then she started back home. She walked
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: as quickly as she could to get back before her
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: mother knew she had left. Heidi told investigators that as
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: she approached the overpass, the man and the truck were gone.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: But on the other side of the overpass, the trucker
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: jumped out of the bushes and grabbed her. He forced
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: her down an embankment at knife point and shoved her
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: into his semi parked at the side of the highway.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Years later, Heidi recalls that she believed her young life
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: was over.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: The first thing I noticed is how dangerous he was.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: I felt that he had every intention of killing me.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: There was no question in my mind.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: He threw her into the sleeper compartment of his truck.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: She was terrified, with no idea where he might take
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: her or what he might do.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: He threatened to make me a whore, sell me to pimps.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: He was going to cut me open. I tried finding
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: what was going to keep from angering this man. I
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: had to behave like I was just holding conversation with
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: him and at the same time learn what I could
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: about him.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Despite Heidi's best efforts, the trucker climbed into the sleeper
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: compartment and repeatedly raped the 14-year-old for four hours.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: And he did not like to think of you as
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: a woman. That brought him to violence. That brought him
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: to violence. I had to keep him talking, mostly to
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: keep his mind off other things. And I had... I tried...
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: my best to give him the impression that I was
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: insignificant and I was just there to be there with
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: him and it wouldn't it wouldn't mean anything if he
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: let me go.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Heidi's insight and courage paid off. After suffering hours of abuse,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: her tormentor let her go. She ran until she reached
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: a truck stop. She asked an employee for a ride home.
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: I have a question.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: After all she'd been through, Heidi bravely submitted to a
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: rape test. This provided investigators with samples of the rapist's semen,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: though no match could be made until the suspect was
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: in custody. When Heidi finished her story, Detective Carter showed
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: her a number of photos of Anil and some similar-looking men.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: It was amazing that he was in it, and I
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: did see him. And I picked him out. I really
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: did not expect to see him in them. I hadn't
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: really heard anything since I had given the sketch.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Seeing her attacker's face brought the memories flooding back, but
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: she never hesitated to press charges. Heidi was determined to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: face her rapist and put him behind bars.
• 38:28
  Speaker 9: I think that she wanted to see that this person
• 38:31
  Speaker 9: did not do that to anyone else ever again. And
• 38:35
  Speaker 9: so it showed very much strength in her character, and
• 38:39
  Speaker 9: especially at the age of 14, being able to be
• 38:42
  Speaker 9: so descriptive in the events that occurred, the description of
• 38:48
  Speaker 9: the subject and him, that kind of got us to
• 38:52
  Speaker 9: the path where we were.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Agent Elsie called the Tacoma office. they finally had a
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: witness to testify against O'Neal. But they still had to
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: find him. Agent Del Oros called FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: to request additional assistance. On June 18th, 1987, Darren D.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: O'Neal's name was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: The case was now a priority for every FBI office
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: in the country. Agents had to find O'Neill before he
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: could strike again. In June of 1987, suspected serial killer
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Darren D. O'Neill was added to the FBI's 10 Most
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Wanted list. Special Agent Del Oros was in charge of
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the case. He convinced the FBI's fugitive publicity unit in Washington, D.C.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: that Darren D. O'Neill fit the list's criteria.
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: The Bureau's determination as to who goes on to the
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: top 10 wanted list is a function of a lot
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: of different factors. Primarily, it's the protection of the community. Secondarily,
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: it has to do with the ability of those individuals
• 40:29
  Speaker 6: to be mobile, to transport themselves across interstate lines, so
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: effectively going from state to state.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: With nationwide publicity, the manhunt for O'Neill was relentless. Countless
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: sightings were reported in several states. O'Neal was most often
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: spotted in bars and taverns in the northwest. Investigators followed
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: up on dozens of leads, only to find witnesses with
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: vague descriptions of the fugitive. Nobody knew of his whereabouts.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Agents were left with little to go on.
• 41:18
  Speaker 6: So we had a long stretch of time when the
• 41:21
  Speaker 6: clues were drying up. The leads from other agents were
• 41:24
  Speaker 6: not producing any form of immediate return. We were going
• 41:28
  Speaker 6: back to the same people, consistently re-interviewing the family, friends.
• 41:33
  Speaker 6: We were reaching out as far as going to prior instructors,
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: prior employers, looking for some type of clue that would
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: tell us or show us a pattern of his activity
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: and his mobility across the country.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Seven months later, on February 3rd, 1988, agents discovered that
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: O'Neal had made his way to Lakeland, Florida. He was
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: spotted by a Lakeland police officer conducting what appeared to
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: be a drug deal. The officer was unaware that O'Neal
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: was wanted for murder. O'Neal noticed the cop but did nothing.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: The officer turned his car around to investigate. When the
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: cruiser pulled past the stopped car, O'Neal pulled up and
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: asked for directions, pretending he was lost. The officer asked
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: him to pull over. Instead, O'Neal took off. The officer followed,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: calling in the Louisiana tags on O'Neal's car as he drove.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: O'Neal tried to lose him, zigzagging through the streets of Lakeland.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: When their car jumped a curb, the suspect ran. The
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: officer pursued on foot and eventually caught them all.
• 43:17
  Speaker 8: Where do you have your car?
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: O'Neal was extradited to Louisiana when police learned the car
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: he'd been driving was reported stolen from that state. When asked,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: O'Neal told police his name was Zorn Mayu.
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: A clerk who was working nights compared the fingerprints of
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: the individual that she knew as Jean Mayhew to the
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: list of fingerprints associated with FBI top 10 wanted fugitives
• 43:47
  Speaker 6: and found that the individual that she knew as Jean
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: Mayhew was the individual that we knew as Darren O'Neill.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: O'Neill was extradited to Washington state to face charges. But
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: state prosecutors knew their cases were weak. Since Wendy Aughie's
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: body was never recovered, O'Neal could not be charged with
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: her murder. The Robin Smith case was stronger, but lacked
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: definitive forensic identification. It would be difficult to prove beyond
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: a reasonable doubt that the body found in the woods
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: was Robin Smith's. Despite the evidentiary obstacles, prosecutors moved ahead
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: with the Robin Smith case. they would take their chances
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: with a jury. O'Neal and his attorney would never let
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the case get that far. In a Pierce County court
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: on January 4th, 1989, O'Neal pled guilty to first degree
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: murder in the killing of Robin Smith. Detective Wilson knew
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: there was an ulterior motive behind the plea.
• 45:07
  Speaker 8: The court system in the state of Washington at that
• 45:09
  Speaker 8: time was if a person was convicted of first-degree murder,
• 45:16
  Speaker 8: but there was a loophole in there, if you pled
• 45:19
  Speaker 8: guilty to the charge, the maximum time you got was
• 45:23
  Speaker 8: 333 months.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: The family of Robin Smith was devastated. Even without parole,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: O'Neill would be free well before the end of his
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: natural life. The killers still face charges in Portland, Oregon,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: for the kidnapping and rape of 14-year-old Heidi Lang. If convicted,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: O'Neal would be put away for life. But prosecutors had
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: a problem. Deputy District Attorney Charles Sparks recalls that the
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: rape kit Heidi had provided at the time of her
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: assault would not be admissible for a comparison with O'Neal.
• 46:09
  Speaker 7: There was a sexual assault kit that included vaginal swabs
• 46:15
  Speaker 7: that were taken, and that had molded because of the
• 46:20
  Speaker 7: way these things were stored back then, and it was
• 46:23
  Speaker 7: not usable. And DNA evidence would have been very helpful,
• 46:28
  Speaker 7: but we just didn't have it.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: On May 16, 1990, as O'Neill's trial began, prosecutors knew
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: their only chance was to put Heidi on the witness
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: stand to face her attacker. It would be traumatic for her,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: but it was their best hope for putting O'Neal behind
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: bars for good.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: So it was very difficult for me to testify at
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: the trial. It was even more difficult to look at
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: him face to face. It was very frightening. very scary
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: experience first of all at this point I had promised
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: this man that I wouldn't tell anybody what happened and
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: this is a man who had no qualms about going
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: after anybody even just a girl walking down the street
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: in the middle of the night I knew I had
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: to put him away or I was as good as
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: dead That's the way I view it.
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: Could you point to that man?
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Heidi pointed out the man who had kidnapped and raped her,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: sitting sullenly just a few yards in front of her.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Her testimony was enough to convict O'Neill. The jury found
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: him guilty on all 16 counts of kidnapping and rape.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: Under Oregon law, he was sentenced to 135 years in prison.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Darren D. O'Neill is serving his first sentence of 27
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: years at a Washington State Penitentiary. He will then be
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: transferred to Oregon to spend the rest of his life
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: behind bars.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Once he was convicted, I was able to put a
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: lot of this in the past. I was able to
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: put it away. And I That was most important to me.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: That's the most I don't think I would have ever
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: gotten over this if we hadn't put him away.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: For Agent Oros, though he has since left the FBI
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: to serve as deputy district attorney in Sacramento, California, the
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: case remains fresh in his mind.
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: Up to this very day, I still have the wanted
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: flyer for Darren O'Neill hanging in my office here at
• 49:03
  Speaker 6: the District Attorney's office. He, even on the wall, is
• 49:07
  Speaker 6: a constant reminder of the dangers that face each and
• 49:11
  Speaker 6: every one of us as we go out on the street.
• 49:13
  Speaker 6: I'm particularly aware of the fact that he represents a
• 49:17
  Speaker 6: significant danger to the women in society. He's an individual
• 49:21
  Speaker 6: that was a cold, calculated murder, and he reaffirms for
• 49:25
  Speaker 6: me that I'm in a profession that matters and that
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: every day when I go into court, I'm there to
• 49:30
  Speaker 6: make a difference.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you.