Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Tragic Murder of 11-Year-Old Carlie Brucia

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True Crime Documentary - Tragic Murder of 11-Year-Old Carlie Brucia · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Here it is, January 4th, 97, and Carly just got here.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Hi, Carly. Hi, Papa.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Hello there.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: This is a picture of Carly. She is missing one
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: of her front teeth.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: And she just looks adorable.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Carly was more like a little sister to me than
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: my niece. We were only eight years apart, so it
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: was like having a little sister around.
• 0:46
  Speaker 6: Go ahead, pedal, push.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: Here we have a video of my brother teaching Carly
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: how to ride her new bike outside. There's a lot
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: of snow on the ground because it was March. She's
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: calling out for me. Her calling out for me, you know,
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: it was the love went both ways.
• 1:11
  Speaker 7: Everybody loved her.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: She loved people. When she walked into a room, her energy,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: you just felt it. She would have been something special.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I know that because she was.
• 1:22
  Speaker 6: She was special.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: 911, what's the location of the emergency? My daughter is missing. Okay,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: what's her name, ma'am?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Carly. A child was reported missing Sunday evening during the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl.
• 1:46
  Speaker 8: Carly was an 11-year-old girl. Everybody in the community was
• 1:50
  Speaker 8: very concerned.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: I turned on the news, and there's my brother being
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: interviewed about Carly's disappearance.
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: I'd like to say to the man who abducted her,
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: you've done a considerable amount of damage.
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: Please stop.
• 2:06
  Speaker 9: Release my daughter.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: Reality sets in very quickly that this is really happening,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: and it's terrifying.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The second that video came into our possession, this case
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: took a whole new turn.
• 2:22
  Speaker 8: When you see the video, you know in your pit
• 2:25
  Speaker 8: of your stomach that it's probably not going to end well.
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: This is a broad daylight interaction.
• 2:32
  Speaker 10: Carly was in the wrong place at the wrong time,
• 2:34
  Speaker 10: and that's everybody's worst nightmare, especially a parent.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: We had this great piece of evidence that showed this
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: crime having occurred, but we were stumped. We simply had
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: no suspects to work with.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Watching my brother navigate through grief and loss, it's excruciating.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: It changes you forever.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: This bright future that we had for Carly, all those
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: hopes and dreams, you realize they're never.
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: Going to happen.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: It's just gone in a second. He took that away
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: from us. This has to be my most favorite picture
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: of Carly. I love that it was taken here in
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: my backyard. We all have so many memories of pushing
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: each other on the swing, and she just looks so happy.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: When my sister and I found out that we were
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: going to have a niece, we couldn't wait for her
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: to be born. I was eight years old at the time.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: My sister was around 11. We were just beyond excited.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Carly was born on March 16th, 1992. She arrived several
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: weeks early. She was perfectly healthy. It was just so
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: exciting to be able to hold her. Carly was the cutest.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: She had these big electric blue eyes, this beautiful blonde hair,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: and she was always smiling.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: You'll have a good one, my gentlemen.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: My brother Joe was just the greatest dad. He was
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: so excited to have a baby girl and to share
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: her with our family. What do you have?
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: Hmm?
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: What do you have?
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, this must have been the video right before she
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: left for Florida. She was probably leaving the next day.
• 5:16
  Speaker 8: Well, you know, Collie's going to Florida.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: She's taking a big, big trip.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: You're going to Florida with Mommy?
• 5:22
  Speaker 10: Mm-hmm.
• 5:23
  Speaker 8: You're going to miss your daddy?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: I'm going to miss my daddy.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 5:28
  Speaker 8: And we're all going to miss our little Carly.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: Carly was about two when I found out. My brother
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: Joe and his wife, Carly's mom, were separating, and she
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: was going to be moving to Florida.
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: We were devastated. I remember my parents telling us.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: That we would see Carly over the summer, and we
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: would see her again over the Christmas break. My sister
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: and I were very upset about the fact that we
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: would only see her twice a year.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: We were so used to having her in our everyday life.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: But my brother and Carly, they just had a wonderful relationship,
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: and even though she was living in Florida, they were
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: in contact all the time, so they maintained a close connection.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: My daughter's name is Mandy, and her and Mandy were
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: just like two peas in a pod. Carly was in kindergarten,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and her and my daughter were in the same class.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: When they first met, they didn't like each other. They
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: used to fight. and they ended up being best friends.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Sarasota's changed a lot, but back then, it was much
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: smaller and very laid back. It was like a quaint
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: kind of a town. You could play outside till dark
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: and not worry. You could ride your bicycle around town
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: and not worry. Carly was just a typical five-year-old. She
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: was always at my house. We'd have dinner at her house.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: She'd have dinner at our house, and we'd go grocery
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: shopping together. We were more like family than we were friends.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: She loved going to visit her father, and she loved
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: her aunt.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Carly's last visit to New York, she was 11 years old,
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: and she was really changing and turning more into a
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: teenager than a little girl.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: She was growing up and she was starting to find
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: her own way. I think she would have done well
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: in life, I really do, if she would have had
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: the chance.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: Our last conversation that we had, I remember being in
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: her room at my brother's house.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: We were always upset when we had to leave each other.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: We talked about big plans of her coming back to
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: New York when she was 16, finishing up.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: High school in New York.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: I look back on that conversation so thankful that I
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: have that memory and that moment with her because that
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: was our goodbye.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: 911, what's the location of the emergency? My daughter is missing.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: We've been driving around and now... It was February 1st, 2004,
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl Sunday.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Detectives responded out to her house and took the report
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: from the mother.
• 9:20
  Speaker 8: Even though she's a child, she was still 11, and
• 9:22
  Speaker 8: she was a responsible kid by all accounts that everybody
• 9:25
  Speaker 8: I spoke to.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Carly's mom was living a pretty good life. She was
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a blue-collar worker, was a good mother to Carly.
• 9:35
  Speaker 10: Carly left her friend's house around 6.15. She was walking
• 9:40
  Speaker 10: along a.
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: Relatively busy road.
• 9:42
  Speaker 10: There were fast food restaurants, coffee shops, but there aren't
• 9:46
  Speaker 10: a lot of people out.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: We were sitting at the dinner table and the news
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: came on. It was like a news break thing that
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: she was missing. And my daughter Mandy screamed, Carly! And
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: we turned the TV up. None of us could believe it.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was shocking.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: The only thing that I was told was that Carly's missing.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: That's all that I knew. I was 19 at the time.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: My family may have known more information that they were
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: shielding me from. The gravity and the seriousness wasn't something
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: that entered my mind right away. I was like, OK, well,
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: we're going to find her.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: It's just we have to find her.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: But it was shortly thereafter that the panic did set in.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: I got on the phone.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: I called her mom, Sue. And she was in tears.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Everybody went out looking. It was just surreal. It didn't
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: seem real.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: It was like a nightmare.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Detectives got a list of Carly's friends. They got a
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: list of other places that she could possibly be. And
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: they searched throughout the night into the early morning hours
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: but could not find Carly.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: My brother, Joe, flew down to Florida right away to
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: help with the efforts to find her.
• 11:22
  Speaker 8: In my job, you're kind of Jaded in many respects,
• 11:25
  Speaker 8: you see horrible, horrible things. You relate to it. You
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: empathize with the parents who are missing their child and
• 11:32
  Speaker 8: you don't know where that child is. And I had kids,
• 11:36
  Speaker 8: so it's really hard to just turn off being a
• 11:39
  Speaker 8: father or a citizen.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: It is not a common thing for children of that
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: age to be missing overnight. And so when she didn't
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: come back home that evening, we recognized that this is
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: an unusual case. We contacted the Sarasota County Canine Rescue,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: which is a group of volunteers who have bloodhound tracking dogs.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: In this case, Carly had spent the night at a
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: friend's on Bee Ridge Road, and so we started a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: track from her friend's house.
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: The police took Bloodhounds from the friend's house, and they
• 12:32
  Speaker 8: tracked her four or five blocks away. It makes sense
• 12:35
  Speaker 8: that she would walk on Bee Ridge Road. It's a
• 12:37
  Speaker 8: main road, but the path of the Bloodhounds showed that
• 12:41
  Speaker 8: she went behind the car wash facility, and then the
• 12:44
  Speaker 8: Bloodhounds sent stops.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: The owner of the business came out and questioned what
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: was going on. The detectives told them that we had
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a missing girl in the area and that we had
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: done this track to the middle of the car wash.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: The owner said, well, I have just installed a video
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: camera system and he would go check to see if
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: he saw anything. And that's kind of where this story.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Took a turn.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: It is immediately shocking.
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: You see Carly walking in the back of the car wash,
• 13:23
  Speaker 8: and you see a man walking right up to her.
• 13:27
  Speaker 8: You see him say something, and you see him grab
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: her above the wrist, and then they walk together out
• 13:32
  Speaker 8: of the video's view. It's a tough video to watch.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: When I watched their surveillance video, I could tell by
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: her body language that she was kind of taken aback,
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: and she looked kind of frozen and like she didn't
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: know what to do.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: I mean, she was only 11 years.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Old, and then he pulled her away, and he pulled
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: her off the screen and never saw her again.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: She was smart, and I was shocked that, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: it's like, why is she going with him? Did he
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: have a weapon?
• 14:15
  Speaker 7: It's like, uh-uh.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: And also thinking, she's gonna be terrified. I can't even
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: imagine what that poor child went through.
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: There was still hope by law enforcement in our office
• 14:28
  Speaker 8: that we would find her, but it's a scary video.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: The feeling that you get when you watch that video,
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: you know, you just want to yell at your TV,
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: don't go, don't go with him. I wish that last
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: time Carly and I saw each other that we had
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: talked about stranger safety, but it's not something that you
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: typically talk about with your friends or your little sister
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: or your niece, but I wish that I did.
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: Law enforcement couldn't identify the man at that point. They
• 15:13
  Speaker 8: didn't know who he was. He wasn't related to the
• 15:15
  Speaker 8: family when they checked with the family members.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: The video revealed that we were looking for a white male,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: somewhere between the ages of 25 and 40.
• 15:23
  Speaker 8: He was wearing a darker blue mechanics uniform. He had
• 15:28
  Speaker 8: a name tag there, but we couldn't make that out
• 15:30
  Speaker 8: from the video. He walks with a distinctive gait.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: You could tell by the way he walked up to
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Carly that he wasn't very tall. He had short, cropped
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: black hair, what appeared to be tattoos, and was wearing
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: some work shoes.
• 15:46
  Speaker 10: Police are immediately trying to do everything they can, especially
• 15:51
  Speaker 10: in a case where it seems like a child is
• 15:53
  Speaker 10: abducted by somebody who is a stranger. But at the
• 15:56
  Speaker 10: same time, they're also very aware that they don't want
• 15:59
  Speaker 10: to do something that is going to spook that offender
• 16:02
  Speaker 10: and make them cover their tracks by harming that child.
• 16:07
  Speaker 7: So there's a fine line that police walk.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: We weren't close to finding who this person was. And
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: so that night, in time for the 11 o'clock news,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: we released the video to the newspapers and the TV stations.
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: An Amber Alert is in effect for Carly Bruscia.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: She was seen on this surveillance tape being approached by
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a man and then led away.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: My mom told us, don't listen to the radio, don't
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: listen to anything, because she's afraid that we would hear
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: something that we shouldn't hear over the radio.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: We were immediately inundated with information and tips. And the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: problem with it is everyone who saw that film believed
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: that they knew that person. Everyone thought their kind of
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: creepy neighbor was that person. hey, my mechanic is that person.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: And so these tips just started pouring in.
• 17:17
  Speaker 8: One person called in and said, based on his gait,
• 17:20
  Speaker 8: the way he looked, his haircut, the uniform, that looks
• 17:23
  Speaker 8: like Joseph Smith.
• 17:29
  Speaker 10: Smith at the time of this event was 37 years old.
• 17:33
  Speaker 10: He had a few run-ins with the law already. He
• 17:37
  Speaker 10: had served time. He was on probation for drug offenses.
• 17:42
  Speaker 10: This was a man who wasn't exactly an upstanding citizen.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: When we looked into Joseph Smith, we found out that
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: he was employed as a mechanic at that time. His
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: employer identified him by his walk, by his haircut, by
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: his tattoos and just his general appearance.
• 18:03
  Speaker 10: The former co-worker of Joseph Smith said to police that
• 18:07
  Speaker 10: the way he grabbed the girl actually looked like the
• 18:11
  Speaker 10: way that Joseph Smith would grab tools. Police wanted to
• 18:15
  Speaker 10: talk to Joseph Smith immediately.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I responded to this residence, and we were there for
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: quite a while, banging on the door. After about 30
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: minutes or so, Joseph Smith came to the door and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: we sat down on his front porch and we talked
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: about Super Bowl Sunday and what he had been doing.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: He said that he was watching the Super Bowl at
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the house, that he had basically been with.
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: People and I could check his alibi.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: In front of this house was a vehicle that Joe
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: identified as his own. At that point, the probation parole
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: officer arrived and searched the vehicle. Drug paraphernalia was found
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and Joseph Smith was arrested for violation of probation and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: taken to jail. While that is occurring, a white female
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: pulls up driving a yellow station wagon. She identifies herself
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: as Joseph's roommate and that she and her husband lived
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: there together with Joe I took the roommate aside, and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I asked about Joe's whereabouts on Super Bowl Sunday. The
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: roommate told me that Joe was home the whole day,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: that she actually saw him in the house, and that
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: they had watched pretty much the whole Super Bowl. At
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: that point, I eliminated Joseph Smith as being a suspect
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: in this case. We're at a loss as to what
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: I would go to bed at night just worried about her, thinking,
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: where could she be?
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: Is she alone? Is she uncomfortable? Is someone hurting her?
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: I definitely played scenarios in my head that she could
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: still be with us. Could just be someone took her
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: somewhere and they're holding her for ransom. Anything but to
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: think that she's no longer with us.
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: The entire community stepped up to try to find this
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: 11-year-old girl. There was people in my own family that
• 20:29
  Speaker 8: were out searching dumpsters and looking for her. There was
• 20:32
  Speaker 8: a lot of prayers trying to find her alive. But
• 20:35
  Speaker 8: the first 24 hours after somebody goes missing, the longer
• 20:40
  Speaker 8: it takes, the harder it is to find the person
• 20:42
  Speaker 8: as a survivor.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Later on that evening, the front desk officer at the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: sheriff's office contacted me and said that a man was
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: at the front desk and that they were dropping off
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a car because the car was involved in the Carly
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Bruscia abduction. and the front desk officer told me that
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: it was the husband and wife, roommates of Joseph Smith.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: The husband stated that his wife had simply lied. When
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I interviewed the wife again, she had no explanation for
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: why she ever had said that Joseph Smith was at
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the house during the Super Bowl. According to them both now,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Joseph Smith had stolen their yellow station wagon the previous
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Saturday and had been missing the entire weekend. Joseph Smith's
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: alibi completely fell apart. Not only was it not substantiated,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: it was a false alibi.
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: At that point, the car is seized as potential evidence
• 21:50
  Speaker 8: in the case. A search warrant is conducted. You have
• 21:53
  Speaker 8: a forensic unit scouring the car for trace evidence, fibers, dirt, blood,
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: anything that would connect Carly to the car. Ultimately, they
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: did find little threads of pinkish-reddish caught in the back
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: seat of the station wagon, consistent with the shirt that
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: Carly had on. Which let everybody know that she was
• 22:19
  Speaker 8: basically in that back portion of that vehicle at some point.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: You and I had some things to talk about, okay?
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Because some of the things at the house, we got
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to get straight. That's the most important thing.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: And this room.
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: Is about the truth.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: When it's time to re-interview him, Joseph Smith refused answering.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: I was already advised to talk to a lawyer.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: And he requested his rights to remain silent. That means
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: you and I can't talk. I think I should talk
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: to a lawyer. But with his identification, and with the
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: presence of this vehicle, and with now the roommate's help,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: we're able to start building the case against Joseph Smith.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: The first thing we do is we go back to
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: the videotape, and we discover other cameras at the car
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: wash showed views of the parking lot, showed views of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the car wash bays, and showed views of the westbound
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: traffic on Bee Ridge Road.
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: It turns out that vehicle is seen in the videos
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: in the front of the car wash right before Carly
• 23:59
  Speaker 8: is abducted. You see the station wagon that was lent
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: to Joseph Smith that Sunday driving in the parking lot,
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: doing a loop, circling back out onto Bee Ridge Road,
• 24:11
  Speaker 8: the main road. Then you see it on Bee Ridge
• 24:14
  Speaker 8: Road heading west, And ultimately, we know, based on connecting
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: the dots, he came in on the west, parked on
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: the west side of the car wash, abducts Carly, and
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: takes her into the car. And that's why the bloodhound
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: sent to end right there at that property line.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: It definitively put Joseph Smith in the Bee Ridge area,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: driving that yellow vehicle in the area of the car wash.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I knew that we had caught Carly's abductor, that Joseph
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Smith had committed this crime, but Carly's been gone 72 hours,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and she's not with the guy that she's on the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: film with. We need to find Carly.
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: Carly, being a Florida girl, loved the beach and the ocean.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: When Carly would visit in the summer, we would typically
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: have a couple days of vacation planned where we went
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: to the beach.
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: We built fires on the beach, we.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: Went out to dinner, and it was just one of
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: those special vacations that you never forget. There's definitely a
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: feeling of dread when Someone that you love has been
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: missing for days and you know that someone.
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: Purposely took her. There's a feeling of helplessness.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: You're just sitting around waiting to find out what has
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: happened to your loved one.
• 26:06
  Speaker 10: Joseph Smith asked police if he could talk with his
• 26:09
  Speaker 10: brother This was something that.
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: The police were a little hesitant to allow. So they
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: said that only if it would be approved by his lawyer.
• 26:20
  Speaker 10: Interestingly, Joseph Smith's public defender approved the meeting. And a
• 26:25
  Speaker 10: few days after the conversation that John and Joseph had,
• 26:30
  Speaker 10: and this is after Carly had been missing for several days,
• 26:34
  Speaker 10: John alerts the police that there may be information.
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: That he has.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: But can you tell us about what, you know, what
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: led to your call and what you saw or what
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you observed or what?
• 26:44
  Speaker 9: It's not that I observed anything. It's just the picture is,
• 26:47
  Speaker 9: I mean, amazingly close.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, you.
• 26:51
  Speaker 9: Know, it looks just like my brother.
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: John was sort of, I would say, torn on whether
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: to go to the police.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: When you seen the video, what were your first impressions?
• 27:04
  Speaker 9: I got chills.
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: I mean, I was like, oh, man.
• 27:07
  Speaker 10: It wasn't until he kind of thought it over and
• 27:09
  Speaker 10: then decided, okay, I have to share this information with
• 27:12
  Speaker 10: law enforcement.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: How about the way that the individual in the video,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the way that he walked?
• 27:16
  Speaker 9: That's the key right there. He had surgery on his back,
• 27:19
  Speaker 9: which he has a few discs in there, a few vertebrae,
• 27:22
  Speaker 9: so he's got metal plates, so he does walk funny.
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: Which is ultimately what he did.
• 27:28
  Speaker 8: He was also missing Sunday.
• 27:29
  Speaker 9: I don't know if you guys have ever heard that already.
• 27:32
  Speaker 9: He was missing Sunday.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: What do you know about that, or what is it?
• 27:36
  Speaker 9: He was missing between, I think, 3 and 7.30 or
• 27:40
  Speaker 9: 3 and 8. He told his wife that he was
• 27:42
  Speaker 9: working on someone's car. Then he told my mom that
• 27:44
  Speaker 9: he was sitting in Marina Jacks looking at the water.
• 27:47
  Speaker 9: And then to see that on TV, you know, Monday,
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: I mean, that looks damn close like him. I hope
• 27:54
  Speaker 9: it's not him, but I feel bad for the family.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: What's your gut tell you?
• 27:59
  Speaker 9: Like 80-20 him. The more I look at that video,
• 28:03
  Speaker 9: the more I look at him.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Well, that's true.
• 28:05
  Speaker 9: Incredible resemblance, if it's not him.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Joseph Smith's brother stated that he could get Joe to
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: tell us where Carly was.
• 28:20
  Speaker 8: Law enforcement assisted having Joseph Smith meet with his brother,
• 28:25
  Speaker 8: John Smith, and his mother to talk about things privately.
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: They told his brother. Oh, I thought she was older.
• 28:33
  Speaker 10: I thought she was 16 or 17. He wanted to
• 28:36
  Speaker 10: see if that helped to minimize his culpability and made
• 28:39
  Speaker 10: him look less bad.
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: He said it was an accident.
• 28:43
  Speaker 10: To me, every single thing that Joseph said to his
• 28:47
  Speaker 10: mother and to his brother was like pilot testing what
• 28:52
  Speaker 10: he was ultimately going to tell police and jurors. And
• 28:56
  Speaker 10: he wanted to see if they were willing to believe it.
• 28:58
  Speaker 10: If his family didn't believe it, Why would a stranger
• 29:01
  Speaker 10: who's on a jury?
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: My biggest fears were that they, you know, were going
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: to find her body somewhere, but I still had some
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: hope that maybe she was just being held somewhere. All
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: those hopes were distinguished pretty quickly.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Joseph's brother and mother contacted the sheriff's office and said
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Joseph had confessed to killing Carly and had described to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: his brother where Carly's body was. We were going to
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: put Joseph on a phone and Joseph was going to
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: describe where he had taken Carly and where he had
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: dumped her. Myself and two other agents went to the
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: brother's house.
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: We picked him up.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: The brother sat next to me in the passenger seat
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and a phone was provided to Joseph.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: In the jail.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Joseph stated that he had dumped her body at the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: first church on Proctor Road and that Carly's body would
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: be found along a fence line. We pull into the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: parking lot and I can see that there is a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: fence line along the backside of this church. I knew
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: at that point that we were in the right area.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I knew that Carly's body was out there. But I
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: also knew that evidence-wise, I wanted the first person to
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: see that body to be a forensic tech, because that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: was going to enable us to collect the best evidence possible.
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: The body of a beautiful 11-year-old girl, Carly Boucher, has
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: been found. Joseph Smith is under arrest for the abduction
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: and murder of Carly.
• 31:05
  Speaker 10: When police found Carly's body, she was naked from the
• 31:10
  Speaker 10: waist down.
• 31:10
  Speaker 7: It was pretty clear that she was sexually assaulted.
• 31:13
  Speaker 10: And she had very obvious ligature marks on her neck,
• 31:18
  Speaker 10: meaning it was very clear this little girl was strangled
• 31:21
  Speaker 10: to death.
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: It was tough.
• 31:25
  Speaker 8: It was a somber day in our community. I knew
• 31:28
  Speaker 8: tons of friends and family that were out searching for her.
• 31:31
  Speaker 8: I mean, an 11-year-old girl was brutally murdered for no
• 31:33
  Speaker 8: reason whatsoever. I wanted to bring him to justice, and
• 31:38
  Speaker 8: it was just a sad day.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: I walked in the front door and I can see,
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: you know, my extended family being in the house, my aunts, uncles,
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: my parents.
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: And, you know, it was just like a blur.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: But I just remember my mom hugging us and telling
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: us that they found her. And she was no longer
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: with us. Our lives were never going to be the same.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: I went to Sue's house. every day to help because
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: she was just really having a hard time. The night
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: that the sheriff came by, I had this feeling. When
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: I went home, I just knew, I just, something told
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: me that they had found her. Just as I pulled
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: up in front of the house, the sheriff knocked on
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: the door and he told her. She dropped to her
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: knees and she let out this this bellow. I've never
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: heard in my life. When he told her that she
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: was dead, it was horrible.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: When we found out who had committed this crime, it
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: was a bit shocking to know that it was a
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: father of three daughters.
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: Words can't describe.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: The anger that someone has towards someone who abducts, assaults,
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: and murders a young girl.
• 33:35
  Speaker 10: A lot of people mistakenly assume that because somebody is
• 33:40
  Speaker 10: a child abductor, rapist, and murderer, that they are just
• 33:45
  Speaker 10: horrible and evil throughout every single aspect of their entire life,
• 33:50
  Speaker 10: that they are a terrible parent, that they are terrible
• 33:53
  Speaker 10: at their jobs.
• 33:55
  Speaker 7: That's not often the case.
• 33:57
  Speaker 10: In fact, usually the people that are really vile and
• 34:02
  Speaker 10: commit such despicable acts tend to live relatively normal lives.
• 34:07
  Speaker 10: They blend in. They have children of their own. They
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: have a family. They have a job.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: We were lucky enough to have our own funeral service
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: here in New York for Carly.
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: It was definitely a difficult day.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: We had it in a local church and our neighbor
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: is a deacon and he knew Carly. So he talked
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: about memories of seeing Carly swinging on the tree swing
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: and just having a great time in the yard. The
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: church was packed, friends and family, friends I haven't seen
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: in years.
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: Everyone just wanted to come out to support.
• 35:05
  Speaker 8: Us that day. Once you find a little girl's body,
• 35:15
  Speaker 8: want to bring him to justice. You know, frankly, you
• 35:17
  Speaker 8: want to give him the death penalty right then. That's
• 35:20
  Speaker 8: the human side of it. But there's a process, and
• 35:23
  Speaker 8: you have to build the case properly. As a parent,
• 35:26
  Speaker 8: you feel for the family, you feel for the community.
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: But for him, you want to bring him to justice
• 35:31
  Speaker 8: as swiftly as possible. Joseph Smith was charged with first-degree murder,
• 35:47
  Speaker 8: with kidnapping of a child under 12, and then sexual
• 35:51
  Speaker 8: battery on a child under 12.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: The videotape was an amazing piece of evidence. You have
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: a picture of at least the beginnings of that crime.
• 36:00
  Speaker 8: John Smith, he had to testify against his brother in
• 36:04
  Speaker 8: a case where we're seeking the death penalty, and he
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: did the right thing.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: Watching my brother navigate through grief and loss, then I
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: have to go and sit through a trial where they
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: go through every single step of what happened to your
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: loved one.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: It's excruciating.
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: In a way, focusing on making sure that justice was
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: served was a distraction from the grief and the loss
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: that we had all experienced.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: We know what's about to happen to Carly. That's what
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: makes that video so shocking and you just want to
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: reach through there and you want to stop her, you
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: want to stop him.
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: You want Carly to scream, you want.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Her to shout. A bad guy has grabbed her and
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: you can't fathom the trouble she's in and you can't
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: stop it.
• 36:57
  Speaker 8: The forensic lab ultimately testified in trial that those pinkish
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: reddish cotton fibers found in the car were consistent with
• 37:04
  Speaker 8: the pink shirt that Carly had on when she was found.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: As the trial went on, evidence showed that she put
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: up quite a big fight, but, you know, how can
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: an 11-year-old overpower a 38-year-old man?
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: The fear that she must have felt, she was all alone.
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: Just such a horrible thought to have, to think about
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: an 11-year-old girl being all by herself when this was
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: happening to her.
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: Really no words can describe the.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: Feeling that I get when I think about her last
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: few moments.
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: She must have been so scared.
• 37:41
  Speaker 8: The evidence was strong. There was no doubt the jury
• 37:57
  Speaker 8: was going to find him guilty.
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: What we were all worried about was his sentencing. Our
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: minds went right to the next thing.
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: Let's get him the death penalty. That was our focus.
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: Carly didn't get to live, why should he get the
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: chance to live?
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: We went into a penalty phase, which talked about the
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: atrociousness of these crimes, about the cruelty of the crimes,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: and about the heinousness of the crimes. And then, the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: state asks the same jurors to pass a sentence of
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: death on Joseph Smith. And he, by a 10 to
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: 2 margin, was found guilty and was sentenced to death.
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: That was another sigh of relief from me and my family.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: We were all happy for this very small victory.
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: What we didn't know was that it wasn't over yet.
• 39:05
  Speaker 8: There was a case that came out of the U.S.
• 39:07
  Speaker 8: Supreme Court on the death penalty. And unfortunately, the Florida
• 39:11
  Speaker 8: Supreme Court looks at that case, interprets that anything that
• 39:15
  Speaker 8: was not unanimous was being reversed for sentencing, a new sentencing.
• 39:19
  Speaker 8: He would still have life in prison. There was no
• 39:21
  Speaker 8: question he would have life in prison. The question is,
• 39:23
  Speaker 8: do we get the death penalty? In my eyes, my
• 39:27
  Speaker 8: boss's eyes, law enforcement's eyes, and the victim's family's eyes, eyes,
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: you can't do what he did to an 11-year-old girl
• 39:32
  Speaker 8: and not receive the death penalty. So we were gearing
• 39:36
  Speaker 8: up to do a resentencing, which means you have to
• 39:39
  Speaker 8: bring everybody back in, the medical examiner, present all the
• 39:43
  Speaker 8: evidence to a new jury to seek the death penalty again.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: While we were waiting for that to happen, I got
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: a phone call from my mom to let me know
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: that Joseph.
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: Smith was dead.
• 39:58
  Speaker 8: Joseph Smith died in prison of liver cancer. And I
• 40:01
  Speaker 8: was happy. And I think most people, when I told
• 40:04
  Speaker 8: them the news, felt the same.
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: It was surprisingly very emotional. I broke down and started crying.
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: It was finally over. It was just a moment of
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: like a sigh of relief that this is really over now.
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: This battle has ended.
• 40:27
  Speaker 8: Carly's mom was a devoted mom and, you know, wanted
• 40:30
  Speaker 8: justice for her daughter. Unfortunately, she died before Joseph Smith died,
• 40:36
  Speaker 8: and she didn't actually get to learn he had passed
• 40:38
  Speaker 8: away in prison.
• 40:41
  Speaker 10: Carly's mother died of a drug overdose. It seemed like
• 40:45
  Speaker 10: this was just her only hope. coping mechanism. It didn't matter.
• 40:49
  Speaker 7: That Joseph Smith received a death sentence or probably even
• 40:53
  Speaker 7: that he died.
• 40:54
  Speaker 10: There's nothing that was going to fill the void that
• 40:56
  Speaker 10: Carly's loss caused, and the family was just never going
• 41:00
  Speaker 10: to be the same again.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Life wasn't the same when she lost Carly. He destroyed
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: that family. The whole family just, it destroyed them.
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: I did go to Florida probably within a year after
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: Carly's death. It felt special to go and visit Carly's
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: school where she spent so much time and made friends.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: The church where they found her body, they made a
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: garden there for Carly. I'd go down in the garden,
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I'd go on her birthdays, the holidays or whatever. I'd
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: talk to her. Just tell her what's going on and
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: tell her we miss her and tell her we love her,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: that we won't forget her.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Not only did this horrible tragedy affect my immediate family,
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: but it affected my extended family as well. I have
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: a cousin, Matt. When Matt found out about Carly, he
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: had the same reaction. feeling of helplessness that we all
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: did and it really impacted him and he just wanted.
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: To do something to help.
• 42:25
  Speaker 11: Nothing was going to bring Carly back, but I wanted
• 42:27
  Speaker 11: to make sure that it never happened to anyone else's family.
• 42:31
  Speaker 11: And that inspired me to create the Rose Brucia Educational Foundation.
• 42:38
  Speaker 11: Carly is our image. of our foundation, and we do
• 42:42
  Speaker 11: everything in memory of Carly. But the motivation for naming
• 42:45
  Speaker 11: it after my grandmother was so that I would never
• 42:47
  Speaker 11: exploit Carly's name. I just wanted to go to my
• 42:51
  Speaker 11: local elementary school and talk to the kids in my
• 42:54
  Speaker 11: neighborhood and tell them, these are the things that you
• 42:57
  Speaker 11: need to do to stay safe.
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: The program is.
• 43:00
  Speaker 11: In 92 countries across the globe. I'll always do this
• 43:06
  Speaker 11: because of Carly's memory and in honor of Carly. So
• 43:09
  Speaker 11: for me, it's the rest of my life.
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: I think about Carly every day. She wanted to be
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: the life of the party. She loved being around other kids,
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: being involved in what everyone else was doing.
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: She just wanted to be part of it.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: She would have been somebody special. You could see it.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: She was somebody special. I think she should be remembered
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: like sunshine.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: Butterflies kind of became the symbol of her still being
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: with us. My brother often sees butterflies and thinks of her.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: He has a garden on his deck in his backyard,
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: and a lot of the plants that he has kind
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: of draw in the butterflies, and it's just something that
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: reminds us of her.
• 44:19
  Speaker 10: Thank you.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you.