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5 Cases Solved With The Most INSANE Twists · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: A girl from a small town went out for a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: walk and disappeared without a trace. Her parents immediately panicked
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and called the police, but what happened next sparked outrage
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in their tight-knit community. This mystery remained unsolved for nearly
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: three decades, and only recently did detectives uncover the truth
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in quite an unexpected way.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Danielle Houchens was.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Born on November 11, 1980, in Alexandria, Minnesota. Shortly after,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: her parents had two more kids, a boy and a girl.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Once their youngest was born, the family decided to move
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to a small town called Belgrade, Montana. The quiet place
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: was surrounded by mountains and located far from big cities,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: but it was a popular destination for tourists. A lot
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of people came there to ski or hike in the mountains,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: enjoying the picturesque nature. Danielle's parents chose the town mostly
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: because they were offered jobs on the ski patrol. This
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: was perfect for both of them since they loved spending
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: as much time outdoors as possible. Their passion spread to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: their kids from a very young age, and the family
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: was always up for an adventure. They went skiing, hiking, fishing,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and took boat trips on the nearby rivers. Danielle herself
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: got really into climbing, which was easy to get into
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: around there. At the same time, Danielle managed to excel
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: at school. she quickly became one of the top students
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and had big plans for her future. She dreamed of
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: going to medical school and becoming a bioengineer. On September 21, 1996,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: their town was hosting its annual festival. People would gather
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: on the streets, listen to music, watch some performances, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: just enjoy the day together. Danielle, who was 15 at
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the time, had plans to meet up with her friends
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in the evening, but before that, she had a few
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: free hours to kill. Instead of just sitting at home,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: she decided to go for a walk along the trail
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: located near the river just outside of town. Her mom
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: asked her to be back by 2pm and gave Danielle
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: her wristwatch since she didn't have one of her own.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Danielle grabbed a bottle of water and headed out around 11.30,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: promising to be back on time. But 2 o'clock came
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and went, and she still hadn't returned. Her mom started
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to worry, especially since they were expecting guests soon. Thinking
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Danielle must have just lost track of time, she decided
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: to head to the trail to bring her home. She
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: took a friend with her, and they drove to the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: parking lot where the trail started. The first thing they
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: noticed was Danielle's white pickup truck. Even though she was
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: only 15 and technically not allowed to drive without an adult,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: her parents would sometimes let her use the car.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: It was a small, quiet.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Town with little traffic, and Danielle was already a pretty
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: good driver. Her mom noticed the truck's doors were unlocked.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: but Danielle was nowhere to be seen. She and her
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: friends started walking along the trail toward the river, but
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: they didn't get far before they spotted Danielle's car keys
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and her bottle lying on the ground. Her mom became
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: even more worried and started calling out for her, searching
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the path from the parking lot to the river. When
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: there was still no sign of Danielle, she wasted no
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: time and went straight to the authorities for help. At
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that point, her mom thought Danielle might have fallen off
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a slope or gotten injured in some accident.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Since the woman didn't.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Have a cell phone, she drove to the police station,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and about an hour later, search teams arrived at the trail.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: The searchers combed through the trail and the surrounding woods,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: checking the riverbank as well, but they couldn't find any
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: trace of Danielle. As night fell and temperatures dropped close
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: to freezing, the rescuers decided to call off the search
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: until morning. However, Danielle's family refused to go home. They
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: continued searching for her, joined by family friends and local
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: residents who broke into groups and spread out to cover
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: more ground. In one of those search groups was a
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: man and his two sons, who were friends with Danielle's sister.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: They headed into the wooded area near the riverbank, using
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: flashlights to guide their way. A few hundred yards from
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the parking lot, they noticed something strange in the water
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and went closer to check it out. Shining their lights
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: into the river, they realized it was Danielle's body, lying
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: near the shore in just a few feet of water.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: The man immediately knew she was dead and ran back
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to his car to notify the police. On his way
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to the station, however, he spotted Danielle's father and broke
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the devastating news to him. The police examined the scene
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and handed Danielle's body over to medical experts, who needed
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a few days to conduct a proper examination and determine the.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Cause of death. But despite this, the sheriff.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Quickly announced that it appeared to be an accident. There
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: were no visible wounds or signs of foul play. so
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the police initially believed Danielle may have just accidentally fallen.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Into the river and drowned.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Danielle's family, devastated by the news of her death, couldn't
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: believe it. From a young age, she had spent a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: lot of time outdoors, was very familiar with nature, and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: knew that trail along the river well. Her parents also
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: couldn't understand how she could have drowned in such shallow water. Still,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the sheriff stuck to his version and didn't launch a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: proper investigation. But everything changed when the medical examiners.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Released their report.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: They discovered that Danielle had numerous scratches and bruises, which
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: looked like defensive wounds. It appeared she had fought back
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: against someone. They also noted that her underwear had been
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: pulled down. The experts found it hard to imagine how
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: this could have happened in the course of an accident. Moreover,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: they established that Danielle had been sexually assaulted and found
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a biological sample from an unknown male on her underwear.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: As for the cause of death, the examiners agreed that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: she had been drowned, but it seemed that someone had
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: held her underwater. They also noticed that Danielle's watch, which
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: should have been on her wrist, was found up near
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: her elbow. The experts suggested that the killer might have
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: dragged her by the arms, causing the watch to slip
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: down as he pulled her toward the river. Despite all
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: these findings, the medical examiners for some reason still listed
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the manner of death as undetermined. While they were sure
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Danielle had drowned, they couldn't find enough solid evidence to
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: conclusively prove it was an intentional murder. Because of this,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the police didn't launch a full investigation, maintaining that they
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: were still uncertain about what really happened to Danielle. Even so,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: they did try to gather more details. When forensic experts
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: examined Danielle's clothes, they found four hairs on her underwear,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: which also belonged to an unknown male. They believe these
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: were arm hairs and managed to extract a partial DNA sample. However,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the FBI didn't yet have a national DNA database. The
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: only thing the experts could confirm was that the hairs
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and the semen found on Danielle's underwear came from the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: same person. The police also re-examined the area where Danielle's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: body was found and discovered a man's boot print in
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the dirt, although they weren't able to determine if it
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: was connected to the case. Investigators questioned several potential suspects
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they thought might be involved, but couldn't link any of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: them to the crime. The problem was that the DNA
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: sample they had was only partial, so they couldn't even
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: compare it to the suspect's DNA. It's worth mentioning that
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: many details of this case were kept secret, not only
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: from the public, but also from Danielle's own family. For
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a long time, they didn't even know that she had
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: been sexually assaulted. From their perspective, it seemed like the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: police genuinely didn't have any idea what happened to Danielle
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: and were still trying to figure it out. Despite the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: sheriff's position, some police officers were puzzled that the case
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: hadn't been reclassified as a homicide and investigated accordingly. One
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of them was Cindy Botech, who had joined the police
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: just a few days before Danielle's death. She's been involved
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: in the investigation and, from the very beginning, was convinced
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: they were dealing with a murder. However, back then she
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: didn't have the authority to go against her superiors and
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: launch a full-scale investigation, so all she could do was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: wonder what had really happened that day. One of the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: theories was that the killer might have known Danielle, like
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a neighbor or a friend. Votek spoke with her parents,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: but they couldn't think of anyone who would want to
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: harm their daughter. She had never had any problems with
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: her classmates or anyone else in town. For months after
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Danielle's death, there was almost no progress in the case.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: The police continued to interview people and consider various suspects,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: but because of the sheriff's reluctance to start a proper investigation,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: they couldn't do much. Some officers, including Botech, were baffled
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: that the case hadn't been reclassified as a homicide and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: that no one was actively searching for the killer. To them,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: it was obvious that Danielle had been attacked, and the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: person responsible could still be living in their community. A
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: few years after the murder, the police tried entering the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: partial DNA sample found on Danielle's body into the FBI database.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: But no matches were found.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: In the years following Danielle's death, her family learned more
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: details about the case, including the fact that.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: She had been sexually assaulted.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: They were outraged that the sheriff hadn't treated it as
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a homicide from the start and had kept such critical
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: information from them. The sheriff later claimed he had never
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: considered the case an accident and had always believed it
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: was a murder. This contradicted his earlier statements to local newspapers,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: where he had clearly said there wasn't enough evidence to
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: label it a homicide. Danielle's parents also remembered him telling
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: them the same thing, which only fueled their frustration and confusion.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The sheriff then tried to shift the focus onto the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: medical examiners, insisting that the only reason he didn't launch
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: a full investigation was because they had listed the manner
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of death as undetermined. But Danielle's family believed the sheriff
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: was just trying to avoid responsibility. everyone understood that a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: proper investigation in the first few days after the murder
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: could have helped solve the case and catch the killer
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: but little effort was made now many years later finding
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the murderer had become far more difficult with the trail
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: gone cold danielle's parents continued to fight for a fair
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: investigation but each attempt led to a dead end. Eventually,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: her younger sister took up the case, giving interviews to
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: local media, reaching out to investigators, and doing everything in
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: her power to ensure that one day, Danielle's killer would
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: be found. In 2019, 23 years after the murder, Danielle's
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: family finally managed to get the investigation reopened. Unfortunately, this
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: didn't lead to any real breakthroughs. The FBI's DNA database
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: still didn't show any matches, and re-examining old suspects went nowhere,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: leaving the case stalled once again. This continued until 2021,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: when a new sheriff took over the local police department.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: He had joined the force just days before Danielle's death,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and her case had haunted him ever since. Like some
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of his colleagues, he had always believed it was a murder,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and now he had the authority to launch a full investigation.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: But after so many years, he had almost no solid leads,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: except for the partial DNA sample from the possible perpetrator.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: The sheriff realized the case needed a fresh perspective, so
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: he brought in two outside experts. One was a former
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: investigator from California who now worked as a private detective,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and the other was a DNA specialist. Together, they focused
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: on identifying the owner of the hair and the biological
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: material found on Danielle's underwear. First, they sent the samples
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to a lab in California, which had some of the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: most advanced DNA analysis tools, and then they waited. Around
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the same time, in August 2023, Danielle's case was officially
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: reclassified as a homicide, nearly 27 years after her death.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: A few months later, in early 2024, experts from the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: lab contacted the investigators, saying they hadn't gotten closer to
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: identifying the owner of the DNA. Although they had managed
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to do something important, their tools allowed them to extract
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: a full DNA profile, which was still a significant step forward.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: The investigators then sent these samples to another lab in Virginia,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: hoping they could use genetic genealogy to trace the DNA
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: back to its owner. Several months passed before they finally
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: got the call they were waiting for. The experts at
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the Virginia lab explained that they had uploaded the perpetrator's
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: DNA profile to public genetic databases, where people voluntarily share
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: their DNA to find relatives. These databases have helped solve
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: many cases using genetic genealogy, tracing suspects through their family trees.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: But this time, things took an unexpected turn. To the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: experts' surprise, they immediately got a perfect match. It turned
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: out that the owner of the DNA had willingly submitted
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: his sample to the database, something that doesn't happen often.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: The man was 55-year-old Paul Hutchinson, who lived in a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: small town called Dillon about 100 miles from where Danielle
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: was killed. Investigators discovered that at the time of the murder,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Hutchinson was 27 and a student at the University of Montana,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: just 12 miles from Belgrade. He had a degree in
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: biology and worked for Montana's Bureau of Land Management. Paul
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: was also married with two children. What stood out even
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: more was that he had no criminal record, not even
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the slightest offense. Now that the police had identified their suspect,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: they needed to obtain a direct DNA.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Sample from him.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: On July 23rd, they went to his workplace to talk
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to him. As they pulled up to the Bureau building,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: they saw Paul standing outside with his co-workers. The investigators
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: told him they wanted to ask him a few questions
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: at the station, and according to them, they could see
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the color drain from his face. Still, Paul agreed to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: go in for questioning. The detectives took their time, starting
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: by asking about other unsolved cases in the area. Paul
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: remained fairly calm at first, but everything changed when they
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: showed him a photo of Danielle. He suddenly became extremely nervous, sweating,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: scratching his face, and even chewing on his hands. He
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: could barely stand up and even stumbled over a chair
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: when trying to get up. To the police, his reaction
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: was almost a confirmation of guilt. However, Paul continued to
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: deny any involvement in the murder, but his confession wasn't necessary.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Detectives collected his DNA sample and sent it to the lab.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: For now, they let him go, since they didn't have
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: enough evidence to charge him with the murder until the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: lab results came back. Right after the interrogation, the detectives
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: contacted Danielle's sister and told her that they had finally
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: found her sister's killer. They added that the police had
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: no doubt about his guilt and that the DNA analysis
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: would only confirm it. Danielle's sister, who had been waiting
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: nearly 28 years for this moment, felt relieved knowing the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: person responsible would finally face justice. She was also aware
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that they still had to go through a long court
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: process to bring this case to a close. But things
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: took an unexpected turn. The day after the interrogation, when
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the police were supposed to receive the DNA results from
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the lab, Paul called his local police station, saying he
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: needed help.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: He gave the.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Operator his location and then hung up. When officers arrived
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: at the scene, they found Paul's car parked on the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: side of the road. Inside, they found him, dead, with
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: a gun lying beside him. During the investigation, detectives concluded
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: that Paul did it himself. There was no note in
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the car, but his motive seemed clear. He likely realized
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: there was no way to avoid prison. where he would
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: spend the rest of his life. For his wife and children,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the entire situation was a complete shock. None of them
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: knew what Paul had done nearly 30 years ago, and
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: they weren't even aware that he had been questioned by
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the police. His family learned about these accusations at the
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: same time they found out about his death. Paul's friends
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and co-workers were just as stunned when the truth came out.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: They all saw him as a devoted family man and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: a reliable friend. Despite the shock to those who knew him,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: detectives had no doubt that Paul was responsible for Danielle's murder.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: In August 2024, they held a press conference where they
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: announced that his DNA was a perfect match with the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: samples found.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: On the victim's underwear.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Police believed this was a crime of opportunity. There was
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: no evidence that Danielle knew Paul. It's likely she crossed
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: paths with him near the trail, and he made the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: decision to assault her, killing her afterward to ensure she
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: wouldn't identify him. Danielle's family admitted that hearing about Paul's
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: death brought them more relief than frustration, even though he
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: would not face a lifetime in prison. What angered them
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: most was the thought that he could have been caught
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: decades earlier if the local sheriff had taken the case
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: more seriously.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: If that had happened, Paul wouldn't have been able.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: To live nearly 30 years of freedom, start a family,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and enjoy a peaceful life. Paul's wife also expressed her
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: condolences to Danielle's family. stating that she in no way
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: supported or excused what he had done. Morgan Nick was
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: born on September 12, 1988, in the small town.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Of Ozark, Arkansas.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Shortly after her birth, her parents welcomed a son, and
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a year later, another daughter. Morgan had a wonderful relationship
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: with her younger siblings. They could spend hours playing together,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and the little ones admired her in every way. When
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: she was just starting to learn how to read, Morgan
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: would practice with children's books, reading bedtime stories to her brother.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: She was also an animal lover from a young age,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and would often tell her parents that she wanted to
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: be a veterinarian when she grew up. In elementary school,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Morgan joined the Girl Scouts, where she had fun making crafts,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: going on nature trips, and just enjoying time with the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: other girls. When Morgan was six, her parents decided to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: get a divorce, but the kids still got to spend
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: lots of time with their dad. In early summer of 1995,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a family friend invited Morgan's mom to a Little League
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: baseball game in a nearby town called Alma. At first,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: she thought about declining. After all, it was a Friday
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: evening and the stadium was nearly 30 miles away. But
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: in the end, she decided to go and take Morgan along,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: figuring it might be a fun way to spend time together.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: On the evening of June 9th, Morgan's mom left the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: younger kids with their grandmother and headed to the stadium.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Although it was a small venue, About 300 people had
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: shown up for the game, including parents and other kids.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: She found her friends, and they settled in to watch
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the game. But it didn't take long for Morgan to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: get bored. After a while, she noticed two kids she knew,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and they invited her to come play and catch fireflies
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: near the stadium. At first, her mom was hesitant to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: let her go. It was already getting dark, and they
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: were visiting the town for the first time, so she
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: was worried that something could happen to her. but her
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: friends reassured her that their kids played near the stadium
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: all the time, and there was nothing to worry about. Reluctantly,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: she let Morgan go, and the girl ran off with
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the other kids. They stopped by a small hill, still
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: within her mom's sight, and she kept an eye on
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Morgan every now and then. About 15 minutes later, the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: baseball game ended, and the players started heading toward the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: bleachers to meet their parents. Morgan's mom looked away for
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: just a few seconds, but when she glanced back, her
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: daughter was already gone. The two kids she'd been playing
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: with were walking towards the bleachers, and Morgan wasn't with them.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: The woman approached the kids and asked if they had
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: seen her daughter. They explained that before heading back to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the stadium, they had stopped to shake the sand out
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of their shoes after playing. They went over to a
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: car in the parking lot, leaned on it, and emptied
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: their shoes, with Morgan standing behind the car while they
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: were at the front. Once they were done, They started
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: walking back to the stadium, but Morgan was nowhere to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: be seen. Her friends assumed she had just stayed near
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the car to wait for her mom, so they didn't
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: think much of it and went on their way. Morgan's
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: mom looked toward the parking lot and spotted her car,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: but there was no sign of Morgan. She rushed over
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and checked inside, but her daughter was nowhere to be found.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Panic began to set in, and she returned to the kids,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: hoping they could shed some light on Morgan's disappearance. She
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: asked them where her daughter could have gone, but they
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: had no idea. Although they did mention that they had
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: seen a man in the parking lot while they were playing.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: He was standing near a red pickup truck, watching the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: stadium and occasionally glancing their way. At one point, he
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: even approached them and said something, but they couldn't recall
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: his exact words. They only remembered that he spoke with
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: some kind of a country accent. Thinking that this man
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: might have had something to do with her daughter's disappearance,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Morgan's mom immediately called the police. Six minutes later, officers
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: arrived at the stadium and first spoke to the kids
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: who had been with Morgan before she vanished. During their conversation,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the police were able to get more details about the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: man near the stadium. Piecing together the children's accounts, the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: investigators concluded that he was a white man between 23
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and 30 years old, around six feet tall, with an
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: average build, a beard, a mustache, and dark hair. The
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: kids also remembered his vehicle quite well. It was an
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: old red pickup truck with Arkansas plates and a white
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: camper shell on the back. This detail struck the officers
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: as suspicious because a camper shell could easily fit an adult,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: let alone a child.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Another odd thing was that.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: The camper seemed unusually short for the truck, making it
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: look out of place for that model. This raised further
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: suspicion that the man might be directly involved in Morgan's
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: disappearance and could have used the camper to abduct her.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: The kids also mentioned that the man was wearing only
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: jeans and had no shirt on. The officers immediately searched
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the parking lot, but they couldn't find any vehicle matching
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the description. After speaking with the kids, they began questioning
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: everyone who was still at the stadium. However, all of
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the 300 attendees had been focused on the game, and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: none of them recalled seeing anything strange or suspicious that evening.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: A search around the stadium also came up empty, so
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the officers expanded their efforts to the nearby streets. Despite
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: their best efforts, no trace of Morgan was found that night.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Her mother was devastated. She refused to go home and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: ended up spending the rest of the night at the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: fire station. The next day, the search intensified as news
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of Morgan's disappearance spread quickly throughout the area. prompting dozens
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: of volunteers.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: To come forward.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Soon, the FBI and state police joined the efforts, providing
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: helicopters for aerial searches and creating a suspect sketch based
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: on Morgan's friends' descriptions. The sketch, along with photos of Morgan,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was distributed across the town and nearby communities in the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: hopes that someone would recognize the man. Initially, the authorities
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: also thought that Morgan might have simply wandered off from
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the parking lot and gotten lost. But as nearly 24
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: hours passed without any sign of her, it became clear
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: that if that were the case, she would have been
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: found by then. That evening, police also began receiving alarming
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: reports from parents who shared some disturbing stories. One woman
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: told them that just a few hours before the baseball game,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: a stranger had tried to lure her four-year-old daughter into
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: his red pickup truck. It happened near a laundromat in
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Alma while the woman was inside. and her daughter was
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: standing near the building. When the mother came out, the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: man drove off. She provided a description of the suspect,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: which matched the sketch of Morgan's possible abductor. The day
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: after Morgan's disappearance, another report came in from a witness
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: in Fort Smith, a town not far from Alma. He
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: saw a man trying to lure a nine-year-old girl into
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a public restroom, but the girl managed to get away.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Once again, the man's description matched the composite sketch based
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: on the accounts from Morgan's friends. All of this pointed
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to the possibility that the person behind Morgan's disappearance might
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: have previously attempted to abduct other victims or even successfully
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: committed similar crimes.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: In the past.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: The police focused on locating the red pickup truck matching
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the witness's description and began checking the backgrounds of known
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: offenders in nearby towns. Over the next few weeks, investigators
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: received hundreds of tips about potential suspects, but they either
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't establish a connection or confirmed that the individuals had
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: no involvement in the crime. Meanwhile, investigators continued to comb
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the area around the stadium, collecting various items that could
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: potentially be considered as evidence. They found several cigarette butts, bottles,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and other objects, which were sent to the lab for
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: DNA analysis. But in the end, the police had no
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: clear indication whether any of these items were actually connected
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: to Morgan's disappearance. As for the red pickup truck, the
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: police received nearly 250 calls from witnesses across various towns
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and even neighboring states, all reporting sightings of similar vehicles.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: The problem was that a lot of residents drove similar models,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and there were literally thousands of them. Investigators tried to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: check each owner. but once again, they found no evidence
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: linking any of them to Morgan's disappearance. This continued for
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: two weeks until the police received a surprising call. A
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: resident of a town called Stuttgart, about a three-hour drive
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: from Alma, was on his property when he noticed a
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: man trying to break into his car. The homeowner scared
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: him off, and the intruder immediately fled. When he was
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: running away, the witness saw that the man was holding
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a little girl by the hand. The police showed him
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the composite sketch of the suspect, and he confirmed that
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the person trying to get into his car looked very
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: similar to the suspect, and the girl resembled Morgan. Investigators
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: quickly launched a large-scale operation in Stuttgart, securing an area
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of about 10 square miles and deploying several dozen officers.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Morgan's parents immediately headed to the town, hoping their daughter
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: would be finally found. Hundreds of volunteers, along with the police,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: began searching the entire town and surrounding area. Helicopters scanned
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: from above, and search dogs tried to pick up Morgan's
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: scent using her belongings. The search continued for 16 hours,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: but they found no trace of the missing girl. Eventually,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the police began to doubt the witness's story. They conducted
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: two polygraph tests, both of which suggested he was lying.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Although the man insisted he was telling the truth, He
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: eventually admitted that he had made up the entire story.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: He did see someone trying to break into his car,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: but he hadn't gotten a good look at the person's face,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: and there was no little girl with him. The man
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: was arrested for providing false information, which cost nearly a
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: full day of search efforts and thousands of dollars. It's
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: unclear if he faced any punishment, but such actions typically
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: result in a serious fine or a jail sentence. Investigators
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: found themselves back at square one. but giving up wasn't
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: an option. They brought in 17 more officers from across
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: the state, and the team focused on sorting through the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: leads that kept coming in. By then, they had over 1,500 tips,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: but none of them brought detectives any closer to finding Morgan.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Her parents didn't give up either, but as the months
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: went by, their hopes started to fade. About a year
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: after Morgan disappeared, her mom found a non-profit dedicated to
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: finding missing children. Although she was still focused on searching
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: for her daughter, there weren't any new clues left to follow.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: That's when she began helping other families who were going
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: through similar tragedies, and she put her efforts into raising
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: awareness about the dangers that could strike at any moment
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: in a child's life. Over the next several years, police
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: kept following up on various leads and questioning potential suspects,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: but nothing seemed to bring any progress. In 2001, six
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: years after Morgan's disappearance, the FBI released an age-progressed image
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: showing what she might look like. That same year, several
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: well-known TV shows aired segments about her case, which led
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to an increase in the number of tips. Although most
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: of these tips turned out to be dead ends, one
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: in particular caught the investigator's attention. The caller claimed that
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: the girl's body was buried on a property.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: In Boonville, a small town about an hour from Almo.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: The police took this tip seriously because the person provided
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: specific details about the case that had never been made public.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: In early 2002, they obtained a search warrant for the property.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Bringing search dogs along, they dug up the entire area,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: but no trace of Morgan was found. Since then, the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: case remained cold for nearly a decade. In 2010, police
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: received another tip about a possible location where Morgan's abductor
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: might have held her, this time in another state. they
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: conducted a search but once again, there was no evidence
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: to suggest the girl had ever been there. Interestingly, in 2017,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: police returned to search the same house but this time
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: for a different investigation. It turned out that a man
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: who had once lived there was in prison for crimes
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: against minors, and authorities suspected him in another similar case.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: But even then, the search turned up no new clues.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: In 2019, a new.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Documentary about the case was released, For the first time
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: since Morgan's disappearance, police shared a photo of the red
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: pickup truck believed to be connected to the abductor.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: The vehicle had been.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Briefly captured on someone's camera during the game, but the
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: poor quality and angle made it nearly impossible to make
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: out any important details. Following the documentary's release, police reached
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: out to the public, asking for any information about who
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: might have owned the truck. They received a series of
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: new tips, but despite these efforts, they still couldn't make
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: any progress in solving the case. This continued until 2021,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: when investigators finally named their main suspect in the case.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: The man was Billy Lynx, who had come to the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: police's attention in the early weeks of Morgan's disappearance. Lynx
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: had a criminal record for offenses against minors, and he
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: owned a similar red pickup truck. However, in 1995, police
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: could not establish any connection between him and Morgan's disappearance,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: even after searching his truck. During his questioning, they felt
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: that Billy was being honest about his innocence. He was
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: also significantly older than 30, while detectives relied on Morgan's
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: friends' accounts that described the abductor as being younger. Now,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: nearly 30 years later, detectives began to look at him again.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: This time, they hoped that modern DNA analysis tools could
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: uncover any traces of Morgan's presence in his vehicle. But
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: there were some issues. Billy had passed away in 2000
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: while serving time for an attempted abduction. Just two months
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: after Morgan's disappearance, he tried to lure another girl into
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: his car while she was standing outside a store. Her
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: mother scared him off and reported the incident to the police, leading.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: To his arrest.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: At that time, he was 70 years old, and he
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: died of natural causes five years later while still in prison.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Another complication was that police had no idea where Billy's
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: pickup truck was, or if it even still existed after
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: nearly three decades. The investigators focused on tracking down the
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: pickup truck, and after some time, they managed to trace
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: its chain of ownership since Billy's arrest. To the surprise
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: of the detectives, they actually found the truck. It was
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: still running. and the current owner agreed to let the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: police examine it. Initially, the detectives didn't get their hopes
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: up too high, since any DNA evidence could have easily
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: been erased or degraded over the years. But surprisingly, forensic
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: experts found a few hairs in the truck bed that
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: seemed to match Morgan's hair. The samples were sent to
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a Texas lab, equipped with the latest DNA analysis technology,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: for a closer look. It took eight months, but finally.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: There was a breakthrough.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: They managed to extract a DNA sample from the hair
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: and compared it to Morgan's mother's DNA. The results indicated
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: a close genetic match in the first degree of relation.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: In other words, the hair likely belonged to one of
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: her children or siblings. Morgan's mother stated that she had
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: never heard of Billy Lynx and had never met him
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: in her life. Detectives also knew that no one else
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: from Morgan's immediate family could have been in that truck,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: which meant that the little girl herself must have been there.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: On October 1st, 2024, the police held a press conference
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: to announce that Billy Links was now officially considered responsible
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: for Morgan's abduction, and they had no doubt about his involvement. Unfortunately,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: no one believes that Morgan could still be alive nearly
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: 29 years after her disappearance. Investigators suspect that Billy killed
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: her in the first few days after the abduction, but
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: where he hid her remains is still unknown. Even though
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the case is considered essentially solved, the police have declared
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that they will continue searching for her remains. Still, without
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a confession from Billy, this task seems nearly impossible. Detectives
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: are also going to look into Billy's possible involvement in
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: other cases. Considering that he had attempted at least a
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: few kidnappings shortly after Morgan's disappearance, the police suspect that
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: there could be many more crimes in his past. At
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the time of Morgan's abduction, he was already 70 years old,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and it seems likely that he had a long history
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: of such offenses. Plus, he had served in the military
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: during World War II, giving him certain skills that may
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: have been used in his crimes. It's worth noting that
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Morgan's disappearance became one of the most well-known crimes in
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: all of Arkansas. Authorities even decided to rename the Amber
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Alert system to Morgan Alert in her memory. As for
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: her mother, she continues to help other children and families
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: through her non-profit organization. This work has been her way
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of coping with the loss of her daughter. Though deep down,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: she still holds on to a small hope that Morgan
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: might somehow be alive. Ellie Gould was born on February 6, 2002,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in the small British town of Cowan. She came from
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: a big, close-knit family. Besides her parents and older brother,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: she had a lot of relatives living nearby, and they
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: were all very close. From a young age, Ellie had
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: a deep love for animals, especially horses. Her parents would
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: often take her to the stables, and eventually, they decided
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: to get her a pony. Ellie got into horseback riding,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: started participating in various events, and achieved some pretty impressive results.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Besides that, she planned to study psychology after high school
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and joined the Mounted Police. By early 2019, at the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: age of 17, Ellie was finishing her last year of school.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: She had plenty of friends there because she always tried
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: to get along with everyone and avoid any conflicts. That
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: same year, a classmate asked Ellie out, and they quickly
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: started dating. Ellie, who had never been in a relationship before,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: was excited about this new experience. On May 3rd, Ellie
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: woke up early as usual and started getting ready for school.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: She didn't have any morning classes that day, so she
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: only needed to be at school by noon for just
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: a few lessons. She had arranged for a friend to
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: pick her up, said goodbye to her parents as they
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: left for work, and waited at home. A few hours later,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Ellie texted her friend, letting her know she'd decided to
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: skip school that day and stay home, telling her not
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: to come by. Her friend figured Ellie just didn't feel
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: like going in for a couple of classes and headed
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: off without her. Around 3 p.m., Ellie's father came home
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: from work. When he walked into the kitchen, he was
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: met with a horrifying sight. His daughter was lying face
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: down on the floor.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: In a large pool of blood.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: At first, he thought Ellie might have fallen and hit
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: her head or gotten into some other accident. But then
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: he saw the blood splattered all over the kitchen and
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: noticed a knife lodged in his daughter's neck. with her
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: hands gripping the handle. He immediately called an ambulance and
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: tried to perform first aid, following the operator's instructions. But
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Ellie showed no signs of life, and her father realized
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: she was already gone. When the paramedics arrived, all they
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: could do was confirm Ellie's death, estimating she had been
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: dead for at least four hours. They also saw multiple
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: stab wounds on her body, most of them concentrated in
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: her neck area. Ellie's parents were in complete disbelief. Even
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: when the police told them that their daughter had been murdered,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: her father struggled to accept it. He was in a
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: deep state of shock, convinced that what had happened to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Ellie was just some kind of terrible accident. Her body
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: was handed over to the medical examiners, and they established
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: more details about what had happened. Along with the 13
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: stab wounds, they discovered signs of strangulation on her neck.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: It's seen the attacker had failed to kill her that way,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: so he grabbed the kitchen knife. They also found several
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: defensive wounds, showing that Ellie had fought back, desperately trying
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: to defend herself from the attacker. While forensic experts examined
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: the crime scene, the police began their investigation. They brought
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Ellie's parents to the station and asked if they knew
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: anyone who might have wanted to harm their daughter. After
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: looking at each other, both parents could.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Only think of one name. Thomas.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Ellie's boyfriend. Her mom explained that Ellie and Thomas had
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: started dating just a few months earlier, and at first,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Ellie was thrilled. She had never been in a relationship before,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and Thomas seemed like a great guy. He was a
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: top student, played sports, and was part of the school's
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: rugby team. But things between them started to go downhill
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Thomas wanted to spend almost all of his
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: time with her, and he became more demanding about it
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: as the days went by. Ellie, on the other hand,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't give him that much attention. She needed to focus
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: on her final exams and take care of her ponies.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: As time went on, Thomas' behavior got only worse. He
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: would get upset with her, accusing her of not wanting
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: to spend time together, and became increasingly controlling. He would
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: call and text her constantly throughout the day, and then
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: get angry when she couldn't respond right away. Ellie's parents
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: had always felt that Thomas wasn't the right match for her.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: When he visited their home, he would mostly stay quiet,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: which they found odd. Ellie, on the other hand, was
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: very outgoing, and her parents figured the relationship wouldn't last long.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: And they were right.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Just a few months into the relationship, Ellie started thinking
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: about breaking up with him.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Not only was.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Thomas' behavior making her more and more uncomfortable, but she
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: also realized that she needed to focus on her exams
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and getting into college. In the end, she decided to
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: end things and broke up with him on May 2nd.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: just one day before she was killed. The police also
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: spoke with Ellie's friends, who shared more details about the breakup.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Ellie had told them that Thomas didn't take it well.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: He kept trying to convince her to stay together, calling
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: her constantly and asking to meet, but Ellie refused to
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: talk about it. Their mutual friends mentioned that Thomas' behavior
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: changed drastically after the breakup. That same day, he posted
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: on social media saying that the past few days had
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: been incredibly hard for him.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: Not only had he.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Just broken up with Ellie, but his father had been
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: diagnosed with cancer, and his aunt had recently passed away.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Thomas ended the post by saying he was struggling to
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: cope and planned to seek help from the school counselor.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: After seeing the post, some of Thomas' friends reached out
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: to offer their support. When they spoke with him, they
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: noticed he seemed genuinely depressed. But when the police asked
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: if they thought Thomas could have harmed Ellie, his friends
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe it and insisted that it was impossible. With
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: all this information in hand, the investigators decided to talk
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: to Thomas. But before that, they examined Ellie's phone and
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: discovered that Thomas had messaged her that morning, asking to meet.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: They went to Thomas' house and asked where he had
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: been that morning. Thomas explained that his mom had driven
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: him to school, but he was too upset over the
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: breakup and his other problems to attend classes. So, instead
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: of going in, he waited until his mom left, walked
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: to the bus stop, and headed back home. On the way,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: he messaged one of his teachers to let them know
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't be at school today. According to Thomas, he
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: didn't leave the house after that. He spent the rest
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: of the day doing homework and relaxing. During the conversation,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: he also asked if Ellie was okay, and the officers
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: told him about her death. After speaking with Thomas, the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: investigators went to talk to his mother, and here they
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: encountered an interesting twist. She confirmed that she had dropped
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: him off at school that morning but when she returned
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: home later, Thomas wasn't there. The police returned to talk
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: to him again. He explained that he hadn't wanted his
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: mom to know he skipped the entire day of school,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: so he hid in the closet and waited until she
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: left for work. During the conversation, the officers noticed fresh
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: scratches on Thomas' face. When asked how he got them,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Thomas claimed he did it himself, but the investigators were skeptical.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Given that the medical examiners concluded Ellie had fought back
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: during the attack, these injuries could have easily been inflicted
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: during the struggle. The police also questioned all of Ellie's neighbors,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and one of them shared an interesting observation. That morning,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: they had seen a man approaching Ellie's house. However, due
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: to the distance, the neighbor couldn't make out the man's
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: face or any other useful features. They could only provide
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: a rough description of what he was wearing. The police
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: decided to check Thomas' alibi by looking at the GPS
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: data from his phone. They confirmed that he returned home
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: after leaving school, but what they discovered next sharply contradicted
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: his story. At 10.50 a.m., Thomas' phone disconnected from his
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: home Wi-Fi and began moving in the direction of Ellie's house.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Just three minutes later, his phone was located near her home,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: where it remained for about an hour. At 11.51 a.m.,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the phone started heading back towards Thomas' house and reconnected
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: to his home Wi-Fi within minutes.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: The police realized that.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: It would have been impossible for Thomas to cover the
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: distance between his and Ellie's home on foot in just
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: three minutes, since he lived in a neighboring village several
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: miles away. Then, they reviewed surveillance footage along the route
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and spotted a silver Ford Focus, which belonged to Thomas' parents.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: The movement of the car matched the phone's location data,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: leading investigators to conclude that Thomas must have been driving it.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: The camera also captured the same car leaving Thomas' house
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: again and returning just 18 minutes later. The investigators couldn't
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: find any footage that showed exactly where Thomas had gone
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: during that short trip. However, they managed to narrow down
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the general area where he might have stopped. Since it
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: seemed like Thomas had only been there for about a minute,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the police suspected he might have been getting rid of evidence.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Their hunch soon proved correct. While searching a small wooded area,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: officers found a trash bag containing blood-stained rags and an apron.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: With all this evidence, the police obtained a warrant to
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: search Thomas' home. They asked him to provide the clothes
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: he had been wearing that morning, and Thomas said he
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: had put them in the washing machine. The officers seized
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: the clothing, along with his shoes, and sent everything to
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the lab. Forensic experts quickly conducted the analysis and found
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: traces of blood on nearly all of his clothes. Although
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Thomas had tried to wash them, the experts were able
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: to extract a DNA sample from the blood. The analysis
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: confirmed that the blood belonged to Ellie, just like the
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: blood found on the rags in the woods. Thomas' clothes
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: also matched the description given by Ellie's neighbor, who had
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: seen a man near her house that morning. All of this,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: combined with other evidence, painted a pretty clear picture of
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: what had likely happened that day. According to the investigator's version,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Thomas had planned the murder from the start, After his
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: mom dropped him off at school, he immediately took a
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: bus back home, hid in the closet, and waited for
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: her to leave. He then drove the family car to
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Ellie's house. It seems that Ellie let him in, possibly
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: thinking he just wanted to talk, and they ended up
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen. Based on the medical examiner's report, Thomas
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: tried to strangle Ellie, which is when he got the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: scratches on his face. When he couldn't kill her that way,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her 13 times.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: For the next hour, Thomas tried to clean up the
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: crime scene, using the rags and leaving smudges all over
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the kitchen. He then gathered the rags into a trash
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: bag and tried washing his sneakers in the sink, where
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: traces of blood were also found. After that, he wiped
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: the knife with a kitchen apron, likely to erase his fingerprints,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: and tossed the apron into the bag. Then, he placed
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the knife in Ellie's hand and positioned it around her neck,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: seemingly hoping the police would think she had done it
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: herself and wouldn't suspect him. Detectives also recalled the message
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Ellie had sent to her friend, saying she wasn't going
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: to school and asking not to pick her up. They
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: concluded this message was sent after she had already died.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: It seems Thomas had taken her iPhone, unlocked it using
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Ellie's fingerprint, and sent the message himself. Apparently, he didn't
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: want the body to be found so soon. But that
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: wasn't the end of Thomas' attempts to cover his tracks.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: After throwing his clothes in the washing machine at home
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: and dumping the bag of evidence in the woods, he
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: ran into a neighbor and asked for a ride to school. There,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: he attended the remaining classes, chatted with his friends, and
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: even stopped by the school nurse. He told her how
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: difficult the last few days had been for him and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: how he was struggling to cope. The nurse, concerned about
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: his emotional state called his mother, who then took him home.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Later that day, Thomas posted on social media about his
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: breakup with Ellie and the other problems he'd been dealing with.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: At the time, Ellie's body hadn't been discovered yet, and
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: police believed that all of these actions were part of
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: his attempt to create an alibi. It took the police
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: only a few hours to gather all these evidence, and
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: by the same evening, the 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: of murder. During the interrogation, Thomas continued to deny any involvement,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: and the case was eventually sent to court. The first
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: hearing took place on August 29th, four months after the murder.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: This time, Thomas suddenly changed his story. He stood before
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: the judge and confessed to killing Ellie, though there was
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: a catch. According to his new version, he had gone
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: to Ellie's house that morning to study for their exams.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: During their study session, an argument broke out, and from
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: that point on, he claimed he could hardly remember anything.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: He recalled trying to strangle her, but said the rest
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: of his actions were a complete blur. The prosecution didn't
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: buy Thomas' new story, pointing out several major inconsistencies. First
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: of all, Ellie didn't want to have anything to do
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: with him anymore, and all her friends and family knew this. So,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: the idea that they were studying together seemed highly unlikely.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: especially since her friend was supposed to pick her up soon.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Thomas' claim of memory loss also didn't add up with
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: the fact that he spent an hour trying to clean
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: up the crime scene. On top of that, he placed
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the murder weapon in Ellie's hand, as if trying to
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: make it look like she did it herself. After that,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: he went on to get rid of the evidence, create
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: an alibi at school, and even tried to wash all
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: of his clothes. Given all of this, the court sided
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: with the prosecutions, And in November 2019, Thomas was found
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: guilty of murder. Before the sentencing, he gave a final statement,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: apologizing to Ellie's family and expressing genuine regret for his actions. However,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: there was another issue at the end of the trial.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Thomas was only 17 at the time of the murder,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: which directly impacted his sentence. The judge sentenced him to
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: life in prison with the possibility of parole.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: In just 12 years.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: He also added an additional five years for the brutality
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: of the crime. This means Thomas could potentially be released
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: at 34 years old. This verdict sparked outrage not only
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: from the victim's family, but also among many citizens across
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: the country. People were baffled as to how someone who
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: committed premeditated murder could receive such a short sentence. But
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: despite the public outcry, there was nothing anyone could do
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: to change the court's decision. Ellie's father stated that this
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: sentence puts other women at risk, as Thomas could become
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: a danger to society upon release. He believes that Thomas
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: is a psychopath who should not be let out of
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: prison for the rest of his life. This injustice prompted
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Ellie's parents to dedicate the next few years to changing
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: the existing legislation.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: In 2021, they finally achieved progress.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: The authorities passed Ellie's Law, which allows juvenile murderers to
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: receive prison sentences of up to 27 years without parole. Unfortunately,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: this change will not affect Thomas, as he was convicted
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: under the old laws. The only thing Ellie's parents managed
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: to secure was a requirement for Thomas to undergo extensive
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: therapy after his release, in hopes that it would prevent
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: him from committing similar crimes in the future. Since then,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Ellie's parents have been organizing events in memory of their daughter,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: inviting children to ride her horses. According to her mother,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: this activity helps ease the pain of their loss, as
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: horseback riding was Ellie's greatest passion.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: Janelle Patton was born.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: On June 30, 1972, in Sydney, Australia. She was an
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: only child, and her parents lavished all their love and
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: attention on her. From a very young age, Janelle developed
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: a passion for music. She played both the piano and
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: clarinet and was active in her school's music group. After
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: finishing high school, Janelle went to university to study medicine.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: But after just a year, she decided to drop out
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and focus on her career. She got a job at
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: a bank and spent the next.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: Few years working her way up.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: Over time, though, Janelle started feeling that big city life,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: with all of its challenges and stresses, was taking a
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: toll on her, and she began thinking about moving somewhere quieter.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: In October 1999, at 27 years old, Janelle decided to
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: move to a small island called Norfolk. The island was
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: nearly 1,000 miles from Australia. Back then, Norfolk had its
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: own custom regulations and local laws, making it pretty independent
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: from the mainland, but it was still considered part of
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: the country. With a population of around 2,000, everyone in
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Norfolk knew each other, and because it was so isolated,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: new faces were rare, except for tourists. The island was
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: a popular spot for visitors from both Australia and New Zealand,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: which was a bit closer. Janelle quickly found a job
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: at a local hotel, got to know the island's residents,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: and eventually settled into their laid-back way of life. Norfolk
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: felt like a small town. but with the added isolation
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: of being surrounded by nothing but ocean for hundreds of miles.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Because of that, locals really tried to get along. After all,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: they didn't have much choice. In late March 2002, a
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: year and a half after moving, Janelle's parents decided to
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: visit her for the first time, and she was really excited.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: They arrived on March 30th, and Janelle spent the whole
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: day showing them around, introducing them to the island's main
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: sights and the locals. The next day, Janelle had a
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: morning shift at the hotel, so they planned to meet
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: up as soon as she finished work. She had rented
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a small cottage on the property of a local woman,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't big enough to fit her parents, so
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: she booked them a room at a hotel. That morning,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Janelle finished her shift around 11 a.m. and set off
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: on her daily walk, something.
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: She did regularly.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Her route was a short loop from her house to
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: a lookout point at the edge of the island. Her
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: parents expected her to stop by their hotel around noon,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: but Janelle was running late. At first, they figured she
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: might have gotten caught up with something, so they decided
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: to go for a walk themselves. Before they left, they
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: wrote her a note and stuck it in the door,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: but when they got back around 2.30pm, the note was
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: still there. Realizing that Janelle hadn't come by as planned,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: her parents started to worry. They tried calling her, but
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: she didn't pick up.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: It was strange.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: How could their daughter disappear on such a small island?
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: the thought that something might have happened to her began
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: to creep in. They went to her cottage and found
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: the front door unlocked. But on Norfolk, that wasn't unusual.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: People rarely locked their doors as crime was practically unheard
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: of on the island. Inside, there was no sign of Janelle,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and nothing suggested that anything bad had happened. Her car
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: was also parked outside. While they were at the house,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: one of Janelle's friends showed up. When they told her
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: they hadn't been able to reach Janelle all day, she
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: suggested they check the route Janelle usually took for her
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: daily walk. The three of them drove along the path,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: but there was no sign of her. After that, her
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: parents returned to the hotel and informed the manager about
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: what was going on. He made a few calls to
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: people around the island, asking if anyone had seen Janelle,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: but no one had. By then, it was around 8pm,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: and her parents decided it was time to call the police.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: They explained that their daughter had been missing all day,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: and the officers asked them to come down to the station.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: The police informed Janelle's parents that, just an hour before
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: their call, a tourist from New Zealand had discovered a
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: body near a waterfall. She had spotted a large black
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: bag and, upon getting closer, saw human hands sticking out
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: from underneath it. When officers arrived at the scene, they
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: found a woman's body, showing multiple visible injuries, and her
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: clothes were partly missing.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: As Janelle's parents.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Were speaking with the police, the officers had just begun
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: processing the crime scene. They immediately suspected that the victim
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: could be Janelle. To spare her parents from the trauma
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: of identifying the body, the investigators asked Janelle's neighbor, the
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: woman she rented the cottage from, to come to the scene.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: When she arrived, she immediately confirmed that the victim was
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: indeed Janelle. The body was handed over to the medical examiners,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: but based on the initial assessment, it was clear that
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: they were likely dealing with a murderer. The news sent
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: shockwaves through the island community. There hadn't been a murderer
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: on Norfolk since 1893, and even minor crimes were rare.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: The local police were used to handling nothing more serious
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: than fights and domestic disputes, but now they were faced
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: with a homicide investigation. Because of this, they decided to
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: request assistance from Australian investigators, who immediately flew to the island.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: The medical examiners found 64 injuries on Janelle's body, including
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: bruises and cuts likely caused by a sharp object, possibly
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: broken glass. Supporting this theory, they found glass shards in
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: her hair, which they believed came from a broken bottle.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: In addition to the cuts, there were bruises on her wrists,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: suggesting someone had held her down while she was being attacked.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: This led the investigators to consider that there may have
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: been more than one person involved in the murder. Alongside
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: the cuts from the glass, there were also stab wounds,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: indicating a knife had been used in the attack as well.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Forensic experts found microscopic traces of green and white paint
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: on Janelle's body. These particles were also present on her
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: clothing and in her hair. The experts believe that the
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: paint might have come from the perpetrator or their vehicle,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: possibly during the disposal of her body. Although part of
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Janelle's clothing was missing, which initially pointed to a possible
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: sexual motive, the forensic team found no signs of sexual assault. However,
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: they did recover a foreign DNA sample from her body,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: but it belonged to an unidentified female. The investigation was
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: further complicated by the fact that around 3.30 p.m. on
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: the day of the murder, a brief but intense rainstorm
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: swept across the island. This downpour may have washed away
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: crucial evidence, such as footprints, blood, or other biological samples. However,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: the rain did help establish a timeline. There were puddles
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: in the black plastic sheet covering Janelle's body, indicating that
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: it had been left there before the rain started. This
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: meant that Janelle had likely been dead and lying there
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: for at least three hours before she was discovered. While
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: the forensic experts were busy searching for clues, the police
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: began piecing together the final hours of Janelle's life. They
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: discovered that after finishing her shift, Janelle stopped by a
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: store before heading home. Around the same time, her landlord
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: arrived and saw Janelle leaving for her usual walk. About
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: 10 minutes later, another local resident drove past Janelle on
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the road. The next person to see her lived near
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: the end of that route and spotted Janelle standing next
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: to a white car talking to the driver. According to
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: the witness, she thought there were two men in the car,
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: but admitted it was possible there could have been only one.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Five minutes later, two more witnesses who lived close to
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: the road reported hearing what sounded like a child crying
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: in the distance. Another man said he heard a scream,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: but by the time he went outside to check, the
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: noise had stopped. Based on this information, the police concluded
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: that the attack on Janelle likely took place around 11.45 a.m.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: just half an hour after she had finished her shift.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: With no strong leads, the police sent the black plastic
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: sheet that Janelle's body had been wrapped in to the
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: mainland for more advanced testing. Some time later, the results
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: came back. Forensic experts had found 10 different fingerprints on
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the sheet, but all of them were partially smeared. Despite this,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the detectives decided to try matching the prints. They compiled
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: a list of everyone who had been on the island
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the day of the murder, which amounted to more than 2,700 names,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: including both locals and tourists.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: The police asked.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: All individuals between the age of 15 and 70 to
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: voluntarily provide fingerprints and DNA samples, but only half complied.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Out of 1,300 sets of fingerprints, the experts couldn't find
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: a single match. With no results from the prints, the
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: investigators decided to shift their focus to potential suspects among
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Janelle's acquaintances. Her diary proved to be a key source
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: of information. It contained detailed entries about life on the
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: island and her relationships with its residents. From the diary,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: police learned that Janelle had a strained relationship with one
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: of her friends. When Janelle first moved to the island,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: this woman helped her find a temporary place to live
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: at her friend's house. However, Janelle didn't stay there long,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: apparently due to some disagreements. But even after Janelle moved out,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: this man continued to act suspiciously. Several witnesses reported that
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: he had once threatened Janelle in the middle of the street.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Police also discovered that after her body was found, he
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: asked a friend to provide him with an alibi and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: say that they spent the day together, even though.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: It wasn't true.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: The reason behind his behavior remained unclear, but the police
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: uncovered an interesting detail. It appeared that he was in
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: a secret relationship with Janelle's friend, the one who had
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: helped her with housing, despite the fact that the woman
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: was married with children. Janelle had written about their affair
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: in her diary, and it was possible that the couple
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't happy she knew about their secret. Despite this, both
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: the man and the woman provided their fingerprints, and neither
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: matched those found on the plastic sheet. The police also
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: searched their homes and cars, but found no incriminating evidence.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: The next suspect the police looked into was a man
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Janelle had been dating for nine months. He too was
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: investigated for possible involvement, but once again, the police couldn't
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: find any evidence linking him to the crime. Janelle's diary
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: also mentioned several other people with whom she had tense relationships,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: but all of them agreed to provide their fingerprints and
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: DNA samples, and none of them matched. At one point,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: the police even considered Janelle's parents as suspects, since the
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: murder occurred the day after they arrived on the island,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: but this theory also led nowhere. Eventually, the investigation hit
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: a dead end. For months, the police tried to identify
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: new suspects and re-examine the existing evidence, but every lead
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: turned into a dead end. They even announced a substantial
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: reward of $ 300, 000 for information about the case, but none
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: of the tips brought them any closer to finding the killer.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Two years later, investigators reopened the case and decided to
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: re-examine the fingerprint samples they had collected from locals and tourists.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: This time, they also included prints from suspects in other
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: recent cases on the island. Since all the prints were
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: stored on paper, experts had to compare them manually. The
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: process took a while, but eventually detectives got a breakthrough call.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: The fingerprints of a suspect in another case matched two
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: prints found on the black tarp used to wrap Janelle's body.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: That suspect was 26-year-old Glenn McNeil. Shortly after Janelle's murder,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: police had questioned him in connection with home invasions but
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: he wasn't arrested. Despite this, they had taken his fingerprints,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: which had been stored with the case file ever since.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: Police also learned that in 2002, McNeil owned a white Honda,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: matching the description of the car a witness saw near
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Janelle just minutes before her death. Another curious fact was
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: that McNeil had left the island shortly after the murder.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: He had moved to Norfolk from New Zealand in 2000
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: with his wife, and worked as a chef, but they
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: later divorced, which also happened around the time of his
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: move from the island. At the time of the investigation,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: McNeil was living in New Zealand with his new wife
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: and two children, which made it difficult for the police
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: to question him. However, they realized that he likely hadn't
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: taken his car off the island, so they decided to
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: search for it, hoping forensic experts could examine it for evidence.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: Before long, they found it. The white Honda had been
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: abandoned on someone's property, not far from his old house,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: overgrown with weeds. It was handed over to forensics, and
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: investigators got a warrant to search the house where McNeil
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: had lived during his time on the island. When the
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: experts thoroughly examined the car, they discovered traces of white
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: and green paint that matched the paint particles found on
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Janelle's body. There were also a few glass shards, and
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: similar fragments were found in his former home. An expert
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: was called in to analyze the samples, and he confirmed
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: that the glass shards from the car, the house, and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: the ones found on Janelle's clothes and body not only matched,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: but were produced at the same time for a specific
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: type of product. He also discovered parts of an engraving
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: on one of the shards, which turned out to be
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: a name of a wine. This confirmed that all three
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: sets of glass shards came from the same wine bottle.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: In the backyard of McNeil's former house, the police found
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: a black tarp exactly like the one used to wrap
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Janelle's body. They also discovered several human hairs and some
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: biological traces in the trunk of his car. But unfortunately,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: both pieces of evidence had deteriorated over time, so the
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: experts couldn't extract any DNA. Not giving up, detectives sent
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: the hairs to a lab in the US, which had
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: the most advanced technology at the time. But the process
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: dragged on for a year. The first lab was overloaded
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: and couldn't get to it right away, In the end,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: one of the detectives had to fly to the U.S.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: to hand the samples to a different lab. Finally, in
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: early 2006, the police got the result they were looking for.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: The hairs were confirmed to belong to Janelle. With all
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: this evidence coming together, detectives secured an arrest warrant and
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: headed to New Zealand to take McNeil into custody. He
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: was then extradited to Australia, where he was officially charged
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: with Janelle's murder. During the first interrogation, McNeil, to the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: surprise of the detectives, started confessing right away. He claimed
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: that on the morning of the murder, he smoked some
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: weed and went for a drive around the island. At
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: some point, he bent down to grab a pack of cigarettes,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: lost sight of the road, and hit something. At first,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: McNeil thought he'd run over an animal, but when he
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: got out of the car, he saw a person lying
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: underneath it. Panicking, he loaded the body into his trunk
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: and drove home. where he spent hours using drugs. A
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: while later, he started hearing noises coming from the trunk
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: and realized the woman was still alive. That's when he
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: grabbed a kitchen knife, opened the trunk, and stabbed her
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: multiple times. After that, McNeil wrapped the body in a
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: tarp and dumped it near the waterfall. Despite his confession,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: detectives knew immediately he was lying. Almost everything he said
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: didn't match the facts. Medical examiners were sure the injuries
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: Janelle had didn't line up with being hit by a car. Plus,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: McNeil's story didn't explain the bruises on her wrist, the
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: cuts from glass shards, and why part of her clothing
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: had been removed. And if he really had stabbed her
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: in the trunk, there would have been blood traces there,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: something the forensic team would never have missed.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: But there were none.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: The police tried to get him to tell the truth,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: pointing out all the inconsistencies, but McNeil stubbornly stuck to
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: his version. In the end, the case went to trial,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: which began in the summer of 2006. It was held
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: on the island, and the jury was selected from the
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: local residents. At the first hearing, McNeil claimed he had
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with the murder, and even said he
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: didn't remember giving any confession to the police. He blamed
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: his memory lapse on supposed mental health issues, although there
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: was no medical proof to back up his claims. But
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: by the time the trial began, the detectives had dug
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: up something interesting. They knew McNeil's defense team would focus
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: on the fact that female DNA was found on Janelle's body.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just on her clothes. It was also under
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: her fingernails, which suggested she might have scratched a woman
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: in a struggle before she died. This raised the possibility
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: that a woman was involved in the murder and could
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: have jeopardized the whole case. After McNeil's arrest, the investigators
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: questioned everyone who knew Janelle, asking if there was any
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: connection between her and McNeil. One of her friends remembered
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: something odd. Just two or three weeks before Janelle's death,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: she had asked her friend if she knew a woman
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: named Alicia and her husband, Glenn McNeil. The friend replied
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: that she didn't know them personally, but had seen them around.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: Janelle didn't explain why she asked that and just changed
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: the subject. This same friend also mentioned that on the
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: day of the murder, she was working at a hotel
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: and spotted Alicia outside acting weird. Alicia was covered in
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: something red, and when the friend asked if everything was okay,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: she Alicia, who seemed a bit shaken, simply said it
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: was just paint.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: And walked away.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: For some reason, the witness didn't think to tell the
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: police about this at the time. She didn't realize it
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: could be connected to Janelle's murder until detectives asked her
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: about McNeil and his wife. Alicia was called to testify
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: in court, but insisted she had nothing to do with
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: the murder. We still don't know if the police compared
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: her DNA with the female sample from Janelle's body. Interestingly,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: Later on, Janelle's friend changed her testimony and claimed that
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: a religious cult of six people was behind her murder.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: This revelation shocked investigators, casting doubt on all of her
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: previous statements. As for McNeil, he continued to deny any
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: involvement in the murder. still insisting he didn't remember confessing.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: But despite his claims, with all the evidence presented, the
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: jury found him guilty. On March 9, 2007, he was
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: sentenced to 24 years in prison. Even though the case
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: seemed closed, many people continued to question whether McNeil was
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: truly the killer. The most popular theory, based on witness
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: statements and the nature of the injuries, suggested that he
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: may not have acted alone. Either he killed Janelle with
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: someone else or helped someone dispose of her body.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: A few years after the trial.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: McNeil suddenly claimed he knew who really killed Janelle. According
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: to his new story, it was a man who had
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: been selling him drugs. McNeil said that on the morning
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: of the murder, he was at home when this man
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: and his wife showed up. The man told him there
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: was a body in his trunk and ordered McNeil to
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: get rid of it, threatening to harm him and his
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: wife if he didn't comply. Scared for his life, McNeil
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: did as he was told. He moved the body into
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: his own car, wrapped it in a tarp, and took
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: it to the waterfall. He also claimed he wore medical
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: gloves while doing this, but the detectives quickly pointed out
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: a flaw in his story. There were several of his
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: fingerprints on the tarp, which wouldn't have been there if
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: he had used gloves. Plus, he claimed he buried the
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: gloves in his yard. but when police dug up the area,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: they didn't find anything. McNeil also named the man he
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: claimed killed Janelle, and this guy was indeed suspected of
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: selling illegal substances. When police checked McNeil's phone records, they
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: found he had been in regular contact with him. However,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: this only suggested that McNeil was buying drugs from him,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: not that the man was involved in the murder. In
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: the following years, several more theories about this case emerged.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: each one more dubious and contradictory than the last. Some
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: media even suggested that Janelle was a secret police informant,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: claiming that could have been the real motive for her murder.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: But no solid evidence was ever found to support this theory,
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: or any of the others. On February 1st, 2024, McNeil
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: was released from prison early and deported back to New Zealand.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: He will remain under supervision while on probation, but technically,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: he is now a free man.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: Throughout all these years, McNeil.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: Has stuck to his story that other people were responsible
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: for the murder. Maybe one day, he'll change his story again,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: and we'll finally learn the truth. But until then, this
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: case remains filled with unanswered questions. Melissa Wolfenbarger was born
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: on September 9, 1977, in the small American town of
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: Locust Grove, Georgia. She was the youngest child in her family.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: and her older sister, who was seven years old when
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: Melissa was born, helped their mom take care of her
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: from day one. As they grew up, the sisters formed
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: a really close bond. In high school, Melissa met a
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: guy named Christopher, and soon after graduating, they got married.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: The couple settled in a quiet suburb of Atlanta, where
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: Christopher landed a job at a glass manufacturing plant. Not
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: long after moving, Melissa got pregnant, and they welcomed a daughter,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: followed by a son a little later. By 1998, 21-year-old
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: Melissa was spending most of her time at home, taking
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: care of the kids. Even though she was quite young,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: she was happy with her growing family. Melissa also tried
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: to visit her parents and sister as often as she could,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: but with the distance and all her responsibilities, those visits
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: were rare. They planned to spend Christmas with their family
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: that year, and a month before, on Thanksgiving, Melissa called
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: her mom to ask for a special gift. She wanted
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: some old photo of her grandfather. Her mother went through
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: all the family albums, found the perfect photo, and began
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: waiting for her daughter and the grandkids to arrive. But
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: when Christmas came, Melissa didn't show up. At first, her
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: parents were a bit surprised since they'd planned this for
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: over a month, but they figured she might just be
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: too busy. After all, she had two small kids to
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: care for, and she'd also recently started working at a
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: cafe because Christopher's income wasn't enough to support the whole family.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: The situation was complicated by the fact that they couldn't
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: just call Melissa and ask why she didn't come. There
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: was no phone in her house, and back then, cell
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: phones weren't common. Melissa usually called them from her in-law's house,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: but since her last call on Thanksgiving, she hadn't reached
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: out once. Her parents decided to wait, but when Melissa
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: didn't call on her mother's birthday, they started to worry something.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: Might be wrong.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: That's when they decided to head to Atlanta to check
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: on her. However, they were met with a surprising discovery.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: Melissa and Christopher's house was completely empty. After speaking with
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: the neighbors, they learned that the family had moved out
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: right after Christmas, but no one knew where they had gone.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: This only made her parents more confused. They couldn't imagine
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: that Melissa just moved somewhere else without telling them. Eventually,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: they got in touch with Christopher's parents and through them,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: finally reached Christopher himself. But the whole situation became even
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: more puzzling He claimed Melissa had left him back in December,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: and he hadn't seen her since. According to him, she
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: had decided to move to California and start a new life,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: leaving him and their kids behind. Her parents found Christopher's
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: story hard to believe. First off, they couldn't imagine Melissa
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: abandoning her kids, who were only one and two years old. Plus,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: if she had really decided to move, they were sure
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: she would have reached out or visited at some point,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: but that never happened. Despite their doubts, Christopher stuck to
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: his story, and Melissa's parents couldn't get any more information
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: out of him. They returned home, unsure of what to
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: do next, but determined to find their daughter. Over the
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: next few months, they tried to track her down, reaching
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: out to friends and relatives, but it was as if
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: Melissa had vanished into thin air. In the spring of 1999,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: Melissa's mother saw a news report about Atlanta police finding
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: a human head in a bag. soaked in bleach in
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: a wooded area. A few days later, they discovered four
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: more bags containing other body parts. What immediately caught her
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: attention was that the site was near Christopher's old job,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: and she feared the remains could belong to her daughter. However,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: the police later said that the head belonged to a
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: missing man from another cold case. By early 2000, her
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: parents finally decided to involve the police, but it didn't
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: help much. Investigators spoke with Christopher and concluded that Melissa
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: had likely left her family to start a new life,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: which is why she hadn't reached out. As a result,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: the police didn't pursue the case, but Melissa's parents refused
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: to believe that she had just walked away from her
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: old life. In fact, with each passing month, they became
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: more convinced that something bad had happened to her, and
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: they suspected Christopher was involved. Her parents knew the couple
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: had been having serious problems. Christopher had physically abused Melissa
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: several times, leading her to leave him and stay with
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: her parents, bringing the kids along. But every time, he'd
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: apologize and talk her into coming back. This fact only
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: made Christopher's story more suspicious. If he had done everything
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: he could to get her back in the past, why
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: hadn't he done anything this time? He didn't call her parents,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: didn't go to the police, and made no effort to
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: stop her from leaving. Another odd detail was that, according
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: to Christopher, Melissa hadn't taken anything with her. No clothes,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: no jewelry, not even her documents. It all seemed incredibly strange,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: but without help from the police, Melissa's parents felt powerless
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: to do anything about it. For the next few years,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: there was still no sign of Melissa, but in 2003,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: everything changed, and in the most shocking way. Police were
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: investigating the murder of a woman from back in 1977.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: The case had been cold for 26 years, but it
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: was recently reopened. After reviewing the evidence and running a
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: DNA test, detectives identified the killer. It was Carl Patton,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: Melissa's father. But that was just the beginning. Once police
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: arrested him, Carl offered them a deal. He agreed to
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: confess to three more murders in exchange for full immunity
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: for his wife, who had helped him with the killings.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: As part of the deal, Melissa's mother also agreed to
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: testify against her husband. and eventually she was granted immunity.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: According to their confessions, in December 1977, a woman named Mary,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: who was close to Carl, offered him $ 15, 000 to kill
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: her husband.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: The reason? Her husband had been cheating on her.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: Plus, Mary had taken out a life insurance on him
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: and wanted to cash in. Carl agreed and brought in
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: a friend to help carry out the murder. However, when
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: they approached the man, his lover was with him, so
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: they decided to kill her too. They dumped the woman's
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: body in a river and left the man's body in
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: his car on train tracks, hoping to make it look
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: like an accident. A month later, Carl told his wife
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: that his partner had apparently blabbed about the crime to
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: his girlfriend, and now he wanted to take care.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: Of them too.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: Carl invited the couple to his home, killed them, and
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: with his wife's help, disposed of the bodies by throwing
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: them into a river. She also helped him clean the
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: crime scene and the van they had used to transport
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the bodies. Later, Carl confessed to a fifth murder that
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: took place five years before the others. It was again
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: Mary who had offered him money, this time to kill
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: her first husband, and Carl agreed. As a result, Carl
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: was charged with five murders, and the police immediately suspected
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: him in Melissa's disappearance. But Carl insisted he would never
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: harm his daughter and had nothing to do with it.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: Upon further investigation, detectives concluded that Carl was probably telling
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: the truth. Initially, they had only suspected him of one murder,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: but he voluntarily confessed to four more. Carl claimed he
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: deeply regretted his actions, and it was this remorse that
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: drove him to confess. But that wasn't all. Seizing the moment,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: Carl decided to ask for a favor. He requested a
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: meeting with the lead detective who had tied him to
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: the murder and said, You managed to catch me, so
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: maybe you can find my daughter. The detective was intrigued
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: by the whole situation. Here was a man who had
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: committed five murders, now asking him to investigate his daughter's disappearance.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: It was an unusual situation to put it lightly, and
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: the detective agreed to look into it. He began reviewing
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: the limited information about Melissa's disappearance and quickly noticed one
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: specific detail. Those bags of human remains found near Christopher's
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: workplace four years earlier. At the time, police had assumed
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: the remains belonged to a man, but the detective discovered
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: that this assumption wasn't based on forensic evidence, just a guess.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: Given the fact that the remains were found in an
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: advanced state of decomposition, he decided to have them re-examined
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: and ordered a DNA test, as he already had Carl's
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: DNA on file. The results confirmed his suspicion. The remains
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: didn't belong to a man. They belonged After this breakthrough,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: police finally established that Melissa had been dead for several years,
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: not missing, and her case was officially reclassified as a homicide.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: According to the medical examiner's report, the victim's body had
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: been dismembered using a reciprocating electric saw. Melissa's torso was
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: never found, which was quite odd. The police conducted multiple
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: searches in the wooded area where the other remains were found,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: but still couldn't locate it. Despite this, investigators uncovered one
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: interesting lead. They began looking deeper into Christopher and interviewed
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: his former employer at the glass factory where he had
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: worked until Melissa's disappearance. It turned out that Christopher had
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: been fired around the same time for allegedly stealing an
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: electric saw of the same type used to dismember Melissa's body.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: Melissa's mother also revealed to the police that Christopher had
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: a history of physically abusing her daughter. On top of that,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: he had a criminal record. Another suspicious detail was that
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: Christopher had changed his name almost immediately after Melissa's death,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: with no clear reason for doing so. All of this
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: made Christopher the prime suspect in her murder, but the
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: police had no hard evidence against him. They interviewed him
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: multiple times, but he stuck to his original story. Although
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: he frequently changed certain details, During one conversation, Christopher claimed
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: Melissa had a lover and ran away with him. Later,
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: he stated that she wanted to sell fake IDs, which
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: explained why she hadn't contacted anyone. The police also uncovered
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: another interesting fact. Shortly after moving from their house, Christopher
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: left his children to live with his parents and hardly
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: ever played a role in their lives since then. He
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: visited them sometimes, but the children didn't even understand that
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: he was their father. But unfortunately, none of this brought
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: the investigators closer to an arrest because they needed some
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: solid evidence. They obtained a warrant to search the house
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: where Melissa had lived at the time of her death.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: Given that the killer had used an electric saw, detectives
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: believed the murder likely took place in that house, and
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: they hoped to find blood.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 2: Traces or other evidence.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: Forensic experts meticulously examined every inch of the house, taking
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: samples from the floor and other surfaces. Unfortunately, their analysis
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: yielded no results. The forensic technology of the time was
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: far less advanced than it is today, leaving the detectives
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: with no choice but to store the collected materials in
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: the evidence warehouse, hoping that one day they might prove useful.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: The detectives made several more attempts to find new leads
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: and get Christopher to talk, but each effort came up empty.
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: The case eventually went cold again for many years. Meanwhile,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: Melissa's father was convicted and sentenced to five life terms
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: plus 20 years in prison. It's worth noting that Mary,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: the woman who had paid him for two of the murders,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: had passed away in the late 80s, so she never
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: faced any punishment for her role. Melissa's mother and her
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: older sister continued trying to push the investigation forward on
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: their own. They worked to keep the case in the
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: media spotlight and stayed in regular contact with the detectives,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: but their efforts didn't yield any progress. This continued until 2017,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: and Melissa's mother never gave up hope of finding justice
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: for her daughter.
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: That year, she decided.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: To attend an event where true crime enthusiasts gathered to
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: discuss cold cases and search for new leads. One of
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: the attendees was a crime analyst named Cheryl McCollum, and
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: Melissa's mother decided to.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: Ask her for help.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: She shared the story of her daughter's disappearance and added
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: something that immediately caught Cheryl off guard. The woman said,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: Cheryl became intrigued by the case, and after the event,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: she began to dig into it thoroughly. She spoke with
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: Melissa's family and even kept in contact with her father,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: who was serving time in prison. What struck Cheryl the
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: most was how a man who had committed five murders
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: seemed more concerned that his daughter's murder would never be solved.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: Over the next few years, Cheryl collected all the available
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: information on the case and came to the conclusion that
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: the most obvious suspect was Melissa's husband, Christopher.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 2: Although there was no direct.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: Evidence against him, the overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence left
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: little doubt. He had a history of domestic violence against Melissa,
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: made no effort to find her after she disappeared, and
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: simply moved on with his life as if nothing had happened.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: But the most incriminating detail was the fact that, shortly
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: before Melissa's death, Christopher had been accused by his employer
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: of stealing the exact type of saw used to dismember
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: her body. No one in Melissa's family doubted Christopher's guilt,
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: including her children. By the time Cheryl became interested in
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: the case, they had grown up and also tried to
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: help her solve it. Cheryl also consulted some prominent figures
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: in the true crime community, including journalist Nancy Grace and
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: several law enforcement officials. After reviewing all the material she
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: had gathered, they all agreed Christopher was the most likely suspect.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Despite this, there wasn't a single undeniable piece of evidence
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: against him, and the case remained at a standstill. At
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: that point, Nancy Grace suggested that Cheryl start her own
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: podcast to draw more attention to the case. Publicity can
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: often become a crucial factor in unsolved cases. It might
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: attract new witnesses who might not realize the significance of
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: the information they hold, potentially changing the course of the investigation. Eventually,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: Cheryl decided to launch the podcast, and in 2023, she
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: released the first episode about Melissa's case. Since then, she
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: has recorded numerous episodes featuring the victim's mother and other relatives.
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: Cheryl presented all the information she had gathered over the years,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: yet there was still no progress in the case. This
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: continued until April 2024, when the long-awaited breakthrough in the
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: case finally happened. After she published another episode, a witness
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: reached out to Cheryl, stating that he had stumbled upon
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: the podcast and might have valuable information. This individual shared
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: that just before Melissa's disappearance, he witnessed a serious argument
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: between her and Christopher. The details of his account remain unknown,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: as it all took place only a few months prior,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: and detectives chose not to disclose this information for the
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: sake of the investigation. According to some sources, it seems
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: that during this argument, Christopher allegedly threatened Melissa, and Cheryl
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: passed his story on to the police. This became a
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: turning point, prompting investigators to reopen the case. Over the
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: next three months, police reviewed the case materials, interviewed everyone involved,
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: and examined the evidence using modern technology. Experts analyzed the
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: bags containing the remains, along with various samples from Christopher
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: and Melissa's home, where the murder apparently took place. In
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: August 2024, investigators held a press conference to announce that,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: 25 years after Melissa's death, her husband had finally been arrested.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: As with the witness testimony, police did not disclose specific
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: details about the evidence they discovered during the renewed investigation.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: Some sources suggest that modern analysis tools may have uncovered
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: DNA traces or other substantial evidence confirming Christopher's involvement in
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: the murder. The reason detectives are withholding details is fairly standard.
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: The more information is available before the trial... the greater
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: the chances that the defense can use it to their
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: advantage and find ways to challenge the evidence. Currently, Christopher
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: is in jail awaiting trial, and a preliminary hearing where
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: he will plead either guilty or not guilty has yet
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: to take place. Melissa's relatives have little doubt that he
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: will evade justice, and neither do the investigators. It seems
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: they have indeed uncovered serious evidence that will be extremely
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: difficult to dispute. At this moment, the case is drawing
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: closer to its conclusion. Though it has taken nearly 26 years,
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: Melissa's story has spread across the country as its details
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: are truly astonishing. Initially, police were able to confirm that
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: the victim was no longer alive only because her father
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: had been arrested for five murders and asked investigators for help. Then,
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: the podcast played a crucial role in attracting the witness
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: whose testimony led to the reopening of the investigation. and
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: ultimately Christopher's arrest. As for Melissa's children, they also believe
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: in their father's guilt and hope that justice will prevail soon.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: Besides waiting for a guilty verdict, they want to learn
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: the full truth and Christopher's motives, but that will only
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: be possible if he confesses. Share your thoughts on this
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: story in the comments section, and don't forget to press
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: the like button if you enjoyed my video.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 2: Thank you for watching.