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True Crime Documentary - The Murder of Jeralee Underwood · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You with the tongue out.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: You gotta say your name, Garlie what.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Generally nothing underwood right.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Charlie was born January ninth, nineteen eighty two. She is
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: the second child to us, and she came five weeks early.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: I wonder sometimes if she maybe knew her time here
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: would be short, and so she was anxious to get here.
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: Jarlie was always happy and always had a small on
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: her face. The last time I saw Jerily was at
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: the evening meal. I probably told her I love her
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: and that I see her in a little bit.
• 1:17
  Speaker 6: And that's last time.
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: We saw her. Joyce and I were outside doing stuff.
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: Somebody had tried to get ahold of us. She saw
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: Jarily get in a car. We immediately called the police.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: We dispatched a patrol officer. We realized that we were
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: ideally with an abduction.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: At least two witnesses say they saw man jump out
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: of the car, grabbed Jerily, shut her back in the car,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and took off.
• 1:50
  Speaker 7: As time went on, the hours and days went on,
• 1:52
  Speaker 7: and we became more concerned that this would be not
• 1:55
  Speaker 7: just an abduction, but probably a murderer.
• 2:00
  Speaker 8: The police never really told me they were looking for
• 2:03
  Speaker 8: a stranger.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: He saw how Jerly carried herself, how confident that Jarley was,
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: and he took that told stranger.
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: He used his handgun and shot her twice in the head,
• 2:19
  Speaker 7: which caused her to die almost instantly. He was a
• 2:23
  Speaker 7: sexual psychopath, a sadistic rapist, kind of murderer.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Jerley was very loving, love to take care of people
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: and be kind.
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: Took care of her siblings really well.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Always had a smile on her face.
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: I remember her doing that.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: It was summertime, so Charley was out of school. She
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: was eleven years old. Jerlie and her brother Jamen started
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: a newspaper route in September of ninety two. The route
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: was real close to our home, so her and her
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: brother could walk. We talked a lot about safety and
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: not talking to strangers, and we knew a lot of
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: the people in the neighborhood, a lot of their customers,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: we knew who they were.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: Earlier that day, we had a little bit of a rain,
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: but at five point thirty in the evening, it was clear,
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: sun was shining, nice and warm, just a beautiful day.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: She had an orthodonist appointment, and then after that appointment
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: came home and got ready to deliver their papers. They'd
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: roll them and then put an elastic band around them
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: put them in their newspaper bags. She expressed that she
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: wanted to take her bike. I had a flat tire,
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: so I went outside to fix her tire so that
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: she could take her bike. And when I came back
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: in to tell her as ready, she had already left
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: go deliver her papers. Our neighbor came over. We were
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: outside working in the garden and so she couldn't call us,
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: so she came over to our house and told us
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: that Gurley had gotten into a car with somebody.
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: Well, at first we thought that Gurley maybe had gotten
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: a ride home because there was another neighbor that would
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: give her a ride.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Since she wasn't home, we went looking for her, went
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: around trying to find out where she had been, which
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: houses she'd been to.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: When we found out that she had been pushed into
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: the car, that's when we become really really concerned that okay,
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: well if she got pushed in the car, then somebody's
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: taken her.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Immediately found the police.
• 5:15
  Speaker 7: We sent out two detectives to respond to the call.
• 5:18
  Speaker 7: Because it was called in not as my kid's missing,
• 5:21
  Speaker 7: it was we believe we've had an abduction of a
• 5:24
  Speaker 7: young girl. I was assigned as a lieutenant in the
• 5:29
  Speaker 7: detective Division. I was immediately very concerned. My heart sank.
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: It put me into panic mode, basically because I wondered,
• 5:37
  Speaker 7: if this is real, this doesn't sound good. We've got
• 5:41
  Speaker 7: in touch with the Chief of Police, Jim Denham, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 7: explained what was going on. We got a location where
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: Jury Lee was allegedly abducted from, which was on the
• 5:50
  Speaker 7: west side of town. That's a residential area.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: As a parent, I was always praying that I could
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: be guided and directed where I needed to go to
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: try to find Jery had no idea of what to do.
• 6:08
  Speaker 7: We had an elderly lady that lived on the corner
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: that had just paid Jerily for her newspaper subscription, and
• 6:15
  Speaker 7: as she moved about the inside of her house, she
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: had to look out the window to the side of
• 6:19
  Speaker 7: her home. She observed the mail from the car suddenly
• 6:24
  Speaker 7: grabbed Gerily and forced her into the driver's side of
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: the car to the passenger side that he then quickly
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: jumped in the car and sped from the area.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: The detectives obtained the description of the vehicle and a
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: partial description of the individual, white male, approximately five seven
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: to five foot eight, wearing a plaid shirt and a cap.
• 6:52
  Speaker 7: The detective phoned the information into dispatch, and that's what
• 6:55
  Speaker 7: we put out to the patrol units and immediately dispatched
• 6:59
  Speaker 7: it to air units. We got a description from the
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: parents of what she was wearing, and that she had
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: her newspaper bag, a canvas newspaper bag that fits over
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: the shoulders, and a little bag that she carried her
• 7:13
  Speaker 7: money in.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Jeff went looking for her. I stayed at home. I
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: expected her to just come around the corner anytime and say, Hey, Mom,
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: what tip I got? Look how much tip I got today,
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: or whatever. I just kind of stood out the front window,
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: just kind of waiting or waiting for a phone call,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: hoping that she'd be home quickly.
• 7:38
  Speaker 8: I was at a boy scout camp and I was
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: contacted by one of my counselors.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: I was horrified.
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: I knew the Underwood, I knew Jeri Lee, and my
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: first thoughts were, what can we do to help. We
• 7:54
  Speaker 8: knew that the sooner that we could get the word out,
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: the better.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Everyone on that department was looking at every corner we
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: could find, trying to find a car, trying to find
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: anything that looked unusual, anybody or a car that was
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: out of place. I mean, there were eighty sets of
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: eyes looking ever at work.
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: A few hours later, we ended up getting a modified
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: description from another witnessed. This gentleman was pretty sure it
• 8:21
  Speaker 7: was a General Motors product, five or ten years old,
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: medium sized sedan with a darker roof and a yellowish
• 8:29
  Speaker 7: or light beige or cream colored body. And a typical
• 8:34
  Speaker 7: abduction if it's a young girl that's involved. Usually the
• 8:38
  Speaker 7: perpetrator they're thinking something devious involving the young lady, and
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: usually they want to go somewhere fairly close but remote
• 8:46
  Speaker 7: to do any kind of a sexual attack or anything
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: like that. We covered those areas outside of town ten
• 8:54
  Speaker 7: miles south east and west of Pocatello to see if
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: we could find anything. We didn't see any vehicles anywhere
• 9:03
  Speaker 7: near close to matching that description that we could stop
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: and investigate further. We had no luck.
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: That first night was just so hard.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: Joyce and I held each other, cried tears in her eyes.
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: It was just really really hard.
• 9:28
  Speaker 7: We worked through the night strategizing and try to come
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: up with a game plan of what we're going to
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: do and how we're going to find her as quickly
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: as we could. Time was of the essence.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: The decision to assign the investigation to Scott Shaw was
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: made by myself, Captain Lenn Harris, said Lieutenant Kirk Nelson.
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: The Department had sent him to a number of specialized
• 9:53
  Speaker 7: training schools dealing with violent crimes and he took a
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: great interest in that, so it was decided that he
• 9:59
  Speaker 7: was to be the lead on this.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Over the years, we've learned that, unfortunately, one of the
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: first things you always look at is family.
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: Statistically, nationwide abductions, in this manner, the perpetrator knows the victim,
• 10:15
  Speaker 7: and you always want to look closely at the family
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: dynamic and see if anything sticks out there that we
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: need to pay additional attention to.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: That was really disheartening to think that, you know that
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: we would be the ones that would try and hurt
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: her or do something to her. It's not a pleasant experience.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: How are they? How?
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: May I think?
• 10:42
  Speaker 8: Have a wonderful happy bandna.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Everybody knew that Jeff and Joyce Underwood were very very
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: involved in their church. Members of their church begin to
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: appear from nowhere to assist them. Becomes fairly obvious that
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: they're pretty well respected. We kept looking. We interviewed neighbors,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: We interviewed everybody we could find that knew anything about
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: the family, what the relationship was, and that decision was
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: made that the family was not involved.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: The police had to rule out that she didn't have
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: a boyfriend, or that she hadn't run away from home
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: because of trouble here at home. Charlie didn't have a boyfriend.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: She was eleven years old. You know, not many eleven
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: year olds have boyfriends, So that was not even a possibility.
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: Okay, okay, probably the most important of.
• 11:54
  Speaker 7: Everything that you're gonna be when you get older. She
• 12:00
  Speaker 7: had no grief with the family, no discipline issues, had
• 12:04
  Speaker 7: done well in the school year, She was excited about
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: going on the family picnic and that they were going
• 12:09
  Speaker 7: to go on that weekend. There were just nothing that
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: led us to believe that it was anything other than
• 12:13
  Speaker 7: it probably a stranger abduction for an extended acquaintance.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: They were really looking for a needle in a haystack,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: particularly with a child. Every single minute that passes, the
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: odds of the police safely finding them go down, so
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: within a few hours they could be local or still
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: within the state. Within a day, they could be anywhere
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: within the country, and within two or three days they
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: could be anywhere in the world. So it makes searching
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: for that young person that much harder.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: We thought, oh, she'll be back. Whoever took her, we'll
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: let her go and let her come back home. We
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: still had hope that she would come back home.
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: Okay, that's the ruly old.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Woa fine, Okay.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: I always wanted a large family so that when we
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: went places, we could, you know, always have somebody to
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: be with. There wasn't somebody left out. So I wanted
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: even number of children. So that's why we had six children.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Jeff wanted twelve, and six was enough. She was so little.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: I couldn't believe.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: What was it? Four pounds nine four pounds twelve ounces?
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: You know? Well, the fellas are The day we brought
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: her home.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: Jarley was born five weeks early and so ended up
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: spending nine days or ten days in the hospital.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: Because she came early. She was very small, but she
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: caught up really quick. When she was probably three and
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: her brother was.
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: Four, Jery really loved to dance. She developed a tone
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: of the clogging.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: She loved to read and just loved being outdoors and
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: very active and just being with her friends.
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: She was never could stay mad for very long, always
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: had a great smile. Every picture you see there was
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: a big smile on her face. We've always had a
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: strong belief in God, and we've taught our children that,
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: you know, we always continue to being an example to
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: them of the importance of having faith.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: On the thirtieth, we as a department, including the investigators,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: all felt that we were still looking for a live
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: victim that generally was still alive.
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: At the beginning of this investigation.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: The biggest thing that Scott Shaw was wanting to push
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: was media attention, because he felt with enough media attention
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: on this situation that somebody would come forward.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Media plays a critical role in getting the word out
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and being an amplifier for what police are doing with
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the family of the missing person is doing, and if
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the media is not sufficiently covering a case, it actually
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: has a lower likelihood of being successfully resolved. Where that
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: child is found and found safely.
• 16:29
  Speaker 7: Within just about a day, we had as many of
• 16:32
  Speaker 7: our people going door to door, particularly on the newspaper
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: route that you really had and other neighboring newspaper routes
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: to see if there had been any potential witnesses or
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: sightings of suspicious persons or the vehicle.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: City of Pocatello has at that time, roughly speaking, eighty
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: trained police personnel that were available to do searches. We
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: needed three times that many, so we took advantage of
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: what was offered to by the community.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: The police organized a search. Just a lot of people
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: got involved. People met at the church and then we're
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: given assignments of where to go look.
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: When we gathered at the church house, Shaw looked over
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: the parking lot of the vehicles of people that showed
• 17:20
  Speaker 7: up in the event that our suspect may show up
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: with the suspect vehicle.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: This is something that a lot of narcissistic killers loved
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to see when they show up at a scene, whether
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: it's a funeral a search party, and they're thinking, all
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: of these people are here because of me, and they
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: feel a sense of pride for them. Seeing newspaper reports
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: people coming out and they think in their minds it's
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: because of their work.
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: We looked the people over very closely that were helping
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: us with the search, and we didn't really see anybody
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: that matched the description or profile, and we didn't see
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: any vehicles that matched closely.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: We received information from the Federal Year of Investigation stating,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: this is the individual that you're probably looking for.
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: The FBI believed that he would plan his steps and
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: his moves, and he was an organized offender.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: As it turned out, Sergeant Shaw did not agree with that.
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: Shaw believed that the fact that it was in the
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: middle of the afternoon, broad daylight, busy street people out
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: in their yards, and so forth, it was more likely
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: stranger abduction than someone that knew her. Both of our
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: witnesses observed geral Lee interacting with the man near the car,
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: indicated that she appeared to be comfortable, not on edge
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: or scared or anything like that. That was a little
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: confusing to us. Shawn was able to come up with
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: the hypothesis that maybe it was someone that she briefly
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: knew or had briefly met, that was why she appeared
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: so calm. At this point, we were looking more likely
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: towards us being a stranger and that somehow this individual
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: had tricked her into feeling like she wasn't in immediate
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: danger when he was talking to her.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: We came to the conclusion that this was a member
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: of our own community.
• 19:30
  Speaker 7: November of ninety two, on the opposite end of town,
• 19:33
  Speaker 7: we had a stranger abduction of a young lady middle
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: aged teen, where she was taken from a restaurant parking
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: lot by a stranger and was taken up into the
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: outskirts on the west side of town and sexually assaulted.
• 19:51
  Speaker 7: She was released and she got a good look at
• 19:54
  Speaker 7: the individual, and she gave us a good description that
• 19:57
  Speaker 7: allowed us to get what's called a kompya sketch what
• 20:00
  Speaker 7: the individual would look like. Charle began to see some
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: similarities and the possibility that this crime and the abduction
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: of jural Lee Underwood could possibly have been done by
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: the same individual.
• 20:12
  Speaker 9: All offenses are pre planned to some degree. They are
• 20:16
  Speaker 9: rehearsed in somebody's mind, they are fantasized about. But nevertheless,
• 20:22
  Speaker 9: somebody needs to have an opportunity to offend. They need
• 20:26
  Speaker 9: to have access to a victim, and they can either
• 20:29
  Speaker 9: plan to do this, so you can lure a victim
• 20:32
  Speaker 9: to you, or you can be very opportunistic and you
• 20:36
  Speaker 9: can see an opportunity such as a little girl on
• 20:40
  Speaker 9: a paper round and seize it and the people who
• 20:43
  Speaker 9: are more likely to do that are far more impulsive,
• 20:47
  Speaker 9: and also they are far more likely to be people
• 20:50
  Speaker 9: who have done it in the past.
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: It just so happened that about the third day after
• 21:03
  Speaker 7: the abduction, we got a call from an individual who
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: indicated that we needed to look more closely at someone
• 21:11
  Speaker 7: she knew. She indicated he was a relative he closely
• 21:16
  Speaker 7: matched the description. She also indicated that he looked quite
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: similar to the Kompia sketch image that we had obtained
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: from the young lady that had been abducted. She believed
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: that he drove a vehicle that closely matched the description
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: that we'd put out through the media and in the flyers.
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: That it was possible that he also had some friends
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: that he spent time with down on the South Main area,
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: in the same block that Jerilee had come up missing
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: from three days earlier. The relative of this man as
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: James or Jimmy Wood.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Three days in the disappearance of live a year old
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: early Underwood, an individual made a phone call and gave
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: the departments some information which we considered to be critical.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: An individual named James Wood. He was staying with relatives
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: at that point. He and this relative some time between
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: the third and the fifth day after Jeroli disappeared and
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: went on a camping trip.
• 22:24
  Speaker 7: She believed that the vehicle that we may be looking
• 22:27
  Speaker 7: for that was owned and driven by this individual would
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: have possibly been out on the property, which is in
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: a rural area several miles north of Poctello. We were
• 22:37
  Speaker 7: able to send a couple of people out and looked
• 22:40
  Speaker 7: over the property and they were able to find a
• 22:43
  Speaker 7: vehicle that closely matched the description that we were looking for.
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: We got a hold of our witness and showed it
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: to him and he indicated that look very close, but
• 22:54
  Speaker 7: he couldn't give us an exact definite Yes, this is
• 22:57
  Speaker 7: the vehicle. By that Monday, we were contacted at the
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: police station by the man who was a relative of
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: James and had been putting him up in his basement
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: for the previous eight months. Roughly came to the department
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: and indicated he wanted to report what information he had,
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: the fact that he was suspicious because James didn't come
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: home that night of the abduction, that he had shaved
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: his mustache, that he no longer wore any of the
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: clothing that he was wearing when he came back that
• 23:30
  Speaker 7: morning of the thirtieth of June. He also knew that
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: James owned a handgun. He knew that he was a
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: convicted felon had served time in prison.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: When this information was received, it was determined that it
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: was credible from the standpoint of there were specifics involved,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: came extremely close to matching the profile that Sergeant Shaw
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: had developed. He became our primary suspect.
• 24:02
  Speaker 7: We were trying to determine more accurately who he was
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: and what his past involved, to see if he had
• 24:08
  Speaker 7: any kind of possible alibi. We went out and did
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: some more interviews with the people that lived on the
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: route where jery Lee had been just moments before she
• 24:17
  Speaker 7: was adducted, and we learned that would have actually been
• 24:20
  Speaker 7: at the house at the time jeral Lee had come
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: to collect for the newspaper. He left the home almost
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: immediately after jery Lee walked out of the house and
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: had indicated he was going to the store to buy
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: beer and that he would be back shortly, and that
• 24:37
  Speaker 7: he never came back.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: On July sixth, James Wood was arrested by the book
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: to tell the police department when we knocked on the door.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: We advised him that we had a warrant for his
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: arrest for first degree kidnapping and to turn around to
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: place his hands behind his back, which was has it
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: to do, which means I placed him on the ground
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: and we hand cafty and removed him from residency.
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: Now there was a degree of psychology involved in the arrest.
• 25:11
  Speaker 7: Shaw suggested that we have a number of personnel there
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: that would look him in the eye and file past
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: him as he was sitting in the police car handcuff.
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: It was carefully staged.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Shaw wanted to use the psychology to the community, this
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: very tight knit community against him and show that there
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: were so many people that were disappointed and so upset
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: at what James had done that one of the only
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: ways he could find redemption was by telling the truth
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and letting the community know what really happened so they
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: could find some peace.
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: Once he got into the police station, Chaw took what
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: into his office and closed the door. He didn't want
• 25:51
  Speaker 7: any other personnel in there with him as a distraction.
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: We just didn't know at the time where garri Lee was,
• 25:57
  Speaker 7: and he needed to establish a connection with would to
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: convince him to tell us what had happened with her.
• 26:03
  Speaker 7: Where he'd taken her. He told Shaw that he had
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: driven her down towards the Utah Idaho border after abducting her,
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: and they had slept the night in the car. He'd
• 26:20
  Speaker 7: attempted to sexually assault her, but nearly chastising for that,
• 26:26
  Speaker 7: told him to knock it off, and so he claimed
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: he did. After they slept the night in the car,
• 26:31
  Speaker 7: he led her out outside of the town. We didn't
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: believe that, so Shaw kept working on him, and within
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: an hour or two Would finally said, there's more to
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: the story. I lied to you. He'd driven back through
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: Pocatello and decided to take her to Idaho Falls, about
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: forty miles north of Pocatello.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Eventually described to Sergeant Shaw how he had told Jurlie
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: she could go some bushes to go to the bathroom,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: and he walked up and shot her at the back
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: of the head. Would dismembered her and threw the remains
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: into the Snake River.
• 27:28
  Speaker 9: James would confessed, and he didn't need to confess at
• 27:32
  Speaker 9: that time because there was very little evidence at that
• 27:36
  Speaker 9: point in the inquiry to link him.
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: But yet he told them everything.
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: And I think that offenders do this because sometimes it's
• 27:45
  Speaker 9: a relief it feels like an unburdening, but for other
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: people it's about bragging about what they've done, or even
• 27:53
  Speaker 9: it's about reliving what they've done.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: Pretty much as soon as they opened the door, I
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: knew what the news was. That person in custody had
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: admitted to killing Jerley, that she was no longer with us.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: It was very hard to hear that our daughter had
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: been killed.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: I just remember Joyce and I just the tears rolling
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: down our face and all that we would never see
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: Jarley again, that she would not be here with us
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: in this life anymore. M.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: We were grateful to know that, you know, I have
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: finally have an answer and know what had happened, instead
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: of wondering all our lives where she was or if
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: she was still alive, because I cannot even imagine not knowing.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: As hard as it was to know that she was killed,
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: the not knowing would have been so much harder.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: Tears and the sobs from our children when we brought
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: them here in this room and told them that they
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: would never see their sister again because her life had
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: been taken by James Wood.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: We felt that it was necessary for them to understand
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: the total of what happened to their daughter, and we did,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: in fact go back to them and tell them that
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: she had been shot, and that she'd been dismembered, and
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: that the body had been thrown in the river, and
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: that we were going to do or darnedest to get
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: her back. We're at the north end of Idaho Falls,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: on the west bank of Snake River, where James Wood
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: brought Gerale Underwood. Once we learned this was the scene
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: of the murder, we notified the Sheriff's office in the
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Idaho Falls Police Department because it then became their crime scene,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: and they brought in a dive team with the intention
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: of trying to recover her remains in any evidence. He
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: showed us where he had killed her. When he showed
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: us where he had cut her up with a hatchet
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: and a knife, we're able to see what appeared to
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: be remnants of blood in the tamp down grass.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of reasons why offenders will sometimes bring
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: police to the scene of a crime when it was
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: otherwise not known, and in this case, it could be
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: that this was one of the last chances he would
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: ever have to relive the crime he committed.
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: This is like a vacation.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: For us, we love to look at photo albums and
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: think about it again, go through our cell phone pictures
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: and relive happy times. And in the mind of James Wood,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: going back to the crime scene, even though it was
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: horrific for him, it was a happy moment. He received
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of pleasure out of it. And so while
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: he was able to get something out of it, obviously
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the police gained a lot more.
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: Some of her remains were not located until close to
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: a week later, a couple of miles downstream. Some city
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: workers located for Torso near a power plant.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: Because of circumstances of Jarley's murder, we weren't able to
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: view her after her death, and that was very difficult,
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: and I wondered many times, Okay, was that really her?
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: How do you know it was her? They had dental
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: records that were able to identify her, and so there's
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: no question. But it still was hard not seeing her,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: to know in my heart that that really was her.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: Maybe more because as her mother, I wanted a different outcome.
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: Now.
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: I wanted her to come home. I wanted her to
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: be with me, So it was hard to ex.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I can tell you that in forty eight years of
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: law enforcement, I have never seen another case of a
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: absolute stranger abduction and murder as the one of Jerlei Underwood.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: When we interviewed people who were potential witnesses, we got
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: two sides of James Wood. One that we trade him
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: like a relative and the other one he's kind of
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: the leech. These are notes to myself. This was details
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: of other crimes that had been committed that mister Wood
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: would admit to, everything from first degree murder, a kidnapping,
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: tons of rape, two counts of crimes against nature, one
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: of the aggravated assault, two counts robbery, one of a
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: tempted robbery.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: James Wood had a long history of other types of
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: interpersonal and violent offenses. These were escalating gradually but really
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: hit a crescendo rape before he committed the abduction and
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: murder of Jerily Underwood. This is something that was not
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: initially known, but through this investigation police found out that
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: he was responsible for these other types of offenses that
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: were so similar to what he had done to Jerilee.
• 34:41
  Speaker 7: As far back as the late nineteen sixties, he had
• 34:46
  Speaker 7: befriended a couple of ladies that he thought had cheated
• 34:49
  Speaker 7: him or caused his car to be stolen, and he
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: ended up cutting their throats and then raping one of
• 34:55
  Speaker 7: the women, thinking he had killed them both, but they
• 34:57
  Speaker 7: both survived, and later on in the seventies he admitted
• 35:03
  Speaker 7: he approached a woman that was gassing her car up
• 35:05
  Speaker 7: near a grocery store, grabbed her, stuck a gun in
• 35:09
  Speaker 7: her ribs, sexually assaulted her, and shot her in the head,
• 35:12
  Speaker 7: matter of factly leaving her for dad, but she ended
• 35:16
  Speaker 7: up surviving. In early fall of nineteen ninety two, he
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: had molested his fourteen or fifteen year old stepdaughter with
• 35:27
  Speaker 7: his second wife and raped her. He was afraid after
• 35:32
  Speaker 7: doing this because it was probably an impulsi BacT, because
• 35:35
  Speaker 7: that's the kind of person he was, and that the
• 35:37
  Speaker 7: law would be looking for him, so he stole his
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: wife's credit card and one of her handguns, which ended
• 35:43
  Speaker 7: up being we believe the same handgun that he used
• 35:46
  Speaker 7: to threaten our other rape victim and to kill Jurili.
• 35:56
  Speaker 9: I think that violence towards women had become such an
• 36:00
  Speaker 9: ingrained pattern in James Wood, so he knew that he
• 36:05
  Speaker 9: would never be safe around women. He gave an interview
• 36:09
  Speaker 9: and he said, if you let me out of prison,
• 36:11
  Speaker 9: I will kill again. It's a guarantee. He knew that
• 36:15
  Speaker 9: he had this very very strong compulsion that he didn't
• 36:19
  Speaker 9: have the willpower to fight, and the number of offenses
• 36:22
  Speaker 9: that he's committed are huge. This is a part of
• 36:27
  Speaker 9: his life now, a part of his life that he
• 36:29
  Speaker 9: can't imagine living without.
• 36:43
  Speaker 8: Jeral Lee's funeral was a very spiritual experience. As I
• 36:49
  Speaker 8: walked into the chapel that day, it was completely.
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: For Kurt Howard. The comments that he made, This amazing
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: at how many people were there brought us a lot
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: of comfort.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: The name geral Lee has been a byword, a rallying word,
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: a word, a name that has stirred emotions within the
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Hall of Us. And today we come to reverence or name,
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: we express our love in respect for her one more time.
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: Many of us from the Department, we wanted to attend
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: the service to show support to the Underwoods and express
• 37:45
  Speaker 7: our grief and condolences to them for what they'd had
• 37:48
  Speaker 7: to undergo. It was tough on the whole department. We
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: all needed some closure, the details of what had happened,
• 37:54
  Speaker 7: and then the details of other things he had done
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: earlier in his life that were similarly, Hana, it kind
• 38:02
  Speaker 7: of sticks with you and we all needed some closure
• 38:04
  Speaker 7: and that service helped helped me at least.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: This past week, we've seen a mom and a dad.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: They have taught us so much about love, compassion, understanding,
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: and forgiving.
• 38:32
  Speaker 7: Would negotiate it through his attorney a plea agreement where
• 38:36
  Speaker 7: he would plead to the abduction, rape, and murder of
• 38:40
  Speaker 7: Durally the other charges at the court agreed to dismiss
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: them without prejudice, which meant they could at a later
• 38:48
  Speaker 7: time file those charges, but there was an agreement that
• 38:52
  Speaker 7: they would not do so if he pled to those
• 38:55
  Speaker 7: charges related to geral Lee Underwood.
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: We didn't go to the initial hearings. They encouraged us
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: not to just because of all the graphic things that
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: would be brought up, and felt it that was really
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: be hard for us to hear.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: At the end, he was sentenced to the death penalty
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: and the state of idoh.
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: When we do something wrong, we need to pay for that.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: There needs to be restitution made. I don't know in
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: this case, I mean, nothing can bring Jarley back.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: I felt like a death sentence was appropriate since he
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: murdered our daughter. I didn't know if it ever really happened,
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: because it seems like that the system it takes a
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: long time for that to be carried out. But I
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: knew that once he died that he would receive his
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: just reward.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: The judged sentenced would to be put to death by
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: lethal injection. Since that time he had been in the
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: penitentiary in two thousand and four diet of natural causes.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: And my understanding is it was a hard today.
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: He wasn't an organized perpetrator at all. Almost all of
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: his crimes weren't really thought out or planned out in advance.
• 40:24
  Speaker 7: He was impulsive. He was compulsive, He made snap decisions,
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: and he was good enough at what he did that
• 40:29
  Speaker 7: he had more or less a false sense of confidence
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: that he could get away with it. Wouldn't know Jerry Lee,
• 40:36
  Speaker 7: prior to her coming to collect at the house of
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: the friend, that he was at that evening for dinner,
• 40:43
  Speaker 7: but that he took an interest in her, He conversed
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: with her a little bit, and he hatched this scheme
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: to assault her and then ultimately end her life violently.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: He is at the worst of the worst end of
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: the spectrum in terms of dangerousness. This is an and
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: that is both sadistic, impulsive, reckless, has low empathy for
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: others and very little remorse for the actions that he commits.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: He probably would have committed more offenses and just would
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: have kept on the commission of violence that he was
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: going on if he did not get stopped by police.
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: The area where Julie was taken is the path to
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: go anywhere into town, and so we passed that daily.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: Now I don't think about it near as much, but
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: sometimes I drive by it and I just would scream.
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: It was hard to pass by a first.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: Most of our memories of Darley is right here in
• 41:47
  Speaker 5: our home. Oncen't a while, we'll go over to the
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: cemetery because there's a nice head stolen on her grave.
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: There's a plaque in front of the church by a
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: tree that was planted in her memory. She just was
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: just soulful energy and just wanted to accomplish so much.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: Good. Charley's faith was very important to her, always teaching
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: other people about Christ and how to forgive and to
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: be kind, to be honest. No, I can't stop crying.
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: I'd just like to say to Jerley, I love you
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: and I miss you. M M h.