Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Killers Amongst Us: Gorgeous Queens jogger Karina Vetrano murdered the one day dad stays behind. (Part 1)

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Killers Amongst Us: Gorgeous Queens jogger Karina Vetrano murdered the one day dad stays behind. (Part 1) · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to Nancy Grace. Killers amongst Us, a production of
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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia and Crime Online. Each and every month, we investigate
0:14
Speaker 1: the mystery surrounding a different homicide. Family members, investigators, reporters,
0:21
Speaker 1: and experts join us to unravel the mysteries, examine the
0:27
Speaker 1: clues left behind, and nail the bad guys. We will
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Speaker 1: not turn criminals and killers into celebrities, but we will
0:38
Speaker 1: tell the stories of crime victims so they are never forgotten.
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Speaker 1: Every day, a gorgeous young girl, Karinavatronto laces up her
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Speaker 1: running shoes, grabs her cell phone and earbuds, and heads
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Speaker 1: to her favorite jocking path, one she knows by heart. Typically,
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Speaker 1: her firefighter dad filled the try we'll go with her,
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Speaker 1: But this day, of all others, he doesn't join her,
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Speaker 1: and this day of all days, Karina Vatrano never comes home. Today,
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Speaker 1: firefighter dad Phil Vatrano is with us, describing heart breaking
1:21
Speaker 1: insight into his premonition that something is horribly wrong. Almost
1:29
Speaker 1: as soon as his beautiful daughter Karina steps out the door.
1:34
Speaker 1: He describes his efforts to find Karina and retrace her steps.
1:40
Speaker 1: Also with US, Newsday reporter Tony DeStefano on the case
1:45
Speaker 1: from the very beginning. But let's start with one simple
1:52
Speaker 1: question from Karina to her dad, Phil, Daddy, you want
1:59
Speaker 1: to go for a run. And I asked her, are
2:02
Speaker 1: you going to go in there, meaning in Louise where
2:06
Speaker 1: we had just won the Saturday Flow Saturday before Tuesday?
2:11
Speaker 1: And she said yes. And I said, I don't think
2:14
Speaker 1: it's a good idea range and she said, don't worry, daddy,
2:18
Speaker 1: I'll be okay. Nancy Grace Killers amongst us, thirty year
2:27
Speaker 1: old Corina the Toronto went out for a jog around
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Speaker 1: five o'clock Tuesday and never came home. Concerned, her father
2:34
Speaker 1: called police and went out looking for her on a
2:36
Speaker 1: path they often ran together. I imagine his answer, the
2:39
Speaker 1: appoint Corina the Toronto. That's what it's all about, Corina
2:46
Speaker 1: the Toronto. If you could see her face right now,
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Speaker 1: like I'm saying, absolutely perfect. Have you ever seen one
2:57
Speaker 1: of those people that they don't even look yo. I
3:01
Speaker 1: remember I was rushing from Court TV, which was on
3:05
Speaker 1: the east side, to CNN HILLN, which was on the
3:09
Speaker 1: west side of New York, and I saw a mob
3:11
Speaker 1: of people. Traffic was slowed, so I looked over to
3:14
Speaker 1: see what they were doing. Uma Thurmond was there and
3:19
Speaker 1: I looked at her. She didn't even look real. She's
3:24
Speaker 1: so beautiful. She looked like an angel on earth. She
3:28
Speaker 1: didn't even look like a human. When I look at
3:31
Speaker 1: Karna Vatronto, that's how she looks. Perfect. The skin, perfect,
3:36
Speaker 1: the eyes, the lips, the hair, the everything. But Carina
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Speaker 1: not only beautiful on the outside, but beautiful on the
3:46
Speaker 1: inside too. The day Carina Vatronto goes jogging is a
3:54
Speaker 1: day that lives forever in the mind of her dad,
3:58
Speaker 1: Phil with me now Phil Vatronto, Corina's dad and Newsday
4:06
Speaker 1: reporter Tony DeStefano. When I first read the story, all
4:13
Speaker 1: I could think about was my dad, Mac, who I
4:18
Speaker 1: miss every single day. We exercise together. He had a
4:22
Speaker 1: corneer thrombosis when he was like in his thirties and
4:25
Speaker 1: started a regimen of diet and exercise. I would run
4:31
Speaker 1: and he would fast walk beside me. Always. Every time
4:35
Speaker 1: we were together on vacations with my mom and dad
4:39
Speaker 1: at home, always would exercise together, and it just struck me.
4:44
Speaker 1: I had to meet Phil Vatronto, and I finally did.
4:49
Speaker 1: Phil and Tony, thank you for being with us. I'm
4:52
Speaker 1: wanna start with you, Phil, tell me about how you
4:56
Speaker 1: would go exercising with Corina every day. Well, it started
5:01
Speaker 1: when she was in high school that you know. She
5:04
Speaker 1: joined the track team, the Archbisher Malloy track team, which
5:07
Speaker 1: I was on thirty years earlier, and we would train together.
5:13
Speaker 1: We would go to Vancoulton Park, we would go to tracks,
5:17
Speaker 1: we would run in the neighborhood and whenever we could,
5:21
Speaker 1: we ran together. We trained together and she would slow
5:24
Speaker 1: down to keep up with me because I'm older and
5:28
Speaker 1: she was a lot faster. But we both, you know,
5:32
Speaker 1: enjoyed that and we ran together whenever we could. And
5:36
Speaker 1: we were actually training at that point to run in
5:41
Speaker 1: the Cuba Marathon. That's what we were training for at
5:44
Speaker 1: that point in time. Wow, Cuba. You were going to Cuba, Yes,
5:47
Speaker 1: and run. I didn't even know Cuba had a marathon.
5:50
Speaker 1: I run, but not at that level. They did it
5:54
Speaker 1: that year. Wow, So you were training that year to
5:57
Speaker 1: go run a marathon with her in Cuba. Yes, Okay,
6:02
Speaker 1: this is something I've never asked you, and I've asked
6:04
Speaker 1: you a lot of questions feel on and off the air.
6:07
Speaker 1: You've never told me about Karina as a little girl. Well,
6:11
Speaker 1: and she was always special. She was always inquisitive. Like Karina,
6:17
Speaker 1: she didn't speak a word till she was two years old,
6:20
Speaker 1: but she always took everything in. And when she started
6:25
Speaker 1: to talk, when she started to speak, she spoke in paragraphs.
6:28
Speaker 1: It wasn't like mommy day, I knew you were going
6:31
Speaker 1: to say that. I thought you were gonna say she
6:32
Speaker 1: spoke in full sense. I'm powagraphs right off the bat.
6:38
Speaker 1: So she was always taking it in. And we all
6:42
Speaker 1: know she was brilliant. She got a master degree and
6:46
Speaker 1: she was a phenomenal writer. But as a little girl,
6:52
Speaker 1: she was fearless. She always wanted to explore, to discover,
6:59
Speaker 1: to she to cheek out new things. Always was very inquisitive,
7:06
Speaker 1: and she the biggest thing about Karina was that she
7:11
Speaker 1: was a writer. And she describes herself as being a writer.
7:16
Speaker 1: And she describes herself as a writer not by choice.
7:22
Speaker 1: She was born to write and she wrote many, many, many,
7:26
Speaker 1: you know, short stories. She had a blog. But as
7:30
Speaker 1: a little girl, you know, she was always special, always special.
7:34
Speaker 1: Now something everything you say just struck me. But when
7:37
Speaker 1: you said she was fearless, what did you mean by that? Well,
7:40
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that got her in trouble.
7:43
Speaker 1: She took after her father. She would never think twice
7:48
Speaker 1: about doing anything. She traveled the world. When when she
7:55
Speaker 1: was in high school, trying to tell you a little story,
8:01
Speaker 1: we met this couple came over my house. They were
8:03
Speaker 1: from Amsterdam, and I was selling a piece of skin
8:07
Speaker 1: dyeting equipment. And they came from Amsterdam and then sitting
8:11
Speaker 1: in my backyard, and Karina was probably fifteen, she was
8:16
Speaker 1: still in high school, and of course, and they said, well,
8:20
Speaker 1: if you ever want to come over, wanting to come
8:22
Speaker 1: to Amsterdam, you could stay with us, you know. Two
8:25
Speaker 1: weeks later, Karna was on an airplane going to spend
8:28
Speaker 1: two weeks with a couple that we don't even know.
8:31
Speaker 1: We didn't we didn't know them, We just met them.
8:34
Speaker 1: And she stayed on a four hundred foot decommissioned destroyer.
8:41
Speaker 1: That's where he lived. He happened to be found. We
8:44
Speaker 1: found out he was very wealthy. But she didn't think
8:47
Speaker 1: twice about doing anything. I got a call from her
8:50
Speaker 1: one day and I hear with this wind in the background,
8:54
Speaker 1: and I said, kareated, where are you And she says,
9:00
Speaker 1: she says, I'm want a camel by the pyramids. So
9:05
Speaker 1: she was afraid of nothing. Nothing. Okay, I've got to
9:08
Speaker 1: tell you a story, Phil, and then I'm going to
9:10
Speaker 1: get back to what we're supposed to be talking about.
9:12
Speaker 1: Behold on. You know, I tell Phil the Toronto about
9:15
Speaker 1: my children all the time. I took them to Scout
9:19
Speaker 1: Camp and they've never been to sleep away because of me, Phil,
9:22
Speaker 1: Because when I hear sleepaway camp, I immediately think murdering molestation. Right,
9:27
Speaker 1: So I go and train and forced my husband to
9:30
Speaker 1: take a week off and we go in the rough
9:35
Speaker 1: and camp out for a week as volunteers at Scout Camp.
9:39
Speaker 1: My daughter got up. You know, she's very shy. Unlike
9:44
Speaker 1: her brother. He was doing his things. She was doing horseback, Phil.
9:49
Speaker 1: She got up on a horse. Of course, I was
9:51
Speaker 1: trailing at a discreet difference. The horses got into a
9:55
Speaker 1: fight in a creek with my little girl up on
9:59
Speaker 1: top of this huge horse. Can I tell you, I
10:02
Speaker 1: don't know what she did. She got that horse calmed
10:05
Speaker 1: down and on its way in about thirty seconds. When
10:09
Speaker 1: we finally made it down off that mountain, I prayed
10:12
Speaker 1: to God, thank you Lord for her not falling down
10:14
Speaker 1: the mountain, And I said, Lucy how did you do that?
10:18
Speaker 1: She said, I don't know, mom, because I don't remember
10:20
Speaker 1: riding a horse before. And I said, well, you've ridden
10:23
Speaker 1: a camel, and I've got a picture to prove it.
10:25
Speaker 1: I know that's not PC Tony DeStefano, reporter, Newsday, but
10:31
Speaker 1: she has ridden a camel, and we need to say.
10:33
Speaker 1: That made me think. See, okay, we could talk forever
10:36
Speaker 1: about our daughters. Okay, Anna, my son. I want to
10:40
Speaker 1: talk to you about the day Carina decides to go jogging,
10:47
Speaker 1: but you didn't go with her. It was all a
10:51
Speaker 1: lot of happened stinch, you know, things that normally didn't occur,
10:58
Speaker 1: well happening that day, you know, but but little things
11:00
Speaker 1: that you didn't notice. You really didn't pay any attention
11:03
Speaker 1: to it. Like Karina would call pool with one of
11:07
Speaker 1: her girlfriends and they would drive to the train station
11:12
Speaker 1: and take the train to the city. And that day
11:15
Speaker 1: it was her girlfriend's day to drive, so Karina didn't
11:18
Speaker 1: have her car. So her girlfriend got a call from
11:22
Speaker 1: home and she left work early, so Karina didn't have
11:25
Speaker 1: a ride home from the train station. That's the first thing.
11:28
Speaker 1: And she called me up and she says, Daddy, I
11:32
Speaker 1: don't a ride from the train station. You think you
11:34
Speaker 1: could pick me up? And I said, I don't know.
11:37
Speaker 1: I don't know. Range you know, I was picking her
11:40
Speaker 1: mother up, my wife Kathy at the hospital that day
11:44
Speaker 1: because she just had abdominal cancer related surgery, and I said,
11:49
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'll be home in time. So
11:51
Speaker 1: we were texting back and forth all day, and I
11:54
Speaker 1: finally got Kathy home around two o'clock and I told Karina, yes,
11:58
Speaker 1: I can pick you up at the train station. So
12:01
Speaker 1: that was one thing that happened. And then she asked
12:06
Speaker 1: me what's for dinner tonight. I said, well, we're gonna
12:09
Speaker 1: have steak. I'm making steaks. She says, I don't want steak.
12:12
Speaker 1: Can we stop at at a pizza place and I'm
12:15
Speaker 1: gonna get a slash of pizza? And I said sure, fine.
12:18
Speaker 1: So we get home and she goes up in her room.
12:21
Speaker 1: She eats a half a slice of pizza, and she
12:24
Speaker 1: comes right back down and she says, I'm going for
12:26
Speaker 1: a run. Now, that's not normal that you're gonna have
12:30
Speaker 1: something to eat and you're automatically going to go for
12:33
Speaker 1: a run. But she decided to go for a run.
12:37
Speaker 1: She said, Daddy, you want to go. And the day
12:40
Speaker 1: before I had pinched my back. It was a little
12:44
Speaker 1: bit out, so I said, you know, my back hurts
12:46
Speaker 1: a little bit today. I said, I'm not gonna go.
12:48
Speaker 1: And I asked her, are you going to go in there,
12:52
Speaker 1: meaning in Deuise where we had just run the Saturday
12:56
Speaker 1: before Saturday before Tuesday? And she said yes. And I said,
13:01
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a good idea range and she said,
13:05
Speaker 1: don't worry, daddy, I'll be okay. So she comes down.
13:13
Speaker 1: It's about a quarter to six five forty and I
13:18
Speaker 1: sit down and I started having my dinner and I'm
13:22
Speaker 1: watching the news. And around six o'clock she's only gone
13:27
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes. I started to get this feeling of uneasiness,
13:35
Speaker 1: you know, but I ignored it. By a quarter after six,
13:39
Speaker 1: she was getting stronger. Six twenty seven, you know, I
13:45
Speaker 1: call offer and now she's only gone forty minutes. Six
13:49
Speaker 1: twenty eight. Okay, wait a minute, Wait a minute, Wait
13:50
Speaker 1: a minute. I want to go through what you're saying,
13:55
Speaker 1: because many people in the world say we're crazy. But
14:03
Speaker 1: Tony to Stephano is with me newsday reporter, and you've
14:07
Speaker 1: reported on everything. But Tony I have intentionally asked crime
14:14
Speaker 1: victimus families almost always, did you get a sense something
14:21
Speaker 1: was wrong? Did you feel any differently that day? And
14:28
Speaker 1: I was listening to feel talk about the little nuances,
14:32
Speaker 1: details of the day that at the time didn't mean anything.
14:36
Speaker 1: I can't tell you, Tony, how many times I've gone
14:39
Speaker 1: back over the day my fiance was murdered and remembered
14:42
Speaker 1: this detail and that detail, and what if this and
14:45
Speaker 1: what if that? Things that really didn't amount to a
14:49
Speaker 1: hill of beans, but maybe they did, Tony. Have you
14:54
Speaker 1: ever heard other crime victims state they had that sense
14:59
Speaker 1: of foreboding that feel is describing. I have, yes, And
15:04
Speaker 1: what particularly made of fils feeling very palpable was that
15:12
Speaker 1: it underscore for me the closeness that he had with
15:18
Speaker 1: Karna on so many levels. And you know people poo
15:23
Speaker 1: poo the psychic and poopoo the you know, the bonds
15:29
Speaker 1: that developed between parents and children and spouses and uh
15:38
Speaker 1: and you know, siblings. But this seemed to me to
15:42
Speaker 1: underscore that kind of attachment. When I heard that story,
15:47
Speaker 1: and I've heard a number of times, and he's also
15:50
Speaker 1: talked to me about it, but I've heard it from
15:52
Speaker 1: other other crime well, you know another thing, Tony to
15:58
Speaker 1: Stephano joining me Newsday report order Tony win feel described
16:04
Speaker 1: the weeds. Give me a visual about where Carina went jogging.
16:12
Speaker 1: I mean, the area is beautiful. Could you describe it
16:16
Speaker 1: for us? What does it look like? Yeah? I could's
16:19
Speaker 1: it used to be an old landfill, but it is
16:24
Speaker 1: a federal park at the stage, and it has these
16:29
Speaker 1: tall in the summertime certainly, and then the spring these
16:32
Speaker 1: tall are they call them frag mighty weeds, which are
16:36
Speaker 1: very tall weeds which can go up to eight to
16:40
Speaker 1: ten feet. And the hiking trails and the running trails
16:44
Speaker 1: the course through it, you know, surrounded by these tall
16:50
Speaker 1: weeds which give it like a fence almost around around
16:54
Speaker 1: your trails. It's all green. By the way, there are
16:57
Speaker 1: some trees sprinkled in the park and in the area
17:01
Speaker 1: Karina when jogging, there are some trees. Uh it borders
17:05
Speaker 1: adjacent uh wet lands. Uh so you know it abuts
17:11
Speaker 1: on the south side water and on the north and
17:16
Speaker 1: sort of west sides or the highway to what water?
17:22
Speaker 1: Oh that would be I think that's Jamaica Bay. Jamaica
17:27
Speaker 1: Bay and uh it borders uh Spring Creek Park on
17:33
Speaker 1: two sides. Basically, these are the south and sort of
17:36
Speaker 1: the southeastern side, and they're fishermen who occasionally, you know,
17:41
Speaker 1: work the area. Uh, and some homeless people too in
17:45
Speaker 1: some parts of let's let's you know, uh, let's give
17:48
Speaker 1: a complete picture. But it's it's uh, it's it's a
17:52
Speaker 1: nice place if you want a jog. It's not a
17:55
Speaker 1: bad place to jog. I can think of better places.
17:57
Speaker 1: The jarg well, I mean, it sounds it sounds beautiful
18:03
Speaker 1: and phil I've run and jogged my whole life. Well really,
18:08
Speaker 1: actually when I got out of law school, it's when
18:11
Speaker 1: I really got serious about it. Every day through inner
18:15
Speaker 1: city Atlanta, I don't know what I was thinking. And
18:18
Speaker 1: in New York, up and down the East River at night,
18:21
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was thinking. And you know
18:25
Speaker 1: a lot of people have attacked Karina for running in
18:29
Speaker 1: um tights and a midge of shirt, which is what
18:33
Speaker 1: I mean, That's what I would always run in and
18:36
Speaker 1: never thought anything about it. It sounds like a yeah, exactly, yeah,
18:45
Speaker 1: And I was just thinking about this area and everybody.
18:48
Speaker 1: It's on Long Island and on either side is an
18:53
Speaker 1: expanse of water. It's beautiful, It's absolutely beautiful imagining her
18:59
Speaker 1: jog along with those tall green You're saying weeds, but
19:04
Speaker 1: I think of things that look like a saw grass
19:07
Speaker 1: or a bamboo on either she's running through there. And
19:14
Speaker 1: and Phil, you said she left five thirty ish. Yeah,
19:20
Speaker 1: you sat down. So she had pizza and you had steak.
19:26
Speaker 1: All right. That was always a big deal when we
19:28
Speaker 1: would grill out steak when I was growing up, because
19:30
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't have any money and my mom
19:33
Speaker 1: would send me to the grocery store and say, go
19:36
Speaker 1: ask the meat guy for five steaks a quarter inch thick.
19:40
Speaker 1: Now at the time, I did not realize, you know,
19:43
Speaker 1: that was to save money. But I mean, it's like
19:45
Speaker 1: a piece of paper. But so you're eating, you're watching
19:48
Speaker 1: the news, and I want to explore what you just
19:51
Speaker 1: told me about that feeling that came over you. Well,
19:56
Speaker 1: you know, Koreean, the call that a happy place. She
20:01
Speaker 1: always she called her a happy place to me, tough friends.
20:04
Speaker 1: You know, she would she would love to be out
20:07
Speaker 1: in nature, and that's where she was and she was
20:10
Speaker 1: enjoying herself. And this feeling started to come upon me
20:17
Speaker 1: and I called her at six twenty seven, six twenty eight,
20:20
Speaker 1: six thirty. The feeling, what did it feel? I knew
20:25
Speaker 1: something was wrong, something was not right. I didn't know what.
20:30
Speaker 1: I didn't know if she got hurt. I didn't know
20:34
Speaker 1: if she got attacked or bitten by a dog. I
20:36
Speaker 1: didn't know what it was, but I knew something was wrong.
20:41
Speaker 1: So at six thirty I yell out a curse. And
20:44
Speaker 1: then my wife is upstairs in the bedroom recuperating, and
20:48
Speaker 1: she hears me yelled, and she said, what's the matter.
20:51
Speaker 1: And I said, Karina went out running and she's not
20:55
Speaker 1: answering her phone. Now, Kathy was not even aware that
20:57
Speaker 1: Karena was out. So I said, I'm going out, and
21:03
Speaker 1: I left the house just with my phone, a pair
21:06
Speaker 1: of shorts and a pair of boots and that's all
21:09
Speaker 1: I had on. And I started to walk the trail
21:13
Speaker 1: to from where we would start to where we would
21:16
Speaker 1: turn around, and constantly calling her name, Karina, Karina, Karina.
21:24
Speaker 1: Now I called her phone and I left a voicemail.
21:28
Speaker 1: I think it was came over it six forty around there,
21:33
Speaker 1: six forty one. And at that point when I got
21:36
Speaker 1: to the point where we would turn around and I
21:39
Speaker 1: couldn't find her, I didn't know what to do. So
21:43
Speaker 1: I called the house. I said, it's Kaarina home, and
21:47
Speaker 1: Kathy says no, I said, what should I do? Oh? Right,
21:51
Speaker 1: right right there, right there. You've walked the entire round.
21:57
Speaker 1: She's not there. She's not home. She told you the
22:02
Speaker 1: route she was going, so you know, she didn't deviate.
22:06
Speaker 1: So was it dark by that time? Pheel, No, it was.
22:10
Speaker 1: It was August. It was. It was six o'clock in
22:15
Speaker 1: the evening. We still had another two and a half
22:17
Speaker 1: hours a daylight. I remember seeing a video of Karina,
22:21
Speaker 1: just a glimpse, must have been from someone's um home
22:26
Speaker 1: security and she was just jogging by. I saw she
22:31
Speaker 1: had earbuds in her ears. Yes, yes, she was wearing earbuds.
22:36
Speaker 1: Does she listen to music or a book on tape?
22:39
Speaker 1: What would she listen to? No, No, she always listened
22:42
Speaker 1: to her music. She would listen to her music. And
22:45
Speaker 1: that that is another thing, you know, because she couldn't
22:48
Speaker 1: hear if anybody was coming after her. She couldn't hear
22:52
Speaker 1: any hustling. She was just in her own state of grace,
22:57
Speaker 1: you know, listening to her music and running where she
23:00
Speaker 1: loved to run. I'm thinking about when you are there
23:04
Speaker 1: and you call back home and Kathy tells you she's
23:08
Speaker 1: not home. What went through your mind? I said. I
23:12
Speaker 1: asked her what should I do? And she said, call John. Now.
23:16
Speaker 1: John is a lifelong friend of mine I grew up
23:19
Speaker 1: with since we're eight years old, who happened to be
23:22
Speaker 1: a three start chief in the police department. And I said, John,
23:26
Speaker 1: you were a firefighter at your whole career. Yes, I said,
23:31
Speaker 1: And John's father went to firement also, so I said, John.
23:36
Speaker 1: Karen went running in the weeks because people of our
23:39
Speaker 1: rage I grew up there, we call it the weeks.
23:42
Speaker 1: And I said, she, I can't find that. She's not
23:45
Speaker 1: answering her phone. He didn't ask me when she left him.
23:49
Speaker 1: In all he said to me was Phil, where are you?
23:53
Speaker 1: I told him where I was. He said, stay right there.
23:55
Speaker 1: I'm sending a patrol call with the sergeant in it,
23:59
Speaker 1: and I'm on my way home. And that's how I
24:03
Speaker 1: how it started. Okay, I just gotta tell you something, Phil.
24:07
Speaker 1: Right now, Jack, you look at me, I'm just getting
24:10
Speaker 1: chills all up and down my legs and arms because
24:14
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking of you standing there amongst all those
24:18
Speaker 1: tall like saw grass, bamboo growth and you're looking for
24:23
Speaker 1: her and you can't find her, and she's not at home.
24:27
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking, like looking down on you in the
24:30
Speaker 1: middle of all this expanse, looking for your girl, and
24:36
Speaker 1: when you call him, he says her on her, Wait,
24:38
Speaker 1: what did you do? Just stand there? Keep calling her?
24:41
Speaker 1: What did you do? Well? I called her a number
24:44
Speaker 1: of times. She didn't answer. Then the patrol clab pulled up.
24:49
Speaker 1: I had since moved on to the street, which was
24:52
Speaker 1: only about one hundred foot away. The patrol clab pulled
24:55
Speaker 1: up and they said, what's going on? And I told
24:57
Speaker 1: him and they said, okay, you wait here. We're going
25:01
Speaker 1: in on the entrance about a half a mile away.
25:04
Speaker 1: There's an entrance to get in there with a vehicle.
25:06
Speaker 1: They said you stay here, and I said okay. So
25:10
Speaker 1: I stayed there for probably about thirty seconds. Then they said, no,
25:13
Speaker 1: hell with this, and I backtracked a trail back to
25:17
Speaker 1: my house. I changed my clothes, I got into a
25:20
Speaker 1: long pans, long sleeve shirt, and I started to look
25:25
Speaker 1: for her again. I went on a different trail that
25:28
Speaker 1: went in a different direction. And at that point, why
25:32
Speaker 1: did you feel that you could not stay there and
25:35
Speaker 1: feel I haven't told you this. I took the twins
25:38
Speaker 1: on a Disney cruise, which was awesome, and they had
25:41
Speaker 1: this like a tween hangout spot where you can like
25:44
Speaker 1: play foodsball or cards and all that. Lucy, my daughter,
25:48
Speaker 1: who shy, did not want to hang around. She came
25:51
Speaker 1: back to the room. Well, I brought her back. John
25:53
Speaker 1: David stayed and they had waukeie talkies. They were and
25:56
Speaker 1: the people were to tell me when he was ready
25:58
Speaker 1: to leave it, I would come get It was all
26:01
Speaker 1: the way on the other side of this giant ship,
26:03
Speaker 1: the fantasy, I think it was. Well, finally it got
26:07
Speaker 1: to be ten o'clock and yes, we were on vacation,
26:10
Speaker 1: but I thought they should be ready to leave because
26:12
Speaker 1: he had been there since eight. So I called and
26:15
Speaker 1: they go, oh, he left. He left. I nearly my
26:19
Speaker 1: head nearly blew on, and my husband went, I'll go
26:24
Speaker 1: look for him. I'm good, go look for him. And
26:26
Speaker 1: I sat there. I had on my pj's, which are
26:30
Speaker 1: shorts and a T shirt, and I said, I can't
26:33
Speaker 1: sit here. After about fifteen seconds said Lucy, put on
26:35
Speaker 1: your shoes. We're out. She and I go out in
26:37
Speaker 1: our pajamas and tennis shoes, and I started running and
26:45
Speaker 1: running toward the other end. I had no idea what
26:49
Speaker 1: level he may be on, screaming his name, and when
26:54
Speaker 1: I saw him at the end of that hallway, ever
27:00
Speaker 1: forget it and I'm just thinking about you. And they
27:03
Speaker 1: say statehood and you're like, oh, hell no, no, no,
27:07
Speaker 1: that's what I said. Okay, So what happened? So I
27:10
Speaker 1: started looking on another trail, and this is only a
27:15
Speaker 1: half hour after I called John. Above me appears a
27:18
Speaker 1: helicopter that he had already had sent out two helicopters,
27:24
Speaker 1: you know, heat seekers that can see, you know, pick
27:28
Speaker 1: up body images. So there were already helicopters there within
27:33
Speaker 1: forty five minutes after I called him. And when I
27:36
Speaker 1: came out of the trail again, there were probably thirty
27:40
Speaker 1: forty fifty police officers. There was a command post set
27:45
Speaker 1: up already. John was there, canines came in, we had
27:51
Speaker 1: two bloodhounds already. This was within an hour and a half.
27:55
Speaker 1: This is the whole command post. Who set up and
27:58
Speaker 1: we're looking everywhere now. He asked me what was her
28:03
Speaker 1: phone number, and of course I didn't know her code,
28:09
Speaker 1: so he called the carrier had the phone unlocked and
28:15
Speaker 1: the tayrou unit, which is a police departing uit, it
28:19
Speaker 1: pinned her phone and they found it within seven hundred
28:25
Speaker 1: feet of my house. Now they pinned it from a
28:28
Speaker 1: location wherever they were, either Brooklyn in Manhattan, and then
28:31
Speaker 1: they came down to the site and were able to
28:36
Speaker 1: locate the phone. And that was about ten a quarter
28:44
Speaker 1: after ten. This is the after we had been in
28:46
Speaker 1: there with the bloodhounds and me giving them Camina's clothes
28:50
Speaker 1: that you were that day, her bedsheets, her pillowcations, and
28:56
Speaker 1: they let the canine smell it, and we left my
28:59
Speaker 1: house house and the dogs basically they asked me to
29:03
Speaker 1: show them where she would have gone in because it's
29:07
Speaker 1: such a large park. So I took them to that
29:10
Speaker 1: area and the dogs basically walked in the circle and
29:14
Speaker 1: they walked back to my house. And that was it.
29:18
Speaker 1: That the dogs had helped didn't help at all in
29:21
Speaker 1: finding her. So I'm trying to figure out what that means.
29:27
Speaker 1: But when that happened, what did you do? Where were
29:31
Speaker 1: you doing this? I was with them. They needed me
29:34
Speaker 1: to link them on the trail because it was a
29:36
Speaker 1: dog that we had no light, and I knew the
29:38
Speaker 1: trail like the back of my hand. So I would
29:41
Speaker 1: take them on the trail that we would run on. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait,
29:45
Speaker 1: I'm just imagining all of this happening. It didn't even
29:50
Speaker 1: feel real. Did you think that any minute she was
29:53
Speaker 1: going to come in the front door? Dad, I just
29:55
Speaker 1: got a ride with so and seven. We went to
29:57
Speaker 1: the convenience store on back. What's why? Why is there
30:00
Speaker 1: a helicopter ever head? That was an outside at I mean,
30:03
Speaker 1: the back of your mind, did you think that was
30:05
Speaker 1: going to happen? In the back of my mind, I
30:07
Speaker 1: was hoping that. But I knew something was wrong. I
30:13
Speaker 1: knew that my baby was somewhere where she could not
30:17
Speaker 1: answer me. Yeah, I knew at that point, I knew.
30:25
Speaker 1: But when I left the house at six thirty, I
30:28
Speaker 1: knew something was wrong. I knew. Don't ask me how,
30:33
Speaker 1: but intuition. We were so close, Like Tony said, I
30:37
Speaker 1: knew she was in danger. And as we were doing this,
30:42
Speaker 1: they got a call from a police officer who said
30:47
Speaker 1: we had located the phone, and I said where, And
30:51
Speaker 1: they told me the location and I said that's not
30:54
Speaker 1: good because it was further down on the trail where
31:00
Speaker 1: we never ran. It was further into the weeds. So
31:03
Speaker 1: I said, let's go and I started booking. I was moving,
31:07
Speaker 1: I was practically running, and I had maybe six seven
31:12
Speaker 1: police officers. My friend was with me, and the doors
31:15
Speaker 1: who were with me, and I was going to that location.
31:20
Speaker 1: Now I got to the location, there was one cop
31:23
Speaker 1: standing on the trail looking into the weeds, and I said,
31:27
Speaker 1: where is the phone? And he said it's in there,
31:30
Speaker 1: and he pointed inside about fifty feet. He said to me,
31:35
Speaker 1: but you can't go near it, you can't look at it.
31:37
Speaker 1: You have to stay here. And I said, okay. So
31:41
Speaker 1: then I started to walk the trail. I started to
31:44
Speaker 1: walk further into the trail towards the Brooklyn and I
31:47
Speaker 1: made it about fifty feet and that's when something told me, no,
31:55
Speaker 1: not here, And I turned around and I started to
31:59
Speaker 1: walk in the ship direction, passed where the phone was,
32:03
Speaker 1: passed towards where we lived, and again something just told
32:08
Speaker 1: me stopped and I stopped, and I looked, and I
32:15
Speaker 1: just I saw one weed that was bent in the
32:18
Speaker 1: opposite direction, and I just walked in. I just walked
32:22
Speaker 1: in by myself. My friend another fireman was behind me,
32:27
Speaker 1: and I walked exactly directly to where she was laying.
32:33
Speaker 1: And that's when you know she was calling me, she
32:36
Speaker 1: needs her daddy to find her. And that's how I
32:39
Speaker 1: found her, just like that, still the Toronto. When you
32:43
Speaker 1: say she was calling, yes, she needed her dad to
32:49
Speaker 1: find her, she did. What do you mean by that?
32:53
Speaker 1: That was the last act that I could do for
32:56
Speaker 1: her because she needed to be found, number one, and
33:01
Speaker 1: she needed me to find her. Even though it was
33:05
Speaker 1: a horrible, horrible sight that I'll never forget. She needed
33:11
Speaker 1: her daddy to find her, and I did. I keep
33:14
Speaker 1: coming back to something you told me a long time ago.
33:19
Speaker 1: You told me you felt you heard her call you.
33:26
Speaker 1: What did you hear? What? What was that? It was
33:29
Speaker 1: just something in my mind that said, no, stop here,
33:36
Speaker 1: And you know, because there was a right side of
33:39
Speaker 1: the trail and the left side of the trail, and
33:41
Speaker 1: we had no idea where she was. But I just
33:44
Speaker 1: stopped look into the right side of the trail and
33:49
Speaker 1: that's when my mind, or corina, but something said come
33:56
Speaker 1: in and that's when I went. She was telling me
34:02
Speaker 1: to go this way, and I walked. It was probably
34:06
Speaker 1: thirty feet off the trail in the thick, ten foot
34:09
Speaker 1: high weeds that you know, police, everybody had passed passed,
34:14
Speaker 1: and I just walked right in directly to where she was.
34:17
Speaker 1: You know, when my fiancee was murdered, I did not
34:23
Speaker 1: want to see his body at all. I just couldn't
34:27
Speaker 1: do that at that time in my life. And I
34:30
Speaker 1: remember at the funeral home, it was just before his service.
34:39
Speaker 1: I was standing out in a greeting area and I
34:43
Speaker 1: glanced in and I saw it, just a sliver of
34:47
Speaker 1: Keith's face above his coffin, and feel in my youth,
34:55
Speaker 1: I passed out. I completely passed out with a shock
35:00
Speaker 1: of seeing that, and I'll never forget it. I can't
35:03
Speaker 1: stand to this day to smell a carnation, you know,
35:07
Speaker 1: those heavily scented carnations they always have at funerals. That
35:12
Speaker 1: when I came back to, that was a smell that
35:16
Speaker 1: I smelled until this day. When I smelled carnations, I
35:20
Speaker 1: physically feel sick. I feel like I'm going to throw up.
35:24
Speaker 1: And I remember when my dad passed away, which I
35:29
Speaker 1: told you about, Everybody left the room and said, I'm
35:33
Speaker 1: not leaving him in here. I'm staying with him until
35:38
Speaker 1: we get him where he's supposed to be And it
35:40
Speaker 1: hurts me to think by seeing them change the sheets
35:46
Speaker 1: out from under him and kind of fold his body
35:50
Speaker 1: up and put it on a guarnee. And I walked
35:53
Speaker 1: it to the elevator, and I remember her in the
35:56
Speaker 1: hospital hall. Everybody took their hats off and stood there.
36:01
Speaker 1: And I hate to even think back on that moment
36:04
Speaker 1: because I don't want to remember that. I don't know
36:09
Speaker 1: how you stand it. I just when you walked into
36:13
Speaker 1: that area and you saw her lying there, what did
36:19
Speaker 1: you think, maybe she's still alive. What did you think? Well,
36:26
Speaker 1: you know you could listen to the police officer that
36:31
Speaker 1: was still on the trail. I made a sound. A
36:35
Speaker 1: sound came out of me that is undescribable. It wasn't
36:40
Speaker 1: a scream. It was more of a well of pure anguish,
36:48
Speaker 1: pure pain. And I've never made that sound before, and
36:52
Speaker 1: I've never made that sound after. It just came out
36:55
Speaker 1: of me. And my first reaction was I have to
37:00
Speaker 1: take a home. So I picked her up, and being
37:05
Speaker 1: at the cop had heard that scream, they started to
37:09
Speaker 1: run into the weeds. So I had her in my
37:13
Speaker 1: arms and I was starting to take her out of there,
37:17
Speaker 1: and they said, sir, this is a crime scene. You
37:20
Speaker 1: have to put her down, And I said, no, I
37:23
Speaker 1: have to take a home, and they basically dragged me
37:31
Speaker 1: off of her, and I put her down the same
37:34
Speaker 1: way I found her. And I only remember if they
37:37
Speaker 1: dragged me out onto the trail, if I walked myself,
37:42
Speaker 1: that's a complete blur. But next thing I know, I'm
37:45
Speaker 1: on the trail and all now, all of these cops
37:50
Speaker 1: are starting to go in there. They're they're coming over
37:54
Speaker 1: to me, and you know, I kept saying, we got
37:56
Speaker 1: to get her out of there. We got to get
37:58
Speaker 1: her out of there. You know, now I know better
38:01
Speaker 1: that you know it was a crime scene. I had
38:03
Speaker 1: to wait for the forensic teams. You know how it works.
38:07
Speaker 1: But I didn't know that. I just thought we had
38:09
Speaker 1: to you know, we had to get him out of
38:11
Speaker 1: there into some kind of safe argument, not in we
38:17
Speaker 1: bug infested where she was. You know, I still wanted
38:20
Speaker 1: to protect her. Still, you are bringing back a memory
38:24
Speaker 1: to me. I don't know that I've ever shared it
38:26
Speaker 1: with anybody. After Keith was murdered, it was, you know,
38:33
Speaker 1: hours later I was at home with my mom and dad.
38:39
Speaker 1: Everything was like a blur. And if somebody were to
38:43
Speaker 1: say that on the stand, I'd tear them up about
38:46
Speaker 1: not being able to remember. But the truth is it
38:49
Speaker 1: was like a blur, and I remember feeling not like
38:54
Speaker 1: a human. I felt like an animal, and I just
39:00
Speaker 1: all I wanted to do was just go outside and
39:03
Speaker 1: how and well, yes, I couldn't not cry, not say
39:08
Speaker 1: a word. It was just I can't. I can't really
39:13
Speaker 1: describe that feeling in in people talk in regular words.
39:18
Speaker 1: It was not even human. The pain was just the shot,
39:25
Speaker 1: and the pain was just too much. I understand exactly
39:30
Speaker 1: because from that point on the rest of that night,
39:35
Speaker 1: entire night, I was just like a zombie. I was
39:39
Speaker 1: I was standing, I was breathing, I was seeing, but
39:44
Speaker 1: it was all mechanical. Uh, Like I was a zombie
39:49
Speaker 1: and I had no control over my bodily functions. You know,
39:55
Speaker 1: my mind. I was just standing there like it was
39:59
Speaker 1: a mannequin that happened to be alive. You know, I
40:04
Speaker 1: couldn't even comprehend. I guess my mind was protecting my
40:09
Speaker 1: body because if I would have really realized what had
40:14
Speaker 1: just happened, I might have just died right then and there.
40:17
Speaker 1: But my mind was protecting my body from just dying
40:22
Speaker 1: and collapsing right there, Nancy Grace signing up Good Dying