Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / Amber Hagerman Part 6: More Bad Men

Transcript

Amber Hagerman Part 6: More Bad Men · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Alice. I'm a Girl Scout and I have plans.
0:06
Speaker 1: My goal this year is making Diva Camp. Buying Girl
0:09
Speaker 1: Scout cookies helps me get there. You get cookies, I
0:13
Speaker 1: get Diva Camp. This is what adults call a mutually
0:16
Speaker 1: beneficial arrangement. We've got all the classics you already love,
0:22
Speaker 1: but we also have a new one called Explore Moores.
0:25
Speaker 1: They have a chocolate marshmallow and toasted almond flavored cream
0:29
Speaker 1: and a chocolate cookie. There as good as a sound.
0:32
Speaker 1: If you can, please support a Girl's Scout by buying
0:35
Speaker 1: some cookies. Every box helps me get closer to Diva
0:38
Speaker 1: Camp and helps my troop go on some pretty fantastic
0:43
Speaker 1: adventures together. The link to buy is in the show
0:47
Speaker 1: not thank you so much for supporting me, my Troop
0:50
Speaker 1: and the Girl Scouts.
0:55
Speaker 2: The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:59
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised. Three years after the abduction and
1:04
Speaker 2: murder of nine year old Amber Hagermann, another crime shook
1:09
Speaker 2: North Texans to their cores and gave detectives investigating Amber's
1:14
Speaker 2: case an unfortunate and tragic new lead to follow. It
1:19
Speaker 2: wasn't the kind of potential break police in Arlington wanted,
1:23
Speaker 2: but it was something they could not move past until
1:27
Speaker 2: possible connections were exhaustively investigated. Opel Joe Jennings was born
1:35
Speaker 2: on November twenty fourth, nineteen ninety two, in Clarksville, Arkansas,
1:39
Speaker 2: to sixteen year old Leola Sanderford and a twenty eight
1:43
Speaker 2: year old man who didn't want anything to do with
1:46
Speaker 2: her by the time Ople was four months old. In fact,
1:50
Speaker 2: Leola left Randall Crawford after a brief marriage and moved
1:55
Speaker 2: to Corpus Christi, Texas. There the young mother had family,
2:00
Speaker 2: including her grandmother. Ople and her mother stayed in Corpus
2:05
Speaker 2: Christie for a few years, but Leola began seeing a
2:09
Speaker 2: man named Chris Chase and then left for North Dakota.
2:14
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety six, Ople's little sister, Courtney was born,
2:18
Speaker 2: but after Leola and Chris split up, the single mother
2:22
Speaker 2: struggled to make time for her kids, let alone make
2:25
Speaker 2: ends meet, working as a split shift waitress at a
2:29
Speaker 2: truck stop. In September of nineteen ninety eight, upon the
2:33
Speaker 2: realization that she could not care for both girls, Leola
2:37
Speaker 2: made a difficult decision. Her parents, Robert and Audrey Sanderford
2:43
Speaker 2: flew to North Dakota and brought five year old Ople
2:47
Speaker 2: back to live with them in Saginaw, Texas, a suburb
2:50
Speaker 2: of Fort Worth to the city's north. Ople was given
2:54
Speaker 2: her own small bedroom in the Sanderford's modest home on
2:59
Speaker 2: the two hundred blocks of North Hampshire Street in the
3:02
Speaker 2: older working class part of Saginaw. When given the stability
3:07
Speaker 2: and support of her grandparents and extended family, the little
3:11
Speaker 2: girl began thriving right away. The many aunts, uncles, and
3:16
Speaker 2: cousins were just what Ople needed. Her great aunt, Teresa,
3:21
Speaker 2: referred to her as her blue eyed Princess. Ople certainly
3:25
Speaker 2: looked the part that much was undeniable. The girl was
3:30
Speaker 2: incredibly smart, but hadn't had the opportunity to absorb and
3:34
Speaker 2: exude that intelligence. Ople went from barely being able to
3:39
Speaker 2: write to doing math equations, spelling, and telling time on
3:44
Speaker 2: an analog clock well within a half year's time. As
3:48
Speaker 2: a kindergartener at Saginaw Elementary, Ople joined a reading program
3:54
Speaker 2: to earn a ticket to six Flags over Texas, students
3:58
Speaker 2: had to read six hundred hours in the school year.
4:01
Speaker 2: Ople was up to seven hundred and eighty when her
4:04
Speaker 2: grandmother stopped keeping track. Although she'd more than earned her
4:10
Speaker 2: day at the theme park, Opel, Joe Jennings would never
4:13
Speaker 2: get the opportunity to collect her bounty, but instead fell
4:18
Speaker 2: victim to a craven, malevolent, and remorseless monster. On the
4:32
Speaker 2: evening of Friday, March twenty sixth, nineteen ninety nine, Ople
4:37
Speaker 2: Joe Jennings, now six years old, was playing in a
4:41
Speaker 2: big open lot next to her home. Alongside her was
4:46
Speaker 2: her two year old cousin, Austin, and a boy named Spencer,
4:50
Speaker 2: a four year old neighbor and friend. As the children
4:54
Speaker 2: were goofing around, at about five thirty pm, a sedan
4:59
Speaker 2: Spencer later described as purple de black, pulled up to
5:03
Speaker 2: the empty lot's curb. The driver got out, said hello
5:08
Speaker 2: to the children as he walked directly toward Opal and
5:12
Speaker 2: picked up the six year old, sixty pound girl. Opal
5:16
Speaker 2: wailed and the man responded by punching her in the chest.
5:20
Speaker 2: He shoved her in his car and drove away. The
5:24
Speaker 2: children ran to tell adults what happened, and they called
5:27
Speaker 2: nine to one one. The kidnapping of Opal Joe Jennings
5:33
Speaker 2: met the criteria for the Amber plan to be set
5:36
Speaker 2: in motion. All thanks to a four year old boy.
5:40
Speaker 2: According to Spenser, Opal's subductor was a tall, slender, white man,
5:45
Speaker 2: perhaps dark complexioned, with marks on his face. He wore
5:50
Speaker 2: a short sleeved T shirt, dark colored pants and tennis shoes,
5:54
Speaker 2: and a red baseball cap. The man wore his fairly
5:58
Speaker 2: long hair in a ponytail. The dark colored vehicle was
6:02
Speaker 2: thought to be an American made coop. It wasn't long
6:06
Speaker 2: before the dreaded and at this point familiar amber alert
6:11
Speaker 2: tone was broadcast over the radio airwaves. The alert generated
6:16
Speaker 2: many tips and prompted dozens upon dozens of volunteers to
6:21
Speaker 2: swarm the area, not only to search, but also to
6:25
Speaker 2: help organize and hold rallies to keep Opal Joe Jennings's
6:29
Speaker 2: name and face in the public's eye via media sources.
6:35
Speaker 2: While police directed searches and carried on an extensive manhunt,
6:40
Speaker 2: volunteers combed area neighborhoods, vacant properties alongside roads and highways,
6:47
Speaker 2: a nearby rock quarry, local lakes, and empty overgrown lots
6:53
Speaker 2: seemingly everywhere. Tips continued to pour in even outside the
6:59
Speaker 2: case's juristic. The FBI set up a command post in
7:03
Speaker 2: Saginaw and Four days after she was taken, detectives in
7:08
Speaker 2: Arlington investigating the nineteen ninety six abduction and murder of
7:12
Speaker 2: nine year old Amber Hagerman began consulting with police there.
7:17
Speaker 2: The similarities shared by Opel and Amber's cases were apparent.
7:23
Speaker 2: Both acts were brazenly carried out in broad daylight, and
7:27
Speaker 2: Ople looked like a younger version of Amber, dark brown hair,
7:31
Speaker 2: blue eyes, and all. Within days of her abduction, Sergeant
7:36
Speaker 2: Harlan Wright of the Wise County Sheriff's Office, located just
7:40
Speaker 2: north of Saginaw, phoned the Fort Worth Police with solid information.
7:47
Speaker 2: A man had reported to Wise County authorities that a
7:50
Speaker 2: guy he knew matched the description of Opal's abductor to
7:53
Speaker 2: a tee and the description of the vehicle was a
7:57
Speaker 2: dead ringer for this guy's new car. The guy was
8:01
Speaker 2: also convicted of crimes against children in nineteen ninety one.
8:06
Speaker 2: The Fort Worth Police passed the information to the FBI,
8:10
Speaker 2: who filed it away next to the overwhelming number of
8:13
Speaker 2: other tips they'd received and among other convicted child sex offenders.
8:20
Speaker 2: For five months. The tip that would lead to the
8:22
Speaker 2: man who abducted Opal remained under investigated until in August
8:28
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine, at the request of the Tarrant County
8:32
Speaker 2: District Attorney's Office, sixteen area jurisdictions offered up police officers
8:37
Speaker 2: to go through and exhaust the backlog of tips in
8:40
Speaker 2: the case. Investigators from the DA's office also assisted. Volunteer
8:47
Speaker 2: lawmen came upon the Wise County tip fast after visiting
8:52
Speaker 2: a probation officer there, who told them that the subject
8:56
Speaker 2: of their lead changed his unkempt, slovenly appearance to a
9:01
Speaker 2: much cleaner cut and neat style. The day after Opel
9:05
Speaker 2: Jennings was kidnapped, it was time to question Richard Lee Franks,
9:11
Speaker 2: or Ricky as he was more commonly known. When they
9:15
Speaker 2: arrived at his home to do so, detectives quickly took
9:19
Speaker 2: notice of the car in the driveway, a black Mercury cougar.
9:25
Speaker 2: Ricky Lee Franks, a thirty year old motorcycle mechanic, was
9:29
Speaker 2: convicted in nineteen ninety one of indecency with a child.
9:34
Speaker 2: He'd raped his eight year old niece and molested another
9:38
Speaker 2: underage female relative. The original charge was the aggravated assault
9:44
Speaker 2: of a miner, but Franks agreed to plead guilty for
9:47
Speaker 2: the lesser charge. He was given seven years probation, and
9:53
Speaker 2: even though he violated it twice in that time, he
9:56
Speaker 2: served only forty one days in jail total in the
9:59
Speaker 2: U years nineteen ninety four and nineteen ninety five for
10:03
Speaker 2: those violations. In April of nineteen ninety nine, just days
10:09
Speaker 2: after the abduction of Opel Frank's probation ended, police arrested
10:15
Speaker 2: Ricky Lee Franks on an outstanding traffic warrant. On August seventeenth,
10:20
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine. He was taken to the Arrant County
10:24
Speaker 2: District Attorney's Office Special Crimes Section. While in custody there,
10:30
Speaker 2: he gave consent for officers to search his car and
10:33
Speaker 2: gave a statement. Opele was in his car that day.
10:38
Speaker 2: Frank's told detectives, but he dropped her right back off
10:41
Speaker 2: where he picked her up unharmed. His accounts of what
10:45
Speaker 2: happened the day Opel Jennings was abducted is pathetic. We
10:50
Speaker 2: won't quote the man directly here. The brother of Ricky
10:56
Speaker 2: Lee Franks lived in Ople's Saginaw neighborhood. On March twenty sixth,
11:01
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine, Franks went by his brother's house. He
11:05
Speaker 2: told police and on his way out of the subdivision,
11:09
Speaker 2: stopped and talked with kids playing in a field off
11:12
Speaker 2: North Hampshire Street. Opal Joe Jennings approached his car and
11:17
Speaker 2: they talked about her schooling. Frank's afraid the six year
11:22
Speaker 2: old was going to make a pass at him, he
11:24
Speaker 2: said in his statement, had to push Opal back when
11:28
Speaker 2: she got too close. She persuaded him to take her
11:32
Speaker 2: to a convenience store where she bought a coke. The
11:35
Speaker 2: little girl thanked him, Franks was claiming, moved toward him,
11:40
Speaker 2: grabbed his crotch and demanded he have sex with her.
11:45
Speaker 2: Ople then removed his penis from his pants and tried
11:48
Speaker 2: to go down. Franks went on, but he stopped her.
11:53
Speaker 2: He wasn't going to have sex with a kid, he said.
11:56
Speaker 2: He told the girl Once at her house, wording to Franks,
12:01
Speaker 2: he demanded she get out of the car. She did
12:04
Speaker 2: after giving him a hug. He claimed, Opal Joe Jennings
12:09
Speaker 2: was just fine. The last he saw, said Ricky Lee Franks.
12:14
Speaker 2: The statement was written and signed, and Franks was arrested
12:18
Speaker 2: for aggravated kidnapping. Later, the convicted child molester claimed his
12:24
Speaker 2: statement was false and coerced due to his low IQ
12:30
Speaker 2: In June of two thousand, the State of Texas versus
12:34
Speaker 2: Richard Lee Franks, accused of the kidnapping of Opel Joe Jennings,
12:38
Speaker 2: ended in mistrial after jurors deadlocked. Another trial took place
12:45
Speaker 2: in September of the same year. This time a jury
12:49
Speaker 2: convicted Franks of aggravated kidnapping, and he was sentenced to
12:53
Speaker 2: life in prison, the maximum penalty the charge can carry.
12:58
Speaker 2: Ricky Lee Franks must serve thirty five years of his sentence.
13:03
Speaker 2: He maintained his innocence, leaving Ople's family unable to put
13:08
Speaker 2: their blue eyed princess to rest. For a while. At least,
13:14
Speaker 2: police and Arlington were interested in the Opal Joe Jennings
13:18
Speaker 2: case the day she was abducted, but when Ricky Lee
13:21
Speaker 2: Franks was arrested, detectives were reinvigorated. The type of attack
13:27
Speaker 2: and the suspect descriptions were close. Arlington Police Sergeant Mark
13:31
Speaker 2: Simpson told a four or Star Telegram reporter the working
13:35
Speaker 2: class neighborhoods and even their infrastructures were similar. He went on.
13:41
Speaker 2: Police carefully sifted through five shelfs worth of bound books
13:46
Speaker 2: of witness interviews, supplementary reports, and tips hoping to find
13:51
Speaker 2: the name Ricky Lee Franks. The computer database consisting of
13:57
Speaker 2: over thirty thousand possible suspects searched, Frank's wasn't there. Still,
14:05
Speaker 2: the Arlington Police investigated the pedophile, though it's never been
14:09
Speaker 2: said exactly how Ricky Lee Franks was ruled out as
14:14
Speaker 2: a suspect for the murder of Amber Hagerman. We've gotten
14:18
Speaker 2: more than a little excited about a suspect so many times,
14:22
Speaker 2: it's disgusting, Arlington Police Captain Jerry Kendrick commented. On December thirtieth,
14:30
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, in a remote area in northwest
14:34
Speaker 2: fort Worth, two horseback riders found a small partial skull.
14:39
Speaker 2: Police descended on the scene and three days later discovered
14:44
Speaker 2: more bones and Barbie Tennis shoes like those Opal Joe
14:48
Speaker 2: Jennings war the day she was kidnapped. Not long after,
14:52
Speaker 2: the bones were confirmed to belong to the six year old,
14:57
Speaker 2: an autopsy of the remains showed that she died from
15:01
Speaker 2: blunt force trauma to her head. Ricky Lee Franks will
15:06
Speaker 2: be eligible for parole on August fifteenth, twenty thirty four.
15:11
Speaker 2: He has not been tried for Opal's murder to this day.
15:27
Speaker 2: On the night of Wednesday, July fourth, two thousand and seven,
15:31
Speaker 2: in Tacoma, Washington, Mikyle Lennok and his family watched the
15:35
Speaker 2: Independence Day fireworks from their back porch. Not long after,
15:41
Speaker 2: his twelve year old daughter, Zena, wandered from his eyesight.
15:44
Speaker 2: At about nine forty five pm, Mikyle heard her cry out.
15:49
Speaker 2: He raced to the alleyway where the scream originated, only
15:53
Speaker 2: to find one of her shoes and a gray Chevy
15:56
Speaker 2: astrovan speeding off. Mikyle called police to report Zena's abduction.
16:03
Speaker 2: The license plate of the kidnapper's vehicle, the father said,
16:06
Speaker 2: had the numbers one, six, seven seven. Mikyle didn't see
16:11
Speaker 2: it in full. For eight days, Searchers combed the neighborhood
16:17
Speaker 2: surrounding Zena's home on the twenty five hundred block of
16:20
Speaker 2: South Jay Street, while investigators raced the clock identifying and
16:26
Speaker 2: interviewing potential suspects and following the tips that were coming in.
16:32
Speaker 2: On Thursday, July twelfth, police found Zena's body near a
16:36
Speaker 2: lake about thirty five miles south just outside Eatonville, Washington.
16:41
Speaker 2: They'd been led there by the girl's confessed abductor, forty
16:45
Speaker 2: two year old terrapin daying. At Han, a handyman and
16:49
Speaker 2: mechanic who was described by folks who knew him as
16:53
Speaker 2: mild mannered and not prone to anger. However, his story
16:59
Speaker 2: about what happened to twelve year old Zena suggested something else.
17:04
Speaker 2: Drunk and about the town that night, according to ad Han,
17:08
Speaker 2: he stopped by his estranged wife's house, hoping to spend
17:12
Speaker 2: some time with his son, but they weren't home. It
17:16
Speaker 2: pissed him off, even though the visit was unplanned and unannounced. Next,
17:22
Speaker 2: he attempted to find a friend who also was not
17:25
Speaker 2: at home. At Hon was seeing red, he later told
17:30
Speaker 2: FBI agents, and set out wanting to cause pain and
17:34
Speaker 2: destroy a human life. He wanted to control and toy
17:39
Speaker 2: with a person, he said. Then ad Hon saw Zena.
17:45
Speaker 2: The coward snatched the twelve year old girl and drove
17:49
Speaker 2: to a secluded location where he bound her ankles and
17:52
Speaker 2: wrists with zip ties. He stuffed a rag in her mouth,
17:56
Speaker 2: securing it with another zip tie around her head. He
18:01
Speaker 2: began driving toward his home in Parkland, just south of Tacoma.
18:07
Speaker 2: Ad Han told authorities that while he was driving, Zena
18:10
Speaker 2: began making noises as if the zip tie had slipped
18:14
Speaker 2: or loosened so he reached back and pulled it tight.
18:19
Speaker 2: He didn't know. Ad Hon deceptively told agents and detectives
18:24
Speaker 2: that it had slipped down to her neck. When he
18:27
Speaker 2: arrived home, the killer continued. Zena Lennox was dead. However,
18:33
Speaker 2: an autopsy showed that the girl's cause of death was
18:36
Speaker 2: blunt forced trauma to the head. Ad Hon didn't mention
18:41
Speaker 2: rape in his confession, not at first, but the Pierce
18:45
Speaker 2: County Medical Examiner discovered she'd been assaulted orally, vaginally, and anally.
18:52
Speaker 2: The monster later admitted that he'd kept Zena's body to
18:56
Speaker 2: continue performing sex acts for days after she was killed.
19:03
Speaker 2: Immediately after his two thousand and seven arrest, police in
19:06
Speaker 2: Tacoma began investigating ad Hon for several other similar child
19:11
Speaker 2: rapes and murders. Very aware of a similar case more
19:15
Speaker 2: than two thousand miles to the southeast, detectives in the
19:19
Speaker 2: Washington City also contacted police in Texas investigating the abduction
19:24
Speaker 2: and murder of Amber Hagerman more than a decade before.
19:29
Speaker 2: What subsequently came to light about this rapist and murderer
19:34
Speaker 2: was shocking, not only as crimes but also the fact
19:38
Speaker 2: that he was able to get away with them virtually unscathed.
19:44
Speaker 2: Had Terapin Dag, ad Han not slipped through the cracks.
19:48
Speaker 2: At best, been the emboldened product of a lackluster and
19:52
Speaker 2: indifferent justice system. At worst, Xena Lennok would likely still
19:58
Speaker 2: be alive. Born in Thailand in nineteen sixty four, Adhn's
20:04
Speaker 2: family emigrated to the United States in nineteen seventy six.
20:09
Speaker 2: Ad Han joined the US Air Force in nineteen eighty
20:12
Speaker 2: three and later became an Airborne Army ranger. He was married, divorced,
20:19
Speaker 2: and had two kids. From the outside, a fairly typical
20:23
Speaker 2: American there almost certainly as of yet unknown offenses before
20:29
Speaker 2: his first official major criminal offense, the rape of his
20:34
Speaker 2: half sister one afternoon in nineteen ninety. According to court documents,
20:40
Speaker 2: ad Hon picked her up from work, took her to
20:42
Speaker 2: his place for a bite to eat, got drunk, threw
20:45
Speaker 2: her to the ground, choked her, ripped off her clothes,
20:49
Speaker 2: punched her, held a knife to her throat, and repeatedly
20:54
Speaker 2: sexually abused and assaulted her. This was all while ad
20:59
Speaker 2: Han's a eight month old daughter cried in another room.
21:04
Speaker 2: Relatives of the victim, his half sister persuaded her not
21:08
Speaker 2: to press charges, and he was only convicted of first
21:11
Speaker 2: degree incest instead of rape and assault. Diagnosed as a pedophile,
21:17
Speaker 2: ad Hon was required to undergo sexual deviancy treatment and
21:22
Speaker 2: under the state's community supervision until nineteen ninety seven. He
21:28
Speaker 2: was assessed as quote a devious, manipulative, aggressive, and over
21:33
Speaker 2: controlling personality with clear cut power needs end quote. Ad
21:40
Speaker 2: Hon was determined a danger to the community, but only
21:44
Speaker 2: required to check in once a month with his Community
21:47
Speaker 2: Corrections Officer or CCO, who rarely paid visits to his
21:52
Speaker 2: home or workplaces. In fact, it wasn't uncommon for ad
21:57
Speaker 2: Hon to skip monthly visits to his cecis According to
22:01
Speaker 2: a lawsuit later filed against the State of Washington. Even
22:06
Speaker 2: a June nineteen ninety two offense in which ad Hon
22:09
Speaker 2: drew a pistol at several individuals outside a bar, the
22:13
Speaker 2: state failed to do much. He got five days in jail,
22:17
Speaker 2: and his CEO did nothing. There was no report of
22:21
Speaker 2: probation violations. Although he was required to register as a
22:26
Speaker 2: sex offender with the state, it was never enforced by
22:30
Speaker 2: any authority and he did not do it. There is
22:34
Speaker 2: no telling what all terapin Daing ad Han got away
22:38
Speaker 2: with until he was finally put away for good after
22:42
Speaker 2: raping and murdering twelve year old Zena Lennox in two
22:45
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, but a couple of his terrible crimes
22:48
Speaker 2: did come to light upon his arrest. Ad Han's mother
22:54
Speaker 2: and her boyfriend moved to Fort Worth, Texas in nineteen
22:58
Speaker 2: ninety nine. He visited them in two thousand and showed
23:02
Speaker 2: back up at his home in span Away, Washington, with
23:05
Speaker 2: a twelve year old girl. At least one court document
23:09
Speaker 2: alleges he bought the girl from her mother for two
23:13
Speaker 2: grand From October two thousand and three to May two
23:17
Speaker 2: thousand and five. He raped this girl one hundred and
23:21
Speaker 2: fifty to two hundred times, court documents say. In two
23:26
Speaker 2: thousand and four, an anonymous tipster claiming first hand knowledge,
23:30
Speaker 2: reported ad Han's sexual abuse of this underage girl, but
23:35
Speaker 2: the case was closed by a Pierce County Sheriff's Office
23:38
Speaker 2: detective after he went to ad Han's house to find
23:42
Speaker 2: that he no longer lived there. The policeman apparently didn't
23:46
Speaker 2: even file a single report. Ad Han also went undetected
23:51
Speaker 2: for the abduction and rape of an eleven year old
23:54
Speaker 2: girl we'll call Sarah. As she walked to school on
23:59
Speaker 2: May thirty one, first two thousand into Coma, Sarah was
24:03
Speaker 2: approached by a man driving a black pickup truck. He
24:07
Speaker 2: brandished a knife and told the eleven year old he
24:10
Speaker 2: would kill her if she didn't get in. Once inside
24:14
Speaker 2: the vehicle, the man bound Sarah's wrists and covered her
24:18
Speaker 2: mouth and eyes with duct tape. After driving southwest for
24:23
Speaker 2: about thirty minutes, the man stopped at a remote area
24:27
Speaker 2: near Fort Lewis Military Base. He took off Sarah's clothing
24:31
Speaker 2: and raped her. The multiple rapes lasted approximately one hour,
24:37
Speaker 2: after which he redressed Sarah and left her in the
24:41
Speaker 2: secluded area, her wrists and eyes still duct taped. When
24:46
Speaker 2: military personnel found her, she was armed with a stick,
24:50
Speaker 2: scared and in shock walking down the highway. Injuries from
24:56
Speaker 2: the sexual assaults required stitches and caused Sarah physical pain
25:01
Speaker 2: and suffering for years. The emotional suffering, however, was permanent
25:07
Speaker 2: and far more excruciating. It would not be known that
25:12
Speaker 2: this was the depraved work of terrapin dying ad Han
25:16
Speaker 2: until after his arrest for the abduction and murder of
25:19
Speaker 2: Xena Linnick. Detectives in Arlington, Texas kept their eye on
25:26
Speaker 2: what was happening in the Washington State cases as they
25:29
Speaker 2: looked into the suspect themselves, but they continually discounted ad
25:35
Speaker 2: Hon as a suspect for Amber Hagerman's murder, sometimes using
25:40
Speaker 2: sex offender group therapy sessions nine days before the January
25:44
Speaker 2: thirteenth abduction of Amber and then again several days after
25:48
Speaker 2: her body was found as their reason. It's an odd
25:53
Speaker 2: way to alibi someone, and anyway, it's important to keep
25:57
Speaker 2: in mind that ad Hon was known to be in
25:59
Speaker 2: force Worth in nineteen ninety four, a violation of his probation.
26:05
Speaker 2: He had ties there his brother and his aunt, who
26:08
Speaker 2: lived in the Summerfields area, about twenty four miles southeast
26:13
Speaker 2: by highway from where Amber was kidnapped. Ad Hon is
26:17
Speaker 2: alleged to have lived with his aunt around nineteen ninety six.
26:23
Speaker 2: His black truck in the May two thousand abduction and
26:26
Speaker 2: rape of eleven year old Sarah, and the heinous action
26:29
Speaker 2: itself bears similarity to Amber's case. However, the killer's stature
26:36
Speaker 2: does not match the description given by the only witness,
26:40
Speaker 2: seventy eight year old Jimmy Kevell ad Hon is five
26:44
Speaker 2: foot four inches tall and weighs one hundred and twenty pounds.
26:50
Speaker 2: DNA swabbed from Xena lennox Mouth provided the hardest forensic
26:54
Speaker 2: evidence the state had against terrapin dying at Han, but
26:59
Speaker 2: it was fall are from the only evidence. On April seventh,
27:04
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, he pleaded guilty to multiple terrible crimes,
27:08
Speaker 2: including the first degree aggravated murder of twelve year old Zena.
27:13
Speaker 2: The following month, he received a sentence of life in
27:16
Speaker 2: prison without the possibility of parole. In January of two
27:33
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, in Dickinson, Texas, special crimes investigator Tim
27:38
Speaker 2: Cromee was assigned in almost two decades old case when
27:42
Speaker 2: the former detective in charge was promoted. The case was solvable,
27:47
Speaker 2: Detective crome thought as he reviewed it. His friend and
27:52
Speaker 2: FBI special agent Richard Renaisson, agreed, and the two decided
27:57
Speaker 2: to tackle the case together, as they had some other
28:00
Speaker 2: child abuse cases in the past. Back in August of
28:04
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety, Jennifer Diane Shewitt was enjoying her last few
28:09
Speaker 2: weeks of the summer break. It wouldn't be long before
28:12
Speaker 2: she'd walk through the doors at Sibernagel Elementary a third grader.
28:18
Speaker 2: At about two fifteen am on Friday, August tenth, Jennifer
28:22
Speaker 2: was woken up by her mother, who asked her to
28:25
Speaker 2: go get in her own bed. The eight year old
28:28
Speaker 2: had been tossing, turning, and kicking, and her mom had
28:31
Speaker 2: to get up and go to work in the morning.
28:34
Speaker 2: It would be the first time Jennifer ever slept in
28:37
Speaker 2: her own bed. She always slept with her mom because
28:41
Speaker 2: she was scared of the dark, so she was a
28:44
Speaker 2: little nervous. Jennifer grabbed her piggybank and began counting her
28:49
Speaker 2: coins as she drifted into sleep. Soon after, there was
28:54
Speaker 2: no way for Jennifer to know how long it had
28:56
Speaker 2: been exactly. She was again awakened, but this time it
29:01
Speaker 2: was in the arms of a man. She'd never seen
29:04
Speaker 2: a stranger. Naturally, waking up to such a thing induced
29:09
Speaker 2: to panic immediately, but the man, his hand covering Jennifer's mouth,
29:14
Speaker 2: calmed her down by telling her he was an undercover cop.
29:18
Speaker 2: He placed the eight year old in his vehicle first.
29:23
Speaker 2: They ended up in the parking lot of Jennifer's school.
29:26
Speaker 2: Her mom was supposed to pick her up there the
29:29
Speaker 2: stranger told the girl, but when she didn't show, he
29:33
Speaker 2: began driving again. This time, they ended up parking alongside
29:38
Speaker 2: a short, dead end gravel road, the sides of which
29:42
Speaker 2: were covered with overgrown brushy grass. Jennifer became suspicious and
29:48
Speaker 2: wondered if he was a policeman, where were his gun
29:52
Speaker 2: and badge he was undercover. He didn't have his badge,
29:57
Speaker 2: the strange man replied, and his gun, well, it was
30:01
Speaker 2: in the back seat. As the little girl rose up
30:05
Speaker 2: and turned around to look for the weapon, the man
30:08
Speaker 2: removed her underwear, laid her down, and raped her. Jennifer
30:14
Speaker 2: blacked in and out as the stranger choked her, led up,
30:18
Speaker 2: and then choked her again. As he sexually assaulted her,
30:21
Speaker 2: sometimes it seemed as though his intent was to break
30:25
Speaker 2: her neck. She regained consciousness as thorns and sticks painfully
30:31
Speaker 2: poked and scraped her back. The stranger was dragging Jennifer
30:35
Speaker 2: through a field by her ankles. She kept completely still
30:39
Speaker 2: and quiet. The eight year old was playing dead, hoping
30:43
Speaker 2: to survive the nightmare he left her there. Jennifer was
30:49
Speaker 2: in indescribable pain, but she didn't realize the bad man
30:54
Speaker 2: had slit her throat from ear to ear back at
30:59
Speaker 2: the little girl's house. Her mother was panicking when she
31:03
Speaker 2: woke up and went to check on Jennifer at around
31:05
Speaker 2: seven am. She found the window to her bedroom wide
31:09
Speaker 2: open and the curtains fully drawn. The window directly faced
31:14
Speaker 2: the apartment complex's parking lot. She frantically called police, who
31:20
Speaker 2: could find no sign of her daughter. Despite searches by
31:24
Speaker 2: patrolman and a helicopter, among other avenues of investigation in
31:31
Speaker 2: the field, Jennifer Schwittt was too weak to move. She
31:36
Speaker 2: remained there in a fire ant pile in the scorching
31:39
Speaker 2: Texas sun, unclothed, for twelve to fourteen hours, before some
31:44
Speaker 2: kids playing tag found her at approximately six thirty pm
31:48
Speaker 2: on the day she was taken August tenth, nineteen ninety.
31:53
Speaker 2: Jennifer was in critical condition, but doctors at John Seeley
31:57
Speaker 2: Hospital in Galveston, where the girl was airlifted to discovered
32:02
Speaker 2: her would be killer, missed every vital artery in Jennifer's neck.
32:07
Speaker 2: The injuries were serious, but thankfully she would live. Dickinson
32:13
Speaker 2: police detectives were amazed at Jennifer's strength and resilience, but
32:19
Speaker 2: she was scared of them. The stranger who hurt her
32:22
Speaker 2: after all, said he was a cop. Police believed they'd
32:27
Speaker 2: get the guy who did it because the eight year
32:30
Speaker 2: old was able to give remarkably detailed descriptions of the
32:34
Speaker 2: man and the inside of his vehicle. Though she couldn't talk,
32:39
Speaker 2: Jennifer gave detectives better information than most adults are able
32:44
Speaker 2: to by writing down the answers to their questions. She
32:48
Speaker 2: remembered his brown pocket knife, the bud like cans, and
32:53
Speaker 2: the red and white and red and gold cigarette packages
32:57
Speaker 2: in his car Marlborough's she knew. Jennifer continually refused the
33:03
Speaker 2: candy the rapist was offering her. The bad man had
33:08
Speaker 2: glasses and a black mustache, a few tattoos she described
33:12
Speaker 2: as totally green, wore a black T shirt and blue jeans,
33:16
Speaker 2: and she thought was in his thirties. He told the
33:20
Speaker 2: girl he worked at a garage and at the Dickinson
33:23
Speaker 2: and Galveston police departments. His car was two door and
33:27
Speaker 2: a bluish YUCKI color, Jennifer wrote, the bad man said
33:33
Speaker 2: his name was Dennis. After almost two decades, when the
33:39
Speaker 2: case came to Dickinson Police special crimes investigator Tim Crommee,
33:44
Speaker 2: he and FBI Special agent Richard Renaisson quickly discovered that
33:48
Speaker 2: a significant amount of physical evidence still existed. The clothing
33:53
Speaker 2: Jennifer was wearing when she was kidnapped and some men's clothing,
33:58
Speaker 2: both discovered not far from where she was found. The
34:02
Speaker 2: clothing Jennifer war was described by her in the notes
34:06
Speaker 2: she wrote. Detectives with advances and forensic technologies that had
34:11
Speaker 2: occurred between nineteen ninety and two thousand and eight, FBI
34:15
Speaker 2: labs in Quantico, Virginia were able to lift a male
34:18
Speaker 2: DNA profile from the items. When the profile was uploaded
34:23
Speaker 2: to cotis. It hit. At Gators Bar in Hot Springs, Arkansas,
34:31
Speaker 2: in the early morning hours of April sixteenth, nineteen ninety six,
34:36
Speaker 2: a thirty five year old woman will call Katie was
34:39
Speaker 2: approached by a man who offered to buyer a beer.
34:42
Speaker 2: She accepted the man's offer and they played a few
34:45
Speaker 2: games of pool together. When Katie was ready to go home,
34:50
Speaker 2: the man asked her if she wanted a ride and
34:53
Speaker 2: maybe get a bite to eat. She didn't want to eat,
34:57
Speaker 2: Katie told him, but the man did convince answered a
35:00
Speaker 2: cruise around while listening to his Ozzy Osbourne cassette. Before long,
35:06
Speaker 2: the man told Katie he had some property he'd like
35:09
Speaker 2: her to see. He drove to a remote location, and,
35:14
Speaker 2: immediately upon stopping the car, turned to Katie, grabbed her
35:18
Speaker 2: by the neck with one hand, and began choking her.
35:22
Speaker 2: The man used his other hand to punch the woman
35:25
Speaker 2: in the face. When she was disconcerted, confused, and in pain,
35:31
Speaker 2: the man dragged Katie out of the car and into
35:34
Speaker 2: a wooded area. There, he threw her to the ground
35:38
Speaker 2: and continued his relentless choking and beating assault. He took
35:44
Speaker 2: off his clothes, then hers With a knife to her throat.
35:48
Speaker 2: The man told Katie he was going to gouge out
35:51
Speaker 2: her eyes and kill her by cutting her jugular. He
35:55
Speaker 2: then raped her. Katie faded in and out of consciousness
36:00
Speaker 2: as the man choked her. During the sexual assault, she
36:04
Speaker 2: heard him telling her he was going to kill her
36:06
Speaker 2: nearly every time she came too. After the man completed
36:11
Speaker 2: this unforgivable act, he returned to the vehicle and brought
36:15
Speaker 2: back a towel and ordered Katie to clean herself up.
36:19
Speaker 2: Blood was all over her body. The man apologized profusely.
36:25
Speaker 2: On the way to dropping Katie off outside the Oaklawn
36:29
Speaker 2: horse racing track. As he drove away now the late
36:33
Speaker 2: morning hours, she read his license plate number in her
36:36
Speaker 2: mind and repeated it over and over again until she
36:40
Speaker 2: reached a dive bar across the street and called the
36:43
Speaker 2: Hot Springs police. This unimaginable nightmare was finally over. Later
36:52
Speaker 2: that day, twenty six year old welder Dennis Earl Bradford
36:56
Speaker 2: was arrested and charged with attempted first degree murder, kidnapping,
37:00
Speaker 2: and rape. By the time it was all said and done, however,
37:05
Speaker 2: the charges were whittled down to only kidnapping, and Bradford
37:10
Speaker 2: was sentenced to twelve years in prison in February of
37:13
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven. He served only four No matter the
37:19
Speaker 2: joke of justice that is that sentence, there was a
37:23
Speaker 2: silver lining. In nineteen ninety seven, the very year Bradford
37:28
Speaker 2: was convicted, it became required by law in Arkansas that
37:32
Speaker 2: blood samples specifically used for the collection of DNA be
37:37
Speaker 2: taken from individuals convicted of specific crimes, violent crimes like murder, rape, assault,
37:44
Speaker 2: or kidnapping. So more than a decade later, in two
37:49
Speaker 2: thousand and nine, when the male DNA profile from the
37:52
Speaker 2: brutal rape and attempted murder of eight year old Jennifer
37:56
Speaker 2: Shewitt in Dickinson, Texas, was entered into cotis. It hit
38:00
Speaker 2: on a match Dennis Earl Bradford, who was forty years
38:04
Speaker 2: old at that point. He'd grown up in the Dickinson area.
38:10
Speaker 2: Detective Tim Crommee and FBI agent Richard Renasson moved fast,
38:15
Speaker 2: and on October thirteenth, two thousand and nine, they arrested
38:19
Speaker 2: Bradford at his Little Rock, Arkansas home and charged him
38:23
Speaker 2: with attempted capital murder. When the rapist and attempted murderer
38:29
Speaker 2: was told Jennifer survived his attack, he broke down, claiming
38:33
Speaker 2: to think all those years that she was dead, but
38:37
Speaker 2: it was all an act. Upon the release of the
38:41
Speaker 2: composite sketch days after the merciless crime, as described to
38:46
Speaker 2: police by Jennifer Hewitt, Bradford shaved off his mustache. Contrary
38:52
Speaker 2: to his oscar worthy performance of relief and remorse, he
38:56
Speaker 2: knew all along she was still alive. Regardless, Bradford made
39:01
Speaker 2: a full confession. Jennifer Shewitt, who regained her voice in
39:07
Speaker 2: lieu of the fact that doctors told her she'd never
39:10
Speaker 2: speak again. Was told the day of the arrest. For
39:15
Speaker 2: almost twenty years she'd waited to face Bradford in court,
39:19
Speaker 2: and she looked forward to it immensely. But the cowardly
39:25
Speaker 2: would be child murderer could not face justice for the
39:28
Speaker 2: terrible crimes he'd committed. After six months on suicide watch
39:34
Speaker 2: at the Galveston County Jail, Bradford was moved to general
39:38
Speaker 2: population as prosecutors prepared their case against him. On May tenth,
39:44
Speaker 2: twenty ten, Dennis Earl Bradford hung himself in his cell.
39:51
Speaker 2: There was more to Bradford's criminal record, including an assault
39:55
Speaker 2: on a woman in a post office in the middle
39:57
Speaker 2: of the night in March of nineteen ninety. It's unknown
40:02
Speaker 2: to us if the Arlington Police Department looked into Dennis
40:05
Speaker 2: Earl Bradford after his arrest, or if the Amber Hagerman
40:09
Speaker 2: Task Force was aware of the terrible crime against Jennifer
40:13
Speaker 2: Diane Shwitt and were able to investigate possible similarities. An
40:19
Speaker 2: eight year old Jennifer Shewitt bears a remarkable resemblance to
40:22
Speaker 2: Amber for what that's worth, and it seems almost certain
40:26
Speaker 2: Bradford is responsible for more assaults against women and possibly
40:31
Speaker 2: girls In fact, in nineteen ninety three, he was charged
40:36
Speaker 2: with driving with no license plate, which might suggest he'd
40:40
Speaker 2: been out hunting for prey. We'll wrap up Amber's story
40:47
Speaker 2: and talk more about her legacy and another little Girl's
40:50
Speaker 2: legacy on the next episode of Gone Cold. If you
40:56
Speaker 2: have any information about the abduction and murder of Anne
41:00
Speaker 2: Renee Hackerman, please call the Arlington Police at eight one
41:04
Speaker 2: seven four five nine five seven seven to two. To
41:09
Speaker 2: remain anonymous and to be eligible for a reward, you
41:13
Speaker 2: can provide a tip at Terrent County Crime Stoppers at
41:16
Speaker 2: eight one seven four six' nine eight four seven. Seven
41:23
Speaker 2: if you have not, already look For Gone cold On, Instagram,
41:26
Speaker 2: facebook And twitter by Searching Gone cold and looking for
41:30
Speaker 2: The texas. Logo if you'd like to support the show
41:34
Speaker 2: and get the episodes ad, free go to patreon dot
41:37
Speaker 2: com forward Slash Gone Cold. Podcast thanks to all of
41:42
Speaker 2: you who support us. There it's a huge deal to.
41:45
Speaker 2: Us if you're not in a position to Help Gone
41:49
Speaker 2: cold financially but would like to in some other, way
41:53
Speaker 2: Well i've got just the. Thing leaving us a five
41:56
Speaker 2: star rating and written review On iTunes particularly Helps Gone cold's.
42:01
Speaker 2: Visibility the more folks who find us and, listen the
42:05
Speaker 2: greater chance someone with information about a case here's the
42:08
Speaker 2: show and comes forward with what they. Know every little bit,
42:13
Speaker 2: helps and we appreciate y'all support, immensely however you choose
42:17
Speaker 2: to give. It sources for this episode can be found
42:21
Speaker 2: in the episode's show. Notes thanks for, listening, y'all