Latest / Crime Night / The Unsolved Murder of Anita Carlson

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The Unsolved Murder of Anita Carlson · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So picture this. It's late June 1987, and we're in Bemidji, Minnesota.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, right in the heart of summer.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Exactly. The Midwestern summer air is just, you know, it's thick,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: it's sticky. The whole town is completely buzzing.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Because the Fourth of July is right around the corner, right? Yeah.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The carnival's rolling in, folks are firing up their grills,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and you've got the sprawling Mississippi River just sparkling under
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the sun.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: It's that classic postcard image.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: It really is. You've got those Iconic towering statues of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox looking over everything.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It's a community that's just vibrating with this idyllic small-town
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: holiday energy.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is the quintessential Americana scene. This is
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: a place where families travel specifically to vacation, to camp
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: in the state parks, and above all, you know, to
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: feel completely safe.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Right. But if you drive just a few miles outside
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of those city limits, that warm, bustling picture just completely vanishes.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: It's a really stark contrast.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's jarring. The landscape suddenly just swallows you up. You
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: hit these dark, dense, isolating logging roads.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, where the tree canopy is so thick it
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: actually blocks out the sky.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Even in the middle of the day. And it was
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: out there in that suffocating silence that the holiday celebrations
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: for Bemidji were about to just, well, freeze completely.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Because of what happened to Anita Carlson. She's really the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: anchor of this entire investigation.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a 22-year-old woman who was just, I mean, she
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: was brilliant. A recent college graduate, her high school valedictorian.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: She was even a former weather girl for the local
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: university television station.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: She had so much going for her.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: She really did. She was interning at PBS, hunting for
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: big media jobs, just brimming with promise. But then she vanished.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Just completely disappeared. Right.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So our mission today for this Deep Dive is... is
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to really pull back the curtain on the original police files.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: And there are thousands of pages of these, right?
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, thousands. We're going to unpack the field notes, the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: interrogation transcripts, the cold case logs, and just try to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: reconstruct exactly what happened.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Because we are looking at that terrifying, razor-thin line between
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: a random crime of opportunity and a calculated trap.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And to really grasp the scale of the challenge
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: these investigators faced, you kind of have to put yourself
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: in their shoes.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Right, because looking for a missing person in northern Minnesota
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: is not like searching a typical town.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Not at all. Imagine trying to find a dropped coin
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: in a massive, dark football stadium, and all you have
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: is a tiny penlight.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And that stadium is 280 miles of impenetrable wild woodland.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: It's a logistical nightmare.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So let's construct the timeline, because the unsettling quiet of
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: this case begins at a place called Pete's Place.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: The gas station.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's this remote gas station and convenience store sitting
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: right at the crossroads of Highway 2 and Highway 89.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: It's June 30th.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And Anita is working the late shift alone. Right.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: She's just picking up these hours to earn some extra
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: cash while she figures out her media career.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: And looking through the initial police timelines, you know, the
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: evening starts completely normally.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Nothing out of the ordinary at all.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Right. At 10.30 p.m., Anita places a call to her roommate, Tina,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: and the conversation is just brief and totally unremarkable.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Just a standard check-in.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Anita mentions she's had a long day, everything is
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: fine at the store, and she says she'll be heading
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: home right after she closes up.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And her standard routine is to lock those front doors
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: promptly at 11 p.m.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: But of course, she never makes it home. No. When
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: the morning shift arrives the next day, the scene they
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: walk into is just, it's like it's suspended in time.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It's so eerie. The police file notes these immediate glaring
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: inconsistencies like, Anita's car is still sitting in the parking lot.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Which is red flag number one.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Big time. The neon beer signs in the windows are
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: still blazing brightly. Inside, the radio is playing to a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: completely empty room. Oh, wow. And her purse is just
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: left sitting abandoned on a chair under a coat rack.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Which tells you she didn't leave willingly. And we know
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: from the store's management that Pete's place had a very
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: strict closing protocol.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Right, like a whole checklist. Exactly.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: A clerk is supposed to lock the doors... turn off
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: those neon signs, activate the security system, and prep the
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: registers for the morning shift.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And absolutely none of that was done. None of it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: But the detail at the crime scene that immediately anchored
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: the investigation was the state of the cash registers. Right.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: There were two tills on the counter. One was completely
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: closed and locked.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And the other?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: The other was wide open. $ 1, 300 in cash and food
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: stamps were just gone. The only thing left in the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: open drawer was some loose change.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Which presents this fascinating behavioral puzzle for the detectives, you know?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Because it wasn't a smash and grab.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If you have a violent robbery in the middle
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: of the night, you expect chaos. You expect broken glass,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: both registers violently pried open with a crowbar or something.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: But here, there's zero sign of forced entry. The store
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: is perfectly intact.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: It operates almost like a Trojan horse. Think about the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: mechanics of a robbery. If you're a thief... You don't
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: want to make a loud, messy scene trying to break
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: into a heavy metal register.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: No, you want to be quick and quiet.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: So a much cleaner method is to buy something tiny
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: right at closing time. You just wait for the cashier
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to punch in the sale and pop the drawer open
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: for you, and then you make your move.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: And when investigators pulled the physical till tape from that register,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that theory actually holds water.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about the till tape.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: So the till tape acts as a chronological map of
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: a crime. By looking at the stamped times of the purchases,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: investigators mapped out Anita's final moments down to the minute.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Which is incredible when you think about it.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: It really is. So at 10.57 p.m., the tape shows
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: she rings up a standard grocery sale for a local
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: guy and a few of his friends.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's three minutes before closing.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Right. Then there is a gap, followed by one final,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: incredibly suspicious transaction.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: At 11.08 p.m. Exactly. Exactly. Eight minutes after Anita was
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: supposed to be locking those doors. Someone buys an item
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: for exactly $ 4. 37. And that's the trigger. The drawer mechanically opens.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And according to the tape, that is the final action
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: taken at Pete's place that night.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: The perpetrator clearly used that final transaction to bypass the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: lock on the till and gain access to the money.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Just a classic trap.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: But from an investigative standpoint, this raises a glaring contradiction.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the motive. Right.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: If the motive was simply a late-night robbery for $ 1, 300, well,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: they achieved their goal. The drawer was open. The money
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: was in their hands. Why take the cashier?
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Taking the cashier elevates this from a robbery to a
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: potential homicide instantly.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: It changes the entire scope of the investigation.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: And over that Fourth of July weekend, the atmosphere in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Bemidji completely fractures. You know, the fireworks and barbecues are
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: entirely overshadowed by this massive, desperate search effort.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Everyone is out looking for her.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: We're talking planes in the air, horseback teams, tracker dogs
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: on the ground. Because the town borders the Red Lake
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Indian Reservation, the FBI is even brought in to manage
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: jurisdictional overlaps and provide manpower for interviews.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But the physical environment itself is fighting the searchers at
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: every single turn.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the terrain is just brutal.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: It really can't be overstated. In late June and early July,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: the foliage in northern Minnesota reaches its absolute peak density.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: It's like a jungle.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Basically, yeah. The canopy from the trees is so thick
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: that search planes looking down simply see an unbroken sea
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: of green. They cannot see the forest floor at all.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: So the aerial search is almost useless.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Almost, yeah. And on the ground, the humidity is oppressive.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: And the underbrush is so dense that a searcher could
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: walk within five feet of a victim, completely camouflaged by
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: the tall grass and the shadows, and just never see them.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: The problem with 280 miles of impenetrable forest is that
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you just can't search it systematically.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: No, you really have to rely on luck.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And on July 5th, that luck came in the form
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: of a local Good Samaritan named Robert Sampson.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: He was out driving, right?
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He's out doing his part, driving a four-wheel drive
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: truck down this secluded, unmarked dirt path deep in the woods.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: One of those logging roads.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Exactly. It's barely a road, mostly just an overgrown trail.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: As he's navigating it, he notices this subtle disturbance in
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the environment.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Something just looks off. Right.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: The tall grass on the path is freshly matted down,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: indicating a vehicle had recently pushed its way through.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: So he stops his truck, follows that specific trail, and
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: two miles deep into the woods from Pete's place, he
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: makes the discovery.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Anita's body is found partially clothed. The autopsy reports
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: in the case file later confirm she had been sexually
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: assaulted and shot twice in the head.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: It's just devastating.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: But this specific location brings a concept called geographical profiling
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: to the forefront of the investigation.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: How does that work?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Well, behavioral analysts use geography to understand an offender's mental map.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: An offender operates within a comfort zone, usually anchored around
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: their home, their workplace, or routes they travel frequently. So
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: they stick to what they know.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Whoever took Anita and drove her to that specific
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: spot didn't just find it by accident in the dark.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Definitely not.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: A transient drifter passing through on Highway 2 wouldn't even
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: know that unmarked dirt path existed, let alone how deep
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: it went or how isolated it was.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: It's too well hidden.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Right. This tells the investigators almost definitively that the killer
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: is a local.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: That is a chilling realization for a small community. The
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: threat isn't a stranger on the highway. It's someone right
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: in their backyard.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Which is terrifying.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: And it circles back to that earlier question. Why take
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the clerk? If you're a local... and you rob a
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: gas station in your own town, you take the clerk
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: because she can identify you.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Because she knows who you are.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just about the $ 1, 300. Anita likely knew her
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: attacker or at least recognized his face.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And this realization forces the detectives to completely reevaluate Anita's
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: inner circle and her daily interactions.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: They need to know everyone she interacted with.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: They need to know exactly who was lingering around Pete's
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: place in the weeks leading up to the murder. And
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: this leads them straight back to Anita's roommate, Tina.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Tina provides a massive piece of the puzzle here. She
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: tells investigators that Anita had been complaining about a specific
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: guy who came into the gas station all the time.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: The guy she had a nickname for.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Anita had nicknamed him the good doctor. He was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: constantly offering to take her for rides in his car,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: making her incredibly uncomfortable.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Total creep behavior.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So investigators immediately search Anita's bedroom. And right there
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: in her trash can, they find a discarded business card.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: The name on it is Dr. Stephen M. Burnham.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: And the police files show detectives took this name straight
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: to Anita's fiance, Jeff.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Did he know who it was?
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: He recognized the name immediately. He explained that the good
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: doctor was a man in his 30s with a receding
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: hairline who actually attended their church.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. So he was really in their orbit. Yes.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Anita had confided in Jeff that Burnham gave her the
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: creeps because he was constantly finding excuses to initiate physical
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: contact with her.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: And when police cross-referenced Stephen Burnham's name with the witness
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: statements from the night of the disappearance, everything seems to align.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: He was there, wasn't he?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Burnham was physically in Pete's place that night. He was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the customer who came in around 10.30 p.m. to buy
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: milk and candy bars.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: But what investigators find most fascinating is Burnham's behavior immediately
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: following the crime.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: This part is wild.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: The morning after the robbery. This is before Anita's body
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: was found, before the public even knew it was a
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: murder investigation. Burnham voluntarily walks into the police station.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: He just walks right in.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he claims his father heard about a robbery at
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: the gas station on the police scanner, so he wanted
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to come down and offer any help he could. openly
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: confirming he was there at 10.30 p.m.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: So Burnham walks into the police station voluntarily the morning after.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: If he is the guy who committed this crime, why
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: on earth would he put himself directly in the crosshairs
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: of the detectives like that?
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: It seems counterintuitive, but it's actually a well-documented psychological tactic
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: used by guilty individuals.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. By inserting yourself into the investigation early as a
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: quote-unquote helpful witness, you attempt to control the narrative.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It allows you to gauge exactly what the police know
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: while establishing a seemingly innocent reason for your fingerprints or
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: your presence to be at the crime scene.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: That's a really bold move.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: But once the detectives realize this helpful witness is the
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: exact same creepy guy from the business card in Anita's trash,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: they bring him back into the interrogation room.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: And that's when things get really strange. They start systematically
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: pulling at the threads of his life. And the narrative
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: he has built for himself just unravels with astonishing speed.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: The psychological profile of Stephen Burnham that emerges from these
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: transcripts is just staggering.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It's all lies, isn't it?
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Basically. I mean, the business card claimed he was a
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: medical doctor. He was not.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Strike one.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: He claimed to hold a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Arizona State University. Under pressure from detectives, he admitted he
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: never obtained that degree.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: So he just made it up.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: He then pivoted, claiming he went to the local Bemidji
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: State University. Police checked the registrar. There was no record
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: of him ever attending.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And the fabrications just keep escalating. He claimed to be
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a decorated Vietnam veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Which was a complete lie.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: A complete lie. He claimed he held top-secret clearance with
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the CIA. The investigators formally checked with federal agencies. He
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: had never held any clearance.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: It's like he's living in a fantasy world.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Exactly. The reality of Stephen Burnham was that he was
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: living with his parents, completely broke, buried in $ 12, 000 of debt,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and admitted to investigators that he had engaged in 15
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: separate affairs.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: And the interrogation room dynamics reveal a man whose entire
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: identity is a defensive fabrication.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: It's a shield. Exactly.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: When detectives press him on why he created this elaborate
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: fake life, Burnham's response is incredibly revealing. He states he
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: simply wanted to impress people.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: But with Anita, it was more specific.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Crucially, he admits his primary motive for talking to Anita
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: at the gas station was to quote, hustle her.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: But the strange behavior in that police station isn't just
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: limited to him. While detectives are in the middle of
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: questioning him, his mother physically bursts into the interview room.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Talk about a dramatic entrance.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: The transcript notes she was highly agitated. She interrupts the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: interrogation to straight up tell the detectives that even if
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: she had witnessed something regarding this crime, she would never
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: come forward to help them.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, that displays a highly enmeshed defensive familial dynamic.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: She's protecting him at all costs.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: His mother essentially declares herself an adversary to the investigation,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: completely unprompted. So to break through this wall, detectives ask
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: both Stephen Burnham and his wife to submit to polygraph examinations.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Now, you might be thinking what I was thinking. Polygraphs
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: aren't admissible in court. So why do police rely on
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: them so heavily in these situations?
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: It's a great question. And the answer is because the
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: polygraph is primarily a psychological lever.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: A tool to apply pressure.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Yes. The machine itself measures physiological stress, you know, heart rate, sweat, respiration.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: But its true value to an investigator is the cognitive
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: load it places on a suspect.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Because lying is hard work.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly. A deceptive person has to work incredibly hard to
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: maintain a lie while strapped to a machine they believe
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: can literally read their mind. The stress of the test
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: often cracks a suspect's facade, leading to changing stories or
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: outright confessions.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: In this case, both Burnham and his wife fail the polygraphs.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: The machine indicates deception for both of them.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Which just piles on the suspicion. Right.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: So we have a guy who lies pathologically about everything,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: who stalked the victim, who was at the scene shortly
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: before she vanished, and who fails a polygraph.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: But here's the million-dollar question.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Does extreme pathological lying automatically make someone a murderer? Is
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Stephen Burnham a cold-blooded, calculated killer? Or is he just
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: a pathetic con man who happened to be buying milk
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: at the wrong time?
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: That is the exact dilemma the detectives faced. Being a
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: pathological liar makes you an incredibly suspicious person, but it
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: doesn't leave forensic evidence at a crime scene.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And you need evidence.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: You have to have it. Burnham insisted he left the
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: store after purchasing his milk and had an alibi provided
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: by his family. The same family we already know was
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: fiercely protective of him.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: And they never found a weapon, right?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: No, without the murder weapon, which investigators asked him extensively about.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: or any physical evidence tying him to that matted grass
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: in the woods, he remains a person of interest.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: But legally, he is not a chargeable suspect. Exactly. So
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: without forensic proof, the investigators really have no choice but
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to widen the net. And over the decades, that net
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: has captured a staggering amount of information.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: The file is massive now.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: We are talking about a case file that has swelled
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to over 4,000 pages. It has transitioned into a massive
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: generational cold case.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: When you look through the binders of a case file
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: this large, you see the ghosts of dozens of alternative suspects.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Every local rumor.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Every suspicious person. Every prison tip. It all has to
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: be systematically investigated, documented, and cleared.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: You see names like Billy Thunder and John Jourdain. These
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: were two guys who had actually burglarized Pete's Place the
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: previous year in 1986.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: So naturally their names kept coming up in town gossip.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: People assumed they came back for a second score. But
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: police have to rely on facts, not gossip. They tracked
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: both men down, established timelines, and verified their alibis through
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: multiple independent sources, ultimately clearing them of Anita's murder.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Then you have the tips that come from inside the
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: prison system, which require an entirely different method of vetting.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Those are tricky.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Very. In 1990, a tip came in from a Wisconsin
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: prison regarding a man named Ken Hawkins. Inmates claimed Hawkins
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: was openly bragging in the yard about assaulting and killing
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: a girl in a convenience store.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And Ken Hawkins wasn't just anybody.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: No, he was a convicted sex offender who had been
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: released from prison just nine months before Anita's murder.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: It's a terrifying profile.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: It perfectly fits the geographic timeline.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: But again, how do you separate an inmate trying to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: look tough from a genuine confession?
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: This is where we see the transition of the investigation
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: to modern law enforcement. The current agent leading the charge
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is Jake Hodap.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And he has a very specific strategy.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Agent Hodup utilizes a critical investigative strategy called holdback evidence
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to vet tips just like the one about Ken Hawkins.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: The public is always hungry for details. You know, what
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: kind of gun was used? What position was the body
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: found in? What DNA was recovered?
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: But the police adamantly refused to release those specific details
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: to the media.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: They have Anita's clothes. They have items recovered from the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: dirt path. And they have the ballistics from the two shots.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Because that holdback information acts as the ultimate lie detector.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Well, prison inmates frequently brag about high-profile crimes to gain status,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: or they offer false tips, hoping to negotiate a reduced sentence.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: If an informant claims Ken Hawkins committed the murder, the
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: police interview Hawkins and wait for him to slip up.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: If he claims he used a common shotgun, but the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: police secretly know the ballistics show a very specific, rare
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: caliber handgun, they instantly know the tip is false.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: And on the flip side?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Conversely, if a suspect mentions a detail about the crime
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: scene that was never published in the newspapers, the detectives
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: know they are sitting across from their killer.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: And this case isn't just another file in a cabinet
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: for Agent Hodap. The generational weight of this investigation is
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: incredibly heavy.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: It's deeply personal.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Jake Hodap was five years old when Anita was murdered.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: His father was the original BCA agent on the scene
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: back in 1987. Wow. Yeah, his dad kept a picture
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of Anita Carlson on his desk for his entire career,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: a constant reminder of the case he couldn't close.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: That is just heart-wrenching.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Now, his son is reading his dad's original, handwritten field notes,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: trying to finish what he started using advanced DNA testing
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: that his father never could have imagined.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: And the expert consensus on a file this massive is haunting. Statistically,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: in a closed-loop, small-town case with geographic profiling pointing locally,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: the killer doesn't just vanish into thin air.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: They're still there.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Their name is almost certainly already written somewhere in those 4,000 pages.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: That gives me chills.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: They have likely already sat across an interrogation table, looked
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: a detective in the eye, and been interviewed. The physical
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: evidence is secured. What the investigators are waiting for is
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: the narrative key. You know, someone finally coming forward with
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: the one piece of context that makes the DNA or
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: the ballistics suddenly point undeniably to a specific name in
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: those binders.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: While the police wait for that key, the town of
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Bemidji has had to navigate the aftermath. Anita's death sent
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: shockwaves that fundamentally changed how the community operated.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Especially for night shift workers.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Convenience stores across the entire region completely overhauled their safety policies,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: ensuring that women would no longer be scheduled to work
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: late-night shifts alone.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Her impact really was profound. She had two massive funerals,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: one in Bemidji, where she had built a deep connection
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: with her college community, and a second in her hometown.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: It just shows how loved she was.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Her family held tightly to their faith, taking solace in
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the fact that her short life had touched so many people.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: But the emotional toll of an unsolved murder on a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: family is almost impossible to quantify. We looked at a
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: statement from Anita's brother, Dale.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: It's a really powerful statement.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: He described the decade following her murder using this incredibly
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: powerful analogy. He said the grief was like a thick
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: rubber band being slowly stretched.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Just constant tension.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Right. And you're pulled tighter and tighter with the anxiety.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: The Endless investigations, the rumors, the lack of answers. And finally,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: after years of this unbearable, compounding tension, the rubber band
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: just snaps.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: And you can't put it back together.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: No. You are forever changed. The white-hot anger eventually fades
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: into exhaustion. But you are left with this permanent, heavy
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: lack of closure.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: That is the reality of a cold case. The world
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: keeps turning. The Fourth of July carnivals keep coming back
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: to the shores of the Mississippi River. But for the family,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: the clock is permanently stopped at 11.08 p.m. on June 30, 1987.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Which brings us back to that dark logging road and
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the haunting reality of this investigation.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: The unanswered questions.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: If the behavioral analysts are right, if the killer was
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: a local who knew exactly where to hide in that
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: impenetrable forest, and if the statistics hold true, that his
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: name is already buried somewhere in those 4,000 pages of
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: police files. How does a person walk around a small
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: town for nearly 40 years holding a secret that dark?
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: It's hard to even fathom.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: It makes you wonder, have you ever walked past someone
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: in the grocery store or sat next to them at
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a local diner, completely unaware of the ghosts they are carrying?