1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,439 Speaker 1: There's something I don't know, almost intoxicating about the idea 2 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:07,120 of a perfect mystery, the kind that really baffles generations 3 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,880 of investigators. The timeline just goes cold, the evidence seems 4 00:00:10,919 --> 00:00:13,919 to evaporate, and the killer, well, they just vanish. 5 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 2: And that's the central paradox we're you going to dig 6 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,320 into today, because the idea of an unsolvable crime is 7 00:00:19,359 --> 00:00:21,359 often just a label we put on it based on 8 00:00:21,719 --> 00:00:25,239 our current limits. The most enduring mysteries, the ones that 9 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:30,440 span decades, are almost always cracked by the smallest, most overlooked. 10 00:00:29,879 --> 00:00:32,359 Speaker 1: Thread, a thread that was there from the beginning, exactly. 11 00:00:32,799 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 2: The key piece of evidence that solves the case was 12 00:00:35,679 --> 00:00:37,560 almost always present from day one. 13 00:00:37,719 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Thrilling Threads. Today, we are taking a massive 14 00:00:41,039 --> 00:00:43,960 look at two dozen sources, two dozen cases where the 15 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,479 answer seemed completely buried forever. Our mission is to really 16 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,719 analyze these breakthroughs and understand not just who is caught, 17 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,719 but more importantly, how the impossible was actually accomplished. 18 00:00:54,799 --> 00:00:57,359 Speaker 2: Right. We're looking for the patterns, what connects the science, 19 00:00:57,679 --> 00:01:00,920 the persistence, and sometimes just pure dumb luck. 20 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: And this deep dive is really for you, the learner 21 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,319 who values getting into the weeds, you know, finding that 22 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:11,000 surprising insight. We're trying to look past the sensational headlines 23 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,519 to find the real lessons in forensics, in human nature. 24 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 2: And we want to know what this specific mechanism is. 25 00:01:17,719 --> 00:01:21,159 What is it that breaks a thirty year wall of silence? 26 00:01:21,439 --> 00:01:23,879 Speaker 1: Okay, so let's frame this whole thing around the time factor. 27 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,400 Many of these cases they span thirty, forty, even sixty 28 00:01:27,439 --> 00:01:31,280 five years. What fundamentally changes in that time that allows 29 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:32,079 for a resolution. 30 00:01:32,519 --> 00:01:34,599 Speaker 2: Well, it's not that the evidence gets older, it's that 31 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,359 we finally figure out how to listen to it, how 32 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,719 to read that specific chemical or biological or even digital signature. 33 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 1: The crime left behind the long arc of science. 34 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 2: Precisely, we often find the evidence was sitting right there, 35 00:01:47,799 --> 00:01:51,200 you know, in an evidence box. Sometimes is mislabeled, sometimes 36 00:01:51,239 --> 00:01:55,680 dismissed as too degraded, but it was scientifically unusable until forensics, 37 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,040 especially DNA, evolved to meet it. And that gap, that 38 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,719 waiting game, that's maybe the biggest test investigative discipline there is. 39 00:02:02,879 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: So investigators have to believe in a future capability they 40 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:07,280 can't even imagine. 41 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,360 Speaker 2: Yet they do. And I think we should start right 42 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:12,919 there with maybe The ultimate test of that patience, the 43 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,719 sixty five year wait for answers. In the case of 44 00:02:15,759 --> 00:02:16,599 the Boy in the Box. 45 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: This is one of the most haunting mysteries in American history. 46 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 2: For sure, absolutely. The victim, a young boy, maybe four 47 00:02:24,159 --> 00:02:27,039 to six years old, was found in February of nineteen 48 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,639 fifty seven. He was in a cardboard box in Philadelphia's 49 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:32,240 Foxchase neighborhood. 50 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:34,360 Speaker 1: And the details are just grim. He was wrapped in 51 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,439 a cheap blanket. His body showed clear signs of severe 52 00:02:37,439 --> 00:02:42,080 abuse malnutrition. The investigation was huge. Right away, police canets 53 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,840 coned the woods. There were public pleas everywhere. It became 54 00:02:44,879 --> 00:02:46,759 this like regional obsession. 55 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:50,400 Speaker 2: But they had nothing, no identity, and critically no usable 56 00:02:50,439 --> 00:02:54,479 evidence beyond the body itself. He became known as America's 57 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:55,800 Unknown child. 58 00:02:55,479 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: And that's what he was for nearly sixty five years. 59 00:02:57,759 --> 00:03:00,759 What's so fascinating to me is the sheer person, you know, 60 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,879 the investigators who kept this case alive over generations. 61 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,759 Speaker 2: They realized identity was the key, but their tools were 62 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:11,719 frankly hopeless back then. They even tried to collect DNA 63 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,400 back in nineteen ninety eight when the tech was getting better, 64 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,400 but the sample was just too small, too degraded. The 65 00:03:17,439 --> 00:03:18,840 methods weren't there yet, so. 66 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,400 Speaker 1: They tried again in twenty nineteen. That's an incredible generational 67 00:03:22,439 --> 00:03:25,280 commitment right there. What made that effort different? 68 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,319 Speaker 2: What was really a two part thing. Okay, on one hand, 69 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:30,960 you had much better methods for you know, just pulling 70 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,759 out these tiny, really degraded DNA fragments. But the real 71 00:03:34,759 --> 00:03:40,879 game changer was the explosion of forensic genetic genealogy. 72 00:03:40,879 --> 00:03:45,319 Speaker 1: FGG, which goes beyond just matching to a criminal database. 73 00:03:45,039 --> 00:03:47,879 Speaker 2: Way beyond. It takes the DNA profile and uploads it 74 00:03:47,919 --> 00:03:51,439 to public genealogy databases. Now there are protocols and consent issues, 75 00:03:51,479 --> 00:03:54,919 of course, but they start looking for distant relatives, second, third, 76 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:55,759 even fourth. 77 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: Cousins, So they weren't looking for a killer. They were 78 00:03:57,599 --> 00:04:00,000 building the boys family tree exactly. 79 00:04:00,159 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 2: The genealogists built this massive treat backward and forward, narrowing 80 00:04:03,879 --> 00:04:07,159 it down until they identified his birth mother's family. And 81 00:04:07,199 --> 00:04:09,919 that final crucial link came in twenty twenty two. 82 00:04:10,159 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: Joseph Augustus Zarelli, that's the name they finally announced. And 83 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:18,279 the insight here is just it's profound. It's not just 84 00:04:18,319 --> 00:04:21,720 about the power of modern genealogy. It's about the absolute 85 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,680 necessity of preserving evidence long term. 86 00:04:24,759 --> 00:04:29,120 Speaker 2: Right. If that original sample, however degraded, hadn't been meticulously 87 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,360 stored for sixty plus years, if the chain of custody 88 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,199 had broken, FGG, you would be useless. It's really a 89 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:36,519 triumph of the evidence locker. 90 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:39,600 Speaker 1: It's a lesson for every agency. Right, failure today doesn't 91 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:40,720 mean failure tomorrow. 92 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:43,319 Speaker 2: It shifts the mindset from can we solve it now? 93 00:04:43,879 --> 00:04:46,040 To can we make sure this evidence survives so it 94 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:46,920 can be solved later. 95 00:04:47,399 --> 00:04:50,839 Speaker 1: That's a powerful idea. And speaking of genealogy changing everything, 96 00:04:50,879 --> 00:04:53,000 we have to talk about the case that really put 97 00:04:53,079 --> 00:04:55,240 FGG on the map for the public. The Golden State 98 00:04:55,319 --> 00:04:56,720 Killer Joseph James DiAngelo. 99 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely yeah. Dangelo is this mythical figure of terror evasion. 100 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,560 Between nineteen seventy four and nineteen eighty six, he committed 101 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:07,920 this unbelievable string of crimes thirteen murders, dozens of assaults, 102 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,680 scores of burglaries all over California, and then the crimes 103 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:14,839 just stopped, spanished completely. He had so many names, the 104 00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:17,879 East Area rapist, the original knightstocker, and. 105 00:05:17,879 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: He outsmarted multiple police forces for forty years, only to 106 00:05:21,879 --> 00:05:25,160 be found living as a quiet, retired truck mechanic. 107 00:05:25,879 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 2: And you have to give credit not just to the science, 108 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,399 but to the people, the cold case investigators and especially 109 00:05:32,399 --> 00:05:35,759 the crime writer Michelle McNamara, whose work just kept the 110 00:05:35,759 --> 00:05:36,240 pressure on. 111 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,600 Speaker 1: So the break finally comes in twenty eighteen. How did 112 00:05:39,639 --> 00:05:40,160 they do it? 113 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,720 Speaker 2: Well, unlike the boy in the box, they were looking 114 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,759 from him directly, but the traditional databases you know, COTIS, 115 00:05:46,959 --> 00:05:50,399 turned up nothing, so they pivoted to FGG. They used 116 00:05:50,439 --> 00:05:53,759 public ancestry databases to start building out family trees from 117 00:05:53,759 --> 00:05:54,720 the crimes in DNA. 118 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: Okay, but let me push on that for a second. 119 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,160 The breakthrough wasn't just the tech, right, It was the 120 00:05:59,199 --> 00:06:02,120 decision to use a public database like ged match, which 121 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,720 was built for hobbyists. Was it a technological breakthrough or 122 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:07,600 was it a policy and data breakthrough? 123 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:10,800 Speaker 2: That is a fantastic and critical distinction. The tech had 124 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:13,839 been getting better for years, but the data pool was 125 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:17,199 the game changer. By accessing millions of profiles that curious 126 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,879 citizens had uploaded, they expanded their search from direct matches 127 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,120 to distant genetic cousins. 128 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:25,639 Speaker 1: So they found a third or fourth cousin. 129 00:06:25,759 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 2: Exactly, someone who provided the entry point into his family line. 130 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:33,000 Without that public contribution, the DNA profile was just a 131 00:06:33,079 --> 00:06:34,800 random sequence with nowhere to go. 132 00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:37,959 Speaker 1: Once they had his name, they got his DNA off 133 00:06:38,079 --> 00:06:41,560 a car door handle and a discarded tissue to confirm it. 134 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:44,879 Speaker 2: It's that dual life phenomenon that I find so deeply unsettling, 135 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:48,839 The ability to maintain that facade a quiet suburban guy 136 00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:50,240 for four decades. 137 00:06:50,319 --> 00:06:54,160 Speaker 1: It makes you realize anyone could be hiding something, only 138 00:06:54,199 --> 00:06:57,000 to be caught by a biological signature that can't ever erase. 139 00:06:57,399 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 2: And that biological signature works just as well for identicy 140 00:07:00,079 --> 00:07:04,000 fying victims, which takes us to the Bearbrook murders. This 141 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,439 is a case where DNA not only identified the victims, 142 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,839 but also retroactively identified the killer, even though he was 143 00:07:09,879 --> 00:07:10,399 already dead. 144 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:13,879 Speaker 1: This one is profoundly dark. From Bearbrooks State Park in 145 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,800 New Hampshire, we're talking about four sets of human remains, 146 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,959 an adult female and three young girls. They were found 147 00:07:19,959 --> 00:07:22,279 in two different years, nineteen eighty five and two thousand 148 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,199 and for decades they were just known as the Allenstown Four. 149 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:28,680 Speaker 2: A total mystery, but the identification web they built is 150 00:07:28,759 --> 00:07:34,079 just incredible. In twenty seventeen, genetic genealogists finally identified the 151 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,560 adult female as Marley's Elizabeth Honeychurch, and two of the 152 00:07:37,639 --> 00:07:41,399 girls as her daughters. But the real twist, the breakthrough 153 00:07:41,439 --> 00:07:42,959 came with identifying the fourth. 154 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:44,959 Speaker 1: Child, Ria rasmesin right. 155 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:47,800 Speaker 2: And this is where the killer's identity finally emerges from 156 00:07:47,839 --> 00:07:50,600 the shadows. Rio was the child of the likely killer, 157 00:07:50,959 --> 00:07:54,639 a man named Terry Peter Rasmisen, a notorious serial killer 158 00:07:54,639 --> 00:07:56,560 with a bunch of failiuses who had actually died in 159 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:58,120 prison back in twenty ten. 160 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 1: So the DNA created this reallyationlationship map that connected all 161 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,959 four victims to each other and then to the one 162 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:05,879 man who linked them all precisely. 163 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:09,399 Speaker 2: It proves that DNA works across the time barrier. Whether 164 00:08:09,439 --> 00:08:12,199 the perpetrator is alive or dead. You can still get 165 00:08:12,199 --> 00:08:14,319 closure even if you can't get a prosecution. 166 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,240 Speaker 1: That's such a critical distinction, the pursuit of truth outliving 167 00:08:18,279 --> 00:08:21,120 the pursuit of justice in that narrow legal sense. I mean, 168 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:23,360 imagine being a family member finally getting a name for 169 00:08:23,399 --> 00:08:25,839 your loved one, only to learn the killer is already gone. 170 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,399 Speaker 2: You get the certainty, but you're denied that final accountability. 171 00:08:29,639 --> 00:08:31,040 It's a complicated kind of piece. 172 00:08:31,319 --> 00:08:33,720 Speaker 1: We see that same kind of perseverance payoff in the 173 00:08:33,759 --> 00:08:36,600 Green River killer case, but this time the breakthrough was 174 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,120 less about genealogy and more about just the simple power 175 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:40,879 of preservation. 176 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 2: Gary Ridgeway, he cast this chilling shadow over King County, 177 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:50,279 Washington through the entire nineteen eighties. We're talking in estimated 178 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,759 forty nine concerned victims. He was systematically preying on young, 179 00:08:54,879 --> 00:08:58,960 vulnerable women. The investigation was massive. They even had FBI 180 00:08:59,039 --> 00:09:03,120 profilers like Ryelano's tool using psychological strategies to try and 181 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:03,879 get a confession. 182 00:09:04,039 --> 00:09:06,639 Speaker 1: But the psychology wasn't enough. The break when it came 183 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:09,039 in two thousand and one was purely scientific. 184 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 2: It was, and the key was that investigators back in 185 00:09:12,159 --> 00:09:14,759 the eighties, working under all this pressure with what was 186 00:09:14,799 --> 00:09:18,799 then very crude DNA tech, had the foresight to meticulously 187 00:09:18,799 --> 00:09:21,720 collect and preserve biological evidence from several victims. 188 00:09:21,799 --> 00:09:23,399 Speaker 1: So why couldn't they use it back then? Was it 189 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,480 the sample size, the quality. 190 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:28,320 Speaker 2: Mostly the test itself. Back in the eighties, DNA testing 191 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,279 required pretty large, clean samples. They were using methods that 192 00:09:31,279 --> 00:09:33,559 were destructed to the sample and needed a lot of material, 193 00:09:33,799 --> 00:09:36,519 but by the nineties, the Polymberus chain reaction PCR had 194 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:37,679 been refined. 195 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: And PCR lets you amplify tiny. 196 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,840 Speaker 2: Samples millions of times over, so that two thousand and 197 00:09:42,879 --> 00:09:46,440 one lab could take a minute degraded sample like sperm 198 00:09:46,519 --> 00:09:50,360 found on preserve clothing and get a definitive link to Ridgeway, 199 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:53,200 something that was just impossible two decades earlier. 200 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:56,080 Speaker 1: That is the triumph of foresight we were talking about. The 201 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,080 investigators who collected that evidence knowing they couldn't use it 202 00:09:59,159 --> 00:10:00,759 yet are the real heroes there. 203 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,759 Speaker 2: They were betting on the future and it paid off. 204 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:08,679 Confronted with irrefutable genetic proof, Ridgeway confessed to dozens of 205 00:10:08,759 --> 00:10:11,399 murders to avoid the death penalty. The science gave them 206 00:10:11,399 --> 00:10:13,360 the leverage they needed to get the truth. 207 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:15,519 Speaker 1: Which really sets the stage for our last case in 208 00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:18,639 this section, one that highlights the emotional complexity when the 209 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:22,759 evidence itself is compromised. The yogurt shop murders in Austin, Texas. 210 00:10:22,919 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 2: This was a nineteen ninety one crime just infamous for 211 00:10:25,679 --> 00:10:29,799 its brutality. Four teenage girls were bound, shot and then 212 00:10:29,919 --> 00:10:33,080 left in a deliberately set fire, and that fire was 213 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:35,919 the primary obstacle. As the sources say, it left smoke 214 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:39,080 and soot on every surface, made fingerprinting kind of difficult 215 00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:43,080 and understated a massive understatement, and the investigation was plagued 216 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,679 by dead ends and tragically false confessions that just muddy 217 00:10:46,759 --> 00:10:47,799 the waters for decades. 218 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,279 Speaker 1: But a resolution finally came in twenty twenty five. 219 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:54,919 Speaker 2: What changed advances in DNA analysis and ballistics. They were 220 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:58,000 able to analyze minute traces that survived the fire, and 221 00:10:58,039 --> 00:11:01,960 they identified Robert Eugene Brisher as the perpetrator, a violent 222 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,279 offender who unfortunately had died back in nineteen ninety nine. 223 00:11:05,519 --> 00:11:07,399 Speaker 1: So we're back to that same thought point from the 224 00:11:07,399 --> 00:11:10,000 bear Brook case, closure without prosecution. 225 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:13,600 Speaker 2: Yes, the forensic link provided the clearest answer the families 226 00:11:13,639 --> 00:11:17,279 ever had. It exonerated those who had falsely confessed. But 227 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:20,039 the family sentiment quoted in the source material is just 228 00:11:20,519 --> 00:11:23,279 it's heartbreaking. I wish my father was here today to 229 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:24,919 be able to be punished for his crimes. 230 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:27,960 Speaker 1: It's a profound dilemma. You get the identity, the answer 231 00:11:28,039 --> 00:11:30,600 you've been searching for, but you're denied that final chapter 232 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:31,200 of justice. 233 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 2: So this whole first part, it's a story of patience. 234 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:37,039 It's the long arc of science finally catching up exactly. 235 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:41,919 Speaker 1: The message is clear. The most minute biological traces are 236 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:46,000 in a way immortal. They're just waiting for their moment. Okay, 237 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:49,639 let's pivot completely. We've talked about the methodical, decades long 238 00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:52,679 grind of science. Now let's look at the other extreme. 239 00:11:52,919 --> 00:11:55,960 Sometimes the brain has nothing to do with the technological leap. 240 00:11:56,399 --> 00:12:01,159 Sometimes it's just an improbable coincidence, a ridiculously tiny clue, 241 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:02,960 or an act of pure arrogance. 242 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,759 Speaker 2: We're moving from the microscopic patients of the lamb to 243 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,799 the sheer chaos of human error and chance. And the 244 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:11,480 perfect example of this is the self sabotage committed by 245 00:12:11,519 --> 00:12:13,399 the BTK killer Dennis Raider. 246 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,679 Speaker 1: Dennis Rader's double life is just terrifying. Starting as murders 247 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:20,519 in nineteen seventy four, he was bind torture kill BTK, 248 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:23,679 but to his community, he was an unassuming church council president, 249 00:12:24,159 --> 00:12:25,879 a husband, a father. 250 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:28,720 Speaker 2: And his whole act hinged on meticulous control and anonymity 251 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:31,200 until his arrogance just got the better of him in 252 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:34,039 the early two thousands. After decades of silence, he couldn't 253 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,120 resist the thrill. He started sending taunting communications to the 254 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:39,600 police and media, and the fatal question came when he 255 00:12:39,639 --> 00:12:42,440 sat a floppy disc asking police if it could be traced. 256 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:45,480 Speaker 1: And the police lied, They said no. That's a great 257 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:47,559 moment of investigative cunning right there. 258 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,480 Speaker 2: A brilliant move because they looked at the file's metadata 259 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:54,440 on the disc and traced it back to a specific computer. 260 00:12:54,919 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 1: So what exactly is metadata? For people who might not know, It's. 261 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:00,919 Speaker 2: Not the content of the file, it's the data about 262 00:13:00,919 --> 00:13:03,960 the file, who created it, when it was last saved, 263 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:07,759 and critically, the computer name it was authored on. They 264 00:13:07,799 --> 00:13:10,240 found the file had been saved by Dennis and the 265 00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:13,399 unique computer info pointed directly to a PC at Christ 266 00:13:13,519 --> 00:13:15,480 Lutheran Church in Wichita. 267 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:17,840 Speaker 1: Where Raider was a lifelong member and yes, the church 268 00:13:17,919 --> 00:13:18,720 council president. 269 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:22,200 Speaker 2: His arrogance was his undoing. He thought he was smarter 270 00:13:22,279 --> 00:13:26,080 than the metadata, this invisible digital breadcrumb. Raider was so 271 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:29,039 careful about physical crime scenes, but he missed the digital 272 00:13:29,039 --> 00:13:32,639 footprint on a cheap floppy disc. It shattered his public 273 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:33,960 image overnight, all. 274 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:35,799 Speaker 1: Because he couldn't resist taunting them with a piece of 275 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:38,120 technology He didn't fully understand. 276 00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:40,159 Speaker 2: It's a powerful lesson. But if you want to talk 277 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:43,120 about absurdity mixed with the mundane, you have to talk 278 00:13:43,159 --> 00:13:46,919 about the son of Sam David Berkowitz and a parking ticket. 279 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,559 Speaker 1: The gravity of his crimes versus the pettiness of the 280 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:51,279 infraction is just unbelievable. 281 00:13:51,399 --> 00:13:55,720 Speaker 2: It's a classic case of luck meeting sharp observation. Berkowitz's 282 00:13:55,799 --> 00:13:58,480 random killing spree in seventies New York had the whole 283 00:13:58,519 --> 00:14:01,200 city paralyzed. Investigators were baffled. 284 00:14:01,279 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: So in July nineteen seventy seven, Berkowitz drives to Brooklyn 285 00:14:05,279 --> 00:14:07,960 for what would be his final murder, and he parks 286 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,120 illegally blocks a fire hydrant, I think, and he gets 287 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:11,559 a ticket. 288 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:15,320 Speaker 2: He does, and a local resident, Cecilia Davis, she witnessed 289 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:17,879 the ticket being issued, and later she saw a man 290 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:20,639 who looked like Berkovitz with what looked like a gun. 291 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,519 After she heard the gunshots, she put two and two 292 00:14:23,519 --> 00:14:24,879 together and called the police. 293 00:14:24,919 --> 00:14:27,279 Speaker 1: And this is where the meticulous police work comes in. 294 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,240 An investigator connects her eyewitness description with the city's database 295 00:14:31,279 --> 00:14:32,559 of parking violations. 296 00:14:32,639 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 2: Right they traced the ticket to Berkowitz's car, found the 297 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:39,440 car outside his house and arrested him right there, a dramatic, 298 00:14:39,559 --> 00:14:43,759 almost anti climactic end to a spree that terrified millions. 299 00:14:43,919 --> 00:14:46,120 Speaker 1: I just think the genius of the investigator who thought 300 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:48,840 to connect those two data points. That's the real skill. 301 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:50,600 We talk about high tech DNA, but this was just 302 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:52,919 low tech, meticulous cross referencing. 303 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:57,039 Speaker 2: The ultimate example, Berkovitz was caught not by some grand 304 00:14:57,039 --> 00:15:00,720 surveillance operation but by his own mild convenience. 305 00:15:00,879 --> 00:15:04,120 Speaker 1: Okay, let's jump back even further to the Lindberg kidnapping, 306 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:06,879 the crime of the century in nineteen thirty two. The 307 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,600 clue here was also traceable, but a very different kind 308 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:10,159 of currency. 309 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 2: The abduction of Charles Lindberg Junior captivated the world. The 310 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,720 ransom was paid in gold certificates, a type of currency 311 00:15:17,759 --> 00:15:20,039 that was just about to be recalled by the government, 312 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:23,120 and the crucial break came when some of that traceable 313 00:15:23,159 --> 00:15:26,639 gold started to surface in circulation almost a year later. 314 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:28,759 Speaker 1: It was traced to a gas station in New York, 315 00:15:29,039 --> 00:15:32,519 and the attendant, being incredibly savvy, noted the licensed clate 316 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:34,320 number of the man who used one of the notes, 317 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:37,399 and that plate led them to Bruno Richard Hoptman, a 318 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,720 German carpenter two years after the kidnapping, and. 319 00:15:40,639 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 2: If the parking ticket was luck, the wood evidence here 320 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:48,240 was meticulous. Nineteen thirties era of forensics. Police searched Hoptman's 321 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:50,720 house and they found a missing floorboard in his attic. 322 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,559 Investigators took rail sixteen from the kidnapping ladder, placed it 323 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,679 in the hole and it fit perfectly matched the grain patterns, 324 00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:58,960 the nail holes, everything. 325 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: This source material calls that wood evidence one of the 326 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,600 nails in Hauptman's coffin. It's incredible how a physical match 327 00:16:06,679 --> 00:16:09,200 like that could be the defining evidence it was a craft. 328 00:16:09,519 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 2: It highlights the principle of linkage evidence, whether it's a 329 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:16,360 genetic sequence or a wood grain pattern. If you can 330 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,759 physically link the suspects environment to the crime scene, you 331 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:21,360 have an irrefutable anchor. 332 00:16:21,879 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: And speaking of minute details, we have to talk about 333 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,000 the micro forensics that solve the case of David Guy. 334 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,080 This might be my favorite in terms of sheer absurdity. 335 00:16:31,159 --> 00:16:33,720 Speaker 2: This case from Hampshire, England in twenty twelve is a 336 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,279 benchmark for trace evidence. David Guy's remains were found on 337 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,559 a beach wrapped in a curtain after an initial lack 338 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,679 of evidence, police discovered eight cat hairs on that curtain. 339 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:46,879 Speaker 1: Eight eight cat hairs and that was the smoking gun. 340 00:16:47,039 --> 00:16:49,960 Speaker 2: It was they trace those hairs using the specificity of 341 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,600 feline genetics to Guy's neighbor, David Hilder. Mitochondrial DNA analysis 342 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,240 confirmed a match between hairs from Hilder's cat and the 343 00:16:57,279 --> 00:16:57,960 hairs at the sea. 344 00:16:58,159 --> 00:16:59,759 Speaker 1: And how specific is cat DNA? 345 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,840 Speaker 2: Well, this cat's specific genetic profile matched only about two 346 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:07,000 percent of the UK cat population, so that's a highly 347 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,039 specific anchor. It was the first time cat DNA was 348 00:17:10,079 --> 00:17:12,880 ever used in a British criminal trial and it led 349 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:14,559 to Hilder's manslaughter conviction. 350 00:17:14,759 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: That is just amazing. And if cat hair isn't wild 351 00:17:17,559 --> 00:17:19,799 enough for you, let's talk about the finished car theft 352 00:17:19,839 --> 00:17:21,160 that was solved by a mosquito. 353 00:17:21,599 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 2: The absurdity factor here is off the charts. In two 354 00:17:24,519 --> 00:17:27,240 thousand and eight in Finland, a stolen car is found 355 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,880 abandoned inside. Police find a mosquito that looked like it 356 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:32,039 had recently fed. 357 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:34,079 Speaker 1: And they collected it. Imagine the care that took. 358 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,519 Speaker 2: I can't, but they did, and the lab analysis revealed 359 00:17:37,519 --> 00:17:40,839 a DNA match between the blood inside the mosquito and 360 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:44,279 a man in the police register. He denied it, said 361 00:17:44,279 --> 00:17:46,839 he only hitchhiked in the car, but he was arrested 362 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:49,160 based on his blood being inside that vehicle. 363 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:51,519 Speaker 1: It's a thrilling example of how the definition of a 364 00:17:51,519 --> 00:17:55,759 witness is constantly expanding. Who knew an insect could be 365 00:17:55,799 --> 00:17:57,039 an unwitting witness? 366 00:17:57,400 --> 00:17:59,759 Speaker 2: The principle is, if a molecule of blood or a 367 00:17:59,759 --> 00:18:02,880 skin in cell exists, it can be cataloged and matched. 368 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,400 But I mean, you have to credit the finish officer 369 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,519 who thought, wait, that insect has evidence. That's the real breakthrough. 370 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,640 Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now for a case where investigators just throughout the 371 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:14,880 rule book and went straight to the stars for help, 372 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:17,240 the disappearance of Don Sanchez. 373 00:18:17,759 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 2: Don Sanchez disappeared in nineteen ninety one. The investigation focused 374 00:18:21,519 --> 00:18:24,839 on her boyfriend, Bernardo Bass, but the case stalled due 375 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:29,000 to a lack of evidence. Years later, police suspected Bass 376 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,440 had buried his car in an abandoned lot. 377 00:18:31,839 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: Digging up an entire lot to find a car as well, 378 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:38,559 it's prohibitively expensive, so they turned to NASA for help. 379 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:40,519 That is not a sentence you expect to hear in 380 00:18:40,559 --> 00:18:41,400 a police report. 381 00:18:41,559 --> 00:18:45,880 Speaker 2: It shows incredible adaptability. They leverage NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 382 00:18:46,039 --> 00:18:50,039 NASA has these advanced underground magnetic rovers and ground penetrating radar. 383 00:18:50,079 --> 00:18:52,720 They use it for planetary science. So they applied this 384 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,240 highly specialized tech to a local crime scene. 385 00:18:56,079 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 1: And using that tech they found vehicular parts matching Bass's 386 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,240 car and evidence that Sanchez's body had been there. 387 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:04,799 Speaker 2: It shows that sometimes you need an almost sci fi 388 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:09,720 level of resourcefulness. Bass eventually pleaded no contest to manslaughter. 389 00:19:10,319 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 1: So this whole section shows that while science can grind slowly, 390 00:19:13,759 --> 00:19:17,440 luck can be instantaneous, whether it's the killer's own arrogance, 391 00:19:17,559 --> 00:19:21,640 a parking ticket, or mosquito. Sometimes the universe just intervenes. 392 00:19:21,799 --> 00:19:25,319 Speaker 2: We've covered science, we've covered luck. Now let's focus on 393 00:19:25,319 --> 00:19:29,519 the human breakthrough cases solved because a person finally came forward, 394 00:19:29,599 --> 00:19:32,720 a lie unraveled, or a media campaign just paid off 395 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:33,720 decades later. 396 00:19:34,079 --> 00:19:36,240 Speaker 1: These are the cases where the moral weight of a 397 00:19:36,319 --> 00:19:40,440 secret finally collapses, and the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling in 398 00:19:40,519 --> 00:19:43,079 nineteen eighty nine is a perfect example of the cost 399 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:44,720 of those long delayed answers. 400 00:19:45,039 --> 00:19:48,160 Speaker 2: Jacob Wetterling's abduction from a rural road in Minnesota was 401 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,720 a national trauma. He was just eleven. It led to 402 00:19:50,759 --> 00:19:53,920 a massive, sustained search effort, but for decades the nation 403 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,200 just waited in this agonizing hope. 404 00:19:56,279 --> 00:19:59,519 Speaker 1: The break came in twenty fifteen. Danny Heinrich, who had 405 00:19:59,519 --> 00:20:02,759 been a person interest for years, was arrested on unrelated charges, 406 00:20:03,039 --> 00:20:06,200 and investigators confronted him with new evidence, right. 407 00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:09,880 Speaker 2: Forensical links from another case from years prior, and the 408 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,960 weight of it all just finally broke him. He confessed 409 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,440 in September twenty sixteen as part of a plea deal, 410 00:20:15,799 --> 00:20:18,000 and he led authorities to Jacob's remains. 411 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:23,319 Speaker 1: The confession provided, as the source says, excruciating answers. It's 412 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:24,799 a painful kind of victory. 413 00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:28,680 Speaker 2: It is. It emphasizes that closure doesn't negate the fresh grief. 414 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,839 Hope is replaced by certainty, which brings a terrible kind 415 00:20:32,839 --> 00:20:35,960 of peace. It forces everyone to process the reality of 416 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:38,440 the crime, not just the mystery of the disappearance. 417 00:20:38,759 --> 00:20:41,680 Speaker 1: And sometimes the resolution doesn't even require a full confession, 418 00:20:41,759 --> 00:20:44,880 but just the simple identification of evidence collected early on, 419 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,319 like in the case of Denise Hubert. 420 00:20:46,759 --> 00:20:49,640 Speaker 2: Denise Hubert was abducted in California, in nineteen ninety one 421 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:52,440 after a car broke down. The case had very few 422 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,000 leads at first. The break came three years later when 423 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,160 they identified John Femlaro, a local man with a history 424 00:20:58,160 --> 00:20:58,920 of violent. 425 00:20:58,599 --> 00:21:04,079 Speaker 1: Behavior, and the key was evidence longevity fingerprints. Specifically, they 426 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,359 were able to use prince collected during that initial investigation 427 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:08,559 to link him to the crime. 428 00:21:08,759 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 2: It led to his conviction in nineteen ninety seven. It's 429 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:15,559 a reminder of how seemingly ordinary encounters can turn fatal, and. 430 00:21:15,599 --> 00:21:19,640 Speaker 1: It reinforces the role of those criminal history databases. Famalara 431 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,480 was on their radar because of his past. The human 432 00:21:22,559 --> 00:21:24,960 element of past behavior is so often the predictor. 433 00:21:25,519 --> 00:21:27,720 Speaker 2: It is now let's look at the power of a 434 00:21:27,759 --> 00:21:30,799 tip from inside the system itself. The cold case of 435 00:21:30,839 --> 00:21:32,079 Susan Schwartz. 436 00:21:31,839 --> 00:21:35,480 Speaker 1: Her nineteen seventy nine shooting death in Washington puzzled detectives 437 00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:39,480 for over thirty years. This one was solved entirely by 438 00:21:39,599 --> 00:21:43,119 human intervention, triggered by, of all things, a pack of 439 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:44,160 playing cards. 440 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,160 Speaker 2: Right in twenty eleven, an inmates saw Schwartz's face on 441 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,200 a cold case card. An initiative to keep these memories 442 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,440 alive in prisons and he called police. He recalled that 443 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,119 a man named Gregory Johnson had confessed the murder to 444 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:57,240 him years earlier. 445 00:21:57,559 --> 00:22:01,200 Speaker 1: That inmate's tip was the essential thread. It led police 446 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:03,400 to a witness who finally admitted she was present during 447 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,400 the murder. She had been threatened into silence for decades. 448 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,200 Speaker 2: And the motive was finally revealed. Schwartz had helped Johnson's 449 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,480 wife leave him after repeated domestic violence. Johnson got a 450 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,599 twenty four year sentence, all based on that long delayed testimony. 451 00:22:15,799 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 1: That's the power of conscience or maybe just someone finally 452 00:22:18,519 --> 00:22:21,519 feeling safe enough to talk. It shows the importance of 453 00:22:21,599 --> 00:22:23,640 just keeping the face and the facts visible. 454 00:22:24,039 --> 00:22:27,920 Speaker 2: It's a compelling argument for persistence in publicizing unsolved cases. 455 00:22:28,759 --> 00:22:31,839 It took thirty two years, but the photograph still worked. 456 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,880 Speaker 1: And speaking of public media, the resolution of a Texas 457 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,079 crime solved by America's Most Wanted has a level of 458 00:22:38,079 --> 00:22:40,200 eerie coincidence that just sounds made up. 459 00:22:40,559 --> 00:22:43,279 Speaker 2: This is one of the most serendipitous examples in all 460 00:22:43,279 --> 00:22:45,960 of our sources. Yeah, a crime in rolling Wood, Texas 461 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:49,200 went unsolved until a TV segment in nineteen ninety three. 462 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:51,880 Speaker 1: So the setup is this a bunch of employees and 463 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,319 patrons at the Green Parrot Cafe in Salt Lake City 464 00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:57,240 are watching America's Most Wanted. The segment is about a 465 00:22:57,279 --> 00:22:59,880 cook who killed someone in a robbery and jumped bail 466 00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:02,200 a totally unrelated case. 467 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,759 Speaker 2: But here's the kicker. After that segment ends, the very 468 00:23:04,799 --> 00:23:07,640 next one is about the Rollingwood, Texas case, and the 469 00:23:07,839 --> 00:23:11,079 runaway suspect is a man named Kenneth Lovesey, who just 470 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:13,839 happens to be the replacement cook hired at that exact 471 00:23:13,839 --> 00:23:16,920 same Green Parrot Cafe after the former chef was killed. 472 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:19,279 Speaker 1: He was still in the kitchen flipping burgers when the 473 00:23:19,319 --> 00:23:22,880 police recalled. The entire restaurant is watching TV, and one 474 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,039 of the fugitives is standing twenty feet away. 475 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:29,279 Speaker 2: The irony is just off the charts. It perfectly illustrates 476 00:23:29,319 --> 00:23:32,079 the random but powerful benefits of media outreach. 477 00:23:32,279 --> 00:23:34,839 Speaker 1: It really does. It reinforces that, even in this high 478 00:23:34,839 --> 00:23:38,559 tech world, a sharp eyed citizen is still one of 479 00:23:38,559 --> 00:23:40,759 the most powerful tools in law enforcement. 480 00:23:41,279 --> 00:23:45,519 Speaker 2: Okay, so we've covered science, luck, and confession. Now let's 481 00:23:45,559 --> 00:23:48,359 look at how identity itself can be lost and found 482 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:49,839 in the most extraordinary ways. 483 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,799 Speaker 1: We have to start with eaton pats. His nineteen seventy 484 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,519 nine disappearance from a Soho street in New York City 485 00:23:55,839 --> 00:23:58,799 fundamentally changed how this country approached missing children. 486 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:01,119 Speaker 2: He was only sick. It was the first time he 487 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,400 was walking to the school bus stop by himself, and 488 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,640 his face was among the very first to be placed 489 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:10,599 on milk cartons across the country. That campaign changed national policy. 490 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,039 Speaker 1: It changed how millions of parents thought about safety that 491 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:16,000 single terrifying walk. 492 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,519 Speaker 2: Decades of searching turned up nothing, but in two eighty twelve, 493 00:24:19,559 --> 00:24:23,519 a new tip emerged, leading investigators to Pedro Hernandez, a 494 00:24:23,559 --> 00:24:26,960 former bodega stock clerk who worked near Eton's bus stop. 495 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:29,559 The tip came from a relative who had reportedly heard 496 00:24:29,559 --> 00:24:31,440 a confession years earlier. 497 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,079 Speaker 1: And Hernandez was convicted in twenty seventeen, though the sources 498 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,400 do note that the conviction was later overturned in twenty 499 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,640 twenty five and prosecutors are seeking a retrial right. 500 00:24:39,759 --> 00:24:42,680 Speaker 2: So regardless of the legal back and forth, the emotional 501 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:46,119 and social impact is permanent. The case is a touchstone 502 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,599 for parental anxiety. That quote, millions of parents sat at 503 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:51,759 home and thought, there but for the grace of God 504 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:53,559 goes my child. That says it all. 505 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,599 Speaker 1: Now, let's discuss an incredible case of misdirection leading to 506 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,960 a successful resolution, the kidnapping of Monica Judith Bonia. 507 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:02,799 Speaker 2: This one started with the search for a different girl, 508 00:25:03,079 --> 00:25:07,079 Nileen Marshall, who was abducted in Montana in nineteen eighty three. 509 00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:10,599 Seven years later, the show Unsolved Mysteries featured her case, 510 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:11,720 hoping for leeds. 511 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,599 Speaker 1: And the public awareness worked, just not in the way 512 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,960 anyone expected. A tipster called in believing he saw Nileen Marshall. 513 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,720 The police investigated, and they did find a missing girl, 514 00:25:23,599 --> 00:25:27,000 but it wasn't Nileen. It was Monica Judith Bonia, who 515 00:25:27,079 --> 00:25:30,119 had been kidnapped back in nineteen eighty two by her 516 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:31,720 non custodial father. 517 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:35,279 Speaker 2: And Bonia was reunited with her mother after eight long years. 518 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:40,160 It's an incredible unexpected benefit of publicizing these cases. The 519 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:44,599 primary mystery, Nileen Marshall's disappearance is still unsolved, but a 520 00:25:44,599 --> 00:25:46,359 different family got their child back. 521 00:25:46,599 --> 00:25:49,319 Speaker 1: It shows that these campaigns cast a wide net and 522 00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:51,079 you never know what you'll catch exactly. 523 00:25:51,319 --> 00:25:54,319 Speaker 2: The purpose is discovery, regardless of the initial. 524 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:56,559 Speaker 1: Target, and sometimes the person who solves the case is 525 00:25:56,559 --> 00:25:59,440 the victim themselves. Years later, the story of Steve. 526 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,759 Speaker 2: Carter, this case is just a beautiful story of curiosity. 527 00:26:02,759 --> 00:26:05,920 In twenty ten, Steve Carter, who was adopted as a child, 528 00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,680 started searching for his birth family history. 529 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,880 Speaker 1: And this leads him to a missing children's website where unbelievably, 530 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,799 he finds an age progression image of himself. He's looking 531 00:26:14,839 --> 00:26:17,400 at his own face, aged up, staring back at him 532 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:18,319 as a missing child. 533 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:22,000 Speaker 2: I can't even imagine that moment a DNA test confirmed 534 00:26:22,039 --> 00:26:25,799 he was Marx Panama Moriarty Barnes, missing since nineteen seventy seven. 535 00:26:26,519 --> 00:26:28,279 He was taken by his birth mother and placed in 536 00:26:28,319 --> 00:26:29,839 an orphanage in Hawaii. 537 00:26:29,519 --> 00:26:32,079 Speaker 1: And when he called his birth family after thirty two years, 538 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:37,400 they were, as the source says, absolutely positively thunderstruck and amazed. 539 00:26:37,839 --> 00:26:40,119 Speaker 2: The case would have never been solved without his own 540 00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:44,079 personal quest. It teaches us that sometimes the best investigator 541 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:46,000 is the person with the highest stake in the truth. 542 00:26:46,519 --> 00:26:49,039 Speaker 1: Finally, let's look at the huge distance in time span 543 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,720 in the case of Polet Jaster, cracked by the most 544 00:26:51,759 --> 00:26:53,640 minor physical detail imaginable. 545 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,519 Speaker 2: Pollet Jasper disappeared from Michigan in nineteen seventy nine, A 546 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:01,160 year later, an unidentified hit and run victim, a Jane Doe, 547 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,359 was found in Houston, Texas. The two cases were one 548 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,480 thousand miles apart, totally unconnected, and the Jane Doe had 549 00:27:07,519 --> 00:27:09,359 no DNA or dental records at the time. 550 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,200 Speaker 1: The link came thirty years later, in twenty fourteen, a 551 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,839 forensic anthropologist, Sharon Derek cracked it based on an online 552 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:19,200 tip about the Jane Doe's autopsy pictures and the distinguishing 553 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,519 feature three distinctive freckles on the Jane Doe's cheek. 554 00:27:22,799 --> 00:27:26,799 Speaker 2: Three freckles. Derek used digital imaging to compare the autopsi 555 00:27:26,839 --> 00:27:30,599 photos to Paullette's childhood photos, and that unique trio of 556 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,079 pigment clusters was a perfect match. 557 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,799 Speaker 1: It's the power of a tiny, persistent visual detail bridging 558 00:27:36,799 --> 00:27:40,160 a thirty year, one thousand mile gap. It proves that 559 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:44,480 identification doesn't always rely on cutting edge tech. Sometimes it 560 00:27:44,559 --> 00:27:47,480 relies on a sharp eye seeing what everyone else overlooked. 561 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,960 Speaker 2: It forces us to appreciate the low tech breakthroughs right 562 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,400 alongside the high tech ones. 563 00:27:52,599 --> 00:27:55,720 Speaker 1: Okay, we've spent most of this deep dive on criminal acts, 564 00:27:56,079 --> 00:27:58,839 but the long wait for answers can sometimes make a 565 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,119 disappearance feel criminal, even when it isn't. This last section 566 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,599 is about cases where the truth turns out to be tragic, 567 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:05,559 not sinister. 568 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,000 Speaker 2: The disappearance of Tamila Jackson and Cheryl Miller in nineteen 569 00:28:09,079 --> 00:28:11,960 seventy one is a perfect example. Two seventeen year old 570 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,839 friends vanished in South Dakota while driving to a party 571 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:15,119 in an. 572 00:28:15,079 --> 00:28:17,319 Speaker 1: Old stewed baker Lark and for decades it was a 573 00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:20,640 haunting mystery. Speculation was rampant. There was even a false 574 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,720 confession in two thousand and seven that collapsed. 575 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,799 Speaker 2: The families lived for over forty years with the constant 576 00:28:25,799 --> 00:28:28,799 anxiety that their daughters had been murdered. The discovery came 577 00:28:28,839 --> 00:28:32,400 in twenty thirteen, almost forty two years later, a fisherman 578 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:34,880 spotted a wheel sticking out of the water in Bruol Creek. 579 00:28:35,599 --> 00:28:37,960 The water levels had dropped because of a drought. 580 00:28:38,039 --> 00:28:40,279 Speaker 1: And the excavation was immense. They had to pump ten 581 00:28:40,359 --> 00:28:43,640 thousand gallons of water out per minute and spent hours 582 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,640 digging just to get to the car, But they recovered. 583 00:28:46,279 --> 00:28:50,519 Speaker 2: The rusted, stewed baker with skeletal remains inside. Forensic analysis 584 00:28:50,519 --> 00:28:54,240 confirmed it was the girls, and critically, all the evidence 585 00:28:54,279 --> 00:28:57,319 was consistent with a tragic accident. They likely just drove 586 00:28:57,359 --> 00:28:58,519 off the road into the creek. 587 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 1: It brought answers. Finally, it replaced the agonizing uncertainty of 588 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,400 a murder with the tragic certainty of an accident. It 589 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:07,799 allowed the families to stop looking for a monster and 590 00:29:07,839 --> 00:29:08,799 just grieve a loss. 591 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:11,359 Speaker 2: And that really connects all the threads for us. Whether 592 00:29:11,359 --> 00:29:13,920 it was DNA, a cat hair, a parking ticket, or 593 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:17,319 a car emerging from a creek, the resolution always hinged 594 00:29:17,359 --> 00:29:20,880 on a single preserved piece of data that outlasted the 595 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:22,160 event itself. 596 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: From a nineteen thirties wood match to twenty twenty two 597 00:29:24,759 --> 00:29:28,960 genetic genealogy. The enduring theme is the human inability to 598 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,119 be truly anonymous. The world just retains these signatures that 599 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:34,200 time can't erase. 600 00:29:34,599 --> 00:29:36,279 Speaker 2: That brings us to the end of our journey. Through 601 00:29:36,319 --> 00:29:40,119 these extraordinary breakthroughs, we see the incredible patience required for 602 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,119 science to catch up, sometimes taking sixty five years. 603 00:29:43,279 --> 00:29:45,799 Speaker 1: We've marveled at the sheer randomness of a lucky break, 604 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,680 whether it was a mosquito or a floppy disk, and 605 00:29:48,759 --> 00:29:52,200 we've confirmed the essential role of human agency. A confession, 606 00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:55,519 a long delayed tip, or a victim solving their own case. 607 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,079 Speaker 2: What these twenty cases teach us is that the line 608 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:02,400 between solvable and unsolvable is constantly moving. It's driven by 609 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,599 dedication and innovation, and the most enduring lesson is the 610 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,960 power of documentation. No piece of evidence, be it three 611 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:11,839 freckles or eight cat hairs, should ever be truly discarded. 612 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,319 Speaker 1: So, now that we've untacked how these threads were finally pulled, 613 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,319 we want to leave you with one final thought. When 614 00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:21,200 you look at the cases solved by the most random chance, 615 00:30:21,519 --> 00:30:25,480 the parking ticket, the cat hare, the mosquito, does this 616 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:30,440 reliance on sheer, unpredictable luck suggest our investigative systems need 617 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:33,440 to rely less on technology and more on simple, meticulous 618 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:34,799 police work in documentation. 619 00:30:35,319 --> 00:30:38,920 Speaker 2: Or is technology the ultimate safety net, the thing that 620 00:30:39,039 --> 00:30:41,839 ensures even a momentary lapse in judgment from forty years 621 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,039 ago will eventually catch up. The balance is difficult. You 622 00:30:45,079 --> 00:30:46,960 need the science to prove the link, but you need 623 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,799 the human detective to notice the seemingly irrelevant detail in 624 00:30:49,839 --> 00:30:50,480 the first place. 625 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,119 Speaker 1: Which side do you lean toward as the future of 626 00:30:53,119 --> 00:30:56,000 solving cold cases? Let us know your thoughts on this 627 00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,119 and thank you for joining us on thrilling threads.