WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.520 I really want you to picture a freezing winter morning 2 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:05.360 back in nineteen seventy six. You know, just put yourself 3 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:06.160 there for a second. 4 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.919 Oh man, winter in the seventies. 5 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:10.599 That hits different, It really does. You were standing in 6 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:16.079 Carbon County, Pennsylvania. It's December twentieth, and the air is well, 7 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.280 it's that brutal, biting kind of cold, the kind that 8 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:24.519 instantly turns every single breath into this thick cloud of smoke, 9 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:25.079 right the. 10 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:27.920 Kind of cold that just cuts right through your jacket exactly. 11 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.440 So imagine you are a fourteen year old boy named 12 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:35.000 Kenneth Jumper Junior. You're just walking along the frozen banks 13 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.039 of the Lehigh River. You've got your hands shoved deep 14 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:41.200 into your pockets, maybe just kicking at the frost. 15 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:42.840 Just being a normal kid on a winter day. 16 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.280 Yeah, exactly. But then you spot something completely out of 17 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:50.679 place against all that dead winter brush suitcases. Oh wow, 18 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:53.359 three of them, just lying there near the river bank. 19 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:56.320 I mean, that's a jarring visual right away. Luggage belongs 20 00:00:56.359 --> 00:00:58.520 in the trunk of a car or a train. 21 00:00:58.320 --> 00:00:59.880 Station, right, not a riverbank. 22 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:03.479 Exactly. Seeing suitcases scattered at the bottom of a three 23 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:07.359 hundred foot drop beneath Interstate eighty. That immediately signals that 24 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:09.879 something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. 25 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.159 It really does. And the thing is two of those 26 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:15.680 suitcases had actually burst open, I mean from the impact 27 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:19.120 of that massive three hundred foot fall from the bridge above. 28 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:20.480 That is a massive drop. 29 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:23.840 It is one was still intact, just sort of resting 30 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:27.280 in the bare bushes. So young, Kenneth, he walks closer 31 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:29.640 because you know, it's human nature to be curious, right, 32 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:30.280 He's just a kid. 33 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:31.400 He wants to see what's inside. 34 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:34.840 Yeah, and he sees something protruding from one of the 35 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.439 shattered suitcases. At first glance, his brain sort of tries 36 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.599 to protect him from what he's actually looking at. He 37 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:42.519 processes it as a doll's. 38 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.519 Head, oh god, because the alternative is just too horrible 39 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:46.840 to comprehend exactly. 40 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.640 But taking one more step, the reality sets in. It's 41 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:52.120 not a doll. Terrified, he just turns and runs to 42 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:52.560 get help. 43 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.760 I can't even imagine that moment of terror for a 44 00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:59.120 fourteen year old boy. That was basically the inciting incident 45 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:02.359 for what would become one of the coldest, strangest, and 46 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:05.920 just most profoundly complex mysteries in the history of Pennsylvania. 47 00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:06.560 It really was. 48 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:10.000 He had just discovered two victims who had remained completely 49 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:12.479 nameless for the next forty four years. 50 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:16.520 And that right there is the mission of our deep dive. Today, 51 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:20.759 we are exploring this four decade mystery of Beth Dough, 52 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:27.039 an unidentified pregnant teenager whose brutal murder just seemed to 53 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:29.319 fall into this total systemic. 54 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:30.000 Void, complete void. 55 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:33.479 Yeah, we are going to unpack how a meticulously planned 56 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:36.639 crime and literally a single piece of paper acting as 57 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:41.000 this information firewall, along with decades of technological dead ends, 58 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.199 were finally unraveled. And they were unraveled by a grandson 59 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:46.919 who simply wanted to build his family tree online. 60 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:49.280 It is such an incredible narrative, and I think the 61 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:51.960 value in dissecting this case isn't just in the true 62 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:55.199 crime aspect of it. It serves as this comprehensive masterclass 63 00:02:55.240 --> 00:02:57.919 across so many different disciplines. We are looking at the 64 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:01.560 agonizingly slow evolution of friends science over half a century. 65 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.080 Oh, the science part is mind blowing, it really is. 66 00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:07.800 Plus, we are examining the maddening complexities and honestly, they 67 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:10.919 sometimes fatal structural flaws of the American legal system. 68 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.360 Yeah, that part is going to frustrate a lot of people. 69 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:18.159 Definitely, and centrally. We are confronting the devastating impact of 70 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:21.919 systemic blind spots on immigrant families in the United States. 71 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.680 So as we walk through these events today, I want 72 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.879 you to keep one haunting question in your mind as 73 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:31.479 you listen. How does a pregnant, fifteen year old girl 74 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:37.080 just vanish from a crowded, tight knit city apartment without 75 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:40.400 a single missing person report ever being filed? 76 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:43.599 It seems impossible, right, But the answer to that question 77 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:46.599 requires us to really look at the immediate aftermath of 78 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:47.919 Kenneth Jumper's discovery. 79 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:48.759 Okay, let's go there. 80 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.560 When the Pennsylvania State Police arrived at the Lehigh River 81 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.199 on that December twenties, they were met with a scene 82 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:56.439 that shook even the most hardened investigators. 83 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.759 I mean, I would think so. So inside those three 84 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.919 very common tools, untraceable suitcases, where the dismembered remains of 85 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:05.360 a young woman along with a near term female fetus. 86 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:07.080 It's just horrific, it really is. 87 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:09.400 Yea, And everything had been tightly wrapped in this old 88 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:12.800 Shaneil blanket. And you know, a Shneil blanket is such 89 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:14.520 a domestic comforting item. 90 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:15.599 Right, something you have on your couch. 91 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:18.920 Yeah. To see it repurpose for something so horrific is 92 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:23.120 deeply unsettling. And then the autopsy details come back and 93 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:26.439 they reveal this narrative of immense calculated violence. 94 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:29.120 Yeah, the medical examiner ruled the manner of death a 95 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.759 homicide obviously. Yeah, but the primary cause was strangulation, Okay. However, 96 00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:39.360 that was accompanied by severe facial trauma, specifically a broken nose, 97 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.639 and on top of all that, a gunshot wound to 98 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:42.920 the neck. 99 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.600 Wait, all three, that level of violence points to extreme overkill. 100 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:50.399 I mean, a gunshot, blunt force, trauma, and strangulation all 101 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:54.279 point to this intense, deeply personal rage. Absolutely, But then 102 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:57.720 we have the dismemberment, which introduces a completely different psychological 103 00:04:57.759 --> 00:04:58.639 element to the whole thing. 104 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.040 Right. The forensic time line here is critical for you 105 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:04.199 to understand. The dismemberment did not cause her death. It 106 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:08.800 occurred post mortem, so after the fact exactly. Investigators noted 107 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:11.439 that the person responsible quote knew what they were doing. 108 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:14.399 They made it clear this wasn't like a surgeon's precise cut, 109 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:16.680 but it was skilled enough to efficiently break down a 110 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:19.120 human body to fit into standard luggage. 111 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:20.560 That is just so chilling. 112 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:23.959 And furthermore, based on the condition of the remains in 113 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:27.319 that freezing weather, the medical examiner determined the crime had 114 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:30.439 occurred within a mirre twenty four hours before discovery. 115 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.120 I really want to pause on that twenty four hour window, 116 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:36.600 because it completely changes the profile of the crime, doesn't it. 117 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:40.360 It changes everything, right, because if someone is killed, dismembered, 118 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:43.439 packed up, transported, and thrown off a three hundred foot 119 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:47.319 interstate bridge all within a single day, we aren't looking 120 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:49.240 at a prolonged kidnapping situation. 121 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:50.399 No, not at all. 122 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:54.319 We can entirely rule out an extended captivity scenario, you know, 123 00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.519 where someone is held in a basement for weeks exactly. 124 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:02.120 It indicates this rapid, cold premeditation followed by a highly 125 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:03.319 calculated disposal. 126 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:05.279 The logistics alone are staggering. 127 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:07.800 I mean, think about the logistics required to commit the murder, 128 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:10.800 find the space and the tools to perform the dismemberment, 129 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.920 clean the scene, pack the suitcases, and then drive to 130 00:06:13.959 --> 00:06:17.639 a remote interstate bridge. That requires a chilling level of 131 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:18.639 focus in control. 132 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:22.360 It really does. Yet, despite having the victim's remains, the 133 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:26.160 police had an absolute zero on her identity. The physical 134 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:29.480 characteristics indicated she was petite. She had black hair and 135 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.519 olive skin, which led investigators to suspect she was of 136 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:34.639 Latina or Mediterranean descent. 137 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:36.560 Which is a fairly broad category. 138 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:39.879 Right. So they released facial sketches to the public, distributed 139 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:43.560 them far and wide in newspapers, on the news, and 140 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:46.879 they got absolutely nothing. No one came forward, no one 141 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:47.480 claimed her. 142 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:51.360 The physical evidence was entirely a dead end too. The 143 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:55.879 suitcases were mass produced, the chinio blanket was completely untraceable. 144 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.720 There was no wallet, no jewelry, no keys. 145 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:01.879 So they basically had nothing to go. 146 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:05.199 On, nothing except the one definitive fact they had, which 147 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:08.079 was her advanced state of pregnancy, right, and near term 148 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:10.720 pregnancy is impossible to hide. She had to have been 149 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.160 seen by neighbors, family, or a doctor. Someone out there 150 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:15.720 knew she was expecting a child. 151 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.560 And this is where the logic of the situation collides 152 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:21.480 with the reality. Because a crime of this magnitude, a 153 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.480 pregnant teenager murdered and thrown off a bridge, ordinarily triggers 154 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:27.120 a massive, desperate search. 155 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:28.319 You would certainly think so. 156 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:30.920 I think of it like an explosion going off in 157 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:36.040 a crowded room, but nobody hearing the blast. Medically, socially, logically, 158 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.000 how is there no missing person report, not from family, 159 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.959 not from a neighbor who noticed the pregnant girl next 160 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:44.160 door was suddenly gone. 161 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:48.079 The silence surrounding her disappearance is arguably the most agonizing 162 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:51.160 aspect of this entire case. But you have to understand 163 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:54.399 that silence wasn't a failure of her community to care. 164 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:59.040 It was actively engineered. The perpetrator controlled the narrative with 165 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:02.040 incredible prescient decision to ensure no one would come looking. 166 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:03.399 That is so sinister. 167 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:05.720 To understand the mechanics of that silence, we have to 168 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:07.879 shift our focus about one hundred miles east of that 169 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.839 frozen river to a modest apartment in Jersey City. 170 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:13.439 Okay, let's set the scene for that. It's nineteen seventy six. 171 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.639 We are in a working class Puerto Rican immigrant community 172 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.480 in Jersey City, New Jersey, and we are introduced to 173 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:20.480 the Colon family. 174 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:21.519 Yes, the Colons. 175 00:08:21.639 --> 00:08:24.920 They are described as incredibly tight knit, two parents, Louis 176 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.800 Senior and Aurelia Torres, and they are raising six children, 177 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.199 including an older brother named Lewis Junior, a younger sister 178 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.919 named Magdalia, and our victim, Evelyn Colan. 179 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:38.200 Evelyn was born on April seventeenth, nineteen sixty one. That 180 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:40.399 makes for just fifteen years old in the winter of 181 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:43.279 nineteen seventy six. Just a kid, Just a kid. This 182 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.720 was a household where care was expressed through constant presence, 183 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:51.320 shared meals, and very close monitoring. But that dynamic really 184 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:54.559 shifted when Evelyn became involved with a young man who 185 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:56.039 used to live right next door to them. 186 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:57.159 Okay, who was this guy? 187 00:08:57.639 --> 00:08:59.559 His name was Louis Sierra, though he went by the 188 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:02.159 nickname Weso. He was nineteen, so four. 189 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.919 Years older than Evelyn, and Evelyn quickly becomes pregnant. Now, 190 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:06.960 a fifteen year old getting pregnant by a nineteen year 191 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:09.039 old is obviously going to cause some serious friction in 192 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:11.600 any family. But the family actually accepted it. 193 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:12.000 They did. 194 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:15.000 Yeah, And I think this speaks volumes about the socioeconomic 195 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:18.159 and cultural context of the time, because in tight knit 196 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.960 immigrant communities in the nineteen seventies, family matters were kept 197 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:26.080 intensely private, very private. He didn't broadcast your struggles, You 198 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:29.480 manage them internally within the family unit. So Evelyn and 199 00:09:29.559 --> 00:09:32.080 Sierra end up moving into their own apartment in another 200 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:33.279 part of Jersey City. 201 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:37.320 But Aurelia, Evelyn's mother, she remained a constant presence in 202 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:41.519 her life. She visited frequently, bringing food, just checking on 203 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:43.399 her daughter's health as the pregnancy. 204 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:46.120 Progressed, like any good mother would exactly, but. 205 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.679 The environment inside that apartment was far from healthy. Evelyn's 206 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:54.399 younger sister, Magdalia later detailed that Sierra was incredibly controlling 207 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:58.279 and deeply jealous. Oh boy, his behavior escalated to the 208 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:01.720 point where he would physically lie Evelyn inside the apartment. 209 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.600 He completely controlled her access to the outside world. 210 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:10.000 Those isolation tactics are a massive red flag. But the 211 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:13.080 thing is, Evelyn wasn't blind to the danger she was in. 212 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:16.720 She explicitly told her mother that she was afraid of Sierra. 213 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:17.440 She did. 214 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:19.279 She even went as far as to say that if 215 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:22.159 anything ever happened to her, he was likely involved. 216 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:25.879 In the context of domestic violence, a victim vocalizing that 217 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:30.440 specific fear to a family member is a critical warning sign. Absolutely, 218 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:33.519 it demonstrates that the abuser's control has escalated to a 219 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:36.879 point where the victim precedes a genuine lethal threat. But 220 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:39.600 we really have to remember the era we're talking about here. 221 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:43.720 In nineteen seventy six, the framework for dealing with domestic 222 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:45.720 violence was rudimentary at best. 223 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:47.720 It was barely even talked about exactly. 224 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:51.799 Shelters were rare. Police often treated domestic disputes as private 225 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:56.200 family matters, and for non English speaking immigrant families, there 226 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.840 was an added layer of hesitation when it came to 227 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:00.720 involving authorities. 228 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:02.559 Which brings us to the specific incident that sets the 229 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:06.679 entire cover up in motion. It's mid December nineteen seventy six. 230 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.600 Evelyn is heavily pregnant, just weeks away from her due date, 231 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.679 very close. She called her mom, says she isn't feeling 232 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:15.279 well and asks her to bring over some soup. 233 00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:19.519 It's such a mundane, everyday request that it really grounds 234 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:23.120 the horror of what happens next. Yeah, Aurelia prepares the soup. 235 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:26.200 She travels across Jersey City to the apartment and she 236 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:29.440 knocks on the door. She gets no answer, just silence. Right, 237 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:32.919 she knocks again. Nothing. When she finally manages to push 238 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:36.080 the door open, she finds the apartment entirely empty. The 239 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.919 furniture is gone, and the neighbors tell her that the 240 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:39.879 couple moved out. 241 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.120 Just picture that. I want you to really think about 242 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:45.840 that moment you show up with a hot meal for 243 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:50.080 your sick, pregnant teenage daughter and her entire life has 244 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:51.440 simply vanished. 245 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:52.559 It's unthinkable. 246 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:55.919 The immediate reaction is going to be panic. But then 247 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:59.600 a few weeks later, in January nineteen seventy seven, a 248 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:04.240 letter arrives in the Callin family mailbox. Right, It's written 249 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:08.600 in Spanish and the postmark indicates it was mailed from Stanford, Connecticut. 250 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:11.320 The contents of that letter were a master stroke of 251 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:12.600 psychological manipulation. 252 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:13.279 It really was. 253 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:15.799 It stated that Evelyn had given birth to a healthy, 254 00:12:16.200 --> 00:12:19.600 nine pound baby boy named l Sierra Junior. It assured 255 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:21.919 the family that they had moved to Connecticut, that everything 256 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.600 was going well, and requested that the family not worry. 257 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:27.399 So it's just telling them to back off, basically. 258 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:30.240 Exactly Crucially, it ended by saying Evelyn would reach out 259 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:33.840 if they needed anything, effectively establishing a boundary that cut 260 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:35.320 off further contact entirely. 261 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:39.200 I viewed this letter as basically a nineteen seventies analog firewall. 262 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:40.279 That's a great way to put. 263 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:43.080 It, because in today's world, if someone disappears and sends 264 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:46.039 a text saying you know, I'm moved. Don't look for me. 265 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.120 We don't just take their word for it. No, of course, 266 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.120 we look at their digital footprint. We track their phones 267 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.759 location data, We monitor their bank accounts for activity. We 268 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:58.399 check if their social media shows a new location. 269 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:00.879 Right, there's so many to track someone. 270 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:03.840 Now we have dozens of ways to verify proof of life. 271 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:07.360 But in nineteen seventy seven, a handwritten letter with an 272 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:10.600 out of state postmark was treated as an absolute truth. 273 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:14.960 It was an impenetrable barrier. Without the Internet or cellular 274 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:19.840 data or instantaneous communication networks, society just operated on the 275 00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:23.000 assumption that a letter was a definitive statement of intent. 276 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:26.559 If an adult or an emancipated miner living with a 277 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:29.639 partner as she was viewed, sent a letter claiming they 278 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.600 relocated voluntarily, that was the end of the inquiry. 279 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.600 And the tragedy here really compounds when you look at 280 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:38.519 the father's actions, because Lewis Colen Senior didn't just accept 281 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:39.799 the silence indefinitely. 282 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:41.759 He tried, He really tried. 283 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:46.039 He did. When no follow up letter arrived, when the 284 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:50.399 promise of seeing his grandson, Lewis Junior just evaporated. He 285 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:53.279 went to the local police. He tried to report his 286 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:54.039 daughter missing. 287 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.320 And this is where he gets so frustrating. 288 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:00.679 It does because the police weaponized that fake LFE against 289 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.639 the family. They looked at the father and basically said, look, 290 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:06.399 she has her own family now. She stated in writing 291 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:09.799 that she left voluntarily. There is no crime here, and 292 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.240 they dismissed the family's concerns outright. 293 00:14:12.519 --> 00:14:17.720 That dismissal illustrates precisely how the perpetrator engineered the silence. 294 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:19.240 He knew exactly what he was doing. 295 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.799 He anticipated the systemic apathy. He knew that a letter 296 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:26.480 establishing a voluntary departure would passify the family just enough 297 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:29.960 to delay their panic and simultaneously provide the police with 298 00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:33.919 a perfect bureaucratic excuse to avoid launching a missing person's investigation. 299 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:36.879 So, while the Colon family is sitting in New Jersey 300 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:39.960 desperately waiting for a second letter that will literally never come, 301 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:43.360 Evelyn's body has already been found in Pennsylvania. Right because 302 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.279 her family was convinced she was alive in Connecticut. They 303 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:50.279 never saw the facial sketches circulating in Pennsylvania. She reigns 304 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:52.759 nameless and the trail goes entirely cold. 305 00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:57.919 For decades, the investigation into Beth Doe completely stalled. The 306 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:01.960 Pennsylvania State Police kept the file open, sure, but without 307 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:04.240 an identity, they were essentially hunting a ghost. 308 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:05.200 Yeah, what could they do? 309 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.080 Nothing? They were forced to wait for forensic science to evolve, 310 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:12.000 hoping a new technology would eventually unlock the case. 311 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:15.840 Fast forward seven years from the discovery, it's nineteen eighty three. 312 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:19.440 The authorities in Carbon County finally recognize that no one 313 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:22.240 is coming to claim her, so sad it is, they 314 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:24.679 make the groom decision to bury her in an unmarked 315 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.720 grave at a local cemetery. There is no family present, 316 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:30.279 just a headstone bearing the name Beth Doo and the 317 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:31.200 year she was found. 318 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:33.879 The contrast is devastating if you think about it. 319 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:34.679 Yeah, how so? 320 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:36.799 Well, you have a fifteen year old girl who grew 321 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:40.559 up in a vibrant, bustling Puerto Rican household in Jersey 322 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:43.240 City and she ends up buried under a pseudonym in 323 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:46.639 a rural Pennsylvania town she had likely never even set 324 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:48.600 foot in, surrounded by complete strangers. 325 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:52.200 That is just incredibly bleak. And meanwhile, back in New 326 00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:56.080 Jersey Evelyn's mother, Aurelia is living in this state of 327 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.080 suspended animation right. She would sit by the window of 328 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:02.720 her Jersey City home year after year, just watching the street. 329 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:05.720 Whenever she thought she saw someone in a crowd who 330 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:08.480 looked like Evelyn, she would frantically call her. 331 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:10.600 Relatives, just holding out hope. 332 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:14.039 Always holding out hope. She lived in this agonizing purgatory 333 00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:17.000 until she passed away in two thousand. Her final words, 334 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:21.240 literally holding her son's hand in the hospital, were find Evelyn. 335 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:26.039 Aurelia died believing her daughter was out there somewhere, perhaps estranged, 336 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:29.519 but alive. She never knew the horrific truth of the 337 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:30.840 nineteen seventy six murder. 338 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:32.559 Thank God for that, honestly. 339 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:34.639 Yeah, maybe a small mercy. But while the family endured 340 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:38.080 that psychological torture, the Pennsylvania State Police were actively trying 341 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.480 to force a breakthrough on their end. Every time a 342 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:43.200 new scientific method became available, they applied it to the 343 00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:44.679 Beth Doe evidence. 344 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.519 And some of those scientific attempts are fascinating to look 345 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:50.720 back on, even if they ultimately failed. Like in two 346 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:54.159 thousand and seven, nearly thirty years after the discovery, scientists 347 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.799 decided to try isotope analysis on Beth Doe's remains. 348 00:16:58.080 --> 00:16:59.799 Yes, the isotope analysis. 349 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:03.440 Now, my understanding of isotope analysis is that it's essentially 350 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:07.240 reading the chemical diary of someone's bones. How does that 351 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:08.759 actually work mechanically? 352 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:11.839 That's a really great way to conceptualize it. Let's look 353 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:15.680 at how bones and teeth form. As a child grows, 354 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.720 the chemical elements from the food they eat and the 355 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:22.039 water they drink are integrated into their skeletal structure. Okay, 356 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:27.519 different geographical regions have distinct isotopic signatures, basically specific ratios 357 00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:30.799 of isotopes like oxiden and stronium in the local soil 358 00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:31.440 and groundwater. 359 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:33.519 So it's tied to the land exactly. 360 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:36.440 Now. Teeth, once they form in childhood, they don't remodel, 361 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:38.920 so they lock in the isotopic signature of where you 362 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:40.519 lived during those early years. 363 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:41.359 Oh, that makes sense. 364 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:44.440 The bones remodel constantly reflecting where you lived more recently. 365 00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:47.759 So. By comparing the isotopes in her teeth to the 366 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:51.400 isotopes in her bones, scientists were trying to build a 367 00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:54.319 map of her life journey. They is asking the bones, 368 00:17:54.359 --> 00:17:56.200 you know, where did she grow up and where did 369 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:56.920 she move later? 370 00:17:57.079 --> 00:18:01.359 Precisely, and when the laboratory ran the analysis on Beth Doe, 371 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:05.279 the results came back pointing strongly towards Central Europe. 372 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:06.119 Central Europe. 373 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:10.240 Yes, the data suggested she likely spent her early childhood 374 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:13.079 in a country like Poland or maybe the Czech Republic 375 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.319 or Slovakia before migrating to the United States. 376 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:20.480 Okay, So, armed with that scientific data, the police pivot entirely. 377 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.720 They start digging into immigration records, reaching out to European 378 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:28.240 missing persons databases, and canvassing Eastern European immigrant communities in 379 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:28.799 the US. 380 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:30.720 They spent a massive amount of time on this. 381 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.839 They poured years of manpower into this specific geographic profile. 382 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:38.160 But it was a complete and utter misfire. How did 383 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:39.480 the science get it that wrong? 384 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:43.000 Well, the failure wasn't in the chemical analysis itself. The 385 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:46.240 machines read the chemicals correctly. It was a massive blind 386 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:50.240 spot in the interpretation of the data. The scientific baselines 387 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:54.119 used for comparison were rigidly geographical. What they failed to 388 00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:57.920 account for was the complex cultural reality of the American diaspora. 389 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:00.559 Oh I see, so a Puerto Rican fan living in 390 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:03.240 Jersey City in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Isn't just 391 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:05.759 eating local New Jersey produce exactly. 392 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:09.359 They were eating a highly varied diet. They consumed traditional 393 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.440 foods imported from Puerto Rico or grown in different soils, 394 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:17.200 combined with local municipal tap water and mass produced American goods. 395 00:19:17.720 --> 00:19:23.079 This created a very chaotic, blended isotopic profile in Evelyn's bones, 396 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:27.559 and by sheer coincidence, that unique amalgamation of chemicals happened 397 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:31.279 to closely mimic the standard expected baseline for a person 398 00:19:31.319 --> 00:19:32.480 growing up in Central Europe. 399 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:35.000 That is wild. It's like using a translation app that 400 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.200 tells you a phrase is Italian because the root words 401 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:38.880 are similar when it's actually Spanish. 402 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:39.960 That's a perfect analogy. 403 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:42.319 The science hand of the detective is a highly detailed, 404 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:44.880 perfectly drawn map to the exact wrong continent. 405 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:49.319 It was a devastating setback that costed the investigation precious years, 406 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:53.240 and it really highlights the danger of treating forensic science 407 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:56.640 as infallible without considering human and cultural variables. 408 00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:59.240 Absolutely, and that wasn't the only time they hit a 409 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:02.359 wall at full s be it either. In twenty nineteen, 410 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:06.759 an incredibly compelling lead surfaced. A woman saw the Beth 411 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:11.480 Doe sketch and immediately contacted authorities, identifying the sketch as 412 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:14.200 a former classmate named Madeleine Maggie Cruz. 413 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:18.039 And the circumstantial evidence aligning Beth Dough with Madeline Cruz 414 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:18.920 was astonishing. 415 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:19.559 It really was. 416 00:20:19.799 --> 00:20:22.880 Cruz had fled the foster care system in Massachusetts. She 417 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:24.799 was known to be pregnant in the summer of nineteen 418 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:27.480 seventy six. Wow, she had reached out to a friend 419 00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:32.079 asking for financial help, and then she vanished completely. The timeline, 420 00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:34.799 the pregnancy, the physical resemblance. I mean, it was as 421 00:20:34.839 --> 00:20:37.960 close to a perfect match as investigators could hope for 422 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:38.759 without having. 423 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:41.079 DNA, and the police were so confident that they actually 424 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:43.640 went public with the lead. The media picked it up, 425 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:45.799 and for a brief moment, it felt like a forty 426 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:48.119 three year old mystery was finally solved. 427 00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:49.160 It was huge news. 428 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:54.359 But just weeks later, investigators located Madeline Cruz. She was alive, 429 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:56.079 and well, you really have. 430 00:20:56.119 --> 00:20:59.319 To consider this psychological toll on the detectives here. I 431 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.759 can't imagine you have seasoned investigators who have carried the 432 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:05.680 weight of this young woman and her unborn child for 433 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:09.920 their entire careers. You try cutting edge isotope chemistry and 434 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:12.400 it points you to the wrong hemisphere. You get a 435 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:16.640 perfect biographical match, and the person turns up alive. Every 436 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:20.799 dead end reinforces this terrifying possibility that the killer had 437 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:22.400 truly committed the perfect crime. 438 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:26.920 But the landscape of criminal investigation was fundamentally shifting. While 439 00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:30.279 the police were relying on twentieth century methodologies, the solution 440 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:34.079 was quietly being built by ordinary people uploading data to 441 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:34.799 the Internet. 442 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:38.559 The breakthrough arrives in twenty twenty. A detective named Brian 443 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:42.119 Noll with the Pennsylvania State Police decides to initiate one 444 00:21:42.200 --> 00:21:42.920 final push. 445 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:43.880 He wasn't given up. 446 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:46.599 He collaborates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited 447 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:50.519 Children and a specialized facility called DNA Labs International. 448 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:56.160 They ultimately turned to a company called AUTHRM based in Houston, Texas. Now, 449 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:59.680 DNA testing has been around for decades. Why couldn't they 450 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:03.039 just run her DNA through the FBI's code A system 451 00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:05.039 back in the nineties or two thousands. 452 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:09.039 Well, traditional DNA testing, the kind use for CODIS relies 453 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:13.720 on identifying short tandem repeats or STRs. Okay, it requires 454 00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:17.119 relatively large in tax strands of DNA. It's great if 455 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:19.160 you have a fresh blood sample or a cheek swab 456 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:23.079 and you're comparing it to a known offender already in database. 457 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.839 Which they did have here Exactly. 458 00:22:25.559 --> 00:22:29.279 Besto's remains have been exposed to the elements buried, exhumed, 459 00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:31.920 and sitting in evidence storage for over. 460 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:34.160 Forty years, just degrading. The whole time the. 461 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:38.599 DNA was heavily degraded, fragmented by bacteria and time. Traditional 462 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.759 str testing simply couldn't read the shatter genetic code. 463 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:44.680 So off From uses something called next generation sequencing. My 464 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:47.440 understanding is that if traditional DNA testing is like looking 465 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:50.839 for specific whole sentences in a book, next generation sequencing 466 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:52.720 is capable of taking a book that's been run through 467 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:56.599 a wood chipper, scanning every single tiny fragment, and computationally 468 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.119 reassembling the entire text. 469 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:02.119 That is an excellent analogy. Althoram specializes in exactly this 470 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:06.680 kind of forensic genealogy. They extract whatever minute fragments of 471 00:23:06.759 --> 00:23:09.279 DNA are left in the bone, in this case her 472 00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:13.839 femur and sequence hundreds of thousands of microscopic genetic markers 473 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:15.359 called SNPs. 474 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:18.759 Single nucleotide polymorphisms yes SNPs. 475 00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:23.599 While computational analysis, they reconstruct a comprehensive genetic profile that 476 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:27.079 older forensic techniques would consider completely impossible to salvage. 477 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:30.759 So, by February twenty twenty one, authoram successfully builds this 478 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:34.440 genetic profile. But a profile is useless unless you have 479 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:37.279 something to compare it to, right, since her family was 480 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:40.880 never in a criminal database, they upload this reconstructed DNA 481 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:46.440 to commercial genealogical databases, specifically ged match and Family Tree DNA. 482 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:49.480 These are the platforms where millions of everyday people upload 483 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:52.160 their twenty three anity or ancestry DNA results to build 484 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.200 family trees or discover their ethnic heritage. 485 00:23:54.200 --> 00:23:55.079 Well, I mean I've done it. 486 00:23:55.319 --> 00:23:57.839 Lots of people have, and when authorm Ranbeth Doo's profile 487 00:23:57.880 --> 00:23:59.880 through the system, they get a massive hit. 488 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:02.799 The system flagged a match of seventeen hundred cent of 489 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:05.319 morgans of shared DNA with a man living in Texas 490 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:08.160 named Lewis Colan Junior. Let's break down that metric for 491 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:11.359 a second. What does seventeen hundred cent of morgans actually 492 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:12.519 tell an investigator? 493 00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:14.400 Well, a cent of morgan is a unit used to 494 00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:18.759 measure genetic linkage. Essentially how much DNA two people share 495 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:21.480 from a common ancestors. Okay, when you see a match 496 00:24:21.480 --> 00:24:25.680 of seventeen hundred center morgans, it completely eliminates any ambiguity 497 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:30.279 about distant cousins. That specific range points directly to a 498 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:34.519 very close familial relationship, precisely the amount of shared DNA 499 00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:37.839 you would expect between a grandparent and grandchild, a half sibling, 500 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.440 or crucially, in this case, an aunt or uncle and 501 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:42.640 their niece or nephew. 502 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:46.599 It's a direct, undeniable line into her family. And who 503 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:49.519 is Lewis Colan Junior? He is Evelyn's nephew. Yes, he 504 00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:52.279 is the son of her older brother, Lewis Or he 505 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:55.599 hadn't taken these commercial DNA tests because he suspected a murder. 506 00:24:55.880 --> 00:24:58.079 He just wanted to map his family tree and perhaps 507 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:00.359 find the aunt who moved to Connecticut in nineteen seventy 508 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:01.440 six and stopped writing. 509 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:05.759 This illustrates the paradigm shifting power of forensic genealogy. It 510 00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:09.680 completely bypasses the requirement for the victim or the perpetrator 511 00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:11.839 to be indexed in a law enforcement database. 512 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:14.880 Right, you just need a relative who's curious about their heritage. 513 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:20.079 Exactly it leverages the biological curiosity of everyday citizens to 514 00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:23.799 bridge gaps that traditional police work simply cannot cross. 515 00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:27.799 So the police immediately contact Lewis Junior in Texas. He 516 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:31.960 details the entire family history. He tells them about Evelyn, 517 00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:35.640 the older boyfriend, Luis Sierra, the sudden disappearance, and the 518 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:39.000 nineteen seventy seven letter from Connecticut, all the missing puzzle pieces, 519 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:42.920 and then the emotional climax of this entire saga unfolds. 520 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:46.240 Lewis Junior sends a link to the Wikipedia page about 521 00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:49.680 the Beth Dough case to his sister, Miriam cole velpment. 522 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:53.519 Right, and without needing any further scientific confirmation, Miriam looks 523 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:56.279 at the reconstructed composite sketch on that web page and 524 00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:58.480 immediately says, that looks like my aunt. 525 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:01.200 And that's the moment the tragedy he really crystallizes. For 526 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:03.480 Lewis Junior. He later said, all this time we were 527 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:05.000 looking for Evelyn Colin, not Beth. 528 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:08.559 Do it forces a profound psychological realignment for the family. 529 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:09.079 It has to. 530 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:13.559 For forty four years, two separate, completely isolating tragedies were 531 00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:17.039 playing out simultaneously. You had a family endlessly hoping for 532 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:19.519 a missing girl to come home in a police department 533 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:22.880 endlessly searching for the identity of a murdered girl, and. 534 00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:25.480 They had no idea they were looking for the same person. 535 00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:29.559 Right next generation sequencing was the bridge that finally allowed 536 00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:31.799 those two parallel lines to intersect. 537 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:36.839 With Evelyn's identity restored, the investigation accelerates instantly because if 538 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:39.720 you know who she is, the immediate logical step is 539 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:42.720 to ask the family who she was last seen with, and. 540 00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:47.240 The family definitively points the finger at Louis Sierra. They 541 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:52.319 provide investigators with the crucial context of his history of controlling. 542 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:53.839 Behavior right all those red flag. 543 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:57.240 They detail the jealousy, the physical isolation, and the fact 544 00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:00.599 that he would physically lock Evelyn inside there apart, and. 545 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:02.920 There is another piece of the puzzle that finally clicks 546 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:06.519 into place, the nineteen seventy seven letter from Stamford. 547 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:07.119 Ah. 548 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:10.119 Yes, the letter the family reveals to the police that 549 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:13.599 Evelyn's reading and writing skills were actually quite limited. There 550 00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:16.960 was absolutely no way she possessed the literacy required to 551 00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:20.000 draft that sophisticated, perfectly structured letter in. 552 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:23.839 Spanish, which solidifies the investigator's theory. The letter was a forgery, 553 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:27.880 a total fake, a calculated misdirection designed solely to cover 554 00:27:27.960 --> 00:27:32.039 up a homicide and manipulate the family into silence. Armed 555 00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:35.599 with this information, the Pennsylvania State Police begin the hunt 556 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:36.440 for Louis Sierra. 557 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.119 Now you might expect a man who committed a brutal 558 00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:41.799 murder and dismemberment to be living off the grid. 559 00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:44.319 Right, you'd think so, hiding out somewhere. 560 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.000 Hiding under an assumed name, or constantly on the run. 561 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:49.319 But where do they find him? He is sixty three 562 00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:53.279 years old, living a completely unremarkable, quiet life as a 563 00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:55.839 bus driver in Ozone Park, Queens, New York. 564 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:57.799 He was living just a short drive from where he 565 00:27:57.799 --> 00:27:59.240 committed the crime in Jersey City. 566 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:00.000 It's insane. 567 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.160 He had no criminal record. For forty five years. He 568 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:06.240 operated as a normal member of society. He went to work, 569 00:28:06.599 --> 00:28:09.759 interacted with neighbors, and lived a life entirely devoid of 570 00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:11.079 consequence for his actions. 571 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:13.160 And not once in those forty five years did he 572 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:16.799 ever file a police report, hire a private investigator, or 573 00:28:16.839 --> 00:28:19.839 attempt to locate his heavily pregnant girlfriend or the child 574 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:21.720 he claimed was his in that forged letter. 575 00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:22.920 Never so. 576 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:26.599 On March thirty first, twenty twenty one, Detective Null from Pennsylvania, 577 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:28.960 accompanied by the NYPD, knocks on his door. 578 00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:32.240 In Queen's Sierra answers the door. He's an older man, 579 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:37.319 now graying hair. The detectives introduced themselves, state they are 580 00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:40.599 investigating a historical missing person report and ask him if 581 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:41.759 he knows in Evelyn Colin. 582 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:45.480 His immediate reaction is denial. He claims he doesn't know her. 583 00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:47.240 At all, which is to be expected. 584 00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:50.680 But then the detectives subtly shift their tactic. They mentioned 585 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:54.559 the year nineteen seventy six, and instantly his story pivots. 586 00:28:54.599 --> 00:28:56.680 Oh. Memory suddenly comes brushing back right. 587 00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:00.200 He admits they dated, He admits she was pregnant, but 588 00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:02.839 he adamantly insists that the last time he ever saw 589 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:05.799 her was at that apartment in Jersey City before they 590 00:29:05.799 --> 00:29:06.480 parted ways. 591 00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:10.880 Consecutive. Null systematically applies pressure here. He asks the logical 592 00:29:10.920 --> 00:29:13.880 follow up, if she disappeared while pregnant with your child, 593 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.599 why didn't you ever try to look for her? 594 00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:17.599 And Sierra has no coherent answer. 595 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:19.920 For that, no answer at all. Nall then brings up 596 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:22.720 the specific letter mailed from Connecticut in nineteen seventy seven. 597 00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:26.880 Right again, Sierra has no answer. Then, incredibly, after a 598 00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.039 two hour interview conducted in his own living room, Sierra 599 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:33.079 just admits to writing the nineteen seventy seven letter himself. 600 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:35.839 I really want to analyze the psychology of this moment, 601 00:29:35.880 --> 00:29:39.200 because it's baffling. You have a man who has successfully 602 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:42.640 gotten away with a horrific double murder for nearly half 603 00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:46.599 a century. The police are sitting on his couch. Why 604 00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:50.359 on earth would he voluntarily admit to forging the document 605 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:52.759 that served as the primary instrument of his cover up. 606 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:54.799 Why hand them the smoking gun? 607 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:57.480 It is crazy, but if you examine the mindset of 608 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:02.319 someone who has compartmentalized a crime for forty five years, his 609 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:05.359 reaction makes a twifted kind of sense. Okay, so his 610 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:09.160 guard was completely down over four decades. The lack of 611 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:12.279 consequences likely convinced him that he had outsmarted the system, 612 00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:15.400 that the body would never be identified, and the evidence 613 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:16.160 was long gone. 614 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.920 Right, he thought he was untouchable. 615 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:20.880 When the police suddenly appeared, he attempted to outmaneuver them. 616 00:30:21.559 --> 00:30:24.160 He likely thought he could admit to a lesser, somewhat 617 00:30:24.279 --> 00:30:27.680 justifiable misdeed, like oh, writing a fake letter. Just to 618 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:30.799 get her family office back while continuing to deny any 619 00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:32.079 involvement in the actual murder. 620 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:33.720 So he thought he was being clever. 621 00:30:33.799 --> 00:30:37.720 Exactly, he failed to realize that admitting to the forgery 622 00:30:37.799 --> 00:30:40.319 was the lynchpin that destroyed his entire alibi. 623 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:43.960 He essentially locked himself into the cover up. Detective Null 624 00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:48.839 immediately steps outside, contacts Carbon County, secures an arrest warrant, 625 00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:52.160 and Sierra is taken into custody right there in his home, 626 00:30:52.519 --> 00:30:55.880 just like that, charged with criminal homicide. They hold a 627 00:30:55.880 --> 00:30:59.039 press conference that very same day to announce the breakthrough. 628 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:01.599 The emotional fought all out for the family is immense. 629 00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:05.000 It's a collision of overwhelming relief that the mystery is 630 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:10.240 finally solved and profound fresh grief as the reality of 631 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:12.240 her brutal murder actually sets in. 632 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:13.640 It's a lot process. 633 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:18.079 Miriam, Evelyn's niece, speaks publicly about how Evelyn's memory was 634 00:31:18.119 --> 00:31:21.599 a constant, haunting presence in their family dynamics. Lewis Junior 635 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:24.480 is rightfully hailed as a hero for his unintentional role 636 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:25.519 in breaking. 637 00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:28.319 The case, and the family even officially names the unborn 638 00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:32.079 baby Emily Grace, granting humanity to a victim who never 639 00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:32.759 took a breath. 640 00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:34.160 That's a really beautiful touch. 641 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:35.960 It is at this point in the narrative, you know, 642 00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:38.960 it feels like the story has reached its natural conclusion. 643 00:31:38.599 --> 00:31:39.119 You would hope. 644 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:41.960 So the villain is caught, the victims have their names back, 645 00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:45.680 and the science prevailed. But the American legal system is 646 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:48.240 rarely a straight line, and in this case it becomes 647 00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:49.640 a devastating labyrinth. 648 00:31:49.880 --> 00:31:53.920 It really does. This is the exact moment the narrative 649 00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:57.920 shifts from a triumph of modern forensic science to an 650 00:31:57.960 --> 00:32:02.640 agonizing exposure of legal voelnerabilities. So what happens, Well, Sierra 651 00:32:02.759 --> 00:32:06.200 is extradited to Pennsylvania and held without bail at the 652 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:10.119 Carbon County Prison in jim Thorpe. He retains a defense 653 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:11.559 attorney named Robert Madden. 654 00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:14.400 In April twenty twenty one, the preliminary hearing takes place 655 00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:18.640 before Judge Joseph Amonco and Madden immediately zeros in on 656 00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:21.319 the prosecution's glaring, massive weakness. 657 00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:24.880 The fatal flaw in the Commonwealth's case against Sierra was 658 00:32:24.920 --> 00:32:27.680 the absolute lack of direct physical evidence connecting him to 659 00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:30.880 the murder. There is really nothing nothing physical. Yes, they 660 00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:33.920 had successfully identified the victim, and yes, they had circumstantial 661 00:32:33.960 --> 00:32:36.759 evidence of his controlling behavior and his admission to writing 662 00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:40.519 the letter. But forensically, there was nothing, no weapon, no 663 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:43.359 murder weapon was ever recovered. There were no fingerprints on 664 00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:46.880 the suitcases, there was no trace of Sierra's DNA on 665 00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:49.880 Evelyn's remains, or that shinil blanket. 666 00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:53.680 The prosecution's entire foundation basically rested on forty four year 667 00:32:53.680 --> 00:32:57.519 old memories from family members, the circumstantial reality that he 668 00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:00.359 was the last known person to see her alive, and 669 00:33:00.440 --> 00:33:03.000 an admission to writing a letter that had physically been 670 00:33:03.039 --> 00:33:04.240 destroyed decades ago. 671 00:33:04.559 --> 00:33:09.119 Madden aggressively challenged the arrest, characterizing it as a huge 672 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:10.720 reach by the prosecution. 673 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:11.920 A huge reach. 674 00:33:11.960 --> 00:33:15.119 He argued that the state had ignored other possibilities, even 675 00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:18.440 suggesting they should investigate known serial killers who were active 676 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:20.240 in the Northeast during the nineteen seventies. 677 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:23.200 Oh trying to cast reasonable doubt exactly. 678 00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:25.640 And while Judge Hamanko ruled there was just enough preliminary 679 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:28.480 evidence to push the case toward a trial, the structural 680 00:33:28.519 --> 00:33:31.640 integrity of the prosecution's case was undeniably. 681 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:33.160 Fragile, and it was about to face a much more 682 00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:37.720 serious stress test. In June twenty twenty two, Judge Mattika 683 00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:41.319 hears a motion to suppress Sierra's confession regarding the letter. 684 00:33:41.640 --> 00:33:43.400 This is a critical legal juncture. 685 00:33:43.559 --> 00:33:47.279 It is Madden argues that during that two hour interview 686 00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:51.720 in his Ozone Park living room, Sierra was never read 687 00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:52.680 his miranda rights. 688 00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:56.960 This introduces a highly nuanced debate regarding the Fifth Amendment. 689 00:33:57.519 --> 00:34:01.880 The constitutional protection against self incrimination mandates that police read 690 00:34:01.880 --> 00:34:04.079 a suspect their miranda rights. You know, the rights to 691 00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:05.599 remain silent, the right to an attorney. 692 00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:08.400 You hear it on every cop show, right, Yeah. 693 00:34:08.079 --> 00:34:12.800 But this requirement is only triggered during a custodial interrogation, and. 694 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:16.679 The prosecution leans heavily on that exact definition. They argue 695 00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:20.199 that Sierra was not in custody, he voluntarily allowed the 696 00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:23.039 detectives into his home wish he did, he wasn't placed 697 00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:26.079 in handcuffs, and he was theoretically free to ask them 698 00:34:26.119 --> 00:34:28.639 to leave or terminate the interview at any point. 699 00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:32.280 However, the defense counters by analyzing the actual reality of 700 00:34:32.280 --> 00:34:36.559 the situation, Sierra was clearly the primary, if not the exclusive, 701 00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:40.199 suspect in a homicide investigation, of course he was. When 702 00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:44.199 two homicide detectives show up at your residence, begin interrogating 703 00:34:44.199 --> 00:34:47.119 you about a forty four year old murder and methodically 704 00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:52.559 corner you into a confession, the psychological environment becomes incredibly coercive. 705 00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:54.599 Yeah, you don't feel like you can just walk away. 706 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.239 The legal question becomes, at what precise moment does a 707 00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:04.039 voluntary conversation morph into a custodial environment where this suspect 708 00:35:04.119 --> 00:35:06.119 reasonably believes they are not free to leave. 709 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:07.679 It's a fine line. 710 00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:11.199 If the judge were to suppress those statements, stripping away 711 00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:14.960 his admission of writing the letter, the prosecution's already weak 712 00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:16.599 case would completely collapse. 713 00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:19.559 But while the court is grappling with this heavy constitutional 714 00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:24.400 debate over miranda rights, a much larger, completely devastating flaw 715 00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:27.679 reveals itself, a flaw that has absolutely nothing to do 716 00:35:27.719 --> 00:35:30.239 with the Fifth Amendment and everything to do with geography, 717 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:31.760 jurisdiction jurisdiction. 718 00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:36.320 As the investigation intensified in preparation for trial, a stark 719 00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:40.239 reality emerged. Based on the timeline, the forensic evidence, and 720 00:35:40.280 --> 00:35:43.760 the logistics of the crime. It became overwhelmingly clear that 721 00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:46.239 Evelyn was murdered inside that Jersey City. 722 00:35:46.079 --> 00:35:47.119 Apartment in New Jersey. 723 00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:49.400 That was the site of her isolation, that was where 724 00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:51.559 she asked for the soup, and that was the location 725 00:35:51.679 --> 00:35:56.559 found suddenly emptied Carbon County, Pennsylvania was nothing more than 726 00:35:56.599 --> 00:35:59.159 a disposal site chosen after the fact. 727 00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:00.920 And this is the time twist that is just so 728 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:04.039 hard to swallow because in the American legal system, the 729 00:36:04.119 --> 00:36:08.199 concept of territorial jurisdiction is absolute. It is a state 730 00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:11.760 only possesses the authority to prosecute a crime that actually 731 00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:13.519 occurred within its sovereign borders. 732 00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:16.800 This is a fundamental constitutional principle tied to the Sixth 733 00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:20.599 Amendments vicinage clause, which dictates that a trial must occur 734 00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:22.760 in the state and district where the crime was committed. 735 00:36:22.840 --> 00:36:25.079 It isn't a minor clerical error. 736 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:28.360 No or a procedural loophole. It is the bedrock of 737 00:36:28.400 --> 00:36:32.440 state sovereignty. Because the elements of the murder, the strangulation, 738 00:36:32.559 --> 00:36:36.159 the fatal violence occurred in New Jersey, Pennsylvania had absolutely 739 00:36:36.199 --> 00:36:40.599 no legal authority to prosecute Luisierra for homicide, regardless of 740 00:36:40.599 --> 00:36:43.039 the fact that the bodies were discovered within their jurisdiction. 741 00:36:43.280 --> 00:36:46.719 The result is just catastrophic for the prosecution. In March 742 00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:50.400 twenty twenty four, the Pennsylvania prosecutor, Michael Greek is legally 743 00:36:50.440 --> 00:36:53.000 forced to dismiss all charges against Louis Sierra. 744 00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:53.599 All of them. 745 00:36:53.800 --> 00:36:56.920 Every single charge is dropped. Sierra walks out of the 746 00:36:56.960 --> 00:36:58.039 courtroom a freeman. 747 00:36:58.519 --> 00:37:01.559 The jurisdiction of the case was officially transferred to authorities 748 00:37:01.559 --> 00:37:06.119 in New Jersey. However, building a prosecutable case nearly fifty 749 00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:10.079 years after the fact in an entirely different jurisdiction is 750 00:37:10.119 --> 00:37:11.719 a massive, uphill battle. 751 00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:13.679 I mean, how do you even start. 752 00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:17.719 It's tough. As of June twenty twenty six, our records 753 00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:20.440 indicate that New Jersey has still not formally charged the 754 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:22.559 sixty seven year old Sierra with the murder. 755 00:37:22.679 --> 00:37:26.639 It is incredibly difficult to process how a literal line 756 00:37:26.760 --> 00:37:29.480 on a map just the border between two states can 757 00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:33.519 completely dismantle forty four years of tireless investigative work and 758 00:37:33.559 --> 00:37:35.679 a literal miracle of genetic science. 759 00:37:35.719 --> 00:37:36.159 Maddening. 760 00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:39.159 Think about the emotional whiplash for Lewis Collen Sr. He 761 00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:40.800 sat in a courtroom. He stared at the face of 762 00:37:40.840 --> 00:37:43.000 the man accused of slaughtering his teenage sister and his 763 00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:45.639 unborn niece. He prepared to testify, only. 764 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:48.159 To watch the legal apparatus let that man walk free 765 00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:51.639 based on a jurisdictional mandate exact. It exposes a profound 766 00:37:51.800 --> 00:37:55.480 vulnerability in how the American justice system handles crimes that 767 00:37:55.559 --> 00:37:56.480 cross state lines. 768 00:37:56.559 --> 00:37:57.239 It really does. 769 00:37:57.400 --> 00:38:01.920 This is particularly problematic in historical cold cases. We're definitively 770 00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:05.719 proving the exact timeline and geographical location of the fatal 771 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:10.159 act becomes exceedingly difficult half a century later. The law 772 00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:14.000 requires a precision that the passage of time often just erases. 773 00:38:14.360 --> 00:38:17.280 While the legal system may have stalled in a jurisdictional 774 00:38:17.400 --> 00:38:20.880 quagmire and Sierra may be sitting in Queen's right now, 775 00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:25.119 the legacy of Evelyn Colan's case extends far beyond the 776 00:38:25.119 --> 00:38:26.199 walls of that courtroom. 777 00:38:26.440 --> 00:38:27.079 It really does. 778 00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:30.840 This deep dive forces us to confront some very tangible takeaways, 779 00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:34.360 concepts that directly influence how we navigate the world today. 780 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:38.880 The narrative of Evelyn's disappearance highlights four critical areas of awareness. 781 00:38:39.559 --> 00:38:42.760 The first revolves around the fragility of communication and the 782 00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:46.119 danger of assumptions. If a loved one suddenly cuts off 783 00:38:46.119 --> 00:38:49.679 all contact, especially through an unverified medium like a letter 784 00:38:49.760 --> 00:38:52.679 or a text message, we cannot accept it as absolute 785 00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:54.159 proof of life or intent. 786 00:38:54.559 --> 00:38:57.639 If the Colan family or the police hadn't accepted that 787 00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:00.800 Stanford letter as gospel back in nineteen seven, if a 788 00:39:00.840 --> 00:39:03.920 missing person report had been forced through the system, Evelyn 789 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:06.000 might have been identified decades. 790 00:39:05.519 --> 00:39:07.199 Earlier, which changes everything. 791 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:09.800 Today, you don't need evidence of foul play to report 792 00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:12.760 a missing person. Organizations like the National Center for Missing 793 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:16.639 and Exploited Children are literally designed to bypass local apathy. 794 00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:20.440 The second area of impact is the democratizing power of 795 00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:25.440 genetic genealogy. For decades, solving crimes was entirely the domain 796 00:39:25.480 --> 00:39:29.440 of law enforcement. Now, everyday citizens hold the keys to 797 00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:31.119 unlocking these mysteries. 798 00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:32.800 Which is amazing to think about. 799 00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:36.360 By choosing to upload your commercial DNA results to open 800 00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:40.239 source platforms like ged match or family Tree DNA, you 801 00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:44.559 become part of this massive collaborative biological network. Lewis Colan 802 00:39:44.639 --> 00:39:47.199 Junior didn't have a badge, he didn't have specialized training, 803 00:39:47.320 --> 00:39:49.159 just a guy with a computer. He simply had a 804 00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:52.559 desire to understand his family history, and that single mundane 805 00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:55.280 action broke a forty four year old murder. 806 00:39:55.119 --> 00:39:58.599 Case, which leads directly into the third crucial lesson here, 807 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:02.119 recognizing an act immediately on the signs of domestic violence 808 00:40:02.119 --> 00:40:02.679 and isolation. 809 00:40:02.840 --> 00:40:03.800 This is so important. 810 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:07.000 Evelyn clearly communicated her fear to her mother she was 811 00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:10.800 being locked in an apartment. Today, the infrastructure to combat 812 00:40:10.840 --> 00:40:14.239 this is vastly superior to what existed in nineteen seventy six. 813 00:40:14.360 --> 00:40:15.159 Much better. Yeah. 814 00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:18.360 The recognition of isolation as a precursor to lethal violence 815 00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:22.039 is exactly why resources like the National Domestic Violence Hotline 816 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:24.199 exist and operate twenty four to seven. 817 00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:28.159 Finally, the case addresses the glaring systemic blind spots that 818 00:40:28.199 --> 00:40:30.880 have historically marginalized specific communities. 819 00:40:30.960 --> 00:40:31.039 Oh. 820 00:40:31.079 --> 00:40:34.679 Absolutely, minority and immigrant populations, particularly in the nineteen seventies, 821 00:40:35.079 --> 00:40:37.679 often fell through the cracks of the justice system due 822 00:40:37.719 --> 00:40:42.360 to language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and just systemic apathy. 823 00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:44.039 It's a sad reality today. 824 00:40:44.440 --> 00:40:48.079 Specialized organizations like Natasha's Justice Project or the DNA Dough 825 00:40:48.079 --> 00:40:52.880 Project exist specifically to correct these historical imbalances. They focus 826 00:40:52.920 --> 00:40:56.480 their resources on returning identities to the nameless victims found 827 00:40:56.480 --> 00:40:58.360 in marginalized communities. 828 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:01.599 And the technological leap made in Evelyn case cannot be overstated. 829 00:41:01.880 --> 00:41:06.239 What authorm achieved with her degraded DNA totally revolutionized how 830 00:41:06.320 --> 00:41:08.880 cold case units approach unidentified remains. 831 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:10.079 It's set a new standard. 832 00:41:10.199 --> 00:41:13.239 The methodology they utilized to give Beth Doe her name 833 00:41:13.280 --> 00:41:16.960 back is now the gold standard in forensic science, actively 834 00:41:17.039 --> 00:41:20.719 returning names to nameless victims across the entire country. 835 00:41:21.119 --> 00:41:24.039 As for Evelyn herself, her family is finally able to 836 00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:26.320 provide the dignity that was stripped from her in nineteen 837 00:41:26.360 --> 00:41:26.960 seventy six. 838 00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:28.480 That's the most important part. 839 00:41:28.519 --> 00:41:32.719 Her niece, Miriam Colan Velman launched a campaign, the Official 840 00:41:32.800 --> 00:41:36.599 BESTO Evelyn Colan Memorial Fund, with the goal of exhooming 841 00:41:36.679 --> 00:41:41.199 Evelyn's remains from that lonely, unmarked grave in Pennsylvania and 842 00:41:41.239 --> 00:41:42.039 bringing her home. 843 00:41:42.199 --> 00:41:43.199 That's beautiful. 844 00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:45.000 They want to lay her to rest in a place 845 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.119 where her family can visit, beneath a headstone that proudly 846 00:41:48.159 --> 00:41:49.079 bears her real name. 847 00:41:49.159 --> 00:41:51.239 Which brings us full circle back to the beginning of 848 00:41:51.280 --> 00:41:54.519 this incredibly dark journey. We started with a young boy 849 00:41:54.599 --> 00:41:57.119 on the Frasen banks of the Lehigh River staring at 850 00:41:57.119 --> 00:42:01.199 broken suitcases, initiating forty four years of profound silence. 851 00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:04.840 The entirety of this case forces a profound reconsideration of 852 00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:07.719 what justice actually means in the real world it does. 853 00:42:07.840 --> 00:42:10.920 As a society, we are deeply conditioned to believe that 854 00:42:11.159 --> 00:42:14.920 justice is a highly structured, cinematic event. We expect it 855 00:42:14.960 --> 00:42:17.679 to look like a judge's gavel coming down, a jury 856 00:42:17.679 --> 00:42:20.519 delivering a guilty verdict, and the perpetrator being locked in 857 00:42:20.559 --> 00:42:21.199 a prison cell. 858 00:42:21.400 --> 00:42:23.320 We want that need ending. 859 00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:27.559 And objectively in a functional system. That is exactly what 860 00:42:27.599 --> 00:42:28.480 should have occurred here. 861 00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:32.440 But maybe you know, when a case is buried under 862 00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:34.960 a false identity for almost half a century, and when 863 00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:39.079 the legal system trips over its own jurisdictional borders, justice 864 00:42:39.119 --> 00:42:40.639 is forced to take a different shape. 865 00:42:41.079 --> 00:42:44.599 Maybe true justice in this Pacific instance was simply the 866 00:42:44.639 --> 00:42:48.679 moment Luis Sierra had his forty five year secret violently 867 00:42:48.760 --> 00:42:50.360 ripped out of the shadows, right in. 868 00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:52.360 His own living room, just confronting the truth. 869 00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:55.440 Maybe justice is a family finally possessing the truth and 870 00:42:55.480 --> 00:42:58.079 being able to carve the name Evelyn Colin into Stone, 871 00:42:58.440 --> 00:43:01.159 erasing the phantom of Bethdo from existence forever. 872 00:43:01.320 --> 00:43:04.000 It leaves you with a deeply haunting proposition to consider 873 00:43:04.119 --> 00:43:07.440 long after this deep dive ends. We rely on systems 874 00:43:07.480 --> 00:43:09.599 to tell us the truth, to keep us safe, and 875 00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:13.119 to find the lost. But if someone you loved vanished 876 00:43:13.159 --> 00:43:16.079 tomorrow and the system explicitly told you they were fine, 877 00:43:16.199 --> 00:43:18.719 you know, if decades passed, the silence stretched on, and 878 00:43:18.800 --> 00:43:21.360 the trail went completely cold, how long would you keep 879 00:43:21.360 --> 00:43:22.199 the porch late on.