A Man with a Past | Full Episode

foreign [Music] Alabama is home to Auburn University which is a major football school in a college town it happens that students sometimes may go often you know they may be missing for a little while but they come back Lori was a student at Auburn University and she had recently graduated June 10th 2006 which is the fateful day in Lori's life we were going to have drinks at my house we were going to have Rum Runners I believe and watch a movie and just kind of hang out do girl time she called me around 6 30 and said I'm gonna stop by the store pick up the drink mixes and then I'll be headed to your house and then the phone rang about 30 minutes later it rang once or twice I answered no one was there how many times had she simply not showed up and not called you never my daughter was a very good person a kind person a loving girl very studious student she loves sports loved her dog she had a little Yorkie named Peanut that was her baby when did you realize that something was wrong I was at work A lady called I believe it was her boss and she told me that I just want to tell you your daughter Lori has not showed up for work and right away bells and whistles went off I called her and she didn't answer her phone I called her house several times left voicemails on her home answering machine you go over to her mobile home the door was unlocked which was not like her the air condition was running her dog peanut was in the crate we walked through the house she wasn't there what are you thinking something's terribly wrong there is no way she would have left peanut this is it it's about 4 40 a.m four days after Lori is missing the car was right here dead in the center engulfed in flames was Lori in this car Lori was not in the vehicle there was no trace of her whatsoever I mean none just vanished just vanished and nobody knows what happened to Lori slosinski no somebody that knows Rick Ennis your daughter had no idea about his past no I met Rick Ennis when he was 12 years old he's sitting back there in that seat behind you and I said where are your parents he looked right back at me and he says I killed them both [Music] all right [Music] [Music] oh [Music] I can still see her smile her smile is just etched in my memory to this day Lindsey Braun is haunted by the final call from Lori slosinski on June 10 2006 when they were supposed to get together for drinks and a movie that last call did it indicate it was her fault she calls and it hangs up and no one's there just no one was there I was just dead in did you call her right back I did no answer Lori and Lindsay became fast friends when they met junior year at Auburn University in 2002. I remember the day I met her we just kind of immediately clicked I could just tell that she was a warm person very friendly just outgoing loving all those good things Lori's family her older brother Paul and their parents Arlene and Casey were actually from New York State they headed south to rural Alabama Farm country when Lori was 13 years old I just loved animals we always had animals in our house Lori's mother Arlene very studious student she was a good girl when she enrolled in nearby Auburn University her parents bought Lori a mobile home to live off campus in a manicured trailer park popular with students so from valedictorian of her high school class was it tough for you to see your baby girl leave the house and head off to University oh yeah it was very tough I called her every day she's like Mom this has got to stop I was like but you're my baby and I worry about you don't worry about me I'm fine Lori majored in Psychology and minored in criminal justice she graduated with honors there she is with Mom and Dad she looks so happy there she was she was over the moon happy after graduation Lori and Lindsey started working together at a local mental health facility did you sense that she had any enemy in this world no the day that Lori disappears June 10 2006. was anyone with Lori that day Rick was at her house Rick Was Daryl Richard Ennis when I had spoken to her he was in the background Lori got to know Rick back when she was still a student she hung out at the local bowling alley where he worked I didn't know much about him at all except he was her friend Arlene says just before Christmas in 2005 Laurie asked if Rick could join them she asked me she said mom he has no family can I invite him she kind of you know felt bad that he was going to spend Christmas alone he was friendly um very polite Lindsay says Lori often spent time with Rick so she wasn't surprised that he had been at Lori's home the day she disappeared they were friends so I wasn't concerned but now you're at home waiting for Lori to come over and he went to bed that night thinking you know I hope she's okay but the next morning Lindsay started to worry I called her house several times left voicemails on her home answering machine hey Lori checking on you are you okay where are you you went to work on that Monday right yeah uh she wasn't there then my mind something's wrong I had Rick's number so I did text him and ask have you seen Lori where is she I'm worried about her his conversation back was no I haven't and I'm worried now too when Lori didn't show up at work a second day that's when Lindsay headed to Lori's home no one answered and found her dog peanut in his crate I'm an animal lover so the very first thing I did was let the dog out that's when she noticed something else strange Lori was missing three days but the crate was spotless and peanuts seemed happy and appeared to be well fed as though someone had taken care of him and there was more one thing I remember about peanut is he wouldn't walk on tile so she had these rug in our kitchen and he would hop on the rugs and the rugs were gone I noticed that immediately her outside trash can was missing she had one that she had like yard Tools in and the answer machine had actually been unplugged so those messages were not there by this time Lori's mother heard that she hadn't been showing up at work I have got to go to Auburn and see what's going on where she is because I called her and she didn't answer her phone she headed off on an agonizing Drive calling her husband and alerting the police finally arriving at her daughter's home and when the police got there what was their attitude well you know they're like she's got to be missing 48 hours and they didn't really think a big make a big deal out of it they wanted to just think she ran away Laurie's parents could only wait for Lori to walk through the door or call and finally the phone rang late that afternoon but Arlene says it wasn't Lori it was her friend Rick Ennis she said that Lori had gone to make a big drug deal what yes and I was like there ain't no way my daughter would not do anything like that did you tell the police what he told you I didn't Rick told them and the police came to the trailer banging on the door and they raided the mobile home and they found nothing then just before Dawn that's when Lori slosinski's missing car suddenly exploded into a fireball on a desolate dead end outside a construction site the feelings were just unbelievable of fear and knowing something really bad has happened who would set her car on fire exactly and why the investigation shifted from a missing person to a possible homicide investigators dug into Rick's tip about Laurie dealing drugs but found no evidence none that he was telling the truth now investigators started digging deeper into Rick Ennis they wanted to know if he was hiding something from them did you have any sense as to why Rick Ennis didn't have a family no I had no idea why at all eventually you learned I did it's beyond shocking [Music] foreign this is my daughter Lori's trailer and do you go into that trailer from time to time just to connect with her I do just go in there and think about the happier times this room besides the memories is also a solemn place because you believe some Horrors went on in this room correct yes in the early days of the investigation back in 2006 Arlene says she became suspicious of Rick Annis when he told her that the night Lorry disappeared she had gone out to make a drug deal and why would he be doing that do you think I think to take the heat off of him I was thinking this guy is lying through his teeth police suspected the same but without direct evidence linking Rick Ennis to Lori's disappearance police could not make an arrest and the case quickly went cold did Rick Ennis stick around town he was there for a couple of days but within a week after his third interview he left town he never came back to Auburn again in 2016 10 years after Lori disappeared Mark Whitaker a special agent with the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation started a Cold Case unit he chose The Disappearance of Lori slosinski as his first case any estimate how many murder cases you've been involved with in your career probably about a hundred where does this one rank in terms of Fascination for you as an investigator this number one it was a very difficult case because there was no body we don't know exactly what happened and uh we don't know where she is but it didn't take long for Rick Ennis to become Whitaker's Prime Suspect we couldn't eliminate him his inconsistencies in his statements made no sense whatsoever we knew Lori was not a drug dealer I mean she vanished off the face of the earth when he's the last one to ever see her and when police spoke to Rick hours after Lori was reported missing they noticed these scratches on his hands and arms right here that is a thumbprint where somebody's digging in there she's fighting for her life and doing everything she can to get away from it in Rick's car there were handcuffs this knife and cleaning supplies and they soon learned something startling about Rick's past turn into one of the most bizarre cases I've ever been associated with former Alabama state trooper John Clark I was patrolling this County when I got a call it was March 5th 1993. the call from dispatch said a car had gone off this very Highway and struck a fence and as my headlights take in the curve I see it looks like a young boy with a backpack it's a 12 year old Rick Ennis and he admits he had been driving the car Clark searches his backpack the first thing I pull out is a kitchen knife about that long there's some 12 gauge and some 22 caliber loose ammunition in the bottom of the bag he's sitting back there in that seat behind you and I said where are your parents he looks right back at me and he says I killed them both I killed them both I killed them both no tears no emotion nothing Clark then radioed for local police to get over to ennis's home state troopers working around involving a 12 year old at the time a show called MPD the television series was following the officer the boys telling them that they killed his daddy Mama cameras entered the home of Rick's mother and stepfather on the floor of a bedroom are two dead bodies there's pieces of a baseball bat in the bedroom that has quite a bit of blood on it Rick's own mother Dolly flowers was shot in the face and then beaten to death with this baseball bat Rick told investigators he covered her face with a velvet blanket and placed a rose on her chest my splatters on the door Rick's stepfather Eddie Joe flowers was known as Elvis for his sideburns and colorful personality Rick shot him in the face using this shotgun Rick told cops he was mad that his parents planned to move he said he didn't want to leave his school for two days investigators believe he lived with their bodies while continuing to go to school investigators say they found what they described as enes his to-do list that included killing his three stepsisters so he wanted to kill all three of you oh yeah I feel very blessed to be here and not to be one of his victims Donna fur Angela flowers and Tina Sexton are all Eddie's daughters Tina was 20 when her dad was murdered it's changed everything my dad was my world I'm never getting to see him again the sisters say dolly was a sweet outgoing woman who met their father in church Rick was the polar opposite every time I would go and visit my dad and Dolly they he would go into his bedroom and close himself off he'd come out and eat and then he'd go back in his room what is the longest conversation you ever had with him five seconds maybe he didn't talk to nobody what did your father think of Rick he just said he's just a little different than than y'all were when y'all were coming up he just thought that they were in a new relationship and you know that it would he would outgrow it and things would get better over time but just 10 months after they married the happy couple were dead he was 12 years old and had murdered two people brutally murdered him at age 12 Rick Ennis couldn't be tried as an adult he spent nine years in juvenile detention in Alabama and was released after he turned 21. it was now up to agent Whitaker and his team to determine whether Rick Ennis had murdered again should juveniles convicted of murder get a second chance chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter [Music] Agent Mark Whittaker knew what Rick Ennis did to his parents and his instincts told him Ennis had done something horrible to Lori too but now he had to prove it the Burnside is found on the 14th the car was right here facing out back toward the bowling alley there's nothing else around here at the time there's not Apartments it's just a page Road The Blaze destroyed whatever evidence there was in the car but an investigator reported finding a tiny item on the ground nearby and he found a hand-rolled cigarette butt about right here and he collected that it was not tested kind of got lost in the shuffle the case agent retired Whitaker's team now submitted it for testing and there was this gas can that had been found nearby it was right in this area right here it looked like one that had been missing from the bowling alley where Rick had worked and it's right here a thousand yards from the bowling alley 30 yards from a car Whitaker's partner J.W Barnes showed us something that for police tied everything together these railroad tracks these are the same tracks that go right by the bowling alley they run right across the street from where Laurie's car was found burning I've always thought that's what and it's used for transportation was walking down the railroad tracks because it's a straight shot you're not going to be seen unless you want to be seen and those railroad tracks run by Lori's house and in that house were signs of a violent struggle says Whitaker this area as you see right here that have been cut out that's where the scuff marks were they were black just like the bottom of her shoes and it was even some up as ah here so it's obviously there was a struggling who was somebody kicking their legs probably up in the air remember Lori's dog peanut seemed happy and taken care of my theory is that Rick Ennis stayed in the house after he had murdered Laurie I believe so it's the only way to explain it we don't have a cause of death but I've always thought that he strangled her the scratches that he had all over his arm were just indicative of Defense wounds when you're fighting somebody even Whitaker says the phone in the corner of the bedroom was missing its cord it was a long cord and it ran all the way through the room and what do you think that cord was used for I think it was used to bound her to tie her up yes sir could it have been used to strangle her sure that phone core was missing that's not the only thing that was missing there were those three rugs in the kitchen they were kind of strategically put out so the peanut Lori's dog could hop do the Lenovo and be back on carpet the rugs turned up he says a few years later in his head a former roommate who reached out to law enforcement and told them hey this is God Left Behind three rugs Peter I want to show you something else Lori had a table set up about right here and on this table days before Lori went missing a love letter was left here for her from Rick people who knew Lori said Ennis wanted to be more than just a friend police say Ennis told a buddy that Lori rejected him and he was devastated by that so do you believe this rejection may have been a motive for murder I think that's what sent him over the edge I absolutely do despite the mounting evidence agent Whitaker still needed something more that tied NS directly to the crime scene as far as I'm concerned he is investigating this case like glorious his own daughter I mean he has a picture of Lori in his house I've had it in my closet it made me think about her every day when I was getting ready for work when I would put my Ties on I would just remember what I was supposed to be doing every single day and then it's like one o'clock in the morning and JW calls me J.W Barnes found exactly what they needed in the Case Files collecting dust for 10 years he goes I just found a report that was in an envelope that hadn't been opened Whitaker could hardly believe it when Laurie disappeared in 2006 police collected evidence from her trailer but by the time the results came in no one followed up the report contained critical evidence Rick's DNA was identified in semen found on Lori's bed sheet and in Blood on the interior of the front door and it turned out his blood was also found on one of the rugs investigators say were in Lori's kitchen so you got his blood on a rug here you've got his saving back there you got his blood on ignore most people's blood is not inside somebody else's home unless something really bad had happened 12 years after Lori disappeared there was now enough evidence to charge Rick Ennis with her murder but by this time Rick NS was happily engaged to school librarian Elena Atkinson and living 500 miles away in Virginia he was designing and building portable living structures called Yurts for Sharon Morley's company Morley liked Ennis from the moment they met he was just so open and friendly and had a great sense of humor but on August 6 2018 Rick's birthday Morley saw a task force of Lawman arrived walking out of the woods they were hiding behind trees they had the place surrounded it was a hell out of my career to make the phone call to Arlene and Casey slosinski that morning to tell them that we just took Rick Innis in custody for Lori's murder was this kind of a Bittersweet moment for you most definitely yes I guess psychologically I never accepted the fact that she really was gone and I cried big time yeah later that month Ennis appeared before an Alabama judge with Lori's parents facing him I guess it kind of seemed surprised that we were there what did you want him to know that we finally got you you're not going to get away with this news of enesis arrest quickly spread I read it and I'm like thinking to myself it's Rick Terry Booth says he was friends with Rick and suddenly remembered a conversation he had with him years earlier at a bar when he asked him why he left Alabama what did he say he just mainly said I had to get rid of it and I'm thinking nah this guy's just messing around with me but that changed when he learned of Rick's arrest and it was real he wasn't joking I couldn't sleep the whole night he called Whitaker's task force and it was just unbelievable what innocent told him but the most explosive news of all came later and Incredibly while Whitaker was with Ennis at another court hearing an investigator from Auburn PD comes up to him and tells me you're not going to believe this the hand rolled cigarette butt next to the car has his DNA on it I wanted to do a somersault courtroom but I couldn't everyone now was prepared to go to trial but the courts quickly ground to a halt because of the pandemic and Arlene slicinski suffered more losses first her son to cancer and then her husband Casey took covet got a column I think you better come when I got there it was gone was your daughter you lose your son and then you lose your husband how do you go on with all this I guess my faith my friends family and I just did not want to die not knowing what happened to my daughter or seeing Justice being done but Rick Ennis was determined to prove police had it all wrong and he wasn't the only one fighting to prove his innocence they have the wrong person there's there's no way his fiancee Elena Atkinson do you believe Rick had anything to do with Lori's disappearance with her death no I do not not only do I believe Rick is innocent I believe that he would have given his life for Lori if he had been there that's the kind of person he is and she believes that despite the fact that she knows Rick murdered his mother and stepfather when he was 12. people would wonder why is it hard for you to believe that he could kill again she says Rick told her something about what happened with his mother something that convinced her he had nothing to do with what happened to Lori [Music] Rick Ennis is one of the most compassionate generous kind people that I've ever known Elena Atkinson has been in love with Rick Ennis for four years I love his intelligence I always joke with him and tell him I fell in love with his brain first but just two months into their romance Elena an amateur genealogist was researching Rick's ancestry when she stumbled upon news that he had killed his mother and stepfather my first thought was what in the world happened in his home life that pushed him to that point Rick would tell her something she didn't see in any article Rick it's Peter Van Sant with 48 Hours reach by phone Rick told us what he insists happened I was molested by my mother Rick says his mother sexually abused him and he snapped I exploded and the result was that I I took my mother's my mother isn't doing that surprise stuff other stuff but remember back then he told authorities he killed his parents because he didn't want to move I was deeply ashamed about my mother-in molesting to me and I had a really hard time talking about it still we could find no evidence to corroborate Rick's abuse allegation you know I Rick I have to tell you obviously I I have no idea what happened uh a skeptic would say you've conveniently accused the mother that you murdered of molesting you and she can't defend herself you understand how that's difficult for some to believe I mean it's something that I work through with a psychiatrist what I did when I was 12 is the greatest look around in my life Rick insists he's no longer that angry 12 year old now 41 Rick Ennis would stand trial for yet another murder I never murdered Gloria she was a very close dear friend of mine I never would have hurt her prosecutor Jessica ventieri is sure that is a lie but at trial she wouldn't be allowed to tell the jury anything about Rick's past this is by far the most complicated case of my career ventieri's first hurdle was convincing the jury that Laurie was in fact dead she called Lori's mother Arlene to the stand she made contact have you ever heard from your daughter anyway since that Thursday before she disappeared Lindsey Braun was next seemingly setting up a motive telling the jury that Laurie rejected Rick she told me about a letter that he had written her was it a love letter that she wasn't interested in him that way and Terry Booth would take the stand to recount that troubling remark he said Rick made Legends of white piece of Trail or trash tourney built her case with testimony about the scuff marks on the wall and the blood in Lori's trailer Rick Seaman on her bed and this cigarette butt with Rick's DNA found near Laurie's scorched car but they've got problems with this evidence but defense attorney William Whatley claimed that hand-rolled cigarette was planted arguing police could have taken it from Rick's home that cigarette butt didn't come from burnsy the defense suggested Laurie was responsible for her own disappearance they portrayed her as a drug dealer you knew Larry had grown marijuana yes Lindsay insisted however that it was only for Lori's personal use for herself does she have to purchase any but to drive home their points wattley called Rick Annis himself to the stand it's been a long time with him Rick insisted he had no reason to hurt Lori did you write a letter to Laurie um yes sir I did I I asked her if she wanted to date it would have been a month or two before she went missing I'm not certain but even though she turned him down Rick says they were still intimate now did you ever have sex before um yes sir so what about what he said to Terry Booth Ennis says it never happened did you ever brought drinking with Terry Boone yes sir did you tell Terry Booth that you strangled someone yes sir I think I will show you some photographs here and those rugs given to police by his former roommate Rick claims they were not from Lori's trailer where did you get Target do you get any of those more yes sir Rick says Lori was fine when he left her that Saturday he says he headed off to sell some weed and he claims she was off to do the same the last time you saw Lori did you have any kind of an argument with her no sir did you break in the Lori's trailer that Saturday I deny it did you kidnap Lori yes sir did you kill Lori I I did not did you burn Laurie's car no sir so what about the knife handcuffs and cleaning items in his car rick says it had nothing to do with Lori he was moving things from his apartment and those scratches on him back in 2006 police say he had no explanation but at the trial he had an answer I got them for playing with my dog ventieri barely made it to the podium to start her cross-examination Theory questioned Rick about that blood on Lori's door blood and orange trailer as your dear DNA in it not exactly care I have no idea and the question ventieri really wanted an answer for she never got boring bottles I didn't tumble over spot anywhere no idea both sides had their final chance to persuade the jury defense attorney Whatley told the jurors there wasn't any evidence that a crime had even been committed there's no evidence that Lauren's kidnapped there's no evidence that she was forcefully taken against her will ventieri attacked Rick's defense [Music] ventieri insisted that the volume of evidence against Rick Ennis was overwhelming even if police still couldn't find Lori's remains [Music] and she reminded the jury that Laurie would never just take off he would never [Music] find never after seven days of testimony it was now up to the jury to decide I'm terrified I only get one shot at this but you just never know what a jury's gonna do you believe Rick Ennis is a changed man see more of the investigation into Lori's disappearance at 48hours.com [Music] this case I think you hand it to the better please ma'am when the jury came back into the courtroom did you look at their faces yes I did it was very hard to read their faces I still wasn't sure what the verdict was going to be okay nearly 16 years after Lori slosinski vanished the jury reached a verdict during their second day of deliberations [Music] guilty of Defense of capital murder guilty of the murder of Lori slosinski [Music] give me a sense of what that meant to you sheer relief Joy that he was finally convicted and would never get to do this to anyone else again I'm thrilled that we were able to bring Justice for Lori after such a long time immediately following the jury's verdict D.A ventieri went to Arlene with a proposal Rick was now facing a possible death sentence but that would trigger years of appeals and legal wrangling to spare Arlene all that ventieri suggested offering Rick life without parole Arlene agreed it says according to be imprisoned in the penitentiary of the stand valve for a term of life without the possibility of parole Elena Atkinson was stunned it's complete shock disbelief I was devastated she was so certain Rick would be exonerated she'd made plans to celebrate a celebration Rick told us that he would be part of I thought that we were going to go and have a nice dinner and I was going to get to Salt my life over [Music] foreign headed home to savor the Bittersweet Victory after this verdict did you have a conversation with Lori I did I just said Lori justice has finally come we've waited for this for a long time and I hope you're all celebrating in heaven with the entire family and I wish you were all here to see this day tragic murder the Ripple effects across your family is just incredible it has left a very large void in my life I was getting ready to retire I mean I could have been enjoying my grandchildren possibly just spending time with my daughter who I loved [Music] this is Lori at her trailer and peanut oh she absolutely adored and vice versa we brought being at home with us and he stayed with us until he was I guess about 16 years old and he died every time we mentioned Laurie's name he would I don't care where he was in the house it was like he just heard her name and he'd run in there like where is she it just totally amazed me that he he never forgot her never did you ever think that six years ago we would be here today with her husband and both her children gone this tragic story has brought new friendships into Arlene's life Mark Whitaker is my hero him and his wife are like family to me now this was on her graduation day Casey her and me it's a great photo and this was her a month before she disappeared at her cousin Jennifer's wedding with her cousin Thomas wow not a care in the world no she's one of the bravest women that I've I've ever met you showing all these to me just makes everything more real for me beautiful girl thanks for sharing those with me you're welcome I could tell she seems to be happier now I can't thank you enough for it it was just wonderful I love you too you're one tough lady yeah [Music] [Music] a wife and mother was said to have gone for a bike ride and never returned the initial thought is kidnap she had used a spy pen to make secret recordings it's like James Bond would they help solve the case Nothing Is What It Seems 48 hours Saturday on CBS [Music]

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 4,105,784

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news, Rick Ennis, lori ann slesinski, Alabama, missing, child killer

Id: ff6ZeZsZYPI

Length: 41min 14sec (2474 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023