Best Of Season 5 | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

in alabama a series of deadly assaults shocks the community and frustrates police all the killers leave behind are the dead and fleeting images on surveillance videotape local police and federal agents follow the killer's trail up and down the eastern seaboard the shadowy fugitives keep running but the fbi will not give up the chase [Music] [Applause] [Music] surveillance video is often the most precise witness to a crime its images can speak for victims when they are unable after three brutal murders were caught on tape in alabama the suspects fled the area they had an arsenal of stolen weapons and swore they wouldn't be taken alive i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office racing across several states the fugitives tried to elude the fbi and agents hoped to capture them without more bloodshed [Music] in the 1990s birmingham alabama saw a drop in both its population and its crime rate but even in the safest cities killers can strike on may 18 1996 a customer at a gas station discovered a body [Music] birmingham police responded to the 911 [Music] crime scene investigators determined the victim the station cashier had been shot to death he was the only employee on duty that day [Music] the customer hadn't seen what happened to him the trail of blood led back into the store and behind the counter blood there indicated the cashier laid briefly on the floor before going outside perhaps hoping for help [Music] he barely made it to the parking lot police first suspected a robbery shooting but money was left on the counter [Music] and the cash register had not been emptied no fingerprints pointed toward a suspect and no witnesses had seen anything investigators retrieved the store's security videotape and sent it to the police lab [Music] the tape had degraded because it had been reused many times in the recorder so the footage of the crime was blurry and few details could be seen [Music] police technicians tried to clean up the image electronically for detectives [Music] the enhanced tape gave investigators a better look at the crime it confirmed what the crime scene clue suggested a lone customer shot the cashier even though the employee was complying with his demands it seemed he killed without reason technicians made video captures of individual frames and tried to enhance them in order to see the face of the perpetrator or any identifying characteristics birmingham police hope to identify the suspect from the stills checking mug shots they could not find a match [Music] detectives interviewed friends and relatives of the victim trying to find some lead on the senseless murder [Music] no one recognized the killer or knew who might want the cashier dead [Music] the investigation stalled two months later and 20 miles south of birmingham a call came into the sheriff's office in shelby county alabama [Music] sheriff james jones received the report of two people down at a pawn shop we got the phone call it really wasn't clear to us exactly what had happened we had reason to believe that the lives had been lost in the building it happened so rarely in our county that i really was surprised when i got on the scene emts determined the pawn shop owner had died from multiple gunshots a female employee was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to her head all other cards when you're outside the sheriff ordered deputies to stop any suspicious vehicles in the area we really didn't know what we were looking for at this point but we was in hopes that our people would be sharp enough if they saw something that was out of place that they would be able to recognize let's stop that vehicle and perhaps give us some leads from it stabilizing her as much as they could in the field the paramedics prepared the woman for the helicopter ride to the hospital authorities determined more than twenty three hundred dollars in cash and jewelry was missing and the gun cases had been nearly emptied [Music] since the pawn shop had frequent customers it wasn't difficult for crime scene technicians to lift hundreds of latent fingerprints connecting one of them to the crime might be impossible the lead investigator was shelby county sergeant michael de hart there was a really a lot of evidence processing to be done fingerprint dusting so on but we didn't find any anything definitive as a result of that the one thing that we did find that we did have were shell casings that were left at the stand the murder weapon was a 380 automatic handgun [Music] at the time we didn't know if this was a one-time event that had occurred or if this was a part of a larger series of events [Music] the in-store shooting was similar to the earlier gas station murder but this crime occurred during a robbery detectives checked for the shop security video [Music] then they remembered something i was talking to the owner a couple weeks ago and he was talking about putting a dummy machine in he was talking about putting a real one over this area sergeant russell yarn found the other machine in the actual surveillance videotape the second or the real vcr continued to operate even after they took and unplugged and removed the tape from the dummy vcr and it continued to record even until at the time that i pushed the eject button the videotape showed two young men entering the store at 3 23 p.m [Music] they cornered the shop owner forcing him behind the counter with a female employee [Music] deputies spotted a red pickup truck barely visible outside the shop it might be the getaway vehicle the suspects looted the pawn shop for 13 minutes while the employees watched they then shot the hostages point-blank [Music] we saw nothing that told us that these two victims resisted or attempted to resist they were very compliant and i'm sure they did that with the hopes that they would live but instead their life was taken by execution style and that was very disturbing to see that what i don't understand is this is just garbage sergeant john and his partner sergeant donald king found more evidence near the spot where the victims had been killed as we were doing our search at the pawn shop we saw a small pile of garbage in behind the counter and we you know noted it at the time you know why was the the garbage there there was no garbage can it really didn't make a whole lot of sense at the time there was also some metal filings on the floor mixed in with the trash filings likely came from a key making machine installed on the counter detectives collected them for later examination they believe the killers took the garbage can but they didn't know why federal law requires that anyone buying or selling firearms must keep records of the transactions detectives asked another employee to bring up the store's weapons manifest comparing it to the guns still in the shop they realized the suspects took an entire arsenal there were 32 stolen weapons in the hands of vicious killers we was very disturbed about what else would they do what were they doing now and what would they do again in the future because of the potential for more violence by the heavily armed killers sheriff's detectives immediately contacted the shelby county district attorney's office prosecutor randy hillman joined the investigation [Music] we'd like to be in on the front end of any investigation it makes things a lot easier for us it makes things a lot easier for the police officers working the scene as well the surveillance videotape was the best evidence investigators had to find the killers [Music] it showed the suspects carry out many of the stolen items in a guitar case one of them shot both the shop owner and the employee at one point his gun jammed almost mechanically he cleared and reloaded and then kept firing the two suspects got into the waiting red pickup both on the passenger side there must have been a driver a third suspect technicians made photos from video captures but the quality was poor we had photographs of these individuals actually doing the execution we had a partial photograph of the vehicle that they were in but we didn't know who they were and the level of violence here was critical to us i mean we had to stop these guys before it happened again less than eight hours after the shooting investigators learned the pawn shop employee died in the hospital now there were two innocent murder victims technicians at the alabama department of forensic sciences examined the bullet fragments and casings found at the pawn shop they compared them to those used in other area shootings including the one at the birmingham gas station to see if the same gun was used but the pawnshop bullets did not match any others still investigators thought the two crimes might be related they turned to the public for help [Music] we were able to distribute still photographs to the local media in the area and we enlisted their assistance in getting the pictures out there to the public and to request assistance in identifying the perpetrators of these crimes they kept several aspects of the crime secret to help identify more reliable the media exposure generated dozens of calls okay how many guys were there one caller said that while driving in birmingham he saw two men fitting the description of the pawnshop killers they were carrying guns and a guitar case from a red pickup into a house the detail of the guitar case had been withheld from the public okay great the caller said he knew the men but only by their street names turkey and maine hey mark shelby county detectives took the information to birmingham police [Music] the metro department had a database on street names turkey was an alias for 16 year old marcus presley he resembled the shooter in the pawnshop murders mane was 18 year old le samuel gamble he resembled the second pawnshop robber the two had long juvenile records go into the areas where the information who court documents they learned where gamble lived we knew that the people that we were looking for were very dangerous men they had killed before we were afraid that they would kill again and so when we undertook these searches we wanted to use every safety precaution available to us so we used tactical dynamic entries into the residences that we searched [Music] the arrest team cleared the house where gamble had been living [Music] no one was home nobody in the house nobody a pair of cold-blooded killers with an arsenal of stolen weapons remained on the loose [Music] on july 28 1996 alabama investigators searched for marcus presley the samuel gamble and a third suspect believed to be involved in a double murder at a pawn shop the tactical arrest team entered the house where suspect gamble lived but they found no one there [Music] armed with a warrant detectives searched the house shelby county sergeant russell young recovered evidence that directly linked the suspect to the pawnshop murders [Music] during the search we found the videotape that came from the dummy vcr it was destroyed the case was cracked and broken the tape pulled from the uh the housing and it indicated to us that they were aware that they were being recorded and they had the presence of mind to stop and try to remove or eliminate all evidence of the crime they also found an empty guitar case it appeared to be the one taken from the pawn shop sergeant donald king found more evidence in the kitchen [Music] we were able to find a garbage can and in the bottom of it i had some labels some price tags and so forth from some of the guns and some of the jewelry from the pawn shop and it also contained some of the same metal shavings that we were able to tie back to the burton to the robbery scene [Music] sergeant michael de hart was frustrated that they didn't find any of the 32 stolen weapons at the time that we did the search we knew that three people were involved but the third person we didn't know when we did the search at the residence we found a paycheck stub in a coat pocket that had the name steven mckenzie on it from a business in the boston area so paychecks perhaps mackenzie was the third suspect who drove the getaway vehicle fairly recently he had no local address but neighbors said he was a friend of gamble and pressley records listed marcus presley is living with his grandmother there's nothing here that can directly be tied to the pawn shop investigators searched that house too but found nothing there that related to the crime that's 10 4 12 30 3rd avenue west presley's grandmother arrived home as they were executing the search warrant yes ma'am we got a search warrant to search this residence can i go with my house not right now we're doing an investigation of the robbers but you can speak [Music] ma'am i'm chris currie with shelby county sheriff's office detective showed her video captures from the robbery tell me if you recognize it she admitted one of the men looked like her grandson she had tried her best to raise marcus but he got involved with drugs and gangs and had been in trouble ever since thank you very much you've been very helpful but again i apologize she said he would disappear for weeks at a time she was devastated to learn that now he was a murder suspect [Music] the suspect's apparently constant movement troubled prosecutor randy hillman they were young they were mobile they didn't have any uh home base that they operated out of like normal people have a a home that they go to and from they had several different residences that they would frequent detectives canvassed the neighborhood where gamble and presley hung out interviewing anyone who might know the suspects several people in the neighborhood said that lately gamble and presley had been flashing jewelry and giving away guns to members of their street gang some said they heard the suspects were still in the area and offered addresses where the young men might be staying [Music] the detectives checked all the addresses gamble and pressly seem to have disappeared we had one last place that we wanted to look before going home that particular day we were on the way back and the suggestion was made let's ride by the uncle of samuel gamble let's ride by his house and and just see if anyone's there we did that and when we did we saw a red pickup truck that matches the description of the vehicle that was used in the robbery [Music] it had no plates but they could see the vehicle identification number [Music] the detectives noticed a massachusetts parking permit in the corner of the windshield 6802 746 [Music] they hoped gamble's uncle would have information about the suspects [Music] the uncle agreed to answer their questions but not at his home he did not want to be seen with the cops they took a drive so they could talk the uncle told investigators that the truck belonged to stephen mckenzie a friend of his nephew it was the same name as the one on the boston pay stub the uncle admitted that his nephew recently stayed at his house with mckenzie and press lanes [Music] the trio had cleared out several days ago sergeant john believed the uncle knew details at first he really didn't want to give us any useful information but we continued and he did admit that they had left town and they had gone to boston a check of the red pickups massachusetts parking permit confirmed that the truck belonged to stephen mckenzie the suspected getaway driver eventually the uncle gave investigators permission to search his property he suggested they look under the porch [Music] there police found a paint gun [Music] the serial number on the gun matched one taken from the pawn shop [Music] there was enough probable cause to impound mackenzie's pickup and process it for evidence but the technicians did not find anything that tied it to the pawnshop robbery homicide with the possibility that the suspects had left the state shelby county authorities contacted fbi special agent jeff newton they requested fbi assistance in locating suspects that they had identified as they believed to be responsible for this terrible crime at that point i got information from the case from the sheriff's department representative realized that we had enough probable cause at that point to apply for a federal unlawful flight to avoid prosecution or ufap warrant the fbi re-interviewed the suspect's friends [Music] they told agents gamble and presley were acting desperate and volatile and that the pair had promised if the law ever caught up with him they would not be taken alive [Music] in alabama authorities struggled to find the men believed responsible for two robbery homicides the state increased the reward for the capture of the samuel gamble marcus presley and stephen mckenzie to 100 000 fbi special agent jeff newton believed the suspects left alabama for boston [Music] anybody is a suspect in a double homicide is automatically rated at the highest priority i immediately notified our boston office you got bad guys heading your way we believe or may already be there we i gave them lots of details everything i learned from shelby county pertaining to their level of violence you know what they look like we were sending photographs we were sending full physical descriptions at the boston massachusetts fbi field office special agent joseph altman received the priority call the three individuals were identified to us as ambitious killers that they had made claims to the effect that they would not hesitate to kill again that they would not be taken alive or that they would take they would take the life of any law enforcement officer that attempted to stop them birmingham agents also sent boston a list of places they should investigate one was the construction company where suspect stephen mckenzie had worked [Music] agents went to speak with the owner the man said he had not seen the suspect in weeks if mckenzie was in the boston area he had not made an attempt to come back to work the owner had an employment record but it did not contain any new address or other information that would help find the suspect boston authorities staked out the other addresses that birmingham had sent including one of another uncle of la samuel gamble but they did not approach this house immediately we did not want to know it on that we were surveilling this particular home we wanted to allow at least one or two areas homes and in the area that they could return to after several hours they spotted a man leaving the residence it was not one of the suspects they waited until they were sure he was alone and not being watched anyone sir special agent daniel and special agent friends i would like to ask you a couple questions if you could all right um do you live in that billy he was hesitant to talk but did say that neither gamble's uncle nor the suspects were in the house but he hadn't seen them thank you very much again he told us that both gamble and presley had been staying at this location but they had since moved out he did not know where they moved to we felt that this location was no longer vital in our in our investigation so we appended a search warrant and searched the home and did not discover anything of lead value another address on their list was in roxbury a suburb south of boston an agent set up surveillance there it meant more long hours with no promise of a payoff on august 1 1996 the boston fbi held a press conference [Music] uh we believe these individuals to be extremely dangerous most likely armed they're wanted in alabama we'd like to bring these individuals in they distributed wanted posters and asked anyone with information to call a special tip line [Music] the media campaign produced dozens of leads one was an address outside boston where alleged getaway driver stephen mckenzie was said to be staying there was no word whether gamble and presley were with him [Music] the tactical arrest team had to be prepared for a fight [Music] [Music] they caught mackenzie off guard [Music] the gamble and presley were nowhere to be found the two fugitives remained free and on the streets with an arsenal of stolen weapons in august of 1996 the boston swat team arrested one of three suspects who had fled alabama after two robbery homicides the suspected getaway driver stephen mckenzie was unarmed and taken in for questioning good work guys investigators searched the house where he was staying they found jewelry later determined to be from the alabama pawn shop that was robbed they also recovered three weapons running the serial numbers of the guns agents learned they were among the 32 weapons stolen from the pawn shop but nothing in the house indicated where the samuel gamble and marcus presley were boston agents held mackenzie on a charge of receiving stolen property [Music] they contacted prosecutor randy hillman in shelby county alabama immediately after receiving that telephone call we got on a plane and flew to boston to to help the boston investigators they hoped mckenzie could lead them to the elusive armed killers we knew the level of violence and the numbers of guns that they had and what a danger they posed to to other people the shelby county authorities interviewed mackenzie mr mckenzie you know why we're here our major concern is that these weapons are gonna get back out on the street and someone else innocent persons are gonna lose their lives they confronted him with the evidence they had hoping for sentencing leniency the suspect began to talk around or whatever and drinking he said that he presley and gamble planned the pawn shop robbery in mid-july they drove by the shop to check it out gamble said it would be a good place to rob there were guns jewelry and cash inside and no security i'm positive it was guaranteed that you know no one would get hurt it was just an in-and-out thing [Music] on july 25th they returned in mackenzie's pickup [Music] gamble and presley went inside while mackenzie waited [Music] they were only supposed to grab the money and valuables [Music] but then mackenzie heard shots [Music] they took what they came for and fled [Music] [Applause] [Music] mckenzie said gamble and presley had run with him to boston i don't know and that they might still be in the area somewhere [Music] he claimed that he did not know where they were at the time which i don't know that he did he did give us some information about where they had been staying the different houses that they may have gone to and some other information i think mckenzie held out on us i think mckenzie knew more than what he was telling us at trial mackenzie's testimony would be attacked the prosecutor turned to the one unimpeachable witness the surveillance video he sent the tape to the fbi's audio and video processing lab in quantico virginia the task of cleaning up the footage fell to video program manager dale linden this tape was a vhs recording on a security system it had i would say fairly poor quality as far as resolution i had a backlighting issue where the camera was facing towards the windows at some point some of the people in this video scene looks like silhouette as people moved around the closer they got to the camera the better images we were able to retrieve [Music] focusing on the portions of video where the perpetrators were nearest the camera lyndon began enhancing the images once we digitize these images we will go through each one and depending on what the problems are we will apply different types of filter processes in this particular case the first thing we did was we we did some contrast adjustments to make the images look brighter and focusing in primarily on on the subjects in this particular case i felt that we did some improvement to get facial detail of the face and the weapons and also their movements within the store itself the results strengthened the case against gamble and pressly now authorities needed to catch them the fbi continued their stakeout at a house in roxbury massachusetts where informants said the men might hide out it was the best lead so far for fbi special agent joseph altman we surveilled this house for approximately 48 hours the street information that we had was getting better and better all the time that the individuals were holed up in in this house we thought that we saw a move a movement in the house are they ready this is special agent for ask or swat ready field agents told the swat team to prepare for entry right before the go word was given a man left the target house agents believed it was gamble's uncle they knew he was on probation for a felony offense in accepting probation a person gives up his fourth amendment rights he can be stopped and searched at any out don't you put time in this procedure i don't care about you agents found a handgun this was one of the weapons that was actually stolen during the robbery in alabama one of the 32 weapons that were stolen he told us that these subjects were no longer in this house however we felt that since he was related to the subjects and then he had a stolen weapon on him that we could not take this information at face value so boston swat went ahead and made the entry gamble and presley had sworn never to be taken alive so the swat team prepared for a shootout [Music] we felt that the only way that they were going to be extricated from the house was through force [Music] the tactical arrest team swept through the house clearing each room as they went [Music] [Music] no one was inside however they did find some travel bags belonging to presley and campbell inside these bags were a couple of weapons in addition to a photograph the photos showed the fugitives getting on a bus the travel bags contained the shirts worn by gamble and pressly at the pawn shop investigators also recovered one of the guns used in the pawnshop robbery thank you officer thank you very much the uncle confirmed gamble and presley stayed at the house [Music] said they left on a bus for virginia where gamble's girlfriend lived the fbi and boston police had missed the dangerous fugitives by a matter of hours [Music] on august 5th 1996 fugitives liz samuel gamble and marcus presley eluded an arrest team in boston [Music] an uncle told agents the men had left for virginia where one had a girlfriend but he did not know exactly where [Music] to narrow the search the fbi obtained the phone records of houses in boston where the suspects might have stayed for nearly 48 hours agents combed through the records looking for common numbers according to fbi special agent joseph altman they found one we did find a common phone numbers that occurred about two and a half months before the murders took place and about a week after the murders took place the number was in the norfolk virginia area boston agents contacted the fbi's norfolk field office on august 8th special agent john harley received word from boston to apprehend the young fugitives [Music] youth can be a factor in making somebody a little bit more unpredictable if they're older and more set in their ways they may even have a past pattern of conduct that we can look at and and help us in apprehending that person but with these two individuals as young as they were they proved to be very difficult because they were not predictable at all [Music] at 5 30 the next morning the fugitive task force arrived [Music] an individual came to the door who we weren't sure match description or not initially but uh we went ahead and detained him there at the door and asked if we could go ahead and consent to search his apartment at which time he said we could seen these guys you haven't seen him before the resident recognized photographs of the suspects the individual uh who we talked to provided us information that he had party recently at his apartment and that two individuals matching the description of presley gamble had come with a girl that he knew [Music] the place was empty but the resident gave agents the girl's address time is starting to tick by and we then have to head over to try to locate this apartment where this girlfriend is apparently living who's associated with the two subjects an arrest team quickly assembled outside the target apartment a third-story residence [Music] norfolk police helped cordon off the area while agents assessed the building for entry it's now getting to be about nine o'clock in the morning the sun's up now and we were getting concerned that if the two subjects were sleeping that they weren't going to be sleeping for very much longer and we would prefer to go in if they were obviously not awake the arrest team split into two groups and moved in we decided to make our our main effort uh use the most people to go up the fire escape which isn't uh the most conducive route but it was a route that we thought offered the most surprise we also then stationed the two special state police agents on the front door which would have been in the interior hallway just to make sure that any bad guys didn't run out the agents did not have the time to obtain a search warrant for the apartment to get inside and make a legal arrest they would have to see the suspects or get permission they spotted a resident through a back window and took a risk we announced to him who we were and that we were looking for a couple of individuals and asked if you mind if we took a look around this older gentleman then stepped aside nodded come on in and that's when we made our entry they found presley first we immediately uh handcuff him and detain him he had no opportunity to warn his friend [Applause] [Music] the agents positively identified presley and gamble from photographs and placed them under arrest u.s marshals transported the fugitives back to shelby county alabama when questioned at the county jail the samuel gamble blamed presley for the murders when they spoke to marcus presley he had a different story each believed they had destroyed the surveillance tape presley and gamble both still thought that there was nobody alive from the robbery who could say exactly what happened they continued to point the finger at each other saying he's the one that did it or it wasn't me it was someone else until they saw the videotape once they saw the videotape they realized that no longer could they lie about it that we had them actually doing the executions and the whole tenor of the conversation changed then eventually marcus presley after pointing the finger several other places presley confessed and said that he did do the killing how about this presley also confessed to another crime he had been the shooter in the gas station murder in birmingham he said he thought the cashier was going for a gun so he shot him [Music] in 1997 the three suspects had separate trials for his role stephen mackenzie received 50 years an alabama jury convicted the samuel gamble of capital murder and sentenced him to death for being part of the pawnshop slayings marcus presley received the death penalty for killing the gas station cashier another jury sentenced him to death a second time for killing the pawnshop employees when the jurors saw this tape they were shocked people are used to seeing violence on television and we've seen so much of it that you kind of become detached that it becomes old hat to you this was an actual videotape of two people being executed and it had a profound impact on the jury actually the owner of the palm shop was an unwitting participant in the investigation of his own murder by having the dummy vcr and putting that that tape in our hands showing the actual executions uh he helped us solve this case a lot more quickly and and with conviction with with absolute certainty whereas if we hadn't had this tape it would have been a guessing game [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the midwest the fugitive drug dealer will do anything to avoid capture [Music] his desperate run is fueled by drugs and punctuated by gunfights as he barrels across two states local and federal authorities are determined to fight back and to stay in pursuit [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when law enforcement officers become targets no one is safe so when a crystal meth dealer on the run from the law began shooting cops it took more than police to stop him i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office with a fearless killer on the loose in the midwest residents have to help the fbi and state and local police bring down the dealer and deliver him to justice [Music] on february 2nd 2000 on the quiet back roads of lincoln county nebraska lincoln county sheriff's deputy stan mcknight was on routine patrol when he saw a vehicle rapidly approach from behind a maroon pickup truck sped past [Music] mcknight spotted texas plates and pickup but he could not make out the numbers the deputy began cautious pursuit [Applause] recent weather conditions had created black ice without the benefit of street lights the roads appeared normal but were treacherously covered with patches of slick ice the subject is now turning off deputy mcknight radioed for assistance please alert all available units several nebraska state patrol troopers mobilized to try to intercept the pickup [Applause] whoever was in the truck seemed to have no regard for his own safety since the roads were free of other traffic no one else was in danger mcknight decided high-speed pursuit was not worth the risk it appeared as though he knew the area that he was in and due the fact that he would take more chances and drive faster than i would he was able to disappear eventually the truck vanished into the night i had called in for assistance from the department and all the deputies and state troopers were working and we combed the whole area and looking for that vehicle and it was to no avail nebraska police issued a be on the lookout bulletin for the maroon pickup with texas plates but that night no one spotted the vehicle or its driver a week later and 40 miles away in north platte nebraska deputies responded to a call from a farmer [Music] he hadn't used his barn in years [Music] so the farmer was surprised to discover someone had been working there recently leaving a strange workplace behind the deputies found chemicals and other items available in farm supply stores [Music] they'd often seen this combination of materials in the area before they were the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine an illegal drug a powerful stimulant meth is also known as crank or speed it's easy to make with materials commonly found on farms in recent years the midwestern countryside has seen an epidemic of methamphetamine production according to lincoln county nebraska sheriff's corporal casey nelms methamphetamine labs are a problem because it's such a rural area a lot of abandoned farm houses uh farmsteads where people don't live anymore gives a opportunity for for these people to go in and and manufacture this drug pretty much undetected the drug is addictive and extremely dangerous users feel a temporary high then intense paranoia and a craving for more most users become aggressive and desperate when meth labs pop up in an area violent crime follows during their search of the meth lab in the north platte barn deputies found several pieces of mail they were addressed to charles moses jr of nacona texas deputies contacted texas authorities asking for information on moses they received photos of moses and learned there were warrants for his arrest for the theft of several firearms nebraska investigators also learned moses drove a maroon pickup truck with texas plates [Music] the make and model of the truck matched the description of the one that had evaded deputy mcknight only a week earlier if charles moses was manufacturing methamphetamine there was a good chance he was using it too that might explain why moses drove so recklessly on the night of the chase the people that use this become very paranoid they have no pain threshold sometimes they're up for days and it's they're just a real problem they're hard to handle during their rounds in the tightly knit communities in the area police showed the photo of moses and asked if anyone had noticed an outsider fitting his description some residents reported seeing him in the past we were pretty sure that he was in the area but no one had seen him in several days and moses had no local address at 11 p.m on february 12 2000 a week after the meth lab was discovered lincoln county corporal casey nelms was about to start his shift as was his routine he picked up a cup of coffee before hitting the road but that night would prove to be anything routine through the window nelm spotted a vehicle that matched the description of charles moses's pickup truck oh good night you too but he needed to get a look at the driver when he got out of the pickup he resembled the individual that we were looking for the truck had texas plates seven to one six 1089. nelms headed out to check the man's id but the man spoke first with the roads like out there pretty slick where are you heading uh just he's kind of heading out it's going out i approached him and asked him uh if he was where he was going what he was doing i asked him for his identification and when he handed it to me the name on the driver's license was charles moses [Music] you're under arrest i really expected that once i got a hold of him in the vehicle that i was going to be able to you know take him out of the vehicle without any problem and place him under arrest but he was just spectacularly strong i just couldn't do anything with him except just keep struggling with him to try to keep the weapon away from my face moses fired 1089 large parking lot shots fired i was pretty sure two of my rounds hit the second round i saw it hit the back of the cab and the third round also hit the back of the cab nelms tried to follow moses but the fugitive drove with the recklessness of a man on methamphetamine and disappeared nebraska's state patrol officers heard the shots fired call and joined the search for the would-be cop killer lincoln county sheriff's deputy stan mcknight who would chase the maroon truck before heard about the pursuit on the radio he needed to position himself in a place where he was likely to intercept moses there's an area that's commonly called the correction line it's an area where i could see the best i thought possible three different roads intersecting that area and that was the middle one i could watch a mile behind me that one and a mile in front of me mcknight waited in the dark hoping he was in the right place after about 10 or 15 minutes of sitting there a vehicle did come from the west at the very road intersection that i was at and as they got right to the front of my vehicle i turned my headlights on and i saw the vehicle that was the same identical vehicle that i'd seen less than two weeks before he was traveling in excess of 70 to 80 miles an hour and being nighttime conditions it was hard to see him and he was out of distance me quite rapidly deputy mcknight tried to maintain a visual on the pickup truck but the vehicle seemed to disappear yet again ignite changed tactics at that point he had pretty much well got ahead of me at the same time i had to slow down and check driveways and intersecting road intersections to make sure he hadn't turned off on me [Music] then the deputy saw a vehicle's brake lights in the distance it was idling at an empty intersection [Music] deputy mcknight called for backup [Music] moses had already fired at one officer it was too dangerous for the deputy to advance alone he waited for the backup officers before they came moses made his move one bullet entered stan mcknight's head another ripped through his hand upon figuring out that i'd been hit by a bullet i was going to try to call to the rest of the officers around to let them know what was going on only when i reached for the mic i couldn't talk my mouth was all full of blood and i was starting to choke so i fell around and i found some napkins in the seat and i got them shoved up in my mouth to make the blood go out and i got it spit out and i could talk and let them know that i'd been hit and that the subject had went on to the left and was going to be chasing him despite his injuries deputy mcknight was not going to give up his pursuit the wind was coming through the holes in the windshield blowing glass all over my left eye was completely shut from blood my right eye was just blinking but i could still see enough of my headlights to keep going down the road based on the coordinates mcknight radioed several teams of nebraska state patrol troopers headed towards stakeout positions in the area they drove with their headlights and flashers off so they wouldn't alert moses troopers in two cars positioned themselves on a dark county road and waited minutes later headlights appeared it was moses one of the troopers spotted a gun [Music] after firing a full clip of moses the trooper realized a bullet had torn through his bulletproof vest he was losing blood fast the chest wound appeared to be life-threatening they called for an ambulance from a hospital dozens of miles away in the dark prairie the troopers hoped their fallen friend would survive in a frantic escape charles moses had shot both a sheriff's deputy and a state trooper though gravely injured deputy mcknight continued pursuit of moses a man willing to kill to stay on the run in february of 2000 nebraska authorities confronted charles moses a texas fugitive suspected of running a methamphetamine lab escaping he led police on a high-speed chase shooting one deputy in the head and a state trooper in the chest before vanishing into the night paramedics stabilized the wounded trooper then transported him to the nearest emergency room helping to process the crime scene was nebraska state patrol sergeant lynn williams we secured the area and then our major concern was obviously the gathering of evidence so we collected the trooper's service pistol his duty and gun belt spent showcasings that were still at the scene we took 35 millimeter photographs videotaped the scene moses had fired several bullets one struck the cruiser's reflective seal perhaps the only thing visible on the dark prairie the bullet had passed through the door of the trooper's patrol car had struck the trooper in the abdomen piercing his bulletproof vest as well as traveling through his body to get through that much protection the gun moses used against police had to be a powerful one it was obvious that this was a high-powered rifle we were looking for some sort of an assault rifle something large bore high powered the state police brought the spent rifle slugs to their ballistics lab for analysis technicians there examined the size weight and metal composition of the slugs they determined they were high velocity rounds most likely fired from a 762 sks military assault rifle deadly weaponry designed for trained military personnel something else entirely in the hands of a criminal after the multiple cop shooting the fbi joined the effort to capture moses [Music] special agent ron rawal took the call at the normally quiet north platte nebraska fbi resident agency our caseload primarily is in the area of white-collar crime and it's not very common that we get called in to assist in investigations of violent criminal activity agent raywald gathered information to obtain an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant against moses in this particular case we anticipated that moses would leave the state of nebraska after he fled his arrest and that the fbi could assist in locating him hoping to catch moses before he left nebraska authorities set up a command center at a state police barracks officers from virtually every law enforcement agency in the state shared intelligence on moses [Music] several had had run-ins with him usually in connection with clandestine meth labs he had a history of using abandoned farm farmsteads farm places not only for the manufacturer methamphetamine but for hiding and living as well so we knew that we needed to be aware of this and target those areas for a search hundreds of police vehicles across the state mobilized with officers looking for any sign of charles moses or his maroon pickup truck in the sprawling rural landscape finding moses would not be easy investigators also hope the public would assist in the search media bulletins urged citizens to avoid moses and to call the police if they spotted him information [Music] in the small town of dickens nebraska 30 miles south of where the two officers were shot a young farmer found tire tracks leading to a garage his parents car was usually inside instead there was a maroon pickup truck his parents car was gone recognizing the truck from media reports the farmer called police the nebraska state patrol confirmed that the truck belonged to charles moses and that officers had hit the vehicle when returning fire the license plate that we were looking for was still displayed on the truck which was registered to mr moses it had evidence that it had been shot at with a firearm the bullet holes were in the back portion of the cab they had shattered the back window of the cab some had lodged in the dash of the cab and some had passed out through the front windshield make sure you get this wheel investigators also found evidence the suspect was wounded by at least one of the many shots fired at the vehicle we located human blood in the in the cab the interior of the pickup that led us to believe that possibly when the lincoln county deputy had fired it at moses early on during the incident that possibly had been struck but if moses was injured he had the perfect drug to stay alert pain-free and aggressive to keep running without sleep there was a tremendous amount of paraphernalia located in his pickup that deals with cooking or the manufacturer methamphetamine he virtually had a had a lab present in the back of the truck also found survivalist gear police radios and weapons in the truck what they didn't find was the high-powered assault rifle moses used to shoot two police officers an hour after the pickup was found and 60 miles northwest in ogallala nebraska the nebraska state patrol responded to a call from a man who said he was an acquaintance of charles moses he was in a car i was wondering about you haven't seen you for a while the man said he had seen moses 15 minutes earlier moses spoke to him at a truck stop he was in a car that matched the description of the vehicle missing from the dickens farm [Music] moses heard a radio bulletin that said police were looking for the vehicle if you see this vehicle call station he panicked and took off the man said he had waited 15 minutes to call police because he was afraid at first the dangerous fugitive knew where his family lived police worried moses would change vehicles again to throw them off his trail two hours after the last sighting and 20 miles south of the truck stop in paxton nebraska a farmer noticed fresh tire tracks outside a house on his family's farmstead a house that was closed up and unused he called his family to ask if anyone had been to the house they hadn't but they told him about the bulletins warning of a dangerous fugitive in the area they said he should leave the place immediately [Music] a relative on the line heard the farmer talking to someone the police would soon learn that charles moses had just claimed his first murder victim [Music] the deadly fugitive was still on the run now more desperate than ever [Music] on february 14 2000 36 hours after fugitive charles moses seriously wounded two nebraska law enforcement officers a murder investigation began in paxton nebraska the victim was a local farmer killed while talking to a relative on his cell phone the investigative team had to piece together the murder from crime scene clues the circumstances indicated charles moses was involved to nebraska state police sergeant lynn williams we had learned that the victim had drove in the abandoned farmstead to check on tire tracks that he observed we believe that he surprised moses and moses reacted with that surprise and shot the victim killing him moses then drugged the victim from the victim's pickup placed him on the ground and moses then got back in the victim's pickup and left the scene troopers found tracks consistent with those on the model of truck the farmer drove as well as broken glass from the truck on one side of the driveway the position of the glass suggested the vehicle's driver's side window had been blown out fbi special agent ron raywalt knew the glass was an important clue i anticipated that moses would try and use a defense of self-defense stating that he was returning fire from someone shooting at him i knew that i could determine how many shots were fired and the direction that the shots originated from when a high-speed projectile hits a piece of glass and the glass breaks physical characteristics are left in the glass this answers questions for the crime scene investigator it tells them which bullet hit first and the direction of travel of the bullet the glass would be examined later in the lab behind a barn property found the stolen car that moses was last seen driving the car seemed hastily abandoned in the back seat troopers found chemicals knives and several firearms it appeared that moses had switched vehicles after he heard a radio report that police were looking for this car it was very obvious that mr moses had been attempting to hide or camouflage conceal the vehicle it had a tarp over it and moses was in the process of covering the vehicle with broken and dead branches tree branches and that sort of stuff investigators found the victim's identification but they couldn't find the cell phone he was using when he was murdered they believed moses had the phone with him in the farmer's blue pickup truck they issued an apb for the vehicle and contacted cell phone companies to begin tracking the cell phone signal while powered on cell phones are constantly in search of the nearest tower to be ready for use police can flag a specific phone number and learn which tower is serving it [Music] two hours after the farmer's murder was discovered a cell phone tower in oshkosh nebraska picked up the signal from the missing phone but before police could respond to the location the cell phone signal disappeared [Music] the fbi also studied the glass fragments from the farmstead crime scene [Music] i was able to determine that one bullet had been fired from outside the truck into the truck and that the bullet thereafter passed through the truck my examination further disclosed that no shots were fired from inside the truck this was not self-defense this was murder take a look at this with the farmer's murder the theft of his pickup truck the fbi issued another federal warrant against charles moses the facts of the case had changed significantly and i was able to change the warrant application process to charge mr moses with the federal carjacking statute with a homicide lock their doors with charles moses crisscrossing the state armed and out of control nebraska governor mike johanns held a news conference to warn the public this is the situation that we need to get through police are seeking charles it was clear the fugitive was ready to kill civilians to get what he wanted he's considered armed and dangerous that evening 80 miles to the west near the nebraska wyoming border an elderly woman was enjoying a quiet evening [Music] she heard someone breaking in through a door [Music] she could hear an intruder walking through the house then approaching her bedroom it was too late to escape so she did her best to hide the evening news it said moses killed the last resident he surprised [Music] it sounded like he was looking for something and then left [Music] the woman was unharmed and called police from a neighbor's house she explained that she never saw the man's face but deputies from the scottsbluff nebraska sheriff's department found tire tracks consistent with those on the pickup truck stolen from the murdered farmer [Music] they also recovered automotive glass near the left tire track its position suggested it came from the driver's side window the window investigators believe moses shot out while killing the farmer local officers contacted the fbi about the new development from the facts of the case and the type of glass left at that crime scene it was obvious that moses had been involved in that burglary and that he was traveling in a westerly direction with charles moses believed to be near nebraska's western border the fbi notified wyoming law agencies that a killer might be headed their way the small town of lusk wyoming is 20 miles from the nebraska border [Music] at the lust police department chief gary gill received the fbi bulletin that morning we heard about charles moses from our dispatch we knew that he was driving a nebraska pickup truck blue in color and that you could be headed in any direction the wyoming media warned the public about the fugitive around 1 pm that afternoon the media alerts paid off we heard about the call from a truck driver who had called in to dispatch and was relayed to our that possibly that pickup truck charles moses was driving was at the south end parking lot of the truck stop here in lusk assistant chief dusty christman responded to the scene along with chief gill [Music] several vehicles in the parking lot fit the description [Music] officers knew one of them might hold a murderer who also tried to kill two policemen we were looking at license plates we spotted a blue pickup that had matched the description the plates matched it was the truck we decided to try to block him in if we could the officers approached from opposite directions someone was inside but the officers couldn't tell if it was moses the truck's driver's side window appeared to be missing if it was moses he might have finally come down off a long and haggard methamphetamine binge chief gill called for backup and waited for more units to arrive then the driver woke up he's waking up but assistant chief christman couldn't risk firing because from his perspective he did not get a good enough look to be absolutely sure it was moses it meant another chase our biggest fears during the chase is when moses turned onto main street and headed north we knew he was going to be traveling through our business district and more than likely a high rate of speed and also the fear of maybe losing him once he got through the city limits and head north on highway 85. weeks after charles moses violent spree began law enforcement once again had him in their sights after eluding nebraska authorities in the fbi suspected murderer charles moses had crossed into lusk wyoming plus police were in pursuit but moses had a lead on and never hesitated for a moment mr moses finally got away from us off highway 85 on our ranch road the road was very rudded up our small vehicles with two-wheel drive could not keep up with him in four-wheel drive in the pickup he had he went down to a ranch place and across a old dam and up into the pastures through fences and things where we couldn't chase them authorities lost him again so lost police teamed with the niobrara county sheriff's department sheriff samuel reed helped devise a 10-mile perimeter to contain moses the perimeter was a very large area we were fortunate in one way it set kind of in the middle of the street major highways and and with we had another county road that dissected it basically in the middle but they couldn't rush in we were unsure what his actions were going to be so we we stayed back away knowing that he had a hyper rifle [Music] every law enforcement officer in the area including fish and game wardens manned roadblocks to look for moses and warn travelers to stay away from it [Music] they also met with residents living in the 10-mile perimeter asking them to stay vigilant and call police at the first sign of any suspicious activity i had a very deep concern that if we did not apprehend moses before it got dark that we would have a terrible terrible time finding him i knew the ranch people that were there i was very very concerned for their safety of him entering the house at gunpoint taking him hostage and shooting them and taking the vehicle and leaving the area although moses was somewhere within the 10-mile perimeter the terrain made it too dangerous for deputies to go in on foot without body armor and tactical training they would be vulnerable to ambush or a sniper attack for officers to go in there would have been extremely difficult there are a lot of deep draws pine trees ravines that he could get down in it would have been very very very difficult to go in there and find him thanks special agent ron raywald helped wyoming authorities with the fbi's federal resources the wyoming office of the fbi brought in two aircraft to assist in the search on the state highways and the rural roads trying to locate the vehicle moses was in flying a grid pattern over the area one of the aircraft spotted the truck moses was last seen driving [Music] it looked like he was stuck in a ravine the swat team from the nebraska state patrol was airlifted to the area moses was armed with a high-powered rifle the swat team had to move cautiously man by man an aggressive fugitive on powerful drugs could be behind any tree ready to kill they positioned themselves above the pickup but they had no visual of charles moses he might be watching them waiting for a clean shot they had to start their search from the truck to stun and distract anyone near it they fired a flashbang percussion grenade he wasn't there they found footprints in the mud by the truck and began following them [Music] but in the trees the trail went cold he had eluded us the the the people that were right on the scene he had eluded a swat team that had been flown in out of nebraska that night moses would surface again at 8 30 p.m rancher jim cramer's and his son justin heard their dog barking at something behind the house they knew about moses yeah so justin went out arm someone was out there i've got a gun don't go any further from the brief look they believed it was moses the gunman had to be stopped justin take your rifle go around back get on the back side of him then you do what you have to do okay [Music] cramers was unarmed in a standoff with a desperate fugitive who had never hesitated to use violence the rancher had a plan and hoped it would work in eastern wyoming a rancher and his son found fugitive charles moses on their property from media reports rancher jim cramer's knew moses was wanted for shooting several police officers and killing a farmer for his truck justin you know on the back side justin craters went to cover moses from the back the father risked his life hoping to end the fugitives rampage without more violence i was totally unarmed moses had a rifle and a large caliber pistol in his hands hoping his son could protect him if his plan failed jim cramer's offered moses a deal he knew the fugitive had been exposed to the day's cold rain showers and put it there by that wheel if moses put down the guns and came inside the rancher would give him a hot meal and throw his clothes in the dryer this was a plan in my head that if i got him in the house i had nothing to fear from him because we would know that he had no weapons it was too cold and and if he ran out of the house without any of his clothes with him why he was not going to be in good shape i very seldom invite someone into my house that i don't ask him to eat so i knew he was hungry so i said let's have something to eat if they got him inside they would try to call the police without him knowing by this time justin cramer's had moses in his sights it looked like moses was going for it then he tensed all right i put my rifle down now where's the other guy you're with right behind you jim cramer's hoped moses would not draw his son into his violence my greatest concern throughout the the ordeal was that my son would not have to shoot someone i didn't want him you know justly or unjustly i did not want him to have to go through life knowing that he had killed a person if it did turn violent justin could not waver justin one of the fears i had was if i did have to shoot at him that i might miss i only had one shot while he had up to six in his pistol where i had a single shot rifle after weeks of a methamphetamine-induced rampage charles moses finally slowed down all right let's go on into the house he left his weapons outside i never actually lowered my rifle i i brought it down a small ways but within quick enough time enough that i could have brought it back up to put on him if i needed to inside the warm house and out of his wet clothes moses concentrated on his first hot meal in days i was able to go out the front door of the house and was gone for around five minutes while i called the sheriff from my brother's house and then i was able to come back in the same door while he never realized i was going what's going on police officer and a wyoming game warden were there in minutes [Music] [Music] because of the kramer's plan the wild deadly fugitive had nothing to fight with after a staggering chase across hundreds of miles filled with burglary carjacking gun fights and murder charles moses jr was finally in police custody as they theorized moses had been wounded by nebraska deputies at a cheyenne wyoming hospital moses was treated for a bullet wound to his shoulder dehydration and exhaustion the drugs he had taken and the police relentlessly on his trail had run him into the ground fbi special agent ron raywald arranged for moses to be transported back to nebraska the morning after the arrest when i drove to cheyenne wyoming i took a lieutenant with a nebraska state patrol with me and i took deputy casey nelms with me the individual that it attempted to initiate the arrest originally the purpose of taking these two individuals with me was so that when i returned to nebraska with moses both individuals could affect the respective warrants that they were carrying the lieutenant from the patrol arrested moses for the violation of shooting a nebraska state patrol trooper and casey nelms arrested moses for the murder of the farmer as well as the assault by shooting of the two deputies from lincoln county moses initially fought the charges against him but when confronted with ballistics and other forensic evidence he plea bargained to avoid the death penalty charles moses jr pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and two counts of assault on a police officer he was sentenced to 190 years in prison the state trooper moses shot returned to light duty in june of 2000. moses had also shot lincoln county sheriff's deputy stan mcknight in the head in hand [Music] he spent nearly two months in the hospital never willing to give up mcknight was determined to return to his regular patrol i had to go back for several different operations with a total of nine operations and 23 months of continuing therapy after the doctors had stated that they had done all that they could for me i was checked and we went through all the physical dexterity and i was able to go back to work and maintain and do what i was doing before methamphetamine has become the biggest drug problem in the midwest law enforcement there are dedicated to fight it whatever the cost [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a tennessee community is shocked when a beloved elderly woman vanishes as investigators search the mystery of her disappearance deepens [Music] the truth begins to emerge but slowly and in unexpected directions as police and the fbi try to help a troubled small town find their dear friend [Music] in 1992 a woman disappeared from her memphis home when the ransom went uncollected the fbi suspected a desperate amateur and feared the worst i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office as the search for the woman progressed investigators uncovered a web of lies and false accusations designed to hide the real perpetrator memphis tennessee on august 7th 1992 25 miles outside the city in the small town of eeds successful land developer alan roberts arrived home from work [Music] as usual his wife's car was in the driveway but he was surprised to find the mail there his wife doe roberts usually left a note when she went out but there was none no in the kitchen allen spotted doe's asthma medication on the counter she always took the inhaler when she went out he called their closest friends nearby bill yeah bill this is alan have you seen doe today has she been over there no one he spoke to had heard from doug robert's worried she might have had an asthma attack while working in the garden [Music] he searched the grounds of their farm no sign of dough [Music] he was about to call the police when his telephone rang hello it was a man speaking with an asian accent what do you mean you have though what do you want the caller demanded a 100 000 ransom for doe's safe return not a problem i can take care of it just it'll take me a little time you just let me know what you want me to do and i'll do it okay but he didn't explain where to take the money what do you want me to take it before he hung up hello [Music] allen immediately called the shelby county sheriff's department and told them about his wife's disappearance in the ransom call he received [Music] the team of deputies and sheriff's inspectors responded to the house roberts told them he did not recognize the voice of the caller and did not know anyone who would want to harm dough as the interview continued agents from the fbi's memphis field office arrived eage is about 30 miles from both the arkansas and mississippi borders if someone took doe across state lines the fbi would take the lead since transporting a victim state to state is a federal crime roberts explained he last saw his wife that morning they had eaten breakfast together as they had every morning for 43 years at 10 allen left to meet a perspective prospective out-of-town buyer for a property he was developing [Music] the buyer a man named sam wagner had called the day before making an appointment to see the property at 10 30 that morning robert said he waited for over an hour but sam wagner never showed he spent the rest of the afternoon laying sod at another of his development properties the investigators needed to check the house for evidence roberts showed them doe's asthma inhaler and said if she suffered a serious attack without it she could die they needed to find her immediately looking for signs of forced entry deputies checked doors and windows nothing appeared suspicious knowing that people sometimes run off voluntarily faking abductions to cover themselves deputies check doe's bedroom her suitcases and all of her clothing were still there as were her valuables it didn't seem like she left on her own if someone had abducted her one clue suggested it happened outside according to fbi special agent joanne overall alan roberts located mail halfway into the garage and it was not taken into the house he suspected that his wife had gone to the mailbox and never made it back into the house and she had laid the mail down at that point [Music] beginning at the driveway deputies form search lines fanning out in a grid pattern to scour the 150 acre farm for any sign of the 65 year old woman or what happened to her despite the efforts of multiple search teams they found nothing the best chance for a new lead would be additional ransom calls we began monitoring alan robert's phone right after the kidnapping with his consent we placed a recorder on his phone should he get a call from the kidnapper they also installed tracing equipment if the man with the asian accent called again the fbi would be ready later that night the phone rang hello uh yes it was coming from a nearby pay phone no just just don't hurt i'll do whatever you want deputies headed toward the source of the call it sounded like the same man who called earlier he said doe was safe for now and he knew law enforcement was listening robert said the caller ordered him to remove the tape of their conversation and crush it in the driveway they quickly switched it with a blank tape all right oh at that time no surveillance officers were outside when shelby county deputies arrived at the pay phone it was clear whoever made the call was gone by daybreak investigators expanded their search into the eads community asking friends and neighbors when they last saw dough and if they noticed anything unusual on the day of her disappearance yeah sure no one recalled seeing or hearing from her that day yes sir one neighbor told investigators that at church that week there seemed to be tension between doe and alan but no solid clues emerged word of the kidnapping spread and news stations picked up the story joe burch of wmc-tv in memphis reported on the small community's reaction to doe's disappearance a lot of people felt it must have been someone from the outside who committed this crime because these people worshiped together they went to square dancers together they spent a lot of their time together and their focus was their little community and staying away from downtown memphis and all the danger that might be here so i think the people in the eads community felt like an outsider probably committed this crime but investigators wondered how in a place like eids a stranger wasn't noticed as the investigation's first full day drew to a close special agent overall's concern grew the 24 hours immediately following a kidnapping are critical as more time passes the chances of finding the victim alive diminish rapidly on the second day community members gathered to show their support and offer prayers for doe's safe return while the town of edes prayed investigators turned their attention to the most likely suspect in a case like this we always look at the family members and relatives people that are closest to the victim first and then work the circle outwards they needed to start with the husband alan roberts it was possible he had harmed dough then used an accomplice to make the ransom calls it is always difficult when family members realize they are suspects authorities had to ask the worried husband to take a polygraph test it was an unexpected request but alan agreed a polygraph measures a subject's physiological reactions while answering questions the subject reviews all of the questions before the test so there are no surprises though commonly called a lie detector test a polygraph does not actually detect lies it only detects whether the subject is exhibiting the characteristics most people exhibit when lying spikes in heart rate perspiration blood pressure and respiration are you convinced that i will only ask you questions that we've gone over before while polygraph results are rarely admissible in court many investigators find they point them in the right direction the examiner asked roberts questions unrelated to the case to establish a baseline for truthful responses then he asked questions about his relationship with doe and the events of the day she disappeared [Music] the examiner then interpreted the graphic output to determine if roberts appeared to be deceptive on the questions about the case in his opinion alan roberts answered all of the questions truthfully alan was sure this was the end of it but agents knew the test results were not always accurate they could not eliminate him yet to check robert's story the fbi wanted to find sam wagner the man he allegedly went to meet on the morning of doe's abduction we thought sam wagner may have come into this area and because of their financial backings and holdings that he may have kidnapped doe roberts for the money that they had because they had a substantial amount of money agents checked fbi databases and nationwide dmv records searching for anyone named sam wagner [Music] in several states fbi agents interviewed men of that name but eliminated each as a suspect alan robert's story became more suspicious when sam wagner became an unknown individual that we couldn't locate and it became more apparent to us that alan roberts could possibly be behind the kidnapping looks like he checks out i don't think he's going if alan did do something to his wife perhaps the couple's phone records and banking statements would reveal a clue there's nothing unusual about any of the phone calls yet investigators uncovered only evidence of a normal life spent in a small town with no sign of contact with anyone suspicious and no record of dough spending money after august 7th no leads were panning out eventually they came to believe doe roberts was dead after approximately two to three weeks of being unable to locate the victim that was more than likely going to end up being a homicide i requested through my supervisor that we bring in shelby county sheriff's department into the investigation to make it a joint investigation if it were a murder it would be prosecuted in state court the team returned to the roberts house the second search of allen roberts property was done more in a forensic frame of mind and we were looking for blood spatterings in the house as well as in the barn again roberts cooperated he would do anything forensics technicians from the fbi and the sheriff's department processed the buildings looking for any evidence of a murder cleanup or disposal of a body they also gathered hairs and carpet fibers from allen's truck to compare to any evidence recovered later the painstaking search lasted two full days alan roberts grew more frustrated that law enforcement had to devote so much time to him as a suspect he was wearing down and the real kidnapper was out there somewhere in 1992 the shelby county sheriff's department and the memphis fbi searched alan roberts farm and its buildings for any sign of his wife's possible murder roberts had passed a polygraph and now none of the items on his property tested positive for blood yet no other suspects emerged and investigators had developed circumstantial evidence that implicated roberts although several witnesses had seen roberts that day his confirmed alibi only accounted for about five hours authorities knew that left plenty of time to get rid of a body also some members of the eads community gave statements claiming alan roberts had acted in a suspicious manner following doe's disappearance according to special agent joanne overall people within the community felt he did not openly grieve for the loss of his wife he was socializing shortly after her kidnapping that both him and his wife were members of a square dancing group and within a couple of weeks allen was back at the square dancing group with various partners news anchor joe birch observed robert's lack of emotion during media coverage when somebody's wife disappears you'd expect to see a level of emotion and we just didn't see it from alan roberts he was just kind of calm cool and collected and very direct and there wasn't a lot of teary-eyed emotional appeals that we see a lot in in kidnapping cases investigators kept watching roberts as he tried to carry on with his life struggling with the frustration of not knowing where his wife was and being the only suspect in her disappearance yet they saw nothing that led them to joe roberts [Music] in september the man with the asian accent resurfaced now saying alan was involved hello the kidnapper began calling people in the eads community stating that doe roberts was still alive many of the phone calls indicated allen was part of the scheme to kidnap his wife it was extremely frustrating because he never gave specific points to drop money several of the people who talked to the kidnapper had caller ids on their phones so agents traced the calls to phone booths on a well-traveled road we would go to the phone booth immediately and of course the individual who was making the phone call was already gone other people had already used the phone we would check the phones for possible fingerprints and there was just never any evidence to tie an individual to that phone each of the calls were made within a few miles of the robert's house a significant risk in a small community buzzing about the case this boldness suggested that the caller was an insider familiar enough to be inconspicuous in public and that he considered himself beyond the reach of investigators desperate for something solid alan roberts took things into his own hands offering a reward for doe's safe return and announcing he disconnected the fbi's recording and tracing equipment from his phone so the kidnapper could call freely on october 8 1992 two months after doe disappeared the kidnapper called alan roberts again [Music] he told him to drive to a pay phone at a country store a mile away now roberts hurried to the store once again he was on his own with no corroborating witness to prove what was happening [Music] the phone was already ringing when he arrived he hoped finally this would be his chance to get his wife back two months after someone abducted 65 year old doe roberts the kidnapper ordered her husband alan roberts to a pay phone hello the man with the asian accent said doe was alive and still with him he asked roberts for the name of an intermediary someone alan trusted that the kidnapper could contact the church robert suggested charles lord a leading church member and friend of the family the caller said he would be in touch about where to bring the ransom money well charles lord the man roberts picked to be his intermediary was a civil servant and treasurer of the local church he made a public appeal to the kidnapper on alan robert's behalf asking the man to call him and finally give specific instructions for a ransom drop they all wanted to get dough back there more calls from the kidnapper came to charles lord and others in the community but still no details for an exchange in november 1992 charles lord called investigators to his home special agent joanne overall hoped they finally had a direct link to the kidnapper charles lord stated that late in the evening he heard a car out on his cove he walked down to the mailbox and there was a letter placed in his mailbox which was a kidnapping ransom letter investigators were glad to have physical evidence [Music] fingerprints hairs of fibers on the letter might provide a link to the kidnapper [Music] but by the time they got to it they found the evidence tainted [Music] charles lord took this letter and showed it to several people before we were called in and obtained the letter so there was quite a few fingerprints on the letter before we got it lab examiners check all of the prints determining they belong to lord and the people he let handle the letter nothing to lead them to the kidnapper the message was no help either the ransom had been lowered but still no instructions for a drop it seemed the kidnapper was playing games with them in case he contacted lord again agents set a trap our office set up surveillance on his mailbox using a hidden camera which was literally placed in a birdhouse close to the mailbox if the kidnapper dropped off another note they'd have him on tape agents also installed wiretap and recording devices on lord's telephone they still had no real evidence against alan roberts but a new suspect was developing charles lord began taking an active role in the investigation often stopping by the sheriff's office to check on their progress the deputies became suspicious he seemed too interested their suspicion deepened because of the peculiar nature of the phone calls he claimed he got from the kidnapper charles lord stated he received several phone calls from the kidnapper he did say that he talked with doe roberts which was unusual because none of the other callers talked with joe roberts agents never got tapes of the calls but every time he received a telephone call it appeared that our equipment didn't work over the next week lord reported another ransom letter and one of doze scarves placed in his mailbox agents recovered no evidence from the items but hoped their camera captured images of the kidnapper they had plenty of the regular mail carrier but when the tape got to where the kidnapper should appear it went blank when the equipment that was placed at charles lloyd's residence continued to fail i just thought we had poor equipment eventually it became apparent that somebody was tampering with it [Music] agents suspected the interference came from charles lord then the victim's husband alan roberts reported a strange encounter with lord he said the night before at the edes community center lord summoned him to a private meeting alan was surprised when his friend offered to help get dough back for a price allen roberts told me that charles lord had advised that he had underworld contacts and that there was information available if charles could get some money to pay for it also alan advised at that time that charles lord was wearing a gun it was clear lord was somehow involved but investigators needed more than suspicion they needed evidence on march 4th 1993 seven months after dough disappeared there was another twist in the case memphis news anchor joe burch received a call at his office i've never recorded a telephone conversation before but i decided that i would record this conversation right now the call set off a trigger in my mind that this could be the same individual who's been making the anonymous calls in the doe roberts case and i tried to get the man to stay on the line for as long as he would stay as burch spoke to the man with the asian accent he tried to elicit details as to who the caller was and what happened to dough when birch tried to set up a ransom drop the caller hung up hello hello i took the tape directly into my boss's office we immediately called the fbi and the shelby county sheriff's department what can you tell us investigators agreed to wmc tv airing the tape hoping it might flush the kidnapper out the kidnapper called back he was angry they aired the tape and demanded no more coverage but this time joe burch got him to do what no one else had arrange a ransom drop agents and sheriff's inspectors staked out the drop location ready to grab the caller who had eluded them for so long as instructed a reporter from wmc tv drove to the spot with 80 000 in cash everyone waited hoping but the kidnapper never showed she's leaving okay it didn't other deputies observed charles lord was home the entire time weeks passed with no movement on the case then in june 1993 the kidnapper arranged another drop he called two of doe's nephews and told them to bring the ransom money to a local motel soon the elusive kidnapper finally would surface in june 1993 investigators working the doe roberts kidnapping staked out an eids tennessee motel special agent joanne overall was part of the surveillance doe robert's nephews received a call from the kidnapper and they tried to make an arranged ransom drop they were told to go to a motel room which they did but they also called the fbi they were waiting to get a phone call or meet with somebody other surveillance deputies had been unable to find suspect charles lord that night as the team at the motel watched a man approached it was lord [Music] he went to the room the nephews had rented charles lord told the nephews of doe roberts that he had received a call from the kidnapper and that he was to show up there and get the money and he would receive a phone call as to where to take the money but the nephews wouldn't give him the cash they said they wanted to deal with a kidnapper directly investigators were sure that was exactly who they were dealing with he is the only individual who had received a telephone call stating that he had talked with doe roberts and now he was meeting with somebody to pick up money but we did not have enough evidence at that time to go forward with an arrest they did however increase their focus on lord to look for a financial motive to the kidnapping the fbi subpoenaed lord's bank records we went through records trying to determine if he had loans out if he what his financial holdings were and it became apparent that charles lord owed a lot of money to several banks in town substantial amounts of money and that he was unable to meet the payments and that he had filed for bankruptcy [Music] that circumstantial evidence allowed investigators to secure a search warrant for lord's house [Music] in late june 1993 they served the warrant which allowed them to look for and seize any financial documents some of the files they recovered revealed lord's criminal past he had embezzled over 150 000 from the memphis depot where he had retired several years prior and he had embezzled approximately seventy thousand dollars from the church there in east where he was attending as treasurer of the church lord had access to the parish bank accounts and cash donations despite the find investigators still had no direct evidence of the abduction we had nothing that we could use to charge him with a kidnapping in the murder of doe roberts it was important to obtain a confession from charles lord because we had no body good maybe this will help us out one agent working the case was trained in criminal profiling analyzing lord's actions he offered a behavioral profile to help get the confession he suggested lord was a manipulative pathological liar who believed he was untouchable the agent felt that overwhelming the suspect's ego was the only way to beat him what you guys need to do the plan was to bring lord in for an interview and let him see what he would take to be evidence of a massive investigation against him for months agents created numerous evidence boxes hoping to trump lord's belief he was above the investigation then on august 25 1993 at the fbi's memphis field office investigators met with lord and his attorney got some questions as charles lord sat in that room during the interview i was watching him look at these boxes realizing that he had been under surveillance for a lot longer than he had anticipated and he became very nervous the fbi's tactics appeared to be working lord eventually admitted to making some of the ransom calls he said he did it to keep the investigation alive for doe's sake but denied any involvement in her abduction sensing that he was ready to crack the investigators offered him a deal charles lord was told by our office as well as the shelby county inspector that if he would take a polygraph and pass a polygraph we would not look at him any further for the doe robert's kidnapping however if he failed the polygraph his attorney and charles lord agreed to a further interview interrogation in reference to the kidnapping he agreed after asking control questions to gauge lord's truthful response levels the polygraph examiner asked about dough including whether lord was involved in her abduction did you harm the robbers in the end the examiner believed the polygraph results showed lord being deceptive though the results could not be used in court they meant authorities could continue questioning the suspect [Music] with lord's attorney present in the interrogation room fbi agents and inspectors from the shelby county sheriff's department pressed the suspect returning again and again to the polygraph results i've got every piece of evidence i need what i need you to do at first he continued to deny involvement but after several hours the interview tactics wore him down lord said he was ready to tell them what happened he said he needed cash to pay back his loans and cover the money he stole from the church and decided to kidnap doe for ransom [Music] on august 6 1992 he called the roberts posing as a property buyer named sam wagner and arranged to meet alan the next day when he knew ellen was waiting at the development property he drove by their house doe was bringing in the mail been an accident he knew she would trust him alan's been involved in an accident yeah get in the car and i'll take you to him what happened do you know is he all right lord told investigators he planned to release dough after he got the ransom but she suffered a fatal heart attack in his car he said he panicked and dumped her body in her purse but he would not say where would you be willing to take us to where she is the investigators believed he was lying at least about planning to release dough and perhaps about other details special agent joanne overall knew they had to find the body to check his story they offered a deal charles lord agreed to tell us where doe robert's body was after he had confessed to the kidnapping in exchange for shelby county not pursuing the death penalty lord claimed he dumped her in the wolf river a slow-moving river that runs 90 miles across the southwest corner of the state the wolf river empties into the mississippi at memphis lord said he dumped the remains from a bridge in fayette county 13 miles from the robert's home divers would begin 50 yards upriver searching for the body and purse lieutenant john yancey of the shelby county sheriff's department led the dive in the murky river we had 21 divers involved told the visibility in the river was zero it was totally black water and in the dark water several species of venomous snakes adding to the challenge was the fact that the crime took place a year earlier any remains would be scattered and difficult to find fbi agents and sheriff's deputies helped the divers by stretching a rope across the river's width divers held onto the rope and moved across its length searching the river bottom by hand normally you do an arm spans arm over arm for a search for a body because it's large but we were looking for contents of the purse at the time to try to make sure that this was actually the scene so we had to bring it down to where we were instead of doing the large arm spins we were having to do what i call this the hand grab that's where you just get the dirt with your hand and that way you're able to find everything on the bottom once the divers reached the other bank the team would move the rope a foot down river and start over [Music] anytime a diver found something he signaled and additional divers came in to mark and extract the item we found a safe that had been taken in a robbery of a cleaners and the money had fallen out of the safe and we found the pennies on the bottom and the dollar bills but we found no contents of any of her purse so i feel like if we'd have found pennies on the bottom we would have found her makeup or a wallet or ids or anything times back to her in 110 degree heat the team continued their search of every square inch on my second day i was on the the bridge and an elderly lady walked up to me and said i want you to do me a favor and i said i'll try to if i can said i want you to find us something today so we can get this old whisk so we can go ahead and bury dough and get this case over with after three full days they had searched a half mile of the river they believed the body would not have gone farther than that in the lowland waters i went to my boss my chief and i told him i said based on my experience and what we have done she's not in here but if you want us to continue to search we'll research that runs in the mississippi every how you want to do it but i can tell you right now she's not here investigators were convinced lord had lied to them unnecessarily placing the dive team in danger special agent overall confronted lord we took charles lord out to the site and explained to him that these divers were putting their lives in jeopardy and we needed to find the body and it didn't appear that the body was there the suspect had run out of lies now he was ready to tell investigators what really happened to doe roberts after a three-day search of tennessee's wolf river dive leader lieutenant john yancey believed the remains of kidnapping victim doe roberts were not in the river we had searched everywhere possible and just over the years of experience i would have found something by now either some bones some makeup or something i said based on my experiences she's not in here there the divers are she's not there investigators confronted suspect charles lord dale's realizing they would not give up until they got the truth lord admitted doe had not died of a heart attack in his car he said he took her to his house and tied her up in a room above the garage he could never let his neighbor go now he tried to kill her with sleeping pills when that didn't work he smothered her with a pillow lord said he buried her in his backyard compost heap on top of the body he placed a layer of lime then concrete hoping they would hasten decomposition they needed to determine if lord was telling the truth this time to retrieve evidence and give doe's family the closure of knowing what happened the sheriff's department called in forensic anthropologists from the university of tennessee after removing layers of leaves and compost they began the dig shelby county sheriff's lieutenant ronald goodwin supervised the meticulous excavation it's just uh using brushes and little trials much like uncovering artifacts and it's just it's one spoonful at a time to make sure that you don't miss any evidence and make sure you don't do anything to harm what evidence may be with the body after two hours they pierced a shell of concrete and lime in the space underneath a body the first thing that we came to was a hand the rest of the body was laying flat in the grave site on its back face up it took 17 hours to completely exhume the remains and what investigators found surprised them the skin was intact the body was in such good condition i felt like the many scientific tests that we could run might reveal it's a poisoning cause of death a sexual attack or whatever it appeared that the actions that mr lord had taken such as the lime and so forth on top of the body had worked in reverse and it had preserved the body for us the most chilling detail was the position of the 65 year old woman's hand the only thing that was out of normal position was the hand which was up in front of her face in a defensive position with a finger spread it appeared to investigators she might not have been dead when she was buried maybe she was still alive maybe she was pushing up with her hand over a year after doe roberts disappeared the fbi and alan roberts had their evidence on october 19 1993 charles lord pled guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping he was sentenced to life plus 25 years doe's husband alan had endured being a suspect for months now with the truth out he could finally lay dough to rest [Music] but one challenge remains for alan roberts it's an uneven closure i'm trying to forget about charles lord and i'm praying that god will let me forgive him i'm praying that dough is in god's hands right now mr and mrs roberts enjoyed 43 years of marriage before they were torn apart he has faith that one day he will see her again you

Channel: The FBI Files

Views: 5,366,518

Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail

Id: 7Gj7C8dZtW0

Length: 149min 6sec (8946 seconds)

Published: Sat May 28 2022