[music playing] [typing] [thud] [music continues] [ominous music playing] CURT SCHRAM: The first time I
heard it, I kind of dismissed it. But after the third and fourth
time I heard it, I thought, maybe there is
something to this. [static] [whoosh] What we learned was, is
that one of the brothers did have pigs or large hogs. They were extremely mean
and would eat anything. [rip] (VOICE SHAKING) They,
then, chopped up the body and fed it to the pigs. [music playing] [soft music playing] NARRATOR: In Northern
Michigan, a rural legend hangs in the air. It whispers in the wind,
blows through the trees, and travels down the road. A tale of two hunters-- down-staters who came to
these parts, never to return. The ending makes the
rounds in backwoods bars for close to 20 years. The beginning, however,
is known to but a few. [music playing] Deer hunting season, 1985. Childhood friends David
Tyll and Brian Ognjan join the exodus upstate-- a 3-and-1/2-hour trip to a cabin
owned by David Tyll's family in White Cloud, Michigan. DENISE DUDLEY:
And they were just going to meet up
with his brothers and probably play cards
and do a little hunting and just have a
relaxing weekend. NARRATOR: The two men
leave Friday evening. Monday morning dawns with
no word from the hunters. DENISE DUDLEY: I got a
call from my mother-in-law. And she had informed me that
they never even came or showed up the whole weekend. NARRATOR: Denise Tyll files
a missing persons report with the Troy Police Department. Philip Steele works the case. PHILIP STEELE:
Initial impression is that it's so uncharacteristic
for them not to have come back, that perhaps
something did happen. NARRATOR: An accident offers
the most likely scenario. Steele alerts law
enforcement to be on the lookout for the hunters'
vehicle, a 1980 black Ford Bronco, and asks
the media for help. By early December,
several people claim to have seen their
truck in the Mio area-- some 150 miles distant
from their cabin. PHILIP STEELE: It'd almost
lead you to believe, based upon the many
tips that were coming in that the vehicle, if that,
in fact, was the Bronco, was being used and we were
just not able to pinpoint the location of where it was. NARRATOR: Where it
is the Ford Bronco? Who was using it? And what happened to its owners? Police conduct an exhaustive
search in and around Mio. The woods of Northern Michigan,
however, offer no clue as to the whereabouts of the
Bronco or the missing men. PHILIP STEELE: We were after
the hunters who have been in the woods, but they did
not come across the vehicle, but they have not
come across a weapon-- anything that would lead
you to believe that they got lost or something happened
that was accidental. Then you're pretty
sure that they met some type of foul play. NARRATOR: In 1985, Philip Steele
will work 14 missing persons cases. By year's end, only
one sits unsolved. The fate of the missing hunters
remains a mystery slipped into the cold files. [music intensifies] [music playing] Two years later, the
hunters are still missing. Their truck, apparently
swallowed whole by the Michigan woods. Their picture is still plastered
in Mio's local watering holes. Curt Schram is a detective
with the Michigan State Police. In the fall of 1987, he
is assigned to the case. CURT SCHRAM: When
I inherit the case, there really was not much. At that particular point,
it was still not real clear as to where they were or
where they had gone to. NARRATOR: Locals
have little to offer about the missing hunters,
either because they don't know anything, or perhaps
are afraid to talk. [music playing] Investigators
finally get a break in the form of a
confidential informant who overheard a conversation and
wants to get it off his chest. LLOYD: When I was talking
to a couple officers, a conversation of
something came up. And I says, well, I
overheard something. And I don't know how true it is. And it pertains to the two deer
hunters that's been missing. NARRATOR: Lloyd tells
detectives he was at a birthday celebration with family and
friends in a Michigan Bar called O'Shea's. At the other end of the
table, a family of seven known as the Duvall Brothers,
also known as local bullies. LLOYD: Everybody was sitting
around at the table drinking. A few of 'em was getting
up back and forth dancing. And they were talking
to a brother-in-law and my father-in-law about, you
know, fights that they had been in, things they were doing. They were laughing, you
know, and having a good time. NARRATOR: The Duvalls begin
talking about the beating they once gave two Michigan hunters. It begins with one
of the brothers, JR, getting beat up himself. LLOYD: I guess an
altercation took place, and they beat JR pretty good. And he'd went home and
told the other brothers what had happened. NARRATOR: According to Lloyd,
at least two of the brothers returned to the bar, took the
hunters outside, and beat them to death. LLOYD: They made the
remark, you shoulda seen the expression
on one of them's face when we did the other one. And they had made
the remark that they had fed 'em to the pigs. [indistinct chatter] [billiard balls clink] NARRATOR: As Lloyd listens
inside O'Shea's, the brothers describe how they took
the hunters' bodies back to a local farm and
into the pigpen. LLOYD: They were laughing
and joking about it. And I mean, when somebody
makes the remark, yeah, we fed 'em to the pigs,
you think, oh, you know, you guys are BS-ing, you know. Detective Curt Schram
takes Lloyd's story seriously and begins to dig into the
Duvall Brothers' background. He starts with the local pigs. [pigs grunting] Huge animals, more than
capable of devouring a human. CURT SCHRAM: When we
initially heard it, it was-- [stammering] you know,
that seems to be about as far-fetched as it could be. But what we learned was,
is that one of the brothers did have pigs or large hogs. And the information
that we learned was that they were extremely
mean and would eat anything. [chewing] As for the
brothers themselves, they're pretty mean, too. All of them carry
criminal convictions for either boosting cars,
poaching deer, or assaulting women-- just enough violence to scare
the locals into silence. Persistence, however,
has its rewards. Over time, Schram
cultivates some contacts-- people who were willing to
risk the brothers' anger and begin to talk. For their part, the
brothers are not happy. CURT SCHRAM: One
of them phrased it as, there was "a snake
in the woodpile." And they were concerned
about who was talking. Unbeknownst to them is
that they were the ones that we were talking to other
family members and friends. And, you know, eventually
it was getting back to us. NARRATOR: The stories largely
corroborate what Lloyd has already told police about
a fight outside a bar, the hunters beaten to death, and
then a ride out to the pigpen. CURT SCHRAM: The first time I
heard it, I kind of dismissed it.
I though, yeah. And then after the
second time, I-- yeah. And but after the third
and fourth time I heard it from different people
throughout the state, I thought, (ECHOING) maybe
there is something to this. [dreamy music playing] NARRATOR: The problem for
Schram, how does he prove it? None of his informants claim to
have actually seen the beating. The Duvalls are
holding their peace. And pigs don't make
very good witnesses. Without something
more, the Michigan DA declines to press charges,
and the case goes cold-- until nine years
later, when a woman surfaces who claims
to have spent some time herself around
the Duvall Brothers. BARB BOUDRO: And I says, if
the Duvall Brothers are here and they zeroed in to
these two deer hunters, there's gonna be some
ass kickin' tonight. [music playing] NARRATOR: David Tyll and Brian
Ognjan are the best of friends. Brian stands as best
man at David's wedding. Both men love the outdoors
and, in the fall of 1985, plan a hunting trip. They pack up a Ford Bronco and
head into the Michigan woods, never to be seen again. Five years later,
their disappearance is the stuff of local legend. Inside a Michigan
bar, two brothers-- JR and Coco Duvall brag of
beating the hunters to death and feeding their
bodies to the pigs. Witnesses to the barroom boasts
testify before a grand jury. But without a shred
of physical evidence, no indictments are issued,
and the case goes cold-- until another "Bronco"
cruises the back roads of Northern Michigan, Detective
Robert "Bronco" Lesneski. In 1998, Lesneski is a new
detective with the Michigan State Police. His first assignment-- work
the missing hunters case, now 13 years cold. ROBERT LESNESKI: My colleagues
have pretty much identified who the players were-- the responsible players. At least, they were
in that right circle. And most of the law enforcement
people in this area knew that. It was just trying to prove it. NARRATOR: Bronco reviews the
work of his predecessors, organizing 13 years of
investigation into three-ring binders, all of it focusing
on the two Duvall brothers-- none of it amounting to a
chargeable case of murder. ROBERT LESNESKI: I always
felt as though we had a decent circumstantial case. But I also believed there
were others out there that knew something. NARRATOR: Bronco
catches a whiff of rumor about a woman who might
have been an eyewitness to the hunters' death. The detective compiles
a list of people with possible connections
to the Duvall family. Then he starts
making the rounds. ROBERT LESNESKI: I just
start knockin' on doors till finally I
knocked on this door, and the woman started
shaking uncontrollably. She started threatening me
that I'm gonna get her killed. And she tried to close
the door in my face. And I've never done this
before, but I stuck my foot in the door. NARRATOR: Bronco talks his way
into the home of Barb Boudro. The fear in her eyes
is naked and palpable. The detective knows he has
his first break in the case. ROBERT LESNESKI:
She knew something. And I just needed to establish
a relationship with her, a rapport, some kind
of a trust with her to where I could get
her to talk to me. I told him I would tell
him some of this story, but not all of it. He would never get
the truth out of me. I just don't see it happening. NARRATOR: Barb claims she
has no direct information about the killings-- nothing that can really
help the investigation. Bronco believes
that might be a lie, but understands he
must practice patience. ROBERT LESNESKI:
And I never really knew how far I
could go with her. But I recognized this, is that
I didn't want to lose her. When you're around-- ROBERT LESNESKI: I'd take
whatever I could get. Don't ask how. BARB BOUDRO: I just kept
tellin' him more and more stuff. But I kept it as hearsay. That way, they couldn't
abuse me for anything as long as it's hearsay. [music playing] NARRATOR: Bronco
meets with his witness over a period of months-- months that eventually
become years. Each time, he draws out
more of Barb's story. Barb tells Bronco she saw the
hunters on the night they died. She and her friend, Ronnie
Emery, now deceased, were drinking at a bar called
Linker's Lost Creek Lodge. The two hunters were
standing at the bar. A pair of Duvall
brothers, JR and Coco, walked in and
confronted the men. Barb knew the Duvalls and knew
there was going to be trouble. BARB BOUDRO: I says, if the
Duvall Brothers are here and they zeroed in to
these two deer hunters, there was going to be
some ass kickin' tonight. [rock music playing] NARRATOR: Barb and Ronnie
pick up steaks and head out of the bar, back to Barb's house
less than a half mile away. Outside her kitchen window,
Barb hears men in the street and the makings of a fight. BARB BOUDRO: You could hear
men cussin' at each other, saying you MF and
just bad language. And-- and I says, Ronnie,
they're fightin' down here. So he says, well,
let's go watch. NARRATOR: Barb tells Bronco
that Ronnie Emery headed down to the fight alone. A short time later,
the yelling stopped. Then Ronnie returned. ROBERT LESNESKI: He came back
and said, they're beating them. I think they killed 'em.
I think they beat 'em to death. These guys are pleading
for their lives. Barb said she could
hear these pings, and it (ECHOING) sounded
like an aluminum bat hitting a softball. [whoosh] NARRATOR: Barb's testimony
is not the eyewitness account Bronco had hoped for,
but it's close enough. [dreamy music playing] Investigative
subpoenas are issued, and Barb Boudro is asked
to repeat her story before a prosecutor from the
Michigan Attorney General's office. [music playing] Four years after they
first met, Barb Boudro and Detective
Lesneski trade kitchen talk for an
on-the-record deposition. Barb is nearing the
end of her testimony when conscience takes hold. And her story takes a twist. BARB BOUDRO: When I went
to the Attorney General, I was sworn to tell the
truth, which I did-- sort of. Until near the end, and I said,
you know, I can never tell you the whole truth. And they shut the tape down. And I looked at Bronco. And I said, you know I know. And she just blurted
out that she saw it. She was there. She saw the whole thing. She was with Ronnie Emery. She witnessed the whole thing. And I mean, I suspected
there was more, but I never thought it was that. NARRATOR: Barb Boudro
explains that she watched from behind a tree as at
least five men surrounded David Tyll and Brian Ognjan. JR and Coco Duvall beat the
two hunters with baseball bats as the others looked on. Then she describes exactly
how the missing hunters met their ends. BARB BOUDRO: David
Tyll was on his knees. He had already been beat because
he was pretty well bloody. And he had his
hands up in the air. And he goes, oh my
god, somebody help us. And Coco swung the bat and
said, you're a dead MF-er. [whoosh] And his head popped
like a pumpkin. It just sounded like
you drop a pumpkin. And he was down. NARRATOR: David Tyll lay
dead in a snow-covered field. His companion, Brian
Ognjan broke free and began to run for his life. BARB BOUDRO: They went
after him and drug him back. And he's saying, you
killed my friend. You killed my friend. And then they stood him up. And they said, look at
that, he pissed himself. And then they threw
him on the ground, proceeded to start
kickin' and beatin' him until there was no more noise. NARRATOR: Barb runs from
the scene with Ronnie Emery hot on her heels. A short time later, the two
hear a knock at the front door. It's the Duvall Brothers
with simple instructions and a highly specific threat. BARB BOUDRO: It was Coco, JR,
and said, you saw nothing, you heard nothing. We know you and your family. Pigs have to eat, too. She remembers that statement. And I mean, when she
told me that, I just-- I couldn't believe it. NARRATOR: JR and Coco
Duvall are finally arrested for the murders of
David Tyll and Brian Ognjan. Cold case detectives have no
bodies, no physical evidence, and a single eyewitness
supporting their case for murder. That slender reed, however, is
about to gather some support from a second witness-- another woman, who
made the mistake of dating the son of JR Duvall. KATHRYN SLIWINSKI: It
just scared me to death to sit there and
look at this man and to think that I had to
go to sleep on the other side of the wall of him that night. [music playing] ] NARRATOR: In September of 2003,
Assistant Attorney General Donna Pendergast prepares
to put flesh and bones to a longstanding
story of the woods. It's a tale of two hunters
beaten to death, then fed to pigs to dispose
of the evidence. For 18 years, two brothers,
JR and Coco Duvall, have claimed bragging
rights to the story, boasting of the murders in
barrooms across the state. Now the Duvall brothers sit in
a Michigan jail cell awaiting their trial on
charges of murder. Pendergast hopes her
eyewitness will convince a jury the rumors are reality. DONNA PENDERGAST: It was tough. I mean, we had no body. We had no vehicle. We had a lot of rumors,
a lot of hearsay. And we had one eye witness. [music playing] NARRATOR: The state's
case will turn largely on the word of Barb Boudro, a
one-time party girl who admits to downing at least
nine drinks the night she watched JR and Coco Duvall
murder David Tyll and Brian Ognjan. BARB BOUDRO: I could
see all of 'em. When we got there,
David Tyll was bloody. And I could see the blood. And when Coco swung the bat, you
could see the blood splatter. You could see it really good. DONNA PENDERGAST: Barb
Boudro was the case. It was just, what could I put
in that would, in any way, corroborate what she had said? So I had to sift
through everything and look for the snippets
that substantiated even a little part of her testimony. ROBERT LESNESKI: We're
going to bring people in who are very close to the
Duvall family, who are related to the Duvall family, who lived
with them for years, who shared a bed with them, who are going
to give damaging information about their knowledge of this
situation and this incident. [music playing] NARRATOR: Cold case detectives
are fighting the fear factor-- family, friends, and neighbors
who know the Duvall family secrets, but are afraid
of possible retribution. With Coco and JR Duvall
behind bars and murder charges in the offing, the atmosphere
of intimidation begins to lift. And potential witnesses
begin to find some spine. KATHRYN SLIWINSKI: That's
why I came forward. I knew they were in jail. Obviously, the police had
enough evidence to arrest them. And it wasn't going to be
because of me that they were sent to jail. [music playing] NARRATOR: Kathryn Sliwinski
is the former girlfriend of JR Duvall's son, Tommy. She approaches cold case
detectives in June of 2003 and tells them
about a conversation she had with JR Duvall. The year was 1996. KATHRYN SLIWINSKI: He kind
of smiled and laughed, and then told me how him
and Coco had gone up north. And they were hunting for deer. And they had ran across a
deer that they had shot. And two other guys
claimed they had shot it. And they got into a
big fight over it. They ended up, I guess,
taking the deer with them and ran into 'em later
on that night in a bar. And they followed 'em
outside and continued to fight with 'em, and
then beat 'em to death. And JR was extremely
proud of this. [creak] NARRATOR: JR told Kathryn he
put the bodies of the hunters through a shredder, and then
fed the remains to the pigs. He told Kathryn to expect a
similar fate should she choose to leave his son and the home
they all shared in Michigan. KATHRYN SLIWINSKI: It
just scared me to death to sit there and
look at this man and to think that I had to
go to sleep on the other side of the wall of him that night. NARRATOR: Sliwinski's
statements, however, are just the beginning. By the time the trial
begins, cold case detectives have a parade of locals willing
to talk about the Duvall bullies and make sure they
get what's coming to them. [music playing] For more than a decade,
the Duvall family has kept the lid on murder
using a combination of muscle and fear. The house of cards, however,
is about to come tumbling down. It begins with Connie
Sundberg, yet another woman with a Duvall in her past. REPORTER: Connie Sundberg
is the former girlfriend of Donald Duvall. She says in 1986, months
after the alleged murders, he came home drunk one night. His head in his
hands like this. And he said, we killed somebody. And he looked up at me
and said, you [muted].. And he started
smacking me around. NARRATOR: The state then
focuses on the Duvall family itself, several of whom made
incriminating statements to police. ROBERT LESNESKI: We
had more than one. We had a brother who had made
a statement to another brother. I didn't kill anybody. All I did was
transport the bodies. NARRATOR: Frank Duvall is
Coco Duvall's younger brother. In a statement to police,
he appears to implicate Coco in the murders. Once on the stand, sitting just
a few feet from his brothers, Frank gets a case of
courtroom amnesia. DONNA PENDERGAST:
And you overheard Coco say, the
police are so dumb, if they found one body
they'd find the other one right underneath it. No, I told them I was-- as I was leaving out
the door, I heard-- to me, it sounded
like his voice. But actually, I didn't
really see him say it. NARRATOR: Brother Kenny Duvall
is next through the door. Police suspect he might
have scrapped the hunters Ford Bronco for parts. ROBERT LESNESKI: I mean, he
gives us a tape statement telling us that they're
stripping this thing down. They're in the process
of stripping it. And he firmly believes this
is a missing hunters' truck. NARRATOR: Once on the
stand, Kenny, like Frank, can't remember a thing. DONNA PENDERGAST: Remember
telling Sergeant Schram you loaded up possibly the axles? No. DONNA PENDERGAST:
Do you remember telling Sergeant Schram that you
drove to somewhere in Saginaw? No. NARRATOR: Pendergast
continues to build her case, calling Kathryn Sliwinski. KATHERINE SLIWINSKI: Tom
did not want me to leave. He had turned to his father
and said, Dad, tell her what happened to the hunters. They were fighting and smashed
their heads like melons. [breathes shakily] They
then (VOICE SHAKING) chopped up the body
and fed it to the pigs. [music playing] NARRATOR: The stage is now set
for eyewitness Barb Boudro. On October 21, she
takes the stand and tells the packed
courtroom what she saw. BARB BOUDRO: (VOICE
SHAKING) He was begging. And they swung the bat and
it [stuttering] sounded like squashed-- like if you dropped a pumpkin. And there was just blood. He broke away and ran. And they pulled him back. And he says, my god,
you're killing my friend. NARRATOR: On cross-examination,
Duvall's attorney goes hard at Boudro,
realizing the verdict rests largely on
her credibility. No. JR and Coco
weren't present when you testified at your
investigative subpoena, were they?
- No. OK. So you didn't have to
look him in the face and tell your stories
then, did you? I still don't
have to look at-- - Yes or no?
- No! LAWYER: OK, good. Thank you. God. NARRATOR: The defense's
final offering is testimony from the
mouths of the accused-- a simple statement painting
Barb Boudro as a liar. Cassidy. LAWYER: Did you kill David Tyll? No, I didn't. LAWYER: Did you
kill Brian Ognjan? No, I didn't. NARRATOR: In the end, the jury
doesn't believe the Duvall Brothers. After just two hours
of deliberations, it renders a verdict. JURY MEMBER: The jury's
verdict count one is guilty of first-degree,
premeditated murder. WOMAN: Yes. DONNA PENDERGAST: I mean, every
time I think about the case, that just-- you know, to
myself I smile and say, god, we did it. We did it. A finish to just something that
had been such a Michigan story, a Michigan mystery for so long. NARRATOR: For 18 years,
JR and Coco Duvall cut figures that were
larger than life. Bragging freely in bars and
restaurants of the time they murdered two hunters
and the loathsome way they disposed of their bodies. On November 13, the brothers
are cut down to size-- sent to jail for life without
the possibility of parole. David Tyll's former wife Denise
talks about her late husband. DENISE DUDLEY: I mean,
they took a great guy away from everybody. And they cut his life short. My life will never
be the same again. His parents' life will
never be the same again. And I don't know. I-- they shouldn't have done it. [scoffs] NARRATOR: The verdict,
though satisfying, is not enough for
Detective Bronco Lesneski. According to Barb Boudro,
there were several men in the field that night
with the hunters, only two of whom have been arrested. [music playing] She thought there were
about five people there. And she could identify
JR and Coco for sure. And she could identify
one other person. NARRATOR: Lesneski
is not at liberty to share the names of any
other suspects in the case. He does, however, have
a message for them. ROBERT LESNESKI: For those
that are out there walking around that may have some
responsibility to this crime, that think that because we
got two people in prison doing natural life for
these double murders, that it's over,
(ECHOING) it's not over. NARRATOR: If you have any
information about the case you MICHELLE STEINMACHER: It
was like a little pin light flashlight. He was holding in his mouth. JOE RICHARDSON: It
was blinding them. And they couldn't see it. So it's given him the name
of the "Flashlight Rapist." MARTY HIGGS: He really
was a bold, bold person. There were children. There was husbands at home. [bang] MICHELLE STEINMACHER:
He was on top of me and had my arms tied behind
my back with my belt. LISA LEACH: It just kept getting
more violent and more violent. And I just felt like that he
would just keep on and keep on and keep on.
[rip] JOE RICHARDSON: We had to
get this guy off the street. [music intensifies] [music playing] NARRATOR: On Louisville's west
side on a hot and humid night, a woman falls asleep alone. Just before 6:00
AM, she's awakened by a stranger in her bed. LISA LEACH: He
fondled me and stuff. I knew what was going to happen. He made it point blank
that he wasn't going to take no for an
answer because he hit me with that stupid flashlight. NARRATOR: Lisa Leach is blind,
so the attacker will always be faceless to her. Leach can, however,
sense bright lights. LISA LEACH: And then he put
that flashlight in my face like he thought I could see it. He thought he was doing
something, but he wasn't. NARRATOR: The man
rapes Lisa Leach. And Leach puts reality
on hold, removing herself from the moment and waiting for
the rest of her life to begin. LISA LEACH: When it happens,
you're not thinking. You are not thinking. You're just happy you're alive. And you still have your house. And you run and wake up all
your kids and check on 'em. And then you go and
call your mother. And then your mother
says, call the police. And you're like, why? And what? And you just don't know. You're not thinking. NARRATOR: Louisville
police arrived on scene and find a stepladder
under Leach's open window. They believe the
rapist simply climbed up and into her bedroom. At a local hospital, a nurse
collects semen and sends it to the crime lab. Lisa Leach awaits the results. LISA LEACH: Initially? Yeah, I thought it was
gonna be real quick. I thought they'd
get him real quick. Because, you know, I thought-- I thought someone would
say something or someone had saw something or somethin'. (ECHOING) But it never happened. NARRATOR: The crime
lab gets a DNA profile, but it does not match any
offenders in the state database, nor anyone on
a short list of suspects. Within two weeks, Lisa Leach
moves far away from Louisville. Her case grows cold. And a rapist with a flashlight
slips into obscurity. [music playing] May breezes waft through
Louisville's Germantown neighborhood-- a blue collar quarter where
everyone knows their neighbor and many sleep
with windows open. Michelle Steinmacher
is fast asleep when she's awakened
by an intruder. MICHELLE STEINMACHER: I
was sleeping on my stomach. And he was practically
like on top of me and had my arms tied behind
my back with my belt, and had a pair of pants of
mine strangling around my neck. That's the first
thing I ever knew. [music playing] NARRATOR: Steinmacher
marker is gasping for air and can neither
scream nor fight. [rip] The man drags her to
the floor and rapes her with such violence that
Steinmacher fears she will not survive the attack. MICHELLE STEINMACHER: To be
honest, I never really thought, if I get out of this. I mean, it was just
basically-- it was so traumatic and happening so quick that
that thought never even entered my mind. I didn't think I was
going to make it. NARRATOR: The attack ends
as suddenly as it begins. The rapist leaves,
and Louisville police arrive at the scene. Steinmacher tells them her
attacker had a flashlight. MICHELLE STEINMACHER:
In my face. And it blinds you to
where all you can see is basically a silhouette of
who's standing in front of you. NARRATOR: Steinmacher
knows only that he's a white man with brown
hair and a slight build. Detective Marty Higgs
had heard this before. MARTY HIGGS: I knew that because
of the MO and everything else that this was going to
be the Flashlight Rapist. NARRATOR: Three weeks earlier,
another Louisville woman had been raped. Like Steinmacher, she
was attacked in her home. Like Steinmacher, she was
blinded by a flashlight. Higgs submit semen evidence
from both cases to the Kentucky State Crime Lab. DNA analyst Sandra Hill
processes the samples. SANDRA HILL: When I ran those,
they matched each other. But then they also hit
back to this other case we had no idea about. So it was a cold hit. NARRATOR: The hit is to the Lisa
Leach case, now two years cold. Forensic DNA tells Higgs
the rapist was active at least two years ago
and, after a hiatus, is once again on the hunt. POLICE DISPATCH (OVER
RADIO): 917, 911. MARTY HIGGS: We realized
that we were starting to get DNA matches. And we had one perpetrator. And he was on both
sides of town. It became a concern for us. NARRATOR: Higgs hits the
streets, developing suspects and collecting their DNA. One by one, the
suspects are cleared. And month by month, more
attacks are uncovered. By summer's end, DNA confirms
that least four sexual assaults to be the work of the
Flashlight Rapist. MARTY HIGGS: He really didn't
care if people were home. There were children in
some of these houses that he broke into. There was husbands at home. He really was a
bold, bold person to even attempt these things. [music playing] NARRATOR: Sometimes
fortune favors the bold. Sometimes it doesn't. The flashlight rapist is about
to discover that difference in a close encounter
of the worst kind. [music playing] Well past midnight, a
crime scene that is now all too familiar begins to unfold. An intruder slips
through a window and into a bedroom, the
small flashlight clutched between his teeth. But this time, when he
climbs into the victim's bed, the would-be rapist
discovers he has company. MARTY HIGGS: He was trying
to sexually assault her with her boyfriend
actually in the bed. She was thinking that it was
her boyfriend at the time. She was trying to push him off. And that's when the
boyfriend realized that there was somebody
else in the bed with them. NARRATOR: The boyfriend chases
the attacker out of the house, but the intruder
makes good his escape. In the kitchen, however, he
has left something behind. MARTY HIGGS: We were
able to actually find a small flashlight
left at the scene of this particular
attempt at sexual assault. NARRATOR: The item
is bagged and sent to Sandra Hill at the crime lab. If the rapist carried the
flashlight in his mouth, he might have left some
saliva and his DNA behind. SANDRA HILL: And I tested the
swabs as well as the flashlight for saliva. I extracted the DNA from
that and received the profile that matched all these
other semen profiles. [music playing] NARRATOR: The unknown
profile matches DNA found at four other assaults
attributed to the Flashlight Rapist. The attacker himself, however,
continues to elude authorities. That string of luck is about
to run out when the flashlight rapist inadvertently
targets the home of a cop. [music playing] In Louisville, a
rapist is on the hunt, using a flashlight
to blind his victims and then assaulting them. The number of women victimized
is at six and counting when Louisville's top brass decides
their investigation needs a fresh set of eyes. [music playing] In a three-bedroom house
on the edge of Louisville, a man works late into the night. His name, Joe Richardson. Newly minted head of
Louisville's Sex Crimes Unit. His reading material? A stack of unsolved rape cases. JOE RICHARDSON: I had all
the case files pulled. I had copies made. So I took 'em home and
started reading about them. Because I knew this was
a case that wasn't gonna go away until he was caught. NARRATOR: In his study
at the Flashlight Rapist, Richardson spots an
intriguing pattern. [soft music playing] In addition to
raping his victims, the offender often
stole jewelry or cash. Richardson wonders if this
rapist didn't start out as a second story thief. JOE RICHARDSON:
Maybe the flashlight wasn't just for
blinding victims. Maybe it was for
keeping it in his mouth when he was going through
drawers of the house. He was a burglar,
stealing stuff. NARRATOR: In neighborhoods where
the rapist had attacked women in the past, Joe
Richardson finds clusters of home invasions, many of which
included a sexual component-- that is, the intruder
would rob the home, then subdue and
fondle his victim before leaving the house. Although not technically
a felony rape, Richardson believes these
crimes to be the work of the Flashlight Rapist. JOE RICHARDSON: If you
looked at that clump and you felt that he
was responsible for all those cases, you know,
that just reinforced the fact we had to get
this guy off the street. NARRATOR: Richardson expands
the scope of the Louisville investigation to include
property offenses as well as sexual assaults. It is an approach that
quickly bears fruit. [music playing] Bill Stivers is a
Louisville detective. After a hard day at work,
he's looking forward to some downtime when he
walks into his bedroom and discovers a night
of peace and quiet is simply not in the offing. BILL STIVERS: I noticed
the sounds of the outdoors were just a little bit
clearer, a little bit crisper than they usually are. And I couldn't quite
put my finger on it until I raised that blind and
saw my broken window pane. NARRATOR: Stivers checks
around for anything missing and notices
his gold ring is gone. BILL STIVERS: I was very upset. I was livid for two reasons. One, I was actually victimized. I had been victimized
by a crime. And then also, the loss-- the loss of a very
valuable piece of jewelry that had
sentimental value, that had been in my family
for years and years. NARRATOR: As a detective,
Stivers worked burglary for almost four years. Now he reaches out to a friend
still on that beat, Detective Chris Horn. CHRIS HORN: Since
police officers hate to be victims of crimes,
he took a very personal and started to assist
us in the investigation and took it upon himself to draw
a sketch of this very unique ring. NARRATOR: Stivers faxes the
sketch to local pawn shops, hoping the thief might
try to fence the item. One of the faxes lands on
the desk of Rick Walker, a local pawn shop owner who
doesn't recognize the drawing and sticks it in a drawer. RICK WALKER: About a week
later, I purchased a ring. And after buying it, I realized
I'd seen the ring before. And sure enough, it was the ring
that was pictured on the fax. CHRIS HORN: When you pawn
an item here in this county, you have to give identification
and a fingerprint. So we then did have Joseph
Cave as our suspect. NARRATOR: Joseph
cave is a big seller, unloading hundreds of pieces
of jewelry at pawn shops all over Louisville. The next day, Horn puts
Cave under surveillance. The suspect does not disappoint. CHRIS HORN: He then ended
up committing a burglary while he was being surveyed. And the ironic
thing is the victim of that burglary
didn't even know that he had been in her house. She had been burglarized. And she was home at the time. [music playing] NARRATOR: Horn is
waiting by Cave's Jeep when the thief returns. In his pocket, Cave has
necklaces, watches, jewelry, and more. CHRIS HORN: It was a real small
household flashlight, probably about 4 or 5 inches long. Just your standard little
household flashlight. NARRATOR: Joe Cave
eventually confesses to at least 50 break-ins, most
of them involving a flashlight. It's an MO that sounds familiar. BILL STIVERS: The
district that I worked out of as a detective had several
of these flashlight rapes occur in the district. And we had actually kept a
case file on these rapes. NARRATOR: Detective Horn
calls Joe Richardson. When the two compare reports,
one item in particular catches Richardson's eye. JOE RICHARDSON: I
got to the point where it said he lived
at 131 North 26th Street, and I about had a heart attack. Because that was
the target area. NARRATOR: Cave's home is
right in the middle of an area worked by the Flashlight Rapist. Detective Horn continues to
talk and to share reports, and other connections come fast. JOE RICHARDSON: He told me
that numerous victims of Cave's break-ins were home at the time. So that gave me a
little more credence. [music playing] NARRATOR: Also, the yellow
flashlight Cave was arrested with is the same make
and model as the one left behind at the scene
of an attempted rape. Finally, Joe Cave's
short stature and slight build is consistent with victim
statements about the rapist. JOE RICHARDSON: So
I'm telling myself, this has to be the
right guy this time. NARRATOR: Richardson has
worked up six other suspects, only to see them cleared
when the DNA did not match. [music playing] What will DNA say
about Joe Cave? [music continues] [music playing] On December 5, Joe Richardson
stops by county jail to talk to Joe Cave. The detective is armed with
a notebook and a cotton swab, hoping Joe Cave will
agree to give his DNA. JOE RICHARDSON: And he,
just right off the cuff, looked down and said,
I've never raped a woman. And I said, well, would
you volunteer and give us consent to get a swab? And, I don't want
to give you a swab. And I want to see an attorney. And he got up and walked out. NARRATOR: Richardson
procures a search warrant and, a week later, draws a
syringe full of Joe Cave's blood. Six weeks after
that, Sandra Hill has completed her DNA work. SANDRA HILL: I remember standing
there at the DNA instrument, watching the profile coming
off from his standard. At that point, I had the
DNA profile memorized. I had seen it so many times. [machine whirring] And I was standing there. I'm like, oh my gosh,
it's the profile. JOE RICHARDSON: I answer
the phone in my office. And the person on the
other line was so excited, I couldn't recognize her voice. And she calmed down. And it was Sandra. And she finally said,
we got him, we got him. NARRATOR: Perhaps no one
is happier than Lisa Leach, Cave's first known rape victim. LISA LEACH: And then the
DNA came back perfect. And that was the
greatest feeling. Because it was like, he left
his calling card, you know. He left his calling
card, and he got busted. And that was it. [music playing] NARRATOR: Joe Cave is
arrested and eventually pleads guilty to five counts
of aggravated rape and one count of attempted rape. At his sentencing, five
victims take the stand. Among them, Lisa Leach,
who asks the judge to give Joe Cave the maximum
sentence-- life without parole. LISA LEACH: I told the judge
that he wasn't a good person and that he would just keep
on and keep on and keep on. Because while I
was sitting there, you know, listening to the
other ladies' impact statements. And it just kept getting more
violent and more violent. And I just felt like that
if-- when he does get out, he's not gonna change. [somber music playing] NARRATOR: The judge
sentences Cave to life, but with the
possibility of parole in 20 years. The sentence is not enough for
Lisa Leach, who was already planning her trip
before the parole board. LISA LEACH: If I
have to go in there and be the most pitiless
blind woman in the world to make them keep
him, I swear I will. Oh, yeah. I'll make sure I'm there. And I'll make sure
he don't get out. JOE RICHARDSON: Some
victims were thinking about, in 20 years, they'll go
front of the parole board to testify against him too. But in 20 years, we don't
have to worry about this guy in our community. And these victims don't have
to be fearful that the same guy might come back and attack 'em. So I think we all won
and Joe Cave lost.
