Deadly Mission: Tackling Domestic Terrorism | The FBI Files S2 EP16 | Real Crime

a family vanishes without a trace local authorities find no leads to the identity of their abductors when stolen weapons began to surface investigators realized the perpetrators were part of a nationwide rampage of violence or dangerous men who would stop at nothing to escape justice [Applause] so [Music] when a family was murdered in arkansas it seemed like an isolated event but soon the crime was revealed to be part of an ever widening circle of violence to define a new age of domestic terrorism i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office for the killers the triple homicide in arkansas was simply a means to an end they made their way across the country letting nothing stand between them and their twisted mission and we would stop at nothing to prevent their rampage [Applause] [Music] january 1996 tilley arkansas a small rural neighborhood was home to william mueller [Music] mueller was a gun enthusiast and self-employed electrician his wife nancy homeschooled their eight-year-old daughter sarah returning from a day of work the muellers were confronted by two [Music] they were dressed as fbi agents but they were impostors [Music] they were after the large supply of weapons and cash that mueller had in his home [Music] when the 52 year old mueller refused to cooperate the intruders separated the family and tortured them [Music] nancy mueller's mother erleen branch grew concerned when she hadn't heard from her daughter in two weeks she turned to the sheriff for help i usually hear from her at least she explained that the family often traveled to gun shows yet her daughter always called when they returned although the muellers lived in a neighboring county the sheriff knew the family and agreed to look into the matter [Music] he checked with local authorities and talked to mueller's neighbors though sheriff j winters found no trace of the family people who knew them weren't concerned for the most part there wasn't a lot of fear most people thought you know maybe they had just gone off somewhere and and wanted to be on their own for a while [Music] on february 11 a month after their disappearance a farmer found the mueller's jeep concealed and abandoned off the highway miles from their home [Music] detective aaron duvall from the pope county sheriff's office was sent to investigate it was approximately 20 miles north of russellville off the state highway 7 hid behind a brush pile i was called out that day went up there took pictures of the the vehicle and the trailer [Music] inside the jeep duval found nancy mueller's purse it held her wallet and id the trailer used by bill mueller to transport munitions to gun shows was empty several more months passed and the muellers were still missing 40 miles from tilly an elderly couple enjoyed a day of fishing in a bayou near russellville [Music] while waiting for a fish to bite the woman snagged her line [Music] she pulled up an old tennis shoe a leg bone jutted out of it horrified she cut it loose went for help within hours search teams coined the bayou organized by sheriff winters they used large metal hooks to drag the bottom divers swam the depths by day's end parts of a single body were recovered a murder victim the torso had a rock attached to it there was a lot of tape on it the head had a bag of some type on it duct tape around the head very disturbing to us because it was obvious you know that that this was a different type of thing than we typically deal with it was an obvious execution it was just some cold hearted people investigators determined it was the body of a small female [Music] they thought it might have been a six-year-old girl who had been abducted several counties away the previous year when the clothing and size didn't match her description another possibility became apparent it could have been sarah mueller the next day two more partial bodies were found all three torsos had been weighed down with rocks and each head was covered with a plastic bag secured with duct tape dental records dna and clothing confirmed the identity of the bodies they were william mueller his wife nancy and their daughter sarah the missing persons case was now a grisly triple homicide investigation it was bad for bill and nancy to have to die the way they did but for a seven-year-old girl to die that way to be wrapped with plastic to be wrapped with duct tape to have a 60-pound rock strap to her body and throw it into a lake there was no excuse during the autopsy the coroner determined that the three had probably been in the water since january 11th the last day they were seen a later examination revealed several specks of blue paint stuck to the tape that bound the bodies investigators sent the paint specs to the fbi lab in washington dc for analysis [Music] a forensic chemist determined that they were consistent with auto paint the challenge was to match them to a specific make and model [Music] using infrared light the examiner established the chemical composition of the paint this chemical signature was fed into a computer database containing similar information from every auto make model and color dating back to 1934 [Music] the results gave the arkansas investigators their first lead so we thought that the vehicle that the bodies were transported in possibly was blue it was determined a particular blue color metallic blue the fbi even narrowed it down that it was a general motors vehicle investigators reasoned that they were looking for at least two perpetrators one must have driven the blue car with the bodies in it to the water while the other followed in the mueller's jeep by the time they dumped the bodies the muellers were probably already dead suffocated by the plastic bags the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms from little rock arkansas was called in atf agent glenn jordan headed the case our jurisdiction lay in the fact that mueller was a former former federal firearms licensee that his firearms were missing and the fact that mr mueller and his family had been murdered the atf had a complete record of mueller's gun inventory before he forfeited his federal license with no reports of gun sales since then agents figured the missing weapons had been stolen our goal was to enter the serial numbers of those firearms into the national crime information computer in case those firearms turned up later that would give us a lead to follow in the investigation jordan was already familiar with bill mueller's name since the family had been the victims of a theft one year earlier at the time of that robbery mueller reported forty thousand dollars worth of merchandise stolen including five firearms and ammunition [Music] since the muellers had been victims of a robbery and homicide within the same year agents believed that the family had been targeted by a group who used and sold stolen weapons perhaps members of an anti-government militia [Music] come on in fellas investigators returned to inspect the mueller's belongings after the family had disappeared relatives had taken most of their valuable items the landlord stored the remaining possessions in his garage they found a colt 45 gun case labeled with a serial number but the gun was missing they also found a picture of the family with some friends [Music] the atf entered the serial number of the colt 45 into the ncic the national crime information center [Music] they got a hit the handgun had been traced to a man named travis break he had been arrested five months earlier in seattle washington for carrying a concealed weapon because the gun he was carrying was now linked to another crime break was arrested again by the seattle police this time for possession of a stolen weapon what do you know about it jordan and duval flew to washington state to question him mr break was interviewed and advised the seattle police department that he had purchased this handgun at a gun show in seattle washington and he described two individuals that he had purchased the firearm from one in particularly that he remembered investigators showed him the photograph found among the mueller's possessions brake identified one of the men who sold him the gun [Music] his name was keith collins agents asked bill and nancy mueller's friends if they had ever heard of him [Music] collins had once been close with the muellers they had attended gun shows together investigators discovered that keith collins real name was kirby kehoe the atf learned that kirby kehoe had an extensive record for firearms violations kehoe was also actively involved in the white supremacist movement members of this growing faction are strongly anti-government heavily armed and considered dangerous kirby kehoe became a prime suspect in the mueller triple homicide [Music] investigators needed more evidence before they moved in for an arrest almost a year after the triple murder and robbery of bill nancy and sarah mueller investigators were still hunting for the killers believed to be militant white supremacists [Music] in sioux falls south dakota 11 months after the crime the trooper noticed a blue chevy suburban parked in a handicapped space he found a young couple sleeping inside the man said his name was sean haynes he and his pregnant girlfriend had pulled over to rest for a while from the bumper stickers on his truck the trooper believed he was a white supremacist he asked haynes if he was carrying any weapons haynes showed him two guns in the back of his vehicle [Music] the trooper called in the serial numbers and discovered they had been stolen one an ar-15 rifle had been taken from the mueller's house in arkansas haynes was arrested that one of mueller's guns had turned up in south dakota investigators from arkansas went there to interview haynes haynes revealed that he had traded another firearm for the ar-15 rifle at a washington state motel six months earlier explain how they got there the name of the man he swapped with was chevy kehoe kirby kehoe's eldest son now chevy was also connected to the mueller murders investigators weren't through with haynes though they took a paint sample from his blue suburban they determined that the sample did not match the paint found on the duct tape wrapped around the mulers haynes had nothing more to offer the investigation turned to chevy kehoe but he was nowhere to be found several weeks later ohio state highway patrol officer harold harker had a routine assignment to catch speeders in the small town of wilmington not far from cincinnati while observing traffic he noticed a blue chevy suburban going slower than the speed limit parker the 25-year veteran who was now retired recalled how he thought the people inside were acting strangely as they drove by as it approached i saw it did not have a front license plate and as it passed me the past the driver didn't acknowledge my presence in any way didn't look at the patrol car just kept both hands on the wheel fixed straight ahead however the passenger not only looked at me as he went by he actually turned in the seat looked out the rear window to watch me parker knew that washington state required vehicles to have license plates on both front and back [Music] he called in the plate number and followed the suburban while waiting for his dispatcher to come back with some information and they returned and told me that the plate apparently did match the vehicle however it was expired so at that point i made the determination that once we got into wilmington where the berms were wider i would initiate a traffic stop there parker's car was equipped with a video camera mounted on the dashboard a microphone was fastened to harper's shirt [Music] parker asked the passenger and driver for id [Applause] [Music] while talking to the men harker became more troubled neither had any id the driver was speaking in a very animated fashion while the passenger looked straight ahead at this point i was concerned enough with my safety and so on i wanted to get the people away from the vehicle and i wanted to here again get them separated get the pass to get the driver into my car so that i'm a little more in control of their actions the driver eventually followed harker to his patrol car borrowed the vehicle you said you borrowed the vehicle it's i actually want to i'll tell you okay when the officer tried to frisk him the driver quickly stepped back and became defensive and he actually moved away from me and used the terminology i don't want to be violated like that in 25 years of criminal patrol operations i had never had anyone use that particular terminology and that coupled with the appearance of the two young men the fact that they were had close cropped military style haircuts very clean cut and the driver had a marine corps type cover i felt comfortable that i was probably dealing with militia personnel at that point across the highway a fellow officer deputy sheriff robert gates saw harker talking with the driver and turned around to assist him this was a common practice since officers often worked alone in rural sections of the state his whole purpose is to monitor the entire situation he doesn't get involved with answering questions giving direction that's my job his job is purely to watch and observe the men told him they were looking for work on construction sites harker told the driver that if he or his passenger could not provide identification their vehicle would be confiscated the driver attempted to escape the passenger jumped from the vehicle and started the passenger fled the scene while harker tried to stop the driver became caught in the door when he managed to free himself the other suspect escaped into the woods gates pursuing he feared an ambush among the dense trees so he turned around harper back at his car with a shot out tire called for help within moments the rest of the wilmington ohio police department was notified about the shootout officer robert martin heard the bulletin and then observed a suburban in an electrical supply company parking lot he called in his location as he went to investigate the only ten cents with that suspect vehicle behind support the suburban's driver opened fire another policeman arrived to assist him the suspect had disappeared into the industrial area [Music] he'd shot 32 rounds one wounded a bystander back at the first shootout site investigators were trying to piece together what happened and to learn the shooter's identities [Applause] using metal detectors they searched for shell casings the entire area was meticulously photographed and all evidence collected the small town of wilmington had never seen anything like this police mobilized a manhunt for the two armed suspects the search continued into the night reinforcements were brought in from neighboring counties police knew the suspects would resort to violence in order to escape they had to find them before anyone was killed the suspects in the shootout were still at large the atf and ohio state police examined the second gunfight location in the chevy suburban the entire crime scene was processed for fingerprints in hopes of determining the shooter's identity inside the vehicle were assault rifles thousands of rounds of ammunition military supplies and medical packs investigators traced the munitions through receipts supplied by the manufacturers [Music] much of the ammo and gun parts belong to the murdered arkansas gun dealer william mueller the extent of the military supplies suggested the shooters were violent members of an anti-government group ohio investigators notified the fbi fbi agent bill hargraves from the cincinnati field office spearheaded the investigation the case became a domestic terrorism case basically because of the items that were found in the suburban they had numerous weapons ammunition law enforcement clothing and equipment law enforcement identification yes this is trooper hermann with uh state police ohio state troopers traced the suburban's registration to a man named jacob settle from spokane washington [Music] on the day of the shootout settle told the trooper he was with friends in washington state more than 2 000 miles from ohio he also claimed that he had sold the vehicle to a man named chevy kehoe it would take several days for authorities to corroborate subtle story ohio state troopers compared a copy of settle's driver's license photo against images of the fugitives caught on tape [Music] the picture didn't match [Music] the videotape was their best clue ohio state police released the tape nationwide to try to find the shooter's identities the shootout video made prime time news around the country and produced the break investigators needed a washington state tv reporter recognized the driver as a white supremacist she had interviewed several years earlier for the tv show hard copy [Music] his name was chevy kiel several cops and residents confirmed the identification back in arkansas pope county investigators working on the mueller triple homicide also watched the video for the first time they saw chevy kehoe [Music] they assisted ohio state and federal investigators in the manhunt since chevy was also a suspect in the arkansas murders duvall and jordan traveled to ohio to meet with fbi agent hargraves to share information they told hargraves that the killers used a blue general motors vehicle to transport the victims hargrave thought the connection was strong since the truck abandoned after the shootout was a blue chevy suburban and more of mueller's property was found inside the team agreed that if paint scrapings from the suburban match the blue paint specs found on the victims they would have forensic evidence tying chevy keto to the arkansas crimes at the fbi lab in washington dc examiners determined that the paint specs did not match the sample found in arkansas fbi agent jim shanindor was called in a specialist in tracking domestic terrorists like chevy kehoe we found out that they had engaged in militia type activities that they had anti-government views they were very anti-law enforcement at the time so it really heightened the the security in terms of of what these suspects were going to do next seeking more information on chevy kehoe a washington state trooper interviewed his father kirby at his home in colesville the trooper asked him if he recognized the men in the video kirby did not identify his son chevy but he said the second man was his younger son shane [Music] we found this unusual because the video made it fairly easily to identify the driver who was chevy but not quite as easy to identify shane we thought that perhaps there might have been some favoritism for one son over the other the fbi looked into the background of 23 year old chevy and 21 year old shane kehoe shelby kehoe was linked to a variety of crimes in addition to the three murders in arkansas he was linked to a murder in in washington state and a murder and we believe in idaho he also committed a series of burglaries robberies and extortions and also interstate transportation is still on property apbs were issued for the keo brothers [Music] on february 18th investigators picked up the key host trail in frankfurt ohio 45 miles from the shootout site in wilmington a chevy monte carlo was found abandoned in a grocery store parking lot it had been reported stolen a mile from where the shootout occurred authorities suspected that at least one of the key hoes had stolen it to escape the manhunt the keys were all the robber had left [Music] investigators feared the desperate brothers would stop at nothing to escape custody state police fanned out to canvas the area hoping someone may have seen one of the fugitives [Music] a mile away at the lake hill campground the key hose path re-emerged investigators learned that the pair had camped there with their families in an rv but authorities arrived too late just two days earlier the motorhome had pulled out [Music] no one knew if the brothers were on board the fbi released a nationwide apb for the vehicle [Music] as the weeks passed people reported sightings of the rv [Music] they had also seen women and children in the camper each time authorities responded the camper was gone the keyhoes trail heated up again 150 miles away in indianapolis indiana where another stolen vehicle was recovered inside investigators found clothing and a gas receipt signed by chevy kehoe but no trace of his brother shane the van had been stolen 13 miles from where chevy fled the blue suburban after firing on ohio officers the keos were still one step ahead the trail of plundered cars signaled that the keyhole's crime spree would not cease until authorities stop them we felt early on that if confronted again by law enforcement that there would be a great probability that there would be another shooting involved in that innocent people would would be hurt across the country local and federal investigators were put on high alert they needed to find the kehoe brothers before they struck again in arizona a state trooper came upon an rv that fit the description of the keyhole's camper it had no license plates and its shades were drawn [Music] he called in reinforcements he knew the brothers were armed and dangerous and would shoot to kill [Music] within moments the swat team surrounded the rv they hoped the nighttime assault would catch the kios off guard and lessen the chances of another armed confrontation an arizona swat team was on the move to catch the kiho brothers armed fugitives wanted in two states for murder and attempted murder freeze they thought they had them cornered it was the wrong rv several days later wyoming highway patrolman found the kehoe's mobile home broken down and abandoned on a desolate stretch of road [Applause] the fbi was informed and asked that the rv be towed into town for inspection [Music] the wyoming state police obtained a warrant and documented its contents this vehicle like the suburban held a large cache of ammunition guns several fake fbi jackets and u.s marshals badges one discovery stopped the officers in their tracks all right come take a look at this a box of explosive components including batteries used to detonate bombs [Music] fearing a booby trap the troopers called in the atf bomb squad [Music] nearby business and government offices were evacuated inch by inch the bomb squad probed the rv the thorough investigation revealed no live devices but the danger wasn't over according to atf agent jordan the kehoe brothers had a well-equipped bomb factory which increased their potential for violence the bomb making components that we found consisted of some metal cylinders several types of chemicals mixing bowls hot plate coffee filters instructions for making homemade blasting caps quite an assortment of bomb making components receipts on board revealed the family's path since leaving ohio they traveled through west virginia north carolina alabama texas and montana before ditching the mobile home in wyoming the vehicle offered few clues to the key ho's current location all we knew was that chevy was last known to be in indianapolis where the stolen van was recovered we presumed that shane and the families had made it as far as casper where the camper had broken down from that point on we basically had a cold trail to entice the public's help the fbi and atf announced that they had joined to offer a reward for the pair's arrest and conviction the fact that it was a serious matter involving law enforcement the fact that they had some affiliation to supremacy groups and and the fact that they were dangerous individuals we were able to obtain a sixty thousand dollar reward for their apprehension the local leads were handled by the ohio state police while the fbi and atf pursued those from out of state on june 16th investigators got the news they were hoping for a sheriff in stevens county washington received a call from a friend of shane kehoe shane wanted to turn himself in the 21 year old surrendered to the authorities and informed them where he and his brother had been for the last few months after the wilmington shootout shane had stolen a car and returned to the campground there he gathered his and his brother's families and drove to wyoming where he met chevy soon after the keyholes were reunited the rv broke down chevy told investigators that he and his brother had finally found refuge with their families on a remote ranch in rural southern utah [Music] the farmer and his wife had taken them in and offered them room and board in exchange for doing work on the ranch [Music] soon the situation began to deteriorate chevy couldn't control his explosive temper [Music] both shane and his wife tana grew concerned chevy talked of building his own white supremacist order he thought of killing his wife karina because of native american ancestry in her family [Music] he even talked of murdering his own parents kirby and gloria in order to raise his six younger brothers with his beliefs on june 12th almost four months after the shootouts in ohio chevy finally turned his growing paranoia on his own brother shane explained to us that they had recently gotten into a fight and that he feared for his life as well as the lives of his family shane also told investigators that chevy had several items in his possession that belonged to the muellers chevy had also admitted to suffocating the mueller family not knowing what chevy would do next shane and his family fled utah in the middle of the night driving almost a thousand miles back to washington state authorities inspected the truck shane drove looking for additional evidence lab examiners discovered that the vehicle which belonged to chevy kehoe had been repainted from its original blue color fbi forensic chemist ron mendel explains we often see repainted vehicles in the laboratory here and we can determine how it was originally painted the layers of paint can many times be thought of as a stack of cards that is loosely adhered to each other okay and any one card can be withdrawn from the layer and sampled individually so the ace of diamonds which is a primer layer would be different in chemistry and color from the king of spades which would be on top the test results were conclusive the composition of the blue paint found on the keyhole's vehicle matched the specs found on the mueller's bodies the evidence against chevy kehoe was compelling but capturing would be no easy task investigators would have to travel to chevy's remote hideout in utah where an arrest team could be seen approaching from miles away wanted for triple homicide in arkansas and attempted murder in ohio the white supremacist chevy kehoe was heavily armed and hiding with his family on an isolated ranch apprehending the criminal in the wide open spaces of southern utah would be dangerous for agents and chevy's family the fbi and atf needed an arrest plan that minimized the risk agent will long was in charge of coordinating the plan he is in shadow in order to protect the sensitive nature of his current case [Music] chevy's children and his wife were there and we certainly didn't want to get involved in a situation where they were in the middle of a of a shooting situation or possible hostage situation long enlisted the help of rodney levitt the farmer on whose land the brothers had been living levitt agreed to help the fbi due to his concern for chevy's children he told us that on a regular basis chevy kehoe would at his request travel into cedar city to run errands for him related to the farming operation and in this case they had previously talked about chevy coming into town on this day to pick up some feed from the local feed store and we decided that we could use that as an opportunity to take him at the feed store in an environment that we could control that left agents only two hours to get into position before chevy arrived in town with levitt two hours is a short amount of time we placed surveillance units along the road that would be in a position to call out the location of chevy kehoe and mr levitt as they made their way into town the plan was working perfectly until chevy kehoe made an unscheduled stop the fbi didn't know if keyhole was onto him and was making a run for it the agent on location radioed in for assistance he waited for instructions to apprehend kehoe or get levitt to safety [Music] for a few breathless moments no one knew what would happen next chevy returned to the truck with a soda to the undercover agent it seemed that chevy had no suspicions and returned to the road back in town more than 25 agents waited for the arrival of chevy and levitt snipers were positioned on the rooftops and the feed store was surrounded agents were also located in the nearby neighborhood their objective was to prevent chevy from escaping and taking hostages while agent long loaded hay in front of the feed store his plan nearly went awry as we were listening to the radio we heard one of the surveillance units call out that chevy had crossed a landmark that was approximately one minute away from the feed store at that very moment the farmer unwittingly pulled into the parking spot the fbi was holding for chevy agent long had a split second to act sir i ran across the parking lot with my badging credentials in my hand i told this man that a dangerous fugitive was about to pull into the parking lot and we were going to arrest him right here and then he needed to immediately get in his vehicle and and get out of the parking lot farmer complied and long returned to his position seconds later chevy kehoe pulled into the parking lot fbi get on the ground on the long and his team pounced on the suspected murderer leaving him no time to reach for a concealed weapon after five months of a nationwide manhunt the fbi had finally captured chevy kehoe back at the ranch there was still the matter of taking chevy's wife karina and their three kids into custody once again levitt offered his help [Music] apparently mr levitt had an injured back and karina would routinely come out and open the gate for mr levitt to let him into the property as a courtesy to him because of his injury to open the gate karina had to leave the house giving agents the opportunity to arrest her [Music] long hid in the back of the truck with two other agents just as we anticipated karina came out and opened the gate and as she was looking at the gate and concentrating on manipulating the latch we jumped out of the back of the truck immediately searched her and found a loaded nine-millimeter pistol in her back pocket on the ground man get out on the ground get out on the ground spread your legs long obtained a search warrant for the key host trailer on the levitt property before inspecting it the fbi safely escorted the children outside and entrusted them to the farmer [Music] back inside long discovered a well-stocked armory chevy kehoe anticipating a siege had stationed loaded guns at every window with both brothers finally in custody the pair was transported back east to face 16 state and local charges chevy would first be tried in arkansas on federal charges with the keyholes locked up u.s attorney paula casey had several months to prepare a solid case the federal agents and aaron duvall jay winters came here and they laid out the evidence they had of all the various crimes that had been committed and after we examined everything that was there it was sort of this growing realization as we reviewed these things that it was a racketeering case placing chevy's illegal activities under a racketeering umbrella casey needed to demonstrate that crimes were committed in order to expand his white supremacist movement the racketeering statute lets us give a jury the complete picture of what happened it lets us put that together so that all of the evidence can be placed before the jury for their decision chevy kehoe was ultimately charged with 57 federal crimes including the brutal murder of bill and nancy and their eight-year-old daughter sarah chevy kehoe was tried and following a three-month jury trial he was found guilty of racketeering and as a result of his conviction he received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole because in the federal system there is no parole as for brother shane despite his claims of self-defense he was found guilty of the state charges brought against him among them attempted murder for the shootout in wilmington he is currently serving 24 and a half years the reason i think every agency was so cooperative and working on this was just that it was it was a a horrible crime it was a crime that was obviously hard for anybody to figure out why it happened exactly how it would happen it was just one of those things that everybody wanted to help out and they knew that we couldn't do it all ourselves and if it had been their case they wouldn't have been able to do it by themselves either so it was just a matter of everybody getting together because the bottom line was there were some bad people out there and everybody just needed to get involved and for a common cause and that was to put the bad guy behind bars [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Real Crime

Views: 198,086

Rating: 4.6792645 out of 5

Keywords: real crime, crime documentary, true crime, The FBi files, FBI, FBI files, crime patrol, true crime daily, tv show - topic, crime stories, crime documentaries full episodes, full episode, investigation, classified files, murder documentary, the fbi files full episodes, fbi files season 2, white supremacist, white supremacist killer, hate crime, fbi files S2 EP16, Chevie Kehoe, Kehoe brothers, domestic terrorism documentary

Id: LE6jvNERFa8

Length: 49min 54sec (2994 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020