Evil Eye | DOUBLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

in Kokomo Indiana an unthinkable crime terrified residence a young woman disappeared apparently kidnapped after several days of searching a former FBI profiler narrowed the suspect list to one agents and detectives followed the trail across state lines hoping to find the victim before her time ran out [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] drops of blood and a torn window screen for all that was left to tell authorities would happen to a woman in Indiana the 21 year old victim was snatched from her home on a bright spring morning she appeared to have no real enemies there was no clear motive I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office in an abduction case every second counts this case was plagued by false leads and blind alleys each one using a valuable time as agents raced to find the victim [Music] late spring 1998 Howard County Indiana the rural Midwestern farming region was already enduring its first heat wave of the season those who weren't Farmers stayed inside to avoid the Heat hello 21 year old Anita woldridge was one of them to have lunch with their grandparents and boyfriend before her afternoon shift at a shipping company [Music] her boyfriend was supposed to pick her up at around noon at about 12 30 Anita's mother returned home from work she was surprised to see her daughter's boyfriend standing out front Anita's car was gone but it was unlike her daughter to miss an appointment or to leave the garage door mother also noticed that the screen from the kitchen window that faced the garage had been removed perhaps someone had broken into the house the front door was unlocked Anita was nowhere to be found Anita Anita in the kitchen Mrs Wooldridge spotted Blood on the kitchen table and floor oh my God oh yes she called 9-1-1 Howard County Sheriff's and chief detective Steve Rogers responded I don't know that any of us really knew exactly what we had at that time we just knew that we had some very suspicious circumstances we had what appeared to be possibly a forced entry in that the screen had been removed and that some blood indicated that there could have been a violent Act the detective issued an APB for Anita enter blue sedan and called in a forensic team that included offices from the nearby City of Kokomo technicians recorded the scene while the evidence was still fresh they retrieved blood from the kitchen but could not determine if it was Anita's without a sample from the missing girl the screen found in the garage had been forced out from the kitchen window investigators dusted the area for Prince none that were lifted yielded any clues detectives interviewed Anita's parents to learn more about their daughter they described her as a responsible young woman who held a steady job and who would never break plans without calling we had a missing person that was responsible and would not have just run off we found nothing in our interviews with Witnesses talking to family members that Anita had any problems at home that she would have just taken off without any explanation okay good the detective questioned Anita's boyfriend who she had been dating for several months arrived at Anita's at about 11 45 and been there for 45 minutes when her mother before that he had been with friends until around 11. [Music] you could not be corroborated he had no idea where the need it might be and agreed to come to the station for further questioning if necessary authorities examined Anita's bedroom Mrs Wooldridge pointed out that Anita's work clothes were still there you spoke to her daughter's supervisor but he said Anita had not yet arrived four five one two three four five the detective called again to see if she had ever shown up her employer told us that you know she shows up when she's got a cold she works when she's not feeling well she's very dependable and then fact that she didn't show up for work that particular day was very significant Mrs Wooldridge said that the only thing missing from Anita's room was a red bathrobe that she had recently embroidered for her daughter forensic technicians retrieved hair samples from Anita's brush to begin the lengthy process of mapping her DNA in the bathroom Anita had left her glasses and contacts behind she couldn't drive without them but her car and her keys were gone Mr and Mrs Wooldridge had also discovered that their bed had been stripped of its comforter and the Sheets Were rumpled [Music] investigators suspect that Anita may have been raped there forensic technicians processed the room for any physical evidence okay they examined the bed with ultraviolet light searching for seminal fluid on the sheets and blankets foreign [Music] was clean in the garage a detective found a wad of electrical tape long strands of hair that resembled Anita's were Tangles inside police suspected it had been wrapped around the victim's head to hold a gag if that were true it may have meant that Anita was taken from the house alive [Music] detectives spread out from the house looking for witnesses there was a neighborhood search conducted by talking to Neighbors in Walking areas and see if she had been seen anywhere and at the same time we were trying to develop any any potential suspects by talking to people that that she routinely came in contact with a deputy interviewed a neighbor who lived across the street from the wilderness he remembered seeing someone in front of their house that morning at about 10 30 the neighbors spotted A man carrying a blue backpack heading towards the front door he saw no one else outside after he returned from his errand a half hour later he couldn't remember if Anita's car was gone by then [Music] deputies were left with only hunches as to what had happened we assumed that the worst could be an abduction but we definitely knew we had a missing person so we just wanted to at least at the very outset cover all the basics of preserving the crime scene obtaining any evidence that we possibly could and then start in the next stage of the investigation which would be doing as much background on the victim and trying to identify a suspect in in an abduction if that's what's happened after 24 hours and dozens of interviews no one had seen Anita or her car detectives interviewed a man who was a friend of Anita's father not really he claimed that he had spoken to Anita on the phone the morning that she disappeared [Music] the wooldridge's records confirmed it tell me about the phone conversation the man city called at about 10 30 or so and asked to speak to Mr Wooldridge Anita said her father wasn't there and that she was the only one home right now before she could take a message she asked him to hold on someone was at the door [Music] Anita came back to the phone only to say she had to go she did not say who would come to the house increasingly detectives were convinced that Anita met with Foul Play you say who was that if this was a kidnapping investigators suspected that whoever was responsible would make contact with the wooldridge's technicians tapped the family's phone line they would be ready if A call came in vestigators also began to search for anyone who might have had reason to harm Anita we had no immediate suspects other than we started looking into all those people that had been in contact with Anita recently sure detectives interviewed Anita's co-workers at the shipping company claimed Anita didn't have any problems with anyone at the job [Music] but they did remember something a few weeks before she disappeared had a place where the employees often went to relax Anita's co-workers saw a man approaching [Music] he worked with him at the shipping company and it had several drinks before he started teasing the needle Anita was polite but clearly annoyed the witnesses thought he didn't appear too happy that Anita had brushed him off spiders up to her they added that the man had not shown up for work the day that Anita disappeared you could tell by the look on her face she did not enough detectives went to question the employee who was at home he claimed that his encounter with Anita in the restaurant was an innocent exchange we're friends we're co-workers on the morning she disappeared he said he came into work before his shift and explained to his supervisor that he needed the day off no not me I didn't do anything I wanted to work on his car his supervisor confirmed The Alibi sorry for the interruptions but as the hours ticked by family and friends posted missing persons Flyers throughout the area they asked for anyone to call with information about their daughter or her car they also contacted the media to spread the word Beyond coconut air surveillance and concerned citizens fanned out across the rural region to assist offices in this search a lot of lanes and Backroads are in the extreme portions of this County we had volunteer groups the uh civil defense actually went out and formed organized searches of wooded areas we felt that if we could find her vehicle that that would give us some evidence to lead us in in another Direction 48 hours after Anita had disappeared detective Rogers received a promising tip from the mother of one of Anita's friends the woman reported that Anita was having problems with another co-worker at the shipping company [Music] Anita said that the man had sexually harassed her on the job concerned enough to file a complaint against him he told the mother that if you wound up in a dumpster somewhere you would know who did it investigators hope they could find her before it was too late they knew every hour she was gone lessened the likelihood Anita would be found alive did he say anything after detectives returned to the shipping company the supervisor told them that he had no record of a sexual harassment complaint filed against the employee added that the man had resigned three weeks earlier and left the state for college the suspect remained on the list until detectives could determine his whereabouts at the time of Anita's disappearance while the lead was being checked investigators continued their search for suspects in the area they asked to need his boyfriend to take a lie detector test since his Alibi could not be corroborated on the morning Anita went missing the test consisted of only two questions did he have anything to do with The Disappearance of Anita Wooldridge and did he know where Anita could be found the answered no to both but was found to be deceptive he remained a suspect though police had no evidence with which to hold him after two days of searching investigators were no closer to finding the missing woman and the chances that she was still alive decreased with each passing day two days after 21 year old Anita Woodridge disappeared from her Suburban home in Indiana Howard County Sheriffs had identified her co-worker and her boyfriend as possible suspects in her abduction though evidence found at her house suggested that she'd been taken alive investigators knew that time was against them detectives spoke to Anita's friends to find out more most conveyed that they didn't know anyone would want to hurt anything especially her boyfriend [Music] one friend who had previously worked with Anita at a gym two years earlier said that Anita was nice to everyone including difficult people [Music] she recalled a member from the gym whose Behavior towards the women there was crass what's wrong his name was Victor Steele they found him offensive is that steel yes but he remained undeterred steel bothered Anita in the same way but she remained characteristically polite when she rejected him according to detective Steve Rogers Anita was a personality that she was always very forgiving and and willing to try to work with anyone and that she had made an extra effort to try to get along with this individual the man's behavior never changed and his membership was eventually terminated Anita's friend remembered that Victor Steele lived in Howard County at the time investigators checked on Steele's background when his name came up we were able to locate his name in the Indiana sex offender registry and learned from that that he had been convicted in Monroe County I believe in 1984 of an abduction though detective Rogers didn't know if Steele had any contact with Anita in the past two years he believed Steele was the most promising suspect so far to substantiate his theory the detective turned to retired FBI profiler Steve McVeigh for guidance he had three or four people that he had to to look at as suspects he's wanting to see if we can narrow these down and to give some Focus to the case he has limited resources and certainly time was the most critical of those and and if we could focus then we'd be a little bit better off the profiler examined the crime scene reports and the backgrounds of each suspect 41 year old Victor Steele's background stood out circumstances surrounding Steel's conviction 15 years earlier had many similarities to Anita's disappearance in December of 1984 Steele had stopped a woman on an Indiana University campus where he was a student one night he waited outside for her boyfriend to leave like Anita the young woman had previously turned down his advances Steele approached the house when the woman answered her door Steele pushed his way inside [Music] he pulled a knife from a blue backpack and threatened to kill her if she did not submit to being raped he'd had contact with her he didn't live all that far from her he carried the backpack that he had as same as in the first instance which he used as a crime kit where he brought his tape his ropes and whatever else that he was going to use and uh that's very very distinctive after raping her he forced her to walk with her at knife point he told her to act like they were lovers or else he would stab her the profiler recognized that part of Steele's fantasy was to feel like he was her boyfriend he had hoped to make this gal love him his victim love him he didn't look at it as a rape now 15 years later if it were the same guy he would have the same signature but he would be more sophisticated about about it most importantly steel did not kill his victim he released her on the condition that she would not call the cops she agreed then ran to the nearest phone to call 9-1-1 Victor Steele was arrested hours later I think that he looks back on the case in 1984 as a mistake that he uh that he was not thorough enough in indoctrinating her or winning her over as as efficiently as he thought he had and then when he let her go she identified him and sent him to prison Victor Steele served eight years behind bars for first-degree rape and abduction [Music] prison steel attempted suicide twice if he had abducted Anita he was not going to make the same mistake again Victor Steele wanted to find a lady that he could in effect make love him and if he couldn't if it didn't work then he was prepared in my opinion to kill her and so love me or I'll kill you is a very succinct description of what went on in this case the profile has stressed the importance of not revealing the investigation to steal if the suspect felt police were on to him he would probably kill Anita and himself [Music] Kokomo City detective Michael holzapple was called in to work undercover and helped locate the suspect the task of finding him involved us immediately in doing a surveillance of his last known residence which was the home of his mother which was on the outskirts of our city here in Howard County two and a half days after Anita disappeared police set up outside the steel residence no one was seen entering or leaving they needed a way to find out who was inside without blowing their cover a car parked in front might be their way in we observed that there was a vehicle for sale outside of his house we seized on that as an opportunity to establish contact under a ruse of being interested in making the purchase of the car recognizing that we wouldn't have to compromise our identity posing as potential buyers undercover officers wearing wires prepared to make contact with whoever was home they had no idea if steel or Anita were inside the suspect might do anything to protect his freedom every moment's delay dwindled the possibility that Anita remained alive in June of 1998 investigators searched for convicted rapist Victor Steele in the Abduction of a missing Indiana woman two and a half days after her disappearance police set up surveillance outside his last known residence cover detectives posing as used car buyers planned to make contact with the 41 year old suspect [Music] each hour that passed decreased the victim's chances for survival Kokomo City detective Michael holzapple believed that there was still hope a sexual predator would enjoy a sense of self-assurance by way of his having made it from the scene with his captive victim that that probably presented a window of opportunity to to us as investigators that she would still be kept alive wired for their own safety they knew that approaching the house may put the victim at risk if Victor Steele discovered that he was a suspect according to retired FBI profiler Steve McVeigh I told him tell your guys you've got to be extremely discreet uh because in this whole investigation although we must press because time is of the essence we have to do it in such a way that arouses absolutely zero suspicion on Victor's part and if he had any suspicion whatsoever that that he had come under suspicion of the police then he would dispose of her an older woman answered no no she told the undercover detectives that the car for sale belonged to her son Victor [Music] the detective said they were ready to buy now and were invited inside to discuss the price in the vehicle's history the mother claimed that her son had moved to Wisconsin a few weeks earlier without her permission or a warrant detectives were unable to search the house independently they believed she was not likely involved but they weren't convinced that she wouldn't alert her son to the search she added that Victor hadn't hooked up his phone yet in Wisconsin so she had no way to reach him would have to speak with him before she could set a price the detectives promised to keep in touch and looked forward to speaking to the owner himself FBI profiler remained confident Victor Steele was the primary suspect we cannot eliminate him and in fact the secure place that that I thought he would have taken her to and where he could spend a significant amount of time with her that might very well be in a totally different area where no one knew him at all and no one would have any idea of looking for him there and that he very likely had gone and prepared a place and had in fact come back and taken her without his mother ever even knowing it 24-hour surveillance by undercover officers continued as other team members discreetly gathered more background on Steel they learned he was unemployed and owned a red pickup but they could not figure out where he was staying with each passing day pressure to find the suspect and the victim mounted upon Howard County chief detective Steve Rogers we wanted to find this young lady alive people were looking at us and saying well guys can't you do something and we weren't at Liberty to talk about what we were doing and what we what we thought we could get done we had to be very guarded with that information Victor steals credit card statements revealed that he had rented a truck in Indiana a few days before the crime company records showed that Steele had traveled 910 miles round trip investigators divided the distance in half and traced a 450 mile circle around Kokomo Indiana one town that intersected was La Crosse Wisconsin Steele's credit card records also showed that he purchased gas at a convenience store on the date he rented the truck detectives called the parent company to determine the store's location it was near La Crosse Wisconsin they notified the FBI that it was likely Victor Steele had crossed state lines with a victim FBI special agent David Fitzgerald of the Eau Claire Wisconsin resident agency was assigned the case we were able to offer them the ability to to bring in other agents if need be to conduct investigation anywhere within the state of Wisconsin and if things were going to lead out of the state of the Wisconsin the FBI is one of those agencies that has a network in place where we can contact people all over the country to help them out six days after 21 year old Anita woldridge disappeared her missing blue sedan was found close to her home on a Suburban Street in Howard County Indiana it was just a few miles from Steele's house the car was unlocked and the keys were still in the ignition investigators feared to need his body might be stashed in the trunk she was not there but her red bathrobe was underneath they found evidence that was more encouraging severed electrical tires this was a very important thing with the profiler he indicated to us that if these had been used to secure her arms or legs that when they were cut from her that would be to assist her in getting out of the vehicle there was a good possibility that she was at least alive when she was taken out of the trunk detectives found no blood seminal fluid or other signs of struggle in the vehicle nor did they find fingerprints far into the car from the driver's side window they were able to lift what they believed was an elbow print technicians preserved it in the hopes it would match their suspect [Music] detective Rogers asked the profiler whether they should allocate a portion of his limited resources to the search in La Crosse Wisconsin Steve Rogers asked me if if I thought it was worth him taking a troop of his people to Wisconsin to look for we even had the name of a town where a gas purchase had been made now that was really iffy in terms of that specific Town being exactly where he had her that part I was not certain at all about but we had nothing else at that point a contingent of Indiana detectives headed for La Crosse Wisconsin where they believed Steele had taken Anita they met with special agent David Fitzgerald and La Crosse Police at a Command Center in the city of fifty thousand they really didn't have any specific information that Victor was here and he was here now nor did they have any specific information that the victim Anita was here and was here now and they kind of looked at us and said you guys must think we're crazy for being here but you know they had been up for a day and a half and felt pretty strongly that something was going to happen in our area and we were just there to help him not wasting any time that evening investigators split up into several teams looking for Steele's red pickup truck on the streets of Lacrosse until four in the morning without an address or even a general location of where steel and his victim may be search was fruitless again they turned to FBI profiler Steve McVeigh to help eliminate locations they asked me whether they were looking for a life a victim or a dead body I replied that it was most likely that she was still alive and would be as long as he thought he could control her and that and that he was not under suspicion by the police that he would keep her for a fairly significant amount of time he would keep her in a place that he had absolute control over and felt totally secure investigators clung to hope that a week after her disappearance Anita Wooldridge was still alive seven days after 21 year old Anita Wooldridge had disappeared from her Suburban Indiana home authorities believed it was possible that she was still alive suspected convicted rapist Victor steals holding her somewhere in La Crosse Wisconsin but Chief detective Steve Rogers had no proof and no known address [Music] we had a hope that she was alive we did not know that she was alive this was our last ditch effort to to find her in the sense of finding her alive that we had to get there set up a command post and be ready for when we received the information where he could possibly be to get it undercover detectives wearing hidden transmitters returned to Steele's last known residence his mother's home in Howard County Indiana [Music] posing as interested buyers for the suspect's used car out front offices hoped to glean Steele's whereabouts from his mother Kokomo City detective Michael holzapple was aware of the danger our concern was that if we were discovered making our inquiries regarding Victor Steele at this stage of the investigation that we might be contributing to the murder of this victim that it might Place her life at immediate risk it was a risk they had to take his mother maintained that she still didn't have a telephone number for her son in Wisconsin he did have an address the undercover officer repeated the address out loud to his partner so it could be heard by detectives listening outside he immediately called Chief detective Steve Rogers at the FBI office in La Crosse Wisconsin [Music] my team people are in the street with the La Crosse Police Department and Lacrosse FBI and I'm relaying this information and uh at that particular point when I tell them do you have a Clint Street in La Crosse and they looked at me rather strange and said yes I said that's where he's at FDI and Lacrosse detectives arrived in minutes they identified the red pickup truck parked outside as Victor Steele as soon as Victor steals vehicle and residents were in fact under surveillance I requested assistance with the local authorities there to go to a local Court a local magistrate and apply for a search warrant for the address on Clinton Street and four Victor Steele's vehicle and for the person of Victor Steele while they waited for the warrants agents contacted the owner who lived close by to find out if steel had in fact rented the house he confirmed the suspect was his tenant yeah Steele had claimed that he wanted to turn the building into a bookstore the landlord provided a sketch of the building's interior layout [Music] he also gave the FBI a key to the front door outside the rental property investigators consulted the FBI profiler they asked him what the chances were that Steele was holding Anita inside the building profiler Steve McVeigh warned that if she was there getting to her safely would be difficult they were trying to determine whether they needed to storm the place or whether that was even the place that he would have her or not so I I was confident he did in fact have her there she would be very well secured I did tell him that I thought there was at least a 50 50 chance that should they attempt to storm the place while he's there that he would kill himself and kill her too investigators had no way to confirm who was inside if they waited to go in they might be too late we were again calculating with the resounding thump of this clock ticking in the back of each of our minds and our hearts as to whether or not do we make an entry do we wait do we stage a surveillance and watch and wait do we go ahead and force an entry that decision was in part made by us witnessing Victor Steele leave the resonance after a week of searching investigators got their first glimpse of the suspect climbed into his truck and drove away the surveillance team followed but decided it would be imprudent to stop and for questioning one of the risks that we did face is let's say he had Anita at another location that was not the residence and he decided that he did not want to cooperate with us and he just left he may never go to that place again and we may never find any agents track steel to a lumber yard thank you the detective followed the suspect inside [Music] steel seemed interested in Long planks of wood [Music] witnessed him make purchase of lumber that in itself was a chilling observation and and bit of information to convey back to the surveillance team because we had thoughts in mind what's he using lumber for to make a cage to make a coffin [Music] the detective reported back to the other investigators they watched to Steele return to his pickup of the lumber [Music] [Music] investigators continued their tail Theo retraced the Rooney had taken from his rental property they had to decide soon if they were going to risk stopping him without knowing for sure where he was going or where he had stashed Anita [Music] if he had her alive and she was somewhere else he would have went to her by now but since he had not been away from the residents to any other location we felt strongly that if she was alive that she would still be there at that residence they weren't going to let steel return to the record lacrosse detective radio to a uniformed officer to stop the pickup the decision would mean the difference between life and death [Music] eight days after a 21 year old Indiana woman was abducted from her home the FBI and local authorities stopped the prime suspect in La Crosse Wisconsin they believed Victor Steele was holding Anita Wooldridge in a rented House nearby but they had no proof that she was there or that she was still alive [Music] since they did not have enough to arrest the suspect a lacrosse police cruiser pulled the pickup to the side of the road on the pretense of a routine traffic stop the FBI approached special agent David Fitzgerald asked the suspect if he would assist in their investigation he wasn't under arrest and I I didn't want to make him feel like he was I had no problem cause that I was aware of at that time to arrest Mr Steele and I just wanted to have a conversation with him Steele agreed to cooperate and accompanied agents back to the FBI office the sex offender claimed to know nothing about Anita woldridge's disappearance and lied about where he was living Mr Steele indicated that he thought that he had been stopped by law enforcement officers for his failure to register as a sex offender in the state of Wisconsin and he indicated that he had been in Wisconsin for a couple days and that he was staying in his truck [Music] at Steele's rental property investigators prepared for entry they would be ready when they got word the warrant was signed by a judge it was a difficult way for detective Michael Holt the greatest anxious moments of the investigation I would describe occurred in awaiting the arrival physically of a search warrant that was being then prepared at our Command Center we had Victor Steele he was no present threat to anyone we didn't know what the condition or circumstance Anita was suffering at that moment they got the warrant the entry team used the key provided by the landlord they exercised Extreme Caution aware that the place made me booby trapped Anita police officers swept through the rooms including the basement announcing their presence [Music] thank you but the team heard no answer to their call cause it clear cause it clear it appeared at the FBI office in Lacrosse an agent and detective continued their interview with Victor Steele [Music] the suspect admitted that he once knew a woman named Anita from a health club but he hadn't seen it for a while without Steele's cooperation investigators realized they may never find Anita and they didn't have enough to place him under arrest again Mr Steele indicated that he couldn't help Law Enforcement Officers he talked about the fact that he was not under arrest he was detained and he basically said do what you got to do to get me out of here in the last row Authority spotted a large metal cabinet lying face up on the floor its doors appeared to be secured with a broken broom handle and a butter knife we didn't communicate verbally at that particular time but the communication was clear that we wanted to be cautious of booby traps we wanted to be cautious about disturbing evidence but we needed to open that cabinet the team members believed Dead or Alive the search for Anita was at an end they saw no suspicious devices attached to the box nor did they hear movement from within [Music] carefully they freed the cabinet's handles yes [Music] the needed was alive it was hard for me to believe that it was really going to be over and they opened the box and there's like five or six police officers standing there and like thank God take me home Anita Wooldridge told her Rescuers that though she was not gagged she had been conditioned by Victor Steele not to call out he told me he might make fake noises so if I would scream for help then he would kill me and then when the police actually came to the door I was still afraid to scream because I thought he might be playing a tape or making it up she was handed over to the emergency medical technicians except for dehydration she remained healthy even after her long ordeal Victor Steele was placed under arrest for kidnapping and sexual assault he remained unfazed and Victor really was not remorseful about what he had done it it appeared to me that if there was any remorse it was in the fact that he had been caught Anita had little to eat during her captivity she ate her first meal as she explained to investigators the events that began eight days earlier Victor Steele arrived at her home at about 10 30. she recognized him from the health club and invited him in he told her he had been out riding a bike and asked if he could come in for a glass of water didn't seem like a big deal that he came to the door I knew he rode his bike everywhere and I mean it was really hot that day and it just never second thought I was going to get him a glass of water send him on his way Anita asked Steele to wait while she wiped up blood from the kitchen floor where she had cut herself earlier when her back was turned steel drew a stun gun from his backpack I didn't know what was happening it was all so fast and I realizedly go I'm being attacked and I started screaming even though I knew no one's going to hear me all the windows are shut and air conditioners are on and then when he hit me in the stomach it's just I lost all control of my legs like they just went limp steel disguised himself in women's clothes before he left the house he first grabbed the bedspread then I need his robe to cover her bound wrists he tried to shove her out the kitchen window but decided it was easier to walk her to the car keep your mouth shut he locked her in the trunk before taking her to Wisconsin he brought her to his mother's house and raped her I'd always thought I'd rather die than be raped and and then it was almost like survival mode took over my body it was like okay we're gonna get through this and I'm gonna do everything in my power not to die like this and have my parents with unanswered questions don't you understand me get in in La Crosse Wisconsin steel shoulder a metal wardrobe that would be her new home he threatened to kill her as she tried to escape Anita agreed not to try but still didn't trust her he left a quarter on top of the Wardrobe to indicate if she tried to get out unlike being confined like that but at least if I was in there I knew he couldn't touch but I also made it very Dreadful every time I heard the Box open because I knew I was either gonna have to play games with him or be raped or he had to see him [Music] returned home to the warm welcome friend [Applause] detective Michael Hall's Apple was surprised the case Ended as well as it had having worked so many broken bodies so many fractured stories so many occasions that it didn't it didn't come out like you would wish that you would hope although this this young woman suffered an incredibly uh uh a devastating victimization she's still alive and uh people work together to support her and bringing her home alive Victor Steele acted as his own attorney in his January 1999 trial and was convicted of kidnapping carjacking and weapons possession he was sentenced to life without parole and serves his time in the United States penitentiary in Beaumont Texas I think my goals in life are a little bit different I never thought of doing anything in law enforcement and now that's something I'm looking into that I would like to do that to help other people and um it just it gives me a goal that you know I want other people like him off the streets and so that's a little bit different than my original plan in life the life-changing experience would have shattered many others but Anita woldridge transcended her ordeal because of her strong personality and individual faith she now hopes to become an FBI agent to help others as they helped her [Music] in July 1997 a triple murder terrified residents in the nation's capital investigators could find no immediate suspects and no clear motive for the attack Metro D.C police turned to the FBI for help they hope the bureau's technical expertise could bring Justice for the victims of a triple homicide [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign Georgetown coffee shop in Washington D.C three employees were shot to death evidence that the crime scene pointed in many different directions was this a hate crime a robbery gone wrong or an act of cold-blooded Vengeance against one of the victims I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office what seemed at first to be a senseless act of violence soon grew into a crime of federal proportions [Music] in 1997 Washington DC and its monuments played host to thousands over the three-day Fourth of July weekend visitors attended Independence Day celebrations throughout the capital by Monday morning July 7th the holiday was officially over inhabitants of the Georgetown section of DC were just waking up to face the work week 5 15 am the day shift supervisor at a popular coffee shop arrived to prepare for the onslaught of Rush Hour she was surprised to see the night manager's car in the parking lot [Music] closed at 8 pm the previous night [Music] she found a light still on the music playing and fresh pastries behind the counter [Music] yet no one seemed to be there and the shop hadn't been thoroughly cleaned check the shift schedule to see who was working the night before [Music] Katie Katie she headed toward the back room searching for her colleagues or some sort of explanation Katie there she found the slaughtered bodies of the night crew fled the shot and fight down the first vehicle she saw on city bus the driver called the police by Dawn the D.C metropolitan police had sealed the shop and began to process the scene print found by the front door did not match the soles of any of the victims nor the day managers three employees were killed by multiple gunshots night manager Katie Mahoney age 24. 18 year old Aaron David Goodrich and Emery Allen Evans age 25. the victims had apparently been caught in the middle of their cleanup routine sometime after closing at 8 pm Katie Mahoney who sustained most of the gunfire was apparently still holding her keys when she fell to metropolitan police detective James tranum the ones in violence seemed like an act of personal vengeance when I first learned of how the bodies were positioned in the number of shots that had been inflicted on Katie uh one of the one of the initial theories was was it was a domestic that she had had a fight with a boyfriend an ex-boyfriend the other two were in the back room giving them some privacy she had gone to the back followed by the boyfriend and there and he exploded shot her multiple times and then shot them as they tried to come to her assistance six spent casings and four slugs from a 380 semi-automatic were collected from the floor in the ceiling over the safe they discovered one of three slugs from a 38 revolver multiple shots from two different guns suggested at least two gunmen detective train have now theorized that it might have been a robbery gone horribly wrong when we found out that there were two guns and that there was a shot to the ceiling above the safe which is typically a warning type shot then that's when we started looking at commercial robbery now was it totally conclusive that that made it a robbery no absolutely not if it was a robbery attempt the gunman had likely panicked since they left empty-handed the cash drawers were untouched and there were no signs the safe had been tampered with a receipt showed that one of the employees purchased a pound of coffee at 8 40. which meant they were likely still alive 40 minutes after the shop had closed detective spoke to one witness who stopped by the shop at about 9 15 the previous evening he saw the two male employees inside cleaning but the door was locked so he left assuming it was closed several other would-be customers told detectives that they had visited the store moments later at around 9 30. then at 9 30 we had actually two groups of people independently walk up to the front door the door was unlocked they walked right on in they looked around they could see that the store was in the process of being cleaned up but there was nobody there so they figured that people were in the back and they left at that time so we figured based on that sort of information that the murders have burned between 9 15 and 9 30. the day shift manager told the detective that when she arrived in the morning the front door was locked the back door had been locked as well there was no way to lock it without a key if it was an inside job she had a good idea of who it might be one of the first things she told us about was an ex-employ who had been fired just a few weeks before that he had a drug habit he had and he was a shift manager so he had access to the safe to the alarms the night after the theft Katie noticed a discrepancy in the cash drawers on her shift we tracked the loss to a single employee and fired him [Music] stupid the company did not press charges against the man and he agreed to pay back what it took over time [Music] police interviewed the ex-employee at his Georgetown home he explained that he and Katie had worked out a payback agreement for the money yield aimed to Harbor no bad feelings towards her investigators photographed the soles of his shoes to compare against the print recovered of the crime scene they provided no match he said he was out of town at the time of the murders his Alibi checked out thank you the viciousness of the slayings became clearer at the autopsy Katie Mahoney had been shot five times Emery Allen Evans had been shot three times Aaron David Goodrich had been shot once the bullet piercing both lungs and his heart slugs removed from the victims confirmed that two weapons had been used the unsolved murders riveted The public's attention we are deeply saddened by the loss of three Partners the owners of the coffee shop chain offered a fifty thousand dollar reward for information leading to The Killers to a barista some believed it was a hate crime against the minority victims others claimed it may have something to do with Katie's former internship at the White House what seemed more likely was that one of the victims may have been an accomplice who was double-crossed after giving access to the killers the fact that no money was taken did increase the number of possible theories as to why and actually what happened inside the store uh but I think that once we did look into the background of the employees once we found out what type of people they were that began to to eliminate a lot of the theories to help Focus the investigation the detective called on his friend from the FBI Washington field office special agent Brad Garrett over the years detective trainer had come to rely on agent Garrett's expertise I've had a lot of experience in analyzing crime scenes doing victimology studying offender characteristics and so it's sort of like another set of eyes looking at uh at a scene you know it doesn't seem magical about it but um I think Jim respects my opinion and asked me initially to come take a look the next day investigators returned to the coffee shop to search for more clues they noted the store had no security cameras and its alarm had not been breached the night of the crime the front lock functioned properly and showed no signs of tempering perhaps The Killers it ended with a key since the door was locked after the murders the investigators tried to piece together events with what little they knew they figured that the crew was still cleaning the store just after 9 15. that's when The Killers must have burst in the world immediately the gunman probably hustled the crew into the back room closer to the safe this is where they had apparently lost control of the situation the bullet hole in the ceiling looked like a warning shot designed to get attention [Music] to the ceiling definitely closed space probably only increased everyone's Panic resulting in this triple tragedy investigators concluded that robbery not murder was likely the gunman's initial intention they also believe that perpetrators had robbed before and would do so again it's fairly rare in Robert's situations where they kill either the patrons or the employees of the store so I wasn't really looking at groups that had killed other people I was looking at groups that came in guns drawn were ready to commit violence if they needed to commit violence so and again that's not uncommon for people in robberies obviously to pull guns out but typically people that will rob a commercial facility like this coffee store well typically then Target similar type situations with the scenario presented few Clues to the Killer's identities investigators hoped and overlooked answer remained in the shop behind the counter the detective found Katie Mahoney's to-do list she had almost completed it the night she was killed one item she hadn't checked off yet was to apologize to an employee that they've learned that Katie had reprimanded the employee for his less than professional appearance a few days before she was killed good morning the man said that he bore no grudge against Katie that's all we were doing and what's your body you explained that she was sensitive and might have felt concerned that she'd been too harsh with him but he didn't feel that way all right investigators confirmed he was with Friends when the murders took place right here it was another dead end detective training poured over stored procedures and policies and discovered that someone else had been to the store at 2 am we found out that the pastry guy comes with his delivery when he arrived there that morning he just assumed that the door was locked used his key pushed the carts and closed and locked it behind and that's how come when the shift manager got there all the doors were locked the pastry delivery explained why the front door had been locked but it did not reveal how The Killers gained entry three days after the triple homicide investigators still had no leads to the Killer's identities the murderers were still on the loose on July 7 1997 three employees had been shot to death in a Georgetown coffee shop a reward offered by corporate headquarters and local businesses for information grew to one hundred thousand dollars the largest for a crime in DC history the heavy publicized reward induced dozens of false claims the special agent Brad Garrett chasing rumors as part of the job one thing you have to do in any of these cases is you have to keep a lot of balls in the air at the same time you can't just do one thing so while we're looking at the backgrounds of the victim disgruntled employees employees that have been fired we're also looking at robbery groups we're also talking to robbery homicide detectives in the metropolitan area about what cases they've had is there anybody that sort of fits this genre of of um what happened despite their efforts they found no leads after two and a half months then on September 27 1997 Metropolitan homicide detectives received an anonymous call the caller claimed that two people were involved in the shooting one was named Carl didn't know Carl's last name but described him as thin mid-20s with brown skin according to detective James traynum he said Carl lived on Gallatin Street described the location where he lived and he said he lived there with his mother his wife and his child and that they drove a car that was a different color blue he said if anybody is telling you anything else they're wrong no the man promised to call back when he learned more type of training just got some good information investigators check DMV records and assembled a list of all the cars on Gallatin Street in Washington D.C all right on the 1200 block they found one registered to a man named Carl Cooper the car was listed as blue a criminal background check revealed that 28 year old Carl Cooper had a record of commercial armed robbery and suspected murder Carl Cooper and an associate robbed two convenience stores at gunpoint in Prince George's County Maryland in January 1989. when Cooper's associate was later found shot to death Cooper was the Prime Suspect but police never found enough evidence to prove he killed his partner thank you his criminal record coupled with the anonymous caller statement made Carl Cooper the prime suspect in the coffee shop triple homicide investigators needed to find out more about Cooper special agent Brad Garrett secured a warrant to establish a trap and trace on Cooper's home phone a pin register and trap and Trace would give you incoming and outgoing telephone numbers only you cannot hear what goes on the line but it records every time you dial a number out we get it shows up on a screen and every time someone calls into you it shows up and it shows up it shows the duration of the call so what that did obviously it gave us who Mr Cooper was talking to what individuals out there in the community is he interacting with agents discovered that one man worked as a local barber called Cooper's home frequently informants claimed the barber was likely Cooper's accomplice in the coffee shop killings to gather more information on Cooper and those who visited him undercover agents dressed as telephone repairmen and set up surveillance on Carl Cooper's house we'd put up a very discreet pull camera outside his house where it would shoot 24 hours a day on his front door to see obviously he's coming and going what hours does he keep what is his routine what car says he get into who comes to visit him agents didn't need a court order since it was public surveillance they monitored Cooper around the clock and created a videotape record of everyone entering and leaving the house right right they identified his child and his wife the surveillance was not limited to his home [Music] we're also assigned to tail Cooper throughout the city Carl Cooper visited the barbershop where his alleged accomplice worked investigators needed to somehow confirm if the barber had been involved in the coffee shop killings they hope to trap and trace on his phone would tell them more at this point we're just trying to figure out who this guy is in the barbershop and what is his relationship with Carl and had he committed robberies with Carl so we did a background on him he had served time for armed robbery and based on what sources were telling us that the two of them along with other individuals had committed armed robberies agents discovered a stronger connection through the Trap and trace on the barber's phone they recognized the name of a woman who called The Barber frequently who's the former girlfriend of the robbery partner allegedly killed by Cooper several years earlier she said that Cooper and the barber and her boyfriend at the time were all friends before her boyfriend was killed now she only kept in touch with the bar since she believed Cooper was responsible for her boyfriend's death she also knew Cooper's wife and explained how she helped him with his crimes okay Carl Cooper's wife purchased weapons illegally for him one was a nine millimeter handgun his wife used a driver's license with her maiden name and an old address so the nine millimeter couldn't be traced back to her husband that's 200 Carl's accomplices used their girlfriends in the same way his wife [Music] the girlfriend was extremely Cooperative she was still interested in bringing closure to his case and she gave us even more background on Carl Cooper and his associates she told us about a third person who who was working with them during the summer of 1997 committing robberies to get his place to Carl Cooper's alleged third man under surveillance he was a small time crack dealer if he in fact knew anything about the murders his blatant criminal activity made him a liability to Cooper foreign 's plan to arrest the dealer after a series of undercover drug buys and force him to come clean about the murder suspect but it would take weeks perhaps months to establish trust and purchase enough crack to charging with felony drug trafficking if they arrested him before that the charges would not be stiff enough to leverage his cooperation until then investigators had no evidence to arrest Carl Cooper for the coffee shop triple homicide and as time passed Cooper would be more difficult to get to since he had insulated himself with so many by the end of July 1998 over a year had passed since three employees at a Georgetown coffee shop had been shot to death the FBI and D.C metro police believe that 29 year old Carl Cooper and at least one accomplice were responsible but investigators still had no direct proof to find it they pursued Cooper from all directions tracing his calls watching his house and surveilling his associates [Music] despite their relentlessness Cooper remained just Out Of Reach but investigators did learn that Cooper knew he was a suspect according to FBI special agent Brad Garrett As you move into these cases further and further and you talk to more and more people particularly people on the street they were trying to get back to whoever you're looking at if they're out on the street and it did I mean he knew in Fairly short order that the police and the FBI were taking a look at him the FBI and Metro DC police were not the only agencies investigating Cooper in nearby Prince George's County Maryland Sergeant Joseph McCann was investigating Cooper for the attempted murder of a police officer Jim Joe McCann how are you the sergeant was working with a female informant who also wanted to tell the FBI what she knew about Cooper the informant end Mr Cooper had committed several armed robberies together which is the reason why the informant was in jail for armed robbery at the time so she knew him very well I was the getaway driver there's two others involved investigators interviewed her at a prison in Pennsylvania though she had no direct knowledge of the coffee shop murders she knew firsthand how Cooper operated the woman told about a pizzeria robbery that they'd committed in September 1996. Cooper was the leader she was the driver of the stolen getaway car Cooper's friend The Barber and the woman's boyfriend at the time were also in on the job she said that Cooper carried two guns into the restaurant that night as he usually did his job was to shoot anyone who didn't obey orders no gunfire was needed that night [Music] they collected the cash drawer and wallets and made a fast getaway tell me just as best you can recall what Cooper told me the informant wasn't finished [Music] she told investigators about another robbery shortly after the pizzeria Heist when Cooper had fired his weapon that evening Cooper carried a nine millimeter in a stolen 38 revolver the barber drove the getaway car their plan was to Rob couples parked in Avondale Park in Hyattsville Maryland [Music] give me a money Cooper was unaware that the man he attacked was an off-duty Maryland officer Cooper fired twice hitting him once the informant said that Cooper had told her about it the next day when the news revealed that the man he shot was an off-duty police officer fortunately the officer survived the attack the check of police reports confirmed everything the informant had said special agent Brad Garrett had every reason to believe her her level of detail was just phenomenal she was able to to lay out when it happened where it happened what time it happened who participated even the interaction between the robbers and the victims that we knew about obviously through what the victims had told us during the robbery so she was really a pot of gold in this case the information demonstrated that Cooper wasn't just a violent criminal he was the leader of a band of robbers [Music] the informative provided facts that the FBI could build a case around she was basically the first bit of information that in in my mind and in the prosecutor's mind that really started fitting Eureka case or a racketeering case where you've got a group that's committing violent acts Interstate robbing commercial facilities and that we saw through her the real possibility of putting together a federal Rico indictment that would include the coffee store triple murder building a racketeering case that proved Carl Cooper was the leader of a criminal organization meant outlining those activities in detail the FBI secured a warrant to wiretap Cooper's phone now they could capture conversations not just phone numbers we're going to record any incoming conversations as part of the warrant they also cloned Cooper's pager number anytime someone paged Cooper the agent's pager would also be CK with everything in place detective training hope to stimulate conversation between Cooper and his associates they began by inquiring on the whereabouts of the nine millimeter handgun purchased illegally by Cooper's wife well we knew that his wife had made that purchase of handgun for him in 1996. so what we did was we went out to the address that she had given the gun shop when she had purchased the gun and it turned out to be her mother's address as a ruse to get information investigators asked the mother if her daughter still had the nine millimeter handgun they told her they needed to complete a routine check of its serial number to verify whether it had been used in a crime I have not disowned I just have not heard the woman claimed that she had not spoken to her daughter since they had had a disagreement some time ago investigators felt sure that she was lying as we were walking back to the car unless a distance of less than 50 feet Carl's pager starts going off 911 911 behind it and we knew that uh we had probably struck some kind of nerve there at that point already she doesn't know where she is the number I don't believe it agents monitoring Cooper's home phone heard the mother call to warn that authorities were looking for her daughter's gun okay all right it comes again Cooper's wife tried paging Carl but he didn't respond next she called her father panicking because she couldn't find the weapon and feared that she'd be implicated in her husband's crime Carl's wife was on a cordless phone sitting outside on the front porch and she's on the phone to one of her relatives hysterically sobbing about how the police are going to lock her up for this gun that Carl's done something with this gun and that she looked in the hiding place in the house and the gun wasn't there so Carl must have it and she was just going on and on and on so then she calls Carl and he's on his way home he's on a cell phone on his way home and she says Carl I'm going to call this police officer right now and he's screaming at her no no don't don't call I'm just screaming at her on the phone yeah after Cooper's wife hung up investigators went to her residence to speak with her directly [Music] they knew she and Carl were home but no one came to the door [Music] after almost 14 months of pursuit investigators were confident they were closing in on the suspected murderer but Cooper was not the sort of man to sit idly by and allow himself to be cornered [Music] in September 1998 Metropolitan Washington D.C police and the FBI continued to pursue Carl Cooper the alleged ringleader of an armed gang wanted in the triple homicide of three Georgetown coffee shop employees surveillance of Cooper's house phone family and friends began to pay off for investigators detective James tranum overheard an incriminating conversation between Cooper's wife and the girlfriend of one of Cooper's alleged accomplices so she's trying to figure out why the police are looking at Carl and she starts what we call this guessing game and she goes was it for the shooting in the park Mexico's no was it for the robbery the pizza place she goes no and then she said what is it and Missy goes something along the lines of you know the thing I told you about the thing in Georgetown and the other woman brings up you mean the coffee shop yeah yeah at that point we knew that his wife and this other woman had intimate knowledge of all these other crimes that Carl had committed this is 200. using her maiden name and mother's address investigators were already aware that Cooper's wife had purchased a nine millimeter illegally for her husband now they would turn up the pressure on Carl's wife to reveal the whereabouts of the handgun investigators showed up at Cooper's wife's workplace unannounced to again ask her where the nine millimeter was according to detective James trainer they caught her completely off guard which was their intention we're here to talk to you about the gun because she saw us it was like she hit a brick wall I mean just her face dropped she became she began to shake she became very nervous and we're you know just very very calm Mrs Cooper we don't know why you're so upset this is just a routine investigation you okay at home Cooper's wife told them that she still had the nine millimeter handgun but it was in storage in Maryland good she agreed to turn it over to them later that evening at her grandfather's home close to the appointed time FBI agents watched suspected murderer Carl Cooper removing what appeared to be a gun case from his house agents were not sure what to expect at the meeting with his family [Music] car he had the gunmet the agent wore a wire to alert other agents parked close by if they should need assistance as they approached Cooper's wife's grandfather's Maryland home Cooper confronted them he accused the Agents of harassing his wife but he didn't prevent them from going aside [Music] her grandfather and child sat at the tablet since the nine millimeter handgun was already in plain view investigators were legally permitted to seize it that type of weapon was not used in the coffee shop killings but it was the same type used to shoot an off-duty officer in a Maryland Park [Music] agents sent the gun to the ballistics lab where it was test-fired and compared to the Slugs removed from the wounded officer shallow grooves imprinted by the inside of the barrel on each of the Slugs did not match but the marks made by the weapons ejector pin on the shell casings match those on the shell casings collected from the crime scene experts determined that the barrel might have been switched or altered but they agreed that this was definitely the gun used to shoot the officer in Maryland according to Sergeant Joseph McCann once we received that ballistic report and we confirmed that this weapon that was registered to Carl Cooper's wife was used to shoot an off-duty Prince George's County police officer at that point we had entered into a completely different realm in the investigation it stepped it up considerably at that point though investigators had evidence against Cooper for that crime they had little to charge him for the Georgetown triple homicide or for federal racketeering [Music] to get to Cuba special agent Brad Garrett and his team turned back to one of Cooper's alleged accomplices crack dealer who had been under surveillance for months we set up multiple crack buys from the sky until eventually we got up to a quantity that he faced a mandatory minimum sentence in federal court and then we arrested him the key is was to get him to help us investigators would pressure him to inform on Cooper in exchange for a reduction in his trafficking charges [Music] to avoid years in prison the dealer agreed to wear a wire he wasn't as close to Cooper as agents and hoped but the dealer was close to another one of Cooper's alleged accomplices a friend from the barbershop good he called The Barber to set up a money if I can meet with you guys oh the entire conversation I caught on tape informant told the barber that police had stopped him on the street asking questions about their involvement with Carl Cooper in the triple homicide the barber was already aware of the investigation and assured him that he had nothing to do with it Barbershop guy kind of Whispers to the drug dealer look I Know Carl did it he called me the night before and he wanted me to go along with him but he never called me back I said I would but he never called me back and then the next morning bam they were dead [Music] other than the anonymous caller that put them on the trail shortly after the crime this was the FBI's first real connection between Cooper his gang and the coffee shop homicides now it was the Barbara's turn to be taken in agents hoped he would be the key to taking a triple murderer off the streets a year and a half after a botched robbery and triple homicide in a Georgetown coffee shop the FBI and Washington Metro Police were closing in on a gang of suspected thieves and murderers Barber believed to be one of them told an FBI informant that he had agreed to rob the coffee shop with ringleader Carl Cooper but Cooper never called him back so the barber figured Cooper had committed the crime by himself FBI special agent Brad Garrett decided it was time to question the barber directly and find out how much he knew about Cooper so we thought at that point well the barbershop guy obviously knows something about this but he's basically saying he would have participated but wasn't called so didn't participate so we weren't sure at that point no then did Cooper do it alone did he pull somebody else in to help him do the robbery we weren't really sure but we then had enough that we could charge the barbershop guy early in the morning authorities followed the barber from his home and cornered him in an isolated location [Music] agents wanted to be certain of no one especially Carl Cooper knew that Cooper suspected a compass was being taken in was arrested without incident and transported to the FBI office for questioning the man once again denied any participation in the coffee shop homicides but he did tell agents what Carl Cooper had said the night before the crime he told us that Carl had come to him and said you know I've been surveilling this this coffee shop it doesn't have any surveillance cameras they take in a lot of money and I want to I want to hit it he said okay I'll go with you what do you want Barbara maintain that Cooper never called him back start at the beginning and as far as he knew the ringleader had no other accomplices on the job even if the barber hadn't participated in the coffee shop murders authorities had enough to charge him with conspiracy to commit armed robbery hoping for leniency he told them what he knew about Cooper on May 1st 1993 he and Cooper committed their first crime together the barber didn't have a gun but Cooper said he would get one for him they spotted an armed security guard at a DC apartment building Cooper snuck up on him when the guard tried to draw his weapon Cooper shot him then took the Dead Man's gun all Runs Out runs to him and they take off so that's a murder we didn't even know about the Cooper had done so that also was another case that that was rolled into this uh Rico diamond we ran into the pizza store and it was the barber understood that stopping Cooper was the FBI's ultimate goal he agreed to wear a wire and meet with agents followed the barber through less populated roads after he picked up Cooper in his car in the course of their recorded conversation Cooper expressed his rage that the authorities were on his back did you hear that Nick yeah to kill agent Garrett and detective trainer he also admitted that at one point he had seen Brad Garrett on the street and he had followed him for a while and he was laughing about how Brad didn't know that he was being followed and so uh it was a bit unnerving but we knew that we had to arrest Carl pretty quickly after that authorities weren't going to take any chances a few days later they decided to arrest him for shooting the officer in Maryland people they hoped a search warrant for his house would provide the physical evidence needed to tie him directly to the coffee shop slams inside Cooper's home officers found ski masks law enforcement clothing and a variety of ammunition [Music] but none of it could prove that Carl Cooper had murdered the three employees at the coffee shop the FBI's Last Hope was to sweat it out of him Cooper knew that all they had was evidence of conspiracy and hearsay from secondary sources despite two hours of grilling Cooper remained steadfast in his denial thank you we did not have a good case on him for the coffee shop murders but if we charged him with the racketeering in DC then we would be under a time constraint to get him indicted and convicted and we just didn't want to place ourselves under that constraint so we decided that PG County had the strongest case that they were the ones that were going to be able to hold him without letting him get out of jail that's placing all of our other people in Jeopardy after his interview in DC officers from Prince George's County Maryland came to transport him to their jurisdiction there he would face charges of shooting the off-duty police officer but Cooper was preoccupied by the FBI's investigation he demanded to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence Cooper took one in Maryland but failed miserably that's when he finally broke it was as simple as that I mean I think that Carl felt that we had him in a box for the coffee shop murders and that he was going to be charged with those that he was going to go down for those so he wanted to put his spin on it to make to put him in the best light possible of course with him being the only person who could he blame it on but the victims and that's what he tried to do Cooper actually made three separate confessions each time taking more of the blame in his final confession he claimed total responsibility for the coffee shop killing she would he said he planned and carried out the robbery after spending time casing the shop called his accomplice the barber but then decided he could handle it on his own want to lose the window of opportunity after the shop closed and before the crew went home he admitted to Sergeant Joseph McCann that he brought two weapons to the scene which was his signature Carl Cooper's approach when he committed robberies was very business-like it was a business to him it was not personal and if you did exactly as he said usually you would make it out of there but on that night three of Cooper's victims did not at about 9 20 Katie Mahoney Emery Evans and Aaron Goodrich were towards the end of their cleanup routine for some reason no one will ever know why let's go when Cooper arrived at the shop the door was unlocked he ordered everyone into the back office where the safe was kept moving back row according to Cooper the female manager tried to escape when he fired his warning shot into the ceiling Cooper began to lose control of the situation and of his temper [Music] shot Katie four more times and left with nothing I think people were very surprised at one individual had committed this act that it just I think it's beyond most people's comprehension that that one person could go in where there's three employees and try to commit a robbery [Music] yeah he said he rushed back home laundered his clothes and disposed of the weapons they were never recovered in February 2000 more than two years after the triple homicide Carl Cooper confessed to and was convicted of 48 charges stemming from that crime as well as the murder of a security guard the shooting of the off-duty police officer the robbery of the pizzeria and leading a racketeering Enterprise by pleading guilty Cooper avoided the death penalty he was serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole and no appeal [Music]

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: Coffee shop murders, Cold cases, Crime drama recommendations, Crime laboratory, Crime reenactments, Crime shows on YouTube, Crime solving, Crime suspects, Crime-solving strategies, Crime-solving technology, Criminal profiling, Criminal psychology, Investigative techniques, Law enforcement agencies, Murder investigation, Robbery gone wrong, The FBI Files, True crime fanatics, True crime reenactment, Unsolved crimes, Unsolved mysteries

Id: TmJCRQq5mSQ

Length: 100min 23sec (6023 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023