NARRATOR: On March the 14th,
2014, workers at a recycling plant in Anaheim,
California were aghast when they discovered
something that stopped them in their tracks. They thought they
saw a mannequin on one of the conveyor belts. And upon closer inspection, they
realized this was a human body. NARRATOR: The victim
was identified as 21-year-old Jarrae
Estepp, a sex worker from Modesto, California. I think that this was
a person who probably, sadly, wrong place at
the wrong time because of the nature of her work. NARRATOR: As police linked the
killing to the disappearance of another three missing
women, Steven Dean Gordon, a convicted pedophile,
was named as the prime suspect. Steven Gordon is one
dangerous individual. He's molested children. He's an abductor. He's an all-round predator. NARRATOR: Gordon had formed
a dangerous friendship with another sex
offender, and the pair had been on a deadly rampage. I believe he's evil because he
looked these women in the eyes, he saw them take
their last breath, and still, that didn't
make him feel guilty enough to stop doing that. NARRATOR: Steven
Dean Gordon had been unveiled as one of the
world's most evil killers. [theme music] In February 2017,
Steven Dean Gordon was sentenced to death
for the murder of four sex workers in California. His crimes had begun
25 years earlier, when Gordon had been working
at a family amusement park. But beneath the facade, he
was hiding a ghastly secret. It was his own sister
who went to the police, accusing the 23-year-old
of molesting her son. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
He's convicted. He's given 15 months in jail. And he's a registered
child molester. NARRATOR: Over two decades on
from his initial conviction, detectives
investigating the murder of 21-year-old sex
worker Jarrae Estepp had linked Gordon to her death. EILEEN FRERE: It
was a huge story. And the media was all out there. I can remember getting the call. A body has been found
on a conveyor belt at a trash recycling facility. [tense music] Gordon realizes that the net
is beginning to close around him, and he decides to leg it
and cuts off his GPS tracker device again and gets
on a bicycle and leaves where he's working. NARRATOR: Officers
needed to act fast to prevent any more women being
murdered at the hands of Steven Dean Gordon. [music playing] This killer's story begins
on the 3rd of February 1969 on the West Coast of the
United States of America. Steven Dean Gordon was born
in 1969 in Lynwood, California and moved when he was a
small child with his family to Norwalk, California,
both in Southern California. GEOFFREY WANSELL: It was a
pretty itinerant childhood. Originally, they
were in one county. And then they moved to another. BOBBY CHACON: Santa Fe
is a very suburban area south of Los Angeles,
very middle-class, working-class area. He went to high school there. It seems that he was
quite a sickly child. He seemed to have a
lot of health problems. it's said that he was bullied
at school because of that. JUDY HO: Doesn't sound
like he's ever really made any real connections,
never really had a good circle of friends who
he could count on for support, and just really had low
self-esteem as a result. NARRATOR: Gordon's
ongoing health issues also had a detrimental
effect on his academic life. EILEEN FRERE: He missed
an entire year of school due to illness. And when he graduated
from high school, he chose not to go any
further in terms of education. BOBBY CHACON: When Gordon
finished high school, he went to work as a
handyman at a large amusement park in the area. While Gordon was working
at this amusement park, he developed a relationship
with one of his coworkers. NARRATOR: The park was a
world-famous attraction and a popular destination
for families with children. Gordon had been working
there for four years before he faced a
run-in with the law. In the early '90s, his
sister accused him of sexually assaulting her child. NARRATOR: At first, Gordon
admitted to the crime against his own nephew. But then he went on to say
he was actually innocent. He claimed that his
girlfriend had been the one to force him to actually
even plead guilty when he didn't do anything at all. After that, he threatened
his sister's life for filing those charges against him. NARRATOR: Gordon was 23
years old at the time. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: It
was a strange thing to do. But if he was sexually
attracted to children, it may have been
difficult for him to get access to any
children other than members of his own family. So maybe he had a rapport. You know, the child knew him. He was able to maybe threaten
the child to keep quiet. [tense music] NARRATOR: Gordon was
convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison. The 23-year-old was also
registered as a child molester. When he was released, he
tried to live a somewhat normal or law-abiding life. NARRATOR: Despite
blaming his girlfriend for making him admit
to the crime, in 1995, the couple went
on to get married. By 1997, they have a daughter. And two years later,
in the late '90s, they moved to
Riverside, California. JUDY HO: were a lot of
problems in their marriage and just in his life in general
he was becoming more and more irritable as the
days went on because of variety of financial
and domestic issues GEOFFREY WANSELL: His wife
is trying to keep him going. He's threatening to kill
himself or hire a hitman, of all unlikely things to
kill him, so that she can get the insurance money. It's-- it's-- it's
slightly bizarre. I think this shows
how out of control he felt in life, how powerless
to influence things certainly to his own advantage. Everything was a drama
or a catastrophe for him. EILEEN FRERE: Things
slowly started to unravel in their marriage. His wife noticed that he had
a terrible problem with anger. The smallest thing
would get him upset. And she'd had enough. By 2001, she took
their daughter. She left him. And she filed for divorce. When the divorce
proceedings started, there was an order in place
that he was not to have contact with his wife or daughter. NARRATOR: Gordon violated
that order in August 2001 by turning up where
he knew they would be. When they go to church,
he tempts the daughter into his car, which
is repainted and put new false number plates on. And essentially,
he abducts them, fairly terrifying in every way. NARRATOR: Gordon lured his
daughter in with sweets, then threatened his
ex with a stun gun, forcing her to get into his car. He ties the wife
up and subjected at some kind of ordeal. JUDY HO: He let his
guard down at one point, and he allowed his
wife to make a call. She called her parents, and
they, of course, called police. [siren blaring] GEOFFREY WANSELL: It doesn't
take long for the police to arrive. And indeed, Gordon is charged
with two counts of kidnapping, wife and daughter. NARRATOR: Steven Dean
Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to
10 years in prison. He would go on to spend eight
of those years behind bars. And in February 2010,
he was released. The 41-year-old headed to Orange
County, California, an area with high rates of
homelessness and poverty. EILEEN FRERE:
Anaheim and Santa Ana are the two most populated
cities in Orange County. In 2013, three women
completely disappear off the streets of Santa Ana. The first one disappears. About 20 days later,
another woman disappears. About 20 days after that,
another woman disappears. They're all from Santa Ana. They all worked as prostitutes. GEOFFREY WANSELL: No one's
certain that anything has happened to them. They could just have decided to
give up or go to another state or do something different. NARRATOR: The first woman
to be reported missing was 20-year-old Kianna Jackson. EILEEN FRERE: She was originally
from Willits, California, in the Northern California area. She did go to college
after high school. But after one
semester, she decided she wanted something a
little more exciting, and she moved to Las Vegas. NARRATOR: Whilst
living in Las Vegas, Kianna had started earning
money by becoming a sex worker. In October 2013,
Kianna Jackson took a bus from Las
Vegas to the Anaheim area so that she could
attend a court date for a previous prostitution charge. GEOFFREY WANSELL: She checks
into a hotel on her way to court. She never gets to court. She disappears
literally into thin air. EILEEN FRERE: Her
mom, at the time, said she didn't
know her daughter was working as a prostitute. She filed a missing
persons report with police, but police said to her
that she's an adult. So really, our hands are tied. There's not much that we can do. BOBBY CHACON: The
lifestyle of a sex worker is transient by nature. They often move around, and
they don't have any records. And they don't sign a
lease for an apartment. They often live on the street. And it's very difficult to know
whether one of these missing women has just gone on the
run or whether some harm has come to them. NARRATOR: 17 days after
Kianna Jackson went missing, on October the 23rd, 2013,
another sex worker disappeared from the streets of Santa Ana,
34-year-old mother of three Josephine Monique Vargas. She had just attended a
birthday party of a family member and then
said she was going to walk to the store
to pick up some items, but they never saw her again. Initially, her husband
thought that she was still with her family. And then her family thought
she was with her husband. So there was a
little bit of a delay before reporting
that she was missing. The family of Josephine Vargas
got out there on the street. They had missing persons flyers
with Josephine's face on it, and they were
putting these flyers up all around the neighborhood. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
She's disappeared. They realize and
police acknowledge that there's been no
activity on her credit card or on her bank card. She's just gone. NARRATOR: Fellow sex worker,
27-year-old Martha Anaya had seemingly known
the missing woman. 10 years on, Martha's
eldest daughter, Melody, recalls that time. MELODY ANAYA: She did mention
to me, one of my friends is missing. I believe that friend might have
been Josephine Monique Vargas because it was around
the time that, you know, that she had gone missing. I was 12 years old. My sister was four,
about to turn five. My mom was very
close in age to me. She was only 15
years older than me. So I feel like we would be
able to joke around a lot. She's like a best friend. NARRATOR: 20 days after
Josephine went missing, on the 12th of November
2013, Melody's mother Martha sent a text
message to her boyfriend before going out
to work that day. Her family were unaware of
what Martha was doing for work. MELODY ANAYA: We
grew up in Santa Ana. I mean, Santa Ana's known to
be, like, not the greatest city in Orange County. I would say that back
then, Harbor was known to have a lot of prostitution. NARRATOR: Harbor
Boulevard in Santa Ana was where many sex workers
would wait for business. Martha Anaya was
one of these women and felt safe being on the
streets there at night. MELODY ANAYA: One time, me
and my mother were walking. It was around, like,
8 o'clock at night. And I was like,
you don't ever get scared walking alone at night? And she's like, no, because
I know how to fight. [laughs] She wasn't
scared of anything. NARRATOR: When Martha didn't
turn up the day after she'd messaged her boyfriend
about going to work, her family knew
something was wrong. Martha would message
her mother Linda regularly throughout the day. NARRATOR: Linda then had
a tough decision to make, how to tell her
12-year-old granddaughter that something was wrong. I had gotten home,
and my grandma was sitting at the table. And she was crying. And I was like,
why is she crying? And finally, she
told me, I haven't heard from your mom all day. JUDY HO: Martha was last
seen in Santa Ana as well. It was really sad because the
family had just had a very typical day with her before. They were running errands. Everything seemed normal. But she left her home
without her belongings and was never found again. NARRATOR: Martha
Anaya's family started posting fliers around the area. In the space of five
weeks, three sex workers had disappeared from the
streets of Santa Ana. None of them had been found. MELODY ANAYA: It's very
stressful to not know what had happened
to your loved ones, especially to your
mom, who you're used to seeing every day. We did have that
mind that, you know, there was a possibility that
she wasn't with us anymore. But we did have hope. NARRATOR: On March the
14th, 2014 in Anaheim, the neighboring city to Santa
Ana, workers at a recycling plant were shocked to
discover something unusual on one of the conveyor belts. It's an extraordinary
thing to happen, but it's clearly a body. It's clearly a woman. And she's clearly
met an untimely end. NARRATOR: Local reporter Eileen
Frere remembers finding out about the discovery. EILEEN FRERE: That was big news. That was big attention
because it's not often you have a body dumped in Anaheim. So I think that's what
gathered the attention. NARRATOR:
Investigators struggled to identify who the woman was. The body didn't belong to any of
the three missing sex workers. A tattoo on her neck was
checked against a database held by police. It wasn't until the detectives
started investigating and doing really good police work
to make that connection and identify the body as
being that of Jarrae Estepp. Jarrae Estepp, 21, originally
from Modesto, California, was living in Anaheim, and she
had a previous prostitution arrest in Oklahoma. Jarrae was somebody who
also frequented the Southern California area and was
known for her sex crimes and was actually well known
to the police for this reason. NARRATOR: Jarrae Estepp
was now the fourth sex worker known to
have gone missing from the area in five months. The four cases were now
thought to be linked. Now the police are
looking at something more than simply isolated
incidents in this area. NARRATOR: Although only
one body was found, the fate of the other
three women seemed clear. EILEEN FRERE: It
wasn't long after that police were piecing
together that there was a serial killer involved. And then, then, it blew out. You know, everybody
was covering it. So now that the police think
they have a murderer of sex workers, the natural
investigative avenue is to go back and look at
other male sex offenders that are living or frequently
living, frequenting or working in those
areas where these sex workers have gone missing. NARRATOR: With the
exact locations the women were
picked up unknown, officers would
struggle to narrow down whether any particular
sex offenders were involved. A breakthrough in
the investigation gave them a much-needed lead. Police examined
some of the rubbish that was found around Jarrae's
body on that conveyor belt. EILEEN FRERE: Investigators
also found a tube of caulking with fingerprints on it. They ran the fingerprints. It came back belonging
to a window installer. They brought them
in for questioning. And he said, you know,
after finishing a job, he would often throw the waste
in a trash bin in Anaheim, right next to a paint
and auto body shop. NARRATOR: When police looked at
which registered sex offenders had frequented that
location, a name immediately came up, Franc Cano. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Franc Cano
was born in 1986 in California. He had eczema and asthma
as a child, rather sickly. The family are not rich. They moved to a
trailer park in 1994. They're not
conventional suburban. Franc Cano was also a
convicted child predator, a convicted pedophile. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Something
is going on in Cano's mind. And believe it or not, in
2006, at the age of 20, he molests his
nine-year-old niece. When the police
arrived, Cano told police that he molested
his niece because he was sexually frustrated. He was a virgin, and he
was unpopular with girls. NARRATOR: Franc Cano had
pleaded guilty to one count of child sexual abuse and
received a two-year sentence. After being in
prison for 16 months, Cano was released on
parole in October 2009. Now, in April 2014, 4 and
1/2 years after his release for the child abuse
conviction, Cano had been linked to the body
found on the conveyor belt at the recycling plant. He had been in the
area of that trash bin. And he had also been
in the area where Jarrae Estepp's cell
phone last pinged, the last call that she made. NARRATOR: Investigators
wanted more evidence that Cano was involved
before they could bring him in for questioning. EILEEN FRERE: They have
Cano under surveillance. And they also get the permission
to wiretap his cell phone. So they can listen to the calls. They can look at
his text messages. And what the police say they
discover is just chilling. [eerie music] NARRATOR: The text messages
found on Franc Cano's phone showed that he hadn't
been acting alone. In the 4 and 1/2 years since
his release from prison, Cano had struck up a bond
with another sex offender. And what they had done
together in that time was truly horrific. When the police
did their analysis, they realized that
Franc Cano was in the same area as each
of the four missing women when they went missing. NARRATOR: Text messages
uncovered on Cano's phone reveal that, if he was the
killer, he wasn't acting alone. The conversations between
him and another man, many, many
conversations, texts-- and the text messages
detail their hunt, their hunt for women. NARRATOR: Investigators
were able to identify the second man. He was another
convicted sex offender, 45-year-old Steven Dean Gordon. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH:
Steven Gordon is one dangerous individual. He's not even like a
single-offense predator. He's molested children. He's an abductor. He's an all-round predator. NARRATOR: But how had these two
sex offenders become friends? 12 years before Jarrae
Estepp's body was found and Cano had been
identified as a suspect, Steven Dean Gordon had been
sent to jail for kidnapping his wife and daughter. After serving eight
years of his sentence, Gordon was released from prison. In February of 2010, Gordon is
released from prison on parole with several restrictions. One, that he can't
go near his family. Two, that he must wear an
ankle monitoring bracelet. And three, that he can't
be present anywhere where children gather. And also, he had to register
as an official sex offender. He was on the sexual
predators registry. He had to wear a GPS tracker. He clearly had to
check in multiple times with his parole officer a month. EILEEN FRERE: It's very hard
for registered sex offenders to find a place to live, to
find work because they're very limited on where they can be. So he manages to get
odd jobs at this paint and auto body shop in Anaheim. He lived as a transient, really. He had no place to live. The people at that
paint and auto body shop allowed him to
sleep in his vehicle out in the back of the business. NARRATOR: It was while
working at the auto shop that Steven Dean Gordon
met 23-year-old Franc Cano. Cano was also a
registered child molester, and he too had to wear
a GPS ankle monitor. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Here you have
two men, one much older, one 17 years older than the other. They strike up what will
become an absolutely extraordinary friendship. JUDY HO: I think they bonded
a lot over their childhood difficulties. Cano also suffered from multiple
health issues as a child and was also
extensively bullied. They were both outsiders. They both didn't feel like
they were part of a community. And I think even more
so than their possibly shared perversion for
sexual predator behaviors. NARRATOR: Gordon was living in
a car at the back of the auto shop where he worked. And with Cano struggling
to find accommodation, Gordon invited him to live
in the vehicle with him. They both had
problems building a stable life for themselves. They were both
borderline homeless, the nature of their offending. They were ostracized from
their family networks. They shared this, you know,
feeling that the world was against them. JUDY HO: Cano and
Gordon lived in a car together for quite
a bit of time. On the one hand,
that could really stress a relationship, even
if you really like the person. But on the other hand, it's
also a certain type of bonding. NARRATOR: Their close
relationship led them to make a risky decision together. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Gordon
and Cano are so close. And they obviously identify
with one another with their-- given their track records. But they also want freedom. And in 2010, they both cut
off their GPS tracking devices and leave for Alabama. [siren blaring] BOBBY CHACON: Those
ankle bracelets give almost an
immediate notification when they're cut off. And so they didn't
last long on the run and ultimately were apprehended
by federal agents in Alabama. EILEEN FRERE: They
got caught, of course. They were brought back. They did some time. NARRATOR: Gordon and
Cano were both sent back to prison for five
months for breaking the terms of their parole. But that didn't make
them change their ways. And in 2012, two years
after fleeing for Alabama, they repeated the
same technique. BOBBY CHACON: Gordon and
Cano do the same thing. They do it again. They remove their ankle
bracelets, and they take off. This time, they
escaped to a very family-themed hotel in Vegas and
basically partied it up there. They were ultimately found at
a Casino in Las Vegas that kind of specializes in
attracting families and children, unlike most of
the other hotels and casinos in Vegas. It's not a coincidence that
these two sex offenders ended up at the one hotel in Vegas
that's known to have a bunch of children running around. Being that they both have a
history of molesting and being a predator to children,
it was probably a place that they both
felt very stimulated by because there were so many
children around and families around. And this is another
person for each of them that could share that perversion
with and could understand you and wouldn't judge you. NARRATOR: It was two weeks
before the authorities finally tracked the
two sex offenders down on this occasion. On the 8th of May 2012
both Gordon and Carnot were arrested for breaking the
conditions of their parole. GEOFFREY WANSELL: They're both
sentenced to periods in jail. Cano gets 10 months, and
Gordon gets eight, one in state prison, one in federal. In a way, that's
the cementing this extraordinary,
intense relationship between these two men. NARRATOR: Cano and
Gordon were back on the streets in early
2013, and the criminal pair were quickly reunited. They hook up
and start spending much more time
together, and they start traveling around together. EILEEN FRERE: They're back out. They're still wearing GPS ankle
bracelets to be monitored. In Gordon's case, he was being
monitored by federal probation. And in Cano's case,
he was being monitored by state parole agents. NARRATOR: As part of
their parole restrictions, both men were ordered to stay
away from other sex offenders, including each other. But as their GPS devices
were being monitored by different agencies,
Gordon and Cano, constantly being in the
same location as each other, wasn't flagged. JUDY HO: Cano and
Gordon were basically living in their
own altered reality because they were spending
almost all of their time exclusively with one another. And they really bounced
off of one another in terms of their ideas
and their beliefs. And here's this person basically
justifying that what you're thinking and what
you're planning is OK and maybe even welcomed,
which is really scary, because they found some kind
of community with one another. NARRATOR: Now, after the
discovery of Jarrae Estepp's body, Cano's text
conversations with Gordon provided the police
with an insight into the relationship
between the two predators. They examine the phone
records between the two men. And in particular, they come
up with the chilling remark that Gordon sends to Cano in
the wake of the Estepp killing. "This is the best one yet." NARRATOR: In the text
messages, Gordon and Cano referred to the women
as "cats" or "kitties." Gordon thought
Jarrae was beautiful. He said, "Cat is beautiful,"
in one of his texts. He didn't want to kill her. The text messages
between the two are just chilling as
they decide whether she's going to live or die. I think, in some ways,
Cano and Gordon referring to the women that they hunted
and killed as "kitties," it was that sort of feeling
of predator and prey, so a kitty being
an innocent prey. And again, that feeling
of establishing dominance and power over these
women also, I think, just points again to
the fact that they very much did not really view
these women as human beings. They did not have any
respect for them, so almost treated them like animals. NARRATOR: It was clear
the two men may have been preying on women
together before raping and murdering them. Police needed to act fast. They apprehended Franc
Cano and then tried to find Steven Dean Gordon. But Gordon seemed to know
they were coming for him. BOBBY CHACON: Police are
closing in on the body shop where Gordon works. Gordon senses this,
removes his ankle bracelet, hops on his bike, and takes
off, fleeing from the police. NARRATOR: A dangerous
sexual predator was on the run from the law. Steven Dean Gordon had
a history of removing his GPS ankle monitor and
fleeing to other states. The police needed to
locate their suspect before he disappeared for good. The police catch up with him
less than a quarter mile away, where he tries to
jump off the bike. EILEEN FRERE: He doesn't
make it very far. He flies over the handlebars,
and they arrest him. NARRATOR: Gordon was taken to
the station for questioning. Fellow suspect Franc Cano
was waiting for a lawyer and therefore not
talking to the police. Investigators may have expected
the same reluctance to answer questions from Gordon. After initially
saying, I don't want to talk, he embarks
on what amounts to the most extraordinary confession, 13
and 1/2 hours of conversation in which he goes into
the most elaborate detail of what he and Cano have
done to their victims. EILEEN FRERE: They started
to hunt down women, in particular prostitutes. They would be
cruising up and down Beach Boulevard in Orange County
and looking for the victims. BOBBY CHACON:
Gordon tells police how he would pick up
the woman in his car while Cano was hidden
in the back seat. Once they were in
the car, Cano would come up from the back seat
and overpower the women. They would then take the
car and drive the women in the car behind
the auto body shop, where they were
kind of camping out, where the women would then
be raped by the two of them. Gordon described how Cano
would strangle the women, and he would punch
them in the stomach to make sure the air
got out quicker so that they would die quicker. EILEEN FRERE: They
kidnapped them. They raped them. They killed them, and
they threw the bodies out. NARRATOR: During
the interrogation, Gordon seemed to revel in
sharing the details of the four murders. There were times
where he would get frustrated with the police
for asking him questions about the victims out of order. And he would actually physically
rearrange the photographs of the women that
they laid out for him so that they were in
the order in which he abducted and murdered them. He was actually showing almost
a sick pride in what he had done by correcting them and getting
it right because he knew he wanted them to get it right. NARRATOR: There
was another shock in store for investigators
when Gordon revealed some unexpected information. He also, during that time,
brought up a fifth victim. He said, you're missing one. The Anaheim police
detective said, you know, she didn't want to show shock. But she was shocked. Everyone was shocked because
they didn't know that there was another person missing. GEOFFREY WANSELL: No one knows
who that was or where it was. There's no evidence. And again, there's no body. NARRATOR: Only one
body had been found. But with Gordon's
confessions, investigators were sure that all four
missing women had been killed. Franc Cano and
Steven Dean Gordon were both charged with
four counts of murder. Melody Anaya
remembers being given news about her mother, Martha. MELODY ANAYA: As soon as I found
out how my mom was murdered, I couldn't help but to
picture her last moments. It just made me very angry. I had read about how
she was the one that fought the most for her life. And the flashbacks
of her telling me, I know how to
fight, like, I'm OK, like, nothing's going to happen
to me, came into my head. And it made me
think like, wow, you never really think
this kind of stuff is going to happen to you. But there's always that chance. NARRATOR: One of the hardest
things Linda had to do was to tell Martha's
five-year-old daughter the truth. NARRATOR: Gordon's trial
commenced on November the 16th, 2016. The 47-year-old decided to
represent himself in court. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But this
time, his story changes. He says, no, no, Cano was
responsible for planning this. I was merely following on. I had nothing to do with it. I wasn't the initiator. EILEEN FRERE: This is like the
ultimate control for Gordon. He's in control
of the courtroom. Everybody is listening
to what he has to say. Everybody's watching him. He can call who he
wants to the stand. To me, it seemed like he
relished in the moment. During his trial, Gordon
blamed his probation officers for not keeping
a closer eye on him and tracking him. He believed that they should be
monitoring me more carefully. BOBBY CHACON: They both
knew that they shouldn't be consorting with each other. They both knew that was a
violation of their parole, and they kept doing it anyway. For him to confess
to having murdered all these women and
then try to blame all these other people for
it is a little disingenuous. NARRATOR: Melody Anaya,
who was now 15 years old, was living out of the country
during Gordon's trial. MELODY ANAYA: I really
wish I would have attended. I had a lot to say. He watched women die. So I would have just
wanted to express to him, like, how it affected me,
just to let him hear it. I would have just
wanted to let that out and let him know, you know,
I don't have my mom anymore. My little sister doesn't
have her mom anymore. NARRATOR: On December
the 15th 2016, the jury returned their verdict. It took jurors
just about an hour before coming back with a
decision on Steven Gordon. Before the jurors came
in, he laughed a little. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The jury don't
hesitate in confirming Gordon's guilt. And in a most
remarkable outburst, he then says to the
court, and I quote, "If you kill people
like this in cold blood, you deserve to die," I
believe that, and went on, "My actions are
evil and horrible, and you're going to get
your justice very shortly." NARRATOR: On February
the 3rd 2017, Steven Dean Gordon was
sentenced to death. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He
doesn't complain at all when he's sentenced to death. In fact, he accepts it. He's sent to death row in
San Quentin in California. MELODY ANAYA: Gordon, he
got the death penalty. But, obviously, to me
and the other families, that's not fair. Like, you know,
we're never going to get our loved ones back. It'll never really be fair. NARRATOR: Franc Cano
was tried separately. And in 2022, he was
handed his punishment. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Cano finally
pleads guilty to the four rapes and murders. But he's done a deal with
the district attorney that if he confesses
and pleads guilty, they won't ask for
the death penalty. So he's effectively saying,
whole life in prison. NARRATOR: Justice may have been
served in the eyes of the law, but the families were left
with unanswered questions. EILEEN FRERE: The only body that
was ever found was Jarrae's. The bodies of the three
other women were never found. They are believed to be
in the Brea landfill. And in fact, Martha
Anaya's family, that's where they held
a memorial for her, was at the landfill. That was the last known place
where they believe she is. NARRATOR: During his
police interview, Gordon had confessed to
an additional murder. EILEEN FRERE: The fifth
victim was identified as Sable Pickett, 19 years
old from Compton, which is located in Los Angeles County. Her body was never found either. BOBBY CHACON: People
like Gordon are evil. They're just-- they're
killing machines. They spend their
whole lives doing this until they're caught. That's kind of the easiest
way to think of these people. They're just evil personified. NARRATOR: Five women lost
their lives at the hands of Steven Dean Gordon. If he hadn't been
caught when he was, there may have
been more victims. I believe he's evil
because, you know, he looked these
women in the eyes, he saw them take
their last breath, and still, that didn't
make him feel guilty enough to stop doing that. I'm glad this isn't going to
happen to any other women. The only thing, as
selfish as it is, like, I wish it wouldn't
have been my mom, the person that I needed more
than anything in this world. NARRATOR: Steven Dean Gordon
sexually molested a child and then formed a bond with
another child predator. Working together, they acted
out their sick perversions, resulting in abduction,
rape, and the murder of five innocent women. Steven Dean Gordon will forever
be known as one of the world's most evil killers. [music playing] [audio logo]
