Last Seen in Breckenridge | Full Episode

foreign [Music] you come here for the lifestyle and the beauty and the mountains getting to go skiing and hiking and biking Annette schnee was very beautiful she had gone to a modeling school and she came here to Breckenridge everybody was going to Colorado you know go find yourself go to the Big Town you know in 1982 on January 6th Annette had gone from her work in Frisco at the Holiday Inn she needed to get home to get her outfit to work at the flipside bar that night she would hitchhike from her house do her day job hitchhike back and put on her nighttime cocktail waitress outfit he checked there and then hitch right back a lot of people hitchhiked at that time because they can't afford to drive or get a car to drive back and forth there was a storm a bad storm it was very cold too I think it was 20 below about 4 45 in the afternoon was the last time anybody saw a net schnee that same night another young woman disappeared in Breckenridge Bobby Joe oberholtzer Bobby Joe had received a promotion at work and she was going to go celebrate with some friends Bobby Joe was pre-spirited she loved life she was happy wherever she was she left and went to go hitchhike home and that was the last time she was seen the day after Bobby Joe disappeared her body was found here on the side of a snow bank on Hoosier pass 10 miles outside Breckenridge she had tragically been shot six months later the body of Annette schnee was also found about 10 miles in that direction in a desolate area lying face down in a stream she had also been shot the mystery of what happened to these two beautiful young women would haunt their families and investigators for years these two women they were both killed the same night the thing that tied them both together was an orange booty sock you get a sock in your Bobby Joe oberholtzer and the meat to it is found on the body of an acacia I'm seen this is amazing as years went by you know we Muse about whether or not we were going to die before we solved this case what no one else knew at the time was that the Killer's truck got stuck on a snowy mountain pass that same night right after the murders that would be right where that curb is over there and there's snow Banks I'll lose that deep yeah and a local fire chief saved him everything catches up but you now get away with anything forever [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] every day that I made this drive and got to see all the scenery and the sunrises and sunsets and especially from the top of hoosier it's like I am so lucky to live here [Music] no how did dark and silent secret the unsolved murders of Annette schnee and Bobby Joe oberholtzer they would Define the career of now Park County detective Sergeant Wendy keppel but back in 1982 when both women were killed I was a senior in high school doing High School teenage stuff we were just basically footloose and fancy free and never giving the first thought that something could happen to us it was an attitude from another time a feeling Wendy shared with Bobby Joe Bobby Joe oberholtzer was somebody that I think I would have been friends with how much is she missed by her family a lot still Lori Merlot's memory of big sister Bobby Joe is Frozen in those gentler times one of the best things that ever happened in my life was being her younger sister how do you describe her a free spirit loving person very pretty you know fell head over heels for her he fell hard yeah yeah I did Jeff oberholtzer and Bobby Joe dated for a few years before making it official in 1977 and soon the newlyweds from the Midwest headed for the mountains Colorado was crawling you know they'd called the town of Alma half an hour south of Breckenridge home seemed to be the place to be you know as hippies you were a hippie back then oh sure yeah it was Bobby Joe hippie too oh yeah yeah Jeff opened an appliance repair business Bobby Joe worked for a real estate company in Breckenridge she'd often hitch a ride to work back then many people did people would look for you they saw you standing by the side of the road they'd pick you up well Jeff knew Ed it was a large brass clip very heavy with a large brass ring attached to it and it was made for self-defense January 6 1982 bitter cold with snow in the forecast Bobby Joe hitched to work where that same afternoon she'd be pleasantly surprised a job promotion she called Jeff with the good news and told him she planned to celebrate with friends after work and would be home soon okay everything's good but when Bobby Joe wasn't home by midnight he got worried and drove to the home of the friends Bobby Joe had been celebrating with welcome up asked him you know where Bobby was if they knew and she didn't know and it wasn't like her to not come home no not at all Jeff went to the Breckenridge police department but was told it was too soon to file a missing persons report so he headed back to Alma alone the phone rang I think about quarter to eight it was a Rancher he had found her driver's license and some of the contents of her wallet blowing in his driveway oh oh then I knew something was horribly wrong Jeff and some friends all headed towards the ranch where Bobby Joe's license had been found that's when I spotted her backpack out in the snow and I got out of the vehicle and went through the snow that's when I found her glove in the snow and it was covered in blood [Music] a bloody tissue also lay in the snow but still no Bobby Joe Jeff went back to their house and Friends headed up Hoosier past the route Bobby Joe usually took home they went up with cross-country skis to the pass and they've found her body now investigators joined Bobby Joe's friends spreading out across the Stark landscape Bobby Joe's brass key ring with the hook was found in the parking lot that her husband Jeff oberholtzer had put together for her to use as a weapon if she needed to former Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Jim Hartke was at the crime scene the other item that was found up there was an orange booty like a ankle sock it didn't belong it didn't fit anything connected with Bobby Joe oberholtzer lay Bobby Joe the body was frozen she was fully clothed her hands were close together one hand had been zip tied and Hartke believes Bobby Joe had been shot at close range in the chest once a free spirit the lifeless 29 year old was placed in a bag Jeff pleaded to look they unzipped the bag and it was it was by Bobby Joe come on did you have any idea who could have done that to your wife none but Jeff's tears weren't what cops were looking for when did police call you in and say we have some questions for you maybe the next day or so I told him he's the number one suspect but it so far indicates the woman may have been trying to escape into the trees when she was gunned down but the investigation was about to become a lot more complicated when police learned of The Disappearance of Annette schnee who vanished the very same day as Bobby Joe they probably just passed each other and didn't even know they would be connected foreign the first inkling Cindy French had that her big sister Annette was missing came when her mother answered the family's old rotary telephone I heard her on the phone I heard her start to cry I said what's wrong and she said Annette is missing all the police could tell the family was that Annette schnee had vanished the news seemed inconceivable only 21 years old Annette had left the family's home in Sioux City Iowa a year earlier and seemed to be thriving in Colorado she had two jobs housekeeper by day and cocktail waitress by night and she was friends with her roommates and the people that she worked at the Holiday Inn at were her friends that she would talk about quite frequently to Mom and it was a friend from work who reported a net missing it was January 8 1982 the day after Bobby Joe overholtzer's body was found as soon as older sister Karen reason heard the news she rounded up relatives and headed to Colorado what were you thinking could have happened to her in that moment not knowing knowing she hitchhiked we figured somebody picked her up yeah we were all hoping she was still alive you know you do keep that hope but in the back of your mind you're probably thinking not but you don't want to think that as investigators tracked Annette's last movements they discovered she had actually disappeared appeared the same day as Bobby Joe but the twist was that a net vanished hours before Bobby Joe that was last seen at about 4 30 in the afternoon in in Breckenridge Bobby Joe oberholtzer was last seen in Breckenridge at about 7 30 in the evening from the outset former CBI agent Jim hardkey suspected the two cases might be connected it was a pretty all-out effort to find any information from anyone investigators learned that after Annette left her job at the Holiday Inn on January 6th she had visited a doctor's office and then hitchhiked to a drugstore in Breckenridge detective Sergeant Wendy kipple showed us where that drugstore once was located she went in to get some medication went in to get some medication here she was talking to a woman that we've never been able to identify and that was the last time she was seen Cindy says not knowing the details of Annette's disappearance haunted their mother I know Mom would just say I just want to know why how you know I just that's all I want to know nobody can give it to me nobody knows why or how and in a strange turn of event Jeff oberholtzer already a suspect in his own wife's murder told police when and where he thought Annette's body might be located how would you know that I've always had different premonitions all my life I had told them that I felt that she'd be found four miles from my house on the fourth of July it's pretty specific yeah and it wasn't far off that sure made me look pretty bad in fact when Annette's body was discovered nearly six months after she vanished Jeff's premonition turned out to be scarily accurate she was found on July 3 1982 a day before just prediction and her body was roughly seven not four miles from Jeff's house it was a young boy who came across the crime scene he was fishing and founder reported to his dad and the dad called the sheriff's department Charlie McCormick a private investigator hired by the schnee family says Annette was lying face down and fully clothed in Sacramento Creek about 23 miles from the drugstore where she was last seen but she'd been shot once in the back exit wound front on a downward angle of about 30 degrees so what does that tell you could be uh she was on her knees could be she was running down a hill away from her the person shot her already suspected an might have been sexually assaulted evidence kind of indicates that her clothing was found in disarray her blue jeans Zipper was broken we believe that the shoes were on the wrong feet when she was found former CBI agent Hartke attended a net autopsy and his eye was drawn to something that would forever change the course of the investigation on her left foot I noticed an orange booty and in my mind I'm remembering the orange booty that was found at the top of hoosier pass very close to where Bobby Joe overholtzer's body was found and I'm saying holy [ __ ] this is amazing this ties the cases together from the Bobby Joe crime scene it was just one of those mysterious things that you pick up at a crime scene kipple believes Annette lost her orange sock in the Killer's vehicle there it remained until hours later when he picked up Bobby Joe and attacked her she jumps out and when she jumped out of the truck the orange sock gets kicked out of the truck and that sock was not the only piece of evidence found on Annette's body in the pocket of her jacket they discovered a business card like this one with a familiar name Jeff oberholtzer Jeff told police he recalled giving Annette a ride in November 1981. when she was out hitchhiking Jeff says that at the time he was promoting his appliance repair business with those cards I gave to everyone so now police know that you had met Annette yes did that add to their suspicion oh yes Jeff did you have anything to do with the murder of your wife Bobby Joe no I think nothing did you have anything to do with the murder of anachni not nothing no despite now being connected to the two murdered women and having that very accurate premonition Jeff eventually was clear his blood type did not match the blood found on Bobby Joe's glove and the nearby tissue and as advances were made with DNA technology Jeff's DNA was not a match I told him I said Jeff in my book you're not a suspect but after nearly 40 years could DNA help identify the real killer in the murders of Bobby Joe and Annette early in 2020 kipple and her team decided to try and find out and I said let's try this genealogy thing maybe it can work for us she sent the DNA sample generated from the Bobby Joe investigation to United data connect the Denver company runs crime scene DNA profiles through publicly available genealogical databases on January 9th 2021 I get a phone call from the genealogist says I have two more names for you and one of those turned out to be the one [Music] I knew from the start this was going to come down to DNA foreign 2021 Park County detective Sergeant Wendy kipple got a call about those new DNA test results and it turned out there was not one but two possible matches for blood found on Bobby Joe's glove and that tissue that were recovered back in 1982. I'll never forget the day I got that phone call and I got those names and what were the two names you were given Alan Phillips and Bruce Phillips 69-year-old Alan Lee Phillips and his older brother Bruce Phillips kipple reached out to Bruce first according to kipple Bruce said he never lived in Colorado but that his brother whom he was estranged from had and when kipple dug deeper she discovered that not only had Alan Phillips previously lived just outside Breckenridge and worked in a local mine Alan Phillips still lived nearby he had his own mechanic shop and he was still here Phillips had been married three times and had a daughter and two stepsons kipple wanted to learn more about Philip's past when I looked at his criminal history it showed that he had been arrested in 1973 for assault and burglary and that just kind of set off all kinds of red flags [Music] so she set out to find the arrest file she was met with dead end after dead end the courts had no record of the case neither did the DA's office I knew I had to find that case File so I went over to the archives for the Sheriff's office there was a fire and a lot of them were destroyed but kipple was undeterred she says she'd combed through hundreds of boxes and filing cabinets finding nothing until I get down to the last filing cabinet are you kidding me the last one last filing cabinet and even down to the second to the last drawer halfway back I see this tab says Alan Phillips wow I was like this is it this is our golden egg right here in that police report from July 1973 nearly a decade before the murders of Annette and Bobby Joe kipple found a signed confession from Phillips then just 22 years old explaining how he attacked a young woman the first sentence reads I saw a woman hitchhiking on the south edge of Breckenridge and I stopped and gave her a ride over to Fairplay and then he goes on and describes what he did to her what kipple read was chilling Phillip said that he stopped at an empty cabin along the road pulled the girl from the Jeep and then picked up a rock and used it to hit her several times when I saw that first sentence I was like this is him this is our guy incredibly the young woman who didn't want her identity revealed was able to convince Phillips to Let Her Go and later reported the incident to police did he say in that confession why he did it he didn't know he told her I don't I don't know why I do this I mean that gives makes your skin crawl yeah Phillips was charged with assault and burglary and served six months behind bars kipple also learned that Phillips's name had come up in connection with the double murder back in 2005 when an anonymous caller gave a tip to Crime Stoppers investigators checked it out but according to kipple the lead went cold when the information couldn't be verified but now kipple was confident she was on the verge of nabbing a killer who had eluded them for decades there was only one thing left to do we had to get surreptitious DNA that's what we needed so you're looking for anything he's throwing out anything in late January 2021 kipple and her team began secretly surveilling Phillips it turned out obtaining a sample of his DNA wasn't easy he wouldn't throw anything away he didn't even throw out his garbage where did he put his garbage I don't know that wasn't the only challenge this guy's kind of a Hermit he stays at home he doesn't interact with people too much finally after five weeks there was a break Phillips left his home and went to a Sonic Drive-In we're all like sitting there watching and watching and he gets his food eats and then he leaves I'm like dang it he didn't throw his trash away so kipple and her team followed Phillips as he drove to a post office he walked in carrying the Sonic bag but on the way out he was only holding mail the second Phillips pulled away investigators recovered that all-important bag from this trash can it's like ah okay this bag was like gold it was like gold yeah the bag was taken to a lab where Philip's DNA was pulled from saliva on a napkin and what were the results is Alan Phillips blood that was on Bobby Joe's glove and that Kleenex nearly 40 years after the murders of two women near Breckenridge investigators make an arrest in this cold case on February 24th we arrested Alan Lee Phillips I gotta put the handcuffs on him and he was shocked the look of shock on his face is just priceless Alan Lee Phillips was initially charged with two counts each a first degree homicide kidnapping and assault he denied any involvement in the crimes for the families of Bobby Joe and Annette it was a moment nearly four decades in the making one they thought might never come that was a shock the way that they were able to get the DNA to find him and catch him was amazing truthfully I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime it was just mind-blowing jaw-dropping I didn't know what to think was it like relief all at once too yes a relief and you're happy but yet it doesn't take the hurt away but the surprises didn't and there in another strange twist after Phillip's arrest a local man recalled a harrowing story of how he helped rescue Phillips from a snowstorm the very night of the murders when I heard this story my mind was blown the evidence in the case foreign like you see now with the wind and everything the clouds well that's the way it is up here all the time on January 6 1982 just hours after Bobby Joe and Annette were murdered an airline passenger looked down at quinnella pass from a plane flying overhead and saw lights flashing he recalled it was SOS a call for help it came from the driver of a truck stranded in a raging snowstorm his rear end sunk in the snow so his headlights were pointing up Dave Montoya was a fire chief at the time who also worked in the local mines and lo and behold here comes the plane he sees it flashes SOS well he didn't know if somebody saw him or not but he took the chance well somebody did see him with the Arapahoe counter shot yeah the passenger notified the pilot who radioed down the approximate coordinates to dispatchers on the ground so I was down there I had my radio with me so I said let me go check it out what were you thinking as you're driving I think who does that I thought it was a tourist I thought that crazy tours he got up here now he's going to ask us all this evening but when Montoya arrived at the scene he saw it wasn't a tourist it was someone he knew a man named Alan Phillips and he comes running around he says man am I glad to see you this is he says well I got drunk and I decided to come home and I didn't want to go on the highway to get caught so I went over the past because the cops ain't there did you happen to notice anything about him at the time yeah he had a big old cut right here on the eye Montoya says when he asked him how he got the injury Philip said he hit his face on his truck I could allowed I said boy you are really stupid Montoya says Phillips refused medical treatment and he dropped him off near his home he gave an oral statement to police about the incident that week local newspapers reported the unusual rescue and included a photo of the then 30 year old Alan Phillips if I would have known what I'd known then I probably would have left him Montoya would only learn in 2021 after Philip's arrest that he was potentially involved in the murders of Bobby Joe and Annette who who has luck like that it really you commit to murders you get stuck at the top of a pass trying to flee the scene and everything else and you get stuck where you know you're probably gonna die and you ask for mercy and you get it God gave him the mercy but he says you're not going to get away forever you got your mercy but you got to pay epileps may have escaped by Alan Phillips's fate would be in the hands of a jury on August 31st 2022 Alan Lee Phillips double murder trial began in Fairplay Colorado Annette's sisters and brother flew in from across the country to be there but we wanted to make sure that the family was represented you know that when the jury looks over you want them to see the concerned not leftovers but the left behinds at times seeing Phillips in court was painful for Annette's sister Cindy I was disgusted you got to live 40 Years of your life you took my sister to see him sit there so emotional less no emotion whatsoever just very stoic was very frustrating [Music] because of the DNA match did you think this is a slam dunk in a trial to me it's a slam dunk but to attorneys they have ways to make it not seem like such a slam dunk and that's what Philips defense team set out to do they would question the validity of the DNA and other evidence and instead blame Jeff oberholtzer for murdering his wife and Annette schnee even though he had been cleared by investigators years before they pointed the finger at Jeff every step of the way it's so maddening because that's not where the evidence led to when Jeff took the stand the defense was relentless they raked him over the coals and like he hadn't been through all this for the last 40 years they definitely wanted to put their crimes back on me the murders back on me it was quite quite painful the defense claimed Jeff had motive to kill his wife they said he was angry at Bobby Joe because the day before her murder she brought home cold pizza Jeff had told investigators about the pizza years earlier I kind of found that a little bit ludicrous I couldn't fathom Jeff killing Bobby Joe over a cold piece of pizza and the defense questioned Jeff about his bizarre behavior like when he told investigators about that premonition he had about where and when he thought a Net's body would be found details the defense argued only the killer would most likely know this could be seen as pretty damning to some right and so it was I just tried to tell the truth and and answer their questions and what about the claimed evidence about the years there was some contamination it wasn't known oh I have to be careful and wear gloves so I don't get my DNA on that item but the bottom line is the blood that is on Bobby Joe's glove and the tissue was Alan Phillips blood how do you explain that the prosecution said there was a simple explanation Alan Lee Phillips was the one and the only one who murdered Bobby Joe and Annette I mean what are the odds that it could be anybody else on the glove it was one in 17 quadrillion which is 2 million 275 000 times the population of the Earth Phillips's DNA was found on Bobby Joe's belonging says Wendy kipple only because Bobby Joe fought for her life and caused him to bleed she was a fighter and and without her being a fighter we wouldn't have the DNA that we needed to solve this case and what about those orange booty socks DNA testing conducted months before trial revealed that Annette's DNA was on the inside and Bobby Joe's DNA was on the outside of that orange booty sock found on Hoosier pass not far from Bobby Joe's body so that ties both women to that one sock strong DNA of avigator Charlie McCormick was concerned with the way DNA was challenged by the defense confuse a jury are they going to buy it are they going to understand it after two weeks of testimony the case finally went to the jury Jeff and Wendy were nervous were you worried the jury is going to have Reasonable Doubt I felt that that was possible there's always doubt there's always doubt because you know that there's probably one juror that might hang up everybody and and you never know what do you make of the case against Alan Phillips chat now with the 48 Hours team tell me what it was like for you waiting for the verdict pins and needles on Thursday September 15 2022 the families of Bobby Joe oberholtzer and Annette schnee anxiously awaited the jury's decision was Alan Lee Phillips guilty or not guilty it just takes one do you wonder that didn't believe it the waiting was the hardest part says detective Sergeant kipple thankfully the jury kept it short four hours and 45 minutes the jury's verdict on eight charges including two counts each of first-degree murder felony murder and kidnapping guilty as charged is going to get what he deserves now I believe it was happening I was so happy tell me about the Motions you were feeling as the verdict was read Alan Phillips guilty I think I let out a sigh for Jeff oberholtzer Justice had finally been served and Decades of Suspicion decisively lifted and there was a grave weight lifted from my shoulders we hugged and said you know we were happy for him and for us and that it was over and over forever over for everyone Alan Lee Phillips showed no emotion poor daughter cried I felt bad for the family what they were going through a happy bad because they probably wanted to believe you know that he didn't do it 48 Hours reached out to the Phillips family and legal team for interviews but they all declined our requests a little over seven weeks later Phillips was back in court for sentencing his attorney insisted that his client had been wrongfully convicted he maintains his innocence and he maintains it the wrong man is being sentenced but judge Stephen groom wasn't persuaded and handed down two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole to give him the maximum allowed by law he then addressed the families of Annette schnee and Bobby Joe oberholzer I wish you the best and hope the healing starts today but it seems that Justice for Ned and Bobby Joe may not be the end of this story some investigators believe that the case against Alan Lee Phillips is not yet closed there are a lot of lingering questions but the one main one is are there more victims what do you think short answer yes and I think there are several that they he certainly could qualify for there's just no evidence to prove it while investigators carry on two families still struggle you know you give someone your love you can never take it back and I don't want to there's a special place in my heart and Bobby will always be there [Music] I was cheated out of 40 years without my sister we'd still be the best of friends today she was still here he took a really good person away from this world and it saddens me that we won't ever get to know how she was when she was 30 or when she was 40 or 50. and because Alan Lee Phillips maintains his innocence they still have one more agonizing question why you know why did you take these two beautiful girls [Music] in honor of Annette and Bobby Joe Annette's sisters and brother decided to visit where the young women were murdered oh there's a cross there it is [Music] they were there to thank Bobby Joe for fighting back and causing Alan Lee Phillips to leave behind his DNA without her we wouldn't be here thank you Bobby Joel yes thank you Joe at the place where Annette's body was found they delivered a long overdue message to their sister well Annette they caught him he'll be in prison for the rest of his life Alan Phillips just wanted you to know love and miss you [Music] thank you accused of his mother's murder at 14. what kid could commit a crime that violent and not leave any forensic evidence then sentenced to life the state never really had any case against this kid was he wrongfully convicted she was very close with Michael he was her baby 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 3,929,123

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news, breckenridge colorado, murder, 48 Hours, annette schnee and bobbie jo oberholtzer, natalie morales, alan lee phillips

Id: A6uvoCmfFCU

Length: 41min 17sec (2477 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023