Minnesota’s Melissa Norby case: Babysitter's plot to abduct girl goes wrong

an early morning fire rips through a home in bemidji minnesota firefighters raced to the scene when i got there there was still smoke in the air but they primarily had the fire extinguished buried in the debris and still smoldering home a horrible tragedy the body of the homeowner melissa norby it seemed really odd because the main bulk of the fire had burned in a southwest bedroom but then her body was in the middle of the house and had what appeared to be a mattress over the top deputy fire marshal kevin molly is called to investigate and immediately notices something suspicious melissa's body and the mattress are both badly burned quite a bit more than what you would expect from a fire that would have started a few rooms away and that wasn't all when we walked around the outside some of the things that we noticed were windows that had literally been blowing away from the building 12 15 feet evidence of explosives is easy to find bruce can you sign the light on my gas can again i'm just going to videotape it detective mike solem is the man behind the camera parts of the trailer had been totally destroyed but the victim's bedroom hadn't been destroyed completely so the gas can was still intact investigators quickly rule the cause of the fire is arson and if this fire is no accident melissa's death likely isn't either we looked at the victim when we saw her hands were bound with tape appeared to be duct tape then we backed out and got the bca involved melissa norby was a 35 year old single mother who loved once called missy she and amanda smith had been friends since they were kids she had the biggest heart ever you needed something she'd be there you know it's just how she was before investigators could start collecting evidence they had a far more pressing matter to attend to the victims 10 or 11 year old boy that may be inside the house that they couldn't find yet neighbors tell investigators that melissa lives in the home with her young son but there was no sign of the boy once we'd removed the victim and we continued to dig for what we thought would be a 10 or 11 year old boy we completely searched every square inch of that home including outside underneath the mobile home cops finally reach a relative and are relieved to learn melissa's son was safe he had spent the night with family in the twin cities area that kind of gave us a little bit of a breather but investigators wouldn't have long to catch their breaths while sifting through the burned out home searching for clues melissa's friend amanda comes running up to the scene how did you hear there was a fire at missy's home her cousin called me amanda couldn't believe what missy's cousin was saying she was hysterical and she said please tell me it's not true and i'm like what and she says tell me missy's house is not on fire so i freaked and got in my truck and i took off and my boys hopped in the truck with me and they were like what's going on and i'm like i i gotta go it wasn't just the shock that her childhood friend had died in the fire amanda's five-year-old daughter had spent the night at melissa's house you knew brittany was inside amanda and her sons were at the scene within minutes i kept telling her my daughter is in that house she had no idea investigators had already been through the house many times initially fearing melissa's son could be inside they were confident there were no other bodies our fire marshal's office that we work with every day said nope she's not in the fire chad and that to us was kind of the beginning of wow this is more than we thought it was if britney's remains weren't there where was she senior special agent chad museus is with the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension we think well there's got to be a common sense easily explanation for what's going on here detectives narrowed down what could have possibly happened to the five-year-old she escaped the fire you know saw flames smelled small got scared or she's with somebody else and she's safe amanda smith was desperately hoping that's what happened to her only daughter did investigators keep coming out to say we can't find her yeah are you sure she's here are you sure she didn't give her to somebody else amanda tells cops she's certain melissa wouldn't have given her daughter to someone else without her permission i had asked amanda what their fire safety plan was at home what would she do and she was convinced that she would just stay with melissa the woods around melissa's house are searched along with their neighbors cars and homes but the little girl is nowhere to be found at some point investigators started questioning you yeah it was kind of like they were pointing fingers like we knew what was going on like where's your daughter as soon as the flames are extinguished at this home in bemidji minnesota investigators ruled a case of arson and murder the homeowner melissa norby's body found under a mattress how is melissa murdered she's fully clothed she's duct taped bound she was choked hours into the investigation amanda smith tells cops that melissa was babysitting her five-year-old daughter the night of the fire so here you are grieving the loss of your best friend of 30 years and not knowing where your daughter is right the burned out home and neighborhood are thoroughly searched but the little girl is nowhere to be found we thought they were wrong we didn't believe them michelle rogowsky is the girl's godmother at what point were you told this was arson because of the way things looked everybody figured that right from the start the way the house was burned and stuff didn't look like an accident who were police looking at they told us nothing in the beginning cops were already looking at the missing girl's parents you have to say wait a second here what's mom and dad's role in this the night of the fire cops learned melissa's son had left to stay with relatives while she and the girl had a sleepover amanda tells me she allowed her daughter to stay here at missy's house at least 20 different times over the course of her little life this is someone amanda trusted someone she knew for 30 years the cops haul in amanda and the girl's father for questioning and their phones are searched did you have any idea where she was no none at all and you had no idea who would want to take her or hurt her right after a few hours investigators were fairly certain britney's parents had no involvement in their daughter's disappearance i'm trusting my gut and i'm like these are parents who are truly concerned about their missing five-year-old that's also when they begin to realize the magnitude of what they were dealing with the dots didn't connect to any of us until we were several hours in the investigation by now investigators wonder did someone murder melissa and set fire to her house all in an elaborate ruse to kidnap the little girl it's the worst news you could get as an investigator we're behind the eight ball already because we didn't immediately know that we had a missing child the search for a killer arsonist had quickly turned into a frantic search for a five-year-old girl who were some of the persons of interest you looked at besides amanda and scott she had an ex-boyfriend that she saw they've broken off for several years and then it was rekindled detectives heather holden and michelle leffelman immediately track melissa's ex-boyfriend was he cooperative he was he had a conviction for an arson fire in the past that that was definitely a concern that he could be our suspect at that point but the ex-boyfriend's alibi checks out so cops began building a lengthy list of other possible suspects when we found out we had a missing five-year-old from the scene it expanded exponentially at that point and we just looked at all of our predatory offenders in the city and county and started asking for consent to search their homes cops questioned one of melissa's neighbors who babysat her son from time to time allegedly melissa and him had a sexual relationship but he was also cleared along with many others at that point we're talking to everyone that our decedent is talking to on social media anyone that she had dated in the past neighbors co-workers we're talking to everybody who knows our victim those talks would yield investigative gold during a conversation with one of melissa's friends investigators soon learned disturbing details about the single mom's sex life melissa was very into not s m but more like a daddy little girl kind of scenarios that she was playing out with champs tuesday callopy tells cops chance is the name melissa gave to a man she had been secretly dating on and off she claims at times the sex was rough and had even turned violent it ended in him punching her and choking her out and putting over the back of the suv and raping her tuesday isn't the only friend melissa confided in about her relationship after a few more interviews detectives learn chance's real name is jake and he owns a food truck called jake's eats they immediately know who everyone is talking about we discovered that our dead victim was dating jacob ken and we knew jacob came we knew his history and we went oh my god jacob kin was a registered sex offender well known to law enforcement in bemidji and what was his past criminal history he actually put an ad out on craigslist asking to take photos of a young girl and we the sheriff's office here sent an undercover deputy she posed as the mother of a eight nine-year-old girl and uh he was convicted on some charges related to that jacob kinn was still on probation for that offense but now he was also the prime suspect in the murder of melissa norbie and the kidnapping of a five-year-old girl cops needed to find him quickly at that point we are scrambling to try to figure out where he is how do we find him and how do we find her detectives holden and luffleman were the first to arrive at jacob's house we went out to the house that he had and searched that at about 10 30 at night but hearts sink when they see no sign of jacob or the girl so detectives hatch a plan to get some help from jacob's probation officer we had probation column a non-threatening phone call hey we have a missing child police would like to talk to you about it and he agreed to to come in and meet us nearly 20 hours after melissa norby is murdered her home set on fire and the five-year-old girl she was babysitting abducted cops were knocking on the door of her on-again off-again boyfriend jacob king this is someone who was already on your radar in a small sense yeah it was a name that we knew jacob kin was a registered sex offender he was obsessed with child porn he would almost continuous throughout the day access some image sharing sites of young girls when detectives first arrived at his house around 10 o'clock that night jacob wasn't home so we decided let's ping his phone special agent paul girardi says they asked jacob's probation officer to contact him to face questions about the now missing child brittany it's common that registered sex offenders you're going to get talked to if a child goes missing in your community shortly after midnight jacob ken willingly walks into the sheriff's station i appreciate you coming in your probation officer tell you what's going on jacob tells detective gerardi and senior special agent chad museus that he's already heard about the fire murder and missing girl right away he admits to knowing melissa norby i haven't talked to her like six or eight months jacob says the two once worked together about an hour into the interrogation he learns the real reason he's called in we got reports that you had a relationship with melissa jacob says he heard the same thing and believes he knows why melissa would be spreading the rumor i was dating another girl at work jacob insists he and melissa never had sex i wasn't the least bit attracted to her detectives then show jake a picture of the missing child and he admits he's seen her before she showed me a picture of her once a long time ago he identifies our missing five-year-old's photo and i'm thinking in my head wait wait a second she's five you saw her when she was two and you could immediately recognize her as somebody you know cops asked jacob where he's been for the last 48 hours instead of starting two days from now let's start backwards so where'd you just come from what jacob didn't know is that before he arrived for questioning detectives had already determined his location through phone records based on his probation officer's call well i clear lake is about 50 miles north of bemidji but jacob's cell phone actually pinged in a town called big fork about 40 miles southeast of clear lake jacob tells detectives he was fishing from shore to resort but he can't remember the name is there somebody there that saw you there the resort owner can you describe it to us kind of help us out a little bit with that just a resort when detective museus steps out of the room to get a map jacob asks why detectives are so curious about his exact fishing location i'm still not seeing why that matters at all i'll tell you why basically jake your cell phone doesn't put you in that spot tonight that's where i was if if you were here there's cell phone calories yourself i want to put you at instead of being you know way over here despite the cell phone ping jacob insist he had been fishing at clear lake i don't know how that would happen but yeah i wasn't in big four at no reason being big detectives believe they know exactly why he was there they quickly turned the conversation pleading with jacob to tell them where the girl is if something bad happened if something got out of control and somebody ended up dead and this little girl is somewhere whether she's alive or whether she's gone we have an obligation to everyone to bring her home jake if you could help us with that in any way i would if i could but i i don't know what you detectives ask if they can search his vehicle but jacob refuses why won't you let us search you because at this point i don't trust you guys cops were now certain jacob had murdered melissa and abducted the girl they desperately try everything to keep him from leaving but time is running out you can either go get me the judge's order right now no like right this second or i'm walking out the door and taking my car with me at one point with one of the detectives out of the room jacob tries to bolt you're not going shut up you're no no sit down you should actually leave you said it was free please at this point you're gonna have to have a seat okay at this point i want to call in you can call whoever you watch have a seat after four hours he offers to leave some of his personal items but cops have no choice but to let jacob kin go we take his clothes we take his jeep we take his phone we literally send him home because at that point we don't really know quite what we have yet but that was all about to change i yelled bingo i said you guys gotta come look at this after questioning registered sex offender jacob ken for four hours about a kidnapping and murder in bemidji minnesota cops have no choice but to let him go did you know when you released him that he held the answers to where this little girl was definitely it was him no doubt in our minds it was him and watching him walk out that door had to be tough yeah jacob had willingly left behind plenty of evidence for investigators his clothes vehicle and most importantly his cell phone that phone data unlocked a whole new area that just really turned this case upside down for us minutes after jacob had walked out of the sheriff's station special agents william bennett and jacob hodge used special equipment to access everything on his phone some of what they find they expected to see on the phone of a convicted child predator you could see his sexual desires is what he was into because his phone was full of other images of other um kids but it's what they didn't expect to find that leaves them stunned a series of deleted text messages they were about to recover i couldn't believe it i was actually sitting here and the investigators are at the main table going over the case and what to do next and what steps and i yelled bingo i said you guys gotta come look at this the texts were between jacob kin and melissa norby the babysitter who was murdered and then set on fire inside her home the messages detail an elaborate plan between the two to kidnap the five-year-old daughter of melissa's best friend i've never seen something documented so complete according to the text messages the kidnapping was actually supposed to happen a week earlier remember amanda smith britney's mother told cops that melissa often took care of the little girl at her house i think the little girl got sick or something happened that um it didn't work out so he was pretty upset that she wasn't coming over melissa and jacob first hatched a crazy random attack while she was watching the girl the initial plan was that melissa was going to be assaulted carjacked basically and some unknown man was going to take brittany once the little girl was in their own clutches they'd hide the child so jacob could keep her for himself so then once the carjacking was supposed to have taken place then melissa was then obviously they'd have brittany it was going to be jacob's toy as he called her why would melissa allow someone to hurt her best friend's daughter she definitely wanted to do anything she could to have a relationship with him and at all costs i think she loved him i think she wanted to be loved do you think jacob kim loved melissa not in the least bit jacob can only maintain that relationship with melissa because he could have access to a little girl investigators may never know for sure why the kidnapping plot wasn't carried out the way melissa and jacob had discussed but senior special agent chad museus has an idea that jacob had his very own diabolical plan so she willingly you know in my estimation anyway willingly was bound and tied up and then at the last seconds of her life choked out because jacob kin didn't want a witness to the abduction whatever role melissa norby may have played in the abduction didn't matter in that moment the only thing that did was finding the little girl we know the statistics we know what is likely happened and we're scrambling even though jacob kin told investigators he had been fishing a clear lake a cell phone ping put him in an area known as big fork about 80 miles from the town of bemidji during the time detectives were busy questioning jacob at the station special agents don newhouse and rob frack with the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension were told to head to big fork to start searching for the girl it was the middle of the night and not a street light in sight it's been described as finding a needle in a haystack is that accurate yeah when you're driving out there it can be pretty overwhelming when you're looking at all the uh the thousands of acres of land where you could hide somebody but before leaving the sheriff station the men got a good look at jacob's jeep the undercarriage had a lot of vegetation grass yellow and white flowers hanging from the undercarriage muddy tires it's pretty clear that he was out we figured in a in a wet area possibly we're driving in a hay field or somewhere had to go through a lot of grass and wildflowers that didn't exactly narrow down the search area much a big fork is rural fortunately back of the sheriff's station a phone call leads to a critical clue the dispatcher says wait a second here we have a kin who owns property in that same area 3.1 miles from the cell phone tower jacob kin's family owns property in the area don and rob make it to big fork just as the sun was coming up we got the big fork right about the time where we could start seeing things without a flashlight or headlights another advantage complements of mother nature a heavy downpour overnight a lot of the roads and the areas that we're tracking are dirt roads and it's a relatively rural area and there shouldn't be a lot of traffic up and down some of those roads they knew if anyone had driven in the area recently there would be fresh tire marks the two men start making their way from the cell phone tower to the direction of the ping from jacob's phone just as they reached the road leading towards the kins family property that's where you can see clearly that there are tire tracks coming off of the gravel road onto the pavement dirt deposited on the pavement and we stopped right there and rob started taking photos the tracks matched the tires on king's jeep you knew you were on the right path that was the only lead that we had at that point so what do you do do you drive out there or do you walk on that particular spot we drove down the gravel road cautiously looking off to the right and left you know with our windows rolled down trying not to drive on top of these tire tracks we didn't want to lose the tire tracks after about a half mile the bravo road came to an end and it was clear which direction they needed to go nobody had driven down that road for weeks except for those tire tracks that were in and out after it rained the men get out and start to follow the tracks on foot so this is the area where you parked and then walked correct that's right and at this point you still had no idea where you were going we know the tracks were going that way we had no idea how far back the tracks are going just over 24 hours after a five-year-old little girl was kidnapped and her babysitter murdered special agents don newhouse and rob frack knew they were getting close to finding her what they didn't know would she be dead or alive is your heart in your throat it had been for a half hour before that we didn't know what we were going to find a ping to jacob kin cell phone is what brought them to this field in big fork minnesota and fresh tire tracks matching his jeep confirmed the registered sex offender had just been there had it not been for the tracks like rob says we would have been focusing our efforts somewhere else after walking about half a mile detectives spot a camper off in the distance the tire tracks they were following led right to it i'm actually on the phone because our bosses are basically uh curious as to how things are going we're giving them a play-by-play on what we're seeing basically telling them we're going to know pretty soon one way or another good or bad what happened to this little girl the door to the camper was taped shut with electrical tape rob removes the tape and slowly opens the door and then rob starts talking to someone in the in the camper okay you don't have to be scared okay we're the police and uh that was something at what point do you start recording the incredible moment that follows is all captured on rob's cell phone camera hi what did you say your name was again i'm going to take a little video brittany how did you get here brittany this is friends both men are trembling with adrenaline and joy it's britney alive and talking oh what's his name okay when did he bring you here the little girl was even able to describe the vehicle that missy's friend was driving and it has a name on it can you show me your feet right there okay where are you taped at okay anywhere else did you have tape on your arms she shows the officers scrapes and bruises on her arms and says it's the only thing that hurts my name's rob and this is don how old are you probably five or something probably five or something okay we started talking about how she got there and she told us uh about missy's friend um bringing her there did you go to his house at all do you know what color his house is what's it look like what is it a big house or a small house a small house okay does he have any animals or no okay the mama cat has many kittens oh okay have you ever heard a five-year-old be so strong and so articulate never for what she had just experienced and how she was uh acting and presenting herself what a brave little girl it had been a long sleepless night for the little girl's mom then the phone call she'll never forget what did he say to you we have your daughter at some point your phone brings who's on the other end it was amanda and she was crying and she just said they found her and i said and and she said mickey she's alive and i love just lost it i remember collapsing onto the bed in the hotel room and just crying after rescuing britney from the camper don takes this photo of the girl in rob's arms and sends it to their colleagues i grab my phone i see a picture of rob holy brittany alive she's right there alive the text message says arrest him about 90 minutes later jacob kin is spotted behind the wheel of his dad's truck heading north he's pulled over and taken into custody he's located on his way back out to that camper in big four you believe he was going to kill her either he was gonna kill her or move her or hide her or do something to keep us from from finding her hours after he was released following a night of questioning jacob kinn was back at the police station all right jake you're under arrest okay you see that jacob kinn was given one last chance to come clean unaware the girl had been rescued and his kidnapping plot uncovered through deleted text messages last night when we talked he said he had no contact with melissa nori you didn't date her is that true yeah and you had no contact with the little girl you can see her at melissa's house and there's going to be no connection between you and her and whatsoever in any way shape or form whatsoever after a couple minutes jacob wants to know why he's being arrested what changed between two hours going down that's when special agent paul girardi shows him what changed revealing the picture of the little girl in the arms of detective rob frack now start over we know more than you think we do right now and and now's the time for you to fill in those blanks jacob admits being at melissa's house the night of the fire and kidnapping did you know that she was going to be there yeah jacob claims the girl was there once before when he visited what was what kind was like like viewing porn while you're having sick but that was about all jacob was willing to say detectives say in the early morning hours of june 22nd 2016 jacob kinn choked melissa norby to death with a belt during sex he then brought the girl she was babysitting to his house where he raped her and left her tied up he returned to melissa's and set the house on fire later that night he brought the girl out to the camper in big fork thankfully little britney did not have to tell her story of torture and abuse in open court jacob kin cut a deal with prosecutors pleading guilty to three felonies kidnapping first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and second degree unintentional murder why unintentional because of melissa norby part of her sexual gratification was to get choked out during the sex act and there could be an argument made that she was accidentally killed jacob was sentenced to 52 years in prison the plea meant his young victim wouldn't have to face him in court but her voice was still heard your goddaughter wrote a powerful letter she did what did it say she told him she hated him she does not like the way he plays with her she does not want to play with him but thank you for letting me play with your kitties he bribed that baby with kitties because she loves animals so somehow she is strong enough with everything he did to still be thankful that she got to play with a kitty cops will never know why the kidnapping plot melissa and jacob were planning wasn't carried out or why he killed her but michelle wargowski has come up with her own conclusion i can only hope and pray that it went the way it did because she was backing out but we will never know amanda smith says her daughter is still processing what happened and coping with the trauma she'll tell us you know what he did she has nightmares she has flashbacks she talks about it at school with some of her teachers her therapist despite everything she's been through she says her daughter is thriving and is still the rambunctious little tomboy she's always been beating up her brothers running playing riding bike games selfies as for the investigators who work day and night to bring her home they are our family you know all of them if it wasn't for them we would have lost her and brittany is a hero to all of us her strength is inspiring oh yeah she's resilient she's [Music] like i said she's a rock nothing's going to break her the men and women who worked so hard to find and rescue the five-year-old were recently honored by the national center for missing and exploited children their extraordinary teamwork was praised during the group's annual heroes award ceremony

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 1,729,360

Rating: 4.8173242 out of 5

Keywords: Melissa Norby, Minnesota true crime, Bemidji Minnesota, Bemidji Police, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Amanda Smith, BCA Senior Special Agent Chad Museus, Jacob Kinn, Clear Lake Minnesota, Bigfork Minnesota, Michelle Sigona, Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily

Id: 8RkPB-JDRaQ

Length: 35min 40sec (2140 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 06 2020