Missing | FULL EPISODE | The New Detectives

seven years after a woman vanishes a trail of evidence leads investigators to an isolated boat ramp on the missouri river they must pull proof of her murder from the murky river [Music] in a rural virginia county a skull and a piece of jewelry are the only clues police have to identify a victim but will it be enough to catch a killer a woman is missing for weeks when her body is discovered the police must piece together their case from a few torn shreds of tape when someone disappears it's difficult for police to prove murder without a body but today forensic science can find justice for a victim months and sometimes even years after they have gone [Music] missing [Applause] [Music] maryville missouri is a small midwestern town but in 1990 it was caught in the grip of a big city problem to combat a growing methamphetamine industry investigators sought help from those on the inside christine elkins had been arrested for selling the drug in exchange for immunity christine cooperated with authorities by helping to build a case against her supplier she agreed to tape their next meeting with a micro cassette recorder concealed in her clothing on july 26 1990 under the watchful eyes of investigators elkins met with the distributor at his house he grabbed agent mike schmitz headed up the case for the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms she came back afterwards extremely upset stating that he knew that i was wired he attempted to locate the recorder she was extremely upset christine told agents that she was afraid for her safety they urged her to stay away from tony when agents tried to listen to the tape it was indecipherable the case against tony emery would have to be made on informant testimony a few weeks before christine was scheduled to testify against him police received a call from her mother she hadn't heard from her daughter in several days and she was worried a search of christine's house indicated no sign of a struggle her car a maroon oldsmobile was gone missouri state police worked with the atf on the emory narcotics case investigator larry bodenhamer well the investigation changed on after her disappearance because after after a period of time it was like well where is she you know what has happened to her has she left on her own accord or has has something happened to her investigators interviewed christine's friends and acquaintances one friend told police she'd seen her around 10 o'clock the night she disappeared christine had asked her to watch her son for a few minutes while she met someone christine made a chilling prediction as she left if she wasn't back in a few minutes she'd be in the morgue no one had seen her since all right i need to bring everybody up today the atf and the police now suspected that tony emery was behind her disappearance he had a strong motive but without evidence of an actual crime authorities could not prove his involvement three weeks later maryville police received a tip from a federal drug enforcement agent in colorado a methamphetamine manufacturer facing time in federal prison wanted to make a deal he claimed he knew about the murder of a female informant in maryville investigators feared he was referring to christine elkins maryville police and atf agents flew to colorado to question james witt he told them he manufactured methamphetamine for tony emery and his cousin herb emery he said he'd heard the two men talking about killing an informant in missouri in exchange for leniency whitt agreed to meet her memory and wear a wire authorities hoped their conversation would provide details of the alleged murder and possibly lead them to christine elkins three months after christine's disappearance wit met herb emery in a restaurant parking lot agents listened to their conversation from a car nearby whit pretended he needed to get rid of a body and asked for advice herb emery told him the best way to dispose of a body was to put it in the trunk of a car and sink it in a rock quarry it was investigators first clue using detailed maps they identified rock quarries deep enough to conceal a car but the midwest famous for its native limestone had literally hundreds of quarries to narrow their search further they had to think like a killer if you've got a person in the trunk of the car what would you do would you drive a long ways when it wasn't your car you could break down if you were to find a rock quarry it would have to be something close it would have to be something that you didn't have to drive is a very wet season you wouldn't have to drive through a field because you might get stuck [Music] they focused on a 75-mile radius but that still left hundreds of possibilities over the next several months investigators systematically searched those rock quarries for a car containing a body they found nothing the atf the missouri state police and maryville police considered the emery's dangerous but lacked sufficient evidence to support a murder charge setting up a task force investigators devised a strategy to get them off the street until they could prove murder federal agents again used james witt this time to set up a methamphetamine by herb and tony emery met wit at a pre-arranged location agents observed as tony emery gave wit twenty thousand dollars for several pounds of the drug etf on the floor they moved in to make the arrests in the summer of 1991 herb and tony emery were convicted of conspiracy to keep and sell methamphetamine they were sentenced to nine years in a federal penitentiary with the emery's in prison authorities were able to focus on the disappearance and possible homicide of christine elkins according to maryville police investigator randy strong tony emery was a dangerous man to cross the community had a great fear of tony emory if we had a witness to him doing a crime they simply wouldn't come forward or they would back out of the case no one wanted to talk about it because they were afraid of what he might do to him but with the emory cousins safely behind bars authorities hoped their associates would no longer be afraid to talk and they had a lead in their taped conversations herb emery had told james witt about a third man who was present the night of the murder bobby miller was a friend of herbs in colorado but when investigators tried to question miller they got nowhere [Music] even from prison the emery's cast a frightening shadow investigators went to one of the emery's rental properties mentioned in a monitored conversation between herb emery and james witt they suspected that this was the site where christine had been murdered the woman who answered the door confirmed that she rented the house from the emery's once inside investigators were dismayed to find the house had been gutted and remodeled if christine had been murdered on the premises all evidence of the crime had been destroyed out of options the investigators re-examined their case files looking for a clue something they might have missed the first time that would link the emery's to christine's murder investigators found phone records linking bobby miller to herb emery around the time christine disappeared [Music] they also learned that bobby miller had rented a truck near maryville the night christine was last seen it suggested his involvement but they had to find a way to get him to talk [Music] in september 1996 six years after christine's disappearance police went back to miller [Music] okay bobby you know why he offered him immunity in exchange for his testimony on the advice of his attorney miller took the deal miller admitted he was outside her memory's rental property the night christine elkins disappeared he said he watched her go inside where herb and tony waited when he heard screams he panicked and drove off investigators believed they knew what happened next but without a body making a murder case against the emery's would be difficult if not impossible seven years had passed since christine elkin's disappearance the atf and the maryville missouri police had bobby miller's account of her murder but no evidence to back it up and they were running out of time the suspects in her disappearance tony and herb emery were about to be paroled from prison determined to prevent their release authorities scrutinized every facet of their case they decided to take a closer look at the emery's associates dana kleiser wasn't directly involved with emory or his drug ring in fact investigators interviewed him only because tony had once dated his sister according to klizer tony emery arrived at his rural home the night christine disappeared [Music] he asked to borrow some gas then asked klyser to show him a nearby boat ram [Music] wary of emery's reputation klyser didn't ask any questions but led him to a boat ramp on the missouri river tony told him to wait several miles away pieces of the puzzle were falling into place investigators now believed they knew the location of the car containing christine's body we now realized that we had to try at least plan to recover a body out of the missouri river and i think the thing that was going through both of our minds was a great flood of 1993 and i know i was thinking that unfortunately christine is probably in the gulf someplace now after that flood the currents of the missouri river are normally powerful enough to move something the size of a car great distances during the 1993 floods the river became a raging torrent that overflowed its banks and caused millions of dollars in damage it was yet another long shot but it was all investigators had to go on to make a case against the emery's they had to find christine's car [Music] they enlisted the help of a non-profit organization called necro search international these colorado-based scientists helped law enforcement around the world find clandestine graves and hidden evidence when clark davenport a forensic geophysicist with necrosearch arrived at the boat ramp he'd already amassed a wealth of data prior to coming out to take magnetic measurements we looked at the make and model of the car talked to the manufacturer to determine the mass of metal in the motor we also looked at the currents in the river the river bottom conditions river speed the floods that happened since the car had gone into the river and the float time from the manufacturer how long they figured a car would float armed with that information necro search scientists spent two days searching a six mile area adjacent to the boat ramp they used a magnetometer a torpedo-shaped device that measures changes in magnetic fields floating several feet below the river's surface it takes readings every two seconds and recognizes large masses such as a car used in conjunction with global positioning satellites the magnetometer enabled necro search scientists to precisely pinpoint five locations where abnormal masses or anomalies were present on the riverbed i felt pretty confident that the anomalies were consistent with what i would expect from a car of that size the next day investigators returned to the boat ramp with a team of divers fighting the murky river's current the divers searched the five areas davenport pinpointed as likely locations for the car within hours one of the divers surfaced holding up a missouri license plate against all odds investigators had finally found christine elkin's car this was incredible moment uh it was kind of like excalibur coming up out of the lake with the sword you know it's just amazing it you know just the emotion that was involved in that we knew that we were getting closer now we're going to put closure on this case divers attached steel cables to the car and pulled it from the water it was sent to a maryville garage for processing inside forensic examiners discovered a piece of wood wedged between the driver's seat and the accelerator in the trunk they found bones wrapped in carpet padding using hospital x-rays the medical examiner confirmed that they had finally found the remains of christine elkins the autopsy revealed a large hole in the skull consistent with blunt force trauma christine had apparently been beaten to death investigators had the physical evidence they needed to charge the emery's with murder they believed tony found out christine was going to testify against him and offered her money to disappear she was too terrified to turn him down but when she went to the house that night the emery's had other plans once inside tony and herb attacked christine tony dealt the lethal blow striking her in the head with a heavy flashlight her body was wrapped in carpet padding put in the trunk of her car and driven to the boat ramp there tony rigged the accelerator and sent the car down the ramp into the river herb emery pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison [Music] tony emery was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole [Music] in maryville authorities knew the name of the victim and suspected killers but struggled for seven years to find her body in a rural virginia county investigators had to identify a body before the search for a murderer could even begin amelia county is a sprawling community located in the rolling hills of western virginia it's a neighborly area with a low crime rate not the place for murder in 1990 while hunting for deer a man made a gruesome discovery on an embankment near a small creek he found a human skull he took it to the amelia county sheriff's department sheriff jimmy weaver examined the skull its condition told him it had been outside for some time the presence of a long reddish hair as well as the skull's small size and features suggested that the victim was probably female two opposing holes in the skull were consistent with entry and exit wounds made by a single bullet sheriff weaver and his deputy went out to the scene on my way in i was trying to think of who it could be there was no one in amelia missing no one had called me amy is a small close county if something happens we know right away after securing the area weaver conducted a thorough search they found more bones jewelry part of a blanket and a piece of denim concerned that animals might have scattered additional clues the investigators broadened their search [Music] they soon discovered what appeared to be an arm bone and a gold bracelet [Music] the evidence seemed to confirm sheriff weaver's original theory that the victim was female [Music] weaver sent the evidence to the virginia state medical examiner's office in richmond for analysis chief medical examiner marcella fierro examined the remains the skull told her a great deal about the victim first it showed that it was a young white female second it showed that it had a gunshot wound and that there was injury related to this gunshot wound and the the trajectory of where this bullet went in and where it fractured on the other side indicated it had a path that was lethal as the examination of the skeletal remains continued the medical examiner's office was able to establish that the victim had been five feet two to five feet four inches tall with reddish blonde hair the description was distributed to law enforcement agencies across the state of virginia the search was on for any missing women matching amelia county's jane doe now sheriff weaver could only hope and wait in january 1990 the sheriff's department in amelia county virginia needed a lead to establish the identity of skeletal remains found in an isolated area it wasn't long in coming police in chesapeake virginia reported that a woman who fit the victim's description had been missing for eight months [Music] dental records confirmed the victim was 29 year old regina butkowski known to her friends as jeannie [Music] the same day deputies showed jeannie's mother the jewelry recovered from the scene she identified it as her daughters [Music] chesapeake police forwarded the butkowski case files to amelia county as weaver reviewed them he learned the circumstances of genie's disappearance [Music] on the evening of may 6 1989 jeannie's roommate discovered that the front door of their house had been kicked in concerned she checked the parking lot for jeannie's car it wasn't there she called jeannie's mother who said she'd last spoken to her daughter at 10 45 the night before one fact in the police files immediately caught sheriff weaver's attention genie's stormy relationship with a man named pernell jefferson jeannie had met jefferson at a local gym he became her personal trainer and the two dated for several months when jefferson became too possessive genie tried to distance herself from him but he refused to back off one of the things that he had somewhat of an obsession with was with regina he was not going to except the fact that she wasn't his jefferson's obsession had become frighteningly clear when he allegedly kidnapped genie in march 1989 but by an amazing stroke of luck more than seven minutes of that struggle had been reported on her home answering machine it was a very dramatic tape no one really knew how it was recorded but it was and it was a situation of huge tell no pernell don't hurt me don't do things and it proceeded on you could hear noise in the background and probably one of the most dramatic things of it is that one time you heard this tremendously deep sob from regina weaver learned that genie's roommate told jefferson about the tape and threatened to call police he released genie she refused to press charges against him however out of fear he might take out his anger on someone close to her two months later jeannie butkowski again disappeared sheriff weaver focused the investigation on purnell jefferson a lead came in from genie's parents they had received a letter regarding their daughter's car from an apartment complex in richmond virginia 130 miles away from genie's home the manager of the apartments alerted them that jeannie's car had been sitting in the parking lot for six months [Music] investigators examined her car hoping for clues to link jefferson to the murder they were disappointed during the time the car had been there it had been subjected to the elements when they had the flood in richmond he had been submerged in the flood so a lot of the evidentiary value from that vehicle was lost but a new lead was quickly established a resident of the apartment complex told investigators that he knew a man who used to drive the car investigators soon learned that genie's car had changed hands several times they eventually traced it to a man named daryl jones who was incarcerated in henrico county jones told deputies he bought the car from a local man named west greene greene was with a stranger who claimed the car belonged to his girlfriend he'd taken it away from her and driven it up from chesapeake because he was angry with her investigators suspected the stranger was pernell jefferson they wanted to know more and believed wes green might hold the key they just needed to find him as evidence against bernal jefferson mounted the amelia county sheriff's department believed his friend wes green might know more about the murder of jeannie butkowski deputies quickly tracked green down to an apartment complex in richmond when questioned he admitted he helped jefferson get rid of jeannie's car the officer persisted green added that jefferson had borrowed a co-worker's car around the time genie disappeared if the car had been used to dispose of her body it was probable that incriminating evidence had been left behind [Music] deputies went to the appliance rental store where purnell jefferson had once worked a co-worker confirmed that on may 5th the day jeannie disappeared jefferson had borrowed his car he didn't return the vehicle until late that night a few days later jefferson went to lunch and never returned investigators obtained permission to search the employee's car the search yielded incriminating results technicians found traces of lime a corrosive substance that hastens decomposition more importantly they found a reddish blonde hair similar to the one found on jeannie butkowski's skull the hair was sent to the crime lab for analysis a comparison indicated the two hairs were consistent in texture and color investigators now had their first physical evidence connecting jefferson to jeannie batkowski's murder sheriff weaver swore out a warrant for the arrest of pernell jefferson on capitol murder charges authorities traced jefferson to stuart florida where he'd moved shortly after jeannie's disappearance [Music] on february 3rd 1990 a swat team burst into the suspect's home to find him hiding in a closet [Music] they quickly took him into custody [Music] jefferson was extradited to amelia county to stand trial for murder based on the evidence investigators pieced together the events of the night jeannie butkowski died on may 5th 1989 bernell jefferson and wes green drove from richmond to chesapeake and broke into genie's house as she slept jeannie struggled with jefferson who dragged her outside he forced her into her own car and sped away [Music] green left separately [Music] although investigators never learned the precise location of her murder they suspected jefferson stopped at a remote area as he drove back to richmond he initially disposed of her body just outside the city fearing it might be discovered there jefferson recruited wes green to help him move the body to amelia county where they buried it in a shallow grave pernell jefferson thought he'd covered his tracks but he underestimated sheriff weaver and his deputies he thought that he would bring her out to a rural county to where that probably there was a rural law enforcement agency that that wouldn't find it or if they did wouldn't solve it on march 28 1991 bernell jefferson stood trial in amelia county for killing jeannie butkowski he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years wes greene was also charged and convicted for his role in genie's abduction in a murder investigation police often discover the killer was close to the victim but when a killer preys on a stranger he is far more difficult to find nestled at the junction of two rivers wichita kansas is an all-american city with a touch of old west charm in this story some of the names have been changed [Music] on september 17 1995 a woman phoned the wichita police to report a missing person she said her friend jody mccown got into a maroon car on south broadway around 1 30 the night before and hadn't returned most missing persons turn up within a few days but south broadway is a tough neighborhood plagued by drugs and prostitution the wichita police immediately began looking for jody macau detectives contacted becky sims the woman who called in the missing persons report hoping she could give them more information becky told him she was with jody and her boyfriend keith perry the night jody disappeared a man drove up in a maroon car and told him he was looking for drugs he introduced himself as chester higginbotham jody and keith got into the car to talk to him becky heard the man offer jody 200 to help him find drugs jody was reluctant but keith said they needed the money he took 100 and got out of the car detective dana gouge recalls becky was uneasy about the unusual circumstances of higginbotham's request she was very suspicious of the situation because of the amount of money that was offered to jody in this situation she found a very strange so strange that she wrote down that tag number the car investigators traced the license plate to a resident named matthew murphy who lived in the nearby town of newton they wondered who chester higginbotham was and how he was connected to murphy they ran a background check on the two men i'm working on that now they also ran a background check on jody's boyfriend keith perry they soon learned he had several outstanding drug warrants during questioning perry confirmed becky sims's account of jody's disappearance with one major difference he denied encouraging her to join higginbotham in the car suspicious of perry's involvement detectives obtained a warrant to search his apartment they didn't find anything to implicate him but collected various items for possible dna testing later by now investigators had the results from the background checks on chester higginbotham and matthew murphy a comparison of fingerprints photographs and dmv records proved that matthew murphy and chester higginbotham were the same man he had arrest records for burglary and theft going back many years under both names in fact there were several burglary charges pending against the murphy alias in kansas as well as other states the identity change and arrest records made lieutenant ken landwear of the wichita police department highly suspicious when we find out that matthew murphy is an alias for chester higginbotham it's again a clue that's going to show us that he's trying to hide his background which has to mean that if he's hiding his background there's probably something there that's more serious than burglaries and thefts police called higginbotham who readily admitted he picked up jodie mccown on september 16th but he said he dropped her off later and hadn't seen her since despite his claim police were anxious to question him and search his residence we had hopes of being able to look through his house try to determine whether or not he may have been involved in this and also we had hopes that we would be able to find jody a lot because higginbotham was the last person seen with jody investigators were able to obtain a search warrant whatever he was hiding investigators hoped to find the answers in his house [Music] wichita and newton kansas police struggled to solve the disappearance of 28 year old jodie mccown she was last seen with a man named chester higginbotham when investigators arrived at higginbotham's house nobody was there armed with a warrant they began searching for clues detective t walton found nothing to suggest murder we were picking up fibers from carpeting we were looking at his boots and his shoes we were looking for a body but we did not find a body inside the house investigators were pondering their next move when a car pulled up in front of the house and a couple got out the man calmly identified himself as matthew murphy and asked what was happening investigators produced a warrant and brought them to the station for questioning [Music] have a seating at you under interrogation murphy admitted his real name was chester higginbotham he claimed he assumed an alias when he and his wife were placed into the federal witness protection program [Music] according to higginbotham they were both witnesses in a mob related murder case higginbotham reiterated his original account that he picked up a girl fitting jody mccown's description on september 16th he said she was leaving town so he dropped her off at the bus station around midnight to detectives his story didn't quite ring true his times of dropping jody off were not consistent with the times that our bus stations were open here in wichita either the city buses or the trailway buses by going in and questioning about that he was still insistent that that's what he did we knew that that could not have been true at the investigator's request higginbotham agreed to submit blood hair and saliva samples in the event a dna comparison was called for in the future [Music] detectives also spoke with his wife vicky she told them she didn't know her husband's real name was higginbotham and contradicted his assertion that they were in the witness protection program [Music] vicky also said her marriage was troubled and she believed her husband was seeing other women [Music] when asked about the night jody mccown disappeared vicki said she came home from work and found a note from her husband [Music] he said he was going to pick up parts for a car he was working on at a rented garage when he hadn't arrived home by 3 am vicki drove to the garage to look for him she said she caught him with a girl in his car although her husband wouldn't let her near the vehicle she could see a girl with brown hair in the passenger seat when vicki confronted her husband he claimed he was only giving the girl a ride vicki told her to come home immediately and then left she said her husband arrived at the house about five minutes later based on the contradictory information obtained from vicki investigators questioned higginbotham again when they asked him about the girl at the garage he claimed she was a friend from a local bar but detectives suspected it was jody mccown armed with a warrant police searched higginbotham's rented garage inside the suspect's car they found a wad of green duct tape with hair stuck in the adhesive investigators also collected a white button with thread black zip ties a roll of green duct tape and yellow rope detectives now believe chester higginbotham had murdered jodie mccown but they still couldn't prove it without a body over the course of several weeks investigators conducted a thorough search of the area surrounding his rented garage but they didn't find anything without jody mccown's body it appeared chester higginbotham might be getting away with murder weeks after her disappearance wichita police were no closer to finding jodie mccown though they suspected a man named chester higginbotham was involved in her disappearance they had no solid proof that a crime had even been committed on october 11th nearly a month after jody's disappearance a county groundskeeper working on the outskirts of town made a grisly discovery the decomposed body of a woman lay in a ditch by the side of the road when investigators arrived they believed they'd finally found jodie mccown [Music] the victim lay face down a sweater and various undergarments were found near the body as they searched for clues the scene yielded a wealth of physical evidence she had the black plastic zip ties on her she had green duct tape just like was found in the shed wrapped completely around her head covering her nose and mouth area the hands and and feet were bound together with yellow rope that was similar to the rope that was all in the shed fingerprint analysis confirmed the victim was jody mccown the medical examiner performed an autopsy and collected hair and fiber evidence from the body she removed the duct tape for further analysis based on her findings the medical examiner ruled the probable cause of death was asphyxiation caused by the duct tape covering the victim's nose and mouth due to the advanced decomposition of the body the medical examiner was unable to determine whether jody had been sexually assaulted and there was insufficient material for dna analysis detectives would have to build their case on other evidence at the wichita police department crime lab evidence technician patrick cunningham hoped the duct tape would lead investigators to her killer using a solution called gentian violet cunningham looked for latent prints left on the tape when the dye comes into contact with human protein residues like those left by fingerprints a vivid purple stain appears when the tape from jody mccown's body was put into the gentian violet solution the results were disappointing and when we examined the back side of it near the torn edge there were some partial fingerprint impressions in that area but there wasn't enough minutia for comparative purposes forensic examiners had one last chance to make their case against chester higginbotham at the sedgwick county regional forensic science center in wichita forensic examiner gary miller would use fracture analysis to try to prove the duct tape from jody's body came from the roll of tape in higginbotham's rented garage first he painstakingly separated individual pieces from the tape recovered from jody's body then he analyzed the torn edges to establish the sequence in which the pieces had been torn from the roll upon aligning the torn edge we can go and see that the fractures such as the jigsaw puzzle fits together but we're also able to align that the spacing between these threads are consistent and visually we can tell from the color they are consistent miller's analysis proved that the roll of duct tape collected from higginbotham's garage had been used to bind jody mccown forensic scientists also compared fibers recovered from the victim's clothing with carpet fibers taken from higginbotham's car under a microscope the texture and color of the fibers were consistent detectives had finally established physical links between jody mccown and chester higginbotham scientists then compared the button and thread found at the garage with those on jodi mccown's shirt they carefully measured the buttons noting similarities in size design and material the threads from the garage and the victim's shirt were consistent in the end forensic science had given detectives enough evidence to make a homicide charge [Music] stick based on the evidence police reconstructed the sequence of events on the night jody was murdered they believe chester higginbotham took jodie mccown to the rental garage [Music] he overpowered her bound her with duct tape and killed her he then disposed of the body in a ditch by the side of the road chester higginbotham also known as matthew murphy was convicted of first degree murder and kidnapping he was sentenced to 40 years without the possibility of parole once time and the elements could destroy evidence linking a killer to his victim but forensic technology has found new ways around these obstacles [Music] investigators can overcome impossible odds and bring justice to murder victims who were long considered [Music] missing [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The New Detectives

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Keywords: The New Detectives, New Detectives, New Detectives Full Episode, Full Episodes, New Detectives Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True Crime Daily, Unsolved, FBI, FBI Files, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Unsolved True Crime, Mystery, Solved, Investigation, Police, Criminal, Forensics, Forensic Science, Science

Id: H6RSlkBpZ4w

Length: 49min 54sec (2994 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 07 2020