- Hi everyone. My name is Joshua Miles and I'm guessing if you're watching this then you are a massive
true crime enthusiast, just like me. For those of you who are in the U.S. who are avid true crime fans, you'll probably have heard about CrimeCon. Now CrimeCon is the world's
number one true crime event. And I am delighted to let you know that CrimeCon has made the jump across the pond and has arrived in the UK. I'm so happy to tell you that
in June of 2021 in London, there will be the first ever CrimeCon UK. And I do hope that I will get to see all of your lovely faces there. (train whooshing) - [Narrator] The nation's railroads become the conduit of a killer. He strikes at random, then disappears. (suspenseful music) Recurring clues tell police they face the worst predator of all. A ritual serial killer. He's cunning, deadly, and on the move. (suspenseful music) But the authorities are determined to stop him in his tracks. (suspenseful music)
(gun roars) (camera shutter clicks) - More than 200,000 miles of train track cross the United States. From California to Kentucky, few living near a railroad felt
safe in the summer of 1999. A serial killer rode the rails, picking towns and victims at random. He left behind a trail of bloodshed, but no trace of where
he would turn up next. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head
of the FBI's New York office. As the number of victims grew,
the FBI enlisted the help of a profiler to help predict
the killer's next move. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] On December 17th, 1998 in West University Place, Texas, a young woman called the
police from outside the house of a friend she worked with. She was worried about her. She told them that her friend, a prominent doctor at a
nearby medical school, had failed to show up
at work that morning. - We'll be on arriving on the scene. - [Female Officer] Look, here they are- - [Narrator] According to her colleague, this was completely out of character. She had not responded to phone
calls to the house all day. Nor had she answered her door. - When we hung up, everything was fine. She said she'd see me tomorrow and- - [Male Officer] Nothing
out of the ordinary? - Nothing out of the ordinary. And that was yesterday. - [Narrator] The colleague was sure that something was wrong. - [Colleague] Thank
you so much for coming. It's just not like her to do this. And I'm just very concerned about her. - [Narrator] The doors and windows of the house were locked. (suspenseful music) From the outside,
everything seemed normal. - [Colleague] It's just not like her to miss an important thing,
an important day like this. - [Narrator] The officers found that the garage door was unlocked. (garage door rattles) And inside, the door
to the house wide open. Jewelry on the floor suggested a robbery. - 222 I'm (indistinct)
a possible burglary. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The house had been ransacked. The officers moved cautiously. An intruder could still be inside. The downstairs was clear. But a trail of clothes
led to the second floor. (suspenseful music) In the master bedroom,
they found the doctor She had been brutally murdered - 222. Lemme have a supervisor and a crime scene unit to the scene. - [Dispatcher] 10-4. (radio muttering) - [Narrator] Detective Kenneth
Macha responded to the scene. Though a 10-year veteran
of the department, he was surprised by the
report of a homicide. (siren wails) - West University Place was
just a small little suburb, 2.2 square miles, right
in the middle of Houston. Largely residential and
an affluent community. And the last time we
had a murder was in 1985 during the robbery of a pharmacy. (radio muttering) - [Narrator] The brutality of the crime struck the detective. - [Kenneth] Blood spatter
was all over the place in the hallway and on
the walls and the door. (crime scene detectives murmuring) The body was completely covered, except for one arm sticking
out and her two legs. There was a large butcher
knife that was near the body, laying on a pillow. - [Narrator] Investigators also recovered a heavy, blood-spattered
blunt object nearby. Both were weapons of
opportunity the killer found in the house.
(suspenseful music) Police contacted the doctor's husband and learned he had taken the couple's two children out of town to visit relatives before Christmas. They'd been gone for several days. (detectives murmuring) - [Kenneth] The victim
had work obligations to take care of that week so she was not able to travel with them. - [Male Officer] Come take
a look at this over here. - [Narrator] Evidence suggested that the killer had taken
his time in the house. He tore open Christmas gifts and rummaged through
the victim's belongings. - [Kenneth] The contents of
her purse were spilled out and her driver's license was
clearly left out and displayed. It was quite strange to see it like that. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] In the kitchen, the detective found partially-eaten fruit. Possibly more evidence the
killer had lingered in the house. He also found the keys
to the victim's Jeep. According to the doctor's husband, it was the only set. In the garage, there were
no foreign fingerprints at the suspected point of entry. But on a work bench, investigators
found the broken cover of a steering column
next to some pry tools. The killer must have
stolen the victim's Jeep. - We surmised then that he had to break the steering column of the Jeep to actually crank it up and to start it. - [Narrator] Here, the murderer
made a crucial mistake. - [Kenneth] When I
picked up the large piece of the steering column, I could visibly see fingerprints
on the shiny black plastic. - [Narrator] The column cover was bagged for later analysis at the lab. At autopsy, the medical examiner
determined cause of death. Multiple stab wounds and blunt
force trauma to the head. The victim had been sexually assaulted. (suspenseful music) The gruesome nature of the
murder worried Detective Macha. - [Kenneth] It just didn't fit the pattern of a random killing. It was a step beyond. - [Narrator] Investigators
knew that killers like this Usually don't strike only once. (traffic whooshing) Two days later and 200 miles away, San Antonio police found an abandoned Jeep in a motel parking lot.
(suspenseful music) The plates were traced
to West University Place. It belonged to the doctor. The plastic cover of the
steering column was missing. (suspenseful music) Inside, investigators found
a guitar and a meat cleaver. The doctor's husband had noted that both items were
missing from the house. Someone had hot wired the Jeep in a hurry. - [Kenneth] We noticed too
that the steering column was just in absolute disarray. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The Jeep was
fingerprinted inside and out but technicians found no usable prints At the police department's forensics lab, analysts made electronic
copies of the fingerprints lifted from the Jeep's
steering column cover and ran them through an
automated matching system. - And at that time we got a positive match on an individual named Carlos Rodriguez. - [Narrator] A computer
check revealed another name Rafael Resendez-Ramirez. This was forwarded to the FBI's Criminal Justice
Information Services Division. A search of their extensive
database revealed dozens of other aliases and more
information on Resendez. He had an extensive record
going back more than 20 years and an active warrant on
a stolen vehicle charge. (car rumbling)
(suspenseful music) Investigators reviewed the suspect's file from the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. And learned Resendez traveled
regularly and illegally between the United States and Mexico. Most recently, he had been
arrested in California for trespassing on railroad
property with a loaded firearm and was deported to Mexico. Now it appeared that Rafael
Resendez was back in Texas. (suspenseful music) His transient lifestyle would
make him difficult to find. Detective Macha searched
the suspect's records for a place to start. And found the name of
the fugitive's sister. She lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico - Good afternoon- - [Narrator] In a
prearranged phone conference, Macha spoke with her at the
Albuquerque Police Department. - Hello? - Might be able to get some things, some information about your
brother if that'd be all right. - [Kenneth] She wasn't
able to tell me a whole lot about current activity of her brother. She did not have much contact with him. She did mention that he would sometimes
drift through Albuquerque, stay with her for a few days,
and then just disappear. - [Narrator] Detective
Macha asked her to call if she heard from her brother. - And I think there was a little
bit of anger and resentment on her part at having
to be involved with it. She really didn't wanna
be associated with him if indeed he was a real killer as we thought that he was. - [Narrator] Authorities also
asked the public for help. They distributed wanted
posters along the train routes Resendez was known to use. (train rattling) Dozens of tips turned up nothing. (bell rings) In March, three months
after the doctor's murder, there was a series of reported
sightings in rail yards near San Antonio. - [Security Guard] Sector
one, this is sector two... - [Narrator] Resendez had
traveled 200 miles west. Each time, he fled before
police could respond. (horn beeps) The suspected killer
was still on the move, hopping trains and eluding authorities. With thousands of miles of
train tracks to choose from, Rafael Resendez could be anywhere. (insects chirring)
(wind chime tinkling) Five months after the doctor's murder and only 90 miles away in Weimar, Texas, members of a local church
went to check on their pastor. He and his wife had not
been at church that morning. - The door's wide open! Pastor!
- Pastor! - Pastor! (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The couple was
found murdered in their own bed. Weimar's a small town. Murder is nearly unheard of. Texas Rangers and the Fort
Bend County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene. (radio muttering) - Okay. - [Narrator] The preacher and
his wife had been bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer. A weapon of opportunity
taken from their garage. The coroner set time of death
at 24 to 36 hours earlier. - To the right side of the head. - [Narrator] The couple had
been murdered late Friday or early Saturday morning. - No defensive wounds
to either one of them. - [Narrator] Money and
valuables lay in plain sight. Robbery was clearly not the motive. Deputies processed the
bedroom with luminol, a chemical that reacts to the protein in blood
and other bodily fluids. It revealed the victim's blood and bodily fluid from an unknown source. Forensic testing later revealed the woman had been sexually assaulted. (officers murmuring) It appeared that after the murders, the killer had lingered
at the crime scene. He ate in the victim's kitchen and took his time studying
their driver's licenses. The investigators at
the scene were unaware of the West University Place murder. - [Male Officer] Both licenses. - [Narrator] But not for long. - [Male Officer] Picked these up. (train rumbling) - [Narrator] In May,
1999, Texas authorities were on the trail of a
fugitive, Rafael Resendez. Fingerprints implicated him in the murder of a doctor
in West University Place. Four months later, a preacher and his wife were found beaten to death in their home in Weimar. (officers murmuring) The couple's red pickup truck was missing, probably stolen by the killer. (wind chimes tinkling) Police put out an APB for the vehicle. At the Department of Public Safety, investigators from the
Texas Rangers were troubled by the crime scene. The evidence in the house, partially-eaten food
and displayed ID cards, suggested a ritualistic killer. The Rangers contacted the
FBI's Houston field office to get the opinion of a criminal profiler. Special Agent Mark Young.
(suspenseful music) - You have, in a crime
scene, a lot of messages, a lot of forensic evidence and
a lot of behavioral evidence. You can pick up not only the
forensics, the fingerprints, the DNA, the hairs and fibers
and those types of things. But you can also get a look
into the offender's behavior. The way he commits that crime is unique. It's different than any other offender. - [Narrator] Young noted
that this killer acted with extreme rage, but no sign of panic. - What really struck me behaviorally was this offender, unlike a lot of others, spent an incredible amount of time in that house,
going through everything. Their wallet and purse, respectively, were opened up and their
identification was showing. In other words, the offender sat there and looked at their photographs. Not taking any credit
cards, not taking any cash. - [Narrator] Profilers can analyze a killer's behavioral choices in an attempt to reveal details about him. In this case, after killing the victims, the perpetrator kept
striking with his weapon. (suspenseful music) But then he covered their bodies. This suggested perhaps even
he was repelled by the results of his actions. Displaying the victim's ID cards might be an act of domination, as if he wanted details
about the lives he had taken. One of the Texas Rangers Young spoke to had seen something like this before. - He realized, because
he had some knowledge of the case in West University, that some of the same types
of things had happened. And he said, hey guys, you
know, could this be connected? Not only are we looking at
some MO that seems similar, but we're looking at behavior,
this ritualistic behavior or what we call sometimes
signature of an offender. - [Narrator] If there was a connection between the two cases, the
forensics lab would find it. (suspenseful music) - [Mark] One of the advantages we had is that we had forensic
evidence in both places. We had fingerprints and DNA evidence in the West University case. We also had DNA evidence
at the Weimar location. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] DNA analysis revealed that the bodily fluid recovered
in both cases matched. The same man sexually
assaulted both women. (suspenseful music) Since the first victim's
Jeep had been recovered, investigators wondered how the killer got to the second crime scene. In both cases, the vehicle had
been stolen after the crime. - That would've mean, traditionally, that somebody had to
bring the person there or that they were somebody from close by. - [Narrator] Young studied the case file of suspect. Rafael Resendez. - [Mark] There was information already in that fugitive investigation indicating that Resendez got around by train. (shutter clicks) - [Narrator] According to the file, there were train tracks 50
yards from the doctor's house in West University Place. - [Mark] We turned around and looked. There's a train track immediately across the street from
the Weimar location. - [Narrator] With the two
cases directly connected, investigators believed Rafael Resendez was a ritual serial killer. - The manner that he did these crimes is somewhat evolutionary. You don't just wake up one day and boom, get involved in that type of crime. It's something that you've practiced, you've built up to,
and you've done before. And he's not gonna stop
all of a sudden either. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] They feared Resendez
was using stolen vehicles and the railroads to find his next victim. At the Houston field office, the FBI's fugitive squad
joined the hunt for Resendez. Special Agent Bobbi Eckerd
led the investigation. - We knew that he had
fled the jurisdiction and had most likely traveled interstate and, in fact, into Mexico. - [Female Officer] His
name is Rafael Resendez. - [Narrator] Because Resendez
had likely left Texas, they obtained an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant. - 57, 1958. - [Narrator] It would allow the FBI to add its federal resources to the hunt. - The first thing that we wanted to do is to find out everything that we possibly could about Resendez. We knew that he had been
arrested over 13 times. I immediately started getting all the prison record pen packets so that I could identify
not only relatives, but associates, determine his patterns. All the interviews revealed to us that this was a man who was
not well known by anybody. His family had not really
had a lotta contact with him since he left
home at 12 years of age and moved to Acapulco,
and eventually to Florida. - [Narrator] With little
to go on criminal profiler, Mark Young, tried to
unlock the drifter's past to predict his next move. (suspenseful music) He forwarded details of
both cases to analysts that the FBI's Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program. ViCAP analysts use sophisticated databases to identify similar unsolved cases. - Immediately, they were
able to return to me a case in Lexington, Kentucky. A Hispanic male had
assaulted a college student and murdered her boyfriend. (train whistle toots) (thunder rumbles) This happened late at night in 1997, near the railroad tracks where
these two had been walking. The male was killed by his
skull being crushed by a rock and the female was sexually assaulted. She was also physically assaulted. Pretty severe injuries. (thunder rumbles) - [Narrator] Though dazed by the attack, the young woman somehow survived. Seeing that her boyfriend was dead, she made her way to a nearby house where residents called the police. - She was able to give
them an artist depiction, a local artist, of the offender. - [Narrator] Young received the sketch from the Lexington Police Department. - [Mark] I compared it and I didn't immediately say,
wow, you know, this is him. What I felt was kind of a guarded optimism that this could be the same guy. - [Narrator] But a sketch isn't proof. Young needed scientific
evidence to be sure. He learned that the Lexington police still had DNA samples from the sexual
assault two years earlier and arranged for the samples
to be flown to the FBI lab in Washington, DC.
(suspenseful music) (traffic whooshing) At the DNA analysis unit, examiners began processing the samples. - A couple samples to be worked. - [Narrator] Examiner Alan Giusti. - Assault-homicide outta Kentucky. - We look at 13 different
unique DNA regions and we develop an individual
profile at each one of those regions. I describe it like looking at a person's physical characteristics. You can look at one DNA region and it might be the same
as another person's. And that'd be like saying that two people both have brown eyes. Well, that's very common. You look at 13 different DNA regions. It's like saying somebody has
brown eyes, is left-handed, is 6'3", has got red hair. The more DNA regions you look at, the more complete the picture
you get of the person. - [Narrator] After mapping the DNA profile of the perpetrator from Lexington, Giusti contacted the examiners in Texas who had mapped the samples from Weimar and West University Place. - By comparing the results that I obtained with the results they obtained, we were both able to determine that we had a possible common donor. In other words, that the same person was
committing these crimes. - [Narrator] In Texas,
Young forwarded the news to the other investigators. - I was able to call Lexington PD and I heard a lot of hooping and hollering because they thought it was
gonna be an unsolved case. (train whooshing) - [Narrator] Lexington Police
now had Rafael Resendez as their prime suspect. Authorities across the Southwest
canvassed homeless shelters and train yards. They knew Resendez was
out there, somewhere. On May 28th, authorities found
a preacher's truck abandoned near a train yard in San Antonio. (train whooshing) It looked like Resendez
had returned to the rails. Finding him would be an overwhelming task for Special Agent Eckerd and her team. - We had never faced this
type of obstacle before. There are thousands of tracks. There are thousands of trains every day. And it was difficult to determine
which line that he rode. - [Narrator] With a massive
search area to cover, they had to be resourceful.
(melancholy music) - [Bobbi] One way we handle this is we developed a small wanted poster that we gave to the people that frequently rode the railroads. - [Narrator] In train
yards across the nation, locals were advised to be on the lookout for Rafael Resendez. If they spotted him, they should call the FBI
fugitive squad immediately. - [Bobbi] When we received these calls, we would contact the railroad police. They would pull the person off
the train and identify them. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Agents and
railroad police responded to hundreds of sightings. (men shouting)
(melancholy music) - [Male Officer] Freeze! - [Narrator] Each time,
it wasn't Resendez. - (indistinct) Resendez. Just take him away. - [Narrator] The FBI's best
lead was the fugitive's sister in New Mexico. (phone rings) Agents stayed in contact with her, hoping she might hear from him. - If for any reason he's contacting you... - [Narrator] And if she did hear from him, they hoped she'd talk. - No, I told you the last
time we spoke that... - [Narrator] So far,
it seemed the only way to track Resendez was to
follow a trail of bodies. (brakes squealing) (suspenseful music) On June 4th, 1999, a Fayette County, Texas woman stopped by her mother's house to check on her. The 73-year-old widow lived alone. - Mom? (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The house had been ransacked. - Mom? - [Narrator] There was
no sign of her mother. - Mom? - [Narrator] As she searched
each room, her panic rose. - Mother! - [Narrator] Then, in the bedroom, she found her mother's body.
(suspenseful music) The elderly woman had
been bludgeoned to death. (suspenseful music) In 1999, agents were on the
trail of Rafael Resendez, linked to four murders
in Texas and Kentucky. As his notoriety grew,
the press dubbed him The Railroad Killer. Now an elderly widow had been murdered in rural Fayette County, Texas. Like the other victims,
she lived near a railroad. (radio muttering) The gruesome crime looked like
the work of Rafael Resendez according to FBI Special Agent Mark Young. - When you looked at that
real brutal style of murder, you felt like, yeah,
we've gotta be dealing with the same guy. Because she was covered similarly. There were jewelry boxes
that had been opened up. In other rooms, things had been opened and gone through and
there were items taken. - [Narrator] It was a familiar
and disturbing pattern. Cash and jewelry had been left behind. - The right side, behind the right ear. - [Narrator] Instead,
the killer stole trinkets and personal items, as
if taking souvenirs. (officers murmuring) Fingerprints in the laundry
room indicated the killer had broken in through a rear window. (suspenseful music) The print was later matched to Resendez. After slaying his victim, he was in no rush to leave. - [Mark] Not only did he go
around to all of the rooms, take certain items, and spend
an inordinate amount of time. He went and had some fruit and some bread, which was a thing that we
had seen a number of times. - [Male Officer] Fruit that's been eaten. - I take that to be more of a signature, showing that I totally own
and dominate this individual and their belongings more than I'm hungry and
I need something to eat. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Two distinctive clues at the Fayette County
scene seemed intended as a message to investigators. A newspaper had been placed on the sofa, open to an article about the recovery of the preacher's stolen vehicle. (suspenseful music) In a guest bedroom,
they found a toy train. It had been recently unpacked
and set up on the bed. It seemed the railroad killer
was taunting the authorities. - [Male Officer] Right. - [Narrator] A canine
unit followed his scent to the train tracks. (suspenseful music) From there, the trail went cold. (horn toots) (train rumbling) Less than 24 hours later, the next victim was discovered. Another gruesome murder
near railroad tracks. This one 95 miles from Fayette County. - [Mark] I got a call in
regard to a crime scene in Houston that was being assessed by the Houston Police Department. They were noticing some similarities. - [Narrator] The
26-year-old school teacher was found sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death in her bedroom. Her driver's license had
been removed from her wallet and displayed on a table. (suspenseful music) Like the other victims, she lived near railroad tracks. - [Male Officer] Get a
picture of the license. - [Narrator] The teacher's car, a white Honda sedan, had been stolen. Later DNA analysis confirmed Resendez had assaulted the woman. Now he was killing at a much faster pace. - It's like he was looking for something. - One of the concerns we did have was that this guy was gonna evolve into what we call a spree killer. A lot of times in the past, we've had serial killers,
Ted Bundy, for instance, that the pressure got so great that they went into a spree mode. And that is they begin to
kill a number of victims with really no cooling off period. (train horn toots)
(train rumbling) - [Narrator] With his
last two victims killed in a 24-hour period, it appeared Resendez had made
the shift to spree killer. (bell clanging)
(train rattling) - 2014, three stuff
protection on the conductor. (indistinct) - [Narrator] On June 6th,
a rail yard worker spotted the fugitive in Flatonia, Texas, halfway between Houston and San Antonio. - 2014, we have a trespasser on premises. Call central dispatch. Running westbound in the yard. - [Narrator] He immediately
notified local police and the FBI. (suspenseful music) - [Rail Yard Worker] 2014, we
got an emergency situation. Male has fled westbound. - [Narrator] Once again,
Resendez slipped away. - [Bobbi] Okay guys, we've got
some additional information. - [Narrator] At the
Houston FBI field office, Operation Train Stop was created. Now investigators from
more than 30 agencies were assigned exclusively to the case. - You'll remember we got... - [Narrator] Special Agent
Bobbi Eckerd was part of the operation that was
comprised of two basic squads. - You had the one squad that was the serial homicide investigators that were looking into
the various homicides, developing evidence of crimes. Then the other side was
the fugitive investigators that their sole purpose was to locate, apprehend, and arrest Resendez. Fayette County. - [Narrator] The fugitive
squad looked for patterns in the suspect's past. - [Bobbi] We were able to determine that he followed the crops
throughout the United States. In Washington state, he followed the avocado route. In Florida, he would be
involved in the citrus crops. In Kentucky and North Carolina, he would pick tobacco. - [Narrator] After
identifying farm work sites and addresses of friends and family, agents would try to eliminate
these comfort zones. (suspenseful music) - And you go everywhere that
you can possibly think of that the fugitive might show up. By going there, by law enforcement
presence in those places, people aren't willing to help
out the fugitive anymore. - [Narrator] But this fugitive was comfortable traveling
fast and on his own, without any help. (suspenseful music)
(birds chirping) And his murder spree was not yet over. Eight days after the school
teacher was killed in Houston, her car was found 300 miles
away near the Mexican border. Inside was a knife. But no sign of where Resendez had gone. Nearby were train tracks. Giving the killer a clean
escape to almost anywhere. (suspenseful music)
(train rumbling) (suspenseful music) In 1999, more than 30 law
enforcement agencies hunted for Rafael Resendez, known
as The Railroad Killer. Whenever a new crime appeared
to be the work of the killer, Special Agent Mark Young investigated. - I was getting hundreds of calls from departments around the country, wanting me to listen to their
stories about their crimes and determine whether the
cases might be linked. - [Narrator] On June 15th, the bodies of a 51-year-old
woman and her father were discovered in their home
in rural Gorham, Illinois. - Right here's where the body... - [Narrator] The local sheriff's office believed Resendez was involved
and called Mark Young. - The sexual assault
apparently took place. - As soon as we walked on to the scene, we could have been in one of
our crime scenes in Texas. The double rail tracks were right behind the older man's residence. - [Narrator] The killer broke
in through a back window. - This one's left, right? - [Narrator] He used a
weapon of opportunity, a shotgun he found in the home. He stole a few trinkets. - [Male Officer] Our trigger
was here with all this... - [Narrator] And ate the victim's food. (officers murmuring) - Yeah, sure. We're clear. - [Narrator] But this time, the killer had added something new. A statement scrawled on the wall. - That his crime's going. - [Mark] A lot of people thought, oh God, we got some other type of offender here that's making a political statement. - [Male Officer] Pseudo-intellectual... - [Narrator] But Young knew better. He had reviewed the
fugitive's prison file, including his correspondence. - And he fantasizes that he's a... - [Mark] He had been
writing political messages and letters that we were
able to view in the past. - We've been reviewing
his prison pen packs from past incarcerations. - That was even further indication to me that this is the same offender because this now is the rest
of his fantasy coming out. - [Narrator] In his own mind, Resendez was a deep political thinker. (officers murmuring) But authorities knew he
was a vicious predator. - [Male Officer] He was
tied up in his chair. She was draped across the coffee table. (train horn toots) - [Narrator] They believed
he got to Gorham on the train and left in the victim's car, which was recovered the
next day 60 miles south, near the Kentucky border. (traffic whooshing) Police across the country
checked cold cases, looking for murders
Resendez might've committed. - [Male Officer] And it was blunt force... - [Narrator] Special Agent
Young investigated one in Hughes Springs, Texas. - Police department to the crime scene. - [Narrator] In October of 1998, a woman had been beaten to death with an antique flat iron. Though unsolved, the murder had been thoroughly
investigated and documented. - All right, okay. - [Mark] And I felt like
there was a good possibility that Resendez was responsible
for that case too. (suspenseful music) We had blunt-force trauma. She was an elderly victim. She was not sexually assaulted, but she was covered in a similar fashion. And in looking at his
crime scene photography, I see where her identification
had been placed up as if the offender looked at it. - [Male Officer] Because
it happened in the home. - [Narrator] Because the spree
killer could be anywhere, the FBI placed Rafael Resendez on their Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. His mugshots were posted
with 30 different aliases. Special Agent Bobbi Eckerd hoped it might shake new leads free. - What this does is it
raises the awareness of the case, the fugitive status. And it also allowed for
us to offer up to $50,000 for the successful
apprehension of Resendez. (train whooshing) - [Narrator] News of
the Resendez case swept through the country. On heightened alert, agents
and police searched hundreds of freight trains and train yards. (suspenseful music) It was as if Resendez had disappeared. (train rumbling) - A violation. - [Narrator] Don Clark, then special agent in charge of the Houston field office, held press conferences
to help spread the word. - 1999. - [Narrator] But he was candid
about the case's difficulty. - It's a very complex investigation. It's one like many of us have never been involved with before. We are dealing with a
lot of unknowns here. We're dealing with a lot
of pieces of information and it's a very difficult investigation for all of the agencies. (siren wails) - [Narrator] The story led
news broadcasts nationwide. And with eight victims now
dead, the public was terrified. - Eight is more than enough. Many more than enough. One is more than enough. And that's all that I
can assure the public is that law enforcement is working together to try and get this
person out of the street. - [Narrator] The fugitive
was deceptively smart and incredibly dangerous.
(suspenseful music) (train rattling) He could move across the country easily and slip across the border at will. - What we were trying to let people know was this is not some railroad hobo or bum that doesn't have any
sense traveling around. This is a guy with a good IQ that knew how to evade law enforcement, that we needed a lot of
assistance in capturing. This is a guy that was
attacking innocent people in their sleep. And there was nobody really safe. - [Narrator] The reward
for the fugitive's capture climbed to $125,000. Calls came in from all over the country. (phones ringing) In late June, Resendez was
spotted at a homeless shelter in Louisville, Kentucky.
(suspenseful music) But he never stayed in one place for long. Before the police could
arrive, he was gone. - Yes, Sergeant Mark... - [Narrator] Sergeant Mark Barnard of the Lexington Kentucky
Police Department warned the public. - If I lived near a railroad track, I'd certainly have it well lit. I'd check and make sure
nothing is out of the ordinary. I'd know my environment, my neighbors. I'd check my doors and windows. (suspenseful music)
(helicopter whirring) - [Narrator] The tips kept coming. - We had 3,178 calls that
came into the command post. From those calls, we
generated over 1100 leads. In other words, things
that needed to be done throughout the United
States and in Mexico. (trains whooshing) - [Narrator] One credible tip was phoned into the Denver field office. The caller reported seeing Resendez at a house in Commerce City, Colorado. (suspenseful music) After authorities traced a
phone call from the house to the Mexico town where
Resendez had family, a tactical arrest team responded. (men shouting) And moved in for the capture. (suspenseful music) Seven months into the
search for Rafael Resendez, an arrest team raided a house in Commerce City, Colorado. (men shouting) - [Male Officer] Put your hands up! - [Narrator] They secured the occupants and searched the house. - [Male Officer] On the couch. - [Narrator] But Resendez
was nowhere to be found. And authorities later determined the tip was a case of mistaken identity. Texas Rangers and the FBI kept in contact with a fugitive sister in New Mexico. - We're trying to locate
your brother as you know. Do you have any idea... - [Narrator] She assured
them that she had not heard from her brother, but
promised that if he called, she would contact them. - [Male Officer] I'd like to take a look at these photographs. - [Narrator] But at the FBI
command post in Houston, the next big lead concerned a relative no one knew about before. - [Male Officer] Another
case in the state of... - [Narrator] Agents learned
Resendez had a wife in Mexico. Special Agent Bobbi Eckerd followed up on the surprising new lead. - The command post became aware that he had a common-law wife
because she was interviewed by Mexican media. And a local station got a copy of that interview and
showed it, aired it locally. (suspenseful music) At that point, we brought
his wife to Houston for a two-day interview. - [Male Officer] Thanks for coming. - [Narrator] Authorities needed to know as much as they could about Resendez. His patterns and the places he had stayed. - [Resendez's Wife] Many different places. - [Male Officer] And did
he write you all the time? - She provided us with a lot
of information about Resendez and his habits over the
last two or three years. She advised that he brought her jewelry. He brought her figures,
sometimes little angel figurines. He brought her a guitar. I knew that a lotta these
items had been stolen from crime scenes. And it, in fact, turned
out that these items were linked to the homicides. - [Narrator] She said Resendez had been in Mexico very recently but she hadn't seen him in days. - Are we made aware of that? - [Narrator] She was cooperating because she feared he wasn't safe there. In Mexico, bounty hunters were after him. (train whooshing) Resendez was running
out of places to hide. (pager beeps) On July 10th, 1999, investigators
received a phone page from Albuquerque. It was the fugitive's sister. - Yes, I'm returning your call. - [Narrator] She needed
to talk to authorities. - Okay, we're on our way. - [Narrator] According to
Special Agent Mark Young. - There were relatives in Mexico
that were being approached by law enforcement, by bounty
hunters, by curiosity seekers. - Ms. Lopez, thank you for the page. Can you tell... - [Mark] There were people
that really didn't care how they got him across,
you know, dead or alive. I want the reward money. - [Narrator] She said her
brother had called her. - [Male Officer] Be unarmed and alone. - [Narrator] She did not
want him to be harmed. - [Male Officer] No surprises. - Law enforcement told her that we could affect a
safe surrender for him. And we would agree to treat him humanely and get him in custody
to resolve this thing. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] On July 12th, 1999, Rafael Resendez agreed to turn
himself into a Texas Ranger at a small border crossing. - [Male Officer] Mr. Resendez. Hands on your head. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Respecting
his sister's wishes, authorities agreed to let him walk across and to take him in with
a minimal arrest team. One of the most vicious serial killers in the nation's history was
taken into custody quietly and without incident. In followup interviews with Mark Young, Resendez would confess
to a total of 13 murders. Four of them not yet connected
to him by authorities. (suspenseful music) - [Mark] He could recall
in incredible detail crimes that occurred several years before. After discussions with him, I would contact the jurisdictions
that had primary control of the investigations
that he was referring to. And we resolved two homicides in Florida, Marion County, Florida,
one in Colton, California, and one homicide in
Barrow County, Georgia. - You tell me the train... - [Narrator] The question
in everyone's mind was why? In the interviews, Resendez
made the sickening claim that he killed to wipe out evil. Yet among his victims were a doctor, a preacher and his wife, a teacher, and elderly people. All upstanding citizens, well loved by their families. (shutters clicking) In the search for Rafael
Resendez took eight months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. (suspenseful music) In court, he attempted to
use an insanity defense to explain his crimes. But in May of 2000, he was found guilty of
first-degree murder. Four days later, Rafael
Resendez was sentenced to death. (dramatic music)
