Vanished | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

in the summer of 1988 a wealthy Jackson Mississippi Woman disappeared from her home broad daylight the only clue Left Behind was a mysterious Ransom note the FBI and local police struggled to find answers in its cryptic message so they could find the kidnapper and retrieve the victim before her time ran out foreign kidnapping and a bizarre Ransom note baffled Mississippi authorities the victim was the wife of a wealthy businessman a list of 12 names and a few drops of blood were the only Clues to her fate I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office The Ransom note gave the FBI its first leads but the case was not so clear-cut solving it required the Keen Insight of a criminal profiler and the perseverance of a family local authorities and the FBI 6 a.m July 26 1988 the heat of A Midsummer day would soon Bear Down on the southern city of Jackson Mississippi like every weekday for the past 48 years Annie Laurie Herron had coffee with her husband Robert before he left for work as early investors in oil the herons had become one of Mississippi's wealthiest couples with a fortune estimated at more than 100 million dollars that day Annie Laurie Herron would host her Bridge Club at home the same house where she raised two children and lived with her husband since they were Newlyweds foreign by 3 30 Mrs Heron's bridge game was over and her friends had left keeper finished cleaning up after the card game and checked if Mrs Herron needed anything else 73 year old woman said everything was fine Annie Herron planned to spend the rest of her afternoon reading until her husband returned she wasn't expecting anyone but perhaps one of the bridge players of the housekeeper had forgotten something her husband wasn't due home for an hour Annie Laurie Herron was on her own at about 4 30 that afternoon Robert Herron returned from work Daddy I'm home he saw that his wife wasn't home and figured she was out with her friends or daughter when she hadn't returned by 5 30 he thought it was strange that his wife of 48 years hadn't called or left a note the house seemed to be empty Robert grew concerned and began calling family and friends to anywhere that I can tell no one had seen Annie since the bridge game maybe maybe we're going to have to do something else thank you Robert's son-in-law who lived nearby said he would be right over son-in-law said he and his wife hadn't heard from Mrs Herron that day Robert Herron pointed out that when Annie left the house she usually took her purse but his wife's person's shoes sat beside her reading chair her newspaper and glasses were nearby you know we're just I I just don't know what to say Robert was worried since Mrs Herron's medicine for a chronic intestinal disease was still in the bathroom she would need to take it soon or she would not be able to absorb food the men continued to search for some indication of where she'd gone a piece of paper near the front door caught the son-in-law's eyes it was a ransom note without Specific Instructions Annie Laurie Herron had been kidnapped we've got to do something real fast the note demanded that Robert Herron paid 12 separate men before 10 days passed but it didn't say how much or where to send the money He was ordered not to call police so he waited for a ransom call with instructions on getting his wife back when none came by Nightfall he contacted the Jackson Police Department despite being warned not to officers secured The Ransom note hoping to keep any fingerprints intact processing the house for evidence officers discovered a trace of what appeared to be Blood on the front door frame laboratory tests would later reveal that it was blood and that it matched Mrs Heron's blood type a Jackson police detective interviewed Robert Herron they wanted to know if he or his wife had ever been fret-hearted he had no idea if Mrs Herron were without her medication for long her intestinal condition would become critical just hold it just like that kidnapping is a crime that must be solved quickly or the chances of rescuing the victim was Slim that evening Jackson Police contacted special agent Patrick McLennan of the FBI's Jackson Field office to bring the resources of the federal government to Bear right away under the federal kidnapping statute the FBI has jurisdiction whenever an individual is uh is kidnapped in the United States the presumption in this case of course was a kidnapping had occurred a ransom demand had been made and uh the possibility of travel interstate is in fact why the FBI gets involved in these types of matters the FBI called U.S attorney James Tucker who would advise investigators in legal matters as the case developed like most residents of Jackson Tucker had great admiration for the herons Robert Herron was a self-made man and at the time of this incident which was in 1988. Mr Herring was probably considered one of the foremost Financial Wizards here in the Jackson area he was well known in the business Community he was a generous person so he was becoming well-known for his particular acts of generosity by Dawn the next day FBI agents and evidence technicians arrived at the Heron's home the Jackson police detective filled in the case agent on what they'd learned so far the FBI set up a satellite command post at the residence and tapped the Heron's phone ready to trace any Ransom calls there was little doubt that multi-millionaire Robert Herron was the real Target yet Mr Herron haven't been told what to pay to get his wife back it was impossible to comply or nearly impossible to comply with the demands because they were non-specific in nature Mrs Herron was not even mentioned in the note there was no provision for her safe return the note did say that the 12 men listed had been involved in the same photography company Robert Herron explained that he had once served as chairman of the board for that company some of the company's franchisees had been sued to recoup losses but Herron did not know which ones it seemed unlikely that the 12 men named had kidnapped Mrs Herron but perhaps one or more of them was striking back at the company through Robert Herron technicians collected samples of all the writing pads and paper in the Heron's home they would compare the paper to The Ransom note to see if it had been written on the stock from the house the results would take a few days investigators searched outside the house for hairs blood clothing anything that might reveal the kidnapper's identity they looked for cigarette butts or evidence of food or drink signs that someone had been watching the house right there around they found nothing and yesterday afternoon to see Neighbors and domestic workers reported seeing nothing strange at the house the previous afternoon and no one had seen Mrs Herron leave what neighborhood the next day agents continued canvassing the Heron's neighborhood Posey they questioned a doctor who lived down the street he said that he had seen something in the neighborhood recently that might be related to the kidnapping two weeks earlier the doctor was going to run errands when he drove past a white van parked near his house from that position anyone in the van would have a clear view of the Heron house first the doctor thought nothing of it but when he returned home hours later the van was still there the driver needed help the doctor offered his assistance the driver responded by asking if there was a law against parking in the neighborhood time it was an odd response enough to make the doctor remember the incident thank you sir you uh think of anything else he said the van drove away minutes later agents continued to campus the herons neighborhood and found another neighborhood seen a white van on the street three months earlier the other neighbor had seen a van similar to the that described by the first individual sitting almost directly in front of the Heron residence in the very earliest days of April of 1988 she was suspicious enough of the van to get the license plate number if investigators could find that van they might also find Mrs Herron but a computer check revealed that the license plate had been stolen from a car at the New Orleans Airport it was another dead end after 36 hours of investigation and no Ransom calls agents hoped lab results on the Note would provide a fresh lead to Mrs Herron or her abductor FBI examiners first determined that the note had been typed on paper foreign to the Heron's home they also compare the typeface to known samples from every typewriter made in this century the laboratory division was able to determine that the demand letter was in fact typed by a Royal typewriter manufactured between 1912 and 1927. there was nothing else contained on the demand letter which would give analysts any type of ability to tell us the manufacture of the paper or whether there were any indented writing or other evidence on the letter a latent fingerprint examination revealed nothing and a spot on the Note believed to be a blood stain was too small to analyze although no evidence on the Note helped agents they hoped its message would the note demanded that Robert Herron paid 12 men who were involved with a photography cover perhaps the kidnapper was among them agents learned that the company had foreclosed on each of the twelve men all former franchisees to collect heavy debts one of the company's Executives provided the FBI with company files and photos of those men are you going to have to take those with you yes sir one was now deceased the others were scattered throughout the country at the FBI's Jackson Field office agents split up the 11 names and began to review the files and photographs they sent leads to FBI officers in the towns and cities where the men currently lived requesting additional information agents found that many had financial troubles he tried to ascertain if those men had traveled near the Heron neighborhood when the white van was spotted there and again recently when the kidnapping occurred FBI agents across the country began covert surveillance on the former franchisees they hoped one of the men would lead them to the eighth 73 year old woman but as the kidnapping investigation stretched into its third day only seven days remained on the ransom note deadline an agent still lacked instructions on how to recover Annie Laurie Herron alive Hi how are you ma'am three days had passed since Annie Laurie Herron an elderly grandmother had been abducted from her Jackson Mississippi home in broad daylight the FBI continued surveillance on 11 men named in the ransom note found inside the Heron's home agents couldn't confront the men a frightened kidnapper might harm the victim special agent Patrick McLennan hoped one of them would lead to the missing woman we wanted to determine if they were traveling even small distances from the residences or business we wanted to see if they perhaps were keeping Mrs Herron at a remote location where they might have to provide food water other conveniences for her that they wouldn't want to be too far away from the victim despite the efforts of dozens of Agents around the country they discovered no direct leads to Mrs Heron's whereabouts but they still resisted contacting the 11 men directly so as not to reveal the investigation FBI considered the possibility that the kidnapper might be someone other than the men listed on the Note Behavioral Science unit of the FBI Academy in Quantico Virginia for assistance profilers in the unit are agents trained to determine characteristics of criminals from the details of a case one profiler reviewed the evidence particularly The Ransom note looking for indications of the kidnapper's psychological makeup the profiler called in his findings to the Jackson FBI agents working the Heron kidnapping perpetuals being friends that we can all listen to the profiler confirmed that the kidnapper was likely one of the 11 suspects currently under surveillance huge nobody else would ever use so and since all those men had at least some college education he believed one of them had intentionally misspelled words and used an old typewriter to throw off investigators the profiler said the abduction was an act of revenge against Robert Herron by a paranoid individual and was willing to kill Behavioral Science unit believes that a sole perpetrator was responsible for this crime there would be a white male of approximate middle age and that the individual would probably be working alone although if they were working in concert with someone else that person would would provide a very subordinate role it's bad the profiler also concluded that by this time it was only a 50 percent chance that Annie Herron was still alive one further detail caught the profiler's eye a phrase that did not seem to match the rest of the note and might point to the profession of the kidnapper the note said pay them whatever damages are owed to them if any is dead pay their children damages was a is a is a legal term it was telling in that one of the individuals on that demand note was an attorney special agent Tom Montgomery of the FBI's Jacksonville Florida office was called in to investigate the attorney listed on the Note a man named n Alfred Wynn after we received the name of Van Alfred when we did the public record background checks we also contacted the Saint Petersburg Police Department the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office found that he had no criminal record did our own computer checks also we determined that he was a Saint Petersburg attorney and that he lived above his office this all about well I'm investigating a crime an agent went to interview win at his office residence Alfred Nguyen said he had nothing to do with the kidnapping and explained where he was on July 26th the day Mrs Herron went missing he had been at a bar with a prostitute he said that on that evening he had called his paralegal back at the office he asked the employee to meet him at the bar to lend him a hundred dollars so he could go home with a prostitute the paralegal promised to be right over when said he and The Prostitute went outside he stalled for time as he waited for his paralegal to show up with the money who were in Wynn's car when his assistant arrived a ride it up when took the money then left with a prostitute Wynne said he didn't remember much about the evening he didn't know the name of the bar or the prostitute's real name the next day agents checked The Alibi with winds paralegal when the attorney was out of the office he corroborated his boss's story and also claimed that he didn't know the bar's name since he had never been there before or since agents suspected both men were lying we learned that Wynn had paid for the paralegal schooling at a local community college his paralegal schooling we had learned that he was working for basically a very minimum salary and there was a lot of Allegiance between the paralegal and and Mr Wynn either an agent we interviewed wins paralegal explaining their suspicions campaigned that he had met when at the bar on the same day of the kidnapping though he did reveal something new about his boss he said that when's legal battle with a photography company had begun when the company foreclosed on him seven years earlier and that he had fought the lawsuit with a Vengeance he had attempted to declare bankruptcy three times in order to avoid paying his debts under a court order to recover the money the U.S Marshal's office had confiscated wins valuables including 1 000 shares of expensive stock they also impounded wins European Sports Coupe a car that paralegal said Win loved in addition they put a Saint Petersburg office up for auction on July 6 1988 less than three weeks before Mrs Herron disappeared when had been notified of an eviction hearing but he had refused to leave the paralegal said that when had been Furious believing they were a photography company had ruined his life going to get that date from me you're going to check that date yeah I wondered if the paralegal had been involved we pulled all vehicles registered to the paralegal friends and Associates of Mr Wynn to include Mr Wynn and learned that the paralegal had a white van registered to him and through an interview of the paralegal learned that the vehicle was utilized by wind on several occasions it seemed to be a major breakthrough in the case the vehicle identification number revealed the name of the previous owner an agent went to interview her she said Alfred Nguyen not his paralegal had been the actual buyer she said that when it acted strangely he was adamant that his name not be written on the title so the woman left the line for the buyer's name blank the lead was promising but then agents learned that the van had been in the repair shop on the day of the kidnapping how long was he gone it was one more frustration in a difficult case after more than a week the FBI and U.S attorney James Tucker were no closer to finding Mrs Herron a case like this is extremely difficult when you don't have an eyewitness to any one of several situations we did not have an eyewitness as to the abduction itself we did not have an eyewitness that that Newton Alfred went or any of the other people listed in the particular note had ever been in Mrs Heron's company at the Jackson Mississippi police station investigators again met with the doctor who had seen a white van in the Heron's neighborhood they hoped he could recognize the driver in a photo lineup the neighbor quickly picked out the photos he was certain it was when he saw reading a map in a white van across the street from his house in mid-july less than two weeks before Mrs Heron's Abduction the other neighbor who had seen a similar van also identified when as the driver it was clear to agents that Alfred Wynn was connected to the kidnapping of Annie Laurie Herron yet they didn't know how thank you very much we thought because of the positive identification that win was definitely somehow involved in the kidnapping if not the actual perpetrator if not the man who walked up to the door and actually grabbed Mrs Heron he certainly was directing or calling the shots yep FBI agents kept wind under surveillance they believed that he could lead them to the missing woman but as the deadline in the ransom note approached hopes of finding frail Mrs Herron dimmed further the day after the deadline in a ransom note FBI agents and local detectives briefed the husband of kidnapped Jackson Mississippi socialite Annie Laurie Herron in preparation for a televised appeal for his ailing wife's return the note hadn't outlined specific steps to earn Mrs Herron's release bi behavioral profilers hope the press conference would prompt the kidnapper to contact Mr Herron with instructions to get his wife back unharmed with his son and daughter at his side Robert Herron asked anyone with any information to come forward as a businessman he also spoke directly to the kidnapper promising to follow any specific instructions a week later the plans seemed to have worked on August 15 1988 Robert Herron spotted The Familiar handwriting of his wife among his male the envelope was postmarked August 12th from Atlanta Georgia investigators were careful not to destroy any evidence that might have been left on it Mr Herron believed the letter was in his wife's handwriting too FBI lab examiners later confirmed that it was in the letter Mrs Herron begged her husband to do what the kidnappers wanted or they would seal her up in a cellar with only a few jugs of water though the letter provided no instructions on how to comply for special agent Patrick McLennan it did bring new encouragement just when all hope of recovering Mrs Herron alive seemed lost when we received the August 15th letter which was in Mrs Heron's handwriting it really lifted the spirits of everybody that was involved in the case we felt reasonably sure that she was in good enough condition to write the letter and we were going to get her back the same way the letter itself had been dated August 10th 15 days after the abduction yet no one could be sure Mrs Herron was alive on that date it was unclear if she had written a letter on her own or if the message was coerced according to FBI special agent Tom Montgomery signature certain words utilized on the letter seal me up in the cellar with jugs of water and talking to family members we found out that those are not words that she would normally utilize she would have used the word basement or bottles of water so it is our belief that the letter was dictated to her if the letter had been dictated both the message and the date could be false having to guess what exactly he should do Mr Herron wrote checks to all the men listed in the original Ransom note according to U.S attorney James Tucker thank you he had already instructed his people to make efforts to determine what Financial situations he had had with each of the people that were listed in the original note so he had some idea at that particular point about how much money had been involved with with each of those people Mr Herron settled on restitution roughly equivalent to the amount the men had been ordered to pay in their franchise lawsuits the total came to almost a million dollars Heron sent 145 thousand dollars to the prime suspect Alfred Wynn enclosed with each check was a note requesting the safe return of his wife the FBI instructed the Postal Service to deliver the envelopes the next day later agents spoke with wins paralegal and learned of the attorney's reaction to Mr Herron's check when Mr Winn received his check in Tampa Florida he opened it read the contents of the letter from Mr Herron turned to his paralegal and stated this is not what I wanted he told his paralegal that what he had wanted was to get his life back the return of his confiscated car jewelry and other property when sent back the check with a note enclosed saying he hoped Mrs Herron would be returned safely agents now believe that Alfred wind had kidnapped Mrs Herron for revenge against the photography company Heron once chaired not for monetary gain that meant it was less likely Mrs Herron would ever be returned alive although some of the people receiving checks kept the money most returned similar responses some of the people that Mr Herron sent these checks to sent the checks immediately back to him sent letters or called on the telephone expressing their regret to Mr Herron that something like this could happen to his wife they wanted nothing to do with the money and they weren't going to benefit through his grief two and a half months passed without further word from Annie Herron's kidnapper considering her fragile Health chances were slim she would survive this long in early November 1988 the case was featured on a national crime-solving television series agents around the country chased each of hundreds of leads called in one call from a woman in Florida seemed especially promising although none of the names on The Ransom note had been broadcast she said that if Alfred Wynn were on the list she had important information the FBI learned that the Florida woman was a spiritual advisor which did not initially bolster confidence among agents but after a brief interview they realized she had a strong reputation in the law enforcement field having often assisted police in the past the advisor told an agent she had first met n Alfred Wynn four years earlier in 1984 he had his first consultation asking her advice about problems he had with the head of a photography company the same company mentioned in the Heron Ransom note she instructed him to pursue his problems through the court system and take legal means and he told her that he had already done that it just didn't work that's the big problem said he wanted to kidnap the head of the company and hold him hostage until he got what he wanted he had the perfect place to put them in and said that he was looking for someone to help him he called her a month and a half later to ask if she would help losing his clients lines trying to get new clothes she declined the advisor provided the FBI with records of her work with Wynn once assured agents would protect her she agreed to become a cooperating witness and promised to contact think of anything at all that might be helpful FBI technicians would wire her office for sound and video my pleasure bye-bye our plan was to draw Mr Wynn into a face-to-face meeting with her and to have them discuss their prior discussions of of this kidnapping of Mr Herron as well as any of the other things that would verify exactly what he had said to her during their prior meetings Alfred Nguyen took the bait suspect the monitored meeting took place in early December 1988. FBI agents watched as Wynn approached the office agents hoped he would reveal the whereabouts of the missing woman the advisor told when she'd seen the crime show on television and asked if he had kidnapped Annie Herron can you hear him in there win denied it adding that he had decided not to abduct Robert Herron as he had previously discussed with the advisor the recording corroborated the advisor's statement but it didn't provide agents with the evidence needed to arrest Alfred Nguyen when Wynn left the office FBI agents followed him we hoped a meeting between Mr Winn and the psychic would lead him to at the very least check on the location of Mrs Herron's body or lead us to a kogan spirit or but the suspect never went to visit a place where the body could have been kept Weeks Later agents learned that Wynn owned a cabin in Florida's swampland a perfect place to hide a body Dead or Alive agents hoped they'd find Annie Herron there they had no way of knowing if the house was booby-trapped or if someone was armed and waiting inside six months after 73 year old Annie Herron was kidnapped in Mississippi FBI agents hoped to find her in a remote Florida cabin owned by Prime Suspect Alfred Nguyen the message from the kidnapper had threatened that the elderly woman would be sealed alive in a cellar but agents found no seller the police was empty of anything related to the kidnapping FBI special agent Patrick McLennan and other investigators continued searching for the kidnap woman nearby we began to look in dry cisterns some swamp area adjacent to those properties the outbuildings screened porches whatever structures existed we found no sign of Mrs Herron and no sign that anybody had ever stayed there for any length of time certainly no sellers there were no sellers in that section of Florida Annie Herron was still missing and presumed dead then in Late July of 1989 Alfred Winn set a filing cabinet to the IRS challenging them to find disputed financial documents all right guys foreign but he failed to check the cabinet thoroughly and his arrogance would bring him down when we believe except those thousands of documents to Internal Revenue Service as part of an effort to intimidate them into leaving him alone that was that was a pattern that the agents discovered in regard to win conduct and and a number of situations uh he his arrogance was demonstrated in his efforts to overpower whoever he was involved with at any particular point and they found letters regarding a kidnapping and murder plot IRS agents called the FBI the documents outlined how when and a former girlfriend had been planning to kidnap and kill the woman's husband according to FBI special agent Tom Montgomery the similarities to Annie Herron's abduction were obvious they mentioned utilizing an old typewriter to type a communication and the first Ransom note for Annie Laurie Herron was typed on an old 1920s vintage typewriter they also mentioned detailed maps surveillance of the area they also mentioned that it was actually when that was going to do the crime and the female was just going to help him and obtain what he needed agents Tracked Down Wayne's ex-girlfriend at the community they needed to dictionary about the plot outlined in the letters At first she claimed she knew nothing about the plot but when reminded that interfering with an investigation was itself a crime she decided to cooperate the last time you saw him was a few years ago she said the plot to kill her husband was win's idea a year maybe she realized he was serious she had broken up with women from Miami agents asked if she'd had any contact with him since then he said that a year earlier in early August 1988 Gwen had asked her to meet him at a motel in Deland Florida it was just days after Annie Herron had been kidnapped we enacted paranoid silently handing her a note that asked if her car was bugged if she'd been fought when he was convinced it was safe he began talking about when asked her to mail a letter for him offering her 500 plus travel expenses touch it she agreed and he paid her half in advance 250 dollars Wynn handed her an envelope wrapped in a gray linen napkin then he gave her very specific instructions she was not to touch the envelope or even look at the address when ordered her to mail it from Atlanta buy the airline tickets under a false name and fly into and out of two different airports he instructed her to change her appearance before the trip replied changing her clothes jewelry and hair in the women's restroom at the airport once in Atlantis he was to mail the envelope precisely on August 11th but the woman told agents it was late in the day when she made it to a mailbox at the last moment she said she couldn't resist a glance at the address the letter allegedly sent by Annie Laurie Herron was postmarked on August 12th from Atlanta this agent showed the woman a photo of the envelope Robert Herron had received she immediately recognized the distinctive handwriting it was the envelope she had mailed she said that she had thrown away the napkin used to carry the envelope on a rural road thank you she offered to take them there once she finished work that evening she brought the agents to the area investigators knew there was little chance they would find the napkin on the roadside after more than a year but they looked anyway they needed it to corroborate her story Against All Odds they found it but they wanted an admission in Alfred wind's own words with a solid cooperating witness agents were getting closer to a resting win at the FBI's request Wynn's ex-girlfriend agreed to be wired for an audio taped meeting between herself and Wynn we had hoped Mr Winn would discuss facets of the crime that he would tell her what she had accomplished by sending a letter to the Heron residence that he would thank her for her help that he would pay her the woman called when and set up a meeting agents had instructed her to try to draw a win out about the trip to Atlanta fine as hoped wind gave his ex-girlfriend the 250 dollars he still owed her for mailing the envelope when refused to talk in detail about his plan and he never mentioned Annie Laurie Herron do me a favor he seemed to have stone walled investigators again convinced he was involved and desperate to find Mrs Herron the FBI knew they had to arrest wins soon on March 11 1989 the FBI was ready to arrest suspected kidnapper Alfred Nguyen they set up a second meeting with Wynn's former girlfriend who had begun cooperating with authorities the ex-girlfriend had been wired so agents could record the conversation Gwen would say something incriminating about the kidnapping of Annie Herron so they could charge him and recover Mrs Heron or her body FBI special agent Tom Montgomery had coached the informant on how to deal with win in this crucial second meeting we had instructed her to become more aggressive in this meeting and to basically indicate to him that she was aware that she was involved in a criminal act that she'd been watching television and that she now realized that the letter that she emailed May in fact be in involved in the kidnapping may have been a second Ransom note hoping to elicit from him something to incriminate him further agents watched and listened as the woman pushed wind about the Heron kidnapping the suspect soon became defensive and left the car without admitting any knowledge of the crime let's go let's go agents knew it was time to make their move the element of surprise is critical to a safe arrest Alfred wind was charged with conspiracy to kidnap mailing a threatening communication and perjury for testifying in front of a grand jury that he wasn't involved in the kidnap but agents still had no solid proof that he or an accomplice had in fact abducted any heron and wins column agents discovered several maps of Mississippi one with a Jackson exit marked on it in Penn her notes in the margin agents thought these might indicate Where Mrs Heron's body had been placed but extensive searches yielded nothing securing a warrant Florida FBI agents searched win's office they needed physical evidence to prove when was involved with the Abduction of Annie Laurie Harris their hopes Rose when they spotted a vintage typewriter special agent McLennan recalled that FBI examiners had determined The Ransom note was typed on a 1920 zero Royal typewriter the exact model recovered from win's office this seemed to be a very significant break in my mind this was the typewriter upon which wind typed the initial demand note that was left in the Heron's home we sent it to the lab fully expecting them to come back with a report saying this is the the exact typewriter that composed that letter the FBI lab determined that the typewriter found in Wynn's office was not the one used to type the ransom note agents believed when had planted a different typewriter to bring doubt to later prosecution they had also found a business card for a van rental company in Wynn's office said Alfred Wynn had rented white Vans three times each time he had driven more than 500 miles just 100 miles more than the round trip to the herons residence the rental times did not coincide with the date of the abduction but one did match the date when Alfred wind was cited in the Heron's neighborhood U.S attorney James Tucker had little evidence to prove his case he believed that Wynn and his paralegal were lying about the suspect being with a prostitute on the day of the kidnapping we went back and confronted the paralegal with this false Alibi the agents and I had a heart-to-heart talk with him which he decided that he better tell us that all that was a lie and that uh and that uh Mr wyan had in fact been out of his law offices and out of pocket during the entire time that uh the the abduction occurred which would have been The crucial dates the 24th through about the 28th this would help prove perjury but it wasn't enough to charge win with the crime they were certain he had committed the kidnapping and murder of Annie Laurie Herron the federal trial for conspiracy to kidnap began in Mississippi on January 29 1990. throughout the investigation and the two-week trial which occurred in Hattiesburg Mississippi when professed his innocence but at the conclusion a jury of his peers found him guilty for the crimes for which he was charged in Alfred Winn received the maximum sentence allowed 19 years and seven months for conspiracy to commit kidnapping he has no chance of parole from the federal prison in Coleman Florida we have never to this day resolved Where Mrs Heron is now and the family deserves to know that in fact as far as this office is concerned we still carry this as an open matter and we'll continue to do so until such time as somebody steps forward and uh helps us out with locating where Mrs Heron is family deserves it Mr Robert Herron died of a heart attack on November 28 1990. in May of 1991 Mrs Annie Laurie Herron was declared dead to allow the settlement of the couple's estate the Heron family still hopes to someday learn what happened to their mother to begin to heal their pain and to finally lay her to rest

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail, Vanished, missing person, kidnap, Annie Hearin, Newton Alfred Winn

Id: zMEymYTbM10

Length: 51min 15sec (3075 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020