- FEMALE NARRATOR: They were a loving couple,
devoted to their daughter.
- They wanted her to find and achieve every single bit
of success that she could, and they had big plans for her.
They loved her fiercely.
- They truly were living the American Dream.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But everything changes when this
picture-perfect family is ripped apart by a shocking tragedy.
- She was screaming and hollering that she needed help.
- She had a large butcher knife coming out of her ribcage.
- NARRATOR: As investigators try to solve
a gruesome double homicide, they must sort through
a tangled web of gossip and guarded secrets.
- Either they tried to leave the cult,
or they angered them somehow, or the cult decided
that that was the sacrifice they needed to make.
- They was just rumors running wild
about their sex life, their private life.
- They indeed were nudist.
- It was a pretty shocking deal for Stillwater.
- That wasn't who I would've ever thought
would've done anything like that.
It just goes to show us that we don't know
what's in someone's head or in their heart.
- ♪
- [gunshot blasts]
- ♪
♪♪
- NARRATOR: June 8, 1988.
Stillwater, Oklahoma.
It's a little past 6 a.m. as Mitzi Wynn is awoken
to the sound of loud bangs on her front door.
- RONALD: So, she opened the front door,
and her 18-year-old next-door neighbor
is now standing at the door.
She's hysterically, uh, beating on the door, crying,
saying that her parents had been murdered.
Then, the next-door neighbors, uh, call the police.
- ♪
- RONALD: Officers responded from two different directions.
They, uh, locked it down--the scene.
One officer entered the scene, made a protective sweep.
- NARRATOR: As first responders make their way down the long
first floor hallway, they hear a loud noise
coming from the main bedroom. - [alarm clock beeping]
- There was an alarm clock that was just incessantly ringing,
uh, going off. - [alarm clock beeping]
- NARRATOR: As officers reach the doorway,
they make a grim discovery.
- Mark Stepp, the male victim,
was laying on his back in the bed
and his wife was laying--
when you're looking at the bed, she was laying to the right
of the bed on the floor.
Both were naked.
- NARRATOR: Officers believe the victims are homeowners
Dee and Mark Stepp.
- The victims had been both shot and stabbed.
- ♪
- RANDY: The wife had a large butcher knife
coming out of her ribcage.
The husband looked like he had been shot in the bed.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While officers examine the gruesome scene
inside, detectives arrive and begin questioning neighbors
that have started to gather at the scene.
- RANDY: We didn't know exactly what we were looking for.
And we didn't know who our suspects were, or anything else.
- RONALD: We're thinking that it might possibly be a burglary
and then the burglar had gone in and somehow encountered
the--uh, the--the parents in their bedroom.
- KURT: A double homicide in Stillwater,
in a neighborhood that uh, was not expected to have that kind
of thing happen; it certainly got attention.
- RONALD: This was a young couple and a young family that,
from all outward appearances, were living the American Dream,
and tragedy struck.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In 1979, 32-year-old Navy veterans
Mark and Dolores "Dee" Stepp
packed up their 9-year-old daughter Francine
and left their native Wisconsin roots behind
for an exciting opportunity to kick start their careers
in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
- Mark was actually a instrument and control technician
for Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, where--
where we worked at a power plant north of Stillwater.
Mark always seemed to me like he was
a displaced hippie--is what I would describe him as.
Laid-back, didn't get excited about a lot of things.
- NARRATOR: Where Mark was laid-back and easygoing,
Dee was Type-A all the way.
- She was a supervisor at the university,
handling all of the state's money.
She worked very hard to be there,
and there were not a lot a women in those positions.
She was a hard person, and a little intimidating.
- NARRATOR: The couple's union was proof
that opposites do attract.
- They absolutely adored each other.
They absolutely loved each other,
and it was odd because they were--they seemed to be
very different people,
but I know that her and Mark had
the kind of relationship we all want.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Nothing was more important to the couple
than their daughter, Francine.
- They loved her fiercely.
They thought that she was the smartest, brightest
girl in the world.
- She was quiet, reserved, kinda, you know,
just stayed out of everybody's way and--and was...
friendly if you talked to her.
- NARRATOR: Dee and Mark took parenting cues from their time
in the military.
- Her parents seemed like they were very controlling
of everything that she did: who she could be friends with,
where she could go.
It's like going into the principal's office, you know--
that's kind of like I felt when I was at their house.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As Francine grew into a teenager,
Mark and Dee watched in awe as she transformed
from an awkward kid into a stunning young woman.
- I remember Dee saying to me,
"I don't know what's happened.
"All of a sudden she's got all this flaming red hair,
this really nice skin, and she's developing so soon."
She said, "It goes so fast."
- NARRATOR: Francine was quickly attracting the attention
of young men, but not the kind Mark and Dee wanted her to date.
- Dee said more than one time, "She's a smart kid.
"She just makes--she just doesn't do a good job
of picking her friends."
- There was alcohol, there was marijuana,
you know, there was parties.
- NARRATOR: As Francine gravitated towards bad boys,
Mark and Dee tightened the reins.
- She was, you know, forced to go home after school every day.
If they let her drive her car,
she had to drive straight home after school.
So, it--she was like, you know, trapped.
- NARRATOR: With dating more or less off the table,
Francine began spending more time with her neighbor
and best friend, Cindy Wynn.
- JULIE: Francine was really nice.
She was really introverted, very quiet.
Um, Cindy on the other hand was the polar opposite.
Cindy had to be the center of attention.
If the attention wasn't on her,
Cindy would find a way to make it be on her.
- NARRATOR: Together, Cindy and Francine made the most
of their senior year-- sometimes even sneaking out
behind Mark and Dee's backs.
- JULIE: Her parents, they didn't want her dating anybody.
The only way she could would to be to sneak around,
which is what happened a lot.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As Francine attempted to spread her wings
socially, by the summer of 1988,
Mark and Dee's professional lives were also on the rise.
- Dee had just gotten a promotion at work.
Uh, he's working at a local power company,
she's working at a local university.
They had this upper-middle-class home.
They truly were living the American Dream.
- NARRATOR: After graduating high school,
18-year-old Francine enrolled for fall classes at hometown
Oklahoma State University and celebrated her accomplishments
with a new gift from her parents.
- Francine had a Camaro that guys my age loved.
It was like a '67 to '69 Camaro.
I mean, it was like really neat.
- TINA: They adored her, and they wanted her to have
something really nice for her achievement.
They wanted her to find and achieve every single bit of
success that she could and they had big plans for her.
They wanted her to go on and just rule the world,
because she was smart enough to do it.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Tragically, the light
of Francine's bright future grows suddenly dim
on the morning of June 8, 1988, when she discovers her parents
brutally murdered in their own home.
- Definitely what I would call, at the time,
an overkill.
The wounds to both bodies were in excess of what was necessary
to end their lives.
- NARRATOR: For detectives with the Stillwater
Police Department, the violent scene is unlike any they've
encountered before in the city's typically quiet suburbs.
- RONALD: Mark had a number of stab wounds,
there was some what appeared to gunshot wounds
on his neck and neck area.
The mother, uh, had multiple stab wounds.
That's a very traumatic, uh, scene
for a young girl to walk in and find both of her parents
not only deceased but, uh, uh, naked in their bedrooms.
She was on the front steps of the neighbor's house,
and as I approached the house, she was sitting on the steps.
Uh, she, uh, seemed a little despondent.
Uh, when, uh, I began interviewing her,
she became much more emotional.
- BRIAN: You know, I was like, "Wow, she just lost
her parents."
And so, I mean my heart kind of reached out to her.
- NARRATOR: While detectives will have to wait to speak to
their shaken witness, they hope the scene inside
will shed light on this horrific crime.
- Every crime scene has a story,
and this one had more than its share.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Could a family's secrets unveil a possible motive?
- She was pretty open about what her parents
were involved in.
- RONALD: There was a photo of the parents,
and they were standing with their feet spread
and their arms up and outreached.
They were they were naked.
That was extremely unusual
and opened many, many questions for us.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On the morning of June 8, 1988,
detectives in quiet Stillwater, Oklahoma, are standing over
the bodies of Dolores and Mark Stepp,
wondering who would want this couple dead,
and in such a brutal manner.
- CINDY: I was shocked that that would happen in Stillwater.
Shooting someone is much different than
stabbing them over and over.
- NARRATOR: While detectives process the scene,
the couple's 18-year-old daughter Francine is escorted
to the police station for questioning.
- She was very withdrawn.
It was difficult to get information from her.
Again, that's a very traumatic, uh, scene for a young girl.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Inside the Stepp home,
investigators work to reconstruct the grim crime.
- RONALD: It appeared to me that--
just from the scene itself, that obviously, uh,
shots were fired from the bedroom door.
Mark had been shot.
I then believe that Dee gets out of bed,
runs around to take care of him.
I think there's a fight, uh, where the mother gets stabbed
up unto the point she's incapacitated,
and then somewhere in there, dad gets stabbed.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: At first, investigators suspect a robbery
gone wrong, however, a closer examination of the home
suggests a different story.
- NORMAN: There's no sign of forced entry,
the--there was no other significant disruption
in the house that would lead one to believe that there had been
a takeover of any kind of the home.
- NARRATOR: The seasoned investigators know
that the sheer brutality of the attack
points to a more personal motive.
- There was probably some rage involved and generally
that means that there is some close relationship
between the victim and the perpetrator.
- You can stand across the room and shoot somebody,
but it's very, very different from killing them with a knife,
and that is even more different if you get up a straddle
of a naked body and--uh, and continue to stab somebody.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators find no gun
but are able to identify the type of weapon used.
- There were a number of spent
what appeared to be .22-caliber shell casings.
There was some holes in the wall above the bed,
that appeared to be .22 caliber bullet holes.
- NARRATOR: As for the knife found lodged in Dee's body,
detectives believe it was either a weapon of opportunity
or another indication that the killer was familiar
with the Stepp home.
- The knife matched other knives that we found in the kitchen.
All the evidence was pointing towards
somebody that knew the family.
Uh, certainly had access to the residence because
there was no evidence of forced entry on the front door.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators turn their attention outside
for more information.
- I talked to the neighbors that were home at least,
around that general area, just asking various questions
about the activity there.
There was no one that heard anything
particularly out of the ordinary--gunshots, screaming,
anything like that.
The only person that had any information I thought was
important at all was--one of 'em talked about the fact that
they thought Francine might have been kinda wild.
And another neighbor said she had a boyfriend that drove
a really loud truck that was in and out of their house
several times, you know, during the week.
- NARRATOR: Though from the outside,
the Stepps seem like your average family,
a thorough search inside indicates things may not be
what they seem.
- RONALD: There were cabinet shelves.
When you would open those doors, they were full of VHS tapes.
One of the things that we would always do at crime scenes,
if there were videotapes and if it appeared that any of
those were homemade, we wanted to watch them,
we wanted to see who was in there.
- NARRATOR: Investigators get a possible preview of the tapes
when they find photographs tucked into the VHS boxes.
- There was nudity involved in those photos.
- ♪
- RONALD: One photo was of particular interest to us,
and this was an unusual photo.
It was a photo of the parents, Mark and Dee,
and they were standing--they were--
they were naked, and they were standing uh, with their--
their feet spread and their arms up and outreached,
almost like it would make an X.
And then teenaged Francine, who is also naked,
was standing on her hands, with her feet spread and one
mother had one ankle and the other father had the other ankle
and the three of them were standing there.
That was extremely unusual and opened
many, many questions for us.
- NARRATOR: Detectives collect the home videos and take them
to the Stillwater Police Department.
While one team begins to process the evidence,
investigators sit down with Francine.
- She certainly had some questions to answer
about where she had been.
- NARRATOR: According to Francine,
she had spent the night before at her best friend Cindy Wynn's
new apartment.
- They'd gone out and spent the evening together
and this, that and the other.
And that Francine had returned home early in the morning
to find the front door ajar.
According to Francine, uh, this was concerning to her.
She opened the front door, heard the alarm clock going off in her
parent's bedroom, went to the bedroom, observed what she
concluded was both her mother and father deceased.
- NARRATOR: Investigators ask Francine about the videotapes
and nude pictures found in the living room.
- She was pretty open about what her parents
were involved in and what she had been involved in.
- Francine had said it was widely known
by friends and family that they were nudists.
- As I recall, there was some discussion from her
that she wasn't necessarily very enamored with that lifestyle,
but that she had participated, because she was their daughter.
- Francine, the daughter, said that uh--
that she would go to the--to the nudist colonies with them,
but she said she'd really never, hardly ever,
took her clothes off or anything like that.
- NARRATOR: While odd, she insists there was nothing
nefarious about her parents' lifestyle choice.
- She told me she had never been abused
or sexually abused by her parents.
- NARRATOR: Francine tells detectives the tension between
her and her parents wasn't around their private life,
it was around hers.
In particular, she says, they didn't like
her current boyfriend, Frank Routt.
- He was old enough to buy alcohol,
which of course is a parent's nightmare.
He'd take us to parties, you know,
and they would "hook up"
at friends' houses and things.
They felt like he would take her down instead of up,
and they were really focused on her going upwards,
and her future, and her being good.
Maybe she went to him and said, "Oh my god, they're making me
never see you again."
I mean, you can only hold people down so long before they crack.
- The boyfriend in this case obviously would be
someone of importance that you would wanna talk to.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Investigators home in on Frank.
- He had called and visited with Francine's father
the night of the homicide.
- NARRATOR: And detectives unearth new,
disturbing information on the Stepp family.
- Some people said that the parents were involved
with a satanic cult.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives investigating the gruesome
double murder of Dee and Mark Stepp
now wonder if the couple's daughter, Francine's,
relationship with her boyfriend, Frank Routt,
may be tied to the crime.
- We initially had some information
that there might've been less than
good relations with her parents.
- The thoughts of maybe being a disgruntled boyfriend
or something like that run through your head.
So, we obviously wanted to interview him.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While investigators work to verify Francine's alibi
and speak with her boyfriend,
they are shocked to find him at the station already.
- One of our officers had picked him up in a bar
here in Hutchinson.
Nevertheless, at 8 o'clock the next morning,
he was sitting in my office.
During the interview, a lot of the information that
he would give us, you know, he would contradict later.
A lot of inconsistencies.
- NARRATOR: Frank's view of his rapport with the Stepps
seems wildly different than Francine's.
According to Frank, his relationship with Mark and Dee
was on the mend.
In fact, Frank claims he and Mark had officially made peace
the night before.
- He indicated that he had called and visited
with Francine's father the night of the homicide.
They'd had a delightful conversation
and that they were getting along fine.
He said he had no involvement, knew nothing about it.
He had spent the night with his parents.
The investigators had confirmed that with the parents.
So, he had an alibi for the--at the time of the incident.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Having established Frank's alibi,
investigators move to verifying Francine's.
- Francine's alibi was that she had spent the night
with her friend Cindy and that-- that they were together
the whole time and that they-- they spent the night together.
- NARRATOR: That afternoon, Cindy Wynn is brought in
for questioning.
- Cindy was quite demonstrative,
she was talkative,
they were pretty much opposite in personality.
- RONALD: It was a dynamic encounter.
A few preliminary questions that really seemed to agitate her.
Then when I told her that the reason that, uh--
that I was there was that Frankie's parents had died
the, uh, apparent victim of a violent act, and, uh,
her emotional response was in my face.
It was way over the top.
- NARRATOR: Once Cindy calms down,
she backs Francine's alibi.
- In my initial contact with her,
she had confirmed that the two of 'em spent together the night,
uh--the night before and the timeframes generally matched.
- NARRATOR: According to Cindy, although the Stepps had made
peace with Frank, the real problem was with
Francine's ex-boyfriend, Joe.
- RONALD: Joe Anthony was the, uh, son of a police officer
from another agency in our community.
Joe was into what we would call the "Goth" movement,
or whatever.
He, uh, you know, he would, uh, dress all in black
and black fingernails and all of that.
- CINDY: Then he did the--uh, the Punk.
So, we were a little intimidated by him.
- CINDY: Any parent who saw a boy like that
around their daughter would--would be upset.
- He was someone that we needed to interview,
and we gave him no special treatment
because of his relationship with his father.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Before detectives reach out to Joe,
they have another order of business to take care of:
viewing the videotapes found in Dee and Mark's living room.
- RONALD: We scavenged about every VHS player
and every television from every office in the--in City Hall.
I'd ordered pizza and sodas,
and we're in there and we're watching all these VHS tapes
on fast forward and some of them were tapes that, um--
that the, uh, deceased had made in what appeared to be
a nudist camp.
There were some videos of the-- of the parents having sex
and, uh, what I would call traditional sex, you know,
nothing--nothing bizarre or unusual.
- NARRATOR: While the videos expose details
of the Stepp's free-spirited lifestyle,
the footage doesn't yield any leads.
- We didn't see anybody else in the videos
other than the two parents.
Certainly, no evidence, of anything that--
that I would consider criminal or deviant behavior.
But that seemed a little odd to me.
- NARRATOR: After ruling out any possible leads coming
from the VHS tapes, detectives prepare to reach out
to Francine's ex-boyfriend, Joe Anthony,
but are contacted by his father first.
- RONALD: He came to me and he--and said,
"Listen, I'd like for you to interview my son."
And he said, "We need to know whether he's involved in this."
He said, "I know that you'll be tough on him.
Uh, but I know that you'll be fair."
And, uh, so very, very, uh, cooperative, uh, parent.
Uh, I interviewed the son.
- NARRATOR: Detectives quickly find that Joe's tough exterior
was merely a facade.
- He had a different lifestyle than--than myself
and, uh, and others that--uh, that I would associate with,
but from the interview on, the son was never really a suspect.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: With Francine's past and present lovers
seemingly in the clear, and no new leads emerging from
the videotapes, investigators are back to square one.
- A lot of times rumors are developed about
the victim's lifestyle, and that was certainly the case here.
We knew we were going to want to interview people that knew them.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: According to friends,
while the couple might have been free spirits,
they were far from an open book, especially Dee.
- She loved her husband, and she loved her daughter,
and she was fiercely private about them--fiercely private.
You knew what she was gonna let you know.
- NARRATOR: However, after their deaths,
the rumor mill was in full swing.
- CINDY: Some people said that the parents were involved
with a satanic cult and that something happened:
either they tried to leave the cult
or they angered them somehow,
or the cult decided that that was the sacrifice
they needed to make.
Just crazy, crazy stuff.
- The most salacious rumors had to do with
some kind of, uh, sexual club activity videos.
- Well, you know, it probably had something to do
with them going to them nudist things.
They might've been wife-swapping.
They was just rumors running wild, like about their sex life,
their private life.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The more rumors detectives attempt
to substantiate, the more dead ends they meet.
- We had to invest significant staff time to send
investigators to interview people about things
that turned out to be nothing.
- NARRATOR: Then on June 22, 14 days after the murder,
detectives finally get a solid lead when a neighbor to
the Stepp family, comes forward claiming she saw Francine
driving her black Camaro on the night of the murder.
- She informed the police department that she had,
at about 1 o'clock in the morning, seen Francine, uh,
drive in the vicinity of where the Stepps lived.
That was at a time when Francine and Cindy were supposed to be
at Cindy's residence.
They were certain that Francine was driving
her Camaro and that did not add up in their story.
- The timeline about the car made me very suspicious.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Hidden tensions in the Stepp household come to the surface.
- JULIE: They weren't allowed to hang out.
They weren't supposed to be together at all.
- NARRATOR: And new evidence casts suspicion
on someone close to home.
- Cindy was confronted with a whole lot of information.
That did not add up.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives in Stillwater, Oklahoma,
have just discovered that Francine Stepp,
the daughter of double homicide victims, Dee and Mark Stepp,
might have been lying about her alibi
on the night of the murders.
- That certainly raised our suspicions that hey,
there's more to this than--than what we're seeing.
- NARRATOR: That same afternoon,
they bring 18-year-old Francine in to confront her
with the statement.
- Francine is beginning to withdraw more and more.
We're getting less and less information from her.
Her, uh, body language is very closed.
- NARRATOR: With Francine giving up little information,
detectives are left with more suspicions.
- If you're trying to help the police solve the murder
of your parents and you're totally innocent,
you're probably not gonna lie, or remember incorrectly,
important things to tell the police.
- At that point, we thought there was a good possibility
that she was involved in this crime.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators begin questioning Francine's friends,
and quickly uncover something shocking.
- Rumors began that Francine or Cindy or both
had contacted an individual in the community.
They had offered to pay him money
to kill both sets of parents.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Francine's friends claim she put out word
they would pay for the killings with their inheritance.
- RONALD: Both of the girls were only children,
that if both sets of parents were killed,
then they would inherit the estates and they would have
money to pay to--to pay for their murders.
- NARRATOR: Friends believe the girls' search
eventually led them to a local man named Jackie Meyers.
- RONALD: So, then I called him, and I said,
"We'd really like to visit with you at the station."
- ♪
- NARRATOR: At the station, Jackie tells police that
the rumor is true:
Francine and Cindy did approach him.
- ♪
- RONALD: He seemed very forthright about it.
He said, "I didn't take 'em serious."
He said, "I thought they were just messing with me."
- NARRATOR: While investigators believe that Jackie had nothing
to do with the murders, his interview leaves them certain
that Francine--and likely Cindy--did.
- RONALD: That's unusual activity,
particularly for two young girls.
All of these things were beginning to lead us to believe
that these two girls have some involvement
that we don't know exactly what it was.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Instead of facing another series of denials
from Francine, detectives set their sights on Cindy.
- We asked her to come to the station,
told her we needed to talk to her,
there were inconsistencies in her story.
- RONALD: We would leave Cindy alone,
as soon as that investigator walked out the door,
Cindy'd light a cigarette.
Uh, she'd walk up to a mirror.
She'd slap her face. She'd pinch her cheeks.
She would lick her fingers and moisten her eyes with it,
as soon as he would walk back in the room,
all the emotion would come back.
- NARRATOR: Backed into a corner,
Cindy's tough exterior cracks.
She tells investigators it all began a few months earlier when,
like Francine, issues arose between her and her parents.
- At one point, Cindy was not welcomed
to live in her family home.
So, Dee said, "She can stay with us,"
because she was Francine's best friend,
"She can stay here."
- NARRATOR: But soon, Mark and Dee also took issue
with Cindy's behavior.
- TINA: She had a boyfriend,
and there were restrictions there.
He couldn't be at the house when they weren't home.
Apparently, at some point, Cindy did not follow
the rules and that was it.
Dee was very, "You do as--what I tell you to do in my home
or that's it."
So, I'm gonna guess that there was a pretty big breach of trust
and Mark and Dee said she had to go.
- NARRATOR: According to Cindy, when Mark and Dee kicked her
out, they told Francine she was no longer allowed to see her.
- JULIE: She wasn't allowed at their home.
Francine wasn't allowed to go over there.
They weren't allowed to hang out.
They weren't supposed to be together at all.
- Cindy was upset about that because she didn't
have anywhere to go.
Francine was upset about that because she couldn't be friends
with her best friend anymore.
- NARRATOR: Cindy admits that she and Francine fantasized
about life without their parents lording over them.
- RANDY: The girls were defiant toward their parents about
discipline, what their curfews, when they could go out,
when they had to be back, things like that.
And so, they decided to take care of that problem.
- RONALD: The original plan we believe was that Cindy would
kill Francine's parents and then Francine would kill
Cindy's parents.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Cindy insists it was all just fantasy
in her mind.
- NARRATOR: Investigators still aren't sure they're getting
the full story from Cindy,
but maybe a new technology can help them
separate fact from fiction.
- RONALD: The case was absent any physical evidence
that we needed.
Luminol was new.
I had heard about Luminol while attending
the FBI National Academy.
So, then I called the State Crime Bureau
and called a forensic chemist, a friend of mine.
And I said, "Have you ever used something called Luminol?"
And she says, "Oh, yeah!"
And I said, "Well, I've got a crime, uh--
"homicide that occurred in a bedroom, and I wanna Luminol
the bedroom and the carpet."
- NARRATOR: Law enforcement convene at the crime scene
on June 30.
- RONALD: The investigator starts at the bedroom door,
as he walks backwards in the dark,
down the hallway,
this Luminol filters down to this shag type carpet.
Glowing in the carpet, are two distinctive sets of footprints.
- ♪
- RONALD: As one set of footprints came off and went to
the front door, and the other set of footprints
went to the back door.
That's when we knew that we had two suspects.
We had a daughter, and we had her girlfriend.
- NARRATOR: Investigators take the evidence to the DA.
- RONALD: We went to the district attorney,
and he shared with us that, "I'm not gonna file a charge
unless you get a confession."
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On July 13, Francine returns to the station
accompanied by her grandfather.
And it's clear her patience with police has run out.
- RONALD: We felt like that this was our last opportunity
to, uh--to interview Francine.
And specifically, uh, selected an investigator that, um,
had--had a daughter.
We felt like that that would be a different approach.
He told her, "I know you're involved.
I know you took part in this."
And Francine became irate.
And walked out the office,
walked out the door of the police department.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Investigators get one more shot at finding the truth.
- RONALD: I said, "I believe that she knows something
"that she hasn't told us.
I believe that it is eating her up inside."
- NARRATOR: And the horrifying details of the murder
are finally revealed.
- When that door was kicked in, she just went numb,
and everything that had built up just exploded.
- [gunshot]
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On July 13, 1988, 18-year-old Francine Stepp
storms out of the Stillwater Police Department,
refusing to answer any more questions.
- Francine walking out is not surprising because, uh,
obviously the questions were getting quite uncomfortable
for her, and she didn't have a good answer for it.
- RONALD: The grandfather who'd been watching behind
the mirror came in, I said, "I believe that she knows something
"that she hasn't told us.
"I believe that it is eating her up inside, and I don't believe
that she will ever be at peace until she talks to us about it,"
and then he brought her back.
- NARRATOR: Francine is subdued, but ready to talk.
She tells detectives that her parents controlling ways
had become too much to bear.
- NARRATOR: But for Francine, her parents' attempt
to end her friendship with Cindy was the last straw.
After failing to find a hitman, on June 8,
Francine says the teens took matters into their own hands.
- NORMAN: At about 2 o'clock in the morning,
they snuck into the house.
Francine had the gun.
- Cindy kicks the door open and yells at the parents,
and Francine says the gun just started going off.
- ♪
- When that door was kicked in, she just went numb,
and everything that had built up just exploded.
- [gunshots]
- ♪
- [gunshot]
- Francine is kind of a loss as to what happened.
She remembers a knife but doesn't remember
a lot of details.
- Francine would not implicate her other than
being there and--and some of the planning.
- NARRATOR: Following the murders,
Francine says they tried to cover their tracks.
- They put the murder weapon-- the handgun--
in a nylon bag, threw it in Boomer Lake.
And then after that, returned to Cindy's apartment.
Francine gets up, goes home uh, and, uh,
uh, reports the crime to her neighbors.
- NARRATOR: As chilling as that confession is,
Francine admits they had one more phase to their plan.
- RONALD: They were going to wait until the heat, you know,
kind of died down.
As soon as the police lost interest, then they would
go ahead with killing, uh, Cindy's parents.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Following Francine's confession,
detectives immediately bring Cindy in.
- But that does not correspond with the footprints
in the Luminol.
- NORMAN: There are footprints that were similar to hers in
the Luminol, in the blood that was tracked through the house.
We had forensic evidence to tie her directly to the crime.
- NARRATOR: Even without all the details,
investigators have enough to place both young women
under arrest.
- KURT: Pieces kind of fell into place
and kind of brought the puzzle together.
- We certainly obtained enough information to be able to
charge Cindy.
We arrested them on two charges of first-degree murder.
- JULIE: I'm like, "No way," you know?
There--there's no way, because that wasn't who I would've ever
thought would've done anything like that.
I think it just goes to show us that we don't know
what's in someone's head or in their heart.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In October of 1988, 18-year-olds Francine Stepp
and Cindy Wynn choose pleas over trials.
- NORMAN: The initial charges were both first degree murder.
Ms. Wynn's charges were pled down
to Conspiracy to Commit Murder.
Um, Francine pled guilty.
- NARRATOR: While Cindy is sentenced to ten years,
Francine is given back-to-back life sentences.
- NORMAN: I think that the individuals responsible
were held accountable.
Although it is a sad case, at least they got justice
for what had occurred.
My personal opinion is if it had not been for Cindy,
it would have never happened.
- JULIE: I'm sure at some point Cindy has convinced her,
"I am the only one that cares about you,
it's just you and me against the world."
This is the only way she could ever be free.
This is the only way they could both ever be free.
- It's a horrible situation to think through the fact
that a couple of 16, 17-year-old girls
would spend the majority of their life,
at least Francine in this case,
if not all of her life in prison.
But when you look at what they were able to go through with,
I think she's where she needs to be.
- ♪