- FEMALE NARRATOR: A well-liked, dependable sailor
overcame a tragic upbringing.
- REBECCA MORRIS: He was born in prison
because his mother had been convicted of killing his father,
and in his adult years, he joined the Navy.
- NARRATOR: As his naval career took off,
love also came calling.
- SUSAN NILES: He was yearning for a family;
having someone care for him and loving him.
- ANGELA HARRIS: She had a child,
and was a ready-made family.
- NARRATOR: But their relationship is ripped apart
by a brutal crime.
- RAY MAGERSTAEDT: I'll never forget
what the face looked like when the body was turned over.
- DAVID FIJOLEK: He just looked like someone,
to put it bluntly, just beat the hell out of him.
My first thought was,
"What the hell's he doing out here?"
- NARRATOR: With a vicious killer on the loose,
investigators navigate a winding trail
of manipulation and greed
in search of the truth.
- REBECCA: He closed his bank account
because she was intent on emptying it.
- RAY: She said she caught 'em in bed together.
- REBECCA: When she left him,
he was talking to a long-haired guy
with a shaggy beard,
and was trying to buy some acid.
- DOUGLAS HUDSON: He was warned that you better watch out.
- NARRATOR: In the end, the words of a dead man
lead detectives to his killer.
- MICHAEL COGSWELL: He just said,
"If anything ever happens to me, grab my diary,
and it'll explain everything that--that happened."
- DOUGLAS: There was no possibility
that this was anything other
than an out and out assassination.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On the morning of December 29th, 1981,
dispatchers in Kitsap County, Washington,
receive a disturbing 911 call from 25-year-old John Tibbits.
John says he's found something horrific
on his morning stroll through a remote evergreen farm.
- RAY: The, uh, area was very remote.
There's small trails,
there's, uh, roads just big enough for a car to get onto.
He had been out for a walk, and he saw a body.
- REBECCA: It was sprawled face down in the dirt, in the mud.
- ♪
- DOUGLAS: He went back to his residence,
and a 911 call was placed.
And that's how we became involved in the investigation.
- [sirens blaring]
- We went out to the Lake Flora area,
and met the complainant out there.
He walked us back to the scene,
and I noticed a lump of what I thought was clothing.
As we got closer, we realized it--it was, in fact, a body.
He was laying in a puddle;
puddle was about two to three inches deep.
- RAY: The pants was jeans,
they were pulled down, uh, just below his buttocks,
and I noticed that in his back pocket was a wallet.
- He found, uh, an ID card from Bangor Naval Base,
and, uh, it identified the guy as Bill Edmondson.
- NARRATOR: Born on September 14th, 1958
in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
Bill Edmondson's early years were marked by tragedy.
- REBECCA: He was born in prison in Pennsylvania
because his mother had been convicted of killing his father.
He was put in foster care.
It was certainly a tough beginning to his life.
- NARRATOR: Bill's mother was convicted
of second-degree murder,
and sentenced to 10 years in an industrial school for women.
She was paroled five years later,
and upon her release,
Bill spent the rest of his childhood living with her.
After graduating high school, Bill signed up with the Navy
to try and escape his troubled upbringing.
- REBECCA: He joined the Navy,
and then re-upped after four years,
and found himself working as a Yeoman;
a clerical administrative person.
- NARRATOR: Bill was eventually stationed
at Bangor Submarine Base in Kitsap County, Washington.
Though he enjoyed his job, by the time he was 23,
Bill knew he wanted more than just a career.
- SUSAN: I always had the impression
that he was yearning for--for a family,
or a connection, you know,
having someone care for him and loving him.
- Bill would have made a very good father
because he was kind,
and you could tell that he had a love for children.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: One night at a bar near the base,
Bill crossed paths
with 26-year-old Rosalina Manthie.
Like Bill, Rosalina was no stranger to tragedy.
- REBECCA: When she was just one year old,
both her parents were killed in an accident in the Philippines,
and she grew up in orphanages and foster homes,
and sometimes living with relatives.
Rosalina's childhood was very lonely.
I think from an early age,
she felt a huge void in her life.
- NARRATOR: As a teenager, Rosalina immigrated to America,
and by 1981 when she met Bill,
she'd just escaped an abusive marriage
with a man name Richard Manthie,
and was raising their three-year-old daughter alone.
On the rare night out,
Rosalina liked to blow off some steam near the Navy base.
- DOUGLAS: She went to taverns,
and--and let the young men wine and dine her.
She was an attractive young lady.
- NARRATOR: Rosalina could tell Bill was different
from the other men she casually flirted with.
- SUSAN: He was a nice guy.
He was an honest guy.
Never heard a cuss word out of his mouth;
never heard him talk coarsely.
- REBECCA: He was probably the most normal,
hardworking young man
that Rosalina had really ever come in contact with.
The--the one who probably she could have had a real life with.
- NARRATOR: Bill was just as taken with Rosalina,
especially after she introduced him
to her three-year-old daughter.
- ANGELA: I just think that he wanted somebody to love.
He wanted children.
She had a child, and was a ready-made family.
- REBECCA: Within a few months, they were married.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After their marriage on August 21st, 1981,
they honeymooned in Montana
before returning to Lake Symington, Washington
to start their life together.
- RAY: They wanted to have a house
out there on Lake Symington,
and buying a house certainly is one of the things you do
when you're just getting married.
- SUSAN: She wanted the best of everything.
She wanted the brand-new house and brand-new appliances.
- NARRATOR: Bill was happy to indulge his beautiful new bride,
and as Christmas approached,
Bill lavished Rosalina's daughter with gifts as well.
- SUSAN: He had Christmas presents underneath the bed
that they slept in;
hidden the presents from the little girl until Christmas.
I'm sure he was looking forward
to seeing her on Christmas morning opening them up,
but he never got that chance.
- NARRATOR: Just three days before Christmas, 1981,
Bill failed to report
to his assigned submarine unit for duty.
- DOUGLAS: He didn't show up to work on the 22nd.
And that was not typical of him at all.
He was, uh, very punctual, a good employee.
Very conscientious in his work,
And it was very strange for him to not show up at work.
- NARRATOR: Bill's supervisor immediately reached out
to Bill's wife, Rosalina.
- REBECCA: They called Rosalina to ask if--if she'd seen him.
She said she hadn't.
Rosalina doesn't seem concerned about where Bill is.
- ANGELA: You might think,
oh, well, maybe he went somewhere, you know,
stayed the night somewhere else.
Or maybe he overslept somewhere.
- NARRATOR: But as days passed with no sign of Bill,
it was clear something wasn't right.
- SUSAN: I got a phone call, and it was Rosalina.
And she asked me if Bill was there.
I told her, "No, Rosalina, Bill's not here,"
and she was really worried and upset
about him not coming home.
- NARRATOR: By that time,
NCIS were investigating Bill's disappearance,
and reached out to local law enforcement for help.
- RAY: They were very adamant
that Bill Edmondson was a stellar sailor.
That it was very unlikely that he would've just taken off.
- NARRATOR: Now, a week after he was reported missing
by his supervisors,
the discovery of Bill Edmondson's body
on December 29th
puts a grim end to a wide search effort.
- RAY: When we were out at the scene of the crime
where Bill was located,
we did notice that in his tennis shoes,
there were some shards of glass.
It was cold;
there was ice in the puddles near him.
- DOUGLAS: Anybody who would be out in that area
would be dressed for winter weather,
but that wasn't the case with the victim.
- DAVID: My first thought was,
"What the hell's he doing out here, and why?"
Why was he out there?
You would have no reason to be out there.
- NARRATOR: When detectives roll Bill's body over,
it's clear his death was no accident.
- RAY: I'll never forget what the face looked like
when the body was turned over.
His nose had been broken and looked smashed.
- DOUGLAS: It was clearly evident
that--that he'd been severely beaten.
His eyes were swollen shut,
his nose was literally splattered all over his face.
A cut lip, broken teeth.
- DAVID: You really had to look at his picture,
and look at him,
and you--you couldn't tell it was the same guy.
He just looked like someone, to put it bluntly,
just beat the hell out of him.
- REBECCA: It was obviously very personal.
Somebody didn't just want Bill dead,
they wanted him erased.
- NARRATOR: Coming up, detectives mine for details
about the last time Bill was seen.
- MICHAEL: His face just lit up,
and he's going, "Oh, we're gonna go out."
And that was the last time I ever saw him.
- NARRATOR: And had Bill been keeping a dangerous secret?
- RAY: She did indicate that her husband and his friend
were in a homosexual relationship.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On December 29th, 1981,
Kitsap County sheriff's investigators
are gathered over the body
of 23-year-old sailor, Bill Edmondson,
on a remote logging road near Seattle, Washington.
- DOUGLAS: Whoever did this deed
wanted to be sure that the victim was dead.
He was severely beaten.
There was no--no possibility
that this was anything other than
an out and out assassination.
- NARRATOR: As detectives take a closer look,
they find an outline of a cowboy boot on Bill's bare chest.
- I have never,
in all the years I worked as a detective,
seen anybody that had received a blow like that
where it left an actual impression
on a person's chest or body.
- DAVID: This wasn't a bar fight.
This was something more than that.
It really etched in my mind how brutal everything was.
I've seen some bad crimes, but nothing this horrific.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As detectives search the area,
they find more boot impressions in the mud.
- DAVID: We found boot prints right there at the scene
that matched the one in his chest.
- NARRATOR: In an autopsy later that day,
the medical examiner makes a positive identification.
- DAVID: The coroner, he said that it looked like--
like he was hit by a high-speed truck.
- ♪
- DAVID: But confirmed that it was Bill Edmondson.
- NARRATOR: The medical examiner says
Bill's horrific internal injuries
aren't even what killed him.
- DOUGLAS: During the autopsy,
four .22 caliber bullets were found
in the victim's head.
- NARRATOR: Now that autopsy results
have confirmed Bill's identity,
detectives go to the home of Bill's wife, Rosalina Edmondson,
to break the news of her husband's tragic death.
- REBECCA: When the detectives did tell her
that they'd found Bill's body, and how he was murdered,
she cried a lot.
- To this day,
I have never seen anybody that wailed more than Rosalina.
She was very hysterical.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Rosalina
to walk them through the last time she saw her husband.
She says it was eight days earlier,
on the evening of the 21st.
- RAY: When I talked to Rosalina,
she had indicated that she and Bill had gone out
to a place, uh, where there was drinking.
That he was drinking quite heavily.
- REBECCA: When she left him,
he was talking to a long-haired guy
with--with a shaggy beard,
and was trying to buy some acid.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Rosalina says
that Bill had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction
their entire marriage.
And she says
she'd wanted nothing to do with her husband's bad habit.
- REBECCA: After Rosalina left Bill,
she went to another bar,
and she danced with some sailors.
And she told detectives
that she actually slept on the couch
at the neighbor's house that night.
- NARRATOR: In addition to the mysterious bearded man
she'd seen her husband with,
Rosalina says she knows someone else
who might have a motive in Bill's death.
- RAY: She did indicate
that Michael Cogswell and her husband
were in a homosexual relationship.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Rosalina says that when she met Bill,
Michael Cogswell was his best friend and roommate.
A few weeks after Bill and Rosalina married,
Bill insisted that Michael move in with them
- REBECCA: Michael Cogswell was in the Navy with Bill,
had been Bill's roommate before Bill married Rosalina.
And then when Bill bought the house,
ah, Michael also moved into the house,
and rented from Bill and Rosalina.
- NARRATOR: Rosalina tells detectives that as a newlywed,
she wasn't thrilled to have a roommate,
but she'd never suspected what was really going on.
- REBECCA: She said that she had walked in on them once
when they were naked.
- RAY: She said she caught 'em in bed together.
- ♪
- RAY: We certainly wanted to talk to Michael Cogswell
about that.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Rosalina
if Michael has any cowboy boots at the house.
She leaves the room,
and soon returns with two large boots.
- RAY: Michael Cogswell was one of the last people
to see him alive,
so we certainly couldn't rule him out.
- NARRATOR: Before detectives seek out Michael,
Rosalina grants permission
to search any properties and vehicles in her name,
except a red AMC Gremlin.
- REBECCA: She says,
"Well, my ex-husband, Richard Manthie, drives that,
"I don't know if I can-- if I can sign off on that,
so that you can search that car."
- NARRATOR: Rosalina provides detectives
with her ex's nearby address,
and detectives add him to their list of house calls.
But first, they want to speak with Bill's friend
and alleged lover, Michael Cogswell,
who agrees to come to the station for questioning.
- RAY: When we talked to Michael Cogswell,
he denied any relationship with Bill Edmonson.
- MICHAEL: When you're assigned to the same command,
and you work close with each other,
you become friends.
So, I mean, it was natural
that we were gonna become friends,
and hang around with each other.
If you had a relationship with the same sex back then,
you automatically were discharged.
And Bill and I--
it never even crossed either one of our mind
to ever do anything like that.
I just don't have no interest in that.
- NARRATOR: Michael says that on December 21st, 1981,
the night before Bill disappeared,
the two friends had gone out to a bar near the base.
- RAY: They had been out drinking,
and they came back to the house out in Lake Symington,
uh, where Rosalina was.
- MICHAEL: His face just lit up,
and he's going, "Oh, she's here!"
She said, "We're gonna go out."
And they went out,
and that was the last time I ever saw him.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: To this point,
Michael's story matches what Rosalina told detectives
about the last night Bill was seen alive.
But when asked about the mysterious bearded man
that Bill allegedly bought drugs from,
Michael is taken aback.
- MICHAEL: As far as I knew, Bill never used drugs at all.
In the military, you're tested too often,
so it wasn't even worth it.
- RAY: After we got into our investigation,
we never believed that Bill was involved in drugs,
and he was involved with somebody
that may have, uh, killed him for that kind of thing.
- NARRATOR: To cross Michael off the suspect list,
detectives turn to their only solid clue
about the killer's identity:
the casting of a boot print found near Bill's body.
- MICHAEL: The police told me, said,
well, the prints that they took at the tree farm
were too small to be mine.
The police said,
"Don't worry about it, we know you didn't do it."
- NARRATOR: Detectives immediately shift their focus
to the red Gremlin
driven by Rosalina's ex-husband, Richard Manthie.
- RAY: You certainly have to look
at all the aspects in the case,
and we certainly wanted to contact Richard Manthie.
And we wanted to know what was inside the car.
- NARRATOR: Coming up.
Detectives uncover a suspicious scene.
- DAVID: It looked like someone kicked out a window,
or something.
- DOUGLAS: There'd been some significant violence
in that area.
- NARRATOR: And veiled clues
expose Bill's brutal last moments.
- DOUGLAS: I was able to find evidence of blood
in the, uh, head rest of the passenger's seat.
- DAVID: It just-- it just made sense
that that's where all this happened.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives investigating the brutal murder
of Bill Edmondson
have cleared his roommate, Michael Cogswell,
and are moving on to their next lead.
- RAY: We wanted to go over to the house on Long Lake,
and contact Richard Manthie.
- NARRATOR: On December 30th, 1981,
detectives make the 20 minute drive out
to the address provided by Bill's wife, Rosalina.
Her ex-husband, Richard Manthie greets them at the door.
- He certainly gave us permission to be able to search.
I think he was trying to cooperate.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Richard lets detectives into the home,
and immediately, they can tell something is off.
- DOUGLAS: The back door itself was gone,
and the door casing was splintered,
indicating that there'd been some significant violence
in that area.
- DAVID: There was glass shards on the floor.
It looked like someone kicked out a window or something.
- RAY: It was very noteworthy to us
that there appeared to be a fight
where the door was missing.
- NARRATOR: Detectives notice
that the appliances and walls have been freshly cleaned,
so they spray the kitchen with Luminol.
- DOUGLAS: We found a significant amount of blood
on the floor,
also on several of the walls.
- NARRATOR: Sitting by the missing back door
is the most crucial piece of evidence yet.
- DOUGLAS: When we searched the house,
we found a pair of Western boots.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As the search of the home continues,
detectives ask Richard to come to the station for an interview.
Detectives question Richard
about his relationship to the Edmondsons,
and he explains his past with Rosalina.
- REBECCA: Richard Manthie was a U.S. Marine
assigned to Subic Bay in the Philippines
where he met Rosalina.
And they'd been pretty hot and heavy,
and she was very interested in him.
But before she could get him to marry her,
his ship had left port.
- NARRATOR: The couple eventually reconnected
when Rosalina immigrated to the U.S. in 1977,
and they married that same year.
- REBECCA: Rosalina and Richard Manthie had a baby girl.
There was, uh, domestic violence.
She stuck with him for quite a while
until she decided she could do better.
He went back to Montana where he was from,
and not long after that,
he was convicted of theft charges,
and sent to prison.
- NARRATOR: Richard says after he was released
in December of 1981,
he was hoping to patch things up
with the mother of his only child.
- RAY: Rosalina paid for a ticket
for him to come out to the residence
in, uh, Washington, on Long Lake, that she owned,
and Bill had really nothing to do with that residence.
- NARRATOR: Richard says that on December 21st,
Rosalina dropped a bombshell on him.
She'd divorced him while he was behind bars,
and was already remarried.
- REBECCA: He wasn't aware, apparently,
that she had divorced him.
- RAY: He told us that they had argued,
he and Rosalina, that evening.
- NARRATOR: Richard claims
that he spent the rest of the night drinking alone at home,
but given the significant amount of blood found in the home,
detectives are skeptical.
- DOUGLAS: Manthie said that he'd injured his hand
working on the engine of a car,
but the injuries on his hand were minor.
There was no way his hand had produced any of that blood
that was in the kitchen.
- RAY: When we did talk to Richard
about the door being missing,
he had indicated that he had used that door for firewood,
which we considered, uh, quite unusual,
and probably, uh, not at all truthful.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When detectives do a background check
of Richard Manthie,
they discover a history of violence.
- DOUGLAS: He would get drunk,
and he was very vicious and violent
when he was intoxicated.
- RAY: He would be a very intimidating person,
especially to somebody like Bill Edmonson,
who was slight.
We felt that Richard Manthie was one of the prime suspects
in the murder of Bill Edmondson.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Back at the property
where Richard Manthie had been living,
investigators search the red Gremlin
that's registered in Rosalina's name.
- RAY: When we did look inside the car,
a portion of the car on the passenger side
had been spray painted,
but nothing else had been spray painted on the other side.
- NARRATOR: In the floorboards,
detectives find a .22 caliber shell casing.
- RAY: The .22 casing certainly fit
with the type of wounds that Bill Edmondson sustained.
There was glass shards found inside the Gremlin,
and there is glass shards inside the house.
- NARRATOR: Investigators had also found glass shards
in Bill's shoes when his body was recovered.
- DAVID: We kind of put, uh, glass
and the tennis shoes together,
and it just--it just made sense
that that's where all this happened.
- NARRATOR: Next, detectives carefully scrape away
the spray paint, and uncover startling evidence.
- DOUGLAS: I found hair samples,
and they had black spray paint on them.
And I was able to find evidence of blood
in the, uh, head rest of the passenger's seat
and on the dashboard directly in front
of the passenger's seat.
- DAVID: When we got the blood sample,
we sent it to the state lab
with a vial of Edmondson's blood,
and it matched up to be in the same blood type as Edmondson's.
- DOUGLAS: The hairs were compared against known hairs
that I collected during the autopsy.
The hair found in the car was a perfect match to the victim.
- NARRATOR: With irrefutable evidence in hand,
detectives are certain
that Bill was killed inside the red Gremlin.
To further strengthen their case against Richard,
investigators compare his cowboy boots
to the prints found around Bill's body.
- DOUGLAS: All the dimensions of the impression on the body
were a perfect match
for the size and shape of the boot that Mr. Manthie owned.
- ♪
- RAY: We believed that we were on the right track
as far as Richard Manthie being involved,
but we certainly wanted to know his motive.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up.
Critical evidence is uncovered in the victim's own words.
- REBECCA: They found that Bill Edmondson had kept a diary.
It was all there in his own handwriting.
- SUSAN: I think he realized that he had made a mistake.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In January 1982,
detectives with the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office
have sufficient evidence pointing to Richard Manthie
as the murderer of Bill Edmondson.
As they begin the process to secure an arrest warrant,
they receive belongings from Bill's locker at the Naval base.
- They found that Bill Edmondson had kept a diary.
It was all there in his own handwriting.
- NARRATOR: According to the diary,
which began in the fall of 1981,
Bill realized he was in danger weeks before his murder.
But it wasn't Richard Manthie he was worried about,
it was his wife.
- REBECCA: He was suspicious of Rosalina,
and he was afraid for his life.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The diary entries reveal
that Bill had initially fallen hard for Rosalina,
but soon after, he had the good sense
to look into her background.
- REBECCA: At some point, when she was a teenager,
she was working as what's called a "bar girl" in the Philippines.
- DOUGLAS: She learned
that she could use her feminine charms to entice sailors
that were from the United States Navy,
over in the Philippines.
- REBECCA: Rosalina's goal was to find a way
to get to the United States,
and she could do that if she got a soldier to agree to marry her.
She could get what is called a Fiancé Visa.
- NARRATOR: In 1977,
she finally found a sailor willing to pop the question,
and she boarded a plane for Seattle.
But by the time she arrived in the States,
her fiancé had realized he was being manipulated.
- REBECCA: He didn't want anything to do with her.
He said he wasn't going to marry her,
and she wasn't gonna stay with him.
And he sent her away.
And there she was alone in Seattle.
- DOUGLAS: At that point and time,
she was kind of up against it
because she had to fulfill that Visa by being married.
- NARRATOR: Rosalina turned to
Seattle's large Filipino population for help.
That's where she met a fellow ex-pat from the Philippines,
seventy-six-year-old Pete Dugeno.
- REBECCA: He was in his seventies,
retired Naval sailor who was a widower,
and was very lonely for companionship.
He owned his own little house.
She cooked for him, she kept the house tidy,
and within just a few weeks, they were married.
- NARRATOR: According to what Bill discovered,
the honeymoon was very brief.
- DOUGLAS: This fellow had a history of heart problems,
and three weeks after they were married,
he up and died.
Apparently had a heart attack in bed one night.
- RAY: There certainly wasn't anything
that would indicate foul play at that particular time.
She wasn't on our radar, uh, he had a heart condition.
- REBECCA: She inherited his little house
and several thousand dollars in cash.
That's a pretty good return
on just a few weeks' investment in a marriage.
- NARRATOR: Bill discovered
that after the death of her first husband,
Rosalina quickly moved on to Richard Manthie in 1977.
Immediately after their divorce,
Rosalina had taken up with yet another man in 1980.
- REBECCA: She went to work at Harrison Hospital,
and she met a coworker
who was, um, getting ready to, uh, retire early
because he was ill.
His name was Robert Erickson,
and she went to work for him
in his home as a housecleaner and a cook.
- DOUGLAS: He subsequently changed his will,
and named Rosalina to be the sole beneficiary of his estate.
And lo and behold, he too, died in the middle of the night.
There wasn't sufficient reason
for the coroner to believe there was foul play going on.
So, these deaths were not reported to law enforcement,
and consequently, they were not investigated.
- NARRATOR: By the time Rosalina and Bill met,
rumors were circulating around the base
about Rosalina's reputation.
- DOUGLAS: During the time
that Rosalina was going out with Bill,
he was warned,
that you better watch out for Rosalina,
she's a black widow.
- NARRATOR: According to Bill's diary,
that only made him want to marry her more.
- SUSAN: I think when he first started going with her,
he thought maybe they had a future.
But then he found out about her background,
and that's when he started thinking,
"I want to be the one to bring her down."
- ANGELA: He wanted to catch her in these life insurance scams.
He wanted her to go to jail
for what she did with these other two men.
- NARRATOR: Bill married Rosalina in August of 1981,
and promptly took out a life insurance policy
that would pay Rosalina $150,000 if he died.
According to his diary,
less than a week later, Bill woke up in a hospital bed.
- DOUGLAS: Apparently, he had allergies
to certain over-the-counter medicines,
and, um, he ended up with a severe anaphylactic reaction,
and just about died.
- NARRATOR: Doctors asked Bill
how he had ingested the medicine,
and although Bill's memories were fuzzy,
he did remember something.
- DOUGLAS: In the middle of the night,
he remembered waking up,
and Rosalina was sitting on his chest,
pushing Tylenol pills down his throat.
- ♪
- MICHAEL: I think maybe that's where
he came up with the thing about keeping everything documented.
And he just said, "If anything ever happens to me,
"just go down to my locker and grab my diary,
and it'll explain everything that--that happened."
- NARRATOR: In addition to keeping a journal,
Bill moved his friend, Michael Cogswell, into his house
to make sure he was never alone with Rosalina,
but the marriage kept deteriorating.
- ANGELA: They had a lot of disagreements about money.
She wanted new appliances,
and she wanted the insurance on the house,
so if something happened to them,
the house would be paid off.
- REBECCA: She was spending his money so much
that he was overdrawn,
and he, later in the late fall, closed his bank account
because she was intent on emptying it.
- NARRATOR: By December, Bill was confessing to the diary
that he had gotten in over his head.
- REBECCA: Bill wrote about the life insurance policies,
he wrote about Rosalina's spending his money.
He talked about the times
he felt that she had tried to poison him
with a over-the-counter pain killer.
- SUSAN: I think he knew that she was a dangerous person.
I think he was very sorry that he married her.
I think he realized that he had made a mistake.
- MICHAEL: She did it twice before,
and she got away with it.
What makes you think that she couldn't get away with it again?
- NARRATOR: Although Bill's diary proves
that Rosalina had a motive and a prior record,
physical evidence points to Richard Manthie as the killer.
- RAY: There was quite a bit of evidence
that added up to form a probable cause
to make an arrest on Richard Manthie.
We wanted to hold off on Rosalina
until we put it all together,
so when we went to arrest Rosalina,
we had everything ready as far as a case against her.
- NARRATOR: On January 14th, 1982,
the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office
arrests Richard Manthie on the charge of first-degree murder.
- MICHAEL: I was pretty glad
that they finally arrested somebody,
but we were just wondering,
well, when in the hell are you gonna arrest Rose?
- SUSAN: One of the detectives quoted in the paper
that Rosalina would have her day in court.
So, I knew that they were on her trail then.
- NARRATOR: Coming up.
Can a new witness solidify the case against Rosalina,
and put a presumed black widow away for good?
- DAVID: She said,
"Kill the son of a bitch or I will."
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In 1982,
Richard Manthie awaits trial behind bars
for the murder of Bill Edmondson.
Though the state suspects Bill's wife, Rosalina,
as the mastermind,
they lack the hard evidence to prove it.
In March of 1982,
authorities get word that Richard has been talking.
- DAVID: They had a couple inmates in the jail
that said Manthie shot off his mouth
about killing Edmondson,
and, uh, kind of implicating Rose.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: According to his cellmate,
Richard had claimed
that even after Bill and Rosalina got married,
Rosalina still secretly visited Richard in prison.
- When she went to visit him in prison,
she kept saying that she was still his wife.
- DAVID: I don't think she really cared about Edmondson.
I think she, uh, felt that she was still married to Manthie.
Nobody could take his place.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: According to the cellmate,
on December 17th, 1981,
Rosalina moved Richard into the house on Long Lake Road
that she inherited from Robert Erickson.
A few days later on December 21st,
Rosalina allegedly arrived with a case of beer.
- DOUGLAS: She provided Manthie
with a significant amount of alcohol,
knowing full well that he would get drunk.
- REBECCA: She knew that Richard couldn't control his temper
when he was drunk.
- NARRATOR: Richard apparently said that hours later,
Rosalina showed up again,
but this time, she had another drunken man with her,
who she introduced
as her current husband, Bill Edmondson.
- ANGELA: I don't think it was until that moment
that he found out that he was no longer married to Rose.
- DOUGLAS: He confronted Bill about being married to Rosalina,
and tried to goad him into a fight.
When he didn't fight, well, Manthie hauled off,
and hit him as hard as he could right in the nose.
- NARRATOR: According to what the cellmate knows,
Richard kept punching Bill
until he finally snapped out of his drunken stupor
long enough to realize what he'd done.
- DOUGLAS: After beating him so severely,
Manthie suddenly had, uh, feelings of remorse,
and apologized to Bill.
And said, "Hey, I gotta take you over to the hospital."
- DAVID: When they were leaving, Edmondson turned to Rose,
and said he was going to change the insurance policy,
and take her off as a beneficiary.
And this really set her off.
And she said,
"Kill the son of a bitch or I will."
- ♪
- REBECCA: Bill got into the Gremlin with Richard,
and before they left the house,
he asked Bill to roll down the window and turn on the radio.
And said, "You know, a--a dying man
should have his favorite radio station on."
Then he turned, and shot Bill twice in the head.
- DOUGLAS: Manthie thought he better go back to the house,
and pick up Rose and--which he did.
She climbed in the backseat,
and they drove out into an area
that had been logged off over the years.
- NARRATOR: Allegedly, Richard told his cellmate
that he and Rosalina intended to just dump Bill's body,
but when he placed Bill facedown in a puddle,
he realized that Bill was still alive.
- DOUGLAS: He said to Rose
that, "The S.O.B. is still alive,
and I better go finish him off."
So, he shot him two more times in the head.
Manthie grabbed one arm, turned him over,
and then stomped on his chest.
- ANGELA: He said it sounded like potato chips cracking.
That is just over-kill.
That's somebody that has a lot of anger or hatred,
who just did not care.
He took enjoyment killing Bill.
- NARRATOR: According to Richard's claims,
Rosalina was going to give him a cut of Bill's life insurance
for his help.
- To me, there was no reason to believe
that--that she was going to share the proceeds
of Edmondson's death.
- NARRATOR: On May 17th, 1982, Richard's case goes to trial.
- REBECCA: The star witness at Richard Manthie's trial
was his cell mate,
who Richard had boasted to about the murder,
basically confessed to it.
The defense attorneys didn't want so much credibility
and credence to be given to the cell mate.
- NARRATOR: On June 9th, the jury returns its verdict.
- REBECCA: Richard Manthie was convicted of aggravated murder,
and sentenced to life without parole.
- NARRATOR: Days later, Rosalina is finally arrested,
and charged with first degree murder.
Her trial begins in the spring of 1983,
and in opening statements,
prosecutors tell how Rosalina orchestrated Bill's death.
- DOUGLAS: When Bill came home from work,
she got him so drunk that he was literally falling down,
and then she told him,
"Hey, I'll take you over to the Long Lake place."
So, he just literally walked into a trap.
- NARRATOR: The defense claims
that Rosalina's violent ex-husband acted alone,
but the jury disagrees.
On March 5th, 1983,
Rosalina is found guilty of first-degree murder.
- DOUGLAS: The outcome of all of this
resulted in life without parole.
- ♪
- REBECCA: It was never enough for Rosalina;
nothing was ever enough.
The love of her husbands wasn't enough.
The money they brought to the table wasn't enough.
The life insurance she got them to sign up for wasn't enough.
- MICHAEL: She probably would've tried, maybe
look for another victim after this,
if she would've got away with it again.
Bill was a friendly, caring person.
He didn't really deserve to lose his life at such a young age.
- SUSAN: I definitely think that Bill would've been happy
that she had finally been caught and put away,
even at the expense of his life.
I think that it was justice.
- ♪