When did you start thinking
that she had been kidnapped?
By the end of the first evening,
we knew there was something really wrong.
Nobody had seen her. It was like she had vanished.
She was abducted on her way to school.
How could this happen in our community?
It appeared to be a dead child in the water.
I went to the mortuary
and identified her.
Then I had to tell everyone at home.
And that was the hardest time of all.
I've thought about the terror that that child went through.
That's horrifying.
We went from a family that laughed and had fun
to just this sadness.
There was a little girl that said that she'd seen Daralyn
in a vehicle traveling with a male adult.
The police officer spotted a car that fit the description.
He lived in the neighborhood, he would have had
an opportunity to abduct her.
I personally am convinced that this gentleman
committed the crimes that we've charged him with.
What did the depravity of her murder suggest to you?
He's a monster.
He's a predator.
He's been a predator his entire life.
Hi, I'm Paula Zahn.
And tonight, we're on the case in Canyon County, Idaho,
about a half hour from Boise.
It's a rural area many believe to be immune to big-city crime.
But tragically, that theory was proved untrue when a young girl
vanished during her six-block walk to elementary school.
News of Daralyn Johnson's disappearance struck fear
in the hearts of every family.
Each had to wonder if one of their loved ones could be next?
February 24th, 1982.
It was close to 4 o'clock on a chilly Wednesday afternoon,
and Deanna Johnson was waiting for her daughters to get home
from school.
She was puzzled when Darci walked through the front door
without her older sister.
Even 40 years later, it's a painful memory.
Do you remember how concerned your mother became?
Yes.
My mom said, "Where's your sister?"
I said, "I waited after school, and she never came,
so I thought she had something going on."
But her mother knew there was no reason Daralyn wasn't there.
When did you start to worry?
It just raised up a red flag immediately.
She should have been home
without any question.
So I got Darci in the car, and we went to the school.
Deanna hoped that someone at the school had
a logical explanation, but their answers
only made the situation worse.
Daralyn never made it to school that day.
I spoke to her teacher, and she said she wasn't here,
and I marked her absent.
And I said, "Well, she left for school this morning."
It was suddenly clear something happened to
the nine-year-old on the way to school.
I called the police, and the police was there
right away.
For the Nampa police, it was a call to action.
Young girls simply didn't disappear in their small town.
The police were very, very concerned.
They were fearing that something was not right.
There was a feeling of being overwhelmed.
There was a lot of canvassing in that neighborhood.
There was a lot of door-to-door contact,
just trying to find her and see if anybody had seen her.
But no one police spoke with crossed paths
with Daralyn that morning.
It was like she had vanished.
Not even the girl she normally walked with to school.
It turned out that Daralyn was in a rush
and had headed out by herself.
Why did Daralyn leave early for school?
She had a letter for a friend of hers.
She was just anxious to get there and give her this letter.
Anxious enough to leave
her seven-year-old sister, Darci, behind.
I wasn't quite ready yet, and she was super excited
to get to school, so Daralyn left alone.
Back then, was it routine for young children to walk
to school on their own without their parents?
Yes, the school was built right in the middle
of several neighborhoods, and everybody
would walk to school.
People would not lock their doors at night.
The school was less than six blocks away
from the Johnsons' home.
There were just slews of children walking to school.
I never thought that there'd ever be anything
that wouldn't be right.
In fact, no one at the school ever considered
that possibility either.
Why didn't the school call her parents
when she didn't show up at school?
That wasn't their policy at the time.
This case actually changed the way that
the school district conducted business.
The community was in a panic by the time Daralyn's father,
Dennis, got home from work.
My wife called me and said that Daralyn had not come home
from school, and it was just opposite
to what she would normally do. She was always very dependable.
By nightfall, the search for the fourth grader was
an all-hands-on-deck operation.
There was a massive search.
They were looking at abandoned buildings, fields, any place
that they could possibly look.
A lot of police officers, even when they were off the clock,
volunteered the time and went,
worked through the night looking just nonstop.
The community turned out like you wouldn't believe.
There was a major company that provided the helicopter.
There was a lot of help and outpouring of love
for someone that they didn't even know.
Still, there was no sign of Daralyn.
When did you start thinking there was a possibility that
she had been kidnapped?
By the end of the first evening, we were actually
waiting to get some kind of call for ransom.
Police had no leads until the next morning,
when they got one from an unlikely source.
There was a little girl that had came forward that said that
she'd actually seen Daralyn in a vehicle, traveling out
of the neighborhood with a male adult.
The car was heading south and went down a busier street.
The child said the car was mostly red with areas
of missing paint.
She said it also had splotches of white along its hood,
side, and back.
Back in 1982, there were a lot of vehicles like that.
They were in the process of being repaired.
Did the young girl recognize the man?
- Driving the car? - She did not.
She had no idea who it was.
Did she happen to say if Daralyn was trying
to get out of the car? - She did not see any struggle.
She didn't see anything going on inside the car.
The tip was disturbing.
Police were now in a race against time to find the driver
of that car.
This was reported on the news.
It was front-page, everybody was getting involved.
There was community groups, police departments,
volunteers, and the parents trying to do everything
they could to try to find Daralyn.
The sense of desperation in the air
was growing by the minute,
fueled by a single terrifying thought.
Each hour that passed without locating Daralyn
might be her last.
2
Daralyn Johnson's disappearance
had sent shockwaves through the small city of Nampa, Idaho.
And the frantic search to find her ended in tragedy
three days after the nine-year-old went missing.
How did the search for Daralyn finally end?
Well, it was three days later.
Some fishermen were down at the Snake River,
and one of the boys wanted to cross that spring,
and he happened to see her body in the water.
He came across a little girl, and he panicked and had to go
find someone to get help.
The boy's father confirmed his grisly discovery
and called police.
- What did they describe seeing? - A dead child in the water.
She had a T-shirt on and a pair of pants and her shoes.
Law enforcement responded and then worked the crime scene.
When police arrived, they quickly confirmed the body
was Daralyn Johnson.
She was in the water.
Her body had been covered up with some brush.
Was it obvious how she was killed?
It wasn't obvious, but there was some speculation
that she had probably been sexually assaulted
based upon some blood that was on her pants and her underwear.
Even for veteran investigators, the details
of the nine-year-old's murder were difficult to absorb.
What did the depravity
of her murder suggest to you?
I've thought about the terror that that child went through,
the fear that she must have felt.
I don't understand the mentality of a person
that can inflict that kind of pain on any child.
Daralyn's lifeless body was gently brought
to the water's edge and then transported
to the coroner's office.
Police now had to inform her loved ones
that the search was over.
For Daralyn's father, the call from police
was shattering.
Where did you find the strength to deal
with the tragic news? - It was very, very hard.
My father and I went to the mortuary and identified her,
and that was really a hard situation.
Then we had to come home and tell everyone,
and that was probably the hardest time of all.
It was a life-altering experience for Daralyn's sister
Darci, who was just seven years old at the time.
I can remember my dad coming home,
and they told me that she wasn't coming back.
And I didn't understand that.
I just didn't understand any of it.
Daralyn was popular, friendly, and loved
by everyone.
It was almost impossible to accept that she was gone.
She was a really happy child.
She looked forward to going to school every day
and meeting with her friends and being a part
of what everybody was doing.
She was kind of like a mother to other children.
She loved her sister.
She would always be trying to teach her.
She liked to help me with anything that I was doing.
She was a very good big sister.
She was very kind and patient
and fun.
Her family believed that one day, Daralyn would have
achieved her goal of being a teacher and perhaps even have
a family of her own. But now those dreams were over.
The pain her loved one suffered was a motivator
for investigators, and they hoped
the young girl's autopsy might provide them with a clue
that would lead to her killer.
Could they determine how she was killed?
Daralyn had sustained some blunt-force trauma
to the upper left portion of her head, and she had been
sexually assaulted, but it was determined that she died
from drowning.
Could you get any sense how long after the abduction
that Daralyn was killed?
The pathologist believed that it happened sometime on the day
that she went missing, because she had digested food.
Walk me through the evidence that was collected.
They took photographs, and then there were some hairs
that were collected during the autopsy.
There was a hair from her sock, and there was also four hairs
collected from her underwear.
There really wasn't a whole lot of evidence.
And police found little more in the area
where Daralyn's body was discovered.
The other physical evidence was a shoe print that was found
at the scene.
There was some waffle-style shoe prints that were at
the location that they had documented.
The lack of evidence was troubling for investigators.
The only thing that seemed clear was that the killer was
a local, someone who knew the routes kids walked to
school and someone who was familiar with the remote area
along the river.
And that revelation only added to the pressure
police were under.
How did the community react to Daralyn's murder?
They wanted to find out what happened and to make sure that
the streets are safe again.
She was abducted on her way to school.
"What about my children? Are my kids safe?
"Can my kids go to school?
How could this have possibly happened in our community?"
And detectives knew there was only one way to answer
those questions.
They had to find Daralyn's killer,
and fast.
2
The Canyon County Sheriff's Office had spent months
searching for a solid lead in the Daralyn Johnson murder,
when they finally caught a break.
How did police identify their first suspect?
There was a police officer that spotted a car that fit
the description that was given by the little girl.
It had some Bondo for repairs. It was in pretty poor shape.
And the location of the car raised more suspicions.
It was parked just steps from Daralyn's home.
Investigators ran the plates and discovered the car was
owned by 34-year-old Charles Fain.
He lived on the route that Daralyn would have been going
to school.
He is a potential suspect.
With little else to go on,
the Vietnam veteran was brought in for questioning.
What happened once he was brought in for an interview?
Charles was cooperative.
His attitude was that he wanted to help.
Charles Fain told police he had heard about the murder,
but was confused as to why he was being viewed
as a suspect.
Charles insisted that he was outside of the state of Idaho,
that he was actually in Oregon visiting his parents.
Were investigators able to verify his alibi?
Uh, yes.
They were able to confirm that Charles was
visiting his parents.
The interview was brief,
and police couldn't find anything concrete
to link Fain to Daralyn's murder.
Did they search his car?
There was an extensive search done of his car.
There was a rope in the trunk, but there was nothing to
definitively say that Daralyn was in that car.
Still, before police released Fain, they asked
if he would provide them with biological samples for testing.
The thought was, "Let's get hair samples and then
"send those off to the FBI, and let's see if a comparison
can be made."
What kind of comparisons was the FBI trying to make?
This would have just been using a comparison microscope
and looking at the sample from the suspect versus the hair
that was collected at the scene.
The results were stunning.
The FBI identified the hair as being at the crime scene.
There was distinctive patterns which suggested that this
is unique.
The findings shifted the investigation
into high gear.
Charles Fain was now the prime suspect
in Daralyn Johnson's murder.
Detectives quickly obtained a search warrant
for his home and property.
And what they found only deepened their suspicions.
There was a shoe print that was found at the scene.
An FBI examiner compared the shoe print to a pair of
work shoes.
Experts determined the waffle sole and size
to be a match.
Investigators also took a closer look at Fain's alibi,
and discovered it had critical holes.
Was it possible for him to have been in Oregon, drive six hours
to Idaho, commit the murder, and get back to Oregon?
The investigators believed that it was possible that
he could have been in Idaho for a period of time.
Police were confident that the hair evidence,
the shattered alibi, and Fain's proximity to
the crime scene were enough to make an arrest.
Daralyn's loved ones agreed.
Did they share what they had against Charles Fain with you?
Yes, they did.
Were you convinced that Charles Fain
had been responsible? - With what they had, yes.
We felt that Charles was the person that had
kidnapped her.
And the case against Fain continued to get stronger
while he was behind bars awaiting trial.
Two fellow inmates came forward telling prosecutors
he had been bragging to them.
A couple of his cellmates that had came forward and said that
he had actually confessed to them and drew a map
to where Daralyn's body was.
And then when that conversation was over,
he had crumpled the map up and thrown it into the toilet.
And one of those cellmates had retrieved that map,
and that's what they brought forth to law enforcement.
Investigators believed only Daralyn's killer
could have drawn that map.
The map was fairly accurate.
That was certainly information that not everybody would
have known.
If found guilty, Fain would get the death penalty.
They believed that they had right person.
There was nothing to sway them that would cause them to
think differently,
But the long journey to justice was just beginning,
and the twists and turns ahead were about to shock everyone
on the case.
2
The trial of Charles Fain commanded the attention of
the entire community.
He stood accused of brutally murdering
a beloved nine-year-old girl.
I personally am convinced that this gentleman committed
the crimes that we've charged him with.
Prosecutors claimed Fain had placed himself at
the crime scene.
Charles Fain had drawn out where this crime had occurred.
And the FBI hair analysis sealed the case.
During the trial, the prosecutor actually did say
that these hairs match.
In the end, the jury believed their account.
Charles Fain was found guilty and sentenced to death.
For Daralyn's family, it seemed that justice was done.
They had gone through all the steps it took
to develop the evidence, quite a bit of evidence.
Charles was the perpetrator.
But there was still one person who was convinced
that the court and the jurors had gotten it wrong.
Charles Fain.
The Vietnam veteran believed that everything that happened
from the beginning was a whirlwind of bad breaks.
Did you have any idea why investigators
were focusing on you?
No.
The only reason they wanted to talk to me is because I had
a car that had been primed, and I did some body work on it.
Charles had always maintained neither he nor his car
were in Idaho the morning Daralyn went missing.
But police dismissed that alibi with the crime scene evidence.
They hit it with my hair. I was speechless.
I didn't have a clue what was going on.
It was just unbelievable.
Following his arrest, Charles had compounded
his problems by trusting his cellmates.
Why did you draw a diagram of the crime scene?
I have no idea.
It was a dumb thing to do, but I was talking to
the wrong person.
Charles told anyone who would listen that the map was based
on what he had read in the newspaper,
not insider's knowledge, and his cellmates
had conned him into drawing it.
When you're in there, something you didn't do,
you want somebody to believe you.
I never again talk to another inmate about my case.
They'll use it against you.
But it seemed like it was already too late.
You feel like jumping up and screaming, but your lawyer
told you, sit there and be calm.
Charles was sitting on death row,
awaiting an execution date,
when someone finally began taking his story seriously.
Lawyers from the Innocence Project believed
that prosecutors had overstated critical evidence to the jury,
in particular, that there was no scientific proof that
Charles's hair was a match to the ones found on Daralyn.
Some of the evidence that was used against Charles was what
we call junk science.
An FBI expert examined hairs on the victim and said,
"It could not be excluded."
In other words, the FBI analysis only proved
that the hairs found on Daralyn were similar to the samples
taken from Charles.
Now, is that beyond a reasonable doubt?
I don't think so.
Charles's lawyers believed that his conviction was
a miscarriage of justice from start to finish.
To me, it seemed like a rush to judgment.
While Fain's attorneys desperately tried to build
their case for a new trial, time was a deadly enemy.
He was on death row.
He went through a very tough time.
As the years turned into a decade,
Charles slowly came to peace with his fate.
I can't really explain how I developed.
It just happened after a period of time.
I just accepted the situation. I just adjusted to it.
Charles said that adjustment was made possible
by a higher power than the law.
I started reading my Bible every day,
and that's what got me through.
So I decided I'm not gonna get angry, I'm gonna turn
it positive. And that's what I did.
Even four days before an impending death sentence,
Charles displayed the courage of a righteous man.
I always felt I was never gonna get executed.
Something just kept telling me, "You're not gonna die."
That feeling grew stronger each time an execution was stayed.
And there was something else that fueled Charles's faith.
During his 18 years on death row, forensic science
continued to improve, and his team hoped
it might provide them with the evidence they needed
to overturn his conviction.
It was the defense's request that those hairs be sent to
Bode Technologies to have mitochondria DNA testing done.
Through a process of extracting mitochondrial DNA
from those hairs and comparing that to Charles Fain's blood,
it was determined that Charles Fain
was not the contributor of those hairs.
The results were stunning to everyone but Charles Fain.
The DNA had exonerated him.
His prayers had been answered.
As far as I'm concerned, that's God's fingerprint.
In August of 2001, a judge overturned
Charles Fain's conviction.
I knew it was gonna happen. I always knew it.
Perhaps the most incredible aspect of Charles Fain's story
is his lack of bitterness over the years that were stolen
from him.
How do you explain it to people?
My Lord Jesus Christ.
He's a good man. He was ridiculously wronged.
He's a hero, a rare hero.
But not everyone saw it that way.
Charles Fain's release was a crushing blow
for Daralyn's loved ones.
What was your reaction to his being set free?
It was hard at first because we didn't understand
all the forensic evidence, but he was absolutely
eliminated as a person that done the kidnapping
and killed our daughter.
At first, I wasn't happy, you know,
I really believed it was him.
And I had said that I believed in the death penalty, and I did.
I thought that's how it should end.
The Johnsons weren't the only ones who were frustrated.
A new team of detectives had to start the case over
from scratch.
Would their new investigation finally bring Daralyn's killer
to justice?
2
Following the release
of wrongly convicted Charles Fain,
many believed that justice for Daralyn Johnson was
a long shot.
Close to 20 years had passed with the wrong man behind bars.
After Charles Fain was exonerated, did you begin to
believe that no one would ever face justice
for your sister's murder?
Yes. I was...
horrified.
It was hard to believe that it wasn't him.
But over time, the Johnsons' feelings changed.
They slowly began to understand that Charles Fain
was the crime's second victim, a realization that led Deanna
to send Charles a life-altering letter.
What did she write to you?
"Mr. Fain, I just wanted to tell you how sorry we are
"for the time taken from you.
"This has made me rethink my belief in the death penalty
"as well as for my own shortcomings
"in judgment and compassion.
"May the rest of your life be filled with joy and goodness.
Sincerely Deanna and Dennis Johnson."
How did that letter make you feel?
It's hard not to--
It's just amazing.
That's all. It's just amazing.
I love those people now.
I'm glad I forgave them and forgave everybody else.
But Charles also knew in his heart that he would never
feel truly free until Daralyn's real killer was caught.
More than a decade after his release,
it seemed as though that might never happen.
Then, a headline-making case in the Bay Area
changed everything.
What advances in DNA science
ultimately jump-started the investigation?
So, the Golden State Killer case was the first time that
genetic genealogy was performed.
The groundbreaking DNA science offered new hope to cold-case
teams across the country.
Investigators on Daralyn Johnson's murder.
contacted those experts to see if their hair evidence
could be used for genealogy.
Donia Ballard reached out to find out, could this be done?
She was told that there was a scientist,
Dr. Ed Green, who is a world-renowned expert.
He was given all the hairs that we had in this case and asked
to examine that hair.
Investigators knew the odds were against them.
They prayed for a miracle.
He was able to get DNA from a hair
that a lot of scientists believe could never be done.
Help me understand the significance
of that breakthrough?
The breakthrough is just absolutely profound.
Taking such degraded or small sample size
and able to get this whole-genome sequencing,
that was a very, very difficult task.
Those results meant that investigators
on the Daralyn Johnson case could use forensic genealogy
to track her killer.
A massive family tree of the hair's donor was created
and then whittled down branch by branch
until just one name remained.
What did the testing reveal?
The testing revealed that we had a match to
David Dalrymple.
Police were stunned.
David Dalrymple was never mentioned
in the a massive case file.
But some old-fashioned detective work quickly proved
they were on the right track.
What was Dalrymple's criminal history?
He actually was serving a twenty-to-life sentence
on a rape case involving a little girl
who was similar in age as Daralyn.
The attack took place 22 years after Daralyn's murder.
How was Dalrymple overlooked during
the original investigation?
Dalrymple was living a life where he was hidden
in plain sight.
He was residing with his sister,
and there was really-- nobody knew who he was.
He very easily just floated under the radar.
How close did Dalrymple live to Daralyn's family?
He lived just two blocks to the northwest,
from their house.
Would you describe Dalrymple as having been a phantom
in the neighborhood?
He is a person who can keep a low profile,
who can be that phantom. He's here and he's not here.
He doesn't have any ties here.
I don't pay rent, I don't pay electricity.
You can disappear in that respect.
You can have anonymity.
And it now appeared Daralyn had simply unknowingly walked
into his deadly trap.
Police asked her younger sister, Darci, to create a map
of every potential route the nine-year-old might have
used to walk to school, including any shortcuts.
I gave her a marker, and she started drawing.
And as she began drawing, the marker went right across
where David Dalrymple's house was at.
Whew.
That-- that was-- that was something that was dramatic.
It was chilling.
The map was the final piece of the puzzle.
Police were now certain they had found
Daralyn's killer.
I've narrowed him down as being the sole suspect
for this case.
When Detective Mark Taylor visited Dalrymple in prison,
he hoped to take advantage of any lingering guilt his suspect
may have felt.
I had planned an interview with him for the date of
Daralyn's abduction and homicide.
I went out to the prison and staged a room
so that I could meet with him. I built a photo album.
The last photo in that photo album was
a picture of Daralyn laying in that creek.
Detective Taylor carefully watched Dalrymple
as he entered the room.
What was his reaction?
He just sat there and looked at it and then said the words,
"Fully clothed."
And that was it.
What was that supposed to mean?
I could not tell you.
It was a very bizarre comment.
From my perspective, any person would be thinking,
that's absolutely terrible.
That's horrifying.
But that wasn't the reaction that I got.
That's a child laying there dead.
The length of time that he sat there and looked at that photo,
it was almost like it was taking him back in time.
But to the point where he showed any remorse?
Not a drop.
After it was clear that Dalrymple had no conscience,
Detective Taylor switched gears and confronted him
with the facts.
At that point, I asked him why there would be any reason
that his hairs would be in Daralyn's underwear.
And of course, he called me crazy, but I knew based upon
the reactions in the interview that I had the right person.
Dalrymple's denial only strengthened the case
against him.
There was now only one explanation for his DNA being
found at the crime scene.
Based on everything you know about the case,
what do you think happened to Daralyn that morning?
I believe that David abducted her with the intentions
to sexually assault her.
Because of the close proximity of where he lived, he could be
identified if she lived, and I think that he had
to eliminate her.
How would you characterize David Dalrymple?
He's a monster. He's a predator.
He's probably been a predator his entire life.
In June of 2024, Dalrymple stood trial
for the savage crime, and the overwhelming evidence
led jurors to a quick verdict. Guilty of first-degree murder.
Charles Fain spoke to the court at sentencing.
His statement was full of grace.
I said I forgave him.
And I said to the Johnson family, they need to find a way
to forgive, not for his benefit, but for their own.
So I hope they find a way to do it.
But perhaps that might be easier knowing that
Dalrymple will die in prison.
The judge sentenced him to two consecutive life terms.
For the Johnsons, the verdict was the end
of a long, pain-filled journey, where the only comfort is
finally knowing the right man is behind bars.
What has David Dalrymple taken away from your family?
We went from a family that talked and laughed,
had fun, to...
a family that was pretty much
just polar opposite.
There was this sadness.
But now there's hope for a brighter future.
I think about her every single day.
I try to imagine what she would be like today,
and I wonder if we would be a couple of old grandmas
taking all the kids to the movies.
We've talked many times about the kind of kid she was.
She was really an easy kid to raise.
I was really thankful for her.
It's always in the forefront of our mind.
She may have only lived nine and a half years,
but she's still with us.
Charles Fain and his attorney were ultimately able to secure
a small measure of compensation for his wrongful conviction.
He received a settlement of $1.4 million for the 18 years
he spent on death row. I'm Paula Zahn.
Please join us again next time when we're back on the case.
On the next On the Case...
Can you even imagine her father walking in to that nightmare?
Finding your child half-naked bound with duct tape,
I can't imagine.
It sent shockwaves through the community.
How did this happen?
And, who's next?