Narrator: What is going on, true crime fans?
Gather around, grab a chair. Let's talk some true crime.
Today, we look into the unsolved murder
Of candace hiltz.
A beautiful and intelligent 17-year-old girl
Savagely murdered in her home.
A number of theories have sprung up over the years,
All of which become more dark and vicious
As you get into them.
If she was shot by multiple guns,
Then she was killed by multiple people.
Was somebody from the sheriff's office involved in the murder
Or killed candace and has covered it up?
This botched investigation had this small town
In a terrified frenzy.
♪ dark clouds rolled into town ♪
♪ who knows when it comes around? ♪
♪ when or where it holds us down? ♪
♪ who knows wherever it goes? ♪
Siegler: Did you go get your good coffee this morning?
I did not. I just drank crappy hotel coffee.
-It's pretty bad. -It was really bad.
Yeah.
What did you think when you read this case?
Well, this one, because of the age of the victim,
Is particularly sad.
I mean, this is a young girl.
Siegler: It feels like she was the star of the family.
Graduated from high school early.
She was a girl in a little town who wanted to grow up
And do away and do something good with her life,
And she ends up shot inside her own trailer.
Abbey and I are here in fremont county, colorado,
Where back in 2006
A bright, young 17-year-old girl named candace hiltz
Was found brutally murdered
With her baby girl just a few feet away.
The viciousness in this murder, the excessive violence,
And a baby left at the scene--
I mean, this is something out of a nightmare.
I know.
Abbondandolo: Candace was shot seven times
With multiple firearms, dragged to her room,
And then stuffed under her bed.
And while investigators suspected
That her brother may have killed her,
Many in the media and the community
Suspected the investigators themselves.
You have two completely different stories--
The story of the sheriff's department
And the story of the hiltz family.
James, candace's older brother,
Who suffered from multiple mental health disorders,
Was a pretty easy target.
And multiple family members all say james hiltz
Was not the murderer.
Podcasters, the tv shows,
They all point at crooked cops committed the murder.
Candace's family said candace hiltz
Had an altercation with an officer.
She had seen him taking envelopes
From drug dealers around town.
The two got into a heated argument.
He left the house enraged.
There is allegations of corruption.
I don't know where that story's gonna take us.
But this is the police department's chance
To really be honest with us
And let the facts land where they may.
Siegler: Candace's mother has been haunted for 15 years,
Not only from the loss of her daughter,
But also because of her distrust of law enforcement
And the suspicions that her own son was involved.
For her, for candace, for this whole community,
We need to take a hard, unbiased look at this case
And sort out the rumors from the facts once and for all.
We're the first people who has the real case report,
The real witness statements, the real crime-scene evidence
Available to look at.
I feel like we're gonna figure out what happened.
You're an optimistic fellow.
I think we're good at what we do.
It has been 16 years and still no answers...
Police consider her killing a cult killing...
Years later, the case is still unsolved...
Siegler: I've chosen cold cases from across the country
And teamed up with the best detectives to solve them.
We're more determined than ever
To bring justice to these victims.
-Good morning. -Morning.
-Derek irvine. -Nice to meet you.
Undersheriff, fremont county sheriff's department.
-Pete. -Pete. Nice to meet you.
Pete, were you here in 2006 when this happened?
I was not. I didn't come to cañon city until 2007.
This case has left a black cloud over this office.
The investigators were dealing with rumor control,
Social media podcasters that will do a story on this case
Without any of the facts.
With your guys' assistance,
We will be able to bring closure to this entire case,
Completely open and completely transparent.
And I think that's gonna satisfy a lot of people.
This case has sat in limbo for way too long.
I'm excited about the opportunity
To have kelly and abbey really help us get justice for candace,
Which at the end of the day is what this is all about.
Siegler: You know, it's not terribly often
That we have a victim who's only 17 years old.
It seems like candace was super smart
From all that we could read in the file.
Graduated high school early.
She had completed her application to stanford.
She had actually hoped to be a supreme court justice.
Siegler: Wow.
Well, pete, you wanna run your case down to us?
Candace hiltz lived up in a pretty rural mountainous area
With her mother, dolores, and her 11-month-old baby, paige.
On the afternoon of August 15, 2006,
Dolores leaves candace alone with paige for the day
To run some errands.
Candace has a boyfriend, jesse.
He is the father of candace's daughter.
And he comes over to check on candace and the baby.
He hears baby paige screaming from outside.
When he enters the home,
He sees a large pool of blood on the floor
And blood on the walls.
Within this time, dolores, candace's mother,
She returns home.
She goes in. She notices a blanket.
Coming out from underneath candace's bed.
She removes the blanket, and she finds the body
Of her daughter, candace, under the bed.
It was determined later
That she had suffered a .410 shotgun wound to the face,
A .45 long colt wound to the chest,
And five .22 rounds to the back of her head.
It's not a robbery. It's not a sexual assault.
What's the motive for killing this young lady?
To me, that's question number one.
All right. Let's start off with our suspects.
Investigators questioned candace's boyfriend
And cleared him as a suspect.
And while candace's family later changed their minds,
At first the only person they suspected was her brother.
Tell me--tell me how you know that?
So we're gonna start with james "jimmy" hiltz.
Immediately after the body is discovered,
The question comes up right away, "where's jimmy?"
-Siegler: And he's hiding. -And he's disappeared. Right?
He's not coming back and forth to the house,
So the investigators immediately start searching for him.
They had brought out tracking dogs,
And he's actually taken into custody several days after.
Siegler: Candace's older brother, jimmy,
Suffered from severe mental illness.
He was delusional and he heard voices in his head.
At the time he had recently separated
From his wife and his kids, and he was living homeless
In the hills behind candace's trailer.
He also had been burglarizing local homes
For food and supplies.
We don't know what he's diagnosed as, do we?
-No. -If it's schizophrenia
Or paranoia. We don't know. -No, I'm not aware of any...
What about specifically issues between jimmy and candace?
That argument over the family dog.
The dog, jacks, barked at him every time he came around.
Would run after him. Did not like james at all.
The dog comes up missing, and she believes
That he's responsible for why the dog is missing.
There's some kind of altercation or argument over this dog
During this argument with candace.
This is the most angry and enraged he has ever been.
Abbondandolo: After candace's murder,
Her dog's remains were found nearby,
Shot three times with a .22-caliber gun,
The same caliber as one of the guns that killed candace.
We sent those bullets off for testing
To see if they were fired from the same weapon.
The thing is, there were three types of ammunition found
In candace's body.
Now, would jimmy have really used three guns to kill her?
Or could it have been multiple shooters
In a much larger conspiracy?
Okay. So now we're gonna put up robert dodd.
-You called him robbie, huh? -Yep.
Abbondandolo: He was in charge of the investigation's unit
At the time of candace's death,
So he would have been in charge
Of overseeing that investigation.
If you listen to the podcast or other media,
You might have heard a theory
That members of the sheriff's department
Committed and covered up candace's murder.
Families of candace hiltz had an altercation of some sort
With an officer at the sheriff's office
About a week before she was killed.
The family basically had brought up
That law enforcement had come up to the family house
To investigate the burglaries
And then had the verbal altercation with candace.
And candace became belligerent.
Siegler: And she was about to report drug payoffs, right?
Yeah.
I heard that on one of the podcasts.
While the rumors are a bit inconsistent,
They basically state that candace accused
A sheriff's deputy of taking bribes.
So he and some other officers killed her dog as a warning
And then killed candace to silence her.
Those are the first of many rumors
We're gonna be looking into this week.
This young girl kind of runs her mouth to this cop,
And the cop decides, "hey, you know what?
I'm gonna teach this young girl a lesson,"
And that lesson is then we're gonna murder you.
As wild as the conspiracy theory sounds, we do know
That dodd engaged in suspicious behavior after the murder.
What's the date of our storage unit discovery?
December 2016, dodd had a storage unit,
And the payment on that unit lapsed.
So the contents of that unit were then sold to a third party
By the name of rick ratzlaff.
And when rick goes into that storage unit,
He finds bags of evidence.
So he then notifies local law enforcement,
And he also made a phone call to local media.
Siegler: Okay.
It blew up like wildfire.
It was immediately pointing fingers at the office
For covering up candace's murder.
An investigation into dodd
By the colorado bureau of investigation
Found that he not only mishandled potential evidence,
He altered candace's case file after it was discovered.
In 2018, that case went to trial, and he was convicted.
A jury found dodd guilty
Of misdemeanor abuse of public records
And two petty counts official misconduct.
A review of the items in dodd's storage unit
Later determined that they were not directly linked
To candace's homicide.
So then why did dodd change her case file?
We need to talk to him and take a closer look
At those items ourselves.
You cannot look at the hiltz homicide
Without looking into robert dodd's involvement
In that case, as well as what happened
With those items recovered in that storage unit.
Okay.
Dodd's storage unit is another major rumor
That suggests that the sheriff's department
Is responsible for candace's murder
And not her brother, jimmy.
The other rumors were that the multiple guns used
Suggest multiple shooters,
That jimmy wasn't violent
And he did not have access
To any firearms.
It is a lot to get to the bottom of,
Which is why the sheriff's department
Has asked us for our help.
We're the first people that you've let
Look at your evidence? -Yes. Exactly.
And that's what we're gonna do this week.
Complete access to your files,
And we're gonna figure out what the heck happened.
♪ I'm trying to tell myself ♪
♪ that there's still hope ♪
♪ as I turn and walk away ♪
♪ I'm left alone ♪
Siegler: Today we get to talk to candace's mom.
How else are you thinking about approaching her?
To let her know that, you know, I am new to this case,
So I don't represent any of the previous investigations.
Siegler: That's huge.
Candace's mother initially told investigators
That she suspected her son, jimmy,
As the person who killed candace.
Though it seemed like within days,
She changed her mind.
And since dodd's conviction in 2018,
She has been very vocal in the media
That she distrusts the sheriffs
And thinks they're involved in candace's mother.
-Hello, ladies. -Hi.
-I'm kelly. -Heather.
-Nice to meet you. -I'm dolores.
Hello, miss dolores.
Dolores has dealt with so much tragedy,
Including caring for and raising candace's baby daughter
Until she died at the age of 7 of a very rare brain condition.
Today, we went her to know
That we understand she's a victim here, too.
We're gonna try our very hardest to solve her daughter's murder.
Talk about candi. Is that what you called her?
-Heather: Candi girl. -Candi girl.
Siegler: Candi girl.
Candi was like that light that comes in a room
That everybody wanted.
And everybody made a big thing about how beautiful she was.
-Siegler: She was. -But the big thing was
How beautiful she was inside.
She loved life.
Candi would take on, at 5'2", any of her brothers.
Like, she was their conscience.
There was no gray areas with candi.
If you were wrong, you were wrong.
Candi was my seventh child. Candi was born on December 22nd.
And on that christmas morning,
I came home from the hospital at 5:00 in the morning
And placed her under the tree.
And candi was the spirit of christmas.
She lived 100%.
She was the light in my life.
She was so mature. She was...
Everything.
It's a circumstantial evidence case.
Mm-hmm.
And we need every little piece of evidence
To tell the story of what happened to candace.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
There is 67 officers in that cover-up.
We're talking about all the top of the top here.
And if you look into all the other unsolved murders
In this county, a lot of them are cop-related.
-Different scenarios... -Cop-related.
[sighs] it sounds like you...
Kinda already have your mind made up
That this is what happened to candi.
I know it's not james.
♪♪♪
We don't wanna leave any stone left unturned.
We wanna be able to answer every question that you have.
Mm-hmm.
It's clear that candace's mother,
Like a lot of people in this community
Believe that the sheriff department
Is involved in her daughter's murder.
And she's adamant
That her son, jimmy, had nothing to do with it.
It's important for us to hear her out.
Jimmy had a struggling alcohol problem
After his father died.
And he was broke from reality and he was suicidal.
But he was afraid of all of us.
And at one point he said to me, "where's my mother?"
And I said, "I'm right here.
Let's get you into state hospital,
And let's get some help," and he'd run.
How much does he remember about what happened?
It's all scattered.
All he remembers is that he was hallucinating
-And everybody was after him. -Okay.
Jimmy's been in a mental hospital
Since right after candace's murder.
So we're not gonna be able to talk to him.
That means that dolores might be our best chance
In trying to understand
Any potential motive jimmy might have had.
And while we don't wanna cause her any more pain,
We have to ask her about it.
Okay, let me read this to you.
This is from an interview with you, typed-up notes.
"some six days before the murder,
Jimmy comes home to get some food.
He had not been welcome in the home
Due to recent complex--" -that's a lie.
Disagree with whatever you want.
"suspect had not been welcome in the home
Due to recent conflicts with candace and the mother."
So you and candace. You're saying not true?
-That's a lie. -So I'll mark that off.
It also talks about in here
How you see candace and jimmy get into a fight over her dog.
Candace accuses him of harming the dog
Because the dog didn't like him.
-No. -You say not true.
No. That's totally not true.
She wouldn't even bark if jimmy came up.
Dolores is denying the reports
That there was any bad blood between jimmy and candace,
Which contradicts what she said back then.
Maybe dolores doesn't remember. Maybe she's blocked it out.
Maybe jimmy's conflict over the dog
Had nothing to do with candace's murder.
In any case, I don't think that any of us can understand
The pain that she's been through
Or how she's managed to deal with it.
We don't know right now how all this is gonna play out.
But when we get all done with this whole investigation,
What if the answer here,
We come to tell you that we don't think
That your theory on what happened is right?
Then I'll have to deal with it.
Okay. 'cause you want the truth, right?
Yeah.
And, dolores, the one thing that I can promise you is that
I will look at all of the evidence and the facts.
And remember, no one hates a bad cop more than a good cop does.
Mm-hmm.
Siegler: I think that what we all have
To keep reminding ourselves is that
Not only did she lose a child, which is the hardest thing
Any parent could ever have to go through,
But she is, more importantly, today the mother of a suspect.
And I think that right now, that's her priority,
And I can't even blame her.
But at the same time, I'm trying to get her to tell us the truth.
And I've never really had to deal
With this exact kind of situation before.
-[line ringing] -hello?
Taletha, this is undersheriff irvine
With the fremont county sheriff's office. How are you?
If we're going to tackle the rumors about candace's murder,
The best place to start
Is with the big rumor,
About the cops' alleged motive.
I was hoping to meet up with you sometime today.
-Would you be available? -Yeah. I could do that.
All right, we'll see you there.
Abbondandolo: We've tracked down
One of candace's closest friends, taletha.
The question is, does she know anything
About the alleged confrontation with that sheriff's officer
Or anything about jimmy's potential motive?
Taletha? Hi.
Nice to meet you.
What--what can you tell us?
Sad situation all the way around.
Um...
Candi was, like, my best friend.
Um, she really enjoyed being a mom and having a baby.
Yeah.
So she was doing her homeschool.
She was gonna end up going to college.
She was so smart. No drugs. No nothing. Uh...
Candi was kinda, like, break the mold, you know?
-Sad. -As outsiders learning about it,
I hear all these wild stories about jimmy back in the day.
Did you see any of that?
So jimmy was pretty off his rocker.
What do you mean "off his rocker"?
Uh, wearing pots and pans as shields,
And he was pretty delusional.
So it was, like, natural. When all of the stuff happened,
That was the first thought that everybody had.
-Sure. -We thought jimmy killed her.
I think, in fact, the police reports probably all read that.
What about you? What did you think?
I knew jimmy had the capability. I mean, he--
He literally didn't know what was going on.
Okay. What would jimmy's motive be to kill his sister?
The only motive that we could have thought was delusions.
-Okay. -That he didn't know it was her.
-Okay. -Because he was hallucinating.
Taletha doesn't seem to know anything
About jimmy and candace fighting over the missing dog.
Of course with his psychological issues,
You have to wonder if he really needed much of a motive.
So that's a big challenge-- investigating a suspect
Who's suffering from mental illness.
It's even harder to know what they're capable of.
Irvine: We're looking at the big picture.
We're looking at jimmy.
We're looking at the whole rumor the cops were involved,
Because it's never been addressed.
Taletha: Yeah.
Taletha doesn't know
About candace's alleged altercation with an officer,
And only suspected cops
After the news broke about dodd's storage unit.
Thank you for talking with us. I really appreciate that.
At this point, we're not much closer
To figuring out our killer's motive,
Rumored or otherwise.
We're just gonna have to keep digging.
♪♪♪
There are six main rumors
That suggest the sheriff's department
Is responsible for candace's murder
And not her brother, jimmy.
The first we're chasing down is the rumor about
The sheriff's department's motive--
That candace accused an officer of corruption.
Candace told the deputy
That she had seen him taking envelopes
From drug dealers around town.
And she threatened him,
And potentially she had information on him
That could ruin his life and his career.
And then the cop decides, "hey, you know what?
We're gonna murder you."
The guy that we're going to see now,
He was a sergeant back in '06 when this homicide happened.
He dealt with the family quite a bit.
Abbondandolo: There's no evidence that sergeant dodd
Ever visited candace's home before the murder.
But there is a complaint filed six months after the murder
By candace's mom,
Claiming that a sergeant tracy hall
Did stop by and that he was the one
That candace got into a heated argument with.
There he is.
This has to be the source of the rumor, so we have to get
Sergeant hall's side of the story.
You were familiar with the family, is that right?
That's right. We had a string of burglaries
From, like, summer cabins and things of that nature.
When they would report it, they would name jimmy
As the suspect breaking in.
How about dolores? Did you talk to her often?
She was really scared of jimmy.
He had mental problems, and she would feed him outside
Because she didn't want him in the house.
-Wow. -Uh, yeah.
How about candace?
In the weeks prior to her murder,
You went out there to the house and talked to her once.
Do you remember that?
I remember talking to dolores about another burglary,
And candi stuck her head out of the door
And was yelling and screaming at me
To leave her brother alone and some such thing.
And all I told her was--I said, "you just need to go inside.
Stop yelling at me.
This is not concerning you. Just go inside."
Abbondandolo: Sergeant hall recalls
An interaction with candace, though the way he tells it,
It doesn't sound much like an altercation.
Was there any ever bad blood between candi and you
Or dolores and you before that or any kind of disputes?
No, I didn't have any disputes.
Do you know of any deputy employed at the time
That was supposedly taking bribes or payoffs
That was assigned to the west end of the county?
No. I've heard that rumor,
And that's just complete nonsense.
Would anybody working for the sheriff's office at that time
Had a reason to murder candi and then cover it up?
No. Not at all.
No. No.
Sergeant hall's story doesn't match the rumors,
But the truth is, neither does dolores's complaint.
Because while it does state that candace taunted him,
It also makes the point
That dolores didn't hear any specific accusations.
It's unclear where that idea of drug money came from.
But it's unsubstantiated,
And at this point,
I think we can consider
This rumor debunked.
♪♪♪
Yeah, that'd be perfect. I'm heading that way now.
We don't have a clear motive anymore
From members of the sheriff's department
For killing candace or her dog.
But there is one rumor that we know
Is partially based on the facts.
Sergeant dodd hid evidence in his personal storage unit.
-Hey, you must be rick. -Yeah.
I'm abbey. You already know him.
-Rick, how you been? -Good.
Rick ratzlaff is the man
Who purchased the contents of that storage unit
At an auction in 2016, 10 years after candace's murder.
We wanna know firsthand what he saw when he opened it up.
What can you tell us about the storage unit?
How you ended up with it, what was in it.
-Okay. -What transpired after that?
After dodd's storage unit was discovered,
The colorado bureau of investigations
Collected the items and concluded
They weren't evidence in candace's case.
The question is, why was rick so convinced
That those items were connected to candace in the first place?
After that evidence was found in the storage unit,
Had there ever been any discussion
Between you and dolores?
What was the topic of that conversation?
Did it? Actually murdered candace?
Why would they do it?
Why would the cops kill somebody?
Yeah.
We know from the reports and the necropsy
Candace's dog wasn't tied to a tree and beheaded.
It was shot with a .22-caliber gun.
All right, be careful on the road today, sir.
Thanks again, rick.
There's another contradiction as well.
According to dolores's statement,
The dog went missing days before
Candace's confrontation with sergeant hall.
So it couldn't have bitten an officer.
Plus, when it was likely killed,
No one at the sheriff's department
Would have had a motive to harm it.
Candace hadn't confronted anyone yet.
It looks like we can knock off
This rumor as well.
Abbondandolo: You have these rumors that are just swirling.
Irvine: Oh, yeah. That's the first time
I've ever heard that the dog had its head cut off.
Abbondandolo: It's all garbage.
There's a thread of truth in there,
But there's a tapestry of garbage.
♪♪♪
Siegler: We're confident that we've eliminated
Some of the rumors regarding
The sheriff's department's possible involvement
In candace's murder.
But like the podcasters,
We still have a lot of questions
About the items recovered from
Sergeant dodd's storage unit.
Why did he have any of this stuff to begin with?
Why was he placing these items in a storage locker tucked away?
There is absolutely no reason for him doing what he did
Unless it was to cover his own ass.
Cover-ups scare me more than anything else
Because of the power that people like this have.
I think one person that we can't escape talking to
Is the former sheriff, jim beicker.
Okay.
He's the sheriff at the time of the investigation
With dodd and the storage shed.
I think we should sit down with him and talk to him.
Right, right, right, yes.
Jim beicker was
The fremont county sheriff at the time.
-Kelly. Nice to meet you, sir. -Pleasure to meet you.
He's agreed to come in and try to explain
Where those items came from and why many people
Believe they were evidence in candace's murder.
So the whole dodd investigation--
Give us the story of what happened
From the beginning to his conviction and what you think.
This is what happened. I know what happened.
When the manhunt for jimmy hiltz ensued,
Search teams were told,
"if you come across something while we're doing this research
That you feel is important,
You mark it, call for an investigator."
And we're talking about acres of rough mountainous terrain.
A lot of irrelevant things were collected
That should not have actually ever been collected.
Then there became this pile of stuff
That should have been disposed of.
It was not deemed evidence.
And dodd was supposed to do it, and he didn't do it.
And then at some point, he rented the storage unit,
And that's how ricky ratzlaff became in possession
Of the "so-called" potential items of evidence.
According to the former sheriff, all of these items
Were collected in the woods after candace's murder,
And they were initially considered
To be potential evidence but later deemed to be trash.
But that still doesn't explain
Why dodd put those items in his storage unit
Or altered her case files.
We're gonna need to talk to dodd and ask him about that.
What dodd did was stupid, and it was out of laziness,
But he did not intentionally compromise this case.
Or participate in a cover-up
Because he was involved in a conspiracy to kill candace.
Absolutely not. That is the most ludicrous thing
That needs to be dispelled.
There was no corruption at the sheriff's office.
Can I say that we did everything perfect every time?
No. But no-- no law enforcement agency can.
Okay. Wow.
So former lieutenant robert dodd
Has agreed to pick up the phone and talk to us, huh?
I can still remember the newspaper articles,
The social media just blowing up and basically crucifying him.
We have some hard questions to ask him.
Perfect. Perfect.
Robert dodd was convicted of mishandling evidence
And altering candace's case reports.
And while the evidence in dodd's storage unit
Was not related to candace's case,
The reports certainly were.
[line ringing]
-Hello. -Hey, is this robert dodd?
Yes, it is.
Siegler: It's time we speak to dodd,
Who's never spoken publicly about any of this.
Mr. Dodd, characterize how that evidence
Got to be in your storage unit.
[chuckles]
Dodd's storage matches the sheriff's,
But the real question is,
What was any of it even doing in his personal storage unit?
Can I ask you a little bit, mr. Dodd,
About the report itself?
You added to it, is that correct?
Okay.
Dodd's excuse is that he's retroactively trying
To document the items and explain where they came from.
It sounds like the only thing he was trying to hide
Was his sloppy work eight years earlier.
And if you think about it,
If that evidence really did implicate himself
Or law enforcement, why wouldn't he have destroyed it?
If it was that important, you'd think he'd make sure
It didn't get auctioned off to the public.
Siegler: Dodd's story makes sense.
He screwed up, and he's admitting it.
But before we can eliminate this rumor for good,
We need to examine these items ourselves.
The report states that these items
Are not directly linked to candace homicide,
But this is too important to get wrong.
Okay, so pick out one piece or box at a time.
We'll see if it comes into our world
Of robert dodd's storage,
Then we'll try to follow the trail.
All right, so I have a mexican-style blanket.
That's in the mix.
Now, we care about this because once upon a time,
Everybody said this was the blanket
That covered up candace, right? -Supposedly, yeah.
There was a blanket that was recovered in the storage unit,
And now dolores says that this is the blanket
That candace's body was in.
And what color is it?
-This says pink and black. -Okay.
Not the same blanket. Not green, right?
Correct. It did not come from the hiltz scene.
Okay, put that one up. We're through with that one.
-What's that one? -Dirty rope.
Once upon a time, people were saying
That this dirty rope had blood on it, remember?
And then it connected back to jacks, the dog.
The unit also contained a bloody piece of rope.
This may have been the one that was used
To tie jackson to the tree.
I don't see any stains on this.
Yeah. I don't see anything.
Okay, so the red stains are another exaggeration.
We know these items were all sent to cbi
And came back negative for blood.
It seems like the only thing that they are evidence of
Is misinformation and speculation.
What's that one?
So this is one decorative ax.
Okay, so that's the ax.
Rumor and speculation was that the ax had blood all over it.
And that's the ax that cut the head off the dog.
The hatchet was recovered in the storage unit,
And dolores says that it was a weapon that was used
To kill the family dog.
Yeah, and I'm gonna go ahead and say no on that.
I don't think you can cut anything with that.
Maybe that's why they called it decorative...
-Mm-hmm. -...Other than useful.
The objects reported in the media are here,
But the incriminating details are all wrong.
It's like dolores and the media
Heard the contents of the storage unit
And then jumped to make all the speculation,
Connecting it up to candace's case.
Since candace wasn't killed with a hatchet,
It must have been used on her dog, right?
No, the dog was shot. It's all wrong.
-That's it, right? -Yeah, that's it.
So all the rumors we've addressed on the board
And turned 'em into nothing.
All right, man. Great.
Thank you for bringing all that down here.
I think it's time that we eliminate the rumor
That sergeant dodd was hiding evidence
In candace's case once and for all.
And it's time we shift our focus back on jimmy hiltz.
♪♪♪
All right. So y'all gonna go hit cañon city people?
-Yep. -Okay.
And we'll try to call everybody we can.
-Good deal. -Okay. Y'all have good luck.
Other than the theory that candace hiltz
Was shot my multiple assailants, we've cleared up the rumor
Suggesting the sheriff's department
Was responsible for her death.
And we've got our ballistics expert
Examining that theory.
For now, we're focused on our other suspect, jimmy hiltz.
Jessica hiltz.
-She's another ex-wife, right? -Yeah.
According to the rumors,
Jimmy hiltz was mentally unstable,
But he wasn't violent, and he couldn't have killed candace.
Dolores has made it clear over the years
That james was incapable of being around other people.
He didn't have any history of violence whatsoever.
The family's like, "he's not a violent individual.
He couldn't have done this."
[line ringing]
Is this jessica hiltz?
Yeah?
Hi. My name is peter rasmussen,
And I'm a detective up here in fremont county, colorado.
Siegler: At the time, jimmy had recently separated
From his ex-wife
And was living in the hills behind candace's home.
We're hoping that she might be able to tell us
If he was as harmless as many believed.
Did you ever speak to jimmy about what happened to candace?
Okay. What can you tell me about him?
Okay.
Okay. So when you say that he had kind of scared you,
Tell me about that a little bit.
Okay.
Sure.
When did that change happen?
Okay.
What was it that you though he was gonna do?
Okay.
Jimmy's history of psychological issues
Is pretty well known.
But if he was also battling substance abuse,
We can only imagine how much that would have exacerbated
His mental and emotional instability.
♪♪♪
So jesse weaver has been in custody for a while.
He's currently awaiting his sentencing, so...
I think jesse's important for us to talk to.
I mean, he was candace's boyfriend.
Yeah.
Another person who should be able to tell us a lot
About jimmy's behavior
Is candace's boyfriend and the father of her child--
Jesse weaver.
-Hey, jesse. -How you doing?
Derek irvine. I'm the sheriff here.
All right.
Jesse was cleared years ago
As a suspect in candace's murder,
And he's currently in custody on unrelated charges.
Describe your relationship with candi.
I'm very sorry for your loss.
I bet.
Could you describe to me what happened
On that very day that candi was found dead?
So did candi usually keep the door locked?
Jesse is painting a much different picture of jimmy
Than candace's mother did.
According to him, they were so scared of jimmy,
They locked him out of the house.
He also confirmed that candace did blame jimmy
For the disappearance of their dog.
How much before candace's death did jimmy stab you?
The morning before.
According to jesse, jimmy tried to stab him
Just the day before candace's murder.
It's clear we can eliminate the rumor
That jimmy wasn't violent, and it sounds like he was
Growing more and more violent by the day.
Abbondandolo: Candace was having to hit jimmy in the head
With a skillet to get him off of nick.
Candace wasn't alone in her attempts to save nick.
Jacks, the dog, bit him on the butt.
Ohh. Which is why he ends up shooting the dog, right?
Yeah.
So, there's, like, this very, very escalating--
He's getting worse by the day,
And the family sure as hell knows it,
And candace is the only one doing anything.
-Mm-hmm. -Right. Yeah.
Siegler: That's beautiful.
♪♪♪
So, our murder date is August 15, 2006.
"candace's murder."
We've just learned
That in the days before candace hiltz's murder,
Her brother, jimmy, was becoming increasingly violent,
Had been locked out of the home,
And was suspected of harming the family dog.
According to the podcast rumors,
Jimmy did not have access to any firearms.
Candace's autopsy showed that she had been shot
With a shotgun, a medium-caliber handgun,
And a small-caliber handgun.
Jimmy hiltz didn't own any handguns or guns of any kind.
Where is he coming up with these three guns?
There's a lot of questions here.
Jimmy was living in the hills and had few possessions.
But what we know that the podcasts don't
Is that he was suspected of burglarizing nearby homes
For supplies, including guns and ammunition.
We've asked detective sanger to come in
And help us review all the incidents reports
That might have any connection to candace's murder.
Okay, so there's a vacation home out there
That has been broken into, in August, before our murder.
According to the report, the front window is broken out.
Give me the little pieces of evidence
That we realize are taken in this burglary.
A .410 h&r topper shotgun.
And we like this because she's shot with a .410.
Correct.
The most important burglary
Was where a .410 shotgun was stolen--
The same caliber as the one that shot candace in the face.
It was taken from a home
Where the burglar drank from a whiskey bottle.
Y'all did dna test the whiskey bottle.
-And it comes back to be jimmy. -That is correct.
Even more, that .410 was later recovered
From the woods, seeming like it was chopped up with an ax,
Which sounds a whole lot
Like somebody was trying to destroy evidence.
How far is this vacation home from candace's?
.3 miles.
-So you can walk it. -Yep.
And we got two more.
The cabin shows signs of forced entry.
What does the victim say is taken?
A pair of work gloves, two hatches,
And a black handle bowie knife.
And these were the items that were found
In the drawstring bag with jimmy when he was taken into custody.
How far away is that?
Probably between a mile and a half to 2.
And I think the hatchet kind of comes into play
Because the shotgun that was taken
Was chopped up with the ax. -Okay.
And the only other burglary that we have is a small cabin.
From there,
Approximately 200 .22-caliber long rifle bullets were stolen.
We don't know if jimmy had access to a .22 pistol,
But he allegedly stole 200 bullets for one.
How far a distance is this from candace?
Approximately 2 miles.
There were five .22 bullets recovered from candace's head,
And three in her dog.
We've sent them off for comparison
To see if they were fired from the same weapon.
But in any case, we can eliminate the rumor
That jimmy did not have access to firearms.
-That's the last burglary. -Correct.
Okay, the supplement says, "on September the 8th,
I was notified via radio
On significant items under a tree."
-Is this--is this you? -That's me.
In addition to the burglaries,
There was a piece of evidence recovered in the area
That could be connected to candace's murder.
So on September the 8th, what happens when you get here?
There's a flashlight up in the tree.
Okay, what else did y'all see out there?
We found what appeared to be some type of clothing.
Kind of like a shirt
And a white towel.
There appeared to be dried blood on it
And then also part of a bone fragment.
How far is this location from the house?
Quarter mile at the most.
-Oh, it's that close? -Yeah.
This mysterious bone fragment has been sitting in evidence
For 15 years.
So we have sent it off to our dna lab for analysis.
If it matches candace's dna,
That would be a huge piece of evidence,
And jimmy may have discarded it in the same woods
Where he was living and burglarizing homes.
♪♪♪
Okay, so we're gonna call serological
In richmond, california.
[line rings]
Hello. This is phillip.
This is undersheriff irvine
With the fremont county sheriff's office.
What can you tell us about your findings on this?
Siegler: That's a pretty good number.
That's what we wanted to hear.
How many zeros are in octillion, sir?
Nice!
You can't argue with 27 zeros.
-Have a great day. -You, too.
Siegler: That bone fragment came from candace hiltz,
And it was found in the woods that jimmy hiltz called home.
A piece of her skull is out there in the woods.
The squirrels didn't take it there.
The dog didn't take it there.
Her mama sure as hell didn't take it there.
And it's in a towel, so that means
Somebody wiped it off of them... -And it transferred.
That's right, and that's how it got there.
There's only one person that is known
To the police department and to the community that is
Doing what jimmy was doing. -Exactly.
♪♪♪
I spent a lot of time looking at crime scene pictures,
Trying to put this together in my head.
And I've got a lot of questions, and I'm really hoping that
The layout is gonna help us answer those questions.
I just wanna make sure that if we only have one shooter,
How in the hell do we explain
How there's three different types of ammunition
That end up in candace's body?
It's finally time to examine the crime scene
And address the last major rumor in candace hiltz's homicide--
That she was shot with three guns.
So her murder must have been committed by multiple shooters.
The fact that multiple guns were used
Leads me to believe that police could've been involved in this.
She was shot by multiple guns. To me, the evidence pointed
To this was done by multiple people.
So the question is, if jimmy really did kill his sister,
How can we explain
All the different types of ammunition in her body?
Hey, chris. You meet everybody already?
-Yes, I did. -You're gonna have
All the answers, right? -I hope so.
This is probably the most sort of complicated case
That we brought you on to talk about, don't you think?
Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Absolutely.
We have it set up inside.
The dimensions are correct.
So I think it'll give you a better understanding
Of what I believe occurred during the incident.
You wanna go inside and check it out?
Yeah. Let's go ahead and step inside.
Abbondandolo: Chris robinson has been busy testing and analyzing
All of the evidence.
This is great.
I can't wait to hear what chris has to say.
The key thing I want y'all to understand--
There's some confusion about there's a .410,
And then there's a .45 colt, and then there's a .22.
Some people are thinking there has to be three guns here. No.
The .45 colt shot a shell
That shot her in the chest... -Shot her.
...And then the .410 wadding and pellets
That were found in her face
Can be found in the same shotgun.
Just one gun firing two different cartridges.
They're different calibers,
But they can be fired in the same weapon.
That weapon only holds one round in it at a time.
You fire the first shot, and then put
Another live round in it so it'll function again.
So I think if we look at jimmy as being the suspect,
And we know he's done these burglaries where
He literally went shopping in all of these people's cabins--
It's just whatever he grabs--
And that's what he's using in terms of ammunition.
We know jimmy's dna was found at a burglary
Where a .410 shotgun was stolen.
And now we've learned that that weapon is unique.
It can also fire the .45 round
That was found in candace's chest.
So it wasn't three guns. It was two--
A .410 shotgun and a .22-caliber pistol.
I've created a copy of my report that I generated
When I reviewed the evidence.
As you can see,
I matched the five bullets from her head.
All of those came from the same weapon.
And if you look at the bullet from the dog,
You can see that it has the same rifling measurements.
It has the same landing groove structure.
I believe that the bullet from the dog
Came from the same gun that was used to kill her.
-That right there is huge. -If that's the case,
That directly links the dog to the murder.
The fact that the same gun was used to kill candace and her dog
Supports our theory about jimmy--
That he shot and killed the dog,
Was confronted by candace about it,
And days later turned that same gun
And that stolen shotgun on her in a fit of rage.
So the first two would be with a .410/.45.
One to the face, one to the chest.
Now she has to be turned over
Because all five shots go into the head,
Ending up in the right sinus area toward the base there.
What are you thinking?
So there's no point in turning her over unless--
If you bring a blanket or a comforter in here,
The easiest way to get her on it is roll her over.
-Right? -Okay.
So you roll her over onto the blanket...
-Okay. -...To where she's faced down.
-But not dead. -But not dead.
So she's still moaning and in pain,
Which justifies the five more. -To just kinda finish her off.
You're gonna come over here and go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
Her bone fragment that we're linking to his camp,
That bone piece came from her head.
So that had to get on him or his stuff
As he's dragging her... -Or as he's rolling her up.
-'cause he's rolling her up. -He's rolling her up.
Based on pellet patterns and stippling on candace's body,
We know the first shot was taken approximately 18 feet away
And the rest were in close range.
Interestingly, the door of the home
Was about 18 feet away from where candace's body fell.
The killer fired as soon as they stepped inside.
Okay, so here she is. She's over here cooking, we think.
So he comes in the door.
I start making some kind of racket.
She begins to come back toward me. A little bit closer.
And then I shoot her the first time...
-[bang] -...With the .410 cartridge
Into her face. And she's gonna fall back.
I take a .45 colt cartridge from my pocket.
I place back in the chamber.
I cock it the second time.
And now I place the muzzle about an inch to an inch and a half
Off the chest, and then when I shoot her hand...
[bang]
This is a perpendicular shot straight to the chest.
Now I'm gonna go to the bedroom to go get the blanket.
So now I roll you over onto the blanket.
-Got to roll. -Okay.
You're still making noise. You're gurgling.
So now he wants to make sure he's finished the job.
So now I take out the .22,
And I shoot you five more times in the head.
One, two, three, four, five.
[bang]
Now I'll have to come down here.
Then I'll have to pull her all the way down the hallway.
And at this point is where I have to
Get her as close to the bed as possible,
And then I have to manipulate her all the way under the bed.
Moving candace's body was a bizarre decision.
With the amount of blood at the scene
And the crying baby just feet away,
How could anyone believe the body would be hidden
For very long?
Then, again, if we're considering jimmy,
Who knows what can be going on in his head?
If you're gonna have a law enforcement official
That's gonna target somebody to murder them,
It's gonna be bang, and they're gone.
Yes. Exactly.
They're not gonna go to the trouble of hiding a body.
Those behaviors are consistent with a messy crook.
This is completely consistent with what our suspect would do.
And because of you, cleared it up... [whispers] beautifully.
Thanks to chris,
We can finally eliminate the theory
That candace could have only been killed
By multiple shooters.
What we did here today clears up a lot of questions.
And rumors and allegations and hearsay.
-The trifecta. -Let's roll.
This case was really, really hard and sad,
And I just feel so horrible for this whole family
Who has been going through the wringer for so many years.
But I think there's enough nuggets
That, if investigated correctly,
That I think that this family can get justice.
Siegler: The witnesses are all talked to.
We got to talk over the ballistics evidence
With chris robinson. We got our dna results back.
Unfortunately, we can't talk to jimmy
While he's in a mental institution.
So now it's time to review everything we've learned
To present the case to the d.A.
And show once and for all who's responsible for killing candace.
I don't think I ever worked a case
Where so many allegations have been made
About somebody like robert dodd in this case.
The verbal altercation with candace was not him.
That was trace hall. That was blown out of proportion
With social media, with the podcast.
Candi stuck her head out of the door
And was yelling and screaming at me.
I said, "just, you need-- you just need to go inside."
For what he's done, absolutely he's accountable,
Which was the storage shed and accessing that report.
I mean, and he's-- he's paid that debt.
What dodd did was stupid, and it was out of laziness,
But he did not intentionally compromise this--this case.
I mean, there was absolutely no evidence recovered
Out of that storage shed that was directly tied
To the hiltz case back in '06.
I have a mexican-style blanket.
-What color is it? -Pink and black.
Okay. Not the scene blanket. Not green, right?
Correct.
He's certainly guilty of making some bad decisions.
But I don't think there's any question
That he's not a suspect in this case.
It's really one of the most ludicrous theories
That I've ever seen working on a case.
Yeah.
All right. Got all these little pieces about jimmy.
He was pretty delusional. So it was, like, natural.
When all of this stuff happened, that was the first thought
That everybody had... -Sure.
...Was that jimmy killed her.
In the whole wide world, who was mad at candace?
-Jimmy. -And what all was he mad about?
The dog. Kicking him out of the house.
Locking him out of the house.
Pulling him off of her brother who's strangling him.
Who in the hiltz family was holding jimmy accountable
Except for one person? Just candace.
And the next thing you're gonna talk about is the crime scene.
-The scene itself. -When you look
At the crime scene, it's an act of rage. It's anger.
Now I take out the .22,
And then I shoot you five more times in the head.
[bang]
It's covered up very sloppily and poorly.
Who's gonna stick her under the bed like that?
Only a crazy person.
Somebody who's got some issues going on.
How's that covering up anything?
The weapons that are taken-- the ammunition that is taken
In the burglary we know he committed
Is the same type of ammunition that is used here.
Probably the most important piece
Is he had a reason to kill that dog,
And we know the gun that killed that gun
Is the same gun that killed candace hiltz.
It has the same rifling measurements.
It has the same landing groove structure.
I believe that the bullet from the dog came from the same gun
That was used to kill her.
You tell your d.A. All of that, and you connect up the dots
With all your burglaries and the dog being found--
All those pieces point right back at jimmy.
And then you add on the cherry on top...
...Where you have candace's piece of bone found where,
And who's it connected to? -Connected to jimmy.
That's where he's sleeping and staying and living
And hiding out and running.
That's jimmy's universe, and that piece of bone fragment
Is out there where jimmy's sleeping.
Sh--, seriously?
The evidence in this case is strong,
And it had a lot of mud thrown at it over the years.
I think that we have done a very thorough job
Of clearing out all the mud
And all the rumors and all the gossip
And all the podcasters' opinions about what they think happened
And shown it all to be worthless.
And when you focus,
The evidence and the hard light of truth,
There's only one answer here.
And I think that when derek and pete go present this case
To their prosecutor,
They're gonna come back with a good answer.
All right, men, go sell it. Go sell it.
Derek and pete presented all the evidence to the d.A.,
Who likes the case
But isn't ready to move forward just yet.
And it's especially tricky
Because jimmy's gone to trial before
On his burglary charges
Where he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
It seems like everything about candace's case
Is as complicated as it is tragic.
So here's the problem with the case.
You have a mother who probably immediately knows
That her other child killed her first child.
And she did try to get him help, and the system kicked him out.
And they were all afraid of him.
They were all staying away from him,
And they locked him away, and he got to candace anyway.
And now she's having to live
With the consequences of all that
And the pain of all that,
At the same time is trying not to lose her child to prison
For the rest of his life.
The problem she's making is that today
She's come up with this conspiracy,
And she's trying to blame innocent people
Like robert dodd and members of your sheriff's department
In her conspiracy to not look at the truth.
Yeah, but can you blame her?
'cause at night when she's laying there by herself,
Would you wanna believe your son killed your daughter,
Or do you wanna believe that the cops are corrupt?
It's much easier to make the boogeyman somebody else
Than somebody that she gave birth to.
But the other people that are culpable in all this
Is those podcasters and those reporters
And those journalists that helped this conspiracy last
For all these years.
Anyway, it's a big ol' mess, but I think the person
Who killed candi hiltz is pretty clear,
And dolores isn't gonna want to hear that.
-No. -No.
It's never going to ring true in her mind.
Yeah.
♪ your ghost tries to haunt me ♪
♪ way down upon me ♪
I'm kind of nervous
About this meeting with dolores and heather
Because I don't know how receptive they're gonna be
To everything we need to tell them.
We just want to tell her the truth.
Even if she doesn't wanna hear it, that's what we owe her.
Yes.
This is one of those conversations
That I'm not really looking forward to.
We know it's gonna be hard
For dolores to hear what we have to say,
But it's important that she hears the truth.
Thank you, sir.
-Hello, ladies. -Hi.
-I'm kelly. -Nice to meet you. I'm cloe.
Nice to meet you.
She's brought along jimmy's daughter
Which makes this even harder.
So, deep breath, 'cause I know that this is hard for everybody.
The findings of my investigation
Suggest that jimmy is candace's killer.
-That I can't believe. -Dolores, you really don't think
That jimmy is the person who killed candace?
No. I had him sleep on a cot where my daughter's body was
To test what his reaction.
He has no idea where any of this happened in that house.
He didn't recognize me, and I was his child.
He didn't recognize his own child.
I think that says something, though.
Dolores, let me just say this to you.
You have had the most horrible thing
That any human being can have happen to them by losing a baby.
No one can pick on you
Or judge you for how you feel about that.
It makes no sense.
There was more than one killer in that house.
There wasn't, dolores.
Of course they're gonna blame jimmy
When the cops are involved.
I feel like it's another witch hunt on jimmy
Because I've gone through 14 1/2 years of this.
I've been waiting 14 1/2 years for a real investigation.
I was hopeful.
And yet, it's like we're still barking down the same tree.
I feel it hasn't been investigated.
I know in my heart he didn't do it.
Okay, and you know what? And you're his mother.
And you get to think that all you want to.
One day maybe you'll have a conversation with pete
Where he says enough to make you change your mind
And see what it is we see.
But I'm telling you, dolores, to stop focusing on that
And to just focus on what you can control,
Which is helping jimmy. -I am.
Do you think this is really gonna help her?
No, but I think it's way better for you
To fight the thought of having him stay in a mental hospital
Than go to a prison.
[exhales deeply]
I feel for dolores. I really do.
You have my contact information.
Reach out to me when you're comfortable, okay?
Siegler: I didn't expect dolores to believe us.
I don't think she'll ever believe us.
But I think that we all just wish
That she could find some peace.
God knows she suffered long enough.