Oh, my.
This picture.
The twins,
oh, they may have been...
two weeks old when we had this.
It's strange when you look at this picture,
how Philip can look so...
harmless.
He looks like he's excited and happy to be a dad.
How can you turn into such a vicious person?
Susan Sutton has been waiting five long years for answers
to what happened to her 19-year-old daughter.
Becky Sutton went missing from a Hollister home in 2003.
Her two-year-old son left behind.
He was able to lie to me and get by so easily
that I did not pick up on the cues
to go from this wonderful, loving nurse, compassionate,
took his children to church,
and to--
end up as a monster.
How did he get to that?
The feelings I have now, looking back how he trapped me,
it's embarrassment. I should have looked closer.
I should've--
I should have seen some signs. And I feel foolish.
I just tried to be a good mom and a good wife to him,
and I was fooled. How could I have been so off?
I just... I just don't understand.
Sorry.
I was not looking for a relationship
when I met Philip Dodd.
I was not.
My husband and I, at the time, went through a divorce.
That was very, very devastating to me, realizing that I made
a mess of something.
Philip and I met in 2005,
and I met him working at a long-term care facility.
I was a registered nurse, and he was a licensed,
practical nurse, and I admired his practices as a nurse,
very competent, very caring.
He also told me he had two children living with him
that he had custody of and that he took them to church.
I thought, "My gosh!" It was almost like he was
too good to be true.
Philip was my first relationship after the divorce.
And when I brought him to meet my family, I was so proud.
I knew they were going to be impressed.
I knew they would see what I saw.
And I was showing him off to my family
and gaining their acceptance and approval.
When we were there, Philip seemed to be
blending in fine with them.
I saw him visiting with everybody.
It seemed to be a good mood. I was thrilled.
I thought he was getting along with everyone,
but I was mistaken.
After the family get-together, my brother said,
"Hey, I wanted to let you know something."
He said, "You know,
we really weren't impressed by Philip."
He said, "Mom really wasn't."
And I was confused.
It did not portray that way to me.
And I specifically asked him, "What did Philip do or say
that made you not like him or offended by him?"
He said, "Sis, I just felt he was a bad person."
Very shocking, very shocking.
I-- that's complete opposite of what I thought.
And he said, "Mom thought exactly the same."
And I said, "Did he say something?"
And he said, "No, we just got that vibe from him.
There was something wrong."
I stayed with Philip because I didn't see
what everybody else saw.
I thought, "Maybe this one time, my family's wrong."
I've been diabetic since I was 19,
requiring insulin and frequent blood glucose checks.
I believe, with his nursing background,
Philip wanted to care for me.
He wanted to be checking to see if my blood sugar was good
or if I needed to eat. He was very on top of that.
It made me feel loved.
It made me feel that he was very concerned
and worried about me.
One day, it was very odd.
I became so sick,
so sick, and...
I know my blood sugars were running high,
and all I wanted to do was sleep.
He appears to be taking care of me.
He's checking my blood sugar, and oddly enough,
he's giving me insulin.
All I remember is him saying, "I'm giving you some insulin."
I remember nothing after that. Nothing.
I was in a haze the whole time I was there.
I couldn't tell you, remembering eating or anything.
It's almost like he kept me there on purpose.
In this state that I was in.
It was almost as if I had been drugged.
I was there, I'd say, at least three days.
Looking back at that event,
after everything I found out later,
it's frightening to say,
but I've thought about that, if he could have been
taking advantage of me while I was there
unconscious for those three days.
That does-- that does cross my mind,
and, to this day, I still don't wanna know.
Do you think he's capable of that?
I honestly think he's capable of that, yes.
But, again, I saw him as this great nurse
and he was taking care of me.
So I tried to overlook
the bad.
Philip and I, we were together five months
before I found out I was pregnant with the twins.
I was excited, but I could tell he wasn't excited.
I thought he was acting differently towards me
because he really didn't want the babies.
And it was kind of sad.
And throughout the pregnancy, I didn't have anything
for a child, a baby.
And it was at that time when I told him I was gonna go
get some furniture and some clothes and diapers,
he told me absolutely not.
And I specifically asked him then,
why I couldn't go buy anything.
And he told me, "The twins may not make it."
I was shocked.
I've never heard of anyone, a spouse or partner,
saying that to any female that was pregnant,
that they may not make it.
When there was no reason to say that.
He said it was because of my health.
Just a generic response, that he knew that they probably
wouldn't make it.
For me, seeing this side of him,
it breaks my heart.
It breaks my heart for my children
that he could actually feel that way and not love them.
But this goes deeper.
A person that can say that, to me, is a monster.
Monster.
I don't know that he was planning on doing something
to me to lose the babies, but it made me
even more protective over 'em.
It did. I-- I knew...
I knew something wasn't right.
My ex husband was a police officer
at the time in Carl Junction and came up to me one day
and he said,
"I think there's some issues you need to look into
because he's not who he seems."
That Philip had a past and I needed
to do my research.
No. This is not my Philip.
This is not Philip that I know.
Be careful.
I assumed that he was just being jealous that I was
having a good life and moving on without him.
Even though I didn't fully believe my ex husband,
it was still in the back of my brain.
That evening, I went to ask, and I said to Philip--
You OK?
"My ex-husband said, I need to look at you."
You know, and I just kind of laughed it off,
but I was still looking.
And I said, "Why would there be someone saying
that you're a person of interest?"
He tensed up a little bit.
He goes, "I didn't do anything."
He goes, "The reason I am a person of interest
"is because when I lived in Branson West,
there was a girl in Hollister I was hanging around with,"
that he just went over to party and have sexual encounters
with her, and that she didn't really wanna do
anything with him.
So he left and doesn't know what happened after.
But the next morning, she ended up deceased.
It was shocking when he told me that it was actually regarding
someone that had died.
The thought of him doing something so horrible
with as kind as he is, no, it didn't-- it didn't add up.
And I still believe to this day,
I didn't want to believe that.
I continued to deny the signs and say, "That's not Philip."
As I'm pulling up to my house, there are patrol cars outside,
state patrol cars.
And I can see they've already gone in.
I walk in the door.
It was like a punch in the stomach for me.
Officers are in there just going through my stuff,
personal things of mine, even.
It's-- I can't explain that feeling.
When someone is going through
your life, your house, your things,
if they're gonna find something, what are they
looking for exactly?
I don't know.
I realized the search had to do with Rebecca's murder
and realizing, "Yes, they're looking for clues
regarding Philip and this murder."
The officers had the things and left,
and then it was just Philip and I in the room.
I was-- I was a nervous wreck.
I was very unhinged at the time,
and he is just appearing very confident to me,
like, "They're not gonna find anything."
I did ask him, "Why are they still after you?
"What-- what could be with this case
"that they're not finding or ruling you out?
Why do they continue?"
And he responds, like, they've just got him singled out.
Did you believe him?
I partially believed him. It could happen to anyone.
They could be singling him out, the wrong person.
But I'm realizing at this point...
Something's not adding up.
Susan Sutton has been waiting five long years for answers
to what happened to her 19-year-old daughter.
We're reexamining the evidence,
are talking to witnesses, past witnesses.
Becky Sutton went missing from her Hollister home
in 2003.
Her two-year-old son left behind.
It makes me angry,
angry that someone could do that
to her, 19, and a two-year-old child.
I feel guilty seeing this, I-- I--
My heart goes out to that little boy
that doesn't even have a mom. A child without a mom.
How can you do that?
What kind of person does that?
I didn't want to believe then he had done something
like that.
You don't want to believe that.
It's just beyond imagination.
I stopped staying with Philip
immediately after the police came.
I tell him I'm not coming back.
I will not be back.
I have moved out. I think I know this person,
but what if I don't?
That's the way I felt with Philip.
This picture is right after the twins were born.
At this time, he and I were separated.
I was scared,
not knowing what the future held with me and them,
but I was gonna make it work.
They renewed me.
Oh, I love those kids.
Looking back, it's hard to believe they could be
so tiny and helpless.
And I knew I wanted to protect them with all my might.
Nothing else mattered in my life right then.
Had no one else to turn to but Philip Dodd.
I hadn't seen anything violent from him.
I didn't believe he could do something violent.
And again, I got scared and thought I had to have him.
And I'm sure that happens to a lot of people,
getting scared of their future without,
you know, someone that's capable of working
and help bringing in income.
It would have been two or three weeks
after the babies were born
that Philip and I got back together.
I just wanted to fix it.
He definitely knew I was vulnerable.
He definitely knew that.
And I do think he took advantage of the situation.
But I was hoping that he would go back
to the Philip I knew and loved
when I first met him, so caring and...
confident.
We were over by this wedding place,
where you can walk in and walk out
and get married, he's like, "Hey, you wanna get married?"
It came up off the cuff!
I had shorts on and tennis shoes and...
I'll have to admit, that did seem romantic,
him being spontaneous like that.
Yes, that got my attention.
That would be the man that I fell in love with, yes.
I said, "OK, let's do it."
And we walked in there and got married.
I was full of hope.
This was the wedding ring Philip gave me.
It meant so much to me.
I've kept it all these years.
I don't know why, I...
I lived a nightmare with him, but...
this represents my dreams I had with him.
I actually was in love with him at a time,
a long time ago.
So, one day, I was in the passenger seat.
Philip was driving.
The twins were in the middle seat,
and his kids were in the seat back behind there,
both of his boys.
I found out Philip had some severe money problems.
It appeared it was all related to his gambling addiction.
I make a comment offhand.
He angers like that.
I had never seen him that angry. I'd seen him angry,
but I'd never seen him like this.
And I looked into his eyes.
I didn't know who he was.
The next thing I know, he's reached over
from the driver's seat.
He's got his hands around me, choking me.
I thought, what do I do?
I'd never had anyone choke me, so I didn't know what to do?
You just automatically grab
and try to get their hands off of you.
And crying out, "Please,
please don't do this in front of these kids."
I was screaming, "Get off of me.
Please leave me alone."
I was crying. And finally, he-- he came to.
And he took his hands off me.
Very traumatic.
I know it had to have been traumatic for his kids,
seeing that.
And to him, it was nothing.
It's like, "You deserved it.
You got me mad. You deserved it."
I'm still crying and screaming.
I was saying, "You son of a bitch,
get out of my damn vehicle!"
I said, "Don't come around me or these twins again.
Don't ever come around us."
You will never see me or the twins!
And I got the heck outta there.
Knowing that he would attack me physically,
then it was becoming real.
It was becoming real.
If the kids hadn't been in the car,
I believe he would have taken it another step.
I truly believe that.
I don't-- I--
I don't think he would have held back.
Do you think he would have killed you?
I think he would have came close.
After that, I didn't feel safe.
I was honestly scared for myself,
seeing him in such a rage like I'd never seen before.
He was getting worse,
and I didn't want to fear what would--
what would come next.
I didn't think anything of the robbery.
I heard about it, but I only listened
because that was the bank Philip and I used.
You know, I just kind of wonder why they picked that bank,
but no, nothing really seemed abnormal.
It was approximately a week later,
Philip called me at work.
Hello?
And he said, "I need to talk to you about something."
He said, "Did you know anything
about that bank robbery over there in Joplin?"
I said, "I've seen it. You know, I've seen it
on the news. I don't know anything about it."
He goes, um--
that was me that did it.
I was like,
"What?"
That was when he said, "I need you to meet me tomorrow
"at the park in Carl Junction. I will be there.
I need to talk to you about something."
Oh, I'm--
I'm bewildered. I'm shocked.
I didn't know what to say.
I didn't wanna call the cops just yet.
But yes, I was planning on...
something.
To be honest, I was scared to call the police.
I cannot explain how scared I was
because I knew, if I called the police,
I knew I would have
hell to pay if he got out
and came to my house.
I-- I wasn't-- I wasn't willing to risk that.
And he goes,
"They're after me."
He said,
"Someone from the FBI's been following me."
And I said, "Really?"
He goes, "Yeah, they're-- I can't get away from 'em.
Everywhere I go, they're there."
And I knew at that point, I knew, I got him.
I got him.
He lost touch with reality.
It was really bad, his paranoia at that time.
And he goes, "What do you think I should do?"
I said, "Philip, you've got the FBI on you.
We need to go turn you in to the police department."
He sat there for a minute.
I was shocked. He goes, "You're right.
I need to go ahead and turn myself in."
When I walked through the front door of the police station
and I say, "I've got the person that you all are looking for
that robbed the Joplin Metro Credit Union."
She was like,
she didn't-- she thought it was a joke.
I said, "He's right here."
You know, I don't think people routinely
turn themselves in at the front desk.
And she goes, "I'll call a police officer right now."
The police officer came up,
verified who he was, he confirmed that he had
robbed the bank, and they took him away in cuffs.
I did speak to the patrolman for a moment,
and he did tell me, he said, "Sherry, we didn't have
"any prospects.
"We had no idea who had robbed that bank.
And he probably would have gotten away with it."
So he would have gotten away with it if you didn't convince
him to turn himself in.
Does that make this moment a little sweeter for you?
Absolutely.
It was the best day of my life.
When he confessed
to killing Rebecca Sutton, it was real then
that he was a murderer and I had been living with him.
This is Philip's mugshot
from the Missouri Department of Corrections.
The first look at this picture...
It alarmed me.
It frightened me.
I didn't realize
seeing him in a picture like this would bother me so much.
I look at his eyes, and this is--
this is frightening to look at.
I know my pulse is racing, and my heart is beating fast.
I didn't know I was still so frightened of him.
The thing that he had
adamantly denied all those years, he did it.
And then I really wanted to know how he did it.
Immediately, immediately went back
to him choking me.
And I thought to myself,
I-- I-- I can't imagine this poor girl
going through this and dying, dying by his hands.
And I had his hands around my throat.
That just sent chills up and down my spine.
Oh.
This is Rebecca Sutton,
this innocent-looking girl.
This is who he murdered.
Look at that. She doesn't--
she didn't deserve that.
Beautiful-looking girl.
This young girl did not deserve to die by the hands of Philip.
Who do I apologize to?
Do I apologize?
What do I say? Nothing can--
Nothing can bring her back.
And that family's pain that he caused.
I think that's what bothers me more than anything.
Her murder had occurred just a couple of years
before Philip and I met and got together.
That is frightening,
that he could kill...
a couple of years before meeting me.
You can see she's happy, happy with her life.
And to take that away from her and her family,
she was gone so long,
and they didn't know where she was.
They had no answers.
I've never seen this picture.
This is...
the forest where Philip hid her body,
He-- I understood he hid it underneath a rock ledge.
I can't believe she was found there.
I can't imagine a more disgraceful
thing to do to someone's remains.
No more respect for life than that.
Under a rock ledge.
Just let them decay there.
While the family's crying out, "Where's our daughter?"
The family of Rebecca Sutton lined the first two rows
of the Taney County courtroom Thursday,
ready and waiting
for a killer's confession 10 years in the making.
Dodd admitted he strangled Sutton and dumped her body,
covering it with rocks, pleading guilty
to second degree murder.
How you plea to the charge of second degree murder?
I liked that. I liked seeing him,
being judged.
Judged for the crime that he committed
and seeing him admit that he did that
is very satisfying.
I know it was very satisfying for her family.
It is a weird feeling
that he did fly under the radar for so long.
And was able to keep it so low-key.
He covered it very, very well.
A master manipulator.
I look back over those years and I think,
"What truth was there to it?"
Because he lied to me the entire time.
There was no truth to that marriage.
Along with the violence
and the emotional abuse.
This is Philip
again,
in the Missouri prison.
For some reason, he looks...
He looks...
different.
He looks frail.
He looks very frail.
Oh, he is...
definitely where he belongs.
Definitely.
He just looks so weak to me,
when I think I'm not that strong,
I need to remember this.
I did this.
I was able to get him put away
to keep him from hurting anybody else.
I did that.
I had the power that day.
And I feel,
seeing him like that, it gives me more power again.
I'm glad to see this.
He does not deserve to ever get out.
I truly believe he would kill again.
He's a killer.
That won't change. You can die there.
I never want to see you again.
Strangely, with my family saying
something was off with him,
now I can say I wish I did listen to them.
I was just trying to be strong then,
trying to be independent,
trying to handle my own problems.
The advice I would give my young self is,
trust your heart, trust your feelings,
listen to other people around you.
Don't think it's just
what you think is right,
'cause sometimes you might be missing some of the picture.
My life post-Philip has been very good,
very good to me.
The twins, they're doing very well.
Very well. Just finished high school.
He's missed out on a lot.
I feel like a survivor.
I'm not that weak person anymore.
She's long gone.
He thought she was your everyday nice old lady.
She did hide all of it, as much as she could.
John had no idea what he was getting into.
I knew she had this history of attempted murder,
and John was a good guy.