[music playing]
[owl hoots]
LT. KENDA: On this particular evening,
Ronald Jacobs is ridingaround through the back woods
of northern Vermont.
It's bitterly cold.
And he can't find his friend, Melissa Jenkins.
Come on. Pick up.
[phone ringing]
He knows she's out here somewhere.
She isn't answering her cell phone.
This is very unlike her.
And he's becoming very, very frightened.
[dramatic music]
And eventually, he runs into his friend's car
parked on the side of the road.
Melissa, everything OK?
[low, suspenseful music]
LT. KENDA: Melissa Jenkins is not in her car.
Where could she be?
Oh, my god, Tim.
HANNAH MCDONALD: The engine is on.
And Melisa's two-year-old son is in the backseat.
This little boy is her world.
Why would she not be with him?
Melissa!
LT. KENDA: Something's wrong.
Something's very wrong.
[owl calls]
RONALD: Melissa!
Melissa!
[clock ticks]
LT. KENDA: I spent my career closing murder cases.
[theme music]
But I'm not the only one who answered the call.
It takes a rare breed to solve the unsolvable,
to catch a ruthless killer, to find justice for the dead.
That's what it takes to be an "American Detective."
[music playing]
CAPT. CUSHING: My name is Robert Cushing.
I'm a captain with the Vermont State Police.
Back in 2012, I was the supervisor for the Bureau
of Criminal Investigations.
I was a lieutenant-- field lieutenant-- in plainclothes.
[phone rings]
I was at home asleep when I received a phone call.
What they had told me caught my attention enough so
that I got up and went to work.
But I never thought that a call like this
on that particular night would turn into what it became.
[suspenseful music]
[INDISTINCT VOICES ON POLICE RADIO]
[siren]
Goss Hollow Road is a dirt road.
In this particular location, there was nothing around.
[INDISTINCT VOICES ON POLICE
RADIO]
How's the kid doing?
He's in the care of a relative right now.
CDR. SINCLAIR: When I got the initial call,
the only thing we really knew was the car
was registered to Melissa Jenkins.
I knew who she was.
And to hear that her child was left alone in the car just
didn't make any sense.
[siren]
Melissa Jenkins was a household name in Saint Johnsbury.
She was a very sweet woman, grew up on a farm,
certainly knew what it was to put in a hard day's work.
She was a single mother working as a beloved teacher
at Saint Johnsbury Academy.
Melissa was my physics teacher.
She was really just a verykind, loving, warm person.
She was also a great mother.
I remember there were a few times where
she didn't come to class because her son was sick
or he needed her.
I had got to see him a few times.
And he was such a cute little boy.
CAPT. CUSHING: She also waitressed
at a local restaurant.
And my wife and I had been to that restaurant,
and we had seen her in there waiting tables.
LT. KENDA: Cushing was facedwith something every homicide
detective faces, including me.
The likelihood is great that someone he knows
is the victim of a violent crime.
It is extremely disturbing.
But you have to do what you're meant to do--
get to the bottom of this.
CAPT. CUSHING: Time is of the essence.
We didn't know exactly what had occurred.
Is she close by?
Is she far away?
I mean, we didn't know at the time.
[discordant notes]
In the vehicle was a smashed cell phone.
I didn't know what to make of that at that point.
But our department will process those phones.
They will retrieve whatever information we can.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Lieutenant, have a look at this.
[suspenseful music]
There was a shoe found at the scene.
And also, next to the front of the car,
there was a black ball capsitting on the ground, which
certainly was out of place.
There has been a physical confrontation between someone
in front of this car.
Whoever grabbed Melissa Jenkins lost his cap in the process.
CAPT. CUSHING: In front of the vehicle,
there was what appeared to be some sort
of foot tracks or foot marks.
CDR. SINCLAIR: We also found some tire prints
that were in the dirt that indicated
to me that another vehicle had accelerated
quickly away from the scene.
[suspenseful music]
[INDISTINCT VOICES ON POLICE
RADIO]
LT. KENDA: Cushing feels it in his gut.
This is going south very, very quickly.
Somebody found her and took her.
CAPT. CUSHING: So we're gonna have to ramp it up.
Now we're basically flooding this with detectives
and outside resources in order to find her
as quickly as we possibly can.
DET. NALLY: Bob Cushing isvery diligent on case direction
and what needed to be done and how things
needed to be prioritized.
CDR. SINCLAIR: At that point, we begin interviewing everybody
that becomes present in the case,
including Melissa's friend who found the car abandoned
with the child inside.
CAPT. CUSHING: He told me, Melissa made a phone call
to Ronald, advising him of the fact
that she was going to go out and assist
a person having car trouble.
LT. KENDA: When Ronald Jacobs got that call,
he felt as if there was something amiss in her voice.
Did she say anything about who she was going to help?
No.
CAPT. CUSHING: At this time, we need
to figure out who had contacted Melissa
on this particular night.
LT. KENDA: Cushing's people have conducted
a search within a half a mile of the car in total darkness.
But they find no further evidence.
So it's time to end it for now and refocus
the investigation as to what steps
are going to be taken next.
[birds calling]
[music playing]
CAPT. CUSHING: So early in the morning,
we knew that one of the people that we needed to interview
was Tim, Melissa's son.
The child had been released from the crime scene
to a family friend who brought the child to the barracks
to do this interview.
But interviewing a child--
it's extremely difficult. So we called
in an investigator that specialized
in child interviews.
Tim, do you think you can tell me about being in the car
with your mommy last night?
Do you know how many people she left with?
And what happened to your mommy?
Everyone in that room just stares at this child.
He's describing two people attacking his mother.
Now we just don't have one suspect.
We have two.
CAPT. CUSHING: It was at this point
that we knew for sure this was a kidnapping
and that she was taken against her will.
LT. KENDA: Cushing's worst fears have been confirmed.
Time is now everything.
[sirens]
CDR. SINCLAIR: And so we immediately amass a very large
team of detectives and investigators
to cover every possible facet that we can think of.
CAPT. CUSHING: And obviously, family
is going to be one of those targets
that you look to for guidance on this investigation.
They contact John Jenkins, who is Melissa's brother.
And they ask him to come to the station
so they can brief him about the disappearance of his sister.
We begin asking, when was the last time you saw Melissa?
How was she?
Has she been threatened by someone?
Has she ever expressed any concern over something
that happened at work-- anything that
might give you an idea on who might be involved in this?
I just saw her a couple nights ago.
DET. NALLY: He said everything appeared to be normal,
and she was in a good place in her life.
And there was nothing that stood out to be evil or bad.
What about any past relationships--
any trouble there?
Well, there was this guy named Ronald
Jacobs, who she used to date.
Ronald Jacobs is the person who found
that car on the road with her two-year-old
son in it and called 911.
Was it a serious relationship?
Ronald wanted it to be.
But Melissa wasn't interested.
I mean, she just liked him as a friend.
But that was all.
LT. KENDA: Now, as an experienced homicide detective,
that's going to pop a red flag.
You want something you don't have.
What are you willing to do to get it?
[anxious music]
So we ran Ronald Jacobs' background.
And one of the crimes that he had been
charged with in the past was false information
to a police officer.
[discordant music]
LT. KENDA: Now, that's distressing.
Jacobs tells the police that he discovered this crime.
What if he's lying about that?
What if he is the crime, because he could be?
He's in love.
Maybe he didn't get loved back.
At this point, everybody has heard
Melissa Jenkins is missing.
People were concerned.
CDR. SINCLAIR: In a small community,
that's on everybody's mind.
People are talking about it everywhere.
And people are very stressed out.
And you can really feel it.
Now, the police are focusing their attention
on Ronald Jacobs, who is the ex-boyfriend
of Melissa Jenkins.
CAPT. CUSHING: We knew thatwe needed to interview Ronald
a second time, because we haddetermined that in the past
he had been charged with givingfalse information to a police
officer.
So we don't know.
He may or may not be the person that abducted her.
Well, yeah, we dated.
But she didn't want to get serious.
And I was OK with that.
LT. KENDA: Jacobs went on to explain
that the father of the child was not involved in her life.
And Jacobs became a person that she could confide in,
someone to be an anchor point.
And she saw Mr. Jacobs as at least that.
So when Melissa gets this strange call
about helping someone with a flat tire,
he was someone that she thought of.
We just need to make sure that you're
not part of her disappearance.
Listen, whatever you need to do, do it.
All right, get the boots.
Ronald gave us bootsthat he had been wearing,
which show that the boot tracks in the dirt
were not the same as his.
CDR. SINCLAIR: We were able to find evidence of the calls
that he had told us in the beginning.
And so we knew he was telling the truth.
All right, thank you, Ronald.
CAPT. CUSHING: It was very apparent
and obvious that Ronald had nothing to do with this case
at all.
He was just trying to find his friend and help the police out.
LT. KENDA: With Ronald out of the picture,
detectives look elsewhere.
Although he's absent from the child's life,
they shift their focus to the father.
CAPT. CUSHING: So the biological father, Bruce Roberts,
came to meet with us.
DET. NALLY: We always speak withcurrent spouses or ex-spouses
to see if they arepotentially a suspect or not.
LT. KENDA: He is the father of their child.
What if there is something going on between Melissa
and he regarding visitation for this child?
You have to inquire.
We're gonna have to ask you your whereabouts
the night that this occurred.
In any crime, particularly in homicide, you need opportunity.
Could you physically have been able to commit this crime?
I was at work down in Burlington.
It's where I live.
And you have people that can vouch for that?
Yeah.
Mr. Roberts has the best alibi in the world--
80 miles away, in front of a number of people at the time
the incident happened.
He's not involved.
Mr. Roberts is out.
But Cushing is doing exactly what you
do in a criminal investigation.
You march through the known associates of the victim.
Somebody in that circle is most likely involved.
They just don't know who it is, at least not yet.
So Melissa lived just down the street
from where her vehicle was located.
Generally, crimes such as this do start
and/or occur in a residence.
So we're going to look for any signs of foul play--
forced entry, all of those sorts of things.
LT. KENDA: Nothing seems out of place.
There's no evidence of a struggle.
Nothing is disturbed.
But they continue to look for documents, love letters, phone
numbers, anything that may connect
Melissa Jenkins to a person.
Hey, detective.
LT. KENDA: When they're searching,
they find a bunch of papers.
But one thing unusual--
there's a business card.
CAPT. CUSHING: The business card was for Allen and Patricia
Prue, who lived in Waterford, Vermont, for a plowing business
that he had.
It didn't register with anyone.
LT. KENDA: They take the card along with the other papers.
And they may be meaningless.
There's an old expression in homicide investigation.
Everything's in until it's absolutely out.
[chaos of reporters' voices]
So now, Detective Lieutenant Cushing
decides it's time to ask for the public's assistance.
Detectives are interested in speaking with anyone who
may have information regarding the disappearance
of Melissa Jenkins.
CAPT. CUSHING: The hope was to ensure to the public
that we were working on this investigation
in a diligent and quick manner.
Because Melissa was such a popular person in the area,
it just heightened everybody's awareness.
And people were more concerned with the fact
that this young schoolteacher was missing.
EMMA LAPLAN: Prior to Melissa's disappearance,
I truly don't remember anything rocking
the community like this did.
Listen up.
CDR. SINCLAIR: During these investigations,
we would have periodic updates and briefings
where one detective would talk about what information
they had learned.
Everybody in the room gets to hear it.
How are we doing with Melissa's cell phone?
They said they hopefully have something
within the next 24 hours.
All right, I think we gotta change our thinking here.
At this point, we gotta start considering
the worst case scenario.
CAPT. CUSHING: There comes a point where
you know you're actually going to be
looking for somebody deceased.
LT. KENDA: Cushing is a realist.
He tells his people, search all places where one
would conceal or dump a body.
[melancholy music]
DET. NALLY: We started checking pull-offs alongside the road,
checking rest areas, checking rural areas
that you could get a vehicle to and quickly dump a body.
LT. KENDA: A few of the officers were
aware of a boat launch open to the public,
10 miles away from the town.
CDR. SINCLAIR: And they were able to look
to the far side of the bay.
And they saw something in the water
that didn't look quite right.
[suspenseful music]
And they get closer and closer.
And they look more carefully.
And they see human feet.
Apparently, Melissa Jenkins has just been found.
CAPT. CUSHING: I receiveda phone call stating
that they had located a body.
Myself and three other detectives
were shown where the body was.
We had members of the scubateam that came to the scene
to help retrieve the body itself.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Recovery of bodies in water
certainly present challenges,to say nothing of the fact this
was March in northern Vermont.
So the water was extremely cold.
She was in a fairly shallow body of water.
LT. KENDA: Pine boughs were placed
over the body in an attemptat concealment-- not
very efficient, but an attempt.
The body is nude.
The blonde hair is covering the face.
They move the hair away from the face,
and she's positively identified as Melissa Jenkins.
Our victim has been found, not in the way we wish to.
CDR. SINCLAIR: She obviously had not been there very long.
Certainly, the very cold conditions
would slow down decomposition.
ROBERT CUSHING: One could see the bruising
on her upper torso.
So there were signs of some sort of altercation.
Further, there are cinderblocks tied around the waist,
and her wrists are loosely bound in rope.
These failed to keep this body under water.
It's very difficult to submerge a human body.
ROBERT CUSHING: The body is then transported via hearse
to UVM Medical Center.
And that's where the autopsy is conducted.
LT. KENDA: When that body is removed from cold water,
contusions, abrasions, and other marks
begin to rise to the surface as the blood is
no longer frozen or very cold.
CDR. SINCLAIR: We also found a number of circular injuries,
parallel and very similar in distance from each other,
on multiple parts of her body.
LT. KENDA: This is indicative of a stun gun.
Somebody used a stun gun with great force
against her body to put her in a position of being supine.
CDR. SINCLAIR: The medical examiner
was able to definitively say, she had been strangled and died
of manual strangulation.
ROBERT CUSHING: Strangulation crimes such as this
are very up close and personal.
It's not like using a weapon.
Who would do this to Melissa?
Who would do this to a person that everybody
seemed to think the world of?
ROBERT CUSHING: This particular investigation
was hard for a lot of people to understand,
because you never thought that something like this
would happen in little Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.
And we're talking about a school teacher that was murdered.
It was so terrible.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Everything that we knew about Melissa
from her friends and family is that she
didn't live a risky lifestyle.
She wasn't into drugs.
Certainly, the violence that obviously beset her
was very out of place for what we knew she was like in life.
[birds chirping]
ROBERT CUSHING: At that point, we went to where she worked
at Saint Johnsbury Academy.
We were looking for anybody, whether it
be a student or a staff member, that
would have an issue with her.
LT. KENDA: People love to gossip.
And one thing homicide detectives the world over
love very much is gossip, because there's always a kernel
of truth in there somewhere.
She's a model employee and very
well liked by the students.
Melissa was a really good teacher.
She made me really enjoy physics.
And she seemed to understand when students
weren't understanding it.
And she would break it down.
She was just so kind and welcoming.
The feeling is, is that if this sort of thing
could happen Miss Jenkins, it could happen to anyone.
People in small towns are particularly
frightened by violent crime.
This is something that's supposed to happen in New
York City or Los Angeles.
It's not supposed to happen in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.
I think it just woke people up a little bit,
that it's not just a sleepy little town,
that things can happen.
Would it be possible to look over any work
related materials she may have?
Yeah, sure.
They explain, they'd like to comb through her grade books.
They'd like to see her emails, everything regarding
her activities at the school.
ROBERT CUSHING: Anything?
No, nothing.
LT. KENDA: There is always dead ends in murder cases.
And people think that's frustrating.
Well, it is.
But by the same token, you're eliminating what didn't happen.
It allows you to focus on what did happen.
Melissa's cell records came in.
LT. KENDA: This is exactly what Cushing has been waiting for.
ROBERT CUSHING: Prior to the 8:39 phone call to Ronald
on March 25, Melissa had received a phone
call from a TracFone number.
CDR. SINCLAIR: These sometimes are
referred to as burner phones.
ROBERT CUSHING: In a lot of instances,
people that commit crimes use TracFones, because
their identity is not divulged.
Criminals think they are so smart.
The problem for them is the police are smarter.
Using a TracFone might make things more difficult for us,
but there are plenty of ways to trace
that TracFone to its owner.
CDR. SINCLAIR: They were able to trace this particular phone's
first point of purchase.
And they placed that phone being purchased from a store
in Littleton, New Hampshire.
LT. KENDA: So now they know where the phone came from
and what store it was purchased in.
DET. NALLY: They were able to get
cell tower hits from some very significant areas.
LT. KENDA: The location ping says, it's
at the scene of the abduction.
And more importantly, there is also a ping at the scene
where the body's disposed of.
The buyer of this phone is up to their neck.
The police have now found the phone number
that was used to call Melissa Jenkins
the night of her disappearance.
This phone is not only pinging at the place
where Melissa Jenkins was abducted,
but it's also pinging at the place
where her body was disposed of.
[siren]
ROBERT CUSHING: Detectiveswere sent to the store where
the track phone was purchasedto try to pull any receipt,
because that person very wellcould be a primary suspect
in this investigation.
LT. KENDA: They know exactly what time and what
day the phone was purchased.
The manager plows through his records
and finds the buyer had paid for this phone with a check.
ROBERT CUSHING: Patricia Prue was the name
imprinted on the check.
Those detectives remember a business card found
on the countertop of Melissa Jenkins' house,
advertising a snowplow service from one
Allen and Patricia Prue.
You are aware of the potential of two suspects
involved in this crime.
Now, bells are going off.
Alarms are sounding.
We are close.
DET. NALLY: Wherever you're going
to be, you're probably undersome sort of recording,
whether audio or visual.
Surveillance cameras are really crucial.
And it's a great tool for law enforcement
to solidify timelines in criminal investigations.
ROBERT CUSHING: An interview with Patricia and Allen Prue
was in order at this point, because Patricia
Prue was the last person to speak with Melissa Jenkins.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Things are beginning to point more
and more towards the Prues.
But probability wise, ahusband and wife taking part
in a savage crime like this-- it wouldn't
have been foremost in my mind.
To have a man and a woman join together
to commit a violent crime is incredibly rare.
For it to be a husband and wife-- it almost never happens.
I've never seen it in my career.
CDR. SINCLAIR: One of the surprising angles in the case
was when Allen and Patricia Prue--
they actually showed up at the barracks unannounced.
HANNAH MCDONALD: It's bizarrethat these people show up
at the state police barracks,because they are already
on the list to be questioned.
And here they are.
They had come down to talk to us about a fraud investigation.
Patricia wanted to make a complaint that somebody was
allegedly stealing her identity and were falsifying
records using her name.
LT. KENDA: Based on my experience,
they were trying to explain away the purchase of that phone.
All of our checks were stolen.
Oh, my.
And God knows, somebody could be using that.
This is panic.
This is rememberingsomething they had forgotten.
And they're coming to the police to cover it up.
ROBERT CUSHING: I was not in the room.
I was sitting in another room watching the interview.
I remember to this day.
Allen was sweating bullets.
And it wasn't cold.
DET. NALLY: Allen was a local, born and raised
in Waterford, Vermont.
He found Patricia on the internet.
And they seemed to be inseparable.
He did a paper route delivery in addition to plowing snow.
LT. KENDA: They say, by the way, what were
you doing on the 25th of March?
You recall that day?
Oh, yes.
ROBERT CUSHING: They had said that they
had been in Littleton, New Hampshire, running errands.
They also went through a fast food restaurant.
And then they returned home.
And they had been in bed since 7:30 PM.
At that point, Patricia quickly redirects
the conversation back to the identity
theft and says that she is suspicious of her ex-husband.
We did ask if they were familiar with Melissa Jenkins.
And they basically said that they were familiar with her,
but they had no contact with her other
than when they plowed snow for her the previous year.
That could explain the presence of the business card
on her counter.
What it does not explain is howsomebody named Patricia Prue
bought a TracFone 20 miles away and called
Melissa Jenkins on thenight of her disappearance.
DET. NALLY: Lieutenant Cushing felt
it was not time to go from an interview
into an interrogation.
And timing with that is crucial.
OK.
See yours.
LT. KENDA: There are moments in murder investigations
where you feel it in your bones.
But you're not ready to turn the key, not until you have it all.
Cushing felt the same way.
We'll wait.
We will let this simmer until it becomes soup.
ROBERT CUSHING: They left scot free,
but from that point forward, they were under surveillance.
Cushing has his sights set on the Prues.
And they have absolutely no idea.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Any information that we
gleaned from them from interviews
would have to be corroborated.
So we would assign different detectives different tasks
to follow up and either corroborate or refute
what they had said to us.
[crickets]
LT. KENDA: The video arrives from the store
where the TracFone had been purchased.
And lo and behold, there is Patricia Prue
and her charming husband, Allen, buying
the phone used to call Melissa Jenkins
the night of her disappearance.
ROBERT CUSHING: It was very detailed video footage of both
of them looking at TracFones and then grabbing a TracFone,
putting it in the basket, and purchasing it.
They also said that they had gone
through a drive-through at a local fast food restaurant.
We were able to pull surveillance
from that fast foodrestaurant of them driving
through the drive-through.
LT. KENDA: And their jaws dropped to their chests.
Oh, my.
Allen Prue is wearing the black hat
that was found at the crime scene
of Melissa Jenkins' abduction.
That is, as they say in tennis, game, set, and match.
NEWSCASTER: Melissa Jenkins'smemorial is ultimately
bringing everyone together.
MAN: I feel bad for that little boy.
How could anybody do that, to leave him motherless?
WOMAN: [CRYING] This is a very hard time for our community.
LT. KENDA: A town of 7,000 people turned
upside down by the brutal murder of a loved
member of the community.
The Vermont State Police are gonna
arrest Allen and Patricia Prue.
But they wanna to talk to them again
and see if they can get a statement
from one, the other, or both.
ROBERT CUSHING: Patricia and Allen Prue
came to meet with us after being called.
They were split up, one inone room, one in another.
The only time we ever talked to Melissa
was when we were plowing her driveway.
The interview with Patricia was very difficult.
She simply denied everything.
Detectives presented her with surveillance footage, pictures.
And she still would not cooperate and denied
her part in this case.
LT. KENDA: You have a person who is
in complete denial of reality.
It's not me. It's not me.
You can't see me.
You can't hear me.
La, la, la, la, la.
Yeah, we can, Patricia.
PATRICIA: I'm done talking to you.
I want a lawyer.
LT. KENDA: Mrs. Prue would not get an audition for
the Real Housewives of Vermont.
Now it's time to pursue Allen Prue and see how he reacts.
He is the last person in the world
that handles pressure well.
He's the kind of person that if coffee gets spilled,
it tends to get spilled on him.
And it's about to be spilled on him
by the Vermont State Police.
DET. NALLY: When somebodycommits an act like this,
it is extremely mentally exhausting
to try to script answers and remember the lies
that you told.
I said to Allen, there's no way out of this.
We know what happened.
We want to get the how and the why from you.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Ultimately, Ithink it became overwhelming
and pretty clear to Allenthat we were onto it,
and we had what we needed.
DET. NALLY: He started reminiscing
about when he was a child.
He would spit-shake for the truth.
And then he started unrolling the chain
of events that took place.
Allen told me that Patricia was bisexual
and that they had engagedin consensual threesomes
in the past.
LT. KENDA: Which they found to be somewhat disappointing.
They began to discuss the fact that they need a better girl.
They need one that turns them on.
And they begin to develop an obsession with Melissa Jenkins.
DET. NALLY: One thing he said to me that struck me as very
peculiar is when Melissa got out of her vehicle,
he didn't even ask her if she wanted
to have an affair with them.
He just started to strangle and choke her.
Allen advised that he was able to overpower her
and dragged her to the vehicle and put her in the back
where Patricia continued to choke her to make
sure that she wasn't moving.
LT. KENDA: There was no intent to kill this woman.
There was an intent to make her a sexual slave.
Let us know if you need us again for next season.
Yeah, for sure.
It was really nice meeting you.
Nice meeting you too.
All right, bye.
She's pretty, huh?
Yeah, she is.
I think she likes me.
Yeah, I think she likes me, too.
Melissa became the focal point with both Patricia and Allen
as the person that they wanted to get to be
part of their sexual fantasy.
So how are we going to do this?
I think I've got an idea.
This desire for Melissa just spiraled out of control.
[phone rings]
Hello?
PATRICIA [ON PHONE]: Melissa, it's Patricia Prue.
Oh, yeah, hi.
PATRICIA [ON PHONE]: Um, our car needs a jump.
We're just down the road from you.
DET. NALLY: Melissa was the type of person
that if somebody did need help, she would do whatever
she could to help them.
Hey, Timothy, you need to come with Mommy to run an errand,
OK?
CDR. SINCLAIR: I certainly don't think
she suspected that something like this could befall her.
Ron, hey, I just got a really weird call.
CDR. SINCLAIR: But she was very heads-up in calling her friend.
That played a huge part in ultimately solving this case.
[crickets, owls]
Allen, Patricia, you guys OK?
[eerie music]
Everything OK?
[screams] Help me!
Help!
Help me!
She's in the fight of her life to protect
her child, which is why it takes two people to overcome her.
[breathing heavily]
They never did know that that child was there.
So now their whole fantasy is blowing up in their face.
They're in total panic mode.
What do we do now?
They go home to their house.
They drag Melissa Jenkins' body from their car.
They undress her.
ROBERT CUSHING: Put the body on the blue tarp.
They used bleach, poured that over the body.
LT. KENDA: They found some cinder
blocks next to their house.
They tie the cinder blocks to her body.
They dump her in the water.
And the initial reaction with the cinder blocks
is the body sinks.
They stand there for a moment.
And the body rises.
Well, isn't that a surprise?
The Prues had no idea how to plan a trip to the bathroom,
let alone how to try to dispose of a human body in water.
Now they're in pure panic.
They cut boughs from a tree to cover up this floating body.
And they run.
Patricia and Allen Prue are barbarians.
DET. NALLY: So I ask Allen what would he say to Melissa
if she was here right now?
LT. KENDA: So after all of this, we now have why.
We know what.
And we certainly know who.
Your Honor, we think theevidence of guilt is great
and that he should thereforebe held without bail pending.
ROBERT CUSHING: Both Allen and Patricia Prue
were charged with firstdegree murder, conspiracy
to commit murder, and kidnapping.
After a lengthy trial, Allen received life in prison.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Patricia took a plea agreement
and was sentenced to life without parole.
HANNAH MCDONALD: I don't think anyone's
ever gonna be able to forget that this happened.
It was almost that this was an attack on--
on goodwill and kindness.
CDR. SINCLAIR: Certainly the--
the tragedy of this case is never
lost on the investigators.
We know that her son is very beloved by both sides
of his parents' family.
From everything I've heard, he's doing very well.
There's a scholarship thatwas started in Melissa's name.
And the community stillholds her memory very dear.
ROBERT CUSHING: Why this case sticks
with me is simply because it was such
a horrific crime for the area.
But I'm very proud of our agency.
It was just a--
a full team effort.
LT. KENDA: The loss of Melissa Jenkins
is a hole in everyone's heart.
That hole will never heal.
But the people of Saint Johnsbury, Vermont,
should realize, the policemen that
serve them, like Robert Cushing, did
an outstandinginvestigation in this case.
But it's a wonderful thing that they were up to the challenge.
People in Vermont can sleep tonight, because the state
police are awake.