1 00:00:02,045 --> 00:00:04,352 Hi, guys. I hope you guys like my new hair. 2 00:00:04,395 --> 00:00:07,442 - Chyenne Kircher, a missing 14 year old girl from East Dubuque. 3 00:00:07,485 --> 00:00:10,053 Family had found a note inside of the car. 4 00:00:10,097 --> 00:00:12,795 - The note was confirmed to be written by Chyenne. 5 00:00:12,838 --> 00:00:17,191 - We found a YouTube video where this man comes into the room. 6 00:00:17,234 --> 00:00:20,455 I think we all strongly believed was her stepdad. 7 00:00:20,498 --> 00:00:23,110 - I thought there was a sexual relationship. 8 00:00:28,115 --> 00:00:29,725 - I didn't believe him. 9 00:00:33,729 --> 00:00:36,949 - We really believed he was just screwing with us. 10 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:46,046 - And he walks us up 11 00:00:46,089 --> 00:00:49,614 this steep wooded embankment behind the house. 12 00:00:49,658 --> 00:00:51,964 We filmed everything. 13 00:00:52,008 --> 00:00:54,271 - All these leads, all the things 14 00:00:54,315 --> 00:00:55,838 that we ran down as a team. 15 00:00:57,579 --> 00:00:59,363 - What happened? 16 00:01:04,107 --> 00:01:07,806 [Narrator]: In the FBI we make a lot of headlines. 17 00:01:09,852 --> 00:01:13,420 Drug busts, mob stings, 18 00:01:13,464 --> 00:01:16,815 terrorist takedowns. 19 00:01:17,990 --> 00:01:21,211 We understand why people want to tell stories about us. 20 00:01:21,255 --> 00:01:22,777 - Mark it. - Freeze! 21 00:01:22,821 --> 00:01:24,258 - FBI. - FBI! 22 00:01:24,301 --> 00:01:27,130 [Narrator]: But they don't know the half of it. 23 00:01:28,349 --> 00:01:30,002 What really goes down? 24 00:01:30,045 --> 00:01:33,136 We save that for each other, 25 00:01:33,180 --> 00:01:35,443 when we're talking agent to agent. 26 00:01:38,489 --> 00:01:41,710 This is FBI True. 27 00:01:46,758 --> 00:01:48,847 - Cheyenne Kircher goes missing. 28 00:01:48,890 --> 00:01:51,372 14 year old girl from East Dubuque, Illinois. 29 00:01:51,414 --> 00:01:55,767 We have dozens of these types of cases throughout the year 30 00:01:55,811 --> 00:01:57,334 where children run away. 31 00:01:57,378 --> 00:01:59,554 Dubuque, Iowa is a large city across the river 32 00:01:59,597 --> 00:02:01,686 from East Dubuque. 33 00:02:03,079 --> 00:02:07,779 - We had covered all the leads, talked to all of our contacts 34 00:02:07,823 --> 00:02:10,347 that Cheyenne had made online. 35 00:02:10,390 --> 00:02:13,176 And so now we were kind of pivoting 36 00:02:13,220 --> 00:02:18,050 and looking at everyone that was in close proximity to her. 37 00:02:18,094 --> 00:02:21,053 - Lori Lyons, her mother, passed her polygraph. 38 00:02:21,097 --> 00:02:24,666 The older brother, Colorado, passed his polygraph. 39 00:02:25,884 --> 00:02:29,236 - The polygrapher is interviewing Terry. 40 00:02:29,279 --> 00:02:31,847 And then what do you get, a phone call? 41 00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:33,892 - A text message. 42 00:02:33,936 --> 00:02:36,721 It's actually to get up here and then about probably 43 00:02:36,765 --> 00:02:39,159 five or 10 seconds later, now. 44 00:02:50,953 --> 00:02:53,042 - Generally, walking into an interview, 45 00:02:53,085 --> 00:02:55,478 doing the types of cases I did up until that point, 46 00:02:55,523 --> 00:02:57,220 I would have all my notes prepared. 47 00:02:57,264 --> 00:02:59,918 I would have topics to discuss. I had none. 48 00:03:05,228 --> 00:03:08,231 I was mainly a financial crimes investigator at that point. 49 00:03:08,275 --> 00:03:10,799 I'd worked a few bank robberies and a couple of other things 50 00:03:10,842 --> 00:03:13,236 and the reason I got selected, I think, was because I had always 51 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,021 expressed an interest in working missing people. 52 00:03:16,065 --> 00:03:19,111 So walking into that room and not knowing anything 53 00:03:19,155 --> 00:03:21,113 that was going to transpire 54 00:03:21,157 --> 00:03:23,246 was a very nerve wracking feeling for me. 55 00:03:23,290 --> 00:03:25,248 I remember being extremely nervous about it. 56 00:03:25,292 --> 00:03:28,425 And I decided walking in, that I couldn't be prepared. 57 00:03:28,469 --> 00:03:30,949 I'm just going to let him talk and then go from there. 58 00:03:30,993 --> 00:03:33,300 - And our interview room is set up. 59 00:03:33,343 --> 00:03:35,127 It's recorded. We have an observation room. 60 00:03:35,171 --> 00:03:37,391 So there's a ton of us jammed in the observation room. 61 00:03:37,434 --> 00:03:40,611 And Terry kind of lays out what happened with it 62 00:03:40,655 --> 00:03:42,570 and how it went down. 63 00:04:02,546 --> 00:04:04,896 - After all these interviews, all these leads, 64 00:04:04,940 --> 00:04:06,637 all the things that we ran down as a team, 65 00:04:06,681 --> 00:04:09,074 to all of a sudden just have that, like, here it is. 66 00:04:09,118 --> 00:04:12,382 And I said, well I need more details. What happened? 67 00:05:35,204 --> 00:05:38,512 - So his version of events were that she was running outside 68 00:05:38,555 --> 00:05:42,167 and that she said, chase me. Chase me up the hill. 69 00:05:42,211 --> 00:05:43,908 So he proceeded to chase her up the hill. 70 00:05:43,952 --> 00:05:45,780 At that point he fell down, 71 00:05:45,823 --> 00:05:47,999 slipped and fell somehow while he was chasing her, 72 00:05:48,043 --> 00:05:50,088 and that she turned around and started laughing at him, 73 00:05:50,132 --> 00:05:52,787 that somehow something must have snapped in him, that he didn't 74 00:05:52,830 --> 00:05:54,528 like her laughing, and the next thing he knew, 75 00:05:54,571 --> 00:05:57,182 he had blacked out and he's standing above her. 76 00:06:16,941 --> 00:06:19,248 - It's all coming in so fast that I'm still trying 77 00:06:19,291 --> 00:06:22,033 to process what's real, what's truthful, 78 00:06:22,077 --> 00:06:23,295 what's not at this point. 79 00:06:23,339 --> 00:06:25,297 So in my mind, I'm thinking, good... 80 00:06:25,341 --> 00:06:27,430 It's terrible that something bad has happened, 81 00:06:27,474 --> 00:06:30,651 but he is confessing to being responsible for her death. 82 00:06:30,694 --> 00:06:31,956 So it's a good thing. 83 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,089 As for the blackout, I didn't believe it. 84 00:06:34,132 --> 00:06:35,917 - We hear that blackout story a lot 85 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:37,527 when it comes to confessions. 86 00:06:37,571 --> 00:06:39,747 You know, somebody will say, I blacked out when this happened. 87 00:06:39,790 --> 00:06:43,228 It wasn't the truthful story at first, 88 00:06:43,272 --> 00:06:46,144 but it was the truth he was prepared to give 89 00:06:46,188 --> 00:06:48,364 at that moment with Wayne. 90 00:07:25,096 --> 00:07:27,185 - So, Casey, what are you thinking? 91 00:07:27,229 --> 00:07:29,536 You guys are in the observation room. 92 00:07:29,579 --> 00:07:32,364 - Right. Totally freaking out. I mean, not expecting this. 93 00:08:10,402 --> 00:08:12,927 - I don't know how exactly it all came to be, but somehow 94 00:08:12,970 --> 00:08:15,843 he felt as though he could tell me his deepest, darkest secret. 95 00:08:29,421 --> 00:08:32,599 - Why confess now? Was it the fear he knew he was busted? 96 00:08:32,642 --> 00:08:36,472 - I think it was based on, a lot on the rapport 97 00:08:36,515 --> 00:08:39,126 that Wayne had built with him. 98 00:08:39,169 --> 00:08:41,650 I could tell that he really liked Wayne. 99 00:08:41,695 --> 00:08:43,653 He really trusted him. 100 00:08:43,697 --> 00:08:47,918 And that's really part of being able to interview people 101 00:08:47,962 --> 00:08:51,922 and get them to tell us their secrets, or confess, 102 00:08:51,966 --> 00:08:55,665 building rapport with them and making them feel safe enough 103 00:08:55,709 --> 00:08:58,015 and not judged. 104 00:08:58,059 --> 00:09:01,279 - So you never had a murder confession before obviously, 105 00:09:01,323 --> 00:09:02,716 because you worked financial crimes 106 00:09:02,759 --> 00:09:04,369 and this was your first murder confession. 107 00:09:04,413 --> 00:09:08,373 - That's right. And what a confession it was. 108 00:09:21,386 --> 00:09:23,563 - Me not ever having had somebody tell me something 109 00:09:23,606 --> 00:09:26,261 like that before, I was very hurried to try to get to 110 00:09:26,304 --> 00:09:28,655 where is she and would you take us there? 111 00:09:28,698 --> 00:09:31,266 Because in my mind, we have our person. 112 00:09:31,309 --> 00:09:34,530 We need to find her too. Where is she? 113 00:09:42,973 --> 00:09:45,497 - I believed that Terry Abbas killed Chyenne at that point, 114 00:09:45,540 --> 00:09:47,499 but I knew we needed to keep getting more details. 115 00:09:47,543 --> 00:09:50,154 - Even though he's not being 100% truthful, 116 00:09:50,198 --> 00:09:52,940 he is giving us some key information. 117 00:10:03,515 --> 00:10:06,257 - I mean, this is only like, the halfway point, okay? 118 00:10:06,301 --> 00:10:08,085 Now we've got more work to do. 119 00:10:08,129 --> 00:10:11,088 This isn't going to go away until we find out where she is. 120 00:10:32,109 --> 00:10:35,939 - We needed him to show us where her body was. 121 00:10:35,983 --> 00:10:38,942 - I was immediately wanting to put him in a vehicle. 122 00:10:38,986 --> 00:10:41,162 Like, are you willing to show us where she is right now? 123 00:10:41,205 --> 00:10:43,599 And he said, yeah, you've got to drive me, but I will take you 124 00:10:43,643 --> 00:10:45,470 to the exact spot, and I'm ike. let's go. 125 00:10:45,514 --> 00:10:48,125 - And so we take him down to the booking room. 126 00:10:48,169 --> 00:10:51,651 And 'cause I arrested him for the murder of Chyenne Kircher. 127 00:10:57,918 --> 00:11:02,487 We drove over to East Dubuque. We pull in. We cuffed him. 128 00:11:02,531 --> 00:11:04,751 We filmed everything. 129 00:11:12,019 --> 00:11:14,761 And he walks us up this steep 130 00:11:14,804 --> 00:11:17,415 wooded embankment behind the house. 131 00:11:52,799 --> 00:11:55,410 We walk past this depression in the ground 132 00:11:55,453 --> 00:11:57,107 because he takes us up in there, and I asked him, 133 00:11:57,151 --> 00:12:00,371 I said, is that the grave? Is that where Chyenne is? 134 00:12:00,415 --> 00:12:02,896 Is it right here? 135 00:12:16,648 --> 00:12:20,609 And I asked him, I said, Terry, how far down did you bury her? 136 00:12:33,404 --> 00:12:35,363 I didn't believe him. 137 00:12:47,244 --> 00:12:49,943 [distant train whistle] 138 00:13:09,136 --> 00:13:11,573 I'm thinking she's two feet down, 139 00:13:11,616 --> 00:13:13,531 three feet down, but she's not five feet. 140 00:13:13,575 --> 00:13:15,533 And there's no way that this happened. 141 00:13:15,577 --> 00:13:18,362 That he dug the hole the same day as the murder. 142 00:13:18,406 --> 00:13:20,234 But that's what he told us. 143 00:13:48,871 --> 00:13:51,134 - And then we took him back to the jail 144 00:13:51,178 --> 00:13:54,442 and put him back in the custody of the jail, 145 00:13:54,485 --> 00:13:58,054 and that's when we called FBI forensics. 146 00:13:58,098 --> 00:14:02,580 We called state police forensics to start excavating the scene 147 00:14:02,624 --> 00:14:06,497 and working up on search warrants and all that stuff 148 00:14:06,541 --> 00:14:08,499 that we're going to need 149 00:14:08,543 --> 00:14:11,067 to do what we needed to do to bring her home. 150 00:14:13,635 --> 00:14:15,767 [Wayne]: We need just to recover her remains 151 00:14:15,811 --> 00:14:17,421 and bring some closure for everyone. 152 00:14:17,465 --> 00:14:20,337 - With the excavation, it's very meticulous. 153 00:14:20,381 --> 00:14:23,079 I mean, they're just taking layer by layer, and all the dirt 154 00:14:23,123 --> 00:14:26,169 is getting sifted, and every little nugget 155 00:14:26,213 --> 00:14:28,737 is being looked at and examined. 156 00:14:33,437 --> 00:14:35,700 It became very frustrating because we had a lot of people 157 00:14:35,744 --> 00:14:37,746 out there working around the clock to try to find her. 158 00:14:37,789 --> 00:14:39,617 And we're not finding anything. 159 00:14:39,661 --> 00:14:41,837 And usually we would find something by now. 160 00:14:41,881 --> 00:14:45,188 - This isn't adding up as far as what his initial confession was, 161 00:14:45,232 --> 00:14:47,887 digging the hole that same day as the murder. 162 00:14:52,717 --> 00:14:55,198 - We believe that we have the right location. 163 00:14:55,242 --> 00:14:57,853 But we really don't know. 164 00:14:57,897 --> 00:15:00,203 - What if he's lying about the location? 165 00:15:00,247 --> 00:15:03,772 We really believed that he was just screwing with us. 166 00:15:09,256 --> 00:15:11,998 - Terry Abbas, who was Chyenne's stepdad, has been in lockup. 167 00:15:12,041 --> 00:15:14,914 Wayne and I go bustin' tail over to the sheriff's office. 168 00:15:14,957 --> 00:15:16,872 We pull him out of the holding cell. 169 00:15:29,319 --> 00:15:34,237 - Just based on the information that our ERT team had said, 170 00:15:34,281 --> 00:15:38,546 usually people are not buried so deep in the ground. 171 00:15:38,589 --> 00:15:42,028 So was he being truthful, was he not being truthful? 172 00:15:58,305 --> 00:15:59,871 - And this dirt is clay. 173 00:15:59,915 --> 00:16:02,918 And it's hard and it's just it's compacted. 174 00:17:43,105 --> 00:17:45,803 He confessed that he had actually dug the hole 175 00:17:45,847 --> 00:17:47,544 the day before he killed her. 176 00:17:47,588 --> 00:17:50,112 - That's what he said? - That's what he said. 177 00:17:50,156 --> 00:17:53,072 I don't think really any of us believed that. 178 00:17:53,115 --> 00:17:57,902 It would have taken a lot longer than a day. 179 00:18:01,732 --> 00:18:03,778 And then I think later that evening, 180 00:18:03,821 --> 00:18:08,609 we came upon like a slipper or a shoe 181 00:18:09,784 --> 00:18:13,788 and were able to identify that it was hers. 182 00:18:20,621 --> 00:18:23,450 - How long did it take? - About three days. 183 00:18:23,493 --> 00:18:25,756 - Took about three days. 184 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:30,587 [Casey]: And so now, again, the meticulous nature of the dig 185 00:18:30,631 --> 00:18:32,807 has picked up again. 186 00:18:32,850 --> 00:18:35,679 And they're exposing the body inch by inch. 187 00:18:35,723 --> 00:18:37,986 It was a total of five feet down. 188 00:18:43,165 --> 00:18:46,516 Once we finally expose the body, she's face down. 189 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,432 He just, after he killed her, 190 00:18:49,476 --> 00:18:51,478 he just dumped her in 191 00:18:51,521 --> 00:18:53,915 and then he just put the dirt back on top of her. 192 00:18:53,958 --> 00:18:57,353 - So, Kim, what do you think was his motive? 193 00:18:57,397 --> 00:18:59,529 - He was molesting her. 194 00:18:59,573 --> 00:19:01,618 He was afraid that she was going to 195 00:19:01,662 --> 00:19:05,448 report it in the physical or they would actually find 196 00:19:05,492 --> 00:19:07,798 physical evidence or maybe she was pregnant. 197 00:19:07,842 --> 00:19:10,105 - It was a matter of time and then he's been outed 198 00:19:10,149 --> 00:19:12,020 and he can't afford to let that happen. 199 00:19:12,063 --> 00:19:14,457 So, the only way for him to make sure it doesn't happen 200 00:19:14,501 --> 00:19:16,459 is to silence her and to do it permanently 201 00:19:16,503 --> 00:19:18,809 so he doesn't have to worry about that anymore. 202 00:19:23,466 --> 00:19:26,556 And so the note was maybe one of the very first steps 203 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,211 that he took with this whole thing. 204 00:19:31,909 --> 00:19:33,781 [Wayne]: We asked Terry about that. 205 00:19:33,824 --> 00:19:37,219 And his explanation was that he and Chyenne created that note 206 00:19:37,263 --> 00:19:39,787 as a prank to be played on her mother. 207 00:19:51,451 --> 00:19:53,453 - When this all went bad and she ended up dead, 208 00:19:53,496 --> 00:19:55,411 he remembered he had that note 209 00:19:55,455 --> 00:19:57,587 that would come in handy for a time like this. 210 00:20:34,450 --> 00:20:37,584 - Is this the hardest case you ever worked? 211 00:20:37,627 --> 00:20:39,325 - It probably is. 212 00:20:39,368 --> 00:20:42,415 It's one of those things where it's rewarding 213 00:20:42,458 --> 00:20:46,288 that we were able to get closure for the family 214 00:20:46,332 --> 00:20:48,290 and the community and get justice for Chyenne. 215 00:20:48,334 --> 00:20:50,292 But it will forever be overshadowed 216 00:20:50,336 --> 00:20:52,163 by the terrible thing that Terry Abbas did to her. 217 00:20:52,207 --> 00:20:54,514 - I mean, it's a child, 218 00:20:54,557 --> 00:20:57,212 and she was abused and taken advantage of. 219 00:20:57,256 --> 00:21:00,171 So it was very emotional. 220 00:21:00,215 --> 00:21:03,218 And this kind of defines 221 00:21:03,262 --> 00:21:05,612 why I was an FBI agent. 222 00:21:05,655 --> 00:21:08,136 - I've been on the job now 29 years, 223 00:21:08,179 --> 00:21:10,878 and when this team came together, 224 00:21:10,921 --> 00:21:12,662 egos were checked at the door. 225 00:21:12,706 --> 00:21:16,666 It didn't matter if you were FBI, county cop, 226 00:21:16,710 --> 00:21:19,843 state police, local detective, it didn't matter. 227 00:21:19,887 --> 00:21:23,107 We all put our heads together and forged ahead. 228 00:21:23,151 --> 00:21:26,067 You catch the bad guy, you put him away, 229 00:21:26,110 --> 00:21:28,199 you give the family closure, 230 00:21:28,243 --> 00:21:30,854 and you do what you took the oath to do.