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[somber tones playing]

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00:00:05,067 --> 00:00:06,100
[phone ringing]

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00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:15,868
[Hill]
On Sunday, we did receive
a call to come out

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00:00:16,033 --> 00:00:17,701
to County Road 424.

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00:00:29,300 --> 00:00:32,300
[Hill] This old house was
in a very secluded area.

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00:00:33,701 --> 00:00:34,901
The roof was falling in,

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00:00:35,067 --> 00:00:36,300
the walls were starting
to fall in.

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[Shea] There was a cellar
at this property.

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Everybody always asked
questions about what was

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00:00:45,434 --> 00:00:46,734
going on in this cellar.

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There were rumors that
there were certain individuals

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00:00:52,767 --> 00:00:55,000
involved with
the occult and witchcraft.

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Everybody pretty much knew
that there is evil out there.

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And in this case, it was hiding
in plain sight the entire time.

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[tense in music builds in]

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♪♪

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[Bird] Brown County is
a pretty rural area.

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A lot of farmland, ranching.

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Brownwood is the biggest town
with five or six smaller towns

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00:02:00,267 --> 00:02:01,400
inside the county.

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[Linda] North Lake community,
it's very tiny.

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If you want to get away
from it all,

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you'll like North Lake.

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[church bells tolling]

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[Linda] I met Chantay at
North Lake Community Church.

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She was very quiet, sweet.

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I thought she was a teenager
because of how petite she was.

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And I was surprised to
find out that she was 25.

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She always had her Bible
and a little notebook,

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and she also loved music.

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I have a lot of kids,
eight of 'em all together.

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Chantay was my oldest.

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Everybody loved her.
She was just full of joy.

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She was born with a disability.

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She was in special ed.

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00:03:05,467 --> 00:03:08,067
She wasn't catching up
the way she should.

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I mean, she went to high school.
She graduated.

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[Linda]
She could talk to you and have
a conversation with you,

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00:03:17,434 --> 00:03:21,467
and it didn't even sound
like she had a disability.

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But she seemed naive on things
that a woman of 25 should know.

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And I know at our church,
we all loved Chantay

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and wanted to take care of her,

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make sure that
she was protected.

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[Michelle]
It was just like any Friday.

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00:04:00,467 --> 00:04:03,501
And Chantay said that she was
gonna go walking.

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That was her thing, walking.
Walk to the cafe, eat.

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00:04:08,334 --> 00:04:10,200
Go home, change clothes,
walk back to the cafe.

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00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:13,868
It was always the same thing
every day.

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00:04:16,267 --> 00:04:18,100
She knows she has to be home
before dark.

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Chantay lived with my dad.

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She had called, I think
it was like 8:36.

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She told my dad that
she was about to be home.

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Saturday evening, I got
a phone call from my dad.

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[phone ringing]

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And he said that she still
hadn't made it home.

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She had friends.

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He just thought she just spent
the night with somebody.

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I started getting worried.

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Being a mom,

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it just, it was a gut feeling.

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It's not like her
to just not come home.

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At this point, I called
the Sheriff's Department

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because something was wrong.

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[phone ringing]

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[Hill] On May the 14th,
late in the evening,

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the sheriff's office received
a call from a family member

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of Chantay Blankinship.

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It was reported to us that
Chantay was walking around

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on the 13th of May.

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Investigators went
to the home of Chantay.

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We wanted to talk to everybody
we could and try to get

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a timeline on when
the last time Chantay was seen

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and who she was seen with.

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[Michelle]
Chantay had a boyfriend, John.

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They had been together
for four years.

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[Bird]
We spoke with John Adams,
who lived with Chantay

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and Chantay's grandfather.

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John told us about their day
up to her disappearing.

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00:06:04,467 --> 00:06:06,300
He said he picked her up
early in the afternoon

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00:06:06,467 --> 00:06:09,667
at a local cafe and they went
back to the house.

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00:06:09,834 --> 00:06:14,000
And then about six o'clock
he left to go to work

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00:06:14,167 --> 00:06:15,701
where he worked at
a restaurant all night.

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00:06:18,167 --> 00:06:20,801
[Hill] Shortly thereafter,
she had told her grandfather

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that she was gonna go for
an evening walk with a friend.

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So we talked with the girl
that was walking with Chantay

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00:06:29,334 --> 00:06:30,567
the night she disappeared.

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[Hill] Chantay was last seen
near the community mailboxes

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00:07:35,767 --> 00:07:37,801
in her neighborhood
sometime around dusk.

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We attempted to ping
her cellphone with no results.

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So, it's like her cellphone
had been turned off.

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[Michelle] Her purse was
still at the house.

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Had a couple of friends come
out, and we searched all night.

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We drove around.
We walked.

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Went to people's houses.

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There's nothing.

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00:08:05,167 --> 00:08:07,167
[dramatic chord strikes]

97
00:08:10,267 --> 00:08:12,200
[church bell tolling]

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00:08:15,567 --> 00:08:17,601
[birds chirping]

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[Linda] When we were at church
that Sunday morning,

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word was spreading that
she was not found.

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00:08:29,868 --> 00:08:33,901
And during the church service
is when they decided to have

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a search party formed
in the afternoon

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to look for Chantay.

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[Michelle]
We all met at the church

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a little bit before
three o'clock.

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There was probably 25 of us.

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[intriguing music playing]

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[Hill] The members of the church
and the fire department had got

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together and divided up areas.

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[Linda]
We did wanna walk around
the lake in case she drowned

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and she was on the shoreline.

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00:09:08,033 --> 00:09:12,300
Maybe she fell, got hurt,
but couldn't cry out for help.

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00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:17,200
It was hours that we were
looking everywhere,

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possible and impossible,
that Chantay would be.

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When it was getting dark,
we had to call it quits

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and go home.

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I didn't hear about anybody
finding anything

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until later on Sunday night.

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[phone ringing]

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[Hill] We desperately wanted
to locate Chantay.

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00:10:04,367 --> 00:10:06,300
Never have I received
a phone call like that.

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00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:09,667
Looks like we knew that...

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[sobs]

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2
[suspenseful music playing]

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On Sunday, the whole community
of North Lake was out

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looking for Chantay,
and then someone found her.

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I responded immediately
to the scene.

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[siren wailing]

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When I got there, I had several
investigators already on scene.

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We jumped the fence and just
started walking the property.

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[indistinct chatter over radio]

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[Bird]
Just inside the gate is
an old, old farmhouse.

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There's no floor in it.
Most of the roof's missing.

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00:12:03,567 --> 00:12:06,501
You can tell it's -- hasn't been
lived in in a long time.

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00:12:08,868 --> 00:12:13,133
[Shea] The grass is tall,
hadn't been mowed down.

136
00:12:15,601 --> 00:12:19,534
And then you see this cellar.
It's encased in concrete.

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00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,100
[Hill] Here in Central Texas,
it's a tornado alley,

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00:12:24,267 --> 00:12:28,267
so this is an old storm cellar
to get into in case a tornado

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or bad weather blew through.

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00:12:30,434 --> 00:12:33,934
Built probably back
in the early 1920s.

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00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:38,300
It was kind of like,
you know, "The Wizard of Oz".

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When Dorothy and the family
went down in there

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into the cellar, that's
basically what this looked like.

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The cellar had an old metal
door that was falling apart

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and barely hanging on.

146
00:12:52,100 --> 00:12:54,667
And then we get to finding
the spatters of blood.

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[Bird]
At the opening of the cellar,
one of the walls had

148
00:13:05,267 --> 00:13:08,000
fallen over and was nearly
touching the opposite wall.

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So you had to crouch down
and almost crawl down through.

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00:13:21,567 --> 00:13:23,467
The concrete steps probably

151
00:13:23,634 --> 00:13:26,501
extended about six foot below
the surface of the ground.

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Inside was probably
six-by-six feet,

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00:13:34,167 --> 00:13:36,267
cement floors, walls, ceiling.

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00:13:40,267 --> 00:13:42,167
[Shea]
Once you would go deeper
into the cellar,

155
00:13:44,567 --> 00:13:45,601
it's just black.

156
00:13:50,767 --> 00:13:52,367
There's gonna be snakes
down there,

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spiders everywhere,
so we had to be careful.

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00:14:03,267 --> 00:14:05,000
And that's where
Chantay was located.

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00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,000
We all had met Chantay before.

160
00:14:13,167 --> 00:14:15,767
We'd seen her walking
through the community,

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00:14:15,934 --> 00:14:18,100
and we were able to make
the identification.

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00:14:23,100 --> 00:14:26,400
I noticed that she was nude
except for a T-shirt.

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I could see a tremendous amount
of trauma to her face,

164
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neck, and head area.

165
00:14:39,467 --> 00:14:41,501
We knew we had
a murder investigation.

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00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:47,767
We located Chantay's
missing clothes,

167
00:14:49,300 --> 00:14:50,601
a pair of flip flops,

168
00:14:52,901 --> 00:14:54,834
her pants, her underwear,

169
00:14:57,300 --> 00:15:00,067
and they were all pretty
saturated with blood.

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00:15:04,601 --> 00:15:06,267
[Hill]
Going deeper in the cellar,

171
00:15:06,434 --> 00:15:09,534
a lawnmower blade was located
towards the back.

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00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:13,567
[Bird] The lawnmower blade
appeared to have

173
00:15:13,734 --> 00:15:15,300
a large amount of blood on it.

174
00:15:18,801 --> 00:15:20,467
So we collected that
as evidence.

175
00:15:22,501 --> 00:15:23,868
Pretty brutal-looking scene.

176
00:15:29,367 --> 00:15:30,667
And on the outside
of the cellar,

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00:15:30,834 --> 00:15:32,300
it was pretty obvious
where her body was

178
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thrown over the gate.

179
00:15:37,367 --> 00:15:40,367
[Shea]
It looked like that
she had potentially been drug

180
00:15:40,534 --> 00:15:43,501
from that fence
to that cellar by her hair.

181
00:15:45,968 --> 00:15:48,767
We found a few cigarette butts
laying out there

182
00:15:48,934 --> 00:15:52,033
and that was all collected
as possible evidence.

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00:15:54,501 --> 00:15:57,100
All we had been told is that
she was basically walking

184
00:15:57,267 --> 00:15:59,267
around with her clothes
and her cellphone,

185
00:15:59,434 --> 00:16:01,467
but her cellphone was missing.

186
00:16:01,634 --> 00:16:03,701
So we believed whoever had
brought her out here

187
00:16:03,868 --> 00:16:05,601
either took her cellphone

188
00:16:05,767 --> 00:16:07,968
or had discarded it
at a different location.

189
00:16:11,701 --> 00:16:13,167
It was getting
dark on us pretty quick,

190
00:16:13,334 --> 00:16:17,367
so we processed
and checked out what we could.

191
00:16:17,534 --> 00:16:20,801
Chantay's body was originally
found by two individuals,

192
00:16:20,968 --> 00:16:22,701
Jackie and Charlie,

193
00:16:22,868 --> 00:16:24,968
and I had two
of the investigators

194
00:16:25,133 --> 00:16:28,367
load them up and take them
to the law enforcement center

195
00:16:28,534 --> 00:16:30,367
to get an accurate statement
from 'em.

196
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,000
[siren wailing]

197
00:16:50,767 --> 00:16:54,601
[Linda] At the church, there was
a lot of people that showed up

198
00:16:54,767 --> 00:16:57,501
to start searching for Chantay.

199
00:16:58,901 --> 00:17:01,100
But Charlie
did not even know her

200
00:17:01,267 --> 00:17:03,667
and did not go
to our church.

201
00:17:04,767 --> 00:17:06,767
I didn't know who he was.

202
00:17:06,934 --> 00:17:10,000
To me, it immediately raised
some red flags.

203
00:17:10,167 --> 00:17:12,000
Why did he come here?

204
00:17:12,167 --> 00:17:15,567
How would he know where to go
to locate this body?

205
00:17:35,567 --> 00:17:39,000
[Hill] We paid a lot
of attention to Charlie.

206
00:17:39,167 --> 00:17:42,000
During my 40-year career,
I've actually seen an instance

207
00:17:42,167 --> 00:17:45,868
where the murderer has
found the body.

208
00:17:46,033 --> 00:17:47,801
You kind of wanna get
yourself out there first

209
00:17:47,968 --> 00:17:50,501
because you feel like
it's gonna be found,

210
00:17:50,667 --> 00:17:54,100
so why not be the hero
instead of the zero?

211
00:17:56,567 --> 00:18:00,067
But Charlie was never mentioned
as a suspect by anyone.

212
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:12,567
You could tell he was upset.

213
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,000
He was distraught.
He was very emotional.

214
00:18:18,167 --> 00:18:19,400
[investigator]
Do you know their last name?

215
00:18:19,567 --> 00:18:20,467
[Jackie] Mnh-mnh.

216
00:18:20,634 --> 00:18:22,767
We also interviewed
his partner

217
00:18:22,934 --> 00:18:25,901
and make sure that her story
matches his, and it did.

218
00:18:27,367 --> 00:18:29,767
Everybody always thought
it was weird that, you know,

219
00:18:29,934 --> 00:18:32,567
he just happened
to find Chantay,

220
00:18:32,734 --> 00:18:35,167
but he had taken a polygraph.

221
00:18:35,334 --> 00:18:38,567
In Charlie's case, there was
no deception indicated,

222
00:18:38,734 --> 00:18:42,133
so we did not proceed
with him as a suspect.

223
00:18:44,567 --> 00:18:47,200
[Bird]
At this point, I'm looking
for the person who put

224
00:18:47,367 --> 00:18:48,667
Chantay in that cellar.

225
00:18:48,834 --> 00:18:52,667
We believed one of the people
in the North Lake community

226
00:18:52,834 --> 00:18:54,300
was responsible for this.

227
00:18:58,100 --> 00:19:04,267
My thought was, we have a killer
that is coming after our kids.

228
00:19:04,434 --> 00:19:07,167
[Hill] I was just keeping an eye
on everybody we could.

229
00:19:07,334 --> 00:19:09,901
You can't help but wonder,
how close is this killer?

230
00:19:11,367 --> 00:19:13,767
The fear was,
could he do this again?

231
00:19:21,667 --> 00:19:23,601
2
[intriguing tones playing]

232
00:19:40,868 --> 00:19:43,367
The North Lake community
took care of Chantay.

233
00:19:43,534 --> 00:19:46,000
She was part of the family
out there.

234
00:19:46,167 --> 00:19:49,501
And so this event shook
that community to its core.

235
00:19:52,501 --> 00:19:54,501
[somber tones playing]

236
00:19:59,100 --> 00:20:00,868
Now, one of the first things
that we're gonna do is

237
00:20:01,033 --> 00:20:05,100
an autopsy to get an idea
of what actually happened.

238
00:20:05,267 --> 00:20:08,701
[Bird] It did show that
she had been sexually assaulted

239
00:20:10,367 --> 00:20:13,801
and that Chantay was killed
from blunt force trauma.

240
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,767
Chantay was actually strangled.

241
00:20:21,267 --> 00:20:25,167
And then the blunt force trauma
to Chantay's head was caused

242
00:20:25,334 --> 00:20:28,067
by the lawnmower blade that was
located inside the cellar.

243
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:31,167
Several areas of the body
were swabbed

244
00:20:31,334 --> 00:20:33,167
for the presence of DNA.

245
00:20:33,334 --> 00:20:36,567
The DNA analysis takes
several weeks to be completed.

246
00:20:36,734 --> 00:20:39,267
So we were kind of just waiting
to get the results to see

247
00:20:39,434 --> 00:20:41,000
if we get a suspect identified.

248
00:20:44,601 --> 00:20:46,367
But in the meantime,
we had a meeting

249
00:20:46,534 --> 00:20:48,501
with local
law enforcement agencies.

250
00:20:49,901 --> 00:20:52,767
[Shea]
We're working the victimology
of Chantay and trying

251
00:20:52,934 --> 00:20:55,601
to identify potential suspects.

252
00:20:55,767 --> 00:20:58,567
We believed it was gonna be
somebody in the community

253
00:20:58,734 --> 00:21:01,100
that had a connection with her.

254
00:21:01,267 --> 00:21:05,667
Her boyfriend, John,
was living with her at the time.

255
00:21:05,834 --> 00:21:09,467
We spoke to several different
neighbors who stated that

256
00:21:09,634 --> 00:21:11,400
during their conversations
with Chantay,

257
00:21:11,567 --> 00:21:14,100
that she had mentioned
problems in that relationship.

258
00:21:33,467 --> 00:21:35,767
[Shea] And then there's
a particular witness who stated

259
00:21:35,934 --> 00:21:39,000
that she had been around
when John had gotten

260
00:21:39,167 --> 00:21:40,701
into an argument with Chantay.

261
00:22:30,868 --> 00:22:32,868
[indistinct chatter over radio]

262
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,367
Investigators went
to the home of Chantay

263
00:22:36,534 --> 00:22:37,467
and visited with John.

264
00:22:38,901 --> 00:22:40,968
We did some searching
of the residence.

265
00:22:44,968 --> 00:22:47,901
We found some cigarette butts
that could have been consistent

266
00:22:48,067 --> 00:22:50,701
with the cigarette butts
we found at the scene.

267
00:22:50,868 --> 00:22:53,300
We collected some of those
to see if they would match.

268
00:22:55,367 --> 00:22:57,200
And then there was
a shed out back.

269
00:22:58,467 --> 00:23:01,167
We did notice that there was
a lot of lawnmowers,

270
00:23:01,334 --> 00:23:04,367
lawnmower parts,
lawnmower blades laying around.

271
00:23:05,701 --> 00:23:09,367
A lawnmower blade was the weapon
used to strike Chantay.

272
00:23:10,901 --> 00:23:12,767
So he was a person of interest.

273
00:23:18,901 --> 00:23:21,400
[Bird] And then we brought
John Adams into the office

274
00:23:21,567 --> 00:23:23,100
for a further interview.

275
00:23:24,601 --> 00:23:28,200
We asked him
for his timeline that night.

276
00:23:28,367 --> 00:23:31,567
John did tell us previously,
the Friday that Chantay came up

277
00:23:31,734 --> 00:23:35,300
missing, that he had been
with her at the residence.

278
00:23:35,467 --> 00:23:37,167
[Shea]
The story that he tells,

279
00:23:37,334 --> 00:23:39,100
the circumstances were just odd.

280
00:24:05,267 --> 00:24:07,300
John said he went
to work early in Brownwood

281
00:24:07,467 --> 00:24:09,567
at a local restaurant
about six o'clock

282
00:24:09,734 --> 00:24:10,801
and worked all night.

283
00:24:12,467 --> 00:24:14,100
[Shea]
He was short with his answers.

284
00:24:14,267 --> 00:24:16,667
We weren't getting a lot
of information from him.

285
00:24:18,601 --> 00:24:21,100
It's hard to tell
if he's telling us the truth.

286
00:24:22,567 --> 00:24:24,667
So we asked for consent
to search his phone,

287
00:24:24,834 --> 00:24:26,200
which he granted us.

288
00:24:28,667 --> 00:24:31,601
So after the interview
was done,

289
00:24:31,767 --> 00:24:33,901
we were able to recover
something that definitely

290
00:24:34,067 --> 00:24:36,467
puts up a red flag
for law enforcement.

291
00:25:08,801 --> 00:25:11,701
[Michelle]
They thought that maybe John
had something to do with it.

292
00:25:14,167 --> 00:25:16,300
But I knew in my heart

293
00:25:17,567 --> 00:25:18,834
that he wouldn't hurt her.

294
00:25:21,300 --> 00:25:23,868
On John's phone download,
we were able to recover

295
00:25:24,033 --> 00:25:25,367
the deleted text messages,

296
00:25:27,067 --> 00:25:29,868
and they were not dealing
with this investigation.

297
00:25:30,801 --> 00:25:32,567
John consistently reiterated

298
00:25:32,734 --> 00:25:34,467
that he would never
harm Chantay.

299
00:25:34,634 --> 00:25:36,367
He actually cared
for her very deeply.

300
00:25:38,167 --> 00:25:40,701
We were able to go to
the restaurant where he worked

301
00:25:40,868 --> 00:25:43,901
and obtain video footage,
and it showed John there

302
00:25:44,067 --> 00:25:46,400
working the entire night.

303
00:25:46,567 --> 00:25:49,067
So, we knew based off
of that information

304
00:25:49,234 --> 00:25:50,100
that he was not involved.

305
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,267
It was a trying time
in this investigation.

306
00:26:01,434 --> 00:26:03,167
People were worried.

307
00:26:03,334 --> 00:26:07,901
People were scared because
anybody could have taken her.

308
00:26:08,067 --> 00:26:12,501
[Linda] We have a killer that is
a member of our community.

309
00:26:12,667 --> 00:26:15,868
It was scary to walk
around North Lake

310
00:26:16,033 --> 00:26:17,667
because everybody's a suspect.

311
00:26:19,267 --> 00:26:24,100
For me, there was a fear that
if the killer or killers

312
00:26:24,267 --> 00:26:25,667
could do this to Chantay,

313
00:26:27,567 --> 00:26:28,567
they could do it to me.

314
00:26:34,267 --> 00:26:36,267
2
[suspenseful tones playing]

315
00:26:50,367 --> 00:26:52,100
I just still couldn't
believe how

316
00:26:53,367 --> 00:26:55,567
one minute she's there,
the next minute she's gone.

317
00:26:57,567 --> 00:27:01,801
At this point, I didn't trust
anybody because I didn't know

318
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:05,167
who had took
my daughter's life.

319
00:27:05,334 --> 00:27:08,200
But I knew it was somebody
that was close.

320
00:27:12,667 --> 00:27:15,467
[Shea] Everybody had stated that
Chantay would not have gotten

321
00:27:15,634 --> 00:27:18,267
into a car with somebody
that she did not know.

322
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,367
We were able to eliminate

323
00:27:22,534 --> 00:27:24,868
her boyfriend, John,
as a suspect.

324
00:27:26,267 --> 00:27:29,467
But we spoke to several
different neighbors who also

325
00:27:29,634 --> 00:27:31,267
mentioned another name
of Colin Smith.

326
00:27:33,467 --> 00:27:36,100
Colin did live
in the North Lake community,

327
00:27:36,267 --> 00:27:39,000
and we were told Chantay
had known him for years.

328
00:27:40,267 --> 00:27:43,868
One time, Colin had served
Chantay alcohol

329
00:27:44,033 --> 00:27:46,167
and had brought Chantay
home drunk.

330
00:27:47,367 --> 00:27:51,267
So to me, you could pick
her up, serve her alcohol,

331
00:27:51,434 --> 00:27:53,868
knowing that that's wrong.

332
00:27:54,033 --> 00:27:55,601
You know, what --

333
00:27:55,767 --> 00:27:57,567
you probably could have done
anything, you know?

334
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,801
-[cows mooing]
-[tense tones playing]

335
00:28:07,267 --> 00:28:09,100
A lot of the neighbors had
seen her with Colin

336
00:28:09,267 --> 00:28:11,200
many times before,

337
00:28:11,367 --> 00:28:13,801
so he was somebody that
we needed to interview.

338
00:28:15,100 --> 00:28:18,601
But when we did, he said
that he barely knew her.

339
00:28:18,767 --> 00:28:20,300
It was something
that wasn't expected.

340
00:28:22,267 --> 00:28:25,868
We believed he knew Chantay
more than he was leading on,

341
00:28:26,033 --> 00:28:28,901
so we asked Colin if he would
take a polygraph test.

342
00:28:59,367 --> 00:29:02,267
[Bird] We could see that
Colin failed the polygraph,

343
00:29:02,434 --> 00:29:05,067
so that's when we really
started digging into him.

344
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,767
[Shea]
We believed that the last
person that had seen her alive

345
00:29:52,934 --> 00:29:54,367
was not one of
the neighbor girls

346
00:29:54,534 --> 00:29:56,167
that was walking down
the street with her.

347
00:29:59,601 --> 00:30:01,000
It was Colin Smith.

348
00:30:02,367 --> 00:30:04,767
[Bird]
He had failed the polygraph.

349
00:30:04,934 --> 00:30:08,501
With his demeanor
and his yelling

350
00:30:08,667 --> 00:30:10,367
and screaming
at the interviewer,

351
00:30:11,868 --> 00:30:14,467
it was very possible that Colin

352
00:30:14,634 --> 00:30:16,567
was the person who put her
in that cellar.

353
00:30:22,601 --> 00:30:25,868
[Shea] That same day,
we re-interviewed Colin.

354
00:30:26,033 --> 00:30:29,000
At that time, Colin did admit
that he did have

355
00:30:29,167 --> 00:30:30,467
a connection with Chantay.

356
00:31:03,167 --> 00:31:05,868
[Shea] Colin stated that he had
been in the area that evening

357
00:31:06,033 --> 00:31:09,667
and had seen Chantay,
but he had left and went

358
00:31:09,834 --> 00:31:12,267
out of town with his brother
that night.

359
00:31:12,434 --> 00:31:15,100
He did confirm that Colin
ate supper with him

360
00:31:15,267 --> 00:31:17,167
and his children
and slept there that night.

361
00:31:18,601 --> 00:31:20,400
[Hill] And so we didn't have
no other choice,

362
00:31:20,567 --> 00:31:22,167
and we let him go.

363
00:31:22,334 --> 00:31:24,367
But with Colin's deception,

364
00:31:24,534 --> 00:31:27,868
he did remain as the top
of our suspect list.

365
00:31:44,300 --> 00:31:45,367
[Bird] After a year and a half,

366
00:31:45,534 --> 00:31:48,667
this investigation's really
getting to me.

367
00:31:48,834 --> 00:31:51,501
A lot of nights laying there,
trying to go to sleep,

368
00:31:51,667 --> 00:31:53,701
and all you can think about is
what did I miss?

369
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:59,567
We had sent several items
into the lab for DNA testing.

370
00:32:01,067 --> 00:32:05,868
The lab found an unknown
male DNA on Chantay.

371
00:32:09,300 --> 00:32:12,467
We had so many different
community members' DNA

372
00:32:12,634 --> 00:32:14,601
that we were comparing
to our unknown,

373
00:32:14,767 --> 00:32:17,067
and we needed that
to match.

374
00:32:17,234 --> 00:32:21,067
We would take DNA samples
from any male person that

375
00:32:21,234 --> 00:32:22,434
we were interviewing.

376
00:32:23,667 --> 00:32:27,033
Unfortunately, every one
of those came back as excluded.

377
00:32:29,501 --> 00:32:32,367
It was very, very frustrating
that we did not have

378
00:32:32,534 --> 00:32:33,868
the suspect identified.

379
00:32:37,868 --> 00:32:39,567
[Shea] The community is
demanding answers.

380
00:32:41,167 --> 00:32:45,567
We had our unknown suspect's
DNA, but at that point,

381
00:32:45,734 --> 00:32:46,801
we didn't know what else to do.

382
00:32:48,267 --> 00:32:51,100
One day, I get a call
from Scott Bird,

383
00:32:51,267 --> 00:32:53,701
who had stated
that he had heard

384
00:32:53,868 --> 00:32:55,968
about new technology
called phenotyping,

385
00:32:56,133 --> 00:32:59,267
saying that they can draw
a picture or a composite

386
00:32:59,434 --> 00:33:02,167
of our potential suspect
based on his DNA.

387
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:07,667
Basically, I thought it was
hocus pocus.

388
00:33:08,767 --> 00:33:11,367
[Bird] I didn't know DNA
could do that.

389
00:33:11,534 --> 00:33:12,767
At this point in
the investigation,

390
00:33:12,934 --> 00:33:15,801
I'm willing to try anything.

391
00:33:18,267 --> 00:33:23,100
In November of 2017,
that composite came back.

392
00:33:29,467 --> 00:33:33,667
The image did not have any kind
of resemblance to anybody

393
00:33:33,834 --> 00:33:36,167
I'd interviewed or spoken to
in this investigation.

394
00:33:37,667 --> 00:33:41,100
Our next step was,
we released it to the public.

395
00:33:41,267 --> 00:33:43,968
We were hoping that this
would give us more leads.

396
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,100
[Steve] A few nights later,

397
00:33:57,267 --> 00:33:59,667
after the initial release
of the snapshot,

398
00:33:59,834 --> 00:34:01,868
they had Wednesday night
church service there

399
00:34:02,033 --> 00:34:03,367
at the North Lake
Community Church.

400
00:34:05,167 --> 00:34:07,567
The pastor of the church said,
"We've got something

401
00:34:07,734 --> 00:34:09,200
a little different tonight."

402
00:34:11,667 --> 00:34:15,901
[Linda] One of our members
got up and started talking,

403
00:34:16,067 --> 00:34:19,701
not really making eye contact,
and he said that

404
00:34:20,868 --> 00:34:23,467
his salvation meant more to him

405
00:34:24,801 --> 00:34:26,167
than life in prison.

406
00:34:32,667 --> 00:34:33,868
"I killed somebody."

407
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,968
2
More than a year has passed by
since Chantay's murder.

408
00:34:47,067 --> 00:34:48,601
I had just a lot
of bad thoughts.

409
00:34:49,868 --> 00:34:51,067
I didn't know...

410
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:55,467
how to...

411
00:34:55,634 --> 00:34:57,200
live without her.

412
00:34:59,667 --> 00:35:00,868
I really didn't think
we were gonna

413
00:35:01,033 --> 00:35:02,601
find the person that did it,

414
00:35:02,767 --> 00:35:04,601
but I was wrong.

415
00:35:09,767 --> 00:35:12,400
[Linda]
We walk into the church.

416
00:35:12,567 --> 00:35:16,234
The pastor just said that Ryan
wanted to confess something.

417
00:35:18,701 --> 00:35:22,000
All I can remember is looking
at my husband,

418
00:35:22,167 --> 00:35:25,100
and we were just in shock.

419
00:35:29,267 --> 00:35:33,901
We could not believe
that he killed Chantay.

420
00:35:36,367 --> 00:35:40,200
I knew Ryan Riggs
for approximately four years.

421
00:35:41,567 --> 00:35:46,000
Ryan was active with
the North Lake Community Church.

422
00:35:46,167 --> 00:35:50,601
He was a sweet young man,
would do anything for you.

423
00:35:50,767 --> 00:35:54,400
And anything that we did
as a church,

424
00:35:54,567 --> 00:35:55,667
he was there.

425
00:36:01,267 --> 00:36:02,868
During the course
of this investigation,

426
00:36:03,033 --> 00:36:06,634
Ryan Riggs' name never came up.
He never was on the radar.

427
00:36:09,100 --> 00:36:11,100
Ryan was a part
of the search group

428
00:36:11,267 --> 00:36:13,467
that went out
looking for Chantay.

429
00:36:13,634 --> 00:36:16,701
He consoled the family
when Chantay had been found.

430
00:36:18,501 --> 00:36:22,067
He actually had attended
the funeral for Chantay.

431
00:36:22,234 --> 00:36:25,000
He was hiding in plain sight
the entire time.

432
00:36:26,667 --> 00:36:28,868
Ryan was brought
into the sheriff's office,

433
00:36:29,033 --> 00:36:31,767
and so we asked Ryan
to tell us what had happened.

434
00:36:56,868 --> 00:36:59,400
During the interview,
Ryan Riggs told us that he had

435
00:36:59,567 --> 00:37:02,667
always had these kind of
dark fantasies all the way back

436
00:37:02,834 --> 00:37:03,901
to his teenage years.

437
00:37:25,501 --> 00:37:29,400
So they drive in his truck
and they parked up on the hill,

438
00:37:29,567 --> 00:37:31,400
kind of overlooking
the lake area.

439
00:38:23,801 --> 00:38:27,000
His demeanor didn't change.
There was no emotion.

440
00:38:27,167 --> 00:38:31,667
It was just as two people
having a casual conversation

441
00:38:31,834 --> 00:38:32,801
about what's for dinner.

442
00:39:42,367 --> 00:39:44,367
[Michelle]
The night we got the call,

443
00:39:44,534 --> 00:39:46,267
we were just sitting
in the living room watching TV.

444
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:52,167
I remember Scott Bird
telling me, "Hey,

445
00:39:52,334 --> 00:39:54,968
Ryan Riggs just confessed
to Chantay's murder."

446
00:39:57,267 --> 00:39:58,367
I just remember bawling.

447
00:40:03,868 --> 00:40:06,767
It was -- it was over.

448
00:40:06,934 --> 00:40:08,367
The hunt was finally over.

449
00:40:14,667 --> 00:40:17,667
[Bird] After the prosecutors
and defense attorneys get

450
00:40:17,834 --> 00:40:22,167
involved, it was decided that
if he pled to life in prison,

451
00:40:22,334 --> 00:40:25,567
the prosecution would not
seek the death penalty.

452
00:40:25,734 --> 00:40:28,567
So Ryan Riggs agreed
and pled guilty

453
00:40:29,601 --> 00:40:31,801
and will serve the last
remaining days

454
00:40:31,968 --> 00:40:33,167
of his life in prison.

455
00:40:40,367 --> 00:40:43,467
Seeing her picture,
it brings that light back.

456
00:40:44,868 --> 00:40:47,000
[Michelle] This world is
missing out on her.

457
00:40:49,167 --> 00:40:50,367
Chantay was just...

458
00:40:52,701 --> 00:40:56,000
the best, you know?
There's nobody like her.

459
00:40:57,567 --> 00:41:01,601
And no matter what, she's here.

460
00:41:01,767 --> 00:41:03,968
And that will never,
ever go away.

461
00:41:10,667 --> 00:41:12,667
[woman] It's not everyday that
someone walks into

462
00:41:12,834 --> 00:41:14,000
a police station and says

463
00:41:14,167 --> 00:41:16,400
"I saw a body in
the basement"

464
00:41:18,868 --> 00:41:20,534
[man] The whole thing just
seemed far-fetched.

465
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:24,367
If he hadn't have
told anybody

466
00:41:24,534 --> 00:41:26,100
he probably would have
gotten away with it.