I recall early on that
someone had located
child p*rn*graphy in a closet...
Son of a b*tch.
It was like nearly 27 years
of searching and
carrying that hope.
And it was like, "It´s
him." I knew it was him.
DETECTIVE: If somebody told
you they k*lled somebody,
why are you gonna wait 20 years
to tell somebody about it?
BRETT: We have descriptions
that line up with our witnesses,
and also the
subject in Van Buren
had a red pickup truck.
Look at this truck.
I´ll make sure I get out there
no later than tomorrow evening.
Getting it worked out to get
the truck in our possession.
You know, she had on her little
green Girl Scout T-shirt.
Because, you know, Girl Scouts
can stay inside and glue stuff.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
BRETT: So we´ve been
looking at it now for weeks.
Nobody can put their
hand on a piece of paper.
Nobody can put their
hand on the evidence.
So like many things
in this case,
I´m going to look at it
and say it doesn´t exist.
I hope I get surprised one day.
When are we gonna
process this truck?
Then I´ll start the
paperwork on the front end
to get the... the truck
parts that we ex...
Anticipate breaking.
And so i-it will be weeks
to get to the truck.
We go to the... to the max.
I think it´s our only
shot in this case.
♫♫
I´m just giving
you my gut feeling.
It´s our only shot in this case.
We give it everything we got.
We get the absolute best
freaking people to do this,
because of the circumstances,
because it was
already processed.
And to get... I mean,
one frickin drop of blood
or one hair that matches
Morgan and this case is done.
Whatever strings we have to pull
to get the absolute best people
to process this truck
is where I´d want to
go with the truck.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
REUBEN: When first
arriving at the truck
and seeing the truck
for the first time,
I was actually pretty surprised
with how decent of
condition it was in
and that it was still around.
♫♫
♫♫
What I´m looking at
on my initial approach
are things that were actually
brought up in the investigation.
[ indistinct conversations ]
♫♫
MAN: I bought for me and my
grandson to build together,
which... he´s three years old.
So it´s... you know,
it´s going to be a while.
I´m also looking for the
coloring of the vehicle
on the outside,
but also within the
interior, as well.
ROB: See how much
redder the color was
in the in the door edging
and under the trim?
REUBEN: Yeah.
You know, it´s so faded now
that it´s much more orange,
but it had a lot more
red back in the day.
Yeah.
But on our approach,
you can actually see
where a camper shell used to
be on the bed of the truck.
So I´m looking for
those markings.
You´re able to see where
the holes were filled,
where the camper
would have been.
♫♫
♫♫
Yeah, and the officers that
did the search warrant,
some of them are gone.
One of them that
is still around,
he doesn´t remember anything.
I was like, you know... I
asked him about the cutting,
the scraping, and he´s...
He honestly didn´t
even remember.
WOMAN: That they did it?
That they did it, yeah.
I can see that.
♫♫
ROB: The wife, what
family photos she had,
had no pictures of the
ve... of the truck.
So, yeah, we went through all
the family photos that she had
and she was very much convinced
that he was even innocent.
And some of his other
stuff. But the pictures...
No, none of the vehicles at all.
Not even the other car
they had at the time.
But it sounded like he only
had this for a short period...
Only a year or two
when he got it,
before he got in the incident
and got it impounded.
♫♫
And that´s where my hopes are,
is that by pulling
this up and down,
up under there could
be, you know...
We´ll finally get back
down to the original.
Yeah.
♫♫
In a lot of the other cases
we´ve been working on,
the... the vehicles are
crushed or scrapped,
and we have nothing to...
Nothing to exploit for evidence.
And so finally, in a case,
having something that far
back that still exists
and is intact enough
to exploit is hopeful.
And, you know, so
many times, it´s like,
in all the other VCAC
cases we´ve been working,
we... we find a truck
to be at a scrap yard
or gone completely.
And, uh, so it´s
exciting to have a truck
that has... Has
value that... that...
Of the hope of
finding something.
At the same time,
it´s so far back,
it´s just still a long shot.
REUBEN: The markings
of the camper shell
on the bed of the truck
I won´t say excited
me, but I knew
I was potentially looking
at the correct truck.
Usually you find something
like, "Okay, that...
This truck didn´t have
it, we can eliminate it.
This didn´t have that.
We can eliminate it."
This one keeps having
little pieces that tie in
to certain witness statements
that... that increase
the hope a little bit.
I don´t want to get... I
don´t want to get too hopeful
because just the... The
long shot that it is,
but it´s a continued
increasing in hope,
but we have to
maintain our, uh...
Keep ourselves grounded.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
So according to the
witness statements,
we´ve got seven locations
that we´re looking at
and the seventh location,
there are witnesses that
the time frame winds up,
the information corroborates
descriptions and information
that we got from
witnesses within Alma,
that leads me to believe
that this could be potentially
the last place that Morgan was.
You´re looking at a scenario
that she was buried
at that location.
You´re also looking at the
potential in that location
that she was not buried
and that she was left
on top of the ground.
You know, I think there´s
been a lot of questions
over the 25-year period.
Well, why hasn´t
Morgan been found?
Uh, why haven´t we
had any answers?
And that could simply be, um...
if she was left at this location
and she wasn´t buried
at this location,
with the floodwaters
that we had come in,
it could be, um,
very easily explained
that she did go with
the floodwaters.
We were looking at
flood stages, I believe,
of 32 feet at the time,
where, a couple days
after her abduction,
they recorded it was about
that river´s flowing.
So when that river comes
up and the... you know,
there´s articles at the
time from the farmers, um,
where fields that are a
ways away from the river
are four feet underwater.
So naturally, for us looking
at this 24 years later,
when you look at the timeline
of when it... it happens
and when she´s abducted
to the timeline
that the flooding starts,
and how serious
the flooding was,
we face the fact that
there is a potential
that Morgan was washed
away with floodwaters.
I mean, this... this is not...
It´s different for law
enforcement officers.
Between dealing with
something with an adult
and dealing with something with
a child, on an emotional level,
it´s different. And
everything at this point
leads me to believe very strong
that this is a location
that we have to look at.
And... And it´s tough
because you want to be able
to find those answers
and you want to be
able to bring her home.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
The FBI ERT who were processing
the truck actually removed
what is believed to be
the original floor cover
of this truck.
♫♫
♫♫
And under that floor cover,
they located a blonde hair.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
So that is something that we
are waiting to get examined
to see if potentially
they can get DNA from it,
potentially if that
could be Morgan´s.
Obviously, any time you´re...
You´re dealing with that,
that is something
that gives you hope.
It´s something that
gives you excitement.
We... We have to go
into the waiting period.
♫♫
♫♫
That item was taken
as evidence by the FBI
and it will be sent
to their crime lab,
where it will be examined to
see if there´s a potential
they can get DNA from it.
And we´re probably looking
at at least six months
to get that information back.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
CHRIS: One of the goals
was to present to Heinrich
that he was facing federal
child p*rn*graphy charges,
but also to let him know
that he was the suspect
in the Cold Spring case
and Wetterling´s abduction,
and to plant the seed right
away for him to think about
is coming up with a resolution.
We wanted Heinrich to know
is everybody is looking
for the answer of where Jacob
is and to bring Jacob home.
MAN: What kind of
questions did they ask him?
He denied it in 1990
and he denied it again
after the cold
case investigation.
He was very cooperative
in many ways
and sought to please at times,
and just got the sense,
through his personality,
that someday, he was going
to say where Jacob was.
And the case had such notoriety,
and he was well aware of that
through his time in the jail,
and since it occurred...
It just felt like someday
he was going to talk about it.
♫♫
I was 100% sure that Danny
Heinrich was involved
in Jacob´s abduction.
Unfortunately, without knowing
where Jacob was, legally,
I understood why prosecutors
were reluctant to go forward
on Jacob´s case and
prosecute Jacob´s case
without Jacob´s body.
There´s a lot of fear
that looking at the candy
behind the glass window,
and your nose is pressed against
the candy store window...
But if Danny Heinrich doesn´t
say where Jacob´s body is,
that answer may
never be resolved.
♫♫
PATTY: I had gone with my
girlfriends on a getaway,
and I came home on Sunday,
and Jerry went to work Monday.
He comes on Monday night.
We´re just standing around
trying to figure out
what to fix for dinner
when somebody is
pounding on our door.
I mean, pounding.
And it was Jared´s lawyer.
We never had a lawyer.
We had no reason
to have a lawyer.
Um, and he... he asked
to come in and he said
that the U.S. attorney
had called him
and said that they
believe that... that Danny
might be willing to talk.
How many times had
we been asked, um,
"Do you want answers or
do you want justice?"
You know, I´m like, I don´t
care about... I want answers.
You know, that was my
whole purpose for being.
So he came in and he said,
"I don´t know all the
terms of the detail,
but, um, they´d like
to present him to you
and see if you´re willing
to sign off on a plea.
Could you come down to
Minneapolis tomorrow?"
CHRIS: And the Wetterlings, as
they had been saying since 1989,
was they just wanted
to find their son.
And so there was no resistance
by the Wetterling family.
Myself and another
FBI agent went
and got Heinrich out of jail
and transported him to the
outskirts of Paynesville,
where he used to live at the
time that Jacob was abducted.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
One of the, uh,
crime scene members,
uh, had a, uh, metal detector
and started going over the areas
that Heinrich had pointed out
and then the location he
thought was most likely
the crime scene was there.
I don´t... And I don´t know if
it was that the metal detector
went off or, while
he was doing that,
he noticed a little
bit of red cloth,
which ultimately, uh,
was, uh, the jacket
that Jacob was wearing.
And so it was right
at the surface.
♫♫
PATTY: They asked if we wanted
to, um... to go out there
and see where... where it was.
And so Jerry and I
jumped in the car
and... and drove
to a gas station,
and then we jumped in their car.
And it was on private property.
So we were... I was, like,
ducking because, like Colleen,
I´m recognizable, and I
didn´t want anybody to know
because that would
be the giveaway
of what they were doing.
The police were brilliant.
They wore... like they were
doing road construction,
they wore regular clothes.
Not one uniform or
squad car in sight.
They had orange vests on
and work shirts, you know.
It was... It was awesome.
This man who owns a
farm, he has five boys.
They´re playing
football in the yard.
It was just so... surreal.
So we drive through that
and get down to this...
This spot. They
parked, and, um,
we could see where
they were digging
in this kind of grove
of trees and, um...
It was... It was
really unbelievable.
Surreal is again...
But it was
unbelievably peaceful.
There´s cows in the pasture.
There´s this grove of
trees. It´s really pretty.
And I thought, "If this is
where he is, he was at peace."
And it was far gentler
than many of the scenarios
we´d been run through, you know.
♫♫
Very straightforward,
said that he had no reason
to be in St. Joe that night.
He just selected a place to go.
He was looking for a boy.
He saw the boys
biking to the store
and he just went up the road,
figured they´d have to come
back this way, and waited.
He told them the same
thing that Trevor had said.
He took the g*n and, you know,
Jacob walked with him
down the driveway,
and then he pushed
him in the car.
He handcuffed him
and Jacob said, "What
did I do wrong?"
And he said to just
bend over to...
So nobody could see him
and he drove down...
Down the hill
and went out onto
the county road,
which leads to the interstate.
So he´s on I-94, which is
the major thoroughfare.
And he drove I don´t know
how many... ten miles or so
and then dropped down
to where Paynesville is,
taking back county roads.
He went to a gravel pit
and he said he parked
the car, let Jacob out.
Must have uncuffed him,
told him to strip down.
And he s... He said he...
He molested him.
We were not given a lot
of detail about that.
We were told that he
didn´t penetrate Jacob.
At this point, my entire
family is sobbing,
and it´s like, "Sheriff,
stop. Just stop.
Let us breathe for a
minute." And so he did.
He was very monotone. I´m
sure it was hard for him.
So when everybody settled,
he then said that he...
Jacob asked... said he was
cold, and Danny told him
he could get dressed, and
Jacob asked to go home.
[voice breaking] "Can
you take me home?"
And he said, "I can´t."
And then he said he
had to take a piss.
He told Jacob to turn the
other way and he shot him.
♫♫
He didn´t fall down right away,
so he shot him a second time.
♫♫
He said he then went home,
and later that night,
he brought a shovel and he
was going to bury Jacob.
But it was a little shovel,
like a military shovel,
and he realized,
this is a gravel pit,
it´s taking too long.
And so he saw one
of those land-mover
things that they use...
I can´t even remember
what it´s called...
And he knew where
they kept the key.
So he uses this big old
machinery to dig a hole,
and he put Jacob and...
And his jacket on top
and just buried him.
And then he´d walk
by. Almost daily,
he´d walk to that
site and make sure...
But a year later, he saw red.
He´s... He... He went over there
and that hockey jacket had...
You know, there´s
brush and stuff,
and it grew up and it
brought the jacket up.
And so then he went back that
night and he unburied Jacob
and went across the road
to this farmer´s field
and... and dug a hole
and put him there.
When they went to where
he said Jacob was,
they found the jacket.
It had risen up again.
It´s like Jacob
wanted to be found.
He led us there.
I think he led this whole
journey, the whole 27 years,
and a lot of good
things happened
for other kids and stuff,
but he was ready to be found.
And so they found his
jacket first, and...
And he was mostly buried there.
[ camera shutters clicking ]
REPORTER: Less than a half hour
after hearing Danny Heinrich´s
horrific confession in court,
the Wetterling family and
investigators faced the media.
Finally, we know.
We know what the Wetterling
family and all of Minnesota
have longed to know since
that awful night in 1989.
We know the truth.
Danny Heinrich is no longer
a person of interest.
He is the confessed m*rder*r
of Jacob Wetterling.
♫♫
It was horrific.
It was not the ending you
ever... you pray and pray for.
But Jacob was at peace. He
couldn´t be hurt any more.
And the man went to prison.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
In September of 2016,
um... [ crying ]
♫♫
After 28 years of
searching for Jacob...
[ raining ]
um, his body was discovered
and they were able to arrest
the man who had kidnapped Jacob
and assaulted him and
taken his life that night.
When... When Jacob
was recovered,
the National Center was
working with law enforcement
and with Patty and
Jerry and their family,
and they... one of the
things they asked them
is "What... What
can we do right now?
What can we do to
help?" And Patty said,
"You can´t let Colleen..."
♫♫
Find out about this on TV.
And so they called
our police chief,
Russell White, and he called
me on Saturday morning
and said, I-I need to come
to the house and talk to you.
It´s not about Morgan´s case.
And, um, he came over here
and told me that
Jacob was deceased.
♫♫
♫♫
And, um, that time,
probably out of everything
that I´ve ever faced
in all these years,
probably broke my hope
more than anything
to that point.
♫♫
You know, just because
I knew how hard
and how tirelessly Patty and
Jerry had fought for Jacob
and I... and I know his
brothers and sisters,
and I´ve been to their house,
and they´ve been to my house,
and they´re just
my heart friends,
and knowing that Jacob was
never going to come home...
♫♫
And that they had to
make a deal with the man
who stole Jacob and...
and took his life.
They had to make a deal,
um, to get the truth.
And he will be punished,
but he will not ever
be punished the way
that he should be
for what he did.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
[ fire crackling ]
This lead was, I think,
different in the intensity
from a lot of things that
we´ve had in the past.
You know, we have the red
truck, and we have a person
who has committed these types
of crimes multiple times
throughout their life. Um...
And, you know, the thought
that it could be connected
to Morgan...
I mean, I think the
possibility is strong
that it´s connected to Morgan.
But what if it´s not?
You know, what if it´s not?
I´m not putting everything
I have on this lead.
You know, the waiting period
since everything
went off to Quantico,
to the FBI lab, at first,
it was incredibly intense,
just waiting, knowing that...
Hoping that Morgan´s case
would be a priority,
that they would be
working on it right away.
But honestly, as time
has kind of gone by,
it feels like things have
kind of gone back to normal.
All of that anxiety
and craziness
has really settled down.
And we´ve been here before.
We´ve been in this place,
where we´re waiting for the lab
at Quantico to go
through evidence.
And so this is
something we´ve done.
I know how to do this.
And while we´re
waiting for that,
our encouragement
to law enforcement
is don´t get tunnel vision.
Don´t get stuck on that,
because there are other
things we can keep looking at
while we´re waiting
to get this back.
I don´t want anyone to miss
something in the meantime.
And, you know, our hope
was to get that information
back very quickly, but,
you know, the world
is, um, incredibly
upside down right now,
and I... you know, it
keeps pushing us back.
And so when it gets done, it
gets done, and then we´ll know.
Last year was hard,
but here we are,
still standing, still fighting.
And if this comes
back inconclusive,
that´s what I´m going to
do. I´m just going to keep
fighting for her.
[ rustling ]
The only one thing that
was of interest is item 32?
Item 32, yeah. Okay.
[ dial tone ]
[ dialing ]
We just wanted to follow
up with some questions
to make sure that we
understood the results.
So on Item 32,
there´s the dashboard.
There was... There
was blood found there.
Do you recall where that was
found out on the dashboard?
Was that below, was it
on top? Do you remember?
WOMAN: It appears it might be
a little bit towards the left.
It´s kind of a little
bit hard to tell.
Okay. So to also
verify, that we´re...
That it´s... there´s
enough there to determine
that blood was detected,
but not enough to, uh, develop
any kind of DNA on it, correct?
Correct. It was...
Like I said, um,
when it was tested, we could
say that blood was indicated.
So we have two tests. We
can do presumptive test,
which we can add chemicals
and the swab will turn pink,
which makes... basically we can
say then blood is indicated.
And then we have a confirmatory
test, if we have enough there.
There was not
enough there for us
to do the confirmatory tests
because we want to preserve
as much as possible to
try to get DNA from it.
And unfortunately, when we
tried to do the DNA test...
When we tried to determine
how much DNA was there,
it came back as there
was no DNA there.
So there were so little DNA,
we couldn´t even detect
the amount of DNA there.
And that happened because our
blood test is so sensitive,
it can detect blood
but not detect DNA.
Okay.
My thought was, if
you´re not even certain
if she´s bleeding? Correct.
I don´t even know if
you´re going to find
her DNA in the vehicle.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
And after 25 years, you
also have to consider,
um, DNA is going to
start breaking down.
Because with heat and sunlight,
DNA is going to break down
very quickly in a vehicle.
And so that´s going
to break down the DNA,
and you´re not going
to be able to find it.
Okay. So even if she was
in that vehicle,
you may not be able
to find... find it in there.
Is it standard that we´ll
get just a similar report
from the trace... trace
evidence side of the, uh,
laboratory when they have
concluded their portion?
Yes. Okay.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
BRETT: This wasn´t really
anything to where I was waiting
on the chance to go back
and... And look at Charlie.
I was actually working
the beginning of the case,
and, you know,
Charlie kind of stays
in the forefront of your mind.
♫♫
REUBEN: Technically,
Charlie Ray Vines
was never officially cleared.
I mean, he´s still
a-a viable suspect,
and the way the bureau likes to
work is we want the evidence.
And it doesn´t make sense
to focus just on one person.
And we can do two things
at once. We can...
While evidence is being
processed in the lab,
we can go back and look
at Charlie Ray Vines
and, uh... and continue
our investigation with him
because maybe it is
him. We don´t know.
We just go where the
evidence leads us,
and because he´s still
a viable, um, suspect,
we will continue, uh, the
investigation on him as well.
BRETT: It was believed at
that time by the investigators
working the case that Charlie
was actually a serial k*ller.
So it´s one of
those things that,
for the Alma Police Department
and I think investigators
within this area, Charlie
Vines has always stayed,
uh, at the top of the radar.
Because when you have somebody
that, during the time period
that Morgan was
abducted, is active
and they are actively
committing murders,
crimes, during
that time period...
I mean, we´re talking 10
minutes down the road.
So you have to focus
on those people
and you have to look at them
and do your due diligence
to either clear them
or prove that they did
commit this abduction.
I was able to present Morgan´s
case to some investigators
with much better experience
in... from major cities,
and during that, also
presented Charlie Vines,
because it is one of
those things in this area
you´re looking for the
obvious, for one thing.
He is the obvious.
MAN: Anything this way or
does it stop at this fence?
It stops at the
fence. Alright.
♫♫
♫♫
Alright. This way, bud.
Come on. This way. This way.
ROB: Y-You know, with
looking at Charlie Vines, um,
his last victim
was much younger.
And in one of the
reports, I actually read
that when he went to the house,
he believed the mother
was going to be there.
And when she wasn´t there,
there was a 16-year-old.
It was a moment of, "Well,
this is better than nothing."
And so that became the
opportunity... not preferred,
but the opportunity. And so
you have to theorize that
if the timing were
such that he was
in an opportune
place or moment...
Um, for instance, you know,
ball fields on a... on a
Friday or Saturday night...
That we have to consider
that as a possibility.
And... And it is
certainly within the realm
of, uh, something he would do,
based on what we know about him.
May not be what he would
prefer to do, but it would...
It would be something he
certainly possibly could do.
REUBEN: We, as
investigators, try our best
not to become, uh,
tunnel-visioned.
So, uh, while results are,
uh, being pumped through, uh,
the lab for, uh, other suspects,
such as Lincks, um,
we don´t want to waste
time and lose momentum.
So we´re going to go
back to Vines´ property
and, uh, finish up what
we need to do there.
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[ papers rustling ]
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REUBEN: I do know that they
had a comparison sample
of Morgan´s hair, and they
were going to use that
to compare with the hair that
they found within the truck.
We were hoping that it would
match, um, Morgan´s hair,
which would, you know,
give us an answer.
♫♫
It... So...
"The inability to associate
the person´s items
through microscopic
hair fiber examination
does not necessarily mean the
person or items of interest
had no contact." Right.
Okay. So that could be
a number of factors.
They´re saying it could have
gotten there from direct contact
or indirect contact or
other unknown factors.
Correct.
♫♫
Or the hair/fibers transferred,
or the known sample
submitted may not be
representative of the source.
Yeah.
After our review, we were
able to look at the documents
and see that the, um...
The hair that was involved
in the trace evidence, uh,
it came back inconclusive.
There just wasn´t
enough information to...
To pull anything from it.
Well. Okay.
It´s actually good
news, I suppose.
Yeah. It´s helpful.
Mm-hmm.
♫♫
Just continue on then. Yeah.
Inconclusive doesn´t necessarily
mean it´s not Morgan´s hair.
Um, they´re just saying that
there´s not enough information
to disprove that.
So with any investigation,
I mean, you continue on.
I feel like we have really
good momentum right now.
Special Agent Robert Allen
and I are really motivated.
But with that being said,
just because we come
to a stopping point
for one person
doesn´t mean we get tunnel
vision on that one person.
We have to go back to, um, the
other people we´re looking at.
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COLLEEN: You know, sometimes
peace is hard to find
in the middle of all
this craziness...
All this craziness
from last year.
And I feel like I lost
sight of the possibilities
and really got focused
on the probabilities.
REUBEN: When investigating
child predators,
typically, those suspects
fall between two categories.
There´s groomers and
then there are abductors.
Anyone who abducts a
child, I mean, it typically
isn´t just a spur of
the moment type thing.
We like to call it trolling.
Typically, these people go
around trolling neighborhoods,
trolling ball
diamonds, playgrounds,
and things like that, looking
for what they would see
to be the perfect victim.
♫♫
♫♫
In the Wetterling investigation,
Danny Heinrich had no
relation, uh, to Jacob
and it actually was
a stranger abduction.
Uh, the same idea
could technically go
for the Morgan
Nick investigation.
It is not unlikely Morgan Nick
was abducted by a stranger,
which would then also allow
for the possibility
of Location ♪7
or even the hilltop to
be a viable location.
You know, the probability says
that 2% of missing
children like Morgan,
who are abducted by a stranger,
who are missing more
than two years...
The probability that they
will come home is only 2%.
Which means 98% of
children like Morgan,
who are missing
more than two years,
kidnapped by a stranger,
they don´t survive.
REUBEN: You can´t
help but look at that,
within the Wetterling
investigation,
that Danny Heinrich
was looked at
within the first two months
of the investigation.
And if you go back and look at
the Morgan Nick investigation,
Billy Jack Lincks was also
looked at pretty early,
as well as also involved
in a 10th abduction.
The possibility is
that 2% do survive.
That means that, until
someone can prove
that Morgan didn´t survive,
the possibility remains
that she survived... Until
someone can prove it.
And we have literally
never had...
Never had hair, fibers, blood,
DNA, clothing, anything at all
that would cause us to
think Morgan didn´t survive.
ROB: What you have
with Morgan Nick´s case
is an ongoing
victimization, right?
I mean, it´s... it´s... it´s...
Until it gets its closure,
you don´t get to, you know,
be that investigator
in the distance passed
that, you know, it´s
a daily reminder.
We´re... Poor Colleen´s
reminded every day.
So I-I get it that
to everyone else,
it might look like a
foregone conclusion
that Morgan didn´t survive,
and I understand that.
But I... Standing
over here on my side,
knowing that 2% of children
like Morgan survive...
Bless her heart,
she... She talks to us
and... and is helpful and, uh...
But you hope to get
them justice and closure
and, um, let them move
on with their life.
You want that someday.
But, you know,
with this kind of...
This is the worst of all
the kind of cases to deal with
because it´s... it´s ongoing
and it has been for 24+ years.
Elizabeth Smart, the three girls
from Ohio, Shawn Hornbeck...
All of these kids
survived in captivity
and nobody knew about it.
And yet Jaycee Dugard waited
Not every child...
who is kidnapped dies.
A small percentage survive.
And so my fight is for
that small percentage,
in case Morgan
fell into that 2%,
for the possibility... The
tiny little possibility...
As long as that
possibility is there,
then my fight is
to bring her home.
♫♫
ROB: We didn´t expect results.
You know, 25+ years later,
we´re probably not going to
get DNA out of a truck...
A truck that´s been processed by
a state crime lab years earlier.
REUBEN: After that amount of
time, it´s hard to imagine
that the blood and
hair would be intact.
Um, after 25 or 26 years, it
would be, um, almost a miracle.
ROB: You know, out
of our due diligence,
when we send all
these parts off,
we´re sending as much stuff
that we can, including knowns.
And, uh, you know, one of the
items that we sent as a known
was a-a Girl Scout shirt
that uh, is supposed to be
the same age, type of shirt,
uh, you know, make, model,
run as... as the shirt
that Morgan Nick was wearing
when she disappeared.
♫♫
So...
fibers from the
mat under the seat
and fibers from floor
mat, driver´s side,
carpet, driver´s side,
metal pieces from carpet,
padding from driver´s side,
and bracket from driver´s side,
all those items
have fiber that...
♫♫
That the characteristics
and optical properties
are the same as
the known sample.
Correct. The blue-green cotton
fiber recovered from those items
exhibit the same microscopic
and optical properties
as the shirt.
♫♫
It also says, "Accordingly,
these fibers are consistent
with originating from an
item comprised of the fibers
that exhibit the same
microscopic characteristics
and optical properties
of that shirt."
♫♫
"Due to the variability
in manufacturing,
dyeing, and consumer
use, one would not expect
to encounter a fiber
selected at random
to be consistent with
a particular item."
♫♫
REUBEN: After the lab analyzed
the, uh, contents found
within the cab
from Lincks´ truck,
they were able to observe
greenish-blue fibers
that match microscopically
and optically
the sample... the green
Girl Scout T-shirt
that Morgan was wearing at
the time of her abduction.
♫♫
♫♫
ROB: It´s highly unlikely
that those fibers would match
just a random material
thrown at it to be compared,
analyzed, and tested because
of the manufacturing process,
the screenprinting process...
All the processes that a shirt
goes through to end
up at its end phase,
all of that affects it on a
microscopic and optic level.
And that for us to have a known
and those fibers to match,
it really strongly eliminated
other possibilities
of just random
things matching that
or incidentally matching that.
REUBEN: The lab technician was
able to determine that it is
highly unlikely that the
fibers found within the truck
would come from a
different material.
Which, uh, to us,
starts to arm us with...
Well, we finally have something
that is, um, going to allow us
to be more pointed in our
investigation towards subjects.
To me, it harms us with...
With enough significance
that now we can say,
"This is a person
that we can push away effort
and resources on other subjects
and reallocate them to this one
and do a full court press
on this one subject."
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
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The glasses interest me,
and the glasses interest me
because of the
witness statements.
Both of those witnesses
actually watched him drive
and they both put
glasses on him.
And that´s what he had
to have corrective lenses
when he drove.
♫♫
And then look at this
again, and once again...
So this is the same guy
that did our Identikit.
So that tells me composites
aren´t worth a sh*t.
♫♫
BRETT: I´m damn sure not
seeing anybody better for it
than he is, and I think he
got his courage with her,
and that´s why he
did what he did.
I´m telling you right now,
when he tried to get her
to come back to the truck and
pick that cigarette butt up,
that was his end.
And that´s when he would
have put her in the truck.
WOMAN: At the time, I
remember thinking...
Because we had a Chevy
truck. It kind of re...
It reminded me of that.
Just the way it was
shaped... The squareness,
the boxiness of it.
BRETT: Square headlights.
That´s the same as ours.
Square taillights.
When I look at it,
I feel very strong
that it´s probably actually him.
I´ll be honest with
you. At the moment,
I don´t want it to be him,
because we´re f*cked if it is.
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01x04 - The Red Truck
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Follows a re-examination of the kidnapping of Morgan, a young girl, near her family home almost three decades ago.
Follows a re-examination of the kidnapping of Morgan, a young girl, near her family home almost three decades ago.