04x08 - A Date With Dalene

[bunniefuu]

♪♪

Narrator: a new girl in town goes missing.

Her disappearance was highly unusual.

Narrator: leaving a family torn apart.

You can't just drop off the face of the earth.

Dalene!

Narrator: friends turn on each other.

Every single person is a suspect.

Narrator: police need a reliable witness.

Himelblau: even if we had gut feelings who we thought might have done it,

We have to prove it.

Narrator: a trail of cctv footage....

We had to track this person down.

Narrator: ...reveals the horrifying truth.

Gross: dalene didn't deserve anything that happened to her.

[ Voice breaking ] not one bit of it.

♪♪

--Captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: saturday, august 6th, 2011.

Stockton, california.

What do you think?



For a saturday night out.

We're going in for finishing touches.

She's new in town, here to attend college.

Yeah, so finnegan's tonight.

Gross: dalene was very excited to come to stockton

To go to school.

Okay, I got to go, mom.

She had potential to do whatever she wanted to do.

Narrator: she's moved in with her aunt maggie

And cousin cecily.

When I found out that dalene wanted to come here

And live with us, it made me feel really good.

She was coming to be with her auntie,

Made me feel proud.

♪♪

Narrator: there's still three months before college starts,

Plenty of time for her cousin cecily

To introduce her to the local nightlife.

Cecily was like her sister.

Perfect.

They were like two peas in a pod.

They were gonna go to finnegan's pub

And meet a few more friends there.

Narrator: but cecily's come down with a fever

And decides to stay home.

So dalene heads out by herself.

I told her, you have to be back before 1:00.

♪♪

Narrator: but as the 1:00 a.m. Curfew approaches...

♪♪

There's no word from dalene.

♪♪

I kept calling her. I didn't get an answer.

♪♪

I was up the whole night, just constantly trying

To call and find out where she's at.

Narrator: maggie hopes dalene simply crashed at a friend's house.

♪♪

But come morning, dalene is still missing.

♪♪

Cecily, wake up.

Have you heard from dalene? She's not home.

Where is she?

Hi.

Azacon: I was calling all the people that cecily knew,

Hoping they could tell me something.

But none of them really knew either.

Then I really started getting worried.

You can't just drop off the face of the earth.

I'm calling the police.

♪♪

[ Phone ringing ]

♪♪

Stockton police emergency. Can I help you?

How long as she been missing?

Hardest thing I've ever done.

To actually say somebody's missing.

♪♪

Narrator: police file a report,

But it's too early to open an official investigation

Into dalene's disappearance.

♪♪

So the family continues their own investigation.

I first heard that dalene was missing on social media.

Azacon: cecily put on there, "if anybody's seen my cousin dalene,

I would like it if you would get back to me

And give me any information."

I just had a fear that there was something going on,

Because it wasn't like her

Just to not tell anybody where she was,

To just vanish.

♪♪

Narrator: as day turns to night,

There's still no word from dalene...

♪♪

...and a volunteer search party comes up empty.

Dalene!

♪♪

With dalene's disappearance looking increasingly suspicious,

Police open a case for detective brad burrell.

♪♪

Dalene was kind of your all-american girl.

She was a young, attractive, intelligent lady,

Who had a very bright future ahead of her.

Her disappearance was highly unusual.

Something just kind of struck a chord with me,

And it really seemed to me that this was not right.

♪♪

Narrator: the first person detectives want to talk to...

Thanks for coming in.

...is dalene's cousin, cecily.

Cecily is very upset, distraught,

Worried that the worst had happened to dalene.

♪♪

Narrator: a photo cecily took the night she disappeared

Shows dalene in a brown and white striped top

And ripped jeans.

♪♪

Detectives next head to finnegan's pub,

Hoping to pick up her trail.

♪♪

Do you know a girl named dalene carlson?

Yeah.

The bar manager remembers seeing dalene

Outside at around midnight, the night she went missing.

Lane: he had recalled the events of that night,

But did not remember anything out of the ordinary.

Narrator: fortunately, there's another possible witness.

♪♪

The footage captured on surveillance cameras

Doesn't always tell the whole story.

That security camera, does it work?

However, oftentimes, it is pure gold.

Narrator: the bar has two working security cameras

With hours of footage from saturday night.

We'll take it all.

This was going to take hours upon hours

Upon hours of work.

♪♪

Narrator: detectives return to stockton pd

And load the footage into their computer system.

Burrell: I was hopeful that it would very clearly show

Who dalene spent the evening with

And most importantly, who dalene left with.

Narrator: the manager remembers seeing dalene outside at midnight,

So burrell cues up the tape and presses play.

♪♪

♪♪

Young men and women gather outside, chatting and smoking.

It looked like a normal saturday night at the bar.

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Hold on, you see that?

Narrator: in amongst the crowd,

One girl grabs their attention.

♪♪

She's wearing a striped top

Like the one in the last photo of dalene.

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Burrell: sure enough, she turns around, and it is dalene.

♪♪

Narrator: detectives follow her movements

To see what happens next.

♪♪

At 12:41, she disappears back into the bar.

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There's another surveillance camera inside,

In a hall near the bathrooms.

♪♪

Detectives cue up that footage to 12:41.

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Six minutes later...

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...she enters the frame.

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Burrell: dalene is drinking.

She may have been a little bit more vulnerable

Than she might normally have been.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: she's the only woman in a corridor packed with young men.

♪♪

Burrell: every single person is potentially a suspect,

And if they're not a suspect, they're potentially a witness.

♪♪

For now, dalene appears happy...

♪♪

...but as the tape rolls,

Someone is about to get a little too close.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: in stockton, california, there's an urgent search underway

For 23-year-old student dalene carlson.

♪♪

Dalene!

Once the second day hit that dalene was missing,

I knew something wasn't right.

I became more afraid that something terrible had happened.

Narrator: but detectives have already picked up her trail,

In cctv footage from finnegan's pub...

♪♪

...and they've just spotted something.

♪♪

Burrell: at 12:48, we see a young man walk up behind her...

...and place his arm around her waist.

♪♪

Narrator: moments later,

She moves away and enters the bathroom.

♪♪

The man, with his goatee and backwards cap,

Walks further into the shot.

♪♪

Burrell: dalene didn't appear necessarily concerned

With the presence of this young man,

But she also didn't appear

To be terribly excited to see him.

It became obvious,

Immediately upon seeing this footage,

That we had to track this person down.

♪♪

Narrator: investigators question dalene's friends...

Do you know this man?

...and it turns out the man in the video

Is no stranger.

Yeah, that's jason gilley, that's one of her buddies.

What's more, his house is something of a regular hangout

For cecily and dalene's crowd.

♪♪

-Hi, jason gilley? -Yeah, that's me.

Narrator: they question him about his movements

The night dalene went missing.

Lane: jason said that he had been at the bar

With dalene that night and that the plan was

That he was gonna give her a ride home.

But I had to go

'Cause I had to come and watch my kid.

Narrator: jason says he came back home alone,

An alibi backed up by his grandmother.

Do you remember what time you left?

Yeah, around 1:00 a.m.

Narrator: he says he was home by 1:30

Because his little boy was sick.

There was nothing that made me believe

He wasn't telling me the truth.

Narrator: but he does suggest another potential person of interest.

I think you should talk to jacob for that,

Jacob evangelisti.

Jason told us that dalene had been

Recently been dating jacob evangelisti.

Narrator: but four days before she vanished,

Dalene and jacob had an expl*sive fight.

♪♪

Right outside jason's house, in full view.

Burrell: jacob evangelisti was somebody

We were very interested in talking to immediately.

♪♪

Narrator: trawling through dalene's social media pages,

Investigators turn up some recent photos of jacob.

And detective burrell goes back to the bar footage

To see if jacob was there, too.

♪♪

He cues up the tape to the moment

Just after dalene leaves the rest room.

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At 1:06 a.m., Dalene's back outside.

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♪♪

Hold on.

♪♪

But instead of having a smoke,

Dalene gets sidetracked by a man leaning against the wall.

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His presence seems to prompt

A dramatic change in dalene's behavior.

Burrell: dalene is very demonstrative with her hands

And her body language.

It seemed as though she was rather angry about something.

Narrator: burrell wonders if this could be boyfriend jacob,

But his face is obscured by a bright light.

♪♪

Come take a look.

♪♪

After a few seconds, dalene backs off...

♪♪

...and walks away.

Detectives keep watching to see

If they can i.d. The mystery man.

♪♪

♪♪

Finally, he turns to camera.

Evangelisti.

Narrator: it looks like a match for dalene's boyfriend.

♪♪

Detectives bring in

Jacob evangelisti for questioning.

♪♪

Burrell: mr. Evangelisti appeared very nervous.

Narrator: it's then jacob reveals

That dalene broke up with him that night at finnegan's bar.

Burrell: jacob explained to us that he did not want

To end the relationship with dalene at all.

In fact, he was very upset that she had broken up with him.

♪♪

Narrator: according to jacob, dalene left the bar

Without him sometime later.

Burrell: he insisted that he had nothing to do

With this disappearance of dalene.

Narrator: detectives head back to the cctv footage

To see if they can corroborate his story.

♪♪

At 1:09, jacob enters the bar.

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They keep watching to see if he exits again.

♪♪

But a few minutes later,

It's dalene who's back outside.

♪♪

She appears to say goodbye to some of the other patrons.

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Then, at 1:15...

...she drifts out of frame.

♪♪

Burrell: after we see dalene disappear,

We continued to watch the footage...

♪♪

...until every single person left...

♪♪

...and the bar was closed altogether.

Narrator: by 2:38 a.m., The lights are out

And the lot's nearly empty.

And neither dalene nor jacob appears again.

Burrell: at this stage of the investigation,

It was very likely that he was gonna be

The person that was responsible for dalene's disappearance.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: detectives searching for missing 23-year-old dalene carlson

Have zeroed in on her ex-boyfriend jacob evangelisti

After watching footage of them at the bar

Just minutes before she vanished.

Lane: the fact that jacob and dalene had just broken up

And that he was upset about it

Provided motive for jacob being the one responsible.

Narrator: but there's still no proof

That her disappearance was foul play.

♪♪

Meantime, dalene's family conduct their own search.

We made up flyers and started putting them out there,

'Cause how else you gonna find somebody?

Gross: I had so many scenarios running through my head.

Like if somebody snatched her off the street

And took off with her.

♪♪

Narrator: back at stockton pd, detectives are already

Grilling their prime suspect.

But jacob evangelisti insists he knows nothing.

Instead, he drops yet another name.

James cosans is another member of dalene's social circle.

Although james wasn't technically dating dalene,

They did have a relationship together.

Narrator: james is close friends with jason gilley.

Hi, jason gilley?

In fact, he lives in the same house.

♪♪

Burrell: it was very curious that dalene

Would engage in this relationship

And then almost immediately thereafter disappear.

That lent itself

To a great deal of suspicion around james

And the possibility that he was somehow responsible

For the disappearance of dalene carlson.

Narrator: james is brought in for an official interview.

James admits that he and dalene were starting a relationship...

You and jason are buddies?

...but he claims to know nothing about her night at finnegan's.

James told us he was actually out of town

On a church trip.

Narrator: it's an alibi that sounds too good to be true.

Detectives follow it up.

Burrell: there were a large number of people

Able to corroborate

That james was nowhere near stockton

On the night that dalene went missing.

Narrator: it looks like the investigation is back to square one,

But james has more information to share.

Burrell: james did tell us that there was

A text message conversation between he and dalene

On the night of her disappearance.

Narrator: he turns over his phone,

And sure enough, there's a text from dalene

In the early hours of sunday morning.

It says she's leaving the bar to party at a friend's house.

♪♪

Though the friend's identity is a mystery,

Detectives have a theory.

Burrell: she wanted to continue the party,

And in order to do so, she was gonna have to go

To either a liquor store or a grocery store.

Narrator: investigators pull together a list

Of 24-hour liquor stores.

The closest to finnegan's bar is called food for less.

♪♪

Hi, there.

We're looking for a missing girl.

The store has full surveillance camera coverage.

If dalene was here, she'll be caught on tape.

The detective cues up the exterior camera footage

To just after she was last seen and hits play.

♪♪

♪♪

The detectives' hunch proves correct.

-You got to see this. -Okay, what do you got?

♪♪

Burrell: dalene was with a young man.

You can't tell who the person is

Because you can only see that person's back.

So he cannot be positively identified.

♪♪

Do you have footage of the inside of the store?

♪♪

Narrator: they follow the pair on their shopping trip.

♪♪

A few minutes later, they're ready to check out.

Lane: dalene and this male gets in line

And pays for what appears to be a bottle of alcohol.

♪♪

Narrator: still, her mystery companion

Manages to keep his identity hidden.

Detectives switch back to the exterior camera

And wait for them to exit.

Everything they thought they knew about this investigation

Is about to turn upside down.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: detectives investigating the disappearance of dalene carlson

Have uncovered fresh cctv

Of where she went after leaving the bar --

♪♪

To a liquor store with a mystery man.

Itching to know his identity,

Detectives cue up footage from outside the store.

♪♪

♪♪

At 1:31, the pair exit,

And the camera gets a clear view

Of dalene's shopping companion.

The goatee beard and backwards baseball cap

Are a lock for the first person

Detectives picked out of the bar footage,

Jason gilley.

As soon as we see that, we had a real new lead

For this investigation.

Narrator: jason told investigators he left finnegan's bar alone

And was home tending to his sick son by 1:30 a.m.

♪♪

Now, they have clear footage of him

Leaving a liquor store with dalene at 1:31.

The fact that jason lied about having left the bar by himself

Meant to me that he immediately was suspect number one.

♪♪

Narrator: one week since dalene disappeared,

Police bring jason gilley in for questioning.

♪♪

Before they begin, they let him stew for an hour.

♪♪

♪♪

Without letting on that they have surveillance footage

Of his late-night shopping trip, detectives revisit

Jason's version of what happened that night.

Burrell: once he had told that lie again,

I knew that he was digging a hole for himself

That he would never be able to get out of.

Narrator: the detective offers a reassuring hand,

Then presses harder with his questions.

Jason changes his story.

Unbeknownst to his grandmother,

Jason didn't come home alone.

[ Jason sniffling ]

Through his tears, jason tells a new tale,

That he was driving dalene home

In the early hours of sunday morning,

When they had an argument.

But they think jason is still hiding something.

♪♪

They push him to reveal what really happened to dalene.

[ Jason sniffles ]

With that, the interview is over.

♪♪

There wasn't enough to arrest jason for m*rder,

As dalene could still be alive somewhere.

♪♪

Narrator: while the investigation stalls,

Dalene's distraught family struggles to keep going.

Gross: you always have hope

That dalene would be found alive and she would be okay

And she was just out there somewhere, safe.

♪♪

Narrator: but the investigation has hit a wall.

With no new leads, detective burrell

Returns to jason gilley's interview,

Searching for something he may have overlooked.

Jason claims that while driving dalene home

She jumped out of his car...

...and shortly after he may have stopped to get gas.

So I began visiting gas station after gas station

Around the route that I suspected jason took.

Narrator: it's a long shot,

But if this part of jason's story is true,

There's a good chance the suspect was caught on camera.

I eventually landed at a gas station

On the very south edge of stockton.

Hi. Yeah, my name is...

I asked that manager if I could sit down in the back

And watch through the footage

To see if jason may have been there.

Right this way sir. Narrator: jason claimed it was

Sunday morning when he stopped for gas.

♪♪

So burrell starts scanning the footage

From around 5:00 a.m. For jason's silver sedan.

♪♪

For six hours, there's no sign of their suspect.

♪♪

Then, a little after 11:00 a.m.,

A silver car pulls up.

♪♪

Can you roll that back?

♪♪

It's jason gilley

Nine and a half hours after he was last caught on camera

At the liquor store with dalene.

♪♪

This time, he's alone.

♪♪

Burrell cues up the cameras from inside the store.

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At first glance, jason's behavior seems innocent enough.

♪♪

But a casual gesture demands a second look.

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Jason appears to be dirty.

♪♪

Narrator: there's dirt on jason's arm and shirt.

♪♪

Burrell: at one point, you see him brush off his shoulder.

♪♪

That behavior is exceptionally suspicious.

♪♪

Narrator: jason returns to his car...

♪♪

...but before leaving,

He appears to check the passenger door.

Then, out of shot, he gets in.

♪♪

But the car doesn't move.

♪♪

♪♪

After 20 seconds,

He opens the passenger door again

And quickly slams it shut.

By his own account,

Dalene was the last person to use that door.

♪♪

Finally, he drives off.

♪♪

Burrell forms a theory.

Burrell: seeing this footage makes me believe

That jason has driven her out to one of the fields

Somewhere south of stockton...

♪♪

...physically dragged her out of the car with such haste

That the front passenger door didn't close properly.

And I believe that jason has m*rder*d dalene carlson.

♪♪

Narrator: but unless detective burrell

Can find proof that dalene's been k*lled,

Jason gilley is walking free.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: in stockton, california police believe

Jason gilley k*lled dalene carlson.

♪♪

Burrell: dalene went missing in august.

We were into october,

And yet we'd still not located dalene.

Narrator: they have a prime suspect,

But still no proof he's committed a crime.

Without her body, it was going to be nearly impossible

To prosecute this case.

♪♪

Narrator: then, in mid october,

There's a break in the case.

In a field 20 miles south of stockton...

♪♪

...a farmer makes a grim discovery.

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[ Birds squawking ]

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter over police radio ]

Narrator: police secure the scene

And quickly establish the body is that of a young woman.

♪♪

We processed that scene with the greatest attention to detail

That you can possibly, possibly imagine.

Narrator: the team identifies a number of g*nsh*t wounds to the torso

And one to the back of the head,

And scattered in the soil

Are several .22 caliber shell casings.

Closer examination of the victim confirms

It's dalene carlson.

♪♪

Azacon: I was washing dishes and got a phone call.

Hello?

They found a body, and they think it might be dalene's.

[ Crying ] no. No!

I broke down.

Gross: I didn't want it to be her.

I didn't want it to be dalene.

[ All sobbing ]

But then on the other side of it, I wanted closure,

To know what happened, where she was,

Bring her home.

♪♪

Narrator: investigators have a prime suspect

For dalene's m*rder,

And now the district attorney is tasked

With putting jason gilley behind bars.

Himelblau: even if we had gut feelings who we thought might have done it,

That's where I come in. We have to prove it.

Narrator: as news of dalene's sh**ting spreads,

An informant makes contact.

A young man called us and told us

That jason possessed a .22 caliber handgun

That was not registered.

Narrator: the g*n is retrieved

And compared with the casings found at the crime scene.

Himelblau: it was the positive match.

It was game over.

♪♪

Narrator: with gilley finally behind bars,

Investigators piece together their theory

Of how the crime unfolded.

♪♪

On the evening of saturday, august 6th, 2011...

♪♪

...dalene carlson goes out to finnegan's bar

To meet friends.

Among them is jason gilley.

♪♪

He had somehow convinced dalene carlson

To go back to his house.

Narrator: she meets him outside the bar,

And they stop by a liquor store on the way to jason's house.

It's here that dalene is last seen on camera,

And investigators must speculate on the events

That lead to her death.

♪♪

I believe, initially, they were both having fun.

Narrator: but at some point the fun stops.

♪♪

Himelblau: when they found her body, she was naked.

♪♪

r*pe was the only thing that made sense as a motive.

We couldn't show it forensically

Because the body had decomposed,

But it's the only thing that made sense.

♪♪

Burrell: I believe that dalene told jason

She would report it to the authorities.

He puts her in the car,

And then he drives miles and miles

Past her house and into a field.

[ Crying ]

♪♪

[ g*nsh*t, crying stops ]

[ Four g*nshots ]

He shot her in the back of the head one time

And shot her in the back four more times, k*lling her.

♪♪

Narrator: hours later,

Jason pulls into a nearby gas station.

In one of the most appalling m*rder cases

Stockton police have encountered,

Cctv proves gilley's undoing.

Burrell: the existence of the surveillance footage

Turned out to be absolutely crucial.

Narrator: although there wasn't sufficient evidence

To convict jason gilley of r*pe,

He was found guilty of dalene's m*rder

And imprisoned for life without parole.

♪♪

Gross: dalene didn't deserve anything that happened to her.

[ Voice breaking ] not one bit of it.

♪♪

Azacon: it's not that you get over anything,

But what really helped in the healing

Is remembering the good times.

Remembering everything

That was good when she was alive.

What we did get was great.

♪♪