07x01 - Come Home Carlie

[bunniefuu]

[siren blaring]

[narrator] An 11-year-old girl

vanishes without a trace.

Carlie's mother, Susan, was very distraught.

[narrator] A shocking piece of video evidence.

I knew right away she was in big trouble.

It was terrifying. I hoped that she was alive.

[narrator] A frantic manhunt...

He had to come down and he had to talk to me.

Looks like three letters.

The information was right there.

[narrator] ...leads to a sinister truth.

I knew that I was gonna go get that monster.

I didn't know whether I was gonna be able to save Carlie.

[narrator] For 11-year-old Carlie Brucia,

staying with her dad's close-knit family

is a holiday tradition.

[Jeanne] Carlie loved coming to New York for Christmas

and everybody wanted to see her.

We just had so much fun watching Carlie open up all of her presents.

It was so special.

Merry Christmas, Princess.

[chuckles]

Oh, wow.

This is beautiful.

You might say that she was a little bit spoiled

when she was around us, but only in the best of ways.

I love it.

Just one more thing.

[Jeanne] She was more like a little sister to me than my niece.

And she absolutely loved being around us.

And we loved just as much being around her.

Oh, wow.

It's such a special memory,

because to me, she was growing up.

She wasn't this little baby anymore.

[narrator] At the end of the holidays,

Carlie heads home to Florida,

where she lives with her mom, Susan,

and step-dad, Steven.

It's Super Bowl Sunday.

Carlie's been staying over at her friend Danielle's house

for a slumber party.

And the plan is to watch the game.

But half an hour before kickoff,

Carlie decides to take the mile-long walk back home.

You don't want to wait for a ride?

No it's fine. I'll be home for kickoff.

Just be careful.

Don't worry about it.

I'm not sure why Carlie decided

to leave Danielle's house early and walk home,

but I know that we would walk home

or ride our bikes in the neighborhood and felt safe.

Hi, Susan. It's Connie.

Just letting you know Carlie just headed home on foot.

Yeah. Thanks for letting me know, Connie.

[narrator] Susan sends Carlie's step-dad, Steven,

to pick Carlie up.

But Carlie is nowhere to be seen.

[phone ringing]

[Susan speaking]

[911 operator speaks]

[Susan speaking]

[Susan crying]

[911 operator speaking]

[Susan speaking]

[Steve] Yeah.

[Susan speaking]

Sarasota Sheriff's office has a policy

to investigate all missing children.

We dispatched a unit to her home to begin an investigation

to try to locate Carlie.

Carlie's mother, Susan, was beside herself.

She was scared.

She was nervous.

It was very apparent that something wasn't right.

Carlie was missing.

They learned that

Carlie had been over at a friend's house, Danielle.

[Connie] Carlie didn't stay here last night.

I was outs so Ron was baby-sitting the girls.

Connie and Danielle told the responding deputies

that Carlie had been a little bit down and upset,

her mother and stepfather had been fighting a lot

and that she had decided to walk home early

to be with her mother.

[narrator] Police issue a BOLO

They go door-to-door and contact Carlie's friends.

[Connie] At this point,

almost all of us in the neighborhood

have received a call.

I think, in my innocent mind at that time,

I didn't think anything of what really happened.

The deputies searched all known areas.

We checked all the bases

and there was still that hope, though,

that she might just show up to school the next day,

and maybe she's with someone that we don't know.

Susan was very distraught.

I don't think Susan thought

Carlie was showing up to school.

[Connie] We all went to school the next day

hoping to see Carlie come.

Hoping to just be like,

"Where the hell were you last night?"

[Hallisey] When Carlie did not show up

at school the next morning,

we called out the bloodhounds

to try to get a track

and establish her last known whereabouts.

We acquired the pillowcase from Carlie's house

as a 'scent article' for the bloodhounds to track.

The bloodhounds tracked down Bee Ridge Road, due West,

which would have been the direct route from Connie's house to Carlie's home.

The bloodhounds tracked on an angle

through a car wash towards the side street

that would be a shortcut to Carlie's home.

[dogs barking]

The bloodhounds split in different directions

right around the rear of this car wash.

It was apparent that they were no longer tracking her scent.

Once we realized that Carlie had taken this route,

that it was clear that she had walked through the park and alive.

uh, on her way to the shortcut,

we began talking to the local businesses

to see if they knew anything or had cameras.

We realized that the carwash had a surveillance system.

They had cameras.

We were hoping at that point

that it contained some footage of Carlie.

I never would have imagined

seeing what I saw on the camera that day.

The car wash had a number of cameras that covered

the rear, side and front of the building.

All of the cameras on that building were motion-activated.

Surveillance systems allow us

to look at the footage ourselves

for what it is, removed from the moment.

It's a very valuable tool for us.

We cued up the video

to about the time that we expected Carlie

would be walking through the parking lot.

[Detective] What do you got around 6:20 pm?

[keys clacking]

[Hallisey] When we cued up the video,

we could see the empty parking lot

and the cars travelling along Bee Ridge road.

But no foot traffic,

there was nobody walking.

And there was no sign of Carlie.

Okay, let's try another camera.

Do you have any facing the front lot?

Same time, 6:20.

[Hallisey] The next camera that we looked at

was an angle across the parking lot.

We watched the video carefully

looking for any evidence that Carlie had walked by there,

but we didn't find anything.

[narrator] The bloodhounds indicated

Carlie turned off Bee Ridge road,

and passed right by the car wash.

[Hallisey] I couldn't understand

why we wouldn't have a picture of Carlie,

Why we don't see her walking through the parking lot.

If she didn't walk in front of the building,

which is Bee Ridge Road,

we should have captured her

walking through the parking lot on an angle.

All right. Let's try another camera.

[narrator] This motion-activated camera

faces the rear of the car wash.

Looks like the camera hasn't been triggered yet.

Come on.

Whoa! Freeze it.

At 6:21, the screen lights up.

We see a young female on one side, coming towards the camera,

and a male with his back to the camera walking towards her.

The girl in the video had a red shirt on.

I knew Carlie had a red shirt.

The girl had blue jeans. So did Carlie.

And there was a pink backpack.

And, at that moment, I knew

that was Carlie.

Play on.

Having Carlie and this man right there,

captured on video, was unbelievable.

Okay, let's rewind it.

Watch the whole thing again.

In real time, it looks like

Carlie may be walking past this individual.

In slow frame, you could see

that she was wearing a Walkman,

that she was listening to music, perhaps.

And that she was actually looking down.

Okay, let's play it over again.

It was apparent to me

that Carlie did not want to make contact with this person.

She did not appear at all that she wanted

to engage this person in any way.

Can you zoom in on his hands?

As he walked up to her and grabbed her,

he then says something to her.

The man had his right hand in his pocket

and then takes his hand out of his pocket.

It would have made sense to me

that the man threatened her with a weapon of some kind.

I knew this was not a friendly encounter.

I knew right away she was in big trouble.

Okay. Play on.

They turn and actually walk at the camera.

At that point, it becomes clear he's a white male,

fairly stocky, average height,

with a full head of dark hair.

[Detective] Punch in on his face.

It was ominous.

It was more than concerning.

I was very fearful for her.

Having this footage was amazing.

We have information, we have something to work with.

Carlie was last seen by herself.

Now we have her with somebody.

And until we identify who this person is,

We can't move any further for we need to know who this person is.

When you're investigating a crime against a child,

you're starting with the inner circle, the family first,

the parents, and then you kind of work your way out from there.

[narrator] Carlie's step-dad, Steven Kansler, is asked to come in.

We talked to him about his alibi and where he was that evening.

[narrator] Steven says he's home with Susan, Carlie's mom.

Steven reported to us that while he was driving around,

he was constantly on his phone,

calling back to Susan, trying to find out whether

Carlie had come back home, or where she possibly could be.

We checked Steven's cell phone records

and used them to verify his whereabouts.

Steven was easily eliminated as a suspect,

but, he immediately identified another subject.

As he's driving around,

he notices this red pickup truck.

And, this red pickup truck is also driving up and down Bee Ridge,

and actually pulls into the car wash a couple of times

as Steven is watching him.

This tow truck kind of acts unusual in that,

it speeds away a couple of times.

[narrator] When they go back to double check Carlie's friend's house...

Steven says that he is 100% sure

that the tow truck parked in Connie's yard

is the one he saw driving up and down Bee Ridge road.

Steven tells us that he knows

that the driver of the red pickup lives at Connie's house

He also knows that the driver, whose name is Ron Choquette,

stayed the night at Connie's house the previous evening.

We go back to the videotape and examine the subject's clothing.

He is wearing what appears to be

a gray mechanic's uniform with a single name patch.

That gray uniform is commonly worn by mechanics

and tow truck drivers.

-Do you want me to pull this license? -Yeah.

[Davis] It is at that point that we really became focused on

Ron Choquette as the tow truck driver,

as a person who had spent the night with Carlie, the previous evening

That's the number one suspect.

I immediately had to speak to him.

He had to come down and he had to talk to me.

Ron Choquette appeared to be the same individual

that I saw in the video.

We did a formal interview with Ron.

When I confronted Ron Choquette about his tow truck

being on Bee Ridge Road, he admitted that he was on Bee Ridge Road.

But, he claimed the reason he was driving his tow truck.

was, he too, was looking for Carlie.

We showed him a still photograph of Carlie and this man.

I left Ron Choquette there in the interview room,

and I immediately drove to the tow truck company

where he said his alibi was.

I met his coworkers, and I met his boss.

They verified that Ron was on-duty

and working during the Super Bowl.

And, in fact, gave me his time cards

to prove that he had been at work.

I ex*cuted a search warrant on Ron Choquette's tow truck,

looking for any evidence

that Carlie had been in that tow truck.

I didn't find any evidence during that search warrant,

and I cleared Ron Choquette as a suspect in this case.

The problem was, Carlie was still missing,

and we had no more suspects.

Thank you for coming in, Susan,

I know this is not the easiest time for you.

Please have a seat.

So we're hoping you can help us

identify someone we found in the tapes here.

[inserting video tape]

Carlie's mother, Susan, was beside herself with grief.

She was scared, she was nervous.

Initially there was this

almost gut instinct of, "Who is this person?"

[Hallisey] Do you recognize the gentleman?

No.

[sobs]

You could see the emotion takeover her

and she became very distraught.

[continues sobbing]

It was difficult to watch her break down

knowing that this man that nobody knows who he is

has potentially taken Carlie.

Again, thank you so much for coming in.

I'll show you out.

The search for a missing Florida girl

has kicked into high gear.

Since her disappearance on Sunday,

the urgency to find 11-year-old Carlie Brucia

has mounted with each passing second.

[Hallisey] In releasing the video to the media,

we hoped would gather information,

would give us information as to, "Who is this person?

Someone has to know."

It's a clear enough image that we know that that's Carlie.

So, whoever this man is,

someone would know and someone would call.

We had to find her.

There was no other option.

Finding her could spin on two things:

an activated AMBER alert,

and the watchful eye of a surveillance camera.

CNN's John Zarrella is joining us live...

[news anchor speaking]

Footage of Carlie's kidnapping was repeated constantly.

It was almost always on.

[Jeanne] I was so scared for her.

I just got thinking,

"Where could she be? Is she hurt?

Is she cold? Is she by herself?

Where is she?"

I hoped that she was alive.

...and her parents are also saying

that it is no one that they know.

[Kate] It was really hard to look up

and see my niece being taken away

and not be able to yell, "don't go!"

um, knowing she couldn't hear me,

and it was too late.

I was really concerned for Carlie's safety.

It was an extremely unusual case.

[phones ringing in background]

During this investigation, no one gets any sleep.

The entire agency is up.

Every person who's working this case is up.

And no one sleeps because we're looking for Carlie.

[Detective] All right, what do you guys got for me?

Play it from the beginning.

[Detective Davis] When she disappeared, a single piece of evidence

that we were able to use was that piece of surveillance video.

We went back through the footage,

looking for anything else,

maybe something we missed.

When you look closer, you realize that rectangle

over the left pocket is actually a name-tag.

Zoom in on that name tag.

Looks like three letters.

[Hallisey] However, it's too blurry.

You couldn't tell exactly what it said.

I tried to enhance it using our software.

I worked on it for hours,

because the information was right there.

His first name, most likely, right there.

But it was difficult. It was frustrating.

But, we couldn't get it.

The more time went by, the more it was obvious

that we would not find Carlie alive.

But I don't think I ever even fully committed to that idea.

I had to hold out hope.

There's a moment on that videotape

when Carlie is looking up,

and, as adults, we know what is about to happen to her

and she does not.

And we know

that the white male subject on that videotape is a monster.

I knew that I was gonna go get that monster.

I didn't know whether I was going to be able to save Carlie.

[news anchor] The search for Carlie Brucia has gone national,

with the FBI also providing it's resources to find her.

The communications center was inundated.

We received thousands of phone calls.

From those phone calls, we were able to obtain

a little over 700 leads or tips to investigate.

One of those phone calls provided us with information

that would take this case in a completely different direction.

After almost 48 hours, we are desperate to find Carlie.

We hope that she is still alive.

[phone ringing]

Tuesday early morning we received a phone call to the tip line.

identifying a man in the video

as being the business partner of the caller.

The caller identified the man

in the video with Carlie as Joseph Smith.

He said that he could tell by the way he walked,

that that's the uniform that he wore to work,

that the name tag on the uniform says Joe.

[narrator] Background checks reveal that Smith is on probation.

[Davis] We knew that Joseph Smith drove a brown Lincoln.

We started to really look, on the video,

if it had caught anything.

And, in particular, Joseph Smith's brown Lincoln.

Will you pull up the cameras facing the parking lot from 6:18.

[Hallisey] There's no sign of a brown Lincoln.

You can see all sorts of cars, station wagons, trucks,

but no vehicles that we could connect to Joseph Smith.

Skip ahead to the next camera.

Ooh! That station wagon there.

Play it back.

[Hallisey] I noticed a light tan colored station wagon

driving through the parking lot

and going back out onto Bee Ridge.

Pause it.

Examining the video closer, you can tell

that it's a Buick station wagon.

However, the image is not clear enough

to identify who's driving or the license tag.

[narrator] It's a different make and color to Joseph Smith's car.

Still, Hallisey wants to see where it goes next.



I could see that car travelling along Bee Ridge.

And actually, I could see the car braking in front of the car wash

to turn on an adjacent road, a road directly beside the car wash.

If they were not directly involved,

that driver had to have seen something.

I needed to find that car and find out who was driving that car.

[narrator] Meantime, Detective Davis pays a visit to their prime suspect.

Myself and two other detectives

drive over there to talk to Joseph Smith.

-[Joseph] Yes? -[Davis] Joseph Smith?

-Yes. -I'm Detective Davis. Can I ask you a few questions?

[Joseph] Of course.

I sit down with Joseph Smith and I talk to him for about 45 minutes.

Where were you during the Super Bowl?

-The Super Bowl? -Yeah.

I was here.

Were you with anyone?

Yeah, Mimi, she's my landlord.

It's at that point that I tell him that I'm investigating the abduction of a child.

And I produce a picture from the camera.

It shows a white male subject and Carlie.

He takes that picture and he looks at and says,

That looks like me, but it's not me.

[narrator] Detective Davis asks Smith

if they can search his room and also his vehicle.

I walk in and we go to his closet.

And he produces two pressed, cleaned mechanics uniforms,

and it had one name patch on it with his name, Joe.

The subject in the videotape

is wearing a gray mechanics uniform,

with a single name patch on it.

He did not seem to be nervous.

He did not appear to be anxious.

And he was extremely cooperative

the whole time I was with him.

-[Joseph] Oh, hey, Mimi. -Hello, Joe.

[Joseph] Uh, this is Mimi, my landlord's wife.

-[Davis] Hi Mimi. -Hi.

-I'm Detective Davis. -Oh, okay.

-Can I ask you a few questions? -Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Mimi Pincus is also the person

that Joe said he had been with all Super Bowl Sunday.

Mimi tells me that Joe is home from 3:00

till at least half-time during the Super Bowl.

She remembers getting a call from Joe's wife.

And she remembers that Joe said he was going to get it,

[Mimi] ...and I yelled out, Joe the phone's for you...

[Davis] When Joseph Smith's alibi was verified by Mimi Pincus,

I cleared him as a suspect in this case.

[narrator] But the search of Smith's car turns up drug paraphernalia.

Smith is arrested and held for violating his parole.

I messed up.

[narrator] Carlie's disappearance

leads to a huge community effort to bring her home.

It was all over the news when I knew for sure

something really bad had happened.

All day long we were passing out flyers.

We were all very scared.

Our parents hugged us harder.

We were just in desperate need to find our friend.

[narrator] It's now 48 hours since Carlie disappeared.

[Davis] At around 7:00 o'clock that evening, I was contacted

by the front desk officer who stated that Jeff Pincus

was in the lobby and wanted to speak to me.

[narrator] Jeff Pincus is Mimi's husband and Joseph Smith's landlord,

and he's driving a station wagon.

I noticed a light colored station wagon in the parking lot.

That was the same station wagon

I saw on the earlier footage from the car wash.

The Buick is a key piece of information.

I needed to find out who was driving that car

at the time that Carlie was taken.

[narrator] Jeff wants to correct his wife, Mimi's, account of that night.

Jeff told me that Mimi was confused about the times,

and that she had been focusing too much on her grandchild

whom she had been babysitting,

to really focus on where Joseph Smith had been.

[Jeff] Bring it back safe.

[Joseph] Sure.

Jeff Pincus tears apart Joseph Smith's alibi.

Jeff had given Joe the station wagon

at about 3:00 that afternoon.

And Joe did not return the vehicle until Monday morning.

He knew that there had been something going on in the Buick.

The back seat had been laid down.

And that the whole condition of the vehicle had changed.

Things were out of place.

Jeff Pincus completely changes the investigation.

And, he refocuses Joe as the main and only suspect in this crime.

We now know that Joe has no alibi.

We now know that Joe wears gray uniforms.

We now know that Joe was driving a yellow station wagon.

We now know that Joe is the guy on the video.

[Schaeffer] Law enforcement, the sheriff's office

has their lead suspect, Joseph Smith.

They've done a great job in their investigation,

but they still have not located Carlie.

[narrator] Investigators arrange a formal interview with Smith,

who's in custody for violating his parole.

[Hallisey] We have lots of evidence against him.

We'd like to know from his own mouth what he did.

[narrator] Detective Davis reads Smith his rights.

During this interview, he requests to speak to a lawyer

and refuses to answer any questions.

[Hallisey] It's frustrating. He's sitting right there,

and he knows where she is

or is likely to be able to tell us.

And, uh, it's up to him to co-operate.

[narrator] Joseph Smith isn't talking to authorities.

But, from jail, he is talking to his brother, John.

[phone ringing]

[Davis] John calls us and tells us that Joe has confessed to him.

Hi, John.

My brother...

To kidnapping Carlie, k*lling Carlie,

and having had sexually battered Carlie.

[John] It's behind the church on Proctor Road.

[Detective Davis] Joe describes to John how we can find Carlie's body.

It's, um...

[over phone] ...it's in the church off Proctor

in the, uh...

in the backwoods.

Thank you. I'm on the way.

[Davis] We pull onto the dark parking lot and face the area

that Joe says he has dumped the body.

We stay in the parking lot and I wait for a forensics team.

[Davis] Show me the way.

We know he used a ligature and strangled her

and left her body in the woods behind the church.

It is...

a devastating time...

and it is a tragic end to Carlie's life.

[narrator] Investigators finally build a complete picture

of what happened to Carlie.

[Joseph] Can I borrow the car real quick?

[Jeff] Bring it back safe. [Joseph] Sure.

[narrator] Super Bowl Sunday.

Joseph Smith borrows his landlord's

light yellow station-wagon.

He drives around. According to him,

taking a c*ck of drugs, ending up on Bee Ridge Road.

Joseph Smith is coming from Bee Ridge,

passes Carlie walking on the road,

and decides that she's going to be his victim.

Carlie cut behind the miniature golf portion

of the Evie's property.

Joseph Smith pulls in in the Buick,

in the parking lot and decides either that

it wasn't a good escape route or there was no way for him

to get to the back of the car wash.

[Hallisey] We can follow the vehicle through the parking lot,

back out onto Bee Ridge,

slowing down and braking and coming to a stop,

to turn down this little side road

that runs right next to the car wash.

[Schaeffer] Where we ultimately believe the car parked

before Joseph Smith got out to confront Carlie Brucia.

You see a man walking towards Carlie.

He grabs her arm in a forceful way.

She was, without a doubt, being taken away against her will.

We believe that once he abducted Carlie and put her in the car,

he drove the three miles to where Carlie was k*lled.

[narrator] DNA, hair and fiber evidence ties Joseph Smith to the crime.

But the video was the key.

The surveillance video allowed us to do in five days

what would have probably taken us five years.

[Davis] The surveillance footage enabled us to find her in time

to save enough forensics evidence to convict Joseph Smith.

[Schaeffer] Joseph Smith was convicted of kidnapping,

sexual battery on a child under 12,

and also for first-degree m*rder.

[narrator] The jury voted 10-2 for the death penalty.

But Smith's final sentence is yet to be decided.

[Schaeffer] For some stranger to grab an 11-year-old girl

who's walking home from her friend's house after a sleepover.

That case warrants the death penalty.

[Kate] We've been watching so many home videos

of Carlie...Christmas time...

you know her tearing open her presents...

and...I just feel like-

I feel like we all lost.

You know, there isn't a day that goes by

where we don't think about her and miss her.

[Connie] I want Carlie to be remembered

as this beautiful butterfly

that could make anyone smile and that she was so caring

and would always be there for anyone if you needed her.

[slow piano instrumental playing]