02x09 - Groomed for m*rder

[bunniefuu]

FEMALE NARRATOR: In the
shadows of a local racetrack,

a gentle horse groomer is
found dead in her dorm room.

There's certain cases that
always stick in your mind,

and this was a pretty
horrific scene.

I just couldn't believe it.

I was trying not to break down.

Everybody believed
she k*lled herself.

NARRATOR: As one
case comes to a close,

police receive a
stunning phone call.

It was, uh, from Pompano
Beach Police Department.

There was a death
on their racetrack

involving a female groomer.

This wasn't a death
of natural causes.

This is a homicide.

NARRATOR: Could the
two cases be connected?

The grooms that work
in these positions,

they travel throughout
the United States.

They get to know one another,

because they end up
in the same places.

Maybe we made a huge mistake.

We had some supposition
as to what happened,

but we had no direct evidence.

The police asked if they
could exhume the body.

Maybe a serial m*rder*r
is out on the street.

We were just concerned that
they could k*ll somebody else.

We had to get
justice for Leslie.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Located in the
heart of Oneida County,

the picturesque town
of Vernon, New York

lies about 40 miles
east of Syracuse.

It's a quiet residential
community in Upstate New York.

It's a very
family orientated place.

Overall a pretty wholesome,
nice place to go.

The main business in the town
is the racetrack,

where people go to watch
harness racing.

It's been there for years.

Vernon Downs, it's
kind of a local landmark.

There's, uh, more of an
intimate, uh, feeling to it.

It's a nice place to go with
your family for a night out.

NARRATOR: At Vernon Downs,
horses are cared for

by a group of devoted groomers.

Groomers have to be available

because the horse might
need them for something

in the middle of the night.

So they live at the
track in a dormitory.

NARRATOR: Living and
working so closely together

means groomers build
tight bonds with one another

in spite of their
transient lifestyle.

Groomers travel
with their horses.

If an owner decides he's
gonna race in another track,

that groom goes with that horse.

NARRATOR: On a
muggy summer night,

that tight-knit community
is turned upside down.

The Oneida Sheriff's Department

received a frantic 911 call
from someone at the track

saying that there's
smoke billowing out of

one of the groomer's rooms.

NARRATOR: First
responders race to the scene

and locate the fire in a staff
dormitory behind the track.

Within minutes, they
overpower the blaze.

But when the smoke clears,

nothing can prepare them for the
horrifying sight that emerges.

♪

There was a body
of a white female in a corner.

There was a vodka bottle
by her on the floor.

And the fire under her.

And this was a pretty
horrific scene.

There was blood
around her wrists.

Her throat was cut.

There was a extension
cord around her neck.

The cord was tied off to
a shelf that was above her.

NARRATOR: At first glance,

the noose around the woman's
neck points to suicide.

But Detective Lisi
can't be sure.

There was so
much trauma to that body.

But I have seen some
very gruesome suicides,

so I didn't know what to think.

There's a knife.
It's electrical knife.

It obviously was used
to cut her throat.

Did she cut it, or did
somebody do it for her?

We didn't know.

The victim was wearing
cut-off shorts that was...

The zipper was not
all the way up.

Was she disheveled
'cause she had been drinking?

Or did somebody do that to her?

You know, either this is
suicide or it's a homicide.

How did this all happen?

NARRATOR: In order to
answer that question,

police first need
to ID the body.

The people in
charge of Vernon Downs

gave us a list of who was
in what... what dorm room.

NARRATOR: The room belongs
to a 38-year-old groomer

named Leslie Dickenson.

Leslie's home base
was there at Vernon Downs.

The investigators were able
to definitely ID the woman

as Leslie Dickenson

with the aid of the groomers,
who'd recognized her.

NARRATOR: As Leslie's body
is transported to the morgue

for examination,

police hope to glean some
information from the groomers

who had been living and
working alongside Leslie.

But they quickly realize
that's easier said than done.

Many of the grooms
weren't very anxious

to talk to the police.

It was rather difficult because
the profession of horse grooming

draws a number of
different kinds of people.

There were people who just
loved working with horses,

who were fine people.

It also drew some people

who had problems with
the law in the past,

and they weren't very
anxious to talk to the police

or become involved in
a police investigation.

But eventually
we were able to take down

the statements of
anybody that knew Leslie

and what they knew about her.

Leslie's day
began when she got up,

uh, tended to the horses...

That would be grooming them,
feeding them, watering them,

mucking out the stalls.

But it was an early
day for the groomers.

She got off about noon.

We know it was payday.

A couple grooms said she
went and bought some vodka.

There was a
table near Leslie's room.

And there were
several horse grooms

that were congregated outside.
They were all drinking.

You know, they work
hard, they play hard,

especially Friday night, payday.

And Leslie eventually
broke off from the group

and went into her room.

And at that point, nobody
really knew a heck of a lot

about what had happened
that very night.

NARRATOR: The next thing
one of the grooms remembers

is the pungent smell of smoke
in the air several hours later.

He'd gone down to the bathroom.

When he looked down,
he smelled smoke.

♪

And that's when he
alerted the guard station,

and the guard
actually called 911.

NARRATOR: Police continued to
press him and the other groomers

for more information
about Leslie's background,

hoping to determine if
Leslie's death was a suicide

or something much worse.

Her friends gave us
the information

in that she was a nice lady.

Everybody said she was a good
worker and a good person.

If it's a homicide,

we felt we needed to try
to understand what happened

and try to figure out who
would want to do something

to that person.

What's the motive behind it?

♪

NARRATOR: As the forensics
team continues to photograph

and process the scene
deep into the night,

police notify Leslie's family
of her tragic, untimely death.

I was trying not to break down.

And you know, I just
couldn't believe it was true.

You're sisters and
you got that bond,

you know, you just
love each other.

When your sibling dies, it's
like a piece of you is broken.

She was a good person.

I mean, she really was.

And she was beautiful,
absolutely beautiful.

NARRATOR: Tearfully,
Donna offers investigators

some telling insight
into her sister's life.

She was a gentle girl.

She wasn't... rough and tough.

She did become a hairdresser
after she graduated high school.

She was a fantastic hairdresser.

She was so good at it,
that she taught it for a while.

NARRATOR: Donna
tells investigators

that she was shocked when,

out of the blue,
in her mid-30's,

Leslie told her she was giving
up her hair cutting shears

for a new passion.

All of a sudden,
she's working with horses.

It's like, it didn't fit
my image of my sister,

because working with horses,

you're gonna get kinda
dirty and crappy.

[laughs]

I think she just wanted
to change her life,

and she realized that, that was
what was gonna make her happy.

NARRATOR: Donna explains
that when Leslie landed a job

at Vernon Downs,
she loved everything about it,

including the company.

The last time
Leslie talked to my mother,

she had told her that
she had a boyfriend.

He was one of the grooms
that Leslie worked with.

And I guess she was
really happy with him.

But within a few days, really,

of when Leslie was found,

Leslie had told her family

that this guy she was
so head over heels for,

they'd broken up.

So when detectives heard, that
just set the bells to ringing.

NARRATOR: The timing
is certainly suspicious.

And when investigators
circle back

to try to find Leslie's
boyfriend at the racetrack,

they make an alarming discovery.

Groomers told us
that Leslie had a boyfriend,

but he had just left
all of a sudden.

NARRATOR: In fact, the last
time anyone saw him at the track

was two days before
Leslie's death.

Could he have been deliberately
keeping a low profile?

Sad but true, the person
most likely to k*ll you

is the person you think
loves you the most.

NARRATOR: Coming up...

There was a
lot of statements that said

that Leslie was depressed
because her boyfriend had left.

When Leslie was about


NARRATOR: Is Leslie's
death a suicide?

You have to depend on the
findings at the autopsy.

NARRATOR: Or did something
truly sinister go down

in her dorm room?

But it doesn't make sense.

I've never seen anyone
k*ll themselves

with an electric knife.

Why did he go to her room?

What happened in the room?

I wanted to get to the truth.

[theme music]

♪

NARRATOR: Oneida police
have just discovered

that 38-year-old Leslie
Dickenson's ex-boyfriend

mysteriously disappeared
two days before her death.

The suspicious timing has
investigators itching

to know more about the
couple's relationship.

Based on the statements that
we took from these grooms

that were at the track,

I learned Leslie
and her boyfriend

had a very good relationship.

There was never any,
uh, domestic abuse.

Her boyfriend had gone with
his horse and his owner

to another track.

They decided as a couple

that they just didn't wanna
do the long distance thing.

It wasn't because
there was anything

bad in the relationship.

NARRATOR: Still,
behind closed doors,

plenty of seemingly idyllic
relationships are anything but.

So police head to Leslie's
boyfriend's new track

to press him for answers.

We found him.
We did... we did question him.

He seemed legitimately torn up
to hear that she was dead,

and he didn't react at all
like anyone who wished her harm.

He had a rock solid alibi.

And he... he was accounted for.

His whereabouts were with
his horse and the owner

at a different track.

NARRATOR: With her
ex-boyfriend's alibi confirmed,

investigators now examine
another detail that turned up

in some of the
witness statements

about their relationship.

That was a lot of
statements that said

that Leslie was depressed
because her boyfriend had left.

NARRATOR: A look through
Leslie's medical records

tells police that this wouldn't
have been the first time

Leslie struggled with
her mental health.


wound up hospitalized for it.

When Leslie was about 15,
she tried to k*ll herself.

She was in a
hospital for several months

as a result of that
suicide attempt.

And I don't
know how that happened.

The struggles Leslie
had, had was, I think,

we did come from a broken family

because my father and
my mother divorced

when I was two and
Leslie was four.

And I think it affected her
more than it affected me

because she was older.

Her family had broken up,

and she was at an age
and of a disposition

where she took it
very hard, very hard.

And that was, I think, a reason
for her history of depression.

So I'm thinking,
did she do it to herself?

How did this all happen?

If she had tried to
k*ll herself before,

it was plausible
that it was a suicide.

But you have to depend on
the findings at the autopsy.

NARRATOR: At the morgue,

the coroner's findings seem
to support this theory.

Our ID unit was at the autopsy.

They came back and said suicide.

She was very broken up

about the relationship
with her boyfriend ending,

and that this might've
just been the trigger.

I think the
pathologist really felt

that because of her
history of depression,

that she just wanted
to make this happen.

NARRATOR: He believes
that a tortured Leslie

created a foolproof plan
when it came to dying

by first starting
a fire in her room.

And then he determined that
she had tried to k*ll herself

by slashing her wrists.

And then when that
didn't work, she hung herself.

But that didn't go fast enough.

She, uh, finally
slit her own throat.

NARRATOR: The official cause
of death listed is asphyxia

secondary to hanging.

And we hung our hat on
the findings at the autopsy.

NARRATOR: It's now up
to police to relay the

heart-shattering news
to Leslie's family.

They called back,

and they told my stepmother
that she k*lled herself.

And we said right then,
she would've called us.

Why didn't she call us?

Leslie, why didn't you call?

You always call
when you're upset.

And I just couldn't
believe it was true.

I just could not accept
the fact that it was true.

NARRATOR: Over
the next few days,

Leslie's family tries
to put aside their doubts

and lovingly lay her to rest.

We went to the funeral
home and picked out a coffin.

It was a beautiful blue
that goes with her eyes.

My mom and I were
very close to her.

And I was playing with her hair.

And my mom was sort
of holding her hand.

She said, look at the cuts
she's got on her hand.

She said, that doesn't
make any sense.

♪

And she noticed there
was a cut on her neck too.

NARRATOR: The funeral
leaves Leslie's family

and investigators with even
more questions than before.

But the coroner's ruling
gives them little to go on.

You think about once in a while

the gruesomeness of
that... of that scene,

'cause that stuff
doesn't go away.

But you depend on what
the pathologist says.

You say, okay, it was a suicide.

The case was closed
and... and filed away.

♪

NARRATOR: But then,
three years later,

on a cold February
day in 1990...

an unexpected call comes in to

the Oneida County
Sheriff's Office.

It was the Pompano
Beach Police Department,

and there was a death
on their racetrack

involving a female groom.

NARRATOR: According to
the police in Florida,

the death bears a
striking resemblance

to Leslie Dickenson's death,

which took place
three years earlier.

Is it possible the
two are connected?

It was a punch in your gut.

We ruled this a suicide,

so everybody believed
she k*lled herself.

You know, or maybe we
made a huge mistake.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Three years after
Leslie Dickenson was found dead

at Vernon Downs racetrack,

Pompano Beach police have
contacted Oneida County

about a woman whose death

appears eerily
similar to Leslie's.

It's kind of shocking.

The first question
I had was, what happened?

Because I wanted
to get to the truth

as to what caused this
woman's death in Pompano.

NARRATOR: Step by step,
Detective Greg Flynn

takes Detective Lisi through
his case in Pompano Beach.

- ♪
- [waves crashing]

On the morning of February 20,

at 6:56 in the morning,

Pompano Beach Police
Department received a call

from Pompano Harness Track security

that a 32-year-old female
groom needed assistance.

One of the female horse groomers

failed to show up
for work at the track.

And her boss went
to look for her.

[knocking at door]

NARRATOR: After knocking for
several minutes with no answer,

the man used his master key.

He can see the victim
laying on the floor.

She was thought to be
unconscious at the time.

[sirens wailing]

NARRATOR: Paramedics
rush to her dorm room.

Her arms were out to her side.

She had some bruising on
her neck and on her face.

Her pants were not
completely zipped up.

It didn't appear as though

she had any underwear on,
top or bottom.

And the room was a mess.

They determined that she
passed away some hours ago.

NARRATOR: Investigators were
immediately called to the track,

where Detective Flynn
tried to make sense

of the gruesome scene.

That scene,
because of the bruising,

the injuries to her,
the way she was dressed,

as though she maybe
didn't dress herself,

this wasn't a death
of natural causes.

This is a homicide.

NARRATOR: Detective Flynn
tells Detective Lisi

that he suspected the victim

was sexually assaulted
and strangled.

So I started interviewing people

that were in the dorm rooms
next to the victim, upstairs,

people that were just unseen
that maybe knew something.

NARRATOR: As Detective Flynn
cycled through

the victim's colleagues
and neighbors,

one specific name
kept coming up.

Everybody we spoke to on the
track spoke of the history that

Robert Hayes had
with the victim.

They worked together
at the time.

And he would
consistently tell her

that he was gonna
have sex with her.

And this went on for
a long period of time.

So we confronted
Mr. Hayes at his stable.

He was working as a
groom for another stable

on the track in Pompano.

He gave a statement
saying that he did have

a sexual relationship with
the victim months ago.

But the night before,
he had not seen her,

other than seeing her
in passing on the track

at about 5:30 that evening.

NARRATOR: But as Detective
Flynn continued to interview

witnesses at the track,

holes developed
in Robert's story.

She had a
great fear of Robert Hayes.

He had attacked her once before.

He had her on the... on her
back in one of the stalls

and was getting ready
to remove his pants

to sexually as*ault her.

And one of the witnesses
interrupted it.

NARRATOR: The incident
was not reported

to police at the time.

But what Detective Flynn
found even more intriguing

is that multiple witnesses
claimed they saw Robert

lingering near the victim's
door the night of the m*rder.

At that point, we asked him

if he would come to the
police station to talk to us.

He denied having any association
with the victim that evening.

NARRATOR: Police ran Robert's
fingerprints through the system

and uncovered a stunning
piece of information.

At that point, we became aware

that he was on
probation in Delaware.

He had a history of assaults.

He was familiar with
being interrogated.

And he knew his... absolutely
his best defense

was to keep his mouth shut.

NARRATOR: The circumstantial
evidence and Robert's history

were enough to hold him.

But the pressure is on to
keep him off the streets.

From an investigative standpoint,

you've got 21 days to
get your case together

and present it to the
state attorney's office.

In Florida, there's a case law

that if you can
show similarities

of a defendant's
participation in other crimes,

um, prior to this crime,
you can use those cases,

uh, when you
prosecute this case.

NARRATOR: So Detective Flynn
continued to interview witnesses

to see if they recalled
any other crimes

that Robert Hayes
may be connected to.

The grooms that work in
these positions, you know,

they travel throughout
the United States.

They get to know one
another because they end up

in the same places over time.

NARRATOR: Detective Flynn
interviewed dozens of groomers

within this tight circle,
and his hard work paid off.

A witness came
forward to explain to me

what she was aware of.

And she was on scene at Vernon
at the time Leslie was k*lled.

And that evening, she claimed

that Robert made
a comment to her

about having been
in Leslie's room.

NARRATOR: Proving
that Robert Hayes k*lled

another female
coworker once before

could be the ace in the hole
Flynn needs to convict him.

I called Oneida Sheriff's Office

and I explained to them what
I was being told by witnesses

down here in
Florida at the time.

NARRATOR: The name "Robert
Hayes" doesn't ring a bell

with Detective Lisi...

until he looks at his notes
from the night of Leslie's death

back in 1987.

What shocked me was...

My-my shock was the fact
that I interviewed this guy.

He's the one who said,
I smelled smoke.

I had no reason to believe
that he was either a suspect

or a person of interest
in our investigation.

I'm thinking we had to make
this right for the family.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Three years
after Leslie Dickenson's

alleged suicide at
Vernon Downs Racetrack,

Oneida police now suspect
she may have been m*rder*d

by a man they
interviewed that night.

He's the one who alerted police,

but he gave a plausible story.

NARRATOR: Could the
person who found her

have actually been
the man who k*lled her?

We didn't know if
we made a mistake.

We don't know.

We as an agency,
we did a disservice to...

To Leslie's family,
to Leslie herself.

So we basically
reopened the case.

♪

NARRATOR: As the
suspect, Robert Hayes,

languishes in a prison cell

accused of murdering another
female groomer in Florida,

Detective Lisi hopes to find
witnesses that might unravel

the mystery surrounding
Leslie's death.

Why did he go to her room?

What happened in the room?

And what was his motive?

We had some... some supposition
as to what happened.

But we had no direct evidence.

So what happened was
I went to Florida.

I met up with Greg Flynn.

They gave me a desk.

They gave me anything I needed.

So Joe went through my case,
I went through his case,

and we tried to explain
everything I could to him

about the witnesses
that, uh, I interviewed

through the course
of my investigation.

Detective Flynn interviewed
these grooms who were saying

that Robert Hayes was at Vernon
Downs at the time of her death.

So I was kind of anxious to
talk to them, to ask questions.

NARRATOR: Over
the next few days,

Lisi and Flynn
painstakingly seek out

hundreds of potential witnesses.

I would say to them,

is there anybody else
that you can think of?

And then we'd get more names.

So we would spin off
continually at different names

as different grooms gave us
information and names.

And as that probe
began to develop,

his case started to blossom
a little bit further.

I spent about two
weeks down there interviewing

all these different witnesses.

And finally there was one
statement that I took that...

That made the case.

It was a guy who said to us
Robert Hayes admitted to him

that he k*lled Leslie
because she spit in his face.

So he slapped her, and then he
hung her, and he cut her throat,

because he wanted to make it
look like she k*lled herself.

When we got the first admission
that he had told another groom

that he had k*lled her
and how he had k*lled her,

that was when we knew
we had the right person.

This was the guy who
m*rder*d Leslie Dickenson.

NARRATOR: Just two weeks
after Detective Flynn

first called the Oneida
Sheriff's Department,

Detective Lisi struck gold.

There's just one more hurdle

standing in the way
of justice for Leslie.

The decision to close the case

was based on the fact that
coroner ruled it a suicide.

And we hung our hat on
the findings at the autopsy.

NARRATOR: For the
case to move forward,

Leslie's body must
be reexamined.

But before investigators
can get an exhumation order,

they must painstakingly
build a case.

You have to go in
front of a judge,

and you have to bring enough
evidence to make that judge

believe that this pathologist
who ruled this case a suicide

made a mistake.

NARRATOR: For Detective Lisi,

even more grueling than
the legal hurdle ahead of him

is the heart-wrenching task

of breaking the news
to Leslie's family.

My mother and I, we
both said... we knew it.

We knew she didn't k*ll herself,

'cause she couldn't very
well cut her own throat.

And... she couldn't... she
couldn't have done that.

It just didn't make sense.

It's hard to say how I feel
about my sister being exhumed.

But we were just relieved that
they were finally gonna

find out who did it.

NARRATOR: The new witness
statements are enough

for a judge to grant
the exhumation.

And on a cold November day,

police gather at
the Vernon Cemetery

to unearth Leslie's remains.

Her still-grieving family
chooses not to attend.

It was like we
kept reliving her death

because we lived it
when she died,

we relived it when they
finally exhumed her body.

I was a basket case again.

NARRATOR: Investigators
pray that the exhumation

will finally bring
Leslie's family closure

and help convict the man
who possibly k*lled her.

We coordinated
with the cemetery.

We brought in a backhoe.

They dug up where the grave was.

I'm standing at the grave,

and you could see as they dig
around there's a lot of water.

So I'm thinking, oh boy,
this might not be good.

You hear nightmares where
a casket gets swept away,

the body gets washed out.

You're just, uh, anxious.

Is there gonna be a body
that's able to be examined?

Or is there a body
that's so deteriorated

that we're not gonna
get anything out of it?

[theme music]

NARRATOR: As the
exhumation gets underway

at Leslie's grave site,

investigators are
faced with uncertainty.

There's a lot
of water around this casket.

So it's kind of like... like
you're, you know...

Like you're waiting
for something,

and you're waiting, and you're
waiting, and you're waiting,

and the anticipation...

NARRATOR: Detectives hoist
the wet casing out of the ground

and carefully pry it open

to check inside Leslie's
baby-blue casket

before she's transported.

♪

Then finally we saw a body

that was pretty well intact,
which made me feel pretty good.

At that point, the body
was moved to Syracuse.

That's where the
examination took place.

NARRATOR: At the morgue,

the medical examiner
begins the autopsy

and immediately
notices several wounds.

The medical examiner saw

she did have a bruise
on her left cheek.

And it seemed like
someone hit her.

The hands were consistent
with defensive wounds

because the wounds were
on the back of the hand,

which, if you're trying
to commit suicide,

you're not gonna be cutting
the back of your hand.

You're gonna go
for a major artery.

NARRATOR: Perhaps
the most telling injury

is the one to Leslie's neck.

The cut was made
with this electric knife,

which is essentially
a reciprocating saw.

And why someone would need
to plug in an electric knife

to cut themselves, I have...

never seen anyone
k*ll themselves

with an electric knife.

And then the other thing was

that people usually
commit suicide,

they use their dominant hand.

However, the wounds
were haphazard.

And her right wrist was cut,

indicating that she may have
been left handed.

However, the
laceration on her neck

was more on the
left than the right,

which would insinuate that
she was using her right hand

to make those cuts.

That in itself is inconsistent.

Like, why is she switching
hands with the knife?

NARRATOR: After reviewing
the crime scene photos,

the medical examiner notices
something else peculiar

about the cord found
around Leslie's neck.

DR LEE: When I'm looking
at the crime scene photos,

her clothes were caught
up in the electric cord

that was around her neck.

And that's suspicious to me,

because this is
kind of haphazard.

It didn't look like
someone just sat down

and decided to commit suicide.

Someone who puts the cord
around their own neck,

they're not gonna get their
clothes caught up in it.

NARRATOR: When he
examines Leslie's hyoid,

which is a small
bone in the neck,

his suspicions are
raised even further.

The hyoid bone is fractured

in around 50% of cases
of strangulation.

In this case, the hyoid bone
was found to be in fracture.

NARRATOR: Like the victim
at the Pompano Beach track,

this tells the medical examiner

that Leslie was also
forcibly strangled.

So the second autopsy
of Leslie Dickenson

confirmed that
it was a homicide.

NARRATOR: Her case bears
another eerie resemblance

to the Florida m*rder.

And they found sperm
cells in the vag*na.

Most criminals,
whether they k*ll or not,

commit their crimes
in a certain way.

♪

When you
look at the similarities,

the victim from Pompano
was the same age to Leslie,

both white females.

They were both strangled,

k*lled in their...
Their dorm rooms.

They both took very much
good care of their horses.

They were both good people.

There was enough
side-by-side similarities

to say, wait a minute,

we think we have
one single offender here,

and it looks like
it's Robert Hayes.

NARRATOR: The sample
on Leslie's body is sadly

too deteriorated to definitively
point to a specific person.

But back in Florida,

Detective Flynn has
amassed enough evidence

to try Robert Hayes
for the m*rder

at the Pompano Beach track.

They move much
quicker in Florida

than they do in New York.

NARRATOR: A few months later,
in the spring of 1991,

the jury comes to a consensus.

He was found guilty, uh,
was sentenced to death.

And felt good that somebody
with violent tendencies

that this individual obviously
was discovered to have

was in custody.

NARRATOR: With word of
Hayes' impending execution,

Leslie's case in New
York grinds to a halt.

I think part of it was
we still had to build

a better case.

We had a couple admissions,
but we felt we needed more.

And he was gonna be
ex*cuted in Florida.

He was convicted in Florida.

He was in death row.

It was like, oh my goodness.

You know, thank God it's over.

NARRATOR:
But four years later,

Donna and her family
receive some stunning news.

We got the call.

♪

They overturned his conviction.

And... I was a basket case again.

It was very concerning.
It was upsetting,

particularly
knowing all the hours

that went into investigating
this and prosecuting it.

The big issue was the DNA use.

And in 1990, DNA was
in the infant stage

of being relied upon in
a criminal prosecution.

So the appellate court ruled
it could not be relied upon.

So they vacated
the death penalty

and they remanded the case
back for, um, retrial.

NARRATOR: The case
is retried in Florida

without the use of
the DNA evidence.

This was a circumstantial
case at best,

with limited DNA evidence,

no other forensic evidence
that put Mr. Hayes at the scene.

You know, he was
found innocent, not guilty.

What was going through
my mind then was

now he's back out on the street.

And we've gotta really
try to pin this guy down.

We had to get
justice for Leslie.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: Four years
after Robert Hayes

was sentenced to death
for a m*rder and r*pe

at the Pompano Beach track,

a judge overturns his
conviction on appeal.

Leslie absolutely
deserved justice

and for the person who did this
to her to be held responsible.

NARRATOR: The pressure is on

for the newly appointed DA of
Oneida County, Michael Coluzza,

to put Hayes back behind bars.

It was gonna be a
really difficult uphill battle.

All of the scene evidence,
other than Leslie's body itself,

had been destroyed.

We had some photographs,
and really that was about it.

And so Joe and I hit the
road starting in early 2002.

NARRATOR: As they
re-interview past witnesses,

they uncover expl*sive
new information.

We hopped on the plane.

We drove out to see these folks,

sometimes in
very remote locations.

What we discovered was that

Robert Hayes had a
tendency to drink.

He would be hanging out
with fellow horse grooms.

And somehow or other, he would
turn the topic of conversation

to the night that
he k*lled Leslie.

We heard that not from one,

but from several
different horse grooms.

NARRATOR: Even more damning
than the hearsay is a key detail

about the night
Leslie was m*rder*d.

That was kind of
a joke, apparently,

among the horse grooms,

that Robert Hayes
would walk around

in these fancy cowboy boots.

NARRATOR: As investigators
look back

at the original case file,

they discover that when
Robert was interviewed

the night of Leslie's
m*rder, he was barefoot.

Fortunately, one of the
things that did survive

from the scene evidence

were the photographs of the
exterior of Leslie's room.

Because a couple of the
shots show those cowboy boots

belonging to Robert Hayes.

NARRATOR: Robert had left his
boots at the scene of the crime.

It's the piece of evidence
Detective Lisi

hopes will finally help put
Robert Hayes away for good.

On May 21, 2003,
Robert Hayes was arrested for

the m*rder of Leslie Dickenson.

And we were looking
at a trial now.

But the arrest was a
big, big, big thing for me.

NARRATOR:
Just a few weeks later,

Robert Hayes finds
himself in a courtroom,

facing a first-degree
m*rder charge.

I had concern
because ultimately jurors

know that if they convict,

they're sending somebody away
for an awfully long time.

They need proof beyond
a reasonable doubt.

We had selected a jury.

We had delivered
opening statements.

And we had called witnesses.

First two witnesses
explained in great detail

what had happened on the
night of August 14, 1987.

And it must've shook
Robert to his core.

NARRATOR: As the
witness leaves the stand,

to everyone in the
courtroom's surprise,

Robert's attorney
walks up to the bench.

The attorney
told the judge, listen,

if the DA is willing,
we're ready to talk deal.

He pled guilty to manslaughter
in the first degree,

to burglary,

and he pled guilty to attempted
arson in the second degree.

He has to do what's
called an allocution,

where he's placed under oath,

and he has to admit
the facts on the record

so that the judge can
accept his guilty pleas.

♪

He said he went to her room.

She got angry with him.

He made advances.

He ultimately got in
an argument with her.

And he claimed as the
argument progressed,

she spit in his face,
that he became enraged.

That he punched her,
knocked her down.

At that point, he presumed
that he had k*lled her.

So then he went out to try
to make it look like a suicide

so he wouldn't get
blamed for her death.

And that's when
he slit her throat.

He tied the cord
around her neck.

He used the vodka to
set a fire in her room.

And he got away with it.

♪

And when he pled guilty,

he took a combined sentence of


We didn't really
start breathing easily

until he got convicted.

And it was like,
oh God, thank God.

My sister's been vindicated.

She didn't k*ll herself.
Somebody else did it to her.

Now that it's... because she
was exhumed, that's the proof.

So in 16 years, we
were able to finally get closure

for the family, and we were
able to get justice for Leslie.

We, as law enforcement,
we made a huge mistake

by not finding the cause
of her death originally.

Everything we found
at the exhumation

indicated that this
was a homicide.

Because of the exhumation,

we got an extremely dangerous
offender off the streets

and gave a measure of justice
to Leslie and her family.

Robert Hayes,
I hope he rots in jail.

I hope he never gets out.

When somebody says he k*lled my
daughter, he k*lled this person,

I forgive him...
That's a load of rubbish.

You never forgive somebody,
you never forget it.

I'll never be able to
call her and say, Leslie,

you gotta see your
nieces and nephews!

He took her away from me.

You can't forgive
somebody for that.

♪