02x05 - The Disappearing Wife

[bunniefuu]

[helicopter blades whirring faintly]

[ambient traffic sounds]

[vehicle accelerating]

August 20th,
I get a phone call from Bruce,

and he tells me that his wife, Jana,
has been missing since that morning.

And did I know where she was?

I was a very close friend,
almost like a sister to Jana,

and I said, "No, I... I haven't seen her."

"I have no idea where she could be."

I said, "Bruce, is there anything
I can do for you?"

And he broke into sobs and said,

"You can tell me where my wife is."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Tomlin] The LA County
Sheriff's Department

is the best of the best.

[Jackson] Some of the highest-profile
cases are tried in Los Angeles.

[Shonka] You have to be dedicated 110%.

[Lillienfeld] This is m*rder.
There's no more serious crime.

[Labbe] It boils down to a passion
and a sense of duty.

Justice comes from finding the truth.

[music trailing off]

[woman] On August 20th, 2001,

Bruce Koklich called
Lakewood Sheriff's Station

to make a missing persons report
on his wife, Jana.

[Bowers] Bruce said,
"We have a real estate office

at the north end of Long Beach,

and Jana was supposed to, you know,
come to the office,

and I don't know where she is."

Bruce and Jana, they had
a real estate business in Bixby Knolls.

The office in the city of Long Beach
was not far from the port,

and not far
from their residence in Lakewood.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Bowers] The next day,
on Tuesday, August 21st,

Bruce has indicated Jana's not here.

She hasn't returned.

So there's a heightened interest as to...

"Where is she? What has happened to her?"

We all sat around wringing our hands

trying to figure out
what could have happened.

Bruce was a wreck.

He was sitting on the couch
with his head in his hands,

just bawling like a baby,

and he gave us
as much details as he could.

That, you know, the car was missing,

and that he was trying
to think of things that he could do,

where he could start searching,
could hire helicopters,

could employ teams of searchers.

[Scott] I know,
as a missing person's investigator,


return within 24 hours.

[Bowers] There's a number of things
law enforcement is looking into

after the first 24 hours,

when it becomes more likely
that something may have happened to 'em

besides just running away.

Could they be a victim of a crime?

Could she have been carjacked?
Could it have been an accident?

[tense, fraught music playing]

We checked the hospitals
and checked for traffic accidents.

So we knew that it probably wasn't that.

I was tasked
to go to the Koklich residence.

And so I decided
to call in a homicide team,

because it is gonna take
a lot more time to investigate,

and one of the investigators
was Karen Shonka.

[Shonka] When I was a young girl
trying to think of what I wanted to do,

I thought, "I want to be a police officer

so I can drive around
and speed everywhere."

[slick, groovy music playing]

I was hired by the LA County
Sheriff's Department in 1986.

[stirring music playing]

Being a woman in law enforcement
in the mid-'80s was a little difficult.

I felt like at times
I had to prove myself.

I would go above and beyond

what a male deputy
or detective would have to do.

I would just really want to work my cases

and make sure
that I was doing a phenomenal job.

[Labbe] Karen worked her a*s off.

God bless her for it.

She wasn't gonna let anybody stop her
from doing what her dreams were.

[cryptic music playing]

[Shonka] Bruce and Jana
had a home in Lakewood,

just north of Long Beach,

which was on a golf course.

Beautiful home.

Once we arrived at the Koklich home,
we spoke with Bruce.

[Scott] Bruce told me
that on Monday morning,

he gave Jana a kiss goodbye
at around 6:00 a.m.

They were partners
at a real estate agency.

And typically Jana would arrive
at the office at 9:00 or 9:30 a.m.

[Bowers] 10:00, maybe 10:30, Bruce said,

"I asked around
with the other real estate agents,

'Where's my wife?'
They said, 'She hasn't come in yet.'"

[Shonka] Bruce and Jana have
a business partner, Chris Botosan,

that was at the office,

and Chris decided to go with Bruce
to the home to find out if Jana was there.

[dark, foreboding music playing]

[Bowers] Her car is gone.

Her purse is gone. Cell phone is gone.

Even the alarm on the house was on.

So he was kind of suspicious.
"Where could she have gone?"

This is a missing adult.
You have to look at all the possibilities.

Maybe she ran away.

Maybe there was an extramarital affair
that was occurring.

You have to investigate all that.

[Shonka] What's her mental state?
Are they on medication?

Those kind of things
can tell us where she's at.

And in this case,
something doesn't seem right,

seems suspicious.

Bruce told me that, on Friday night,

Jana had gone to a concert
with her friend Nini.

And that Jana had probably
arrived home after midnight.

Bruce said that he and Jana
wanted to have a "mellow, chill weekend,"

just the two of them.

[Bowers] On Monday,
Bruce said his wife has disappeared,

and no one has been able to determine
what has happened to her.

[woman] It's just completely
out of character for her.

You know, it's like she just disappeared
off the face of the earth.

[Shonka] Bruce gave us
a consent to search the home

and to look around
for any clues we may find.

We were going through trash cans,
everything in that house,

to try and figure out
what happened with Jana.

I remember going through
their answering machine at their home.

I was writing down
the caller ID information.

[cryptic music playing]

[Shonka] Bruce did say they didn't want
to answer any phone calls for the weekend

because Jana was still disturbed
about this unknown male voice

that was leaving messages
on their answering machine.

[chilling stinger]

[Bowers] Bruce asked them,
"Would you listen to this tape recording?"

"It sounds like somebody threatening."

[Scott] It was directed to Jana.

It was a male's voice,

and it says,

"You know me. You need to call me."

Bruce said that he and Jana
both found it very disturbing,

that they did not recognize the voice.

You know, we've had
most of our acquaintances listening to it,

and nobody can identify it.

[Shonka] We asked, "Who'd wanna hurt her?
Did she have enemies?"

Bruce said, "Because of Jana's father,

someone may have abducted Jana."

Jana was Jana Carpenter-Koklich.

Her father was a state senator,

a very prominent politician
in the state of California.

Jana's father, State Senator Carpenter,

was very popular with the community.

However, he got mixed up
in some criminal activity

later on in his political career.

And he got prosecuted for it.
He even went to prison.

Two years before Jana's disappearance,
he was released.

So there was
a lot of attention by the media

that this must have
something to do with her disappearance.

Could there be some type of revenge

for all the actions that he had done
through his political career?

[Scott] This unknown male voice
that was leaving messages

could be the possible kidnapper.

[Shonka] Bruce let us know
that they do have repo'd property

in g*ng areas throughout LA County.

Jana may have gone over there
and was abducted around there.

That was Jana's job, at times,
to go out and collect the rent.

So she had a g*n.

She was afraid

that somebody might try to rob her
when she was trying to collect the money.

[Scott] That adds another level
to the investigation.

In many cases,
if people aren't willing to use a g*n,

it can be easily taken from them
and used against them.

She's been missing for a day,
which is unlike her.

She's a very prompt and professional woman
that I love most deeply,

and hope to have her return
as soon as possible.

[somber music playing]

[Shonka] Bruce's demeanor
was very forthwith.

He wanted to give us
the information that we needed.

Bruce said they had been married
for 11 years,

and they were in a very loving marriage.

[Titchenal] Bruce and Jana
had similar goals in life

and started building
a real estate business together

that was really very, very successful.

[woman] They were really tied
to their business,

but they were enjoying their life.

I could tell she loved him.

Bruce and Jana
spent a lot of time together,

almost all their time together.

They never made decisions
without consulting each other,

and they always talked about

where they were going
and how they were gonna get there.

[man] We sat up last night very late
trying to figure out motivation.

Why would anybody do this?

[disquieting, suspenseful music playing]

We definitely have the clock ticking.

Jana may have been abducted,
and we've already lost time.

She could be in distress somewhere.

So we want the media
to get her picture out there,

picture of her car, the license plate.

We need the public's help
to try and find Jana Koklich.

We figure if we find the car,
more than likely we'll find Jana.

[tense, eerie music playing]

[Titchenal] We fully expected
there would be a ransom note,

or something to let us know
she was still alive,

and we continued to hold on to that hope.

[Baird] Time goes by.

Jana doesn't come home.

Jana doesn't call.

Nothing.

And the police are interviewing people.

[Scott] Nothing became of
the political theory with Jana's father.

It was checked out and cleared.

But a name that came up
while we were interviewing Bruce Koklich

was Chris Botosan.

[tense music playing]

Bruce said he came home with Chris
while he was looking for Jana.

Chris was a business partner
of Jana and Bruce's

in a software company
that they were just starting.

[Titchenal] I think there was a situation

where something happened
between him and Jana.

Bruce never really told me
anything about that,

but it just became apparent

in the couple of times
I saw them all together

that Jana wasn't really enamored
by this guy.

She wasn't really happy with him.

Chris, being a partner of Bruce and Jana,

he would benefit
from Jana's disappearance.

[dark, brooding music playing]

In this business,

if Jana is eliminated,
Chris gets a bigger piece of the pie.

The cops told us
maybe Chris had something to do with it.

Then we heard that he left town.

So that, all of a sudden, was like
a red flag to the sheriff's department.

[Shonka] We were able
to locate Chris Botosan

and confirm an alibi for that weekend,

where he was hanging out
with a girlfriend.

Chris Botosan was eventually cleared
as a suspect.

[taut, mysterious music playing]

We did speak with Jana's friend, Nini.

She said that Jana seemed happy
on Friday night,

that Jana didn't want
to stay up late that night.

She only had a half a glass of wine
at the Eric Clapton concert

because she had
to get up early the next day

for a gym appointment with Dean,
her personal trainer.

Dean told me
that he had been training her one-on-one

for the last four, five years.

She never missed an appointment,
and she was never late ever.

[Bowers] Every Saturday morning,
around seven o'clock,

they would go jogging down by the beach.

The detectives wondered,

"Could there have been
a romantic relationship?"

[Baird] She's starting
to really change her outward image.

She had had her teeth done.

She had lost weight.

Jana shared one of
her personal training days

with a good girlfriend of hers, Connie.

And Connie said
that there was no sexual tension

or anything between Dean and Jana.

Everything was very professional.

Jana was just very obsessed
with her workouts.

We verified his story,
and checked his alibi,

and he was cleared as a suspect.

There was nothing going on
between Dean and Jana.

[ominous music playing]

As well as I knew Jana,
there was no possibility

that she had gone off
with some other lover.

It just wasn't possible
that this was something of her own doing.

Something definitely had happened to her.

Dean relayed to me
that Jana missed the appointment

on Saturday
at seven o'clock in the morning.

He said he called the house phone,
no answer.

He called her cell phone, no answer.

He was very surprised
that she didn't show up.

She also had
a scheduled massage appointment

on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. with Nini.

Nini said, "Jana did not show up."

[phone ringing]

Even as the weekend went on,
she tried to contact her,

but got no answer.

[Scott] Nini made calls
to Bruce's voicemail.

There was never any answer
from Jana or Bruce.

That definitely set up a red flag.

I did ask Bruce, "Why would Jana
not answer those phone calls?"

He just says, "We just wanted
to blow everything off for the weekend."

They are professional real estate agents,

and I found that very strange
that they wouldn't answer phone calls.

[frenetic, suspenseful music playing]

Investigating these type of cases,
you want all the information you can get.

Housekeepers can be very informative.

They see what's going on.
They're the quiet eyes around a house.

I talked to the housekeeper.

Her name was Consuelo.

She said her routine was, every Tuesday,

she would change the bedding
in the master bedroom.

She said that when she made the bed
the week prior,

it was a white and black sheet
with some cursive writing on it.

[woman] There was messages on the sheets.

"Happiness," "love,"
and, you know, beautiful messages.

But on Tuesday 21st,

when I see the bed,

it was not the same sheets.

[Scott] The sheets that she had put on
the previous Tuesday were gone.

And now there was only
a full-size flat sheet on the bed,

and the bed is a queen size.

[Lopez] In the nine years
I worked for the Kokliches,

they never changed the sheets.

I'm the one who do it every Tuesday.

They never do that.

[Scott] And she added that the sheets
were nowhere to be found in the house.

Not in the washer,
not in any of the other rooms,

so she was very concerned about that.

She also pointed out
a towel was missing from the bathroom.

One of the pillows was also missing.

This was very unusual.

[Shonka] There was a theory
that Jana was abducted from her bed

by the anonymous male
calling for Jana at the home.

But Bruce told us
there was no signs of forced entry.

All the doors were locked.
The alarm was activated.

Everything looked secure in the home.

It has to be somebody who knew Jana
or knew of her, I feel,

because they had to be aware
of her movements

and the fact
that Bruce had left the house.

[unsettling music playing]

[Shonka] We had no leads
in her disappearance.

And then on 27th August,

we received a phone call
that Jana's '96 Pathfinder was located

off California Street in Signal Hill,

and this is huge information for us
in this case.

[suspenseful music playing]

The initial view of Jana's Pathfinder,

we weren't able to find her purse,
g*n, or cell phone in there.

However, we did check
the cargo area of her Pathfinder,

and we were able to see
a feather in the back.

The feather in the back cargo area

was really important
based on her pillow missing from her bed.

And then we found
what appeared to be a large bloodstain.

Working a missing persons case,

when you find
a significant amount of blood somewhere,

that's where you kind of cross the line
that, "Okay, this is not good."

[Paul] She's a very sweet, friendly girl.

No reason for anybody to do this.
[sobbing]

There's a little chance
they might find her alive,

but I'm prepared for whatever happens.

I've got to know, get some closure.

[Shonka] Now you go into recovery mode.

Where is she? Where's her body?
We need to find her.

[eerie, unsettling music playing]

A search team was created
of about 140 people

to search the petroleum fields.

If you do discover something,

we need you to back away from it,
and don't touch anything.

[Bowers] Jana's car was found
right next to the Signal Hill oil wells.

And all that area,
there's a lot of giant, big, deep holes

that were dug
when they were trying to explore for oil.

We were out there for quite a while,
and nothing was found.

[cryptic music playing]

[Scott] It was very disappointing,

because we wanted
to bring closure to the family.

Now we have to start from ground zero.

[Labbe] We still didn't have a body,

and the truth of the matter is,

we're homicide detectives.

As far as a "no body" case,

they're extremely difficult to prove
in the state of California.

[dark, ominous music playing]

[Shonka] We were able to secure
another search warrant on the house

and conducted a luminol examination.

There was a drop of blood
found in the master bedroom

on the carpet near the bed.

We got DNA samples for Jana
from her hairbrush.

The several spots of blood
that were found in the bedroom

and that blood that was in the back
of the Pathfinder matched Jana's DNA.

[Shonka] Evidence is still
being put together,

but with that amount of blood
in the back of her Pathfinder

would lead anybody to believe
she's been m*rder*d,

and her body was placed back there
at some point.

I think that we could classify this
from a critical missing over to homicide.

[Scott] At this point
in our investigation, her husband, Bruce,

was the only one that had access to her.

[Shonka] Bruce was
the last person that saw her alive

and really has no other alibi,

other than he was alone with her
over the weekend.

So now we're starting to focus on Bruce,
her husband.

[Bowers] From the detectives' standpoint,

Bruce is claiming Jana was alive
and with him the entire weekend,

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning.

And then they talked to Bruce and say,
"Would you be willing to do a polygraph?"

"We just want to verify your story."

And Bruce said, "That's fine."

He asked investigators if he could preview
the questions beforehand.

Um, it's not our policy
to provide those questions.

[Janeth] He's been given
a lot of advice by a lot of friends,

in the law field and even law enforcement,

and, uh, has heard
all kinds of horror stories

about how they use tricky questions.

He had an attorney,
and the attorney advised him,

"No, you shouldn't do a polygraph."

Bruce was frantic about doing something.

He couldn't just sit there
and not do anything.

I'm doing whatever I can
to get my wife back.

I know that he called the TV stations
and made an appeal.

[Koklich] My name is Bruce Koklich,

and I'm currently looking
for my wife of 11 years,

and I'm offering a $100,000 reward
for her return.

The $100,000 reward still stands.

I want my wife back.

Whatever it takes to get her back,
I'm willing to do it.

[somber, delicate music playing]

[Bowers] Bruce had come out
and gave interviews.

Then as time went by,
there were several ladies

who saw those interviews

and contacted the sheriff's department.

They indicated that Bruce contacted them
about maybe going out on a date.

There was a lady at the bank.

Bruce came up and said,

"Would you be willing
to go out to dinner with me?"

She didn't think much of it

until she saw the TV interview
that his wife was missing.

There was another lady
who worked at an escrow office.

She didn't wanna have
anything to do with him.

And then there was one of the neighbors.

And she got a note on her windshield.

And it said, "From Bruce Koklich."

"Would your granddaughter
be willing to go out with me?"

She thought, "That's strange."

"Why would he put a note like that
wanting to meet my granddaughter?"

[Shonka] Right before and after
Jana's disappearance,

he's asking all these women out,

and they all turned him down
because of his creep factor.

[foreboding music playing]

[Bowers] Bruce was interested
in going out with other women

while he's giving TV interviews,

how much he misses his wife,

and he would do anything
to have his loving wife back.

What is going on here?

This is not a grieving spouse.

This looks suspicious.

It's starting to get
a little more concerning.

[somber, restrained music playing]

[Bowers] As the investigators
got deeper into this case,

they found out from friends, relatives

that Jana was dissatisfied with her life.

[Baird] Jana told me
that they were going to adopt.

She wanted a family so bad.

They had already filled out the papers,

and we were both real excited.

One day, she shows up for dinner,

maybe a month or so before she disappears.

And I said something about,
"How's the adoption going?"

And she said to me,

"There will be no adoption."

Now I'm wondering if maybe
it was something else with her and Bruce.

I just could never see Bruce
adopting a child,

because it definitely
would take Jana away from the business

if she had become a mom.

Was Jana tired of the domination of Bruce,

who was always there telling her,

"We gotta make more money,
more money, work harder"?

[Titchenal] Control was
important to Bruce.

He had to control the business situation.

He had to control personal relationships.

That's how he was built.

We learned that Bruce Koklich
has a long history

of asking women out,
making rude comments to women,

grabbing women, doing certain things.

Obviously, that's a problem in a marriage.

[Baird] He was womanizing
while he was married.

Jana knew about some of it.

[Bowers] We don't know exactly
what was going on in Jana's mind,

but we know
she was trying to improve herself,

make herself more independent,

where she could go out on her own
if she wanted to.

Looking for a new life,
something different.

I believe that she may have
threatened him with divorce.

If Jana said, "We're done,
you don't want the same things I want,"

I can see Bruce not being able
to handle that well.

He was very ambitious

and very much money-driven
and goal-driven.

If they get a divorce,
he would have to share half of everything.

I honestly believe
that he k*lled her over money.

He just didn't want to part with it.

We learn Bruce and Jana
both held $1,000,000 life policies.

She most likely
has been k*lled for financial gain.

[Shonka] During that time,
we were able to speak neighbors that said

early Saturday morning
they heard what sounded like arguing

between a man and a woman,

and the other one described it
as maybe moving heavy furniture.

I mean, this picture just keeps getting
brighter and brighter as it goes on.

[low, harsh music playing]

[phone ringing]

[tense music playing]

[Shonka] A call came in that a witness saw

what they believed to be
a white Pathfinder

parked in front of a home
there on California Street in Signal Hill,

but they weren't sure it was Jana's car.

[Bowers] A person said
that they saw the car parked there

the Sunday before she's reported missing.

They looked, and it was a white person
with a white dress shirt on,

and he's just sitting there in the alley,

and it seemed suspicious
to this individual.

The sheriff's department thought,
"Could it be Bruce?"

We put together three separate six-packs,
or mug show-up folders.

One that had Bruce in it,
one that had Dean, the personal trainer,

and the other one had
the business partner, Chris Botosan.

This witness looked at
all three different folders

and picked out the one

where Bruce was identified
as being that person in that car.

That put Bruce in that area on a Sunday

when he said
that he and his wife were home alone.

[mysterious music playing]

Bruce wanted somebody else
to be blamed for his wife's disappearance,

and it appeared
that he purposely took her car,

put it in a very poor neighborhood

with the keys in the ignition,
with the windows down...

just hoping
and praying that somebody would take it,

make it appear that somebody else
had kidnapped or carjacked Jana.

[Shonka] Signal Hill is
just north of Long Beach.

The Kokliches had some of their
apartment complexes in the area.

We were able to get some information
from some residents in Signal Hill

who said they saw the neighborhood kids
getting in Jana's car,

taking the car for joy rides
around the neighborhood,

and parked in a garage.

It was becoming apparent, not only to us,

but family members and friends of Jana

who were starting
to have their doubts about Bruce.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Titchenal] I had trust in Bruce
and had no reason to not believe

everything that he had told us
up to this point.

Now I had to look at everything,
and I had to think,

"Was my trust misplaced?"

"Is there actually
a lot more that's going on

that Bruce isn't telling me?"

"Is there another side to him
that I didn't know existed,

that I didn't think was possible?"

[tense, mysterious music playing]

We put together a timeline
of 18th and 19th August.

According to Bruce, 12:30-ish,
Jana returns from the concert.

Early Saturday morning,
neighbors across the street

heard arguing between a man and a woman.

[Bowers] When the detectives were
asking more questions with Bruce as to

"Where were you guys all weekend long?"

Bruce had told 'em,

"Saturday, we read some books,
we watched some television."

"Then on Sunday, we walked around.
We talked to people in the neighborhood."

When detectives talked to those neighbors,
the neighbors said,

"We never saw them."

But Bruce kept coming by and asking,

"Remember? Remember I talked to you
on Sunday? Remember?"

And they said, "No, we... we didn't."

We weren't able
to corroborate anything that Bruce said.

He didn't even remember
what they were wearing.

Bruce Koklich was planting a seed

that somebody out there
had it in for Jana.

[Scott] He was directing the investigation
right from the beginning.

He thought it was a carjacking,
was a kidnapping,

or it was that person on the voicemail.

All those things have to be looked into,
and they were,

but they were all excluded.

Bruce had a motive. Bruce is the only one.

[inscrutable music playing]

[Shonka] Bruce had a lot to gain
from Jana's death.

The potential million-dollar
life insurance policy,

all the properties,

that beautiful home
that they had there on the golf course.

If he was able to avoid divorce,
he would get all of it.

[reporter] Do police consider you
a suspect?

Not that I'm aware of.

I'm doing whatever I can
to get my wife back.

Bruce didn't have
any characteristics of grieving.

His wife is missing,
and he's going out trying to meet women

and trying to have
sexual relations with them.

[Shonka] It seemed like
Bruce wanted to be single.

Bruce wanted to be the real estate mogul,

the guy with the money and the property,

and Jana was in the way.

So he came up with a plan
to get rid of and m*rder his wife.

[tense music playing]

I believe that Bruce k*lled his wife
early Saturday morning.

[Shonka] Bruce wraps her body up
in the sheets with the pillowcase or towel

and moves her body
into the back of the Pathfinder,

which was in the garage at the time.

For the amount of blood
that was in the back of her Pathfinder,

it could be purge.

A body starts purging
as it's starting to decompose.

So I'm wondering,

"Did he keep her in the garage
Saturday and Sunday?"

And then moves her body,

dumps it somewhere
in between their home and Signal Hill,

because, Sunday night,

the Pathfinder's seen in Signal Hill

with him in the driver's seat.

And then he walks home
the four miles to Lakewood.

The whole team did a great job

of clearing any other possibility.

All roads lead to Bruce Koklich.

[agitated, foreboding music playing]

When you add up all of those
really significant, incriminating things,

it was enough evidence for the DA's office
to file an arrest warrant.

[dramatic music playing]

[Titchenal] Once we learned that Bruce
had been arrested for Jana's m*rder,

all those little pieces finally
fell into place for me and my wife,

and we were saddened to have to think

that Bruce did have
something to do with it.

There was a lot of circumstantial evidence
that suggests Bruce isn't innocent.

[Baird] I thought, "This is great."

"He'll just sit in jail until,
you know, his trial comes."

But, boy, was I wrong.

He got out on $1,000,000 bail.

I love my wife.
I mean, I hope that she's found.

And, um,
I'm most wholeheartedly not guilty.

[mysterious synth music playing]

[Bowers] After many months,
almost a year, we got to trial.

To get a conviction,
we're gonna have to prove

he is the one that caused
her disappearance by k*lling her.

But the problem is our best evidence,
meaning a dead body, we don't have.

As far as the search for the body,
it's ongoing.

[Shonka] This case was
an eye-opener for all of us

because nobody had really had
a "no body" case.

There wasn't too many of those
that they were getting convictions on.

[Bowers] We were stuck
with circumstantial evidence.

It's a major task for the prosecutor
to convince all 12 jurors

there is no reasonable doubt.

The danger in "no body" cases,
there's always a doubt.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Bowers] Jana had
a $1,000,000 life insurance policy.

Bruce could collect on the life insurance.

The prosecution needed to prove
that there was a financial motive.

[Shonka] The prosecution
had a lot of good witnesses

that wanted to come in
and testify on behalf of Jana.

[Lopez] It was my responsibility to do it.

She was the sweetest lady in the world.

She doesn't deserve this.

And when I see Bruce,
he was not nervous at all.

[Bowers] Bruce wanted to testify,
which was kind of a surprise.

Most of the time,
when a defendant takes the witness stand,

they will do more harm to their case
than benefit.

However, the defense put on a strong case.

There's absolutely no motive,

either personal between the two of them
or monetarily, as has been suggested.

[reporter] Bruce Koklich testified
he and his wife had a good relationship.

His legal team displayed photographs
of the couple's vacations.

They also showed the jury
birthday and anniversary cards

the pair had exchanged
over the course of their marriage.

He painted a different picture
of what was going on.

And the question was,
"Was a jury going to buy it?"

[Shonka] As a detective,
you always feel like,

"I put this picture together,
and they're gonna judge it,

and all it takes
is one person to not like it."

There goes your case.

[Bowers] After all the evidence
was presented,

the judge read the instructions
to the jury,

and they went
into the jury room to deliberate.

[Bowers] There's one day,
and nothing happened.

Another day, another, another.
It went on and on.

[Shonka] When it goes beyond a day or two,

I would start to worry.

On this case,
the jury deliberated for six days.

There was seven for guilty
and five for not guilty.

They could not
come to a unanimous verdict.

The judge declared a mistrial,
and it was declared a hung jury.

[Shonka] It's hard to swallow,

especially knowing that we had seven
that believed what we presented.

I couldn't believe Bruce got away with it.

He k*lled Jana and he gets to walk.

[Bowers] The DA's office
had to take a serious look at it,

and then it was decided
we could do it again,

but we have to take another approach.

I was asked to come in and create

what was called a "visual trial,"

where we would present all that
circumstantial evidence in a slideshow.

We would have charts.

We're not gonna emphasize
k*lling Jana for the life insurance.

We were gonna concentrate on the timeline.

The sheets, the setting up of the car,

all of that pointed to Bruce's guilt.

[Shonka] At the end of the trial,
when the jurors went in to deliberate,

I felt very good.

[Bowers] Jury was out
for only several hours.

It was less than a half a day,

and they rang the buzzer,
meaning they had a verdict.

The jury came out
and the jury verdict was read.

Bruce Koklich was found guilty.

[somber music playing]

I remember I sat there and cried.

It was the culmination of everything.

[mournful music playing]

[Janeth] Now we can plan
a memorial for Jana.

And I just wish we could've gotten him
to tell what he had done with her.

[Titchenal] The perpetrator
has family too, and they're...

you know, the disappointment and shame.

There was really no reason
why Jana had to die.

It is especially devastating
not to know where her body is

so that we could have the comfort
of a final goodbye to her.

Bruce, you took away your wife
who loved you.

You took away all that Jana was
and could have been.

You took away a daughter.
You took away a niece and a cousin.

You took away her father's will to live
and the only thing that gave him comfort.

You'll be imprisoned
in the state prison system

for the term prescribed by law,

which is 15 years to life.

[Titchenal] When the judge pronounced
what Bruce's sentence was gonna be,

he turned, looked at me, and said,
"Don't worry about me. I'll be okay."

And they handcuffed him
and walked him off.

He's an egotistical manipulator

and thought that he could
charm his way out of this somehow,

and it just didn't work.

Bruce could not outsmart
bulldog homicide detectives.

Everybody has a lot of pride
working homicide.

You get a case, and you work that case.
You're not gonna let go.

[Titchenal] Even though
I still communicate with Bruce,

I don't have any sympathy for him
and his situation,

but I can't punish him any more
than he's already being punished.

I really do feel for Jana,
her mother, and her father,

not knowing what happened
to their daughter.

That's very sad and that breaks my heart.

[Baird] I miss Jana every single day.

It still hurts.

She was a lovely person.

Yes, I miss her very much.

[sniffles]

I'm sorry.

[Shonka] Being able to put
this puzzle together,

and then take it to court
for 12 people to look at it,

and for them to unanimously agree

with what myself and my team put together,

it's so rewarding to be able to do that.

[somber music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

As I look back and reflect on it

now that I'm no longer
a homicide detective...

I've only been retired 32 days now,
so it's kind of...

After 42 years,
I'm wrapping my head around it still.

I was very depressed
when I left Sheriff's Homicide.

It's like leaving my family.

I miss the excitement,
the challenge of solving a case,

so, um, I thought about it a year,

and I just had to go back.

I just couldn't handle retiring.

I cried. [laughs]

I did. I... I mean,

I was just so conflicted with leaving,
and I didn't feel it in my heart.

Karen Shonka retired
but decided to go back to work.

She's a workaholic.

Crazy girl went back.

There's a very small percentage of people
that come to Sheriff's Homicide Bureau

and stay there
for, let's say, more than a decade.

I think that that takes a special person

to see and deal with
the trauma that we deal with.

[bright, hopeful music playing]

[Hernandez]
There is no other job like ours,

even law enforcement in particular,
working homicide.

I think that's where it becomes a family.

[Tomlin] You gotta remember, in that room,
there's different ideologies.

Different religions, different races,

different political parties, if you will,

but you come together

for the job.

You were a small part
of something much bigger.

It's a whole shitload of responsibility
on your shoulders.

But it is kind of f*cking cool, right?

To show up and you're the shot caller,
big baller.

I would say if I miss one thing,
it was the people that I worked with,

and the fun that we had,

and the time to get serious,
and the time to play.

Deep down, you always will be a cop,
and you'll always be a detective.

If I had to go back and do it over again,
and I was 25 or 30 again,

and I knew,
"This is what's ahead next 35 years,"

I wouldn't change a g*dd*mn thing,
not a thing.

I wouldn't change anything.
It was the greatest ride of my life.

[hopeful music trails off]

[dramatic outro music pulsing]