Transcripts - Forever Dreaming

- Oh, there's the captain.
- Captain Jack.

Up next, everyone in town
knew the local handyman.

He was really tough,
hardworking.

Really look up to him.

His vicious m*rder
makes no sense to anyone.

Somebody has to have an answer.

The motive in this case
was tragic.

A crime this violent
creates evidence,

and some of it can't be hidden.

The jury wants to see things
other than testimony.

They want to see forensics.

And those forensics point
to a pillar of the community.

People had been talking to him

about potentially running
for governor.

♪♪

♪♪

The town of Derry is nestled
in the southern part

of New Hampshire,

just across the border
from Massachusetts.

It's always been known as sort
of a working-class town.

You meet a lot of blue-collar,

just really salt-of-the-earth
people.

And "Salt of the earth" was how
everyone described Jack Reid.

The local handyman was
a fixture around town,

a larger-than-life
father of five.

Hi.
There's Meggie and Dad.

It was very difficult
to find anyone

who had any animosity
towards Jack Reid.

Here's Dad
with his fishing gear.

He's fishing already.

- Trying to catch a big striper.
- Look at this.

He loved fishing, he loved cars,

he loved sports,
things like that.

Jack was just a hardworking,
loving man,

with his children especially.

When Jack didn't show up
for a job in June of 2005,

people who knew him immediately
suspected something was wrong.

His children put up flyers
all over town.

Days passed.

I don't know, just everything
just seemed off.

I immediately called
Jack's cellphone,

and it went to voicemail,
which I knew was not...

not a good sign.

About a week after Jack
went missing,

there was a potential break over
the border in Massachusetts.

They said they found Dad's
truck, and I said,

"Oh, they found him, right?"
They said, "Just come up."

And then when I got home,
they both ran out and hugged me.

My Nana was there.
She hugged me, too.

It was just...
it was really hard.

There was a body in the back
of Jack's truck,

and it had undergone
a savage beating.

The victim's head
had been crushed.

There was a hole in his chest
the size of a baseball.

This was a clear case
of overkill.

That's one of the things that
prosecutors really focused on,

was that this was
a personal thing.

This was a deeply
personal m*rder.

Dental records were needed
to confirm

the victim was Jack Reid.

He was 57 years old.

I was shocked.

Just shocking.
It felt like a movie.

It was harsh.

Jack did not deserve that.

Nobody deserves that,

but it's just the way
everything went down.

My heart breaks for him.

Investigators looking for

who did this faced
problems straightaway.

In a potential setback,
this was what investigators

call a secondary crime scene.

It was obvious to us
that where we found his body

was not the m*rder scene.

And no one had any idea
where that was.

Still, there was a lot
of potentially valuable evidence

with the body.

It was covered in thick
plastic tarps

and surrounded by rocks
and broken tree branches.

All that material that was
inside the truck

would be valuable to recover
and potentially, down the road,

identify where the crime scene
actually occurred.

But while analysts
collected evidence,

detectives
and Jack Reid's family

had one question
they couldn't answer.

"Who hated a humble handyman
enough to beat him to death?"

♪♪

The truck with Jack Reid's body

was found in the parking lot

of a busy shopping center


The center had an old
video-surveillance system.

We think that having videotape

could be something
really helpful.

The video showed Jack's truck
being dropped off the last day

he was seen alive.

The surveillance from Target
revealed Jack Reid's truck

pulling into the parking lot,
followed by a minivan.

Two people got out
of Jack's truck.

They then walked to the Toyota
Sienna minivan

and were driven away
by the person behind the wheel.

Was it possible to identify
these men?

Analysts isolated and scrubbed
the images

in an attempt
to get better clarity.

But the old tape system
made it impossible.

It left us very frustrated.

Analysts now turned to
the minivan in the video

and faced the same problem.

So they took a bold step.

We sent the video to NASA

to see what they could do
to enhance the video

to at least identify
the license plate.

But glaring sunlight
in the image

created too much distortion.

Just because of the way
the sun was striking

the license plate was completely
unable to be seen,

even with NASA
working to enhance it.

Still, this was hardly a total
setback.

Investigators now knew there
were at least three people

connected in some way
to Jack's m*rder,

and one drove
a distinctive vehicle.

It was a limited Sienna minivan,

where there were fairly
small numbers

being sold in the United States.

In another piece
of surveillance video,

police found an unexpected clue.

Jack's daughter is actually
on video at Target

while he's dead
in the bed of his truck.

This was a week
after the m*rder,

and at this point, Jack Reid's
body had not yet been found.

When questioned right after
her father went missing,

Megan said the last time
she saw him

was the night of June 27th,
but that was impossible.

Her dad was deceased
on the 27th.

In a mix-up that took precious
time early in the investigation,

this turned out to be
an innocent mistake.

Megan simply got her dates wrong
and was ultimately alibied.

The timing of her appearance
at the shopping center

was just an unfortunate
coincidence.

Megan felt terrible
that they were thinking

that she had been part of it.

Now detectives concentrated
on their primary source

of evidence...
Jack's truck,

and in it, they found something
that revealed

lots of information
about Jack's final days.

Jack Reid's logbook was
in the cab of his truck.

That logbook was used
by Jack Reid

to write down all of his jobs.

This logbook indicated that
Jack's last known appointment,

apparently with someone
named Charlie,

was at a specific address in the
New Hampshire town of Deerfield.

This was a large house connected
to an even larger horse barn.

The owner, Mike Connors,
said he didn't know Jack Reid

and denied
knowing anyone named Charlie.

Detectives weren't sure
what to make of this.

They also weren't sure
what to make of Mike Connors.

He was probably the most
nervous person

I've ever interviewed
in my life.

He was just shaking.

For a person that had
no involvement

or a person
that didn't know anything,

there was no need for him
to be as nervous as he was.

But being skittish around police
is hardly proof of m*rder,

and Mike Connors had
a clean police record.

He said detectives could look
around the property,

and they saw something...

some tree branches
that looked familiar.

Those branches were similar,
if not the same, as the branches

that covered the body
of Jack Reid in his truck.

Police spoke to a landscaper

who kept his truck
on the property.

The landscaper had told me
that he was missing

a large piece of plastic

that was consistent
with the plastic

that was around the body
of Jack Reid

when he was discovered.

Could this be the plastic tarp

that was used to wrap
Jack Reid's body?

At this point,
it was impossible to say.

Detectives had plenty of
suspicions,

but little solid evidence.

My cousin was a Boston
police detective, and he said,

"Ginny, someday
somebody is going to talk.

Somebody will have a loose mouth

and they will give it up
as to what happened to Jack."

And that prediction
proved accurate.

♪♪

As detectives tried to backtrack
Jack Reid's activities

in the days before his m*rder,

they turned
to his phone records.

They saw a number of phone calls
coming in

from what turned out
to be a throwaway cellphone.

These phones are sometimes
referred to as "burner phones"

because they are used
and then discarded.

Burner phones are typically used

when people don't want
to be detected.

You can purchase a burner phone

under anybody's name,
anybody's alias.

Records showed that in the days
before his m*rder,

Jack Reid got several calls
from this burner phone number.

Police traced this number
and found it was registered

to a man named Charlie Was.

I had never heard such a name
before as a last name,

but there are people out there
named Charles Was,

as odd as it sounds.

Could Charlie Was be
the same Charlie

that Jack had written
in his logbook...

the man he was supposed to meet
at the New Hampshire horse barn

for his last appointment,

or as is common
with burner phones,

was this name,
"Charlie Was," an alias?

When we pulled the records
to that phone,

the Charlie Was phone,

all the calls were made
to and from Jack Reid,

and there was only one
other call that came in,

which became very important,

and that call came in from Jay
Brooks' Londonderry Lake House.

Jay Brooks...
his full name was John...

was a well-known figure
throughout New Hampshire.

John Brooks was
incredibly wealthy.

He was worth tens
of millions of dollars,

upwards of potentially
$50 million.

And John Brooks knew Jack Reid.

Brooks moved from New Hampshire
to Las Vegas in 2003

and hired Jack Reid to help him.

John Brooks was going to
become a real-estate developer.

He had hired Jack Reid
to pack up his entire home,

all his personal property,
into an 18-wheeler.

Was there more to
this relationship?

Could John Brooks have
any motive to k*ll Jack Reid?

A background check showed that
he owned a gold Sienna minivan

exactly like the one
in the surveillance video

recorded after Jack's m*rder.

And the horse barn,

the spot where Jack Reid
had his last appointment?

John Brooks had
a longtime connection

with the barn's owner,
Mike Connors.

Michael Connors was John Brooks'

former chief financial officer
of his company

that he owned for many years
in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

Enough clues were pointing
to this barn

for police to search it.

But by this time, more than
a year had passed

since the m*rder.

The first thing detectives
noticed inside the barn

was that it was very clean and
some of the flooring was new.

If the barn was the primary
crime scene,

the spot where
Jack Reid was k*lled,

there would have been
a lot of blood to clean up.

The interior was sprayed
with Luminol.

Luminol is an agent
that illuminates blood.

Blood can be sitting
for months, years,

several years, and still be
detected by Luminol.

The cracks between
the barn's floorboards

began to glow and so did
some spots on the ceiling.

We were able to find significant
amounts of blood in areas

where blood had seeped through
planks in the barn floor.

Samples of this blood
were so diluted,

investigators suspected
the area had been bleached.

The blood was sent out
for DNA testing.

This looked like the spot
where Jack was k*lled.

But for now, it was impossible
to say for sure.

♪♪

Detectives investigating
Jack Reid's m*rder soon

discovered he had a contentious
relationship with John Brooks.

It all really goes back
to the moving job.

Numerous sources said Brooks
was convinced Jack Reid

had stolen
some of his belongings

when he helped Brooks
move from New Hampshire

to Las Vegas in 2003.

John Brooks became obsessed
with this missing stuff.

It consumed his life.

Though John Brooks lived
in Las Vegas,

he was seen by numerous people
in New Hampshire

around the time
of Jack Reid's m*rder.

TSA records revealed that when
Brooks flew to New Hampshire,

he flew with
two business associates.

Detectives theorized these
might be the men

seen in the surveillance video

recorded the day
Jack Reid's truck

was left abandoned
in Massachusetts.

That was our first lead
on potential suspects.

When one of these suspects,
Robin Knight,

was confronted by police,

he immediately told them
the whole story.

That was the first time we heard
a version of what happened

and why to Jack Reid.

Other co-conspirators
quickly confessed

and also pointed to John Brooks

as the mastermind
behind Jack Reid's m*rder.

Jay was livid at the guy
for stealing his property.

I understood the plan
was to m*rder Jack Reid.

He said, "Would you like
to make $10,000?"

What did you say?

I said, "Of course I'd like
to make $10,000."

John Brooks denied
any involvement in the m*rder,

and police had
no physical evidence

tying him to the crime
or the crime scene.

Confessions, while valuable,
weren't nearly enough.

When you're dealing with
cooperating co-defendants,

no matter how credible they are,

juries want permission
to believe them.

Scientific evidence gives
jurors permission to believe

somebody they might
not otherwise like.

One suspect told detectives
something they didn't know...

just before the m*rder,
John Brooks mailed a package

with some very unusual contents
from Vegas to New Hampshire.

They had decided that
they would ship some items,

including things like
a taser or handcuffs,

that they may be able to use

during the course
of confronting Jack Reid

so that they could
ultimately k*ll him.

- And who went to the FedEx?
- Jay and myself.

For the return label,
John Brooks used a fake name.

It was "Jay Brice,"
and it was an address

for this fictional company
in Las Vegas.

So, we filled out
the shipping label.

- Who filled out the label?
- Jay did.

The address was handwritten.

A handwriting analyst compared
the writing

on the address portion
of the package

with Jay Brooks' handwriting.

That analysis proved who filled
out the packing label.

Beyond a degree
of scientific certainty,

this was Jay Brooks'
handwriting.

The blood from the horse barn
finally came back

with a match to Jack Reid's DNA.

This, along with the Luminol
evidence and the confessions,

left no doubt
about what happened,

where it happened,
and who did it.

Jurors can say,
"Okay, these co-defendants,

even though they cut a deal
with the State,

they're telling me the truth."

Detectives believe John Brooks

planned Jack Reid's m*rder
for months, if not years.

Brooks and his co-conspirators
used a burner phone

to make Jack think

there was work for him
at the isolated horse barn.

Once inside, they subdued him
and then beat him to death

with a sledgehammer,
which was never found.

I come down with the hammer
like this,

and I hit him
on the side of the head.

Again, how many times
do you hit him?

Three times, I think.

The final blow to Jack Reid
was struck by John Brooks.

I had said, "He's still...
he won't stop bleeding."

Jay picked up the hammer,
hit him at least two times.

It stopped the heart,
stopped the bleeding.

In his zeal to k*ll Jack Reid,
John Brooks made many mistakes.

Driving a distinctive minivan

to where the body
was dumped was one.

Putting his handwriting
on the m*rder kit was another.

Leaving blood behind at
the crime scene, yet another.

But detectives agree that what
finally did him in

was his sloppy handling
of the burner phone

used to lure Jack Reid
to the m*rder site.

Without that phone call,
there's a possibility that

John Brooks would have never
been arrested for this m*rder.

This was how John Brooks
ultimately got exposed.

Just days before the m*rder,
he called the burner phone

to make sure
the voicemail worked.

This was the same burner
phone later

used to lure Jack Reid to the
horse barn where he was k*lled.

When John Brooks called
that number, phone records

of those calls clearly
linked him to the burner phone,

to Jack Reid,
and to the m*rder conspiracy.

It was less than one minute,

but police were able to track
down all of the murderers

based on that
one single phone call.

In the fall of 2008, John Brooks
stood trial in New Hampshire's

first death penalty case
in 70 years.

He was convicted of
capital m*rder.

Out of the 12 jurors,
one juror decided

to exercise mercy for Jay Brooks
and not sentence him to death,

and so he is serving
a life sentence.

The co-conspirators got
sentences ranging from 15 years

to life in prison.

The barn owner, Mike Connors,

was cleared of any involvement
in the m*rder.

John Brooks was the mastermind
behind this whole thing.

The residents of
Derry, New Hampshire,

still have trouble
understanding this m*rder,

and so do investigators
who worked the case.

A hardworking family man dead,
a family torn apart,

a slew of lives ruined,

all to get revenge over a theft
that never even happened.

There was no evidence that Jack
ever stole from John Brooks.

This case left us
and many people wondering,

"Why would a multi-millionaire

who had the world
at his fingertips

k*ll someone like Jack Reid?"

I think the moral of the story
is that, no matter

how long you plan a crime,
how much money you spend on it,

even one single piece
of evidence

can land you in jail
for the rest of your life.