Transcripts - Forever Dreaming

Up next...

I remember him
hitting my face, and saying,

"I have k*lled before,

and I am not afraid
to k*ll again."

She survives
this attack... barely.

Another woman does not.

The crime itself
might have been motivated

by some kind of
a sexual perversion.

He had a thing
for anything with legs.

The k*ller is so close
he's practically family.

Could not believe it.

Still can't believe it
to this day.

He escapes arrest for years,

but one clue
finally identifies him.

If we got the palm
prints of the suspect,

we would have the k*ller.

I just didn't know how long
it was gonna take.

Locals will tell you
that the Old West is alive

and when in Stephenville, Texas,

a small town about two hours
Southwest of Dallas.

We're known to be
the cowboy capital of the world.

We have a lot of rodeos here.

And it's just a quaint,
quiet little town.

For all of her life,
it was home to Susan Woods,

who loved the area's
go-it-alone attitude.

She was very strong-willed.

She didn't want to leave
Stephenville for any reason.

She wanted to stay there,
with that steady job,

and the nighttime shift
that she liked.

And that's what she wanted.

That's where she was.

Susan met Indianapolis
native Michael Woods,

a professional musician,
in 1980.

It was a classic case
of opposites attract.

This beautiful girl
walked through the door,

and I saw her, and I immediately
started talking to her,

'cause she was probably the most
beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

So, I had to talk to her.

They married a short time later.

But while Susan
loved Stephenville,

her new husband did not.

I could not stand Stephenville.

I got harassed by the police
on a regular basis.

I was always having
some big cowboy

say something smart to me,

and I'd back them down
every time.

I didn't take crap
off of people.

And I didn't like
their backwater attitudes.

I wanted out.
I hated Stephenville.

This was too much
strain for the marriage to bear,

and the couple divorced
after five years.

Susan stayed put
in Stephenville.

Michael moved home to Indiana.

And life went on...
until July 28th, 1987.

Susan didn't show up for work,
and didn't call in.

This was so out of character
that, when her father found out,

he went straight to her house,

and came upon a scene
of horrific v*olence.

She was totally nude,

slumped over the edge
of the bath tub,

bent at the waist over the tub,

and her face
and upper part of her body

were submerged in the water.

Oddly, despite clear indications

this crime was
sexually motivated,

there was no evidence of r*pe.

Also, there was no
forced entry into the house...

and Susan was notorious
for keeping her doors locked.

She was terrified of men.

She really was.

She was very scared of men
in general.

A guy that she had worked with
came by one day

to discuss their paycheck,

and she would not let him
in the door.

She opened the window,

and talked to him
through the screen.

Every indication at the scene
was that Susan knew her k*ller,

and that led in one direction...
to her ex-husband.

Oh, yeah, he's the one
that jumped up

right off the bat
in the investigation.

I felt like that Michael
had k*lled her.

I just felt like he had.

As Susan and
Michael Woods' marriage ended,

she shared something shocking
with her closest friends...

a cassette tape Michael recorded
for her, and left behind.

The tape was very filthy,
vulgar, aggressive.

He was very hostile.

Just very, very mad, bizarre.

I was just in a state of shock
when I heard all this.

I just couldn't believe it.

That tape really
caused them to figure

that he would be
capable of returning,

and causing trouble for her.

If detectives
could find this tape,

they'd have something
of a smoking g*n.

But it was not to be.

What we found out afterwards
was Susan had taken the tape,

and had shipped it to Michael.

He was going to
anger management.

He wanted them to have the tape,
so we never heard the tape.

So, Michael was an
ex-husband with anger management issues

and a m*rder*d ex-wife.

It didn't look good for him.

Everybody in town, everybody
who knew anything at all

about Susan Woods,
swore up and down

that Michael either did it
or had it done.

Detectives informed
him that Susan was dead,

and told him he
was suspect number one.

I was scared.

They were talking about
putting me in the gas chamber.

They said that I was guilty,
and they knew it.

And I didn't see how
any of this could be possible.

But then, the Texas police
were involved,

and well, I got to tell you,

I got no great love
for the Texas police.

Michael said
he couldn't be the k*ller.

He was in Indiana at a party

around the time
the m*rder happened.

Plenty of people saw him.

But he never provided
those witnesses.

So, after that first interview,

that initial interview with
the Indiana Police Department,

he stopped all interviews.

So, they couldn't proceed
with him, or his alibis.

They couldn't check them out.

And even though
Michael was living

more than 1,000 miles away
from Texas,

investigators said
it would be possible

for him to commit the m*rder

and get home
without leaving a trail.

Back then, there weren't
any gas station cameras.

If he did it on cash, then,
yeah, theoretically,

he could have come in,
got it done, and left.

As for the cassette tape,

Michael admitted recording it,
and made no apologies.

There were no threats on it.

I cursed.
I got loud.

I was angry.

But I never threatened Susan.

Back at the scene of the crime,

detectives noticed
the toilet seat was up...

something Susan clearly
didn't need to do.

A partial fingerprint...
not from Susan...

was lifted from
the bathroom mirror,

and the living room
showed signs of a visitor

who seemed comfortable
in the house.

Investigators discovered
in the living room

an ashtray that had
six cigarette butts in it.

I think they found a can
of Coke, some potato chips,

and I think a couple cans,
or used cans, of beer.

It did look like, if somebody

had been visiting
in the living room,

they would have been
a casual visitor,

or a friend,
or something of that nature.

Detectives assumed
the cigarette butts

were the k*ller's.

Susan didn't smoke,
and lived alone.

The butts were taken
into evidence.

A partial print was lifted
from one of the beer cans.

But the key evidence
was in the bathroom.

The position Susan's body
was found in

made it appear her k*ller
had shoved her head

under the water
in the half-filled bath tub.

That's up close and personal.

I can only imagine the terror
that she was feeling,

trying to gasp for breath,
for air,

trying to at least get her head
up enough to get a breath,

and knowing that drowning
is inevitable.

I can't imagine.

Since Susan was fighting back,

analysts surmised her k*ller
would have braced himself

by pushing his body against her,

and putting his hands
on the rim of the tub

to give himself some leverage.

It is suggested that
the perpetrator would have

had to have positioned himself
with his hands

on each side of her,
on the bath tub itself.

And this theory
proved to be true.

Palm prints were found
on the top of the tub,

directly to the right and left
of Susan's body.

I knew we had
the prints of the k*ller.

I knew that it would be possible
to identify the k*ller

if we ever got a print
from them to compare.

If Michael Woods
k*lled his ex-wife,

there would be
no escaping this evidence.

It was very obvious that
whoever left those prints there

was the one
who had k*lled Susan.

When forensic analysts lifted
two nearly perfect palm prints

from within inches
of Susan Woods' body,

they were confident
they would solve her m*rder.

Virtually everyone involved
in the investigation

believed Susan's ex-husband,
Michael, was her k*ller.

Now, it was only a question
of getting his palm prints.

And detectives had enough
probable cause to do it.

They had arrested me,
my brother,

and a friend of ours
that was at the house,

and took all of our prints.

It was just ridiculous.

They wanted me because it would
have been an easy case

to prosecute.

Detectives who thought
they had their man

were in for a surprise.

They didn't match.

So, that pretty well eliminated
him as the k*ller.

They were shocked.

They were convinced
that it was Michael.

It didn't seem to matter to them

that they had evidence
to the contrary.

They had people in Stephenville

that were willing to talk
very bad about me.

And the tales grew taller
as they went.

The palm prints
were tested against 160 men.

There were no matches.

And soon,
there were no more suspects.

The case stalled.

I prayed every night
to God that,

before I left this Earth,

I wanted to know who k*lled
my best friend, Susan.

By 2002,


fingerprint and DNA technology
had come a long way.

A male DNA profile was lifted
from the cigarettes

left burning
in Susan's living room.

To be absolutely sure,

this profile was tested
against Michael Woods' DNA.

And it was not Michael,

And I called Michael,
and I said,

"Michael, you are not
a suspect at all.

So, you're cleared."

He broke down.
He started crying.

And he said, "Thank you,"
and he hung up the phone.

I don't remember when,
or if, he said,

"You're no longer
a suspect."

He may have said it
a dozen times.

I don't know.

I was pretty blown away
by all of this.

The unknown male DNA profile
was entered into CODIS,

the national DNA database.

There were no matches.

Nothing happened for years.

Then, in 2006, there was an AFIS
hit on the partial prints

found in Susan's bathroom

and on a beer can
in the living room.

They belonged to a 40-year-old
man named Scott Hatley.

His prints got into the system
after a 1988 robbery.

My first thought is,
"You got the right guy,"

because I remember the other
case I was involved in,

and he was capable
of doing something like this.

The other case
involved a woman named Shannon,

who asked us
not to use her last name.

As a teenager,
she dated Scott Hatley.

I was 15, 16.

He was 20, 21.

So, there was
a big age difference.

And my parents didn't approve.

It was a forbidden love.

Scott was very controlling
when we were dating.

He wanted to know where I was
at all times, who I was with.

A year after
Susan Woods' m*rder,

Shannon had an encounter
that would change her life.

She had ended her tumultuous
relationship with Scott Hatley.

She later told police he wanted
to re-kindle the romance,

and she agreed to meet him.

She soon realized that getting
alone in a car with Hatley

was a mistake.

He immediately started
pressuring me for sex.

I refused.

And when I refused,
that's when he...

you know, he lost it,
and started attacking me.

He started hitting me.

And you know,
I've never been hit before.

He was very abusive.

He started raping me.

And then, he would stop,
and smoke a cigarette,

drink his Bacardi,
and would continue to r*pe me...

the whole time telling me,
you know, that I deserved it.

Shannon told police
she endured the brutal as*ault

for eight hours.

I remember him hitting my face,
and saying,

"I have k*lled before,

and I'm not afraid
to k*ll again."

When he said that,
I was thinking,

"I'm not gonna get
out of here alive.

I'm going to be
his next victim."

And that's when I started
manipulating him,

and telling him
how much I loved him.

She talked her way out of it.

I think she's very lucky
to be alive.

I hid my face.

I did things that
I didn't think, you know,

wouldn't have thought,
because I was 16, naive.

I was so naive at that time.

Alert detectives
notice strange similarities

between Shannon's account
and Susan Woods' m*rder.

The missing link
was whether Scott Hatley

had a connection
to both of these women.

And detectives
soon found he did.

In 1988,
when Scott Hatley was accused

of a brutal sexual as*ault,

investigators faced
some hurdles...

this, despite
the apparent victim

having done
all the right things.

We immediately
went to the hospital.

They did the r*pe kit.

They did everything.

They collected so much evidence.

I immediately pressed charges.

But a grand jury
failed to indict Scott Hatley.

In Texas, at that time,

male defendants
were allowed to present

as evidence
the sexual history of accusers

between the ages of 14 and 17.

It was known as
"the promiscuity defense."

When they failed to indict,
I felt like no one was listened,

that, you know...
I felt like a victim again.

Not only was I Scott's victim,

I became the victim
of the justice system.

And that hurt me worse
than anything at that time.

And it still does.

In 2006, Scott
Hatley faced another as*ault accusation.

He had been recently
charged in Round Rock

with committing a physical
as*ault against his wife

in a way that was very similar

to the Susan Woods
actual situation.

These allowed police
to take Hatley into custody.

His two prior alleged assaults
bore striking similarities

to the m*rder of Susan Woods.

All three took place over hours,
and Hatley knew all three women.

In fact, he was family with
Susan Woods' closest friend.

Scott Hatley was my cousin.

I grew up with him.

He was six years younger
than me.

When questioned,

Scott Hatley denied
any involvement.

But the evidence directly
contradicted Scott Hatley.

He surrendered his DNA, his palm
prints, and his finger prints.

All of it matched back
to the crime scene.

There was no doubt
in anybody's mind

that he was the k*ller of Susan.

I think he made a move on her.

And I think he did
try to kiss her.

But she wasn't gonna
have none of it.

No.

She fought.

I believe she fought
as best she could.

Stephenville was a small town.

Hatley would have known
of Susan's recent divorce,

and perhaps thought
she was available.

To this day, no one knows
how he got into her house.

But once inside,
he apparently subdued Susan

in the bedroom, and strangled
her to near unconsciousness

with an electrical cord.

Investigators believed this was
the start of a lengthy as*ault.

In this case,
he left his palm prints

on the rim of the bath tub,

fingerprints on
the bathroom mirror

and on a beer can.

This was before anything
like "touch DNA,"

and since the was apparently
no actual r*pe,

no DNA was found
on Susan's body.

But Hatley didn't realize
he'd left his DNA

on cigarette butts later
found in Susan's living room.

During the final as*ault
in the bathroom,

Susan fought back...
and hard.

To subdue her, Hatley had to
brace himself against the tub,

leaving two nearly perfect
palm prints

on both sides of her body.

He has a pretty arrogant streak,

and he just thought
he never would get caught.

Didn't think of it.

He thought he was bulletproof.

And to a certain extent, he was.

After overhearing
a conversation in jail

by two men
in a death penalty case,

Hatley provided crucial
information to prosecutors.

That helped his case,
and he accepted a plea deal

for 30 years in prison
for Susan Woods' m*rder.

He served only 11 years
of that sentence,

released on parole because of
a good record behind bars

and prison overcrowding.

So, even though
the nature of the crime

would have mitigated against him
getting out early,

apparently,
he was a clean prisoner,

and everybody
in the prison system

thought it was time
for him to get out.

And so, they made that call.

Susan's family and
friends are outraged

her k*ller is a free man,

but are grateful
for the evidence

that finally exposed him.

Well, I think he's a coward.

I think he views women
as second-class citizens

to be used at his discretion.

And I'm sure, if he thinks
he can keep it quiet,

or keep it down,
he'll try again.

I would describe Scott
Hatley as a monster...

a narcissist monster.

He's a very dangerous man,
walking the streets.

But in the end, one
thing is very, very for sure,

and that is Scott Hatley
is guilty of this crime,

and forever will be.