04x01 - "Wild Crime" Ain't She Purty

[bunniefuu]

LAKE MATANUSKA, ALASKA

In Alaska, a teenage girl disappears
from the coffee shop where she works,

and now, her body...

I don't know if my daughter is eating,
if they're looking after her, if she's alive,

- if you're succeeding...
- Alaska is huge.

Samantha could be anywhere.

- I want her home.
- Keep my sister alive.

Please find my daughter.

The secrets of nature.

Beautiful but treacherous landscapes.

These are the stories of investigators
who solve crimes in wild places.

DEADLY VACATION:
THE SAVAGE k*ller: ELEVEN SKULLS

New record for Anchorage.
Most snow this season.

EPISODE ONE:
"ISN'T SHE CUTE?"

Some people didn't even get to use the car.

...for days working on snow removal.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

February in Alaska.

It's dark most of the time.

You wake up, it's dark.
You leave work, it's dark.

People find ways
to survive the long winter.

Many people, like me, drink a lot of coffee.

Coffee is important to Alaskans.
There are coffee kiosks...

ANCHORAGE POLICE

...and cafés on almost every corner.

They are usually managed
by young women.

They often work alone.

Samantha Koenig
worked at a coffee kiosk.

She's an 18-year-old girl...

whose main interest is their friends.

FRIEND OF THE KOENIG FAMILY

Graduation, school.

She had a boyfriend.

I was doing what teenagers
usually do.

He had her future and her dreams in mind.

FEBRUARY 2ND, 2012


Emergency. What's the address?

I'm at Common Grounds Espresso,
at Old Seward and Tudor.

My daughter works
at Common Grounds Espresso.

She disappeared
when she left work last night.

What's your daughter's name?

Samantha Tessla Koenig.

The police are on their way.

I got a call at the end of my shift
about a possible kidnapping

of a barista in a coffee shop.

I went there and spoke to the father
and the barista's boyfriend.

They told me that Mr. Koenig's daughter

worked in the cafeteria
and didn't come home last night.

He came to pick her up at 8:15...

POLICE INTERVIEW JAMES KOENIG

...and she wasn't here.

I think at 11:55,

he received a message from her on his cell phone.

They received a message from her
that she was angry with her boyfriend

and wouldn't go home.

POLICE INTERVIEW DUANE TORTOLANI

I saw someone in her truck
at three o'clock this morning.

- In the pick-up?
- Yes, sir.

- At home?
- Yes.

During the night,

saw someone rummaging through
Samantha's truck,

parked in front of her house,
and chased him.

But the boy escaped.

Any reason not to report it?

I imagined that she
had asked someone

to get something from the truck.

I'm trying to gather the information.

I have a father and a boyfriend
saying that the girl didn't come home.

Someone broke into her car,
but they didn't call the police.

In my opinion, that would be the most logical thing to do.

Your girlfriend disappears,
you receive a strange message

and sees someone rummaging through her truck.

- Why didn't you call the police?
- I don't know. Sometimes she...

That's a bit suspicious.
Like, "What's going on here?

Why do you report it?
but you get angry when I ask questions?"

- ...last night?
- Yes.

It seemed to me

that she had another boyfriend

and didn't want to go home.

I think it's more likely than kidnapping.

But a long time ago,
I learned in my career:

"Be careful with your opinions,
stick to the facts."

I thought: "I don't know
if it really was a kidnapping,

but we still have to investigate
as it were."



That's when I called Sergeant Markiewicz.

My name is Slawomir Markiewicz.

I'm a retired sergeant
from the Anchorage Police Department.

I'm Polish, with a degree in engineering.

But police work
has always fascinated me.

So I applied
for the Anchorage Police Department

and I was hired.

It was one of the happiest days
of my life.

I was at my desk
at the Homicide Police Station.

The policeman told me that we had
a missing person case,

Samantha Koenig.

Her boyfriend would pick her up
to take her home.

When he arrived, she wasn't there.

The Anchorage Police Dept. Police Department
works closely with the FBI,

and they offered to help.

I'm Kat Nelson, special agent with the FBI.

For me,
Samantha was a typical teenager.

She seemed to have a group of close friends
who cared a lot about her.

She was living at her father's house.

SAMANTHA KOENIG'S BOYFRIEND

Her boyfriend was also sleeping there.

James Koenig is Samantha Koenig's father.

His friends call him Sonny.

He's a sweet guy.

It's biker style.

He loves his Harley.

For many people, if you're a biker,

obviously sucks.

Samantha was his only biological child.

She was everything to him.

I have unilateral custody of Samantha

since she was two years old.

Her mother is present.
She worries about her safety.

SAMANTHA KOENIG'S FATHER

My name is Kaylee,
and Samantha is my younger sister.

We're sisters on our mother's side.

When we were younger, we lived together.

She wanted to make everyone laugh.

I've always been more shy.

Samantha has self-confidence.

She got me out of my bubble.

She liked to write songs and poems.

And she was very talented.

She and her father were very close.

James Koenig said
that it didn't suit her personality

to leave without telling him.

On the other hand, it's a coffee kiosk

in the middle of a large commercial area.

It would be very difficult for someone to disappear
without anyone noticing.

Right from the start,

the police wondered:
"Is it true?"

WRITER AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST

"If you're desperate
about the girl's disappearance

and don't call the police,
what's going on?"



Several police officers were at the scene.

We searched the kiosk to collect evidence.

CRIME SCENE PHOTO

I did my best

to find any evidence
in that kiosk.

I tried to collect fingerprints everywhere.

I was looking for anything,
not just digital.

I was looking for things that a suspect
might have left behind,

things she might have left behind,
but I found nothing.

Apart from finding nothing,
there were no signs of a struggle.

There was another barista who arrived

to open the kiosk in the morning,
and she did,

but there was no money in the cash drawer.

It's very unusual to arrive and find everything

and the store open.
Sammy was very responsible.

They wondered if it really had been
a kidnapping

or a boyfriend, someone she met...

TASK FORCE OFFICER, FBI ANCHORAGE

...and they stole money
to run away together.

Alaska seems to have a very high number

of missing persons cases.

And much of it isn't related to crime,
but with wild nature.

Anchorage is a city,

but we are surrounded
by mountains and forests.

It's still a remote place.

RETIRED SPECIAL AGENT,
FBI ANCHORAGE

It is very difficult to find
a missing person in Alaska

due to the vastness of the wilderness.

There are bears and moose.

In huge parts of the state

there are no roads
and access is by plane.

During the winter,

people fall through the ice
in snowplows.

Many people disappear
and are never found again.

No one had any idea
of Samantha's whereabouts.

She disappeared from Anchorage

and could be anywhere.

The night Samantha disappeared,

her boyfriend received
a message on his cell phone

sent from her cell phone.

f*ck you, I know what you've done

The message said more or less:

"I'm going to spend a few days with friends.
Tell Dad."

Duane tried calling her
and sending messages.

He was totally confused.

Who would these friends be?

What's her circle of friends like?
Is the message real?

Samantha's father was suspicious of the message.

The style of the text was not Samantha's.

Nothing made sense.

A little later,

in the process of talking to everyone
in this investigation,

I asked about the images,
because I saw security cameras there.

It was 2012.

It wasn't the 80s or 90s,

when we assembled cases
only with fingerprints and witnesses.

Now we had video evidence.

It's the first step.

ANCHORAGE POLICE DEPARTMENT



In the late afternoon,
when we finally received the video,

we saw him
at the Cybercrime Police Station.

We all wanted to see the images.

The lieutenant, the captain,
the patrol officers

and some detectives from our police station.

We watched it over and over again.

SECURITY CAMERA VIDEO



In the video, we can see that Samantha

is closing the coffee kiosk,

cleaning and tidying up.

It's late at night,

so there aren't many customers
passing by the kiosk.

Until we see someone approaching.

It's not common to see people arriving on foot,

most of them are in cars.

Samantha goes to the window.

She starts making coffee.

And it seems to talk to the person.

At one point,
she goes to the window and has a reaction.

I distinctly remember
Samantha raising her hands.

She walks around the kiosk and turns off the lights.

Samantha took the money from the till.

Then he put on his coat.

That was the moment
when many detectives concentrated.

She pulls her hair

from inside the jacket and spread it out.

Some detectives said:

"Look, she's acting normally.

You're not afraid.

She's getting ready to leave."

Just then,
a man jumps into the kiosk.

The windows of these kiosks
are usually very high.

The man leapt
into the kiosk

and passed through the window
without any difficulty.

It had to be a taller person
and in great physical shape

to get it that easily.

The video has no audio.

What does he say to her? What does she say back?

And the two go out together.

They cross the parking lot side by side.

It looks like they're walking quietly.

There was no fight.

We didn't know how to interpret it.

There were policemen watching,
and the theory of some

was that it was planned and staged
and that Samantha was an accomplice.

For some police officers,
there was no resistance.

There was no fight.

They both seem calm.

Do they know each other?

She may have stolen the money

so that they could
have fun somewhere.

Did she leave of her own free will?
Or was it against her will?

In addition,
there is an alarm next to the switch.

If she was in danger,
why didn't she raise the alarm?

She had a perfect chance
to press the button.

And it didn't tighten.

The investigators,
both the police and the FBI,

were trying to understand
the circumstances of that video.

The message sent from her cell phone

saying he wasn't going home.

We have the message and the video
in which Samantha is seen leaving

and is not being dragged.

This area is very busy
and well lit.

Who would do that
on a wide open stretch

from Anchorage?

There was no consensus.

She left of her own free will

or was she being forced?

I have a degree in Psychology
and Forensic Psychology.

I applied to the FBI and joined in 2004,

and I was lucky enough to be assigned
to Alaska.

I've been here ever since.

When I started at the FBI,
Jolene was already an agent.

Obviously, a phenomenal agent.
My dream and my goal

always went to work with her.

I was glad Katherine got involved.

She has the mentality and the

to make the pieces fit together.

Here in Alaska,

we work with local
and state partners all the time.

My name is Jeffrey Bell.

I came here in 1984.

I was an operator at an
refinery in Prudhoe Bay.

I applied to the Anchorage Police Department.

I worked
for the Anchorage Anchorage Police Department,

but he was also a federal
and FBI investigator.

We rely on each other a lot.
We work together.

It's a very close professional relationship.

Thanks to this, we have solved these cases.



Analyzing the video,

we focus on the moment
when she leaves the kiosk with someone.



At the beginning, we were focused
on the first half.

When we see the person

getting in touch with Samantha
and when they leave.

That was around 8:20.

We were able to see her leave the scene.
So, watch the rest of the video...

RETIRED LIEUTENANT
ANCHORAGE POLICE

...wasn't the top priority at first.

But watching the video for longer...



...we noticed a light on in the workbench.

The light went on and off.

We thought it might be a phone.



We went further in the video,
and I was surprised.

We saw that, after 11pm,
the person went to the kiosk.

This person was using a flashlight

right in the middle of his forehead.

He spent a while
looking for something.

Samantha had left
her cell phone on the counter.

It looked like that man

had returned to the kiosk
to get his cell phone.

This coincides with the fact that
that the first messages on her cell phone...

FEBRUARY 1ST, 23:30

...having arrived at 23:30.

So we see the person
entering the kiosk after 11pm,

and at 11:30 p.m. a message arrives
from Samantha's cell phone.

When we find out that someone has returned

and took her cell phone from the kiosk,

we obviously feared that something bad
had happened to her.

Someone has kidnapped Samantha,

and the clock was ticking.

TWO DAYS MISSING

SEARCHED

We hope to find Samantha.
We believe she's alive.

LIEUTENANT
OF THE ANCHORAGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

And we carry that hope.

The first 48 hours in any case
are very important

to try and uncover as many clues as possible.

Since James Koenig and Duane
did not register the disappearance

the night before, we were already
at a big disadvantage

in Samantha's disappearance.

Friends and family
say that Samantha is a

- who makes friends easily.
- She's funny, outgoing.

I was amazed
that so many people knew her.

The city of Anchorage
was on high alert.

I can't believe that happened
here in Anchorage.

It's frightening that it happened
just like that.

Not because she's a barista,
but because she's a young woman.

Samantha was wearing
black fur-lined boots.

If we can cover a radius of 3.2km
from Fireweed...

It's important for people to know

that she's still out there
and we can't stop looking for her.

The population's response

was overwhelming support for the Koenig family

and tried to do
everything they could to help.

Darlene, Samantha's mother,
was of indigenous descent,

which made Samantha part Indian.

FORMER KTVA REPORTER

This mobilized the community
and the indigenous community

here in Anchorage.

The family, James Koenig
and some volunteers

began distributing leaflets
about the disappearance.

Her acquaintances were pinning up leaflets,

and there were thousands of them.

SEARCHED

We haven't heard anything.

My stepfather said
that he knew something was wrong.

He wanted to spread the word quickly.

ASK ME FOR A FLYER FOR YOUR CAR

I spent a lot of time
putting flyers on cars.

You couldn't turn a corner
that didn't have a store

who hadn't made room

to display the photo and its information.

It was everywhere.

Co-workers
spread the poster all over the city.

At the time of the investigation,

we learned that Samantha Koenig
and Duane Tortolani

had a joint account.

They both had debit cards for the account.

The night Samantha disappeared,

Duane saw a man in her van.

He seemed to be searching the vehicle
in search of something.

Duane told us that nothing was missing.

But looking at the bank statement,

we saw that Samantha Koenig's
card was used.

USED AT THE ATM AT 3:30 A.M.

We realized that Samantha's
was missing.

A few minutes after being
taken from the truck,

the card was used
to check the balance.

The account was accessed,
but there was no withdrawal.

That was interesting.
Someone would have to know the password.

Why didn't you withdraw money from the account?

The person was wearing a mask.

He was wearing a big, baggy jacket,

so you couldn't tell
the size of the person.

It wasn't very clear whether it was
the same person from the coffee kiosk,

but there weren't so many differences...

ATM
KIOSK

between them to exclude
this possibility completely.

But there was another crucial detail

which aroused the suspicions
of the investigators.

Some thought
that James was telling the truth,

that he loved his daughter,
that he would never hurt her,

and others thought
there was something strange about it.

"Please investigate him."

RESIDENCE OF JAMES KOENIG

As a routine in the process,

we were going to investigate James Koenig's house,

where Samantha lived,
in search of information

on her computers or tablets,

what is standard in
cases,

especially with younger girls.

And he refused to leave the police

do the initial search.

He went to the door and opened it,

sneaked through a crack
and then closed the door behind him.

And when they asked to speak to Duane,

the reaction was the same.

HE ONLY OPENED
ENOUGH TO GET THROUGH

Were they hiding something?
I was still suspicious.

If you are a researcher
from day one,

found the man suspicious,
this attitude was very bad.

And she reinforces her theory of the case,

that James was involved.

Statistically,
when a young woman disappears,


it was the boyfriend or husband

or someone close to her.

We needed to investigate Duane.

Duane told us
that he had called Samantha

just before the end of her shift,
saying he would pick her up.



We saw it in the video,
that's what happened.

He went to the kiosk at around 8.30pm

and walked around the place.

I called her cell phone twice

and tried to see if she had left him
at work.

Duane worked in a restaurant
and had an alibi for that day.

I quickly realized

that his involvement
was very unlikely.

The investigators
with a search warrant,

searched Mr. Koenig's house.

At the time, we thought he was
hiding marijuana plants, something like that.

But nothing came of it.

I think James Koenig

was having trouble
to trust the police.

I don't know if my daughter is eating,
if they're looking after her, if she's alive,

if you can sleep.

Please help me find my daughter.

It was very clear
how much her father loved Samantha

and the close relationship they had.

James was devastated
by his daughter's disappearance,

and had no idea where she was
or what had happened to her.

He wanted her to come home.

I also grew up in this region.

I know what it was like to be a teenager in Alaska.

The same reaction her father had
when she didn't come home

would be the one my father would have
if I didn't come home either.

Samantha Koenig, 18,
disappeared three days ago

of Common Grounds Espresso,
in Anchorage, where he worked.

This was no ordinary case of disappearance.

Our concern only grew.

We began to expand the investigation.

The protocol would be to interrogate
throughout the region

and look for more security cameras.

COFFEE KIOSK

We obtained a video from the Home Depot store,

across the street,
in front of the kiosk.

HOME DEPOT SECURITY VIDEO

We saw a couple crossing the parking lot

near a busy restaurant
and get into a vehicle.

A white Chevy pickup truck.

Samantha and the suspect
got into that vehicle

and left the Home Depot parking lot

to the street.

As Samantha left
with the unknown man,

we took images from street cameras.

TRAFFIC SAFETY VIDEO

We got a clear picture
of this white pickup truck.

However, the license plate was illegible.

So we knew that the suspect
was driving a white pickup truck.

The Traffic Department
analyzed each vehicle,

trying to identify the white
in the city, makes and models, that year.

There were 700 white Chevrolet pick-ups

in Anchorage and that region.

Of course, with this large
number of vehicles,

the investigation would take time.

Investigators said that images...



- ...show a man in a black sweatshirt.
- A stranger has kidnapped him.

At that moment, we told
the press that we had a video.

And the video made it apparent
that it was a kidnapping.

The police won't reveal
what they say is evidence

that Samantha has been kidnapped,
not even to her family.

SAMANTHA KOENIG'S MOTHER

We haven't seen any images. It's unbelievable.

The population was demanding it:
"We want to see the video.

Why don't the police
not want to reveal the video?"

- The police say that won't help.
- If we show them now,

as a result,
a jury would be influenced by him.

Samantha Koenig's mother
says she's living a nightmare.

SEARCHED
REWARD: 41 THOUSAND

The detectives are investigating,
but they're not fast enough.

We are waiting for good news.

SAMANTHA KOENIG'S GRANDMOTHER

I feel that all the time

I tried to remain
as optimistic as possible.

"We're going to find Samantha.
She'll come back to us."

James asked me to create
a Facebook page for her.

Of course there were trolls,
just like on any social network.

And people are very cruel.

Some had their own opinion

that she wasn't missing.

It's not easy when they say:
"That's fake, it's not real."

For a person to lie about that,
they have to be very disturbed.

The police are still looking for evidence

why Samantha
was taken from the kiosk,

and the family is optimistic
that she will be found alive.

I need to keep hoping and...

to know that I still feel her
in my heart, that she's okay.

Corey Allen Young, CBS11 News.

I'd say James was frustrated,
for sure.

I know that, as the days go by,

the police became more involved in the case.

James Koenig did
what I think anyone would do.

He turned to the internet.

He published
about his daughter's disappearance.

We are receiving
two to three leads a day.

When we received a clue
that could be evidence,

we passed it on to the police.

Whether they're useful or not,
it's not for me to decide.

I don't know what direction
the police are taking in the investigation.

SEIZED:
Koenig offers reward



James Koenig has set up a reward fund.

Many people knew the Koenigs,

and a lot of money went
into Mr. Koenig's account.

SEARCHED
REWARD: 41 THOUSAND DOLLARS

There's a reward of 41 thousand dollars
for her return.

Barista rewards increase

James Koenig called me every day.

"Slaw, do you have any news for me?"

"Slaw, can we help you in any way?"

He told me
about the fundraiser.

Of course I had
a lot of compassion for him.

My daughter, at the time,
worked in a coffee kiosk.

I'm a policeman, but I'm also a father.

And my daughter was in a
situation.

If it happened to Samantha,
no one was free of it.

MISSING DAYS

The days went by,
and we investigated the clues,

but nothing ever came of it.

"Where's Samantha?" That's the question.

"Where is she?"

All the time, since the night of the kidnapping,

we were monitoring
on her cell phone at the FBI.



We spent three weeks without any progress.

Suddenly, something happens.

Samantha's boyfriend
receives a message from her cell phone.

This message pointed
in the direction of Conner Park.

Conner Park is a park in Anchorage.

And it said: "Conner Park.

Plate under Albert's photo.
Isn't she cute?"

Nobody knew what it meant.

ISN'T SHE CUTE

We believe it was sent
by whoever took Samantha,

or at least had his cell phone with him.

A breakthrough at last.
The Anchorage Anchorage Police Department takes action.

We asked ourselves:
"Is Samantha alive? Is she dead?"

There is a notice board near the parcão.

Underneath the poster
of a dog called Albert,

there was a small bag
containing a folded piece of white paper.

It's the first major breakthrough in the case

from the camera footage
three weeks earlier.

It was a ransom note
typed on a typewriter.

The note suggests
that Samantha is alive.

"Thirty thousand deposited in CU1",
which means account 1 of the Credit Union.

It has the full card number.
"Expiration date: 01/2015."

There is a credit card number
linked to Samantha's account.

In the note, he tells us

that when he withdrew 30 thousand dollars,
in six months to a year,

he might have information
about Samantha's whereabouts.

Along with the note, there was a photo.

Probably a proof-of-life photo.

It was a single sheet of paper.

On one side, the typed note.

On the other side, the photo.

It was a picture of a girl.

She was naked and tied up.

Her hair was braided.
Silvertape covering her mouth.

The photo was disturbing.

It was a very small image.

The more we zoomed in,
the grainier it got.

Is the young woman in the photo alive or not?

It was impossible to be sure.

I contacted James Koenig.
If it really was his daughter,

I knew it would be heartbreaking for him

see that photo.

It was just me and James Koenig
in the interview room.

I put the photo in front of him.

He looked longingly at her.

Then he said: "That's Samantha in the photo, yes."

I saw him as a suffering father.

He was worried sick, and it was real.

I knew it.

At that moment, I was sure
that he wasn't involved.

SEARCHED
REWARD: 70 THOUSAND DOLLARS

Now we knew what the suspect
was doing.

The suspect wanted us to deposit
the money into Samantha's account.

He had her debit card,

and could withdraw the money
at ATMs.

Now we had a
potentially useful

to try to attract the individual.

The police have no ransom funds.

Maybe we could use
the reward fund.

I spoke to James Koenig,

and he agreed
to deposit five thousand dollars in the account.

We alerted the bank
to trace her card.

We would know from each agency
in which it was used

within ten minutes of the transaction.

So we wanted to make the deposit.

FEBRUARY 29TH

The money was deposited
on February 29th.

And six hours later,
just before midnight,

the card has been used.

He withdrew 500 dollars.

There were around 500 ATMs
in Anchorage.

We had to arrive minutes,
or seconds, after the card was used.

- The police rushed to the scene...
- Entering.

...but he wasn't there anymore.

But we got the video.

The man was all covered up
and wearing a mask, so you couldn't see his face.

His eyes were covered.
He was wearing some kind of hood or cap

and a very loose jacket
that said Marine Corps on the back.

It looked like a man.

He seemed tall, which was consistent

With the man's height, he went to the kiosk.

He looked thin,
not someone who was out of shape.

We could see the image
of a vehicle leaving.

BANK SURVEILLANCE CAMERA

It was a silver Nissan Xterra SUV.

We believe that the person who used the card

got out of the car,
walked to the ATM,

returned, got into his car and left the scene.

The FBI was looking for the white pick-up truck.

The vehicle was completely different.

With that silver Xterra now,

the case became even more confusing.

For many days, we kept a constant vigil

at ATMs

in the hope that we'll be there
at the next draw.

But right after that serve,

we haven't received any more information.

There were no more clues,
no loot, no tips.

The case stalled.

We still had a lot of hope
of finding Samantha,

but it's very frustrating

when you have no solid clues
from where to start.

ONE MONTH MISSING

The search for Samantha Koenig
enters its second month,

and detectives and police
work against time

to find out who took it and why.

Time is obviously crucial.

As the days go by,
the case stagnates.

People's memories are lost.

You don't eat or sleep,

because he's totally focused
on finding Samantha.

It affected me deeply.

The more time passed,

everyone was more concerned
about Samantha Koenig.

Until Samantha's card was used.

It was a surprise.

MARCH 7TH

An alert arrives in the middle of the night
that the debit card has been used

in Willcox, Arizona.

ALASCA

We were all shocked

because the case had left Alaska.

He moved to the other side of the country,

to a totally different state
that was never in the investigation.

How did we end up in Willcox, Arizona?

And Samantha is alive?

Willcox is a small town on the I-10 highway,

which connects California to Texas.

We got images of Willcox.

Based on size,
height and things like that...

FEBRUARY 29, ANCHORAGE
MARCH 7TH, WILLCOX

...it seemed to be the same person,
but still completely disguised.

We had no traces
that could identify him.

In the distance,
you could see a small white car.

The image was sent
to the laboratory in Quantico.

They managed to tell us
that it was a white Ford Focus.

We believed that
if the man was from Alaska

and was now in the south,
the car was probably a rental.

The ATM withdrawal
was made on March 7th.

On the same day, there was one more,
in Lordsburg, New Mexico.

And on March 10, there was a withdrawal

in Humble, Texas.

MARCH 10TH

Once again, the case is heading east.

The next day, another withdrawal was made...

MARCH 11

...in Shepherd, Texas.

We launched an alert together
with the Texas Rangers and the FBI in Texas.

A warning from the information
we got from each ATM...

ALASKA KIDNAP SUSPECT

...that he used along the way.

There was detailed information
about the white Ford Focus.

It was a very ordinary car.

And we didn't have a license plate,

so we didn't even know what state he was from.

It was a needle in a haystack.

All the while, we wondered:

"Is Samantha with that man?
Is she in the car?"

It was still a mystery.

My name is Bryan Henry,

and I was a sergeant
of the Texas Highway Patrol.

I was at the police station when Rayburn...

MARCH 13TH

...stopped me in the corridor
and told me about this case.

And he showed me the BOLO alert.

He told me about Samantha,
that it was a kidnapping

and that her card had been used
since the west

to a small town to the south,
which, if I'm not mistaken, was Shepherd.

The person was wearing a hoodie,
glasses and his face covered.

You could tell it was white.

And I remembered that a white car
was involved.

According to Ranger Rayburn,
the FBI believed it to be a Ford Focus.

I got into my car
and started patrolling.

I was just doing my job,

with the warning always in mind.

Suddenly, I looked to the right

and the first thing I saw
was a white Ford Focus.

I called Ranger,
and the FBI was with him.

We dropped everything and said to Bryan:
"Don't let the car out of your sight."

RETIRED SPECIAL AGENT
DALLAS

The blood boiled.

You think: "Is that possible?"

Maybe we've found
Samantha's kidnapper.

He had to be the guy. It had to be.